David Trimble, Northern Ireland’s first minister from 1998 to 2002 and leader of the Ulster Unionist party from 1995 to 2005, has died aged 77. In 1998, Ruth Dudley Edwards wrote about the Unionist leader from a Catholic’s perspective. On a wall in David Trimble’s Westminster office is a cartoon of a bunker, complete with tin-hatted
Prince Philip’s death presented Sinn Fein with a particular challenge, given that the IRA murdered his beloved uncle. ‘I am sorry that happened. Of course, that is heartbreaking,’ said the party’s leader Mary Lou McDonald this weekend. But if the words sounded sincere, don’t be fooled. Sinn Fein learnt a difficult lesson back in 2011,
I have been so unremitting and harsh a critic of the IRA and Sinn Fein since the early 1990s, that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness tried hard to have me silenced. Sinn Fein still try to shut me up with the help of libel lawyers, and an army of Shinnerbots hurl insults at me on
Ireland has given its own twist to the populist uprisings across Europe, with its election ushering in a grim time for Anglo-Irish relations. The results from Saturday’s poll – in which Sinn Fein took 24.5 per cent of the vote; Fianna Fáil, 22 per cent; and Fine Gael, 21 per cent – could also cause
Ireland has given its own twist to the populist uprisings across Europe, with its election ushering in a grim time for Anglo-Irish relations. The results from Saturday’s poll – in which Sinn Fein took 24.5 per cent of the vote; Fianna Fáil, 22 per cent; and Fine Gael, 21 per cent – could also cause
Twitter is a useful safety valve. I’ve been enjoying some reactions to a bizarre performance last night on Channel 4 News by a beefy chap in a balaclava – whose identity was protected by a weird voice-over, more Scottish than Irish. He claimed to speak for the New IRA, the few hundred supporting the most
I’ve been writing and talking about my dead friend Lyra McKee for the best part of two days, and have little to add to my tributes to the talented, lovable, warm, kind, empathetic, funny, curious, eager, original, hard-working, brave though thin-skinned, wise but sometimes naïve, ambitious but ego-free, pint–sized dynamo, who regarded journalism as a
Inside Tate Britain on Monday night, a fashionable London audience will applaud the award of the £25,000 Turner prize to whatever is judged the best thing a British artist under the age of 50 can come up with. Standing outside will be a group of Stuckists protesting against the overlord who for nearly a quarter
Omagh Highlights of the 10th Anniversary commemoration of victims of the Omagh bomb: lashing rain; Martin McGuinness laying a wreath in honour of victims of republican terrorism; Terry Waite telling us about good Jews who work for peace and bad Jews who persecute Palestinians; the Omagh Waterford Peace Choir (‘not a Prod amongst them’, said
So here I am in Omagh to attend the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the bomb that killed 29 people (and unborn twins) in the name of a united Ireland. I’m writing a book about the civil case being taken by some of the families in an effort to nail some of the bastards
I’ve just had a joyful phone call from Kevin Myers, one of the very few Irish journalists who was on the ‘No’ side. I was fearing the Irish vote would just be ignored, but Kevin, rarely an optimist, convinced me that the Irish electorate won’t stand for being told – as in the case of
The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs is already making excuses, so I think it’s all over. As a friend, who voted Yes because Sinn Fein were Nos, texted from Dublin: ‘The Nos to the left and the Nos to the right have it.’ This is from Breaking News at the Irish Times at 12.39: Minister
The counting started at 9.00 and the Nos are daring to hope as the famed Irish tallymen report many working class and rural areas voting against Lisbon. As against that, the prosperous classes came out in force to vote Yes in smart areas of Dublin and leafy Kildare. Turn-out is in the late 40s which
It seemed yesterday like a No, but I’m not so sure now. While the taxi drivers were still resolutely No voters (mostly because they resent taxi deregulation and immigrant drivers), everyone else I met yesterday in Dublin was either firmly on the Yes side or was tilting in that direction on the grounds that the
[Many thanks to Ruth Dudley Edwards, who’ll be covering the Irish referendum for Coffee House over the next few days. Here’s her first post – Pete Hoskin] I haven’t seen so many confusing posters since Beirut in the early 1990s. They are layered on every lamppost in Dublin. The Yes lobby’s contributions are pious and vacuous and unwisely have
