Mick Fealty – Page 14 – Slugger O'Toole

“In any serious discussion on a truly ‘new’ Ireland, UK membership ought to be on the table.”

Mick Fealty on December 13, 2021, 2:46 pm

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New UK passport

For someone so young, Joel asks a mean exam question… “In any serious discussion on a truly ‘new’ Ireland, UK membership ought to be on the table.” Discuss. — Joel Keys (@JoelKeysNI) December 11, 2021 It comes just as a poll of southern opinion shows there’s no appetite for change to attract people of a British background to a United Ireland. I expect that’s people don’t believe it’s a realistic prospect. Pat Leahy reports… There is a high degree of …

“If SF and the DUP were serious about truly moving society out of segregation…”

Mick Fealty on December 8, 2021, 11:13 am

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friends, trust, friendship

The art of free society consists first in the maintenance of the symbolic code; and secondly in fearlessness of revision, to secure that the code serves those purposes which satisfy an enlightened reason. — Alfred North Whitehead However quote of the week goes to Máiría Cahill writing in the Sunday Independent. It’s an old saw in marketing that “everything communicates” and sometimes in ways people might rather it didn’t. Looking back to her own youth and childhood, she recalls a …

Ireland, and the need to deal with the learned helplessness of echo chambers and filter bubbles…

Mick Fealty on December 3, 2021, 3:14 pm

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wood, wooden, bridge

I watch/listen to a lot of RTÉ. It’s a relic from the ’80s when I moved to the south coast of England, way outside the range of Radio Ulster, and found the NI pickings from the BBC in London very thin. RTÉ Radio One on Long Wave was the thickest newsflow I could access at the time. Almost incidentally and by osmosis I also eavesdropped on some of the big developments in the south. I recall Ian Paisley slamming the …

Northern Ireland showing signs of growth, expansion and quietly escaping its historic restrictions

Mick Fealty on November 26, 2021, 12:32 pm

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butterflies, flowers, pollinate

An old English friend rang me the other day and asked me about a potential placement his son was considering from a software company in Belfast (neither have any real connection I know of with either part of Ireland). He was puzzled by the fact the opportunity was in Belfast, and wanted to know a bit about life over there and a bit about the context in which a large US software company would be settling in a place like …

As Covid recedes its aftermath is witnessed in a system that is ‘beyond broken’…

Mick Fealty on November 25, 2021, 1:43 pm

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surgery, hospital, medical professionals

On Nolan yesterday to talk about the latest response from the Stormont Executive to rising Covid infections. Through the various conversations it struck me how public understanding is failing to keep pace with the nature of the crisis. One lady said she was so fed up with looking at people in masks that she preferred to sit at home rather than go out. It transpired that she’d lost her husband during the crisis and still clearly suffering from the loss …

Phantom bounce in north south trade due to corrections in previous misreporting?

Mick Fealty on November 17, 2021, 11:42 am

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office, business, accountant

One of the most prominent bear traps of the Brexit era is the epistemological bubble. That according to C Thi Nguyen is not the same as the more pernicious echo chamber. It’s where people of like mind come together to examine the world. Slugger has tried to achieve a diversity of view, not as a virtue signal, but so that our readers (and us) be all the better informed. Lookouts on port and starboard means you’re less likely to hit any …

Remarkable solidarity on the death of Austin Currie in the Assembly yesterday…

Mick Fealty on November 16, 2021, 10:10 am

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Here’s a shortened version of the comments on the death of Austin Currie in the Assembly yesterday. With the exception of the SDLP who opened and closed the session, I’ve stuck to just one party spokespersons. The breadth and the quality of the contributions are striking from right across the house: Nicola Mallon (SDLP): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I begin today by offering my condolences, on behalf of the SDLP, to Austin Currie’s family: his wife, Annita, and his children, Estelle, …

There’s no need to rush to war at a time when we are still trying to put the last one to bed…

Mick Fealty on November 11, 2021, 5:51 pm

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child, kid, play

Often when something needs saying, it’s Newton Emerson who has the courage to say it. Taking his cue from the Liverpool survey last week he has this to say about findings that suggest there’s a consensus is for retaining the protocol… But on the unionist side he notes… Unionist acceptance of the protocol is resignation, not enthusiasm. This silent majority is to some extent a sheepish majority, digesting unionism’s fault for its own plight. Unionists also have to accept that …

“acting in this manner means enduring the no-deal outcome that Johnson was unwilling to countenance two years ago”

Mick Fealty on November 10, 2021, 10:26 am

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I do wonder where all this talk of “war” is going to take us. Like the chatter about an imminent United Ireland, when the latest polling evidence indicates most people in Northern Ireland are happy enough, it’s largely just chatter. For now. Ronan McCrea in the Irish Times today expresses real frustration on the Irish side with the way things are going: With London walking away from the compromises it made and no good options available, Brussels may well conclude …

Independent Review of Education offers “a new possibility space…”

Mick Fealty on November 9, 2021, 12:17 pm

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businessman, possible, impossible

In a previous life I spent a lot of time in different educational settings, across Ireland, Britain and most of Western Europe, as the non eastern bloc countries were referenced at that time, doing participatory creative work. I was working in schools at the time of the “Great” Education Reform Bill (or GERBill for journalistic shorthand) in 1988, which brought in some useful measures (like giving teachers time away from the classrooms for ongoing learning). The name was first coined …

‘Nothing should be done that threatens that architecture..”

Mick Fealty on November 8, 2021, 1:52 pm

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brexit, eu, europe

So the talk of Article 16, is still just that, talk. Taoiseach Micheál is not one for dramatising a crisis, so his warning against going down such a precipitative route ought to get a hearing in London: “We’ve been here before, negotiations are still underway, there is still engagement between the UK and the European Union – as I said in the Dáil last week and I stand over my comments, I think it would be reckless and irresponsible to …

Inter communal consensus to get NI Protocol done, backing for the Assembly (but not a border poll)

Mick Fealty on November 4, 2021, 10:34 pm

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math, blackboard, education

On tonight’s edition of The View, there’s some fascinating polling from the Irish Institute at the University of Liverpool. Fascinating mostly for the depth it goes into over how public opinion falls out over the Northern Irish protocol. For one thing, it turns out that whilst it may be exercising some members of the political class it’s not the top priority for for the electorate. Overall Health is top (29.1%), Covid Recovery is next (18.3%) followed by the Economy (12.4%). …

“Single identity appeals won’t work in terms of winning any future border poll…”

Mick Fealty on November 4, 2021, 2:53 pm

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I won’t create too much commentary on this (I’ve already written a longer piece here), but Battle of Ideas have released a nicely edited account of the Battle of Ideas debate in London a few weeks ago. (It should start just after the intros.) It would be good to here your response to the conversation in the room. Andrée Murphy comes in shortly after my first leg… Do watch the whole thing if you can find the time? Mick FealtyMick …

“Sinn Féin begged on bended knee for an effective amnesty in criminal law for IRA historic crimes…’

Mick Fealty on October 21, 2021, 5:57 pm

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I wasn’t going to mention the death of Dennis Hutchings in mid trial from complications arising from Covid 19. Mostly because I couldn’t see enough debatable politics in it when his story took a final and tragic (for all concerned) turn. However, it moved Senator Michael McDowell (a former Minister of Justice for some time in the noughties) to out some of those who have been loud in their condemnation of the British government’s intention to install an amnesty. His …

Through each post GFA crisis the middle ground is slowly building…

Mick Fealty on October 21, 2021, 3:52 pm

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books, shelves, door

It is tempting to suggest that whatever crisis we’re going through is the worst yet. Most of them since the establishment of the new Stormont institutions have been, in one way or another, crises of legitimacy. As is current one over the Protocol. We may think that the legitimacy of the current institutions derive from the paper documentation of the Belfast Agreement, but in fact it is something that has to be fought over on a day and day, month …

Reconciliation means moving beyond simplified explanations to a citizen’s view of the long term…

Mick Fealty on October 19, 2021, 2:09 pm

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embrace, hug, solidarity

This long term perspective from Jarlath Kearney last week in his Irish News column is a piece of the bigger picture which (I reckon at least) we all really need to hear (if “it’s not too much effort not to have another war”)… There’s too much play-acting at peace-making. Reconciliation needs our urgent, relentless attention. It’s a lifetime journey – not an election cycle. Society properly focuses on big ticket news items like Brexit and borders. Similar attention is needed …

Most significant thing today is the EU has recognised the Protocol’s drag on NI’s East West trade…

Mick Fealty on October 14, 2021, 2:33 pm

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delivery, shipping, transportation

So, there’s some actual news today. My guess is that the EU’s announcement today of the compromises it’s prepared to make. Although much of it is still unquantified, the scope of the pragmatic changes are impressively wide. Some provisions, like medicines, are technically difficult to achieve and will take much more time, but the direction of travel seems to be in the direction seems to be freeing up distribution between Britain and Northern Ireland. There has barely been any acknowledgement …

Demographic logic for a border poll is destined sink its own long term ambitions…

Mick Fealty on October 14, 2021, 7:00 am

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“The mountain is so formed that it is always wearisome when one begins the ascent, but becomes easier the higher one climbs.” – Dante, Divine Comedy, Purgatorio On Sunday I was part of a panel discussion at the Battle of Ideas entitled The Border Question: Can the Union Survive? It was lively, to say the least. The chair, Kevin Rooney, made sure there was plenty of time for audience questions. The venue, Church House, is integral to the grounds of Westminster …

Local political pressure prompts ministers to take action on UC (rather than just complaining).

Mick Fealty on October 8, 2021, 12:08 pm

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Claire Simpson in the Irish News yesterday wrote about some last minute developments in regard to the £20 cut in universal credit: STORMONT is coming under increasing pressure to find the £55 million needed to mitigate against the cut in Universal Credit. Ministers will today discuss how to help low-income families after the £20-a-week increase to Universal Credit, brought in to support claimants during the pandemic, was officially withdrawn yesterday. The cut will see more than 130,000 people in Northern …

In London this weekend speaking on whether the UK can survive a border poll?

Mick Fealty on October 7, 2021, 12:02 pm

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crocus, flowers, purple flowers

On Sunday I’ll be part of a panel at the Battle of Ideas festival discussing the motion: The Irish Border Question: Can the Union Survive? The panel comprises myself and three others. Chair is Kevin Rooney, a native of Belfast who recently launched a new blog at Irishborderpoll.com advocating for a border poll as a way of expediting a the route to a politically unified island. Andrée Murphy is a Deputy Director of Relatives for Justice, a columnist with Belfast Media and …