Mick Fealty

There’s no magic carpet out of Sinn Féin’s multiplying issues, other than to make some hard choices…

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So Sinn Féin’s troubles continue, this time they are merely deepening in the south. Over the weekend the party lost its second TD in a week to resignation. It wasn’t over the McMonagle case but the result of internal machinations. …

Soapbox

Northern Ireland’s Older Peoples Parliament took place in Stormont last Saturday….

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David Jamison is writing about those items that catch his attention now looking through an older person’s eyes.  He lives in Belfast and since retiring recently he is trying to make sense of a fast-changing world and trying his best …

Brian O’Neill

Anti obesity jabs to get people back to work. Another quick fix government idea doomed to fail?

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First, the good news, Clodagh Rice at the BBC reports on good news for employment figures: The number of people on company payrolls in Northern Ireland in September was 806,700, a rise of 1.5% over the year and the largest …

Brian O’Neill

Sandy Row has 99 problems but the bridge ain’t one…

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Personally, I don’t see what all the fuss is about with the removal of the Boyne Bridge in Belfast. I never gave it a second thought the umpteen times I went over it. It only dates from the 1930s and …

Brian O’Neill

Australian politicians shun King Charles visit…

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From the Independent: King Charles and Queen Camilla are facing an embarrassing snub by leading Australian politicians ahead of their tour of the country. As the couple prepare to kick off their nine day visit Down Under on Friday, every …

Brian O’Neill

Open Sunday – discuss what you like…

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The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like. Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.

Brian O’Neill

Open sunday – politics free zone…

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In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.

Macha

The Stories We Tell Ourselves…

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Are they fact or are they fiction? It doesn’t really matter, because these stories are what we believe and we are mostly hard wired to see them as the truth. Slugger is a platform for us to share our deep …

Brian O’Neill

“Loyalists have no trust in government” – join the club lads…

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From the BBC: The former leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) has said that loyalists can no longer trust the government. Brian Ervine was speaking to the Good Morning Ulster programme on Friday after reports that a Stormont Committee …

John Pike

Scoil na Seolta – A plea for tolerance…

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There has been much in the news recently about the proposed new integrated Irish language school in East Belfast: Scoil na Seolta. There has been talk about opposition to it in East Belfast and most recently it was raised in …

Frank Schnittger

The Provincial Derbies and Emerging Ireland Stars

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Leinster versus Munster Both Leinster and Munster have named strong teams for their hugely anticipated clash at a near sold out Croke Park, which looks like breaking the URC attendance record with a near 80,000 crowd. Munster have something of …