CM Johnston

Some NI hospital meals cost no more than prison food to make: new thinking needed?

CM Johnston on January 26, 2016, 7:00 am

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It seems a safe assumption that we’d hope our sick friends and relatives in hospital are given good food and enough of it during their stay. However, some hospital patients in Northern Ireland are given meals costing the same to make as prison food while a new published scoring system for hospital food used in England isn’t in place here. And the fact that the issue of hospital food continues to be raised in Northern Ireland, even after concerns were …

The unusual link to Northern Ireland in this year’s Oscar nominations

CM Johnston on January 17, 2016, 11:19 am

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The recent release of the 2016 Oscar nominations hides an fascinating twist for local film fans. The local connection comes by way of “Northern Irish/ Icelandic” director Robert Ingi Douglas who gave 2016 Best Original Score nominee Johann Johannsson his first feature movie opportunity following a chance meeting in a Reykjavik bar just over 15 years ago. The Icelandic musician, nominated this year for for his powerful Sicario score, is well known for his work on Prisoners and Theory of Everything …

Lessons from working in a local newspaper (and how they can work for you)

CM Johnston on December 24, 2015, 6:05 pm

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local paper mastheads Belfast Telegraph Irish News News Letter

A long time ago in a newspaper far, far away (well, Ballymena) I was kindly taught local newspaper writing by a fellow reporter and by our bosses. The lessons from those days have stayed with me so, for something a little more light-hearted at Christmas, it made me wonder how knowing the basics and banter of a local newsroom could help us to use the pages of a local paper today to promote our cause/ business/ party/ angry mob. Almost …

What would BBC news look like if the rule book was thrown away?

CM Johnston on December 21, 2015, 5:03 pm

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BBC: We’ve come a long way from the days of finding our news from street vendors shouting ‘Sixth Tele’, leaving the Northern Ireland Teletext page running in the corner of the room or waiting for the next Radio Ulster bulletin to find out why a road was closed or a bang was heard echoing across Belfast.

Is Belfast’s big-name comedy habit finally ripe for change?

CM Johnston on December 17, 2015, 3:08 pm

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FUNNY TIMES: A young, professional comedian at the centre of a new-wave of confident and ambitious local comics has explained why the time is right for a local scene at its peak to take a bite from the market for big-name visiting comedians. With more local TV and radio coverage than anything seen in years, a spike in the standard of local comedy nights, a move away from Troubles humour and wider range of ages, gender and styles than ever, comedian Shane Todd has said local comics have never had a better time to step out of the shadows, fill larger venues with solo shows and tempt comedy fans away from big-name acts.

The flag protests – for example – were about social media, not column inches”: so what, then, will our Linen Hall Library look like in another 227 years?

CM Johnston on December 7, 2015, 11:20 am

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ULSTERS ATTIC: The Director of Belfast’s Linen Hall Library, Julie Andrews, arrives for work each day to an institution with living, breathing roots to the past like no other. She then sets about the very modern questions of Northern Ireland today: how to bring the past to life while keeping the bills paid, how to record the present in a digital world and where to find the generation after Heaney who will keep the library alive for centuries to come.

Let’s stop throwing the baby out with the bathwater: in support of Belfast’s legendary Sunflower Bar

CM Johnston on November 29, 2015, 3:37 pm

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PLANNING MADNESS: As a big fan of the positive, unique things which make Belfast the city it is today, my jaw dropped at news this morning that the Sunflower Bar is reportedly at risk due to redevelopment plans.

Travel writers: please stop making this one mistake when you visit Belfast

CM Johnston on November 7, 2015, 4:46 pm

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You wouldn’t go to Venice and assume that everyone works as a gondolier any more than you would go to Amsterdam and assume that everyone works in a window. I often wonder why, then, travel writers in Belfast not only define the city by its past – a history which had less of a substantial effect on many people than you might think and is of no interest to a much bigger number now – but also make a basic, …

“When the banks stopped lending we were there for everyone” – in support of the credit unions bringing old-fashioned banking back to our high street

CM Johnston on November 3, 2015, 7:08 pm

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They have cross-party support, a wave of new members, new premises opening in our town centres and financial strength unaffected by the credit crunch. With an aim to provide a listening ear, a caring service, community spirit and practical help, it is not just a return to the best parts of banking from the past but the entire service is provided by your neighbours for your neighbours. Which is why, in comparison, the change in banking as we know it …

The three things a public allegation can tell us about local news

CM Johnston on November 1, 2015, 7:31 pm

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The impressively direct update from Translink yesterday to a recent allegation that a teenage boy had been turned away from one of their buses brought an apparent end to a story that was very much ‘of a type’: a single accusation made by a member of the public against a large organisation then left to respond to a sudden social media storm. This piece isn’t about the Translink/ Linfield jacket story as I have no idea what happened that day …

Why I don’t Facebook in November: the dignity of the Poppy on social media

CM Johnston on October 20, 2015, 12:37 pm

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First things first, my granda – an unassuming but charming and jovial power station worker living in Derry – joined the ‘Ox and Bucks’ Light Infantry in the late 1930s. He finished his service with five years in a POW camp and went on to become one of the last Dunkirk survivors in Northern Ireland. My granda rarely spoke about the experience. Over the course of decades we found out in scraps that he had picked up some German, that …

10 years of hidden gems and lucky finds: the enduring popularity of a timeless Belfast book shop

CM Johnston on October 4, 2015, 6:28 pm

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BEAT THAT AMAZON: A priceless boost to the second hand book trade in Northern Ireland comes from the loyal customers who value the appeal of an old-fashioned book hunt over a search engine, even without the almost obligatory coffee machine. And Belfast it seems is full of them…

TV review: 20,000 cars sold per year..but was House of Cars a deal or a gamble for Hursts?

CM Johnston on September 22, 2015, 8:21 pm

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After the very first episode of House of Cars – a BBC NI documentary looking at life for the sales force at Charles Hurst Group Boucher Road – over on Twitter Newton Emerson quickly drew a comparison between one sales manager and the Fast Show’s comedy salesman Swiss Toni. And therein lies the problem: on the show the salespeople talk about sales and the managers demand even more sales (or else) while Twitter and Facebook users find reasons to mock …

Charity Advertising: the line between “emotional punch” and uninvited assault.

CM Johnston on September 16, 2015, 3:06 pm

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CHARITABLE SHOCK TACTICS: We have all seen any number of shocking, attention-grabbing adverts before now. This is nothing new. But crucially the British Heart Foundation advert made myself, my partner and clearly others doubt the charity’s judgement.