Profile for thedissenter
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thedissenter has commented 537 times (22 in the last month).
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Books
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Books: Listening to Van Morrison…
Great little review of Listening to Van Morrison by Griel Marcus… It’s a short book, not a biography or a career survey, but an attempt to follow those moments in Morrison’s music, as he’s made it from his first records with Them, from Belfast in 1965 to the present day, when something happens that breaks [...] read our review »
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“Good Friday. The death of Irish Republicanism” by Anthony McIntyre: a review
This was a book that I first reviewed at the same time as “Unionism Decayed” back in 2008. Like Vance’s work, it is the author’s portrayal of a defeated political movement or ideal and as a Unionist it was instructional to read an interpretation of the immediate post-Agreement period from the other side of the fence. [...] read our review » -
Risk of going beyond either/or…
This is article was first published in Fortnight magazine back in February 2003. Chris Farrington is now a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellow funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ in the School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin. Although the circumstances it describes has changed radically and [...] read our review »
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Comment on #EUREF: Real political price of the Treaty is “shift from community to union”…
on 21 May 2012 at 10:20 pm
Political union, with central budget and ‘treasury’, and (preferably) independent bank, is the natural consequence of a fiscal union. Doesn’t work otherwise.
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Comment on Martina Anderson to take over from Bairbre de Brun as MEP?
on 15 May 2012 at 5:13 pm
Does it matter who SF sends? As the farming lobby is an important aspect to MEP ‘work’ looking forward to the pics of her in wellies. Her agricultural outreach would need to be better than her efforts with Unionists.
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Comment on “Mr Varadkar said Ireland and Britain could become a ‘mini-Schengen’”
on 15 May 2012 at 1:26 pm
When was the last time anyone was stopped questioned and deported from Northern Ireland for not having a travel visa? Just wondering. Different perhaps flying into Heathrow, but even there the Dublin flights are pretty much domestic. It is only when you try to fly out of Heathrow or wherever and present your passport that the issue arises. There have been some examples of some visitors being caught out, but cannot recall the circumstances – or the circumstances were not adquately explained in news reports.
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Comment on Sinn Fein’s split political personality north and south…
on 15 May 2012 at 1:20 pm
And do they believe in free presciptions – North and South. Does SF believe we should be paying for a doctor’s visit as they do in the South, or should that be free? And then….
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Comment on Anglican motion on sexuality and marriage a prelude to the fight over Harper’s succession?
on 15 May 2012 at 1:12 pm
Peter makes excellent points. Politicisation has often transfered terminology to theological debate that is inappropriate. Mick, I very much doubt that the Bishop wishes to push to the point of schism – not COI, indeed the very antithesis. For the Church this is a theological debate, not a political one – something ‘rights’ campaigners need to keep in mind if they wish to gain friends and influence people.
Your more recent post shows progress.
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Comment on Anglican motion on sexuality and marriage a prelude to the fight over Harper’s succession?
on 14 May 2012 at 6:55 pm
The CoI is complex. Deans of Cathedrals are in charge of Cathedrals, not the Bishops. While the candidates are restricted by origin, they have of course in the first instance been elected from the diocese. So it kind of cascades up, in ever decreasing circles. Clergy still appointed, but churches do have some say I think. Not entirely CoI, so not 100% on the ins and outs, ups and downs.
Isn’t the Canterbury job still an appointment by the Queen which de facto (of course the Queen is the head of the Church) becomes head of the Anglican Communion which itself is a bit of a concensus thing?
The point on Brady is exactly the difference. Catholics have no means of changing the Church without Rome being on side. The only way is out – perhaps part of the increase in Protestant church affiliation in the last Southern census. Protestants would probably just set up a new Church and get on with it.
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Comment on Anglican motion on sexuality and marriage a prelude to the fight over Harper’s succession?
on 14 May 2012 at 4:23 pm
“To most of us who don’t count ourselves as Anglicans, the Church of Ireland is something of a mystery…”
From the comments on the Slugger site there is a presumption to interpretation of the Protestant churches from a projection of Roman Catholic organisation – top down, little room for dissidents. Using RC because the Anglican Church also believes in the Catholic church, though probably meaning something different. That’s the start. Anglicanism is designed to concensus, and balance between clergy and laity – the tensions makes change slow. Presbyterians bottom-up and not top-down, with the head of the church no greater than any member really. The rest of the denominations are somewhere inbetween apart from the gospel halls which have no wider body and are each to their own. Each congregation is its own Church, the chuch is the building – true of almost any denomination. The other independence of mind and local organisation is something common to greater or lesser extent. Any clearer?
It is why Brady is an ‘institutional’ problem for the Catholic Chuch, while problems in a local Protestant church tend to be local and isolated.
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Comment on #EUREF: “Voting No would rapidly expose how unimportant we now are”
on 13 May 2012 at 4:00 pm
Vincent Browne misses the bigger issue – the peripherals ensuring weak Euro which keeps Germany massively competitive globally, and in productivity terms massively ahead of the peripherals. Imagine where Germany would be without the Euro as money poured into its economy as a ‘safe haven’ just as has happened in Switzerland.
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Comment on Perhaps politicians should check their own houses are in order before attacking the church?
on 8 May 2012 at 1:27 pm
“It’s also clear that the Catholic church is not the only offending religious institution in either jurisdiction,… ”
Over the past week these broad statements have been made as if we should all know what is being talked about. No specific examples are provided. At best it is sloppy at worst it is deliberate deflection from the specifics being discussed.
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Comment on Europe’s Super Sunday Provides Few Clear Answers So Far
on 8 May 2012 at 9:08 am
TG ref “The Party (Priate) cannot be ignored” if taken in context of the orginal comment referred to members of the CDU (including Parliamentarians) who simply dismissed the Pirates as fringe – or where dismissively hostile. Perhaps it is a Party of the moment, but even so the methods of engagement are fascinating and worth watching.
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