Shock horror! Independent publishes its own Irish language news supplement

If you told me ten or five years ago that the only Irish language newspaper of any description would be provided by the Irish Independent, I would have ended up spending the rest of the day in intensive care.   Independent News and Media have long been regarded as one of the arch enemies of the Irish language, and not without cause.  Derision of the Irish language has been a default position, it seems, of nearly all the columnists – …

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Death blast lessons

The lengthy excerpt below appeared as an article by Ciaran McKeown in the Irish Press on Monday 6th December 1971 entitled ‘Death blast lesson for the North’. McKeown wrote the piece in the immediate aftermath of the destruction of McGurk’s Bar on the preceding Saturday night, the 4th December, the fortieth anniversary of which falls this weekend. It is worth reading if only to reflect on the lessons which were not learned back in 1971. I’ve retained the layout, including headings from the original and …

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