Northwind Archives

NORTH HOUSING CRISIS: DÉJÀ VU

May 29, 2025

There are about 13,000 people on the waiting list for social housing in Belfast. Those on the list are overwhelmingly concentrated in north... Read more »

EASTWOOD ROUNDS ON TAOISEACH

May 15, 2025

At the end of April Colum Eastwood, MP for Foyle and former leader of the SDLP, had an article published in the Irish... Read more »

NO POPERY IN LISBURN

May 1, 2025

Easter Monday is traditionally the date of the first big loyalist parade in the north. This year it was the Apprentice Boys of... Read more »

SF/DUP SHAM FIGHT

April 17, 2025

Residents from Belfast’s staunchly loyalist Sandy Row gathered on Monday evening at the nearby new £340m Grand Central station to protest at plans... Read more »

NÍ GHÉILLFEAR!

April 3, 2025

NEW GRAND CENTRAL station in Belfast, which opened last year, is the biggest transport hub on the island and cost a staggering £340m.... Read more »

DYSFUNCTIONAL STORMONT

March 20, 2025

The Stormont executive repeatedly demonstrates that it is dysfunctional – and it’s not just the failure to agree on policies, leading to stagnation... Read more »

PARAMILITARIES RULE OK?

March 6, 2025

The north’s Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) published its seventh report on February 25. It said the same as it has done every year... Read more »

DUP TO SABOTAGE EXECUTIVE?

February 20, 2025

The DUP’s two ministers in the northern executive – Paul Givan in education and Gordon Lyons in communities – are under fire from... Read more »

DUP IN FULL FLIGHT

February 6, 2025

Five years since Brexit, four years since the Irish Sea border convulsed the DUP, protest marches, street demonstrations, riots led to the collapse... Read more »

PRESIDENTIAL GERRYMANDER

January 23, 2025

On June 6 last year several hundred Poles voted at four venues in the north – Belfast, Ballymena, Omagh and Newry – for... Read more »

‘STINKING STATUS QUO’

January 9, 2025

Huge traffic congestion each evening in Belfast’s rush hour in the run up to Christmas seemed an appropriate metaphor for the north’s politics.... Read more »

MARTIN’S NEW ALLY

December 12, 2024

Micheál Martin spoke to the Alliance party conference in Belfast on March 1 as Tánaiste and Minister of Foreign Affairs. It was part... Read more »

MIDDLE GROUND VANISHES AGAIN

November 28, 2024

The standard response from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil leaders when asked about the prospects of reunification or preparing for a border poll... Read more »

‘GIVAN’ THE OPPORTUNITY

October 31, 2024

On October 16 Norma Foley was with the north’s education minister, Paul Givan (DUP), visiting schools in his constituency as they launched the... Read more »

DUBLIN BOMBS: MORE DISCLOSURES

October 17, 2024

When Drew Harris was appointed Garda commissioner in 2018, the public was assured that there was no conflict of interest between his new... Read more »

NORTH HARMONY?

October 3, 2024

The north’s first minister, Michelle O’Neill, gave the Sinn Féin ard fheis a glowing report on the Stormont executive. She said the four... Read more »

UNFULFILLED LEGACY

September 19, 2024

Many people presume that the British government’s decision to repeal the 2023 Legacy Act, which halted Troubles-related inquests and inquiries, is a major... Read more »

REDUNDANT PARTIES

September 5, 2024

The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and SDLP have both reached the point of no return. Three elections – assembly, council and British general... Read more »

HOUSING WHITEWASH

August 22, 2024

Presented as a background to the race riots in unionist districts of Belfast, there was a pretty obvious attempt in the Aawrish edition... Read more »

PSNI SNOOPS

August 8, 2024

The plot thickens in the ongoing saga of the PSNI snooping on journalists and lawyers. Investigative journalist Barry McCaffrey and film maker Trevor... Read more »

UNION’S LOST LEADER

July 25, 2024

Who is the leader of Unionism? Up until Good Friday when he was arrested and charged with historical sex offences the answer was... Read more »

SF’S TRIPLE CROWN

July 11, 2024

Whatever about the fall from grace of Sinn Féin in the south, the party goes from strength to strength in the north. The... Read more »

DUP UNDER PRESSURE

June 27, 2024

DUP party spokesmen (there is a dearth of women) are displaying a distinct lack of confidence in interviews about next week’s general election.... Read more »

UK ELECTION TO DAMAGE DUP

June 13, 2024

In all the brouhaha swirling around the elections in the south, not much attention was paid to developments in the north’s British general... Read more »

A SINKING SHIP

May 30, 2024

Downing Street’s press officers made a mess of what will be the last visit of Rishi Sunak to Belfast on his frenetic, gaffe-ridden... Read more »

NO PHONE UNTAPPED

May 16, 2024

Investigative journalist Barry McCaffrey and journalist film maker Trevor Birney got more than they bargained for when their case against the PSNI’s unlawful... Read more »

DUP ELECTION NIGHTMARE

April 18, 2024

It’s changed times in the north. There’s a reversal of the natural order of politics. Turmoil and confusion in unionism threatens the stability... Read more »

DONALDSON UNDONE

April 4, 2024
When the news broke at 1.00 pm on Good Friday that DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson had been charged with historical sex offences including... Read more »

DUP ANTI-CASEMENT LINE ‘SECTARIAN’

March 7, 2024

Alliance leader Naomi Long told the BBC last weekend that opposition to the development of a stadium at Casement Park “smacks of sectarianism”.... Read more »

NORTH POLL MELTS DUP ICE

February 22, 2024

On the face of it, last week’s LucidTalk poll offered mixed fortunes for the DUP. The party did slide four points to 24%... Read more »

THE NEW REGIME

February 8, 2024

It was the changing of the guard in the north on February 3 in more ways than one. Obviously the most historic and... Read more »

LEGACY OF LEGACY ACT

January 25, 2024

A grim race has been running in the north’s coroners’ courts for several months. It will come to an abrupt end on May... Read more »

ORANGE AND GREEN STILL BLOOM

January 11, 2024

At least we know there will be one election in the north this year. British prime minister Rishi Sunak has said he’s operating... Read more »

‘SENSIBLE’ NORTH REFORMS

December 14, 2023

ON DECEMBER 4 Westminster’s Northern Ireland affairs committee (NIAC) published its proposals for reform of the Stormont assembly’s procedures for electing its speaker... Read more »

THE ROADS TO GOD KNOWS WHERE

November 30, 2023

On NOVEMBER 23, one of the Irish Times’s unionist columnists, Newton Emerson, examined cross-border funding from Irish governments and concluded that it doesn’t... Read more »

PSNI: A NEW BROOM?

November 15, 2023

A new chief constable for the PSNI has been appointed in double quick time. Jon Boutcher (58), former chief constable of Bedfordshire police... Read more »