February, 2021

At least two new outbreaks of PSNI variant 21 were reported in the last few days. Both were to be found in Belfast. They appear to follow an ongoing pattern . The first cases were observed in East Belfast, during a show of strength by the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force. A proscribed, […]

  I came across this ‘poem’ in a collection of poems FORGOTTEN BEAUTY – Irish love poetry across the centuries (Gill& Macmillan, 2014) In the notes at the back it says the poem was written in late nineteenth century, probably by a Fermanagh man -which sounds right enough!! If anybody out there knows anything more […]

History has a habit of repeating itself in this corner of the world; so in the context of a century of partition, the cycle of violence or the threat of violence comes around at regular intervals. Whether that be republicans of the physical force tradition attempting to force change or loyalists and unionists attempting to […]

This is Pat’s Page in Irish Daily Mirror…

I think the year was 1971 and my father was a patient in Altnagelvin Hospital. The hospital was built in the Waterside area of the City, though the majority of citizens lived on what has now become the West Bank of the River Foyle. It was only accessible by the Craigavon Bridge, the only bridge […]

That Article 16 debacle: would it have happened if Phil Hogan had been in Brussels? And are the DUP hoping to capitalise on the shadow of gunmen? Paddy’s Day will be here in no time. Should Micheál Martin make the trip to Washington, while the ordinary Joe or Maire is kept locked-down? Finally, that online […]

Ireland has a history of occupation, rebellion and civil war. All of which are the outworkings from Britain’s colonial occupation of Ireland. It began in the 12th century and continues today through the partition of Ireland in 1922. We have suffered from famine, repression, cultural genocide, sectarian division and mass murders. Can we now add […]

A border down the Irish Sea, said Boris Johnson in August 2020, would happen “over my dead body.” He was in Belfast when the words gathered in his mouth before bouncing out into the earholes of Arlene Foster, Nigel (‘Call me Lord’) Dodds and other DUP politicians starving for lack of reassurance concerning their Britishness. […]

This page first appeared in the Irish Daily Mirror

Sir, Mike Nesbitt, a former Ulster Unionist leader, writes to remind Mary Lou McDonald of the “inconvenient truth … that the century of partition on the island represents 100 years of republican failure.” (‘Divisive Border poll is no recipe for unity’, 2 February 2021.) Might I suggest that his own letter omits more than one […]