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Tom KellyThe Irish News |
Victor Hugo, the French writer and politician, once said: “He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC)...
Currently this writer is sitting in the Pullman Hotel in Liverpool watching hundreds of contractors, Labour party staff and volunteers put the...
Even by the low standards of the so-called Troubles, the 1989 loyalist paramilitary murder of solicitor Pat Finucane in front of his wife and young...
Dean Swift visiting Newry talked about the “proud people”. I am from such stock. But reading in both the Newry Reporter and The Irish News about...
A couple of weeks ago, my column was about longevity and leadership. On the day it was published Doug Beattie announced his resignation as leader of...
I used to work with a man called James B King. He was a larger than life figure and held the post of President Clinton’s director of the Office of...
It’s easy to sometimes manipulate figures to suit a particular narrative. Commentators do it (Mea culpa). Modern leaders of political parties must...
“Fine words butter no parsnips” goes the saying. And so it was with the recall of the Assembly. There were lots of eloquent words, moral...
Alice Dasilva Aguilar aged 9. Elsie Dot Stancombe aged 7. Bebe King aged 6. Remember their names. Children whose lives were mercilessly cut short by a...
At the time of writing, Newry is festooned in orange and white. Clanrye, the county river which divides Down from Armagh has been breached. Everywhere...
The assassination attempt on former President Trump was wholly wrong. The intentions of the would-be assassin remain, as yet, unknown. What’s known...
There’s a lot of guff at the moment about taking the parliamentary oath at Westminster. The decision to participate in the swearing in ceremony is a...
Theresa Villiers gone. Jacob Rees-Mogg gone. Liz Truss gone. George Galloway gone. Ian Paisley Jnr gone. At the time of writing it’s only July 5 but...
As I write, I am watching the first US presidential debate. It’s awful. Trump and Biden are like two washed up, punch drunk boxers. One lives in a...
The American social reformer and campaigner for universal suffrage, Susan B Anthony, once wrote “Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use...
Like most political nerds I was glued to the tortuously slow counts for the local government and Euro election results in the south. In truth, there...
It’s an unfortunate truth but sectarianism does indeed exist in the north. That’s not to say we must be tolerant towards, indulge or exploit the...
What a quirky start to the election. As usual Rishi Sunak is about as surefooted as a two-legged goat. By announcing the re-introduction of national...
This writer has a simple message for Rishi Sunak and his merry band of money-making grifters and ship-jumping Tory rodents: “Goodbye and don’t let...
The Belfast leg of the Covid Inquiry won’t bring much comfort to the families of those who lost loved ones during the pandemic. If anything, it may...
I never tire of watching the BBC series Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. Like the House of Cards drama, it’s staggeringly accurate. Take for...
It wasn’t a great week up at Stormont. Spring has not quite sprung. The official opposition found themselves talking to empty benches, as the...
The taoiseach, Simon Harris, said that people of his generation were more familiar with Paris or Berlin than Belfast or Derry. At one level, this was...
I read that Taoiseach Simon Harris came into this world in October 1986. To put this in perspective, I started working with the late Seamus Mallon MP...
Easter is supposed to be a time of renewal. It’s also a time of hope. But as a writer I didn’t feel joyous this Easter. Whilst staying in a hotel...
“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there”, wrote the author L P Hartley. Those words came to mind whilst watching the BBC...
Alas, poor Leo... who, unlike Yorick, no-one really seemed to know too well. The taoiseach surprised nearly everyone by announcing his resignation....
Martin Luther King didn’t just inspire generations of Americans with his non-violent campaign for civil rights, he also inspired many Irish people...
Seven years on and at a cost of some £40 million, the interim report of Operation Kenova has finally landed. Its content is explosive but not...
Reading the front page of this paper on Friday was disheartening in every sense. The current plight of the people of Gaza should weigh heavily on the...
The recent announcement by the Irish government to literally pump hundreds of millions of euros into the north is making good on the promise by...
The Labour Party has just won two stunning victories in seats previously held by Tories with considerable safe majorities. The top issues were the...
Last week on the Jubilee Line, a young man offered me his seat. I politely declined but thought, there, it’s happened – I have become old....
So Stormont is back. No doubt readers are on edge, holding back pent-up emotion and nervous with excitement. But then again, maybe not. On the plus...
Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, must often ponder why he bothered seeking the leadership of the Conservative Party. After another week...
At the time of writing the DUP leadership are having a date with destiny. The outcome matters little, as the die is well and truly cast. Northern...
Amidst the annual Christmas book hoard, I was given The Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel – poet, author, playwright, dissident, statesman,...
At the time of writing, two pieces of news have broken. The first is almost incredulous. It’s reported that the PSNI has forwarded a file on seven...
Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh and welcome to 2024. Over 500 years ago, the French astrologer and physician. Michel de Nostredame, better known as...
Shush... It’s almost Christmas. Maybe it’s an age thing but as the last autumn leaves desperately cling to the trees another year seems to rush...
You know it’s panto season when the attention-seeking cage fighter, Conor McGregor, wants to be president of Ireland. Oh yes, he does... And...
You know it's panto season when the attention-seeking cage fighter, Conor McGregor, wants to be president of Ireland.
You know it's panto season when the attention-seeking cage fighter, Conor McGregor, wants to be president of Ireland.
The former Alliance leader, John Alderdice, is a considered and thoughtful politician.
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