Shared Ireland sat down this week with Pearse Smith and Doire Finn from Our Future, Our Choice NI. We discuss Brexit, the importance of youth in politics, growing up in post conflict Ireland and the possibility of a Border Poll.
You can follow Our Future, Our Choice NI here on social media.
We are honored to welcome Professor Colin Harvey to our podcast this week. Among the topics discussed this week is parity of esteem, civic society, Irish language, unity debate, human rights, and returning to the EU.
Professor Colin Harvey is a leading expert in Human Rights Law and Constitutional Law, with a particular focus on bills of rights, refugee and asylum law, as well as the relationship between constitutionalism and rights and equality. His has also worked extensively on the implications of Brexit for the island of Ireland. He has written and taught widely on human rights law and policy and recently led an ESRC funded project on the consequences of Brexit for Northern Ireland.
You can read his list of publications and bio here.
Colin Harvey is Professor of Human Rights Law in the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, a Fellow of the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, and an Associate Fellow of the Institute of Irish Studies. He has served as Head of the Law School, a member of Senate, a Director of the Human Rights Centre, and as a Director of Research. Before returning to Queen’s in 2005 he was Professor of Constitutional and Human Rights Law at the University of Leeds. He has held visiting positions at the University of Michigan, Fordham University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has taught on the George Washington University – Oxford University Summer School in International Human Rights Law, and on the international human rights programme at the University of Oxford. He is a member of the Academic Panel at Doughty Street Chambers, a Senior Research Associate, Refugee Law Initiative, School of Advanced Study, University of London, a member of the Gender Identity Panel (Northern Ireland) and member of the Equality and Diversity Forum Research Network. Professor Harvey was a member of the REF2014 Law sub-panel and a member of the REF2014 Equality and Diversity Advisory Panel. He has served as a Commissioner on the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, and as a member of the Northern Ireland Higher Education Council. He is the Editor of the Series Human Rights Law in Perspective (Hart-Bloomsbury) and is on the editorial boards of Human Rights Law Review, Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly and European Human Rights Law Review. He has written and taught extensively on human rights law and policy and recently led an ESRC funded project on the consequences of Brexit for Northern Ireland (https://brexitlawni.org/)
This week we sit down with the DUP member Jeffrey Donaldson discussing topics such as hand-to-mouth http://relaxapartmanitara.com/alt-com-sign-in-2/snapsext-reviews-can-it-be-a-scam-can-it-be-good-6/ Brexit, North-South relations, http://mountaintopcampground.com/local-attractions/ http://yesand.co.uk/author/john-brooker/page/1/ Boris Johnson, a potential buy deltasone prednisone Irish Unity referendum & need for a “Truth & Reconciliation” process. We also discuss the DUP’s confidence and supply deal with the British Conservatives under Boris Johnson.
Jeffrey Donaldson also puts himself in the shoes of the Irish Government, and addresses reports that Nortern ireland is one of the poorest regions in the UK, and the NHS is a shadow of its former self.
You can follow Jeffrey on his Twitter profile here.
Jeffrey Donaldson (born 7 December 1962) is a politician and Member of Parliament for Lagan Valley representing the Democratic Unionist Party. He is best known for his opposition to Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader David Trimble during the Northern Ireland peace process, especially from 1998 to 2003. He is Northern Ireland’s longest-serving current MP.
In 1998 Donaldson was in the Ulster Unionists’ negotiating team for the Good Friday Agreement. However, he walked out of the delegation at the end of the negotiations in protest at some of the arrangements, notably the lack of a link between Sinn Féin’s admittance to government and IRA decommissioning. In March 2019, Donaldson was one of 21 MPs who voted against LGBT inclusive sex and relationship education in English schools.
Green Party leader Clare Bailey joins us to discuss being homeless, The Green Party approach to a border poll, factory farming, LGTBQ rights, support for Irish Language Act, and how do we achieve a Shared Ireland. You can follow Claire on Twitter here.
Clare Bailey (born 18 June 1970) is a Northern Irish politician who has been the Leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland since November 2018.
Bailey attended Lagan College and later Queen’s University.
Bailey identifies as pro-choice and a feminist.
In 2011 she stood unsuccessfully for the Laganbank ward on Belfast City Council.
She served as the GPNI deputy leader until 2017, when she stood down to focus on her work as an MLA.
She has been an MLA for Belfast South since the 2016 election, and was re-elected in 2017.
In November 2018, Bailey became leader of the Northern Irish Green Party.
Quotes from the podcast:
We’ve had more people die by suicide since the peace process than were ever killed during the conflict.
We have a level of inter-generational trauma, serious systemic poverty and deprivation in exactly the same places as they would have been before.
We have a drugs problem that we cannot even begin to speak about, never mind tackle.
Our new Ireland is on her way, it’s called climate chaos.
New Ireland forum
I would attend anywhere and talk to anybody about anything.
We have fantastic agriculture here and to start moving into factory farming away from family farming is not to feed ourselves, it’s to trade with other countries while damaging our own environment.
Catholic and protestant children will never be taught together – Catholic Bishop
I was denounced from the pulpit for going to an integrated school by the bishop at my confirmation. I was only ten.
Benefits of integrated education – If you want to overcome our barriers, breaking down differences, starting to learn and grow and friendship together, the easiest way is through integrated education.
Border poll is a very valid thing to call.
We haven’t had a peace process yet. We have had a political process but not a peace process.
Our communities are so fractured and divided we can’t even do learning and sharing together.
Seanad Eireann member Niall Ó Donnghaile joins us this week to discuss early life, why he joined Sinn Fein, role in Seanad Eireann, working with Ian Marshall, Irish Unity, infrastructure and investment in the Island of Ireland and in particular, the North West. You can follow Niall on Twitter here.
Niall Ó Donnghaile (born 28 May 1985) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has served as a Senator since April 2016. He previously served as Lord Mayor of Belfast from 2011 to 2012 and Councillor on Belfast City Council from 2011 to 2016. Elected as a Councillor for the first time in 2011, Niall made history when he was appointed the youngest ever Mayor of Belfast at the age of 25.
He was born in Belfast, County Antrim. Niall Ó Donnghaile was a Sinn Féin councillor for the Pottinger district electoral area in East Belfast. He was educated through Irish at Coláiste Feirste, Belfast and subsequently obtained a B.A.(Hons) in Politics form Ulster University.
Ó Donnghaile was previously employed as the party’s Press Officer in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
A community worker in the Short Strand, the area of East Belfast in which he was born, and a member of the Short Strand Partnership Board, he also works with various other organisations in Belfast on issues such as the developments at Titanic Quarter and Sirocco Quays, and has spoken strongly in support of residents on the issue of the proposed runway extension at Belfast City Airport.
A resident of East Belfast all his life, Niall sits on a number of local boards and community organisations.
A fluent Irish Language speaker Niall is committed to helping build an inclusive East Belfast which welcomes and embraces all of our enriching traditions and cultures in a spirit of equality and mutual respect.
