http://www.CelebrityVideoTube.com (Free subscription) | 04/10/2008
Irish Examiner The British government was today warned its plans for 42-day detention for terror suspects risk alienating Muslim communities.Leader of the nationalist SDLP Mark Durkan told a commemoration of the Nor… Read the full article here
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 25/09/2008
In the Belfast Telegraph, Eamonn McCann dissects the reactions , including that of a certain commentator , to Mark Durkan’s gaze into the political future. From the Telegraph article. It wasn't just Sinn Fein who interpreted this to mean that power-sharing was no longer an arrangement to be defended but a mistake to be rectified. That astute commentator Brian Feeney admittedly writing without benefit...
ireland.com (Free subscription) | 20/09/2008
Moves to distance Fianna Fáil is from merger talks with the SDLP will not prevent Northern nationalists from reaching out to parties across Ireland, Mark Durkan insisted today.
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 14/09/2008
During the Politics Show discussion Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd attempted to deflect attention towards the SDLP’s Mark Durkan’s recent speech. In the Sunday Times Liam Clarke provides a timely reminder of the history behind that tactic. The most backward sections of northern nationalism were enraged that Durkan had put another nail in the coffin of the so-called pan-nationalist front which has dominated...
Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness (Free subscription) | 12/09/2008
Via Pete Baker at Slugger , a particularly pertinent article (given the debate carried below) by Henry McDonald on the Guardian politics blog, has come to my attention. McDonald addresses the vehement derision with which many nationalists greeted Mark Durkan’s suggestion that designation might one day become unnecessary and that cross community, voluntary coalitions might spring up. “In essence, the...
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 11/09/2008
In the Irish Times, Frank Millar suggests that it’s premature to talk of removing that “ugly scaffolding” around the Assembly - as SDLP leader Mark Durkan has done. In fairness, Durkan did not suggest the new edifice was yet sufficiently “sealed and settled”. Some reports have suggested he certainly does not foresee such developments in the life of the current Assembly. Nevertheless, the SDLP leader...
The Irish Times (Free subscription) | 11/09/2008
Mark Durkan invited controversy when he spoke of moving beyond the Belfast Agreement principle of ‘parallel consent’
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 10/09/2008
Whilst unionist politicians were, unsurprisingly, quick to voice support for Mark Durkan's call for power-sharing to end soon , Brian Feeney is not so impressed (subs reqd.) In a scathing attack on the SDLP leader, the former party councillor lambasts Durkan for abandoning 38 years of SDLP policy and principle and accuses him of ignoring the theoretical underpinning of the Good Friday Agreement,...
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 10/09/2008
Brian has noted that an alternative mechanism of power-sharing has already been described, but Sinn Féin, apparently, are still furious at SDLP leader Mark Durkan’s argument that the current mechanism isn’t conducive to political evolution. Meanwhile, Liam Clarke suggests that alternatives may be on the agenda of the current DUP/Sinn Féin talks.. A government just can’t be run like this in the long...
Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness (Free subscription) | 09/09/2008
Mark Durkan’s weekend speech to the British and Irish Association at Oxford University, carried in full in the comment zone of a post on El Blogador , has attracted a wealth of comment across the blogs . In a section of the speech, the SDLP leader expressed his belief that the current power sharing arrangements at Stormont will be transitional and that, as confidence and normality in Northern Ireland’s...
The Irish Times (Free subscription) | 08/09/2008
SDLP LEADER Mark Durkan has called for a strong and robust bill of rights in Northern Ireland which could mean there was no long-term need for parties in the Stormont Assembly to "designate" whether they are unionist, nationalist or "other".
Redemption's Son (Free subscription) | 07/09/2008
In a purely coincidental series of statements Sir Reg Empey and Mark Durkan have been giving their answers to what constitutes an 'honest' sharing of power. The leaders of the UUP and SDLP respectively have been assessing the current state of the devolved institutions and what areas they now see as being anachronistic. Sir Reg: "The present arrangements were brought in to encourage everybody to participate...
SAOIRSE32 (Free subscription) | 07/09/2008
Henry McDonald The Observer Guardian Sunday September 7 2008 A bill of rights for Northern Ireland would end the need for parties in the assembly to designate themselves solely as unionist or nationalist, the SDLP leader Mark Durkan predicted this weekend. The Foyle MP said that a 'strong and robust' bill of rights could be the beginning of the end to sectarian designation in Northern Ireland politics....
SAOIRSE32 (Free subscription) | 06/09/2008
Breaking News.ie 06/09/2008 Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey called today for early talks with his SDLP counterpart over his proposal that mandatory power-sharing between nationalists and unionists at Stormont should be ended . SDLP chief Mark Durkan claimed in a keynote speech in Oxford last night that the time was approaching when rules introduced to protect nationalists in the North's government...
Slugger O'Toole (Free subscription) | 06/09/2008
The Irish News frontpage story [subs for now] picks up on SDLP leader Mark Durkan’s speech at the British Irish Association Conference at New College, Oxford. And the Sinn Féin response from Northern Ireland deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. From the speech. A formula for sufficient consensus' was a necessary confidence measure in the agreed rules for the [pre-1998] Talks. Therefore, it was...
