Profile for Jimmy McGurk
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Jimmy McGurk has commented 21 times (0 in the last month).
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Books
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The ANC, the IRA and the rise of influence of the left within Sinn Fein…
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 »
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The Imperfectionists (Tom Rachman) – an insight into a newspaper that’s maybe not so fictional
‘news’ is often a polite way of saying ‘editor’s whim’ Given the shift from print to online and e-ink, maybe Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists was a suitable first first book for me to finish reading on the Kindle. Considering the economic pressures on the newspaper industry, his novel perhaps captures the spirit and soul of [...] read our review »
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The Written World
Here’s something to keep you occupied over the weekend. [Will there be a quiz? - Ed] Possibly… The BBC magazine has an short and interesting, but un-embeddable, audio slide-show of Melvyn Bragg’s Radio 4 five-parter, In Our Time: The Written World. The British Library has more online information about the texts and technology featured in each [...] read our review »
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Comment on London Boy and Barry Girl squabble about….immigration
on 21 August 2010 at 2:04 pm
Seems like it will end up a hung parliament. either way not a good result for the Barry girl.
The Greens have won their first ever lower house seat by wresting Melbourne off the Labor party.
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Comment on Of Water….
on 19 August 2010 at 11:28 pm
In front that is!
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Comment on Of Water….
on 19 August 2010 at 11:27 pm
50 years and 12 hours!
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Comment on London Boy and Barry Girl squabble about….immigration
on 16 August 2010 at 11:13 pm
It’s been my impression that the major issues in this election are around waste and government mismanagement.
Waste/debt: the massive debt incurred from the government’s stimulus spending as a reaction to the Global Financial Crisis.
Government mismanagement: the shonky way that a lot of the stimulus spending was managed and due to lax controls the way it was rorted by many.
For the Labor Government, it has been widely acknowledged by financial experts that their swift action in stimulus spending averted a financial meltdown, yet, it’s harder to take credit for a crisis averted than for a crisis solved.
Regarding boat people, this issue was moved so far to the right under Howard’s use of ‘dog whistle’ politics and mainstreamed, that it is now seemingly impossible to inject any real perspective into the debate no matter the hue of the political party.
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Comment on Photograph of the day – What about the Northern Irish?
on 11 August 2010 at 2:48 pm
Moochin
I like how you constantly return to the issue of sectarian graffiti. Your photos force me to pause and consider, when while on the street it is too easy to let one’s eyes just ‘slide’ over it.
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Comment on “we can only conclude that publicity was indeed his agenda”
on 7 August 2010 at 12:16 am
Agreed that hating does more damage to the hater then its object.
Not sure if you’re up with the events of East Timor Joe, but Xanana Gusmao, the current Prime Minister and former guerrilla leader, has been advocating a policy of forgiveness to Indonesia after its brutal 24-year occupation. His reasoning, that the Timorese have suffered enough and that hate will only extend the suffering and inflict more damage.
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Comment on Dying for ‘the patriot game.’
on 6 August 2010 at 11:19 pm
” there must be serious prospects of success”
When studying Irish history at Uni, this line was explained to me as one of the main reasons the Catholic Church opposed risings until the Irish War of Independence.
I wonder though if these conditions would cover ‘just interventions’. Although supporting the war in Afghanistan is problematic I believe a case can be argued along the lines of a ‘just intervention’.
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Comment on Dying for ‘the patriot game.’
on 6 August 2010 at 11:48 am
A nice post that reminds us of the waste of war, its horror and the beauty of the poetry that can come out of it
However while opposing fighting for a jingoistic nationalism, whatever the cause, this does not mean that pacifism is right. There are occasions i think where taking up arms can be justified.
The problem always lies in the selection of those occasions.
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Comment on The unionist reaction to Saville is predictable understandable and incorrect
on 17 June 2010 at 11:17 am
should’ve said republicans not nationalists.
I was referring to Turgon’s line:
“the fact that both of these strategies have been used by republicans does not mean that unionists should lower themselves into the gutter along with the terrorists and their apologists.”
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Comment on The unionist reaction to Saville is predictable understandable and incorrect
on 17 June 2010 at 2:28 am
Once again Turgon has given a valuable insight into the Unionist mindset in his detailing of Unionist reaction to Saville.
His call for Unionists to be ‘better’ than Nationalists, by not showing double standards in the way they approach the reality of the past, however uncomfortable, is a refreshing change to the schoolyard bickering that dominates so much of political discourse around Northern Ireland.
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