Opinion

PLATING UP: Tom yum soup with veg noodles and crispy prawns

We hope you enjoy our cookery  column with chef Paul Watters who each week will take the fear out of cooking with his easy to follow recipes... 

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours...

THE question that needs to be asked of Portadown District is a simple one: Why Jamie?Jamie Bryson has walked into so many lampposts in his relatively short and hilariously colourful career that the Department of Infrastructure would probably have billed him for repairs by now were it not headed up by the DUP. Everyone has their favourite Jamie moment and the quotes and the clips are rolled out with savage predictability by his online detractors every time he declaims squeakily in the public square. To be fair to him, he seems relatively unfazed by the negative attention. If I took a battering like that every time I opened my mouth I’d have abandoned Twitter years ago.

HEALTHWISE: Pay attention to the roast when choosing coffee

COFFEE is the most widely consumed drink in the world.  It contains vitamins B2, B3, B5 and the minerals magnesium, manganese and potassium, which are needed for energy release and movement, as well as bone and teeth health. 

ANDRÉE MURPHY: An attack on memory and hope

On the 5th February 1992, Christy Doherty (52), Jack Duffin (66), James Kennedy (15), Peter Magee (18) and William McManus (54) were killed in Sean Grahams Bookmakers on the Ormeau Road. Nine were wounded, including Peter Magee’s brother in-law Mark Sykes. Systemic RUC collusion in that attack has been laid bare after the families were forced to engage a Goliath battle seeking to have that truth established, with family members dying young as a result of trauma and injury. One of the weapons used in the attack was placed on public display in the Imperial War Museum, while the investigation was still live. At the 29th anniversary commemoration PSNI officers arrested Mark Sykes in one of the most appalling acts of public authority indecency seen since the ceasefires.

JUDE COLLINS: If a border poll is not on, how come so many are talking about it?

EYE ON THE PAST: September 1985 – British scientists stifle plastic bullet debate

We look at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week back in 1985...

PLATING UP: Grilled octopus with salad roasted cauliflower and basil

We hope you enjoy our cookery  column with chef Paul Watters who each week will take the fear out of cooking with his easy to follow recipes...

SQUINTER: Loyal Ulster learns a valuable lesson

Statement from Loyal Ulster after last week’s High Court judgment on their Drumcree parade... WE recognise that the victory handed to us by the Lord Almighty at nearly the highest court in the land will have caused some concern among the residents of the Garvaghy Road.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Garvaghy shouldn’t help the Brethren get their way

IT wasn’t demographics that lost Drumcree for Loyal Ulster. It wasn’t two-tier policing or the Good Friday Agreement. It was good old-fashioned hubris.

HEALTHWISE: It’s that time to think about lunch boxes again

SCHOOL is back after a great summer, and we can’t complain about the weather we’ve had.  But now it’s time to get back into a routine and kickstart that healthy eating again post-summer. 

ANDRÉE MURPHY: The source of our many ills remains unchanged, Mr Burnham

I wasn’t sold on the Good Friday Agreement when I read it for the first time.

GERRY ADAMS: Our rights are not dependent on Andy Burnham

SHOULD we have been surprised by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s crass assertion last week that the issue of the unity referendum promised in the Good Friday Agreement, “is one issue that will be off the table”?

JUDE COLLINS: Garvaghy culture war distraction suits the DUP

IF you’ve been thinking, “The Drumcree/Garvaghy Road  thing is ancient history now – it happened over 25 years ago. It’s done and dusted,” then I say, “Listen to what some unionist politicians are saying, this is far from done and dusted.” The pull of the past is irresistible for such people.

MINDFUL MOMENT: Every day is a schoolday – but particularly in September

It’s that time of year again. The evenings are beginning to draw in, summer is slipping quietly away and, once upon a time, the Cupar Street gang knew exactly what that meant. In the words of Christy Moore, “all I can remember is dreading September and school”.

EYE ON THE PAST: August 1985 – Church to sell land for 100 homes on Shaws Road

We look at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week back in 1985...