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Books
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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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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 » -
Propaganda of Peace: Media and culture during the peace process
Tweet Extract from Greg McLaughlin and Stephen Baker: The Propaganda of Peace: The Role of Media and Culture in the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Bristol: Intellect Books. 2010. Political opponents Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness were confirmed as First Minister and Deputy First Minister of a new executive in May 2007, closing yet another chapter [...] read our review »
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Comment on Seven years after their last raid, Police came back to Slab Murphy’s farm…
on 19 March 2013 at 12:42 pm
Let me get this straight. There is a bogeyman living on the border who everyone has known for years was involved in a massive fuel smuggling operation. The bogeyman knew that everyone knew he was involved in it. And yet he kept lap-tops, computer discs and a large amount of documentation, documenting all his illegal activities in handy bite-sze chunks, at the very place he is very well documentated to have lived at for many documentated years? And huge tanks and chemicals and filters and pipes and all the rest of it.
Why the arsing feck did he feel so comfortable and invincible for all the years up to 2am the other night?
I am just an ordinary goon and I can give you this man’s exact address it is so well documentated. I can give you the name of the townland, which sounds like Dickens came up with it. Why was there not a camera in every bird’s nest in every tree on every drumlin and a bug in every lorry that rumbled up his drive? Surely he cannot have been difficult to nail. We’re not talking about chasing Bin Laden in the Tora Bora here, this is catching a rat in a meal bin.
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Comment on All but three islanders vote to keep the Falklands British…
on 13 March 2013 at 12:53 pm
JR
Effectively what that would amount to is bowing to a threat of wholly unjustified violence and reaching a fairly grubby compromise. What Galloway overlooks, of course, is that if the referendum was extended to the UK the result would most likely be the same – hence Thatcher enjoyed a huge boon in popularity for protecting the islands in 1982.
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Comment on Dolours Price and the human cost of armed revolution…
on 5 February 2013 at 2:31 pm
Ardoyne Republican
“I acknowledge the hurt, pain and killings done by Republicans, why don’t British apologists tell the truth about their role?”
Very illuminating. Can’t you see the difference between “acknowledging the pain” and “telling the truth”?Why do you set yourself one standard and the British another standard?
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Comment on On McIlroy: “Let me rephrase that . . . Can I . . . actually I’ll just repeat the question”
on 24 January 2013 at 3:37 pm
Can anyone explain why it is of any relevance that he previously played for the governing body that represents the whole of Ireland?
That governing body and the Republic of Ireland Olympic team are two seperate things. Therefore McIlroy opting to play for the UK would not represent any ‘defection’ at all. In fact playing for the Republic of Ireland when he is not from there would be odd and I’m not surprised that he has expressed a disinclination to do it.
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Comment on On the perils of being born in May or June
on 21 January 2013 at 4:22 pm
Yes, I see your point Reader, if that’s the angle he takes.
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Comment on On the perils of being born in May or June
on 21 January 2013 at 3:20 pm
Chris,
Are you saying you teach your kids that they are less likely to be successful because they live in a poor area? In other words “people like you don’t get good jobs”?
Hardly very encouraging to their aspirations!
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Comment on Why did Sinn Fein feel compelled to invent ‘malicious’ untruths about Declan Gormley?
on 17 December 2012 at 12:30 pm
Is there a concise guide to the background to Mr Gormley’s sacking anywhere? There is a lot of assumed knowledge in the above (understandably)
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Comment on Rangers’ Downfall and long tail journalism…
on 22 November 2012 at 4:24 pm
That is a very telling smilely Dave. The relish with which some people have greeted the downfall of Rangers, in spite of all that it means for people who work in connection with the club and moreover for Scottish football, is pretty shameful.
The rangerstaxcase blogger has removed all his previous blogs and sounded off a final death knell stating “hopefully the decision will be reversed on appeal”. Hopefully? Why hopefully? Obviously because he does not respect the rule of law and has judged them as guilty in his own arrogant trial-by-blog. He wants them to be guilty. Why? Because he does not like them in the first place and he needs to have a peg on which to hang his hatred.
And more central to Mick’s topic, how stupid and short-sighted has been the bloggers’ criticism of the “failure of the mainstream media”. The criticism seemed to be that the mainstream media did not just accept that Rangers were cheating and preferred to wait until the case was decided. Well, as obvious as it sounds it turns out that waiting was very much the right thing to do. It’s just a pity that key players in the piece, particularly the SPL and Craig Whyte, did not follow their lead.
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Comment on Northern Ireland win:win from summit venue
on 22 November 2012 at 10:19 am
Fitzjames
“I tend to think of Fermanagh as an island with Augher, Clogher, Fivemiletown the single route in.”
Ha. The characteristically confused view of the 6 county nationalist. Oh it’s all one island and we’re all Irish. Except our ‘shores’ are located at the border.
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Comment on Rangers’ Downfall and long tail journalism…
on 22 November 2012 at 12:29 am
The way the Rangerstaxcase blogger completely humiliated himself when the judgement was released was hilarious. I think he must have turned immediately to the dissenting judgment because he declared the use of trusts to have been found to be illegal and then later had to delete that and a number of other embarrassing tweets. The hatred of the man (or woman) was laid bare.
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