Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) 
PARTY CONFERENCE SCHEDULE – a list of the 2017/18 party conferences and gatherings most relevant to followers of NI politics. It’ll be updated with information as and when the parties confirm and share their plans, and updated with links to Slugger’s conference coverage after each event.
NEW DRAMA by Rosemary Jenkinson taking a satirical look at the state of local politics. Pantomime, pantyhose, and politics in this fictional imagining of two leaders who keep bumping into each other on Ibiza. “In spite of their initial hostility, it’s almost as if they are fated to be closer than they ever thought possible!” (Accidental Theatre, 24-26 August)
DUP ABSENCE changed the tone of the debate at the annual West Belfast Talks Back community hustings. Listen back to the evening which discussed world peace, Brexit, amnesties, free speech and Kevin Myers, a Sign Language Act and victims.
TALK, TRUTH & TRUST … the three Ts of peace processes says Rev Harold Good who was in conversation with journalist Brian Rowan this afternoon. As well as adding Time as a fourth, he agrees with Rowan that Tea or Tetley might also be required. Listen back to the 105 minute conversation.
RHI & THE MEDIA – Listen back to a refresher of the issues and key moments in the reporting ahead of the public hearings beginning in the autumn. Sam McBride and Allison Morris reflected on the media’s handling of RHI, and listed some of the weaknesses and lessons learnt along the way.
UNITY & UNIONISM are just two of the many, many topics being tackled at Féile an Phobail this week. David McCann will chair a discussion about RHI and media, Rev Harold Good will reflect on peace processes around the world, party leaders will discuss a ‘New Ireland’, and another panel will dissect the shrinking unionist vote. And then there’s the annual West Belfast Talks Back ding dong … #feile17
A MAJORITY of under 40s pro-Union Protestants are not voting. And a majority of those not voting support same sex marriage and lifting the ban on terminations. The recent survey suggests that these non-voting young unionists are alienated by the social conservatism of their traditional parties … though they are also not being wooed to vote Alliance or Green.
LEO VARADKAR delivered a robust but polite lecture at Queen’s University Belfast this morning, his first public engagement in Northern Ireland in his new role as Taoiseach. The artfully crafted speech quoted local poets and Winston Churchill as well as ending with a positive story that echoed something he’d recently heard Jeffrey Donaldson say in Dublin. This was not a speech that intended to be divisive. It offered a partial policy framework, but very little in the way of absolute red lines or dogmatic solutions. However, they were definitely not the words of a political pushover.
LABOUR PEER Baroness Helena Kennedy QC opened the John Hewitt International Summer School last Monday morning with an eloquent lecture that looked at dreams, responsibilities, the challenge of globalisation, the need to look seriously at how we improve cross-border cooperation and recalibrate what we attach value to in society.
SHARING A LAND BORDER WITH EU? Dominique Searle spoke about Gibraltar’s land border with Spain and the impact of Brexit at the John Hewitt International Summer School in Armagh. The efficiency of border crossing is crucial.
UNSETTLED INTIMACY – learning about Northern Irish society through the medium of short stories based locally – a talk by Salford academic Dr Caroline Magennis at the 2017 John Hewitt International Summer School.
FLEXIBLE AND IMAGINATIVE – the qualities that might need to underpin any national borders across these islands post-Brexit, yet Dr Katy Hayward suggests that our difficulty in future-orientated thinking makes this an uphill struggle. Watch her talk at the John Hewitt International Summer School in Armagh.
SEAMUS MALLON called for people to “be good ancestors as opposed to being good rememberers” in order to move forward. He was speaking on a political panel on the opening day of the John Hewitt International Summer School along with Naomi Long, Steven Agnew and Doug Beattie, chaired by Peter Osborne.
BORDERS are one of the recurring themes of this year’s John Hewitt International Summer School which runs between Monday 24 and Saturday 29 July in The Market Place Theatre in Armagh. Talks and panels about contemporary politics and culture as well as creative writing workshops.
ULTRAFAST BROADBAND? If the £150 money from Conservative/DUP deal is solely targeted at Ultrafast broadband, it is unlikely to benefit ordinary homes in rural areas which today still have poor broadband. (Update – apparently yes, using Fibre to the Remote Node technology in rural areas … if the price [subsidy] is right for customers.)
GOVERNMENT AND EVIDENCE – An interesting session run by the Alliance For Useful Evidence at UU Belfast last week which heard from NISRA’s Siobhan Carey and two former permanent secretaries Aideen McGinley and Will Haire about how (and to what extend) NI’s government departments make best use of evidence in their policymaking.
We should watch out for an intelligent approach in the DUP’s cunning game of political poker. There’s no reason their wish list can’t include some items that would be celebrated by Sinn Féin and help keep the Stormont political talks alive.
Underneath the lacklustre NI General Election campaign is there really a grassroots movement to maximise the number of DUP votes and counteract Sinn Féin’s impressive performance in March when just 1,168 first preference votes separated the top two parties.
COLIN BATEMAN’S screenplay for The Journey presents a highly fictionalised account that explores what the early conversations may have been like between Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness as they worked towards agreement at the St Andrews talks.
ALLIANCE CONFERENCE quietly celebrated the party’s election results. Party faithful gathered to hear Naomi Long’s first conference speech as leader. Her focus was on leadership and the need for a tolerant and liberal society that attracts young people back to invest in Northern Ireland.
