I've been following a discussion on the Ulster Nation group about a supposed 'Ulster national anthem'. I thought it was interesting (not to mention quite ironic in that it ended with the words "a nation once again"). Not overly fussed on the God refere… more »

The fact that the hospital wing was the location for serial suicides is of insufficient historic moment. Jim Allister, MEP The above was part of a call by Jim Allister to Environment Minister, and former DUP party colleague, Arlene Foster, to de-list… more »

... and their youth wing is equally petty. Sorry, I've been in Lanzarote for 2 weeks so I've missed this gem. Apparently the SDLP youth (yes, they have one) leader has kicked up a bit of a stink (see also the BBC report) over Ulster's new Ikea store… more »

Forget logic and arguments; government ministers are trying their best to push Northern Ireland's new national stadium out to the Maze. [Image: Patrick McAleer] The DUP members of the executive have gone into overdrive trying to bully the populace of… more »

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are catching up to England for levels of broadband uptake according to figures released by Ofcom this week. In 2005 England was leading the way with 36% of homes connected to broadband. Scotland followed with 31% w… more »

I, like many others, see a lot of the problems in Northern Ireland today stemming from the segregation of society at various levels; none so damaging as at school level. As far back as 1968 Prime Minister Terrence O'Neill recognised that 'a major cause… more »

Belfast faces a tough but not impossible struggle to get on the new Here and Now monopoly board featuring UK towns and cities. Monopoly are producing a new "Here and Now UK edition" (as well as a "Here and Now Ireland edition, mentioned on Slugger) an… more »

It has emerged that MLAs are to get £70k a year on top of their salaries in the form of expenses ("expenses that allow the MLAs to employ people, in some cases close relatives, to help carry out their constituency work"). Just before devolution was… more »

Smoking ban comes into force today, 30th April 2007... and not a moment too soon. Today sees the coming into force of the ban on smoking in places of work meaning that smoking will no longer be allowed in bars, clubs and restaurants. I can't wait to b… more »

On my post on Getting Women Into Politics on Thursday I made reference to "some doll from the women's coalition." It seems my sense of humour may have been out of sync with some of my readers on this one so for the sake of clarity I began hunting the we… more »