Hull By Maolsheachlann O' Ceallaigh

Hello Hullizens! I'm a 28-year-old chap from Dublin who has kind of adopted your native city. Never went abroad in my life before last year, then I went to London, Brighton, Doncaster, Sheffield and Hull. And Hull was my favourite! By far. And I prefer it to Dublin, too. Dublin is too big. I like the Yorkshire accent and the people are friendly, the streets are tidy and clean and compact. It doesn't seem as weighed down with history as London and Dublin, without being unpleasantly new and soulless.

Love the names, too - Beverley and Hessle and Anlaby.

Channel 4 had ranked Hull as worst place to live the very week I stayed there. I wrote a letter to your local paper defending it, and they published it. Surely for that I deserve the keys to the city, or something...An elderly Hull gent sent me a letter thanking me for it, and we got into a correspondence. He's a 91-year-old WWII veteran. Going to meet him some time in the New Year, he seems to be looking forward to it. But I would be happy to meet other Hull folk...any sort of person. I stayed for a week last time but it was a bit lonely. The people I know think I'm crazy to be so enthusiastic about a rather obscure Northern city so not much prospect of enticing them...I wouldn't mind joining in a pub quiz or something.

Also, I am writing a horror novel which is set in a city called Marsby, based on Hull. So I would like people to tell me any potentially scary locales or stories from the city. I might have questions from time to time which I will post here, if that's OK with people.

Opinions - Steve Regan 'The King of Hull' Column By Mark Pollard

	I'm just wondering why Steve Regan is being given exposure by thisisull.com. It's something I've been pondering for a while, but his recent piece on the way our brave boys... in Iraq have been so badly treated by the white feather press (i.e. The Guardian), and which included disparaging references to hand-wringing liberals finally confirmed my concerns at Read more...

Opinions - Hull's Music Scene Gets Screwed By The Arts Council ... Again By Anonymous

I opened a local newspaper today to be greeted by an article congratulating Duffy- Howard Productions on receiving an Arts Council grant for £34,006. This is purely for the Grassroots festival, a 2-day event taking place in August. The Arts Council had given grants to only three Hull organisations, and Grassroots got the lion's share, the others being granted only £1,020 and £4,493 each. The newspaper says that the aim of Read more...

Opinions - Is the Hull Music Scene Dying? By Anonymous

	My argument is about how bad the indie scene in hull is getting. First of all, Indie? Where did the term indie come from? As you can remember Indie is short for Independent, which means a band on an independent label. But since Oasis, Blur and The Verve became big then every band eventually had that Brit pop sound which is decribed as Indie. Obviously it has Read more...

Opinions - Intolerance By Lee Cassanell

	Something is rotten in the state of Denmark according to a twisted branch of the Muslim tree, and whereas the rest of the sane world is astounded and disgusted by the ludicrous invention that is Microwavable Bacon, the Muslims have a bee in their burkas about a few pictures of the Prophet Mohammed that were innocently printed in a Danish newspaper. So incensed Read more...

Opinions - Political Correctness Can Be a Good Thing By David Sloan
	The idea of using political correctness to improve society is a very good one. Everyone has the right to be treated equally, regardless of their sex, colour or religion. Unfortunately, as with most good ideas, it has been corrupted and distorted by small-minded people who use it to their own ends. Every day now someone seems to be knocking political correctness. Read more...

Opinions - Reply to Michelle Dee's Review of Band Wars at The Polar Bear By Nathan Walker

	What a shame you had a very biased person reviewing the Polar Bear Battle Of The Bands final. A little bit of research will have shown that Jimmy Hates Willy earned their place in the final by virtue of being in the top two bands to play at each of their heats (I have a feeling they were one of the only two in each of their heats, but you know!). As for The Cyclones Read more...

Opinions - Reply to Michelle Dee's Review of Band Wars at The Polar Bear By Loz Cyclone, The Cyclones

	I had to take umbrage with Michelle Dee's totally cattish and twisted so-called review of Band Wars. Admittedly, she* did provide the highlight of the evening by remonstrating with one of the judges about the unfairness of the decision to give Conscience the grand in cash. The watching Cyclones laughed at the hystericalness of it all. Now to a few facts. The Cyclones, who Read more...

Opinions - Reply to Michelle Dee's Review of Band Wars at The Polar Bear By Sue Watson

	I have just read Michelle Dee's review of the Band Wars final at the Polar Bear and I am outraged and horrified that you have allowed her to write what she did. Not only has she slandered the landlady of the Polar Bear, but also myself, as I was one of the judges that night and can assure you, I know enough about music to warrant my place as a judge. Not only have I been Read more...

Opinions - Response To Anthony Newlyne's Article By Steven Greendale
	Commenting on the article by Anthony Newlyne taking a poke at Ian Newton for his new book The Night Shift, and saying because it is six episodes of a sitcom, 'it is cheating to publish it.' : What a load of rubbish. Ian Newton is one of the best local writers Hull has produced for years, and a real character. We must all remember his antics some time ago now when he Read more...

Opinions - Hull Writer Ian Newton is Cheating By Anthony Newlyne
	Ian Newton the writer had just produced his third book. The book is six episodes of a sitcom and called The Night Shift. THIS IS CHEATING!! Obviously Ian Newton cannot get his sitcom on telly so someone has published it for him. I bought a copy of the book, and all I can say if that is the standard of comedy writing turned down by TV companies, then I have no chance, Read more...

Opinions - Rise of the Madmen By Lee Cassanell

	I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq... And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me: go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I'm gonna do it. Read more...

Opinions - Mark Pollard's Response to a Couple of Hull's Blinkered Critics

	Well, Channel 4's rubbish programme the other week (I can't even be arsed to mention it's name any more) certainly resulted in the odd fucknut blowing the cobwebs from their PC keyboard and jumping onto that bitter little bandwagon, didn't it? You want to know what's the worst thing about Hull? It's that, like any other city, it has it's fair share of these types - the sort of Read more...

Opinions - MP Diana Johnson Uninspired by Hull By David Sloan

Hull MP Diana Johnson thinks prisoners should be allowed to vote. If she went on the streets of Hull and asked the people what they thought I'm sure she would get a very different answer. She was inspired, she says by a former inmate John Hirst, who served a life sentence for manslaughter. He mounted a legal challenge saying depriving him of his vote was against his human rights. He is now free, Read more...

Opinions - Christmas Shopping Opportunity By Mr. A.N. Gry
	Well Christmas will soon be upon us and everyone is busy getting their Christmas shopping lists ready of what to get their kids or even themselves, but unfortunately at some other poor bugger's expense! Yes, the Christmas bookings for stereos and PCs and play stations etc., etc, etc. are being taken and the opportunists are a knocking at our backdoors and windows (good job we have 3 monsters Read more...

Opinions - Amused or not, a muse on Yo-Yo By Michelle Dee
	Whilst all you scenesters were at Leeds watching the likes of The Killers, The Pixies and The Paddingtons... life continued back home. Welly on Saturday was a little emptier than previous weeks, but that just meant there was more room to move and it wasn't quite so hot. DJ Priya had a difficult job tonight due to the lack of so many regulars Read more...

Opinions - Did Hitler See the Good in Hull ? by David Sloan

	Hull has been voted Worst City in the UK to live, on a recent Channel 4 TV programme. This of course was not always the case. Before the war Hull was a prosperous important sea port. Unfortunately the last politician to recognise this was Adolf Hitler. The Germans saw Hull as a major port and manufacturing centre. That's why Hull was the second Read more...

Opinions - Bringing Me Down By Steve Stewart
	Why do others bring people down all the time? Can people not leave other people alone, or is it because some of us want to get on with our lives but others won't let us? I wrote this and would like to share it with you who read it. At the moment I am feeling that it's never going to end. Maybe, hopefully this may help some of Read more...

Opinions - Reply to Tom Hawcroft By Lee Cassanell

	Well, you rattle a cage and you get a response. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Mr Hawcroft for taking the time and effort to respond. War is indeed Hell (Yes I've seen Platoon) but when someone throws a grenade into your Garden Party I think it's only fair to throw it back so I will indeed respond to your response in the vain hope that you tear yourself away from your moral Read more...

Opinions - Letter to Tom Hawcroft From Maurice Fairfield

Dear Tom Hawcroft, I only know Lee Cassanell as an able though inferior versifier publishing in these pages (although he did call me a genius recently). Reading his vitriolic piece on the old place, I was a bit surprised by the entertaining venom until I got myself back in the Hull mindset which I remember well as generally being expressed in the form of open derision for most things and Read more...