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A modern tragedy that one in eight of us goes hungry

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:42:20 GMT

It is one thing to read or hear about world hunger but it something else entirely to experience it at first hand.

World gripped as spectre of domestic violence hits home

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:20:00 GMT

Nigella Lawson – handsome, clever, rich, who seems to unite some of the best blessings of human existence – is not the sort of woman we expect to get physically manhandled by her husband. Yet, here we all are, gawking at photos that show Charles Saatchi, the art collector and owner of The Saatchi Gallery, with his hands around our heroine's throat.

A host of reasons why the BBC gets it so wrong ...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:20:00 GMT

Just because it's Brian Sewell ...

The G8 leaders are here because we're still Here

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:20:00 GMT

One of the many irritating features of Northern Ireland is our passion for lecturing other countries. Our unions gathering at City Hall to indulge in anti-Semitic diatribes and pro-terrorism causes elsewhere contrasts with the equally thick 'plague on all your houses' approach they bring to domestic politics.

Did no one ask Nigella if she was ok?

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:20:00 GMT

Of course, it's hard to know what really goes on in any marriage behind closed doors. But it's quite easy to know what's going on outside a London restaurant.

We're sending out the right message

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:20:00 GMT

It is seemingly part of the Northern Ireland DNA to be negative. That comes from decades of disappointment and seeing optimism quashed. But the staging of the G8 conference should be a matter of pride for everyone here. For the first time in recent history the summit made news because of progress on its agenda and for the positive image that the world leaders took away of this region.

Obama's message of hope speaks to us all

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:20:00 GMT

Yesterday saw the start of the G8 summit in Fermanagh but the day was all about Barack and Michelle Obama. It confirmed yet again that Northern Ireland has a special place in American politics. Sure, it might be slipping down the ranks of importance since the heady days of the Clinton administration, but that is as much to do with the relative success of the peace process as it is with diminishing interest in the White House.

These moronic headlines aren't to my taste

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:20:00 GMT

There's always the straw that breaks the proverbial's back. For me this week it was a headline in the Guardian, "I made pork taste like fish..."

Whistleblower opens can of worms on America's secrets

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:20:00 GMT

Whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations that America's secretive National Security Agency has been spying on ordinary US citizens to a far greater degree than previously thought has sent sections of the US media, body politic and public into a tizzy.

Why Barack is fighting the wrong battle

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:20:00 GMT

What are we doing spending money on sending arms to Syria, as suggested by US President Barack Obama? Where do we draw the line on conflicts in which we involve ourselves?

Making up your own truth is the way to go, honestly!

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:20:00 GMT

There is a line from The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron that I try to keep to the forefront of my mind: "Leap and the net will appear."

Downing Street deal just a rehash of old ideas

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

David Cameron wanted to give something to Northern Ireland ahead of the G8. A gesture to show the world how determined he is to deliver real change to the smallest country of the UK.

Joyce was a giant of letters, but no man of the people

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

So, did you have a jolly Bloomsday on Sunday? Or did you just read aloud some of the more sexually explicit passages from Ulysses? Writers are keen to turn Bloomsday into a holiday at home and abroad. And writers are exactly the people to celebrate James Joyce and his masterpiece.

Dream came true for Adam after he fell in love with our Opera House

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:05:17 GMT

Welcome mat and roadmap for peace awaits G8 leaders

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

So far so good. The loony lefties and anarchic demonstrators who usually inhabit G8 summits have stayed away.

Protests don't work...but they save our face

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

Protests against the G8 will not have achieved very much. We live in a part of the world in which protest simply doesn't work any more, or at least does no more than advertise a grievance. It doesn't change the plans of governments.

Write Back: Gay marriage needs to be redefined

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

I was raised in rural Ireland where we always called a spade a spade and people who were outgoing, friendly and happy were said to be 'gay'. Around the 1970s, homosexuals hijacked that word as if their 'lifestyle' were something special. I wish to thank the unionist MLAs in Stormont for voting against same-sex marriage.

Two sides to planning coin

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

ANY change in the procedure for obtaining planning approval would have, as its most likely result, more profit for the developer. The other side, of course, is that most development adversely affects other people in a way that results in economic detriment.

Air ambulance need highlighted

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

THE news that an air ambulance has had to be borrowed from the Scottish Ambulance Service for the period of the G8 seems to underline that such rapid emergency care is cost-effective for the Scots, cost-effective for the G8, but not warranted for the people of Northern Ireland.

Show the PM he was right to support Ulster

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

THE Prime Minister has delivered something spectacular for Northern Ireland and demonstrated how committed he is to this part of the UK by bringing the G8 summit to Fermanagh.

Skewed questions in survey on Irish unity

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

I AM writing in response to the article by Duncan Morrow on the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey (Comment, June 10).

There's no call for 'same-sex' war of words

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

BRIAN Rooney (Write Back, June 14) says that "perhaps a new word is needed for a legal contract between same-sex couples".

Lords ought to be accountable

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

WE would all agree with MPs wanting a new law so constituents can recall an MP for not performing up to the job and vote them out of office. This is not possible with the House of Lords.

Grasp opportunity to improve our world

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

Under slate grey skies and drenched by rain that poured for the duration, thousands of people gathered in Botanic Gardens on Saturday for the Big IF Belfast rally. Hundreds of charities and religious groups had launched the campaign to send a simple message to the G8 leaders. Starvation is a blight on humanity and should be confined to the past.

Pippa Middleton's column hits a bum note with literary diehards

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 03:20:02 GMT

I made a 63-year-old man wince this week and I'm not proud of it. I was chatting to novelist Martin Amis about how much I hated name-droppers when I casually asked him if he'd heard about the newly announced Contributing Editor to that prestigious organ of highbrow investigative and cultural journalism Vanity Fair.