March, 2017

  Tommie Gorman was good craic during the election and even better since it. He is having some difficulty dealing with the result. It has taken him out of his comfort zone. I see he received fulsome praise from none other than that anti-democrat from Cork, Eoghan Harris, in a Sunday paper, for his reportage of the election on RTE. […]

  Tuam babies, by Victoria White, IRISH EXAMINER     -WHAT I can’t take is the shock and the awe. You would honestly think we had no idea those babies’ bodies were there. Now we’re into a full-scale excavation in an effort to “find out what happened to those babies” as if we don’t already […]

I was on the Nolan Show – briefly – this morning. The subject was to be the Irish language, but a pre-recorded interview with Nelson McCausland wandered far and wide from that. But Nelson did complain that there wasn’t as much money spent on Irish as there was on Ulster-Scots. He pointed to the greater […]

This is a statement issued by Border Communities Against Brexit (BCAB) to coincide with a visit to Brussels on Thursday, 9th March by a delegation from BCAB led by Declan Fearon. “On Wednesday March 8th, Declan Fearon, Spokesperson for Border Communities Against Brexit will join with eight other Border representatives to bring the case of Border Communities to the […]

Every few months or so his favourite Belfast morning newspaper does a feature on Seamus Mallon in case we should ever think he was no longer with us. In a recent Saturday edition they carried yet another feature. The article referred to Martin McGuinness’s resignation as DFM. Mallon recalls that he too did not receive much respect […]

  The ‘shamrock’ shenanigans that will take place at the White House between President Trump and Ireland’s Taoiseach Enda Kenny on St. Patrick’s Day may mean more than in previous years.  British plans to leave the European Union (BREXIT) have  given hope to those who, like Richard Haass of the Council of Foreign Relations,  sense […]

According to Theresa May ‘Brexit means Brexit’. To many people living in border areas in Ireland those words are a cause for great concern. We were just beginning to forget that there was a border but Brexit has made sure that we will not forget and former First Minister, Arlene Foster, is pleased and excited. If the […]

Sir, – There is little to disagree with in Una Mullally’s powerful commentary on the scandal of the Tuam babies, interred without ceremony or dignity in underground burial chambers, destined to be forgotten in perpetuity. Except, the discovery in 2010 of 220 children’s remains from Dublin’s Protestant evangelical Bethany Home in unmarked paupers’ graves did […]

Is Sinn Féin a nationalist party? It’s a republican party but it’s also a nationalist party, in that it aims for Irish reunification through peaceful means. The Belfast Telegraph appears  to think the Shinners are not constitutional nationalists: having considered that party’s surge in the election results, the Telegraph’s editorial two days ago added “Constitutional […]

Jim Wells was unambiguous in his condemnation of the BBC during the recent election campaign, claiming it had bombarded Arlene  Foster with relentless criticism   over the weeks of  the campaign. He voiced his criticism on-air to William Crawley, I think it was. The presenter mildly pointed out that the BBC seeks balance and would not have […]