The Khrushchev school of architecture

To cheer you up, here's a couple of pictures of the tilting bridge in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (admittedly in the fog), as well as the inside of the Sage concert hall (yes, it's called after the account software package multinational which is based in the area) with its Guggenheim New York style curved floors.

This morning I was also cheered up when I attended a breakfast discussion hosted by Lord Mayor Naomi Long to look at how we can make our city work better.

The Lord Mayor challenged us to ensure the "feelgood" factor was felt across the city, including in our areas of greatest need. Mark Hackett of the Forum for Alternative Belfast gave the great and the good both barrels with a scathing attack on the new library at Queen's, the entire concept of the Titanic Quarter, 'dead' space along the frontage of our new buildings and the disgraceful traffic barrier (blocking entrance to a QUB car park) which prevents access to the main entrance into the Botanic Gardens.

His conclusion (or one of them): "cities and spaces should be designed by people who care about the place". He also posited that Belfast is the "least dense" city in Europe — and that includes some of the trainwreck cities of the old Eastern Europe.

Some of our new (empty) apartment blocks he described as being from the Khrushchev school of architecture.

And I also liked his insistence that what matters is "what you build, not what you write" (in terms of the glowing prose in planning applications and brochures) and "the only thing that matters is results, that is, what you build".

Tomorrow, I'll share with you Mr Hackett's vision of a new Bank Square, beside St Mary's Church in the city centre which would open up a thoroughfare from the west and south to the Cathedral Quarter and new university campus.

The results from today's discussion will be fed into the Council's imminent economic development plan. But no need to wait, let's create some great spaces and buildings now.

Our final picture shows David Gavaghan, ceo of the Strategic Investment Board, the lead body responsible for new infrastructure, taking notes on his computer — or was he watching GMTV — while Mr Hackett spoke. A good sign!

Maith sibh

Chinese university steps up to teach Irish.

40 under 40 in New York

At last count, we had a singer-songwriter, a developing world activist, a Chicago politician, an environmentalist from Massachusetts, an entrepreneur, a dance teacher, a lawyer, a lawyer, another lawyer (this is America, after all), a mediator in disputes involving domestic violence, an activist in the burgeoning Unite Ireland campaign from San Francisco, a Mitchell scholar, an opera singer, a teacher and a co-ordinator at the Tenement Museum in New York...and then some.

All in all, the third annual Irish Echo 40 Under 40 in New York on 18 February (in the consulate offices of Ireland on Park Avenue) is shaping up to be an exciting, vibrant affair. The 40 under 40 events, in New York and Belfast, are my favourite annual events in the Belfast Media Group calendar, bringing together the next generation of leaders. And I'm particularly pleased that one of the youngest and most dynamic Irish Americans in the State House in Albany, New York, Mike Cusick will be among our guest speakers at the event.

Let's follow the Taoiseach's lead and stop speaking Irish in public?

How come at the Hillsborough Press conference to announce the new deal, Taoiseach Brian Cowen didn't just the first official language at all.

Is this the same policy evidenced on official invitations from the British-Irish Joint Secretariat which are in English only?

And if so, will someone tell us who came up with the policy and what its purpose is.

For, in effect, it meant the only person who used Irish on Friday morning was Martin McGuinness, whose knowledge of Irish is extremely limited, while a fluent Irish speaker, An Taoiseach, missed the opportunity to send out the message that a. Irish is a living language despite being the only indigenous language in these islands denied the support of a language act and b. the unionist opposition to Irish is both wrong and unsustainable. How, after all, do you stop a people speaking a language they love.

Tomorrow, perhaps, we'll ask a bright young journalist to put these questions to the Irish Government. In the meantime, should we all follow An Taoiseach's lead and refuse to speak Irish in public?

(Ar ndóigh, d'fhéadfadh sé Gaeilge a labhairt as siocair gurb í a theanga í — agus gurb í teanga s'againne í. Módh cumarsáide, bealach le scéala a chur ionns orainn, beag beann ar cibé tionchar a bheadh ag na chuid cainte nó nach mbeadh ag na chuid cainte or chúrsaí an tsaoil....agus dhéanfadh sé jab TG4 agus RnaG agus Nuacht 24 ní b'fhusa.)

A summer Saturday night in February (brought to you by Northern Rock)

I am in Newcastle, England, to which I have brought not coals but young fans of Niall Quinn and Andy Reid, both of whom have a connection to Sunderland AFC.

I will blog later about the impressively transformed Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (in former Baltic Flour Mills) with its waste-of-space Damien Hirst Pharmacy, the tilting bridge (swear, I saw it bow today), the Sage concert hall and a jarring statue to the ignominious slave trade on the quayside.

But before that let me salute drinking on a Homeric scale, surely not witnessed on this scale From The Balcony since a British Army-sponsored bierfest in Berlin some 30 years ago.

The night-time downtown scene in Newcastle is both surreal and sobering. The hordes of alcohol-fuelled revelers are scant of clothes; the ladies in revealing, poolside summer tops and mini-skirts, more mini than skirt. The gentlemen of the realm are given more to black shirt-sleeved shirts, bulging bellies and haircuts familiar from the aforementioned bier bash. This aversion to Mongolian goat herd hat (as sported by your travel correspondent), scarf and mittens among the stag and hen party faithful was a blunt North of England two fingers to the 3̄C/37F temperature (just checked that on weather.com). Why aren't these people keeling over with hypothermia?

In a scrum for the taxi as we returned from the movies (Jim Sheridan's Brothers: four stars), I could swear that me, my charges and the constabulary were the only sober Christians abroad in the vicinity of the Gate centre at the top of the town.I saw a touching scene as a drooling Michelin man of a Geordie tried desperately to focus on his bleeding knuckles, bringing fist dangerously close to his face. I doubt he cut his knuckles getting a midnight manicure. Equally endearing was the sight of two ingenues defying gravity to keep each other from falling as they stumbled across the street. Perhaps, like the tightrope walker's bar, the dripping hotdogs they carried was helping them keep their balance. Further on, two playful chaps in light jumpers were wrestling each other against a plate glass window.

Watching all this were dozens of patient police officers in day-glo yellow jackets, many wisely staying inside their minibuses parked prominently every 200 metres or so.

Welcome to another summer Saturday night in February on Tyneside.

(That's enough pious pontificating for one night, here's the Gateshead Millennium Bridge and slavery statue.)

New York-New Belfast

Statement by Speaker Christine Quinn of New York City Council on the Hillsborough Deal.

My pal Liam Maskey, who has been working on the ground in North Belfast on the new policing and justice dispensation is just back from New York with a cross-community delegation which also included representatives of the PSNI and Gardaí. He says that in meetings with Christine Quinn to discuss co-operation, they referred to New York and New Belfast. He swears that's before he heard of my plans to host the New York-New Belfast conference in Fordham University and the Waldorf in New York on 9-10 June. And that conference will be a follow-up to the most important gathering in the city on 25 and 26 March for the Belfast City of the Quarters conference.

Supportive statements from Richie Neal, Head of Friends of Ireland on Capitol Hill, and from President Obama.

Angels with dirty faces

Sinn Féin has endorsed the agreement hammered out by Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams and their DUP counterparts. Good for them.

The DUP will find equally strong support in their ranks and in the unionist community if they go out with the message that the war is over and it's time to march unionism's forces onto the common ground we all share — rather than lead them to the top of the hill again. The alternative is to pretend that right was on the unionist side only, but then there were no angels on any side in our dirty war.

Things have changed utterly in the six counties. Don't ask me. Ask a 30-year-old who was 14 when the IRA ceasefire of 1994 ushered in this era of peace.

The revolution we went through for 30 years is not coming back. Considering it took such a high toll, that's a good thing. Now to continue to battle for the lofty goals of that revolution.

It's easy to say, 'the more things change, the more they stay they same'. Easy to say, but it's just not true.

16 years ago, West Belfast was strangled by military fortifications — in former times called quarters which is why when we say Belfast is a city of seven quarters, that's actually a lot fewer than the number of military quarters we once had.

When I was 16, there was one person working in a semi-professional role for the Ulster arm of Conradh na Gaeilge, Comhaltas Uladh. He was a middle-aged gentleman with a full-time civil service position. Today, you can't shake a stick in West Belfast without hitting (gently) someone working for the Irish language on a full-time professional basis.

And as recently as 1984, the British secretary of state was denying there was any discrimination against 'Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland', even as his government was sponsoring jobs in the shipyard at £8000 per annum. As the industries of yesteryear continue to collapse because they can't compete, it's not possible to lead a successful, modern business in the six counties and be a bigot.

That' why the TUV can't find a business leader to front their platform.

There's a long way to go and more to discuss, including Jude Collins' brilliant piece on Policing and Justice, but I'm away to see this Angel of the North.

Do as I say, not as I do?

Did the peace process in the North of Ireland really come of age today, as revolutionary turned statesman Martin McGuinness so boldly stated this morning?
If Peter Robinson had have sealed the deal with a handshake, no matter how begrudging, I would have said ‘yes’ but many unionists, unfortunately, are still in those difficult teens.
And if the message from the very top is ‘I don’t shake hand with my partner in government’, who’s to blame the lunatic at the bottom of the heap who insists on provocatively parading past the home of his Catholic neighbour every Twelfth of July.
And make mo mistake about it, the continuing refusal by a rump of unionist hardliners — some MPs at Westminster — to refuse to engage with their former adversaries in a civil manner is a canker at the heart of government.
Indeed, this is probably the only political arena in Europe where representatives of a party sharing power refuse to as much as share a cup of coffee with their governmental colleagues.

Does it get that petty? Absolutely. DUP MP Gregory Campbell prides himself on never having shared pleasantries with his fellow MP Martin McGuinness.
Gerry Adams on his blog (www.leargas.blogspot.com) recently wrote of how to this day (16 years after the IRA ceasefire), some DUP diehards refuse to get into a lift at Stormont if he is in it first.

That’s a recipe for going down rather than going up.

The Orange Order, mired in the past, stubbornly refuses to speak to the besieged Catholic communities of Portadown and Ardoyne while insisting on marching where they want, when they want.

That’s what happens when their political masters don’t give the leadership and example needed.

So let’s get that handshake between Peter and Martin, in public and soon, so that we can give the bum’s rush to those who yearn for the years when there wasn’t a Fenian about the place.
For their day surely is gone and the day of the peacemakers — teenage peacemakers included — is arriving.

For a few pennies more

And so it came to pass that we're about to get the DUP over the line...if the Brits can stump up a few bob for the penniless Presbyterian Mutual Fund savers (who admittedly got a raw deal considering the Icelandic depositers were sorted by the Brits).

I'm sure that can be sorted, after all in one month alone, October, Gordon Brown borrowed £75 billion to keep Britain afloat so what's a few million to seal the deal?

I met Ian Paisley jr this morning in the Invest NI headquarters where I was down trying to shore up the economic fortunes of the Falls and the Shankill under the auspices of the West Belfast and Greater Shankill Enterprise Council.

"What brings you in?" said he. "Trying to create jobs on the Shankill," says me. "Aye, right," says he.

Oh ye, of little faith.

But we did agree on one thing: the deal will go through at Stormont.

The good news is that he, by his own testament, had "softened up" CEO Alastair Hamilton before myself and Jim Carvill from Wilton Health Care on the Shankill went into see the action-orientated top guy at Invest. As it turned out, he didn't seem softened up to me but we did have a useful discussion which I trust will be fruitful in the days ahead as we plan the implementation phase of the Enterprise Council's work in partnership with the new Invest NI.

Léacht na Ceathrún Gaeltachta

Is maith liom go mór an mana a bhí ar an suíomh seo aroimhe, 'gur leis an todchaí an duine ar féidir leis an todhchaí a shamhlú'.

Agus is dócha go bhfuiltear ar an phort chéanna ag Léacht na Ceathrún Gaeltachta a bhéas i gColáiste Feirste Dé hAoine ar 7.30in.

Beidh an tAiltire Alona Martinez-Perec ag caint i gcomhar lenár gcomrádaí Ciaran Mac Goill (a raibh ócáid den scoth aige aréir le 500 lá dá chleachtas nua a chéiliúradh, Ard (ciaran mackel) Architects.

Is as Bilbo Alona agus tá tuiscint iontach aici ar na forbairtí a d'athraigh an chathair sin le leas an phobail a dhéanamh.

Agus tá an iomad togra sa tsiúl ag Ciarán, ina measc an Lúbra nó Aisling an Phobail ar Bhóthar na bhFál agus scéim nua le seanmhuileann a fhorbairt mar thithíocht ar Bhóthar Cromghlinne.

Is féidir an cuireadh a íoslódáil anseo....mo léan nach mbeidh sé ar mo chumas a bheith ann mar tá rún agam Aingeal an Tuaiscirt a fheiceáil an tseachtain seo (agus ní Peter Robinson atá i gceist agam fiú má táthar ag tabhairt le fios go mbeidh sé mar shlánaitheoir againn an tseachtain seo!)

Ballagh's greatest hits

The Big Book of Ballagh is how the Irish Times describes the new monograph from Robert Ballagh — surveying the past 40 years of his prodigious artistic output — and brought together in a (very expensive) collector's edition.

However, you won't need €2,500 to see the monograph as it will be on show during this year's Féile an Phobail in West Belfast in August (fingers crossed).

The monograph includes an updated biography of Ballagh by Irish Times movie critic Ciarán Carty and memorably ends with his visit last year to East Belfast in the company of artist Brian O'Doherty/Patrick Ireland and his wife Barbara.

You can download a brochure for the new monograph — which includes 20 giclée prints of Ballagh's most famous works here.

The only major portrait by Ballagh missing from that score is is latest work on Pat Finucane, but to see that first have to travel to Capitol Hill on 18 March where Chair of the Friends of Ireland group Richie Neal will host a reception to unveil the work. Robert Ballagh, who'll be in New York for the revival of Riverdance at Radio City, and Geraldine Finucane, are expected to attend.

A decade of achievement in Philadelphia

The Irish American Business Chamber and Network in Philadelphia is one of the most professional and polished groups I've met in my sojourn through Irish America.

Led by the inimitable Bill McLaughlin, it has delivered real results on the ground for Irish companies and entrepreneurs targeting the Philadelphia area and it has led quite a few fruitful missions to Ireland.

Bill, whose roots are in Mayo, hosts the most impressive luncheon in the Irish American calendar at the end of February when the Irish Ambassador makes an appearance to present the Ambassador's Award. I attended last year and was bowled over by the attendance — over 400 of the city's business leaders — and honorees.

I won't make this year's gala but in case I missed my friends in Philadelphia, the IABCN sent me their new magazine profiling their events over the past decade. It's well worth a read — I even get my picture in there — and can be downloaded on the group's home page.

All Life is here

Mike Breen sends this link to a Life magazine edition in 1971 which includes a major feature on the IRA.

Equally interesting is the fact that the magazine is packed to the gills with ads.

Changed times indeed.

Knives coming out?

I emerged from two and a half days in bed with the cold — that's the price of a funeral on the slopes of the Black Mountain — to find the DUP getting cold feet over the on-again-off-again deal.

Will more clarification do it for Peter Robinson's merry men or does he really men that the hardliners want a blank cheque to march down the Garvaghy Road?

I suspect the latter and the fact that he's emerged from an all-day meeting of the DUP faithful without the endorsement of his camp bodes ill.

Still, we travel in hope.

Though, I do suspect there was something awry about the body language at the press conference. Are the knives coming out for Peter. Will old scores be settled now that he is already wounded once by the Irisgate revelations and will some internal enemies seize the opportunity to finish him off, metaphorically?

At any rate, as I fed the fever, my old friend Kevin McKiernan in Santa Barbara was out and about snapping the aftermath of a storm on the Pacific coast.

Finally, I had hoped to attend the public meeting in the Cultúrlann tonight about the closure of Egunkaria and am sorry to miss out. However, I'm told an interview with the representative of the Basque newspaper accused will be carried in our papers this week. I see some speculation tonight that the scandalous case will be dismissed as soon as this evening. This would certainly have been a suitable issue for Taoiseach Brian Cowen to raise with Prime Minister Zapatero in Madrid, (picture of trial courtesy of EITB.) as I've just written to respectfully tell him.

Dead aid

Dambisa Moyo (pictured, courtesy of Guardian) has featured on the Balcony before for her seminal book, Dead Aid, which argues that aid to Africa is destroying rather than facilitating economic progress.

Yesterday, she had an excellent diary column in the Financial Times on her visit to her homeland of Zambia.

Is there a comparision between the 'dead aid' for Africa and the legions of schemes for areas like West Belfast which, while well-meaning, have failed to move stubborn indices of economic progress upwards?

The 38th anniversary of Bloody Sunday took place in Derry today where Charlie McMenamin caught this picture of Martina Anderson helping our friends from the AOH in the USA put up special signage calling for the truth of that terrible day to be made known.

Agus cé nár éirigh le Gerry Adams Stormont a bhaint amach Dé hAoine do chéiliúradh Ghaeltacht Bhóthar Seoighe agus Bunscoil Phobal Feirste, tá a ba mhian leis a rá i gcló anois ar bhlag s'aige.

Typos will have a field day now Basil is gone!

A few more masses like that and you might even get me back to chapel!

Fr Des Wilson, gave a beautiful eulogy for Basil at his requiem mass today (before burial on the slopes of the Black Mountain — above) which captured his unique mixture of playfulness and seriousness, of business and pleasure, a great balance which enabled him to build a lasting community institution despite enormous pressures in dangerous times.

Basil, he said, was "a patriot" and one of "God's precious people" who had seen the potential in our people. "He was a man of many parts who in the worst of times raised our morale, whether working for the dignity of prisoners or the human rights of citizens. He told us not to lose our nerve or our dignity and understood that we had to rise from within first of all. He made change possible, even inevitable."

Though we are "in a different place now", added Des, "we must get on with the work of enhancing our people".

And of course, explained Fr Des, every step forward was not just a material goal but also possessed "a spiritual quality"

As his colleagues from the Rossa Golfing Society paid their own respects by tossing golfballs into his grave at Hannahstown, we set off about our weekend in the knowledge that he had been given the send-off he deserved. Of course, none of likes to contemplate our going not least because we all like to imagine that we're indispensable. They tell me the graveyards are full of indispensable people. But I'm sure editor Basil, the ultimate proofreader and stickler for correct spelling, had a little chuckle when he saw the tiny 'typo' in our mass booklet! Some people, it seems, are indispensable even if they do lie in the cemetery.

Gerry Adams took time out to attend Basil's funeral which may mean that the talks are going better than some had thought and thus he was able to slip away from the hurly-burly at Hillsborough, or it could mean things are going bad and there was no need for him to hang around.

With talks adjourned for the day, it will be make-your-mind-up time on Monday.

And from the professionals

Photography, of course, is an art as shown by this great photo taken by the official photographer at the 40th celebration of Pobal Bhóthar Seoigh, the West Belfast Gaeltacht community, and Bunscoil Phobal Feirste, the first Irish medium primary school in the North, at Stormont tonight.

Cutting the cake with Bunscoil pupils are principal Aine Mhic Ghiolla Cheara and Diarmuid Ó Bruadair from Coláiste Feirste.

Ag racáil Stormont

Fad is bhí na caainteoirí ag Caisleán Cromhghlinne, bhí an réabhlóid ag brú ar aghaidh sa Ghealaraí Fada ag Stormont, áit a raibh mé i m'fhear tí anocht ar chéiliúradh 40 bliain Phobal Bhóthar Seoighe agus Bunscoil Phobal Feirste.

Ba é bunú phobal Bhóthar Seoighe an chéim a ba réabhlóidí dár nglac ár muintir le 40 bliain anuas agus is maith an airí ar lucht a bunaithe an fhorbairt mhór a tháinig ar an Ghaeilge agus ar phobal na Gaeilge ó shin.

Cheol dáltaí Bhunscoil Phobal Feirste agus bhí siad ní ba bhinne na buachaillí Vienna féin agus iad i mbarr ar réime.

Bhí an tAire Oideachais Caitríona Ruane ann agus mhol príomhoide Bhunscoil Phobal Feirste Aine Mhic Ghiolla Cheara í as a dílseacht don teanga.

Oíche den scoth nuair a chuimhnigh muid ar an obair iontach a thug Basil McLaughlin rith a shaoil do Phobal Bhóthar Seoighe agus dá n-iliomad fiontar agus ar Adam Mac Giolla Chathain, Seosamh Mistéil agus Áine Mhic Aindreasa, ceannródaithe na scéime nach maireann. Grásta ó Dhia orthu uilig.

Bhí Gerry Adams le bheith ann, ba e a thionscnaigh an céiliúradh, ach bhí sé goitse ach na cainteanna agus níor éirigh leis a mholadh féin a thabhairt don slua a bhailigh ag Stormont.

Ach ba iad na páistí laochra na hócáide iad.

Gan amhras dhéanafaidh siad gaiscí amach anseo ar aon dul le héachtaí agus le gaiscí glórmhara Phobal Bhóthar Seoighe. Bainigí sult as na snaps.

Battle stations

In the US, where else?, they have a programme called 'Deadliest Warrior' where they stage mock battles between forces — some out of the pages of history like the Spartans, some contemporary — and roll out a cast of experts to explain why one side wins and the other loses.

In Britland, they plan to show the series but not this episode which has the IRA taking on the Taliban. And you thought I was joking when I said they wouldn't show the edition of The Wire with the H-Block poster.

Apologies for some bad language — this is an edition videod by an American kid with his mobile phone — and the odd gruesome scene but if you've a funny bone in your body, you'll enjoy this.

Closing down the nation's art galleries

A bustling Dublin on a sharp January day can't completely hide its distress as it stumbles through the economic recession.

But the most pungent commentary on the state of the nation apres-Bertie came in the National Gallery in Merrion Square Westyesterday when I joined Robert Ballagh for a juke at its famous portrait of champion of the working class and bishops' foe, Dr Noel Browne.

Browne refused to work in private practice throughout his life, so Robert Ballagh thought it appropriate that the finished work, depicting Browne as if on a crucifix, should go to a public collection. Easier said than done when your name's Ballagh and you're dealing with the art arbiters of Ireland. In the end, it took the National Gallery over three years to agree to buy the piece — and then only if they could have it for half the (modest) sale price. Even when they bought the piece, they tarried over its hanging and it only went up on the wall after the good doc died in 1997.

Full marks to the friendly National Gallery staff who hailed Robert when we entered — after all, most of the stars who produced the work on their walls are underground for the past couple of centuries – but bad news awaited. "I'm sorry Robert," said our host, "but the Portrait Gallery is closed due to staff costs."

Which sort of tells you all you need to know about the present sorry state of affairs.

And we're not far behind in the black North: I see the dodos are going to chop £25.9m from the budget of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure — the biggest proportional chop from any department.

Our Blackberry snaps show Robert Ballagh in front of three works by artist Harry Clarke, whose rose window adorns the chapel at St Dominic's College on the Falls Road, and Robert in front of his striking portrait of Noel Browne TD — the cutbacks curtain raised at noon when funding allows a member of staff to be positioned at the Portrait Gallery.

Mr Andytown

THE MAN whose boundless energy and unswerving idealism helped to found both the Andersonstown News and the Andersonstown Civil Resistance Committee passed away yesterday (Wednesday) after a courageous fight against illness.
Basil McLaughlin died in the Hospice on the Somerton Road surrounded by close family at around 4am yesterday morning. He was 74 years of age
A lifelong resident of West Belfast, Basil gave up a promising civil service career to work in favour of civil rights and against internment – coming together with a number of other concerned individuals in the early 1970s to fight against injustice and to form a local newspaper to give a voice to the voiceless in his part of the city.
The Belfast Media Group HQ on the Glen Road – Teach Basil – is named in honour of him and as the rest of West Belfast prepared to say goodbye to Basil, friends and colleagues paid tribute to one of the best-known and most widely-respected figures in the West of the city and beyond.

Basil is pictured with President Mary McAleese and Martin McAleese at the Aisling Awards in 2002.

Basil ar lár

With great regret, I report this morning that the Andersonstown News founder, first photographer and former editor Basil McLaughlin died this morning at the NI Hospice. Grásta ó Dhia air.

I was glad to be able to call over last night and let him know his colleagues were asking for him and our thoughts today are with his wife Pat and the McLaughlin family circle.

Willow warbler on way

I was delighted to be invited to the Castle Espie Wildlife Centre close to Comber yesterday to address an 'away day' for one of our most important government agencies.

I didn't have much to say except to turn on its head the mantra from newsrooms across the world: "Do more with less." In my view, government agencies should do less with more, that is, stay focused, bring resources to bear, deliver.

But what was impressive at Castle Espie was the magnificent £3m building which opened last April with a striking view over the wetlands along the Strangford Lough. James Orr, who is in charge of the centre, also tells me that until recently, Castle Espie teamed up with the local community to host a festival marking the arrival of the entire global population of Light-bellied Brent Geese (for whom the Canadian winter is too harsh).

I hadn't heard of that festival but I'm still keen to host a West Belfast festival to mark the arrival in the Bog Meadow every spring of the willow warbler.

Willow Warblers winter in West Africa, principally the Ivory Coast and Ghana and make the 3-4,000 mile journey to the Bog Meadow every February. The little ball of fluff which is the exhausted willow warbler drops down in the meadow — to met by local twitchers with nets who check rings placed in previous years. The warblers return to the same site each year, and have probably been doing so for 5,000 years.

Now that's commitment. Here's a picture of our little visitor the willow warbler (ceolaire sailí).

For the day that was in it yesterday

A visiting specialist is visiting an Edinburgh hospital. He enters a ward full of patients with no obvious sign of injury or illness and greets one.

The patient replies:

"Fair fa’ your honest sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin’ race,
Aboon them a’ ye take yer place,
Painch, tripe or thairm,
As langs my airm."

The specialist is confused, so he just grins and moves on to the next patient. The patient responds:

"Some hae meat an’ canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat an’ we can eat,
So let the Lord be thankit."

Even more confused, and his grin now rictus-like, the specialist moves on to the next patient, who immediately begins to chant:

"Wee sleekit, cowerin’, timrous beasty,
O the panic in thy breasty,
Thou needna start awa’ sae hastie,
Wi’ bickering brattle."

Now seriously troubled, the visitor turns to the accompanying doctor and asks "Is this a psychiatric ward?"

"No," replies the doctor, "this is the serious Burns unit."

New tricks for old dog

I've often wondered how they've managed to keep Harland and Wolff in business since they're not turning out ships any longer. I found out the answer to that question at a special dinner in City Hall last week hosted by Lord Mayor Naomi Long to explore ways in which business can help the city battle the recession.

Turns out down at the dock of the bay, H&W is turning out machines to make energy from seapower and propellers for wind farms. These, I am told, come under the title of renewables.

Providing this information and keeping Harland and Wolff afloat (no pun intended) is Robert Cooper, ceo of the slimmed-down former shipbuilder (they also repair and renew ships).

There was a time 60 years ago when up to 30,000 people worked in Harland and Wolff, today the number's closer to 150 and if a big order comes in — in the shape of a vessel which needs repaired — the company brings in workers from across Europe to get the work done.

Also attending were the heads of the Chamber of Commerce and the Institute of Directors as well as my old pal Stephen Magorrian of Botanic Inns who has one of the best pieces of business advice I've heard in a long while: "If you're in a race you can't win, start a new one."

"This is not a game of poker"

Gerry Adams on the latest twist in the peace process with the "defining" engagement around the political structures due tomorrow.

Down to business

At the Invest NI headquarters in Belfast today for the annual showcase of events, conferences and initiatives being undertaken by the Belfast Media Group in 2010, including the Aisling Educational Bursaries (which have provided £350,000 in bursaries over the past ten years to students from the west) and the upcoming City of Quarters conference.

Invest NI kindly hosted the event for 100 of the city's top business and community leaders — and there were at least three politicians there, Lord Mayor Naomi Long, who spoke, Cllr Tom Ekin, and Cllr Ian Adamson — despite suffering a £10m budget cut this morning.

Invest Board member Ed Vernon welcomed a new initiative which will see the Belfast Media Group and Shankill Mirror carry a major monthly feature on 12 of our top companies. These articles will look at the companies through the eyes of their employees while letting young readers know what qualifications they need to work in a particular industry. As Ed said, it's all about wealth generation and in that regard, community and business is a two-way street.

At the breakfast at the Invest NI hq were Tim Losty (OFMDFM), Ed Vernon, Alison Gowdy (Invest NI) and Bro McFerran (Allstate NI & NI Chamber of Commerce President).

Shankill protest

On this short video of our successful gathering of business leaders in Invest NI's Belfast HQ this morning, John McVicar of Shankill Mirror notes at the end (and it's just over a minute in total, I think) that the paper was set up because the mainsteam media wouldn't listen to the community of the Shankill.

It's a great piece of video by John Kelly of the Belfast Media Group who also took the pictures at the event (we'll have a longer report tomorrow) and edited/produced this video. Talk to me about skilling up for the new media dispensation.

Setback in peace process

Gerry Adams has an up-to-the-minute account of the collapse of the Stormont talks on his blog.

I for one am bitterly disappointed at the breakdown in negotiations and astonished that the Orange Order can still hang like the sword of Damocles over peacemaking attempts here.

Ní bhíonn gnó gan stró

Ní fiú iad a scríobh muna ndéantar léirmheas orthu!

Seo glacadh Choncubhar Uí Liatháin ar mo leabhar nua, Stró an Ghnó.

Great minds think alike...

Robert Ballagh had a pop at the banksters in his last work, the Raft of the Medusa, with the financial king-pins replacing the sea captain of old who abandoned his crew and passengers without food on a makeshift raft.

Now Larry Kirwan of Black 47 is mining that same rich vein with his new album, Banksters and Gangsters which has a magnificent cover.

Larry and Robert have never met but since Robert is going to be in New York on St Patrick's Day for the 15th anniversary revival of Riverdance at Radio City, I'm sure we can put that right.

'Raped' by media

The media involved in vilifying Minister Martin Cullen should hang their heads in shame, some of you might say.

They're unlikely to do so, however, some of you might add, and are more likely to spend this weekend trying to destroy Gerry Adams (as they've been trying to do since I was knee-high to a grasshopper) even though the shock horror allegations against the MP for West Belfast have been found to have all the weight of a bucket of blue steam.

For 13 weeks, Minister Cullen found himself on the front pages of the Sundays being 'exposed' for an affair which never was. High standards, indeed.

I was interviewed on the Gerry Adams imbroglio on Radio Ulster at 7:30 this morning, a time when I thought radio shows were run by machines, and could report that despite a blizzard of condemnation from editorial pulpits, the West Belfast MP at week-end retained the trust of his electorate.

Your health is much more than a blessing

William McKee, affable and uberefficient ceo of the Belfast Trust heads up the biggest health organisation in these islands with 22,000 employees, almost a third of that number on the Royal Victoria Hospital in West Belfast.

In fact the hospital is next-door neighbour to the Gaeltacht Quarter, and for the Irish language cultural quarter to blossom, we all must find ways of marrying both together. Or as Tony McCusker, chair of Community Relations Council and promoter of Gaeltacht Quarter project, puts it: "we must find ways where the Royal can attest to its pride in the Gaeltacht Quarter".

William, Tony and a butcher's dozen of business, community, political and cultural leaders were on hand for the second Morning in Belfast breakfast in the Cultúrlann, hosted by my goodself on Wednesday from 8-9am.

The lively discussion centred on how best to synergise the Royal and the Gaeltacht Quarter but also on how life science businesses and connected health start-ups could be clustered around the hospital as another string to the proposition of West Belfast. In that regard, we were fortunate to have Denis Murphy, chair of Anaeko and Donal Durkan, head of life sciences at Invest NI in the company.

Of course, under HR chief at the Royal, Marie Mallon (who also broke croissants with us), the hospital has played a pioneering role in helping the long-term jobless access jobs in the health service and then work closely to move those employees up through the ranks by giving them the appropriate training. Inez McCormack, former President of ICTU played a key role in setting up the West Belfast and Shankill employability scheme with the RVH.

There's also been a move by the RVH to be very congisant of the local community in its building plans — as explained by Denise Stockman — which is evidenced especially by the removal of the ugly wall on the Falls and its replacement with the magical DNA railings.

Of course, the success of the city's quarters will be found, as Ciarán Mackel, chair of the Gaeltacht Quarter board, put it, in how they connect to our citizens. In that regard, efforts to link the hospital more closely to facilities like Dunville Park and the Cultúrlann are essential.

The majority of life science spin-offs come through the universities with clinical trials taking place in the Royal and other hospitals. Some of the most important new companies in West Belfast grew out of college spin-outs and located in the west because Invest NI had placed advance factories in the area (for example, Andor, Fusion Antibodies and APT), which is a strong case for more advance office space at or near the Royal which could accommodate these exciting new industries — and be a real shot in the arm for West Belfast's image.

And, of course, as West Belfast partnership board ceo Geraldine McAteer points out, the provision of care in the home in conjunction with the Trust can be a boon to citizens of West Belfast and help the health service function better.

Wouldn't it be interesting to learn from a hospital in the US where they successfully created a life sciences cluster? When the Irish Technology Leadership Group visited the Cultúrlann last October, they represented venture capital funds with $3bn under their control. Wouldn't it be nice to involve them in making this dream a reality? Certainly, some of us plan to explore that a little more with our friends in the Northern Ireland Science Park down in the Titanic Quarter.

In the meantime, councillors Tim Attwood of the SDLP and Tom Hartley of Sinn Féin — who attended along with local MLA Paul Maskey and our wise man from the east Sammy Douglas — have urged us to be more vociferous in campaigning for the new women and children's hospital at the Royal. Can be done.

Our picture shows Marie Mallon, William McKee, Cllr Tim Attwood and Geraldine McAteer.

(Dála an scéil, má tá tú do shuí go luath ar maidin, beidh mé i stiudeo an BBC i mBéal Feirste ar 7:30 ag caint ar sheasamh Gerry Adams in iarthar Bhéal Feirste.)

Kate McGarrigle ar dheis láimh Dé go raibh sí

I have some Kate McGarrigle albums and admire her soft tones and uplifting songs but I knew her best through Loudon Wainwright's musicial account of their tempestuous marriage.

Morning in Belfast, Take II

The Royal Group of Hospitals in West Belfast is the jewel in the crown of this proud district...and formed the subject for our monthly Morning in Belfast discussion in the Cultúrlann yesterday.

More on that later, but for now here's the editorial from today's Andersonstown News.

Best start for local babes
and mums
West Belfast councillors Tim Attwood and Tom Hartley are leading efforts to bring to a head the 15-year campaign to have a new women’s and children’s hospital built on the site of the Royal Victoria Hospital — and they’ve persuaded Belfast City Council to back their efforts.
This £360m new-build project would not only provide a jobs bonanza for the entire city of Belfast, but provide the 21st century care our mothers and children deserve.
The Royal Victorial Hospital is one of the great success stories of West Belfast. Operating on an annual budget of around £300m and employing over 6,000 people, it is by far the biggest organisation and biggest jobs provider in the West of the city.
Over recent years, it has also increased its outreach to the local community, providing path to work programmes, removing the brick wall separating the facility from the Falls Road and sponsoring an annual community lecture.
But it’s in the provision of hundreds of well-paid, sustainable jobs and in the guarantee of top-class healthcare that it really excels.
The women’s and children’s hospital , if greenlighted, would ensure that the RVH not only maintains its position as a jewel in West Belfast’s crown, but becomes a beacon of medical excellence for the entire island.

Four seasons on 160th anniversary

In the Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast tonight for a powerful exhibition to mark the 160th anniversary of the Belfast School of Art and Design, part of the University of Ulster.

Top artist Neil Shawcross and University of Ulster Vice-Chancellor Richard Barnett were among those who addressed the audience of art fans and college staff. Having bought up all the buildings on both sides of York Street, around the new £28m city centre art and design hub, Vice-Chancellor Barnett says he's ready to build the new campus. He also revealed that the university has acquired a 38 acre site alongside Magee in Derry so the foundation stones are in place.

In a nod to government ministers intent on cutting education resources that the way to build the economy is to compete in education — after all these design schools were first set up because of the commercial challenge from other European powers.

Professor Liam Kelly, visual arts tzar at the university, signed my copy of his commemorative book telling the history of the college from 1960 to the present day. Liam has facilitated some of the most innovative art initiatives in the North and has worked closely with Brian O'Doherty/Patrick Ireland, bringing a fresh, national approach to an often insular local art scene.

Pictured in front of Four Seasons by William Scott, a major piece at the exhibition, which was created as a mural for Altnagelvin Hospital, are Professor Ian Montgomery from the college and West Belfast entrepreneur Terry Cross who keeps himself busy between running a major print operation in West Belfast with similar operations in India and China by running the highly-regarded vineyard and Chateau de la Ligne.

Personality bypass?

I did Talkback on Radio Ulster earlier in relation to the 'shock' defeat of the Democratic candidate Martha Coakley in the race for the Massachusetts Senate Seat.

I met then Attorney General Coakley, an Irish American, back in May 2007, courtesy of Art McCabe, when the West Belfast and Greater Shankill group visited Boston and though very welcoming, she's not charismatic. As Wendy put it on talkback "it sounds as if she has had a personality bypass". And of course while it's the hub of Democratic America, Massachusetts has returned republicans before, most famously Governor William Weld who visited Belfast in 1997.

Here's how a great friend of Ireland who put together our October conference in BostonSean Moynihan of the Moynihan Group in Boston sees it:

Perfect storm really. Coakley is a prosecutor and a good one but isn't a good politician. Her campaign took the race far too lightly and after the primary she virtually disappeared. Add to that the apprehension over the health care overhaul, the state of the economy, and people's dissatisfaction with Obama's performance (unjustified as far as I'm concerned) and this is what happens. There was a feeling among the electorate that her campaign took it for granted that because she won the primary the general election was almost nothing more than a formality which was clearly a huge mistake. Part of the reason for that approach was that it was Ted Kennedy's seat for 47 years. The seat was held by a Democrat (JFK and Ted) since 1952 (JFK beat Henry Cabot Lodge who was a Republican) so an attitude existed that it was a virtual impossibility it could go Republican. This transcended through the electorate who responded. Scott Brown came across as a regular guy who wanted to get down to Washington and represent the average person. He ran an effective campaign utilizing the traditional media and social media. - facebook - and enlisted the support of local sports figures (Doug Flutie among them) and local celebrities. By the time the Democrats pulled in the big names - Clinton and Obama visited last weekend- it was too late. Brown came back from a 30 point deficit to win by 5 points.

Expect tough times ahead for the Democrats across the US a less raucous mood in the White House for the St Patrick's Day party. As Larry Kirwan of Black 47 said in an email today, "now we'll see what Obama is really made of".

The pic has nothing to do with above but shows the East Belfast Wall at Teach Basil, viewed from the other side and you also see George Best!

From the H-Blocks to Baltimore

I'm a addict when it comes to the HBO series The Wire. Set in Baltimore, Maryland, it tells of the, usually futile, war on drugs and boasts some of the greatest acting and most powerful scripts on TV.

Anyhow, I'm now on series five which focuses in part on the daily newspapers in the devastated city of Baltimore, The Baltimore Sun, so I'm having a ball.

Part of the action takes place in a Catholic shelter for the homeless and "working poor".

Where they have some really interesting framed posters on the walls.

New tact on funds

An interesting editorial in this week's Irish Echo on a new approach to the investment of US pension funds which, to date, have been logjammed in Belfast.

Can a way be found to get a return for pension fund holders and boost the communities in the North which suffered most during the years of conflict?

Quartered

In researching our City of Quarters conference, I came across this article by John Murray Brown in the Financial Times in which, if I'm not mistaken, Mark Finlay coins the phrase, "Belfast is no longer a city of two halves but of seven quarters".

Belfast shrugs off talk of hard times
By John Murray Brown
Published: April 13 2009 23:07 | Last updated: April 13 2009 23:07
Belfast did not officially experience the recession in the early 1990s. This is usually explained because so many people in the city work in the public sector – a direct legacy of Northern Ireland’s three-decades long political Troubles.

Today, a third of the workforce is still in state employment, and public expenditure accounts for two-thirds of economic activity.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
Poorest half of UK owns just 9% of wealth - Dec-10

Editorial: North Sea Bubble - Dec-04

Storm is over but sea is still rough - Dec-04

Corus to cut 1,700 Teesside jobs - Dec-04

Manufacturing fades under Labour - Dec-02

Lofty ideals give way to thwarted hopes - Dec-02

But by some measures, Belfast is feeling the economic chill more acutely than other UK cities. House prices have collapsed and consumer spending has declined.

Yuile Magee, managing director of Isaac Agnew Holdings, a Belfast car distributor, says: “In the past, we never had the peaks and we never had the troughs.” But, he says, the current recession started to bite earlier in Northern Ireland than elsewhere, which he believes reflects the extent to which the economy is now linked with the Republic of Ireland, the first eurozone economy officially to enter recession.

However, there seems to be agreement that the unrest that began in Belfast in the late 1960s means that the city is well able to cope.

“Northern Ireland business people are resilient. They never had it that easy, even in the good years,” says Colin Walsh, who runs Crescent Capital, the province’s largest venture fund, with £22.5m invested in early-stage development projects, supported by the New York state pension fund.

Belfast is enjoying its own local fiscal stimulus, with a number of key public works projects underway, from the West Link road to renovation of the city’s Victorian sewerage system.

Belfast City Council is completing a number of building projects, including a £8.5m refurbishment of the Ulster Hall, the landmark concert venue.

But Eamon Deeny, the council’s head of communications, says most of these projects are complete or soon will be. “This isn’t the time to be asking the public to fund new projects. Our challenge as a council is to make efficiencies to keep the rates down,” he says.

It is fashionable today to describe Belfast as a city not of two halves but of seven quarters.

In the Cathedral quarter, for example, an area bombed by the German Luftwaffe, a significant urban regeneration is underway. It will feature new bars and restaurants, retail units and a planned new campus for the University of Ulster, hosting more than 12,000 students.

“This is the oldest part of the city but it will soon be the youngest,” says Mark Finlay, a local property developer.

Across the river Larne, the yellow gantry cranes of the Harland & Wolff shipyard still loom over the city, even though shipbuilding activity ceased in the 1990s. The docks have been reinvented as another quarter – the Titanic Quarter, a science park and residential area.

Short Brothers, the aerospace company, remains the city and the province’s largest private sector employer, even though Bombardier, its parent company, recently shed several hundred jobs. But the city’s future prospects could well depend less on traditional manufacturing than on the success of the projects now coming from the universities.

Andor Technologies, an Aim-listed company in the Springvale Business Park, on the peace line that divides Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods in west Belfast, is taking on extra staff and has a full order book for its specialist scientific cameras.

Mr Walsh, Crescent’s chief executive and Andor board member, says: “Any company that is exporting a high-margin product is in great shape because of sterling.”

But he says start-ups are finding it more difficult. “It’s much harder now to catch your first sale, harder to get any sense out of a bank.”

In 1905, Ireland Brothers, a famous Belfast linen producer, claimed it was “world-famous for splendiferous white Irish linen used in manufacturing for the south American admirals and field marshals”.

“That’s how international Belfast was,” says Mr Finlay, who is developing the old Ireland Brothers building. “We’ve got some way to go to recover those glory days.”

Missed opportunities

The news that Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson have shaken hands clears the way for an historic handshake outside Stormont if we can get the final pieces of the devolution jigsaw in place.

I've always felt that the failure to go into nationalist areas has been a missed opportunity by both Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson.

Gerry Adams attendance at David Ervine's funeral in January 2007 was seen as a pivotal moment in the peace process but it needed to be built on by the real leaders of loyalism, the DUP.

To his credit, Nelson McCausland has never been behind the door in accepting invitations to attend events in areas like West Belfast and I once shared a platform with him in the Cultúrlann where most of the proceedings were in Irish and simultaneously translated.

I can't remember if I ever shook hands with Nelson McCausland (though allegedly I did grab him by the throat once) though I have shaken hands with many of the DUP leaders, who may view me as having gone through "decontamination" since I left SF. I usually save their blushes by not offering a handshake — as I did recently at a breakfast the North Belfast News hosted in the Landsdowne Hotel for a cross-community sports initiative and which was attended by both Nelson and Nigel Dodds.

And then of course, there's always the possibility that if you do put out the hand, they'll refuse to accept it. That happened to me in Lisburn once at a meeting about the plan to site a peace centre at the former H-Blocks hospital. I was furious but thought I did a good job of hiding it by commending the bigot responsible from the stage for gracing us with his presence. He, in turn, was furious. We did learn something after all from those RUC roadblocks where it was 'yes, sir, no, sir' as they tore your car apart.

Interesting interview here with Peter Robinson.

Free at last

I have just deleted my Twitter account — thanks to all those who signed up as followers, but I'm outathere — and my Plaxo account, sorry Michael and Kevin.

I feel like a burden has been lifted from my cyber-shoulders but I'm definitely a Facebook fan and am still weighing up my options on Linkedin.

Artists in the frame

Aisling Crudden made this film-length piece on 'political' art in Ireland and the Basque Country back in 2005 — but it's escaped my notice until now.

It's a great work and includes contributions by some favourites of this blog: Robert Ballagh, Brian O'Doherty, Willie Doherty from Derry and Shane Cullen who did the monumental prison comms artwork. Artist Brian Maguire, who taught Michael Stone, also appears.

Robert Ballagh tells in this movie of how he brought a motion to AosDána (at the request of then broadcast minister Michael D Higgins) opposing Section 31 only to be castigated by revisionists. He hasn't been back to Aos Dána since.

There are also some searing works by Basque artists in the frame here, including works on torture, which of course, given their experience of Franco is nothing new to the proud people of Euskal Herria.

Throughout, I was reminded of a statement by Conrad Atkinson, who was famously blacklisted for 10 years for tackling the issue of repression in the North. "It's easier to paint pictures of daffodils than to do Northern Ireland."

Anyhow, put the blackberry on silent, disconnect Twitter and immerse yourself in Aisling's opus for 79 minutes.

Art / Conflict: 2 X Zones from aaronrip on Vimeo.

Shake on it!

The news that Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson have shaken hands clears the way for an historic handshake outside Stormont if we can get the final pieces of the devolution jigsaw in place.

I've always felt that the failure to go into nationalist areas has been a missed opportunity by both Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson.

Gerry Adams attendance at David Ervine's funeral in January 2007 was seen as a pivotal moment in the peace process but it needed to be built on by the real leaders of loyalism, the DUP.

To his credit, Nelson McCausland has never been behind the door in accepting invitations to attend events in areas like West Belfast and I once shared a platform with him in the Cultúrlann where most of the proceedings were in Irish and simultaneously translated.

I can't remember if I ever shook hands with Nelson McCausland (though allegedly I did grab him by the throat once) though I have shaken hands with many of the DUP leaders, who may view me as having gone through "decontamination" since I left SF. I usually save their blushes by not offering a handshake — as I did recently at a breakfast the North Belfast News hosted in the Landsdowne Hotel for a cross-community sports initiative and which was attended by both Nelson and Nigel Dodds.

And then of course, there's always the possibility that if you do put out the hand, they'll refuse to accept it. That happened to me in Lisburn once at a meeting about the plan to site a peace centre at the former H-Blocks hospital. I was furious but thought I did a good job of hiding it by commending the bigot responsible from the stage for gracing us with his presence. He, in turn, was furious. We did learn something after all from those RUC roadblocks where it was 'yes, sir, no, sir' as they tore your car apart.

Making your own luck

I'm reading A Fiery Peace in a Cold War by Niall Sheehan though, even 200-odd pages in, I'm not entirely sure why.

Though the author does get the two-thumbs up in my library for his previous Vietnam epic A Bright Shining Lie, which Terry George brought to the big screen.

A Fiery Peace in a Cold War tells the story of a US Air Force leader who created the intercontinental balistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and thus, if you accept the argument in this book, maintained the uneasy balance which prevented nuclear armageddon between the USSR and America.

But the book hasn't been without its rewards; not least a chilling account of the fireboming of Tokyo which took more lives than the subsequent atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the Irish were there, of course, Tommy Power led the mission which on March 9 1945 turned 15 square miles of Tokyo's wooden buildings to wasteland, burning killing 75,000 or so civilians). The Little Boy uranium bomb dropped on Hiroshima was designed to trigger at 1,900 feet to cause the maximum destruction on the ground — and did so with breathtaking precision, detonating above the courtyard of one of the city's hospitals.)

I have come across one anecdote and one adage I like.

Anecdote: A general suggested to USSR dictator Khrushchev that the Russians overcome range difficulties with planes used to drop the H-bomb on the USA by landing in Mexico after the bombing. "What do you think Mexico is — our mother-in-law?" Khrushchev replied. "You think we can go calling anytime we want? The Mexicans would never let us have the plane back."

And the adage: "There is an old Marine Corps maxim...'Luck occurs when preparation and opportunity coincide."

The bouncing ball

An army marches on its stomach, a football team fields on its finances.

Which reminds me that Club Aontroma is gearing up its fundraising exploits to ensure that the Antrim seniors can surpass last year's inspirational run in the All-Ireland football championship.

You can follow Club Aontroma on Twitter.

The season kicks off this Sunday in Casement against Derry at 2pm. See you there (flu permitting). Aontroim Abú.

Nemeton i mBéal Feirste

Bhí áthas orm fáilte go Béal Feirste a chur roimh Irial Mac Murchú as Nemeton, an comhlacht craoltóireachta as an Rinn i gCo Phort Láirge.

Deir Irial nuair a bhí sé ag fás aníos go raibh triúr teaghlach sa Rinn arbh í Gaeilge teanga an teallaigh acu. Deir sé inniu go bhfuil leathchéad teaghlach Gaeilge sa Ghaeltacht bheag sin.

Sa phictiúr drámatúil seo, tá sé le Fearghus Ó hÍr agus Máire Nig Fhionnachtaigh as Raidió Fáilte.

Agus dála an scéil, mhothaigh mé an dealbh úr seo i gceathrú na heaglaise..le titim na hoíche. Bean nocht, cé shílfeadh go gceadófaí a leithéid i gcathair chráifeach mar seo.

"an act of protest ends as an act of reconciliation"

"I am in New York, it's 1972 and I am minding my own business..."

An excellent short movie by Aisling Crudden about Brian O'Doherty's brave decision to change his artistic name to Patrick Ireland.

Patrick Ireland: 1972-2008 from aaronrip on Vimeo.

Model project

Down at Titanic House in the Titanic Quarter in East Belfast yesterday to put the final touches to the City of Quarters conference (which is shaping up nicely) when I come across this wonderful wooden model of the new multi-million square foot development transforming East Belfast.

The last time I saw a scale model of this magnitude was in the offices of the Boston Development Authority and though there's been much talk of developing a similar model for the Gaeltacht Quarter, it hasn't appeared just yet.

The model occupies the downstairs of the refurbed Titanic House which is next door to the Titanic Drawing Rooms, an impressive building, which, in turn, is next door to the Paint Hall, the facility run by NI Screen in which City of Embers (Bill Murray) was made.

Is ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine

Our good friend Ed Forry of the Boston Irish Reporter also publishes the Haitian Boston Reporter.

His son Bill is married to Haitian American Linda Dorcena Forry who always rolls the red carpet out for visiting Irish delegations in her role as a State Representative.

Hopefully, we can respond to that generosity by backing the many appeals for the Haitian earthquake victims which are now being set up.

Ó Riada ar ais

Is olc an scéal é nuair atá cuimhne agat ar eachtra iontach a tharla 40 bliain ó shin ach sin mar tá mé anois agus reunion de Ó Riada sa Gaeity a bheartú.
Concubhar i mbun pinn fá dtaobh de anseo.javascript:void(0)

Chinese whispers

On a fair and perceptive piece I participated in this morning on BBC Radio 4 (about Gerry Adams and his condemnation from the same editorial soap boxes from which he has been castigated since he became MP for West Belfast in 1983), RTÉ was referred to as "the Irish state broadcaster".

Funny how you never hear anyone on BBC refer to itself as "the British state broadcaster" even though unusually, BBC is not only the state broadcaster but if you don't pay towards its costs, they put you in jail.

They wouldn't try that in China. And yet despite that, if we didn't have the BBC in this part of the world, we'd be screwed since it remains independent of the commercial pressures which dictate what does and doesn't go into much of our local media. (That's before we reference the English manger of one daily who insisted his paper oppose the abolition of the 11-Plus because his kids were doing very nicely thank you in a school along the Golden Mile.)

Anyhow, there's a fundraiser next weekend for New York's finest public radio station WFUV and Séamus Blake's programme Míle Fáilte. Is féidir leat togha na gclár a chraolann Séeamus a fheiceáil agus a chloisteáil anseo.

Writing on the wall

The Bogside artists are in the frame again with a donors' fundraising exhibition to keep their show on the road (and on the walls).

I've tried, unsuccessfully, in the past to make contact with this talented bunch of artists who have created some of the greatest murals in Europa in the working class areas of Derry.

I suspect that with a little TLC, they could attract mucho funding and be elevated onto a bigger stage. But in the meantime, let's all give their fundraising effort a leg-up. They're asking artists to donate a piece to be sold at a special event in their Derry gallery on 12 February.

They can be contacted on k_336@hotmail.com but there's no name on the press notice I saw.

They say: "Since we moved to better premises in the Bogside we have faced mounting financial difficulties due to the abysmal lack of support from those government bodies ostensibly set up to help such as we. We must pay for everything ourselves including the upkeep of our murals that have become one of the most visited tourist attractions in Ireland. We go without wages and have done so for years because we believe in what we are doing and the work we have done. Your help is needed to prevent our studio being destroyed by those who have a vested interest in doing just that."

Hope for us all yet

Fair play to Kieran McCarthy MLA from the Alliance Party in Strangford who opened his comments in the Assembly today with "go raibh maith agat, a leascheann Chomhairle".

The other shoe falls

Panorama will focus on the Iris Robinson saga tonight. It's unusual for Panorama to cover a story with, outwardly, little broad political impact or to simply repeat the work of Spotlight so one presumes more revelations are on the way.

If so the local Sundays have no idea what those revealtions are. Though they were jam-packed with salacious stories, not one new fact (personal or political) was forthcoming in any of the Sundays

The Robinsons may not be so lucky tonight.

Generous language

Politics is a game best played long so I wonder if the language used in this Sinn Féin statement noting Cllr Killian Forde's departure from Sinn Féin ranks on Dublin city council is wise.

"Careerist", clearly "in the wrong party", SF puts "parties before personalities" etc. etc.

I've never met Killian Forde but he always struck me as having a great personality, the very thing which people like in their politicians — and he's a smart cookie.

Unless I'm very much mistaken, he's going to remain a prominent figure in Dublin public life for the next few decades.

Without taking sides on the fall-out which lead to him walking the plank, I wish him well.