Profile for fitzjameshorse1745
Latest posts from fitzjameshorse1745 (see all)
fitzjameshorse1745 has posted 4 times (0 in the last month).
Victims and an Amnesty
From the UTV Report last night we are told that a Truth Commission is “actively back on the Agenda”. Its hard not to conclude that we are being softened up to be prepared for an announcement, the draft of which is possibly known in British and Irish Government circles and the Conflict Resolutionists (with a [...] more »
So Why Do Nice People Vote Sinn Féin?
So why do nice people vote Sinn Féin? I suppose we should ask one. Take the case of a Sluggerite who describes himself on his profile as ……a socialist, republican, moderate and nationalist. And skeptical of Journalism and Conflict Resolution. He first voted as a 18 year old in West Belfast for Republican Labour and Gerry [...] more »
In the event of a tie……Alliance Party votes count as double.
I have a lot of time for the Alliance Party. Most people have. Forty years of non sectarianism is no mean achievement. Of course they have made mistakes. I think that the “re-designation” fiasco might well have been their biggest and just about every Alliance person I have ever met agrees. It was not their [...] more »
Culture After Conflict: Between Remembrance and Reconciliation.
Ulster Museum 23rd March …Sponsored by Instiute of British-Irish Studies (IBIS) at UCD. Following closely on “Remembering the Future” a CRC event, IBIS held a related event at the Ulster Museum. There were about 200, mostly pre-registered, “attendees” but I noted that many of the well known names on the list did not actually show [...] more »
Latest comments from fitzjameshorse1745 (see all)
fitzjameshorse1745 has commented 3,943 times (56 in the last month).
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Books
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“Unionism Decayed 1997-2007″ by David Vance: book review
I initially wrote this when the book was first published three years ago; whilst certain elements of it now sound dated, its basic premise that the period of 1997-2007 was a period of irreversible decay for Northern Irish Unionism can still be argued as a valid opinion. My own feeling is that it did indeed [...] read our review » -
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 peace process not such a good model after all
Which reminds me…. Platform for Change’s driving force Robin Wilson has produced a corrective to the notion that the lessons of the NI conflict are easily exportable. Like myself, Robin is associated with the Constitution Unit. He introduced his new book in a CU blog which I here reproduce. The water crisis in Northern Ireland [...] read our review »
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Comment on Normality and rugby
on 19 May 2012 at 6:47 pm
Cant watch the Rugby.
I have West Ham & Leinster in a double.
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Comment on The withering of Irish Catholicism sees Sunday attendance plummet in the cities…
on 18 May 2012 at 11:32 am
But the fact that 84% of the population in the recent Irish census declared themselves to be Catholic is perhaps an interesting fact indicating that belief and attendance are two completely different things.
Attendance on a Sunday is one thing. Attendance for Baptisms, First Communion, Weddings, Funerals is obviously much higher.
Religious websites and bloggers, usually arguing from different perspectives now talk of an open schism in the Irish Catholic Church. And I note this has actually increased in recent months.
But as Poleglass has been mentioned, let me make a point which would certainly confirm much of what has been said. A few years back I was on a bus going thru Poleglass into city centre when two young men got on board.
Nearing the end of their journey in Divis Street, one noticed the spires of St Peters Cathedral.
“I never noticed that before”
“its been there years”
“is it Catholic?”
“I think so”
They got off at the Metro College.
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Comment on #Euro2020: Professor McWilliams open letter from Northern Ireland to the Faroe Islands…
on 17 May 2012 at 7:34 pm
When the Republic of Ireland played Iceland shortly after the death of Lady Diana, I believe they wore black armbands.
The people who died in Loughinisland were supporters of the Ireland football team. It is fitting to wear black armbands as a token of respect.
I understand Liverpool players wear armbands to commemorate their supporters killed at Hillsborough so Id be surprised if anyone took umbrage about the Ireland gesture to their supporters.
Especially as the match is against Italy.
CW,
I did in fact blog yesterday . The title was “Ulster (Rugby) is the New Norn Iron (Football)”.
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Comment on #EUREF: Souveraineté ou survie du déluge?
on 17 May 2012 at 5:43 pm
I think my reference to the “Establishment” was more nuanced than that
“Politics is about CHOICE. And the key thing is that those people who we might call the Political “Establishment”………and here I might add the business community, financial experts, journalists……are asking the people of Ireland to vote “Yes”.
I think its reasonable to say that they represent a POLITICAL Establishment. It is not necessarily by “my lights”…..merely a reasonable opinion that could be held by reasonable people.
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Comment on “I do apologise for anyone who misunderstood the way I was using the metaphor…”
on 16 May 2012 at 9:14 pm
I have to say that I found the comments of Mr Bell and Ms Anderson refreshing.
In fairness to golfers there are many golf clubs which are egalitarian and refreshingly down market allowing the likes of me thru their doors.
But there are other golf clubs which are exclusive even within Norn Iron. There may be of course golfers who have sectarian thoughts. But they often appear to be rather bigoted in other ways.
Are there still clubs which do not allow women as full members?
Are those clubs members of the Golfing Union of Ireland.
Does the GUI get any government grants?
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Comment on Would the legalisation of cannibis help reduce the drug problem in Derry (and elsewhere)?
on 15 May 2012 at 11:07 pm
I have no direct knowledge of drugs but part of the myth seems to be that it is a young persons “thing”. Some years ago, I recall a conversation with colleagues and most (people in their 40s and 50s) seemed to have experimented when younger.
The current young cannabis users are in some casaes second and third generation.
Thr interesting thing about drug siezures is the quantities available for local use………which indicates that there is a “market” rather like there is for dodgy cigarettes and dodgy petrol.
I dont drink alcohol myself and I actually think of it as in need of more control that the habit of choice of hippy folk.
It seems to me that alcohol (certainly) and tobacco (thru illness) is a bigger killer.
Yet there is simply two seperate worlds. Those of us who dont know about such things. And those who do.
About a decade ago, we were called on by a man doing some kinda follow up census. And after we had answered his questions, he asked if he could talk to the only (then) teenager in the house…my second son.
He called him over to his laptop, pointed to a question on the screen and asked him to answer one or possibly two questions by indicating A, B C whatever on the screen.
And this without reading out question or discussing with parents (Mrs FJH was in the room). When my son answered, he thanked us all and left.
When he left we asked our son what the question/s was and we were a little taken aback to discover that the question/s related to illegal drug use.
My recollection now some ten years later is that one question was certainly…..if my son knew where to obtain illegal drugs “yes Daddy…..everybody at school knows” and there was possibly a second question about whether he had ever taken illegal drugs.
I remain rather surprised that the census man did not discuss this issue with parents first. Our reaction to him asking if he could speak to our son was bemusement and even a little pride (if thats the right word) that our son was old enough to have an opinion for the census man. Our assumption of course was that it was something vaguely to do with schools, hospitals, recreation whatever.
As a parent I have always believed in “no surprises”, that nobody should know more about my children than I do. Frankly I felt undermined. If “everybody knows” were drugs are bought sold, then it should not be left to a quasi-confidential statistical agency.
Im still pretty angry about it.
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Comment on Licence fee freeze leads BBC NI slashes top journalist jobs…
on 14 May 2012 at 2:10 pm
To some extent, concentrating on Nolan takes the thread away in a direction that is maybe different from the original post.
But a couple of points.
In his first programme (Alex Attwood) Nolan was a bit over the top.
His treatment of Attwood probably facilitated Poots decision not to appear the next week. I only watched parts of those shows and have not seen anything since.
While emphasing that I dont think politicians are best served by appearing on shows which are “light entertainment”, I dont think Nolan served his own programme..or interests (or indeed the BBCs) well by appearing to be a parody of himself.
It would certainly be interesting to have been a fly on the wall at any BBC de-briefing on the first show. I certainly detected a more subdued less over the top version of Nolan in programme 2.
Has any politician appeared since? I dont know.
But the point is that if a politician …….and Nolan…..want to play the game…..there has to be a certain give and take.
Do politicians need Nolan more, less or the same as he needs them?
Probably it depends on the politician.
But surely Nolans target audience is the “anti-politician overclass” and presumably he pitches the programme to BBC commissioning folk on the basis that politicians will turn up.
If he is to look after his own interests, he therefore needs to turn down the aggression.
Whether he is the next Terry Wogan or Simon Dee is up to him.
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Comment on Ian Junior claimed £10,000 in postage in his six last months in office…
on 14 May 2012 at 12:08 pm
I am not a constituent of Mr Paisley nor a DUP voter but he sent me TWO letters. So if he sends letters to non-constituents (and actually he replies very quickly) then fair play to him.
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Comment on Licence fee freeze leads BBC NI slashes top journalist jobs…
on 13 May 2012 at 9:11 pm
Comrade Stalin
Refusing to go on the Nolan Show is hardly the politicians dictating terms to the media. Indeed recent evidence at the Leveson Inquiry suggests that the exact reversal is the more likely.
Is it really a “game”?
If so that is a “game” politicians shouldnt play.
I dont much like talking about Nolan (save for a good one-liner) but with hand on heart I can say that I have never listened to his radio show and would get out of any taxi if the driver insisted on listening to it.
I HAVE seen bits and pieces of his TV show and am unimpressed.
Its hardly “shock jock” of the very worst kind. Rather it is “Shock-Jock Lite” with occasionally synthetic debate over sometimes meaningless issues.
Any programme which includes the words “what to you think Pamela in Newtownards” or “Kevin from Coalisland is on the line” is a programme I dont want to hear.
If I thought idiots had something important to say, Id take up blogging……….oh wait.
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Comment on #EUREF: Heart saying ‘no’; but will the head say otherwise?
on 12 May 2012 at 5:41 pm
The art of the “possible”?
There is always a tendency to vote within limits that are set.
Thus BNP, TUV, UKIP, Communist, Green, Workers Party or Ron Paul are outside the “limits” and people vote in a context of reality.
So Head always wins over Heart.
But even within the realistic boundaries there is a certain room for Head (the Right) versus Heart (Left).
But the Global and European Crisis has produced a situation where political parties previously anxious to stress the differences are al telling the Electorate that there is no alternative.
The Greeks did not like that and will that embolden the Irish electorate.
In Dublin last week it was clear that the establishment was urging a “yes” vote while the perceived cranks (People Before Profit, Socialist, Green, Workers Party, Sinn Féin) are urging “no”.
Even allowing for SF going mainstream rather than crank….the “No” vote will be beyond the strength of the usual suspects.
While I would certainly vote “No” if I had a vote, I may not actually want that to happen.
The best result might be Yes 51%…..No 49%.
The “Heart”/No needs to be strengthened but shamefully all the brains seem to be on the “Head”/Yes side.
But hopefully they will get a scare.
The worst indictment of Politics and Politicians is their “there is no alternative” mantra….whether over auterity or bank bail outs.
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