John Charles Laverty

1 week ago | belfasttelegraph.co.uk | John Charles Laverty

Surprise, surprise... Stormont won’t be increasing university tuition fees in Northern Ireland. The begging letter failed to get through The Hill’s Difficult Decision Alert filter and ended up in a bottom drawer alongside loose batteries, takeaway menus, Nokia phones and feasibility studies for the introduction of water charges. Queen’s, Ulster University and Open University in Ireland wanted Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald to load an extra grand onto students’ annual bill but alack, no dice.

2 weeks ago | belfasttelegraph.co.uk | John Charles Laverty

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3 weeks ago | belfasttelegraph.co.uk | John Charles Laverty

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump. It’s over 40 years ago, but I can still recall that hollow, headbanging noise as the Golf GTi careered off the B62 Ballybogey Road and ploughed through seven fence posts before ending up in a ditch near Portrush. I’d lost control of the powerful ‘hot hatch’ on the sort of bend that shouldn’t have been a challenge for that type of car, even at 80mph-plus.

1 month ago | belfasttelegraph.co.uk | John Charles Laverty

Did you know that the term ‘hillbilly’ emanates from these shores? The ‘Billy’ bit requires little explanation, referring to Ulster Scot Protestants beholden to William of Orange. The ‘hill’, however, alludes not to Stormont but to the Appalachian Mountains, where so many folk from here ultimately settled centuries ago. They became known in America as Billys, Billy Boys and, ultimately, Hillbillies.

1 month ago | belfasttelegraph.co.uk | John Charles Laverty

The late Rev Ian Paisley probably checked out at the right time. When he was still with us, the one-time poster boy for anti-Catholic bigotry resided in a place where, like everywhere else in the United Kingdom, Protestants boasted the largest flock. To be fair, the Big Man — whose back yard in 1960s Ballymena backed onto my family’s property and whom my parents (and, later, an older me) got to know and like — mellowed into a more accommodating, objective and open-minded person in his later years.