Andrée Murphy hails from Dublin but has lived in Belfast since 1994.
She is the Deputy Director of Relatives for Justice, a national victim support NGO which provides advocacy and therapeutic support for the bereaved and injured of the conflict. Holding a Masters Degree in international human rights law, Andrée's particular expertise and research on women affected by conflict trauma has seen her provide evidence to the United Nations in Geneva and to Congressional hearings in the US.
Andrée is a columnist for Belfast Media Group and is a regular contributor to broadcast media, providing political analysis and commentary.
THE Vice President for Research of Dublin City University, last week produced the first peer-reviewed paper on the true costs of Irish unification.
THE RTÉ documentary 'Noraid: Irish America and the IRA' was something that needed to be made. Despite its sensationalist title it is a sensitive two-parter that breaks with tired formats and relies entirely on archive materials, with primary interviews. Examining our recent past, in particular the political figures engaged in it, has become almost formulaic for film makers, and while hours of exceptional investigative journalism has been produced, even more hours of boring, repetitive and grating broadcasting has been made. This programme inserts itself as unique, fresh and thought-provoking.
TWO 'influencers' came to visit Belfast and they called out some unsavoury truths about our shared city. Tana Mongeau and Brooke Schofield were, until this week, entirely unknown to me but they are big on YouTube. During their trip to Belfast they said that they felt afraid. They witnessed violence, open drinking and open drug taking. And they said what many of us have been reticent about saying.
ON the shore of the southern western coast of Kerry a lonely tricolour flies. Watched by only sea birds it looks out toward the slate-grey sea, under a slate-grey sky. A heron might be caught wondering what an earth the significance of this pristine Irish flag could be on such a miserable day when you can’t see five feet in front of you, where the only activity is tourists jumping on board the Sceilg Mhichíl ferry to see puffins nesting or perhaps imagine Luke Skywalker waving his lightsaber, hoping of a better future.
"TEL Aviv right now. Shoppers. Dogs. Children. Rabbis. Yoga. Everyone comes down to the bunker for 20 minutes with stoicism, resilience, and a sense of common purpose."
THE latest results of the NI Life and Times Survey make for interesting reading. 45 per cent of respondents describe themselves as Irish, 35 per cent describe themselves as British. The other 20 per cent preferred not to say. Yet.
WHAT is the BBC’s exit strategy in the scenario for a united Ireland? That was always a fair question.
WHAT is 'good character'? In my hall I have the 'graduation' photo of my daughter as she left Naíscoil na bhFál, a part of the now proud tradition of Gaeilgeoirí in West Belfast. The Cumann Iar Scoile located in the Naíscoil was a fundamental part of her childhood, with acting, sports and especially art promoted alongside care, love and respect. It was a foundation for life.
BELLAGHY'S St Mary’s church holds the graves of a Nobel Laureate for literature, two young men who died on hunger strike and the GAA club chairperson murdered when locking the gates after training on a beautiful May evening, who has become the talisman for post-Good Friday Agreement truth and justice.
THE past ten years have given us two overriding messages on this island: 1. Britain will always act selfishly and in its own island’s strategic interest with Ireland, North and South, an afterthought, if a thought at all. 2. Even when partitionists look South and ignore this part of their country, the North is part of Ireland’s collective future.
LEGACY has now become a constitutional crisis, and the writing has been on the wall for some time. It has already destroyed confidence in local policing. It has threatened the functioning of the courts. It is now threatening the fabric of peace agreements since the Good Friday Agreement itself.
THE extent of collusion as a policy of the British state is a matter of extensive and repeated public attention and evidenced, proven fact.
In a changing Ireland, the passing of Pope Francis is giving pause to many to reflect on the island’s relationship with the Catholic Church. With his death occurring on Easter Monday there was perhaps more concentrated attention to questions of his ministry, his version of the church and his impact.
ON our island as we debate our shared future it sometimes feels like we are awfully judgemental with each other, before we begin to listen to what we all have to say.
THE joint statement from human rights officials at the United Nations on the dire situation in Gaza may well form part of the epitaph of international human rights.