Soapbox

Ben M is a slugger reader from Dublin Support for unification has advanced, at best, modestly in 21st-century Northern Ireland. The percentage of people who want it straight away rarely seems to deviate from the 30-40% range that it was in the late 20th century. What has changed is a growing middle ground of people who might consider saying yes to it in the right circumstances. The growth of this middle ground shows in other ways. For example, they are …

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Originally from Belfast, John Connolly now lives in Dublin and is retired… I greatly enjoyed Barton Creeth’s recent lovely piece about moving to Belfast. My wife and I did something similar in the late 1960s. I’m a native of the city who had moved to England in 1964. There I’d met the beautiful young woman from County Mayo who became my (so far!) lifetime partner. We married in London in 1968 and decided in 1969 that we’d move to Belfast. …

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Helen Armstrong lives in the North West and is a psychotherapist, executive coach and trainer. Many thanks to Arnold Carton for his article in January 2023 regarding the transfer test and why some kids give up because of being negatively impacted by the transfer test. I want to continue this conversation as a concerned mum. I wait with bated breath for the results of the transfer test today. It’s a double whammy for me as I have twin boys, so …

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Tony Gallagher is an Honorary Professor at Queen’s University. You can follow him on Twitter… The Independent Review of Education suggested that education has a ‘vital role to play in promoting cohesion in a post-conflict society’ and that more needed to be done ‘to educate young people together’. Its recommendations included the creation of more integrated or jointly managed schools, the latter referring to schools managed by the Catholic and one or more of the Protestant Churches; strengthening the model …

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Deb Biddleston is a Northern English native who moved to NI 20 years ago to watch more road racing. She is a former club secretary and race photographer. We learned the other day that the 2024 Ulster Grand Prix was cancelled. Now, I can’t say this really surprised me, but it obviously surprised enough people to produce several articles (including this one). For those who don’t know, the Ulster Grand Prix ran from 1922 on the Clady circuit, moving to …

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David Jamison is writing about those items that catch his attention now looking through an older person’s eyes.  He lives in Belfast and since retiring recently he is trying to make sense of a fast-changing world and trying his best to keep up! I was wondering what to title this piece, and interestingly, the dictionary defines “Media” as “the main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the internet) regarded collectively.” As a reality check, can I say at the outset …

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Martin Connolly is from Belfast, a graduate of Trinity College and Queen’s University, resident in Japan since 1991. A Professor of literature at Tsurumi University, Yokohama, Martin has published extensively on Joyce. He also writes creatively -his latest novel is Belfast, with Dinosaurs, 1979 (Shanway Press).  Kind of Green -Jazz Legends, from ‘86 – ‘90, through an Irish lens is primarily a book of never-seen-before original photos of many of the greatest jazz artists during the period 1986 to 1990. Said photos …

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Fergus Boylan is an cartoonist. Originally from the North Coast he now lives in Dublin. You can follow him on Instagram. Hi, I used to do the political cartoons here at Slugger. Recently, I drew a bunch of Catholic and Protestant trading cards and posted them online. It obviously started as a mildly amusing idea but, shortly after sharing, people started messaging me about their availability. I’ve posted similar crap ideas in the past, like an NI themed video game, …

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Dear Jeffrey, Like you, I believe that the interests of the people of Northern Ireland are best served by remaining within the United Kingdom. The cultural, economic and social ties with Great Britain offer both stability and unique opportunities. While there are many factors which support this position, time and again opinion polls indicate that foremost among them is the NHS. The promise of universal healthcare free at the point of need is the strongest incentive to be a UK …

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Katy Haskins is a PhD Researcher from County Down. She is interested in Irish identity, politics, and experiences of life. You can find her on LinkedIn or X (@katyrhaskins). Today, like every other day, I navigated the windy streets of Belfast – Nutri-Grain bar in hand – to get to my desk. Today, however, was not like every other day. Instead of spending my walk thinking about what I might have for dinner, or if I definitely locked the front …

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David Jamison is writing about those items that catch his attention now looking through an older person’s eyes.  He lives in Belfast and since retiring recently he is trying to make sense of a fast-changing world and trying his best to keep up! I happen to be the Treasurer of a small older peoples club let’s call it, and since retiring my own personal finances have come into sharper focus. This has thrown up a number of interesting although perhaps …

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Originally from Belfast, A.J. McManus is currently a teacher in the United States. Below is an interview Oliver Napier gave me in his law offices in April, 1996. Sir Oliver Napier (11 July 1935 – 2 July 2011) was the first leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.In 1974 he served as the first and only Legal Minister and head of the Office of Legal Reform in the Northern Ireland power-sharing executive set up by the Sunningdale Agreement. I …

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Gavin Lafferty is from Belfast One of the Unionist posters on our website I hold in the highest esteem is Choyaa. His recent OP on the online trolling and harassment faced by unionists was a bit of an eye-opener, as were the responses that OP provoked. It definitely made me reflect on some of the terms I have used in the past. Choyaa’s habit of making me think extends to his posts on twitter, one of his more recent catching …

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 Allan Smith is the great-nephew of Brian Desmond Hurst… I lifted the lid the other week on one of our great art mysteries at a Royal Geographical Society talk at Queens University Belfast on the ‘Life of Brian’. Or more correctly how a working class linen worker from East Belfast called Hans Hurst was orphaned at 16, joined the army in the first week of the First Word War and as a rifleman with The Royal Irish Rifles saw his …

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Andrew Trimble chairs RHANI.org, a group of businesses adversely affected by the Department’s mismanagement of the sole programme to decarbonise heating – 30% of all emissions in Northern Ireland. Here he provides an alternative narrative as to what went wrong and continues to plague the commercial Renewable Heating Incentive scheme (RHI). Some still believe that the collapse of Stormont in 2017 was about RHI. Some believe that the actual overspend was a telephone number-like sum of hundreds of millions of pounds. …

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Gareth Williams is a UK Labour Party member with an interest in Northern Ireland. He is writing in a personal capacity. You can follow him on Twitter.  If Rishi Sunak wants a Stormont-shaped trophy, he shouldn’t have any issue ditching such a shameful and universally detested piece of legislation to get it.   On one of the rare occasions in which he actually endeavoured to turn up, Sunak’s recent 3D chess choreography with Jeffrey Donaldson at PMQs has apparently brought us to the …

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David Michell is Assistant Professor in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation at Trinity College Dublin at Belfast. You can follow him on Twitter. This compelling documentary series put me in mind of a support group for UK nations in which Ireland, Scotland, and Wales sit in a circle and discover that they aren’t alone in experiencing centuries of English subjugation. You were kicked off your land? We were kicked off our land! Your culture was erased? Our culture was erased! Grievances are …

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