A rolling list of claims that lacked momentum to rock Adams
KURTIS REID, Belfast Telegraph, March 19th, 2026
FORMER SINN FEIN PRESIDENT FAILS TO BEND UNDER WEIGHT OF ALLEGATIONS
As decades of allegations were laid out in the High Court in London, Gerry Adams bore the full weight of his past yesterday, neither breaking stride nor being tripped up.
For much of Tuesday afternoon, a bright, slightly unforgiving light sat above the former Sinn Fein president in the witness box — not quite theatrical, but close enough to feel like a spotlight.
It lent the room a certain intensity, as though something decisive might finally be drawn out. But it never quite was.
If the expectation had been that the past two days would mark a proper confrontation between Mr Adams and the British legal system — a moment where long-circulated allegations about his alleged role in the IRA would crystallise into something sharper, more conclusive — then the reality was more subdued, and, at times, oddly anti-climactic.
Of course, Sir Max Hill KC's cross-examination was clearly constructed with care. But rather than a single decisive blow, it relied on accumulation; the steady presentation of accounts, documents and recollections built up over decades.
Former IRA figures, diplomatic notes, intelligence assessments, television interviews, solicitor's recollections; each was placed, one after the other, into the same frame, all pointing in broadly the same direction.
The strategy appeared straightforward. If enough of these strands aligned, the conclusion might begin to feel less like an allegation and more like an inevitability.
But the difficulty, at least in the room, was what followed each time the material reached Adams.
There was no real escalation. No visible strain. No sense of a witness being cornered into contradiction.
Measured responses
Instead, the replies came back level, measured, and often disarmingly brief. Claims were described as “not true”, accounts as “fabrications”, recollections as mistaken or motivated by hostility to the peace process.
Even when the source was a former ally or associate, the response rarely shifted in tone.
What that did, repeatedly, was flatten the exchange.
Moments that might have carried weight — an allegation from Brendan Hughes, a claim from Dolours Price, a recollection attributed to his own solicitor — were introduced with a certain expectation, only to be met with a kind of procedural dismissal.
Not rebutted in detail so much as declined altogether. The only lengthier responses Mr Adams actually gave were to highlight his role in the peace process, or to make some sort of political point, and were often shut down by the judge.
The effect was cumulative, but not in the way the questioning perhaps intended. Rather than building pressure, the rhythm of accusation and denial seemed to dissipate it.
Part of that may lie in the nature of the material itself.
Much of what was put to the former West Belfast MP has been in circulation for years, if not decades — in books, documentaries and interviews.
TV audiences would have been familiar with some of the shocking scenes described in court, having already been depicted in Disney's Say Nothing, which heavily featured the Price sisters.
There was no sudden reveal, no document that altered the landscape of what is already publicly known.
Unresolved
Instead, the court was, in essence, revisiting a body of material that has long been contested, and remains so.
At times, it gave an almost archival quality, when clips were played, passages read, transcripts examined.
Even the well-known “they haven't gone away, you know” remark made its way into proceedings, not as a dramatic turning point, but as another entry in a long catalogue of moments now being reconsidered under legal scrutiny.
Mr Adams' treatment of it was consistent with the rest; a quip, he said, reflective of anger at the time, but not evidence of anything more.
By the time Sir Max reached his closing proposition, that Mr Adams was “undoubtedly Sinn Fein, but equally undoubtedly IRA”, it felt less like a culmination than a distillation of everything that had come before. The argument, in essence, laid bare.
Yet even that landed in much the same way as everything else had throughout the afternoon.
“It's not true,” Adams replied and with that, the moment passed — not with a sense of resolution, but with the same steady, unresolved tension that had defined the past two days.
Gerry Adams ‘stunned’ by 1996 London Docklands bombing he denies being behind
Ellen O’Riordan, Irish Times, March 19th, 2026
Main Points
Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams testified for the second day today at the Royal Courts of Justice in London in a case alleging he is liable for IRA bombs between 1973 and 1996.
Adams (77) strongly denies any involvement and has repeatedly rejected claims he was ever in the IRA.
This is a civil trial before a judge of the High Court, so a ruling will be reached based on the “balance of probabilities”.
Hours of jousting at court as Gerry Adams insists he was never IRA member
Gerry Adams ‘pushed’ IRA into attacks in England, UK court told
Ellen O’Riordan - 14 hours ago
Adams has left the witness box after being cross-examined for nearly two days in London’s high court. Neither the judge nor his legal team had any further questions to ask him.
Adams’s legal team have said that marks the end of the defence’s case, which should pave the way for the start of barristers’ closing submissions.
Ellen O’Riordan - 15 hours ago
Hill, barrister for the three claimants, asks Adams about Des Long, a former IRA man who, Adams says, was for a time on the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle (national executive).
Adams says Long became “anti peace process” and “bitter”.
Hill says Long admitted to being part of the IRA Army Council and claimed Adams was a senior member of such.
Adams replies: “Whatever he is telling about himself, he is telling all untruths about me.”
Hills suggests Long was placing Adams “accurately” as a leader of the Army Council.
Adams: “Well, you are wrong.”
Ellen O’Riordan - 15 hours ago
Turning to 2005, Hill, barrister for the three IRA bomb victims, says Michael McDowell, then Irish minister for justice, was “very clear” that Adams was at that time Sinn Féin leader and on still on the IRA’s Army Council.
“Well, he is wrong,” Adams responds.
Is Adams suggesting McDowell “made that up”, Hill asks.
Whether he made it up or was repeating a line given to him, Adams says he is not sure. He adds that McDowell is a “known critic” of Sinn Féin.
Ellen O’Riordan - 15 hours ago
Hill suggests Adams surrounded himself even into the 2000s with IRA men, including those convicted of murder.
Adams says: “Well, yes. There were others who were not former prisoners.”
Ellen O’Riordan - 15 hours ago
Hill asks Adams about a claim by Peter Rogers, an IRA gunman who served 18 years of a life sentence for murder of Garda Seamus Quaid in Co Wexford in 1980.
Hill says Rogers alleged he met with Adams and Martin McGuinness, a high-ranking IRA leader before becoming Sinn Féin deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, in late 1980 to discuss the transportation of explosives to England.
Rogers claimed Adams questioned him near Trinity College in Dublin about the delay in transporting the devices, says Hill. Rogers allegedly told Adams the explosives were in poor condition, to which Adams said they needed to be transferred and the sooner they were the better.
Hill asks Adams is this true or near the truth.
It is a “total fabrication”, Adams replies.
Adams says he did not know Rogers as an IRA volunteer but knew his family. He says he agitated for his release from prison as part of the Belfast Agreement. This, Adams says, was “controversial”.
Ellen O’Riordan - 16 hours ago
Adams denies claims made by Dolours Price, one of the people convicted for her role in the Old Bailey bombing of 1973. This explosion, which was the first Provisional IRA bombing in Britain, is one of three at the centre of the court case.
One of the claimants, John Clark, was injured when he responded as a police officer to a warning that a bomb was due to detonate outside the court at 3pm. The device exploded at 2.50pm, and shrapnel lodged in Clark’s head and hand.
In her later years, Price claimed the idea of the Old Bailey bombing was discussed at a meeting involving Adams and several IRA volunteers. Hill, barrister for Clark and the other two plaintiffs, says Price alleged Adams “extended an invitation to those who wished to stay in the room and become the bombing team”.
Adams says this is “not true”.
Ellen O’Riordan - 16 hours ago
If you are just joining, former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams continues to be questioned in the witness box in London’s High Court.
He is defending himself against a claim brought by three victims of IRA bombs in Britain in 1973 an 1992. The three allege he was “so intrinsically involved” in the IRA that he is “as culpable for the assault … as the individuals who planted and detonated the bombs”.
Adams denies any involvement in the bombings and has repeatedly denied he was ever in the IRA or on its Army Council.
So far on Wednesday, Max Hill, barrister for the claimants, has questioned Adams about his associations with Brendan Hughes and other IRA men. Adams says he and Hughes were friends but the late IRA officer commanding ended up a “disappointment”.
Adams was questioned about his prior knowledge of the 1996 London Docklands bombing, which killed two and injured many others, including one of the claimants. Adams said he did not know about it ahead of time and was “stunned” when it occurred. It could have “heralded the end of efforts” for peace he was part of for decades, but thankfully it did not, he said.
“You made a decision to bomb again,” counsel told him
“That’s not true,” Adams responded.
He is due to resume his evidence, under cross-examination, at 2.05pm.
Ellen O’Riordan - 17 hours ago
The court has paused for lunch and will resume at 2.05pm. Adams was warned not to discuss the case with anyone over lunch as he is still under cross-examination by barrister for the claimants, Max Hill.
Ellen O’Riordan - 17 hours ago
Still questioning Adams about the 1996 London Docklands bombing, Hill suggests he was behind it to bolster his political strategy. “You made a decision to bomb again.”
Adams says: “That’s not true.”
Hill: “You were bombing your way into the conference room.”
Adams: “No, that is not true.”
Ellen O’Riordan - 17 hours ago
Adams ‘stunned’ by 1996 London Dockland bombing, which could have undermined peace efforts
Adams is asked about an IRA bombing in London on February 9th, 1996.
One of the claimants, Jonathan Ganesh, was working as a security guard at South Quay Docklands, outside Canary Wharf in London, when the bomb detonated, killing two and injuring many others.
Adams says the 1996 explosions “brought an end to the IRA ceasefire and potentially the end to a peace strategy, which I and others worked at for 30 years or more”.
“I was stunned by what had happened,” he says. “This may well have heralded the end of efforts that were being made but, thankfully, it didn’t. We were resilient, we regrouped and engaged.”
Hill, barrister for Ganesh and two other IRA bomb victims, asks: “Did you know in advance about the Canary Wharf explosion?”
Adams says he did not.
Ellen O’Riordan - 17 hours ago
History ‘vindicates’ Adams’s 1994 position, he tells court
Hill questions Adams about his response to the December 1993 Downing Street Declaration issued jointly by the British and Irish governments.
The declaration said Britain had no “selfish, strategic or economic interest” in Northern Ireland and supported self-determination based on consent.
Hill says Adams interpreted, in January 1994, that the declaration claimed to remove the IRA’s reasons for armed struggle but “whether this is so remains to be seen”.
Adams tells Hill: “Yeah, well, that is the truth of it”.
Hill puts it to him that he was “not yet prepared to make any declaration about armed struggle being at an end”.
“You still needed or wanted to hold the armed struggle over the British.”
Adams responds: “No.”
The declaration did not deal with four issues that needed addressing and that went on to be addressed by the Belfast Agreement, says Adams. In 1993 John Major’s British government was still refusing to talk to Sinn Féin representatives, he adds.
“That is my position and I think it is straightforward, and I think history vindicates that position.”
Ellen O’Riordan - 17 hours ago
Adams speaks about “folks (who) resiled against the peace process”.
“The proof, if I may say so, is that none of what they were doing succeeded. None of what they were doing worked. It was only when we got down to treating each other as human beings ... that we made progress,” he says.
Ellen O’Riordan - 18 hours ago
Adams is questioned about Sinn Féin politicians Gerry Kelly, who is a convicted IRA bomber and Assembly member for North Belfast; Conor Murphy, who was convicted of IRA membership and carrying explosives in 1982 and was an MP for Newry and Armagh; and Martin Ferris, who was convicted for IRA membership and a TD for North Kerry.
Adams says he is “proud” of his relationship with these people. He knows Ferris well and has “great admiration for him”, while Kelly was convicted as a “young man”.
Adams says he does not keep a record of everyone’s convictions, but there are “clearly people within Sinn Féin, who are welcome within Sinn Féin, who are former prisoners ... during the armed struggle”. It is “not a secret” that such people serve within the ranks of Sinn Féin, he says.
This is not new and “all arises from the fact our country was occupied” by the British army, he says.
To Hill, barrister for the three IRA bomb victims, Adams says: “If your country was invaded, perhaps you might respond in the same way.”
Ellen O’Riordan - 18 hours ago
Many of the claims made about Adams by Hughes and other republican paramiliatries come from interviews conducted as part of the Belfast Project, organised by Ed Moloney, for Boston College.
The ex-paramilitaries gave interviews under the guarantee that nothing would be published until after they had died, which led to a book by Moloney in 2010, Voices From The Grave. However, there were flaws with this guarantee as confidentiality could only be protected to the extent American law allows.
Cross-examined on some of Hughes’s Boston College interviews, Adams says the Belfast Project has been “totally discredited”, disowned by the college and criticised by courts.
Ellen O’Riordan - 18 hours ago
Hill suggests Adams was a “major major player” in the war.
Responding, Adams says he was the president of Sinn Féin for 35 years and was involved in the “struggle”, “defended the use of armed struggle where I thought that was appropriate”, and helped to build Sinn Féin and peace. This, he says, led to Hughes and others “quite wrongly taking up the positions they did”.
Hughes and some other IRA figures were against the peace process.
Adams says he does not “go around boasting”, but he does not deny he was a person and a republican “of some influence”. “Thankfully” peace was brought about and people today are enjoying peace, he adds.
Ellen O’Riordan - 19 hours ago
Adams says Bloody Friday ‘hung around my neck’
Hill quotes from Hughes saying he came to believe “not one death was worth it”. Hill says Hughes was “maddened” by Adams seeming to be “free of any such painful retrospection” about the Troubles.
Counsel quotes Hughes as having said about Adams: “Of course he was in the IRA. Everybody knows this. The British know it; the people in the street and the dogs know it on the street, and he (Adams) is standing there denying it.”
Hill puts it to Adams that he is “in denial” about his role in the IRA.
Adams rejects this suggestion and says Hughes’s words, if correctly quoted, demonstrate his state of mind.
“All of these things, like Bloody Friday, are hung around my neck and have been done incessently.”
Bloody Friday is the name given to bombings by the Provisional IRA in Belfast July 21st, 1972. Five men, two women and two children were killed when 22 bombs were detonated within 80 minutes.
Ellen O’Riordan - 19 hours ago
Former IRA man Brendan Hughes (right) in Long Kesh prison with Gerry Adams. Hughes featured in the oral history project. Photograph: Alan Lewis/Photopress
Former IRA man Brendan Hughes (right) in Long Kesh prison with Gerry Adams. Hughes featured in the oral history project. Photograph: Alan Lewis/Photopress
IRA man Brendan Hughes like a brother, but then a ‘disappointment’, says Adams
Adams denies his friendship with Hughes was “life long” as, he says, Hughes was, disappointingly, against the peace process. Adams confirms he was by Hughes’s side when he died in 2008.
Hughes on several occasions said “I should be shot” and was quoted as saying he would “shoot me himself”, says Adams, adding that he views that in the context of what Hughes went through in prison, particularly in the H-blocks and the hunger strikes.
“He ended up as a very sorry figure: alcohol dependent, but I still retain a fondness for him even though he should not have done what he did and he is a disappointment in what he did. He was also a victim of what was happening in our country.”
Ellen O’Riordan - 19 hours ago
Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice during civil proceedings on Wednesday. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images
Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice during civil proceedings on Wednesday. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images
Adams is back in the witness box and is being questioned about a photograph of him and the late Brendan Hughes in Long Kesh prison, which Adams thinks was taken in 1973. Hughes was a hunger striker and officer commanding of the IRA.
Max Hill, barrister for the three claimants, asks Adams if he was “like a brother to him and he to you”?
Adams says: “Yes, we were very good friends.”
Hill: “You were fellow IRA operatives and IRA volunteers, do you accept that?”
Adams: “No, I don’t. That is not true.”
Ellen O’Riordan - 19 hours ago
It is the seventh day of the civil trial brought by three IRA bombing victims against former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams.
Adams is due to resume his evidence to the court, under cross examination, at about 10.30am.
A quick recap of his evidence on Tuesday:
Adams “categorically” denied having any involvement in the three bombings around which the legal claims are centred.
He said he was never a member of the IRA or its Army Council and was never a “senior, let alone most senior figure”, in the organisation.
It was put to Adams that he “stands by” the IRA. Adams said: “Well I don’t stand by everything that they did, but these were my neighbours.”
“I’m glad the IRA has left the State ... that they are not killing ... I’m glad there is a peace process, but I don’t distance myself from the IRA.”
Adams was 'undoubtedly Sinn Fein, but', High Court is told
KURTIS REID, Belfast Telegraph, March 19th, 2026
Gerry Adams has been told he was “undoubtedly Sinn Fein, but equally undoubtedly IRA” as his two days of evidence came to an end at a High Court case in London.
The former Sinn Fein president rejected the assertion put to him by barrister Sir Max Hill KC, who said multiple accounts from former associates, officials and documents pointed to his alleged role within the Provisional IRA.
John Clark, a victim of the 1973 Old Bailey bombing in London; Jonathan Ganesh, a 1996 London Docklands bombing victim; and Barry Laycock, a victim of the 1996 Arndale shopping centre bombing in Manchester, all allege that Mr Adams was a leading member of the Provisional IRA on those dates, including of its Army Council, and are seeking £1 in damages.
Mr Adams has repeatedly denied ever being a member of the IRA.
The court has been taken through a range of historical material, including diplomatic notes, intelligence assessments and witness accounts, which Sir Max said demonstrated Mr Adams held a senior position within the IRA.
Mr Adams has now concluded his evidence, with Sir Max ending his questions with the statement that Mr Adams was “undoubtedly Sinn Fein, but equally undoubtedly IRA” to which the former Sinn Fein president responded with: “No, that's not true.”
Among the issues revisited yesterday afternoon was the long-running question over the authorship of articles published under the pseudonym “Brownie” in the republican newspaper An Phoblacht.
In his evidence, Mr Adams confirmed he had written under the pen name while in prison, but insisted it was a shared pseudonym and not exclusively his.
He told the court there was a “chain” in how articles were produced, passing through republican figure Richard McAuley and then to editor Danny Morrison before publication.
When it was put to him that a 1976 article stating “rightly or wrongly, 'I am an IRA volunteer'” had been written by him, Mr Adams denied authorship and claimed it was written by Mr McAuley — who has accompanied Mr Adams to court every day.
Another article was put to Mr Adams which included a reference to the author having a “wife and young son” which Sir Max claimed Mr Adams would have had at the time, while Mr McAuley would not have.
Mr Adams replied: “Well Richard wasn't married then, but I can't comment if he had a young son or not, that's his business.”
‘Voices from the Grave’
Mr Adams was also presented with a passage from Voices from the Grave by Ed Moloney in which Brendan Hughes during an interview claimed Brownie had only one writer, and it was Mr Adams, and referred to it as “his baby”.
In the interview included in the book, Mr Hughes also claimed the term 'brownie' was the phrase Mr Adams used to refer to marital sex.
“Apart from the nonsense about this being code about making love to my wife, (Hughes) goes on to say Joe Barnes wrote Brownie articles after I was released?” said Mr Adams.
“And again this was for the Boston Tapes project, which has been totally discredited and disowned by Boston College and thrown out of a court.”
Elsewhere, Mr Adams denied having advanced knowledge of IRA bombs, including the Docklands explosion.
In evidence put to him again from Ed Moloney's book, it was claimed that Mr Adams rang the National Security centre in the United States and said he had heard “concerning details” about the ceasefire and that he would “ring them later” just hours before the Docklands explosion and the Army Council approved the phone call and was in an effort to keep him in favour with US officials.
When asked again if he had prior knowledge of the bomb, Mr Adams said: “No I didn't.” He was also asked if he had knowledge of the bomb, would he have done something to stop it, to which Mr Adams said he couldn't answer because it's a hypothetical question. The court also played a clip of a CBS interview with Dolours Price in 2012, in which she says it was “Adams who sent (her) to London.”
When asked about the claim Mr Adams said: “It is not very clear, it's an accusation by some who were hostile to the Sinn Fein peace project who supported armed gangs, including Dolours who said I should be shot for being a traitor. So I refute the (accusation).”
When an account from Patrick J McGrory, a solicitor who himself represented Mr Adams previously, was put to the former Sinn Fein president that Mr McGrory said once “whatever Adams says, the Provos will eventually do” Mr Adams smirked and responded saying it was not true.
‘Having the craic’
When it was put to Mr Adams that if his reasoning for disputing claims from Dolours Price and Brendan Hughes was due to him believing they thought he was a traitor, how could he dispute a “his own solicitor”, he replied: “That doesn't mean he's not level with hyperbole or exaggeration, or just having the craic with a senior civil servant.”
Earlier, Sir Max quoted a passage from the book Say Nothing: A Tale of Memory and Murder in Northern Ireland, by author Patrick Radden Keefe, in which Brendan Hughes gave an interview saying that Mr Adams's IRA membership was common knowledge.
The quote from Mr Hughes in the book said: “The British know it. The people on the street know it. The dogs know it on the street. And he's standing there denying it.” The former Sinn Fein president was also shown a photograph of the pair in prison, which Mr Adams confirmed was taken in 1973 in Long Kesh.
“I was with him when he died and I also had, and still have, that photograph,” he added.
“Brendan disappointingly was against the Sinn Fein strategy, the peace process and sided with those who formed anti-peace process armed groups.
“He said publicly on occasions that I should be shot and was quoted once, that he would indeed shoot me himself.
“But I see all of that in the context of what he endured during his H Block imprisonment and the hunger strikes.”
Mr Adams was also shown a Belfast Telegraph article with claims from Brendan Hughes that Mr Adams “sent him to America to buy Armalite rifles for the Provisionals”.
Mr Adams denied this was true.
Later, Edward Craven KC, for Mr Adams, said the job of the court should not be to rule on a historical truth but to address a dispute between two parties.
‘Very little evidence’
After Mr Adams finished giving evidence yesterday, Mr Craven said to the judge: “You have actually had very little evidence of how, why and by whom these bombings were authorised.
“That is the central question in this trial. When you actually focus on that, the evidence is extremely limited and we say bordering on non-existent.
“There is not a single page in the 6,000-page bundle that implicates Mr Adams in any of the bombings.”
The trial is due to conclude later in March.
Queen’s students vote on return of Irish-language signs
Seanín Graham, Irish Times, March 19th, 2026
Online voting closes this evening in a referendum to reintroduce bilingual signs in the university’s students’ union
Eoghan Ó Conghaile is walking across the quad at Queen’s University Belfast with a big grin on his face.
Pink magnolia blossoms are in full bloom in a corner of the quiet courtyard where the sun has come out on a Thursday afternoon.
Ó Conghaile greets The Irish Times and points to his phone showing a member of rap trio, Kneecap. “DJ Próvaí and Kneecap have just given us video support for our campaign,” he says, beaming.
The Belfast student has become the face of the Yes campaign in a referendum to reintroduce Irish-language dual-signage in the university’s students’ union following its removal almost 30 years ago.
It was removed after opposition from some unionist students and a recommendation by the Fair Employment Commission for a more neutral working environment.
Online voting closes this evening and results are expected as early as tomorrow.
Introducing bilingual Irish and English signage throughout the leafy south Belfast campus is included in the students’ union referendum. Also included is changing the university’s name and logo to an “official bilingual name and official bilingual logo”.
Students will also be asked whether Irish and English should be given equal status by the university.
If the referendum passes, the university name will appear as Ollscoil na Banríona Béal Feirste, alongside the English-language equivalent, in an official bilingual logo.
“This is a complete overhaul, we’re talking about a comprehensive standalone language policy within the university,” says Ó Conghaile, a member of An Cumann Gaelach, the Irish-language society at Queen’s.
Much like the rollout of Irish- and English-language street signage across Belfast, the referendum has proved divisive.
Members of the university’s Young Unionists Society say reintroduction of the bilingual signage would create a “chill factor”. Jay Basra, the society’s chairman, has warned the move will lead to the students’ union becoming a “cold house for unionists”.
“I’ve no issue with the Irish language, it’s a language and people are entitled to learn it,” says Basra, who is also a member of the Orange and Ulster Scots Societies at Queen’s. “But I think there could have been a better way of going about this. We don’t think a student vote helps anything in terms of improving relations on campus.”
Before the Irish signage was removed from the students’ union in 1997, there was a reluctance among some unionists to take jobs or engage with the body, according to Basra.
“That chill factor still exists,” he adds. “I do think this will play into the wider debate over Irish dual-language signage and how it’s been politicised.”
Another unionist student, Matthew Shanks, describes Irish-language signage as a way of “marking territory”.
“It’s akin to painting kerbs, hanging up flags,” he says.
Ó Conghaile disagrees.
Standing in the quad, the 21-year-old points to the Senate room, which he describes as the “most important decision-making room” in the magnificent red-brick Lanyon building.
We push open the door of the small meeting room, where a portrait of Britain’s King Charles hangs.
VR 1848
Outside, VR 1848 is engraved into the brickwork on a chimney breast – a permanent mark of remembrance to Queen Victoria, the university’s founder.
“I don’t want unionists to feel this is a cold house but I’d love some explanation as to how – it’s actually engraved in the physical infrastructure of the buildings around us. It’s in the brick work,” says Ó Conghaile.
“The university is named after Queen Victoria and [also features] the king in his full British military gear with all his medals in a portrait hanging in the Senate. The cenotaph is at the front entrance.
“People’s concerns are very important but I feel this chill factor claim has to be challenged. There is no bilingual signage. You’re talking about a fully monolingual campus.
“If the mere idea of the two languages co-existing and the democratic pursuit of equality creates a chill factor for unionism, we can’t accommodate for that.”
‘Cultural revolution’
Ó Conghaile, an Irish and politics student in second year, insists bilingual signage doesn’t take away anyone’s rights.
“We’re not talking about removing English-language signs, we want the English there,” he added.
When he first came to Queen’s, it was a “bit of a culture shock” after being educated in Irish-medium schools.
“I want my education, that’s what’s important to me. But what’s also important to me is representation of my language that I speak every day. The university that we’re part of, and even our students’ union, is not reflective of the progressive changes happening across the city.
“A cultural revolution is taking place, the university is not reflecting that.”
Queen’s was contacted for comment.
In December, the university released figures on the 227 per cent increase in the number of students registering for its Irish-language courses. As well as this, an Irish-language officer based in the university’s language centre was appointed last year.
Across the road from Queen’s is the modern, glass-fronted students’ union building. Some students approached admit they are unaware the referendum is taking place, while others are apathetic.
But Ciara Donnelly and Hamza Ally are eager to express their support.
“The signage should never have left Queen’s to be honest. Bit of a disgrace it did,” says Donnelly, a law and politics student.
She is unaware of any opposition. “Everybody I’ve spoken to either don’t really care about it or welcome it,” she adds. “There has been an explosion in the number of people speaking Irish, especially after Kneecap and the language revival.”
Ally is from Egypt and also studying law and politics. “As an international student, coming to Ireland, the idea of learning Irish and seeing Irish was something I expected but didn’t really see.
“I’m not really being exposed to the culture here. So I honestly think it is a good idea to bring it back.”
Student Scarlett Murray says she has cast her vote. “I voted in favour of it. People try to make the language a very divisive issue. It’s not and it should never have been. It’s hard when people view the Irish language as a threat.”
Ó Conghaile is rushing from the students’ union to his youth leader job at Glór na Móna, an Irish-language project in west Belfast. The organisation received half the money Kneecap won in a case against the UK government last year.
A member of the project since he was eight, he says he wants to remind us that the founder of An Cumann Gaelach in 1906 was William McArthur, a “proud middle-class Protestant unionist”.
“He was a lieutenant general in the British army. He saw the importance of protecting, promoting and cherishing the Irish language,” adds Ó Conghaile.
“It’s also an indigenous language. The Irish language was here a long time before Queen’s . . . it’s everybody’s language.”
A flippant joke or something more? You never can tell with The Donald
ANDREW MADDEN, Belfast Telegraph, March 19th, 2026:
COMMENT
For good or (mostly) ill, Donald J Trump is known for speaking his mind.
The problem is, the US president's mind does not think like that of a rational person.
It does not think in terms of diplomacy, nuance and “the art of the possible”, but rather “the art of the deal” — as one of his several ghost-written books calls it.
This aspect of Trump's personality reared its head when he made an interesting comment regarding his view on Irish unity.
Or perhaps it wasn't 'unity', as such, that was on his mind, but unity by another word he is more familiar with: merger.
During a speech at the Friends of Ireland luncheon, Trump thanked Taoiseach Micheal Martin and turned to Emma Little-Pengelly.
“Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland and they [Northern Ireland and the Republic] get along so well.
“I saw that, you get along very well, the way it's supposed to be.”
To laughter in the room, he added: “I don't know if I should be promoting a merger. I love mergers. We're going to get into trouble.”
It is typical that Trump thinks of countries as businesses; after all, his background is not in politics and his presidency has been extremely profitable for the Trump family, in all sorts of dubious ways.
Obviously, his Irish unity merger remark can be dismissed as a joke or meaningless flippant comment, but Trump's jokes and flippant comments can sometimes have real repercussions.
In January Trump commented during an interview that Nato allies “stayed a little off the frontlines” in Afghanistan.
Trump’s Irish ‘merger’ suggestion
He seemingly didn't even realise the offence and gravity of his words until a significant backlash soon forced him to offer a social media post assuring that troops from the United Kingdom were “among the greatest of all warriors” in Afghanistan.
Sometimes his flippant comments have much later turned into flippant foreign policy.
Long before entering politics, in 1988 Trump gave an interview to The Guardian in which he shared his thoughts on how the United States should respond to Iranian actions in the Persian Gulf.
“I'd be harsh on Iran. They've been beating us psychologically, making us look a bunch of fools,” he said.
He added that he would “do a number” on Kharg Island, Iran's main oil export hub.
At the weekend US forces struck Kharg Island, with Trump saying much of it had been “totally demolished”.
“We may hit it a few more times just for fun,” he added.
Of course, I'm not suggesting Trump's merger comments and those regarding Iran and Afghanistan are comparable.
The point is that words matter, especially when uttered by the so-called leader of the free world, and who knows where this train goes.
What is ironic about Trump's comments at the Friends of Ireland luncheon is that Sinn Fein, the main proponents of reunification, had boycotted the St Patrick's Day trip to Washington DC, and Ms Little-Pengelly was left to look on as Trump grinned at his own joke.
Regardless of the weight of Trump's comments, he may not understand geopolitics, but he understands the media — he knew exactly what he was saying, and how it would be taken.
Deeds defends comments on language and unity as ‘parody’
CILLIAN SHERLOCK, Irish News, March 19th, 2026
THE Irish language commissioner has insisted he was “trying to distance” himself from a group’s decision to work towards a united Ireland.
In February, Conradh na Gaeilge voted to amend its constitution to “work towards a united Ireland for the benefit of the Irish language and the Gaeltacht”.
Shortly afterwards, Northern Ireland’s Irish language commissioner, Pól Deeds, criticised hostility towards Irish and was quoted as inviting people to reflect “that every word spoken against the Irish language could be seen in one sense as another blow struck in the cause of Irish unification”.
The remarks were criticised by some unionists as straying into constitutional issues and evoking a Troubles-era phrase attributed to a Sinn Fein official that “every word of Irish spoken is a bullet fired for Irish freedom”.
On Wednesday, Mr Deeds said he was “parodying” the original phrase and “turning it on its head”.
He told Stormont’s Executive Office Committee that he had been inviting people to “reflect on that possibility” as a response to Conradh na Gaeilge’s decision, which he said was made by young activists who were “radicalised by ongoing hostility to the Irish language”.
Mr Deeds previously canvassed on behalf of Sinn Féin but said he had left the party about five years ago.
Asked by DUP MLA Philip Brett if he believed it was his role to give out constitutional advice, the commissioner said it was “absolutely not constitutional advice”.
“The advice was for people to reflect upon the consequences of their actions, in terms of the ongoing hostility towards the Irish language and towards my office.”
Mr Deeds told the committee his response was “appropriate” but it had “snowballed” when “people were encouraged to react to reaction”.
He said that several unionists had told him what he said was right and questioned whether some of the offence expressed was legitimate.
Asked by Mr Brett why some in the Protestant, Unionist, and Loyalist community were suspicious of Irish, the commissioner said issues around identity and language had previously not been dealt with well and that past conflict had been “partly related” to identity and language.
Asked how the Conradh na Gaeilge decision would help unionist understanding of the Irish language, Mr Deeds said: “When I gave my comments, I was actually trying to distance myself from their decision.”
TUV MLA Timothy Gaston accused Mr Deeds of “continuing in the vein” of his former party, Sinn Féin, and “politicising” the Irish language.
He said the commissioner showed “no self awareness” and a lack of understanding of unionist concerns.
Mr Deeds said: “I would love to ask you, do you honestly not get the point I was making?”
The commissioner accused Mr Gaston of “attacking” him and “politicising” his office.
Lyons determined 'to claim some of earliest settlers in United States for NI'
REBECCA BLACK, Belfast Telegraph and Irish News, March 19th, 2026
MINISTER HOPES TO RAISE AWARENESS OF ULSTER-SCOTS CONTRIBUTION
A DUP Stormont minister has expressed his passion to “claim” some of the earliest settlers in the United States for Northern Ireland.
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons insisted the move is “not about division”, but making Northern Ireland stand out.
He was speaking as Taoiseach Micheal Martin emphasised the historic links between Ireland and the US some 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence during the annual St Patrick's Day visit.
Mr Lyons said he wants to press to ensure the contribution of the Ulster-Scots to the founding of the US is more widely known and understood.
He was among DUP ministers, including Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly and Education Minister Paul Givan who attended events in Washington DC and met US President Donald Trump this week.
First Minister Michelle O'Neill did not attend the White House in protest at the US government's policy towards Gaza.
Mr Martin traced some of the earliest roots of the US in its 250th year in the city of Philadelphia.
He spoke with pride about those who came to the US from across the island of Ireland, and helped build the country to the power that it is today.
Those he spoke about included John Dunlap from Strabane, Co Tyrone, who printed the first copy of the Declaration of Independence.
Several of the signatories to that document also hailed from Ulster, while some 17 US presidents are thought to be able to trace their family heritage to Ulster-Scots, and 25 million Americans are estimated to identify with Scots Irish or Ulster-Scots heritage.
Mr Lyons said he is determined to “claim” those people. He insisted it is “not about division” but to make Northern Ireland stand out.
Awareness of the impact of the Ulster-Scots community was the focus of an event Mr Lyons was hosting at Capitol Hill last night, along with the American 250 commission to be attended by hundreds of stakeholders.
“He (Mr Dunlap) is very much from Strabane, he is one of us, we are claiming him,” he said.
‘More than happy’ to tell the story of Ulster in Washington
“More than happy for other people to be interested, more than happy for other people to tell the story but he was an Ulster man, and that is something that we are going to very, very proudly promote with the view to say to people, 'Why don't you start to think a little bit about your ancestry, your heritage so we can have you over in Northern Ireland, to show you what Northern Ireland is all about?'
“To show that that same spirit, determination and resilience, that drew people across the Atlantic, and made such an impact in the United States, remains in our people today, and we want to say to people they will get a warm welcome.
“But also that Northern Ireland is a great place to work and study, so there are economic opportunities, cultural opportunities, and an opportunity for a real sense of pride in Northern Ireland, and that's what I'm all about.
“That's also why I'm here this week, to say we love Northern Ireland, we are proud of Northern Ireland, we are promoting Northern Ireland, and I make absolutely no apology whatsoever for doing that.”
Mr Lyons said the initiative was “one of his goals” when he came into office as Communities Minister.
He said the strong connections between the Ulster-Scots and United States have “not been exploited in the way that they should have”.
“I think there is a view in the United States ... all of Ireland is considered together, and I want to say, 'no, there is something distinct, there is something unique about Northern Ireland'.
“Of course we'll co-operate with our neighbours in the Republic, but we are a separate country, we're very proud of how distinct we are, and it's something we want to promote.”
Labour minister links Troubles sex crimes to Paramilitarism
BAIRBRE HOLMES, Irish News, March 19th, 2026
JESS Phillips has said people who suffered sexual violence during the Troubles “absolutely deserve to have that story told and writ large”.
The minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls appeared before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee yesterday.
During the session, she was asked by South Antrim MP Robin Swann if the use of coercive control, sexual control and rape “as a weapon” during the Troubles should be included in the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill.
Ms Phillips said: “Of course, I think that anyone who suffered sexual violence because of conflict that should be taken into account.”
But she said such cases are not simple or linear and “what I never want to set up, and have seen it happen, are systems that retraumatise people for no end”.
Addressing the committee, she said violence against women and girls, particularly in Northern Ireland, is a “national emergency” and an “epidemic”.
She said the femicide rates in Northern Ireland are higher than “not just other parts of the United Kingdom but quite a lot of the world”.
Ms Phillips said the influence of paramilitarism on women in Northern Ireland had been raised with her “on a number of occasions”.
She said: “When women are part of a cause, it’s very, very easy for the cause to matter more than anything else, and you see that across various different manifestations.”
The Birmingham Yardley MP said she had dealt with a lot of forced marriages and honour-based violence cases in her constituency and highlighted the crossover between “community-related” crimes and “alleged cultural practices” in the two areas.
Jess Phillips appeared before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
She said when she spoke to women in Northern Ireland: “I could have been talking to some of the women I’ve worked with who had been forced married, or victims of honour crime.”
She said: “Honour-based abuse does definitely translate over to the situation in Northern Ireland, undoubtedly, because the issue about not speaking up because of political allegiances is about honour.
“There’s so many echoes of the same sort of levers that are used over women.”
North is “Incredibly victim-centric”
Discussing government strategies to tackle violence against women in different parts of the UK, Ms Phillips gave credit to the Northern Ireland Executive for building a policy that is “incredibly victim-centric”.
Speaking about the work of the PSNI, she said she is “very impressed” with some of the “really specific, targeted operations that they were doing around sexual offending online”.
She said she had met PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher a number of times and thinks he is “a de-cent man who cares about the right things”.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson raised the need for positive male role models and highlighted the promotion of the White Ribbon campaign by Larne Football Club.
He compared them to the “TikToky-type idiot” who appeared in the recent documentary Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere, and said the men who featured in the TV programme “were all balloons”.
Ms Phillips said positive role models are “very, very important and a huge part of the government’s strategy, especially when you’re talking about post-16”, and that sport is a “really, really, really important element”.
After hearing some of the strategies being put in place by Ulster Rugby, like extra changing rooms, to encourage girls to take part in the sport, the minister said she would “try and visit them”.
She joked she would “start supporting” rugby teams in Northern Ireland as she has “no allegiance elsewhere in this sporting game”.
Does the DUP have ‘wrecker’s agenda’ or is Sinn Féin failing its voters?
NEWTON EMERSON, Irish News, March 19th, 2926
TWO parties threatened last weekend to quit the Executive.
Alliance leader Naomi Long, addressing her party’s annual conference, said participation is a balanced calculation that could change if there is continued “foot-dragging” by others.
The DUP is most obviously blocking Alliance’s key objective of environmental reform – it is preventing the creation of an independent environmental protection agency.
However, Sinn Féin and the UUP are as reluctant as the DUP to tackle agriculture pollution, while Sinn Féin has ruled out all realistic options to fund modernising the water system.
The other threat came from Sinn Féin national chair Declan Kearney.
He was vaguer than Alliance about quitting, but specific it was the DUP’s fault.
Writing in An Phoblacht, Mr Kearney accused the unionist party of being “hellbent on pursuing a wrecker’s agenda within the Assembly and Executive, no matter what the consequence”.
He added that the Good Friday Agreement is “a peace settlement, but not a political settlement”.
Its institutions “are important mechanisms to try and make change on behalf of all citizens, but they are not an end in themselves”.
This was a clear enough warning by Mr Kearney’s waffly standards.
The Executive would survive an Alliance departure – even the official opposition would remain unchanged, as the deadline to join it passed last month.
But a Sinn Féin departure would bring down devolution, again.
Under a New Decade, New Approach rule change, the Executive now takes six months to collapse if one of its two main parties leaves.
Although this makes Stormont more stable most of the time, it creates a perverse incentive to walk out within six months of an election – or eight months, including the election campaign – in the hope of creating a relatively painless crisis that is all about your own agenda.
The DUP did this before the last election over its sea border fiasco.
So Mr Kearney’s warning should be taken seriously. But is he correct about a DUP ‘wrecker’s agenda’?
Own goals?
Sinn Féin is failing on its three key pledges to nationalist voters: Casement Park, the A5 and expanding student numbers at Magee.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson with his party’s Executive ministers, Joanne Bunting, Gordon Lyons, Emma Little-Pengelly and Paul Givan
“ Sinn Féin is failing on its three key pledges to nationalist voters: Casement Park, the A5, and expanding student numbers at Magee. None of this is the DUP’s fault, despite increasingly desperate attempts to point the finger
None of this is the DUP’s fault, despite increasingly desperate attempts to point the finger.
No unionist dug the hole Casement is in.
Gordon Lyons, the DUP communities minister, may be standing beside the hole with his foot on a shovel, whistling innocently, but there is nothing more he can do without extra funds or cuts elsewhere, neither of which Sinn Féin will support.
The A5 is a complete Sinn Féin own goal, to a bizarre degree.
The DUP has offered to change the emissions targets that have stalled construction, but Sinn Féin refuses to countenance going against environmental fashion.
Its young urban voters in Belfast and Dublin are apparently more important to it than its constituents west of the Bann – unless they want to pollute Lough Neagh, confusingly.
On Magee, Sinn Féin controls every relevant department but will not fund expansion by raising tuition fees or making cuts elsewhere.
If the DUP is not obstructing any Sinn Féin objectives in particular, it is still gumming up the works in general, as Alliance’s frustration demonstrates.
The DUP will not agree the budget, although the UUP was as bad for the first half of this Executive’s term.
It appears to be struggling with internal decision-making. The DUP is still living in the ruins of its 2021 leadership contest, which Edwin Poots won by promising to purge the party’s all-powerful headquarters staff, revealing deep division and dysfunction.
Last August, Michelle O’Neill expressed her frustration with the DUP by saying “I’m in control of my ship. I make the decisions”.
In reality, each main party is run by a committee – Sinn Fein’s committee is just far less prone to delay.
That does not mean the DUP is useless. Its education minister, Paul Givan, is delivering significant curriculum reforms, Mr Lyons has taken a strong line against welfare fraud, and Emma Little-Pengelly is a popular deputy first minister.
The DUP provides effective scrutiny at assembly committees, where challenging other parties’ ministers is a requirement.
It has done nothing as confrontational as Sinn Féin’s pointless calls for Mr Givan and Mr Lyons to resign.
There is an extent to which Sinn Féin and Alliance are objecting to the DUP for simply being the DUP and pursuing a conservative unionist agenda within the system we have.
That is an argument for other parties to do better, or to reform the system.
They should not be using it to excuse their own shortcomings.
'Northern Ireland has a powerful story to tell in the United States':
By Ben Lowry in Washington, News Letter, Belfast News Letter, March 19th, 2026
The unionist deputy first minister of Northern Ireland has been continuing her engagements in Washington DC.
Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP met yesterday morning with the UK ambassador to the United States in Britain’s fabulous ambassadorial residence in the American capital – until recently the home of a former Northern Ireland secretary, the now disgraced Peter Mandelson.
Mrs Little-Pengelly held a face-to-face meeting with Sir Christian Turner KCMG, His Majesty's Ambassador to the US, a day after she met the current president, Donald Trump.
The Sinn Fein first minister, Michelle O’Neill, has been snubbing the St Patrick’s Day events over the US-Israeli military strikes against Iran. Only unionist ministers at Stormont have been present in the American capital – Mrs Little-Pengelly, the communities minister Gordon Lyons, the health minister Mike Nesbitt, as well as the unionist MLAs Jonathan Buckley of the DUP and the Ulster Unionist leader, Jon Burrows.
No current elected politicians from either the SDLP or the Alliance Party have been in Washington for the various events, which kicked off with a breakfast hosted by the Northern Ireland bureau at 8am on St Patrick’s Day itself, Tuesday, at Union Station.
The festivities, which over the decades have traditionally been dominated by leaders from the Republic of Ireland but have – since the restoration of devolution in the late 1990s – begun to involve significant input from Northern Ireland, then included a joint appearance at the White House Oval Office by the Taoiseach Micheal Martin and President Trump. That was dominated by Mr Trump’s scathing criticism of the UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Events then moved to the US houses of congress, known as Capitol Hill, for an intimate lunch with the president attended by less than 100 people including all the unionist politicians and the secretary of state, Hilary Benn. Mr Trump mentioned that Mrs Little-Pengelly was present in her role as NI deputy first minister.
This lunch included a celebration of Scots Irish history and music based on the story of the 1636 vessel that sailed out from Groomsport towards the American colonies, but failed to complete the journey.
President Trump listened intently as Trevor Marshall explained the story and influence of the Scots Irish – in contrast to Mr Trump's speech which had only referred in general terms to the Irish, by which he meant the overall waves of immigrants including the early arrivals who were overwhelmingly of Scottish origin and the later large numbers of Irish Catholic incomers, a century or so later in the mid to late 1800s.
Little-Pengelly has 10 minute meeting with Trump
Later on St Patrick’s Day, there was a huge reception at the White House for a shamrock presentation to President Trump from Mr Martin. It was prior to this gathering that Mrs Little-Pengelly got 10 minutes with Mr Trump.
Her meeting with Sir Christian followed a major post-St Patrick’s Day breakfast early yesterday morning attended by hundreds of guests, in which Sir Christian spoke about the now warm relations between Britain and Ireland and the US. He also pointed out that Northern Ireland made up one-third of the population of the island of Ireland.
The deputy first minister’s face-to-face encounter with him was what the DUP described as “part of a series of engagements to strengthen Northern Ireland’s presence in the United States”.
Mrs Little-Pengelly, speaking after the meeting, said: “Northern Ireland has a powerful story to tell in the United States, rooted in deep historic ties and strong economic links as well as shared values. My meeting with the UK ambassador focused on how we better integrate Northern Ireland into the UK’s diplomatic and trade activity here in Washington and across the United States.
“There is significant potential to enhance Northern Ireland’s visibility at both federal and state level. We discussed practical ways to ensure Northern Ireland is consistently represented in engagements, building stronger relationships with key decision-makers, investors and partners across America.”
Mrs Little-Pengelly continued: “St Patrick’s Week presents a major platform for Northern Ireland. We must maximise every opportunity to promote our economy and showcase what we have to offer. That requires a coordinated and proactive approach, working closely with our UK diplomatic network. The DUP will continue to engage positively and strategically to ensure Northern Ireland’s interests are advanced.”
