Ian Paisley perfected the tactic of the counter demonstration as a political spoiler during the sixties in Northern Ireland. Whenever a Civil Rights event was announced, he organised some ad hoc group to stage a protest at the same location. The RUC would inform Stormont that there
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David Cameron has warned that the UK may be at risk from ‘radicalised’ jihadist Britons, currently operating in support of opposition forces in Iraq and Syria. The numbers are small, three to five hundred at best, and he offered no proof to the Commons but Cressida Dick,
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Clackmannanshire has just about 30 000 people on the Electoral Roll and, in a 30% turn-out last Thursday, 1200 of them voted for the UKIP candidate, David Coburn. That’s something over 1 2% – modest but significant and worrying. I have lived and worked in this area for nearly
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Lord Trimble has warned that a YES vote for Independence in Scotland could destabilise the peace process in Northern Ireland as it may increase pressure for a similar referendum to be held there also. He did concede that the democratic movement for constitutional change in Scotland was a
Read more →It was always going to be a daunting, political problem to construct a coalition, capable of defending the Union in the Scottish Referendum. That it has failed so comprehensively, does not surprise many. I grew up in the cockpit of Northern Ireland politics but the vitriol there
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Peaches Geldoff ‘s funeral will be held tomorrow at the little, village church with which the family has tragic and joyful association, two marriage and funeral services. In this digital age, her death at the age of 25 has provoked expressions of grief from people whose only
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I bought my first record in 1958 when I was sixteen; it was ‘Rave On’ by Buddy Holly, a 45rpm single which I think cost six shillings (30p). I played it on a Dansette with a record changer, as they were then known, made in Derry by
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There is an amusing cartoon doing the rounds, where the characters speculate on the possibility of the Republic of Ireland rejoining the Commonwealth in the aftermath of last week’s State Visit by an t-Uachtarán, Michael D. I suspect that there are Georgian drawing rooms in Dublin where
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Another pupil had died from the meningitis outbreak. I watched Mr Shawa, the school caretaker, cleaning the white, pine boards and placing them carefully against the library building. He was making another coffin, the fourth in as many weeks. His task was carried out with quiet patience,
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