Search Results for “future ireland” – Page 195 – Slugger O'Toole

“Maybe we don’t know who we are or where we are going.”

Pete Baker on July 26, 2009, 10:54 pm | Readers 5

Brian has already noted Liam Clarke’s thoughts on Gerry Adams’ role, and its impact on Sinn Féin’s fortunes in the Republic of Ireland. In the Sunday Tribune, however, the focus of the political correspondent Conor McMorrow, is on the resignations from the party there and on Toiréasa Ferris’ comments. Apparently there is to be a special meeting of the party’s Ard Chomhairle, Oireachtas members and Northern Ireland MLAs, and the party’s “middle tier of leadership” in August to “assess the …

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Sinn Fein must learn to lower expectations

Brian Walker on July 26, 2009, 7:48 pm | Readers 2

Liam Clarke, never a republican apologist, takes the alarmist line on Sinn Fein’s future if it sticks with Gerry Adams. No surprise that he describes a party moving away from the old stalinism. A new southern strategy he reports, is not only needed on its merits but to counteract fears of instability in the north. The DUP political leadership appears less committed to equality and partnership in government; unionism overall is fractured and directionless; and the political institutions are becoming …

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Don’t write off the old leaders just yet

Brian Walker on July 25, 2009, 4:06 pm | Readers 7

Under pressure of the worst recession since the 1930s, leadership everywhere is having a tough time. Gerry Adams take comfort, you’re not alone. Like the early to mid 30s, only in America is leadership flourishing and even there, under growing pressure. In our own islands, the uncanny similarities between Brown and Cowen – finance ministers who got us into this mess, poor communicators, worse leaders etc – persuade many of us to write them off. None of this will produce …

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Gaelic Athletic Association 1884 – 2009: 1 In Ulster…

Mick Fealty on July 20, 2009, 9:48 pm | Readers 51

A few years back I remember talking to a senior DUP politician about the fact that the two populations (despite a considerable amount of Peace Processing that’s what they substantially remain) in Northern Ireland each seem to have quite separate public lives that essentially remain locked to one another… it was that thought which prompted me to suggest to the Newsletter’s Sam McBride the small scale inert character of the Twelfth at the hub of many rural Protestant populations may …

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When winning is everything

Blank on July 20, 2009, 2:13 am | Readers 24

I’ve never been much of a sports player and outside the few nods of the head to Gaelic games in school haven’t played much football. I’ve been very much a spectator and being an Antrim fan when it comes to top level football usually a spectator of other teams’ spectators. This year that all changed.My son, who is becoming increasingly football crazy, decided this was the year we travelled to watch Antrim matches where ever they might be – unbelievably …

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“the battle for the heart of Sinn Féin is lost”

Pete Baker on July 18, 2009, 3:28 pm | Readers 11

The Irish News has some more on the resignation of Strabane Councillor Gerard Foley from Sinn Féin, noted previously. Meanwhile, in Dublin, another Sinn Féin Councillor, Louise Minihan, has resigned from the party. Via Politics.ie, an Indymedia report has the quotes. Explaining why she has left Sinn Féin Councillor [Louise] Minihan said, “I joined Sinn Féin in 1998, when I was sixteen years of age. At that time I believed that party to be committed to its stated objectives of …

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A day in the Orange

Blank on July 17, 2009, 10:39 pm | Readers 7

In the final report from the Slugger team on our day at the twelfth below is a blog submitted by Sean Matthews. A day in the Orange After hearing about Slugger O’Toole’s day in the Orange, I jumped at the chance of finding out more about this annual event which brings hundreds of thousands onto the streets across Northern Ireland. As the day progressed I was converged with a mixture of emotions, soon drained away by tiredness and an element …

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Adams’ international quest – whats the point?

Michael Shilliday on July 17, 2009, 2:59 am | Readers 17

Mack’s question, “Should the 12th of July be a bank holiday in the Republic of Ireland?” is a fascinating one, because it, to me, highlights the fallacy that Irish Nationalism has put at the centre of it’s existence in the past 100 years. It is not a bad question, nor unreasonable, but the fact that Nationalism, in this case south of the border, has not even begun to consider who Protestants and Unionists are, and why they think like they …

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“I’m still a councillor..”

Pete Baker on July 16, 2009, 4:43 pm | Readers 42

Strabane District Councillor, Gerard Foley, has resigned from Sinn Féin. There have been indictators of discontent among Sinn Féin representatives in Strabane before. Interestingly a report at that time, November 2007, describes Gerard Foley as “the leader of the [Sinn Féin] council grouping”. As with the resignation in Dublin, and in Wexford, the party wants their seat back.. From the BBC report. In a statement the Sinn Fein group on Strabane District Council said they were “deeply disappointed and saddened …

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Murdochgate: Time to stop feeding a desparate and overbearing ferryman..?

Mick Fealty on July 15, 2009, 12:55 pm | Readers 2

The #Murdochgate affair trundles on with big guns coming out on both sides. On Sunday Tim Montgomery one of the most respected figures (on all sides) of the British blogosphere came out with not so much a defence of Mr Coulson (no one who looks closely at his alleged role in a NOTW fishing expeditions can do that) as a spirited attack on the Guardian. Meanwhile Nick Davies at the Committee for Culture, Media and Sport yesterday, has named the …

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“we cannot allow old hatreds to fester and renew themselves..”

Pete Baker on July 15, 2009, 2:14 am | Readers 8

The BBC report focuses on a small element of the statement on Northern Ireland by Taoiseach Brian Cowen to Seanad Éireann, as does the iol report, but the full text is wider in scope. The continued existence of sectarianism, of peace walls and of deep communal divisions in parts of the North is an affront to democracy and to a civilised society. It defies belief that this is continuing in the year 2009. It must be energetically tackled and confronted …

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Twelfth Thoughts

Chris Donnelly on July 14, 2009, 2:17 pm | Readers 3

Another Twelfth gone, several more families across the North looking for new places to live and others cleaning up after their homes were targeted; members of Orange Lodges, Hibernians and GAA members picking up the pieces after more attacks; church congregations in fear that the return of attacks on their places of worship will bring a return to the bad old days. Oh, and the inevitable rioting where the interfaces were infringed, with dissident republicans kicking into the open goal …

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“a face of bigotry, sectarianism and intolerance”

Pete Baker on July 14, 2009, 3:01 am | Readers 44

From the various reports there appear to have been a number of police officers injured and a number of arrests today. Perhaps the most significant incident was in Armagh where an explosion was reported. By comparison, as well as skirmishes today, Londonderry saw a “sophisticated hoax” on Craigavon Bridge at the weekend. At the most visible disturbance today, in Ardoyne, local MLA, Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly, blamed “a small number of dissident republicans from outside Ardoyne” for the trouble, although …

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“Sinn Féin and the DUP agreed the wording of this legislation, to create a new department.”

Pete Baker on July 10, 2009, 12:21 am | Readers 4

He may have been standing up for Newry at the recent North-South Ministerial meetings noted yesterday [Did the rest of the Executive know? – Ed], but Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, MP, MLA, seems surprised that the NI Executive apparently didn’t get around to agreeing the draft legislation on policing and justice powers today. Didn’t he know they were only “to be shown” the draft? Still, there’s always next time.. and a few more steps to …

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North-South Ministerial Council meets today

Pete Baker on July 6, 2009, 3:09 pm | Readers 1

Apparently the North-South Ministerial Council meets today with Taoiseach Brian Cowen and the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers in attendance and economic issues on the agenda. According to Irish Times report Mr Cowen said that the meeting would be an opportunity to review the excellent progress already made. “It will enable us to focus ever more keenly on the future benefits to be attained by working together on a cross-Border basis.” It’s not clear whether [Irish] chicken will …

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“The Executive appears to be paralysed on this issue.”

Pete Baker on July 1, 2009, 8:39 pm | Readers 2

The Chairman of the Northern Ireland Assembly Regional Development Committee, the UUP’s Fred Cobain, had previously criticised the relevant NI Minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, after his unilateral declaration of intent to defer new water charges for a further three years. That was in April. In the Belfast Telegraph today Fred Cobain describes the issue as “a ticking time-bomb” that the dysfunctional NI Executive has, to date, failed to address. And the cost of a further deferral? Up to £2billion. …

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“a fragile flower which requires careful tending”

Pete Baker on June 30, 2009, 10:35 pm | Readers 92

BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport has some interesting observations on the High Court ruling on the challenge to the appointment of four Victims Commissioners by then First and deputy First Ministers. Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness were not subpoenaed about their un-documented and witness-free meetings, in office, about the eventual appointments. BBC report here. The ruling is not yet online. From the Devenport Diaries Ms Williamson’s lawyers had argued that the failure of Messrs Paisley and McGuinness to keep …

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“Just a bit of politics”?

Pete Baker on June 30, 2009, 6:51 pm | Readers 6

The breach of Executive confidentiality yesterday by the Northern Ireland Minister for Employment and Learning, the UUP’s Reg Empey, and his description of the dysfunctional NI Executive being “run like a huckster’s shop”, wasn’t deemed sufficiently newsworthy to be mentioned on the main BBC NI news [Newsline]. And, as noted yesterday, although it got plenty of radio coverage, there was a considerable delay in it being reported online. Was that something to do with NI Finance Minister, the DUP’s Nigel …

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“Run like a huckster’s shop”

Pete Baker on June 29, 2009, 5:57 pm | Readers 9

That’s the Northern Ireland Minister for Employment and Learning the UUP’s Reg Empey’s verdict on the dysfunctional NI Executive. [So what’s the alternative? – Ed]. His comments came after the NI Finance Minister, the DUP’s Nigel Dodds, blamed the two UUP members of the Executive for his deferral of a scheduled statement in the Assembly on the June budget monitoring round – a written statement is expected later in the summer. According to Reg Empey that decision was made because …

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Murphy’s law leads us into a cul-de-sac

Brian Walker on June 28, 2009, 4:22 pm | Readers 9

I’m exploiting my privileges to rework my response to Pete’s interesting thread on Patrick Murphy’s article in the Irish News, “Irish history tends to be a rerun of same events .” Does Murphy’s honestly argued piece reveal wider disenchantment with the whole Assembly experience among thinking nationalists? I hope not. He makes a rod for his own back by overrestricting his definition of democracy and overplaying the role of history. He asks for instance: Do nationalists benefit by having nationalist …

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