Gail Walker
Why we’re all still so hung up on Madonna
Nobody should be deluded that Madonna is just a pop star. Or that the vitriol poured on her by sections of the media as she turned 50 has to do with another superstar going off the boil. Or that she was simply being devoured by the beast that created her in the first place. So, some said she wasn’t wearing the best? That’s the usual misogyny.
Inside Gail Walker
Gail Walker: Just what does Rose’s departure say about BBC?
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Rose Neill’s abrupt and very mysterious departure from BBC NI last week raises
more questions than answers. Once again, we struggle with the rationale as a
face and voice beamed by the public service broadcaster into our homes daily
for decades suddenly disappears as if kidnapped.
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Gail Walker: Why Jade Goody isn’t that bad
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Want to know how wretched one’s life can be? It’s confirmed you have cancer but everyone immediately by-passes concern and goes straight to suspecting the dark art of PR.
Why Beijing really is one big turn off
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Not that it will matter much in the great scheme of things, but I’m boycotting the Beijing Olympics. I’ve had a bellyful of despots and tyrants this year. From the Chinese themselves and their initial reluctance to let foreigners in to assist with their earthquake disaster, regarding outside aid as an admission of communist failure.
Odd, yes, but Barry George is no killer
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
Barry George is not the type of man any woman would feel comfortable with. A man who had been convicted of indecent assault and attempted rape. A serial stalker who habitually approached and harassed women. When police raided his squalid home they found rolls of film with images of 419 women he had secretly photographed.
Why Reg’s Tory talks are running on Empey
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
Good old Sir Reg. Always guaranteed to raise a chuckle, the UUP leader is going round floating the idea to his fellow turkeys that Christmas mightn’t be such a bad idea after all.
Why media row with Iris just doesn’t add up
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Let’s get one thing straight — if I can still use that word without causing
offence. Contrary to recent publicity in the wake — yet again — of comments
from Iris Robinson on the BBC’s Nolan Show, it’s not actually ‘Christians’
who oppose abortion.
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Who's that girl? Don't ask Madonna's brother
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
There won't have been a Madonna fan in the country who will have been able to resist poring over the 'world exclusive' of her brother Christopher Ciccone's 'tell all' book.
Stab in back for victims of crime
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Home Secretary Jackie Smith has come up with a typical Labour response to knife crime.
Julian’s an out and out star
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
A big thumbs up to Julian Simmons, undoubtedly Ulster’s man of the year, who has talked publicly for the first time about being gay.
Why Opik had some cheek inflicting all this on us
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
According to reports, Lembit Opik has been dumped by his Cheeky Girl fiancee. Apparently Gabriela Irimia told pals that when they got together he just went on and on, “dominating the conversation”.
Gail Walker: How English served up a cringeworthy Wimbledon
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Every now and then, something happens which makes it obvious — even to those of us naturally pre-disposed to liking them — just why the English are so disliked around the world.
Gail Walker: How good neighbours make great dictators
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Take a good look at Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe.
Why we hate a Singleton boring us with her sex life
Tuesday, 24 June 2008
Valerie Singleton. The name itself was — like Blue Peter and its world of famine drives and sticky back plastic — a vouchsafe for all that was good, decent and true. Val's lack of fuss, dignity and professional decorum earned everyone's respect.
By George, we should be glad to welcome the President
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
We want their money. We want their firms. We want their investment. We want their jobs. We want their goodwill. We want to piggyback on their influence in the world. We want their help to outstrip the Republic. We want their tourists. We want their confidence. We want their big fat Yankee dollars.Our conscience only pricks us when George W Bush touches down on the tarmac.
Gail Walker: Who'll go to Peter's party?
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Now that the Big Man has left the building, what of the DUP? If Big Ian was Elvis, is Peter Robinson going to forge his own identity out of the glamour, like Prince?
Gail Walker: Let's give fibbing Fern the elbow
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
No doubt Fern Britton will make it back onto the This Morning sofa to tell a sorry tale of how the pressures of life in the public eye coupled with her huge appetite left her with no choice but to have a gastric band fitted and lie to millions as the stones dropped off.
Why movies about the Troubles are all cartoons
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
You just have to see how Hunger, the new 'Troubles' movie which premiered in Cannes last week, is being summarised in the Press to realise how stupid and ineffective that whole industry is in capturing anything like the real world.
Gail Walker: Why so sexy Chelsy would make a right royal bride
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
This coming weekend's nuptials between Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly have given the tabloids - and the rest of us, too - a good excuse to cast an eye over the current crop of royal girlfriends. Kelly, a former Catholic, has converted to Anglicanism, presumably in a bid to keep her prospective royal in-laws sweet, but even that's not enough for the more curtain-twitching elements of the Press.
Can you be really sure there's no Fritzl living next door?
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
The slew of headlines trying and failing to reflect the mind-stunning horror that is Josef Fritzl and his secret incestuous family imprisoned for almost a quarter of a century in a claustrophobic dungeon goes on.
Gail Walker: we must put focus back on Madeleine
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
How are Gerry and Kate McCann, British parents of missing Madeleine, Portuguese suspects in her disappearance, to navigate the rest of their lives and the search for their daughter?
Breaking News
- 19:16 Ireland wins first game of campaign
- 19:10 Wins for Clare and Tyrone Ladies
- 18:51 Wexford Longford game fixed for Tuesday
- 17:54 Hearing concludes in Denis Lynch case
- 17:49 Two men sought after attempted robbery
- 17:46 Ireland beat Iceland in basketball
Top stories from Saturday, 06.09.08
- 19:16 Ireland wins first game of campaign
- 19:10 Wins for Clare and Tyrone Ladies
- 18:51 Wexford Longford game fixed for Tuesday
- 17:46 Ireland beat Iceland in basketball
- 15:09 Bohemians extend their lead
Top stories from Saturday, 06.09.08
- 17:54 Hearing concludes in Denis Lynch case
- 17:49 Two men sought after attempted robbery
- 16:36 Baby murdered in North
- 15:31 Man dies in Sligo crash
- 13:59 Bomb alert at Dublin airport
Top stories from Saturday, 06.09.08
- 15:21 Benazir Bhutto's widower has claimed a resounding victory in the Pakistan election.
- 10:53 Storm hits US coastline
- 10:47 6 killed in Pakistan car bomb
- 09:27 Pakistan to choose a new president
- 07:23 Second storm to hit US coast
Top stories from Saturday, 06.09.08
Most popular
Read
- Is Google's new Chrome browser any good?
- Ghostbusters set to make a return
- Women's final and men's semis in US Open
- Orde: Seized guns destined for Ireland enough to start war
- Bomb alert at Dublin airport
- Eight Ulster pubs make Michelin Guide
- Eamonn McCann: What if Mormons are right and Catholics and Protestants wrong?
- Google may face antitrust challenge over Chrome browser
- Northern Ireland fans attacked in Slovakia
- Sarah Palin: the real scandal is her environmental stance
Emailed
- Sarah Palin: the real scandal is her environmental stance
- Patrick Bergin's saucy Irish jig takes web by storm
- Is it X fact or fiction?
- Eamonn McCann: What if Mormons are right and Catholics and Protestants wrong?
- Bomb alert at Dublin airport
- Is Google's new Chrome browser any good?
- Becoming Northern Ireland's first female plastic surgeon
- Here’s good news: the Canadians are back
- Nomadic joins elite list of fine ships
- Ghostbusters set to make a return
Commented
- Sarah Palin: the real scandal is her environmental stance
- Minister launches housing partnership to help first-time buyers get own home
- Orde: Seized guns destined for Ireland enough to start war
- Irish recruits flock to join British Army
- Mind the age gap
- Disaster Movie
- Is Google's new Chrome browser any good?
- Northern Ireland fans attacked in Slovakia
- 'Why I'll never eat a fry-up again'
- Families of disabled children go without food as credit crunch takes its toll
Columnist Comments
• David Healy: World Cup qualifying - here we go again
Ever since we lost to Spain and failed to qualify for Euro 2008, I’ve been waiting for the World Cup qualifiers to start.
• Robert Fisk: It's never good to swap people for bodies
Al-Jazeera – much praised by the now-dying US administration until it started reporting the truth about the American occupation of Iraq (at which point, you may recall, George Bush wanted to bomb it) – is back in hot water. And not, I fear, without reason.
• Adrian Logan: There’s no place like Tyrone for believing
The dream final is on. After yesterday’s thrilling All-Ireland semi-final, it’s Tyrone against Kerry in Croke Park in three weeks time.
• Laurence White: If you’ve finished posturing, can we get on with politics, please?
Maybe DUP leader Peter Robinson is starting to warm to Sinn Fein after all. In a statement in the wake of the Independent Monitoring Commission report which said that the IRA is now a spent force incapable, even if it wanted, of starting up a terrorist campaign again, Mr Robinson made it clear he is not entirely convinced that the Provos Army Council is totally redundant.
• Frances Burscough: Why I won’t miss smarmy Laurence off my TV screen
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, the dandy decorator from Dulwich with big hair and an even bigger head, must be one of the most annoying ‘personalities’ on TV, don’t you think?
• Lindy McDowell: Why Gordon should put a cork in it
Not since the days of Oliver Cromwell have we had a dourer bunch at the helm of the ship of state. Not since the days of Nostradamus have we had to listen to more dire predictions. Gordon Brown’s government has become the political equivalent of a hen house that’s just got a whiff of a prowling fox.
• Pól Ó Muirí: Going back to school teaches us all patience
In January people join gyms; in September they enrol in night classes. Yes, it is that time of year when you decide to challenge the brain and go to that evening class. The impetus varies.
• Ed Curran: Why is it always raining in Northern Ireland newsrooms?
Well, that was the summer that was. Or should I say: wasn't! I missed the worst of August thankfully through being on holiday in eat-your-heart-out, sun-kissed France, followed by the Olympics in Beijing.
• Billy Simpson: Every swan has to sing sometime
A recent trip to the breathtaking North Antrim coast reminded our writer of growing up in the ‘best location in the world’
• Victoria Brown: My husband has been kidnapped and sent to prison in Mexico
Recent readers of my husband Cooper's column will undoubtedly know that he was having some problems with the immigration authorities here in the United Kingdom.
Odd Box
- Man with 86 wives vows to marry more
- Outback mayor urges 'ugly' women to move
- Spanish monarch replaced by Homer Simpson
- Pooh blocks drains in Ballymoney
- Britain's smallest burglar: It's a tall man's world
- Couple fined over 'sex games' at war memorial
- Nevada brothel entices visitors with free petrol
- Parents must rename girl called Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii
- Bidders let down the man who put his life on eBay
- Nun the wiser: mobile phone found in jail cake
- Spoof ad calls on Australia to invade New Zealand
- Thatcher seeks refuge from 'testicle-eating' dictator
- Plan for spray-on condoms shelved
- Beer robot debuts in London
- Unconventional chopper targets Putin critic - video
- Man assaults teenager with a hedgehog
- 'Creepy gnome' terrorising Argentinian town - video
- Michael Jackson to settle in Antrim?
48 Hours in Belfast
Our guide to the city |
Party time in the capitalNew use for Troubles relics |
Poll: Tasers and the police
Do you support the use of Tasers by the PSNI?
Do you support the use of Tasers by the PSNI?
| Yes, it is better than using firearms |
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| Yes, but only in exceptional circumstances |
|
| No, I'm genuinely concerned about the safety of Tasers |
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| No, the police should not have these weapons |
|
Keane signs Healy
Do you think David Healy will be a success at Sunderland?
Sport legends
Who is Northern Ireland's greatest sports person of modern times?






























