Letter to the Taoiseach
Stormont was an unusual place to be on Monday of this week. They were giving out Ministerial portfolios as if they were bags of crisps. Sinn Féin is back at the helm of Education, as you know Bertie. Could you tell Mary Hanafin this because there would need to be a joint Ministerial meeting soon to help all our children. View video
Will you eventually change your mind? The last Taoiseach offering himself to the electorate of thirteen-sixteenths of Ireland, and approaching that election not going to serve the full term in office was de Valera himself. View video
I listened to your interview with Gerald Barry on Sunday. I was fortunate to catch you as I had just abandoned BBC Radio Ulster's Seven Days in favour of RTE's This Week. A listener's patience tends to be stretched if he or she has to put up with a radio presenter, sitting in Belfast, talking ad nauseum about "Lincolnshire" and "the rest of the UK." View video
How did Christmas and the New Year go? Any Resolutions?
What about February 3rd? Have you bought your ticket yet for the opening fixture in Division 1A of the National Football League, to be played under floodlights, too? They'd want to be working if last year's 'Battle of Omagh' is not to be repeated. Can you rein your men in? I'll have a word in a few Tyrone ears if you cover your end. Do you think if you and I stood together on Hill 16, it might set a good example? Sportsmanship and all that. Leadership, even. View video
I hosted five visitors to Stormont Parliament Buildings last Tuesday, 28 November. It's not really a Parliament but I'll push that issue to the one side for the moment in the interests of 'the big picture'. View video
There has been a serious level of interest shown in the _2540 payment which is available to Irish people who reach the age of 100. Sorry to labour the point, but it is worth noting that people from all different kinds of backgrounds in the North are contacting me directly about this because they heard me promoting it on BBC Talkback. View video
If politics is about people, Taoiseach, then it is certainly about the children of Strabane in Co Tyrone who attend the Irish Medium College in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
Do they not know that there is a border, some might say? I've even heard the more extreme talk about an 'international' border but it appears to cut no ice with families in Strabane who want the best for their children. View video
I must say that it was churlish of me in the extreme, last week, not to mention the Centenarian Bounty of €2540 which is awarded to Irish people who have reached the age of 100 years.
This type of gesture certainly takes the shine of the congratulatory message from the Queen of England who I told you is kept fully briefed by the Civil Service in Belfast. Not everyone knows about this windfall which is available to anyone living at home or abroad. View video
The Queen of England sends congratulatory messages to Irish citizens in the Six Counties on the occasion of their 100th birthday. She repeats this exercise on the 105th birthday, too, and then every year thereafter View video
Dermot Ahern, Brian Cowen and Mary Hanafin like to swan into Northern constituencies where the local SDLP is a bit beleaguered, arriving with news of North-South co-operation and flanked by the likes of Dominic Bradley or Margaret Ritchie who could do with a profile lift. Still, we should not be too cynical. View video
Sinn Fein MLA for West Tyrone and the party's All Ireland affairs spokesperson, Barry McElduff, has begun a regular column in "An Phoblacht", under the title "Letter to the Taoiseach". View video
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