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Real reason DUP's Ian Paisley decided to strike deal with Sinn Fein

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:00:00 GMT

In December 2005, I had the honour of being a guest at the civil partnership ceremony of Shannon Sickles and Grainne Close at Belfast City Hall. It was a joyous occasion – not least because it was the first-ever such ceremony in the UK.

Roused from my reverie by storming Bastille rhythms

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 08:00:00 GMT

Gallivanting in London last week, I managed to blag my way into the Pompeii exhibition at the British Museum on the day before the official opening. Fewer than 50 people there. All the time and space I needed to wander at will.

Old fogies on the hill need to think about women's rights

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Has there ever been a speech in the Assembly more patronising to women than Jonathan Bell's contribution to the debate on the Marie Stopes clinic?

Bare-faced Tony Blair up to his truth-bending tricks again

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Defending the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Tony Blair this week cited Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons against his own people as an example of the fundamental evil which the invasion was designed to extirpate.

Bare-faced Blair up to his truth-bending tricks again

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Road campaigners’ chance to go back to their routes

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Devout play jiggery-pokery with logic on abortion issue

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Keith O'Brien is in disgrace and has been kept away from the conclave which will choose a new pope.

How Larkin's interjection in Austria has backfired

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:00:00 GMT

The Attorney General, John Larkin, may be ruing the day he went on a solo run in Europe. Campaigners for gay rights, on the other hand, must be taking sardonic pleasure in the outcome of his adventure.

Why Iraq whistle-blower Bradley deserves freedom

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Bradley Manning will spend his 1,000th day in prison on Saturday.

Stormont needs to deliver on shifting attitudes to abortion

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:00:00 GMT

The Republic isn't as pro-life as pro-lifers pretend, and neither is the north.

Not a lot has changed in the DUP's attitude towards gays

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:50:41 GMT

Will this week's legalisation of gay marriage in Britain prompt some in the DUP to reconsider their commitment to the UK and thus put a question mark against those startling figures from the Spotlight poll?

Sham row over 'FBI-style' body hides scandal of MI5

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 08:00:00 GMT

That chortling sound you hear in the background as nationalist parties joust with Justice Minister David Ford over plans for an 'FBI-style' body to combat organised crime is MI5 officers in their Loughside HQ celebrating the fact that they are still getting away with it.

Churchmen rewrite history to claim what is not theirs

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 08:00:00 GMT

Some people try to drag religion into everything. Morality, Christmas, even Londonderry's year as UK City of Culture - nothing's sacred.

Privatisation is a plague on all our social housing

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:00:00 GMT

Derry being unique, no one will be surprised we once had our own way of allocating houses.

No unilateral fix to hardship which spawned loyalist rage

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:00:00 GMT

One of the reasons for the loyalist protests over flags is that Protestant workers are more likely than Catholics to feel looked down on by their own.

Catholic dogma doesn't say abortion is always wrong

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 08:00:00 GMT

These are good times for Thomists. Thomism, it's scarcely necessary to tell readers of this newspaper, is the system of theology and philosophy which was developed by the Dominican Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century and which has been hugely influential in Western thinking, particularly in the area of natural law.

Hillary the terminator and other predictions for 2013

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Global outrage as stone hurled by schoolgirl disguised as a schoolgirl almost hits Israeli tank protecting innocent civilians from hate-crazed killers arrogantly residing for literally generations in a Biblically-designated Arab-Free Zone.

Labour can match Tories at hiding dirty Troubles linen

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Michael Finucane, eldest son of slain Belfast solicitor Patrick, said last week that he believes there will be a full public inquiry into his father's murder if Labour wins the next election: he expected party leader Ed Miliband to "keep his word". The record suggests that Mr Finucane may be in for a sad disillusionment.

Britain can't hide from the truth of torture in its name

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:00:00 GMT

In December 2005, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the Commons foreign affairs committee: "Unless we all start to believe in conspiracy theories and that the officials are lying, that I am lying ... that Secretary [of State Condoleezza] Rice is lying, there simply is no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition, full stop, because we have not been."

Will anyone dare to remind Hillary of her double-talk?

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 08:00:00 GMT

I see that Hillary "Drones 'R' Us" Clinton is to hit these shores again and the great and the good are queuing up to be patronised face-to-face.

We the people can't rely on MLAs for an abortion law

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 08:00:00 GMT

The debate about abortion in the Republic, sparked by the case of Savita Halappanavar, who died in a hospital in Galway after being repeatedly refused a termination, has become strident and fractious. But at least they are having a debate.

How destruction of Gaza was planned over six decades ago

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 09:58:05 GMT

It was written “Imagine that not so long ago, in any given country you are familiar with, half of the entire population had been forcibly expelled within a year, half of its villages and towns wiped out, leaving behind only rubble and stones.

Could Visteon be template to overcoming sectarianism?

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:00:00 GMT

The first time I met John Maguire, I didn't know what he was. I am still not entirely sure. Maybe he's neither Orange nor Green. In fact, that's probably it. I don't think that communal colouration is an aspect of life that interests him much.

We won the Cup... now give us our Brandywell money

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Such was their determination to grab a bit of the glory bestowed on Derry by Declan Devine's magnificent men at Lansdowne Road last Sunday that I feared that the stability of the Stormont institutions might be put at risk by injury to key political players at this fraught and delicate time.

Obama will win election but he has failed as President

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Barack Obama is a cool dude. Mitt Romney is a dork. That could be the decisive factor. Almost everyone I know tells me that, if they were in the US, they'd vote for Obama.