“There will not be a border poll for a very long time to come” The words of one Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom… and some other parts. Now let those words sink in. What you just read was Boris Johnson tearing an integral part of the Good Friday Agreement […]
April, 2021
An open letter to Michael McDowell
Dear Michael, I see you’ve yet another article in The Irish Times this morning. Good man yourself: I expect you’re being paid handsomely for these by the Newspaper of Record. Lucky you: I’ve sent at least half-a-dozen letters in recent months to the IT, no costs involved, and they appear to have grunted and binned […]
Reconciliation: it’s a two way street – by Michael Lagan
On Sunday 18th April, the day after the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral,Uachtarán Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald was being interviewed on Times Radio when she apologised for the death of Lord Louis Mountbatten at Mullaghmore in County Sligo. Lord Mountbatten was killed in an IRA bomb attack on his boat ‘Shadow V’. The party of seven aboard […]
Boris and Micheál: it’s the way they tell ’em…
I read an article in today’s Irish Times and found myself thinking about a sketch some time ago on the US comedy show Saturday Night Live. Dr Anthony Fauci, Trump’s top medical man, had been recently critical of some things Trump had said about Covid. In the sketch Fauci (played brilliantly by Brad Pitt) is […]
PAT +JUDE TALK ABOUT MARY LOU’S NEED TO APOLOGISE, A SOCCER SUPER LEAGUE, +THE DOUBLE IRISH TAX LARK
Mary Lou McDonald has said she’s sorry about the killing of Lord Mountbatten. Gregory Campbell says it’s not enough – there has to be condemnation and justice for victims of the IRA. Is he right? Does Mary Lou need to condemn all republican violence? Several Premier League teams in England have signed up to a […]
Entitlement and Unionism – by Michael Lagan
“It was in people’s minds in ‘68 when the civil rights movement came on. They were campaigning for issues like housing conditions, jobs and votes – which the Protestant working class didn’t have either.” Those are the words of a young Gregory Campbell speaking on a documentary on the Civil Rights marches in Derry. […]
“You just don’t get it!” -Gregory Campbell. Yes we do, dear Gregory
There is one core problem with creating a reunited Ireland: those people who don’t want to be part of it. They’re called unionists. So what is it that unionists believe they would lose if a majority in Ireland voted for a unified Ireland? The no-brainer: unionists would lose political union. Why do unionists value political […]
The DUP and Guerrilla Warfare – by Michael Lagan
So, the DUP missed a North/South Ministerial Council meeting. A big deal? Of course, it is, in more ways than one. It is definitely more important than a British/Irish Council due to the North/South Council allowing Executive and Southern Irish Ministers on the island of Ireland to co-ordinate as one body on many subjects and […]
The Grand Old Duke of Edinburgh/ He had ten million pounds – by Fra Hughes
So the Duke is dead and to be buried on the afternoon of April 17 2021. I am not a Royalist – in fact I am a Republican. The time has long since passed when monarchies should have been condemned to the dustbin of history as a feudal anachronistic parasite that is long past […]
TV Review: Goodbye House
“Moving house. It’s one of the most difficult decisions you’ll ever make” the voice-over tells us at the opening of GOODBYE HOUSE (RTÉ ONE). This is the sixth series of this programme, but somehow I have managed to starve my soul by not watching it. Last week I made amends. As GOODBYE HOUSE sees it, […]