Ireland

Unionists could lose out if they don’t talk about a united Ireland

Sarah Creighton on August 1, 2018, 9:18 am

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Many unionists have been given a ‘lundy bollocking’ over the past few years but it’s bizarre to see it happen to Peter Robinson. Robinson’s crime was to suggest that unionists should prepare for a united Ireland. He said, “I don’t expect my own house to burn down but I still insure it because it could happen.” Robinson’s words have generated outrage with unionists like Sammy Wilson and Reg Empey lining up to tell the former First Minister to put a …

With no power comes no responsibility – Northern Ireland sleepwalking towards an electricity crisis

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on July 30, 2018, 7:56 pm

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When Kilroot power station failed to win an auction to supply the all-island Single Electricity Market (SEM) held in December last year, its owner AES announced that the facility was to close. Despite announcing that the power station was to close in May 2018, at the time of writing it remains open. The closure of Kilroot, and the already scheduled closure of part of Ballylumford power station, means that Northern Ireland will lose over 900 MW worth of electricity generating …

Happy Days Festival does Beckett and Brexit (1-6 August)

Soapbox on July 30, 2018, 1:58 pm

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Waiting for Godot on the border, billboards and cross-border chess: the 6th Happy Days International Beckett Festival takes stock ahead of Brexit. The first line of Samuel Beckett’s famous play reads: ”Nothing to be done“. The characters go round in circles, both verbally and physically, are disorientated, are forever waiting for something to happen but it never does. They want to move forward but instead remain fixed in the same spot. Sound familiar?

#Brexit as discovery rather than implementation might be Ireland’s sanest way through?

Mick Fealty on July 30, 2018, 11:06 am

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Just putting this here as a supplementary to the idea that Brexit won’t (and indeed cannot) end on March 29th, 2019: Relationships change. The “transitional period” won’t end in 2020. It’ll carry on for as long as the UK and EU exist. This is no mere pedantry. One of the key aspects of good negotiations is to see that agreements can be provisional, not final. Theresa May should be saying to all sides in the Tory party: “This isn’t the …

Even if they don’t quite love us (and who can blame them?), British and Irish leaders want to show they care

Brian Walker on July 28, 2018, 1:57 pm

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At a time when all parties in Northern Ireland are feeling isolated and sorry for themselves for some reasons beyond their control and others self inflicted, it’s worth noting the two recent visits to Derry by senior ministers of both states. While these differed in style, purpose and content, both emphasise the basic British and Irish engagement that continues despite present tensions and breakdown. Earlier this month the Tánaiste Simon Conveney visited the unionist Fountain estate as well as the …

Migrant Rights as Civil Rights

Sipho Sibanda on July 28, 2018, 8:55 am

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Sipho Sibanda is a migrant rights activist in Northern Ireland. Progress since the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland should not be understated. The decline of religious discrimination in areas such as employment, housing, voting rights, and education is considered one of the crowning achievements of the last 50 years. However, asylum seekers and migrants in Northern Ireland today face a host of curtailments to their rights. Many of these rights are the same as those which were at the crux …

Whatever Happened to the Good Friday Agreement? Review of Siobhán Fenton’s New Book

Gladys Ganiel on July 27, 2018, 2:22 pm

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Siobhán Fenton’s somewhat misleadingly-titled new book, The Good Friday Agreement makes for sobering reading. The aim of the book is to take stock of how far Northern Ireland has come since the 1998 Agreement, making it less about the Agreement itself than it is about the failure to implement it. Indeed, several times throughout, Fenton observes that it is not the Agreement that has failed. Rather it is Northern Ireland’s politicians who have ‘failed the Agreement.’ The Good Friday Agreement …

Focusing on the bigger picture is how to prevent a Brexit disaster

Brian Walker on July 27, 2018, 11:03 am

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The Sun and the Guardian, raucous tabloid and campaigning broadsheet on either side of the Brexit trauma are united: Barnier has killed off the Chequers plan. The FT however is more circumspect. We have doubts it can be done without putting at risk the integrity of the customs union, our common commercial policy, regulatory policy and fiscal revenue,” said Mr Barnier. Mr Barnier and Mr Raab also said they had agreed to work on a model for financial services co-operation …

Lack of understanding of how to reach agreement across communities is dangerous…

Mick Fealty on July 27, 2018, 9:02 am

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In Ireland (north and south), Summer is the time for thinking and rethinking politics. For the most part, I will be reading a number of review copies of books I’ve been sent over the last month or so. One I don’t yet have is Mary C Murphy’s Europe and Northern Ireland’s Future (Comparative Political Economy), which Micheal Martin officially launched last night in Dublin. But it worth highlighting a couple of points he made in his speech, some of which builds …

I, Dolours – an unsettling cinematic memoir about an IRA activist whose deadly idealism turned out to be hollow

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 26, 2018, 6:30 am

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A cinematic memoir which allows Dolours Price tell her story from the grave. This 82-minute film, revolving around a 2010 interview conducted by Ed Moloney, explains and reconstructs her IRA activism and role in the ‘disappeared’. I Dolours will be screened as part of Belfast Film Festival’s documentary season on 13 August before going on general release from 31 August.

An Ulsterman Considers His Passport – Arthur Aughey #JHISS

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 25, 2018, 2:30 pm

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An Ulsterman Considers His Passport … and also considers what we can learn from other complicated borders in Europe, like those Austria shares with its eastern European neighbours. Watch back Prof Arthur Aughey’s Centre for Cross-border Studies lecture at the John Hewitt International Summer School in Armagh.

Ireland, Northern Ireland and Brexit: two southern political perspectives from #MacGill18…

Mick Fealty on July 25, 2018, 8:50 am

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It’s worth drawing out some of the material from Glenties the other night. On the night, the intellectual heavy lifting was done by Micheal Martin, who as leader of the opposition: one, has time to think; and two is not hemmed in by reality. However, the Tanaiste and Foreign Minister Simon Coveney did make several important observations: …to some degree, on the Irish issues at least, it ground to a halt in March. The UK then turned its focus to the …

Martin Mansergh: identity and borders #JHISS

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 24, 2018, 7:00 am

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WATCH BACK as former Fianna Fáil politician Dr Martin Mansergh opened the 2018 John Hewitt International Summer School with a half hour address taking in a hundred years or more of nuance around the border and identity.

Would a United Ireland be affordable?

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on July 22, 2018, 1:44 pm

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Given recent polling that suggests that a border poll on the question of Northern Ireland joining a unified Irish state could be a close contest, there has been a renewed focus on the question of whether a unified Irish state would be affordable. There is a gap of roughly £10bn between tax revenues and public expenditure in Northern Ireland, an effective subsidy from Great Britain to Northern Ireland that is often referred to as the “subvention” or the “block grant”. …

The nightmare scenario

Andrew Gallagher on July 20, 2018, 6:07 pm

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Both the British and Irish Governments have this week warned their people of the dangers (however seemingly remote) of a no-deal Brexit. No doubt there have been junior staff on both sides beavering away in basements to plan for the possibility, whether or not their superiors took them seriously. And the probability of those contingency plans being dusted off has surely increased in the last few days. But we must also entertain the even smaller chance of a perfect storm, …

On the backstop, Theresa May’s “passion” for solutions and a bit more clarity seems to be paying off

Brian Walker on July 20, 2018, 3:02 pm

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Theresa May and Michel Barnier have spoken. Barnier has picked his way critically through the UK White Paper with its “facilitated customs arrangement” and common rule book, asking all the pertinent questions but turning nothing down. 80% of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU is now agreed, but the EU’s version of the backstop remains the bugbear. The black scenario is: no agreement on the border, no withdrawal agreement, therefore no transition and no deal. To be honest, nobody except …

A new Ireland is still far down the political campaigning agenda despite Brexit

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 19, 2018, 1:14 pm

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If party press releases are anything to go by, discussing a new Ireland or united Ireland is far down the the day-to-day campaigning agenda of local parties despite the change of mood amongst some voters following the UK’s Brexit decision.

President Higgins’ rivals for the Aras will have to outline their ability to do a better job…

Mick Fealty on July 19, 2018, 11:43 am

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I’ve never understood why Irish presidential elections are not fixed events. Elections due every seven years are suspended if the incumbent wants to make it 14. The current President promised he’d trigger one by leaving after one term. But Ireland’s worst kept secret is now out there. Michael D Higgins is going to run again. Sinn Fein’s confirmation that it will field a candidate means a game is certainly on, and there is likely to be at least one independent …

“Another torrid day (in Westminster) for Theresa May…”

Mick Fealty on July 18, 2018, 8:05 am

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I do wonder from some of our conversations just how detached Northern Ireland is becoming from the reality of Brexit politics. Here’s a useful update on that tight parliamentary arithmetic in the House of Commons from Gary Gibbons… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Abstentionism may have a place, but hedging on Northern Ireland’s anti Brexit interest is another matter

Mick Fealty on July 18, 2018, 12:26 am

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As Andrew Rawnsley recalled at the weekend, it was Lyndon B Johnson who declared that the most important talent in politics is “the ability to count”. He said that in the context of Theresa May’s tricky arithmetic at Westminster… There aren’t enough people who can count around Mrs May. The fatal flaw in her plan is that there is no majority for it in the House of Commons. Or rather, just the thinnest majorities for some of it in the …