B O O K S! P R E S S I E S!

Books, glorious books! Spoilt rotten by Santas. From my beloved I got 1941: The Year That Keeps Returning by Slavko Goldstein, who was born in 1928 to Jewish parents in Sarajevo. His father kept a bookshop but was arrested and disappeared and then murdered by the...

Craigbane Graveyard

Spoke at Craigbane Graveyard at the unveiling of a newly erected headstone to Brigid and Rose O’Kane who billeted IRA Volunteers on the run in the 1940s, including my Uncle Harry. 12th December. On BBC Talkback panel with Alex Kane and Brian Feeney, hosted by William...

Smashing the Independent

In the December edition of the Irish Political Review, historian Manus O’Riordan has written a brilliant analysis about Gerry Adams and Fine Gael with regards to Adams’ joke abou the smashing of the Irish Independent by Collins’ IRA in 1919. The article is reproduced...

Hooded Man

Today, the CIA torture report has been published. Forty-three years ago, in 1971, Irish nationalists and republicans were subjected to similar torture. Back then, the Irish government took Britain to the European Court. In the first phase of the inquiry, the European...

A Tale of Two Diaries

Last night (December 4th) I was at an event in St Mary’s University College, Falls Road, where author Eimear O’Callaghan was interviewed by journalist and political commentator Paul McFadden about her memoir, Belfast Days – A 1972 Teenage Diary. Jokingly, during Q...