Article Category: Northwind

ALLIANCE SURGE

May 19, 2022

“SO YOU see now this growing middle ground of people who don’t want to be defined by religion or by ethnic or national... Read more »

BORIS TO SHAFT EXECUTIVE

May 5, 2022

TUV LEADER Jim Allister told an anti-protocol rally in Ballymena on May 1, “We must bring the mendacious prime minister … to the... Read more »

CLIFF EDGE FOR JEFFREY AND JIM

April 20, 2022

UNIONISM IS deeply divided, not only between parties but within parties. On the face of it, the divide seems to be about the... Read more »

BEATTIE PLAYS LONG GAME

April 7, 2022

DOUG BEATTIE, leader of the UUP since May last year, is engaged in an existential struggle with the Alliance party for third place... Read more »

‘FENIAN’ JUDGES RULE, OK!

March 24, 2022

ON MARCH 14 the north’s Court of Appeal found the Irish Protocol and Withdrawal Act lawful and dismissed the challenge by leading unionists... Read more »

PUTIN PLUGS PROTOCOL

March 10, 2022

WE MAY be in the midst of the biggest geopolitical shift since the Berlin wall came down in 1989. Thousands are dying in... Read more »

EXECUTIVE WILL NOT RETURN

February 24, 2022

THERE IS a difference of opinion about the future of the north’s power-sharing executive. One view is that there will be interminable talks... Read more »

DUP AND LOYALISTS COMBINE

February 10, 2022

A FEW weeks ago Joe Joyce and Michael McDowell were getting hot under the collar in the Irish Times about outside, unelected people... Read more »

DONALDSON DROWNING

January 27, 2022

T.S. ELIOT said April is the cruellest month. The DUP leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, may beg to differ. January has been disastrous for... Read more »

DONALDSON’S DEADLINES

January 13, 2022

DEADLINES, DEADLINES. Foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney says the end of February must be the deadline for a deal on the Irish protocol,... Read more »

UNITED HEALTH SERVICE, ANYONE?

December 16, 2021

THE NORTH’S finance minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, has produced a draft budget which increases the healthcare allocation by 10% for three years... Read more »

JEFFREY VS THE FUNDAMENTALISTS

December 2, 2021

THE STORMONT executive is grinding to a dead stop. Nothing illustrates the Alice in Wonderland stasis better than the Flags, Identity, Culture and... Read more »

NORTHERN SINN FÉIN MUST WAIT

November 4, 2021

IT WAS no coincidence that the Monday after the Sinn Féin ard fheis the party’s minister for communities in the north, Deirdre Hargey,... Read more »

NORTH ELECTION NEXT MONTH?

October 21, 2021

STORMONT IS in a state of limbo. The executive and the assembly go through the motions, but the critical political action takes place... Read more »

‘THE WRATH OF GOD’

October 7, 2021

WHY IS the north doing so badly with Covid? It’s not just in comparison with the republic, ranked No 1 in the world... Read more »

BREXIT UNITING IRELAND

August 26, 2021

It turns out there is an upside to Brexit – for some people at least. On 18 August, celebrity economist-cum-pundit David McWilliams tweeted:... Read more »

NO END TO ASSEMBLY SPLITS ON ABORTION

August 12, 2021

STAND-OFFS ARE stacking up ahead of Stormont’s return in September. There’s the Irish protocol, with ‘grace periods’ on handling imports of various products... Read more »

JEFFREY AND MARY LOU’S POLITICAL DANCE

July 29, 2021

THERE’S BEEN a bit of a shift in the balance of power in the northern executive since the DUP’s near death experience throughout... Read more »

BONFIRE OF THE UNIONISTS

July 15, 2021

JIM ALLISTER, leader of the hard-line Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), announced on July 12 (when else?) that he intends to field candidates in... Read more »

ORANGE CARD 2021

July 1, 2021

IT IS an accepted fact that from the earliest days of the Troubles and throughout their duration British security forces, including the RUC,... Read more »

MARTIN’S ‘FROSTY’ CHEQUERS LUNCH

May 20, 2021

LAST WEEK the taoiseach met Boris Johnson at Chequers. The verdict of the Ballymurphy inquest and the British intention to ditch the Stormont... Read more »

MARTIN’S ‘FROSTY’ CHEQUERS LUNCH

May 20, 2021

LAST WEEK the taoiseach met Boris Johnson at Chequers. The verdict of the Ballymurphy inquest and the British intention to ditch the Stormont... Read more »

DUP EVANGELICALS RULE, OK?

May 6, 2021

REGARDLESS OF whether it’s Edwin Poots or Jeffrey Donaldson who becomes DUP leader the result signifies a lurch backwards: the only difference between... Read more »

DUP BOYCOTTS GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT

April 22, 2021

THE DUP is boycotting Strand Two of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) – north south institutions – and may extend the boycott to... Read more »

EXECUTIVE HANGS BY A THREAD

April 8, 2021

ON MARCH 29 Simon Coveney told the Seanad that the north’s institutions were “just about hanging on after a bruising number of years”.... Read more »

NORTHERN ABORTION CHAOS

March 25, 2021

ALL THE parties in the north tied themselves in knots in the past fortnight about abortion legislation, none more so than Sinn Féin.... Read more »

LOYALIST PARAMILITARIES’ HUSH MONEY

March 11, 2021

RECENT WEEKS have provided a perfect demonstration of the ambivalence of the Northern Ireland Office and unionist politicians towards the north’s still armed... Read more »

IT CUTS BOTH WAYS

February 25, 2021

LAST SATURDAY Micheál Martin gave an interview to Raidió na Gaeltachta – a station which unionists obviously listen to avidly – and urged... Read more »

DUP PANICS

February 11, 2021

CRISES IN the north never come one at a time. Just as it seemed that the crisis at the ports of Larne and... Read more »

BORDER POLL SPECTRE

January 28, 2021

SINCE THE Brexit Irish Sea border came into effect on 1 January, unionism has been in turmoil. There had been nervousness, resentment and... Read more »