Former British Prime Minister Edward Heath is due to give evidence today at the Saville inquiry into the events around the Bloody Sunday shootings.
Update: Heath denies allegations that the events of Bloody Sunday were planned in advance by the British government.
14 January 2003
Unionist opposition to Portadown Mosque
We rarely link to the Times because it requires a subscription/ or registration but this story seems too extraordinary to omit.
"The construction of Northern Ireland's first purpose-built mosque is being blocked by Unionist politicians who say that residents would be kept awake by 'wailing' and that Muslims are plotting to destroy Christianity."
Correpondent David Lister comments:
"For years a small Muslim community near Portadown, Co Armagh, has observed the antics of Orangemen during the annual marching season in the mid-Ulster town. Blending into the most famously hardline Protestant area of Northern Ireland, a province that remains 99.15 per cent white, according to the 2001 census, was always going to be tricky for the two dozen Muslim families who live here. Many of them work at the hospital or run takeaway food shops."
Although outline permission has been granted for the building already, Lister quotes from two public representatives in the area. First Ulster Unionist Fred Crowe:
"...said that residents in Bleary believed that their way of life would be threatened if the mosque were built. Mr Crowe said that encouraging Muslims to settle in Craigavon might open the door for militants."
And then for the DUP:
"Woolsey Smith said: 'They say it’s not going to be an eastern-type mosque and there’ll not be the wailing noise calling these people to worship but we don’t know about that. I would be worried for residents in the area as to just what they will be confronted with.'"
But he gave the last word to two local Muslims:
"Adam O'Boyle, a Roman Catholic who converted to Islam four years ago, said that the Province's insularity meant that many people found it difficult to cope with other walks of life and different ethnic groups."
"Mohammad Ashraf, a Pakistani whose family came to Northern Ireland 27 years ago and who owns the land on which the mosque will be built, said: 'We don’t want to fall out with anybody but we want the mosque. It will be a simple building that will blend in, with just one dome, not too many minarets. They’ll be no wailing, no call to prayer. Who is going to listen around here anyway? Cows?'"
Update: the story from a local perspective.
"The construction of Northern Ireland's first purpose-built mosque is being blocked by Unionist politicians who say that residents would be kept awake by 'wailing' and that Muslims are plotting to destroy Christianity."
Correpondent David Lister comments:
"For years a small Muslim community near Portadown, Co Armagh, has observed the antics of Orangemen during the annual marching season in the mid-Ulster town. Blending into the most famously hardline Protestant area of Northern Ireland, a province that remains 99.15 per cent white, according to the 2001 census, was always going to be tricky for the two dozen Muslim families who live here. Many of them work at the hospital or run takeaway food shops."
Although outline permission has been granted for the building already, Lister quotes from two public representatives in the area. First Ulster Unionist Fred Crowe:
"...said that residents in Bleary believed that their way of life would be threatened if the mosque were built. Mr Crowe said that encouraging Muslims to settle in Craigavon might open the door for militants."
And then for the DUP:
"Woolsey Smith said: 'They say it’s not going to be an eastern-type mosque and there’ll not be the wailing noise calling these people to worship but we don’t know about that. I would be worried for residents in the area as to just what they will be confronted with.'"
But he gave the last word to two local Muslims:
"Adam O'Boyle, a Roman Catholic who converted to Islam four years ago, said that the Province's insularity meant that many people found it difficult to cope with other walks of life and different ethnic groups."
"Mohammad Ashraf, a Pakistani whose family came to Northern Ireland 27 years ago and who owns the land on which the mosque will be built, said: 'We don’t want to fall out with anybody but we want the mosque. It will be a simple building that will blend in, with just one dome, not too many minarets. They’ll be no wailing, no call to prayer. Who is going to listen around here anyway? Cows?'"
Update: the story from a local perspective.
Election 2003: Sinn Fein to make only marginal gains
Peter Robinson believes that Sinn Fein will only make slight gains in the coming elections.
Low level violence continues
DUP MLA Jim Wells draws attention to a low level conflict in and around Downpatrick that he claims is a turf war between the Provisional and local elements of the Continuity IRA.
New logic of NI politics
As Roy Garland has suggested below, there is an overarching logic constraining the actions of many of the players in the Northern Ireland political game, which will make it difficult for some on the extreme ends of the poltical spectrum to 'return to type'.
In this piece in this week's Sunday Business Post, Anton McCabe and Paul Colgan suggest that the DUP's apparent willingness to speak to Sinn Fein is another aspect of a dawning new reality in NI politics.
In this piece in this week's Sunday Business Post, Anton McCabe and Paul Colgan suggest that the DUP's apparent willingness to speak to Sinn Fein is another aspect of a dawning new reality in NI politics.
Election 2003: hope of resurrecting the institutions?
The outcome of yesterday's meeting between Trimble and Gerry Adams seems to have engendered some optimistic speculation that the Assembly can be resurrected, Gregory Campbell also confirms that the DUP will use their mandate in the coming elections to force a re-negotiation of the Belfast Agreement.
Garland: what price unity?
It looks as though the normally mild mannered, concilliatory Unionist commentator Roy Garland has run out of patience:
"The real cause of conflict is the voices of dead generations who call for Irish unity at all costs. No single group, dead or alive, has the right to arbitrate on the future shape of political relationships in these islands."
However he finished by saying:
"...grounds for hope remain because most people know that a return to violence would be disastrous and would not have support. There is logic to the peace process and we must hope that this logic, rather than the madness of violence, prevails in the days that lie ahead."
"The real cause of conflict is the voices of dead generations who call for Irish unity at all costs. No single group, dead or alive, has the right to arbitrate on the future shape of political relationships in these islands."
However he finished by saying:
"...grounds for hope remain because most people know that a return to violence would be disastrous and would not have support. There is logic to the peace process and we must hope that this logic, rather than the madness of violence, prevails in the days that lie ahead."
13 January 2003
No room for paramilitaries
Carmel Hanna of the SDLP rounds on the paramilitaries in bringing peace to Northern Ireland.
North South economic links
Junior Minister Ian Pearson highlights the importance of economic links with the Republic: "...the Belfast to Dublin corridor is potentially a major engine for growth and employment in Northern Ireland and in the Republic."
DUP looking for inclusive deal
John Devine talks to DUP MP Gregory Campbell about what could happen after elections in May:
"We are not going to dig people out of the hole they are in now. But after an election we will go to the British government and say that we have a mandate and we want changes to the agreement because we want unionists to be part of the process rather than frozen out, the way they have been. We want it based on democracy, not on concessions to terror, the way the process has done up to now."
"We are not going to dig people out of the hole they are in now. But after an election we will go to the British government and say that we have a mandate and we want changes to the agreement because we want unionists to be part of the process rather than frozen out, the way they have been. We want it based on democracy, not on concessions to terror, the way the process has done up to now."
May elections to go ahead
It looks like the government are determined to press ahead with plans for elections in May. According to officials in the DUP, this was Secretary of State Paul Murphy's clear message in their meeting with him this morning.
12 January 2003
Irish Language: losing the Gaeltacht?
Emily O'Reilly contrasts (subscription or registration needed) the fortunes of the Irish language inside and outside the Gaeltacht areas, and suggests that state intervention with the Gaeltacht has done little to halt the decline of the language.
"...as the Gaeltacht shrinks, the appetite for all-Irish schools in the so-called Galltacht, or all-English speaking part of the country, continues to increase. Gaelscoileanna open at the rate of three or four a year, while a number of Irish-speaking secondary schools, Gaelcholaiste, have also been established to cater for the needs of Gaelscoil graduates."
"Most remarkable is that this phenomenon has occurred without state intervention, without special grants or incentives. In every case, parental pressure has been the driving force, with voluntary groups coming together to create an all-Irish speaking educational environment."
"There are now 138 Gaelscoileanna and 30 Gaelcholaiste in the republic, serving approximately 20,000 primary school students and 5,000 secondary."
"...as the Gaeltacht shrinks, the appetite for all-Irish schools in the so-called Galltacht, or all-English speaking part of the country, continues to increase. Gaelscoileanna open at the rate of three or four a year, while a number of Irish-speaking secondary schools, Gaelcholaiste, have also been established to cater for the needs of Gaelscoil graduates."
"Most remarkable is that this phenomenon has occurred without state intervention, without special grants or incentives. In every case, parental pressure has been the driving force, with voluntary groups coming together to create an all-Irish speaking educational environment."
"There are now 138 Gaelscoileanna and 30 Gaelcholaiste in the republic, serving approximately 20,000 primary school students and 5,000 secondary."
Theology and conflict
The inimitable Newton Emerson looks at the theological grounding of one Northern Ireland's most controversial figures, the Reverend Dr Ian Paisley.
Loyalist feud: end not yet nigh
If the hope behind the arrest of Johnny Adair on Friday was to facilitate an end to an incipient Loyalist feud, the government may be disappointed, says Henry McDonald. He also has distrubing news of events behind the withdrawal of the PUP from talks earlier this week:
"...the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), was forced to pull out of all-party talks following a mass meeting of the terror group last weekend. The UVF's rank and file told the PUP it had no faith in the direction of the peace process, which the terrorists said was loaded in favour of republicanism."
"...the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), was forced to pull out of all-party talks following a mass meeting of the terror group last weekend. The UVF's rank and file told the PUP it had no faith in the direction of the peace process, which the terrorists said was loaded in favour of republicanism."
Trimble is still the best option?
Ruth Dudley Edwards still believes that a Trimble-led Unionist party is the best way forward and casts doubts on whether a new model DUP under the leadership of Peter Robinson can command the kind of numbers within the party to make any deal stick.
SDLP's strategic deficit
Eilis O'Hanlon criticises the leadership of Mark Durkan for not seeking to wrest the initiative for the Nationalist agenda from Sinn Fein:
"He lacks concentration. He too easily allows himself to be drawn into pointless philosophical debates with Sinn Fein, such as when a Catholic majority will emerge, instead of dragging the fight constantly back to issues on which he can draw blood."
"Sinn Fein's attitude to the SDLP, meanwhile, is to patronise and insult them when they make brave moves such as joining the Policing Board, but to use them for cover when the IRA skeleton starts rattling in the cupboard; and it's a role which the SDLP is still far too willing to play."
"He lacks concentration. He too easily allows himself to be drawn into pointless philosophical debates with Sinn Fein, such as when a Catholic majority will emerge, instead of dragging the fight constantly back to issues on which he can draw blood."
"Sinn Fein's attitude to the SDLP, meanwhile, is to patronise and insult them when they make brave moves such as joining the Policing Board, but to use them for cover when the IRA skeleton starts rattling in the cupboard; and it's a role which the SDLP is still far too willing to play."
11 January 2003
More Ladybird history
The re-start talks so far
Gaeltacht to shrink?
More detail from the Galway Advertiser on Donncha Ó hÉallaithe's report on the falling number of Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht areas. Via North Atlantic Skyline.
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