Articles by Adam McGibbon
Adam McGibbon is an activist and member of the Green Party in Northern Ireland. He is a past parliamentary candidate and Executive member for the same. He is currently serving a second term as Vice President of Queen's University Belfast Students' Union and tries to find as much time for other activism as possible.
More at:
http://twitter.com/#!/Adammcgibbon
Students’ union letting agencies – Part of the Solution?
Posted on April 30, 2012 | No Comments
After two long years, the project that has dominated most of my Vice Presidency of Queen’s University Belfast Students’ Union has come to fruition – the creation of ‘SU Lets’, a student-focused ethical lettings agency, that finally opened last week. The details of how we got here are long and gruelling. From early beginnings as [...]
Where Next For Northern Ireland? The Agreement, 14 Years On
Posted on April 3, 2012 | 2 Comments
When I was ten years old, I remember being dragged out one evening by my parents to the local primary school in Dundonald, East Belfast. Uncooperative and grouchy, I had to stand around bored for a time period that seemed like forever – there were so many grown-ups there, all queuing to stand in well-worn [...]
Occupy Belfast create ‘The People’s Bank’
Posted on January 30, 2012 | No Comments
Royal Avenue, Belfast’s main city centre thoroughfare, mixes classic architecture with more obviously new arrivals. On the corner of Royal Avenue and North Street lies a grand, art deco building that used to house a branch of the Bank of Ireland and the (long-gone) Belfast Stock Exchange. Having laid silent and bare for over a [...]
Why I’m using my tax rebate to sue the taxman
Posted on December 29, 2011 | 2 Comments
A couple of days before Christmas, a letter came in the mail for me. It was for Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, telling me I was due a tax rebate of £80.89. Coming in the festive season, there was a few things I was considering spending it on. In the end, I decided to gamble [...]
DUP Minister Under Pressure As Anti-Fracking Campaign Grows
Posted on November 27, 2011 | No Comments
The issue of hydraulic fracturing – fracking – has been catapulted into mainstream attention in Northern Ireland over the last few weeks. For those not yet in the know, fracking involves pumping high-pressure chemicals (many of them extremely dangerous) into the ground in order to extract natural gas. The 2010 film ‘Gasland’ documents the devastation [...]
Tescopoly: A Green’s Praise for Sammy Wilson
Posted on November 7, 2011 | No Comments
It’s rare that I’ll have anything very nice to say about the DUP’s Sammy Wilson, our current Northern Ireland Finance Minister. Despite a friend telling me when we were both students that Sammy always dined in the restaurant he worked in and was a gentleman, I don’t think really we’d get on. It’s the Clarkson-esque [...]
Northern Ireland Green Party Conference 2011
Posted on November 4, 2011 | No Comments
The Green Party in Northern Ireland’s conference took place in the Ramada Encore Hotel in Belfast’s trendy Cathedral Quarter last weekend – five minutes’ walk away is Writer’s Square, where Belfast’s fledgling local chapter of the Occupy Movement have set up their tents. Delegates, of course, went down to show support. Conference can tend to [...]
Drenched in Oil – Ulster Bank, RBS and Ethics for the Belfast Festival
Posted on October 10, 2011 | 1 Comment
What links the suffering of the indigenous Cree Indians of Alberta, Canada, the international arms trade and the President of Belarus to a vibrant cultural event in Belfast, Northern Ireland? The answer is Ulster Bank’s sponsorship of the Belfast Festival at Queen’s; or as it’s now called, the ‘Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s.’ The [...]
Plan To Turn Northern Ireland Into Tax Haven Shelved
Posted on September 24, 2011 | No Comments
In a response to a question asked in the Assembly by Green MLA Steven Agnew, Northern Ireland’s Finance Minister Sammy Wilson revealed that plans to cut the province’s corporation tax rate from the UK rate of 26% to match the Republic of Ireland’s 12.5% rate is now very unlikely to happen during the life of [...]
On Integrated Education – Happy 30th, Lagan College
Posted on September 12, 2011 | No Comments
This 4th September marked the 30th birthday of Lagan College, Northern Ireland’s first integrated school – that is, the first school where Catholic and Protestant children were educated together. It’s been an incredible journey – the oft-overlooked and remarkable story of a ground-breaking school started not by the state, but by brave parents who risked [...]
keep looking »