English company Kildare plans to start Belfast-Aldergrove train service.

Not much detail yet, but plans are currently being drawn up to re-open the Lisburn to Antrim railway line, closed since 2003, with an extension from Antrim to Belfast International Airport, which is about to see an increase in passenger numbers when Aer Lingus begin running flights there.

Kilbride, the company behind it, has also been responsible for re-opening disused lines on the mainland and have had preliminary meetings with MLAs. Imagine a train-link from the capital city to the international airport; it's almost as if it's the 21st century! Long overdue, but very welcome.

Londonderry MP claims tourist industry fails to differentiate Ulster from "Oireland".

East Londonderry MP & MLA Gregory Campbell is less than impressed with local souvenir shops aimed at tourists. Campbell has asked why the Northern Ireland tourist board gives backing to some shops that sell "stage Oirish" tack like shamrocks and shillelaghs, which tourists could just as easily pick up in a "tip in Tipperary".

He might not have phrased it in the most delicate manner, but there is definitely room for improvement in this area. Just need to look at the "Taste of Ulster" shop at the international airport, stocked with rows and rows of paddywhackery-inspired crap.

Northern Ireland has plenty to offer of its own. Campbell suggested red hands (even if our own tourist board did drop theirs from their logo) and ornaments depicting Ulster cottages/the Mourne Mountains for starters and I could add the Giant's Causeway (naturally) and the Glens of Antrim, Marble Arch Caves and much more. Nobody's suggesting (at least I'm not) that shops shouldn't also stock the Oirish tack for the plastic paddies who lap it up so enthusiastically, just try and offer punters something a bit different, and a reason to remember Ulster - it's more than just another part of Ireland.

When a Londonderry man living in England is forced to resign over "racist" Irish jokes [alternative source: BBC], is this just more evidence of political correctness gone mad?

Denis Patrick Lusby, an Ulster-born Catholic, was editor of a community magazine in Cornwall for 11 years when Ginny Harrison-White, Cornwall County Council's equality and diversity boss, who had previously complained about the publication of Essex-girl jokes, wrote to local schools querying whether it was appropriate to publish school news in a magazine that included jokes about characters called "Murphy" and "Paddy" (remember Mr Lusby's middle-name?), urging headmasters to boycott the publication.

Mr Lusby pointed out that as an Irish Catholic living in England while IRA bombs were going off, he probably knows a lot more about anti-Irish racism than Ms Harrison-White does.

It would be hard not to notice that posting at EU have tailed off somewhat in the recent couple of months. I went on holiday for three weeks at the end of July/start of August and went straight into a new job on my return so sadly time has been a scarce commodity. Add to this the fact that I've had no motivation whatsoever to write and it quickly becomes clear that something's going to have to change.

It's not like there haven't been things to talk about either.

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Bookies are offering odds on a united Ireland

It's exactly what it says on the tin. For nationalists anyway, it's a chance to put your money where your mouth is, quite literally, by betting on a United Ireland. PaddyPower's online betting service is offering odds on the annexation of Northern Ireland by the Republic by various years from 2012 to 2027 (just go to Novelty Bets > Politics > United Ireland?).

Interestingly, they don't seem that confident of a united Ireland in the next 20 years, and are even offering odds of 20/1 that the Republican wet dream of unification in 2016 will come true.

So if you're feeling confident, stick a tenner on it and (if you haven't bet at PaddyPower before) you'll get a free £20 bet, just in case that one doesn't come off (hat-tip Slugger).

Despite the fact that yesterday's 12th July celebrations (BBC pictures), the first in years which didn't see the army assist the police) passed off peacefully and there seemed to be a much more welcoming atmosphere at the parades, it seems some just can't resist getting their kicks from burning Orange Halls, damaging homes or attacking buses. A friend also told me that a hoax bomb had been left outside his grandmother's house near Ardoyne, though I suppose that's an improvement on two years ago. One does have to wonder if this kind of intolerance in any way stems from the Pope's own attack on Protestant churches "ecclesial communities originating with the Reformation".

Whatever, for most people it didn't spoil what was a great day (weather aside) and seems to be a marked improvement on previous years. Hopefully that trend will continue and we can dispatch with the petty violence next year.

After a report on the state of Windsor Park (which I'll discuss at a later date), tonight's BBC Newsline (watch from about 11:10 in) focused on the twelfth celebrations and attempts being made to broaden their appeal. It seems there are a number of groups trying to make the celebrations more inclusive this year. The moves are long-overdue in my opinion but welcome nonetheless.

Bonfires
As far as bonfires go (with particular reference to worries over the toxic smoke emitted when tyres are burned) a Fire and Rescue officer said that the number of tyres at bonfires in Belfast this year had been greatly reduced. Following concerns over this year's bonfire at Ballycraigy estate in Antrim, Councillor Drew Ritchie has also promised that the council's bonfire committee would work to ensure next year's bonfire would be tyre-free.

Parades
Tonight's Newsline featured a group of people in east Belfast handing out leaflets asking spectators, particularly younger ones, at the mini-twelfth last week to remember what the parade was marking (the sacrifice made by Ulster soldiers at the Somme) and refrain from drinking to excess. They rightfully pointed out that this is more than a tad disrespectful to those that were being remembered as well as putting off people from bringing their families to parades (thus disenfranchising large numbers of people from their own culture). Many other spectators seemed to agree that while they could enjoy a few drinks, anti-social behaviour and young people staggering around completely oblivious to their surroundings did nobody any favours and turned people off attending.

Sectarianism
Both bonfires and on occasion the marches themselves have left themselves open to accusations of supporting terrorist organisations. A couple of years ago, for example, a UVF "show of strength" at a bonfire in Belfast put funding, ring-fenced to improve bonfires, in jeopardy. This is something nobody needs. I haven't been to a bonfire myself in years and paramilitary presence is probably the main reason for this. I don't wish to be confused for someone who supports sectarian violence. If it puts me off, imagine how many parents would be put off taking their children.

Winning Support
Many people close to the twelfth are understandably sceptical about criticisms of the celebrations given that they've been under constant attack from opponents who would rather see them destroyed than improved, but I feel that simple steps like this will help broaden the appeal of the twelfth to a wider audience. As a celebration of Protestant and British history, they may not win cross-community support but that doesn't mean there's nothing to gain - like support those in the nominally "Protestant community" who tend to try and escape, rather than embrace, the twelfth and the trouble that became associated with it over the last 10-15 years.

Finally, I hope that everyone has an enjoyable day tomorrow (and that the rain holds off!).

Really, I ask you!

The Washington Post reported ... on Saturday ... the remarks of John Shanahan, a local AOH leader, indicating the invitation to the Orange Order is like "...inviting the KKK to a Martin Luther King Celebration."

...

They claim to have spent two years in the preparation of this program but were not aware of the dismal track record of the Orange Order or that the Ancient Order of Hibernians is also very active promoting an agenda of pride in their Irish heritage and religious tolerance in Ireland.

AOH.com

Who exactly are they trying to kid? The Hibernians of all people? All they're doing is using tired old republican rhetoric to inflame religious hatred and intolerance (there's only one true Irish people, don't ya know?), but that's really nothing new in Irish-Republicanism or "Irish-America", is it?

"The AOH had a historical concept of itself as a continuation of the 1641 rebellion, a Catholic uprising which attempted to wipe out the Protestant Plantations of Ireland and to extirpate heresy (by which was meant Protestantism) in Ireland."
Wikipedia

I was looking through the part-time prospectus for the new Belfast Metropolitan College when I noticed that GNVQs have been renamed again.

When I was doing my A-levels in 1999 Advanced GNVQs were being renamed to VCE (Vocational Certificate of Education) A-Levels to encourage people to equate them with the existing GCE (General Certificate of Education) A-levels used to set entrance requirements to universities and in job applications etc. In fact, while I studied A-Level computing, thanks to a policy decision by the school, fellow pupils in the year below me were studying a GNVQ in ICT. One or two years later that would be a VCE A-Level in ICT.

Whatever you call it though, it's still not the same qualification and those studying it knew this. I felt that they were being fed a substandard course by a school more interested in getting more people into ICT than by offering a high standard of education. I saw some of the work they were doing and it was pitiful.

Anyway, the government attempt to pretend that GNVQs were real A-levels by renaming them doesn't seem to have worked. The reason, presumably, that people measuring candidates for university places or jobs recognise that vocational courses are not equivalent to an academic course, in no small part because they are so focused on coursework which is generally marked much more leniently than exams and which is also easier to cheat in.

Instead of recognising this though, it seems the government has renamed them again, hoping that people will forget that they're vocational qualifications. Now they're "GCE Applied A-Levels". For the love of God, get a grip!

Vocational qualifications have they're place for people looking to learn a trade or a vocation (funnily enough). They do not make good preparation for academic study at university though.

The Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey 2006 results were published recently. Just thought I'd add the results to the table I created last year to look at how the responses might be trending.

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