Jan 11, 2016 | Features
The Irish Examiner today published a feature I wrote about the meaning of and legacy of 1916. Here it is: No one, not the IRA, not Sinn Féin, not Fianna Fail or Fine Gael, or any party or organisation, owns or has a monopoly on the Rising or its legacy. But you can...
Nov 13, 2015 | Features
In Cork on Wednesday night – 11th November – I was proud to be invited to speak at the launch in the City Library of Conal Creedon’s biography of Michael O’Leary, a Victoria Cross recipient from County Cork. Conal had also asked me would I...
Oct 25, 2015 | Features
I read this book, The Last Jews In Berlin, whilst staying at a writers’ residential at Wannsee lake within view of Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz, the villa where in 1942 the Nazis planned the extermination of European Jewry. In fact, when I finished the book I cycled...
Sep 22, 2015 | Features
A Stranger in My Own Country: The 1944 Prison Diary by Hans Fallada has been described as, ‘An outspoken memoir of life under the Nazis written from a prison cell’ (Independent), but which has also been viewed as an apologia because Fallada decided to live in Nazi...
Sep 22, 2015 | Features
I wrote a feature on Eamon Mallie’s website in response to an article by the loyalist Jamie Bryson who came to prominence during ‘the flag protest’. Here it is: I was interested in Jamie Bryson’s recent feature, titled ‘Power-sharing, a matter of trust!’ Jamie speaks...
Sep 18, 2015 | Features
I wrote this about ten years ago. It’s still an important story. Though Tony Blair and George Bush installed the interim Iraqi prime minister it was Winston Churchill who installed the first puppet King of Iraq and whose advisors carved its borders out of...
