Late last Thursday night we felt the bite of the winter cold on that Stormont hill as we waited for Julian Smith and Simon Coveney and the…
Author: Brian Rowan
Brian Rowan
Brian Rowan is a journalist/author. A former BBC correspondent in Belfast, four times he has been a category winner in the Northern Ireland Press and Broadcast Awards. He is the author of several books on the peace process. His latest book (published by Merrion Press) POLITICAL PURGATORY – the battle to save Stormont and the play for a New Ireland is now available at www.merrionpress.ie
Since last week’s agreement, the talk at Stormont has been about money - the financial package from the UK Government and whether it would be good…
If Thursday was the theatre of this process - that dramatic Smith and Coveney news conference on the hill - then Saturday was that ‘someday’ on…
In the cold on Stormont’s hill on Thursday night we began to witness a thaw; some melting of the ice and the beginning of the end of that…
In the early summer of 2019, one of the first documents to leak from the resumed Stormont talks was marked official sensitive and described as a…
We are in that phase of negotiation now when everyone is reading everything - trying to assess the prospects for a deal; reading tea leaves, the…
You can allow parties too much time in a negotiation; too much space. That was the sense of things on the political hill on Friday; tiredness,…
Step away from the set-piece, arranged party news conferences in the Great Hall of Parliament Buildings and listen to the conversations inside and outside Stormont. There…
With Stormont talks set to resume on Thursday, the heading above spells out the choice the parties face. Do a deal before the January 13th deadline or face…
No negotiation passes without a difficult moment. So, we should not be shocked by Thursday’s developments in the Stormont talks; that two governments and four parties…
That headline comment is one assessment of the prospects for a breakthrough in the Stormont negotiations; that perhaps, in these latest talks, the run and the…
The latest Stormont negotiations are set to begin on Monday based on votes that are now three-years-old and well past their sell-by-date. The ‘big two’ parties…
That heading is the DUP story of this election; losses in North and South Belfast and defeat in North Down where Alex Easton was favourite to…
With the General Election now just days away, so the talk of new Stormont negotiations gets louder; that talk now more serious - perhaps even more…
For almost three years politics has been parked on double yellow lines at Stormont; a stubbornness and standstill which have been accommodated and allowed because of the…