These are not good days to be a unionist. If you’re a supporter of the UUP, you’ve just seen your leader commit hara-kiri and your party representation reduced to a doleful rump. If you’re a supporter of the DUP, you’ve just watched your number of seats plummet, your main rival come within one seat and […]
March, 2017
POLLSTERS AND POPPYCOCK
Sometimes you come on an article that truly deserves a wider audience. This is one of those… http://www.broadsheet.ie/2017/03/06/straw-men-polls/
Just before the political world changed
Note: this column appeared in The Andersonstown News last week, prior to the election. By the time you read this, you may have cast your election vote. Several times, for all I know. In that case, go out and have a pint or do some slug-killing in the back garden or whatever your idea of fun is. […]
BACK TO SQUARE ONE
I had already written a piece , but having left it to scratch through the papers, I turned to find that the computer had decided to exit “sleep” mode , re-boot and update before I had a chance to save it , so I lost it all to the mad cosmic whirl of the universe. […]
THERESA MAY DOES AN ARLENE IN GLASGOW by John Patton
John Patton blogs at www.phototilly.eu Margaret Thatcher came to Edinburgh in 1988 and delivered, what the Scottish Press branded, ‘The Sermon on the Mound’ to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. It was largely a para-theological justification for her views on capitalism and the free market. ‘Christianity is about spiritual redemption and not social reform.’ This […]
‘Mike Nesbitt and the Demographic Gift’ by Jessica McGrann
It is interesting to read the different views on the outcome of the recent election, on what it means and no-one is denying that it was Sinn Fein’s day. It was indeed a watershed election and has the potential to change things in Ireland forever. But having deliberated over it and given up […]
‘ Mairead Farrell: Women & Irish Liberation’ by Donal Lavery
Every struggle known to man is usually carried and grafted by the resilience of women. During the Blitz in Belfast, my great-grandmothers put the fires and lights out when the bombs dropped and settled the children amid the death & explosions. Indeed, during the more recent conflict in the North many women bore arms against […]
BRITISH INTELLIGENCE AND ITS FRIENDS by Donal Kennedy
On 24 February 1933 Police and Brownshirts raided Karl Liebnecht Haus in Berlin, headquarters of the Communist Party. Its Chairman , Ernst Thalman, was arrested on 3 March. He managed to smuggle out details of his treatment – “They ordered me to take off my pants and then two men grabbed me by the back of […]
‘Wearing the Crown’ by Joe McVeigh
When I first noticed the former First Minister wearing a crown on her lapel I did not pass much remarks. I thought it was just for some special occasion like her queen’s birthday. I have noticed since then that this badge is a permanent fixture on all her jackets –an ongoing public expression of loyalty […]
‘Who Fears to Speak of Fairness and Equality?’ by Catherine Kelly
Catherine Kelly is a native of Carrickmore, Co. Tyrone. She is currently a doctoral student at SUNY Albany, focusing on political rhetoric from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump. She is a graduate of Columbia University, New York and Queen’s University, Belfast. In the recent election in Northern Ireland, one party campaigned on the time –honoured […]