The UK daily papers are full of outrage that Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) blocked proposals yesterday that would have moved Northern Ireland’s customs border to the Irish Sea. The 10 DUP MPs are currently propping up Theresa May’s minority Conservative government on a confidence and supply basis. Theresa May’s premiership could not continue…
Who knows what will be on the menu when Theresa May dines with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker today? Until after they meet, there can be no certainty about the terms that have been placed on the table. Ireland have already said that they doubt enough progress has been made over the weekend to avoid…
In Hamlet, Marcellus, an officer of the palace guard, seeing the ghost of the dead king, walking over the palace walls, observes, ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’. Shakespeare would be spoiled for choice for a location for those words today – whether in Brussels, Washington, Westminster. Or indeed, at Stormont,…
This morning, I read this piece on hurricanes, climate change and human responsibilities in Social News by Max Fanni Canelles. It made me think of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s recent visit to Derry, the walled city in Northern Ireland, as a guest of the organisation ‘Children in Crossfire’ which is marking 20 years of…
Just before yesterday’s murderous and callous attack on Las Ramblas in Barcelona, my daughter had stopped there for coffee. She was preparing to say farewell to Barcelona, her home all summer since, like so many young Irish people, she had moved there in May for the summer. It was her last day. She had intended…
The old world is dying, and the new world is struggling to be born; now is the time of monsters. Gramsci The 21st century has been marked so far by uncertainty, chaos and change. From 9/11 to the execution of Osama bin Laden by US forces in 2011. To the arrogance of Donald Trump, who…
Death at London Bridge On Thursday, the United Kingdom goes to the polls in a snap general election called by Theresa May in what could turn out to be a fatally flawed strategy to show she has a mandate to negotiate for a hard Brexit. It is an election no-one but May wanted. It is…
We deserve better Days before France’s presidential election, Emmanuel Macron smashed the hopes of National Front candidate Marine Le Pen with a devastating put-down: ‘I’m sorry, Madame Le Pen; France deserves better than you.’ Le Pen failed to reach the Élysée Palace. But that doesn’t mean we can relax. On Thursday 8 June, the people of…
In his 1975 book about Irish nationalism the Parisian writer Maurice Goldring wrote about the void which can too easily be concealed behind the noise of battle. ‘To substitute a “spectacle” for the participation of the masses is to hide a wasteland behind gaudy coloured hoardings. The emptier the political arena becomes, the more vivid the colours…
On Sunday I reported a Tory to the police for hate speech On Sunday afternoon, I reported a Tory Councillor to the Police Service of Northern Ireland for anti-Irish pro-Brexit hate speech. Ironically, his words came after the Irish Republic gave no points to the UK in Saturday night’s Eurovision contest. It’s been quite a…
