Government – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

Constitutional visions from the grassroots

Soapbox on December 8, 2025, 7:30 am

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Jennifer Todd is Emeritus (Full) Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, UCD Constitutional change to a united Ireland is high stakes– it would change almost every aspect of life for almost everyone on the island. Even discussion of it provokes anger among unionists and avoidance amongst others. Meanwhile, there are growing gaps in understanding and expectation between people in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland – if these aren’t addressed, democratically achieved unity will disappoint even those …

Who Guards the Guard? Timothy Gaston MLA on the Battle for Accountability in Stormont

Mick Fealty on December 4, 2025, 3:51 pm

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a bunch of bees that are on a beehive

In the Slugger Cato Project, our mission is clear, and even a little bit ambitious. It’s not simply to spotlight voices you might not typically hear from – though we often will. Our true purpose is to delve into the often frustrating interface between the public and the democratic institutions that were established under the Belfast, or Good Friday, Agreement. It’s a system designed for peace, which often struggles with the practicalities of good government (see Brian’s Panto analogy below). …

Can the Minister of Education pour ‘new wine into old wineskins?’

Terry Wright on November 28, 2025, 2:00 pm

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two baskets full of grapes

The recent ruling by the Supreme Court in regards to ensuring religious education in Northern Ireland is delivered in an ‘objective, critical and pluralistic manner’ has sparked a flurry of comment from politicians, church leaders and representative bodies; with a little scaremongering and electioneering thrown in. The DUP is now claiming how important it is that it fills the portfolio. There is clearly a conversation to be had in the light of the ruling but will it be as comprehensive …

Slugger Cato Project: Claire Sugden on Challenging the Stormont System as an Independent MLA

Mick Fealty on November 27, 2025, 7:27 pm

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a bunch of bees that are on a beehive

The way I originally conceived this project was as a sort of shared inquiry, where the active audience(s) of Slugger would play as much of a role in uncovering actionable insights from these individual episodes as the interviewees themselves. This helps us to fill out the context of a wider landscape and it’s no coincidence that that three of the commenters I’ve picked to introduce this episode are either expats living in London, or a native of the other island …

The future narrative for Belfast should not be one of dereliction and crime, but rather a city that embraces complexity, welcomes innovation, and has a hunger for growth.

Soapbox on November 11, 2025, 5:00 pm

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Chris McCracken is the Managing Director of Linen Quarter BID What story are we telling ourselves about Belfast? Most people appear to welcome the warmth of our hospitality, and give a grudging nod to new investment, but the dominant view is still negative perceptions about persistent dereliction and a rising tide of anti-social behaviour. Perhaps this should be no surprise, as these views reflect a city in transition. However, social, and mainstream media tend to accentuate the negative, and risk …

If we want to be a place of prosperity for all, then let’s start with the basics

Soapbox on November 3, 2025, 10:00 am

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Seamus Leheny is the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations. I can still just about remember learning about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs back in school. It’s a psychological theory that outlines five levels of human needs from the most basic to the most advanced: Physiological, safety, love & belonging, esteem and self-actualisation. The theory suggests that for any person or civilisation to achieve high-level outcomes, the most basic must be achieved first. The foundation stone for …

The Voluntary Sector Is Staring Over a Cliff—And Westminster Must Act Now

Soapbox on October 31, 2025, 3:33 pm

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Celine McStravick is the CEO of NICVA This week’s Northern Ireland Affairs Committee hearing laid bare a troubling truth: the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland is teetering on the edge of a funding cliff, and Westminster’s silence is deafening. The current UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) has been a lifeline for tackling economic inactivity in Northern Ireland—home to the highest rate of economic inactivity in the UK. Over 24,000 people benefitted from the scheme that was led by …

Redefining Public Service Delivery – the Scope for AI to Transform Outcomes in NI

Soapbox on October 30, 2025, 8:00 am

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Jodie Carson is a Professor of Strategic Policy in Practice at Ulster University After a brief reprieve resulting from stabilisation funding, internal NICS efficiency drives and a fairly generous recent UK Budget allocation, Northern Ireland’s public finances are once again on an unsustainable footing with some £800m in-year spending over-commitment. This is largely attributable to overcommitments within the Departments for Health and Education, but has wide-reaching implications for the Executive as a whole. It is highly unlikely that monitoring rounds …

The power to change the law is not in the hands of Westminster, its not in the hands of Stormont. Its in our hands, through constitutional change.

Soapbox on October 23, 2025, 2:42 pm

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Peadar Tóibín TD is the leader of Aontu, he writes for Slugger about the issue of presidential voting rights for the North On Wednesday the 22nd of October the Dáil passed an Aontú motion to provide three major changes. The first is to provide voting rights to Irish citizens in the north of Ireland. The second is to lower the threshold for nomination of candidates for the presidential elections and the third is to bring Áras an Uachtaráin and the …

Are we even able to hear the surprisingly good news from the health system in Northern Ireland?

Mick Fealty on October 20, 2025, 5:29 pm

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a circular hole in the ground with trees growing out of it

Increasingly in our diet of online news we (journalists, politicians and ordinary citizens) have become prone to follow our own dopamine circuits’ interest in shiny news objects wherever we can get it. That includes our collective obsession with Trump. Why not resile to cynicism when truth is more often than not an illusive fugitive? Yet we need less of it to figure what’s actually happening and get beyond the social media generated miasma of synthetic futures slopping around in a …

Every journalist deserves care and support, and a strong, healthy press has never been more essential.

Soapbox on October 16, 2025, 1:40 pm

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Leona O’Neill is the founder of MediaStrong I didn’t really know Spongebob Squarepants was a coping mechanism for me in dealing with the trauma journalism dealt me, but he rescued me many times. Like all journalists I covered all kinds of human suffering from morning to night. I’ve stood at security cordons, at the side of a road after tragic incidents, in court hearing the most awful details of how a man murdered his baby, at inquests or crime scenes …

BIPA: Turning the page on generations of drift in all island education…

Mick Fealty on October 13, 2025, 6:22 pm

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books on brown wooden shelf

My friend John Kellden says that every major issue in the world today is a crisis of governance. We know from the serial collapses of Stormont and the constitutional chaos in the US that to work institutions must be inhabited by people and ideas. I used to ascribe the attitude of some of the advocates for the Belfast Agreement to a kind of neo-political Calvinism, which in having vouchsafed the peace then all manner of good things would naturally follow. …

Ulster Unionist Party conference report – well attended but at times unexpectedly muted #uup25

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 11, 2025, 5:16 pm

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Mike Nesbitt standing on stage at UUP 2025 conference

Within minutes of starting, the 220 seats in the Crowne Plaza ballroom were nearly full of Ulster Unionist members and conference observers. (The back row filled first.) The defeated Slovakian football team had spent the night in the hotel, and at times it felt like the UUP delegates will similarly tired and jaded. While the attendance will have pleased organisers – who followed the SDLP pattern of not streaming the conference online – and the morning’s smorgasbord of speakers were …

Why “winning the internet” is failing to win the argument on a united Ireland…

Mick Fealty on October 10, 2025, 10:00 am

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blue card on top of opened book

Social media is (to quote Michelle Gildernew on Northern Ireland) a sh!thole. That nasty stuff is posted there about the presidential candidates is no surprise. It’s like rugby where the referee is tied and bound and left in the changing rooms. People focus on the brutality it helps generate from time to time (the intimidatory protests outside Naomi Long’s house, for example) but it also makes us stupider as a society. It is its basis in large language models (LLMs) …

Four Ironies and a Leap of Faith

Soapbox on October 9, 2025, 11:32 am

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Mike Nesbitt MLA is the Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, ahead of the party conference he writes for Slugger On the week of the 2025 Ulster Unionist Party Conference, I offer some thoughts to Slugger readers, inspired by the movie, 4 Weddings and a Funeral (I hope you don’t have to look it up, but, in fairness, it’s as old as the 1994 ceasefires and my children don’t remember that either). Irony One is that the biggest obstacle to …

SDLP Conference Report – seeking to build something new that values hopes over fears #SDLP25

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 4, 2025, 5:16 pm

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Clare Hanna surrounded by family and political colleages at the conclusion of her speech at the October 2025 conference. The conference stage backdrop is a vivid red colour.

Last year’s conference witnessed the baton of leadership being passed from Colum Eastwood to Claire Hanna. A year later, the new leader was benefitting from a reinvigorated internal party machine. Hanna was less reticent and more forthright in discussing her vision for Irish unity, and was supported by Assembly colleagues who felt confident to celebrate their work in Opposition up on the hill. Executive parties have to make a show of highlighting delivery in their conference panels and speeches, sometimes …

Gazing into the smallest Irish presidential election field in a generation?

Mick Fealty on September 8, 2025, 1:30 pm

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silhouette photography of person

I’ve resisted writing about the Irish presidential election throughout the silly season. Now with just two and a half weeks left until nominations close we are finally getting down to the pointy end of the competition. Only Sinn Féin has yet to reveal its hand. The withdrawal of Fine Gael’s Mairead McGuinness for health reasons both screwed up the party’s careful preparations (in contrast with Fianna Fail’s seeming lack of the same) and my own betting strategy (I got a …

Getting Derry the investment it needs will take an all-Northern Ireland mindset…

Mick Fealty on August 19, 2025, 11:36 am

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man standing beside another sitting man using computer

On Nolan on Friday we discussed Colum Eastwood’s claim that as an MP he often found it easier to get things done when Stormont was down than when it was up. He wasn’t advocating for abolition, but merely stating there’s a serious case to answer. His particular beef was the way the northwest and Derry in particular has been neglected in spite of the fact that city has had representation right at the top of the Stormont tree. Martin McGuinness …

“We’re between narratives, which means denial in the early stages is because of a desire to preserve last shreds of old imploding monoculture’

Mick Fealty on July 2, 2025, 10:59 am

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brown sand under white sky during daytime

Reconciliation, rekənˌsɪliˈeɪʃən: “the process of making two people or groups of people friendly again after they have argued seriously or fought and kept apart from each other, or a situation in which this happens.” -Cambridge Dictionary Last week the word reconciliation got a bad wrap in some quarters. Rory Carroll highlights one comment, from an old mucker of mine, Kevin Rooney, who found it to be a villainous roadblock on the road [not another A5? – Ed] to a united Ireland: …

A5 debacle: “likely to take years rather than months to assemble the evidence to support the scheme in anything like its current form…”

Mick Fealty on June 25, 2025, 5:48 pm

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gray concrete road near trees and houses during daytime

Clowntown. An ugly undercurrent surrounding this week’s court case which struck down the DoFI plans for the A5 road, was a sense amongst some of the road’s supporters that this was a Catholic v Protestant farmer’s thing. Nah, it was incompetence. There’s been no unionist involvement in this project since Danny Kennedy’s tenure between 2011 and 2015. Since then (and before, when Conor Murphy took the hot seat) Infrastructure has been a nationalist gig. One that doesn’t speak well for …