Slugger O'Toole

Belfast Telegraph’s journalist of the year Mary Fitzgerald is on secondment to the newsroom at the Washington Post. She was at the US Republican National Convention to get David Trimble’s reaction to Karl Rove’s view that the war against terrorism was exactly comparible to that fought by the British against the IRA during the troubles. On a lighter note, Slugger has word from one New York reader that DT attended the convention in the company of a rather dapperly dressed …

Read more…

Returning to an old theme of his, Brian Feeney argues that Unionists are politically incapable of sharing power with nationalists and looks forward to the day that London and Dublin run Northern Ireland directly. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Just in case you thought intra tribal rivalry had taken a back seat for the negotiations – Jeffrey Donaldson has been teasing his former colleagues on what he claims is their lack of new ideas. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

The leader of the DUP has said there is no rush for a settlement. Just how long is a matter for lengthy conjecture. In fact there is nothing in any negotiations timetable to prevent things dragging on until past the next general election (expected in early summer next year. That would then give the two main protagonists another two years before facing any further democratic tests. Just the kind of space we might expect to see radical developments. Slugger O'TooleA …

Read more…

Getting Slugger transfered back to its home is likely to take a bit longer than we’d hoped – probably not until next Tuesday, when I hope to be blogging from Northern Ireland. We’ll keep you posted here of further progress as we have it. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Two articles from Chris Thornton and Gary Kelly foreground the inclusion of an IRA stand down in the upcoming negotiations between NI’s elected representatives. This potentially represents an important new strand to the current process. Previous emphasis upon the decommissioning of IRA weapons has arguably had disastrous consequences for all of its political advocates. Retaining it as an essential objective is likely to lead to similar difficulties, though the DUP has clearly covered this possibility with its corporate assembly model …

Read more…

My own review of John Lloyd’s essay on Politics and the Media is due to be published next weekend. The man himself had an interesting line the cult of the journalist as celebrity in last week’s FT Magazine, after attending a film festival in Locarno recently: The “Trust me, I’m a reporter” line would probably always have raised a laugh, and still would in many quarters… Jump forward the decades to the polementaries and the moral force of the reporter …

Read more…

There has been from time to time fierce discussion here and on other NI blogs about what makes a blog and what doesn’t. Elsewhere this kind of discussion as taken second place to what individual bloggers can actually do. This week as the US Republican convention is being blogged just like the Democrats. Like last time, even the BBC is getting involved! Reason has substantially supplemented its blog team from last time out. The New Republic magazine’s blog is there …

Read more…

George Kerevan notes the continuation of recruitment of IRA volunteers has continued long past the two ceasefires and the Belfast Agreement. But a successful conclusion to current negotiations, he believes, might see Sinn Fein recognising the PSNI and local youngsters who might previously have joined the IRA being recruited into a part-time local PSNI reserve. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

RTE this morning marked the anniversary of the first IRA ceasefire with a retrospective from Belfast academics Paul Bew and Eammon Phoenix, and a report from their Northern editor Tommy Gorman highlighting the one consistent success story since that time – the tourist industry. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Jessica Kuerten, (nee Chesney) has just jumped a clear round to tie with Britain’s Nick Skelton in Athens. At the very least it puts her in with a shout of winning a medal of some discription in tonight’s final. Irish representatives in both national teams have turned in some good performances, but have thus far struggled to make an impact in the final stages. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Slugger finally got too big and cumbersome for our UK server yesterday. It is going to take a number of days to effect the transfer, especially given that we are going into a long weekend and our tech genious from River Path Abi is currently on holidays somewhere in Co Antrim. So in the meantime there will be no more blogging here until next Tuesday. We hope to be restored to our former home soon after that. Have a good …

Read more…

Mmmm…. Or maybe not! This little piece of frivolity was thanks to Smoke Signals. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Barrister Noel Whelan is one of the more erudite commentators on Northern Irish affairs in the Republic. This week he his column in the Examiner covers the potential sticking point between the DUP and Sinn Fein of policing and decommissioning. He summarises Jeffrey Donaldson at the Parnell School last week: “…the DUP is seeking the following: full decommissioning of IRA weapons to be dealt with ‘conclusively’; the IRA and the associated ‘architecture’ of paramilitary violence to be disbanded; Sinn Féin …

Read more…

Brian Feeney looks at the what may turn out to be the longest Cabinet re-shuffle in Irish political history and reckons it may the thought of moving Brian Cowen from his key brief at Foreign Affairs and the need for his party to parry the Sinn Fein challenge in the south that is staying his hand. Feeney tips Louthman Dermot Ahern to succeed Cowen, if and when it finally happens. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and …

Read more…

David Vance will no doubt be pleased that the outstanding performance of Northern Irish GCSE candidates have made it into the leader of the Daily Telegraph this morning. Martin McGuinness’s plans to abolish the 11+ will be executed by a Labour government in 2008, if 1) there is no change in the UK government in the elections widely expected to take place next year, and/or 2) a nationalist MLA manages to negotiate the Education post in any reconvened local Executive. …

Read more…

He doesn’t say so explicitly, these statements from Reg Empey hint that if the negotiations to get the Belfast Agreement back online, he might support the DUP’s alternative of a corporate Assembly. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Our UK server gave out on us this afternoon and we’ve had to temporarily resort to our old cramped offices at the original blogspot site. A case of back to the future! We will be moving Slugger to a brand new shiny Linux server in New York over the next few days. We can’t bring back the very recent past until then, but we will try to bring you a few morsels to pick over. In the meantime, you may …

Read more…

At last after donations from a number of kind and generous readers, followed by a near record upgrade (it took 41 hours and 23 minutes to effect – Slugger has to be one of the largest sites of its type) and finally some teething difficulties, we now have the new comments facility from Movable Type. The new system allows reader to comment in one of two ways: registered or unregistered. The main difference is that if you register with Typekey …

Read more…

Looks like Fibber McGees (post modern pubbery gone mad) in Galway City is leading the first rebellion. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.