Cormac MacConnell: Why I’m with you, boys (and girls) in blue

Beginning it all at the age of 16 years, wearing a camel duffle coat, with a pencil and jotter in the right hand pocket, and able to write shorthand at 120 words a minute, I worked as a common or garden reporter in every county of Ireland for the past 50 years.

I have resided in all four provinces at different stages of my life; slept for at least one night in about every town, filed stories for a long list of newspapers and magazines, earned my bread by the sweat of my alphabet.

I know our country at least as well as the next man. And there, again, is the pure truth.