Sarah Kirkwood 
He’s “letting all the people know” that he’s “back to run the show” it’s the “Return of the …” Mike. I am showing my age by breaking out these lyrics but when they work, they work. That is right, Mike Nesbitt is to be formally ratified as Ulster Unionist Party leader at an extraordinary general meeting of the party on September 14 and he has vowed to ‘continue Doug Beattie’s progressive outreach’. I was rather surprised when he emerged as …
Mary Robinson attended the Queens Film Theatre the other night, 30 July 2024, for the preview of a new documentary about her life aptly named Mrs Robinson. Directed by Aoife Kelleher, the documentary is about Mary’s life, in her words, “warts and all”, up to now. The preview screening was then followed by a Q&A with Mary Robinson, hosted by Kathy Clugston. I was only 5 in 1990, when Mary upset the apple cart and became Ireland’s first female President, …
The General Election is THIS WEEK, boy did that sneak up on us and the anticipation of polling day brings to my mind an old proverb; ‘When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.’ So, roll up roll up to watch the auditions for the new ringmaster! Here, in our little corner of the world, a general election hits a little different. Our votes don’t elect the ringmaster; we elect a …
I am sitting here tonight, on the eve of strike action on a scale I have never witnessed in my 38 years in our little corner of the world, and this song keeps playing in my head. My personal memories of this song are very happy ones_ singing it with my parents and siblings on a road-trip to a picnic lunch somewhere with a sea view. When I was a child I clearly didn’t really hear the words of this …
Yesterday was the five-year anniversary of the #wedeservebetter peaceful demonstrations here, to try and restore government in 2018 the last time Northern Ireland was without a functioning government. It begs the questions, where are the people this time around?, why are the people not mobilising? Why are the electorate as MIA as our MLAs? Northern Ireland already holds the unofficial record for going without a functioning government (unofficial because technically Westminster can pass our laws), when in 2018 we beat …
YET another anniversary, 25 years on from the Drumcree/The Garvaghy Road dispute which made headlines the world over. But there is a different ‘orange’ protest in the news that has caught my eye. That would be the ongoing ‘JUST STOP OIL’ campaign. On Saturday a member of the public approached George Osborne and Thea Rogers as they emerged from their wedding and showered the newlyweds in orange confetti from a Union flag paper bag. Naturally, given the fact George Osborne …
LAST Friday, 30 June 2023, the Northern Ireland Youth assembly ‘class of 2023’ met in Parliament Buildings for their last plenary, chaired by the Assembly Speaker Alex Maskey. The topics for discussion were climate change, mental health, children’s and young people’s rights, relationships and sexuality education and why it’s important that young people have a voice in shaping policy and legislation on the issues that affect them. What is interesting for me about the NI Youth assembly, apart from the …
THE MANIC Street Preachers performed their enduring anthem, If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next at Glastonbury last weekend. The anthem, first released in 1998, is as relevant now as then. The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services report was published on Wednesday 21 June 2023 revealing “systemic and endemic” difficulties within the region’s Children’s social care services. We are tolerating this and as such “a higher proportion of its (NI’s) child population (are) seen as …
MY social media memories today from 7 years ago are of the results of the Brexit referendum vote, 23 June 2016. The seven-year anniversary of the ‘leave’ campaign’s victory was yesterday. The vote that David Cameron said would reveal “the future we want for our children” and “goes to the heart of the kind of country we want to be”. I remember feeling rather incredulous at the time, knowing in my gut that NI/ the north of Ireland was about …
TODAY is the 21 June 2023 and what most people will be blithely unaware of, is that here in NI /the north of Ireland, it is a day for collective reflection. The day has been marked as a ‘Day of Reflection’ here since 2007, although I only became aware of it two years ago. It is a day that gets little press, by design. Why the 21 June? Well, it was chosen as it is the summer solstice, the longest …
ANNIVERSARIES are very much at the forefront of my mind of late. The next, the NHS turns seventy-five on 5 July. Yet the 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement is still very present in my mind and the two have sort of fused into this thought piece, about the role the NHS plays in my life and the lives of others here. A diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) when I turned thirty has made me a frequent user and …
