Building a Church Without Walls
With the 12th of July almost upon us, people living in Northern Ireland can’t help but notice the familiar sights of bonfires being constructed, freshly painted red-white-and-blue kerbstones, and areas adorned with British, Northern Ireland, and UVF flags.
This … Read more...
Queen’s University recently hosted the launch of a new book edited by Dr Katy Hayward (Queen’s) and Dr Mary Murphy (University College Cork), The Europeanization of Party Politics in Ireland: North and South (Routledge, 2010). At the launch, some of … Read more...
It’s been awhile since we’ve heard the Rev. Ian Paisley rail publicly against the pope, identifying him as an ‘anti-Christ.’ But in an interview with the BBC World Service, Paisley reverted to ‘anti-Christ’ mode as he voiced his opposition to … Read more...
In its annual report, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA) has noted that it received 392 complaints about the British Humanist Association’s campaign slogan: ‘There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.’ The presence of this slogan … Read more...
This morning I had the rather surreal experience of a Benedictine monk greeting me with news of one election result I didn’t expect: the Alliance Party’s Naomi Long had defeated Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader and Northern Ireland First Minister … Read more...
The Democratic Unionist Party has a lot to worry about in this election. Traditional Unionist Voice’s Jim Allister has been smelling blood ever since the DUP’s compromise with Sinn Fein. Especially in the conservative heartlands, the TUV cause may get … Read more...
Last night’s BBC Panorama programme on the Iris Robinson affair, ‘The MP and the Whistleblower,’ followed much the same script as the original Spotlight programme. The Panorama showing, geared towards a wider UK audience, merely updated the on-going saga to … Read more...
On today’s BBC Radio Ulster programme, Sunday Sequence, I discussed with Free Presbyterian minister Rev. David McIlveen, and former editor of the News Letter Austin Hunter, how the Robinson scandal may change Northern Irish social, political and religious culture.… Read more...
In yesterday’s Irish Times, Fionola Meredith wrote that folks might be surprised that Protestant fundamentalists seem willing to forgive Iris Robinson. Meredith notes that this constituency (I prefer to refer to them as conservative evangelicals) has been quick to condemn … Read more...
Wednesday we found out about the sex, yesterday we found out about the money.
Last night the BBC ran the Spotlight programme that is assumed to have prompted First Minister Peter Robinson’s interview on Wednesday about his wife Iris’ marital … Read more...
Last week when the DUP’S Iris Robinson retired, I blogged about her battle for the ‘moral soul’ of Northern Ireland. I was as surprised as anyone at the news yesterday evening about her extramarital affair, and her attempt last … Read more...