Post Archives for Alan in Belfast
Belfast Black Taxi Tour – political insight or Troubles tourism?
A black taxi tour of Belfast? Chris Jenkins raised questions about the morality of troubles tourism in a recent Guardian Unlimited article. Matthew Symington followed up with an extended interview on Eamonnmallie.com in which Chris again challenged the trend of “money being made from human tragedy” and the DUP’s switch from opposing a “shrine” at [...] more »
Hasten slowly – though no tangible signs that the Anglican supertanker is turning
So those who had expected murder in the cathedral on either Thursday, Friday or Saturday, even on all three, were predictably disappointed. What they got instead was . . . sex! In this morning’s Irish Times, Patsy McGarry looks at the parallels between the Church of Ireland’s May 1982 Synod meeting which tackled the issue [...] more »
Seanin Graham named CIPR NI Journalist of the year; Belfast Telegraph wins Newspaper of the year
The CIPR Media Awards – or the Coca-Cola Chartered Institute of Public Relations Media Awards 2012 in association with SPAR to give them their full title – were held earlier tonight in Titanic Belfast the Europa Hotel. The awards are mostly print-orientated, with a nod to television, some new media mentions in the shortlists (and [...] more »
Pay your rates by credit card: you pay 2% extra. Pay by debit card: LPS pay 29p.
Northern Ireland ratepayers choosing to pay their rates bills by credit card contributed around £32,000 to Santander last year. How do you pay your rates? Pay the whole year off up front and get the small discount? Pay monthly? Direct debit? Post Office? Or maybe you put on your credit card? Increasingly, government bodies are [...] more »
Are public libraries under-appreciated and under-used?
From the 1880s, Andrew Carnegie began to give money to build libraries – the most widely recognised feature of his philanthropy. From that date, he devoted himself to providing the capital for the building of public libraries and the development of library services. Between 1883 and 1929, 2,509 libraries were built, including 1,689 in the [...] more »
Electronic counting
Electronic counting is being used at a number of counts at this week’s elections across Scotland, England and Wales. London Elects 2012 (the independent team that organises teh Mayor London and London Assembly elections) produced a detailed – ie, eight minutes long – overview of the electronic counting process. While awaiting confirmation of Boris’ margin [...] more »
A “Boris in every city” rejected at the polls
David Cameron’s vision of strong elected personalities leading cities across England [Ed - aren't those called councillors?] has been rejected by nearly all those cities who held mayoral referendums on Thursday. With all the city referendums now counted, Bristol is the only new city to support the switch to having a directly elected mayor. However, [...] more »
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery? Is the Belfast Telegraph standing on the shoulders of the News Letter?
Two articles in local newspapers this week show a remarkable similarity. On Monday, the News Letter published a story (also in Coleraine Times) following up Ian Paisley Jnr’s statement in Westminster Hall last week about the future of A&E at the Causeway Hospital. A tip off pointed to Tuesday’s Belfast Telegraph website which also carries [...] more »
Local papers well represented in the Society of Editors’ Regional Press Awards shortlists
Some local newspapers and journalists appear in the shortlists for the Society of Editors’ Regional Press Awards that celebrate the best of UK regional newspaper journalism in 2011. Good to see the local weekly The Ulster Herald making the list alongside Belfast Telegraph, Irish News and Sunday Life success. Given the entrance fee, some local [...] more »
The Biggest Issues – what happens when talk radio goes awry?
One day I’ll have time to listen to the Afternoon Play Afternoon Drama live on Radio 4 while sitting on a comfy chair with a hot cup of tea in my hand. Until the mortgage is paid off, I have to settle for dipping in and out every week or two. Last Tuesday’s play – [...] more »
The misunderstood Lord Mayor shuffle – timing, facts & Sinn Féin tying themselves in knots over friendship
Once a month, the postie delivers a bulging A5 envelope. Stuffed inside is a twice-folded copy of An Phoblacht, Sinn Féin’s 32 page monthly newspaper. The May edition’s back page is devoted to a story that broke in the Belfast Telegraph last Monday. Niall Ó Donnghaile is “leaving his post a few days early to [...] more »
Child support payment arrears rising – 7,959 children in NI affected
Windscale became Sellafield. The Child Support Agency became the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division. The Detail have been taking a look at the levels of arrears in child support payments across Northern Ireland. (The figures released do not cover private maintenance arrangements agreed between parents.) A quarter (27%) of the 28,966 children entitled to receive [...] more »
Being an all-Ireland party has its downsides – Sinn Fein’s inconsistency on property taxes
Fine Gael TD Brian Hayes spoke at the North-South East West panel at the Alliance conference this afternoon. He spoke about the inconsistency of Sinn Fein’s positions in different parts of the island of Ireland. You can listen to his comments (should start at 8 min 36 secs): And as the minister of state for [...] more »
Round-up of today’s Alliance party conference [including audio of speeches]
Alliance shifted their conference this year to a larger venue. More exhibition space, more spaces to chat, a larger hall, and a lot more parking. It was a good move and party members and exhibitors alike seemed universally positive about the new venue. The mood was upbeat though definitely not smug. A pride was taken [...] more »
Animated Alliance #apni12
Alliance party political and party election broadcasts have a style all of their own. The yellow brand and the Naomi Long avatar are perfect for animation. This week’s party political broadcast being shown on BBC and UTV in the run up to their conference on Saturday continues the theme. more »
Alliance Party conference preview #apni12
The Alliance Party conference on Saturday finishes the 2011/12 season of party conferences. [Sinn Fein’s Ard Fheis (which was postponed from last spring to the autumn) will take place at the end of May in Killarney.] This year Alliance’s venue switches from the mobile not-spot of the Dunadry Hotel to the DUP-favourite mobile not-spot of [...] more »
Belfast Telegraph says “nothing is going to change”
The online Belfast Telegraph today featured an open letter from the paper’s editor Mike Gilson in which he cryptically defends the Belfast Telegraph’s reach and cryptically explains the decision to switch to being a morning paper only. See if you can spot the sentence where he clearly explains the change? Facts that show the Belfast [...] more »
Johnston Press plan for survival: Social, Local, Mobile
The man who launched the BBC iPlayer on-demand service, who then jumped ship into Project Kangaroo before bouncing into Microsoft as a VP for UK Consumer and Online landed as the CEO of Johnston Press on 1 November 2011. Yesterday Ashley Highfield announced his plans to improve the viability of Johnston Press’ stable of 18 [...] more »
Belfast Telegraph to drop evening edition, while News Letter may (not) go weekly?
Six weeks ago I posted about the continued decline in the circulation of local newspapers. Amongst the stable of Belfast dailies, the ABC figures for July-December 2011 showed that the Belfast Telegraph had lost 8.1% (4,270 copies) compared to the same period in 2010, and 9.4% (5,548 copies) when compared to the first six months [...] more »
The Imperfectionists (Tom Rachman) – an insight into a newspaper that’s maybe not so fictional
‘news’ is often a polite way of saying ‘editor’s whim’ Given the shift from print to online and e-ink, maybe Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists was a suitable first first book for me to finish reading on the Kindle. Considering the economic pressures on the newspaper industry, his novel perhaps captures the spirit and soul of [...] more »
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A flexible library service for the 21st century?
Following Alan’s piece on libraries, I picked this ‘advertorial’ from Google plus this evening… about how a US county library system is cutting costs and improving flexibility in their free at the point of delivery services by enabling the whole library service act as a functioning unit as opposed to the one discrete library… read our review » -
The lost art of reading (or drowning in too much information)…
Here’s a great review of a fascinating book (H/T reader Rory) on how the Internet is destroying our capacity for intelligent, focused and critical thought. It opens thus: …here is the news that Ulin brings in this slim, meandering book: that reading is “an act of contemplation”; that such an act becomes more difficult in [...] read our review »
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…if University education were universally available and availed of, the country would collapse in one generation
The words of Brian O’Nolan, variously Brian Ó Nualláin, Myles na gCopaleen, Myles na Gopaleen and, of course, Flann O’Brien. That O’Nolan was referencing his own dissolute student days at UCD only mildly distracts from the prophetic undertone of his words: I paid no attention whatsoever to books or study and regarded lectures as a [...] read our review »
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