Profile for Andy Pollak
Latest posts from Andy Pollak (see all)
Andy Pollak has posted 66 times (1 in the last month).
‘Note from the Next Door Neighbours’: a 90 second read from South Armagh
Tweet Two good news stories from South Armagh and Social Welfare In a small village in South Armagh something rather wonderful is beginning to take shape. After some difficult early years the Middletown Centre for Autism, a North/South body whose mission is to create a centre for excellence in Ireland for the education of children [...] more »
A LAST PLEA FROM SIR GEORGE QUIGLEY FOR MORE NORTH-SOUTH COOPERATION
Tweet Sir George Quigley died on 3 March after a long and full life of service to Northern Ireland and Ireland. He was as near as a small place like Northern Ireland gets to a Renaissance man: head of four government departments; chairman of Ulster Bank and Bombardier; the tireless chair of numerous public bodies [...] more »
Time to Reach Out a Southern Hand to Unionists
Tweet In a thought-provoking blog on the new 15 Years On site (http://15yearson.wordpress.com) this month, former Community Relations Council director Duncan Morrow lists all the promised reforms in Northern Ireland since 1998 which have not been realised: a Single Equality Bill, a Shared Future, the Review of Public Administration, Dealing with the Past, educational reform, [...] more »
The Centre Roars Back with New Funding and a New Shared Blog
Tweet Nearly two years ago I wrote a ‘Note’ saying that the Centre for Cross Border Studies had 15-18 months funding left, we were starting to feel a little nervous, and were appealing to our readers and supporters for some good new ideas for cross-border cooperation in Ireland. In the event we generated most of [...] more »
What will be the impact on the Irish border if the UK leaves the EU?
Tweet After last year’s hugely successful visit by Queen Elizabeth to the Republic and a joint communiqué of extraordinary warmth following last March’s summit between David Cameron and Enda Kenny, British-Irish relations were generally considered to have reached a closeness unprecedented in more than 90 years since Irish independence and partition. In July the Irish [...] more »
An Essential Cross-Border Information Service
Tweet For the second month running I am unashamedly going to blow the Centre for Cross Border Studies’ trumpet. Because the Centre does not only write about cross-border cooperation in Ireland; it not only researches such cross-border cooperation – it also does practical cooperation between the two parts of this island. Last month I wrote [...] more »
An Incredible Achievement for Teacher Education
Tweet As a rule I try to avoid using this column as a way to blow the Centre for Cross Border Studies’ trumpet. But given the Irish and Northern Irish media’s almost total lack of interest in things cross-border, I sometimes can’t resist the temptation to tell a particular success story that the Centre is [...] more »
The Challenge of Turning Goodwill into Cooperation
Tweet Regular readers of this ‘note’ will know that I have certain obsessions which keep re-surfacing: the need to upgrade the Belfast-Dublin rail line; the exhortation to Northern Irish people to fully enjoy both their identities, Irish and British; the need for more people-to-people cooperation across the border; and the imperative for the public sectors [...] more »
Does the South really want the North as part of Ireland?
Tweet A Note from the Next Door Neighbours (72) August 2012 DOES THE SOUTH REALLY WANT THE NORTH AS PART OF IRELAND? It is difficult to overstate the lack of interest there is among people in the Republic these days in Northern Ireland, and in relations between North and South. As somebody who works in [...] more »
A Cross-Border Geopark that leads the World
Tweet A Note from the Next Door Neighbours (71) - July 2012 Fermanagh in the 1980s didn’t have much going for it. A remote place – in European, British and Irish terms – with a declining agricultural sector and a small inflow of tourists, largely for the boating on Lough Erne, and the seemingly endless misery [...] more »
Latest comments from Andy Pollak (see all)
Andy Pollak has commented 5 times (0 in the last month).
Comment on Time to Reach Out a Southern Hand to Unionists
on 28 February 2013 at 8:33 am
Derrydave
For the record, Higher Education Statistics Agency figures show that the proportion of undergraduates from the Republic of Ireland at Northern Ireland universities fell from 10.45% (3110) of the total undergraduate population in 1996-97 to 4.4% (1690) in 2009-10. Andy
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Comment on An Essential Cross-Border Information Service
on 29 November 2012 at 3:19 pm
Annmarie is also the Centre’s ICT manager. In this capacity she manages and updates on a daily basis 5 websites:
http://www.crossborder.ie (nearly 50,000 page views per month); http://www.borderireland.info (29,500 page views per month); http://www.borderpeople.info (17,000 page views per month); http://www.scotens.org and http://www.universitiesireland.ie
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Comment on The Challenge of Turning Goodwill into Cooperation
on 27 September 2012 at 8:57 pm
Mick
Please can you move this column over to my Andy Pollak file.
Thanks
Andy
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Comment on A Cross-Border Geopark that leads the World
on 19 July 2012 at 8:14 am
Pete
Wikipedia is just plain wrong. I interviewed the manager of Marble Arch Caves, Richard Watson (in post since 1985), and the dates I use are the dates he gave me.
Andy
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Comment on A solid statement that North-South cooperation is here to stay
on 27 July 2010 at 1:00 pm
Hello Brian
I’ve been away on holiday so forgive the tardy response – it’s good to hear from you after all these years.There’s a lot going on in the way of practical North-South cooperation that people in London (and journalists in Belfast and Dublin!) don’t know much about. People working hard and cooperatively cross the border together doesn’t make headlines. Another example is energy – watch for my July ‘Note’.
Hope to cross paths with you again some time soon.
Andy
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