Brian Rowan @BrianPJRowan Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Brian Rowan

@BrianPJRowan

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Former BBC correspondent in Belfast. Author, #livingwithghosts and #politicalpurgatory

Holywood Co Down

Joined September 2012

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

18 days

It has been some fall for the DUP from that high point of 2017, through the General Elections of 2019 and 2024. Not just the seats they've lost, but what they've just about managed to keep. It's a very different place now. Experiencing what Trimble and the UUP went through.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

4 years

John Hume took the hardest road for Peace. Had the vision to see something that others could not. Put people before party politics and made the ceasefires and political agreements possible. What a contribution to this place.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

2 years

Those who made the mess are at it again. It started with Brexit and it will end in tears.

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Brian Rowan

4 years

My shopping experience earlier tells me that more and more people now view social distancing as optional. Maybe they think the lifting of some restrictions means the threat has gone. Those in politics pushing for a quicker pace out of lockdown need to wise up. Wrong message.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

3 years

The Protocol is the play out from Brexit - that's the starting point. Now, Johnson and others are running around trying to place the blame elsewhere. Who made the agreement and who ran down the blind alley? No amount of bullshit will change the facts.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

3 years

My ma is 91 today. This is her a few weeks ago with a squad of us at a family wedding. Happy birthday Margaret.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

2 years

In 1998/99 David Trimble carried the heavy weight of the Good Friday Agreement. He did so with the support of the then loyalist leadership, including David Ervine, Gusty Spence, William Smith, Gary McMichael and David Adams. History will remember the courage of his decision then.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

4 years

We've had an anniversary, an engagement and a birthday in the last 24 hours. My mother seeing the funny side of 90. Happy Birthday Margaret.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

2 years

Just re-reading '98, to remind myself again who shaped/supported Good Friday/Belfast Agreement. Have heard so much crap from those who waited for others to do heavy lifting. Boris sacking @JulianSmithUK after he and @simoncoveney saved Stormont tells you all you need to know.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

6 months

Have a listen...

@moneillsf

Michelle O’Neill

6 months

📺 I was delighted to be on Good Morning Britain today, discussing the need to build a brighter, better future for people and communities

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

2 years

Deliver, deliver, deliver - growth, growth, growth - Words, words, words. Bullshit, bolloxology, balderdash

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Brian Rowan

3 years

It's a day for calm words. The Assembly recalled. Talk also of a loyalist leadership meeting. We're watching and listening to a rewind into the Past. Time for those who should know better to show leadership - to wise up before it's too late.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

4 years

More evidence today of what I've been saying in recent times. Executive on the same page, working to a plan made in Belfast, moving at a cautious/sensible pace and, in measured words, not allowing room for elastic/stretching interpretation. Baby-steps - not Boris-steps.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

4 years

Penny dropping very late for some. Those who shouted loudest for Brexit now shouting loudest about the consequences. Worth re-reading a series of @uuponline statements from October 2019 - seeing/predicting what was coming. They didn't get lost in the London lights.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

3 years

New Decade - Same Approach...Agreements made, but not implemented. Can't do it now, perhaps later. Last minute political gymnastics. The usual Stormont Shitshow.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

6 months

At last the conversation has come to the point: Is power sharing finished? The question asked by @williamcrawley It has failed. Stormont has failed. And these endless talks are part of the problem. We don't need another deal. That's too low a bar. We need something that works

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

6 months

As this pathetic waiting game continues, there are people working round the clock to hold this place together - in hospitals, schools and elsewhere. We've normalised the brokenness of our politics. That needs to stop. No Executive should mean no Stormont.

@bigkenreid

Ken Reid

7 months

The cancer waiting lists are a major concern. From my own experience early detection and subsequent treatment can save lives. Most worrying is the delays are getting worse. With no executive, nothing, it appears, can be done. Not good enough.

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Brian Rowan

3 years

Noise politics creating an arena for clowns and their circus. This place is a pawn in a bigger play. The UK government negotiated the first mess and, may yet, create an even bigger mess. It's wise up time.

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Brian Rowan

5 years

Listen to the words spoken by republican Tommy Gorman at the end of tonight's Spotlight film summarising the conflict period - "a waste of time and a waste of life". Think then what the priority of any legacy process should be. That it should never happen again. @EamonnMallie

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Brian Rowan

3 years

There has been talk for weeks that the Executive might not last and that there could be an early election. All of that talk has come from inside the unionist/loyalist community. If Stormont fails again, then it should fail forever. The agreement of January 2020 is its last chance

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

2 years

Not the easiest piece of writing. Due in a few weeks from now. Thanks to @MerrionPress Also to Kate Adie, @colin_davidson , @changeresearch Dr Joanne Murphy, @JudeHill_utv , Mervyn Jess and @julianoneill for reading/ feedback/support/help. Biggest thanks to Val. #livingwithghosts

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Brian Rowan

6 years

On the politics of this place, the May speech has no announcement, no plan, no process, no timetable - nothing that begins to see a way through. We're hearing a do-nothing approach that is about self interest and survival, about Westminster numbers and arrangements there.

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Brian Rowan

6 years

Back to work - @KenReid_utv on the political hill. @BBCGarethG took 10 seconds to bring him up to date

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Brian Rowan

9 months

Are we listening? Powerful words from Alan McBride.

@newsoncool

Cool FM News

9 months

🗣Shankill Bomb: 30 years on from the IRA attack, today marks a turning point in Alan McBride's life. Alan lost his wife and father-in-law in the bomb. Speaking to @jamesgould23 , he says he has struggled mentally over the last two years & had a message for NI's politicians.

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Brian Rowan

2 years

It's not a big day for Northern Ireland politics. It's a day like too many others. Would it really be progress if the Executive was restored? Would voting in another Assembly Election change anything? We're watching the continuation of a Stormont shitshow. That's the news

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Brian Rowan

6 months

It's a shitshow Ken - with repeat episodes. The UK Government has tolerated all of this for far too long; and not just over the past 2 years. Do they have a Plan B other than the usual? There should be a bolt on Stormont's door, and that should have happened long before now.

@bigkenreid

Ken Reid

6 months

Watching the shenanigans at Hillsborough brings back memories of the politicians going around in circles and having to stand there, listening to them. So cold it was near impossible to think. Full credit to the hacks.

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Brian Rowan

4 years

It insults peoples intelligence to celebrate the peace in the North, messaging on inclusivity while, in the South, deeming Sinn Fein not fit for Government... Playing politics with the Past is not the way to the future. Writing here... via @EamonnMallie

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Brian Rowan

2 years

@JulianSmithUK And unionists - particularly the DUP - need to help with that. From the crocodile comments to overplaying their hand in London, they've helped make this mess. Some of those loudest about the GFA in the here and now ran away from it at the time.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

6 years

"You cannot leave another negotiator with no bus fare home" - David Ervine chatting to me in February 1999. He had a way with words and advice.

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Brian Rowan

3 years

In the political blame game of now, worth remembering that without @simoncoveney there would be no Stormont. It was a British-Irish rescue mission with @JulianSmithUK Those shouting loudest about the sea border should look in the mirror. The mess begins with Brexit.

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Brian Rowan

2 years

We need to find a way to remember every 'bloody' day. BLOODY Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. No day or date escaped the 'wars' of here. This important piece of work needs to be shaped from outside politics, and sooner rather than later.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

8 months

Stormont: The wise up stage should have happened long ago. More bolloxology now about the final, final stages of talks. I've said it before, when politics is not about people, it's about nothing.

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Brian Rowan

4 years

In January, before the pandemic, Health was set as an Executive priority in the New Decade New Approach Agreement. In the formation of the Executive, it was second last pick. @RobinSwannMoH stepped up as others stepped away. In all the noise of now, that's worth remembering.

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Brian Rowan

2 years

Every wasted/waiting day is another line in the obituary of Stormont. This mess wasn't made in Belfast. It was made by Johnson. Are we now to believe that a Conservative Government will produce the magic wand to fix it. Give us all a break.

@BBCMarkSimpson

Mark Simpson

@BBCMarkSimpson

2 years

The DUP ( @BrianKingston ) sets out some of its conditions for a return to power-sharing Executive: 🔹 passage of Protocol Bill “undiminished” 🔹assurances from next PM

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Brian Rowan

1 year

Today is because of the bolloxology of Boris and those who believed him.

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Brian Rowan

5 years

STORMONT: 5-party talks process now looks like a 2-party negotiation. Alliance, SDLP and UUP yet to see governments text. Approach ignores the changing numbers and trends in recent elections. If governments want a 5-party Executive, they should wise up. @EamonnMallie

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Brian Rowan

3 years

That penny hasn't yet dropped with some.But it was Brexit over everything else. More important than the Union, much more important than NI. That's the mess we're in. Little to do with all the other excuses. Everything to do with this place not featuring in Boris's bigger picture

@pmdfoster

Peter Foster

3 years

The sacking of @JulianSmithUK -- a devoted NI sec of state who was so obviously well-regarded on both sides -- said a lot about where UK government priorities really lay when it came to Northern Ireland. (ie not, ultimately, in Northern Ireland!)

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Brian Rowan

3 years

There's a who cares/so what mood about this. It has been said too many times. If Stormont collapses it will add to the Unionist nightmare of 2021 and create a stage for a 'Crocodile 2' Election. The starting point in all of this is Brexit

@rtenews

RTÉ News

3 years

Northern Ireland First Minister Paul Givan has said it is "inevitable" that Stormont will collapse if issues around the Northern Ireland Protocol are not resolved

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Brian Rowan

3 months

Thinking of Stephen's family, and about how proudly he spoke of them. I told him recently he was an inspiration. There's a lot of remembering - and not just the big stories ...

@BBCNewsNI

BBC News NI

3 months

Former BBC News NI political editor Stephen Grimason, who broke the news of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, has died aged 67 after a long illness

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Brian Rowan

6 months

A lovely evening in the company of @bigkenreid and @StephenGrimason I've known them both a long, long time, and still ask for their advice. Big voices in the big moments of this place. Great job by @Eamdee and his team at Queen's

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Brian Rowan

6 years

A repeat of the negotiations that the DUP collapsed in February would be a complete waste of time. Why not an independent chair? It worked with Mitchell. The longer the delay up there, the louder the question: What’s the point?

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Brian Rowan

3 years

I think Shitshow was a pretty accurate description last night...

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Brian Rowan

2 years

I've switched off from the news right now. Better to tune out. This government, and those who've run after it, have created some shitshow. Sunlit uplands - really

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Brian Rowan

11 months

The priority of getting an Executive up and running is a tired old line - repeated so many times now, that it goes in one ear and out the other. It's not news, not yesterday, not today or tomorrow. The priority should be politics that works - and Stormont doesn't.

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Brian Rowan

9 months

We could all see the love for Hugh today. What a contribution he made to this place. His boxing one of his headlines - his photographs telling so many other stories.

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Brian Rowan

10 months

We've learned here that peace is not easy, that it's not clean, and, at times, it's not fair - but it's nowhere near as difficult as burying the dead of the conflict years. That should be our message to others

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Brian Rowan

10 months

The last thing Stormont needs is an election. The mess of many years has been tolerated for far too long. Everyday, we listen to the bullshit of getting it up and running. I'd like to hear a date for a shut down. And leave it to the governments to work out what next

@AlexKane221b

Alex.Kane

10 months

The rumours about the government calling an assembly election if DUP doesn’t play ball have been heard before and would serve no purpose. DUP would still-comfortably I think-remain largest unionist party; and if it eclipsed SF I wouldn’t expect SF to nominate a dfm afterwards.

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Brian Rowan

4 years

Those now running a mile from Trump are very late in the day. The past 4 years have been about him and nothing else. We knew his form. There are many who own the shame of yesterday, but none more than him.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

1 year

Time for the two governments to have the conversation that thinks beyond Stormont. Too many times, they've waited too long and tolerated the pantomime that is that place.

@dmcbfs

David McCann

1 year

Who doesn't want to talk about politics? Look at this crowd.

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Brian Rowan

6 months

When this is over Eamonn some of the so-called 'big' leaders of the world are going to look very small.

@EamonnMallie

Eamonn Mallie

6 months

#Killing babies v #Protecting Commercial Shipping. The West is lining up to take whatever steps necessary to protect commercial vessels in the Red Sea but what of the killings of scores of helpless babies in Gaza? The West hasn’t the guts to call for a ceasefire.

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Brian Rowan

3 years

1/ Boris Johnson drawing lines as if this place was some colouring in book. And the newspaper headlines tell a one-sided story of ending the 'witch hunt'. This is not a process for families - it's an escape route for military veterans...

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Brian Rowan

6 months

Hearing that Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and a party colleague met earlier with LCC. Understood meeting in Belfast. I've no detail from inside the room.

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Brian Rowan

5 years

It reminds me of February 2018. They moved to a draft agreement, were widely criticised within the unionist community and, when things unravelled, looked for others to blame. It's always everybody else's fault.

@SJAMcBride

Sam McBride

5 years

In a Belfast Telegraph interview, Arlene Foster bemoans how "my own" media in NI have given this week's Brexit proposal "ridiculous" coverage. For completeness: Mrs Foster is by her own choice refusing to be interviewed by me, @StephenNolan & others since our RHI scandal reports.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

7 months

The ugliness and the sickness and the sins of war shown to us on television every night. And, here, we fight the Past and normalise the absurd and the brokenness of politics. Talks over - No, Talks continuing. WISE UP.

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Brian Rowan

3 years

A few words from Health Minister @RobinSwannMoH in #POLITICALPURGATORY . Throughout the pandemic, he has spoken in measured words and has been a calming voice in a time of fear. He doesn't get rattled on days like this.

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Brian Rowan

5 months

The scandal of Stakeknife in just six words.

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Brian Rowan

2 years

Tea Sock and Toast and a tin of Brexits (I mean biscuits). God help us. I guess things can only get better

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Brian Rowan

2 years

The funeral of the Good Friday Agreement, or another line for the long obituary of the Union? Talk is cheap. Brexit shattered the old certainties. There are times to listen and think.

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Brian Rowan

4 years

When the ceasefire collapsed in February '96, what did Hume do? With @GerryAdamsSF he met the IRA leadership to try again.

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Brian Rowan

4 years

Clear from this morning's @skydavidblevins interview with @DUPleader and @moneillsf that our politics is beginning to work. Same-page doesn't always mean thinking the same way. Arlene Foster quotes Michelle O'Neill, to differ but to differ well. That's progress. @SophyRidgeSky

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

6 months

STORMONT: People now bored by this maddening play. A few thoughts from yesterday's piece for @thejournal_ie

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Brian Rowan

2 months

Hard to watch those latest pictures of war, but the people there can't look away. The world has failed them.

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Brian Rowan

6 months

STORMONT: "From sad to a tragic farce." One source on how the UK Government's 1-party talks have now become a 1-party show with the DUP. A comment made to me this morning about "overselling" the deal after exaggerating the problem.

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Brian Rowan

5 years

When you read this you understand the long road back to any government here. Brilliant and brave work from @SJAMcBride and much food for thought in his final sentence. @EamonnMallie

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Brian Rowan

2 years

'It will be a shitshow' should have been the message on the side of the bus. The fools who've run with this government have a lot to answer for.

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Brian Rowan

4 years

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Brian Rowan

6 years

Was chatting about this on @BBCgmu this morning - the courage and vision of Hume helped change things. When leadership was needed, he was there. @EamonnMallie @cllrtimattwood

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Brian Rowan

11 months

What does back to Stormont mean? If it is having Stormont for the sake of it, then we should forget about it. So much that is broken here, stems from the failure of that place

@dmcbfs

David McCann

11 months

The DUP's strategy has propelled Sinn Fein to new electoral heights. If they stay out of government SF will hold their 3 most marginal Westminster seats easily. My thoughts in the @irish_news

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Brian Rowan

4 years

Close to 600 cases north/south yesterday. Wearing a mask is a small ask.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

2 years

History will judge Brexit as the starting point in all of this and will remember who negotiated it.

@LiamFox

Sir Liam Fox

2 years

The #protocol is unacceptable because it leaves the people of Northern Ireland as second-class citizens. There is a choice of whether to seek compromise or confrontation. History will be a harsh judge of the wrong decision. My article in Sunday @Telegraph 👇

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Brian Rowan

2 years

In all of the noise of now, worth remembering that in January 2020 @JulianSmithUK could not have saved Stormont without @simoncoveney Not joint authority or joint rule, but two governments finding ways to make this place work.

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Brian Rowan

3 months

The right words on a sad day from Gary, Chris, Cherryl and Joan. We'll remember him for more than the big story of Good Friday...

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Brian Rowan

4 years

My ma - that generation just gets on with it

@rowan_roisin

Roisin Rowan

4 years

Margaret having a laugh through it all

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Brian Rowan

5 months

Happy Margaret's Day. I was telling her this morning that this is her 67th Mother's Day: What's wrong with that? she asked. 94 later this year, and still running the show.

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Brian Rowan

4 years

What's clear this time is that this is not some orange v green tug-of-war. 4 parties twice voted for @RobinSwannMoH proposals. There might be a solution, but yet more damage done. Imagine being on a hospital frontline and hearing about these proposals being blocked.

@BBCMarkSimpson

Mark Simpson

@BBCMarkSimpson

4 years

Over the years during the many crises at Stormont it’s often been said - ‘the darker the night, the closer the dawn’. Solutions are only found once relations appear dangerously close to breaking point. It feels like one of those nights.

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Brian Rowan

5 years

Listened to the debate tonight. Any old Stormont won't do; not after 3 years. If it returns under pressure - without the necessary thought and reforms - then falls again, it could be the last Stormont. 1 government in particular needs to accept its part in the mess.

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Brian Rowan

2 years

That Boris Johnson is back in the headlines of this story, tells you all you need to know about him and them. How desperate they are to save themselves, and how he never thinks beyond himself. Clown and circus politics

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Brian Rowan

2 years

Rehearsed lines. Totally unconvincing. The bolloxology of the mission remains the same. What Truss has done today confirms what we already knew. That the longer this Government is in place, the bigger the wrecking ball. God Help Us. Truss won't.

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Brian Rowan

4 years

History will judge Trimble and Empey well for their efforts in 97/98, with loyalist cover in the talks, to turn a corner in this place. They did their share of the heavy lifting. As for others and Brexit, well let's wait and see.

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Brian Rowan

3 years

23 years ago, I didn't believe an agreement was possible. We didn't fully understand 'the process' then - that you get the deal and then take years to argue/implement it. In the fog of now, it is hard to see a way through - but the learning of '98 is that everything is possible.

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

6 months

Politics - the week ahead.

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Brian Rowan

2 months

Holy moly...

@irishathletics

Athletics Ireland

@irishathletics

2 months

THEY'VE DONE IT!!🤩🙌👏 EUROPEAN GOLD🥇FOR IRELAND 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪 What a team performance!!!😍 ⏱️3:09.92CR Full result: #Roma2024 #IrishAthletics @123 .ie

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Brian Rowan

9 months

It's a broken record. The world has too much to think about to waste time on this. When politics is not about people and their needs, it's about nothing.

@DarranMarshall

Darran Marshall

@DarranMarshall

9 months

Momentum towards restoring powersharing in Northern Ireland appears to have ebbed, the Tánaiste has said. Micheál Martin said he understood that negotiations between the UK Gov & the DUP had "more or less come to a conclusion".

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Brian Rowan

6 months

Belfast city centre on a day that shouts out about our broken politics - and about everything else that's breaking

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Brian Rowan

4 years

The numbers are grim, but people have switched off. And that's the big challenge in all of this - how to get them to believe again in the political message and decision-making. I've said it before. The Executive has lost the dressing room. No confidence in the management team.

@williamcrawley

William Crawley

@williamcrawley

4 years

So this is what we know at this point about the Executive deliberations (courtesy of ⁦ @BBCJayneMcC ⁩)

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@BrianPJRowan

Brian Rowan

2 years

If there is no plan, then they should forget about the tea and scones on Thursday. And the two governments should do what they did this time three years ago - produce a take it or leave it agreement. If there's to be no Stormont, then let's have the what next conversation.

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Brian Rowan

2 years

Began my sentence isolating yesterday after a two-year-plus Covid-free run. A reminder that it hasn't gone away. No walks or pints for a while. Stay safe.

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Brian Rowan

2 years

The mess that has been made over a period of years by this squad, and those from here who ran after them, is unforgiveable Joke politics - not at all funny.

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Brian Rowan

4 years

On a dander yesterday. I don't get this.

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Brian Rowan

11 months

What a remarkable run by Ciara Mageean. 4th in that company is something else. Tactically brilliant throughout.

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Brian Rowan

2 years

What a circus. What a clown. What chaos.

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Brian Rowan

2 years

First since Covid. The world's a better place...

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Brian Rowan

3 years

Have a read - Ulster Unionist leader @BeattieDoug writing at

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Brian Rowan

5 years

The numbers and mood have changed dramatically since Assembly election of 2017. The big 2 still the big 2, but not as big as they once were. It would be madness to leave this negotiation to the DUP and Sinn Fein. There is something to be said for an election first.

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Julian Smith MP

5 years

Good calls with all five party leaders this morning. Look forward to starting positive process tomorrow to get Stormont back up and running

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Brian Rowan

4 years

Just said Happy Birthday to @ruairi_rowan through the window and waved to our little granddaughter Aoife. Strange - worrying - times, but we have the easy parts. Thinking of those on the many front lines. We can't thank them enough.

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Brian Rowan

9 months

Stormont is not news - nor is this place. Look out into the world, and think about what really matters.

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Brian Rowan

5 years

Sam, I've always thought that nothing would change here until things changed at Westminster. The question now is: Who needs Stormont most? Those who've read your book will know that it will take much more than an agreement on Irish language to put that place back together again.

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@SJAMcBride

Sam McBride

5 years

There are many troubling questions for the DUP - but none of them were even asked, let alone answered, at its party conference. Nevertheless, for all those difficulties, a sudden General Election could be better for the DUP than one delayed into next year.

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Brian Rowan

2 years

David, I think there are only a few questions that really matter now. Is Stormont worth saving? Is there a sensible plan other than election? If not, there should be a full stop. Enough of the nonsense on the hill. Those, in London and here, who made the mess need to own it.

@skydavidblevins

David Blevins

@skydavidblevins

2 years

With Northern Ireland in political limbo, we have two exclusives on @RidgeOnSunday … @moneillsf will be speaking live to @SophyRidgeSky and @J_Donaldson_MP has been speaking to me. ⏰ Sunday 8.30am #⃣ #Ridge 📺 Mobile/YouTube/Sky 501/Virgin 602/Freeview 233

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Brian Rowan

2 years

People hanging on by their fingernails - looking for leadership. Truss hiding. Happy to speak into a mirror and to her own crowd. Those who brought us this mess - there and here - have a lot to answer for.

@BBCNewsPR

BBC News Press Team

2 years

Liz Truss has cancelled her BBC One interview with Nick Robinson which was due to air this Tuesday evening (30th August) at 7pm. Ms Truss’ team say she can no longer spare the time to appear on “Our Next Prime Minister”. (1/2)

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Brian Rowan

9 months

This week 30 years ago, we were taken to the very edge. In the dark of conflict, it's hard to see light, yet it was there. Within a year, the ceasefires represented the long beginnings of peace. Hard to believe, but it happened. Let that be our message, our hope for others

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Brian Rowan

3 years

In Dublin for the night

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