Fionnbharr Rodgers

Mike Nesbitt is half-right. In a recent interview, the once-and-future Official Unionist leader outlined his vision for the ‘unionist family’, saying that there should only be two unionist parties: one progressive, and one ‘traditional.’ Laying aside the obvious question of, if he really wants to see the end of the three-way split in this manner, why does he not merely announce his own party is disbanding; of course, to the chagrin of the twelve pensioners in Fermanagh who still vote …

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‘We took tough but right decisions in the budget… because we inherited a broken economy,’ said Starmer today after a close defeat at the Runcorn by-election, and more losses in the council elections. ‘Tough decisions’ is also the phrase Starmer invoked two months ago, defending the announcement that his government would reduce the already minuscule foreign aid budget to 0.3% in favour of raising defence spending. The foreign aid cut was supported by the Conservative Party, with Badenoch going to …

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Last night I had a vision. A premonition of approximately twenty years into the future: DJ Próvai, his balaclava thrown aside, has just been appointed to Seanad Éireann after previously serving a single term as TD for the newly created constituency of Belfast West. He has long since abandoned rap, and is due to come out with a much anticipated biography of Connor Cruise O’Brien, featuring a highly emotional prologue that begins with the line ‘did that sick beat of …

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‘My father made the walls resound He wore his collar the wrong way round.’ The lines above characterise the complicated relationship that the poet Louis MacNeice had with his father. Rev. John MacNeice was born on Omey island, Co. Galway in 1866, yet due to sectarian tensions (which was largely down to a personal dispute between his own, belligerent father and the local parish priest, the latter supported by his parishioners) he spent most of his life in Co. Antrim, …

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Recent polls have shown that sixty percent of voters in both the North, and the Republic believe it is important for governments to be for the reunification of Ireland.There are two points that most readily spring to mind: firstly, the question of ‘how important is achieving a United Ireland?’ is rather strange wording. One could answer such by recognising the end of partition as a historically important event; likewise, one could just as easily look at it from a personal …

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‘’You know, a lot of politicians talk about family values, but I think how your parents die is an important family value,’ writes Bill Clinton in his latest memoir Citizen, quoting a young woman who worked as a flight attendant on his first post-presidential shuttle out of La Guardia airport; both of her parents had gotten sick with no one to take care of them but herself and her sister, anf she availed of the Family and Medical Leave Act, …

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Belfast Grand Central Station opened to much fanfare this September: announced as ‘Ireland’s biggest transport hub’ which is a phrase that really ought to be said by your one ought of Father Ted. DAERA Minister Andrew Muir suggested it could ‘revolutionise’ the way we travel,’ calling it a ‘ground-breaking project,’ ‘a game-changer,’ and a ‘catalyst for behavioural change, encouraging people to adopt more sustainable travel habits and reduce our carbon footprint.’ That all sounds rather grand, but rather misses the …

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