January Articles

Democrats should focus on the real extremists, not on the TUV

Last week I was on Talkback disagreeing with the journalist Susan McKay about her charge that Kate Hoey was sectarian — one piece of evidence being that Hoey had attended “a barbecue for the extremist TUV party” (as she wrote in an Irish Times article on January 8)....

Kate Hoey is a warrior for free speech, just when we need it

“What Kate Hoey says is not terribly important,” sneered Susan McKay in the Irish Times, after the furore over Hoey’s forthright foreword to the Unionist Voice Policy Studies report, Vetoing the Protocol: Restoring Cross-Community Consent Protections. Published: 18...

I forgot to banish human rights professor to the desert island

My apologies to Professor Colin Harvey of Ireland’s Future, an organisation whose mission is ‘Paving the way to the reunification of the island’. Published: 11 January 2022 When just before the New Year I wrote my annual list of people I would like to send to a desert...

Don’t underestimate my friend Kenny Donaldson and his victims’ group IVU

An unlikely trio were linked in the news last week: Kenny Donaldson, Joe Brolly and Bernadette McAliskey. Published: 4 January 2022 My friend Kenny was recognised in the New Year Honours list with an MBE for his magnificent work as Director of Services at the South...