SLUGGER O'TOOLE

I understand the reasons for encouraging ‘politically correct language’ (today we would use the term ‘woke’) but have also been suspicious of the motives of some of its adherents. Correcting offensive language is necessary and takes courage, but sometimes those who know the politically correct phrases seemed to enjoy far too much their superior knowledge. In the 1980s they reminded me of the sort of dinner companion who would enjoy correcting you if you used the wrong cutlery during your …

Sadly, I recently witnessed a serious motorbike accident close to where I live. As paramedics, police officers and concerned members of the public gathered to help, my immediate thoughts were with the rider and their well-being. The incident also left me reflecting more broadly on the safety of our local roads and whether enough is being done to protect those who use them. A report recently published by Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure and NISRA, Motorcyclist KSI Casualties in Northern …

Fresh from taking a bit of a battering in the May 22 by elections in the Republic , Sinn Fein have received a setback for their ambition to build a left wing coalition in the Republic to challenge the Fine Gael – Fianna Fail partnership. The ambition had looked like a goer after the success of the tentative left wing alliance to secure the election as President of the left leaning independent Catherine Connolly. But now,after the qualified victory in …

DUP’s Tracy Kelly hands over chain of office to new Belfast mayor Róis-Máire Donnelly from Sinn Féin. pic.twitter/VqZ9m8ckNd — Mark Simpson (@BBCMarkSimpson) June 2, 2026 This exchange seems to have resonated with a lot of people, and it’s easy to see why. As DUP councillor Tracy Kelly hands over the chain of office to Sinn Féin’s Róis-Máire Donnelly, the genuine warmth of the exchange is hard to miss. Why do moments like this seem to strike a chord? Does our …

Northern Ireland argues about special educational needs as a problem of delivery. The first question is where in the school system the need is concentrated, and its selective structure has already decided that before any reform has begun. The long-awaited reform of special educational needs (SEN) in Northern Ireland is now being pursued from several directions at once. In February, the Education Minister, Paul Givan, wrote to every school leader, requiring all mainstream schools the Education Authority (EA) considers suitable …

Northern Ireland's unionist parties face a reckoning — caught between reactive politics and the collaborative vision of the Good Friday Agreement. Without a credible strategy or genuine commitment to its three strands, political unionism risks permanent decline.

Every July, blue and red pallets go up in flames on loyalist bonfires across Belfast. The theft is brazen, the impunity is total, and the cultural defence is well rehearsed. But behind the smoke lies a harder question — who is actually running this politics, and what do they gain from ensuring nothing ever changes?

It was the Monday of St. Patrick’s week 1988. I was driving to my work in Newcastle Co. Down having just got my girlfriend’s father’s blessing for our marriage, making me the happiest man in Ireland. I turned the radio on. These rivers run too deep With schemes of men for days that lay ahead They sell their souls so cheap That breed distrust and fill my heart with dread Just released this week that’s the new single Broken Land …

By Brendan Mulgrew, Managing Partner, MW Advocate Later this month Belfast will host what I believe is one of the most significant civic gatherings ever held on the island of Ireland. For the first time, all twelve cities across the island will come together under one roof for the 2026 Summit of the Cities at Belfast City Hall. Elected representatives, civic leaders, business representatives, academics, policymakers, cultural leaders and urban experts will gather to discuss the opportunities and challenges that …

In his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy JD Vance wrote that “to understand me, you must understand that I am a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart” So writing from the heart on X Vance waded into the lists in the politicians’ row over the murder of Henry Novak “He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom …