"Unprovided with original learning, uninformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a blog”
There are trials in the Four Courts that attract so many members of the legal profession that more often than not, there is little or no room forthe general public. This is particularly true of libel trials. It was always thus. Wilde’s libel action against the Marquess of Queensbury attracted the profession in such great... Continue Reading →
He would run. Every Sunday morning. He would run. In the Wicklow hills. He ran in the frosty mornings of the winter and the warmth of the summer dawns, he ran. With his friends Somers and occasionally with O'Brien, he ran. Into his 50’s and into his 60’s he ran, and because it was Gerry... Continue Reading →
A young officer. Just 19 years of age. Photographed at Sandhurst. in April 1915, on the occasion of receiving his commission. He was commissioned into the 2nd Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. He wears his 1914 pattern officer’s tunic with its distinctive hip pockets, and appropriately, as he had just completed the... Continue Reading →
It took a few years for the culture and fashions of dear old England to reach its far flung colonies, ex colonies and protectorates. Less true in the mid 60’s than before the war, of course, but still true to a quite remarkable degree, even quite late into the ‘60’s. So it was in Singapore.... Continue Reading →
None of the leaders of 1916 have touched the Irish as much as has Casement. He dreamed of the destiny of Ireland. And he was hung for his dreams. When his body, or the remains and traces of his body, came home to a free Ireland, a sovereign Ireland, then the Irish for whom he... Continue Reading →
In 1914, with war raging in Europe, Sir Roger Casement, a retired Irish born diplomat of the British Consular Service, with a distinguished record of service in Africa and South America, traveled to Germany, on behalf of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, with an audacious plan to persuade captured British soldiers of the Irish Regiments, to... Continue Reading →
Up early from my fine apartments in the Ramsey Gardens and a brisk morning walk, passing of Boswell’s close, upon the Royal Mile and to the Presbyterian Church of St. Augustine wherein a pretty Polish wench served unto me a freshly baked bread roll of bacon and the eggs whereupon I dallied in the pleasant... Continue Reading →
The remains of the great Polish General Wladyslaw Sikorski used to lie in the soft Trent-side earth of Newark in Nottinghamshire. He was laid there after dying in a plane crash in July of 1943. He was, at the time of the crash, Prime Minister in exile of Poland and Commander in Chief of their... Continue Reading →
It becomes fairly clear from a reading of this carefully researched account of the “mutiny” that had the British Cabinet ever succeeded in crushing the veto power of the House of Lords and passing into the law a Bill, for full Home Rule in Ireland, North and South, then they would not have been able... Continue Reading →
If you were to seriously sit down and attempt to adapt Joyce’s Ulysses for the stage then you possibly ought not to do so without being supervised by a consultant psychiatrist. Alternatively you could prepare for such an epic task by ensuring a good supply of whiskey, perhaps a bottle per chapter, a continuous intravenous... Continue Reading →
The greatest power struggle ever staged. Shakespeare. Assassination, murder, the ravishing of virgins, betrayal by mother, slicing off of hands and the tearing out of lounges, feasting a father on the flesh of his sons, revenge, honour corruption and barbecuing your enemies face. What authoritarian monsters what power hungry goths are called before us. Why... Continue Reading →
A comedy about the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard? Got some balls those Danish! First they invade us with their Vikings, then their detective/crime novels and now their comedians. Claus Damgaard is the Danish funnyman, appearing at C aquilla, up by the castle, in a deadly serious, deadly funny interpretation of Kierkegaard’s existentialist approach to love, relationships... Continue Reading →
Milton Jones? Surely an unlikely name. Welsh I think. Jones the poet perhaps. If he writes poetry then you would have to buy it, for what he does with words, the associations between words, and the pauses between words, already makes him the laureate of comedy. You would just have to read his poems. His... Continue Reading →
Jack Ruby was a streetwise confident tough guy, knew his way, in the world of nightclubs and burlesque. He was a patriot, loved America, loved the buzz of it, the embrace of it. He was a charmer, could have been, should have been a politician, he would engage you with his smile, you would find... Continue Reading →
From a playwright of such towering intellectual reputation Roughs is one of Becket’s most difficult texts. (Published as Rough for Theatre I and Rough for Theatre II ) To run them at the Fringe takes courage and a lot of balls. Not many will understand the message, if there is one, or see the point,... Continue Reading →
Mrs. Thatcher was of course brought up in Grantham. Her father, Alderman Alfred Roberts owned a grocers on the corner of North Parade and Broad Street, and the family lived above the shop. Years later, sometime after she was appointed prime minister, the North Parade corner shop was sold. It was bought by Rodney Cloke,... Continue Reading →
Further ephemeral treasures from my archive shoebox. Thisi is a check list of the NUPE officers strike levy collected for the Nottinghamshire Miners during the 1984 strike. The levy, £23.00 a week, was mandatory and was in addition to countless irregular payments, contributions and collections that were a constant feature of the period. No doubt... Continue Reading →
Rheindalen, a great sprawling British military garrison. Headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine and home to thousands of soldiers, their wives and children. And within fairly short distances from the garrison, massive Royal Air Force bases humming with technology, bristling with weapons and with armed fighter and bomber jets on permanent standby to... Continue Reading →
There must be in excess of a thousand images painted of the Forth rail bridge. And why not, for there are few more inspiring and powerful examples of Victorian engineering achievement. A great dominating structure, leaping across the estuary in massive strides of girder and steel. It touches the dullest of hearts and has naturally... Continue Reading →
To the memory of the 31 soldiers of the Sherwood Foresters Regiment who were killed in this and other areas of Dublin during the Easter Rising 1916 -Lest we Forget- (your can read their story here and here) L/Cpl Barks (Newark); Private Barnett (Loughbourgh); Private Blissett (Nottingham); Private Bradford (Alfreton); 2nd Lieut. Browne (Nottingham); L/Cpl... Continue Reading →
Broadsides - A collection of bits and pieces 