John Ware has form as a leading investigator into the Troubles for BBC Panorama, including the Stakeknife record and responsibility for the Omagh bomb.  His relentless account in the Irish News of the lengths to which the British state was prepared to go to deny the identity of Freddie Scapatticci as Stakeknife has an added significance beyond filling in the details. The fact that his well placed legal sources were prepared to talk in a generally conservative environment speaks volumes. ... Read more ..read more

Infrastructure Minister, Liz Kimmins, has just made a shock announcement to the Assembly to send forensic accountants into NI Water to investigate a potential budget overspend. The short-term and long-term funding of the water industry and infrastructure is clearly becoming a political ‘hot potato’! Back in 2020 the then Infrastructure Minister, Nichola Mallon, published a report from the Ministerial Advisory Panel on Infrastructure detailing proposals for new Infrastructure Commission. In the same year Economy Minister, Diane Dodds, announced a reconstituted ... Read more ..read more

The dispute over speaking rights continued today, ending in the same uproar as before. The Dáil took a vote on a government motion which was carried 94 to 74, but not without, as the Ceann Comhairle put it, TDs “making a holy show of themselves”. Opposition tellers refused to verify the vote but the clerk apparently informed the Ceann Comhairle that in absence of a challenge she could declare it carried. Taoiseach’s questions were to follow, but with the Opposition in ... Read more ..read more

Turn that frown upside down. Belfast is the happiest place in the country, according to the Office for National Statistics. This may come as a surprise to the actual residents of Belfast and somewhat contradicts our sky-high rates of antidepressant use: Interesting facts on anti-depressants in NI, from today's prescribing statistics report ? 1 in 5 people in NI had an anti-depressant prescription in 2022/23 25% of women14.8% of men Highest in 45-64 age group ⚠️38.6% of women aged 45-64 ... Read more ..read more

By Professor John Garry, Queen’s University Belfast. Professor Brendan O’Leary, University of Pennsylvania. Dr Jamie Pow, Queen’s University Belfast & Dr Dawn Walsh, University College Dublin.   Professor Coulter has written a number of pieces (here and here) on Slugger O’Toole that are critical of the ARINS/Irish Times surveys. These criticisms are based on false premises and are wrong. Comparison with other academic surveys We will shortly address Professor Coulter’s unfounded methodological criticisms, but let us first confirm the substance of ... Read more ..read more

Graphic by Irish Independent We are now halfway through the world cup cycle with a Lions tour and an Irish development tour to Georgia and Portugal on the short term horizon. With about 15 Irish senior players expected to tour with the Lions, what is effectively a second XV will represent Ireland on the summer tour. It is thus a good time to look at the depth chart and age profile of the players likely to be in contention for ... Read more ..read more

The Beltel reports: Party finance spokesperson Eóin Tennyson has said squandering nearly £1bn every year to duplicate services in a divided society, extra policing and security costs, and lost investment and tourism was an expense the Executive could no longer afford. He was speaking as the party is due to bring a motion before the Assembly on Tuesday (25 March) calling for a Stormont action plan to tackle the cost of division, which was estimated to be up to £833m ... Read more ..read more

I am reading John Higgs’s excellent book Love and Let Die. It combines two of my favourite topics – The Beatles and James Bond. I recommend it; it’s a great read. Anyhoo, this section about the English establishment is worth sharing: Even today a third of the UK is still owned by just 1,200 aristocrats and their families. Gerald Grosvenor was the sixth Duke of Westminster and one of the richest people, and largest landowners, in the country. When asked ... Read more ..read more

(A day in the life of filming ‘The Puzzle Lady’. An upcoming TV series for Channel Five) It was only 6 a.m. but a craving for toast and a cup of tea encouraged me out of bed and into my dressing gown. I tottered downstairs. The bread was not where it usually is and, after a dozy search, I spied it piled with other stuff on the far side of the kitchen. I sleepily extracted a slice of wholemeal and ... Read more ..read more

‘My father made the walls resound He wore his collar the wrong way round.’ The lines above characterise the complicated relationship that the poet Louis MacNeice had with his father. Rev. John MacNeice was born on Omey island, Co. Galway in 1866, yet due to sectarian tensions (which was largely down to a personal dispute between his own, belligerent father and the local parish priest, the latter supported by his parishioners) he spent most of his life in Co. Antrim, ... Read more ..read more