Gladys Ganiel – Page 9 – Slugger O'Toole

Legion of the Rearguard – Dissident Irish Republicanism by Martyn Frampton, Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on November 8, 2011, 1:02 pm | Readers 290

Are you confused about ‘dissident’ Irish Republicanism? Anxious about its existence and its seemingly increasingly deadly capabilities? Martyn Frampton’s new book, Legion of the Rearguard: Dissident Irish Republicanism (Irish Academic Press, 2011) serves both as a primer on active dissident groups and a timely analysis of their historic significance and contemporary capabilities. This book clears up much of the confusion about contemporary groups, but offers little by way of consolation regarding their continued resiliency and willingness to resort to violent …

Against Remembrance – Seminar & Book by David Rieff

Gladys Ganiel on October 25, 2011, 2:15 pm | Readers 40

Is the best way to overcome the legacy of conflict simply to forget about it? Author and journalist David Rieff spoke on this subject last week in a seminar at the Institute for International Integration Studies (IIIS) at Trinity College Dublin. Rieff has recently written a book titled, Against Remembrance (published in Ireland by Liffey Press), which draws on his wide experience observing and reporting on conflict zones. The seminar was hosted by IIIS and the Irish School of Ecumenics …

Assembly Wants All-Party Talks on Dealing with the Past

Gladys Ganiel on October 11, 2011, 12:13 pm | Readers 5

Following yesterday’s Assembly debate, it looks like the Secretary of State will be asked to convene all-party talks on how to deal with the past. Speaking on the BBC’s Stormont Today, Victims Commissioner Brendan McAllister said that: ‘presumably its (the Assembly’s) view (that there should be all-party talks on the past) will be conveyed to the Secretary of State.’ I’ve not seen anything more definite than this reported in the press (on the video below, McAllister says this roughly 28.23 …

Debating the Past in the Northern Ireland Assembly?

Gladys Ganiel on October 10, 2011, 1:05 pm | Readers 8

Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle is due to bring a motion before the Assembly today ‘calling for the Secretary of State Owen Paterson to convene party talks to find a way forward in addressing the legacy of the past.’ I think that our politicians need to provide more leadership in the debate about dealing with the past, so I welcome the Alliance proposal. Whether it is realistic to expect local parties to lead this debate is another matter. During the summer …

Platform for Change Event on Dealing with the Past, 5 September in the Black Box

Gladys Ganiel on September 1, 2011, 12:32 pm | Readers 5

Platform for Change is organising an event on ‘Dealing with the Past’ in conjunction with its next meeting, set for Monday 5 September at 7.30 pm in the Black Box, Belfast. The Platform for Change PfC website describes the event this way: The meeting will begin with a dramatic presentation by the women who comprise Theatre of Witness of their personal stories of Northern Ireland’s troubled past. This will stimulate a general discussion, amid the continuing controversy over the appointment …

Do Words Matter?: Book Review of Political Discourse and Conflict Resolution – Debating Peace in Northern Ireland

Gladys Ganiel on August 31, 2011, 3:30 pm | Readers 124

I share many of the concerns of Andy Pollak, whose recent post ‘My Response to the Slugger Begrudgers’ zeroed in on the ‘relentless flow of negativity’ of some Slugger commentators. Pollak’s post was largely concerned with the medium of the blog. Indeed, I think the anonymity of the online world encourages extreme discourse and allows people the perverse satisfaction of ‘speaking out’ without having to take responsibility for their views. Pollak ends his post with a quotation from John Bradley, …

Learning from 1798?: Northern Ireland’s Upcoming Decade of Commemorations

Gladys Ganiel on August 9, 2011, 12:21 pm | Readers 117

Last year, the Lilliput Press released a new extended edition of Tom Dunne’s Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize winning book, Rebellions: Memoir, Memory and 1798. First published in 2004, Dunne’s book provoked considerable controversy with its critique of the ‘commemorationist’ history that Dunne believed dominated the 1998 commemorations of the 1798 Rebellion. The book blasted the involvement of politicians and historians in the creation of what Dunne sees as a sanitized, counterfactual and politically correct portrayal of what 1798, especially in Co. …

All Aboard for the Dock Church?

Gladys Ganiel on June 25, 2011, 12:50 pm | Readers 83

Back in March, I wrote a post about the proposed ecumenical church boat for Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. With the launch of its business plan last night in Titanic House (the old Harland and Wolff drawing rooms), ‘The Dock’ declared its intention to have its boat afloat by the end of next year. Given that the churches have so often been considered part of the problem in community relations in Northern Ireland, the Dock’s ecumenical vision seems both audacious and hopeful. …

Healing Through Remembering’s Day of Private Reflection

Gladys Ganiel on June 21, 2011, 11:57 am | Readers 17

Today is 21st June, the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. This is the day selected by the Belfast-based NGO Healing Through Remembering (HTR) for a Day of Private Reflection, described by the organisation like this: The Day of Reflection is a day for personal and private reflection on the conflict in and about Northern Ireland; a day to acknowledge the deep hurt and pain caused by the conflict, to reflect on our own attitudes, on what we …

Should Northern Ireland Revisit the Eames-Bradley Report?

Gladys Ganiel on June 12, 2011, 1:27 pm | Readers 318

In a wide-ranging interview on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence this morning (interview starts at 45 minutes), former members of the Consultative Group on the Past, Denis Bradley and Rev. Lesley Carroll, made a passionate plea for people in Northern Ireland to begin the process of engaging with the substantive issues raised in the Group’s Report (the Eames-Bradley Report), which has been effectively shelved. The past continues to make headlines in Northern Ireland, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that ignoring …

Does the Middle Ground Have a Future? Platform for Change AGM

Gladys Ganiel on June 6, 2011, 2:38 pm | Readers 11

Platform for Change (PfC) held its annual general meeting on Saturday. While this is the group’s second AGM, it still seems to be struggling to raise its public profile, pin down its identity, and decide where to go from here. During the past year, PfC made the most waves with its open letter to the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister in response to the Cohesion, Sharing and Integration document. The letter received extensive coverage in the …

A New Vision for the Catholic Church – Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on May 17, 2011, 1:48 pm | Readers 83

The oft-quoted verse from the book of Proverbs, ‘where there is no vision, the people perish,’ (chapter 29, verse 18) opens a new book by Gerry O’Hanlon, A New Vision for the Catholic Church: A View from Ireland (Columba Press, 2011). That verse could be considered an apt summary of the current state of the Catholic Church in Ireland, which has been mired in scandal and seems to be suffering from a serious vision deficit. O’Hanlon, a staff member of …

Belfast City Marathon – 30 Years of Going the Distance

Gladys Ganiel on May 1, 2011, 11:12 am | Readers 105

The streets of Belfast will be taken over by more than 20,000 runners, joggers and walkers tomorrow in the 30th running of the Belfast City Marathon. The Marathon Programme, which includes a full marathon, a five-person relay event within the marathon, and a fun run, is the largest sporting event in Northern Ireland and attracts participation from people from all of our communities. Like many things in Northern Ireland, the marathon has had its share of controversy. There seems to …

From Crisis to Hope: Can Churches Contribute to Northern Ireland’s Election Debate?

Gladys Ganiel on April 14, 2011, 4:29 pm | Readers 31

‘From Crisis to Hope: Working to Achieve the Common Good.’ That’s the title of a recently-published document from the Council for Justice and Peace of the Irish Episcopal Conference. It was the focus of discussion this morning at the Forthspring community centre/Springfield Road Methodist Church. Hosted by the Northern Ireland Catholic Council on Social Affairs, the event was billed as ‘a discussion on the common good ahead of elections in Northern Ireland.’ Chaired by Eamonn Mallie, panellists included Noël Treanor, …

Platform for Change: Belfast Election Hustings, Thurs 14 April

Gladys Ganiel on April 13, 2011, 3:30 pm | Readers 24

Platform for Change, which describes itself as ‘the NGO pursuing a new politics in Northern Ireland,’ has organised a series of ‘election hustings’ throughout Northern Ireland. Its Belfast event takes place Thursday 14 April at the Crescent Arts Centre, from 7 p.m. The event will be chaired byJim Fitzpatrick (from the Politics Show on BBC NI). Confirmed panellists include: Clare Bailey (Green Party) Brian Faloon (People before Profit) Mark Finlay (UUP) Alban Maginnis (SDLP) It’s not yet clear if representatives …

Defending What Doesn’t Work?: Catholic Education

Gladys Ganiel on April 12, 2011, 6:15 pm | Readers 30

The Catholic Schools Partnership (CSP) – the new umbrella group for Catholic schools – has come out in opposition to Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn’s plan to transfer the patronage of 50% of all primary schools in the Republic from the Catholic Church to civil society. I am not against Catholic, or any other sort of religious schools. I even attended a Catholic university, Providence College, which is run by Dominican Friars. All students were required to enrol in two …

Listening to those ‘Estranged and Disaffected’ from the Irish Catholic Church

Gladys Ganiel on April 5, 2011, 10:05 am | Readers 18

I’ve blogged previously about the ‘listening process’ in the diocese of Down and Connor. Launched with a commissioning service in February, for the last two months there have been lay-facilitated discussions at Catholic parishes throughout the diocese. I attended one at Clonard Monastery in West Belfast. This part of the process comes to a close tonight with one last discussion, ‘for those estranged and disaffected,’ at Belfast’s Wellington Park Hotel at 7 p.m. ‘Living Church: Down and Connor 2013’ also …

Why Northern Ireland Needs to Keep Talking about its Past

Gladys Ganiel on April 1, 2011, 12:21 pm | Readers 24

Should Northern Ireland keep talking about its past? In his post today about last week’s conference at the Ulster Musuem, Culture after Conflict, Fitzjameshorse writes somewhat triumphantly: We already know from a previous post that the Churches aren’t overly concerned about playing a part in Conflict Resolution. Neither are Historians who value the historical record above its re-writing for the perceived benefit to Society. And the Arts people feel the same way. It is as if Fitzjameshorse thinks that if …

Keeping the Church Afloat?: A Church Boat for the Titanic Quarter

Gladys Ganiel on March 22, 2011, 4:34 pm | Readers 16

Can Belfast’s Titanic Quarter become a hotbed for ecumenism? Admittedly, ‘hotbed’ and ‘ecumenism’ aren’t two words that are usually found in the same sentence, especially a sentence about Northern Ireland. But that seems to be the vision of a young Church of Ireland minister, Chris Bennett, who is chaplain for the Titanic Quarter. Bennett notes that there are no church buildings proposed for the Titanic Quarter, and he seems to like it this way. He’s currently overseeing a project to …

Journey Towards Healing: Do Acknowledgement and Apology have a Role to Play in Northern Ireland?

Gladys Ganiel on March 14, 2011, 2:00 pm | Readers 44

My last post was about Prof. John Brewer’s lecture at the conclusion of a conference called ‘Journey Towards Healing: Trauma and Spirituality – an International Dialogue,’ held 10-11 March at the Europa Hotel in Belfast. I chose to focus on Brewer’s provocative talk in my first post about the event, but his critique of the institutional churches was not the whole story of the conference. In fact, my post could overshadow the quality and the variety of public debate that …