Society and Culture – Page 2 – Slugger Test

Is it now the case that music and politics don’t mix?

Ian Clarke on September 14, 2023, 7:46 amLeave a comment | Readers 2330

I was going to write this piece a couple of weeks ago when the hysteria over the Wolfe Tones at Feile had settled down. But it didn’t. So I didn’t. Then last week it was worse than ever with their appearance and apparent triumph at the Electric Picnic Festival. But probably better timing for me. Leaving aside the embarrassing spectacle of thousands of young people singing along to a dirge in tribute to sectarian terrorism, it raised a bigger question …

Why do we still have ‘peace walls’?

Paul Gosling on September 11, 2023, 9:02 amLeave a comment | Readers 2466

Why, a quarter of a century after the Good Friday Agreement, do we still have peace walls and interface barriers? The truth, of course, is that the peace deal ended the conflict, but failed to end division and embed reconciliation. Murdered journalist Lyra McKee famously wrote that more ‘peace walls’ have gone up since the GFA than have come down. This is despite a strategy from the The Executive Office containing the target to remove them all by 2023. Yet …

A Chief Constable acting with more consideration for Stormont than due process should give us all pause for thought…

Mick Fealty on September 1, 2023, 7:29 amLeave a comment | Readers 3655

break, windows wallpaper, 4k wallpaper

It’s been three weeks since Tom Kelly called for the resignation of the Chief Constable after the data breach. What brings this to a crisis though is yesterday’s judgement that he disciplined two officers ‘to allay a threat to Sinn Féin policing support’. I feel about Chief Constables much the same as Secretaries of State: they exist so our toothless incumbents (toothless because the DUP and SF are too rigid to find the compromises that would make consociationalism work) have …

A celebration of unionist culture

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on August 26, 2023, 6:36 pmLeave a comment | Readers 3766

A showcase day of unionist culture was held at 2 Royal Avenue, Belfast, with activities of a cultural identity video; a “living library” event; a talk by historian and broadcaster, Dr David Hume; an exhibition of archival footage by NI Screen of cultural events; and music performances. The event was organised by Belfast City Council, through its Good Relations Action Plan, Cultural Inclusion and Co-Design. This programme has been running since June 2022, with participants engaged in a process to …

Ulster-Scots shines bright in the Sunflower…

Soapbox on August 19, 2023, 8:47 amLeave a comment | Readers 4682

Alan Millar, journalist and award-winning Ulster-Scots writer, originally from Donegal, now based in North Antrim. 2021 winner of the Scots Language Society Hugh MacDiarmid Tassie and inaugural Linenhall Library Ulster-Scots short story prize. His first collection Echas frae tha Big Swilly Swally, was published in May. THE Sunflower Bar in Belfast was the place to be for Ulster-Scots language last Saturday, when eight poets and writers, came together for a groundbreaking showcase event, not seen for a long number of …

Over and over, and over, and over, and over Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal…

Brian O'Neill on August 16, 2023, 5:15 pmLeave a comment | Readers 7042

For me, the most interesting revelations in the Irish News Stephen Nolan story were how performative elements of his show are. Many of us long suspected it is basically a pantomime, where you have an assortment of revolving characters designed to elicit an emotional response from the audience. From the article: Messages and testimony do reveal one codename in the office was “ra ra”, described by sources to mean delivering a row on a show. Nolan Live had what was …

What is your media diet like these days?

Brian O'Neill on August 16, 2023, 9:59 amLeave a comment | Readers 1296

person using smartphone and laptop at the same time

I am going to write more about the current issues with BBC NI, but I was curious to know how your media diet has changed over the years. I find these days I watch more YouTube than the BBC. The vast range of subjects on Youtube appeals to my diverse interests. As for audio, I listen to more podcasts than live radio. Again there is a massive range of podcasts out there, and I like when they go deep on …

Is it a problem for the BBC when Stephen Nolan becomes the story?

Brian O'Neill on August 15, 2023, 11:29 amLeave a comment | Readers 14668

The tagline of the Stephen Nolan show is – Make the news, be the news. Unfortunately, the show’s host seems to be taking that literally. The Irish News has four pages in today’s edition covering alleged goings on at ‘the biggest show in the country’. I do not think the journalists Rodney Edwards and John Breslin will get one of Stephens’s famous Christmas cards. There are rumours there is more to come in this story. To say Nolan divides opinion …

Celebrating 35 years of Féile An Phobail…

Hugh Doyle on August 13, 2023, 5:57 pmLeave a comment | Readers 9135

Tonight will be the closing concert for Féile An Phobail and tomorrow no doubt the Twittersphere and polemical radio shows will be ablaze with furious indignation. It’s incredible to think that Féile An Phobail is thirty-five years old this year and how far it has come in those thirty-five years. I was born in the lower Falls in 1967 and in 1970 moved to a house in one of the housing estates clustered around the top of the Whiterock Road, …

Féile an Phobail helping young people sing all their cares away…

Brian O'Neill on August 9, 2023, 11:35 amLeave a comment | Readers 4730

crowd facing lighted stage

Féile an Phobail has grown massively over the past 35 years to become the biggest festival of its kind in Ireland. This year’s festival has over 300 events, and I personally have been enjoying a lot of the debates and concerts. What’s Going On! 10,000 people at Féile Dance Night singing the Four Non Blondes hit during Multunes powerful DJ set. The biggest and best Féile Dance Night ever! pic.twitter.com/to8j7HMWhK — Féile an Phobail (@FeileBelfast) August 8, 2023 I wanted …

A Reflection on Derry Day and the Maiden City by a Critical Friend and Long Departed Son…

Keith Williamson on August 8, 2023, 11:11 amLeave a comment | Readers 5883

brown brick building under white clouds during daytime

‘Derry Day’ takes place this Saturday, the second Saturday in August, when thousands of people within the city and beyond will commemorate the Relief of Derry after its 105-day siege of 1689. My childhood memories of Derry Day, in the late 1970s, are of more frugal times, with Waterside churches hosting visiting branch clubs for lunch and raising money for charity. My parents and other volunteers worked tirelessly to provide a good feed for hungry marchers and the craic was …

Why not a loyalist woman as the symbol of the ‘new Ireland’? Why not Bessie Burgess?

Andy Pollak on August 4, 2023, 8:59 amLeave a comment | Readers 6172

I was in Galway last month to see the brilliant production by the Druid theatre company of Sean O’Casey’s classic play set during the 1916 Rising: The Plough and the Stars. This is the tragic story of Jack Clitheroe, who abandons his young wife Nora to fight with the Irish Citizen Army: he is killed and she goes mad with grief. But it is also a fabulous comedy performed by the inhabitants of a poverty-stricken Dublin tenement, led by a raucous, drunken …

Why misunderstanding demography, failing journalism and ‘lawless thinking’ is letting northern nationalism down

Mick Fealty on July 31, 2023, 8:08 amLeave a comment | Readers 4066

Umbrella California St rain

Three reports have come out the last week that ought to give us pause for consideration and thought. Brian and Andy have covered two and the third is published this morning. Taken together they provide a sharp correction to our general thinking. First, I’d like to set the problem in a wider context: ie, the catastrophic collapse of mainstream journalism. In this I’m not trying to critique the performance of individual journalists many of whom have become friends of mine …

Good Art. Yours, mine, theirs or everybody’s?

Ian Clarke on July 30, 2023, 8:30 pmLeave a comment | Readers 1178

man wearing white sherwani robe beside graffiti

So we’re all agreed Cillian Murphy is a fine actor who was outstanding as Oppenheimer. Yes? Okay I felt Robert Downey Jr slightly stole the show but if Murphy wins the Best Actor Oscar I don’t think anyone could reasonably object But now I see there’s some question over him taking the role in the first place as he’s not Jewish. So how far do we take this? I see he was raised a Catholic. So that’s him ruled out …

Save Ulster from Theology…

Andrew Cunning on July 29, 2023, 4:09 pmLeave a comment | Readers 6773

a large room with a table and chairs in it

I wonder how many dead teenagers would be enough. Would it take more than one? Five? What about a few dozen? The Bible is clear, it’s one man, one woman. My theology prevents me from calling them by what they want to be called. It’s all woke nonsense these days. I’m talking here about the culture of shame incubated, perpetuated and weaponised by our mainstream churches here in Northern Ireland. For many ministers, youth pastors, volunteers, elders and senior members, …

A Tale of Two Twelfths…

Choyaa on July 29, 2023, 9:05 amLeave a comment | Readers 26803

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. This opening paragraph from Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities sums up many people’s views on the Twelfth with …

The impermanence of land and legacy

Allan LEONARD (Mr Ulster) on July 29, 2023, 7:12 amLeave a comment | Readers 1282

Impermanence is a collection of essays by writers from or living in Northern Ireland. Its co-editor, Neil Hegarty led a discussion at a John Hewitt International Summer School event, with contributors Jan Carson, Susan McKay, and Nandi Jola, reflecting upon the book’s themes and suggesting ways of looking at our past, present, and future. Neil Hegarty provided context for the book. He was in Paris and witnessed the burning of Notre Dame, which made him think about the loss of …

#Census2021: The private made public: sexual orientation in the census

Soapbox on July 28, 2023, 10:17 amLeave a comment | Readers 2727

change, board, door

Dr Paul Nolan is an independent researcher based in Belfast. He writes on conflict societies, social trends and demography. In 1977 Reverend Dr Ian Paisley launched the Save Ulster From Sodomy! Campaign. The exclamation mark built into the campaign title was intended to convey the urgency of the situation: at that time a Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association had been formed to campaign for the extension of the Sexual Offences Act (1967) which had decriminalised homosexual acts between consenting adult …

Singer Sinéad O’Connor dies…

Brian O'Neill on July 26, 2023, 8:56 pmLeave a comment | Readers 2057

A sad night for music fans with the announcement of the death of Sinéad O’Connor, aged just 56. I was a massive fan of Sinéad’s work. She was such an original artist when her first album, The Lion and the Cobra came out in 1987. The music was nothing like you had heard before. One minute she had the voice of an angel, the next she was screaming her head off in rage. I had the pleasure of being stood …

Barbie – More than Just a Doll?

Arnold Carton on July 22, 2023, 7:00 amLeave a comment | Readers 2156

blonde-haitred Barbie doll photo

My 20-year-old daughter became quite indignant listing in the car to radio discussions about the new Barbie film. Did the doll create image problems for young girls? Should it promote feminism? Was the film accepting Chinese control of the South China Sea? As I listened, I could see her point. Are culture-war-obsessed adults in danger of drowning out the joy and creativity children can have playing with dolls, or that young adults can have in remembering their childhoods? I fully …