Slugger O'Toole And of being able to take a joke at your own expense. He considers the loss of the Portadown News. But he is rather less than gentle with an old adversary from the Andersonstown News. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
One of the most interesting developments is the use of Flickr’s Northern Ireland Pool to supply photographic interest for Slugger. Some of the stuff up there is outstanding, none moreso than the guy who’s taken this and quite a few of the more evocative photos on there recently. If you’ve got a digital camera, or even just a camera phone, then why not join up and have your own personal view of Northern Ireland displayed to an audience across the …
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.
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 …
Andrew over at ATW picks up on Dermot Nesbitt’s well argued letter which puts the case as to why the Irish government should not grant speaking rights to any Northern Irish representatives in the Oireachtas. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Ian Paisley has been insisting that the riots arose directly out of Unionist alienation from the stop start peace process that has seen visible benefits for Nationalism and none for Unionism. He wants the government to tackle ‘blackspots of discrimination against Protestants’ and called for “an economic deal must be established to deliver equality.” Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Whatever the actual precise trigger for the rioting (as usual, there’s nothing that covers that issue convincingly) Susan McKay argues that it proves there is a deficit in leadership within Unionism, which has left certain of the unionist working class to its own ‘atavistic rage’. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
The Orange Order seems to have decided to apply to march down the Garvaghy Road on Christmas Day. The SDLP has called the move “appalling” and “shameless” with local SDLP MLA Dolores Kelly accusing the Order of deliberately planning the latest march to “up the ante” in the wake of last weekend’s riots. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Although he’s clearly enjoying himself, Danny Morrison questions the priorities of the Unionist rioters. In particular, he asks Unionist leaders to take an objective look at what they have agreed to (albeit contingent on promised IRA moves) even in the later version of the Belfast Agreement, the embryonic Comprehensive Agreement. Are we living in a 32-county, democratic socialist republic under an IRA government? Has Protestantism been suppressed and the Orange Order banned? Has the centre of all commerce, banking and …
New primary school in Meath. There have always been protestant secondary schools in the Republic: some of them among the top performing schools in the country. But it does seem surprising it’s taken 80 years to open a single primary school. Are demographics shifting back in favour of southern protestants? Or is the kind of educational diversity represented by the Gaelscoil movement just catching on? More detail. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
In yesterday’s Daily Ireland Ciaran Barnes questions Unionist assertions of ongoing discrimination adversely affecting Loyalist working class areas. Unfortunately the PDF of the Deloitte report (scroll down) I’m guessing he’s based his findings crashed my own browser when I tried to open it, but you may have better luck. If you do, could someone send me a copy? Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Following a series of searches and arrests earlier today, and arrests during the disruption to traffic from road blocks, further rioting has broken out in north Belfast tonight. Although seemingly not on the scale of previous nights, there is one line, in particular, I want to highlight in the BBC report, and it was part of the report before the rioting started Police cleared many protests off main roads, but were told they faced paramilitary attack if they tried to …
Ach, if only it were that easy. Randomshite.co.uk has a great piece on how the Kaiser Chiefs started it all up with their I predict a riot. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Libby Purves writing in The Times, ask what principle is worth the destruction that was visited upon some parts of Belfast. Shootings, bombings and murders are crimes. They are also, in this context, blasphemy. If the Orange Order parades were really Christian, their organisers would meekly route them to avoid offending neighbours; if the Catholic side were Christians, they would refuse such chivalry and welcome their Protestant brothers, drums and all. So if we are having all these tough new …
I had a conversation with a major player in one of Northern Ireland’s main political parties recently. He mentioned that he thought Slugger had gone downhill in recent times. I perhaps dismissed it too offhandedly, arguing that the viewer stats have gone up and stayed up through the summer (a season when they usually tail off). But considering the proportion of posts to comments, and the general drop in quality in the latter, I’m beginning to think this may have …
Noel Whelan with a sobering sanity check for all the parties to the Northern Ireland’s current political hysteria. He argues that Unionists are getting whipped up by the froth of emotive headlines around the disbandment of the home battalions of the RIR and missing the substance of the overall developments. Not least, the acceptance by Sinn Fein of what was known for years as the Unionist veto. In fact, the main reason why Sinn Féin has raised the volume of …
The Belfast Telegraph as a tally of all the key stats in rioting. “115 shots were fired at police and 146 blast bombs thrown”. 116 vehicles were hijacked. 81 policemen injured, and 216 plastic baton rounds. There’s no mention of civilian injuries. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
According to a survey by QUB, 10% of Northern Ireland 15-year-olds have become regular drug users. Academic’s did a survey of 3,500 young people in the first 5 years of secondary school. The study found risk factors identified for being a regular drug user at 15 included having a risk-taking personality profile, being involved in trouble at school and in delinquent behaviour. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
FURTHER to Mick’s post about Robert McCartney’s friend Geoff Commander being badly beaten up by a gang (said to include a someone involved in McCartney’s murder) in the Short Strand, I understand that a group held a protest outside his widow’s home. They were reported to have said they will be back every day until she leaves. The beating was reported to have followed “an altercation between a member of the McCartney family and the gang”. The Irish News reported …