An Orange Order banner on parade last year The BBC are reporting that the Orange Order have written to the SDLP and Alliance Party to discuss their positions on Orange parades. The SDLP have responded that they are happy to meet them, but also stati… more »

Saint Patrick drives a snake up Belfast's Donegall Square Regular readers may recall I was optimistic when I heard, way back when, that Belfast city council would help fund this year's St Patrick's day parade in an effort to reduce the traditional sec… more »

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the devolved Assembly might be restored.. some day anyway. According to reports today it seems that the DUP, UUP and SDLP are all in a position where they can negotiate over what form exactly the resume… more »

56 athletes are in Australia, ready to compete in the Commonwealth Games and hopefully bring a few medals home to Norn Iron The 2006 Commonwealth Games begin tomorrow morning at 9:00am (GMT) and it seemed an appropriate time to wish the best of luck t… more »

12 years now since the first IRA ceasefire and Northen Ireland seems to have as much trouble with its image as ever. Myself and the girlfriend watched Mind Hunters last night. I'm no good at classifying films into genres but I'd describe it as a low-brow… more »

Nigel Dodds seemingly wasn't happy with the police arresting a barful of loyalists last week - why I'm not sure. I didn't blog it at the time but I did mention a little about the immediate Sinn Fein reaction to the arrests of 17 loyalists taking part in… more »

Buying cheap red diesel is a victimless crime, right? I mean the dealers are champions of the common people, providing ordinary folk access to goods at discounted prices. The only victim is the chancellor of the exchequor. Try telling that to the wild… more »

Blogging's been slow for the past couple of days, I've had a lot of work to do and haven't been able to attend to EU as much as I would have liked. I thought I should highlight a couple of quotes from this article in yesterday's Belfast Telegraph though.… more »

Republican Sinn Fein, who organised the "counter-protest" (read riots) against the victims march in Dublin on Saturday had this to say: "The scenes witnessed in Dublin today only serve to illustrate how out of touch the 26-county political establishme… more »

Tony Blair and Peter Hain wants them back; Sinn Fein desperately want it back. The SDLP see it as a priority and even the Ulster Unionists are quite keen. The DUP want it back, although on their own terms. Yes I'm talking about the Assembly. Yet it em… more »