Ireland – Page 21 – Slugger O'Toole

Why even bother running against the incredibly popular Michael D?

Brian O'Neill on September 27, 2018, 7:19 pm

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There are six candidates contesting the Irish Presidential Election, which by my reckoning is about five too many. Michael D is expected to get about 2/3 of the votes which leaves the rest of them fighting a pointless race of irrelevance. To run for President takes several hundred thousand euro and despite it being a ceremonial role it tends to be a very vicious campaign. As the old joke goes, it is vicious because the stakes are so low. Now some …

From Jeremy Corbyn, the chance of a Brexit breakthrough

Brian Walker on September 27, 2018, 12:12 am

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For some, Jeremy Corbyn had at last managed to deliver the usual old conference guff and sound like a leader. But for many others well beyond the hard Left, Corbyn’s speech took them out of the tight old Tory straightjacket, if just for a moment. The Brexit passage was particularly clever. Whether he entirely believes in or not, Corbyn made an offer to Theresa May that could be the Brexit breakthrough, one that’s compatible with her comments on the plane …

We Believe Her

Soapbox on September 26, 2018, 1:35 pm

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By SDLP Youth On Sunday past, we watched a very uncomfortable Michelle O’Neill, the Vice President of Sinn Féin on BBC Inside Politics, when being questioned about the Máiría Cahill case. Upon being asked if she believed Máiría Cahill’s account of the abuse she suffered in the 1990s, at the hands of an IRA member, Ms O’Neill replied, “it’s not for me to say that I believe her.” In recent years, Sinn Féin have positioned themselves as the political defenders …

Theresa May’s defence of “the precious, precious Union” takes centre stage

Brian Walker on September 25, 2018, 11:31 pm

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Let Labour tie themselves in knots over an election or another referendum. Let the Brexiteers demand the abandonment of Chequers. The lady’s not for turning, to coin a phrase. And more: she has rejected their favourite option, a Canada plus free trade deal, because it threatens the unity of the United Kingdom. Those were her essential messages to the travelling Westminster lobby on board the plane to New York for the UN General Assembly. And she invoked the taoiseach twice …

Efforts are mounting to drive a wedge between Theresa May and the DUP over the backstop

Brian Walker on September 25, 2018, 12:27 pm

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The Guardian has been the only media I can find claiming a British ploy to get round the backstop in these terms. Senior diplomats involved in the negotiations have reacted furiously to the details of a fresh UK proposal for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland, briefed to the Irish PM, Leo Varadkar, at last week’s Salzburg summit. Under the solution, May will agree to Northern Ireland potentially staying, in effect, in the single market, as the rest of the …

Ireland at the Bar

Brendan Heading on September 22, 2018, 10:43 pm

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During the latest of my recent (abortive) attempts to try to get involved with the works of James Joyce, I made the timely discovery of an interesting essay I’d never heard of before, “Ireland at the Bar”, written while the author was in Italy in 1907. I say “timely” because we’re in an interesting political epoch within these islands. Many of us are carefully re-evaluating our political perspective in light of recent developments, struggling to find ways to get our …

Stepping back from the cliff edge has begun. Chequers is not dead – says the EU

Brian Walker on September 21, 2018, 11:36 pm

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The salvage job has already begun and a better verdict sought than disaster. If Salzburg was not all a misunderstanding, it was more like a farce without the laughs. People literally passed each other in the night. Theresa May’s ten minute pitch over dinner, followed by a leaders’ chat over lunch next day without her was hardly the stuff and style of diplomacy. In the gap between the two meals, rumours and spin raised suspicions and fears about British intentions …

Theresa May takes a big share of the blame for Salzburg but not all of it. How do they all walk back from the cliff?

Brian Walker on September 21, 2018, 1:14 pm

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Salzburg has turned out to be a Suez moment, a sudden and unexpected blow to the government’s prestige delivered by the discovery that UK does not possess the political and economic weight to make a deal with the EU so special that that it violates existential Union rules. The shock is all the greater because the EU decided that, too close to deadline, the British had allowed themselves to be deceived by too much diplomatic fudging; and this had tempted …

Chequers: they thought it was all over. It is now. Brexit brinkmanship or bust

Brian Walker on September 20, 2018, 4:50 pm

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Donald Tusk President of the EU Council At our EU27 working lunch today we had a good discussion on Brexit, which once again reconfirmed our full unity. Let me highlight three points. First, we reconfirmed that there will be no Withdrawal Agreement without a solid, operational and legally binding Irish backstop. And we continue to fully support Michel Barnier in his efforts to find such a model. Second, we agreed to have a joint political declaration that provides as much …

No breakthrough for May at Salzburg. More moves on the border needed and concessions on the single market

Brian Walker on September 20, 2018, 11:52 am

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God knows where we are now. Groping towards a solution probably. We’re unlikely to get much more clarity from Salzburg by the end of the day. The suggestion of a second referendum by the Maltese and Czech leaders made an interesting diversion but little more. The Irish Times headlined “stark divisions” between May and Varadkar in advance of their breakfast meeting today but added: Sources close to the prime minister accepted, however, that London would be bringing forward proposals on …

Brinkmanship on the border: May squares off before EU leaders as Barnier revises his plan

Brian Walker on September 19, 2018, 11:19 am

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To herald her appearance at today’s EU summit at Salzburg, Theresa May has presented a bullish case for her Chequers plan where it matters most – to the Germans. In an article under her name in the heavyweight paper Die Welt, she insists that Chequers contains the border solution without resorting to the EU’s legal draft of the backstop. Say it quietly but she may be pushing at a door, if not wide open, just left ajar. Pardon the cliché, …

Do we still have “a dirty peace” in which investigation of child rape was seemingly deferred to the IRA?

Mick Fealty on September 19, 2018, 11:05 am

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“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman”, said associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Louis Dembitz Brandeis. In the case of Mairia Cahill, it is Cahill (not any organ of the state) who has forced an extraordinary story out of a close-mouthed system with horrendous import for wider society, of a rape victim who fell foul of the wrong people in the …

New November “deadline” for agreeing withdrawal terms puts pressure on all sides

Brian Walker on September 18, 2018, 1:51 pm

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The mantra “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” may be joined with a new one, “ nothing changes until everything changes.” This applies in spades to the border backstop wrangle. Rather than face crunch point at Salzburg on Thursday, EU leaders have confirmed that the terms for UK withdrawal will be settled at a special Brexit summit in November. So that’s all good, then. But the backstop still nags and Theresa May has said nothing to wish it away, …

It’s not an apology Ms Cahill needs, but an explanation of how such a cover-up was managed…

Mick Fealty on September 17, 2018, 2:55 pm

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The Mairia Cahill story is back. The Ombudsman report like the Starmer report before identifies significant failings on the part of the state in bringing an IRA member suspected of gross criminal behaviour before the courts. The Ombudsman has uncovered intelligence that Sinn Fein suspended the abuser in August 2000. The party first became aware of the abuse was in 1997 – while it was still onoing. His expulsion only came in 2000, when police records reveal the IRA was investigating child …

Fianna Fáil and its discontents – the Eurosceptic opportunity

Soapbox on September 17, 2018, 2:19 pm

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By Aidan Harkin At the time of writing Fianna Fáil (FF) is struggling to re-assert itself as the prominent force in Irish politics. The 2016 election was a moment of promise for FF who experienced considerable gains from its disastrous 2011 election performance, resulting in a difference of only six seats between them and the governing party Fine Gael (FG). This rise coupled with the implosion of the Irish labour party has meant both FF and FG now co-exist uncomfortably …

The burning border problem. Is it a gnat or a camel?

Brian Walker on September 17, 2018, 12:37 pm

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Only two things are sure about the Brexit arguments. Over the border issue ’they’re hotting up inside the Conservative party. And the binary nature of the exchanges between Theresa and Boris produces only deadlock as binary arguments tend to do. In her BBC interview no doubt she believes she’s defending “the precious, precious Union” and the will of the Northern Ireland people. But as interviewer Nick Robinson might have reminded her, they voted in favour of Remain. Does it really …

Union vs United Ireland Declared a Draw! What Happens Next?

CM Johnston on September 17, 2018, 10:51 am

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In these increasingly dramatic, uncertain and downright bizarre political times, one suitably off-the-wall scenario is good fun to imagine: what if London and Dublin stepped in and gave the dysfunctional Stormont 12 months to reach a permanent solution to the constitution and identity debate. Otherwise – sick of policing the NI naughty step – they’d step in with final rulings of their own. So, the parties would be warned that this post-deadline decision by the two governments would – intentionally …

Liadh Ní Riada announced as Sinn Fein presidential candidate

David McCann on September 16, 2018, 4:49 pm

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MEP Liadh Ní Riada has been announced as the party candidate for the upcoming presidential election. Speaking about her nomination she said; My personal background has given me a deep appreciation of Ireland’s unique identity and culture, its place in the wider world and a strong commitment to a United Ireland. “I grew up in west Cork, an area with a proud republican history. I was raised in the Gaeltacht in an Irish speaking family and as the daughter of …

Future Ireland: Writing Competition

Claire Mitchell on September 16, 2018, 9:00 am

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This is an open call for submissions on our current featured topic – Future Ireland: Alternative Conversations about Unity and the Union You can read a little more about the aims of the project here, and the types of contributions that we’re seeking. Here are some examples. But we suspect that you might have some even better ideas. So we’re putting out an open call for articles on this topic. The best three articles will win a prize (tbc – …

Future Ireland: Alternative Conversations About Unity and the Union

Claire Mitchell on September 15, 2018, 9:00 am

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The future of Northern Ireland is deeply uncertain. Brexit, the rise of English nationalism, Scotland, Stormont deadlock and demographic change make Irish unity a realistic alternative. The polls vary greatly, but some have unity very much within sight, especially if there is a harsh Brexit and a disruptive border. People are talking about this at kitchen tables across the north. But whilst we are highly engaged about if we would like unity or the union, and many of us have …