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Books
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Well meaning though it may be, I’m against teaching history to promote a shared identity
Tweet The historian Tristram Hunt has given a cautious welcome in the Times to Michael Gove’s controversial plans for the history curriculum in England, (£) a topic I raised last month. This is interesting because Hunt is also a Labour MP and pro-Labour reaction to the Gove proposals was generally hostile. Hunt writes: At the [...] read our review » -
The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday (Neil MacFarquhar)
Tweet With perhaps the longest title of any book I’ve read this year, The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday: Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East gives an insight into the lives of people living in Middle East through the eyes of journalist Neil MacFarquhar. MacFarquhar’s father was a chemical [...] read our review »
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Patrick McGinley’s ‘That Unearthly Valley: A Donegal Childhood’: Book Review
Tweet In Bogmail and Foggage, Patrick McGinley sent up the Irish (could he or it be otherwise?) murder mystery genre. He scooped dollops of encyclopaedic wit and mordant satire into these entertainments. A later saga proved more somber and meditative, the Black and Tan War ending as The Lost Soldier’s Song, while The Trick of [...] read our review »
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Comment on What does McIlroy’s pending decision for Team GB mean to the rest of us?
on 10 September 2012 at 9:23 pm
“A lot can happen in the few years between now and Rio. In fact a bit happened in the last few hours:”
http://tinyurl.com/bonqwlg
Indeed, the first I heard of Rory’s rebuttal against this story was on BBC news 6.55 pm. However, The first newspaper to publish the untruthful article involving Rory was the Daily Mail shortly after Rory won the latest FedEx championship. DEREK LAWRENSON, DM journalist was all along plugging for Lee Westwood to win the BMW championship. As soon as Rory beat Westy this article appeared. It was nasty journalism, just written to stir things up. (Read the comments section) Then other newspapers just copied the story without contacting Rory.
http://news.google.co.uk/news/url?ct2=uk%2F1_0_s_9_1_a&sa=t&usg=AFQjCNE2F6EqlgwyCTkHG5mK8lshyy85cg&cid=-2767402281233785748&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fsport%2Fgolf%2Farticle-2200702%2FRory-McIlroy-represent-Great-Britain-Ireland-2016-Olympics.html&ei=xkhOUPiNGIXX8gOi3QE&rt=SECTION&vm=STANDARD&bvm=section&did=-2767402281233785748&sid=top-stories
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Comment on Viewing platform, Orange Hall, Clifton St
on 8 September 2012 at 12:55 pm
How many Unionists know the first British Submarines 5 in all were called “HOLLAND BOATS” named after the John Philip Holland who invented the Fenian Ram. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian_Ram
Holland was a Fenian born in Ireland. His submarine design was eventually bought by the US government who eventually sold the design to GB and other European countries around 1900 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Philip_Holland
Today one of his original submarines is on display in the Submarine Museum Gosport Hants
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Comment on Viewing platform, Orange Hall, Clifton St
on 7 September 2012 at 7:53 pm
“Nelson McCausland has broken his eight day silence on his blog but I am afraid I cannot tell you his views on recent local developments. Rather he has chosen to announce a guided tour of the Clifton Street Cemetery.”
Maybe Gerry Kelly can announce he is giving a guided tour around Milltown or Friars Bush Cemetery the same day.
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Comment on Viewing platform, Orange Hall, Clifton St
on 7 September 2012 at 1:39 pm
“Without naming names has anyone definitively confirmed that ALL of those on the balcony are linked to the UVF?”
Don’t know them all, but I see 3 Bridadiers , one of them Salvation Army along with Captain Black and his brother.
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Comment on “Northern politics should be recognised as a baleful embarrassment”
on 6 September 2012 at 10:46 am
As a follow up to Rory McIlroy’s wonderful success having won the recent PGA tour FedEx playoff could Robbo, Marty & all those jokers on the Hill set up a driving range at Stormont to teach the recent teenage rioters from North Belfast to hit golf balls instead of throwing stones at the PSNI.
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Comment on What’s New?
on 6 September 2012 at 10:01 am
“The Protestant loyalist working-class community of the past was one where boys left school at 16 and moved straight into well-paid jobs in the shipyards or heavy engineering companies from which Catholics were excluded.”
Dewi, this is republican PR nonsense “WELL PAID” what utter rubbish. I worked in the shipyard in the 1950′s my wages were 32 & 6 pence a week. I couldn’t leave quick enought to go to sea and earn four times the wages. It was there I met a number of Catholics from both the Markets and Short strand areas of Belfast. Most has all worked in the docks before hand.
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Comment on Parades: A question of morals and incentives….
on 6 September 2012 at 8:40 am
Updated news: RBP have written a letter of apology to St Patrick’s Chapel for the bands action during their recent last sat in Aug parade. However the RBP cannot apologize for the single band’s action during the OO parade on 12 July. Surely his letter will have to come from ScHomberg House headquarters of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland who organise the 12 July parade.
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Comment on Charges re-instated against Marian Price and others
on 6 September 2012 at 7:46 am
“If Stone is mentally insane or other type of illness and can’t get better then yes, he should get out…”
ArdEoin Republican, Michael Stone’s actions even after he was released from prison under the GFA he is no doubt “dangerously loopy the loop”. But not that “loopy” if he knew he could be removed to a mental ward with a: “relaxed hospital environment “. Example Jack Nicholson in the film: “One who flew over the Cookoo’s nest”
Plot: “In 1963 Oregon, Randle McMurphy, a recidivist anti-authoritarian criminal serving a short sentence on a prison farm for statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl, is transferred to a mental institution for evaluation. Although he does not show any overt signs of mental illness, he hopes to avoid hard labor and serve the rest of his sentence in a more relaxed hospital environment.”
http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo's_Nest_(film)&sa=U&ei=aUBIUPKKAcPT0QX6wIFg&ved=0CCYQFjAB&usg=AFQjCNG3fKh77FFGuG-8iytyDdUvvIge1w
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Comment on Theresa Villiers replaces Owen Paterson as Northern Ireland Secretary
on 4 September 2012 at 12:45 pm
ArdEoin Republican, “Roll on the day when these useless British Government Ministers aren’t sent here to control the natives…”
Republicans should not have signed the GFA in 1998 if they did not wish a British Government Minister installed as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in Hillsborough Co Down.
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Comment on Viewing platform, Orange Hall, Clifton St
on 4 September 2012 at 10:42 am
Owen Paterson MP has just been replaced by Theresa Villiers MP as NI Sec of State. Lets see what she has to say about the riots in North Belfast.
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