(Declan Kearney is a senior Sinn Féin figure, so naturally he’s looking at things from a republican perspective. Could I ask people, when/if they comment, to deal with the points raised rather than the person raising them.) The Conservative Government has become increasingly pro-unionist and politically aligned with both the DUP and UUP, as […]
Author Jude Collins
The Irish language and cul-de-sac thinking
Sometimes you wonder if the world of pundits isn’t a bit like The Wizard of Oz – lots of impressive-sounding judgements that leave you cross-eyed with admiration as you wonder how the head that produced so much wisdom could carry all s/he knew. Thoughts on the Irish language tend to exemplify that. For example, Arlene Foster at […]
‘Northern Ireland’s ignored political crisis’ by Shannon Ebrahim
( Shannon Ebrahim is Foreign Editor of Independent Media, in South Africa. This article was published in a number of South African newspapers last Friday.) Peace prospects in Northern Ireland rest on parties committing to power-sharing in line with Good Friday Peace Agreement, writes Shannon Ebrahim. The world has been largely oblivious to the deepening […]
And the race is on…
I was at the Sinn Féin electoral launch in the Waterfront yesterday . OK, let me be honest, at most of the launch – I arrived just as Gerry Adams was getting to the end of his speech and expressing good wishes to Martin McGuinness and hoping for his full recovery. If you look down […]
‘Citizens of the Republic, Jewish History in Ireland’ by Manus O’Riordan
[Recently published books referred to in this article: Jewish Ireland in the Age of Joyce: A Socioeconomic History, byCormac Ó Gráda, Princeton University Press, 320 pp, £22.95, ISBN: 978-0691127194 German-Speaking Exiles in Ireland 1933-1945, (ed) Gisela Holfter, Editions Rodopi B.V, 300 pp, £44.29, ISBN: 978-9042020337 Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, Volume V: 1937-1939, (eds) […]
The soldiers, the cousin and the MSP
It’s important, particularly at election time, to remember that other people see the world differently from you. A couple of examples were available for your earhole on BBC’s ‘Good Morning Ulster’ this morning. The lead news item for discussion was the comment by a member of the Scottish parliament that while some saw the killing […]
MODS ‘n ROCKERS (1) by Perkin Warbeck
Rock ‘n Roll is rife with riffs. Everything from such stirring guitar solos in Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison, in Sumertime Blues by Eddie Cochran, in Paperback Writer by The Beatles, in That’ll be the Day by Buddy Holly, in Wake up, Little Susie by the Everly Brothers, in Blue Suede Shoes by Carl Perkins […]
WOULD YOU BELIEVE THE DAILY MAIL…by Donal Kennedy
Would you believe the Daily Mail supported Fascists, Once? Twice? Many, many times? And, on 8 January 1934 that it had a frontpage headline “HURRAH FOR THE BLACKSHIRTS” …? And that its owner Lord Rothermere one week later described the British Union of Facists as “a well organised part of the Right ready to take […]
“CHILDREN MUST BE TRAINED TO FIGHT FAKE NEWS” by Donal Kennedy
“CHILDREN MUST BE TRAINED TO FIGHT FAKE NEWS -schools urgently need to distinguish fact from forgery if we want to preserve our democratic values” “AMEN” said I, to the quotation in HIGH CASE , and “hmm” to that in lower case. Partly because they appeared in THE TIMES (on La Fheile Bride) for that paper […]
Bertie Ahern: he hasn’t gone away, you know
The Irish are a forgiving people. You can treat them with contempt, you can rob them blind, you can kick their granny, but as a people we have enormous depths of forgiveness. I’m tempted to say that this is seennowhere more strikingly than in the resurrection from the political morgue of Fianna Fail. It seems […]