NY Post boycott?
Niall O’Dowd editorialises on the New York Post editorial we covered earlier. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
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McCann on Cahill
Eammon McCann on another book review, this time for the Sunday Tribune, kindly reproduced in The Blanket. Of the book he is, frankly, disparaging. But the interest lies less in the book and more in McCann’s view of the life of Joe Cahill; one of the last republicans to have been born before the partition of Ireland. The author, McCann says: “…gives no impression of him as a irregular individual riven with the complications inevitable from half a century’s immersement …
Mark Durkan: interviewed
I was out at a conference yesterday, so the blogging was not as comprehensive as I would have liked. Gail Walker explored the human angle on Mark Durkan in Thursday’s Belfast Telegraph. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
McClarty on loyalist violence
David McClarty one of the Unionist representatives on the recent South African trip defends his decision to talk with representatives of Loyalist paramilitaries in the face of accusations from Alban McGuinness of hypocrisy. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
From Basingstoke to Lisburn
Andrew Hunter, currently MP for the Hampshire town of Basingstoke, is making overtures to the voters of Lisburn. The DUP may see his defection to them from the Conservative party as part of its strategy to push their credentials as a mainstream Unionist party, and decisively take a position, which has been held, historically, by the Ulster Unionist Party. Mind you, not everything is light and roses in the good ship DUP. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily …
Ooops…
I owe this one to Newt at the Portadown News. The Irish Independent in its editorial on Thursday said: “Earthquakes and floods are rare indeed in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown. Malfunctioning traffic lights are about the nearest that favoured location ever comes to a disaster.” But in less that 24 hours flooding in the area was severe enough to prompt calls for the setting up of a new strategic government agency. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other …
Policing drama: discrimination
Jude Collins feels like no one is listening. No one who is Unionist that is; he has something approaching a cult following amongst some online nationalists. This week he poses a series of rhetorical, questions. But of all of them, point one is by far the most enlightening: “At the rate of 400 recruits a year, with a 50/50 split between Catholics and Protestants, it will take the Police Service of Northern Ireland between 15 and 20 years before the …
Contradictions?
Anthony McIntyre is critical of the public splitting of Sinn Fein, the political party and decision makers on the IRA Army Council, in his reveiw of Eammon Maille and David McKittrick’s Endgame in Ireland. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
American opinion shifting?
Further thoughts on the subtle change in the attitudes of Irish American, particularly with regard tot he Republican movement. As over fifty percent of the Letter’s readership is in the US, please let us know if this accords with your own understanding of the situation in the comments field. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Three men shot
Ian Graham reports on multiple punishment shootings in South Armagh, Co Down and Co Antrim. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
NY Post boycott?
The New York Post’s unfavourable editorial on Gerry Adams looks like it may spark a boycott by American republicans of the tabloid. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Delay in elections
Secretary of State Paul Murphy has stated that the next Assembly elections may not take place in May 2003 as scheduled. Probably an early indications that the inter party talks are likely to take longer than some had hoped. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Policing reforms
The Irish Examiner welcomes the British government’s plans to press forward with wholesale police reforms, as indicated in the Queen’s speech yesterday. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Offside in the War on Terror?
Steven King is not always consistent but he is always worth reading for an intelligent view of the Unionist case. This week he interprets some of the finer nuances from Blair’s interview with Frank Millar in the Irish Times last week, and suggests that any coming globalising conflict involving the US’s War on Terror campaign is likely Sinn Fein at a much greater distance from Irish America. This is something of a reprise of a previous theme. Slugger O'TooleA general …
Sinn Fein First Minister?
This one had passed under my notice until I picked it up from Paul Dunne at the Shamrockshire Eagle. Reg Empey warns Unionists of what he calls the ‘Fermanagh and South Tyrone syndrome’ (in which the two Unionist parties split their vote) and raises the possibility of leaving Sinn Fein opportunity of becoming the largest party after the next elections. It’s not clear from the report where such vulnerable seats are to be found. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for …
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
Or who is guarding the guards? The Newsletter argues that without the Asssmbly to scrutinise the acts of the direct rule ministers, the public needs to keep a vigilant watch. It quotes Stormont Strategy: It is simply not good enough that we should all have to rely on questions put down in the House of Commons by MPs, and the odd press release, as the only way of dragging information out of ministers, who, with limited time each week in …
Unhappy unionists: need for trust
The veteran correspondent Eric Waugh identifies three things holding back the resolution of the current crisis: “The arms issue is the first. The second is unionist restiveness over the steady advance of the involvement of Dublin in the administration of Northern Ireland. The third, recently, has become the most combustible: and that is the presence within the Executive of Ministers unwilling to acknowledge the status of the territory they helped to govern.” By the end he concludes that trust is …
Omagh report to be released
Louisa Nesbitt reports that the Garda are to release findings of a three-strong committee on events around the Omagh bombing in 1998 in two weeks time. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Derry: cold house for protestants
Almost picking up from the theme of Richard Kelly’s piece in Prospect last week, Ian Starrett detects unease amongst the Unionist community in Derry. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
The Clintons
Former President Bill Clinton is to receive an award from Irish American Democrats during St Patrick’s week. His wife Hilary, now Senator for New York, is planning to visit Enniskillen for the anniversary of the signing of the Belfast Agreement. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.