Turgon

Carrickmacross council has voted to remove a page from its visitor book signed by the Israeli ambassador to Ireland Zion Evrony in protest at Israel’s diplomatic record. Sinn Fein’s councillor Matt Carthy said “I think if a government is responsible for a wholesale disregard for international law then local authorities, as well as our own government, have a responsibility to tell them we expect a higher standard,” he continued “it was important that we took a stand”. The move has …

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Dr. Paisley has told the Ballymena Guardian that he will not be contesting North Antrim at the general election. The selection meeting is next week and seems very likely to select Ian Paisley junior. The the battle with Allister can commence in earnest. TurgonThis author has not written a biography and will not be writing one.

The Hillsbourough agreement foresees the cross community vote on the devolution of policing and justice as occurring on the 9th of March with power to be devolved on 12th of April. Clearly this is colossally before Lord Morrow’s timetable of not in the life time of this assembly and indeed just as premature for Gregory Campbell’s six months or six years. Once when the DUP were busy telling everyone that they would not be rushed or bounced into devolving P&J …

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The BBC have just announced that Eddie McGrady has announced that he is not going to stand in South Down at the Westminster election. The speculation is that the new SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie will stand; Sinn Fein have already selected Catriona Ruane. TurgonThis author has not written a biography and will not be writing one.

This is a bit sketchy but apparently Dr. Paisley has an in depth interview in the News Letter tomorrow. My understanding is that this interview may make for less than entirely popular reading for both Peter Robinson and indeed others in the DUP. I am led to believe that Dr. Paisley expands on his previous comments about Peter Robinson’s “clever device” and says that his own deal with McGuinness was a simple deal founded on his word (whatever value one …

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The UUP executive have apparently confirmed 9 of their candidates for Westminster. These are now the UCUNF candidates for the respective constituencies they are as follows: East Belfast Trevor Ringland West Belfast Bill Manwaring Upper Bann Harry Hamilton Mid Ulsrter Sandra Overend Lagan Valley Daphne Trimble Newry Armagh Danny Kennedy West Tyrone Ross Hussey Strangford Mike Nesbitt South Down John McCallister In addition although he has apparently denied it in the Irish News today, there is a large amount of …

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The murderers of Thomas Devlin were found guilty today. Thomas was a 15 year old schoolboy from Somerton Road in North Belfast. He and two friends were coming back from buying sweets and fizzy drinks during a session of computer gaming. Just before they reached home they were attacked by Nigel Brown, 26, of Whitewell Road and Gary Taylor, 23, from Mountcollyer Avenue. Thomas was stabbed 9 times and died at the scene near his own home whilst one of …

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The BBC are reporting that the PSNI organised crime branch searched the council buildings on Saturday with the co-operation of the council officers. It is part of an inquiry into the accusations made about Mrs Robinson’s financial affairs by BBC’s Spotlight. TurgonThis author has not written a biography and will not be writing one.

Mick has his thoughts below but I thought I would add my own on Adams’s documentary about Jesus. To be honest it told us little we did not already know. Adams looked at the life of Jesus and was told about possible differences between the suggested real life of Jesus and the gospel accounts. Adams seemed more interested in Jesus’s teachings than in the historical or theological niceties. When he came to the discussion of the relevance of Jesus’s teaching …

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The approach of a general election always seems to bring politicians out to speak. Pat Doherty the abstentionist (from his constituency as well as Westminster) MP for West Tyrone made the opening address to the Irish unity conference in London today (already mentioned by Brian). To be fair to Doherty he pretended some recognition of the position of unionists: “Of course, unionists have a different perspective. They want to maintain the union. For this reason some elements of political unionism …

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The position of the 14 DUP MLAs, who initially opposed the Hillsborough agreement before then accepting it, is interesting. Within a few days these semi dissidents went from what was claimed to be a stormy meeting with multiple threatened resignations to unanimous support for the agreement. They may indeed have been snowmen who as Jim Allister says melted when the heat was turned on. Certainly not for them the political equivalent of a glorious death like David Crockett (a man …

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So the deal has finally been done: unless the UUP can be induced to throw a spanner in the works; or the DUP’s consultation with the community shows that the unionist community really will not accept the agreement; or Robinson’s cunning devices can be shown to be more effective than Baldrick’s cunning plans. A negative outcome of the DUP’s consultation seems vanishingly unlikely: when political parties consult the community they always claim to get the answer they had already decided …

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Martin McGuinness addressed the annual Blood Sunday commemoration march this year. There was much in his speech (covered on the Sinn Fein website) about seeking truth and justice over the events that day: maybe a little less about his refusal to answer some questions put to him due to his “IRA oath.” On the topic of devolution of policing and justice McGuinness has this to say: “These talks were about equality. It was about rights. Your rights, my rights, our …

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The current episode of the Hatfield House talks along with the recent Irisgate travails of the DUP have again put the intra unionist battle and the possibilities of realignment back in the spotlight (pun intended). There is a distinct possibility that all this is nonsense, talked up by those with agendas which are not always exactly pro unionist (pointing directly at certain much more senior bloggers than myself). However, it is a sensible time to look at intra unionist battles …

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After the defeat of the German army at Stalingrad it briefly looked as if a complete German collapse was imminent. However, General Erich von Manstein launched a quite brilliant counter attack known as the Third Battle of Kharkov. From a position of apparent critical weakness the Germans salvaged a good military position. Mick has covered the fact that Sinn Fein have ended the talks about P&J below. This is hardly the outcome the media or many others thought likely a …

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