Can you believe it? There was a West Belfast priest on the local TV evening news yesterday, with important information. Groups of aggressive young people waving and wearing Irish tricolours have begun blocking routes into and out of Belfast, and attacking the police when they ventured near. The priest said that the Provisional IRA, the […]
Author Jude Collins
Stephen Nolan: a show of two halves
“While shivering in my shoes I strike a careless pose And whistle a happy tune And no one ever knows, I’m afraid.”Nobody on the Nolan Show last night sang those lines from The King and I, but they matched with what was going on for much of the TV programme. It didn’t look like the unionists in the audience […]
Stephen Nolan: a show of two halves
“While shivering in my shoes I strike a careless pose And whistle a happy tune And no one ever knows, I’m afraid.”Nobody on the Nolan Show last night sang those lines from The King and I, but they matched with what was going on for much of the TV programme. It didn’t look like the unionists in the audience […]
Hello darkness, my old friend
Sometimes you read something and you do a double take, go back and check that your eyes saw what you thought your eyes saw. I did that this morning. The Irish Times has a report by Gerry Moriarty headed “McLaughlin accepts ‘status quo’ “. EH? Mitchel McLaughlin, the Sinn Féin party, unionism – just about […]
Hello darkness, my old friend
Sometimes you read something and you do a double take, go back and check that your eyes saw what you thought your eyes saw. I did that this morning. The Irish Times has a report by Gerry Moriarty headed “McLaughlin accepts ‘status quo’ “. EH? Mitchel McLaughlin, the Sinn Féin party, unionism – just about […]
What to do when your house is attacked
Two comments from the Nolan show minutes ago: “Police struggled to keep rival factions apart” and “Did you feel vulnerable during all this?” The latter to a pensioner who had stones and petrol bombs aimed at his house. I’ll move discreetly past the inanity of that “vulnerable” question and on to the heart of the […]
What to do when your house is attacked
Two comments from the Nolan show minutes ago: “Police struggled to keep rival factions apart” and “Did you feel vulnerable during all this?” The latter to a pensioner who had stones and petrol bombs aimed at his house. I’ll move discreetly past the inanity of that “vulnerable” question and on to the heart of the […]
Things that kill
There are those who think that school sex instruction only encourages teenagers to turn instruction into practice. There are those who think the same thing about political unrest. Those involved wait for the cameras and then step into focus and do their violent thing. Michael Kelly, writing in The Scotsman last week, takes up a […]
Things that kill
There are those who think that school sex instruction only encourages teenagers to turn instruction into practice. There are those who think the same thing about political unrest. Those involved wait for the cameras and then step into focus and do their violent thing. Michael Kelly, writing in The Scotsman last week, takes up a […]
No Poll here (referenda and how to avoid them)
And speaking of Number Ones…This is a first guest post on this site. I’ll be interested to read reaction to it and to the idea of using guest posters/bloggers. The description below comes from Sammy himself – JC Sammy McNally is an itinerant Fenian scribbler… and a fictional prod character bestowed upon us by […]