From the BBC: The Alliance Party is to begin the process of finding a replacement for Patrick Brown after he unexpectedly quit Stormont. Announcing the news on Tuesday, a spokesperson said the resignation was due to “personal reasons”. The party now has seven days to co-opt a replacement for Mr Brown to the assembly. Under Stormont rules, Alliance can choose someone to fill the vacant seat without the need for a by-election. Those internal processes to find a replacement will begin on Tuesday, Alliance sources told BBC News NI. Sam McBride adds … Alliance's South Down MLA Patrick Brown has ..read more

It was a bit of a subdued start to the latest episode of ‘Blue Lights’. (SPOILERS ALERT!!) Nathan Braniff’s PC Tommy Foster was on a date with Dearbhaile McKinney’s fellow police officer Aisling after persuading her in last week’s opening episode of Series Two to go out with him. With her based in Derry/Londonderry and him in Belfast, they chose the rather unglamorous venue of a bus serving breakfast in a car park at the Glenshane Pass to meet up. Being a posh boy, Tommy asked for avocado on toast, only to be told by the waitress: “I can give you mushy peas and you can pretend it’s an avoca ..read more

Not a great weekend for the UUP. With Robin, due to Swann off and leaving the health service drifting aimlessly towards the rocks, their great hope to take the North Down seat, Colonel Tim Collins, gave a disastrous interview to the Newsletter. It really is worth a read. Here are some of the best bits: was also scathing about his potential rivals, saying “they are concerned with potholes, parking and dog excrement on the pavement”. Mr Collins argues there “isn’t any quality whatsoever” or anyone with the necessary sort of “gravitas” amongst the other candidates. On the current MP Stephen ..read more

Robin Swann is a popular politican. He won much public respect for his steady handling of the Covid pandemic, and people respect him for taking on the poisoned chalice of health when Sinn Féin and the DUP would not touch it. Unfortunately, it looks like much goodwill towards him will soon evaporate. Mr Swann told BBC’s Sunday Politics that once the election period begins, he would give up his seat in the Stormont Executive to canvas. While you can try to spin this as doing the responsible thing during the campaign, many see it as abandoning the health service in a crisis. From Allison Morris i ..read more

Ulster 19 Cardiff 17: Ulster win by a fingertip Ulster won this match when a 78th. Minute hat-trick try for Cardiff winger Theo Cabango was ruled out for a fingertip knock on by Cardiff prop Rhys Carré who was yellow carded for his troubles. Cooney nailed the penalty to give Ulster the lead for only the second time in the match. The match itself was an error strewn affair between two distinctly average sides enlivened only by two excellent tries by Cabango who left the cover for dead. Ulster were unfortunate to have a try ruled out for a marginal forward pass after Lowry had beaten his opposit ..read more

In addition to our normal open Sunday, we have a politics-free post to give you all a break. So discuss what you like here, but no politics ..read more

The idea for Open Sunday is to let you discuss what you like. Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing ..read more

I want to examine the TUV’s current strategy which could have a significant impact on the direction of political unionism. There are two alternative strategies available to them. With one, Jim Allister taking to the hustings in Lisburn could well be essential to its success. With the other, were he to stick to Ballymena it would almost certainly fail. I start from the assumption that the TUV objective is to turn the greatest part of political unionism against what Allister calls the “Donaldson deal”. Destroy to Rebuild I call the first alternative ‘Destroy to Rebuild’. This is the approach tha ..read more

From the BBC: A number of relatives of 48 people who died in a Dublin nightclub fire in 1981 have called for a government apology after a jury found they had been unlawfully killed. The jury in the inquests delivered their verdict after 11 days of deliberation. It was met by cheers and applause from relatives in court. About 800 people had been attending a Valentine’s Day disco when the fire started. Jurors also found it began in the hot press of the main bar and was caused by an electrical fault. The original inquest, in 1981, ruled the fire started because of arson, a theory which was never ..read more

This morning Israeli attacked Iran with a missile strike. Is this a face-saving exercise after the Iranian missile strikes on Israel or a precursor to a wider war in the Middle East? Israel has hit Iran with a missile, US officials say, but the extent of the attack is not yet clear Follow live updates and analysis https://t.co/Ym5n7vExJA — BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) April 19, 2024 ..read more