SOAPBOX: Mic Moore is a policy worker in the voluntary sector and vice chair of NIGAG. He argues that every political party needs to urgently decide if it’s in or out of power-sharing, so that the needs of vulnerable people don’t get sucked into the vacuum.
While not exactly a flood tide, the case for Irexit made by economist Ray Kinsella has become a trickle of two. With a few distinguished exceptions, “official” Ireland has bought into the “spin”’. It has made the European Union the custodian of our national interests. It has ceded its responsibility for negotiations on our future relationship with more…
The Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams was speaking at an event organised by Conradh na Gaeilge. Also at the event supporting an act were the SDLP, Alliance, PBP and Green parties (combined they make up 50/90 MLAs). In the lead up to remarks expected by the DUP Leader, Arlene Foster tomorrow night about the future of more…
In the early part of the seventh century a monk got out his parchment and quill and wrote a letter to the Pope about one of the theological disputes of the day. What he said about the debate need not concern us. The modern reader is more likely to be struck about how the more…
THE CAMPBEDS were brought out of the Stormont store in preparation for any disruption marking the first anniversary of the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement. In a post-nuclear situation, civil servants without “abnormal domestic ties” would have helped run NI. And phone systems and scramblers occupied the NI Emergency Committee according to papers from the more…
So much of our modern city space is dedicated to cars, the needs of the automobile take priority in almost every city’s layout. This causes pedestrians and cyclists to be pushed to narrow pavements and cycles lanes, both having to navigate through traffic as they go. One alternative to this norm is the “Superblock” scheme more…
The Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney addressed the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce this morning about Brexit and some of the British government proposals. In his remarks he urged the UK to remain in the Single Market; Simply put, EU Member States will not countenance a partnership which allows the UK to benefit from more…
FERRY STRIKE in May 1988 – newly released files under the 30/20 Year Rule show that as well as monitoring the levels of food and milk in Northern Ireland, emergency planning officials were alerted to dwindling supplies of paper that could have affected University of Ulster’s examinations!
Back in 1989 the Department of Economic Development realised that Northern Ireland was struggling to attract conferences (partly due to a lack of accommodation) while the Republic of Ireland had invested in a Convention Bureau and was racing ahead with its ambassadors to attract ever more economically lucrative conferences and events.
The sands of the Brexit egg timer are running down on whether we have a hard or soft boiled outcome, either way, the industry which will be most scrambled by the outcome is agri food. Approximately half of the EU budget has historically been spent on subsidising this industry, almost every farm on every road more…
Last week’s A’Level results not only signalled the start of the annual scramble to secure a place at University. They also pointed to a worrying development for the long-promised expansion of Magee campus in Derry. Student Numbers Falling Figures from UCAS (the University and Colleges Admissions Service) show a 4% fall this year in applications more…
Fintan O’Toole has been treating us to splendid summer of seminal articles that give the lie to the idea of a silly season. Today he offers the thought that in an echo of the old Churchill phrase, the parishes of Fermanagh and Tyrone are unravelling Brexit. While the image draws us in, it is also more…
Scenario Five: Doing Much More together The final scenario is the most ambitious laid out in the white paper. By pursuing the fifth scenario, the EU27 would agree to do much more together across all policy areas. This would involve member states pooling together their resources, power and decision-making capacity, in every facet of governance. more…
My eldest daughter, a primary school teacher, returns to Qatar this weekend as do hundreds of young people from these shores supporting the education systems across the Middle East. With developments over the summer I felt anxious as we said our farewells; she was sanguine as young people are. Having left the Emirate in June more…
DECLASSIFIED PAPERS from the Department of Economic Development in 1990 show that women accounted for just 1 in 6 of its public appointments. DETI figures for 2015 show that the proportion of female appointees had nearly doubled, and overall OFMdFM figures for 2015 show female appointments at 38%. There is a commitment for gender equality more…
BORDER PASSES were the brainchild of the MOD in London but a March 1989 paper recently declassified shows that the idea was neither supported by the the military based in Northern Ireland nor the RUC chief constable who saw the scheme as “a positive asset to the IRA”.
SIR RICHARD NEEDHAM reflects on the city of Belfast which he says “is hobbling along a long way behind” comparable cities like Bristol. “Belfast is in real danger of being left behind.” Direct Rule isn’t the solution. Brexit is an utter disaster. By playing party politics, NI politicians are not helping Belfast grow.
INTERVIEW WITH Sir Richard Needham about the Tall Ships which first visited Belfast back in July 1991. It was the first large-scale event expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each day. Recently released government papers show that extra car parking spaces were needed, and there was a suggestion that the M2 could be more…
TWO CONTROVERSIAL TV documentaries which Margaret Thatcher’s government tried to censor are being screened on Monday evening as part of FilmHubNI’s Cinema Day 2017. The BBC’s Real Lives: At the Edge of the Union and ITV’s This Week: Death on the Rock.
In an interview in today’s Sunday Business Post the writer Roddy Doyle discusses the homeless situation in Dublin: It is the thing I feel ashamed of, more than anything, as a citizen. Somehow or other in the 1950’s and 1960’s, in this awful priest ridden country that we used to live in, they still managed to more…
