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Sinn Fein: between the lobby and the street

Mick Fealty on December 6, 2002, 9:52 am

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The Andersonstown News editorialises on the current deadlock, picking up on the recent murder in Ballygowan to suggest that Unionists seem more intent on keeping Sinn Fein out of government. But what’s more interesting about this piece is the detailed analysis of how recent political decisions have effected the social and economic life of nationalist West Belfast, along with a hint that the professionalization of Sinn Fein politics may be causing rifts between them and their traditional power base: “If …

Sovereignty change?

Mick Fealty on December 5, 2002, 11:03 pm

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Mitchell McLaughlin in a speech in Balbriggan, Co Dublin, challenged Unionists to declare whether they support the transference of sovereignty in the event that a majority in the North vote for it. On the face of it, it is hard to see the relevance of this concern. Particularly since the Belfast Agreement states in its first clause: “The participants endorse the commitment made by the British and Irish Governments that, in a new British-Irish Agreement replacing the Anglo-Irish Agreement, they …

Hunter: MP spy?

Slugger O'Toole on December 5, 2002, 5:24 pm

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It seems that Andrew Hunter was the source of the information that Peter Robinson leaked under parliamentary privilege earlier this week. It mentions that he has worked for MI5. There has also been some speculation that he worked with the South African Intelligence Service under apartheid. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Anniversaries that come and go

Slugger O'Toole on December 5, 2002, 3:25 pm

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And no one notices. Had we still had one, it would have been the third anniversary of a devolved parliament in NI on Monday. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

DUP: on the edge of revelation

Slugger O'Toole on December 5, 2002, 1:15 pm

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Looks like Peter Robinson is on the edge of revealing the party’s new alternative to the Belfast Agreement. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Belfast Agreement: praise or burial?

Slugger O'Toole on December 5, 2002, 9:42 am

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Eric Waugh expresses a view which may be the key to understanding the fundamental departure between Catholic and Protestants over the Belfast Agreement: “It is that the difficulties over the Agreement arise largely because our two peoples have different cultural ideas of the nature of truth.” This seems to fly in the face of many of the original hopes that prompted the inspirational writer and academic Declan Kiberd to write these lines only weeks after the Agreement was signed: “The …

Irish identities?

Slugger O'Toole on December 4, 2002, 5:55 pm

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At last, Brendan O’Neill takes a quick break from more pressing international affairs and provides us something we can use here at the Letter. He keeps up his sustained attack on false Irishness: “Irishness used to be a straightforward affair, where it was rightly assumed that those who lived or were born in Ireland were Irish. Now that Irishness is everything and anything, you have to declare your Irish credentials repeatedly in order to feel that your identity is a …

Colombia: witness fails to materialise

Slugger O'Toole on December 4, 2002, 5:36 pm

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Two witnesses for the prosecution, defectors from the rebel FARC group, failed to turn up at the trial in Bogota yesterday. The timing of the trial has been re-arranged for next February. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Paisley as old testament orator

Slugger O'Toole on December 4, 2002, 3:45 pm

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A bit late and perhaps a bit out of time, but this speech from the Rev Ian Paisley is an extraordinary piece of Old Testament rhetoric; hugely impressive in it’s dramatic scope, but not entirely squaring with the newer image of the Robinson/Dodds DUP: “For us there is no discharge in this war. It is a battle to the death. Until the blood soaked murderous beast of Republican terrorism and all other terrorists is put forever in the cage of …

Blogging will be light today

Slugger O'Toole on December 4, 2002, 11:36 am

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My work schedule is a little tight over the next few days so that I won’t be able to post everything I’d like to. If you think I have missed anything important, e-mail me with the link and I will post when I get the time. Otherwise, keep watching the excellent Newshound for the daily roundup. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Religious figures in the census

Mick Fealty on December 4, 2002, 10:30 am

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Are due to be published this month. Though the Census office has not given a date, latest reports suggest that it is on schedule to reach the public before Christmas. In light of this, journalists, politicians and policy makers will be dusting down the many words written on the political demography of Northern Ireland, in preparation for copious amounts of their own wise words on the subject. No doubt John Adams’ Political Demography of Northern Ireland will prove an invaluable …

Ulster Scots: compelling but flawed

Slugger O'Toole on December 4, 2002, 10:02 am

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John Laird is interesting and engaging, if a tad eccentric. In this feature piece for the Belfast Telegraph he puts together an interesting series of ideas in support of the growing Ulster Scots movement in Northern Ireland; not least its relation to the rapid globalisation process: “The politics of European integration, globalisation and, in the more distant past, imperialism have resulted in the revival and reassertion of other, older loyalties and identities.” This makes good sense. Globalisation has set a …

Peace process: a dissident view

Slugger O'Toole on December 4, 2002, 9:32 am

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Here’s the third in a series of articles reporting from Derry on the Godfather system left behind after the cessation of the armed struggle. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Best to be given award

Slugger O'Toole on December 3, 2002, 6:04 pm

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A contemporary of another troublesome genius from Belfast, Alex Higgins, George Best is to be awarded a lifetime achievement award from the BBC sports personality of the year award. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

IRA council member named

Slugger O'Toole on December 3, 2002, 5:44 pm

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Peter Robinson has used parliamentary privilege to publicly name a member the IRA’s ruling Army Council. The DUP has used such rights several times in the past, here and here. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Legitimacy or effectiveness?

Slugger O'Toole on December 3, 2002, 3:01 pm

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Interesting spin from Anne Applebaum at the Washington Post on the recent history of the current process, with quite deliberate parallels with the Middle East: “British politicians resigned in protest against the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which wound up becoming the kernel of the current Irish peace settlement. Fifteen years after Thatcher’s brave and surprising decision, the IRA has been outflanked, and Ireland, while not wholly cured, is on the mend. Far from being the decision of a weak leader, sometimes it …

Loyalist attacks on police

Slugger O'Toole on December 3, 2002, 1:07 pm

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In the subscription only Irish News, Barry McCaffery states that according to the latest figures from the PSNI, Loyalist paramilitaries are responsible for three times the number of the attacks on security forces as their Republican counterparts. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Alexa site ranking

Slugger O'Toole on December 3, 2002, 11:57 am

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Thanks to Stephen at Carisenda, for syndicating stories from the Letter to Slugger O’Toole to his own blog. It was through Carisenda also that I came across this search engine. It uses a similar format as Amazon to produce web search and traffic ranking. As you’ll see Letter to Slugger O’Toole remains well down the ranking at number 1,809,488. But we thought readers might like to use the review facility there to tell us what you really think of the …

Colombian three

Slugger O'Toole on December 3, 2002, 10:37 am

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The Colombian trial continues, amid allegations from the prosecution that explosives manuals found in Colombian rebel hands may be linked to the IRA. The BBC’s Dennis Murray, who it seems has managed to wangle the budget to get out of NI for a short while, describes the court room procedures. However David Sharrock in Saturday’s Times of London (registration required), suggested that there would prove to be insufficient evidence to do anything other than deport the three men for travelling …

Ructions at City Hall

Slugger O'Toole on December 3, 2002, 10:27 am

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A book worth considering for Christmas, if you really want to get into the murky and often petty politics of Belfast’s City Hall, is Mairtin O’Muilleoir’s Belfast’s Dome of Delight. It’s a very readable chronicle of Sinn Fein’s democratic march into what had been a bastion of exclusively Unionist civic virtue. That journey was marked by lock outs of Sinn Fein councillors, and walkouts by Unionists. Though looking at the latest debacle in City Hall, it looks as though some …