TKTom Kelly

1. Article · Sep 28, 2026 · Tom Kelly

   Tom Kelly: The Parades Commission has taken a wrecking ball to power-sharing (opens the original)

   Excerpt · Critical tone · English

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   Let me be blunt. This current Parades Commission is a complete failure. The commissioners have turned a process lapse into a judgemental catastrophe. Professor Collins and her colleagues should resign immediately. They’ve proven they’re simply not up to the job and have undone decades of good work by previous commissions in just 72 hours. Now the courts have taken a mess and managed to make it a tragedy. Watch as seemingly settled disputes unravel across the north. This may not manifest unti

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2. Article · Sep 21, 2026 · Tom Kelly

   Tom Kelly: Cardiff was theatre. The DUP then supplied the farce (opens the original)

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   SOMETIMES you have to pinch yourself to see if the north is in some kind of parallel universe. Unfortunately, it usually is. I thought I imagined that the newish Secretary of State, Chris Bryant, took a peevish quip on X at Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald over her announcement of the miserly £63 energy support for households here. Then it turned out to be true. Of course, the extra money has come from the Treasury. Most of the dosh in the north comes from there, as tax receipts here only cov

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3. Article · Sep 14, 2026 · Tom Kelly

   Tom Kelly: Not since the days of John Hume and Seamus Mallon have I heard such passion and vision in the SDLP (opens the original)

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   FOR 35 years, I’ve been attending party conferences, conventions and ard fheiseanna as a delegate, visitor, worker, lobbyist and now commentator. My roles have taken me from the dowdy, overpriced guesthouses of Blackpool and Bournemouth to the bustling cities of Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham. I’ve even experienced the extraordinary glitz of American cities like Atlanta, Chicago and Colorado hosting massive conventions that resembled WrestleMania events. Each party conference has its

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4. Article · Sep 7, 2026 · Tom Kelly

   Tom Kelly: Humour might be the only response to the crisis in our hospital A&Es (opens the original)

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   AS I write this column, I’ve been frantically making sandwiches for Dad’s 86th birthday. It’s the end of a very stressful week. On Tuesday, his GP called urgently, telling me to take him to hospital immediately. They’d received some test results indicating a serious health decline. I asked how urgent, and she said within the next half hour. Panic set in: new pyjamas, a wash bag, slippers, and so on. We arrived at Daisy Hill within half an hour and, to our relief, the GP had emailed ahead

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5. Article · Aug 31, 2026 · Tom Kelly

   Tom Kelly: The Parades Commission chair must go – but loyalism’s tantrum squad should shut up too (opens the original)

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   THE core principle for all parades – whether unionist or republican – is that they shouldn’t occur in areas where local residents oppose them. No political organisation has the right or privilege to force marches into communities which feel threatened by their presence. This is a simple premise even four-year-olds could grasp. However, over the past week, we’ve seen adults – many of whom should know better – escalating their rhetoric to create disruption and division. The usual loyal

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