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Books
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“Unionism Decayed 1997-2007″ by David Vance: book review
I initially wrote this when the book was first published three years ago; whilst certain elements of it now sound dated, its basic premise that the period of 1997-2007 was a period of irreversible decay for Northern Irish Unionism can still be argued as a valid opinion. My own feeling is that it did indeed [...] read our review » -
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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“It was a trivial problem that… occurs every year”
Just your average family gathering at Christmas, with a bit of an argument about the seating cleaning arrangements… Scuffles have broken out between rival groups of Greek Orthodox and Armenian clerics over a turf war in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. Bemused tourists looked on as about 100 priests fought with brooms while cleaning the [...] read our review »
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Comment on Osama Bin Laden killed in Pakistan
on 2 May 2011 at 10:18 pm
A separate question: what’s the bad news that is being buried today?
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Comment on Royal Wedding
on 29 April 2011 at 11:54 am
Have taken a break from working out my 2010-11 taxes (I guess they’ll need my contribution sooner than usual this year) to look at Slugger. … Later in the day hope to be at the Derry Jazz Festival, which surely will be a royalty-free zone
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Comment on Nominations published
on 8 April 2011 at 5:41 pm
The depressing thing is that over half those nominated will get into Stormont. Compare that with the last Welsh Assembly election, where over 200 candidates stood for just 60 seats.
My preference, as one who did not grow up here, would be to vote for a non-sectarian candidate; but here in East Londonderry that gives me the choice of just one Alliance candidate. One would have thought that in a constituency that includes an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty there might be someone standing for the Greens … And are there any People Before Profit candidates other than Eamon McCann in Foyle?
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Comment on …if University education were universally available and availed of, the country would collapse in one generation
on 1 April 2011 at 11:06 am
John O N — Thanks for the info about Mylesday, which I wasn’t aware of. Oh to have been in Dublin today (1 April)!
To be fair, Strabane District Council website has a Flann O’Brien centenary celebration planned — or rather “to be confirmed” — for the week beginning 30 September this year. Let’s see how the Plain People of (Northern) Ireland manage that …
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Comment on Duffy – a promising Nefyn folk singer…
on 31 March 2011 at 2:22 pm
My vote would go to Cerys’s version — though I have a soft spot for the one by Elin Fflur (also on Youtube). As for Dewi — I think you need a few backing musicians to be in the same league …
Somehow I don’t think Patagonia will ever make it to our local cinema in Coleraine, or even QFT. I hear it got well received when it was shown in Chapter (Cardiff’s best cinema), though
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Comment on …if University education were universally available and availed of, the country would collapse in one generation
on 31 March 2011 at 2:14 pm
At Swim-Two-Birds is the best of O’Nolan’s work imho — I’ve read it three times. But there’s some great stuff collected in “The Best Of Myles” — see for instance his Catechism of Chiche …
And did you not mention he was an Ulsterman — born in Strabane? How will the Assembly celebrate the centenary of this great man?
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Comment on The ‘end’ of community designation and the ‘rise’ of incumbency…
on 29 March 2011 at 4:00 pm
Naive question perhaps … But suppose SF were the biggest party but nominated someone other than Martin McG from within their ranks (though I can’t think who)?
Oh, and by the way, Mick, it’s “fait accompli”, not “fete”. That would be something else entirely
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Comment on The time it has a changed
on 28 March 2011 at 4:08 pm
The trouble with the 1968-71 “experiment” was that it was BST (British Standard Time) all the year round, with no change-round in the autumn or spring. This meant that the UK was in step with Continental Europe in the winter but not in the summer (the rest of Europe was still putting its clocks back and forward in the usual way). Meanwhile the London-based tabloids (I was working on one at the time, as it happens) were making a fuss every time there was an accidental death of e.g. a child walking to school in the dark, ignoring the fact that there were fewer accidents after school as a result of lighter winter evenings, at least in England. The press campaign had its effect, and Parliament voted to end the experiment.
Now that I’m living on the north coast, where it gets dark by 4 in November, I don’t think I’d welcome any change that would make the winter afternoons any shorter … And would that make the farmers any happier?
Incidentally, the whole time-zones thing has some irrational aspects: Portugal is in the same time-zone as the UK but Spain isn’t; the whole of China is one time-zone but Russia is split into about 10
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Comment on “Exercising our right to walk the Queen’s highway..”
on 25 March 2011 at 9:29 pm
If it’s Northern Irish euphemism you’re after, the one I’m most familiar with is ” … in two wee seconds” (meaning you’ll have to wait anything up to a quarter of an hour)
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Comment on Tele takes a hiding
on 22 February 2011 at 11:04 am
Nobody seem to have made the obvious point that you can read all (or nearly all) of the Bel Tel online (columnists and all) whereas you have to “subscribe” to the Irish News website. So making it more likely you’ll buy the print edition if you really want to know what the IN is saying
That said, the Irish News seems to have a better idea of who its audience is, and a better news sense. And don’t forget papers like the Sun and the Mirror make a decent effort at getting NI stories in their local editions.
Btw, you whingers over here don’t know how lucky you are compared to Wales, which has nearly twice the population and only the thinly staffed Western Mail (in the south) and the Daily Post (in the north) to provide daily local news.
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