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The taxi market in Northern Ireland is an absolute mess. In 2014 about 16,000 taxi licences were registered in Northern Ireland. By the end of 2023 this had fallen to 7,500. Industry estimates they’re only less than 5,000 active drivers per week. The core problem is the Department of Infrastructure have made it so difficult to get a licence and potential drivers have to jump through umpteen hoops. It can now take over six months to get a taxi licence. …

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Mike Nesbitt’s sudden resignation  goes to the heart of what’s wrong with how Northern Ireland is governed. Modest hopes for limited  success have been dashed. If  systems and attitudes don’t  change, the crisis  in the health service  and others like it will never significantly improve. Independent report after  expert report  has spelt out loud and clear that if every hospital retains its present range of specialisms, resources cannot be concentrated effectively to deliver timely major treatment for patients throughout the …

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UN negotiators have until the end of this year to agree a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons, built around the principle that humans must stay in control of lethal decisions. In southern Ukraine, human operators use that control to hunt civilians. On 4 August, a Russian drone hunted a street trader through a market in Kherson. Yuriy, 52, had begun laying out crates of tomatoes, cucumbers and aubergines beside his van when he heard the familiar buzzing overhead. His …

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Something which may have slipped under people’s radars recently is the announcement by the Northern Ireland exams board, CCEA, that a number of subjects are to be discontinued. German, Economics and Engineering are to be scrapped along with Leisure Travel and Tourism, Learning for Life and Work and Contemporary Crafts. CCEA said it had made the decision based on factors such as “candidate entry patterns and the long-term sustainability of these subjects”. Candidate entry patterns and long-term sustainability could well …

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How can a new Ireland maintain and deepen its values, sustained for a century, while achieving the inclusion of unionists and immigrant communities within an all-Ireland culture? Fascinating debate and discussion are anticipated at the 2026 Darcy Magee Summer School in Carlingford when the battle against racism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration violence is examined under the timely theme of Culture, Identity and Inclusion. Compelling participants including former presidential candidate Heather Humphries, RTE podcasters Catriona Crowe and Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, Sunday Independent …

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In a previous article, I investigated attitudes towards minorities in Northern Ireland, examining how those attitudes varied by political party support.

With a double-header election to Stormont and local councils now less than 9 months away, and LucidTalk’s latest voting intention poll suggesting that allegiances may be shifting in the wake of Jeffrey Donaldson’s conviction, this article investigates a wider set of social attitudes across the party divide.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt dramatically resigned yesterday amidst a policy clash with his party leader Jon Burrows. As per the Belfast Telegraph   Confirming his departure tonight, the UUP said Mr Nesbitt “leaves a significant legacy”. His decision to quit comes amidst a clash with party leader Jon Burrows over retaining emergency general surgery (EGS) at Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, a senior source said. The Northern Trust had recommended its closure. There is widespread local opposition to such a move… …

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A big thank you to all the people here who have read and sometimes commented on my series of rugby articles here. A question everybody is (very kindly) not asking, is “what the hell qualifies me to write about rugby?” And the truth is, not very much. But I have been at it for quite a long time, and, unlike many fans, I can remember the dark days in the dim and dusky past when Ireland struggled to get even …

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We had a small suckler herd on our farm when I was growing up. Some of our cows, bought as heifers when I was very young, stayed with us for many years and had names. They were docile and enjoyed a good back scratch. Daisy, rather unusually for a suckler herd, was a Friesian and the first cow I can remember. There was also Bluebell, a Belgian Blue cross, Buttercup the Charolais, Primrose, a Simmental cross, and the rather less …

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From the FT: Israel should be killing “30 to 40” people each night in Gaza and should build Jewish settlements in the Palestinian enclave, the country’s far-right national security minister has said in an interview. Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hardline settler previously convicted of incitement to racism, made the comments on a podcast hosted by Rom Braslavski, who was taken hostage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas during its October 7 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza. …

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The PSNI seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place, don’t they? With police numbers falling and budgets squeezed year on year, they are increasingly being called upon to do more with less and, more often than not, being perceived as doing fairly badly at it. Compounding their problems, they are expected to police a post-conflict divided society wherein their support from one section of the community is reserved at best and often non-existent at worst, creating …

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The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like. Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not …

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In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday. Brian O'NeillManaging Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any …

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Slugger is leaving the city behind and heading to the picturesque seaside village of Cushendun. Nestled in the heart of the stunning Glens of Antrim, our venue for the day will be the historic Old Church. And our partner for the event is Grow the Glens. This all-day event is designed as a mini summer school. We invite you to join us for a day filled with insightful conversation, lively debate, and engaging chat. We have arranged for the event to be fully …

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A guest piece by Dom Einhorn, responding to Frank Schnittger’s series on the state of Irish rugby heading into the 2027 World Cup. The first lesson I learned as president of a 118-year-old French rugby club is that nobody in rugby ever does the right thing because you asked nicely. Sarlat, in the Dordogne, had survived two world wars, professionalisation, and a century of committee meetings, and every good structural idea I inherited had died the same death: everyone agreed …

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It is at this point in the summer cycle that all of us can watch Lough Neagh, and some of our other inland lakes and waterways, turn green as the blue-green algae blooms, and it is at this point too that the annual political pantomime begins. Many of our politicians can be seen this summer on Facebook and Instagram, standing at the water’s edge and grandstanding to the electorate that they understand the problem. And yet the fact remains that …

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Nigel Farage has seen off the challenge of Count Binface to regain his seat in Clacton. Still Count Binface had a very respectable 9,455 votes. I came first in the Clacton by-election! Of the candidates who bothered to turn up for the results. Here is my victory speech! pic.twitter.com/PBaLO10P2j — Count Binface (@CountBinface) August 14, 2026 Still, all is not well for Nige as the parliamentary investigation into his donations now resumes. Tis a bad day when people can’t give …

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Dr Clare McAuley is a lecturer in the School of Education, Ulster University The Department of Education’s draft Northern Ireland Curriculum 2028 is built on specified knowledge. Then it arrives at ‘the Troubles’ and devotes one unelaborated content statement to the conflict, its peace processes and continuing legacies. Seamus Heaney gave the old wisdom its permanent form in 1975, in a poem whose title everyone in Northern Ireland knows without ever needing to have read it, “Whatever you say, say …

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From the BBC: The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has accused Sinn Féin of trying to “avoid responsibility for its own failures” after former MP Francie Molloy suggested delays to the A5 upgrade could be linked to landowner opposition rooted in the Plantation of Ulster. The 58-mile (94km) road upgrade project had originally been given the go-ahead by Stormont ministers in October 2024, however it has been repeatedly delayed due to court proceedings. On Wednesday evening, a party spokesperson told BBC …

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Terraformer is a learning designer from Offaly, residing in Dublin. Headlines in recent months concerning the digitisation of the 1926 Irish census records painted a stark portrait of Protestant decline during the revolutionary period. The Protestant population of the 26 counties declined from about 311,000 in 1911 to 207,000 in 1926 – 104,000 people, about a third. The marked drop is routinely cited by unionists and revisionists as evidence that Protestant were forced during this time. Peter Hart in the …

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