As Fair Deal first noted, then had taken up by the DUP and finally confirmed by the BBC the Antrim board did break GAA rules when it gave permission for a political rally to take place at Casement Park. But, as several of our readers have noted, what is the position in the City Council allowing the UDA sort out it’s problems at Ballysillan Leisure Centre? Even if a former taoiseach is currently urging government talks with the UDA. Mick …
Well full timers anyway… Whilst we think we have a reasonably reliable source, the only way to really find out is for one of Northern Ireland’s MPs at Westminster to pop the Parliamentary Question asking for the real figure!! 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 Blogador asks: is Fidel Castro dead? After 47 years at the helm as the world’s longest serving, he has handed over control of the Cuban state to his brother Raul the country’s Defence Minister. His demise has been subject to frenzied public speculation over the last four to five years as his health has visibly deteriorated. According to the New Yorker, last year the CIA reported he was suffering from Parkinson’s.It is understood that he has also been obsessed …
Eilis O’Hanlon is sceptical of current government strategy. In particular: …the ongoing attempt to detach the activities of individual members of the IRA from the IRA itself. And because it is practically impossible to prove that individual operations were ever sanctioned directly by the Army Council, it is always feasible to cast each crime committed as a private rather than a collective act. That is why Northern Secretary Peter Hain was so eager to stress that there may be “localised …
It lseems that British Government plans to approve the running of CRJ under official auspices are running into deeper water. One Ulster Unionist insider told Slugger that the key question should not be whether CRJ should be funded or not, but whether its activities were actually legal. Former Taoiseach Garrett FitzGerald lays some heavy charges at the door of CRJ:The introductory paragraph is worth quoting in full: Several years ago, Sinn Féin established “Community Restorative Justice” (CRJ). Its director of …
Interesting reflection by Barney Rowan on the mediated nature of truth telling in Northern Ireland, in which ‘official truths’ are often constructed through negotiation, or battles in the press. He quotes Hugh Orde: …it must involve “third ways of dealing with history and that is something around storytelling… explanation, understanding and acknowledgement. If it means people have to acknowledge that we could have done things better across the piece, I think that’s a good thing”. Because there are so many …
Well it seems that the find Pete documented in great detail yesterday has taken a life of its own. As commenter Harry rightly noted the visible psalm is number 83. This has already begun to feed some hungry imaginations. Irish in Britain worried that Fox News was pushing an AP story for its own ends. However, Israeli news aggregator, Israel Insider, has a fuller intrepretation of the ‘coincidence’. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on …
Here’s a disturbing story out of Iraq. RAI in Italy have produced this English language version of a documentry speculating on the possible use of lazar or microwave weapons on a civilian bus back in 2003. Hat tip Dualta (see below)! 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
Interesting critical take from Tommy McKearney who argues that Sinn Fein should not be considering ‘unconditional support’ for the police in either Northern Ireland or the Republic. 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
At the time of the Northern Bank robbery, we re-iterated over and over that this story will continue to muddy the political waters for years to come. Although the IRA has denied being involved the tide of evidence appears to moving in the opposite direction. As Pete noted yesterday, the two governments yesterday (including Justice Minister McDowell) were at pains to stress that no criminal activities were now being organised centrally by the IRA. But Conor Lally reports this morning …
Given the discussion here and here (check out the new, slow discussions at the Guardian), Conal Urquhart reports for the Guardian that Palestinians elements have offered to release the Israeli soldier kidnapped almost a month ago. However, the terms being offered have neither signed off by the Hamas secretariat in Damacus or Israel. 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 …
With the challenge to less inward looking here on Slugger, raised by one of our occasional commenters Mick de Dublin Anarchist, in mind, here are some thoughts on the practical parallels between Northern Ireland and the Middle East over at the Guardian. 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: …
This Village editorial from last week’s issue is worth noting, if only for it’s forthrite condemnation of the murder of Jean McConville. It’s vintage Vincent Browne at his ‘let’s cut the crap’ best: Amid the recent controversy over whether Jean McConville was or was not an “informer”, the central issue is obscured. A woman was murdered without trial or due process or justification by people who had no authority to administer justice of any kind. This was, and remains, a …
It seems the British Government intended members of the Policing Board to ‘vet’ applicants for work with Community Restorative Justice Ireland schemes. But, according to the Irish Times front page this morning, the Policing Board has “declined a government request to nominate representatives to serve on the proposed vetting panel”. The Board has told the NIO the proposed vetting procedures are “not sufficiently robust”.The NIO’s original proposals of December 2005 seemed to fall short even of its own expectations, as …
Catherine McCartney has told Tony Blair about her concerns about the possible role of Sinn Fein members in her brother’s murder and a subsequent cover-up: ‘Inside Downing Street we told Tony Blair about a number of those involved in the cover-up of Robert’s murder and the fact that they are now involved in CRJ schemes. But he and his government are just going ahead regardless and creating justice ghettoes for working-class communities. ‘Members of Sinn Fein were involved either directly …
An interesting take on the painting out of old murals in favour of new ‘peacetime’ motifs of reconciliation. 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
Liberal bloggers, it seems, don’t treat with the middle east. Kevin Drumm, of the US’s most able, gave his own reasons recently. However, the Observer’s Martin Bright has a think piece out which hints that the ‘Blair doctrine’ of the Northern Irish peace process, ie empowering militants at the expense of the middle ground, is what is driving the UK’s Foreign Office Middle East policy. It’s a theme (scroll down) picked up by Nick Cohen in the Observer. Delwar Hussain …
Rather belatedly we pick up Chris’s link to a radio interview with Willie Frazer of FAIR. The interview is fascinating and well worth listening to the whole way through, not least for the evangelical Christian interviewer’s characterisation of the assasination of Protestants in the border areas as an attempt to spread Roman Catholic influence. But most controversially, and this was subsequently picked up in Daily Ireland (though the article is now seems lost in the morass of that paper’s archives), …
Gerry Kelly reiterated his party’s position that it will not recognise the police until policing and justice is devolved to a local minister. With the DUP now murmuring that it may agree to a devolved administration but resist such devolved powers, this could be an interesting next round Northern Ireland’s long running game of political chicken. Given Government proposals to concurrently both fund and de-regulate Community Restorative Justice schemes in Nationalist areas, Dean Godson, now of Policy Exchange, likens such …
More Hardtalk, in which Stephen Sackur talks to Mary Lou McDonald, scion of a Fianna Fail family and now leading Sinn Fein’s charm offensive on the middle class south of the border. A cool performance, which gives no hostages to fortune. Stickiest moment, is the question on her decision to abstain on the European vote for money for the McCartney family, and the passage that follows in which she all but denies IRA men were involved in the killing. For …
