Trees | Freedom | First Dáil
TREES I want to recommend that you make friends with a tree. Any tree. Pick one in your local park or glen or up on a mountain. Get up close and friendly with it. Or admire the very welcome trees now being planted along our urban roads and streets. Make friends with one of them. And you don’t have to be monogamous. You can love lots of trees. In lots of places.They come in all shapes and sizes. All produce seeds. Some have berries, bright and attractive. Most of them are older than us....
29 Jan 202320min
British Government STUPIDITIES
BE PREPARED FOR MORE STUPIDITIES I considered ignoring the British Government’s exclusion of the Sinn Féin President from the recent talks. Then I thought why should I? Stupidity like this needs highlighted. For me it is proof, once again, of what democrats here are up against. This column could analyse the statements from the current British Secretary of State and the Foreign Minister - With – The – Wonderfully – Inaccurate - Surname. But I will let you do that yourselves if that is ...
22 Jan 202314min
Don’t Let The Old Man In | Failure of Leadership
Don’t Let The Old Man In I'VE been at a lot of funerals recently. It seems someone from my circle of friends, comrades, associates or neighbours is dying every week this last wee while. And sometimes more often than that. I console myself by reminding myself that it's the age I’m at. People were always dying. That’s part of the circle of life. But now I notice it more because its also part of my circle, my own wee peer group. Failure of Leadership The Irish government’s two-yea...
15 Jan 202317min
2023 is the year for enlightened persuasion
2022 should be marked down as the year when we eventually got rid of the last of England’s Penal Laws imposed upon us in 1737. Well done An Dream Dearg and everyone else for bringing colour, vitality, good humour, cheerfulness, success and fun to this achievement. Leanagaí ar aghaigh.
8 Jan 202316min
Mountain Treasures | The GFA | Happy New Year
1 Jan 202318min
A night before Christmas: Long Kesh 1973
Beannachtaí daoibhse go leir. Have a great Christmas, dear readers. Thanks and benedictions also to the Belfast Media Group team. Christmas can be a sad and stressful time for some people. Be mindful of them, my friends. Reach out to neighbours and others who may not be as lucky as we are. I’m strongly against the commercialism of Christmas. I love the Christmas story and the story of Joseph and Mary and of Jesus’ birth in a stable. The simpleness of it all and the way children relate ...
25 Dec 202220min
Joseph McKelvey: Sevastopol Street's other icon
THE Sinn Féin building on the Falls Road at the corner of Sevastopol St. is internationally famous for its mural of Bobby Sands. Less well known is the fact that the building is dedicated to the memory of another Irish republican, Joe McKelvey.
18 Dec 202222min
Massacre in Instalments | Irish Unity
A massacre in Instalments AS I write this column the number of Palestinians killed this year by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza strip is 207. By the time it is published in a few days time that number will have increased. Last Friday I watched online video of the last moments of Ammar Mufleh, aged 23, shot dead in Huwara, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, by an Israeli soldier. He was the tenth Palestinian killed by Israeli forces i...
11 Dec 202219min
