stephen nolan

George and Drew

If you can only see one movie in 2018 make it this one!

George, played by Jim Broadbent is a small town  sheriff, in Brooklyn , Wyoming ; Drew, his wily deputy is played by Mark Rylance. Idling their time away, George eating pancake stacks and Drew shooting the breeze with the FBI, their imminent path to a cushy retirement is blocked by the sudden arrival of Inspector Collusion, “I suspect everyone and I prosecute no-one”. Reprising his role from No Stone Unturned , Collusion wants to talk to them about why their wives drive the same model of car as is supplied to the police.

Mike Maguire’s Inspector tries to curry favour with the Mayor [ William Shatner] but  he and the townsfolk see through him, helped by cameo roles from Stephen Nolan and ‘Creepy’ Crawley as the owners of the local rag; “let me have men about me that are fat, thon Andrew has a lean and hungry look”.

Without giving too much away, safe to say that Collusion is no longer in town at the end.

This is a feel good movie par excellence. 

Spoiler alert! Both George and Drew have additional romantic involvements.

Irish News: “You’ll be drying your eyes at the end.”

Belfast News Letter: “ way up there with the Foreigner”

Irish Times: “amusing, sentimental tosh”

At cinemas near you soon, excluding West Belfast.

ACC Stephen martin

This police officer is giving his congratulations to Bishops Edward Daly and James Mehaffey.

He has no business doing so , any more than he would give his good wishes to the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church [who was at school with me].

Church and State should be separate, although he has probably grown up with bad habits…….

The police service should be remote from these ‘Christians’.

Perhaps he has occasion to be grateful to them?

Barristers

Legal services in Northern Ireland are in crisis. There is no doubt about that. On the one side stand the forces of Minister Ford, Alliance,  and  his well paid officials. Already they are two times winners over the legal profession.

As in all causes , there are two sides. There are fat cats in my profession. Some knew exactly how to play the game and became very rich. But they did not steal the money. Ford’s officials paid them.

There are also what a famous English rugby player called “the old farts”, who run and are part of the system.

At the other end the majority of barristers do their best to represent their clients.

The menace for the citizen is that the State, the Assembly, wants no opposition. Paul Given would have flourished in Berlin.

The unholy alliance of DUP/Sinn Fein/IRA wants no opposition.

At present, the citizen relies on Jim Allister , Stephen Nolan and the legal profession.

Where do the LGBT community, the poor , the oppressed, those without hope, go for support?

In the old bar library, I sat at a table with five colleagues. Of the six, two were Protestants from North Belfast , four were Roman Catholics  from Belfast and elsewhere. All were the first in their family to go to university .

If minister Ford has his way nobody , client or your child, will have access to the legal system , unless you are very rich.

Is that what you want?