10 September 2004
Slugger returns home...
Paisley: the long goodbye?
09 September 2004
UUP boss leaves after 4 months...
Negotiations: is the ship sinking?
Mind your (non verbal) language...
08 September 2004
Republic's population breaks 4 million...
Republic's population breaks 4 million...
John Fitzgerald, head of the ESRI, speakng to Radio Ulster explalined that the figures roughly break down into three equal groups: returning Irish nationals; other EU citizens; others from outside the EU - though this latter may have been exagerated as the figures were collated in April, before the new accession countries officially joined the EU.
Negotiations: dialogue of the partially deaf?
Malachi O'Doherty says Paisley should be given a pass, whilst Mark Durkan is suspicious of the DUP's manouvres since taking poll position last November. It seems that the call for some form of direct dialogue is likely to fall on deaf ears, for some time to come.
07 September 2004
Returning to normal soon...
06 September 2004
Commons starts internet debate on hate crime
The focus on Northern Ireland will no doubt raise questions around the growing number of racist attacks, but also perhaps where religious conviction ends and incitement to violence ends.
In effect they are using the internet to take evidence from ordinary people - an activity which generally in Dublin as well as London is reserved for lobbists and special interest groups.
We'll do our best to follow the debate and possibly pick up themes for debate here on Slugger (when we get our old site back). But in the meantime they have just started - so go over to the Hansard site and make your opinions heard!
Secret negotiations erroding trust?
Where Irish politics is a mystery...
Religion, politics and history...
In taverns, in church and in the streets, men watch other men for signs that they are following the wrong party line. A certain glance, a particular ribbon, a prayer mumbled at the wrong time can all give you away as a "Jesuit", someone who lives outside the godly city, along with all those Irish whores, vagrant labourers, tipplers and fraudsters who threaten civic stability.
Exaggerated misery...
05 September 2004
Britain not ready for blog reporters...
Peace as a 'public good'...
"Just as public health considerations must take precedence over the commercial interests of the drinks industry so must constitutional consensus replace the private ambitions of the physical force advocates".
Substituting trivia for politics...
IT'S hard to believe, but the presidency of the most powerful democracy on earth may swing on what two rival groups of Vietnam veterans say about some minor skirmishes in the Mekong Delta over 30 years ago.
And it's not just an American thing. [In Ireland], the unauthorised use of Fianna Fail party letterheads in Gorey during the local council election campaign dominated the national news agenda for three days. (full version)
03 September 2004
Slugger news...
Negotiations: no further delays, please?
JCB assault on pub...
Paisley's health based on groundless speculation
Rove stirs Irish Americans
Settlement needs to end ambiguity...
Sinn Fein on consistent course to peace...
02 September 2004
Parallels with Bush's 'war on terror'?
On a lighter note, Slugger has word from one New York reader that DT attended the convention in the company of a rather dapperly dressed Ken Maginnis.
Unionists cannot share power
UUP: lacking in ideas
Paisley: stable settlement will take time
01 September 2004
Slugger away from home for another while
IRA: Standing down better than decomm?
Previous emphasis upon the decommissioning of IRA weapons has arguably had disastrous consequences for all of its political advocates. Retaining it as an essential objective is likely to lead to similar difficulties, though the DUP has clearly covered this possibility with its corporate assembly model which would reduce the status of the legislative body to that of a large city council for all of Northern Ireland. At this early stage there is little sign of an appetite for this amongst Republicans.
The single-minded pursuit of decommissioning has a number of weaknesses.
It is likely to run into the same verification problems as previously - the enigmatic word of an independent commissioner might work for Nationalists - by and large it doesn't for Unionists, who might go to ask: how do you ever know that it's all been handed in? Or what's to prevent the import of replacement munitions?
Crucially for almost all Nationalists, regardless of party allegiance, it leaves the question of Loyalist weapons entirely unaddressed. And judging by the general disgruntlement of Loyalist politicians at being left out of the loop, no one is seriously asking them what their response might be to such an act.
One particularly well informed commentator told Slugger that full decommissioning would have to be managed in several rounds that could take up anything to two years to complete. If this were so, it will act as powerful block to the restarting of institutions in the near future.
Standing down the IRA however is a qualitatively different prospect.
For a start it is already provided for within the IRA's constitution. It is therefore more likely to be seen as a question of its own choice, rather than an admission price for Sinn Fein to take it's position in any future excutive.
Along with some amendments to the policing arrangements would represent the acceptance by the IRA of common security mechanisms for Nationalists and Unionists, for the very first time in Northern Ireland.
It also may be that the British and Irish governments are in a position to judge that previous rounds of decommissioning have already taken sufficient weaponery out of circulation to make any future insurgency impractical.
Media: the new moral sherriff?
The "Trust me, I'm a reporter" line would probably always have raised a laugh, and still would in many quarters... Jump forward the decades to the polementaries and the moral force of the reporter now fills the screen.
The place of journalists as central ethical narrators is being insisted on - both from the right, with the attempted destruction by talkshow hosts such as Rush Limbaugh of enemies on moral grounds; and on the left with an assault on the Bush administration led by (Michael) Moore.
"Fahrenheit 9/11," according to a report the New York Times last week, "is spawning spin-offs all over the map." Journalism that insists on balance, complexity and objectivity is now itself under attack by moral force journalists for pusillanimity and ofr bieng in cahoots with power.
"truth exists - the best available version of the truth exists... the commitment to fairness and accuracy and context has to be the guiding principle." Within these words is a warning: that the new moral sherriff in town is as likely to misread the evidence, suspect the innocent and make wrongful arrest as the old one. But he's got a lot more firepower behind him.
31 August 2004
Blogging politics US style...
Policing: local reserve might attract Republicans?
Ceasefires: ten years on...
27 August 2004
Cullybacky woman in with medal chance?
On a short hiatus...
26 August 2004
Guinness ice cream anyone?
Negotiations: police and arm(ie)s are key
He summarises Jeffrey Donaldson at the Parnell School last week:
"...the DUP is seeking the following: full decommissioning of IRA weapons to be dealt with 'conclusively'; the IRA and the associated 'architecture' of paramilitary violence to be disbanded; Sinn Féin to 'sign up' to the new policing arrangements".
"By contrast" he suggests, "Adams wants a timetable for the devolution of policing responsibility to be set out in advance".
Here Whelan has hit upon what may be the real sticking point in coming to a future deal.
As the number one party in Unionism facing - and this is important to understand - a largley pro-Agreement UUP opponent, the DUP has a huge amount of scope to make deal for Agreement Mark II that is also fully agreeable to Sinn Fein.
But it is felt by most Unionist commentators that Trimble's vulnerablity to the DUP's successful counterattack lay in the widely held perception that Sinn Fein had negotiated him into clearly legislated commitments, without any visible countervaling commitments on the part of the IRA.
Given this is an issue of taking the home constituency along with them, it is therefore highly unlikely that the party will want to leave port before these particular bow doors are firmly closed.
NI dominates Ahern's 'reshuffle'?
Education: a future political battleground?
Martin McGuinness's plans to abolish the 11+ will be executed by a Labour government in 2008, if 1) there is no change in the UK government in the elections widely expected to take place next year, and/or 2) a nationalist MLA manages to negotiate the Education post in any reconvened local Executive.
But it opens intriguing possibilities for any future administration formed on the d'Hondt principles. A Belfast Telegraph poll had all MLA's (with the exception at least one of the PUP's representatives) split on strictly sectarian lines on the issue.
In the inevitable horse trading, there must be serious incentive for Unionist (of either party) to take that particular post and cancel, stall or otherwise circumvent the abolition of the selective test.
You can read David's latest suggestions, which include abolishing all Training Colleges in favour of on-the-job training, here.
Reg backing a corporate Assembly?
One step forward and two back...
We can't bring back the very recent past until then, but we will try to bring you a few morsels to pick over. In the meantime, you may want to look around at Slugger as it used to be in its earlier days! Think of it as a form of blog archeology!
07 July 2004
Smoking ban breached?
Irish politics are cut off...
"The disabling sickness of Irish politics is that it inhabits a sea largely dead. The political climate on the island is benign enough by international standards. But it is denied the purifying influence of the tides and is shut off by the burden of history from the freshening winds of change which blow outside".
He argues that the Orange Order's tardiness in meeting the demands for change may lie in its very Irish trait of distrusting compromise.