Articles published in 2018
It’s now time Belfast voters challenged the unholy alliance of Sinn Fein and the DUP
The two big parties are conspiring to share...
Ireland has shed its historic culture at a speed that amazes
What next for Ireland now that the Republic has...
Jeremy Corbyn’s statement on a ‘united Ireland’ is the latest in a long cavalcade of idiocies
Published: 23 May 2018 If it were not for its...
The Left must realise Israel has the right of self-defence
Once decent Labour Party must ditch the...
Republicans retreat into their miserabilist ghetto
Sinn Fein's mendacious rewriting of history now...
Whether naive, or arrogant, Varadkar and Coveney are crossing the line on Northern Ireland affairs
Whether naive, or arrogant, Varadkar and Coveney are crossing the line on Northern Ireland affairs. Slavish towards Brussels and meddlesome up north amounts to a bad combination, says Ruth Dudley Edwards.
What’s so illiberal about debating abortion?
What’s so illiberal about debating abortion? I’m with Julie Bindel in fighting disgusting practices such as Female Genital Mutilation and in standing up to the trans mob, but I part company with her over the abortion debate in Ireland, about which she is so impatient.
ETA and the IRA had much in common – they did no good but they did a great deal of harm
ETA and the IRA: Terrorists don’t deserve concessions, it’s their innocent victims who deserve priority, writes Ruth Dudley Edwards
Mary Lou McDonald keeps her balance on a dangerous high-wire act
The Sinn Fein leader, Mary Lou McDonald, has been successfully selling herself as the new face of her party, writes Ruth Dudley Edwards.
The naive Leo Varadkar is being manipulated by the wily Michel Barnier
Another week, another bromance, this time between Michel Barnier, the EU’s Brexit negotiator, and the Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar.
When looking at the debate over the past Secretary of State, please ignore bad guys
When looking at the debate over the past Secretary of State, please ignore bad guys. A new book offers a moral solution to the legacy issue that is bedevilling negotiations. Ruth Dudley Edwards pens an open letter to Secretary of State Karen Bradley.
Like the hard Left of Labour, Sinn Fein have for years nursed a bitter streak of anti-Semitism
Ignorance and bigotry have combined to push...
Not for nothing was Barbara Bush known as ‘The Enforcer’
Tough, funny and effective, Barbara Bush was...
Sinn Fein is just a pimple on the bottom of history… its irrelevance is becoming clear
Sinn Fein is just a pimple on the bottom of history… its irrelevance is becoming clear. Common sense will prevail on Brexit, not the division sown by republicans.
Why we’d all KILL for a great crime novel
More people are now reading murder...
Sinn Fein must be called out at all times for its breathtaking double standards
Sinn Fein’s breathtaking double standards: O’Neill’s attack on violence of dissidents just lot of hot air as long as she still eulogises IRA. Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill is guilty of double standards when it comes to IRA violence.
Macron has luck – but he chooses his friends and enemies with care
The French president is young and smart, writes Ruth Dudley Edwards, and he has thought his reform strategy through.
Brave little Co Fermanagh group punching above its weight in the fight for victims’ rights
Brave little Co Fermanagh group punching above its weight in the fight for victims’ rights. All decent people should stand with organisations like SEFF as they battle for justice
Cheers of the crowd drown out those who would do away with monarchy
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been wowing more than 2,500 young people at the Eikon Exhibition Centre, as well as a random collection of bystanders in Belfast fascinated by an unlikely romance between an ex-soldier and an American TV star.
Two states celebrate Sean O’Callaghan
‘If we can’t forgive Sean O’Callaghan, who can we forgive?” was asked by a born-again Christian last Wednesday at the wake Sean’s family and friends held after an extraordinary memorial service, full of great music and challenging words.
London service a fitting farewell to reformed IRA killer who made it his mission to decry terrorism
London service a fitting farewell to reformed IRA killer who made it his mission to decry terrorism. It doesn’t really fit the republican narrative, says Ruth Dudley Edwards, but Sean O’Callaghan was greatly loved
Why is the horrific Telford sex scandal getting less attention than #MeToo?
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 Too”.
Barnardo’s has done itself no favours at all by using Sinn Fein to support new campaign
What was charity thinking,...
Beware puppetmaster Martin Selmayr, who is now pulling the strings of Europe
Beware puppetmaster Martin Selmayr: With the help of the obedient Jean-Claude Juncker, Selmayr has staged a coup, writes Ruth Dudley Edwards
Sean O’Callaghan: IRA killer turned police informer
O’Callaghan was a man who put himself in mortal danger for several years by working within the senior ranks of the IRA as a police agent for the Irish state. As he knew all too well, anyone exposed as an informer/traitor/tout, could expect to be tortured and murdered by his erstwhile colleagues.
Stephen Nolan has got under Sinn Fein’s skin, that’s why the party is trying to silence him
Sinn Fein wants Stephen Nolan off the airwaves. I know this because I read in the Irish News a column by Jim Gibney, one of the best-known of Sinn Fein’s chorus of canaries.
Why I prefer to wait until the ink dries before I believe drafts, rumours and speculation
I was about to begin writing about drafts, rumours, speculation and other linked issues when I saw a tweet from a friend attaching an excellent 2016 blog about historical truth and lies…
Why I think the Good Friday Agreement needs to be fixed
Despite the fuss, my criticisms of the Belfast...
The week that proves NOTHING can knock the sanctimonious Left off the moral high ground
Senior Labour officials are alleged to have aided the Soviet Union. Left-leaning Oxfam is accused of covering up the sexual exploitation of impoverished Haitians and its chief executive, hauled before MPs, admits that the charity faces 26 further allegations of sexual misconduct.
Don’t curry the yoghurt… learn the Irish language and beat cultural sectarianism
The obsessively progressive Guardian newspaper has it in for the Freemasons. The most recent assault was precipitated by shock-horror revelations – as discussed by deeply concerned columnist Dawn Foster.
The collapse of power-sharing in Northern Ireland shows the Good Friday Agreement has outlived its use
It has been another groundhog week in Northern Ireland, with British and Irish politicians pleading for compromise in pursuit of renewed power sharing and the preservation of peace…
Freemasons do a lot of good and no harm… why can’t the ‘progressives’ let them be?
The obsessively progressive Guardian newspaper has it in for the Freemasons. The most recent assault was precipitated by shock-horror revelations – as discussed by deeply concerned columnist Dawn Foster.
No one in their right mind would ever envy Mary Lou
In normal political parties almost everyone wants to be leader. But how many senior people in Sinn Fein truly envy Mary Lou McDonald as – in theory at least – she takes control of the morass that is the island-wide party?
I’d have chained myself to the railings to win the vote. But pardoning suffragettes who broke the law is crazy
Jeremy Corbyn yesterday announced that, if he becomes Prime Minister, he will issue an official apology and posthumous pardon to all convicted suffragettes.
Omagh fight for justice offers hope to families of Hyde Park victims
The news yesterday that the Hyde Park Justice Campaign has scored a famous victory took me back almost 15 years. It was on August 8, 2003 that Paul Murphy, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced that legal aid would be provided to the families taking a civil case against the Omagh bombers.
Is Sinn Fein so keen to rewrite history because it is ashamed of the party’s squalid past?
The Polish Government is trying to legislate away the ugly truth that although many Poles fought heroically against the Nazis, others collaborated.
Corbyn’s been sucking up to IRA monsters for decades
Towards the end of his interview with Gerry Adams yesterday, Andrew Marr asked him what difference the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister would make, adding that the Labour leader has ‘always supported a united Ireland and he’s been a big backer of yours over years’.
Cromwell and my dad have some wisdom to bestow on sanctimonious Alliance leader
An occasional plea I heard from my father, which still causes me to question my judgment, was: “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”
Last Tango with Adams recalls a dance of death
“Last Tango in The Balmoral,” began a tweet from Gerry Adams on Friday, attaching his most recent blog, which appears weekly in Sinn Fein’s remaining Pravda (An Phoblact is now on-line only) – the Anderstonstown News – describing a dance he had had with Michelle O’Neill, now known as the “Leader of the North” – a title the Master Blogger Mick Fealty describes as “a bit Game of Thrones.”
Nicola Sturgeon is only flagging up her own failings
Spare a thought for Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of the Scottish Government and – faithfully supported by her husband, chief executive Peter Murrell – up to now the unchallenged leader of the Scottish National Party.
Do party leaders have the grace to stand back and give victims a platform in West Tyrone?
One of the unintended consequences of Barry McElduff’s infamous Kingsmill-related tweet was that victims of paramilitary terrorism are being listened to more intently than usual.
Naive Alliance has become a Sinn Fein patsy in republican takeover of Belfast City Hall
What has happened to the Alliance Party, which used to pride itself on its independence and its commitment to democratic values? Here are just three recent disturbing examples of how far it has fallen.
Kilclooney’s tweeting can be tasteless, but McElduff has plumbed the depths
I was just poised to write about ‘Tweeting Lord Kilclooney’ (as I think of him these days), though he was just humble UUP MP John Taylor when I met him in the 1980s. Then the furore about Sinn Fein MP Barry McElduff’s Kingsmill-related tweet burst upon the airwaves.
Proportionate and appropriate, Ms McDonald? I don’t think so
Bea Worton is a stoic, as she has needed to be. Born in 1927 in Co Armagh, she was a housewife, mother and grandmother. A product of a non-sectarian school, she and her family got on fine with their Catholic neighbours.
Sinn Fein is still trying to hawk evil role models to the young
As well as the kerfuffle about embarrassing comments from anti-IRA clergy in newly released State papers, there was a row last week about the T-shirt for sale…
Some expulsions would ensure a much happier Northern Ireland for us deserving folk this year
Annually, I try to provide a useful list of people to be chucked out of Northern Ireland, but no one seems to get round to actually running them out of town.