“Don’t blame me – I was only the taoiseach.”
As Crooked Timber’s Maria Farrell says, “words to live by”, people. In today’s Irishman’s Diary, Frank McNally offers a “history of Ireland in 100 excuses”. 78. We made those pre-election promises in good faith. It was only in government we realised how bad the country’s finances were. 79. It was a complex but legitimate business [...] more »
Belfast peace walls: A paradox of leadership
Audio – UU Peace Walls 01 – Dr Jonny Byrne: http://mrulster.podomatic.com/player/web/2012-02-08T08_59_57-08_00 At a seminar hosted by the Institute for Research in Social Sciences and the Inter-Institute Peace and Conflict Cluster, Dr Jonny Byrne of the University of Ulster presented his findings of three years of research in regards to public policy on peace walls (interface [...] more »
DSD withdraw funding for Laganside Events
Since the closure of the Laganside Corporation on 31 March 2007, the Department for Social Development has given out grants for events and community activities in the Laganside area of Belfast. The area includes the Cathedral Quarter as well as stretching our towards York Street, Corporation Street, the Sydenham bypass (but not including Titanic Quarter), [...] more »
Media, new media and the problems of regulation in a globalising media market…
On Monday I was at a conference on Media Diversity run and funded by Labour MEP Nessa Childers. It was probably one of the best roster of speakers I’ve heard on the subject on that side of the Irish Sea, even if there was barely time to talk, or ask questions. Then yesterday, Paul Staines, [...] more »
Stormtroopers on red alert for St Paddy’s Day riots in South Belfast
Last night, the PSNI riot squad took part in a dress rehearsal in advance of any trouble in the university/Holylands area over the St Patrick’s Day long weekend. One officer privately expressed concern that the new protective clothing “wouldn’t be taken seriously by tipsy students”. Another added that the pockets weren’t very accessible and there [...] more »
Carwyn Jones looking for a national senate to replace the Lords…
A couple of weeks ago, on the sidelines of the newly revitalised Scottish Question, Carwyn Jones, the Labour leader in the Welsh Assembly made some remarks that have created some ripples in his own back yard: Asked how Wales would fare if Scotland voted for independence, he said: “I think we need to start thinking [...] more »
UUP and the SDLP: Two parties in search of a script?
Very good column from Fionnuala O’Connor on Tuesday re what what’s happening to two parties in continuing decline. She starts with the semi public spat between Margaret Ritchie and her chosen successor, the retired school head, Sean Rogers: Surely between them a keen new player and a former leader could have avoided such a petty [...] more »
Dead tree columnist prejudices public’s perception of bloggers?
Allison Morris made a number of contributions to this morning’s Irish News. As well as the front page article about the alleged security breach when a police officer’s personal mobile fell into the hands of dissident republicans (and its contents were subsequently passed to the Irish News), she also writes a curious opinion piece on [...] more »
Lake Vostok: “Admit it, it sounds just like a thousand horror-movie setups.”
That was the Professor’s not entirely inaccurate comment this time last year, when a Russian team came up just short in their attempt to reach Lake Vostok - the largest sub-glacial freshwater lake on Earth. The project to drill down to the lake, which covers 16 square kilometres and has been sealed under approximately 3,750m of ice in the Antarctic [...] more »
What is Britishness anyway? – latest
Stephen Moss in the Guardian adopts the least analytical approach imaginable to the identity thing, a random journey. It’s like an intro to a report that that doesn’t actually appear. A bit like Britishness itself maybe? Quite unlike our own passions. Might uncertainty and toleration be its saving graces? As I stood in freezing temperatures [...] more »
“Fianna Fail needs to stop playing stupid patriot games”
For my money, the Irish Independent’s editorial somewhat scales up the current German influence within the EU for effect, but it warns Fianna Fail it is currently playing the wrong game in calling for a referendum: It is a measure of how the European dream has soured that having joined with the clear intent of [...] more »
GOP Primaries – the plot thickens with a clean sweep for Santorum.
Romney isn’t closing this out. Yesterday saw a primary in Missouri (well a non binding beauty contest really) and two caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota. From RealClearPolitics: Santorum has taken Minnesota and Missouri comfortably. Romney was banking on Colorado. Here Nate compares his 2008 and 2012 performances. Broadly he’s at 60% of his 2008 level and [...] more »
Bill Clinton to host “Invest in Ireland” event in New York
As the BBC reports Former US president Bill Clinton is to host an “Invest in Ireland” discussion in New York on Thursday. Well, he’ll ”attend for the beginning of the event where he will make some opening remarks”. You get the point. *sniff* He used to have such big [economic] ideas for here… The Merrion Street [...] more »
Michael Martin shadowing Sinn Fein positions in the Dail?
Something of a return to form for Eoghan Harris: Right now Sinn Fein rules the opposition roost. Like a rooster it makes a lot of noise. Fianna Fail has failed to point out it neither lays policy hens or economic eggs. Given these two gormless groups and a grim recession, Fianna Fail should be flying. [...] more »
Euro crisis: “We are not fully in control of the sequence of events…”
Having watched as yesterday’s ‘deadline’ went whooshing past their heads, Greek party leaders are due to meet later tonight to consider another draft bail-out deal – once it’s been translated into Greek… You can follow events as they unfold at the Guardian’s live-blog. Meanwhile, as promised, Frau Bundeskanzlerin has joined Nicolas Sarkozy on the campaign trail [...] more »
“Failure to deal with the past is the Achilles’ Heel of the current arrangement”
Haunted is a good word for the core subject of Robin Wilson’s op ed in the Belfast Telegraph today. The past haunts all the players to one degree or another. He echoes DPP Barra McGrory’s concern that treating all matters via the judicial route is not the most desirable means of moving forward. As Tim [...] more »
Is Northern Ireland less innovative than the Republic?
It seems we in Northern Ireland aren’t doing so well when it comes to innovation, at least according to InterTrade Ireland. Simon Hamilton tweeted this announcement from one of his party’s ministers yesterday: “Arlene Foster reveals only 1 of 18 nominations in InterTradeIreland awards from NI & this is a trend. Does ROI have monopoly [...] more »
So what’s the formula for a referendum, Owen?
Jamie Smyth the new (to me ) correspondent of the Financial Times has managed to win some space for an interview with Owen Paterson (£ sadly) who takes whatever wind there might have been out of Martin McGuinness’s kite for a united Ireland referendum. Part of the draught perhaps from the Scottish referendum campaign Graham Walker [...] more »
Contested Space Programme: “What’s strange is that we haven’t heard anything about this until now…”
On 22 January, after the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) announced their £2million Peace Walls Programme, I asked about the absence of OFMdFM’s £4million Contested Space Programme – announced in March last year. On 27 January the Northern Ireland Executive Junior Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson, launched the Early Years Faces and Spaces – Children’s Shared [...] more »
The Sino-Russian Blockade: The Inner Sanctum of Death Lives On
Saturday’s day of death in the besieged city of Homs at the hands of the Syrian army and security forces beheld the worst episode of violence in Syria’s chronic 11-month uprising. Homs which has been at the epicentre of the uprising saw as many 300 deaths on Saturday and the UN has stated that since [...] more »
Long to Reign Over Us.
Congratulations to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth on achieving the milestone of 60 years devoted service. Sixy years ago a young woman was high up in an African tree watching the wildlife, when many miles away her father passed away, beginning the reign of one of the most devoted heads of state the world has known. [...] more »
Better journalism: “We have to learn directly from news consumers through experiments”
There’s an interesting confluence of work on journalism in the digital age today. This morning I’m at conference in Dublin on the importance of Diversity in the Media (organised by the Labour MEP Nessa Childers), and at the same time Blair Jenkins’s Better Journalism in the Digital Age, is published by the Carnegie Foundation across [...] more »
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