Belfast and Beyond

There's something about Mary I'm a long self-confessed fan of Mary Robinson . I even had the chance to host her in Belfast last year when she gave the Amnesty International Annual Lecture. The former Irish President and UN High...

It's National Poetry Day . As good an excuse as any for a visit to verse. As is my wont, I'll use the opportunity to highlight a favoured human rights poem and invite your own suggestions. Last year it was Seamus Heaney's From the...

I've found myself rather disturbed andannoyed at the portrayal of young people in the NI press in recent months,particularly surrounding issues of protests and political action. The media hasstripped young people of their agency...

Shaun Woodward keeps saying that the transfer of policing and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly – the subject of talks in Downing Street today – is "the final part of the jigsaw" . The Northern Ireland Secretary of State...

During the summer, a church near where I live advertised its gospel mission with the slogan: "Worried about your job? Trust God." In the midst of a recession, with anxiety high about redundacies, mortgage defaults and unpaid bills, a...

Alan in Belfast has done a better summary of the East Belfast Speaks Out event from earlier this week than I could hope to. In the comments section he even includes a link to the BBC radio news report from the event, which features...

I can remember almost exactly five years ago travelling to a school on the outskirts of Belfast where the enterprising Amnesty group had managed to get the whole school PLUS parents to add their faces to the million faces petition...

This event has already been picked up on the Northern Ireland blogosphere over on Slugger and on Alan in Belfast but, seeing as I'm one of the panellists, I'll give it a plug here too! East Belfast Speaks Out is basically (the hugely...

Matt Baggott, the new Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland finally gets to try out his new desk today and will probably take a moment to reflect on the size of the task that awaits him. The term ‘baptism of fire’...

I am pleased that Canadian playwright, Judith Thompson, won the 2009 Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award for her political play Palace of the End. This post is perhaps premature, as I haven’t read the play yet, but this...

The recent evictions of Romanians from a house in South Belfast should be considered a political matter concerning civil and socio-economic rights, rather than as a purely private dispute between individuals. Commenting on the latest...

I reviewed this new comedy / politics documentary film for the BBC's Sunday Sequence programme, along with actor and writer Dan Gordon (you can listen again, here , 22mins 30secs in). I'd never heard of the Yes Men before now –...

Some good news: I’ve just heard that Hicham Yezza has been freed from prison. Hicham, a member of staff in the Faculty of Modern Languages at Nottingham University, was arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 on 14 May 2008. As reported...

In my day, a snog at the end of the ceilí at Loch an Iúir during Irish language summer camp – Donegal Gaeltacht-style – would get you no more bother than a ribbing from your house mates and a red face when you met the girl at class the...

As human rights activists we all strongly believe in the values contained within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Therefore when I read an article in the Belfast Telegraph with a rather muddled argument that the death penalty...

And so my time has come to leave Amnesty International as a campaigner, I have been involved with Amnesty in Northern Ireland for just short of five years, in a variety of roles. Five challenging, fascinating years which have only...

The First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson has been making a bid for his party's representatives to have seats on the Equality Commission when they come up for appointment later this year. If the DUP want to be taken seriously on...

Last Thursday and Friday I went to see Mirrorball, a drama group from Rathmelton, Donegal, perform Caryl Churchills controversial play "Seven Jewish Children ". The play was perfomed by a cross border cast from L'Derry and Donegal and...

With her green silk headscarf, designer sunglasses and classic Persian features, she was every inch the Iranian beauty. Yet when the UTV camera crew hoved into view, she moved off to the side. When Donal, our photographer for the day...

Sonia Sotomayor , the soon-to-be-confirmed , Obama-nominated US Supreme Court judge, has been the subject of much debate in the American (and indeed local ) blogosphere. Is she liberal, conservative, pro-choice, anti-death penalty...