Ireland – Page 6 – Slugger O'Toole

What a Day Out with the Redemptorists says about the Future of the Irish Catholic Church

Gladys Ganiel on November 27, 2019, 12:40 pm

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On Saturday I took part in a day-long gathering for friends and associates of the Redemptorists in Ireland. The event grew out of a similar meeting at the 2018 World Meeting of Families in Dublin, during Pope Francis’ visit. Given that my biography of Redemptorist priest Fr Gerry Reynolds, Unity Pilgrim, was published earlier this year, I was asked to facilitate an afternoon workshop on ‘Unity Pilgrim: Challenged by the Stranger, Welcoming the Stranger’. I co-facilitated the workshop with Ed …

The party leaders are losing control of the election debate

Brian Walker on November 26, 2019, 10:30 pm

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Almost single handedly the BBC interviewer Andrew Neil is exposing the thinness of the main party leaders arguments – even those of the normally poised and practiced Nicola Sturgeon. who was rattled as never before. A minority Labour government would not need to be the SNP’s suitor – the SNP have nowhere else to go. A second referendum overturning the result of the first would deprive her of her best argument for Indy Ref 2. Would the EU welcome …

Book Review: The Catholic Church and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968-1999, by Margaret M. Scull

Gladys Ganiel on November 25, 2019, 1:03 pm

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A rich and carefully-researched new book, The Catholic Church and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968-1999 (Oxford University Press, 2019), offers fresh insights on the changing role of the Catholic Church and the personalities that drove its interventions during that fraught period. The author, Margaret M. Scull, a post-doctoral research fellow at NUI Galway, writes in a clear, accessible style, ensuring the text will be of interest not only to scholars, but a general readership. There will be a Belfast launch …

A Border Poll one day? Then let’s do it right

Chris McKee on November 23, 2019, 11:36 am

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In yet another eventful couple of weeks in politics, what caught my eye the most wasn’t plans for a national broadband service, fanciful budget splurges or cringey speeches and interviews. It wasn’t mini-electoral pacts across dozens of seats in England and the ever-changing sands of political alignment over the Great Brexit Divide. Closer to home, it wasn’t even Lady Hermon stepping down, loyalist paramilitary threats to UUP candidates, a stage-managed Sinn Fein leadership contest or the tiny dramas of other …

Peter Robinson was Right: Unionism Needs a Plan B…

Daniel O’Muirigh on November 15, 2019, 7:51 pm

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Former DUP leader Peter Robinson warned Unionists in 2018 that they should be preparing for a United Ireland. He used the analogy of one’s house burning and having insurance in place in case it does, commenting “I don’t expect my own house to burn down but I still insure it because it could happen”. Indeed, he doesn’t want his house to burn down, but prepares for the possibility of doing so, and is therefore prepared if it does. Peter Robinson’s analogy is telling because it demonstrates …

Eoghan Harris: The problem with Ireland’s Future “one party” conversation..

Soapbox on November 10, 2019, 4:35 pm

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Most of today’s Sunday Independent Eoghan Harris’ column is reproduced with the permission of the author. NB Harris is often the target of man playing. Any attempts here at man playing, whataboutery or seeking to change the subject may be removed. We can be sure Gay Byrne would never have signed the letter, titled Ireland’s Future, signed by 1,000 public figures, telling us that because of Brexit, the reunification of Ireland has moved centre stage. Gay condemned IRA violence because …

“Next Generation Unionism?”

Sarah Creighton on November 1, 2019, 1:38 pm

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As anger over Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement grows, one group of unionists has put out an “anti-betrayal act” poster. It sums up the current state of unionism. The poster portrays a baying mob with pitchforks. Apparently all unionist men dress like junior members of The Bar Library and work in an office. The language used is macho and patriarchal. There are no women on the poster, presumably because they’re all at home rolling their eyes. The poster comes at a …

Now and Then

Sarah Creighton on October 21, 2019, 8:59 am

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TW: This article contains references to sexual and domestic violence. On the 24th October 2017, the UK Supreme Court considered Northern Ireland’s abortion laws. The case was taken by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. In its judgment on the 7th June 2018, the Court found that the Commission did not have standing to take the case but found, obiter, that Northern Ireland’s laws breached Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The High Court in Belfast made …

Considering the future of Northern Ireland

Paul Gosling on October 21, 2019, 7:01 am

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A panel considered how to engage in a friendly and unthreatening conversation about the future constitutional arrangements for Northern Ireland. This was held as part of a concluding reflection on the Holywell Trust’s series of 35 Forward Together podcast interviews. The panel comprised author Julieann Campbell, the commentator Denis Bradley (who was co-chair of the Consultative Group on the Past and former deputy chair of the Northern Ireland Policing Board) and Maureen Hetherington of the Junction, plus myself as the …

Total Recall: Assembly Edition

Sarah Creighton on October 20, 2019, 9:12 am

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Last week 31 MLAs including the DUP, TUV and UUP signed a petition and sent it to the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. That petition has led to a recall of the institutions. Tomorrow, the Assembly will sit for the first time since the death of Martin McGuinness. The prospect of the Assembly meeting again has many people raising questions. Can MLAs stop the introduction same sex marriage and abortion reform? Is there any prospect of a government being …

From ‘Unions and Unionism’ and Brexit, to Seamus Mallon’s ‘Shared Home Place’ …

Gladys Ganiel on October 17, 2019, 3:34 pm

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Next week, Queen’s University will host a symposium on ‘Unions and Unionism: Brexit and these Islands’. It’s an apt opportunity for reflection given the increasingly tumultuous Brexit negotiations and the DUP’s place in this precarious process. The symposium begins on Thursday 24 October, 4.45-6.30 pm with a keynote address on ‘Exodus, Reckoning, Sacrifice: Three Meanings of Brexit’ by Kalypso Nicolaidis, Professor of International Relations and Director of the Centre for International Studies at the University of Oxford. Friday 25 October …

Dealing with the past

Paul Gosling on October 13, 2019, 7:01 am

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A discussion on how to deal with the past was held as part of a concluding reflection on the Holywell Trust’s series of Forward Together podcasts. The panel was author Julieann Campbell, the commentator Denis Bradley (who was co-chair of the Consultative Group on the Past and former deputy chair of the Northern Ireland Policing Board) and Maureen Hetherington of the Junction, plus myself as the person who conducted the interviews for the 35 podcasts. This podcast also includes a …

The Alternative – where does the power lie, who knows best, will anyone ask let alone listen? (Fishamble’s A Play For Ireland at Lyric Theatre until Sunday 13 October)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 10, 2019, 11:34 am

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Oisín Kearney and Michael Patrick’s playful counterfactual uses referendum concepts and lexicon – familiar from both Scotland’s indyref and the EU vote – to open up a conversation about who knows what is best for the people of Ireland, whether those who represent us actually listen to our views before making decisions, and ultimately where power lies in a society swayed by soundbite.

Any New Ireland Would Need to Accommodate Unionists…

Stephen Donnan-Dalzell on October 7, 2019, 12:26 pm

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Over twenty years since the Good Friday Agreement and we haven’t had an Assembly for over two years, and Brexit threatens to fundamentally reshape the tone of the entire political landscape on this island for at least a generation. Talk of a border poll is once again in the news as Boris Johnson makes a spectacle of the UK, and his Government, during the ongoing Brexit saga. The idea that somehow the NI Assembly will be responsible for agreeing to …

Creating a shared and integrated society

Paul Gosling on October 7, 2019, 7:01 am

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A discussion on how to create a shared and integrated society was held as part of a concluding reflection on the Holywell Trust’s series of Forward Together podcasts. The panel was author Julieann Campbell, the commentator Denis Bradley (who was co-chair of the Consultative Group on the Past and former deputy chair of the Northern Ireland Policing Board) and Maureen Hetherington of the Junction, plus myself as the person who conducted the interviews for the 35 podcasts. We began by …

Stormont Consent-what does it mean?

Sarah Creighton on October 4, 2019, 10:57 am

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Angela Merkel gave Boris Johnson 30 days to submit alternative proposals to replace the backstop. After a long wait (where it was speculated that the Prime Minister would merely amend the Withdrawal Agreement with tip-ex) the UK Government has finally submitted its plans. Spanning seven pages, Johnson’s proposals are a mis-mash of different ideas. All the hits you know and love are back. Remember Max Fac? It’s there. Nostalgic for Customs checks? Want a border down the Irish Sea? The …

The Ulsterisation of Brexit: “…the worst of them is the bitter envenomed dislike which they have to each other”

Mick Fealty on October 4, 2019, 10:51 am

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Today in his column, Alex Kane worries about the general polarisation around Brexit and the general rigidity of opinion which has set in. He writes: I once met a woman in Easons in Belfast who told me that she never read my pieces about Brexit (she was a Remainer) because she was ‘scared’ that she might find herself agreeing with me on some points. Her argument was built around her admission that she tended to agree with me on everything …

The Alternative – what if Ireland was still part of the UK and an in/out referendum was to be held tomorrow? (Lyric Theatre from 8 October)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 4, 2019, 9:05 am

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Speaking to The Alternative’s co-writer Michael Patrick about new counterfactual play The Alternative – Fishamble’s winning A Play For Ireland – which is set in an Ireland that is still part of the United Kingdom, but on the eve of an in/out referendum. Live from the studios of BBC Dublin, it’s the final leaders’ debate the night before the poll … In the Lyric Theatre from 8-13 October.

Aontú: Their impact on Sinn Féin and the SDLP

Niall Kelly on October 3, 2019, 3:07 pm

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Aontú have so far secured four council seats (albeit temporarily and not concurrently) in the North since they were founded in January 2019: two people from the SDLP gene pool and two from the Sinn Féin gene pool. Before the local government election, sitting councillors Fergal Lennon (Sinn Féin – Craigavon) and Rosemarie Shields (SDLP – Mid Tyrone) left their parties and joined Aontú. Neither of these two candidates were successful in that election and the sole elected Aontú councillor …

Civic engagement can help to heal Northern Ireland’s dislocated society

Paul Gosling on September 30, 2019, 7:01 am

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A discussion on how to strengthen civic society was held as part of a concluding reflection on the Holywell Trust’s series of Forward Together podcasts. The panel was author Julieann Campbell, the commentator Denis Bradley (who was co-chair of the Consultative Group on the Past and former deputy chair of the Northern Ireland Policing Board) and Maureen Hetherington of the Junction, plus myself as the person who conducted the interviews for the 35 podcasts. We began by listening to highlights …