A level success dominates headlines, but we need a day to celebrate all those young people who don’t go to university but master skills - joinery, plumbing, catering etc - that make the world work. They give much to society but never lead news bulletins belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…

Excellent by Gail Walker : ‘Reconciliation involves our nearest neighbours and they don’t live over the border’. NB: Brendan O’Leary does tackle in depth, how to manage a ref & a UI with many unionists opposed. See ‘Making Sense of a United Ireland’.

Saying NI is ‘in its terminal phase’ is comforting rhetoric to some but is rarely accompanied by ideas on how a ‘New Ireland’ might look. That’s why Máirtín Ó Muilleoir’s thoughts on new anthem/flag are so important. Reconciliation is crucial Máirtín Ó Muilleoir belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…

NI has unfinished business with itself. Divided communities, old scores, old sores & brand new ones as well. It needs fixed before it can go anywhere, absorbed or otherwise. Reconciliation involves our nearest neighbours & they don’t live over the border belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir’s interview with Mark Carruthers came too late to be included in my Belfast Telegraph column but you can read more here about his views on what must be up for discussion if unionists are to feel comfortable in any new constitutional arrangement bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

⁩ “The fact is Northern Ireland has unfinished business with itself. Divided communities, separate housing estates, sectarian leylines everywhere, old scores, old sores, old wounds and often brand new ones as well.”⁦Gail Walker 🙃 belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…

Life’s already hard. Now Starmer’s axing OAPs winter fuel grants & giving funereal TV broadcasts, singling out wrong-thinkers & wrongdoers. He’d even ban outdoor smoking! People want to live in a modern, affluent democratic state, not a state of emergency belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…

Campaigners for deaf people demanding BBC NI reinstate its sign language provision on Newsline’s lunchtime TV bulletin have sent an FOI to the Corporation asking what consultation it carried out before moving the service to digital-only formats belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-…

"Titanic has been broken up in ways the ocean with all its power and might could never do - hi-tech graverobbers picking over the belongings of the dead..." ✍🏻 Gail Walker ➡️belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column… belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…

Over 5000 items have been plundered from Titanic -with plans to get more. The tragedy is big business. But wanting to see a hat or necklace because their owners drowned is just creepy voyeurism. Let’s end our morbid curiosity & respect this mass gravesite belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…

Absolutely this...

Snooty art critics loved joining pile-on over Queen statue - esp. since it’s by less-known artist. But public art like Balls on the Falls often starts out mocked & ends up loved. Anto Brennan is a serious artist who deserves respect not knee-jerk reactions belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/column…

Gail Walker Well said Gail Walker