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Conversation, politics and stray insights
Site URL: sluggerotoole.com
Feed URL: sluggerotoole.com/feed
Posts: 18
Followers: 17
Challenging Traditions: Reimagining Northern Irish Identity…
https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/10/04/challenging-traditions-reimagining-northern-irish-identity/
Published: October 4, 2024 09:36
Catherine Pollock (no relation – different spelling) from Derry is an unusual and remarkable woman. From a working class unionist background, she now works for the Irish language and cultural organisation Cultúrlann. She says of herself: “I’m not a…
Why Michelle O’Neill’s answers in the McMonagle case just don’t add up…
Published: October 3, 2024 16:35
It’s a sniper’s rule you only get two shots at the enemy. A third and they will figure where you’re hiding and you’re a goner. This is now Sinn Féin’s fourth scandal and it is clear it cannot be trusted to deal with child sex abuse cases that involve its…
Bidenomics made real
https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/10/02/bidenomics-made-real/
Published: October 2, 2024 18:17
As historian Heather Cox Richardson has noted: In 2004 a senior advisor to President George W. Bush famously told journalist Ron Suskind that people like Suskind lived in “the reality-based community.” They believed people could find solutions to problems…
Varadkar Calls an All Party Pledge “making reunification an objective, not just an aspiration”…
Published: October 2, 2024 15:15
Earlier this year Leo Varadkar was invited to the  Keough School of Global Affairs, at Notre Dame University foe a public discussion of Irish current affairs specifically on current changes in Irish civic life and the political future of the island of…
Explore the world of social science at ESRC Festival of Social Science…
Published: October 2, 2024 15:08
The UK’s biggest celebration of social science research returns this October for its 22nd year. The aim of the festival is to show how social science is key to understanding the world around us. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of…
Screaming into the Abyss
https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/10/01/screaming-into-the-abyss/
Published: October 1, 2024 16:00
I never intended for this to become a series. I had hoped that at each point some measure of sanity would prevail and that the combatants in the unfolding catastrophe in the Middle East would pull back from the brink rather than dance precariously upon it…
Why everything you’ve ever heard on the Northern Irish constitutional question is wrong…
Published: October 1, 2024 12:43
“…we don’t so much get our predictions wrong as make predictions about the wrong things”. – Ben Evans, via Memex 1.1. Like queuing for paper tickets for space trips once imagined in 1950s sci-fi, confident predictions of a near term border poll miss the…
Drivers told, stop your moaning about Belfast traffic…
https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/10/01/drivers-told-stop-your-moaning-about-belfast-traffic/
Published: October 1, 2024 06:51
Driving in Belfast is never a fun experience at the best of times. Still, lately, it has gotten even worse with the roadworks around the new Grand Central Station and the closure of the Sydenham Bypass at the weekend for resurfacing. However,…
Two Sinn Féin press officers have resigned after over references for colleague later convicted of sex offences…
Published: September 30, 2024 12:00
From the BBC: Seán Mag Uidhir and Caolán McGinley quit at the weekend just days after it emerged the pair had given references for former Sinn Féin press officer Michael McMonagle for a job at a charity. Earlier this month, McMonagle, from Limewood Street…
Slugger duvet day…
https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/09/30/slugger-duvet-day/
Published: September 30, 2024 11:33
Looking at the news this morning, I see that everything is bleak as feck. The Middle East is in flames, and Ukraine is still grinding on. Locally, Belfast is dark and wet. For those of us seeking refuge from the world. I am declaring a duvet day. Go back…
Choyaa: Unfit for Purpose? Unionism’s Struggle for Relevance in Modern Northern Ireland…
Published: September 29, 2024 06:30
With a litany of issues plaguing all facets of Unionism and a pressing need for serious introspection, it is disheartening to see that the key priority for many Unionists—led by the controversial Loyalist Community Council (LCC)—appears to be opposing an…
Open Sunday – discuss what you like…
https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/09/29/open-sunday-discuss-what-you-like-131/
Published: September 29, 2024 06:08
The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like. Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.
Open sunday – politics free zone…
https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/09/29/open-sunday-politics-free-zone-101/
Published: September 29, 2024 06:08
In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics. Comments will close at 12 pm on Monday.
Muted Chords: The Gap Between Past Protests and Gaza’s Plight…
https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/09/29/muted-chords-the-gap-between-past-protests-and-gazas-plight/
Published: September 29, 2024 06:04
“Give Peace a chance” John Lennon sang many years ago, Country Joe McDonald’s cry was “Whoopee we’re all gonna die”, and CSNY told us all about the four dead students in Ohio. Then in 1971 Marvin Gaye made his classic album inspired by the Vietnam war and…
UUP Conference – new leader calls for hope at disappointing party conference #UUP2024
Published: September 28, 2024 15:17
The UUP conference began with a closed session that was supposed to ratify Mike Nesbitt as their new leader. The suggestion that he’d rather wait until he could address the members in person seemed to be ignored, and a vote to ratify him went ahead. It was…
A do-nothing Programme for a do-nothing Executive
https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/09/28/a-do-nothing-programme-for-a-do-nothing-executive/
Published: September 28, 2024 13:12
A couple of weeks back, the sixth Northern Ireland Executive released its draft Programme for Government. Coming over six months after the Executive was formed in February, following a gap in office of around two years, a naive observer might have had high…
Michelle O’Neill addresses Ard Fheis for the first time as First Minister
Published: September 28, 2024 13:10
Michelle O’Neill took the stage of the 2024 Ard Fheis for the first time as First Minister. The party’s strong results in Northern Ireland have been a bright spot in a difficult political year, and O’Neill’s personal ratings remain high eight months into…
Weekly Bulletin…
https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/09/28/weekly-bulletin-2/
Published: September 28, 2024 09:33
Political, policy and regulatory developments impacting Northern Ireland What you need to know this week Housing developers could be asked to pay water costs Under new proposals being considered by the Minister for Infrastructure John O’Dowd housing…