Parties

Haass had basic flaws. It’s time for the two governments to step up to the plate

| Readers 59

It was in its way encouraging that the Assembly parties themselves launched the Haass process but they seem to have bitten off more than they could chew. They appear to have gone into the high pressure phase without clear ideas of how to reach goals other than muddling through. So far we haven’t heard of any back channels or talks on the margin where so often  deals get done, or arm twisting from  big brothers or sisters.  Pressured negotiations worked before, on Good Friday and at St Andrews, …

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Despite the Haass setback we are not the prisoners of the past but masters of our own fate

| Readers 71

The issues of the Haass process are only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed it might be said that the talks were unlikely to succeed without rigorous challenge and examination of the beliefs and assumptions the parties brought to the table.  Behind the tortuous details of flags, parades and the past are the competing narratives which need to be challenged and explored before we can reach the point of agreement of how to live with them.  Beyond the groves of …

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Lord Chief Justice Morgan: “this is a case about political failure”

| Readers 176

Not the Haass talks.  You can keep your nose pressed against the windowpane with David if you’re hoping for a scrap of comfort from that.  No, this is about the continued dysfunctional approach of the two main parties of the Northern Ireland Executive semi-detached polit-bureau to the process of government – as defined under the current administration. Sinn Féin’s pre-Christmas (23 Dec) defence of the Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill’s unilateral decision to re-allocate €137 million of EU funding over the next six …

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“How many times has a labour movement supported a liberation movement, only to find itself betrayed on the day of liberation?”

| Readers 13

Speaking of dissent…  The death of Nelson Mandela appears to have opened the door to some potentially significant criticism of the current leadership of the ANC.  As the BBC reports, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), the largest trade union in South Africa, has withdrawn its support for the ruling party of government.  From the BBC report The BBC’s Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg says this should be a wake-up call for the ANC not to take its anti-apartheid support base for …

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Kevin Conway murder: “Local Sinn Fein Councillor John O’Dowd was under no illusions…”

| Readers 1742

Arrested in a hotel in Birmingham on Monday, following “a review of the original murder investigation by detectives attached to Serious Crime Branch”, a 45-year-old man from Lurgan, Gary Marshall, has been charged at Craigavon court, and released on bail, for the murder of Kevin Conway in 1998.  The News Letter report notes Marshall, from Ennis Green in Lurgan, is accused of murdering 30-year-old Kevin Conway on a date unknown between February 16-19, 1998. Having been kidnapped from his Lurgan home, the …

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“a party that does not understand for what it is fighting has no right to win…”

| Readers 55

Ever since spending nine hours in the basement of Belfast central Library scouring the pages of the News Letter over the Famine periood, I’ve been a big fan of the direct style of Victorian journalism. This extract is from page 9 of The Spectator magazine in August 1891: We suppose it is not, on the whole, disadvantageous for each party to have its turn in Opposition and in Office, in the responsibilities of criticism and in the responsibilities of administration. …

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On dealing with the past, a hard sell on immunity should not rule out cooperation with historians.

| Readers 63

I’ve belatedly come across a Queen’s Blog which is the submission legal academics Professor Kieran McEvoy Dr Louise Mallinder Prof Gordon Anthony and Luke Moffett have presented to Haass.  It’s a hard sell of a powerful case but with a couple of flaws I’ll come to later.   I would have blogged about this in preference to my previous post  had I seen it in time. In essence it updates the McEvoy account of how immunity from prosecution has often featured in our …

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Before Haass reveals his recommendations, the practical issues of dealing with the past

| Readers 27

Proposals for dealing with the past could be drowned out by flags and parades when the Haass proposals are published. So let’s take a look now at the informed speculation on this issue by Mark Devenport: On the past, it is understood there will be a single investigative body bringing together work currently carried out by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) and Police Ombudsman and possibly the coroner’s courts. There is also a proposal for an independent information recovery body …

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“The parties were told not to bring in any phones or other communication devices, nor to leave with any copies of the draft.”

| Readers 52

Richard Haass’ attempt to ensure confidentiality during the on-going talks between the five Northern Ireland Executive parties – on the past, parades, and flags – failed to survive first contact with Sinn Féin.  Today the Haass team presented their first, complete, draft proposals to the parties.  The BBC report notes his latest attempt at ensuring confidentiality. While the parties examined the proposals at Stormont, talks chairman Dr Haass had travelled to London to meet the Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers and …

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Theresa Villiers: “in the meantime, the Parades Commission remains the legally constituted body responsible for determining these matters…”

| Readers 134

In the continued absence of “locally owned arrangements”, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, has appointed a new chair, Anne Henderson, and 4 new members to the Parades Commission for Northern Ireland.  They will replace the current commission members, most of whom were appointed in 2010 by the then NI Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, and will take up their posts on 1 January 2014 .  BBC report here. From the NIO press release [NI Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers] I very much …

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NSMC: “Ministers re-affirmed that a final report on the results from the survey and proposals on the way forward will be available for consideration no later than their first NSMC Education meeting of 2013”

| Readers 79

As the BBC reports, the Chair of the Northern Ireland Assembly Education Committee, the DUP’s Mervyn Storey, wants the NI Education Minister, Sinn Fein’s John O’Dowd, to publish the findings of a “joint attitudinal survey to inform cross-border pupil movement and school planning”, which was conducted a year ago for the North South Ministerial Council.  From the BBC report The Stormont minister for education has been challenged to publish the findings of a survey of attitudes to schooling in the border counties. …

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Northern Ireland reflections on the “real” Mandela, man and myth

| Readers 67

Hooray. There is still a role for newspapers. The Guardian proves it with their balancing coverage of the early obsequies for Nelson Mandela who it might be thought is one of their natural heroes.   Restoring a human dimension after the hours of adulation and longueurs of 24/7 TV news is Simon Jenkins’ column and the obit by David Beresford, a brilliant South African born reporter and a former Ireland correspondent for the paper who was sadly ill for years. His …

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“Is there anyone in SF telling Gerry Adams what he needs to hear?”

| Readers 93

If you read no one else on the fall for Sinn Fein over it’s reaction to the Smithwick Tribunal, then try Eilis O’Hanlon. Eilis ‘gets’ the north since she comes from the heart of Republican west Belfast. But (unusually for any Irish commentator) she also ‘gets’ the south: Adams commits no crime when he repeatedly makes crass and offensive comments about some of the worst atrocities of the Troubles, but if politics is the art of avoiding blunders, then it’s …

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Is there any strategy behind Sinn Fein’s loud defence of killings 25 years on?

| Readers 76

Well, if you didn’t see Vincent Browne last night on TV3, try and catch it here. Padraig MacLochlainn is the latest of the party’s talented southern parliamentary team sent out to sell ‘the legitimacy of the armed struggle’. I’ll let others be the judge of how well he does in selling the chosen narrative of ‘a risen north’ to a southern audience. The only woman on the panel, Sarah McInerney of the Sunday Times barely gets a word in, but what …

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“must at the very least include a mechanism that makes the broadcasting companies accountable and answerable to this Assembly…”

| Readers 46

Speaking of making the media accountable…  The Northern Ireland Minister for Culture, Sinn Fein’s Carál Ní Chuilín, has declared that she is “considering options such as appointing a panel of experts to review broadcasting in the North and devolution of responsibility locally with a view to bringing proposals forward for cross-party support”.  Here’s a couple of lines from the minister’s press release [NI Culture Minister, Sinn Fein’s Carál Ní Chuilín] “I am considering options such as appointing a panel of experts …

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Robinson: “We must not allow ourselves to be defined by the problems we face but by the opportunities that we have…”

| Readers 62

I guess the party formerly known as the ‘kings of messaging’ would lose some of their narrative touch after six years in government. Yet some of the DUP party leader’s speech is worth highlighting… Starting with, erm, ‘things are not as bad as they may seem…” Real progress is being made. We sometimes need to lift our gaze from the close and immediate and fix our eyes on a longer and wider horizon to see just how much and how …

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Lough Neagh Working Group: “This report may never see the light of day.”

| Readers 172

As the Belfast Telegraph reports, having set up a inter-departmental Working Group by September last year, “to explore and pursue actively the potential for a cross-departmental approach to bring Lough Neagh back into public ownership”, the Northern Ireland Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill has lost the group’s report down the back of the sofa told the DUP MLA Paul Frew that the report “is [still] going through due process”.  [It’s not for sale! – Ed]  “but if the assembly …

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GAA: “We’ve tried now for the last 16 months to build a level of consensus around the stadium project…”

| Readers 210

The GAA appears to be facing some more local opposition to the £70million plan to build a 38,000-seat stadium at its existing sports ground in Casement Park. [Pending planning permission… – Ed]  From the BBC report About 200 people attended the residents meeting [on Monday 18 November], at which some said that the proposed new stadium must be stopped. One resident told the meeting: “We’re not opposed to a development of the GAA in this city but we need it to …

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So what do SDLP supporters really think?

| Readers 165

Okay, I’m coming in late with this, but since its inspired so many off topic comments on other threads, it might be useful to focus on LucidTalk’s short form conference survey at the SDLP conference in a single thread. I’ll let pass the question of how wise it is to let a newspaper do polling that might be better done yourself. Or the fact that a field survey is probably more useful since a properly ‘clubbed’ political party ought to …

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SDLP need a ‘violent storm’ or two to learn how to sail a ‘ship of war’…

| Readers 95

I remember being asked, rather pointedly by one leading Pol Corr why I even bothered turning up for the SDLP’s Newcastle conference which elected Margaret Ritchie as party leader. I was then told, in no uncertain terms, “they don’t matter any more” This is the wilderness pit that the likes of the SDLP and Ulster Unionists have been cast into by the media. Getting out of it won’t be quick or easy. For now the chosen tactic is to slowly …

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