When she reflects on the past 25 years, Ruth Dudley Edwards is haunted by memories of her two close friends, David Trimble and Lyra McKee, two gifted but very different people who bookend that period Published: 18 April 2023 For the last few weeks I’ve been...
I’m just back from seeing friends in Minneapolis and participating in a crime writers’ convention in Indiana that I’ve been involved in for two decades — where I spoke about David Trimble, who was to have been International Guest of Honour. Published: 8...
Excitedly greeting the census figures showing that people who were either Catholic or brought up as Catholic made up 45.7% of the population with their Protestant equivalents on 43.5%, Colum Eastwood demonstrated his tin ear with an old-fashioned, sectarian response....
Last month, at the funeral service for David Trimble — a friend I greatly admired and loved, seeing his widow Daphne — steadfastly, through many terrible times, his strength and stay — sitting alone as her children briefly left her to carry their father’s coffin...
I am now even more proud of being a columnist for this honourable newspaper, which revealed last week how and why it had successfully defended itself against an unjustified libel case. Published: 22 March 2022 “We were determined to fight this case,” wrote editor Ben...
On Friday Twitter explained why it had permanently suspended a Twitter account in the name of Barbara Pym that had been founded and run by the Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris and friends. Published: 11 May 2021 “Using technology and human review in...
My column last week had the headline ‘Máiría Cahill is a woman who was a victim, Meghan Markle is not’. Published: 16 March 2021 Now Máiría, a victim of IRA child abuse and bullying who uses solid evidence and rational argument to challenge lies, has won a notable...
My hope for post-Brexit, post-Covid Northern Ireland is that its good people work together to exploit future opportunities. Published: 5 January 2021 They will have to do so despite the continual destructiveness of Sinn Fein, which skilfully uses its dark arts to...
Today, Laois-Offaly TD Brian Stanley makes a statement to the Dáil about the recent embarrassment he has caused his party which led to him being put by his leader Mary Lou McDonald on the naughty step for a week. Published: 15 December 2020 As in so many ways, Sinn...
I’m not a great fan of Michael D. Higgins, mainly because he sometimes lets his ego and his socialist ideology obtrude grossly on his usually good performance as Irish president — a job which requires him to be above politics. Published: 24 November 2020 For instance,...