Switzerland’s popular democracy with the right to call referenda looked far less attractive today as it descended into racism and intolerance. The country voted to ban the construction of new minarets, in a surprise result certain to embarrass the neutral government and which the justice minister said could affect Swiss exports and tourism. The Swiss [...]
Some journeys are the hardest to make and some words are the hardest to write. This time last year on the plane from London to Dublin my head was in a swirl as I tried to take in that Conor my friend of over 35 years was gone. His death, just after his 52nd birthday, [...]
It is acknowledged that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so by any standards the world’s most flattered mapmaker must be Harry Beck who devised the famous diagrammatic London Underground Tube Map. By the early 1930s, the London Underground network had expanded so considerably that it was difficult to squeeze all the new lines [...]
After France won their World Cup qualifier last Wednesday at the Stade de Fraud with Thierry Henry’s handball the cry went up around France’s former Republican ally “Liberté, égalité, fraternité et replay!”
But it’s all over for Ireland in World Cup 2010. FIFA has refused a replay against France so the country will now have to [...]
Feelings are running high in Ireland after the country failed to qualify for World Cup 2010 in South Africa. The only topic of discussion in Ireland today is the French Hand job! Merde!! Ireland suffered the cruelest of World Cup exits as France went through with a goal with a goal which should have been [...]
The passing of the First World War generation was marked by a special memorial service at Westminster Abbey today as millions of people across Britain and Europe observed the two-minute Armistice Day silence.
Ninety-one years after the guns fell silent at 11am on 11th November, 1918, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh joined Gordon Brown, [...]
Since the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1991, Prague has become one of Europe’s - and the worlds - most popular tourist destinations. As in London, Paris, and Rome, visitors flock to the gorgeous buildings and monuments that grace the streets of Prague, entranced by structures ranging from Gothic and baroque to cubist and [...]
Regular blogistas will know that my favourite English City is the “City of the Dreaming Spires” the university city of Oxford. With so much learning going on Oxford contains many homes to the Muses or Museums to give them their more familiar title. There is the Pitts River Museum, The Museum of Oxford, The Museum [...]
Take a trip to your local branch of Prêt a Manger and the chances are you’ll be made aware of their “fresh ingredients” boasts. So the news that the high street chain is importing frozen chicken from Brazil may come as a surprise to you as it did to me. I used to greatly admire [...]
