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Have we Learned our own Lessons? Book Review of John Brewer’s Peace Processes
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 their [...] read our review »
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The Written World
Here’s something to keep you occupied over the weekend. [Will there be a quiz? - Ed] Possibly… The BBC magazine has an short and interesting, but un-embeddable, audio slide-show of Melvyn Bragg’s Radio 4 five-parter, In Our Time: The Written World. The British Library has more online information about the texts and technology featured in each [...] read our review » -
O’Toole’s New Republic – unfinished business or just a dream?
More as a trailer than a review – as it’s out on Thursday– I draw attention to Fintan O’Toole’s latest polemic “Enough is Enough – how to build a new Republic“. Fintan has been promoting the book vigorously on this side of the water, on Radio 4’s Start the Week and here at greater length [...] read our review »
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Comment on RIP Gil Scott-Heron
on 2 June 2011 at 8:04 am
The funeral will not be televised brothers, the funeral will be live. GS-H was a good man, rightfully angry, but able to engage. There’s a lesson in that for others….
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Comment on DUP Election Broadcast Preview…
on 4 April 2011 at 10:47 pm
You know the whole bra thing must be a message to the DUP base that Paisley really is out of the picture. Compare this add with the round from the last round with Robinson in front of Stormont saying something like “At the DUP, our hand is firmly on the wheel and our foot is on the brake.” I don’t like the cut to darkness and the obvious allusions, but perhaps this is a bit more evolved than “Never, Never, Never!” Probably you’ll tell me I’m wrong though…. Ben
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Comment on DUP Election Broadcast Preview…
on 4 April 2011 at 3:27 pm
I take Nightrider’s query about rings on their fingers, but even if the couple is married, here’s the DUP using sex to sell! Since when are they morally lax enough to show a lass putting on her shirt in the morning, or even the rumpled bed sheets of a couple getting out of bed? I’m not sure if this is the influence of Paisley’s departure, or of Iris’s… Ben
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Comment on Did Peter break any rules?
on 8 January 2010 at 10:09 am
Isn’t it reasonable to assume that a spouse stands to benefit from (some of) the actions of their partner? Ignorance doesn’t seem to nullify the law, so even if Mr. Robinson didn’t know what Mrs. Robinson was up to, he may have benefitted from it. He’s no Richard Nixon, but he’s still culpable.
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Comment on “These are international mercenaries”
on 18 April 2009 at 8:10 am
Has anybody heard reports (or rumors) that the government (Dublin) is indicating that they won’t allow Dwyer’s body to be repatriated for burial? That would seem a bit odd… but you never know.
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Comment on The Maiden City’s new Bridge – a name needed that works for all
on 10 April 2009 at 2:51 am
Yeah, but still, better a pedestrian bridge than the fekking statue of Columba clogging up the Foyle!
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Comment on The Maiden City’s new Bridge – a name needed that works for all
on 9 April 2009 at 10:04 pm
It’s the “if nothing else” that concerns me Carnhill. The Alienation Report came out of St. Columbs (and Queens and Magee and wherever else) a few years back, and tried to strike an optimistic tone. I think that there is grounds for some optimism, but precisely among (and for?) those who will be driving upscale cars across the Craigavon Bridge from the trendy new housing on the Waterside (off towards Newbuildings) and the people with time to power walk and such. But will the crew(s) from the Brandywell or Irish Street and Clooney be using the bridge? If not, alienation mocks the name of and vision for the bridge. But here’s hoping… Ben
N.B. Four meters wide won’t accomodate an Apprentice Boys parade, so there goes that opportunity for progress.
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Comment on The Maiden City’s new Bridge – a name needed that works for all
on 9 April 2009 at 6:43 pm
You can lead a horse to a bridge, but can you make it cross? If the traffic on the bridge is mostly coming from (and returning to) one side of the river, it could be a problem. Same if there’s hardly any traffic. I’m not pessimistic, I just hope it’s the best use of the money. Ben
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Comment on Unionists fight over Maze
on 4 April 2009 at 9:04 pm
6countyprod -
One of the challenges in creating museum, or in any other educational effort, is to keep it simple enough so that the material is broadly accessible, but not so simple as to distort the nature of the thing. To make a statement like “glorify the republican violence of the past 40 years which resulted in the deaths of 3,600+ people” is simplification to the point of distortion. C’mon…
Ben
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Comment on Unionists fight over Maze
on 4 April 2009 at 8:29 pm
For what it’s worth, I had a wee visit to the Maze/Long Kesh as they were beginning to rip the place down. Visiting the hospital wing and being able to view the actual location of the death of the hunger strikers gave it a dimension that seeing it anywhere else would not have. Perhaps this is the source of DUP concern. But that concern could go in both directions. If there can’t be some sort of educational effort there, should the walls of (London)Derry be void of historical marker? Being afraid of discourse about the past is one of the problems here, it’s time to do that in a more constructive manner. Honest curation of contentious sites may compel us to work through some of the difficult truths of our history. On with it! Ben
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