Two Irelands

   My blog has become unwieldy  Caths, Prots,& two Irelands  

 ONeill (Sinn Fein) and Foster(DUP) have blown it with their Covid rules that  ban separate households from meeting indoors while pubs will be allowed to open soon in the Belfast , NI region. Of course, there are exceptions and loopholes which breed more confusion. Meanwhile the thugs in the IRA(Catholics) and the Red Hand(Protestants) flourish.

Sept 13

 Boris Johnson claims the EU is threatening to impose a customs border in the Irish Sea, separating NI from the rest of the UK.

 Coveney, the R of I Foreign Affairs Minister called this a "completely bogus argument" but didn't explain why. 

Sept 18 

Meabh McGrotty, who is 34 weeks' pregnant,  claims it would be better to give birth in a pub so she can be supported by her husband throughout her labor. She launched an online petition to lift Covid-19 maternity restrictions in hospitals in Northern Ireland.

Sept 22

Van, the Man, Morrison's release of anti-lockdown songs spurred NI Health Minister Swann to pen an editorial in Rolling Stone calling the tunes unhelpful and appealing to the tin foil hats crowd. Perhaps Swann is angry over Van's line, "No more fascist bullies".

Oct 5

 Wait in rain, MOT centers tell drivers while NI officials inspect your vehicles. Standing in the rain and cold is definitely good for one's health, right?

Nov 4

Republic of Ireland Deputy PM Leo Varadkar  apologized  after passing a confidential agreement with one medical organization to a rival one. Here's his bullsh^t rationalization :he couriered the document to his friend to get wider backing from doctors for the new contract."There was nothing selfish, corrupt, dishonest or illegal in what I did,"

Nov 11

 The DUP has accused #MichelleO'Neill of performing a massive U-turn on easing Covid-19 restrictions in NI under the orders of the Sinn Fein in  the Republic of Ireland. Brexit nears and things are getting uglier.

Dec 12, 2020

Brexit trade talks are in final 48 hours as UK threatens to deploy no-deal gun boats. Four UK Royal Navy patrol vessels have been put on standby to guard British fishing waters if there is no agreement with the EU in the final 48 hours. Merkel and Macron have rebuffed  Boris Johnson three times this week after he attempted to speak to them directly about the stalled trade discussions.

Jan 3, 2021

The UVU invited #kevin Boyle, a Democrat member of the PA House of representatives, to meet with victims of the Provisional IRA after he praised late, IRA man  #BobbyStorey yesterday. I  doubt if Biden  has this high on his list of concerns, particularly since  Boyle is not of a member of the US Congress.

Jan 27, 2021

#GeorgeOsborne ,the former Chancellor of the Exchequer,  believes a majority of the English public “will not care” if Northern Ireland leaves the UK to unite with the Republic of Ireland. I'll ponder that one.

Feb 1

Polling shows the NI Prots are moving  toward  Traditional Unionist Voice(TUV) leader #JimAllister and away from the DUP and UUP.  Will Foster heed  his  warning and trim cooperation with R of I ? 

March 1

While you're used to hearing about violence in the North, this occurred in the South in the Republic of Ireland. The RoC  government extended the coronavirus lockdown by a month and hundreds of people joined a protest in Dublin that escalated into violence. Cops were injured and 23 people were arrested.

March 17, 2021

Nice to see someone  slow down the power grab going on during the pandemic: Belfast City Council's request for new legislative powers from Stormont to help deal with anti-social behavior in areas like the Holyland was rejected

March 26,2021

Dublin, Rof I  is going to erect a plaque to honor Violet Gibson, who shot Mussolini in the nose in assassination attempt on  April 7,1926.  I guess her status as a debutante in the court of Queen Victoria. was a factor in getting her returned to England where she spent the rest of her life in St Andrew's Hospital, a mental asylum in Northampton, until her death in 1956. This has a very, odd feel about it.

June 2

A little late getting to this anniversary: On May 14, 1945  the German navy surrendered on Northern Ireland soil. The Londonderry area  was  chosen because in the campaign to defeat the U-boats there was no base more important than the Royal Navy's Londonderry base.

June 10

#Biden ordered , Yael Lempert, senior USA diplomat to the UK to rebuke UK's Brexit Minister, Lord Frost, for "inflaming" tensions in Ireland and Europe by not implementing some terms of the Brexit deal involving Northern Ireland. Good Ol  Joe is kissing the EU's a^s again.

June 13, 2021

Are we getting to the crux of the Brexit issues? UK Foreign Secretary Dominic #Raab said Macron's comment that Northern Ireland is not part of the UK, is "offensive", and added that for years some EU leaders have characterized Northern Ireland as a separate country.

JUNE 27, 2021

 Mathew O’Hare,  a Lurgan(NI)-based US software developer  and convicted online sex offender, was sent to jail for three months for assaulting  his probation officer. Judge Lynch replaced probation with just three months of jail time and the rest under license(home detention).  O’Hare claims he left Oregon for Northern Ireland to escape intolerance in the USA, and it appears  he found a softer landing spot.

July 9, 2021

Funny stuff and as usual, the typer apologized later. 

Bernard O’Byrne's, the CEO of Basketball Ireland, reply “BLACK DIVES MATTER” to a BBC Facebook post about the penalty won by Raheem Sterling in England’s Euro 2020 semi-final  soccer victory over Denmark. .

August 15, 2021

 The rare 35mm reels of the film, On The Night Of The Fire (1939), will be screened today at the Strand Arts Centre as part of the Belfast EastSide Arts Festival. Brian Desmond Hurst( February12, 1895- September 26, 1986), the film's director who was born in east Belfast, remains relatively unknown.

Aug 25, 2021

#DeclanButcher , who was pursued by the Limavady, NI police for disturbing the police and  found with cocaine between his buttocks, claimed someone else must have put it there.

Oct 29, 2021

Senior Orange Order(Prots) member Rev Mervyn Gibson  said he has no interest in any bribe offered by Mary Lou McDonald,  the Sinn Fein(Caths) leader from R  of I who supports  making the Twelfth of July a public holiday in a united Ireland. Gibson, a resident of Northern Ireland, wants it to be a UK holiday. The "12th" is celebrated mostly in NI to celebrate Protestant Ascendancy acquired after key military victories in the late 17th century.

Dec 9, 2021

Sinn Fein wants to ban fox hunting in the south(Republic of Ireland) but not in Northern Ireland. NI remains the only part of the UK where hunting wild mammals with dogs is still permitted. And Sinn Fein wants to unite the north and south into one Ireland. The laughs continue!

Feb 4, 2022

NI First Minister, Paul Givan(DUP), resigned on Thursday in protest against post-Brexit trade rules. His resignation means NI Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill,(Sinn Fein), automatically loses her position: under Stormont's power sharing rules, one cannot hold office without the other. 

Other ministers of the NI Assembly can stay in place, but they cannot make any major decisions, including on the budget. A lot different than USA politics.

June 11, 2022

Great Britain will present legislation to parliament on Monday to unilaterally revise the post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, raising the risk of a trade war and a new clash with Brussels and also with Nancy Pelosi who warned there could be no U.S.-UK trade deal if the plan passes. Hey Nancy, hire a driver for your husband.

July 9, 2022

UVF, a Protestant terror group, dismissed rumors mentioned during an Irvine bail hearing that it's going to announce its disbandment. Too bad, cuz it would be nice to see one less gang in Northern Ireland.

July 30, 2022

A Republic of Ireland police vehicle was seen travelling into Northern Ireland on the Lurganboy Road near Castlederg in recent days. Just imagine if a Michigan cop car drove for a while along roads in Canada.

August 27, 2022

Neil Gibson, a senior official at the Department of Finance, took control of Stormont's finances because of the failure to pass a budget before the collapse of power sharing in NI.

Departments can continue to operate but Gibson cannot start funding new policies.

Unelected officials running the show is scary.

Oct 24, 2022

 Sinn Fein president Mary-Lou McDonald suggested there will be no return to direct rule from London if Stormont collapses, but it will be replaced by a joint arrangement between the northern Irish and the British state. He!! London can't find a PM. 

Oct 29, 2022

Northern Ireland will hold an election within 12 weeks because the DUP feels there should be no restrictions on trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, something the EU will not accept. For now, more decisions will be made in London. Hello Mary Lou(Sinn Fein), goodbye to Michelle O'Neill's gig as First Minister. And folks in the USA think our major parties can't work together.

Dec 17, 2022

Biden appoints Joe Kennedy III, a grandson of RFK, to be the Special Envoy to Northern Ireland. The Catholic Kennedy should go over well with the Prots. 😉

Jan 3, 2022

Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly, former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) member who played a role in the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, told the New IRA to stop reckless threats after the it vowed to end British rule in NI.

April 15, 2023

Biden's DOJ snoops on USA Catholics while he does photo-ops with Gerry Adams(IRA)

May 1, 2023

After an acquaintance told me Northern Ireland was a safe tourist spot, I searched the news: Two cars were set on fire in County Down, one with a petrol bomb.

May 23, 2023

R of I is going alone on alcohol labels when harmonized labels are being planned across the EU. Irish attacking booze industry- kinda funny.

June 22, 2023

R of I may remain neutral and not join NATO. They were neutral at the outbreak of WW2. Hitler bombed Dublin in May 1941

July 13, 2023

Some things don't change in NI: The Derry arm of the New IRA(Catholics) are looking for an informer in its ranks after three of its guys were charged for the attempted murder of DCI John Caldwell.

Sept 30, 2023

"NI and RoI are at the dating stage".  Too much Vegas neon for Bono!

Nov 24, 2023

Caio Benicio, an immigrant from Brazil, used his motorcycle helmet to stop the knife attacker on Dublin's Parnell Square in the Republic of Ireland  

Riot broke out later over the knife attacks. Name of knifer was not released.

Nov 25, 2023

Hey Varadkar(RoI): EU-like hate speech laws are not an answer to the Dublin Riots. Clampdown on speech is rubbish.

All the United Ireland(RoI/NI) dreamers should go back to sleep. Remember Brexit in NI was to get it away from the EU crap. 

Dec 6, 2023

The Irish(Rof I) national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann, was played for the first time at a Belfast (NI) venue, Windsor Park just before kick-off in the Women’s Nations League clash between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Jan 19, 2024

Wyck painted the battle and rearing grey horse, and Constantijn Netscher painted the head of King William III.

   Bloomfield Auctions will be putting the portrait showing William of Orange on horseback during the Battle of the Boyne, up for sale next week. 

Feb 2, 2024

 A deal that plays down the role of the Rof I in Northern Ireland's economy allows government to re-open in Belfast.

It eliminates physical checks when goods move within the UK internal market system and that more than 80% of all goods from Britain to Northern Ireland will not face checks.

Feb 7, 2024

Sunak waved off speculation that O'Neill's election could signal the possibility of a united Ireland. Can you see NI citizens tolerating stringent R of I speaking laws?

Feb 12, 2024

Many Republic of Ireland politicians want to restrict free speech at home, and its women's basketball team refused to shake hands with Israel after a FIBA game in Riga.

March 11, 2024

Finally, a dose of common sense in R of I. Irish voters rejected amendments redefining family: replacing marriage with "marriage and other durable relationships.

March 21, 2024

Leo, the Leak, Varadkar is stepping down as R of I prime minister, as soon as his successor is chosen. I bet this has something to do with his move to restrict speech.

BTW, he was caught leaking a confidential general-practitioner document to a doctor friend of his a few years ago. 

March 25, 2024

Some folks who've lived in big cities in Europe and North America view Dublin, R of I, as the place most likely to get physically assaulted and choose different travel paths daily.

April 30, 2024

 "Bring back our borders" slogan bugs R of I Social Protection Minister, Heather Humphreys, who views it as wrong and dangerous language.

She tries to cover herself a bit here. “The only open border we have is with Northern Ireland, and we want to keep that in place."