Category Archives: The island environment

Why we need to fight the Corona virus on an all-island basis

Posted on Tuesday, 7 April, 2020 by andypollak

This is an updated and expanded version of an article published in the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ on 2 April. I find I have a little more to add to the Covid-19 reflections of my last blog: specifically about North-South cooperation in … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-border cooperation, General, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, The island environment | 1 Comment

Two reflections on the Corona virus crisis: one Irish, one international

Posted on Friday, 27 March, 2020 by andypollak

What more can one ignorant retired journalist add to the trillions of words written about the Corona virus? Not much, except perhaps two points that readers will have seen before from me ad nauseam on a range of topics: 1) … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-border cooperation, General, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, The island environment, Views from abroad | 2 Comments

A walk through Ireland’s bloody history in Wicklow’s peaceful mountains

Posted on Wednesday, 31 July, 2019 by andypollak

Last month I went on my annual longish summer walk through the Irish hills and countryside. This year I decided, as a change from my usual cross-border itineraries, to go far away from the North to the deep south-east. I … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Republic of Ireland, The island environment | 8 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

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

In praise of Irish villages (under the summer sun)

Posted on Monday, 16 July, 2018 by andypollak

Earlier this month I spent a week walking along back roads and across hills through a relatively unknown part of the rural north and west of Ireland. I started at the village of Tynan, west of Armagh city; walked across … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Republic of Ireland, The island environment | 2 Comments

10 beautiful and interesting places off the Belfast to Dublin road (part two)

Posted on Friday, 15 June, 2018 by andypollak

Regular readers of this blog will remember that last month I left you in the excellent Strandfield cafe just north of Dundalk, which was my fifth beautiful and interesting place just off the Belfast to Dublin Road. This month I … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Republic of Ireland, The island environment | Leave a comment

10 beautiful and interesting places off the Belfast to Dublin road (part one)

Posted on Tuesday, 29 May, 2018 by andypollak

The road and railway between Belfast and Dublin have been an important part of my life. Over the past 50 years I must have travelled between Ireland’s two major cities several thousand times. Given the millions of people who make … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, The island environment | Leave a comment

Northern lessons from a pilgrimage walk in West Cork

Posted on Saturday, 5 August, 2017 by andypollak

Last month my wife Doireann and I went on a three-day walk across the lovely, little known hills of west Cork from Drimoleague (north of Skibbereen), through Kealkill (east of Bantry) to the unique and marvellous pilgrimage spot that is … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Republic of Ireland, The island environment | 1 Comment

Lovely people, close neighbours, parallel universes

Posted on Monday, 24 July, 2017 by andypollak

A year ago I walked along back roads, hill paths and beaches from Belfast to Dublin to raise money for homeless charities in the two cities. I then sat down and tried to write a book about my experiences. By … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland, Protestantism, unionism and loyalism, The island environment | 3 Comments