Belfast Gonzo ORANGEMEN turned up in force at Banbridge Council offices earlier tonight to protest against the removal of British symbols from council offices. If it’s all about creating a neutral working environment, presumably the least unionists can expect is for the removal of IRA memorials from council property? In today’s ‘enlightened’ climate of sectarian carve-ups and tribal balance, surely it’s only fair? Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
JOURNALISTS at the first daily newspaper in Ireland to be published in Irish – Lá Nua – have received their notice. Love it or loathe it, the newspaper fought the corner fiercely for the Irish language community, and its demise is something that would be pretty heartless to celebrate. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
LISTENING to Mark Durkan on Inside Politics defend his party’s decision to vote against the Programme for Government and budget in the Assembly – while the only SDLP minister in the Executive did the opposite – I got the distinct impression that the SDLP’s only real aim is to destroy those aspects of the St Andrews Agreement that were either secured or agreed by the DUP and Sinn Fein. Ritchie’s refusal to back the CTI funding also ran a coach …
THE Queen is to visit Northern Ireland next month to distribute Maundy money, in a move described by the News Letter as “unprecendented since the beginning of the Troubles” – a reference to the fact that it’s safe enough to announce it well in advance. (Should give éirígí enough time to prepare their protest). There will be the usual speculation that Her Maj may even take a wee trip to Dublin, which would make her the first British monarch in …
HERE’S a couple of Northern Irish newlyweds who almost came a cropper in a chopper. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
IN the wake of Arlene Foster’s ‘minded’ statement to approve another party member’s planning application (although it’s a ‘mind’ she changed), Claire Simpson has been exploring some of Northern Ireland’s political doublespeak. I didn’t realise Hugh Orde coined ‘fit for purpose’, although, let me be clear (Gerry Adams/ Danny Kennedy) that – in the round (Mo Mowlam?) – the reality is (Martin McGuinness?) there are probably a few others that are far more meaningless – though Slugger arguably has developed …
THE Irish News reports that the NIO has defended the £77,000 cost of the multi-millionaire Secretary of State’s three business class trips to America in the space of five months – they were needed in order to ensure continued US support for the peace process. Obviously this is taxpayers’ money well spent, given the constant deluge of stories in the media about the US constantly threatening to withdraw its support for the new, stable, US-backed political institutions… Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
THE detection skills of the PSNI know no bounds, with an early assessment – a mere two weeks after the event – that paramilitaries may have been behind the Shankill ‘walk of shame’. This might sound like the cops are stating the bleeding obvious, but it’s a major advance from what the Secretary of State (left) said on Wednesday, when he told Nigel Dodds that “the possibility of paramilitary involvement is still being considered”. Now we already know the NIO’s …
GERRY Adams hasn’t gone completely away, you know. But he will be – yesterday, he was on Newstalk to rule himself out of the running for the Irish presidency. “There is a life outside politics. No, under no circumstances,” he said when asked. And why not? “I’ve been locked up in an institution before.” Very witty, but I find it hard to believe that an ambitious politician with such a high opinion of himself will allow his star to fade …
THE Victims Commission is barely out of the blocks, but already (and predictably) it’s at the centre of a political row involving (predictably) loyalist victim’s spokesman Willie Frazer. According to the News Letter, the FAIR spokesman was dismayed at references to one commissioner’s husband being described on the First Ministers’ website as an ‘IRA volunteer who was killed by the SAS whilst on active service in 1984’. Frazer says his group will pull out if those killed while engaged in …
THE News Letter has re-started its coverage of GAA sports after a four-year hiatus (though not online yet). The move comes after the DUP sports minister attended a Gaelic football game earlier this month. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
“I am simply not prepared to stand back and leave unchallenged the countless instances, large and small, across all our public bodies where taxpayers’ money is being wasted on over-staffing”. DUP Finance Minister Peter Robinson, whose party now supports the appointment of four Victims’ Commissioners, rather than one. Hat-tip to Jim Fitzpatrick, The Politics Show. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
I’M not sure if this has been reported elsewhere, but when David Trimble was in the House of Lords earlier this week, a couple of peers made reference to his new front-bench position (see Lord Rooker’s comment, for example). Lord Shutt also remarked on Tuesday “that I know that he is moving on to other pastures before the day is out”. Anyone know what the rather oblique references are to? Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
WHILE most of the media concentrated on the theft of a laptop belonging to a barrister who represents prison service staff in the Billy Wright Inquiry the other day, of as much (if not far greater) significance was the revelation that the man suspected of smuggling a gun into prison for Billy Wright‘s killer was a Special Branch agent. The news is surprising only because the document exists and hasn’t been destroyed by the Prison Service or police, which the …
SOME of Willie Frazer‘s mates are so distressed that they received their shiny new UK passports “written in Irish” that FAIR is launching a campaign against them, involving lobbying MPs and taking it up with the Foreign Office. “This is clearly a dilution of our Britishness and for ever denotes UK citizens resident in Northern Ireland as different and lesser than their counterparts in England Scotland and Wales,” the FAIR website fulminates. “This is not the case in the rest …
GONE are the days when the threat of ‘Dublin interference’ in Northern Ireland’s internal affairs used to lead the DUP’s Peter Robinson to stage a cross-border invasion. These days, as Finance Minister, Mr Robinson is more than pleased to annouce the Irish Government’s £42 million contribution to Stormont’s ‘innovation funds’ – almost half the total. Another early Budget headline-grabber is the £205m over three years to build 5,250 social and affordable new houses – good news for the SDLP’s Social …
JUST listening to Talkback, where it was revealed that St Patrick’s Orange Lodge will NOT march in this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade in Downpatrick. The lodge’s reason for turning down the invite seemed to be over a lack of assurances that they’d be able to display or wear the regalia of their choice. There had also been concerns for the safety of the marchers, but either way, it’s all a bit of a let-down for what could have been …
BARRY McCaffrey reported in the Irish News today that “Belfast City Council last night moved to allay fears that home-owners would be hit with a £3.5 million rates hike after some of the city’s largest retail units escaped charges due to a mix-up”. The city councillors’ “anger” comes after they discovered Victoria Square and Ikea were left out of the city’s rating database for this year. The story added: “Ulster Unionist councillor Davy Brown called for an inquiry into how …
OVER at Open Kingdom, Conn Corrigan argues that if ‘Ireland to rejoin the commonwealth, it would send out a message to Northern Protestants not simply that their Britishness would be tolerated (which implies a kind of reluctant acceptance) – but would be actively promoted in a united Ireland.’ He argues that if republicans are serious about convincing unionists that a united Ireland is in their best interests and that their way of life would not be under threat in one, …
WESTMINSTER’s sleaze watchdog has launched an investigation into our beloved former Secretary of State, Peter Hain, for failing to declare donations of more than £100,000 made to his campaign for the Labour deputy leadership. It’s hard to see how Hain can continue in office if found to be in breach of the rules, and ironically, his best chance of getting off the hook is to convince the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner his campaign office was such a disastrous mess he couldn’t …
