Society and Culture – Slugger Test

Fix climate change and congestion with better buses

Brendan Heading on December 29, 2023, 5:56 pmLeave a comment | Readers 1594

A recent job change, for me, led to a minor conundrum associated with the loss of a free city centre parking space. I could either continue to drive to work and pay for all day parking (£7 is the lowest price I’m aware of) or I could use the bus. I opted for the bus. The Antrim Road area, where I live, is quite well served by the Metro 1 route. Using the “Belfast Bus Tracker” third party app (App …

In praise of… Moderation

Mick Fealty on December 23, 2023, 10:23 amLeave a comment | Readers 1381

These two random gentlemen randomly beseeched me to take this random photograph. I randomly obliged.

I know I promised I’d shut up for the rest of the year, but after I finished yesterday’s round up I realised I’d forgotten to thank probably the most important members of Slugger online, ie the moderators. Thanks to Brian the team has expanded considerably over the last year which has spread the burden of keeping the conversations here both convivial and (largely) on topic. They’re an amazing bunch. The job they do cannot be underestimated. Almost every online conversation …

A brief coffee time review of 2023, before the return of real politics in 2024?

Mick Fealty on December 22, 2023, 1:05 pmLeave a comment | Readers 2780

red kerosene lantern

In a year in which we seem to have gone from Storm Ciarán to Storm Pia in the blink of an eye, the changeable weather elsewhere barely seems to have touched the deadlock of NI politics. In a February edition of The Irish News there’s an editorial that reads, Moment of truth nearing or Donaldson, just ahead of the announcement of the Windsor Framework [Was that this year? – Ed]. By any measure that moment of truth is still to …

Can ‘cradle to the grave Unionism’ live with being a little less British?

Terry Wright on December 21, 2023, 10:46 amLeave a comment | Readers 7125

Quaint river town

“My grandfather was a Unionist; my father was a Unionist. I was born a Unionist and I will die a Unionist”. In similar mode, DUP MP Carla Lockhart speaking at the 2023 Party Conference referred to having grown up in a ‘Paisley-ite family’ and still wearing the term ‘with pride.’ Passionate assertions like this are indicative of ‘cradle to the grave protestant Unionism’; encrusted by conflict and a sense of betrayal. Electoral fodder with gravitational pull for political ambition, it …

As another “deadline” goes whooshing past, NI continues to choke on its indigestible form of consociationalism

Mick Fealty on December 19, 2023, 9:44 amLeave a comment | Readers 6883

beach, sea, sunset

I’m not sure where the northern press pack got its briefing that the DUP might come out and back the deal it has long been negotiating with the UK administration, but it looks like that call is wrong yet again. Few, it seems, have understood the motivations of the DUP in regard to what it will take to persuade them to re-shoulder their local responsibilities and enable all parties go back into office. The UK government has already met some …

Getting beyond pitchforks, or the Republic of Ireland has changed, and changed utterly…

Soapbox on December 8, 2023, 7:41 amLeave a comment | Readers 4111

american gothic, grant wood, painting

David Moane is retired, in his sixties, and has lived in Dublin most of my life. He’s an avid consumer of Irish and British media and writes in a purely personal capacity about how the Republic has changed in his lifetime. I remember our accession to the EEC in 1973, the long terrible saga of the Northern Ireland (NI) conflict, the turbulent 1980s, the Celtic tiger years (c1995 to 2010), the Crash years (2010-15) and since then the remarkable recovery. …

The domestic violence crisis

Paul Gosling on December 4, 2023, 9:14 amLeave a comment | Readers 1877

face, eyes, abuse

Women in Northern Ireland are twice as likely to be murdered as a result of domestic violence than in the other UK nations. In some years, almost half of Northern Ireland murders are connected to domestic violence. In the 2022/23 year, of 17 homicides there were eight that resulted from domestic violence against women. Northern Ireland is also an outlier in international terms. While Finland has the highest rate of femicide by a partner, Northern Ireland is joint second with …

“Two buckets are easier carried than one, I stand in between…”

Trevor Ringland on December 1, 2023, 9:54 amLeave a comment | Readers 5934

bucket, metal, water bucket

“We’re not Brazil, we’re Northern Ireland!” chant the Northern Ireland football fans, highlighting that in that context they are also distinct from Scotland, England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. So, begs the question, who are we as a people that share our part of these islands called Northern Ireland? A good place to start is found in the words of the Ulster poet, John Hewitt in a debate in the Irish Times on the 4th of July 1974, (The …

“Head up, shoulders back and unclench your fists. Look out and look up.”*

Mick Fealty on November 30, 2023, 12:30 pmLeave a comment | Readers 2490

flame, lighter, light

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” – John Adams “Well, if the vote is for Brexit things will be more interesting.” “Facts don’t matter”. “When I offered them my contact book, none were interested. Young journalists these days are only interested in a 9-5 job job which involves taking no risks.” These are all off record quotes from local working journalists …

The destructive use of dismissive language in politics…

Ian Clarke on November 28, 2023, 8:01 amLeave a comment | Readers 4806

neon light mounted on white surface

Two things coincided this week that led to this piece. The first was Thursday’s violence in Dublin. The second is the fact I’m about two thirds through Graham Linehan’s autobiography in which he details his fall from grace and into career isolation following his emergence as a critic of transgender ideology. Two very distinct issues but they had one thing in common, the use of language as a basis for avoiding debate of the issues underpinning both. Arnold Carton touched …

Horrific assault and the riots that followed indicate huge problems Irish politics cannot continue to ignore

Mick Fealty on November 24, 2023, 10:21 amLeave a comment | Readers 5369

waterfall, victoria falls, spray

Some additional thoughts to Brian’s round up last night on the first widespread rioting in Dublin since the reaction to the Love Ulster Parade that took place roughly the same quarter back in 2005. In a hastily written oped in The Irish Times, Fintan O’Toole rightly identifies this as a “testing moment” for the Republic, but he risks erring towards disowning the problem when he simply argues that the Irish people are “better than this”. Whilst I agree with the …

Learning to listen – the Thirty Project

Paul Gosling on November 21, 2023, 9:03 amLeave a comment | Readers 432

There is immense frustration across Northern Ireland’s community sector that the Civic Forum collapsed in 2002 and was not replaced. Demands are increasing for citizens’ assemblies, or similar, to provide an alternative voice to that of politicians, especially in the absence of the Assembly and Executive. Avila Kilmurray was a founder of the Women’s Coalition which led demands for the Civic Forum as part of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations. Avila makes the point that it was also the Women’s …

As another door closes on some people’s hopes for justice, should we consider putting welfare and reconciliation first?

Mick Fealty on November 20, 2023, 4:43 pmLeave a comment | Readers 2230

railway, forest, trees

One of the most cynical debates around the legacy of the Troubles lies in how we investigate the past. Although the details of the negotiations between Sinn Féin and Tony Blair are shady, it’s clear Adams successfully lodged a public interest defence. The letters of comfort story broke after an IRA volunteer who had had one assuring him that the PSNI were not looking for him found himself arrested when he touched down in London (because the Met still were). …

The continuance of lost power at Stormont is not cost free for the DUP

Mick Fealty on November 13, 2023, 1:50 pmLeave a comment | Readers 7101

iceberg, melts, climate

Away from the horse race politics of the latest survey published in the Irish News this morning is some fascinating [Excruciating? – Ed] detail for the DUP. Pete Shirlow is quoted in the FT… What comes out very clearly in our survey — and this is the first time I’ve seen this — is that people who are pro-union are stating that they will think about Irish unity if the assembly doesn’t come back. Unionist behaviour has driven away sectors …

Rough Beast: One woman’s ordeal at the coarse hands of Provisionalism in the shadow of the peace process

Mick Fealty on October 26, 2023, 4:35 pmLeave a comment | Readers 5387

Máiría Cahill begins and ends with an apt choice of words from Yeats’ famous poem, The Second Coming, both for the title but also a deft epilogue that references “the drowning of innocence” and closes the final chapter of her book Rough Beast. In the original the “rough beast” that “slouches towards Bethlehem” is the shadow that threatens the foundation of western civilisation. But the personal connotations lies in the violation of her young body at the rough hands of …

The other waiting list crisis

Paul Gosling on October 23, 2023, 9:03 amLeave a comment | Readers 2728

When waiting lists are discussed and shouted about in Northern Ireland, we are usually talking about our disintegrating healthcare system. But there is a second waiting list crisis – that of households seeking social housing. As at March of last year, there were 44,426 applicants on the social housing waiting list. Of these, over 10,000 were regarded as homeless and more than 31,000 were in housing stress. Nor is the situation improving. There was a 20% jump in applicants for …

Hamster wheel of demographic politics #3: ‘if it seems too good to be true, it probably is’.

Mick Fealty on October 12, 2023, 7:11 amLeave a comment | Readers 5844

transportation system, bus, car

So, part three of my analysis of the Coulter et al paper. The thing about rigorous political analysis that’s rooted in robust data (and sets don’t come much more robust than the Census) is how it reveals what common or garden journalism routinely misses. We have seen how the Catholic population seems to have reached its zenith, well short of the fabled 50%+1. And a rise (overall) in those describing themselves as Irish and Northern Irish and a fall in …

“Those who sing Zombie this week after Ireland’s match against Scotland know their history…”

Mick Fealty on October 4, 2023, 12:51 pmLeave a comment | Readers 13497

bar, cocktail, alcohol

I was at Trent Bridge week last Saturday to watch Ireland complete the only one of their three match ODI Cricket series. It was a blissful catchup with old mates (English and Irish) over a long day of that weird mix of generosity and competition. It was a particular pleasure to watch fellow Holywoodian Mark Adair in action for one of three island wide sports teams that comfortably straddle a border and sectarian divide that other codes (and the island’s …

Hamster wheel of demographic politics: What if we’ve passed the peak number of NI Catholics?

Mick Fealty on October 3, 2023, 10:30 amLeave a comment | Readers 7553

hamster, cage, faces

Like reading the last page of a novel first, the idea of an inevitable united Ireland is like suggesting that if you know how the books ends why have a plot? This may explain why, twenty five years on, an outline pitch for Irish unity has yet to be proposed. The inevitability myth is a consistent marker for an Irish brand of having your cake and eat it style populism. All the drama with fraction of the effort it would …

Politics of the tin ear in Londonderry, but unionists haven’t gone away, you know!

Terry Wright on October 2, 2023, 4:53 pmLeave a comment | Readers 5268

GINZA

“Why do Sinn Féin always refer to difficult conversations rather than just conversations?” “Maybe they are difficult for republicans” was the reply. It became clear at a recent meeting of the Commission on the Future of Ireland in Derry/Londonderry what the speaker may have been referring to. The gathering was weighted towards Sinn Féin’s agenda with Declan Kearney introducing the event in his capacity as Chair of the Commission and local Sinn Féin MLA Pádraig Delargy welcoming an audience which …