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Tony Blair’s speech yesterday was long and detailed. He has clearly learned much from Clinton’s thorough-going research and sensitivity to multiple audiences. Rather than giving you the whole speech at once, we’ll look at different aspects of the speech throughout the day. First, he reminds the audience of the reasons for the putting together the agreement in the first place: “Enemies would become not just partners in progress but sit together in Government. People who used to advocate the murder …

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There has been pressure from the media in the last few days on the IRA to make the next move in the peace process. Tony Blair in Belfast today told ‘No camp’ loyalists that there was no other game but that laid out by the Belfast Agreement, but reserved his most direct message for the Republican movement: “Another inch by inch negotiation won`t work. Symbolic gestures, important in their time, no longer build trust. It is time for acts of …

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More on the poll mentioned earlier. There’s a discussion beginning on this unmoderated board. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

The Irish News editorialises on the murder of Joseph O’Connor, a leading member of the dissident republican group, the Real IRA two years ago. It gives two main reasons for serious concern: “One was the strong belief held both by detectives and the victim’s family – and fully reported at the time by this newspaper – that Mr O’Connor was killed by the Provisional IRA, a group which is supposed to be observing a ceasefire. The second was that not …

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Another incident in a steady campaign of intimidation aimed at uprooting Catholics from Larne has taken place. In that sense this is a tragic, but unremarkable story. The DUP have been slow to condemn such incidents in the past, prefering to leave it to others in the UUP and the PUP. This time local councilor Jack McKee was unequivocal in his condemnation: “This woman is petrified. She had to leave her home late in the evening and take refuge with …

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It looks like we’ve hit the most crucial witness in the Saville enquiry at the Guildhall in Derry. Rosie Cowan in the Guardian: “He believed two soldiers in particular were responsible for triggering the shooting, and that between them they killed eight or 10 people. He did not see any civilians with guns or bombs and said there was no justification for a single shot he saw any soldier fire. But he claimed statements he gave to Royal Military Police …

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The BBC have published a new poll that indicates that support of the Belfast Agreement has suffered a major loss of confidence: “It suggests support for the Agreement is now only 56% – compared to more than 70% at the time of the referendum four years ago. Only a third of unionists would vote for the Agreement if the referendum were held today – that is about 10 percentage points down since the programme sampled opinion a year ago.” More …

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Despite the suggestion that the IRA will have to disband to bring all parties back into government, the precidents are not encouraging. Brian Feeney in the Irish News, delves back into history: “The IRA did not disband after the Civil War. It divided. The winners continued as the Free State army: most of the losers eventually joined Fianna Fail after 1926. In fact, many Fianna Fail cumainn in the early years of the party’s existence were one and the same …

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Phew. At last it has begun. Gemma Murray reports on the courtship we have all been waiting for; close talks between the DUP and Sinn Fein, according to the UUP that is: “A so-called courtship dance between the DUP and Sinn Fein has begun, according to Deputy Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey. Speaking at Stormont Buildings on the Secretary of State John Reid’s suspension of the Assembly, Sir Reg Empey lashed out at the ‘significant change, shift and transformation …

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Last month, we reported David Ervine’s concerns of the gulf between the Protestant middle classes and the working class: “…the Catholic middle class put back into the communities they came from, whilst the protestant middle classes have concentrated on draining the bucket dry.” However, Mairtin O’Muillieor looks at his own Catholic community and similar concerns are beginning to arise: “The gap between our college-going achievers — and fair play to them — and the forgotten working class of areas like …

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Dennis Murray, the BBC’s senior Northern Ireland correspondent: “Street disturbances and the hugely divisive marching season combined to turn up the temperature on the sectarian front – those tensions being much more evident after the worst of the troubles had gone. There is also a core assumption in the agreement that once in government, trust would build between old political enemies. Not only did that not happen, it got gradually worse.” Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads …

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As the new team of junior minsters fly in to take up their new posts, the Belfast Telegraph have kindly provided a series of short reports on what happens next under the some of the briefs the new team will assume: Finance and Personnel; First and Deputy First Minister; Health; Environment; Agriculture; Education; Social Development. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Suzanne Breen at her pithy best. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

To Andrew of Dodgeblog for adding the Letter to his list of recommended reading. And to writer Ed Driscoll. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Interesting discussion following the football story in this comments box. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

Number 10 Downing Street has re-stated its determination that the original Agreement of 1998 is to remain the template for political progress. That should keep most people on board. Including those we have come to understand as anti the Agreement. A careful examination of the DUP’s 2001 manifesto, for instance, shows that amendment rather than abolition of the Agreement was what they campaigned for at the time. As we suggested before, the terms pro- and anti- are no longer adequate …

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To Doc Searl’s weblog, what I believe is a Dutch site called HEFTKLAMMERN and BaristaLog Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

It may become more effective at reaching young wealthy audiences than traditional paper media, but as primary activity blogging doesn’t pay. One of the leading lights of the form, Andrew Sullivan: “…we may have, I think, what one Internet writer recently called an air and gold problem. Air is much more vital to human beings than gold; but because there’s so much air out there and all of it is readily available, it’s free. Gold, on the other hand, is …

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Lots of interesting background on the crisis and the Loyalist feud. Slugger O'TooleA general account used for the daily threads and other things.

An eloquant and politically literate case for getting on with it, from Tom Kelly of DCL Media in the subscription only Irish News: “…each political party seems to be obsessed with the role they think they should have either in a society that is yet to come or a society set in the good old days. The difficulty for those of us in business is that we need them to be playing their roles here and now. “For many Republicans, …

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