Loyalist feud to end?
It looks like things are beginning to wind down. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
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UDA brothel burns down
Another contender for the bizarre headline of the month award, but it seems to be only the tip of the iceberg. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Demoralised prods: summary
Richard Kelly visited NI recently to speak to a number of largely pro-agreement figures in NI. He begins by suggesting that David Trimble did not capitalise on the advantages of the Belfast Agreement from the beginning, instead what began as a victory has come to be seen by many Unionists as a defeat. Ervine suggests that long term promises don’t satisfy people under various short term pressures, particularly in interface areas. Again with Ervine he identifies education as a key …
Ervine: alternative is more for Dublin
In the Irish Post, David Ervine talks to Paul Green: The people of Northern Ireland have to be made aware that there are two types of government on offer. One is that the British and Irish governments will administer power here and the other is that the people of Northern Ireland themselves will. They need to be aware of that choice because when we abandon our capacity to work together, then we are handing over our authority to Dublin and …
McCann on the IRA: defenders
Echoing Jack Holland’s interview with Moloney in the summer, McCann makes a robust distinction between the nature of Republicanism in Belfast and Derry and that of the more classic type: “Moloney rightly identifies Adams’s 1983 election to Westminster from West Belfast as one of the most significant plot points in his narrative. He might with advantage have directly quoted the new MP’s exultant first words to cheering crowds on the Falls Road: ‘Even De Valera couldn’t win the Falls.’ De …
Paul Murphy: a last welcome
Danny Morrison gives a broad welcome to the new secretary of state, but finishes with typical lyricism: “If the British government allows the political process to become mired on the single issue of the IRA, then Paul Murphy is going nowhere except back to Wales to listen to classical music and cook, which is how, he says, he relaxes.” Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
SDLP: gloves off
The SDLP’s Alisdair McDonnell speaking at the weekend. “The loyalist violence is nasty. The unionist prevarication is difficult and trying. But the real crunch here is that Sinn Féin let us down and they have lied their way around every corner since October 4 trying to pretend they are not.” Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Demoralised prods: ungovernable temprament
Kelly talks to Rev John Dunlop, minister of Rosemary Presbyterian Church in north Belfast: “‘There is a community worker I know well,’ he says, ‘who says that cross-community work for her is to get young people from the two loyalist paramilitary factions together in the same room. It’s a big move from that to then engage with the republican community further up the street, who tend to be a lot more articulate and ideologically aware.’” He describes how he sees …
Irish for the Irish alone?
Roy Garland attacks the ethnic assumptions made by some when justifying the promotion of the Irish language. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
City of Culture: unrealistic bid
Malachi O’Doherty with a caustic but probably accurate analysis of why Belfast wasn’t selected for the UK shortlist for European City of Culture in 2008. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Business begins again?
Trimble and Adams have their first bilateral meeting since the week of the Stormont collapse. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Not for the faint-hearted
Pictures from Daniel O’Donnell’s wedding in Kincasslagh, Co Donegal today (via the newsfeed at Irish in Britain). Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
McCann on the IRA: stepping away from history
McCann identifies the difference in the IRA’s premise and those of similar movements. He begins with an echo of Michael Collins: “The agreement doesn’t represent freedom, then, but freedom to achieve freedom. Not the promised land, but a stepping stone toward it. The problem is that the IRA has differed from movements that republicans have sometimes, depending on who’s within earshot, been content to compare themselves with–the Basque ETA, the African National Congress, the Palestine Liberation Organization–in that it has …
Thanks
The School of Journalism’s weblog at Cardiff University has given a mention of Letter to Slugger O’Toole to their MA students. They have a lot of interesting links and materials on the weblog phenomenon. If you fancy setting up your own blog, Blogger is the place to get started. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Demoralised prods: education
Kelly turns to education. He suggests: “Working-class Protestants have never had much esteem for educational qualifications, nor for much of the last century did they require them: a trade was thought best, and-given the unabashed sectarianism within the north’s major industries-it came easy. This economic prop has since been kicked away by the decline of traditional employers such as Short’s aircraft factory and the shipbuilder Harland & Woolf.” Billy Hutchinson on the effects of a shrinking heavy industry: “‘Long gone …
McCann on the IRA: Adams
This has to be most intelligent and reflective review of Ed Moloney’s A Secret History of the IRA. In fact, it is more of a critical essay on the Northern Command and its natural antithesis to classic Republicanism. He starts on Adams, who has taken star billing in previous reviews (also here and here): “The shadow of Gerry Adams falls across almost every page. Moloney recounts his IRA career: joined as an 18-year-old volunteer in D Company on the Falls …
Demoralised prods: interface
Kelly talks to Chris McGimpsey, who he describes as a Liberal Unionist, who voices the suspicion amongst Loyalists in North Belfast that “…that there is a Sinn Fein/IRA strategy to expel Protestants from their traditional neighbourhoods and capture Belfast by stealth.” McGimpsey cites: “…a succession of bomb scares at the Everton Day Centre on the Crumlin Road that separates Ardoyne from Glencairn and Shankill. He believes that militant republicans are responsible: ‘I think they want to get that school closed …
Bloody Sunday: Ford faces tribunal
Robert Ford, Commander of Land Forces in Northern Ireland at the time, is to appear in the Saville inquiry today. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Shipyard memories
The BBC are looking for people to provide memories of the Harland and Wolff, once the largest employer in Belfast. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.
Crucifixion: loyalists claim responsibility
An update on one of the more brutal and bizarre beatings of recent months. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.