Soapbox – Page 29 – Slugger O'Toole

New thinking at Stormont doesn’t matter if it’s not backed up by new governance

Soapbox on January 23, 2018, 3:56 pm

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Jonny McCormick has got a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical Studies and a Master’s degree in International Peacekeeping. Jonny writes about politics, business & anything else that pops into his head. Get in touch with Jonny on Twitter @jonnymccormick I recently moved back to Northern Ireland after 5 years living in England. I was delighted to be moving back. I’d be closer to family. I could afford to buy a house. I could access a more reliable public transport system and …

Grassroots Campaign for Irish Language Legislation transformed political discourse, but where are we now and how can we help deliver meaningful change?

Soapbox on January 22, 2018, 7:22 pm

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Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin writes for Slugger about the upcoming talks and the Irish Language Act On Wednesday our local political parties, this time the 5 ‘main parties’ as they are described in the media, will return to the table to try and flesh out a deal which would allow for the Executive to be formed and the MLA’s to take their seats in the Assembly once more. The issues in the ‘to be resolved’ box is much the same …

A Year Without Government Series: Part I of III

Soapbox on January 22, 2018, 1:38 pm

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This week will mark one year since the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly and one year without government in Northern Ireland. Over the next few articles from myself on this site I hope to take a satirical and hopefully comical look back on the events of this year and how we managed to find ourselves in the situation. The following was written entirely tongue in cheek and none of it should be taken very seriously. How did we get …

It’s time for the pro-life movement needs to change its tactics

Soapbox on January 19, 2018, 7:13 pm

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Lucy Williams writes about the current abortion rights debate I remember my mother wearing them when my youngest brother was born. When I asked her about them, she told me they were just to remember how tiny her babies had been in her belly. But, I imagine, she just didn’t want to explain the details to a seven-year-old. Then in secondary school, they appeared on school blazers- the gold glinting among the house pins, prefect badges and boyband stickers. These …

Soapbox: It’s well past time to move on…….

Soapbox on January 15, 2018, 7:30 am

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I am almost 69. If I am lucky I may have a few years still to go. Since I was 20 my life has been lived with the spectre of the ‘troubles ‘ hovering over me. The troubles have defined my country, my life and those of my children. I do not want them to define the lives of my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. I have mourned with those who have lost loved ones, I have grieved for their loss. …

It may be that a combination of a Brexit that Republicans opposed and the failure of Unionists themselves to grasp the opportunity presented to them by the GFA that does most damage to the Union

Soapbox on January 6, 2018, 11:05 am

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John MacManus is a History Teacher in Northern Ireland Reading Andrew Gallagher’s ‘Making friends with the cat next door’ afforded me a free (albeit brief) through the looking glass experience. For reasons of space I’m going to largely ignore the ill- suited and inappropriate metaphor and focus on the significantly more problematic content. The article states; “Irish Nationalism is strategically very weak. Unionism has what they want- a blocking majority- but Nationalism has nothing that Unionism wants in return.” In …

It’s time to end party political revisionism and celebrate NICRA for what it achieved and learn from what it failed to do.

Soapbox on January 4, 2018, 7:30 pm

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Paddy Wilson is a postgraduate student at Queens University Belfast and a member of the Workers Party Having entered a period of commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of NICRA, many groups are attempting to stake a claim. The SDLP say they are the ‘Party of Civil Rights’. Sinn Fein regularly links the armed struggle to Civil Rights. Nelson McCausland in today’s Belfast Telegraph assists in this link between Civil Rights and the rise of Provisional violence. One voice …

Dealing with alcohol – how the ambulance service picks up the pieces…

Soapbox on January 4, 2018, 7:36 am

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We get the inside track from a serving paramedic… Given that we are now over the festive season but still very much in the grip of the annual winter pressures it was interesting to read the article by the Chief Executive of NHS England regarding drunk tanks (officially Alcohol Intoxication Management Services, Safe Havens or Alcohol Treatment Centres), as well as the associated social media reaction. Winter is traditionally a time when we see an increase in ambulance call-outs and hospital admissions …

We are so used to seeing Northern Ireland politics as a zero-sum game that it’s hard to acknowledge a political deal which might benefit everyone.

Soapbox on December 9, 2017, 8:56 pm

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Jon Tonge is a Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of The Democratic Unionist Party: From Protest to Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press. We are so used to seeing Northern Ireland politics as a zero-sum game that it’s hard to acknowledge a political deal which might benefit everyone. That might partially explain why the endorsement of Friday’s Phase 1 Brexit agreement. Amid the ambiguity and verbiage what was tentatively and sensibly proposed was a …

Proceed to Phase Two. All systems go for Brexit?

Soapbox on December 9, 2017, 7:05 am

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All these competing visions of Brexit cannot be accommodated within the framework taking shape at this stage, which suggests a ‘softer’ outcome than desired by some. 

Can the DUP square all its circles before time runs out?

Soapbox on December 4, 2017, 6:09 pm

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In the aftermath of the DUP’s slick, on message conference last month, Arlene Foster’s comments on the border and customs union were – unsurprisingly – headline news. This week, after a chaotic round of statements, leaks and interviews from the Irish and British governments, the DUP and the EU, they bear reexamining. On the border, Foster rejected the idea of a hard border between the North and the Republic. She, quite rightly, identified this as a step towards economic chaos. …

Relationships: The Bridge between Principles & Practicalities

Soapbox on December 1, 2017, 12:15 pm

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“We are committed to partnership, equality and mutual respect as the basis of relationships within Northern Ireland, between North and South and between these islands” – Belfast / Good Friday Agreement 1998 Last month, I had the immense honour of speaking at the international youth conference One Young World: 1500 young leaders from 196 countries meeting in Bogota, Colombia to explore how we collectively resolve some of the greatest global challenges. Despite the many complexities we continue to face in …

EXCLUSIVE POLL: Unionist supporters content with East West post #Brexit border controls…

Soapbox on November 26, 2017, 6:31 pm

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The dilemma facing Brexit negotiators on the ‘Irish border’ question is how to retain an invisible, frictionless, ‘soft’ North-South border in Ireland and somehow avoid the seemingly inevitable reality of the emergence of a ‘hard’ border if the UK leaves the single market and the customs union. Squaring this circle is a little tricky. It’s hard to have a border and not have a border all at the same time. Borders are a bit like boiled eggs, either hard or …

Nationalism needs the inspiration so desperately needed in these early days of that better nation.

Soapbox on November 17, 2017, 10:06 am

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Aaron Murray, political researcher working in London. He is also on Twitter @aaronmurray87 Engraved on the Canongate wall of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood is a phrase Alasdair Gray described as ‘inspiring but not boastful’. ‘Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation’ it reads. Widely attributed to Gray, it is the creation of Canadian poet Dennis Lee from his exploration of citizenship, Civil Eligies. In recent years it became a credo of the Scottish …

The Holylands: a manifesto for urban renewal

Soapbox on November 17, 2017, 9:09 am

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Emmet McDonough-Brown is an Alliance Party Councillor for Botanic. Since my election in 2014, I’ve devoted a fair bit of time and effort to the challenges faced by the Holylands and its community of settled residents. I won’t rehearse the full and inglorious history of how we arrived here but the experiences that residents have endured are just awful. I consider myself an optimist though (which is why I joined Alliance!) and it has always been my view that the …

For Westminster, Northern Ireland still isn’t a priority.

Soapbox on November 16, 2017, 8:40 am

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Patrick Thompson is a postgraduate student at Queen’s University, specialising in Northern Irish and Labour politics Last week a strange piece appeared on the news agency Bloomberg’s website about the Irish dimension of Britain’s decision to leave the EU. It was titled ‘Irish Border Throws Unexpected Hurdle to Brexit’. The notion that there is an open question around what Brexit means for the UK’s only land border isn’t groundbreaking. But the idea that this is a surprise most definitely is. …

Time to bring the citizen back in?

Soapbox on November 7, 2017, 1:03 pm

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As Steven Agnew of the Green Party calls for a Citizens Assembly for Northern Ireland, Robin Wilson writes about the idea which has been under development by a group of citizens and voluntary sector organisations facilitated by the Building Change Trust over the past 6 months. Northern Ireland seems once again to have reverted to a default state of political dysfunctionality, with months and potentially years of further reluctantly-assumed direct rule from Westminster looming, with its associated ‘democratic deficit’. While …

SOAPBOX: Can the economy be Irish? #ESRCfestival

Soapbox on November 6, 2017, 3:49 pm

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SOAPBOX – The OU’s Dr Leslie Budd recalls economist George Shackle’s observation that to be an economist one has to be an anthropologist, political scientist, mathematician, philosopher, and sociologist with an interest in economics. It is these characteristics that are vital in creating a narrative and conversation about Brexit. Irish storytelling could help address the challenge facing us.

Economics as Storytelling – will Northern Ireland live happily ever after?

Soapbox on November 3, 2017, 10:53 am

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Economics is seen as one of those complex subjects, up there with nuclear physics, as simply too difficult to understand and something only economic experts can comment on. However, this is not always the case. While presented and viewed by most as objective, scientific and complex, economics can actually be viewed as a form of storytelling. What we need to do is translate the language into one that is easier to understand and the best way of doing this is …