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
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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 →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 →Such was the outrage, felt by YES supporters at the overt bias in BBC reporting of issues in the Referendum , that hundreds protested last June outside the Corporation’s Glasgow headquarters on the Clyde. The much vaunted principle of political impartiality had gone missing in the BBC News
Read more →The Scottish Government has announced plans to bridge the attainment gap between pupils from poor backgrounds and those from wealthier households. The First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, acknowledged that the causes of poverty were not educational but came from a much deeper, social malaise which affected the life
Read more →The eccentric people of Lewes in Sussex burned an effigy of the First Minister, Alex Salmond, on Bonfire Night last week. Various media apologists assured us that this was just good fun and that many other ‘weel kent’ faces have suffered a similar fate on previous occasions.
Read more →Watching ‘Ubu and the Truth Commission’ at the Edinburgh Festival, it struck me that the individual narratives such as that of Ubu are representative of the national picture. They are each too an essential part of it and must participate. There was a dawning of realisation when
Read more →It was a rare joy to spend an evening at the Usher Hall in the company of these two cultured and dignified , Muslim gentleman after a week in which we had witnessed malevolent scare-mongering by UKIP and the refusal of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Peter Robinson,
Read more →“I heard from my parents and my grandparents that they wanted this country to be great“; the words of a young woman, interviewed in Kiev by BBC News. She was visiting the centre of the City to view the floral memorial to those who have died
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