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Books
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Eamon Nancarrow’s misadventures in Rock…
Tweet It’s the quiet ones you have to watch, they say. When I last saw Eamonn Namcarrow, back in the mid 1980s he was a congenial, good-natured and highly sociable young lad. The next time was 26 years later, in Lavery’s Gin Palace in Bradbury Place. He’d just brought out his first book, Holywood Star [...] read our review »
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Learning from 1798?: Northern Ireland’s Upcoming Decade of Commemorations
Tweet Last year, the Lilliput Press released a new extended edition of Tom Dunne’s Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize winning book, Rebellions: Memoir, Memory and 1798. First published in 2004, Dunne’s book provoked considerable controversy with its critique of the ‘commemorationist’ history that Dunne believed dominated the 1998 commemorations of the 1798 Rebellion. The book blasted the [...] read our review » -
The Earl Bishop
Tweet Interesting BBC article on an upcoming presentation and talk [Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, 17 August] by lecturer and broadcaster Stephen Price on the subject of his new book – The Earl Bishop. The 18th Century ”Earl Bishop” was Frederick Augustus Hervey, fourth Earl of Bristol and Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry. Hervey was also [...] read our review »
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Comment on Children and the mysterious origins of sectarianism…
on 6 June 2011 at 10:39 pm
After leaving university I was a naive soul who even thought that almost all Catholics were poor victims, and had not a sectarian bone in my body in terms of discrimination against others. After becoming a trainee accountant and working my socks off I was made redundant. It was only some years later that I actually even realised that I was a victim of Nationalist and / or Catholic discrimination by my employer. Far too late to make a legal claim. Remembering things that were said to me but I was too naive and trusting to understand it’s become quite clear to me now that this is what happened.
Thankfully I had (unwittingly at that time) gone to England after that redundancy and completed my qualification amongst people who did not discriminate against me. All’s well that ends well I guess.
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Comment on “It has obviously had a neuralgic effect on Ann Travers”
on 6 June 2011 at 10:05 pm
@perseus
Yep. if Rosemary West got out and was elected an MP she should be allowed to take her seat.
If a Tory or Lib Dem called her and the people who voted for her “scum” then they should be treated as quite right to do so.
All this makes a united Ireland much farther away than it would be otherwise so I don’t care that much myself.
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Comment on DUP to call for illegal loyalist protesters to be prosecuted?
on 24 May 2011 at 12:41 am
Frankly I think that it’s illiberal, undemocratic and intolerant for anyone to object to anyone marching in the city centre on a Sunday, whether it’s Scientologists, gays, Hare Krishnas, an Easter Rising commemoration or the RIR.
The only exception would be a genuine occurrence of two people wanting to hold a demonstration at the same time, where one is not obviously a counter demonstration and response to the other. That is the only hard case we should have to deal with. The RIR should have marched.
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Comment on Rosemary Nelson Inquiry Report
on 23 May 2011 at 11:56 pm
@Mark
Because Rosemary Nelson was a mafioso kingpin like Al Capone with hundreds of armed men to defend her in her secret underground base?
Er yes, I personally could have constructed a bomb and placed it under her car. True that there’s a bit more bomb making info on the internet in 2011 than in 1999 but the UDA and LVF at that time even had Powergel commercial explosives and no need to look for internet recipes such as those used on 7/7. Of course they were capable of killing her.
Which is not to say that I would, but of course the idea of an LVF/UDA under car booby trap in 1999 is perfectly plausible.
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Comment on Rosemary Nelson Inquiry Report
on 23 May 2011 at 11:41 pm
Oh for clarification, I am and have never been a member of
BBC
UTV
UVF
UDA
RUC
PSNI
UDR
RIR
MI5
MI6
but I knew of Rosemary Nelson’s role in blocking the Drumcree Parade, long before she died.
So specifically what is the allegation of collusion? That the RUC special branch actually physically made the bomb or something?
Please spell it out.
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Comment on Rosemary Nelson Inquiry Report
on 23 May 2011 at 10:58 pm
Or to put it more succinctly UTV and the BBC unwittingly colluded in the death of Rosemary Nelson. Whatever members of the RUC, RIR and MI5 may or may not have done was entirely surplus to requirements.
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Comment on Rosemary Nelson Inquiry Report
on 23 May 2011 at 10:47 pm
I remember the period. When alive she appeared openly on TV representing Garvaghy Residents. The idea that the UDR or the RUC needed to inform the UDA or UVF of her existence doesn’t ring true at all. I knew of her existence and role long before she was dead. Why on earth should I assume that the UVF and UDA did not know who she was and what she did unless and until some member of the RUC, UDR or MI5 dropped some sort of hint?
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Comment on PSNI: a force with easily demonstrable bias?
on 22 May 2011 at 7:26 pm
Are they going to prosecute 2,000 people?
Somehow not seeing that happening, bias or no bias.
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Comment on POTD – Poster and mural
on 22 May 2011 at 6:26 pm
2,000 people attended that protest against the MOD decision not to allow a RIR parade in Belfast, according to the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-13492022
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Comment on Unionist thoughts on the Queen’s visit to the Republic
on 22 May 2011 at 2:34 pm
@madraj55
The visit was replete from top to toe with Gaelic symbolism, entwined with symbols of nationhood. I saw no Polish polka dancers or any evidence of the Republic claiming any Ulster Scot or British tradition or culture. Visits for GAA but not rugby or soccer for example. So I don’t see how Trimble’s comment, whether correct or not, was weakened by the visit, only strengthened if anything.
If the Queen was to be shown things which say “this is Ireland” then almost everything she was shown was monocultural and Gaelic. Which is not necessarily a complaint on my part. She wasn’t visiting my country after all. The more monocultural Gaelic the Republic portrays itself as the less of a threat it is in many ways. It’s effectively saying to me “you are not a part of this country” by doing so, which is fine by me.
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