It can be viewed only as a right-minded and overdue thing that the antediluvian establishment attitude to Catholics in Britain is coming under ever closer scrutiny. Surely…? And it’s especially pleasing to see it written about so articulately by a Jew – Our island must stop living in the Tudor past, David Aaronovitch, The Times…
Author: Dominic O'Byrne
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Malala Yousafzai – why love her?
by Dominic O'Byrne •
html> We wait anxiously to hear from universities about how the household teenagers’ applications have gone for the chance to study later in 2013. And if we hold our breaths for a while that’s okay. In the meantime, competing for hero status, is Miss Yousafzai – discharged today from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham after…
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America faces harsh new non-fiction
by Dominic O'Byrne •
America faces harsh new non-fiction On December 15th when I posted 27 people who were alive yesterday would still be alive today if US fantasists were denied access to US fantasies, I wasn’t being funny. The slaughter of 20 schoolchildren and six of their teachers in a sleepy Connecticut town wasn’t a crime…
Political
Pat Finucane – An Apology for Justice
by Dominic O'Byrne •
I don’t recall what I was doing on 12th February 1989. It was a Sunday, though, and we were living in Johannesburg so it was likely spent over a monster roast lunch or a braai. In the febrile climate of rising crime, violence, security and national angst, we had decided we were going to leave…
Political
BBC to keep Savile evidence secret… I think not
by Dominic O'Byrne •
The story goes that convicted fraudster and corporate bully-of-note Gerald Ronson had a singular way of keeping in touch with his management team. He would isolate a target and contrive a scenario where just the two were together – a privileged ride in GR’s limo or in a lift, for example. Allowing not even seconds…
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Gonzo Animal Welfare
by Dominic O'Byrne •
Gonzo Animal Welfare I subscribe to a number of spoof websites (No…! Surely not!) and I honestly thought I had opened the wrong URL instead of the BBC address I use as my wake-up home page. This was due to a story I encountered filed by a Beeb reporter Animal Welfare: Germany Moves to Ban…
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Happy Ersatz Christmas
by Dominic O'Byrne •
I have friends, business associates and family in America. Some are born & bred and some are expats who have chosen to live there. Good luck to them. I myself am awestruck by pictures of Connecticut in the autumn (Fall), a snow-dolloped Vermont in Winter (Winter) and the unconditional charm of the Floridians in January…
Business
Is it Safe? Dental Fascism a Dead Floss
by Dominic O'Byrne •
I bloody well knew it… All those years of angst and guilt surrounding countless visits to the dentist’s chair were a needless terror. Anybody with a modicum of nous must hate the idea of dental floss and the mind-numbing business of standing in front of the bathroom mirror (especially late at night) gazing down your…
Business
Anatomy of unedifying reporting
by Dominic O'Byrne •
Anatomy of unedifying reporting The scary experience of Lord McAlpine (convicted via Trial by Twitter of child rape some 20-odd years ago) will have shocked all reasonable people and has also rightly prompted columnists among the better papers to cast a beady eye over the business of citizen journalism. But a sense of perspective is…
Business
A Lesson for Would-be Citizen Journalists
by Dominic O'Byrne •
A Lesson for all Would-be Citizen Journalists Now it’s all well and good, people posting rants and unsolicited opinions on blogs and all over the web. Bodies like the NUJ have been up in arms about anyone with an internet connection and a gripe passing themselves off as credible reporters – and it’s true that…