I was involved in an event at Feile An Phobail last week, principally about marching bands and understanding Unionist and loyalist marching culture, to which people from both communities in West Belfast were in attendance. The success of the event, unexpected to some, was that different perspectives were presented to allow things to be…

      The core of this piece was supposed to be about the stalled Stormont talks and the prospect of devolution returning to the North. As I began to write though, I could feel the boredom slipping into my fingertips. It wouldn’t be a very tempting article to write and therefore I imagine would…

  When I was elected Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party I said that I was in the Ulster Unionist Party because I believed in its vision, its policies and its priorities. At the heart of my Unionism is an unshakeable belief in a positive unionism, a confident unionism and an embracing unionism. As we approach the centenary…

    General Robert E. Lee is recognised as one of the greatest military strategists in American military history. He is the son of American Revolutionary War hero Henry Lee. He studied at the prestigious West Point Military Academy and went on to distinguish himself during the Mexican-American War. Lee was quite indifferent to politics preceding…

    It wasn’t particularly positive or quiet for many people within my South Belfast constituency. I spent time with the residents of Victoria Place in the aftermath of the 11th night bonfire. Their scorched building and tired faces told the tale of their “quiet summer”. They faced walls of pallets in the weeks leading…

    Time flies – often at the speed of a golf ball hit off its peg at full throttle by the game’s best players. Rory McIlroy is one of those. A decade ago on this precise date (August 11th), I remember the rain on the Rosapenna links and  McIlroy playing in one of his…

    I’ve been lucky enough to live or visit places such as Alexandria, Kathmandu, Phnom Penh, and Beirut, all fantastically beautiful and friendly cities in their own unique way. Even during the Arab Spring the locals in Alexandria maintained their welcoming smiles. Perhaps the most intriguing experience was a whistle stop 72 hours in…

    You listen in the company of Harold Good and you learn. On Tuesday as part of this year’s Féile an Phobail programme of conversations the churchman talked us through some remarkable meetings and moments; stretching from the 1950s right up to recent times. He spoke of his father’s solo-run to meet with a republican…

    Serious concerns have been raised in recent judgements in relation to legacy issues. Both contain scathing indictments of the PSNI policy and practice. Despite the seriousness of these judgments, media coverage has been limited. No attempts have been made to analyse the carefully worded arguments and conclusions in the judgements. This ignores the…

  The years from 1918 to 1922 shaped Ireland, North and South, for a hundred years. The next five years may just do the same. While Northern Ireland stands at another crossroads, potentially the most significant since partition, it is being let down by immature, bull-in-a-china-shop politics, that has already fractured a vulnerable political process.…

When the late Martin McGuinness MLA decided to withdraw support for the executive, which at that point had become untenable, it was truly a measure of last resort. His efforts behind the scenes in a bid for the DUP to see sense and salvage some hope were rebuffed. And all this effort between medical appointments,…

  The venue was the Duncairn Centre for Culture and Arts situated in north Belfast – a part of this still divided city that was touched and hurt by the very worst of the conflict period. On Wednesday, a panel and audience gathered for a discussion on grace, generosity and acknowledgement – and what those…

        It’s not every day you hear your mother scream and fall to the ground crying, but it is an imprinted memory from when I was a boy of 10. We had recently moved back to live in Northern Ireland having been overseas and the murder of my mother’s brother –  my…

  It’s about celebrating a living, vibrant language as a priceless treasure of all who live here. It’s about our past — Irish has been spoken here for over 2,000 years — but it’s also about our shared future where difference is valued not scorned. But, for me, most of all, it’s about Nathan and…

  “If we think we can maintain and develop political stability in the north while hardening the border across the island, that’s cloud cuckoo land.” Those few words above from SDLP leader Colum Eastwood confirm that the Brexit negotiations and the future of the Stormont institutions are, to borrow a phrase, inextricably linked. The two…