The final run-in to what looks set to be a momentous election in Northern Ireland has been predictably divisive and ugly. The Belfast Telegraph reported the other day that Hannah Kenny, a candidate for People Before Profit standing in the East Belfast constituency, was left ‘deeply distressed’ after three men attacked and threatened her while she […]

Today’s state-of-the-parties poll in the Irish News (in conjunction with Liverpool University), which shows Sinn Fein cruising to victory over the DUP on Thursday by the seemingly impregnable margin of 26.6% to 18.2%, should be viewed – like all polling – as a snapshot of public opinion, not as holy writ. More akin to a bookie’s tip […]

A few thoughts from Kevin Meagher on that University of Liverpool/ Irish News poll from last week.

(*Spoiler: It is still inevitable) An updated edition of my book, ‘A United Ireland: Why Unification is Inevitable and How it Will Come About’ is published today (25 January). A second edition is an invitation for the author to wallow in self-congratulation, or to lament their folly. Like the curate’s egg, my arguments in the […]

‘Watch over the next week or so as Sir Jeffrey Donaldson takes a sharp swerve to the right. In the four months since he threatened to bring down Stormont, he has hesitated to act. But he could be about to press the nuclear button.’ So began Suzanne Breen’s column in today’s Sunday Life. Spooked by […]

Friendly rivalries aside, there was much for the Irish to admire about England’s recent performance in the European Championship. Gareth Southgate’s understatement and modesty for a start. And although it was not a move that was to everyone’s tastes, the players’ decision to “take the knee” was at least a well-intentioned gesture in solidarity with […]

What do unionists call themselves the day after a border poll, if there is a vote in favour of a united Ireland? Commentator Alex Kane was grappling with that question the other day in the pages of the Irish News:‘I’m told my identity won’t be lost: “Did Irish nationalists trapped in Northern Ireland after 1921 […]

Today’s High Court judgement, making clear that the Northern Ireland Protocol is perfectly constitutional and above board, is a hammer blow to unionist hopes that they can reverse the infernal border-in-the-Irish-Sea. A British judge in the shape of Mr. Justice Colton, sitting in a British court, handed down a humiliating defeat for the plaintiffs, a […]

Dublin. Westminster. Brussels. Washington. The list of enemies that Unionist politicians feel are arrayed against them seems to grow exponentially. And now we can add capitalism to the list. This is the logical conclusion to Sir Reg Empey’s comments in the Belfast Telegraph the other day. The former Ulster Unionist leader says it is ‘intolerable’ […]