Brian O’Neill – Page 81 – Slugger O'Toole

Did ‘moron’ Trump suggest a ten fold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal?

Brian O'Neill on October 11, 2017, 4:59 pm

| Readers 980

Things just seem to go from bad to worse for the beleaguered leader of the free world. This week’s omnishambles is the revelation that the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a moron. NBC news reports: President Donald Trump said he wanted what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during a gathering this past summer of the nation’s highest-ranking national security leaders, according to three officials who were in the room. Trump’s comments, the officials …

Casement Park is a vanity project. Someone needs to stop the madness…

Brian O'Neill on October 10, 2017, 10:39 am

| Readers 3647

The Irish News reports today that plans for a Park & Ride for the new Casement Park at the old Maze site can’t be approved without a Stormont Executive. You might be thinking, hold on a minute, they want to put a Park & Ride where they originally wanted to build the stadium?? So you drive to the Maze site, park your car, wait for the shuttle bus to arrive, traipse into Belfast on the bus, get off, watch the …

Get your free tickets for Pints & Prose. Tony MacAuley discusses his new book Little House on the Peace Line…

Brian O'Neill on October 3, 2017, 10:37 am

| Readers 513

Monday 23 October 2017 | 7:15PM | The Dark Horse Bar, Belfast Join us for a conversation with Tony MacAuley about his new book ‘Little House on the Peace Line’. Tony grew up in the 1970s at the top of the Shankill Road an experience that has shaped his life and inspired his writing. Following successful spells as a paperboy and a breadboy, he has gone on to spend more than thirty years working for peace and reconciliation both in Northern …

Spanish police attack peaceful protesters in Catalonia…

Brian O'Neill on October 1, 2017, 8:20 pm

| Readers 2420

How should the Spanish government have handled the Catalan independence referendum? Option A: Do nothing. Let it go ahead and when the result is announced condemn it as meaningless and undemocratic. The world’s media would give it a passing tweet at most. Option B: Go heavy-handed. Send in police to smash up printing presses, seizing posters and ballots. Send hundreds of police to storm polling centres attacking and terrorising women and children. Attack peaceful protestors in the streets with their …

The sunday debate – tell us about your commute to work…

Brian O'Neill on October 1, 2017, 1:34 pm

| Readers 2829

In the bar last night I was talking with a guy who lives in Belfast but works in Swords in North County Dublin. He commutes around 3 hours 10mins a day, nearly 16 hours a week. He is up at 6am leaves the house at 6:30am and is in work for around 8am. He leaves work at 4 and is back home around 5:45pm. When I looked at him in amazement he said that is nothing, there is a guy in his firm commuting …

The secret of surviving the cuts is easy – just don’t be poor…

Brian O'Neill on September 27, 2017, 12:02 pm

| Readers 1848

It is fair to say that things are going to get worse. A friend in the civil service says they have been told to implement 4% cuts this year, 8% next year and 4% the year after. Education has a 105 million black hole. Health is getting 70 million chopped off its budget. And all this is before Brexit even happens which depending on your view shall either be calamitous or the making of us. My background is working class but …

The £105m education shortfall – behind the headlines…

Brian O'Neill on September 26, 2017, 5:08 pm

| Readers 1320

The head honcho of the Department of Education says there is a rather big hole in the education budget, from the BBC: Derek Baker, the department’s permanent secretary and the man in charge of the department in the absence of a minister. Mr Baker said that the department had £24m less in cash than last year, but rising costs meant pressures of £105m. He said the funding pressure was mainly due to rising pay, special educational needs and maintenance costs. Mr …

Get your tickets for Pints & Prose. Malachi O’Doherty discusses his new biography of Gerry Adams…

Brian O'Neill on September 7, 2017, 8:01 pm

| Readers 2380

Monday the 18th September – 7:15pm – The Dark Horse Bar, Belfast. Join us for a conversation with journalist Malachi O’Doherty about his new biography of the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. Your host for the evening will be Alan Meban. ‘Loathed, loved, terrorist to some, brilliant political strategist to others – what do we make of Gerry Adams? Malachi O’Doherty, one of Northern Ireland’s most fearless journalists and writers, has gone further than anyone else to disentangle it all in this …

“In this awful priest ridden country they still managed to build good houses for working people…”

Brian O'Neill on August 27, 2017, 1:27 pm

| Readers 1721

In an interview in today’s Sunday Business Post the writer Roddy Doyle discusses the homeless situation in Dublin: It is the thing I feel ashamed of, more than anything, as a citizen. Somehow or other in the 1950’s and 1960’s, in this awful priest ridden country that we used to live in, they still managed to build good houses for working people, and there wasn’t a penny in the country. Now it seems beyond the means. We cannot supply housing to …

Watch the latest Slugger TV. Allison Morris, Julia Paul and Sophie Long discuss whether the experiment with devolution at Stormont is over…

Brian O'Neill on August 24, 2017, 12:29 pm

| Readers 1932

We are pleased to have Allison Morris from the Irish News guest host this edition of Slugger TV. Her guests are Sophie Long and Julia Paul. You can watch it below at it will also be on NVTV this Friday at 19:45, and repeated on Saturday at 19:45. You can watch it below at it will also be on NVTV on Friday at 19:45, and repeated on Saturday at 19:45. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage …

People waiting less than a year in England for surgery compared to five years in Northern Ireland…

Brian O'Neill on August 14, 2017, 6:44 pm

| Readers 1148

Great article by Seanín Graham in today’s Irish News about the ever expanding waiting list for medical operations in Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland patients are waiting on average five years for routine operations. This compares to less than a year in England. From the article: It emerged that one million patients are now waiting in excess of 18 weeks for ‘routine’ operations in England. But in today’s Irish News, the story of a housebound pensioner who faces a five-year …

You know things are bad when Stacey Dooley comes to town…

Brian O'Neill on August 9, 2017, 12:43 pm

| Readers 9658

You get the feeling they must be tripping over camera crews in loyalist areas. The recent DUP/Conservative deal has turned the eyes of the UK media towards Northern Ireland. A steady stream of film crews has been making the trip recently. You know the format by now: lots of footage of explosions, the obligatory standing in front of a peace wall, marveling at bonfires, the arty shot at the end as flames leap into the sky. The latest documentary is …

The DUP heartland: who are the supporters? – Video from The Guardian…

Brian O'Neill on August 4, 2017, 4:54 pm

| Readers 4442

Very slick video from The Guardian, well worth a watch. From The Guardian post: East Belfast is the heartland of Protestant, unionist politics and therefore, one would believe, the natural support for Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party. The Guardian travelled to East Belfast to meet the core support for the party – which has just completed £1bn deal to prop up Theresa May’s government – and ask what they truly believe and what they want from the DUP whose main …

We need to remove the Translink monopoly on bus routes to deal with congestion and get people out of their cars…

Brian O'Neill on August 2, 2017, 5:02 pm

| Readers 3246

If you commute into Belfast by car, you will know it is a pretty hellish experience. Congestion is getting worse. At peak times the Westlink is like a car park. Trains are already at capacity, so the best option is to increase bus usage. The Guardian has this to say about the benefits of bus services in England: The M25 has 790 miles of lanes. If these are used by cars carrying the average load of 1.6 occupants, at 60mph …

Parents dropping their underage kids off to go drinking in the park…

Brian O'Neill on July 28, 2017, 11:49 am

| Readers 1956

Over the past few years, there has been a major issue with underage kids drinking in the Falls Park and City Cemetary. At weekends hundreds of children gather to drink, take drugs and do all the usual things that teenagers do. The problem is especially severe in the summer. Underage drinking is not exactly new, but the main issue is the massive vandalism that is going on. Thousands of pounds worth of damage is being caused to the children’s play park. …

Is Northern Ireland’s love affair with diesel cars coming to the end of the road?

Brian O'Neill on July 26, 2017, 12:19 pm

| Readers 1644

People in Northern Ireland really love their diesel vehicles. In fact, around 60% of vehicles on the road are diesel powered, and about 45% of private cars. Just one small issue, diesel pollution is killing people. If sitting in a traffic jam on the Westlink is not depressing enough, now you know that you are also slowly killing yourself and everyone around you. Researchers estimate diesel pollution kills around 30,000 people every year. From the Guardian: The global human health impact …

Stephen Nolan earning nearly half a million a year

Brian O'Neill on July 19, 2017, 1:26 pm

| Readers 3882

The BBC has released salary details of presenters and stars earning more than 150K. As expected Stephen Nolan is the highest locally paid presenter earning a salary of between £400,000 and £449,999 a year. Nolan is famously a workaholic: The Belfast-born broadcaster presents a number of radio and TV programmes for the BBC. He presents The Nolan Show Monday to Friday on BBC Radio Ulster, a programme on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings for BBC 5 live and Question Time: …

Help keep Slugger lit for another 15 years by giving us a donation or taking out an ad on the site…

Brian O'Neill on June 27, 2017, 11:51 am

| Readers 13752

This month we celebrated our 15th Birthday. Over 36,000 posts and nearly a million comments later Slugger is stronger than ever. In the last month alone we have had over 150,000 readers! For those of you who love a bit of sexy data visualisation, we have this funky interactive report for our June traffic. You may or may not know that Slugger does not get any funding of any kind. We value our independence and are likely never to apply …

Watch Slugger TV episode 2 – A review of the election with David McCann, Chris Donnelly and Nelson McCausland…

Brian O'Neill on June 13, 2017, 4:49 pm

| Readers 1507

Slugger Deputy Editor David McCann discusses this years election results with Chris Donnelly and Nelson McCausland. The TV Show is new for us so do let us know in the comments what you think. You can watch the episode above and it will also be broadcast on NVTV tonight at 20.45 & 00.15, and tomorrow at 20.45. 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. …

“Politics in NI is dead, has descended into sectarian mud-wrestling” – Alban Maginness

Brian O'Neill on June 9, 2017, 3:56 pm

| Readers 4230

Speaking on today’s BBC TalkBack show former SDLP MLA Alban Maginness declared that “Politics in NI is dead, has descended into sectarian mud-wrestling”. Is he right? As the voters abandon the middle ground is our political system now just a straight sectarian headcount? People were quick to accuse the SDLP of sour grapes: It's the egotism behind that comment that reveals the flaw in the SDLP psyche – their divine right to lead the nationalist people. — Danny Morrison (@molloy1916) June …