“When people begin to work together it’s a habit that will grow.” During a week which has been understandably dominated by the conviction of Jeffrey Donaldson, one important piece of news slipped ...

It must be twenty years ago now. My parents were in their mid-seventies so I took them holiday to France for a week while they were still healthy and mobile enough to do so. I rented a gite in St ...

The economic cost of failing to invest in Northern Ireland’s future is becoming increasingly apparent. A new Ulster University Strategic Policy Unit report, Unlocking NI’s Potential: A Framework for ...

Last time I met Garret FitzGerald was in Dublin airport. He was on his way to London, but when I asked him what for, his guard came up and he deftly waved the conversation onto other things. A ...

In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics.

Croatia. I was 20 minutes late, having popped into Lidl for cat litter on the way to the pub; meanwhile, Harry Kane was purring for England, having put his country 1-0 up. My heart sank upon entering ...

In a few weeks the United States will be celebrating its 250 th birthday. By any standards, its existence has been nothing short of remarkable. What was a quarter of a millennium ago a backwards, ...

It’s not often we can accuse our legislators of being efficient but on Monday night they actually managed it when the rejection of an amendment designed to raise the age of criminal responsibility ...

“Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct from ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended.” Margaret Mead’s maxim comes to mind, “never doubt that a small group of ...

The jury has made its decision in the Jeffrey Donaldson trial and they have found him guilty of all 18 sex abuse charges, including one charge of rape. His wife, Lady Eleanor Donaldson, who faced five ...

‘It’s a great album’ says Shaun, ‘a huge departure for Adamson. He’s better away from that troublemaker Jobson’. That was a reference to The Crossing, the debut album from Scottish band Big Country ...

I was in Bangor recently (ish) with the younglings. I had heard about the state of the town on previous rants about the state of Northern Irish towns. I parked at Asda and came on to a main street ...