The Irish in Britain, including those of Irish descent, make up a significant part of the UK population. Here, you will find news, entertainment, events, sports and features from the local Irish Post newspaper.
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Show of spirit , Honours due , Child support more...
(Irish Post) 14 December
2005
The Joe Horgan Column
So this is Ireland in the winter. There are ponies just off the
causeway road. On one side the salt marshes stretch out to the open
sea and the wading birds pick over the flats in the winter sunlight.
On the other side, nearer the bog land, the marsh and the short
stunted trees the ponies stand in the soft mud.more...
(Irish Post) 14 December
2005
Books – a Christmas gift
to inspire
If you’re looking for the ideal children’s Christmas present then
you can’t go far wrong with a good book. Shaun Traynor casts his
eye over the latest Irish literature for younger members of the
family to help you on your way.more...
(Irish Post) 14 December
2005
Success makes
envious emigrants ponder return
The continued boom in the Irish economy has encouraged a growing
number of Irish emigrants to return home to share in the Celtic
Tiger success story. Ronan McGreevy assesses a new book that looks
at the Ireland they will find when they get there.more...
The Joe
Horgan Column
Some have been calling it Ireland’s Wapping, in that it may mark
a truly pivotal moment in shaping the future nature of this country.
Whatever happens in the coming weeks, it seems unlikely that the
Irish Ferries dispute will merely pass by as just another industrial
disagreement.more...
(Irish Post) 7 December 2005
Comment
Fares Fair - Ferry Support - Literary Licence.more...
(Irish Post) 7 December 2005
Republicans Set
to Prosper in Changing Climate
The North of Ireland will come under Republican political control
well within a decade — or perhaps sooner. The reason? The British
Government’s radical reduction in the number of local councils.
more...
(Irish Post) 7 December 2005
The
Joe Horgan Column
In terms of geography, the Irish Sea is no more than a healthy stretch
of water. Ireland and Britain are very, very close neighbours. When
I was a child going over on that ferry it was, of course, an incredibly
long journey. Considering the trip from our house in Birmingham
to our grandmother’s door took the best part of 18 hours it wasn’t
far off what it now takes to get to the other side of the world.
more...
(Irish Post) 30 November
2005
Comments Piracy on the Irish Sea - Welcome aid - Best by far. more...
(Irish Post) 30 November
2005
A fond farewell
to a flawed genius
George Best died as he lived at the centre of attention. His long,
agonising flight from life consumed the public in a way that has
only been matched in our generation by the death of Pope John Paul
II. more...
(Irish Post) 30 November
2005
A Fond Farewell
The things that often prove difficult when planning farewells and
other forms of tribute is to try and make sure that they are somewhat
appropriate for the occasion. more...
(Irish Post) 23 November
2005
The
Joe Horgan Column
It is difficult to convey just how much of an impact the Ferns Report
is now having on Irish society. We often think at the time that
things are never going to be forgotten before they are quickly filed
away and rapidly become yesterday’s news.more...
(Irish Post) 23 November
2005
Raise a Glass
in Favour of New British
This Thursday will be a day of liberation for drinkers here — that
includes you, me and the vast majority of people who like a social
drink or three. more...
(Irish Post) 23 November
2005
Red Hand
Stained with Bloody History
The traditional Red Hand is the central symbol in the badge of the
North’s largest sectarian killing machine, the Ulster Defence Association.
But that hand drips with the blood of more than 400 of the estimated
3,000 victims of the present Troubles. more...
(Irish Post) 23 November
2005
‘Fairytale’ is a
Little Bit of Festive Magic
Since The Pogues first reformed for a series of concerts in 2001
their annual tour has become something of a pre-Christmas tradition
— a sort of office party for the band’s loyal fans.more...
(Irish Post) 16 November
2005
Proper Respect
for the Law
Irish Ferries have set sail on a perilous course that poses a threat
to the future of all national wage agreements in Ireland. more...
(Irish Post) 16 November
2005
Prime Minister has Cried Wolf Once
Tony Blair had it coming. And when it happened, he only had himself
to blame. His House of Commons defeat last week, his first in eight
years as Prime Minister, was a victory not only for Labour rebels,
but also for those who believe in good governance.more...
(Irish Post) 16 November
2005
The Joe
Horgan Column
However much the NHS in Britain may be a perpetually failing service
and however much free health care for those desperate for life-saving
intervention is a myth (private health is willing after all to save
you at the flash of a credit card), the NHS remains a shining beacon.more...
(Irish Post) 16 November
2005
Sunrise
is a New Dawn for Eamonn
As you would expect, Eamonn Holmes is as warm and jovial as he is
on-screen when I meet him at the Sky News studios to talk about
his new breakfast show.more...
(Irish Post) 9 November 2005
Publish
and be Damned?
Five national newspapers in Ireland have been compelled into publishing
grovelling apologies — three of them on their front pages — for
running wholly false stories surrounding the death in a car accident
in Moscow of former politician Liam Lawlor. more...
The Joe
Horgan Column
These last few weeks it felt as if we were witnessing a truly seismic
shift in Irish society. Perhaps we weren’t and perhaps in a short
while all of this will be forgotten. But somehow that seems unlikely.more...
(Irish Post) 9 November 2005
Anois agus
Arís
One hundred Irishmen and women, pilgrims returning from Rome attacked
and killed in Somerset! The bodies dumped secretly in a marsh!more...
(Irish Post) 2 November 2005
Survival
of the Fittest
The news that Irish people who have come to work in Britain are
more likely to die early from a range of causes relating to poor
health is not exactly new. more...
(Irish Post) 2 November 2005
Report
on Abuse Leaves Catholic
Alot of bad things have happened the Catholic Church in Ireland
over the last 20 years, but none worse than the publication of The
Ferns Report last week.more...
(Irish Post) 2 November 2005
The Joe
Horgan Column
There is something special, perhaps even more so at this time of
year, about taking a walk down an Irish country lane. As winter
comes and the evenings suddenly chill the little back roads seem
more alive than ever, with birds gathering to leave or to roost
and leaves falling all around.more...
Chronicling a Century
of Irish History
The old saying goes that the problem with the Irish is that they
can never forget their history and the problem with the British
is they can never remember it.more...
(Irish Post) 26 October 2005
Ireland
Expects a Memorial
In all the celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of Admiral
Horatio Nelson’s historic victory at the Battle of Trafalgar last
week one fact was missing. more...
(Irish Post) 26 October 2005
Young
Soccer Talent — Your Country Needs You
It may not be the end of the world, but the end of our World Cup
dream has left us all feeling deflated. It ought not to matter,
but we’d all be better off if we qualified for Germany next summer.more...
(Irish Post) 26 October 2005
The
Joe Horgan Column
We probably take sport too seriously and we probably take songs,
music and literature and all the other seemingly non-essentials
of life too seriously as well. Still there is good reason for they
are all, as the Irish writer John Banville, he of Booker fame, once
said “wholly necessary and wholly useless”.more...
(Irish Post) 26 October 2005
Taking a Trip
Back Down Rocky Road
In 1960s Ireland, concepts like people power and free love must
have seemed wildly exotic. The almost unchallenged authority of
the Catholic Church made a sexual revolution more than unlikely
— it was unthinkable.
more...
(Irish Post) 19 October 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
New Ireland was on holiday this summer and like a lot of things
in new Ireland it has to be seen or it isn’t worth anything. Hey,
what’s the use of being well off if no one knows you are. more...
Ireland
Blazes a Smoke Free Trail
Ireland led the way with a historic decision to ban smoking in public
that was enshrined in law on March 29, 2004. From that date a comprehensive
smoke-free law was introduced across the Republic that covered all
indoor workplaces, including bars and restaurants.more...
(Irish Post) 19 October 2005
IRA
heap political pressure on Unionism
IRA decommissioning has plunged Unionism and Loyalism into the dilemma
of how to reciprocate positively. John Coulter looks at what the
future may hold. more...
(Irish Post) 12 October 2005
Comment
Something remarkable is happening in the heart of one of the largest
Irish communities in Britain. more...
(Irish Post) 12 October 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
The Ferry across the Irish Sea was such a part of our lives, wasn’t
it? All those coach journeys and then the smell of the ocean somewhere
in Wales and the boarding of the boat and Ireland waiting.
more...
(Irish Post) 12 October 2005
Back
to his roots to get the buzz
Reality TV host Patrick Kielty of the BBC series Fame Academy and
more recently Celebrity Love Island has decided to return to his
roots — stand-up comedy. more...
(Irish Post) 12 October 2005
Paul Donovan
There is a clear link between the recent stories about falling mass
attendances and the bookmaker Paddy Power offending the clergy with
an advertisement depicting Jesus and the apostles gambling at the
last supper. more...
(Irish Post) 12 October 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
A momentous day surely. Wandering in by chance I managed to get
the live transmission of the weapons inspectors press conference
in which the three appointed dignitaries and the two clerics were
stating they believed they had seen the end of the IRA as an armed
force. It was amazing stuff.more...
(Irish Post) 5 October 2005
From Derry
to Camden Via Death Row
Growing up in the North of Ireland in the 1980s was difficult —
regardless of which side of the political divide one came from.
Imagine then the added pressures that you faced if you were non-white
and non-Christian. more...
(Irish Post) 5 October 2005
A Threat
to the Irish Economy
Nearly 550 Irish workers risk losing their jobs to cheaper imported
foreign labour as Irish Ferries embarks on a cynical industrial
ploy that seemingly governments in Dublin and London and trade unions
are powerless to stop.more...
(Irish Post) 5 October 2005
A Savage
Indictment of Post Independence
Peter Lennon’s 1968 documentary film Rocky Road To Dublin ran for
seven weeks in one cinema in Ireland and was never seen again. It
has just been re-released in Ireland this week.more...
(Irish Post) 5 October 2005
Irish Government is in terminal disarray
Plans have finally been announced for a second terminal at Dublin
Airport. But Ronan McGreevy argues on-going delays in the project
and continued uncertainty about funding are a shameful indictment
of the Irish Government.
more...
(Irish Post) 28 September
2005
Comment
The IRA bites the bullet : By any standard of measurement, the announcement
that the IRA’s entire arsenal of weapons has been put beyond use
must be considered as a full and positive response
more...
(Irish Post) 28 September
2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
I knew this lad a while back when I lived in Britain whose parents
were Irish just like mine. more...
(Irish Post) 28 September
2005
Pictures
of hope
A new photographic exhibition gives a rare insight into the work
of Cricklewood Homeless Concern — and the lives of the people it
has helped. Amanda Diamond takes a look.
more...
(Irish Post) 28 September
2005
Paul Donovan
The latest wave of anti-terror legislation has shown the Blair government
learning little from recent past experiences involving the Irish
community. more...
(Irish Post) 28 September
2005
The
Joe Horgan Column
Well anything is possible, I suppose. This is a world where an American
President declared the end to a conflict by appearing on a carrier
ship in full fighter pilot’s uniform even though we all knew he
dodged going to war himself.more...
Call Time on
Pub Hours
It is somewhat ironic to note the closure of Irishman Oliver Peyton’s
Atlantic Bar and Grill in London’s West End, coming as it does just
a couple of months away from the introduction of new licensing laws
by the Government that some say will lead to 24-hour drinking.more...
Comment
Law and Disorder : For those of our readers of a younger disposition,
the ugly scenes of rioting by Loyalists in Belfast at the weekend
— ugly scenes that were beamed via satellite to televisions throughout
the world — must have come as something of a shock.
more...
(Irish Post) 14 September
2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
Of course it isn’t true. What a thing to suggest. Sure, many roads
here tend to mysteriously improve around large hotels or certain
business concerns, not around hospitals or schools, but to suggest
anything untoward about this is surely unfair.
more...
(Irish Post) 14 September
2005
Looking
down the barrel of fear
Gun crime is becoming more and more prevelant in Ireland — but can
anything stem the tide of deaths? Steve Cummins investigates Ireland’s
firearms culture. more...
(Irish Post) 14 September
2005
Power
to the People
Doctor Gerald Draper is an obviously intelligent man who has recently
added to the body of research that has been carried out in Britain
into the links between electro-magnetic fields — around electricity
pylons and the like — and childhood leukaemia.more...
The Joe
Horgan Column
It is hard sometimes to get a handle on the values of a society,
especially when a society is changing as rapidly as Ireland’s.more...
(Irish Post) 7 September
2005
The North is
Sitting on a Powder Keg
While Republican paramilitaries in Ireland continue to put their
weapons out of commission, a vast arsenal of legally-held firearms
are still in use in the North.more...
Comment
The death of Gerry Fitt at the weekend at the age of 79 means the
loss of a man who during his long political career at Westminster
and in Belfast beforehand came to be the virtual embodiment of constitutional
nationalism. more...
(Irish Post) 31 August 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
A strange weekend there recently. Saturday, the sun shone like a
summer song. Sunday, the rain fell dark and long and we thought
summer was gone. Nothing too strange in that for Ireland.
more...
(Irish Post) 31 August 2005
Ireland welcomes a sea
of new faces
Ireland’s booming economy over the past decade has seen it transformed
beyond recognition as it surges into the 21st century. Frank Murphy
reports.more...
(Irish Post) 31 August 2005
Paul Donovan
A little discussed element of the shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles
de Menezes at Stockwell tube station has been the role played by
the British army. more...
(Irish Post) 31 August 2005
The One and
Only Mo
In the hierarchy of the British Government the role of Secretary
of State for Northern Ireland is often somewhat of a poisoned chalice.more...
Millionaires’ playground
Ireland’s wealthy were at one time all “old money”. But from celebrities
to sports stars and even Lotto millionaires, all that has changed,
as Pat Holland reports.
more...
(Irish Post) 17 August 2005
Comment
The Cassidys are an ordinary Irish family living in north London.
Sean moved from Cavan to London in 1970. He married Veronica in
1976 and had two children Ciaran and Lisa.
more...
(Irish Post) 17 August 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
We hit the road early and it was one of those mornings when the
sun shone and then shone some more.
more...
(Irish Post) 17 August 2005
Anois agus
arís
Matthias O’Conway of Galway takes his place in history as America’s
first professional language teacher and publisher of language learning
books that set the format for all modern language learning methods.
more...
(Irish Post) 17 August 2005
Finian Finds
Fortune in Oil
Eithne Treanor talks to Finian O’Sullivan CEO of Burren Energy about
his attitude and sense of adventure in the oil exploration business.more...
(Irish Post) 10 August 2005
No Place For Violence
Women’s groups in Ireland and all those who are concerned with the
issue of women’s rights in general are right to welcome and endorse
the latest report on the matter published by the United Nations.more...
(Irish Post) 10 August 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
A friend of mine who was born and reared in Dublin tells a story
about learning Irish in school. They were reading Peig, one of the
books that came out of the late flowering of literature from the
Blasket Islands.more...
(Irish Post) 10 August 2005
Lotto Money
Could Mean Lotto Problems
In a single moment, Dolores McNamara had all her financial dreams
come true. But, as Ronan McGreevy says, the end to all her old problems
will mean the start of a whole set of new ones that she could never
have prepared for.more...
(Irish Post) 10 August 2005
IRA’s
dream was a bloody nightmare
After the IRA’s declaration to end its armed struggle Ronan
McGreevy says that their campaign was based on a flawed analysis
that they could bomb their way to a united Ireland.
more...
(Irish Post) 03 August 2005
Comment
It seemed an awfully long time in the coming but when the IRA called
a halt to all forms of paramilitary and criminal activity on Thursday
last week it was not a moment too soon.
more...
(Irish Post) 03 August 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
There may be bombings in London, war in Iraq, a new fear of a new
global, random, murderous terror, but some things never seem to
change. more...
(Irish Post) 03 August 2005
Paying
too high a price
David Trimble may have bowed out of front-line politics — but the
former Unionist leader’s legacy lives on — as Martin Doyle discovers.
more...
(Irish Post) 03 August 2005
New scheme
puts faith in fostering families
Traditional methods of dealing with children with problems have
seen them placed in care. Now a new initiative is changing all that,
as Grham Clifford discovered. more...
(Irish Post) 03 August 2005
An Identity
in Question
BBC presenter Nicky Campbell tells Martin Doyle how it felt to trace
and get to know his Irish birth parents — a Protestant matron and
a Catholic policeman with a Republican past.more...
(Irish Post) 27 July 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
Not so long ago they closed down the textile industry of Donegal
because the company found relocating to Africa offered the chance
of more profit. Lower wages, lower expectations with regards to
working conditions, etc.more...
A Terrible
Blunder
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair strikes one as a
meek man who, until the events of recent weeks in London, had espoused
with gusto the principle of community policing.more...
(Irish Post) 27 July 2005
Setanta Lines
Up for Bid to Show Premiership Games
It started because two friends wanted to watch Ireland take on Holland
in the World Cup — and now it’s set to challenge the might of satellite
channel Sky for rights to Premiership soccer.more...
(Irish Post) 27 July 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
Is London an Irish city? Is Birmingham? Manchester? Glasgow? Are
there pockets of Irishness in other cities and towns throughout
Britain? Yes and yes. Of course, yes.
more...
(Irish Post) 20 July 2005
Rock’s new evangelist
Paul Brannigan has risen from covering the Belfast rock scene to
one of the biggest jobs in music journalism — the editorship of
Kerrang! Robert Dineen hears his story.
more...
(Irish Post) 20 July 2005
After July
7 we are all Londoners now
In the wake of the terrorist bombings in London on July 7 Ronan
McGreevy admires the London spirit and condemns the scourge of religious
hatred.more...
(Irish Post) 20 July 2005
Comment : Funding
for the future
The announcement by the Irish Government that the money earmarked
for Irish organisations working with the emigrant community in Britain
is to increase by 61 per cent next year to £4.5 million will surely
be received with delight from those working in the Irish voluntary
sector. more...
(Irish Post) 20 July 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
You can’t argue with the stated aims of the Drop the Debt campaign
or the Make Poverty History movement, which in a way makes them
even harder to discuss.more...
(Irish Post) 13 July 2005
The Lessons
of Recent History
Last Thursday London was struck by its one most single terrible
and tragic event since the IRA left a bomb outside Harrods department
store in Knightsbridge in 1983 as hundreds hurried about their last-
minute Christmas shopping.more...
(Irish Post) 13 July 2005
Díon Fund is
Really Making a Difference
In the wake of the London bombings Ireland’s Minister for Foreign
Affairs Dermot Ahern offers the nation’s sympathy to the victims
while also looking ahead to the announcement of this year’s Díon
Fund allocations.more...
(Irish Post) 13 July 2005
The Luck of
the Irish
There’s something about rags-to-riches stories that evokes a sense
of hope and inspiration and people are always glad to listen to
them. The tale of one of Ireland’s biggest success stories, Bill
Cullen, is no exception.more...
(Irish Post) 13 July 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
Well, there is often a wide-eyed fox halting for a while on the
lane before slinking away. Rabbits everywhere. The swallows and
the kestrels. The red-beaked choughs down by the sea.
more...
(Irish Post) 06 July 2005
Time
RTÉ listened to its listeners
As national Irish station RTÉ pulls the plug on its sports service
to Britain Ronan McGreevy asks why are they ignoring one of their
biggest potential markets — the emigrant population.
more...
(Irish Post) 06 July 2005
Opportunity Knocked
It’s an aviation phenomenon — an airport created out of nothing
some 25 years ago which experts predicted was bound to fail. But
against all odds Knock Airport has really taken off — thanks, in
part, to the Irish community in Britain. Malcolm Rogers explains
why. more...
(Irish Post) 06 July 2005
Singing From
the Same Hymn Sheet
The meeting in London on Monday between Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and
Prime Minister Tony Blair seems to have been brief, businesslike
and very much to the point.more...
(Irish Post) 29 June 2005
A New Slant
on an Old Familiar
Ireland’s history has plenty of documented evidence about the millions
who emigrated to Britain. Now as Ronan McGreevy discovers Ireland
is facing a similar “invasion” — this time from eastern Europe.more...
(Irish Post) 29 June 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
I’ll tell you how we get our post. The local postman, knowing we
are all regular visitors to the house of our parents, drops all
the post off there. We in effect have our own sorting office.more...
(Irish Post) 29 June 2005
A Very Irish
Revolution
Burgeoning wealth, record employment and double-digit growth — Ireland's
never had it so good. Or has it? Author Henry McDonald says there
are dark secrets lurking, as Martin Doyle discovers.more...
Last gasp for public smoking
Where Ireland leads, California and New York have followed. And
now it seems that the British Government has seen the light and
is also motivated by Ireland’s example.
more...
(Irish Post) 22 June 2005
Time
to put your money where your mouth is
Is it right that multi-millionaire rock star Bono should be lecturing
the world on the need to alleviate poverty while availing himself
of generous tax breaks? Ronan McGreevy thinks not.
more...
(Irish Post) 22 June 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
Here in Ireland, the 1990 World Cup is seen by many as marking some
kind of watershed in Irish consciousness, as the national team made
their first appearance at the world's biggest tournament.
more...
President’s
crowning glory
It was former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who described
Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev on his appointment to high office
as “someone I can do business with”.
more...
(Irish Post) 15 June 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
I am lucky enough to be looking out over the fields and the sun
is shining. The farmer is in the distance.
more...
Garda reform necessary
Miscarriages of justice are all too familiar to Irish people in
this country. Too many people have been the innocent victims of
police officers who have extracted false confessions or twisted
evidence to suit their suspicions. more...
(Irish Post) 08 June 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
One minute it really is June, it really is the first strains of
summer. The next minute a cloud goes over and it’s as cold as February.
more...
Children’s
safety on school buses must be the first concern
As the tragic victims are buried Ireland is still struggling to
come to terms with the Co. Meath bus crash which saw five schoolchildren
lose their lives. But as the government pledges urgent action on
road safety can we be sure the tragedy will not be repeated in the
future? Amanda Diamond investigates.
more...
(Irish Post) 01 June 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
Peader O’Donnell really was right. There was never a revolution
in this country. It was just a change of management. Recently the
management have been showing their true colours again.
more...
(Irish Post) 01 June 2005
When Ireland lost a voice of the people
A decade has passed since the closure of the Irish Press newspaper
group. Ronan McGreevy looks back at the demise of one of Ireland’s
great media institutions.more...
(Irish Post) 01 June 2005
A helping
hand reaching out to young Londoners
Although sometimes seen as a thing of the past, homelessness and
inadequate housing is still a problem for young Irish people. Continuing
our series on Irish voluntary organisations in Britain. more...
The Joe Horgan
Column
The dream for Ireland is of a “government machine absolutely under
the control of a small group of ministers”. It is to be run “on
centralised lines, with a strong finance department the dominant
force in government”. more...
(Irish Post) 25 May 2005
Anois
agus arís
It was well known that the icon of 20th Century revolution, ‘Che’
Guevarra bore the name Ernesto Guevarra Lynch, a scion of an Irish
Argentine family. Argentina has the biggest Irish migrant population
outside of the English speaking world. more...
(Irish Post) 25 May 2005
An
Unparalleled Experience Not to be Missed
A visit to Lourdes is for many an experience that can’t be bettered.
Graham Clifford joined a group of youngsters from the Handicapped
Children’s Pilgrimage Trust to savour a week they will never forget.more...
(Irish Post) 18 May 2005
A Driving Need
for Change
It is a dilemma that is not new, especially here in Britain. But
traffic congestion and indeed gridlock is an ailment that is afflicting
post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and is causing those in government there
to make some difficult decisions.more...
(Irish Post) 18 May 2005
Investors
Grab Cash While the Fans Suffer
Soccer is still reeling at the capitulation of shareholders in the
sale of Manchester United. But Ronan McGreevy says supporters shouldn’t
be surprised.more...
(Irish Post) 18 May 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
I could well be missing the point here, but apart from the predictions
that he will be a superstar, the fact that the Celtic footballer
Aiden McGeady opted to represent Ireland rather than the land of
his birth, Scotland, obviously stirred more than just sporting interest.more...
(Irish Post) 18 May 2005
Nursing: It’s so
Much More than Just a Job
As we celebrate International Nurses’ Day, Amanda Diamond reports
on how Irish women have been stalwarts of the profession for decades
and a key part of Britain’s National Health Service.more...
(Irish Post) 18 May 2005
Paying
a Terrible Price for Neutrality
After the VE commemorations of last weekend Ronan McGreevy looks
at how Ireland dealt with its neutrality and how those who chose
to fight are remembered.more...
The Joe Horgan
Column
It is either deeply ironic or merely a quirk in the nature of Irish
history — but there is just as much chance of encountering an identifiable
Irish culture outside of Ireland as there is in it.more...
(Irish Post) 11 May 2005
‘Fares fair’ Say
Parents on Loss of Free Travel Provision
For parents across Britain the cost of sending their children for
a Catholic education is on the rise — because councils are cutting
free travel provision for thousands of youngsters. Amanda Diamond
looks at how the move is hitting one Irish community.more...
(Irish Post) 04 May 2005
Danger
of Looking Backwards
The death of the young soldier follows in the line of that of Irish
guardsman Ian Malone from Dublin who lost his life early on in the
Iraq War.more...
The Joe Horgan
Column
We now know that the Ireland of the 70s and 80s — that faraway,
distant country — offered worker’s poor wages and that whilst telling
the people to tighten their belts the government of the day was
lining it’s own pockets.
more...
(Irish Post) 04 May 2005
Cooking Up a Raw
Recipe for Success
He’s the man behind one of the restaurant industry’s biggest success
stories. But it took Simon Woodroffe longer than he intended to
hit the big time, as Eithne Treanor discovered. more...
Tales of a
Misspent Youth
As we approach the date in history that marks 60 years since the
end of the Second World War, there still seems to persist in some
sections of the British tabloid press the belief that all Germans
must undoubtedly be Nazis.
more...
(Irish Post) 27 April 2005
The Joe Horgan
Column
I grew up literally within earshot of a football ground on the inner
city streets of England. I stood on the now demolished terraces.
I remember that at least one small factory backed on to one set
of terracing behind the goals. The stadium, the club, was still
physically then part of the community.
more...
The
Embassy at the Heart of Emigrant Life in Britain
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work at the Irish
Embassy in London? Or what it is that Embassy workers do all day
long? Well, wonder no more — Amanda Diamond spent a day with Barry
McCarthy and Luke Hanlon to find out.
more...
(Irish Post) 27 April 2005
No Airs or
Graces For Jamie’s School Dinner Lady Nora
She’s the woman who upstaged Jamie Oliver and helped bring Britain’s
school dinners into the 21st century. But Jamie’s School Dinners’
star Nora Sands now wants to stay firmly away from the limelight,
as Frank Peters discovered.
more...
(Irish Post) 27 April 2005
Stigma of
Suicide Blights Irish Youth
Youngsters in Ireland are taking their own lives in growing numbers.
Ronan McGreevy discusses a new initiative to help ease the problem.
more...
(Irish Post) 20 April 2005
Statistics
Don’t Paint the Full Picture
It was the 19th Century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli
who made the observation that: “There are three kinds of lies: Lies,
damned lies, and statistics.”
more...
(Irish Post) 20 April 2005
The Joe
Horgan Column
I can only presume that a lapsed Catholic is someone who doesn’t
attend mass because that aside if you are raised a Catholic it would
seem very difficult to me for it to be no longer part of your mindset
or your imagination. more...
(Irish Post) 20 April 2005
Final
Push for Peace
“I am asking you to join me in seizing this moment, to intensify
our efforts, to rebuild the peace process and decisively move our
struggle forward.” more...
(Irish Post) 13 April 2005
The Joe
Horgan Column
There is still a pleasure in listening to Morning Ireland on the
radio and through the national station feeling as if you are hearing
Ireland discuss itself.
more...
(Irish Post) 13 April 2005
Amending
Rule 42 is Best for the GAA
It will be a win, win, win situation for the GAA if Rule 42 is rescinded
Ronan McGreevy gives his reasons for supporting the change.
more...
A colossus of a
man
The death of Pope John Paul II has left the whole world in mourning,
not just for the man and the manner in which he endured such agony
in his final days, but in mourning for one of the world’s great
leaders of modern times. more...
The world is
waiting for another man of vision
During the nine days of mourning following the death of Pope John
Paul II speculation turns to who will be his successor. Malcolm
Rogers assesses the chances of the current front-runners. more...
Ireland’s
civilian World War II heroes
May 8 marks the 60th anniversary of the ending of the 1939-45 World
War in Europe. The Japanese Empire did not surrender until August
14. more...
(Irish Post) 6 April 2005
No consorting
with Catholics
When the Prince of Wales marries Mrs Parker Bowles on April 8 in
a register office in Windsor, the bride will be entitled thereafter
to be called the Princess Consort.
more...
No smoke
but plenty of thermal treatment
I have to take my hat off to this Irish government and say that
even in the brief time I have been here that they have transformed
this country through two acts of political will. more...
Pure genius for St. Patrick’s Day
Think Ireland, think Guinness. That’s what many foreigners do and
even some of us see our national identity through the opaque prism
of the black stuff. more...
(Irish Post) 17
March 2005
Sinn
Féin snubbed
British Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson once famously said that
a week is a long time in politics. A Conservative predecessor, Harold
Macmillan, asserted that there was no such thing as politics but
merely events. more...
Wish
we were there
People who go across the sea to Ireland on a visit from Britain
these days regard the auld country as a “less than exotic location”
according to the latest surveys carried out by Tourism Ireland.
more...
(Irish Post) 9
March 2005
A needless death
At the end of every Crimewatch television programme, presenter Nick
Ross tells his audience to sleep tight and not to have nightmares.
more...
(Irish Post) 3 March 2005
Irish
lionheart is leading man
The English fan beside me in a pub in Clapham in south London spoke
a fraction too soon. “O’Driscoll’s done nothing in the second-half,”
he said. more...
(Irish Post) 3 March 2005
Judging Sinn Féin
They were derided before for attempting to choreograph stages of
the peace process, on days where announcement was supposed to follow
announcement and a little dance of peace was to be played out.
more...
(Irish Post) 3 March 2005
An uneasy peace
Bombs, bullets and bank robberies have no place at all in a political
democracy. more...
Leopoldo
O’Donnell: Spanish Prime Minister
Irishmen and women, forced by conquest and by economics, have spread
into many corners of the world. Many of them and their descendants
have achieved outstanding success in the lands in which they have
settled. more...
Better late
than never
So it should be a source of some bewilderment that it has taken
the British authorities more than a decade to apologise to the Conlon
and Maguire families for their wrongful imprisonment over the Guildford
and Woolwich bombings. more...
(Irish Post) 16 February
2005
Searching
for evidence instead of scapegoats
The police decision to blame the IRA for the recent multi-million
pound bank raid in the North of Ireland has sparked a storm of protest.
MP Sarah Teather tells Paul Donovan why she thinks the decision
was wrong. more...
(Irish Post) 16 February
2005
Wise Words
The Roman Catholic Primate of Ireland Dr Sean Brady is known to
be something of a quiet man, a man who in the past has been careful
in his choice of words to describe the situation in the North.
more...
(Irish Post) 9 February 2005
Never forget
the Irish victims
Twenty-five years ago last month, Guiseppe Conlon died in Hammersmith
Hospital of complications relating to a respiratory illness.
more...
(Irish Post) 9 February 2005
Moral dilemmas
With the recent anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz the issue
of Irish neutrality along with President De Valera’s expression
of condolences to German representatives upon the death of Adolf
Hitler were suddenly in the news.
more...
(Irish Post) 9 February 2005
Home Affairs
One might be forgiven the observation that there seems to be a competition
going on within the Government in Britain, a competition to see
who will be the most memorably oppressive Labour Home Secretary
of all time. more...
Folk heroes
still filling venues
There is a story told on the sleeve notes of an old Planxty compilation
about a woman who attended one of their gigs at the Shaftesbury
Avenue Theatre (now the Apollo) in London 30 years ago.
more...
(Irish Post) 27 January 2005
Home is where the
heart should be
In time for Homelessness Sunday, Paul Donovan reports on the plight
of Irish families — too many of whom live in poor accommodation.
more...
Peace, at a price
Bertie Ahern’s refusal to take calls from Gerry Adams would be comical
if it was not so serious. more...
(Irish Post) 19 January 2005
Culture of despair
In 1943, at an orphanage in Cavan town run by the Poor Clares, an
enclosed order of nuns, a fire took the lives of one old woman and
33 young girls. more...
(Irish Post) 19 January 2005
A major voice
for emigrant issues
No Irish politician has pursued the issue of justice for Irish emigrants
more than the Labour Party chief whip Emmet Stagg.
more...
The disappearance
of a Corkman in London
This column has generally confined itself to the stories of those
who left Ireland and made a successful life in this country or in
other lands. more...
(Irish Post) 12 January 2005
Ideas of Irishness
When Erskine Childers was arrested in 1922 during the Irish civil
war he was carrying a revolver that had been given to him by his
one time friend Michael Collins.
more...
An island in the
sun
Whilst a gloomy end to 2004 may have been inevitable, Malcolm Rogers
argues we Irish have actually never had it so good. So look forward
to 2005 with confidence. more...
(Irish Post) 4 January 2005
Everywhere
and nowhere
Michael McDowell, in a rare burst of poetic language, believes that
we should only use the pick and shovel to build the future and forget
all about excavating the past.
more...
(Irish Post) 4 January 2005
Identifying the true
obstacles to peace
When will it ever be enough? Independent observers, the trust of
two governments, a stated order to all volunteers to desist from
any military activity or any activity contrary to peace, an actual
peace that lengthens year by year? more...
(Irish Post) 22 December
2004
A marriage
of inconvenience
“Marriage has many pains but celibacy has few pleasures,” Samuel
Johnson once said and he had a wise word for many things — but for
generations Irish men heroically sought to prove him wrong.
more...
(Irish Post) 15 December
2004
Keeping warm
this winter
Winter can be a testing time for many elderly Irish people faced
with a tight budget and the problem of keeping warm in Britain’s
bitter cold. Amanda Diamond and Mary Connelly offer some handy tips
on how to keep the cold at bay.
more...
(Irish Post) 15 December
2004
A fond farewell to
Bewley’s
So Bewley’s has closed. Part of Irish history for some 140 years,
it has closed with not a little fuss and with not a few tears.
more...
(Irish Post) 15 December
2004
Beware Sinn Féin
double standards
Detective Jerry McCabe hardly saw it coming. Within seconds of his
patrol car being rammed by a Toyota Pajero four-wheel drive he was
a dead man — hit by three bullets from a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
more...
(Irish Post) 8 December 2004
Charlie
Kilmaine from Dublin: Napoleon’s favourite general
When General Jean Landrieux was asked who he felt was Napoleon Bonaparte’s
favourite general among the many famous officers such as Murat,
Ney, Soult, MacDonald, Bernadotte, Milhaud, he had no hesitation.
He said that General Kilmaine was “the only officer in whom Napoleon
ever placed complete confidence.”
more...
Eyes fixed on
the prize
Will there or will there not be a comprehensive agreement arising
out of the current negotiations? That question cannot be answered
at this time. more...
(Irish Post) 1 December 2004
The decline
of Scotland’s wearing of Hibernian green
Although significant numbers of the Irish diaspora in Scotland attended
pre-World War II Irish political and cultural marches, the inter-war
period was a time when many Catholics’ Irishness became increasingly
privatised. more...
(Irish Post) 1 December 2004
Bertie's Ireland
In the same, strange way that any country after a length of time
becomes identified by association with its leaders — see Thatcher’s
Britain, Blair’s Britain, Bush’s America — Bertie Ahern is now some
seven years the Taoiseach of Ireland.
more...
(Irish Post) 1 December 2004
Is Ireland really
top of the charts?
The Economist magazine is having a laugh. A couple of weeks ago
it announced that Ireland was the best country in the world in which
to live. more...
(Irish Post) 1 December 2004
U2 still at the
top of the rock game
It is a testimony, not only to the brilliance of U2, but also to
their longevity that the release of their new album should continue
to generate worldwide excitement.
more...
(Irish Post) 24 November
2004
Chronicling
100 years of sporting excellence
Manchester’s Oisín GAA Club is celebrating its centenary with a
series of special events and a book entitled An Scéal Oisín looking
back at 100 years of sporting excellence.
more...
(Irish Post) 24 November
2004
Assessing
in real terms the threat of terrorism
The question surrounding whether you believe that there is an international
terrorist threat to Britain seemed to take on the status of an article
of faith for members of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee.
more...
(Irish Post) 24 November
2004
Idyllic Ireland?
It is perhaps enough to make you rub your hands with glee... a survey
by The Economist magazine says that Ireland is top of the list out
of 111 countries surveyed as the best place in the world to live.
more...
The
resurrection of a proud community
On November 21 1974 two IRA bombs tore apart the centre of Birmingham
in a terrorist attack that saw the Irish in Britain demonised like
never before. But 30 years on the city’s Irish community has stepped
out of the shadow of that dark day to become an integral part of
Birmingham’s thriving multi-cultural identity. Brendan Farrell reports
on an amazing transformation. more...
Ahern looks
past morals in his support of Bush
IT might seem odd to be writing about the American election in a
newspaper serving the Irish community in Britain and it is not done
out of any insight into Irish-America.
more...
Hopes
are high for Dion fund increase
The Irish Post’s campaign for a substantial increase in the Dion
funding grant from the Irish Government could be about to bear fruit.
more...
Are Irish jobs
safe with Bush?
BERTIE Ahern is a relieved man. No, the opinion polls are not showing
a sudden huge surge in his popularity. Nor are his opponents toning
down their ever more frequent attacks on his leadership of Ireland.
more...
(Irish Post ) 10 November
2004
Identity crisis
WHEN talking about Ireland, as a lot of us relentlessly do, what
group springs to mind when relating the follow characteristics?
more...
(Irish Post ) 10 November
2004
Murphy’s
Winter — January 1838
One of the coldest days ever recorded in London was when the thermometer
dropped to 14 degrees below zero. It happened on January 20, 1838.
more...
(Irish Post ) 10 November
2004
Shutting
up shop on Dublin’s past
With its stained glass windows, high ceilings and cavernous interior,
Bewley’s of Grafton Street was more than just a café. It was a cathedral
of coffee. more...
(Irish Post ) 3 November
2004
A proud
contribution to rights of Irish in Britain
Former Irish Post Editor Donal Mooney’s death last month was a sad
loss to the Irish community in Britain. Here in an extract from
the book A History Of The Irish Post, he tells of how he fought
for the rights of the Irish in Britain during his celebrated stewardship
of the newspaper. more...
Taxing conundrum
The government recently announced that a number of extremely wealthy
individuals manage to pay no tax at all and that this is completely
within the law. more...
(Irish Post ) 3 November
2004
A much loved poet
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the poet
Patrick Kavanagh. more...
(Irish Post ) 27 October
2004
Learning
to live life to the fullest
Brainchild of Hollywood legend Paul Newman, Barretstown in Co. Kildare
is celebrating a decade of changing the lives of sick children from
across Europe. Graham Clifford found out more from two of its recent
guests. more...
(Irish Post ) 27 October
2004
Mythical malaise
The weekend in Ireland and a cold cut in the air, a slight hangover
and the Sunday papers. A flick through the pages and perhaps it’s
the cold, the lazy Sunday or the hangover but the familiar struggle
to understand ... more...
Irish
workers lose out as America wins big
There was once a thriving textile industry in Donegal. Not any more.
The Fruit of the Loom company, which incorporated a local family
business when it began, has just announced the final closing down
of its Irish operations.
more...
(Irish Post ) 30 September
2004
The
sad Athens grave of an Irish policeman’s son
T.H. White (1906-1964) is recorded in most literary reference books
as an “English writer, best known for The Once and Future King (1958),”
a tetralogy based on the Arthurian legend.
more...
Mayo’s year perhaps?
Mayo — you could write a book about the place. Alternatively, you
could read a book about the place, two in fact both by the same
author. more...
(Irish Post ) 21 September
2004
Shaky foundations
of affordable housing
Whichever way you travel through Ireland now, car, plane or train,
you see them. The new housing estates march across the Irish landscape
like an army. more...
Time to end the
prosperity divide
In a e2million project 1,200 flats in Dublin are going to get their
first ever bathroom sinks. In Ireland in the year 2004. In this
small article in a national paper the Minister for the Environment,
Martin Cullen, reportedly said he was “totally taken aback” on learning
that these flats had no bathroom sinks.
more...
Bertie’s view is
no laughing matter
When the USA decided upon a pre-emptive strike against Iraq, as
part of a curious ideology that involves going to war in the name
of peace, Ireland nailed its colours to the mast.
more...
(Irish Post ) 8 June 2004
The mystery priest
from Clare
On a cold, late October night in 1603, an Irish priest named Donnchadh
Ó Ruadhacháin, was hurrying through the streets of the City of London.
He had become aware that he was being followed.
more...
(Irish Post ) 8 June 2004
The cost of human life
In June 1996, as the developing peace process for the north stumbled
along, an IRA unit attempting a robbery on a post office money truck
in the village of Adare in Co. Limerick shot and killed a Garda
officer, Jerry McCabe, putting three bullets into his body.
more...
(Irish Post ) 5 June 2004
Who’s ashamed of the
IRA?
"The campaign for the European and local elections is upon us. The
roadsides are now festooned with the softly smiling faces of many
a hopeful, wistful, or downright deluded politician...." more...
(Irish Post) 28 May 2004
The strange case of Dr
Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle, the Scottish creator of the world famous detective,
Sherlock Holmes, and grandson of Irish Catholic emigrants, was a
man of several contradictions. more...
(Irish Post) 28 May 2004
Emigration part of Ireland’s
history
It may fade, it may well all change but think of Ireland and one
of the things you still think of is emigration and all that that
entailed. more...
(Irish Post) 31 March 2004
Olé – Ulster’s oldest
regiment is Spanish
What is the oldest Ulster regiment? I would lay a wager that you
are thinking about the regiments in the British Army like the Royal
Inniskilling Fusiliers, raised in 1689, which are now known as the
Royal Irish Rangers. more...
(Irish Post) 31 March 2004
Ireland can’t escape
the pain and porn
Two high-profile cases occupied domestic news here recently. One
was something of a flash in the pan whilst the other became a long,
drawn out affair with immeasurable pain for those involved.
more...
(Irish Post) 24 March 2004
One foot in the past
A friend of mine, another second generation Irishman over here like
myself, was going through some old photographs recently.
more...
A language barrier
It must be what the term lip service actually comes from. It must
infuriate Irish speakers, activists and lovers of the language beyond
reason. more...
(Irish Post) 10 March 2004
Dealing with the devil
Why can’t Ireland be true to Ireland? A country following its own
nature is surely more at peace with itself. Ireland behaving in
a way that reflects the experience of being Irish and what the story
of Ireland is. Is that possible? more...
When is an Irish newspaper
not Irish?
I remember when I was a child picking up the newspaper in my auntie’s
house in Cork city. It was probably, I suppose, a copy of the Cork
Examiner. more...
(Irish Post) 25 Feb 2004
How best to say goodbye
I would guess that anthropologists and assorted academics learn
an awful lot about societies by the way they bury their dead.
more...
(Irish Post) 18 Feb 2004
Are the Irish to blame for
Indian restaurants?
If it had not been for the result of a battle between the son of
a Galway man and a fellow from Limerick there might have been no
Indian restaurants in Britain. Indeed, we might have been taking
day trips to France in search of such eating establishments.
more...
(Irish Post) 18 Feb 2004
Campaigners demand official
status for Irish
When Ireland joined the the EEC over 30 years ago, it was offered
the chance to make Irish an official language. It chose not to and
instead opted for the lesser status of a Treaty language.
more...
Some of us never make it
home
My uncle who lives in New York recently spent a few days before
Christmas back in Ireland. He returned because a relative of his
had died in Luton and was being brought home for burial.
more...
(Irish Post) 5 Feb 2004
A curious traitor
On August 18, 1976, the remains of William Joyce, executed for treason
in Wandsworth Prison, London, on January 3, 1946, were re-interred
in the New Cemetery at Bohermore, Galway.
more...
Joe Horgan
A man has just been released from prison after serving a short sentence
relating to his activities in opposing the use of Shannon by US
troops on their way to Iraq. more...
(Irish Post) 21 Jan 2004
London’s Irish
history
The streets of London are steeped in Irish history - and a uniquely
British institution is helping mark that connection. Louise Duff
looks at how English Heritage’s Blue Plaque scheme is charting the
history of the famous Irish inhabitants of Britain’s capital. more...
(Irish Post)
Irish emigrants
on the Amazon in 1608
The Irish Diaspora has sent Erin’s sons and daughters to the far
corners of the world over many centuries. Irish men and women had
appeared in some curious lands. Perhaps Irish migration is so curious
and so little known as that to the Amazon in the early 17th Century.
more...
(Irish Post)
Hare raising story
Now I don’t like resting on my laurels — or indeed my hardies —
so I thought it was time for a brand new feature right here in the
column. So this is it: Wildlife spotting from aeroplanes, a complete
guide. more...
Iona: the small island of
saints and scholars
If one was asked to name one of the most extraordinary and influential
Irish immigrants to Britain of all time, I think the majority of
people would name Colmcille — St. Columba (512-597). more...
(Irish Post)
Ancient Greek tragedy could inspire Ireland
Christos Pittas compared the importance of the work of Séan Ó Riada,
, who inspired the 1960s revival of traditional Irish music, to
Bartok and Debussy.
more...
