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Cheatin’ French fond of playing away from home 
Fergal Hallahan 20/11/09THOSE cheatin’ French. Bernard, the farmer I worked for, had two twenty-something daughters with hefty appetites for life. Thankfully, shy Irish students weren’t on the menu. Policemen were what they were into – preferably married ones. Having a wife to go home to made things less complicated.
Kiwi joy at All Whites’ World Cup achievement
Todd R Nicholls 20/11/09Last Saturday night the New Zealand football side did the unthinkable and qualified for the soccer World Cup. For one evening at least the All Whites relegated the All Blacks from the headlines as the whole country rejoiced. The All Whites defeated Bahrain 1-0 in Wellington to qualify for South Africa.
House on the hill offers cold comfort for disabled
Jim Gibney 19/11/09Tuesday a week ago I had both the good and bad fortune to host a friend of Danny Morrison’s at the assembly’s parliamentary buildings. The man, Michael O’Connell from Tralee in Co Kerry had travelled on three trains and two buses to visit...
More bureaucracy funded by the charitable taxpayer
Eye of Newt... 19/11/09There are big changes due in the regulation of charities in Northern Ireland, with new laws and a new independent commission sponsored by the Department for Social Development (DSD). The recruitment of the chief commissioner is not a particularly auspicious omen. DSD has paid a private...
Disarray in DUP leadership clearly there for all to see
Brian Feeney 18/11/09DID you spot the gap last week? The gap in the DUP between Peter Robinson and the rest of the party’s elected representatives at Westminster and Stormont? In the kerfuffle about the full-time reserve no-one backed Robinson. Not a word.
Bold decision results in sharp intakes of breath
Ray OHanlon 18/11/09The New York Post got on its high horse last week and in an editorial compared President Obama to Union Civil War general George McClellan. The Post, which takes a hawkish view of American foreign policy, was frustrated at the lack of a decision from the White House on...
Modern health centres can’t match that personal touch
Briedge Gadd 17/11/09When I was young our doctor lived in the middle of the country in a house on a hill surrounded by trees. Dr Moore was the only GP in the area and he ministered to allcomers. If you needed to visit the doctor you made your way at certain times of the day accompanied by your mammy or another...
Parents left wondering if selection is worth the pain
Fionnuala OConnor 17/11/09Martin McGuinness made a flamboyant gesture in October seven years ago, when he axed the 11-plus with one stroke of his outgoing pen. But of course it was not that simple. The story since has been an unseemly scrap. While even the Tories in Britain left the grammar school argument...
Monument to tragedies of past may prevent those of the future
Roy Garland 16/11/09I FIRST became aware of the awful atrocities associated with Auschwitz during a history course that touched briefly on the Holocaust. Even then I saw parallels with Northern Ireland. Ten days ago I fulfilled my ambition to visit the infamous...
Sinn Fein needs to leave Bullingdon omerta behind
Tom Kelly 16/11/09SITTING watching the programme When Boris Met Dave there can be little doubt that David Cameron must be embarrassed. One suspects that the unapologetic but enigmatic Boris may have actually enjoyed the programme.
Better to have a life than an email
Anita Robinson 16/11/09When somebody says to me “Give me your email address and I’ll forward you details asap”, I say “Put it in an envelope with a stamp on it. If it’s really urgent, ring me.” “But…but…” they stutter, like a defective two-stroke engine. “I don’t have an email address” I tell them.
It must be near Christmas – car park rows are in full swing
Nuala McCann 14/11/09THE season of goodwill is upon us because there is none. Come mid-November, goodwill flies straight up the chimney with the Santa letters from over-enthusiastic children.
Illegal war is turning into a British institution
Patrick Murphy 14/11/09The war in Afghanistan is becoming a wonderfully British institution. Although the US is the lead partner, the war is increasingly portrayed by Gordon Brown as the latest chapter in that unending, romantic, political novel in which plucky Tommies fight the savage hordes in the desert sands, to uphold democracy, decency and that sense of fair play which only the British possess.
Ploughing on as tempers fray among holiday drivers
Fergal Hallahan 13/11/09DRIVING in France. Packed cars, roof-top boxes, bikes on the back, bored kids, steering wheels on the wrong side. Camper vans and caravans, all snaking their way slowly through the Massif Central.
Science-based argument is best way to define beauty
Chris Murphy 13/11/09One of the iconic views of Ireland is that across Dundrum Bay from Rossglass to where, as Percy French famously wrote, “the mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea”.
Workers standing up to defend jobs and services
Jim Gibney 12/11/09Last Friday tens of thousands of workers from the public and private sectors marched in protest demonstrations in many centres across Ireland.
Stormont turkeys won’t vote for a ‘quango-cull’
Eye of Newt... 12/11/09With so much talk of cutbacks, budget shortfalls and water charges, this is an excellent time to pick up a copy of Northern Ireland Public Bodies 2009 published by the reform delivery unit of the delivery and innovation division of the Department of Finance and Personnel.
One-man-band Allister is in no position to offer anything
Brian Feeney 11/11/09YOU probably didn’t read Jim Allister’s conference speech. On the face of it there’s no reason why you should. After all, the press and electronic media sieve out anything of interest and give it to you in a couple of headline items instead of wading through the whole turgid...
Yankees in from cold but Irish tenor whistling Dixie
Ray OHanlon 11/11/09SO, the New York Yankees won their 27th World Series title seeing off the holders, the Philadelphia Phillies, in six games out of the possible seven. They had not won since 2000. Nine years is nothing for some baseball clubs.
Political will is needed to end reign of anti-social behaviour
Briedge Gadd 10/11/09INEVER thought that punishment beatings and shootings would still be making the headlines almost 15 years after the IRA declared a complete ceasefire. What a sorry society that there are still people who believe that mutilating young people, summary...
Stormont is perfect venue for the sorest of subjects
Fionnuala OConnor 10/11/09It’s one of those subjects that any number of people imagine they are more liberal about than they are in truth. There was probably a fair amount of conversational satisfaction expressed and a deal more private double-think at a recent assessment by the Northern Ireland Mixed Marriage...
Generosity of historian will leave lasting contribution
Roy Garland 09/11/09Dr Harold O’Sullivan, noted historian, former president of Irish Congress of Trade Unions, retired Irish army captain and generous human being, died last month. He was well-known, especially around Dundalk...
‘Opposition in government’ strategy is failing the SDLP
Tom Kelly 09/11/09As the DUP and Sinn Fein continue to engage in ‘call my bluff’ over the mechanisms of when and how to transfer policing and justice powers, they are both unwittingly fostering the disengagement of an increasingly cynical and sceptical electorate.
The exemption that proves the rule
Anita Robinson 09/11/09A golf club in the Republic has succeeded in slithering through a loophole in equal status legislation to deny full membership to women. Over four years, the Republic’s justice system has, at district, high and supreme court levels, upheld this iniquity. The club did not...
