Ráth Mór Creggan

Deepest condolences to our colleague Carol, whose father @philcunns has passed away. An artist, photographer and bestselling author, Phil contributed so much to the cultural life of Ráth Mór for decades. His paintings adorn the entire building. Suaimhneas síoraí dá anam dílis.

Exactly. More than 90% of Higher Education capital spending is in Belfast. Government must intervene to stop Stormont’s overspending in the ‘capital’. Derry needs roads, rail, its own university and purpose-built student housing. The HE sector needs regulation and oversight.

You know what else needs a scrutiny committee…?

UU will be absolutely raging they missed out.

Universities, at their very core, are institutions that value and protect freedom of expression. They are bastions of new ideas and discourse that will better society - not censorship and whitewashing. At what stage will UU stop acting like a branch of the 1960s' Unionist state?

Pobal Dhún na nGall cúl taca dílis pheileadóirí an chontae

UU lecturers set to refuse pay deal because of top table expense accounts.

Today Chris Byrne reads Cathais from Paul Laughlin's poetry collection Dorn San Aer. Proceeds from sales to Palestine Medical Relief Society. Tá muid ag dul go Meiriceá an tseacthain seo chun éisteacht le Chris Byrne ag léamh Cathais. Posters, cards and badges now availalble from…

This plan - be it good, bad or indifferent towards us - will have a profound impact on Derry in the run up to - and after - a reunification referendum. Dublin has repeatedly said the North West is its priority. How will Derry feature in the 2040 plan? rte.ie/news/ireland/2…

Wrote a moderately-successful caper with @BlackstaffNI almost 20 years ago, looking at how things will change when Northerners get the presidential vote (as we should!) @MaryHanafin1 is right to worry, though. Things don’t end at all well for the far-right Fianna Fáil candidate.

UU clearly haven’t the capacity to manage this site, which they’ve had for eight years now and consistently failed to develop. It shows, yet again, that UU don’t have the resources or capacity to manage campuses in Derry and Belfast. It is time to hand Magee over to a new NWU.

UU's stake in Magee is significantly less than the Dublin government's or @dcsdcouncil's. Surely it is time we began reflecting the Belfast university as a minority partner here and stopped allowing it to attempt to call all the shots?

Alt iontach le @jack_maciomhair san @anpaipear inniu. Excellent article on Dublin's £40m investment in Magee. @CArchibald_SF must now set up an Oversight Commission to protect this investment. We also must ensure bilingual signage is erected across the campus immediately.

First question a Derry 16-year-old voter will ask is why don’t we don’t have a standalone university here - but have to pay £4750 to go to a Belfast owned one, or £9500 to go to a British one? Second question, why does it cost just £2000 to go South? bbc.co.uk/news/live/c93k…

Every summer the Focus Project in Derry organise an incredible school uniform pop-up shop at @mor_rath derrynow.com/news/local-new…

Bronagh Gallagher: ‘I’m still 100 per cent a Derry girl’ irishnews.com/news/northern-…

Because of its massive debt, UU hasn’t got the resources or internal capacity to grow Derry. All efforts must focus on making its Belfast campus viable. UU’s best move is to adopt the @RIAdawson blueprint, which moves Magee and Coleraine into a cross-border NWU centred in Derry.

Terrific feature by @mcart_pat in today’s @irish_news on Creggan girl and Ráth Mór patron @bronaghgall. ‘I have this thing in my DNA that I hate unfairness, inequality. It’s something that most of us, growing up in a city where injustice was rife, take with us.’

This is a university currently £170m in debt. Debt incurred by building an unsanctioned white elephant in Belfast instead of a planned expansion in Derry that wouldn’t have bankrupted both UU and the entire NI HE sector. Just who is overseeing UU and its overspending?

UU’s trip to the US cost more than Stormont’s. Its spending - all centred on trying to make its white elephant Belfast campus viable - is out of control. @RIAdawson has twice now demanded a Scrutiny Commission to oversee the North’s HE sector. It’s time to act, @CArchibald_SF

The Dublin government is now a major stakeholder in Magee, a welcome development. @CArchibald_SF must ensure: An independent Scrutiny Commission is established to protect this investment (and others); and All signage in the new building is bilingual, as is mandated by students.