Blog: A Peace Day & Peaceful Week
If you're intending to celebrate "Arthur's Day" on 27th September, then give a thought for "Peace Day" on the 21st.
Until recently the U.N. International Day of Peace was one of the world's better kept secrets. Yet in the past few years it has been recognised with 24 hour ceasefires in conflict zones around the world, allowing for example, almost half a million children in Afghanistan to be inoculated; down to small events in towns, schools, streets and communities.
In 2001, ironically two days before 9/11, the British Government and Costa Rica proposed at the United Nations General Assembly, that 21st September each year should be officially recognised as the "International Day of Peace and non- violence". It was agreed unanimously.
Blog: Clear and Future Danger
On 1st January 1977, Graeme Dougan at 18 months, one of the youngest victims of the troubles, was killed in a bombing in Harmin Drive in Glengormley.
That year ended as it began. On the 31st December 1977, Gordon Quinns body was found dumped in a skip in the old Hammer area of the Shankill. He was 18 years old.
I knew Gordon well enough to go to his funeral three days into the New Year. It was a big funeral, with several hundred young lads turning out as a mark of respect for their mate. Behind them and towards the back of the funeral procession, I happened to be walking alongside a leading UDA figure of the time. Chatting, as you do, as you walk behind the hearse, he nodded towards the large number of young lads ahead of us.
Blog: Golden Memories
London 2012 the best ever Olympics? Probably, but one thing for sure, like the Battle of the Boyne, they'll be remembered for a long time for so many reasons and not just because they were 'our' Olympics.
My earliest Olympic memory, and I know this will shock you all, goes right back to the Rome games in 1960, only because it's when we got our 1st TV (yes it was black & white). Even a certain Cassius Clay winning light heavyweight boxing gold didn't cross my radar. Mary Rand's 1964 Tokyo long jump gold did register a bit, as did Bob Beamon's unbelievable jump in Mexico City in '68 but beyond that I only remember the Black Power salutes at those Games.
Then of course there's Munich, forever marred by the horror of the Black September murder of the Israeli athletes and the joy of Mary Peters' gold during those dark days of our own horrors on the streets of N. Ireland. And what of Montreal 1976, that's if you were even born then? Beyond Nadia Comaneci's perfect gymnastic 10 & David Wilkie's brave swimming gold, can you recall anything without Googling?
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