Published: 26 november 2020 Four of Northern Ireland’s political parties (Sinn Fein, the equally nationalist but anti-violence SDLP, the Greens and the liberal Alliance) have sent a letter to Secretary of State Brandon Lewis calling for a public inquiry into the 1989...
Published: 4 August 2020 It is a grievous sin in Ireland, my native country, to speak any ill of the recently dead, but reading and listening to some of the guff being produced by the likes of Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and the Irish president about John Hume, I...
Published: 6 March 2020 If you thought the Corbyn Labour Party would be a disaster for the United Kingdom, spare a thought for the Republic of Ireland, of which I am a non-resident citizen, where Sinn Fein is on the rise. It is still believed by the security forces...
Published: 13 February 2020 Last month, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Julian Smith was the Spectator’s Minister of the Year. This month, to the bewilderment of politicians on both sides of the Irish border, he was fired by the Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the...
Published: 5 February 2020 It was a matter of pride in the United Kingdom that so many voters refused even to contemplate a Corbyn government because of the Labour leadership’s toleration of anti-Semitism and its sympathy with terrorists. However, it’s looking as if a...
Published: 21 January 2020 My admiration for Matthew Parris has remained intact throughout the period of his severe attack of Brexit Derangement Syndrome. But, just when I was rejoicing that he seemed steadily to be returning to equilibrium, his article in Saturday’s...
Published: 19 July 2019 Like so many others, I’ve spent all too much time recently weighing up the qualities and deficiencies of Boris Johnson and the pros and cons of having him as Prime Minister. That involved reading innumerable articles asking who the real Boris...
Published: 23 April 2019When the IRA commits a particularly unpopular murder, It has three main choices: brazen it out, deny it or say “Ooops, sorry” and if possible blame the Brits.The murder in Londonderry on Thursday night of my friend, the much-loved 29-year-old...
Published: 1 February 2019I can’t resist joining the Reaction argument over Irish journalist Fintan O’Toole. Writing for this site earlier this week, Eilis O’Hanlon, my esteemed colleague on the Sunday Independent and the Belfast Telegraph, accused him of having...
Published: 14 March 2018 The very slight kerfuffle over the last few days about Daily Mirror allegations about yet another English town being the scene of hideous child sexual exploitation didn’t seem to be bothering the local cops any more than the chorus of “Me...