February, 2017

Pics 1-3 are by John Patton, who blogs at phototilly.eu    Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 1. “Munro bagging is a sport known to many climbing enthusiasts and they come from all over the World to pursue their hobby. The Munros were first listed by Sir Hugh Munro (1856 – 1919) in his […]

For someone cutting her leadership teeth, so to say, Michelle O’Neill did OK on The View (BBC) last night. It requires a small gear-change in the head not to expect Martin McGuinness to appear when they say ‘the Deputy First Minister’ (No, please Virginia, don’t bore me with nit-picking ‘She’s not the Deputy First Minister […]

    I see that Liam Neeson, the actor from Ballymena, who lives in New York, has thrown his weight behind a new campaign to encourage more schools in norn Ireland to become integrated. Not sure if he means that the existing schools become integrated or that there should be more Integrated schools. Already in the north there […]

  Readers of the Sunday Independent will no doubt be familiar with the relentless spreading of anti-nationalist/anti-republican bile spearheaded by columnist Eoghan Harris, in particular his almost weekly assault on those who fought against British occupying forces during the Irish War of Independence of 1919-1921, claiming republicans were motivated by sectarianism and engaged in the […]

  (Declan Kearney is a senior Sinn Féin figure,  so naturally he’s looking at things from a republican perspective. Could I ask people, when/if they comment, to deal with the points raised rather than the person raising them.) The Conservative Government has become increasingly pro-unionist and politically aligned with both the DUP and UUP, as […]

Sometimes you wonder if the world of pundits isn’t a bit like The Wizard of Oz – lots of impressive-sounding judgements that leave you cross-eyed with admiration as you wonder how the head that produced so much wisdom could carry all s/he knew. Thoughts on the Irish language tend to exemplify that. For example, Arlene Foster at […]

( Shannon Ebrahim is Foreign Editor of Independent Media, in South Africa. This article was published in a number of South African newspapers last Friday.)  Peace prospects in Northern Ireland rest on parties committing to power-sharing in line with Good Friday Peace Agreement, writes Shannon Ebrahim. The world has been largely oblivious to the deepening […]

I was at the Sinn Féin electoral launch in the Waterfront yesterday . OK, let me be honest, at most of the launch – I arrived just as Gerry Adams was getting to the end of his speech and expressing good wishes to Martin McGuinness and hoping for his full recovery. If you look down […]

The DUP(Democratic Unionist Party) has just aired another Party Political Broadcast. This time they want to present themselves as an impossibly more cuddly bunch.For such a deluded gathering of political grotesques that is a big ask.They’ve decided that the image needs some buffing up for the less-astute pilgrims ,in wake of their long list of […]

    [Recently published books referred to in this article: Jewish Ireland in the Age of Joyce: A Socioeconomic History, byCormac Ó Gráda, Princeton University Press, 320 pp, £22.95, ISBN: 978-0691127194 German-Speaking Exiles in Ireland 1933-1945, (ed) Gisela Holfter, Editions Rodopi B.V, 300 pp, £44.29, ISBN: 978-9042020337 Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, Volume V: 1937-1939, (eds) […]