North Belfast Councillor | #talknorthbelfast | For all constituency issues: [email protected] šŸ“²07823 668806

Ireland
Joined April 2017
From today London's main shopping street - Oxford Street is fully pedestrianised. Dublin's main shopping thoroughfare - Grafton St - has been pedestrianised for decades. We saw during the Fleadh how proper pedestrianisation brings the city to life. The paltry measures taken by @deptinfra at Hill St and Union St are not enough. If Oxford St & Grafton St can be pedestrianised, then so can Royal Avenue. Time to get it done.
4
1
47
1,736
New people with fresh ideas and experience outside of politics is one of the many things we need in NI. David McGreevy - the founder of @EastBelfastGAA brings all of that and great energy to E Belfast where he’s running for Assembly & Council. Read here: ā¬‡ļø
6
1
21
1,437
Enterprise, hard work, developing expertise and skills, creating employment – it was all here when I recently met Aidan McCarthy & Paul McGreevy, Directors at AM Consulting Engineers, which is headquartered here in North Belfast. The firm is led by Aidan, who is from the area, Paul, who is from Newry, Sarah McCarthy, also from North Belfast, and Brendan Ryan, who is based in Cork. The company is involved in one of the most exciting cross-border infrastructure projects - Narrow Water Bridge, and I spent nearly two hours at the firm hearing about their work on that project and others, their plans for growth and expansion, and how they recruit, including locally through apprenticeships. For me, whose engineering ability never went beyond reading the instructions on a Lego set, it was inspiring and humbling to gain even a tiny understanding of the expertise within this local firm and to hear about the work they're doing across the UK and Ireland.
3
13
627
I was born in the Holylands and spent my early childhood on the Lower Ormeau. I remember the horror of the Sean Graham massacre and the shock seeing Orange marchers mock those murders as just months later. I joined @garymckeown who represents the area today at the Parades Commission where we made it clear the Commission cannot pander to loyalist elements who wish to drag Belfast back to a past we have firmly put behind us. It was a difficult meeting - and remarkably the Commission defended their actions regarding the Drumcree determination - despite both the Chief Constable and the Secretary of State using Section 9 & Section 11 for the first time ever to scrap it.
36
4
258
30,547
Great to meet Eamonn Lynch, Branch Manager at Chichester Library in North Belfast this morning to celebrate Love Library Day 2027! I spent childhood years in this library and this room and it was great to be back, especially during #bookweek Libraries are valuable spaces in our community, it was great to hear first-hand about their outreach support in North Belfast and thanks to Eamonn and his @LibrariesNI colleagues for their hospitality!
2
7
765
Last week I met with staff from the Extern Needle Exchange in Royal Avenue, who from the end of this month will have no location in which to provide this vital service. The damage done by drug dealers and drug cartels right here in Belfast is plain to see, but the issue of drug addiction is a highly complex one to solve. It’s easy to look away, dismiss people as ā€˜junkies’ and hope that the police deal with it. Behind every addiction however is a person whose life has fallen into chaos. They are someone’s son, daughter, brother or sister, and some are even mothers and fathers themselves. For some, the Needle Exchange is the only contact they have with any health or care service. It reduces the sharing of needles and the risk of infections such as HIV, while providing a point of contact for people who need help. Some of the criticism I’ve heard of the service in recent weeks has been completely unacceptable - this service is vital for many reasons, not least because Belfast is one of the few cities which has seen an increase in HIV in recent years. The responsibility to treat drug addiction lies with the Department of Health, yet the Needle Exchange, housed in a council-owned building which is shortly to be demolished, has nowhere to provide its vital service from the end of this month. I have and continue to assist Extern in their search for a new facility and will continue to raise this issue at @belfastcc & @healthdpt - we cannot abandon those in our city who need our help the most.
4
18
823
Remarkable sight and testament to the commitment of @MichealMartinTD and his team along with former @deptinfra Minister @NicholaMallon šŸ‘
Today is a significant milestone in the construction of the Narrow Water Bridge, as major steel components arrive at Carlingford Lough for assembly on site. This project is a tangible symbol of our vision and commitment to deepening connections across this island.
11
747
Dermot Curran was an absolute gentleman who truly embodied SDLP values. People in East Down, and especially Ardglass, have lost a great public servant.
3
3
46
4,039
TUV Fleadh Protest ā€˜27 Organising Committee Meeting ā¬‡ļø
A Belfast City councillor has raised the possibility of a ā€œweek of protestsā€ being held at next year’s Fleadh Cheoil na hƉireann following the Drumcree dispute. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/… belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/…
18
2
94
4,117
I just love this one: "Ukraine, don't antagonize Trump." Listen -- from the very first day of his return to the White House (and even long before that), Ukraine has indulged his every whim and gone along with every one of his insane plans. It has dutifully catered to his grotesque craving for the most nauseating flattery and joined everyone else in massaging his monstrous ego, singing in chorus the praises of his incredible leadership, talent, power, and divine beauty. Ukraine, and Zelensky himself in particular, has turned a blind eye to and endured countless humiliations, insulting antics, idiotic outbursts on Truth Social, and hysterical spectacles like the Oval Office showdown. Ukraine has unfailingly supported 100% of his ridiculous, nonsensical, and downright idiotic imaginary "ceasefires," which Putin couldn't have given less of a damn about. And yet Ukraine had to listen, over and over again, to accusations that it "doesn't want peace," responding to every such outrage with yet more praise for Trump and bending over backward to appease him, desperate not to give him the slightest excuse to accuse it of being "uncooperative." Meanwhile, Putin has spent all this time amusing himself, making a complete fool of Trump in front of the entire world, and openly spitting on every one of his frantic diplomatic maneuvers. We've been living in this madhouse, where night has become day and day has become night, for almost two years now. And what? How's that working out? What has all of this accomplished? More slaps in the face, and ultimately, Donald Trump's complete and final betrayal and his active decision to side with the Russian aggressor. And somehow it's Ukraine that's "antagonizing" someone? At least have the decency to stop hiding behind this laughable victim-blaming and your invented alternate realities, and just come out and say it: "Just fucking die, all of you Ukrainians, so our idol can line his pockets with Kremlin money."
84
1,174
61
5,356
172,103
In advance of #Bookweek here’s one that’s worth a read if you’re interested in one of the UK’s top judges on why courts and judges creeping into politics and political decisions is very bad for democracy.
2
299
Courts don't decide determinations, only the legality of the process in which a determination is reached. They cannot account for the worst ever Commission making the worst ever Parades Commission determination. Thankfully the Secretary of State finally saw sense and dealt with a situation he could have avoided himself if he'd sacked the Commission when their initial failings became clear
1
37
7
208
12,322
By the same measure patently nonsense to suggest that ECHR caselaw can be reverse engineered into UK common law or NI parading legislation based on what are procedural judgments.
1
4
459
Carl Whyte retweeted
Pleased that Drumcree march can’t & won’t take place. It should never have got permission + it must never do again. This has been a deliberate & wasteful problem, creating tensions & resource issues for the sheer hell of it. Time to get back on track & to drown out the wreckers
Drumcree isn’t Green or Orange, it’s Past v Future.
161
95
13
661
21,802
Parade banned under Section 11. Both @ChiefConPSNI request & @RhonddaBryant decision to act under his own powers completely unprecedented in 28 years of Parades Commission. One previous chair referred to either as the nuclear option. Both in one night basically meltdown.
The never-used Sec 9 request procedure - being specifically set-out in primary legislation by Act of Parliament - a legislature unbridled by a written constitution - makes the SOS’s decision unchallengeable. No court would go that far. And, if determination IS revoked, it could remove the Parades Commission from any future role in any Drumcree return parade:
8
43
3,812
The never-used Sec 9 request procedure - being specifically set-out in primary legislation by Act of Parliament - a legislature unbridled by a written constitution - makes the SOS’s decision unchallengeable. No court would go that far. And, if determination IS revoked, it could remove the Parades Commission from any future role in any Drumcree return parade:
24
6
83
19,142