My knowledge of nationalist involvement in World War One was never as extensive as that of soldiers mainly from the unionist community who served in the 36th Ulster Division. After discovering in my late mother’s family home, war medals and a card bordered in black with a black ribbon and containing a photograph of…

  As one who actively campaigned for the Belfast Agreement and supported the experimental concept of power sharing and parried some punches to boot, it is with genuine sadness that their demise is being written into our history. Such is the reality. After 10 laboured unproductive years unionists have learnt the salutary lesson that Sinn…

  Last Friday, a letter was sent to an Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, by over 1,000 people from right across nationalist civic society. Individuals with political affiliations and none, from the worlds of academia, health, the legal profession, business, the community and voluntary sector, sport and the arts made a direct public appeal to the Taoiseach…

    It was if a rewind button had been hit and what followed was a playback into conversations that have spanned two-plus decades. The panel discussion in north Belfast on Tuesday was on tackling paramilitarism; the question: How can government and civil society work together? We now have an Independent Reporting Commission – established…

“I have lived in Leeds which is a great place for 30 years and worked all over England “he said in his rich Tipperary accent “but I have come back. England’s not the same. It’s full of foreigners.” The retired tradesman who was now working part-time as a security-man on the building site where a…

  The on-mic/on-the-record commentary was bad enough – but what was whispered on the sidelines of Thursday’s Stormont talks was all the more telling. “Shit show” was one summary. “Complete bollocks” another. “Bloody awful” yet another two word put down of this all-party meeting with Secretary of State Karen Bradley. When you think things are…

  The anger within unionism requires and deserves to be urgently addressed by a Unionist Convention representing the entirety of the unionist family. Someone has to unlock the drift circling endlessly in choppy political waters. That someone incorporates social corporate unionism and it is they who must step up to the mark and end the…

  I would like to thank Eamonn for the opportunity to use the power of www.eamonnmallie.com to float my idea for breaking the political impasse in Northern Ireland. In brief, I suggested appointing Commissioners to liaise with the Permanent Secretaries of the Northern Ireland Civil Service to produce a list of urgent actions to be agreed, or…

    If you can’t see a problem, then you can’t fix it; and if you can’t see, or won’t accept, that you are part of that problem, then the route out of that predicament becomes all the more challenging to navigate. After almost 650 days without government on the political hill at Stormont, the…

      You cannot but be impressed with the way the Rt Hon Sir Patrick Coghlin and his colleagues are running the public inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive. The retired judge, Dame Una O’Brien and Dr Keith MacLean OBE are a class act. Having chaired one ofStormont’s statutory committees, I look on with…

    The week from the 23rd to the 30th October 1993 saw twenty four people lose their lives in one of the bloodiest weeks of the ‘Troubles’. The killing started with the Shankill Bomb on the Saturday and there were other killings during the week, before concluding with the Greysteel Massacre on the following…

  Think about what is happening inside the Northern Ireland Office right now, and what is due to happen in New York in just a few days time. In Belfast and London, there are decisions to be made on the responses to the legacy consultation; decisions on what next after asking questions on a proposed…

  Last week Relatives for Justice published it’s submission-response on the consultation draft bill arising from the legacy agreement at Stormont House among the five main political parties and both governments. Our submission was accompanied by video submissions from scores of families affected by all conflict participants outlining why they want the proposals implemented. Notwithstanding…

  I’ve been wondering lately whether anyone in Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leadership circles actually tries to reflect upon what republicans, nationalists, and other progressive minded citizens think about the current political situation. Do they even care what others think? The evidence suggests not. Several days ago the DUP leader pronounced that her party could…

    Crisis. Leadership issues. Spending issues. Confidence issues. Talk of last chance and of rearranging the furniture. I was watching the teatime football on television on Saturday – that first-half debacle as Newcastle United took the lead, added to it and pushed Mourinho and Manchester United ever closer to some decision on those issues…