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Poignant memories of 1950s Belfast: scrambling to retrieve lost half-crowns, nurturing burnt banknotes, and marveling at the revered world of banking – contrasted with frustrating modern tech woes and profits-first mentality eroding customer service.
Alan Millar, journalist and award-winning Ulster-Scots writer, originally from Donegal, now based in North Antrim. 2021 winner of the Scots Language Society Hugh MacDiarmid Tassie and inaugural Linenhall Library Ulster-Scots short story prize. His first collection Echas frae tha Big Swilly Swally, was published in May. THE Sunflower Bar in Belfast was the place to be for Ulster-Scots language last Saturday, when eight poets and writers, came together for a groundbreaking showcase event, not seen for a long number of …
David Jamison is from Belfast. He has recently retired and to use his own words, now with time on his hands to think and write about things he probably should have thought more about years ago. Public Transport in all its various forms seems to be getting a lot of attention at the moment. The new Belfast Grand Central Station is proceeding a pace. Cycle routes have got a mention. Train routes and Connectivity to the NW. Then Bus Passes …
Gavin Lafferty is a Slugger reader from Belfast… It has been interesting reading some of the reactions to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s visit to the north, particularly among the harder edges of Unionism. Varadkar’s calls for increased co-operation from the British government and the need for a potential plan B should Stormont not be revived, was predictably negative from that quarter. The Newsletter has helpfully gathered some of the more colourful reactions “DUP MP Ian Paisley called the Irish premier “a big mouth” …
Hughie Beag is a West Belfast native and recovering legal scholar who spends lots of time in his spouse’s native Basque Country We’re coming up to the Apprentice Boys of Derry Relief of Derry parade, held annually on the second Saturday in August in the old walled city of Derry on the West Bank of the Foyle. The ABOD march was previously contested when, as a result of the 1994 ceasefires, the city walls became fully accessible to the public and …
Dr Paul Nolan is an independent researcher based in Belfast. He writes on conflict societies, social trends and demography. In 1977 Reverend Dr Ian Paisley launched the Save Ulster From Sodomy! Campaign. The exclamation mark built into the campaign title was intended to convey the urgency of the situation: at that time a Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association had been formed to campaign for the extension of the Sexual Offences Act (1967) which had decriminalised homosexual acts between consenting adult …
Hughie Beag is a West Belfast native and recovering legal scholar who spends lots of time in his spouse’s native Basque Country The expected centre right / far right surge didn’t happen and today, Incumbent Pedro Sánchez is poised to remain the Spanish President as a result of Sunday’s inconclusive national election in which the center-right Popular Party won the most votes but was left with no clear path to form a government. Prior to the vote, conservative leader Alberto Núñez …
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. …
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 …
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 …
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’.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
