Category: Northern Ireland

Cardinal Daly, Leader of Ireland's Catholics During Violent Years in Belfast, and Hero of the Peace Process, is Dead at 92

February 6, 2010 by Joe Leary, special to the BIR

One of the more substantive heroes of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, Cardinal Cahal Daly, died in a Belfast hospital last month at the age of 92. A saintly man of small stature, the cardinal was trusted by Protestant church leaders on all sides. A quiet man who carried a pleasant wry smile, he served as the bishop of Belfast and the surrounding area during the height of the bombings and shootings that pervaded Northern Ireland in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. Read more

'Salesman' for Northern Ireland Brings Belief, Zest to His Economic Envoy Post

February 6, 2010 by Robert P. Connolly, special to the BIR

Declan Kelly describes himself as "a salesman for Northern Ireland" and like any good salesman, he comes to the job armed with facts and figures - and brimming with energy, determination, and ideas. Read more

For Gerry Adams, It Was a Year of Trials at Work and at Home

January 6, 2010 by Robert P. Connolly, special to the BIR

First came the startling news that the republican leader's brother, Liam Adams, was on the run, charged with having sexually abused his daughter for an eight-year period that began when the girl was 4. He was reported to be hiding in the Republic of Ireland and Gerry appealed to his brother to return to Northern Ireland to face the charges lodged against him. Read more

Now in charge, DUP's Robinson faces challenges with confidence

December 5, 2009 by Robert P. Connolly, special to the BIR

For decades, Peter Robinson was the man in the background, a key player in the world of hard-line unionism but almost entirely obscured by Ian Paisley's epic shadow. Read more

Terrorist Violence in North Putting Peace Process in Peril

December 5, 2009 by Joe Leary, special to the BIR

While they are striving mightily to attract new business investment to Northern Ireland and are encouraging tourists to visit, authorities, both elected and appointed, seem unable to stop the new terrorists (also called dissidents) and their many acts of violence. Given that, the threat of serious disruption of the peace process, and, therefore, the new government, is very real. Read more

Officials in North Mull Brown's $1.6b 'Final Piece' in Peace Puzzle

November 1, 2009 by Robert P. Connolly, special to the BIR

It could be, as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown puts it, "the final piece in the jigsaw" puzzle. And, in this case, it is a rather expensive piece, indeed. If it is, however, the piece that makes the whole Northern puzzle knit together, then it will be well worth the cost. Read more

A First: Some Are Starting to Mull Sinn Fein Without Gerry Adams

September 1, 2009 by Robert P. Connolly, special to the BIR

For more than a quarter of a century, the Irish republican party, Sinn Fein, has had a clear and undisputed leader, Gerry Adams.

To be sure, Adams has had a leadership partner, Martin McGuinness, but fundamentally, it has been understood that Adams received top billing – he was the party president, the thinker, the charismatic speaker, the international media star. Read more

Says Bridget Shaheen, of Lazarus House in Lawrence: 'I Am Fully Satisfied in Doing What the Lord Wants Me to Do'

September 1, 2009 by Greg O'Brien, special to the BIR

An old Irish proverb graces Bridget Shaheen's modest office in Lawrence: "It is in the shelter of each other that the people live." In the shelter of Lazarus House Ministries on humble Holly Street, executive director Shaheen, who walks the Christian talk on how to love, oversees the provision of immediate support, food, training, shelter, and medical and dental care to those who have none in this working class city of immigrants that ranks the poorest in New England. Some 84 percent of its public schoolchildren live below the poverty line, 53 percent of its high school students are classified as dropouts, and half the adults in the community have no secondary school diploma, perpetuating the distressing cycle. Read more

The Summer of 2009 in the North Shows There Are Miles to Go to a Lasting Peace

August 2, 2009 by Robert P. Connolly, special to the BIR

While the season has not taken Northern Ireland to brink of civil war, as happened all too often during the turbulent 1990s, this summer certainly illustrates that many tensions, sectarian and otherwise, continue to bubble in the Northern cauldron. Read more