Soapbox – Page 13 – Slugger O'Toole

A Free Stater’s Guide to the Twelfth in Belfast…

Soapbox on July 17, 2023, 8:56 pm

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Bill Breathnach is Writer and TV researcher based in Connemara. Interested in economics, politics and all things cultural… A tale of flags, flutes, and an unexpected night out in Sandy Row Taking the Enterprise train from Dublin to Belfast on the 11th of July was a strange experience. As I gazed out of my carriage window, I sensed a slight degree of trepidation seeing the Union Jacks, bunting and the odd UVF flag adorning some of the lampposts we passed. …

LONG READ: An Irish Republican revisits the Glorious Twelfth of July…

Soapbox on July 15, 2023, 1:37 pm

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Paddy McMenamin is a native of Belfast, a former internee and IRA prisoner and even a one time fan of Glentoran football club. He lives in Galway these days but recently received an invitation he never expected to receive and could not refuse. I was about eight years of age and living in the Annadale estate in south Belfast, we had moved there from Mountcoyller in Tigers Bay down the Shore Road, my parents being Catholic from Tyrone and Donegal …

Dáil Elections 2024 – Predicting the Northern Six Counties…

Soapbox on June 27, 2023, 7:00 am

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David Nesbitt is a husband, father and Presbyterian in the fine tradition of McCracken and Neilson. He obtained a PhD in Computer Science from Queens and likes to nerd out on election coverage. Following last year’s shocking decision to call a snap Border Poll on New Years Day 2024 and the even more shocking (but not unprecendented) result of 55% in favour of Northern Ireland re-unifying with the Irish Republic, the waning months of 2024 have been interesting to say …

SOAPBOX: Setting a different lead – Presbyterians for Inclusion and Equality #dublinpride

Soapbox on June 23, 2023, 3:00 pm

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People holding a Presbyteriand for Inclusion and Equality banner at a previous Dublin Pride parade

Saturday (24 June) marks the final day of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland … [but] I will be walking in the Dublin Gay Pride Parade … joining with others from our church community behind a banner proclaiming ‘Presbyterians for Inclusion and Equality’.

For Unionist Unity, should we look to America?

Soapbox on June 22, 2023, 7:00 am

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Mark Irwin is a Researcher by trade with an Msc. in Geographic Information Systems. He is also an active member of the Ulster Unionist Party. Just when you thought the SNP drama was dying down, suddenly a fifty-two year old woman gets arrested and subsequently released. It was the turn of Nicola Sturgeon to face Police Scotland. Against the backdrop of the SNP’s difficulties; Alex Salmond wasted no time writing to his former colleagues on the idea of a single …

Net Zero – Northern Ireland’s Secret Weapon

Soapbox on June 16, 2023, 11:51 am

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David Morrow is a public policy graduate from Belfast who used to work at Stormont. He is writing in a personal capacity. So you’ve passed legally binding climate legislation – what next? It’s probably a bit early in the life cycle of national climate targets for government ministers to be producing self-help books – in most cases, this decade is the first time that we’re actually going to see politicians being responsible for meeting targets that they’ve set. In the …

#Census2021: Adding to the count, new census data

Soapbox on June 12, 2023, 9:55 am

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two black-and-white birds

Dr Paul Nolan is an independent researcher based in Belfast. He writes on conflict societies, social trends and demography. The publication of the Census 21 data last year proved to be a watershed moment for Northern Ireland. It showed that on the centenary of the state, a state established to provide the security of built-in majority for unionists, the Catholic population had become larger than the Protestant population. On 31 May NISRA released a new cache of data which shows …

Ireland: Neutrality & Defense…

Soapbox on June 3, 2023, 7:00 am

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view photography of gray castle on island

Originally from Ireland, Adrian McGrath now lives in Spain. TÁNAISTE AND MINISTER for Defence Micheál Martin is developing proposals on how Ireland’s neutrality “may evolve”. Martin is “developing proposals” to look at defence and how our defensive security policies should evolve.” It is also reported that Ireland maintains a secret arrangement dating back to the Cold War era allowing the UK to police the country’s airspace and that many US military planes are allowed to land at Shannon. But could …

NI born Catholics account for just 26% of PSNI officers…

Soapbox on May 31, 2023, 10:16 am

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Bill Breathnach is Writer and TV researcher based in Connemara. Interested in economics, politics and all things cultural… Catholics presently make up 31.7% of PSNI officers. This figure comes from statistics provided as part of a response from the force to a recent Freedom of Information request. Indeed, this percentage barely differs from the figure of 32% quoted in the media 2021. However, recent data provides a more detailed breakdown of PSNI statistics and shows that Catholic officers born in …

Before thinking about a border poll, there are many regulatory issues that need serious tightening

Soapbox on May 24, 2023, 8:20 am

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vote, poll, election

Matt Qvortrup is Professor of Political Science at Coventry University. Currently a visiting professor of Constitutional Law at the Australian National University, his latest book I Want to Break Free: A Practical Guide to Making a New Country, is published by Manchester University Press. “Blessed are the peace-makers”. Peter Mandelson, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was becoming lyrical, and almost metaphysical, when he spoke about the vote on the Good Friday Agreement at an event just outside Jerusalem …

Unionism needs plurality not unity; strategy not the reactionary…

Soapbox on May 23, 2023, 2:00 pm

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Callum Jones is a Senior Parliamentary Assistant to a Conservative MP, based in Westminster, but originally from North Down. The overwhelming unionist takeaway from the local elections has been that it is in dire straits: eclipsed by republicans, demoralised and split in three separate directions. Discussion over the cold slab of unionism’s post mortem has drawn one common conclusion: unionism needs a ‘rethink’. It is more stark than that: unionism needs nothing short of a reformation. The DUP has sought …

Integrated Education: A lot of progress has been made since 1998, yet there is a long way to go…

Soapbox on May 17, 2023, 7:11 am

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crocus, flower, spring

Peter Osborne, Chair of the Integrated Education Fund and a former chair of the Community Relations Council and Parades Commission, reflects on the latest LucidTalk poll on attitudes to Integrated Education. Older people, like me, look to the past because it will inform the future while younger people look to the future because they have little memory of the past. The LucidTalk poll on Integrated Education speaks to the future. Never mind that two thirds and more of people in …

Agreement 25 Conference – Key Takeaways…

Soapbox on April 22, 2023, 7:00 am

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Peter Lockhart is a law student at Queens The Agreement 25 conference has helped cast Queen’s University, and by extension Northern Ireland, in an extraordinarily positive light. There was a tangible sincerity about the effort and care international actors have invested in this place. The following is my take on the key takeaways from the last three days. Day 1 The highlight of the first day, and arguably the highlight of the entire conference, came in its first hour when …

Twenty-Five Years After the Agreement: Loyalist Groups and Organised Crime

Soapbox on April 20, 2023, 10:09 am

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abandoned, old, house

Dominic Bryan and Brendan Sturgeon of Queen’s University Belfast lay out the complexity of dealing with the remnants of major Loyalist ‘paramilitary’ groups and argue that treating it only as an organised crime problem is insufficient. In many respects the peace process in Northern Ireland has been successful. Most obviously there is overwhelming support for political processes over the use of force. After agreements in 1998 and 2006 weapons were removed from the streets as the British Army stood down its policing …

A Peace of Us: Exploring the Impact of the Good Friday Agreement 25 Years On

Soapbox on April 19, 2023, 11:50 am

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Megan Fearon is the Policy and Public Affairs Manager for the Open University As we approached the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, The Open University in Ireland embarked on a unique project called “A Peace of Us”. The four-part podcast series goes beyond the political institutions and delves into the broader themes of post-conflict societies. With voices from various sectors including arts, music, sports, and activism, “A Peace of Us” aims to give us a holistic understanding of …

The Radical Hospitality of Peacemaking

Soapbox on April 10, 2023, 1:05 pm

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David Porter was a co-founder and director of ECONI. He left Belfast in 2008 to lead the international reconciliation ministry at Coventry Cathedral, before being appointed by Archbishop Justin Welby in 2013 as his Director for Reconciliation. He became Chief of Staff at Lambeth Palace in 2016, retiring from that role in November 2022. It was the helicopters, that potent background hum of troubles Belfast, that signalled what progress was being made or not made. Our home sat just below …

‘Drop all and answer it’: The Red Cross neutrality in Northern Ireland

Soapbox on April 8, 2023, 2:00 pm

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a red cross painted on a white paper

Sam Guthrie is an oral historian and project manager of the Our Stories – Our Times project with the British Red Cross. For thirty years Colonel Sir Michael and Lady (Aileen) McCorkell kept a secret. On June 20, 1972, their home – Ballyarnett, just outside Derry – had hosted the first meeting between representatives of the British Government and the Provisional IRA on June 20, 1972. While others waited outside Frank Steel, Dáithí Ó Conaill, P. J. Woodfield and Gerry …

Irish Unity, Labour politics and the role of the SDLP: an interview with Patsy McGlone MLA….

Soapbox on April 7, 2023, 7:00 am

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Bill Breathnach is Writer and TV researcher based in Connemara. Interested in economics, politics and all things cultural… Patsy McGlone is a true Gael. The Ballinderry man is a fluent Irish speaker and with a passion for Gaelic culture. His father John played football for Derry, but it was another sporting legend from the Oak Leaf County that encouraged Patsy to enter politics. Roddy Gribbin, who played in the 1958 All-Ireland Final, was an SDLP councillor in Magherafelt during the …

Book review: On the flawed genius of Charles J Haughey…

Soapbox on April 3, 2023, 7:05 am

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David Moane is a Dublin-based retiree with an interest in politics and current affairs. Here he re-assesses the career of Charlie Haughey in the light of Gary Murphy’s recently well received biography. I have mixed views on Haughey. I am in my early sixties now and am old enough to remember the great sparring matches between him and Conor Cruise O’Brien. When Haughey was appointed Taoiseach in December 1979, O’Brien was editor-in-chief of the Observer newspaper. He wrote a column …

Losing Saint Patrick to Find Ourselves…

Soapbox on March 16, 2023, 7:00 am

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Keith Williamson is a History and Politics teacher in County Down Saint Patrick has (possibly) been subjected to more makeovers than any other historical figure born within these islands. For fifteen centuries he has been refashioned by monks, kings, archbishops, politicians and expats. The endless rebranding is, however, hugely interesting in terms of Ireland’s evolving storyboard. In truth, all we know for certain about Patrick is what he revealed in his own writings. Hagiographers and propagandists, who wrote centuries later, …