Government

‘Parental choice is an illusion’: the gap between integrated education demand and provision

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on August 10, 2026, 9:28 am

| Readers 711

As part of this year’s Féile debates and discussion programme, the Integrated Education Fund (IEF) hosted a public event at St Mary’s University College in Belfast, to launch new research into the reality of parental choice in school selection in Northern Ireland. The event was chaired by Amanda Ferguson, a Belfast-based freelance journalist and Northern Ireland correspondent for Reuters, and opened with a welcome from Dr Jessica Blomkvist, IEF’s senior advocacy officer. The research was presented by its author, Kathryn Torney, a freelance journalist, researcher, and consultant. A …

NI’s two blocs have one problem: their lack of delivery in government is starting to bite with the voters

Mick Fealty on July 31, 2026, 2:55 pm

| Readers 2619

The latest LucidTalk poll gets read as unionism in decline. Look at the blocs instead: unionism’s problem is fragmentation, nationalism’s is quieter and harder, and both the DUP and Sinn Féin are both paying for a partnership that delivers nothing.

What a genuine citizens’ assembly needs, and why the unity proposal doesn’t have it…

Mick Fealty on July 11, 2026, 6:20 am

| Readers 3036

brown and white guinea pig on pink textile

France’s climate convention implemented 58% of its proposals and reached 78% public awareness, proof a citizens’ assembly can work when a state gives it real authority and resourcing. Sinn Féin’s defeated unity bill had neither, and a wider, patient conversation would serve the question better than a set-piece assembly ever could.

My father sang toward America. I moved toward it.

Shane Greer on July 4, 2026, 11:05 am

| Readers 1037

I don’t know what caused me to fall in love with America: Old Glory, the bunting, the cowboy hats or the country music sung by Mel Tarner. But I do know where and when it was: early 90s, aged eight or nine, at a working men’s club in East Belfast. Cigarette smoke filled the air, and women ate prawn cocktails served in wine glasses. Every day, people dressed like extras in a spaghetti western. Men with six-shooters on their hips, …

The UK should unilaterally devolve tax varying powers to NI

Brendan Heading on June 28, 2026, 4:13 pm

| Readers 1402

It looks like we are a couple of weeks out from a new Prime Minister in the UK. There’s been plenty of commentary about Andy Burnham and what he may bring to the table when, as seems inevitable, he takes over in mid-July. But what about Northern Ireland ? Burnham is making a major set-piece speech tomorrow about his economic plans, and we know that devolving more power to regions across the UK is something he has strong views on. …

Sixty years on from Lemass-O’Neill, actions are beginning to speak louder than words

Mick Fealty on June 26, 2026, 10:54 am

| Readers 4237

During a week dominated by Jeffrey Donaldson’s conviction, a quieter story slipped past: the Irish Government’s Shared Island Initiative passed €1 billion in commitments to 2030. From a Stormont cricket ground to a sub-two-hour Belfast–Dublin train, it revives a pragmatism that runs from Seán Lemass straight to Micheál Martin: cooperation without precondition, benefit without constitutional strings. The question now is whether Northern ministers will become active partners or passive recipients.

Northern Ireland’s Brexit Edge: Building on what works, not what has failed…

Mick Fealty on June 23, 2026, 3:15 pm

| Readers 2717

Britain’s productivity flatlined in 2008, eight years before the referendum. Brexit added cost, and serious frictions but the real causes run deeper: weak investment, weak industrial strategy, and an employment model that grew jobs while output per hour stalled. Even Northern Ireland, the one part of the UK with a genuinely distinctive post-Brexit settlement, tells the same story.

Preparation is not persuasion: why the nationalist drum on unity keeps missing the beat…

Mick Fealty on June 18, 2026, 2:22 pm

| Readers 3570

Fine Gael has chosen Garret FitzGerald’s centenary to launch a blueprint for Irish unity. But preparation is not persuasion — and the unaligned middle who will actually decide remain unmoved by border-poll rhetoric.

Why we need to understand what’s driving instability in and beyond Northern Ireland

Mick Fealty on June 17, 2026, 7:01 am

| Readers 2790

a pen sitting on top of a piece of paper

The labour market is changing shape — from a pyramid with a broad base of entry-level jobs to a diamond with a glut of experienced middle-tier workers and a radically contracted bottom. Harvard economists warned us what happens when a successor generation can’t find work. Belfast showed us what it looks like in practice. And it isn’t just a problem for the young.

Riots in Northern Ireland: this is also about racism

Sarah Creighton on June 15, 2026, 2:21 pm

| Readers 4521

My dad died two days before Christmas in 2023. On the day of his funeral rain poured from the heavens. We waded through thick mud to get to his grave. “Christ,” my brother remarked, “it’s like the f**king Somme.” In Northern Ireland, protestant burials are often small, private affairs. Only close family go and you must be invited to attend. When we arrived, we expected a small number of people. To our surprise, there was a crowd. My dad was …

Unionists made their peace with the Belfast Agreement — so why hasn’t nationalism?

Soapbox on June 15, 2026, 2:00 pm

| Readers 3052

A defence of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement’s legacy, arguing that while most unionists have embraced its principles, Sinn Féin has systematically undermined the consent framework — leaving centrist unionism stranded and the Agreement itself surplus to republican politics.

Belfast protests: a cautious summary of a fast-moving story…

Mick Fealty on June 10, 2026, 11:58 am

| Readers 8137

A stabbing attack in north Belfast has triggered a night of serious disorder across the city and sparked protests in several UK cities. Here is a cautious summary of what has been reported so far.

Beyond Green and Orange: Northern Ireland’s New Political Reality

Mick Fealty on June 9, 2026, 4:18 pm

| Readers 2715

A new survey reveals that 55 per cent of Northern Irish voters would refuse to back any party that collapses Stormont — and that support for institutional reform now cuts across the unionist-nationalist divide. But as public opinion shifts, are the politicians listening?

Can Political Unionism Break from the Tribal Herd? Discuss.

Terry Wright on June 4, 2026, 1:49 am

| Readers 3474

Northern Ireland’s unionist parties face a reckoning — caught between reactive politics and the collaborative vision of the Good Friday Agreement. Without a credible strategy or genuine commitment to its three strands, political unionism risks permanent decline.

Mick Clifford Defines Nationalism’s Invidious “Disneyfication Trap”

Mick Fealty on May 8, 2026, 12:09 pm

| Readers 2455

The debate about Stormont’s future is asking the wrong question. The real issue is whether nationalism has the honesty to tell a younger generation what constitutional change actually requires — and the institutional competence to prove it can govern in the meantime.

Govern or Lose: The Choice Northern Nationalism Has Spent Twenty-Five Years Avoiding

Mick Fealty on May 1, 2026, 10:37 am

| Readers 5007

a chalkboard with the word possible written on it

The border poll arithmetic is simple: nationalism cannot win it alone. The votes needed sit with people who want competent government, not constitutional drama. So why, after twenty-five years in power, is there so little evidence of the former and so much of the latter?

The Health Crisis at SWAH: When Data On Their Own Just Aren’t Enough

Mick Fealty on April 28, 2026, 9:15 am

| Readers 1841

a close up of a window with a building in the background

Data is not a mirror. It does not simply reflect reality back at us — it selects, frames, and in doing so, inevitably excludes. The most powerful use of data is not confirmatory but exploratory: the patient, unglamorous work of tracking real changes in real communities, driven by genuine curiosity about what’s happening rather than what we hope or assume to be true. When data is used to justify decisions already made, it stops being a tool for understanding, becoming …

Northern Ireland is quietly winning — so why do our politicians keep talking like we’re losing?

Mick Fealty on April 2, 2026, 10:38 am

| Readers 3448

a close up of a sign that reads recovery

Wages are up 8% and child poverty is among the lowest in the UK. So why is Northern Ireland’s political culture still fluent only in failure? Three uncomfortable questions for Stormont — filtered through Klein, Thompson, Lonergan, Blyth, and Lanier.

Solving the challenges facing NI’s public sector leaders begins with regaining trust

Soapbox on April 1, 2026, 3:09 pm

| Readers 923

Marie Doyle is an Office Senior Partner at Deloitte in Belfast Few will be surprised by what the public told us in the survey for Deloitte’s latest State of the State report. The NHS, social care, the cost of living and affordable housing remain at the top of people’s list of concerns when it comes to the delivery of public services in Northern Ireland. These longstanding pressure points are not unique to Northern Ireland. Across all four UK nations surveyed, …

TUV conference – seeking to capitalise on growth in the polls with an instruction to members to “go back to your constituencies as evangelists for Ulster”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 21, 2026, 6:14 pm

| Readers 3090

Around 150 TUV members gathered in the Royal Hotel, Cookstown for their annual conference under a banner of “Bringing Strength to Unionism”. They’re easily the most vocal audience of the (many) local party gatherings I’ve attended in recent years. Every seat seemed to have been provided with a union flag, but people applauded so vigorously they mostly forgot to wave the flags. The party is on an election footing and there was an emphasis on translating growth in the polls …