David Ervine | Street Art | Mól An Óige
David Ervine - The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary Anyone who knew David Ervine or knows of him will appreciate the title of Bobby Niblock’s play - The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary. In its humorous description of David’s style of speaking and wordiness it reminds us of a political leader who was an able and determined advocate for working class loyalism. His sudden death in January 2007 at the age of 53 left a political vacuum within loyalism and wider politics which has never been properly...
8 Okt 202311min
Listen | My Big Toe
We must listen to each other Efforts by the British government and the unionist parties to stymie the conversation on future constitutional change has actually brought a greater focus on the growing momentum around the upcoming unity referendum. The criticism of An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar by the British Secretary of State and a range of unionist voices for daring to suggest that a United Ireland will happen in his lifetime is the latest example of unionist and Tory efforts to delegitimi...
1 Okt 202313min
Lough Neagh | Tories & Pinochet | Martin
Lough Neagh Seamus Heaney’s poem, published in 1969, captures much of what makes Lough Neagh unique. It has long been a place of myth and fable, where the palace of the Tuatha Dé Danann is supposed to lie beneath its waves. It is said that Lough Neagh was created by the giant Finn McCool who legend claims scooped out a huge chunk of earth and threw it after the Scottish giant Benandonner. He missed and thus created the Isle of Man. Richard believes that the Lough was created 400 million year...
24 Sep 202311min
Palestine | Sepsis | Sláinte
Palestinian State Last week the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin visited Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. It was an opportunity for the Irish government to take a firm stand against Israeli aggression and its apartheid system of governance. Instead Mr. Martin became little more than a commentator on the ongoing and worsening crisis in that region. Sepsis The month of September has been designated as Sepsis Awareness Month. Sepsis is not a condition that often attra...
17 Sep 202313min
Moore Street | Never Alone | Walking with my mother
Unique Robert Ballagh Moore Street Print As regular readers of this column know I have been involved for a very long time in the campaign to protect and develop as a historic and cultural quarter the Moore St. Terrace and its environs in Dublin. The entire terrace 10-25 Moore Street was occupied by the evacuated GPO garrison at the end of Easter Week 1916. The developer - Hammerson - wants to demolish much of the terrace. You Are Never Alone With A Book. I’m glad to say I finis...
10 Sep 202313min
Cork | X | Seamus Heaney
The Road To Cork. In 1986 I gave a talk at a Sinn Féin conference which became known by activists of my vintage as The Road to Cork or The Bus to Cork. More of that at another time. Suffice for now to say that I made the journey to Cork a metaphor for the journey to the new republic. I am minded of that now as our car speeds south and I sit in the back penning these words. The road to Cork is indeed a very long road. So too the road to the new republic. But barring accident...
3 Sep 202314min
Hunger Strike
Visiting the Hunger Strikers This column will be in Cork, le cuidiu Dia, to attend the National Hunger Strike Commemoration on Sunday. It’s the first time that this annual event will be held in Cork. It will remember the ten 1981 hunger strikers and Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg who both died in English prisons and those Cork republicans - Terence MacSwiney, Michael Fitzgerald, Joseph Murphy, Denis Barry and Andy O’Sullivan - who also died on hunger strike during the Tan War and the Civil ...
26 Aug 202315min
John Joe McGirl | Campaigning
John Joe McGirl – an unbreakable Fenian In the course of almost 60 years of activism I have been very lucky to meet many wonderful, committed, compassionate republicans. On Saturday, in Ballinamore in County Leitrim, Republicans from Leitrim and beyond will gather to celebrate the life of one of these – John Joe McGirl. The annual John Joe McGirl commemoration is one of the highlights of the Ballinamore Festival Week and the participants will walk from John McGahern Square to the monument t...
20 Aug 202312min
