Rebellion and its availability in Northern Ireland

GEO-BLOCK: A pet peeve of mine has long been that pesky geo-block on the RTE player that prevents me from watching certain programmes that I have missed. Last night, I noticed a few people on Twitter commenting about the fact that the 1916 drama, Rebellion was not available in Northern Ireland. In that spirit I decided to get in touch with RTE to understand what exactly was going on and why programmes like this were blocked for Northern viewers, despite RTE being available in Northern Ireland.

Pat McCarthy on accepting an MBE ‘It doesn’t make me any less Irish’

Former Lord Mayor and SDLP councillor, Pat McCarthy has gain a bit of attention recently by accepting an honour given to him in the New Years list. The segment made the Nolan show this morning and  the debate between McCarthy and Jude Collins was interesting.   David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs

Mallon: “Peace is something which shouldn’t be bargained with, it shouldn’t be used as a political weapon…”

RESCUING DEMOCRACY: “Is the present executive showing any benevolence, except to their own supporters and those who vote for them?” asked Seamus Mallon, channelling Spinoza and Burke amongst others last week. The Assembly cannot be not “a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests” but that of the whole.

Sisters In Arms

RTE REBELLION – Brothers on opposite sides of history … but where it really scores is its interest in the women involved in the Rising.

From Bannisters To The Iron Harvest. 1916 and all that…

I saw an unusual tweet a few weeks ago. Someone had posted a picture of a bannister. That seemed strange until I read the caption and discovered the bannister was in a house where James Connolly had once lived. The tweeter expressed pleasure, perhaps awe, at sliding his hand along an object his hero had once used and it got me thinking about our relationship with the past and how objects and places and can make it come to life …

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State Papers reveal the trouble with Deputies

Over the past few days I have been reading the newly released State papers from both the Irish and British governments. One of the main things that jumped out at me was the position of the deputy leaders of both the SDLP and DUP in the mid 1980’s and indeed their respective political fortunes thereafter. Peter Robinson had resigned briefly as Deputy Leader of the DUP in 1987 when the Task Force Report, which he had jointly written with UUP …

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To what does A Fresh Start commit the Executive in 2016?

A NEW YEAR brings fresh challenges for the NI Executive and Assembly as A Fresh Start commitments must be met while electioneering and commemorating. There’s the matter of a new Speaker, decisions for the UUP and SDLP after the election on whether to abide by the Programme for Government or head into five years of Opposition, and a raft of bodies and panels to be set up on parading, the economy and paramilitaries.