Government

Violence receding, foundations lagging: findings from new Northern Ireland Peace Index

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Queen’s University Belfast’s Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice hosted the launch of the first Northern Ireland Peace Index (NIPI). The Index is the result of a partnership between QUB and the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), an independent, non-partisan global think tank headquartered in Sydney. Funded by UKRI through the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the investigators are Dr Andrew Thomson and Professor Dominic Bryan. The IEP team was led by Dr Paulina Pijacka and Dr David Hammond, with Brett Savill, IEP’s …

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‘Parental choice is an illusion’: the gap between integrated education demand and provision

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As part of this year’s Féile debates and discussion programme, the Integrated Education Fund (IEF) hosted a public event at St Mary’s University College in Belfast, to launch new research into the reality of parental choice in school selection in Northern Ireland. The event was chaired by Amanda Ferguson, a Belfast-based freelance journalist and Northern Ireland correspondent for Reuters, and opened with a welcome from Dr Jessica Blomkvist, IEF’s senior advocacy officer. The research was presented by its author, Kathryn Torney, a freelance journalist, researcher, and consultant. A …

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The UK should unilaterally devolve tax varying powers to NI

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Budget

It looks like we are a couple of weeks out from a new Prime Minister in the UK. There’s been plenty of commentary about Andy Burnham and what he may bring to the table when, as seems inevitable, he takes over in mid-July. But what about Northern Ireland ? Burnham is making a major set-piece speech tomorrow about his economic plans, and we know that devolving more power to regions across the UK is something he has strong views on. …

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Riots in Northern Ireland: this is also about racism

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My dad died two days before Christmas in 2023. On the day of his funeral rain poured from the heavens. We waded through thick mud to get to his grave. “Christ,” my brother remarked, “it’s like the f**king Somme.” In Northern Ireland, protestant burials are often small, private affairs. Only close family go and you must be invited to attend. When we arrived, we expected a small number of people. To our surprise, there was a crowd. My dad was …

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An unavoidable truth : Irish Unity will be a brexit-style process

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  On a recent speaking engagement, Fintan O’Toole made the observation of how important it is to avoid an Irish unity process that ends up like the brexit process. This is a wish that other analysts and political reps have also highlighted. Brexit shows, they argue, the need for adequate preparation. Northern nationalism has upped its rhetoric on this in recent months – SF has been running a time to prepare campaign, and its representatives issue a request for the …

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“A European Future for Northern Ireland” – another SDLP stunt

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Late last week, we heard that the SDLP were putting a motion before the Assembly to call for a border poll. Looking at the order paper for Monday, I see the following motion tabled by the Leader of the Opposition :  That this Assembly welcomes the positive step forward represented by the UK-EU deal of 19 May 2025; affirms that any arrangement which reduces friction for businesses is welcomed; supports further alignment between the UK and EU including via a …

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Farage isn’t your friend

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Every time I do a panel; there’s always a smart alec in the crowd. A man, usually. Without doubt he will say, “Yeah, but the British don’t care about you.” He thinks he’s the first person in the world to have this original thought. Yes, I always say, yes we know. I don’t know a single protestant in Northern Ireland that doesn’t. My grandparents knew. My great grandparents knew before them. It’s not my fault you’ve never spoken to a …

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Irish unity : a dead duck for the foreseeable future

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As anyone following the coverage on RTÉ will have seen, the result of Friday’s Irish election is now becoming clear with the country on course to re-elect a variant of the FF-FG coalition. As of Sunday evening, the consensus is settling on an FF-led coalition with FG, with a few independents making up the numbers. While it will be a government dominated by the same parties, the dynamic will be different – FF’s parliamentary party seems to have more older …

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The Department of Infrastructure is to blame for Belfast’s traffic problems

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It’s not been a good few weeks for Belfast visitors and commuters. Not only are key arterial routes more packed than ever with traffic jams during most of the day, but the bus and train systems have been up the swannie too, especially on Thursday and Friday last week.  This issue hasn’t escaped the notice of local politicians. In the assembly, during Infrastructure questions on October 1,  the Minister, John O’Dowd, seemed to suggest that Belfast representatives Philip Brett and …

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The Hope of Possibility

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My Dad died two days before Christmas. I was on my way up to see him when I got a missed call and a text from my brother telling me he’d passed away. He had pancreatic cancer. The time between diagnosis and death is often short. Before you’ve had time to wrap your head around the fact that your loved one is ill, they are gone.  The shock of the loss is as sharp and painful as the grief. How …

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Is Jeffrey ready to hit his home run?

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This is the fourth piece I’ve submitted to Slugger in 2023 on the challenges facing Sir Jeffrey Donaldson in getting his party back into government in Stormont. The essence of the previous 3 was that Jeffrey needed to face down the old (literally and figuratively) Paisleyite rump of his party by claiming victory from his negotiations with HMG and using that claimed victory to lead a realignment of mainstream unionism into something currently lapsed voters can embrace. It certainly hasn’t …

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The opportunity grown up Unionism needs to grasp…

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I submitted this article  six months ago and three or four weeks after the announcement of the Windsor Framework.  The essence of it – from an unapologetically pro-union perspective –  was that  Jeffrey Donaldson had stalled very quickly in his efforts to present the gains of the Windsor Declaration as something to be built on by his party and by unionism in general to enable the return of Stormont to stabilise things at least psychologically and allow unionism to present …

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As the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement approaches, the immediate outlook is uncertain. But reform is in the air

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As the Great Anniversary approaches, unionist opinion in its supporting  press is in turmoil over whether or when to return to the Assembly. Worryingly there is talk of being resigned to loyalist violence in the event of a border poll.    Opinion is tilting against accepting the Windsor Framework. Its gaps and deficiencies are forensically taken apart in the Belfast Telegraph by Sam McBride.  In the Newsletter, the voice of sceptical unionism, the editor Ben Lowry comes down against the Framework …

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The Act of Disunion?

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The latest ruling from the Supreme Court should surprise no-one. The justices affirmed previous precedent and confirmed what was obvious: the Protocol was lawfully implemented. Since the ruling, there have been calls to ditch the Good Friday Agreement. Anti- Agreement unionists say the consent principle isn’t worth the paper it’s written on because it didn’t stop the Protocol If the Agreement should go because it’s useless, what does that say about the Act of Union? In its ruling, the Supreme …

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The long and winding road to dealing with the past stretches ahead at Westminster. Will it turn out to be a dead end?

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All Northern Ireland parties and groups including victims are united on one thing. They are opposed to the UK government’s NI Troubles, (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill. Nevertheless the Bill began its long passage to become law – or not –in the House of Lords last Wednesday. The Lords debate presents a good opportunity to air the issues in one place in this lengthy post. A vote will eventually be held on whether to recommend scrapping the Bill entirely or heavily …

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The British and Irish governments mustn’t mess about. Time for Direct Rule by whatever name with Dublin support to tackle the cost of living crisis and move on to Assembly reform

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We are teetering on a cliff edge of absurdity about calling an Assembly election “ nobody wants. ” From the DUP viewpoint Peter Robinson brilliantly  describes the contradictions in every party’s position except his own. He might have added that it was Chris Heaton Harris and his cronies in the ERG  who more than any other faction  got us into this trouble in the first place by championing a Withdrawal Agreement with the Protocol attached  under frankly false pretences. The …

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The political class will have to work hard to prevent Northern Ireland coming off worse in the UK government meltdown

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As we treasure long memories in this distinguished forum, I offer 1973-4 as  the nearest parallel  to the  meltdown in government  we face today. In the UK as a whole the miner’s strike in 1973 produced power cuts and a three day working week.  Four months into ’74. Northern Ireland suffered its own exclusive version of power cuts all over again in the UWC strike, a loyalist revolt against the first fragile power sharing Executive that had been set up …

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The pennies are dropping: the UK government are starting to face reality over their mini Budget and restoring the Executive

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By far the most important immediate question  for Northern Ireland is how to prevent the constitutional question dominating politics even more than before, at the expense of delivering government for  the people.  Apart from  threatening an Assembly election that would only increase instability, the British government has largely disqualified itself from influencing events in favour of a standoff over the Protocol, a problem they had exclusively had created.  Beyond formal courtesies the vital essential relationship  with the Republic went into  …

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Are border poll criteria an excuse for procrastination ?

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Peter Kyle, shadow Secretary of State

This morning, on the BBC’s Sunday Politics, Shadow Secretary of State Peter Kyle made some comments during a brief interview with the BBC’s Darran Marshall on the question of the criteria to call a border poll (iplayer : interview begins at approx 18:45) which seems to have generated a frisson of excitement. The salient part of the interview is reproduced below, with my emphasis. DM : I want to talk to you about the constitutional position now. Do you think …

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After the funeral of the age, back to the reality of today

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The greatest public obsequies in history are over. The hangover begins now. The death of the Queen allowed millions to think of the nation as a big family which could unite at such a time.  Every nation or a distinct component of it needs an identity to survive.  For a large majority, the Queen was at the heart of it. Whether the unity survives both for the nation and- come to think of it- even the royal family- are quite …

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