Journalist, author, broadcaster
Group’s culture of summary justice is back in Northern Ireland’s spotlight after new sexual assault accusations. Mairia Cahill claims republicans tried to cover up her rape allegations against an IRA figure [Getty Images] Maintaining law and order in Belfast during the violent days of the Troubles – the 30-year-long conflict in Northern Ireland – was […]
Since she was 16-years-old, Scottish Nationalist Party’s Sturgeon has strove for independence from the UK. Nicola Sturgeon poses with supporters of the ‘yes’ campaign in Perth, Scotland in September [EPA] Glasgow, Scotland – When the Scottish National Party meets for its annual conference next month, members will have plenty to celebrate. Defeat in September’s referendum […]
Calls are growing for a formal investigation into Argyll and Bute council in the wake of the collapse of one of the biggest community buy outs in Scotland. Last week, it was confirmed that Castle Toward on the Cowal peninsula will be sold on the open market after Argyll and Bute rejected a community bid […]
The Scottish Government’s flagship Offensive Behaviour at Football law has one of the lowest conviction rates of any crime in Scotland. Last year, barely half of those charged under the legislation were found guilty. Conviction rates were far higher for a wide range of crimes, including murder, sexual assault and robbery. The Offensive Behaviour at […]
On Wednesday lunchtime, a bagpiper heralded the arrival of Gordon Brown at a community hall in Glasgow. Once the music faded out, the former prime minister launched into a speech that has already been hailed by some as the oration that saved the union. Amid a cheering crowd waving ‘no thanks’ placards Brown, with a […]
In his book, the Making of the Crofting Community, the Scottish historian James Hunter quotes a small farmer in the Highlands as saying they “hate us in London but ignore us in Edinburgh.” Standing on the windswept pier at Stornoway, the main town on the isle of Lewis, both metropoles feel like a world away. The twice-daily […]
DISPATCH STORNOWAY, Scotland — Change comes slowly on the island of Lewis, 50 miles off Scotland’s west coast. The island of 20,000 people has been a stronghold of evangelical Christianity for more than a century and a half. It was only five years ago that the first Sunday ferry docked at the quayside that dominates […]
GLASGOW, Scotland — All of a sudden, Scotland has gotten very interesting. That Scots would reject independence from the United Kingdom in a referendum on Sept. 18 has been conventional wisdom from Washington to Westminster for practically every day of a two-year-long campaign on the matter. But not anymore. On the evening of Sept. 1, […]
On Saturday, with only days to go before the independence referendum, thousands of Yes supporters gathered on Buchanan Street in Glasgow, waving Saltires and singing ‘Flower of Scotland’. At around the same time, more than ten thousand Orangemen staged a pro-union march in Edinburgh. The standards at the head of the flute bands hailed from […]
Coldstream, Scotland – Jock Law is in no doubt about which way he is going to vote in Scotland’s independence referendum on September 18. “I’m against, definitely against,” the septuagenarian former soldier says, taking off his thick-rimmed glasses and shaking his head. Few are as passionate in their support for the union with England as […]