Anna Lo died last month. She was a former Alliance MLA and the first Chinese woman to sit in a legislative assembly in Europe. But it wasn’t for that reason most people remember her. Or certainly not why I remember her. Some ten years ago she did an interview with The Irish News and in the course […]
PRIVY BUSINESS by Donal Kennedy
It’s said that Winston Churchill, when informed that the Lord Privy Seal wished to see him, replied: “Tell him that I’m in the Privy, and unable to deal with One Shit at a time.” I do wonder whether all members of the UK’s Privy Council or Cabinet are informed of all business discussed […]
Potential Threat – by Randall Stephen Hall
Not everyone From Northern Ireland Is a potential threat. (Know, what I mean like?) Yes, occasionally, I will explode But not like a misplaced reaper bomb. I won’t go shooting my mouth off And if I do you probably Won’t be the target. We can be a hateful, spiteful lot over […]
EAMON DE VALERA: WE SHOULD BE ALL SO HATED! by Donal Kennedy
Below is the text of a letter published in THE IRISH POST ON 13th OCTOBER 2012: “Recently I discovered on You Tube a programme put out on BBC called Ireland’s Hated Hero. I was somewhat surprised that the subject was Eamon de Valera, for I can remember […]
REFLECTIONS OF AN OCTOGENARIAN CITIZEN by Donal Kennedy
In fifteen days I will be 83 years old. I was born an oasis of peace amid a world at war. That was my good fortune, not a matter of luck. That peace was the fruit of the work of Connolly and Pearse, de Valera and others, soberly calculated and bravely carried out. I […]
PAT+JUDE TALK ABOUT DICKIE ROCK, POOR PEOPLE IN A BLOATED STATE, AND REGIME CHANGE IN SYRIA
Dickie Rock has died and his funeral was stuffed with important people, all lauding his goodness,kindness, singing ability and whatever you’re having yourself. Is this kind of canonisation what should happen? As we make our trembling way to Christmas, news that the Capuchin Centre in Dublin opened its hampers-for-the-poor one morning this week and […]
OLD, OLD NEWS AND HOW I THOUGHT ABOUT IT by Donal Kennedy
I remember reading the very first edition of THE SUNDAY PRESS in September 1949 when I was nearly 8 years old. The paper collapsed 46 years later and my piece reproduced here was published in THE IRISH DEMOCRAT just before that collapse. It was called “SUNDAY , SUNDAY. ” ‘ In […]
Barbarians have their uses – by Donal Kennedy
Sir Keir Starmer’s characterisation of the Assad regime as barbaric is perhaps a sign of his own ignorance. Or the presumption that us lesser mortals are unaware of the collusion between such regimes and the liberal western democracies. Not only was intelligence extracted through torture passed by the Syrian regime […]
John Montague- “it is in the broken places that poetry flourishes.” – by Joe McVeigh
A few days ago, I went to the launch of a new book about the renowned poet John Montague, written by Adrian Frazier, a professor in Galway university. The launch was held in Garvaghey GAA Centre, County Tyrone and a crowd of about four hundred from all walks of life turned out. The book “John […]
THE DYSTOPIAN IRELAND OF DE VALERA’S HEYDAYS PEDDLED BY FINTAN O’TOOLE by DONAL Kennedy
I was born in December 1941 in an oasis of peace in a world gone mad. You may check HOWTH REGATTA AND LAMBAY RACES 1942 on Youtube. A short amateur movie shot in colour with music soundtrack added in recent years. […]
