Writing about politics, the Union and Northern Ireland. Find many of my latest articles here: muckrack.com/owen-polley/…
Northern Ireland
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Owen Polley retweeted
I agree, Owen.
'Anybody in Northern Ireland who is not a naive fool has always known what Sinn Fein is. The invisibility of ordinary, decent nationalism during the events last week, was more shocking and depressing.' medium.com/@owenpolley/you-d…
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'Anybody in Northern Ireland who is not a naive fool has always known what Sinn Fein is. The invisibility of ordinary, decent nationalism during the events last week, was more shocking and depressing.' medium.com/@owenpolley/you-d…
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This Northern Ireland team is magnificent. Almost a flawless performance. Brown, Atcheson and McConville just immense. Shea brought composure to midfield. Hume gritty as ever. Spencer & Morrison raiding down the right. Love this young team. #GAWA
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Owen Polley retweeted
If separatist activists here want a ‘new Ireland’, they mean only that the state to the south must become more self-pitying, more viscerally anti-British, more populist, more left-wing, more amoral, to accommodate northern nationalism led by Sinn Fein. medium.com/@owenpolley/you-d…
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Owen Polley retweeted
The ‘New Ireland’ lie died in Portadown by @3000Versts medium.com/p/you-do-not-have… Thought provoking article!
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Owen Polley retweeted
“The invisibility of ordinary, decent nationalism was more shocking and depressing. @SDLPlive in particular, could have exerted a moderating influence. Instead, the party’s newer generation seemed keen to compete with the Shinners’ language and antics…”
@ClaireHanna
If separatist activists here want a ‘new Ireland’, they mean only that the state to the south must become more self-pitying, more viscerally anti-British, more populist, more left-wing, more amoral, to accommodate northern nationalism led by Sinn Fein. medium.com/@owenpolley/you-d…
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Owen Polley retweeted
This is important - unionists need to start getting serious about stopping what Dublin is doing inside NI to influence politics/society/media under “Shared Island”. I’ve been surprised there hasn’t been more pushback. This is not GFA. Focus on this rather than the marching?
𝗪𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗶𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝘁?
Here's what's behind that question.
The Irish Government has set up a €14 million media fund for 2026 to 2028. It's run by Coimisiún na Meán, Ireland's state media regulator, and part of it pays for journalism, with a stated priority for reporting that "supports shared understanding across the island". Media here in Northern Ireland can apply through cross-border projects.
So one government, with one constitutional objective for this place, is now a funder of the journalism that reports on it. At a time when our local press is under real financial pressure.
This isn't a criticism of any journalist, and cross-border reporting is a normal part of life on this island. It's about what happens to public trust. In a divided society, perception is everything. A press trusted by one community and suspected by the other serves neither.
Cooperation, yes. But we see your stealth tactics.
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I've written about why the language of race is suddently being used so bluntly in discussions about identity in Britain. Unfortunately, it is something that could become more common, unless problems like unchecked immigration and a lack of integration are addressed. (1/3)
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It was ‘progressives’ who insisted that people be identified according to their race, colour or background and given advantages accordingly. Some on the right are trying to exploit those politics of grievance, as demographics change. (2/3)
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I ask whether a lack of pride or even shame about British history, accepting left-wing theories on race or Empire and refusing to even acknowledge that immigration is a problem, will feed more extreme ideas about race and identity. (3/3) newsletter.co.uk/news/opinio…
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Owen Polley retweeted
Devolution fuelled nationalism rather than killing it 'stone dead'. But 'There is a strong and delicious possibility that, across the UK, many generations to come of overwrought separatists will continue to live & die under the Crown and the Union Flag.' newsletter.co.uk/news/opinio…
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Owen Polley retweeted
I have been at Drumcree since early this morning.
I was wary about reopening this dispute but now that has happened, here are thoughts from one unionist perspective.
The Orange Order have taken a totally different approach to even the early 2000s (let alone 1990s). There are no supporters on Drumcree hill. None.
They used the courts the way nationalists have long done. This highlighted the complacency of a Parades Commission that failed to promote mediation, as it is obliged to do, and which had in effect rewarded a veto by resident leaders who would not talk.
This is a march with a long history and so it enjoys a greater presumption of right to proceed than marches that lack that tradition.
The massively scaled down Orange proposal of 60 men walking silently, rather than 800 men with bands and banners and flags, was further cut by the commission to 35 participants at 8am. This compromise ruling has been rejected by the full spectrum of Irish nationalism.
We are told the timing clashed with 8am Mass. Are the numbers at that service large? I was at the main 11am Anglican service at Drumcree parish this morning, which had around 30 congregants, reflecting the big declines in NI church attendance.
Would a 7am silent march with 12 people be accepted? I am reminded of a unionist politician saying years ago that residents in part of north Belfast had got out of their beds to be offended by an early Twelfth feeder march.
With a massive crowd on the Garvaghy Road the march will not happen without police dragging people off the streets. The first minister is with the crowds, just as she was at the helm of the huge Bobby Storey IRA funeral (when she had been the most adamant Stormont voice for stricter lockdowns, and after thousands of people in NI had abided by the then severe restrictions on funeral sizes for their loved one).
Police removing demonstrators, even though at an unnotified protest, would be cited to justify the grievance and lies about the PSNI being sectarian, and bolster dissident republicans.
I am not an Orangeman so I comment as an outsider. I think they would win a moral victory if they acknowledged the impossibility of going ahead today. They could say that 'we sought approval to march, we got it, we assembled to abide fully by the new, stricter terms but it was impossible to proceed given the crowds, led by the first minister'.
They could say we will continue to apply for a limited return march.
It would expose double standards, not least among those who show contempt for the wishes of local Belfast communities with a policy that forces Irish signage in streets where 85% of residents don't want it.
A footnote: at Drumcree parish, Rev Gary Galway said this morning: "We must love our neighbours and we do love our neighbours on the Garvaghy Road"
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Owen Polley retweeted
“They're the quietest, nicest people ever but they're so good at football. It's ridiculous. The pair of them are ridiculous. Pierce's passing & distribution is so good & his shot stopping and Shea's obviously a monster midfielder."
Isaac Price on the Charles brothers...
‘They're so good at football, it's ridiculous’: Northern Ireland midfielder hails siblings after key moments in Georgia win
✍️ @StevenBeacom5 in Tbilisi
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport…
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Owen Polley retweeted
Just caught up with this, what a moment for the Northern Ireland fans over in Georgia tonight.
Celebrating a 99th minute winner following your country overseas, it doesn’t get much better than that… 😍
BBC SPORT NI
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RT @NotThatBigIan: When you desperately need Seamus Mallon, but all you've got is Temu SF.
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