Slugger Team

Earlier this year then Business and Trade Secretary (and present-day Conservative Party leader and leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch) pulled a funding award for Kneecap with a spokesperson for Badenoch at the time saying “it was “hardly surprising” that it had intervened, given that the group was “opposed to the United Kingdom”.  However, BPI said it was “disappointed” that ministers had overturned the decision of its independent selection board.” Kneecap promptly launched a legal action alleging discrimination and this morning …

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This story has been rumbling in the background for the better of a week and isn’t exactly full of holiday spirit. It involves the attendance of the deputy mayor of Mid and East Antrim council, 31-year-old Bréanainn Lyness of Sinn Féin at the switching on of the Christmas lights in the village of Broughshane last Saturday evening as the DUP mayor had another engagement. The Belfast Telegraph quotes the local Orange Lodge explaining the reasons for their protest in their …

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When the funding was pulled for Casement Park’s redevelopment, it marked not only the end of the project in its most ambitious form, it also meant the end of any hope that Belfast would host any of matches of the Euro 2028 tournament. Or did it? According to ‘The Belfast Telegraph’ in this article… “A construction company in Northern Ireland has presented ambitious plans to revive Belfast’s dreams of playing host to Euro 2028 – with a proposal for a …

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It’s been a while since we last had a flag controversy but the wait is at last over with Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland talking about the inclusivity of the Ulster Banner. As Adam McKendry reports here for ‘The Belfast Telegraph’… “High-ranking Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games officials are set for a tense and fiery Annual General Meeting next week after putting forward a controversial proposal to change the Ulster Banner flag at future Games… Heatley and Martin will argue at Wednesday …

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More sad news tonight as we learn that Ken Reid, a mainstay on our television screens for many years until his retirement, has died. According to UTV on the death of their former colleague… ‘Veteran Northern Ireland journalist Ken Reid has died at the age of 69 after an illness, his family has announced. Mr Reid was best known as the long-time political editor of UTV, where he reported on many of the worst atrocities of the Troubles before chronicling …

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These days we live in a world that is deeply inter-connected. Much of the physical infrastructure that underpins the connections between Europe and North America is in the form of undersea cables, and many of those cables run through Irish territorial waters. This has created a bit of a problem however. On the one hand, the Irish public is very much in favour of its neutrality and increased expenditure on defense with so many other priorities seems politically difficult. On …

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The future of the A5 upgrade was again thrown into uncertainty last night as reports emerged that a legal challenge to the decision to build the long-delayed road was on the verge of being lodged. As the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ reports in their article on the subject… “A potential legal challenge to the long awaited A5 upgrade has been described as “a crushing blow” for campaigners who have been left “appalled” by the latest obstacle to complete the flagship project. The …

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Some very sad news this evening as we hear of the death of former Alliance MLA Anna Lo. As the BBC say in their report on her passing… “The Alliance Party has paid tribute to its “ground-breaking” and “trailblazing” former assembly member Anna Lo, who has died at the age of 74. Ms Lo was the first ethnic-minority politician elected to Stormont, and the first Chinese-born person to be elected to a legislative parliament in western Europe Alliance leader Naomi Long …

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Just over a year ago, Jon Boutcher became the new PSNI Chief Constable. He replaced Simon Byrne, whose tenure came to an end amidst several controversies. However, Jon Boutcher now faces a headache of his very own. According to the BBC News… “More than 70 Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers watched body-worn video footage of a drugs arrest for their “entertainment and amusement”, an investigation has found.The footage was accessed largely “without legitimate purpose” at 20 police stations …

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Former Alliance party leader and current Liberal Democrat peer Lord Alderdice believes the Alliance party should adopt a position on the constitutional question in any border poll. As John Manley writes in this article in ‘The Irish News’ which is covering Lord Alderdice’s new book ‘The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland – Beyond Unionism and Nationalism’… “Former Alliance leader Lord John Alderdice believes it is “not politically realistic” for the party to sit on the fence in a forthcoming border poll. In an …

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Mark Carruthers sat down recently with former Belfast City Councillor, former Lord Mayor of Belfast, former MLA, former Minister of Finance and current Sinn Féin member Máirtín Ó Muilleoir for an interview of his ‘Red Lines’ podcast (you can find the full thing here). The interview, perhaps inevitably, covered the topic of a United Ireland where Ó’Muilleoir is quoted as saying the following. “Former Sinn Féin executive minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir believes there will be a border poll and that …

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Something is clearly up this morning at UUP headquarters. The Irish Times, Belfast Telegraph and the BBC are all reporting that there is ‘speculation’ over the UUP leader’s future. The Newsletter goes further, dispensing with the ‘speculation’ euphemism and baldly stating that he is expected to step down later today. Doug has been UUP leader since 2021 and has led the party through the most recent Assembly, Local and General Elections. At the Assembly Election in 2022 there was talk …

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With Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan taking gold today, we at Slugger share in the sheer unbridled joy we all feel at seeing athletes from the island of Ireland compete on the biggest stage of them all. So let’s take a moment to join with Dame Mary Peters and recognise all of those from our shared home who are there and competing, celebrate those who have taken bronze, silver or gold, and offer our steadfast support to those whose turn …

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It’s been about two weeks since President Biden’s disastrous head-to-head with Trump and far from the story moving on, it has come to dominate the campaign and become a wound that will not heal. At the time of writing rumors are swirling that staffers inside his own campaign are trying to convince him the greatest thing he can do for his country is step down. As this article in “The Guardian” makes clear… “Joe Biden’s position appeared shaky on Thursday, amid …

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In London and Belfast two events occurred that at first glance seem only tangentially related but which when taken together seem to set the course for our own future after the election is out of the way. The first, as this report in The Guardian from Eleni Courea makes clear, deals with the poverty of Labour’s ambitions regarding closer trade links with the European Union. As Eleni writes “Labour’s EU policy amounts to “tinkering around the edges of the current …

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The BBC’s Enda McClafferty today reports on DUP leader Gavin Robinson criticising the deal negotiated by his predecessor and his predecessor’s protegé…one Gavin Robinson. As Enda reports here … ” Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson has accepted his party oversold the deal to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland. Mr Robinson had been accused of backtracking on the deal he helped negotiate to restore power sharing. It followed a speech on Wednesday where Mr Robinson appeared to contradict …

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It has been announced this morning that Ireland, Spain and Norway will recognise the State of Palestine, effective from 28th May. From the Irish News: The Taoiseach said that “ideally” recognition of Palestine would have been taken as part of a peace settlement in the Middle East, but said “our decision to recognise Palestine should not have to wait indefinitely”. …Shortly before Mr Harris made the announcement outside Government Buildings in Dublin, Israel recalled its ambassador in Ireland, with its …

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There are pretty serious allegations against the PSNI here: The documents show the surveillance started in 2007/8 and went on for a decade, involving a small group of journalists who were, in the words of one detective, “always looking for a story”, https://t.co/DwTUIomJ17 — Allison Morris (@AllisonMorris1) May 8, 2024 This is the document which was today approved for release by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which proves that there was a routine “defensive operation” every 6 months interrogating the communication …

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Yes, you read that correctly and it’s not April 1st. To clarify, according to an opinion poll conducted by the Sunday Independent, half of the public and a majority of Sinn Féin voters (52%) in the Republic of Ireland want checkpoints on the border with Northern Ireland to limit the number of asylum seekers coming into Ireland from the UK. It’s hard to believe that a majority of southern Sinn Féin voters would place the immigration issue above maintaining a …

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