Sources

Although I kind of get the impression that I am far from the only political blogger who rarely cites sources I worry that some people hold this against me. I occasionally DO quote sources in a post and sometimes provide a relevant link as well. This is my attempt at satisfying people who want to know where I am getting this stuff.

Non-Northern Ireland Stuff

2000-2009

About 150 articles a week on average. About 25% the BBC, about 20% the Washington Post (I liked Eugene Robinson, Harold Meyerson, and E.J. Dionne) about 20% The New York Times (I like(d) Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert) and the rest are miscellaneous.

I also read a lot on the blogs of David Corn and Marc Cooper. For about 2 years around 2004 I had a subscription to The Nation and read a lot on their site.

2009-2020

About 150 articles a week on average. About 25% the BBC, about 20% the Washington Post (I liked Eugene Robinson, Harold Meyerson, and E.J. Dionne), about 20% The New York Times (I like(d) Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert), about 10% Huffington Post (aka HuffPost) (in the last few months before the 2008, 2012 and 2016 elections I got about 1/3 of my election-related news from HuffPost), and the rest are miscellaneous.

2020-2026

About 125 articles a week on average (I had a lot of depression towards the beginning of that period, partly because of the pandemic and missed a LOT of articles). It’s about 14% the BBC (that decreased largely because in either 2024 or 2025 they started charging a subscription fee), about 9% the NYT, about 19% the Washington Post, about 19% Politico, about 29% CNN, about 5% The Times of Israel, and the rest is miscellaneous.

I am not going to give a list of all the books I’ve read in this category, partly because about half of them I don’t have anymore and to a large degree I can’t remember titles or authors of the ones I gave up.

Some of the bigger miscellaneous chunks of information include:
1) I’ve heard four speeches by Angela Y. Davis, had two more on tape, and read one of her books (and spoke briefly with her at a protest about prisons).
2) My faculty advisor in college was Ward Churchill. For better or worse we never had any substantial conversations but I took three classes that he taught. I read an essay or two about the academic accusations against him and I think maybe he’s innocent, or at least there’s enough reasonable doubt that I am still sort of proud of being one of his students. I disagree with about 99% of his “little Eichmans” theory- I imagine that maybe 1% of people in the WTC were that bad, probably no more.
3) Between 1995 and 2005 I probably listened to KGNU Radio for about an average of 1.5 hours a day.



Northern Ireland Stuff

Between April of 1997 and October of 2005 I read an average of about 125 articles a week from various sources. I broke it down more or less like this:

BBC Northern Ireland 35% (surprisingly professional and accurate, but not as good a source as the Irish News)

Irish News 25% (main paper read by the Catholic population in NI. Professional but also maybe a bit focused on contributing to the effort for equality and justice for Catholics there)

Irish Times 15% (Main paper for all of Ireland, moderate about the North, probably comparable to American MSM on 26-County domestic issues, but might be called anti-imperialist when it comes to the world outside Ireland and Britain)

Sunday Business Post 2% (I think it may have been comparable to the Wall Street Journal’s news section as described a very long time ago by Noam Chomsky, although it’s opinion section was a lot better than the WSJ’s)

Andersontown [West Belfast] News, South Belfast News, North Belfast News 9% (only published about 2-3 days a week, leaned towards Sinn Fein a little but not a lot)

An Phoblacht/Republican News 14% (Sinn Fein’s weekly newspaper a long time ago) 

Between 2005 and early 2020 I probably read an average of 75 articles a week. It probably breaks down like this:

BBC Northern Ireland: 65%
Irish News: 30%
Irish Times: 5%

Books:
A Gerry Adams book, probably “Free Ireland.” Read it in 1996.
Tim Pat Coogan. “The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace.” Read it in 1997.
Tim Pat Coogan. The IRA: A History. Read it in 1997.
Michael Farrell. “Northern Ireland: The Orange State.” Read it in 1998, and about 2001 and about 2010 and about 2020.
Eamonn McCann. “War and an Irish Town.” Read it in 1998 and about 2001 and about 2010 and about 2020.
Liz Curtis. “Ireland: The Propaganda War.” Read it in 1998.
Brian Dooley. “Black and Green.” Read it in 1998 and about 2001.
Eamonn McCann. “McCann: War And Peace In Northern Ireland.” Read it in 1999 and about 2002 and about 2010 and about 2020.
Bernadette Devlin. “The Price Of My Soul.” Read it around 2001.
Tim Brannigan. “Where Are You Really From?” Read it twice in 2016.
Edited by Michael Farrell. “Twenty Years On.” Read it in 2024.

A LOT of miscellaneous info including reading the ENTIRE Sutton Database of deaths in the conflict 2-3 times. I spent a total of two months in Ireland, about 7/8 of it in the North including late June to mid-July during the 2002 marching season. I was at the 2002 National Conference of Sinn Fein Youth as a representative of the Anti-Racism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America and was allowed to participate in the private part.