Occasional Scribbles

Boris Johnson in his speech this morning in which he announced he would not run for the top job, concluded with this: ..... I have concluded...

Last year 738,000 children were born in Germany. That's 23,000 or 3.2 per cent more than in 2014.  It is the highest number of b...

The article below appears in the June-July issue of theJournalist . It's funny but tells an interesting story.

Just for starters, VW are to pay $15 billion in the US for the fraud it perpetrated on its car emissions. More to come. 

This week's INM Irish newspapers' column. MIchael Commane This year the talk is all about bins. Last year it was water. But right n...

Only a handful of schools do Religious Education as a subject in the Leaving Certificate. Why is this the case? Surely it is an excellen...

From the Guardian. A good read. http://gu.com/p/4myct/sbl

German television ZDF has been euphoric today in praising the Irish fans in France. Former German goalkeeper, Oliver Kahn, spoke about how t...

Redemptorist priest Gerard Moloney addressed  the organisation 'We Are Church Ireland' in the Milltown Institute yesterday. Fr M...

Dominican priest Raymond Collins died on Tuesday in Daisy Hill Hospital, Newry. Fr Raymond, known among Dominicans as Raymie, was assign...

The 'Thinking Anew' column in today's  Irish Times. Michael Commane This day last week the first British European Space Agency a...

Fr Gerard Moloney is giving a talk tomorrow at 14.00 at the Jesuit-run Milltown Institute. Gerard, a Redemptorist priest, and former editor...

Is it not, at least unusal, that people who feel marginalised and alienated, people who feel hard done by the 'elite' have now joine...

The French President, Charles de Gaulle, on November 27, 1967 said for a second time he would veto Britain's application to join the Com...

.... And Roy Keane no longer looked enraged/furious. Sports headline on today's 'Spiegel Online' Irlands Sieg gegen It...

Adorning the DART. Nice idea. Why not more of it? Take note Dublin Bus.

This week's INM Irish regional newspapers' column. Michael Commane On June 10 the people of Lidice, which is in the northwes...

This surely is funny.

'An Irishman's Diary in today's 'The Irish Times' makes for a good read. http://www.irishtimes.com/ opinion/father-of-th...

Today is World Refugee Day. In a world where violence forces hundreds of families to flee each day, the  UN Refugee Agency  believes now ...

Today marks the ninth birthday of Occasional Scribbles . It is read in 166 cities around the world on all continents. The 10 top readers...

With sanctions lifted against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Teheran has placed an order with Boeing for 100 aircraft.

Anyone who has seen the film Spotlight will know exactly who it was who did such damage to the Catholic Church in Boston. 'The Bosto...

Back to that apostrophe again. Here it is again on a Twitter account. This time missing when it should be there. Gerry Adams ( @Gerry...

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has criticised Nato military exercises in Eastern Europe, accusing the organisation of ...

Another two examples of that silly redundant apostrophe. Why do people do it? The first is from an estate agent in Dublin's ...

You can't take politics out of politics. Daniel Finkelstein on BBC's Newsnight  this evening.

Obituary of Jo Cox in today's Guardian. The Labour MP Jo Cox, who has died aged 41 after being shot and stabbed in her constituency of B...

Refuse collectors Greyhound and Thorntons are to increase their annual service charges. Greyhound is to increase its annual charge fro...

More and more Deliveroo bicycles are to be seen in Dublin. This is an extract from an article in today's Guardian . "If you get kno...

This week's 'The Irish Catholic' carries a two-page spread on the Irish Dominicans. In the piece the provinical, Gregory Car...