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The Impartial Observer has commented 22 times (0 in the last month).
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Books
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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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John Laird for Christmas?
John Laird (Lord Laird of Artigarvan) is unionism’s jester. His memoir A Struggle To Be Heard ” by a True Ulster Liberal” (from Slugger’s shop on Amazon here) might serve more as a heavy stocking filler than anybody’s idea of a main present. In it he wears the masks of comedy and tragedy to turn the [...] read our review »
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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 »
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Comment on BBC goes on the attack against Robinson tonight…
on 31 March 2010 at 12:25 am
Not surprising to see the name Fred Fraser come up again. I used to work in The Planning Service and I’ve heard a lot of stories about questionable decisions over the years. If even half of them turned out to be try there would be a lot of politicians for all sides forced to resign.
We need a thorough investigation of the planning system as is underway in ROI.
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Comment on “Police were evacuating the area when the bomb went off.”
on 24 February 2010 at 1:14 am
Like many people living in the Newry area I heard this bomb go off last night, a sound I’d hoped I’d never hear again. If this attack had 15-20 years ago the reaction locally would have been ambivalent, the reaction I’ve heard today, even from many people I know who are of a strongly Republican background is one of palpable anger. There is a real feeling in Newry of “How dare they do this to us!”
Many people are wheeling out the line that the dissidents have no support. While that is true the sad fact is that these wankers have no interest in building a support base in the community, if there was only one of them left then he would carry on regardless. Sadly Pearse’s famous line that as long as there is a British presence in Ireland there will be those who will oppose that presence,” still holds. The encouraging thing is that the vast majority of those who oppose that presence are resolved to do so by democratic means. The likelihood is that the dissidents cannot sustain a campaign for years like PIRA did and they will soon end up a blind alley. But we cannot take that for granted.
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Comment on Cameron backs the deal: over to you Reg…
on 5 February 2010 at 11:15 pm
He will go along with it eventually but he will play hard to get so as to try and get a more definite commitment on Executive reform.
Nothing wrong with that!
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Comment on “He is an outstanding politician”
on 5 February 2010 at 11:12 pm
Oh get a room Shaun!!
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Comment on The (er, another) Hillsborough Agreement…
on 5 February 2010 at 5:12 pm
It’s a clear win for SF. They wanted a date for P&J they’ve got it. I can’t see any similar tangible success for the DUP. Parading will be reviewed but there’s no guaruntee that something will come of that and The Parades Commission remains until they can all agree on what to replace it.
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Comment on Identifying the 14 ahead of an apostolic departure?
on 3 February 2010 at 11:47 pm
Critical Alien,
If the reason for pushing that application through is only the level of “support” then quite honestly that stinks! If Planning Service had been minded to approve it then 500 objections wouldn’t have changed their minds. Those letters were clearly pro-forma letters given to people to sign, the obvious question is who produced and circulated them?
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Comment on Identifying the 14 ahead of an apostolic departure?
on 3 February 2010 at 5:15 pm
#20 Often on major applications objectors will submit bogus objections by taking names from the phonebook to give the impression of more opposition than there actually is. Planning Service acknowledge them and then the person named cotacts them to say that they never objected to it, apparently there were several hundred bogus objections to the Ballymoney lignite mine!
It might be interesting to ask Planning Service if it received any contact from people who were listed as supporting this application but never signed anything to that affect!
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Comment on Identifying the 14 ahead of an apostolic departure?
on 3 February 2010 at 3:21 pm
#4 Well they’ve just announced that they are not going to merge with the DUP and will push ahead with the UCUNF project.
Obviously the smell of DUP blood is so strong that even Reg can’t resist!
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Comment on Identifying the 14 ahead of an apostolic departure?
on 3 February 2010 at 3:21 pm
#4 Well they’ve just announced that they are not going to merge with the DUP and will push ahead with the UCUNF project.
Obviously the smell of DUP blood is so strong that even Reg can’t resist!
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Comment on Identifying the 14 ahead of an apostolic departure?
on 3 February 2010 at 3:11 pm
Re. The letters of resignation, I’m sure I read somwhere that if a DUP MLA could show that they were forced or coerced into signing the letter then it’s legally null and void.
I hope the media are going to run with the planning story. Talking with former colleagues in the Planning Service it seems that senior management regularly overrule staff on applications. That’s all I will say!
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