Robin has been with the Andersonstown News and subsequently the Belfast Media Group for over 30 years. He began his career in journalism with the company writing cinema and TV reviews as a freelance before becoming a staff reporter and going on to be appointed editor of the Andersonstown News in 1993. He became Group Editor of the Belfast Media Group with responsibility for all titles in 2016. He's the author of The Road, a memoir about growing up in Belfast.
THE RNLI has turned down a donation of £850 from a Scottish flute band that was meant to be leading an Orange parade that was banned because it had spread “anxiety” throughout the host town.
FORMER DUP Councillor David Clarke, who says he faced bullying of such severity within the party that he ended up in hospital, has finally found a place of serenity. He’s now sipping green tea in a political Zen garden where the only sound is bamboo chimes tapping playfully in a light breeze and the gentle distant hum of Buddhist mantras: He’s joined the TUV.
ONE minute you’re cock of the walk, next you’re a feather duster.
THE figures coming out of Gaza on the number of casualties are reliable – that’s according to the World Health Organisation. But how can they be reliable if the information is coming from Hamas? That's the barked demand coming from the IOF, the Daily Mail, the BBC, the Daily Telegraph, RTÉ, the Daily Express and GB News.
Robin Livingstone begins a new end-of-week column bringing another noisy five days gently to a close
THE Electoral Office says it was unaware that a South Belfast polling station was festooned with union jacks on election day.
CATHOLIC voters at a South Belfast polling station were forced to cast their votes yesterday in a room “decked out like an Orange hall”.
Robin Livingstone recalls a lesson from the early days
IN the 26 years since the first Aisling Awards, our focus on the environment has been growing ever-stronger as the urgency of the climate challenge becomes yearly more apparent. While the focus of COP27 in Egypt is global, the Aisling Environment Guardian Award celebrates those people who will in the end decide our fate – men and women who work daily to improve the little corner of the planet where they live their lives. Concentrix is a customer experience multinational with its European headquarters in Belfast and over 270,000 employees around the world. Local CEO and global board member Philip Cassidy is a native of West Belfast and a champion of sustainability for the company. That’s why Concentrix have come aboard this year as sponsors of our Environment Guardian Award – the sustainability which the company espouses is nowhere practised with more effect and benefit than in the work of the five nominees for this year’s honour. •The Black Mountain Wildlife and Rewilding Project works to promote biodiversity and enhancement in the fields, boreens and hedgerows of one of the peaks in the Belfast Hills that give the city of Belfast its stunning and celebrated backdrop. The mountain has taken a battering in recent decades through quarrying and landfill, but the job of restoring it to its natural state is a crucial one which is being done with passion and pride. •Colin Glen on the outskirts of West Belfast on the back road to Lisburn is one of the green lungs that breathes life and vitality into the city of Belfast. Its breathtaking views and enchanting walkways attract massive numbers of visitors every year and recent attractions such as the Black Bull Run and forest ziplines – installed and operated with the retention of the natural habitat as an absolute priority – have added greatly to the experience. •The Belfast Hills Partnership works with a range of statutory and non-statutory agencies to ensure the responsible management of the sweeping range which envelopes the city of Belfast in its embrace. Key to that work is protection of native wildlife, improved and sympathetic public access and the creation and restoration of vital woodlands. The Partnership works closely with the four councils whose areas touch on the Hills, as well as farmers, businesses and recreational facilities. •Ulster Wildlife’s Bog Meadows nature reserve is situated in the heart of the city, an oasis of natural beauty adjacent to the clamour of the M1 motorway. Birds, butterflies, insects and wildflowers are cherished and protected in the award-winning urban wetland. Alongside a team of dedicated volunteers, Ulster Wildlife works tirelessly to combat non-native species and to control invasive scrub to allow the Meadows’ magnificent flora and fauna to thrive. •The beautiful and iconic barn owl is struggling, with numbers falling due to a range of factors – disappearing habitat being the key one. The volunteers of the Lough Neagh Barn Owl group have scored stunning breeding successes in recent years, working with landowners and stakeholders around Lough Neagh to provide bird boxes in prey-rich environments in a battle for the future of one of Ireland’s most breath-taking birds.
An open letter on language to Naomi Long from Robin Livingstone
Nationalists reacted with fury today after DUP leader Arlene Foster launched a bitter broadside against restorative justice campaigner Harry Maguire.
THE trickle of schools starting back turned into a torrent this week as over 300,000 children across the north returned to the classroom for the first time since the middle of March on Tuesday.
MIXED feelings among parents this week as schoolchildren returned to the classroom five months after schools closed in response to Covid-19.
NO one can deny the huge positive differences which the internet, broadband connectivity and social media have made to our lives.
If, as that other great Northern leader vilfied by RTÉ and the mainstream press, former President Mary McAleese, contends, peace is a journey rather than a destination then John Hume was surely the beacon who led us through the nightmare of 30 years of violence to the promised land of peace.