Brian Walker Three cheers for that bureaucratic pain, but first defence of human rights section 75 for taking Gay Rights to the top– even creating a ruffle in the Robinson household perhaps? And two cheers for the Belfast Telegraph for digging out the story under FoI ( great headline guys, you kept it simple). And to Pink News for, well, celebrating the news. “First Minister to authorise grants despite wife’s outspoken comments 80,000 to gay groups within the next seven months — …
In his column in the Irish News today, the always stimulating Brian Feeney raises one of the major issues emerging out of the population study I referred to frivilously on Tuesday. He in effect poses a 64,000 euro question: should government ( whatever that is these days ) abandon the fiction of one community and break it down into a range of different social and sectarian profiles? “What is needed from the devolved administration at Stormont is a set of …
Great to see that Ballymoney is right up there almost with Japan in the world tables of life expectancy. It’s not a comparison we’re used to, but we can make the link if we compare World Health Organisation figures out today with Irish Public Health institute results last week. Their quality of life is so high in the north Antrim Shangri-la that men can expect to reach an average age of 78.1 years; while women live, on average, to the …
The fate of Aer Lingus ‘s Belfast hub, launched with such a fanfare only a year ago in a highly controversial move from Shannon must now be in the balance as the airline posts frightful losses of 22 million euros. And with a “3-figure” million loss possible for 2009, as chief financial officer Sean Coyle admitted today.He added that the company’s cost per passenger is roughly double that of rival Ryanair. With fierce competition raging between all airlines flying in …
Here’s a topic to stir the blood.. Oliver Cromwell is the subject this week of a major reappraisal by Irish historian Micheál O Siochrú and the main feature of the BBC History magazine. I can do no better than let the excellent Fintan O’Toole introduce him, quoting his Observer review: “Even in these times, when all the talk is of putting history behind us, the easiest way to tell the difference between the Irish and the English is to utter …
Last year, only weeks after a nasty confrontation between the Estonians and the Russians ostensibly over the resiting of a Russian war memorial, I took a rickety train, the only one of the day, up the Gulf of Finland from the Estonian capital Talinn to St Petersburg. Just before passing by an empty rusty watch tower on an eerily deserted border, I couldn’t help thinking that we’re pledged to defend these guys now. And that was before.. The “casus belli” …
Just to be clear:
Barack Obama’s decision to review the need for a special envoy to Northern Ireland may be overdue on our side of the pond but it’s “completely unacceptable” to the influential Irish-American lobbyist Niall Dowd. Firmly Democratic Irish America is not happy, it seems – suggesting Obama was either bold or rash to raise the issue at the very moment when party unity is everything. This issue exposes a split from the Clinton camp at exactly the wrong time. In March, …
How good of the Republic’s Broadcasting Complaints Commission to strike a bold blow for freedom and decide not to punish RTE and News at One Sean O’Rourke for asking the harmless question: “Did Biffo Blink?” At least he didn’t use the f-word version of the big fellow from Offaly’s nickname. What a crisis it would have provoked had they found against the broadcaster. Instead of solemnly poring over the case the way such bureaucrats do, they should have dismissed the …
The most populous country in Europe in 50 years, bigger than Germany. 77 million compared to only 71 million! “605,000 long-term immigrants arriving in the year to mid-2007. The EU projections show that the wave of migration to Britain, boosting both the workforce and fertility rates, is out of step with many other European countries where deaths are expected to overtake births after 2015”. And with Ireland (Rep) growing even faster by 50%? Eurostat says it expects Ireland’s population to …
Good news! Surely it’s high time for Seymour Sweeney to back off with dignity? Enough damage and delay have been caused. (In any comment about Mr Sweeney or another party, please remember the laws of defamation.) See here for a look at the development plans for the reception area. Brian WalkerFormer 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; …
David Hammond singer, film maker, celebrant, mentor and muse, has died in Belfast after a long illness. A Belfast man to his fingertips, he nevertheless took on the character of the whole island as a folk singer and collector of the purest quality and rigour. He sang everywhere and knew everybody from Tommy Makem and Donal Lunny to Jean Ritchie and Pete Seeger. His approach was that when simplicity conveys the essence, go for simplicity. His first audience was children. …
The battle lines are being drawn up already inside the Dublin establishment for a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. It’s becoming clearer what the results of a shorter than expected “period of reflection” will be when Brian Cowen reports to the EU Council of Ministers in October. “No rush” and “up to a year” may boil down to just four months before making a new commitment. The kite was flown at the Humbert summer school at Killala, when the …
Strictly frivilously and of no relevance whatever to NI politics and culture, I thought I’d hand out some medals of my own for comment and reporting on the wind-up (double meaning intended) of the Olympics and the hand-over to London. The pops have played a straight bat so far, careful not to resist the surge of patriotic fervour believed to be seizing their readers as the Boys and Girls arrive home this afternoon. So it was mainly up to the …
The redoubtable correspondent Henry McDonald has a notable scoop with his report that “up to 300 IRA members are to attempt to have their convictions overturned and sue the British government for compensation for wrongful imprisonment… The move follows the success of Danny Morrison, Sinn Féin’s former publicity director, in overturning his 1991 conviction for the false imprisonment of IRA informer Sandy Lynch a year earlier”. “The Criminal Cases Review Commission recommended that his case go back to the court …
More on Shilliday’s Law which I take it states: ” Northern Ireland is there but you can’t find us”. That master of “Britishness”, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland no less, is the latest to prove he doesn’t quite understand the composition of the legal State. With the best of intentions, a fired-up Gordon Brown has revealed he’s cleared the ground with FIFA’s president Sepp Blatter for a “Great Britain” team to enter …
I don’t think I’m being unduly pious at feeling uneasy at the sight of all those mikes and cameras shoved up the nose of the wretched Gary Glitter in airports in two hemispheres. Picadors dancing round before the kill is what it looked like. Needless to say, the press ignored the obvious point that the prospect of their endless hounding might have been Glitter’s bigger reason for avoiding coming home to Britain. The requirement to sign the paedophile register and …
This may seem like a nerdy subject but I bet it relates to your daily habits. TV even in the age of the multi-platform and the internet is still a collective experience, if the show is good enough – just think of the Olympics. But not only competition but regulation threatens to stifle it says Peter Fincham, the BBC1 controller fired for “Queengate,” now with ITV. The problem he identifies is Ofcom, the industry regulator originally set up to be …
Update: Egan hypes himself up for Olympic gold bid Tensions have opened up between the London 2012 planners (ultimately the British government) and the IOC over whether the UK should try to match the $23 billion splurge of Beijing for the world’s biggest 3 week TV sports series. Did you ever hear such an arrogant and bonkers statement as that coming out of the mouth of the IOC President Jacques Rogge: “London still has to deliver as well as China …
Revealed tonight – arrests made a week ago over threats first made in January. Lots more to come out, before we know if the threat was substantial. “No plot was in place but there were calls for the death of Gordon Brown on an extremist jihad website in January. The current threat level in Britain is “severe” meaning, according to MI5, that there is “a high likelihood of future terrorist attacks” and “a continuing high level of threat to the …
