It is unusual for NI to have a period of more than two years between elections. It has only happened twice before in the last 50 years. With last year’s Westminster election receding rapidly into the ...

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Arnold is a retired teacher from Belfast.

All change in Irish Rugby There’s been a lot of rugby news in the media in the past week following on from the somewhat fraught win over Wales, Ireland’s injury blighted performance against England ‘A ...

On Wednesday (19 February), the Executive Office confirmed that its “flagship project”, a new £671 million children’s hospital development on the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital, had received ...

In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics.

A new report written by Prof. Jodie Carson and Prof. Stephen Farry calls for a ‘multi-faceted policy approach to public sector transformation’ in Northern Ireland ...

Official 2025 inaugural portrait of Donald Trump by Daniel Torok (public domain). This will be the first of many shattering weeks in 2025. Even the cleverest members of the establishment that is being ...

I listened to former West Belfast elected representative Máirtín Ó Muilleoir give a sterling defence of West Belfast on Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show, (available here): on the decision to put a poster as ...

Whether or not the individual had been listening to the politicians or reading social media comments which flowed from the reports of funding for a sports pitch at Lisneal College, the sentiments ...

Martin Dillon’s new book is ‘The Sorrow and the Loss—The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women,’ and today’s papers are full of choice extracts. Here is a roundup: MI5 ‘tampered ...

Since I first began writing about Unionism, I have watched its influence wane, its relevance fade, and its voice grow weaker. What was once a formidable political force now struggles to find direction ...