Just how in the real world is Alderman Humphrey.

Woodvale Park in Belfast is one of those locations that is surrounded by names that many around the world will even recognise. The Woodvale Road that leads up to the park is an extension of  the Shankhill Road. Not far away at the Springfield Road which itself comes off the Falls Road and loops round the back of Falls Park and up in the hills where often they are messages of protest that can be seen from the M1.

But it is also close to the Crumlin Road and as a result the Ardoyne shops, past which the Orange order have not been allowed to march on each weekend since the 12th of the July.

It is also one of those locations that I have played bowls in (just like Falls Park) because bowls does not recognise the various divides that are marked by high walls topped with steel fencing and sharp points. Indeed Woodvale Park was where I played my last competitive outdoor match at the end of last season before my move to Orkney.

The season before as we were trying to make out way there, we were trying to avoid bands and lodges that where marching all over the place between the Shankhill and Crumlin roads. Indeed after our game we just about managed to get away before trouble broke out at Clifton Street and Donegall Street. After going up the Crumlin to avoid the marching (so we thought) we came down the Shankhill, just in time before that entire part of Belfast got sealed off. Having spend 3 hours in tranquility of the park it was sad, though not a surprise having seen the police presence that this was how that day would end.

The reason that today I am retelling all this is because last season we saw that there was some work being done to restore the park to somewhere that local people could enjoy more fully. Today was supposed to be the day that the Lord Mayor officially opened it. A Lord Mayor who promised that he would go to every part of the City of Belfast that invited him, when he took his office.

The issue is that the current Lord Mayor is Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, which as regular readers may be able to guess from my correct use of the fadas in his name is a Sinn Féin Lord Mayor, while the park is in a staunch Loyalist area.

Now of course any first citizen in almost any part of the UK would be expected to be the one to reopen a £2 million redevelopment within their city of a public space. But protestors came out in such force that they injured a police man and the Lord Mayor himself was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital for check-ups saying he was sore in some places. He since then carried on with his schedule for the day.

However, the incident was not helped by one of the City's Aldermen, William Humphrey of the DUP saying:

"We asked that the deputy lord mayor or the high sheriff carry out this duty here today.

"There is real anger, frustration. It started when the flag was removed. The lord mayor's party, the SDLP and Alliance came together to do that.

"This should have been a day of celebration for a £2m investment by the council and the Department of Social Development and quite honestly the lord mayor needs to understand he cannot make statements and go around doing press interviews calling for our flag to be removed, remove the flag, and then when he has a chain around his neck as lord mayor of this city, expect people to welcome him as first citizen.

"That's not how it works in the real world."

Actually Mr Humphrey in most of the real world, while people may disagree with a political decision made by a Mayor or his party he rarely comes under the physical threat and actuality of violence while carrying out his civic duties. As Mr Humphries said the Council had invested in this redevelopment, it is right and proper that the Lord Mayor should there to reopen it. Calling for the deputy (who happens to be the DUP Christopher Stalford) or the High Sheriff to carry out this task actually demeans the Council's involvement.

Does Mr Humprey not know that 'in the real world' the position of Deputy Lord Mayor has a representative role within the city along with the Lord Mayor. When the Lord Mayor is unavailable for whatever reason, it is the responsibility of the Deputy Lord Mayor to carry out the representative functions of the Lord Mayor. Now it appears that the Lord Mayor was available to go to Woodvale to open this park. He was willing to go somewhere where he knew they might be hostility for the wider public good.

Politics is about more than flags and at council level providing amenities for the local people is a key part of that role. That is what should have been celebrated in Woodvale today, Mr Humphrey is right about that. The opening of improved civic amenities for their people is what was important about today, not turning it into an extension of the protest that has been going on in one form or another since December.

In the news offer the last few days we have heard of people being threatened so often by online troll. But since December those who fail to understand how the real world operates with regard to flags have carried out heavy handed threats and actual violence against those that want Northern Ireland to actually live in the real world. Some who are my friends have been direct victims on that intimidation and violence.

Mr Humphrey and his DUP colleagues talk about wanting the best for Northern Ireland, maybe it is time for them to start acting and speaking like they actually meant it.

Update The Belfast Telegraph has video coverage of the arrival of the Lord Mayor on their news story.

Another young family attacked in the name of a flag

Is it any wonder there are fewer women in politics in Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the UK?

Cllr Claire Hanna with the damage
Picture via BBC

Today there is the news that SDLP Councillor Claire Hanna, who happens to be chair of the East Belfast Policing and Community Safety Partnership, has had air pellets shot at the windows of her home. Fortunately she, her daughter and husband Donal were all out at the time of the attack. But yet again a woman working to serve the community as an elected representative with a young daughter has has the windows to her home smashed in an intimidatory but also potentially injury causing way.

Like Cllrs Michael and Christine Bower, I happen to regard Claire and Donal as friends, because in post Good Friday Agreement Northern Ireland my generation, and those younger than me, do find it easier to make friends of people irregardless of religious background. That is the way that a shared future can best be defined. With all of these political people mentioned in this paragraph I still have political disagreements at times but these are not based on the nature of my religion, they are based on political ideology more than anything. It does not matter where they choose to worship and that is what the majority of the people in Northern Ireland want to get to, that is normal, that is the goal.

It is discussion not violence,debate not shouting, listening to all and gathering a balanced view. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on a issue, but if your government perfectly fits all your opinion then you must be the dictator in charge rather than someone serving for the benefit of all opinion.

Therein lie the problem that our sectarian politics is still failing to reach. I think it is especially true of the Unionist community who at the moment seem to be retracting and retrenching into their old ways and not attempting to reach out. Too many feel there is only their way to do something, because they cannot face what the opposite side want. However, often we need to find a compromise here, it is what the Good Friday Agreement was and the consequential meetings at Belfast, Hillsborough and St Andrews.

To make Northern Ireland work no one sides opinion can be the only way things are done, if we carry on like that we'll never achieve anything. This protests and the violence that is riding on the back of it is an attempt to maintain a dictatorship. As a son of Derry (which all Protestants called Londonderry in casual conversation before it became a "political" matter), and Cityside at that, I know the consequences such dicatorship from the Unionists had on the families who shared my family's side of the city. The current protest and violence is another attempt to impose rule by force, intimidation and fear rather than through diplomacy and debate.

I've said it before this is madness and anarchy. We the people who want a peaceful, normal existence do not want mob rule, do not want those who serve us to live in fear, nor to be be fearful for contacting them. We live in a democracy goddammit last time I checked.

Money for nothing and drinks flow free

Apparently the reason that trouble flared up in East Belfast after a mini-Twelfth parade last Friday is down to an MTV party, that will be happening in November.

Yeah, you have read that right. The reason is not because tensions were already running high since the earlier trouble in the Short Strand area already. The route of this parade was in the Albertbridge Road, very close to that previous orchestrated riot by the Loyalist UVF, though this riot was not orchestrated. However, if you read the comments from the Order Grand Secretary Drew Nelson it would not be down to any of the previous excuses or reasons for rioting by loyalists, but because of a request for a late license on the Sabbath, beyond midnight to follow the MTV Awards that are coming to the city.

"We are finding that a lot of young people, more than there used to be, are on the streets not just during our parades, but at other festivals and fleadhs that happen in the province.

"More young people seem to be drinking on the streets than was formerly the case.

"My analysis is that these young people, what they think is cool and socially acceptable they don't take their lead from the Orange Order or the churches or the traditional organisations, but they take it from the media, they take it from people like MTV.

"What I think is quite damaging is the fact that the MTV awards are coming to Belfast and it has become public now that there is going to be an all-night bar licensed to sell alcohol right through to six o'clock the next morning.

"Personally I think that sets a very bad example for young people."

 Actually there is a factual error in the above there has not been an agreement to extend licences. There may however be a private party set up for after the awards. There have always been Northern Irish people who drank to excess, both George Best and Alex Higgins for example were heavy drinkers before the birth of MTV in 1981. There have been drunken fights and riots in Northern Ireland long before that time too. I've seen the empty cans alongside 'dry' Orange Parades in the past.

Look at the leaders of the Orange Order. Look at their history especially at Drumcree. They want to get their way no matter what the changing make up of the route they traditionally have walked along now is. For years senior figures would be seen at the barricades outside Portadown, shouting at police officers, demanding that it is their way and the Queen's highway and they will walk past.

Mr Nelson carries on:

"There are far more people obtaining their alcohol from supermarkets and the problem there is when it comes to consumption, there is no regulation.


"I hear stories in towns of taxis going to off-licences and getting alcohol and delivering it to teenagers and there must be older people going into the off-licences and getting it for them so this is a problem for society."

If the latter is true can he find out more, like which taxi drivers are doing it and get them reported, for supplying alcohol to underage consumers. The answer is that no of course he can't as many of the people involved in the riot on were over the legal drinking age. It was carried out following his parade. I recall the one time I got on a bus from Glasgow on the Twelfth weekend there, I felt scared because of the drink that many of the others had been consuming. Me an Ulster protestant, with family in the Orange Order felt scared because people who were over age of 18 didn't know me from Adam, and this was at 8:30 or something.

Passing the buck isn't going to deal with the problem. Look at the stance that the Orange Order takes. It is one of they want, want, want. They are constantly refusing to enter into dialogue about controversial routes and don't see the need of the parade commission. Therefore instead of working with people to come to some sort of compromise every summer (or as they call it marching season) there is going to some area of flare up.

So lets look at the root of the issues, not just try and find a new excuse shall we Mr Nelson?

Petrol Bombs and Bricks Shall Not Stop Our Democratic Shared Future

The fact that election campaigners in Northern Ireland are going door to door canvassing in something to be applauded. Indeed it is something that all to recently would have led to some candidates setting foot in certain parts of the area they were seeking to represent.The fact that twice in the past 24 hours on two separate incidents SDLP canvass teams have been attacked is a shame to those who carried out such attacks.

Not Delores Kelly's windscreen but an example

Last night a petrol bomb aimed at the car of election volunteers and today when a brick was thrown at the windscreen of Delores Kelly seeking re-election in Upper Bann. This is not how this election campaign, or how the last assembly or the next one, is going to get along. There is consensus that things now will be done through the ballot box, this anti-social and indeed anti-democracy attacks on candidates are something that nobody involved in politics should condone, we should all stand together and condemn such actions. Thankfully nobody has been seriously hurt in either incident, although people could so easily have been.

However, all is not light an consensus in Northern Ireland right now. Tom Elliot along with the leaders of all the parties attended the funeral of PSNI Constable Ronan Kerr last week (an event that united the majority of the population with only a few dissenters). However, a group of fundamentalist Orangemen have called on the UUP leader to be expelled from the Loyal Order.

People outside Northern Ireland may not know what the fuss is about. Well yesterday as I was reading the DUP council candidates profile as they came through my door the one thing that I did notice was the mention in three of the four of involvement in or with the Loyal Orders, it is shorthand to the Unionist base to vote for them they're one of you. However, as myself and few others have expressed we don't see the point of such emphasis when we are talking about a shared future. In fact the DUP recently were actually asking Catholic economic liberals to vote for them based on their right leaning economic policies rather than the left leaning of the SDLP and Sinn Féin.

So while Northern Ireland parties are talking up a game of sharing over the airwaves, through the doors there is still a little of the politics of separation coming through from some quarters. It is not what I have been used to the last 9 years in Scotland and I will taking serious consideration over how I place my preferences on May 5th.

Lies, Damn Lies and Tory Crime Statistics*

Working as I do with data day in and day out the one thing you learn is that you have to compare like with like to get an actual comparison. There are little comments all over our spreadsheets which say when something started, moved or a calculation was changed. It not simply for us to keep a track on changes but also so that we know if data from different periods is comparable simply from the raw figures.

In 2002 what happened with violent crime statistics was that instead of the incident being recorded as violent at the discretion of the desk sergeant police were told to record every complaint.

This is what Chris Grayling the Shadow Home Secretary failed to tell us when he was whipping up a storm with his some British town's as becoming like The Wire.

Sir Michael Scholar, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority sets the wayward Tory right by writing to him saying:

"I do not wish to become involved in political controversy but I must take issue with what you said about violent crime statistics, which seems to me likely to damage public trust in official statistics."

He included a note from his agency which said:

"It would not be appropriate for the Authority to seek to intervene in political debate directly. However, where we see that official statistics have been presented or quoted in a way that seems likely to mislead the public, we will publicly draw this to the attention of those involved."

Here are the actual figures, there is a kink up in 2002-3 and then the downward trend continued under the new recording criteria.

Grayling has said he would take the Statistics Authority memo into account, before then dismissing it totally by saying he would:

"continue to use recorded crime statistics, because they reflect an important reality; that the number of violent crimes reported to police stations, and particularly serious violent crimes, has increased substantially over the past decade, even taking into account any changes to data collection".

* There was just no way to top The Independent's headline.

Three Shot Dead in Tel Aviv Gay Club

22:44 Breaking news which I hope to keep updated as more becomes available.

Apparently a gun man opened fire in a gay club in Tel Aviv, Isreal this evening killing 2 and wounding up to 12 others.

According to Sky the shootings took place outside Cafe Noir in the liberal northern Isreali city which has a thriving gay community. I'm also picking up stories that the group that was targeted may well have been a youth facility for teenagers seeking support and that one young girl and a counsellor are the two who have died.

Police have ordered all the gay clubs in the city to close while they carry out a manhunt for the gunman.

22:56 Reuters are now confirming that it was indeed a support group for gay youths that suffered at the hands of the gunman. It was meeting in the basement of the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association building.

23:09 News via tweets from the streets of Tel Aviv is that the kids who are wounded are scared to call their parents as many of them are not out of the closet. The club was a safe place for them to discuss their sexuality. The deaths may end up being a double blow to the families of the victims.

23:30 Just flicked over to Sky News to watch Iain Dale and the paper review and the scrolling news is now reporting a third fatal victim of the incident. Confirmed by Assosiated Press.

23:48 Pictures from inside the room where the shootings took place are appearing WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT.

05:00 Hundreds took to the streets of Tel Aviv last night as a memorial to the dead within hours of the incident. The march took place from the scene of the incident to another gay centre in Meir Park. Revital, one of the participants, told the press:

"The feeling is terrifying. We live in a bubble, believing that everything is fine. This is an act of pure unfounded hatred, which leads to the murder of children for being gays and lesbians. It's very sad knowing that it's still so."

Although the ultra-othordox Shas party has condemned the killings. Others are pointing the finger at their leaderships open hatred of the gay community as leaving an sense of distrust.

Kfir Lavi, coordinator of the "You have someone to talk to" hotline, referred to the incident as a terror attack.

"What we are seeing here is persecution. This attack was against the activity of youth in the closet, against friends and those who have doubts.

"Someone came in intentionally, knowing what was taking place there and who were the people present there, and carried out the attack. People feel this could have happened anywhere. The finger on the trigger was against sexual identity. They intended to hurt people because of who and what they are. There is a feeling of persecution, because following the attack all the places were closed at the police's order. There is a feeling of lawlessness."

So the community took the action they felt was appropriate and showed solidarity.

Time For Northern Ireland to Unite and Say No

'Ulster Says No!' was the slogan used by the Unionist groups across Northern Ireland at the start of the Anglo-Irish talks. Banners with that slogan or variations on the theme were displayed from the offices of Unionist controlled councils including Belfast City Hall.



Well the escalation of troubles and threats in Northern Ireland last night make this the opportune time to dust off that slogan. But this time instead of belonging to one community attempting to stand in the way of integration and steps towards harmony and reconciliation, it should be a united front. To have the leaders of both side in the community standing together saying no to the resurrection of violence. No to the reigniting of barricades and no to the threats of bombs across the province.



It is time for Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams to stand behind First Minister Peter Robinson and his Deputy Martin Maginnis as they stand together to say no. This no would be a positive no unlike that of the 80s which is why the figure heads of both sides from then, although taking a back seat now, need to stand there with the current heads of the Assembly.



Northern Ireland doesn't want the new generation to have to go through what I went through. We've moved on, seen improvements in our way and standards of life. This new threat of an escalation of attacks is going to take that new-found, long-awaited hope away. The generation who know little of that apart from what they read in history books should be allowed to only read about that history not live through a new chapter of it.



Time for the people of Northern Ireland in one united voice to say no.

Sad News Ahead of Polish Fixture in Belfast

Irish sports fans have a reputation of being friendly, loving to party and win or lose having a good time. It is therefore with sadness that I initially heard that there was trouble today in Belfast ahead of the football international against Poland.

Even through the troubles one thing that pulled the people together was the fact that nobody cared that George Best was a Protestant of that the other guy who shared his debut Pat Jennings was a Catholic. When they pulled on the Norn Oirish shirt none of that mattered. It was with sadness that when Neil Lennon brought a premature end to his international involvement it was due to sectarian attacks and threats on the Northern Irish captain, it was so out of character.

Yes when it came to which team the majority supported there was division, whether you were a Linfield/Glentoran supporter or Cliftonville pretty much marked you out. But on international day Windsor Park was always somewhat a haven of peace against all the madness going on around.

One things about today's attack is that it appears to have occurred as the result of Polish fans running rampage in a Weatherspoons on Bedford Street. The majority of the nine arrested were Polish fans. They are the co-hosts of Euro 2012 with Ukraine and one of the concerns when they were awarded the showpiece event by UEFA was the behaviour of their fans. That a riot should break out in Belfast which is still in ebullient mood after the Six Nations Grand Slam of last weekend when the Polish team and fans were in town doesn't look that good for 3 years time.

It's a sad day for the very vocal, very colourful, not Brazil but Norn Iron supporters. A sad day for football and for UEFA.