Brian O'Neill Disqus is the system we use to power the comments on Slugger. The company has started to put ads into our comments section of our site without even telling us. As you can imagine I am extremely annoyed at this – I hate crappy online ads as much as you do. Supposedly we can remove the ads if we pay them $10 a month, but as yet there is no mechanism on their site to do this. I don’t mind paying …
We are less than 2 weeks into the new year and already it seems like we have a whole years worth of news stories behind us. RHI, the collapse of the Assembly, potential elections and much more! Join us next Thursday the 19th of January for a Slugger Session as we explore all these issues with our panel of experts: Allison Morris – Irish News Journalist Dawn Purvis – Former MLA Dr Margaret O’Callaghan – Historian and political analyst at Queens …
For years GPs have been warming the government that the service is on the verge of collapse. But as usual in Northern Ireland we govern by inertia or doing bugger all as the man in the street might call it. I
But now it begins. We get to witness the collapse of the GP service in real time. The Portadown case gives us the template of how it will happen.
The Cash for Ash scandal is the biggest financial blunder in the history of Northern Ireland. It has the potential to take down the first minister Arlene Foster. It is a mess of the highest order. The BBC spotlight team did an excellent job with last week’s programme on the affair. It was a forensic dissection of an easily preventable mess. Stephen Nolan then followed up the pressure by devoting the entirety of his show over the past few days …
The Lagan Towpath bathed in winter sun. Photo by Davymac. 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 middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
Join us for an evening of debate and entertainment as we look back on the political year in 2016. 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 last year’s sold out End of Year Review Show we are pleased to bring it back for a third year. Our new venue is The Gallaghers Lounge, upstairs in the Duke of York Bar in the Cathedral …
To add to the odd times we are living in, the most sense on the Irish economy is talked by a guy with a shopping bag on his head. Blindboy is one of the Rubber Bandits. Rubber Bandits are a comedy art duo from Limerick who rose to fame with their classic anthem Horse Outside. Here he is talking to Tubs on the Late Late Show: Much has been talked about how property in London is basically piggy banks for …
Belfast has been transformed over the last decade. The once desolate Cathedral Quarter is now attracting thousands of revelers every week. The Titanic Quarter is seeing massive investment by companies overseas and local. It seems every other day a new bar or restaurant is popping up. But we can do more. Belfast city centre has one of the lowest occupancy rates of any city in the UK or Ireland. How do we attract people to live in the city …
The Slugger Salon is our new series of live talks and debates. The first one will be the US election results. What does it mean for America? Globalisation? What challenges and opportunities are there for Northern Ireland? Join the Slugger team and a panel of experts to discuss The Donald’s Victory.
The High Court has put a spanner in the Brexit works by saying MP’s need to vote on triggering article 50. You can view more on this developing story here… A report by the BBC in June showed that the majority of MP’s support remain. Does this mean the end of Brexit? 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 …
On Thursday 3rd November a new talk series begins on the Antrim Road at the Duncairn arts venue, otherwise known as the 174 Trust. The series is called ‘Towards a divided island’ and it is focused on a close look at the next part of the decade of political centenaries, which is in fact the most difficult part to handle. Arguably the years leading up to 1923 saw polarisation, partition and daily violence of a kind not witnessed in Ireland …
These days about 50% of users to Slugger are accessing the site on a phone or tablet. The current design is a bit clunky so we have gotten the crayons out and rejigged the layout to make the site easier to read. We know users hate change so we have not done anything drastic. Basically we removed a lot of the clutter, added more white space and made the fonts bigger to make posts more readable. You can view the …
A few months ago I took a tour of the Crumlin Road Gaol. During the tour the guide explained how during the 19th century it was the practice to keep prisoners solitary at all times. This was known as the Separate System. To quote the Wikipedia article on it: The objective of such a prison or “penitentiary” was that of penance by the prisoners through silent reflection upon their crimes and behaviour, as much as that of prison security. Prisoners were alone …
I came across this video browsing Brian John Spencers Youtube channel. Here is some background to the story from the Irish News and the Belfast Telegraph: Constable John Larmour was off-duty and helping out at his brother’s ice-cream parlour in south Belfast when he was shot dead by the IRA in 1988. Two men entered, unmasked, ordered ice cream, and then one of them shot him as he turned his back on him. Constable Larmour’s son Gavin, who was just 13 …
Wow, what a week in politics. Before the vote I was getting fed up hearing about Brexit. I went to bed on Thursday night safe in the view that no one would be crazy enough to vote to leave the EU. My politics are pragmatic, I detest ideologies. As someone who has been self-employed my whole life I can see the benefit of access to a free market of one-third of the world’s wealth. As our American friends would say, ‘it’s …
Yesterday I was at the Power of Video Conference held at the shiny new Waterfront extension. As you may have guessed from the title, it was all about using video online. Video can be enormously popular online. The video below was put on our Facebook page a few months ago and so far over a million people have watched it. Bonkers. For those of us over a certain age the whole Youtube stars thing has probably passed us by. In …
Interesting story over at the Catholic news site Crux… “Many of my non-Christian and non-believing friends have remarked to me that we ‘Catholics’ have turned the Internet into a cesspool of hatred, venom and vitriol, all in the name of defending the faith!” he said. “The character assassination on the Internet by those claiming to be Catholic and Christian has turned it into a graveyard of corpses strewn all around,” said Rosica, who assists the Vatican Press Office with English-speaking …
As a new report reveals that 1 in 6 retail properties in NI are now vacant the Irish News has an interesting story on the closure of the SuperValu store in Banbridge. The Supervalu store – which originally opened as Wellworth’s in 1963 – had been owned and run by Frank McPolin (50) and employed nearly 80 full- and part-time staff. The building also houses a separately-run discount store and also the town’s main Post Office. Independent retail body NIIRTA …
You can waffle on all you like about trade tariffs, migration controls, budget rebates, etc but to the general public this tedious stuff goes in one ear and out the other. But tell them you are going to monkey around with their tea and toast and you get their attention. From today’s Daily Express: The UK accounts for a third of all European kettle sales, with Britons drinking six times more tea per head than their continental cousins. The ban might also include …
As the Donald becomes the last Republican presidential candidate standing, the Clinton camp put out this very effective attack video. The video features clips of every major Republican figure slatting Trump. "Donald Trump says he's a ""unifier."" He's not wrong.https://t.co/lEN8VDfa6r — The Briefing (@TheBriefing2016) May 5, 2016 Trump was once a joke but now he just got very serious. Do you think he has a chance of winning the Whitehouse? Or will Hillary be the first female US President? Brian O'NeillManaging Editor …
