Squinter has been a regular feature of the Andersonstown News since the early 1970s. The diary column has been written by a number of people over the years and the present incumbent has been taking a sideways look at the week just gone – or indeed the one to come – for over 20 years now. The column has a wide remit, wandering from humorous items of local interest to local and national politics. See Squinter on Twitter for daily doses of the funny, the strange and the totally bonkers.
SQUINTER sorted out the loft on Saturday. He didn’t mean to – he only meant to sort out the garage, which he does two or three times a year. But a kind of space synchronicity developed – with positive results all round. Perhaps an explanation is in order...
IT’S the lying that Squinter can’t stand. Or in a more accurate reflection of what he’s been saying to anyone who’ll listen over the past few days, it’s the f***ing lying Squinter can’t stand.
TUV deputy leader Ron McDowell popped up in the News Letter on Monday to express his horror and disgust at the selling of Kneecap balaclavas at a Kneecap concert.
THERE’S a massive business opportunity for Loyal Ulster as Operation Raise the Colours continues apace. Bare-bellied, Stella-swigging legions of stout English yeomen are painting St George’s flags on roundabouts and erecting flags on lampposts from Birmingham to Bradford and from Liverpool to Leeds, but while their intentions are honourable and their hearts are as big as their livers, they are complete amateurs.
IT’S unanimous. The Portrush loyalist parade on the Saturday of the British Open was a huge success. The bands cut a colourful spectacle, the music was first-class and locals, tourists and curious golf aficianados alike all enjoyed the evening tremendously.
EDUCATOR and columnist Chris Donnelly has set a hare running with his suggestion that a Bonfire Commission might be a good way of sorting out the annual madness that descends on Our Wee Country from May to July. (Puts index finger to ear, inclines head, nods.) Sorry, the annual madness which descends on Our Wee Country from New Year to July.
THE boneys and the Twelfth or Féile? Which offers the most inclusive holiday experience...?
FATHER Dougal went on Talkback on Tuesday to stand up for Loyal Ulster. In particular, Sammy Morrison went on to give the TUV take on the Westlink asbestos boney.
JUST over a week until the Twelfth and the incitement is building. Sorry, the excitement. The excitement is building.
THE Sunday World had a fascinating, super, soaraway exclusive on recently deceased Portadown loyalist Muriel Gibson. Which meant that the Belfast Telegraph had a fascinating, super, soaraway exclusive on her too, because the BelTel website on Monday is a parking space for the most click-friendly content from its Sunday tabloid sisters, the Sunday World and Sunday Life.
THE shocking scenes in Ballymena, where police were attacked and migrant families burned and beaten out of their homes, have prompted a robust and proactive response from the PSNI.
THREE days after the sensational verdict in the Gerry Adams versus BBCNI libel trial, journalists, legal experts and observers are still trying to make sense of the outcome of the biggest defamation case ever heard on the island of Ireland.
IT seems that ringing 999 because you see somebody putting a Stop-Killing-Babies sticker on an ATM is the right thing to do. Before Saturday Squinter would have said that the non-emergency 101 number would have been the one to call, given that somebody putting up stickers is not something that the ordinary person would consider to be a life-threatening or even dangerous activity.
THE Guinness Book of World Records is not desperately keen on considering loyalist tyre and pallet dumps in its ‘Biggest Bonfire’ section. With typically woke arrogance, it prefers bonfires which don’t belch out cancer smoke built by people who aren’t ten times over the legal limit for driving.
’PARNTLY the Kneecap thing is a question of art. Or more specifically, a question of art and its limits.