Blogging has been slow this week. I've been off university but busy revising and all sorts of freaky stuff like that. Aside from that, the 2 big stories have been done numerous times elsewhere so I'm only going to provide brief highlights in this amalgamated post, but don't worry - I've already started working on something special for next month.

Donaldson Found Dead in Donegal
Dennis Donaldson, outed as an informer for MI5 working within the provisional republican movement in recent months, was found dead on Tuesday night. My immediate reaction, having heard his location exposed by a trashy tabloid (are they to blame?) recently, was that someone within republican circles had heard about this, tracked him down and 'done the business'. Of course within minutes of the story breaking Sinn Fein's Amateur Conspiracy Theorists Society was busy typing away stories about how it was obviously the work of securocrats. Should have expected it by now really. Anyway, like many suspicious deaths in this country, we'll probably never know for sure. One thing is for sure though - it wasn't the provies.

The following morning, Garda at a station near the murder scene in Donegal found this note:

I had absolutely nothing to do with what happened to
Jerry McCabe
Jean McConville
Kathleen Feeney
Dennis Donaldson

Signed,
P. O'Neill

OK, you got me. I made that up.

Devolution Deadline
On the back of this did Tony and Bertie think again about the timing of their announcement for their "big plans"? Did they agree that perhaps a shadow assembly might be the best idea for the short-to-medium-term future, rather than allowing a party linked to paramilitaries into government? Don't be so daft.

Completely ignoring what had happened, Tony and Berte decreed that the local parties will apparently have 6 weeks of assembly 'up time' to agree an executive (including a First Minister and Deputy First Minister) before the summer break. If they fail, they get another 12 weeks in the Autumn, after which their salaries will be withdrawn. Well done on that guys, they'll only have been getting paid their generous salaries in exchange for doing nothing for 4 years by then!

Another threat facing unionist politicians is part 10 of the declaration which stated that if the restoration had to be 'deferred', then Tony and Bertie (well Tony really) will implement some Joint Authority with some advancing North-Southery thrown in for good measure. Once more the British government bows to the whim of Sinn Fein so that we can get 100 incompetent local people doing the work of a dozen incompetent Westminster people.

Things are really looking up, aren't they?

I'm yet to be convinced of the merits of throwing £33 million at loyalist communities over the next few years in the hope it will encourage them to play nice. There's no doubt that some of the areas are in a desperate need of regeneration, but the government doesn't seem to be very good at spending money like this (£85 million for a stadium no one wants, for example).

There will apparently be a large emphasis on education, with a fast track scheme to encourage pupils to remain in education/training post-16. The idea of promoting the importance of education to young Protestant folk is admirable and Protestants do tend underachieve moreso than their Catholic counterparts in Northern Ireland (of the 15 worst performing electoral wards, 13 are predominantly Protestant), but in recent days it has become evident that very little happens when the government throws money at poor education standards.

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I feel I should layout my stall from the outset here. I'd just like to say a a big f**k you to all those people who utter the words "middle class" with the same contempt most of us reserve for violent criminals and sectarian or racist bigots. Now that's out of my system, down to business.

It was in my teenage years, as I began to watch news instead of complain to my mum that neighbours or something equally intellectual was on the other channel, I became aware of the fact that my parents were (lower) middle class, at least according to the government's preferred methods of classification. I also became aware of a lot of apparent hostility which I couldn't understand.

Even wandering around in the evenings as kids do, whenever we bumped into people from the estate down the road, on finding out where we lived they would invariable respond with (jokingly, admittedly) "Oooh well excuse us" or "Oh them big snabby houses on the top road". These responses were usually met initially with confusion (mostly down to not seeing much difference between them and us) and latterly with bored indifference, as we realised the record would never change.

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Looks like Google has launched another branch of its empire. Check it out.

"Dating is a search problem. Solve it with Google Romance."

No, it's not an April fools joke; a UDA mural near Harryville chapel, has been replaced by an Ulster Scots mural, while Tricolours were removed from the north end of Ballymena. Red, white and blue paint on railings around Harryville church was also painted over.

The gestures come as the result of a deal brokered by the Harryville Ulster Scots Society following cross-community talks. Father Paul Symonds from the Harryville chapel was present at the unveiling of the new mural. Both Fr Symonds and Geoff Calderwood of the Harryville Ulster Scots Society claimed the new mural represented a positive step for the area.

Maybe I'm feeling unusually positive today, but I'm inclined to agree, and it has the potential to represent a positive step for Northern Ireland as a whole, not just Harryville and Ballymena. I only hope the move isn't seen as some sort of appeasement by hardcore fanatics. The simple truth is nobody will benefit more from this a decline in the dominance (both symbollically and physically) of loyalist paramilitaries will be the ordinary decent folk living in their own communities.

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As noted on Slugger, reports of attacks on Polish immigrants in the Donegall Road area of Belfast have reached back home to radio stations in Poland. The attacks took place last week and a protest was held immediately after against alleged anti-social behaviour of those whose houses were attacked.

Polish radio station in question suspects the attacks may have something to do with the religion of the victims (ie they were Catholics in a staunchly loyalist area). At first this would seem plausible, and indeed it may be that that made the situation more volatile, but there have previously been attacks on people of Chinese and African extraction in the same area. I don't think that that's any more or less acceptable, I just want to be sure the correct problem is identified.

Anyway, regardless, the Ulster Unionists have recently highlighted the need for the political parties to work to raise the participation of ethnic minorities in politics. I must contend that they're not likely to participate if they're too afraid to raise their head above the parapet and be seen. To that end, I think the Ulster Unionists should act as responsible leaders of civic unionism and immediately intervene in the 'dispute' and mediate to allow movement towards a solution.

One of Sinn Fein, republicanism and Irish American's big lies is that Northern Ireland is in some kind of state of military occupation; a colonial outpost where locals are kept down through force. I'm not making this up - living in Northern Ireland it's easy to recognise that it's complete tosh (and MOPEry of the worst kind), however that doesn't stop thousands (if not more) from donating vast sums of money each year to Sinn Fein's quest to cleanse their mythical Irish nation of any resistance to the imposition of Dublin rule.

So clouded are their minds by blind devotion to unecessary violence against the people of their beloved Ireland for over three decades that they cannot even bring themselves to agree a simple statement of support for the family of a murdered Catholic man seeking justice. Sure he was just "collateral damage."

The Truth
It's difficult to see how this position can be reconciled with today's announcement detailling how troop levels are to be cut down to a maximum of 5,000 to bring Northern Ireland to a level comparable with any other part of the United Kingdom. 5,000 soldiers is hardly a force sufficient to "occupy" a country with a population of 1.8 million.

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A convicted IRA bomber could be Belfast's next Lord Mayor

According to yesterday's Sunday Life, it's believed that Sinn Fein are to seek to make convicted IRA bomber and current Old Park councillor Caral ni Chuilin the next Lord Mayor of Belfast. The Ulster Unionists are to select a candidate shortly from their shortlist and can expect the backing of the DUP, PUP and an independent, however Sinn Fein insist that its their turn and this standoff will leave the Alliance members with the deciding vote.

The Sinn Fein candidate was jailed for 8 years in 1989 for attempting to blow up several police officers, however was released after only serving 4 years of her sentence.

I only hope the Alliance councillors have the wit to realise what an international embarrassment it would be for the city to have a convicted bomber as the chief public representative of Northern Ireland's first city. Alliance councillors must now do what they know is right and oppose any move of this nature.

Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey has revealed that he has been meeting leading loyalists since last August in attempts to persuade them to give up violence. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to have been overly successful, with the IMC reporting in January that the UDA continued to be involved in targeting, shootings, assaults, drug dealing, extortion, production and sale of counterfeit goods, money laundering and robbery, while the UVF were still a "serious threat to the rule of law" and remained "active, violent and ruthless".

Empey believes that unionist parties "had a special responsibility to persuade the loyalist paramilitaries to commit to purely peaceful means." This certainly seems to fit with the belief of Sinn Fein, that unionist parties have a responsibility to bring about the end of loyalist activity.

The question remains though, what can Unionist politicians, too often seen by loyalists as soft on, or ineffective against, the IRA, do to bring about the end of the current situation where small groups of self-proclaimed "defenders" plague their communities, extorting and robbing from local businesses, dealing drugs and generally getting up to no good?

Sir Reg seems to think its about building confidence in the communities concerned, but what's not clear is how this can be done. Most people agree that the loyalist groups need to go away, but nobody seems to have a coherent and effective strategy to make this happen.

An Orange Order banner on parade last year

The BBC are reporting that the Orange Order have written to the SDLP and Alliance Party to discuss their positions on Orange parades. The SDLP have responded that they are happy to meet them, but also stating that their position on marches is clear. "We believe there needs to be face to face dialogue at a local level without preconditions. We also believe that everybody needs to work constructively with the Parades Commission."

The Orange Order have also written to Peter Hain asking for new legislation to deal with parades.

Interesting moves on the Order's part. Taken at face value they could indicate a shift in strategy towards a more consociational approach to parades. Of course they're still ruling out talks with Sinn Fein and/or the Parades Commission. Maybe it's all just a big PR stunt - let's face it they are playing catch up to "residents groups" on that front. To be fair though, they did hold discussions last year with the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, who held discussions with the Bogside residents group (dialogue by proxy?). The result was, of course, that the Order were allowed to march inside the city walls for the first time in 13 years.

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