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Titanic: was it all right when it left here?
Not according to metallurgists Tim Foecke and Jennifer Hooper McCarty whose research has suggested that dodgy Harland and Wolff rivets were at fault for allowing the Titanic’s hull to be ripped apart by the pressure of the iceberg impact. With six of the hull’s chambers exposed to the Atlantic waters, the “unsinkable” ship lasted less [...] read our review »
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A flexible library service for the 21st century?
Following Alan’s piece on libraries, I picked this ‘advertorial’ from Google plus this evening… about how a US county library system is cutting costs and improving flexibility in their free at the point of delivery services by enabling the whole library service act as a functioning unit as opposed to the one discrete library… read our review » -
Debating the Churches’ Role in the Peace in Northern Ireland
This morning’s Sunday Sequence featured a substantial debate (about 35 minutes into the recorded programme) on a new book,Religion, Civil Society and Peace in Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press 2011), written by sociologists John Brewer, Gareth Higgins and Francis Teeney. The debate was framed in an opening vignette by presenter William Crawley in uncompromising terms, [...] read our review »
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Comment on The withering of Irish Catholicism sees Sunday attendance plummet in the cities…
on 18 May 2012 at 5:43 pm
Ulick, as an ordinary newspaper reader, it was obvious that the references to Sunday mass attendance in the 1950s and 1960s were fair, as there were no Vigil masses in those days. It was equally obvious that the Vigil figures from more recent times would be automatically included in the overall survey, which the Diocese of Down and Connor has confirmed to be accurate. It is hard to understand why you are still shooting the messager when the debate is actually about what the trends mean for the future of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
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Comment on The withering of Irish Catholicism sees Sunday attendance plummet in the cities…
on 18 May 2012 at 3:28 pm
Ulick is barking up the wrong tree. The press officer for the Diocese of Down and Connor was on Radio Ulster this morning and confirmed that the figures are accurate. A vigil mass is held on the “vigil” (evening before) the actual date of the event being celebrated, but has the same status as a Sunday mass and was included in the statistics. Rather than looking for conspiracy theories, Ulick might concentrate on what the clear and unmistakable trends in the survey actually mean for the Catholic Church.
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Comment on Local papers well represented in the Society of Editors’ Regional Press Awards shortlists
on 29 April 2012 at 8:55 pm
The stories which were shortlisted can be easily accessed BIGK, so which of them would you regard as examples of journalists who toe the line ?
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Comment on UUP and the SDLP: Two parties in search of a script?
on 11 February 2012 at 12:03 pm
Caseydog, Kilkeel is the same as every other urban centre across the north. It has too many schools, and not enough pupils, meaning that amalgamations are inevitable. They will happen, but in most places the details have yet to be finalised. Monday’s announcement may make things clearer, but you are wrong to suggest that Kilkeel will be some sort of special case.
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Comment on Signs of a toughening media treatment of NI’s politicians?
on 3 December 2011 at 9:53 pm
A couple of points leap out from Comrade Stalin’s post above.
* `The BBC must have known that Robinson’s judgement was impaired and they deliberately set that (Seamus McKee) interview up to trap him.’ Robinson was then and now both First Minister and DUP leader. If his judgment was impaired, surely the BBC had every right to expose him.
* `It’s OK to question Gerry Adams on the company he kept in the 70s but I’ve yet to see anyone question Willie McCrea on the company he was keeping in the 90s.’ McCrea was questioned so regularly and directly about his links with Billy Wright and others that the DUP has long since relegated him to the political sidelines.
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Comment on From #aras97 to #aras11: has the media decommissioned?
on 27 September 2011 at 11:21 pm
The story of the leaked DFA file was fairly well documented at the time, and there could be very little doubt that it was designed to finish off the McAleese campaign. However, the only evidence offered to justify the contention that the Irish News had switched to supporting Sinn Fein was a claim that an opinion piece by the SDLP’s Joe Byrne had been censored. When Byrne came forward and said he had never written any such article for the paper, the whole thing fell apart fairly quickly. The affair actually generated sympathy for McAleese and propelled her firmly towards the Aras.
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Comment on Irish News doesn’t always err on the side of caution
on 14 August 2011 at 11:14 am
Ulick’s recollection of the sad story of the St Teresa’s player is flawed. His father was in court in the US in highly-publicised circumstances on the same day as he died, not the previous year. The tragedy was also reported by all the main newspapers and broadcasters, not just one outlet, so the context was some distance from the version presented by Ulick.
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Comment on “Four Victims’ Commissioners have eight ears, but access to no mouth”
on 4 June 2011 at 1:52 pm
Mike Nesbitt resigned from his post over a year ago. There are therefore only three commissioners and six ears there. Should someone break this gently to big Ian ?
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Comment on Gerry Kelly: “and I don’t like being critical of the media…”
on 28 May 2011 at 12:17 pm
Fordprefect, Derryvolgie Avenue was not noted as a venue for knee-capping down the years. It is inevitable that Mary McArdle knew she was part of a carefully planned and organised murder consiprary. Her role was crucial, as gunmen always need to dispose of their weapons as swiftly as possible after a paramilitary shooting. She agreed to turn up at the scene, wearing a heavy coat and surgical stockings to conceal the guns. She was even provided with a small dog as an excuse to be walking in the area. It is a fair point that she served over 14 years as a result, which is longer than many others convicted in similar circumstances, but she knew what she was doing and would have been well aware of the consequences. She was obviously not the only ex-prisoner to serve as a special adviser at Stormont, but her case was very much under scrutiny barely a month before her appointment. Placing her in the post so siwftly looked as though a firm message was being sent out, and the Travers family are fully entitled to believe that it was aimed at them. That’s one of the main reasons this issue has received so much attention.
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Comment on “Sinn Féin needs to change”
on 25 March 2011 at 10:39 pm
FJH, my understanding – and I’m open to correction from the elected members online at present – is that the MLAs end their term of office at midnight tonight. If there really is a chip shop that still wraps its orders in newspapers, it could be out of business even sooner.
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