Search Results for “future ireland” – Page 233 – Slugger O'Toole

prospect of co-operation has become less likely

Pete Baker on March 21, 2006, 8:16 pm | Readers 0

The findings of an investigation into Devolution in the UK – The Impact on Politics, Economy and Society by the Economic and Social Research Council, at a cost of around £5million, into the impact of devolution in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales are being discussed at a seminar in the University of Ulster today. Out of a total of 38 research projects, 17 dealt with the situation in Northern Ireland in some form. The report is being published, but …

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Where to begin?..

Pete Baker on March 21, 2006, 4:36 pm | Readers 1

As the BBC has reported, Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland, Peter Hain has announced[pdf file] sweeping changes to the public bodies here, described in the NIO statement as “[delivering] on his promise to cut needless bureaucracy in Northern Ireland” [*ahem* – Ed] – full document here[pdf file]. While Lord Rooker stepped up to make the same announcement in parliament. There are a lot of changes to note.. but I’ll stick to some highlights[pdf]From the summary document – …

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“You can’t trust US with housing?”

Mick Fealty on March 19, 2006, 11:45 pm | Readers 2

In a yet to be published response to Alan Ruddock’s MT piece on Northern Ireland’s status as an ad hoc social economy I’ve suggested that NI’s polliticians are suffering from a lack of confidence in either the future or the efficacy of constitutional politics. Now at least two parties have complained because Peter Hain is planning to transfer power over housing to the previously powerless Council tier of local government. We should get the detail on Tuesday.

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Support for rule of law by all parties foundation for economic success and political stability

Pete Baker on March 16, 2006, 5:50 pm | Readers 1

The Guardian somewhat over-reaches in the headline on their latest Northern Ireland report – “Sinn Féin needs new peace process incentive, warns US envoy” – based on the testimony of US Special Envoy Mitchel Reiss to the House of Representatives International Relations Committee’s Joint Committee Hearing on The Northern Ireland Peace Process: Policing Advances and Remaining Challenges. Using quotes from Reiss’ assessment of the different parties’ positions the Guardian interprets Mitchel Reiss’s comments, on the section of his testimony on …

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How we squandered our peace dividend

Mick Fealty on March 14, 2006, 8:17 pm | Readers 4

There is little doubt that in many respects Northern Ireland has never had it so good: unemployment rates are 4.5% (pdf), just below the UK’s average of 5.1%. The sense of settled well-being arising is most palpable in areas of traditional high unemployment like the Bogside in Derry. Disputes erupt every so often about the trend of higher Catholic unemployment, but we’re in a different territory from the 80% unemployed heads of households that held for some considerable time in the …

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Shadow Assembly a necessary bitter pill?

Mick Fealty on March 14, 2006, 3:32 pm | Readers 6

Gearóid ó Cairealláin in the Andersonstown News has some interesting thoughts on future progress. He foresees Sinn Fein being pulled into a shadow Assembly even if it doesn’t want to be. He then suggests that the party’s supporters should keep their eye on the longer term gameplan – ie to draw the Northern and Southern polities closer together by consolidating its substantial support in Northern Ireland and moving beyond its currently marginal status in the Republic: Sinn Féin have already …

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Unreconciled past still awkwardly close

Mick Fealty on March 14, 2006, 4:18 am | Readers 2

Historian Irene Whelan considers the scale of an island wide reconciliation never mind unification the longer term context of an historical narrative that pitched Catholic and Protestant on course for mutually assured disruption (subs needed) – if not destruction. Paraphrasing Orwell she notes, “reconciliation in the present and future will most certainly be contingent upon reconciliation of the past”. Fallout from clerical scandals and the exposure of abuse in Catholic-run institutions has shattered, if not destroyed, the almost organic connection …

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Chair of PUP appointed Independent Member of Policing Board

Pete Baker on March 13, 2006, 5:34 pm | Readers 59

Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, has announced the new 19 member line-up for the Policing Board due to take over from the current board on 1st April, following his call for nominations from the political parties on March 1st.. there’s an accompanying BBC report here – the UUP are to discuss whether they’ll take those seats, apparently.. and there are few surprises among the party representatives. But among the independent members, most of whom are …

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“Britday” and the Olympics are coming

Lee Reynolds on March 7, 2006, 3:10 am | Readers 3

Brown’s call for renewed pride in Britishness through a day of public celebration with a focus on Britain’s veterans seems to have been confirmed to Iris Robinson.In his patriotic speech he made a robust defence of the display of the Union flag saying it was “…a symbol of unity and part of a modern expression of patriotism too…All the United Kingdom should honour it, not ignore it. We should assert that the Union flag by definition is a flag for …

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City Council reject advertising with DI

Mick Fealty on March 4, 2006, 7:46 pm | Readers 1

If Northern Ireland’s largest regional newspaper, the Belfast Telegraph is experiencing troubles, then so is Ireland’s smallest and punchiest title, Daily Ireland. Belfast City Council has just rejected a bid to have DI included in its advertising list of approved national daily papers. The sticking point appears to be lack of a rating from the NI Target Group Index – a portfolio of surveys which provides information on audiences and their attitudes towards consumer goods and services. The decision comes …

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Sectarianism won the streets of Dublin

Mick Fealty on March 1, 2006, 4:12 pm | Readers 1

Susan McKay explores some interesting parallels between some of the chants and verbal abuse hurled by Republican protesters and those hurled at the PSNI by loyalists in Northern Ireland – and wonders whether either is really interested in the reality of a pluralist future.

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Adams: war is over, period

on February 19, 2006, 4:12 am | Readers 0

Gerry Adams’s speech to Sinn Fein’s Ard Fheis lays out some important strategic themes. Sinn Féin, he said, had to: :: concentrate on the current negotiations to advance the peace process and ensure the Good Friday Agreement was implemented in full including resolving the issue of policing. :: develop an entirely new relationship with unionists, deepening and broadening the party’s engagement with that community. :: build support in Britain for the unification of Ireland. :: promote an Ireland of equals, …

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Woman to take SF VP job?

Mick Fealty on February 17, 2006, 8:00 pm | Readers 0

Chris Thornton figures that if Sinn Fein’s Ard Fheis carries a gender equality motion this weekend, then it may be compelled to replace Pat Doherty with a senior female representative. If it comes to that, the actual choice may tell us something about the party’s future strategy in terms of its expansion. The party has by far the most radical approach of any of the main parties in Ireland. Something which it may hoping will generous pay-offs in the longer …

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No NI representation in Dail

Mick Fealty on February 16, 2006, 7:37 pm | Readers 0

Well Bertie Ahern’s latest word is that other parties just won’t have it. The issue has been in train since Ahern announced his intention to examine this issue back in the summer of 2002. And even now, it is not ruling out the possibility of its re-introduction at some future point. And has been significantly re-visited several times. For now, as Sinn Fein’s leader in the Dáil says Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin points out, Northern Irish representatives will have “the same …

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Searching for a symbol of Irish identity?

Mick Fealty on February 14, 2006, 4:30 pm | Readers 2

Tom Kelly weighs the problem of re-adopting 1916 as symbol for the unification of the rapidly diversifying Irish people, and sees a disjuncture between a non-militaristic present and a bloody past. It’s a theme that is likely to be returned to over and over as a large migrant population settles and eventually challenge apparent fixtures in the Irish cultural make up. In 1916 the world only knew one way to change things and to that end the rising does have …

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Some questions for Northern Nationalists…

Mick Fealty on February 13, 2006, 1:24 am | Readers 10

There’s an interesting discussion on Hearts and Minds this week that is certainly worthy of further discussion on Slugger (as soon as we complete the move and re-open the comments I may push this story back to the top of the blog to encourage such). Dennis Kennedy of the Cadogan Group faces off with Mark Durkan and Mitchel McLaughlin over the future of Nationalism. Two things strike me about the encounter. One, how difficult it is for someone from a …

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UVF to disband (but will not give up guns)

Mick Fealty on February 12, 2006, 3:16 pm | Readers 4

Henry McDonald reports that ‘Ireland’s oldest terror group’ and the one which arguably fired the opening shots in the troubles, is going to disband, though not give up it’s guns: which raises concerns about where those guns will go, and who retains control of them if they are not decommissioned by IICD. The UVF leader confirmed that the organisation plans to wind up all its paramilitary units and command structures. However, the UVF would not follow the IRA and decommission …

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Fact stranger than children’s fiction?

Mick Fealty on February 8, 2006, 5:39 pm | Readers 1

Alex Kane finds an enormous amount of money being spent on a new children’s programming event, when, he reckons, Northern Ireland already has enough ‘big birds’ already – mostly of the headless chicken variety.By Alex Kane: The news that someone has agreed to give the producers of Sesame Street an enormous sum of money to make their programmes “Northern Ireland relevant,” really does prove that a fool and his money are soon parted. We already have a standing army of …

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Government accept no immediate return to Executive?

Mick Fealty on February 7, 2006, 6:09 pm | Readers 5

I’m grateful to Slugger regular Dr Snuggles for bringing this to our attention: On the Politics Show on Sunday, Peter Hain said that he wanted to “find a way forward where we can get the assembly up and running and thereafter power-sharing established and restored.” Later in the same programme, he talked of getting the Assembly up and running and then, “in due course [my emphasis], a power-sharing Executive as well”. Then, yesterday, he said: “I’m confident we can make …

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Containment is shared British and Irish aim…

Mick Fealty on February 7, 2006, 2:34 pm | Readers 0

The Andersonstown News argues that the British and Irish governments have a shared agenda: to contain the Northern Irish problem firmly within Northern Ireland. Albeit , it argues, for vastly different reasons. In London it is to get enough fair treatment for nationalists/republicans/Catholics to keep them quiet but not to allow them power to govern. For Dublin the policy is to get enough British promises of stability in the northeast to keep things quiet and so allow British control “for …

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