Slugger O'Toole With the IRA still rumoured to be about to, or possibly in the process of decommissioning, Nigel Dodds takes the governments to task for doing side deals with the IRA, and pressuring Unionists into premature contact with Sinn Fein. This follows a vehement attack on recent proposals put forward by President Bush’s special envoy Mitchell Reiss. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Former Guardian editor Peter Preston believes that the answer to the troubles of the print media is to integrate their mainstream operations with their online activity: In short, a moment of profound decision-making approaches. Some papers, like the Daily Express, make no great effort to move with the times. Some, like the Sun, cut back in anguish. Some, like the Guardian, have begun, at great cost, to build a future on the net. But integration? One newsroom serves all? So …
Malachi O’Doherty reckons that most of the journalism around the loyalist rioting would fail the Orwell test for clarity in writing about politics. What puzzles him is how few have looked for a political motive behind the rioting. He wonders aloud whether it may simply be a controlled racking up of pressure on the British to draw the centre of gravity in the continuing peace process back towards Unionists: The history of the UVF shows that they have been ruthless …
Good piece of writing in the Irish Times today from Graham Gudgin a former special advisor to David Trimble during his tenure of Northern Ireland’s First Minister’s office. He lays out a key flaw in the governments’ modus operandi: The approach of both governments has been to first deal with the IRA and then to persuade the DUP back into government with Sinn Féin. Hey Presto the Belfast Agreement will have been restored and all will be well. The problem …
Father Des Wilson argues that the only people Loyalist communities can trust is the Republican movement. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
In The Observer, Henry McDonald reminds us that the UDA are still attempting to prevent journalists at the Sunday World from reporting the UDA’s continuing paramilitary and criminal activities by threatening retailers selling the newspaper, and by threatening distributors. That would be the same UDA who, according to Peter Hain, are still officially maintaining a cease-fire.. and one of whose leaders met Irish President Mary McAleese when she visited Belfast[archived but the opening line remains] on the 8th Sept this …
We’ll have to wait until Thursday to actually see the Channel 4 Dispatches investigation into The Big Heist – as they refer to the Northern Bank robbery – an investigation carried out by journalist and author Kevin Toolis. But several of the Sunday papers carry reports on the allegations contained in the programme – Sunday Times, Sunday Independent, Sunday Business Post and the Sunday Life. Interestingly they each focus on slightly different aspects of the programme. The Sunday Business Post …
Interesting titbit in the Sunday Independent today. Apparently the party has approached the captain of the victorious Cork team, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín. A good move for the party if it is going to reverse the set backs it has had in gaining traction amongst the middle class vote in the Republic. But at 28, and with his attention more on building his own business than a career in politics, Seán Óg turned them down. Even so, it is a …
In football at any rate, rising faster up the rankings than any other team. Thanks to back-to-back wins over Azerbaijan and England, Northern Ireland are now 101st in September’s FIFA world rankings, up a massive 15 places on a month ago. FIFA also calls the victory over England one of the shocks of the century. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Belfast City Council’s over-zealous approach to banning adult-orientated shops in Belfast looks like leaving rate-payers to pick up a £100,000 legal bill after a refusal for a judicial review of the decision on the application for Miss Behavin’ was overturned in the Court of Appeal, the Appeal Court judges agreeing that Belfast City Council’s decision was unlawful. But with even online retail giant Amazon stepping into the Sex and Sensuality market [link may not be work-safe – Ed].. at least, …
According to yesterday’s Newsletter, Love Ulster have ‘penciled’ in October 29th for a march from the Shankill Road to Belfast City centre for what the organisers claim will be a ‘peaceful protest’. Victims’ groups, Orangemen, loyalist bands and many others from across Northern Ireland will be called to the streets to show the “the deep feelings of Protestant, unionist and loyalist people at this time”. Also, a second edition of the campaign newspaper is also being prepared by the Shankill …
Irish Times Northern News Editor Dan Keenan talks to ordinary residents of the Shankill’s Woodvale area, including building contractor Sam Robertson and finds a seam of seething and potentially lethal frustration that runs much deeper than the riotous reaction to the recent Parades Commission decision.(Subs req.) Robertson says he has no paramilitary links, is not an Orange man or a member of a Unionist party and has spent years keeping young lads off the streets and on the football pitch …
Secretary of State, Peter Hain, maintains that he could not have made any other decision, but by claiming, as reported by the Belfast Telegraph, that he re-released Sean Kelly despite Kelly breaching the terms of his early release licence – a claim that Hain denied the Independent Sentence Review Commission an opportunity to assess – he has arguably undermined his own call to support the rule of law. From Chris Thornton’s Belfast telegraph report – In an interview with the …
Continuing from Gonzo’s piece here, I thought I’d note Mark Devenport’s article on Northern Ireland’s national sport, and I’m not talking football, rugby, gaelic or even tiddlywinks. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
The Spectator these days under Boris Johnson is a cracking read, and worth the hassle of registering with the site. This week they’ve got Kevin Myers, who points out to a no doubt increasingly bored and puzzled British audience that there is not going to be an end to Northern Ireland political troubles: Writing about Northern Ireland in a British publication is rather like performing a one-man rendition of Waiting For Godot on the beach at Skegness in January. One …
Considering the haphazard way in which the Ray Burke scandal broke in the Republic, only with the emergence of a single determined whistleblower James Gogarty, David Adams weighs the chances of anyone telling the truth in Northern Ireland, and finds them as remote as ever. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Crooked Timber’s Chris Bertram picks up on the announcement yesterday by the UK’s Home Secretary Charles Clarke of draft amendments to the Prevention of Terrorism Act and argues, in reference to the amendment which will make it an offence to glorify, exalt or celebrate acts of terrorism unless they happened over 20 years ago, apart from those on a list which Charles Clarke will draw up – “it is just incompatible with a free society for it to be in …
Interesting piece from Martin Wolf drawn from a paper by André Sapir on Globalisation and the Reform of European Social Models. It identifies four typological models: Rhineland (or continental); Mediterranean; Nordic; and Anglo Saxon. The UK, Ireland and Portugal all fit the relatively successful enterprise driven Anglo Saxon model. But the Nordic countries which feature strong government intervention also performs strongly in economic terms. Wolf concludes: First, there is no doubt about the success of the Nordic countries. But all …
Eammon McCann was backing Northern Ireland last week. In the Sunday Journal, he takes Robin Livingstone to task for his backing of England over the local Northern Ireland team. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Lively thread at Love Ulster on the partition of Ulster. It begins with an anti-partitionist, Unionist perspective on the breaking up of an historic province. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.