Article Category: Bird's Eye View

X MARKS THE DROP IN STANDARDS

March 20, 2025

AS THE US slumps ever deeper into authoritarianism, the leading role played by social media in spreading hatred and division is coming into... Read more »

A SHARED CONFUSION

August 27, 2020

IT WAS probably just as well that Boris Johnson made off as soon as he could from his meeting at Hillsborough Castle on... Read more »

DERMO DENIED RED HAT – AGAIN

September 5, 2019

AN unprecedented public insight into the arcane world of how Rome deals with ageing Church leaders was provided by the normally taciturn papal... Read more »

DIRECT RULE FOR NORTHERN IRELAND

September 5, 2019

The British Labour party’s shadow Brexit minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is not even trying to get... Read more »

ADAMS LAYS DOWN THE NEW LINE

June 12, 2019

In his blog, Léargas, on 6 June Gerry Adams posted what now will be in effect the definitive Sinn Féin policy on a... Read more »

REMAINERS 2 — BREXIT 1

May 29, 2019

AS PREDICTED (see The Phoenix, 17/5/19), if Alliance leader Naomi Long got ahead of SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and/or the UUP’s Danny Kennedy,... Read more »

ALLIANCE LONG SHOT

May 16, 2019

After the local government elections in the north on 2 May, the media north and south for once agreed in their analysis. This... Read more »

DUP AND SF TO DEVOUR RIVALS

April 18, 2019

Observers will be watching the north’s local elections for answers to a series of political questions. Will Sinn Féin suffer for their abstentionist... Read more »

GREEN ALLIGATORS AND UNICORNS

April 4, 2019

‘Unicorn’ has become a popular word recently to describe Brexiteers in England who, in desperation, spot mythical creatures like German car manufacturers opposing... Read more »

DUP’S HARD BARGAIN

March 21, 2019

WHAT WERE the DUP and what passes for a British government talking about as Theresa May headed towards a third attempt to get... Read more »

DREW HARRIS’S ‘LEGACY’

March 7, 2019

On 27 February, the permanent secretary at the north’s Department of Justice allocated £55m for expediting so-called “legacy inquests”. He was able to... Read more »

TOWN HALL BUN FIGHTS

February 21, 2019

Simon Coveney had to travel north from the All-Island Civic Dialogue on 15 February to participate in what Mary Lou McDonald called a... Read more »

BORDER POLL INEVITABLE

February 7, 2019

THE LATEST Labour Force Survey Report for the north was published on 22 January by the Northern Ireland Statistical Research Agency (NISRA), a... Read more »

VARADKAR LEAVES NORTHERNERS BEHIND

January 24, 2019

THE OBSESSION with the backstop on the British border in Ireland continues to paralyse the Conservative party in England. Most MPs, both Conservative... Read more »

WEDDING OR FUNERAL?

January 10, 2019

THE NEVER-ENDING saga of Fianna Fáil’s takeover of the moribund SDLP staggers on. The two parties have been dancing the hokey-cokey for a... Read more »

CORBYN AND THE DUP

December 13, 2018

THERE ARE truly astonishing times in British politics as the Conservative party tears itself asunder. This is not the first time, but it’s... Read more »

FOSTER’S FINALE

November 29, 2018

LAST WEEKEND’S DUP conference turned out to be a damp squib. It coincided with the sealing of the Brexit deal in Brussels and... Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL’S NORTHERN STAR

November 1, 2018

LAST Thursday night’s chaotic on-off ‘selection’ of Sorcha McAnespy as a Fianna Fáil candidate for next May’s council elections in the north did... Read more »

DUP: NEVER ON SUNDAY

October 18, 2018

“NO ONE likes us, we don’t care. We are Millwall, super Millwall. We are Millwall from the Den.” Sung to the tune of... Read more »

BRITISH ARMY’S LEGACY

October 4, 2018

Last week Michael Quinn was awarded £193,000 for what the judge described as the “pain and suffering” he endured as a result of... Read more »

PASSPORTS TO NOWHERE

September 6, 2018

FINE WORDS butter no parsnips, but fine words are all there have been from the government about the rights of Irish citizens in... Read more »

FINE GAEL/FIANNA FÁIL GO NORTH

August 23, 2018

Confusing times for people used to traditional alignments in Irish politics. Lisa Chambers TD, Fianna Fáil’s Brexit spokesperson, was up in Belfast on... Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL TO DEVOUR SDLP?

August 9, 2018

For more than a decade the Fianna Fáil vulture has been hovering over the stricken SDLP as the party stumbles and falls across... Read more »

NORTHERN POLICE FORCE BIAS

July 26, 2018

OVER the July 12 period, six consecutive nights of attacks terrorised the tiny unionist ghetto on the Foyle’s Cityside called the Fountain. Youths... Read more »

NORDIES’ VIEW OF LEO VARADKAR

July 12, 2018

LEO VARADKAR has probably uttered millions of words since he became Taoiseach. But the words that set little men lepping around inside Northern... Read more »

NEW FACE FOR ARLENE FOSTER

June 28, 2018

ARLENE FOSTER has thrown herself into an outreach campaign in the last month. In rapid succession she visited Muslims in Belfast for the... Read more »

PETER ROBINSON’S BORDER POLL HERESY

June 13, 2018

QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY Belfast has made former DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson an honorary professor of peace studies despite an open letter... Read more »

SDLP’S ABORTION DILEMMA

May 31, 2018

THE SDLP is in a fix after last week’s overwhelming result in the abortion referendum. The party has been split on abortion in... Read more »

BONFIRE OF THE UNIONISTS

May 17, 2018

BONFIRES have always been a manifestation of unionist triumphalism but also trepidation. Their size is in direct proportion to unionist paranoia. All major... Read more »

BREXIT POISONS BODY POLITIC

May 3, 2018

IT’S A sign of how far apart the two main parties in the north are that Northern Secretary Karen Bradley didn’t even get... Read more »

LOYALIST GANGS AT WORK IN PLAIN SIGHT

April 19, 2018

AT NOON last Friday, 200 PSNI officers with members of the British National Crime Agency and Customs and Excise raided 12 premises in... Read more »

BACK TO THE FUTURE

April 5, 2018

SINN FÉIN have been shocked and dismayed by the proposals of the north’s Boundary Commission for new constituencies published in January. The party... Read more »

LONDON SAYS NO!

March 22, 2018

WE LEARNT at least three things in the last fortnight. First, contrary to what most observers believed Sinn Féin really did want to... Read more »