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
It now looks as if Brexit will not happen on 29th March, as repeatedly promised. Theresa May has reluctantly agreed that if her withdrawal agreement is not approved by the House of Commons in the middle of March, then MPs will be given two new votes. The first, on 13th March, will be to allow
The prospects for a no deal Brexit have become widely discussed in the last few days, not least with Theresa May’s proposed withdrawal agreement having been decisively defeated in the House of Commons. Her approach is to propose something which is more acceptable to Brexiteers in the Conservative Party and the DUP – but this,
With just three months to go before the UK leaves the European Union, the politics of Brexit have heated up. Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement was to have been voted on by the House of Commons earlier in December, but the vote was instead delayed to the end of January. While May defeated a no confidence
Two and a half years after the Brexit referendum vote, Prime Minister Theresa May has agreed a draft withdrawal deal with the European Union. It is important to stress two points: first that it only considers the withdrawal terms, not the future trading relationship with the EU; and secondly that for the moment it is
The Brexit withdrawal deal – drafted, but not yet agreed Read More »
Prime Minister Theresa May ramped up the Brexit tension this week with a warning on the shape of future relationships with the European Union. Following her humiliation at the EU summit, May emphasised that she would still prefer no deal to a bad deal. The so-called Canada style trade agreement on offer from the
“So far as it lies within the power of the United Kingdom government, we will be doing everything we possibly can, even in the case of ‘no deal’, to ensure that there is continued free trade across the border on the island of Ireland,” David Lidington said on a visit to Derry last week. Lidington
Brexit negotiations are moving towards a climax. This explains, in part, the increasingly dramatic language being used. But the big question is whether the dire warnings of a ‘hard Brexit’ represent two sides stepping up the ante to improve their negotiating position – or whether we are edging much closer to a ‘hard Brexit’.
We are now very close to the 28 June deadline for a decision on phase two of the Brexit negotiations – which is supposed to resolve the future of the Irish border, amongst other things. It is on 28 June when the summit of EU leaders in Brussels takes please. The Irish and French governments,