Profile for Andrew Gallagher
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Latest posts from Andrew Gallagher (see all)
Andrew Gallagher has posted 3 times (0 in the last month).
“Just following orders”: SF Ministers are subordinate to their own command structure
Tuesday night’s Spotlight on the killing of Mary Travers was indeed fascinating, not so much for the story of the ambush itself – although I had never seen the family members speak on camera before, and their continuing suffering was palpable – but for its insights into the inner workings of Sinn Féin. SF’s arrogant [...] more »
The Assembly’s looming crisis of legitimacy
For me, the second most interesting result from the last General Election (after Long’s defeat of Robinson, of course) was the turnout figure. 57% is a far cry from the 70% turnout at the first Assembly election. Although a turnout of 57% would be considered respectable for, say, Scottish Parliament elections, hyper-political NI can’t be [...] more »
The Maori and the Pakeha: Why can’t it work for us?
I recently had the pleasure of visiting New Zealand, and was quietly impressed by the way in which the minority Maori culture has been embraced by the majority Pakeha (i.e. white) population. That is not to say that NZ is blissfully free of ethnic tension, but such tensions seem to revolve around affirmative action and [...] more »
Latest comments from Andrew Gallagher (see all)
Andrew Gallagher has commented 688 times (51 in the last month).
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Books
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Against Remembrance – Seminar & Book by David Rieff
Is the best way to overcome the legacy of conflict simply to forget about it? Author and journalist David Rieff spoke on this subject last week in a seminar at the Institute for International Integration Studies (IIIS) at Trinity College Dublin. Rieff has recently written a book titled, Against Remembrance (published in Ireland by Liffey [...] read our review »
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Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation. A book about how things are changing.
Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland is a new academic tome by lecturer and researcher Lee Smithey. In the book the Pennsylvania academic outlines his findings based on 67 interviews over eighteen months with grassroots activists in unionist and loyalist communities and organisations. This is largely a book about men, even though they [...] read our review »
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What has The Third Man got to say about Northern Ireland?
Short answer: very little, other than he enjoyed the environs of Hillsborough Castle, enjoyed working with the local politicians, and has Gerry Adams to thank for Bobby his dog. Peter Mandelson’s book The Third Man has captured media headlines in recent weeks as the Times serialised the most juicy bits. But what did he have [...] read our review »
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Comment on Sectarianism in Northern Ireland is common (and popular) across all classes…
on 21 May 2012 at 6:15 pm
GF,
“The problem is illogical, therefore my reasoning doesn’t have to be logical either”.
But of course, that is in itself a logical proposition. If you want to throw the rules of logic out, then you’d better stop using the words “if”, “so”, “therefore” and “because”. Good luck.
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Comment on Sectarianism in Northern Ireland is common (and popular) across all classes…
on 21 May 2012 at 6:07 pm
GF,
An n-fold increase in the mortality rate (the exact value of n is by the by) is not the same as an n-fold decrease in the survival rate: 1-nx ≠ (1-x)/n.
And do you really believe that if people simply stopped going to church sectarianism would go away? Go and read Swift. People will use any convenient excuse to justify their prejudices.
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Comment on Sectarianism in Northern Ireland is common (and popular) across all classes…
on 21 May 2012 at 4:44 pm
Reader,
Damn, I should have spotted that myself. Good catch.
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Comment on Sectarianism in Northern Ireland is common (and popular) across all classes…
on 21 May 2012 at 3:26 pm
GF,
What’s the fuss ? Northern Ireland was built on sectarianism and it could not exist otherwise . Thus it follows there will always be sectarianism until such time as the NI State no longer exists
Non sequitur. (A causes B) does not imply (not B causes not A).
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Comment on Euro crisis: When “earth’s proud empires pass away”…
on 21 May 2012 at 3:20 pm
… I mean I completely agree with you re: b.
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Comment on Euro crisis: When “earth’s proud empires pass away”…
on 21 May 2012 at 3:20 pm
There is also a principled reason for a: because the Iron Curtain was an externally-imposed frontier across Europe and it was just as much a moral imperative to remove it as it was to remove the Berlin Wall.
I completely agree with b) though.
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Comment on “The link between taxing and spending is basic to democracy…”
on 18 May 2012 at 1:34 pm
a
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Comment on “The link between taxing and spending is basic to democracy…”
on 18 May 2012 at 1:34 pm
Northern Ireland is neither Tory nor Socialist – its more closely resembles G.W.Bush era Republicanism (in its American sense) – low taxes, high spending and filling the hole by other means. Except in NI the sugar daddy is Whitehall, not China, and we don’t have a defence industry to speak of…
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Comment on Normality and rugby
on 18 May 2012 at 11:58 am
JR,
Of course it was. But isn’t it remarkable how the pre-Tudor boundary of Ulster survives?
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Comment on Normality and rugby
on 18 May 2012 at 11:02 am
Mike the first,
The IRFU can be faulted for some questionable decisions (“foreign” Ravenhill being another example) but at least they are trying. Perhaps the time has come for an apolitical “sporting” Ireland flag, for the same reasons that we have a “sporting” anthem…
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