Tag Archives: Northern Ireland

Good grief.

Anyone?

Via Malachy Quinn

Thanks Bebe

This morning.

Everyone stay cool.

Aaaaahhhhhhhh, etc.

Monkeypox: First case identified in NI (BBC)

Meanwhile…

Ah here.

Meanwhile…

From top: Irish language rights demonstration in Belfast city centre last Saturday: Brandon lewis, UK’s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

This morning.

Via The Guardian:

Brandon Lewis, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, is to introduce the identity and language (Northern Ireland) bill at Westminster to recognise and protect Irish and foster Ulster Scots.

It will give the Irish language official status, allow the use of Irish in courts, create two commissioners plus an office of identity and cultural expression and provide £4m to An Ciste Infheistíochta Gaeilge, an Irish language investment fund. “This bill represents a significant milestone in laying down a new cultural framework,” Lewis said.

Irish language activists welcomed the legislation and urged swift implementation. “That is now the immediate litmus test for the British government. Having legislation is one thing, acting on it is the real test,”

Conchúr Ó Muadaigh, of the Conradh na Gaeilge language group, told the BBC. “Without that immediate action this legislation won’t be worth the paper it is written on.”

‘It can’t be sidelined’: bill aims to give Irish official status in Northern Ireland (The Guardian)

Ap/RollingNews

This afternoon.

A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said Britain’s foreign minister Liz Truss has told European Commission vice president Maroš Šefčovič that the Northern Ireland protocol was “the greatest obstacle to forming a Northern Ireland Executive”.

According to the statement, the Foreign Secretary told Mr Šefčovič that the European Commission had “bore a responsibility to show more pragmatism and ensure the protocol delivered on its original objectives.

Via RTÉ News:

The spokesperson said that Ms Truss had “reiterated that the UK’s proposals to fix the protocol, including green and red channel arrangements, backed up by a bespoke data-sharing system, would ensure the removal of trade barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland while protecting the EU single market.”

Ms Truss had said the current EU proposals would “take us backwards, by creating more checks and paperwork.”

The UK has signalled that it is preparing legislation to unilaterally dismantle parts of the protocol.

The DUP has said it will block efforts to establish a new Assembly and Executive unless the UK takes action to radically change the protocol, something the EU has said it will not do.

UK ‘no choice but to act’ if EU not flexible on NI Protocol – Truss (RTE)

Getty

This afternoon.

Dublin Castle, Dublin 2.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin speaking at the launch of a new report from the National Economic and Social Council – Shared Island: Shared Opportunity – at the Hibernia Conference Centre.

Shared not united.

Pause.

Fight.

Keynote address by Taoiseach Micheál Martin on the launch of the National Economic and Social Council comprehensive report on Shared Island: Shared Opportunity (Gov.ie)

RollingNews

Belfast.

April 7,1922.

Via Century Ireland:

Northern Ireland is to acquire a new police force which will be known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

The RUC will number 3,000 men at the beginning and will be recruited from the Royal Irish Constabulary and the ‘Specials’, principally the A Specials.

The Northern Ireland Parliament has been told that the denominational make-up of the new force should reflect the religious composition of the six county area: two-thirds Protestant and one-third Catholic. Pay rates will be the same as those existing in the Irish and English police forces.

The announcement of the new police force comes as Northern Ireland continues to grapple with sectarian violence. In order to deal with the ongoing unrest, a Special Powers bill, known as the flogging bill, is currently being debated in the Northern Ireland Senate, and while it is likely to pass, it is being met with some resistance.

Northern Ireland to get new police force – the RUC – amidst continued sectarian violence (Century ireland)

The former Marianvale Mother and Baby Home (top) in Newry, County Down, run by the Good Shepherd Sisters

This afternoon.

Police in Northern Ireland are probing 29 allegations of criminal activity around mother and baby homes.

Via RTÉ News:

Officers have received reports from a number of people who were adopted from different named institutions and also from some who either worked there or were residents within these institutions.

…Police launched an investigation into allegations of physical and sexual abuse involving the homes last October.

A spokesperson said all those who have come forward have been spoken to by a specialist detective from the Historic Child Abuse Unit within the Public Protection Branch and have been offered the opportunity to have their account recorded so that a criminal investigation can take place.

Detectives have encouraged more victims and witnesses to come forward, and are particularly keen to reach expats who now live outside Northern Ireland, including in Britain, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Police probe 29 allegations around NI Mother and Baby homes (RTE)

Previously: Traffficked With Three Birth certs

Pic: BBC

Taoiseach Micheál Martin (right) meeting with then DUP Leader Edwin Poots (centre) and Paul Givan at the Masonic Hall Government Buildings last June.

This afternoon.

Via RTE News:

The DUP’s Paul Givan is expected to announce his resignation as First Minister of the Stormont Assembly this afternoon.

It is understood he will step down with immediate effect.

Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson and other senior members of the DUP will meet in Belfast this afternoon.

It comes as a DUP MP has said that “events in Northern Ireland are teetering on the brink“.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Ian Paisley said: “We’re not months, weeks or days, but moments away from the collapse of the Northern Ireland Executive and that is very sad but entirely predictable, and has been predicted from these benches for the past 13 months.”

Paul Givan expected to resign as NI First Minister (RTÉ)

RollingNews

Anyone?

Can Liz Truss succeed where others failed? (Belfast Telegraph)

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