Racism is not something we get to fix, once and for all. Racism is not something we get to opt out of. To imagine it is is to vastly underestimate the way in which our culture is steeped in bigotry.
Belfast. The capital of Northern Ireland. Indeed, a home from home some may say. Intrigued, admittedly, by the rumoured mass drinking culture within this renowned city, I visited last week, duty free alcohol in one hand and a 'wee' Irish phrase book in the other.
Never before have I felt so welcome in a stately residence, or even in my mum's house, than I did at President Michael D. Higgins sprawling mansion for afternoon tea.
He was about eight feet tall, and arrived - walking - by sea on a pebbly shore somewhere around county Down, wearing a big, big long green and gold robe (which made him float across the Irish Sea like a Dalek), and a green and gold pointy hat on his head (teacher says it's a mitre) because he was really smart and needed room for his brain to grow.
This week was the last dance rehearsal before I take to the main stage of the Lowry in Manchester, captivating an audience of 2,000 with my balletic grace and elegant style. Just kidding, it's actually an audience of 100 in the venue's smallest studio and I'll be dancing with an umbrella.
Do you call your mother mammy? What does "sucking diesel" mean? Are you a flame haired warrior princess or prince? If you know the right answers to these questions you could be more Irish than you think! And now all you St Patrick's Day revellers can find out, just in time for the big day!
I thought it would be jolly to chat to Rubberbandits for this blog, because I thought there might be a chance they would pay me money in a belated, after-the-event bribe to win the increasingly prestigious Malcolm Hardee Comedy Award.
Statistics point to the second week in February as the date most people start to slide with their New Year's Resolutions, sometimes the third week - if the thing to be given up is a not to difficult one, like eating expensive, luxury chocolates, or juggling fiery sticks.
The ugly scenes of rioting that have returned to Belfast's streets 14 years after the signing of the peace agreement are a sorry sight. But they tell a story of poor political leadership and of a demographic section of society left behind.
Northern Ireland is known for its history of religious and state conflict; a recent scar that most of us living here would wish healed. So strange then that the group most disregarded during the Troubles, yet vital to its peace process, i.e. women, should be the subject of unity between the extremes of both Catholic and Protestant religious voices this week
I usually like to keep this blog easy-going, to dispense my daily sights and sounds using my own 'special' brand of light-hearted drivel - humour some...
The Irish are in a unique position in the world, as we are the only race of people who are white, who, within the parameters of the UK, can be genuinely said to have experienced racism in these isles.
Using the tagline 'Take Charge of Change,' Being Young and Irish is a series of seminars organised by President Higgins whereby people aged between 17 and 26 can have their say on where Ireland is going.
Jason Burke is the captain of his music band which practices on the Newtownards Road in east Belfast. He's been involved with the band for almost seven years, and is something he is both passionate and proud about. This isn't the type of music band, however, that plays the odd rock song in his parent's garage. He is in charge of a flute band, which regularly partakes in Orange Order marches in Northern Ireland.
Two Britons and two Irish men and a woman have been arrested after a half tonne haul of cannabis was seized from a yacht off Spain. The arrests wer...
When is a Tayto not a Tayto? According to the English and Wales trade mark registers, it’s when it comes from Ireland. Tayto crisps, one of Irela...
The Irish Times, the newspaper and media organisation for which I work, has embarked on what might be termed a "slightly radical" initiative.
Some months ago I set up The Irish Times Digital Challenge to invite digital entrepreneurs to propose ways to work with The Irish Times.
With exactly seven months to go until the end of the world, I have got to thinking as to how it might manifest itself (I would've written this blog next month, when it was a round half year to go - but I'll be on a beach then, reading a book, with an umbrella-y drink in my hand, and thinking not a jot about universal destruction).
If you thought the UK premiere of Enda Walsh's one-man play Misterman would drown in the National's cavernous Lyttelton Theatre, you'd be wrong. Clearly aware of the space he has to fill, Cillian Murphy has already inhabited every nook of the divided stage and thrown oil drums into the crannies he's missed before the first five minutes are up.
The Duchess of Cambridge looked at ease as she carried out her first solo military engagement presenting sprigs of shamrock to the 1st Battalion Irish...
Police had advance warning of a planned IRA operation which ended with two gunmen being shot dead by the SAS, an inquest has heard. But the officer...
I started a business. It made me want to drink copious quantities, smoke myself into oblivion and hit my head against a brick wall. Instead I wrote a ...
It can arguably be said that before the 1950s men were suave and debonair, and women delightful - a tentative balance, whereby everyone knew their pla...
