Quiz – Slugger O'Toole

The eyes of March. Politics Quiz picture round #ImagineBelfast

Patrick Corrigan on March 16, 2016, 12:55 pm | Readers 331

As the Assembly winds down in advance of the May 5th election – and by way of reminding you about the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz on Friday night in The Black Box (tickets available to pre-book now!) – here’s a little picture round from our last outing. Moochin Photoman John Baucher is devising an all-new picture challenge for Friday night. And remember, these are just a few of the lovely books up for grabs. How well do you know our MLAs? Answers …

Syria: 360° of destruction #ImagineBelfast

Patrick Corrigan on March 14, 2016, 4:16 pm | Readers 207

After five years of war and against all the odds, civil society still survives inside Syria. Unsurprisingly, a key priority for activists is to document the impact of the war on civilians and to appeal for help from the international community. Since early 2011, Amnesty has been working closely with Syrian media activists to help them do just this. Following training and new equipment, they’ve helped us collect 360° photography to document the devastation caused by barrel bombing on cities across …

Books, books, books for Big Politics Pub Quiz

Patrick Corrigan on March 11, 2016, 5:08 pm | Readers 210

Thanks to our friends at public affairs company Stratagem, we have a bumper crop of prizes to give away to the winners and nearly-winners of this year’s Great Big Politics Pub Quiz. First up, the books. If you are a history fan, we have a bit of focus on this year’s big centenary events, with a look back to the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme. Philip Orr takes on The Road to the Somme, as he lets …

Imagine… the Great Big Politics Quiz is back

Patrick Corrigan on February 25, 2016, 11:22 am | Readers 820

What a time for politics fans to be alive! RoI general election tomorrow, NI Assembly election in May, topped off by perhaps the most important poll of the year, the EU referendum on June 23rd. If all that wasn’t exciting enough, the Great Big Politics Quiz returns next month as part of the fantastic Imagine Festival of Ideas & Politics! The Festival runs from March 14-20, with the Great Big Politics Quiz taking place on Friday 18 March in its …

Quiz time! Do you know these co-opted MLAs?

Kris Nixon (Belfast Barman) on January 15, 2016, 9:46 am | Readers 1179

Let us know how many you got in the comments below. Kris Nixon (Belfast Barman)Kris tweets ferociously as @belfastbarman and runs an associated site, www.belfastbarman.com where he occasionally opines his views. He lived abroad for a while and as such, feels he will never really ‘get’ this place. Formerly a barman, he regularly broke the cardinal rules of, “No politics or religion in the pub,” as such, he turned to writing. Previously a stand up comedian and an animal crematorium …

BIG Politics Pub Quiz- Less Than One Week To Go!

David McCann on October 30, 2015, 1:58 pm | Readers 240

We are less than a week away from the BIG Politics Pub Quiz which is being hosted in partnership with Queen’s Universty’s School of Politics and International Relations and Amnesty International. Held in the Black Box and kicking off at 8pm with some of the best political minds in the business, Claire Hanna, David Ford, Emma Pengelly, Mike Nesbitt and Vernon Coaker as our quiz masters. Half of all the proceeds raised by the quiz will be donated to Amnesty’s …

Raif Badawi: Saudi blogger’s flogging ‘to resume’

Patrick Corrigan on October 28, 2015, 12:09 pm | Readers 391

Saudi Arabia is to resume the flogging of Raif Badawi, the blogger whose first 50 lashes caused an international outcry, his wife has been told. Ensaf Haidar, who is now living in exile in Canada with the couple’s children, said the same “informed source” who tipped her off to the flogging of her husband in January had now told her the punishment was about to resume. Mrs Haidar, in a statement on the Raif Badawi Foundation website, said: I was informed …

The Great Big Politics Quiz – celebrating and lampooning politics in a way not possible everywhere #ImagineBelfast15

Patrick Corrigan on March 13, 2015, 1:59 pm | Readers 406

A big thank you to new faces and old-timers who came along to take part in the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz in the Black Box, part of the Imagine! 2015 Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics, and in support of Amnesty’s campaign for Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, sentenced to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes (sign the global petition). As well as refreshing political trivia and recognition skills, we raised £1009.30 – thank you all. A big thanks to …

Big Politics Pub Quiz – anagram round!

Patrick Corrigan on March 2, 2015, 6:01 pm | Readers 640

Ten days to go until the return of the Great Big Politics Quiz – a night to find the champions of all-things-balloty, this year as part of the all-new Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas & Politics. So, if you’re a politician, press officer, policy wonk, journalist, lobbyist, psephologist, academic, student, blogger, tweeter, House of Cards binge-viewer or just a West Wing wannabe… it’s almost time to prove yourself. Just so there can be no lingering arguments over hanging chads, no …

50 days since 50 lashes – blogging is still not a crime

Patrick Corrigan on March 1, 2015, 10:07 am | Readers 389

Whatever we may disagree about here on the pages of Slugger, we can all agree that blogging is not a crime. Yet, Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi is still in jail and still due to be lashed another 950 times. On the upside, it’s now been 50 days since he was flogged very publicly 50 times by Saudi officials. In the week leading up to his flogging on 9 January, Raif’s name appeared more and more frequently in news headlines and statements …

News: blogger not flogged

Patrick Corrigan on February 14, 2015, 10:18 am | Readers 333

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was not flogged yesterday. This is good news, of course. And it’s the fifth Friday running that the flogging has not been carried out, which is even better. The first fifty lashes were administered in a public square in Jeddah after Friday prayers on January 9th. Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and ten years imprisonment. The sentence stems from his creation of the website Saudi Arabian Liberals, a blog not unlike Slugger. He was subsequently charged for …

Preview of The Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics (9-15 March) #ImagineBelfast15

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 11, 2015, 11:01 pm | Readers 791

Belfast’s newest festival launched this morning in the Lord Mayor’s parlour in the City Hall. Nichola Mallon described the city of Belfast as “young, edgy, colourful and creative” as she introduced The Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics. Organiser Peter O’Neill [Ed – no, not that P O’Neill!] explains that the festival’s mission is “to stimulate people’s minds and passions [with] an annual programme of discussion and debate”. None of the invited keynote speakers are politicians. listen to ‘Peter O’Neill …

Calling all politics fans – the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz is back!

Patrick Corrigan on February 10, 2015, 5:26 pm | Readers 382

It has been a while, but the ever-popular Great Big Politics Pub Quiz is back! As part of the soon-to-be-launched Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics, the quiz returns to The Black Box in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter on Thursday 12 March. With politics trivia questions – fact and fiction – and guest quiz-masters elevated from the benches of Stormont and Westminster, this fun fundraiser is one not to be missed. A treasure trove of books, DVDs and political ephemera awaits the …

Red Cross reaches besieged Homs. You can help.

Patrick Corrigan on November 5, 2012, 9:51 am | Readers 11

All war is terrible. But there is something particularly terrible about a city under siege. Think of Derry, Leningrad, Sarajevo. That’s been the fate of Homs in Syria since Spring 2011. It was there that reporter Marie Colvin was killed by Syrian government shelling in February of this year. Who knows how many residents, whose names we don’t know, have shared her fate before and since. Most of the city is now under government control but fighting continues in certain …

Hopes fading for Syria ceasefire

Patrick Corrigan on October 26, 2012, 1:50 pm | Readers 57

A four-day ceasefire to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha has come into effect, albeit patchily, in Syria. The BBC’s Lina Sinjab reported this morning from the capital: Damascus hasn’t had a quiet morning for a long time, but so far, the ceasefire is being honoured. During the Eid holiday people visit cemeteries where their beloved are buried and put flowers on their graves. There are thousands of new graves to be visited today Yet, almost as soon as …

Great Big Politics Pub Quiz 2012

Patrick Corrigan on October 22, 2012, 1:17 pm | Readers 90

For those who missed the Slugger for Syria post, this is an event announcement to confirm that the Great Big Politics Pub Quiz is back, this time to raise funds for the Red Cross / Red Crescent Syria crisis appeal. In Syria the need is desperate and the situation is deteriorating. Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteers are risking their lives to provide a lifeline for everyone in Syria caught up in the conflict, supplying emergency food, shelter and medical care. …

Slugger for Syria

Patrick Corrigan on October 15, 2012, 4:51 pm | Readers 46

“An artillery shell had just landed and the hospital entrance was a grotesque tableau of blood, bodies and tears. A small team of doctors set to work against a soundtrack of bombs and bullets.” So began Ian Pannell’s BBC report from Syria last week. His words and pictures were moving, distressing, enraging: “Two-year-old Ahmed screamed in terror and agony as a surgeon sewed his scalp back into place. His head had been torn open when a rocket landed on his house …

2012 Prediction Contest

Dewi on December 27, 2011, 10:16 am | Readers 5

OK – Ten questions – predictions any time this year please – answers this time next year: i) Who will be the Republican nomination for US President? ii) Who will be the leader of the UK Labour Party this time next year? iii) Who will be the leader of Sinn Féin this time next year? iv) How far will the Republic of Ireland go in the Euro Football? v) How many gold medals will Wales win in the Olympics? vi) …

Great Big Politics Quiz kicks off tomorrow Night (Black Box, Belfast)…

Mick Fealty on September 21, 2011, 4:28 pm | Readers 4

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, …

Great BIG Politics Quiz: latest news!

Patrick Corrigan on September 19, 2011, 4:33 pm | Readers 6

An unofficial ‘Haiti Week’ is underway on Slugger, with Moochin’s terrific photo-series on POTD, with further shots to be featured as wall projections during Belfast Culture Night on Friday, and more from me later in the week on Haiti and human rights. And, of course, there’s just days to go until the 2011 Great Big Politics Quiz night gets underway in Belfast’s Black Box (Thursday 22 September, 7:45pm). Latest news… new prizes have been added to the pot (already looking …