BELFAST “NO MATTER HOW you spin this, it’s historic. Unionists serving under a Republican First Minister. The Fenians aren’t just about the place, they’re in charge.” Professor Manus Og Connolly-Pearse-Plunkett-Clarke-Ceannt-McDermott-McDonagh of the Whatever You Say Say Nothing Foundation, an Irish Republican prisoner support group based in Boston, Massachusetts, was visibly tearful when he spoke to…

FROM OUR LONDON STAFF IF THE RUMOURS are correct, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to place the UK in the position of a vassal state of the European Union to try and get the Democratic Unionist Party back into devolved power sharing in Northern Ireland. The Tory leader is said to have committed…

KYIV THE FIVE STAGES of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. Currently, the West is in the first stage with respect to Ukraine. It is teetering on the edge of the second, searching around for people to blame. The anger stage may be short and bleed seamlessly into the bargaining stage without…

LONDON “SHE DIDN’T SAY that his mother loves him, but she left out little else. It was a ghastly example of the please please love me statement desperate leaders and their governments resort to when they have run out of other options.” These words, spoken by a senior lobby correspondent at the British Parliament in…

BEIJING THE RECENT VISIT to Dublin of Chinese Premier Li Quang has left commentators speculating that he carried with him, as well as a desire for closer ties, his own country’s strong support for the Confucian solution of one country, two systems for a United Ireland. The Chinese have applied this principle in Hong Kong…

BELFAST IT APPEARS THAT Daily Mail pin-up Colonel Tim Collins – hero of the shambolic invasion of Iraq twenty years ago – is dragging himself away from his lucrative career in private security and – to quote one critical voice – choosing to climb aboard the Titanic after it’s struck the iceberg, looking for the…

KYIV “WHAT DO YOU do when you’re fighting for your life, and a world that cheered you on a year before just loses interest?” The Ukrainian soldier kept staring at the prosthetic that extended from his knee. “It’s still out there, you know, near Robotyne.” He looked up. “The remains of my leg. In the…

CANBERRA A PLAN TO replace the current Australian flag, with an image both white and black Aussies can share, has been suggested by a pressure group dedicated to ending the tension over 26 January each year. “Shackles,” explained Bruce Bluey of Unlock. “The first whites to come here, they came in shackles. And ever since,…

FROM DUBLIN BRITAIN’S TOP MILITARY hero has warned the general population of Brexit Britain, that recruitment for his forces is so low, conscription would have to be reintroduced if the country had to fight Russia in the near future. However, General Sir Patrick Saunders’ suggestion is being seen in some quarters as a perfect way…

BY OUR FRENCH CORRESPONDENT CYRANO SIMONE DE GAULLE THERE WAS NOT a sign of embarrassment on his face when he spoke; though the irony screamed to the heavens backed by a chorus of hypocrisy. Do as I say, not as I do, President Macron told his people. I have no children but you must have…