Chris Donnelly

It would appear the introduction of ‘The Troubles’ within the Key stage three school curriculum has upset Assembly Education Committee Chair, DUP MP Sammy Wilson. The one-time teacher and Assistant Chief Examiner for A-Level Economics is concerned that catholic teachers (or as he puts it, “those involved in the maintained sector”) will bring their politics with them. The cheek (pun intended) of this man seems to know no bounds. Quite why catholic teachers should particularly give Sammy cause for concern …

Read more…

A 15 year old boy was left seriously injured following a sectarian attack in which his skull was broken and his attackers tied a wire around his neck and dragged him along the road. The attack, on the interface at Clifton Park Avenue, led to a protest in the area last night. Chris Donnelly

Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, has invited PSNI Chief Hugh Orde to a public meeting in Ballymurphy tonight concerning on-going anti-social behaviour in the area in recent times. It is not known if the Chief Constable will be accepting the invite, which was extended by the Sinn Fein leader to the Chief Constable at a meeting held last week. Update: Hugh Orde has confirmed his attendance for the meeting tonight. Chris Donnelly

Following on from the initial post highlighting the practice of some loyalist bands/ Loyal Orders in planning controversial marches, the focus of this post is on the practice of erecting flags and bunting in mixed residential/ commercial areas- a practice which, like clockwork, rears its head round about this time of year and leads to floods of complaints to news desks, PSNI stations and the Talkback switchboard- traditionally to no avail. Only this year, there’s a positive episode (above link) …

Read more…

A number of days ago I started a thread suggesting that, if the Loyal Orders were serious about engendering trust within the nationalist community and working towards an inclusive 12th July celebration, then tackling the elephant that is the overtly sectarian dimension to the Loyalist marching season would be a prerequisite. And so to a case study: June 2007 and its Groundhog Day in the normally quiet village of Stoneyford, County Antrim. However, as in the previous two years, a …

Read more…

The BBC has throughout the day been promoting tonight’s ‘State of Minds: The Children’ programme which has been surveying children’s opinions about their identity. All of the children were born in 1997, and the findings, whilst not exactly surprising, once again underline the divisive nature of national identities in the north of Ireland today. What is surprising, however, is the conclusions being reached by the programme’s researcher, Professor Paul Connolly of Queen’s University. Professor Connolly believes the way forward must …

Read more…

With just four weeks to this year’s July 12th parades, the Orange Order have signalled their intention to get tough on paedophiles and have issued a not welcome message (of sorts) to the street drinking battalions accompanying the jolly Brethren on parade. Of course, the elephant on procession remains the overtly sectarian element, who will once again insist on parading in unwelcome confines and those who will use the occasion as an excuse to raise the flag and bunting in …

Read more…

Strange one this. Of all the problems facing the Orange Order, the leadership of the Brethren have decided now’s the time to launch a purge- on sex offenders…… Under the ‘new policy,’ membership of the Order will be automatically terminated for members found to be on the Sex Offenders Register. However, when pushed about Order policy on individuals found guilty of other offences, Grand Secretary Drew Nelson was less forthcoming, saying: “Our discipline review will look at members with any …

Read more…

It’s June, and across the north the 26 local government councils will be electing new civic office holders (Mayors/ Deputy Mayors), chairs/ vice-chairs of committees and membership of external organisations. With the DUP’s new leap into the ‘big’ power-sharing administration at Stormont, will the coming weeks signal a final acceptance of the need to share power on unionist-dominated councils across the north which have historically excluded nationalists, most prominently Sinn Fein?In Belfast, the UUP has already signalled its support for …

Read more…

From the ecstasy of March to the agony of May, 2007 is turning out to be quite the rollercoaster year for republicans. Whilst the Assembly election results gave Sinn Fein much to cheer, this one’s a big disappointment, and there can be no denying that fact.Sinn Fein entered the election with five seats and a real prospect of doubling that tally- based on opinion polls and advances made in the 2004 European and local elections. Instead, we’ve fallen back by …

Read more…

Gregory Campbell has made little effort to conceal his opposition/scepticism about the ‘New Deal’ which has joined McGuinness and Paisley as one up at Stormont, but his poor, embittered performance on tonight’s Hearts and Minds programme revealed the extent of the difficulties being faced up to by the East Derry MP and- likely- others from within the DUP (as if to prove this, the ‘If you ask me’ slot was occupied by Mr. Angry of the Outer Reaches of Unionism …

Read more…

With the Leinster House D-Day less than 72 hours away, I thought I’d run down the list of Sinn Fein candidates worth watching when the counting begins on Friday. Sinn Fein enter the election with 5 TDs, and hopes are obviously high that the number returning will represent a significant advance on that figure. The list I’ve made is from my own observations and stretches from those whose failure to get elected would represent a disappointing turnout for the party …

Read more…

The Premier League race may be over, Chelsea and Man Utd may be preparing for their 3rd/4th Place match in the Champions League (aka FA Cup Final) and Lawrie may have walked, but the REAL football business won’t be over until the fat lady sings on our own Slugger League. With just one more round of matches, Peter Fitzmaurice’s Locomotiv Galway are out in front on 1,952 points, with the chasing pack led by James McAteer, yours truly and Clady …

Read more…

Residents of a Shankill district would appear to be at the end of their tether over fears that dangerous driving in their area could result in a fatality. Unfortunately, nothing new there, I hear you say. But the residents are also claiming that Roads Service’s failure to construct speed ramps outside the Denmark Street Youth Centre is a sectarian act– as one local resident put it: “I feel that these people are discriminating against the people of the lower Shankill. …

Read more…

Ulster Unionist Party leader, Reg Empey, has announced a review into his party’s structures- though, as Fair Deal points out, some within the party believe it is policies that are the problem. However, it appears the party in Lagan Valley has taken a different direction altogether. Basil McCrea, the solitary UUP MLA in Lagan Valley, has confirmed that Stoneyford loyalist, Mark Harbinson, was amongst the party’s election workers in the run up to the March Assembly election. The admission comes …

Read more…

Sinn Fein’s Paul Butler has challenged the DUP to formally support power-sharing on unionist-dominated local government councils in accordance with the DUP’s new found support for the principle of power-sharing within the Executive. The local councils are due to hold their AGM’s only a matter of weeks after the May 8th date for the devolution of powers. Given that the excuse/reason/ justification provided for excluding republicans from office in unionist-dominated councils has been dramatically jettisoned by the DUP at Stormont, …

Read more…

The rioting in West Belfast earlier this week was accompanied with revelations by local community workers that some of the young people involved had been using the internet to bridge the sectarian divide for all the wrong reasons-i.e. to arrange fights. It’s been flagged up before in the media, but it would appear that young people are continuing to use the internet to gloat about sectarian violence and killings here as well. This disturbing video was posted on Youtube by …

Read more…

One of the most fiercely contested aspects of the Review of Public Administration (RPA) for the political parties has been the recommendation that the 26 local government councils merge to form 7 Super councils. Sinn Fein stood alone amongst the political parties in endorsing this recommendation- though not alone in society, as the Business community and, if media vox pops were anything to go by, the wider public- also seemed to endorse this rationalisation of the local government bureaucracy. The …

Read more…

With only five gameweeks left, the race to become Slugger’s inaugural Fantasy Premier League champion is hotting up. Peter Fitzmaurice remains out in front with an impressive 1674 points, with James McAteer only 9 points behind the leader (1665). In third place is Dave Kershaw (1627), three points ahead of yours truly and 16 points above the clady cowboy. The winning prize has yet to be officially determined (as I’ve not consulted with Mick yet!) but will involve some form …

Read more…

“To Battle or not to Battle: that is the question.” I’m afraid I’m with Gerry and Peter on this one. Whilst Deputy First Minister-in-waiting Martin McGuinness may be hoping for a more cordial work relationship within the new Executive, I think it’s safe to assume that there will be some serious Executive table spats and public grandstanding in the time ahead, particularly given the plethora of issues already in the public domain to which Sinn Fein and the DUP (as …

Read more…