This guy had his ‘embedded status’ revoked by the MOD after posting this detailed dispatch from Afghanistan… 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
Whatever you make of last week’s Sinn Fein sponsored rally at Galbally GAC, it leaves the GAA in a sticky position. Despite trenchant denials that there was any breach of rule 7a, the incident will have set back the image of association in Northern Ireland. Our Friend in the North lays out the problem, with some precision: It will no doubt survive the hiccup triggered by the actions of a few halfwits in Galbally. Yet for all its achievements it …
There’s a piece in yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph in which Sinn Fein is accused of hypocrisy in their insistence that loyalist bandsmen may not sport any sort of paraphernalia relating to loyalist paramilitaries. That insistence is something that’s been carried through by the Parades Commission, which, according to Leslie Anne Henry: …upheld a decision to allow 41 loyalist bands to march through the Co Antrim village without restriction. However, bands have been warned in the commission’s determination that paramilitary-style clothing must …
By popular demand (and in an attempt to preserve the integrity of this useful conversation), Alasdair McDonnell is asking the GAA why one of its clubs was allowed an apparent breach of Rule 7a… Nonsense says Chris at Balrog, the Republican movement is not a political party but something that is open to everyone to participate in… Please note: since this is potentially yet another of those notorious Slugger sports/politics threads, we will moderate any man playing heavily or straying …
Malachi O’Doherty has an op ed in today’s Belfast Telegraph warning the Victims Commissioners to tread carefully, for fear of treading on victims nightmares. But it’s his blog that carries the news the Victims Commission had backed the Eames Bradley Legacy Commission proposals for an ex gratia payment to all victims prior to their controversial launch earlier this year. He carries the Commission official position statement (copied below the fold): CVS welcomes the suggestion that CGDP would recommend an acknowledgment …
Alex Kane takes note of the specific criticism being made of mainstream unionism for abandoning working class unionists/loyalists (which in many ways accounts for more of the nationalist/unionist turnout differential, than say those of the proverbial ‘Garden Centre Prod’). But as Kane retorts, neither the UPRG nor its predecessor organisation, the UDP, have made much of a fist of it either: In East Londonderry the PUP and UDP took a combined vote of 753 in the 1998 Assembly election. Neither …
Lithuanian authorities have confirmed their apparent preference for Northern Ireland courts by formally withdrawing the extradition request in the Republic of Ireland for Liam Campbell, one of the men held to be responsible for the Omagh bombing in a recent civil judgement, on weapons and terrorism charges. Campbell had been remanded on bail there with two others since his arrest in January – on a European Arrest Warrant issued in connection with an MI5 sting operation against republican groups which …
In the last few days I’ve been re-reading Brian Kennaway’s book The Orange Order: A Tradition Betrayed. It’s pretty obvious that, esoterically speaking at least, one of the things that the order is struggling with, and probably has struggled with for much longer than the lasat contentious 10/15 years, is modernity itself. This is probably less obvious in rural areas where religion of all types has retained a surer grip on the affections of its people than in Belfast. Roy …
THIS is my footage of the beginning of the Ardoyne riots on July 13, filmed entirely – by chance rather than planning – from the republican side. In this respect, it gives some insight into the atmosphere behind the republican lines, the dynamics of the crowd, the tactics employed by both sides and the vicious intensity of the hatred towards the PSNI and loyalists. But best of all, it shows me getting splatted by a water cannon near the end. …
It seems that Sinn Fein is determined to fix the blame for last night’s rioting on dissidents. The two Gerry’s have both been on the BBC this morning pointing the finger at dissident Republican organisations for being behind what at least has the look of premeditated (petrol bombs don’t generally appear spontaneously) violence. Meanwhile Brendan McCionnaith is placing the blame for triggering it on the police and on the Orange Order for persisting with a feeder march that’s not wanted …
Gonzo highlighted Malachi O’Doherty’s excellent online sound archive Arts Talk on Saturday… I’d reiterate his recommendation of the O’Searcaigh interview, not least because it provides an insight into the ways film makers can cut film in ways that tell a story quite different to the one they thought they were involved in. But it’s his latest, an interview with the artist Sean Hillen who was involved developing in the Omagh bomb memorial that’s worth listening to. It’s no exaggeration to …
However you mark it as racism, sectarianism or anti social behaviour, the running out of over 100 Roma from an area just outside The Village area of Belfast has to be one of the largest single mass migrations within Belfast since the early days of the Troubles. But like the Northern Bank robbery, it is the scale not the fact of what actually happened that’s remarkable. As the Daily Mail notes, it’s certainly not racist or even sectarian (via Mike …
Chris Gilligan in Spiked! has picks up on the proposition on Slugger yesterday that we may be seeing sectarianism mutate into open racism… and looks at the hard numbers, and finds that in actual fact the number of racist incidents relative to the numbers of in-migrating populations has actually dropped: There has been an increase in minority immigrants in Northern Ireland from 534 in 2000-01 to 12,255 in 2005-06. My graph below plots the two sets of figures: for recorded …
At long last… it seems there’s word of loyalist paramilitaries decommissioning… UTV’s senior political correspondent has broken the news (such as it is) on U105… it follows months of contact between mainstream unionist parties, the British government, and the paramilitaries. Reid reports: “I think that the intention would be that it would be completed during the course of the summer – maybe as early as July. My understanding is that the process has started.” With so much contact between government’s …
The rout of 20 Romanian families out of their homes in south Belfast have brought Northern Ireland back to the screens of the UK and the Republic. It seems like they are destined to get out of Northern Ireland completely. It’s nothing short of a collapse in the health of any community that these kinds of attacks. The involvement of gun indicates an acquiesce of paramilitaries in an area in which it is almost impossible to move (or even talk …
One of the fascinating things about platforms like Facebook and Twitter is the amount of technological innovation that takes place around it, whether it is as mundane as the random Ulysses generator I mentioned earlier, or this hyper techno form of activism intended to confuse the Iranian authorities over who is and who is not Twittering in Iran… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider …
A bit after the fact, since we were a little bogged down last week with the repercussions of the European election results, but it looks like the Omagh families are now targeting individuals on the Army Council of the Real IRA for civil action… Could this be a viable second front for relatives whose attempts to gain justice through the criminal justice system have been stymied various pieces of legislation, from the 2005 Enquiries Act to the legislaiton underpinning the …
Okay, my monthly slot on CityBeat goes out at 6.45 tonight, with an overview of the various shocks delivered by last Thursday’s Euro-poll. In short I argue that whatever misgivings unionists have about dancing with what many of them, as Jim Allister has demonstrated, still believe to be the ‘ugly bird’ of the ball – Sinn Fein – the elections confirm that they are the firm and favoured choice of an overwhelming majority of the Nationalist electorate. Commensurately, perhaps it …
Sinn Fein has a presser out this morning noting that the house of Conor Murphy has been attacked: The home of Newry Armagh MP Conor Murphy has been attacked in the early hours of this morning (Friday June 5th). The Sinn Féin Regional Development Minister praised the response of the Fire Service and said that he would not be deflected from representing the local community or working towards Irish Unity. Two cars were damaged in the attack on the family …
In the Sunday Times Liam Clarke reports on an apparent success by the Historical Enquiries Team in bringing to light some of that elusive truth about the past. From the Sunday Times report. A friend of the family said that the HET found some members of the police intelligence forces knew Henry [McIlhone] was not a gunman. “It makes you wonder why they initially said the opposite. Were they doing Donaldson a favour?” he said. “Henry was claimed as a …
