Haass talks

Westminster not Stormont has the power to answer the collusion charges and should use it

Brian Walker on October 28, 2013, 12:47 pm

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When Alastair Campbell issues a warning people should sit up and take notice, even today. You do get this sense across the spectrum that it is not a priority. They have got to be careful about that. “[John] Major made it a priority, Blair made it an absolute priority. He was like a dog with a bone. I do get a sense that it is not on the current government’s radar. British policy on Northern Ireland is to stay as …

Haass Talks: Reconciling the Orange and the Green to the same past will not work

Mick Fealty on September 19, 2013, 2:37 pm

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Eamon McCann, an enthusiastic scholar of canon law, has a decent eye for contractual detail… In today’s Irish Times he offers this thoughtful insight… One key aspect of the flags dispute is that all who signed up to the Belfast Agreement accepted implicitly that Northern Ireland will remain within the United Kingdom for as long as there is no majority for a united Ireland: that is to say, for as far into the future as it is possible to see. Sinn Féin …

The Haass agenda on the past. The release of documents must include MI5’s and others in the secret state

Brian Walker on September 16, 2013, 5:22 pm

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The remarks by Teresa Villiers on dealing with the past will surprise no one. They serve as a reminder of who is ultimately in charge, despite bashfully standing on the sidelines. The era of public inquiries is over. For good or ill there will be no public inquiry into Finucane, the “Ballymurphy massacre” or any other terrible incident with major question marks hanging over it. Since Savile, the limitations of inquiries have been demonstrated at a cost of another hundred million pounds. …

Robinson U turn shows the urgent need for mediation

Brian Walker on August 18, 2013, 12:18 pm

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They must have put up Chinese walls inside Stormont Castle since I was there last. The sudden collapse of Peter Robinson’s position over the Maze peace centre strongly suggests that the joint leaders haven’t even managed to have frank exchanges about the past, much less wrestled with how actually to deal with it. But the bigger problem stretches down the hill to streets below. DUP electoral dominance has been again exposed as offering no protection against unionist fragmentation and a stampede …