THE British Museum has loaned out one of the Elgin Marbles for the first time ever. The State Heritage Museum in St Petersburg will display a headless carving of the river god Ilissos until mid-January, at which time the precious artefact will be returned home. Or else it’ll go back to the British Museum. One […]
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From Athens to Andytown, it’s the same old thieving story
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Soul of a nation captured in many beautiful songs
I listened to young Cathal Clarke in the Bridge Grill Bar last Sunday night. Cathal, from Ardoyne, is an accomplished ballad singer with a wide repertoire of mainly Irish songs. He put in a marathon session of over two hours. The bar was by no means packed. Many of his offerings drew little response but […]
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FAI embroiled in a sing-song pub ding-dong
THE New York Times rang Squinter to find out more about the most recent controversy to engulf Irish soccer. Here’s what happened. FAI Chief Executive John Delaney is in a bit of hot water, we hear. Why’s that? Well, somebody whipped out their mobile phone and filmed him singing the Ballad of Joe McDonnell in […]
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Columbanus and Patrick
St Columbanus (he lived from about 550 until 615 a.d.) should never have got on the wrong side of Queen Brunhild. But he was impatient and that did nobody any favours. When Queen Brunhild came asking for two nephews to be baptised and he refused, because, he said, their daddy would not get married in […]
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West Belfast is on the road to nowhere now
WEST Belfast has traffic, Squinter’s pretty sure it does. The Glen Road is a nightmare much of the time – you try driving from the Andytown News office to the Falls bus depot during the morning school run, or the other way at teatime on a Christmas shopping evening, and you can make your own […]
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‘Monster snake’ terror on the Cave Hill Road
The Belfast Zoological Gardens known as Bellevue Zoo opened in 1934. I haven’t visited it for a long time but I believe that among the many species housed there are some snakes. Someone once told me that St Patrick banished snakes from Ireland over 1,500 years ago and the zoo undid his work. That is […]
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