Paisley: Dublin should close ‘dangerous dog’ loophole…

Ian Paisley’s reaction to last night’s Spotlight on dog fighting? He “urged the authorities in Dublin to review legislation being exploited by gangs involved in illegal cross-border dog trading”. Some detail from the Panorama report Pete noted yesterday:

Mick Fealty @ 06:25 PM

Shannon (No) Show gets a re-run..

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny’s late arrival to the debate over Aer Lingus’ tranfer from Shannon to Belfast has been somewhat over-shadowed by the annoncement by Aer Lingus that they have rejected RyanAir’s call for a Emergency General Meeting.  Both stories also get an airing in this RTÉ report.  It doesn’t change the fundamentals underpinning the decision though.. but whether any politician, our own local variety included, will articulate that case rather than following a locally populist, if non-sensical, line remains to be seen seems unlikely. Update RTÉ and Irish Times reports to note.

Pete Baker @ 06:15 PM

“No more exceptionally stupid wars” in NI…

WHILE I’m not convinced that the ‘lessons of Northern Ireland’ are directly applicable to other conflicts, there are some lovely turns of phrase in this article in Kenya’s Daily Nation. Here’s one: Essentially, the army in Northern Ireland prevented warmongers and brewers of hatred from annihilating each other. Meanwhile, they became civilised. Hopefully, a relapse to barbarism will remain on vacation. Then the remaining 5,000 British troops can just train and expect no more exceptionally stupid wars. One more: There’s no dispute the Northern Ireland government had little use for its Catholic citizens. Therefore, they went to the streets in the 1960s to demand rights even shaggy dogs deserve. Wonder if the shaggy dogs were the ones in the street?

Belfast Gonzo @ 01:15 PM

UUP and DUP support smaller OFMDFM (unless they’re in it)...

ULSTER Unionist deputy leader Danny Kennedy has been complaining that staffing levels at the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers are too high - at 415. However, he forgot to mention that when the UUP was in charge of the office, it employed between 417 and 424. Meanwhile, Junior Minister Paisley Junior has (rather feebly) defended the sleekit appointment of two special advisers to him and his Sinn Fein counterpart, Gerry Kelly, by saying it was the Secretary of State that asked the Privy Council for them. Oh, please. This is the same Paisley Jr who attacked such waste in the past. And are we seriously being asked to believe that the SoS woke up one morning and decided there weren’t enough spin doctors in Stormont? That kind of weak political cover went out with the ark, and both UUP and DUP are on shaky ground given the criticisms they made in the last administration. Let’s face it, the parties in charge of the Stormont gravy train will always make sure there’s enough jobs for the boys.

Belfast Gonzo @ 01:13 PM

Judicial review of school places allocation

This story probably has a few weeks to run but it should be an interesting one.  Lord Chief Justice Brian Kerr has granted leave for a judicial review of the withdrawal of offers of school places to two Londonderry girls by St Cecilia’s College The BBC report notes that “The case is being taken against the Board of Governors, the Western Education and Library Board and the Department of Education.” As the various reports record the key element in the review will be the issue of the granting of school places in Londonderry to children of families living in Donegal.

During a preliminary hearing in mid-week the court was told that some Derry families had moved to Donegal but were using the addresses of grandparents to secure school places, a practice that had become known as “grannying.”

Which isn’t quite in keeping with the area based planning that the Bain report recommended.. however delayed that might be..

Pete Baker @ 12:12 PM

“Catholic sectarianism does not need to be confronted because it does not exist”

Interesting reworking of a recent Irish Times column by Fintan O’Toole. This time it goes just a bit deeper and cuts into some very dark territory largely hidden by powerful political grand narratives that sheltered many Catholics from the gruesome reality of things that were done in the name of their defence. Accordingly, he argues, Northern Ireland’s Catholics had never had to confront their own sectarian hard wiring, until Darren Graham “had the temerity to punch through the tribal stereotype by playing Gaelic football and not defining himself simply as a Protestant. It took the hate that dares not speak its name to make him one now”.

Mick Fealty @ 11:40 AM

“there is a small number of people intent on dragging us backwards..”

Local Sinn Féin councillor Dessie Ward was reasonably quick to condemn the attack on Seagoe Orange Hall, in Portadown, in the early hours of Thursday morning - one of a number of attacks noted yesterday. So what exactly was a member of Ógra Shinn Féin, the party’s youth wing, doing on the roof of another Orange Hall, in Newcastle Co Down, in the early hours of Friday morning.. Adds It’s not clear from the Newsletter report which date this occured on, it may actually have been last Saturday morning.. ie before yesterday’s statement was made.

Pete Baker @ 08:44 AM

BBC taking the urine?

From the BBC NI website

Pete Baker @ 07:24 AM

There may be troubles ahead…

[Cue music] This autumn looks like it will be time for our new found friends to face the music and dance.

Mick Fealty @ 06:48 AM

“We are living in an Orwellian state and we need to be aware of that.”

In the ongoing discussion over the Eames/Bradley group’s consultation I’ve been pointing on occasion to a previous post noting Tim Garton Ash’s CiF piece on Poland’s experience - “Delay has its own heavy price. The poison accumulates in the system.” So it shouldn’t be a surprise that, even if the accusations made against Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his twin brother Lech, the president, are untrue, this report would interest me.. Note, even if they are false, the accusations themselves are indicative of a society which is still infected by a posion that it has failed to fully extract.  From the Reuters report in the Irish Times [subs req]

Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski faced a growing outcry yesterday over accusations that his secret services had spied on politicians, an affair some commentators have branded a “Polish Watergate”.
Former prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz joined the fray, saying he had grounds to suspect he was spied on when in office and that Poland had become an “Orwellian state”.
“I cannot rule out that I was eavesdropped on,” he told private TVN television yesterday. “We are living in an Orwellian state and we need to be aware of that.”
Mr Kaczynski is pushing for a snap election in October after the acrimonious collapse of his coalition with fringe anti-EU parties, which deprived him of a majority in parliament.
The main opposition parties have agreed to hold an election two years early. But they want a parliamentary inquiry first into the spying allegations and what they call abuse of power by Mr Kaczynski and his twin brother Lech, the president.
The allegations were fuelled by former interior minister Janusz Kaczmarek, sacked in July, and by Mr Kaczynski’s ex-coalition partners.

And the former interior minister Janusz Kaczmarek is now reported to have been arrested on charges of obstructing justice..

Pete Baker @ 06:25 PM

Castlereagh councillor quits

DUP Castlereagh councillor Charlie Tosh has resigned from the party citing a row with another councillor and dissatisfaction with the public relationship between Paisley and McGuinness.

Fair Deal @ 02:41 PM

One by one they are leaving Belfast…

Good news for Belfast is that there is much less news than there has been since well before the Troubles kicked off… bad news is that the jobs in journalism (which have been a proving ground for some of the world’s leading journalists local and international) are slowly disappearing. The Guardian did not replace Angelique Christafis with a Belfast based full timer when she left for Paris last year. Now the Sunday Times operation is closing in Belfast and all it’s journalists will be based in Dublin. With that, Liam Clarke, who’s work has featured here on Slugger, is moving on with the changing news agenda.

Mick Fealty @ 01:27 PM

The trouble with ‘foolish consistency’...

Nice Emerson quote from Brian Feeney, who reckons, not unreasonably, that Pat Rabbitte’s over zealous consistency was his political undoing…

Mick Fealty @ 11:57 AM

“Very small-minded individuals have taken it upon themselves to raise tensions”

Just a quick round-up of the recent spate of apparent arson attempts.  A continuation of attacks at Twaddell Avenue in Belfast the other day, to the “suspicious” fire at a building in Lisnaskea County Fermanagh where Sinn Féin MP, and Agriculture Minister, Michelle Gildernew has an office, to the attack on Seagoe Orange Hall in Portadown. And Fair Deal points to this recent attack.  A triumph of top-down politics, indeed..

Pete Baker @ 09:53 AM

Sinn Fein’s second defection…

If one defection is unlucky; to lose two is downright careless. This column from the Southern Star almost anticipates the defection of Daniel Callanan, and reports widespread disaffection amongst Sinn Fein councillors with the directions from the top of the party to support Labour candidates in the Seanad elections. Not a disaster, but perhaps an intimation of the limits of ‘democratic centralism’?

Mick Fealty @ 09:46 AM

This sporting life?

In the US, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty last week to federal charges relating to the operation of a dogfighting ring over a month after being indicted. - he faces a possible 6 year sentence.  Here the BBC claim to have evidence, to be broadcast tonight, that Tyrone GAA player, and all-Ireland medal winner, Gerard Cavlan, “is a senior figure in a dog fighting operation known as The Bulldog Sanctuary Kennels.”  When previously charged with possession of a dangerous dog, to which he pleaded guilty, Cavlan’s lawyer had told the court, “Mr Cavlan has no involvement in relation to any other activities that would be illegal.” According to the latest report “The USPCA will be following up on Spotlight’s findings.”.. [not just the USPCA I’d hope - Ed] Adds Additional BBC report here Update The Panorama undercover reporter’s account is here and, for the time being, the Panorama programme can be viewed here [RealPlayer file]

Pete Baker @ 07:41 AM

Special advisors for “friendly little piglets”

Thanks to a slow news day, and an archive, I was able to note the BBC’s Martina Purdy’s post on how party political opinions of the positions of junior ministers, to the First and Deputy First Ministers, have changed in a short period of time.. Now it appears that the positions are deemed to be so important, and/or complicated, that the current incumbents need a special advisor each. The key element in the story, along with the new salaries, is that the appointments of special advisors to those junior ministers required a change in legislation.. which was achieved at a Privy Council meeting - According to the BBC report it was at this particular meeting on 25 July [word doc] attended by Rt Hon Baroness Ashton of Upholland (Lord President), Rt Hon Jack Straw MP, Rt Hon Ed Balls MP, and Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo MP. Update According to this Belfast Telegraph report there are now 16 special advisors to the Executive.. and, following the new appointments, 8 of the 16 are attached to the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers.

Pete Baker @ 05:32 PM

“the influence that the church used to exert simply by being the churches”

It’s probably evident that I don’t have much time for most supernaturalists.. but the new primate of the Church of Ireland, Archbishop Alan Harper, might just be one I can agree with - at least on the point he makes in this report.

Pete Baker @ 12:09 PM

Cabinet meet to defuse Shannon row..

The first meeting of the Irish Cabinet since the Dáil rose at the start of the summer takes place today and as the RTÉ report says - “The Cabinet is expected to spend a considerable amount of time trying to find ways of defusing the political and economic head of steam in the mid-west.”  That would be on this issue.  And it’s being reported that the Taoiseach’s inter-departmental group are expected “to conclude that Shannon airport is already well connected internationally.”  I’d suggest the suspension of this Minsk flight is unlikely to affect that assessment. And As this report notes, following the Cabinet meeting, the Department of Transport issued a statement Adds reminder of Fintan O’Toole’s article

Government met today and considered a memorandum on the withdrawal of the Aer Lingus Shannon/Heathrow service. The Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey TD outlined all of the background and circumstances relating to the decision and gave a report to Cabinet colleagues on the issue.

Government reiterated its deep disappointment at this decision taken by Aer Lingus which it emphasised is contrary to national aviation and regional development policy. Government also noted that this was a decision taken by the Executive and Management of Aer Lingus on commercial grounds. It was agreed that the Minister for Transport, on behalf of Government, would do all in his power to assist the Shannon Airport Authority to secure alternative London Heathrow services.

Pete Baker @ 10:41 AM

Is squeezing the lifeblood out of Protestant Londonderry, modern Derry’s quiet disgrace?

Today an existing group of Church of Ireland parishes of “St Peter’s, Culmore and Muff are to be amalgamated with the parish of Christ Church. The move means that one parish will serve an area stretching from Derry city centre right into Co Donegal”. As this University of Ulster report noted between 1971 and 1991 the Protestant population on the Cityside of the river declined by some 83.4%. When Londonderry and Foyle College leaves for the other side of the river, only a tiny community of Protestants in the Fountain area will be left. The often sterile quarrel over the legitimacy of the city’s official name, Londonderry, belies the underlying reality of profoundly separated human lives, rather than the genuinely shared future our leading politicians have committed to through their ministerial pledge.

Mick Fealty @ 10:38 AM

Is Reg speading himself a bit thin..?

SIR Reg Empey must be pleased at Northern Ireland’s low unemployment rate, which stands at 3.7%. It would be even closer to zero if the Employment Minister didn’t have so many jobs for himself! OK, a bit facetious, but as Minister, MLA, UUP leader and councillor, and at a time when his party is in dire need of a massive overhaul and engaged in an internal debate over its role, is Reg spreading himself even thinner than his comb-over? Chris Thornton takes a look.

Belfast Gonzo @ 10:05 AM

Less than perfect drivers

Oh yes! A website to expose the less than perfect parkers and drivers in our midst. Shite drivers.com is the brain child of Niall O’Keefe from County Louth. The site allows people to expose all manner of less than ideal control of the vehicle. I know the subject of poor driving has come up here numerous times in the past, and I have strong feelings about people who wear caps and drive at 10 miles an hour from Hilltown to Banbridge.

Miss Fitz @ 06:45 AM

“there is a mechanism to go back to the British..”

Interesting lines in the final paragraph in Sinn Féin MLA Francie Brolly’s response to some of the arguments against an Irish Language Act

“The British government has already given a commitment to ensure language rights and there is a mechanism to go back to the British if this is thwarted. But we’d rather not.”

Assuming that Francie Brolly actually believes this line.. Which mechanism would that be then?..  It’s probably true that the situation isn’t as clear-cut as that surrounding the devolution of policing and justice - as the language issue is already devolved - but the British Government’s position has been stated clearly to the House - “we would not legislate on a devolved matter, except with the Assembly’s acceptance and agreement.” -  And to circumvent the Sewel Convention [pdf file] on devolved matters would demand that both the Scottish and Welsh administrations were also assured that this was a one-off, never to be repeated, incident..

Pete Baker @ 08:06 PM

What is the point of blogging?

Sunny over at CIF reckons that most of the explicit argy bargy between columnists and blogging types is profoundly misplaced. In the end, bloggers are not an especially ‘gifted’ class, just a heterogeneous ‘set’ who understand that on the net communication is about engagement, not the disruption of the traditional newspace. Or taking it a stage further as David Cushman puts it: ‘selling content [online] sucks, if that is all you do’.

Mick Fealty @ 07:46 PM

Tragic cricumstances surrounding death of community activist…

Sorry to hear of the tragic circumstance of the death of Andrew Kewley known to many in political and community circles as ‘Tully’.

Mick Fealty @ 07:42 PM