Alan Meban

Brian Faulkner resigned as chief executive of the short-lived Northern Ireland Executive, and the Sunningdale Agreement collapsed on 28 May 1974. You can now watch back a series of panel discussions that were held in Ulster University to look back at Sunningdale on Tuesday, the 5oth anniversary of its collapse. Session One – The Negotiations – Sean Donlon, Noel Dorr, Lord Paul Bew, Prof Paul Arthur (chair) Session Two – Perspectives on 1973/4 Power-sharing NI Executive – Hugh Logue, Chris …

Nicholas Whyte is no stranger to this parish. Among his interests are international diplomacy, election data, and science fiction awards … at times all three of those even manage to combine. This evening he was lecturing at Ulster University as a Visiting Professor of Politics on the topic of “Pushing Boundaries: A century of change in the politics of Belfast”. He also touched on the thorny issue of “Where is the Devenish?” You can watch back the lecture and the …

Nicholas Whyte is no stranger to this parish. Among his interests are international diplomacy, election data, and science fiction awards … at times all three of those even manage to combine. This evening he was lecturing at Ulster University as a Visiting Professor of Politics on the topic of “Pushing Boundaries: A century of change in the politics of Belfast”. He also touched on the thorny issue of “Where is the Devenish?” You can watch back the lecture and the …

Last Saturday, an Imagine! Belfast Festival event looked back at the Ulster Workers’ Council Strike: 50 Years On. A decade on from his 40th anniversary conference at Queen’s University – you can still listen back to my recordings on Slugger – Dr Connal Parr was joined on the Crescent Arts Centre stage by panellists Dawn Purvis, Carmel Gates, Harry Donaghy, Jackie Redpath and Jackie McDonald. The video of this year’s event can now be viewed. Filmed and edited by Alan …

Filmed in front of a live audience at the Imagine! Festival of Ideas and Politics, Slugger O’Toole convened a panel to discuss the year of elections that await us, and the political futures of some of the key figures who will be fighting for their seats and their jobs. Back on the evening of Friday 22 March, David McCann was joined by University of Liverpool Professor Jon Tonge, Deputy Director of political consultancy Stratagem Anna Mercer, and the Belfast Telegraph’s …

Has the art of writing and delivering a political speech fallen by the wayside of a media landscape that vacuums up soundbites rather than valuing passionate prose? Next Thursday evening, some local politicians will recite elements of other people’s speeches which have influenced their own political journeys and discuss the importance of speechmaking in the current political climate. It’s part of the Imagine! Festival, and Claire Hanna (SDLP), Deirdre Hargey (Sinn Féin), Emma Little-Pengelly (DU…

Next week at Imagine! Festival there’s a chance to step outside the usual local context of the Irish language and Ulster Scots to look at an indigenous culture from northern Wisconsin. Imagine this: not everything that looks like a bodhrán and sounds like a bodhrán and is played like a bodhrán is actually a bodhrán. The hand drums brought to life by The Sullivan Squad look incredibly familiar, yet the colourful patterns on the band members clothing suggest that the …

The next 12 months will be fertile ground for election nerds. So we’re convening a panel of experts on Friday 22 March to discuss which way the political wind is blowing as part of this month’s Imagine! Festival of Ideas and Politics. The next United Kingdom general election must be held no later than 28 January 2025. The deadline for the next Irish general election is 22 March 2025. Both polls are likely to see big political swings and will …

One panel event at the recent Look North! The North Belfast Festival reflected on the legacy and impact of Baroness May Blood’s life and work. Remembering May Blood – with Betty Carlisle, Paul Caskey, Eileen Weir and Duncan Morrow (chair). Filmed by Alan Meban on Sunday 25 February 2024. Photo credit: Allan Leonard @MrUlster Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about cinema and theatre over at Alan in Belfast. A freelancer who writes about, reports …

The Irish Association of Contemporary European Studies (IACES) hosted a live-streamed conversation with Bertie Ahern from the Royal Irish Academy on Monday 8 May 2023. The former Taoiseach reflected on the subtle European dimension of the April 1998 negotiations which led to the Agreement, the importance of EU membership on British and Irish coordination, and the subsequent EU support for the peace process. He also talked about the potential for the DUP to return to Stormont and was asked about …

The Peace Train Organisation (PTO) ran seven trains between Dublin and Belfast from 1989–1995, and a one-off special train that ran from Holyhead to London in June 1991. It received support from a broad range of civil society: trade unions, churches, business communities, the media, arts organisations, as well as political figures from many parties across Britain and Ireland. At a time when security alerts were both disrupting journeys and dissuading passengers from using the Enterprise train se…

Last Friday evening, four journalists gathered top discuss the rise and fall of the print media presence on Donegall Street, once Belfast’s very own ‘Fleet Street’. Jim McDowell was joined by Gary McDonald, Allison Morris and Ivan Little. Memories of formal training and learning on the job, old characters in the news rooms and printing presses, deadlines, dubious headlines, drinking on the job, death knocks and even a bit of poetry from John Hewitt. Filmed & edited by Alan Meban …

This month’s edition of Slugger TV was filmed in front of a live audience as part of the Look North! The North Belfast Festival last Saturday 25 February. You can catch it here, or sit back, kick your slippers off and enjoy it on the tellybox this evening: NVTV at 8pm (Freeview channel 7; Virgin channel 159). Local politicians Nuala McAllister (Alliance) and Phillip Brett (DUP) explained their vision for their North Belfast constituency. They were joined by journalist Allison …

Slugger O’Toole is delighted to be returning to the John Hewitt International Summer School later in July. Our panel on the evening of Tuesday 26 July will ask Where is Home? – inviting three guests from the world of politics to explore where home has been, where it is today, whether home can be one…

Author : Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast)

After a two-year gap, the Alliance Party conference returned exactly two months before the Assembly election. Deputy leader Stephen Farry must have been relieved that he didn’t have to step in to deliver the leader’s speech this year! There were plenty of party stalwarts in the Crowne Plaza seats, a…

Doug Beattie is in a good place. His party’s one minister in the NI Executive has a level of trust and reliability second only to Father Christmas. This gives the party leader some space to manoeuvrer, reaching out in different directions, exploring which messages resonate amongst UUP voters, potent…

Commentators Tim Cairns and Sarah Creighton joined Slugger O’Toole’s deputy editor David McCann to discuss the dramatic loss of a second leader and the challenges ahead for the DUP in the latest episode of SluggerTV. What tipped the balance to end Edwin Poots’ leadership? How will the next leader be different? If there’s a by-election in Lagan Valley, might Brenda Hale run for the DUP, and what about the chances of Alliance’s Sorcha Eastwood and UUP’s Robbie Butler? What’s Edwin …

This month, in episode 38, Slugger O'Toole's deputy editor David McCann talks to Irish News journalist Allison Morris and Andersontown News columnist Andrée Murphy about the performance of the Northern Ireland Executive, the legacy of different devolved government strategies to ease the COVID-19 lockdown, and the Irish Government's lack of cross-border consultation about their plans. Edited by Alan Meban and also broadcast (as a slightly shorter 30 minute edit) on Belfast's community TV channel NvTv tonight at 20:35.

Watch back tonight's #GE2019 Belfast South hustings from a packed Great Hall at Queen's University, with four of the five candidates choosing to attend and participate.