Love him or loathe him, Irish cyberspace has not been the same since Kevin Myers abandoned his perennial post on the far right of the Irish Times op ed page. Since taking up his new position in the Irish Independent he has disappeared to those of us who prefer/can only get our news online. But he makes a temporary comeback with an extraordinary extract from his new book Watching the Door in yesterday’s Sunday Times: Here’s one segment to give …
Our Republican commenters have been adamant that there was and has been no connection between the money lifted in bags out of a garden in Cork, and the Northern Bank robbery. It’s a view that if not exactly confirmed by yesterday’s announcement that there is still no evidential link between them, certainly throws up questions about assertions from ministers (here and here) that there was a connection. Even Noel Conroy was convinced in October last year that a link would …
If it is true that many people sentimentalise life before the Troubles, it is also true that for many, the difference between war and peace was a matter of hours. See Northern Visions seminal A Million Bricks if you don’t beleive me. The road to normality has still some way to go, but yesterday saw one small step in the right direction. Ian Paisley and Archbishop Sean Brady were clearly pleased with their meeting, though as some in Ballymena asked …
Given Pete’s thoroughgoing analysis, and the criticism the DUP has made of the IMC’s surprising inability to say who or from which quarter Denis Donaldson’s killer came, it’s worth remembering that although both the DUP and Sinn Fein have taken whatever political advantage the international body has handed them, neither of the significant players in Northern Ireland have ever recognised its role. It certainly seems to have incentivised otherwise unaccountable paramilitaries to wind down criminal activity, even if its own …
We were all a little bit thin on the ground yesterday: doing the paying day job mostly! Hence the shortage of blogging on the IMC report. Incidently looking at the dearth of donations in the tip jar recently, it sounds like some of you presume that Slugger is the day job! However, commenter Trowbridge Ford points us to an interesting aspect of the Report: the preparations for the (possibly long slow) ending of the UVF. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor …
Henry McDonald picks up jitters in London over the possibility of losing their co-host of the Northern Irish peace process. 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
This must be the leakiest IMC report to date. Liam Clarke has got wind of a report with the report that the IMC believes that IRA members (without sanction of the leadership) were responsible for the execution of Denis Donaldson. 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
No chance of Slugger getting another exclusive on the next IMC report. Barney Rowan is back in front, with the news that next week’s report will say that the IRA has closed down its terror operations. No word yet on criminality, though there were some straws in the wind around the last report suggesting that it would not chalk up ‘freelancers’ in the IRA’s column. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of …
The Press GAzette reports frustration within the National Union of Journalists over the length of time it has taken to charge anyone with the only journalist targeted and killed by paramilitaries in the Troubles. 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
El Mat reports on Pat Ramsey’s experience of serial attacks on his home and his offices in the Bogside. It’s a reminder of a time when the targeting of SDLP members by Republicans was much more routine than it is now. If ‘the war is over’, there is still a legacy of political intolerance within Nationalism that still resorts to physical means to achieve its ends. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts …
Fair Deal’s post on the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition’s objection to the inclusion of Alison Scott-McKinley on the Parades Commission, gingered a fair amount of sharp discussion: with some individuals outraged that she was being challenged simply because members of her family were in the Orange Order. However Breandán Mac Cionnaith below, points out that the Garvaghey Resident’ objection is founded in British law:From Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition Far from the GRRC objecting to any member of the Parades Commission …
Anyone know what’s behind this?Update: Barry McCaffery, in the Irish News today: The threat is understood to have come from loyalists aligned to Andre and Ihab Shoukri, who were expelled from the mainstream UDA earlier this year. Ms de Baroid is one of the Republic�s most senior civil servants to be stationed in Northern Ireland and is a member of the North/South Ministerial Council. She regularly meets senior loyalist and republican community leaders in working-class areas across the north. However, …
Looks like Danny’s metaphorical hat is going safe for a while longer. Ian Paisley been stacking on a few extras in advance of the Scottish trip. Gerry Moriarty reports (subs needed): On alleged IRA criminality, Dr Paisley said, “The multi-million pound empire has to be given up practically and openly. Those involved in the £300 million [ €445 million] empire must be handed over to the police. The ill-gotten gains of crime will be abandoned and law enforcement agencies will …
We hear a senior Republican has been arrested in connection with a punishment shooting at the weekend in West Belfast – though it has yet to be confirmed officially. The victim of the attack has since lost a limb, but, if the identity of the individual arrested is confirmed, the real significance may lie in its relationship to the proposed deadline of 24th November, since the person arrested appears to be a mainstream, rather than a dissident Republican. In which …
In the Belfast Telegraph, Duncan Morrow, chief executive of the Community Relations Council, reminds our negotiating politicians of the cost of continuing to do politics separately: …in a changing world, the idea that only one sort can live in any area is unsustainable. We cannot talk on the one hand about getting rid of private armies and still want to be defended against our neighbours. Financially, we cannot provide separate public facilities like libraries, swimming pools or recreation centres for …
As Ryan Gawn points out in his recent article, Still shackled by the Past-Truth and Recovery in Northern Ireland, one thing the Belfast Agreement held at arms length was the past, and how to deal with it. The only thing many share in common, is their individual trauma. He concludes: “…despite the efforts of governments and civil society, the process of dealing with Northern Ireland’s past can been seen to be as fraught, haphazard, political and painful as countless other …
It seems that Sinn Fein isn’t having any of it. The Andersonstown News reports Niall Ó Donnghaile, the party’s unelected representative for East Belfast (the third in as many years), was speaking about Sinn Fein’s demands that Mountpottinger Police station be closed and used for social housing instead. He dismissed their previous report declaring that the IMC’s views on the security force disengagement issue “are equally irrelevant as their views on any other issue”. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of …
Barney Rowan has a fascinating piece from a source, presumably close to the thinking of the four man IMC, or just as likely from the intelligence community, who are due to release their latest thinking on the conduct of the IRA. Whatever the content of that report due out in early October, the source gives an upbeat assessment of the current situation: “We are still of the view not all of the weapons were handed in,” a source said. But …
As expected while the IMC’s 11th report focuses primarily on the security normalisation process, the section on the threat assessment will probably attract most interest.. Updated belowSo here are those paragraphs, which begin with an important caveat.. 3.4 We must emphasise an important point about our assessment of the paramilitary threat. We deal with that threat only in so far as it bears directly on the implementation of the security normalisation programme. In broad terms, this means the actions of …
According to the PMOS’s unofficial blog, “We now needed to take co-operation to a new phase and a very important part of that would be the two Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) reports. One would be on the normalisation process, which would come most likely before too long and the second, due in October, would be an update report on paramilitary activity”. (BTW, the PMOS always speaks in reported speech, don’t ya know…) With the UVF not intending to heed appeals …
