Growing up I always felt so lucky to be Irish. And felt doubly lucky to be from Dublin. I was seriously comfortable in my Irish skin. I suppose there was something about not being one of the colonists next door. Something about being the country that produced so many missionaries, nurses and aid workers […]
Murder mystery that’s not to be missed
The Girl on the Train (15) ★★★★ Directed by: Tate Taylor Starring: Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux & Luke Evans What’s the story? Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt) fantasises about having a perfect life, and longs to come home to a loving husband and a family, within a warm, safe and secure home. But Rachel’s daydreams […]
The beautiful little bird with the big attitude
IT couldn’t be easy knowing you’re going to end up in a sparrowhawk’s stomach – and sooner rather than later. That’s the fate of the vast majority of our goldcrests. These tiny birds – the smallest in Europe – weigh the same as a single sheet of paper. But for sparrowhawks they’re a delicacy […]
Change comes slowly to Orange Order
ARE you a Christian? If that question sounds like one of the Saved Brethren on your doorstep, I apologise – few enjoy having their East Enders interrupted. No, it’s a question I had to ask myself after listening to the Orange Order’s Grand Chaplain, Reverend Mervyn Gibson. Mervyn was on BBC Radio Ulster/Raidió Uladh’s […]
Rights, wrongs
THE LAWS that enforce the concept of human rights are incredibly recent. They came about after the world witnessed the extreme degradation of humanity that was the Holocaust, when value for life had become so cheap that in the aftermath of World War II the international community realised ordinary citizens needed legal protection, not […]
Remembering Máire Drumm
MÁIRE Drumm was a leader and a revolutionary, but more importantly she was a wife, mother and grandmother who left behind a family who will never forget her. This week marks the 40th anniversary of Márie’s murder by loyalist gunmen while she lay defenseless recovering from eye surgery in the Mater Hospital. Máire’s eldest son […]