Arts, Business and Cyber-Lynching

By Willie Drennan

Cyber-Lynching is the new term for a crowd of folk getting together on social media to have a collective go at somebody they feel deserves punishment. No doubt an online lynch mob will be after me very soon for even making reference .

For now it's the Chair of the Arts Council, with his speech at the Arts and Business NI annual awards in Belfast on January 24th, who is getting cyber-lynched.

The Legacy of Rabbie Burns 2018

By Willie Drennan

January 25^th 2018 will mark the 259th birthday of the immortal Robert Burns, and such is his legacy that we can’t help but ponder what he would make of the state of the world today.

It was certainly the case during the Scottish Independence campaign in 2014 that campaigners on either side were selective in their quoting of Burns to claim he would have voted for their cause. Songs such as ‘Scots Wha Hae’ were presented as confirmation of his Scottish credentials while ‘Does Haughty Gaul Invasion Threat’ was considered proof of his British credentials.

Indeed there is much in the works of Burns for both the Scottish and British patriot. He didn’t see anything contradictory in that. Also for the internationalist there were songs like, ‘A Man’s A Man For A’ That’.