The legal inquiry into Bloody Sunday, one of the most controversial events of the conflict in Northern Ireland, has been turned into drama. But the play is formulaic theatre for complacent liberals, says Douglas Murray

A Jordanian terrorist in Iraq is using the west’s emotional weakness for satanic ends. Time to stand firm against the hostage–takers, says Douglas Murray.

The “scandal” of Abu Ghraib made Maï Ghoussoub choke, Marcus Raskin protest, and Charles Pena demand America withdraw from Iraq without delay. Misjudgment, wrong diagnosis, worse solution, says Douglas Murray.

The rare poetic gift of Thom Gunn (1929-2004) was to wring life-affirming images from tragedy and death, in particular in his response to the impacts of Aids. Douglas Murray marks the passing of a genius of elegy.

The Spanish people responded to the Madrid massacre by voting in a government opposed to the “war on terror”. An act of surrender and dishonour, says Douglas Murray.

What kind of justice does the world owe the former Iraqi dictator?

A press corroded by cynicism could not see that the death of a British weapons scientist was a private tragedy, not a political scandal.

The success of the Tolkien phenomenon is rooted in the clear, compelling moral logic of his stories. Against this, disdainful criticism based on race or relativism is a form of vanity.

Committees seldom produce genius, still less aspects of the divine, argues this young writer. But the translating of the King James Bible in 1604 did just that.

The five-year old ‘peace process’ in Northern Ireland is facing a new crisis. The refusal of the nationalist party Sinn Fein fully to disarm its Irish Republican Army counterpart has led the British government to postpone elections to the UK province’s executive. As the bitterness of the thirty-year conflict again forces democratic politics into retreat, Northern Ireland’s absence of public trust is more pivotal than ever.

The fundamental sense of loyalty and belonging to one’s own country is heightened in time of war. This is patriotism itself, an affirmation of pride and love – not the aggressive display of superiority that is nationalism. The problem in Britain is that minorities reject this patriotism, and the majority is too embarrassed to express it.

The London march against war of 15 February was impressive but confused, and desperately naïve. It filled the roads with good intentions and we all know where they lead.

The London demonstration organised by the Stop the War Coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain on 28 September was ostensibly against an attack on Iraq. But do the events of the day, and the mixed messages of the two organisations, reveal a more sinister agenda?