Despite all the coverage of recent weeks, it is hard to find anyone willing to sort out where the basic ground lies. There’s an interesting offering in the pipeline from the Cheif Rabbi, Jonathan Sachs, Jonathan Freedland reports in the …

Jude Collins refutes the idea that everyone within the context of NI is per se a bigot.

Ciaran Irvine weighs up the prospects of a Fianna Fail /SDLP merger, but asks what will happen to Social Democracy in any new situation arising?

One Orangeman in Derry told me last week that the crunch for the Orange Order in the coming years would deciding whether they are an essentially religious organisation, or one dedicated entirely to politics. The Order he argued had got …

As Trimble confirms his attendence at the WSSD comment has been slow to gather about this major world event in Ireland, North or South. The Belfast Telegraph gave editorial space to it to today: “With Northern Ireland rapidly running out …

This story produced an extraordinary amount of journalism, and an equally extraordinary diversity of opinion. I don’t often express strong comment in the letter, but Tom Utley’s offering for Saturdy’s Daily Telegraph beats all comers for its utter vacuity Lennon …

Cahal Milmo on the crisis within the new police service. David Pallister in the Guardian says: “With 10% of the force on sick leave, and more than 730 injured in the past year, Mr Cramphorn said: “The cumulative effect of …

Brian Walker quotes Macauley with regard to the position of the loyalists of Derry: “The faults which are normally found in dominant castes have not seldom shown themselves without disguise at her festivities; and even with the expressions of pious …

The letters pages in any paper often throw up insights that are not picked up by journalists. There’s an interesting reaction to Steven King’s piece in yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph from Christopher Lyttle: “Surely unionists have learnt from the past. The …

Several people (unionists and nationalists) have told me that the real policing issue in Northern Ireland is that outside fully manned riot units (DMSUs), there is a huge numbers deficit following the exit of many of the old RUC force. …