I can but assume George must read Slugger as we elevate complaining to an art form here. Speaking to John Manley in the Irish News, he had this to say:
“I love Northern Ireland, and I really like the people here, but I think that they’re way too self critical. I think the comparisons people make here are not between Northern Ireland and some other society, but between Northern Ireland and some abstract notion of a perfect society that doesn’t exist.”
He said a “more realistic assessment” of the region is a “place of people with great energy, determination, great skill and an opportunity to meet the needs that people here have and people everywhere have.
“The same basic desires: a decent job, a decent home, and, most importantly, a chance to get your children off to a good start in life, good education, good health care, good learning; and I believe this is, and will increasingly be, a society of that kind.”
The former Democratic Party Senate majority leader’s latest visit coincides with the sod-cutting ceremony and fundraising campaign for new premises for the Senator George J Mitchell institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s.
Mind you, the rain and wind today in Belfast would scunder anyone.
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
Discover more from Slugger O’Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!
For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.
Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.
If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.
