In 2021 Jamie Bryson encouraged Unionists to deliberately break the law in regards to the sea border, 5 years later he is suddenly worried about the impact of breaking the law has?

I would like to hear much more from Michael -Tim does take over much of the time.  Not that I don't want to hear his perspective as well -but Michael's comments have a depth that I value.  Thanks

I thought this would be about Glentorans search for a new manager but alas, I was wrong.

The problem is there is no law that prevents the Commission from making a bad decision, so no law broken , but a political mess created and no one is to blame. A real mess😂

Why is no one addressing the disaster that is Lough Neagh?

What about Enniskillen? Could Fermanagh fast track into the Republic as it clearly doesn't feature as a county within NI, re; Government considerations etc. West Tyrone too. Forgotten county

It's certainly true that in the South the reaction to Drumcree will be different than in the North. Mary Lou doesn't look like Taoiseach material at all. I am pretty sure we wouldn't like to see our Taoiseach blocking the Garvaghy road. Whilst we would be broadly supportive of the residents, it just isn't statesman like.
On the other hand, the upcoming elections are in the North which is the priority.

Any suggestions on how people in the same country can live together in a civilised manner tolerating what is important each other.

Stormont is a farce ! Tony Blair enshrined sectarianism in the constitution and called it peace ! Stormont is simply a talking shop for well paid bigots !

Clever Judges on the court of appeal
Is that not a oxymoron

Interesting & informative as ever - thanks. A9 dualling here in Scotland comparable to A5 in that the argument is to strengthen links to cut-off communities in the Highlands of Scotland whereas in NI it's the historical wrong of underinvestment West of the Bann to be righted... However major differences: delay hasn't been caused by political dysfunction and incompetence, or primarily by legal actions by landowners and environmentalists - there was one single bid for one section, at high cost so Scot Govt put it out to tender again while the A5 had I believe five different bids made. A Scottish Parliament inquiry found that broader project stagnation stems overwhelmingly from government financial indecision, procurement failures, and macroeconomic shocks. 15% has already been completed since 2015 & large sections currently under construction

The Orange Order will never walk down the road again

Putting pressure on SoSNI to ban the parade is a classic SF tactic. They couldn’t care less what the Unionists think but having the power to push the Taoiseach in to having a go at the Unionists ( or look like he has abandoned the Residents) is a helpful lose/lose ( from SF perspective). Separate the Unionists from the British - separate the British from the Irish - make the SDLP look like “Johnny come latelys” and a paler shade of green. That is the SF tactics. The unionists are irrelevant to them - gaining votes in Nationalist battles North and South is the game when it’s only a few weeks since they were being chased off Dublin Estates as traitors and seeing dissident displays in NI. It’s what they’ve released in allowing Brendan McKenna to run about like the Cock of the North that may be a problem. It’s certainly interesting that the LCC has called for “tolerance and restraint”.  The LCC call could mean that they are keen to keep out of it - or it could mean that they are having difficulty keeping some people in line. As for Sinn Fein - they seem happy to treat Brendan McKenna as a useful idiot at the moment but if they show their hard line streak they may scare off Southern voters. The Taoiseach has been forced into essentially supporting Brendan McKenna  and that’s an unpredictable and potentially combustible position in which to find himself

From Garvaghy to Gaza and Catholic Emancipation:                 Remember  Amalek ?
As participants in the forthcoming national protest against the Israeli genocide prepare to march once again past the statue of Daniel O’Connell on Dublin’s main street, I would like to invite them to reflect on the religious ideology that was used to oppose O’Connell’s campaign for Catholic Emancipation. I would ask them also to consider the ways in which that very same ideology was used to launch the Gaza genocide and how it is currently being echoed in the Orange Order’s [OO] demand to commemorate the signing of the Ulster Covenant with a march through the Catholic Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
The campaign for Catholic Emancipation was opposed by Protestants citing biblical passages to cast themselves as God’s "chosen people" and to frame Catholics as the hated "Amalekites" who must, by God’s command, be “exterminated”. That genocidal theology was the focus of an 1823 Parliamentary investigation into the Dublin "Bottle Riot" in which a recent Deputy Grand Master of the OO and twice Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sir Bradley King, was asked:
“Is there not read to Orangemen, at the time of their admission, a verse of Joshua exhorting the Israelites to root out the Amalekites from the land, and exterminate them utterly?”
King prevaricated and then refused to answer the question, saying he had taken an Orange oath of secrecy, which led quickly to the passing of the Unlawful Oaths (Ireland) Act, 1823.*  
Though the Parliamentary investigation found no solid evidence of an Amalek oath, the theology was endorsed two years later when the Orange Grand Chaplain backed the publication of a sermon that a Rev. H. H. Campbell gave to a large OO gathering in Tandragee. In it, Campbell justified the Protestant Ascendancy and opposed Catholic Emancipation by likening "Papists" to the Amalekites and casting them as the enemies of Christ who slaughtered Portadown Protestants in 1641.  
Similar biblical tropes and atrocity propaganda were revived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Orangemen opposed Home Rule and supported the 1912 signing of the Ulster Covenant by casting the Protestant population as being the “Chosen People” engaging in a holy war that they likened to the biblical Battle of Rephidim in which the Amalekites were defeated.**
Of course, the OO were not the only “Christians” ever to invoke the biblical call to genocide. But by far the most infamous weaponization of “holy scripture” was Netanyahu’s launch of the Gaza genocide with a call on Israelis to “Remember what Amalek did to you”.
* Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Volume 9, May 23, 1823, Columns 504 – 505.
** Fitzpatrick, D. (1998). Descendancy: Irish Protestant Histories since 1795. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

I know many very soft unionists who  now say there is no place in a new Ireland for unionists. It's made them a lot more hardline

Sinn Fein /IRA have destroyed any chance of a United Ireland going through with the support of the Protestant community of Northern Ireland.

Thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable podcast.
The Drumcree Crisis has been the gift of Christmas come early for both the DUP and Sinn Fein. Both parties struggling in the polls. The DUP reeling from the Donaldson scandal and Sinn Féin’s base increasingly disillusioned with their performance.
Tactically speaking, Jamie Bryson is the de facto leader of the DUP. He is calling the shots. He has outmanoeuvred Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill. Bryson has been busy playing political chess, while O’Neill has been busy playing checkers.
I think Michelle O’Neill should have taken a unifiers position but took the easy win of breaking the law and taking one side. This will result in her being replaced within the next 12 months. The PSNI will issue fines to all concerned that amount to nothing more than parking style fines. Michelle O’Neill will suffer the same fate as Boris Johnson did over the covid fines. Symbolically once the fines are issued, her position becomes untenable. Meanwhile nothing happens to tackle the cost of living crisis, chronic homelessness, druggies running rampant in the city centre off their trolley’s, the inability to get a GP appointment and more besides.

Here is my take. How do you think it would go over if, on the anniversary of the Dunkirk disaster for the British, a bunch of pro-Nazi people were to march down Downing Street?

The white haired chap is quite biased. It hurts the show.