Chris Donnelly

Cupid has been good to DUP Leader Peter Robinson tonight as the UUP suffered yet another self-inflicted disaster with the very public announcement by former UUP MLA John McAllister of his resignation with immediate effect from the party after news broke of the agreed unionist candidate for the Mid-Ulster by-election. McAllister made his announcement on BBC1’s The View tonight, suggesting that Basil McCrea might follow in his wake shortly. John McAllister’s resignation letter, sent to party leader, Mike Nesbitt, includes …

Read more…

Tomorrow morning, thousands of children will open envelopes to discover how they have performed in one (or both) of the unregulated transfer tests sat by Primary 7 pupils in November/ December of 2012. The arguments concerning the merits or otherwise of the test and academic selection at age 11 are well rehearsed and are not the subject of this particular thread. Rather, it is my intention to illustrate how the failure to appropriately address the issue of difficulties facing young …

Read more…

One of my favourite lessons I teach during Primary 7 involves getting children to use the NINIS website to complete a table illustrating the statistical profiles of differing neighbourhood communities in Belfast (in political parlance, wards). The subsequent comparative analysis thrashed out between teacher and pupils enables them to realize that, amongst other things, where you live and grow up can have a significant influence on your future life and career prospects. It’s also a great way of showing how …

Read more…

The PSNI performance throughout the illegal and violent loyalist protests has come under much scrutiny. Whilst officers have been commended for braving numerous attempted murder bids and vicious assaults by loyalists, the service continues to come in for legitimate criticism for the unwillingness to remove illegal road blockers. Friday night’s appalling incident, recorded by the BBC’s Kevin Sharkey, has now been compounded by the revelation that PSNI officers refused to remove illegal loyalist road blockers in Finaghy to enable a GP to attend …

Read more…

And so a well-publicised Operation Standstill, consisting of multiple illegal road blockades across the north, ends with rioting in Carrickfergus and Newtownabbey as East Antrim takes the torch from East Belfast. In defiance of party leader, Peter Robinson, at least one DUP elected representative, Derry City councillor Gary Midleton, attended a protest in Derry, thus proving once again that the only ‘chipping away‘ which has occurred throughout the Flag Furore has been of Peter Robinson’s authority as DUP Leader. But …

Read more…

Flag Leader, Willie Frazer, spoke last night at the north Belfast Cambrai Street protest to a gathering of loyalists as across the city, at another interface, loyalists rioted for a fourth successive night. Frazer made a number of interesting comments during his speech (here.) Frazer made wild allegations concerning Gerry Adams about half a minute into the clip before he alleged that  ”1.5 billion (pounds?) came into this country” to help the economy but it was “given to the IRA …

Read more…

After another night of illegal loyalist road blocking descends into violence, with 8 PSNI officers injured, it has emerged that the loyalist protesters have formed a ten-member leadership committee to articulate their cause. Amongst the leaders elected are Willie Frazer, Johnny Harvey, Pastor Mark Gordon and Jamie Bryson. The new loyalist leaders have wasted no time in forming a wish list, according to Willie Frazer: We unanimously supported a return to direct rule and we agreed we will not be …

Read more…

Whilst the integrity of our constitutional argument remains perpetually intact, one bright spot in recent years has been the dramatic decrease in road fatalities. For the third year in succession, fewer than 60 people were killed on Northern Irish roads, with the 2012 figure of 48 fatalities following on from the previous low of 55 in 2010 and 59 in 2011. Of course, each death is a tragedy and therefore these statistics will bring little consolation to the families of …

Read more…

  Another sectarian attack on a church, this time in east Antrim, where loyalists have made a concerted effort to intimidate the local catholic populace in recent times. On this occasion, the target was the catholic parishioners of Whitehead, though in the more recent past it has been the small catholic communities of Carrickfergus, Greenisland and Ballyclare who have bore the brunt of the sectarian antics of loyalists in the overwhelmingly unionist region. Catholic schools and churches in each of …

Read more…

After 9 days of riots, attempted murder and countless illegal road blockades publicly organised and advertised in advance, there have been some 40 people arrested by the PSNI. Yup, 40. One illegal sit-down protest in Ardoyne to oppose a loyalist parade through the nationalist district saw 26 nationalists arrested, charged and convicted in December 2011. Those are scary numbers for anyone remotely interested in portraying the PSNI as a non-partisan policing service. As the loyalist law-breaking continues for a tenth …

Read more…

As the loyalists protests continue to garner small numbers, it would appear that loyalists are resorting to the age old tactic of seeking to provoke conflict with their catholic neighbours in order to sustain the road blocking campaign. In Armagh last night, loyalists attacked a catholic-owned bar whilst a number of road blocking protests continue to be organised at interface areas across Belfast, including at the Broadway roundabout and Hesketh Road/ Crumlin Road junction in North Belfast, where loyalists erected …

Read more…

Belfast DUP councillor Ruth Patterson has refused to condemn the burning of the Irish Tricolour at today’s BNP-addressed loyalist rally at Belfast City Hall, and has even claimed that nationalists and republicans often burn their own National Flag at commemorations. Here’s Ruth speaking straight from the school of ‘you couldn’t make it up’: “They are disillusioned, they are left in like a wilderness and they need the leadership to take them from that wilderness. Burning the Tricolour is something that …

Read more…

So another night of sectarian and thuggish violence has been visited upon unsuspecting communities across the Six Counties, with Newtownabbey and various parts of Belfast affected by street blockades, assaults and intimidatory antics by those content to pick up and hurl the snowballs carefully rolled for them by the combined leaders of political unionism. Rioting occurred in central Belfast at Shaftesbury Square tonight as well as in Newtownabbey, whilst in Dungannon loyalist protesters followed the long established sectarian tradition of …

Read more…

After the PSNI’s dismal performance at Belfast City Hall on Monday night, there will be a renewed focus on how that organisation responds following the latest loyalist law-breaking tonight in Ards and Carrickfergus, where roads have been blocked by loyalists. Following a road blocking protest in July 2010 by republicans, 26 people were brought to court and fined between £400 and £600 each in December 2011. It will be very interesting to see if the PSNI are willing to apply …

Read more…

In a predictable development tonight, loyalist protests outside Belfast City Hall have descended into violence, with loyalists clashing with PSNI officers and Belfast City Council security staff as car windows were smashed by the marauding protesters, who had earlier failed a basic irony test when they burned an Irish Tricolour whilst protesting about the lack of respect for another National flag. I had the misfortune of running into the assembling crowd on Royal Avenue whilst returning from an early evening …

Read more…

The terrible story of the death of Savita Halappanavar has brought the always sensitive and polarizing issue of abortion to the forefront of the political debate in Ireland today. Mick has a short round up of how the case is being reported in the Irish media today. The case brought to my mind an explosive row that broke out a couple of years ago at the hospital of my birth in Phoenix: Arizona’s largest hospital, St Joseph’s Hospital and Medical …

Read more…

A good news story to warm the cockles of Slugger’s collective heart. Legendary Derry GAA star and present-day RTE pundit for Gaelic Games, Joe Brolly, is recovering in hospital after donating a kidney to a fellow under-age coach from the St Brigid’s GAA club in Belfast, Shane Finnegan. From the Belfast Telegraph: Two-time all-star Brolly, who now works as a barrister and TV sports pundit, approached Mr Finnegan when he heard he needed a live donor. “I’m honoured to have …

Read more…

During last week’s The Nolan Show, the host, Stephen Nolan, travelled to a working class loyalist area of north Belfast to talk with members of a loyalist flute band, the Pride of Ardoyne. This was a result of numerous complaints purportedly received by the programme from loyalists about perceptions of how their community was being treated by Stephen Nolan and other media figures during a summer in which loyalism had once again been in the spotlight following the shameful scenes …

Read more…

BNP Leader and MEP, Nick Griffin, was in attendance for the Covenant Day celebrations at Stormont today. His attendance would appear to be a rather logical development for a supremacist or an embarrassing distraction (take your pick, though the Orange Order did release a statement through the day seeking to put distance between themselves and the BNP Leader.) Alas, he did appear to get in the spirit exhibited by many of the bandsmen when producing this tweet tonight: So Ulster …

Read more…

The centenary celebrations for the Ulster Covenant will be remembered for a needless sectarian row picked by loyalists in north Belfast which dragged on for months due to political unionism’s unwillingness to confront the belligerent antics of the supremacists who continue to hold sway within the Loyal Orders, loyalist paramilitarism and the ranks of the unionist political parties- and special mention must be made of DUP Minister Nelson McCausland, who has excelled at making a mockery of any notion some …

Read more…