Aug 27, 2018 | Features
In April 2003 I wrote a feature for The Examiner about the (non) publication of the Stevens Inquiry report and the reaction of some in the British establishment who rode to the rescue of state assassins. (It was later published in my book, Rebel Columns.) Parts of the...
Aug 18, 2018 | Features
In 2004 I wrote a chapter for a book by Liberties Press, 3 Days in September: When the Pope Came to Ireland in which I was scathing of John Paul II and the Irish Catholic hierarchy. Forty years later, and as the Republic of Ireland prepares for the visit of Pope...
Aug 16, 2018 | Latest
Just finished On Leave by Daniel Anselme, first published in 1957, an anti-war novel which found no favour in France at the time. It has a fine introduction by the translator, David Bellos, which places the author and the writing in context. Bellos says: “It had few...
Jul 26, 2018 | Latest
The Irish-American activist, Tom Hayden, died in October 2016 – his death an incalculable loss to the struggle for civil rights, justice and freedom, peace and democracy. I first met Tom forty years ago when he was visiting Ireland with his young son Troy. They stayed...
Jul 6, 2018 | Features
In 1970, within months of the conflict breaking out here, two books, long in gestation, were published: The IRA by Tim Pat Coogan; and The Secret Army by James Bowyer Bell. I remember speaking to several veteran republicans who had been interviewed and who defended...
