Derry Journal
03 September 2010
Republican Action Against Drugs have warned young people in Derry not to get caught up in what they describe as “hero worship for co-called hard men.”
The vigilante group made the comment as it claimed responsibility for a shooting incident in the Bogside on Tuesday night.
A number of shots were fired at a...
Dundalk News
**Via Newshound
01 September 2010
THE Real IRA is continuing to recruit both sides of the border, according to gardai.
However, locally-based Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has reiterated that gardai have all the resources they need to meet the threat.
In recent months gardai in this area have been successful in scuppering the efforts of dissidents planning...
By Victoria McMahon
Friday, 3 September 2010
**If Bonfires and parades were eliminated altogether, maybe people could have some peace in their communities. This is just stupid. Every year it’s the same thing, over and over.
Police have been urged to crack down on anti-social elements which surround Eleventh Night bonfires after it emerged that the Fire...
IAIS
09/02/10 17:03 EST
An HET (Historical Enquiries team) report into the murders of five Catholics in the Sean Graham’s bookmakers massacre reveals one of the guns used by the UDA gang had been handed back by RUC officers.
On 5 February 1992, two UFF gunmen attacked Sean Graham’s bookmakers on Belfast’s Ormeau Road in broad day light,...
I first saw this a year or so ago off the Sandy Row. I was surprised to see that this has been left up for so long....
Recently we have seen the demise of two national institutions many of us have grown to love and possibly loathe in equal measure, namely Last of The Summer Wine, and Big Brother, proof if ever it was needed that the tide of change cannot be resisted.On top of these terrible blows to the culture of our nation, speculation is now rife that a whole raft of other institutions are now also be under threat, probably the most famous of which is currently know as Fermanagh & South Tyrone, but the list of those at risk also includes East Londonderry, Strangford, East Antrim and a quarter of Belfast, in fact a grand total of 18 such national treasures may cease to exist in their current form within the next 3 or 4 years! These drastic measures have been decreed by the recession hit...
The DUP are very proud of MEP Diane Dodds becoming a member of the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents. The body while sounding very important is essentially a business committee come speakers’ office and is mainly concerned with timetabling parliamentary business.What the DUP did not point out, is Dodds is not a full member of this body. Indeed she has only been appointed on a 6 month term and has no voting rights.Dodds sits as a non-alligned member of the European Parliament and is a member of the non-attached (technical) group that comprises 27 other MEPs also unsuitable to join a political group or unable to find numbers to form one. This group have been clamouring for some time to be represented in the Conference of Presidents. Because the majority of them are...
A quick aside. I see Tommy Burns MLA quite regularly at our gaelic club and we have an occasional chat. We’ve never discussed Slugger to my recollection and certainly haven’t chatted about my posts on the costs of 11th July bonfires.I’m surprised to see that completely independently he has asked the exact same questions on costs to the Fire Service that I had answered back on 19th August.The Irish News, Belfast Telegraph and UTV all say;The figures were revealed by the Assembly after a freedom of information question from the SDLP’s Thomas Burnsmmmmm….....
Will Crawley’s response to the wide-spread reports of Stephen Hawking’s dissing of god was to head for the teleological ‘gap’. On the other hand The Guardian‘s science blogger, Jon Butterworth took time out from writing up an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider to have a rational, and reasonable, conversation on Channel4 News with a theologian. And he points to this excellent New Scientist article on the kerfuffleAs Hawking’s long-suffering assistant dealt with a deluge of enquiries from journalists from around the world, she told me how the furore says more about the silly season than any change of mind. It also says much about how God is used to sell science to the public. The Higgs boson, labelled the “God particle” – a...
There’s a very sharply observed piece by Denis Bradley in today’s Irish News, which aside from lauding the work of John Dallat and others on the PAC, an intelligent whistle-blower and some fine words about Slugger, he also let’s slip a few fundamental truths about where the blame lies. And it is not with the politicians:“…it has caught the two governing parties on the hop. They didn’t see it coming. But anyone who has spent a few nights in the company of northern businessmen will have been anything but surprised. The more outspoken businessmen are saying that the real dirt is still to come. These are the businesses who don’t feel they are in the inner circle.”He goes on to give Sinn Fein a dunt for not employing individuals outside their...
Where to start? The four stage progression I suppose, thus: 1) The bright new non-sectarian dawn. 2) Look at us we have Catholic candidates. 3) Sorry no we haven’t. 4) Oh and we’ll do what the Orange Order tells us to do in FST. Totally. Absolutely. Astonishing. I always thought that the money was important but was it the only thing? How did they do anyway? Election Year 2010 2005 Delta East Belfast 21.2% 30.9% -9.7% West Belfast 3.1% 2.3% 0.8% North Belfast 7.7% 7.1% 0.6% South Belfast 17.3% 22.7% -5.4% FST 45.5% 18.2% 27.3% I know but he would have taken the Tory whip. West Tyrone 14.2% 6.9% 7.3% Foyle 3.2% 2.4% 0.8% Mid Ulster 11.0% 10.7% 0.3% South Down 7.3% 9.9% -2.6% East (L)Derry 17.8% 21.1% -3.3% Newry and Armagh...
France’s lower house of parliament recently approved a bill to ban the wearing of a burqa or niqab in public. People caught wearing garments “that hide the face” will be fined 150 euro and those who force women to cover up could be fined up to 30,000 euro and face a one-year jail term.Some of those in favour of the ban say it stems from the French concept of laïcité, a model of secularism which upholds freedom of and freedom from religion so that religious practice is a strictly private matter for each individual. Others say it is an attempt to liberate and protect Muslim women from an oppressive practice, or that the wearing of the burqa prevents integration of immigrant communities, that veils are intimidating and that they present safety or security risks.This ban will only...
NI International Airshow takes place up in Portrush this weekend. The main air displays are between noon and 6pm on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 September, with a variety of other family-friendly and military attractions on the ground.There’s a poppy drop at 2pm on Sunday to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. The Red Arrows are back with their display over Portrush at 5.30pm on Saturday. Fans of the RAF’s aerobatic team may be interested in Saturday’s flight plan for other opportunities to catch the red Hawk aircraft in the air:1530 – Reds arrive ALDERGROVE1719 – Reds depart ALDERGROVE1730 – Reds display PORTRUSH1801 – Reds recover ALDERGROVE1951 – Reds depart ALDERGROVEHillsborough International Oyster Festival is on this weekend with an inexplicable mix of...
Hugo Swire announced the NIO consultation on the exceptional confidentiality provision that only applies to donations to the northern political parties. The current arrangement has had it’s expiry date shoved out from 31st October 2010 to 1st March 2011 by the Control of Donations and Regulations of Loans Etc. (Extension of the Prescribed Period) (Northern Ireland) Order 2010. In brief, parties must provide financial information to the Electoral Commission – it just isn’t published. While the consultation only began on the 3rd August (and continues to October 25th), it hasn’t got much airtime, although today the BBC flagged differences of opinion between the DUP and Sinn Féin on the issue.The DUP are taking the same line as 2005 regarding the primacy of security...
Pretty much illegible at anything smaller than original size, so do click on it. Check out more of Bravo's work here.Via Woodrow Phoenix's Twitter...
Love the cheesier end of the punk rock spectrum? Try this. Or for the more visually-minded, try this...
If you’re living and/or working in and around East Belfast then pop Wednesday 20/10/2010 into your diary.East Belfast Speaks Out returns to Ashfield Boys School on the Holywood Road at 7.30pm.This year’s line-up of political panellists hasn’t yet been publicly announced, but there are some heavyweights expected to attend and respond to questions from the floor. Last year’s event was a response to the successful West Belfast Talks Back that has become a regular feature of the summer festival.Last September around 130 people came to the school hall and asked Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP), Gerry Kelly (Sinn Féin), Naomi Long (Alliance), Laurence Robertson (Conservative) and Patrick Corrigan (Amnesty) about:loyalist working class areas getting left behind;the effectiveness of the...
Today the PSNI Chief Constable has been plastered across the media bemoaning costs associated to dealing with public disorder in the Ardoyne during July.He has been very forthcoming with the sums involved and what thay could have been spent on otherwise.However, I recently asked the PSNI several questions under FoI legisaltion in relation to 11th July bonfire incidents and they have refused to answer a single one on the basis the first question ‘ how many bonfire related incidents did you attend’ would have taken over 600 hours worth of work.They did not address a request for estimates on how much 11th July bonfire incidents cost.Seems some costs limits are ignored, then researched and publicised (as beneficial) – others you need to fight to obtain....
The BBC reports on the evidence provided to a Northern Ireland Assembly Committee today by two Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure senior civil servants. From the BBC reportOverall, the department’s current budget of £109m is projected to fall to less than £92m by 2014/15.Speaking at a Stormont committee meeting on Thursday, [DCAL director of finance Deborah Brown] said the figures represented a cumulative cut of £46m over the budget period.She said the department would [cut] its operating budget by 14% while its supporter bodies like the Arts Council and Sport NI face cuts of 18%.She said grant giving bodies like Sport NI and the Arts Council would be “probably to able to accommodate budget reductions more quickly” whereas museums and libraries would need...
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Mary Dejevsky has written a piece for the Belfast Telegraph that will go down well in some quarters and not so well in others. She is suggesting that it is time that the British government off-load Northern Ireland by one of several routes: including independence, secession or to offer to sell it to the Republic of Ireland.Her objection handling is quite interesting, for what it ignores as much as what she deals with, like religion. There is no mention of ‘Britishness’ as an issue at all. In contrast (and perhaps scarily for those who will challenge her logic) she goes even further and suggests Irish unity:“…would make cultural, demographic, and geographic sense. At once, the security of Britain and Ireland would be enhanced. The biggest bonus of all, though, would...
Derry Journal
31 August 2010
It was a decision that wasn’t taken lightly. Many ex-combatants felt that by removing a UFF mural in Lincoln Court their culture, history and heritage was slowly being eroded.
After a few meetings the ex-combatants and the entire Lincoln Court community got behind the project and decided that they wanted to replace the...
Right, moving on to the TUV. 2010 represented the first General election to be fought by Traditional Unionist Voice. How did they do? A total of 26,300 votes over the 10 seats fought split:North Antrim Jim Allister – 7,114 (16.8%) East Belfast David Vance – 1,856 (5.4%) North Down Mary Kilpatrick – 1,634 (4.9%) Strangford Terry Williams – 1,814 (5.6%) East Antrim Samuel Morrison – 1,826 (6.0%) East Derry / Londonderry William Ross – 2,572 (7.4%) Lagan Valley Keith Harbinson – 3,154 (8.6%) Mid Ulster Walter Millar – 2,995 (7.3%) South Down Ivor McConnell – 1,506 (3.5%) South Antrim Melwyn Lucas – 1,829 (5.4%)So three real categories: 1) Allister on 17% 2) Ross, Harbinson and Millar – 7-9% 3) The rest – 3.5-6.0%The real...
Belfast Telegraph
2 Sept 2010
A public meeting will be held tonight in Rasharkin to discuss why a loyalist band parade was allowed to be re-routed through the village at midnight two weeks ago.
Residents of the Co Antrim village saw the controversial parade re-routed at the last minute because of a bomb scare at an Orange hall....
BBC
**Video onsite
Undercover soldiers were watching as loyalists murdered a Catholic teenager in west Belfast, a report by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) has found.
Damien Walsh, 17, was shot dead as he worked at a coal supply business in Twinbrook in 1993.
The HET said the security forces had been watching the Dairy Farm shopping centre because...
BBC
1 Sept 2010
Former prime minister Tony Blair has said he often “stretched the truth past breaking point in order to get agreement” in the NI peace process.
In extracts from his memoirs he admitted that he took “horrendous chances” with the parties.
Mr Blair said throughout his tenure he held long discussions with the then DUP leader...
BBC
31 August 2010
A number of families from a loyalist area of north Belfast have said they are being forced out of their homes by the UDA.
About six families claim they have been warned to leave Tiger’s Bay in recent weeks.
The threats have been reported to the police and one man has already left Northern Ireland.
However,...
BBC
2 Sept 2010
A Dublin criminal who fled Ireland after the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin has been arrested in Holland.
John Traynor was detained outside Amsterdam following cooperation between the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency and Dutch regional police.
Veronica Guerin Veronica Guerin was shot dead in 1996
Traynor was a criminal contact of Ms Guerin.
Prior to her...
Aitheasc an Uachtaráin Ruairí Ó Brádaigh don 85ú Ard-Fheis de Shinn Féin in Óstlann an Spa , Leamhcán , Co. Atha Cliath , 21ú agus 22ú Deireadh Fómhair , 1989 / Presidential Address of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh to the 85th Ard-Fheis of Sinn Féin in the Spa Hotel , Lucan , County Dublin , 21st and 22nd October 1989....." In the coming year we must present to the whole Irish people our framework of a federation of the four provinces of Ireland - in a post British withdrawal situation - with maximum devolution of power and decision-making to local level , with the complete separation of church and state and the building of a pluralist society and with neutrality and non-alignment in foreign affairs as the best hope for all the people of this island.This requires massive political and...
The Centre for Social Justice, Iain Duncan Smith’s smart new social policy think tank, have an impressive report (Breakthrough NI CSJ) out today… They are pouring it into something of a policy vacuum since the push you, pull me OFMdFM have still to decide on a common anti poverty policy. CSJ may be seeking to fill a major policy gap:The News Letter have bullet pointed some of its main findings:Key findings the CSJ claimed highlighted the extent of social breakdown in Northern Ireland included:The highest level of economic inactivity in the UK;Unemployment which has more than doubled in the last two years;More than half of those claimingincome support have done so for more than five years;One in five households was a single parent family;Three in four single parent families...
I have no comment to make, other than to note the very narrowness of the Terms of Reference and quote the glorious Yes Minister, wh0se insights pepper this whole story from start to finish:“We dare not allow politicians to establish the principle that senior civil servants can be removed for incompetence. We could lose dozens of our chaps. Hundreds maybe. Even thousands.”TERMS OF REFERENCE Following allegations of irregularities around the awarding of procurement contracts in Northern Ireland Water (a government owned company), the Department for Regional Development (DRD) commissioned an Independent Review Team to carry out a review of the circumstances surrounding these alleged irregularities. The role of the Independent Review Team was discussed, inter alia, at the...