I had a strange, draining and unforgettable Sunday. Published; 9 November 2021 It caused among many other emotions sadness, despair and occasionally laughter, during a tour of killing sites and memorials in south Armagh and at the launch in Belfast of a documentary on...
The names of political parties often don’t convey much information. Published: 12 October 2021 If you were a stranger to Northern Ireland politics, what would you make of the Democratic Unionist Party, the Progressive Unionist Party, the Traditional Unionist Party and...
I always scan letters to newspapers. Published: 14 September 2021 Contributors know they have to be brief to be published, so they often can sum up very pithily what columnists tease out at much greater length. This, last week, in the Irish Sunday Independent,...
As a friend of the Irish language, I hate the thought of the squalid deal now being negotiated between the DUP and Sinn Fein. Published: 15 June 2021 Irish has been ill-served by uncompromising advocates, few of whom seem no more fluent in it than Edwin Poots is said...
Every time I hear the sanctimonious voice of Peter Hain — that one-time rebel and enthusiast for Irish unity who in 2015 swapped his Commons seat for a peerage — I struggle to understand why the media think him an expert on legacy issues. Published: 18 May 2021 There...
I’m writing this on May 3, Northern Ireland’s hundredth birthday. Published: 3 May 2021 My hope is that the next hundred years will be free of the violence and misery that was so often up to now imposed on peaceful people all over Ireland by intolerant, murderous...
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...
Published: 19 April 2021 Prince Philip’s death presented Sinn Fein with a particular challenge, given that the IRA murdered his beloved uncle. ‘I am sorry that happened. Of course, that is heartbreaking,’ said the party’s leader Mary Lou...
Here’s a suggestion to unionism in dealing with Irish nationalism. Published: 30 March 2021 Stop reacting and take control of the agenda. “How do you feel about a united Ireland these days?” I recently asked a patriotic friend in the Irish Republic who takes more...
Published: 9 March 2021 The 94-year-old Queen Elizabeth went about her normal duties despite her 99-year-old husband’s serious illness and honoured “selfless dedication to duty” at the annual Commonwealth Day service; In a Californian mansion her grandson Harry and...
