Terry Wright

Can the Minister of Education pour ‘new wine into old wineskins?’

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The recent ruling by the Supreme Court in regards to ensuring religious education in Northern Ireland is delivered in an ‘objective, critical and pluralistic manner’ has sparked a flurry of comment from politicians, church leaders and representative bodies; with a …

Soapbox

The Supreme Court judgment on religious teaching in NI – an analysis and an appeal…

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Jack Russell is a parent, primary school governor, and member of the core team at Parents for Inclusive Education NI, a grass-roots organisation that advocates for the rights of all children and parents across Northern Ireland. Following the Supreme Court’s …

Arnold Carton

The Negative Effects of the Transfer Test…

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Several contributors (myself included) have written before for Slugger on the effects on young people (especially boys) of the Transfer Test.  The comments reported by Mark Bain in Thursday’s Belfast Telegraph from Danny Baker MLA (SF) on the effects of …

Mick Fealty

Slugger Cato Project: Claire Sugden on Challenging the Stormont System as an Independent MLA

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The way I originally conceived this project was as a sort of shared inquiry, where the active audience(s) of Slugger would play as much of a role in uncovering actionable insights from these individual episodes as the interviewees themselves. This …

Arnold Carton

Defender of the Faith…

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Before the Covid pandemic forced us to start paying with our cards or phones, we had to fill our pockets with shiny little bits of metal called coins. If you still possess any coins, you will find that most have …

Obelisk

That Festive Feeling?

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The first jingle of a bell I heard this year was in early September. Yes, early September. There I was, deciding to watch a documentary on youtube and with summer barely done and dusted I was ambushed with an advert shoving …

Slugger Team

Northern Ireland gets £370 million in Rachel Reeves’ Budget

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Details of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget leaked early thanks to a ‘technical mishap’ from the Office for Budgetary Responsibility. The BBC has a quick summary of what is known so far. Margaret Canning, writing in the Belfast Telegraph, says “More …

Mick Fealty

Slugger Cato Project: Patsy McGlone on Independence and Challenging the System

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A feature, or bug is simply a difference between the product you have and the product you want. –Ernest Mueller The last episode (released on Thursday) sparked a pleasingly positive response from the Slugger Community, if not exactly breaking all …

Slugger Team

Will the Next UUP Leadership Race be a Two Horse Race?

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Speculation is growing that Mike Nesbitt will step down as UUP party leader sometime in the new year. This reflects comments he made over the summer … “He told the media on Monday that he would make a decision on …

Brian O’Neill

DUP MLA accuses Alliance Party of not ruling out “Witchcraft” or “Paganism” being taught in primary schools…

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DUP MLA for South Antrim Trevor Clarke took to his Facebook page with the following post: I nearly fell off my chair this morning when I heard on the Nolan Show that the Alliance Party’s Chair of the Education Committee, …