Society and Culture – Page 3 – Slugger O'Toole

Diane Dodds on Scrutiny, System Shortfalls, and the Struggle for Clarity through Stormont’s Institutions

Mick Fealty on December 18, 2025, 4:00 pm

| Readers 818

a bunch of bees that are on a beehive

In the final episode of the first series of the Slugger Cato Project, we sat down with DUP MLA and former Minister Diane Dodds. For those new to the series, this project is a shared inquiry into the mechanics of government—specifically those corners of the Northern Ireland Assembly that often remain hidden from public view. Before diving into Diane’s insights, it is worth reflecting on the feedback from last week’s conversation with Sinn Féin’s Pat Sheehan. The response from our …

Northern Ireland’s Political Crossroads: Problematics for the Three Blocs (Part Two)

Peter Shirlow on December 18, 2025, 10:00 am

| Readers 1944

body river surrounded by dress

Part two of Professor Peter Shirlow‘s survey analysis dives into the stark challenges facing Northern Ireland’s political blocs. Our data reveals zero growth in the pro-unity vote share since 1998, despite demographic shifts, and significant internal flux within pro-unionism. Both major constitutional camps show an over-reliance on traditional voters and a lack of strategy to attract younger, policy-focused, and non-aligned electors. We explore the ‘problematic’ findings—from voter leakage to the constitutional commitment gap—shaping the path to 2027. In this second …

Beyond the Headlines: Northern Ireland’s Evolving Electorate (Part One)…

Peter Shirlow on December 17, 2025, 10:00 am

| Readers 5265

Person holding ladder in surreal landscape

In part one of this detailed analysis from Professor Peter Shirlow, Director of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool, captures critical in-time attitudes, revealing a halting decline in the pro-union vote and a stalled pro-unity share. Critically, he examines the rise of non-constitutional parties and voter resistance to collapsing the Assembly. The data suggests Northern Ireland’s electorate is far from predictable. Methodology The current survey is based on a sample of 1534 Northern Ireland electors aged …

Slugger Cato Project: Pat Sheehan on doggedly sticking to the question over time…

Mick Fealty on December 11, 2025, 4:12 pm

| Readers 1699

a bunch of bees that are on a beehive

The Slugger Cato Project is an inquiry hosted by Mick Fealty, and is dedicated to exploring the less-visible aspects of governance and political action in Northern Ireland. It aims to investigate the inner workings of the Stormont government, analysing how politicians navigate bureaucratic systems and fulfil their representative roles. This series is an active investigation, shedding light on the mechanics of modern governance that often remain obscured. Our readers’ contributions have already given us much food for thought. “Finaghy” introduced the …

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

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

| Readers 1825

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). …

Beyond the Flag: Is Irish Nationalism’s Obsession with Israel Actually Antisemitism?

Cillian McGrattan on December 3, 2025, 7:00 am

| Readers 5416

A cozy, dark library with books and mirrors.

What if the latest flag controversy – the decision by nationalists to fly the Palestinian flag over Belfast city hall – is not actually about Northern Ireland? What if it’s not even about Palestine? It is difficult to find any pro-Israel voices within Irish nationalism – North and South – but what if the flag incident in Belfast or the attempted removal of Chaim Herzog’s name from a park in Dublin are taken at face-value? I suggest that viewing Irish …

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

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

| Readers 1674

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

| Readers 810

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 …

Slugger Cato Project: Patsy McGlone on Independence and Challenging the System

Mick Fealty on November 25, 2025, 4:44 pm

| Readers 1588

a bunch of bees that are on a beehive

A feature, or bug is simply a difference between the product you have and the product you want. –Ernest Mueller The last episode (released on Thursday) sparked a pleasingly positive response from the Slugger Community, if not exactly breaking all records in terms of a ton readership. It seems we struck a nerve. For too long, the prevailing narrative has been that Stormont is merely a dysfunctional “clown show.” But as our commenter Babyface pointed out, while slagging everything off …

Accountability vs. “Clicks”: Paul Frew MLA on Scrutinising the Stormont Executive

Mick Fealty on November 20, 2025, 4:20 pm

| Readers 1496

a bunch of bees that are on a beehive

Over the summer and the autumn I’ve been quietly working away talking to a small number of cross party backbenchers about the work they do in the Assembly as part of a new project we call the Slugger Cato Project. Cato the Younger was famous not for seeking power, but for relentlessly challenging it. He was a symbol of integrity, independence, and defiant courage—a citizen who demanded the highest standards from his government. Now it seems the wider media is …

A celebration of music journalism and Belfast’s musical legacy

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on November 8, 2025, 10:23 am

| Readers 947

On a memorable evening at The Deer’s Head, music journalist Stuart Bailie launched his new book chronicling 40 years in music journalism — The Song is Nearly Over. The event featured an intimate conversation with Tim Wheeler of Ash, followed by closing reflections and a performance by Terry Hooley, the legendary founder of Good Vibrations record label. The evening brought together three generations of Northern Irish music history, weaving together stories of punk, Britpop, and the transformative power of music journalism. …

Review: Constitutional change in Ireland will likely be slow, consensual and evolutionary, not quick, revolutionary or violent…

Mick Fealty on November 5, 2025, 6:39 am

| Readers 5227

a roller coaster with a sign that says cyclone

Mick reviews two books which treat generously and intelligently the vexed subject of constitutional futures on the island of Ireland and concludes that the historical divergences between north and south mean that constitutional is likely only ever to come through the sort of slow, consensual change embodied in the Shared Island Initiative, if at all…

The Politics of Neglect: Why Good News Gets Buried in Northern Ireland…

Peter Shirlow on October 28, 2025, 6:36 am

| Readers 3085

blue and red graffiti on wall

At a recent Assembly Committee Sinn Féin’s Pat Sheehan, asked ‘if one of the major parties were to walk — if they were to leave the Executive and the Assembly — could the institutions survive with any credibility?’ Soon after Alison Morris summed that Stormont cannot work despite valid attempts. That conclusion is part-true given disputes over legacy and language. But does that mean nothing is working? A fundamental problem with our political, media and commentor class is the inability …

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

| Readers 1455

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 …

If there was light at the end of the tunnel, some Unionists would prefer to stumble around in the dark to find a switch.

Terry Wright on October 17, 2025, 1:34 pm

| Readers 3048

a gray cat with yellow eyes sitting on the floor

“ ….. genuinely plural, liberal, democratic… capable of accommodating social, cultural and religious diversity…… open to all to share in the benefits of British citizenship regardless of class, creed or race…. so that everyone here can enjoy the same rights as their fellow-citizens in Great Britain, irrespective of whether they aspire to be Ulster-British, British-Irish or Irish.” 27 years ago. and counting, the late David Trimble, leader of the main unionist party of the day, voiced these aspirations in a …

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

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

| Readers 1316

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. …

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

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

| Readers 2384

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) …

Whatever happened to Civic Nationalism?

Terry Wright on September 18, 2025, 9:22 am

| Readers 1735

the words future is creative painted on a wall

In 2018, a group of civic nationalists penned a public letter urging Taoiseach of the day, Leo Varadkar TD, to protect the rights of Irish citizens in Northern Ireland. The letter voiced concern at the ongoing political crisis in Northern Ireland saying that it had come about because of a failure to: “both implement and defend the Good Friday and St Andrew’s agreements” the result being a denial and refusal of “equality, rights and respect towards the section of the …

Kneecapping victims subsist in the dark forest of a past many of us are too easily forgetting

Mick Fealty on September 4, 2025, 1:31 pm

| Readers 2822

time lapse photography of multi-step waterfalls

By and large I’ve not passed remark on the success of Belfast rap act, Kneecap. I’m pleased if it rekindles interest in the Irish language amongst another generation, call me a prude but I struggle to get the irony of an act that seems to revel in drug taking. The controversy of the band’s political entanglement with the UK’s judiciary system has raised consideration of the feelings and experience of survivors among an estimated 2,500 people who were victims of …

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

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

| Readers 2855

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 …