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Mary Kelly

Mary Kelly

__The Irish News

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Syria and its people need time to recover from evils of Assad

wednesday 9

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

The Troubles are over. Why is public transport still so bad?

10.12.2024 40

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

An agreed new flag for Northern Ireland? What about a blue moon...

It was brave of the chief executive of Commonwealth Games NI, Conal Heatley, to suggest that the Ulster banner – beloved of loyalists – should no...

04.12.2024 20

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Why are unionist politicians wedded to an education system that tells kids they are failures?

It was surely risible for David Campbell of the Loyalist Communities Council to claim that young men in loyalist areas turned towards paramilitaries...

27.11.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

When the ‘Rose of Tralee for mammies’ defined Ireland’s view of women

A new award-winning documentary, ‘Housewife of the Year’, reaches local cinemas later this month. It tells the story of how Ireland saw women...

19.11.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

The people have spoken... and Democrats need to listen and learn

The people have spoken... And never has the rest of that legendary phrase by American political consultant Dick Tuck been more apt. In this moment of...

12.11.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

It would be poetic justice if women were the undoing of the Donald

Today feels like a sort of Apocalypse Day. Americans are going to the polls to vote for their next president and the world is holding its breath. How...

05.11.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Would you like a criminal conspiracy with your burger?

29.10.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

The news these days may be grim – but it’s better than toxic social media

It’s hard being a news junkie right now when every bulletin just brings images of horror from Gaza, Lebanon and Ukraine, while national politics is...

22.10.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

An eye for an eye just makes everyone blind in Middle East

The first casualty of war is truth, according to Aeschylus, father of Greek tragedy. And nowhere is that more evident than the Israeli war on Gaza....

16.10.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Assisted dying debate is long overdue – but my brother’s final months show proper palliative care is too patchy

The news that Westminster is to debate a proposed bill to enable assisted dying in England and Wales will come as a relief to many people, while being...

08.10.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

EasyJet’s hard line baggage policy caught me out too

FLYING is never an enjoyable prospect these days, but some airlines seem to enjoy making the experience so much worse, by requiring cabin baggage to...

01.10.2024 30

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

If it believes in the rule of law, unionism should support the Finucane family’s quest for truth

Back in the eighties, Pat Finucane was the sort of solicitor you hoped would be around at the Belfast magistrates’ court when you had turned up late...

18.09.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

I thought the Angelus on TV was a bit strange and the Rose of Tralee still remains an object of wonder

10.09.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Our shocking peace walls and how others see us

Sometimes it takes an outsider’s view to make you look at something familiar with fresh eyes. Last week, we hosted a group of journalists from...

03.09.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Don’t knock the BBC – the media is always attracted to the new and fresh

The journalist and broadcaster Michael Crick has had a swipe at the BBC, accusing it of losing its impartiality in its coverage of Kamala Harris and...

28.08.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Edwin Poots is right about reaching out – but he needs to persuade voters in loyalist areas too

It‘s nice that DUP MLA Edwin Poots has recognised his wee country is changing. Maybe he just needed to get off the farm in Lagan Valley and move...

20.08.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Once upon a time and never again

One of the perils of journalism is a tendency to see the negative side of life a little too often. It came to mind many years ago when I saw the new...

13.08.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Anti-immigrant hate-fest shows ignorance and stupidity know no borders

Well, wasn’t that a sight to behold in Belfast city centre on Saturday afternoon when racists proudly waved the Irish flag alongside their bigoted...

07.08.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Creating a space we can all inhabit

Is there anything more depressing than hearing someone who works in education argue passionately that there is “no community benefit” in a planned...

30.07.2024 9

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

God help America with this circus of clowns

So finally Joe got the message that he couldn’t run for another term as President. Better late than never? Maybe it’s already too late. The...

24.07.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Joe Biden’s vanity means it’s probably too late to stop Trump returning to the White House

If President Biden’s campaign looked in real danger last week, the bullets fired at Donald Trump at the weekend have probably finished it. Within...

16.07.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Dreary steeples will remain on Starmer’s horizon

Why have just one Portillo moment when you can have a half-dozen? This was the general election that brought an embarrassment of riches. Locally, it...

10.07.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Pat Cullen should not have to apologise for a past she played no part in

When the despicable Enniskillen bomb attack was carried out by the IRA in 1987, killing 12 people – among them a student nurse, Marie Wilson, and a...

26.06.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Sinn Féin election inquest would make fascinating reading

I don’t pretend to know enough about politics across the border to know why exactly Sinn Féin had such a disappointing result in the local...

19.06.2024 20

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Starmer is lucky that Sunak is so much worse

A week’s break in a lovely house in the Spanish Alpujarras mountains made the general election feel wonderfully remote. The trouble is that I felt...

11.06.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Covid inquiry delivers devastating critique of our government

“Delay, dysfunction and dereliction of duty.” Was there ever a more devastating critique of how government functions in this place than the words...

21.05.2024 20

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Celebration of Stephen’s Grimason life carries lessons for Catholic Church

It’s probably strange, and possibly even a bit tasteless, to say you enjoyed someone’s funeral. But that was the widespread sentiment among...

07.05.2024 40

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

PSNI need to show they’ve learned lessons of Katie Simpson case – Mary Kelly

We all watch so many cop dramas on the box that we probably fancy ourselves to have some detective skills. But you surely didn’t need to be Sherlock...

30.04.2024 40

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

What colour of paint would you like, sir - Bigoted White?

It is hard to understand the mentality of people who are so offended by the sight of Irish translations on street signs that they go home and get a...

25.04.2024 30

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

When nods and winks were enough to get you killed

It was 40 years ago – a lifetime, and yet almost every detail is still crystal clear. April 12 1984. The phone in the hall at my parents’ home was...

16.04.2024 9

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Israeli people must rid themselves of Netanyahu for sake of peace

The Palestinian man was searching through the rubble of what had been his home, finding the remnants of a US food parcel dropped from the sky in a...

10.04.2024 6

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented - Donaldson bombshell fits every category

It was a Good Friday like no other. I first got word via texts from my two London-based kids asking if the “rumours about Jeffrey Donaldson facing...

02.04.2024 20

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Does Simon Harris have a hard act to follow in Leo Varadkar?

It’s never a good look to get a job when you’re the only candidate. Maybe Simon Harris is happy he didn’t face a contest to be taoiseach, but...

26.03.2024 50

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Injustice inflicted on Victoria Square residents demands remedy

Every so often, something comes to the public ‘s attention that is so manifestly unfair that it calls to the heavens for justice. The treatment of...

19.03.2024 20

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Don’t hold you breath waiting for an apology from the British government

No-one should hold their breath waiting for an apology from the British government for the appalling crimes of the agent Freddie Scappaticci. This is...

12.03.2024 8

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Why did the GAA let Casement become derelict?

I’m not sure what’s been happening to Sir Jeffrey. First he stood on platforms with Jimbo Allister et al, shouting about British sovereignty and...

05.03.2024 30

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Listen to the people in Rafah and say it’s wrong to criticise Israel

Is there any chance that Sir Keir Starmer will relax a bit now that he’s had two by-election victories – and would have had a hat-trick this...

20.02.2024 20

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

It’s more a case of God Help America than God Bless it

There surely comes a time in everyone’s working life when you feel like you’ve had enough of the daily grind and enthusiasm becomes harder to...

13.02.2024 9

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Sinn Féin and DUP need devolution to work this time

Two years late, and with a fed-up populace doing its best to give it a fair wind, the Northern Ireland Assembly finally cranked into being on...

06.02.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Same old movie in loyal Ulster, but a different ending?

So who knew that Sir Jeffrey was capable of displaying such raw emotion in that passion-filled speech at Westminster? His voice rising to a trembling...

30.01.2024 4

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

The hope of the GFA has not been fulfilled

The strikes last week made some people cast their minds back to the Ulster Workers’ Council strike. But there were really no similarities. Last...

23.01.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

There are no ‘good guys’ on the global stage

It’s hard not to wonder if geopolitics has any moral compass when the US and UK launch a retaliatory attack on Yemeni rebels in defence of...

16.01.2024 9

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Post Office scandal is compelling viewing

When you’ve spent a lifetime in the news industry, it is sobering when you realise that the most important stories, no matter how many headlines...

11.01.2024 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Let’s hope it’s good riddance to the Tories in 2024

It’s a new year, so let’s start thinking positive thoughts. 2024 should be the year that one of the most corrupt and useless British governments...

02.01.2024 9

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Where else have the Duppers to go except Stormont?

It takes time to realise that Northern Ireland is not the centre of the universe. But all those years of being in the headlines, having visits by US...

19.12.2023 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Horror of Gaza suffering almost too much to bear – Mary Kelly

THE horror of the images from Gaza, shown nightly on tv news, is almost to much too bear.

12.12.2023 20

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Horror of Gaza suffering almost too much to bear – Mary Kelly

THE horror of the images from Gaza, shown nightly on tv news, is almost to much too bear.

12.12.2023 20

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Jeffrey may be in no hurry to restore Stormont, but ask striking public sector workers, those on waiting lists, or Troubles victims – Mary Kelly

IT’S beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

05.12.2023 50

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

Jeffrey may be in no hurry to restore Stormont, but ask striking public sector workers, those on waiting lists, or Troubles victims – Mary Kelly

IT’S beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

05.12.2023 10

The Irish News

Mary Kelly

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