Frank Schnittger

The Irish rugby season is starting to get underway with some pre-season friendlies and efforts to get new players integrated into the provincial squads. The start of the season is complicated by the international squad players not coming back until around round 3 of the URC after the exertions of their South African tour, and the emerging Ireland players going to South Africa also not being available to their clubs for a few weeks in October. The international squad will …

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I wrote an opinion piece about the perils and difficulties of blog moderation and praising the ability of the Slugger moderation team to keep the show reasonably civil and on the road for such a long time. A previous forum I am associated with has almost died for lack of good moderation, among many other reasons. Predictably my Slugger piece attracted a storm of criticism of individual moderating decisions but also complaints about a systematic bias against unionists. There were …

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This is the fifth of a series of posts on the US elections following on from Hitler with Nukes? (July 21st.), A Dead Bear Bounce for Kennedy? (Aug. 5th.), The Tipping Point: Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump (Aug. 12th.), and Kamala Harris Surge? (Aug. 21st.) Most of the titles had question marks as the precise shape of the campaigns had still to emerge, especially after the withdrawal of President Biden from the race. But the campaigns have now settled into …

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I love to blog because I love to write, but also to engage with those who do me the honour of reading and engaging what I have written. I am grateful when they point out errors in my writing because that is how I learn. In particular, I am grateful to the denizens of Slugger O’Toole who have taught me so much of what little I know of Northern Ireland. I am also, for my sins, a veteran of political …

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At the heart of almost every Andy Pollak political OP is the contention that a 50%+1 border poll for re-unification will result in “a very rude awakening,” for the south, i.e., widespread loyalist violence which will result in many, perhaps the majority, coming to regret they ever favoured re-unification. He insists there must be a reconciliation between unionists and nationalists before a border poll is ever considered. This is, at least, an advance on his previous position that a much …

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Just a few weeks ago Trump was leading Biden in almost all the key battleground states. He had beaten Biden in the Presidential debate, had had a triumphant coronation at the Republican National Convention, and was approaching sainthood as the bullet missed his head by mere inches. His devoted followers interpreted that as a sign from God that he was truly the blessed one. Even his anointment of JP Vance as his Vice Presidential nominee could be dismissed as “not …

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People make the mistake of seeing the UUP as a political party dedicated to achieving power for the betterment of NI. That was never the case. It was dedicated to achieving power for the betterment of big house unionists and their professional and middle class protestant sons and daughters. When they ceased to have the power to deliver this, they lost their raison d’être. So now they are more like a club where old geezers go on about the good …

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2020 Electoral Map This is the electoral map with which Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in 2020 by a margin of 306 votes to 232 in the 2020 electoral college. (See footnote for changes in the electoral college for 2024)* Despite winning the popular vote by 81,284,666 (51.3%) to 74,224,319 (46.9%), a margin of over 7 million votes (4.4%), Biden only won the electoral college thanks to narrow wins in Georgia (0.24%). Arizona (0.31%) and Wisconsin (0.63%) with a combined …

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  A “dead cat bounce” is defined as a temporary, short-lived recovery of asset prices from a prolonged decline or a bear market that is followed by the continuation of the downward trend. Frequently, downtrends are interrupted by brief periods of recovery—or small rallies—during which prices temporarily rise. The phrase came to mind when Robert Kennedy Jnr, the independent US Presidential candidate admitted dumping a dead baby bear in New York’s Central Park and sparking a major security incident ten …

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I have mixed feelings about the Olympics. On the one hand I have enjoyed playing in and watching competitive sport all my life. On the other, nothing has done more to “politicize” sport than the Olympics. From boycotts of the Moscow and Los Angeles Olympics to the slaughter of participants in Munich. From the state sponsored drug taking in Russia and China to the endemic “cheating” amongst the judges in boxing – the latest example being the outrageous decision against …

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I had the pleasure of attending the first two days of the MacGill Summer school for the first time this year and listened to some excellent discussions and talks. Friday was headlined by An Taoiseach, Simon Harris who gave a speech and interview proposing to set up a new department of Infrastructural Development to improve the delivery of major infrastructural projects. See report by Mark Hennesy here. He also announced that the Irish Government would not be acceding to the …

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As the end of a thirteen month 15 man rugby season has arrived, it seems like a good time to review the season as a whole. Although many will point to our failure to get beyond our World Cup quarterfinal glass ceiling and the failure of the Irish provinces to win anything as pointing to a poor season overall, I am a firm believer that the glass is at least half full! First of all, we were the only team …

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An unchanged South African XXIII with the highest number of caps ever faces up against an Ireland team missing 6 world class players – Keenan, Gibson Park, Hansen. Aki, Casey, Sheehan – and with Captain O’Mahony dropped to the bench. On paper there should only be one winner. But Ireland start full of intent against a stout South African defence. Crowley kicks an early penalty for off-side. 0-3 Osborne mistimes a jump while contesting a high ball and concedes a …

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Having narrowly lost the first test 27-20 at altitude in Pretoria, the Irish team to play the Springboks in the second and final test in Durban on Saturday at 4.00pm (Irish time) has been announced and contains some interesting changes. Tadgh Beirne has been selected at blind-side ahead of Captain Peter O’Mahony, in what I would consider an overdue change. O’Mahony has been a great leader and servant of Irish rugby, but he is aged almost 35 and has been …

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Brian Walker has written an impassioned plea for a fresh start under a new Labour government in London and changed leadership in Dublin. While better British Irish relations will be helpful, we also have to look at what has to change within Northern Ireland itself. In the comments he stated that while he was pro-union, he was reluctant to call himself a unionist, because there was too much baggage associated with the term. He also implied you had to be …

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Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again Every now and again there is a debate on Slugger, or indeed elsewhere, about when and why the Secretary of State might call a border poll. Demographic change, changing voting patterns, and the UK’s changing economic and political circumstances are all adduced to determine when that might be. Indeed, Sinn Féin have called on …

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Sometimes when you analyse the actual numbers of election results, they don’t match up with the popular or media narrative. For instance, Keir Starmer’s “Landslide Victory” with 9,712,011 votes was actually won with almost 600,000 votes less than Corbyn’s humiliating defeat with 10,269,051 votes in 2019. The difference was that Rishi Sunak’s Tories actually got less than half the votes (6,814,469) than Boris Johnson’s did (13,966,454).  So much for “Getting Brexit done”. But contrary to the opinion polls, which consistently …

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So what are the long term trends in Irish local election results? Much has been written about the Irish local and European election results, but mostly from a very partisan perspective. There is nothing much wrong with that except that it is very prone to wishful thinking: people see what they want to see and emphasize those aspects which favour their preferred party or political perspective. Thus, David Moane delighted in Sinn Féin’s disappointing results and suggested it heralded the …

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Six Ulster players included Forwards: Ryan Baird, Finlay Bealham, Tadhg Beirne, Caelan Doris, Tadhg Furlong, Cian Healy, Rob Herring, Cormac Izuchukwu, Oli Jager, Ronan Kelleher, Joe McCarthy, Peter O’Mahony, Tom O’Toole, Andrew Porter, Cian Prendergast, James Ryan, Dan Sheehan, Nick Timoney, Josh van der Flier Backs: Bundee Aki, Caolin Blade, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Ciaran Frawley, Robbie Henshaw, Jordan Larmour, James Lowe, Stuart McCloskey, Conor Murray, Calvin Nash, Jimmy O’Brien, Jamie Osborne, Sam Prendergast, Garry Ringrose, Jacob Stockdale   The …

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Live Blog: Bulls 25 Leinster 20 Leinster live on on the edge in the early stages of this match with the Bulls moving the ball wide quickly with some accurate cross-kicking and with a Bulls try disallowed for Ross Byrne being taken out off the ball. Leinster are then lucky to get a penalty at the breakdown but Ross Byrne misses from distance. Petersen is yellow carded for a deliberate knock on and Lowe scores down the blind side. Byrne …

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