Belfast and Beyond

Great news – at least, for now – fresh off the wires from Amnesty USA Blogs : "The Supreme Court of the United States has blocked the scheduled execution of Troy Davis! The Court issued an order staying the execution until Monday to...

Over the next couple of years there will be many personal tragedies triggered by the current global economic crisis: jobs lost in Halifax, Edinburgh and London are just the start. Yet could the financial crash have a silver lining...

Zimbabwe's 'First and Deputy First Ministers' Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai seem about as comfortable in their power-sharing deal as our own current incumbents Robinson and McGuinness . The former face the mightier challenge by...

As previewed on Belfast and Beyond ( Tasers: shocks and secrets ) some weeks ago, a Belfast child has applied for and yesterday won the right to challenge the PSNI's decision to start using Tasers. If successful, the child's court...

The arrest on Tuesday of five people by police investigating the murder of Sunday World journalist Martin O'Hagan in Lurgan seven years ago reminds us that no-one has yet been brought to justice for this crime (sadly, just like so many...

When I was asked to write a short 300 word piece for the Newsletter on the Death Penalty, ( see below) I didn't know that my opponent would be no less that Ian Junior . Now I am used to be called a "wishy washy liberal", in fact I am...

On telly tonight in Northern Ireland: Last Man Hanging (BBC 1 NI) 9pm I mentioned this case in a blog about the death penalty last November and here is the chance to review it on the small screen. From the BBC's blurb: "In 1961 Newry...

At the risk of coming across as Forrest Gump with bad timing (see previous post: ( 'One night (not) in Bangkok' ), last Tuesday I sort of stumbled across the Belfast end of an international arms bust. As I passed the Europa Hotel, I...

I can't remember exactly who told us the news. Maybe the manager of the backpackers' hostel in Perth, where we were spending our last night in Australia before heading to Bangkok. It was to be the final leg of our year-long post...

Looks like the Observer's Henry McDonald has been hearing the same rumours around Belfast as I have – namely, that the report by the Eames-Bradley Consultative Group on the Past is to be postponed (yet again) until the end of the year...

Today is the 45th anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr.'s " I Have A Dream " speech , delivered to a crowd of more than 250,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. It is undoubtedly one of the finest...

Mary Robinson, former President of the Republic of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ( wiki biography here ) received an enthusiastic tribute from columnist Susan McKay in the pages of today's Irish News ( And...

If the Chinese government provided a masterclass in how to prevent unwelcome protests at the Beijing Olympics, it looks like the Denver authorities may have been paying attention in time for this week's Democratic Party National...

"300 Irish republican ex-prisoners are to attempt to have their convictions overturned" according to Henry McDonald in a story in yesterday's Guardian and repeated extensively elsewhere ( Daily Telegraph for instance) today. According...

He may not even know it himself yet, but Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness may soon be on a plane to the Philippines as the latest stop in his blossoming ( and occasionally satirised ) career as one of the world...

As the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) deliver their first Taser shock , it's been announced that an application has been made for a judicial review into the decision-making process which led to the deployment of the...

Standard Operating Procedure William Crawley wrote a very comprehensive analysis of Standard Operating Procedure on his blog Will and Testament , and many of these themes were discussed on last Sunday’s Sunday Sequence . But I will add...

My colleague Fionna is far to modest to blog it herself, but she was a guest on BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence programme a couple of days ago to discuss new film, Standard Operating Procedure, which deals with the torture meted out...

Benjamin Zephaniah, the Rastafarian dub poet, was recently talking on Radio 4 about the focus on China's human rights record during the Olympics. The gist of what Zephaniah said was: how would the UK react when London holds the...

I am too young to remember where I was when I heard Kennedy was shot, but I will never forget the growing horror with which I listened to the car radio ten years ago today as I headed south on holidays with Rachel, my then girlfriend...