The recent revelations concerning the two meetings between the DUP and UUP, hosted by the Grand Master of the Orange Order Robert Saulters, attended by a representative of the British Conservative Party, and centred on the possibility of a unionist electoral pact, have raised several significant issues. Despite their apparent failure, and the subsequent downplaying of their importance by both the UUP and the Conservatives, the talks reiterate the fragility of the Stormont Executive and the persistence of tribalism in the “new” northern society. What comes out of the DUP and UUP getting together with the Orange Order and deciding how to thwart Sinn Fein is the familiar sign that politics and religion remain intertwined in unionism’s highest levels, a mutually beneficial relationship that also resulted in the prominence of the parade issue in recent discussions on the devolution of policing and justice.
BY PADRAIC GRANT
Peter Doherty arrived for his gig at the Mandela Hall three months after he was originally set to play the venue with enough time passed for the audience to have listened to and digested his excellent solo album Grace/Wastelands. An album designed to present Doherty as a solo artist, distinct from his current act Babyshambles (and explaining the move from “Pete” to “Peter”), the accompanying tour similarly had Doherty as (except for one instance of an accompanying harmonica) the sole musician on stage. This, combined with the relatively confined surroundings of Mandela Hall, suggested the possibility of an intimate atmosphere.