Latest news with #NewIreland
BBC News
09-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Foundations in place for Ireland to grow
New Ireland women's head coach Lloyd Tennant says the "foundations are in place" for the team to qualify for World Cups and improve their ranking during his time in who has 30 years of experience in coaching, was appointed as Ed Joyce's successor in May. And as he prepares to take on Zimbabwe in his first game at the helm in the opening T20 on 20 July, Tennant says he has "all good impressions" of what he has seen since starting his role on 1 June. "It [World Cup qualification] has been spoken about, making sure that we're all together in our vision," the 57-year-old said, with Ireland's hopes of reaching this year's ICC Women's World Cup ended by Bangladesh in April. "The team want to get through to World Cups obviously, so that's something we've already started to speak about. But also they want to move up the rankings and world rankings. It's an ambitious young group and an ambitious support staff behind them."Of the squad he has inherited from Joyce, who was head coach for nearly six years, he added: "We've got a decent mix of older heads and experienced players and younger. "We've got some good foundations and hopefully we can build on their skill set and keep moving forwards. As we go forward, we'll get some extra pace and wicket-taking options, trying to develop a bit of depth in the spin bowling. "We know that the batting group is strong, but could we add a bit of power hitting just to get slightly bigger scores." Maguire 'not a worry at all' A former seam bowler with Leicestershire, Tennant was assistant coach at Manchester Originals and was women and girls' talent manager at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for two years."Across the board I've had different experiences," he added."[I've been] an assistant coach, a head coach and I've worked in the women's game for 10 years and have seen how that's developed, so I'm hoping we can still continue to move the women's game forward as it's growing across the world at the moment. "I'm hoping to be an influence on some of the coaches as well. Being in coaching for a long time, I've made my own mistakes and have got a few things right, so hopefully I can pass that experience on to the coaches."Ireland face Zimbabwe in three T20s later this month before a three-match one-day international series between the sides, which starts on 26 July. Tennant handed a debut call-up to The Hill's right-arm off-spinner Lara McBride off the back of her Super Series performances for the added he has no concerns over the 19-year-old's club-mate Aimee Maguire, who was suspended from international cricket earlier this year for an illegal bowling action. "Yeah, she's doing brilliantly," Tennant said of 19-year-old Maguire. "She absolutely looks fine to me. She's not a worry at all. At the right time, at the right pace we'll get her back moving into the team but she's doing brilliantly."When asked if Maguire has gone back for re-testing, he added: "Hopefully she'll be going shortly, then we'll get her some cricket and take that at the right pace." Ireland squads for Zimbabwe series T20 squad: Gaby Lewis (captain, Phoenix/Scorchers), Ava Canning (Leinster/Typhoons), Christina Coulter Reilly (Clontarf/Scorchers), Laura Delany (Leinster/Typhoons), Amy Hunter (Instonians/Dragons), Arlene Kelly (Malahide/Dragons), Louise Little (Pembroke/Scorchers), Sophie MacMahon (Leinster/Scorchers), Jane Maguire (The Hills/Typhoons), Lara McBride (The Hills/Scorchers), Cara Murray (Waringstown/Clontarf/Dragons), Leah Paul (Merrion/Typhoons), Orla Prendergast (Pembroke/Dragons), Rebecca Stokell (Merrion/Typhoons).ODI squad: Gaby Lewis (captain, Phoenix/Scorchers), Ava Canning (Leinster/Typhoons), Christina Coulter Reilly (Clontarf/Scorchers), Alana Dalzell (Bready/Dragons), Laura Delany (Leinster/Typhoons), Sarah Forbes (Pembroke/Typhoons), Amy Hunter (Instonians/Dragons), Arlene Kelly (Malahide/Dragons), Louise Little (Pembroke/Scorchers), Jane Maguire (The Hills/Typhoons), Lara McBride (The Hills/Scorchers), Cara Murray (Waringstown/Clontarf/Dragons), Leah Paul (Merrion/Typhoons), Orla Prendergast (Pembroke/Dragons) Ireland v Zimbabwe fixtures 20 July: Ireland v Zimbabwe (1st T20; Pembroke)22 July: Ireland v Zimbabwe (2nd T20; Pembroke)23 July: Ireland v Zimbabwe (3rd T20; Pembroke)26 July: Ireland v Zimbabwe (1st ODI; Stormont)28 July: Ireland v Zimbabwe (2nd ODI; Stormont)
Irish Times
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
The Southern Establishment's attitudes to unification must be challenged
Sixty one years ago, The Irish Times published a radical challenge to the Establishment consensus on the future of Ireland from John Hume , the man who would later go on to lead the SDLP . His 1964 articles in this paper drew on his experience as a young teacher from Derry , a pivotal figure in the early credit union movement and someone for whom poverty, homelessness and need were core motivators. Over the last number of years, the New Ireland Commission run by the SDLP has been engaging with communities across the island and the full spectrum of attitudes to the future of our shared island. That work has made it starkly clear to me that Southern establishment views on partition, the nature of reconciliation and the need to finally wage war on poverty and want, particularly in the North, require a new and radical challenge again. READ MORE [ Shared Island: Cross-border co-operation should be expanded, ESRI report concludes Opens in new window ] Foyle MP Colum Eastwood at a New Ireland Commission event. Photograph: Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye The atrophied attitudes to life, community relations and the urgent need for change in Northern Ireland have become a barrier to a real national conversation about the future. It has become comfortable to substitute slogans for the serious work required to fundamentally address the social and economic challenges that plague communities across Ireland. Challenges which, I believe, can only be resolved through the transformative impact of a New Ireland. In particular, the creeping normalisation of the demand that reconciliation be a prerequisite for constitutional change needs to be addressed. Not least of all because that ask, which has come from a limited number of academics and an increasing number of political figures, is never mentioned as a precondition for maintaining the union. It is too easy to wave away the legitimate demands of a generation of citizens in the North by requiring that we achieve the undefined conditions of reconciliation which have been asked of no one else. More than that, it is offensive to say to my generation and others that we should be satisfied with peace but be denied a decent economy, better jobs, public services and opportunities because we have not achieved reconciliation. Especially when so many of us live all-island lives where we can see the benefits and the opportunities that our friends and neighbours a few miles away enjoy. The hard truth that those establishment voices need to hear and to understand is that while reconciliation is a moral imperative for our society, it's hard for people to prioritise holding hands with their neighbours if they cannot feed their kids. John Hume and Seamus Mallon shake hands at the end of the elections of Ministers to the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont. Photograph: Alan Betson In those circumstances, which are real for working class communities across the North, it is an abdication of responsibility to tell people that change is on hold indefinitely. Tackling poverty is an act of reconciliation. Addressing decades-long imbalances in investment and opportunity is an act of reconciliation. Showing people that a New Ireland is about raising living standards, transforming public services and improving the lives of everyone who shares this island is the most fundamental act of reconciliation that many of us could contribute to the future. Shying away from the reality of life, living conditions and politics in Northern Ireland for a comfortable campaign of sloganeering is a failure to take the challenge of bringing people together in their substantial common interests seriously. To that end there has, over the last number of years, been a trend of other people never involved in the SDLP telling us what the giants of our movement John Hume and Seamus Mallon thought about the future. I do not think any rise to the level of taking their names in vain but I know they would have had a wry smile and a raised eyebrow at least at some of the commentary. Take it from me – neither believed that the unity of our people was at odds with the unity of our country. Neither is a hostage to the other – they are complimentary. The Good Friday Agreement, easily and falsely interpreted as a full stop in conversations about the future, was in fact the beginning of the next paragraph in our island's story. John and Seamus did not create institutions to contain or diminish the campaign to unite Ireland, they created them as a mechanism to advance our ambitions. Those of us who believe in a new future together should not lose sight of that. We all have a responsibility to act in the interests of bringing people and communities together. My firm view is that the job of uniting our island and building a new Ireland can be a process of reconciliation. It gives us the opportunity to set aside the enmity and mistrust of the past and to genuinely work together to build a new future. That's the challenge and it's one that everyone in a position of leadership should be prepared to take on. Colum Eastwood, MP for Foyle, was leader of the SDLP from 2015 to 2024
Belfast Telegraph
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Laughs guaranteed at City Hall's New Ireland comedy show
Conor Grimes and Alan McKee's lighthearted play imagines how unified island could look A New Ireland play set in the 2030s is coming to Belfast City Hall on April 26. Comedy duo Conor Grimes and Alan McKee will transport guests to a time 'when the north and the south have voted yes in a referendum' as part of their efforts to raise funds for Belfast charity Show Some Love.
