In Jan Carson’s The Fire Starters, there is a quote: “There is never enough silence to contain all our talking…….we continue to believe that across the sea, Europe (and also the world) is holding its breath for the next chapter in our sad story. The world is not waiting.” More than anywhere else in the UK, Brexit shifted the ground beneath Northern Ireland. It threw us down on different sides, sides that were also the battle lines that came before. …
How will the parties “reflect” on their stance towards Assembly restoration during the Christmas lull? Will it be peace on earth, good will to all or only a Christmas truce? The finger of fate is pointed at the DUP. Will their resentment spill over into resistance? How dare the secretary of state break precedent and single them out for blame just because all the other parties seem to have supported a deal? Even that is the wrong conclusion because as …
Last week 31 MLAs including the DUP, TUV and UUP signed a petition and sent it to the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. That petition has led to a recall of the institutions. Tomorrow, the Assembly will sit for the first time since the death of Martin McGuinness. The prospect of the Assembly meeting again has many people raising questions. Can MLAs stop the introduction same sex marriage and abortion reform? Is there any prospect of a government being …
Angela Merkel gave Boris Johnson 30 days to submit alternative proposals to replace the backstop. After a long wait (where it was speculated that the Prime Minister would merely amend the Withdrawal Agreement with tip-ex) the UK Government has finally submitted its plans. Spanning seven pages, Johnson’s proposals are a mis-mash of different ideas. All the hits you know and love are back. Remember Max Fac? It’s there. Nostalgic for Customs checks? Want a border down the Irish Sea? The …
DUP Leader, Arlene Foster spoke at an event titled Vision for Unionism: Beyond 2021. First, we must engage with any, and all, supporters of the Union, regardless of whether we hold fundamentally different views on party, policy or society. Today at this initial event, we talk amongst the DUP, but this is only the opening stage of this work and from this afternoon on, we must go out, talk and listen to other Unionists. We must find areas of common …
Chris Eisenstadt is a dual national who has lived in Northern Ireland since he was 11. Recently, with the success of the English cricket team, there has been a “debate” about what it means to be English. The captain of the team, having been born in Ireland, has been praised and criticised for his decision to take to the field (is it a field? My cricket knowledge is rubbish. I’d never pass the Tebbit test) for England. I don’t know, …
As we fast approach the local council elections, it’s important to assess what the results might tell us about the future of Stormont and power-sharing as a whole. Will the council elections show a growth in the Nationalist vote? And/or will we finally see a breakthrough in middle ground voters, against the vacuum and groundhog day of our local politics? I do not need to inform all where we’re at and why. We all have slightly different takes on this, …
In 2015, Emma DeSouza married her American husband, Jake, in a ceremony in Belfast. Later that year, the couple applied for an EEA residence card. Their application relied on the 2006 EEA Regulations and was grounded in Mrs DeSouza’s Irish citizenship. In September 2016, to the couple’s surprise, their application was declined. In giving its reasons for refusing Mr DeSouza’s residence card, the Home Office referred to Mrs DeSouza’s citizenship. She was born in Northern Ireland and, in the Home …
The St Patrick’s Day parade in New York has always been controversial. In the 1980s and 1990s, while Northern Ireland was in the middle of the Troubles, NORAID would walk in the New York parade and collect money for the IRA. In 1983 Michael Flannery, who organised NORAID, was chosen as grand marshal. The decision lead to a number of politicians boycotting the event that year. The New York parade has a long history of being anti LGBT. It was …
The first Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis since the announcement of the announcement of the partnership with the SDLP, so we thought we would go down and see the response that it was getting from delegates. There was a decent number of SDLP members and MLAs at the Ard Fheis, with members curious about the event and MLAs enjoying liaising with TDs and Senators. Despite the partnership being a few weeks old, you can still detect at a membership level some …
As the drama in Westminster continues, it’s fair to say that in 2019 and beyond, Northern Ireland’s often petty and tedious politics will be interesting, as an international spotlight passes over old scars and immense change looms once again. At times, it feels like we are back on a familiar shore, where the waves grow bigger and the very sand is moving below our feet. Brexit, now, is like a meteor landing in the distant sea. Suddenly, many of the …
On Saturday I attended the ‘Beyond Brexit: Ireland’s Future’ conference in Belfast. My immediate observations were firstly the sheer number of people that were in one room; a rarity for a political event in Northern Ireland. The broad representation of speakers undermined the myth that Irish Nationalists are a homogenous group. Despite the conglomeration of those present – they were all unified under the one realisation- that Brexit has shifted politics indefinitely. And that that shift has unearthed centuries old …
[Having thrown their toys out of the pram two years ago… – Ed] ANYhoo… In the Irish Times, Gerry Moriarty reports from the nationalist “gurn-fest” in Belfast at the weekend. From the Irish Times report Essentially this was nationalism speaking to nationalism although there were few people in the hall from a unionist or Protestant background. Unionist politicians weren’t invited but they will have heard the message nonetheless, and will have been alarmed by it. Southern politicians including Minister for Education …
I shared the scepticism of others about the #IrelandsFuture event, that it seemed a bit pointless having an event were everyone agreed with each other. But I went along to check it out and I was glad I did. The turnout was astonishing. The hall in the Waterfront conference centre has a capacity of 2000, and it was full. We are happy when we get 100 in the Dark Horse for our Slugger events so to see so many people …
Sinn Fein President, Mary Lou McDonald spoke at the Brexit conference organised at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast yesterday; It is our job as leaders – each and every one of us – to now manage the evolving process of change with care, patience and generosity. To those that say, ‘now is not the time for unity’, I say otherwise. History is unfolding. The next chapter is being written. Now is the time. The biggest mistake – and most reckless …
The SDLP Leader, Colum Eastwood addressed yesterdays Ireland’s Future conference at the Waterfront Hall. Here is what I thought was a key part of his speech. There’s no point in offering a challenge to others if we don’t first challenge ourselves. Those of us who believe in a New Ireland need to offer a credible and positive vision – we will not protest our way into one. Those who have deliberately enflamed the narrative that unionism as whole is unchanging, …
Fianna Fail and the SDLP met today in Belfast to launch their new partnership arrangement. The partnership will have three key themes 1) A politics that works -This will address Anglo-Irish relations, the current political situation in Northern Ireland and a new economic model. 2) Better public services-This will address reforms to key areas such as Health and Education. 3) Uniting Ireland’s people-This will address greater cooperation on the island and the arrangement for a future poll on unity. Specific …
“Somewhere along the course of the road our conversations have drifted. They’ve centred too much on us as a party and not enough on the fate and future of the country. That stops here and now. Colum Eastwood’s first address to party members as leader remains, I believe, one of the most consequential from an SDLP Leader in over a decade. After winning a decisive victory over Alasdair McDonnell, it set the right tone for a party which had suffered …
Deep in the last ditch before Tuesday’s meaningful vote, the UK government are warning that the DUP’s refusal to back Mrs May’s deal brings a border poll nearer. The warning was put into the mouth of Karen Bradley who political anoraks may just remember is the minister with nominal responsibility for Northern Ireland affairs. No 10 put out one of their coy little briefings to say that she “told the Cabinet” that a border poll on the reunification of Ireland …
This is one of three winning articles for the Future Ireland series. The articles were submitted together – by three friends who met at college – a northern Catholic, a east Belfast Protestant, and a Dublin man. We liked the nuanced content of the pieces, the sense of identities in flux, and the fact that each tried to understand the perspectives of the others. Also how being children of the ceasefires weaves throughout their pieces. By Seanín Little Growing up …
