Brian O’Neill

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.

Brian O’Neill

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.

Soapbox

What was your experience of The Troubles?

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Belfast Glenariff is one of our regulars in the comment zone “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there” is the famous opening line of the 1953 L.P. Hartley novel The Go Betweens. Hartley’s book is an …

Brian O’Neill

Our humiliation is complete. Now we can’t even afford to buy new library books…

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We have a health service on the brink of collapse. A police service falling apart. Practically every public service under-resourced and over-stretching. Burned-out underpaid workers. And just for good measure the ecological collapse of the largest lough in the UK …

Brian O’Neill

Papering over the cracks in our declining town centres…

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I took a walk down Great Victoria Street in Belfast this morning. It is fair to say the once Golden Mile has thoroughly lost its lustre. Most buildings are now unoccupied as this BelTel article shows. What should we do …

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster)

Constructive journalism is ‘pressing, urgent, and needed everywhere’: inaugural B° Future Festival

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The Bonn Institute hosted an inaugural, two-day B° Future Festival for journalism and constructive dialogue, held in the city’s LVR LandesMuseum. The first day for registered delegates was conducted mainly in English and discussed various dimensions of constructive journalism — …

Andy Pollak

Straws in the autumn wind around the Irish unity debate…

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There have been some interesting straws in the autumn wind in recent weeks as politicians get ready for the new political term and general elections in both Irish jurisdictions in the near future. Leo Varadkar doesn’t very often talk about …

Brian O’Neill

Mickey Harte to be the next manager of Derry GAA team…

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Every year, I write the Slugger April Fool, but even I would have dismissed Mickey Harte switching allegiance to Derry and being too unbelievable, but thus it has come to pass. There is no love lost between Tyrone and Derry …

Brian O’Neill

Less flags, more flowers please…

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I was on holiday in Sligo the other week, and I was very taken with how floral Sligo town has become. I have been going to Sligo for 40-odd years, so I remember the bleak times when the town was …

Brian O’Neill

The push begins for a border poll in 2030…

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At the Féile an Phobail summer school this year, a panel from Irelands Future discussed their campaign for a border poll on reunification to happen in 2030. They explained their logic in picking this date, but honestly, I forgot the …