Belfast Gonzo IN Dublin, it’s been revealed that the new SIPTU public relations job went to ex-investigative journo Frank Connolly, brother of Colombia 3 translator and international birdwatcher Niall. Failed Irish justice minister Michael McDowell claimed Frank had sought for a passport in a false name and travelled to Colombia, though it was never proved. Looks like a vote of confidence from the union in Connolly. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
PRESBYTERIANS might be interested to know that the General Assembly is being Twittered live. And the new Moderator has a blog, found here. Will Crawley is following events on his blog, and tonight there was a protest by church member who lost their savings in the Presbyterian Mutual Society. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
ONLY three days left on iPlayer, but could Strangford Lough’s prototype turbine point the way towards some cheap energy for Northern Ireland? A lean, clean, energy machine? Regular, predictable power, and you could build ’em in Harland & Wolff. Hopefully, the project won’t sink the way project director Alexander (son of Max) Mosley did. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
WHAT prompted British spy Denis Donaldson to betray his IRA comrades has been a matter of speculation ever since his murder. But the theories always fitted neatly with Sinn Fein’s post-Agreement narrative. However, an extract from a book published more than a decade ago suggests that Sinn Fein has attempted to bury the truth about one of the IRA’s most famous gun battles, as well as the memory of an innocent man killed by a comrade he never had. For …
SOME nice marketing from Coca Cola. Spotted the Belfast city Where’s Wally-style advert on a bus shelter, but it’s actually a rather nifty interactive online competition too. Great locally-specific detail, like the Goth kids outside City Hall. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
SINN Fein’s new website officially launches on Wednesday, but you can see it online here now. The party is looking for feedback. And if there’s anything of note you spot, put it in our comments too. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
OVER at A Tangled Web, David Vance has blogged the first example of dirty tricks in this campaign, clearly carried out by DUP supporters. The leaflet is headlined ‘Unholy Alliance’, and says that voting for Jim Allister will split the unionist vote and allow Sinn Fein’s de Bruin to top the Euro-poll. Two problems with this: the DUP and Sinn Fein are very happy partners in government, and this is a PR election, not first past the post. Regardless, I’m …
IF you read Slugger, then I’m sure you also enjoy many other blogs with a Northern Irish twist. So as a follow-up to NI News on Twitter, I’ve set up a new feed just for blogs called NI Views, carrying all the latest posts from your favourite local bloggers. How handy is that?! If there’s anyone missing, let me know in the comments or send a message on Twitter. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
VETERAN observer of NI politics Arthur Aughey (pictured) weighs up the outcomes of the peace process for devolution in an extract from Breaking Up Britain (blogged on Open Democracy). Rather than see the Agreement as “a foundational event from which a radically new society emerges”, Aughey paints devolution here as part of a messy continuum. He conjures up the image of a dry stone wall to suggest the continuity of our history, composed, not of bricks, but unpredictable, interlocking rocks. …
AFTER the exhibition of control freakery in his joint letter to the Belfast Telegraph owner and verbal tirade at the Beeb’s Martina Purdy, you might think the First Minister would realise that losing one’s cool is not particularly statesman-like. You might also have realised that not all correspondence is private. But in this email to a constituent (copied below the fold), Peter Robinson has perhaps surpassed himself, launching into a rambling rant that smacks of, well, someone who’s letting criticism …
IN the wake of the PSNI’s threat to use legal action to force Suzanne Breen to reveal her Real IRA sources, journalist Kathryn Johnston (pictured) recalls for Slugger the day her home was raided by the police – and calls for support for the Sunday Tribune’s northern editor. I had a shiver of recognition when I read Suzanne Breen’s disclosure in the Tribune that the PSNI had visited her Belfast home to demand that she hand over her computer, disks, …
THE PSNI is threatening Sunday Tribune journalist Suzanne Breen – who reported the Real IRA’s claim of responsibility for the Massereene murders and shooting of Denis Donaldson – with legal action if she doesn’t reveal her paramilitary sources. For mainstream republicans, it must be disconcerting that political policing still goes on and the PSNI take such anti-democratic measures to trawl for information. For democrats who believe in a right to free expression, it is worrying that Press freedom is once …
EDUCATION Minister Caitriona Ruane has argued that schools which retain academic selection will inevitably discriminate against some children. But her own guidelines – which put eligibility for free school meals as top priority in allocating places – are also discriminatory. Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong or necessarily illegal about discrimination – only unfair discrimination is wrong, and the PSNI 50-50 recruitment criteria survived legal challenge – but the education committee is to seek legal advice on whether the guidelines …
KEITH Anderson has a rather handy guide to how the European candidates are making their presence known on the internet, with links to their blogs, Twitterings, Facebook pages and Flickr accounts. (Just noticed I’m being ‘followed’ by Bairbre de Brun. *glances over shoulder*) Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
I FIND it quite amazing, the number of politicians from the Northern Irish peace process who have become involved in the Middle East. As former Assembly speaker John Alderdice invites MPs to hear a Hamas representative in Westminster, our deputy First Minister and a convicted loyalist killer bring together IDF soldiers and a would-be suicide bomber in Donegal. And why do a former MI6 agent and dissident republican agree that we have to talk to Hamas?Today, the Times reports how …
I find RSS feeds very useful for keeping up to date on a news aggregator, but it seems very few of the political parties in Northern Ireland do. For total convenience and speed, RSS feeds are hard to beat, making access easier and thus articles more likely to be read. Any website with free and frequently updated content needs RSS or Atom feeds to deliver information to those who care enough to want to read it. I also follow quite …
FOR possibly the first time ever, the mainstream republican newspaper An Phoblacht does not carry an Easter message from the IRA. Instead, there’s a Sinn Féin Leadership Easter Statement. Gerry Moriarty considers the significance. In the statement, Sinn Fein makes much of its strategy for achieving a united Ireland, arguing that politics rather than militarism will meet that objective. It is true that the terrorist campaign failed and that the dissident groups are unlikely to do any better. The problem …
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STAFFORD Carson, Portadown’s Presbyterian moderator-in-waiting, has started his own blog. Here, he sets out his reasons for blogging, and if he continues until June, he’ll be the first blogging Moderator. Carson is best known outside his Church for refusing to allow a woman to preach in his church. I guess anyone can witness from a keyboard, but not a pulpit. Will he overtake Northern Ireland’s best known Presbyterian blogger, who has also written about the controversy, and has offerered a …
THIS is very odd and disappointing. Every single RSS feed from the newspapers of troubled publisher Johnston Press I subscribe to (17, since you ask) appears to have stopped over the past day or two. Even Belfast’s News Letter has “This feed no longer exists” displayed at the top of the feed. I found them very useful for NI News, but does anyone know why it’s happened? Is it revenge on free news parasites? Or just an technical glitch? This …
