Backstop. Meaning the baseball term to do with the camouflagic 310 mile long British border on […]
November, 2018
Do the Derry Journal and The News Letter matter any more?
So. The Derry Journal and The News Letter are both as of this moment in receivership. Not to mention a number of weekly newspapers. And then there’s The Scotsman and The Yorkshire Post. Johnson Press, the group that owns these newspapers, put itself up for sale a short time back and had no takers. So […]
TWO POLITICAL LETTERS by Donal Kennedy
Letter in The Irish Times 28 December 2005 1916 Rising and the First World War Madam Kevin Myers is to be thanked for bringing to our attention the fact that 800 men from Co. Louth died in the 1914-1918 War (An Irishman’s Diary, December 20th). Louth is only one of 32 counties, and not […]
On being in the right place at the right time
The man or the moment – or the woman or the moment, for that matter? Which is it? Is it the talent and strength of character of the individual political leader who bends events into the shape and direction they have chosen, or is it that the time for these events has come, and the […]
FUKUYAMA, RUAIRI QUINN and THE END OF HISTORY TEACHING by Donal Kennedy
The implosion of the Soviet Union and the end of the Warsaw Pact was a time of opportunity and opportunists. Quick off the mark was a one Fukuyama, who wrote “The End of History” a runaway bestseller. Communism and Socialism were dead. Neo-liberalism, once known as Manchester-Liberalism was now enthroned and would reign forever. Those over […]
How To Alienate Your Base
It was like watching a trusted mastiff suddenly turn and bite its owner in the bum. Or a dead sheep being slowly turned on the spit. Totally unexpected, painful and yet hilarious. I’m referring, of course, to The View on TV the other night. The good knight Sir Jeffrey spend what seemed like years trying to […]
Crystal balls and post-Brexit: an inexact science?
The indicators against a hard Brexit are becoming more obvious by the day. Here in our Tormented Green Corner (TGC) the Ulster Farmers Union and the business community have made it clear they want the deal Theresa May has cobbled together. Are they right? Because it can be argued that predictions of Brexit disaster may […]
AMNESIA — OFFICIAL! by Donal Kennedy
“The Month of November used be one of solemn Remembrance in Ireland. For Dublin Brigade Volunteer and Medical Student Kevin Barry, hanged by the British in 1920. For Tipperary footballer Michael Hogan and twelve spectators killed at Croke Park by British rifle fire. For Brigadier Dick McKee, Vice-Brigadier Peadar Clancy and the civilian Conor […]
DUP official bulletin: it’s the end of the world
You know the Specsavers ad that’s been adapted to address the hard of hearing? I’m not wondering if anyone in the DUP has seen it – they clearly haven’t. I’m wondering if we should just club together and send them the Specsavers hearing aid for Christmas. Maybe even ten of them (yes, Ian, we haven’t […]
1916 RISING: SOME FAILURE! SOME FIASCO! SHOME MISHTAKE SHURELY? by Donal Kennedy
Letter to the Editor IRISH POST A pity Dr Ivan Gibbons (July 2) is so blinkered that he asserts that it is “an inescapable fact” that the 1916 Rising “was a total failure.” Unblinkered he might have recognised the first chapter in THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. In May 1916 the Insurgent Leaders were shot dead on […]