The Sigla Blog

Wonder how this weary traveller ended up so far from home? Apparently one of the first people to sight it this morning (a man on a train) rang the authorities to say that he might have been hallucinating, but he had “just seen a whale in the Thames”.

Inspired by the news that Chile has just voted in its first woman President, I came across an interesting essay about another part of South America with democracy issues.
Pure Function responds to some recent posts on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez over at Backseat Drivers. He also takes issue with Richard Gott’s reportage of Venezuela […]

Mulitiple deadlines this week so I haven’t had a chance to blog at all. I’ve got a lot of TV/Radio stuff on the moment but I hope to be back tomorrow, but I wanted to mention a a couple of things in the interim:

Cillian Murphy has been nominated for a Golden Globe for his […]

Last night Channel showed a documentary called Married To The Prime Minister. Unsurprisingly, cameras followed Tony Blair’s wife Cherie and explored her life within - as she puts it - “the goldfish bowl” of Number 10 Downing Street. We were shown Cherie’s life as wife to the PM and all the duties that come […]

Another guest blogger this week after Ernie’s George Best sonnet, this time from my friend Paul in Barcelona gives his a wry take on Pope Benedict’s pronouncements on homosexuality and the priesthood earlier this week.

God “knocked for six” by Vatican decision to shut limbo - Heaven braces itself for huge soul influx

God is said […]

It might not be a surprise to learn that the DUP don’t like Catholics, Nationalists, people from Southern Ireland, gay and lesbians, immigrants and [insert a multitude of others it would take a while to list]. They also don’t like black people because I remember Peter Robinson remarking, when being asked what he thought of […]

John McGahern was among a delegation who met yesterday with Brian Cowen and the government yesterday in an effort to save Ireland’s artist tax exemption. McGahern said in The Irish Times that if his entire income from writing from the last 40 years was added up for taxation purposes, “It would come to […]

In the last couple of weeks I have received several text messages (three from the same number) from someone who wants me to support the Rossport 5 by attending a table quiz. I don’t know who the person is, I don’t know where they got my number and I’m baffled as to why they think […]

Depending on your viewpoint, Vincent Gallo is either an esoteric but talented erudite or an over-rated toss-pot. In the past I have tended to defend him for a couple of reasons: he makes very accomplished music (’When’ is beautiful debut), Buffalo 66 is a likeable film and the fact that he owns the largest collection […]

Bush’s many detractors haven’t wasted a moment in dissing him over the response to the New Orleans disaster, but I wondered how long it would take Michael Moore to surface. As it happens, it took a few days - almost as long as the Bush administration took in acting on the disaster - for him […]

The Vatican has drawn up a new document that plans to ban gay men from entering the priesthood. According to the The Observer, the document has been drafted by the Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries.

The article says:

“The instruction was drawn up as part of the Vatican’s response to the sexual abuse scandal […]

I’m very sad to hear that Mo Mowlam has died. The former Northern Ireland Secretary was a popular and admired figure for her role in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. She died from an undisclosed illness that is thought to have been linked to a previous brain tumour. Mowlam was first elected an MP […]