September, 2025

So – did you watch last night’s presidential candidates’ debate?  I did.  It was a parson’s egg of a Virgin programme  – good in bits.   The presenter, Kieran Cuddihy, I hadn’t encountered before. I liked him. When he asked a question and the candidate went off at an angle of avoidance, he dragged them back. […]

      RSH  I Lit a Candle .   .By Randall Stephen HallWith a song link inspired by my dadPHOTOGRAPHSListen to These Photographs by Randall Stephen Hall on #SoundCloudhttps://on.soundcloud.com/PAWxVFI9dHvk289JAb I lit  a candle this eveningFor my father’s birthday 27.9.1927 It burned brightly this night.Almost a contradiction in termsAnd yet I’m one of those PresbyteriansWho has […]

Well, the good guys won. Despite all the foul-mouthed barracking by spectators, the Europe team beat the Americans. But abuse was so rife, Rory McIlroy’s missus got hit by a paper cup. Should we feel sympathy for Mrs McIlroy??  Tonight, the three presidential hopefuls line up in a TV debate.  Should they be judged on […]

There’s no dodging it: the scenes at Bethpage Black, near New York, where the Ryder Cup is being played, were an absolute sewer fire. Forget “unsporting.” Forget “a bit rough.” This was golf with the gloves off and brass knuckles on. We expect this kind of behaviour from soccer hooligans — the lads who think […]

Politics is a strange game — less chess, more cage fight. Winston Churchill once welcomed a rookie MP to the Commons by jerking a thumb at the Tory benches: “There’s the enemy.” The lad blinked. “But… isn’t the Opposition the enemy?” Churchill didn’t bother with words, just jabbed his thumb at his own party again. […]

  Is British politics having a bad day or two? Or is there fundamental change on the way?   way? The right under Farage appears to be thriving, while Jeremy Corbyn’s party has eaten itself. Could Andy Burnham ride down to the rescue of Labour from Manchester? So we’re to have three presidential candidates. How are […]

I don’t know if Maria Steen would have made a good presidential candidate (which is a different question from wondering would she have made a good President). She or maybe some of those backing her lamented that she was shut out from making a presidential bid (she fell two nominations short of the 20 required). […]

  I once visited Germany,  and some German people asked me if I knew any German – could I speak the language? To my shame I had to tell them that I knew only two German biteens: Auf Wiedersehen  and Schadenfreude. I mention this because I’ve just heard about Jim Gavin’s video showing him down […]

    I expect you saw some clips from Trump’s near-an-hour long rant at the UN.   Maybe you thought he was addressing the UN delegates. No he wasn’t, any more than Ian Paisley was never talking to a camera but to his stone-age supporters back home in Ballymena.   Here are five aspects of Trump’s […]

  Micheál Martin is at it again. He is shocked, saddened, outraged that the Left’s candidate Catherine Connolly should have said that “Hamas is part of the fabric of the Palestinian people” So maybe a short history and linguistic lesson, Micheál. The phrase Catherine Connolly used does not necessarily mean she is endorsing any of […]