Category Archives: General

Is this the least known historic village in Ireland?

Posted on Sunday, 31 August, 2014 by andypollak

I come from Kells – not Kells in County Meath, nor Kells in County Kerry, but the twin villages of Kells and Connor in County Antrim. The fact that my father was Czech, that I grew up mainly in London … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland | 8 Comments

What happened to the North’s Progressive Presbyterians?

Posted on Friday, 1 August, 2014 by andypollak

My summer reading in recent weeks has been a fascinating book called Dissenting Voices: Recovering the Irish Progressive Presbyterian Tradition1, by the former head of the Simon Community in Northern Ireland, Roger Courtney. It features short biographies of 300 ‘progressive … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland, Protestantism, unionism and loyalism | Leave a comment

International Cooperation 28, Cooperation on the island of Ireland 1

Posted on Thursday, 26 June, 2014 by andypollak

I was looking through the Government’s 2014 spending estimates the other day (as one does) and noticed that spending this year on international cooperation (i.e. cooperation with countries in the developing world) will be €481.5 million, down from €629 million … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-border cooperation, General | 1 Comment

Will Irish unity be back on the agenda after Sinn Fein’s triumph?

Posted on Wednesday, 28 May, 2014 by andypollak

Perhaps it marks the beginning of some kind of democratic revolution. The overwhelming victory of Sinn Fein, hard left and independent candidates in the Republic’s local and European elections “could mark the end of party politics as we know it”, … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Sinn Fein | 3 Comments

British-Irish friendship and the marginalisation of Unionism

Posted on Tuesday, 6 May, 2014 by andypollak

The big international news story about Northern Ireland this week – the first for many years – is Gerry Adams’ arrest and questioning in connection with the Jean McConville murder case. I have just returned from nine days abroad so … Continue reading →

Posted in British-Irish relations, General, Protestantism, unionism and loyalism | Leave a comment

While Britain and Europe’s tectonic plates move, we argue about Orangemen and Ardoyne

Posted on Tuesday, 8 April, 2014 by andypollak

What is the strategic issue causing senior people in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs to lose their sleep these nights?  In the week that Michael D. Higgins pays the first ever state visit by an Irish President to Britain, … Continue reading →

Posted in British-Irish relations, General, Ireland, Europe and the world | 1 Comment

A love affair with France (and vice-versa)

Posted on Friday, 28 February, 2014 by andypollak

They say it’s bad for the soul to become obsessed with one small, narrow place or one small, narrow subject. For 45 years much of my life has been taken up with the interminable problems of Northern Ireland.  So this … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Ireland, Europe and the world, Views from abroad | Leave a comment

Are the Catholics taking over Northern Ireland (1)?

Posted on Friday, 24 January, 2014 by andypollak

Maybe the loyalist flag riots in Belfast 12 months ago weren’t so strange and unexpected after all. If you were a not very well-educated working class loyalist watching what was happening in Northern Ireland over the past decade or so … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland | 3 Comments

Why is the Government so reluctant to tell the world about this Irish success story?

Posted on Friday, 20 December, 2013 by andypollak

Earlier this month Eamonn McCann wrote a column in the Irish Times debunking the idea that the Northern Ireland peace process had anything to teach other conflict areas in the world. He painted a picture of Northern Irish politicians and … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-border cooperation, General | Leave a comment

How the women of Ireland saved the children of another small divided country

Posted on Wednesday, 20 November, 2013 by andypollak

What do the Land League leader Michael Davitt and a young Dublin-born medical doctor, Suzanne O’Connell, have in common? The answer lies in Europe’s poorest and probably least-known country, Moldova. For at either end of the 20th century these two … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Ireland, Europe and the world, Views from abroad | Leave a comment