Following the unscheduled outbreak of law and order mentioned at EU the other day, I'm pleased to see a fourth man has been charged following the arrests made in Armagh and Fermanagh.

Paul McCaugherty, 39, from Lurgan, has been remanded in custody on 6 charges including conspiracy to murder and gun smuggling, acquiring assets for use by terrorists and making assets available for use by terrorists.

McCaugherty is accused of being the 2nd in command of the Real IRA, the group behind the 1998 Omagh bomb which killed 29 people. He will appear in Craigavon Magistrates Court on 20th July.

This is the most recent in a string of arrests of Real IRA members in recent months.

Just a quick headsup about the new Everything Ulster Search page. I've developed this little tool to make use of NorthernIrishBlogs.com, which syndicates a number of (you've guessed it) Northern Irish Blogs.

If you have google as your home page at the minute then this might be a nice little alternative. As well as allowing you to search the web, it will let you do a google search on NorthernIrishBlogs.com and also syndicates the RSS feeds from BBC's Northern Ireland News, Everything Ulster (naturally) and the aforementioned Northern Irish Blogs. Any feedback would be much appreciated at this early stage. I've already found it handy for checking when local blogs post new stories.

As I've been trying to keep a (relatively) open mind on the link between the UUP and PUP in the non-assembly up to now, I found this piece from Alex Kane in the Belfast Telegraph quite interesting (hat-tip to Pete Baker). Kane is one of many members obviously concerned about moves by the UUP leadership to align the party with the political wing of the UVF and seems to be talking a lot of sense.

I particularly liked his statement that the UUP should not measure itself by the hypocrisy and inconsistencies of the DUP. It's a good point to make, particularly for those of us who are often too instinctively defend the UUP simply because they seem to be the lesser of two evils.

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Over the last couple of days we've seen the seizure of cocaine at Aldergrove with estimated value between £1-3 million, 8 men arrested (although 4 already released without charge) suspected of being involved with active republican groups, promises to crack down on dangerous and untaxed vehicles and even a Fermanagh farmer arrested for allowing illegal waste from the Irish Republic to be dumped on his land (polluting the land and water around the farm).

What are the odds of this unusual bout of police effectiveness being sustained over the longer-term, I wonder...

Andrew McCann has noted the publication of the 2005 Northern Ireland Life & Times survey this week and, much like last year, the results aren't great for those who want to leave the United Kingdom. This year's survey had a sample size of 1,200.

I've mapped out the answers for what I judge the 2 big tribal questions over the past 8 years below and there don't really seem to be any discernable upwards or downwards trends, with most figures staying within +/- 4% of an average value. What the results do show is that consistantly almost 2½ times as many people in Northern Ireland are expressing a preference for Northern Ireland to remain in the UK than are for merging it into an all-Ireland republic.

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Are the UDA preparing for peace or milking the media?

Just what are the UDA actually doing, I wonder. Today saw two more high profile expulsions in the form of the Shoukri brothers (even though the courts didn't have enough evidence to convict them of membership in the first place). Expulsions like these, and that of Jim Gray in March last year, will no doubt be seen by some as an attempt to clean up the image of the organisation, but after 30 odd years of sectarian violence, surely one could be forgiven for being cynical and thinking they may be simple publicity stunts.

There's no doubt that many unionists and loyalists look at what Sinn Fein have achieved and think "Wow, look what terrorists can achieve with good PR". Certainly some people seem to be taking the UDA's actions at face value but the nature of the internet means we'll likely never know if those people are just naive or if they're really in a position to know something I don't, although sadly I suspect the former.

Is there potential in there for the UDA to transform loyalism into a peaceful (preferably non-sectarian - too much?) political movement, or is this leopard incapable of changing its spots?

Dermot Ahern and the Republic's Foreign Ministry may have grabbed the initial headlines on FIFA's reversal of an earlier decision to require Northern Ireland players to carry UK passports, but the IFA have said that their negotiations with FIFA were responsible for the governing body of world football doing a U-turn and accepting passports issued by the Republic.

Some weeks back FIFA wrote to the IFA declaring that any players turning out for Northern Ireland could be required by FIFA representatives to produce a UK passport to proove their eligibility, despite the obvious flaw in this (that a British passport is not enough to prove eligibility, since players born in England, Wales or Scotland aren't automatically eligible).

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The Chancellor is in Belfast today and will meet with the local political parties (lucky guy) as well as business leaders (I wasn't aware we had any). This quote stuck out to me:

"The first message to him has to be that you can't penalise people now for decisions made by direct rule ministers over the last 30 years not to invest."
Sammy Wilson, DUP MLA & MP for East Antrim

It may or may not be fair - but you can hardly blame the ministers for not investing at a time when we were blowing the shit out of each other! Of course our not blowing the shit out of each other has given rise to Sinn Fein moping after a 'peace dividend'. Wise up guys.

Reg Empey said he will be calling on the Chancellor to be imaginative in tackling the causes of the disparity in investment between Northern Ireland and the Republic, citing the 30% corporation tax compared to 12½% in the Republic as well as fuel excise duty.

From what I understand though, it's been claimed that EU regulations would not allow a different tax rate in Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK, so for what Reg is asking, would we not need an indpendent Ulster?

Oh and while they're there, perhaps someone would be kind enough to point out to the man in charge of the government's money that a few NIO ministers are planning to spend upwards of £120 million on a white elephant out somewhere between Lisburn and Ballygobackwards.

Excessive spam has resulted in EU implementing a Captcha verification mechanism.

Those of you who have commented here over the last couple of days will already have noticed the new captcha here (the image/word verification field on the comment form). You've probably seen them before on other blogs but I wanted to point out a couple of technical issues with the Captchas here at EU.

Fed Up With Captcha?
If you don't want to use the verification every time you comment you can simply register as a member of the site. The process is quick and easy and members who are logged in will not see the captcha image when they comment.

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Just what is a good distance to stay from a bonfire? If you're adorned in paramilitary regalia, I'd suggest as far away as possible. If we are ever to see widespread public acceptance and/or support for bonfires then the paramilitary connection, particularly 'shows of strength', have to end.

That's why I'm pleased that Paul Hoey, chairman of the Crown Project in east Belfast, has received assurances that there will be no repeat of last years paramilitary display at Pitt Park, which may have jeopardised a council funding scheme for bonfires. That's why I I'm glad that the council in Larne is working with bonfire organisers on environmental health issues, and hope they will also ensure that the bonfire will be free from paramilitarism.

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