Real reconciliation with the orange in our tricolour must mean more than just indifference
When I wrote here last week about the spirit of the “Chuckle Brothers” being needed for a resolution of the impasse that has left Northern Ireland without a government and without a functioning assembly, I was not conscious that Martin McGuinness was about to join Ian Paisley in eternity, although I knew he was very […]
Brexit may not deliver a united Ireland soon, but it’s a challenge that should unite us all
One of the perennial problems in discussing the future of Northern Ireland is that the discussion of itself has a seriously polarising effect on the two main communities there. The underlying conflict of aspirations comes to the surface, however peacefully, and the process of normalising relations between those two communities is set back. On the […]
Tuam is a by-product of the deeper scandal of a religious and social culture that seems so cruel, and yet so recent, to the modern world
One of the less edifying aspects of politics is the tendency of some practitioners to engage in the rhetoric of competitive moral outrage. The Tuam Mothers and Babies Home scandal is a case in point. The Oireachtas has heard in each House genuine and moving personal accounts from survivors of the Irish system of dealing […]
Wholehearted commitment by a “coalition of the willing” needed on Brexit – let’s do it
When it comes to brass necks, Theresa May must be in the front rank. She called her snap election in the full knowledge that the EU 27 were in the process of developing negotiating guidelines in relation to the terms of Brexit. She even justified the election by reference to the “need” for her to […]