Bloody Sunday inquiry: open thread
PUBLICATION of the Saville Inquiry report on Bloody Sunday is obviously the only political story worth writing about today, and I’ll try to put some thoughts together after the document is released this afternoon. In the meantime, the comments box is open for observations. Bookmark It
It’s a little secret, just the Robinsons’ affair
ANYTHING I could possibly write about the scandal rocking Northern Ireland politics right now will obviously prove superfluous in the face of the comprehensive take already on offer from Splintered Sunrise, and this inspired satirical cover version of a certain Simon and Garfunkel classic, courtesy of comedian Keith Law. That won’t stop me airing my [...]
Northern Ireland: why pizza delivery boys get gunned down
BY WHAT kind of chop logic is it possible to brand a couple of guys earning a low-wage living ferrying Quattro Formaggios around in a small town in Northern Ireland as ‘British collaborators’? Were 19-year-old Anthony Watson and an unnamed Polish man about to sign up with the armed forces? Were they supplying intelligence to [...]
Northern Ireland ‘recognition payments’: whose lives are worth £12,000?
I CANNOT imagine what sum of money could possibly make up for permanent blindness in one eye. But where someone suffers that outcome as a result of a workplace accident, compensation is set at a minimum of £31,500, plus an additional sum for loss of earnings. The court may even decide on a further amount, [...]
Ian Paisley: an appreciation
The most successful far right politician ever to operate within the wider British political system is finally taking retirement. Ian Richard Kyle Paisley – the one-time manic street preacher who is stepping down from the job first minister of Northern Ireland – built a substantial following among the protestant working and lower middle classes of [...]
