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Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

The Irish News

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Tom Kelly: Keir Starmer should be worried by Nigel Farage and Reform UK after election losses

03.05.2025 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Sectarianism still chokes the air we breathe

28.04.2025 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

The Rising, the Great War and my family’s dinner table stories about 1916

21.04.2025 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Time for Starmer to step in to save PSNI

15.04.2025 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

With unionists agitating, it feels like the Twelfth is just around the corner

07.04.2025 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Let’s learn the lessons of history as Trump brings US to brink of fascism

31.03.2025 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Alarm bells should be ringing at Labour HQ

24.03.2025 9

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Where’s the bonfire of bureaucracy in the north?

17.03.2025 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

The Casement Park debacle is the perfect symbol of Stormont’s failures

10.03.2025 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Playing up to Trump doesn’t make for easy watching but it’s a political necessity

04.03.2025 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

O’Neill’s White House snub is a miscalculation by Sinn Féin

25.02.2025 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Happy birthday, Brid Rodgers - the lioness in the SDLP pride

21.02.2025 6

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Is it any wonder nationalists are not rushing to join the PSNI when there never even been a Catholic justice minister?

16.02.2025 9

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Whether in Kingsmill or Clonoe, there is no cause or flag which justifies murder

10.02.2025 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Turbocharge the Good Friday Agreement and end divisions, not difference

04.02.2025 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly: Woody Guthrie had it right – Trump’s new war on immigrants is as short-sighted as it is racially motivated

27.01.2025 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Palestinian and Israeli children should enjoy the sunshine of peace, not the rain of war

20.01.2025 9

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Labour isn’t working. Sir Keir Starmer needs to step up to the plate

14.01.2025 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Time for this British government to come clean on Sean Brown and truth of collusion

A new year is usually a time of hope. Personally, I struggle with it as it’s an annual reminder of a great hurt in my life. Nearly 50 years on and...

07.01.2025 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Give me Graham Taylor and Elton John over more Gerry Adams

Christmas is now done and dusted. All the stress, the preparation, the expense, the food and drink, makes one wonder: is it all worth it? Of...

31.12.2024 4

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Labour needs some big wins in New Year to shed Scrooge image

Dear readers, from my house to yours, Nollaig shona daoibh go léir! Just two sleeps until Christmas. So today I’ll give the local politicos a...

23.12.2024 3

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Smart unionists know that embracing equality works for all

To paraphrase from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “The unionists doth protest too much, methinks.” Where’s the confident, assured and all embracing...

17.12.2024 5

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

From Stormont’s pretend politics to Mary Lou McDonald’s Dublin delusions, we’re in a terrible state o’ chassis

An unsettled UK Labour government, France in disarray, Palestine abandoned, Ukraine in retreat and the US spiralling towards dictatorship, as...

09.12.2024 3

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Ireland bucks the trend as centre holds sway in general election

The people have spoken. Well, those who bothered to vote have spoken. The trajectory of the election results point to Micheál Martin becoming...

02.12.2024 7

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Momentum seems to be with Harris and Martin as campaign closes

Voters in the Republic will soon be electing members to the 34th Dáil Éireann. The first Dáil was formed in the era of my grandparents, so it’s...

25.11.2024 4

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Running from Office is 2024′s best political book

FORMER Irish cabinet minister Eoghan Murphy was elected as a Fine Gael councillor in 2009 for Pembroke Rathmines at the age of 27. Within two...

21.11.2024 2

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Buckle up for a bumpy ride with the MAGA cult

Donald Trump has staged a remarkable political comeback. He targeted his supporters with simple messaging about the economy and immigration. He...

11.11.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

The indulgent loyalist paramilitary gravy train has to stop

Last week someone within the oxymoronic loyalist ‘political research’ organisation better known as the UPRG posted a Halloween message with the...

04.11.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Budget presents greatest test for Starmer and Labour

In less than 48 hours the Labour administration faces its greatest challenge – the 2024/25 budget. The public reaction may determine the future of...

28.10.2024 3

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Sinn Féin's early Halloween nightmare

“Houston, we have a problem.” To say Sinn Féin is struggling with presentation would be a gross understatement. They appear to have a serious...

22.10.2024 2

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

It’s embarrassing to watch the DUP indulge the LCC

The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) is a farce. It always has been. It’s a bunch of (mainly old) men desperately clinging on to maintain a...

14.10.2024 3

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

It’s your party now, Claire - seize the day

The late Mary O’Rourke, former Fianna Fáil minister, once refused to be minister for women’s affairs as she didn’t want to be pigeon-holed in a...

07.10.2024 2

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Paul Givan was ridiculously naive and unbelievably stupid to meet the LCC

Victor Hugo, the French writer and politician, once said: “He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC)...

30.09.2024 3

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Labour can’t keep calling for change, it needs to make it a reality

Currently this writer is sitting in the Pullman Hotel in Liverpool watching hundreds of contractors, Labour party staff and volunteers put the...

23.09.2024 3

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Finucane inquiry can shine a light on the ‘deep state’ and unearth answers for all victims

Even by the low standards of the so-called Troubles, the 1989 loyalist paramilitary murder of solicitor Pat Finucane in front of his wife and young...

16.09.2024 3

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Racism stems from an unfounded fear but mostly it’s a result of ignorance and bigotry - Tom Kelly

Dean Swift visiting Newry talked about the “proud people”. I am from such stock. But reading in both the Newry Reporter and The Irish News about...

09.09.2024 2

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

The new SDLP and UUP leaders need to jointly offer an alternative to the DUP and Sinn Féin’s loveless marriage

A couple of weeks ago, my column was about longevity and leadership. On the day it was published Doug Beattie announced his resignation as leader...

03.09.2024 4

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

All hail Jon Boutcher for shining a light on executive and civil service inertia

I used to work with a man called James B King. He was a larger than life figure and held the post of President Clinton’s director of the Office of...

26.08.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Political leadership is a precarious position

It’s easy to sometimes manipulate figures to suit a particular narrative. Commentators do it (Mea culpa). Modern leaders of political parties must...

19.08.2024 2

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Fine words at Stormont won’t butter any parsnips

“Fine words butter no parsnips” goes the saying. And so it was with the recall of the Assembly. There were lots of eloquent words, moral...

12.08.2024 1

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Why it’s time to lance the boil of toxicity and hatred - Tom Kelly

Alice Dasilva Aguilar aged 9. Elsie Dot Stancombe aged 7. Bebe King aged 6. Remember their names. Children whose lives were mercilessly cut short by...

05.08.2024 2

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Loyalist opposition to the GAA and ‘Irish’ culture has much to do with a losers’ psyche, built by successive leaders of unionism

At the time of writing, Newry is festooned in orange and white. Clanrye, the county river which divides Down from Armagh has been breached....

29.07.2024 2

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Why aren’t we tougher on recreational rioting and endless loyalist paramilitary ‘transitioning’?

The assassination attempt on former President Trump was wholly wrong. The intentions of the would-be assassin remain, as yet, unknown. What’s known...

22.07.2024 2

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Parliamentary oath is a means to an end, nothing more, nothing less

There’s a lot of guff at the moment about taking the parliamentary oath at Westminster. The decision to participate in the swearing in ceremony is...

16.07.2024 6

The Irish News

Tom Kelly