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Who killed Lyra McKee

By John Patton on 24/04/2019 / Uncategorized / 2 Comments

Derry provides the perfect microcosm for the shortcomings of the Northern Ireland Government; for the first forty years of its existence in the new state, a Nationalist majority, through political gerrymander, was governed by a Unionist minority. Its hinterland was County Donegal and, in the original concept for temporary partition in 1914, it along with Fermanagh and Tyrone would have been part of the new Irish Free State. Tory support for the UVF and Unionism ensured that the Walled City and its links to Orange Iconography remained within the Loyalist fold

JOHN HUME , AN IRISH PEACEMAKER AND EUROPEAN STATESMAN by Ambassador Daniel Mulhall

By John Patton on 11/04/2019 / Uncategorized / 3 Comments

The European Union is the best example in the history of the world of conflict resolution” – John Hume in the European Parliament, 4th of May 2004

ECHOES OF A SCHOOL VISIT TO STORMONT

By John Patton on 09/04/2019 / blog, Ireland / Leave a comment

The gerrymander of Derry City by the Unionists , with the support of the Stormont Government, was the prototype for sectarian control of the State; despite being 70% Catholic and Nationalist, through blatant manipulation of ward boundaries, the City remained under Unionist control

Annie’s Song – Eva Comrie

By John Patton on 01/04/2019 / Uncategorized / 1 Comment

ANNIE’S SONG – for the women of Scotland It wouldn’t have mattered much had Annie Davidson McEwen been one of Dundee’s property owners in February 1918 because her vote would never have been used, she having died in the flu epidemic later that year. Her neighbours did

Stealing Dreams by Eva Comrie

By John Patton on 01/04/2019 / blog / 2 Comments

I was a 7 year old revolutionary when I learned my first few French phrases; ca va? je m’appelle; j’habite; je suis. Instantly hooked by the fantooshness, there commenced a lifelong fascination of the foreign and exotic. In P5 at Crieff Primary School I’d a wee notebook

PUT THE GENERALS IN THE DOCK

By John Patton on 11/03/2019 / blog / 2 Comments

PUT THE GENERALS IN THE DOCK The buck stops at the top; that is the accepted chain of responsibility and accountability in organisations, institutions and in life. Slobodan Milosevic, David Duckenfield, Ratko Mladic : what links these names is that all were indicted for unlawful killings which

BRING SHAMINA AND HER SON HOME NOW

By John Patton on 19/02/2019 / blog / 4 Comments

The ingrained instinct of politicians is to consider how any comment affects their career prospects and so Sajid Javid, an ambitious Home Secretary, immediately responded in Daily Mail speak

OCTOBER 5th -WHAT WAS IT ALL ABOUT?

By John Patton on 25/09/2018 / blog / Leave a comment

British civil rights – that’s what we were agitating and marching for in 1968. The demand was for the same citizenship rights as those enjoyed in Carlisle or Exeter, Reading or Inverness. With unemployment figures, ranked among the highest in Europe, local authority housing denied to the

The buffoon who would be Prime Minister

By John Patton on 03/09/2018 / Uncategorized / 1 Comment

Gabriella clung tearfully to her mother’s arms, terrified that these men again wanted to take Mum away . The woman was Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and the Iranian Police had arrived to return her to prison . She had been granted temporary release to be with her family and

WELCOME SORCHA

By John Patton on 03/07/2018 / blog / Leave a comment

Sorcha Óg You arrived Sorcha with the dawn on the fifteenth of June, another bairn for Scotland, a sister for Leo and Senan, a daughter for Jen and Neill , another grandchild, a burst of radiance in this gilded summer. Your Gaelic name means ‘light’ and you