December, 2020

The man of the moment is Michael Gove, as he himself would be the first to tell you. Not only has he sorted out the Irish protocol, he has, he claims, created a “smoother glide path” for Boris Johnson to come back from Europe with some sort of deal. But here’s the thing: Michael Gove […]

A hundred years ago Bishop Cohalan of Cork condemned both the repressive actions of  Britain’s usurping forces in Ireland and  the measures of the  Liberationist Volunteers  under the command of the  Government established by Irish voters according to the principle of national self-determination. President Michael D Higgins, no clericalist Rome Ruler, is, in this matter, Bishop […]

Will they, won’t they?  Brexit is coming down to the final game of poker. So will the Brits decide, not just to cripple themselves financially, but to shoot themselves in the legs as well and go for No Deal? If you’re confused, no sweat – Pat and I will explain all. And you’ll notice there’s […]

The  Department of Education in Dublin used publish English  Prose and Poetry anthologies for Intermediate and for Leaving Cert students.Those sitting an exam in 1955 would be expected to study a pre-selected selection from an anthology and those sitting them in 1956 and 1957 different selections. But the anthologies which had Swift, Addison and Steele, Lamb, […]

PLEASE SIGN BEFOR DECEMBER 23 “IRELAND, TOO, HAS THE RIGHT TO BE ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.”—NOW SIGNED BY OVER 19,000 DEDICATED  AND CARING MEN AND WOMEN OF JUSTICE AND PEACE, AND OF UNITY, SOLIDARITY AND EQUALITY. PLEASE SIGN, SHARE, AND GET OTHERS TO SIGN ONE IRELAND PETITION BEFORE DECEMBER 23: THE […]

Decade of commemorations stoking cult of violence (Irish Times)  Stephen Collins writes  Ballocks, as is his wont. Exercising their right to self-determination, the Irish people in two General Elections and the Local Elections between December 1918 and the 1921 Truce established and consolidated a Republic. Their refusal to knuckle under to British terrorism, or to […]

Fintan O’Toole is a formidable writer. There’s a vividness and an easy mastery to his sentences; people enjoy reading him. Which makes it all the greater pity that a sizeable chunk of what he writes is one-eyed. In this morning’s Irish Times he’s saluting the book Lost Lives, which as you know provides information about […]

Those of you who are among the MILLIONS who read each blog on this site will know that I’ve talked about Brian Stanley, Sinn Féin TD. Well, you’re in luck – you can now hear Pat and myself consider both of Stanley’s tweets and, perhaps more important, the reaction of other political parties to it. […]

Sir, Of the eight letters (‘Letters: Sinn Féin TD’s tweet on IRA attacks’, 30 November 2020) which comment on Brian Stanley’s tweet, only one considers the truth or otherwise of  his words. In the tweet, Stanley compares the Kilmichael ambush of 1920 with that of Narrow Water in 1979.  Some facts: Both events involved the […]

SIr, Andy Pollack tells us that the Unionists have always supported the RUC and other Crown Forces. The first RUC man killed in the late unpleasantness was Constable Arbuckle, shot by armed Unionist civilians in September 1969, were protesting at the prospect of the RUC being disarmed. There are still some of us who can  […]