Doctored twitter, Toolooz and RTÉ

Awfully grateful for thoughts about a little piece I did for yesterday’s Irish Independent. I quote Mick (and draw on this earlier post on Slugger), mention McGuinness4Pres, Toolooz, drunken taoisigh, and ArmA II, and make three jokes. I’m very grateful for your thoughts, as ever! Pádraig Belton30 year old journalist thing. Buys loo roll on eBay. scribd.com/padraigbelton

UUP suspend David McNarry for 9 months #mcnarrygate

Tom Eliott wielding scissors at the opening of David McNarry's Saintfield Advice Centre Opening

Earlier this morning when I wrote … Neither has David McNarry gone away. I’ll be very surprised if one Strangford MLA won’t be spending next week sitting in the leader’s office in UUP HQ figuring out how the party can limit the damage the other Strangford MLA could yet still do. … I didn’t expect that David McNarry’s disciplinary action would be completed quite so quickly. UTV, BBC and others report The MLA David McNarry has been suspended from the …

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“MLAs and the like standing around looking awkward…”

Jim Wells, erm, well, I’m not quite sure what is doing… But the one of the sartorially challenged Peter Weir (I just could not bring myself to post it on Slugger) is probably the best/worst in a thoroughly cross party collection on the Facebook page “MLAs and the like standing around looking awkward…” And don’t forget to check out Jim Allister manning the decks… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the …

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Walking across the border for the good of your health

For those of us who live on this small island – and in this even smaller province of this small island – going to the occasional international conference is a good way of opening the mind to new ideas (and I defy the small-minded begrudgers who mutter about EU ‘gravy trains’ to tell me otherwise). I was at a conference on cross-border cooperation  in Strasbourg 15 months ago when I fell into conversation with a man from Regio Basilensis, the …

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A bold step? Or just more of the same better communicated? An interview with John McCallister and some thoughts on Mike Nesbitt.

I spoke to John McCallister on Monday evening after the close of a Platform for Change event looking at a change “from the politics of identity to the politics of ideas”. I view it very simply that we don’t have many more chances to get this right. We either do the unionist unity route which I’m very opposed to – I think it’s bad for Northern Ireland, bad for unionism, just an unhealthy state in our politics and we would …

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All six Fianna Failers jump rather than wait for the push…

Michael Martin is no one’s idea of the classic strong man of the party’s tradition. Yet days before the party meets to expel those party members named in Mahon; they’re all gone. Is he being underestimated? 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 Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Chief Constable on NI Media: “they are part of the confidence-building…”

The PSNI Chief Constable, Matt Baggott, has been speaking to the Leveson Inquiry about the Northern Ireland media.  From the BBC report Mr Baggott said: “The local media in Northern Ireland have an absolute commitment to the future of the province. “They have a stake in it. And they are part of the confidence-building and they have an ownership of the issues.” Mr Baggott said the local media also understood the consequences of the way something was reported, and the consequences …

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That was the ‘Rangers Tax Case Blog’, now for the film or the book?

I think I’m happy enough for Slugger to get shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, but it is hard to look beyond the Rangers Tax Case blog for an actual winner… If you are wondering why, then have a read of this from Alex Thompson on ‘succulent lamb’ journalism… Back to Rangers Tax Case: The year long history of this blog should tell any objective reader: we have the facts and we know how to use them. Yet only one Scottish …

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Why half centenaries are deadlier than the decade of centenaries just about to begin…

FitzJamesHorse’s blog has great piece on history and human memory, not least on what living through a violent period of history reveals about ordinary life… You should really read the whole thing, but here’s his conclusion: I believe that the present obsession with the Decade of Centenaries……..Ulster Covenant (1912), Easter (1916), Somme (1916), Partition (1922)………deflects from a Decade of Half-Centenaries…….the O’Neill Years (1963-70), the first murders of the modern Troubles (John Scullion and Peter Ward in 1966), the first Civil …

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Political Progress and Educational Sectarianism

Northern Ireland’s past echoes with the haunted politics of division, its communities littered with the graves of over 3,000 victims of shameful brutality. When Peter Robinson spat that, ‘the only input that Unionists want into the Anglo-Irish Conference is a stick of gelignite’, not even the most ardent optimist would have predicted that he would one day attend a GAA match as the honoured guest of Martin McGuinness.

 But the progress is real and it is, I daresay, sincere. In …

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Slugger Longlisted for this year’s Orwell Prize…

Nice to get some recognition every now and then… The long lists for this year’s Orwell Prize (organised by the Media Standard’s trust have just been announced in London)… Slugger’s just one of 18 blogs chosen out of an entry field of 226… So thanks to all our contributors for your hard work and dedication to cause to helping get past the spin, from wherever it comes… Shortlists will be announced at the annual Orwell Prize shortlist debate, which will …

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Why distinctions between public and private don’t really exist in new media…

Hat tip to Davy Sims on Facebook (who really knows his new media onions)… This clip is from Monday’s Stormont Today, and needs no more introduction from me… 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 Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Meanwhile in Cork, there was this elephant…

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 Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Is a reformed and elected Lords a serious ‘come back’ opportunity for the SDLP?

Interesting piece by Brian Feeney in today’s Irish News, pointing out that a recently leaked committee report talks about beefing up the Lords, redding out the poor attenders (of which there are more than a few Unionist reps) and making all new seats amenable to re-election (albeit for a fifteen year period)… He suggests that if Sinn Fein jumps abstain towards abstention, it is opening up new, winnable ground for nationalism’s zombie party (“life after political death”) in an all …

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Obamacare – a supreme mess

Obamacare: Is the Affordable Healthcare Act’s (AHA) “mandate” that all adult citizens must purchase private health insurance constitutional? This week all eyes are on the US Supreme Court’s live deliberations. Regrettably, the court’s contemporary stature is diminished to such an extent that its ruling will be viewed less as an ideologically transcendent legal ruling and more as the predictable outworking of a body whose judges who are seen to serve rather than check their political allies. Whatever the Court’s ruling, this …

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Garry Lyons on Jim Stynes (and International Rules)

Sad occasion in Melbourne today in the ecumenical funeral of Dublin born Aussie Rules hero… Very moving for the most part, and in parts, not least this tribute from his old teammate Garry Lyons which includes a great story on an International Rules game a few years back in Croke Park… There was never any question where his loyalties lay, on the sporting field of battle at least… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on …

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25% have now paid their Household Charge…

That’s 1/4 of the population of the Republic stumping up for the 75% percent that haven’t. And more than a 5% jump in two days. Still not great, but it sounds a lot better than the one in five it was stuck at on Friday. RTE reports: More than 395,000 payments have been processed, with a further 38,000 received by post but not yet inputted into the system. The numbers processed have increased by almost 32,000 since yesterday afternoon. The …

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Fintan O’Toole: “Power corrupts, but so does a sense of powerlessness”

Bearing in mind some of the moral issues raised by the proposed boycott of the Household Charge, Fintan O’Toole nails a few home truths in his Irish Times column (h/t to the peerless and sainted Olivia O’Leary on RTE’s Drivetime this evening): We can’t take refuge, either, in comforting explanations for this deep-rooted amorality. The pat answer would be to link it to the decline of religion and in particular of the authority of institutional Catholicism. But the facts don’t …

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The Attorney General of Northern Ireland “accordingly considers it appropriate that the author and publisher of ‘Outside In’ should be punished for contempt of court”

If the former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland [and Wales, etc! – Ed], Peter Hain, MP, thought his recent controversial remarks about Lord Justice Girvan had been forgotten about, he’s had to think again.  As a statement from his publisher reveals On 20 March 2012 Lord Justice Higgins granted leave to the Attorney General of Northern Ireland to bring proceedings for contempt of court against Biteback Publishing and Peter Hain.  The proceedings relate to a passage in Peter Hain’s memoir, …

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Quinn’s nephew admits family tried to put $130 million out of reach…

fascinating twist to a long running story… The nephew of Fermanagh former billionaire Sean Quinn, Peter Quinn entered the witness box yesterday: The court has heard that a Quinn family company called Demesne Investments, with an address in Co Fermanagh, had contractual rights to debts of $175 million from companies in Russia and Ukraine that, in turn, owned valuable properties there. However, earlier this year the debts were assigned onwards, for nominal value. IBRC is alleging the debts were assigned …

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