Mick Fealty – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

25 challenges for political unionism to build a better (and more successful) “us”…

Mick Fealty on April 5, 2023, 12:35 pm

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eclipse, sun, space

A group calling themselves the Northern Ireland Development Group have published a fascinating document today, which you can find as a PDF here. At the core of it is 25 challenges for political unionism to take build a better future for Northern Ireland. They are, as follows: 1. Emphasise Northern Ireland as a place for all; as a shared home, in shared isles and a shared island, and with a shared (if also divergent) history. Also recognise that the future should …

In their own words: The problematic task of selling the Belfast (or Good Friday) Agreement to a sceptical middle ground

Mick Fealty on March 31, 2023, 3:02 pm

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puzzle, last part, joining together

There will be lots of programmes (by many organisations are, including other parts of the BBC beyond Northern Ireland) on the Belfast Agreement. But David Kerr and Conall McDevitt’s passionate debate on The View (23.04) sets the context well. Each belong to a successor generation to Trimble and Hume respectively and both were intimately familiar with the detail of how the GFA was hammered out and by whom. Both played a key role in actively selling it. Here’s a transcript of …

Northern Ireland’s future prosperity depends on ever closer relationships between Belfast, London and Dublin…

Mick Fealty on March 30, 2023, 11:54 am

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a group of men standing on top of a roof

Finn McRedmond makes a good point today in the Irish Times when she makes the point that the “return of boring politics in Britain is great for Ireland”. It’s a reminder to some in Dublin that populism is not an especially British characteristic. It’s not helpful for maintaining and building upon peace in Northern Ireland either. It’s quite shocking the degree to which it (Northern Ireland) has been left in abeyance. Sunak’s attendance at the British Irish Council was the …

After years of tight top down control SNP members finally get their say over the party’s future…

Mick Fealty on March 27, 2023, 10:23 am

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person holding airplane control panel

Chaos ensues when democratic centralism breaks down. Discuss? The SNP has been a tightly controlled wife (leader) and husband (CEO) affair ever since Nicola Sturgeon took over from Alex Salmond after losing the Scottish independence Referendum in 2014.

As the Westminster door closes, perhaps the DUP’s opportunity has just opened?

Mick Fealty on March 23, 2023, 5:01 pm

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trees, moss, forest

But, as LBJ once famously pointed out, politics is about numbers. Right now not only does Sunak have almost all of his party, he also has the full throated backing Labour, Lib Dems and the SNP meaning the House divided: Ayes 515 to Noes 29.

Survey shows opposition to Windsor Framework dwarfed by positive support and a huge swathe of “Don’t Knows”

Mick Fealty on March 22, 2023, 10:55 am

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view, eyes, insight

Today The Irish News carries the second (and for me the more interesting) part of their survey conducted by the Institute of Irish Studies in Liverpool. The results are not unambiguous in the sense that the Don’t Know and Yes figures are very close. But it does dispense with the popular idea that there is a substantial proportion of the population which is opposed to the Framework… The most useful thing about the surveys we get through the University of …

An anatomy of the success of Irish Rugby: “Spread out, but stick together…”

Mick Fealty on March 21, 2023, 1:16 pm

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Sam McBride’s opening paragraph on Sunday captures something that is both puzzling and miraculous about Ireland’s commanding win over England (forty fifty years after England came to Dublin in the teeth of the worst days of the Troubles): The most remarkable aspect of another thrilling and historic Irish rugby success yesterday was not that an island of seven million people has produced the best team in the world, but that the team represents a country which doesn’t exist. [Emphasis added] …

DUP won’t endorse the Windsor Protocol without “clarification, change and re-working…”

Mick Fealty on March 20, 2023, 4:15 pm

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right, false, cartoon

Latest is that DUP MPs are not going to vote for the Windsor Framework in Westminster. It’s tempting to jump to the conclusion that this is where they’re going to land at the end of the month, but (a little) premature. They’ve chosen an awkward (Peter Robinson like) device that doesn’t make the party leader’s position particularly easy whilst the panel deliberate in the background. My own suspicion is that they’re probably busy taking soundings from they voter base. LucidTalk …

“Twitter’s gamification bears some resemblance with echo chambers and moral outrage porn…”

Mick Fealty on March 20, 2023, 10:39 am

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“A medium is not something neutral—it does something to people.” -Marshall McLuhan I was on Nolan this morning to discuss an Irish News story about a 29 year old candidate standing for the DUP called Tyler Hoey. It featured some awful FB quotes (which I won’t repeat here) from just three years ago favourably mentioning the UDA. The paper notes that Ian Paisley “previously said” he took action to make sure the posts were removed, an apology made and “a real …

DUP panel could do worse than seek defend NI’s place in the UK from a point of view of economic strength…

Mick Fealty on March 14, 2023, 2:23 pm

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cloud computing, arithmetic in the cloud, saving data

As we wait for the DUP to decide on the Windsor Framework, and Rishi Sunak runs off with the sword of Damocles to cut the rights of creature who has the misfortune to be caught as they wash up on England’s southern shore, here’s Graham Gudgeon: Some unionists may insist that Northern Ireland be treated identically with GB, but the fact is that this has never been the case. NI had devolved government more than half a century before Scotland …

On Lineker, the only reasonable expectation you should have of a service is its professionalism, not avoidance of offence…

Mick Fealty on March 13, 2023, 9:59 am

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white and black digital device

Gary Lineker, eh? I’m not so much of a soccer head that I missed either edition of Match of the Day this weekend. It’s more a nostalgia act for me from the days when it was the closest thing we could get to watching live soccer on television. As for the larger question of whether we should be listening to football commentators for our political analyses, I’m kinda with Julie Birchill writing in The Spectator: When I was a girl, …

Bertie Ahern: Close relations, Brexit misfiring and why a border poll won’t happen even under a SF led government

Mick Fealty on March 7, 2023, 11:43 am

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time, work, clock

I don’t know if you listen to the Rest is Politics podcast, but they recently started a new series in which they interview someone who has played a leading role in politics or public life. Yesterday it was Bertie Ahern. The whole thing is worth your time. But for those without the time, I’ve clipped down to what I think are the most interesting (and from the point of view for future development) and the most important sections towards the …

Despite the royal allusion “the ‘Windsor Framework’ is unlikely to become anyone’s favourite child”.

Mick Fealty on March 6, 2023, 10:10 am

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apples, orchard, apple trees

The Windsor Framework shows progress on issues we were previously told could not be improved. Partly, I suspect, because the EU has accepted arguments made by external parties that the risk to the single market (at present) from the UK is minimal. That may change over time, for the rest of the UK as well as for Northern Ireland, but the framework allows for facilitation of some form of dynamic alignment without ever suggesting that is what’s in scope. It’s …

Brexit deal designed to ‘unf*ck’ the UK’s economy not to just serve the vital needs of unionism…

Mick Fealty on March 2, 2023, 7:28 am

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Brian has a point when he argues that the DUP may struggle to oversell the complications of this Brexit deal. Of course they should be given time to look over the car and kick the tyres. Sammy Wilson and others are entitled to point out the shortfalls. But this deal changes the overall degree to which any UK government is willing and prepared to go out on a limb to salvage things for the DUP in particular and unionism in …

The problem with the NI protocol in simple terms laid out by two PMs…

Mick Fealty on February 28, 2023, 10:10 am

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questions, demand, doubts

The problems with the Protocol in #Simples… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

As the gate closes on roughneck Brexonomics, this is roughly the space in which any NI deal can be done.

Mick Fealty on February 28, 2023, 7:14 am

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child, soccer, playing

There are a number of important signals from yesterday’s publication of the Windsor Framework document that have little enough to do with Northern Ireland per se but rather mark the beginning of the end of a Brexiteer fantasy Brexit. There will be many concerns arising and not all of them are being expressed by unionists. Using a mechanism like the petition of concern, which has been subject of a lot of controversial issues for a close to final arbiter has raised …

Micheál Martin’s statesmanlike generosity is key to getting this nascent “framework” to work…

Mick Fealty on February 27, 2023, 7:27 pm

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construction, high voltage pylon, electricity

On the RTÉ Six One News just now, Tanaiste Micheál Martin has said that credit is due to the DUP for raising key flaws within the previous Northern Ireland Protocol. It’s a rare admission from the wider nationalist leadership, but an important one. As someone who usually keeps schtum about his own private views of Irish politics in favour of a more connected analysis of what we know at any one time it took Brexit to drive me off the …

Sunak bets on new “Stormont Brake” in his Windsor Framework agreement to restart NI Assembly…

Mick Fealty on February 27, 2023, 4:00 pm

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windsor castle, windsor, royal guard

Warm words today in the announcement of the new “Windsor Framework”. Sunak praised the vision of Ursula von der Leyen for its “significant changes”. The PM said “if it is available on the shelves of Britain it will be available in Northern Ireland”. VAT rules will automatically align. Onerous requirements on pet travel are dropped. Drugs approved for use in UK will be available for every pharmacy in NI. There will be a new Stormont Brake on changes to EU rules …

Carwyn Jones and the case for ‘reform’ of the UK rather than the ‘rupture’ of its state institutions…

Mick Fealty on February 27, 2023, 9:27 am

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hand, man, change

I won’t annotate this from Friday but it is one of the most coherent cases I’ve heard put in favour of retaining the UK from a Welshman who feels no great affinity for the cultural term British, but who nonetheless buys into “reform rather than rupture”. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the …

DUP likely to be weighing the desirability of striking a deal before May’s elections…

Mick Fealty on February 24, 2023, 11:24 am

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pixel cells, protocol, exchange

Newton Emerson points out in the Irish Times yesterday… Bad news for everyone exhausted by the DUP’s protocol drama: there are at least three more months to go. Northern Ireland has council elections on May 18th, two weeks later than originally scheduled to avoid clashing with the coronation of King Charles. The DUP is strongly motivated to take no definitive stance on a protocol deal, let alone return to Stormont, before this date. In Conservative Home, former SpAd to Arlene …