Conflict – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

Without fear or favour: 30 years of Troubled Images

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on December 8, 2016, 9:26 pm

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Without fear or favour: 30 years of Troubled Images
by Allan LEONARD for Northern Ireland Foundation
28 November 2016

The latest incarnation of the Troubled Images project — the launch of a free downloadable iBook — was cause for a reunion of sorts at the Linen Hall Library for the original team that compiled and published its original CD-ROM 15 years ago.

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster)

PhD Researcher @UlsterUni | Managing Editor @SharedFuture | Board Member @FactCheckNI | Photographer 📸 | Runner 🏃‍♂️ | Genealogist 🌳 | https://mrulster.info

Another few words of sense about dealing with the past that the politicians refuse to face.

Brian Walker on November 14, 2016, 12:32 pm

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Chris Ryder, veteran reporter and specialist on police matters, is given space in the Irish Times to repeat the case for halting all pre- Troubles cases and leaving them to historians. Although he is known as a critical friend of the police, he makes a fair and balanced case which should be considered entirely on its merits. This was an approach I ran with to support Arkiv, a group of historians who wanted to take it on, initially encouraged by the …

Time cannot silence the Voices of the Somme

Ian Malcolm on July 31, 2016, 10:36 pm

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At the start of July I posted on Slugger O’Toole to introduce Somme Voices, a month-long series of daily tweets in remembrance of that dreadful World War One battle. I’m returning to Slugger to bring the Somme Voices project to a close with a final poem. The reason is that I’d like to quote this one in its entirety and Twitter is a less-than-perfect medium for something of considerable length. It does, however, give me the chance to make a …

The time is overdue for the two governments to tell what they know about the Dublin-Monaghan and the Birmingham bombings

Brian Walker on June 1, 2016, 10:40 am

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Consider the latest developments about two atrocities, the Dublin and Monaghan UVF bombs in May 1974 and the Birmingham IRA pub bombs of November the same year. What they have in common is knowledge of the identities of what we must call the alleged perpetrators. The deep frustration caused to individuals and states has not gone away. Kieran Conway now a Dublin solicitor, then the IRA’s “director of intelligence.” has again confirmed what is so well known, that the identities …

#SluggerReport: What these post #AE16 shootings tell us about wicked problems in West Belfast

Mick Fealty on May 10, 2016, 1:30 pm

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I would definitely listen back to the first half hour of the Nolan Show this morning. Some of the reaction from some callers was pretty chilling in their comments on four shootings since voting at Assembly elections finished. One suggested that within six or seven days no one but the families would care. In the meantime here’s some thoughts on the wicked problems that communities like those in West Belfast face and which enforcer violence like this perpetuates… Mick FealtyMick …

Do we need the “old ” IRA to contain the “new”?

Brian Walker on April 28, 2016, 10:28 am

| Readers 1966

Gang activity labelled “dissident republican” is spreading and is proving very difficult to check. What is the connection between the killings in Dublin and the fatal shooting taxi driver of Michael McGibbon? Perhaps the most chilling aspect of McGibbon “ punishment shooting “ was that, rather than go the the police – or even Gerry Kelly – he went to take his punishment, just as in the worst of the bad old days. The 33-year-old had gone to meet …

1916 is still worth a fret or two

Brian Walker on March 21, 2016, 3:28 pm

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I’ve just finished reading my latest foray into an absorbing subject, Ruth Dudley Edwards’s magnificent The Seven, her biographical account of the main leaders of the Easter Rising, guardedly but critically reviewed by the historian and Irish Times columnist Diarmaid Ferriter here. While Ruth may be dismissed by some as the arch revisionist, no reader can deny her command of biographical detail ( much of it her own research, some of it owing to many others who have written about …

Injured Prison Officer Dies After Heart Attack

st etienne on March 15, 2016, 2:11 pm

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Adrian Ismay, who had previously been released from hospital after sustaining serious injuries from a dissident Republican bomb attack, suffered a fatal heart attack earlier today. The First Minister lead condemnation, tweeting from the USA on an investment mission, “I’m devastated. Can’t believe the news. I was texting Adrian before we left for the US. He was doing well. My thoughts are with his family.” The PSNI have yet to confirm they are treating the death as murder. Coincidentally today in …

The biggest losers in failing to come clean on the past is the reputation and authority of the state and its servants.

Brian Walker on January 28, 2016, 12:24 pm

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You don’t have to be a transitional justice zealot or a Provie fellow traveller to recognise that the heat is on the British government, the police and security authorities over dealing with the past. You can be a judge like Lord Justice Weir blasting the police and indirectly the government for the inordinate delays in producing inquest evidence, now that high court judges have taken over the coroner’s service. You only need to be a supporter the DUP or TUV, …

Stakeknife: PSNI seek resources to conduct an investigation into 53 murders…

Mick Fealty on November 24, 2015, 7:02 pm

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UNCOVERING STAKEKNIFE: A new investigation could cost up to £12.5m over a five year period. Interestingly the Chief Constable in interview on Newsline this evening suggested that whilst the investigation would be looking allegations against Stakeknife, it would be looking all the murders associated with the IRA’s internal security unit.

Why suffer allegations of involvement with the nutting squad? Because you’re worth it.

Brian Walker on October 31, 2015, 11:00 am

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EXPENSIVE INJUSTICE: The whole cat’s cradle of allegation and murder is getting more expensive by the day, The DDPs’ decision to reopen the entire Scappaticci file won’t make it any cheaper. See today’s Times (£) for the latest. Stand by for the inevitable public row.

Paisley: Relic of the Past or Harbinger of the Future?

Gerry Lynch on October 26, 2015, 9:56 pm

| Readers 1937

I recently chanced upon this 1987 review by Charles Townshend in the LRB of Steve Bruce’s God Save Ulster: The Religion and Politics of Paisleyism. It now reads as a fascinating period piece. Just the previous month, Paisley had performed the first of his major protests at the European Parliament, heckling Margaret Thatcher. She was congratulating the EEC on its expansion to Spain and Portugal when he stood up, brandishing an ‘Ulster Says No’ poster, and shouted, “I would like …

Nearly two decades of sectarian politics have produced increasing indifference to politics, which is progress of a kind. Age, education and income are now the great dividing lines.

Brian Walker on September 10, 2015, 10:34 am

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The Guardian’s Henry McDonald reports an advance of the findings of a complex opinion survey carried out by Social Market Research Belfast for four universities and coordinated by a team including Professor Peter Shirlow, now at Liverpool. In common with the NI Life and Times opinion surveys the poll confirms a much more complex state of public opinion than a straight standoff between unionist and nationalist or a hardening of attitudes between them. A huge amount of political agnosticism is …

Threatening the existence of the Assembly is a victory for terrorism

Brian Walker on August 25, 2015, 1:38 pm

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Oh God, not another fundamental breakpoint founded on the highest principles, whether they’re about welfare or the IRA! Come on, get real. This kerfuffle over “IRA structures” will pass. For all their simulated outrage over the IRA or welfare, no politician – none of the leaders anyway – want to close Stormont down. Electoral politics are also in play on both sides of the border. We should discount it. No clear advantage can be gained by any party threatening to …

After the McGuigan murder: The Provisionals really haven’t gone away, you know….

Mick Fealty on August 21, 2015, 10:26 am

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As I noted some time ago, the biggest problem Sinn Fein pose to society is their settled policy of partial disclosure. Do you believe Detective Superintendent Geddes’ assessment or Sinn Fein’s local representatives? On one level that’s matter of political choice. But as we have seen over the Cahill allegations, the party only ever says what’s good for it, even if it turns out to be a lie. [When it gets serious, of course you have to lie! – Ed] …

Monica McWilliams – What difference does conflict or peace make for women? #feile15

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 4, 2015, 11:57 pm

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Power works through dominion, but it also works through dependence … [yet] power can be changed. Wearing DDP Barra McGrory’s glasses until her own were located, Prof Monica McWilliams delivered a lecture this evening in St Mary’s University College on Conflict or Peace: What difference does it make for women? as part of Féile an Phobail. The academic and former Human Rights Commissioner highlighted instances of violence and discrimination against women in conflicts around the world, including Northern Ireland. The …

Conversations about the future require candour, not platitudes

Brian Walker on July 12, 2015, 2:48 pm

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Because of a clash of commitments I’m having to miss out on the Westminster launch on Tuesday of Uncomfortable Conversations: An Initiative for Dialogue Towards Reconciliation edited by the Sinn Fein chair Declan Kearney. It will follow a similar launch in the Linenhall Library in Belfast which Sinn Fein covered on YouTube in April. It is also the second bite of a cherry first produced as long ago as October 2012.The words “trust”, “genuine “ and “dialogue” figured prominently but specific …

Roy Mason, the last to believe in outright IRA defeat

Brian Walker on April 21, 2015, 10:33 am

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Roy Mason who has died aged 91 was Northern Ireland Secretary of State from 1976 to the end of the Labour government in 1979. He was “short in stature and long in self confidence “ as David McKittrick rightly described him. He even designed his own peculiarly vented and lapelled tight fitting light khaki suits. When I last met him a few years ago at the launch of a Northern Ireland stamp, he was eloquent about his collection. He retained heavy police security at …

Newry Play Park Farce: “In my view one word sums it up, a waste. A waste of life.”

Mick Fealty on March 3, 2015, 4:20 pm

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If you missed it, this is well worth listening to the whole of this Audio Boom from Nolan this morning. listen to ‘Another unionist bid to change name fails – what next in Newry playpark row? #BBCNolan’ on audioBoom There’s a number of points worth picking up, not least Conor Murphy’s defence of Ray McCreesh’s Attempted Murder charge as being part of a war. But this segment from a caller called Alex in Lisburn is also illuminating. I used to …

Ulrich Beck and developing the art of co-existence and constitutional tolerance…

Robin Wilson on January 4, 2015, 5:46 pm

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Towards the end of the last millennium, an intellectual fad infected the Anglo-American academy, whose ivory towers can be vulnerable to fast-spreading exotica. Against the backdrop of the fall of the Wall in Germany and the cul-de-sac into which French ‘structuralist’ philosophies had fallen, ‘post-modernism’ announced the end of the ‘grand narratives’ of modernity, deriving from the enlightenment tradition and associated with its emancipating doctrines of liberalism and socialism. Everything was now just perspective, its breathless advocates declared, leading to …