Brian Walker The life story of Andrew Muir, the mayor of North Down is part of Northern Ireland’s long journey towards civilisation – including the fact that as an openly gay person he made it to mayor at all. It was his Bangor reception that sparked the Great Cake Discrimination Case. Even so, the case may not be open and shut as it seems. The law is reckoned to be unsatisfactory. There is a legal debate which hinges on whether discrimination is …
This post most of which I mainly wrote for an academic blog gives anyone interested a heads up on a more sophisticated theatre of devolution – Scotland – assuming it votes No in the referendum. A couple of points to start with. First, taxation is the big theme. How much of its own revenue should a devolved Parliament raise? The Westminster parties are taking their Scottish affiliates at their word and all are promising greater taxation powers, with a corresponding …
The Guardian has noted the blossoming PR career of David Burnside since he lost his south Antrim Westminster seat in 2005. As a training ground for a career in the brutal and suspicious world of post-Soviet business, the enmity of hardline Northern Irish politics is hard to beat. That is the path trodden by David Burnside, a steely former Ulster Unionist MP turned public relations man who has emerged as a key bridgehead between Russian interests and the Conservatives. …
Even if the Stormont institutions haven’t reached the point of existential crisis. the breakdown of interparty talks before they’d even started does not augur well for progress on any front. Can anyone imagine Stormont being able to agree on legislation to help people cross the road, never mind deal with the legacy of the Troubles? Lack of leadership applies all round, the British government included. From at least 2010 it was wholly appropriate for Westminster to stand back and allow the …
The affair of the Trojan letter shows secular England struggling to deal with a community whose daily lives are increasingly governed by religion. What Ofsted has exposed as a plot to subvert British values is to its protagonists no more than promoting the good life for the benefit of the overwhelming Moslem majority who attend the four schools in question. And by the way, they furiously deny supporting jihad. Politicians broke away from the anchors of religion long ago. Clearly …
After the series on party fortunes after the elections an overview is now needed badly The MSM isn’t doing it. Someone should. This is not it. From afar : I’ve no idea why the 50+% odd vote was 15% higher than in England. Any guesses? Where are you Nicholas Whyte? Is there a good analysis of differential turnout that I’ve missed? In the North small earthquake in Chile. Not much has changed politically. Unionist parties ran a race to the right and increased …
At last the clash has come between accountability and transparency and “national security” over dealing with the past. After the unhappy period of Al Hutchinson we have a Police Ombudsman in the assertive tradition of Nuala O’Loan. Michael Maguire who was also Hutchinson’s successor as Police Oversight Commissioner probably knows where quite few bodies are buried (figuratively of course) and is an altogether steelier figure. NI’s chief constable is being taken to court over claims he obstructed Police Ombudsman investigations into …
The figures for tourism to Northern Ireland in 2013 out last week show a more modest reality than the hype suggesting it’s just about the most visited place on the planet. The numbers visiting from overseas amounted to just 9,000. Home holidays and short trips and family visits accounted for most of the rest. It’s not a terrible record, much as you’d expect in fact, but it shows yet again the limitations of marketing hype. You have to remember that this …
The present race row reminds me of a story from the bad old days. To give the camera crews a decent sequence of the Saturday matinee in Derry, a very tall black squaddie used to sprint down Chamberlain St and run the gamut of stones, bricks and bottles from the freedom fighters. Back safe he turned to the cameramen. “There, told you,” he said, breathless but beaming. “The problem of this place isn’t Catholic and Protestant. It’s race!” Black humour …
“I would still trust them to go down to the shops for me and give me the right change.” The horribly condescending bigotry of Peter Robinson’s puzzling intervention in the row of over his friend the pastor recalls the atavism of “to hell with the future and long live the past” that leaves unionism with few friends and precious little defence. Witness the spreading clamour against him which his friends will claim is only an excuse to bash poor Peter. Certainly …
It was interesting to see that there was as much comment on Nolan personally as about Pastor McConnell. I don’t see or hear Nolan that often but I thought he played a pretty straight bat on this one. I’m told he divides an already divided community, not on sectarian lines but between pro- and anti- Nolan. That’s quite a tribute. I bet opinion swings quite a bit just like a Nolan interview. With Nolan we’re on a rollercoaster. Whether you …
Adrian Guelke a South African a Queen’s academic and a leading authority on post-conflict resolution joins the growing list of reputable figures calling for an amnesty. He criticises the two governments for lack of involvement (although the unfortunate Eamon Gilmore can’t be faulted for trying almost right up to the moment of his resignation as Labour leader) Extracts. An unfortunate sequence of events has unfolded that has the potential to threaten the peace, including the failure of the Haass talks, histrionics …
Sir Robert Porter, known to all as “Beezer” who has died aged 90 gave the lie to the image of a jack booted Unionist minister at the beginning of the Troubles. He was indeed minister of home affairs in 1969 when demonstrations gave way to riot and finally to the events of August 1969 when the Army took over control of the streets after days of rioting in Derry and Belfast culminating in the burning of Bombay St. He was …
Similar trends and outcomes are apparent when the British and Irish elections results are compared. They are of course part of a common European picture. But the immediate effect on the coalition governments at Westminster and in Leinster House differs. The Irish coalition is rocking. The Irish Times is even speculating that pressure from Labour may bring forward the 2106 election date. This would seem a perverse response. A factor for the longer term may be the relative revival of Fianna …
Although I couldn’t attend the conferences they’ve sparked off vivid memories. This was a time when not only Northern Ireland seemed ungovernable but Britain too. At the Sunningdale civil service college in Berkshire we in the media were stuck in the conference annex for days because of the difficulty of getting taxis during the three day week, then in full force. TV had to close down at 10 o’clock each night – it was that bad. In spite of the atmosphere of crisis in England hopes …
Yesterday’s landmark compensation awards of £7500 each to the families of six men killed by the security forces means that the logjam of inquests is beginning to cost the state money – money the justice system says it hasn’t got and never will have, to pay for optimum legal accountability for the Troubles. As the Guardian reports: The high court in Belfast ruled on Tuesday that the damages were awarded due to the “frustration, distress and anxiety” suffered by the …
Sir Des Rea the first chair of the Policing Board and Robin Masefield the former head of the Prison Service are people of conscience and great experience. They are no ivory tower observers. Prompted it seems by the risks to stability threatened by the Adams interrogation, in very flat language they make public their fundamental proposal that cuts the Gordian knot of humbug and misplaced principle over the availability of justice . It is what much if not most of the professional establishment …
I plead guilty. The question buried somewhere in earlier comments strikes home: “Why do you keep banging on about Gerry Adams so much when the Giro is on? “ Now I could give an apples and pears answer, the two being in different categories. But the question is better than the reply.In the week of the Adams interrogation the Editor the Belfast Telegraph was moved to display his cool in …
There is a very peculiar little controversy going on in Dublin over inviting the “royals “ to 1916 commemorations. It involves catty exchanges between Maurice Manning, NUI chancellor, one of several former nearly men in Irish politics and a part time historian, and the equally learned professional modern historian Diarmaid Ferriter. In his latest blast in the Irish Times, Ferriter opposes the idea which the newspaper itself seems to approve. It would be too much to say that this is a re-run of the …
Jason Walsh grew up in the Upper Falls and witnessed as a child the horrors of the “Death on the Rock” events in Milltown cemetery. Here he presents a more authentic and reasoned assessment of recent days in the Christian Science Monitor than what the American audience is used to. Gerry Adams says he was never a member of the IRA, let alone a member of its ruling army council. Few believe him, and he knows that few believe him, but …
