Northern Ireland
Boris won't be forgiven if he caves on Brexit now
It now looks increasingly likely that lockdown will end on 2 December, after all. The decision to impose further restrictions…
From half a shelf to a library: my life in books
‘Yes, I will have a coffee,’ said the van driver. He’d driven down to the south of France from Devon.…
Homage to Lyra McKee — the journalist I miss most
In the two generations since Watergate, the image of the journalist has gone from that of plucky truth-seeker to sensationalist…
How Sinn Fein got away with murder
The online world should be credited when it gets something right. And on Twitter an account titled ‘On This Day…
Julian Smith: Despite being sacked, it has been a weirdly good week
A doctor will tell you heart attacks may appear to come out of the blue, but if you look carefully,…
The brands regretting calling themselves ‘Corona’
Going viral A few of the businesses which chose ‘Corona’ as a brand name and now have a bit of…
Portrait of the week: More Brexit chaos, royal complaints and Syrian fighting
Home The Commons voted by 329 to 299 for a Brexit Withdrawal Bill but then stymied progress by defeating a…
Can giving voice to the horrors of the past re-traumatise?
It is 50 years since Ronald Blythe published Akenfield, his melancholy portrait of a Suffolk village on the cusp of…
Romanticising Northern Ireland’s history is a deadly mistake
For those of us who grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, there is a pungent but negative sense…
George Orwell’s legacy has been monopolised by the left
Mrs May says she is taking her stand on the issue of Northern Ireland and the integrity of the United…
It’s not for Westminster to decide Northern Ireland’s abortion law
Predictably enough, there have been no calls this week for the Irish referendum on abortion to be re-run, no complaint…
Ainsley Harriott is still unaccountably amused by almost everything: Costa Del Celebrity reviewed
These days, when it comes to people who used to be on the telly, the answer to the classic newspaper…
The DUP is quite likely to cave in over ‘regulatory alignment’. Here’s why they should not
I’m afraid I have a deep faith in the Democratic Unionist Party’s capacity to cede an issue of principle in…
A clash of creeds
This is a very modern novel. Terrorist atrocity sits side by side with the familiar and the mundane. Where better…
Fudging Ireland’s border issue can only mean Troubles ahead
The question of what kind of border after Brexit will exist between Northern Ireland and the Republic will, I predict,…
Letters
Technical education Sir: I am grateful to Robert Tombs for highlighting the baleful use of ‘declinism’ as part of the…
Put out the fires
Few events have appalled London liberals so publicly as the surprise emergence of the ten MPs of the Democratic Unionist…
Les Blancs at the Olivier is good-ish, but it won't be a classic
Les Blancs had a troubled birth. In 1965 several unfinished drafts of the play were entrusted by its dying author,…
The holy relics of the Easter Rising: from hallowed flags to rebel biscuits
The reverence for those involved in the Easter Rising is evident in an exhibition devoted to its centenary, says Harry Mount
The micro-businesses that give me hope for Belfast
At Stormont on Saturday, we observed a minute’s silence for the dead of Paris. Our conference group of Brits and…
The troubled ex-informers neglected by MI5
Is MI5 neglecting its duty towards ex-informers?
Bond would be bored in today’s MI6, says Malcolm Rifkind
Spying may be one of the two oldest professions, but unlike the other one it has changed quite a lot…
Charles Moore’s Notes: people who love making new laws like to present them as human rights
Amnesty International and others have placed a large newspaper advertisement telling Michael Gove ‘Don’t Scrap Our Human Rights’. The ad…
The DUP’s Nigel Dodds may soon be propping up the Tories. What does he want?
In a Tory-leaning hung parliament, the DUP’s Nigel Dodds may command the balance of power. So what does he want?
Another enemy within: Thatcher (and Wilson) vs the BBC
In a ‘Dear Bill’ letter in Private Eye, an imaginary Denis Thatcher wrote off the BBC as a nest of…
