After two nights of violence on the streets of north Belfast, during which over 60 officers were injured, 6 baton rounds fired, and 8 arrests made, the PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr has issued a challenge to politicians. From the Irish Times report Police said the trouble was started by loyalists and that nationalists were also involved. Mr Kerr acknowledged that the trouble has raised concerns about whether a massive Orange Order parade on September 29th will pass off …
It’s disconcerting being photographed. I presume that was part of the reasoning of East German Border Guards taking copious amounts of them of the hoards of tourists that used to visit Checkpoint Charlie in the old days (or February 1986 to you and me)… It puzzled me for years afterwards what they might do with a set of photographs of people I presume they could know nor log or even process effectively in those days when Intel processers were much …
So there was riot in north Belfast. What’s new? Well, what’s new is that for the first time in a number of years it was initiated by Loyalists against a Republican parade. In recent years, the traffic has been more or less one way in the opposite direction. And it seems to have been pretty pre meditated. At 2pm yesterday a crowd of several hundred were seen gathering at the flash point some of them wearing scarves and balaclavas. Not …
The Northern Ireland First and deputy First Minsters recently announced the second round of funding, £1.5million, available from the Executive and Atlantic Philanthropies’ ‘Contested Spaces’ Programme, although I’m still not entirely clear where the other £2.5million went… The announcement, in the absence of a “Cohesion, Sharing and Integration” strategy, rebranded, and “watered down” to the “lowest commmon denominator“, or otherwise, coincides with the reveal of a new contested space the masterplan for the regeneration of the Girdwood Park former military base. [And the Crumlin …
They should, because it’s good advice. From a Belfast Telegraph report Mr Justice Weir criticised the PSNI for relying on advice from unelected community spokesmen. The judge claimed that he had a “considerable sense of unease” concerning the credence that had been given to views from certain groups or individuals. “The police would do very well to distance themselves from them, rather than getting in with them,” said Judge Weir. A report in the Irish News has some more detail Initially …
A short BBC report notes that one man has been arrested and a vehicle seized after a shot was fired at a man in the New Lodge area of north Belfast this morning. From the BBC report Detective Chief Inspector Alan Little said the attack was “an extremely reckless act in a heavily populated area”. He added: “We are investigating a number of lines of enquiry and I am keen to hear from anyone who was near the Antrim Road/Stratheden Street …
Moochin PhotomanPhotographer and visual artist based in Belfast. I have facilitated community based workshops with groups as diverse as visually impaired individuals in Dungannn, Travellers across Northern Ireland, Young Offenders and many community groups across Belfast. My work has exhibited extensively here in Northern Ireland in group and individual shows and has been shown in North America and i had my first solo international exhibition in New Zealand. I have been the recipient of a number of grants from the …
The North Belfast News provides an example from the New Lodge area in north Belfast of what happens when “the guerillas” become “the people in power”, and are “pilloried as ‘traitors’ by their young challengers”. From the North Belfast News The day after the clean-up fresh graffiti was daubed on the walls in the Carlisle area of the New Lodge. The slogans included ‘Oppose British Internment’, ‘Free Marian Price’ and ‘Support the POWs’. “We were painting out political statements and …
THE (restricted) Tour of the North parade gets under way in a few minutes. But if you don’t fancy getting wet, and still want to sample loyalist culture – in the safety of your own home no less – you could do worse than watch The Men Who Won’t Stop Marching. It’s one of the BBC’s Wonderland documentaries, and it’s absolutely fascinating to see the Shankill through the eyes of “Jordan, an eleven-year old aspiring drummer from one of the …
According to the North Belfast News, “police have agreed to step up their stop and search of ‘suspicious’ cars and people” in the Oldpark/Ardoyne area of North Belfast. Apparently at the request of the local Marrowbone Residents Group. According to the report, John McAlea from Marrowbone Residents Group said, “After talking about the drugs problem with police they have agreed to boost their stop and searching in the area,” he said. “We are really pushing them on the issue because we …
Carál Ní Chuilín, MLA and Gerry Kelly, MLA are both open and proud on their previous membership of a now defunct branch of Óglaigh na hÉireann. Both served prison sentences for bombing campaigns in areas mainly used by ‘civilians’ on behalf of that IRA. When the most recent in a long line of British ‘Chief Constables’ controlling policing in the north of Ireland needed a comparative for the recent extended disruption on the Antrim Road, he choose the Omagh bomb. …
With 25.5% of the vote SF beat the DUP by 3,700 to get the highest vote of all parties (helped, of course, by DUP absence in FST and North Down). That’s the first time ever in General Elections. (One of the things you wonder about late at night is what would have happened in 1921 with today’s demography?)
Welsh Nationalist. Rugby Fan. Know a bit about History and Railways…
If both sides are to be believed then no one is to blame for the ongoing nightmare in North Belfast. Still there is something quite chilling in the latest statement from Loyalists with regard to recent violence. It is forthwrite, simple and completely unapologetic: The senior loyalist said that Mr Lawlor had been killed in retaliation for a gun attack on Sunday evening in which a Protestant teenager was seriously injured. He said: “We’re one bullet, one fatality away from …
