Slugger O'Toole It’s too easy to retain an innocent and rose coloured view of the Ireland of yesterday, when times were good, men were men and the women stayed at home. Having spent most of my childhood there, I have some experience of many of the issues that we so studiously avoided at the time. I will look at the Ferns Report at some time in the future, but its important to realise that other vulnerable people were exploited, of whom we’ve …
This Bank Holiday weekend Seamus Heaney will be at the Guardian sponsored Hay Literary Festival[they already have some great content at that link, scroll down to listen to last year’s Blasphemy debate with Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens], with other poets at the Poetry Gala on Sunday, and talking to Peter Florence in The Eos Marquee on Monday. Which gives me the opportunity to link to the Radio Ulster Heaney Day page, again, where they now have links to most …
The pattern of sectarian attacks in Ballymean has already seen the loss of one innocent life. However, when the PSNI Ballymena DCU Commander, Terry Shevlin, said sectarian attacks in Ballymena were a “two-way affair” his comments were attacked by Sinn Fein representatives, Monica Digney and Philip McGuigan. The PSNI have now released figures of the sectarian attacks in Ballymena DCU between April 05 to March 06 . There were 133 sectarian incidents, 57% of the victims were Roman Catholic and …
Well here’s a good reason to mind what you say on line, blogger or no blogger. Charles Johnson, the dogged blogger behind Little Green Footballs has charted in minute detail what may turn out to be the first UK scalp by a big US blogger. This time, the person under suspicion is not a journalist, but another blogger at the Guardian’s Comment is Free site. Charles has the details, chapter and verse. Thanks to David for the heads up! Slugger …
Brave attempt two years after Dana won Ireland’s first Eurovision. Great start. Pity about the rest of it. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Is sectarianism our core problem or is it a culture of violence? I was asked this yesterday and have been thinking about it ever since. As you think about it look at a sample of recent news. In Ballymena, scene of a vicious sectarian murder, thugs fired at an ambulance in the Dunclug estate as it came to the aid of those in a house under attack. In Londonderry, three teenage girls have been ordered out of the country. In …
I feel like a pioneer, and that wouldnt be one of the catholic ones that avoid alcohol. It feels very different writing on this site, and I will just take a deep breath and try it. Well, its a Bank Holiday weekend here in Norn Iron, and the Police are starting a clamp down on dangerous drivers. Pity they hadnt been on the A1 last night when I was driving home from Belfast after my exam. (thank you for asking, …
It’s ironic, but this latest disaster is both self inflicted, and eminently repairable. However it also demonstrates the limitation of Slugger’s happy amatuer status. For all our awards and multiple expressions of goodwill, we cannot continue our high levels of service without backing from a serious software player. Money is not the issue (though donations always welcome): service is. There is an opportunity for an ambitous, future curious company to team up with Slugger and not simply get us back …
Google’s being clever again. This gapminder tool is a great time waster if you are even vaguely curious about the rest of the world. If you want to know what effect wars have on an economy, then highlight Rwanda and watch its fortunes over the last thirty years. Or highlight UK and Ireland, press the animation and witness the Republic overtake the UK on GNP. More at gapminder.org (just scroll down). Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads …
FIFA’s resistance to allowing Northern Ireland players to carry an Irish passport is causing ructions. FIFA says players for the team MUST use a British passport in order to prove their national credentials to match commissioners, despite what the Agreement says about nationality in Northern Ireland. It sounds a bit odd to have the SDLP, Sinn Fein and the Irish Government standing up for the right of Irishmen to play for… a team whose ‘state’ they are fundamentally opposed to. …
Despite rising prices in Northern Ireland buyers from the Republic are taking advantage of lower rates north of the border to find affordable housing. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
When the Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, announced his new [and improved? – Ed] Restoration Committee, officialy titled, it would appear, the Preparation for Government Committee he laid down a deadline for a response from the parties – Tuesday. And Sinn Féin have taken him at his word, scheduling a meeting for their MLAs to decide on a response – on Tuesday [that’s what happens when you set a deadline here – Ed]. I expect …
Great memories of the ‘hobo ride’ to California by 93 year American professor, Theodore Sarbin. Apparently getting past the state border into California was the toughest part. How times change, with economic good fortune. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
The second of our bookclub choices is David McWilliams sharp witty survey of the breakneck rush towards affluence in the Republic, the Popes Children. It charts the sheer industry and hard work of the Stakanovite “Decklanders”, and the new middle class (former working class) Irish who hunt new markets from NE England to Bulgaria in which to sow the excess equity of their often fairly modest Dublin properities. Previously: Pity for the Wicked. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the …
Well, maybe not quite that serious. There’s not a lot of detail available on this story [probably stemming from the lack of information in http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0525/treanorp.html”>RTÉ report as well. Why Prince Edward Island? Twinned with Co Monaghan, dontchaknow.. Yesterday the Canadian Embassy in Dublin was reported to be aware of the matter and looking into it. My guess, they’ve either tightened airport security controls and/or there was a mis-statement on his application. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads …
David Adams in today’s Irish Times, reckons (subs needed) the play being rehearsed at Stormont is high political farce. It’s all to do with that committee, which: …will serve only as a platform for rehearsing, without room for question or explanation, the mutually incompatible and now boringly familiar party positions. Though one might have imagined it scarcely possible to further limit the potential for agreement, Paisley then managed to do even that. He also declared that neither would he be …
Lindy McDowell is not impressed with the Scottish First Minister’s pitch for a return to devolution; nor his approach to ‘tackling sectarianism’. She speculates that Northern Ireland has slipped in the order of global priorities: Come any political crisis, hand of history development or seismic decision day and you can bet your rising rates bill that someone sufficiently ‘on message’ will be bussed in to shower us with more inspirational prose than a Carole Caplin lifestyle guide. It’s a barometer …
If you’ve trundled all the way from sluggerotoole.com, I’m afraid there is no news on the broken code, and we don’t as yet have a new commenting facility here, though I am working on it. To cheer you up, here’s a nicely caustic piece from Brian Feeney in Wednesday’s Irish News, who argues that it is all top down and no bottom up. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Not exactly hot news off the press, but this former MI6 is playing cat and mouse with his former employers on his blog. “Martin Ingram” is the most prominent figure from the spy world in Northern Ireland. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Nice summary in the Economist of the new pensions initiative, which it lauds as a devilishly clever piece of government (subs needed). It picks out three primary strands: “First, the state-pension age will start rising from 65the age for men now and for women by 2020to 66 between April 2024 and April 2026, earlier than the date of 2030 suggested by the commission. It will rise by a further two years to 68 in 2046 rather than in 2050. This …