Sinn Féin policy decision has implications for abortion referendum process

Gerry Adams takes to the stage at the close of Sinn Fein's Ard Fheis in Belfast 2011

The Sinn Féin Clár for their 2017 Ard Fheis has been released with details of 171 motions for delegates to debate and vote on. Many of the motions will pass uncontested but how Motions 144 to 151 are voted on will decide how the party approaches what will be one of the main political issues for Ireland in 2018 – abortion. Two of the motions call for ‘Sinn Féin elected representatives’ and ‘Sinn Féin members’ respectively to be allowed to …

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Brexit is in a mess, but not irretrievably

Want to know where we really are on Brexit? In  three words, in a mess. Can we get out of it?   Possibly at the eleventh hour, 10 pm on Friday 19 March 2019, just like the Good Friday Agreement in fact. Nothing  is agreed until everything is agreed. As so often – like the Stormont standoff – the politics look more difficult than the rational solutions. The Irish and British prime ministers profess themselves in the dark about  each others’ …

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Are the DUP really going to push for a fundamentalist agricultural policy? (I doubt it.)

Brian Feeney raises a real issue facing farmers with regard to Brexit… …last week US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross was quite clear that if the UK wants a trade deal with the US after Brexit they will have to jettison EU food standards. Chlorine-washed chicken is the least of it. Some chickens are dosed with antihistamines to tenderise their meat. Others have been treated with ketamine, a hallucinogenic drug, yet others with steroids. And, as Brian hints, it’s not the only …

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First part of the DUP deal funds goes to Health & Education

The Secretary of State has announced the first part of the DUP deal will go to Health & Education, the amount will come to £50 million. From the BBC The announcement was made as Mr Brokenshire brought a Northern Ireland budget before the House of Commons. The secretary of state told MPs that civil servants can decide how to spend the extra £50m earmarked for health and education. Here is the DUP Deputy Leader; Roll out of the first part …

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Michelle O’Neill “Theresa May has prioritised her own electoral survival via the Tory/DUP pact over the interest of all of the people in the North”

Michelle O’Neill remarks at the end of the talks process today;   The British Secretary of State will today move to introduce a budget to finance public services here. This is an acknowledgement by the British Government that agreement has not been possible. “The reason for this is the DUP opposition to a rights-based society. While some progress was made, the denial of rights would not be tolerated in Dublin and London and should not be tolerated here. We met …

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Brexit and embracing our new found status as the Poland of the British Isles…

I got a query this morning from a reader in Dublin who plans to come up for our End of Year Review event. They wanted to know what time the event ended so they could book the bus back home. I suggested a better idea, stay over and make a night of it. The new Premier Inn Hotel is less than a one minute walk to the venue and is only a bonkersly cheap £35 a night! Since Brexit the …

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Old farmers, young vets, and the impact of Brexit on agriculture…

The chief fire officer recently requested that we use the term fire fighter and not fireman, in order to encourage and support females into the profession. My profession has already made this demographic shift, from a male dominated profession 40 years ago to 90 percent female graduates now. The selection process and the course itself means that the young women graduating are amongst the most determined and gifted of their generation and it is a special privilege to have them …

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Policing and Nationalism: “It’s too soft and it needs to be stronger. You need to be firmer.”

There’s been some fascinating comment on the Peadar Heffron interview that our new blogger “Pluto” mentioned yesterday. The interview was published nearly two weeks ago, and yet the issue seems to be reverberating still. The position of nationalist policemen and women (and Heffron was certainly that) has been given little public consideration. After an empty formula of platitudes, it appears they’re just routinely abandoned to their fate. It’s another sin of omission that’s become commonplace in the current simulated hunger games routines that passes …

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Get your tickets for the 2017 Slugger End of Year Review on Monday the 18th December…

Join us for an evening of debate and entertainment as we look back on the political year in 2017. Our panel of speakers is sure to provide lively conversation and analysis. Never mind the Christmas shopping, this will be far more entertaining. Following the success of previous years, we are pleased to bring back our End of Year Review Show for the fourth year. Our venue is The Dark Horse Bar, across the road from the Duke of York Bar in …

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UK to leave the EU on 29th March 2019 at 11pm

The UK Government has confirmed that it will enshrine the date and time of leaving the EU as Friday 29th March 2019 at 11pm (midnight Central European Time). The BBC reports; Mrs May, in an article in the Telegraph, said the decision to put the date of Brexit “on the front page” of the EU Withdrawal Bill showed the government was determined to see the process through. “Let no-one doubt our determination or question our resolve, Brexit is happening,” she said. …

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#StateofState “The billion pound deal negotiated by the DUP to support the Conservative Government was well designed”

This is the time of year Deloitte release their State of the State report which reviews the performance of the UK government and the devolved administrations. The report in its entirety can be read here. What I will focus in here is the findings from Northern Ireland. Austerity The report points out the general public tiredness with austerity by noting the following; After the June 2017 general election, Chancellor Philip Hammond reflected that voters had become “weary of the long …

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Story of Peadar Heffron’s ostracisation should mark a turning point for NI and the GAA…

Taking in the air of the men’s changing rooms in 1980s Dungiven gives a man some perspective, and nobody could have written up that interview with Peadar Heffron quite like Joe Brolly. The story that Brolly had to tell was, of course, that of his interviewee but it came with an authenticity that was as much to do with Brolly’s own lived experience as it was to do with his skill in setting out a narrative. He didn’t have to …

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Enniskillen 30 Years On: Geraldine Smyth on Forgiveness and Mercy in the Public Square

An article by Joe Humphreys in today’s Irish Times marking the 30th anniversary of the Enniskillen bomb bears the headline: ‘Thirty years after Enniskillen: Can forgiveness transcend terrorist atrocities?’ Humphreys highlights the well-known words of forgiveness offered in the bomb’s immediate aftermath by Gordon Wilson, whose daughter Marie died in the atrocity. He also recognizes the words of forgiveness offered this week by Stephen Ross, who was severely injured in the bomb. Humphreys challenges us by asking: were these men right to forgive? …

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Real work to restore the Executive has yet to begin. For the public to make an impact, proposals and pressure from the governments are essential

As a comparative outsider I’m struck by how most commentators are obsessed with speculating about political positioning and identity narratives. This has produced numbing negativism and  despair  rather than the energy needed to approach the daunting but practical problem of trying to restore the Executive.  Being case hardened and calloused, they endlessly refine their own explanations for obvious failure. They accept the parameters set by the DUP and SF too readily. To be fair, this is often the default caused by a …

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Time to bring the citizen back in?

As Steven Agnew of the Green Party calls for a Citizens Assembly for Northern Ireland, Robin Wilson writes about the idea which has been under development by a group of citizens and voluntary sector organisations facilitated by the Building Change Trust over the past 6 months. Northern Ireland seems once again to have reverted to a default state of political dysfunctionality, with months and potentially years of further reluctantly-assumed direct rule from Westminster looming, with its associated ‘democratic deficit’. While …

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Does the Citizens Assembly proposal pass the Tony Benn test?

The Green Party Leader, Steven Agnew has raised  the issue of a  Citizens Assembly as a possible route towards breaking the current impasse that we fact at Stormont. If you want to read a positive case for this proposal I would direct you towards Jamie Pow’s article on Northern Slant. For me, I remain cynical about such a proposal. As Jon Tonge pointed out on Talkback yesterday there are myriad of problems with such a proposal in  divided society and …

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No structural reason Sinn Féin could not win power in a majority rule Northern Ireland

Here’s an intriguing line from the Fiach Kelly piece that Pete blogged yesterday… Over the past week, Sinn Féin was, according to those with knowledge of the talks, ready to deal but was not met with equal enthusiasm from Arlene Foster and the DUP, which is understood to be looking for commitments that the Executive and Assembly cannot be easily collapsed. This is not an inconsequential holdout position. Of course, it was relatively easy for SF to collapse the Assembly …

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SOAPBOX: Can the economy be Irish? #ESRCfestival

SOAPBOX – The OU’s Dr Leslie Budd recalls economist George Shackle’s observation that to be an economist one has to be an anthropologist, political scientist, mathematician, philosopher, and sociologist with an interest in economics. It is these characteristics that are vital in creating a narrative and conversation about Brexit. Irish storytelling could help address the challenge facing us.

“broken promises are – sometimes – necessary for good government.”

In Saturday’s Irish Times, Fiach Kelly had some timely advice for Sinn Féin and the DUP – and their supporters. Those who seek to govern will always have to compromise, and those who do not – unless their policies are allowed absolute domination – will always decry whatever deals are made. The electorate is free to choose which type of politician it wants, but if it chooses the former, it should do so in the knowledge that compromises will be …

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Sinn Féin moves towards a change in abortion policy

Responding to questioning from journalist Amanda Ferguson yesterday Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has confirmed that he supports women’s right to choose. Sinn Féin’s Vice-President Mary-Lou McDonald has also made it clear that whilst she respects her party’s current policy (Repeal the Eighth Amendment & enact legislation on the grounds of rape, incest, and fatal foetal abnormality) her personal position is very clear : “My politics and my view is decidedly pro-choice” Their colleague in the Dáil Meath TD Peadar Toibin …

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