Category Archives: General

Are Northern nationalists in danger of becoming the Most Ungenerous People Ever (MUPE)?

Posted on Friday, 7 June, 2019 by andypollak

Northern Ireland Protestants and unionists get a universally bad press. They are portrayed as narrow-minded, bigoted, right wing and often racist. They have had to be dragged kicking and screaming to accept the modern concepts of power-sharing democracy, social equality … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification | 1 Comment

The courage and generosity of Seamus Mallon: a book introduction

Posted on Friday, 17 May, 2019 by andypollak

This is my abridged introduction to a new book, ‘A Shared Home Place’ by Seamus Mallon (with Andy Pollak) which is published today by Lilliput Press. Courage and generosity: those are the two words that come to mind when I … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Northern Ireland | 3 Comments

On local election day give the DUP and Sinn Fein a bloody nose: vote for someone else

Posted on Thursday, 2 May, 2019 by andypollak

This blog is not in the business of telling people how to vote. But after the utterly predictable responses by the DUP and Sinn Fein to the two governments’ announcement of new talks to try to restore Stormont (following priest … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland, The island environment | 3 Comments

A kind of tribute to Lyra McKee: the need for a new conversation

Posted on Monday, 22 April, 2019 by andypollak

What more can one say about the marvellous young journalist and human being who was Lyra McKee, and about her killing on Good Friday eve by the murderous losers of the so-called ‘New IRA’? As a former journalist from Northern … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland | 1 Comment

Letter from Virginia: a time is coming when Ulster Protestants will have to be brave and smart

Posted on Friday, 12 April, 2019 by andypollak

I have just returned from a stay in the US state of Virginia, mostly in the town of Lexington in the county of Rockbridge. Rockbridge is one of the two American counties which claim the highest proportion of inhabitants descended … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland, Protestantism, unionism and loyalism, Views from abroad | 1 Comment

Mutual contempt and ignorance are no way to build relations between peoples (especially in Ireland)

Posted on Sunday, 24 March, 2019 by andypollak

As the crisis deepens in Britain, the old negative stereotypes are back. The right-wing British press is full of fury at the treacherous role of the Irish in the ‘backstop’ to keep the UK hobbled and handcuffed indefinitely to the … Continue reading →

Posted in British-Irish relations, General, Northern Ireland, Protestantism, unionism and loyalism, Republic of Ireland | 3 Comments

Great green ideas to fire a new Irish industrial revolution

Posted on Friday, 8 March, 2019 by andypollak

One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2019 is to write more about climate change and the environment. The reasons are: firstly, this is quite simply the existential issue of our age, and one that our politicians in both Irish … Continue reading →

Posted in General, The island environment | 1 Comment

Is it time for the Irish government to compromise on the backstop?

Posted on Friday, 22 February, 2019 by andypollak

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been a lonely voice over the past 15 months expressing concern over the Irish government’s steely ‘ not an inch’ strategy over the so-called ‘backstop’, the insurance policy to ensure … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Invisibility and inertia: the disappointing story of North-South cooperation

Posted on Friday, 25 January, 2019 by andypollak

Whatever has happened to North-South cooperation in recent years? As somebody who was intimately involved in it for 14 years, it seems to me to have become almost invisible. The North South Ministerial Council, set up by the Good Friday … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-border cooperation, General | 3 Comments

Do we need a bit of Chinese ingenuity to solve our Irish puzzle (or could Chris Patten be the man to unite Ireland)?

Posted on Tuesday, 25 December, 2018 by andypollak

Christmas 2018 sees an anxious Ireland starting seriously to prepare for Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal. It finds the United Kingdom in a state of constitutional agitation and division not seen since the Suez crisis in … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Ireland, Europe and the world, Views from abroad | 2 Comments