Brian Walker – Page 50 – Slugger O'Toole

The Catholic church flounders again over sexuality within

Brian Walker on August 13, 2016, 6:59 pm

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You couldn’t make it up. The decision of the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin to remove his diocese’s ( only) three trainees from St Patrick’s Maynooth and pack then off to the comparative safety of Rome (!), because of a “poisonous atmosphere” surrounding allegations about the use of a gay dating app in the College, is more farce than tragedy – or would be, if the seminarians are as worldly – wise as most young people are these days. To this …

Well Mairtin it’s a start!

Brian Walker on August 13, 2016, 11:45 am

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From the Irish Times. EU structural and investment projects in Northern Ireland signed before the British chancellor of the exchequer’s autumn statement will be guaranteed after Brexit, the Treasury in London has said. The current level of agricultural backing, which underpins the farming industry, will also be matched by the British government until 2020. Europe’s programme for entrenching the peace process through community development is due to run until 2020. The future of a programme designed to pump €17 million …

United approach to Brexit? Well done, Arlene and Martin.

Brian Walker on August 11, 2016, 12:41 pm

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Rather out of the blue, this joint letter from Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness to the prime minister Theresa May changes the impression of a divided Executive heading for a fresh stand-off and is to be warmly welcomed. It is artfully couched in calling for no weakening of cross border measures to deal with crime and implies that border posts could create targets for dissident republicans and others – points that will hit home with the former home secretary. It …

A quiet reformer of church practice and a frustrated man of peace. Bishop Edward Daly remembered

Brian Walker on August 8, 2016, 8:28 pm

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While it was cameraman Cyril Cave’s iconic image of the priest with the blood stained hankie that shot Eddie (known to intimates as Ned) Daly to unwanted fame, his appointment soon after Bloody Sunday as bishop of Derry marked a discreet but substantial change in the ordinary life of the church and Catholic society behind the Troubles. His predecessor Bishop Neil Farren who had concelebrated the Bloody Sunday funeral masses in the dying days of a thirty year tenure, was …

With Brexit fever, lies,lies and damned polls

Brian Walker on July 30, 2016, 4:30 pm

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Lucid Talk have been conducting a curious self selecting exercise in the Belfast Telegraph and finding that, as Lucid Talk’s Bill White explains, “The poll is currently running at 75% Yes to a border poll, and 70% Yes to a United Ireland, and I don’t need to tell you that common sense, and history, tells us that this is obviously not representative of Northern Ireland. Polling companies like ours are ‘easy’ with these ‘self-selecting’ polls as they’re known – i.e. …

Solving the border issue is recognised as an argument against a clean break with the EU

Brian Walker on July 29, 2016, 10:02 am

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Although it’s firmly orientated to business and high finance, the Financial Times (£) concludes in an editorial that the British-Irish relationship should put a brake on the extreme Brexiteers who favour a clean break from the EU. Both sides have much to lose. Without the support of its outsized neighbour, Dublin may now find itself more isolated in Brussels on EU issues such as tax harmonisation, which it opposes. Although Ireland’s economy is less dependent on the UK than it …

Immigration less of a problem, trade and customs more so, as Liam Fox rules out a customs Union with the EU. But Theresa and Enda think they see how to keep the border open

Brian Walker on July 26, 2016, 12:43 pm

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One of the leading authorities on EU affairs Charles Grant, the director of the centre for European Reform has issued this warning: When it comes to economic ties, the 27 will be much tougher than many Britons expect. European leaders have an interest in ensuring that the EU maintains a close economic relationship with the UK, for everyone’s benefit. But they will not compromise on fundamental principles, such as free movement of labour as the price for single market membership. …

O’Leary’s Dalriada proposal keeps Northern Ireland and Scotland in the UK and the EU

Brian Walker on July 26, 2016, 9:05 am

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The political scientist Professor Brendan O’Leary is one of the strongest supporters of power sharing in Northern Ireland and an deviser of political solutions to ethnic conflict throughout the world. On leave from Pennsylvania University and an old boy of St Macnissi’s Garron Tower, he has produced the Dalriada Document – inspired by the ancient North Antrim- west of Scotland kingdom. The Dalriada document is an ingenious attempt to square the circle of keeping Scotland and Northern Ireland in both …

An immigration breakthrough on Brexit points to a solution to the hard border problem

Brian Walker on July 24, 2016, 10:24 am

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If it transpires, the Observer’s story on the EU granting the UK an exemption on free movement for EU citizens could be a breakthrough. How could an immigration cap solve the problem of a hard border? On the face of it, it would make it worse. But if Ireland would join the exemption and agree an immigration cap with the UK based on estimates of the need for EU and non- EU workers, the issue of a hard border disappears. …

Faint hopes only for a second Brexit referendum

Brian Walker on July 22, 2016, 10:49 am

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Jeremy Corbyn’s challenger Owen Smith (once the smooth and effective special adviser to Secretary of State Paul Murphy) has offered a second referendum or a general election to ratify any Brexit deal. What, you hadn’t noticed? His offer has so far been buried in the controversy over the leadership challenge. Let’s see how it plays in the leadership campaign over the summer. Only Dominic Grieve the former Attorney General has surfaced for a second referendum among leading Conservatives. Adds later …

Are the Dublin party leaders serious about raising Unity in the Brexit negotiations or are they playing Dail politics?

Brian Walker on July 19, 2016, 11:00 am

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So Enda has taken the lead from Micheal who took his cue from Martin and inserted musing about a future border poll into his speech at Glenties. For such a fateful topic the whole sequence has been deplorably improvised. The qualifications about lack of present evidence won’t stop the hare running now. A border poll can only be damaging in any volatile situation and a monstrous irrelevance connected with Brexit, apart from the unpredictable fallout if Scotland votes for independence. …

In Brexit dialogues the DUP must be included. The Good Friday Agreement requires it.

Brian Walker on July 18, 2016, 11:39 am

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Sadly, the Sunday Politics programmes have registered no closing of the gap between the DUP and Sinn Fein over “Brexit means Brexit.” Inevitably there is a real danger that narrow politics and positioning will confuse already very difficult issues. But at least they are not the ones aggravating the disagreement at the moment. They appear to be waiting on others for constructive responses. In a measured editorial the Irish News has identified “ an overwhelming case for the introduction of …

In the welter of crises at home and abroad, ” calm down dear” is not a bad maxim for comment

Brian Walker on July 17, 2016, 3:49 pm

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Commentators have a natural tendency to over-interpret the world on the basis of the latest developments. I say “natural” because they are bound to feel compelled to rise up to the level of traumatic events like Nice or the Turkish coup attempt. Over Turkey comment has been useful as there’s a lot to explain about the origins of the coup and the political upheaval going on in response. Over Nice, it’s much more difficult. Standby for the political crucifixion of …

A real Twelfth celebration. Three cautious cheers for Bombardier

Brian Walker on July 12, 2016, 10:06 am

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And what about the effects of Brexit? The Irish Times takes forward the story reported by CBC Canada. Many thanks to Quebec, despite its secessionist tendencies. The SWISS air flight on Friday also represents an important next stage of the C-Series journey that began for Northern Ireland at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK in 2008. Back then Bombardier pledged a £520 million investment, the largest single inward investment in the North, to support the research, design, manufacture and assembly of the …

Westminster will find it hard to counter the Brexit case for Scottish independence

Brian Walker on July 10, 2016, 4:41 pm

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The UK Treasury chief who was at the heart of Project Fear during the Scottish independence referendum of 2014 is singing a different tune after the Brexit referendum. In an extraordinary article in the Financial Times (£) summarised here, Sir Nicholas McPherson sweeps away most of economic and financial problems associated with independence.. With the UK leaving the EU, there is a golden opportunity for proponents of Scottish independence to reappraise their economic prospectus. Clearly, membership of the EU will lie …

Time for the Irish government to lay out their ideas on a “special status” for Northern Ireland

Brian Walker on July 9, 2016, 10:45 am

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The chronic weaknesses of both governments hardly assists clear thinking over Brexit. On the other hand there seems to be a general willingness to minimise the damage e.g. over a hard border and trade. Whoever is the new British PM we cannot expect much departure from Theresa Villiers’s minimalist approach to coordination with the Republic. On the other hand the British-Irish relationship and the North-South bodies are adequate in themselves without the minor splash of an all-Ireland forum at this …

Northern’s Ireland best chance of leverage rests inevitably at Westminster

Brian Walker on July 8, 2016, 2:18 pm

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Look guys, you’re knocking at an open door. Yes it’s not yet resolved as we haven’t got a new UK government. That will take on the outside 74 days. But the Republic had to wait 69 days for their new government so they know how to wait. What’s the alternative? It isn’t good politics to keep demonising the Tory government before they’ve devised a Brexit strategy and when there plainly isn’t any alternative. One Nation Tories will want to to …

Ireland is not abandoned. Britain does give a damn but in its own way

Brian Walker on July 7, 2016, 11:23 am

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“The Brexiteers – (meaning the ascendant strain in the Conservative party -) don’t give a damn about Ireland” is a common reaction from Martin McGuinness to Fintan O’Toole. It’s quite an irony to hear Irish nationalists complain about nationalists of the English persuasion. But the cry is as much plaintive as enraged. After all that reconciliation stuff Why Have You Done This To Us? But it wasn’t that, friends. it’s just that England (sic) takes priority in a zero sum …

The wee nations of these islands show the way in Europe

Brian Walker on July 2, 2016, 1:30 pm

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It was a big week in Europe in more ways than one. Wales is left as the standard bearer of the home nations in the Euros. Northern Ireland and the Republic get honourable mentions in the reputation stakes not only on the field but on the terraces and the pubs. The Somme commemorations recall Britain’s very literal continuing place in Europe (There is a corner of a foreign field etc.”) Modern Ireland is recovering its own memory. In the horrible …

Uniting to mitigate the effects of Brexit is better politics than talk of break up in these islands.

Brian Walker on June 28, 2016, 2:31 pm

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In the absence of any clarity about the terms for Brexit, it’s no surprise that some Remain supporters are dreaming about reversing the result and nationalist politicians are weighing up the chances of the break-up of the UK. They may have to decide soon how realistic are their ambitions for constitutional change if a snap Westminster election is sprung soon. The SNP are the only major party to have anything like a stable negotiating position at the moment. It looks …