Testing times for dirty warriors…
EMERSON passes the Stakeknife test. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Belfast Gonzo
A worthy aim, but…
THE new UUP leader, Sir Reg Empey, outlines his vision for the future in the Belfast Telegraph. Many parts of it remind me of one of Reg’s pre-election appeals to the ‘garden centre Prod’ and Alliance types: “We’re a pluralist UUP and will represent everyone. No, really.” But if the UUP vision is of a modern, pluralist, inclusive Britishness – a Union for all, if you will – then perhaps choosing loyalist parades as your first issue to highlight isn’t …
On the buses…
I WANDERED lonely as a spide That floats on glue and makes a fuss, When all at once I got on board, A new and spacious Metrobus; Near City Hall, beside the bank, Huffing and puffing, but very pink. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Slugger goes live…
IF anyone from Northern Ireland is affected by events in London or has up-to-date information that we’re not getting through the media, Slugger will obviously be happy to carry your comments below. However, some in the mainstream media would be interested in speaking to locals in London, and as a bit of an experiment, I’m trying to get in contact with users like Lafcadio, who seem to be at the heart of things in Canary Wharf. You can reach me …
Parade banned – public yawns…
NEWTON Emerson makes a strongly-worded case against Sir Reg Empey’s decision to pick the wrong battle to launch his leadership on – parades. Thérèse McKenna hops on a high horse in today’s Irish News and suggests Newt’s article is a horribly offensive diatribe that grossly over-generalises in its satirisation of the downtrodden Ulster underclass. It is, Thérèse. That’s why, even though both articles raise serious points, his is funny too.But is ordering journalists to “lay off” the rioting spides and …
Making Violence Contemporary…
FOR once, it’s politically-motivated violence in another part of the UK that’s hitting the headlines, as protesters attempt to disrupt the G8 meeting at Gleneagles in Scotland. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Different, but what about equal..?
LISBURN City Council has passed a motion – proposed by Seamus Close – not to allow civil partnership ceremonies in the council’s Cherry Room, which is used for marriage ceremonies alone.While some gay activists seem to recognise that Close has a point when he argues that same-sex civic unions and hetrosexual marriages are not the same, the Alliance MLA has been accused of discrimination nonetheless. Close said it drew a distinction with marriage ceremonies. The solution is obviously simple – …
Paisley and parades…
THE Parades Commission has permitted (with restrictions) a contentious Orange parade past the Ardoyne shaps in north Belfast, the scene of previous violent clashes involving nationalists, loyalists and the police. With rioters’ pictures appearing in the news and Sean Kelly’s arrest, perhaps the PSNI were preparing for events in advance this year. Who knows. But it’s not all doom and gloom, if you glance north-west for a moment, where there’s been an interesting disagreement happening on the unionist side…The Sunday …
Is Berry really out…?
THERE’S nothing quite like making a new entry when it involves Paul Berry (as the masseur said to the journalist), so when I spotted this on the BBC, I just couldn’t resist sticking my big oar in. According to the Beeb, after his pre-election controversial encounter in a hotel with a masseur, the Newry and Armagh DUP assembly member has been suspended from the DUP. While Mr Berry described the report of his suspension as “nonsense”, he doesn’t appear to …
Can unionism evolve…?
SLUGGER continues to drive debate beyond the web in today’s Irish News, where Roy Garland uses recent criticism of ‘the Roy Garlands’ of unionism by contributor Watchman to draw a distinction between “the strength of the constructive voice of unionism” and what Garland sees as a past unionism of “small minds and self-defeating philosophies”.Garland writes: Watchman mistakenly assumes that the concerns of most unionists centre on traditional sectarian dog fights but thinking unionists know that sectarianism is the barrier to …
Pride and parades…
ONLY in Northern Ireland would a gay pride march require permission from the Parades Commission, a body set up to take decisions on a different type of testosterone-fuelled parade.The BBC reported: Jonathan Larner of the protest group “Stop the Parade” said it was “offensive”. “Our outlook on this parade is a wholly peaceful one, we find the whole parade morally offensive,” he said. “As evangelical Christians we believe what the bible says regarding sodomy – that it is a sin …
McBride case to go to Europe…
JEAN McBride is to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights after her latest bid to have the convicted murderers who killed her son thrown out of the Army. It’s intensely embarrassing for a Government that throws out soldiers guilty of smoking a spliff to retain convicted murderers in its ranks, but the Army seems to have the rest of the State over a barrel on this issue. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Order restored..?
WHAT’S this? An outbreak of peace, love and understanding just as you were thinking the marching season was about to degenerate into another sectarian slugfest? Could the apparently groundbreaking deal between the Bogside Residents and Orange Order in Derry be a model for other disputed parades? Ulster Unionist and community relations activist Trevor Ringland thinks it could be; Sinn Fein representative and Garvaghy Road Residents spokesman Brendan MacCionnaith says no, you can’t compare Derry and the Garvaghy Road. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
“Cailc! Chonaic mé cailc!”
WHEN people start to break out of their assigned sectarian boxes, it can produce criticism and confusion in equal measure amongst those content to be pigeon-holed – as we saw recently on Slugger. Pol O Muiri seems to enjoy the fact that cultural cross-fertilisation in Ireland is exposing the contradictions that infest the narrow outlooks of hardline British and Irish nationalism in Northern Ireland when he writes “people are not as easy to pigeon-hole as the fundamentalists would have us …
Confidence-building or -sapping..?
THE IRA has admitted that it killed a schoolgirl in Derry more than 30 years ago. At the time, the IRA blamed the British Army, and killed a soldier in retaliation.Unionists have reacted with scepticism, perhaps seeing it as a cynical move by republicans to demonstrate – without conceding anything – to the two governments that they are ‘moving on’ before the next round of talks. Unionists tend to see such moves as minimalistic, not addressing their concerns. But then …
In the public interest, or the State’s…?
AT the launch of the new Public Prosecution Service the other day, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said that the Government was intent on building a justice system in which everyone could feel confidence. Yet the new service is as unaccountable as the old one in one respect – it does not have to state why any prosecution is dropped. In the past, when the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped a case “in the public interest” for no given reason, it …
Government goes for another cover-up…
WELL there you go – the Government proves once again that it simply cannot be trusted to do what it says, as the inquiry into the murder of LVF killer Billy Wright is to be conducted under the terms of the Inquiries Act, and not the Prisons Act. This will mean evidence does not have to be given in public “for security reasons”.While few will have shed tears over the death of one of the most evil and sectarian terrorists …
Orange anger at authorities….
ORANGE Order Grand Master Robert Saulters has been formally cautioned by police over his involvement in an allegedly illegal parade, according to the News Letter. Relations between the authorities and the Order are poor, particularly after recent legislation making the Orange Order responsible for its supporters was passed. The Government doesn’t seem to see any need to further review the Parades Commission either, to the Orangemen’s dismay. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Bradley reveals Special Branch secret…
POLICING Board chairman Denis Bradley has revealed that he prevented the IRA murder of a police officer in the 1970s – a killing that RUC Special Branch knew about and was prepared to allow, according to the former priest. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Man cannot live on Guinness alone…
REMEMBER the guy from ‘Super Size Me’, who lived on nothing but McDonalds meals for a month? Well meet blogger Burty, who survived on only Guinness for a week. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com