September, 2023

      Hands up who didn’t know “hardline Unionist opinion formers” were holding the DUP back from getting back into Stormont and forming an Executive?  Let’s be honest, most people knew the DUP were at least being advised by these shadowy forces (oh the irony) as to what to say and what to do […]

  Alex Kane, the unionist commentator and columnist, is a most agreeable man. In discussion, he has a habit of beginning “I agree with X” before going on and sometimes clearly disagreeing with X. He was an adviser to the Ulster Unionists fado fado; now he writes for The Irish Times and The Irish News. […]

Credit…Rob Stothard for The New York Times To the Editor:  “A Law That Ireland Doesn’t Need or Want,” by Megan K. Stack (Opinion guest essay, Sept. 3), teases out the question of whether the British government will continue to obstruct investigations into killings in Northern Ireland, a question that has pained victims’ families for over […]

  Having been a member of a band, a board member, and a tutor of flute I’ve some experience of the reality of bands in NEI, especially when it comes to republican and nationalist flute bands.  In recent days it has come to light that the Ulster Scots Agency, or Tha Boord o Ulster Scotch […]

  Leo Varadkar travelled North today, bringing with him some €1 billion, that, with the EU, they are going to gift NEI and some southern border counties. What’s not to like? Wallace Thompson, a founder-member of the DUP, has said a ‘new Ireland’ is inevitable. Jim Wells isn’t pleased and neither is Peter Robinson. Is […]

  The only way that I can see any real substantive progress in the creation of a democracy on the island of Ireland is when a Border poll is called and a sense of urgency is instilled in the political situation. As I understand it, that was the ultimate aim of the Good Friday Agreement. […]

     I’ve known just two people with the Christian name Enoch. The first was Enoch Powell, who had a considerable intelligence but who in the end chose to throw his lot in with racism and unionism. The second was Enoch Burke, who is at this moment, to the best of my knowledge, in jail. […]

    Having greased the boil on the cat’s back I had nothing much to do today, so I listened to Talkback. They were discussing the fact that an elaborate bomb hoax had been dealt with in East Belfast, at the playing fields used by the local GAA club. They had Dr John Kyle, he […]

(A couple of years ago I came across a letter which I had prepared concerning that address but may not have posted. But I think it reveals the murky depths to which even the most intelligent and arguably most urbane of leaders can dive.) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..“IN HIS ADDRESS TO THE FINE GAEL ARD-FHEIS, THE TAOISEACH ASSERTED  […]

When  you hear that Simon Byrne, Chief Constable of the PSNI, has resigned, you may be moved to murmur “A policeman’s lot is not a happy one’. Forget it. Simon is walking away with three months’ salary  – around £64,000 – and must have saved a bob or two during his time with the PSNI, […]