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Jake Okane__The Irish News |
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a soccer fan. I will, on occasion, watch big set pieces such as the early stages of the World Cup if only to see...
When I was a boy the local snooker hall was called the Patrickville. I was only in it a couple of times as it was a place we were warned to stay out...
So, have you heard the news? If you haven’t, you’re probably living in an isolated house high in the mountains with no electricity, although even...
Plans to ban anyone born in or after 2009 from legally buying cigarettes easily passed their first hurdle in parliament this week. Championed by PM...
The photograph above is of my dad’s darts team heading off on their annual outing to Blackrock, taken outside his pub on New Lodge Road, Belfast in...
Haters are gonna hate. I doubt a week has gone past where I haven’t been insulted or even occasionally threatened on anti-social media, yet I...
Last December I noted in this column some of the memorable things which had occurred the previous year. Not surprisingly considering my age a couple...
My comments in last week’s column around Belfast City Council’s dereliction of duty regarding the city centre, particularly the Tribeca...
I hate people who say, ‘I told you so’, as they invariably turn out to be narcissistic bores. I’d ever say such a thing, no, I would however...
Like most of you, I have a love/hate relationship with what I call ‘antisocial media’. At its best, it reaches the ambitions proclaimed by John...
We’ve seen many recent examples of people and nations claiming ownership where none rightfully exists. For instance, the plight of Ukraine has never...
When it was announced the Irish government are to invest €800m in the north, I was half expecting a cacophony of unionist objections to interference...
In Dante’s Inferno, hell is divided into nine circles. On the eighth, penultimate circle sits fraud, just above the ninth circle where Satan is to...
You’d need to be a complete ogre not to feel sympathy for King Charles following reports he’s being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer....
There are times when local politics becomes so surreal that all a satirist can do is admit defeat and leave the field for more serious writers to do...
At the time of writing, we’ve had 10 named storms this season; a record, which, I suspect, will soon be surpassed due to global warming. The latest...
I’m presently out on my comedy tour, and this is the first time in 10 years where I’m doing virtually no political satire. I’ve decided things...
As the cost-of-living crisis continues to impact society, one of the first victims of government cuts is invariably the arts. Some argue at such times...
I’m back out on the road at this time of the year, both figuratively and literally, in that I’m on tour and driving around the country. One of my...
As we face a new year, our dysfunctional politics has us trapped in a NI version of Groundhog Day. Whilst our truanting politicians feast on the...
The dreaded Covid made a return visit to the O’Kane household, having laid my wife low for the past week. I’ve so far remained unaffected,...
My wife recently informed me that the people on the television can’t hear what I’m shouting. I don’t know when I started shouting at the news,...
My Spotify account recently reviewed my year’s listening and I was shocked to learn I’d a preference for what they called ‘Adult...
My Spotify account recently reviewed my year’s listening and I was shocked to learn I’d a preference for what they called ‘Adult...
You know we’re in the descent into Christmas madness when the television starts playing sickly sweet advertisements from the likes of John...
I've just printed out a German homework for my 16-year-old son.
"This man has done more to divide this country than anybody else. He's looked after his own pocket; I still refer to him as dodgy Dave."
THESE three photographs prove that good genetics can – if you're unlucky like me – jump a generation.
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THAT up to a dozen men felt emboldened to attend the Gary Haggarty case in the Crown Court whilst wearing face masks proves how distant our society...
CALL me superstitious but I worry when I hear Jeffrey Donaldson confidently announce there won't be a united Ireland in his lifetime.
WHEN my wife mentioned U2 had announced they were doing a 25-date residency in Las Vegas, I knew it was time to apply for a US visa.
WHEN my wife mentioned U2 had announced they were doing a 25-date residency in Las Vegas, I knew it was time to apply for a US visa.
Due to the technical or legal reasons, readability mode is not available for this article. Thank you for your kind understanding.
We've had another political deal which, as per usual, isn't a deal.
We've had another political deal which, as per usual, isn't a deal.
There can be few who haven't heard of the sign once displayed in the window of an English B&B which read: 'No Irish, no blacks, no dogs.
I lost an hour of my life – a lot of time for someone my age – whilst sitting in gridlocked traffic in central Belfast during the week.
I lost an hour of my life – a lot of time for someone my age – whilst sitting in gridlocked traffic in central Belfast during the week.
If you look up Lough Neagh on Wikipedia – the font of all knowledge since we stopped buying encyclopaedias – it’s described as...
If you look up Lough Neagh on Wikipedia – the font of all knowledge since we stopped buying encyclopaedias – it’s described as...
When Simon Byrne and his deputy Mark Hamilton left last week’s Policing Board meeting following a six-hour grilling, I joked I’d known...
When Simon Byrne and his deputy Mark Hamilton left last week’s Policing Board meeting following a six-hour grilling, I joked I’d known...