Soapbox – Page 41 – Slugger O'Toole

Time for a City Deal for Belfast…

Soapbox on July 1, 2015, 12:02 pm

| Readers 824

Last week, LOCUS and I, hosted a City Deal seminar in Belfast which was addressed by Mr Richard Brown, Director of Regeneration Glasgow City Council. He explained that City Deals are agreements that have been negotiated between the UK government and 29 cities in the UK; the city gets new powers in exchange for greater responsibility to stimulate and support economic growth and promote job creation. Richard Brown detailed the negotiations he had with HM Treasury to negotiate the first …

First do no harm – smoking and the ethics of vaping…

Soapbox on June 25, 2015, 12:20 pm

| Readers 1358

Michael McBride is crystal clear; our Chief Medical Officer believes too many people are vaping and this is a bad thing. In a recent TV interview he was unambiguous in his discouragement of e-cigarettes. The views of CMO are important, people listen and people take note. He’s not alone; the British Medical Association, WHO, European Commission and the Welsh Assembly are all censorious. So are they right? One thing on which Michael McBride and I agree is the need …

Francis Hutcheson. Lessons in well-being from the father to the Scottish Enlightenment…

Soapbox on June 23, 2015, 12:01 pm

| Readers 691

As we try to establish human well-being at the heart of social and economic policy in Northern Ireland, I think we must search for a relevant local heritage. In this way we counter those critics who suggest that something benign but grandiose and alien is being imposed from outside. So I will point out how the conditions for human well-being were the concern of one magisterial writer whose roots lay deep in the County Down countryside, just a few …

Soapbox: How “closed minds house their own prisons”, or the illiberality of liberalism…

Soapbox on June 22, 2015, 9:59 am

| Readers 794

From reader Dean Sterling Jones… I disagree with what you say, but will fight to the death for your right to say it – if by “fight” you mean “surrender,” by “death” you mean “live comfortably” and by “your right to say it” you mean “your right to shut the hell up.” Don’t bother reading the revised sentence back, it makes little sense. But you get the picture. For some, the right to freedom of speech means little more than “the …

With a third of the population in some areas of NI on antidepressants how do we deal with our massive drug over prescribing rates?

Soapbox on June 17, 2015, 9:11 am

| Readers 1925

It was when a clinical psychiatrist expressed her concern at the number of people prescribed antidepressants that I realised it wasn’t just me. She too thought the good people of West Belfast especially unhappy as the data was telling us some 30% of the local adult population are on “happy pills”. You might ask how did we get here and should it be acceptable that a third of any population are taking medicines to improve their mental health? When I …

European Nature Directives may be the best tool we have to protect NI’s natural environment

Soapbox on June 16, 2015, 4:03 pm

| Readers 396

Colum Delaney, Conservation Officer, Policy Advocacy RSPB NI. Just before Christmas I wrote an article for Slugger on the unprecedented cuts to the Department of the Environment’s budget, and in turn, the devastating affect that this would have across the environmental sector with the removal of the Natural Heritage Grants Programme. Whilst the exact ramifications aren’t yet clear, it’s certain that nature will once again be the loser. Fresh from this sustained attack, a new danger has emerged from Europe. …

Amid all the political gloom, hundreds of new tech startups are quietly creating jobs, boosting exports and revitalising our economy…

Soapbox on June 15, 2015, 1:02 pm

| Readers 1170

I’m a Nolan addict. There, I said it. Recently Nolan Live clipped off an interview with Shaun Woodward where the former SoS spoke of the potential for Northern Ireland to return to violence if Stormont doesn’t get it together over welfare reform. Here’s that 28-minute interview with Shaun Woodward in full: listen to ‘Ex-Secretary of State sounds violence warning over Stormont crisis #BBCNolan’ on audioBoom Nolan followed this up on his radio show the next day, asking ‘what if Stormont …

Ulster says Yes to marriage equality.

Soapbox on June 14, 2015, 2:23 pm

| Readers 1516

Local poet, theologian, group worker and Leader of the Corrymeela Community , Pádraig Ó Tuama, wrote this blog about yesterday’s Marriage Equality march in Belfast and with his permission has allowed us to re-post on Slugger. Here is his story. So yesterday was a beautiful day. Sun. Celebration. Support. Story. Hope. I gave a cúpla focail at the marriage equality gathering in the city. It was organized by the wonderful people at the Rainbow Project, Amnesty and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Over 10,000 …

Why marriage equality should not become yet another expensive (and hysterical) NI drama

Soapbox on June 9, 2015, 1:00 pm

| Readers 1116

Siobhan O’Neill is a professor of mental health sciences at Ulster University. She is currently leading several studies on mental health and suicide in Northern Ireland and teaches on several of Ulster’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in psychology. The obsession with the “naturalness” or otherwise, of particular sexual practices between consenting adults, may appear bizarre and laughable to onlookers. However such debates about the rights of minority groups and the right to discriminate on the basis of personal beliefs influence …

Photo Gallery – West Belfast 1987 – 2003. Capture the present so those in the future can look back at the past…

Soapbox on May 29, 2015, 12:12 pm

| Readers 4957

The adage goes a picture is worth a thousand words and if that is true then I am looking over at at a cardboard box that contains an unseen, unwritten and unpublished 6 million word photographic document relating to life in West Belfast between 1987 – 2003. My name is Sean Allen and I’m a holistic therapist and I currently live in Waterford Ireland. Prior to this in 2003 I was a professional photographer in Belfast, covering Press, Advertising, PR, …

Sinn Fein – No Longer Transfer Toxic

Soapbox on May 27, 2015, 12:12 pm

| Readers 2270

The Carlow Kilkenny by-election has shown that Sinn Fein’s traditional transfer toxicity might be a thing of the past. Personally I had a great weekend. I burst out of my closet 27 years ago at the tender age of 19 and landed in a very cold room for gays in the conservative Ireland of 1987. Over the last 27 years I have witnessed a phenomenal social revolution with the LGBT community becoming the most recent beneficiaries. However, I must admit …

#MarRef: Homophobia has adapted to a changing Ireland; we cannot let it win

Soapbox on May 21, 2015, 5:10 pm

| Readers 1103

And our penultimate pitch comes from reader Oisín Hassan in favour of a Yes vote tomorrow. By Friday night the long slog of months of campaigning will be over, and by Saturday afternoon the outcome of one of the most momentous decisions the Irish people have ever been asked to make will be known. Opponents present marriage equality as a demand too far, dreamt up in the heads of ‘gay agenda’ pushers to force alternative ‘lifestyle choices’ on society. In …

The right side of truth – Saying No to Same Sex Marriage

Soapbox on May 21, 2015, 9:06 am

| Readers 1969

James D. is well known to many people on Twitter as @jdtips . Apart from reading odds and giving many betting tips he is also an advocate of a No vote in the upcoming referendum on same sex marriage. Having heard the case for the ‘Yes’ vote he now lays out his case for people to hear. I believe that a vast majority of people who support same-sex marriage are well intentioned and people of good will. They are upstanding …

#SluggerSoapbox: A compassionate plea for a NO vote in the #MarRef…

Soapbox on May 20, 2015, 3:43 pm

| Readers 1337

The following essay is from Kate Bopp, who makes a passionate pitch for voting NO in this week’s Referendum in the Republic. There is not a single jurisdiction on the planet that alters its constitution on the basis of emotive arguments that relate to adult romantic relationships. Constitutional change follows us and envelops aspects of our lives that go far beyond sentiments like love and sexual attraction. The melodrama being played out by the YES campaign is quite bizarre. There …

Mike Nesbitt on Gavin Robinson, David Simpson, good grace and polls

Soapbox on May 18, 2015, 6:58 am

| Readers 3405

In the aftermath of the Westminster Election the UUP are now back in the House of Commons. Writing for Slugger, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mike Nesbitt writes for us about election night and hits back at the DUP’s David Simpson. UK-wide, the 2015 General Election has been defined by the Conservative’s outright win, the tsunami of momentum behind the SNP and the failure of pundits and pollsters to call it right. Here, the latter also featured, but to me, …

#Marref Soapbox: Séamas’s story – ‘Can we talk?’

Soapbox on May 15, 2015, 9:58 pm

| Readers 1900

Séamas de Faoite writes in favour of the Marriage Referendum and relates his own experience to illustrate the ongoing anguish faced by young gay people in their decision in how and when and to whom they can ‘come out’. ‘Can we talk?’ – it was the refrain of one of my preferred comedians, the ever polemic Joan Rivers, before her untimely death in 2014. She used it as an opener to her more controversial sketches; almost asking the audience’s permission to push the …

SNP revolution means it’s now make or break time for the union

Soapbox on May 13, 2015, 12:42 pm

| Readers 2039

By Ben Wray, a journalist with CommonSpace, which is an online Scottish news, analysis and opinion website. They used to say if you pinned a red rosette to a monkey in Glasgow people would vote for it, such was the overwhelming dominance of the Labour party in Scotland’s biggest city. Labour is not just a political party in Scotland – it has been symbolic of Scotland’s political culture for decades, a way for people of identifying who they are, spanning generations of …

Who is Topping the Social Media Poll

Soapbox on May 11, 2015, 1:17 pm

| Readers 652

Peter Purcell works in Marketing and writes a platform for us on politicians who used social media particularly well during the recent election campaign. As campaigning is now over lets leave politics to one side and take a look at who is winning on social media and leading the way for their party colleagues to follow. I have picked out three candidates that have caught my attention, but would be keen to hear who has impressed you. Naomi Long In …

Sex workers’ rights in Northern Ireland

Soapbox on May 11, 2015, 6:00 am

| Readers 1303

With the DUP once again sliding into a comfortable majority and the law to further criminalise sex work due on June 1st, there has never been a more pertinent time to look at sex workers’ rights in Northern Ireland. We don’t have rights, but that’s about to change. As sex workers on the front line we know the damage that the forthcoming law will do. Sweden has the highest number of rapes in Europe, sex workers are being made homeless, …

There’s an election on. Do you fancy a bet?

Soapbox on May 6, 2015, 4:13 pm

| Readers 1105

One of our long term commenters Tochais Soirai gives fellow readers a few last minute tips if you are thinking of having a last minute flutter on the election. Thinking of having a bet in the last days of the campaign? If you do, you’ll be part of a long tradition. The earliest organised political betting is often cited as the elections to the Great Council of Genoa in 1515 whilst in Britain political betting became very popular in the regency …