Yesterday, there was one good-news story: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released by Iran after six years. But how come we never heard there was a multi-million debt to be paid to Iran by Britain? And was it ransom money. It appears that Micheál Martin didn’t exactly have the luck of the Irish – this year again […]
March, 2022
MIRABILE DICTU* MIRACLES ON ST PATRICK’S DAY IN THE IRISH TIMES – by Donal Kennedy
Looking at its letters on line I thought I had fallen asleep and woken up on April 1st -ALL FOOLS’DAY. For some of the letters did not express hatred for all things Russian nor assert that President Putin was a lunatic and/or a psychopath. And there’s an article written by Fintan O’Toole explaining why […]
OH HAPPY DAY! by Donal Kennedy
When Britain embarked on its long-planned war on Germany in 1914, everything German was put in fear for its life. Low-life Dachshunds could be kicked to death. German Shepherds had to branded as Alsatians . Pork Butchers and jewelers, violinists and waiters, Catholic Priests, Lutheran Pastors, Jewish Rabbis, German Street Musicians. long living happily […]
JOURNALISTS AND SPOOKS – HOW CAN YOU TELL ‘EM APART? – by Donal Kennedy
Much of what passes for disinterested comment is tailored to serve private interests or political ends. Erskine Childers, Malcolm Muggeridge, Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, Kim Philby, Brian Inglis and Conor Cruise O’Brien were associated with British Intelligence and/or Propaganda at one time or another, or for the whole of their active lives. Childers’ […]
Saint Patrick and how we stuck him
Some saints you can’t avoid, no matter where you are, and Saint Patrick is one of them. He’s said to have died on 17 March 460 AD, and pretty well ever since we’ve celebrating, at least in Ireland. The Saint Patrick’s Day parade, though, that’s a relatively modern invention. It began in America on 17 […]
WHEN AND WHY PADDIES BECAME SYONYMOUS WITH TADHGS AND DONALS
The Christian name Patrick was rare in Ireland for over 1,200 years after the Saint’s (461 AD) death.. Oliver Cromwell’s generic terms for the Gaelic Catholics were “Tadhgs and Donals” Patrick was added to commemorate Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, Jacobite hero of Bally Neety and other adventures in the Williamite War. The Jacobites […]
A Clown in Holy Orders – a reprint
A Clown in Holy Orders (for today) by Donal Kennedy by Jude Collins on November 16, 2015 (Note:Donal wrote this blog in 2015, but it has a relevance today, hence the reprint – Jude) A clown in Holy Orders, celebrating Requiem Mass in Dublin for a soldier killed serving with the British Army in Afghanistan (or […]
The IT and not being nasty enough to Putin
OK, your starter for 10. What Irish newspaper this morning had an editorial containing this statement and who are they referring to? “A party that has long equivocated over Putin’s brutal regime has felt compelled to ditch its previous positions and embrace new ones.” Right, you can stop crowing now – of course […]
PAT+JUDE TALK ABOUT THE PROTOCOL APPEAL, CHINA & RUSSIA, PETE ST JOHN, & BLOOD MONEY IN NEWCASTLE
God may love a tryer, but the Appeals Court in London has told Kate Hoey, Jim Allister and UKIPer Ben Habib to get lost, with their appeal about the protocol being contrary to the Act of Union 1801. America has warned China not to supply Russia with arms. Isn’t that a bit rich, given […]
Irish ports taking care of business
I was down in Dublin yesterday, where I talked to a man whose job involves keeping the containers that arrive at Dublin port running smoothly to their destination. Sometimes, he said, he found this work frustrating. Drivers would contact him to complain about the new forms they had to fill in. “They knew this was […]