Barry White
I thought I’d seen it all and then the Chuckle Brothers came along
This is going to be painful for both you and me, but I wanted to say goodbye
properly, after a lifetime of daily journalism, mostly to do with Northern
Ireland politics.
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Inside Barry White
Why US money can stop us coming full circle
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
Dear US delegates, first let me say how great it is to see you here. When
this investment conference was proposed a year ago, following the
restoration of devolution, no one imagined that the global economy would
have taken such a disastrous downturn.
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Why unionists must unite after Paisley
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Trust Peter Robinson to go to the heart of the problem facing unionism,
although he didn't put it quite like this: unless it can maximise its vote,
around a single unionist party or a two-party electoral coalition, it has
little chance of staying ahead of nationalist representation in future
elections.
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He can sing, but will we warm to Brian like we did to Bertie?
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Who would have thought, 10 years on, that we'd be looking back to the
1998-2008 period as a golden era, when Tony and Bertie and David and Ian and
Gerry were in charge of our destinies?
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Barry White: Can Robinson cut unpopular deals and axe voters' jobs too?
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Has Peter Robinson got what it takes to lead the mixed bag of power-hungry pragmatists and right-wing Bible-thumpers who make up the DUP? And can he harness a four-party Executive and get it to make some brave decisions that aren't, strictly speaking, DUP policy?
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Barry White: How Paisley has ended the honeymoon
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
A week after Ian Paisley dropped his bombshell resignation, I confess I'm
still trying to work out what it all means, for all of us. It shouldn't have
been such a surprise, for reasons we all know well. Old age, the lure of
retirement after a lifetime in the public eye, annoyance with the media,
problems with junior, a slow build-up of friction on such matters as
education, Irish language and policing.
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Could unionists unite after the Big Man rides off into history?
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
At the risk of causing the slightest of scars on Ian Paisley's rhinoceros
skin, I think the days of the Paisley era are drawing quietly to a close. He
who has dominated our political lives, plaguing them and latterly making
them, is a spent force.
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Why we're about to witness the end of the Ian Paisley era
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
It's always dangerous to identify any event as the end of an era, but at
least we've reached the beginning of the end of the Ian Paisley era. He's
still First Minister, which seems mostly to involve smiling and joking, but
he's no longer Moderator of his own church, and soon enough he must resign
as DUP leader and MP.
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Barry White: Wounds of our troubled past are still open, but we must move on
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
It wasn't a war, in any sense of the word, it was a time of tribal madness
when everyone was chasing impossible dreams. That's the only definition of
the Troubles I recognise - and, to some extent, the madness continues.
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Nothing will ever be the same in home furnishings again ...
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
All the signs said, 'Car Park Full', but going by the well-known principle
that there's always room for one more, I risked turning towards Holywood
Exchange and a well-known furniture store. It was no surprise to see scores
of empty places; once someone turns on a full or men at work sign it's never
turned off.
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The lesson of compromise as we look to our children's future
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Fianna Fail registering as a political party in Northern Ireland; Ian
Paisley and Martin McGuinness wowing Irish-Americans in Washington; Jim
Allister launching the Traditional Unionist Voice for disillusioned DUPers
and ex-McCartneyites - the repercussions of the DUP-Sinn Fein deal go on and
on.
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Salmond is fishing for oil that he has no chance of getting free
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
I'm just back from Edinburgh, where the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party is
promising full independence by 2017, but no one seems to care, either for or
against.
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And now, over to the Stormont Assembly for the latest (click)
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
The danger signs are beginning to flash, as people switch on to the news
from Stormont and then quickly switch to something, anything, else. Is what
passes for political debate at Stormont really what we voted for back in
March, hoping that devolution would be a huge improvement on direct rule?
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Music and drama play big role in seeking harmony for victims
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
In every country, after a prolonged conflict, there are attempts to get the
opposing factions to accept responsibility for the death and injury they
have inflicted on each other. The idea is to uncover the truth about what
happened - and the motivation - but we're not making much progress, are we?
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Hard to decide what's best for Ulster
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
What a mess the Assembly has landed itself in - or should we blame dear
Peter Hain for trying to bribe the UDA into following the IRA's lead and
getting its brigadiers to put their talents to restoring deprived
communities rather than destroying them?
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All you need is, er, lots of State cash
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
Before the Assembly and Executive get down to the job of making Northern
Ireland a better place - that's what they're there for, isn't it? - it would
be useful for them to consider a few facts.
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Breaking News
- 17:25 Budget 2009: Increase in mortgage interest relief for first-time buyers
- 17:17 Budget 2009: HSE administration jobs to be cut
- 17:10 Budget 2009: Standard tax band increased by €1,000
- 17:03 250 jobs cut at Wyeth Medica in Kildare
- 16:51 Budget 2009: €10 travel tax on flights from Irish airports
- 16:39 Budget 2009: Cigarettes up, wine up, petrol price up 8 cent per litre
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- Assault row teacher speaks out as school strike continues
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Emailed
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Commented
- Eamonn McCann: What if Mormons are right and Catholics and Protestants wrong?
- Football fans cheer as IFA sacks Howard Wells
- Why haven’t the arguments of these atheists really evolved?
- Heads’ fury at Ruane letter
- Assault row teacher speaks out as school strike continues
- Sarah Palin is a joke, says Rushdie
- Men avoid the wrath of women with free 'time of the month' reminders
- IRA funds worth up to €200m put at risk in United States
- Lafferty sings praises of Green and White Army
Columnist Comments
• Gail Walker: What’s so bad about Army’s fighting talk?
Captain Doug Beattie’s assertion that Col Tim Collins’s now famous eve-of-battle speech in Iraq actually had the effect of demoralising the troops should give cause for concern.
• Robert Fisk: 'Collateral damage' or targeted killing, the effect is much the same
All kinds of horrors flop on to my Beirut doormat. There's the mobile phone bill, a slew of blood-soaked local Lebanese newspapers – "Saleh Aridi's blood consolidates [Druze] reconciliation", was among the goriest of the past few days – and then there are files from the dark memory lane through which all Middle East history has to pass.
• Ed Curran: The travesty of Toulouse
Patrick Bamford was just another face in the crowd packed into Belfast's Ravenhill rugby ground on Saturday for the European Heineken Cup match. He was much more than that 21 months ago at another game in the south-west France city of Toulouse.
• Experienced ‘marathonies’ have promised that the adrenaline will get me through those last few miles
The countdown is officially on for Belfast business woman and stylist to the stars Brenda Shankey who will run her first Marathon in New York on November 2.
• Pol O Muiri: Glenn’s tale that should touch us all
They say that the victors write the history. However, I doubt that I will ever read anything by the DUP's born again Ulster-Scotch poets or Sinn Féin's radical scribes and Pharisees that will ever match writer Glenn Patterson's Once Upon A Hill: Love in Troubled Times (Bloomsbury).
• Hamish McRae: So will anything shift the economic gloom?
It is a classic financial crash. Another week of mayhem in the markets, another week of despair among bankers, another week of rising concern for the rest of us.
• Laurence White: Will we have any cash left after world market crash?
The financial turmoil currently gripping the world is of such a magnitude that it is over-shadowing what until a couple of months ago was the biggest story in town — the race for the White House. Now Barack Obama and John McCain find themselves a side-show.
Odd Box
- Girl changes her name to 'Cutout Dissection.com' new
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Financial Crisis
Is the UK already in a recession?
Castration for Sex Offenders
Should the UK follow Poland's lead and force sex offenders to be chemically castrated?
Cancer treatment
Should cancer drugs be free for all patients?
Next US president?
Who do you think is likely to become the next president of the United States?
Who do you think is likely to become the next president of the United States?
| John McCain |
 44% |
| Barack Obama |
 42% |
| It won't make a difference |
11% |
| I'm still holding out for Ron Paul |
3% |
Sport legends
Who is Northern Ireland's greatest sports person of modern times?
Who is Northern Ireland's greatest sports person of modern times?
| George Best |
32% |
| Tony McCoy |
2% |
| Darren Clarke |
3% |
| Barry McGuigan |