Category Archives: Northern Ireland

Irish election results finalized, but not future government

The top of this USA Today story says it all:

Ireland was in political limbo Thursday [3 March] when counting was completed six days after elections. Discussions to form a new government could last for weeks after the outgoing coalition government …  failed to win a majority in the polls …

Complete results here from The Irish Times.

What shape might the new government take? Former Times editor Geraldine Kennedy writes:

It is not as difficult as they all seem to think to get a stable and workmanlike government based on the results of the general election. They just need time to act out the ritual party dances to bring their supporters along with them. … What is needed now is for politicians, particularly the leadership of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, to be big and imaginative enough to think outside the box, to explore and agree a new dispensation, which we imposed on politics in Northern Ireland.

Imagine that! Politics in the Republic will have to a little more like North.

Europol’s Pat Byrne on migration, policing & JFK

Ireland, with its long history of emigration, can play a leading role in international migration issues, said Patrick Byrne, senior Europol representative in the U.S. Europe is being overwhelmed with refugees from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia; and the issue also is roiling the U.S. presidential election.

“Ireland is in a better place to have a practical and kind approach to migration,” Byrne told the 18 February gathering of Irish Network DC. “This could be our finest hour if we resist right-wing nationalism that we see in other parts of Europe.”

Patrick Byrne, senior Europol representative in the U.S. and RTE's Washington correspondent Caitriona Perry.

Patrick Byrne, senior Europol representative in the U.S., and RTE’s Washington correspondent Caitriona Perry.

In 2012, Byrne became the first Irish person appointed to the Europol post with the European delegation in the U.S. His job is to help increase strategic and operational cooperation between the E.U. and U.S. federal, state and local law enforcement agencies on issues such as terrorism, cyber crime, organised crime and drug trafficking.

Interviewed by RTÉ Washington correspondent Caitriona Perry, Byrne said information sharing between the E.U. and U.S. has increased 63 percent in recent years. In 2013, he wrote about “Increased Globalization of Organized Crime and Terrorism: Europol and the EU Perspective” for The Police Chief magazine.

Byrne said that Ireland’s top contributions to international law enforcement have come in the areas of peacekeeping, with more than 56,000 missions around the world; conflict resolution, including Northern Ireland; and financial crime. Twenty years ago, he helped establish the Criminal Assets Bureau at An Garda Síochána.

A native of Rialto in Dublin, Byrne said he was at Islandbridge to watch President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade through the city 23 June 1963. Then a lad of about three, he joked of being told that the U.S. leader “waved right at me.”

I asked the career cop if he has looked at the 1915-1916 “Movement of Extremists” reports of the Dublin Metropolitan Police Detective Department, which the Irish National Archives last year began making available online. He said he had not.

Unionists and Nationalists failed to consider relations

The 1912-1914 armed mobilization of a volunteer force pledged to oppose Home Rule, at least in Ireland’s northern counties, failed to consider the implications for unionist-nationalist relationships within Ulster, Dr. Seán Farren writes in The Irish Times.

Likewise, nationalists gave little consideration to the likely effects their rebellion would have on relationships with unionists, particularly those in the North pledged to violently oppose self-government for Ireland.

“…The 1916 Rising took place against the background of an Ireland already on the threshold of actual partition, with no likelihood of any Irish or British attempt to prevent it becoming a constitutional reality being successful. Given unionist reaction to the rebellion, the slide towards a bitter division of the country was only strengthened.”

Good Friday Agreement generation reaching age 18

Northern Ireland is reaching a key demographic milestone this year: children born just before or after the April 1998 Good Friday Agreement are reaching adulthood. They’re turning 18.

The Irish Times has interviewed 10 of these young people “about their lives, attitudes and expectations.” The BBC did a similar piece at the 15th anniversary of the peace accord in 2013.

Just under 25,000 people in Northern Ireland turn 18 this year, or 1.3 percent of the 1.86 million living in the six counties, according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. The largest age cohort are 51, born in 1964-1965, or just before the Troubles. Nearly 27,000, or 1.4 percent, are in this group.

Here are a few select quotes from young people interviewed by the Times:

It’s like one step forward, two steps back. The DUP and Sinn Féin refuse to set aside their differences, and that’s something that annoys me every day. There would be so much more progress if they would really work together properly.

***

The people here are the best in the world. They’re so friendly they’ll just sit down beside you, when you’re on the train or whatever, and have a random conversation with you. You don’t get that anywhere else.

***

The trouble here is that some people still think the history is the present. They’re so caught up in the past. … The past isn’t irrelevant, no way. It’s still history. It’s important to learn about the terrible events that happened.

***

The best thing about Belfast is seeing it move on. Twenty or 30 years ago you would still worry about where you could go, who you could see. I’m part of this change. I can go where I want. I both hate the place and love it – but I’m changing it right now by going down that street.

Brexit and Rising could impact Northern Ireland

A referendum on whether the United Kingdom should exit the European Union could have a big impact in Northern Ireland. The so-called Brexit vote could come as early as this summer or get pushed deep into 2017. The International Business Times writes:

Economists and politicians opposed to leaving the European Union warn that a Brexit would fracture Northern Irish peace by further isolating it from the Republic of Ireland and cutting off local communities from international funding, sending ripple effects throughout the U.K. Supporters of a Brexit, however, said Northern Ireland already has systems in place to continue political and economic relationships with Ireland, facilitating an easy transition out of the EU.

The Irish Times adds that the Republic also has a great deal riding on the Brexit result. The concerns stem primarily from the close economic ties between the two states, particularly in two areas.

First, the UK is by some distance the Republic’s largest trading partner, accounting for 43 per cent of exports by Southern firms in 2012. Second, the two countries’ energy markets are deeply entwined: Ireland imports 89 per cent of its oil products and 93 per cent of its gas from its nearest neighbor.

Meanwhile, this year’s 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in the Republic is also causing concerns about the North. The Guardian reports:

“…the centenary of the rebellion in Dublin has raised fears that celebrating the exploits of the lightly armed rebels who took on the British army could destabilize the still fragile peaceful political settlement in Northern Ireland, with dissident republicans claiming they are the true inheritors of Easter Week 1916. … Unionists and some historians have expressed concern that the centenary may be used by anti-peace process republicans to claim the 1916 rebellion is “unfinished business.”

Best of the Blog, 2015

This is my third annual “Best of the Blog” (BOB, as my wife calls it), a look at some of the most important news stories, historical anniversaries and personal favorite posts of the past year. The items are not numbered, so as to avoid the appearance of rank. Most links are to my own posts, but a few are to outside websites.

Enjoy. Thanks for supporting the blog. And Happy New Year!

  • Four years into the “Decade of Centenaries,” 2015 proved that even as Ireland remembers its past, Ireland is not bound by its past. This was most dramatically demonstrated in May as Irish voters enshrined same-sex marriage rights in the Republic’s constitution, becoming the world’s first nation to give such approval through popular referendum. The outcome prompted Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin to comment: “The Church needs a reality check right across the board, to look at the things we are doing well and look at the areas where we need to say, have we drifted away completely from young people?”
  • Other long-standing Irish institutions also changed in 2015. Clerys, a landmark department store on O’Connell Street in Dublin, closed in June after 162 years in business. … In August, Aer Lingus was acquired by British Airways owner IAG for €1.5 billion after nearly 80 years of state ownership.
  • The erosion of the Irish language continued at “a faster rate than was predicted” by a 2007 study and “demands urgent intervention,” a government agency reported in an update this year.
  • 2015 was the 150th anniversary of the birth of William Butler Yeats. His poem, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” was celebrated during the year. And, of course, “Easter, 1916.”
  • The Republic’s official remembrance of the Easter Rising began in August with a commemorative re-enactment of the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa. The original Dublin funeral of the Fenian leader, who died in New York, set the stage for the Rising eight months later. Pádraic Pearse’s oration at Rossa’ graveside became a call to arms that continues to inspire Irish patriots. One of my Kerry relatives kept a copy of an August 1933 reprint of the speech, cut from the pages of The Gaelic American.
  • I also reflected on my copy of a 1953 St. Patrick’s Day greeting from another Kerry relation.
  • In Northern Ireland, the International Fund for Ireland launched a new “Community Consolidation-Peace Consolidation” strategy for 2016-2020 focused on removing some of the more than 100 “peace walls” that separate Catholic and Protestant communities. “We have a role to take risks that governments can’t take,” IFI Chairman Dr. Adrian Johnston said during a September briefing at the Embassy of Ireland in Washington, D.C. … But a new poll showed that support for removing the physical barriers has dropped to 49 percent, compared to 58 percent in 2012.
  • The British and Irish governments announced a new political accord to overcome various crises in the North. … Seventeen years on from the historic 1998 Good Friday Agreement, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell told a Washington audience the peace talks got off to “a very rocky start” due to the long history of mistrust in Northern Ireland and “no habit of listening to the other side.”
  • An RTÉ/BBC poll revealed two-thirds of respondents living in the Republic favor political reunification of the island within their lifetime, while just under one third of those surveyed in the North share the view. … In what was described as a “rogue action,” the Republic’s tricolour flag flew over Stormont for a few hours in June.
  • Irish Minister for Diaspora Affairs Jimmy Deenihan, speaking at the  Embassy of Ireland in Washington, announced “a new strategy to improve Ireland’s connection with the diaspora.”
  • More historical records continued to be made available in 2015 for online inspection, including:

Dublin Metropolitan Police Detective Department’s “Movement of Extremists” reports leading up to the Rising, held at the Irish National Archives;

Long-awaited Catholic parish records, held by the National Library of Ireland; and

Fenian Brotherhood records and O’Donovan Rossa’s personal papers, held by The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

River Shannon by Therea M. Quirk.

Departed in 2015:

  • Six college students, five from Ireland and one holding Irish and U.S. citizenship, were killed 16 June in Berkeley, California, when the fifth floor apartment balcony where they were partying collapsed and plunged them 50 feet to the ground.
  • Dublin-born actress Maureen O’Hara, who co-stared with John Wayne in the 1952 screen hit, “The Quiet Man,” died at 95. … More than three dozen other notable Irish and Irish American deaths from the arts, sports and politics are listed here.

From the Archive:

New content added to previous posts

I’ve updated three posts from earlier this year. Circle back to see the fresh content, or read them for the first time:

  • Former Irish President Mary McAleese on the disappearing Irish language.
  • Support for removing Northern Ireland’s peace walls has dropped to 49 percent, compared to 58 percent in 2012.
  • Unesco wants to add the Irish sport of hurling to its list of the “world’s intangible cultural heritage.”

I’ve also updated a 2013 post on Skelling Michael with a few links about the uproar over using the heritage site in the filming of the new “Star Wars” movie.

And on the winter solstice, this image of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, from the Aran island of Inis Oírr.  Photo by Cormac Coyne, from The Irish Times.

The aurora borealis as seen from Inis Oírr, Aran Islands. Photograph: Cormac Coyne

“Fresh Start” announced for Northern Ireland

The British and Irish governments have announced a new political accord to overcome various crises in Northern Ireland. The North’s two main parties,  the DUP and Sinn Féin, are backing the agreement.

The 68-page agreement, entitled A Fresh Start for Northern Ireland, follows 10 weeks of intensive negotiations. Among the highlights, the deal:

  • reduces the corporate tax rate in Northern Ireland to 12.5 percent by 2018, in line with the Republic of Ireland;
  • provides and additional £500 million to tackle issues unique to Northern Ireland, including efforts on the removal of peace walls;
  • creates new obligations for the N.I. parties to end paramilitarism, and also targets organized and cross-border crime;
  • addresses the issue of flags and parades in the future, but NOT how to deal with the past;
  • reforms the Stormont Assembly, including its size, the number of departments and the use of petitions of concern as a form of opposition.

Read the full agreement.

First-day coverage from:

Embedded image permalink

Former soldier arrested for 1972 Bloody Sunday killings

UPDATE: A petition calling for soldiers involved in Bloody Sunday to be granted immunity from prosecution has gained more than 20,000 supporters in three days, The Irish News reports. A protest march against the police investigation of the former paratroopers is also being planned in London for later in November.

ORIGINAL POST: A former British soldier has been arrested in connection with the 1972 Bloody Sunday killings of 14 unarmed civil rights protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland. See coverage from:

Poll finds only modest support for United Ireland

A new RTÉ/BBC poll shows two thirds of respondents living in the Republic of Ireland favor political reunification of the island within their lifetime, but just under one third of those surveyed in Northern Ireland share the view.

The percentages drop to 36 percent and 13 percent, respectively, when the question of a united Ireland was framed as happening in the “short-medium term.”

Catholics living in Northern Ireland favor reunification by 27 percent, compared to just 3 percent among Protestants.

The survey also found that 74 percent of respondents living in the Republic had a “very or fairly positive” view of the 1916 Rising leaders, while just 25 percent of those in the North answered likewise.

The full survey also includes question about taxation, gay marriage and abortion. The results were part of an RTÉ special broadcast called Ireland’s Call, which can viewed here.