UK – Page 48 – Slugger O'Toole

The march of the mummies and the mental health implications of maternity discrimination

Soapbox on October 31, 2017, 1:27 am

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On October the 31st, people are marching in cities across the UK to demand recognition, respect and change for working mothers. The well-being of mothers is important because mothers matter as human beings and citizens. However there is now a wealth of evidence showing the importance of parental mental health for the wellbeing of the child across the lifespan. We now know that many of the epigenetic processes that switch on and off DNA, and therefore programme future stress regulation …

The DUP’s £1 billion deal looks set for a second stage of direct rule

Brian Walker on October 30, 2017, 11:49 am

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When we’re reduced to praising James Brokenback for masterly inactivity, we’ve surely found rock bottom. One tiny flicker of life turns out to be an illusion after all. DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson has denounced as “fake news” a story from the new Financial Times Ireland correspondent ( and ex-Irish Times ) Arthur Beesley, that “Theresa May’s £1 billion is on hold as to talks falter” (£) There may be less to this than meets the eye. A budget imposed by …

To solve the Catalan crisis, pay homage to Britain

Brian Walker on October 29, 2017, 11:25 am

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The Catalonian campaign for independence is a phenomenon of our times, like the Scottish. They both claim they are ancient entities enjoying sufficient cohesion to go it alone and find their own balance between globalisation (the great big world now closer to all of us than ever) and self sufficiency ( provided it comes under the safety blanket of the EU). They seem to think they deserve as of right, easy acquiescence and the blessing of a good deal from …

“it would be poor negotiating by Sinn Féin if the end result was direct rule from Westminster”

Mick Fealty on October 27, 2017, 7:18 am

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Democracy shapes our lives… –Robert Caro Talk is cheap they say, but talk of talks is even cheaper. So, good call from Colum Eastwood to ask what on earth is going on between SF and the DUP? In the Irish Times, he is reported as saying… “I would be very surprised if after the intense negotiations that have been going on for eight or nine months that they were not close enough to a deal that they could sell and that would …

Why you should learn how to blog in Derry (ahem, the Slugger O’Toole way)

Mick Fealty on October 26, 2017, 3:57 pm

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I hate telling people how to do things, particularly blogging (just ask my fellow writers on Slugger). For a time I thought it was going to be an idea whose time had largely been superceded by microblogging sites like Twitter and Facebook. However next weekend I’ll be in Derry (yay!!) for a day-long course in which I’ll be exploring the core underlying value of blogging, and why it still matters. Broadly, here’s six reasons why you should take such an …

Belfast man sentenced in Germany for 1996 Provisional IRA attack on army barracks

Pete Baker on October 25, 2017, 2:22 pm

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A timely lesson from the German authorities on dealing with Northern Ireland legacy issues… Having successfully extradited 48-year-old James Anthony Oliver Corry from the Republic of Ireland in December last year, the Belfast man has now been convicted and sentenced for his role in the Provisional IRA mortar attack on a British army barracks near Osnabrück, Germany, in June 1996. From the Irish Times report A Northern Ireland man has been convicted in Germany of attempted murder for participating in an IRA attack on a British army barracks in the …

Latest findings on a border poll

Brian Walker on October 22, 2017, 6:46 pm

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From the British- Irish Parliamentary assembly meeting in Liverpool, as reported in the Sunday Times (£) Both Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland who tend not to vote — in either Westminster or assembly elections — would reject a united Ireland in the event of a poll, according to research presented to Irish and British politicians. “Non-voters” would be decisive in a border poll because they are likely to come out in record numbers, according to an analysis by Liverpool …

In the Name of the Son. A book review of the new Gerry Conlon biography by Richard O’Rawe…

Dave Thompson on October 22, 2017, 8:39 am

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Gerry Conlon, arguably the most well-known of the Guildford Four, published his autobiography ‘Proved Innocent’ in 1990. It made an enormous impression on me in my early twenties, so it didn’t take much to get me to Merrion Press’s launch of Richard O’Rawe’s ‘In the Name of the Son’ in Belfast at the start of October. The forward by Johnny Depp might raise a few eyebrows, and does indicate the kind of circles Conlon moved in after his release from …

On the Stormont deadlock, time now to test party positions and introduce a mediator

Brian Walker on October 18, 2017, 1:55 pm

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If the Irish Times is right, Dublin HQ has prevented Michelle O’Neill from striking a political deal. It is a deplorable fact that throughout this 10 month deadlock, so little is reliably known about party positions beyond nods, winks and notoriously unreliable mood music. At least in the Brexit negotiations the principals give some sort of account after every session. Times have changed since 1998. Then, reasons for secrecy were far more credible. The main agenda for much of the …

“the impression that Gerry Adams is not serious about restoring the Executive is gaining traction”

Mick Fealty on October 18, 2017, 11:36 am

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Interesting speculation in the Irish Times on who is holding things up. Dublin and London sources are pointing fingers directly at Sinn Fein to accuse them of an old Modus Operandi of theirs: ie, telling their interlocutors they’re nearly ready and, then suddenly not being… We’ve seen the same pattern in countless negotiations in which even a senior figure like Martin McGuinness was compelled not to strike a deal directly on behalf of Sinn Fein but to track back and forth endlessly …

A cautious welcome for Bombardier’s apparent rescue

Brian Walker on October 17, 2017, 10:58 am

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While the news about Bombardier is very welcome, a note of caution is also due. Boeing is not taking it lying down. Again, though Bombardier are saying that a new C-series production line in Alabama means expansion of C-series production as a whole, there are bound to be fears that Bombardier/Airbus may eventually switch some production to Alabama at the expense of Belfast if sales forecasts don’t materialise. However the Chinese are said to be interested in the project. And …

More delay over a return to the Assembly needs challenging by the two governments

Brian Walker on October 16, 2017, 12:46 pm

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So the target date for either direct rule or an agreement to revive the Executive has slipped for another week at least. What a surprise! We were told by the two governments yet again that ” progress” had been made, but this has been slapped down by the DUP. Sinn Fein’s agenda as far as I know it is not inherently unfeasible. The problem is that it’s Sinn Fein who’s running with it. Crafty old Gerry for false-footing the DUP? Or …

Stormont’s path blocked by antithetical cultural incentives (not constitutional ones)

Mick Fealty on October 10, 2017, 1:01 pm

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Stormont's collapse has a problematic cultural base from Slugger Consults This is a presentation I gave last Thursday on where we find ourselves (or rather where the DUP and Sinn Fein find themselves). I don’t go along with Alex Kane’s view that powersharing is dead (not least because something like it would have to take its place). Nor, like Alex, do I believe powersharing is the cause of the impasse. The deeper question is that crashing Stormont proved to be …

Message to the EU: Ireland’s economic interests are as important as the peace process

Brian Walker on October 10, 2017, 11:56 am

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Irish Times Brussels correspondent Patrick Smyth demolishes the option of a border down the Irish Sea – not just because the UK government and the unionists won’t have it – but because it is against the economic interests of the Republic. This assessment follows the leaking of a report by the Office of the Irish Revenue Commissioners saying that an invisible border on the island is “impossible”. “It is probably somewhat naive to believe that a new and entirely unique …

Whatever its flaws, the British way of doing things has lessons for Spain

Brian Walker on October 9, 2017, 4:31 pm

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In an article in the Guardian prescribing on the Catalonian crisis, Gerry Adams strives to put himself on the right side of history and apply lessons from our own peace process. Thus far, the Spanish government is refusing to open a dialogue without the Catalans acquiescing to preconditions, including an acceptance that any talk of independence is illegal under Spanish law. In a conversation I had on Thursday evening with the Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, he assured me that the …

Demand for legal access to medical cannabis is pushing the debate ahead….

Soapbox on October 9, 2017, 1:01 pm

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Pearse Donnelly, a musician, activist and medical cannabis patient. Regional co-Chair for United Patients Alliance here demonstrates how Cannabis debate is taking off even in politically becalmed Northern Ireland . Two decades in and almost forty weeks into Stormont’s mobocracy, cannabis becomes a unifying force between all major parties in Northern Ireland. All while our nomadic First and deputy First Ministers quibble at an ill-fated Conservative Conference. The representatives in support of this fresh controversy would surely that agree our …

The Brexit crunch may come as soon as Christmas. The British case should be taken more seriously

Brian Walker on October 9, 2017, 10:31 am

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Many commentators on the Brexit negotiations, including Irish ones scarred by the diktat of the 2010 bailout and understandably opposed to the whole idea, talk as if the EU Commission’s stance is not only immutable but deserves the status of Holy Writ, while the British position is purely faction-ridden and pathetic. The contrast is too stark. There is no absolute logic to the EU’s making an adamantine sticking point out of of undefined “sufficient progress” on UK financial contributions, citizenship …

Nationalism 101 with Prof Richard English – local and global #msconversations

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 8, 2017, 9:00 am

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Interview with QUB’s Prof Richard English ahead of his sessions on Nationalism and Brexit at next weekend’s Mount Stewart Conversations organised by the National Trust at their lough shore property.

Will someone spell it out. What role for Dublin under ” direct rule? “

Brian Walker on October 7, 2017, 2:19 pm

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Patrick Murphy’s apt question in the Irish News. “ Why do we think Dublin would be any better than running the North than London?” prompts the even more basic question:. What sort of new Dublin “input” is wanted or even necessary? Later this month, “Direct Rule” in whatever guise would in key respects be inevitably different from the direct rule of 1972 when the two sovereign states had barely begun to cooperate. Today, the British- Irish relationship through governments and …