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Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor

The Irish News

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DUP feuding a summer psychodrama

A feuding DUP; in a very sluggish summer would that be one of those modern yokes, a ‘psychodrama’? Let us guess the outcome swiftly,...

07.08.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: DUP feuding a summer psychodrama

A feuding DUP; in a very sluggish summer would that be one of those modern yokes, a ‘psychodrama’? Let us guess the outcome swiftly,...

07.08.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Hope needed that the world can pull back from total disaster

Desperate prayer, drink, drugs, or television cookery shows 24/7? Locked together in the mind’s eye, immovable northern politics and a burning...

03.08.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Hope needed that the world can pull back from total disaster

Desperate prayer, drink, drugs, or television cookery shows 24/7? Locked together in the mind’s eye, immovable northern politics and a burning...

31.07.2023 5

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Denial and distance rival smoke and ash as Europe burns

The baddies are bad, the comparatively good lack all conviction.

24.07.2023 6

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Denial and distance rival smoke and ash as Europe burns

The baddies are bad, the comparatively good lack all conviction.

24.07.2023 6

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Anti-unionists who tweet woman-hating abuse have lost the plot

The bottom of Belfast’s Botanic Avenue turned briefly into a cultural melting pot last Wednesday.

18.07.2023 20

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Reporting on the Twelfth, warts and all

Fadó fadó fadó (the ‘long, long ago’ of Irish storytelling) I wrote about daring to walk through a Twelfth parade.

10.07.2023 8

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Reporting on the Twelfth, warts and all

Fadó fadó fadó (the ‘long, long ago’ of Irish storytelling) I wrote about daring to walk through a Twelfth parade.

10.07.2023 8

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

RTÉ row a tale of hames and hubris

The north-eastern corner of the island has neither functioning politics nor anything remotely as lively as RTÉ, fallen as the station is...

03.07.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: RTÉ row a tale of hames and hubris

The north-eastern corner of the island has neither functioning politics nor anything remotely as lively as RTÉ, fallen as the station is...

03.07.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

The quality of mercy

What happens next is the question, after the first visible post-Soviet mutiny.

27.06.2023 7

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: The quality of mercy

Due to the technical or legal reasons, readability mode is not available for this article. Thank you for your kind understanding.

27.06.2023 7

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Reflections on outrage old and new

On a fine day a month or so ago I passed a man sitting outside a south Belfast cafe, saw him look, said I know your face but your name is gone.

19.06.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Reflections on outrage old and new

On a fine day a month or so ago I passed a man sitting outside a south Belfast cafe, saw him look, said I know your face but your name is gone.

19.06.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Unionists not the only people with misgivings

Those who’ve never liked him anyway – riled, for example, by his snipes at those on benefits as against praise for ‘people who get...

13.06.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Unionists not the only people with misgivings

Those who’ve never liked him anyway – riled, for example, by his snipes at those on benefits as against praise for ‘people who get...

13.06.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: All changed, if not utterly

Even if for preference you look to the big world, you cannot ignore the childishness of current British politics, Johnson the worst show-off, Sunak as...

05.06.2023 6

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Election analysis seems like exercise in navel-gazing

What, I wondered, did I miss about the north’s election by being out of the country? The first person I asked was far more exercised by Irish...

30.05.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Election analysis seems like exercise in navel-gazing

What, I wondered, did I miss about the north’s election by being out of the country? The first person I asked was far more exercised by Irish...

30.05.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

The art of being mildly entertaining

The age of widely accessible artificial intelligence has scarcely begun and ‘AI’ has already caught some out but cheered others.

22.05.2023 1

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: The art of being mildly entertaining

The age of widely accessible artificial intelligence has scarcely begun and ‘AI’ has already caught some out but cheered others.

22.05.2023 4

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Making the argument for eating out

Hang on to those hackles until I make the argument.

16.05.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Making the argument for eating out

Hang on to those hackles until I make the argument.

16.05.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

You can pretend allegiance, but it cannot be forced

Now the clearing up is done, it seems civil enough to focus on one weird element of that London ceremony as originally proposed.

09.05.2023 1

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: You can pretend allegiance, but it cannot be forced

Due to the technical or legal reasons, readability mode is not available for this article. Thank you for your kind understanding.

09.05.2023 30

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Last coronation happened in a different world

01.05.2023 3

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Last coronation happened in a different world

Due to the technical or legal reasons, readability mode is not available for this article. Thank you for your kind understanding.

01.05.2023 7

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Details of Troubles deaths remain grimly relevant

"During a remand hearing, the accused man wept.

25.04.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Details of Troubles deaths remain grimly relevant

"During a remand hearing, the accused man wept.

25.04.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Farewell Joe the SuperIrishman

Not so much a visit or anniversary celebration, was it, more like one of those promenade plays that take an audience around some disused building...

18.04.2023 30

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Farewell Joe the SuperIrishman

Not so much a visit or anniversary celebration, was it, more like one of those promenade plays that take an audience around some disused building...

18.04.2023 30

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Agreement's 25th anniversary should encourage reflection on the Lost Lives of the Troubles

Perhaps a memorial without names could work – a tree for every death, a shared space where people could bring their own thoughts: respect,...

11.04.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Agreement's 25th anniversary should encourage reflection on the Lost Lives of the Troubles

Perhaps a memorial without names could work – a tree for every death, a shared space where people could bring their own thoughts: respect,...

10.04.2023 8

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Unionism's internal battle trudges on

Political unionism struggling with its most stupid instincts and losing is a wearisome sight.

04.04.2023 6

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Fionnuala O Connor: Big anniversaries prompt disobliging thoughts

Big anniversaries provoke disobliging thoughts, some so contrary to the mood of celebration that they bring on indignant spluttering during speeches.

30.03.2023 5

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Big anniversaries prompt disobliging thoughts

Big anniversaries provoke disobliging thoughts, some so contrary to the mood of celebration that they bring on indignant spluttering during speeches.

27.03.2023 4

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Whose fault is it that unionists lack major American sympathy?

It’s a giddy green bath, American St Patrick’s Day; what’s a mis-speak among friends? Taoiseach Leo Varadkar distinguished himself...

21.03.2023 4

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Same old questions face unionist leaders

07.03.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

DUP and Sinn Féin have faithful voters and steadfast loathers

The DUP and Sinn Féin, centre of attention in different ways, have faithful voters and steadfast loathers.

28.02.2023 7

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Clinging on is the worst look for a leader

NICOLA Sturgeon resigned with style, as she led Scotland.

21.02.2023 9

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Mounds of rubble and broken bodies are the price of autocracy

THE world has been watching desperate survivors for over a week now, the effort in Turkey and Syria to save lives, while anger grows against the...

14.02.2023 30

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Racism's ugly features breaking through

ANTI-immigrant agitation in the Republic is watched through closed fingers by some, by others with fingers crossed.

07.02.2023 20

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Polarisation is what this place is made of

APPARENTLY northerners and southerners hardly know each other.

31.01.2023 10

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Donaldson is polite unionism's ambivalence made flesh

Fionnuala O Connor: Donaldson is polite unionism’s ambivalence made flesh SINCE the cherry on top is Stormont, the wonder is that anyone goes...

24.01.2023 7

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Hearts lift when you can read or be read to

SHE'S a rock star, said the broadcaster asking skilled and self-effacing questions, and Louise Kennedy indeed has charisma.

17.01.2023 9

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

Remembering much-missed scholar and gentleman Éamon Phoenix

The Irish News lost two fine writers this year, both big favourites with readers, Anita Robinson in February, Éamon Phoenix only last month.

27.12.2022 7

The Irish News

Fionnuala O Connor

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