‘This is not the time, there may never be a time’

An excellent and well handled debate hosted by Stephen Nolan on his show this morning. It doesn’t happen often, but the cracks within Sinn Fein got a full public airing on the show. John O’Dowd was firm in telling Davy Hyland that his deselection was a result of lack of support, while Hyland was hanging it on the policing issue. On policing, Hyland made the quote I’ve used in the title, and said his end-game was an All Ireland police …

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How times have changed

The coverage of the 1976 continues to make informative and in some cases fascinating reading. The Indo relates that in 1976, Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave had to alter plans to bring a gift worth £5,000 for the US government during a St Patricks Day visit to Washington. Instead the government went bargain hunting and spent only £160 in an effort to save money for the airfare. £5,000 was a sizeable sum of money in those days, so I’m quite pleased they …

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Happy New Year and Hurry Up

Here is the text of Ian Paisley’s New Year address. Ever the optimist, I think I found the positive nuggets in the speech: This year can be a year of delivery. Quality support for the police, the courts and the rule of law would do much to change the mistrust and suspicion held by the unionist electorate, and the sooner we have delivery, the better for us all. For the first time in our history, republicans are contemplating support for …

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2007 Here We Come

Gerry Adams noted the irony that the first public speech he made since the Ard Comhairle meeting, was to commemorate an attack on the RUC barracks in Brookeborough on January 1st, 1957. The attack was one of the most significant of the 1950’s border campaign ‘Operation Harvest’ and saw Sean South and Feargal O’Hanlon killed in the battle. Today’s freezing weather was eerily reminiscent of that ‘dreary New Year’s Day’, but about 1500 hundred people came out to commemorate and …

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TRUCE

Hi Boys and Girls A momentary respite from the New Year Party, to wish friend and foe a Happy, Prosperous, Peaceful and Blessed New Year. It may or not be historic, but let’s all wish that it is fulfilling With best wishes from Sheila! Miss Fitz

Paisley main obstacle to settlement in 1976

A document released into the National Archives in Dublin under the 30-year rule records a meeting between an Irish government minister and then Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher. The memo, carrying a note attributing it to Ireland`s Foreign Minister Garret FitzGerald, shows he told senior Tories the political realities meant Mr Paisley was the main obstacle to a settlement in October 1976. It appears from this memo of a meeting with Thatcher and Whitelaw that Paisley refused to attempt to …

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An OBE to ease the pain

Bertha McDougall was awarded an OBE for services to the community. Need I say more, other than congratulations of course? Miss Fitz

Would that be white smoke I see?

Cheers to Parcifal for spotting this: Sinn Féin edged closer to an historic acceptance of policing in the North by tonight calling a special party conference for January on the issue. Sinn Féin tonight edged closer to an historic acceptance of policing in the North by calling for a special party conference on the issue in January. Party president Gerry Adams got the support for the move from Sinn Féin’s 56 member national executive after a marathon six-hour talk session …

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The Price of Shame

Many of the papers carry details of the 1976 state documents now released and several focus on the murder of Christopher Ewart Biggs, the British Ambassador to Ireland who was less than 2 weeks in the job before he was killed along with an aide. The Daily Telegraph reports that Martin Taylor, a PIRA man who was one of 7 to escape the Maidstone Prison ship by swimming across Belfast Lough was the key suspect. He was not convicted as …

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Fascinating Flickr

I’ve always enjoyed the Flickr stream that accompanies Slugger, and over the past week or 10 days, I’ve been struck by some of the images posted by Damien Okada Gough. A little bit of searching provided me with this fascinating interview he conducted with the Real IRA in 2003. Damien lives with his wife in Japan now, but worked as a reporter for Channel 9 in Derry before leaving. No matter where we come from or what views we hold, …

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McAleese clan leads the way in PSNI

I picked up a little testiness in some of the recent comments, and the idea of the Queen’s podcast becoming the Slugger testcard spurred me to blog! Mary McAleese was interviewed by RTE for a Christmas broadcast and interestingly mentioned that some of her ‘clan’ have joined the PSNI and have played Gaelic football with them. Liam Clarke picked up the story in the Sunday Times and quoted a presidential spokesperson that there ‘was nothing political in the presidents decision …

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A most useful website

I got my little leaflet this evening, explaining water charges. How touching. Anyway, one of the more interesting snippets in the book is the website www.mycapitalvalueni.gov.uk. You can find out the worth of every single property in Northern Ireland by typing in the postcode and house number. What a useful little item that might prove to be in years to come. I don’t know whether these are scare tactics or the real deal, but I got a hell of a …

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An unhappy anniversary

Well, it’ll be two years on Wednesday since the Northern Bank heist. In the Sunday Tribune, Suzanne Breen gives a very detailed and explicit account of the robbers, the robbery and the divvying up of the dosh. There probably isn’t much new in what she writes, but I was a bit surprised at how confident she feels in alluding to the alleged bank robber. The Irish Examiner throws a little something new into the mix. They quote Justice Minister Michael …

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Who do we think we are?

I just finished listening to a fine piece of radio presented by Gerry Anderson and would recommend a listen. It covered the area of identity and what factors make us what and who we think we are. It’s certainly timely given the present impasse we are stuck in, unable and unwilling to perfom a basic function of democracy and govern ourselves. Perhaps a better or more confident sense of identity or achieving some permission to allow ourselves to claim shared …

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Who do we think we are?

I just finished listening to a fine piece of radio presented by Gerry Anderson and would recommend a listen. It covered the area of identity and what factors make us what and who we think we are. It’s certainly timely given the present impasse we are stuck in, unable and unwilling to perfom a basic function of democracy and govern ourselves. Perhaps a better or more confident sense of identity or achieving some permission to allow ourselves to claim shared …

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Complaining in style

Found this on u-tube earlier and thought it was worth sharing! It would make a change of pace for some of our radio complaint programmes! Miss Fitz

Chocoholics turn to crime

I loved this story from earlier this evening, it seemed to suit my mood! A retired Professor from Belfast randomly phoned the Halifax this week to check his balances and found his savings account had been cleared of £20,000 which had then been transferred to his current account without his knowledge or consent. The enterprising thief/thieves then ordered £15,000 of chocolates from Thorntons and sent a van to pick up the order within 15 mintues. So, what to do with …

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The dog ate my laptop

That is among my excuses for being such a lazy blogger over the past few weeks. It has a ring of truth since my jack russell terrier knocked my laptop off the table and destoyed it, but truthfully things have been hectic over the past while. I last wrote on my return from Berlin, and since that I have also visited London, Laois and Lourdes. It wasn’t an intentional effort to visit ‘L’ places, but now that I see it …

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People with too much time on their hands Unite

Some of you may remember Wendy Austin’s quip a few weeks ago about bloggers being people with too much time on their hands. I was therefore more than a little interested to hear herself on Radio Ulster this morning handling this innovative project by the National Trust.I guess you could call it an internet time capsule of sorts. People have been invited to recall what they were doing on October 17th 2006, and all of the results will be collected …

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Ich Bin Ein etc

Just back from Berlin and since I wasnt allowed near a computer on pain of excommunication, this is my first chance to record some of my thoughts. On the way home, I thought of the phrase ‘fur coat and no knickers’, but that isn’t strictly true of Berlin. Oh, she’s got the fur coat alright, you just get the impression the knickers are going back on in a bit of an indecent hurry, slightly red-faced, breathless- caught in the act!It …

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