Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

The Assembly can meet in special session if 30 MLAs demand it.  Today it has taken such a step.  Why? Is it to finally clear up the mess in education? Is it to demand answers after the Department of Agriculture allowed £60 million of European funds to be awarded to farmers in error, a mistake which will now be corrected at taxpayers expense? Is it to discuss anything at all within the Assembly's remit? Is it hell! The Assembly is meeting to discuss foreign policy , a matter over which it has no jurisdiction whatsoever.  To be precise it is to discuss events in the Mediterranean Sea, surrounding the Gaza flotilla. The only thing guaranteed to start a row in Northern Ireland quicker than a debate about our history and current affairs is a discussion about Israel’s history and current affairs.  It’s scarcely because we have an enormous population of knowledgeable ex-pat Israelis or Palestinians eager to contribute. On both sides of the political divide, pe...

Does it seem wilfully perverse to suggest that the most useful lesson Nigel Worthington might have learned from last night’s Israel friendly could prejudice selection of Northern Ireland’s goalscorer, Grant McCann? The match finished 1-1 after McCann put the home team into an early lead courtesy of a subtly crafted left foot free kick. Yet it is becoming increasingly apparent that accommodating the Scunthorpe player’s goal-threat, as part of a central pairing, involves weakening the spine of the Northern Ireland team. I don’t for a moment wish to imply that the midfielder does not offer his manager a valuable option. Last night we witnessed the precision which he can achieve with his left boot and his late, timely attacking runs are not matched by either Sammy Clingan or Steven Davis. However the Clingan / Davis partnership provides Northern Ireland with competitive bite and the ability to retain possession. It is my opinion that we cannot afford, especially playing away from hom...

My pre season optimism, as regards the Irish League, survived almost fifteen minutes of competitive action, before Ballymena’s flat footed defence allowed Liam Boyce to fire Cliftonville into an early lead at the Showgrounds. The international calendar begins tomorrow, and although Northern Ireland’s World Cup hopes cannot be dented meaningfully until early September, a poor performance against Israel would certainly send a deflated squad to the crucial qualifier in Poland. Tomorrow’s clash represents crucial preparation for three matches which will define Nigel Worthington’s tenure as manager. It is just about plausible that Northern Ireland could book a place in South Africa over the next two months and there is a slightly more credible chance that a play off berth could be secured. Objective observers would scarcely expect the team to secure the seven points which are almost certainly the minimum required. Northern Ireland’s away record is appalling. We face Poland and the Cze...

Talk about overreach! Gerry Adams has called for an emergency debate on Gaza ……. in the Northern Ireland Assembly. The speaker has dismissed the idea that such a debate is necessary on the grounds that events in Gaza do not comprise a local issue. It might be supposed by anyone with even the flimsiest grasp of reality that he shouldn't have needed to waste breath pointing that out. That analysis, however, does not account for Gerry.

Thus far I had refrained from commenting on Israel’s ongoing action in Gaza. It is an issue which tends to draw the worst type of immoderate opinion from supporters of both sides. On one hand we have cretins like Annie Lennox , in league with long term terror apologist and anti-Semite Ken Livingstone, who seem to believe Israel shouldn‘t exist in the first place, on the other we have trite celebrations of the violence, typified by this venomous article from A Tangled Web. On the Young Unionist blog Rick Cairns has written a more nuanced piece which explores something of the background to Israel’s action. And Iain Dale has penned a well argued article upholding Israel’s right to defend its citizens. I have a lot of sympathy for their point of view, but I wonder, as ground troops move into Gaza, what endgame the Israelis foresee for this conflict? Short of killing every member of Hamas, it is difficult to envisage Israel’s actions undermining Gazan support for that terror organis...

One of the more puzzling aspects of Northern Irish tribalism for visitors to the country is the display of Palestinian and Israeli flags by republicans and loyalists respectively. Although I’d imagine that identification with the two sides has existed for some time, its graphical display on flag polls is surely a fairly recent phenomenon. On a visit to Enniskillen this weekend my attention was drawn to the letters page of the Impartial Reporter, in which a debate over a proposed crystallisation of these supposed alignments was raging. The newspaper’s webpage only has selected content from the print version and links to the letters are not available. However, the gist of the controversy is an attempt by an organisation known as the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Group to persuade the Fermanagh District Council to twin the county with Beit Sahour. The District Council have elected not to pursue this proposal, an eminently sensible decision which nevertheless has fostered controversy a...