Belfast Gonzo WHEN a colleague asked me the other week why Martin McGuinness would have to be nominated alongside Peter Robinson when the new DUP leader becomes First Minister, I replied that as the FM and Deputy positions were joint positions (in that one can’t exist without the other), for the Sinn Fein politician, election as DFM would be a mere formality. Now someone in Sinn Fein is suggesting it may not. Personally, I think this is another hollow threat, an attempt …
“I am opposed to the setting up of yet more quangos where unelected people take decisions on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland,” said our environment minister today, when she noted that the creation of an independent environmental protection agency would have estimated running costs of £600,000. This is in stark contrast to the creation of the unelected Victims Commission quango, which officially came into being today, is fully-backed by her own party, and which will fork out £260,000 …
MARTIN McGuinness may have welcomed George Bush’s impending visit to Northern Ireland, but at least one member of the Sinn Fein youth wing feels differently. Writing on Ógra Shinn Féin’s website, the member states that ‘some [decisions] have to be denounced for the good of the party’, before going on to describe Bush as a war criminal etc. Coincidentally, it was only days ago that Bush strongly criticised those prepared to negotiate with what the US considers terrorists. It leaves …
CREWE and Nantwich has voted against the decision to abolish the 10p tax, was the message from the first Tory to gain a by-election seat in nearly three decades. “Gordon Brown just does not get it and the government needs to change,” said winner Edward Timpson, who saw a massive 17.6% swing to his party. Mid-term elections are notorious for giving bloody noses to ruling parties, and while it may only be a snapshot of opinion, the ailing leadership of …
PRINCESS Anne’s son Peter Philips will be married to Canadian Autumn Kelly at Windsor Castle later today. Thanks to the Act of Settlement, Ms Kelly had to renounce her Catholic faith in order for her husband to retain his claim to the throne. He’s only be 11th in line (and a commoner), so her conversion was pretty token. While it may be natural for those born with a silver spoon in their mouths not to rock the boat, had Ms …
A bit of tit for tat tribalism in Scottish football: Celtic’s ‘holy goalie’ exposed a “God Bless the Pope” T-shirt complete with a picture of the late Pope John Paul II at a recent Old Firm game, while the Sunday Herald has issued a full page apology after a columnist wrote that some Celtic ‘fans would probably rather have a bead-rattling Hoopy the Huddle Hound in the dug-out.’ Arguably, the T-shirt wasn’t as offensive as the written jibe was, in …
ANGLING seems to be one of Northern Ireland’s quiet success stories, with the Leisure Minister telling us the other day that it is worth more than £22m to the local economy (and the Deputy First Minister being a keen participant). Despite this, the authorities seem to have little interest in taking on the polluters responsible for the countless fishkills here, like this one reported yesterday. Perhaps it’s embarrassment stopping them, as the upprosecutable Water Service was NI’s worst polluter, up …
NOT to get on Caitriona’s case too much, but does no-one in the Education Department see that there could be a connection between cuts here and consequences here – if not immediately, then further down the line? It may be belt-tightening time, but could funding after-schools clubs perhaps save the taxpayer money in the long term? And speaking of cuts, the penny may finally be dropping in Belfast City Council that it simply cannot continue to pour our rates into …
YESTERDAY was, not that many people noticed, St George’s day in England. In the wake of the recent Jack Straw flag flying consultation, the Union flag flew alongside the flag of St George over No. 10. Later, the PM’s official spokesman confirmed that on their own national saints’ days, both the Welsh dragon and Scottish saltire would fly in Downing Street – but, he continued, Northern Ireland ‘did not have a national flag, therefore the issue did not apply’. So …
OVER at Jewcy, Mr Eugenides ponders over how different cultures often look at the past through rose-tinted glasses, without much regard to how others view celebrations of the past. And while he isn’t exactly wearing a sash, could McCain’s ‘No Surrender’ bus really alienate enough Irish-American voters to make a difference? Or is pushing the Scots-Irish button going to attract votes in the states he needs? Hat-tip to Unionist Lite. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
WITH the focus today on the Nelson Inquiry, it almost slipped under the radar yesterday that something very odd was happening over at the Wright Inquiry. Evidence had been due to be heard yesterday and today from Duncan McLaughlan, the Governor of Maghaberry Prison when Billy Wright was assassinated, but a halt was called to proceedings after the Crown Solicitors Office withdrew legal representation from McLaughlan. This was after McLaughlan had presented his legal representatives with “significant” new documentation on …
I WONDER if it’s more than just coincidence that a couple of days after Gerry Adams says the IRA will not be making a return to dealing with crime, that a man is shot in both legs in the Sinn Fein leader’s West Belfast constituency. Since this had become a pretty rare event of late, was this shooting one of the dissident groups sticking two fingers up at Adams for his support for the PSNI? Meanwhile, the Chief Constable has …
THE following email appears to have been intercepted by the Foreign Office’s ‘Official Listening Service’ early this morning in west Belfast…A chara, First, I must apologise to my loyal readers for my recent absence. Apologising is good for the soul, and it must have been all the commemorating over Easter, but the break has only made me more eager to get back to the keyboard. Good ideas, like Long Kesh prisoners, cannot be caged. I began my last column by …
I’VE been going through the bottom few entries on the daily Newshound digest, following the national debate on Britishness. It’s a debate from which Northern Ireland’s tribes could either learn from, criticise or contribute to in some way. But I found Gordon Brown’s Telegraph article today extraordinary. Despite it’s title – We must defend the Union – there is not one single mention of Northern Ireland. It is clear he does not regard NI as part of the Union in …
RECENT revelations about a former Sinn Fein driver’s role as a British spy led many to recalling the bug found in a car used during political talks. Yesterday, dissident republicans revealed a similar bugging device has been found in a vehicle used by a member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, widely regarded as the political wing of the Real IRA (and widely suspected of being riddled with informers). Some close-up pics at the 32CSM site and Cryptome. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
PAT Doherty‘s interview in the Guardian is being interpreted as an offer to the DUP – permit the devolution of policing and justice, and in exchange the IRA army council will be disbanded. “I have no doubt, given all of the issues that we have resolved from the very beginning, all of the issues that you may have thought were insurmountable, … on the British side … the unionist side and the republican side, if we are serious about moving …
…that while Roy Greenslade was managing news editor of the Sunday Times, a ‘staunchly anti-IRA’ paper (according to the Sindo), he was secretly penning articles for the republican newspaper An Phoblacht? Neither did I until yesterday. The revelation came in Flat Earth News, and Greenslade appears to have given his blessing to on his blog, lending credence to the claim. I did know that Greenslade was the man who coined the phrase hierarchy of death in relation to how the …
MORE extracts from the new book by Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, are now online at the Guardian. While many of today’s headlines will concentrate on Blair’s early desire to talk directly with the IRA’s Army Council, there are other interesting nuggets. Remember when Gerry Adams favourite used to be ‘alternative’? He was, we understood, talking about an alternative to physical force to achieve a united Ireland. But in his first Downing Street meeting with SF, the …
ÓGRA Shinn Féin is up in arms (just pictorially, I’m glad to say) about the ‘political protocol’ at the University of Ulster Students’ Union, which places fairly tight restrictions on party political organisation on campus. UU certainly was not a hotbed of party political activity when I attended, but on the other hand, Queen’s SU has a reputation of childish playground tribalism. Anyway, Ógra is facing disciplinary action for distributing a leaflet publicising a lecture which included images of masked …
YESTERDAY saw the funeral of Gerry McLaverty, the only survivor of the bloodthirsty gang of loyalist serial killers and sectarian psychopaths known as the Shankill Butchers. McLaverty’s courage – in identifying members of the UVF gang who slashed his wrists (pictured), stabbed him, hacked him with an axe, tied a noose round his neck and left him for dead – undoubtedly meant that lives were saved. Members of the gang were eventually convicted of 19 murders, although suspected of up …
