Riots – Slugger O'Toole

For the sake of future generations, we simply cannot go on like this…

Samuel Thompson on April 8, 2021, 6:59 pm

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I remember back in 1984 being on holiday on a Greek island and wasting an evening drinking largely on my own while a friend who hailed from the loyalist part of the Donegall Road, spent hours trying to convince a friendly English couple that he was British not Irish. After around two hours of the best persuasive arguments he could muster, the woman said, ‘But you’re Irish!’ I learned a couple of lessons that evening, one was not to waste …

‘Cross Community Projects’ are Outdated in Today’s Northern Ireland

Finn Purdy on February 13, 2018, 7:14 pm

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The concept of a polarisation of politics is one often talked about in today’s society, and in Brexit Britain and Trump’s America and so many other cases it is easy to see evidence of this polarisation. People follow different narratives that offer different (or alternative) facts and there is a demonised view of the motives of politicians that you do not agree with. In Northern Ireland polarisation of politics is nothing new to us, and it continues to this day …

Morten Morland’s ‘The Troubled’

Brian Spencer on August 13, 2013, 11:45 am

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I need to say from the outset that the cartoon above is not mine, but the work of Norwegian cartoonist Morten Morland (@mortenmorland) who produces political cartoons for the London Times, The Spectator and many more esteemed publications. To my mind it captures absolutely the cause of the mindless violence. What does that say about our leadership if even a Norwegian can see this? Below is also a cartoon I did recently which pales in comparison to the work of …

What if the PSNI were to charge Orangemen with incitement?

Mick Fealty on July 18, 2013, 10:17 pm

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Newton Emerson column hones in on the law [text removed].. the possibility of arresting senior Orangemen for incitement prior to the Ardoyne violence… The effects could be cathartic… Or indeed in one or two other controversial cases… 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

Permanent revolution by facebook is replacing ideology

Brian Walker on June 22, 2013, 5:42 pm

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Why are demos and riots breaking out all over? It’s the economy stupid. But Newsnight’s Paul Mason has a contemporary twist, writing in the Independent to give a taster for his book Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions’ Velocity of information matters as much as action itself. It is striking how badly the incumbent elites in each case totally lose the information war. Whether it’s Greece, Turkey, Egypt or Brazil the unspoken truth is it is hard …

Ongoing #Flegs disturbances point to a chronic rather than acute failure in NI Politics…

Mick Fealty on January 14, 2013, 10:16 pm

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Richard Irvine writing in the Irish Times today makes a point worth considering… In fact the magnitude of the unionist victory is not only unchallenged by these Sinn Féin tactics, rather it is underscored. Unionists should be delighted that republicans have so little ambition that they can achieve only small and compromised symbolic victories like the flag-lowering. The real danger then to unionism’s triumph comes not from republicanism, not even dissident republicanism, but from themselves. In this crisis, with loyalist …

Caption Competition

Brian Spencer on January 8, 2013, 3:21 pm

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Your captions please! Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/

PSNI needs recruitment drives says Terry Spence

Brian Spencer on January 7, 2013, 1:27 am

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Terry Spence was featured on Radio 4’s Saturday PM news show and he aired some serious concerns about the ability of the Police Service of Northern to hold the peace in the context of continuing violence. His concerns were not about the manner in which the police have been confronting the rising violence, but about the ability of the police going forward in terms of numbers and resources to deal with the growing two-pronged threat profile. He noted that over …

Caption Competition

Brian Spencer on December 18, 2012, 2:37 pm

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Things seem to have fallen a little silent on the Nesbitt front but let’s not let sleeping dogs lie! Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/

What’s New?

Dewi on September 5, 2012, 11:42 pm

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Just an editorial from the Independent.: Riots on the streets of Belfast look alarmingly like a return to the bad old days. Indeed, the sight of an Orange band marching in circles and playing a sectarian tune in front of a Catholic church may prompt claims that nothing has changed. Not so. The symmetry that outsiders tend to see between Northern Ireland’s Protestant and Catholic halves is superficial. The Protestant loyalist working-class community of the past was one where boys …

What’s eating Ardoyne: Slugger’s first public Google+ discussion

Mick Fealty on July 18, 2012, 10:22 am

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As luck would have it, Slugger was down for a few hours yesterday, just as we were recording our first Google Plus Hangout on Air over lunch time… A second blow was not getting Chris Donnelly in to the discussion (tech hitches meant he couldn’t get in on time), so as a result there’s an important Republican perspective missing from this discussion… One of the technical hitches that occurred during the recording is that because one of the silent participants …

Ackroyd on London riots.

Dewi on August 23, 2011, 1:43 am

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/peter-ackroyd-rioting-has-been-a-london-tradition-for-centuries-2341673.html Ackroyd always wonderful – if you ain’t read his books start with Hawksmoor – an astonishing first novel. Buy it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hawksmoor-Peter-Ackroyd/dp/0140171134 From his Indie interview: “Rioting has always been a London tradition. It has been since the early Middle Ages. There’s hardly a spate of years that goes by without violent rioting of one kind or another. They happen so frequently that they are almost part of London’s texture. The difference is that in the past the …

Thoughts on the politics of the riots

Turgon on August 10, 2011, 2:23 pm

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Riots are not common in mainland GB. Every time one occurs there is handwringing by the media who seem torn between denouncing it all as “mindless violence” and trying to understand why it has happened. The same occurs in Northern Ireland of course though previously during the Troubles there seemed more emphasis on understanding and nowadays there is more emphasis on condemning. Politicians are similar to the media in their reactions with the exception that any politician who attempts to …

In July 1981 people were rioting in Toxteth, Liverpool … can we learn, or do better?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 15, 2011, 9:20 pm

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Doing the dishes and listening to a Radio 4 podcast of this week’s Thinking Allowed, I heard a discussion about the riots in Liverpool more than 30 years on. July 1981 was the first time the UK police used CS gas outside Northern Ireland. Wikipedia sums up the scale of the rioting that lasted nine days: one person died after being struck by a police vehicle trying to clear crowds, 468 police officers were injured, 500 people were arrested, and …

“encouraged by a small number of people opposed to the peace process…”

Pete Baker on July 13, 2011, 8:00 pm

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Twenty-six people were arrested during last night’s rioting in nationalist areas of north and south Belfast and Londonderry. There were also reports of public disorder in Armagh, and the Dunclug estate in Ballymena. RTÉ lists Strabane, Newry, Ballymena and Armagh city, as well as Belfast and Londonderry. In Londonderry, we are told Sinn Féin Foyle MLA Martina Anderson said the violence was “orchestrated” and described it as “an orgy of destruction”. “Let’s be clear the vandalism and wanton destruction in …

100 years ago today – Churchill and Tonypandy

Dewi on November 9, 2010, 2:51 am

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On November 9 1910 troops were despatched to the Rhondda and Cynon Valleys in response to industrial unrest and rioting in support of striking miners. Read the succinct Wiki. – and Rhondda Cynon Taf have a nice web-site. Tonypandy girl Carolyn Hitt writes very well: My own knowledge of the Rhondda’s most compelling historical event had also been passed down the generations. As the youngest child of my grandmother’s youngest child – her 12th – I had the oldest Nan …

Ardoyne violence: Some of those kids have real potential

Blank on July 19, 2010, 8:22 pm

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A lot has been written on the claimed apolitical nature of rioting in Ardoyne and allegations many/most of those involved were motivated by thuggery, anti-social behaviour and sectarianism. Like a lot of those commenting, I wasn’t there and am in no position to fully judge who was doing what, why or through whatever motivation. However, as former IRA members joined the queues to lambast the young people at the forefront of the violence I picked up ‘Voices from the Grave’ …

Third night of violence in Belfast

Pete Baker on July 13, 2010, 11:03 pm

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From the BBC report Petrol bombs and other missiles have been thrown at police on a third night of violence in Belfast. UTV adds Officers came under attack at Brompton Park on Tuesday night, as groups of people gathered at the Ardoyne shopfronts and at Twaddell Avenue. The Crumlin Road has been closed at Cambrai Street and water cannons are being used by police. Youths have also blocked North Queen Street with a barricade across the road, while police are …

So where do we stand on the “Cohesion, Sharing and Integration” strategy?

Pete Baker on July 13, 2010, 6:11 pm

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Now that the Northern Ireland First and deputy First Ministers have broken cover to condemn the recent violence it’s worth noting that although ACC Alistair Finlay hadn’t heard from them before today, he had heard from a junior minister in their office. As Eamonn noted earlier [Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly] “Let me say this about ACC Finlay. In his own way he should stay out of politics. If he wants to talk to the First and deputy First ministers all he has …