Turgon

The Irish news are reporting that the DUP has again delayed selecting a candidate for the European election in June. I have heard that there has so far been only one nomination (Deirdre Nelson: a councillor in Ballymena, and slugger o’toole councillor of the year). The selection meeting was due to take place on 22nd January but the date for closure of applications has been moved to 23rd January. TurgonThis author has not written a biography and will not be …

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The Newsletter and the BBC are reporting that the youth wing of Sinn Fein (Ógra Shinn Féin) has had a blog with a picture of Gregory Campbell superimposed on a body wearing Nazi regalia. Mr. Campbell seems less than impressed and apparently said he was “quite happy Sinn Féin are unhappy with me but a boundary had been crossed…The irony will not be lost on people that this is the youth wing of an organisation that has had fascist tendencies …

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President if the RoI Mary McAleese has managed to start the New Year with some more controversy. She was speaking at the centenary celebrations held by the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union in Dublin last night. The speech is on her official website. The Newsletter is reporting her as saying:“…the struggle was against starvation, disease and exploitation, where the lack of education of the masses was matched only by the ignorance of the economic and political elites”. President McAleese …

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Veteran anti apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman who died on New Year’s Day aged 91 was buried in a private Jewish ceremony today in Johannesburg. The mourners included President Kgalema Motlanther and the last leader of the apartheid regime, F W de Klerk. Born in 1917 to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, she married Dr Moses Suzman, who became one of South Africa’s leading physicians. Five years after graduating from Witwatersrand University, she joined the staff as a lecturer in economic development. …

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TBF Thompson has died at the age of 93. He was well known within the NI business community for running a very successful agricultural machinery and commercial vehicles business. He was also widely known and respected in religious circles for his very extensive and generous involvement in Christian charities. I well remember assorted trips to the TBF Thompson Ministries building in Garvagh. I never met the man but he does seem to have been spoken of highly by practically anyone …

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Admit all the other end of year analyses I noticed this one by BBC Northern Ireland’s Education correspondent Maggie Taggart. Meanwhile Henry McDonald in the Guardian has suggested that education will become the major political struggle of the next few months. Martin McGuinness has defended Ruane stating “The predominant view of this has to be the view of the minister. Caitriona Ruane is entitled to be respected, just as we must respect other ministers. I think there has been a …

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This is from the Impartial Reporter (but not online). Jim Dixon one of the 63 people injured along with the 12 murdered when the IRA bombed the Remembrance Sunday ceremony in Enniskillen is planning to travel to Libya in the hope of meeting Colonel Gadaffi. A “class action” is being undertaken by a number of victims, who are looking for compensation from the Libyans who supported the IRA campaign with huge arsenals of weapons and bombs. The victims’ action had …

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Danny McIlhone kidnapped, murdered and then secretly buried by the IRA was finally buried today after Requiem Mass at St Teresa’s. Father Darach MacGiolla Cathain who conducted the service said that it was a day of mixed emotions: “What is clear in these circumstances is that time doesn’t heal.” “Truth heals, justice heals, righting a wrong heals. We are still in a society that is continuing to come to terms with its past.” “What happened to Danny is not in …

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I have periodically tried to look at the political positions of other political parties and I decided it would be interesting to look at the SDLP. I do not pretend to be an expert on them but I thought it would be an interesting intellectual exercise to analyse their position (from my very biased viewpoint). In many ways the collapse in their support has mirrored that of the UUP’s and although they have held onto more Westminster seats their political …

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I must confess to having a sneaking regard for Sammy Wilson; he always seems to be a much more talented and serious politician than he is sometimes portrayed. Maybe one of his failings is that he actually has some sort of sense of humour about himself. He has certainly managed to come out of the latest episode rather better than one of his department’s advisors Professor Gerg Lloyd. The BBC are reporting that at a a planning conference: Professor Lloyd …

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Maria Gatland (nee McGuire) has a piece in today’s Sunday Times explaining the circumstances of her previous membership of the IRA and the furore which surrounded her having the Conservative whip withdrawn. She seems somewhat aggrieved at what has happened in the last few weeks. She explains how in the past she “..felt strongly about the way the people of Ireland were being treated.” It seems that she decided to “defect” after the end of the 1972 truce. She says …

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It appears that everyone has an opinion on the link up between the Conservative party and the UUP. It may represent a “frame shift” in the DNA of local politics. However, we have had momentous changes redefining politics in Northern Ireland on a number of previous occasions. The Alliance party broke the mould and changed voting forever (well I guess that is true in a very small measure within the Pale: I still await the sight of an Alliance canvasser …

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The jury at the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes has returned an open verdict; it had already been forbidden from returning one of unlawful killing, the other option being one of lawful killing. Mr de Menezes was shot dead by armed police officers at Stockwell tube station on the 22nd of July 2005. The coroner had asked the jury to consider a series of questions, the answers to which could be “Yes”, “No” or “Cannot decide:” …

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The disaster which is Zimbabwe has been going on for years: if one counts UDI, decades. The cholera outbreak is now killing increasing numbers and the hospitals seem completely unable to cope. The EU’s less than emphatic response has been to ban a few more Zimbabwean leaders from travelling (it is unclear how many loopholes there will be). The Archbishop of York John Sentamu has called for military action if necessary to overthrow Mugabe; a position also supported by Desmond …

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During the First World War the British launched repeated massed attacks on the German trenches: these episodes resulted in repeated mass causalities and the generals have been heavily criticised ever since for their actions. In fairness to them each time they tried slightly different tactics hoping that they would work. One problem which could never be easily overcome was the simple fact that technology in 1914-1918 always favoured a defending army. Trains could bring in reinforcements and munitions, telephones could …

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The Newsletter is reporting that Willie Frazer claims to have been the victim of an attempted kidnap in South Armagh; his own website also contains details of this episode, including the suggestion that this episode might have been in preparation for the murder of Mr. Frazer. Conor Murphy has described Mr. Frazer as “….a well-known fantastist.” Jim Allister seems less than convinced by this explanation. TurgonThis author has not written a biography and will not be writing one.

All sides are claiming a significant degree of victory after this week’s events at Stormont; though I note that the degree of triumph is much greater from the DUP side. That may indeed be because the DUP has defeated SF and has yet again out negotiated it. The triumph might lead the DUP to suggest that “The Russian is finished” (I will explain at the end). Certainly the executive is back to work, there is no date set for the …

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The BBC are reporting that Peter Robinson is claiming to have been private assurance that the army council has gone away permanently. The BBC are quoting him as saying: “It’s important that those who are in the leadership of the republican movement make it very clear publicly, as they have done to us privately, that the IRA is out of business for good and is not going to return.” This has drawn a predictably stinging response from Jim Allister “Even …

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In a shocking and surprising judgement Crown Court Judge (and clearly artistic philistine) Mr Justice Deeny rejected the almost certain Turner Prize winning Michael Stone’s explanation for his performance art attack on Stormont. Mr. Deeny described Stone as “a wholly unreliable and unconvincing witness whose testimony… is wholly undeserving of belief.” Little wonder Belfast failed to win European City of Culture. Or does this whole episode strengthen Stone’s case for an art prize. Okay in actual fact, thankfully at least …

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The Newsletter notes a couple of incidents where workers were allegedly told to remove poppies in the run up to Armistice day. Steven Moore who had been hired by EventSec to provide security at Queen’s Student Union was required to remove a poppy. Meanwhile a temporary worker at the Passport Office was also apparently told to remove her poppy. TurgonThis author has not written a biography and will not be writing one.