Author Harry McAvinchey

No one has really teased out how an entire party…the DUP, for example, including those members in the farming community , decided as one bloc on a “Leave” strategy in the recent Brexit referendum. Did every DUP voter simply vote on the “leave” ticket simply because Arlene the nominal First Minister and some of her […]

The United Kingdom is no more. Who would have foreseen this a few short months ago ?How improbable was it ? So what now for Norneverland in the nuclear fallout of the Brexit vote to leave the EU? It has exposed the “United Kingdom” as a completely disunited entity.The fault-lines are there for all to […]

Ha ha .You’ve got to laugh . All the cliches come true sometime .A week is a very long time in politics is a big one and had you been on holidays this past week or fortnight, clearing your mind, relaxing with the news switched off , you’d have arrived back to a very different […]

There is much talk about national identity and culture in the news which appears to have come to a head with the vote to leave the EU.It’s a fact that the very idea of a “national identity” is a fairly recent construct anyway. The whole idea of having a country or even a nationality to […]

A lot of young people I know have thrown their hands up in despair of their fellow citizens for voting “Leave” in the recent EU poll.It may not be a concise or truthful take on the result but one such person has said that the over -60’s should have been banned totally for having any […]

In a matter of days ,those who care about such things will go to the polling stations and vote to either remain in the European Union or to leave it forever. I will vote to stay within this fellowship for many reasons, not least because I see our world, not simply as a group of […]

“It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.” Jacob Bronoski, author of “The Ascent of Man” put it just like that. Some ideas and books can shape your understanding of reality and have a profound effect […]

The story continues…. Sometime on the 28th May 2016, Sir David Attenborough, the broadcaster and world-renowned naturalist, set aside a moment or two of his precious time to write a thank you letter to me . The great man was ninety years young on the 8th May, so I believe that every moment in his […]

This spell of great sunshine we’ve experienced in Norneverland has come as something of a surprise.We’re not used to it and it takes some time readjusting to the sultry heat and the sight of so much exposed white flesh as the denizens throw off their winter woolies and raid the dressing- up box.It’s no time […]

Did anyone else think it odd to see Charles and Camilla welcomed and glad-handed in Donegal by the resident republicans living there ? I have no real problem with the royal couple, per se, but isn’t it very strange for a republican of any stripe to hero-worship someone who has been born into a system […]