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....
My late friend David Trimble saved unionists from having joint authority imposed on them because he fought nationalism, constitutional and violent, intelligently and imaginatively — despite the attacks from his own side. Published: 30 August 2022 He also benefited...
I don’t like being labelled, but after covering Northern Ireland as a journalist for almost 30 years, I can now formally announce I am no longer a political agnostic: I am a unionist. Being from a Dublin Catholic mostly-soft-nationalist background and living in...
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...
As I got to know people in Northern Ireland who had been caught up by terrible events, I developed a great admiration for ordinary people who cope courageously with extraordinary challenges. Published: 9 February 2021 Most recently we have the phenomenon of Captain...
In 2019 I was a guest speaker — the warm-up act for Kevin Myers, a great journalist who had been professionally destroyed by a Twitter mob — at a reunion in the Clogher Valley of ex-members of the Ulster Defence Regiment. Published: 3 November 2020 On the face of it,...
Outburst of opposition to commemoration for RIC and Dublin Metropolitan Police own-goal, writes Ruth Dudley Edwards Published: 13 January 2020 January 6 was the 40th anniversary of the murder of three UDR men: Robert Smith, an 18-year-old Protestant, and two...
Loyalist activist drew strong, often hostile, opinions, but his family suffered greatly, writes Ruth Dudley Edwards Published: 14 October 2019 Last week mainstream and social media were alive with controversy about loyalists, following the latest fascinating Spotlight...
With quiet courage, it defended people’s right to go about their daily business, writes Ruth Dudley Edwards Published: 25 February 2019 I was a guest speaker last Saturday week at a reunion in the Clogher Valley for ex-members of the Ulster Defence Regiment. It...
