Brendan Heading – Slugger O'Toole

Irish unity : a dead duck for the foreseeable future

Brendan Heading on December 2, 2024, 8:00 am

| Readers 1982

As anyone following the coverage on RTÉ will have seen, the result of Friday’s Irish election is now becoming clear with the country on course to re-elect a variant of the FF-FG coalition. As of Sunday evening, the consensus is settling on an FF-led coalition with FG, with a few independents making up the numbers. While it will be a government dominated by the same parties, the dynamic will be different – FF’s parliamentary party seems to have more older …

The Department of Infrastructure is to blame for Belfast’s traffic problems

Brendan Heading on October 27, 2024, 1:11 pm

| Readers 4451

It’s not been a good few weeks for Belfast visitors and commuters. Not only are key arterial routes more packed than ever with traffic jams during most of the day, but the bus and train systems have been up the swannie too, especially on Thursday and Friday last week. This issue hasn’t escaped the notice of local politicians. In the assembly, during Infrastructure questions on October 1, the Minister, John O’Dowd, seemed to suggest that Belfast representatives Philip Brett and …

A do-nothing Programme for a do-nothing Executive

Brendan Heading on September 28, 2024, 2:12 pm

| Readers 1238

A couple of weeks back, the sixth Northern Ireland Executive released its draft Programme for Government. Coming over six months after the Executive was formed in February, following a gap in office of around two years, a naive observer might have had high hopes for this document, especially given that, during the election campaign in 2022, most of the parties talked up a good game about getting the government up and running. The UUP manifesto said : it is vital …

Why does nationalism run away from Irish Unity at election time ?

Brendan Heading on May 27, 2024, 3:42 pm

| Readers 5920

Shortly after the announcement of the general election, I noted over in Scotland that both the SNP and Alba (Alex Salmond’s hardline pro-independence breakaway) were straight out of the blocks, seeking a mandate for Scottish independence. SNP leader John Swinney characterised polling day, July 4th, as “Independence Day”. In a press release which mentions the word “independence” seven times, he said : .. So let’s unite to win the powers of independence to strengthen our economy, tackle the cost of …

Is it time to give up on power sharing as a bad job ?

Brendan Heading on May 19, 2024, 3:38 pm

| Readers 3840

A couple of weeks back I wrote about whether or not the time had come for Alliance to adopt a constitutional position (TL;DR – it hasn’t). As is typical of articles that touch on the constitutional issue, there were quite a few comments, most of which spectacularly avoided the point and tended to rehash boring talking points and clichés from the 1970s. But there were several fair remarks which merit further discussion, so I thought I’d start with the most …

Alliance : time to get off the fence ?

Brendan Heading on May 6, 2024, 4:16 pm

| Readers 5380

Some weeks ago I noted with interest the outcome of the University of Liverpool survey into the makeup of the Alliance Party membership base and their views on constitutional matters, finding that a larger number of members believe that Irish unity should occur in the future. The title of this piece refers to an old cliché, which I’ve heard since 1994, that the party are a bunch of fence-sitters. More recently I’ve been hearing “constitutional change is coming and Alliance …

The past, present and future of cross-border rail

Brendan Heading on March 3, 2024, 1:12 pm

| Readers 4483

Enterprise crossing Craigmore Viaduct near Bessbrook

Recently, to great fanfare, the Irish government announced an €800m funding package in support of its Shared Island strategy aimed at funding public spending on projects in Northern Ireland. The lion’s share of the spend is on the A5 project, and that, together with Casement, is where most of the media attention went. However, there is also an allocation aimed at increasing the frequency of cross border rail services. Before looking at this in detail we should talk a little …

The end of free GP access in Northern Ireland is in sight

Brendan Heading on December 30, 2023, 9:00 am

| Readers 63435

A couple of years back, I was chatting to a friend of a friend who is a GP. Like, I suspect, most of us, I had (and still have) a fairly limited understanding of the nuts and bolts of how healthcare is actually provided in Northern Ireland, and he spent a bit of time explaining it to me. I was quite surprised to discover, for example, that GP surgeries are actually private businesses. They’re almost exclusively organised as partnerships, a …

Fix climate change and congestion with better buses

Brendan Heading on December 29, 2023, 5:56 pm

| Readers 1653

A recent job change, for me, led to a minor conundrum associated with the loss of a free city centre parking space. I could either continue to drive to work and pay for all day parking (£7 is the lowest price I’m aware of) or I could use the bus. I opted for the bus. The Antrim Road area, where I live, is quite well served by the Metro 1 route. Using the “Belfast Bus Tracker” third party app (App …

Why hydrogen can’t solve our climate change problems

Brendan Heading on January 29, 2023, 10:47 pm

| Readers 1150

Hydrogen

One of the conversation points that I often encounter in the debate around climate change and the move to net zero/energy independence is the role that could be played by hydrogen. Like many of the other aspects of this debate, it is poorly understood, particularly among the press and policymakers. What is hydrogen ? Chemically, it is the simplest and most plentiful element in the universe, having one proton and one electron. It’s thought that, along with a small number …

Nuclear Fusion power – how long will we have to wait ?

Brendan Heading on December 29, 2022, 2:42 pm

| Readers 2132

Atom

Just before Christmas, it was announced for the first time that researchers at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US had successfully achieved “ignition” within a nuclear fusion reaction. This generated a lot of excitement in the press, not all of it well-informed, so I thought it might be interesting to explore this topic in more detail. What is nuclear fusion ? Why was this news so significant ? When will we begin to benefit …

Remembering Dr. Éamon Phoenix at St Malachy’s

Brendan Heading on November 20, 2022, 10:10 pm

| Readers 3477

This week saw the untimely and tragic passing of Doctor Éamon Phoenix, the noted historian, academic and consultant. Memories are strange. Most of the time we remember the past in terms of broad strokes. But occasionally, our minds feel it appropriate to more permanently record selected events; snapshots which we are able to recall with distinct clarity, as if our subconsciousness instinctively knows of moments which need to be preserved for posterity. Of course, we are not computers, and time …

Pro-Unity rallies : why Alliance are right not to attend

Brendan Heading on October 1, 2022, 2:01 pm

| Readers 4889

Today, there’s a major gathering at the 3Arena in Dublin organised by a company called Ireland’s Future (CRO reg 666463), which campaigns for Irish reunification. A few days ago, the Irish News’ John Manley carried the story that Alliance had turned down an invitation to this event, on the basis that it is a rally for a united Ireland. I think Alliance made the right decision not to attend and I fully support it. I should note at the outset …

Are border poll criteria an excuse for procrastination ?

Brendan Heading on September 25, 2022, 4:05 pm

| Readers 4673

Peter Kyle, shadow Secretary of State

This morning, on the BBC’s Sunday Politics, Shadow Secretary of State Peter Kyle made some comments during a brief interview with the BBC’s Darran Marshall on the question of the criteria to call a border poll (iplayer : interview begins at approx 18:45) which seems to have generated a frisson of excitement. The salient part of the interview is reproduced below, with my emphasis. DM : I want to talk to you about the constitutional position now. Do you think …

Revisiting Nuclear Power : Part 3 : Can it be weaponised ?

Brendan Heading on August 29, 2022, 12:24 pm

| Readers 1026

Nuclear explosion mushroom cloud

Following on from my previous articles on how nuclear power works, and why we need to rethink the dangers posed by it, it’s time to talk about the other safety-related concerns that are often raised in the debate about the viability of nuclear power. Can a nuclear power station explode like a nuclear bomb ? What happens if a nuclear power station finds itself in the theatre of military conflict, as is currently happening in Ukraine ? To deal with …

Revisiting Nuclear Power : Part 2 : The Danger

Brendan Heading on August 7, 2022, 7:00 pm

| Readers 1276

A couple of weeks back, I wrote a little about how governments are reconsidering their attitude to nuclear power, and talked about the mechanics of how a reactor works and how it can solve the problems of getting us to net zero carbon emissions and securing energy supply in the long term. But we can’t gloss over the bad reputation that nuclear power has. Can’t it blow up, like a nuclear bomb ? And haven’t there been a number of …

Revisiting Nuclear Power : Part 1 : how it works

Brendan Heading on July 24, 2022, 9:17 pm

| Readers 1175

It can have escaped few of us that the effects of the war in Ukraine and the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside the ongoing issue of climate change, have led to renewed interest in the possibilities offered by nuclear power and how it can help to solve the problems governments around the world are facing. This is leading to a re-evaluation of the case for nuclear, and, hopefully, objective consideration of its strengths and weaknesses. I believe that it …

Pension provision in a united Ireland : redux

Brendan Heading on April 17, 2022, 4:43 pm

| Readers 5675

source : getty images

Last week I wrote an article suggesting that in the event of a united Ireland, the British government would propose that the future Irish government assume responsibility for paying the former Northern Ireland state pensions, on the basis that it would already be receiving the benefit of historic pension contributions that were invested in the form of public spending there. The article noted that this was the proposed arrangement in the event of Scottish independence (see page 139). This drew …

Home truths : pension provision in a United Ireland

Brendan Heading on April 9, 2022, 6:03 pm

| Readers 7227

source : getty images

A topic I see coming up quite often relates to the question of pension provision in a united Ireland. For such an important topic, there seems to be a great deal of misinformation. The ongoing “civic conversation” has not really addressed it properly and, unfortunately, there have even been academic papers that have sought to wave the problem away. Most people assume that since they’ve been paying national insurance contributions to the UK throughout their life, the UK government would …

Brendan Kennelly 1936-2021

Brendan Heading on October 19, 2021, 11:36 pm

| Readers 1200

It’s been a sad few days for Irish literature as we note the passing of two notable Irish literary figures. Máire Mhac an tSaoi was not only a poet, but also an Irish language scholar, author and at one point a career diplomat. It is Brendan Kennelly’s passing that I feel the most, however. Coming from a scientific background I am no literary critic, but to me his work seems accessible, powerful, impactful and unpretentious all at the same time. …