Month: October 2026

“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” What if three political parties that have spent years competing for parts of Northern Ireland’s political centre have more in common than their public disagreements might suggest? The Ulster Unionist Party, Alliance Party and SDLP have been knocking chunks out of each other at Stormont for as long as I can remember. Yet perhaps they share more politically, electorally and philosophically than any of them would care to admit. What do I …

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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 three rounds of the URC, and prospects for the first round of the European Cup didn’t seem to be overly rosy. All four Irish provinces are currently in the bottom half of the URC table although, admittedly, Leinster played two …

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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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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 with my parents (the iconic ‘Studios 1-to-6’ on the Gillygooley Road was packed that evening). Being overly sentimental then, and now, I’d nearly drowned in tears of grief over Jack’s Dawson’s freezing death, watching distraught as he slipped under the …

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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 harsh conservatism that defines Nashville. On the surface a care-free, hedonistic city, a mecca for country music yet underneath a much more complex and nuanced place. Where it comes from. The family names of the city founders puts Nashville’s origins …

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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 about all kinds of locally based  players and observers of the peace process spreading the word about  our  alleged miracle before  deeply impressed international audiences. But this one looks different. The MoD  for one thing. And Jeffrey Donaldson? Leaving aside …

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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 dock of Newry Crown Court as his sentence was handed down. Judge Paul Ramsey said Donaldson’s crimes, which took place between 1985 and 2008, had led to a “catastrophic descent into disgrace”. He was sentenced to 11 years for his …

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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 keep young people in education or training until 18, and a Department for the Economy policy of free English classes. None of these documents makes clear who must ensure that a young person arriving after compulsory school age can obtain …

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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 to more trials like the virtual show trial  of  veteran Soldier F in the Bloody Sunday case.  While this trial   looked like a deliberate attempt to demonstrate futility,  the verdict now aspired to is  Never Again, Why repeat such a …

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My younger years were saturated in Americana via movies and TV. It was all an illusion of course, but in my mind America was very much the land of great expanses filled with exciting people. The kind of people who could be relied upon to do the right thing. The land which produced the Greatest Generation who stormed Omaha Beach. I still have a soft spot for America. So it pains me greatly to witness the descent of the nation …

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A Belfast City Council committee has approved an Ulster-Scots street sign for Ravenscroft Avenue in east Belfast. If the full council ratifies the decision, the street will carry the name Corbiescroft Evvenye below the English name. It is the first Ulster-Scots approval under the policy the council adopted in July 2022; three streets received Ulster-Scots signs under the previous policy, which ran from 1998. Of the 110 occupiers surveyed, 19 (17.27%) were in favour, 10 were against, one had no …

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Winston Churchill is misattributed as saying that the “Americans can always be relied upon to do the right thing – after they have exhausted all other options”. Perhaps the same can be said of the British Government’s belated decision to ban the Drumcree march – no good could have come of it – and yet events were allowed to unfold which placed the continuance of good community relations, power sharing government, and, indeed, lives at risk before the Secretary of …

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Well, the evil day finally arrived in the latest episode of ‘Blue Lights’. Episode Three of Series Four centred around the trial of dissident republicans Mo McIntyre and Anto Donovan for common enterprise in the murder of Constable Gerry Cliff. But before we focus on all that, I’ll still have to sound the usual warning about these reviews of individual episodes. So if you’ve watched the entire fourth series on the iPlayer, please refrain from giving away any spoilers about …

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The other day Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that he believed that there was Russian interference during the Brexit elections. From the BBC: Burnham told The Rest is Politics podcast, that upon arriving in Downing Street, he had asked if there had been Russian interference in the vote, adding: “I’ve had the clear answer that, yes, there was.” In his podcast interview, Burnham said there was “certainly misinformation, disinformation that is emanating from Russia into German politics”. He added: “I …

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Our elected leaders had a busy day up at Stormont yesterday. What were they all working so furiously on? Was it the environmental crisis of Lough Neagh? The crisis in our health service? Improving education? How to build more houses? Of course not. You wouldn’t expect anything useful or constructive from them. Instead they spent three-hours traded insults with each over during a debate before no-confidence motions in Sinn Féin ministers. I’m not even going to bother given you any …

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