Photo caption (above): In front of the GPO at St. Patrick’s Festival Parade By Peter Makem Back in the sixties I remember the St. Patrick’s day parade in Dublin as quite a solemn event with bands and procession marching through… Continue Reading
By Peter Makem In my lifetime, Ireland has never experienced such a hot blast of summer. Not so long ago in February last, we had the Beast from the East, an arrival of frozen wind direct from Siberia which lowered… Continue Reading
By Peter Makem There is a new map of Ireland. The old four provinces have now been largely replaced in the South by a new tourism dynamic as an ever-conscious Fáilte Ireland (Ireland of the Welcomes) works to cater for… Continue Reading
By Peter Makem Before the days of TV, we heard his roar over radio and put a face on him through the newspapers. Then he appeared on TV, it was if he was born roaring, that he could communicate in… Continue Reading
By Peter Makem Ireland is suddenly a lonely place. Old securities have been shattered since the people of the United Kingdom — specifically the people of England — voted to leave the European Union, voted Brexit, an abbreviation of British… Continue Reading
By Peter Makem The Brexit UK vote result was a surprise and there is considerable upheaval everywhere. It is the result of a civil war in England, a revolt against the indifference of government both in London and the EU… Continue Reading
By Peter Makem I remember my uncle Tommy Makem once telling me that when he was a teenager, he one day casually brought a few sprigs of broom – an evergreen bush – into the house. His father, my grandfather,… Continue Reading
By Peter Makem Ian Paisley suddenly came back into everybody’s living room. Not as the ranting, roaring demagogue but as an old soft spoken somewhat confused 87 year old who had agreed to do a series of TV interviews reflecting… Continue Reading
By Peter Makem Among the first verbs I ever learned was the verb “to smuggle.” Among the earliest nouns that entered my vocabulary were “butter,” “fags” (cigarettes), “sugar” and “eggs,”— and each of these nouns was preceded by the word… Continue Reading
by Peter Makem Back in 1922, a commission was set up by the first Irish Government into creating a new coinage in an early attempt to remove British symbols. Among those people chosen to study the issue and come up… Continue Reading