April, 2020

Given that the coronavirus has been pretty much the sole topic of every TV news programme for weeks now, it’s strange that one element has been missing. Even stranger is the fact that the person who came closest to referring to that missing element was the last person you’d expect. The question is this:  what […]

AUTHENTIC  IRISH DON’T HAVE TO BE ASKED TWICE… THEY SIGN AND SHARE THIS PETITION IMMEDIATELY … AND THEY RECRUIT OTHERS TO SIGN AND SHARE … BECAUSE THEY SEE IT AS A GREAT HONOR AND SACRED TRUST.              IRISH PETITION — IRELAND ONE NATION “Ireland, too, has the right to be One Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice […]

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson Portrait It shook me, I don’t mind admitting. Somewhere in my mind there was a compartment that told me ordinary people, nameless people get the virus, even local heroes like Niall Murphy might get it, but Boris Johnson? He seemed so full of life and big-bellied vigour, it just didn’t […]

I read in THE IRISH TIMES that some of the protective gear acquired from China at great haste may not be of bespoke standard. THE IRISH TIMES apes British Cold War propagandists, including a Mancunian Candidate in the Guardian, a paper which is not a pedantic stickler for the truth. For instance it peddled the […]

Peter McVerry is a Jesuit priest well known for his work for the homeless in Dublin. His new book A Dose of Reality contains a number of articles he has written over the years for the Redemptorist magazine Reality. Peter is a native of Newry. His father was a GP there and Peter grew up in […]

Two notable announcements from two notable people over the weekend. Queen Elizabeth (II) did a five-minute broadcast to ‘the nation’, and Leo Varadkar (acting Taoiseach) announced a return to medical practice. The royal statement was greeted on BBC and RTÉ with gasps of  admiration and talk of inspiration. I watched it myself and I gasped […]

Fr. McManus’ Partitioned Parish and Partitioned Country                                                                                                   […]

 [This blog first appeared as a column in the Andersonstown News]T The horrors of coronavirus stare us in the face, but it has its potentially positive features too.  Some  of these positive elements we are experiencing even as the virus rages round the world;  some we can expect (or should  that be hope?) to see when this pestilence has grown weary and collapses. The first […]

[See also Donal’s blog at http://www.judecollins.com/2016/06/is-emer-okelly-a-fool-or-a-liar-by-donal-kennedy/   ] Sent: Fri, Apr 3, 2020 4:26 pm Subject: “FILTH IN THE ABBEY” Reading Emer O’Kelly’s “An Irishwoman’s Diary” (March 30) piece deploring a complaint about Brian Friel’s “Loves of Cass Maguire” staged in Dublin 1967 I thought how liberal Dublin was at the time compared with London. I’m surprised […]

What is Stormont like? According to commentators like News Letter political editor, Sam McBride, it’s like a shambles. Not right at all.  He’s very critical of Michelle O’Neill in a tweet today – says in effect that she’s making a hames of Executive solidarity by criticizing Robin Swann for his delayed action and for adhering […]