Get your retaliation in first,” is a cynical old saying in Northern Irish politics that means you hit your opponent whenever you can without waiting for a provocation. It neatly captures the violent traditions of the province and explains why the political temperature there is always close to boiling over. Imagine then the pleasure of…
One of the most controversial, influential, and well-known revolutionary organizations in the world was the Irish Republican Army (the IRA) considered to be both patriotic and terrorist. The Fenians It is of extreme debate the question of its real origin but it is mostly accepted the standpoint that the origins of the IRA are in…
In the Republic of Ireland, among the most notable outcome from last week’s general election outcome was a substantial rise in popularity for the left-leaning party, Sinn Féin, whose standing rose by 10.7% as they gained 15 parliamentary seats in the Dáil (Irish parliament) for a 37 seat total. As witnessed across Europe, a fall…
With Boris Johnson laser-focused on delivering a crash-out, no-deal Brexit in October, Ireland needs to stop the foot-dragging and wishful thinking and begin preparing for a border poll and potential reunification. This week, a report by a major UK business group called for the UK, Irish and EU leaders to hold emergency talks in Belfast…
When Syrian government soldiers first recaptured the small village of Deir Hafar from Isis in 2017, they found the black-painted but hurriedly abandoned Islamic “court” strewn with piles of documents. These hundreds of pages contained terrible proof of how the Syrian civilians there had behaved under at least three years of Isis occupation. I arrived in…
Watching the Brexit vaudeville show from far away, I can’t but remember my days as Belfast correspondent of The Times. The early 1970s were among the nastiest, violent and most dangerous of years in Northern Ireland. But what struck me most was not so much the battles between the British army and the IRA, and all the…
