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Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

The Irish News

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It’s your party now, Claire - seize the day

07.10.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Paul Givan was ridiculously naive and unbelievably stupid to meet the LCC

Victor Hugo, the French writer and politician, once said: “He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC)...

30.09.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Labour can’t keep calling for change, it needs to make it a reality

Currently this writer is sitting in the Pullman Hotel in Liverpool watching hundreds of contractors, Labour party staff and volunteers put the...

23.09.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Finucane inquiry can shine a light on the ‘deep state’ and unearth answers for all victims

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...

16.09.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Racism stems from an unfounded fear but mostly it’s a result of ignorance and bigotry - Tom Kelly

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...

09.09.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

The new SDLP and UUP leaders need to jointly offer an alternative to the DUP and Sinn Féin’s loveless marriage

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...

03.09.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

All hail Jon Boutcher for shining a light on executive and civil service inertia

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...

26.08.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Political leadership is a precarious position

It’s easy to sometimes manipulate figures to suit a particular narrative. Commentators do it (Mea culpa). Modern leaders of political parties must...

19.08.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Fine words at Stormont won’t butter any parsnips

“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...

12.08.2024 7

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Why it’s time to lance the boil of toxicity and hatred - Tom Kelly

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...

05.08.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Loyalist opposition to the GAA and ‘Irish’ culture has much to do with a losers’ psyche, built by successive leaders of unionism

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...

29.07.2024 8

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Why aren’t we tougher on recreational rioting and endless loyalist paramilitary ‘transitioning’?

The assassination attempt on former President Trump was wholly wrong. The intentions of the would-be assassin remain, as yet, unknown. What’s known...

22.07.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Parliamentary oath is a means to an end, nothing more, nothing less

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...

16.07.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Good riddance Rishi – it’s time for some stability

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...

09.07.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Put a lettuce on the stage if a party leader won’t show up for an election debate

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...

01.07.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Why I believe voting should be compulsory

The American social reformer and campaigner for universal suffrage, Susan B Anthony, once wrote “Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use...

24.06.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Only a fool or fruitcake would write off Sinn Féin’s chances after this bad election

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...

17.06.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

We can’t pretend sectarianism doesn’t exist

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...

10.06.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Does Pat Cullen’s candidacy hint that Sinn Féin is going to end its abstentionism?

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...

03.06.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Britain isn’t just ready for change, it’s desperate

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...

27.05.2024 40

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Covid Inquiry: Stormont’s ‘best’ wasn’t good enough and failed us all

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...

20.05.2024 40

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

‘The purpose of minutes is not to record events. It is to protect people’

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...

06.05.2024 60

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Spring has not quite sprung up at Stormont

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...

29.04.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Project Unity isn’t a pipe dream but it needs a more sophisticated sales job

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...

22.04.2024 50

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

So how do the current crop of politicians match up?

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...

15.04.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

We need to protect our children from those wedded to failed past

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...

07.04.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

The monstrosity of it all. The brutality, the pointlessness, and the ghosts

“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...

01.04.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Farewell Leo, you were a decent taoiseach but not a great one

Alas, poor Leo... who, unlike Yorick, no-one really seemed to know too well. The taoiseach surprised nearly everyone by announcing his resignation....

25.03.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Reconciliation should come before a border poll if we are to have an Ireland that is better, not bitter

Martin Luther King didn’t just inspire generations of Americans with his non-violent campaign for civil rights, he also inspired many Irish people...

18.03.2024 70

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Disturbing questions remain about dirty war

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...

11.03.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

As with Gaza, the victims and survivors of our Troubles deserve truth and justice

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...

04.03.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Caring about sharing is the way to build a consensus for unity

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...

27.02.2024 9

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Before asking us to cut our cloth, why doesn’t the British government give NI enough to cover the essentials?

The Labour Party has just won two stunning victories in seats previously held by Tories with considerable safe majorities. The top issues were the...

19.02.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

A Biden-Trump rematch will be a painful watch

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....

12.02.2024 6

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Wry commentary can’t take away from Michelle O’Neill’s big moment

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...

05.02.2024 9

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

The Tories are out of steam, out of ideas and out of their minds - and will soon be out of office

Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, must often ponder why he bothered seeking the leadership of the Conservative Party. After another week...

29.01.2024 7

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Power-sharing is only way forward for unionism

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...

22.01.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Where's the human heart in middle of so much conflict?

Amidst the annual Christmas book hoard, I was given The Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel – poet, author, playwright, dissident, statesman,...

16.01.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Police action over Bloody Sunday walk defies belief

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...

08.01.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Linfield mightn’t be playing hurling at Croke Park yet but things can only get better - can’t they?

Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh and welcome to 2024. Over 500 years ago, the French astrologer and physician. Michel de Nostredame, better known as...

03.01.2024 50

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Enjoy Christmas and take it for what it is

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...

19.12.2023 30

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Joe Brolly's right – Conor McGregor is a moron

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...

14.12.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly: Joe Brolly is right – Conor McGregor is a moron

You know it's panto season when the attention-seeking cage fighter, Conor McGregor, wants to be president of Ireland.

11.12.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Joe Brolly is right – Conor McGregor is a moron

You know it's panto season when the attention-seeking cage fighter, Conor McGregor, wants to be president of Ireland.

11.12.2023 30

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Time to end unionist self-harm and test Harold McCusker's hypothesis...

The former Alliance leader, John Alderdice, is a considered and thoughtful politician.

04.12.2023 5

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly: Time to end unionist self-harm and test Harold McCusker's hypothesis...

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04.12.2023 30

The Irish News

Tom Kelly

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