Month: September 2026

This thorough analysis by leading academics in the field, Sean Haughey Jon Tongue and  Ben Rosher concentrates first on preventing Assembly breakdown and the cosmetic reform of joint First Ministers the agenda recommended by the SDLP now apparently been pursued by the Secretary of State. Later it argues as I do for more open process for reform rather than the previous hot house sessions  behind closed doors like the Stormont House Agreement and New Approach. Overall the analysis is pessimistic about …

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By Kate McCauley, Chief Executive of Housing Rights Like many of those gathered in the Long Gallery last Monday, I was both surprised and encouraged to hear Minister Gordon Lyons announce plans to establish a Homelessness Commission at Housing Rights’ ‘Transforming Prevention Together’ event. While we await further details, the Minister made clear that the Commission will include two expert-led panels. One will consider how homelessness legislation needs reform, while the other will focus on the changes needed in our …

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Jon Burrows is the Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party Unionism cannot secure its future by becoming better at managing the vote we already have. We must be smarter at elections, certainly. But we must also give people who have switched off, drifted to other parties or never voted for us a compelling reason to back us. That is the argument I will make at the Ulster Unionist Party conference. Too often political unionism has mistaken noise for influence and …

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Normally when I write a post for Slugger it is because I want to articulate a point of view on a given topic, but sometimes something comes up which wasn’t on my radar yet I still feel is worth talking about. I want to emphasise I am not an expert on this, I merely wish to highlight it. According to Paul Ainsworth, writing in ‘The Irish News‘, there are twice as many Catholics than Protestants on remand in Northern Ireland …

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I’ve always had the good luck to have great neighbours. One of the mantras I try to live by is to always be the best customer possible. I also apply this principle to neighbourliness and to wider human interaction. I’m also very conscious that this isn’t the case with everyone and to live beside bad neighbours and the consequent effect that this has on relationships and mental health over a long time must be horrific.  I grew up in one …

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A year ago, President Trump addressed the United Nations for the first time in his second term. As I chronicled at the time, it appeared to mark the passing of something profound in the intangible concept of American exceptionalism, the ‘shining city on a hill’ as Ronald Reagan put it. The belief that America was something special. Yes, I know this was for many a useful hypocrisy but the point was a lot of Americans genuinely believed it and a …

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Thanks to the stable genius leader of the free world, Donald Trump, diesel in Northern Ireland has now hit £2 a litre. In Northern Ireland, diesel cars make up around 50% to 55% of all private cars on the road. Unlike the rest of the UK, where petrol cars are the majority (accounting for around 55% of all cars compared to under 30% for diesel), Northern Ireland has historically maintained a much higher proportion of diesel vehicles. This is largely …

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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. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not …

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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. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any …

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Fifty six….fifty six, he was only fifty six when he died son. My mother was staring into the open coal fire she had lit earlier with the suet from the butchers, assisted by the double leaf page of the Irish Press to create a draught. Chewing cloves in a toothless mouth, her bare legs rested on the fireplace, crimson with phlebitis, reminiscent of a drawing I’d seen the day before of the Nile Delta on the geography class cork-board. I …

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Although I haven’t been formally diagnosed with dyslexia, its effects have undoubtedly been a constant presence throughout my school education and professional life. Like many from my generation, I eventually found ways of coping – and even found ways to use it as a driving force in my life. But it wasn’t easy. I used to dread 3rd Form English. Each week, our teacher selected one pupil to read aloud from a book we were studying and then asked them …

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John Skrine is a grandson of ‘Moira O’Neill’. Born in Dublin, after a working life in England he has retired there, and is currently researching and writing about her life and her wider Higginson family. Sluggerites visiting the Old Church in Cushendun for the Big Day Out might be amused to know how a locally-known figure, popular in the early twentieth century for her verses celebrating the beauty and people of the Glens of Antrim, came a cropper for her …

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I am becoming increasingly irritated by the confident predictions that the SDLP is about to increase its vote, gain councillors and return more MLAs. Much as I would love to see it happen, having been on the ground, I find it difficult to believe that it’s a possibility. Based on what, exactly? Where is the organisation? Where are the candidates? Where are the properly funded local campaigns? Where are the teams of people identifying voters, knocking doors and rebuilding an …

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From the BBC: A pay rise of more than £2,000 for Northern Ireland Assembly members (MLAs) is “grotesque”, the first minister has said. The proposals planned for next year would bring MLAs annual salary to £69,216. The increase will take effect from the first sitting day of the new assembly mandate next May, under draft proposals by Stormont’s Independent Remuneration Board. Speaking to the media at Stormont, she said: “This issue of wages is not in my agenda. It’s not …

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The Trumpian revolution is re-ordering the global economic and security architecture in many ways, some of which could have significant implications for Ireland, whether we like it or not. Pax Americana is being replaced by Tax Americana where relations between the USA and other states are becoming entirely transactional and tariffs are imposed whenever it suits the narrow sectional interests of parts of the US elite. Countries which do not comply with this new order of things can be sanctioned …

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Former UUP councillor,ex peeler and happy Lundy Linzi Mclaren has announced that if she re-enters politics, it will be as a candidate for the SDLP. Telling Cool FM: ‘I’ve been on a journey. No one crosses that divide. I’m interested in a new Ireland.’  and says the party’s ‘energy and vision’ are encouraging, as she considers what she could bring to the SDLP if she were to run for election. Linzi McLaren comes from a policing background and says her …

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Thanks to the Great Orange One, it’s going to be an expensive winter for all of us, with petrol predicted to hit £2 a litre in the next few weeks, gas up 20% and home heating oil up 100% and predicted to jump even higher. We are all in for a tough winter. But there is a bright spark on the horizon with the government giving us all £63 towards our electric bills, from the BBC.  All households in Northern …

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