Mark Carruthers

Catch up on the Mount Stewart Conversations: diplomacy and Europe, then and now

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MOUNT STEWART CONVERSATIONS – a weekend of ideas, debate and stories looking at relationships with Europe from Lord Castlereagh’s involvement in the Congress of Venice right through to Brexit and the kind of diplomacy that will be required in years to come. Throw in live music, food, and the gorgeous National Trust gardens and walks, you can see how country houses used to transact a lot of political business away from the cities and parliaments!

Complaints “not upheld” against Basil McCrea who “exercised poor judgement”

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DOCTORED PHOTOGRAPHS were ignored in last night’s uncomfortable interview between Mark Carruthers and Basil McCrea on The View. It should have been the Lagan Valley MLA’s opportunity to quickly draw a line under the last two years of allegations, accept that he could be more patient with staff and pivot the narrative back onto the electoral hopes for himself and his party.

#BelFest Jonathan Powell: “terrorists are often better negotiators than governments”

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Jonathan Powell was Tony Blair’s chief of staff. When it came to the peace process he rolled up his own sleeves in 1997 and flew across incognito to Belfast and made his way up to Derry to meet Martin McGuinness face-to-face having been driven round the city in a taxi for an hour. He continued to meet Sinn Fein in low profile locations for the next ten years in addition to more formal and public engagements. The political negotiator and …

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Alternative Ulsters: Conversations on Identity (Mark Carruthers)

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Mark Carruthers describes his new book Alternative Ulsters as a “collection of conversations” and “an attempt to take the notional temperature of a place where identity tends to inform a great deal of the day-to-day civic debate”. The book has a simple structure: three and a half pages of introduction followed by thirty six interviews, arranged in alphabetical order, with public figures connected with Ulster from the world of arts, journalism, politics and sport. Each is quizzed on their connection …

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