Northwind Archives

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 »

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson made clear at his party conference in October that he wants to return to Stormont but the majority of the DUP’s eight MPs are opposed to that happening.

ANNUAL 2023: NORTHERN IRELAND – NORTH’S COMA

November 15, 2023

The British government’s best effort at making political progress in the north was the Windsor Framework, which was agreed with the EU on... Read more »

MARTIN’S NON-POLICY ON NORTH

November 2, 2023

In 2018 Theresa May appointed Karen Bradley – one of her dimmest politicians – as northern secretary. Apparently, Bradley was the only MP... Read more »

DUP SPLIT: DONALDSON V DODDS

October 18, 2023

The DUP holding its annual conference last Saturday in Belfast’s Crowne Plaza hotel was tempting fate. It was in this venue in May... Read more »

Keir Starmer Northern Ireland Troubles Act

THE TORIES’ LEGACY

October 5, 2023
Leo Varadkar says relations with Britain have improved in the last year. What he didn’t say was that is because of the departure of... Read more »

THERE’S SUMMIT UP IN THE NORTH

September 21, 2023

THE NORTH’S much-heralded International Investment Summit took place in Belfast on September 13. It was a flop. When the Brits announced the plan... Read more »

PSNI CRISIS

September 7, 2023
The PSNI is in crisis. That’s not only because of the decision of chief constable Simon Byrne to resign on Monday. Morale is in... Read more »

NOLAN AT THE BBC’S NORTH FACE

August 24, 2023

The north’s only shock-jock is in trouble. Stephen Nolan, the BBC’s fifth-highest-paid star at around £400,000, has faced a series of accusations in... Read more »

DONALDSON’S TRIMBLE MOMENT

August 10, 2023

Former UUP leader Reg, now Lord, Empey says DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson is “approaching his David Trimble moment”. By that he means Donaldson... Read more »

SUNAK PLAYS THE DUP

July 27, 2023

WHEN LEO Varadkar met Rishi Sunak in Moldova on June 1 he asked to be “kept informed” of any deal with the DUP... Read more »

ORANGE DISORDER

July 13, 2023

After Wednesday’s parade through Belfast – easily the largest in the north – July 12 Orange marches face radical changes. An internal review... Read more »

12TH CULTURAL RITES

June 29, 2023

Liberty Hall in Dublin city centre is 59 metres high. Last year the gigantic bonfire at Craigyhill outside Larne commemorating King Billy’s landing... Read more »

SUNAK/DUP DEAL?

June 15, 2023
Michelle O’Neill travelled to Washington on June 4, two days before British prime minister Rishi Sunak – but they were on different missions. Sunak... Read more »

STORMONT TO RETURN?

May 18, 2023

VOTERS IN the north elect 462 councillors to 11 councils this week. There are 807 hopefuls, the vast majority from the main orange... Read more »

DUP Windsor Framework Chris Heaton-Harris

TORIES TAKE ON THE DUP

May 3, 2023

The DUP is furious with the British government. The DUP hasn’t realised that the terms of trade have changed since the overwhelming 515-29... Read more »

18 KIDS ON THE DOLE

April 19, 2023

“It is frightfully hard to explain to Protestants that, if you give Roman Catholics a good job and a good house, they will... Read more »

Down Loyalists Dee Stitt and Arlene Foster

GOOD UDA V BAD UDA

April 6, 2023

THERE’S Yet another so-called ‘loyalist feud’, one of many that have erupted over the past 25 years, but this time there’s a difference.... Read more »

VLAD IN THE US

March 23, 2023

After his initial acute bout of foot-in-mouth disease last week with his maladroit gaffe about the fate of interns in Clinton’s administration, Taoiseach... Read more »

BIG FLY IN THE WINDSOR SOUP

March 8, 2023

AS FAR as the British are concerned, it’s a done deal. The choreography worked perfectly. EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen came... Read more »

DUP’S DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT

February 22, 2023

IN OCTOBER 2019 Leo Varadkar went for a walk up the garden path in the grounds of Thornton Manor in the Wirral with... Read more »

DUP: NO END IN SIGHT

February 9, 2023

THE BBC radio show Any Questions was broadcast from Bangor on February 4, with three politicians and a journalist making up the panel.... Read more »

MARTIN’S LONG BARGE POLE

January 26, 2023

DURING ALL the toing and froing in the last couple of weeks as EU-UK talks on the protocol intensify, one aspect was notable:... Read more »

DONALDSON’S BIG CALL

January 12, 2023

DUP LEADER Jeffrey Donaldson has a big call to make in a couple of months as the EU and UK move inexorably towards... Read more »

DAMNED LIES AND BORDER POLL

December 15, 2022

THE IRISH Times seems predictably smugly delighted with the figures in the ARINS poll jointly produced by the Royal Irish Academy and Notre... Read more »

RISHI SUNAK’S WEAKNESS

December 1, 2022

SPEAKING ON November 28 at the lord mayor’s banquet in London’s Guildhall, British prime minister Rishi Sunak explained that his foreign policy towards... Read more »

DUP: NO ONE LIKES US — WE DON’T CARE

November 17, 2022

IN A remarkable series of assertions last month, Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Financial Times that the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) is “not... Read more »

UNIONIST MINORITY VETO?

October 19, 2022
It’s now universally accepted that the British don’t keep treaties and certainly not the parts that don’t suit any incoming government, like the Conservatives... Read more »

LIES, DAMN LIES AND CENSUS DENIAL

October 6, 2022

Among southern politicians and the media, the universal public response to the census results in the north was: “Move along now. Nothing to... Read more »