Saturday is important here because on Saturday a small group of concerned Scottish people went to the border and held up a banner to traffic coming north over the border reading: ‘STAYCATION – KEEP SCOTLAND COVID FREE.’ Not a word of a lie, this is true. It’s all over the internet. Look it up. And almost immediately members of the Scottish government – MSPs and MPs – reacted. And what a reaction! Scotland’s Justice Minister, Humza Yousaf, a man touted by many to be the next First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party – Scotland’s pro-independence party...
Poisoning the Water
England’s tabloid media has made a tradition of being on the wrong side of history. It has been so consistent in this that one is almost led to the conclusion that being wrong, especially when it isolates and hurts minorities, is the point.
Scotland the Brave needs to get Fearless
This is real terrorism, and it is being used by Ruth Davidson and her élitist London friends every day against someone on your street – against your mother, and until we can come up with effective anti-terrorism measures we can’t tell Westminster’s Tories that Scotland’s no longer their slave.
Overcoming the Fear of Refugees
Politicians and media pundits – who all have their agendas – have fuelled the misconception that these people are migrants rather than refugees; ignoring the facts of the war and violence in Syria and implying that they are coming to steal our women and take our jobs (to cite an old trope).
Writing a Sermon in a Time of Violence
“We should kill them all,” as disturbing and spiteful as such words are, are all too frequently the expressions of people – like us – who are bewildered and frightened by the sense of powerlessness we have all been made feel.
Our Nightmarish Irish Identity is the Passing of Greed
Peter O’Loughlin, the clean-cut poster child of Ireland’s newest far-right political party Identity Ireland, may be frustrated tonight that his attempted Beerhall Putsch ended in farce. Today’s events may indeed spell the end of his own particular hopes for a rise to power, but that the racists in our midst now have the confidence to come out of the woodwork is indicative of more worrying changes in our social and political landscape.
Retrospective on Gratitude
Tonight is the night of the eighteenth of February, and this is my blog entry for the seventh. Once again I am playing catch up. The reason for this is that I have been in the care of St. James’s Hospital these past twelve days. All of this adventure began on the sixth when I … Continue reading Retrospective on Gratitude
Meet My Islamic Neighbours
Many know that I have chosen to live in Dublin’s Liberties, one of the most deprived parts of the inner city. Towering over my house are the flats of Teresa’s Gardens, and on the other side of Cork Street there is Fatima Mansions; Dublin Corporation housing which are home to communities of Dubliners who have … Continue reading Meet My Islamic Neighbours
