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THIS BLOG IS ON HOLIDAYS. JUST SO THAT YOU KNOW. AND AS LONG TIME READERS OF THIS SPACE WILL KNOW, DURING THE AUGUST BREAK THIS BLOG DOES NOT WATCH OR LISTEN TO NEWS PROGRAMMES OR READ NEWSPAPERS. APART FROM A REGULAR TIE IN WITH THE OFFICE FOR EMERGENCIES I REFUSE TO DISCUSS POLITICAL MATTERS OR INDEED CURRENT AFFAIRS WITH ANYONE. EVEN YOUR MAN. HE IS ON HOLIDAYS AS WELL. BY THE WAY HE DIFFERENTIATES BETWEEN BREAKS AND HOLIDAYS AND BY THE WAY AGAIN HE IS NOT WITH ME ON HOLIDAYS. OR ON A BREAK EITHER FOR THAT MATTER. IT IS VERY LIBERATING. HIS ABSENCE. I JEST. THE ABSENCE OF NEWS. OR AT LEAST ABSENCE OF THE COMPULSION TO WATCH OR LISTEN OR READ THE DAILY DOSES OF WHAT PASSES FOR NEWS THESES DAYS. INCIDENTLY WHEN I SAY I DONT GET NEWSPAPERS THERE IS AN EXCEPTION TO THAT. I GET THE ANDYTOWN NEWS IF IT IS AVAILABLE AND ON A SATURDAY I GET THE IRISH TIMES. FOR THE SPORTS, THE REVIEW SECTION, BOOKS, THE MAGAZINE AND ALL THE REST OF IT. AN...

Dungiven National Hunger Strike Rally There is a presumption often made by republicans that when we hold commemorations or someone of my generation mentions in passing some past event that others who are listening connect immediately. Mention August 1969 and they remember or can picture in their heads the pogroms of that month in Belfast or the Battle of the Bogside in Derry. Mention internment 1971 and the mental image unwinds of barricaded streets, the sound of gun battles and exploding bombs, and the sights and sounds of hundreds of young men fighting, sometimes hand to hand with British squaddies on the streets. Talk of collusion and reference the MRF – the Military Reaction Force – and we assume that our audience understands the use by the British of paid agents and counter gangs to kill citizens and stoke the fires of sectarian conflict. But the fact is that many of the faces looking up at me in public conferences and speaking engagements across this island were not ...

Derek Mooney does a really interesting radio show on RTE in the afternoons. It’s a mix of music, conversation and wildlife. If you are interested at all in our wildlife and fauna, in our seas and landscape you will be enthralled and entertained. In the course of a recent conversation with Derek west Belfast singer, songwriter and very fine author Brian Kennedy mentioned that I had given him a hurl. Brian had been one of several authors reading from their books at the very popular ‘Scribes at the Rock’. This event, which is part of Féile an Phobail is held each year during the festival in the Rock Bar on the Falls Road. In the course of a conversation Brian told me that he had never owned a hurl.    As anyone who knows me will testify I love the game. It’s the best sport in the world. Consequently I always carry a couple of hurleys and sliothars in the boot of the car for those odd moments when I am able to find a bit of space to practice my hurling skills – I once wo...