Does Northern Ireland need more women politicians?

There was a discussion on the second half of Hearts & Minds tonight about women in politics and specifically their under-representation in politics here. It did get me thinking, particularly when the women campaigning outside Stormont to get more female representation in political life all shyed away from being interviewed when asked!

I can't understand groups who protest for more female representation at Stormont. If they want to see more women elected then they'll have to vote for them - that's how democracy works. If they can't understand that then they've got some way to go before they're ready for office!

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Despite overwhelming opposition, the DUP seem determined to foist the Maze white elephant on Northern Ireland's sports.

As Lawrie Sanchez's Green And White Army marched up to 33rd, equalling their highest ever position in FIFA's rankigns, the DUP were plotting the destruction of that same side. Tonight the "Democratic" Unionist Party outraged Northern Ireland football fans when they hinted that a decision would be made to build the new "stadium for Ulster" at the Maze. Speaking on BBC Newsline tonight (no online stories yet) Ian Paisley Jr, who has already admitted his interests are in motorsport and not football or rugby (and certainly not GAA), all but confirmed that he and his DUP colleagues would consign Northern Ireland's football team to playing their matches in a half empty stadium designed for another sport and built in a field outside Lisburn beside a museum to the loyalist and republican terrorists that blighted this country for decades, despite the opposition of the vast majority of rugby and football fans and ambivalence from the anchor tenants, the GAA.

There have been allegations that some Lisburn unionists see Lisburn as a new symbol of "Protestant Ulster" and view the idea of a stadium at the Maze as some kind of jewel in the crown (despite the fact the stadium won't actually be in Lisburn!). Have any of our local hacks pointed out the irony of this given that it will be helping fund a Bobby Sands memorial museum centre for conflict whateverthehelltheyr'ecallingitthisweek and the fact that the major use will be for... (wait for it)... Sunday sport!!?. Have they fk!

The local coverage of the stadium issue in the media has been pathetic, with "journalists" for the most part content to rehash NIO press releases and pass them off as reporting. You wouldn't be surprised from a state broadcaster like the BBC but the Belfast Telegraph and UTV have been worse for the most part.

They've all sat back and allowed shocking comparisons between the Maze and MK Dons' stadium (in a built up area with many times the catchment), Wembley stadium (ditto) and completely ignored the received wisdom of Juventus (built a stadium out of town and had to massively reduce its size because nobody was going) and Galatasary (ground derided by Liverpool fans there for the Champions League final as a nightmare to get to/from) and umpteen out-of-town stadia developed for baseball in the USA in the 80s.

Belfast City Council seem to have given up the ghost too. We've heard a lot of talk from them about building a stadium at Ormeau Park but for the last lot of months now there have been no new announcements or any signs of progress.

For all the gassing our new overlords do about being better than direct rule ministers, it appears they're content to make the same mistakes. They're just going to make them more quickly.

The Amalgamation of Northern Ireland Supporters Clubs aren't giving up though and are meeting with the Irish FA and with MLAs to try and persuade them to do the right thing. They have called on the new minister for DCAL, Edwin Poots (DUP) to ensure that the information on the decision-making process which he previously complained wasn't publicly available, and was withheld even following freedom of information requests, is placed in the public domain.

Popular romantic depictions of the Easter Rising may owe more to retrospective justification than historical accuracy.

The timing seemed a bit late but last Friday saw an opinion piece by Kevin Myers in the Belfast Telegraph on the topic of Easter Rising celebrations. Criticising the preferred Irish narrative of the Rising and highlighting the double-standards of authors labouring over those Myers asks "What is there to celebrate about the cold-blooded slaughter of innocent people in the streets of Dublin?" What, indeed?

It seems almost inconvenient to the chosen narrative of the Irish national creation myth to ask questions like: "Who gave Volunteer Garry Holohan the right to very deliberately and fatally shoot a teenage boy named Playfair during a raid at the Phoenix Park magazine?" He points out that only one of the 'volunteers' had ever even sought election, and he was "roundly defeated" by the electorate in his quest for a council seat (yes, you heard right, Ireland did indeed have elections before they ceded from the UK).

He's just as critical of the objectives of the leaders of the rebellion as he is of their methods though, blaming them for the decades of economic stagnation that were a feature of the South up to the late 70s.

"It was only when we undid the isolationist consequences of the rising that we began to create a country which could give its children jobs at home rather than one-way tickets on the mailboat to the very land against which the rising had been fought.

The Celtic Tiger - an open economy, with free movement of capital, and with the immigration of hundreds of thousands of foreigners - is the very antithesis of what Pearse and Connolly had wanted. One sought a totalitarian Marxist state, the other a protected Gaelic paradise... ."

Given that there was going to be some kind of home rule most likely within a decade anyway (it eventually came 5 years after the rising), what exactly is there to celebrate?

The First Minister and Deputy First Minister have made their first public act by jointly signing a letter to Secretary of State for (Wales and) Northern Ireland. So? They've used this iconic act to request something that I'm sure we would all be grateful for: said Secretary of State's resignation! departure from Stormont. I knew it was too good to be true. Apparently asking him to vacate his office means moving to offices at Stormont Castle Buildings, not the resignation I'd originally thought. That said, calling for his resignation should be their next move.

Peter Hain and his fellow cronies at the NIO have treated the people of Northern Ireland (and definitely the unionist population) with nothing but contempt from day one. Nothing was beyond the pale when it came to blackmailing folk into power sharing; targets included the national stadium, water charges and academic selection and God knows what else. Hain "vacating his office" can't come a moment too soon. To borrow a turn of phrase from a commenter earlier today "Good riddance to bad rubbish."

It was funny to watch republicans reach near orgasm over the withdrawal of the army from Crossmaglen following a job well done. Yesterday the last soldiers left the village Possibly the most amusing thing was the placard carried by some of the terrorist supporting rabble. "Intimidation, torture, murder" in capital letters adorned the middle. Ironically, that's exactly why the army were here for so long - to put an end to the IRA's campaign of, you guessed it, intimidation, torture and murder.

Now seems an appropriate time to thank all the soldiers who served here over the decades of the troubles, doing a difficult and often thankless job in even more difficult circumstances. I'm not sure I can imagine what it must be like leaving your family and friends with only the knowledge that you're doing it to protect innocent life to keep you going so thank you.

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With Healy not doing the business for Leeds you wonder if he can keep doing it for Northern Ireland. With opposition the class of Sweden, Spain and Denmark, you wonder how long a team that loses to Iceland can continue to grind out results. You keep thinking that the bubble has to burst some time. Then something like this happens.

Of course those games in hand, being played while Northern Ireland take a break from qualifiers in June, will change things a bit but just look at this.

I'm sorry I can't miss this opportunity to have a bit of a gloat. It came as more of a relief than anything, taking Northern Ireland as it did a full 52 minutes to break the deadlock in last night's victory over bottom-of-the-group Liechtenstein. Not only did Northern Ireland take second place in the group after Denmark were beaten 2-1 in Spain, but someone who isn't David Healy scored for Northern Ireland (it only took 8 goals!) making a good result absolutely great.

Let's take a look at that table, shall we?

Don't think I'm deluding myself, I think most Northern Ireland fans accept that it would be nearly unthinkable for Northern Ireland to hold this position long-term, but with Denmark only playing a friendly on Wednesday night (against Germany) it means we'll be second in the table at least until June, regardless of Northern Ireland's result at Windsor Park on Wednesday against unbeaten group-leaders Sweden. It'll be a tough match, but even a point would keep the dream of qualification alive. The question is do we dare to dream?

Getting it so unbelievably wrong for decades... and still going strong

According to a report in the Belfast Telegraph the Oirish-Americans of Boston who provided the guns and ammunition used in the slaughter of innocent Ulsterfolk seem to remain an ignorant bigoted old bunch; probably even more so than the people who actually live in Northern Ireland. I don't know if they buy the propaganda through laziness or sheer stupidity, but lets look at a few quotes from people the Tele says "never viewed unionists as the enemy."

Joe Dillon, who promoted "the cause" for decades in the US, seems to hark back through rose-tinted glasses for the days of slaughter and mayhem, of civilians being blown to pieces.

Maybe the relative peace and eventual turning of public opinion against murder leaves a bitter taste in Joe's mouth because deep down he knows he was in the wrong for so many years but doesn't want to face that uncomfortable truth? Much better to bandy about accusations of being sell outs and ramble on about the 'struggle for Irish freedom' (never mind the other uncomfortable fact that people of whatever religious persuasion in Northern Ireland are as free as anywhere else in the western world).

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The equality commission says Omagh District Council has breached its own equality regulations when it erected a monument to the hunger strikers, consisting of a graveyard, a tree for each hunger striker and an Irish tricolour, in the grounds of the Old Dromore Church.

The commission said that by failing to conduct a screening exercise or an equality impact assessment in relation to policies that resulted in the memorial remaining on its property for the last 4 years. To add insult to injury, the memorial was erected on land that used to belong to the Church of Ireland and the council has voted to transfer ownership of the land to the "Dromore Memorial Committee," an organisation dedicated to the glorification of republican terrorists.

The Equality Commission have told them they should now take action to have the memorial removed from council property.

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Anyone else catch the Politics Show on the BBC today?

Caitriona Ruane was asked if someone witnessed activity they thought to be part of a dissident republican operation, should they go to the police?

Her response? "Stop playing games."

Games? It doesn't sound like much of a game to anyone else. In fact to dismiss the legitimate concerns of the unionist population, and dare I say many non-Unionists, as "games" is surely reaching the height of arrogance. This is the second time in the space of 3 or 4 days she's danced around the question. All the other party representatives asked the same question on the election results show the other day were able to answer the question in one word - yes. How rare is it to get a straightforward answer from any politician, never mind 4!? As far as I know Gerry Adams has had no reservations on saying a witness should contact the police, and fair play to him for that. However some senior Sinn Fein members, including Ms Ruane, can't answer it at all though. Much as it pains me to admit it, maybe the DUP are right and they're not quite ready for government after all.

What's worse is that instead of admitting they're not comfortable with the question, they're turning on the interviewers and/or accusing everyone else of treating them (and their elecotrate) as second-class citizens. When Sinn Fein resort so easily to rhetoric like that is it any wonder unionists don't believe most of the accusations of discrimination?