The Art of Political Speechmaking – a dying art or still a vital talent? #imaginebelfast

https://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/the-democracy-unit

Has the art of writing and delivering a political speech fallen by the wayside of a media landscape that vacuums up soundbites rather than valuing passionate prose? Next Thursday evening, some local politicians will recite elements of other people’s speeches which have influenced their own political journeys and discuss the importance of speechmaking in the current political climate. It’s part of the Imagine! Festival, and Claire Hanna (SDLP), Deirdre Hargey (Sinn Féin), Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP) and Kate Nicholl (Alliance) are …

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From Wisconsin to Belfast and Armagh: the beat of The Sullivan Squad’s drums and the Ojibwe language will feel familiar #imaginebelfast

The Sullivan family - parents and children - standing outdoors with a hand drum

Next week at Imagine! Festival there’s a chance to step outside the usual local context of the Irish language and Ulster Scots to look at an indigenous culture from northern Wisconsin. Imagine this: not everything that looks like a bodhrán and sounds like a bodhrán and is played like a bodhrán is actually a bodhrán. The hand drums brought to life by The Sullivan Squad look incredibly familiar, yet the colourful patterns on the band members clothing suggest that the …

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Remembering Baroness May Blood #NBF24

One panel event at the recent Look North! The North Belfast Festival reflected on the legacy and impact of Baroness May Blood’s life and work. Remembering May Blood – with Betty Carlisle, Paul Caskey, Eileen Weir and Duncan Morrow (chair). Filmed by Alan Meban on Sunday 25 February 2024. Photo credit: Allan Leonard @MrUlster Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast)Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about cinema and theatre over at Alan in Belfast. A freelancer who writes about, reports from, …

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Looming Elections & Political Futures – Slugger’s event on 22 March at #ImagineBelfast

DUP's Ian Paisley (Junior) trying to tally the European election ballot papers (which must be placed upside down after verification) back in 2009 - photo by Alan Meban @alaninbelfast

The next 12 months will be fertile ground for election nerds. So we’re convening a panel of experts on Friday 22 March to discuss which way the political wind is blowing as part of this month’s Imagine! Festival of Ideas and Politics. The next United Kingdom general election must be held no later than 28 January 2025. The deadline for the next Irish general election is 22 March 2025. Both polls are likely to see big political swings and will …

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Previewing the 10th Imagine! Festival of Ideas and Politics (Monday 18 to Sunday 24 March) #ImagineBelfast

What do you get if you mix policy and politics, expertise mixed with challenge, with the space to think and ask questions? The answer is probably something like Imagine! Festival of Ideas and Politics, now in its tenth year. Top enterbrainment as the festival strapline phrases it. Running between Monday 18 and Sunday 24 March, there are a hundred or so films, talks, gigs, walking tours, exhibitions, panels, workshops and theatre shows. Climate Improvement Districts // Tuesday 19 at noon …

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DUP Conference report #DUP23

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s speech to conference (YouTube) in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in south Belfast was long and steady. (At five thousand words, it had a higher word count than any of the last six addresses by leaders to their main annual conference.) It was subtle in how it underlined certain issues, but avoided saying anything incendiary, or taking any serious potshots at other parties. This was not a speech that intended to light any fires. Instead it was about …

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Lost Boys: Belfast’s Missing Children

Tonight sees the premiere in Belfast of a new film Lost Boys: Belfast’s Missing Children which throws a spotlight back onto a series of unsolved disappearances during the Troubles nearly 50 years ago. Two boys, described as having learning difficulties, were last seen waiting on the Falls Road to catch a bus to school in November 1974. Thomas Spence and John Rodgers vanished. To date, they haven’t been traced, alive or dead. There was certainly a lot going on in …

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WATCH: Is Better Possible? Prof Jon Tonge’s assessment of GFA legacy and his ideas for reform #JHISS23

Jon Tonge being filmed speaking at the 2023 John Hewitt Summer School in Armagh

As well as joining the panel in Slugger’s The State of Us discussion at last week’s John Hewitt International Summer School in Armagh, Professor Jon Tonge delivered a talk asking ‘Is Better Possible?’ at this point in Northern Ireland’s history, 25 years on from the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. He looked at some of the positive statistics as well as the more negative ones around the institutional uptime. He compared the local situation with other countries enjoying consociational government, and looked …

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The state of us! Slugger’s panel at the John Hewitt International Summer School #JHISS23

John Hewitt International Summer School banner decorated with butterflies

The John Hewitt International Summer School is back in Armagh towards the end of July. And Slugger O’Toole is running a panel at 7pm on Tuesday 25th. Details on how to sign up to attend in person on the John Hewitt Society website (ticketsolve). If Northern Ireland had a mother, she might stop it at the front door and say, “The state of you! You can’t go out looking like that.” It’s easy to find fault and criticise the Northern Ireland …

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WATCH: Bertie Ahern in conversation with Dr Giada Lagana (IACES)

The Irish Association of Contemporary European Studies (IACES) hosted a live-streamed conversation with Bertie Ahern from the Royal Irish Academy on Monday 8 May 2023. The former Taoiseach reflected on the subtle European dimension of the April 1998 negotiations which led to the Agreement, the importance of EU membership on British and Irish coordination, and the subsequent EU support for the peace process. He also talked about the potential for the DUP to return to Stormont and was asked about …

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WATCH: The Legacy of the Agreement #GFA25

The Linen Hall has organised a series of events looking at the Origins and Legacies of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. The first was held in the library on Monday evening and featured a panel of young MLAs (the criterion was that they had to be under 40 years old) being interrogated by Seamus McKee. Nearly half the population of Northern Ireland today were under 18 or hadn’t even been born when the Agreement was signed and endorsed by referendum. You …

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WATCH: Witness Seminar – the Peace Train Organisation

The Peace Train Organisation (PTO) ran seven trains between Dublin and Belfast from 1989–1995, and a one-off special train that ran from Holyhead to London in June 1991. It received support from a broad range of civil society: trade unions, churches, business communities, the media, arts organisations, as well as political figures from many parties across Britain and Ireland. At a time when security alerts were both disrupting journeys and dissuading passengers from using the Enterprise train services, the Peace …

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WATCH: Can Ireland Be One? Malachi O’Doherty in conversation with Duncan Morrow #looknorth23

Duncan Morrow in conversation with author Malachi O'Doherty about his new book Can Ireland Be One at Ulster University as part of recent Look North Festival

For Malachi O’Doherty, the question of Irish unity is less about when there might be a border poll or what the result of a plebiscite would be, but whether this deeply divided island can actually ever be truly united. It’s the topic he has examined in a recently published book: Can Ireland Be One? As part of Look North! The North Belfast Festival, Malachi chatted to UU’s Prof Duncan Morrow.   Filmed by Alan Meban @alaninbelfast in Ulster University on …

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The Rise and Fall of Belfast’s own ‘Fleet Street’ #looknorth23

Journalists Ivan Little, Allison Morris, Gary McDonald and Jim McDowell on Journalism panel Look North Festival

Last Friday evening, four journalists gathered top discuss the rise and fall of the print media presence on Donegall Street, once Belfast’s very own ‘Fleet Street’. Jim McDowell was joined by Gary McDonald, Allison Morris and Ivan Little. Memories of formal training and learning on the job, old characters in the news rooms and printing presses, deadlines, dubious headlines, drinking on the job, death knocks and even a bit of poetry from John Hewitt. Filmed & edited by Alan Meban …

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Previewing the ninth annual Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics #imaginebelfast

Imagine festival 202

The Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics is seeking to provide ‘brain food’ to all and sundry over seven days in March. The packed programme is a veritable feast of ‘ideas for a better world’. Now in its ninth year, the festival has over 130 in-person and online events, and the majority are free. While politics is often to the fore, politicians themselves aren’t usually platformed at the non-partisan festival’s events. But this year, one event will be exploring …

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WATCH: Slugger TV – a vision for North Belfast #looknorth23

David McCann sitting beside Nuala McAllister, Phillip Brett and Allison Morris during recording of Slugger TV at the Look North festival.

This month’s edition of Slugger TV was filmed in front of a live audience as part of the Look North! The North Belfast Festival last Saturday 25 February. You can catch it here, or sit back, kick your slippers off and enjoy it on the tellybox this evening: NVTV at 8pm (Freeview channel 7; Virgin channel 159). Local politicians Nuala McAllister (Alliance) and Phillip Brett (DUP) explained their vision for their North Belfast constituency. They were joined by journalist Allison …

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WATCH: QUB Post-Brexit Clinic

Picture of four Queen's University academics: Prof David Phinnemore, Dr Billy Melo Araujo, Prof Katy Hayward and Dr Lisa Whitten

The latest in regular Post-Brexit Clinics run by Queen’s University was run on Friday morning. If you missed it, here’s a chance to catch up with both the opinion polling that the academics have been using to track sentiment and reaction to Brexit and the Protocol, and to get an update on legal action around the Protocol, and dynamic regulatory alignment. Clinic regulars Professors David Phinnemore and Katy Hayward were joined by Dr Billy Melo Araujo and Dr Lisa Whitten. …

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Sixth opportunity to elect an Assembly Speaker fails as Dáithí watches from the public gallery

SF vice president Michelle O'Neill looks on as press photographers snap pictures of Daithi Mac Gabhann in the Great Hall of Parliament Buildings

With the morning mist still lingering over east Belfast, the Northern Ireland Assembly met at noon. The first item of business was – as always in this long series of recalls – the election of the Speaker and (at least two) Deputy Speakers. Letters from Speaker Alex Maskey ahead of the sitting had reminded MLAs that their order, language and debate should be constructive and that Points of Order should not be abused. Many MLAs walked down the steps into …

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