December, 2022

Arlene Foster now broadcasts on GB Radio and she’s very cross with Rishi Sunak – it appears he’s a bit less that 110%  behind the Union. Is she realising that only now? Jeremy Clarkson has talked about how much he hates Meghan Markel, and how he dreams of seeing her walking naked down a street […]

In letters and articles  over many years I have let fly at Fergal Keane’s broadcasts and articles and in private conversations indulged in what an unlettered but inspired neighbour described as upstream language.   When I heard him on the BBC claim that Michael Collins had tried to get his comrades accept the partition of […]

    “Balancing the right to privacy and freedom of expression is a delicate exercise. But in Britain this balance is being tilted too far towards the former with the result that the rich and powerful are being handed tools to evade legitimate scrutiny.   The latest restriction on press freedom is a draft new […]

I never cease to be impressed by the ease with which the mainstream media can make themselves invisible. For example, in today’s Irish Times Letters page, there’s this from Danny Boyd of Newtownabbey: Sir, – Anne Harris’s column “Varadkar, right now, is the leader we need” (Opinion & Analysis, December 20th) includes the statement, “Blair […]

  I sent this letter to THE IRISH POST on 4 January 2011.  I Don’t know whether it was published. But 12 years later I trust some readers might enjoy it.     “THE TIMES (January 3rd) carried an  Obituary of the historian A.T.Q. Stewart whom it  described as  ‘the foremost historian of Northern Ireland […]

I’ve just had a brainwave: Stephen Collins could make a fortune as a stand-up comic. No, really. You start to read his column with laughter the last thing on your mind. After the first ten words you’re plunged into a glorious fit of giggling. Like Stephen in The Irish Times last Friday. Under the sober […]

                                    The (London) TIMES today, Saturday 17 December 2022 on pages 10 and 11 carried a  picture taken in October2021 at Chevening  the official Country Home of the UK Foreign  Secretary.    The accompanying storyline says that staff […]

      Who would ever have believed in a million years or in a parallel  universe that in the year 2022 anyone could write an article comparing Israel’s Nation State with Ukraine’s resurgent fascism?     Well let’s begin shall we?   Let us see if there is a comparison    Let is see […]

In last Tuesday’s Irish Times, Fintan O’Toole has an article entitled ‘We speak the cúpla focal of United Irishese’ In the sub-heading, we were told there’s a big difference between believing ‘in’ something and believing you are then required to do something about it.  I’m not sure about the main headline, but the sub-heading is […]

      Though never a member of any political party, I’ve always regarded myself as a generic Sinn Feiner and once included under that description supporters of the Irish Labour Party, all supporters of Fianna Fail and even some supporters and members of Fine Gael.    I had some sympathy for Sinn Fein, even […]