November, 2016

About 15 years ago I acquired a radio cassette recorder, and, living in Lancashire with excellent RTE reception, made a hobby of recording its best. On St Patrick’s Day I recorded the sweet lilting Irish of a Protestant service in Cork, and an ecumenical Service, also in Irish, and an Irish Mass from Maynooth. The […]

So many matters for discussion today, so little time. So let me start with the one that created the most ripples in the airwaves yesterday: my discussion on the BBC’s TalkBack with David McNarry. The subject was Martin McGuinness’s comment the previous day that some unionists seem to have a psychological block with reconciliation. William […]

  Russia will be hosting the world cup in 2018 and currently Ukraine are on course for qualification as are both Irish teams.   Is it only the people who run British football or the fans who support England, Scotland,Wales or Northern Ireland who don’t realise that even amongst that small pool of 4 European […]

Anybody remember the outcry when Catholic priests who were known sex-offenders were moved on to other parishes? The chorus of voices calling for the resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady was deafening. He was the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland and, we were told, the buck should stop with him. Yesterday, the family of […]

In the short video above, at Clifton House, Belfast this morning, Martin McGuinness talks about legacy issues, the question of pensions for disabled victims,  and reconciliation. In another blog I’ll put up you’ll be able to hear his full talk on reconciliation. For the moment, I want to concentrate the pensions problem. On my way […]

  For those who equate democracy with voting in elections once every four years, a recent article by a man I know and admire, Philip Pettit, is instructive and most helpful at this time in our history. He describes this other element in democracy as ‘contestatory’. It is helpful not just for the citizens in […]

Do you remember The Quiet Man? No, not Iain Duncan-Smith, who tried to make a virtue of having nothing to say when he led the Tory party. I’m talking about the John Wayne/Maureen O’Hara/Barry Fitzgerald/John Ford movie. We all went to it when it came out in 1952. Even my mother, who usually considered all […]

Eddie Whyte was born and brought up in the Bone and Ardoyne. He is an elected national officer in Fagforbundet, Norway’s largest trade union and is active on Palestinian and human rights issues. He recently returned from a fact finding delegation to the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon where he met, amongst others, Dublin native […]

Here’s Martin McGuinness: “And if that means working with people who were former paramilitaries and who might even be associated with the UDA – as in the allegation that has been made in the course of recent times – but who are making a positive contribution, and who are not involved in violence or criminality […]

Okay, so disappointingly, Ireland didn’t beat the All Blacks –  the world Champions – twice in a fortnight – but no one seriously believes we will have to wait  anything like 111 years again for another win. Irish rugby stands as an outstanding  example, perhaps the best example, of all Ireland cooperation.  There are of course many […]