February, 2017

A former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray described the UK as a “Rogue State and a danger in the world and a State prepared to go to war to make a few people wealthy”. He was speaking in the context of the invasion of Iraq and shortly before the Referendum on Scottish independence. The […]

Last night I watched a tape of Arlene Foster’s interview with Paul Clark on UTV. In some ways it was similar to any of these interviews – the presenter tries to tie down the politician, preferably with some damaging admissions, the politician wriggles and avoids the question. This one was a bit like that too, but contained […]

A Better Future: towards a culture of life, care and hope for all “Voting for those who will govern our society is a moral act. Each vote cast, or not cast, potentially influences the values that will shape future law and policy” – see catholicbishops.ie for both the bishops’ media statement and pastoral reflection on the Assembly Elections. […]

Today, the Ulster Unionists Party are the polite supremacist bigots. No longer do they scream “We don’t want a Fenian voice about the place!”; instead they whisper “Please be quiet, your rights are unimportant to our never-ending socio-economic aspirations.” The UUP governed Northern Ireland from its inception in 1921 until the Stormont parliament was prorogued […]

Gerald Beadle, the first Station Director at the BBC in Belfast was appointed by Reith in 1926. Fake News must have been foremost in his mind when he wrote later that year to Reith saying,  “I am sure that our position here will be strengthened immensely if we can persuade the Northern Government to look […]

There’s an article on The Irish Times website today commenting on the speed with which some people become outraged. The article talks about the volatile President Trump but goes on  to make the case that outrage is perhaps unChristian and a substitute for effective action. It’s an interesting notion. Certainly Jesus told his followers to forgive […]

My eyes glazed over as she spoke the words .”I’ve got “man-flu””. That is how the female leader of the Democratic Unionist Party started off. Well there goes any pretence at femininity , I thought to myself. Freeze that image! What a start indeed? Did she deliberately say the word “man” to strip herself of […]

As already noted on this site, the Guardian yesterday (Feb20) devoted the leading editorial to Brexit and Ireland. The Guardian is a pro-British newspaper which favours the Labour party over the Conservatives. I suppose we should be thankful for getting such attention in a Saxon newspaper. However, the writer seems to think it would be […]

Anyone following the news in the Free State will notice that the Fine Gael daggers are firmly being sharpened against their incumbent Chief. A “Night of the Long Knives” style purge may well be upon this minority Dublin Government, with little real difference between the front-runners. They are planning an open assassination on the only […]

“He [Trump] is not going to be the leader of my country. It really doesn’t bother me too much.” That was Rory McIlroy a while back. It’s an interesting comment since it’s always been hard to know which country Rory believes he belongs to. Now the latest word is, Rory has played eighteen holes of golf […]