Gladys Ganiel – Page 7 – Slugger O'Toole

Celebrating Louis MacNeice in Carrickfergus

Gladys Ganiel on September 20, 2014, 1:51 pm

| Readers 569

The anniversary of the birth of the poet and playwright Louis MacNeice was marked on 12 September with a celebratory event in Carrickfergus Museum and Civic Centre. The event was titled ‘Beyond the Hawthorn Hedge, the Sound of Bugles,’ and was hosted by local historian and author Philip Orr. It included an engaging lecture by Trevor Parkhill, a recording of an interview with MacNeice, readings of his work by local poets, and performances of live music from the era. Artefacts …

Big Tent Conversations at Skainos this Autumn

Gladys Ganiel on August 29, 2014, 5:44 pm

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The Skainos Centre at 239 Newtownards Road in Belfast will be hosting a series of discussions this autumn around “big issues affecting our community as we move forward.” The discussions look to get to the heart of matters around flags, victims and dealing with the past. Each discussion will be held in the Refresh Café in Skainos Square from 7.00-9.00 pm. Topics include: Tues 9 Sept: The Future of the Past Thurs 2 Oct: The Kiss of Complicity Tues 4 …

Cheryl Lawther – Truth, Denial and Transition: Northern Ireland and the Contested Past, Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on August 27, 2014, 7:21 pm

| Readers 1330

Cheryl Lawther’s Truth, Denial and Transition: Northern Ireland and the Contested Past (Routledge, 2014) makes a timely contribution to debates about ‘dealing with the past’ in Northern Ireland, providing insights into why unionist political elites, loyalist ex-combatants and members of the security forces have consistently opposed truth recovery processes. Lawther is a Lecturer in Criminology at Queen’s University Belfast, and this is an academic book. It is situated in the field of ‘transitional justice’ (it is the ninth book in …

Marie Keenan: Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church – Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on July 21, 2014, 4:37 pm

| Readers 1238

“The major thesis of my work is that sexual abuse is inevitable given the meaning system that is taught by the Catholic Church and to which many priests adhere. The contradictions force failure and increase shame and a way of living that encourages sexually deviant behaviour.” – Marie Keenan, Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: Gender, Power, and Organizational Culture, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 255, emphasis mine Marie Keenan’s Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church is the …

Book Review of The Scarlet Woman and the Red Hand: Evangelical Apocalyptic Belief in the Northern Ireland Troubles by Joshua Searle

Gladys Ganiel on June 23, 2014, 2:31 pm

| Readers 327

Pastor James McConnell’s provocative comments about Islam last month sparked outrage and indignation throughout Northern Ireland – as well as sympathy and defence from some quarters, it must be admitted. But I couldn’t help thinking that what McConnell said about Islam wasn’t all that different from what Rev Ian Paisley had been saying for years about Catholicism. Joshua Searle, Tutor in Theology and Public Thought at Spurgeon’s College, London, sheds light on those segments of Northern Irish evangelicalism which continue …

Constitutions and Culture Wars – Annual IBIS Conference at UCD

Gladys Ganiel on June 18, 2014, 12:01 pm

| Readers 130

The Institute for British Irish Studies (IBIS) at University College Dublin held its annual conference on Monday on the theme of “Constitutions and Culture Wars: Northern Ireland, the Irish State and the North-South Dimension.” The event also marked the retirement of UCD Prof of Politics John Coakley, the first director of IBIS. Coakley’s work on the island of Ireland has been highly regarded and influential, with recent publications including The Irish Presidency: Power, Ceremony and Politics (Irish Academic Press 2014) …

Haass Hope: Will Young People take up the Challenge of Politics in Northern Ireland?

Gladys Ganiel on March 26, 2014, 4:04 pm

| Readers 106

On Sunday, about 150 young people gathered in Belfast for an event called ‘Haass Hope,’ designed to give them a platform where they could share their views on flags, parades and dealing with the past. While the event featured short plenary lectures from Brett Lockhart QC, Dr Duncan Morrow of the University of Ulster, and Lord Robin Eames on those three topics, the main point of the day was for politicians and church leaders to listen to what the young …

Community Relations in Northern Ireland after the Flags Protest – Roundtable at the Royal Irish Academy

Gladys Ganiel on February 28, 2014, 1:51 pm

| Readers 306

Last night the Institute for British Irish Studies at University College Dublin hosted a roundtable on ‘Community Relations in Northern Ireland after the Flags Protest,’ at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. The discussion was focused around the findings of a report commissioned by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, ‘The Long View of Community Relations in Northern Ireland: 1989-2012,’ written by Duncan Morrow, Gillian Robinson and Lizanne Dowds. The report charts changes and trends in …

Pat Magee and Jo Berry: Who are we Listening to?

Gladys Ganiel on February 1, 2014, 8:56 am

| Readers 198

I was already inside the doors of the Skainos Centre in East Belfast before it was charged by protesters. They hurled missiles and fireworks and banged on the doors and windows. Four police officers were hurt keeping the crowd at bay. As is well known by now, the protesters objected to an event called “Listening to your Enemies,” at which Brighton bomber Patrick Magee and Jo Berry, the daughter of a victim of the blast, Sir Anthony Berry MP, told …

Pat Magee & Jo Berry: Listening to Your Enemies Means Asking Hard Questions

Gladys Ganiel on January 30, 2014, 4:06 pm

| Readers 249

“The Christian gospel allows people to change.” With those words, spoken this morning on BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback, Rev Gary Mason, pastor at East Belfast Mission (EBM), expressed the hope that has kept him ministering throughout the years of the Troubles. Mason was on air today because EBM’s Skainos centre had been daubed with sectarian graffiti, described on the BBC website as “anti-republican.” The incident, which is being investigated as a hate crime, was linked to tonight’s 4 Corners Festival …

The Rehumanizing Power of Stories? – 4 Corners Festival’s “Our Stories at Stormont”

Gladys Ganiel on January 19, 2014, 5:24 pm

| Readers 29

Can you imagine five politicians from Northern Ireland’s five major parties sitting down together, talking about their backgrounds, memories and inspirations – and articulating strangely similar visions of a future together? Something along those lines took place Friday night in an event at the 4 Corners Festival, “Our Stories at Stormont,” where Chris Lyttle (Alliance), Jennifer McCann (Sinn Fein), Fearghal McKinney (SDLP), Lee Reynolds (DUP) and Michael Copeland (UUP) were invited to share their stories. The event was described this …

4 Corners Festival Begins: Listening to Stories across Belfast’s Boundaries

Gladys Ganiel on January 12, 2014, 5:05 pm

| Readers 35

Last year, the first-ever 4 Corners Festival concluded with people from the four corners of Belfast converging on Belfast’s Titanic Quarter, meeting in the Dock Cafe to pray for the city. Tomorrow, 13 January, the second edition of the Festival begins where it left off, with a launch event at 11 am in the Dock Cafe. This year’s programme is more extensive and more varied, yet still tied to the theme of “Bringing Belfast Together.” The Festival originally grew out …

Telling Stories about the Future: David Porter and Heather Morris on the Role of Christian Activists

Gladys Ganiel on October 11, 2013, 2:05 pm

| Readers 125

“We are a people who find it impossible to live with each other’s story. This is a distortion of our faith, and a failure to recognise that our faith is a story … a story to be told in the living of our lives.” – David Porter But: “Can we tell stories of what the future might look like?” – Rev Heather Morris Stories of the past, and of the future, framed the conversation generated last night at Contemporary Christianity’s …

Whatever Happened to “Together: Building a United Community”? Platform for Change Panel Discussion

Gladys Ganiel on October 6, 2013, 5:17 pm

| Readers 182

This past week, one of the local students enrolled in the Master’s in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation where I teach commented that the “Together: Building a United Community” document had not generated much public debate. Of course, the document did lay out the commitment to establish all-party talks on flags, parades and dealing with the past – which has now manifested in the Haas Talks. And there was an initial flurry of media attention around the idea that the peace …

Do Hope and History Rhyme? Campaign to Encourage the Haass Talks

Gladys Ganiel on September 12, 2013, 12:13 pm

| Readers 46

A group of Christians from across denominations has begun a ‘Hope and History’ campaign to encourage politicians to engage faithfully and authentically with each other in the upcoming Haass Talks, in pursuit of the common good. The campaign asks people to put their names to a statement urging ‘humility’, ‘healing’, and ‘hope.’ (Read the full statement here) Word about the campaign started to filter out last night through social media, as the website was being put together. There are already …

Graham Spencer’s Protestant Identity and Peace in Northern Ireland: Can the Churches Contribute?

Gladys Ganiel on September 5, 2013, 8:01 pm

| Readers 271

A recent book by Graham Spencer, Protestant Identity and Peace in Northern Ireland (Palgrave, 2012), provides an insightful complement to a conversation that has been gathering some pace in Northern Ireland’s public sphere: What role, if any, might churches play in our post-violence transition, which right now seems stuck? I’ve raised the question on my own blog, various clergy and ministers have had their say on the airwaves and in newspapers, and Queen’s University’s new ‘Compromise after Conflict’ blog is …

Northern Ireland’s Lost Opportunity: The Frustrated Promise of Political Loyalism by Tony Novosel — Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on August 23, 2013, 10:49 am

| Readers 477

Northern Ireland’s Lost Opportunity: The Frustrated Promise of Political Loyalism, is a book that has received surprisingly little attention since it was published this year (Pluto Press, 2013). Written by American Tony Novosel, a lecturer in History at the University of Pittsburgh, it is a clearly-written and provocative examination of loyalist political development from the mid-1960s. It is also a timely book, given that loyalism has been ‘in the news’ lately for all the wrong reasons: the flag protests and …

Can the Churches Provide a Vision? Prof John Brewer on Religion, Conflict & Peace

Gladys Ganiel on August 9, 2013, 8:47 am

| Readers 185

Are churches – in concert with other groups in civil society –better placed than our politicians to articulate a vision for the future that is gracious and hopeful? John Brewer, Professor of Post Conflict Studies at the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice at Queen’s, thinks so. He has been among those contributing to discussions on the present role of our churches, which has gathered some momentum after the disturbances on the 12th. Brewer’s interventions have …

And the Past Continues to Walk our Streets …

Gladys Ganiel on July 19, 2013, 5:42 pm

| Readers 49

Over the last week, there’s been much written and spoken about the riots that ensued on the 12th of July in Ardoyne. There has been a cacophony of condemnations, justifications, denunciations and declarations. But is any one listening? In a post yesterday on the Compromise after Conflict blog, Francis Teeney reminded us that if you look at the cold, hard numbers, not that many people in Northern Ireland actually seem to care about parading. He writes: “… less than half …

The Second Coming of Paisley by Richard Lawrence Jordan: Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on May 29, 2013, 11:46 am

| Readers 183

In The Second Coming of Paisley: Militant Fundamentalism and Ulster Politics (Syracuse University Press, 2013), American historian Richard Lawrence Jordan provides us with some insights that are relevant for today – both for understanding the Rev Ian Paisley, and for coming to grips with unionist perspectives on religion and politics. With a title like The Second Coming of Paisley, readers might assume this refers to Paisley’s seeming about-face in 2007, when he became First Minister of Northern Ireland after compelling …