Freelance Journalist, Author & Blogger
Today, in Britain, it is armed forces day. The cynic in me merely sees a new PR event thought up by a government in deep trouble.
If the British government really cared about the Queen’s armed forces then they would send them into battle with a fighting chance of survival.
They don’t.
This piece is a response to those who had said “show us the evidence” when I had stated earlier that Rangers were unique in British football in that they were, for some reason, unable or unwilling to sign a player from the Republic of Ireland .
This reality of an RoI free team at Ibrox could be seen over many years.
In comparison the ubiquity of RoI players in all other clubs in Britain is striking.
When President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 the news took 11 days to reach London.
The people of London read about it the President’s death in their newspapers.
When JFK was shot in 1963 a satellite link ensured that BBC centre in London knew within half an hour.
I watched the newsflash on our black and white TV.
It was in the day when a newsflash meant something momentous.
Now there is revolution in the air in Tehran.
It was only a few evenings ago that I was compelled, reluctantly, to re-consider the Famine Song issue.
RTE were re-showing their brilliant “Where was your family in the Famine?”
http://www.rte.ie/tv/wherewasyourfamily/
The programme uses three Irish TV celebrities to trace their family history in the Famine period.
Most of the programme I found fascinating and very well done.
Historians may conclude, with the clarity of hindsight, that the unfolding events in Iran this week maybe the first Internet revolution.
If you have been of a mind to follow what is happening in the aftermath of the Iranian election you will be using you tube and, increasingly, Twitter.
