Category Archives: General

Why Northern loyalists are running scared of a shared future

Posted on Thursday, 26 March, 2015 by andypollak

Returning to the fearfulness and narrowness of loyalist Belfast after a trip through the magnificent landscapes and massive social contradictions of South America is to come back to earth with a bump. But I had promised myself back in January … Continue reading →

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

Writers, ranchers and revolutionaries: tales of the Irish in Argentina

Posted on Sunday, 22 February, 2015 by andypollak

How many people know that the man who raised the Irish flag over the GPO at Easter 1916 was from Argentina?  I didn’t know this until I was told it earlier this month in Buenos Aires by Guillermo MacLoughlin, one … Continue reading →

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

Notes from another great little country

Posted on Thursday, 29 January, 2015 by andypollak

We in Ireland (or rather the Republic of Ireland) have a lazy, solipsistic tendency to think we are the greatest little country in the world (and not just to do business in). I have spent most of the past fortnight … Continue reading →

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

To the Christmas miracle workers of the Stormont House Agreement – thank you

Posted on Friday, 26 December, 2014 by andypollak

Those of us who still believe that the Northern Ireland peace process, for all its faults and frustrations, is an extraordinary work in progress, received a surprise present two days before Christmas: another last minute, crisis-defusing, expert-defying, all-night final session … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland | 4 Comments

Give us more women in politics, North and South

Posted on Thursday, 27 November, 2014 by andypollak

In preparation for this blog, I carried out a totally unscientific straw poll of the Irish people on my email address list, asking them who was the person in politics they most admired on the island, North and South, over … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 2 Comments

I prefer good art and archaeology to bad politics

Posted on Thursday, 23 October, 2014 by andypollak

Sometimes the sheer badness of politics in Northern Ireland takes my breath away (badness=bad faith, lying, incompetence, being mired in the past). Take the third week of October, for example. Peter Robinson boycotted the opening meetings of the British government initiated … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Why Sinn Fein preferred a No vote in the Scottish referendum

Posted on Thursday, 25 September, 2014 by andypollak

One of the most thought-provoking (and to an Irish audience, most relevant) articles on the Scottish independence referendum appeared on an inside page of the Irish Times two days before the vote (i). It was an interview by Northern editor … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Sinn Fein | 1 Comment

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