Article Category: Bird's Eye View

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 nuncio,... 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 a... 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 border... 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, she... 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 was... 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 policy... 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 the... 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 her... 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 do... 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 “sham”... 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 government... 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 and... 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 decade... 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 certainly... 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 the... 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 nevertheless... 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 Rod... 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 being... 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 the... 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 6... 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 what... 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 and... 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 nationalist... 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 festival... 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 of... 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 recent... 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 political... 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 them... 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 greater... 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 says... 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 get... Read more »

IRELAND’S TARIFF NIGHTMARE

March 8, 2018
THE FAMOUS “backstop” in the December EU report commits Britain to maintaining full alignment with the rules of the internal market and customs union... Read more »

DUP-TORY DEADLOCK

February 22, 2018
FOR THE second time in two months, Theresa May turned up to seal a deal only for the DUP to whip it off the... Read more »

NORTHERN TALKS CHARADE

January 25, 2018
THE NORTH has a new secretary of state, Karen Bradley (47), an accountant first elected in 2010. Bradley is precisely the type of mouse-like... Read more »

NEVER IN A POLITICAL LIFETIME

January 11, 2018
HERE WE go again. You could write the script. The new northern secretary invites the parties to Stormont. Desultory talks ensue. An artificial deadline... Read more »