Belfast Blogs.com

Everyone’s favourite unelected legislator has had an idea. I can't drive. I've just never bothered to learn. So lets say I get my licence next month and I drive to my girlfriend's parents in south Down. Alastair Ross will be very upset if I leave for Belfast much after 8pm. Who is he to have an opinion on what time I drive home at? What right does the state have to extend the fairly reasonable restrictions on driving to such an extent? He also wants to ban me from driving my girlfriends sister anywhere for the first year. Total ban on alcohol, perhaps, but the reason zero tolerance on this doesn't work, is that small amounts of blood alcohol are (as far as I remember) naturally occurring! Lisburn man/Larne MLA Alastair Ross really has let it go to his head. If he wants a...

Colm Bradley has outlined some ways he thinks the GAA can remove the barriers to Unionists joining. Just over a year ago I outlined that the GAA has a de facto ban in Unionists joining. Unfortunately Google hasn't cached it, so some of the substantive points are below the fold. The main contention I have though, is that the GAA is excplicitly a political orginisation, and should not be treated as a sporting orginisation unless and until it sheds the vestiges of a political pressure group. Read more »Full post & comments at...

Some time ago I gave a few examples of practical, everyday benefits of being a part of the United Kingdom as distinct from the Republic of Ireland. I've stumbled across further examples on a semi-regular basis since then, but I couldn't believe that the iPhone hadn't been released (officially) in "Ireland" [sic] yet. Apparently there are a few complaints that the price of the iPhone in the rip-off Republic is going to be even higher than the price in the United Kingdom (of rip-off Britain and rip-off Northern Ireland) when it is finally launched down south (where it also looks like being an O2 exclusive), just 4 months after UK consumers got their mits on the device. Read more »Powered by...

http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/2007/12/19/a_brief_note... on sloppy journalism. The "journalism" in the Belfast Telegraph is shocking, especially when it comes to anything that's emanated from the Northern Ireland Office on the Maze stadium plans. They've consistently toed the government line and refused to ask any real questions. The media is not supposed to be a lap dog for government, it's supposed to challenge them and hold them to account over crap like this. In what I can only assume is another effort to bolster the case for the Maze by pretending the demand for a higher capacity sports arena is greater than it really is, they claimed last week that "the 13,000 capacity will once again be taxed for tonight's visit of the Ospreys in the Heineken Cup". In the end,...

It's been over a year since my original look at the Northern Ireland Delivery Rip-Off so, given the popularity of that post, I thought it was past time I looked at the whole matter again. The scenario is simple - I want a small computer peripheral or component delivered to my Northern Ireland address. The problem is most of the companies with the best prices (even accounting for mainland UK delivery costs which are the only ones included in price comparison sites), often have the largest penalties or "surcharges" if you want your items delivered to Northern Ireland. The result is it's difficult to tell who is best for getting individual smaller items delivered to Northern Ireland, so I've done a little investigating. This time I've added a few extra retailers bringing the total to 13....

When a Londonderry man living in England is forced to resign over "racist" Irish jokes [alternative source: BBC], is this just more evidence of political correctness gone mad? Denis Patrick Lusby, an Ulster-born Catholic, was editor of a community magazine in Cornwall for 11 years when Ginny Harrison-White, Cornwall County Council's equality and diversity boss, who had previously complained about the publication of Essex-girl jokes, wrote to local schools querying whether it was appropriate to publish school news in a magazine that included jokes about characters called "Murphy" and "Paddy" (remember Mr Lusby's middle-name?), urging headmasters to boycott the publication. Mr Lusby pointed out that as an Irish Catholic living in England while IRA bombs were going off, he probably knows a...

http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/everythingulster/2007/02/02/beautiful_budapest This year’s mid-winter travels took me to relatively new EU member state, Hungary. My posting has been so erratic this year that most people probably wouldn’t have noticed but, following on from a trend begun last year for visiting cold places in the middle of winter, I was holidaying in Budapest for the guts of a week last week so missed all the exciting events of that time (bar what I happened to catch on BBC World or CNN in the mornings while I munched my breakfast). Compared to Prague, Budapest seems much less geared up for tourism, certainly in the middle of winter, but (perhaps partly because of this?) I enjoyed Budapest much more. There’s so much to see that I think...

Could a healthy dose of violence be good for Belfast? It’s obvious really. Too much time and energy in this country is wasted on politics, on sectarianism and on mindless thuggery and petty crime. The solution? I think Belfast needs a healthy dose of competitive violence; not the kind where you go out and throw hard, heavy objects at your neighbours and/or the police. Belfast should have a Street Fighter tournament for all us 20-something old fogeys who whiled away many an hour beating the crap out of each other on our old Super Nintendos and Sega Mega Drives. In fact, I spent most of my year in Upper 6th form challenging all-comers at Street Fighter II Turbo in the common room. If you’re too old or too young to remember, Street Fighter was one of the most important...

Having purchased Faith And Duty from a Belfast bookshop some time back, I broguht it to Botanic Gardens with me last time I ventured out to enjoy the sunshine here (about a month ago then) but didn't open it. Today when I returned to Botanic it was still in the bag and I decided now was as good a time as any to start into it. I'm now through the prologue and into chapter 3. Faith and Duty recounts the experience of one Nick Curtis MM, who arrived in Northern Ireland at the beginning of the troubles as a corporal in the army. So far it's been a very interesting read, and I've been gripped to Curtis's recounting of those early days when he arrived in Belfast sympathetic to the plight of the Catholics who, as far as he could tell, only wanted civil rights. He also explains the thoughts...