A principled journalist to his fingertips. #StephenGrimason was pivotal to public understanding of Troubles’ politics&peacemaking. Comradely, always the inside track & apt witty term for each political hiccup. Shrewd & objective, he was trusted by the public. A fine legacy. RIP.

Pat Finucane Centre I was in John F. McLaughlin’s shop on Waterloo St to buy shoes. Billy McGreanery saw to my needs, opening various boxes. None suited. Early morn a week later, his co-worker Miss McLaughlin was in the Derry Journal office, shocked. Billy was dead. He was decent, honest, innocent.

RTE stalwarts Eileen Magnier, NW Correspondent EileenMagnier & presenter Bryan Dobson Bryan Dobson have switched off their mics & left the car park. Goodbye to 📺deadlines and 📞bad lines. Thanks to both for your accuracy & clarity & jobs well done. Enjoy the peace.

50 yrs after Sunningdale: dashed hopes, lingering regrets & lessons hard learned. Precursor to the #GFA & a missed opportunity yet many young people may not even have heard of it. Mark Hennessy The Irish Times provides enlightening fresh insights.

No unctuous handwringing or magically finding God. David Adams writes a personal testimony from the depths of our conflict. A voice seldom heard, those who just got caught up. We all know one. Powerful words of experience:reconciliation must be a constant, it has no end point.

I won’t have the stomach to watch this tonight but just a reminder that the government gives *76million euros* per annum to the horse racing industry. €76,000,000. #rteinvestigates

Spain has 36% tree cover. We have 12%, mostly Sitka Spruce. Cycling in N. Spain is bittersweet. It’s exhilarating to be surrounded by trees & to see the land is teeming with life but depressing to return to barren 🇮🇪 The wildflowers on this bridge would be sprayed back home🙈

Unflappable & thoughtful in his reporting & delivery. Buoyant even in the darkest times in the North. Pithy and wry in his humour, a shrewd judge of people & politics. Comradely and the best of company. Tommie Gorman RIP.

Overgrazed, barren hills and spruce plantations. Not sure I'd call this classic... but this type of 100% manmade landscape dominate almost all of Ireland. Nothing 'natural' about it anyways.

Can anyone suggest why MCD Productions event staff detained me at the side of security queue for The Saw Doctors last night while *calling management* to check if I could bring in this 45cm x 20cm flag? Stick was removed. I was told….

A govt falls & a new one take shape. Always thrilling. In HoC for The Irish Times 1979 I saw the Callaghan Connect Lab UK govt defeated by one vote 310-311 when NI MPs Gerry Fitt & Frank Maguire abstained. Reported through the night, off TV with no exit polls, Thatcher win 43 seat majority.

Is anyone going to do a f***ing thing about the poor gull with what is clearly a broken wing? It’s unfair to the players and it’s properly cruel to the poor bird #ARMvsGAL #gaa RTÉ GAA The GAA Croke Park

Polemical, personal, head & heart. Fine writing on Derry by Neil Hegarty The Irish Times . Laudable echoes of the intensity, integrity & validity of renowned fellow Derry man of letters, Seamus Deane.

This🎄support independent publishers & booksellers. Though they’ll never be wealthy they create a rich legacy of voices in memoir, fiction, history & poetry that you’ll not find between the profitable covers of big beast publishers in airport shops. 🎅

At a moment of US national mourning & sympathy for the DC air disaster’s victims & bereaved, President #Trump displays his vulgar, boorish, self aggrandising & partisan colours.

🎻Lament for Hind Rajab, aged 5.

Always a calming, caring, committed presence, Vinny Cunningham recorded and reflected Derry in its many moods and tones. A legacy of lasting social and historical importance. RIP.

Henry Kelly was a joy to work with The Irish Times. Ebullient, wise-cracking, supportive. Incisive reporter & analyst in a scrum of early NI “Troubles” journo trailblazers that incl. @VincenBrowne Simon Winchester Mary Holland, Simon Hoggart, Gerry Barry RTÉ News etc. A good colleague.

Sean Dineen A thorough professional, with colleagues incl. Charles Mitchell & Maurice O'Doherty, who put the news first, not themselves. RTÉ News readers, glad to say, still follow that tradition-no over emphasis, acting, raised eyebrows or seeking to become a 'personality'. Unlike BBC News (UK).

What is happening at Ireland's Future - Todhchaí na hÉireann? Prof @PeterShirlow researcher & commentator blocked. I asked Ireland's Future - Todhchaí na hÉireann last week but its only response was a ‘follow’. Who decides who shd be cancelled? What are the criteria for closing down a willing to engage & well versed voice?