Tim McGarry at the Slugger Awards

Tonight in Belfast, we’re running the second in what I hope will become the annual ‘Slugger Awards‘.

These awards – previewed here on the Amnesty blog – are something of a departure for political weblogs. It would be fair to say that politicians are – for the most part – less than thrilled by the way that blogs have transformed politics.

The Slugger Awards are something of an attempt to redress the balance. Slugger is unusually visible in Northern Ireland’s politics. It has over 34,000 unique visitors per month and Stratagem/ComRes polling shows that 96% of NI Assembly Members read it.

It is widely recognised as watering hole for Northern Ireland’s political class. It has a terrific convening power the even we organisers underestimated. Having shifted over 300 tickets in a couple of days, it rapidly became clear that we would have filled a venue twice the size.

The awards will provide bloggers, their readers and commenters to say what kind of politics and politicians they want to see more of. It is a pro-politics event in a young-ish democracy – a place where the development of a good politics is crucial.

Awards will highlight the need for good local representation and a political culture. It includes prizes for the best Councillor, the best local authority, journalist and local paper as well as awards for the promotion of participation and involvement in policymaking.

They will be presented by the actor and comedian Tim McGarry. This is particularly fitting as he plays a fictional Sinn Féin councillor in the popular BBC Northern Ireland comedy Give My Head Peace. The full results, along with a few surprises – will be visible on the Slugger O’Toole website later today (or perhaps tomorrow morning – once the hangovers have worn off).