What Hillary Did in Northern Ireland

The first time I saw Hillary Clinton speak in person, she addressed about 80,000 people. But they hadn’t come to see her.

The time was November 1995 and the place was the downtown area of my native Belfast. The Irish Republican Army had called a ceasefire a little over a year before and the sense Read More

From Terrorists to Statesmen

The Middle East peace process, frozen to the point of lifelessness, may be starting to thaw.

After the swearing in over the weekend of a Palestinian unity government, cracks quickly began to appear in the Western diplomatic boycott to which the Palestinians have been subjected since Hamas’ victory in last year’s elections.

Norway’s deputy foreign Read More

The Morning Read: October 19, 2006

Republicans everywhere are on the defensive about Iraq, a development that is bound to have a big impact on the GOP incumbents fighting for survival here in New York.

Eliot Spitzer and John Faso favor very, very different approaches to tax policy.

Alan Hevesi leads his opponent, and continues to duck him. Read More

A Legacy of Lessons From the I.R.A.’s War

More than 30 years after firing its first shots, the Provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army has ordered its members to dump their arms. When will Osama bin Laden, or his successor, issue the same order?

It’s a fair bet that most people over the age of 45 will not live to see that Read More

A Legacy of Lessons From the I.R.A.’s War

More than 30 years after firing its first shots, the Provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army has ordered its members to dump their arms. When will Osama bin Laden, or his successor, issue the same order?

It’s a fair bet that most people over the age of 45 will not live to see that Read More

British William Scott Kindred to French And New York School

William Scott (1913-1989), whose paintings are the subject of an immensely appealing exhibition at Denise Bibro Fine Art in Chelsea, is not an artist easily categorized. Born in Scotland of Irish and Scottish parents, he received his training at the Belfast College of Art in Northern Ireland and the Royal Academy in London, yet it Read More

He Asked for Asylum; Now He’s Fighting I.N.S.

Here’s a deportation case you’ll never hear about on those cable television screamfests, but if you haven’t entirely given up on the idea of justice, it surely is worth a scream or two.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, under the jurisdiction of Attorney General Janet Reno, is spending taxpayer dollars to split up a family Read More

A Song for Ireland From Bard of Armagh

A little more than a century ago, William Butler Years, Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory and other writers and artists wandered into the Irish countryside and discovered a rich, complex folk culture that had survived centuries of oppression and neglect. It was a revelation. They went into the fields and workhouses, spoke with keepers of ancestral Read More

Clinton Gives Peace

It has been said here and elsewhere, but it bears repeating: President Bill Clinton, fairly and unfairly maligned for all sorts of foreign policy mishaps, has helped win peace in a corner of the earth that has known intractable conflict for most of the millennium. Peace in Northern Ireland would be a stunning triumph for Read More