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streetlegal has commented 39 times (5 in the last month).
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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 » -
Do Words Matter?: Book Review of Political Discourse and Conflict Resolution – Debating Peace in Northern Ireland
I share many of the concerns of Andy Pollak, whose recent post ‘My Response to the Slugger Begrudgers’ zeroed in on the ‘relentless flow of negativity’ of some Slugger commentators. Pollak’s post was largely concerned with the medium of the blog. Indeed, I think the anonymity of the online world encourages extreme discourse and allows [...] read our review »
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“You can see Newton’s mind at work…”
To add to the open access treasure trove at the Royal Society, Cambridge University Library is putting online some of its collection of books, maps, manuscripts and journals. We have called the first phase of our work on the Cambridge Digital Library the Foundations Project, which runs from mid-2010 to mid-2013 and has been made possible [...] read our review »
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Comment on Are public libraries under-appreciated and under-used?
on 14 May 2012 at 12:23 pm
The local library in my area also provides a group session for mothers and toddlers to go together for an hour of story telling and songs etc – which is a great way to use what is a very important neutral public space. I think that the local libraries should be thinking more in terms of this kind of community activity.
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Comment on Licence fee freeze leads BBC NI slashes top journalist jobs…
on 14 May 2012 at 11:00 am
I can’t see the value of the Nolan television program. I don’t think that it adds anything useful. It seems to be a straightforward rehash of the radio show.
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Comment on Pay your rates by credit card: you pay 2% extra. Pay by debit card: LPS pay 29p.
on 14 May 2012 at 10:51 am
The option of not paying at all, or delaying ad infinitum, is of course always there. The LPS has a huge backlog – and I do mean huge in monetary terms – of uncollected rates from previous years going back as far as you wish to go. Those who choose not to pay – or delay their payments – have little to lose. Eventually, in a small number of cases, they may get a court order required them to settle their account, but the trruth is that most cases of rate default are not pursued.
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Comment on Perhaps politicians should check their own houses are in order before attacking the church?
on 11 May 2012 at 10:56 am
Why is the role of Cardinal O’Fiaich never mentioned in relation to these matters? He was the head of the organisation from 1977-1990, but apparently still celebrated as a great leader – even the Culturlann in Belfast changed its name recently to honour his record.
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Comment on “RAAD was founded in 2008 by members and recent ex-members of the Provisional IRA in Derry…”
on 11 May 2012 at 10:46 am
What is clear is that RAAD could not continue to act in Derry if they had not received clearance from the Provisional IRA Army Council. Mr McGuinness is wearing his other hat here.
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Comment on “This has been custom and practice, I have just put it in writing.”
on 15 March 2012 at 11:08 am
The Stormont ministers all take there direction on day to day business from their deparmental officials. There letters and statements are drafted by these senior civil servants. In reality the ministers themselves have very little knowledge of what their departments are doing from one day to the next.
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Comment on Thank you Sinn Fein (now how about expanding the shadow of the future?)…
on 15 March 2012 at 11:01 am
The McArdle sacking should be seen as part of Provisional Sinn Fein’s ‘Operation Mainstream’. Perhaps if they don’t talk about what they did in the armed struggle, the electorate will think they are a mainstream, middle of the road political party.
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Comment on Red Squirrels of Prehen Woods: Under imminent threat from planners and developers?
on 15 February 2012 at 11:25 am
There has been an unhealthily cosy relationship between senior civil servants in Planning and the developers. This explains why so many highly questionable developments have been given the green light.
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Comment on raising an old issue like employment
on 14 February 2012 at 1:04 pm
The old underlying patterns of employment in NI are much more resistant to change than people imagined. Traditionally businesses owned and run by members of the Protestant middle class community did not tend to employ working class Catholics, for a whole variety of cultural reasons. Since the 1970s the public service has made up some of this shortfall in Catholic employment, through open competition to government jobs. But now that public employment is beginning to wane, so we see that Catholic unemployment is once again on the rise.
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Comment on DSD withdraw funding for Laganside Events
on 14 February 2012 at 12:48 pm
It has got to be said that millions and millions are spent every year on the arts in the Greater Belfast area. Although some public money is now finding it’s way to Derry in time for the City of Culture, outside of the two big cities there is precious little public funding for the arts. Perhaps the feeling amongst the civil service mandarins up in Belfast is that ‘the money would only be wasted on the culties’ – faraway communities of which the Belfast mandarins know little and care even less.
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