One thing can be said with confidence about the decision of dissident republicans to mount a checkpoint in South Armagh on Friday: they had made the judgement that it would be safe for them to block the road and to display weapons in the open air. That judgement was vindicated. They were right. A PSNI [...]
Archive for August, 2009
Checkpoint
Posted in Politics, Northern Ireland on August 26, 2009 | 1 Comment »
new look
Posted in Uncategorized on August 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I can’t resist tinkering with this, so here’s a new look, that will last or die as the notion takes me.
Education, Education.
Posted in Uncategorized on August 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I was invited by The Regional Training Unit of the Department of Education to give the after dinner speech at the end of their Summer School at Stranmillis this year. Here is a recording I made of it. “Past generations appear convinced that their own educational experience was better than what is available today. They [...]
Speaking Personally, Minister
Posted in Uncategorized on August 18, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Is Nelson McCausland the Minister for Culture Arts and Leisure? I mean, I’m only asking. Because, this morning, on Good Morning Ulster he corrected Seamus McKee for making that assumption. He said that when he was protesting against GAA clubs being used for Hunger Strike commemorations, he was speaking in a personal capacity. Which means [...]
Monitor’s Note
Posted in Uncategorized on August 12, 2009 | Comments Off
There has been a huge response on this blog to the items on Pastor McConnell, but monitoring them is taking a lot of time and diverting me from the other work I want to be doing here, so I have suspended that material, at least for a while. There are legal dangers for me in [...]
The Pogrom Myth
Posted in Uncategorized on August 12, 2009 | 16 Comments »
Many people will remember this week as the anniversary of a pogrom, an attack on Catholic homes by the massed ranks of the RUC, B Specials and Loyalist paramilitaries. Two great lessons were assimilated by many Catholics from that experience, or that understanding of their experience. These were that the Northern Ireland state was hostile [...]
Recognition Payment: if it was a good idea last year, why is it not one now?
Posted in Uncategorized on August 5, 2009 | 1 Comment »
[This is the text of an article published in the Belfast Telegraph 5.08.09] It isn’t hard to predict what the first item on the agenda of the new Victims Forum will be. As representatives of the different victims groups come together, and look across the table at people from groups they don’t like, they will [...]
Victims Commissioners Supported Recognition Payment
Posted in Uncategorized on August 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Denis Bradley of the Eames Bradley Consultative Group on the Past has revealed that the proposal to pay £12,000 to victims families, was endorsed by the Victims Commission. He disclosed this at a panel discussion at the John Hewitt Summer School, chaired by myself. Victims Commissioner Mike Nesbitt was also on the panel. After a [...]
