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Recent Posts
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Category Archives: Cross-border cooperation
Why Micheál Martin’s speech was inspirational and why the Shared Island initiative matters
Nobody would ever accuse the former Taoiseach, Micheál Martin (now Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs), of being an inspirational public speaker. But listening to his speech at the big Shared Island event in Dublin Castle earlier this month, I … Continue reading
Majority of Southern voters think united Ireland “not very important” but they would like to see it “some day”
That is the headline I would like to have seen on the Irish Times front page lead story on 11th December about the paper’s latest opinion poll on unity and other issues. Its editors went instead for the much more … Continue reading
Could North-South agri-food cooperation help cross the rural-urban climate change divide?
So in the end the political will did not exist among world leaders at COP26 in Glasgow to radically tackle global warming. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned at the end of the conference: “We are still knocking on the … Continue reading
A clash between Northern bad faith and good cross-border business and infrastructure?
The unionists are digging another hole for themselves with their court action against the Northern Ireland Protocol. There is universal agreement in non-unionist Belfast, Dublin, London and Brussels that the Protocol, however unpleasant in the short-term for the North’s consumers … Continue reading
Posted in Cross-border cooperation, General, Northern Ireland
2 Comments
Sometimes I despair about the lack of fresh thinking in the Republic about moves towards unity
On 23rd October, the day after the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, launched his ‘Shared Island’ initiative, I wrote the following letter to the Irish Times: The Taoiseach’s comments at the launch of the Government’s new ‘Shared Island’ initiative, prioritising sharing the … Continue reading
An Open Letter to Micheál Martin
Dear Taoiseach Congratulations on your election last Saturday. We have known each other for 23 years, since you were the rookie Fianna Fail education spokesman (soon to become Minister for Education) and I was the rookie Irish Times education correspondent. I … Continue reading
Why we need to fight the Corona virus on an all-island basis
This is an updated and expanded version of an article published in the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ on 2 April. I find I have a little more to add to the Covid-19 reflections of my last blog: specifically about North-South cooperation in … Continue reading
Two reflections on the Corona virus crisis: one Irish, one international
What more can one ignorant retired journalist add to the trillions of words written about the Corona virus? Not much, except perhaps two points that readers will have seen before from me ad nauseam on a range of topics: 1) … Continue reading
A pessimistic speech on the 20th anniversary of the Centre for Cross Border Studies
The Centre for Cross Border Studies celebrated its 20th anniversary in Dundalk last week with a conference reflecting on the Good Friday Agreement and cross-border cooperation. The importance of the Centre’s work was recognised by the keynote speakers, the three … Continue reading
Invisibility and inertia: the disappointing story of North-South cooperation
Whatever has happened to North-South cooperation in recent years? As somebody who was intimately involved in it for 14 years, it seems to me to have become almost invisible. The North South Ministerial Council, set up by the Good Friday … Continue reading
Posted in Cross-border cooperation, General
3 Comments