October, 2016

When I was a child, we used to have trimmings added to the rosary, prominent among which was a litany to Our Lady. They baffled me then – Gate of Heaven, Morning Star – but looking back they have a sublime poetic quality. Among the bafflers was Ark of the Covenant. I mention this because […]

(John Patton blogs at phototilly.eu) ‘ The Prime Minister should stop “obsessing” about grammar schools and order a massive expansion of vocational education to address skills shortages that will worsen after Brexit’; not my words but those of Michael Wilshaw, the Head of Ofsted, whose job is to advise the Government on standards in schools and to offer […]

I am indebted to Donal Kennedy for passing this link to a review of Sebastien Barry’s latest novel. I’ve read several of Barry’s novel and have indeed been swept away on their tide of lyricism. I’ve even shared a TV screen with him on Channel 4 News,  when Jon Snow asked for our respective takes […]

There’s a story of an old curmudgeon,who, when he died,posed his good neighbours a conundrum. It was not right to speak ill of the dead, but they couldn’t think anything good to say  either. Finally the local barber spoke his epitaph : “He was an easy man to shave.” THE GUARDIAN’s correspondent in Ireland, Davis Hearst, reminds me […]

I want to turn your attention to a subject which has been on my mind a lot recently: Freedom and Democracy. Now to some people they are one and the same thing, but I would like to delve a bit deeper, past the superficial. In the 1970’s, we had a well regulated society in the […]

Was the change of our police’s title from RUC to PSNI a good thing? Almost certainly. For a start, dozens, even hundreds of people here had suffered at the hands of the RUC, in small and sometimes very big ways. The name-change along with new recruitment arrangements made for a strong indication of fresh beginnings. It […]

  AN ADDRESS BY MANUS  O’RIORDAN, IRELAND SECRETARY,  INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE MEMORIAL TRUST,  GEORGE’S PARK, CABLE STREET, LONDON E1, OCTOBER 9 2016.    Comrades and friends, I am deeply honoured, as the son of Irish International Brigader Michael O’Riordan, to be speaking here today. (I was also privileged to be sharing the platform with my comrade and friend – and fellow-Dubliner – 101-year-old Max […]

Are you a Christian? If that question sounds like one of the Saved Brethren on your doorstep, I apologise – few enjoy having their East Enders interrupted. No, it’s a question I had to ask myself after listening to the Orange Order’s Grand Chaplain, Reverend Mervyn Gibson. Mervyn was on BBC Radio Ulster/Raidio Uladh’s Talk […]

Terrible ….terrible.. This bloody man- flu has been swimming through me and around me like some poisonous miasma for nearly two weeks now and it’s beginning to get just a little bit boring .I partly blame myself, in any case .Two and a half weeks ago I said to the good wife ..”You know , […]

  It was a pleasant surprise to hear that Bob Dylan received the Nobel prize for Literature this year. While I am not a serious Dylan fan I have been intrigued by him and amazed at his songs and music for most of my life. I love his anti-war song ‘Blowing in the Wind’.  I […]