That’s fine for me
On BBC Radio 6, Steve Lamacq played a version of the song “Ça Plane Pour Moi” by the Whyte Horses. The original version was one of the few French language songs to enjoy commercial success in England. While a punk song with themes that might be associated with punk rock, the fact it was sung in French gave it a … [continue reading …]
Difficult Irish centenaries
The 97th anniversary of the death of Michael Collins on 22nd August 1922 was commemorated at Béal na Bláth in Co Cork this afternoon. Speaking at the commemoration in 2016, President Michael D. Higgins warned listeners that approaching centenaries would not be easy, “When the time comes, very soon, to commemorate those events of the early 1920s, we will need … [continue reading …]
A civil war revisited
The history of the English Civil Wars of 1642-1651 is the story of irreconcilable motives, it is the story of the betrayal of the idealists in favour of the tyrannical exercise of power. Among the Levellers and the Diggers and the other radical groups who supported the cause of Parliament, there was a genuine desire to create a new England, … [continue reading …]
The old scams seem to work
There can be few people with email addresses who have not received at least an occasional email that seeks details that would allow the sender to defraud them. The “Spanish Hostage” scam is the oldest approach used (thus named because when it began two centuries ago people wrote letters claiming to be held hostage in Sapin and promising abundant reward … [continue reading …]
A people who neither “dreaded God nor lived by Holy Church”
Independent thought in Fifteenth Century England was a dangerous activity, to express doubt, or, worse, to question the teachings of the church could lead to a trial for heresy, and, for those who refused to deny their own conscience, could lead to being burned at the stake. Reading through a history of Langport brought a discovery of a tradition of independent … [continue reading …]
The bicentenary of Joseph Scriven
This week marked the bicentenary of the birth of Joseph Scriven. Born in Banbridge, Co Down on September 10th 1819 and baptised in the local Seapatrick Parish Church, where his father was churchwarden, Joseph Scriven came from a comfortable Protestant background. His father was an officer in the Royal Marines his mother the daughter of a Wiltshire vicar. The young … [continue reading …]
There are no aliens in Area 51
Next week, two festivals take place in Lincoln County in southern Nevada. The gatherings are close to Area 51, the military base where it is alleged there are clandestine government activities and where alien technology is claimed to exist. There is a belief that if enough people are gathered they will be able to force an entry to the base … [continue reading …]
Woodstock was always a piece of mythology
It seems apt that the attempt to create a music event to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Woodstock music festival ended in shambolic disorder: the venue being changed to a different state, the musicians withdrawing, the tickets then being advertised free of charge, and the whole event then being cancelled. The 1969 festival was marked by chaotic disorder and … [continue reading …]
Settling the account
This story was expanded from a piece of flash fiction. It was entered for this year’s RTÉ Francis McManus Short Story Competition. The evening classes at the college gave her the opportunity. It was a computing class that had taught her to use the Internet, something of which she had been frightened. It had been the stories in the papers … [continue reading …]