As the BBC have reported, the Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, has made his “the future of Northern Ireland” statement to the House of Commons. Announcing his intention to bring forward an emergency Bill on 20 April, with only a half a dozen clauses, to recall the Assembly on 15 May, as previously announced. He repeatedly references devolution in Scotland and Wales as role-models, but there’s not a great deal of detail so far except …
Given the giddy way stories emerge and then seem to disappear from view in Northern Ireland, the Village has a useful interview with one of the public figures who popped out of the media scrum around early police investigations into the follow-up to the Northern Bank robbery. Phil Flynn tells his side of the story. Though, presumably for ‘legal reasons’ he won’t be drawn on any of the potentially interesting detail surrounding Ted Cunningham and the Bulgarian brothers who featured …
One of the most impressive aspects of the Sinn Fein political project has been their determination to resolutely fight on ground set by their own terms of reference, and not their enemies and certainly not the medias. The most potent line to have survive from war to peace has been the call for British Government forces to brought to book at the highest level for what it alleges has been systematic collusion with ruthless gangs of Loyalist paramilitaries. However, on …
That, in paraphrase, was the first comment posted in response to something we blogged from Minister McDowell some months back. I’ve just removed and banned someone posting here for the first time, for a nasty personal attack on the Blanket, which had nothing to do with the subject in hand. Whilst Slugger is neither Republican or Unionist, it does seek to create a space where all can put their views forward and have the reasonable expectation that they will be …
Thanks to TalkBack for covering a story which is so common it’s not making the news. St Columcille’s in East Belfast has suffered yet another attack – this time with some racist undertones. It’s one of those Catholic Churches, like St Bernard’s in Glengormley which get attacked so often, it never makes it to the news pages. St Columcille’s in East Belfast has suffered yet another attack – this time with some racist undertones. It’s one of those Catholic Churches, …
HENRY McDonald thinks Saturday’s riot in Dublin will mean the postponement of the British monarch’s first visit to the Irish capital since partition, which could have happened this summer. Meanwhile, RTE reports that the Irish Justice Minister has just briefed Ministers that “gardaí had no reason to expect the violence that erupted in protest at Saturday’s Love Ulster march in Dublin”. Michael McDowell will lead a special debate in the Irish parliament later this afternoon. Interestingly, when pointing the finger, …
The eye witness accounts have been stunning from Back Seat Drivers and Dossing Times, along with DT’s great capture of the scene ripped from the City Council’s traffic cameras. Take a bow lads! Strong shot from Flickr of a Guard apparently about to be hit with a brick – with, bizarrely, a Villa fan in foregrond). More from Celtic Freedom; Chris Logan thinks RSF are a disgrace. Dublin Met Blogs has loads of stuff. Kevin was on the ground too. …
Blogs: exposing the hidden contextsThe Irish Times have published my piece on blogging, written originally in response to Brian Boyd’s article on how blogs can give a biased and misleading view of the events they purport to give witness to. Also at my own site.Blogs: exposing the hidden contexts Blogging is dangerous, radical and going mainstream, writes Mick Fealty It has been argued that blogging is both partial and subjective and that its many often- conflicting truths should be handled …
Justice Feargus Flood, chairman of the Centre for Public Inquiry, has come out in support to the group’s executive director, Frank Connolly. In an interview on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said that every citizen is entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven otherwise in a court of law (Audio file available at bottom of article). The comments follow Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell’s admission that he supplied documents to the Irish Independent for their story on allegations that Frank …
Great piece on George Best by Eammon McCann in today’s Irish Times. He mentions two of his cohorts, Alec Higgins and Van Morrison who have also famously wore their celebrity uncomfortably. By Eammon McCann It was Van Morrison who put George Best into proper context, which was apt. “Too long in exile,” sang the Man on the title track of his hugely underrated 1993 album. “Just like George Best, baby…just like Alex Higgins.” Three of maybe half a dozen authentic …
Well, it’s good news from Chivers Managing Director Liam O’Rourke, who’s written to Slugger explaining the current hiatus in the ‘food chain’ in Northern Ireland. Pending a new distribution deal covering NI and Britain, you should be able to ask your local shop to order it! From Liam O’Rourke The situation re YR is that we have the product in wide distribution here in ROI it is listed in every major store and most minor stores also. We purchased YR …
Apparently the PSNI got wind of UVF plans to move their operations to Holywood. As a result they have blocked off three entrances to the White City Estate for most of the day checking for known UVF members and turning them back. It is rumoured that one family has moved out, possibly due to several UVF men slipping through before the cordon was erected. Bizarrely perhaps, it is thought that the LVF in Holywood contains several Catholic members. As one …
For those not entirely aware, we have a yellow card/red card system. The poster known as Finn69 is the latest to be awarded a Yellow for persistent man playing. A following Red would mean a two week exclusion. We can go straight to Red if the offence is grave enough. I don’t want this site to have to close its open door policy, but there is a significant minority of people who are not prepared engage in debate, and lose …
That’s Lough Neagh – perhaps the most recognisable geographic feature on our map. There are a number of issues arising from this report by the BBC on the ownership of Lough Neagh – news that, in itself, may come as a shock to many. The owner Lord Shaftesbury, whose body was found in the Alps earlier this month after he went missing – he is believed to have been murdered – in November last year, seems to have had a …
Interesting discussion with a few bloggers I’ve been wanting to meet for some time at RTE this morning. RTE’s Big Bite programme goes live tomorrow about 2.25pm and features a lively discussion between Caoimhe Burke, Gavin Sheridan, John Ihle, Richard Delevan and Sue, (who is currently worried about a haunting in her house). Oh, and yours truly. It was an interesting variety of bloggers. Fair play to David McWilliams, who seems to be ahead of the curve in recognising the …
There are not many rules in Slugger’s rough guide to commenting etiquette. The most important is a golden coaching rule in Soccer: players must “play the ball and not the man” … or woman. In other words, people should be judged on what they say, not who they are! Or on how others view their motives. The aim is twofold: to encourage higher quality outputs from commenters and to retain a competitive edge to the dialogue. Played well it can …
Familiar to anyone who’s followed public debate on Northern Ireland. Some define it as the often multiple blaming and finger pointing that goes on between communities in conflict. Political differences are marked by powerful emotional (often tribal) reactions as opposed to creative conflict over policy and issues. It’s beginning to be known well beyond the bounds of Northern Ireland. Nice illustrative piece from the archives by the late Jack Holland.Some years back the BBC quoted Cardinal Cahal Daly as having …
Last Tuesday night the Grand Committee Room in Westminster played host to an impressive range of speakers, each reflecting on the role of the Internet in the recent US Presidential campaign. Slugger was there to cover it… Who uses the net for politics? Professor Stephen Coleman of the Oxford Internet Institute, drew from research he’d commissioned from YouGov. Days before the US poll, a sample of 3,500 Internet users, was asked to rank the importance of various sources using a …
According to the Irish Times, the Irish and British Governments have decided not to allow the party election strategies of the DUP and SF to take precedence over political progress – Ahern says North deadline is November 25th: The Taoiseach has said talks between the parties in the North cannot continue beyond November 25th. If no deal is agreed by then, the Irish and British governments will present a joint proposal for implementing the Belfast Agreement, writes Denis Staunton in …
In the Irish Times, Fintan O’Toole dissects the hypocrisy of the IRA’s private, and secretive, ‘investigation’ into their murder of 15-year-old Bernard Teggart 30 years ago. He contrasts Sinn Fein’s calls for public inquiries on other murders with their silence on this and concludes that, despite the spinning by the two Aherns: The sickness that allowed the IRA to murder a mentally handicapped child in the name of Irish freedom won’t be cured until the so-called republican movement is willing …
