In the 1970s ’80s and ’90s my favourite radio programme was Mo Cheol Thú, which was broadcast after the eight o’clock news on a Sunday morning. The presenter was Ciarán Mac Mathúna, a mine of information on Irish folklore. The programme consisted of a mixture of Irish traditional music and recitation of Irish poetry. The […]
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A road to nowhere
IN the wake of bombs like those in Boston earlier this week, people say all sorts of things. Remember the Omagh bomb? British and American politicians hurried to the town to join in the general sense of outrage and to assure local people of their support in rebuilding. Nothing would redress the terrible loss of […]
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Ditch the tattoo and buy a penknife
Dúlra’s got an idea for TV series that’s gonna make him a millionaire. He’s even got a name for it – you’ve heard of true love, well, this is Tree Love. He’s going to take a film crew through Colin Glen and across the Belfast hills, not to enjoy the wildlife, but to record the […]
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Stopping by woods on a snowy springtime
Forests go through months and years of cruel winters unscathed, but then in a few hours nature deals them a knock-out blow. The snow storm of three weeks ago did more damage than Dúlra has ever seen. This photo is of an ancient lime tree on Cave Hill – one of the biggest in the […]
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Time has not diminished the memory
I’VE never seen anything like it. On Facebook, on Twitter, there was instantaneous reaction. Comment after comment, tweet after tweet. You’d think the death of someone whose political career ended decades ago would have been greeted with a shrug. Not so Maggie Thatcher. Comment after comment, tweet after tweet expressing pleasure, nay delight, at the […]
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These days we have a very different kind of raptor
THEY’RE becoming the new terror of the skies – and this week Dúlra witnessed it at first hand. He was walking through the city centre when suddenly, a seagull pounced from the air on to a pigeon which had been walking on the road. The screeching was so loud that shoppers stopped to take in […]
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