The Rise And Fall Of Slugger O’Toole

Posted on February 1, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

I suspect that the obituary of Slugger O’Toole will be written soon.

It should be sad to see an old friend dying on his feet…but sympathy is eroded when the dying person acts erratically and even viciously towards those who actually care for him.

Slugger was born in the hype of the “citizen journalist” craze when many bloggers thought of themselves in the same light as the Baghdad Blogger. Slugger was very much part of “that moment” and received much credit in the media.

I myself was an irregular commenter (sic) off and on in the glory years. I used several noms de guerres not because, I was a “sock puppet” but rather because my irregular appearances meant that I rarely remembered my log in details.

In January 2010, I became a regular. Slugger has (hopefully its a coincidence) gone downhill. …and the race to the bottom has actually accelerated in the past few weeks.

It was of course always the case that Slugger O’Toole had a coterie of core members and commenters who affected to despise the politics that they were discussing. They were too posh for the squalid nature of Norn Iron’s politics. I dubbed them The Overclass.

Frankly Slugger over-relied on the over-rated analytical skills of one or two contributors. And was too often a mutual admiration society. Actually pointing out the absurdity of it all was not tolerated.

Amusingly when I was registered for about six months, an Alliance Party member described me…outed me (as it were) as a “failed SDLP politician in North Belfast”. Amused but stunned (as I had not knowingly thought of myself as a SDLP supporter or politician) I assumed that the contributor thought I was Martin Morgan. I am not of course suggesting that Martin is a failure…….just that was who I thought they meant.

Sometime later, the same Alliance contributor seemed quite annoyed and wrote that he had been brought up reading my columns in the Irish News. Ah………not Martin Morgan. The obvious conclusion was that I was journalist and former SDLP man, Brian Feeney. Of course I should probably have denied it. But it was too good to miss. Especially when another Sluggerite……..himself in the wider freemasonry of journalism……..directly appealed to me as “Brian” that I was letting myself down by posting anonymously.

Ah well. Routinely the Alliance contributors assumed I was Brian Feeney.

I think the great problem with Slugger is that it denies it has an agenda. It does of course. The tie-in with Strategem ensures that. There is an orthodoxy. There are stories that Slugger should cover………the Northern Ireland Assembly Business Trust. And the role of “lobbying” in Norn Iron. And there is a default position that favours “lets get alongerists” (not necessarily the Alliance Party) from Platform for Change, the integrated school movement, “normal” (British) politics, conflict resolution and the like.

Frankly Slugger has favourites while purporting not to have favourites. It has obsessions. Regular but totally irrelevant “Space”  threads. The redeeming feature of Slugger is not its core team, including the resident Rottweiler and self loathing troll or a referee who somehow thinks of himself as neutral…….no the redeeming feature is a group of commenters not fully committed to the Slugger programme who take it all with a pinch of salt……rather than the preening self regard of Slugger pomposity. The most inspiring thing about the unofficial opposition is that they……we are diverse in our politics. We are a genuinely cross community group.

Can Slugger O’Toole survive? Well I hope so. But I fear not. Twitter and Facebook were not around ten years ago and those of us disenchanted with the unbalanced use of “moderation” (sic) have learned that we can easily set up our own gaffs with our own rules, while contributing to Slugger and keeping within the guidelines there.

That Slugger O’Toole has contributed to the discourse in Norn Iron is without doubt. That it can continue to do so is in serious doubt.

To misquote my favourite journalist, Peter Spencer (Sky News) it is not drink that is the downfall of journalists………it is their own sense of self importance.

Likewise for Bloggers.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

David McNasty

Posted on February 1, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

David McNarry UUP MLA for Strangford is occasionally known as David McNasty. He is in his early 60s and has been a member of the Ulster Unionist Party since he was just 15 years old. He is also Assistant Grand Master of the Orange Lodge.

He has been attempting to climb the greasy pole of Unionist and Orange politics for years. It is the default position of the Orange Order that the existence of two rival unionist parties (DUP and UUP) is detrimental to the Unionist and Orange cause/s.

McNarry is usualy seen standing behind successive unionist leaders, Trimble, Empey, Elliott and nodding sagely and harumphing “hear! hear!” at the wise words of whoever the Party Leader happens to be.

The present electoral position of the UUP (just sixteen seats in the Assembly) means that McNarry gets a greater prominence than he deserves. Deputed to secret talks on greater co-operation with the DUP by his Leader Tom Elliott………McNarry has been unceremoniously fired by Elliott seemingly for “going too far”.

Normally I would not have any sympathy for McNarry but watching a recent TV interview he was genuinely shocked….I would even say he was hurt.

Peter Robinson (Leader of DUP and First Minister) has been talking up unionist cooperation and raising the prospect of (eventually) a single unionist party and once more Robinson has outflanked the UUP, spreading dissent in their ranks and making Tom Elliott look silly. Elliott actually makes himself look silly by talking about himself in the third person…….never a good sign.

The actual argument is too petty and nonsensical to analyse. It is only sufficient to know taht the UUP is tearing itself apart.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Sir” Fred Goodwin Becomes “Mr” Fred Goodwin

Posted on February 1, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

I am no fan of the British “Honours” System. In so far as there should be awards at all, they should be for actually achieving something. But the system of awarding a MBE to a long-serving midwife who has delvered babies in the treacherous weather in the Scottish Highlands and awarding a OBE to a school dinner lady in Lancashire…serves as a smokescreen to give bigger and better awards to senior civil servants and captains of industry.

Routinely the Chief Executives of British banks were among those knighted. One such person was “Sir” Fred Goodwin, Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, who became the poster boy of banking incompetence when he headed the bank that eventually needed a £45 billion bailout from the British taxpayer and the poster boy for banker greed when he initially accepted a pension of £600,000 per year (later “savagely” reduced to a mere £300,000 per year.

Goodwin kept that knighthood, which oblidged all who met him to call him “Sir Fred” rather than “Mr Goodwin”. Of course, he is no better than any British citizen………well actually he is and thats the problem. A Honours system produces a system which insitutes and legitimises different stra in society……from the Queen down…….thru Princes…Dukes….Viscounts….Earls….Lords……Knights…..OBEs…… MBEs.

There is a mechanism for annulling honours. The little used forfeiture committee, a few months ago ruled that a headteacher who had lost the confidence of her professional body lose the title “Dame” (the female version of “Sir”) and there is the better known example of “Sir” Anthony Blunt who two decades ago was stripped of his knighthood. He had been a war-time Russian agent who had confessed all to British Intelligence and the affair was hushed up and he went on to become “Sir” Anthony Blunt, Curator of the Queens Art Collection.

So what of Fred Goodwin? Well, he has been the subject of much comment in the Press over the past few years. By no means the only banker who screwed the nation but certainly the most visible. And in times of austerity, job losses, welfare cuts etc…….he is perceived as having been the man who got away with it all. And a living example that the British people are not “in this together” as the Tory led Government claims. Now it is important to note that Goodwin received his knighthood under the previous Labour Government.

But yesterday Goodwin was stripped of his knighthood. And curiously (typically) the Press which led the lynch mob has changed its mind. There are now some people who think that poor old Fred has been scapegoated and rather than call for more heads to roll………as they would have done literally in Tudor times….the Press and friends of bankers are now worried that this is reflective of not just an anti-banking or anti-business agenda.

Yet it is slightly uncomfortable. Stripping Fred Goodwin of his knighthood is a very peculiar……..genteel ……form of lynch mob.

Take for example, “Lord” Taylor of Warwick. Member of the House of Lords…the Legislature. “Lord” Taylor was previously John Taylor the leading black member of the Conservative Party who failed to get elected to the House of Commons an became the first black Conservative “Lord”. Unfortunately “Lord” Taylor was unavailable for legislative duty for part of 2011, as he served a prison sentence for faudulently receiving expenses.

Take the een better known example of “Lord” Archer……novelist, former Chairman of the Conservative Party and former Tory MP as Jeffrey Archer. Ex-con. Jailed in 2001, he was jailed for four years for perjury at a previous libel trial where he won substantial damages.

Yet does it not seem a double standard that poor old Fred loses that knighthood. After all the only thing of which he is guilty is incompetence. There have no criminal charges. Yet Jeffrey Archer, convicted perjurer remains a “Lord”.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Robert Burns …..Jacobite to Jacobin

Posted on January 26, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

It is somewhat ironic that in their search to find a culture……Unionists discovered the Ulster-Scots Culture and decided to honour Robert “Rabbie” Burns……..Burns Night being 25th January……..it seems almost churlish to point out that Robert Burns was born in 1759……..just thirteen years after the Jacobite cause was defeated at Culloden……..and many of his works show his Jacobite sympathies and distaste for the Hannoverian dynasty. Still, if I pointed this out to unionists they would only go off on another daft search to finda culture and heritage. Personally I preferred it when they thought they were the lost (very very very very lost) tribe of Israel.

Some of Burns’ poetry is surprisingly open “John Highlandman” (1785?) for example. Others are perhaps coded………..it was standard practice for Jacobite sympathisers to keep their politics secret and perhaps the greatest skill of the poets and bards was to write in code.

Much is made of Jacobite heroism. Rightly so. The bravery of the Highlanders and their Irish allies is a historic fact. As is the butchery inflicted on the Highlands after Culloden. Yet “modern” Jacobites………who exist in an unreal tweediness of spineless toasts to the “King Over The Watter (sic)” rarely point out that “Prince” Charles Edward……….the Bonnie Prince Charlie was a drunken, woman-beating, cowardly monster. It doesn’t say that on the shortbread tin.

The biggest contribution Bonnie Prince Charlie ever made to his devoted subjects was to desert them and leave them at the mercy of the victorious enemy. Too cowardly to rally his decimated army at the rendevous point at Ruthven Barracks……..his last order was that his followers should look to their own safety. Nobody looked to his own safety more than Bonnie Prince Charlie.

While men, women and children died to aid his escape……..Charles settled back to the drunken life of excess in the palaces of Europe. This means that Charlie deserted his own cause and by his own order…….his followers were free to look to their own best interests. Some did so by adopting to the new regime (as per his instruction) and some did so by deserting “monarchy” and adopting the freedom of Republicanism (as per his instruction). Yet “A Young Highland Rover” (1787) is claeraly a reference to Charles and romanticises the escape myth/desertion reality.

While Robert Burns grew into manhood and was writing his Jacobite poems, he would already have been aware that the so called hero was in fact a drunken self-pitying fraud who blamed the Scots for his defeat. Burns’ best known Jacobite song “Ye Jacobites By Name” (1791) is written three years after the death of Charlie in a Roman palace. Burns blames Jacobite “doctrines” Why? Well by this stage there was a new philosophy to replace the discredited Stuarts…..the French Revolution had taken place in 1789.

Yet Burns continues to write of Jacobite heroism. “Frae the Friends and Land I Love” (1792) is about brotherhood and nationalism. The beautiful “Highland Widows Lament” (1794) ,her destitution and poverty roaming Europe is a sharp contrast to Charlies fate.Indeed there is a suggestion that she blames Charlie Stewart (sic). In 1794 Burns also writes “A Fiddler in the North” which bemoans the “foreign squeals” that have replaced Highland pipes. It is a metaphor.

There is irony that within a single week every January, two rival groups celebrate rival myths. On 25th January Norn Iron unionists will celebrate Rabbie Burns as “their” poet but will not dwell overly on the fact that he was the poet who commemorated and celebrated Jacobitism.

And on 31st January, the plastic pretend “legitimist monarchists” will cry crocodile tears for a cowardly, drunken, serial abuser of women “Bonnie” Prince Charlie. They will quote Burns but will not dwell much on the fact that Burns gave up on Jacobitism and adopted the Republican philosophy of France. Even by 1794 (??) Burns was going further than Tom Paine……..Rabbie Burns was writing a poem celebrating “The Rights of Woman”. Now that is…….revolutionary.

Why should psuedo-modern Jacobites…..yes I know its an oxymoron find fault. Burns is only obeying the instruction of “their” Prince. Look to Ouselves. Our Families. Our Rights. Our Nations.

There was a time when Jacobitism served Irish and Scottish nationalism. No true Irishman would accept that our nation should serve a king………ANY King. I wont presume to speak for Scots..

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

The Scotland Question

Posted on January 26, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

There is a surprising number of threads about Scottish independence on Norn Irons third best political website. In part this is tribal……Norn Irons unionists will, by default back a “United Kingdom” and oppose Scottish independence. Irish nationalists of course oppose the “United Kingdom” and any weakening of the link between Scotland and London is to be welcomed. And we love our proxy wars. Unionists line up to support Israel. Nationalists line up to support Palestine. It is how we are wired. And understandable that Slugger O’Toole having solved (???) the Norn Iron Question should address the Scotland Question.

To recap. Scotland is part of the United Kingdom but since the days of Margaret Thatcher has been agitating for greater autonomy up to and/or including full Independence. Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative years were a watershed. Anti-working class, anti-trade union, Thatcher’s policies such as the attacks on the coal mining industry, the steel industry and the public sector as well as trialing the “poll tax” in Scotland has produced a situation where there is only one Conservative MP in Scotland after the 2010 British General Election. It is so unlikely that there will be an improvement that Scottish Conservatives are actually talking about changing the name of the Party. There are literally more Giant Pandas in Scotland (Edinburgh Zoo recently received two from China) than Tory MPs.

Following Tony B Liar’s (Labour) triumph in the British Election of May 1997, Labour fulfilled a manifesto promise that the Scottish people would be granted a referendum on Scottish “devolution” a parliament with limited powers. And in September 1997 the Scottish people voted for their own parliament in its capital city, Edinburgh.

From a “British” perspective the referendum was a mistakes. They did not learn the simple lesson of History that an “independence” movement is not neutralised by appeasement. It is actually emboldened. The Government in Scotland is the majority Scottish Nationalist Party, under a master tactician, First Minister Alex Salmond who quite simply has out-thought the previous Labour Government (to 2010)and its Conservative dominated successor (2010 onward)

The referendum was also a mistake from another point of view, often described as the West Lothian Question, first posed by Tam Dalyell British Labour MP for West Lothian ……..as far back as the 1970s.

Dalyell like many Scottish Labour MPs was a unionist at heart…….and he posed the question that a Scottish MP such as himself would/should not be eligible to speak or vote at Westminster on an issue which only affected English people. This seemed merely of limited academic interest in the 1970s but took on a whole new meaning when Scotland was granted devolution and got it’s own government.

Indeed in 2007, Gordon Brown MP for a Scottish constituency became Prime Minister of the “United Kingdom” and presided over a “UK” Government which had a Health Secretary and Education Secretary who could not legislate for the people living in the Prime Minister’s constituency. Thus a British Cabinet discussed increasing prescription charges for medicines which were only applicable in England. Charges in Brown’s own constituency had been abolished by the Scottish Government. It was not supposed to be like this.

But Devolution is a genie which will not be put back in the bottle. The reality of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government in Westminster in 2010 ……preaching austerity and hardship had a predictable consequence in the Scottish Parliamentary Election in May 2011. The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour all lost seats and the Scottish Nationalists were the big winners returned to govern Scotland on its own.

Yet it should be pointed out that the SNP only holds six of Scotlands fifty nine Westminster seats (Labour holds forty). How can the discrepancy be explained. Well of course the dynamic is different. People vote Labour to keep Tories out of Government (it manifestly failed to work in 2010), the system of voting is different and of course issues are different.

But the 2010 figures are revealing Labour 40 seats, Liberal Democrats 12, Conservative 1……SNP 6.

The Liberal Democrats are “dead men walking” in Scotland. The 2011 Scottish Parliament Election practically had the Party in melt down. Their crime of going into coalition with the hated Tories will not be forgiven. The Tories dont need to care about Scotland. But Labour with all those Scottish seats cannot win a majority at Westminster……..To regain power Labour cannot afford to lose seats in Scotland.

Yet the dilemna for the British Labour Party is that to keep hold of and increase  ENGLISH seats……it must curtail the power of the Scottish Parliament.

Thus Alex Salmond and his SNP hold all the cards. And Salmond is playing his hand brilliantly. He will be organising a referendum in 2014 on Scottish independence. And David Cameron………whose Party holds just one Scottish seat says he will not allow it and that the British Government will frame the question.

The tactic appears to be to make the issue more complex than it actually needs..provide more options so that no clear majority emerges. Of course the basic premise that the future of the United Kingdom is not just a question for the Scottish people is flawed. If Scotland wants a “divorce” from England……then that right cannot be vetoed. The difficulty is that there is no pre-nuptial agreement. How will assets and liabilities be split up? Who owns Scotland’s Oil? Who controls a “Scottish” Army? Can Scotland tell those American nuclear submarines to leave? Of what proportion of the UK National Debt does Scotland pick up the tab?

Yet the past week has been marked by an increased level of vitriolic exchanges between London and Edinburgh. England simply does not understand the Celtic Nations and seems shocked, irritated and angry that Scotland could even think this way. The Celtic Nations on the other hand totally understand the English.

As always its a matter of History. And there is an old truism that the English are incapable of remembering and the Irish are incapable of forgetting. Harsh but probably true.

There is certainly a tendendency in ALL big nations……USA, Britain included…. that the people previously oppressed should simply “get over it”, “move on” and “draw a line under our shared history and move forward together”. Easier said in Washington than on a Sioux Reservation in Minnesota. Easier said in London than in a pub in Crossmaglen.

The curious response of both Conservative and Labour to the Scottish “threat” (sic) is an appeal to History. But its not merely a question of an END to History……it is as much about a BEGINNING to History.

For the Conservatives seek to define the History of Scotland as beginning with Act of Union of 1707 (confirmed on the field of battle in 1746)…..an appeal to the aspect of a United KINGDOM which ended hostility. For Labour, History begins in 1798 (and subsequent advances of the Enlightenment which stresses a Brotherhood beyond the artificiality of Nationality…..an appeal to the aspect of a UNITED Kingdom.

It seems to me that such a mixed message is bound to fail.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

In Praise Of The Blogger Circa 1920

Posted on January 24, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

The statue celebrates the Speakers who made speeches to the people of Belfast from the steps of Customs House Square

.

There is nothing “new” about Blogging.

The Blogosphere is really just the steps at the Customs House.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A Fleadh In Their Ear? Culture In “Stroke City”.

Posted on January 24, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Here is some good news.

In July 2010, Derry was selected to be the City of Culture in 2013.

Now here is some bad news.

In July 2010, Londonderry was selected to be the UK City of Culture in 2013.

Or put it another way, welcome to Norn Iron where good news for one (nationalist) person is bad news for another (unionist) person.

Any fool would know that selecting Derry (you dont honestly expect me to be “balanced” and use the L word) would be a disaster……or at least divisive……..so let me be the first fool to tell you “I told you so”.

I suppose the best way to describe the City of Culture concept is to say that it is based on the European City of Culture concept and “UK” cities allegedly vie for it as a kinda mini-Olympics. I say “allegedly” because the actual bids are made by PR companies on behalf of cities. As always, PR companies dont lose any money. The only losers are the council taxpayers in the losing cities.

Derry is actually the first winning city and it beat off such culture hot spots (???) as Birmingham and other cities (Wikipedia probably has a list of them). And that is kinda the problem. The award is actually for the “UK” City of Culture and there is a perceived irony in the fact that nationalist city Derry has won this award.

I have no idea what the point in a City of Culture is………except that every four years a new city will be selected……..and as well as hosting major arts events, it will boost tourism and the bank balances of PR companies.

Of course the nationalist city immediately began “neutralising” the UK bit. The City of Culture Offices in Derry makes no reference to the “UK”.

Of course unionists love saying “Londonderry” and “United Kingdom” almost as much as nationalists like saying “Derry” and “Ireland”. And there have been all kinds of attempts over several years to make the name of the City more neutral. It is not unusual to see signs that refer to “Doire-Derry-Londonderry”. The city council is “Derry City Council” but the official name is still “Londonderry” ……it has a “royal charter” for a few hundred years and Derry people therefore have no right to name their own city.

Of course this leads to trouble. One Sunday,about two years ago, a Canadian tourist went to the biggest bus terminal in Belfast and asked for a bus to “Derry”. He was told that there were no buses to “Derry” and was encouraged to go to another bus terminus. Of course the “helpful” Translink employee was just refusing to acknowledge the name “Derry”. The Canadian tourist missed his bus, complained, got some compensation and the employee was “retrained”. Of course in one of the great “letsgetalongerist” compromises, the public announcements in the bus station usually refer to “The Maiden City Flyer”

Several years ago, Gerry Anderson, a Derry based local broadcaster, invented the term “Derry-Stroke-Londonderry” and usually when people do not want to cause offence they ostentatiously or comically use the term. President Bill Clinton spoke in the Guildhall Square in Derry several years ago…………and obviously his advisors in protocol were on the case. There was no way that he could make an entire speech without saying the “D” word or the “L” word. So he referred to “Derry City and Londonderry County”…………and did this so often that the citizens loved it.

But really for the last year and a half, the entire project has been dogged by controversy, not least the fact that the City of Culture offices have been blown up……..which is not very……….cultured.

Nationalists have sought to neutralise the “UK” bit. Unionists have sought to maximise it.

Consider therefore………An Fleadh Cheoil……The Music Festival……..a celebration of Irish traditional music, organised by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann…..where the best singers, fiddlers, mandolin players, dancers from all of Irelands thirty two counties….plus USA, Britain, Canada, Australia gather in competition. Now that’s what I call CULTURE.

Except……….this is Ireland after all. The Derry branches of CCE have put in a bid to the CCE Board for An Fleadh Cheoil for 2013 to be held in Derry. Who could possibly object? Well the Ulster Council of CCE is not backing their colleagues in Derry. Although CCE is not political (in itself) it follows (as with other issues like Irish language, GAA Sport etc) that the fiddlers, whistlers, dancers and banjo players are Irish nationalists to a man and woman………..not to mention the Under 10s, Under 12s.

Of course all this has greatly amused unionists. Its a Win-Win situation. If An Fleadh is not part of the 2013 “UK City of Culture” programme, they will claim that nationalist intransigence is to blame. On the other hand if An Fleadh is part of the programme………they can claim nationalism has compromised.

Welcome to Norn Iron.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Whatever Happened the Leveson Inquiry

Posted on January 24, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Thousands of people…….well ok……..ONE person has been asking why I no longer report on the Leveson Inquiry. Well basically I got tired but now I share reporting duties with two other folks at a dedicated site. Makes sense.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Colin Duffy

Posted on January 22, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

I have no idea whether Colin Duffy, the dissident Republican from Lurgan, County Armagh is responsible for the murder of two British soldiers in 2009. Nor do I know if he is responsible for the murder of an Ulster Defence Regiment soldier in 1995………for which he was acquitted on appeal…….. or the murder of two RUC officers in 1997 for which he was charged but the case never reached Court.

Only a handful of people actually know the answer to these questions, including of course Colin Duffy.

What I do know is that …on Friday…..Mr Duffy was found not guilty in a Diplock Court……ie one where the case was heard by a single judge. A Jury does not hear terrorist related cases, due to justifiable fears about “intimidation” or “favouritism”. Another man, Brian Shivers was covicted of the murder of the two soldiers.

The received wisdom borne out by several cases is that Diplock Courts usually find against the defendant. And in this case, it is clear that the defendant Duffy was given the benefit of doubt which perhaps did not extend to Shivers.

The key evidence was DNA samples taken from the burned out car which had been used in the gun attack at Massarene Barracks in March 2009. Shivers DNA was found on a box of matches, which the jusde deemed proved that Shivers was present at the scene when the car was burned…..and was therefore involved in the murders. Duffy’s DNA was found inside a latex glove and on the seat belts of the car but the judge ruled that this only proved that Duffy had been in the car at one point, not necessarily during or after the murders.

Shivers was sentenced to Life Imprisonment (he has a terminal illness anyway) and Duffy left court a free man.

At a Press Conference yesterday, Colin Duffy claims that he is the victim of persecution by an unreformed police. And that he was “framed” and the DNA evidence “planted” in the car.

To anyone who has followed Norn Iron closely, this is of course possible. It has certainly happened before. Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism are extremely unpleasant and it is not unknown in London, New York or Paris for the police to take short cuts with evidence…..to “assist” the judical process if they “know” they have the right man in custody.

Yet, it seems that Duffy was given the benefit of the doubt. Which of course he should be given……..unless of course, it is an unreasonable doubt. And seasoned watchers of the judicial process have commented that this decision was on the edge of reason.

Of course Colin Duffy was given a heroes welcome in the dissident republican community but I thought it was surprisingly muted. While the mainstream Republican Movement (ie Sinn Féin) is bitterly opposed to dissidents who broke with the main IRA after the 1998 Agreement, there is understandably an ambiguous attitude to Colin Duffy with the rank and file. He is after all a former comrade.

But I am curious about the muted reaction to Duffy’s release. Of course the killing of the two soldiers who were picking up a pizza delivery outside their barracks was wanton murder. Mainstream Republicanism has distanced itself from this kind of action. “Traitors to the People of Ireland” as Martin McGuinness put it. But for all his posturing in custody awaiting trial……..Duffy staged hunger strikes, a no-wash “dirty” protest…..Duffy did not seem the type to be a martyr. His defence was essentially that “it wasnt me…….it was other (named) people”……….is a definite NO-NO in Republican thought.

Likewise co-defendant Shivers sought to defend the DNA discovery (on a box of matches) by pointing he out that he often smoked cigarettes with two (named) people and that “they were always taking my matches”.

Shivers is in jail, where he will likely die because of the diagnosed terminal illness. And Duffy……?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The “Royal Maternity” Babies

Posted on January 22, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

For over forty years, I have got used to seeing local TV reporters standing in front of Belfast landmarks such as the City Hall or Courthouse. And too often I have seen familiar faces from BBC London or American news channels like CBS and CNN. Its par for the course if you live in or near Belfast.

Yet I dont think I have seen a sadder sight than the news stories this week. News Reporters at the entrance to the Royal Maternity Hospital (part of a large complex which includes the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Royal Childrens Hospital and other Units). One of the City’s largest employers…we all know at least one person who works there……….and we all have experience of being a patient, a visitor or indeed bereaved. My own father died there twenty six years ago, yesterday.

An outbreak of infection …pseudomonas…has tragically taken the lives of three babies in the neo-natal unit in the past ten days or so. Anyone with experience of infant mortality (my granddaughter died on the day of her birth seven years ago) will know just how painful it can be.

My heart goes out to the parents of the three babies. And my thoughts are with the parents who will not know the results of tests carried out for another twenty four hours.

A “deep clean” is now taking place in the neo-natal unit.

I would hate this Blog to always be about Politics. Because Belfast and Norn Iron is NOT about Politics. Or Civil War. At least not always. Mostly it is about people muddling thru as best they can. And people……….Catholic nationalists, Protestant unionists and letsgetalongerists working in hospitals to make lives better.

The tragedy of Norn Iron is NOT that people are monsters. The tragedy is that they are very decent people.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment