Unionism – Page 53 – Slugger O'Toole

Politics needs private money…

Mick Fealty on April 22, 2006, 4:24 pm

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Alex Kane wonders if the cash for peerages is missing the main point of politics: that political parties require the injection of private confidence and private cash. His own instincts are to keep cash and representation entirely separate. But the scandal attached to the current revelations may end up hurting politics in general rather than the miscreants in particular. By Alex Kane Is anyone really surprised by the so-called “honours for cash” scandal? Bearing in mind that we have an …

The second Elizabethan era?

Mick Fealty on April 22, 2006, 4:31 am

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Newsnight has a great double piece between Norman Tebbit (he of the cricket test) and Tony Benn (born the year before the Queen), and then an interesting discussion of what societal changes there have been between now and eighty years ago when she was born. Beano kicks off a discussion about the advantages of a constitutional monarchy over an elective Presidency. But the best crack is on this week’s Now Show (sound file). Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. …

On the importance of the Monarchy

Mick Fealty on April 21, 2006, 11:15 am

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Tom Utley in last weeks’s Sunday Telegraph with an apprasal of why the British monarchy actually works. 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

Brown the key to the final British question?

Mick Fealty on April 20, 2006, 5:16 pm

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Interesting thoughts on the nature of Britishness, and why, when it’s been a muddy concept, at least in terms of entry, it needs clipping and re-defining. But, asks Tony Wright, what about the English Question: Since the eighteenth century a light top dressing of Britishness has served to keep the muddle going, much to our advantage, and with luck and cultivation may continue to do so. It is now becoming clear though that this will need at least some constitutional …

Unionists beware of false promises…

Mick Fealty on April 19, 2006, 3:41 pm

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Alex Kane does a spot of fisking of Peter Robinson’s speech in New York recently. He warns Unionists that despite the warnings to the contrary, the most recent Joint Statement was hardly a pro-Union document. In effect, he argues, the DUP will need more than sweet rhetoric. Given the absence of any meaningful coercion on Sinn Fein, it needs figure out how to close a stable deal rather than rely on the vague promises of Tony Blair or his ministers.By …

Keep pressure on the DUP over deadline

Mick Fealty on April 13, 2006, 3:11 pm

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Interesting line from Roy Garland, an Ulster Unionist with a long running column in the nationalist Irish News. He detects a softening in the rhetoric of the DUP, he reckons the governments must not let up on their pressure to return to a power sharing executive deal. Working together in close proximity, he argues, is the only way to break down the anachronistic monoliths of NI politics. The UUP helped foster circumstances in which republicans could change. In contrast, recalcitrant …

Lots of talk and consequences for everyone but Sinn Fein

Mick Fealty on April 12, 2006, 1:51 pm

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According to Alex Kane, the message coming from the two governments last week it is time for the two main parties to deal with each other. But he notes the financial penalties arising from any future collapse are likely to affect everyone, except “IRA-bankrolled Sinn Fein”. Indeed, last night’s documentary on Trimble pretty much repeated the view that the IRA’s ‘no show’ act of decommissioning in October 2003, occurred because there was no political pressure on them to produce anything.He …

Forced abolition of the ‘City of Londonderry’?

Mick Fealty on April 11, 2006, 7:08 pm

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Beano notes the Nationalist Derry City Council is going to High Court to enforce the abolition of the old name of the city, Londonderry, in advance of their own abolition in favour of a larger council. Such ‘revisionism’ he argues indicates “that victory, rather than equality, is the agenda for Sinn Fein”, with the SDLP happy to follow in behind. El Blogador says it’s all a matter of history. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers …

A stark choice: together or forever separate?

Mick Fealty on April 7, 2006, 3:59 pm

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At the beginning of the week, Roy Garland took up the DUP’s MEP Jim Allister on a press release that only briefly appeared on their website last week and then mysteriously disappeared. It was an all out attack on the Unionist Group’s Drawing a line under the past document. In summation he argues: Either we begin to live together, share our fears and tears and bind up each other’s wounds or we remain entrapped forever by the sectarian stumbling blocks …

Robinson: we are prepared to invest in the future

Mick Fealty on April 6, 2006, 1:06 pm

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Yesterday in New York Peter Robinson spoke at a lunch time seminar at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. He remembers his friend 23 year old Harry Beggs, who died on 25 August 1971, in an IRA bomb attack on the Electricity Board’s headquarters. He notes, “the murder made me angry, left me wanting retribution and very bitter. Over the years, as the grey hairs formed, I have observed from life that bitterness consumes the vessel that contains it …

Protestant civil society and the need for cultural heroes

on April 5, 2006, 9:14 pm

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In the midst of the (sometimes paranoid) gloom, Glenn Patterson focuses on the new tranche of government money aimed at specifically protestant communities across Northern Ireland, and argues that the government must do more than simply gift the money or even manage it effectively. It must seek to mussle the most self destructive tendencies of Loyalist paramilitaries. Not least in allowing the return of one of NI’s most talented playwrights: Gary Mitchell should be an example to young working class …

New Unionist blogger on the block…

Mick Fealty on April 3, 2006, 5:54 pm

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Excellent new unionist oriented blog from Slugger regular Pakman. It doesn’t look as though he’s about to give anyone an easy time. Which is exactly how it should be! 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

Sectarianism is corrosive of the Union

Mick Fealty on March 31, 2006, 8:58 pm

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David Adams believes that whilst President McAleese’s and Alex Reid’s remarks on Protestants were followed up by a hasty qualifications and withdrawals, Tony Blair’s remarks, coming from the Protestant Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is not so easy for Ulster Protestants to shake off(subs needed): particularly those who are still politically committed to maintaining the Union. Not least, he argues, because the very attitudes under attack, themselves undermine the core values of both civic and religious Protestantism. Regardless of …

Empey’s first Leader’s address

Michael Shilliday on March 27, 2006, 8:37 pm

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Sir Reg Empey gave his first address as Party Leader to the Ulster Unionist Council on Saturday at the Stormont Hotel. In it he sets out his opposition to “cabals running the show” and announces what appears to be a more formal contempoary to Harry West’s West Ulster Unionist Council (third entry). Of the Party officers elected Lord Rogan stood down as President and was succeeded by former Mayor of Coleraine John White. The Panel of six was filled by …

Politics or religion: which is the chief villain?

Mick Fealty on March 24, 2006, 7:14 pm

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Tony Blair’s remarks about Protestant bigots have kicked off a minor furore in Northern Ireland, and some of the most intense verbal frays on Slugger O’Toole we’ve seen for some time. For all our obsession with politics in Northern Ireland, it’s clear that we’re still not greatly skilled in the art of confronting awkward truths. The rest is on Comment is Free. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on …

Drawing a line under the past…

Mick Fealty on March 23, 2006, 9:44 pm

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A small informal group of Ulster Unionists have released a short document called Drawing a line under the past. It arises from several years of meeting with a range of Republican, Nationalist and Loyalist groups and focuses very narrowly on the legacy of thirty of low level but often nasty conflict. It emphasises the need for continuing contact between all parts of Northern Irish society, and warns against plumping for some kind of all purpose ‘silver bullet’ reconciliation process. It …

On transforming Loyalist attitudes to policing

Mick Fealty on March 22, 2006, 3:34 pm

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Fionnuala Meredith talks to Dawn Purvis, the PUP’s newly appointed member on the Policing Board and, by the reckoning of some, one of the party’s most talented players. She talks about her reasons for taking up the post and how it relates to her view of the role of politics in transforming attitudes (subs needed) within her own core Loyalist constituency: “Policing is all about dealing with crime and crime prevention. What the PUP is about is ensuring an end …

The bearable lightness of North Southery

Mick Fealty on March 16, 2006, 6:11 pm

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Brian Feeney talks us through the significance of the non events of the last three weeks, and reckons it’s 1-0 to Nationalists courtesy of the “no show” of government proposals, courtesy of a veto from the Republic’s government. The significance he argues is long term rather than short term and demonstrates the degree to which southern involvment in Northern Ireland’s affairs is now accepted across the political board. North Southery is now a game for all of Northern Ireland’s querulous …

Unionists should choose authentic mammon over bogus Utopia

Mick Fealty on March 15, 2006, 3:23 pm

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This piece by Alex Kane has been awaiting posting for nearly a fortnight. But it’s interesting in light of some of the discussion that’s taken place since then. He cautions those within the DUP who may be considering an integrationist approach to think again. The choice facing unionists is not pleasant, but in essence they need to grasp an unpleasant nettle in the short term if it is to avoid being stung in the longer term.By Alex Kane: Was anyone …

Unreconciled past still awkwardly close

Mick Fealty on March 14, 2006, 4:18 am

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Historian Irene Whelan considers the scale of an island wide reconciliation never mind unification the longer term context of an historical narrative that pitched Catholic and Protestant on course for mutually assured disruption (subs needed) – if not destruction. Paraphrasing Orwell she notes, “reconciliation in the present and future will most certainly be contingent upon reconciliation of the past”. Fallout from clerical scandals and the exposure of abuse in Catholic-run institutions has shattered, if not destroyed, the almost organic connection …