Post Archives for Mick Fealty
Dublin stories: Under the Why Go Bald Sign…
“But I was impecunious and with her could not agree…” Via Broadsheet.ie more »
#EUREF: Real political price of the Treaty is “shift from community to union”…
Very good piece in the Irish Times today by John O’Brennan of NUI Maynooth, on the scale and dimensions of the democratic deficit that attaches to the Fiscal Compact… In effect he argues that it will dramatically sideline European Commission where smaller countries like Ireland can at least broker some national influence on the EU: [...] more »
Education Minister refuses to provide colleagues with a breakdown of £2 Billion of funding for schools…
So there’s been a little addendum to the sudden, and last minute, reappearance of £72 million in funding in the Department of Education just before the minister was expected to explain his spending patterns to the Finance Minister. It seems the Finance Minister is not best pleased [Ahem, well we did suggest he mightn't be [...] more »
History like you’ve never seen it before….
Drunk History vol. 6 w/ John C. Reilly & Crispin Glover from Drunk History Great history telling schtick, one of a series of five… more »
Sectarianism in Northern Ireland is common (and popular) across all classes…
Alex Kane has a marvellous take on the Golf Club issue that blew up last week… He argues that Jonathan Bell’s only mistake was to single out golf clubs as singular offenders, and that the DUP should not have backed down… But then he gives the argument a gentle twist: If you’re looking for evidence [...] more »
Stormont not so keen on transparency or the FOI Act…
I think the significance of this News Letter story is the Stormont administration’s attitude to transparency and openness, especially, but not solely, with regard to ‘awkward questions’ from the public. The information being sought was the details of Sinn Fein appointed ministerial drivers. But, for me, this is core of the issue: DFP claimed in [...] more »
Euro crisis: When “earth’s proud empires pass away”…
Andrew Roberts in the FT with a little touch of cold realism on the Euro crisis. He also picks out the underlying political and economic problem here, and advises the EU to prepare for a big bang he argues springs from a federalist overreach of the original Treaty of Rome that never fitted such an [...] more »
New media, Libya and the shift in politics now civilians have “rushed the field”…
There was an interesting conversation between Noel Thompson and Jonathan Chavez on Hearts and Minds last night, regarding how new media is changing politics… Well earlier in the week, I’d been conducting my own series of interviews with John Pollock who is contributing editor to MIT’s Technology Review… His latest work looks for a feel [...] more »
“The link between taxing and spending is basic to democracy…”
Newton Emerson hitting several nails on the head and perhaps begins to explain why all our parties have turned (by default) in “tight little Tories”… more »
The withering of Irish Catholicism sees Sunday attendance plummet in the cities…
It seems that Catholicism is on the wane in what were once urban strongholds. Maeve Connolly has a big front page splash on the front of the Irish News today on regular Mass attendances of just 4% in Poleglass. Holy Family in north Belfast is just bringing 17% of the local Catholic population. Dublin Archdiocese [...] more »
Civil Rights hero receives a belated honour…
Nice turn of phrase from former Tory MP Matthew Parris in The Times today… Struggles produce heroes whose names fade after their cause prevails, but Mr [Jeffrey] Dudgeon’s should never be forgotten: the Beflast shipping clerk who – because homosexuality remained a criminal offence in Northern Ireland – took the UK Government to the European [...] more »
#Euro2020: Professor McWilliams open letter from Northern Ireland to the Faroe Islands…
Having made a expression of interest in hosting Euro 2020, the FAI, SFA and WFA are not actually committed to bid and presumably won’t until they work out: 1, whether even together they can afford it; 2, whether they have even a pup’s chance of getting before spending a penny on any prospective campaign. Having [...] more »
Not everything you hear about Greece is true…
Richard Parker from Harvard’s Kennedy School shoots a few urban myths on Greek profligacy… more »
#EUREF: Souveraineté ou survie du déluge?
FitzJamesHorse was in Dublin yesterday. His description of the way the yes camp (by his lights, ‘the establishment’) for Referendum on the Fiscal Compact as a Hobson’s Choice”: The legacy for European democracies is that their politcians have actually managed to restrict REAL CHOICE. In Ireland for example, no mainstream political party has been articulating [...] more »
A quick backward glance on European History…
At a time when politics and economics in Europe is busting open day by day, it’s probably as well to remember Europe didn’t always look the way it does today… UPdate: Thanks to salgado for the replacements… more »
Paisley: I have nothing to apologise for…
And, it seems the former junior Minister is refusing to apologise for those £10,000 worth of free Assembly envelopes… North Antrim MLA Daithi McKay says he has questions to answer… and it seems he’s getting the same answer his own party gave after the Inkgate controversy… which is roughly, “I didn’t do anything wrong, now [...] more »
Unemployment in Ireland: a tale of two countries…
As figures on the live register of unemployed in the Republic continue to even out at 14.5% (albeit at historically high levels,) the NI Labour market report released this morning shows a slight drop in unemployment rates 6.7%, down 0.5 percentage points over both the quarter and year… Hardly an indication of a recovery in [...] more »
Looks like the Minister really did find that extra £72 million down the back of a departmental sofa…
Interesting that with just over a month to go before Sammy Wilson puts all departmental budgets under scrutiny to see what he can claw back for DFP, the Education Minister managed to locate £72 million of ‘savings’ over the next three years. According to the Minister’s party political presser, this figure was as a result [...] more »
“There are many ways to guarantee that growth won’t happen.”
Whilst Greece heads back to the polls (possibly to return a ‘can’t pay, won’t pay’ leftist government, Liam Halligan in last Sunday’s Telegraph has a timely reminder that some Irish politicians might care to mull over… It concerns the false dichomy between austerity and growth… In reality “growth versus austerity” is a false and dangerous [...] more »
Martina Anderson to take over from Bairbre de Brun as MEP?
Looks like the one big prize in Northern Ireland for Sinn Fein is going to Martina Anderson who will succeed Bairbre de Brun as sitting MEP. Others mentioned in dispatches include Catriona Ruane, whom some commentators felt would have been out of her depth in Brussels and Strasbourg. A competent and safe pair of hands [...] more »
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Books
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A poem for the day – Launching the Whaler Juan Peron
A Belfast epic, and one of my oldest poems, the opener of my first collection, Grub. The gist of the story was found in Moss & Hume’s Shipbuilders to the World: 125 Years of Harland and Wolff, Belfast, 1861-1986, which tells how Eva Peron was due to launch a huge whaling vessel in Belfast, built [...] read our review » -
Turas, by Colin Neill – a story of strangers in a strange land
Colin Neill’s first novel Turas peeks into a world in which many Ulster Protestants feel uncomfortable. It’s 2020 and the Irish unification that unionists and loyalists confidently predicted would never happen has become a reality. President Adams is ensconced in Phoenix Park. The newsreader reported that … a short ceremony at Stormont had confirmed the [...] read our review »
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Round up of Tuesday’s Political Studies Association conference
If you want to get a flavour of the proceedings at the Political Studies Association conference on its opening day, then the Storify collation below will bring you some of the images, tweets and sounds of the day. Particular highlights included: the Opening Plenary with David Blunkett, Peter Riddell and Matthew Flinders; and the late [...] read our review »
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