With 83% of those surveyed expressing a sense of belonging to Northern Ireland, the rise in a Northern Irish identity is more a reflection of an attachment to one’s homeplace, than a political statement. Continue reading
Filed under Northern Ireland …
The Healing Has Begun
Written and directed by Branagh,Belfast is a touching story of lost innocence, with an outstanding cast and soundtrack by Van Morrison, has already won festival awards and is considered a major Oscar contender. Continue reading
BrigidFest 2021
BrigidFest speaker, the Hon. Gabrielle Williams, provided much graphic evidence of women’s involvement in the IRA, and in particular their roles as prisoners, and wives, lovers and mothers, and in the no-wash protests and hunger strikes in Armagh Women’s Prison. Continue reading
From The Papers
Short items from past four weeks. Continue reading
A literary Laureate writes
If you ever wondered why Anne Enright was chosen as first Laureate for Irish Fiction, this book will explain. Continue reading
An Informer Speaks. Two Reviews
Willie Carlin was an ex-British soldier who worked for Sinn Fein Continue reading
From the Papers
The Compensation Culture We have referred on a few occasions in these reports to the way that Ireland seems to have developed a booming industry around compensation for injuries, real or feigned. Now the Independent has written a revealing set of stories describing ways that the legal and the medical professions cooperate to manipulate the … Continue reading
From the Papers
Porridge, RTE, the Travellers … Continue reading
HARD POUNDING, GENTLEMEN
Brexit creeps closer Comment by Sean Farrell ‘When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates his mind wonderfully.’ The Brexit Endgame is approaching, with prospects all round ranging from unpalatable to disastrous so Dr Johnson’s remark seems appropriate, certainly in Ireland’s case. Boris Johnson (no relation of Dr Samuel) … Continue reading
A Prize Winning Novel that Divides its Critics
The most disconcerting aspect of Milkman is that it sits so easily in the definition of Northern Ireland as an inevitably enduring site of sectarianism. Continue reading
