The Nolan TV Show

Posted on April 26, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Awful moment last night when I walked into the living room and discovered Stephen Nolan had been given a TV Show.

I had a Father Jack Hackett moment ….”How did that gobshite get on the television?”

I would like to see Nolan on that show with Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell. They travel the world re-uniting long lost family members. Stephen Nolan has “family” out there in USA and England……Rush Limbaugh, Shaun Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Jon Gaunt, James Whale. Shock Jocks with the same broadcasting DNA.

Just how Nolan managed to get a radio show ……ninety minutes long……five mornings a week is a mystery. I have never listened to it. It seems to be the chosen show of taxi-drivers but I refuse to get into a taxi with Radio Ulster and Stephen Nolan. Simples.

I can understand the taxi driver demographic but I was horrified to discover that a senior politician never misses it. And just how Nolan came to set the “political agenda” is perhaps a bigger mystery.

Nolan’s technique is the well-trodden shock jock path. Look for controversy. Pose as “man of the people” and referee a heated discussion between members of the public……seemingly chosen for their idiocy. Sprinkle the show with some anti-politics tirades and a willing politician to be confronted.

Last night Nolan made an unwelcome appearance on our screens. The item on “Punishment Beatings” was typically Nolan. A good issue for him….and his brand of “journalism”.In the Nolan world……there are thugs out who do not respond to police, courts, probation and prison. In the dark old days of the 1970s and 1980s..there was kangaroo justice operated by the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries. The IRA turned to Politics and the loyalists turned to Crime. In the unsophisticated world of the Nolan listener….the answer is vigilante justice. The show would have been made complete by a phone call from a “Mr Zimmermann in Florida” who allegedly has the same attitude to vigilante justice as a Nolan viewer.

Another issue dealt with by Nolan was “regional pay”…..an idea from the Conservative-led government in London…. to make the pay of civil servants in unemployment black spots (such as Norn Iron) based on local needs…..obviously this is an unpopular move with people here. The Nolan Show needs a pantomime villain and this was provided by A Posh Girl who was on The Apprentice Show.

In an effort to show his credentials as a serious investigative reporter (!), Stephen Nolan took to the road to Portrush and Portstewart where a local developer was apparently playing fast and loose with planning laws. Nolan confronted him in the street, probably hoping for a great television moment where our intrepid reporter was dealt some verbal or worse abuse. Nothing happened. The confronted builder drove off in silence.

Nolan decided he needed a new villain in the shape of studio guest, Alex Attwood, Minister for the Environment, whose powers are extremely limited. Of course Alex is a fellow member of the SDLP but I think I would be equally annoyed at the way he was treated…..if the Minister had been DUP, Sinn Féin or UUP. Actually I am absolutely certain I would have been equally annoyed because I detest Stephen Nolan much more than any political party…..except of course members of the Alliance Party.

Stephen Nolan does not do reasonable debate. He rarely let Attwood speak. Without a hint of irony, Nolan shook Attwood’s hand at the end of the er interview and thanked him for actually going on his programme.

I hope strong words were exchanged off-air. And I suspect that there will be a de-briefing of sorts at the Department of the Environment Press Office. And quite possibly in the SDLP Press Office.

And possibly in other Press Offices. Really all political parties should take a stand against Nolan and his hectoring and bullying stance. He is probably now the most influential man in BBC Headquarters in Ormeau Avenue. BBC are paying him a fortune. But just how the programme went down with his BBC bosses is interesting. They will publicly fend off criticism of their big star. But I suspect privately that they will point out to their bully boy that his show went beyond acceptable limits.

Just who is saying what at Ormeau Avenue is something I cannot know. Veteran journalist Noel Thompson of the reflective “Hearts and Minds” has been shafted. Stephen Nolan is in the ascendancy.

It is a question for BBC journalists. When Kate Adie, the veteran BBC “war” reporter from BBC in London did her first assignments in Belfast, she could not understand what the Troubles were all about…….until she noticed so few Catholics in the Ormeau Avenue nesroom. In the 1960s and 1970s the BBC was joined at the hip to the unionist regime, and barely tolerated nationalists. In the 1980s and 1990s it went into faux “lets get alongerist” mode. But now post-1998 the boys and girls at the Beeb are not at ease with the new Politics. Thru Nolan……they seem to have made a conscious decision…..to ridicule politics and politicians.

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Two SDLP Blogs

Posted on April 25, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Good to see that there are some other SDLP-orientated Blogs out there.

Ballycastle SDLP have a an excellent local Blog.  http://ballycastlesdlp.wordpress.com/

And Daniel Hendrie who is a SDLP Representative in Ballymoney has set up a Blog at http://dhendriesdlp.wordpress.com/. Daniel is also a Manchester United supporter.

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Is Blogging Inconsistent With Party Membership?

Posted on April 25, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

I have been blogging…off and on….for about five years. My constant inability to remember passwords has meant that I have moved sites a few times. But for the record this is the only “political” Blog, I have in Europe. I contribute to an American Blog. As many observant readers will note, the language I use in THIS Blog…..is often “American” or contains explanatory clauses which would be unnecessary for for a Norn Iron readership.

I have nearly always blogged under the name “FitzjamesHorse” or similar. Part of the fun has always been the way in which other commenters have assumed things about me. For example on the Slugger O’Toole-Stratagem blog around early 2010, a pro-Alliance commenter referred to me as a “failed SDLP politician from North Belfast”.

At that time I assumed he meant Martin Morgan. Now I must emphasise this does not mean that I believe Martin to be a failure. It was just my assumption that is who he meant. Later he mentioned that he had grown up reading my columns in “The Irish News”. Ah…..Brian Feeney. And the notion that I might be “Brian Feeney” became implanted in Alliance commenters minds. I suppose an ethical person would have denied it all. But it became more fun when the most pompous commenter on Slugger addressed me as “Brian”. And even more amusing when I started getting mis-directed emails “who is this bast***?”  And of course another dimension was not exactly denying anything made people assume ever more unlikely scenarios.

Meanwhile SDLP members were apparently finger-pointing and searching out a “mole”. They believed I was a SDLP person. I only discovered this a few weeks back when a SDLP person approached me and said that everyone assumed him/her  to be “Fitzjames Horse”. Meanwhile on a “myspace” blog, I got a lot of fun out of an assumption that I am a Catholic priest. And….maybe I am.

I first revealed my identity after a fringe meeting at the 2010 SDLP Conference. Basically I had stated I was a blogger and afterwards a SDLP member asked if I would tell him if he had ever heard of me. His reaction was quite positive.

Since then….it has not been an issue. Attendance at NVCA seminar, conflict resolution seminars, PlatformforChange meetings, Assembly Election Hustings and a few “Long Gallery” functions and for nine months membership of SDLP and attendance at Leadership Hustings, local and general meetings, Conference 2011 means that a lot of people know my identity. “Fitzjames Horse” exists only for “continuity” and consistency.

Yet I think the dynamic towards me has changed over the past two years or so. Indeed it is still changing. Clearly at almost 60 years of age, I am not interested in a political career or even one in a very limited local public or back room way. Whatever my ability with political theory or analysis or statistics……I am simply not a “people person”. I wont be knocking your door and asking you to vote for your SDLP candidate. And certainly not for myself. And I wont be in the position of asking anyone else to do that.

But I seriously wonder if being “outside” the SDLP is more helpful to that Party than being “inside” the SDLP. Certainly the SDLP ticks the boxes of being “nationalist”, “republican”, “socialist”. But I have made the point before that the SDLP has a tendency to listen more to people who are not actually members. Perhaps the surest way to influence SDLP thinking is to be “outside” it.

Certainly in early 2011, SDLP members were anxious to have me “on board”. Yet the only material difference is that it costs me £10 to be a member of SDLP. Obviously it has “cost” me more in terms of fundraising events such as “quiz nights”, “nights at the races”. But I get some access. The irony of course is that understandably I cant actually use a lot of that in blogging. And I dont like to be seen as a mere “spinner”.

In fairness, I have encountered very little opposition to the fact that I blog. Indeed I can only think of about three people who have had anything negative to say about it. Most people …to their credit…….have no idea what blogging is. It has always been my contention that bloggers think far too highly of themselves. And the rest are entirely supportive.

 

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Too Many Blogs

Posted on April 24, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

The peerless Mick Fealty over at Slugger’s place reports a blog by Ian Parsley “politician, businessman and linguist” which is headlined “Why Are There Not More Nationalist Blogs?”.

I have no idea. I remember when Ian Parsley’s blog was a unionist blog. Now it is an Alliance blog. Two for the price of one.I noted this strange blog entry earlier today. Any suggestions as to why Ian Parsley thinks it an interesting topic?

I suspected that it was merely a device to allow him to comment on comments he might receive. He does indeed promise to elaborate. Who knows? Anyway he seems to have hit the jackpot as Mr Parsley…….Alliance Party member…..the Party which is supported by Rowntree which is advised by Stratagem…..can now see the Blog given more legs………by Slugger O’Toole, which funnily enough is a partner of ……er Stratagem.

Thankfully I am outside the Norn Iron “blogging community”. There is something called a Web Ring, to which many are signed up. I am not. I couldn’t be arsed.

Mick wonders why the political blog has not taken off in Ireland. Surely the answer is simple. We are all much too intelligent to take blogging seriously. The preening self-regard that bloggers have for this nonsense is too silly for any serious-minded person to contemplate.

 

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Carlos Tevez……And The Alliance Party

Posted on April 22, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

At first glance, there is very little connexion between the Carlos Tevez, the Manchester City footballer and the Alliance Party.

But actually they have a lot in common. Earlier this season, Tevez refused to go on to the pitch as a substitute. He left England and headed off to Argentina, to play golf. Largely seen as a ruse to get out of his contract, Tevez discovered that nobody seemed anxious to sign him……..and returned to Manvchester City in January.

Of course to football fans, there is nothing worse than not “playing for the jersey”. City fans started burning the their shirts with that “32 Tevez” on the back. He was a hate figure. And was getting the blame as Citys early season form deserted them.

Yet football fans are fickle. Manchester City’s resurgence is largely due to Tevez’s return. There is something of a dilemna for City fans. They could possibly win the Premiership title. If they do ……and if theres a God in heaven they wont ….the return of Carlos Tevez might be the biggest factor. If on the other hand, they lose out to Manchester United……Tevez will get the blame.

So really we will have to wait until the last day of the season befoe City fans “judge” Carlos Tevez.

But what has all this got to do with the Alliance Party. Well …….Ian James Parsley.

Parsley stood for the Alliance Party as their candidate in the European Election in 2009. A few months later he defected to the UUP-UNCUF (Tories). Failing miserably in the 2010 Westminster Election, Parsley has recently rejoined the Alliance Party. This may or may not make him look “silly” but it makes the Alliance Party look extremely silly…especially as he has been elected as an officer of the Party in East Antrim.

Defecting from one Party (Alliance) is just about acceptable. But defecting from two Parties is not credible.

All of this makes Alliance rank and file look like Manchester City supporters. For the best part of two years, they regarded Parsley as a traitor. Now he is back among them. So thats ok then.

I dont think so. Carlos Tevez will only be forgiven if Manchester City win the Premiership. Ian Parsley will only be forgiven if he actually wins a title for Alliance. It wont be good enough for him merely to have ambitions to succeed Stewart Dickson (61) East Antrim MLA……..at the expense of seemingly more loyal Alliance figures in the constituency…..such as Gerardine Mulvenna, Gerry Lynch and Brendan Heading.

Yet Alliance need to be making headway west of the Bann. And it is hard to see how an Alliance Party influenced by Parsley……avowed unionist…. can go down there. And Alliance need to maintain their challenge in Belfast and suburbs. So hard to see how an Alliance Party influenced by Parsley………avowed conservative….can go down there.

In my next post, I might try and find a connexion between Mario Balotelli and the Alliance Party.

 

 

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Alliance Party Conference

Posted on April 20, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Unfortunately I wont be at the Alliance Party Conference. The venue…La Mon Hotel in East Belfast/Castlereagh is not convenient. A pity. It promises to be almost interesting.

In the past few months, things have started to go wrong for the Alliance Party. Frankly I am enjoying their discomfort.

They have had a good couple of years. David Ford became Minister for Justice. No matter that he is pisspoor at it. It allowed Alliance to strut its stuff.

In May 2010 Westminster Elections, Naomi Long took East Belfast from Peter Robinson and the DUP. And crucially in May 2011, the Alliance Party took a second seat in East Belfast Assembly Election. This gave them one seat on the Executive. Of course they actually had a second seat thru David Ford and Justice, a gift from Sinn Féin-DUP.

The party benefitted from a £98,000 donation from Rowntree, who bluntly stated that the money was to assist the Party win more Assembly seats. Rowntree are advised by Stratagem, which of course is a partner of independent website “Slugger O’Toole”.

This gave them even more opportunity to strut around. But it is actually a high point and the only way is down. East Belfast….which may not exist at the next Westminster is unlikely to re-elect Naomi Long, which kinda makes her Deputy Leader of the Alliance Party and unemployed. While they think they might hold on to a seat re-formed as South East Belfast, I think it unlikely. And certainly they will lose seats in any re-vamped Belfast constituencies at Assembly level.

David Ford looked uncomfortable on BBCs “Hearts and Minds” last night. Indeed I cannot ever recall him looking so uncomfortable and angry in a petty way.

Within a month, the Executive is losing one seat. The Department of Employment & Learning is deemed surplus to requirements and its work divided among other Departments. It was always the case that there were too many Departments and with the axing of DEL, the Party which only has eight seats in the Assembly will lose out…….Alliance.

Of course Alliance is screaming that this is unfair……with ironically the Minister of Justice leading the screaming. This is a sordid deal from the Executive, controlled of course by DUP and Sinn Féin. As the work of DEL will be split between Departments with DUP and SF Ministers, it will certainly increase the DUP-SF hold on the Executive.

Alasdair McDonnell (SDLP Leader) recently described the Norn Iron Government this “as a one party state with a green and orange wing”. Yet the Alliance Party will find no support from UUP or SDLP about this “grave injustice”.

With Fords Justice Department and Stephen Farry’s Department of Employment and Learning…it has two seats on the Executive. It only has eight Assembly seats (51,000 votes). The UUP has fifteen seats (88,000 votes) and SDLP has fourteen seats (94,000 votes). But UUP and SDLP are only entitled to one Executive seat each.

So…….Karma as they say….is a bitch. Or what goes round comes round. The Alliance Party got “Justice” a gift from DUP-SF. It was a sordid little deal.

The Alliance Party are considering withdrawing from the Executive. Who knows….another sordid little deal might be in the offing. But hard to feel sorry for the Alliance Party.

A few months ago, I was speaking to a former member of the Alliance Party, who spoke of another former member who would be “turning in his grave” if he knew what the Alliance Party had become.

Yet this is hardly the only cloud in the Alliance Sky. By all accounts…..mostly those of his supporters, Stephen Farry is a very capable Minister. By most accounts….the exceptions being Alliance Party members…….David Ford is a disaster at Justice. Farry is to the right of the Alliance Party. It prides itself.or did pride itself on being centrist and is actually connected to the British Liberal Democrats.

Well more or less connected. Naomi Long, East Belfast MP has decided to sit on the Opposition benches at Westminster, rather than sit with occasional Liberal Democrats on the Coalition benches. As such she is positioning herself to the Party’s Left. But she is isolated at Westminster. Which means that Farry is more obviously a successor to David Ford.

Farry is oft talked up by the Party’s “right” now bolstered by defections from the pathetic NI Conservative Party and “libera”l UUP types. The battle for the soul and future leadership of the Alliance Party is already under way.

Just four months after defecting from UUP-Tory Party, Harry Hamilton stood as an unsuccessful candidate for Upper Bann in the 2011 Assembly Election. Just eighteen months after defecting from UUP-Tory Party , Paula Bradshaw unsuccessful Westminster candidate in South Belfast has been elected to the Alliance Party (ruling) Council. Her husband, Ian Parsley who stood for Alliance in 2009 Euro Elections before defecting to UUP-Tory (Westminster candidate in North Down) recently rejoined Alliance and has found the East Antrim folks rather forgiving and has already elected him to their local Party officer board.

For some Ambition is a Virtue. But most ambitious people have a degree of Talent.

Parsley must surely be lining up an Alliance nomination for East Antrim at the next Assembly Election. He already has a powerful ally in his wife, Paula Bradshaw. Stewart Dickson, the East Antrim MLA is already over 60 years old. Will he stand next time round?  There are presumably long standing AP members in East Antrim who think they are more deserving than Parsley.

Parsley, himself seems to think that the defectors should be treated as equals. Well that might come as a shock to Alliance people who actually campaigned against Parsley, Bradshaw and Hamilton in 2010. The loyalty of the Alliance membership is just as important as the questionable loyalty and perceived talent of the defectors…especially serial defectors. A lot will depend on how much patronage or leverage Stewart Dickson can exercise in East Antrim. A lot will depend on other East Antrim Alliance “loyalists” like Gerardine Mulvenna, Brendan Heading and…..Gerry Lynch,(recently signed up by GOD). Alliance do better in the southern part of the constituency around Carrickfergus.

The loss of an Executive seat would be a major blow to Alliance. With the proviso that there may be boundary changes and a reduction in the number of MLAs  before the next Assembly Election, Alliance face an uphill battle if the threshold for gaining a seat on the Executive is raised from eight to (say) ten. Ten looks beyond them and paradoxically while people like Hamilton, Bradshaw and Parsley are welcomed as strengthening the Party, it actually limits their appeal.

Obviously Hamilton, Bradshaw and Parsley have instincts that are right of centre. But just as importantly they are unionist. They carry baggage. Two bags in fact…conservative and unionist. But to increase its appeal, Alliance needs to think in terms of winning votes in the Nationalist “west”. They are basically a party of South East Belfast and the Belfast suburbs.

It now seems that they have to make a play for western seats…..or become more “unionist” and try for unlikely gains in the East.

Karma. Pride does go before a Fall. All of which might mean that Rowntree will have wasted a lot of money bankrolling the Alliance Party. Back to the drawing board for the Rowntree advisors in Stratagem.

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From The Youth Team To The Senior Team

Posted on April 19, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

I have never been very good at getting the balance right between praising a young person and being patronising.

But on the other hand, in three weeks time I will be a 60 year old….an aul fella……so I suppose I should just get used to the fact that a person of my age cannot say anything to a young person without sounding pompous and patronising. So here goes.

There is a Gaelic phrase…..Mól an óige agus tiochfaidh sí which translates as Encourage Youth and it will Prosper.

I am not at all sure that the SDLP was ever really good at encouraging “Youth” but to be fair in 1973, when the idea was first discussed….it was frankly a bad time. Not really a priority. The SDLP possibly suffered.

But this is 2012. And for those who like to watch sport…..lets say Football…..supporters take a special delight in watching “youth players” develop into reserve team players and then see them run out with the First Team. It happens in Politics too.

There is more than a suggestion that the current crop of SDLP Youth are a “golden generation”. Clearly they can do things at Youth level. Clearly some such as Colin Keenan, the councilor for Lower Falls in Belfast and Colum Eastwood MLA for Foyle have now got “first team experience”. Others like Malachy Quinn and Christine Wilson have been designated as SDLP Representatives….”shadow councilors” effectively and I suppose I would call this “reserve team football”. But tellingly SDLP branches seem to be promoting youth to officer positions.

This has to be a good sign…both for the young members themselves and the Party Organisation.

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Clutching At (Jack) Straws

Posted on April 19, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

About a year ago one of the British Satellite Channels (More 4) showed a comedy entitled “The Trial of Tony Blair” with Robert Lindsay in the title role.

It was of course a comedy…a satire…but Tony B Liar is now a totally discredited politician. Held in contempt by everyone except his closest apologists.

But is Life imitating Art. Is the latest revelations about MI6 and questions about Jack Straw’s role in the rendition of a Libyan Islamist from Thailand via Diego Garcia to a torture cell in Gaddafis Libya…..just two weeks before B Liar visited the Libyan Leader….is this all the beginning of the end which will see B Liar and his cronies in a courtroom in the Hague to answer charges of war crimes?

I doubt it.

But it does put an ethical foreign policy in doubt. Sadly the legacy of “New” Labour was the abandonment of the working class to curry favour with Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre…..and middle England. It was actually more than that. It was the delivery of a terrorist suspect into Gaddafis hands.

Of course the Conservatives are hardly any better. They abandon Gaddafi and install a militant Islamist government on the shores of the Mediterranean. A Government which includes the “terrorist” MI6 delivered to Gaddafi.

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Ian Parsley & Zero Rates For Town Centres

Posted on April 19, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Ian Parsley makes an eloquent case for zero rates on town centre retail businesses.

He does not mention the Alliance Party.

Coincidently the new Alliance Chair is Glyn Roberts, CEO of the Norn Iron Independent Retailers Consortium.

Perhaps they can chat about this at this weekend’s Alliance Party Conference. Mrs Parsley (Paula Bradshaw) is on the Alliance Party Executive, having only joined the Party at the end of 2010.

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Square Pegs….Round Holes….Local Politics

Posted on April 18, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

I am going thru a lot of Nostalgia over the past few weeks. Lots of reasons. In three weeks, I will be sixty years old. And it should not actually be any more different than any previous birthday. It concentrates the mind. More so……..because I spent the first  thirty years with the family into which I was born………and the second thirty with the family I helped (with God) to create. Being born into a loving family is just about the greatest Blessing you can have. Or if you prefer …..Luck. Perhaps it allows us to believe that all families are the same. Growing up with no problems in the 1950s and 1960s makes us assume that everything was the same behind the door in the street.

Actually there WAS one problem. Poverty. My father had a near fatal heart attack in 1959 and was thereafter never able to work properly at his chosen trade. Instead he was in a series of extremely low paid jobs……actually exploited by a local Catholic business man. All this mans employees were in the same condition. Men and women with severe health problems and he paid them buttons.

In 1965 my father had another heart attack. The business man came to see him when he got out of hospital and went upstairs…….came down again after a few minutes, wished my mother all the best and we never saw him again. He had paid my father off…….but gave him £10………..my fathers weekly wage at that point was £9. Yet both my sister and I got thru Grammar School. The point is we were poor….but did not actually know it. My parents took a certain pride in owning their own house. Redemption for us all would come when the “Government” (my father believed) compensated us when our house would be knocked down to make way for “the new road” (the Westlink).

In fact our own house was a slum …..and was knocked down for slum clearance. We got no compensation at all but we were re-housed in a new-ish estate in the Greater Ballymurphy area (March 1970).

That period 1966-1969 was the first time that I discovered that my fathers old friend Paddy Wilson was actually a politician. He was always making representations for us. He was a Republican Labour member of the Belfast City Council and a member of the Norn Iron Senate. He was also a founding member of the SDLP.

In 1973, Paddy Wilson was murdered, stabbed to death on Cavehill. I had actually boycotted voting in the 1973 Council Elections. Father Dennis Faul, the Dungannon priest had called for a boycott to assist the internees. After the 1973 Council elections I joined the SDLP…in time for the 1973 Assembly Elections……about a month apart as I recall.

In 1979, our family left West Belfast to live in Dungannon in County Tyrone. I remained a member of SDLP until around 1981 but frankly Dungannon was different. In a way it was a bad time for politics. The H Blocks issue and Hunger Strike was coming to a head. There was no Stormont. There was a vacuum. And anyway I had met the woman (from West Belfast) who would become Mrs Fitzjames Horse.

A familiar enough story of Clonard Boy meets Clonard Girl….in Dungannon. As it happens we have never lived in Belfast. But both worked/work there. It is our spiritual home. We currently live about 25 miles from Belfast. A small village. While our children (both now married) are at ease with the local area….thru schools, friendships, marriage……..it is actually quite difficult for Mrs FJH and myself. We know nobody except our immediate neighbours.

In social terms, this suits us. We are not “outgoing”. But in terms of Politics, it makes life quite difficult. Thirty years ago, I was a West Belfast SDLP person exiled in Dungannon. I still feel the same thirty years later ….in a different place. “All Politics is local” (Tip O’Neill) and I don’t have the local knowledge or even “care enough” locally.

Which makes the SDLP Youth Conference in Beechmount, West Belfast, about 100 metres from the house where my granny lived from 1922 to her death in 1961……and where my auntie lived  from 1922 until about 1983 when she moved. In my mind, an Cultúrlann across the Falls Road is still a Presbyterian Church, I am still being told to stay clear of the Blackie River, I am still going to Fuscos chip shop and so on…….

I am tempted to say that I should never have left West Belfast. But that is just nostalgia. We never lived there. It was for our children that we live in this village.

Hearing Dr Joe Hendron speak last Saturday was a good reminder of the old days in West Belfast. Of course there is no point in me thinking that I still “belong” there. It has changed…….not much……..but it has changed. But the connexion to West Belfast is simply stronger than any connexion I feel to Dungannon or this village.

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