Britain wants to have its Swiss roll and eat it. Should Ireland stand in its way?Time is surprisingly short. Speculation is turning to a May election in the UK, after which Ireland will have to decide if it helps Labour government bring the UK into closer alignment with the EUThu Dec 28 2023 - 07:00
If you think dereliction in Dublin is bad, come to BelfastSituation is so dire Greens have asked Belfast City Council to compulsorily purchase an entire 12 acres of the cityThu Dec 21 2023 - 06:00
What does it really cost to run Northern Ireland? The answer isn’t straightforwardIreland has the fiscal space; Northern Ireland has a fiscal floor – the minimum spending per head. A bidding war has broken out over what that figure should beThu Dec 14 2023 - 06:00
Coalition trying to scare voters with spectre of Sinn Féin minister for justice If potential future coalition partners baulk at the prospect of handing Sinn Féin the Justice portfolio, they should look to Northern IrelandThu Dec 07 2023 - 06:00
Here’s what you might not know about ‘woke’ water cannons and their use in riotsIn response to human rights concerns, PSNI required operators to set water pressure to a minimum and fitted water tanks with heaters to spare the sprinkled from hypothermiaThu Nov 30 2023 - 06:00
Government isn’t offering Northern Ireland money just to annoy DUP or Sinn Féin. But that may be a bonusOffer to contribute to a financial package to restore Stormont went mostly unnoticed in the South, but it is causing ripples in the NorthThu Nov 23 2023 - 06:00
A Sinn Féin minority government is a real possibilitySinn Féin-led left and green coalition and the present government would each be half a dozen seats short of a majority, polls showThu Nov 16 2023 - 06:00
Unionists are counting on Sinn Féin proving a fiasco in office and damaging republican projectMost unionists think the DUP should not restore devolution until the Windsor Framework is scrapped, something the party cannot deliver and has been careful never to promiseThu Nov 09 2023 - 05:45
Those drawing parallels between the North and Israel-Gaza are missing the pointBritain could look to the North for a template of how to manage protests and divided communities - but it probably won’tThu Nov 02 2023 - 06:00
Promoting the advantage of ‘two Irelands’ for business would challenge everyone’s political convictionsAll-Ireland promotion of the advantage of two Irelands would challenge everyone’s political convictionsThu Oct 26 2023 - 06:00
Could Derry be the island’s next big university city?Galway and Limerick offer a template for what could be possible for Derry’s neglected Magee campusThu Oct 19 2023 - 06:00
Sinn Féin stirring separatist pot in other EU states is unwiseWhat principle is republican party trying to uphold by getting involved in Catalan, Basque and Scottish independance arguements?Thu Oct 12 2023 - 06:00
Forget Sinn Féin’s ‘Irish NHS’. We may all be headed for a British HSEAll-Ireland healthcare is increasingly presented as a way to keep small facilities open in northern border areas, without acknowledging their southern equivalents would have to closeThu Oct 05 2023 - 06:00
Let’s not forget Lough Neagh started dying when Stormont was working exactly as intendedA 2013 Stormont strategy to almost double the size of Northern Ireland’s agrifood industry was the tipping point for the lakeThu Sept 28 2023 - 06:15
DUP must resist temptation to kick devolution can down the road to UK electionCrises from hospital waiting lists to pollution in Lough Neagh are driving calls for Stormont’s return. Another year of inaction would be a disasterThu Sept 21 2023 - 06:15
The rise of Sinn Féin is fraying tempers on both sides of the BorderIf Varadkar really wants a new British-Irish arrangement, he should show some statesmanshipThu Sept 14 2023 - 06:15
Nationalism appears to be making the Belfast Agreement up as it goes alongReform of Stormont is opposed by Sinn Féin and the DUP, yet neither has a leg to stand onThu Sept 07 2023 - 06:15
PSNI has a pattern of appeasing Sinn Féin, but republicans still aren’t happyPandering to republicans to maintain their support for policing is a confused reading of historyThu Aug 31 2023 - 06:11
Newton Emerson: Too many cooks turned Lough Neagh into a disgusting green brothThe lake, which supplies 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water, is suffering an ecological collapseThu Aug 24 2023 - 06:15
Newton Emerson: Water charges could solve Stormont’s budget messWater privatisation and water charging have been hanging over Northern Ireland since the first lengthy Stormont collapseThu Aug 10 2023 - 05:00
Newton Emerson: Politics in Northern Ireland is tricky, as Britain’s Labour Party will soon seeThere are scenarios in which Labour could begin carving out a serious role for itself in the North, but it won’t be easy in a place where novelty and hope turn swiftly to disappointmentThu Aug 03 2023 - 05:00
Newton Emerson: Dublin’s lingering air of menace fits neatly into Sinn Féin election agenda If Coalition leaves door open to party laying claim to law and order, then of course it will seize that chanceThu Jul 27 2023 - 05:00
Multi-billion-euro new railway lines for Northern Ireland are make-believeReversing decades of underinvestment in the west of Northern Ireland is a political imperative but there are smarter ways to do it than costly rail rebuilding projectsThu Jul 20 2023 - 06:30
Newton Emerson: Taoiseach’s image was on the bonfire but he wasn’t the targetJeffrey Donaldson’s summer balancing act shows his ability to juggle on a tightrope, but to get the DUP back into Stormont, he needs to decisively call time on the circusThu Jul 13 2023 - 06:30
The United Ireland paradox: Taking unity seriously means accepting a more realistic time frameThis is not a paradox. Taking unity seriously could be precisely why people are imagining a more realistic time-frameThu Jul 06 2023 - 06:30
Newton Emerson: Tyre deflation could be a solution to illegal parking, but environmental activists went too farAnti-car activism is rife, but letting air out of tyres appears relatively benign compared to an array of more strident tacticsThu Jun 29 2023 - 06:31
Newton Emerson: What’s the real significance of Irish Government funding for Northern Ireland?Spending creates perception of Dublin stepping in where unionism has failed, but may be double-edged sword for Sinn FéinThu Jun 22 2023 - 06:21
Newton Emerson: Sex Education becomes latest battleground in Northern IrelandCatholic bishop says anyone who needs information on abortion should Google it. The DUP is taking a harder line. It all points to one thing: a row is brewingThu Jun 15 2023 - 05:00
Newton Emerson: Michelle O’Neill brings antiquated republican thinking to WashingtonSinn Féin is struggling to fit current events into the Irish republican world view, where unionists might be bad but Britain is always worse, and a British Tory government is worst of allThu Jun 08 2023 - 05:00
Newton Emerson: The threat of joint authority in the North is a scare story unionism has heard beforeA Sinn Féin government in Dublin might settle for an enhanced consultative role while cranking up the opticsThu Jun 01 2023 - 05:00
Sinn Féin’s sudden silence on Irish unity is a deliberate and intelligent strategyA brief pause on border poll demands is a deliberate and intelligent strategyThu May 25 2023 - 05:00
Newton Emerson: High-stakes contests and a dull plot characterise today’s electionsSome opinion polls put the DUP and Sinn Féin tantalisingly close in Northern Ireland local electionsThu May 18 2023 - 03:00
Newton Emerson: Unionist reaction to British air defence deal could be history repeating itselfNorthern unionists pay more attention to the Republic than people in the rest of the UK. They tend to be sensitive to signs of anti-British feeling, and doubly offended if assured such feelings do not apply to themThu May 11 2023 - 05:00
Newton Emerson: Bertie Ahern’s unsubtle advice to unionists is to start talkingSomehow the UUP can’t seem to capitalise on the DUP’s multi-year Brexit fiasco and epic leadership contest meltdownThu May 04 2023 - 05:00
Irish unity: What could Mary Lou reply if Britain said ‘take out your cheque book, you can afford it?’What could Mary Lou McDonald reply if Britain was to say ‘take out your cheque book, you can afford it?’Thu Apr 27 2023 - 06:00
North might have trouble spending Biden’s promised billionsWhere would the workforce come from? Unemployment in Northern Ireland is 2.4 per cent, matching the record low set just before the pandemicThu Apr 20 2023 - 05:00
Northern Secretary has rebuilt his credibility to the point where his threats are half-believed againHow plausible is it that Chris Heaton-Harris will risk financial meltdown to force the DUP back to work?Thu Apr 06 2023 - 05:00
Cut in North’s corporation tax looking increasingly unlikelyUK rate will will jump from 19% to 25% next week, its highest since 2011Thu Mar 30 2023 - 05:00
DUP has entangled itself in a legalistic critique of Windsor FrameworkNewton Emerson: Where all the exceptions and flexibilities needed to make plan work will ultimately lead is an open questionThu Mar 23 2023 - 05:00
What happens if Sinn Féin makes Northern Ireland work? We may be about to find outThe party has its sights on the Department for the Economy, a DUP fiefdom. The potential is big, as are the pitfallsThu Mar 16 2023 - 05:00
Newton Emerson: Stormont’s voting system is almost certainly unlawfulIntroduction of a Stormont Brake opens a door to pursue wider reform of community designationThu Mar 09 2023 - 05:00
UK and EU have published their own Windsor Framework guides. Both are completely differentSeparate guides to the new agreement on the Northern Ireland protocol published by the UK and the EU seem to agree on very littleThu Mar 02 2023 - 05:00
DUP’s stalling over protocol may be exasperating but it serves a purposeThe DUP needs breathing space - but its problem is that a parallel game is playing out in the Conservative PartyThu Feb 23 2023 - 05:00
Newton Emerson: DUP calls Heaton-Harris’s bluff over ‘Dáithí’s law’DUP did not give into pressure to restore Stormont and pass law. Northern Ireland secretary should instead threaten to involve other parties in direct ruleThu Feb 16 2023 - 05:00
Performative nationalism among issues blocking needed cross-Border co-operation on healthPolitical squeamishness over need to rationalise hospitals on either side of the BorderWed Feb 08 2023 - 16:13
SDLP could live to rue failure to forge a partnership with UUPAligning with moderate unionism could have helped offset Stormont’s dysfunction and kept out AllianceThu Feb 02 2023 - 05:00
Positive movement on protocol a tough sell to unionists who know desperate DUP spin is comingA deal that can be sold to unionist voters was always Jeffrey Donaldson’s plan - and the DUP’s only way out of its Brexit holeThu Jan 26 2023 - 05:00
Newton Emerson: Tax the millionaire home owners, not the billionairesWhile the super-rich should pay more, meaningful redistribution requires targeting the surprising numerous western millionairesThu Jan 19 2023 - 05:00
Newton Emerson: Shallow cross-Border economic comparisons are of little valueProperty tax shows that one-size-fits-all approach does not always suitThu Jan 12 2023 - 05:00
Surge in road deaths is due to epidemic of driver distractionNewton Emerson: Only better design and engineering can reverse road deathsThu Jan 05 2023 - 05:00
