Conflict

Former member of the British Cabinet Clare Short stirs the pot with an interview with Gulf News in which she sympathises with insurrectionists in Iraq as came father from South Armagh, but that targetting civilians is a terrible moral deterioration. Interestingly she also makes the claim that the IRA never targetted civilians. It’s already caused some fury amongst Tories in Bournemouth. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics …

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Alan Murray on the debate going on within the paramilitary organisation. Philip Weir

Belfast Telegraph carries a story on President Nixon’s reactions to Bloody Sunday.“Former US President Richard Nixon considered sending a celebrity self-help guru to Northern Ireland to heal divisions after Bloody Sunday, new White House tapes released to the Belfast Telegraph have revealed. Nixon also considered sending fundamental Protestant preacher, Billy Graham and the Catholic Cardinal of New York, Terence Cooke. The tapes show how the Nixon administration strongly sided with the British government but wanted to show that they were …

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Dissident Republican commentator Anthony McIntyre looks at some of the behind the scenes intimidation faced by the Loyalist commentator and Irish Times columnist, Davy Adams. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

BBC Radio 4 tonight at 11PM has a New series of Great Lives in which Tim Pat Coogan will help David Puttnam examine “what distinguishes Terrorists from freedom fighters”“On August 22 1922, as the Irish civil war raged, a 31-year-old man was shot dead in an ambush at Beal na mBlath, County Cork. Michael Collins was commander-in-chief of the National Army and – take your pick according to political prejudice – a hero of Irish independence, a traitor to the …

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The Irish News today carries a story that Newry and Mourne councillors have voted to name a new block of flats Cois Locha, which translates as Waterside, despite being informed that to so do would be breaking the law. As it stands the flats should be named in English and an Irish sign can subsequently be erected if a majority of residents wish to do so.Sinn Féin councillor Brendan Lewis said that the legislation was counter to the Good Friday …

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THE Government is set to announce an expanded role for a police unit to investigate the unsolved murders – including 200 RUC officers – of the Troubles. It would seem that a combination of re-opening criminal investigations, inquiries and the possibility of a ‘Victim’s Forum’, with a possible role for a museum at the Maze Prison site, is how we intend to bring ‘closure’ to the conflict. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission now appears less likely than ever. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

The British government has given the go ahead for an inquiry into the killing of solicitor Pat Finucane. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Pat Ramsey, an SDLP MLA for Foyle, has called for wide participation in a commemoration of the original Civil Rights March in Derry in 1969. The commemerative march is to take place on Saturday 2nd October. Here he outlines what the original movement meant to him and his party, and how he believes they might be interpreted in contemporary Northern Ireland.From Pat Ramsey It is important that we do not let three decades of violence and armed action cloud our …

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David Vance points to a BBC article that says “£45m – a rise of 50% – was spent buying properties from people forced out of their homes”, as a result of various activities of illegal Loyalist and Republican organisations. Given this figure relates to the relocation of home owners, it indicates only a small part of the real cost of relocating the 1,245 households made homeless in the last year. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written …

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MICK Hume argues that the target of terrorism is often not physical, but exploits our worst fears. At a time when many distrust how their government deals with threat, he writes: “As we recoil in horror from what has been happening in Russia, let us try to remember that the corrosive culture of fear poses the greatest threat to our own and our children’s future in a free society.” Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com

The BBC are screening what the Observer newspaper describes as two of the year’s finest documentaries over on BBC 1 tonight. The first at 9pm, The Brighton Bomb, is a detailed account of the IRA’s attempt to blow up Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. The second (10.35pm) focuses on Patrick Magee, the man convicted of the bombing, and the investigation that tracked him down. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the …

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Rosie Cowan returns briefly to matters Northern Ireland with words from Pat Finucane’s son Michael, who suggests Ken Barrett’s admission that he killed his father is less his concern than discovering the nature of the command and control mechanism behind the murder. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: …

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Martin McGuinness has suggested that British Security operatives were responsible for planting bugging devices at the home of a woman who works with Gerry Adams. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty