Having been billed in advance as ‘significant’, there’s been a noticeable absence of applause from the usual suspects for the recently re-announced, but yet to be revealed, Gerry Adams’ Sinn Féin’s 10 year plan for leadership change a “process of generational change”. [Do those ‘suspects’ know who they are? – Ed] Probably… [And does ’10 years’ more…
Tag Archives | Ireland
UK Government publishes its Customs Union proposals
The UK Government has begun producing a serious of papers outlining its post-Brexit vision for relations between the UK and the European Union. The 14 page document outlines how the UK will seek a transitional period before attempting to set up a system that gives it basically the same access that it has now. There more…
“in just the same way that nationalists in Northern Ireland can’t permanently settle for their Irish/nationalist identity being simply recognised and accommodated in part of the United Kingdom…”
In yesterday’s News Letter, Alex Kane, in effect, calls ‘bullshit’ on Sinn Féin’s latest pronoucements on a new united Ireland… and, perhaps, the political psychosis that underlies their thinking. That’s without addressing the question of the authority to offer any such constitutional guarantees and/or the willingness, or ability, to deliver them. [It’s ‘Blue Sky’ thinking! more…
More than a wider vision of unionism is needed to take us through Brexit
This article in the Belfast Telegraph by John Wilson Foster is an honourable fret about unionist identity in the light of Brexit. Foster’s answer to the problems of Brexit appears to lie in the creation of a wider unionism closer to British norms. So far so good, but only so far. In his own terms more…
Report examining Brexit and a United Ireland launched
The Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement launched a report today entitled Brexit and the Future of Ireland Uniting Ireland & Its People in Peace & Prosperity. The report examines issues around Brexit and the a United Ireland and is a lengthy document. Here are some of the key recommendations from more…
Extradited Suspect Admits Role in 1996 Provisional IRA Mortar Attack in Germany
Unencumbered by the Belfast Agreement, ‘comfort’ letters, or any proposals on legacy issues, German authorities sought and, last year, secured the extradition of a suspect in the Provisional IRA mortar attack on a British army barracks near Osnabrück, Germany, in June 1996. James Anthony Oliver Albert Corry, from north Belfast, had been arrested in Killorglin, Co Kerry, in October more…
“We cannot complain about the Irish State or its Constitution. It protects our rights.”
From the Irish Times which is worth reading about the Orange Order and how they operate in the South. The entire article is worth a read but this comment about the Irish constitution is worth highlighting A past master and current chaplain of the lodge, he says he could not ask for more protection from more…
Should the Republic of Ireland Stay in the EU?
Former Irish ambassador Ray Bassett has written a detailed report for the UK think-tank Policy Exchange entitled After Brexit, Will Ireland be Next to Exit? He argues that Ireland should seriously consider whether or not it stays in the European Union, and he appears to favour an Irish exit. The issues raised by Bassett certainly deserve serious deliberation. more…
“six months later nothing seems to have replaced that philosophy beyond aggressively taking on the DUP…”
Ahead of the likely suspension of open party political hostilities briefings to the media for the summer, the News Letter’s Sam McBride has an interesting piece in search of a Sinn Féin strategy. [There’s a strategy?! – Ed] Just tactics… From the News Letter Long forgotten are the days when Martin McGuinness warmly recalled how more…
“Anyone for more opium?”
The empty rhetoric of the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, in Downing Street last week… Speaking at Downing Street, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said that the party told Mrs May “very directly that she was in breach of the Good Friday Agreement” over the Conservative negotiations with the DUP. …is neatly summed up in more…
Happy Bloomsday, intolerable Joyceans everywhere!
If you don’t know by now, it’s tradition! [We know… – Ed]. Those of a sensitive disposition are duly warned, once again, that James Joyce enjoys the language in all its fecund nuttiness. And a reminder of a brief history of the day, from the Guardian last year, which includes this great 1924 quote from Joyce on more…
“We don’t believe that any deal between the DUP here and the English Tories will be good for the people here.”
So stated the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, as he paraded his “Magnificent Seven” MPs [and Carál Ní Chuilín – Ed] in front of the media at a press conference at Stormont yesterday. But whilst most reports focused on that line, or a variation on it, only the Irish Times’ Gerry Moriarty appears to have more…
Why is Colum Eastwood pulling his punches on a border poll?
There is no point in denying the appeal of a united Ireland within the EU, even if the threat of a hard border turns out to be exaggerated for its malign effects on trade, integrated agriculture and ease of movement and Theresa May’s team returns from Brussels in triumph. It transcends narrow nationalism and reflects more…
Brokenshire’s line on a border poll won’t do. Straight after next week’s election, it will be incumbent to spell out terms and conditions for holding a unity referendum. And Dublin cannot be left out
In their manifesto, the SDLP have now joined Sinn Fein in calling for a unity referendum, albeit on slightly different terms. Both are linking it to Brexit. If the combined nationalist share of the vote next week reaches 40+% which is highly manageable, can a unity referendum or border poll, reasonably be denied? If not, what more…
The English, with an identity problem to die for
As a little Bank Holiday sidebar, I nick part of Libby Purves’ meditation on Identity in the Times (£) today which laments a lack of the English variety and compares it mournfully with the rosiest possible version of the Irish kind. Being English, she actually thinks north and south are much the same – imagine! more…
It’s easier to get rid of a hard border
Vincent Boland has written a major piece for the FT magazine (£) entitled “Dividing Line: Brexit and the threat to the Irish Border“. The article is all more absorbing for being written for the casually interested globalised audience that is the FT’s typical readership. Boland doesn’t deal in economic statistics or confusing politics but on more…
“Cars being stopped and searched is not going to happen”
Whilst the BBC quote, at length, the concerns about a post-Brexit border of “a former customs officer in Donegal” whom they interviewed on Radio Foyle, the Irish Revenue Commissioner’s lead official on the topic has been speaking at a conference on Brexit in Dublin organised by the British Irish Chamber of Commerce. From the Irish Times more…
“…if you want trouble again in the north play that game. It’s a dangerous game”
There’s been some focus on the comments at the weekend by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern warning about any attempt to “force” a border poll in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. His remarks are placed in a wider context by the fuller quote in the Belfast Telegraph. Speaking on Newstalk radio, the former Irish prime minister said: more…
John Bruton; “The terms for Brexit, as set out so far by Mrs May, will do incalculable damage to this island, politically, emotionally and economically”
Some interesting evidence from former Taoiseach, John Bruton today; “While I believe it may seem impossibly optimistic today, I believe conditions can be envisaged in which, eventually, the UK voters might either decide, either not to leave the EU at all, or to decide, after it has left, to rejoin. Ireland should try to keep more…
The republic is pointing the way to solving the health care crisis throughout the island
Here I join Mick in commending Newton Emerson for giving a new twist to a familiar theme. He describes a linkage between a religious ethos north and south and a lack of resources not due to funding alone, that stands in the way of providing a better health service. In the republic a more…