Tales from a Graduate: Suited and Booted and Nowhere to Work
When the collapse of Northern Rock in September 2007 triggered a bank run and a credit crunch on a scale not seen since the gloomy days of the Great Depression I was safely hidden within the sanctuary of academia, convinced that the rest of my undergraduate studies would see me safely ride out the global [...] more »
Boomers’ memories of the Great
Ian Jack has a fine nostalgia piece in the Guardian – no, better than that, a piece about the collective memory of passing generations – linking the not altogether compatible elements of the Dickens bicentenary to the monarchy. The link he made was not with Empire or English images of national virtue so often disputed [...] more »
Outfoxed – as cunning as an iPhone game developed in Belfast and voiced by Jackie Fullerton
Something for the weekend … If the Executive is to be fully believed, it feels like the local creative industries are second only to Titanic tourists in being at the heart of Northern Ireland’s economic recovery! With seed corn funding from the Creative Industries Innovation Fund (administered by the Arts Council NI for DCAL), local [...] more »
Six Nations: Paris in the Spring – A day for heroes…or a cold night in hell?
Well, late winter really but that ain’t quite got it..from the Irish Times – it’s minus nine degrees: At least les bleus won’t be playing with the sun on their backs in springtime. Otherwise, this one doesn’t look too promising. Not only do France have a hex on Ireland like no one else, nowhere does [...] more »
Euro crisis: You have six days to comply…
That’s the message to Greece from Germany the EU finance ministers. Despite initial reports, prompted by the Greeks themselves, what was agreed yesterday between the party leaders there fell short of what was required – by some €300-odd million. From the Irish Times report The ministers imposed a six-day deadline on Greek authorities to comply [...] more »
Fianna Fail will vote Yes in a referendum on Fiscal Compact…
Having made the point that calling a referendum on matters that don’t sort out the underlying problem is less than meaningful, Micheal Martin announced yesterday that he would be backing the Fiscal Compact in any forthcoming referendum… Hmmmm… not exactly shadowing Sinn Fein then Eoghan? more »
raising an old issue like employment
At the moment, as Pete flagged a couple of days ago, Bill Clinton is doing some heavy lifting in the US for job creation on behalf of the Republic of Ireland’s government. Over at the Belfast media group, Jude Collins provides an interesting contrast, highlighting the uneven results of Invest NI’s work: During 2010/2011, Invest NI [...] more »
Red Squirrels of Prehen Woods: Under imminent threat from planners and developers?
During the 2005 Slugger live coverage of the Westminster elections, I overheard a fairly senior Sinn Fein representative being candid enough to admit that there were no votes in the Environment. That’s not to pick on that particular party any more than any of the others. It’s a fact of life in Northern Irish electoral [...] more »
Football eligibility row illustrates unionism’s inability to respect ‘The Other’ tradition
One issue which illustrates perfectly the inability or unwillingness of unionist politicians to understand their Irish nationalist neighbours is that of the ongoing whingefest surrounding the ability of Irish citizens born in the Six Counties to represent the Republic of Ireland international soccer team. Having stoked the flames of this fire for several years now, [...] more »
“Don’t blame me – I was only the taoiseach.”
As Crooked Timber’s Maria Farrell says, “words to live by”, people. In today’s Irishman’s Diary, Frank McNally offers a “history of Ireland in 100 excuses”. 78. We made those pre-election promises in good faith. It was only in government we realised how bad the country’s finances were. 79. It was a complex but legitimate business [...] more »
Belfast peace walls: A paradox of leadership
Audio – UU Peace Walls 01 – Dr Jonny Byrne: http://mrulster.podomatic.com/player/web/2012-02-08T08_59_57-08_00 At a seminar hosted by the Institute for Research in Social Sciences and the Inter-Institute Peace and Conflict Cluster, Dr Jonny Byrne of the University of Ulster presented his findings of three years of research in regards to public policy on peace walls (interface [...] more »
DSD withdraw funding for Laganside Events
Since the closure of the Laganside Corporation on 31 March 2007, the Department for Social Development has given out grants for events and community activities in the Laganside area of Belfast. The area includes the Cathedral Quarter as well as stretching our towards York Street, Corporation Street, the Sydenham bypass (but not including Titanic Quarter), [...] more »
Media, new media and the problems of regulation in a globalising media market…
On Monday I was at a conference on Media Diversity run and funded by Labour MEP Nessa Childers. It was probably one of the best roster of speakers I’ve heard on the subject on that side of the Irish Sea, even if there was barely time to talk, or ask questions. Then yesterday, Paul Staines, [...] more »
Stormtroopers on red alert for St Paddy’s Day riots in South Belfast
Last night, the PSNI riot squad took part in a dress rehearsal in advance of any trouble in the university/Holylands area over the St Patrick’s Day long weekend. One officer privately expressed concern that the new protective clothing “wouldn’t be taken seriously by tipsy students”. Another added that the pockets weren’t very accessible and there [...] more »
Carwyn Jones looking for a national senate to replace the Lords…
A couple of weeks ago, on the sidelines of the newly revitalised Scottish Question, Carwyn Jones, the Labour leader in the Welsh Assembly made some remarks that have created some ripples in his own back yard: Asked how Wales would fare if Scotland voted for independence, he said: “I think we need to start thinking [...] more »
UUP and the SDLP: Two parties in search of a script?
Very good column from Fionnuala O’Connor on Tuesday re what what’s happening to two parties in continuing decline. She starts with the semi public spat between Margaret Ritchie and her chosen successor, the retired school head, Sean Rogers: Surely between them a keen new player and a former leader could have avoided such a petty [...] more »
Dead tree columnist prejudices public’s perception of bloggers?
Allison Morris made a number of contributions to this morning’s Irish News. As well as the front page article about the alleged security breach when a police officer’s personal mobile fell into the hands of dissident republicans (and its contents were subsequently passed to the Irish News), she also writes a curious opinion piece on [...] more »
Lake Vostok: “Admit it, it sounds just like a thousand horror-movie setups.”
That was the Professor’s not entirely inaccurate comment this time last year, when a Russian team came up just short in their attempt to reach Lake Vostok - the largest sub-glacial freshwater lake on Earth. The project to drill down to the lake, which covers 16 square kilometres and has been sealed under approximately 3,750m of ice in the Antarctic [...] more »
What is Britishness anyway? – latest
Stephen Moss in the Guardian adopts the least analytical approach imaginable to the identity thing, a random journey. It’s like an intro to a report that that doesn’t actually appear. A bit like Britishness itself maybe? Quite unlike our own passions. Might uncertainty and toleration be its saving graces? As I stood in freezing temperatures [...] more »
“Fianna Fail needs to stop playing stupid patriot games”
For my money, the Irish Independent’s editorial somewhat scales up the current German influence within the EU for effect, but it warns Fianna Fail it is currently playing the wrong game in calling for a referendum: It is a measure of how the European dream has soured that having joined with the clear intent of [...] more »
GOP Primaries – the plot thickens with a clean sweep for Santorum.
Romney isn’t closing this out. Yesterday saw a primary in Missouri (well a non binding beauty contest really) and two caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota. From RealClearPolitics: Santorum has taken Minnesota and Missouri comfortably. Romney was banking on Colorado. Here Nate compares his 2008 and 2012 performances. Broadly he’s at 60% of his 2008 level and [...] more »
Bill Clinton to host “Invest in Ireland” event in New York
As the BBC reports Former US president Bill Clinton is to host an “Invest in Ireland” discussion in New York on Thursday. Well, he’ll ”attend for the beginning of the event where he will make some opening remarks”. You get the point. *sniff* He used to have such big [economic] ideas for here… The Merrion Street [...] more »
Michael Martin shadowing Sinn Fein positions in the Dail?
Something of a return to form for Eoghan Harris: Right now Sinn Fein rules the opposition roost. Like a rooster it makes a lot of noise. Fianna Fail has failed to point out it neither lays policy hens or economic eggs. Given these two gormless groups and a grim recession, Fianna Fail should be flying. [...] more »
Advertise
-
Books
-
Debating the Churches’ Role in the Peace in Northern Ireland
This morning’s Sunday Sequence featured a substantial debate (about 35 minutes into the recorded programme) on a new book,Religion, Civil Society and Peace in Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press 2011), written by sociologists John Brewer, Gareth Higgins and Francis Teeney. The debate was framed in an opening vignette by presenter William Crawley in uncompromising terms, [...] read our review » -
Stay out of Libya: counterinsurgency doesn’t work
A moment of some significance in journalism perhaps, as the New York Times reviews the current talked about book, The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan by Bing West. The author is no bleeding heart but a former assistant Defense Secretary from the Reagan era who stomped his way round the Afghan [...] read our review »
-
Spare us a phoney row about racism, we’ve got enough on
A silly media row about racism just had to figure in the riots’ post mortem. Was the Tudor history expert David Starkey racist on Newsnight when he said: The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion. And black and white, boy and girl, operate in [...] read our review »
-
