Northern Ireland
Obama’s “Peace comes dropping slow (but not necessarily *this* slow)” speech in Belfast…
Tweet So, Obama’s speech? As Fionnuala O’Connor pointed out on BBC NI yesterday comparisons with past speeches are ill-placed. When Clinton spoke in 1995, she argued there was a lot riding on it. There was virtually nothing riding on Obama’s delivery yesterday. The regular mis-pronunciations were testament to the downgrading of Northern Ireland both in [...] more »
#G8: Taxation should remain focused on capital and employees not where sales are generated…
Tweet Sammy Wilson’s negative comments re the Republic’s tax regime at the weekend, just before the G8 convened, was clearly jumping on board mumbling from the US Congress, and Westminster PAC… …the British government does have some leverage on the Irish Government there, because they have a £7.5 billion loan, that is a lot of [...] more »
Obama strikes a note of realism in making a cautious appeal to open a gate in the peace walls before tearing them down
Tweet While it causes a thrill to see Obama in town, lockdown bloated security hassle and all, visits by presidents, prime ministers and even popes are now subject to the law of diminishing returns. Timed to deliver a powerful boost the fledgling peace process in 1995, Bill Clinton’s impact at the City Hall was bound to [...] more »
Obama’s Speech in Belfast…
Tweet Obama’s just arriving at the Waterfront Hall… I’ll try and note the main highlights of the speech here (when he gets to the podium)… We're about to go LIVE!! UTV with full #Obama coverage at 9.25am. And don't forget the live online blog http://t.co/2o7j6pC8P9 — Marc Mallett (@MarcMallett_UTV) June 17, 2013 And US people, [...] more »
G8 Youth Summit looks beyond Trade, Tax and Transparency to focus on Equality, Poverty, Health and Peace
Tweet Around a hundred 16-25 year olds from across Ireland converged on the G8 summit site a month early to put together a shared vision of the top four issues they wanted the G8 leaders to address. Before they left, the young people attending the G8 Youth Summit presented their ideas to the British Secretary [...] more »
Query: Why are the EU and Republic of Ireland flags at the Lough Erne G8 resort?
Tweet Just out of curiosity I noted both the EU and Republic of Ireland flags flying at the Lough Erne resort in County Fermanagh on the local news earlier today. Now the G8 leaders countries are the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, France, Russia & Italy. Apparently the Presidents of the EU Commission and European [...] more »
“Adding more weapons to this volatile situation could destabilise the entire region…”
Tweet The Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers were in a sunny Downing Street garden yesterday, welcoming that suspect package, and extolling the virtues of demonstrating “peacefully, positively, constructively” [Is that with, or without, a Thompson sub-machine gun? - Ed] Without, probably… ANYhoo, on the same day Sinn Féin released the text of what appears [...] more »
‘#G8 development dividend in the balance’ – 5 issues to watch
Tweet This is a guest post from Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Director Kevin Watkins Effective action at the G8 summit could see Africa reap a ‘development dividend’ that boosts poverty reduction and sets the region on a course for more self-reliant growth, according to the Director of the UK’s leading development think tank. The ODI has described [...] more »
Theresa Villiers Pre G8 package for Northern Ireland…
Tweet So, I’m on the hoof at the moment, but here’s Theresa Villiers (substantially Owen Patterson’s original outline) package: An additional £100 million in capital borrowing powers for the Executive over 2014-15 and 2015-16 to support specific shared housing and education projects. A further £42 (€50) million in UK funding for the PEACE IV programme [...] more »
NI21′s chair Tina McKenzie on why she got involved, party labels and Alliance
Tweet New to politics but not a newcomer to recruitment or change management, Tina McKenzie chairs the newly launched NI21. She was interviewed by Kerri Dunn for yesterday’s On the Record politics show on Lisburn’s 98FM. Over the twenty minute interview she answered questions about why she joined the party, her thoughts about standing as [...] more »
‘Tax avoidance’ makes the G8 in Fermanagh more meaningful to Dublin than Stormont…
Tweet Yep, and if you want a short (if a little repetitive) pen picture of what and the who of the G8, this short video from the US Embassy in London is as good a grab as any. You can see from the ariel photographs here just why the Lough Erne Golf Resort was such [...] more »
For the sake of the future, the Assembly needs reform
Tweet You could be forgiven for failing to notice that the Assembly’s Assembly and Executive Review Committee has been holding a review on “D’Hondt; Community Designation and Provisions for Opposition” over the past four months. As the committee is due to report about now we’ve not got long to contain our excitement. The sweeping nature of the inquiry contrasts [...] more »
In learning from the past do honesty and comprehensiveness cancel each other out?
Tweet “There must be ghosts all over the country. They lie thick as grains of sand. And we’re all so horribly afraid of the light.” - Henrik Ibsen (1881) So the past is a foreign place after all. Nowhere more-so than in Northern Ireland. The decision to ‘plant’ the G8 in Northern Ireland is testimony [...] more »
Ireland’s Call as you may never have heard it before….
Tweet Don’t you just hate American candour… We never ever get to hear Irish rugby players render Ireland’s Call in their own voices… Check this about here, but don’t say you weren’t warned… (most of the US players had the sense not to try, and those who did were largely drowned out by the crowd..) more »
SDLP is the only Assembly party to refuse the latest £5,000 pay rise
Tweet Interesting use of an FOI by a political party (never wrong for long, I’m told it was the Nolan Show wot found it out), ie to find out whether any of the other political parties at Stormont refused their 11% pay rise. Mark H Durkan: “The independent panel which recommended the payrise are completely [...] more »
“It is the politics of self-interest, exclusion, and fear…”
Tweet Less than a week after MLAs Basil McCrea and John McCallister announced the launch of their new party, NI21, and the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Business Committee has changed the number of MLAs a party requires to be eligible for a first round place in the order of party speaking rights in the assembly. A change that affects only the [...] more »
If Ireland north and south can commemorate the First World War together, so should the Germans alongside the wartime Allies
Tweet A piece in the Indy by Matthew Norman on the UK’s plans to commemorate World War 1 has to be read quite carefully to register the satire against the (English) Culture secretary’s smiley moral equivalence approach to the vexed issue of war guilt. Were the Germans the clear aggressors or “were we all to blame?” [...] more »
For all Obama’s problems, can communication in the ‘social’ era now ever mean ‘private’?
Tweet So Edward Snowden has unleashed a bit of a landslide of opinion. Opinion, apparently, that the POTUS is now welcomes. [Does that mean Edward Snowden will get time off for performing a public service? - Ed]. Mark Mardell makes an interesting observation, to the effect that this is as much the changing use of [...] more »
No room for British #flegs in, erm, British Fermanagh…
Tweet Aha, I wondered how long it would take. In today’s Irish News Fionnuala O’Connor that it is ‘time to give all our identities a rest’. But not in Fermanagh. It started with the council airbrushing an English flag of St George from the top of Enniskillen Castle in a leaflet, now, according SF MLA [...] more »
Two new minority language community radio stations on either side of the Bann
Tweet OFCOM has announced five new community radio licenses today, of which one will be going Irish Gaelic and the other Ullans… In its application, fUSe FM said it will “reflect the traditions, language and culture of Ulster Scots in Ballymoney and surrounding areas”. Raidió G said in its application that it “will serve the [...] more »
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Books
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The Earl Bishop
Tweet Interesting BBC article on an upcoming presentation and talk [Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, 17 August] by lecturer and broadcaster Stephen Price on the subject of his new book – The Earl Bishop. The 18th Century ”Earl Bishop” was Frederick Augustus Hervey, fourth Earl of Bristol and Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry. Hervey was also [...] read our review »
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Philip Orr’s New Perspectives – Politics, Religion and Conflict in Mid-Antrim, 1911-1914: Book Review and Website Launch
Tweet A valuable resource on local history went digital last week with the launch of a new website called ‘New Perspectives’ on Home Rule,hosted by the Braid Mid-Antrim Museum in Ballymena. The content of the website is based on a book by Philip Orr, New Perspectives: Politics, Religion and Conflict in Mid-Antrim, 1911-1914, published last [...] read our review » -
At the current rate of progress, gender equality of MLAs at Stormont will only take another 65 years
Tweet Bronagh Hinds’ chapter of Everyday Life After the Irish Conflict: The Impact of Devolution and Cross-Border Cooperation [reviewed yesterday] examines women’s political participation points to limited progress in addressing the gender balance of political institutions. The proportion of councillors who are female rose to 24 per cent in 2011 from 14 per cent in [...] read our review »
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