A timely lesson from the German authorities on dealing with Northern Ireland legacy issues… Having successfully extradited 48-year-old James Anthony Oliver Corry from the Republic of Ireland in December last year, the Belfast man has now been convicted and sentenced for his role in the Provisional IRA mortar attack on a British army barracks near Osnabrück, Germany, in June 1996. From the Irish Times report A Northern Ireland man has been convicted in Germany of attempted murder for participating in an IRA attack on a British army barracks in the …
So the target date for either direct rule or an agreement to revive the Executive has slipped for another week at least. What a surprise! We were told by the two governments yet again that ” progress” had been made, but this has been slapped down by the DUP. Sinn Fein’s agenda as far as I know it is not inherently unfeasible. The problem is that it’s Sinn Fein who’s running with it. Crafty old Gerry for false-footing the DUP? Or …
Having been billed in advance as ‘significant’, there’s been a noticeable absence of applause from the usual suspects for the recently re-announced, but yet to be revealed, Gerry Adams’ Sinn Féin’s 10 year plan for leadership change a “process of generational change”. [Do those ‘suspects’ know who they are? – Ed] Probably… [And does ’10 years’ mean this generation will miss out? – Ed] Possibly… On the other hand, properly sceptical observers have had a field day… Suzanne Breen in the …
Monday the 18th September – 7:15pm – The Dark Horse Bar, Belfast. Join us for a conversation with journalist Malachi O’Doherty about his new biography of the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. Your host for the evening will be Alan Meban. ‘Loathed, loved, terrorist to some, brilliant political strategist to others – what do we make of Gerry Adams? Malachi O’Doherty, one of Northern Ireland’s most fearless journalists and writers, has gone further than anyone else to disentangle it all in this …
Key bits of Gerry Adams remarks to the Sinn Fein think in this morning indicating the start of a leadership transition within the party Sinn Féin is currently finalising our ten-year plan. This has been the focus of much internal discussion for the last year. It is about preparing the party for the next ten years and to ensure that we are better able to achieve our strategic objectives. At this event in this venue last year Martin McGuinness made …
There has been a delayed reaction of critical comment on the Oireacthas report on the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in the light of Brexit. The report called for special status for Northern Ireland within the EU but coupled it with a drive to work for unionist consent to a united Ireland. This would include a new New Ireland Forum of the type held in the early 1980s which recognised unionist Britishness but was repudiated by Fianna Fail and …
As the John Hewitt gets under way today, the summer school season had already been launched in Glenties. I spent a few days in the area the previous week so I missed out on this year’s Magill summer school which was as usual these days, highly political. On Brexit you can have too much of a good thing especially when Narin strand and Nancy’s bar down the road in Ardara are beckoning. The School will publish speakers’ papers shortly but …
The empty rhetoric of the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, in Downing Street last week… Speaking at Downing Street, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said that the party told Mrs May “very directly that she was in breach of the Good Friday Agreement” over the Conservative negotiations with the DUP. …is neatly summed up in Ed Moloney’s blog post title, “Sinn Fein Meet May, Complain And Then Go Away……Move On, No Story Here“. The party’s impotence, in relation to any arrangement …
As many suspected… Sam McBride in the Newsletter reflects unease at the delay as well as DUP surface optimism that a deal is still on course. Ken Reid of UTV tweets that a deal this week is unlikely. The delay can hardly be only out of respect for the still unknown number of victims of the Grenfell tower fire, certainly as far as the government is concerned . Mrs May is visiting the tower today as well as meeting five …
So stated the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, as he paraded his “Magnificent Seven” MPs [and Carál Ní Chuilín – Ed] in front of the media at a press conference at Stormont yesterday. But whilst most reports focused on that line, or a variation on it, only the Irish Times’ Gerry Moriarty appears to have still been listening when he went on to say… [Gerry Adams] said Sinn Féin would not reject any positive deal that might emerge from these …
Slagging off politicians is so often the default of Slugger comment, sometimes down to the level of that useful word “trolling,” which for me recalls the fate of the troll in “ The three billy goats gruff,” when the troll richly deserves to get crushed to bits. It ought to occur to people by now that life demands a bit more than a bilious attack, a rant or a sprint down a favourite cul de sac. Hand on heart I …
John Ware’s BBC Panorama investigation on Freddie Scappaticci, The Spy in the IRA, is available online, with an accompanying article on the BBC website. Ed Moloney has some relevant posts on his blog on the programme, including criticism of the initial response by processors in the media to Liam Clarke’s scoop when he broke the story in 1999. Not all journalists were as keen to follow the story up. Sinn Fein spread the word that Liam Clarke’s story was the work of …
In an interview with Sky News on the eve of the resumed interparty talks, Gerry Adams addresses familiar charges levelled against him by more than unionists. In a move clearly designed to win greater trust, the Sinn Fein president is at pains to deny that he is raising the bar so high as to guarantee that the talks will fail, with the ulterior motive of abandoning the Assembly and exploiting Brexit to pursue a strategy of Irish unity based …
It would be good to hear more from the DUP about the “Culture Act” Gerry Adams told the Dail yesterday was “meaningless” He’s not necessarily the best conduit for the proposal. May we decide for ourselves please DUP? . Most of his speech was an uncanny repetition of Michelle O’Neill’s latest. From Dail Eireann debates Regrettably, the DUP’s approach throughout the talks was to engage in a minimalist way on all of these key issues. There was no substantive progress on …
Only the most basic information has emerged so far out of the set piece statements from the parties. Arlene Foster’s offer of a return to the Executive “without pre-conditions” and do sensible things like passing the budget was never going to be enough to draw in Sinn Fein, whose whole position was all about setting conditions. If she was ever going to give satisfaction on matching Sinn Fein’s unmanageably long list of demands, why not give some specific declarations of …
“Sinn Fein opposed to any extension of Stormont talks ahead of Monday’s deadline – ‘We will bury our friend tomorrow and move directly from his graveside to do our utmost to get Assembly restored’ Speaking in Newry on the eve of Martin McGuinness’s funeral, the Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has been talking the talk of ultimatums. Lest anyone thinks Sinn Fein has been distracted this week, he disabuses them of the idea that the immediate period of mourning for …
Gerry Adams knows exactly how to deploy sweet reasonableness as a weapon and end up with a perfect circle of obstruction. He had had several “businesslike, friendly engagements” with DUP leader Arlene Foster since the talks began, and he had “no reason to doubt” she was innocent of accusations over the “cash for ash” Renewable Heat Initiative which precipitated this month’s Northern Assembly election. However, the affair needed to be “properly scrutinised”. Why block a resolution of the impasse if …
Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London
New “James Brokenshire warns parties must agree or face second snap election” Oh well done James, you’ve decide to open with the joker, He’s decided to match Sinn Fein’s bottom line with one of his own – incidentally going against the advice of his predecessor Theresa Villiers who called for an extension of the three week period. Theresa May has form, with hard ball as an opening move. Quite a gamble. Will anyone pick it up in time? This …
I took the end of last week for half term. That meant minimal social media, no newspapers and not watching or listening to the news. It was a happy couple of days in a little bubble known as the real world. In that world, there is very little inkling that there is an election coming up. Imagine! Even when out and about, Lagan Valley is a poster-free zone so how normal voters who aren’t generally about to watch political programmes …
