Slugger Team

An acrimonious debate at Belfast City Council which has been running for several weeks finally climaxed on Monday night as the Council rejected adopting the Armed Forces Covenant. The DUP brought a motion several weeks ago before the full council asking for the adoption of the Covenant. As the Belfast Telegraph report of the issue says… “On a vote to support the Armed Forces Covenant, 27 voted in favour — from the DUP, Alliance, the UUP and the TUV — …

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Conor Murphy resigned as Economy Minister and from Stormont yesterday following his election to Seanad Éireann. As the BBC reports… “He secured one of the 60 seats available with the support of Sinn Féin TDs (members of the Irish parliament) and councillors. He contested a seat on the Industrial and Commercial panel and, according to his party, will use his new role to advance the debate for a united Ireland. Murphy previously described the move as a “natural progression of …

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Once again it seems we are facing a new controversy in the Education sector. The Belfast Telegraph reports that… “The Department of Education is facing calls for full transparency after £710,000 was awarded to a school in Londonderry following a private meeting with DUP ministers — despite it not making a direct application for the money. It comes after the Belfast Telegraph revealed that all bar two schools in Derry city that applied for major funding over the past 10 years …

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According to this article from the BBC… “Northern Ireland’s population is projected to peak at 1.95m in 2033 before starting to decline, a report by the official statistics agency suggests. The projection from the NI Statistics and Research Agency says the population will start falling due to a low birth rate. It suggests that by 2031 there will be more annual deaths than births and that trend will then continue. Any population increase after 2031 would solely be due to …

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Political chaos seems to have become more ubiquitous these past few years. Between the antics of the British Parliament during Brexit, punch-ups in various legislatures becoming increasingly common to the very storming of the U.S. Capitol itself on January 6th 2021 by hundreds of what turned out to be completely innocent rioters, our seats of government have become far less staid than we were accustomed to. Whilst not descending to the level of a brawl or an invasion Irish politicians …

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In the United States Democratic Senator John Fetterman caused a brief stir on social media when he showed up at Donald’s Trump inauguration wearing shorts, sneakers and a hoodie with some finding the Senator’s choice of apparel amusing, whereas others found his apparent irreverence for the event upsetting. Not that the US is the only place where politicians not dressing appropriately is in the news. The Belfast Telegraph reports that Stormont Speaker Edwin Poots has been reminding members that a …

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A little over a month ago Unionist parties pulled the Stormont Brake to block new EU rules on the packaging and labeling of chemicals. We then waited for the Secretary of State to make his ruling, which was duly delivered yesterday. As the Newsletter puts is… “The government has turned down an attempt by unionist MLAs to halt updated EU laws under the controversial Stormont Brake mechanism – but pledged to avoid divergence between Northern Ireland and the rest of the …

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It’s been a month and a half since the General Election in the Republic and since that time negotiations have been underway between the various parties as attempts were made to forge a governing majority. Last night RTÉ reported last night that the wait was over and that a deal has been struck on the formation of a new government in Dublin between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Regional Indepenents. RTÉ has the details… “Two Independent TDs will attend …

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The BBC is reporting that Education minister Paul Givan has turned down the request of Bangor Academy and Rathmore Primary (also in Bangor) to integrate in spite of the overwhelming support of local parents for the move (80% of parents and guardians supported the proposal when quizzed in Summer 2023). From the BBC report… “In rejecting the bids, Givan said that there was not enough evidence that there would be enough Catholic pupils at each school for it to provide integrated …

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We probably should have suspected something was up when Nick Clegg resigned from Meta as head of global affairs and was replaced with conservative-leaning Joel Kaplan. What it portended was revealed late yesterday afternoon when Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook and Instagram would no longer use third-party fact-checkers, instead relying on a system pioneered by Elon Musk’s X platform wherein users can append content with supposedly clarifying comments. In the attached post to his video blog, Meta …

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A new article today from Sam McBride in ‘the Belfast Telegraph’ wherein he reveals that there have been ongoing talks regarding the holy grail of Unionist unity since 2022. The article, Secret DUP-UUP talks in 2022 failed –but unionist unity may now be closer than any time since 1971, is behind a paywall but is a very interesting read and if you are a subscriber to the Telegraph, please do take the time to check out the entire thing. Unionist …

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If you were at the Slugger End of Year Review in December (and if you weren’t we hope you had a good excuse as you missed a great evening), you’ll have been treated to an excellent and engaging conversation between Alex Kane and Allison Morris where they reviewed our tumultuous 2024 (which saw power-sharing restored, three changes in the leadership of political parties and not one, but TWO general elections…). Having looked back, Alex has now decided to look forward …

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One of the bigger news stories last summer was the resignation of then UUP leader Doug Beattie. We learned in the tumultuous aftermath that Beattie had felt unable to lead the party as he wished, with his desire to go in a more liberal direction seemingly stymied by others within the UUP. What brought things to a head however was the selection of Colin Crawford to replace Robin Swann (who had been elected to Westminster and thus had to resign …

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Bill Breathnach has written an article highlighting a bit of a mystery regarding a £24,000 donation to Sinn Féin from the Republican newspaper ‘An Phoblacht’, ‘Records from the UK Electoral Commission show that Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland received £24,089 from the publication in July of 2023. At the time, this was worth €28,868, however accounts show that the publication’s entire financial holdings never exceeded €25,321 in 2023. Although affiliated with Sinn Fein, An Phoblacht is owned by Parnell Publications, a …

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We are approaching the two year anniversary of the announcement of the Windsor Framework. Rishi Sunak at the time trumpeted the ‘Stormont Brake’ as the big concession he wrested from the European Union, though many Unionists (such as Jim Allister) have cast doubt on the efficacy of the mechanism since. Well, that mechanism is about to be put to test. As the BBC is reporting “Unionist parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly will pull the Stormont Brake for the first …

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With multiple wars (most notably in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and Myanmar), political instability (most notably in France, Germany, South Korea and the United States) and the ongoing cost of living crisis it is perhaps forgivable that the inexorable progress of the climate crisis from bad to worse is lost amidst all the other news and the more pressing concerns. But that of course is the problem, the slow pace of the crisis when viewed from the perspective of an average …

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For many years, Sinn Féin and other left-wing organisations in Ireland have made calls for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Ireland (normally during periods of heightened tensions in the Middle East) but this has always been resisted by the Irish government. Israel however has resolved the issue by withdrawing its ambassador (who was recalled to Israel for ‘consultations’ earlier this year, a diplomatic way of one country expressing deep displeasure to another). The root cause of the current …

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The BBC is reporting that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be attending today’s British-Irish Council meeting in Edinburgh. Starmer’s attendance at the meeting is only the third time a British Prime Minister has been there in seventeen years. He will be meeting with those also attending, which will include current Taoiseach Simon Harris, current Tanaisté Micheál Martin (though those roles may alter in the near future), Scottish First Minister John Swinney, Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan and our own …

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The BBC are reporting that education minister Paul Givan has told the Assembly that he simply does not have the funds to meet the pay demands of local unions. “Giving teachers in Northern Ireland the pay rise unions have asked for is “simply impossible,” according to the education minister. Paul Givan told assembly members that the teaching unions had asked for a 13.5% rise in 2024-25. Givan also told the assembly that education authorities had formally asked the unions for …

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