“Twaddell Initiative”

You’ll never believe the good news. The Orange Order


has offered talks with Ardoyne residents to resolve the dispute over the march

The ‘Twaddell Initiative’ promises full and open dialogue with nationalist residents

But only after Orangmen

complete the last leg of a contentious loyalist march in Ardoyne.

In other words , “you’re not going to talk to ‘Taigs’ unless you finish your march!”

On 12 July, the legal Parades Commission made a decision as is their job.

They blocked the march along a stretch of road separating loyalist and nationalist communities.
After the march was stopped .

44 police officers were injured during three nights of rioting

For the 2013 parades the Order wouldn’t talk to residents and this parade was banned.
Don’t you remember the Orange Quadrille?

But the Orngeman replied “Too far, too far!” and gave a look askance —
Said he thanked Residents kindly, but he would not join the dance.
In response to the “Twadell Initiative” the Parades Commission said

to the Unionists and the Orders.It publicly deconstructs how it was first heard of the “Initiative” from the media.

It dismissed the grounds for a late application, commented on failure to abide by its ruling for the 12th July parade and continued breaches of its determinations.

What brought about this “generous” offer anyway? Hamza Abù?

The autumn’s coming in

and the Twadell Civil Rights Camp

is feeling the cold and wants to up sticks?

No, the Haass talks

The Orange statement:

“We are also conscious that the issue of parades, flags and the past are to be the subject of intensive and ongoing political discussion. We wish to contribute to a positive atmosphere for the Haass talks and assist them to reach a successful conclusion.”

Caught with your pants down eh?
The DUP leader Rt. Hon.

Peter Robinson MLA said:
The Parades Commission has failed to give due recognition to the dialogue in July this year and in previous years. The commitment and foresight of the offer of dialogue for 2014 is to be welcomed. Now they have the opportunity to do so.

The onus is now upon nationalism

to show leadership and to respond positively to this genuine attempt to reach accommodation. They must face down the elements in their community who wish to drag Northern Ireland back.

The act of sharing a main arterial route for a few minutes would boost community relations in North Belfast significantly and generate a positive atmosphere for the Haass process.”
so what he’s shouting is ” help! help! Get me

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24323673?

Click to access the-ligoniel-combine-05-10-13-det.pdf

http://www.mydup.com/news/article/dup-leader-responds-to-the-twaddell-initiative-announcement?
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/orangemen-offer-parade-row-talks-29619208.html#idc-cover
http://livebydesignnotbydefault.co.uk/live-by-design-not-by-default/
http://www.onmoneymaking.com/caught-with-your-pants-down-7-ways-to-regain-your-dignity.html
http://essentialeducator.org/?p=5440
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/the-orange-quadrille/

Tiocfaidh Allah

is so, so last century

Or is it?

http://luciferthevandal.deviantart.com/art/TIOCFAIDH-AR-LA-199548140

No Pope Here – Never, ever, ever

Did you see the news? In Stormont assembly the other day Mr Robinson accused Mr Allister of “secretly” selling land to republicans in Co Fermanagh.

Mr Robinson added that it was “particularly sad that a member of the family wanted to buy the land and was turned down because the family decided to sell it to a republican”.

We’ve in a pretty pickle now when a good, upstanding Loyalist Protestant sells land to Catholics.
What are you talking about?
We’ve have always tried to prevent Protestant land and houses being sold to Catholics.

 

If someone did it the family would be sanctioned by the community

How?
You know, friendly advice and if that didn’t work threats.

Then there were the ‘gatekeeper’ auctioneers. That’s when solicitors and estate agents withdraw land from sale if a buyer of the correct faith is not found.

Why? Surely the land should be sold to whoever offers the most?
The decision isn’t necessarily that of the man selling the farm. The pressure would come from those around him – fellow Protestants who would pull out all the stops to buy it themselves, rather than let it go to a Roman Catholic

You don’t understand anything. As far back as 1959 a resolution from Portglenone district in County Antrim was tabled at the Orange Order’s Central Committee ,
What did it say? ‘
Any member of the Order who in future sells or in any manner whatsoever disposes of his farm house or other property to a RC [Catholic] should be expelled from the Order’

That soon put Protestants off the idea of seeking to sell our land to the highest bidder:

In fact few families actually sold their land. Many rented it out

This land is our land and we are culturally the rightful proprietors,

Catholics are indiginous people in Ireland. Why can’t they buy the land if they can afford it?
I said we had a cultural right. Did you know that as far back as 1938 the Orange Order, developed a ‘Land Fund’ to purchase land for us Protestants. It exists to this day. It was for many years administered from the Orange Order’s headquarters.

Where did it start?
Fermanagh but it was soon copied elsewhere
Why Fermanagh?
There was a fairly even mix of Catholics and Protestants.The Ulster Land and Property Company distributed an information pack to Orangemen. Its literature says it exists to acquire land and property for the benefit of the Orange institution, and thereby the Protestant people.
But the BBC said the Orange Order has denied any formal links with a company which aims to help its members to buy land because of concerns it could “fall into nationalist hands”.

The logo on the top of the company’s presentation pack says: “Ulster is being sold – let us buy it“.

So you’re saying there’s an ‘unwritten rule’ among Protestant farmers that they should avoid selling land to Catholics because to do so would be, in Protestant eyes, to cede part of Northern Ireland to the South.


“If this is the focus of unionists to score points over one another it is clearly espousing a sectarian agenda,” said Sean Lynch,Sinn Féin MLA for Fermanagh-South Tyrone.

We don’t want themmuns encroaching into Protestant neighbourhoods.

Look at Belfast. ‘Gusty’ Spence, who re-formed the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)

into the first latter-day Protestant paramilitary in 1966, justified early UVF atrocities, arguing that these were needed to ‘hold the line‘

in Protestant areas against Catholic incursion
So you are saying the symbol of ‘losing’ a street to the ‘other side’ fused territory and demography in inner-city Belfast, where Protestant paramilitaries were already active.

Have you ever heard of FEAR?
Anybody who ever lived in Northern Ireland knows about fear.
I mean F E A R. Fear Encouraged Abandoning Roots. Arlene Foster is our leader.

FEAR employed a community worker to trace the families who abandoned their homes. And it applied to the European Union for financial assistance in helping families reclaim uncultivated land and restore old farmhouses. Over five years ending in 1999 the EU hopes to spend 1.5 billion ($2.3 billion) in the Irish border region. FEAR wants some of this money to be used to help people return home. Founder Foster argues that “if we could get even some of these people back on their land, it would be worthwhile.”

 

References and Pics

http://ansionnachfionn.com/tag/peter-robinson/
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/land-sale-to-catholics-row-sparks-stormont-crackdown-29607684.html
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/peter-robinson-in-row-over-sale-of-land-to-catholics-1.1538818

Click to access 1-Dominant-Ethnicity-demography-and-conflict_revision-Dec2010.pdf

http://www.u.tv/News/Robinson-and-Allister-clash-at-Stormont/4198370f-180a-4f24-9c3b-8241d746341a
http://www.u.tv/News/Apology-sought-by-land-row-family/17fb2027-85f7-4c7f-a583-e5cf4b44d92c
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/2897169.stm
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/jan/11/profile-arlene-foster-northern-ireland
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/living-with-it-their-farms-straddle-north-and-south-their-activities-are-monitored-by-security-towers-that-listen-and-look-but-people-who-live-on-the-border-would-rather-stay-than-go-corrected-1437556.html
http://cgge.aag.org/NationalIdentity1e/CaseStudy2_Landscapes_Oct09/CaseStudy2_Landscapes_Oct09_print.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/1997/0923/092397.intl.intl.4.html
Spoliation Sanctions: The Tide is Turning, Goliath is Smiling
http://flickriver.com/photos/albert_foolmoon/3490100948/
http://rivcoach.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/news-promised-land-1250-587-bc-up-date/
http://www.deviantart.com/morelikethis/collections/375460959

Grasping the Nettle: Joined-Up Education in Northern Ireland

You’ve been beating round the bush

long enough now with all this talk of education
Not really. We discussed shared features in schooling North and South of the border.

We’ve seen the Catholic maintained schools are doing well, particularly for less well-off pupils. Catholic boys and girls see Higher Education as a much more important goal

than Protestant students. If Catholic maintained education’s not broken why fix it with integrated education? But there’s nothing to stop us adding to it
We’ve understood why Northern Ireland Loyalists are failing Protestant pupils

Now we just have to assemble the pieces

into a win-win situation
What are you talking about?
Catholic maintained schools would probably be happy to offer their pupils an alternative to GCSEs and A levels. The obvious alternatives are the Junior and Leaving Certificates

Protestants need an opportunity to improve their children’s performance in education
So why not

Set up a pilot scheme to make the Junior and Leaving Certs available in NI schools

It would suit us as members of the European Union
It would be a bridge amongst young people across the North

and between the younger generation North and South

We’ll not be learning Irish

You won’t have to.

All pupils whose primary education up to 11 years of age was received in Northern Ireland may be allowed exemption from the study of Irish
A lot of pupils in Northern Ireland might be happier with the new Junior Cert format that Minister Ruairi Quinn’s introducing in 2014

Continuous assessment and no stressful exam at the end – just an essay that is corrected by the teachers that know the pupils well. The transition year might also provide benefits for northern students
What’s that?
An optional break between Junior certificate and starting to study for Leaving certificate.

The content is left to the school to model on the local needs. Activities might include work experience placements, project work, international trips or exchanges and excursions.

Students may participate in courses such as creative writing, sailing, film-making, public speaking , or enter competitions in science, fashion, and so on which would normally be too time-consuming for a full-time student.

Sounds like an expensive waste of time. The students will get distracted and not want to return to full-time study

Or it will give them time to grow up a little, help them make up their minds about what they want to do in their working lives. Then they can opt for the type of leaving certificate they want to do – general education, vocational or applied as well as ordinary or higher level
Our politicians will never agree

Why wouldn’t they? It will give the North-South Council something to build up

it fits in with Sinn Fein’s education policy,

there’s nothing for Alliance or the SDLP to object to

and it even answers the DUP’s call for integrated education –

though not quite as they envisaged it!!

Come on Ministers O’Dowd and Quinn. Put on your

Roll out the new Junior Certificate north and south in 2014!

http://wembleymatters.blogspot.it/2013/03/grasp-nettle-trailer-inspiring.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/northern-ireland-riots_n_3682407.html
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/KALP/about/outcomes.php
http://www.questforlifecoaching.com/?p=1481
http://www.123rf.com/photo_9626192_four-3d-men-assembling-colorful-assembled-jigsaw-puzzle-pieces.html
http://tullamorelionsclub.com/
http://blog.sfgate.com/parenting/2012/01/05/bay-area-bridges-lego-style/
http://wafflesatnoon.com/2013/09/04/obamacare-exemptions/
http://www.steps.ie/students/engineering-your-future.aspx
http://thedailyshift.com/2013/02/26/transition-year-not-widely-available-to-students/
http://www.deni.gov.uk/index/about-the-department/department-of-education/41-about-the-dhttp://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/committees30thdail/j-educationscience/presentations/2011/document1.pdfepartment-structure-and-functions-education-minister-pg.htm

Click to access NPDZ03.pdf

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1004/340230-quinn-to-announce-major-overhaul-of-junior-cert/
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/education/quinn-scraps-junior-cert-exams-to-help-struggling-pupils-28817398.html
http://www.careersportal.ie/ed_training/ed_lc_subjects.php?ed_sub_cat_id=7
http://circa.europa.eu/irc/dsis/regportraits/info/data/en/ukn_eco.htm
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0912/337286-junior-cert-results-in-line-with-previous-years/
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/the_irish_education_system/exemption_from_irish.html

We will not be the generation that fails Ulster –You’re just the generation that fails exams in Ulster

We didn’t use to need qualifications to get a job. One of the family or a friend would just speak for you . Probably the Orange still can, if they would

Clothing and textile companies have closed. The shipyard’s long gone,
but those jobs were ours

Shipbuilding and textiles have declined throughout Europe. New technologies have been developed. The economy is being restructured worldwide.
It’s all due to Sinn Fein and the IRA. They brought in those new Employment Laws to give the Taigs our jobs.

You still don’t realise that “your” jobs are not there any more – not for you and not for anyone.

I’ve already shown you there is a significant pattern of lower attainment in all controlled (de facto Protestant) secondary schools

Did you know that working class Protestant boys said they didn’t do well in school because of on-going sectarianism,

increased levels of racial conflict

and being fearful of paramilitaries.

They haven’t gone away, you know
Young Protestant students  feel

from their communities
They could see the difference between what they were being taught and modern life and the hate-filled reality they lived in.

Then there is the ‘drugs’ culture and the lack of ‘anyone caring’

if they drifted out of school with mediocre qualifications.
They can get a trade

What if they want something different?
They feel disconnected from the peace process

So you’re saying we need to stop allowing our children to get worked up over flags and marches

and get them to focus on their education?

And how do you expect that to happen?
What if they are not interested in education?

What if they just can’t cope with the demands of GCSEs?

Tell you tomorrow.
To be cont

Click to access highereducation.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-tests-show-1-in-4-struggling-with-spelling-punctuation-and-grammar

Click to access rb3_2012.pdf.pdf

http://skinflicks.blogspot.it/2010/07/why-orangefest-is-wrong.html
http://skreened.com/protego/i-don-t-care-2885486
http://my-little-clan.spruz.com/pt/WWE-No-Way-Out—A-Review-by-Rapture/blog.htm

In the Beginning was the Empire

I’ll tell you a story in the language you will understand

In the beginning the Empire created state primary education.

And in Ireland the schools were without organizers, and teachers; and ignorance was upon the face of the children. And the Christian Churches moved to take over the schools which became denominational.

And men said, Let there be rebellion: and there was rebellion.

And the Empire saw the rebellion, .

and divided the North from the South.

And the Empire called the South the Free State, and the North it called Northern Ireland
And darkness fell upon Catholics in the North.

And the Education Minister of a Protestant State for a Protestant people said, Let there be state education in the midst of the 6 counties, and let it divide Christians from Papists.

And Protestant churches transferred their schools to state control and Catholic churches maintained control over their schools


And it was so.
And the Minister called the Catholic schools maintained schools .
And demands for civil rights were the second day.

And the ex-Empire said, Let the people in the province be gathered together under Direct Rule,


and let Power-sharing appear

and it was so.
And Power sharing said

to a Bill of Rights and

to the Gaelic Act,

to the Equality Agenda and to a Racial Equality Strategy,

to the North South Consultative Forum

to a victim centred truth and reconciliation process,

to the Weston Park commitment and

to The International Maze/Long Kesh Peace centre
And the DUP and the Loyal orders saw every thing they had done since the St Andrew’s Agreement, and, behold, it was very good.

But Examination Boards said maintained schools bring forth more passes than controlled schools, yielding more university students,

and it is so.
And the DUP and Loyal Orders saw that it was not good.

And DUP leader Peter Robinson said the Northern Ireland education system as a “benign form of apartheid which is fundamentally damaging to our society”. Britishness was being chipped away.

And Loyal Orders saw that it was not good

And Peter Robinson decided that his majority was shrinking and said “Catholic Outreach‘.

And the Assembly said, Let there be lights in the firmament of Stormont to abolish the maintained schools; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
and the DUP and Loyal Orders saw that it was good

And Peter Robinson espoused integrated education for every living child that moveth, which the schools brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every traditional Unionist/Loyalist after his kind: and Peter saw that it was good.

Let the Union bring forth abundantly the Catholic that swears allegiance, that Unionists may fly above the earth in the Stormont Assembly

And the evening and the morning of the Flegs protests

and Twadell Civil Rights Camp


were the third day.

And the evening and the morning of the Haass talks were the fourth day

Analysis:
DUP and Loyal orders have ensured Catholics got little from the GFA and decided to take their schools away from them
DUP espousal of the primacy of children being educated together is as “political” as the intent of their Unionist forebears nearly a century ago .
DUP is required to do something they have not done before; make the union attractive to large swathes of Catholics who would self-identify as Irish, a demographic they have traditionally done their utmost to antagonise.

Latest Results in Education
PROTESTANT children continue to lag behind their Catholic counterparts when it comes to academic achievement in schools right across Northern Ireland, according to new data released by the Department of Education.
In 2011/12, 59.1 per cent of Catholic school leavers achieved two or more A levels compared to 51.8 per cent of Protestant school leavers.
Equally, 63.5 per cent of Catholic school leavers left with at least five GCSEs at grades A* – C or equivalent including GCSE English and maths, and 78.8 per cent left with at least five GCSEs at grades A* – C.
The corresponding proportions for Protestant school leavers were 60.2 per cent and 73.8 per cent respectively.
And 19.7 per cent of Protestant boys entitled to free school meals achieve at least five GCSEs at grades A* – C or equivalent including GCSE English and Maths compared with 33.2 per cent of Catholic boys entitled to free school meals.
Catholic girls entitled to free school meals (43.8 per cent) outperform Protestant girls entitled to free school meals (32.4 per cent) in achieving at least five GCSEs at grades A* – C or equivalent including GCSE English and maths.
When religion of pupil is considered 39.2 per cent of Protestant school leavers enter Institutions of Higher Education compared with 45.2 per cent of Catholic school leavers.
Last October the Sentinelreported how just 25 Protestant boys in receipt of free school meals who attended non-grammar schools throughout Northern Ireland went to university in 2011.
There were even fewer (23) Protestant boys from deprived backgrounds who progressed from grammar schools to university. http://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk/news/local/protestant-pupils-still-lag-behind-catholic-counterparts-at-gcse-1-5350314

(to be cont)

http://loyalistsagainstdemocracy.blogspot.it/2013/08/orange-aid-is-coming.html
http://bern.usembassy.gov/school_outreach.html
http://www.thedetail.tv/issues/222/caj-report-into-equality-commission/equality-for-whom-how-is-the-equality-commission-delivering

Click to access reformatted_final_print_version_csi_-_26.07.10.pdf

http://www.onlineccms.com/about-us/
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=5566
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/nov/24/religious-divide-northern-ireland-schools
http://footballcliches.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/what-connects-the-ni-census-figures-the-union-flag-and-peter-robinsons-catholic-outreach/
http://fitzjameshorselooksattheworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/catholic-education-in-norn-iron/
http://xkcdsw.com/1572
http://www.iguidez.com/video/guides/belfast/st-patricks-primary-school/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/history/20th_century/ireland_20th_century/revision/2/
http://tatostories.com/2008/07/not-a-good-sign
https://communities.bmc.com/community/bmcdn/cloud_lifecycle_management

Well done

Re-uniting Ireland – What would the education system look like?

What would the education system look like?
Not very different.

Don’t mention schools to me. They’ve been a bone of contention

in Northern Ireland since Partition

Hardly surprising.

Did you realise schooling in Northern and Southern Ireland share many features?
Stop chipping away at our Britishness

Like the rest of the UK, pre-school education in Northern Ireland and in the Republic is non-compulsory

but free places are available for about 90% of children (NI) and 100% (Republic) in their immediate pre-school year. Children start primary school aged 4 or 5 and can leave school when they are 16.

School holidays in Northern Ireland are considerably different from those of Great Britain, and are more similar to those in the Republic. Often Northern Irish schools don’t take a full week for half-term.

Usually the summer term doesn’t even have a half-term break. Christmas and Easter holidays sometimes last less than two weeks.

Summer holidays are much longer, with the end of June and all July and August off.

Both parts of Ireland have schools offering Irish-medium education.

Pupils are usually taught most subjects through the medium of Gaelic but English is taught through English. Gaelscoils were started in the 20th century and are now firmly established as an effective form of bilingual education. In the South there are nearly 4,000 preschoolers attend 278 Irish language medium Naíonraí.

Almost 10% of school children in the Republic attend 368 primary and post-primary Gaelscoils. In Northern Ireland there are 21 stand-alone schools and 12 Irish-medium units attached to English-medium host schools.There are two independent schools teaching through the medium of Irish. These are Gaelscoil Ghleann Darach in Crumlin

and Gaelscoil na Daróige in Derry City.

Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta(CnaG) was set up in 2000 by the Department of Education to promote, facilitate and encourage Irish-medium Education and to extend its availability to parents who wish to avail of it for their children.
We have English-medium only integrated education in Northern Ireland

whose primary focus is to provide a religiously mixed environment capable of attracting reasonable numbers of both Catholic and Protestant pupils.

In the South we have multidenominational schools which are often opened due to parental demand and students from all religions and backgrounds are welcome.

We also have single faith schools
You’re talking about minorities

No, listen! In June every year in Ireland North and South students have exams.

In Northern Ireland for boys and girls aged around 16 they are the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations which mark the end of compulsory education. Currently English and mathematics are compulsory as well as other subjects.

In the South students do the Junior Certificate in all subjects – English, Irish, maths and science (unless the student has an exemption in one of these)

as well as a number of chosen subjects, like the GCSEs. Subjects include Art, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek and classical studies, music, business studies, technology, home economics, materials technology (woodwork), metalwork, history, geography, Civic Social and Political Education (CSPE), and religious education. The selection of optional and compulsory subjects varies from school to school

In Northern Ireland at age 18-19, pupils do GCSE A Levels in three or four subjects and success in these can determine acceptance into higher education courses at university

In the South they sit for the Leaving Certificate (Ardteistiméireacht) in six to eight subjects, including English, Mathematics and Irish (exemptions available) and usually a foreign language, There are three distinct programmes that can be followed. each is intended to reinforce the principles of secondary education; to prepare the student for education, society and work.
Yes, but they’re not the same thing. Our A levels are worth a lot more than their Leaving Cert

On June 8, 2004 it was decided that a Leaving Certificate (higher) subject is worth two-thirds of an A-level (UK, except Scotland).
Anyway you’re avoiding the issue of segregation in Northern Ireland

Not really, I think it is a red herring

But we’ll talk about that tomorrow!
(to be cont)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Leaving_Certificate

Click to access Early%20childhood%20education%20in%20Northern%20Ireland%20summary.pdf

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/pre_school_education_and_childcare/early_childhood_care_and_education_scheme.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Northern_Ireland

Click to access NIeducationsystem_tcm18-55030.pdf

http://cheezburger.com/5965291008
http://www.tcdsb.org/ProgramsServices/SchoolProgramsK12/Kindergarten/Pages/FullDayEarlyLearningKindergarten.aspx
http://metaversemodsquad.com/schools-out-for-summer/
http://hardrockdaddy.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/hard-rock-music-time-machine-1986-alice-cooper-schools-out/
http://bearla.gaelscoilnaduglaise.ie/
http://www.naionrai.ie/ga/siopa
http://brightgreenscotland.org/index.php/2011/09/on-integrated-education-happy-30th-lagan-college/
http://www.ucdsb.on.ca/school/sla/aboutus/Pages/ExamSchedule.aspx
http://witsboggle.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/is-exam-the-only-way-to-evaluate-ussss%E2%80%A6%E2%80%9D-the-students%E2%80%9D/
http://9lols.com/students-during-exams/

Education & Talmud Torah

http://www.soldeosa.com/editorial/10-04-2012-redherrings.htm
http://blog.phonesound.com.au/2012/12/19/fun-activities-for-kids-these-summer-holidays/

Joint Sovreignty and Joint Policing: PSNI and An Garda Siochana

How are you going to sort that? The 50:50 recruitment policy imposed by the Patten reforms has now ended.

We’ll once more have a Protestant police for a Protestant people.


Get your head out of the sand.

I’ve told you over and over again. There’s

No surrender!No surrender!

Do give over.
That just convinces people that joint sovereignty is all the more urgent. Loyalists are now one of several minorities in NI.

The latest census says so

Green is Catholic and Orange is Protestant.

Just for the sake of talking how would joint policing work?
At present people living in NI can apply to join the Garda Siochana and people living in the Republic can apply to the PSNI. Both services probably select the same type of applicants because all modern police forces have similar aims and duties


Their purpose is to make Northern Ireland safer for everyone through Personal (dealing with local concerns), Professional (service excellence), Protective Policing (tackling serious harm)

Their core values and principles are
Honesty – Being honest and ethical and adhering to the principles of fairness and justice
Accountability – Accepting individual responsibility and ensuring public accountability
Respect – Having respect for people, their Human Rights and their needs
Professionalism – Providing a professional policing service to all communities

Combining all those ideals would give us an unbelievably top-class police service

Salaries are similar

The starting salary as a PSNI Police Constable is £23,259.
A Class A Garda on attestation gets 27,100 euros .

Both forces are starting recruitment drives.

The PSNI hopes may add nearly 500 new officers to the force by 2015 – including more Catholics and people from the west of Northern Ireland. It will particularly welcome applicants from Fermanagh, Tyrone and Londonderrywhere recruitment is low
Wonder why?

Maybe people in those areas would be happier with the Garda Siochana?

Interestingly, recruitment to An Garda Siochána is set to recommence after being suspended for several years because of the public sector hiring freeze
The Public Appointments Service say they have received some 27,000 ‘expressions of interest’
The new recruits could easily be trained to work together

Anyway how would they work together?
Under Joint Sovreignty

if the local MP opts for Westminster we have the PSNI operating in the constituency,
If s/he opts for the Dail we have An Garda Siochana.
If there’s a large minority either way in the constituency we have combined operations.
Balcanization of NI!!

No, a rational solution to some of the tribal problems that beset NI.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/debateni/news/overstretched-psni-faces-a-shortage-of-500-officers-29518544.html
http://www.londonderrysentinel.co.uk/news/local-news/psni-wants-to-recruit-500-including-more-catholics-young-people-and-poorer-people-1-5495462
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/psni-to-recruit-trainee-officers-1.1380833
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/psni-to-launch-recruitment-drive-1-5051352
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-23774052
http://www.thejournal.ie/garda-recruitment-2-993683-Jul2013/
http://www.agsi.ie/articles/the-plans-by-the-minister-for-justice-equality-and-defence-for-starting-garda-recruitment/
http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=339&Lang=1&PersistList=1&PersistPage=213
http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=340&Lang=1&PersistList=1&PersistPage=213
http://www.newstalk.ie/Garda-recruitment-to-resume-in-2014
http://www.gra.cc/payscales.shtml
https://www.joinpsni.co.uk/the-career/what-you-can-expect
https://www.joinpsni.co.uk/the-career/purpose-vision-values
http://garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=3430
http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/series/?sn=2000040
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/608029.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Northern_Ireland
http://limericklocalheroes.com/supporting-safer-communities-campaign
http://www.poundsterlinglive.com/breaking-news-articles/579-british-pound-to-euro-exchange-rate-4435345
http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-you-know-it-makes-sense-rodney/

Open Letter to Dr Haass

Dear Dr Haass

Welcome back to Northern Ireland!!
I heard you were surprised

to be coming back.You and the US thought NI was all sorted out in the GFA and we all walked off into the sunset

And if NI had ongoing and unsolved problems, they ranked below many other international concerns for you.

I hope you appreciate the great street party Loyal Peaceful Protestors are planning for you

20 bands, 5000 participants and 5,ooo supporters!!
Police Federation chairman Terry Spence

said there was the potential for violence. You may even get the chance to watch firsthand what happens during the summer marching season.

What an eye-opener to real life in Ulster!!
No doubt you have an efficient plan for your ambitious agenda

“dealing with parades, dealing with flags and emblems, dealing with the legacy of the past, discussing the future, the challenge of dealing with the segregated nature of housing, schooling, and the like.”



Mr McGuinness expects you to provide the opportunity to cut the ground from under extreme loyalists and extreme so-called republicans.
I am sure you realize what you are up against

No surrender

TUV leader Jim Allister said that his party — which is not part of the talks — would ensure there was no “backsliding” on issues such as the Maze peace centre.“Nor, is there room for a unionist community, which has been required to give at every turn, to make further concessions in some trade off to promote ‘the process’.”

Jamie Bryson has already posted “Richard Haass already calling for “compromise” In one swoop he has shown us the trajectory of these talks.

“Loyalism has compromised enough. No more”


Mr Robinson:”Richard Haass can’t resolve our problems for us.”

DUP Finance Minister Simon Hamiltonsaid that “working with Sinn Fein itself is not something we want to do naturally” but added: “We are in a forced coalition where we have to work together.
Orange Order Grand Secretary Drew Nelson,

architect of the Orange Order’s strategy for almost a decade

wants you to implement OCSE Guidelines on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, a parades code drawn up for regulating marches in eastern and southern Europe. OCSE recommend negotiation in cases of controversial parades – which the Orange Order refuses to do in Belfast.

Mr Nelson said that the principles underpinning the substantive document should extend right across Europe. The guidelines state that “It is neither possible nor desirable to draft a single transferable model law that could be adopted by all OSCE participating states”

Our lovely SOS

has already signalled

Downing Street would have concerns over any plans to deal with the past that were costly, left security forces open to undue criticism or involved public inquiries.

You indicated you will meet your end of 2013 deadline for making recommendations and drawing up a consensus document but you yourself seem to anticipate failure

“I am an independent chair and will come at this with my own best take on things. At the end of the day the British government, the Irish government, the leadership of Northern Ireland itself – individuals and governments are going to have to decide what they are prepared to sign-up to, what they are prepared to support”.
Finally, public approval of NIs system of government and politicians at an all-time low. The rankings for our politicians and the Assembly are shown to be among the worst of any government anywhere in the world

So why not strike out and

Propose Interim Joint Sovreignty

And let the two Secretaries of State work it out

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24085462?
http://www.politics.ie/forum/northern-ireland/215769-twaddell-avenue-civil-rights-camp-13.html
http://loyalistsagainstdemocracy.blogspot.co.uk/
http://marathonkelly.blogspot.it/2012/05/disappointment.html
http://www.redbubble.com/people/purplelove/works/8606-walking-off-into-the-sunset
http://whatnextbook.com/wordpress/?p=1477
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/haass-local-leaders-must-compromise-on-tough-issues-1-5490263
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/us-role-in-new-north-talks-amid-backsliding-fears-1.1527263
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24082782
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/dup-sf-talks-deal-on-parades-can-t-be-starting-point-for-talks-order-1-5491728
http://www.thedetail.tv/issues/270/talks-chair-haass-says-he-is-not-restricted-by-government-concerns-over-probe-into-the-troubles/haass-promises-%E2%80%9Cno-restrictions%E2%80%9D-on-dealing-with-northern-ireland%E2%80%99s-legacy
http://loyalistsagainstdemocracy.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24043156
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/police-fear-loyalist-parade-1-5480861
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/northern-irish-people-to-orange-order-you-cant-walk-where-you-want-29581681.html
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/splits-in-unionism-as-haass-flies-in-for-crucial-talks-1-5494099

HM Government says NO

Our lovely SOS

said “The Government does not believe that selecting a further series of cases for public inquiries is the best way to deal with the past in Northern Ireland.”


to the Omagh families


to the Ballymurphy families


to the Finucane family


to the McGurk’s Bar families

to the families of the Enniskillen bomb victims


They can all play merry-go-rounds

with the HET

Coroners

and Police Ombudsman

And if you were one of the 40,000 victims that were left seriously injured, you don’t fit into one of those categories

Her Majesty’s Government


has failed the people of Northern Ireland by refusing to investigate past abuses, ensuring that they continue to cast

a dark shadow on our present and future
Amnesty International

has called for the UK government to establish a new method of dealing with the past in Northern Ireland that would

re-investigate controversial killings and attacks carried out by all sides, including state agents.

identify those responsible at all levels and

issue recommendations aimed at securing victims’ right to reparation, the report said.

is convinced that we need an independent, international truth recovery body as a mechanism to deal with the past

The foundation of such a process cannot have the British government

as so-called arbiters. They were a party to the conflict and as such continue be involved in cover-ups while refusing to deal adequately with issues such as collusion and shoot to kill.”

Our lovely SOS

may feel that she has ended the matter with this refusal,

but the questions will not go away.

Remember: It forms part of the state’s duty to

conduct prompt, thorough, effective, independent and impartial investigations into certain human rights violations and abuses, including, killings,suspicious deaths, life-threatening attacks, and torture and other ill-treatment.

The duty to investigate applies to all such acts, regardless of whether they are committed by state or non-state actors.

Societies that understand past violations and abuses and the reasons they occurred ensure they are never repeated

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/omagh-bombing-families-to-fight-on-as-government-rules-out-public-inquiry-8811349.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24063555
http://mcgurksbar.com/court-proceedings-begin-amnesty-releases-report/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10561299
http://www.paranormalhaze.com/the-shadow-people/

Click to access eur450042013en.pdf

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=20968

Click to access mcgurk_ombud.pdf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20629776
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24071326
http://www.merrygoround.com.au/
http://www.thedetail.tv/issues/66
http://saoirse32.dreamwidth.org/2006/02/12/
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100039373/the-queen-beams-at-cameron-but-what-would-she-think-if-she-read-hugo-rifkinds-rude-column-in-the-times/
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/viggiani/north_plaque.html
http://www.impartialreporter.com/news/roundup/articles/2013/11/28/403166-exclusive–villiers-no-inquiry-into-enniskillen-bomb/?