Attack on police station a 'sad and futile' bid by dissidents for relevancy before Easter: PSNI

1 Apr

JESSICA RICE, Belfast Telegraph, April 1st, 2026

POLITICIANS TELL OF FEAR AND ANGER IN LOCAL COMMUNITY FOLLOWING 'RECKLESS' INCIDENT

An attempt to attack a police station is likely a “sad and futile” bid by dissident republicans to “make themselves relevant” ahead of the anniversary of the Easter Rising, a senior officer has said.

Politicians condemned the attack in which a delivery driver was forced to transport a “crude but viable” device to Lurgan police station.

“I lived through it [the Troubles] for 35 years. I don't want to see it come back,” one resident caught up in the alert told the Belfast Telegraph.

It came after a fast food delivery driver making a delivery in Deramore Drive in the Kilwilkie area of the town was hijacked by two masked men, one armed with a pistol.

Police said the men placed an object in the boot of the white Audi A4 and ordered the driver to take it to Lurgan police station or he would be killed.

The car was driven to the station where the driver ran to security staff, telling them that there was a bomb inside.

The incident sparked a major security alert during which around 100 homes were evacuated.

Several streets were cordoned off while bomb disposal experts examined the vehicle.

The resident who spoke to us wished to remain anonymous but explained that, like many of his neighbours, he had been woken by police in the early hours of yesterday morning.

“I went down and opened the door, and they said, 'It's the police. There has been an incident. You need to evacuate the house'. What else are you going to do? I had to leave.”

The resident said those responsible for the incident did not have the support of the local community.

“It's ridiculous. People have work and things to be doing . No one wants to see the likes of this going on.”

Affected residents stayed in Lurgan Town Hall until shortly after 10am yesterday.

Local DUP councillor Peter Haire tried to assist residents overnight.

‘Not what people want’

“People were frightened but mostly they were frustrated, this isn't what people want. Those responsible for this just wanted to cause as much destruction to people's lives as they could,” he said.

“The town hall was full of women and children, people that were supposed to be going to work and school today, people that should have been able to enjoy a night's sleep, but individuals want to disturb that. They want to drag us back to the past.”

Mr Haire said the community was ready to support the individual who was forced to drive to the police station and the officers investigating the case.

“The community here don't want to see a return to violence, we want to see those responsible brought to justice,” he added.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson provided an update about the attack during a media briefing.

He said: “Whilst we'll keep an open mind in this investigation, we very much suspect that it is dissident republican terrorists involved, and I suspect that this is a sad and futile attempt to make themselves relevant as we move towards Easter.

“I want to be very clear as the people of Lurgan are, and the people beyond Lurgan, that those relics from the past have no place with society today.

“We all treasure the peace which has been built here in Northern Ireland, they detest it, they want it disrupted, they want to bring us back to a place that no one wants to be in.

“We can't afford that to happen and together we will stop it happening.”

He said a controlled explosion was carried out to make the vehicle safe, “and we now know that this was a crude but viable improvised explosive device”.

“As unsophisticated as it was, it posed a significant risk to the life of the terrified delivery driver, our security staff and the local community.”

The roads in the centre of the town reopened later yesterday morning, and residents were able to return to their homes. The white Audi was taken away at around 11am.

A cordon at the front gate of the police station was removed at around midday following a final finger-tip search of the front section by a number of officers.

‘Nothing to offer community’

First Minister Michelle O'Neill said those responsible for the attack “have nothing to offer our communities but harm, fear, and disruption”.

“I've spoken with the assistant chief constable and local representatives to offer my full support, and to thank them for their work in supporting those impacted in the local community,” she said.

Emma Little-Pengelly also condemned the incident, which she described as “deeply disturbing and serves no purpose other than to endanger lives and hold society back”. She added: “I want to place on record my sincere gratitude for the police officers who responded with speed, professionalism and courage in dealing with this incident, and thinking too of those threatened in this incident.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn described it as “reckless act of violence”. He said: “There is no place for this in Northern Ireland, and those responsible must be held to account.”

Policing Board Chair Mukesh Sharma has said those behind the incident were “intent on causing harm”.

“This was a reckless act that has caused massive disruption to all those living and working near Lurgan station, and particularly all those who have had to leave their homes,” he added.

He said those responsible were “living in a past that nobody wants, and they couldn't give a damn about the implications on people in the community or indeed the hijacked delivery driver who was threatened and forced to abandon their car at the station”.

Justice Minister Naomi Long said: “This is a shameful and dangerous attack that has put lives at risk and caused disruption and upset.

“There is absolutely no place for this utterly reckless and abhorrent behaviour.

“I would like to commend the police officers who responded quickly and professionally to this incident, and my thoughts are also with all those who have been caught up by this despicable attack.”

SDLP MP Claire Hanna described it as an “utterly disgraceful incident” that “must be condemned in the strongest possible terms”.

“It was a completely reckless act and we could have been waking up to a very different situation today,” she said.

Cosplay republicans stuck in the past with no vision, support or political strategy

ALLISON MORRIS, Belfast Telegraph, April 1st, 2026

THEY'LL GET THEIR MOMENT IN THE HEADLINES, BUT THE PEOPLE BEHIND THIS ATTACK HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER THE NEXT GENERATION

Lurgan was at one time the centre of dissident republican activity, based around a handful of former Provisional IRA veterans opposed to the peace process.

In the years after the ceasefires, the town was well used to the sight of army bomb disposal vans dealing with regular alerts.

In one month in 2016, the PSNI reported that handling alerts at the train lines close to Lake Street had cost more than £70,000.

The arrival of security forces to deal with such alerts would often lead to unrest, with youths attacking police.

When the merger that formed the New IRA was announced in 2012, much of the early activity centred in the Co Armagh area and on big personalities and persons of interest.

While the New IRA is the most recent reincarnation of anti-agreement, violent republicanism, the oldest of the dissident groups also has a presence in the area.

Members of the Continuity IRA in masks and military-style regalia march in Lurgan every year as part of a commemoration to mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.

It is a parade that once drew in large crowds, resulting in arrests and prosecutions, but in recent times, numbers have dwindled.

The Continuity IRA is the oldest faction of dissident republicanism, founded from a split with the IRA in 1986, becoming active following the first ceasefire in 1994.

However, in recent years there has been a general lull in dissident activity, not just in Lurgan but across Northern Ireland.

Take away the infighting between feuding factions, and the last notable attack was the attempted murder of now retired detective John Caldwell in Omagh more than three years ago.

The PSNI seems to have been taken by surprise when, at around 10.30pm on Monday, a fast food delivery driver was hijacked by two masked men in the Kilwilkie area of Lurgan, one of whom was said to have been armed with a pistol.

The men placed an object in the boot of the man's white Audi A4 and ordered him to drive it to Lurgan police station under threat of death.

When the driver reached the station, he leaped from his vehicle and ran to security staff, alerting them to the bomb in the car.

Controlled explosion

Ammunition technical officers carried out a controlled explosion to make the vehicle safe.

Police said it was a crude but viable improvised explosive device.

There are a number of key takeaways from this.

The device seems to have been little more than an elaborate pipe bomb, meaning the culprits placed someone earning little more than minimum wage, along with anyone who got close to the car, in the most danger.

Who it did not put at risk was the handful of officers inside the heavily fortified station, built to withstand blasts like the huge bombs of the past.

The attack was not a serious attempt to cause injury or death to the PSNI or police security staff, but rather a very crude attempt at propaganda.

It was seeking to cash in on the annual republican commemorations, when those responsible will likely try to play up the attack in a statement to the ever shrinking crowds that attend their Easter events.

It is republican cosplay by those who live in the past, with no vision or political strategy.

They are still in the 'no such thing as bad publicity' camp, with loud bangs their only plan to achieve this.

They'll get their moment in the headlines when they produce a statement that reads like something from the 1970s, but what after that?

The republican youth of Lurgan and beyond are looking towards a future border referendum and what role they will play in that in terms of political campaigning.

They are not willing to be cannon fodder for some old man's bloodlust for a return to the past.

The bomb alert will draw MI5 and other intelligence agencies towards those responsible, reactivating agents and placing intense covert surveillance on those responsible.

They've caused disruption to more than 100 families, traumatised a hard-working delivery driver and caused zero damage to a police station. And then they wonder why people roll their eyes at dissident republicans.

Police apologise to LVF murder victim’s family for ‘inadequacies’

ALAN ERWIN, Irish News and Belfast Telegraph, April 1st, 2026

POLICE have issued a High Court apology to the family of a loyalist paramilitary murder victim for “inadequacies” in the investigation into his death. Undisclosed damages also form part of a settlement announced yesterday in an action brought by the mother of Fergal McCusker, her lawyer said.

Mr McCusker was shot dead by the LVF in Maghera, Co Derry as he made his way home from a night out in January 1998. The 28-year-old victim had just returned to Northern Ireland from the United States a short time before he was abducted and killed. With no-one ever prosecuted for the murder, the family have held concerns about the RUC investigation and the potential involvement of state agents.

An inquest into the killing was halted in 2024 amid issues around information being withheld on grounds of security.

Mr McCusker’s mother, Christina, sued the police for alleged negligence and misfeasance in public office. In court yesterday, it was confirmed that negotiations have led to a settlement in her action against the PSNI. Counsel for Mrs McCusker, Des Fahy KC, read out an agreed statement as part of the resolution.

“The PSNI does not admit liability but recognises that aspects of the investigation fell below expected standards,” Mr Fahy said.

“The PSNI wishes to apologise to the McCusker family for the inadequacies in the RUC investigation.”

Police also acknowledged both the deep and lasting grief suffered by the family, and how the shortcomings had caused additional distress.

Mr Justice Rooney was told the force “affirms its commitment to learning from such cases in order to strengthen public confidence in the justice system”.

Counsel added: “The PSNI recognises that reconciliation is an ongoing societal process and affirms its broader institutional responsibility to uphold the values of fairness, transparency and accountability in its work.”

Commending both sides for reaching a settlement, the judge described it as an example of how civil claims can help bring closure in such tragic cases.

Mrs McCusker’s solicitor, Pádraig Ó Muirigh, announced later that undisclosed damages form part of the resolution.

“I can confirm that the settlement is significant and our client is satisfied with the outcome of this litigation,” he said.

“The McCusker family have fought tirelessly to expose the inadequacies in the police investigation in the 28 years since his death. Christina McCusker has been treated disgracefully by those who were tasked to investigate her son’s murder. She should not have been placed in the position of having to pursue lengthy and protracted legal proceedings to get to this point.”

Translation given for 91 languages – but not Irish

CONOR COYLE, Irish News, April 1st, 2026

STORMONT’S Department of Justice is paying over £250,000 a year to translate close to 100 languages, but the list doesn’t include Irish.

Justice Minister Naomi Long’s department pays for translation services for those who come into contact with the criminal justice system and are unable to speak English.

Article 6 of The European Convention of Human Rights, which Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK remains signed up to despite Brexit, states that everyone who is charged with a criminal offence has the right to be informed promptly in a language which they understand and in detail, of the nature and cause of the accusation against them.

In cases prosecuted by the Public Prosecution Service, the cost of supplying an interpreter for defendants at first court appearances is met by the PSNI. The cost of providing incourt interpretation for defendants at second and subsequent hearings is jointly met by the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunal Service, the PPS and the Department of Justice.

A response by Ms Long to an Assembly Question from DUP MLA Stephen Dunne revealed the number of languages which required translation as part of the justice system in the five years since 2020 was 91.

Among the languages which required translators were several little known regional languages, including Chin Tedim (Myanmar), Bahdini (Kurdish dialect) and Mauritian Creole.

The total cost to the department for translation services in the last five years is over £1million, including £256,000 in the most recent full year period.

Over £250,000 per year being paid for translation services

The most recent year’s figure jumped from £183,000 in the previous 12 months.

In the response, Justice Minister Naomi Long included a table of the 91 languages and added that the associated costs “include, but are not limited to” those in the table. However, one minority language which is not included in the list is Irish.

Last year, the UK government announced it was to repeal a 300-yearold ban on languages other than English being used in court proceedings, paving the way for Irish to be spoken officially. However, guidelines have not yet been introduced in order to facilitate the implementation of rules around the use of Irish in court hearings.

Courts are obliged to provide an interpreter when a defendant can neither read, speak or understand English. In a case sitting at Ballymena Magistrates Court last September, a 39-year-old man accused of speeding had requested to have his hearing conducted in Irish.

District Judge Nigel Broderick rejected the application by Sean Curran and denied the use of an interpreter, saying that he did not consider it “a good use of public funds”.

The Department of Justice has been contacted for further comment.

Linda Ervine appointed to Irish Council of State

GRAINNE NI AODHA, Irish News, April 1st, 2026

IRELAND’S president Catherine Connolly has appointed Irish language activist Linda Ervine and Professor Colin Harvey to her Council of State.

Ms Connolly made seven appointments to the body which assists the Irish president in considering various matters.

The president must first consult with the Council of State before referring legislation passed by the Dail to the Supreme Court over constitutional concerns.

The president can also communicate directly with the Irish parliament on a matter of public importance after consultation with the Council of State.

Ms Ervine, who is from east Belfast, is the manager of Turas, the first Irish language centre to be based in a loyalist area.

She is also the founder of Scoil na Seolta, the first integrated school to teach through the medium of Irish.

Mr Harvey is a professor of human rights law and a former head of the School of Law at Queen’s University Belfast.

He is also a commissioner on the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, has served two terms as a commissioner on the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, and is a member of the Scientific Committee of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency.

Along with Ms Ervine and Mr Harvey, Ms Connolly appointed law professor and Irish speaker Fionnuala Ni Aolain, sociologist Kathleen Lynch, law professor and Le-gal Aid board member Donncha O’Connell, law professor and director of the Child Law Clinic Conor O’Mahony, and former president of Ollscoil na Gaillimhe/University of Galway, Ciaran O hOgartaigh.

Ms Connolly said: “May I thank each of the nominees who have agreed to serve as a member of the Council of State.

“These seven members bring a unique expertise and range of experience to the Council of State which will be of immense value in considering the matters which may arise over the course of my term of office.”

The Council of State also consists of the Taoiseach, the Tanaiste, the Chief Justice, the president of the Court of Appeal, the president of the High Court, the Ceann Comhairle of Dail Eireann, the Cathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann, and the Attorney General.

It also comprises previous presidents, taoisigh and chief justices.

DUP MP supports motion on GAA’s ‘integral’ role in Irish life

CONOR COYLE, Irish News, April 1st, 2026

A DUP MP has supported a motion in the House of Commons recognising the role of the GAA as an “integral expression of Irish cultural identity and community life”.

Strangford MP Jim Shannon supported the Early Day Motion in Parliament proposed by Alliance MP Sorcha Eastwood last week in response to an Antrim GAA club’s victory in the Ulster Scór competition.

Senior members of the DUP have been criticised in the past for their attitude towards the GAA.

Just last year, GAA President Jarlath Burns said the sporting organisation was “operating in a very hostile environment” in relation to its pursuit of the redevelopment of Casement Park, expressing disappointment in Communities Minister Gordon Lyons’ efforts to progress the stadium project.

Other unionist politicians have also been criticised for their attitude towards the GAA, including former UUP leader Tom Elliott who has suggested the government should include a ‘terrorism clause’ to any funding provided for the construction of the west Belfast stadium.

Mr Shannon was the only MP who expressed support for the motion tabled by Lagan Valley representative Ms Eastwood.

Early day motions (EDMs) are motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons for which no day has been fixed.

DUP MP Jim Shannon has backed a motion praising the positive role the GAA plays in communities

As there is no specific time allocated to EDMs, very few are debated in the chamber.

The motion congratulated St Mary’s Aghagallon GAA club on their “outstanding achievement at the Ulster Scór Championships; notes that the club competed in three categories, namely the Creach outili Dancing, Ballad Group and Novelty Act competitions.”

Beyond Sport

It went on to acknowledge that the Gaelic Athletic Association extends far beyond sport, encompassing the arts, music, poetry and drama as an integral expression of Irish cultural identity and community life; and commends St Mary’s Aghagallon as an exemplary model of how a GAA club can serve as a cornerstone of community, culture and creativity.”

Speaking to The Irish News, Mr Shannon said he was happy to praise good work being done by the GAA but said there was more it could do to reach out to the unionist community.

“I get on well with Sorcha, I know she’s very much community minded in what she does and she had the Early Day Motion and I’d read it over and I had noticed a cross community part of it,” the DUP MP said.

“I’m a great believer that sport should never be politicised and that’s where the GAA falls down. But if they’re doing something positive, let’s encourage them with positivity.”

“Is there things which the GAA could improve? Yes, there is. Are there steps they could take to reach out to the unionist community? Yes, there is. But just see whenever they do something good, recognise it.”

The Strangford representative said there are those from a GAA background in his constituency who have voted for him in the past.

“In the Ards peninsula, there’s always been a portion of people who would be of a different religious persuasion, maybe of a different political persuasion, a different games persuasion, maybe from Kircubbin down towards Portaferry. I’ve known lots of them people.

“They’re good people. Some of them people, not them all, vote for me because they’ve come to me with their problems over the years. So I recognise that they’re good people and when they’re good people, you encourage them. That’s what I do.”

Paisley working for US lobbying company linked to Brexit vote

ANDREW MADDEN, Belfast Telegraph, April 1st, 2026

EX-MP TAKES SENIOR POSITION AT FIRM WITH LIZ TRUSS AMONG ITS CLIENTS

Former DUP MP Ian Paisley has been working for a US lobbying firm that played a key role in the Brexit vote and has former Prime Minister Liz Truss among its clients.

EU communications director Andy Wigmore and Kwasi Kwarteng, the second shortest-serving Chancellor in UK history, are working alongside Mr Paisley at Gunster Strategies.

Mr Paisley lost his North Antrim seat, which his family had held since 1970, in the 2024 general election.

Since then, he has largely stayed out of the spotlight and has been vague about his current work, revealing in a radio interview earlier this year that he was busy with “consultancy”, “advisory” work and “a lot of stuff in the United States of America”.

That “stuff” involves working for Gunster Strategies Worldwide, a leading public affairs and advocacy firm.

According to the company's website, Mr Paisley is Gunster Strategies' director of UK, Ireland and European economic development. A description on the site says he has a “strong reputation for working closely with business leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs to unlock opportunities and attract investment”.

“Ian is particularly focused on cutting red tape, understanding regulation, supporting job creation, and enabling better access to funding and infrastructure,” it continues.

“His work has helped secure significant investment in transport, digital connectivity, large project investment, and skills training.

“Known for his energy and drive, he regularly engages with various trade bodies and industry stakeholders to ensure their voices are heard and their priorities reflected in decision-making.

Strong international links

“Ian has developed strong international connections that support cross-border trade, export opportunities, and cultural links.”

It is unclear precisely when Mr Paisley joined the firm. However, he did attend a 'Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack' event at the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration in January last year, which was organised by Gunster Strategies. Nigel Farage was the guest of honour.

In April last year, Gunster Strategies' Facebook account posted a picture of Mr Paisley alongside company chief executive Gerry Gunster and Terry Cross of Lisburn's Hinch Distillery, with the caption mentioning “more business being done this week in the UK”.

Gunster Strategies originated as Goddard Gunster under the leadership of Ben Goddard, known as the “godfather of issue advocacy advertising” largely due to his work on a TV advertising campaign in 1993/94 opposing healthcare reform proposed by Bill Clinton.

In 2016, the firm, with Goddard's mentee Gerry Gunster at the helm, played a key role in the Brexit referendum, hired by the Leave.EU campaign to work on messaging strategies and voter targeting.

Gerry Gunster, who has deep connections with the Trump administration, gave an interview with the Washingtonian in June 2016 in which he compared the Brexit referendum with Trump's first campaign for the US presidency.

“Voter discontent, the lack of accountability and the belief that Brussels was disconnected from the average UK citizen are key reasons why over 17 million voters opted to leave the EU, a feeling that many Americans can identify with Washington,” he said.

“Similarly, our US national polls show that approximately 60% of Americans say our country is headed in the 'wrong direction'. This is a clear indication that voters are seeking a candidate whose vision for the future of the country demonstrates change.”

Electoral Commission fine

EU, which received millions in funding from businessman Arron Banks, was fined £70,000 by the Electoral Commission for breaching spending rules, including failing to declare services from Goddard Gunster in its spending return.

Mr Banks, through one of his companies, Southern Rock, paid Goddard Gunster £64,000 in July 2016 to hold a 'Nigel Farage Brexit Policy Luncheon' in Ohio to coincide with Mr Farage's visit to the Republican National Convention.

Mr Paisley was suspended from the House of Commons for 30 sitting days in 2018 after failing to declare two luxury holidays to Sri Lanka and later lobbying on behalf of its government.

Goddard Gunster became Gunster Strategies Worldwide in 2017.

Mr Wigmore is its chief diplomatic strategist. He faced parliamentary scrutiny, along with Mr Banks, over contacts with Russian officials between 2015 and 2017. Both men deny any wrongdoing.

Former Tory MP Mr Kwarteng's short tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer was marked by the disastrous mini-budget, which included £45bn of unfunded tax cuts and caused a severe financial crisis.

Mr Kwarteng was sacked after 38 days in post, with Ms Truss resigning as Prime Minister on her 49th day in office.

Gunster Strategies and Mr Paisley did not respond to requests for comment.

Partition is the problem and unity is the only solution in Ireland

BRIAN FEENEY, Irish News, April 1st, 2026

YOU set the cat among the unionist pigeons a couple of weeks ago, Alex, with your piece on March 18.

As a reminder to people, you wrote that “the past is always in front of us” – you can’t just paint over it and forget it. True.

However, when people talk about the past, it’s assumed they’re referring to the Troubles.

It appears, Alex, you were referring to the great injustice done to this place in the past, which you correctly identify as partition.

You also correctly point out that partition is “the primary cause of the conflict” and while that remains unresolved, there will be no solution.

Unfortunately, Alex, you didn’t follow the logic of your own argument, namely that undoing partition, reuniting the country, is the solution.

Trying to skirt round your failure to follow through to the logical conclusion means you have to come up with the assertion that reunification is not inevitable.

Yet any other outcome escapes you, Alex – not only because you can’t think of a plausible one, but for the simple reason that there isn’t one

You may have read a lengthy interview at the weekend with the BBC’s Clive Myrie, veteran journalist and Mastermind host. He reminisced about his visits to Belfast in the 1980s as a reporter.

On arrival he immediately identified what was happening.

“It was a classic example of the retreat of a colonial power from a certain part of the world, and I saw it in those terms… particularly in relation to other conflicts around the world that were happening at the same time.”

Partition was part of that retreat: it failed.

They say when Douglas Hurd was being taken on a tour after his arrival here as proconsul in 1984, he saw graffiti on a wall which said “Brits Out”. Hurd said: “Yes, but how?” Ten years later, Patrick Mayhew told the German magazine Der Spiegel that Britain would gladly leave the north “mit handkuß” – kiss it goodbye.

Partition has failed, Alex, and it follows therefore that all attempts to sustain it must fail.

The present iteration at Stormont is demonstrating that truth conclusively on a daily basis.

So much so, that as a New Year resolution you wisely declared you would no longer write about the Ruritanian gallimaufry that passes for the devolved administration.

Selfish political advantage

That leaves us in a bind, Alex, for while the British don’t know how to leave, the present Irish government doesn’t want them to go.

Micheál Martin is on a bit of solo run on that topic as well as on several others, including Irish neutrality.

Martin won’t mention Irish unity, let alone the way to achieve it.

People have advanced various reasons for his stance, Alex: cynicism, hypocrisy, intellectual dishonesty.

The simplest of all may be the truth: selfish political advantage.

Martin knows that reunification is the end of Fianna Fáil, for Sinn Féin will devour his party once northern votes are added to its total.

In that respect, Alex, the position of Martin and of unionist politicians is symmetrical.

They both hope and believe the self-evident fallacy that the future must be the same as the past.

So Martin comes up with all sorts of excuses to avoid change.

“Now is not the time” – though no-one says it is. “There has to be reconciliation first” – an impossible, undefined pre-condition he falsely added to the Good Friday Agreement.

Do you not agree, Alex, that in any of the other conflicts in the world Clive Myrie referred to, what is done first is create political mechanisms to resolve the conflict?

Is it not obvious, as Leo Varadkar has said, that there would have been no Good Friday Agreement if people had to wait for ‘reconciliation’?

‘Reconciliation’ a meaningless word

As Heaney said in 1997 about reconciliation: “That word has become a policy word – official and public.”

In concrete terms it is therefore both useful and meaningless. How would you know if it had been achieved?

Worse, Alex, is that Martin, by inventing ‘reconciliation’ as a pre-condition, has handed hard-line unionists an obvious incentive to be as obstructive and disruptive as possible.

The result is that we’re stuck until two things happen: Fianna Fáil gets shot of Martin, with any luck by 2027, and the current turmoil in British politics is resolved, by 2029 – maybe.

Nevertheless, we’re in the end game, with both Martin and unionist leaders struggling to postpone the evil day that is a topic of conversation across the island.

The solution beckons with the referendum on reunification, which you agree is inevitable, offering the British the ready-made exit they search for.

The Portuguese left Angola in 1975 after being there since the 15th century.

The colonial power always leaves, you know, Alex.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly sit across a table from Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris during a meeting of the North South Ministerial Council last October

MY view, Brian – and it has been my view for a long, long time – is that partition is the primary cause of the conflict.

It is also the primary reason why genuine reconciliation has proved impossible, even among those who would describe themselves as moderate, liberal or, cutting to the chase, Alliance.

I do accept that there are people who do want to get on with everyone else and wish that our parties would similarly just get on and govern together for the good of everyone.

But deep down, and you know this to be true too, Brian, even those with a heart for cooperation in government also have a heart for their own constitutional preference.

The majority, according to opinion polls – and the electoral evidence tells the same story – have already picked a side on the united Ireland versus United Kingdom debate.

And the remaining 20 per cent or so know that, to paraphrase Bucks Fizz, soon there will come a time for making your mind up.

So far, Brian, I think we’re both on the same page.

But then you accuse me of not following the logic of my own argument which, according to you, means undoing partition and ‘reuniting the country’.

Hmm. I’m not entirely clear what you mean by reuniting, though.

hat partition did was divide an island that had been a single entity within the UK. Indeed, it had previously been the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

But that form of reunification is not, as you very well know, what the united Ireland lobby is talking about.

And even then, and dating back a few hundred years earlier, there was a demonstrably pro-British majority within the province of Ulster.

You can say that was because of the Plantation, yet the fact remains that there is still a demonstrably pro-British majority in what is now Northern Ireland.

If that majority didn’t exist, there wouldn’t even be a debate about the timing, terms and conditions for a border poll.

So, what sort of united Ireland are you talking about, Brian?

By your own admission, it seems to be one that the present taoiseach and his party reject, because it would mean their political and electoral demise.

Adding, as you do, that Fianna Fáil would be wiped out by Sinn Féin, doesn’t sound very appealing to those from a pro-union background.

You will know, Brian, that I have written that I have yet to be persuaded that a united Ireland would facilitate the reconciliation et al – ‘solve all the problems of the past’, as more than one united Irelander has put it to me – that was not possible while Ireland was partitioned. I don’t believe that.

While I accept that partition is a primary source of the post-1920 conflict in Northern Ireland, I do not accept that Irish unity would, in and of itself, fix things.

Actually, I suspect conflict would manifest itself in other ways: as it did in Northern Ireland when elements of republicanism rejected partition.

Border Poll inevitable

As it happens, while I think a border poll is inevitable, I don’t think Irish unity – certainly in the sense that some people wish for – is similarly inevitable.

There is a case to be made that the 1800 Act of Union was a bespoke arrangement. As was the 1920 Act. As, indeed, was the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

I believe – and yes, Brian, it might well be a form of wish fulfilment on my part – that another sort of bespoke arrangement is more likely than not.

The debate on unity has been very one-sided so far. But there will come a time when the unionist side will be heard. A time when fully thought-through debate about what, precisely, Irish unity actually means, and what the consequences for unionism will be, will form part of the engagement.

Off the top of my head I can think of dozens of issues which haven’t even been mentioned by the united Ireland lobby.

Issues which will have a significant bearing on the direction of subsequent debate, particularly on the southern side of the border.

You mention the creation of political mechanisms to resolve the conflict. Personally, I haven’t heard of any mechanism that could achieve that in either a united or partitioned Ireland.

Partition may be the primary source of the conflict, but the roots go much deeper than any mechanism could reach.

As for the decolonisation process. I don’t believe Northern Ireland is your typical colonial situation, Brian.

All sorts of Ds will come into play: departure, disengagement, disconnection, detachment and disentanglement come to mind.

But the relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom is now so close, and has been for decades, that I still think we’re looking at a bespoke deal which leaves a considerable British presence.

A sort of ‘UK dimension’, if you like. Which you won’t, of course, Brian.

MY view, Brian – is that partition is the primary cause of the conflict.

ALEX KANE, Irish News, April 1st, 2026