Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson

Contributor

Newton Emerson, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes a weekly opinion column.

Fine Gael should never again send a Protestant candidate into a sectarian storm

Presidential election: Never again should Fine Gael send a Protestant candidate out, unprepared, into a sectarian storm

Powersharing has created a nonsense system where planning an action counts as an action

One team of 134 people at Stormont has spent €123 million on a strategy that reduced carbon emissions by just one per cent

No, the Irish language does not ‘belong to us all’. Stop insisting that it does

A row over Irish language signs in a leafy part of east Belfast taps into deeper divisions

Why are the parties of Northern Ireland’s centre at each other’s throats?

If Alliance, SDLP and UUP cannot offer alternative to Sinn Féin-DUP, it is hard to see what they are for

What’s behind Northern Ireland’s fake greenways controversy?

The Republic has built 91km of greenways in the past two years; Northern Ireland has built 4km, while claiming to have built many more

The campaign to free Bailey the support dog from prison sparks a useful debate

Bailey’s story has highlighted an odd feature of Northern Ireland politics: prison issues are normally a dog that does not bark

Here in Northern Ireland, the Irish presidential election seems a lot like Eurovision

Most Protestants in North have genuine and understandable indifference about Irish presidency

An orange-green split is looming over Lough Neagh

The visible decline of the lough this summer shocked people living around it, including in several heartland Sinn Féin constituencies

Lack of transparency over immigration fuels toxic atmosphere in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland's parties must put agendas aside and have an open discussion based on evidence

Nigel Farage’s immigration bombshell raises nationalist hopes and unionist fears

Unionism still faces a hard new political reality if Northern Ireland comes to be seen in Britain as an obstacle to controlling immigration

Lack of tax powers renders Stormont a spectator in UK public spending debate

Patience of English taxpayers with Northern Ireland will be tested as Britain runs out of money

Scotland shows how an apparently unstoppable national cause can stall when mishandled by one party

Northern unionists might dare to dream of a similar outcome but SNP's legacy offers a mixed lesson

Why is Sinn Féin so reluctant to amend climate legislation to improve the A5?

Importance of road upgrade for constituents makes party’s tolerance of any political pain on it a genuine mystery

Who do you call if you want to speak to the leader of unionism? It’s complicated

The DUP has accepted second place at Stormont. But it doesn’t know how to lead unionism from there

Don’t expect votes for 16-year-olds to change the world. It’s the 25-35s who are the rebels

As the Scottish independence referendum showed, young first-time voters can be surprisingly conservative

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