thriller

1,500-plus  inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), Cebu, Philippines perform the Michael Jackson classic…

Attempted carjacking on the Falls Rd

I was tipped off to this video by From the Balcony–it shows a group of West Belfast residents take down an armed man as he attempts to carjack someone in the middle of the day.  It’s pretty amazing.

PFC statement on Operation Banner report

From the Pat Finucane Centre:
“While carrying out research the PFC recently discovered a document outlining the British military view of its own role, function, successes and failures from 1969 to 2006. The document, Operation Banner-An Analysis of Military Operations in Northern Ireland, offers an unprecedented and deeply worrying insight into the [...]

i just got this email from my sister…

…who will be joining me in Belfast next weekend.  It’s her first trip to Ireland:
Btw, I am allowed to do as I please and drink as much as I want since I will
be on vacation. No judging.
Hahaha!  Can you tell what a weekend we are about to have?  Apparently the last time we went out [...]

the linenhall library

I spent most of the afternoon today (Thursday) perusing the stacks at in the Northern Ireland Political Collection at Belfast’s Linen Hall Library.  I hope to go as often as possible during the rest of my stay—both to take advantage of the wealth of information for background to my thesis and just to take in [...]

Devolution Day in the north of Ireland!

DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness–two political polar opposites– took office at Stormont today (as First Minister and Deputy First Minister, respectively), marking the first time ever that all of the main nationalist and unionist political parties have agreed to share power together. Direct rule by London ended as of midnight [...]

i hate this man

Let us now, for a moment, ruminate on the moral vacuity of a pop singer who so assiduously promotes liars and war-mongers as cool idealists (“Blair and Brown—the Lennon and McCartney of British politics!”) that they reward [...]

Hunger strikers force-fed at Guantanamo

The BBC is reporting that 13 hunger strikers at the US-run concentration camp at Guantanamo are now being force-fed. (Many of you might miss the headline, as the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s child apparently gets top bidding.) In any case, it is no surprise that the official statement on behalf of the US [...]

Winterwood and our “alcohol-based literary heritage”

“Being born, living and dying – it is mayhem, chaos and madness.” -Patrick McCabe
I hadn’t known until last night that Ireland’s literary heritage was “alcohol-based,” but I suppose it must be true since I heard it straight from the horse’s mouth–the horse in this instance being Bobby Flay, newfound resident expert of Ireland, looking resplendent [...]

Finucane Resolution passes House by huge margin

Read Rep. Chris Smith’s (R-NJ) press release here. (It’s more or less the release from the Committee the other day.)