Blood on His Tongue
Well we got through "Stormont Live" without our cameras being switched off by the Assembly security staff. The most memorable item in the show was Basil McCrea and Jeffrey Donaldson picking up a furious argument which they had begun earlier on the Nolan show. Normally I try to butt in, assisting Jim Fitzpatrick with a few additional questions, but in this row over whether the Maze stadium is "dead in the water" I simply couldn't get a word in edgeways.
The official DUP line is that no decision has been made, and the Finance Department will present the Executive with unvarnished economic facts before ministers start weighing up political considerations. However the political reality is that, with Ian Paisley on his way, the Maze project appears to have fewer and fewer friends in the DUP. Some senior party sources have expressed grave doubts about the stadium's financial viability and referred to its cross community dimension as "a con" because the different crowds for the different sports will, naturally enough, gather there at different times. So don't put your money on watching any Olympic football at the Maze.
Later in "Stormont Live" we talked to David Burnside, who told the Assembly that Ian Paisley might not have had blood on his hands during the troubles but did have blood on his tongue. A striking, if rather strange, metaphor.
I am away from the Assembly tomorrow, when MLAs will debate a report on the devolution of justice, but normal service should be resumed later in the week.
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We have a chance to create a world class stadium at the maze,with easy access, rail links, etc, i hope the politicians can solve this worry they seem to have re a shrine, it is part of history,on both sides,and if we can use it in some way to remind us of the stupidity of conflict and at the same time boost tourism i am all for it.
This seems such a minor problem compared with those we have overcome in recent years, WE CAN DO IT.
GET MOVING.
Tom.
We have a chance to create a world class stadium at the maze,with easy access, rail links, etc, i hope the politicians can solve this worry they seem to have re a shrine, it is part of history,on both sides,and if we can use it in some way to remind us of the stupidity of conflict and at the same time boost tourism i am all for it.
This seems such a minor problem compared with those we have overcome in recent years, WE CAN DO IT.
GET MOVING.
Tom.
Dear sir Devenport,
Your work is very interesting. The political situation in north Ireland is tensed.
I’m a student from Holland and I’m going to Dublin and Belfast in May with 44 other students. We would like to know more about the situation in North Ireland.
I would be honored if you would like to help us, or contact us for more information about this.
Yours sincerely,
Amani Michael
Tom O'Hanlon perhaps you would like to tell everyone about these easy road and rail links. All that is proposed is one access road off the M1.... 35 000 people heading to an event at the same time on one road...not what I would call easy! There is no rail link. If you can't get Translink to open up the Lisburn-Antrim rail track how are you going to persuade them to create a new line that will only be used for 20 odd events a year. The logic isn't there.
The proposal to locate a new stadium at the Maze is a political decision to find a convenient use for the ultimate 'constrained site'.
As an urban planning and design consultant working in London I am telling you that this proposal fly's in the face of international best practice.
Professionally I have never before seen a proposal for a Stadium of this scale located in what is effectively a rural location with inadeqaute transport links. Even the M1, arguably the Maze sites only saving grace is itself a poor example of a major transport corridor, if you consider increasing car dependency to be a saving grace.
If our politburro were looking for suitable locations based on best practice in planning, design and sustainability they would not even begin to consider the Maze as a suitable location.
Bravo politico's; never mind the Olympic's, the public deserve better representation than our own amateurish political games allow.