|
Tom CollinsThe Irish News |
Timing is everything in politics, and when Humza Yousaf became leader of the SNP last year the party was already in freefall. Without a personal...
We were sitting in English class the day after it happened. Our teacher had just introduced us to the poetry of Seamus Heaney. Even for a group of...
It’s not difficult to find culprits for what is happening in the Middle East, for so long a plaything of powerful empires intent on putting their...
There is already the whiff of failure about the new taoiseach – and this is his first day in office. Simon Harris is one of those oleaginous...
Anyone who has sat at the bedside of a loved one who is dying – and that is an experience most of us will have gone through – will understand how...
One of the problems with politics is that politicians often think only in the short term. Their income is dependant on re-election, and their vision...
By now the caravan has moved on. St Patrick’s Day is dead and gone, it’s with O’Leary in his grave. Thank goodness. I have always been sceptical...
Given the enormous shift in social attitudes, it takes some doing to lose two referendum votes on an issue most people agree with. But in this...
When I told my teachers I was going to the New University of Ulster to study a new-fangled degree in media studies, I was told I shouldn’t go. “No...
For an indication of Sir Paul Fox’s standing, look no further than the list of those awarded a fellowship by the British Academy of Film and...
The economy is struggling, but there’s one sector which is thriving by making silk purses out of sows’ ears. Annually, hundreds of millions are...
In any normal society, Joe Biden would be taking a well-earned rest after a life of public service, and Donald Trump would be in jail. But the United...
Times have certainly changed. We have known since 2022 that Sinn Féin had secured the first minister’s post, but Saturday’s events at Stormont...
Sometimes you just have to stop reading. Part way through an article on the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, I had to push the back button on my...
Are you excited about the prospect of a return to a power-sharing executive at Stormont? No, me neither. The DUP is a busted flush. It has nothing to...
John Hume was often accused of having a ‘single transferable speech’ which he deployed every time he was near a microphone. Like all...
The former owner of the Londonderry Arms Hotel in Carnlough put it well. “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms...
In global politics, Jacques Delors was a towering figure. His political ambitions in France were stymied because François Mitterrand thought there...
Biopics are all the rage, and if anyone deserves one it is the American writer Dorothy Parker whose wit was every bit as biting as Oscar Wilde’s....
THE sheer scale of the loss of life in Gaza is incomprehensible. Some 18,000 people have died and countless more have been injured at the hands of the...
KING Charles earned himself brownie points this past week when he used a necktie to troll his inept prime minister.
KING Charles earned himself brownie points this past week when he used a necktie to troll his inept prime minister.
JUST when you thought the tide was turning and right-wing fanaticism was in retreat, the Argentines elect a chainsaw-wielding president, the Dutch...
ARE you sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for tomorrow’s autumn statement from Chancellor Jeremy Hunt? No, neither am I.
FROM ancient times there have been those who see the future in apocalyptic terms.
FROM ancient times there have been those who see the future in apocalyptic terms.
YOU did not need to be a medical expert to know the basics for dealing with coronavirus.
THERE is a journalistic myth which insists that ‘bad news sells’.
THERE is a journalistic myth which insists that ‘bad news sells’.
Some stories come around with the certainty of a comet returning to earth’s orbit.
Some stories come around with the certainty of a comet returning to earth’s orbit.
It is just over a week since the Hamas attack on Israel which has brought the Middle East to yet another of those moments that could only be described...
In Scots Gaelic it is known as An Ruadh-Gleann.
In Scots Gaelic it is known as An Ruadh-Gleann.
If you have ever had the good fortune to hold a clutch of hundred dollar bills, smiling out at you would be the benign figure of Benjamin Franklin.
Badly missed this week is the late Dr Éamon Phoenix, Irish News chronicler and a man who helped us understand that history was not about the...
Badly missed this week is the late Dr Éamon Phoenix, Irish News chronicler and a man who helped us understand that history was not about the...
There is no shortage of metaphors for the decline and fall of the north east of Ireland since it was misappropriated by unionists in the early part of...
There is no shortage of metaphors for the decline and fall of the north east of Ireland since it was misappropriated by unionists in the early part of...
Some conversations stick with you.
Some conversations stick with you.
Every now and then a phrase comes into my head that I can’t get rid of – the verbal equivalent of an ear-worm.