Patrick Corrigan

I'm from Antrim. Born and brought up there. Eighteen years. I know it well. Including the gates of Massareene army barracks where two soldiers were shot dead and four others, squaddies and civilians alike, were left wounded on the...

The wonderful Ulster Hall re-opens tomorrow after two years' closure for refurbishment. The opening programme will have something for everyone – from Stiff Little Fingers to the Ulster Orchestra – and seems designed to rekindle fond...

The discussion 'Human Rights and budget decisions' was given in a tripartite format, between Dr Aoife Nolan, Ms Mira Dutschke and Mr Eoin Rooney, and concerned the development of methods to measure governmental resource-allocation in...

No, I'm not turning into Northern Ireland's answer to the Pub Landlord (anyway, I think that job is already taken by David over at the unintentionally hilarious A Tangled Web ). I'm simply giving credit where it's due to to the editor...

It's good to see that Professor Monica McWilliams and colleagues from the NI Human Rights Commission are in Westminster today, giving evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights at Westminster on their advice for a Bill of Rights...

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary was jumping for joy this week with the decision of the Law Lords to permit her to press ahead with the deportation of terrorism suspect Abu Qatada to Jordan and two (unnamed) others to Algeria. I think...

I see that Queen's University Belfast has awarded the King of Malaysia an honorary degree . I trust it was not for human rights law, the subject I'm studying currently at the esteemed institiution, given Malaysia's poor rights record...

If anyone doubts that social and economic rights are real human rights, then they should take a look at this powerful picture, by Brazilian photographer Luiz Vasconcelos, one of the winners of the 2008 World Press Photo of the Year...

I don't know If Dame Stella Rimington is an Amnesty member or not. But she should be. The former spy-boss has become one of the UK's most eloquent defenders of rights and liberties since she left the government's payroll and started...

Tuesday morning and I made it along to Stormont's Long Gallery for the launch of ICTU 's Israel Palestine report (available here to download , exclusively for Belfast and Beyond readers!). Hosted by Sinn Féin leader, Gerry Adams MP...

Slugger O'Toole is the daddy of the Northern Irish blogosphere. Founded and run by the inestimable Mick Fealty as a uniquely popular, cross-community blog for debate and discussion of NI politics and life, it is always worth a visit...

BBC NI's Spotlight programme was back on form this week with a review of the case of Prisoner B2970, Colin Bell. He was the prisoner at HMP Maghaberry near Belfast, who committed suicide while his prison guards – supposedly keeping a...

Since World War II, this country and the world have built up a system of protections for all our rights. From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 to the Human Rights Act of 1998, we saw five decades of progress in the...

Northern Ireland-educated Secretary General of Amnesty International, Irene Khan, is in Davos for the World Economic Forum. Of course, as this blog has recorded, its not the first time that Amnesty or Irene has been to the gathering of...

Am at home in my sick bed, popping penicillin and paracetemol like sweeties, but just wanted to post a quick 'ta very much' to those who nominated Belfast and Beyond for the Irish Blog Awards . We've been nominated in the News /...

Satrurday was spent at the SDLP annual party conference in Armagh. It was normal party conference stuff. A very early start, a very late finish and lots of resolutions, speeches and delegates to be talked to at our Amnesty stand and...

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter...

I hope Mossey is having a ball out in Washington DC for Obama's inauguration. As a bit of a political junkie myself, I have a sense of what he must be feeling. It could simply be relief that, after eight long years, we're finally...

Dreams From My Father, Barack Obama , (Paperback, 464 pages, Canongate Books, rrp £8.99, available £4.99) On Tuesday I will go along to Queen’s University Belfast for an event, to be addressed by the United States Consul General, Susan...

If you missed 'In Prison My Whole Life' at the Belfast Film Festival last April, there's another chance to see it tonight and tomorrow at Belfast's Queen's Film Theatre . It's a powerful, fast-moving film documentary, dealing with the...