Bird's Eye View Archives

Birds Eye View

Arlene Foster, Acting Northern Ireland First Minster, arrives for her first day in office at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. In an emotional statement Monday, First Minister Peter Robinson said he would step aside for a few weeks to answer questions about his wife's romantic and financial dealings with the 19-year-old for whom she helped raised tens of thousands of pounds (dollars) when she was 58. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

BREXIT SOFTENS ORANGE COUGH

July 15, 2016

IT looks as if Brexit and its consequences will dominate political discourse in the north for the foreseeable future remarkably even pushing the... Read more »

SINN FÉIN CHAOS OVER BREXIT

July 2, 2016

LAST Friday there was a notice sellotaped to the door of the post office in Bridge Street in the centre of Belfast. It... Read more »

FLANAGAN TURNED PEACENIK?

June 1, 2016

HAVE those vipers in foreign affairs finally house-trained their minister, Charlie Flanagan, who has come over all liberal, sophisticated even, with policy pronouncements... Read more »

THE BOYS IN THE ASSEMBLY BACKROOM

June 1, 2016

AT Stormont it’s all sweetness and light between the DUP and Sinn Féin. Too much so for some unionists incensed at Arlene Foster’s... Read more »

WHY SHANKILL INFORMER WAS REVEALED

May 5, 2016

WHY did Belfast republicans reveal to the media recently just one item out of the vast warehouse of intelligence documents the IRA secured... Read more »

SF FIGHTS FOR 30 SEATS IN ASSEMBLY

May 5, 2016

THE traditional economic fumble which afflicts Sinn Féin in election campaigns in the Republic seems to be infectious. Last week the virus spread... Read more »

RED FLAG BUT NO WHITE FLAG

April 21, 2016

DOES Red Flag possess the financial resources to fend off telecom and media mogul, Denis O’Brien, as he pursues them through the courts... Read more »

PETER KELLY’S BIBLE BELT

April 21, 2016

THERE has been an interesting encounter between the President of the High Court, Peter Kelly, and a couple of solicitors over the importance... Read more »

SDLP FACING LOSSES IN ASSEMBLY ELECTION

April 21, 2016

THE North goes to the polls on May 5 in what will be, as usual, two elections, one in each politico-ethnic camp. Anyone... Read more »

JIM NUGENT’S LATEST SETBACK

April 7, 2016

THERE WAS yet another setback last month for one of Bertie Ahern’s ‘dig-out’ pals, Jim Nugent. His attempt to extend protection from assorted... Read more »

NI: GUESS WHO’S NOT COMING TO DINNER

April 7, 2016

IN January, Belfast City Council voted in favour of a motion to host a dinner for the NI and the ROI football teams... Read more »

VILLIERS FACES ANGRY JUDGE

March 24, 2016

LATE this week, Northern Secretary Theresa Villiers was due to present an affidavit to Belfast’s High Court explaining the British government’s delay in... Read more »

ABORTION UNITES TAIGUES AND DUP

March 9, 2016

ENDA Kenny told the Irish Examiner in January that if Fine Gael were returned to power a referendum on the Eighth Amendment would... Read more »

BREXIT UNIONISTS

February 25, 2016

THE North’s First Minister, Arlene Foster, caused some astonishment last weekend, when she announced the DUP was recommending people vote ‘leave’ in June’s... Read more »

BATTLE OF THE BOGSIDE

January 28, 2016

ON the face of it, Martin McGuinness returning to Derry from Mid-Ulster to stand in May’s assembly elections is throwing the gauntlet down... Read more »

ARLENE MUST STOP McGUINNESS

January 14, 2016

LAST Monday Arlene Foster took over formally as First Minister in the North. A month ago the betting was on Nigel Dodds, deputy... Read more »

DIRTY WAR: IN DENIAL

December 4, 2015

THE Northern Secretary, Theresa Villiers, told the House of Commons with a straight face that she “wholly dissociated” herself from SDLP MP Mark... Read more »

ROBINSON FOR HEAVE-HO?

November 20, 2015

SOURCES in both Sinn Féin and the DUP predict a deal next week on welfare reform, the contentious matter which has blocked last... Read more »

LOYALISTS PLEDGE NEW LEAF

November 6, 2015

JONATHAN POWELL, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, last week made his first public intervention in the North’s politics for a decade. This... Read more »

MAHON TRIBUNAL’S HOT POTATOES

November 6, 2015

MAJOR dilemmas face the current Mahon Tribunal members struggling with the poisoned chalice passed to them by its long retired original chairman, Justice... Read more »