News

More of the same, though unclear if SF will accept Foster as DUP first minister and tantalising glimpses of new collaborations for second-tier parties.

The prospect of a Commission of Investigation into the sale by NAMA of its Northern Ireland property portfolio to US vulture fund, Cereberus, in April 2014, looks to be receding by the day. Judging by the demeanour and language of finance minister, Michael Noonan, during a special debate on the issue on 1 February the […]

Changes to the number of Assembly seats in the forthcoming Northern election will give an artificial seat boost to the two big parties, the DUP and Sinn Féin. Each of the 18 constituencies will elect five MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) rather than the previous six. Because the Assembly will be reduced from 108 […]

As public hearings at the Public Accounts Committee into the controversial sale of the Project Eagle portfolio of distressed assets in Northern Ireland and Britain come to a close, its members are facing some difficult choices with potentially serious political implications. However, the absence of key individuals who have declined invitations to give evidence, including […]

Bertie Ahern made a sensible and probably decisive intervention in the controversy surrounding Gerry Adams and the killing of senior prison officer, Brian Stack, which dominated the headlines and political discourse during the first week of December. The resurrection of a story involving the shooting of Stack as he left a boxing match in Dublin’s […]

Barrister Michael Cush has been appearing for Denis O’Brien in some of his exhausting judicial travails. The last two letters of the senior counsel’s name suggest posh, plush, an advocate who cushions, shushingly. The first two letters suggest something altogether less generous…