Stakeholder

The 1986 FA Cup Final and the 1988 European Championships in Germany. Two major football events with no discernible link for nearly everyone. Everyone, that is, apart from me. The ’86 Cup Final, of course, saw an Ian Rush-inspired Liverpool beat Merseyside rivals Everton 3-1 in the Wembley showpiece, while in Germany in ‘88 there [...]

Churchill once said that ‘Eating words never gave him indigestion’. One suspects that he was speaking for the entire political class.  On Saturday, the very long and considered response of the Holy See to the Cloyne Report was finally released. It was as Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore said ‘very legalistic and technical’.  In many ways it [...]

Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney and Edin Dzeko of Man City got all the plaudits – and rightly so. When you score three and four goals respectively in what were 8-2 and 5-1 victories over Arsenal and Spurs then you deserve all the gushing headlines that come your way. However, when one steps back to view [...]

There is an old Gaelic proverb- ‘Ar scath a cheile a mhairmid’; it roughly translates into- ‘we all live in each other’s shadow’.  It could almost be a Buddhist mantra for peaceful co-existence.  Unfortunately, the shadows cast here in Northern Ireland tend to be separate rather than shared. There has been much debate recently as [...]

Last week I celebrated another birthday. My age and girth seem to be in competition.  Funny though in my mind’s eye they stabilised in my thirties. In everyone else’s – they are in a race.  I can still remember attempting my first shave courtesy of my Dad’s Wilkinson’s Sword Double Edge Safety razor. ‘Safety Razor’ [...]

If you are going to riot in Belfast you really should think again. Best to try one of the London boroughs, it’s much safer and vastly more profitable. The violence in England last week could be described as truly mindless. It was carried out by opportunistic thugs. The Met was caught completely off guard and [...]

‘Off with her head’ screamed the Queen of Hearts and so it seems that a vengeful SDLP may also look for the head of their Leader, Margaret Ritchie, in retribution for recent election results. Finally the media took the bait cast from various ‘informed’ tweets that Patsy McGlone might challenge the beleaguered lady for her [...]

Paisley said it first; now it’s Enda Kenny. ‘Pope out’ – ‘No Rome Rule’.  For colour Enda added references to neither a crozier nor collar being protection from the laws in a Republic. On both, the Taoiseach is correct. The Republic by its nature should as in the words of the 1916 Proclamation equally guarantee [...]

Despite the best efforts of my good friend, Lord Laird, Orange Fest just does not do it for me.  He should not be too upset by that declaration as in the right circumstances I could give a fair rendition of both ‘The Sash’ and ‘The Auld Orange Flute’.  I can also admit to wryly liking [...]

Margaret Ritchie secured a Commons Adjournment debate last week on the little known but costly issue of double levying small businesses for playing music in public. This matter mainly affects hairdressers, shopkeepers, and garage owners. The public are most likely oblivious to that fact that the music they are listening while under the hairdryer or [...]

Observant Catholics will know that July 1st 2011 is the Feast of the Sacred Heart.  History buffs will also know that July 1st 1690 is the day that Orange Billy beat the backside of Papish James at the Battle of the Boyne. Some 86 years later in 1776, having thrown off the shackles of Imperialism, [...]

The media seems to be getting hot and bothered over the results of the latest Northern Ireland Life and Times survey. Naturally Sinn Fein and the DUP who just recently received an over whelming mandate to provide sound leadership in the North set to in a skirmish by claiming that either the results were bogus [...]

 Hugh Gaitskell, a former Labour Leader, once forecast that ‘all terrorists at the invitation of the Government, end up with drinks at the Dorchester’.  One bets he never envisaged that some murderers would end up at the invitation of terrorists with jobs in the government?  The heart rendering intervention of Ann Travers over the controversial [...]