Once again, I am trying to get this blog going again.

Basically “Keeping An Eye on the Czar of Russia” started as a joke in 2011. There is something about blogging that is as pretentious as a Victorian newspaper editor in County Cork commenting on world events and warning the Russian Czar that he was watching him.

This goes for the keyboard warriors who think that their views on the Middle East, Donald Trump and Norn Iron are valuable insights.

For about a year, this blog got few if any hits and three things happened that changed things. Firstly it was “pinged” (mentioned) by Slugger O’Toole and I got a lot of hits. Secondly the Flegs Dispute in 2012 resulted in a surge of readership. Thirdly my visit to a university in Texas brought in more readers.

I did not intend for this blog to be taken seriously but I had seriousness thrust upon me. And if readers are serious, then I have a duty to be serious.

There are of course “tricks” to successful blogging. One is to attend conferences, seminars and building up contacts…in my case in the Norn Iron political arena.

And another tactic is to repeat the same post over and over again …with only slight changes. If we look at Slugger O’Toole. we can see a pattern of “same old, same old”.

I cannot say I am optimistic about the future of this blog. I am 72 years old and have some health issues. I am thinking of recruiting a team to help me. There is room for a pan-nationalist blog …Sinn Féin supporters, SDLP supporters and even the Alliance supporters that we are told support Irish unity.

I accept the bona fides of all of them as patriots and in this case it works better when pan nationalists are NOT party members and scoring points off each other.