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The Irish News |
Depressingly, there are too many features of life under Stormont that have been described as emblematic of its failure to deliver for its citizens. A...
IT must be exhausting trying to be everything to everyone. Thankfully for Mary Lou McDonald, her shift in this particular charade is almost over. In...
Sometimes the place where we live can feel like the most backward place on earth and then once in a while, legislators do something really important...
‘ENGLAND’S difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’ has been a well-worn phrase within Irish nationalism since the days of Daniel O’Connell. ...
IF the recent plans of some figures in Fianna Fáil had come to fruition, it would have celebrated the centenary of its launch at the weekend by...
WHAT a sad society we live in when there are those among us who deface or destroy street name signs because they are in Irish or in English. Our...
SCOTLAND and Wales want a Good Friday Agreement-type mechanism for independence referendums. That is the goal of the constitutional cooperation being...
THE report by former civil service permanent secretary Peter May into the workings of the satirically named Independent Commission for Reconciliation...
Like a lot of people during the pandemic, my family bought a dog. Five years later, Ferdy has accidentally become the central decision-maker in almost...
The by-elections which take place in the Dublin Central and Galway West constituencies on this day next week are of considerable significance, and in...
IN October 2025, while addressing the UUP conference, then leader Mike Nesbitt stated, rather insightfully: “While unionists have always looked over...
SLOWLY but surely, it looks like we are moving towards a period when unionism will be represented by a singular political message, if not yet one...
THE UUP has called for an independent review of Northern Ireland’s rights and equality commissions following the Supreme Court ruling last week on...
THE Covid epidemic has most certainly left very many of us completely traumatised. And that is precisely why we have reacted in a completely...
There was a time when the Irish language was dismissed by some as a cultural luxury; a worthy pursuit but hardly essential to modern life....
The Irish boycott of the 70th Eurovision Song Contest, which began with last night’s semi-final, was a symbolic gesture which also had a practical...
THE UUP has two particular problems with its MLA team. Eight of the nine are male. Six of the nine are aged mid-50s and above. Another problem is...
TWO things struck me about the GB elections last Thursday. The leaders of nationalism in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland got terribly excited and...
THE prize for the most fatuous comment about last week’s British elections goes to Gavin Robinson, the charisma-free DUP leader. At Stormont on...
IT’S no longer a matter of if, but when. The break-up of the United Kingdom is an inevitability. It was barely holding itself together, but the...
I HAD breakfast with Stanley Tucci once. Well, not quite with him, but a few feet away from him. Close enough to smell the coffee, far enough for him...
DEBATE around the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) has until now largely focused on its credibility as a...
While many groups have worked strenuously but unsuccessfully for decades towards encouraging the final break-up of the United Kingdom through...
The English electorate never cease to amaze me with their political choices and sheer stupidity, especially since they voted for Margaret Thatcher. As...
SHOULD he stay or should he go? Following a catastrophic set of local election results, Sir Keir Starmer faced renewed calls from Labour MPs to step...
During this week next year, if Assembly elections go ahead as scheduled, everyone with an interest in the political process would normally be fully...
I often give my friends dirty looks when they try to empathise with the fact I have too many kids by telling me about the needs of their cats. Yes,...
THE collapse of Britain’s economy and society has now been reflected in its politics. That’s the main lesson from the English local government...
THE full results of the council and parliamentary elections in Britain won’t be known until this evening, and the final outcomes in Edinburgh and...
I don’t know about anyone else but every time I open social media lately, I seem to be met with another major life announcement. Engagements....
While it’s fresh in my head, I must relate my latest humiliating experience at a supermarket in town. The old adage that the customer is always...
WHO cut funding for the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project? Strictly speaking, nobody. In 2022, administrative responsibility for the long-running...
WHEN the chair of the Policing Board, Brendan Mullan, said that the official review into the profoundly shocking case of the murdered showjumper Katie...
IT’S exam season. It is the time when all those years of readying are poured into a concentrated moment, when fifth and six formers get sick with...
ONE hundred years ago, on May 16 1926, the inaugural public meeting of Fianna Fáil was held. Its formation came about when Éamon de Valera resigned...
THERE was plenty of coverage and reaction last year when ‘intimidation points’ were removed from social housing by DUP Communities Minister Gordon...
SOMETIMES a feeling comes over you that you don’t fully understand. In that moment, you don’t know what will or might come of it. This time, two...
Another week at Stormont, another classic game of political ping-pong. You could be forgiven for thinking you’ve seen this all before. This time,...
First, to clarify: last week’s column didn’t advocate Sinn Féin downing tools and walking out of the Assembly immediately. The whole expensive...
My fellow columnist Brian Feeney was in rare old form last week, urging Sinn Féin to abandon the ‘failing Assembly’. In fairness, I do have broad...
THE disorder which took place in west Belfast on Monday night, after a gathering which was reportedly in memory of a young man who died in a jet ski...
The end of funding for an academic project researching the origins of our rich variety of place names raises questions which require urgent...
IF there is a default Irish face, it is an eyebrows-pulled-down, eyes-narrowed, lips-pursed scowl. It was pulled roughly 17,000 times between 1pm and...
FRIDAY marks the anniversary of Robert Prevost’s election as Pope Leo XIV. It was a truly remarkable event in the life of the Catholic Church. For...
THERE was welcome news in Stormont last week when Minister John O’Dowd said he would implement “Jade’s Law”. This would automatically remove...
The road which the relatives of the five innocent people shot dead by the British Army on a single dreadful day, in west Belfast 54 years ago, were...
IN my office at home, there is a caricature of two mules dressed in loyalist and republican regalia, with their tails tied together, pulling in the...
WHEN President Catherine Connolly last week hosted a visit in Áras an Uachtaráin by Arab Barghouti, it underscored the esteem in which his father,...
JIM McDowell’s funeral took place at the weekend and, while his death is above all an immense loss to his family, I am not at all sure if journalism...
When we were students, myself and the older brother went off to America to work for the summer. He got a job in an Irish bar in Queens and made an...
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