Category Archives: Northern Ireland

Mary Lou McDonald and the forgotten people of the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’

Posted on Tuesday, 16 August, 2022 by andypollak

The title of this blog,  ‘Two Irelands Together’, was not chosen by accident. My core contention in writing this column is that for more than 400 years there have been two clashing politico-religious cultures on this island – Catholic nationalist … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein | 4 Comments

From Rebel Cork to Orange Antrim: a cyclist’s journey through the gorgeous heart of Ireland

Posted on Thursday, 14 July, 2022 by andypollak

In the first eleven days of July I cycled with my friend David Ward from Mizen Head in west Cork to Fair Head in north Antrim to raise money for Concern’s work for girls’ education in Afghanistan. The journey confirmed … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, The island environment | 4 Comments

The tragic breakdown of relations between Dublin and London and a 1998 Agreement that was not the last word

Posted on Wednesday, 29 June, 2022 by andypollak

The most tragic element of Brexit and its aftermath – for me as a Northern Irish person who is also a happy citizen of the Republic of Ireland – is the total breakdown in relations between the Irish and British … Continue reading →

Posted in British-Irish relations, General, Northern Ireland | Leave a comment

The NI Protocol is a mess but Boris’s bill to scrap it is a divisive disaster

Posted on Wednesday, 15 June, 2022 by andypollak

The Northern Ireland protocol is a problem and it is back with a vengeance. As Taoiseach Micheál Martin, a man who is extremely careful with his words, put it, the British government’s new bill to unilaterally scrap large parts of … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Ireland, Europe and the world, Northern Ireland | 1 Comment

British legislation in the North is not always deceptive, oppressive or persecuting – it can be made better

Posted on Wednesday, 1 June, 2022 by andypollak

Despite what Sinn Fein and other ‘advanced’ nationalists would have us believe, British government policy in Northern Ireland (and towards Ireland) is not always motivated by the wish to deceive and oppress and persecute. One benign effect of the peace … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland | Leave a comment

Sinn Fein’s stunning victory does not signal any kind of unlocking of the Northern deadlock

Posted on Tuesday, 10 May, 2022 by andypollak

It was a stunning and historic victory for Sinn Fein. In the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election commentators had made a lot of noise about Sinn Fein being 1,200 votes behind the DUP. This time the party of the IRA … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland | 1 Comment

Poverty in Northern Ireland is not an election issue: society just ‘shrugs’

Posted on Tuesday, 3 May, 2022 by andypollak

Last month I sat in on a webinar organised by the Glencree Peace and Reconciliation Centre in which we listened to two very impressive youth workers from the most deprived areas of nationalist West Belfast. They told a shocking story … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Northern Ireland | Leave a comment

Sinn Fein will be re-writing recent Irish history when it gets into power

Posted on Thursday, 31 March, 2022 by andypollak

Earlier this month Mary Lou McDonald denied that the deletion of thousands of Sinn Fein press statements going back over 20 years represented an attempt to cover-up the party’s ‘soft’ position on Russia in the wake of its invasion of … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein | 3 Comments

Unionism unloved and unbowed, and the rise and rise of Alliance

Posted on Monday, 28 February, 2022 by andypollak

“Unwanted and unloved, Unionists are unbowed…but Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal is just the latest example of many in Britain kicking unionism and then being loved even more strongly in return”. That was the headline above a Belfast Telegraph column by … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Northern Ireland, Protestantism, unionism and loyalism | 1 Comment

Whatever the Unionists wish for, the Protocol looks like it’s here to stay – and it can be good for all of us

Posted on Tuesday, 11 January, 2022 by andypollak

One year on, the Northern Ireland Protocol looks like it’s here to stay. Its fiercest opponent (and chief negotiator) in the British government, Lord David Frost, has gone. Before that the British had dropped their demand that the European Court … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Ireland, Europe and the world, Northern Ireland | 3 Comments