The fairly low profile controversy in the pages of the Blanket, is beginning to rise. US based Eamon Lynch’s latest column in the Irish Echo, adds his view. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
Cheif Constable Hugh Orde tells the BBC’s Barney Rowan that in light of the 1800 or so murders that will go unsolved from the troubles, he personally favours some form of Truth and Reconcliation tribunral. However Dennis Bradley, Vice Chairmain of the NI Policing Board thinks it is completely impractical: You cannot have justice and truth for everyone. There are parts of government intelligence that no government in the world will let you close to. They may let you skirt …
Interesting piece from Noel MacAdam who has been talking to various unionists in the run up to next week’s council meeting. Not all pro-Agreement unionist he suggests are antithetical to Donaldson: This section, which includes people sympathetic to many of Mr Donaldson’s arguments but fed up with his tendency to put the party through endless hoops, believes he slipped up by indicating defeat might mean his departure. “He fired that shot too soon,” one said. “To a lot of people …
Despite some vocal criticism, the taoiseach Bertie Ahern is to meet (subs needed) with the Loyalist Commission tomorrow. The reasoning is that within the current hiatus people on the fringe of Northern Ireland politics need to be listened to. Gary Mason, one of the clergy involved explains his reasons for being involved: Methodist minister the Rev Dr Gary Mason, who is also on the commission, defended clergy being members of the body. Dr Mason, who ministers in east Belfast, said …
Roy Garland commends the uncompromising directness of a play written by two Republican ex-prisoners and produced by Dubbel Joint theatre. The piece, called In a Cold House, is largely set in a single room tackles the intimacy of the Northern Ireland conflict: In our communities we are not dealing with forces fairly remote from our existence � like the IRA or British army � but rather with neighbours estranged by generations of mistrust and pain who now have got to …
Alex Kane, columnist in the Newsletter has written a second piece in what is turning into a series about the current crisis in his own Ulster Unionist party. A Thorn in Trimble’s side By Alex Kane At the Odyessy Arena on Thursday night, Dame Shirley Bassey kept almost 5000 people waiting for half an hour, while she did whatever it is superstars do backstage on these occasions. Her audience grew restless. There were slow handclaps, feet-stamping and a chorus of …
The Scappaticci affair rumbles on, quietly for now. The Sunday People carries a story on his supposed interrogation in a series of safe houses in Donegal. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
Former internee and worker’s Party activist Paddy Joe McClean has claimed that Sinn Fein protesters breached Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, when they effectively broke up a meeting Omagh District Policing Partnership. He is considering legal action. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
Clearly relishing the apparent disarray in his rival’s camp, Peter Robinson dismissed the UUP as a ‘lost cause’. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
Ruth Dudley Edwards commends A Long Peace? particularly to Southern nationalists, as an constructive insight into the way Unionism might ‘punch its weight for the greater good’. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
The Blanket has re-published Newt Emerson’s piece on his attendence of the local police liaison committee. Despite his usual droll style, Emerson finishes with a serious dilemma facing the police in Northern Ireland: Everybody talks to terrorists, and that�s brought tangible improvements to communities far more blighted than mine. We don�t have the luxury of splitting our world into �criminals� and �law-abiding people� divided by a thin blue line because that line has been blurred by recent history then deliberately …
There is a excellent, thought-provoking argument laid down in this paper by independent Labour councillor, Mark Langhammer. Aimed at government insiders and various policy makers, it begins with a direct appeal: Policy makers must realise that Protestant working class communities yearn for a restoration of legitimate order. They are the people suffering the daily brunt of paramilitary oppression. This document sets out some elements of a new approach towards Protestant communities. It is being issued in the hope that it …
Nationalist weblogger Paul Dunne, yet again breaks from tradition to assert that Cromwell was not the complete villain that many of us grew up to believe. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
Early reports are reaching us that one of David Trimble’s closest advisors, David McNarry, is about to be dropped by the Orange Order. The cause of the breach is not yet clear. It may signal a rush of sentiment against the Trimble camp within the Order in advance of the UUC meeting next Monday. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a …
Hearts and Minds last Saturday is worth watching. Broadband is preferable, but the sound is usually good enough to follow. Noel Thompson pushes Jeffrey Donaldson hard on the upcoming challenge to UUC. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
As the Ulster Unionist party prepares for a critical meeting of its executive tonight, there has been an unusual degree of public acrimony. Jeffrey Donaldson, possibly sensing that Trimble may be outmanouvering him over the RIR issue, has gone on the offensive over the nature of a single remark from the pro-Agreement stalwart Sam Foster. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is …
Jeffrey Donaldson has repeated his intention to leave the UUP if the vote of censure on the joint declaration goes against him on 16th June. With the British government looking again at the issue of the future of the RIR home battalions, Donaldson has switched the focus of his attack: Mr Donaldson also plans to open a new front in his effective challenge against the UUP leader by claiming that the International Monitoring Body, which would deal with sanctions against …
Security Minister Jane Kennedy has met with UUP representative (and namesake) Danny Kennedy and given him reassurances that any moves towards normalisation will be dependent upon acts of completion on the part of paramilitary groups. However Martin McGuinness pulled no punches when he described the RIR as ‘…the jack boot of unionism on the neck of nationalists and republicans in the north.’ Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on …
Maurice Hayes believes that the public debate within Ulster Unionism is clearly out of step with popular opinion on the ground. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
In case you missed it all, here’s a fairly comprehensive resume of the recent Stakeknife controversy. Found via Ma Bear. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
