by RuthDE | Apr 9, 2026 | 2026, April, Belfast News Letter, Journalism
Catherine Connolly, the smiling woman who has replaced Michael D Higgins as Irish president, looked good at the Dublin General Post Office commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising. Published: 9 April 2026 Despite her left-wing sympathies, she wasn’t frightening any...
by RuthDE | Apr 17, 2025 | 2025, April, Belfast News Letter, Journalism
“Every generation”, said ex-taoiseach Leo Varadkar last week to an enthusiastic Irish-American audience in Philadelphia hosted by Northern Ireland-based Ireland’s Future, “has its great cause.” Published: 17 April 2025 There hasn’t been much in the press...
by RuthDE | Nov 22, 2022 | 2022, Belfast News Letter, Journalism, November
Seán Murray – son of the more famous Seán ‘Spike’ who spent years in jail for explosives offences – came to mind last week for something that he tweeted. Published: 22 November 2022 He said that he would run “a free course for young working class loyalists/unionists....
by RuthDE | Nov 15, 2022 | 2022, Belfast News Letter, Journalism, November
I admit to having been rather irritated by Queen’s professor Colin Harvey’s recent complaints about being under threat, since I think he has a tendency to take himself unduly seriously, to see criticism as abuse and to flinch from the hurly burly that goes with...
by RuthDE | Oct 5, 2022 | 2022, Belfast News Letter, Journalism, October
I recommend to anyone with an open mind who is wondering about the constitutional future of Ireland, Malachi O’Doherty’s Can Ireland Be One?, which manages to be both serious and highly entertaining. Published: 4 October 2022 I read it over the weekend as Ireland’s...
by RuthDE | Jan 11, 2022 | 2022, Belfast News Letter, January, Journalism
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...
by RuthDE | Apr 28, 2021 | 2021, April, Belfast News Letter, Journalism
First, the bad news, though you know it already. Published: 27 April 2021 Until the Sinn Féin leopard changes its spots there’s no hope of having a stable government in Northern Ireland working for all its people. The Province is stuck for now with a disruptive...
