When Terence O’Neill gave his infamous warning that ‘Ulster stood at the crossroads’, he was issuing a direct warning to the Paisleyite faction of evangelical right-wing extremists. With foresight, he could see that the refusal to embrace a more diverse, egalitarian and multicultural era of change would be the rock upon which the Union with Britain […]
April, 2017
IS IT TIME TO EAT SOME CROW-PIE ?
“We do want to respect and indeed better understand the language and culture which we are not a part of and to that end over the next short period of time I do intend to listen and to engage with those from the Gaelic/Irish background, those without party political baggage or indeed demands, people who […]
‘A Letter to the Editor and some thoughts on it’ by Joe McVeigh
Last Sunday’s Indo carried this letter to the editor from a woman by the name of Una Heaton: Sir -Thank you for your excellent articles regarding the life and death of Martin McGuinness; your columnists displayed an excellent opinion of the non-apologist terrorist (Sun Indo March 28). Writers such as Eoghan Harris, Fergal Keane, […]
‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like Regina?’ by Catherine Kelly
Fine Gael TD Regina Doherty’s recent call for prayer in the Dail reminded me of a pet peeve I have: kissing the altar rails on a Sunday while misbehaving for the remainder of the week. Another pet peeve I want to confess to is political corruption. More specifically, I get truly rattled by the […]
SENSE OF HUMOUR by Donal Kennedy
I stole the title of this piece from Damon Runyon. He doesn’t need it anymore. A very good friend of mine, an Englishman, once told me that the Daily Telegraph is the House Journal of British Intelligence. He has a droll sense of humour, my very good friend. But he did it with a […]
‘The mother of all bombs’ – Take that, world!
I’ve just come off the Nolan show after a discussion with Charlie Wolf ( real name Stephen Linskey) who is a British-based US political commentator. The topic was “the mother of all bombs” which was dropped by the Americans in Afghanistan yesterday. Charlie took the line that this was a splendid thing to do. The […]
Talking about the Troubles
Yesterday I did a Skype interview with a young Hungarian woman who is studying for her Master’s in Budapest. She’s doing a study of political violence and wanted some background information about the situation in our NE Nest. I’ll list her questions and my response to each. I’d be interested in whether you think I’ve misled […]
‘A word in the ear of unionism’ by Peter Doran
A friend of unionism will soon whisper in their ears of denial that a prospect – a compelling prospect in the eyes of the world as well as nearer to home – demands their urgent attention. The choice is not whether they ought to resist or for how long; but whether they wish to co-author […]
The DUP: standing firm on the wrong side of history (again)?
It’s interesting that Nigel Dodds is the person fronting up the DUP addresses to the press and media these days. The assumption must be that if they let Arlene loose, she may come out with another alligator allegation or otherwise put the DUP on the back foot. Not that they’re not there already. But you […]
The Stormont talks: is there a way out?
Talks, eh? Is there a people anywhere in the world that’s done more talking than people here? I’m not talking (that word again) about yarns in the pub or in the back room or on the street: I’m talking about political talks. Who won’t talk to whom, who insists on talks about talks, before they’re […]