Brian O’Neill

Open sunday – politics free zone…

2015

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.

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast)

SDLP leader faces election telling party members that ‘we didn’t turn this ship round just to sail in circles’ #SDLP26

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The SDLP gathered in the Crowne Plaza hotel for their annual conference. Claire Hanna’s leader’s speech was concise, punchy and well received. But the good reception in the hall now needs to transfer to a good reception on the doors, …

Brian O’Neill

Donald Trump says he would love to see a united Ireland…

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From the BBC: Trump said a united Ireland would happen eventually and that the Taoiseach was “the right man over here to get it moving”. During his meeting with Micheál Martin at Farmleigh House, in Phoenix Park, Trump said a …

Brian O’Neill

Mary McAleese quits GAA integration group…

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For those not familiar with the situation, Gaelic games are split into three organisations: The main GAA The Ladies Gaelic Football Association Camogie (the female version of hurling) For years they have been trying to merge the three organisations into …

Andy Boal

What on earth is going on with Royal Mail?

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It’s rarely out of the headlines.  We seem to get one postal delivery a week.  First and Second class? Forget that, nothing gets delivered on time unless it’s a parcel or other timed delivery service. Or does it? Have a …

Brian O’Neill

Trump arrives in Ireland tomorrow…

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The Great Orange One arrives in Ireland tomorrow, causing a diplomatic headache for the Irish government. DFA are as smooth as the yard of silk but this visit will stretch even their legendary powers of diplomacy. President Catherine Connolly is …

Soapbox

Hanna: If we keep voting for the same politics, we shouldn’t be surprised when we keep getting the same outcomes.

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Claire Hanna MP is the Leader of the SDLP For too long, politics here has spent most of its time either looking to the past or dealing with the present, but rarely planning for the future. Reduced Assembly terms have …

Arnold Carton

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband imposes West Bank Sanctions…

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To some of us the choice of Ed Miliband as Foreign Secretary by Andy Burnham was a surprising one.  If you had to pick someone who was likely to get on with President Trump, a green energy, windmill-loving lefty like …

Soapbox

Something worth coming home for

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By Elizabeth Clarke MBE  is a member of the Ulster Unionist Party, a school governor, charity volunteer and mum of five.  My son is thinking about moving to Australia next year. Part of me wants to tell him to go …

Mick Fealty

Health Reform: Do we have the right patient at the right place and the right time?

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Emergency general surgery left Enniskillen in December 2022, weeks after Stormont fell and with no minister in post to answer for it. Nearly four years on, the Trust says outcomes improved, its own consultants dispute the figures, and the regulator has quietly reversed the recommendation it once called urgent.