Posts tagged ‘North/South’
North/South: Obama for Ireland
Friday, April 15th, 2011On a quieter than normal St Patrick’s Day in Washington, local politicians competed for attention with Enda Kenny. Peter Cheney reviews the visit. Dublin stole the limelight at this year’s American celebration of Irishness, as Enda Kenny graced the White House one week after his election as Taoiseach. St Patrick’s Day celebrations tended to have a northern tinge in the peace process years and in the current Assembly’s often-turbulent term. However, Northern Ireland’s stability was a sideshow compared to a fresh Irish Government welcoming a presidential visit. Crises in Japan...[full story]
North/South: Mixed progress
Friday, April 15th, 2011Building cross-border roads and drawing down EU funding have been two of the North/South Ministerial Council’s recent successes. But progress on parliamentary and consultative forums has been much slower. Meadhbh Monahan reports. Established under the Good Friday Agreement, the North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC) is the “lead institution” in developing North/South co-operation and bringing together Ministers from Northern Ireland and the Republic. Since the Agreement was signed on 10 April 1998, the NSMC has held 11 plenary meetings, which are led by the First and deputy First...[full story]
North/South: The east-west connection
Friday, April 15th, 2011The British-Irish Council’s progress is measured more in meetings than press releases, Peter Cheney finds. Supporters want to see it having a higher profile. Perhaps the quietest component of the Good Friday Agreement, the British-Irish Council (BIC for short) has been working continuously since December 1999. East-west links, though, are still seen as the poor relation to those between North and South. The BIC was designed in the Belfast Agreement to be, as Reg Empey explains, “an expression of where unionists saw their allegiances”. The council’s eight member governments represent: •...[full story]
North/South: General election – A state transformed
Thursday, March 10th, 2011Meadhbh Monahan reviews the outcome of the Republic’s historic general election. Fine Gael has become the biggest party in Ireland for the first time in its history, winning 76 seats (36.1 percent of first preference votes). Taoiseach-elect Enda Kenny said there had been “a democratic revolution at the ballot box.” Fianna Fáil, which has been in government almost continuously since 1987, was punished by Irish voters who blame the party for the economic crisis. Its share of first percentage votes decreased from 41.5 per cent in 2007 to just 17.4 per cent and it lost 58 seats, returning...[full story]
North/South: An island economy
Thursday, March 10th, 2011Border counties have been neglected and improvements in rail infrastructure would simplify business between North and South, according to a new analysis. Following the Good Friday Agreement there was “a degree of optimism that peace would bring prosperity that was similar to that of the newly liberalised states of central and eastern Europe when they were released from the constraining shackles of Communism in 1989,” according to economists John Bradley and Michael Best. The pair are currently researching ‘the post-Belfast Agreement border region economy’, and updated the sixth...[full story]
North/South: Labour in the North
Friday, January 28th, 2011Irish Labour has an active branch in Northern Ireland but it has a relatively low profile. agendaNi looks at its work as the Irish general election approaches. While Irish Labour members in Northern Ireland do not have an electoral role, there is still “plenty of work” for them to carry out, according to one of its members. There are around 200 members of the Irish Labour constituency council in Northern Ireland – half of whom are based in Belfast – and the other half are scattered throughout the province. There are three main branches of the council: Belfast, Omagh and Derry. The...[full story]
North/South: Ireland’s bleak budget
Friday, January 28th, 2011Meadhbh Monahan unpacks the harshest budget in the Republic’s history. Described by the opposition as “an attack on the poor”, the latest Irish Budget will cut €6 billion from the exchequer this year and is the first instalment of a €15 billion cut over the next four years. Announcing the Budget on 7 December, the Republic’s Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said that the cuts had to be made to show the IMF and EU – which are to provide a financial assistance package of €85 billion to Ireland – that Ireland is serious about recovery. Ireland also had to appease the markets...[full story]
North/South: No shelter from cuts
Monday, December 6th, 2010agendaNi examines the Republic’s four year austerity plan. “The size of the crisis means that no one will be sheltered from the contribution that has to be made towards national recovery,” said Brian Cowen as he announced the four-year plan. In a week where a debate raged in the Republic following an Irish Times editorial suggesting that the country had given away its sovereignty by asking for a €85 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, the EU and Britain, the plan was announced in a bid to win approval from the EU and the IMF. Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner...[full story]
North/South: A dark story of our land
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010An exhibition detailing declarations of violence allegedly caused by 17th century Catholics against their Protestant counterparts has been opened by President Mary McAleese and attended by Lord Bannside. “Understanding the perspectives that have estranged us” is vitally important if we are to become “good neighbours, friends and partners across sectarian divides,” according to Irish President, Mary McAleese. During the opening of the new exhibition at Trinity College Dublin, showing transcripts from the 1641 Catholic rebellion – generally regarded as one of the bloodiest in...[full story]
North/South: ‘No extra pain’ from NAMA
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010Peter Stewart, who chairs the Northern Ireland NAMA Advisory Committee speaks to Meadhbh Monahan about the agency’s outlook for the region. Selling off the commercial investments and undeveloped land acquired by NAMA in Northern Ireland will be the organisation’s biggest problem here over the next 10 years, according to Peter Stewart. New investors will have to approach the ‘work-out organisation’. NAMA is not a bank because it does not take deposits from the public or have a banking license. It was established by the Irish Government to buy the riskiest loans off banks at a...[full story]
