2021 Articles

Last Christmas was the first for years that I didn’t write a column about people I would like to deport to a desert island. Published: 28 December 2021 With Covid busily ruining the lives of so many, it seemed tasteless to wrench from their families even people like...

Having claimed for decades that the majority of the electorate in the Irish Republic just pay lip service to the idea of a united Ireland, I got a momentary shock the other day when I saw the Irish Times leading with ‘Large majority of voters favour a united Ireland,...

Doug Beattie, leader of the UUP, and Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Fein, were in the United States last week. Published: 7 December 2021 Separately, they met many of the same people and addressed several of the same New York and Washington audiences, but they...

“You may strip yourself naked, cover yourself in butter and worship a daffodil,” said an (sadly unnamed) Belfast Unionist 50 years ago, who was quoted on Irish radio programme on Sunday. Published: 30 November 2021 “All I ask is that you don’t make me do it.” He...