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Test players in Bold. Non-Ireland eligible players * This is the first of a series of four posts reviewing the strength and depth of our four senior men’s provincial rugby teams for next season starting next month. The first thing to say about the Connacht squad is that it is well balanced with thirteen of the fifteen likely starters full Irish internationals and some of the bench as well. 39 players is on the small side for a senior professional …

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Nine months out from an assembly and local election, Northern Ireland’s electorate is contemplating redrawing the political map. This week’s widely reported LucidTalk poll saw Sinn Féin (22%), the DUP (15%) and the Alliance Party (10%) all drop to five-year low levels of support at the expense of a resurgent UUP (16%) and SDLP (13%). This aligns with national trends in Great Britain, where Reform UK and the Green Party are threatening to end the Labour-Conservative duopoly. Like all polls, they are reflective of a moment in time and should be understood as a …

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What you need to know Combined DUP-SF vote falls by 5%, as UUP overtake DUP as most popular Unionist party On Monday (27 July), the Belfast Telegraph published results of a recent LucidTalk poll, which saw support for DUP and Sinn Féin fall by a collective 5 percentage points, with both parties recording their lowest level of support in five years. Support for the DUP (15%) fell by 3% since the previous poll in April, and saw the party overtaken …

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I have always felt that JFK got it wrong in 1961 when he advised people to “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”  I believe it is perfectly reasonable and proper for people to ask what their country can do for them, and this applies particularly in countries such as Northern Ireland, where there is a choice between two nationalities. I understand the point JFK was making about people working together …

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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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John Gray is the Chair of Reclaim the Enlightenment We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Who could not be inspired by the opening words of the American Declaration of Independence signed by Congress on the 4th of July 1776. …

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It’s been nearly two weeks since Chris Bryant was appointed the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and it seems he has already got stuck into the job as he ruled out the possibility of a border poll any time soon. As per the Belfast Telegraph from a news conference yesterday, Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant has said that an Irish border poll is “not top of my list of priorities”…Pressed on whether he believes a united Ireland …

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From the BBC: Sainsbury’s has agreed to sell Argos for £120m as the supermarket chain aims to focus on its core food business. The buyer, Swift Partners, is a company which has been created to buy the brand and includes former Co-operative Group boss Richard Pennycook. There are Argos 667 shops across the UK, with 201 operating as standalone stores and 466 operating within Sainsbury’s. It also has more than 450 collection points. Swift Partners’ Pennycook said he believed “strongly …

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I confess to never having heard of Ceuta until this morning. Located on the North African coast directly across the Strait of Gibraltar from mainland Spain, Ceuta holds a unique geopolitical status as Spanish territory on the African continent. Because Ceuta is part of Spain and the European Union, its 8.4-kilometer border with Morocco fortified with double-fenced wire barriers, sensors, and naval patrols represents one of Europe’s most heavily guarded external frontiers. The city periodically sees diplomatic and humanitarian strain …

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Slugger is a community, even though it’s online, and when you have been part of it as long as I have, you do get to know people. We don’t know what most posters look like, what they do for a living or often even their real names. Over time, we learn their politics, how they see the world and their little quirks. I’ve noticed that some people seem to be all argument. They can post hundreds of comments, yet you …

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Last weekend tens of thousands of Mallorcan residents thronged the streets of the island’s capital, Palma de Mallorca to protest at the unsustainable level of tourism on the island under the slogan ‘Mallorca al limite’ (Majorca at the limit) :  The protest turned violent when the Spanish National Police baton charged parts of the crowd and fired rubber bullets: The Policía Nacional have claimed that the violence occurred only after some of the protestors had attacked tourists stating:  some protesters …

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Chris McCracken is the Managing Director of The Linen Quarter Business Improvement District Debates around Casement Park rumble on. The current location has huge emotional resonance as home to GAA Games since 1953. However, surrounded by packed residential streets, it presents significant challenges, not least parking, noise, and concerns around emergency access. There has been opposition from some within the local community, including a successful judicial review in 2014. The cost of trying to deliver a larger Casement in such a challenging area never …

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One opinion poll should never be confused with an election result. Nevertheless, the latest LucidTalk figures deserve more than the usual few days of party spin and selective interpretation, because they may be capturing something deeper: a growing public frustration with Stormont itself. The DUP’s fall to 15 per cent will inevitably dominate the headlines. Given the turmoil surrounding the party, that result is hardly surprising. But concentrating entirely on the DUP risks missing the more important political story. Sinn …

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This is the second time I have attended the McGill Summer school, and therein lies the problem: Most of the themes and many of the speakers were the same, and with the same uniformity of view across the board. Rarely was there a disagreement within a panel discussion, and contrarian views weren’t really in evidence. It felt almost impolite to disagree. The mutual back-slapping and self-congratulatory tone became grating after a while, and anyone who has been paying attention will …

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Grim reading this morning for the leaders of the three largest Executive parties, as the Belfast Telegraph reports the new LucidTalk poll. This won’t have come as much of a surprise. The DUP has been polling badly for the last two years. On the other hand, it had also done so before the last Assembly election but still managed to retrieve some lost ground – as the gravitational pull of being the unionist champion in the contest for First Minister …

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What you need to know NI parties set out priorities for new Burnham Government Stormont parties have welcomed Andy Burnham’s appointment as UK Prime Minister, and have called on him to address NI’s financial situation and ensure political stability. On Tuesday (21 July), Burnham spoke with First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly. He said said he was serious about creating “a new politics”, with deeper devolution, but added that his focus was on practical measures rather than constitutional …

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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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In early 1985 my days as a trainee supermarket manager in Dublin had reached the end of the line. The company offered me a very substantial position as assistant manager in their biggest ever store, but there was a sting in the tail. It was located in West Belfast. It was a progressive step in my career but I was nervous about entering the killing fields of: if you are a Catholic, the north of Ireland, or if Protestant, the …

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