I lived in Navan in 1982. I worked on an archaeology site of all things at Randalstown near where the mines had their dumps. It had been part of the Everard estate which grew tobacco but much longer ago had been a village on the Boyne. So in digging down into our past you might find […]
It would appear that Peadar Tóibín’s reference to the manner in which Sinn Féin operates has opened up an entire can of worms. It is no secret now regarding the manner in which pro-life republicans were forced out of Sinn Féin. The reason for that was the belief that the party needed to be seen […]
Gerry Adams’ announcement that he is retiring from politics brings to an end one of the most significant public lives of the past century. He is without doubt a major historical figure whose influence on events in Ireland was hugely significant. I cannot claim to have known him well. I did know him but I […]
In Dostoyevsky’s great novel The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov asserts that if there is no God, then anything is permitted. Reading what is known so far of the details of the horrific murder of the 17 year-old whose body parts were found in different parts of Dublin this week, we must certainly be conscious that […]
A Bill published by Westminster will, if passed, mean that a poll on a United Ireland would be almost guaranteed to fail. The Referendums Criteria Bill [HL] 2019-20 is currently before the House of Lords and states that 60% or more of those voting in any border poll within Northern Ireland would have to approve of any proposal for Irish unity. A […]
Roger Scruton who died on January 12 was a remarkable person. He grew up in Ancoats, a part of Manchester captured in L.S Lowry’s distinctive paintings. The son of a socialist school teacher Scruton became perhaps the most eloquent of modern thinkers to reject socialism and all its works. Unlike many of the déclassé left […]
A younger Matt had among his bêtes noir those I considered to be traitors to the doctrine of scientific socialism. Among them were Richard Crossman. Crossman was a left wing MP in the post war Labour government but was hated by the pro-Soviet left because he had edited a seminal 1949 collection of essays by […]
Perhaps the most ironic section of the new deal between the DUP and Sinn Fein to run the British part of Ireland is the following: 25.The parties affirm the need to respect the freedom of all persons in Northern Ireland to choose, affirm, maintain and develop their national and cultural identity I would imagine that getting […]
In his 1845 book The Condition of the Working Class in England, Friedrich Engels excoriated those wealthy philanthropists who placed themselves “before the world as mighty benefactors of humanity when they give back to the plundered victims the hundredth part of what belongs to them.” Back then charity was the preserve of austere Victorians and […]
The most striking aspect of Charlie Flanagan’s proposed “hate speech” legislation is the extraordinary alliance that has formed in its favour. As previous reports on Gript have shown it not only seemingly includes the entire “range” of parties within Leinster House, but everyone else from Pollyanna overseas charities to the “New IRA.” The latter, which […]
A Christmas card featuring Karl Marx might have raised a few cheap laughs for Sinn Féin’s Fintan Warfield, but there was very little of good cheer about the father of socialism. Even apart from the fact that Marx was a militant atheist who hated both his own Jewish heritage – which he stereotyped much as […]
There is a very interesting discussion between Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution and Roger Scruton on You Tube. In these times of Manichean witch hunts against anyone who does not sign up to a narrow left liberal agenda, it provides a breath of fresh air. Scruton himself was the subject of a successful […]