Soapbox – Page 14 – Slugger O'Toole

Does anyone actually know what the Stormont Brake is? Some questions partially answered…

Soapbox on March 6, 2023, 1:03 pm

| Readers 1440

Bill Breathnach is Writer and TV researcher based in Connemara. Interested in economics, politics and all things cultural… Northern Ireland has been without a functioning Executive for over a year now. Boycotting and abstentionism are tactics that have long been associated with Irish nationalism. But they have been diligently applied by the DUP with respect to Northern Ireland’s devolved institutions in recent times for the cause of unionism. In response, the UK government was once again forced to enter negotiations …

Why is Belfast City Council letting Wilmont House go to ruin?

Soapbox on March 4, 2023, 7:00 am

| Readers 3098

Sharon Marks is campaigning to Save Wilmont House Wilmont House is located within the grounds of Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon park in South Belfast. It is a grade B1 listed property which was built in 1859. The estate was formed in the mid 18th century by William Stewart. The Stewart’s were prominent farmers. The house is 2 storey building comprising of red brick with a three bay front and a balustraded porch. The house was designed by Thomas Jackson, …

“There comes a time to seal the deal”: a DUP member’s take on the Windsor Framework…

Soapbox on March 3, 2023, 7:00 am

| Readers 4268

black metal fence in front of mansion

Matthew Allen is a DUP member from Lagan Valley ‘THIS AGREEMENT IS ABOUT YOUR FUTURE.’ That was the message on the 1998 Belfast Agreement – delivered en masse to Northern Ireland homes, my parents’ and grandparents’ included, that Spring. I was born in October the year after the vote: a peace baby. Though there will be no ’98-style plebiscite on the Windsor Framework, I still feel a civic obligation to digest it and offer some thoughts. Almost everyone who voted …

Childcare is in crisis and parents are paying the price. There is no time to waste.

Soapbox on January 17, 2023, 5:29 pm

| Readers 969

Sinead McLaughlin is an SDLP MLA in Foyle Tune into the radio most mornings and chances are that you will hear a debate underway on access to some of the most vital elements of our public services. From patients struggling to access GP surgeries to commuters facing the latest delay to progress on crucial road and rail projects, these stories are unacceptably common. Yet, one element of our social infrastructure is discussed far less on our airwaves, the early years …

A review of How Civil Wars Start by Dr Barbara Walters…

Soapbox on December 31, 2022, 4:40 pm

| Readers 2548

Arnold Carton is a former teacher, is a moderate unionist who has had a lifelong interest in politics. Too often political discussion within NI politics becomes a repetitive battle over competing identities and about who is to blame for the conflict. Our people are bored with the lack of progress. Sometimes it can be useful and refreshing to put aside our narcissistic tendency to assume that our conflict is historically unique and see if we can learn from the experience of …

The Gaping Hole in Irish Political Thinking

Soapbox on December 22, 2022, 2:32 pm

| Readers 3924

By Billy Lawless, Emma DeSouza & Kevin J. Sullivan . The authors are all members of the Executive Committee of www.votingrights.ie Two themes currently dominate political thought regarding the future of the Irish Nation: the concept of a shared Ireland, promoted by Micheal Martin while he was Taoiseach and the quest for a United Ireland, promoted by Future Ireland and Sinn Fein. Both of these approaches ignore the fact that two large groups of Irish citizens, just under a million– …

It is about identifying the best future for all citizens who live across the island of Ireland…

Soapbox on November 23, 2022, 10:14 am

| Readers 5334

Ben Collins has worked in political communications across the UK and Ireland for two decades. I was raised as a Presbyterian in a strongly pro-British and unionist household, so I understand the attachment to country and crown that many unionists feel. Good friends of mine and family members voted for Brexit in the genuine belief that it would make things better. There is no pleasure in seeing the dysfunction unfold at Westminster since the surprise vote to leave the European …

The poppy. Not a celebration of war but as an expression of sympathy for those who were wounded or who lost their lives in a tragic and unnecessary conflict…

Soapbox on November 11, 2022, 7:00 am

| Readers 4747

red flowers in tilt shift lens

Arnold Carton is a retired schoolteacher from Belfast. The controversy over the wearing of the Poppy in Ireland, with vandals throwing paint at the door of the Royal British Legion office in Dublin, got me thinking about my community’s reasons for wearing the poppy. Approximately 50 years ago, I was a Year 10 (Form 3) pupil in a North Antrim school. Like most of my peer group, I was wearing a poppy, and my school had made an effort to …

The other divide separates those who are willing to commit to civilised debate and listen to the other side from those who are not…

Soapbox on November 9, 2022, 10:01 am

| Readers 5039

woman in black off-shoulder dress

Peter Lockhart is a law student at Queens The traditional cleavage within politics here has never gone away, though it would be reasonable to assert its salience has steadily increased in the last six years since the Brexit referendum. It has been during these years that a debate over the constitutional future of Northern Ireland has developed genuine consideration, as the UK’s status in the so-called ‘premier league’ of nations appears to be under threat from its own sustained self-sabotage. …

Hallowe’en – it never went away you know…

Soapbox on October 31, 2022, 4:00 pm

| Readers 1892

Keith Williamson is a History and Politics teacher in County Down Hallowe’en is a seasonal reminder that the older gods confound the new. To win souls for Christ, the Early Medieval Church expropriated some of the popular festivals of the Gauls and the Celts. Given that conversion was mostly a top-down affair, preachers courted the favour of kings and accommodations were hatched. Ancient polytheistic rites based on the sun’s cyclic light were thereby conjoined with a 4th century Christian tradition …

So much more to small rural schools than pupil numbers…

Soapbox on October 22, 2022, 10:00 am

| Readers 1070

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By Dr Montserrat Fargas-Malet and Professor Carl Bagley QUB Small rural primary schools have been repeatedly in the news as they are being earmarked for closure, with the Education Authority (EA) draft area plan for the next five years stating that there are too many small schools that are not economically sustainable. However, what do we really know about these schools? The last policy report on small rural schools in Northern Ireland was published 20 years ago. We are hosting …

A personal tribute to Baroness May Blood…

Soapbox on October 22, 2022, 8:03 am

| Readers 635

Peter Weil is the founder of Politics in Action The first time I met May was six years ago when I was preparing a Living History course for Stranmillis University College to mark the 50th anniversary of 1968. We wanted to invite as wide a range as possible of different speakers who had lived through the events of half a century ago. Unlike many of our other contributors, May didn’t sound remotely like a politician. And although May achieved far more …

The Steel Shutter Revisited 50th Anniversary Conference…

Soapbox on October 18, 2022, 7:46 am

| Readers 2527

In 1972 at the height of the violent Troubles in Northern Ireland a group of people believed that they could make a difference by simply getting people to listen to one another. Taking great risks for all involved they flew nine stakeholders (5 Protestants and 4 Catholics) from Ireland to Pittsburgh and filmed a three-day encounter group. The famous psychologist Carl Rogers, and colleagues, attempted something radical. For the majority, it was the first time they had any real interaction with …

Who Killed Patricia Curran?

Soapbox on October 15, 2022, 7:00 am

| Readers 6475

Kieran Fagan is an ex-journalist living in Dublin My new book Who Killed Patricia Curran? identifies her mother Lady Doris Curran, wife of Northern Ireland high court judge, Lance Curran, as the murderer. Patricia was. 19 years old, in her first year at Queen’s University in Belfast, in November 1952. Seventy years ago around midnight on 12 November 12, 1952, her parents reported that she had failed to return to the family home at Whiteabbey on the northern shore of Belfast …

A view on the Northern Ireland Protocol from Germany…

Soapbox on October 13, 2022, 11:54 am

| Readers 5966

Berlin lighted free standing signage during night time

Susanne Ditzen (SDfromBerlin in the comments), is a German fan of Slugger O’Toole. She has no formal qualifications to comment on Northern Ireland except for knowing what it means to cross an international border in order to visit Grandma… To me personally, the most remarkable thing about the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (NIP) is still that exists at all, that 28 countries negotiated and agreed on an arrangement so unusual in rights and obligations with respect to handling an international …

Act Now? Celtic languages in Ireland and the UK…

Soapbox on October 12, 2022, 7:57 am

| Readers 5485

Love to Learn | Instagram: @timmossholder

Now mostly retired, Terry McClatchey has worked in health and social care services across various locations in Ireland and Britain. Many words have been traded on the topic of an Irish Language Act for Northern Ireland but they mostly generate more heat than light. I want to propose that the debate could be greatly helped by moving away from the binary rhetoric of “Act Now” versus “Never, never, never…” and working towards reaching an agreement on a fair and sustainable …

Should Unionists engage with Ireland’s Future?

Soapbox on October 4, 2022, 11:55 am

| Readers 4698

Arnold Carton is a retired schoolteacher from Belfast. I was one of the minority of unionists who ignored the advice and abuse from Sammy Wilson and attended Ireland’s Future in Dublin on 1st October, so was the €10 ticket, money well spent? What was the event for, and what did I or anyone else gain from going? We must accept that the perception of a unionist attending this event will probably be different from that of a nationalist, but Ireland’s …

We are not moving forward. We are not moving back. We are simply standing in the middle of the road…

Soapbox on October 4, 2022, 11:28 am

| Readers 926

Colin McGrath is an SDLP MLA for South Down The creation of the National Health Service on 5 July 1948 was the first time, anywhere in the world, that completely free healthcare was made available based on citizenship. It was and remains for many, a radical ideal. The Minister for Health in the UK’s Labour government at the time, Aneurin Bevan, aware that many people saw its inception as radical responded with typical post-war Labour zeal, “We know what happens …

#Census2021: A first look shows new waves of identity innovation and an ageing society…

Soapbox on September 22, 2022, 3:36 pm

| Readers 8912

usa, business, new

Dr Paul Nolan is an independent researcher based in Belfast. He writes on conflict societies, social trends and demography. The first thing to be said about the census results published today is that it is a miracle of sorts that we have them at all. At the beginning of the 2021 the pandemic seemed to make it too difficult for a census to be conducted. The Irish census was pushed back to 2022 and so too was the Scottish census. …