Category Archives: Current Affairs

For as long as I can remember I have advised fellow reporters to fully read the reports of government inquiries, especially those dealing with security issues thrown up by the Troubles.

I do that because invariably there are little, and sometimes, sizeable and valuable diamonds of information hidden in interminable pages of dull text. But you have to read it all to find them. I usually take my own advice but here I must admit to one occasion when I ignored my own counsel. Read more »

The Troubles was one of the darkest periods in Northern Ireland’s history. It has had a profound and lasting impact on the lives of so many in Northern Ireland and across the United Kingdom as a whole.

I have been deeply moved by the personal stories of pain and suffering endured by the families of the victims and survivors. I firmly believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to be heard and have a say in how we best move forward. Read more »

“IT’S not always cowardice that makes men run,” says disgraced police inspector Hannah (Hugo Weaving) of his former British army comrade, the now renegade Martin Feeney (James Frecheville), in Black 47. “Sometimes they just get tired. And angry.”

It could be a line from Richard Crenna’s Colonel Trautman in First Blood, explaining to a rookie why “the best soldier I ever knew” – in that case one John Rambo – went rogue. Read more »

A row has broken out over the wording of a plaque to commemorate a gun-running operation by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).

Councillors agreed to install the plaque at Donaghadee Harbour, where rifles were landed in April 1914.

It was part of a unionist campaign against the expected introduction of Home Rule in Ireland. Read more »

The trailer for A Mother Takes Her Son To Be Shot, a new documentary set in Londonderry, opens with a mundane domestic image – a mother dropping chips into a deep-fat fryer.

A mother cooking for her family, a typical image of comfort and protection.

But in post-conflict Northern Ireland, a mother’s role can be skewed. Read more »

I attended a Prison Arts Foundation presentation in the Crumlin Road Prison quite some time ago and I have to say that the quality of work on show was exceptional. The main picture is of me standing beside a painting that was done by Michael Stone. I recognised it from quite a distance – his distinctive style is on show with the painstaking application of layers he has been using on a lot of his recent work.

A recently set-up group consisting of ex-combatants and ex-prisoners are collating a collection of art memorabilia images with the possibility of composing a calendar for 2019.

If you have any images of paintings, handicrafts etc that you would be interested in displaying in the calendar please contact me at the usual channels or through this site.

BR

The Guardian has been the only media I can find claiming a British ploy to get round the backstop in these terms. 

Senior diplomats involved in the negotiations have reacted furiously to the details of a fresh UK proposal for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland, briefed to the Irish PM, Leo Varadkar, at last week’s Salzburg summit. Read more »

The Birds of Long Cage.

     Long Kesh; barbed wire, high walls, army look out posts, helicopters, a young prison population, all convicted in a non-jury Diplock court. This was special category status. A unique prison situation in the entire history of British prisons.  As time went on, and despite all the protests and conflict, a normality, or attempts at normality, began to emerge. One feature of cage life was that some men began to get birds to look after as pets. Read more »

A Protestant boxer has received thousands of pounds in settlement of a case brought under fair employment law.

Lewis Crocker believed he was not picked for the NI Commonwealth Youth Games squad because of his perceived religious belief or political opinion. Read more »