“Divided we fall” said the front page of the British newspaper, The Economist, in the days leading up the vote. The debate over the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union ended the 23 June 2016, when the British electorate voted in favour of quitting the EU. Appealing to the Article 50 of…
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,…
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…
The EU view – England’s difficulty and Ireland’s opportunity? Just after the start of the First World War in 1914, a group of Irish separatists took the decision to launch a rebellion before the war ended. Their key belief was the credo that ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’. In other words, the British state would…
Charlie Wilson’s War is a 2008 film loosely based on the true story of a Texas congressman. Wilson is best known for leading the US Congress into supporting Operation Cyclone, the largest-ever Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covert operation which, under the Carter and Reagan administrations, supplied military equipment like the Redeye to the Afghan Mujahedeen…
In the aftermath of the latest attack in London, the Italian capital city is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, which gave birth to the European Union. On this occasion it is perhaps timely to explain to Europeans the benefits and future of the EU. The 27 European leaders have signed a…
