Hitting paydirt

A bhuí le Daithí Mac Lochlainn i Nua Eabharc, tá an píosa seo thíos againn.

Up in Ballymoney, the SDLP is falling over its own shoelaces in opposing Irish street names for fear that unionists will demand street names in Ulster Scots.

Patsy McGlone in Magherafelt and Dominic Bradley in South Armagh must be cringing at the confused thinking of their own members since both men have done more than most to promote a bilingual society and not just bilingual street and road names.

And I see another unionist councillor in this report from the Ballymoney Times saying that he can speak Ulster Scots. How come then so little Ulster Scots is spoken by its advocates?

Meanwhile, Billy Tranghese (pictured in Richie Neal's office on Capitol Hill), assistant to Friends of Ireland Chairman in US Congress Richie Neal says members of the Senate and Congress are still keen to visit the North of Ireland before the holiday season kicks in. That sounds to me like a great opportunity to brief the US visitors on the continuing blocks on the Irish Language Act.

I'm not sure if Congressman Peter King (who is eyeing a run for the Senate from New York) will join the delegation but this week I dispatched to him a DVD of the movie Hunger (now on sale in Xtravision) and by return email he sent me these pictures of himself, Danny Morrison and Gerry Adams from one of his first visits here in 1983. Danny Morrison had tried unsuccessfully to dig out a picture he had of Congressman King and Gerry Adams outside Sevastopol Street Sinn Féin offices from that visit. Said the Congressman: "s you can see from the attached, my filing system is better than Danny’s."

Finally, one hopes the barrage of criticism from the media (led by the normally placid and pro-Unionist Daily Mail) aimed at First Minister Peter Robinson doesn't deflect him from the key tasks ahead — not least devolution of justice and policing powers — but you have to worry that the media are determined to dig and dig until they hit paydirt, something which Peter Robinson says can't happen because the earnings (and expenses) of he and his MP wife Iris are totally above board. The East Belfast MP has dismissed the 'Swish Family Robinson' moniker the British media has given the husband and wife team who maintain one house in London but with each claiming expenses for it, both paid for by the Exchequer. Their earnings and expenses last year, according to the newspapers: £571,000. Not bad work....

Too early for Turkey

At the danger of coming all over Skibereen Eagleish, this blog opposes letting Turkey into the EU until it starts according the Kurds equal rights.

Last week, we heard reports of graves of security force victims being unearthed in Turkish Kurdistan — proof that, as in Ireland, allegations of state-approved executions were correct.

The prospect of EU membership should be held out to Turkey on the basis that it cleans up its human rights record and ends discrimination against the Kurds. That means full recognition for the Kurdish. When legislator Ahmet Turk spoke Kurdish in the Istanbul Parliament in February, state-run television cut off the live broadcast.

"Kurds have long been oppressed because they did not know any other language," Turk said. "I promised myself that I would speak in my mother tongue at an official meeting one day."

According to the Wall Street Journal: "Turkish law banned the speaking of Kurdish at all until 1991, and today it is barred in schools, parliament and other official settings. Kurds make up about a fifth of Turkey's more than 70 million people."

Prosecutors launched an investigation into the use of Kurdish in the national parliament though that didn't stop legislator Turk from meeting President Obama yesterday. The bad news though is that the government is trying to close down the party he leads, the DTP which believes the time is right for a peace process in Turkey to end the 25-year war in Kurdistan.

That's not cricket!

UPDATE 4pm Monday: Today Aer Lingus didn't only shed its ceo but it also reduced the price on the San Francisco route in July by 20 per cent or €100. Looks like they're been listening but are they sending out the message to travellers that it's foolish to book ahead with Aer Lingus in case they discount closer to flight times? And wouldn't you feel silly if you booked a flight to San Francisco last week at the higher price?




I know what you're saying, this picture looks like it was taken during a full eclipse of the sun but in fact it is the best my Blackberry could manage at 3pm in Ormeau Park, Belfast, today and that most definitely is cricket being played by gentlemen of India and/or Pakastani origin I would say.

I also passed two gentlemen from eastern Europe who had taken a full badminton set to the park for a Sunday excursion, erecting the net and dismantling it later. The sort of thing the Irish rarely do in our wonderful public parks.

That said, I am very excited to see more rowers on the Lagan. In driving rain yesterday morning, I ran past scores of young people in canoes on the water. Good for them. Which reminds you to ask me how I'm doing with my one thousand mile target in 2009. Not as well as I had hoped unfortunately. At the present rate of progress, I would complete only 650 miles by year end (I'm up in the 160s somewhere at present) so it's time to move up a gear, wonky knees and all.

Meanwhile, it's depressing to see that despite the economic downturn, rip-off Ireland is alive and well. I've been invited to California in July and would love to fly direct with Aer Lingus from Dublin. However, for that pleasure Aer Lingus would like €877 return. Continental will take me from Belfast with a stopover at Newark then onwards to San Francisco (and back) for €800. And interestingly, Air Canada will take me via Toronto (and back) for just €600. If I could find a cheap way of getting to London, United will fly me direct round-trip for €660. Aer Lingus has predicted a slump in passenger numbers on its long-haul routes in the months ahead. Why doesn't it just reduce its prices to attract more business? Or at the very least, it could do away with its insulting €10 "handling charge" which it dumps on top of the fare.

How will we judge performance of new Invest ceo?

We’re coming up to the first anniversary of the Investment Conference held in Belfast last May. The first anniversary is always a good time for a review and I suggest it should be led by the new ceo of Invest NI, Alistair Hamilton.

Alistair moves into his new post this week. From The Balcony wishes him well and looks forward to meeting with him. He gets early points from this source for meeting, even before formally in post, with Pádraic White of the West Belfast and Shankill Enterprise Council.

Dr Paisley appointed Alistair Hamilton,as his Special Advisor when he was First Minister in 2007.

Now occupying the hot seat as the economy hits meltdown, I don’t envy Alistair his job.

However, I do hope he will succeed where his predecessors failed by putting businesses on the Springfield Road Mackie’s site which has been no more than a glorified car park since the University of Ulster shamefully pulled the plug on the Springvale university plan a decade ago. The number of businesses on the Springvale site this time next year will be the yardstick by which we will judge Dr Paisley’s former private advisor in his new post.

And truth be told, when it comes to the Falls and Shankill, the record of those who came before doesn't take much beating.

Copenhagen X

Courtesy of Copenhagen X, a group which promotes architectural awareness in the Danish capital, I have come across this photograph of a stone sculpture outside the Jewish Museum in Copenhagen.

Not unlike the type of carefully finished and beautiful stone artwork we envisage on the Falls to welcome visitors to the Gaeltacht Quarter.

Expect more discussion on this topic throughout the week as Irish America's greatest artist Brian O'Doherty and his wife, the cultural commentator and art historian, Barbara Novak arrive in town to view potential sites for the new artwork and meet the team on this side of the pond which will be headed by Robert Ballagh.

There will be a community reception for the New Yorkers in the Cultúrlann on Wednesday evening which will give them a chance to meet with the Irish language community.

80-year-old Brian, who was signed his work Patrick Ireland for over 30 years as a protest against British military repression and the lack of equality in the North, before 'burying' Patrick Ireland at a Dublin ceremony last year is more a slides kind of guy than a Powerpoint guy.

But hiring a slide projector in Belfast isn't as easy as it used to be. It took quite a few phone calls before we found a firm willing to hire us a projector. They found one abandoned at the back of the store. The good news, rental cost is only £20.

Dead in the water

Ronan Bennett has an excellent review in the Guardian of the new movie Fifty Dead Men Walking based (loosely) on self-serving informer Martin McGartland.

I got an offer to buy this movie on pirate CD but declined as I did with an offer to go to the cinema for a preview.

Looks like I called it right.

Meanwhile, From The Balcony's report on the address of Bombardier ceo Michael Ryan to the recent dinner in the Harbour Commissioners has been picked up by our friends at the Beeb. When I penned those comments, I didn't think they would become newsworthy so rapidly but it now looks as if the 1,000 redundancies at Bombardier this week are due to this transformed marketplace.

Madoff's investment

Peter McDermott of the Irish Echo followed up the story about Bernard Madoff's Irish pub in New York, PJ Clarke's.

It's a great piece, well-written and funny. Ironically, probably one of the very few investments Madoff made which wasn't a turkey.

RNU?

Don't know what the RNU is?

Thought so, I didn't know either. Not unlike a text message admittedly. But probably not that either because apparently the RNU is recruiting in Twinbrook. On the way back from a wake house in the area today, I saw the slogan scrawled on a wall "Join the RNU" and the name of a dissident prisoner.

RNU might as well be the Road to Nowhere Underground. It would be interesting to hear its views on the attack on our community this week. Or its views on why the INLA is still in existence and holding on its weaponry. Or what the CIRA is about post-Omagh.

In the meantime, there are a lot of very dangerous factions of fractions out there. Óglaigh na hÉireann, for one, CIRA for another or even Saor Uladh which is making a comeback (there's enough names to cater for every idiot who wants his own gang).

What I do know is that my kids can't get home from school because some 'freedom fighter' who was AWOL during the war has abandoned a 'bomb' in a car outside my street. You and I know there's no bomb but I suppose the police can't take any chances so for two hours now the main road through upper West Belfast, the Glen Road, has been sealed off.

First my mum, now my kids. It couldn't be personal, could it? Probably not, these guys are more into attacking the whole community rather than singling anyone out.

Squinter has the best take on the woebegone wannabes behind this wave of attacks.

To help you negotiate the alphabet soup of dissident republicanism, here's the Andersonstown News guide published some weeks back.

But if you really want to know about their character, quality, rationale (or lack of), you need only read the case of Gerard Mackin who was given life in jail in Dublin recently for shooting dead of Edward Burns at the Bog Meadows in March 2007. Mackin and Burns had a fallout about who would be the boss of the Continuity IRA In Belfast and after a feed of pints, Mackin abducted father-of-five Burns and shot him dead. He also shot his co-conspirator who eventually turned state witness against him (after he too had been shot by Mackin). As RTÉ reported the case:
"Mackin shot Mr Burns in the back of the head after he got out of bed at 2am to pick him up. Mackin had been drinking all evening with Mr O'Neill, who witnessed the murder and survived even though Mackin subsequently shot him in the neck."

The same night, Joe Jones (38) from Ardoyne was beaten to death with a spade by the 'volunteers' of the Continuity IRA.

What a bunch. No doubt their efforts to win the hearts and minds of the public have been a roaring success this week!

Derry's trump card

I was in Derry today continuing to lay the foundations for the Irish Echo Boston-Northwest Ireland conference on 8 October this year — venue: the Seaport Hotel and World Trade and Convention Centre in Boston.

In a time of crushing economic fortunes, the areas which make the quickest recovery will be those in which government is spending. Thus the Titanic Quarter in East Belfast — a hive of activity — will lead the Belfast bounce back. But similarly Derry, where ILEX is committing £35m over coming months is also poised to lead the new economic charge.

Avila Kilmurry of the Community Foundation (and to the poster, yes, we did have two rounds of bread and butter at Long's) feels that Derry is more economically distressed than Belfast. If that's the case, it may see Belfast pass it on the way down — especially given that Visteon is now past tense and Bombardier, the biggest private sector employer in the North, is shedding 1,000 workers.

The long and the short of it

They tell me that Long's is the best chippie in Belfast and after Tony McCusker treated me to a fish supper there today, I'm happy to ad my Michelin Star to that assertion.

It also has character, not least because of its old-fashioned snugs which you can see from this pic with a busy and studious Tony working on his Blackberry. (And yes it's a blackberry pic so fairly crap).

Tony is chair of the Community Relations Council and of the Community Foundation where ceo Avila Kilmurry is doing great work.

You can read a message from Tony about the work of the Foundation — which supports a range of social economy projects — here.

Tony and I are old pals. In the wake of the first IRA ceasefire in August 1994, he tried manfully to negotiate a new deal with the government-backed Ultach Trust to widen its base by letting me in. They refused and he responded by facilitating the first grants for the jobs agency Forbairt Feirste which continues to go from strength to strength (as does the Ultach Trust).