Jack Russell

Jack Russell is the author of the believethedata.org blog.  He is also a parent, primary school governor, and member of the core team at Parents for Inclusive Education NI, a grass-roots organisation that advocates for the rights of all children and parents across Northern Ireland.

The road to Stormont 2027: voter attitudes and election battlegrounds

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a road with trees on the side

In a previous article, I investigated attitudes towards minorities in Northern Ireland, examining how those attitudes varied by political party support.

With a double-header election to Stormont and local councils now less than 9 months away, and LucidTalk’s latest voting intention poll suggesting that allegiances may be shifting in the wake of Jeffrey Donaldson’s conviction, this article investigates a wider set of social attitudes across the party divide.

The secret code of Irish names

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calm body of water during daytime

Jack Russell is the author of the believethedata.org blog, where this article was originally published. Anna Burns’ Milkman is a remarkable book. Based on her experiences growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, it conveys a claustrophobic sense of oppression and suspicion, gossip and control. Words and actions, even objects, are burdened with an oblique symbolism that draws meaning from its sectarian context – the “us” and “them” against which the book’s disconcertingly mundane plot plays out. Given this weight of symbolism, maybe the most remarkable feature …

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Negative attitudes to minorities and immigrants in Northern Ireland: a very British problem

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group of rallyist blocked by police

Jack Russell is the author of the believethedata.org blog, where this article was originally published. Northern Ireland has seen an increase in the number of violent protests over the last few years, many of which have been organised online with explicitly anti-immigrant or racist motivation. Whilst the majority of commentators have described them as racist violence or rioting, likening recent behaviour to a pogrom, some politicians have invoked widespread “legitimate concerns” to explain, if not to justify these acts. The …

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