Don’t Let The Old Man In | Failure of Leadership

Are you listening Jeffrey? Unionism, especially its DUP component, has been talking up unionist and loyalist resistance to the Irish Protocol since before Boris Johnson dirty-joed them, broke his commitments to them, negotiated and then signed up to the Protocol. There is some evidence of this in the loyalist street disturbances earlier this year and the sacking of Arlene Foster and of Edwin Poots. The dramatic decline in the polling fortunes of the DUP, as it flounders about trying to assert...

12 Sep 202119min

FOR years I used to gather up acorns and chestnuts and hazelnuts and little sycamore seeds and all manner of other seeds. My growing methods are fairly basic. I collected as many as I could and then planted them out in pots or growbags and let nature do the rest. I worked on the general assumption that if I planted a lot there was a greater chance that I would harvest a lot. I’m not talking of hundreds of seeds, by the way. Pocketfuls picked up on walks. The Falls Park has plenty of oa...

5 Sep 202116min

Nicknames. When I was at primary school my nickname was Addies. It didn’t last beyond Saint Finian’s for some reason. My brothers, or at least some of them, had the same moniker. I don’t know about the girls but years later I discovered our Gearóid’s old school books had Addies scribbled on them. Different generation. Same nickname. In prison nicknames were common. Cleaky, Floorboards. Honkytonks, The Dosser, Jack the Giant, Rigor Mortis, Shoulders, Ted the Red, Dickiemints ...

29 Aug 202117min

An Féile Abú Well done Féile an Phobail and to all of the staff who plan and prepare Féile. Many thanks to all those volunteers who work around the clock every August to make it all come together. Black Mountain Thanks also to Féile for hosting the launch of my latest book Black Mountain And Other Stories. Harry Connolly- Féile Chair- was very kind and Timothy O Grady travelled from Poland to be with us. He too was very kind. He also did the Foreword to Black Mountain. Thanks to t...

22 Aug 202117min

Imagine lying in your bed as the sun begins to rise above the horizon. You are awakened by loud banging on your front door. The sound of breaking glass and the splitting of wood as the door finally surrenders to the sledge hammer. Sitting up half asleep as the noise of booted feet come charging up your stairs and your bedroom door is kicked in. The screams of your children, or wife or partner or your parents as uniformed soldiers in blackened faces grab and drag you from your bed, demand your...

15 Aug 202116min

The internal machinations of the Labour Party in Britain are a matter for that party but the policies it adopts and advocates in relation to Ireland have for decades adversely impacted on the lives of citizens here. A month ago the current British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer visited the North and provided a valuable insight into the double-think that has long been at the core of the British Labour Party’s attitude to Ireland. During his two day visit Starmer asserted his supp...

8 Aug 202119min

1 Aug 202115min

The demand for truth: One after another their faces appeared on my twitter feed. The very young. The older. Children and young people. Mothers and sisters and daughters. Sons and brothers and fathers. Uncles. Aunts. Grandparents. Many with smiling faces from better times. Birthdays. Weddings. A night out. Black and white and colour images. The faces of victims – the legacy of decades of conflict. The response from Relatives for Justice to the British government’s plan to close down lega...

25 Juli 202118min