UK – Page 19 – Slugger O'Toole

The ‘ghosting’ by unionist parties of the Irish language community

Concubhar on May 1, 2019, 11:23 am

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Conradh na Gaeilge, the indefatigible advocacy group making the case for Irish language rights in Northern Ireland, in March sent all the parties in the north a position paper and a very short questionnaire requesting them to commit support or express an opinion on three issues relevant to the Irish language in the imminent local elections. All the parties – apart from the three unionist parties, the DUP, the UUP and the TUV – responded positively to the request. Here …

‘The suicide rates are huge’ – Podcast interview with Senator Frances Black…

Paul Gosling on April 29, 2019, 7:00 am

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Senator Frances Black is an independent senator in Ireland’s Oireachtas and a member of its Good Friday Agreement Implementation Committee. She has family roots in Rathlin Island and a strong commitment to addressing mental health challenges. Frances is also a very modest person. “I’m first and foremost a singer you know,” she says. “And I left school when I was very young. I don’t have a great language. But I do know that people understand the language of the heart. …

Brexit Woes and a Broken Parliament: The Perilous Path Ahead for British Democracy

Soapbox on April 27, 2019, 9:08 am

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Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement has been rejected multiple times in Parliament. The EU says it can’t be re-negotiated, but that’s beside the point. Despite two series of indicative votes, MPs refused to back any alternative version of Brexit. There also wasn’t enough support for a no-deal Brexit, nor for revoking Article 50 to cancel Brexit altogether. In other words, Parliament rejected all the options available. There were none left. Even those who oppose the withdrawal agreement cannot fairly blame it …

‘Strengthen and value civil society’

Paul Gosling on April 26, 2019, 7:00 am

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“Civil society needs to be strengthened to do more than just provide services,” argues Avila Kilmurray, one of the founders of the Women’s Coalition. “Civil society in many ways was the backbone of society in the 70s, 80s, 90s in Northern Ireland, whenever we were in the midst of The Troubles.” The call for a strong civic society was made in the third interview in the series of more than 30 Forward Together podcasts. These were recorded with leading figures …

To amnesty or not to amnesty? The UK government is squeezed from both directions, as up to 200 former soldiers face Troubles investigations

Brian Walker on April 25, 2019, 6:50 pm

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A wholly predictable row is brewing over government plans to exempt the Northern Ireland Troubles from amnesty plans for soldiers being drawn up by the Ministry of Defence. If they weren’t exempted a different row would be as inevitable. Guardian correspondents Owen Boycott and Ben Quinn report that up to 200 former soldiers are being investigated for alleged criminal acts in Northern Ireland, following the single prosecution announced over Bloody Sunday. They also claim that the NIO and the MoD …

UK government under new pressure from MPs to move on NI abortion law reform

Brian Walker on April 25, 2019, 6:14 pm

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Photograph: Niall Carson/PA The all –party Women and Equalities committee of MPs is demanding that the UK government puts pressure on the Assembly –if it resumes – to reform the province’s uniquely restrictive abortion laws by supporting an appeal to the Human Rights Court at Strasbourg. The government must inform Parliament within six months when it intends to allow the NI Human Rights commission to make the appeal to the Strasbourg court rather than requiring a woman with an …

RIP Heather Harper, from East Belfast to Glyndebourne

Brian Walker on April 25, 2019, 1:11 pm

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The great Belfast born singer Heather Harper has just died at the fine old age of 88. Heather, Barry Douglas and James Galway were the most acclaimed classical musicians Belfast produced in the twentieth century. As Alf McCreary writes, Heather never forgot her Belfast roots. I remember her performance – and his warm words afterwards – at the 50th anniversary concert for BBC Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. “She was the daughter of an Ulster lawyer, Hugh …

Why I [Almost] Stand With Squinter

Gerry Lynch on April 25, 2019, 6:16 am

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The Andersonstown News’ Robin Livingstone-aka-Squinter put the cat among the pigeons with a tweet attacking Fr Martin Magill for his piercing criticism of the DUP and Sinn Féin leaders at Lyra McKee’s funeral. His claim that the leaders of our two largest political parties are “unwitting women” was ridiculous, but I agree that Magill’s intervention was problematic; in particular, it obscures the key role Loyalist paramilitaries played in collapsing the January 2018 agreement between Sinn Féin and the DUP. Ironically …

‘A threat to the union’

Paul Gosling on April 22, 2019, 7:00 am

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“Unionism needs to look and recognise that the environment around us is changing,” says former Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt MLA. He adds: “I would like to see civic unionism becoming more active… Perhaps we need to build civic society that goes beyond the division and the politics of unionism and nationalism”. The call for a strong civic society was made in the second interview in the series of more than 30 Forward Together podcasts. These were recorded with …

‘Christians should lead in healing Northern Ireland’

Paul Gosling on April 19, 2019, 7:00 am

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Christians should take a leading role in healing Northern Ireland, says Bishop Ken Good, the Church of Ireland bishop for the cross-border diocese of Derry and Raphoe. He also says that politicians should speak less and that civil society should find its voice. Bishop Ken Good was interviewed in the first of a series of more than 30 Forward Together podcasts recorded with leading figures across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to mark 21 years since the signing …

Children of the Ceasefire: Reflections on the Border I

Soapbox on April 17, 2019, 11:57 am

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As we head into the home stretch of Brexit, the issue of a hard border in Ireland seems to be the main issue. The question of how to regulate the flow of goods and trade has no clear answer. Much has been made by the DUP of there being no need for a border, as trade has always been free-flowing. If that where the case one wonders why the military felt it necessary to ever establish check-points, outposts and look-out …

Children of the Ceasefire: Reflections on the Border II

Soapbox on April 17, 2019, 11:56 am

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Irish. Northern Irish. A global citizen. Three ways in which I described myself in my previous blog post. In describing this, I highlighted my concerns to being constrained to one certain identity. However, as discussions on Brexit intensify, so does the issue of the border and these constraints of identity. I am a holder of an Irish passport. I play and follow Irish sports. I have studied at an Irish university. I have been christened with an Irish name. I …

Children of the Ceasefire: Reflections on the Border III

Soapbox on April 17, 2019, 11:55 am

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The Issue of the Border in Ireland is a debate caught between two fronts. The border, as it exists currently, is representative of a physical and symbolic/metaphysical indicator of relative peace and stability in Ireland. The openness of the physical border has consequentially allowed for civil debate and meaningful reconciliation between Northern and Southern communities to flourish. The absence of a physical manifestation of the border solidified by investment through the PEACE I-IV, and EDF schemes in Northern Ireland and …

The catastrophic fire of Notre Dame gives us a poignant message for Easter, that our heritage is as much about renewal and rebirth as death and destruction

Brian Walker on April 16, 2019, 1:50 pm

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Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times brings an American perspective to the catastrophic fire at Notre Dame. Like him I immediately thought of the place accorded to the great cathedral by Kenneth Clark in his monumental BBC series Civilisation I saw when broadcast in the 1970s, and then kept in an old fashioned box set of VHSs for viewing by children as an essential part of their education. Like Kimmelman, I think of other fires and destruction of the …

The Unity Genie is Out of the Bottle: What do Unionism and Southern Parties do Next?

Soapbox on April 16, 2019, 1:49 pm

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As we fast approach the local council elections, it’s important to assess what the results might tell us about the future of Stormont and power-sharing as a whole. Will the council elections show a growth in the Nationalist vote? And/or will we finally see a breakthrough in middle ground voters, against the vacuum and groundhog day of our local politics? I do not need to inform all where we’re at and why. We all have slightly different takes on this, …

How do we create a better society? Announcing the ‘Forward Together’ podcasts

Paul Gosling on April 16, 2019, 10:00 am

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To mark 21 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, an important new initiative begins on Good Friday, 19th April, 2019. A series of podcasts will be broadcast twice a week, seeking answers to questions about the future of Northern Ireland and the border counties. The objective is to promote a wider, more inclusive and engaged conversation about how we make progress, further solidify peace and create a genuinely shared and integrated society. We want that discussion to …

Appeals for calm come from heavyweights on opposite sides of the Brexit debate, but to reach opposite conclusions..

Brian Walker on April 15, 2019, 7:00 am

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In a joint article in the Observer, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern ask Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn to sink their other differences and follow the example of opposite sides in the Northern Ireland peace process. They should “encourage calm amid the chaos”, agree an EU withdrawal deal and submit the results to a confirmatory referendum. “….we feel duty-bound, a generation on, to stress to Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn the ongoing significance of the Good Friday agreement, to add …

Should the Irish ambassador claim to speak for Ireland over “anti-Irish” comment?

Brian Walker on April 13, 2019, 1:24 pm

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Was it appropriate for Adrian O’Neill the Irish ambassador to Great Britain ( sic) to complain publicly about an article in the Spectator at all, and specifically because he thought it was “anti-Irish?” I can’t reproduce it but article complained of by Robert Hardiman, made an ironic point about the Republic’s decision to join the Francophone commonwealth at this time of shifting relationships, rather than what used to be called the British Commonwealth. ( No please don’t get diverted to …

Will the DUP demand a new PM as the price of keeping the Tories in power? Enter Boris Johnson – or Sajid Javid?

Brian Walker on April 12, 2019, 11:29 pm

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The DUP’s support for the government is hanging by a thread, or at least for Theresa May, if only they can find the means of severing it . Arlene Foster has spoken of the prime minister in the scathing language of antique patriotism the DUP reserves for special opponents: Despite the prime minister being warned about the opposition to her withdrawal agreement, she has limped along and tried to force people into a cul-de-sac where they have no option but …

The DUP threaten to pull the plug on May’s careful plan

Brian Walker on April 11, 2019, 6:29 pm

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We may have a timetable up to Hallowe’en but for what? Apart from taking an Easter break from today to 23 April, MPs were only a little wiser after Theresa May’s long statement. The talks between the two front benches are “ serious “ but there is no meeting of minds on how to close the narrow gap between a customs arrangement (Conservative) and full membership of the customs union (Labour). There’s slightly better news on process. May and Corbyn …