‘Losers’ consent’ is definitely my phrase of the week.  Employed by the eminent political scientist, Professor Brendan O’Leary at an event in Cork recently, it refers to the desirability of placating Unionists if they find themselves on the losing end of a future border poll. ‘If Unionists lose, they will have to consent to that […]

It was the matter-of-fact tone that struck me. Sir John Major, when asked whether he thought it was time to set out the requirements for holding a border poll on Northern Ireland’s constitutional status, described it as a ‘credible demand.’ Those of us familiar with the former Conservative Prime Minister’s habit of linguistic understatement (things […]

1. Shinners on a roll This was a spectacular result for Sinn Fein, by any measure. The ambition of dominating Irish politics, North and South, as a prelude to national reunification, continues apace. A whopping 7.7% added to the party’s vote share, with an additional 39 seats, is also powerful testimony to their iron discipline […]

There’s something of an irony about Northern Ireland’s local elections taking place two weeks after the rest of the UK’s. So enraptured would municipal vote counters be with the King’s Coronation – so the argument goes – that they could not be expected to count votes AND organise communal screens for the Big Event 24-hours […]

‘I think it will happen and I think Britain will be pleased.’  So replied Liam Neeson to Sky News’s political editor, Beth Rigby, when she asked him in a recent interview what he thought about the prospects of Irish unity.   ‘I think it could happen, but everybody has to be appeased,’ he added. ‘The Protestants in the North of […]

486. The total audience at one of Jamie Bryson’s anti-Protocol rallies? The number of Catholics Kate Hoey believes work at BBC NI? The annual millions in EU funding that Northern Ireland now misses out on, thanks to Brexit? Plausibly all of the above, however it’s actually the majority in the House Commons this afternoon that […]

Amid the wreckage of the British economy, collapsing public services, sewage-strewn beaches, broken railways and interminable industrial action, Rishi Sunak has a glimmer of hope. A deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol inches into view. It’s not perfect, from his point of view, with a big chunk of his backbenchers grumbling about the residual role […]

Broccoli? A doorstop? Is it a space invader to celebrate Northern Ireland’s burgeoning video gaming industry? It appears this dreadful image is in fact supposed to be a statue to commemorate Northern Ireland’s centenary. You may recall its brief appearance last year, when Sinn Fein vetoed its proposed erection in the grounds of Parliament Buildings. […]

‘They [unionists] either have to get off the ice and get on with the job or the ice is going to crack beneath their feet and they are going to find themselves in pretty cold and chilly water.’ A pretty blunt warning this week to the DUP and unionist refuseniks, who, after facing humiliation in […]

Third time’s a charm? Not if you’re trying to have the Northern Ireland Protocol struck down in the British courts. Having already lost their case in the High Court and Court of Appeal, we can be permitted a measure of schadenfreude at the host of unionist luminaries who rolled the dice a third time only […]