New report by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee…
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From the BBC: Stormont’s first and deputy first ministers should be renamed joint first ministers, a Westminster committee has said. The proposal is part of a report by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee into power-sharing government. The Democratic Unionist Party …
United Rugby Championship round 7 and our 2024 Six Nations squad…
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Time was when the Home Countries Championship, then the 5 Nations, and then the 6 Nations was the be-all and end all of international rugby. It is still the bread and butter of the participating Unions, funding all their other …
The domestic violence crisis
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Women in Northern Ireland are twice as likely to be murdered as a result of domestic violence than in the other UK nations. In some years, almost half of Northern Ireland murders are connected to domestic violence. In the 2022/23 …
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.
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.
“Two buckets are easier carried than one, I stand in between…”
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“We’re not Brazil, we’re Northern Ireland!” chant the Northern Ireland football fans, highlighting that in that context they are also distinct from Scotland, England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. So, begs the question, who are we as a people …
Shane MacGowan: A personal tribute…
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No one should have been surprised when it was announced today that we’d lost Shane MacGowan, aged 65. He lived a worse lifestyle than Keith Richards, and we hadn’t heard from him musically in what seemed like decades. Plus his …
“Head up, shoulders back and unclench your fists. Look out and look up.”*
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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” – John Adams “Well, if the vote is for Brexit things will be more interesting.” …
The continual implosion of Twitter…
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Things seem to go from bad to worse for Elon Musk’s disastrous purchase of Twitter. He paid $44 billion for the site last year, and its value keeps dropping. The estimated value was $15 billion during the summer, but it …
Ireland’s Openness Questioned: Anti-Immigration Violence Rattles a Nation…
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Last Thursday morning I sat down to write a blog in which I was aiming to argue that Ireland (the Republic) had been hugely successful in integrating a large number of immigrants over the past 20-25 years, and that this …