August, 2018

Supposing – just supposing Ireland were to be reunited, what kind of country would we be talking about? In the early days of the Troubles, republicans claimed to be aiming for a 32-county socialist republic. These days we hear less about the socialist part but maybe more about the 32-county thing. Since it’s reasonable to […]

SHOCK RUDDY HORROR – THEY FOUND SWEET FANNY ADAMS! Considering the wealth of agents-provocateur, perjurers, forgers, informers, misinformers, and other lovelies always in the security services’ kitbags,  that’s a very poor show. If neither Labour Whips during the time Corbyn was a backbencher, nor his enemies in Labour, Tory or other parties could produce evidence […]

So – is Bernadette McAliskey right? She’s suggested that they should bulldoze Stormont: “We are on a hiding to nothing changing racism and sectarianism”. I have always liked Bernadette. She’s a fearless Tyrone woman who has never hesitated to say what she believes or even do what she thinks needs doing, like slapping Reginald Maudling […]

Well, no one can accuse Mary Lou McDonald of taking off her shoes and putting up her feet since she took over as Sinn Féin president. She’s done a number of things, but most importantly she’s taken by the throat the issue of a border poll and the desirability of a reunited Ireland, and slammed […]

  “He can’t be a man ’cause he doesn’t smoke/The same cigarettes as me” –  Mick Jagger When I was growing up (yes, Virginia, just outside Omagh), the Catholic Church was at the height of its powers. I wasn’t aware of the Church having any more powers than anyone else in the adult world: teachers, […]

  The people who voted for Brexit gave no thought to the disastrous consequences for Ireland of the UK leaving the EU. They gave no thought to the implications for the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and the building of peace in Ireland. They had no concern for the future of the economy in Ireland. It is doubtful if they had any […]

I’ve always liked Emma Thompson. She’s a bit of a toff (Cambridge and all that) but she also is one very good actor, and also it seems to me, an actor with a brain. Yesterday she confirmed my brain judgement. She was on The One Show (BBC ONE) and while I caught only the first […]

(This letter was published in the Irish Post a couple of weeks ago) Your report of the handing over by the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker) of Dail Eireann of a portrait of the Republican Constance Markievicz to Westminster, that serial  Smotherer of Parliaments, FOR HANGING, had me asking – is this For Real? Westminster bribed “a Parcel of Rogues”  in Edinburgh […]

As children, we all loved a simple tale: Goldilocks v the wolf, Cinderella v the ugly sisters (not very pc, that one), the three little pigs v another wolf. In life, things are rarely that neat. Take the Omagh bomb. This morning on the BBC Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster news, the anniversary topped the news  headlines. There […]

Tuesday is a desperate day. The glow of the weekend has faded, you’re facing into the same old slog of work , you wonder why you picked this path in life and if there shouldn’t be something more –anything more – than this overcast greyness. Cheer up, I have a belly-twisting laugh on its way. […]