caral ni chuilin

“I have decided to issue licences to those netsmen who have provided undertakings to the Department not to fish…”

Pete Baker on March 13, 2012, 5:15 pm | Readers 45

Evidently all those 161 publicly funded press officers were busy elsewhere… No press release to accompany the Northern Ireland Fisheries Minster Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín’s statement to the NI Assembly yesterday. It was an update on departmental salmon conservation measures and, in particular, the Minister’s latest position on the issuing of commercial licences to net salmon. Here’s what the Minister told the NI Assembly In conjunction with the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), conservation limits have been established for a suite of …

“This has been custom and practice, I have just put it in writing.”

Pete Baker on March 13, 2012, 3:14 pm | Readers 41

Apparently, 161 publicly-funded press officers are not sufficient to keep Northern Ireland’s troublesome press pack in check… The Belfast Telegraph has gotten hold of a “confidential memo” [not yet online] from the NI Minister of Culture, Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín, to the various arms-length bodies (ALBs) within the department’s remit setting out “a proposed media communications protocol”. From the BBC report DCAL said the objective was to promote best practice in communication and to ensure that the media and the public were …

“However, the Minister told us that she was too busy to see us.”

Pete Baker on February 20, 2012, 9:20 pm | Readers 61

With potential European Commission fines still pending for the Northern Ireland Executive’s failure to protect a special habitat in Strangford Lough, another area of contention, environmentally, has opened up – with further potential EC fines. This time, it’s commercial salmon fishing. And the Department responsible for licensing the nets used is the NI Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL). On the 12 January the NI DCAL minister, Sinn Féin’s Carál Ní Chuilín, publicly called for a voluntary moratorium on the taking of salmon. …

Question master Jim Allister? And should David McClarty be more like him?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 26, 2011, 9:30 am | Readers 332

The TUV’s sole MLA Jim Allister has been getting a reputation for running a one-man opposition/scrutiny function up at Stormont. Martina Purdy summed up well the exchange in the Assembly chamber on 13 September between TUV leader Jim Allister, Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure Carál Ní Chuilín, and Assembly Speaker William Hay: When Culture Minister Caral Ni Chuilin told the chamber, whimsically, that she and Mr Allister were “firm friends,” he accused her of misleading the house. Mr Allister …

Stay classy, Carál…

Pete Baker on September 21, 2011, 8:05 pm | Readers 72

Good heavens! You’re the culture minister… UTV has the censored version. And here’s the other half of the “satirical exchange”. Pete Baker

Gerry Kelly: “and I don’t like being critical of the media…”

Pete Baker on May 26, 2011, 11:38 pm | Readers 29

In the face of continued criticism of their decision to appoint Mary McArdle as a special advisor to Northern Ireland Culture Minister, Carál Ní Chuilín, Sinn Féin have informed the media of ‘loyalist threats’ against Mary McCardle, Carál Ní Chuilín and Gerry Kelly, MLA. The PSNI, as usual, have neither confirmed nor denied threats against named individuals. But Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly has taken the opportunity to point a finger of blame at the media. From the BBC report Mr Kelly said his …

End of history: Or how I learned to start worrying and forget about my bombs

Blank on January 27, 2011, 8:01 pm | Readers 62

Carál Ní Chuilín, MLA and Gerry Kelly, MLA are both open and proud on their previous membership of a now defunct branch of Óglaigh na hÉireann. Both served prison sentences for bombing campaigns in areas mainly used by ‘civilians’ on behalf of that IRA. When the most recent in a long line of British ‘Chief Constables’ controlling policing in the north of Ireland needed a comparative for the recent extended disruption on the Antrim Road, he choose the Omagh bomb. …