September, 2025

I’d never heard of Maria Steen until a few days ago, and what I’ve heard about her is pretty impressive.  Her major quality, in my view, is that she is willing (and able) to NOT go with the flow. You may or may not like her views, but they are undeniably courageous.   Without going […]

  Tourism in the first half of this  year – tourism to the US- has fallen dramatically and is forecast to fall even more next year. Now why could that be?  The Fianna Fail presidential candidate,Jim Gavin, has received such hostile and nasty remarks, they’ve had to be taken down. Wonder what they said… The […]

Is Keir Starmer a brown-noser by nature, or does he reserve his worship for the likes of Donald Trump? Why are the British people accepting and approving this grovelling to a rapist and a convicted felon? So will Pearse Doherty be Sinn Féin’s candidate for the Áras? Or is he too important to them, that […]

  The abuse of power or bullying in the world is one of the great obstacles to justice, equality and peace. The abuse of power by politicians or religious leaders always leads to great suffering for the poor and those on the margins of society. It seems to have always been this way. That is […]

  Having watched that beano -feast laid on at Windsor Castle for Trump, I found the degree of excess and expense vomit-inducing. Then I began to wonder was Windsor a cosy home for King Charles? Well, it appears Windsor Castle itself is as over-the-top as the Trump banquet. Windsor Castle has – brace yourself – […]

randallstephenhall ramdallstephenhall   RSH. Watch Your Step. By Randall Stephen Hall. Including a You Tube LinkTo Stephen Stiofan performing 6 songsplus chat, at Acoustic Haven, off Castle Street, Belfast 26.8.25  See link below . . .I was taking part in a great podcast called Acoustic Haven, up a flight of stairs to the upper room […]

Did you watch last night’s banquet in Windsor Castle honouring President Trump? I did, and I don’t know if my digestive system can survive another such experience. A hugely-long table heavily decorated in flowers, some 150 place settings, an orchestra,  toasts, free-flowing wine: my thoughts raced to the ending of Animal Farm, where the exploited […]

  It’s interesting that US politicians, both Democrat and Republican, rarely condemn the obvious mass murder/genocide that Israel has been conducting in Gaza for nearly two years now. The reason? Many US politicians are funded by Jewish groups. You bite the hand that feeds you at your peril. At this moment the National Ploughing Championships […]

  OK – the positives first. The Orange Order is an annual day out, when Orangement can meet and have bottle of stout or a can of lager. It also gives room for a bit of colour and pageant, breaking up what could otherwise be the silly and teadious season.  The Order has existed for […]

    People are funny. The late David Dunseith used to say that people heard what they wanted to hear, rather than what was said. The same thing can apply to writing and reading.    Recently in my Andytown News column I mentioned that Mairead McGuinness, who had dropped out of the running for presidential […]