The Belfast Telegraph reported on Monday that DCAL minister Gregory Campbell is about to scrap the Maze stadium plans. Amongst all the boring and spectacularly un-newsworthy talks between the DUP and Sinn Fein, apparently the DUPes and the Sinners have done a deal that will see the Sinners get the terrorist shrine built at the Maze along with housing as well as retail and leisure facilities, but the development will go ahead without the stadium.

Instead, Windsor Park will be upgraded, beginning with a demolition/rebuild of the Railway Stand.

It's win-win to me. While I wouldn't fancy living next to a shrine to Bobby Sands and his suicide cult, if people think they can build and sell houses there then go for it. I can't see it having a positive effect on retail either, but I suppose if there are bargains to be had people will come. As long as I don't have to go anywhere near the f**king abomination I'm happy with getting a stadium in Belfast capable of hosting Northern Ireland football matches.

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This was initially published a couple of months ago now, so apologies to those who have read it elsewhere, but I think it's definitely worth highlighting Jim Cusack writing in the Irish Independent about how prosperous Northern Ireland, and specifically Northern Irish Poor Oppressed Filthy Rich Catholics, have become in recent years.

I've picked out the highlights below, but I'd really encourage anyone with 5-10 minutes free to read the whole article.

earlier this year, when the Rich List for Northern Ireland was published , there was one little detail that went completely unnoticed -- well over half of those on it were Catholics. Places one, two and three were all filled by Catholics. The richest part of Belfast, the Malone Road -- think Ballsbridge in Dublin 4 -- now has a Catholic majority.

...

Isn't Northern Ireland supposed to be, er, depressed, like, after three decades of terrorist violence? Aren't the Catholics supposed to be "oppressed" like Gerry Adams keeps banging on about and the Southern meeja still seems to believe?

...

Truth is, cross the Ormeau Bridge over the Lagan, up into those nice leafy streets, and the arriviste MCCs would rather be seen wearing shell suits and trainers than vote Sinn Fein. Gerry, baby: Middle Class Catholics define their social position primarily through the distance between themselves and you and your voters. About as many Catholics vote Sinn Fein in south and south west Belfast as in Dun Laoghaire. If you live in a part of Belfast that has a street sign in both Irish and English, any self-respecting MCC would cross the road to avoid you.

I'm not quite sure what to make of it. I am certain that if there is a relative increase in wealth among Catholics vis a vis Protestants then it is of their own making and based in no small part on different attitudes to education. On a brighter note, the accepted wisdom is that with money comes power and influence, so it would be nice to believe that Cusick is right and that it also brings a gulf with Sinn Fein and their brand of victimhood-based ethno-nationalism and a shift in priorities away from simply one-upping the Prods.

Balrog doesn't get any better
.

Celtic fans are not, never were and never will be sectarian.

Really?

Nuff said really.

Balrog is critical of those who praise Sergeant Lee Clegg for his role in Afghanistan.

I was disgusted to learn that the British military establishment are now exalting murdering bastard Para Lee Clegg in Afghanistan, as some type of noble war hero. Portraying a child killer as a hero is despicable, even by Brit military standards!

This is in sharp contrast to Balrog's feelings about child killer Sean Kelly. In October 2005 Balrog was critical of Peter Hain for "locking up Sean Kelly for no reason". Earlier the same month a different contributor felt that Kelly, convicted of nine murders committed in October 1993, should not be in prison. On Kelly's release it was commented that the suspension of his Belfast Agreement licence was wrong and done to "appease rejectionist Unionism"

Maybe the two child victims of Kelly's bomb in 1993 were the wrong sort of children for Balrog.

There's more to Ireland than the South

It's one of those rare happenings that makes you wonder if you might actually be asleep. Many unionist bloggers have said repeatedly that Ireland is greater than the Republic and that neither nationalists nor the Southern state should not enjoy a monopoly on the definition of Ireland or Irishness.

Chekov (who, as ever, puts his point across much more eloquently than myself) has spotted that Barry McElduff has, rather uncharacteristically, done something vaguely sensible in recent days. Apparently the West Tyrone MLA has written to all the Republic's TDs and Senators to challenge "this notion that the 26 counties constitutes Ireland".

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£3 million was budgeted last year on trying to reduce the relatively large number of people taking their own lives in Northern Ireland, a problem which the executive is resolved to tackle and one that disproportionately affects young people (and males at that).

With this in mind I find it a little odd that Newry and Mourne Council would glorify the taking of ones own life in a manner so overt as renaming a playpark in "honour" of hunger striker Raymond McCreesh. I might humbly suggest it's also something their equality unit may want to look at.

Sinn Fein have spent the last few days stirring up the idea that they will refuse to nominate McGuinness to serve with Peter Robinson. They may refuse to do so, citing their difficulties with the Irish Language Act and, rather disingenuously, Ruane's problems with academic selection.

If the latter point was really an issue for them, they wouldn't moan about it, they'd take the opportunity to shuffle her out of the Executive. Maybe the Irish Language Act is the problem

But if they do push this to an election in September, they would reset the electoral clock. They may push the SDLP out of the executive if they're lucky, but they would certainly keep well ahead of them but they would defiantly push the next election from March 2011 to September 2012. Is there any particular reason they would want to do that? Who knows.

Tom Hartley succeeded Jim Rogers as the new Lord Mayor last night. DECAL minister Nigel Dodds said:

"It was very noticeable that the leader of the Ulster Unionist group, David Browne, failed to back the Unionist candidates and in return he got the Sinn Fein vote for Deputy Lord Mayor, I think it was appalling, there was obviously some sort of deal done."

Nigel Dodds, thinks it's appalling, to do a deal with Sinn Fein. What is it they say about people in glass houses?

On Slugger there is some conspiricy theorists having an outing since Sir Reg wasn't there. He's ill, that's all.

I'm preparing to go on a two week holiday and as I was out buying sun cream and collecting some Euros I noticed an odd headline on the chest of one of those guys selling the Tele at busy junctions. According to the ever-reliable Belfast Telegraph and an anonymous source, Sinn Fein are contemplating refusing to nominate a Deputy First Minister because they are frustrated at the lack of progress over what they see as key issues (mainly the devolution of Policing and Justice I'd imagine).

Leaving aside the fact that Sinn Fein knew fine well that there were no guarantees on that target date (as has been pointed out over and over on Slugger O'Toole) what exactly have they got to gain by refusing to nominate? The DUP won't be able to elect their new leader Peter Robinson as First Minister, which, I gather, means no executive, which, again correct me if I'm wrong, means no Assembly. They expect the DUP to back down and hand over a few concessions to keep the Assembly alive?

Ballocks. If Sinn Fein want to bring about an end to the Assembly then let them, it will be no great loss as far as I'm concerned. It will also be a PR disaster for the provisional republican movement, with the world able to see clear as day whose fault it was that our beloved institutions collapsed.

No, they're far too canny for that. This is either a couple of Sinners shit-stirring in the shadows, tabloid journalism at its worst or a bit of both.

Another one for the "What the hell is she thinking?" scrapbook. Everyone's favourite tennis star Caitriona Ruane has finally put forward her proposals for ending academic selection... by not quite ending it? Well not quite, not yet. Maybe.

It seems as if she's done exactly what Basil McCrea predicted she would, i.e. "cobble together a last-minute proposal", when she realised she wasn't going to get her way by shouting louder than her opponents, stamping her feet and quickly burying her head in the sand.

A new type of transfer test will be put together to run over three years from 2008-2001. The test will cover a broader range of topics than the current one and grammar schools may only be allowed to select between 20% and 50% of their pupils.

Nothing has changed. She still hasn't got the power to ban academic selection, and there is no way in hell this half-assed, mish-mash "policy" (using the term in the loosest possible sense) will prevent those grammar schools committed to maintaining their high standards from implementing their own test, rendering the whole exercise a pointless and expensive waste. But who cares about the cost of egalitarian dogma when it's not your cash?