Society and Culture – Page 10 – Slugger O'Toole

“Two buckets are easier carried than one, I stand in between…”

Trevor Ringland on December 1, 2023, 9:54 am

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bucket, metal, water bucket

“We’re not Brazil, we’re Northern Ireland!” chant the Northern Ireland football fans, highlighting that in that context they are also distinct from Scotland, England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. So, begs the question, who are we as a people that share our part of these islands called Northern Ireland? A good place to start is found in the words of the Ulster poet, John Hewitt in a debate in the Irish Times on the 4th of July 1974, (The …

“Head up, shoulders back and unclench your fists. Look out and look up.”*

Mick Fealty on November 30, 2023, 12:30 pm

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flame, lighter, light

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” – John Adams “Well, if the vote is for Brexit things will be more interesting.” “Facts don’t matter”. “When I offered them my contact book, none were interested. Young journalists these days are only interested in a 9-5 job job which involves taking no risks.” These are all off record quotes from local working journalists …

The destructive use of dismissive language in politics…

Ian Clarke on November 28, 2023, 8:01 am

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neon light mounted on white surface

Two things coincided this week that led to this piece. The first was Thursday’s violence in Dublin. The second is the fact I’m about two thirds through Graham Linehan’s autobiography in which he details his fall from grace and into career isolation following his emergence as a critic of transgender ideology. Two very distinct issues but they had one thing in common, the use of language as a basis for avoiding debate of the issues underpinning both. Arnold Carton touched …

Horrific assault and the riots that followed indicate huge problems Irish politics cannot continue to ignore

Mick Fealty on November 24, 2023, 10:21 am

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waterfall, victoria falls, spray

Some additional thoughts to Brian’s round up last night on the first widespread rioting in Dublin since the reaction to the Love Ulster Parade that took place roughly the same quarter back in 2005. In a hastily written oped in The Irish Times, Fintan O’Toole rightly identifies this as a “testing moment” for the Republic, but he risks erring towards disowning the problem when he simply argues that the Irish people are “better than this”. Whilst I agree with the …

Learning to listen – the Thirty Project

Paul Gosling on November 21, 2023, 9:03 am

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There is immense frustration across Northern Ireland’s community sector that the Civic Forum collapsed in 2002 and was not replaced. Demands are increasing for citizens’ assemblies, or similar, to provide an alternative voice to that of politicians, especially in the absence of the Assembly and Executive. Avila Kilmurray was a founder of the Women’s Coalition which led demands for the Civic Forum as part of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations. Avila makes the point that it was also the Women’s …

As another door closes on some people’s hopes for justice, should we consider putting welfare and reconciliation first?

Mick Fealty on November 20, 2023, 4:43 pm

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railway, forest, trees

One of the most cynical debates around the legacy of the Troubles lies in how we investigate the past. Although the details of the negotiations between Sinn Féin and Tony Blair are shady, it’s clear Adams successfully lodged a public interest defence. The letters of comfort story broke after an IRA volunteer who had had one assuring him that the PSNI were not looking for him found himself arrested when he touched down in London (because the Met still were). …

The continuance of lost power at Stormont is not cost free for the DUP

Mick Fealty on November 13, 2023, 1:50 pm

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iceberg, melts, climate

Away from the horse race politics of the latest survey published in the Irish News this morning is some fascinating [Excruciating? – Ed] detail for the DUP. Pete Shirlow is quoted in the FT… What comes out very clearly in our survey — and this is the first time I’ve seen this — is that people who are pro-union are stating that they will think about Irish unity if the assembly doesn’t come back. Unionist behaviour has driven away sectors …

Rough Beast: One woman’s ordeal at the coarse hands of Provisionalism in the shadow of the peace process

Mick Fealty on October 26, 2023, 4:35 pm

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Máiría Cahill begins and ends with an apt choice of words from Yeats’ famous poem, The Second Coming, both for the title but also a deft epilogue that references “the drowning of innocence” and closes the final chapter of her book Rough Beast. In the original the “rough beast” that “slouches towards Bethlehem” is the shadow that threatens the foundation of western civilisation. But the personal connotations lies in the violation of her young body at the rough hands of …

The other waiting list crisis

Paul Gosling on October 23, 2023, 9:03 am

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When waiting lists are discussed and shouted about in Northern Ireland, we are usually talking about our disintegrating healthcare system. But there is a second waiting list crisis – that of households seeking social housing. As at March of last year, there were 44,426 applicants on the social housing waiting list. Of these, over 10,000 were regarded as homeless and more than 31,000 were in housing stress. Nor is the situation improving. There was a 20% jump in applicants for …

Hamster wheel of demographic politics #3: ‘if it seems too good to be true, it probably is’.

Mick Fealty on October 12, 2023, 7:11 am

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transportation system, bus, car

So, part three of my analysis of the Coulter et al paper. The thing about rigorous political analysis that’s rooted in robust data (and sets don’t come much more robust than the Census) is how it reveals what common or garden journalism routinely misses. We have seen how the Catholic population seems to have reached its zenith, well short of the fabled 50%+1. And a rise (overall) in those describing themselves as Irish and Northern Irish and a fall in …

“Those who sing Zombie this week after Ireland’s match against Scotland know their history…”

Mick Fealty on October 4, 2023, 12:51 pm

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bar, cocktail, alcohol

I was at Trent Bridge week last Saturday to watch Ireland complete the only one of their three match ODI Cricket series. It was a blissful catchup with old mates (English and Irish) over a long day of that weird mix of generosity and competition. It was a particular pleasure to watch fellow Holywoodian Mark Adair in action for one of three island wide sports teams that comfortably straddle a border and sectarian divide that other codes (and the island’s …

Hamster wheel of demographic politics: What if we’ve passed the peak number of NI Catholics?

Mick Fealty on October 3, 2023, 10:30 am

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hamster, cage, faces

Like reading the last page of a novel first, the idea of an inevitable united Ireland is like suggesting that if you know how the books ends why have a plot? This may explain why, twenty five years on, an outline pitch for Irish unity has yet to be proposed. The inevitability myth is a consistent marker for an Irish brand of having your cake and eat it style populism. All the drama with fraction of the effort it would …

Politics of the tin ear in Londonderry, but unionists haven’t gone away, you know!

Terry Wright on October 2, 2023, 4:53 pm

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GINZA

“Why do Sinn Féin always refer to difficult conversations rather than just conversations?” “Maybe they are difficult for republicans” was the reply. It became clear at a recent meeting of the Commission on the Future of Ireland in Derry/Londonderry what the speaker may have been referring to. The gathering was weighted towards Sinn Féin’s agenda with Declan Kearney introducing the event in his capacity as Chair of the Commission and local Sinn Féin MLA Pádraig Delargy welcoming an audience which …

Is it now the case that music and politics don’t mix?

Ian Clarke on September 14, 2023, 7:46 am

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I was going to write this piece a couple of weeks ago when the hysteria over the Wolfe Tones at Feile had settled down. But it didn’t. So I didn’t. Then last week it was worse than ever with their appearance and apparent triumph at the Electric Picnic Festival. But probably better timing for me. Leaving aside the embarrassing spectacle of thousands of young people singing along to a dirge in tribute to sectarian terrorism, it raised a bigger question …

Why do we still have ‘peace walls’?

Paul Gosling on September 11, 2023, 9:02 am

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Why, a quarter of a century after the Good Friday Agreement, do we still have peace walls and interface barriers? The truth, of course, is that the peace deal ended the conflict, but failed to end division and embed reconciliation. Murdered journalist Lyra McKee famously wrote that more ‘peace walls’ have gone up since the GFA than have come down. This is despite a strategy from the The Executive Office containing the target to remove them all by 2023. Yet …

A Chief Constable acting with more consideration for Stormont than due process should give us all pause for thought…

Mick Fealty on September 1, 2023, 7:29 am

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break, windows wallpaper, 4k wallpaper

It’s been three weeks since Tom Kelly called for the resignation of the Chief Constable after the data breach. What brings this to a crisis though is yesterday’s judgement that he disciplined two officers ‘to allay a threat to Sinn Féin policing support’. I feel about Chief Constables much the same as Secretaries of State: they exist so our toothless incumbents (toothless because the DUP and SF are too rigid to find the compromises that would make consociationalism work) have …

A celebration of unionist culture

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on August 26, 2023, 6:36 pm

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A showcase day of unionist culture was held at 2 Royal Avenue, Belfast, with activities of a cultural identity video; a “living library” event; a talk by historian and broadcaster, Dr David Hume; an exhibition of archival footage by NI Screen of cultural events; and music performances. The event was organised by Belfast City Council, through its Good Relations Action Plan, Cultural Inclusion and Co-Design. This programme has been running since June 2022, with participants engaged in a process to …

Ulster-Scots shines bright in the Sunflower…

Soapbox on August 19, 2023, 8:47 am

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Alan Millar, journalist and award-winning Ulster-Scots writer, originally from Donegal, now based in North Antrim. 2021 winner of the Scots Language Society Hugh MacDiarmid Tassie and inaugural Linenhall Library Ulster-Scots short story prize. His first collection Echas frae tha Big Swilly Swally, was published in May. THE Sunflower Bar in Belfast was the place to be for Ulster-Scots language last Saturday, when eight poets and writers, came together for a groundbreaking showcase event, not seen for a long number of …

Over and over, and over, and over, and over Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal…

Brian O'Neill on August 16, 2023, 5:15 pm

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For me, the most interesting revelations in the Irish News Stephen Nolan story were how performative elements of his show are. Many of us long suspected it is basically a pantomime, where you have an assortment of revolving characters designed to elicit an emotional response from the audience. From the article: Messages and testimony do reveal one codename in the office was “ra ra”, described by sources to mean delivering a row on a show. Nolan Live had what was …

What is your media diet like these days?

Brian O'Neill on August 16, 2023, 9:59 am

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person using smartphone and laptop at the same time

I am going to write more about the current issues with BBC NI, but I was curious to know how your media diet has changed over the years. I find these days I watch more YouTube than the BBC. The vast range of subjects on Youtube appeals to my diverse interests. As for audio, I listen to more podcasts than live radio. Again there is a massive range of podcasts out there, and I like when they go deep on …