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Terms of justice should not be left to victims

Al Hutchinson, who is no longer officially our Ombudsman but is keeping the seat warm until his successor is installed, has stirred the pot of the past in recent days.

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Hard work securing jobs for Catholics

There was a glut of voices on the radio the other day, each eager to comment on ‘The Estate’, a TV fly-on-the-wall documentary about Ballysally housing estate near Coleraine.

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Boyish Basil is running rings around Big Tom

They say by the time we hit 40, we’ve got the face we deserve. I’m not sure what age Basil McCrea is, but he’s got a user-friendly face. It’s round, it’s boyish, it has a youthful fringe hanging over it, and he generally looks as though he’s either smiling or about to smile. He’s also, I suspect, got an eye on the leadership of the UUP.

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Boyish Basil could be the face that fits

They say by the time we hit forty, we’ve got the face we deserve. I’m not sure what age Basil McCrea is, but he’s got a user-friendly face.

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Meeting queen leads to door marked ‘Exit’

Martin McGuinness may have annoyed a few people this week. And made a few others nervous. And mildly pleased a few more. Odd, how the same action can provoke such a range of reactions, isn’t it?

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Making sense of that Boston College mess

So – what do you make of this Boston tapes thing, eh? You know the project: journalist Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre got together and arranged interviews with a number of former republican and loyalist combatants in our Troubles.

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Terms of justice should not be left to victims

Al Hutchinson, who is no longer officially our Ombudsman but is keeping the seat warm until his successor is installed, has stirred the pot of the past in recent days.

A time for great rejoicing?

GENERAL hilarity erupts in West Belfast, firstly at news that Rangers had applied to go into administration; secondly, at news that they had indeed gone into administration; and thirdly, that the inevitable 10-point docking had taken place.

Why snack lovers are getting that old sinking feeling on this 100th anniversary

AWAY from the Occupied Six-Counties fry, another staple food of Noel ’n’ Alan was in the spotlight this week. In the research and development wing of Tandragee Castle, Tayto have…

Chemical fly in the oinkment

A CORRESPONDENT – ‘Pig-Ignorant’ – texts the paper this week complaining about some bacon he bought for his Saturday morning fry-up. He’s unhappy first of all about the fact that the bacon had an irridiscent sheen when he removed it from the packaging

Resilience a recurring theme, from Conamara to Ground Zero

That great hero of Conamara, Seán Ó Coisdealbha, was in the Cultúrlann on Saturday to launch his new poetry anthology Stadhan. A veteran troublemaker – in the best sense of the word – and the dynamo behind some of the best community ventures in the Gaeltacht,

Bitsa ramblings on travel – both time and otherwise

In the mid-90s I briefly took a break from playing Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64 and worrying about who would win the musical face-off between Blur and Oasis to watch children’s television.