The review of the year is the nearest thing to a tradition on this site.
A long-read alert is in place for this one.
So, if you’re new here, then this is a personal look back at the last twelve months.
It is how the year was for me.
Consequently, I don’t make any claim that it is in any way a definitive analysis of 2022.
It is, therefore, highly subjective.
This was MY 2022.
So with that on the table, let’s go.
In January, I was buried deep in a manuscript that was coming to a crescendo inside my head.
Consequently, I was trying to block out anything else that was happening.
Someone mentioned that a war might happen, but I took no notice.
At the start of February, under the disco lights at Parkhead, Celtic battered Sevco three-nil.
It was an important indicator that the natural order on Planet Fitba was being re-established.
Around the same time, yer man Putin was throwing shapes on the Ukrainian border, and I thought no more of it.
Conversely, the Big Fella told me in precise detail that an invasion was coming.
I have bright babies.
It is the first major land war in Europe since 1945.
All is changed, changed utterly.
In April, Celtic clinched the league and George Square wasn’t wrecked.
For those in Fair Caledonia who cling to the “Old Firm” narrative, the evidence of genuine cultural difference is difficult to ignore.
Yet they seem to manage it, especially if they work in the mainstream media.
In May, I finally got my hands on something I had been making since the start of 2018.
Native Shore represented that problematic obstacle for any writer, the sequel to the debut.
As the author, I don’t have a valid opinion of my novel.
That said, I’m delighted that it now exists and, like any book, it will outlive the person who created the imaginary world into which the reader can now journey.
To those who have purchased Native Shore and were kind enough to write to me with your feedback, míle buíochas!
As my book was being printed, the voters of the Six Counties elected Michelle O’Neill as their choice for First Minister.
The good old boys of political unionism could not handle a Republican woman in the top chair.
Consequently, there is still no assembly.
By then, the basic facts of the 2021 census had been well-trailed.
The evidence was apparent that the Catholic/Nationalist population had increased.
When the census data was finally published in September of this year, it revealed that, for the first time, the Six County polity had more Catholics than Protestants.
I am writing these words in a part of Ulster that was excluded from Northern Ireland because the polity was set up on a sectarian headcount.
All is changed, changed utterly.
The old Orange State is dead.
Something else remarkable happened in May of this year on Planet Fitba.
Sevco reached a European final, and their delightful klanbase didn’t trash the city where it was held.
I still cannot decide which event was more unforeseen.
Your humble correspondent had two Spanish colleagues providing scéal about the klan in Seville.
Based on what they told me, it didn’t sound like a security operation that wasn’t really compatible with a democracy.
¿Ganar amigos en el viaje?
Hardly…
The massive police presence probably prevented the beautiful Andalusian city from getting the Manchester treatment.
Aaron Ramsey made the difference on the night.
By June, the war in Ukraine had a game changer in the hands of those opposing Putin’s aggression.
The world learned a new word: HIMARS.
The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System is a Third Wave creation.
A purveyor of precision delivered digital death on the battlefield.
Russia’s offensive, already in trouble, started to be rolled back in the east as supply dumps and command centres were forensically targeted.
The same territory saw historically pivotal operations (Barbarossa and Bagration) in World War Two.
In the latter, it was the T34, rolling off the production lines behind the Urals in numbers that the Wehrmacht couldn’t cope with, that tipped the balance.
Now it is technology from the digital revolution in the hands of the outnumbered defenders that is proving decisive.
Putin, the intelligence officer, had not put a foot wrong for decades in his hybrid war against the West.
Putin, the wannabe Field Marshall, was a bumbling amateur, and it showed.
The embattled British Prime Minister seized upon the war in Ukraine to strut and pose as a Poundland Churchill.
For a while, it worked on the domestic front.
However, July was the end of the road at Number ten for the Rt Hon Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson MP.
A combination of Etonian hubris and excellent journalism from Pippa Crerar and her colleagues finally did for the Teflon Don of Middle England.
The campaign among the party faithful to select a new leader of the Conservatives was the Gammon Olympics, and the winner was never in doubt.
It was the pork markets wot won it!
In September, Celtic again hosted Sevco at Paradise; this time, it was four without reply.
It was another multi-ball mauling from Never Stop FC, like the trouncing in February, three nil at halftime and game over.
Never stop.
Perhaps VAR will come to the aid of the basket of assets.
They’re certainly going to need all the help that they can get.
In an entirely honest way, of course.
A few days after the “Queen’s XI” was humbled at Celtic Park, Frau Saxe-Coburg Gotha died, and it ushered in two weeks of North Korean performance mourning.
From here in Dún na nGall, it all looked bizarre.
When her slobbering Dauphin of a son took this oath in London:
“I, Charles III by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of My other Realms and Territories King, Defender of the Faith, do faithfully promise and swear that I shall inviolably maintain and preserve the Settlement of the true Protestant Religion as established by the Laws made in Scotland in prosecution of the Claim of Right and particularly by an Act intituled ‘An Act for securing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government’ and by the Acts passed in the Parliament of both Kingdoms for Union of the two Kingdoms, together with the Government, Worship, Discipline, Rights and Privileges of the Church of Scotland. So help me God.”
This was the first time the cameras were present to witness a member of the Saxe -Coburg Gotha family becoming made guy.
In the televisual age, it laid bare the extent to which the UK state, at its heart, is tarred with the sickening sectarian brush.
No Catholics need apply.
It is worth noting that the great and the good of the SNP were there to add a tartan tinge to the grovelling.
Lest we forget.
The British Prime Minister for this neo-feudal Mardi Gras was the hilarious Liz Truss.
She lasted until 25th October.
By that time, her work experience Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, had inflicted more damage on the British economy with his mini budget than the IRA’s England Department did in the early 1990s.
He blew a massive hole in the public finances with his delusional fiscal policies.
Respect.
At the moment, it is Rishi Sunak in Number Ten.
Since the Brexit vote in 2016, that geo-political own goal has consumed FOUR British prime Ministers.
It might well do for this one too.
I have written here many times that the decision to leave the European Union will be a slow-moving Suez Crisis.
The events of 2022 have only reinforced that belief.
An Ipsos poll last week suggested there is widespread pessimism in the UK about the year ahead. Six out of ten Brits expect food shortages in 2023, 57 per cent believe it unlikely their personal finances will improve, and two-thirds fear a general strike.
It all looks very much like the late 1970s, with stagflation and a contagion of strikes.
One of the major issues for Sunak to square off is the mess that Brexit created on this island.
The Northern Ireland protocol remains the Schleswig–Holstein question of Brexit.
The British statesman Lord Palmerston is famously reported to have said: “Only three people have ever really understood the Schleswig-Holstein business – the Prince Consort, who is dead – a German professor, who has gone mad – and I, who have forgotten all about it.”
It is worth noting that Palmerston was also the name of the resident mouser that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at the time of the Brexit vote.
Just saying…
In October, tragedy visited my little corner of this island.
Creeslough, a place I know very well, will never be the same again.
The explosion that killed ten people was as unforeseen as it was unfair.
Journalists in Dublin who made the trek to the Northwest to cover the rescue operation and the aftermath were humbled and embarrassed by the welcome they received from a very fine community.
Up here, it is different, and the Meitheal isn’t something in the history books.
Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.
For me, the start of November means Lisbon and the Web Summit.
This year the international tech conference was bigger and better than ever.
My main day is always the middle one where sport is centre stage.
In the presser at the Web Summit, I asked the President of La Liga, Javier Tebas Medrano, for his thoughts on UEFA’s new Financial Sustainability Regulations (FSR).
It was clearly a question that he wanted to answer fully.
Very much a case of me crossing it over for it to be bulleted home with la cabeza!
If you’re in a presser and don’t have a well-prepared question to ask, you shouldn’t be there.
The following day, El Presidente’s PR minder told me during an hour-long sit down that my questions and the answers provided had dominated the Madrid media that day.
A journalist asked questions, and various mainstream outlets accurately reported the answers.
Well, that would not happen on Planet Fitba!
As the month of November drew to a close, the storm clouds were gathering over Ibrox, and the crowd were turning ugly.
The Sevco High Command sacked their likeable Dutch manager, who had created Champions League history.
Officially the worst team ever to have been in the coemption at that stage.
In the same month, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the regional assembly in Edinburgh only had the powers of, gasp, a regional assembly!
Power devolved is power retained.
There was much frothing in the aftermath of the court ruling about Scotland being a colony.
Historical illiteracy is alive and well in the country that colonised this part of Ireland and provided the managerial class for the British Empire.
A colony does not retain its own legal system.
1707 was a marriage of two states who had expansionist aspirations.
They were joined in unholy imperialism.
They’re now sleeping in separate rooms, unclear about the next move.
Meanwhile, in the Palace of Westminster, the SNP Bravehearts enjoy fine dining in a tax-payer subsidised restaurant and all manner of lavish perks.
The British state has always made life comfortable for compliant Redmondites and the like.
As the year entered the final month, Planet Football landed in Qatar.
Ironically the most shameful World Cup produced the most enthralling final.
Most neutrals wanted the Hollywood ending for Lionel Messi, and we got that season finale.
It remains a stain on an already horrifically corrupt organisation.
My book of the year:
White Debt by Thomas Harding.
Part historical excavation and part family memoir.
Every British school student should have this as required reading.
My film of the year:
The banshees of Inisherin.
Stunning.
The brilliant Martin McDonagh once again proving that the Second Generation Irish (2GI) possess a súil eile that makes sense of our island in a unique way.
Go and see it if you can.
So that was MY 2022.
I hope that the coming year will be good to you and yours, dear reader.
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Before I read all the comments, have a great 2023 Phil and everyone else here!
The photo of Charles and his swirling cape reminded me of Mark Heap as the creep’s creep, Dr. Alan Statham in the wonderful “Green Wing” parading around the hospital corridors practicing swirling his open white coat believing it to another symbol of his authority. Both are equally tragic.
Phil all the best man in 23 , you make our days better than they do
James Cullen , I’m the same pal. The whole story of what they’ve done with the tax and the EBT is the biggest fraud case EVER in our eyes and yet , the TV crowd on Sky and Bt Sport , the papers, the bams on Sportsound radio show , all spout the same PISH
New year coming , expect the same narrative
Maybe one day someone will have the balls to stand up and be counted. ..
I’ve a feeling someone out there will eventually have the financial backing to do so, and the guts to go ahead.
Meantime, we have to put up with their lunacy and lies…Happy new year brother..hh
All the best to you and yours Phil. Keep on keeping on, as they say. We need your contacts and insight.
A decent paper would give you a column, assuming you wanted that. Of course you’d never last. You’d be lucky if you got one truthful sentence typed before alarm bells were ringing all round your desk, and a wee dalek, metallic voice was screeching, “HONEST JOURNALIST!!! EXTERMINATE!!! EXTERMINATE!!!”
‘ Love your work, ‘read your blog all the time and your 2022 review is accurate, amusing and insightful except for the usual dig at Dublin, it’s journalists were surprised and embarrassed ? Were they really?,we all know most journalists are well beyond embarrassment and to insinuate that they went to such a far away place as Donegal to report on a story and be surprised by their reception is petty at best, we’re the journalists from everywhere else vetted for their reaction? Phil you are a very talented writer whose voluminous output brings joy and entertainment to so many, the anti-Dublin thing while popular to so many is tedious and beneath you.
Good luck with everything in 2023,I hope your book is a rip roaring success and say yellow to Paul Larkin from me when you see him.
Stephen
Have to say, I’ve only been to Dublin once in my life, and I’ll never, through choice, go near it again. The whole ethos of the place was about how fast they could get the Euros from your pocket to their till!!
we miss you.
Everyone’s resolution for the new year should be an end to the conflict in Ukraine with a home win. However, with the devastation so far inflicted on the country there can be no winner!
Thank you for all your input in 2022 Phil…Most enjoyable.
I wish you and your family all the very best for 2023…and will leave you with this …
I was asked my opinion on “The Banshees of Inisherin” and had to say…
It’s one of the worst films I’ve ever seen…
Isn’t life strange ?
Cheers.
excellent piece as always Phil, I’m sure the usual suspects will provide plenty of ammunition in 2023, your quest for next year must be to find a new Rugger guy… now get back to the word mines for the next novel… cheers
Compliments of the season, Phil to you and yours.
Hail Hail.
And yourself
“The first casualty of war is the truth”
Yes , expecting the war in Ukraine to be over in 3 days was arrogance on Putin’s part , he expected Ukraine to capitulate , they didn’t but the casualty figures the Western media put out are akin to an Alfredo Morelos transfer bid. You know how far our MSM went just to cover up the liquidation of a football club* , on serious matters like war there are no limits to their duplicity. The best reportage of this war is from Col Douglas MacGregor (US army retired) An enjoyable summary of the past year Phil and I hope that whatever 2023 brings that Peace will be part of the package and another wee treble of course.
I have priced in that all sides in any conflict tell lies.
The best to you and yours in 2023.
They ALL tell lies and they ALL commit attrocities.
Hi Phil
An interesting read, as always. I’m surprised you didn’t mention the outcome of the old Rangers liquidation case in December. I am somewhat confused by the outcome so I asked my equivalent of “Rugger Guy” what it meant. This is his response.
“it is a settlement against their assets so basically HMRC receive £56m from the old Rangers.
When you go into liquidation like Rangers did, they have to produce a statement of affairs.
This lists all the assets of the company at their current value against all their liabilities (who they owe money to).
The people they owe money to are then ranked in accordance to their place in the hierarchy for getting paid.
Secured creditors (like banks that have offered a secured borrowing service against say, the stadium get paid first) along with preferential creditors like HMRC where they are owed outstanding certain taxes like PAYE (the main tax outstanding in Rangers case).
Unsecured creditors then, I think in Rangers case are only getting 14p to the £1 of what they were owed and finally, as they can’t pay their unsecured creditors in full, the bottom of the list, the shareholders get nothing. No return on their capital.
HMRC appear delighted with their result.”
My question still remains unanswered, “Given that Oldco are liquidated and Newco clearly don’t have the resources, where does this money come from?”
I am assured it isn’t just a paper exercise. If it was, why would Hector be so pleased?
Any thoughts? It can wait.
Wishing you and your family a happy, healthy and successful 2023.
Best
David McDermott
Remiss of me to fail to mention the sad passing of the..ahem…engine room subsidiary.
Rangers aren’t quite Liquidated, yet! The liquidation is the conversion of all the remaining assets ( tangible or intangible) into something that is liquid I.e. of use to just about everyone. The liquidation will free up the funds to pay HMRC and the 14p to the other creditors. You would need to read BDO’s final report to see where all the money has come from, and I must say it surprises me how much there is given the pittance received for the basket of assets, the burn through of BDO’s fees and expenses even given the 8 figure sum received from Collyer Bristow’s professional indemnity insurance but all the money will be from the liquidation of Rangers.
Banshees is on Disney, I’ll give it a watch. Btw, the two Knives Out films on Netflix, I watched them both last night and they were very enjoyable!
Oh dear. Putin is a “bumbling amateur”?
Where do you get your “News”, on the War, Phil? RTE? BBC? CNN?
Noam Chomsky and John Pilger have both said that this is the most propagandised war they have ever experienced; and they’ve been around a long time. But what would they know?
I must say I’m surprised.
The..ahem… “Special Military Operation” that was due to last a few days with the decapitation of the regime in Kyiv is now in month ten.
Who said it would last a few days, with the decapitation of the regime in Kiev? I guess you can make people say anything if you put words in their mouths.
Was that around the time the Western media was reporting on his stroke, heart attack, Alzheimer’s, and cancer all in the same day?
As a journalist, you should know to check your sources. Isn’t it you who often says ‘Ask questions and question answers’?
I’d have thought you’d have been able to spot a ‘compliant media’ by now.
It was described as a “special operation to remove fascist elements from power”
It WAS supposed to last 3-4 weeks according to Russian TV.
The reality is that they wanted to take complete control of Ukraine and in all probability impose a puppet government.
The greater reality is that only a “Bumbling Amateur” would have thought that the above was remotely possible. They were NEVER going to subdue the Ukrainian people, and they simply do not have the manpower to police a country that size.
And here’s a third reality. The army that invaded Ukraine was a mixture of full time professional soldiers, reservists and conscripts doing their national service. Whatever, they ALL had some military training to a greater or lesser degree. They outnumbered overwhelmingly the Ukrainian army. They had more and far superior weapons.
The army facing them within weeks of the war starting, had been mostly untrained civilians at the beginning of the invasion. Well those untrained civilians, many of them quite advanced in years, learned on the the job and learned fast. AND guess what they have completely embarrassed the bumbling amateur. That the world’s second greatest military power – maybe third, China may have surpassed them – has been forced to hire mercenaries IS embarrassing.
There will no doubt be a spring offensive. But this time they will be facing seasoned, battle hardened soldiers.
This war WILL get worse and WILL get more brutal, and many thousands more will die. ALL because of a bumbling amateur who thought he could walk into a neighbouring country and take over, thought his troops were good enough to do it, AND thought he had the right to do it.
God save us all from the stupidity of bumbling, idiot, wannabe soldier, politicians, who fancy themselves as the next Alexander the Great. Unfortunately they are NOT exclusive to Russia!
Oh aye, another thing. ALL sides in EVERY war use propaganda. Some are better at it than others. “Good” propaganda will have an element of truth and a great deal of exaggeration. “Bad” propaganda will be based on lies backed up by more outrageous lies.
And where do you get your news? Do you get it from the same people who made, and some still make, the ridiculous claim that Russia blew up its own pipelines? Do you believe the US version of what is going on in Ukraine? Really? The people who lied to you about WMD in Iraq? The people who still tell you Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone? Is there anything from them you won’t believe?
This war could have stopped last April. Agreement had been made, in principle, between Putin and the Vogue photo-shoot man. But that didn’t suit the US, who are delighted with this war, who want to prolong it to the last drop of Ukrainian, and if necessary European, blood; so they sent our own Boris Johnson there to scupper the deal.
The US is on record as saying the purpose of the war is to seriously weaken the forces of Russia; they care not a jot about democracy in Ukraine, which doesn’t exist anyway, just ask the banned opposition parties about that.
Russia has provided cheap and reliable energy to Europe for decades, which also didn’t suit the US. And, as Biden told us in February, if Russia crosses into Ukraine, the pipelines would be gone. For once, he was true to his word.
Anyone who believes this conflict began this year needs to do some reading. An estimated 14,000 people have died there since 2014, following the US-backed coup, which resulted in the persecution of the minority ethnic Russian-speaking citizens in the east. That’s the kind of thing that I might expect to attract some empathy on this forum; a minority being persecuted by its more powerful neighbours who regard them as second-class citizens, yet hoping for assistance from their “own” people, which eventually came.
Not everyone stands idly by.
Where do YOU get your news James?
Rossiyskaya Gazeta? Rossiya Segodnya – or RT as it’s now known?
Komsomolskaya Pravda? Or some other equally honest and reliable outlets whose sources I’m sure you take time to verify.
Ach, at the end of the day, one man’s news is always another man’s propaganda, AND vice versa.
I’m only aware of RT, Charger, but we’re not allowed to listen to that any more, are we? Isn’t this freedom great 🙂
As for who to believe, an instinctive distrust of them all would be my take on it. But, importantly, try to listen to all sides rather than just “ours”. I’m afraid we’ve learned the hard way that it’s not a case of us “goodies” against them “baddies” any more.
At the moment I’m following an independent journalist called Gonzalo Lira, an American who has lived in Ukraine, and still does, for a number of years. Of course, he may well have his own agenda, but he’s chosen to live in Ukraine, so I’d give his views more weight than the stenographers from the BBC etc.
Putin *is* a bumbling amateur. The only war he’s been a part of is already lost. Don’t take my word for it, look around. At best he’s got a rebellious population who *fucking hate* him, this war cannot be won now, it’s too late.
I’ve kept abreast of almost every part.of this years collage and it seems just to have happened as you’ve described, and I remember Phil.
I am of course, in all honesty, much more a follower of your news on celtic and of course, any dirt you uncover on the mordor liars and cheats.
I wish to say thank you for keeping us much more up-to-date than the Scottish media…indeed, the British media ever will in regards to matters foitball in Scotland.
It seems the Scottish media, including sky sports….the ever proficient red,white and blue broadcaster who favour the mordor club, and who all continue to push the narrative of same club….continuity etc, whilst remaining resolving to giving ONLY good newscasts about the debt ridden ibrox business.
I’ve never been able to grasp how they can continue to say they are the same club following liquidation….I mean, I get the “engine room subsiduary” myth etc…..but hey, common sense and all that.
After all…if the same team, why did they have to register as a new club/business.
If same club, why did they have to be a member of a uefa associated league for three years before being granted a uefa licence.
Why is their TWO licences for two rangers teams…diffrent registrations.
If same club, why can’t they call themselves RFC.
If same club, why are the old shareholders not the shareholders now.
If same club, how did the deadco players leave with no transfers.
Why did those who stayed have to sign a new contract.
These questions are never addressed…..and certainly will not be by sky, or any media outlet in Scotland.
At least you, Phil, remain true to the integrity of an honest journalist….and for that I wish to thank you sincerely and plead that you continue your quest for clarity in Scottish football….
Have a great new year Phil….all the best for 2023….
Well said James, nothing makes me more angry than reading the media saying that Sevco were aiming for title no 56. Is there anybody not connected to The Rangers nternational Football Club who do not believe that they were liquidated?
Sorry I said James instead of Phil. I got mixed up with James Forrest.