O’Conall Street

It has taken David Ford and the Alliance Party to ensure the Assembly gets a full debate on the outcome of the Varney Report today. His motion is the first parliamentary response to arguably one of the most important and potentially damaging reports to the Northern economy in the past decade. It’s good to see the Alliance showing some leadership on the issue but only highlights the collective failure of the big two political parties to deliver on a lower corporation tax which bodies like the ICAI have worked so hard to keep on the agenda.

Another bad week for Bertie Ahern looms. The most successful Taoiseach in modern time risks loosing it all if proper explanations are not provided. Weekend reports of senior cabinet colleagues including Brian Cowen meeting with him over the weekend will fuel speculation that we are at the beginning of the end. I hope for the country’s sake Ahern and Fianna Fail move quickly to ensure their is a proper and orderly transition. Nobody wants to see a popular Taoiseach run out of office in scandal and the only way of preventing that may well be to leave early.

Celitc - Rangers and Clifonville - Linfield do not enjoy a huge following on O’Conall Street. When news emerged on Saturday afternoon of a sectarian attack by a bigoted mob on a young catholic man in Belfast city centre the shadow of the ‘old firm’ inspired assault crept over the city. It should be a thing of the past. Like the posting of a live bullet to the Cliftonville manager earlier in the week it reminds us all of the generations of work ahead to rid this island of sectarianism.

The Dubs were denied their big day in Crossmaglen yesterday when the match was called off just thirty minutes before throw in. The referee left nine thousand fans to turn around at the very last minute. Sometimes these things are unavoidable but surely Croke Park will be thinking today that things can surely be done better.

As reader’s will know the Irish News has spent the past few months defending a core freedom of the press, to publish legitimate comment and opinion. That matter is with the High Court in Belfast but publishers all over the world are following events in Belfast with great interest.

This week the city has witnessed what may well be another journalistic first. Following last weeks ‘Squniter’column in the Andersonstown News, the paper has published a front page apology for what is in effect its own opinion (Squinter is written by Robin Livingston, long time editor of the paper). The background was the killing of a well known republican in the lower Falls part of Belfast by what appears to be youths who are out of control and Squinter’s contention that the local MP, Gerry Adams, is not doing a good job.

All this is of course a matter for the editors of the Andersonstown News. Many in the press and defenders of free and legitimate comment might raise and eyebrow at the whole affair though.

 Update 17.00, Friday

During the day the Andersonstown News has removed the Squinter Column and his blog has also closed down. We are happy to reproduce the full squinter article, Mr Adam’s response and the newspaper’s apology for completeness.

Squinter: Taking a sideways look at the week

20 years on, Gerry must face the truth

“The cruellest lies are often told in silence.” Adlai Stevenson wasn’t far wrong when he said that. Not that Squinter can be accused of keeping quiet too often, but it is the case as we prepare to bury Bap McGreevy that there are some things that are said and some things that aren’t, and one of the things that isn’t being said - publicly at least - is that it’s time for Gerry Adams to shoulder his share of the blame for the mess we’re in and stop blaming everybody else.

Adams has been the West Belfast MP for 20 years. First elected in 1983, he has served continuously since then, save for a five-year break when Joe Hendron took back the seat for the SDLP in 1992.

If a week is a long time in politics, then 20 years is the Upper Paleolithic Age. It is in that same 20-year period that the slow, steady decline into chaos in certain parts of West Belfast began, and it was on his watch that it has gathered pace to become the runaway train that it is today.

First thing to be said is that there are many people and many agencies to blame for the state of the lower Falls, to take that as an example: the Chief Constable, the Housing Executive, the courts, the Prison Service, the Probation Board, Social Services, certain local parents - the list goes on. But while Adams can and does point the finger at some or even all of the above, Squinter has to say that he has never heard Adams accepting any responsibility for the fact that large parts of his constituency are no-go areas, but without the bellbottoms, the parkas and the armalites, of course.

It definitely wasn’t Adlai Stevenson who said: “You don’t drown by falling in the water, you drown by staying there.” Whoever said it had a point. Like every one of us, Bap McGreevy fell into the water when Harry Holland was slaughtered. It was hoped back then that the wave of community disgust and horror might be fashioned into a life raft which would carry us all on a tide of community solidarity and determination to a safer shore. Didn’t happen. What happened was that Bap McGreevy was left to drown - in his own blood - while the rest of us continue to flail around hoping that we won’t go under too.

Who’s to blame for the failure to press home the Harry Holland momentum? Gerry Adams is to blame, that’s who. He’s not the only one to blame, of course. Squinter refers you back to the list above, and every one of us who complains and then pulls the curtains and turns up the TV when the sun sets is to blame in our own collective way. But Gerry Adams is the MP, has been for 20 years. He’s supposed to know how to marshal and direct; he’s supposed to give us the ideas and the leadership; he’s supposed to make things better. When he asks for and gets our votes he accepts a host of very onerous responsibilities, and the most basic of those responsibilities is to make his constituency a good place for decent people to live and for parents to bring up their families. In that he has failed terribly.

Of course the police are falling down on the job, but how long is it possible to get away with that excuse? Bears crap in the woods, fat babies fart, the Pope wears a funny hat, the Trevors are jaw-droppingly useless. Tell us something we don’t know. Gerry Adams knows a lot better than Squinter that while the PSNI might have a lot of intelligence about the people of West Belfast, they know them as well as they know the remotest tribe of Western New Guinea - and they care even less. Against that background, complaining about the PSNI not doing their job is like complaining about the cold weather we’re supposed to be getting over the Easter weekend.

And every time Sinn Féin gets together at another fist-clenching Stormont meeting (the 2008 equivalent of Long Kesh political lectures), we’re told that economic deprivation underpins the myriad social problems that are convulsing the West Belfast community. They hope nobody will think to ask whose job it has been for the past 20 years to get investment and jobs and to generate community confidence and optimism.

It wasn’t as if Adams didn’t have the clout and the contacts. A former aide of Tony Blair has been making frankly embarrassing revelations in a new book about how close Adams and Blair were. Adams was the Oprah Winfrey of Irish-America. And what did we get? InBev gone and Visteon going. A huge investment conference that holds its nose as it swishes past West Belfast ferrying ministers and Invest NI suits to Hillsborough and Cultra. Adams might have got away with pointing to the lack of investment in his constituency in 1983 and saying: “Nothing to do with me, mate.” 20 years on and you’d buy a house in Ross Street quicker than you’d buy that.

20 years. Two decades. Four parliamentary terms. Four US Presidents. Two Popes. 11 Secretaries of State. Five UN Secretary-Generals. Five Taoisigh. Five Prime Ministers. In Ross Street the wind of change blows in empty Budweiser boxes and despair; it blows out good people and hope.

As a friend bitterly told Squinter over a St Paddy’s Day pint, Ourselves Alone are not the proud and risen republican people surging shoulder-to-shoulder towards a new Ireland, but the abandoned pensioners of the lower Falls who now fear the night a million times more than they ever feared the Brits or the loyalists. And don’t tell Squinter they’re not right to be afraid. When the bad guys can kill a well-known and popular ex-prisoner who was a fit and strong body-builder, then quite frankly Squinter’s more than a little concerned himself.

And so, next election day, Squinter thinks he’ll stay in the house in solidarity with those who are staying in their homes simply because they’re afraid to leave.

ADAMS RESPONDS TO THAT SQUINTER ARTICLE

A chara,

The ‘Squinter’ article of March 20, following the murder of Bap McGreevey, was both offensive and hurtful.
I am well used to and welcome criticism but I am disappointed at the tenor and tone of his tirade.
It was more reminiscent of a Sunday Independent columnist than the Andytown News.
Squinter’s advice that we should stay at home is also bad advice.
The duty of citizens is to join in the efforts to achieve more change, more jobs, better housing, and safer communities.
That’s the way forward for this constituency.

Gerry Adams, MP MLA

The Andersonstown News accepts that the tone and the timing of the Squinter article last week, during a period of community mourning, was inappropriate and unnecessary and apologises to Gerry Adams and our readers for any hurt caused.—Ed.

Off to the official launch of the 40th anniversary of the civil rights campaign in Northern Ireland this evening in the Linenhall Library, Belfast. In 1968, a series of events took place here which changed the face of Northern Ireland irrevocably.

These events were the culmination of attempts since the early 1960s by a number of different organisations and individuals to highlight injustices in Northern Ireland.  The Campaign for Social Justice, the Derry Housing Action Committee and the Campaign for Democracy in Ulster were examples of this.  Their concern was not with the great constitutional issues which had dominated political debate thereto, but with the everyday issues which dominated people’s lives. In 1967, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association was founded to address all these issues. The following year, inspired by the courage of Civil Rights leaders in the United States, and by their example of peaceful non-violent protest, Civil Rights protesters began to take to the streets of Northern Ireland. Their objective was to bring an end to injustice in the system of public authority housing provision, injustice in public and private employment practices, injustice in voting and representational rights, and the arbitrary and oppressive powers available to the state to suppress dissent.

The things that happened during that pivotal year had a profound effect upon our society, and precipitated an avalanche of change which left no part of our community untouched.  Such was the importance of these events, and what they led to, that it is appropriate and even necessary, 40 years later, to commemorate them in a sober and reflective way, to seek to learn from what happened, to consider the significance of the Civil Rights Movement for our society today and the continuing resonance of the issues which it addressed, and the ideals which underpinned it.

A number of those who were active in leadership positions in the Civil Rights Movement in 1968, have established a broadly based NI Civil Rights Commemoration Committee to commemorate the events of 1968 in such a way as to serve the historical record as best they can, and to generate a balanced and inclusive reflection upon that year. 

Their objectives are:

• To honour the courage all those who took part in the Civil Rights movement.

• To examine the civil rights challenges at home and abroad today especially racism and sectarianism in Ireland and the need to build a tolerant and inclusive society throughout the island.

• To support and strengthen the protection of civil/human rights throughout Ireland and to share the lessons of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights movement with people working for human rights in situations of conflict.

• To explore the legacy of civil rights through documentation, conferences and other events.

• To reflect on the achievement of civil rights movement as an example of non-violent and peaceful change.

• To commemorate the shared/contested history of civil rights on a cross community basis.

My Dad, now gone from this earth,  joined many of the marches and demonstrations as a young man. He was just one of tens of thousands mobilised by the simple call for equality and social justice.
The Committee is planning a programme of events which will mark the major milestones of the civil rights campaign, such as the ‘Caledon Squatting’, the first Civil Rights March from Coalisland to Dungannon and the enormous demonstration in Derry on November 19th, 1968.

These will include:

• Historical lectures
• Cross Community Platforms on Civil Rights
• Schools Programme
• Exhibitions
• The Role of Women in Civil Rights
• McCluskey Civil Rights Summer School
• Seminars and international conferences to commemorate Caledon Squatting’, the first Civil Rights March from Coalisland to Dungannon, 5 October Duke Street in Derry March.

The Commemoration Committee includes as many of those who were active in positions of leadership in 1968, as it has been possible to reach to date. It is chaired by former SDLP MLA, Denis Haughey.  The others involved as patrons and committee members are: Michael Farrell,Vice Chair, Fionnbarra O’Dochartaigh Treasurer, Frank McManus Vice Treasurer, Mrs. Jean Coyle, Mr Paul Grace, Dr Con McCluskey, Mr Fred Heatley, Mrs Patricia McCluskey, Mrs Bernadette McAliskey, Professor Kader Asmal, Rev Terence McCaughey, Professor Kevin Boyle, Sen. Mary Kathleen O’Doherty King, Mr Michael Canavan, Mr Paul Rose, Dr Anthony Coughlan, Mr Claude Wilton, Prof. Paul Arthur, Ms Dympna McGlade, Prof. Paul Bew,  Mr Michael McKeown, Cllr Ivan Barr, Mr Aidan McKinney, Mr Francie Brolly MLA, Mr Michael McLaughlin, Mr Ivan Cooper, Mr Terry McLaughlin, Mr Austin Currie, Mr Frank McManus, Mr James Doherty, Mr Kevin McNamara, Mr Paddy ‘Bogside’ Doherty, Mr Rory McShane, Ms Ann Devlin, Mr Fionnbarra O’Dochartaigh, Ms Padraigin Drinan, Mr Seamus O Tuathail SC, Prof. Henry Patterson, Prof. Sean Farren, Dr Eamon Phoenix, Mr Michael Halpenny, Ms Brid Rodgers, Ms Brid Ruddy, Mr John Hume, Ms Edwina Stewart, Mr Hugh Logue, Cllr James McGarvey,  Mr Vinnie McCormack, Dr. Raymond McClean, Mrs Sheila McClean, Ms Margaret McCluskey   

Sure she was asking for it….

The shocking news today is that one in four people in Ireland think women who are raped are somehow responsible for it. The Red Sea Poll in today’s Irish Examiner finds:

* More than 30% think a victim is some way responsible if she flirts with a man or fails to say no clearly.

* 10% of people think the victim is entirely at fault if she has had a number of sexual partners.

* 37% think a woman who flirts extensively is at least complicit, if not completely in the wrong, if she is the victim of a sex crime.

* One in three think a woman is either partly or fully to blame if she wears revealing clothes.

* 38% believe a woman must share some of the blame if she walks through a deserted area.

The results also show that defence barristers, looking to swing the deciding three members in every 12-person jury, can exploit misgivings in certain demographics about the perceived responsibility of female victims.

Dramatic differences in empathy towards victims based on age and social class are revealed. Gender, however, had little impact.

In every category, widowed, divorced and separated people took the harshest view on the role of the female victim, compared with married or cohabiting couples.

The results of the poll support the results of the ground-breaking Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland (SAVI) report in 2002, which found 15% of the population believed a raped woman was not an innocent victim.

The SAVI report, which was published in partnership with the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, also found 6% of women were raped at some point as adults.

I have no doubt attitudes in the North of Ireland are the same. In a day when the Irish News reports that women in NI can expect to earn £9k less then their male colleagues it is clear there is still a mountain to climb in terms of gender equality.

As the great saying goes: “I’ll be a post feminist in post patriarchy.”

The Chief Constable of Merseyside police regularly posts a webcast on topical matters. This week’s, on guns, has captured the news agenda. You can view it here.

Bernard Hogan-Howe, Chief Constable of Merseyside, said the mandatory five-year minimum sentence for possession of a firearm was being ignored by some judges.

According to the Times online:

Mr Hogan-Howe, whose force is investigating the murder last year of 11-year-old Rhys Jones, said “very heavy sentences” were essential to deter criminals and teenage gang members from carrying weapons. It was, he said, “simply wrong” for judges to overlook the legal requirement to hand down a five-year sentence.

“The big issue for me is getting the guns out of society,” Mr Hogan-Howe told The Times.

“There will always be gangs and criminals but today it is the fact that they carry guns which makes them truly intimidating. If we can get the guns out of their hands then we will make our society safer.

“The message the criminal justice system sends out about the serious consequences that flow from possessing a firearm is an important part of deterring people from carrying guns.”

The Home Office confirmed that the five-year sentence for possession of a firearm, introduced in 2004, was not being uniformly imposed around the country.

The average sentence handed down for the offence in 2005 was 47 months and only 40 per cent of offenders were given the mandatory minimum sentence that year.

So what does this tell us about the evolution of public relations?

Using a webcast cuts out the middle man (media) and gives Merseyside police total control over their message. It forces the media to report that the comments have been made on a webcast, driving traffic to their website and gives the public access to the full story not just the bits the press want to publish.

It has an added benefit in that it that the webcast remain online for a long time and can be shared. It will be interesting to see if others follow in the coming months. This is a good example of how digital media is impacting on how we communicate and disseminate our messages.

South Down is a beautiful place. Driving from Belfast the Mourne Mountains soon arrive on the horizon inviting you to explore. By the time you get to Dundrum bay a detour for Castlewellan sets things up nicely for another beautiful drive down into Newcastle. My wife’s family are from these parts and I am no stranger to the mountains and their wonderful journey down to the sea.

Today was no different except the sight that greeted me In Castlewellan was sad and to be honest depressing. There is not a lamp post in the town without at tricolour flying from it. Not a single one. Whoever put them up must be having a serious crisis of identity. Their is a republican March in Newcastle also today. Can’t tell you if the organisers thought it essential to dress the town in green white and gold because I don’t need to parade to be Irish nor do I need to have a flag on every corner to declare my identity. I hate the flying of union jacks all summer just as much.

Next time I hear a republican politician on all angry about loyalist flag flying I hope they acknowledge there is much work to be done on their side too. What a terrible pity on the tenth anniversary of the agreement and a week after a very good and non political St Patrick’s festival.

I didn’t wake up on Good Friday 1998. I didn’t need to. Nobody had slept in the SDLP negotiating team since Wednesday night. The Mitchell deadline of a deal by Thursday had come and gone but change was in the air and nobody was going home until the job was done.

I had been the SDLP’s Director of Communications since November 1996 and by now was well established with the party’s negotiating team and the press. During 1998 many of us got to know the doyennes of world journalism as they dropped in to be part of history and the agreement. We also built strong and deep relationships with the local press on these islands. Relationships I still treasure today. 

This is a story of two days, a divided and difficult one for unionism during which the UUP haemorrhaged good people but carried on with courage to allow, as Seamus Mallon put it, the beginning of the new beginning to begin. On the other hand it was a day of absolute achievement for the SDLP. The fulfilment of step one of John Hume’s historic mission to change three sets of relationship - between the people of Northern Ireland, the relationship between north and south and finally the historic conflict between the British and Irish states.

The internal divisions within the UUP were affecting the dynamics of the talks and created a stop start atmosphere at times. Sen George Mitchell as always was masterful as were the Taoiseach and Prime Minister, maintaining focus and honing in, bit by bit on the critical issues. The SDLP had been carrying the weight of the talks for nationalism from day one. Right up to Good Friday Sinn Fein would only really engage in Strand 2, North - South issues, which left Mallon, Hume, Durkan, Rodgers, Farren and the rest of the team to negotiate everything else by themselves. If you are ever wondering who to thank for the new beginning in policing, the power sharing executive, the equality protections and guarantees or the North - South Ministerial Council I suggest you shake an SDLP negotiators hand. By the middle of the night it was apparent that agreement was possible. Brid Rodgers hugged a colleague though the blinds and was captured on TV. This was the first sign the media had that we were on the way. Mo popped in (minus wig) for a cuppa. The time had come to say thanks and share a story or two. 

Breakfast came and the staff in the canteen put on their best show. Their were table cloths and salmon and scrambled eggs on the menu. Hume’s favourite and what a perfect way to say thanks. During breakfast I got called from the White House, ‘could Mr Hume take a call from the President?’ . We found a quiet space and he did. ‘Thank you said Bill Clinton, thank you for everything you have done and for never giving up’. When Hume returned with the news it put more than a couple of smiles on the tired faces.

After breakfast the radio and TV news shows. Mallon, Hume and I walked into the perfect spring morning to tour the portable studios and outside broadcast points. They did 25 live broadcasts between them. Aine Lawlor’s RTE interview with John sticks in my mind. He opened it with the words ‘this will be a very good, Good Friday’.

The SDLP delegation room began to fill up during the morning. Partners and spouses joined us. It was their achievement too. They had kept our real lives going during months of talks and endless trips. Pat Hume was adamant we have red roses - the symbol of social democracy - to wear. My wife, Joanne and several others were dispatched to scour East Belfast for as many red roses converted to lapelle flowers as possible. They returned with a box full and wondering if the shops would have been happy to sell them if they knew who would be wearing them and why. The hour or two before the final ceremony were a little weird. The loos were full of grown men taking builders showers and changing suits. The final wording of the agreement was being printed off and passed around. Everyone wanted their’s signed. Our corridor which housed the SDLP, SF and Irish Government delegations was buzzing with congratulations.

Formalities over, we lined up to speak to the press. The PMs went first then us, I think. Ahern said ‘this is a day we should treasure, a day when agreement and accommodation have taken the place of difference and division’. Hume called for the work to continue ‘ once in a generation does an opportunity like this come along, an opportunity to resolve our deep and tragic conflict’. The press conference on the steps of Castle Buildings went on for twenty minutes. The SDLP spoke in English, Irish, French and Spanish and at the end instead of the usual walk away their was applause, sustained applause from the several hundred journalists who decided they wanted to honour and thank the peacemakers. The walk to the OB units was surreal. It is not often that the press hug politicians and even more rare that they cry tears of joy in their company. That day, Good Friday 1998, the dye was cast. These islands had changed and in the words of Seamus Heaney; hope and history rhymed.

The SDLP negotiating team was chaired by Brid Rodgers and lead by Seamus Mallon and of course John Hume was always there for the heavy lifting and the inspirational guidance. It included Mark Durkan, Sean Farren, Denis Haughey, Alex Attwood and Eddie McGrady. Also playing a role were Tommy Gallagher, Patsy McGlone, Alban McGuinness, Frank Feely, Dorita Field (most pictured above in the SDLP rooms during the morning) as well as all the delgates elected to the furum in 1995. Eilis Haughey, Tim Attwood, Gerry Cosgrove, Catherine Matthews and myself, Conall McDevitt, provided the support. That day changed all our lives and remains one of the proudest of my life.

Since Paddy’s Day global stock-markets have been on the run with one confidence blowing revelation after another. The FSA in the UK has launched an inquiry into yesterday’s ‘leak’ that one the Britain’s big banks was talking to the Bank of England. I have no confidence they will find anyone. On this side of the Atlantic corporate crime seems to be less important. In the US on the other hand you can expect the Feds to come down on you and your employers like a tonne of bricks if you are found to be interfering in the market.

One thing that doesn’t change the world over is the stock market’s relationship with trust. They rely intrinsically on it and when it disappears the panic starts.

My colleague Josh Gilbert has written and interesting post on the New York blog, All About Advocacy which I am happy to share with you.

———

 When the bulls run in Pamplona every July,  who gets gored–and dozens always do, some fatally–is indiscriminate.   Herd of terrified animals… stampeding for their lives… stay clear.  Got it.

It’s harder to fathom the herd panic this past week of the most sophisticated investors in the world, Wall Street sharpies, which led to the unprecedented Fed-backed “controlled demolition” of Bear Stearns.  Perhaps better than bankruptcy, perhaps not.

So why did they run?  Was it a wild implosion of confidence as one opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal put it today?: ”As rumors of Bear’s troubles started early last week, counterparties stopped trading with Bear seemingly as quickly and carelessly as they had traded with it before.”  Or was it a more rational response to temporary market failure, as another opinon piece in the same paper suggests?: ”Bear Stearns made the error in these skittish times of relying on short-term borrowing, in the form of of overnight repo agreements, to finance its holdings of mortgage-related secuirities.” 

Having spent some time in Spain myself (as a younger, more foolish man), and seen a charging toro or two up close, you won’t have to guess where I stand.  There’s nothing rational about a locomotive of panic.  Or the shockwave of badvocacy that sent counterparties, creditors and even loyal Bear customers running for the exit doors a few short days ago.  This was madness and mayhem like on the streets of Pamplona during San Fermin.  People got hurt.

Here’s hoping Fed Chariman Bernake proves to be one helluva a matador.  He appears to be for now anyway.  One thing’s for sure: volatility will continue to be the norm as will huge tilts in word-of-mouth and confidence.

What’s also clear is that aggressive communications responses, like the one led by Richard Fuld at Lehman last week, will be required.  But that’s a topic for another post.

What an outburst. Can’t remember the last time a judge slammed a divorcee like he did Heather Mills. The headlines are awful, her reputation is in tatters and the sympathy rating zero.

Another first today with the multiple front page apologies to the McCann’s following over 100 reports which blamed them for their daughters disappearance. I can’t remember this ever happening before.

Last night Barack Obama sought to inject some substance into his style with key note speech on race in the US. According to USNews.comthe speech has received rave reviews across the States. I’ll be keeping an eye on Real Clear Politics to see if it results in a bounce.

Here is a summary of responses:

The Politico reports Obama “said the clips of Wright’s sermons that have aired repeatedly in the last week were not simply controversial but instead ‘expressed a profoundly distorted view of the country.’ Wright has expressed anger about what he considers a racist America, and placed blame on the government for the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the spread of HIV/AIDS.” Obama acknowledged “his presence in the church during some of Wright’s controversial remarks. He did not, however, detail how he responded to those comments at the time.”

The New York Times reports in a front page story that Obama “delivered a sweeping assessment of race in America. It was the most extensive speech of his presidential campaign devoted to race and unity, a moment his advisers conceded presented one of the biggest tests of his candidacy.” The Wall Street Journal reports that Obama “addressed race relations at length, an issue that has come to the forefront of his presidential campaign in recent weeks, and one that all candidates have, until now, hesitated to tackle head on.”

The AP notes Obama addressed “both black grievance and white resentment in a bold effort to quiet a campaign uproar over race and his former pastor’s incendiary statements.” The Washington Post reports in a front page story that Obama “delivered a blunt and deeply personal speech here Tuesday about racial division in America as he sought to quell a political controversy that threatens to engulf his presidential candidacy.”

The Los Angeles Times (3/18, Neuman, 881K) reports Obama said that “the videotaped ’snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and YouTube,’ or the ‘caricatures being peddled by some commentators,’ distort Wright’s appeal. ‘The man I met more than 20 years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another, to care for the sick and lift up the poor.’”

Analysis Questions Whether He Achieved His Political Goals. On ABC World News, Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos said the speech was “enough to reassure the relatively affluent, liberals and independents, who are already with Barack Obama. They might have been worried. But this reassured them. He’s been having a bigger problem with white, working-class voters. And the problem, the fact that Senator Obama sat in those pews for twenty years is not going to sit well with them.”

The New York Times reports in an analysis story, “Democratic and Republican strategists, scholars, and voters all agreed that Mr. Obama had given a brave, incisive speech about one of the topics most difficult to address in American life. But nearly all of them expressed doubt that his address will fully put to rest the firestorm over Mr. Wright’s statements.”

The Politico says in an analysis piece that the speech “counts as a remarkable event - most of all for the specificity with which Obama discussed racial attitudes and animosities that politicians usually prefer to leave unmentioned,” while the AP says Obama “doubtlessly raised eyebrows in many circles, however, with a populist pivot that named a new villain in the racial divide. ‘Black anger’ and ‘white resentments,’ he said, have ‘distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle-class squeeze: a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices and short-term greed.’”

On the CBS Evening News, correspondent Jeff Greenfield said, “How does a guy who spends 20 years with somebody with some notions that seem very bizarre like AIDS is a government conspiracy, what’s he doing with that guy for 20 years?” On NBC Nightly News, Washington Post editorial writer Jonathan Capehart said, “To have” Obama’s speech “out there, out in the open and in black and white for people to read for years to come, I think is a very important gift the Senator has given the country.” MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough added, “The question is not how we are going to react in Georgetown or Manhattan or other areas; it’s how they’re going to react in Youngstown, Ohio; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Jacksonville, Florida. These are the Reagan Democrats, that voted for Bill Clinton twice, that voted for Ronald Reagan, twice, voted for George W. Bush twice. There is white resentment there.”

The tenth anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement starts either this Friday (Good Friday) or on April 1oth, the calender anniversary of the signing the agreement. I’ll post something on Friday with my recollections of the day that changed Ireland and a couple of pics from inside the talks. There is a good bit of media interest in the anniversary and I’ll probably pop up somewhere along the line offering a perspective to our local hacks.

With the benefit of a decade of reflection some things stand out more than others. I was directly involved throughout the talks and present every step of the way to Good Friday. Whilst much has been written about the talks, the referendum campaign and subsequent elections are particularly interesting from a communications point of view and have been less well documented.

O’Conall Street will mark the anniversary with reflections, from a communications perspective, on the key moments in the referendum campaign from April 10th. I will look back specifically at the divisions within unionism (particularly in the UUP), the Balcolmbe St Gang appearance at the Sinn Fein Ard Feis, Micheal Stone’s Ulster Hall rally, Tony Blair’s pledges as well as the U2 concert which proved a crucial turning point. I’ll post on each all the way to May 22nd when  over 71% voted yes. hopefully some of my fellow press officers at the time will contribute with their own reflections along the way.

Dates to look out for are:

April 10th - Good Friday Agreement

April 24th - Three UUP MPs join Paisley to say no.

May 1st - Orange Order says no.

May 10th - Balcombe Street Gang at RDS

May 14th -  Michael Stone at Ulster Hall

May 16th - Molyneux says no.

May 17th - Joint Statement from Clinton and Blair

May 19th - U2 Concert

May 20th - Blair pledges

May 22nd - Referendum