International – Page 9 – Slugger O'Toole

The British goverment must set a better example before the case for an amnesty is properly heard

Brian Walker on May 28, 2014, 12:20 pm

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Adrian Guelke a South African a Queen’s academic and a leading authority on post-conflict resolution joins the growing list of reputable figures calling for an amnesty. He criticises the two governments for lack of involvement (although the unfortunate Eamon Gilmore can’t be faulted for trying almost right up to the moment of his resignation as Labour leader) Extracts. An unfortunate sequence of events has unfolded that has the potential to threaten the peace, including the failure of the Haass talks, histrionics …

“this month you will see a kind of victory for the Eurosceptics…”

Pete Baker on May 19, 2014, 4:58 pm

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Ahead of the EU-wide parliamentary elections, a much needed overview from BBC Europe editor Gavin Hewitt of the state of the European Project and its extant political trilemma. From Gavin Hewitt’s article Unless the polls are very wrong, sometime next weekend Europe will learn that at least a quarter of the seats in the next European Parliament will have gone to anti-establishment and Eurosceptic parties. The figure could even be closer to 30%. In many places the election has become …

Eurovision 2014: “I felt like tonight Europe showed that we are a community of respect and tolerance…”

Pete Baker on May 12, 2014, 6:46 pm

| Readers 77

Well, perhaps… A bearded Austrian man in a dress, Conchita Wurst, won the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen on Saturday night with “Rise Like a Phoenix” – the title quote was his line from the winner’s press conference. The 25-year-old singer also told reporters in Vienna On the theme of tolerance, Wurst told reporters in the Austrian capital: “This will remain an issue for a long time and I fear I won’t see the end of it in my lifetime. It …

Pink is the colour, not orange or green

Brian Walker on May 10, 2014, 11:28 am

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I plead guilty. The question buried somewhere in earlier comments strikes home: “Why do you keep banging on about Gerry Adams so much when the Giro is on? “ Now I could give an apples and pears answer, the two being in different categories. But the question is better than the reply.In the week of the Adams interrogation the Editor the Belfast Telegraph was moved to display his cool in …

If Gerry Adams was ever immune, that immunity has now been lifted. What next?

Brian Walker on May 1, 2014, 2:58 pm

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The Adams arrest raises acute questions about a comprehensive approach to dealing with the past I discussed just before the news broke. Depending on the outcome, the prospects could go either way. The cry of selective or one sided justice from one side produces an inevitable echo. Justice all round is unlikely to become better served, neither are truth or political relations. If the PSNI draw a blank, we’re where we were. If they don’t, we enter the unknown. A heavy burden is placed on the operational independence of the police, …

Sanctifying dead Popes with miracles is a basic error

Brian Walker on April 29, 2014, 5:25 pm

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In our island John XXIII stands for Vatican 2, a dramatic moment of liberalisation that was never wholly fulfilled. John Paul II is an altogether more ambiguous figure who softened through his charisma the image of authoritarian Catholicism while it beat a retreat he was unable to stem. You can easily see how they jointly appeal to Pope Francis as he makes a new appeal to the fundamentals of his faith to redress the sense of horror and disillusionment …

“Unlike Gerry Adams & Mary Lou McDonald…”

Pete Baker on March 30, 2014, 8:56 pm

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In a follow-up to a previous post on his Broken Elbow blog, as noted here, Ed Moloney has “an answer to Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald and other critics of the Boston archive“. Aside from myself and Anthony McIntyre there is only one other person who has read all of the interviews lodged in the Belfast Project oral history archive at Boston College and that is Judge William Young of the Federal District Court in Boston, Massachusetts. Judge Young got to read …

ICC T20 World Cup 2014: Ireland v Netherlands

Pete Baker on March 21, 2014, 9:00 am

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With two wins in their opening two games of the ICC World Twenty20 2014, Ireland are two points clear at the top of Group B with one game left. A win against the Netherlands this morning will see them comfortably through to the Super 10 stage. A loss will open the door to both the Netherlands and Zimbabwe – who easily overhauled UAE earlier today – to top the final group standings on Net Run Rate. There can be only one… Tournament hosts Bangladesh have already progressed to the …

ICC T20 World Cup 2014: Ireland v UAE

Pete Baker on March 19, 2014, 1:35 pm

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Having secured a nervy win against Zimbabwe in their opening match of the ICC World Twenty20 2014 campaign in Bangladesh, Ireland’s cricketers face tournament newbies United Arab Emirates today. With Zimbabwe overcoming the Netherlands earlier this morning, with a six off the final ball, a win would put Ireland top of the group, two points clear with only one game left – against the Netherlands on 21st March. After the opening round of games, the top team in each of the two qualifier groups …

Faint echoes from Ukraine reach home

Brian Walker on March 19, 2014, 10:25 am

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From Timothy Garton Ash’s piercing analysis in the Guardian. Start by abandoning the labels “ethnic Ukrainians” and “ethnic Russians”. They mean almost nothing. What you have here is a fluid, complex mix of national, linguistic, civic and political identities. There are people who think of themselves as Russians. There are those who live their lives mainly in Russian, but also identify as Ukrainians. There are innumerable families of mixed origins, with parents and grandparents who moved around the former Soviet …

ICC T20 World Cup 2014: Ireland v Zimbabwe

Pete Baker on March 17, 2014, 2:32 pm

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Ireland’s cricketers have opened their ICC World Twenty20 2014 campaign in Bangladesh with a win over the nominal test-playing Zimbabwe. But it nearly didn’t happen. Batting first, Zimbabwe set a daunting total of 163 for 5 wickets from their 20 overs. As the ICC match report noted, Ireland had never scored more than 156 to win a T20 International. But it could have been worse. Needing 164 runs to win, Stirling and Porterfield set about the Zimbabwe bowlers to make an opening …

“a challenging project for which there is no agreed international framework…”

Pete Baker on February 24, 2014, 3:43 pm

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Despite having agreed “a detailed timetable” at a North South Ministerial Council in October 2012 “to bring in new laws for the mutual recognition of penalty points in both jurisdictions” The Ministers agreed the detailed timetable for the drafting, passage and enactment of parallel legislation, north and south, by 31st December 2014 to allow the mutual recognition of penalty points across Ireland. The timetable was agreed at today’s North South Ministerial Council Transport Meeting in Armagh, where Minister Varadkar met with the …

Sochi Olympic success

Pete Baker on February 23, 2014, 6:31 pm

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Heh. Some wonderfully humorous choreography in evidence at the Sochi 2014: Winter Olympics closing ceremony. It made me laugh out loud. They wouldn’t have had long to arrange it… [Photograph: Barbara Walton/EPA] As the Guardian live-blog adds, For anyone who slept through the opening ceremony, here’s a reminder of the failed snowflake-ring, and its tongue-in-cheek recreation this evening. Performers sing as the Olympic rings are presented during the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics. Photograph: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images Performers …

Aventas: “These scandalous attacks orchestrated by a small group of criminals and their equally criminal sponsors…”

Pete Baker on February 12, 2014, 3:15 pm

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As the BBC reports, Lagan Cement Group has suffered damage of more than 1m euros (£820,000) in three separate attacks. The attacks followed the announcement that Lagan was buying, subject to approval, Rooftiles in County Fermanagh from the Aventas Group. The arson attacks at Lisburn, County Antrim, Comber, County Down, and Carrigtwohill, County Cork, are reported to have occurred since the Feb 4 announcement of the sale of Rooftiles, which is based in Derrylin, to the Lagan Group. The Aventas …

Solar Dynamics Observatory: Year 4

Pete Baker on February 11, 2014, 5:00 pm

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Four years after its work began, and following last year’s three years in three minutes, Nasa have released another wondrous short video of a year of selected solar activity as viewed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Video via Nasa Goddard. Full-screen viewing recommended. Stunning. [Credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory. Music: Stella Maris courtesy of Moby Gratis] The sun is always changing and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is always watching. Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, SDO keeps a 24-hour eye on the entire disk …

Meghan O’Sullivan: “how do we make it possible for the others to deliver on the agreement? . . . I don’t know if there was enough of that in the room this time.”

Pete Baker on January 11, 2014, 4:58 pm

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Whilst the Northern Ireland media continue to obsess over digest the parting shot from Richard Haass on the political parties’ failure to agree to his proposals (version 7), the co-chair of those talks, Meghan O’Sullivan, appears to have been delegated the task of addressing the media south of the border. [Partitionists! – Ed] ANYhoo.. In the Irish Times, Dan Keenan’s report includes what is, perhaps, the most revealing comment on the failure to agree. The final draft was written by herself and …

“How many times has a labour movement supported a liberation movement, only to find itself betrayed on the day of liberation?”

Pete Baker on December 22, 2013, 4:53 pm

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Speaking of dissent… The death of Nelson Mandela appears to have opened the door to some potentially significant criticism of the current leadership of the ANC. As the BBC reports, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), the largest trade union in South Africa, has withdrawn its support for the ruling party of government. From the BBC report The BBC’s Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg says this should be a wake-up call for the ANC not to take its anti-apartheid support base for …

Northern Ireland reflections on the “real” Mandela, man and myth

Brian Walker on December 11, 2013, 12:21 pm

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Hooray. There is still a role for newspapers. The Guardian proves it with their balancing coverage of the early obsequies for Nelson Mandela who it might be thought is one of their natural heroes. Restoring a human dimension after the hours of adulation and longueurs of 24/7 TV news is Simon Jenkins’ column and the obit by David Beresford, a brilliant South African born reporter and a former Ireland correspondent for the paper who was sadly ill for years. His …

Trinity academic to become first woman cardinal shock!

Brian Walker on November 3, 2013, 6:52 pm

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No, Not Crocodile Dundee’s soon to be ex -wife but the vice provost of Trinity College Dublin. A real Sunday flyer From the Sunday Times (£) SHE may be a woman, married, a feminist and only 49, but an Irish theologian called Linda Hogan is being tipped as the Vatican’s first lady in red. There has never been a female cardinal, but since Pope Francis took charge in Rome eight months ago and emerged as a social liberal the unthinkable …

“an unforgettable journey across the Red Planet.”

Pete Baker on October 28, 2013, 10:24 pm

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Curiosity may have been on the surface of Mars for over a year, but ESA’s Mars Express has been in orbit around the Red Planet for almost a decade. It’s one of a number of ways Mars is being observed, up close and personal. And, like the Hi-RISE camera on Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Express has some specialised instruments on-board for that purpose. Among them is the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The stunning 3D images in this video were taken by that camera. The video was released …