August 2015 – Page 2 – Slugger O'Toole

The drive for independence suspected in new boost for Scots language. Sounds familiar?

Brian Walker on August 26, 2015, 12:47 pm | Readers 705

The Financial Times (£ paywall) which is so good at making its limited space for non-financial themes count, reports a new boost for the Scots language which the writer Mure Dickie suspects is part of the longer term drive for independence. In language policy, the parallels as well as contrasts with both Irish and Ulster Scots hardly need much spelling out. But I hope you will – enjoy, is that the word? – the distortions of what we think of as …

Yes Alasdair, the SDLP oppose republican criminality but is anybody listening?

Brian Walker on August 26, 2015, 11:50 am | Readers 1397

Signs of life in the SDLP are an interesting sidebar in the great IRA structures kerfuffle. Alasdair McDonnell has taken up the challenge to contradict the Guardian’s Henry McDonald’s charge below in yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph, which is basically that the SDLP has played mini-me to Sinn Fein for far too long. The SDLP may have stopped passively supporting the Sinn Fein line through those tortuous post-Good Friday Agreement negotiations, and the party is no longer perhaps the Shinners’ advert-adjuncts, but its …

Tánaiste: “This is an insidious threat to Northern Ireland’s future as a healthy, stable democracy, and therefore a threat to the whole of this island.”

Pete Baker on August 25, 2015, 7:00 pm | Readers 1694

Brian’s weariness at another political crisis notwithstanding, it would be a mistake to dismiss reaction to recent events as a “kerfuffle”. There are legitimate concerns, and two men have been murdered. The Irish Justice Minister, Fine Gael’s Frances Fitzgerald, has asked the Garda Commissioner for a “fresh assessment” of Provisional IRA activities to take into account “what the PSNI have been learning about any PIRA structures as a result of [the rigorous investigation being carried out by the PSNI into the …

Threatening the existence of the Assembly is a victory for terrorism

Brian Walker on August 25, 2015, 1:38 pm | Readers 1744

Oh God, not another fundamental breakpoint founded on the highest principles, whether they’re about welfare or the IRA! Come on, get real. This kerfuffle over “IRA structures” will pass. For all their simulated outrage over the IRA or welfare, no politician – none of the leaders anyway – want to close Stormont down. Electoral politics are also in play on both sides of the border. We should discount it. No clear advantage can be gained by any party threatening to …

Uncomfortable Conversations – the Chief Constable, Sinn Féin Chair and me

Patricia MacBride on August 25, 2015, 9:41 am | Readers 1503

Tomorrow night in Derry, I’ll take part in an “Uncomfortable Conversation” that will include the PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton, Sinn Féin Chair Declan Kearney and Alan McBride, member of the NI Human Rights Commission and victims’ campaigner. The event, part of the Gasyard Féile, is one of a series of conversations around how we both deal with our past and build our future as communities, towns and cities and indeed islands seeking to emerge from conflict. These events and …

Villiers: “My understanding is, very much in line with that of the chief constable, that a number of the organisational structures of the Provisional IRA still exist…”

Pete Baker on August 24, 2015, 5:50 pm | Readers 2231

Sinn Féin continue with their policy of denial [of reality… – Ed], although Gerry Kelly has come closest to acknowledging that reality according to this RTÉ report Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Kelly said based on the political evidence over the past ten years, the IRA has not been active and therefore does not exist in the circumstances that people are talking about. Hmmm… Meanwhile, the governments continue to make excuses. From an Irish Independent report yesterday Earlier this year, in …

Top of @UKLabour’s new Deputy ‘to do’ list is to sort out the party’s governance system

Mick Fealty on August 24, 2015, 4:44 pm | Readers 270

‘Don’t mistake a mass meeting for a mass movement’ -Mick McGahey, former VP of the NUM It’s probably too harsh to invoke the ancient proverb that runs “a fish rots from the head down” when it comes to the Labour party. But it is probably true that the difficulties in their leadership race is based on an attempt to handle the disruption of the new connective technologies that allow voters to talk through them and past them. The key problem for everyone (ie, not just …

How local startup 24Tees used crowdfunding to get their business off the ground…

Soapbox on August 24, 2015, 3:01 pm | Readers 700

Two months back, myself and another student at Ulster University launched a crowdfunding campaign, successfully raising £6000 to get our business off the ground. Since then we’ve launched the business in full and are seeing it grow every day. It’s given us more than a few sleepless nights from its conception to now, but it’s undoubtedly been a great learning experience. My friend-turned business partner originally had the idea back in November of last year. He subscribed to a popular …

Finance Ministers from the devolved administrations issue a warning on cuts

David McCann on August 23, 2015, 12:49 pm | Readers 911

Interesting article that caught my eye on Politics Home today was a joint letter issued by the Scottish Finance Secretary, John Swinney, Welsh Finance Minister, Jane Hutt and our own Finance Minister, Arlene Foster, to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Greg Hands about the pace of spending cuts coming from Westminster. The letter warns that the current pace of cuts are going “too fast and too far” and warn about the dangers to public services. The three ministers wants …

The disaster of the 1970s: truisms in need of challenge?

Turgon on August 22, 2015, 5:59 pm | Readers 1025

As I noted previously in relation to the 1983 election campaign there is a tendency in political analysis to accept truisms which are historically inaccurate or at least highly incomplete. One of the recent manifestations of this tendency (also related to the current Labour leadership campaign) is that Corbyn is going to take the UK back to the 1970s: the implication being that this would be dreadful. Whilst I make no comment on whether or not Corbyn would do this, …

“Members of PIRA carried out their own investigation” into the Davison killing…

Pete Baker on August 22, 2015, 4:37 pm | Readers 5722

In the Belfast Telegraph, Liam Clarke highlights a significant point from the police assessment of Provisional IRA involvement in the murder of Kevin McGuigan – a point that was not included in earlier reports of that police assessment. From the Belfast Telegraph article Police have confirmed that senior IRA members conducted an inquiry into the death of Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison, gunned down in May, and identified Kevin McGuigan as the likely killer. Brian Rowan also mentioned that ‘inquiry’ in his …

Adams: ‘Those who threaten to take action against Sinn Féin in the Assembly and Executive have no basis whatsoever for this.’

David McCann on August 21, 2015, 11:58 pm | Readers 2231

Continuing the round of statements from party leaders, the Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has spoken about the recent developments in the McGuigan murder. Here are his comments; The killing of Kevin McGuigan was wrong and those who were involved in it are criminals who do not represent republicanism. The so-called group Action against Drugs is a criminal gang. It is a mix of criminals and former republicans who have engaged in intimidation and violence in pursuit of their criminal …

Burnham “We were offering little gimmicky policies designed to change a couple of days headlines”

Mick Fealty on August 21, 2015, 3:29 pm | Readers 721

I was on Radio Leicester on a semi regular slot I have with Jonathan Lampon to comment on his interview with Andy Burnham. Two things worth highlighting. Burnham is probably the only one who (albeit indirectly) identifies Labour’s most proximate difficulty which was the last failed campaign. He notes Labour didn’t have enough to say to make the broad appeal needed to get into government. In recent times we have had a more shallow form of politics, retail politics its …

2015 GCSE Results: Signature’s Swan Song

Chris Donnelly on August 21, 2015, 1:37 pm | Readers 657

The 2015 GCSE results were announced yesterday, with news reports capturing the mixture of emotions experienced by teenagers as they discover how they have performed in what can be significant assessments in terms of determining the future career paths they take- either through pursuing A Levels, other qualifications, training courses or employment opportunities. The overall headline figure, that 78.7% of entries were awarded an A*-C grade (up 0.7% on 2014), compared favourably with both England (69%) and Wales (66%.) But …

After the McGuigan murder: The Provisionals really haven’t gone away, you know….

Mick Fealty on August 21, 2015, 10:26 am | Readers 3811

As I noted some time ago, the biggest problem Sinn Fein pose to society is their settled policy of partial disclosure. Do you believe Detective Superintendent Geddes’ assessment or Sinn Fein’s local representatives? On one level that’s matter of political choice. But as we have seen over the Cahill allegations, the party only ever says what’s good for it, even if it turns out to be a lie. [When it gets serious, of course you have to lie! – Ed] …

PSNI Det Supt Geddes: “It is my assessment at this stage and my belief that people who are members of the Provisional IRA were involved in this murder, but we will not speculate on at what level.”

Pete Baker on August 20, 2015, 8:57 pm | Readers 2436

The police held a press conference today on the on-going investigation into the murder of former Provisional IRA member Kevin McGuigan Sr in the Short Strand area of Belfast last week – he had reportedly been “warned by the police that he was under threat from republicans” following the murder of former PIRA commander Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison in May. Of several arrests earlier this week one man has been charged with possession of a Glock pistol with intent to endanger life. The …

Robinson: ‘We will have discussions with other parties about tabling the necessary exclusion motion in the Assembly’

David McCann on August 20, 2015, 8:45 pm | Readers 1582

Interesting statement in from Peter Robinson over the PSNI’s comments about the murder of Kevin McGuigan; Last week I indicated that the Police Service of Northern Ireland must be free to fully investigate the murder of Kevin McGuigan without regard to any potential political consequences. I have had an initial discussion with the Chief Constable who has indicated the direction of travel of his investigation as it relates to the involvement of Provisional IRA members. The PSNI has asked for …

The Labour Party in Northern Ireland: the first ripple in a new wave of electoral dynamics?

Soapbox on August 20, 2015, 10:50 am | Readers 1362

Craig Harrison writes for us about the Labour leadership and the possibility of the party contesting elections in Northern Ireland This week, Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham made a public commitment to review the party’s policy on standing candidates in Northern Ireland, arguing: “I want the people of Northern Ireland to make their voices heard in the Labour Party, and if I am elected leader, I’ll ensure that the party is listening”. If we ever want to see a normalization …

How can we rid our society of our sectarian shackles? Guest post by Fr Martin Magill…

Fr. Martin Magill on August 19, 2015, 11:49 am | Readers 3121

Recently Rev Dr Lesley Carroll and I were interviewed on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence on the issue of sectarianism. Over breakfast together afterwards, we both acknowledged there were things we would like to have said had there been more time. This article includes some of those things I would have said. The interview came on the back of a riot in North Belfast following the stopping of the anti-internment rally. I witnessed at first hand that riot which left me …

Collins: “The bottom line is you either support the idea of gender balance in our national parliament or you don’t.”

Soapbox on August 18, 2015, 6:58 pm | Readers 794

Suzanne Collins is the Director of Operations and Campaigns for Women for Election the non-partisan, not-for-profit organisation that works to inspire and equip more women to succeed in politics. Responding to John McGuirk, she writes about why his central thesis on women in politics is wrong… What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So true of our political system. Over and over women failed to be selected or encouraged …