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Books
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Kevin Myers’ ‘Watching the Door’: Book Review
This reads as if a mad picaresque tale. Myers as first a reporter for RTÉ and then as a freelance journalist with no real experience, finds himself wandering into savagery as he hastens north as the Troubles explode. A soldier dies next to him; he witnesses an IRA ambush; he sees children shot to death [...] 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 » -
Total Politics: Top 20 NI Blogs…
Fair play to Iain, he managed to get over 2,200 people voting in his poll for the top Northern Irish blogs this year… We (just, I imagine) retained our top spot, with Splintered coming straight in at number 2, no doubt his pet subject du jour will have garnered him a lot of fans… I’ve [...] read our review »
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Comment on What does this say about us all?
on 2 December 2011 at 4:31 pm
I wonder what it says about us that we take what should be a positive story, and try to find the negative in it? Fair play to you JR for helping the old lady but the fact she waited probably has a lot more to do with the phenomenon of the bystander effect noted in the first post than any decline in willingness to help form society at large.
Ever since first learning about the bystander effect, I have tried to train myself to act against my natural response in those situations where it applies, and I bet if more people knew about it, incidents like this would be rare indeed, hell, maybe they are already rare indeed.
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Comment on Retaining “our shared Christian ethos” in shared education #dupconf
on 1 December 2011 at 8:01 pm
When asked what he thought of Western Civilisation, Gandhi famously replied “I think it would be a good idea”. I feel much the same way about “Christian Morality”. The truth is, the church (what ever flavour you fancy) had always played catchup with the rest of us when it comes to things like morality. One only has to look at how the largest Christian denomination needed to be dragged kicking and screaming to the point where they say raping kids might not be such a good thing.
The best deal we can strike with the Christians is that they promise not to bring their morality into our schools, and we promise not to think in their churches.
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Comment on Turas, by Colin Neill – a story of strangers in a strange land
on 27 November 2011 at 11:21 am
Wow, another piece of art based around the premise that Protestants and Unionists need to wake up and recognise their flawed nature and get themselves right with catholic Ireland. Sorry, but I’ve heard this song sung too many times, I wont be buying it, literally or metaphorically
It’s always seemed to me that when we’re told that we (and by we I mean Protestants and Unionists) would be welcome in a United Ireland, it was always under the condition that we’d stop being the way we were. We’ll be welcome as long as we stop being Protestants and Unionists.
Have any Nationalists or Catholics ever stopped to consider what it says about them that they need to return to this theme so often?
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Comment on Take that (Mulley makes a bad call?)
on 2 April 2011 at 11:11 pm
Hashtags are just a way of people speaking collectively on Twitter. No one suggested that speaking or commenting on Twitter was going to have any more effect on the murderers than speaking or commenting on Slugger or elsewhere. It takes a special kind of cynicism to piss all over a natural human response to express hurt and anger at a time like this.
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Comment on Thoughts on the saga of Hazel Stewart
on 24 March 2011 at 10:58 am
What a bizzare blog. I have to wonder if the writer would have bothered had the murderer not been a woman and a self professing Christian?
A murderer has been tried, found guilty and sentenced, two innocent people have been taken from their families forever but Turgon is upset that the media has had a field day with the more sensationalist aspects of the case.
By a man’s priorities shall ye know him.
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Comment on POTD – The Baritone Busker
on 19 January 2011 at 7:19 pm
Me and the daughter walked past him last week. at first we thought there must have been some hidden cameras. he seemed too good to be singing on the street.
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Comment on Metropolitan Tabernacle Pastor James McConnell Plans Rally for Andersonstown
on 11 January 2011 at 2:08 pm
Aye, just what Northern Ireland needs, more religious people.
I like the idea of tempting Catholics away from their own church but not if it’s just going to be into another church, we need Protestants and Catholics deconverted, full stop.
Let’s have a secular atheist Northern Ireland, and see how we get on.
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Comment on Some more on Lady Sylvia
on 1 February 2010 at 5:25 pm
Well I did say that any Unionist/Conservative pact would see me voting for the SDLP. The constitutional issue is settled, it’s about time for some normal politics. Bring it on.
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Comment on Police called into investigate Iris Robinson for potential criminality…
on 22 January 2010 at 7:09 pm
I mentioned it at the time but during the Spotlight programme a question was asked about money which was simply “handed over” and the person asked the question gave a very specific, obviously advised by a lawyer answer about how as far as they were concerned it was all above board.
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Comment on Conservatives in talks over unionist unity with UUP, AND the DUP…
on 20 January 2010 at 4:47 am
This unionist will be voting for the SDLP before he’ll ever vote for the fucking tories.
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