June, 2017

Here comes summer: where’s me sash?

All the pundits seem satisfied that the talking is over until the Autumn. Monday is just for the optics, and we’ll all settle down for the Summer break. Except that some things don’t take a break and one of them is arrogance. For the next couple of months, we’ll be subjected to drum-thumping, baton twirling […]

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DUP ARROGANCE by Joe McVeigh

As far as I am concerned the reason for the breakdown in talks and the problem we all face is the arrogance of the DUP who feel they are the top dog and that they can over-rule everybody else and every other party. They think that because they are unionists, aligned now with the Tory […]

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Tick, tick, tick…

As the clock moves towards 4.00 pm, pundits and presenters are getting all twitchy and bug-eyed: will there be a deal? Will the DUP’s success at extracting funds from Theresa persuade republicans to go back into government? And why did they pull the institutions down anyway – isn’t it a matter of learning to compromise […]

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That £1 billion: good deal or bad deal?

Hey. That £1 billion which Arlene and the Gang of Ten have squeezed out of Theresa May – good deal or bad deal? Good deal, good deal, good deal. Or rather good financial deal. When your health service is threadbare and your schools are living on their wits, finding one billion down the back of […]

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SWANZY’S FIRST CORK KILLINGS by Manus O Riordan

Today’s Ireland edition of the London “Times” carried an item from that newspaper on this day one hundred years ago, reporting on Republican anti-War riots in Cork. It was both inaccurate and misleading in a number of respects. It was a bullet wound that had caused the death of Abraham Allen; and it was another […]

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‘The Talks Process: Stalemate or Checkmate?’ by Donal Lavery

  Now that the DUP have finally outlined the dividend they have negotiated in return for supporting a ‘confidence-and-supply’ arrangement with the Conservatives, or at least the non-subversive elements of it (which don’t state how they will undermine the legacy backlog), the public focus has inevitably shifted towards the status of the talks process to […]

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‘DUP have not moved on basic rights’ – Declan Kearney

Sinn Féin MLA and National Chairperson Declan Kearney said today that the DUP have not yet moved on the basic rights which collapsed the Executive. Declan Kearney said: “Discussions are continuing today and time is running short but the DUP have not yet moved on the basic rights issues which caused the collapse of the […]

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The DUP: its word is its bond. Or something.

A few factual matters, so we’re clear about what is being asked for up at Stormont and what was agreed prior to the present Stormont talks.   “Both parties [the Tory Party and the DUP] will adhere fully to their respective commitments set out in the Belfast Agreement and its successors.”   That’s a statement […]

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‘Andy Pollak’s View’ by Joe McVeigh

  “I think it’s a disaster for Ireland in that we are now back in the old sectarian swamp in the north, with one party effectively representing Protestants and another representing Catholics, and nothing moderate or non-sectarian in between.”  These are the words of one Andy Pollak, one time director of the Centre for Cross-Border […]

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