tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47144029431323499042012-01-29T01:54:28.037ZNelson McCausland MLA (Democratic Unionist Party - Constituency: North Belfast). A personal blog hopefully giving an insight into my time as MLA and currently Minister for Social Development in the Northern Ireland Executive. (Previously Minister for Culture, Arts & Leisure)Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.comBlogger6121100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-48026356199147293192012-01-28T19:41:00.002Z2012-01-28T19:55:13.209Z

Yesterday afternoon as I was driving down the Springfield Road in West Belfast I noticed a shop called the Flush Convenience Store.  The name caught my attention because the word flush is actually an Ulster-Scots word. We find it in the Flush Bend, the Flush Field and the Flush River, also on the Springfield Road, and in the Flush Road and Flush River at Ligoniel. According to the Scottish

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A cross-border conference on alcohol abuse was held in Armagh on Thursday and it was reported that last year 284 people died in Northern Ireland directly as a result of alcohol misue, an increase of around 40% in the last decade.  Alochol related problems cost up to £900 million a year with almost £250 million borne by the Health Service. In Northern Ireland there were more than 12,000 admissions

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Nigel Farage MEP is the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party.  Many Ulster folk will share their stance in relation to the European Union but there is another aspect of UKIP which most people will find less appealing and that is its libertarianism. You can't get a better illustration of that than the following quotation from UKIP leader Nigel Farage MEP, which was part of an interview

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Last night (25 January) there was an article in the Belfast Telegraph on the visits to Belfast by the English author Charles Dickens.  This was connected to the fact that this year is the 200 anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens in 1812. It was a very interesting article but it omitted one of Dickens' most perceptive comments about the town.  After his first visit to Belfast in 1858 he

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In a post earlier today on Slugger O'Toole, Mick Fealty said: 'Whatever the nature of the problems in housing provision, and it has to be said the local administration is certainly exposing more knotty problems than most departments, a revision of the purpose of public funded housing, its role within the wider economy, and the validity of current goals is long overdue.' Mick has recognised that 

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In his Irish News column today (21 January), Newton Emerson asked: 'Now that health minister Edwin Poots has banned cigarette vending machines, what is the next item on the nanny statelet agenda?' Newton Emerson seems to have something of a libertarian agenda and opposes what he describes pejoratively as a 'nanny statelet'.  However most folk support the concept of state intervention in the

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The Gunfight at the OK Corral took place on 26 October 1881 at Tombstone, Arizona Territory.  The gunfight lasted less than a minute but today it is one of the best-known events in the history of the West.  However it was relatively unknown until 1931 when Stuart Lake wrote a largely fictional biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, two years after Wyatt died.  It was also the subject and title

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The current debate about Scotland and independence is providing some interesting references to the connections between Ulster and Scotland.  However Seam Mallon's intervention was notable for being particularly ill-tempered and ill-informed. Salmond told the Morning Show on RTE: 'I am sure, as many people in Ireland will remember, that sometimes people in leadership positions in big countries

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The issue of a proposed referendum on independence for Scotland was raised on the fringes of the British Irish Council in Dublin yesterday.  There was an interesting intervention by First Minister Peter Robinson who said:If what we have seen over the last few days is a trailer of things to come, then unless we like seeing the sight of our own blood, we might want to stand back somewhat.  I speak

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Yesterday I came across the following in a magazine I was reading: If a statue of a person on a horse has both of the horse's front legs in the air, the person died in battle.  If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.  If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. I posted it here without really

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The Weekend magazine in the Belfast Telegraph on Saturday night (7 January) carried an interview with Irish singer Mary Black and in it there was a reference to her sister Frances Black, who is also a folk singer.  It mentioned that Frances had endorsed Martin McGuinness in his presidential campaign in the Irish Republic in October 2011 and it reminded me that this was certainly not her first

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Some folk rely on surveys and focus groups and others rely on the views of commentators and pundits but I always like to hear what real ordinary folk think about issues of the day and there is only one way to do that - get out and talk to them. Over the past few weeks I have attended a lot of community events and they have been a great opportunity to chat to people about a wide range of political

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According to a recent newspaper report (News Letter 5 December 2011) 3.8 million children in the United Kingdom do not own a book. The latest report by the National Literacy Trust, based on a survey of 18,000 children, reveals that a third of them do not have books of their own.  Ten years ago the figure was one child in ten but now it is one in three and so the figure is rising.  Moreover,

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Sinn Fein propagandists, such as Jim Gibney in The Irish News (8 December) have been busy weighing in behind Belfast Lord Mayor Niall O Donnghaile.  They have not directly tried to justify what he did, when he refused to hand over a Duke of Edinburgh award to a young Army Cadet.  They know that Martin McGuinness has already admitted that O Donnghaile was wrong and they can't very well disagree

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On Sunday afternoon I was in Lisnaskea parish church for the funeral of the father of my party colleague Arlene Foster.  During the service the minister reminded us that her father had served in both the B Specials and the RUC.  He had lived out in the country near Rosslea but after the IRA attempted to murder him he had to move in to Lisnaskea.  He carried the scar from an IRA bullet until the

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In his Colonial New York: A History (p 238), Professor Michael Kammen describes the growth of Presbyterianism in New York.The years between 1745 and 1760 were years of rapid growth for the Presbyteriana - growth based upon the influx of groups quite diverse in social origin.  There were Puritans from New England and Log Island, Scots-Irish immigrants from abroad, converts drifting in from the

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Recently I bought a book entitled Colonial New York: A History by Michael Kammen.  In it I came across a reference to a woman named Jane McCrea:In 1777 the scene of action shifted upstate.  On the military side, Burgoyne invaded New York from Quebec on June 1.  A series of actions during July went largely in England's favour: the conquests of Ticonderoga, Skenesborough, and Fort Anne.  The brutal

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Several evenings this week I have been at community meetings with DUP councillors from the Castle area.  Then this morning I was in our constituency office at Ballysillan to catch up on some paperwork.  The two DUP councillors from the Oldpark area were there as well, meeting a some residents from Carr's Glen Park about a number of issues.  That was on top of the normal round of council meetings,

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Last weekend I came across several newspaper articles about the effects of alcohol abuse. Ministers pledge to stop booze ads aimed at youngOfficials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in London have reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring that alcoholic drinks are not targeted at young people.  'It is imperative that we have robust, evidence-based alcohol advertising rules in place to

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There is a good article tonight in the Belfast Telegraph about Hector McDonnell, an artist who grew up in Glenarm Castle and whose father was the Earl of Antrim. The article recalls some of the history of this old Ulster family and includes an important point about the Scottish settlement of Antrim and Down at the start of the 17th century.The present Glenarm Castle, which sits within one of the

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During my time in the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure I held an annual  reception at Stormont to celebrate the success of Ulster sportsmen and women and each year this included young folk from the GAA. I have criticised aspects of the GAA and will continue to urge that organisation to embrace the vision of a shared and better future.  However the young folk from the GAA were treated in

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Over the weekend my attention was drawn by two separate newspaper articles. The first was an obituary in the Irish News for Paddy Murphy (1940-2011), who died on 17 November.  After serving in the Eire Army and then the British Army he joined the IRA.  According to the obituary:The 1970s and 1980s saw Paddy eke out a living in a variety of jobs and he found expression for his socialist and

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The actions of Belfast's Sinn Fein Lord Mayor Niall O'Donnghaile and the way that he snubbed a young Army Cadet are but one aspect of a rather unpleasant atmosphere that Sinn Fein has introduced into Belfast City Council. At the local government elections in May there was a significant change in the team of Sinn Fein councillors and this has resulted in a much more abrasive approach which is

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In a letter to the News Letter on Saturday (3 December) the writer addressed the 'disgraceful and discriminatory' action of Belfast Lord Mayor Niall O'Donnghaile in refusing to hand over a Duke of Edinburgh Award to a young girl who was a member of the Army Cadets.  The letter writer drew an interesting parallel:Picking and choosing those to be honoured on the basis of political ideology reminds

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In her regular column in the Belfast Telegraph tonight (5 December), Nuala McKeever commented on the 'non-apology' by Lord Mayor Niall O'Donnghaile:Well, its been a week of backhanded apologies .. First it was the Lord Mayor of Belfast.  He's had a rough week and is probably considering renaming the position 'Nightmare' as opposed to Lord Mayor.Niall O'Donnghaile refused to shake the hand of a

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Last week was a very bad week for Sinn Fein. The Historical Enquiries Team (HET) confirmed that the IRA knew they would be targetting innocent civilians when they exploded the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bomb.  They dismissed IRA claims that the mssacre of civilians in November 1987 was a mistake.  The atrocity, perpetrated by the IRA, killed eleven people and another victim died after 13 years

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In the New Testament the wise men from the east came to Bethlehem and brought gifts for Jesus (Matthew 2:11).  They were wise men and they were also wealthy men for they brought expensive gifts.  It's hard to choose presents, they should be appropriate for the person, but the wise men were wise in their choice and each of their gifts was appropriate for Jesus. Frankincense for the Son

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This morning I spoke at a conference organised by the Community Faiths Forum in Belfast.  Afterwards I came across this paragraph in an article about the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, and it has some relevance to the theme of the conference.  It was written by John Telford and is taken from his  book The Popular History of Methodism, which was published in 1897: As a Social Reformer, Wesley

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Mortgage debt is a major problem today and so I was glad to receive an evaluation of the Mortgage Debt Advice Service, which is funded by the Department for Social Development. During the first twelve months of the pilot a total of 755 clients, from every parrliamentary constituency in Northern Ireland, used the service and a total of 1,970 housing issues were addressed.  The service directly

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Recently I launched a Make the Call campaign, which started on 14 November and runs until the end of March 2012.  It includes television, radio, outdoor and community locations and is reinforced through regional and local press.  The campaign encourages older people to call a Freephone Benefits Advice Line to find out if there are benefits (social, security and wider), services and support they

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One aspect of the controversy about Belfast Lord Mayor Niall O'Donnghaile that has not received much attention is the fact that at some point in the ceremony he went off to make or take a telephone call.  Now anyone who has been in the position of Lord Mayor for six months will know to turn their mobile phone off, or have it on silent and just ignore it.  However, according to some reports, he

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UTU BALLOT FOR INDUSTRIAL ACTION RESULTS - There was a 30.2% return in the ballot for industrial action, with 59.3% voting FOR strike action. As the UTU Rules and Constitution state that before any strike action can be declared two-thirds of those voting must be in favour. The UTU will not, therefore, be asking its members to take strike action. I copied the above from the the website of the

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Niall O'Donnghaile, a Sinn Fein councillor and Lord Mayor of Belfast, has certainly created a storm of controversy by his refusal to present a Duke of Edinburgh award to a young member of the Army Cadet Force at a ceremony in the City Hall. He is a young mayor but certainly not inexperienced.  He worked for some time as a press officer for Sinn Fein in the Assembly and he is normally very media

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On Tuesday (23 November) the Irish News excelled itself in terms of cultural bigotry and sectarianism.  Page 18 carried the daily editorial, along with an Ian Knox cartoon and the Brian Feeney column. Above the editorial was the newspaper's long-standing Latin motto 'Pro fide et patria' or in English, 'Faith and Country' or 'Faith and Fatherland'.  The nation is of course Ireland and the faith is

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This is Homelessness Week and tonight I visited the drop-in centre run by the Welcome Organisation at St Peter's Square in West Belfast. On my arrival I was able to present a cheque for £70,000 to Ricki Rowledge, director of the Council for the Homeless NI.  They distribute this through many other providers, such as the Salvation Army, so that every homeless person has shelter and a warm meal on

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Belfast Lord Mayor and Sinn Fein councillor Niall O'Donnghaile has explained why he refused to participate in the Council's Remembrance ceremony at the Cenotaph.  He said that the service was 'heavily militarised'.  What a pathetic excuse!  The ceremony remembers SOLDIERS who served in the ARMY and fought in a WAR.  That's why there is military involvement in the ceremony and that's why it is '

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Today the Assembly debated the Programme for Government and I was able to announce several key commitments for the Department of Social Development. Double glazing Many Housing Executive houses do not have double glazing.  The total NIHE stock is around 90,000 houses and of these about 40% have double glazing but about 60% still have only single glazing.  Under my SDLP predecessors, Margaret

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Dr George Rippey Stewart (1895-1980) was an American academic and the author of Names on the Land: A historical account of place-naming in the United States.  This book was published in 1945 and then reprinted in 1958, 1967, 1972, 1986 and 2008. In it he considered the influence of many groups on the place-names, including the Scotch-Irish: Also among the non-English immigrants may be counted the

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Judgment has been reserved in a case involving 28 people accussed of staging an illegal sit-down protest on the Crumlin Road, near Ardoyne, as Orange lodges were due to return home on 12 July 2011. All of the defendants are charged with obstructing lawful activity in a public place and some are also accused ot resisting arrest.  Deputy district judge Neil Rafferty reserved judgment and told

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I have just come across an old cutting from the Irish Times.  In his column Words We Use, Diarmaid O Muirithe explains the word shend, which is still used by some Ulster-Scots speakers in the Ards peninsula. According to the Scots dictionaries it means 'to chide, reprove; to confound; to disgrace.'  The word also has the meansing of 'mar, destroy, ruin' and from it we get the noun shendship,

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This is the speech I delivered today at the launch of the Innovation Fund in Belfast City Hall: Tackling poverty has never been a more crucial issue for Government in Northern Ireland than in the present economic climate.  People at all levels of society across Northern Ireland are feeling the impacts of the current recession and it is more important than ever that the Social Security Agency is

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The Irish News runs a daily column entitled 'On This Day' in which historian Eamon Phoenix looks at events that happened 'on this day' some years ago and today he looked back to 1 November 1942. Britain and her allies were at war with Germany but back in Ulster  the IRA saw this as their opportunity and during the course of the war they staged many terrorist attacks.  Today the newspaper reported

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Last week the front page story in the Sunday Life carried the headline 'BBC STAR IRA ROW - GAA pundit says sorry for praising Provo chief'.  The story then continued over two pages in the newspaper. Jarlath Burns is a school teacher, a former Armagh GAA captain, and now a BBC sports pundit.  Recently he appeared at a Sinn Fein rally in Dublin at which a number of celebrities endorsed Martin

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Yesterday in the October Monitoring round, the DFP minister Sammy Wilson allocated an additional £10m for the Northern Ireland Co-ownership Housing Association and £2m for energy efficiency improvements to social housing. Originally there was £15m in the budget this year for co-ownership housing but last month it became clear that some additional money might be available and I met with the

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-24484745937578411442011-10-22T20:26:00.003+01:002011-10-23T09:08:49.977+01:00

On 6 December 1975 two IRA terrorists from the South Armagh Brigade were killed when a land mine they were working on exploded prematurely at Kelly's Road, Killeen.  The terrorists were Sean Campbell (20) and James Lochrie (19). However Sean was not the only terrorist in the family.  Two of his brothers, Liam and Michael, refused to accept the IRA ceasefire and left to join the Real IRA. Liam has

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-12205091421317014682011-10-21T08:32:00.000+01:002011-10-21T08:32:14.322+01:00

The pop singer Rihanna caused some controversy during her recent visit to Northern Ireland, as regards both the filming of a video and her performance at the Odyssey, when fans were kept waiting for her to appear.  Part of the video was filmed in the New Lodge Road area in North Belfast and crowds of local people flocked round her during her time in the area.  They were excited and delighted

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-12349247262564664092011-10-18T20:44:00.002+01:002011-10-18T20:45:46.892+01:00

Only one in three of the 35,000 university students in Northern Ireland are from a Protestant background.  That has been revealed by the Department of Employment and Learning in response to an Assembly question.  But what is the explanation?  Today some folk have attempted to explain the differential in student intake at Northern Ireland universities on the basis of educational underachivement

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-60624907896246899202011-10-17T23:01:00.000+01:002011-10-17T23:01:44.709+01:00

As Londonderry prepares to become United Kingdom City of Culture in 2013, the city faces a major challenge and that is to become truly a shared city. Just a third of the 35,000 students attending university in Northern Ireland are Protestant and two thirds are Roman Catholic, but in the case of the Magee campus of the University of Ulster in Londonderry, less than a fifth of the students are

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-19907520239155513682011-10-14T20:35:00.003+01:002011-10-17T08:21:01.199+01:00

The Plough is the e-mail newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and the issue of 13 February 2004 had an interesting account of elections within the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA), the largest trade union in Northern Ireland. It criticised the NIPSA leadership and reported the bid by a far-left coalition, known as Time for Change, to take over the union.NIPSA

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Most people in Northern Ireland, including trade union members, know very little about the political associations of those who lead our trade unions but from time to time we learn a little about that mysterious world of trade union leadership. The Socialist Party, formerly known as Militant, is a far-left Trotskyist organisation.  It has contested elections in Northern Ireland and the Irish

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Every Saturday the Belfast Telegraph Weekend magazine carries a Saturday/Sunday interview in which a prominent person asnwers a series of questions about their weekend.  Today the person interviewed is Paul Stewart, a businessman who lives in east Belfast.  He is the sales director of a refurbishment company in Bangor and his work takes him across the United Kingdom. One of the questions is '

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Earlier this year Alex Attwood MLA, my predecessor as Minister for Social Development, initiated a consultation on gambling legislation in Northern Ireland and this week DSD officials presented the Social Development Committee at Stormont with a summary of the responses.  I was therefore interested to see a news report on North Western Bookmakers.  This company was formed in 2008 when Ladbrokes

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-86012275649650479142011-10-01T18:33:00.002+01:002011-10-01T18:54:25.567+01:00

The barn on the road from Belfast to Bangor has long been a landmark.  On the side of it are the words of the John 3:16 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.'  The text, in large white letters, is seen by thousands of motorists every day and it has been there for many years. The owner of the barn

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The campaign for the presidency of the Irish Republic is now underway and already Martin McGuinness has come under pressure as journalists and commentators scrutinise his record, in a way that has not really happened in Northern Ireland.  That is to be welcomed. Already he has described the Remembrance Day bombing in Enniskillen, which took place on 8 November 1987, as 'atrocious'.  But where

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Last night I attended an event organised by the Ulster-Scots Community Network to mark the 99th anniversary of the Ulster Covenant.  This was the third of their annual Covenant events and it is most appropriate that it was organised by the USCN.  The Covenant was inspired by the old Scottish covenants and the author was Thomas Sinclair, the leading Liberal Unionist, the foremost layman in the

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-35069851049100658912011-09-25T22:46:00.000+01:002011-09-25T22:46:53.106+01:00

Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year  and this year it is celebrated on Thursday 29 and Friday 30th September.  A shofar (ram's horn) is blown in synagogues around the world to announce the new year, to proclaim divine kingship and to awaken worshippers to repentance. The great Baptist preacher C H Spurgeon once said that in proclaiming the gospel, preachers should blow the rough ram's horn of

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Last night I attended this year's Culture Night in Belfast.  It was based around the Cathedral Quarter and attracted a large number of people, including many families.  The chair of the Cathedral Quarter Steering Group, Paul McErlean, led a group of city councillors, MLAs and other guests on a tour of some of the performances and I was able to join the group.  Unfortunately his task was rather

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Martin McGuinness: past and presidency This article by the respected journalist Ed Moloney is a useful summary of the role of Martin McGuinness down through the years.

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-46582159449829436132011-09-23T08:36:00.002+01:002011-09-23T08:38:26.359+01:00

Almost forty years ago, on 11 November 1971, two members of the RUC were murdered by the Provisional IRA in North Belfast.  One of them, Dermot Hurley, was the first Roman Catholic policeman to be killed in the Troubles and the other, Thomas Moore, was a Protestant.  They were shot while they were in a shop at the rear of Oldpark RUC station. Those were dark days with shootings and bombings

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-77495946301133768692011-09-22T23:46:00.000+01:002011-09-22T23:46:24.861+01:00

Disability Living Alliance was introduced in the 1990s and there is a need to ensure that the benefit reflects the needs of disabled people in a way that is appropriate for disabled people in the 21st century. DLA is to be phased out and replaced by the Personal Indpendence Payment and it is planned that the new benefit will be introduced from April 2013 for Working Age customers (Age 16-64). The

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This week Diarmaid O Muirithe highlighted the word alunt in his Irish Times column, The Words We Use. It was sent in by a reader in county Down and means 'burning' or 'on fire'.  'To set alunt' means 'to make a blaze' or to 'kindle'. Back in 1801, in one of his Pastorals, the Scottish poet James Hogg wrote:For if they set the taxes higher, They'll set alunt that smoostin' fire Whulk ilka session

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-31738203711532107372011-09-21T08:10:00.001+01:002011-09-21T08:13:20.245+01:00

One of the biggest issues facing us over the next few years will be 'welfare reform'.  The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government at Westminster is reforming the benefit system in Great Britain and the principle of parity will require that the same changes are made in Northern Ireland. In the meantime statistics have been released about recipients of one of the benefits, which is

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I always read Diarmaid O Muirithe's weekly column in the Irish Times on The Words We Use and recently he highlighted another Ulster-Scots word duggins, which was sent to him by a reader from North Antrim.  She wrote, 'My mother used the word duggins to describe worn clothes.' This is a variant of the Scots noun deug and is found only in the plural.  It was used in G Ridpath's Answer to

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-65462025837866754942011-09-17T23:31:00.000+01:002011-09-17T23:31:35.022+01:00

This morning (Saturday 17 September) the NewsLetter columnist Sandra Chapman had an interesting comment on Rev David Latimer. Latimer in another world Presbyterian minister the Rev David Latimer was photographed at the Sinn Fein conference at the weekend, arms raised above a sign which said Towards a New Republic, clearly enjoying his 15 minutes of fame before a delighted audience. A friend of

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-7809013367490478272011-09-15T23:11:00.003+01:002011-09-16T00:54:12.855+01:00

This morning BBC television reported that this is the 125th anniversary of the Avon cosmetics company, which is the world's largest cosmetics company.  I picked up on the item because the founder of the company was David Hall Mcconnell, a Scotch-Irish American whose parents emigrated from Ulster to America in the 19th century. The roots of the company can be traced back to 1886, 125 years ago,

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-47734834440394295532011-09-12T08:30:00.001+01:002011-09-12T08:36:28.668+01:00

I am familiar with the terms 'fair fa ye' and 'sonse fa ye', which are found in both Scots and Ulster-Scots and which wish someone well..  However I was unfamiliar with the phrase 'foul fa ye' until I came across it in the old Scots ballad Jamie Douglas.  It means to wish someone ill: O foul fa ye, fause Blackwood And aye an ill death may ye dee, For ye was the first occasioner Of parting my gude

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Good morning everybody and thank you for the invitation to speak to you and your member organisations today as Minister for Social Development and lead Minister for relations with the voluntary and community sector. I am delighted to see such a large turnout of committed and dedicated people here today from the voluntary and community sector, many of whom I have worked with in the past. I

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Charity ‘has no involvement in IRA event’ - Local - News Letter The Marie Curie charity has denied any involvement in or association with a tug of war competition named after an IRA terrorist who blew himself up. The competition is named in memory of Seamus Woods, a member of the IRA who was killed on 7 July 1988 when a bomb he was taking to Pomeroy police station exploded prematurely, and it

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-74789205438797418772011-06-27T07:27:00.002+01:002011-06-27T07:30:44.427+01:00

The Department for Social Development has proved to be extremely interesting and there is much that it can do to support projects and initiatives that enhance our quality of life in Northern Ireland.  This was illustrated by a series of visits that I made last Thursday to Coleraine, Portrush and Lisburn. The day started in the Ballysally estate in Coleraine, with a visit to Ballysally Primary

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There are two interesting and related reports in the Belfast Telegraph tonight. The first relates to the attempt by the PSNI Serious Crime Branch to subpoena tapes from the Boston College archive  in which former IRA members allegedly implicated Gerry Adams in crimes such as the murder of Jean McConville.  Among those interviewed were Brendan Hughes, a former Belfast IRA commander who died in

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There is a good report in the Belfast Telegraph on the running costs of the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB), which currently stand at £8.3 million a year.  This is much higher than comparable policing boards in Great Britain and is due to a number of factors.The chief executive of the NIPB has a salary of £110,000, which is higher than comparable boards in Great Britain. The chairman is

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Today the Greencastle Commemoration Committee staged a parade from the Whitewell Road, around the Whitewell area, and then back down the Whitewell Road to Bawnmore, where there was a commemorative event at the Bawnmore Memorial Garden. This event has taken place over a number of years and the Volunteer Sean McIlvenna Republican Flute Band from Glasgow regularly appears at the parade.  The band is

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On 4 April Belfast City Council passed a resolution inviting the Army to hold a homecoming parade in Belfast. The chief executive then wrote to the Army on 6 April extending this invitation. The Army has now written back thanking the Council for its kind invitation but indicating that due to a very busy period of post-operational duties they would have to decline. In his letter of 21 April to

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Some weeks ago I made a short film trailer, which lasted just a few minutes, about the Ulster-Scots contribution to the making of the United States of America.  It was filmed at the Andrew Jackson Centre in Carrickfergus and was to be used at an event in Washington, as part of Tartan Week.  This is a week that celebrates Scottish and Scotch-Irish heritage in America. Yesterday I received this

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Sectarian attack on Ligoniel Orange Hall North Belfast DUP representatives have condemned a sectarian arson attack which destroyed Ligoniel Orange Hall, on the Crumlin Road, last night. ‘The hall is completely gutted and many historic artefacts have been destroyed,’ said William Humphrey MLA. ‘Those artefacts had great sentimental and historic value for the two lodges which use the hall and they

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I was sorry to hear of the death of Dr Bill Maguire, a distinguished historian and museum keeper. William Alexander Maguire, always known as 'Bill', was the son of a Methodist minister and spent part of his childhood in county Donegal.  He was educated at Methodist College, Belfast, and St Andrews University in Scotland and was a teacher in Friends School Lisburn, before moving in 1964 to become

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Last week Gerry McGeough was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the attempted murder of a part-time UDR soldier in June 1981.  The part-time soldier, Sammy Brush, who is now a DUP councillor in Ballygawley was working as a postman when McGeough shot him. The Belfast Telegraph reported that McGeough, who was also convicted of possessing two guns and membership of the IRA, 'has expressed no

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This morning I attended a breakfast briefing for journalists at which the DUP launched a new policy document entitled 'Making Stormont work Better'.  This is a DUP roadmap to improving our structure and processes of government.  Among the issues addressed are:The process to elect a First Minister and Deputy First Minister Moving to a voluntary coalition Discussion among parties prior to d'Hondt

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Yesterday dissident republicans murdered Ronan Kerr in Omagh.  He was a young man who had grown up in a loving and caring family in a beautiful rural part of Tyrone, near Beragh..  He was also a Roman Catholic and recently he had joined the Police Service of Northern Ireland. This afternoon I visited the family home, along with Peter Robinson, Nigel Dodds and Arlene Foster, to express our

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Writing in a post on Slugger O'Toole about Sinn Fein strategy, Mick Fealty referred back to a an earlier post dated 30 May 2006, almost five years ago. On the Today programme on BBC Radio Four in May 2006, Mitchel McLaughlin was asked to explain what Sinn Fein had achieved for its supporters. McLaughlin replied, 'The degree of uncertainty and the lack of confidence in the unionist community!'

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DCAL has just released a new report on 'Experience of Library Usage in Northern Ireland' based on the Continuous Houshold Survey 2009-2010.  The questions were selected by DCAL's Research and Statistics Branch and covered a number of topics.  The key findings were:29% of respondents stated that they visit a public library at least once a year.  18% said once a month and 5% said at least once a

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Last Sunday there was a match between Ranger FC and Celtic FC in Glasgow.  Here in Northern Ireland many local supporters of these teams watched the game on television and in Londonderry members of the Paul McStay Celtic Supporters Club gathered to watch the game in a local bar. According to their Bebo site members of the Paul McStay Celtic Supporters Club use Peadar O'Donnell's Bar in Waterloo

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-71619326971037269192011-03-22T19:44:00.001Z2011-03-22T19:51:25.433Z

The controversy in Downpatrick about the Cross of St Patrick flag came to mind this morning as I read the sports section of the Newsletter.  There was a photograph of the Ireland bowling team at the Home International 'A' Short Mat Championships at Swansea. The team did exceptionally well and wrote themselves into the record book by achieving a 'clean sweep' of trophies, which included the team

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-11291491784214487792011-03-19T10:16:00.002Z2011-03-19T10:33:09.732Z

For many years Down District Council has used the Cross of St Patrick, a red saltire on a white backbround, as the principal flag at the St Patrick's Day parade in Downpatrick. However this year Sinn Fein councillor Eamonn Mac Con Midhe objected to the use of the Cross of St Patrick and walked at the front of the parade with an Irish tricolour.  According to a report in the Belfast Telegraph (18

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-72208102202648348232011-03-16T23:29:00.002Z2011-03-16T23:36:20.455Z

In the city of Austin there was a disused airport with large hangers.  Some years ago someone hit on the idea of turning it into Austin Studios with the hangers becoming film and recording studios.  It has been a great success and the film True Grit was made there in 2010.  I had the opportunity to visit the studios to see how they have transformed the hangers into studios and other buildings

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-21965435762997945242011-03-15T18:05:00.000Z2011-03-15T18:05:56.278Z

Every year more than a million people visit the Alamo where 187 patriots gave their lives for Texas independence and the Alamo is known as the 'Shrine of Texas Liberty'. In Ulster there was another great siege, the Siege of Derry, and the walls of the Maiden City can be described as the 'Shrine of Ulster Liberty', where the defenders held out against the Jacobites and took their stand against

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A century ago Belfast was an industrial powerhouse with the biggest shipyard in the world, the biggest ropeworks in the world and many engineering works and linen factories.  However those days are gone. We need to rebuild and rebalance our economy and one of the growth areas is the 'new media' and the 'digital economy'.  We have young people with great ideas and great skills who are at the

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-69931766502326636932011-03-12T21:04:00.001Z2011-03-12T21:07:06.455Z

Yesterday I visited the Lyric Theatre in South Belfast.  The theatre has been completely rebuilt and is due to open in May.  I was met by Mark Carruthers, chair of the Lyric, and chief executive, Ciaran McAuley. The new theatre, built on the Lyric's existing site at Ridgeway Street, Stranmillis, includes a 339 seat main auditorium, a new studio with flexible performance space, dedicated youth and

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-71171093684703499932011-03-12T11:21:00.002Z2011-03-12T11:33:21.475Z

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and DCAL have produced a report on Experience of Museums in Northern Ireland: Findings from the Continuous Household Survey 2009-2010. 32% of all respondents said that they had visited a museum in the previous 12 months. The Ulster Folk & Transport Museum was the most popular museum visited (17%) followed by W5 (8%), Ulster American Folk

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-72424914292801770092011-03-10T09:03:00.001Z2011-03-10T09:16:42.916Z

The British Olympic Association is an independent body that oversees the United Kingdom team in the Olympic Games and it is the national Olympic committee for the UK.  The president of the BOA is HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne. However some years ago the BOA decided to brand the UK team as Team GB.  That is clearly an inaccurate and inappropriate name in that it ignores and excludes

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-80032582397042767132011-03-08T13:30:00.003Z2011-03-09T08:21:39.293Z

This year part of the celebration of International Women's Day includes a project to temporarily 'rename' a number of streets after women who 'made an important contribution to the city over the years'. The project was organised by the Women's Tec in Duncairn Gardens and according to Anne McVicker, 'they tried to pick names that were in keeping with the particular area'. The five women they chose

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-34770046520896243362011-03-07T23:28:00.000Z2011-03-07T23:28:48.235Z

UTV News - Three parades for RIR homecoming

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-43108558352942706662011-03-07T08:46:00.001Z2011-03-07T08:50:33.276Z

Belfast Central Library first opened its doors in 1888 and is an iconic landmark city centre building.  It is a Grade B listed building and houses a wide range of significant heritage and cultural archives and resources of local, national and international significance.  Belfast Central Library is open to the public 60 hours a week and plays a significant role in the cultural life of Northern

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-65684332829266235312011-03-05T20:39:00.003Z2011-03-06T17:55:45.095Z

In recent weeks two 'journalists' with the Irish Daily Star were geckin at the Ulster-Scots language.  Meanwhile a regular contributor to the Derry Journal (22 February) has also had a go at Ulster-Scots.  This time it was Norman Hamill, who is described in the newspaper as 'a former police inspector in Derry' and who has a column called Hamill's Beat.  Here then is some of 'Norman's nonsense',

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-60210667273173352862011-03-05T17:20:00.002Z2011-03-05T17:30:56.955Z

Denis Badley is a former Roman Catholic priest and a former vice-chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.  He had  an interesting article in the Irish News (4 March) with the headline 'Why it's time for PSNI's 50:50 recruitment to end'. The practice of 50:50 recruitment originated with the report of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, which was chaired by former

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-20608053511273664412011-03-05T16:03:00.001Z2011-03-05T16:05:29.853Z

Yesterday (4 March) the Irish Times carried another letter in the ongoing correspondence about Dr Eduard Hempel, this one by Daragh Downes of Dublin.  It provides some more useful information about events in Eire just before and during the 2nd World War. Dr Hempel as 'Hitler's man'?On March 25th 1938, Eduard Hempel wrote to taoiseach Eamon de Valera complaining about a recent demonstration on

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-77540148557914279552011-03-05T15:33:00.003Z2011-03-05T15:43:05.268Z

Yesterday (4 March), the NewsLetter carried a letter from Lyle Cubitt of Ballymena.  In it he predicted all sorts of doom and gloom and ended by saying, 'Many views of what 2021 will hold have been advocated but my view is that we will see a united Ireland.'Lyle is a retired Ballymena solicitor and has been around politics for some time.  He stood in North Antrim in the 2007 Assembly election for

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-58250731077183007052011-03-04T23:27:00.002Z2011-03-04T23:32:45.829Z

Irish Football Association President Jim Shaw has expressed disappointment after seventeen-year-old Celtic midfielder Paul George, who is from Killough in county Down, opted to play for the Irish Republic rather than Northern Ireland. The IFA lost out last summer in a case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which challenged FIFA's stance on the eligibility rule.  This gave the FAI in the

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-50462073041151035872011-03-04T14:33:00.000Z2011-03-04T14:33:20.090Z

Last month I posted about collusion between the IRA and the Nazis.  This and other posts at that time led some contributors to accuse me of having a particular agenda in relation to the history of Eire.  It was almost as if they felt I had no right to comment on that period of Irish history. However in recent weeks there has been an ongoing correspondence in the letters column of the Irish Times

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4714402943132349904.post-82463459549541678722011-03-03T00:44:00.003Z2011-03-06T00:07:41.416Z

On 16 February I posted about the Irish Daily Star (16 February) and an article  by Terry McGeehan, who described Ulster-Scots as 'basically a bastardised version of the English language as it is spoken in these here parts.' Later he described it as a 'demi-dialect' and 'a local lingo that everyone who speaks English as their native tongue can understand without any great difficulty.' Now another

Nelson McCausland MLAhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11458324593112960421noreply@blogger.com9