February, 2021

Such is the delight of Boris Johnson and his Tory government, there is a danger that the UK distribution of the Covid vaccine may become the 21st century’s version of the World Cup 1966. Arlene Foster has already used it as an example of the benefits of being in the UK. It’s certainly true that […]

There is much being made about the lack of understanding and mutual respect between the two warring factions in the North of Ireland by the political and establishment elites in the South.  At almost every turn, the humanity is taken out of the experiences of Northern Irish citizens by an Taoiseach and others when they […]

There’s a danger in pigeon-holding individuals or groups, especially if the label we put on them is either ‘Bad’ or ‘Good’. Human beings are capable of virtue as well as vice, and even a stopped clock gets the time right twice every day. Those familiar with my political thinking will know that the DUP is […]

 Having floated. ( no pun intended) the idea of a bridge between NEI and Scotland, Boris Johnson has now come up with the wheeze of a tunnel between the two places.  It’s being pushed for by the High Speed Rail Group  (HSRG), the people who are supposed to be developing high-speed rail links in Northern […]

This TV review first appeared in The Andersonstown News Those who know him personally say that Micheál Martin is a decent, pleasant man. Alas,  in politics, decency and being pleasant rank fairly low down the list of qualities required for success. Or, in Micheál’s case, qualities required for leadership. Before the interview with him on Primetime (RTÉ ONE), the programme ran an introductory […]

  Perhaps one hundred and three years from now,  learned ladies and gentlemen in Harvard and Yale and  the New York Times and the Washington Post will be asserting or suggesting that Donald Trump won the 2020 Presidential Election and his victory was stolen from him. If so, they will be following  a disingenuous tradition embraced […]

This blog first appeared as a column in The Andersonstown News Gilbert and Sullivan claimed that a policeman’s lot was not a happy one, but Brendan Behan had a different angle: “I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn’t make it worse.” The friends and relatives of those who attended to […]

Are people in the south of Ireland really better off than those in the north? What about health? Does Micheál Martin have a political death-wish? He’s owned up to an awful lot of blunders – and now he’s thinking of going to Washington for Paddy’s Day. Finally, President Michael D Higgins has written an article […]

The Lower Ormeau Road was a strange place to grow up in. University Street in the 1960s had a weird and bohemian feel about it. Next door to us at 139 was a Lutheran church. I got my first job there in 1966 aged 9, a cleaner to the pastor Rose Marie Cobalt. Two doors […]