Frank Schnittger 
If— BY RUDYARD KIPLING – amended and abridged If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs …
Arnold Carton has written a very perceptive OP entitled “The problem with Y” in which he discusses the difficulties boys have in educational environments, with some research showing that having a Y chromosome can be as big a disadvantage as coming from a deprived social or economic background. He writes very much from a teacher’s perspective, but it got me thinking about my own fairly mixed experiences of being on the receiving end of a lot of formal education, not …
In my previous blog here: Speaking right: What an Taoiseach should say in Washington I gave an account of my experiences in speech writing and the many lessons I have learned about that craft, often the hard way through some of the mistakes I have a made. With that as my guide I offered a draft of the research brief some poor souls in the Department of Foreign Affairs are probably working to in trying to help an Taoiseach and …
In a former life I was, for my sins, a speech writer and video producer for three successive Managing Directors of Guinness, later to become Diageo. The job was to promote the brand, to burnish the image of the gentlemen in question, to thank a lot of people, and to have something to say of relevance to the intended audience. In other words, to connect with the audience. Not to hector, lecture, demean, mislead, or miss-sell what the company was …
Ireland versus France: 14.15 Saturday 8th. March Twenty five years ago, in 2000, Brian O’Driscoll burst onto the scene to score a hat trick against France in Paris and give Ireland their first win there in 28 years. Seven years ago, in Paris in 2018, in the 83rd. minute and after a 41 phase attack, Sexton dropped a 45 metre drop goal to win the match. It may take heroics on a similar scale to effectively decide the Championship this …
Writing in the Irish Times, former Tánaiste Michael McDowell makes no bones about it. “To call Volodymyr Zelenskiy‘s meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office a “shouting match”, as many commentators managed to whitewash it, is a lie. It was a unilateral, vicious, premeditated political ambush – a mugging aimed at the political destruction of Zelenskiy in the eyes of the world – and in the eyes of his own people. It was as disgusting as it was shameful. …
Andy Pollak’s latest excellent and thought provoking offering, Beyond Borders: Building an All-Ireland Forum on Shared Values…, generated the usual animated debate with many of the 565 comments (including mine) taking issue with aspects of his argument. But few if any, engaged with his central proposal that the time had come for a new all Ireland Forum focusing on the shared values we all have in common on this island. Andy characterised those values as “peace, democracy, equality, community, environmental …
President Trump’s closing, dismissive, argument to President Zelenskyy is that “you don’t have the cards” to play the tough guy with Putin. Only with America’s help can the Ukraine continue to resist the Russian invasion and without it, things will get pretty ugly. Settle now on America’s terms by handing over the mineral rights to your own country or America will do a deal behind your backs to legitimate the Russian invasion and cede the occupied territories to Russia. Let …
All change in Irish Rugby There’s been a lot of rugby news in the media in the past week following on from the somewhat fraught win over Wales, Ireland’s injury blighted performance against England ‘A’, and the red card for Garry Ringrose, which means he will miss the France match. Just as well we have Aki to cover for him! First there was the joint announcement of the retirement at the end of the season of three old soldiers, Cian …
Wales Versus Ireland Saturday 2.15 (Virgin Media 1, BBC1) OP updated for Italian, French, England ‘A’ and Ireland ‘A’ team announcements, complete with some surprises, not to say shocks! Two weeks ago, in a comment on my post here on the second round of the Six Nations and on Facebook, I suggested that Simon Easterby could make up to 14 changes to the team that beat Scotland with only Aki retained, and still have a decent chance of beating Wales. …
I sent the letter below to the editors of the Irish Times, Independent, News, Examiner and Belfast Telegraph. It is a little on the long side for a letter, and none saw fit to publish it. Having had hundreds of letters published and more rejected, I do not take such rejection personally. Letter’s page editors tend to focus on one theme at a time, and between Trump’s shenanigans and numerous scandals closer to home, they have not been short of …
When you grow up and live in a country for long enough, you get to take many aspects of life there for granted. They are the universal normal as far as you are concerned. Of course, when you travel to other countries you can see that many things are quite different there and that can be refreshing and interesting. Working and living in another country can give you a deeper perspective on differences still. But one thing about living in …
This round of the URC feels like a bit of a dress rehearsal for the Wales vs. Ireland match with Ospreys playing Leinster, Connacht playing Cardiff, and Munster playing Scarlets. Given the state of Wales’ regional rugby, It is difficult to see the provinces not winning a clean sweep, with Ulster away to a Benetton side minus their substantial international contingent. The Irish XXIII who played Scotland are rested this week-end, so the casual fan might be tempted to give …
The North and South series is a collaboration between The Irish Times and ARINS (Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South), a joint research project of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) and the Keough-Naughton Centre for Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame. For three years now it has been publishing simultaneous surveys of Ireland, north and south, on attitudes to reunification as well as some more qualitative studies. The 2024 surveys, just published, were conducted by Ipsos and …
Scotland vs. Ireland Sunday 15.00 RTE Head Coach Simon Easterby has made three changes to the team for the Scotland match. Peter O’Mahony replaces Ryan Baird at 6, with Baird displacing |Iain Henderson on the bench, while Henshaw rotates with Ringrose at 13. This means there is no Ulster player in the match day squad. Henshaw seems to be regarded as a better bet to stop Scotland’s hat-trick hero against Italy, Huw Jones, from getting to the try line again. …
For many years, the Israeli far right have debated how to clear all of Palestine of Palestinians and give Jews untrammelled control of all of the territory as part of a one state Greater Israel project. 2.7 million Palestinians have already been displaced into refugee camps in Jordan and illegal Jewish settlements have steadily encroached on further Palestinian settlements, land, and precious freshwater sources throughout the region. While officially Israel has not rejected the UN favoured “two state solution,” in …
Six nations 2025 In the 142 year history of the Home Nations, 5 Nations, and 6 Nations since 1883, no country has won the competition outright three years in a row. Granted, there were rare occasions when the Championship was at least shared three times in a row, before try bonus points and points differences were entered into the equation. But it is a measure of just how difficult this task is that Ireland could be the first country to …
The core of Woke is about respect for others, and especially others of a different gender, sexuality, identity, race, country of origin, religion, linguistic preference, culture or demographic. Most of us have no problem with that. But there was also a veritable industry supporting the development of those values in academia, non-governmental agencies (see equality agencies), public services, and latterly, in large corporations. A cancel culture developed around this industry whereby anyone who doesn’t fully subscribe to this ideology could …
Kicking up a storm… A round of United Rugby Championship matches a week before the start of the 6 Nations with most of the current test squads away in training camps doesn’t seem like the most enticing prospect to the casual fan. For rugby nerds it is a chance to see up and coming rugby stars and squad players get a rare opportunity to show what they can do. The points on offer are just the same as in any …
Many Americans I meet in Europe are embarrassed by Trump and say that he doesn’t represent the real America. When you consider that he has always had negative approval ratings, including throughout his entire first term and during the 2024 election campaign, they may have had a point. Gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the preponderance of smaller states with Republican majorities have enabled Republicans to gain control of the Presidency for his first term, and Congress, the Senate, and consequently the …
