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Books
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A Political History of the Two Irelands competition…
Tweet It’s not often we get free things to give away to our readers, but courtesy of Palgrave Macmillan we have a nice paperback copy of Brian M Walker’s excellent history of partition of the island and how identities shifted in both the north east and the south and west: as most of the territory [...] read our review »
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Learning from 1798?: Northern Ireland’s Upcoming Decade of Commemorations
Tweet Last year, the Lilliput Press released a new extended edition of Tom Dunne’s Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize winning book, Rebellions: Memoir, Memory and 1798. First published in 2004, Dunne’s book provoked considerable controversy with its critique of the ‘commemorationist’ history that Dunne believed dominated the 1998 commemorations of the 1798 Rebellion. The book blasted the [...] read our review » -
Have we Learned our own Lessons? Book Review of John Brewer’s Peace Processes
Tweet Northern Ireland’s peace process has been promoted as an international success story. The Republic’s Department of Foreign Affairs has its Conflict Resolution Unit, which aims to disseminate the ‘lessons’ of the Northern Ireland peace process. And some of the prominent players in our peace process have travelled abroad to other troubled spots to share [...] read our review »
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Comment on Ulster People’s Forum plans denial of service attack on PSNI and Parades Commission
on 24 May 2013 at 11:06 am
Isn’t there an offence along the lines of ‘wasting police time’?
But if they want to play silly buggers, surely a couple of blatters on their doors by a PSNI officer at 3:00 am to check that the forms were filled in correctly would put a stop to that sort of messing.
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Comment on Theresa Villiers: “I’m extremely pleased that we were able to answer the Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill’s request for a military helicopter…”
on 27 March 2013 at 12:54 pm
Just as a drowning person clutches at a straw, the NI Minister of Ag. asks for help for farmers’ families and livestock and just as the monolithic Unionist party did not refuse the assistance of fire brigades from the Irish Republic at the height of the Belfast blitz, what else would Teresa Villiers and Pete Baker expect from a responsible minister who is obviously trying to do the best for those in danger? Apart from making cheap political points, that is.
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Comment on How the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Bill divides the interests of NI’s two Irish national parties
on 22 March 2013 at 12:45 pm
Look, Lads, I don’t wish to make political capital out of this but, after two of the, God Almighty!, most sensitive issues imaginable – that of the abortion question and the unresolved matter of relatives’ sorrow and desire for justice – I remain totally at sea in regard to the SDLP’s motives for their pursuit accompanied by their newest bestest friends on the right. Since my first post I have tried to avoid the rights and wrongs of SPAD appointments but, certainly, clarity would help as the current arrangements have proven to be both a legal and moral mess.
Nonetheless, you have to ask, ‘Cui bono?’ In any normal political party, people sit down, chew the beef, throw it around the table and, before any brave new plan or objective is to be announced, they would/should have gone through all the possible ‘what-ifs’ for pluses and minuses – what do we gain, what do we lose.
Therefore, to return to my original question, why the SPAD issue, why now and why choose the TUV as their spearchuckers? It may be the ‘right’ thing to do morally but they are conniving with those who do not merely want to re-write the GFA, they want to destroy it altogether and would use this matter to chip away at its foundations. But if they still wish to drive with the devil (Mick’s caveat applies here also!) I would recommend a couple of extra airbags.
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Comment on How the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Bill divides the interests of NI’s two Irish national parties
on 22 March 2013 at 12:25 am
All that’s being proposed here is that any appeal should be routed through the Civil Service Commission on the grounds it is independent and can be expected to decide in a timely manner whether that person is likely to re-offend whilst holding public office.
Fair point, Mick. Couldn’t agree more,
BUT….
‘Civil Service Commission’ and ‘independent’??
Come on, Mick!
LCJ Widgery on Derry, Lord Justice Hutton on Kelly/Iraq?? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? And who appoints them – the guards/judges?
To paraphrase Mrs Beeton, ‘First catch your judge’.
And in whose power is that? A non-biased government, perhaps?
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Comment on How the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Bill divides the interests of NI’s two Irish national parties
on 21 March 2013 at 6:49 pm
Mick
Your post raises the questions which I deliberately avoided asking above as in ‘Irrespective of the rights or wrongs of appointing ex-(conflict-related) prisoners as SPADs…’ etc. I’m not suggesting in any way whatever that the Travers’ killing was anything other than a vile murder and that it was extremely insensitive to appoint Ms McArdle to such a high profile position. However, it also cannot be ignored that the pressure from Anne Travers, the media and assorted sources effectively worked and, in the end, McArdle lost her job.
My only point concerned the perception given off by the SDLP in this and also the abortion matter by getting into bed with those who normally are the total antithesis of the social democratic values to which they claim to uphold. Fine, the same accusation can be made of the the two top players but they hold power. SDLP do not and would appear to on a downward spiral. So, to what end are they pursuing this line of attack?
Even if it is, as you say, ‘the right thing to do’, the last time they did that – the GFA, for example – they lost everything. It is my suspicion that they could very well be jeopardising transfers if they continue to side with unionism and especially, as in the case of Jim Allister, the neanderthal wing. It might be appreciated in the more ‘mixed’ constituencies but it could well work against them in the more ‘mono-cultural’ ones, eg, West Belfast, where there’s an elected Minister on a low vote.
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Comment on How the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Bill divides the interests of NI’s two Irish national parties
on 21 March 2013 at 4:51 pm
The government made the rules and the government should stick to its own rules.
Yeah, but the government changed the rules so they could push the Agreement through. There are convicted prisoners elected and sitting as legislators. Should there be a difference between them and an unelected SPAD?
Nonetheless, why is the SDLP following a blue line in this matter after all these years?
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Comment on How the Civil Service (Special Advisers) Bill divides the interests of NI’s two Irish national parties
on 21 March 2013 at 4:18 pm
Irrespective of the rights or wrongs of appointing ex-(conflict-related) prisoners as SPADs, the SDLP are, imo, setting themselves up as a hostage to fortune in this rather sensitive issue in that they are siding with an MLA, Jim Allister, who would not, if he could get away with it, allow Sinn Fein over the door of Stormont in the first place – democratic mandate or not. After their unholy alliance with the forces of the right in the abortion debate, it’s really difficult to see how the SDLP can gain anything out of pushing this particular line.
After all they were the ones to agree the release of prisoners in the first place. So, where are they coming from now? Are they saying, ‘That was all right for then but this is 2013. We’ve moved on since the GFA’. It strikes me as not only inconsistent but also as decidedly very odd and, potentially, politically very damaging.
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Comment on The judges are right to speak out against coat trailing politicians
on 9 March 2013 at 4:06 pm
LH
You’re right about ‘strange’. When I heard on TV, and within a couple of minutes, both Willy Frazer’s wife and Conor Murphy repeating the same mantra of ‘political policing’ I was expecting to hear ‘Deh-neh-neh-neh, deh-neh-neh-neh’ with the guy from The Twilight Zone coming on next. Who needs science fiction when we’ve got our own reality? (I was going to abbreviate ‘Science Fiction’ but that would have caused even more problems!)
Kev
There’s a story doing the rounds of a former teacher in Portora, where Nigel attended before his 2:1 at Oxbridge, etc, commenting to the fact that Dodds had the finest education money could buy but that he had never been struck by a liberal thought in his life.
Go figure…
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Comment on The judges are right to speak out against coat trailing politicians
on 9 March 2013 at 3:08 pm
Thank you, Lionel. I have (half) smacked my own wrist
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Comment on The judges are right to speak out against coat trailing politicians
on 9 March 2013 at 2:58 pm
Sorry, DC, silly me. I forgot. Nationalists were to blame all the time. They were using proxy loyalists to throw petrol bombs at the police, to torch a police car, burn buildings, trash neighbourhoods, close businesses, etc .
You seem to have come out of the same school as Jamie – that of ‘send’ rather than ‘receive’.
When will you begin to address the topic or do you wish to troll on a permanent basis?
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