Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 10/16/2009
Gerry Adams and Mark Durkan of Sinn Fein and the SDLP respectively will be pitching their parties' programme and perspectives in key note addresses at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly in Swansea next Monday and Tuesday. The leaders will be heard by parliamentarians from across these islands including unionists and, in particular, several voluble critics of the Provisionals from both parts of...
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 10/01/2009
I just did a quick interview with a Bel Tel journalist who asked why our threads over paramilitary banners seem to attract so many comments when the hard core policy ones hardly any. My glib answer is that people will resile to non political tribal issues so long as nothing is happening on the hill… As Mark Durkan makes his speech in Trinity tonight , he is no doubt aware just how far nationalist...
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 10/01/2009
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has chosen solidarity with his northern counterpart, the out-going SDLP leader Mark Durkan, over party loyalty in the “partitionist nonsense” row - when a southern SF councillor-led group disrupted a joint-press conference with the Irish Labour Party. From today’s Irish News [subs req] The West Belfast MP was openly critical of councillor Tomas...
SAOIRSE32 (Free subscription) | 09/30/2009
A tale of two parliaments Henry McDonald Guardian 29 Sept 09 Although there will be a UK general election next year, there is little or no appetite for a parallel contest to elect a new Northern Ireland assembly On either side of the Irish border, there exists, at present, an electoral version of the cold war doctrine of mutually assured destruction. In the pre-1989 world, MAD signified the nuclear...
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 09/30/2009
Apparently a group of Sinn Féin protesters, including Councillor Tomás Sharkey, took exception to the presence of out-going SDLP leader Mark Durkan , MP, MLA, at a boisterous press conference with Irish Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, promoting a ‘Yes’ vote. From the Irish News report [subs] it would seem that Mark Durkan’s northernness was an issue.. but what does...
SAOIRSE32 (Free subscription) | 09/23/2009
By William Graham Political Correspondent Irish News 21/09/09 SDLP leader Mark Durkan was forced to announce his intention to step down when internal party manoeuvring made it apparent that the “political knives” were out for him, sources said last night . The Foyle MP, seen as John Hume’s political protege and natural successor, had to choose between his Westminster seat and the...
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 09/18/2009
Brian Feeney's been looking at the ‘weighted majority' speech by DUP leader Peter Robinson in his weekly Irish News column . After initially musing about whether the speech was timed to coincide with the anniversary of SDLP Leader Mark Durkan's, ahem, ‘ misquoted' Oxford speech last year, in which he suggested something similar, he concludes that Robinson's speech was about buying into the...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
• Dissident terror group targeting Catholic members of PSNI • Derry bombs indicate access to personal details of recruits The Real IRA has claimed responsibility for bomb attacks outside the homes of relatives of a police officer, as well as a so-called punishment shooting in Derry last night. A bomb exploded outside the home of a policeman's parents in the Shantallow area of the city late...
Balrog (Free subscription) | 09/07/2009
I'm going to do something that I have never done before on Balrog; I'm going to agree with something Mark Durkan has said. Mark has called for a new forum on Irish Unity to be made up of all Irish Nationalist parties. “We must reassure Unionists that our vision of unity is not one connived out of threat or defiance. “That our 21st century vision for unity is not just about righting wrongs...
ireland.com (Free subscription) | 09/05/2009
SDLP leader Mark Durkan today called on all parties to come together again to discuss the issue of Irish unity.
SAOIRSE32 (Free subscription) | 07/10/2009
BBC 9 July 09 SDLP leader Mark Durkan has led a party delegation to meet Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen in Dublin. The meeting focused on a range of issues, including the devolution of policing and justice. He said the SDLP wanted to "maximise the potential of the devolution project and the north-south bodies". "The SDLP once again reiterated our position that a North-South approach...
SAOIRSE32 (Free subscription) | 07/02/2009
By Seamus McKinney Irish News 30/06/09 A community worker says many people are still ambivalent about paramilitary-style attacks following the shooting of a 26-year-old man in Derry. Derry community worker Tommy McCourt was speaking after the man was shot three times at his home in the city’s Rosemount area. The victim suffered two gunshot wounds to his leg and one to his other foot when a masked...
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 06/06/2009
They’ve kept their counsel on the likely result the whole way through campaign, but it looks like McGuinness’s post Massereene statement on dissident Republican paramilitaries bought him a huge chunk of the Nationalist electorate… Nationalist gamechanging moment number 1. The SDLP on the other hand are back on a familiar knife edge: if the numbers from verification move slightly...
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