Belfast Gonzo AS Twittered earlier by the DUP, Nelson McCausland was chucked out of the Assembly by his party colleague, Speaker Willie Hay, earlier today. While I don’t always see eye to eye with Nelson, he has provided evidence suggesting that Gerry Adams was in the IRA. Now I know this is an old debate and one many republicans view as irrelevant, but with the release of the Eames-Bradley report and its proposal for paramilitary groups to come clean, and Adams’s own …
SAMMY Wilson, the DUP Unenvironment Minister, has barred a central government advert on climate change and energy conservation from Northern Irish TVs. Having seen one of the “insidious” ads on Stormont Live (you can see ’em all here), it does seem like a fairly harmless ad urging people to turn off unnecessary appliances (it reminded me a bit of the classic 1979 ‘Bedtime Routine’ fire prevention ad). Fair enough, and if you also want to save money in these hard …
WITH the addition of Simon Hamilton yesterday, there are now two Twitterers in the Assembly, the other being the PUP leader Dawn Purvis. I’ve recently signed up for the free service, after hearing Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross witter on about it. Perhaps that makes me a Twit?! Anyway, it could turn out to be a handy service for breaking news; for example DUPonline has just posted that Nelson McCausland has been chucked out of the Stormont chamber. UPDATE: I …
IF – as has been claimed by Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness and Pat Doherty – Joe Pilling was indeed Britain’s “top securocrat” in Stormont, then the NIO needs to review its employment procedures. We already know that Pilling helped secure the release of paramilitary prisoners in advance of IRA decommissioning. Now it transpires that the former Permanent Secretary was also on an official review panel which has recommended that confidential records from the National Archives be published after just 15 …
FORMER Lá Nua journalist Gearóid Ó Cairealláin is yet another Andytown News republican unimpressed with Sinn Fein. Writing in the North Belfast News, he reveals he won’t be voting for the party again after its four representatives on Foras na Gaeilge acquiesed in the Irish language body’s decision to stop funding Ireland’s only daily Irish-language newspaper. Ó Cairealláin writes: We always assumed that Sinn Féin supported Irish so much that they would have banged the table, and shouted and roared …
WITH the issue of loyalist arms back on the agenda, it seems remiss not to recall here the life of Rev Roy Magee, who died last week at the age of 79. Magee, who had battled against Parkinson’s disease, played a key role in bringing about a loyalist ceasefire in 1994 and also mediated between different factions when feuds broke out. Tributes were paid to the peacemaker, noting his courage, and RTE reported that Presbyterian Moderator, Dr Donald Patton, said …
IS Queen’s University elitist and are its students spoilt? A study reported in the Guardian suggests that more than half (55%) of the students at Queen’s come from the richest homes – while “just over a third (36%) of John Lewis’s customers and 34% of House of Fraser’s come from the same group”. And at the other end of the scale, just 33% of Queen’s students are from the poorest homes. The study suggests that Queen’s is dominated by children …
IN an extensive interview just published by the Economist, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, has accused British armed forces of being “too complacent” and “smug” after its experiences in Northern Ireland and Bosnia. He said: “You are only as good as your next success, not your last one. You can never rest on your laurels and I think we may have done that. If you go around and ask enough Americans you will …
I was intially going to say that this was a good day for Gregory Campbell to ‘bury bad news’ about the Maze. But instead, it’s ended up as a congratulations to the BBC for reporting a story that was reported on December 10 last year. Not, however, as big a blooper as UTV Live, who yesterday led off with the news with the fantastic exclusive that Hugh Orde had got the job of Met chief. Except he hadn’t, as their …
AFTER hearing Jeffrey Donaldson on Talkback and Nelson McCausland on Stormont Live, I couldn’t help but feel that – while they have a point – the two were perhaps not best placed to criticise Saturday’s rally for a ceasefire in Gaza. Both have described as hypocritical the attendance of former terrorists who attended the Belfast rally, yet both have attended unionist rallies where loyalist terrorists were present. Unionist politicians have generally had no problems associating with paramilitaries at anti-Agreement, Drumcree, …
“THIS is an absolute disgrace. I want to know on what basis do they think civil servants working in the Northern Ireland Office are under a bigger threat in this country?” wailed Lord Laird upon his discovery that NIO servants were being paid an annual £287 danger money allowance because of the department’s work on law and order. This devoted scrutiniser of public spending then immediately questioned NIO expenditure on taxis. This, need I remind you, is the same Lord …
I SUSPECT that the Gregory Campbell graphic on Ogra SF’s website led Jim Wells to discover the Gerry Juniors are to visit the Narrow Water site where the IRA slaughtered 18 British soldiers. Ghoulish and crass, though not unexpected of the puerile SF youth wing. Tactically, it was a well-executed (literally) IRA op, but then so was Loughgall, and I don’t recall Young Unionist history field trips to the site of where the SAS wiped out the South Tyrone Brigade. …
OUR commenter Comrade Stalin cheekily suggested the other day that Gerry Adams needs a hobby, little thinking that the Sinn Fein president would be paying attention. Yes folks, Gerry has a new hobby. And it is blogging. Catch the first post here, and don’t forget to leave a comment for Gerry (pictured here with his first wireless communications device). Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
WRITING in today’s Tele, Conservative/Ulster Unionist Party working group member Johnny Andrews says that “Our objectives and values have converged with a reformed and newly invigorated Conservative Party now poised for power”. He goes on to argue that while the DUP engage in “little Ulster politics, it is up to us with new clear forward thinking policies to take on our historic mantle of moving Northern Ireland forward”. But with the prospect of a hung parliament now being taken seriously …
IT would be remiss of me not to mention that Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr Hunter S Thompson is showing at the QFT from tonight, seeing as I owe at least a pseudonym and countless ellipses to the drug-crazed, brilliant and flawed freak genius who sparked some of my own interest in politics, journalism and other bad craziness with his Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72 (“the least factual, most accurate” account of the election). While …
THE North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has spotted a fast-moving mysterious object speeding across the Earth’s upper atmosphere, and is currently tracking it somewhere over Yakutsk, Russia. The trajectory seems erratic, but it’s likely to hit Northern Ireland shortly after midnight. Follow the action here. Belfast Gonzosluggerotoole.com
AFTER flagging up how Northern Ireland is being treated differently from the rest of the UK when it comes to plans for licence plate insignia, another similar anomoly has popped up. It appears that the Automatic Number Plate Recognition in Great Britain doesn’t work properly Northern Irish number plates, resulting in problems for drivers from here when in England. The ANPR mass surveillence system in England doesn’t seem to be able to tell if a car with an NI registration …
THE Presbyterian Moderator almost sounded annoyed that “logically inconsistent” atheists (?) can enjoy Christmas while rejecting the Christian message. “It’s liking the packaging of the present without the present or liking the shell without the substance – it doesn’t add up to much… If you take the heart out of Christmas you haven’t got much left that makes sense.” I’m not sure that logic or trying to rationalise something as abstract as belief in the Christmas story (itself inconsistent in …
TURGON’S post on the SDLP reminded me of the controversy stoked by Mark Durkan in September when he suggested that a strong Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland could mark the beginning of the end for the Assembly’s sectarian designation system. Now that we’ve seen the Human Rights Commission’s recommendations, does anyone who agrees with Durkan’s argument – that the “ugly scaffolding” of communal designation should come down in the future – see the report as one that could create …
COMMENTATOR and (‘compassionate’?) humanist Malachi O’Doherty has found himself the target of Belfast’s ‘fundamentalist’ humanists and hardline atheists. O’Doherty has had the temerity to suggest that not only is Richard Dawkins “a prat”, but that some religions are better than others; that there is diveristy and much to be fascinated by in the history of religion; that religion is human and that you can not be a humanist without caring to understand religious motivations – given that religion is not …
