European Champions and Challenge Cup Rugby: Clean Sweep for all four provinces
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Having written extensively about the prospects for the provinces and Irish rugby over the summer, I wasn’t planning to write about rugby again before the season got properly into its stride. The provinces had decidedly mixed fortunes over the first …
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.
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.
Who’s to Blame… for axing two of our favourite TV treasures?
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When I was younger, I really did go through a phase of thinking Tim McGarry was Gerry Adams. It was a Friday night in January 1998, and I was nine. Hours earlier, I’d been to see Titanic in Omagh cinema …
Living and dying in Nashville…
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Just before my visit last week, the botched execution of Christa Pike was already an international news story. Nashville’s Centre of Correction executing a woman prisoner in 2026 was indeed something that demanded attention. This judicial killing attempt articulates the …
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 …