Challenges to belonging in a changing Northern Ireland
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A public lecture held at Ulster University’s Coleraine campus during Good Relations Week brought a social psychologist’s lens to some of Northern Ireland’s most persistent divisions. The event, titled “Finding Your Place: Belonging in a Changing Northern Ireland”, was introduced …
Why did the MoD pick Jeffrey Donaldson to be a paid ambassador to faraway countries in conflict?
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Here is Sam Mc Bride’s exclusive story about Jeffrey Donaldson as a paid adviser by the Ministry of Defence to developing countries on adapting the peace process to their various circumstances. The story is worth wider attention. There’s nothing new …
Former DUP leader Donaldson sentenced to 15 years…
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From the BBC: Jeffrey Donaldson has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for a series of child sex offences, including one count of rape. The former DUP leader stood with his hands clasped in front of him in the …
Who is responsible for the education of young asylum seekers who arrive at sixteen?
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A recent BBC News NI report describes four young refugees and asylum seekers in Belfast who cannot get into the education they want. Three areas of Executive policy bear directly on their circumstances: a refugee integration strategy, a proposal to …
The new Troubles Bill is a veterans’ charter designed to limit the legal instruments for truth recovery, just like its discredited predeccessor
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Sir Declan Morgan Chief Legacy Commissioner The new Troubles Bill going through the Commons lists no fewer than 140 amendments , most of them designed to appease the mountain of critics in GB across the parties who are passionately opposed …
A nation’s descent into barbarity…
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My younger years were saturated in Americana via movies and TV. It was all an illusion of course, but in my mind America was very much the land of great expanses filled with exciting people. The kind of people who …
Irish on One Street, Ulster-Scots on the Next: Belfast’s Street Sign Policy…
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A Belfast City Council committee has approved an Ulster-Scots street sign for Ravenscroft Avenue in east Belfast. If the full council ratifies the decision, the street will carry the name Corbiescroft Evvenye below the English name. It is the first …
Where do we go after Drumcree?
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Winston Churchill is misattributed as saying that the “Americans can always be relied upon to do the right thing – after they have exhausted all other options”. Perhaps the same can be said of the British Government’s belated decision to …
Play The Game, Son
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Well, the evil day finally arrived in the latest episode of ‘Blue Lights’. Episode Three of Series Four centred around the trial of dissident republicans Mo McIntyre and Anto Donovan for common enterprise in the murder of Constable Gerry Cliff. …
Garvaghy Road: Winning the Street, while Setting Fire to the Argument for a New Ireland…
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The Orange Order’s right to walk the Garvaghy Road was upheld and loyalism stayed calm, but by following a dissident lead, mainstream nationalism hardened tribal lines and alienated the uncommitted voters it needs to reach 50%.