North South
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 »
Brendan Hughes: “I had no control over this squad. Gerry had control of this particular squad”
Peter Wilson, a 21-year-old with learning difficulties who went missing in 1973, was only added to the official list of those abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries in October last year. Today, on the basis of information described as “of good quality, it is reliable and from a good source”, the Independent Commission for the Location of [...] more »
Rocky (A5) road to Dublin?
As the Irish government clings desperately on to both the country’s economic independence and to its tiny Dáil majority whilst simultaneously promising the Plain People in the South more pain in the shape of less pay, fewer jobs and disappearing public services it may seem surprising that they are still funding that road which winds [...] more »
John Hume voted “Ireland’s greatest”
John Hume wins the RTE competition, followed by Michael Collins, Mary Robinson, James Connolly and Bono ( at least according to the Irish Times report. Ryan Tubridy announced the losers ” in no particular order”). Pity no voting figures were given for the phone-in poll. But there we are. No Taoiseach made it to the [...] more »
Vote Hume now in RTE’s Ireland’s Greatest
Northern chauvinists like me who may hold differing opinions may still want to vote North in the great RTE competition that ends tonight. So go to! Details in the website and in this letter to the Irish Times from my very old (I mean long time) friend. It’s short notice I know but longer than [...] more »
TUC and ICTU oppose lower Corporation Tax for Northern Ireland
Interesting to note ICTU Deputy General Secretary Peter Bunting, now sitting on that interim NI Water Board, welcoming a TUC report critical of attempts to lower corporation tax here. From the Belfast Telegraph report ICTU Deputy General Secretary Peter Bunting said: “This paper should once and for all lay to rest the argument by some vested [...] more »
“We will all play our part – however long it takes, whatever it takes in bringing that threat to an end”
As the Irish Times notes, at a seminar in Belfast yesterday the Irish Justice Minister, Dermot Ahern, commited his government to providing adequate resources to tackle the continuing republican paramilitary threat. And last night those republican paramilitaries are believed to have been responsible for a car bomb in the UK City of Culture for 2013. [...] more »
NAMA takes on £3.35bn (€4bn) loans linked to NI assets
The BBC notes that “Nama, the bad bank agency set up by the Irish government, is to take over loans originally worth around £3.3bn linked to assets in Northern Ireland.” RTÉ gives the figure revealed today by Peter Stewart, the head of Nama’s advisory committee on Northern Ireland, as a “qualified estimate” of £3.35billion [pdf file] (€4billion) [...] more »
Learning from a green town on the Irish border
I’d like to return to the theme of energy cooperation in Ireland. This month’s belated row over the purchase (announced in July) of Northern Ireland Electricity by the Irish government-owned Electricity Supply Board – which, interestingly, saw Peter Robinson and his DUP Minister for Industry Arlene Foster take different positions – is a small storm [...] more »
NI Energy Minister: “I have received assurances from ESB on a range of issues relating to the transaction.”
The BBC reports that the Northern Ireland First Minister, Peter Robinson, wearing his other hat as leader of the DUP, and out-going UUP leader Reg Empey have jointly written to the Irish government to object to the proposed sale of NI Electricity (NIE) to the state-owned Electricity Supply Board (ESB). NIE is currently owned, through [...] more »
Owen Paterson: “It was a huge pleasure to be part of this great sporting occasion”
Worth noting that yesterday Conservative MP, Owen Paterson, became the first Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to attend the All-Ireland Senior Football Final at Croke Park. After the match between Down and Cork, Mr Paterson said: “It was a huge pleasure to be part of this great sporting occasion. “I really appreciated the warm [...] more »
The cross-border health report they didn’t want you to see
As a former journalist, I do relish getting hold of a government report that makes eminently sensible recommendations but which politicians for some obscure reason do not want the public to see. So I was delighted when earlier this month a copy of the North-South Feasibility Study compiled by the Irish Department of Health and [...] more »
Facing future energy challenges on an all-Island basis
It is perhaps a significant pointer for the future that one of the most successful examples of North-South cooperation over the past decade has been in a vital area which is not even covered by the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. Energy cooperation has seen the extension of the South’s natural gas pipeline network to the [...] more »
“let’s go on a journey and forget about the destination – the destination isn’t really important in that respect”
Former Irish Minister for Justice and Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell’s call for the 12th July to be an Irish national holiday makes a cheap, and easy, headline for the RTÉ report. And there may be video from the MacGill Summer School where he made the call. But the RTÉ report also hints at what [...] more »
Dublin Appeal Court orders retrial of Gerard Mackin
An iol report notes that the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin has quashed the murder conviction of Belfast man Gerard Mackin and has ordered his retrial. From the iol report Mackin was jailed for life after he was found guilty of the murder of Belfast taxi driver Eddie Burns in the city in 2007. [...] more »
No Pope here either.
If Pope Benedict XVI, aka Joseph Alois Ratzinger, was determined to visit those of his flock who reside in the Northern Irish territories (NIT) he would presumably be extremely well briefed as to which parts of Belfast it would be safe and sensible for him to drop in on. He would also probably be discouraged [...] more »
Two Arrests as Police Officers Injured During Customs Raid
Two police officers have been injured, one critically, during a cross border customs operation near Meigh, south Armagh. Two men have been arrested. From the RTÉ report Over the weekend a cargo of smuggled cigarettes arrived from China in Dublin Port. Watched by customs officers, the cargo was then brought to Dundalk. Earlier today the container was then [...] more »
A solid statement that North-South cooperation is here to stay
Armagh is now on the Irish diplomatic circuit. Next month the highly regarded Southern Joint Secretary of the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC), Tom Hanney, leaves to become Irish ambassador to Belgium. His successor, Anne Barrington, is finishing her days as ambassador to Tanzania. The man who will fill in over the summer, the current [...] more »
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Books
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Against Remembrance – Seminar & Book by David Rieff
Is the best way to overcome the legacy of conflict simply to forget about it? Author and journalist David Rieff spoke on this subject last week in a seminar at the Institute for International Integration Studies (IIIS) at Trinity College Dublin. Rieff has recently written a book titled, Against Remembrance (published in Ireland by Liffey [...] read our review »
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“You can see Newton’s mind at work…”
To add to the open access treasure trove at the Royal Society, Cambridge University Library is putting online some of its collection of books, maps, manuscripts and journals. We have called the first phase of our work on the Cambridge Digital Library the Foundations Project, which runs from mid-2010 to mid-2013 and has been made possible [...] read our review » -
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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