Brian Pope

Want Potholes Fixed? Stop Bombarding Government Departments with Questions!

705

Have you any idea how many questions the Department for Infrastructure is asked each year? The answer is probably tens of thousands. The number of emails, phone calls, Freedom of Information requests, complaints, and general enquiries is endless. How can …

Obelisk

The Netanyahu Trap

2999

We are now in week three of the ongoing conflict between the United States (and Israel) and Iran. The fog of war means 100% certainty on what is happening on the ground is impossible, but we do have the social …

Hughie Beag

Ar mhaith libh Gaeilge? – Council refusal to erect Irish language signage…

2807

I read that a resident from Woodside Close, just off the Garvaghy Road, Irish Hagan, has won a Judicial Review case, (a JR IS where a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision, action, or failure to act by a …

Eugene Reid

From UCAS to Real Life: Rethinking Careers Education in Northern Ireland…

511

Recently, in my role as a business mentor on a start-up programme, I had a conversation that has played over and over again in my mind ever since. The gentleman I was speaking to was in his early thirties and …

Brian O’Neill

Open Sunday – discuss what you like…

7289

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…

2015

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.

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast)

TUV conference – seeking to capitalise on growth in the polls with an instruction to members to “go back to your constituencies as evangelists for Ulster”

2683

Around 150 TUV members gathered in the Royal Hotel, Cookstown for their annual conference under a banner of “Bringing Strength to Unionism”. They’re easily the most vocal audience of the (many) local party gatherings I’ve attended in recent years. Every …

Houdi McCabe

Storytime with Houdie – The work visit to the topless bar…

720

You know you’ve gotta help me out, yeah Brandon Flowers from The Killers was with me as I drove home from the Odyssey Arena Belfast. This was a sample lyric of All These Things That I’ve Done a track from …

Soapbox

The Art of Sampling…

575

Kevin Carlin is originally from Derry, lived in America for 30 years and moved back to Ireland in 2017 for the weather. Sampling in musical terms is the extraction of portions of sound from recorded media and their reuse as …

Sarah Kirkwood

What would happen to Northern Irish Tayto if there was a United Ireland?

1481

Elle magazine UK would not be a likely place to stumble upon our geopolitical situation, but there we have it. Their April 2026 cover girl, Nicola Coughlan, was set a challenge of picking Tayto crisps from Walkers crisps in a …