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Nollag Shona Daoibhse agus Athbhliain Faoi Mhaise I like Christmas. I always have. To be clear I don’t like the mad stressed out state that some people are driven to as the commercial Gods pursue profit no matter what the cost is for working people. Or the poor. Or the rest of us. I don’t like the increasing secular nature of the holiday. I am offended when Christ is taken out off Christ-Mas. I detest Xmas.  I like the Christmas story. Yes it has more holes in it than a colander but we shouldn’t let facts get in the way of a good story. Christmas is a morality tale.  We are all familiar with it. A poor couple, the woman Mary heavily pregnant and her husband Joseph a carpenter, making their way home for the census. They have no where to stay for the night. They end up in a stable in Bethlehem. After being denied accommodation at an inn they are directed for shelter to where animals are bedded down for the night. I was in Bethlehem once. The stable where It is said Mary and Joseph

Re-enactments can be a powerful way of telling a story and reminding an audience of the role individuals, organisations or political movements have played in the history of a nation. Sometimes such enactments can take the form of plays or movies or television specials. Occasionally someone will go to the trouble of reproducing the events surrounding a historic moment in real time. Last week RTE undertook that task with its re-enactment of the general election of 1918. Studio presenters and outside broadcasts told the story of that defining moment in modern Irish history as if that election was taking place now with all the modern technology available to contemporary election coverage. It was a fascinating account of 14 th December 1918 told with all of the excitement and drama we have come to expect from today’s elections.   For the teacher interested in persuading her or his class of the importance of history, and in particular of that general election result, or for anyone i

The rain wasn’t waiting to fall. It was bucketing, pelting, lashing and generally hammering down on the road to Ballinamore in County Leitrim on Saturday night. When we finally arrived, and despite the cold and the rain, the Ballinamore Community Centre was packed to overflowing. It was a wonderful testament to the love and affection which John Joe McGirl is still help by his local community thirty years after his death. I was there to talk about John Joe, his contribution and legacy to the struggle for freedom and independence. My first port of call before going to the Centre was to visit the McGirl family home and pay my respect to Mrs. Bridie McGirl. She and John Joe were married in 1951 and had five children Liam, Áine, Cait, Feargal and Nuala. Given the frequency of John Joe’s periods in prison Bridie did a great job of rearing the children. She will 91 on Christmas Eve – Lá breithe shona Bridie. As well as being Vice President of Sinn Féin, an former POW and a republi

There were nine of them. Strung out in a staggered meandering column. Some were obviously walking wounded. They made their way slowly through the narrow hilly streets of the Mediterranean town, in the late Autumn sunshine. Every so often the more sprightly of these intrepid ramblers would stop until their less sprightly companeros caught up with the main group. Then off they wandered again. Chatting. Laughing. Complaining. Giggling. Singing. They were all men. Of advanced ages. But they were progressive decent men. No need for gender disputes here. This was their little outing and they had travelled with the support, perhaps even in some cases the encouragement, of their partners. For the purposes of this little narrative they shall remain anonymous. Suffice to say they all know each other for a very long time. Their ages are from mid sixties to almost mis-seventies.  They have been friends for at least forty years or so. Some - well one - even claims to be a fifty year man.  That the

This is an article – published December 5 th 2018 -   from  Turning Points , a magazine that explores what critical moments from this year might mean for the year ahead.  https://www.nytimes. com/2018/12/05/opinion/middle- east-peace-process.html Opinion TURNING POINTS The Alternative to Arms By  Gerry Adams ·          Dec. 5, 2018 When the Second World War ended in 1945 there were 51 member states in the United Nations. Today there are 193. Many of the new states emerged out of struggle and conflict as old empires crumbled. That cycle of political struggle continues today. The Brexit crisis may cause huge economic damage to Ireland’s economies and may even threaten  the Good Friday Agreement . In Catalonia and the Basque Country, both of which seek independence from Spain, in Hong Kong and Palestine, people fight or have fought for the right to self-govern. The world is dominated by nations’ struggles to make their own laws and to decide their relationships with