January, 2018

There are those who think that people shaking hands with other people is powerful and significant. I’m not one of those people: handshakes are just that – handshakes. They don’t change any underlying disagreement or injustice. In recent times the great handshakers have been Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams McGuinness met Queen Elizabeth on a […]

I don’t like policemen. I associate them with authority and with the penalties that authority can impose on me for stepping out of line. Which of course is another way of saying I don’t like being caught doing the wrong thing and punished. So maybe the problem lies with me and not the cops. Or […]

Opportunist: strictly speaking the word should be a compliment of sorts, meaning someone who seizes opportunities when they present themselves. But we know that the word has become encrusted with critical overtones: the opportunist is someone who uses an opportunity in her/his self-interest, often leaving others to pay the cost. Opportunism in our NEN  has elbowed […]

The Germans are an amazing people. Despite having suffered terribly in two World Wars  (and please, don’t say they brought it on themselves) they have risen from the ashes and for the past couple of decades have been the dominant force in Europe. They also have that invaluable ability to look beyond their own horizons. […]

I watched a TV documentary on Michael Palin, shortly before the Barry-McElduff-and-Kingsmill-bread storm broke. In the documentary, Palin discussed what was funny about the fish-slapping dance, where as the name suggests, two men dance and slap each other in the face with a fish. Palin said it was hard to pin down the humour but a […]

In some ways I’m sorry that Derry Girls, the new network comedy series on Channel 4, was ever made. Not because I’m not interested in Derry – it’s one of the most fascinating and beautiful towns/cities in Ireland – but because it exposes us to a wider audience, and when that happens we tend to […]

In our divided society, it’s common for people to paint the past in different colours. The most obvious colours are red, white and blue: the decades of the Troubles consisted of the IRA marching down a long and bloody path while the forces of law and order tried to defend law-abiding people. Less obvious, or […]

Do you remember when Tony Blair first entered No 10 Downing Street? Just about everybody was applauding: it was as if a great weight had been lifted from the public back. At last the Tories had been shown the door, with a quick kick at their behind to hasten the exit. Then, for me at […]