2016 – Slugger O'Toole

Legacy of 1916 is “two amputee states” and events which do not deserve to be celebrated?

Mick Fealty on March 24, 2016, 5:08 pm | Readers 1675

This 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising has been an oddly damp affair. For all the great chatter about who was going to be in government by Easter 2016, it turns out that no one is. Possibly that’s appropriate for a most ungovernmently type of revolution. The so-called Decade of Commemorations framed by the last Fianna Fail led government as having the potential to promote reconciliation is barely mentioned these days. The preparations have either been partial or a grand exercise in political …

Justice Minister declines Dublin rebellion commemoration invite, citing lack of reflection

st etienne on March 21, 2016, 12:24 pm | Readers 2098

After Friday’s Newsletter frontpage I was prompted to purchase a copy of Peter Lynas’ recently published “100 Days 100 Years” – a magazine format read that contains prayerful reflections on 1916 from a diverse range of personalities with a public presence in the main in Northern Ireland. The striking thing for me so far is the almost understanding each participant has to the concept of the ‘other’ – those parallel chronologies whose intersections and tangents together form the totality of our …

2016 and the decade of centenaries: What’s that all about then?

Mick Fealty on January 15, 2016, 1:13 pm | Readers 1797

WHOM DOES 2016 SERVE: Irish identity and Irish freedom are not contiguous concepts (or realities) by any means. Therein lies a useful and potentially powerful unifying paradox if anyone cares to pick it up and run with it from where it was so recklessly abandoned in early 2011.

To what does A Fresh Start commit the Executive in 2016?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 1, 2016, 4:05 pm | Readers 1426

A NEW YEAR brings fresh challenges for the NI Executive and Assembly as A Fresh Start commitments must be met while electioneering and commemorating. There’s the matter of a new Speaker, decisions for the UUP and SDLP after the election on whether to abide by the Programme for Government or head into five years of Opposition, and a raft of bodies and panels to be set up on parading, the economy and paramilitaries.

The Proclamation for Prods: what the 1916 centenary might say to non-republicans #feile15

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 5, 2015, 5:43 pm | Readers 2714

We are richer as people when we not only know a view point but can appreciate it. Dave Thompson is a teacher, runner, Presbyterian elder and SDLP member (who self-identifies as not being very nationalist). He delivered an hour long lecture that unpicked various perspectives on the 1916 Proclamation. The universal republican ideals – equality, liberty, fraternity – those are things we still care about in the 21st century, and things we’ll still be doing in the 22nd century. So …

“future banknote designs, starting with the new polymer £5 note, will explicitly represent all four nations of the UK.”

Pete Baker on July 21, 2015, 5:13 pm | Readers 1424

As mentioned in this BBC report focused on the first Bank of England polymer banknote – a £5 note featuring Sir Winston Churchill which will be issued in 2016. Banknotes will feature images from all four nations of the UK starting with the new £5 note entering circulation in 2016. [Timing, eh? – Ed] Eh? From the Bank of England press release Chief Cashier, Victoria Cleland said: “The Bank is delighted with the number and breadth of the nominations we …

Is 2016 time to “write out our own clean birth certificate for the Irish Republic”?

Mick Fealty on December 16, 2013, 4:08 pm | Readers 81

And for the third week in a row, here’s a piece from the Sunday Independent and Eoghan Harris who warns ill-prepared southern politicians from testing their ‘leaky consensus’ on the differences between the south’s military struggle for independence and the IRA’s recent (some would say, ongoing) long war… Adams would “win” any such debate for two reasons. Because of what I call a “leaky consensus” against the IRA’s actions. And because the border between the Old IRA and the Provo …

How the blood sacrifice of 1916 bequeathed independent Ireland to “the till-minders and crawthumpers”

Mick Fealty on September 20, 2013, 1:02 pm | Readers 114

I like the opening of John Waters’ column today… You have to hand it to Enda: at least he has courage. I have in mind “courage” in the Sir Humphrey sense – as on the occasion when minister Hacker announces his determination to go through with some “principled” proposal of his, in the face of the warnings of his executive advisers. Having listened patiently, Sir Humphrey declares: “Very courageous, minister”. The word “courageous” triggers a note of panic in Jim …