Journalist, author, broadcaster
Some of my thoughts on the Billy Wright inquiry and the issue of state collusion in Northern Ireland featured in this posting on The Guardian’s Comment is Free forum on September 15: David Wright’s verdict on the £30m, six-year inquiry into the death of his son, Billy, in Northern Ireland’s Maze prison in 1997, was […]
Even in the fractious world of Troubles Northern Ireland, Billy Wright was a singularly divisive character. As the leader of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force in Portadown, he was responsible for the killings of more than 20 Catholics in the 1980s. In 1996, he rejected the UVF ceasefire, creating the Loyalist Volunteer Force and orchestrating […]
In 1972, Northern Ireland looked to be on the brink of civil war. In many respects, the bombs that ripped through Claudy on 31 July epitomised the senseless brutality of the Troubles’ bloodiest year. According to Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson’s report, the IRA were responsible for the Claudy bombing and its south Derry […]
Retailers in the North this weekend are counting the cost of last week’s emergency budget in Britain. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s first budget included a package of spending and welfare cuts and tax increases aimed at saving an estimated £40 billion. In an effort to tackle Britain’s spiralling deficit, Osborne unveiled plans to […]
Early last Tuesday morning, 56 men and women, two relatives of each of the 27 people killed and injured on Bloody Sunday, met in silence at Derry’s historic city walls. In the course of a solemn, hour-long procession, they walked by the Bogside’s low-rise flat complexes and on past William Street before finishing up at […]
At 9:45am yesterday, 56 men and women met in silence at Derry’s historic city walls. In the course of a solemn, purposeful procession, they walked by the Bogside’s low-rise flats complexes and on past William Street, each carrying a black-and-white picture accompanied by four short words, “Set the truth free”. Less than an hour later, […]
Having voted LibDem in the recent UK election, this comment piece for the excellent Holyrood magazine betrays an anger with Clegg and his ‘new politics’ that I think plenty of left-of-centre voters felt in the immediate aftermath of the coalition agreement, and many still feel today. “This is the start of the new politics I […]
This comment piece on Monday’s dissident bombing in Newry appeared in The Scotsman on 24 February. In November, the International Monitoring Commission, charged with keeping tabs on Northern Ireland’s paramilitary groups, suggested dissident republican ranks were being swelled by ex-Provisional IRA members. The Newry car bomb has now confirmed the worst fears of the security […]
This piece on budget cuts in Northern Ireland appeared in today’s Sunday Business Post The protracted talks between Sinn Féin and the DUP to rescue the North’s power sharing government may have hinged on the devolution of policing and justice powers to Stormont. However, a way from Hillsborough Castle, the big issue for many in […]
This brief analysis piece on the Hillsborough agreement appeared in today’s The Scotsman. “This might just be the day when the political processes in Northern Ireland came of age,” Martin McGuinness said during yesterday’s press conference at Hillsborough Castle. Only time will tell if the deputy first minister’s optimism was well-founded, but there are grounds […]