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Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney

The Irish News

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Brian Feeney: Never again will police baton protesters off the street

Brian Feeney: Never again will police baton protesters off the street

THE Court of Appeal heard the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition case on Monday, exactly 58 years to the day since the RUC batoned peaceful civil...

wednesday 10

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

The world is finally turning on Israel’s odious government

The world is finally turning on Israel’s odious government

ON September 8, the British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank. He said it...

03.10.2026 10

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

The problem at Drumcree is the Orange Order, and has been for 200 years

The problem at Drumcree is the Orange Order, and has been for 200 years

AFTER all the turmoil of recent days, two key questions remain unanswered. One, which Michelle O’Neill kept asking rhetorically, is: “What has...

30.09.2026 30

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

DUP sleepwalking into border poll unionism could lose

THE DUP’s Gavin Robinson was quickly out of the traps to repudiate Donald Trump’s remarks on Irish unity. He posted on X that “Northern...

26.09.2026 30

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

There’s no point trying to reform an Assembly that simply doesn’t work

WE’RE told that Micheál Martin raised the matter of reform of the Assembly and Executive when he met Andy Burnham in Manchester last Friday. ...

23.09.2026 20

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Why one Irish granny now beats eight years of paying taxes

MASS migration is causing countries to urgently revise their rules on residency and citizenship. Nowhere is this action more urgent than in Britain,...

19.09.2026 20

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Forget Trump – the real threat to the union was in Cardiff

DESPITE last weekend in Doonbeg being about golf and despite Shane Lowry carding a record score, beating Bernhard Langer’s 1987 figure, Trump...

16.09.2026 20

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Twenty-five years after 9/11, America is still sowing dragon’s teeth

THE cataclysmic events of September 11 2001, known everywhere by the American dating convention as 9/11, still reverberate today in both the US and in...

12.09.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

The Drumcree case is about destroying the Parades Commission – but it will fail

YOU might think the provocative, preposterous demand to march along Garvaghy Road, which has so dismayed most people north and south, is to do with...

09.09.2026 30

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Will it be guns or government for Burnham’s Britain?

PRESIDENT Macron was the first foreign leader Andy Burnham met in Downing Street since he became prime minister. Burnham is at the beginning of his...

05.09.2026 30

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Sooner or later, the answer to our problems has to be a border poll

On his first visit to the north in July after his appointment, the new proconsul wouldn’t answer a question from The Irish Times on reunification. ...

02.09.2026 30

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney: In case the proconsul hasn’t worked it out yet, the problem here is partition

THE Westminster parliament resumes on September 1 and a leisurely week later, on September 7, Stormont resumes business as usual – bickering and...

31.08.2026 30

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Jon Burrows needs to wind his neck in after his disastrous intervention in Coleraine

ON being appointed the north’s new health minister, Robbie Butler said he wanted this place “to have a world-class health service that people can...

26.08.2026 50

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

The rise of the far right across Europe will be felt here too

THE EU that Britain is trying to get closer to is no longer the EU Britain left in 2016. It’s concerned with its eastern borders, whether or not to...

22.08.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

How can unionists still pretend that nothing has changed?

IT’S pretty obvious that nationalists and unionists hold diametrically opposed positions on the national question which substitutes for bread and...

19.08.2026 30

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Trump’s disastrous war has realigned politics in the Middle East

IT seems Donald Trump’s depredations in the Middle East since 2025 with war criminal Netanyahu have realigned politics and diplomacy there, but not...

15.08.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Sinn Féin cannot enter another Executive without progress on a border poll

NEWSPAPERS and social media are all full of justified praise and admiration for the astonishing success of the Fleadh and its hands across the divide....

12.08.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Why are EU citizens in the north being ghosted by the Irish government?

IT looks as though the Irish government has successfully passed the first test of its presidency of the Council of the EU. On Tuesday, Minister of...

07.08.2026 50

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Unionism fails to see it is in a worse position than ever

The Greeks had a word for it: ‘adiaphora’ – inessentials, matters of indifference. Martin Luther, who was pretty good at Greek (he translated...

05.08.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Ireland will not be immune from France’s moment of truth

THE divide in French politics and society since the early 19th century, examined here over the past couple of weeks, remains as clear as ever....

01.08.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

So what about the new Secretary of State, Chris Bryant? He’s irrelevant, that’s what

THE forelock-tugging unionist media here eagerly await the arrival of the new proconsul, full of anticipation about what changes he will make to...

29.07.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney: ‘The Dreyfus Affair’ and a story France still can’t leave behind

Last week’s column dealt with the origins of the divide in French society and politics that still persists today. This week’s deals with the...

25.07.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Never mind Burnham, at last the Irish government can finally see the value of unity

When the new British prime minister visits this place on his obligatory skite round what the BBC calls “the nations and the regions of the UK”,...

22.07.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney: The revolution that never ended: the history of France’s enduring divide

On Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron presided over his last Bastille Day parade; his term in office ends next year. It was the biggest display of French...

18.07.2026 60

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

DUP’s cowardly response to Moygashel speaks volumes about the party

THE DUP response to the latest stunt by the Moygashel Morons – placing a mock cardboard mosque on their bonfire to be burnt – provided a classic...

15.07.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Stormont fails, London ignores, Dublin stands idly by

THE Stormont Assembly has shut down for the 2025-6 session. How can you tell? You can’t, because you’ll see no difference between nothing...

11.07.2026 50

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Suddenly everyone is talking about Irish unity. Here’s why

IT can hardly have escaped your notice that in the last month, developments on the matter of Irish reunification have accelerated. Last night Sinn...

08.07.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

From a beacon of democracy to Trump’s rotten, mafia state

TODAY is a sad day not only for many Americans but for millions around the world who once looked to the United States as a beacon of democracy and...

04.07.2026 50

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Political unionism needs to accept their is no alternative, Alex, and do a deal with Dublin

Sinn Féin has introduced a Bill requiring the Dublin government to publish a Green Paper on reunification within 12 months. The government didn’t...

01.07.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Britain is still desperately searching for a role in the world

IN 1962, Dean Acheson, a former US Secretary of State, in a speech at the American military academy West Point, summed up Britain’s dilemma with...

27.06.2026 40

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

10 years on, there’s no quick fix to the damage Brexit has wreaked on Britain

IT’S exactly 10 years to the day when the first results of the Brexit referendum from the north-east of England began to indicate a victory for...

24.06.2026 50

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney: Jeffrey Donaldson’s career was built on lies

JEFFREY Donaldson will forever be remembered for his precipitous fall from grace on Good Friday 2024, when the news gradually emerged of his arrest...

23.06.2026 50

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

The misuse of terror laws to target Palestine Action protesters should alarm everyone

IN this paper on Saturday, Pat McArt warned about the gradual erosion of free speech and civil liberty. As he wrote: “Rights and freedoms are rarely...

17.06.2026 50

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney: What exactly is all of Ireland’s shiny new military equipment for?

THE explosive resignation letter of Britain’s Defence Secretary John Healey on Thursday brought an ongoing row in the British Cabinet to a head. At...

13.06.2026 50

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

The north does not have an immigration problem. It has a racism problem that needs called out by unionists

A bumper weekend for racism and sectarianism in the north. The Moygashel morons in action again, replacing their racist banner; a derelict Shankill...

10.06.2026 70

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

If war-ravaged Europe could do it, all-Ireland cooperation can and must happen too

THE European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was established by the Treaty of Paris in 1951 to integrate Europe’s coal and steel industries. The...

06.06.2026 70

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

What is the point of the DUP’s self-defeating war on all things Irish?

YOU probably remember that in April last year, the SDLP MLA Cara Hunter caused a bit of a stir when she posted on X about unionists: “The coloniser...

03.06.2026 60

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Why John Swinney believes now is the best time for Scottish independence

ON Tuesday, as he had promised in the SNP’s election campaign, Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney presented a motion to its parliament calling...

30.05.2026 70

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

After two bad by-elections, it looks like voters no longer see Sinn Féin as main opposition

THE by-election results in Dublin Central and Galway West were seriously bad for Sinn Féin. There’s no other way to spin them. Admittedly they are...

27.05.2026 60

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Catherine Connolly names the real challenge of decolonising our minds

IRELAND’S President Catherine Connolly in England, Britain’s King Charles in the north at the same time. Surely no coincidence? After all, these...

23.05.2026 70

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

The road back to Brussels runs through Dublin

LABOUR’S campaign in the Makerfield by-election got off to a good start, didn’t it? Wes Streeting said “Britain’s future lies with Europe and...

20.05.2026 60

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney: The ICRIR is a shambles and its leaders should resign

THE report by former civil service permanent secretary Peter May into the workings of the satirically named Independent Commission for Reconciliation...

16.05.2026 70

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Unionist denial of reality won’t stop constitutional change

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...

13.05.2026 60

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney: Britain’s old order is collapsing and the union may be next

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...

09.05.2026 60

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Sinn Féin must refuse to re-enter an Executive until London and Dublin move on border poll

First, to clarify: last week’s column didn’t advocate Sinn Féin downing tools and walking out of the Assembly immediately. The whole expensive...

06.05.2026 60

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

The world is moving on from oil – why aren’t we?

IN the midst of the blizzard of news surrounding the visit of Britain’s king to the US (or, to be more accurate, to the malevolent White House...

02.05.2026 70

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney: It’s time for Sinn Féin to give up on this failing Assembly

SINN Féin’s ard fheis at the weekend was a success – up to a point. The return to Belfast after seven years allowed them to demonstrate with up...

29.04.2026 60

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Why does the Irish government not want to defend democracy?

SPANISH prime minister Pedro Sanchez hosted a big conference in Barcelona last weekend. It was attended by more than 20 political leaders from around...

25.04.2026 70

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

How can you tell if you are a sufferer of colonisation syndrome?

THIS obsession on the airwaves and in the press here with the ins and outs of the agonies of the British Labour Party, and its prospects in the local...

22.04.2026 80

The Irish News

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney: The terrifying reality of life under US sanctions

WHEN you hear that a government – usually the US or its glove puppet, the UK – has ‘sanctioned’ somebody, what does that mean? The term was...

18.04.2026 80

The Irish News

Brian Feeney