Article 50: Will Northern Ireland feature?

There can be little doubt that any of the political theatre surrounding this week’s delivery of Article 50 was intended for a domestic British audience. However  EU Council President Donald Tusk was moved to remark that it was “a sad day”, a sentiment, no doubt with resonance elsewhere, which went beyond his rather dry tweet that “After nine months the UK has delivered” Although it was the first official act given by the British Government to Brussels of withdrawal, it …

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Trump & Trade: Uneasy Partners?

Democratic politics often produces surprises and while most would agree 2016 so far has produced a few of note, what usually marks the strength of any system is the ability to adapt and change as a result. Therefore I can see the value in looking for positives and trying to make successes as a result of referendum result on 23 June and the recent US presidential election. There have already been a few voices suggesting that this now means a …

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Trade & Brexit: Where next?

Among the changes in Prime Minister May’s post-referendum reshuffle David Davis has now been appointed new ‘Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union’ or BrexitSec as I’m growing used to calling him. He caused a bit of a stir last Monday when he appeared not to know that the Republic of Ireland was no longer part of the UK. While a quick glance at a map may have told him otherwise I was slightly more surprised at some of …

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Euro2016 and a new chapter

To the relief of no doubt many the Euro 2016 championship have now ended, and while few pundits have called it a classic it will now be retold and relived by the fans who witnessed it for years to come, just like all such tournaments before. Before the tournament BBC screened a documentary in which Thierry Henry spoke about how during the World Cup in 1998 a victorious and multi-cultural French team helped to unite a France bitterly divided along …

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EU referendum: The Reverse Sturgeon Option?

The activities of dissident Irish republican groups is clearly something on the minds of many in Northern Ireland and Westminster. Following-on from the Home Secretary’s warning last month that a fresh attack was “a strong possibility” a number of arrests have been made at the gatherings of various dissident groups in different parts of Northern Ireland. One such recent event gathered less attention, on Saturday the hard-line republican group Éirígí launched their campaign for a  “Leave” vote in the EU campaign. …

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EU referendum & Euro 2016

So far it’s fair to say that EU referendum debate hasn’t inspired many. Both sides have often been accused of ‘scaremongering’ over the potential impacts on everything from immigration to border controls and increased terror threats to the price of a nice bottle of wine. Meanwhile many of us across the UK and Ireland have our minds fixed on another great European project, the European Football Championship. The unbridled optimism of plucky fans and the motto “Dare to dream” seem …

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Can UKIP show its mettle in devolution?

Despite their significant media exposure I think it’s fair to say that so far UKIP’s main successes have come at the ballot box and not at the dispatch box. That the party serves as a repository for protest votes rather than enacting detailed policy is evidenced through the record of long-standing elected members. In his 17 years European Parliament Nigel Farage has authored not a single report legislative or otherwise, or much else really. Even the Daily Mail called the …

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Brussels, one month later

This morning I got off the metro at Maalbeek station, it’s not the closest one to my office in Brussels, but today was the first day it was open since last month’s attacks and I felt as I owed to it the city to say I wasn’t afraid. Its cleaned platform and white panels seemed the same as before, nothing had changed, save an Asian film-crew fixing their camera next to the escalator and a small, make-shift shrine of flowers …

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Does the EU have a referendum problem?

Eurosceptic hearts were gladdened last week, when they claimed victory in the referendum. Of course I’m referring to the Dutch referendum on the free-trade deal between the EU and the Ukraine, in which a majority of the minority who voted in the Netherlands on Wednesday, chose to reject the deal. Despite insisting that neither Dublin, Washington or anywhere else should tell you how to vote, on Europe, Nigel Farage even went and campaigned for a ‘No’ vote in the Netherlands …

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Easter & Innocence

Still trying to read all the books I got for Christmas I’ve been dipping-into a recently-published collection of poetry by a local priest. His works of short and accessible verse are mostly on matters that might feature in a country curate’s sermons, except for one, which retells a story from his childhood, his trip to Dublin at Easter 1966. He recalls how he “Felt at home beneath the colours of the GPO” Recalling a time when the display of the …

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Old Empire Allies

David McCann today informed via twitter that yesterday was “Proclamation day”, and the Irish government invited students at schools and universities around the Republic of Ireland to read the 1916 post-office rebels manifesto, and reflect on what it means to be Irish and pen their own ‘Proclamation for a New Generation’. The 1916 rising’s figurehead Patrick Pearse was a talented writer, but not a military tactician, hence the the rising’ successes were not military but rather rather in the communication of ideals. The …

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Sticking to the facts on Europe?

“On-balance” to use the first Minister’s language, the DUP’s call to vote to leave the EU is likely to be largely cost-free for her party. The vote which is now set for 23 June will come just seven weeks after the Stormont Assembly elections, will mark the end of a three year cycle of elections; local Councils, Westminster and the Assembly. The EU ballot may well therefore strike voters as an epilogue or afterthought to a 3 act play, rather …

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Brexit, pursued by a bear

The deal on offer from Brussels to Cameron this week was given a further dramatic feel by EU Council President Donald Tusk’s use of Shakespearean verse; “To be, or not to be together, that is the question which must be answered not only by the British people in a referendum” His use of the lines from Hamlet Act III, Scene I did resonate with those who merely see the whole process as entirely stage-managed, played-out with artificial suspense before Cameron plays the …

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Referendum & devolution: 3 different pictures

The elections this May are almost certain to see the return of familiar faces of both nationalism and unionism. Of course I’m referring to the elections to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, whose electorates will go to the polls on 5 May and then again most likely later in the year for the referendum on whether or not to remain in the EU. Whilst there is unlikely to be a change of government in either devolved body, the …

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Does Theresa want ‘Out’?

Recently I noted on these pages that the impending EU in/out referendum was still shrouded in ‘unknowns’, both on what Brussels will offer David Cameron and what the political landscape will look like, both in Stormont, Westminster and beyond. Today some things may have gotten more interesting as David Cameron today Conservative Government ministers are to be allowed to campaign for either side in the referendum, likely to happen later this year. Given Theresa Villiers’ history of euroscepticism, both during …

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Europe: still unknown?

(Source of graphic) As others have noted, this might be the week that the campaign for the EU referendum finally got going. This week the Prime Minister tried to signal he was getting stuck-in to the issue of Europe, indeed on Monday he resolved to “throw himself headlong” into staying-in. On Tuesday he went even further saying he was willing to campaign “heart and soul” to keep Britain in the EU. Enda Kenny for his part was unequivocal in his support …

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Mother Angela & her Children

Addressing a special event in Brussels yesterday evening to mark a quarter century of German re-unification at he German President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz criticised Hungary’s government for their miserly role in Europe’s current refugee crisis and for re-erecting some of the border fences which most Germans had hoped had come-down with the Berlin Wall (he made no mention of Belfast’s “peace-lines”). The subsequent film at the event showed a montage of images on how the unified Germany …

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After Greece – where now for Cameron’s negotiating?

Donald Tusk has improved his English lately, which may have something to do with his employing of an Ulster-born speech-writer. The former Prime Minister of Poland took-over from Herman “damp-rag” Van Rompuy as the President of the Council of the EU last year, this was the job once sought by Tony Blair, but no British candidate had been in the picture this time around. Tusk made an executive decision in the early hours of last Sunday morning to cancel the …

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Greece: bitter pills & ill-wills

Of the grand, ambitious projects embarked-upon on the European continent over the last three decades two highly visible examples were recalled today in Brussels: football’s Champions League and the Single European Currency. Whatever they have in common there is one crucial difference in joining either of these prestigious clubs, in the Euro one can gain promotion but there is no relegation. Countries simply don’t drop-out of the Euro if they fail to finish with enough points, only to return after …

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Where are Bono’s voters now?

                  Belfast City Hall saw a different protest from normal last Saturday, with its organisers claiming that 20, 000 had demonstrated in favour of allowing same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. Buoyed by the successes of their Southern counterparts in last month’s referendum, local LGBT rights campaigners are left feeling aggrieved that Northern Ireland is now almost the only place in the British Isles where gay marriage isn’t legal. Not that they haven’t …

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