Brian O’Neill – Page 80 – Slugger O'Toole

Get your free tickets for Reflections on 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights 1968-2018…

Brian O'Neill on February 26, 2018, 11:24 am

| Readers 687

Join Nelson McCausland, Austin Currie, Erskine Holmes and other guests to be confirmed as they reflect on the anniversary of the NI Civil Rights Movement. The chair for the evening will be Allison Morris, from the Irish News. On the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement this event to explore civil rights then and now, consider the significance of the Civil Rights movement for our society today and the continuing resonance of the issues which it addressed and the …

This Valentine’s Day, which politician do you secretly admire?

Brian O'Neill on February 14, 2018, 9:47 am

| Readers 507

A bit of fun for Valentine’s Day. For me I can’t help but be fascinated by Jacob Rees-Mogg, politically I would agree with practically none of his political views but in these days of bland middle of the road politicians, it is good to have someone who holds their ground no matter no matter how unfashionable their opinions. This Guardian profile of the “member for the eighteenth century” is a fascinating read, some extracts: In 1981, at the age of 12, …

Video: Poet Michael Longley Keynote at Launch of 50th Anniversary of the NI Civil Rights Committee

Brian O'Neill on January 26, 2018, 3:57 pm

| Readers 833

Last night Poet Michael Longley gave the keynote address at the launch of the 50th Anniversary of the NI Civil Rights Committee at the historic 1st Presbyterian Church, Rosemary St, Belfast. The title of his talk was ‘Songs For Dead Children’, it is a variation of the talk he gave on receiving The PEN Pinter Prize in 2017. Slugger is the media partner for the Anniversary so we were happy to be there to record the occasion. Watch the videos of …

Former Newry Publican takes up role as Permanent Secretary at the Department of Finance…

Brian O'Neill on January 24, 2018, 3:07 pm

| Readers 5216

Sue Gray, Director General, Propriety and Ethics Team in Cabinet Office will take up a new role as the as Permanent Secretary at the Department of Finance. Described by some as The most powerful person you’ve never heard and going by the nickname ‘Deputy God‘ many as seeing this as the government gearing up for direct rule. She has family connections in Northern Ireland so maybe she just fancied a break from London, who knows. You can live a great lifestyle in …

Claire Mitchell joins the Slugger team as Community Editor…

Brian O'Neill on January 24, 2018, 9:44 am

| Readers 1148

We are pleased to welcome a new member to the Slugger team. Claire Mitchell will be coming on board as Community Editor. Claire has been one of the most popular writers on Slugger over the past year with many of her posts getting well over 10,000 readers. Slugger continues to go from strength to strength. Last year we had over a million readers, 1343 posts, and over 6 million pages of content read. There were also around 115,000 comments made …

Book your free tickets for the launch of the Civil Rights 50th Anniversary Programme with a keynote address from poet Michael Longley…

Brian O'Neill on January 16, 2018, 10:55 am

| Readers 961

The broad-based 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights Commemoration Committee, chaired by Professor Paul Arthur, wish to commemorate 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights in a sober, inclusive and reflective way. We want to seek to learn from what happened, to consider the significance of the Civil Rights movement for our society today and the continuing resonance of the issues which it addressed and the ideals which underpinned it. You are invited to attend the following events. All events are free but …

Listen to Alan Black’s personal account of the Kingsmill massacre…

Brian O'Neill on January 15, 2018, 2:06 pm

| Readers 5317

Yesterday on RTE Radio 1 Kingsmill massacre survivor Alan Black gave an interview to Miriam O Callaghan. It made for powerful radio and is well worth a listen. Just click the play button below to listen to it or you can download it here. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards …

George Orwell and Twitter rage…

Brian O'Neill on January 14, 2018, 7:08 pm

| Readers 1308

Interesting post over at The Idler about Twitter rage. In our current cultural climate, opinions have gotten very black and white, you need to pick a side. Nuance and shades of grey have gone out the window to be replacement by mock outrage. To quote the post: The periodic bouts of hatred directed at public figures on Twitter reminds me of Orwell’s “Two Minutes Hate” in 1984. In Two Minutes Hate, the residents of Oceania watch images of the enemy on …

Making the Slugger site and our live events accessible to all…

Brian O'Neill on January 9, 2018, 12:09 pm

| Readers 370

I made a bit of a blunder last week planning our ‘The drugs don’t work – our over medicated society…’ event for this Monday night. Upstairs in the Harp Bar is a lovely room but it has one major issue – there are steps up to the room and no lift access. When a reader enquired with the Bar about disabled access I realised my mistake. So to make sure our events are open to all I am switching this Monday’s event …

Join us for a free in conversation event: The drugs don’t work – our over medicated society…

Brian O'Neill on January 5, 2018, 1:23 pm

| Readers 754

In 2016 our population of 1.8 million received over 41 million prescription items costing over £400m. NI spends 40% more on drugs per head of population compared to England and 20% more than Scotland which is a region of comparable social deprivation. Do we get 20% to 40% more value from our drug spend in terms of improvements in health and well being? Join us for a one on one discussion with myself (Brian O’Neill) and Terry Maguire. Dr Maguire owns and …

Slugger had over a million readers in 2017. Thank you :-)

Brian O'Neill on January 2, 2018, 3:50 pm

| Readers 550

The good ship Slugger had a great 2017. We had over a million readers over the course of the year, 1343 posts, and over 6 million pages of content read. There were around 115,000 comments posted to the site and we read every single one of them (yeah right). For those of you who are about to comment that it says one or two thousand readers at the top of most posts how can it be so many? You need …

Give a Christmas donation and help keep Slugger lit into 2018…

Brian O'Neill on December 13, 2017, 8:39 pm

| Readers 452

They say Christmas is a time for giving and what better cause than to fire some cash towards your favourite politics site? As we never tire of telling you Slugger does not get any funding so we rely on readers like you to keep the good ship afloat. None of the team gets paid, but we do need cash to cover the running costs of the site. We respect our readers so we never take the easy route of plastering …

I return your seasonal greeting card with contempt…

Brian O'Neill on December 8, 2017, 4:22 pm

| Readers 3430

Came across this seasonal gem via Reddit and the Irish Times: “I return your seasonal greeting card with contempt. May your hypocritical words choke you and may they choke you early in the New Year, rather than later.” Prof Kennedy Lindsay, a Vanguard member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, returning a Christmas card from then minister for foreign affairs, Garret FitzGerald, as reported in The Irish Times I confess I had never heard of the good Professor but having a read …

Brexit: So what will happen to the economy when the foreign workers go home?

Brian O'Neill on November 23, 2017, 8:42 am

| Readers 1851

Over on Channel 4 there is a new darkly funny fly on the wall documentary series “British Workers Wanted“. It shows a recruitment company in England coping with life during Brexit. 98% of the company’s recruitment staff are foreign, but what do you do when after Brexit the foreign workers start to leave? The show follows the company’s efforts to recruit British workers to do the jobs that the foreign workers used to do, but with predictably dire results. This 1-minute …

Prescription drug deaths. Do we not care because most of the victims are poor?

Brian O'Neill on November 16, 2017, 9:25 am

| Readers 605

This week’s BBC Spotlight on prescription drug addiction made for grim viewing. We have covered prescription drug abuse before but when you see the faces of the victims and their distraught families it really brings the scale of the issue home to you. There was the mother who can look out her bedroom window and see the grave of her son. The father who was just numb with grief. The mother who had converted her living room into a mini …

Man who advocates driving off cliff advises friends not to be in the car…

Brian O'Neill on November 15, 2017, 7:27 am

| Readers 1821

The Guardian reports that arch-Eurosceptic MP John Redwood has been advising clients in his day job to pull their money out of the UK: In the piece for the Financial Times, the Conservative MP – who has a £180,000 second job as chief global strategist for Charles Stanley – said the European Central Bank was promoting faster growth when the UK was seeing a squeeze on credit. “Mario Draghi, ECB president, is now doing whatever it takes, not just to rescue …

Brexit and embracing our new found status as the Poland of the British Isles…

Brian O'Neill on November 13, 2017, 11:56 am

| Readers 2654

I got a query this morning from a reader in Dublin who plans to come up for our End of Year Review event. They wanted to know what time the event ended so they could book the bus back home. I suggested a better idea, stay over and make a night of it. The new Premier Inn Hotel is less than a one minute walk to the venue and is only a bonkersly cheap £35 a night! Since Brexit the …

Get your tickets for the 2017 Slugger End of Year Review on Monday the 18th December…

Brian O'Neill on November 10, 2017, 2:51 pm

| Readers 1240

Join us for an evening of debate and entertainment as we look back on the political year in 2017. Our panel of speakers is sure to provide lively conversation and analysis. Never mind the Christmas shopping, this will be far more entertaining. Following the success of previous years, we are pleased to bring back our End of Year Review Show for the fourth year. Our venue is The Dark Horse Bar, across the road from the Duke of York Bar in …

Brexistentialist Crisis? – Get your free tickets for our live event on Mon 6th November…

Brian O'Neill on October 24, 2017, 2:51 pm

| Readers 1447

Brexit: Northern Ireland in a changing world With the UK withdrawal from the EU drawing closer, there has never been a bigger appetite for information on how negotiations are progressing and what the implications are for every aspect of life here in Northern Ireland and across the rest of the UK. It’s more than six months since Article 50 was triggered, but the government is still being accused of not having a plan, of internal division and of not being …