WHEN I was ten years old I was brought on one of the two childhood holidays we ever had. On what seemed the hottest day of 1981, my brother, aged nine, and I were packed into the back of a yellow Opel Manta on a boiling August day. My baby brother, aged one, sat on […]
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Who fired the shots at Stewartstown village?
Few of the 130 Volunteers who travelled to Coalisland on Easter Saturday 1916 had any inkling about the forthcoming Rising. The Belfast organiser, Denis McCullough, received a message on Good Friday morning from Dr Patrick McCartan asking him to attend a meeting. He immediately set out for Tyrone and reached Carrickmore at lunchtime. There he […]
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Dúlra’s feeling so lucky as the majestic jay graces his garden
IT’S a shy, retiring creature with stunning good looks – a bit like Dúlra himself, some would say. And Dúlra feels as lucky as a lottery winner to have the jay grace his garden. He took this photograph at the weekend as the bird simply rested on the wire feeder in the back garden. It’s […]
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The common good badly served by Orange Order
WITH the various bloody and sometimes lethal clashes between blacks and whites in the US recently, you may have missed the emergence of another grouping there. It’s an organisation which is liable to add to the problems of an already-divided society. They’re called the Milwaukee Power Maintenance (MPM), and were established in Wisconsin just under […]
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July seems so unfair
WHAT does a shared future look like? Does it look like a future where Irish citizens continue to have second class status, second class flags, a second class language? Does it look like a future where our roads continue to be bedecked with union flags and flags depicting various pro-British armed groups – legal and […]
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Queen’s visit brings back varied memories
As I write this the Queen of England and the Duke of Edinburgh are in Bushmills. The royal visit was overshadowed by the homecoming of the province’s soccer team. They were greeted by thousands of fans while the queen arrived almost unnoticed. The Secretary of State was busy furthering her political career in London […]
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