northern ireland assembly
Seize the opportunities opened up by the Good Relations strategy. Don’t write it off
Tweet Mick’s last post is probably representative of the muted reaction to the long awaited initiative. All the same I’d rather take a more positive approach and - yes!- begin with accepting it at face value. So I’m asking: are critics justified in writing off already the Cohesion Sharing and Integration statement ( not yet a strategy and [...] more »
A real chance to promote Assembly reform must not be lost
Tweet Just a reminder if you need it -and you can hardly be blamed if you have noticed. You have until 28 March to submit your proposals to reform the politics of Northern Ireland. The Assembly and Executive Review Committee is carrying out a review of the GFA arrangements which is required by 2015. [...] more »
Stormont needs to raise itself above the level of events
Tweet If nothing else the flags trouble has exposed the dearth of genuine engagement over grievances that are the expressions of low morale. They’re not all about making excuses for rioting and grabbing fifteen minutes of fame with egregious and calculated exercises of disinformation and distortion. I’ve listed below two sets of grievances carried in separate Newsletter [...] more »
After Finucane, “a new disaster waiting to happen, ” warns Justice lobby group. But why not a new inquest?
Tweet The de Silva report presents a challenge to the legal establishment and others in Northern Ireland over how to proceed in the light of the UK government’s refusal to hold a public inquiry. Accountability concerns are not confined to history. They remain a live issue today since the devolution of policing and justice. One [...] more »
The danger of an impotent Assembly
Tweet The litany of ritual condemnation in yesterday’s Assembly debate could have been spoken any time during direct rule. There is no hint here of a responsible government trying to get on top of events. Just a wringing of hands in an Assembly, impotent, riddled with its own contradictions, waiting for the trouble to burn itself [...] more »
Spare us a new long game of political numbers
Tweet More clearly than before as Mick observes, it is Peter Robinson’s medium term strategy and perhaps his personal legacy to enlist the support of enough Catholics to preserve the Union. But despite the superficial confidence in Peter’s leader’s speech it is loaded with insecurity. He has been forced to recognise the likelihood of an eventual [...] more »
MLAs have lower salaries, but less onerous duties than anyone else in the UK…
Tweet So the boundaries changes are stuck. Nothing to do with us, or our MLAs. Nick Clegg turned ona sixpence and decided not to play ball, after losing the AV referendum. The proposed changes would almost certainly end the UUP as a Belfast party, and severely challenge the remaining SDLP representatives. But Liam Clarke’s been [...] more »
Northern powersharing is faring better than the southern version, says Emerson. Can this be right?
Tweet In the Sunday Times,(£) Newton Emerson, apparently unabashed at being dropped by the BBC, strikes a counterintuitive note by offering a few words of support to the powersharing Executive at the expense of that other coalition in Dublin. Ignoring the recent Kearney-Robinson dingdong, he bounces his critique off Micheal Martin’s Bodenstown speech deploring the southern [...] more »
Kearney of Sinn Fein’s “reconcilation” pitch deserves a considered response
Tweet The pitch made within the precincts of Westminster last night by Declan Kearney the up and coming Sinn Fein chairperson, for “national reconciliation within Ireland through uncomfortable conversations” was more than the usual rally cry for exiles and republican sympathisers. It was a pull-together of the Sinn Fein package for the future, carefully and [...] more »
Is the Parades issue a signal of underlying political drift in Northern Ireland?
Tweet So, much to the bemusement of some of the Fine Gael TDs I sat with this morning at the BIPA in Glasgow, Micheal Martin’s accusation that under Enda Kenny the southern government has taken its eye off the ball regarding Northern Ireland seems more than just a little calculated. Yet, there’s also a fairly [...] more »
The Rising of the Undead
Tweet Disparate republican militant groups have announced a coming together under a single leadership that has breathed new life into the IRA, promising to bring murder, anarchy and terrorism back to Northern Ireland. Here’s my illustration. more »
Summer Recess Caption Competition
Tweet With the Northern Ireland Assembly many weeks deep into a very generous summer recess I felt compelled to capture the personal and political détente and the legislative freeze with some striking illustrative prose. I look forward to hearing what captions come up. more »
The Hain contempt case: a warning to England from Northern Ireland
Tweet It’s worth taking a closer look at the Peter Hain contempt case before it’s written off as a straightforward free speech victory for the metropolitan Mr Punch over the paddywhackery of Northern Ireland’s appointed and politically independent Attorney General. John Larkin QC brought the case against the former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain on the [...] more »
Cross border education: lay out all the facts please
Tweet Is this form of cross border cooperation actually divisive? Contrast two stories about the SF led Education department’s plan for a survey of 50,000 “border families “ (i.e. families on both sides of the border) on the takeup of school places by children from the other side. Liam Clarke’s story records the objections of DUP’s [...] more »
Whose junket is it anyway?
Tweet I’m almost despairing that high politics for us in Northern Ireland now comes down to a row about a trip to San Diego that’s scheduled, er, not scheduled, to happen until it’s been agreed/not agreed by Stormont’s Employment and Learning Committee… The proposed purpose? To examine how research and development linked to universities could [...] more »
Sinn Fein’s defence of the appointments can’t be the last word
Tweet Well which is it? A Robinson- McGuinness-led joint move to take over the centre ground as well as the “extremes,” or a new wave of sectarian politics? I ask genuinely because I can’t be sure but hesitantly because I fear the sound of grinding axes. The lack of cool analysis so far suggests uncertainty [...] more »
The Economist – finger on the pulse.
Tweet I’ve subscribed to the Economist for twenty years. It’s wonderful on the Kurds in Turkey, the latest PNV election results in the Basque Country and anything happening in Quebec. Yesterday it gave us the honour of an article: The double act continues. You get: “In elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly on May 5th, [...] more »
The ‘end’ of community designation and the ‘rise’ of incumbency…
Tweet There’s an interesting piece by Fionnuala O’Connor in today’s Irish News. In it she notes that underneath the commonplace ‘wisdom’ that there is no functional difference between the offices of First and deputy First Minister lies a more profound political reality: …it will matter very much indeed if Sinn Fein comes out of the [...] more »
West Tyrone may keep its’ independents #ae11
Tweet West Tyrone’s independent MLA Dr Kieran Deeny may have decided to step down from the Assembly, but I can reveal that there will be at least one independent candidate standing in the constituency. Speaking to Omagh District Councillor McGowan on Wednesday afternoon for a story that ran in today’s Ulster Herald, he confirmed that [...] more »
Declaration of independents?
Tweet In a conversation with independent West Tyrone MLA Kieran Deeny this week, he revealed that he has been approached by a number of people from various constituencies considering running for next year’s Assembly elections under the independent banner. First approached six months ago, he confirmed that he has already held talks with a number [...] more »
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Books
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…if University education were universally available and availed of, the country would collapse in one generation
Tweet The words of Brian O’Nolan, variously Brian Ó Nualláin, Myles na gCopaleen, Myles na Gopaleen and, of course, Flann O’Brien. That O’Nolan was referencing his own dissolute student days at UCD only mildly distracts from the prophetic undertone of his words: I paid no attention whatsoever to books or study and regarded lectures as [...] read our review »
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Christopher Hitchens, 1949 – 2011
Tweet Writer Christopher Hitchens has died aged 62. He was as contrary as he was brilliant. Here is a brief In Memoriam from Vanity Fair (his outlet of choice since 1992) and, here, a longer tribute from his friend Christopher Buckley Stanley in The New Yorker. Better, perhaps, though to post one of Hitchens’ own writings [...] read our review »
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Sunday Supplement
Tweet It being Sunday, we’ve all got time to consider and ponder things at greater length than during the working week, yes? If it’s good enough for the Sunday papers, it’s good enough for this guest blogger. So here’s the review section… Actually, it’s my introduction to a book published last year, Goin’ Down Slow: [...] read our review »
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