The interim leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), Dr John Kyle, had his first interview with Stephen Nolan today. Even under normal circumstances this would be a baptism of fire for a politician, but it was especially the … Read more...
Category: NI Politics
Christians v. Atheists? The Battle for the Buses and the Ulster Museum
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...
A Marathon Debate Continues …
I blogged previously about the controversy around moving the Belfast City Marathon from Bank Holiday Monday to a Sunday.
The Alan in Belfast blog has a constructive and thought-provoking new post on this topic. … Read more...
David Stevens – In Memory of a Peacemaker
David Stevens, Leader of the Corrymeela Community, died from cancer on Sunday at the age of 62. A founding member of the Community Relations Council, Stevens also worked for 25 years in the Inter Church Centre in Belfast, … Read more...
Alistair Little Book Review: Give a Boy a Gun
Recently one of the students on my School’s Master’s in Reconciliation Studies programme told me that the most powerful book he had read during the year was Give a Boy a Gun: One Man’s Journey from Killing to Peace-Making, by … Read more...
What’s Faith Got to do with Human Rights? Publication of Rights and Righteousness
What’s faith got to do with human rights? That’s one of the questions explored in a new publication, edited by Dr David Tombs of Trinity College Dublin at Belfast (the Irish School of Ecumenics), Rights and Righteousness: Perspectives on … Read more...
Peter Robinson, Naomi Long, and the 2010 Westminster Elections: A New Era in Northern Irish Politics?
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...
DUP Election Broadcast: Will Looking Back Keep Northern Ireland Moving Forward?
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...
Is Northern Ireland Stuck with the Same Old Politics?: Platform for Change Meeting April 17
The Platform for Change will hold its next public meeting on Saturday April 17 in room G09 in the Lanyon Building at Queen’s University, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Coffee will be available from 9.30.
The immediate topic of discussion is the … Read more...
The Dissidents, the Car Bomb, and Policing and Justice
People in Northern Ireland woke up this morning to the news that dissident republicans had detonated a car bomb outside Palace Barracks in Holywood, the headquarters of MI5. The Real IRA claims responsibility for the bomb, designed as a … Read more...
Gerry Adams: The Troubles & The Truth
Will we ever know the truth about Gerry Adams and the roles he played during the Troubles? Perhaps the more important question is whether we want to know.
The publication in the Sunday Times of the first part in a … Read more...