Boris Johnson may well think he has some oven-ready Brexit deal just waiting for the Westminster numbers after December 12th; but there is no microwavable Stormont restoration…
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
There is panic in the air. Poison also. This the atmosphere in this place as the December 12th election date approaches. Could anyone with absolute confidence write or…
On Monday the headlines were once again loud and large; the so-called ‘witch-hunt’ of army veterans back in play on the front pages alongside the latest…
They will call it everything and anything else; just listen to the verbal gymnastics to avoid the word PACT. The SDLP leader Colum Eastwood describes as…
In time and, beyond the anger and the nervousness and the noise of now, the Brexit project will be seen as the turning point; that moment…
The argument over a unionist pact in north Belfast is over. In the December 12th General Election, the UUP will not run a candidate in the constituency, where…
The thinking and the words in the scribbled note dated October 10th proved insightful. I was chatting on the phone with someone who has the Westminster…
The minister and former Methodist President Brian Anderson found a couple of words to encapsulate the mood and anxiety in loyalist communities. In an interview with…
This place is in some mess. After all of the conversations about Brexit, the border, the backstop and, more recently, about Boris, we are watching a…
The greyness of that Stormont Sunday was a perfect match for the political mood. October 13 marked 1000 days without government here. It will soon be…
The answer to the question above is we don’t know, but Secretary of State Julian Smith is still trying. In tweets on Friday night, he described positive…
On the Shankill Road on Saturday they were remembering William ‘Plum’ Smith and marking the 25th anniversary of the loyalist ceasefire due on October 13. It was a…
Twenty-five years ago, Northern Ireland was at a new beginning; something we did not fully understand in the world of 1994, but would learn over a…
Just read paragraph 8 above. It’s from the opening remarks of Chris Patten as he delivered his Commission’s report on police reform this week twenty-years ago.…
There is nothing inevitable about the outcome of John O’Dowd’s decision to challenge Michelle O’Neill for the position of Sinn Fein Vice President. This is not…