Latest editorial
TRADE union leaders in Northern Ireland condemned Michelin bosses and unionist politicians following yesterday’s announcement that 860 jobs will be lost in Ballymena when a tyre factory closes.
The company announced that it would “run down” and shut its factory in the County Antrim town by mid-2018 as part of a restructuring plan that will also see investment in its facilities in Dundee and Stoke-on-Trent.
The announcement comes a year after another major local employer, the JTI Gallagher tobacco factory, announced plans to close its operation in the town by 2017, with the loss of 877 jobs.
From Barry McGuigan and Carl Frampton to Tyrone McKenna and Lewis Crocker, the city’s fighters carry a complex history into the ring, writes JOHN WIGHT
AARON SMITH discusses why the Protestant diaspora are still part of Yeats’s ‘Indomitable Irishry’, and an integral part of any future united Ireland.
CHRIS HOOFE calls for support for GMB’s Potters’ Pledge campaign, aimed at making sure the historic pottery industry based in Stoke-on-Trent is supported over cheap, low-quality imports and counterfeits