Turgon

Dr. Paisley has been writing his column in the Newsletters on Fridays for a while now. I have found it both informative and surprising. Paisley’s Newsletter articles have been largely religious in nature: political comments especially as relating to current Northern Ireland politics have been very limited. At one level this is unsurprising: Dr. Paisley, whatever his detractors may think is a fundamentalist theologian of very considerable note: His exposition on Romans is highly regarded and his purely religious and …

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Michael McGimpsey has forced the Western Trust into a u turn on paying adults with learning disabilities £2 per week for their work in day centres. The trust had proposed scrapping the payements scheme which would have saved £75,000 per year. From the Impartial Reporter (login required but free): Speaking at a Western Health and Social Care Trust Board meeting on Tuesday, Chief Executive of the Western Trust; Elaine Way claimed: “As a CSR proposal we decided to cut the …

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Michael McGimpsey has announced £17 million over the next three years to purchase 60 new emergency ambulances, 60 non emergency ambulances and 26 rapid response vehicles. I am unsure whether this is in addition to the announcements he made in July when he pledged not to cut services: though the proposed introduction of rapid response vehicles was controversial and Unison regarded the announcements as a cut in services. Clearly this announcement may help assuage any criticism from then as well …

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Gerry Adams has been doing a few interesting things of late. As Pete has noted below, he has been in a form of correspondence with the Orange Order. In addition he has implied that he would support a truth commission with comments including this: “Republicans have clearly acknowledged many times the hurt they inflicted during the conflict. “I have expressed my personal and sincere regret and apologised for that hurt. “The IRA has also acknowledged what it has done. That …

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The news that Jeffrey Donaldson has pulled out of receiving a peace award along with Gerry Kelly in the wake of the Maze escape programme (already covered by Mick) is interesting. Clearly Kelly’s comments on shooting a prison officer will be ill received in the unionist community but Mr. Kelly’s political views and previous criminal record are well known. As such one is left wondering why Mr. Donaldson wanted to receive a peace award along with Kelly in the first …

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The Church of Ireland’s Hard Gospel project has released a report on the experiences of border Protestants during the troubles. The report has been funded by the Irish government and the International Fund for Ireland. (PDF file here). The report is quoted by the BBC, Belfast Telegraph and Irish News. It is an extensive report but as always with these things a few parts seem to be attracting most media attention: “The question of whether or not there had been …

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Loyalist leaders including Jackie McDonald were due to attend a meeting in the West Belfast Patrick Sarsfield GAA club. This meeting was organised by the organisation Standing Northern Ireland Peace Process (SNIPP). The GAA club, however, cancelled the visit by the loyalists making the following comments:“Our priority remains with young people of Patrick Sarsfield and the prospect of a security and media presence at our premises clashes with various games and activities being hosted.” The club added that it also …

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Well the dust has begun to settle (rather quickly) after the by election and I thought it worth putting together a few thoughts. The reality is of course that council by elections are pretty irrelevant. I do, however, take seriously Horseman’s criticism of me for describing the Fermanagh election as a cure for insomnia. He said (very correctly) that one should never have contempt for any exercising of democracy: I stand corrected.The outcome of this election is to be honest …

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Sinn Fein’s Raymond McCartney and Gerry Adams have been to see security minister Paul Groggins to discuss the problems for released terrorists especially in regard to jobs. Mr. McCartney said: “We drew to Mr Goggins attention the British Secretary of State’s acknowledgement in a recent letter to Gerry Adams that ‘we all have a responsibility to ensure former prisoners are neither legally nor administratively penalised’. “We pressed the Minister to deal conclusively with this problem. Former political prisoners are too …

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Quota 3153 SF 1815 SDLP 739 DUP 1925 UUP 1436 All 231 McHugh 158 SF have called a recount. Please comment here. TurgonThis author has not written a biography and will not be writing one.

So the Enniskillen by election is almost upon us. I always avoid making predictions but I thought we might look at what various possible outcomes might tell us.I would not pretend to be a competent analyst of nationalism but the likely outcomes here seem the more straight forward. Whether or not SF capture the seat, I suspect they will get a substantial majority of the nationalist / republican vote. The SDLP seem to be running a pretty low key campaign …

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Rose McGowan who has a role in the film “Fifty Dead Men Walking” based the IRA informer Martin McGartland has said that “I imagine, had I grown up in Belfast, I would 100 per cent have been in the IRA.” This has unsurprisingly drawn complains from unionist politicians, the Alliance Party and Willie Frazer of FAIR. Mid Ulster UUP MLA Billy Armstrong said “As an IRA member would Miss McGowan have been happy to participate in the abduction, torture and …

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The education minister Catriona Ruane was at the Irish Medium Education Convention on Monday and announced that she was ?currently considering a review of Irish medium education in the North. This review will play an important part in ensuring that Irish medium education is fully and appropriately supported as an integral part of the education system in all schools; primary, post-primary, English and Irish medium. I will be making the recommendations of the report public in the future and look …

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I do not want to take anything away from Mick’s latest blog on the Fermanagh by election but I though that such was the fever pitch tedium in Fermanagh that I should do a quick blog.On my way into the town from the outer darkness in which I live (so far beyond the Pale that the distances are measured in hours for a tractor to drive) I pass Ms. Coyle’s election poster and then Mrs. Foster’s (possibly appropriately on the …

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A DUP delegation has held meetings with the leaderships of the loyalist paramilitaries. In a statement from the DUP Peter Robinson he said:“These meetings represent an opportunity to engage and discuss the process of transition from paramilitary organisations to people playing a full part in a peaceful and democratic Northern Ireland with violence and criminality being firmly a thing of the past. “ One might regard trying to stop these organisations as laudable; however, to my mind the next sentence …

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The latest part of the war of words saga between the DUP and TUV has been over policing an justice and specifically the power which Martin McGuinness as deputy first minister might have over judicial appointments. Jim Allister launched a Policing and Justice document which attacked the DUP over the possibility that if P&J were devolved, even to the likes of Alliance, then the OFMDFM would still have control over the appointment of judges and the Attorney General. In reply …

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Sinn Fein councillor Johnny Gibbon has written a letter of protest after the Equality Commission refused to ban Craigavon Council from flying the London 2012 Olympic Flag. The flag ended up flying over Craigavon Civic Centre for four hours last Sunday afternoon. Mr. Gibbon objected to the flag as it is based on the Union flag and as such would have contravened the council policy of flying the Union Flag only on specific days. Mr Gibbon stated: “There was also …

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Never a man to avoid controversy, Lord Laird has written to the Secretary of State asking him to investigate the apparent allegation that a blind eye is being turned to smuggling activity and investment of illegally obtained assets by republican paramilitaries. His list of questions seems very general and as such is unlikely to turn up a great deal; the initial NIO response is predictably bland. He is, however, also considering using Parliamentary Privilege to name alleged smugglers. TurgonThis author …

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The latest remarks by SF about collapsing the executive have already been covered by Pete Baker. I have always tended to the analysis that the threat of collapse and direct rule will cause the DUP to make at least some concessions. That is the logic which I feel inevitably results from the fear of Plan B which Paisley used as one of the major drivers forcing him to accept the agreement in the first place. If the executive does collapse …

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The BBC are reporting that a woman has had to leave her home in Londonderry due to threats from dissident republicans who thought (wrongly) that she was in the police. I well remember throughout the troubles most people who were in the police or other security forces had complex stories for what they did for a living usually centring around the civil service. I had always hoped that sooner or later people would be able to say that they were …

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