Oh dear...

Whoops...

Too close to the truth... 

"He is the first Jesuit pontiff – from an order that normally eschews ecclesiastical honours. He is said to be a simple and honest man, who often speaks out on behalf of the poor and who chose, when made a cardinal, to live in a modest apartment rather than his luxurious official residence"

Who killed Irish Whiskey's dominance of the US whiskey market? Step forward that wily old bootlegger, Joe Kennedy... 

Peter Sheridan of Co-operation Ireland on the future 

These are some of our next steep hills: sectarianism and communal division, the legacy of the past, the sometimes violent voices of dissent who feel they have no platform, and the enduring mistrust between communities.

Great piece about the tacit knowledge of old style British football managers...

+Fraser Nelson examines the claims of UKIP to pitching to blue collar workers,,,

Let the recriminations begin?

Our purpose of posting those tweets from a year ago was not to embarrass (though we admit that was perhaps inevitable), but to add another layer to this narrative. We're not the Twitter police and George's opinions wouldn't have mattered to us if he'd continued in his position as Cork Echo rugby writer in perpetuity. We do care about the national conversation around the Ireland team, and to that extent, opinions expressed on a public medium like Twitter during the previous Six Nations by the journalist writing for the most read newspaper in the country seem worthy of scrutiny."

Hey, fame at last... We made it as a question for a guy on a BBC Two Quiz who's never heard of us before... Just reward for blogging in the wilderness for ten years... ;-)

Peace 4 funding in trouble?

Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness have been looking for an increase in funding for PEACE 4, Northern Ireland’s latest proposed funding programme, Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson told EurActiv on the margins of the conference attended by the heads of government.

Despite the recent flare up of tensions, an increase in the proposed amount seems impossible, with European governments tightening their purse-strings during the economic crisis. Furthermore, European finance ministers will be acutely aware of the irony of donating EU regional funds to a UK government-backed initiative.

“There is no guarantee,” Pat Colgan, the chief executive of the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), told EurActiv at the conference. “The negotiations are ongoing. There is a strong willingness on the part of the [European] Commission that there should be a peace programme.”

Legacy of war continues, and the extraordinarily tragic story of one German family caught up in Belfast of 1973...