Robin Livingstone

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: That Orange Order invite list needs rewritten

THERE will come a time in the future when we look back at the active role that the Orange Order played in the great partition experiment, shake our heads and ask ourselves if that really happened. Just when the centrality to our public life of the loyal orders and their hyper-sensitivity to the smell of Mass and the rattle of rosary beads will be seen as the sectarian travesty that it was is not clear.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Wordcount wizards know how it's done

WHEN I say journalists write some shite, trust me - I know that of which I speak. What bricklayer hasn't walked past a wall he laid ten years ago and winced a little at the thought of how much better a job he'd do now? What teacher hasn't read a newspaper report of wee Johnnie getting sent back to Maghaberry and wished he'd spent more time with him instead of putting him in the Mooners first chance he got? We can't always be on our A-game and the most effective way we have of coming to terms with thatlamentable fact of life is to try to do better next time.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Is there a test that Jon Burrows can pass?

“JON Burrows,” remarked RTÉ political correspondent Vincent Kearney on the former Trevor’s elevation to UUP leader in January, “believes he will bring a fresh approach that will appeal to those who have turned away from his party and politics in general”.

Robin Livingstone: When did the DUP give Ulster Resistance their notice?

IT'S remarkable how many people I speak to who have no idea that Ulster Resistance weapons are still swirling around out there. There’s a sort of vague sense that the armed wing of the DUP was somehow part of the exhausting decommissioning process of the early noughties and that the massive arms shipment brought in from Lebanon in 1988 was covered in concrete or dropped into Beaufort’s Dyke from a squadron of Chinooks.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Online balaclavas can be a problem as well

I DON’T mind if people wear balaclavas on social media. As multiple DUP members said in the wake of BalaclavaFest in Scarva, people cover their faces for a host of reasons.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Scarva is a path to a difficult future

THE Ireland Palestine Solidarity Committee is walking past Scarva on Saturday afternoon. The march gets under way in Lurgan at 8.30am and makes the 30-odd journey to Omeath to draw attention to Israel’s continued genocide in Gaza.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: When did they turn the heat up at Windsor?

AS a sort of starter before the main summer course of bonfires and parades, the vexed issue of Catholics at Windsor Park is back on the agenda.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Save the Children – why won't unionists just say the words?

robin livingstone

Here and in Scotland, that Celtic penalty row is about much more than a referee's call

“THIS might be the worst VAR decision decision I’ve seen”.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Making any plans this summer?

I THINK those who erected the Bobby Sands statue in Belfast should have applied for planning permission. Why they didn’t is anybody’s guess. Perhaps they were concerned about it being knocked back by City Hall, although I can’t see that having happened.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Be careful what you wish for, brethren

LOYAL Ulster is getting more and more vocal these days about the pressing need to stop the promotion of terrorism.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: We all claim Rory – and that’s the trouble

robin livingstone

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Weaponising culture isn’t a two-way street, it’s a motorway at rush-hour with one lane closed

I CAN’T say for sure if the Irish language has been hijacked by violent republicanism. Personally don’t think it has, but I can’t – even as someone with as fine a Planter name as mine – put myself in the shoes of a Protestant or unionist who thinks it has. I’m going to accept that’s how they feel about it if people who I know to act in good faith tell me so. Although of course I retain the right to exercise extreme scepticism in the case of bucketmouths, louts and microphone-chasers.