Journalist, author, broadcaster
News feature on the imminent closure of Belfast’s big Wheel from the latest edition of The Sunday Business Post It may not be as old as Samson and Goliath, Harland and Wolff’s famous yellow cranes, yet in just two and a half years, the Belfast Wheel has become an iconic feature of the city’s skyline. […]
Feature on the spectacular Easter celebrations in the Costa Blanca from todays Irish Times. IT’S ALMOST midnight, but the street lights are off in El Barrio. Thousands of people line the narrow backstreets of this part of Alicante, creating a din of excited chatter in the warm evening air. The scent of fresh flowers and […]
This comment piece on Monday’s dissident bombing in Newry appeared in The Scotsman on 24 February. In November, the International Monitoring Commission, charged with keeping tabs on Northern Ireland’s paramilitary groups, suggested dissident republican ranks were being swelled by ex-Provisional IRA members. The Newry car bomb has now confirmed the worst fears of the security […]
Edinburgh is proving a happy hunting ground for two Irish internationals, as I reported in The Sunday Independent a few couple of Sundays ago: “I doubt I’ll ever tire of Edinburgh,” bestselling crime writer Ian Rankin once said of his hometown. With its spectacular views, historic old town and lively nightlife, the Scottish capital certainly […]
This review of Peter Baldwin’s insight new book The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How America and Europe are Alike appeared in The Sunday Business Post a few weeks back: Last summer, US president Barack Obama announced plans to extend medical cover to more than 31 million uninsured Americans. To judge by the reaction of certain […]
This piece on budget cuts in Northern Ireland appeared in today’s Sunday Business Post The protracted talks between Sinn Féin and the DUP to rescue the North’s power sharing government may have hinged on the devolution of policing and justice powers to Stormont. However, a way from Hillsborough Castle, the big issue for many in […]
This brief analysis piece on the Hillsborough agreement appeared in today’s The Scotsman. “This might just be the day when the political processes in Northern Ireland came of age,” Martin McGuinness said during yesterday’s press conference at Hillsborough Castle. Only time will tell if the deputy first minister’s optimism was well-founded, but there are grounds […]
This comment piece appeared in The Irish Times on Thursday 4 February. It was intended as an attempt to start a discussion about what needs to be done to move Northern Ireland forward. In it, I advocate a possible temporary return to direct rule as it existed during Stormont suspensions over the last decade. But […]
Ian Sansom is a true gent, and if you’ve never picked up one of his hilarious novels you should. This feature on Sansom and his latest novel, The Bad Book Affair, appeared in The Sunday Herald on Sunday 24 January. A prominent Northern Irish politician involved in a sensational sex scandal. Accusations of dodgy dealings […]
This review of the Lough Rynn Hotel in Mohill appeared in The Irish Times on Saturday 16 January ’10. I first visited Lough Rynn well over 20 years ago. It was the day of my first communion. We squashed into my mother’s blue Renault 5 for the half-hour journey north from our Longford home to […]