Republic – Page 24 – Slugger O'Toole

Look out for the (un?) intended consequences

Brian Walker on February 1, 2012, 11:07 am

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Daniel Hannan, Daily Telegraph blogger, staunch Eurosceptic MEP and romantic unionist warms to his theme. Like most British people, I love Ireland. It’s a separate country, but it’s not really foreign. The Irish talk as we talk, dress as we dress, eat as we eat (and, tragically, drink as we drink). We watch the same television programmes, follow the same football teams, shop at the same chains. We share that half-humorous, half-cynical mode of conversation that sets us apart even …

Referendum demands may be catching

Brian Walker on January 30, 2012, 10:06 am

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In that interview trailed by Pete below, the Examiner itself highlights the DPM’s soft voiced approach to an early referendum on unity. Have Alex Salmond’s tactics found their Irish imitator? The deputy first minister believes the Democratic Unionist Party can be persuaded to agree to such a dramatic move. Brian WalkerFormer BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and …

The Scottish independence debate: the complexities start to emerge

Brian Walker on January 14, 2012, 10:41 am

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Professor John Curtice explains the complexities surrounding the referendum questions on the Today programme. Assume two ballot papers, one on devo max, the other on independence. If you look at some opinion polls, as many as 75% -80% might vote for devo max. Let’s say fewer, say, 51% vote for independence. Which would win? The Nats would say the radical option of independence, their opponents, devo max. Result, chaos. The alternatives? Vote 1, 2, 3 on all three options, status quo, …

Irish emigration – most to go Britain

Brian Walker on January 12, 2012, 11:27 am

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I’m probably lagging behind on this so apologies if you’re au fait but I’ve just caught up with the Irish( republic) emigrant figures for the last year – 76, 400 to end of April 2011, up 17%, according to the Irish Times report. I decided to search for them as most of the news stories I saw last year highlighted the US and old Commonwealth countries as emigration destinations but barely mentioned Britain. Can that really be true I thought? …

Martin McGuinness: “the past is a very, very dark place for everybody.”

Pete Baker on September 29, 2011, 6:17 pm

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In response to a challenge to appear in front of the Smithwick Tribunal, Sinn Féin’s candidate in the Irish Presidential election, Martin McGuinness, MP, MLA, has said that he has “no problem at all attending the tribunal”. But he added that he has “no direct knowledge of the circumstances surrounding” the murder of Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan. Earlier today, Martin McGuinness said he could not recall the incident Peter Murtagh wrote about in today’s Irish Times, threatened Frank Hegarty’s family with recounting his …

“Let’s raise a single eyebrow to our next president.”

Pete Baker on September 26, 2011, 12:23 pm

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In the Irish Times, Ann Marie Hourihane identifies the best candidate for the job – Sir Roger Moore. Roger Moore is handsome; he looks great in a blazer, which is not as easy as you might think. He is good humoured and has charidee experience as a Unicef goodwill ambassador, a role which he has filled for the past 20 years, and of which he is justifiably proud. He has a history of violence – The Saint, The Persuaders , a …

Norris inching closer to Áras starting line

Pete Baker on September 25, 2011, 6:26 pm

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Independent Senator David Norris may be leading in the opinion polls, but he has not actually secured a place on the ballot paper to contest the Irish Presidential election – yet. He has now got an 18th signature, albeit from a reluctant Shane Ross, TD. Others remain undecided. And Senator Martin McAleese has repeated his refusal to support or nominate any candidate in the election. Two more Oireachtas signatures are required, by Wednesday, however reluctant they might be… RTÉ tells us that “around 12 …

Norris edges back towards Áras starting line

Pete Baker on September 22, 2011, 3:19 pm

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Having abandoned his Irish presidential bid previously, independent Senator David Norris has now secured the support of 17 TDs and Senators (including himself) in his renewed bid to get on the ballot paper. That’s still 3 short of the 20 required. His only other hope would be to get nominated by 4 county councils. Pete Baker

Bold words from Enda, but should they mark the end of the confessional?

Brian Walker on July 21, 2011, 12:25 pm

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Enda Kenny’s quiet bombshell of a speech on the Cloyne report leaves more questions open than answered. This point may be written off as the opinion of implacable enemies of the Church who will never be satisfied. That would be a mistake. The taoiseach may have attacked the gimlet eyed legalism of the Vatican’s provisional response to the report. But he has been forced to acknowledge the limited justice of Vatican spokesman Fr Lombardi’s reply in terms, asking where was the …

Taoiseach’s speech: This is not Rome… this is a republic of laws

Patrick Corrigan on July 21, 2011, 1:55 am

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A sea-change in Irish government-Catholic Church relations took place yesterday. In the government’s official response to the Cloyne Report, Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave an unprecedented speech to the Dáil, excoriating the Vatican for its efforts to block co-operation with the investigation by civil authorities of clerical child abuse: … for the first time in Ireland, a report into child sexual-abuse exposes an attempt by the Holy See, to frustrate an Inquiry in a sovereign, democratic republic, as little as three …

There are some lessons for Catholics in the unionist tradition

Brian Walker on July 16, 2011, 3:09 pm

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The time is overdue to review the historic reputation of opposition to Home Rule as Rome Rule in the light of the latest report on the Catholic Church’s continuing saga of abuse, on events in the diocese of Cloyne. Can we admit to the uncomfortable thought that some of what the early Paisley said was true? Yet it would be good if we could use the lessons of Cloyne and the previous reports for better than a few rounds of sectarian …

“The Resurrection of Hungary: A Parallel for Ireland”? No, fortunately not.

oneill on June 16, 2011, 6:00 pm

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Within the restraints of 140 characters, he somehow manages to deliver a full range of cod fireside homilies; GAA-related similes stretched well beyond their natural snapping point and (naturally) playground stylee anti-Brit insults… but nevertheless for his myriad of Unionist followers on Twitter Barry McElduff is a must-read, the gift which simply refuses point-blank to stop giving. There have been so many to choose from but the comment which has caused perhaps the greatest mirth to his pro-Union devotees side …

Mainstream media should not abandon their independent judgement before the Grow NI campaign

Brian Walker on May 28, 2011, 10:51 am

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The debate on the future of corporation tax tests the area where NI journalism and comment is at its weakest – business and economics. It also tests of the robustness of editorial independence when commercial judgment is decisively on one side. Naturally business is rampantly in favour – how can turkeys do otherwise than vote for the permanent abolition of Christmas? Companies are clustering round the Grow NI campaign launched by the NI Chamber OF Commerce and backed by the …

Scotland is the latest complication for a lower Northern Ireland corporation tax rate

Brian Walker on May 26, 2011, 6:47 pm

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Westminster is in a terrible muddle over devolving corporation tax. The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. The UK government gives nominal support to lower corporation tax for Northern Ireland but slaps it down for Scotland. Naturally Alex Salmond was among the first to point out the illogicality of that position and grabbed it for the SNP’s advantage. Lib Dem Bizz Secretary Vince Cable hadn’t heard of the Scotland Bill, it seems. After finding the arguments in …

On Obama in Dublin and London and special relationships

Brian Walker on May 24, 2011, 12:07 pm

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What do you suppose “equality” means in relations between States? Last week much was made of the newfound equality between the UK and Ireland. But this week, if anybody claimed equality between the UK and US, they’d be laughed out of court. Is this a case of double standards? Part of the answer lies in our old friend “parity of esteem.” Nobody in their right mind can believe there can be any innate superiority of an Irish over a British …

POTD -Directions

Moochin Photoman on May 24, 2011, 10:29 am

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By chance I had a long standing appointment in Dublin yesterday so experienced at first hand the chaos on the streets of Dublin with the visit of O’Bama. Roads closed and diversions in place meant that a 20 minute walk took me 40 minutes. As O’Bama arrived in the early afternoon, I happened to be on the right side of the road as the cavalcade swept past with an improbable array of vehicles, including 4×4’s fully loaded with armed response …

Who can replace Garret?

Brian Walker on May 23, 2011, 11:28 am

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In his homily at Garret FitzGerald’s splendid funeral yesterday , Garret’s oldest friend the theologian Fr Enda McDonagh took up a theme Garret himself had written about just over a month ago . Fr McDonagh said the fabric of Irish society had been undermined in recent years as activities in the church, politics, banking and development had undermined people’s belief in what were once “professions of trust”. Garret himself had looked behind the traumatic events of the past couple …

Queen’s Visit: Time to move on but not to forget…

ItwasSammyMcNally on May 19, 2011, 10:19 am

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‘I have signed my own death warrant’; so (allegedly) did Michael Collins spake after he had signed The Treaty in London in 1921. Collins’s support for the Anglo-Irish Treaty which both agreed to the partition of the country and required elected representatives in the new state to promise to be faithful to His Majesty King George V (the Queen’s grandfather) was to lead to civil war and Collins’s own untimely death on the 22 August 1922. Irish attitudes to the …

Garret FitzGerald

Brian Walker on May 19, 2011, 9:13 am

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How sadly ironic that Garret FitzGerald should die at the moment when his main mission in politics has literally been crowned with fulfillment. In Towards a New Ireland and throughout his career he championed his big idea, uncomfortable to unreflective nationalists, that unionists were as Irish as they were and had to be understood in their own terms. This idea was accompanied by attacks on “partitionism,” the paradox of verbally aggressive but negative republicanism that only served to drive unionism further into …

The Queen’s visit means politics is catching up with the people’s interests

Brian Walker on May 15, 2011, 12:36 pm

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The dissident republican threat may be a factor in producing a confusing response to the Queen’s visit from Gerry Adams. In the Examiner he ‘d seemed to cast aside SinnFein’s former reservations to welcoming it grumpily, seeing it as an opportunity for “much fuller discussion” about the British-Irish relationship. This would allow him to write its significance into the republican narrative rather than leave it for the various rejectionist IRAs to capture. Later under questioming he went back to calling it “premature,” which …