November, 2018

The other day my former class-mate Eamonn McCann was on Talkback, I think it was, and typically provided a new insight into the topic under discussion. The topic was Derryman James McClean and his refusal to wear the poppy on his football shirt. Eamonn pointed out that this practice of wearing a poppy on football shirts […]

Readers of the current edition of History Ireland, and its previous three editions, may have read a long article by Dennis Kennedy and the dispute in its Letters Page between himself and myself about one of his contentions – that we Irish should be so grateful to the late Lord Fitzalan, the British Viceroy for […]

In his famous ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy, Hamlet concludes that the only thing which keeps many people from killing themselves is the uncertainty of the world that might follow death. If it were not for that fear , surely people would find it impossible to put up with the injustices of this world: “Th’ […]

A few  years ago History Ireland showed a photo taken of three spectators at an Ireland (FAI) international versus Poland match at Dublin’s Dalymount Park in 1938 which Ireland won by 4 goals to 1. The Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera was watching intently  (he clearly was not then near-blind). He had been a very good rugby player […]

One thing you can say about President Trump is that his words carry weight. In fact yesterday they carried not just weight but several US candidates for the House of Representatives and the Senate. The states where he visited, the Republican candidate won. States where he didn’t visit, Republicans did less well. And we’re all […]

Martin Mansergh’s letter and the editorial that preceded it (October 25th, November 5th), on Northern Ireland’s  looming centenary, typify the sort of navel gazing Irish nationalists are expected to engage in. The northern territory began as it meant to continue, by  violently expelling over 10,000 Roman Catholic workers from their jobs in 1920. Cast out also were […]

If you write a letter to the editor of the Irish Times, or any other newspaper, I expect, you’ll have seen suggestions by the paper that you keep what you have to say brief. That hasn’t hindered Martin Mansergh. He’s got a letter in the IT this morning and it ploughs on for several paragraphs. What’s […]

  The first Brexit vote was cast on 14th December 1918, when Ireland, in a General Election, “regarded on all sides as a Plebiscite” according to The Times, voted for the British King, and all his horses and all his men, to make their exit from Ireland. Ireland had 105 Parliamentary seats. The voters awarded 73 of them […]

                                                            C.A.D. When historians of the future look back on the affairs of the current time of inanity south of the Black Sow’s Backstop, they will surely christen, oops, baby-name it, assuming that the political climate will […]

   Saudia Arabia is having difficulty explaining the murder of WASHINGTON POST journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its Consulate in Istanbul.  King Salman should seek the assistance of the United Kingdom with its superb record of assassinations and cover-up.  The best example of their craft is the cover-up of their 1989 murder of attorney Patrick Finucane.  The British held […]