“I do apologise for anyone who misunderstood the way I was using the metaphor…”
Two days after the DUP’s Jonathan Bell’s rapid apology for the Northern Ireland Junior Minsters’ two-handed assault on golf clubs. …speaking at the Community Relations Week conference, Mr Bell said: “Many communities may not paint their kerb stones or put out flags, but scratch the surface and you find the prejudice and the hate whispered [...] more »
A quick backward glance on European History…
At a time when politics and economics in Europe is busting open day by day, it’s probably as well to remember Europe didn’t always look the way it does today… more »
Paisley: I have nothing to apologise for…
And, it seems the former junior Minister is refusing to apologise for those £10,000 worth of free Assembly envelopes… North Antrim MLA Daithi McKay says he has questions to answer… and it seems he’s getting the same answer his own party gave after the Inkgate controversy… which is roughly, “I didn’t do anything wrong, now [...] more »
Unemployment in Ireland: a tale of two countries…
As figures on the live register of unemployed in the Republic continue to even out at 14.5% (albeit at historically high levels,) the NI Labour market report released this morning shows a slight drop in unemployment rates 6.7%, down 0.5 percentage points over both the quarter and year… Hardly an indication of a recovery in [...] more »
Looks like the Minister really did find that extra £72 million down the back of a departmental sofa…
Interesting that with just over a month to go before Sammy Wilson puts all departmental budgets under scrutiny to see what he can claw back for DFP, the Education Minister managed to locate £72 million of ‘savings’ over the next three years. According to the Minister’s party political presser, this figure was as a result [...] more »
Greece: “good luck for the next restructuring…”
As the euro crisis rumbles on, confirmation, if any were needed, that Greece is, indeed, heading back to the polls. You can follow further developments on the Guardian’s live-blog. Meanwhile, having cajoled the vast majority of their private sector creditors into taking part in a bond swap deal in March, the Greek government [who? - [...] more »
“There are many ways to guarantee that growth won’t happen.”
Whilst Greece heads back to the polls (possibly to return a ‘can’t pay, won’t pay’ leftist government, Liam Halligan in last Sunday’s Telegraph has a timely reminder that some Irish politicians might care to mull over… It concerns the false dichomy between austerity and growth… In reality “growth versus austerity” is a false and dangerous [...] more »
Martina Anderson to take over from Bairbre de Brun as MEP?
Looks like the one big prize in Northern Ireland for Sinn Fein is going to Martina Anderson who will succeed Bairbre de Brun as sitting MEP. Others mentioned in dispatches include Catriona Ruane, whom some commentators felt would have been out of her depth in Brussels and Strasbourg. A competent and safe pair of hands [...] more »
Would the legalisation of cannibis help reduce the drug problem in Derry (and elsewhere)?
Right, I have no personal interest in pushing this line (‘if you’ll forgive the pun’). In other words I don’t do illegal drugs. That may be a result of the happy accident of never having really smoked and on the few occasions I’ve been offered canibis (a long long long time ago), it made only [...] more »
Sinn Fein’s split political personality north and south…
Sam Smyth on a theme that could make things tough the closer Sinn Fein gets to actual power: ie, the degree to which they have managed to avoid it in Northern Ireland: In the Northern Ireland Executive, Sinn Fein ministers have implemented swingeing spending cuts — while objecting to budget cuts from the opposition benches [...] more »
Democracy and the Church of Ireland…
In the wake of last week’s controversial proceedings at Synod, Archbishop Harper explains how and why things are done in the Anglican Church of Ireland: I think it is important, therefore, to understand the extent to which the Church of Ireland recognises and embraces the status and role of the laity in the life of [...] more »
“Mr Varadkar said Ireland and Britain could become a ‘mini-Schengen’”
The Irish Times reports some odd comments by the Irish Government Tourism and Transport Minister, Leo Varadkar, at a meeting of the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly at Leinster House in Dublin. Odd, that is, given what we already know. From the Irish Times report Mr Varadkar said tourists and business visitors should not be forced [...] more »
Man City’s real triumph may be the undoing of Premiership’s featherbedding of past champions…
Well, they did it. I was in P4 when the team I (“Foolishly?” – Ed) chose to support in Primary School last won the championship of English football. Yesterday I watched them win again just round the corner from where I saw them gain promotion against Gillingham in 1999, when “typical City” similarly left their [...] more »
“I don’t think this generation is any different than the last…”
The Guardian’s Henry McDonald reports from anarchic Londonderry on the continuing activities of vigilante group, Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD). Watch the accompanying video report here. From the Guardian report Some RAAD members are ex-Provisionals who back the peace process but still take up the gun against members of their own communities accused of antisocial activities. [...] more »
#EUREF: Sentiment swings towards a Yes vote (whilst FF and SF consolidate)…
The only extraordinary thing about yesterday’s Red C poll results for the SBP, was the clear swing towards Yes, by six per cent age points. That’s probably reflective of a poor campaign thus far, and the degree of uncertainty thrown up by the chaos in Greece… And, as Stephen Collins noted on Saturday: …far from [...] more »
Anglican motion on sexuality and marriage a prelude to the fight over Harper’s succession?
To most of us who don’t count ourselves as Anglicans, the Church of Ireland is something of a mystery… But in advance of any future departure of the current Archbishop of Armagh’s departure, all hell seems to have broken loose at last week’s Synod (over sex, as Alan notes below), as various factions compete for [...] more »
Hasten slowly – though no tangible signs that the Anglican supertanker is turning
So those who had expected murder in the cathedral on either Thursday, Friday or Saturday, even on all three, were predictably disappointed. What they got instead was . . . sex! In this morning’s Irish Times, Patsy McGarry looks at the parallels between the Church of Ireland’s May 1982 Synod meeting which tackled the issue [...] more »
Ian Junior claimed £10,000 in postage in his six last months in office…
Hmmm… First we had Inkgate, then Inkgate II … Now it’s the DUP’s turn to answer some awkward question regarding a spot of free riding by Ian Junior this time… According to Diana Rusk in today’s Irish News that equates to about 112 letters a day… In response the North Antrim MP said that that [...] more »
#EUREF: Fate of Greece will delineate Ireland’s means of remaining within the Eurozone
RTE’s The Week in Politics is well worth watching… It was the Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore who drew the short straw left him by the Taoiseach’s refusal to debate Gerry Adams on television.. It was notable more for the heat than any modicum of light it generated from either side. “Let’s stick to Ireland…” was Gerry [...] more »
“Vesta is special”
Having arrived at the 530km-wide giant asteroid Vesta in July last year, Nasa’s Dawn Mission scientists have published some of their findings in Science magazine. As the BBC’s spaceman, Jonathan Amos, notes They confirm that Vesta has a layered interior with a metal-rich core, just as Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury do. Using information about [...] more »
2012 Irish Open: Executive swingers
In the absence of a backer from the private sector the Northern Ireland Executive has stepped in and taken on the main sponsorship of the Irish Open at Royal Portrush which is to tee off in six weeks time; and with excitement around the showcase event amplifying by the day ticket sales have said [...] more »
#EUREF: “Voting No would rapidly expose how unimportant we now are”
Vincent Browne notes in the Sunday Business Post (£) today that neither the yes nor the no camps have done their cases credit thus far. In the case of the government he rightly notes “claims that this treaty is about investment, jobs, growth and the stability of the euro are wild exaggerations in part and [...] more »
David Cameron: look who’s LOLing now
From Friday’s revelations at the Leveson inquiry it would appear that the ex-News International boss Rebekah Brooks’ contact with David Cameron included providing lessons on the vernacular of the laity; and in this instance instructing Cameron on the ways of contemporary texting acronyms. Anyway here is my cartoon encapsulating the revelation. more »
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Books
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Douglas Murray – Bloody Sunday: Truth, Lies and the Saville Inquiry, Book Review
The aftermath of the Saville Inquiry into the events around Bloody Sunday has left me, and I suspect many others, with one enduring image: Prime Minister David Cameron’s apology in the House of Commons, where he says that the actions of the British Army were ‘unjustified and unjustifiable.’ But there’s a lot more to the [...] read our review » -
Review: To Kill a Mockingbird
Somehow I escaped reading this essential school text, with its story of racism in 1930s American South. Living in Northern Ireland, I draw parallels with sectarianism, with its similar bigotry and prejudice. To Kill a Mockingbird was part of a Unite Against Hate campaign event at Parliament Buildings in Northern Ireland, which I’ve written [...] read our review »
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The Creative Class and Northern Ireland
As part of NICVA’s series of masterclasses from its Centre for Economic Empowerment project, there was a morning seminar on the topic of the “creative class” (as popularised by Richard Florida) and its applicability to Northern Ireland. The agenda was to: Explain Richard Florida’s idea of the “creative class” and the link between economic outcomes [...] read our review »
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