Brian Walker 
Paul Muldoon the boy from the Moy ( I can still see the youth in him at 75), is probably the last living survivor of the group of poets who were the best and brightest of the age of the Troubles. Call them the Northern Poets. Not shaped by the Troubles we must add quickly, but formed in the culture both hidden and in plain sight that both nurtured them and showed us a better world. In this FT extract …
The Royal Irish Academy’ s Dictionary of Irish Biography has just published its entry for Maurice Hayes. in my book Maurice was a principal hero of the Troubles, the very model for adapting a Catholic nationalist background to an instrument of change to create a new Northern Ireland. He was one of those essential people who kept the show on the road. Not least he was an attractive human being who obviously enjoyed his own life and the diverse company …
Ahead of Netflix’s version of the Chroncles of Narnia to be shown early next year, Patrick Little in the Guardian has reclaimed the celebrated writer and visionary scholar Clive Staples ( always known as CS) Lewis for his specifically east Belfast roots. Some of us like to think that Narnia was inspired by Norn Irn – a nice thought anyway. Little has done a very precise piece of tracking to some particular local locations I hadn’t known had inspired …
While the unionist parties may be trying out a new game at Stormont portraying restraint as strength rather than weakness, what is the temper of the times among the people? Will something far worse that Drumcree be repeated on the Ormeau Road, where the Orange Hall is bang in the busy built up area and the parade route takes them over the bridge past the site of one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles – followed by reactions including …
It’s about leadership stupid. Something strange that has yet to be explained in the defenestration of Paisley the late chuckle brother. It was ideological as well as personal over his loss of grip due to age. A leap too far with the Shinners? Peter Robinson although not the coup leader was the natural but uneasy beneficiary. If the DUP rank and file overthrew their creator what would they be prepared to do to his erstwhile junior sidekick, the man who …
Without attracting much attention even from the local media, the Commons spent the best part of two days this week debating the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill. This is the latest attempt at what’s claimed to be the very last chance to provide information on an agreed basis to victims and survivors about the multiple horrors and tragedies that befell them stretching back 57 years and counting. Passage of the Bill is now assured although a few stages remain. A recast …
Here is Sam Mc Bride’s exclusive story about Jeffrey Donaldson as a paid adviser by the Ministry of Defence to developing countries on adapting the peace process to their various circumstances. The story is worth wider attention. There’s nothing new about all kinds of locally based players and observers of the peace process spreading the word about our alleged miracle before deeply impressed international audiences. But this one looks different. The MoD for one thing. And Jeffrey Donaldson? Leaving aside …
Sir Declan Morgan Chief Legacy Commissioner The new Troubles Bill going through the Commons lists no fewer than 140 amendments , most of them designed to appease the mountain of critics in GB across the parties who are passionately opposed to more trials like the virtual show trial of veteran Soldier F in the Bloody Sunday case. While this trial looked like a deliberate attempt to demonstrate futility, the verdict now aspired to is Never Again, Why repeat such a …
If you’re looking for a way to while away the time waiting for the next round of shadow boxing over Garvaghy Road, look no further than Sam McBride’s latest patiently laid out account of Executive dysfunction. Not evasion alone but a mix of evasion and rare activism that has elements of cash for ash about it. Namely, larger grants to maximise production but do environmental harm The story is about Lough Neagh, the great freshwater lake which supplies most of …
At last, even an inflated cost of nearly £ 2 billion, a new dualled A5 can be built. Although the delay was represented as a Sinn Fein failure, better now to look at as a victory for all, particlarly in the west and a big project for a Shared Island contribution. Let’s get motoring – well, sometime within the next five years Brian WalkerFormer BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current …
So much more real than the familiar ranting, Mick’s evocative post captures spot on how Catholic sentiment built up from the start of the Troubles, grew in intensity during the long killing seasons and has finally been enshrined in powerful myth. Myths are more than made up stories. They are versions of reality recalled and under pressure, re-enacted No question who were the underdogs. Nightmares persist. Quite different Protestant sentiment grew up in parallel expressed in the current upheaval but …
This thorough analysis by leading academics in the field, Sean Haughey Jon Tongue and Ben Rosher concentrates first on preventing Assembly breakdown and the cosmetic reform of joint First Ministers the agenda recommended by the SDLP now apparently been pursued by the Secretary of State. Later it argues as I do for more open process for reform rather than the previous hot house sessions behind closed doors like the Stormont House Agreement and New Approach. Overall the analysis is pessimistic about …
Mike Nesbitt’s sudden resignation goes to the heart of what’s wrong with how Northern Ireland is governed. Modest hopes for limited success have been dashed. If systems and attitudes don’t change, the crisis in the health service and others like it will never significantly improve. Independent report after expert report has spelt out loud and clear that if every hospital retains its present range of specialisms, resources cannot be concentrated effectively to deliver timely major treatment for patients throughout the …
A bit late but still time to catch up with Gloria: my life on TV on iPlayer, the ultimate accolade of a Gloria Hunniford Night on BBC FOUR last Saturday. It features a set of shows including an interview with film star Audrey Hepburn, a chat show standing in for her network mentor Terry Wogan and an appearance singing on the Val Doonican show. The decades around the turn of the millennium reached the high point of MOR (middle of …
Newton Emersons’s verdict in the Irish Times can hardy be bettered as a rare and heartening cross community success … Pleasant streets can only partly explain the numbers in the city centre. What unionist visitors are discovering is that the Fleadh is not repellingly “political”, as that term is applied in Northern Ireland. Culture is always political, of course, but the songs are not sectarian, the atmosphere is not partisan and the national symbolism is discrete. I noticed only one …
From hot house London (figuratively as well as literally)., I’m dismayed but no longer surprised that the trend of unionist opinion over the still unfolding Donaldson scandal may be diverting from the cul de sac of the DUP to the black hole of TUV. I’m picking this up from Andy Pollak’s post where he speculates on the likely impact of the extent of the scandal on the DUP’s fortunes at the next Assembly election. What the DUP establishment knew and …
Just one for Andy to fix?
Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London
Predictably enough, the Westminster right wing and the DUP did have to turn it into a row about the border. It was quickly revealed that the Somali (whoops correction) the Sudanese suspect entered NI illegally from the south and was granted leave to remain three years ago. Cue firestorm over immigration policy and in particular -wouldn’t you know it? – the open border and how to police it . From The Times The UK has returned only one asylum seeker …
In his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy JD Vance wrote that “to understand me, you must understand that I am a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart” So writing from the heart on X Vance waded into the lists in the politicians’ row over the murder of Henry Novak “He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom …
Fresh from taking a bit of a battering in the May 22 by elections in the Republic , Sinn Fein have received a setback for their ambition to build a left wing coalition in the Republic to challenge the Fine Gael – Fianna Fail partnership. The ambition had looked like a goer after the success of the tentative left wing alliance to secure the election as President of the left leaning independent Catherine Connolly. But now,after the qualified victory in …
