Nationalism
Conall McDevitt answers your questions on the SDLP leadership…
And now we have the second, in what I hope will be a series of four ‘interviews’ based on Questions provided by the Slugger readership (you can see the original thread here): 1) What would you do during your first 30 days as leader to start rebuilding the SDLP? (Original question from ‘Sean Og’) If [...] more »
Sarkozy: “We will fight to defend Europe and the euro”
With apologies to Moochin, here’s the real POTD [of the week? - Ed] when the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, had his card marked at Cannes by Frau Bundeskanzlerin. Via Daniel Hannan at the Telegraph blog. Italy have called in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but no money has changed hands, according to Berlusconi… Answering questions at a [...] more »
On the SDLP: “We were a group of individuals who belong to a broad church…”
Pretty good discussion on Hearts and Minds last night (as so often, a politician free zone, the exception of Martin who’s firmly in the Fianna Fail camp these days, is its own reward) of the strengths and weaknesses of the SDLP… Organisation seems to be a critical issue, although Fionnuala O’Connor note that what the [...] more »
Patsy McGlone answers your questions on the SDLP leadership…
And the first one of SDLP leadership contest, is Patsy McGlone. 1) What would you do during your first 30 days as leader to start rebuilding the SDLP? (Original question from ‘Sean Og’) My plan to reform, rebuild and restore the SDLP to the centre of Irish politics relies on strengthening party unity. Among the [...] more »
“Are the Scots more the Greeks or Germans? I couldn’t possibly say.”
“It’s starting”, is it? [Whatever 'it' is - Ed]. The Guardian’s Michael White spots a flaw in Alex Salmond’s cunning plan. [Does it involve turnips? - Ed] Neeps. From the Guardian Politics Blog The SNP and the Tory Eurosceptics have much in common – and I don’t mean that as a compliment, decent people though [...] more »
Back to the future with IONA?
Three cheers for the Guardian for giving space to the future of the Union ( the English-Scots version) and two to Simon Jenkins for trying to shake the Westminster establishment out of its complacency. Partly, he has in mind the commission being set up to review the conundrum of the “West Lothian Question” under which [...] more »
Unionist relations with Nationalists: “They don’t have to love us, but…”
Alex Kane argues that whilst (if we are to believe the latest NILT survey) Sinn Fein’s pitch for united Ireland is firmly in the top level percentile of the population’s 80% of optimists (this disunited kingdom is likely to remain united for some time to come), Unionist should not get complacent over their own latent [...] more »
Yes, IRA violence was remorseless, but what caused it? And who brought it to an end?
Martina Devlin with a timely observation: A debate about the North has become intertwined with the presidential race — one which should have taken place at the time of the Good Friday Agreement more than 13 years ago, but was sidelined amid euphoria about peace in our time. Quite so. It is an important debate. [...] more »
Tories struggle to maintain a political ecosphere beyond England…
The latest developments don’t mean the end of Conservatism in Scotland. But it is indicative of 1) the kind of fuzzy thinking that at times pervades some very well intentioned innovations within the Cameron kitchen cabinet; and 2) the dearth of committed Scots within the modern Conservative party. And it comes within a year of [...] more »
The ANC, the IRA and the rise of influence of the left within Sinn Fein…
World by Storm has a nice piece up on the IRA’s role in helping MK, the armed wing of the ANC, in the 1980s. In particular he sees a strange alchemy at work there: …if one can think of a clearly legitimate contemporary struggle it was that against apartheid and it is to the credit [...] more »
Outreach as a marker of confidence
Reaching out or attracting others to one’s cause might be considered a friendly and indeed open concept. In Northern Ireland, however, it is often the polar opposite of this. Outreach can be viewed with the gravest suspicion and hostility: indeed it is sometimes regarded as an aggressive act, frequently deliberately aggressive. It is also frequently [...] more »
McGlone throws his cap in the ring, with a call for pluralist nationalism
So Patsy McGlone is in: “The SDLP has revolutionised Irish politics. The founding principles of the party are as relevant today as they were during the civil rights campaign. The unity of the people of Ireland, a unity built on trust, along with practical social democracy – being there for people through the good and [...] more »
There are some lessons for Catholics in the unionist tradition
The time is overdue to review the historic reputation of opposition to Home Rule as Rome Rule in the light of the latest report on the Catholic Church’s continuing saga of abuse, on events in the diocese of Cloyne. Can we admit to the uncomfortable thought that some of what the early Paisley said was true? [...] more »
“There was no provocation”
With sporadic violence reported in Ardoyne tonight, here’s an account of last night’s violence in Belfast during which 22 police officers were injured, an ambulance and a fire engine attacked, and a bus hijacked and driven at police lines. From the BBC report Community worker Robert McClenaghan, from the Falls Residents Association, said the violence was [...] more »
SDLP’s last advantage lies in their cross community appeal…
Okay, I’m deliberately turning this one on its head, partly because the question raised in Ian Parsley’s post poses is more interesting that way. So for me, here’s the payload in Ian’s post: The DUP has proven masterful at taking fairly narrow policy positions and giving them broad appeal; it seems to seek out certain [...] more »
Robinson’s policy aims at robust defence via charm offensive…
This is a good distillation of the lessons for Unionism from the NILT survey, and political reality as near as we can discern, from Alex Kane: I think the surest thing we can assume in all of this is that there is a Catholic demographic which is content enough to remain within the United Kingdom. [...] more »
Whitey Bulger: “That’s our shipment. That’s ours!”
There’s been a familiar response from Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris, TD, to the news of the arrest of Irish-American gangland boss, James ‘Whitey’ Bulger. From the Irish News “I don’t know Whitey Bulger,” Mr Ferris said. “I never met him. I never had anything to do with him, ever. “I never met him in my [...] more »
If Robinson pitches for Catholic votes, where does that leave nationalism?
There’s a long distance between Catholics preferring to stay where they are and getting them to actively vote for Unionist parties. But that’s what Peter Robinson’s pitching for. Good luck to him, though as Conal McDevitt points out there’s a considerable way to go to convince people the politics emanating from OFMdFM is not business [...] more »
Euro crisis: “an existential crisis for the euro zone”
Eurozone finance ministers have withheld the release of a €12 billion loan to Greece in the hope that the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, can secure a domestic political consensus. The BBC report quotes from the EU finance ministers’ statement A statement issued by the ministers called on all political parties in Greece to: “support the programme’s main [...] more »
Nationalism’s ‘crise de foie’: most Catholics prefer the United Kingdom…
No surprise to most long term readers but it seems that those looking towards sectarian divide to re-unite the island of Ireland might be looking in the wrong direction: The (Life and Times) survey, which was conducted between October and December last year, found just 33% of Catholics wanted Irish unity on the long term. [...] more »
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Books
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The Imperfectionists (Tom Rachman) – an insight into a newspaper that’s maybe not so fictional
‘news’ is often a polite way of saying ‘editor’s whim’ Given the shift from print to online and e-ink, maybe Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists was a suitable first first book for me to finish reading on the Kindle. Considering the economic pressures on the newspaper industry, his novel perhaps captures the spirit and soul of [...] read our review »
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Lessons in Cute Hoorism: “Graft was accepted, for you were taking from the British…”
I’ve been catching up on some reading, recently. Most pleasantly surprised by John Drennan’s latest opus from Gill and Macmillan, Cute Hoors and Pious Protestors… It’s early days yet, but I was struck by this paragraph, part of a dissection of Fianna Fail near the beginning: One of the more fatal consequences of our colonial [...] read our review »
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“Unionism Decayed 1997-2007″ by David Vance: book review
I initially wrote this when the book was first published three years ago; whilst certain elements of it now sound dated, its basic premise that the period of 1997-2007 was a period of irreversible decay for Northern Irish Unionism can still be argued as a valid opinion. My own feeling is that it did indeed [...] read our review »
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