I like to write my blogs by hand before I type them up. As I write this, I’m travelling on a bus from Dublin to Belfast. We are in the town of Drogheda in the Irish Republic. By the time I finish writing, we’ll be in Northern Ireland. It is three days until Easter. For Catholics today is Holy Thursday, for Protestants, Maunday Thursday. Either way, tomorrow will be Good Friday. Given the date and the location, I feel it’s an appropriate time to reflect on the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), r...

I’ve been strongly opposed to the war in Iraq from the outset. As each day passes Paul Bremer’s optimism gets more laughable, Tony Blair’s lies become more apparent and more people, mostly Iraqis, are killed. Each new day brings no news of those mysterious WMD. And each day I grow more convinced that this war was wrong. Having said this, I don’t pretend to possess the absolute truth in any scenario. There are some good pro-war arguments, I just happen to think that there are many more goo...

It’s easy to forget how much we rely on stability. So much of our daily activity depends on the proper functioning of government and business. When you press the light switch, you expect the room to be illuminated. When you go to the supermarket, you expect there to be food on the shelves. When you post a letter, you expect it to arrive at its destination. When you wait for a bus, you expect it to come. These thousands of predictable outcomes contribute to the “quality of life” which we in th...

They mustn’t have had corn syrup in Hollywood back in the 50s. In the era of John Wayne westerns, the idea that a person bleeds when they’re shot was not accepted. In those days the Duke would plug the bad guy who’d go down clutching his miraculously blood-free chest. Either he’d be dead as soon as he hit the dirt or he’d survive just long enough to mutter a few last words before dying. He certainly wouldn’t cling to life for several minutes, coughing up blood and screaming for his mother. ...

The world is full of ethnic conflict. In Papua New Guinea, the Bougainville islanders fight for their independence. Over in Indonesia, the government suppresses an uprising in West Papua. The Muslims of Mindinao struggle to be free of the Philippines. Chechens fight Russians, Albanians fight Serbs, Christians fight Muslims in Sudan, everyone fights everyone else in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I could go on and on. It is an unfortunate reality that, in an ever shrinking world, neighbour ...

We Irish pride ourselves on our hospitality. In a smug way, we convince ourselves that we’re better than less welcoming nations (perhaps starting with the letter “E”) who refuse to get out the nice biscuits when company comes round. This June however, when a former Texan oil man comes to town, he is unlikely to get a warm reception. George W. Bush is due to visit Ireland for the annual EU/US summit. Put bluntly, he will not be welcome. After the Madrid bombing, this year’s summit went from...

Well, it must have seemed like a good idea at the time. The bright spark who came up with Bush’s WMD hide-and-seek gag must be regretting it now. Dubya’s joke at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association last week has stirred up a maelstrom. He has been lambasted for his poor taste in laughing about a war in which more than 500 US soldiers have died. Even Nancy Pelosi, pictured laughing at the time, is now apparently unhappy. Personally, I was delighted by Dubya’s attempt to make...

Hands are very much in the news today. Much of the coverage of Tony Blair’s visit to Tripoli today has focussed on the fact that he shook hands with Muammar Gaddafi. Metaphorically, the Libyan leader’s hands drip with the blood of innocents. According to some, the British Prime Minister should have a bar of soap ready. Some, especially on the British right, have been sharply critical of Blair’s visit to Libya. They are, so they say, appalled that Blair should meet a man whose name is syno...

Sydney Elliot, the leading psephologist, used to present the electoral history of Northern Ireland (NI) in three distinct phases. In the first stage, from NI’s formation until the outbreak of the Troubles, elections were dull affairs. On the unionist side there was one party, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), for whom all unionists dutifully voted, election after election. In power for fifty years, the party was the epitome of a monolith. No credible unionist alternative emerged in this period...

By all accounts David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), is a hard man to like. Cold, pedantic and distant, the Bangor man is not the type to attract a large personal following. In spite of this, and of my political differences with him, I can’t help but admire the man. I count myself as a stubborn person but even I must doff my cap to Trimble when it comes to bloody-mindedness. Trimble was once seen as a hard-line unionist. He won the leadership of his party in 1995 on t...

Bold Robert Emmet, the darling of Eireann. Bold Robert Emmet, he died with a smile. Farewell companions, both loyal and daring. He lay down his life, for the Emerald Isle. So goes the chorus of “Bold Robert Emmet” a tribute to the leader of the 1803 Irish rebellion against British rule. “Rebellion” is perhaps the wrong word in this context since Emmet’s uprising was little more than a riot. However, it’s not for his ineptitude that Emmet is remembered. The decision of the British ...

There’s a queue outside the European Union, the most exclusive club in town. For the past ten years Poland, Hungary et al have stood outside patiently waiting to be let in. Very soon, the doorman will stand aside and ten Central and Eastern European states will shuffle in the door. Further back in line, the likes of Croatia have been promised they’ll be let in soon, despite fighting in line. Right at the front of the queue stands a lone figure, increasingly depressed and angry. Turkey has...

If I could steal another Joeuser’s name it would be shadesofgrey. I’ve always believed that there’s more to life than black and white; that nuance, subtlety and context are important when appraising any situation. I’ve always suspected those who assume to possess The Truth, who believe themselves to be completely right and noble and their opponents to be entirely wrong and evil. Currently I’m ploughing through John Pilger’s “Hidden Agendas”, an expose of the underhand actions of western go...

What does the US stand for? Ask your average American and I’m sure the answer would include the word “democracy”. From its foundation the USA has practiced some form of government by the people, though of course in the past the term “people” was interpreted more narrowly. Nevertheless, the notion that government legitimacy flows from the ballot box is as American as apple pie. For this reason, it’s no surprise that successive administrations in Washington have tried to portray their forei...

Sometimes I want to kick the TV. Last night was one of those times. On a British politics programme last night the great and the good were discussing Sunday’s surprise election of the Socialist Party’s Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero as Spain’s new Prime Minister. The reaction of panellists to this turn of events was largely negative. The historian Timothy Garton-Ash lamented the fact that the Spanish electorate were marching to al-Qaida’s tune. Former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Portil...