Fly Me To The Moon.

I am a longtime fan of Tony  Bennett. News of his death at the fine age of ninety six brings an end to an amazing life and a wonderful singing career lasting over sixty years. In more recent times this column reviewed an album he did with Lady GaGa. Cheek to Cheek is an envigorating stroll through some old favourites like Anything Goes alongside more modern melodies. “I stand with the people of Ireland” 

 Jessie Jackson

Reverend Jesse Jackson has been a long-standing friend of Ireland and an advocate for equality and peace. He has visited here many times and I have been fortunate to have also had the opportunity to meet him in the USA. During a visit to the North in 2011 Rev. Jackson said: “The pattern of communities struggling for freedom, justice and democracy is essentially the same … Where there is no justice, there can be no peace. As Dr. King often reminded us, peace is not the absence of noise but the presence of justice.”

The partitionist mindset of RTE

The recent controversies surrounding RTE – problematic payments, a lack of transparency, questionable management, deeply flawed oversight, the blocking of GAA matches to the North, the GAAGO saga and the geo-blocking of the Women’s FIFA World Cup into the North– and much more, will have surprised few who have watched the unacceptable behaviour of governments and RTE Executives and management over many decades.