Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) 
Watch back key speeches from the first Green Party NI conference under its new leader Clare Bailey which took place in a new location with refreshed branding, showing off some new (and returning) council candidates in front of a sea of new faces at their best-attended annual gathering.
Watch back the launch of Dr Marisa McGlinchey’s new book – Unfinished Business: The Politics of ‘Dissident’ Irish Republicanism – which assesses the politics, ideology, tactics and motivations of the non-mainstream republican movement.
David Hare’s play “I’m Not Running” about parachuting a popular figure into lead the UK Labour party seems far-fetched but it begs the question of what would need to happen in order to make Northern Irish politics be capable of saying “I’m running” once more?
When should a politician’s private life impact their public campaign? In this film, while the replay of the 1987 editorial and political conversations around the investigations into Gary Hart’s personal life are interesting, and the mobile phone and early Apple Macintosh props are fun to revisit, it’s the invasion of privacy of young women involved with married politicians and the seeming continued absence of editorial protection that are perhaps most disturbing to watch thirty years later.
A look through the fifth NI Peace Monitoring Report, written by a team of academics at Ulster University and published today by the Community Relations Council. The answers in the 200 page report are not all positive as the team make their assessment of the state of the economy; political progress; the sense of safety; wealth, poverty and inequality; and cohesion and sharing.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE – Listen back to Professor Kevin Hjortshøj O’Rourke delivering the annual Donal Nevin lecture, explaining how UK trade policies evolved to the point that they entered the EU, and what this teaches us about Brexit. QUB’s Dr Katy Hayward responded with the Northern Ireland context.
The fourth in the series of Michelle and Arlene satirical plays – Ulster Says Snow! – is due to hit the stage of Accidental Theatre in Belfast’s Shaftesbury Square next week. Running alongside the Human Rights Festival, Rosemary Jenkinson hopes that this new show can explore many different rights, rather than just being a narrow snapshot of local politics.
Read back key sections and listen to speeches from today’s DUP Conference. Arlene Foster apologised for the party’s mistakes over RHI, hinted at a ‘cultural deal’ and expressed her wish for devolution to be restored. Boris Johnson spoke about buses, Brexit and light sabres …
Clare Bailey is the new leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland . She takes over from Steven Agnew who announced at the end of July that he was standing down from the party’s leadership after seven years. The south Belfast MLA was chosen as leader after her nomination was unopposed.
Listen back to and read key speeches. The UUP’s annual conference was dominated by messaging aimed at differentiating the party from its larger competitor in the run up to the local government elections. If the UUP are to arrest their general decline, it must be with a strong performance in May’s council elections at the expense of the DUP. That is the only test that the UUP will be measured against.
Extracts from Dr John Kyle’s speech at Saturday’s PUP conference in Antrim have been released, detailing the deputy leader’s analysis of the way forward regarding Stormont structures and a culture of partnership.
While grounded in the 1940s, the production ambitiously and successfully combines sound and video content with emotionally-charged live performances to broadcast Double Cross with hi-fi clarity into a 21st century western society conscious of its own poor relationship with truth.
Listing Northern Ireland political party conferences planned for autumn 2018 and spring 2019. Post will be updated as precise dates and venues are confirmed, and links will be added to post-conference reviews.
Official papers released under the 20 Year Rule show how a government working party discussed air and water monitoring required in Northern Ireland to detect peacetime nuclear incidents in aftermath of Chernobyl, and how a group of councils pledged to close Sellafield.
Official papers now released show that in the aftermath of the September 1992 bombing of the Forensic Science Laboratory at Knockbreda and the damage caused to around 1,000 houses in Belvoir, government officials considered whether European disaster fund could assist victims of terrorism
Look long enough and hard enough and you’ll find some bizarre papers amongst the official files released in each tranche under the 20 Year Rule … like a letter about Maurice Hayes’ old table that won’t fit through the door.
Official papers from 1985 show how the civil service devised policies to freeze out those who supported terrorism and boycotted government, avoiding face-to-face meetings between Sinn Fein elected representatives and ministers as well as withholding documents unless specifically requested.
On the day of his retirement after 38 years in the NI Civil Service, Sir Ken Bloomfield circulated a blunt assessment of mistakes made in Northern Ireland in a valedictory memo that is made public this morning under the 20 Year Rule: the Anglo-Irish Agreement was “flawed”; the distinction between the “legal” Sinn Fein and the proscribed IRA was “farcical”; as well as his views on the delay implementing Direct Rule between 1969 and 1972.
Watch back journalist and author Henry McDonald in conversation about his photo essay book – Martin McGuinness: A Life Remembered – which was published by Blackstaff Press. The discussion examined the genesis of the book, the changing face of Martin McGuiness, and reflected on some key moments in the Troubles on which McDonald had reported.
Henry McDonald has revealed that a parallel academic project to capture to oral history of security personnel working during the Troubles collapsed when the PSNI won their case to get access to ‘Boston Tapes’ interviews with republican and loyalist paramilitaries.
