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1 month ago | 
sluggerotoole.com | Andy Pollak |Mick Fealty
The world has been reeling in the past 10 days since President Donald Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance’s cruel two-handed public humiliation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House.
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1 month ago | 
sluggerotoole.com | Andy Pollak |David McCann
I am going to return to the theme of my last blog earlier this month: the need for a forum to discuss not the constitutional politics which continue to divide the people of this island, but the values – peace, democracy, equality, community, environmental sustainability, Christianity in all its forms, and European-ness – which the great majority of Irish people, north and south, have in common.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
sluggerotoole.com | Andy Pollak
Alliance Party leader and Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long is somebody who is rarely interviewed or profiled by the Southern media, and almost never appears on public platforms in the Republic. But she is an impressive woman. I was at the latest ARINS (Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South) event in Dublin last month to hear her talk about ‘My Identity’.
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Dec 24, 2024 | 
sluggerotoole.com | Andy Pollak
We are seeing the second coming of the megalomaniac Donald Trump to the American presidency; the genocidal war of Israel in Gaza; the brutal war of Russia in Ukraine; continuing civil wars in Sudan and Syria (although there is a glimmer of hope in the latter with the overthrow of the evil Assad regime); the rise of the far right in previously stable European democracies like France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands; and, above all, the failure of our leaders to...
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
sluggerotoole.com | Andy Pollak
We in the South have a general election this week. The campaign has been an uninspiring one, with the three expected topics dominating debate: housing, the cost of living and (to a lesser extent) immigration. If you are under 35 and not well-off, it is the first of these which has been top of the agenda, given the extreme difficulty such people have in buying any kind of house or apartment.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
sluggerotoole.com | Andy Pollak
Moderate, sensible, cautionary voices from Irish nationalism and Ulster Unionism are rare enough. But they are still out there. In the past month I have been reading or listening to four of them: a former Tánaiste, a Southern Protestant, a Northern Orangeman and a distinguished international academic. There is a lot I disagree with Michael McDowell on (particularly on refugees and migration). But he often talks sense when it comes to the North.
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Oct 4, 2024 | 
mail.sluggerotoole.com | Andy Pollak |Mick Fealty
Catherine Pollock (no relation – different spelling) from Derry is an unusual and remarkable woman. From a working class unionist background, she now works for the Irish language and cultural organisation Cultúrlann. She says of herself: “I’m not a unionist, but I’m not a nationalist or a republican either. I am British, and also Irish. My politics are left of centre – very left of centre for some people. I’m a socialist.”Is the British element in her culture and identity important to her? Yes.
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Oct 4, 2024 | 
sluggerotoole.com | Andy Pollak |Mick Fealty
Catherine Pollock (no relation – different spelling) from Derry is an unusual and remarkable woman. From a working class unionist background, she now works for the Irish language and cultural organisation Cultúrlann. She says of herself: “I’m not a unionist, but I’m not a nationalist or a republican either. I am British, and also Irish. My politics are left of centre – very left of centre for some people. I’m a socialist.”Is the British element in her culture and identity important to her? Yes.
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Sep 19, 2024 | 
sluggerotoole.com | Andy Pollak
I have just returned from a holiday in Spain. The main news story while I was there was an argument between the central government in Madrid and the regional government in the Canary Islands about who should take responsibility for the daily stream of refugees and economic migrants arriving on those islands on flimsy small boats from West Africa.
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Aug 30, 2024 | 
sluggerotoole.com | Andy Pollak |Mick Fealty
Young people chanting ‘Oh, ah, up the Ra’ is becoming commonplace in nationalist – and not-so-nationalist – Ireland. Primary age children were at it during the big homecoming parade for the Olympic team in Dublin earlier this month. And it drew arguably the biggest crowd of the day for those ancient IRA fellow-travellers, the Wolfe Tones, at the Electric Picnic music festival in Stradbally, County Laois. “People are going to sing that chant anyway.
