The movie, ‘Suffragette’, does not ostensibly intend to establish parallels with other protest movements elsewhere but as the action unfolds, the early days of the Sixties Civil Rights movement in the Six Counties and, specifically in Derry where I had an active role, were vividly recalled. The
Read more →
The Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh celebrates its 50th birthday this year with a season of stellar work. It has been launched with a production of the most significant English language play of the twentieth century, Samuel Beckett’s ‘ Waiting for Godot’, produced by retiring director, Mark Thomson,
Read more →
WISE WORDS IN A DUBLIN PUB “What do you think is the biggest political crisis facing Britain and the rest of Europe at present?” A question put to me by a guy that I found myself chatting to in a Dublin pub while we waited for the
Read more →
The Irish bog is a cultural as well as a natural landscape; it covers about 15% of the surface area and for many it has been an inescapable force throughout their lives. Joyce ends ‘The Dead ‘ with images of the bog suggesting immortality and Heaney frequently turned to
Read more →
The BBC presenter, Jackie Bird, has been the recipient of sustained online abuse from a coterie of SNP supporters since the Referendum. There is certainly a justifiable perception of bias in the BBC but this is an editorial policy and not one made by presenters. The SNP
Read more →
Jean McConville , the widowed, Belfast mother of nine children, was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972; she was secretly buried and her family waited over thirty years for an official ceremony. She is the best known of ‘The Disappeared’ and her death still causes
Read more →
The Scottish Photographic Federation used to host this gathering but for reasons, as yet not fully explained , it abandoned its commitment to audio-visual enthusiasts a couple of years back. Step forward doughty Bill Barr of Carstairs CC who almost single-handedly has managed to stage this annual event
Read more →
Scottish papers this week gave prominent coverage to a court case, involving a Walter Mitty-like, former branch manager of a bank in Dundee. His actions lacked the subtlety of the recent Glasgow jewel robbers who bought four balaclavas and an axe in B&Q on the day before
Read more →
In the introduction to its coverage of Ladies’ Final Day at Wimbledon, the BBC asked about ten women tennis players to name their idols in the sport. It was surprising that only two people, nominated a Williams – Serena , who chose her sister, Venus, and Heather
Read more →
Even among senior, Labour figures, there is fairly widespread agreement that Britain’s intervention in Iraq has had dire consequences for the whole Middle East Region. George Bush’s ‘war on terrorism’ was justifiably seen by most Muslims as an attack on them and on their beliefs. The
Read more →