With Northern Ireland junior Minister, Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly, recently returned from the Philippines, I thought it might be useful to take a quick look at some other attempts to export the lessons from NI. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness’ advice to Sri Lanka seems to have taught the government there that it would be better to wipe out the Tamil Tigers.. Although, in Iraq, the imposition of ‘peace walls’ and a surge in the use of the US military …
It wasn’t until near the end of the Politics Show discussion with Jim Fitzpatrick and member of the Victims Commission, Patricia McBride, that the Northern Ireland junior Minister, the DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson, unveiled an argument [5mins 45 sec in] he had clearly been determined to produce in the debate on the leaked proposal from the Consultative Group on the Past, of a ‘bad bank’ to deal with the “toxic debt” of those poisonous foundations. “These proposals are going nowhere fast. …
From tonight’s Hearts and Minds, some welcome straight-talking from Liam Clarke on the size, and cost, of our local administration – and the departments within. Expect this issue to feature, explicitly or implicitly, in other discussions ahead.. Pete Baker
Didn’t get time yesterday to blog my Telegraph piece on Obama’s speech… Looking back on Bush’s first inaugural speech, there was little there to indicate what followed. For what follows, nothing Obama said can be taken for granted; other than for the Americans and the rest of us, sovereignty is not longer what it once was. The answer to the US’s domestic problems lie in global solutions… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the …
Today’s Guardian Review has an interview with poet Ciaran Carson, director of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry which celebrated its 5th anniversay recently. Carson talks of growing up on the Falls Road in Belfast, speaking only Irish at home and learning English in the street, and declares of his poetry – “I’m not that interested in ideologies,” he says. “I’m interested in the words, and how they sound to me, how words connect with experience, of fear, of anxiety.” …
Mark’s video report has been picked up all over the place, particularly in the mainstream media (where all but Talkback used it without attribution). The zomblog’s also picked it up and added some detail from Harry’s Place that may well have conditioned the frightened response of some of the staff on the Israeli stall in Castle Court. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media …
I had a Facebook message from Bock this morning, noting how seemingly impossible it is to have civil and intelligent conversation about Israel/Palestine. In part, no doubt that’s because of the huge lose of life in Gaza, primarily at the hands of the IDF. But Megan McArdle reckons it’s because when nationalisms of any sort contend, sense and reason go out the window. Elsewhere she notes the similarities between the Irish Lobby with the Jewish Lobby in the States, and …
Over at the Guardian I’ve a posted on the Gaza crisis. Well, not exactly the Gaza crisis so much as the lack of political will on both sides to bring the the whole of problem of Israel/Palestine to an equitable solution. Both sides share a single problem: both are stuck in fundamentalist mode; without the least thought about how to get to that solution. The inuring to death on both sides is familiar to those of us in Northern Ireland …
It’s some way from a final decision but interesting to note that DUP MLA Ian Paisley Jnr may ultimately face a charge of civil contempt for not revealing the identity of a senior prison officer who, in relation to the Wright Inquiry, “told of an alleged policy within the Northern Ireland Prison Service to destroy a large number of files as an emergency due to data protection legislation”. During a preliminary debate over how to characterise the proceedings John Larkin …
I previously noted the Observer’s extracts from Henry McDonald’s new book Gunsmoke and Mirrors – How Sinn Féin dressed up defeat as victory and on the Guardian website today he’s been discussing it – direct link to mp3 file here. Pete Baker
Earlier Brian noted Chief Constable Hugh Orde’s comments to the Commons’ Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee and David McKitterick’s report on the “intertwining of high politics and low terrorism”. By contrast, in The Guardian Henry McDonald takes issue with the Chief Constable’s line of argument and, by implication, raises the question of whom, exactly, is attempting that “intertwining” [Not the non-political Chief Constable? – Ed]. Is he really suggesting that the republican working class is angry and frustrated enough to …
It’s clear the pressure is piling up for the parade at the weekend, some of it no doubt deliberate. Staff at the Parades Commission building have been told to evacuate this afternoon. Sinn Fein’s last minute involvement looks to have been forced on them by what had looked like a fairly minor protest by micro Republican pressure group Éirígí. The parade itself had been known about for weeks. And much of the media running has been made by fairly junior …
Not much detail about what’s happening in the disturbances in Lurgan and Craigavon tonight but it does appear to be orchestrated.From the RTÉ report The incidences began just after 7pm when three masked men commandeered a bus at the Drumbeg roundabout in Craigavon. Passengers on the bus were ordered off by the gang. Around 45 minutes later a van was hijacked on the nearby Old Portadown Road outside Lurgan. Youths who congregated at the area then pelted emergency services with …
For our London based readers. Next Saturday the Battle of Ideas Festival is hosting a debate on the past and conflict. The focus is primarily upon the IRA’s campaign and looks at what it means to Republicans now. And it asks the rather time question (amongst others): Should we seek to reassess the conflict, or is it time to move on and forget? Timely, since the Eames Bradley team is getting close to reporting on what we should do about …
Sinn Fein once had an impeccable reputation for strategic nous and know how. That was as true amongst the loyalists of the lower Shankill as amongst their near neighbours on the lower Falls. But according to Brian Feeney, it was the strategic blunder of robbing the Northern Bank of more than £26 million that finally robbed the IRA of its paramilitary force. His argument is worth quoting at length and in detail: For about 15 years before the Northern Bank …
This piece comes with a health warning since it is based on a number of unnamed sources, yet it’s worth noting nonetheless. It alleges that the IRA’s financial portfolio has lost considerable amount of its value because those responsible for its management failed to take evasive action and “get out at the top of the property market and sink the money into high-dividend deposit accounts in Wall Street in the past few years.” It seems plausible given the dramatic turbulence …
A tie-in with Brian’s previous post noting the 40th anniversary of the events at Duke St on 5th Oct 1968. There’s a bit of a false start due to technical problems at the BBC but, after a brief extract from tomorrow night’s documentary The Day The Troubles Began, Oxford academic Simon Prince makes some reasonable points on his thesis [subs req] – or, as Brian called it, a “glorious piece of revisionism”. As Simon Prince says at the end, on …
The report in the Sunday Tribune on the Oireachtas Select Committee on Education and Science report on teaching modern Irish history contains a compelling argument. History teachers said they avoided Northern Ireland because it “can raise discriminatory attitudes in class and name calling”. There was little support for introducing it in the classroom, they said. Other reasons given by teachers for avoiding the subject were they felt they lacked knowledge of the subject and believed they could not compete with …
Hallidays Road, New Lodge Road and North Queen Street in north Belfast were cordoned off early this morning following the discovery of three viable incendiary devices after a reported telephone warning. The streets have since been re-opened. From the RTÉ report All three streets in nationalist areas were cordoned off shortly after 3.30am, and British army bomb disposal experts worked for several hours to make safe what they described as viable devices. And in the iol report Acting Detective Inspector …
A timely quote from Anthony McIntyre in a Sunday Times article by Liam Clarke on the publication of Good Friday, The Death of Irish Republicanism, as the Sinn Féin leadership struggle to reconcile themselves with the “indigenous” ground rules. “Republicanism is effectively dead. It is dead as a strategy that can deliver anything. It can’t cope with the principle of consent, it can’t out-manoeuvre it and it can’t overcome it, so it has had to reconcile itself with the British …
