Picture by dunraven Picture by Sinn Fein There was one particularly significant moment in the exchanges between Mervyn Gibson, Grand Chaplain of the Orange Order, and Gerry Kelly on The View last night. Mervyn was explaining how lamentable it is that residents can’t accept […]
Tag Archives | Gerry Kelly
“Noooooooo!!!”
Picture by dutts303 Elections: how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways. 1. Fermanagh/South Tyrone. An upset for Sinn Féin in a seat they were expected to nail down firmly after their last squeaky-bum win. Ex-UDR man and former UUP leader Tom Elliott won the seat with a comfortable 500-vote margin. […]
Cries of “Sectarianism!” and Grade A bunkum
We Irish have a huge capacity for self-deception. Tell us that our pubs are invariably friendly, music-laden places and we’ll agree vigorously. Tell us that we’re welcoming to outsiders, that we have hearts as big as all-outdoors, and we’ll nod like one of those soft toys in the back window of a car. But […]
Last night at the Lansdowne
I chaired a meeting in Belfast’s Lansdowne Hotel last night. It was organised by Sinn Féin and clearly intended to boost the attempt by Gerry Kelly to take the North Belfast seat held by Nigel Dodds. Besides Gerry Kelly, the other two panellists were Deirdre Hargey, leader of the Sinn Féin group in Belfast City […]
OTRs and threats to the integrity of the justice system
I was driving home from a funeral today so I caught most of Radio Ulster/Raidio Uladh’s Talkback. Unusually, it appeared to have just one topic of discussion: the report of the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Committee on Tony Blair’s on-the-runs scheme. There was much talk of the decision by the police to issue letters to 200 […]