July, 2017

I was on the Nolan radio programme this morning, talking about Linfield-Glasgow Celtic match this evening. I’ll try to put up the audio clip from it but here’s a summary of my thoughts on the matter.    There are no tickets for Celtic supporters to attend Windsor Park. If that’s because they fear for their […]

I had a good day yesterday. Wonderful weather in Dublin, pleasant and talkative people on the bus, streets heaving with tourists and young people. I met people I hadn’t seen in a while, I had loads of internet greetings from people I’ve never met but feel I know. I had telephoned birthday wishes from a […]

  The story of the successive Partitioning of Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore has not been a stellar one, fellers. And the latest effort is part of the same drear and dismal tale of gobsmacking lopsidedness. That would be the current Dub-insprired Sub-Dividing by the whizz -phissing kids of the marketing division of Bored Fáilte which […]

  So it’s that time again. The bunting and the flegs are up, sashes are out of their boxes, the boots are polished and the uniforms are dry-cleaned, the instruments are tuned and all is ready for another celebration of the victory of King William of Orange over King James on the 12th day of […]

An interesting commentary on how the Irish language is about a great deal more than simply utilitarian. Compressed, the author seems to be echoing Pearse:  Tír gan teaga, tír gan anam….   https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/cultural-genocide-the-broken-harp-identity-and-language-in-modern-ireland-by-tom%C3%A1s-mac-s%C3%ADom%C3%B3in-1.2299891

After Paddy’s Day, the Twelfth is probably Ireland’s best-known date. Given the amount of newsprint it attracts and public money it demands, what does it offer in return? Law-breaking. As far as I can establish, a number of bonfires are illegal. You know it, I know it, presenters of radio and TV programmes know it. […]

Catherine Kelly, the social media user recently questioned at Dublin Airport regarding her online references to Minister Regina Doherty, was mentioned jokingly by the Minister in an RTE radio interview broadcast in May 2016. Claiming to have **“a closer relationship with some of these people on Twitter than I have with some of my family […]

When I was a teacher, I used to think that students deserved a mark for effort as well as achievement. There were youngsters who toiled long and hard to come up with something fairly pedestrian, and it seemed callous and counter-productive to dismiss their efforts. Watching the DUP over the last few months has been […]

    The Irish Times continues with the worn out cliché describing the political situation in the northeast six counties as an intractable conflict between two tribes. This is the typical understanding in the Dublin media including RTE. They see the north as a place apart from the rest of Ireland -just like many unionists. I heard Ryan […]

    Documentary maker Maurice Fitzpatrick apparently feels the need to attempt to restore John Hume to his place in history. In a documentary to be screened at the Galway Film Festival entitled ‘In the name of peace: John Hume in America’ Fitzpatrick claims he wants to correct the view of history which he says […]