Slugger O'Toole Anthony McIntrye outlines the reason he believes Blair’s speech gives the IRA a way to wind-down, if not disband the organisation, in last week’s Observer. “Blair has offered them a way out. By calling not for its disbandment but for ‘the continuing existence of the IRA as an active paramilitary organisation’ to cease, he has permitted the IRA certain ‘wriggle room’.” Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
To Irish in America, for putting the Letter to Slugger O’Toole on the front of its news page. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
No, not the latest news from Stormont, but at least the good citizens of NI are getting a chance to laugh on the grand-scale soap opera that is NI politics. Co Antrim playwright Tim Loane’s lastest play is sometimes too close to reality for comfort. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
According to Ian Parsley, a specialist at the public affairs consultancy Stormont Strategy, there may other, more pressing agendas at work in this appointment: “Murphys past as NI security minister and (sometimes outspoken, sometimes tacit) opposition to devolution may indicate that Blairs Government feels that dealing with the security situation takes precedence to restoring devolution. Murphy comes from a section of the Welsh Labour Party with a notable antipathy towards Welsh nationalism, so many will be interested to see how …
David Ford, leader of the Alliance party, has just told the Letter to Slugger O’Toole: “It is surprising that the PM has seen fit to move John Reid at a time of crisis like this. However, it is clear that he feels the need for a ‘safe pair of hands’. In Paul Murphy we have an Secretary of State who had experience within the NIO at the time of the agreement and in bringing about a successful partnership government in …
Contrary to Ian Paisley junior’s remarks earlier, Julian Glover reckons the “focus will be on getting rid of direct rule as quickly as possible. Mr Murphy’s first job will be to try to rebuild trust between the two sides before building on that to find a way of restoring the devolved administration.” Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
John Reid is to move to Labour party chairman, where his strongman credentials will, no doubt, be useful stock-in-trade. His replacement is to be Paul Murphy who was until today the secretary of state for Wales. He is no stranger to Northern Ireland having already spent some time there as a minister and as a shadow cabinet spokesman. Early reactions from local politicians are mixed, with Ian Paisley junior reading it as as sign that direct rule is settling in …
Eammon McCann reports on events leading up to Bloody Sunday. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
John Reid tells Loyalists that their ongoing campaign of violence is muddying the waters. Speaking in the NI debate yesterday, he described it as “not only murderous in its intent, but becomes an obstacle for the republicans to reduce their level of activity”. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
The recent meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, means two things according to Brian Feeney: “…chiefly to show that Dublin and London will continue to implement the Good Friday Agreement. And later, “the governments are laying the ground for a long haul. That much was clear before the suspension on October 14 because dont forget, Trimble was going to pull the executive down in January anyway.” But he warns: “With the collapse of the executive Blair had nothing to lose. …
So we are back in hiatus territory yet again. John Reid took his first Northern Ireland question time in Westminster since the suspension of the devolved institutions. But all such periods in NI are risky. The essential gambit in Tony Blair’s speech last night was to take pressure off Unionists and place it on the only party in the Executive with official links to a paramilitary army. But there are signs that in the absence of the political chamber at …
The latest outrageous copy of the Portadown News. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
So warns University of Ulster academic, Dr Paul Dixon: “At crucial times throughout the peace process, politicians have manipulated public opinion, trying to lead it towards an accommodation while at the same time maintaining their political popularity. “The fact they are saying one thing in public but doing another in private has become more apparent, particularly since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Little attempt has been made to persuade important sections of the population to support the peace …
Bob McCartney is an anomaly in NI politics. Having been elected with four other UKUP MLAs, he was left on his own after a row early on in the Assembly’s lifespan. He has created and broken alliances with an astounding variety of polticial figures, including the veteran Southern poltician Conor Cruise O’Brien and Ian Paisley. Norman Porter in his seminal work Rethinking Unionism, chooses McCartney as the quintessence of what he calls Liberal Unionism. Porter describes his fundamental position on …
This well written on-line encyclopedia entry is worth perusing if your history of Northern Ireland is rusty. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Looks like Westminster is expecting a long negotiation period. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Soldier 027 continues to give evidence to Lord Saville. Sarah Brett reports: “Raymond Muldoon and Francis Creagh claimed they were abducted from the Divis Flats area by paras in February 1972. QC for the families of the Bloody Sunday dead, Seamus Treacy, today queried: ‘it would appear Mr Muldoon and Mr Creagh were ill-treated by members of the Anti-Tank Platoon, they were then abducted and then dumped on the Shankill Road. It appears from their statement that when they were …
It looks like this is what’s happening. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
It looks like the first public moves are afoot to cut the official ties between the UUP and the Orange Order. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Roy Garland on the UUP’s conference at the weekend: “[the conference] was the most satisfying I have experienced. The chosen venue suggests that unionists were getting back to their roots but this was no regression into siege mentality. Rather, I found a confident, outward-looking and hopeful party reiterating a commitment to inclusive pluralist politics.” It also seems that calling meetings of the UUC may not be quite as easy for opponents of the leadership to call in future. Slugger O'TooleA …