SQUINTER thought at first glance this is a Range Rover Evoque, the fancy 4X4 so beloved of second-tier football players, small company directors and mid-level drug-dealers. But he was wrong. In fact, it probably won’t be long before you see one of these at a Camp Twaddell near you. This is the new generation of […]
Squinter: the autumn leaves are falling like flags
SO ANYWAY, there’s Squinter dandering along the Ormeau Road on Monday night, the dog at his side, looking up at him with that please-don’t-tie-me-to-a-lamppost-outside-the- bookies-again expression that dogs do so well (what do you mean, yours doesn’t)? As he approaches the corner of Deramore Avenue there are four herberts gathered behind a small wall underneath […]
Squinter review of the year
JANUARY STILL no sign of the firebomber who ran through the bustling streets of pre-Christmas Belfast with his head and shoulders on fire in a scene straight from the cover of a famous Pink Floyd album. No arrests, no developments, no CCTV footage, even, in a city bristling with meerkat-like cameras. When Squinter was a boy, […]
From Athens to Andytown, it’s the same old thieving story
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]