John Laird (Lord Laird of Artigarvan) is unionism’s jester. His memoir A Struggle To Be Heard ” by a True Ulster Liberal” (from Slugger’s shop on Amazon here) might serve more as a heavy stocking filler than anybody’s idea of a main present. In it he wears the masks of comedy and tragedy to turn the [...] read our review »
World by Storm has a nice piece up on the IRA’s role in helping MK, the armed wing of the ANC, in the 1980s. In particular he sees a strange alchemy at work there: …if one can think of a clearly legitimate contemporary struggle it was that against apartheid and it is to the credit [...] read our review »
RIP.
Jim was both a fine journalist and a natural broadcaster, which are usually separate talents. It is striking that the RTE website still does not have a single line on his passing. Given that Jim was the station’s northern editor for many years, throughout the worst of the troubles, this is hard to understand.
A true gentleman and wonderful broadcaster who inspired Cronkite like trust and confidence… he will be sadly missed. Rest in Peace
@oldhack
RTE carried the story on the day it broke, and the next day, it’s how I became aware of it.
Kevin, Jim Dougal died on the morning of October 15. It is difficult to see how, writing on the same day, you were able to say that RTE carried the story `on the day it broke, and the next day.’ However, the point was that, as of last night, the RTE website was not running anything about his death. It has been belatedly updated, and both a written report and a clip from the television news are now available online.