Sarah Kirkwood

Elle magazine UK would not be a likely place to stumble upon our geopolitical situation, but there we have it. Their April 2026 cover girl, Nicola Coughlan, was set a challenge of picking Tayto crisps from Walkers crisps in a blind taste test, with a hilarious twist. When the packets were revealed, she declared the test ‘null’ as they were Northern Irish Tayto. She went on to explain, “We have Northern Irish Tayto, and we have the Republic of Ireland …

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I am an infrequent contributor to Slugger, and my contributions would largely fall into the ‘stray insights’ category. What caught my eye this week was Ards and North Down Borough Council launching their Spark Her Series: Ignite, Inspire, Empower. This is a free programme of outdoor activities and workshops for Women and Girls from March to June 2026; “This spring and summer, we’re creating more opportunities for women and girls to get active, feel safe, build confidence and connect with …

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Gavin Robinson, MP for East Belfast, the other took to Facebook on behalf of his many constituents left literally deflated, well their car tyres, by the multiple pot-holes plaguing his electoral patch. He noted that “DfI’s road maintenance has shifted to a ‘safety-only’ approach”, and that “defects are often left untreated until they reach higher intervention thresholds”. He continued with, “What was intended to be an emergency position has quietly become the default” and that the resulting damage to road …

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As is typical during Betwixtmas, I have indulged in some ‘Netflix and Chill’ (other platforms are available) and I re-watched Enola Holmes. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a mystery film set in the Victorian-era; Enola is the younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. You would think it was a totally alien era for us sitting here in 2025 but alas the political environment is absurdly familiar. Women are fighting for their rights, the landed / Upper class are …

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Halloween may be on the horizon but there is not much more frightening, it seems, than the state of the health service here in the region. Last week, in opening NICON, Northern Ireland’s annual health & social care conference, Jonathan Patton, the Chair of NICON, borrowed Dorothy’s line, “We are not in Kansas anymore” to demonstrate that we are indeed in a strange and scary place. Waiting lists of course were a feature of discussions and I thought, I too, …

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School may almost be out for summer, but I am learning, school is never really out forever. With the advances in technology and AI, and my job one of those tipped as near the top of the list to go, I will have to return to the classroom; but what shall I re-skill to do? When the curtain falls on my 20-year career in admin, what will become of me (imagine my head-tipped back, the back of my hand resting …

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Earlier this week I attended the Women’s Aid Federation launch of , ‘Responsible Reporting Matters’: media guidelines for the sensitive and effective reporting of domestic abuse and violence against women and girls. As you can imagine it was well attended and largely by woman. It was an informative and thought-provoking event with opening remarks from Justice Minister Naomi Long, MLA. Thereafter there were panel discussions and presentations. All attendees were on the same page, the guidelines were needed and timely. …

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You know times are changing when you start reading Hansard instead of the news. Yesterday (12/02/2025) in the House of Commons there was a debate on “Improving Access to Public Services” that started with the question to Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, asking “What steps his Department is taking to use technology to improve access to public services”. As so often does in political debate, the direction changed quickly, and turned to a discussion of …

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President Trump’s latest Executive order is, for me, the straw that broke the camel’s back. I actually thought it was a meme when it started doing the rounds on social media; an ironic, tongue in cheek mocking of the avalanche of Executive orders that have been signed since the inauguration. The problem for me with stories like this one, is the attention they take away from the serious new stories vying for global attention or their ability to hide the …

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“Something bad is happening in Oz” has been playing in my head while I have been watching and reading the post-inauguration news cycle, (those damn algorithms seem to keep the really good news stories until they are practically past their relevance) and for those who don’t know this is a song from the hit movie Wicked. It is striking to me the similarities of the plot of Wicked to the current story unfolding in American politics. For those who haven’t …

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As a woman of advancing years I very much treasure my beauty sleep and as such I only caught up on Friday’s Graham Norton, on the iPlayer today. I have a love / hate relationship with the format of the show. When the guests have chemistry it really works and when they don’t it really doesn’t. On Friday the camaraderie and chemistry was excellent. Hollywood stars Eddie Redmayne, Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Saoirse Ronan made Grahams’s job very easy, …

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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 …

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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, …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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