Ian Bell

No biography available.

No biography available.

Latest articles from Ian Bell

How I learned my relative was Easter Rising leader James Connolly, by Ian Bell

The speeches, as I remember, were not enthralling. Perhaps that was just me. A 12-year-old’s patience for solemn perorations is finite and Edinburgh’s Cowgate, that smear of high blackened walls and greasy cobbles, was never a byword for momentous occasions. My memories of a Saturday in June 1968 are of boredom, a badge, and nagging bemusement.

What's the problem with city council and marking the Easter Rising?

Glasgow City Council has a keen sense, it seems, of what is or might be controversial. When the rest of us imagine that a handful of words to mark a long-distant historical event could never be more than anodyne, the council is alert to the affliction of controversy. It is a condition to be avoided at all costs.

This moment is far too important for weary Left-Right Labour

If the bookies are right, Jeremy Corbyn is the political equivalent of a nice slice of wholemeal, browning fast. He’s toast. Smart money, supposedly superior to any opinion poll, says a Labour leader elected by a landslide will be gone within a year of his triumph.