“New leader Colum Eastwood has taken pains to say he wants Northern Ireland to work….”

Newton Emerson, with a great comment on an issue raised rather pointed by President Obama [a man now liberated from the burdens of power, and uncommonly free with his views on many thing] which appears to have eluded several other commenters. [Though not our Pete! – Ed] : Integrated education was the example he praised of progress towards a Northern Ireland identity, though many nationalists see that as precisely integration’s problem. Some of this fear is misplaced ignorance. A common …

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After Obama and our #SoWhat politics, what comes next?

Agenda NI have a piece on the Obama speech worth looking through.. Their conclusion? Northern Ireland, as the President implied, can never take its peace for granted. Neither can such a small country always assume presidential attention. In summary, Obama’s expectation is that Northern Ireland will depend less on external goodwill and take more responsibility for creating a better future.[emphasis added] David McCann writing in his occasional column for the journal.ie put a slightly different twist on it: Where the …

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President Obama in trouble at home for his remarks on the desirability of Catholic schools?

A few people in Northern Ireland took notice of President Obama’s apparent dig at segregated education. But in the US quite a number on the right took it personally. As noted at the time here on Slugger, it may have been assumed by the President there were measures afoot to promote integrated schooling by the Catholic Education Minister, John O’Dowd. In fact the announcement of ten shared campuses last month may look to the untrained eye like a cross party …

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Congressional Brinkmanship Kickin’ Up Fiscal Whiff

So the long drawn out process of selecting a US President is over. Barack Obama won a second term, quite comfortably in fact, with nearly a 100 more electoral college votes and 2% more of the popular vote. The process of picking over the caucus of the GOP had already begun live on air during the announcing of the winner. Fox News seemed to go into meltdown. Karl Rove, in particular seemed to have great difficulty grasping the result of …

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Peter, Martin, don’t worry he probably says that to all “the wee countries”…

Peter’s been mulling over the possibility of President Obama coming to Northern Ireland… Well, is feidir leis, of course… But our Secretary of State may have a better chance of getting his current Secretary of State (she’ll be stepping down for any next term) than the Prez himself… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across …

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