Chasing the Ghosts of the Somme…
1030
It must be twenty years ago now. My parents were in their mid-seventies so I took them holiday to France for a week while they were still healthy and mobile enough to do so. I rented a gite in St …
Sixty years on from Lemass-O’Neill, actions are beginning to speak louder than words
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During a week dominated by Jeffrey Donaldson’s conviction, a quieter story slipped past: the Irish Government’s Shared Island Initiative passed €1 billion in commitments to 2030. From a Stormont cricket ground to a sub-two-hour Belfast–Dublin train, it revives a pragmatism that runs from Seán Lemass straight to Micheál Martin: cooperation without precondition, benefit without constitutional strings. The question now is whether Northern ministers will become active partners or passive recipients.
Is The Executive’s Proposed Budget Unravelling?
1948
Back in January, Sinn Féin minister John O’Dowd put his proposed three-year budget out for consultation. His statement on the consultation highlighted what he saw as a key issue in terms of the contributions from the British government and finished …
Ask It Backwards: The hidden framing in Northern Ireland’s unity polls
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A “gold standard” poll shows nationalism closing on the union. Reverse the question, keeping the format identical, and unionism’s lead jumps from 6 points to 33. The same biases drive both results. Here’s how question framing quietly sets the political weather in Northern Ireland, and a simple test to level the field.
Northern Ireland’s Brexit Edge: Building on what works, not what has failed…
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Britain’s productivity flatlined in 2008, eight years before the referendum. Brexit added cost, and serious frictions but the real causes run deeper: weak investment, weak industrial strategy, and an employment model that grew jobs while output per hour stalled. Even Northern Ireland, the one part of the UK with a genuinely distinctive post-Brexit settlement, tells the same story.
Today is the tenth anniversary of the Brexit vote…
1995
Today, ten years ago, the loyal citizens of Her Majesty’s United Kingdom took to the polls and told that motley crew of French cheese-eating surrender monkeys, joyless German technocrats, lazy Spanish siesta lovers and over-sexed Italians and all the other …
If you like to clap for England, clap your hands…
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Croatia. I was 20 minutes late, having popped into Lidl for cat litter on the way to the pub; meanwhile, Harry Kane was purring for England, having put his country 1-0 up. My heart sank upon entering the hostillery and …
The Cost of Standing Still: Unlocking Northern Ireland’s Economic Potential…
763
The economic cost of failing to invest in Northern Ireland’s future is becoming increasingly apparent. A new Ulster University Strategic Policy Unit report, Unlocking NI’s Potential: A Framework for Economic Transformation , provides a compelling analysis of the challenges facing …
Jeffrey Donaldson found guilty of 18 historical sex offences…
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The jury has made its decision in the Jeffrey Donaldson trial and they have found him guilty of all 18 sex abuse charges, including one charge of rape. His wife, Lady Eleanor Donaldson, who faced five charges including four related …
Keir Starmer expected to announce resignation timetable…
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The political grapevine is buzzing today with reports from The Guardian suggesting that Keir Starmer will announce his resignation timetable today. Word on the street is that he intends to stick around until the autumn. This feels like a bizarre …
