Match previews in this post will be updated with match reports  All four provinces have picked near full strength sides, allowing for injuries, in preparation for their third last regular season matches in the United Rugby Championship. The table is spectacularly tight right now, and every last point could be crucial in determining who ends up in the 8 play-off places. If the Sharks beat Gloucester in the Challenge Cup final, only the top seven will qualify for next season’s European Cup in addition to the Sharks.   Scarlets vs. Ulster: 3.05pm, Premier Sports Scarlets have announced ..read more

Also, on last night’s The View, Sarah Creighton asked: “Nationalists and republicans are so far ahead of unionism when it comes to organising. What’s the unionist version of Ireland’s Future?” "Nationalists and republicans are so far ahead of unionism when it comes to organising". What's the unionist version of Ireland's Future?@NewsDeclan asks @Saraita101 #BBCTheView pic.twitter.com/v1MPsAfrlQ — BBC The View (@bbctheview) May 9, 2024 Arlene Foster launched her Together UK Foundation in 2022, but they don’t seem to have attracted much interest. She met the President of Ghana, and I am sure ..read more

In an interview with The View, DUP founder Wallace Thompson doubled down on his comments from last year. From the interview: A founding member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has told BBC News NI that fellow unionists agree with his belief a united Ireland is “inevitable”. Wallace Thompson, a former DUP special adviser, told The View that members of unionist parties and the loyal orders have approached him privately to support his position. Mr Thompson also conceded that his previous position of “no surrender, Ulster says no” got unionism nowhere. He is due to speak on a panel at the I ..read more

The BelTel has an interview with BBC Broadcaster Declan Harvey. This section caught my interest: “The most common remark I get when I’m out and people recognise me is they say, ‘I don’t really watch that much [news] anymore. I just find it gives me anxiety or I find it too depressing to watch the news.’ “That is a serious question that the news industry has to deal with. How do we reflect the world we live in truthfully, and honestly and authentically, without just giving people anxiety to the point where they are switching off and everyone’s a bit more anxious these days. “Honestly it is the ..read more

There are pretty serious allegations against the PSNI here: The documents show the surveillance started in 2007/8 and went on for a decade, involving a small group of journalists who were, in the words of one detective, “always looking for a story”, https://t.co/DwTUIomJ17 — Allison Morris (@AllisonMorris1) May 8, 2024 This is the document which was today approved for release by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which proves that there was a routine “defensive operation” every 6 months interrogating the communication data of journalists who were “always looking for a story”. pic.twitter.co ..read more

Yes, you read that correctly and it’s not April 1st. To clarify, according to an opinion poll conducted by the Sunday Independent, half of the public and a majority of Sinn Féin voters (52%) in the Republic of Ireland want checkpoints on the border with Northern Ireland to limit the number of asylum seekers coming into Ireland from the UK. It’s hard to believe that a majority of southern Sinn Féin voters would place the immigration issue above maintaining a soft border. Putting checkpoints on the border would undermine the immense work that has gone into making it as invisible as possible. For ..read more

Belfast Glenariff is one of our regulars in the comment zone “WINNING ISN’T EVERYTHING BUT WANTING TO WIN IS” is a quote attributed to the great American football coach Vince Lombardi. It could have been written for my fellow Cliftonville fans and me who have waited 45 years to see our team win the Irish Cup again. When Ronan Hale ran over half the length of the pitch in the 125th minute at Windsor Park to seal a 3 -1 win over Linfield a roar that might have been heard in a parallel universe boomed out and grown men, women and children cried, this was how much it meant. It’s been a l ..read more

I came across this interesting post from the psychologist Naomi Fisher. From the post: I was listening to a podcast about something unrelated to parenting, or school, or any of the things that I usually talk about. The guest was talking about his experiences leaving a religion where the leaders were abusive. He raised the alarm as a teenager, thinking that others would act to protect young people. What happened was that he was called rebellious. The youth leaders told him that he needed to pray more, to be more forgiving, and to stop stirring. His parents were informed that they should discip ..read more

The latest installment of ‘Blue Lights’ began with a tight close up of Seamus O’Hara’s Lee Thompson as he faced questions about the discovery of £30,000 in the boot of one of his taxis. Claiming it was the sum collected for charitable donations towards a new community centre in Mount Eden, he produced a statement corroborating his claim from its chairman, Dan Gordon’s veteran loyalist Rab McKendry. However Jonathan Harden and Joanne Crawford’s Inspectors Jonty Johnston and Helen McNally were sceptical. “And this just happened to be in the back of your taxi – is that right?,” Jonty asked, muste ..read more

I was intrigued to find a recent feature in the Metro newspaper promoting tourism in Northern Ireland. ‘Awe-inspiring’ UK destination full of natural beauty spots with flights from £30 | Metro News For those unfamiliar with this publication it’s a free daily paper available from public transport hubs throughout England Scotland and Wales. Its local claim to fame was when the DUP took out a controversial double front and back page ad endorsing the leave vote in the EU referendum. And ironically, the Metro’s registered address is in Derry Street, London. The article entitled “Awe-inspiring’ UK d ..read more