I want to know how it is that all politicians are iffy and I will not be vague. Why is it that all politicians are vainglorious, self-promoters. They are not and never will be as their blurb insists, seekers after fairness, honesty and good for all. Interested in the well […]
Modern Life
Alice McAlpine, A Roguish Man.
My lovely wife of nearly forty years summed it up fairly well yesterday evening when, after listening to the idiot ambulance chasing solicitor, Andrew Reid on News At One on BBC Radio 4, said “I think the world has gone friggin’ mad”. Now Helen, as that is who it is […]
The Future And What It Holds.
Last Thursday was my youngest son’s 19th birthday and as he was painting Cork red, I thought I would celebrate it by going to Dublin, to a book launch in Hodges and Figgis’s commendable book store on Dawson Street. The book Dark Times, Decent Men by Neil Richardson is the […]
Venerable Vinnie Always Gets It Wrong.
Over the weekend a very great friend of mine e-mailed me from France to say how offended he was that our great and beloved scouser and leader of all things Catholic in England and Wales, Vincent Gerard Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, had taken it on himself without consultation with his […]
Savile Is Dead. Who Takes The Reins?
These last few weeks I have been wondering about Savile and his works and pomps and trying to make sense of how an uneducated lad from Leeds can get into the minds of powerful folk. It is a massive criminal gift but I think it can easily be done if […]
Corfu Part 6
We hear that Greece runs out of money on Tuesday but Angela Merkel is coming to sort it all out. Isn’t she kind. All the nice people we have met these past few weeks will be saved but to these local people, it would not matter if Greece ran out […]
Corfu Part 5
It is I think still Day 9 and returning to the here and now, we have six grandchildren with us who would live in the pool area. We have been charged this day with looking after them along with one set of parents and a very responsible au pair. Whilst […]
Corfu Part 4
The early morning was very warm, I was up at 5.30am reading, very dark, the mountain asleep. Not even the dogs had yet woke to start their matinal cacophany. Around 7.00am with various domestic sounds shimmying the hill, the sun, although we cannot see it, has picked out the profile […]
Corfu Part 3
Where was I? Oh yes, the dawning of Day 5. What with meetings to plan Remembrance Sunday on 11th November this year and trips to Dublin, I hardly have a minute and I am supposed to be retired and feet up. Let me just tell you or at least those […]
Pinter and Dublin
Harold Pinter had a long and fruitful experience of Dublin and he loved the city, so it was with great pleasure that I boarded the Dublin train on Saturday bound for the New Theatre in Temple Bar for Fast Intent Theatre’s production of two of Mr Pinter’s short plays. My […]