December, 2019

Predictions for 2020 (better in hindsight with 20/20 vision)

 OK – it’s New Year’s Eve. Time for political predictions. They’re largely pointless, of course, since the prophets tend to be at their best explaining what has happened rather than what will happen. That said, I’ll give it a shot. The SDLP: It’s possible the John Hume party will have a resurgence that drives back […]

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A royal gesture and an incident in the street

Some years ago, a priest I know and who is, in all sorts of ways good, declared that the majority of priests of his generation – 30s-40s-50s –  were quite happy with partition in Ireland and quite liked living in the UK. This seems reinforced by this morning’s announcement that four Catholic priests in the […]

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What next?

Goal – Sports Equipment, Message, Plan – Document, Sign, Word There is only so long  you can sit on the toilet or the sofa, thinking  about the look on Nigel Dodds’s face when he realized what the North Belfast returns were telling him. Schadenfreude (pleasure in the pain of others, Virginia – what are they […]

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Two opposing forces at work

There are two contrary forces at work in our tormented little statelet. One is the pull to have the institutions of Stormont run again, the other is to ignore Stormont. In the long and maybe medium term something’s gotta give. Responsible people feel the need for Stormont restored. They say we need ministers to oversee […]

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Swearing (in)

Colm Eastwood cuts a youthful figure. Even with that beard and the touch of grey he still looks boyish. Picture him alongside MarkDurkan and you’ll know what I mean. This week Colm was inducted into the British House of Commons. In fact there is nothing common about the inhabitants of the House of Commons: out […]

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NOT SINCE DREYFUS HAS ANYBODY ENDURED THE MALIGN EXECRATION SUFFERED BY JEREMY CORBYN by Donal Kennedy The courage of  Emile Zola (for which he may have paid with his life) vindicated the character of Dreyfus and saw him freedfrom imprisonment, his commission in the French Army restored, and his detractors exposed for the bigots and […]

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Shutting up about a border poll

There is considerable crowing and unfounded euphoria around today. On a local scale, of course. On the wider sphere, we’re all up against it. That misogynistic racist Trump declares he’s the subject of the biggest witch-hund since they banded up against the witches of Salem in the seventeenth century. In our next door neighbour, we […]

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Return without Reform is Not the Answer by Prof Colin Harvey

I accept that this will not be a welcome thing to say for many people, given the dominant and overwhelming ‘narrative framing’ of the outcome of the election. But return to the sort of flawed approach to power-sharing that forgot about the values of the Good Friday Agreement on parity of esteem, equality, human rights […]

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