Brian Walker – Page 61 – Slugger O'Toole

Abortion turndown is a constitutional issue

Brian Walker on May 9, 2014, 10:41 am

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The ruling in the English High Court against free abortions for Northern Ireland women in England comes as no surprise. Have campaigners legally examined the situation in Scotland? This now seems like a case for the Supreme Court where the issue would be: Are devolution powers superior to UK equal citizens’ rights? An aspect of the judge’s comments intrigued me: He ruled that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s duty to promote a comprehensive health service in England “is a duty in relation to the physical and mental …

DUP back in Downing St while Adams was in Antrim police station – shock

Brian Walker on May 8, 2014, 9:20 pm

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Nick Watt of the Guardian is that rare thing in the Westminster lobby, a Sinn Fein watcher. Here he enters DUP territory with a flyer about what the DUP might do if they hold the balance of power in the next Parliament, with the Tories the largest single party. A little party was held in the No 10 garden just after a meeting about putting pressure on Libya to compensate Troubles. This story looks like Nick’s follow up to the …

No sign yet of smoking gun in the Adams case

Brian Walker on May 8, 2014, 10:24 am

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Gerry Adams uses a column in the Guardian to describe and comment on his interrogation. I was told that the interrogations were an evidence-gathering process, and that the police would be making the case that I was a member of the IRA; that I had a senior IRA managerial role in Belfast at the time of Jean McConville’s abduction; and that I was therefore bound to know about her killing. I challenged my interrogators to produce the new evidential material. They …

Government shambles revealed over details of OTR links to murder

Brian Walker on May 7, 2014, 7:11 pm

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After republican outrage over Gerry Adams’ interrogation, it’s high time to revive unionist fury over the OTR comfort letters with the revelation that 95 out of 228 beneficiaries were linked by the police to murder. From the tortuous accounts by the Chief Constable Matt Baggott and ACC Drew Harris before the NI Select Committee of MPs today, the DUP can hardly be blamed for failing to realise in full what was going on. Neither did the Chief Constable for most …

The peace process sceptics need addressing as the governments prepare to intervene

Brian Walker on May 6, 2014, 7:13 am

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People who had to catch their breath over Gerry Adams’ arrest are now be having second wind. The former Labour secretary of state Shaun Woodward has called for a referendum over the heads of the local parties on what sort of mechanism they want to deal with the legacy of the Troubles. This may be commended as an initiative for jolting what remains the sovereign government and its Dublin partner into exercising their responsibilities in a low intensity existential crisis. But …

After the Adams arrest there is a way through, you know

Brian Walker on May 5, 2014, 11:07 am

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The IRA is gone, it’s finished.” I want to make it clear that I support the PSNI.” My reading of Gerry Adams’ statement on his release with his anger only just held in check, is that he wants to limit the damage while capitalising on the circumstances. Snap reactions are notoriously unreliable. But the events of the last four days have allowed the rest of us to speculate on what might have happened if he had been charged. Most people’s thoughts I …

Victims of Gadaffi’s arms imports to the IRA shouldn’t get their hopes up

Brian Walker on May 4, 2014, 12:42 pm

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This is one of the most acute problems of Northern Ireland today- politicians raising hopes for victims that stand little or no chance of being fulfilled. As an anti-cynic I’m prepared to believe that David Cameron’s meeting with a DUP delegation over reviving compensation claims against Libya disclosed in the Sunday Telegraph wasn’t just a clumsy diversion effort from the Adams arrest (wrong constituency and timing ).At least it got Peter Robinson into Downing St, a rare occurrence these days. It reads like …

The Scottish independence debate goes colourful…

Brian Walker on May 4, 2014, 11:31 am

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The Herald on Sunday is the first Scottish newspaper to come out clearly in favour of independence. The front page designed by the artist Alasdair Gray makes quite a splash and the editorial arguments are balanced and reasonable. (The case for independence) seems to us to be a more exciting, imaginative and inspiring proposition than the alternative proposed by the No campaign. That it has been remorselessly negative need not detain us here. Its leaders have told …

Damning comparison between Dev’s Ireland and Salmond’s Scottish Free State

Brian Walker on May 2, 2014, 12:33 pm

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Kevin Toolis, a Scot of born of Irish parents who wrote “Rebel Hearts”, one of the best books on the IRA on the ground, returns to a previous theme and makes this devastating comparison between an independent Scotland in prospect and post 1916 Ireland in the FT(£). We do have one good historical model of what it is like to carve out a nationalist state from within the political union of the UK but it is not one the SNP is …

Instead of slugging it over the police, the politicians should take responsibility for the past

Brian Walker on May 1, 2014, 6:34 pm

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Does the conspiracy theory work, that Gerry Adams got himself arrested in order to clear his name? Does it square with Martin McGuinness’ charge that the timing is politically motivated? Or are Sinn Fein stunting synthetic rage about the timing in order to make his release an even bigger triumph? Ed Moloney speaking Radio 4 believes there was a logic to the timing of the arrest after the evidence of the Boston tapes, quite apart from elections. However he questions …

If Gerry Adams was ever immune, that immunity has now been lifted. What next?

Brian Walker on May 1, 2014, 2:58 pm

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The Adams arrest raises acute questions about a comprehensive approach to dealing with the past I discussed just before the news broke. Depending on the outcome, the prospects could go either way. The cry of selective or one sided justice from one side produces an inevitable echo. Justice all round is unlikely to become better served, neither are truth or political relations. If the PSNI draw a blank, we’re where we were. If they don’t, we enter the unknown. A heavy burden is placed on the operational independence of the police, …

Dealing with the past. Inquiries are over. The politicians must come clean. It’s time to stop paying lip service to victims.

Brian Walker on April 30, 2014, 5:51 pm

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You can’t say she’s not even handed . Theresa Villiers will not allow case reviews or inquiries into the Ballymurphy massacre and the la Mon atrocity. She says sorry to the victims but it’s not in the public interest. That’s it. It’s about time the penny dropped. After the de Silva review which exposed a long catalogue of collusion, there will be no further inquiries or reviews in the lifetime of this coalition government. Mrs Finucane will continue legal process as far …

Sanctifying dead Popes with miracles is a basic error

Brian Walker on April 29, 2014, 5:25 pm

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In our island John XXIII stands for Vatican 2, a dramatic moment of liberalisation that was never wholly fulfilled. John Paul II is an altogether more ambiguous figure who softened through his charisma the image of authoritarian Catholicism while it beat a retreat he was unable to stem. You can easily see how they jointly appeal to Pope Francis as he makes a new appeal to the fundamentals of his faith to redress the sense of horror and disillusionment …

Scotland Essays: The pro-Union cause has four months to unite, learn identity politics and make a new devolution pact now!

Brian Walker on April 26, 2014, 1:49 pm

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The difference between before and after the Scottish referendum is as fundamental and unknowable as the black hole between life and death. Yet the fate of the Union may depend on what people believe now about what may happen then, in that currently unknowable state. With the polls narrowing near the point of cross over, London- based politicians and commentators are at last stirring themselves, the Conservative commentator and ex-MP Matthew Parris in the Times (£) being the latest in assuming a torrid fall-out from …

“Poll: Scotland on the brink of independence” Time to panic?

Brian Walker on April 22, 2014, 11:55 am

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For Scotland on Sunday to strike such a headline shows it’s time to panic says the Speccie. “Mr Darling and his allies in Better Together have to wake up to the fact that they have managed to blow a 20-point lead in a few months and the gap between the two sides looks like it is now within the margin of error for polling companies. Not only does the Yes camp have the momentum, it has the foot soldiers on …

The Easter Rising: romance and regret but no barrier to reconciliation

Brian Walker on April 22, 2014, 12:18 am

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in response to David McCann’s very personal and sincere post, I must say that the Rising is part of my history but not part of my cause. I approach it with fascination and regret. Regret for the delayed victory for physical force it represented. But how could it not inspire? The world was in turmoil; nothing would do but for the “Army of the Irish Republic” to start their own little war too. And of course the Jesus parallel and the martyrology still …

More evidence that the Westminster village is waking up to the threat of Scottish independence

Brian Walker on April 17, 2014, 1:07 pm

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John McTernan is among the shrewdest of political strategists. As quoted by David McCann, he offers “don’t panic” advice to fellow strategists. What’s missing here are reasons for Scots to vote No. The McTernan view isn’t cutting it with leading commentators on the centre left and right. Martin Kettle in the Guardian The psychological impact in England, Wales and Northern Ireland of Scotland’s rejection of the union, meanwhile, could be very unpredictable, and possibly nastily so. I do not want any of these …

The route to better government is clear. Why don’t the parties take it?

Brian Walker on April 13, 2014, 12:46 pm

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Nuff history – Ed. Thanks to Alan and Chris Donnelly for presenting significant data on how Northern Ireland is faring. The third CRC Peace Monitoring Report by Dr Paul Nolan reads authoritatively, quite depressingly and utterly unsurprisingly. At around the same time, some polls have been published which broadly reflect the results but with the odd chink of light showing through. This post as much as anything is a plea for better qualified analysis and fuller discussion about this evidence …

Lissadell, always romantic. But the jinx lingers

Brian Walker on April 12, 2014, 2:34 pm

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It is surely the quintessential Irish story of romance, divided family loyalties, declining wealth and fierce litigation. Over Lissadell it has extended through the painful transition from the Anglo-Irish to the meritocratic blow-ins of today who so often try to ape the style of the ould dacency. And still struggle continues, with the successors every bit as determined to hold on to what they have, as ever were the old gentry. The latest battle of the new era of Lissadell has resulted …

After the Visit, the greater epiphany?

Brian Walker on April 12, 2014, 12:28 am

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What we saw in Windsor Castle this week was a delayed act of official reconciliation that should have taken place fifty years ago but was held up by the Troubles. It was in reality the unfinished business of closing a sequence of turmoil that began over a century ago, whose shadow is finally lifting only now. Carping like that below fails to recognise that such formalities can only be afforded when the reconciliation they celebrate is safely secured. So what …