The bigger picture…
THE BBC’S Mark Simpson looks at whether yesterday’s riot could affect the bigger political picture. Certainly, community relations in North Belfast won’t have been improved by events. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Belfast Gonzo
Ex-Branch chief alleges political influence on policing…
THE Blanket carries an extensive interview with ex-Special Branch chief, Bill Lowry this weekend. The Sunday Times picks up on one part, in which the UK government tried to prevent the arrest of a fugitive IRA gunwoman in an effort to protect the peace process. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Pre-parade politicking…
EFFORTS are still being made by unionists to try and secure a way for the Orange Order’s supporters to march a section of road in Belfast tomorrow. The Order is threatening to hold protests around the city tomorrow evening, in defiance of the decision to re-route their journey. How the Order controls the protest – something it has had difficulty doing in the past – is likely to be seen as key to future Parades Commission decisions. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Here we go again…
THE BBC are reporting that the Orange Order intends to blockade Belfast on Monday, after the ‘Twelfth’ demonstration. This is said to be in response to the restrictions on Orange parades in North Belfast. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Search on for tribunal members…
THE Government has announced it will appoint judges and other individuals to tribunals into the deaths of Rosemary Nelson, Billy Wright and Robert Hamill. Each of the panels will have three members – a specialist, a lay member and a senior judge – from outside Northern Ireland. UPDATE: Sinn Fein’s reaction, the DUP’s and the UUP’s are online. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Moving on…
JOHN Stevens, the UK’s most senior policeman, is retiring. Stevens has had a long association with Northern Ireland, investigating allegations of security force and loyalist collusion. Also moving on is Barbara Stephenson, the affable US Consul General in Belfast, who is taking up a State Department position in Washington. Stephenson, who did much to highlight integrated education during her tenure here, announced Dean Pitman as her replacement at her Independence Day garden party. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Double standard or doublespeak?
THE DUP has defended its position on not talking to terrorists while sitting on a parades forum alongside representatives of loyalist terrorists. It is because the DUP cannot be held responsible for the inclusion of the UVF and UDA on the parades forum. Well, that’s me convinced(!) Nelson McCausland added: “It is Grand Lodge policy that the Orange Order will not negotiate on parades with Sinn Fein-sponsored residents’ groups.” That doesn’t, however, appear to be the position of the Orange …
Orde looks at road ahead…
CHIEF Constable Hugh Orde thinks the IRA’s war is over (although Sammy Wilson begs to differ), and reveals that the PSNI is to “reopen five ‘template cases’ from the Troubles as part of its contribution to the truth and reconciliation process”, according to Henry McDonald. Orde also seems to believe that Sinn Fein is preparing its constituency for joining the Policing Board. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Drumcree quiet…
DRUMCREE passed off with barely a peep this year, and the Portadown Lodge has refused to rule out talks with nationalist residents who object to a parade on Garvaghy Road. The Irish Independent reports: Spokesman David Jones said the Orange Order was prepared to take part in talks with nationalists residents through intermediaries. He ruled out immediate face-to-face talks but did not discount the possibility that those could happen in the future. “We have been involved in mediation before, through …
Do high fences really make good neighbours?
AS the father of consociational democracy – Arend Lijphart – visits Belfast today, it was a coincidence that Mark Devenport should choose the phrase about high fences making good neighbours in his weekend preview of the September talks. On the subject of separate votes – one unionist, one nationalist – for the positions of First Minister and Deputy First Minister, Devenport writes: One can see the attractions of this kind of “apartheid” for the DUP, who would not have to …
It’s all Greek to me…
INCREDIBLE – Greece is in the Euro 2004 final. Last night’s game wasn’t the best of the tournament, with plenty of chances missed, but the final – against home side Portugal – should be a good one. It’s also a repeat, for the first time, of the opening match of the tournament. The stand-offish Greek side won, but with Figo back on form, who knows what could happen? Can’t wait. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Summer Madness…
NORTHERN Ireland’s biggest Christian festival for young people – Summer Madness – is kicking off at the King’s Hall. Seminars at the event will look at such controversial topics such as homosexuality and the church, pornography, racism, eating disorders and the future of the church. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Peaceful parade despite breach…
AN Orange Order parade which went past a nationalist area passed off peacefully in East Belfast last night, despite clearly breaching the Parades Commission’s conditions for marching, as loyalist paramilitary flags were on display. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
What might have been…
EOIN McNamee’s latest book – The Ultras – is a heady mix of fact and fiction, exploring the shadowy world of security force and loyalist collusion, in a stylised attempt to fill in some of the gaps of the dirty war. The Ultras features some familiar names, such as the enigmatic Robert Nairac and the ruthless Robin ‘The Jackal’ Jackson, and centres round events like the Miama Showband Massacre. The text has a certain flow and rhythm to it that …
Council ‘Taliban’ fill Vacuum…
THE News Letter has gone all Daily Mail and is running a spurious splash about the Vacuum magazine promoting Satan worship! Thanks to councillors Jim Rodgers and Eric Smyth for providing the Vacuum – an arts mag whose offices were destroyed in the North Street Arcade fire – with more advertising than it could ever have hoped for. They obviously haven’t actually read the magazine on an ongoing basis, as each has a different theme. Having written an article on …
Trimble biographer interviewed…
DEAN Godson, author of Trimble biography ‘Himself Alone’, gets the Gail Walker treatment in today’s Belfast Telegraph. Walker quotes Godson as saying: “At one point he [Trimble] said to me that when he was teaching law at Queen’s University he had never liked lectures but preferred tutorials and seminars. I really think that’s because he is so convinced of the rightness of his own views that he believes that any reasonable person subjected to that view would over the course …
New MEPs look to groupings…
TODAY’S Tele reports that DUP MEP Jim Allister is being courted to join the new Eurosceptic Independence and Democracy bloc in the European Parliament, which includes the UK Independence Party. Meanwhile, the two Sinn Fein MEPs are being strongly tipped to join the United European Left bloc. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
Real IRA claim hoax alerts…
SO it was the Real IRA who attempted to stop me getting to the office this morning by causing traffic disruption with hoax bomb alerts. Ha! I foiled you with my secret weapon – the bicycle. Yes, it is a very quiet news day. Roll on the footie… Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
The ‘other’ Sinn Fein MEP…
AFTER her soft-focus image makeover for the recent election, the normally private Sinn Fein MEP Bairbre de Brun opens up and reveals her more human side to Gail Walker. Although she appears independent by nature, de Brun appears to have felt somewhat isolated or rootless after the early deaths of her parents in a car crash, throwing herself into her work and eventually finding a new ‘family’ in Sinn Fein. Walker quotes de Brun as saying: “I was close to …
Robinson’s ‘threat’ to the Union…
AFTER finishing with Trimble, Slugger irregular David Vance is now asking if Peter Robinson is actually the greatest threat to the Union (Sunday, June 27, 2004 entry). Vance writes: It seems to me that Unionism is in a bind. The DUP seems destined to follow it’s fatal desire to get back into a devolved Government. It lusts to exercise executive power and all local political commentators seem to agree on this central point. Achieving this political goal requires doing SOME …