Over the past two years I have constantly heard yarns from all and sundry about the importance of culture. Who belongs to this tradition and what emblems we should back over the other? So, I went along to the most recent Tenx9 event in the Black Box on Wednesday evening to see a cultural event in action. Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with tenx9-its basic premise is that 9 people have up to 10 minutes each to tell …
Local tweeters give Ellen and the Oscars a #TweetUpNI selfie. David McCann kicked proceedings off at around 8pm with a healthy turnout. #tweetupni @dcmbfs kicks off the tweetup in McHughs pic.twitter.com/zJbVp9HPfl — Alan in Belfast (@alaninbelfast) March 13, 2014 Derek McCallan from @NI_LGA launched #participate14.Then the mayor spoke: Belfast Lord Mayor @newbelfast addressing @sluggerotoole #tweetupni – positivity & his Buddhist chaplain! https://t.co/4dRsEz9U0L — Alan in Belfast (@alaninbelfast) March 14, 2014 Then Terry McHugh gave us some stand-up and mixed in …
Labour Party NI are holding a women’s policy conference on 22 March in The Pavilion at Stormont. The all-day event – the same day as the Alliance Party conference – is free to attend and open to non-party members and men. Under the title of What Women Want? the organisers want to discuss “real solutions to barriers to full participation in politics”. In Bronagh Hinds’ chapter of Everyday Life After the Irish Conflict: The Impact of Devolution and Cross-Border Cooperation …
Researchers Orna Young and Jonny Byrne hosted a panel discussion in the University of Ulster this morning on Transformative Networks – Social Media, Politics and Protests. A panel gave their thoughts and afterwards there was a discussion. In the first part you’ll hear Orna Young introduce the event, followed by Alan Meban and Dave Magee. listen to ‘Part 1 of panel on Social Media, Politics & Protests #nisocialpol @alaninbelfast, @dgmagee ’ on Audioboo The second part covers Harriet Long, Brian …
Learning Together: Maximising Common Education NI21 Party Conference by Allan Leonard for Northern Ireland Foundation 16 November 2013 At the NI21 inaugural party conference at the Europa Hotel, I chaired a fringe meeting to explore how shared and integrated education could be increased in Northern Ireland, and what potential role NI21 could have here. The panellists were: Mark Baker (Programme Manager, QUB Centre for Shared Education) Noreen Campbell (Chief Executive, Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education) Kathleen Gormley (Principal, Hazelwood …
How many other things might be tolerated in peace and left to conscience, had we but charity, and were it not the chief stronghold of our hypocrisy to be ever judging one another! I fear yet this iron yoke of outward conformity hath left a slavish print upon our necks. John Milton, Areopagitica, 1644 One of the interesting projects which I think is trying to creatively probe the peace process (or Peace Process™ as it’s occasionally referenced in this parish) is the …
Sponsored by the US Consulate Belfast, the Washington-Ireland Programme and Politics Plus, Chris Lyttle MLA hosted a remembrance event at Parliament Buildings for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, with Martin Luther King Jr’s speech, “I have a dream”. https://soundcloud.com/mrulster/20130828-mlk-nia-01-chris-lyttle-mla Chris recalled his experience as a participant in the Washington-Ireland Programme, including a project that investigated the organisation of the 1963 March for Jobs & Freedom. He was particularly honoured to meet Walter Fauntroy …
Renegade former Ulster Unionist MLAs Basil McCrea and John McCallister have now publicly announced that they intend to set up a new political party for those disaffected with the political direction of the UUP under Mike Nesbitt’s leadership. At this point, the new party still needs a name. As both Basil and John lived through the fiasco of UCUNF, I can see why they aren’t rushing into a choosing a name for the party. I’m sure that SDLP activists today …
In 1992, Francis Fukayama predicted in The End of History that the end of the Cold War would impend not only an era of triumphant liberal-democratic capitalism, but one where political evolution had reached its final form. Western democracy, he argued, was the best form of state organisation practically achievable by humans. The folly of such naïve Western triumphalism, already being challenged by China’s authoritarian wave of economic growth when Fukayama wrote his book, was laid bare by Mohamed Atta …
It’s a commonplace wisdom in Northern Ireland that the middle ground of politics is exactly where you don’t want to be. Both nationalist and unionist politicians who have taken up middle positions have long been subject to the kind of death threats and physical attacks the Alliance party is being subjected to. The animus raised by the restriction of the flag on Belfast City Hall, is frightening to behold. Even from a distance. Yet it has always been the fate …
If you have watched You’ve Been Trumped yet, you should. There are many strong points to this documentary on not just how Donald Trump threw his weight around with local residents whose homes bordered his development in Aberdeenshire. But of most interest to me is the degree to which the Scottish media and Scottish civil society meekly abandoned any public interest duty and at the very least acquiesced in the rich American’s appalling treatment of his ‘neighbours’. One of the …
While the dissident non-conformist republican groups are amid a rebranding exercise, there was a reminder this morning that paramilitary groups aren’t the only ones with guns that are willing to use. DUP Health Minister and Lagan Valley MLA Edwin Poots has admitted to firing warning shots out of a bedroom window to ward off potential intruders one night in early June. The Belfast Telegraph reports: Police said they were investigating the incident which happened in the early hours of June …
In a series of four posts over the coming weeks Ciarán Dunbar will explore why the single most important event in Irish place-names study and a significant event in Irish history, the 1st Ordnance Survey is almost universally misunderstood – But how do such simple everyday things such as place-names become involved in politics, in controversy and even in conflict? What is a place-name? What is a place-name? That question seems a very simple one at first glance but …
One of the stories that’s been hanging in the air for the last few weeks has been will Martin McGuinness meet the Queen, or won’t he? Well, it seems he will. Though the i’s and the t’s remain to be dotted and/or crossed. In recent weeks Slugger understands that the leadership within Sinn Fein have deployed some very senior members ‘of the Movement’ in selling ‘the deal’ to their own activists. Slugger also understands that the party’s Ard Comhairle (high …
With the announcement on Girdwood [and any other business? – Ed] as a stark example of the semi-detached polit-bureau back in action, Ed Curran looks ahead The mark of the Stormont Executive has been its ability to take longer than could be imagined to arrive at decisions on many important issues. No agreed legislation means little, or nothing, to debate in the Assembly chamber. MLAs have been hard-pressed to stretch out debates in plenary sessions in recent months. For much of the …
Not everyone is hampered by the demise of print journalism. Ian Dale’s Bite Back media has bought Parliamentary Brief, a sort of house magazine for Westminster with an impressive array of writers and political topics far beyond Westminster. As usual the acquisition was engineered by local lad Shane Greer: Parliamentary Brief has been on our radar since we launched Total Politics in 2008. As a competitor, I respected the passion that clearly went into each issue. And when the opportunity …
From The Great Stagnation, quoted by Martin Wolf… “…politics is very difficult in an America without much low-hanging fruit”. As in America, so in Ireland where pork is also the chief political commodity? 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
Whilst it was perfectly legitimate to probe Martin McGuinness on his paramilitary past in the course of a Presidential election the key reason (character) for doing so was rarely crystalised by the many good journalists who did so. To be blunt, you cannot make political murder a reason for not taking office in state that was founded on killing and rebellion, no matter how many columns of outrage get printed in the Sunday Independent. You can make lying about it …
The nod and wink politics of Ireland’s last two or three decades as practised par excellence by Bertie, Albert and Charlie are ultimately what has the Republic in the stew it’s in. Don’t get me wrong, the effective monitoring of those exercising of power does not demand full disclosure of everything all the time. But the absence of meaningful disclosure comes at a high price for any developed nation. A senior English commentator I know spoke to the Fianna Fail …
Last chance to book your place… We have a stack of great prizes, courtesy of our old friends and consistent supporters Stratagem… All proceeds go to charity, in aid of rebuilding homes in Haiti… In fine old Northern Irish tradition the much revered office of Quiz Master will be rolling (d’Hondt has not been used and no politicians have been hurt in the scrupulously fair process)… Mark Devenport, Jim Wells MLA, Naomi Long MP, Basil McCrea MLA, Alban Maginness MLA, …
