News Letter have Willie Fraser’s statement: After very constructive communication’s with the Garda Siochana I can confirm that we will now be travelling down on a date in the near future to discuss our many concerns around IRA collusion and many other issue’s. “I will keep you all informed as to when this meeting will now take place. This will be a very welcome day when we as concerned Ulster citizens and victims of the IRA will be given the …
The flag protests have now been going on for a month. During that time we have heard assorted apportioning of blame, descriptions of the events as marking a disintegration in loyalism (and by extension then unionism), calls on various people to display “leadership” and much merriment and contempt directed at the flag protest leadership: often vitriolic here on slugger. The protests are at core a political issue. The riots are clearly criminality and some of those attacking the police may …
So here’s my interview with Russia Today, erm, last night on Skype. I apologise for a major cock up on the old statistics front. At the beginning quote transposed figures of Catholics and Protestants (which given what I’ve been saying about the census may amuse some of you). The thrust is roughly that this protests are contained, small scale and politically at least are going no where. But it does show too that our system has no really strong means …
Your captions please! Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/
So, now it is the SDLP who are getting it in the neck from the flag protesters. Patsy McGlone (who has said nothing on the matter, so far as Slugger is aware, but who is unfortunate enough to live in a UVF dominant part of the world) has had a bullet in the post. And Claire Hanna has had her house shot up. The Police Service of Northern Ireland has confirmed the incident involving East Belfast nationalist politician Claire Hanna …
Or predictions thread for the year to come is still a work in progress, but you don’t need a crystal ball to tell you the shenanigans at the year end suggest that already Stormont’s institutions are having some difficulty staying in touch with where the politics of the street is moving. Alan Murray notes in yesterday’s Tele: …many of our politicians on both sides are out of touch with reality. Political current affairs programmes on our local television and radio channels …
It’s a commonplace wisdom in Northern Ireland that the middle ground of politics is exactly where you don’t want to be. Both nationalist and unionist politicians who have taken up middle positions have long been subject to the kind of death threats and physical attacks the Alliance party is being subjected to. The animus raised by the restriction of the flag on Belfast City Hall, is frightening to behold. Even from a distance. Yet it has always been the fate …
Things seem to have fallen a little silent on the Nesbitt front but let’s not let sleeping dogs lie! Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/
So where’s big politics in all of this flegs crisis. Answer: It is getting smaller and less apparent every day that passes. So far OFMdFM have issued two statements. The first was as follows: The First Minister Rt Hon Peter D. Robinson MLA and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MP MLA have this evening spoken to the Speaker of the Assembly to ask him to bring forward the Plenary sitting of the Assembly on Monday 10 December in order to …
Good piece from Peter Geogehegan in the Scotsman today… If the secular middle classes exude an air of lethargic resignation, the opposite is the case in impoverished housing estates across Northern Ireland, especially those where kerbstones are painted red, white and blue. Many of the protests sparked by the decision to remove the Union Flag from Belfast City Hall have been small affairs, orchestrated in staunchly loyalist neighbourhoods far from town centres, but the cumulative effect has been striking. For …
Your captions are welcomed. Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/
Before the day that’s in it unfolds (the report into state collusion with loyalist paramilitaries in the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane), with death threats against politicians again in the air, Ian Parsley turns to a recent anniversary of a political assassination which by and large went unnoted and unnoticed by the local media: This week marks the anniversary of the assassination of Edgar Graham. He was not someone with whom my party always agreed, but someone we always respected. …
A side note, but one worth putting on the record before it disappears from view, this came through from the Assembly comms office yesterday… An Assembly spokesperson said: “The Assembly Commission meeting, planned for 11 December 2012, did not proceed as a quorum was not achieved. Arrangements will be made to reschedule the meeting.” What it means that the DUP and UUP wanted to push the issue of more days for flags up at Stormont, the opposition, Sinn Fein, SDLP …
First sign of any sort of kick back on the Alliance, the SDLP and Sinn Fein came from President of the Chamber last night, Joe Jordan who criticised the timing of the vote (rather than the vote itself), and the widespread unrest in and now way beyond the city.. It fell to Mairtin O’Muilleoir, a businessman himself and often an overt champion of local business interests on Twitter responded to similar queries on Sunday when he tweeted: @danzer_b agreed but …
If you have not read it yet, check out Brian Walker’s analysis last night on how Stormont’s incumbents are failing the populations of Northern Ireland by leaving the real and contentious business of politics to a small band of hyperactive terror merchants. The leader of Fianna Fail, Micheal Martin has a few similarly hard truths to deliver this morning’s Belfast Telegraph: The problem as I see it is this – if politics is not demonstrably and tangibly about making people’s …
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Second Coming – WB Yeats Okay, I do get the flag stuff. As Unionists point out, it is perfectly proper to fly the flag of the jurisdiction we have all, north and south, consented to be part of until there’s sufficient consent to leave. Although the Union flag may – and on occasion for good reason – be seen as provocative, it is still a symbol of …
Ten days ago I finished reading Belfast 400: People, Place and History, a book published to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the city’s charter. In the light of last week’s reawakened community tensions and violence, it is interesting to look back at the roots of the city and its journey into the twenty first century. Belfast 400’s chapters are written by a series of experts and edited by Prof Sean Connolly from QUB School of History and Anthropology. The …
An interesting debate on Sunday Sequence this morning. Just after the nine o’clock news, William Crawley chaired a discussion between Naomi Long, Alex Kane and Danny Morrison. [Debate starts 34 minutes into the programme.] Points raised about the kind of parties that did not emerge following the Good Friday Agreement, whether there was a lack of political imagination, what moving on can feel like. The conversation finished with Naomi Long being asked about the personal impact of the last week. …
If you see any #flegs protests and want to give us an account, add it below. If you are on twitter and are live-blogging it, add you @ name so people can follow you. If you want to link images, only add one link per post or it will be automatically queued for moderation (by the Wordpress widget). John Ó NéillYou can check out more here… or view my history blog here
The dark seam of comedy running through last night’s vote at the Belfast City Hall is such that this morning, few ordinary citizens of Belfast will notice whether there is a flag there or not. The councillors obviously will. Nationalism’s delicious revenge will be as one moderate nationalist put it that “unionists will now just get to stare at an empty pole”. Rushing the City Hall after the vote was announced, and then taking it out on St Mathews Church …
