100-year ban on Chinook tragedy files is a disgraceful decision... just one of many by officialdom

Gail Walker, Belfast Telegraph, August 23rd, 2025

When an RAF Chinook crashed into the Mull of Kintyre in 1994, killing 29 people including many elite intelligence personnel, it left their families devastated and had shocking security implications for Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

What nobody could have predicted is that 31 years later we would be none the wiser about what caused the tragedy because successive governments would stonewall those relatives and the rest of us from getting basic information.

The revelation in a BBC documentary that the Ministry of Defence had slapped an extreme 100-year secrecy rule on certain documents relating to the crash has added fresh impetus to families' demands for answers.

They have now vowed to see the Government in court after Prime Minister Keir Starmer rejected their call for a judge-led public inquiry.

We don't know what those sealed documents are of course — which is the whole point of hiding them away.

But it's those documents the public needs to see immediately or we might think wrongdoers are being protected.

Why would we think this? Maybe it's because we have all had a very steep learning curve in how government as a matter of default lies to us, whether it's about Jimmy Savile, the Post Office Horizon scandal, the infected blood scandal, the Iraq war or numerous miscarriages of justice.

So often there is a flat refusal to answer the simplest questions. Recently Baroness Casey's grooming gangs review prompted the kind of U-turn from a government that would have resulted in resignations 30 years ago.

If it's not bare-faced lies, it's concealment and obfuscation.

Of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's famous list of 'things to know' — 'known knowns', 'known unknowns', 'unknown unknowns' — it's number two that the Chinook families and we — as a public and a citizenry — have to worry about now.

When Chinook ZD576 crashed into a foggy hillside 20 minutes after taking off from RAF Aldergrove en route to a counter-terrorism conference in Scotland, debris was scattered over a wide area.

The emotional fallout, however, remains incalculable. The Chinook Justice Campaign represents almost all the families, including 47 children of the dead. On board were four crew and 25 passengers including senior members of RUC Special Branch, the Army and MI5, plus one civil servant.

Victims of ‘showflight’

Yet grieving relatives have been gaslit by the MoD their loved ones revered.

The pilots, Flt Lts Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper, were accused of “gross negligence” by the RAF, a slur only retracted after a 17-year battle by their families.

The Chinook had no black box or flight data recorder, and it later emerged that it had been grounded because of fatal flaws and had been deemed by engineers at Boscombe Down as “positively dangerous” and “not to be relied upon in any way whatsoever”.

Retired RAF squadron leader Robert Burke has now claimed the doomed Chinook was carrying important passengers on a “show flight” intended to prove how safe the Mark 2 version was.

Andy Tobias, whose father Lt Col John Tobias was among those killed, suspects the documents would reveal who decided to put 29 people on a helicopter deemed un-airworthy.

“They're literally trying to flush us out so nobody is able to challenge the documents when they're finally released,” he said. “It's just disgusting.”

For three decades the families have been put into the category of 'national nuisance' by a bureaucracy incapable of behaving with integrity, trying to hide incompetence behind 'national security'.

Colossal incompetence

Everything about that Chinook flight was colossal incompetence.

Did no one think putting all those people onto the one helicopter was risky in itself? Not having your whole chain of command in one vehicle is standard precaution.

Incompetence we may have to live with. What we can't live with is the same people trying to hide it from us and doing it in such a stupid way that we know they are hiding it.

You are meant to ensure that, where there is evidence, we the public do not know it exists. That's number three in Rumsfeld's hierarchy of deceit — and the Government can't even manage that.

We know there are Chinook papers which likely contain incriminating information about a person or persons who are elderly now. Correspondence before and after the crash which will not make for good reading for the MoD.

Because the other thing we know about these people and their types is that no matter how top secret stupidity is meant to be in Whitehall, the British temperament insists that everything is written down. Some civil servant's minutes, notes for the minister, a briefing document, are likely what's been stashed away for a century.

But it's democracy, accountability and transparency that also get put aside for 100 years.

Nobody gave these people authority to behave as if we do not have a right to know. Who do they think they are? Everything they do from they wake up in the morning until they put their little heads back on the pillow at night is bought and paid for by the British citizen.

They cannot be allowed to hide information away.

Protecting the incompetent, the lazy and the criminal

Data protection — which the MoD cites as a reason for its coyness — seems to outbid freedom of information every time. Who loves data protection? The person who fouled up, is waiting on a hefty pension, is hoping for a nod in the honours list.

We in Northern Ireland have been the lab rats for all this for 50 years. Some of the most notorious events in world history have taken place in our little patch and about most of those atrocities we are in the dark. Who? Why? What? Not answered.

Ignorance unacceptable anywhere else on earth is routine here.

But the Chinook cover-up has implications far beyond Northern Ireland. It's not just London that has this unwillingness to disclose. One of the enduring legacies of British rule in Ireland which Irish politicians have been keen to continue is the idea of concealing everything they do from scrutiny.

Omagh bomb relatives have long campaigned for the Irish Government to hold its own inquiry.

In 2005 I interviewed Dr Susan Phoenix, whose husband Ian, a senior RUC officer, was on the ill-fated Chinook. She had visited the crash site with psychic Joanne Maguire and told me how the dead spoke to them. It was a profoundly moving insight into grief and trauma.

Recently she spoke of her anger that the crash had been “locked up in cover-up”, branding it an “obscenity of justice”.

Thirty-one years on the Chinook dead — like so many more — still cry out for the Government to do the right thing and tell the truth.

Ex-defence secretary expresses ‘very deep concerns’ over Chinook crash

Lucinda Cameron, Irish News, August 23rd, 2025

FORMER defence secretary Liam Fox has said he has “very deep concerns” about the circumstances surrounding the 1994 RAF Chinook helicopter crash and is committed to a full investigation.

Ten senior RUC officers and intelligence experts from the RUC, MI5, and the British Army were among the 25 passengers and four special forces crew who were killed when the helicopter crashed on the Mull of Kintyre, en route from RAF Aldergrove to Fort George near Inverness, on June 2 that year.

The incident was initially blamed on pilot error before this was overturned in 2011.

Families of the victims have said they will “see the UK government in court” after the prime minister rejected calls for a judge-led inquiry.

Sir Liam, who was defence secretary in 2011, this week held a private meeting with some of the 47 children of those killed in the crash.

He said: “It was my pleasure to meet some of the members of the Chinook Justice Campaign and to listen to their harrowing stories, and their suspicions about what may have happened.

“I share their very deep concerns about the circumstances surrounding the crash and I have committed to a full investigation to ensure that the truth is laid before the British people.

“As the defence secretary who, after the conclusions of the Mull of Kintyre Review, cleared the two pilots of blame, I have assured the families that I will give this my full attention and help to establish the truth about what happened.”

The Chinook crashed on the Mull of Kintyre on June 2 1994 after taking off from RAF Aldergrove in Co Antrim

Fox is ‘reviewing the files’

It is understood Sir Liam is reviewing files and documents relating to the crash.

More than 40,000 people have now signed a Change.org petition calling for answers over what happened.

Following the crash, pilots Flight Lieutenants Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper were accused of gross negligence, but this verdict was overturned by the British government 17 years later following a campaign by the families.

A subsequent review by Lord Philip set out “numerous concerns” raised by those who worked on the Chinooks, with the MoD’s testing centre at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire declaring the Chinook Mk2 helicopters “unairworthy” prior to the crash.

Andy Tobias, whose father Lieutenant Colonel John Tobias (41), an intelligence officer, was killed in the crash, welcomed Sir Liam’s support and said the families “firmly believe that he can help us get to the truth about the circumstances leading up to the crash”.

Mr Tobias said: “The MoD keeps telling us that no new inquiry is necessary, and points to the judge-led inquiry set up by Sir Liam which was established solely to discover whether the pilots were to blame.

Liam Fox held a private meeting this week with some of the 47 children of the 25 intelligence experts , including RUC and MI5 and four special forces crew, who were killed when the helicopter crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in June 1994

“They were cleared. Given Sir Liam supports our case, then the MoD’s argument is void. They must stop trying to gaslight the families of the dead.”

The MoD was approached for comment.

In a statement earlier this month, the MoD said: “The Mull of Kintyre crash was a tragic accident and our thoughts and sympathies remain with the families, friends and colleagues of all those who died.

“The accident has already been the subject of six inquiries and investigations, including an independent judge-led review.”

‘WE KNOW MOST PEOPLE STAND WITH KNEECAP’

Una Mullally, Irish Times, August 23rd, 2025

Mo Chara was back in court in London this week over a terror-related charge the group reject as political policing. It’s a pivotal week in the run-up to their biggest Electric Picnic performance yet

Naoise Ó Cairealláin, aka Móglaí Bap of Kneecap, is at the airport, waiting to board a plane from Belfast to London, early on Tuesday evening.

“I keep having people coming up to me asking for photos and asking, ‘Where are you going?’ To a court case! They’re all going to Magaluf or something. I wish I was going to Magaluf,” he says.

A week in the life of Kneecap is unlike that of any other group right now. It’s the eve of the second day in court for Ó Cairealláin’s bandmate Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, aka Mo Chara, on a terror- related charge for allegedly displaying a flag of a proscribed organisation – Hizbullah, in this case – at a gig they played in London in November 2024.

Ó hAnnaidh’s first court appearance was in June, not long before Kneecap played Glastonbury, in one of the most anticipated performances of this year’s festival. In response to the controversy, the BBC, which broadcast 90 hours of Glastonbury coverage, decided not to stream the gig live, only heightening a charged atmosphere.

It has all contributed to a seismic year for the Belfast punk-rap group, who have been amassing an ever-growing number of fans since the release of their debut album, Fine Art, and their equally well-received semi-autobiographical film in 2024.

“Yes, Kneecap’s tectonic plates have shifted again,” Móglaí Bap says. “There’s always something on the horizon. Hopefully [the court hearing] will be the culmination of that there, and we can go back to releasing music.”

Whatever happens, 10 days after the court appearance they’re due to perform on the main stage at Electric Picnic – a Saturday slot the band are “really buzzing” about, as they first appeared at the festival in the tiny Puball Gaeilge, or Irish Tent, in 2018, and have been working their way up the bill ever since.

It will be a weekend of high-profile gigs: the night before Electric Picnic they’ll be supporting Fontaines DC at a sold-out open-air show in Belfast; 48 hours later they’ll be performing in Warsaw. Kneecap had been due to play in Vienna that day, but organisers cancelled the concert earlier this month because of “acute safety concerns”.

The band have consistently spoken out against genocide and in solidarity with the Palestinian people; they characterise the charge against Ó hAnnaidh, which he denies, as political policing, a distraction from Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and from the British government’s complicity.

Their stance has drawn the ire of pro-Israel groups and of politicians in the UK, including Keir Starmer, the prime minister – and has been polarising opinion in parts of the United States, too, since the group projected the words “Free Palestine” and “F**k Israel” during their appearances at the Coachella festival, in California, in April. (The crowd cheered at the messages – common chants at any Palestine solidarity protest in the United States.)

Ó hAnnaidh has been spending part of the day preparing for court. As Mo Chara he performs with raucous energy on stage, and is gregarious in interviews, but that’s his public persona; offstage he is a more muted figure who avoids social media.

“I mean, he doesn’t like too much attention on the best of days,” Móglaí Bap says. “So I think this here is quite a lot of heat for him. He’s not worried or anything. It’s just a bit of a pain in the arse . . . I think tomorrow we’ll find out.”

‘Public Order Conditions’ imposed

Later on Tuesday evening the Metropolitan Police impose “Public Order Act conditions” to “prevent serious disruption being caused” by Kneecap supporters outside Westminster magistrates’ court the next day: any protest in support of Mo Chara “and aligned causes” must remain within a set area outside the building.

The band post on social media in response: “We know all of our supporters will be, but please go out of your way to be compliant with all instructions issued, irrespective of how pitiful.”

By 8.30am on Wednesday a large crowd has assembled outside the courthouse, on Marylebone Road. Supporters wave “Free Mo Chara” signs and Irish and Palestine flags to welcome Ó hAnnaidh when he arrives, his face partially hidden by a keffiyeh scarf. He has to fight his way through a knot of photographers.

In court, the judge, Paul Goldspring, has arranged for an interpreter for Ó hAnnaidh, whom he allows out of the dock to sit beside her, so she can relay proceedings to him in Irish.

“JJ put in for it!” Móglaí Bap tells me on Tuesday about an unsuccessful attempt to take on the interpreting role by his bandmate DJ Próvaí. “Did you hear what happened?”

What happened at the first hearing, in June, was that the judge flagged the need for an Irish-language interpreter seemingly not realising that, to the amusement of the public gallery, he was re-enacting a scene in Kneecap’s Bafta-winning film where DJ Próvaí’s character is called into a police station late at night to interpret for a young man who turns out to be Mo Chara.

“That’s how much of a circus this is, everyone laughing,” Móglaí Bap says. He calls it An Scáthán Dubh, meaning it’s an Irish version of Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker’s dystopian television satire. He makes a point about fiction imitating real life and vice versa.

The case against Ó hAnnaidh in court on Wednesday rests on whether the criminal charge was issued within the six-month time limit. But, it turns out, it’s not an issue that will be settled today: after three hours of legal argument the judge adjourns the case until September 26th – which means that Kneecap won’t know until a few days before they’re set to play the opening show of their North American tour, in New York City, whether Mo Chara is to stand trial.

“We will return on September 26th in confidence that our position is correct,” Daniel Lambert, their manager (who is also chief operating officer of Bohemian FC), says after the adjournment.

‘We know majority stand with Kneecap’

“The support we have received not just in London, outside the court, but in Belfast, Dublin and across the rest of Ireland and the world is staggering and hugely appreciated. We know that the majority of people stand with Kneecap and against blatant and harrowing Israeli war crimes which are supported by the British government.”

The group would take a significant financial hit if the North American tour was cancelled. These are big shows, all but one sold out, that will see Kneecap play to tens of thousands of fans across the United States and Canada. Wildly, in other words, an Irish-language rap act is returning hip-hop to its home via Belfast and Derry. Some tickets are being offered for $700 on resale sites.

They’ve managed to keep the show on the road, Móglaí Bap says, because of their team. “Honestly, it’s a lot to do with the people around us . . . We’ve had so much support. It has really carried us through all of this. Dan especially: he has taken on board a lot of the pressure, the questions, going on RTÉ.”

The band put this down to Lambert’s political knowledge: a decade or so ago he was part of Ireland’s permanent mission to the United Nations. “If we had a manager who didn’t know anything about politics, I’d say we’d nearly be gone. We’d already be sunken,” Móglaí Bap says. “We would have fallen to the Israeli lobby without Dan.”

In April, after British counterterror police first said they were reviewing footage of two Kneecap concerts, and politicians began to call for the group to be dropped from festival line-ups, other artists rallied behind them: Massive Attack, Pulp, Paul Weller, Brian Eno and many more signed an open letter supporting their right to freedom of expression; more recently Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine, and Macklemore, who they met last weekend, have praised the group.

The political pressure and criticism, Kneecap believe, have backfired.

“We had this at the start of our career, when the DUP would come out and criticise us,” Móglaí Bap says. “It seems it’s part of a politician’s job to be seen to be outraged about stuff, because it makes them have this kind of moral superiority – for example, Keir Starmer coming out against us for Glastonbury and having an interview with the Sun newspaper.

“He knows – I’m sure he knows – talking to the Sun about us and condemning us isn’t going to stop us playing Glastonbury. But it appeases the people he wants to appease. He wants to be seen opposing us, and maybe appeasing a certain sector of society.

“So politicians have been doing this a long time. People are quite wise to it . . . The main point here is what’s happening in Gaza. People ask us in interviews how we’re doing, and whether we’re coping well. We are. Whatever is happening to us is a fraction of what’s happening in Gaza.”

He is acutely aware of the times he is living in and of the moral lines that are being drawn. “There are historic moments happening all the time now, in a sense. People are stepping up. People are taking positions.”

One is the author Sally Rooney, who wrote in The Irish Times last weekend that she will continue to support Palestine Action despite the UK government having proscribed it as a terrorist group.

“Massive, massive respect to Sally Rooney. She is just taking these hard-core positions that no one is asking her to take. She’s so cool. She’s really challenging the status quo,” Móglaí Bap says. “They’ll definitely try to take her down, I’d say.

“But she’s not doing it not knowing what are the consequences. She knows what the consequences are, potentially. And I think acts like that really give confidence to people to speak out.”

With court adjourned for another month, Kneecap can at least focus on their next performances. “There was 50 people there, maybe 60,” for that first Electric Picnic set, in 2018. “In 2019 we did Terminus” – another stage at the festival – “and jumped up to maybe 6,000 people . . . Last year we did Electric Arena; this year the main stage. EP has always been a staple for us and of our progression. It’s a place where you know how you’re getting on

“I don’t think there’s many bands that started at the Puball Gaeilge and ended up on the main stage. Maybe there’s none – I must check that fact. I love that for us. I love having that connection and that trajectory. It does mean a lot to us to be on the main stage this year.”

As for encouraging other artists to speak out, “We’ll all have each other’s backs,” Móglaí Bap says. “I can’t deny that there are repercussions, because there are repercussions in taking a stand, but there are loads of people who will stand by you. Standing up for the right thing is something your older self will be proud of.” *

Kneecap support Fontaines DC at Boucher Road Playing Fields, as part of Belfast Vital, on Friday, August 29th, then play at Electric Picnic, in Stradbally, Co Laois, on Saturday, August 30th.

The Ulster Protestant who could become the next Irish president

Andrew Madden, Belfast Telegraph, August 23rd, 2025

HEATHER HUMPHREYS' BACKGROUND COULD POSITIVELY IMPACT NORTH-SOUTH RELATIONS

As a largely ceremonial role, the Irish presidency is less about policy than it is about having a story — and Aras hopeful Heather Humphreys certainly has one.

Born in 1963 in the Co Monaghan village of Drum, one of the few Protestant-majority settlements in the Republic, Humphreys' background is unique when it comes to Irish politicians — and it's something that may endear her to northern unionists.

Humphreys is leading the race for the Fine Gael nomination after the party's original candidate, Mairead McGuinness, withdrew due to health issues.

Her profile may be relatively low in Northern Ireland for now, but if she wins this autumn's election, that would very quickly change.

Humphreys was relatively late getting into politics, being co-opted onto Monaghan County Council in 2003 aged 40. Since then, however, her rise was swift, being elected in her own right in local elections in 2004 and 2009 and becoming mayor of Monaghan County.

She was elected as Fine Gael TD for Cavan-Monaghan in 2011, becoming the only Presbyterian member of the Oireachtas.

In 2014, Humphreys was appointed the Republic's Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. As part of this role, she oversaw the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme commemorating the 1916 Easter Rising.

It was not lost on many that she led the commemoration of a republican rebellion, despite her unionist grandfather signing the Ulster Covenant rejecting Home Rule in 1912.

Father a member of Orange Order

Her own father was also a staunch Protestant and a member of the Orange Order — meaning her background is something that could positively influence north-south relations if she were to become president.

Dr Liam Weeks, politics lecturer at University College Cork, pointed out that, if she became president, Humphreys would not be the first Protestant to fill the role.

He said Erskine Childers (who became president in 1973) had a very distinct Anglo-Irish accent and his father was one of the opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, coming from a long Protestant pedigree.

Dr Weeks added: “He even had to have Irish phonetically spelled out at his inauguration. Another former president, Douglas Hyde, was also a Protestant, so Heather Humphreys wouldn't be the first.”

He said that, unlike in Northern Ireland, religious background isn't as noteworthy when it comes to elections.

“In terms of her minority background, I don't know if that is a factor at all,” he said. “Religion, unlike in Northern Ireland, isn't a factor when it comes to how people vote. That's largely because there's not an awful lot of diversity here.

“Historically, Fine Gael would have picked some Protestant candidates, but in terms of background for voting support — if she does poorly or if she does well, it's not going to be because of her background.”

Following the 2016 Brexit vote, Humphreys was appointed as Irish Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation. Much of her job focused on avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland following the UK's exit from the EU.

In the ensuing years she would fill other ministerial roles and became deputy leader of Fine Gael in 2024.

Seven months later, however, she announced she would not be contesting last November's Irish election and stepped down from her Fine Gael position.

Now she is leading the race to be Fine Gael's candidate for the Aras.

What are the odds?

This week RTE reported she has a near unassailable lead over fellow hopeful, Seán Kelly, a former GAA president, having reportedly secured the support of 42 members of the Fine Gael parliamentary party — she needs 20. Under Fine Gael's rules, a candidate also needs the support of 25 councillors and five members of its executive council.

The Co Monaghan woman is also fairly unique in that she is liked and respected across the political spectrum. Indeed, there was a running joke in the Dail that she got on better with Fianna Fail than she did with her own Fine Gael colleagues.

She also has the support of three Independent ministers: Michael Healy-Rae, Sean Canney and Noel Grealish.

Dublin City University political science academic Dr Eoin O'Malley said Humphreys is a “formidable character” and “very straight-talking”.

“She might be thought of as a typical Ulster Protestant — she speaks straight and is very likeable,” he said.

“People tend to like her, not because she's saccharine or sweet in any kind of way, but because she's straightforward. She's popular across the political divide.

“I think the main thing going for her is that she has a narrative, because a presidential election isn't about talking that much about policy, but you will be expected to have a story.

“Mary Robinson embodied modernisation and more liberal Ireland. Mary McAleese was about building bridges across the border. Michael D Higgins, I suppose, was about representing social justice.

“Heather Humphreys could almost have her slogan as 'Uniting Ireland'. I mean, if you want to convince Ulster Protestants that Ireland is not going to oppress you, another Ulster Protestant seems like the ideal person to do it.”

In 2016, Humphreys wrote that “given my background as a Protestant and an Ulsterwoman who is a proud Irish republican, I appreciate the need to respect the differing traditions on this island”.

She also said that she wished the “Protestant story on this island could be fully explored”.

So what are Humphreys' chances of becoming the next Irish president?

“It depends on who the competition is, to be honest,” said Dr Weeks.

“The first time Michael D Higgins won was in 2011, it was because he was the last person standing, really. Everyone else just shot themselves in the foot. This time, is Fianna Fail going to run a candidate? Is Sinn Fein?

“I'm not going to say she has no chance, but Fine Gael has never won a presidential election.

“And when you have several candidates who are hugely popular, they might only get, let's say, 20% of the vote each.

“Then it comes down to second and third preferences. For instance, when Mary Robinson was elected in 1990, she didn't get the most first preferences. It was transfers from Austin Currie that got her over the line. So Humphreys would need broad support.”

Dr O'Malley said: “I put money on her about a year ago, at 20/1, because I thought she might emerge as a candidate, and here we are.

“About six months ago I wrote in a column that, if she stands, she'll win, and I don't see any reason to move from that position. I think she'd probably win it.”

I loved the work but hated being called an outsider, says Drew Harris

Gráinne Ní Aodha, Belfast Telegraph, August 23rd, 2025

EX-PSNI MAN TO STEP DOWN FROM COMMISSIONER JOB LATER THIS MONTH

Former senior PSNI officer Drew Harris has said he never liked the word 'outsider' being attached to him.

Mr Harris made the comments as he reflected on the “great privilege” of being Garda Commissioner.

His seven-year term will end this month, with Deputy Commissioner Justin Kelly set to take over.

At a Garda graduation ceremony in Co Tipperary, Mr Harris said being commissioner was the highlight of his career and defended progress made by the force in recent years.

During the ceremony, a former referee from Co Tyrone became the oldest probationer ever in the force.

Former PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Mr Harris was asked about the perception of his move to the gardai.

He said: “I don't really like the expression 'outsider'. It's an odd expression to apply to an individual who is Irish in the first place, and I've never liked it.”

Mr Harris served 16 years in senior roles within the PSNI, before his move across the border in 2018.

“When I was here, I was welcomed immediately and, in effect, bought into the organisation and understood the organisation very quickly,” he said.

“There's things I wanted to do and there's work that I had to do around reforms which had to be delivered.

“But I have to say again, my overall experience has been extremely positive. I'm very glad I put my application form in. It's been a great privilege. I don't regret one minute of it.”

Focus on organised crime and domestic abuse

He said in the past seven years, the force had moved on and focused on tackling organised crime and crimes against the vulnerable, including domestic abuse, serious sexual assault and human trafficking.

He added: “These are all important areas and areas of growth for policing and crime right across Europe, and we are seeing that we have to respond.

“I think our response to that has been very positive, very professional, and we're starting to see the organisation grow again. That's also very positive.”

Asked what he would do next, he said: “Well, I might rest and decompress for a while.”

During the graduation ceremony, Michael Connolly, from Aghyaran, Co Tyrone, became the oldest probationer ever in the force.

The 50-year-old was one of 154 gardai who were attested as sworn members at the Garda College.

Mr Connolly said he was at Queen's University 30 years ago and had a background in health and wellbeing.

He said his grandfather had wanted to become a garda, but after his mother became sick, he had to stay at home and maintain the farm, which remained his career for the rest of his life.

In December 2023, Mr Connolly's father-in-law mentioned that the gardai were raising the age limit for new recruits from 35 to 50 the following month.

“I had one shot at it,” said Mr Connolly, who turned 50 in April.

“In January 2024, I went and made an application and everything snowballed after that. It was one hurdle after another. I clipped through a few of them and I thought 'This could become real'. Then the medical came around and I got through it, happy days.

“In December 2024, I landed down here, and I've had nine months of challenge, pleasure, some great people. (I was) stationed in Milford for my placement. It's all been very good.”

He also said his experience as a League of Ireland referee would help him as a garda.

Mr Connolly continued: “The conflict, dealing with people, the sanctions, the penalties, there's so many aspects of refereeing that transfer naturally to being a garda.

“Those skills of dealing with conflict, of dealing with pressure situations, dealing with people when they're heated up, that gives me a bit of an idea (that he can manage tricky situations).”

He said his wife, three daughters, his parents, and his parents-in-law were at the ceremony yesterday.

From ‘No Surrender’ to no strategy: the crisis in post-Paisley unionism

Patrick Murphy, Irish News, August 23rd, 2025

“ The free-thinking nature of Protestantism may help to explain the unionist division, as opposed to the more hierarchical nature of modern Northern nationalism. There is probably also a social class element in the division

IT is a pity that the Rev Ian Paisley is dead, because he would have made a fitting subject for this paper’s Saturday interviews with those who have shaped our recent history.

However, while all those interviewed have generated positive coverage, the headline for a piece on Paisley might well read, “Ian Paisley, the man who wrecked unionism.”

The reason for mentioning him is that the latest LucidTalk opinion poll shows that unionism is at its weakest since the foundation of the state. It is now divided into three factions. With 13% support, Jim Allister’s TUV is just four points behind the DUP. The UUP is on 11%.

The three strands of unionism might be summarised as: the relics of a bygone era (UUP), the politically bewildered (DUP) and old style Paisleyism (TUV).

If the three parties united, they would have 41% support, compared to the 37% which an unlikely Sinn Féin-SDLP coalition would achieve. So why do unionists dislike each other so much that they are prepared to leave SF as Stormont’s largest party?

The explanation can be traced back to Ian Paisley.

Partition bred insularity

Although it was always reactionary, unionism became particularly inward looking and insular when partition created an artificial state especially for it.

However, after 50 years in government, the UUP had grown lazy and arrogant in what they thought was perpetual power.

It defined unionism as “Not an inch,” rather than as a coherent political philosophy. (Why are there no left-wing unionists?) When the civil rights movement challenged that slogan, the party was ill-equipped to make a rational political analysis of what to do next.

Into that vacuum strode Ian Paisley, who began unionism’s race to the bottom. By defining it in terms of religious and political purity, Paisley made unionism into a 16th-century relic, unwilling to adapt to a world which had changed everywhere except in his own mind.

Paisley’s unionism became the political equivalent of sanctifying grace and the graceless were headed for political hell in this life and religious hell in the next.

Only the politically pure would be saved, which left the UUP facing eternal damnation.

Having no alternative definition, David Trimble ultimately accepted this theory by dancing with Paisley on the Garvaghy Road in 1995. It was not enough for Jeffrey Donaldson and Arlene Foster, who saw the light and left the UUP in 2003.

However, Paisley had merely created a more extreme version of that same undefined concept of unionism, which he had drawn increasingly to worship at the altar of intransigence. That intransigence came back to bite him when he joined Sinn Féin in power-sharing.

The party he created dumped him for failing to meet his own sectarian standards. Today, the Paisley dynasty has turned into the dust of history, but unionism still follows its ethos of fragmentation in search of unionist purity.

Protestant particularism

The free-thinking nature of Protestantism may help to explain the unionist division, as opposed to the more hierarchical nature of modern Northern nationalism. There is probably also a strong social class element in the division.

However, unionism’s real difficulty is its inability to define what it stands for. Its core principle is union with Britain – but on unionism’s terms.

For example, unionists opposed the introduction of the welfare state here. Across the mists of Irish Sea, they perceive a Britain which they believe exists, but which disappeared with the Empire.

They treasure what they call their Britishness, but it might reasonably be argued that there is no such thing. There are three nations in Britain (four if you include Cornwall) each with their own cultural identity.

Do unionists want union with all of them, including the Celtic language speakers in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall, but not with Irish language speakers here?

Perhaps they just want union with only one of the three nations, seeing themselves as living in part of a foreign field that is forever England?

John Major’s idyllic image of “old maids bicycling to Holy Communion through the morning mist” has been largely replaced by what Keir Starmer fears is becoming “an island of strangers”.

Some estimate that Britons will become a minority in Britain by 2063. What will unionism do then? Meanwhile, to the beat of Orange bands, it marches the roads of Ulster, out of tune with a changed world.

Unionists may well continue to proclaim “No surrender,” but unless they unite as a coherent political organisation, their current Paisley-style race towards a unionist holy grail means that they may soon have nothing left to surrender.

Hapless Stormont's inability to actually kill off RHI exposes how irreformable devolution has been

Sam McBride, Northern Editor, Belfast Telegraph, August 23rd, 2025

SOME OF THE BEHAVIOUR WHICH LED TO SCHEME'S FAILURE UNDER DUP IS NOW BEING REPEATED UNDER A SINN FEIN MINISTER — WHILE THE PLAN TO GET LONDON TO PAY FOR ITS FAILURE IS SAID TO BE IN TROUBLE

It's the scandal everyone wants to die — but stubbornly refuses to expire. A decade after the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) ran wildly out of control, and more than five years after Stormont ministers agreed to shut the scheme, they just can't manage to get rid of it.

The scheme shut to new entrants in February 2016 but those on the scheme had 20-year contracts. For years, Stormont has wanted to shut it entirely so it can spend tens of millions of pounds which the Treasury has offered to subsidise renewable heat in Northern Ireland and which Stormont currently can't spend.

Information obtained by the Belfast Telegraph indicates that Stormont appears to be repeating key aspects of the behaviour which led to 'cash for ash'.

This is humiliating for the Northern Ireland Civil Service whose leaders assured the public they'd reformed their ways after RHI was exposed.

But it also threatens to do political damage — and this time not to the DUP.

Sinn Fein's claims when it took the Department for the Economy (DfE) that it was cleaning up the DUP's mess were not entirely unreasonable. Increasingly, however, they are less and less tenable.

Having overseen this scheme now for a year and a half, the evidence points to Sinn Fein parroting the same lines from the same officials rather than firmly telling them what to do.

The Stormont Bungle

Ministers are meant to run departments, but in this area minister after minister has regurgitated problematic claims from their officials, placing remarkable trust in a civil service machine which has been repeatedly found to have bungled in this area, and on some occasions has been found over recent years to have broken the law in how it handled RHI.

This debacle is an enduring emblem of Stormont's shocking incompetence. Even with all the many incentives which exist to pour its best brains, resources and political acumen into resolving something which resonates so strongly with the public, it just can't manage to fix this problem.

To understand what's happening now, we need to consider how this scandal grew until it enveloped an entire system of government.

A decade ago tomorrow, a group of powerful Stormont figures met for what would be a seminal meeting.

Had they reached a different — and far more obvious — conclusion, Northern Ireland's history would be quite different.

That meeting in Netherleigh House just outside the Stormont estate — which a developer now plans to turn into an old people's home — would become central to the 'cash for ash' scandal.

By summer 2015, the non-domestic RHI was booming. Fuelled initially by word of mouth, and then by poultry giant Moy Park's strategic plan to make money from the scheme, more and more biomass boilers were being rushed into sites across Northern Ireland.

The officials running the scheme knew by now that they'd blown their budget — but the bill kept rising. They'd no way to turn off the tap because the way the department had written the law meant they were forced to accept into the scheme anyone who installed eligible boilers.

20 year subsidy guarantee

Once on the scheme, the commitment was gargantuan — they were guaranteed payments for every unit of heat produced for 20 years.

Those payments couldn't be cut; they could only rise with inflation. And it was by now clear that far more heat was being produced per boiler than had been anticipated.

In short, it was a growing mess. But a combination of civil service lethargy — where even basic actions took days or weeks — and DUP manoeuvring meant that what ought to have been an urgent decision to recall the Assembly and rush through in a day a new law to stop the haemorrhage of public money never happened.

When DUP minister Jonathan Bell, his special adviser Tim Cairns, his top civil servant Andrew McCormick, and several other key officials met 10 years ago, no minutes were taken.

But the testimony of those present, along with emails and text messages sent after the meeting, give a good sense of what transpired. Bell had just returned from a long holiday, having decamped to his “summer house” in Portstewart for three weeks with instructions not to be disturbed — part of a six-week period in which he was rarely around.

In the meeting, officials agreed to a DUP request that they could delay reining in the scheme; rather than do it in October — itself far off in the future — they could wait until November. The surge of applications which flooded in over the coming weeks was amplified by the fact that the two civil servants most knowledgeable about the problem — Stuart Wightman and Seamus Hughes — briefed the very companies with the greatest financial stake in RHI. Indeed, Moy Park was briefed by Hughes — on Wightman's instructions — before the minister had even formally taken a decision.

These same people then expressed surprise that commercial entities rushed to take advantage of the situation, something exacerbated by their own ignorance of how quickly boilers could be installed.

Misleading MLAs

The department then misled MLAs about the gravity of the situation in autumn 2015, presenting to them something which bore almost no resemblance to the reality of what they knew, and putting intense pressure on MLAs to move urgently — despite the department having been anything but urgent up to that point.

This pattern had been there from the start.

In 2012, the department rushed to open the scheme even though it was fundamentally flawed with no cost controls.

When it finally came to rush through closure to new entrants in February 2016, Bell misled the Assembly (well, the 10 MLAs who'd bothered to show up), gushing about how successful this calamitous scheme had been.

Alarmingly, he misled the Assembly at the request of civil servants who'd written the speech.

When asked at the public inquiry if he and his minister believed what they were telling the Assembly, Cairns said: “No. Absolutely not. No, no, no.” He went on to accept — in evidence far more candid than that of many other witnesses — that by then they knew the whole thing was “a disaster”, and the speech was “crazy”.

They were partly able to get away with this due to a lack of scrutiny which had been engineered by the department.

Easily misled ‘Leaders’

This lack of scrutiny is continuing. Last year DfE asked the First and Deputy First Ministers to use 'urgent procedure' to get the Executive to approve closure of the scheme.

There was nothing remotely urgent about a problem which by then had existed for years. But by rushing the decision that now creates problems because the real debate which the Executive needed to have as to what to do with RHI has not yet really happened.

By putting it off, the uncertainty is increased. There is no guarantee that when ministers and MLAs finally face up to the awkward consequences of closure that they may baulk at the idea and decide to do something else.

If that happens, it will be yet another last-minute lurch under pressure rather than anything considered strategically.

Repeatedly, this department has acted to limit the ability of legislators to properly hold it to account — and those legislators have largely kept allowing it to do so.

Even though the department's annual accounts refer to RHI as its joint highest key corporate risk, when Caoimhe Archibald became minister in February, there wasn't a single reference to RHI in her first day brief beyond an unexplained budgetary line which set out Treasury funding.

DfE's business plan states that by next March it will have introduced in the Assembly a bill to finally shut RHI.

Yet its business plan for last year committed to have shut RHI by last March.

In its assessment of whether it met its own targets (overall, even when marking its own homework the department claims to have met just over half of its targets last year), DfE admitted that it obviously hadn't achieved the closure of RHI.

Another missed deadline

Nevertheless, it insisted that it “aims to introduce the primary legislation to the Assembly in June 2025”. That never happened.

What's happening here is repeated delay of something it claims to be the enaction of settled Executive policy.

But a hard deadline looms — and that's why what is now a problem could within months become a crisis.

In April 2024, British regulator Ofgem wrote to Richard Rodgers — the senior DfE official who was brought in after the emergence of the RHI scandal to help clear it up — to give the department plenty of notice as to its intentions to stop running the scheme.

Ofgem highlighted that it was allowed —under the rules DfE had agreed — to ditch the contract after 150 days' notice. Instead, it gave DfE four times that period, telling the department that it would have two years to sort alternative arrangements.

It appears that DfE is leaving to the last moment legislation to shut the scheme, leaving little time for scrutiny — exactly what it's done repeatedly with this scheme.

If DfE tries to claim the scheme must be shut because Ofgem is no longer willing to administer it, this will be wrong.

Ofgem stated clearly in its letter of notice that it would work with DfE to ensure a smooth transfer of administration to DfE.

But there is another potential problem — paying for closure.

Scheme participants who once made a fortune from the scheme have for years been getting a fraction of that going to those with biomass boilers in Britain or the Republic.

£100 million compo bill

But to throw them out of the scheme entirely would require substantial compensation, likely to cost more than £100m.

DfE's initial plan was to get the Treasury to pay for this. That fell apart when DfE couldn't shut the scheme.

In 2021, the Stormont finance minister wrote to the Treasury to say he wouldn't need £91m which at that point had been earmarked for closure.

That involved some smoke and mirrors — the transfer of three years of Treasury funding for RHI into the department's standard day to day spending pot.

The Treasury had gone along with this on the basis that Stormont would shut RHI. It didn't, and the deal fell.

One source said that the Treasury is now unwilling to allow RHI money to be used for closure. There is a logic to such a refusal: It would involve giving those with green technology environmental money with no strings attached; the most obvious thing many of these people would do is scrap their RHI boiler and replace it with a cheap fossil fuel one.

For years, senior departmental officials denied slashing subsidies would see boiler owners revert to fossil fuels.

For years, it has been clear that they were wrong.

Two years ago, this newspaper reported how biomass boilers were being sold at knockdown prices and one man was struggling to give his away for free.

Based on the department's own figures, more than one in 10 of the 2,128 boilers originally on the scheme have already been switched off. In truth, it's probably far more than that.

Many people are likely to have abandoned their boilers without bothering to tell DfE, or have kept them as an insurance policy lest there be future compensation but are not actually using them.

Ofgem data shows that in 2023-24, just 1,196 boilers attracted payments of more than £30. That indicates that almost half of boilers are no longer being used.

In 2023-24, the last year for which accounts have been published, the department used just £3.4m of the £33m available from the Treasury for RHI. Yet Stormont spent £1m that year administering the scheme.

Over £600 million to burn

The Executive is on course to waste at least £420m — and perhaps as much as £660m — due to its inability to spend Treasury funding made available for subsidising renewable heat.

Northern Irish companies are falling further and further behind competitors because for almost a decade this has been one of the only parts of Europe in which there is no subsidy to encourage sustainable heat technology.

I asked DfE several basic questions about this on Thursday. It said it couldn't answer them until some unspecified future date.

Andrew McCormick, who was a key figure at that Netherleigh House meeting a decade ago, became emotional towards the end of his evidence at the public inquiry in 2018. He said: “We bear shame. I said… in January '17 shame on us for all that we missed… I personally bear shame; I feel ashamed personally for not doing better at the meeting on the 24th of August [when he agreed to delay cost controls] … I should have stood up; I should have asked for a [ministerial] direction that day, and that's my responsibility.”

This was leadership; someone had made a mistake and was unambiguously apologising for it in public. There was in that moment the potential for RHI to do some real good: To shake a hapless system out of its complacency.

It's now clear that hasn't happened. Instead, this was a missed opportunity for fundamental reform.

The system is continuing in the manner to which it has become accustomed — and our politicians are largely spectators.

Lough Neagh: Friends of the Earth condemn NI Govt 

By Philip Bradfield, Belfast News Letter, August 23rd, 2025

A major protest about the environmental crisis in Lough Neagh is to hear that government action so far is "not meaningful" and that pollution in it has actually gotten worse since it made headlines in 2023.

Most of Lough Neagh has been once again blighted with toxic blue-green algae this summer, with aerial views showing virtually the entire surface affected.

Anglers have shared videos photos this week of distressed eels climbing out of the water, dead fish in the algae and even a Mink that refused to enter the water to fish as usual.

Experts say the main causes are farming fertiliser and slurry, untreated sewage leaks, agri-processing factories, invasive Zebra mussels, leaking septic tanks and climate change.

A major protest is to be organised next to the shores of the Lough on Bank Holiday Monday, which will hear from fishermen, campaigners and environmentalists.

A major protest is to be organised next to the shores of the Lough on Bank Holiday Monday, which will hear from fishermen, campaigners and environmentalists.

The Save Lough Neagh group is holding a ‘Rally for the Lough' at the "Protector of the Lough" sculpture, Antrim, where they will call for immediate multi-pronged action to tackle the crisis in Lough Neagh and other waterways.

One of the speakers will be James Orr from Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland.

Politicians fail to take meaningful action

"I think the protest will bring people together to show that they really care about what's happening to Lough Neagh," he told the News Letter.

"It is mainly to the politicians that we don't believe that any meaningful action has been taken so far.

"It appears that the Lough isn't getting better. In fact, it appears that there's more pollution in it than ever.

"So we are making a series of demands, none of which costs huge amounts of money.

"They can be implemented by our politicians, but so far they're not listening. They're only dealing with technical, small scale issues."

Mick Hagan took this snap of a mink on the west short of Lough Neagh. Despite being aquatic it refused to enter the water to escape him when he approached. The blue green algae is visible in the water behind it.

The campaign group claims that large scale agri-food producers are getting huge state assistance while contributing substantially to pollution in waterways.

"The industrial derating policy is just one of many ways Stormont reveals what it really serves," the group said in a statement.

Campaigners are demanding:

1. An Independent Environmental Protection Agency

2. Increased funding for NI Water - which Mr Orr says is being actually losing funding

3. An end to Private Ownership of the Lough

4. Better research and compensation for those who have lost livelihoods due to the algae

5. Legal rights for the lough which could be enforceable by a charitable trust

Among other speakers will be Mary O'Hagan from the Save Lough Neagh campaign and Declan Coney, a Lough Neagh Fisherman.

The Department of Agriculture was invited to comment

This week Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir accused his fellow Stormont ministers of failing to give him adequate support to tackle the problems.

"I'm very disappointed at the lack of support from other parties in recent months and urge them to rethink their positions,” he told the BBC.

He said he needs Executive support to strengthen environmental governance and sewage regulation, better management of slurry and fertilisers on farms and for a climate action plan.

His Lough Neagh Action Plan was approved by the executive last year. So far 14 out of 37 actions have been completed, while another 22 are being progressed, he said.

No swimming advised at Benone Beach after blue-green algae found

Jonathan McCambridge, Irish News, August 23rd, 2025

PEOPLE have been advised against swimming at one of Northern Ireland’s most popular beaches after blue-green algae was detected.

The notification has been placed on Benone Beach in Co Derry by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) ahead of the bank holiday weekend.

The beach on the north coast, with its seven-mile stretch of sand and dunes, is popular with tourists.

The announcement comes amid growing concerns over the spread of the algae in waterways across Northern Ireland, and particularly at Lough Neagh.

A Daera statement said: “Bluegreen algae was observed on part of Benone Beach on Thursday through the Daera monitoring programme for bathing waters.

“Analysis has confirmed high levels of blue-green algae and the department has issued the bathing water operator, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough council, an ‘advice against bathing’ notification.

“No other north coast beaches are affected at this time.”

The statement added: “The department will continue to monitor these beaches for blue-green algae and provide advice to bathing water operators when required.”

A spokesperson for Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council said: “A temporary advice against bathing notice has been issued for Benone Strand from Friday 22nd August 2025.

“This is an escalation from the amber to red level in accordance with the inter-agency blue green algae protocol.

“Daera will continue to monitor Benone Strand and advise of any changes.”

The department recently said the algae had been detected more than 100 times across Northern Ireland since the start of the year.

Most attention has focused on Lough Neagh where noxious blooms of the algae covered large parts of the lough for the third consecutive summer.

Nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertiliser running off fields and from wastewater treatment are said to be a contributory factor in the blue-green algae blooms.

The spread of the invasive zebra mussel species is also understood to have played a role in the blooms, as they have made the water clearer, allowing more sunlight to penetrate, stimulating more algal photosynthesis.

Climate change is another factor as water temperatures rise.

The Stormont executive last year launched an action plan to deal with the environmental crisis at the lough.

Earlier this week, Environment Minister Andrew Muir called for more support from his executive colleagues to tackle the issues surrounding blue-green algae and the environmental crisis at Lough Neagh.

Number of young out of work or education doubles

Allan Preston, Irish News, August 23rd, 2025

THE number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) in Northern Ireland has nearly doubled in a year.

The latest official data from NISRA showed that in April to June this year there were 25,000 young people aged 16-24 classified as NEET.

This is up from 13,000 in the same period last year and represents 12.4% of all 16-24s in Northern Ireland.

Compared to the first quarter of 2025, the numbers had also increased by 6,000 (9.4%).

By gender, the NEET figure was 11.4% for males and 13.4% for females.

Of the 25,000 NEETs, an estimated 15,000 were not looking for work and/or not available to start work (economically inactive).

This can include those who are students or looking after dependants at home.

The remaining 10,000 had been looking for work in the previous four weeks and available to start within the next two weeks (unemployed).

Mark Clegg, a senior leader with Youth Action NI, said part of the problem was building up the resilience needed to chase opportunities.

“It can be really difficult for young people coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, they have a lot of negativity in their lives,” he told The Irish News.

“Once they get a rejection, that’s just more negativity in their life. So what we’re trying to do is move them away from that.

“A big part of our organisation is finding those opportunities for them by working with them alongside employers, colleges and training organisations.”

Part of wider UK trend

The trend in Northern Ireland was also seen in other UK regions, with the Office for National Statistics showing NEETs aged 16-24 had increased from 923,000 in the first quarter of the year to 948,000.

The TUC general secretary Paul Nowak blamed the situation on “another toxic legacy this government has to fix.

Concerns raised over ‘untapped talent’

“Under the Conservatives, too many were failed with hundreds of thousands of young people stuck out of work, education or training,” he said.

“This has damaging consequences for young people’s prospects – and for the country as a whole too.

“With the youth guarantee, stronger employment rights, an industrial strategy and apprenticeship reforms, the government has made a positive start in turning this around.”

Iona Ledwidge, chief executive of the youth charity Resurgo spoke of “a growing mountain of untapped talent” and a clear signal that more government support was needed.

“More than half of these young people have never had a job,” she said.

“Joblessness is a bottomless pit – the further you go into it, the harder it is to climb out. But we’ve seen thousands climb out and thrive.

“Sustained, tailored coaching in the right skills is the ladder.”

This week, Stormont’s Education Minister Paul Givan confirmed he will be proceeding with plans to make education or training compulsory until the age of 18 following what he called an “overwhelmingly positive” response from a public consultation.

Mr Givan said the measures were necessary as a young person’s background was still causing many inequalities in their life chances.