The Chancellor has announced a scheme to enable those on low incomes to save and gain a bonus on their investment. A good thing you might well think, as we all recognise the necessity of providing a little for the future. That it should come from a Tory
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BBC Scotland and various talking heads have spent time this week examining Scottish education and discussing how funding might be found to close what has become known as ‘the attainment gap’ ; it has been fairly well documented that children attending schools in better off areas generally
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The resuscitation of the Lucan story this week, when the High Court in London granted a death certificate to the family, may perhaps give some pause for thought to the vocal minority around Dublin who question any celebration of the Easter Rising in its centenary year. Honouring
Read more →Capitalism has exploited and exported but failed totally to capture the atmosphere of an Irish pub. Amanda Gaughan’s fine production of Conor MacPherson’s award winning play , “The Weir’ at the Lyceum. permits us to sit with the drinkers by the turf fire and listen to four tales that smoulder with
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No Catholic was employed above the level of junior clerk by Londonderry Corporation in 1966; no council houses in the North and Waterside wards were allocated to Catholics, regardless of their circumstances; Seamus Heaney ‘s first anthology of poems , ‘ Death of a Naturalist’ , was
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Robert Nairac is the subject of a new book, pejoratively titled ‘Betrayal, The Murder of Robert Nairac‘. The author is Alistair Kerr, a Scot and former Foreign Office diplomat; an African history graduate, he worked mainly in North Africa. He places the blame for Nairac’s capture and
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Liz and I have been to performances in Celtic Connections every year since it began in 1994 with the exception of 2011 when the expected arrival of grandchild number two, John Joseph Greenwood, put all plans on hold. From its early days, the festival has encouraged collaboration,
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Paddy Doherty devoted a lifetime of service to the people of Derry and beyond in the West Indies and Latin America. His contribution to the early credit union movement has made life immensely better for individuals, families and communities, not just in his native Derry but across
Read more →The fingerprints of the Treasury and, most importantly, the Chancellor, George Osborne, are clearly detectable in the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announcement today that plans have been shelved to investigate the culture, pay and behaviour of the banking industry. It is political interference of the highest order
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I have just watched ‘Sports Personality of the Year’ and, understandably in media tradition, time was given in the final minutes to those sporting people who had died in the last year. Today’s papers have coverage of the death of Lord Janner who had been accused of
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