Subject to the t’s being crossed and the i’s being dotted, Wrightbus is to be saved. A rather ill-tempered negotiation between Jo Bamford’s company Ryse Hydrogen and the Wright family appears to have ended with smiles rather than tears. Bamford said that while the deal was not yet concluded with the administrators, terms had been […]
More than 150,000 holiday makers had to be repatriated following the collapse of travel agents Thomas Cook. The business failure could lead to the loss of the firm’s 21,000 employees’ jobs – 9,000 of these in the UK – unless the administrators can sell at least part of the business as a going concern. While
It was 45 years ago that I left Britain for the first time, to hitch-hike around Western Europe. I was a different person and the continent was a different place. Today, Europe is about to become a different place again. Brexit – assuming it goes ahead – will change the EU, as well as changing
Harvey Weinstein promised $5m to the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts as an endowment for women filmmakers. As allegations surfaced about the Hollywood producer’s sexual abuse of women, the University decided this was a gift they could do without. Charitable donations may reflect a desire to do good in the world. But for
Co-operative legislation in Ireland is set for a major overhaul, but the slow pace of decision-making is leaving uncertainty for the sector. It was back in 2016 that Ireland’s Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation’s Co-operative Legislation Unit initiated a review of the relevant laws, the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts that date from the
The Co-operative Party Northern Ireland has produced its first ever local manifesto, despite this being the only UK nation where the Co-op Party is unable to support candidates as sister party, Labour, does not participate in elections. Instead, the Co-op Party seeks to influence those parties that do contest Northern Ireland elections. The manifesto was
Twenty one years on from the Good Friday Agreement it is clear that Northern Ireland does not have the settled and just peace that we expected. This was clear before the terrible killing of Lyra McKee, but it is even more clear now. That tragedy has amplified the sense in which progress has stalled or
“Unionism needs to look and recognize that the environment around us is changing,” says former Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt MLA. He adds: “I would like to see civic unionism becoming more active… Perhaps we need to build civic society that goes beyond the division and the politics of unionism and nationalism”. The call
Christians should take a leading role in healing Northern Ireland, says Bishop Ken Good, the Church of Ireland bishop for the cross-border diocese of Derry and Raphoe. He also says that politicians should speak less and that civil society should find its voice. Bishop Ken Good was interviewed in the first of a series of
‘Christians should lead in healing Northern Ireland’ Read More »
To mark 21 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, an important new initiative begins on Good Friday, 19th April, 2019. A series of podcasts will be broadcast twice a week, seeking answers to questions about the future of Northern Ireland and the border counties. The objective is to promote a wider, more
The killing of young journalist Lyra McKee on the streets of Creggan overshadows everything in Derry at present. And there has been widespread speculation that dissident republicans have been energised by Brexit. Certainly dissident republicans supported Brexit. They believed it created opportunities for them, including making a united Ireland more likely. (The actions of the
So the UK is staying in the EU until Halloween. Or maybe not as long as that. Or maybe we will stay longer. Perhaps we even have another vote and pretend this has all been some kind of nightmare we should forget. It’s all a bit like some weird version of Groundhog Day. Except this