Government – Slugger O'Toole

If Election 2024 is anything to go by Fianna Fáil’s slow growth approach seems to be working just fine

Mick Fealty on December 2, 2024, 9:29 pm

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aerial view of people walking on cross pedestrian lane

To be honest about the election it felt more like a dour mid winter scoring draw than any victory. Yet, after all the shouting’s done, the two main parties of the outgoing coalition still have the ball. This was a secure consolidation in tough conditions. Let’s look at some of the key numbers in order to distinguish what actually happened from of the weird party spin that conjured alternative realities from the RTÉ Exit Poll which rated Fianna Fáil at …

Irish unity : a dead duck for the foreseeable future

Brendan Heading on December 2, 2024, 8:00 am

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As anyone following the coverage on RTÉ will have seen, the result of Friday’s Irish election is now becoming clear with the country on course to re-elect a variant of the FF-FG coalition. As of Sunday evening, the consensus is settling on an FF-led coalition with FG, with a few independents making up the numbers. While it will be a government dominated by the same parties, the dynamic will be different – FF’s parliamentary party seems to have more older …

Flatlining Northern Irish wellbeing is real challenge for Executive

Soapbox on November 21, 2024, 7:05 pm

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Sarah Davidson is chief executive of Carnegie UK – a foundation that works on wellbeing public policy Did life improve for you over the last year? Maybe you’ve got more money in the bank or a better job. Perhaps your neighbourhood has been cleaned up or feels safer. And it is possible that you found it easy to get a doctor’s appointment. No? Not you? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Carnegie’s Life in the UK Index reveals that life didn’t improve for the …

Five takes on what second Trump may mean for Ireland…

Soapbox on November 7, 2024, 11:46 am

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A woman wearing a red scarf around her neck

David Moane is Dublin-based and retired who likes to comment on current affairs. Here we reprint his short first take from his Facebook page that focuses largely, but not exclusively, on what Donald Trump’s second term might mean for Ireland. FIVE TAKES FOR TRUMP’S SECOND TERM The Trump coalition extends well beyond the traditional Republican base and is more representative of America as it is today. The Democrats coalition is more brittle. This could be an insurmountable challenge for that …

The Department of Infrastructure is to blame for Belfast’s traffic problems

Brendan Heading on October 27, 2024, 1:11 pm

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It’s not been a good few weeks for Belfast visitors and commuters. Not only are key arterial routes more packed than ever with traffic jams during most of the day, but the bus and train systems have been up the swannie too, especially on Thursday and Friday last week. This issue hasn’t escaped the notice of local politicians. In the assembly, during Infrastructure questions on October 1, the Minister, John O’Dowd, seemed to suggest that Belfast representatives Philip Brett and …

Questions facing Sinn Fein are reasonable and answerable it just can’t answer them honestly

Mick Fealty on October 25, 2024, 1:42 pm

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man in brown button up shirt kissing woman in blue and red floral dress

…novelty ordinarily emerges only for the man who, knowing with precision what he should expect, is able to recognise that something has gone wrong. Thomas S. Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions Every time this storm around Sinn Féin looks like abating, something else kicks it off again. Wednesday’s committee meeting may have been a cynical attempt to strong-arm an Assembly committee into silence, but it also raised an important question. Is there an impermeable boundary between the First Minister’s civic …

Another escape from scrutiny as First Minister runs roughshod over Stormont committee…

Mick Fealty on October 24, 2024, 7:12 am

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white bottle with cup

I’m putting this up with a minimum of comment. It’s the Stormont Committee for The Executive Office (TEO) which has accumulated 1.7k views within hours of the session finishing. The reason being is that it is utterly shambolic. At the heart of the spectacle is an odd confusion about committee rules that have in place for 26 years. It’s not actually obvious if anyone on the committee (possibly even including the clerk) understood those rules up to the point they …

Sinn Féin’s secrecy crisis deepens as victim gives his version of the Ó Donnghaile story

Mick Fealty on October 20, 2024, 5:47 pm

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yellow car toy on white surface

You knew Sinn Féin was in some trouble when it called for Paddy Kielty to be censured for a joke at the start of the Late Late Show, even though their ongoing saga has been pretty much the only thing in the southern domestic news for the last fortnight. Then on Saturday evening the Sunday Independent dropped a bombshell in the form of aa personal testimony from the young person Niall O Donnghaile sent the inappropriate texts which eventually lead …

Sinn Féin’s “politics of concealment” means that what we know now is certainly not “the story…”

Mick Fealty on October 18, 2024, 11:02 am

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an abandoned building with graffiti on the walls

In the weirdest consensus of post Belfast Agreement Northern Ireland Sinn Féin has agreed to a TUV proposal to cancel former Lord Mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile. Just days ago he was using X to attack journalists for following the McMonagle story. That was before we knew about his own behaviour, and the real reason for his stepping down with a fine encomium from party leader Mary Lou McDonald. Along his official portrait, all evidence of his existence on Twitter has …

There’s no magic carpet out of Sinn Féin’s multiplying issues, other than to make some hard choices…

Mick Fealty on October 15, 2024, 3:45 pm

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selective focus photography of wind blowing on four green and purple buntings

So Sinn Féin’s troubles continue, this time they are merely deepening in the south. Over the weekend the party lost its second TD in a week to resignation. It wasn’t over the McMonagle case but the result of internal machinations. Kildare South TD Patricia Ryan resigned last Wednesday citing internal censorship by the national leadership of any criticism of the party’s dismal performance in the local and European elections, and the vetting of questions for Mary Lou McDonald. Then on …

Question for Sinn Féin over its handling of convicted sex abuser: who had knowledge?

Mick Fealty on October 7, 2024, 10:40 am

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moon eclipse

“…uncertainty eases the way for con artists to make fraudulent claims” -Rob Nelson Listening to Carlo Gebler’s new podcast series for BBC Radio 4 on the Provisional IRA’s mass escape from the Maze Prison back in September 1983 you cannot fail to be impressed with its meticulous planning and ruthless execution by the prisoners. Organisation was to become the hallmark of Sinn Féin’s electoral success as they moved from a twin track armed/democratic struggle to a latter day commitment to …

Why everything you’ve ever heard on the Northern Irish constitutional question is wrong…

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2024, 1:43 pm

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orchestra playing their piece

“…we don’t so much get our predictions wrong as make predictions about the wrong things”. – Ben Evans, via Memex 1.1. Like queuing for paper tickets for space trips once imagined in 1950s sci-fi, confident predictions of a near term border poll miss the fact that the future will track through possibilities adjacent to the present, not a linear projection of that present. Before I get to what I want to say, let me be clear about what I’m not …

A do-nothing Programme for a do-nothing Executive

Brendan Heading on September 28, 2024, 2:12 pm

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A couple of weeks back, the sixth Northern Ireland Executive released its draft Programme for Government. Coming over six months after the Executive was formed in February, following a gap in office of around two years, a naive observer might have had high hopes for this document, especially given that, during the election campaign in 2022, most of the parties talked up a good game about getting the government up and running. The UUP manifesto said : it is vital …

Michelle O’Neill addresses Ard Fheis for the first time as First Minister

David McCann on September 28, 2024, 2:10 pm

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Michelle O’Neill took the stage of the 2024 Ard Fheis for the first time as First Minister. The party’s strong results in Northern Ireland have been a bright spot in a difficult political year, and O’Neill’s personal ratings remain high eight months into the job. O’Neill’s speech touched upon issues dear to her base: Casement Park and Irish language rights. O’Neill referenced the need for Irish unity and tried to set out how the change narrative in Northern Ireland could …

UUP: Clear policy grounded in a strategic direction would increase the possibility that commitment will follow

Terry Wright on August 24, 2024, 11:29 am

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A small bird perched on top of a tree branch

A lot of cheap shots are being taken at the Ulster Unionist Party as its latest travails are exposed. Previous comments of ‘warring tribes’, ‘impossible to lead ‘, of pseudo religious, cultural and political powerplays, all of which present, are mined to dismiss the UUP as a serious political party; incapable of providing constructive, creative and competent leadership even within its own membership. For too many years, it has struggled, often in a meandering fashion to do so. Its internal …

It is not enough to be non-racist; you have to be anti-racist.

Terry Wright on August 8, 2024, 1:34 pm

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garden fork near burning wood during daytime

I have just arrived home from attending an anti-racism rally in Guildhall Square, Derry-Londonderry. A few ideologues took the opportunity to platform their mantra but for the most part speakers followed the lead of current SDLP mayor, Lillian Seenoi Barr in refuting lazy stereotypical views regarding the major contribution that migrants who have come here to seek a better life, make to our economy, health and education sectors. I have personal experience of the healthcare provided by skilled practitioners from …

After the election, why is Nationalist turn out continuing to drop like a stone?

Mick Fealty on July 10, 2024, 7:47 am

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red Radio Flyer trike on brown dried leaves

For all the breathless talk of movement towards a border poll, constitutionally the recent elections changed absolutely nothing. Nationalism came back with 9, MPs whilst the number of non nationalist MPs was also nine. Exactly the same as last time. Anyone claiming the movement towards Alliance is constitutionally significant when the seats lost and won are North Down and Lagan Valley should understand Alliance is at its liveliest where religious integration is at its highest, which is in the east. …

UTV Election Debate: A win for Eastwood with Long and Robinson taking aim at one another

David McCann on June 23, 2024, 9:07 pm

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Representatives from the five main parties gathered at UTV today in the first local debate ahead of the General Election on July 4th. John Finucane for Sinn Fein, Colum Eastwood for the SDLP, Naomi Long for the Alliance Party, Robbie Butler for the UUP, and Gavin Robinson for the DUP. The debate was divided into three themes: influence at Westminster, Executive finances and a border poll. An interesting aspect of the debate was some of the participants’ different and laid-back …

Results suggest Sinn Féin’s ‘inflection point’ (and a UI) remain some way off

Mick Fealty on June 14, 2024, 6:49 am

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a full moon shines in the sky over the ocean

Regardless of how you cut it, one of the big stories of the southern locals was Sinn Féin’s failure to break through, again. In order to understand why more than 2o0 SF candidates failed to gain a council seat it’s worth noting the poll ratings at the start: 🚨 IREUKmedia EXIT POLL for the #LE2024: 🟢 Sinn Fein: 199 (+118)🔵 Fine Gael: 180 (-75)🟩 Fianna Fail: 142 (-137)🌱 Green Party: 28 (-21)🔴 Labour: 47 (-10)⚫️ Independents/Other: 246 (+61)🟣 Social Democrats: …

Why does nationalism run away from Irish Unity at election time ?

Brendan Heading on May 27, 2024, 3:42 pm

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Shortly after the announcement of the general election, I noted over in Scotland that both the SNP and Alba (Alex Salmond’s hardline pro-independence breakaway) were straight out of the blocks, seeking a mandate for Scottish independence. SNP leader John Swinney characterised polling day, July 4th, as “Independence Day”. In a press release which mentions the word “independence” seven times, he said : .. So let’s unite to win the powers of independence to strengthen our economy, tackle the cost of …