November, 2016

  Everywhere you look there are far-right movements springing up from the ashes of neo-liberal austerity and the manner in which it ravaged communities across the globe. People think this is something new, when actually right-wing ideas have never really gone away, they just lacked the impetus to advance on the national and global stages […]

  “In the United States very practical action was being taken in the hope of checking the excesses of the British troops and police in Ireland. On the inititiave of Dr. W.J.Maloney and with the help of Frank P. Walsh and with President de Valera’s approval, a committee was formed for the purpose of investigating conditions […]

    The most meaningful reflection on the election of Donald Trump as President-elect that I read was by Richard Rohr. He promised that in this hour of darkness he would continue to stand with the vulnerable who are now the most fearful and the most exposed – the immigrants, African Americans and all who […]

One of the saddest features of the Free State that was born from the Treaty was the lapdog position the Irish state was forced to adopt towards Britain. The Irish currency followed the British pound around, the Free State was roundly abused for not coming into the Second World War on Britain’s side, the Irish state […]

  Yesterday, I took a notion that I would drive to Cavan. It’s about thirty minutes in the car from where I live in county Fermanagh. I like to go there sometimes to browse in one of the best bookshops in Ireland. In fact this bookshop, called Crannog, won an award for the Best small Bookshop in Ireland. Now […]

   Conor Cruise  O’Brien has suggested that William Joyce, later dubbed “Lord Haw Haw” was involved in the murder of Father Michael Griffin, whose body was found in a bog in Barna, Co.Galway, on 20 November 1920. If the story is true, the jejeune William Joyce, all of 14 years old, was rather precocious. Alhtough he […]

I’ve just come from listening to Good Morning Ulster(sic) on BBC Radio Ulster/Raidio Uladh. When I left, Noel Thompson was querying various informed people as to how and why the UDA was still in existence. Not a particularly fruitful inquisition: Rev Chris Hudson said something about the ‘mechanisms for the disappearance of the UDA not […]

      Britain’s  cancerous presence in the body politic of Ireland takes on many shapes and  will never be far from the news.  Today all of Ireland is fearful of just how an arrogant British Prime Minister Teresa May  will disrupt their lives and economy so that mainland England and “The City” will thrive […]

  I was up early to hear the result of the American Elections. Interesting but my comment would be superfluous. Then I went to the Garrick Theatre to see the Kenneth Branagh Company’s brilliant revival of John Osborne’s”The Entertainer” , first staged starring Laurence Olivier in 1957. The eponymous anti-hero is a seedy and cynical […]

      There is a motion before Dublin City Council to name a street in memory of Savita Halappanava. There is little doubt but that they will cave in to this motion, just as their fellow big wigs and other apologetic speleologists (not a darling word to spell, Joxer) on the Board of the Abbey […]