North South
Sean Quinn’s statement of affairs to NI Court ‘appeared to be unsatisfactory’
That’s according to reported comments by lawyers for the Official Receiver in Northern Ireland who, following Sean Quinn’s application for UK bankruptcy, is currently in control of Quinn’s worldwide assets. The comments were made during a Dublin Commercial Court hearing on an application by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) for the repayment of €2billion in loans which had [...] more »
“this Department is not in a position to proceed any further with the Narrow Water Bridge project”
When it was announced in February 2008, the proposed “lovely looking bridge” at Narrow Water, Co Down, to link the Omeath to Newry Road in Co Louth with the A2 Newry to Warrenpoint road, Co Down, produced an unseemly scramble by three then-members of the Northern Ireland Executive. By contrast, as far as I can tell, the latest news of [...] more »
“Now there’s the healthy option of simply getting on with the neighbours.”
In contrast to John’s northern cynicism, in the Irish Times Fintan O’Toole is optimism personified on the impact of the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland [Keep the noise down in the attic, please - Ed]. Indeed. From the Irish Times article The combination of all of these factors made the visit an oddly liberating [...] more »
“I hope the people of Ireland will give him a brilliant and wonderful welcome…”
Another post possibly related to the point Mick was making… As the BBC notes US President Barack Obama will not cross the border into Northern Ireland when he visits the Republic of Ireland, the Irish prime minister has said. From the breakingnews.ie report The Government is gearing up for the historic May visit after President Obama [...] more »
“It is unacceptable for the Minister and his Department to suggest…”
Possibly related to the point Mick was making… The former leader of Sinn Féin in the Dáil, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, TD, has taken exception to part of a statement by Irish Health Minister, James Reilly, TD, committing the Irish Government to work in partnership with their Northern Ireland counterparts on the development of a new radiotherapy [...] more »
The Republic has to prove itself a worthy partner in relations with the north all over again
Fintan O’Toole’s crisp review of the vast sweep of Irish corruption exposed in the era of tribunals mainly speaks for itself. As he shows, exposure alone does not lead inexorably to reform. Three questions: Can any Irish government and parliament, never mind one under such pressure of circumstances, summon up the massive political capital required [...] more »
Conor Murphy starving North South transport links of cash
One of the less noted parts of the draft budget has been that of the Department of Regional Development. An 11 mile section of the railway line between Lisburn and Lurgan requires £40 million of repairs. The draft budget has allocated monies to improve the Coleraine to Londonderry line which would, Murphy claims, otherwise have [...] more »
Not the old bogey of Sinn Fein again!
The politics of it are all too familiar. Peter Robinson raises the bogey of Sinn Fein to get the vote out and try to prevent SF becoming the largest party in the Assembly. “Sinn Féin will be in government, I’ve no doubt about that whatsoever. But there’s no point to be in government just to [...] more »
NI Company ordered to pay £32million damages over Irish pork dioxin contamination
The BBC reports that the High Court in Dublin has ordered the Northern Ireland based company, O’Neill Fuels Ltd, Coalisland, County Tyrone, to pay Millstream Power Recycling Ltd, Bunclody, County Wexford, €38.7million (£32m) damages as a result of the Irish pork dioxin contamination in 2008. From the BBC report Millstream supplied the pig meal containing dioxins [...] more »
Sinn Féin: “There is not a shred of evidence linking republicans to the Northern Bank robbery…”
While Taoiseach Brian Cowen refused to answer any questions on the issue, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Justice Minister, Dermot Ahern and Health Minister Mary Harney have all re-stated the Irish government’s 2005 assessment that the Sinn Féin leadership of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness had prior knowledge of the Northern Bank robbery. And a report in [...] more »
Irish Labour Party: “We may not be in a position to build the road from Dublin…”
Thanks to today’s Irish News we have the response from the Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, to comments from Irish Labour Party transport spokesman, Joe Costello, which cast doubt on the proposed £850million upgrade of the A5 between Londonderry and Aughnacloy. From the Irish News report Mr Murphy said last night it [...] more »
Irish Labour Party: “giving Northern Ireland £400million towards its roads is not a priority”
The Irish News today reports comments from the Irish Labour Party’s transport spokesman, Joe Costello, TD, which cast doubt on the proposed £850million upgrade of the A5 between Londonderry and Aughnacloy. From the Irish News report …Mr Costello claimed that while it was “fine to make commitments in the middle of the Celtic Tiger years”, the [...] more »
“No party should be playing politics [with the NI budget].”
With anonymous “republican sources” briefing anyone who will listen about tensions between the DUP and Sinn Féin over the still-to-be-agreed draft Northern Ireland budget, and while noting the DUP’s response reported here “The DUP has one approach to the budget,” [a DUP spokesman] said. “We are confident a budget will be put in place. “We [...] more »
“Economic crises, however severe, will come and go…”
In The Guardian, Henry McDonald points out that the Economy, not unity, is Irish priority There is a great unspoken paradox about the current politico-fiscal crisis gripping the Republic of Ireland. The Irish people’s anger and disillusionment may have thrown a lifeline to Sinn Féin and rescued the party from total irrelevance in the Republic but [...] more »
Republic’s base for public sector pay and welfare cuts much higher than the north’s
Cuts in pay and welfare start in the Republic start from a much higher base than in Northern Ireland, according to headline comparisons made by Gerry Moriarty in the Irish Times. This is a reporting mission I’ve been urging for months. Well done Gerry. The job is by no means complete and I hope it will [...] more »
A profound shock to unionism – a necessary step along the road to final agreement
The Anglo-Irish Agreement whose 25th anniversary falls today immediately exposed the limitations of a unionist veto on all political progress. But its equally significant and unintended result over time was to demonstrate the impossibility of reaching full agreement without participation by all sides, Sinn Fein as well as unionists. Understandably perhaps, retired mandarins of Iveagh [...] more »
International Representative for west Belfast to contest Irish seat?
Apparently the rumours are true… We’ll see. The BBC reports that the International Representative for west Belfast, Gerry Adams, MP, MLA, is “expected to announce later that he intends running for the Irish parliament in the next election.” For Louth? As Gerry Adams said himself, “I think there is an issue that I do not stand for [...] more »
Cross-border shoppers spent €418m in Northern Ireland over the last year
That’s the figure given in the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) quarterly national household survey on cross-border shopping [pdf file]. According to the iol report The figures showed a 2% drop in cross border shoppers in the 12 months compared to the previous year, when an estimated €435m was spent. The CSO said: “While there was a decline [...] more »
Financial crisis widens gap between north and south
Wars , famine and internal government crises were meat and drink to my generation of journalists as we were growing up. Sure enough, we vaguely registered ” the gnomes of Zurich ” who had to be appeased moments before yet another devolution of sterling crashed over us. But the end of “Bretton Woods” and the [...] more »
I fear for children and idealists in the present climate
At least we now know where we are now in Ireland, North and South, in the worst financial crisis to have hit the island in living memory. At time of writing the Irish Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, has said that a significant proportion of the €15 billion which must be slashed from public spending before [...] more »
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Books
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Debating the Churches’ Role in the Peace in Northern Ireland
This morning’s Sunday Sequence featured a substantial debate (about 35 minutes into the recorded programme) on a new book,Religion, Civil Society and Peace in Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press 2011), written by sociologists John Brewer, Gareth Higgins and Francis Teeney. The debate was framed in an opening vignette by presenter William Crawley in uncompromising terms, [...] read our review » -
Stay out of Libya: counterinsurgency doesn’t work
A moment of some significance in journalism perhaps, as the New York Times reviews the current talked about book, The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan by Bing West. The author is no bleeding heart but a former assistant Defense Secretary from the Reagan era who stomped his way round the Afghan [...] read our review »
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Spare us a phoney row about racism, we’ve got enough on
A silly media row about racism just had to figure in the riots’ post mortem. Was the Tudor history expert David Starkey racist on Newsnight when he said: The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion. And black and white, boy and girl, operate in [...] read our review »
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