It was always going to be a day of spin on the Stormont hill. The governments have the parties inside a room and want to keep…
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
Those who can’t see what is happening have their heads buried in the sand; sands that are shifting. The counting in the European elections here…
Simon Byrne was nobody’s favourite for the top policing job here; not part of the pre-interview talk or predictions, other than as a bolt-on or…
The headline above tells a story of concern from inside the Stormont talks. It is an assessment offered by one of the party negotiators as he…
For more than two years the government has allowed the question to hang – the issue of some amnesty or statute of limitations for soldiers…
It is the end of week two of the talking; and, as you read inside this negotiation, so you see the structure of the process…
There is something that just doesn’t add up in the explanation of the decision of the Northern Ireland Office to abandon Wednesday’s planned announcement on legacy…
Just a few days ago the Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie described as “a staggering omission” the decision to keep the legacy question outside the main…
What a difference a day makes. On Tuesday, Stormont was in the spotlight; the beginning of new negotiations attracting attention from the main news outlets interested…
Will the results of the latest elections here change anything when the talking begins again today? Secretary of State Karen Bradley and Tanaiste Simon Coveney will…
The talk in the background is that the next and latest talks initiative here scheduled to begin next Tuesday will have just a short time to prove…
The new talks schedule was set out at Stormont on Friday. May 7th will be the starting date for a negotiation sandwiched and squeezed between two…
That young face on the front page of every newspaper is a grim reminder – the confirmation of our unfinished peace and of a…
Twenty-five years after the IRA and loyalist ceasefires of 1994, it now looks like a legacy war – a recasting of the conflict period on…
It will not be said out loudly or with attribution and it might even be denied, but there are republicans who know the damage and…