Loyalist killer wants to be taken into custody, and then released

JOHN BRESLIN, Irish News, April 13th, 2026

A LOYALIST killer wants to strike an unprecedented deal for him to be taken into custody – and then immediately released so he does not spend any more time behind bars.

The deal involving Robert Clarke would end a marathon seven-year legal battle that began after a bail application by a former IRA member accused of double murder, but who still has not gone on trial.

Clarke lost a legal bid to avoid being sent back to prison after the Court of Appeal last month dismissed a judicial review and found he was wrongly granted early release under the Good Friday Agreement following a 2011 conviction for the 1973 murder of chip shop owner Alfredo Fusco.

But the Sentence Review Commission (SRC) is insisting Clarke has to return to prison and remain behind bars until a new application is considered, said Danny McNamee, his Newry-based solicitor. The SRC was contacted.

Mr McNamee said the 74-yearold could be picked up at any time and taken into custody. The solicitor will apply for interim relief from the courts today to stop that happening ahead of an expected April 16 High Court hearing to thrash out what will happen to Clarke.

Mr McNamee said: “The Sentencing Review Commission is saying they will not accept his application until he is back in prison.

“We are asking them to design a scheme where he can be put into custody, sign his application papers and then immediately be given temporary release. “But they are not playing ball.” Under the provisions of the Legacy Act, he would be eligible for early release, but Mr McNamee said he has “already done the underlying two years”.

Clarke served 15 years of a life sentence for the shooting dead of 58-year-old Margaret O’Neill as she walked along the New Lodge Road in Belfast in 1975.

Then in 2011, following an investigation by the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team, he was convicted of the murder of Italian ice-cream shop owner Alfredo Fusco in north Belfast.

Killer’s legal team want to strike ‘unprecedented’ deal

Fingerprints found on the York Road shop door at the time were tested again and found to match. Following his conviction, his legal team asked for a royal pardon but HE was told to apply for early release under the peace agreement. He was released after two years.

But Mr McNamee said: “We surmise it was an offence the RUC had looked at…and decided not to prosecute as he was already doing a life sentence.”

The solicitor added: “Robert Clarke after he was released from prison (in 1990) stayed away from politics and had no support group, nobody cares about him. He was an easy target.”

However, Clarke was involved in crime after his release from the life sentence as he built up his fuel business based in yards near the international airport and Shankill Road.

He was accused of involvement in a fuel smuggling conspiracy involving dozens of other people, including south Armagh republicans, former footballers and a prominent bar owner.

Clarke was convicted in 2019 of converting close to £4m he knew or suspected came from criminal conduct. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.

Alfredo Fusco who was killed in 1973 after a gun attack at his cafe on the York Road in north Belfast

He previously served a 12-month prison term for fraudulently evading customs duty connected to the same conspiracy.

The 1998 agreement allowing paramilitary prisoners to be released after two years only covered offences committed after 1973. Under the Legacy Act, this was extended to anyone who committed an offence after 1966.

Soldier F, Joe McCann and John Downey

But only a small number of individuals have been prosecuted for alleged offences committed across all the years of the conflict since the 1998 agreement.

It is believed Clarke is one of only five prosecuted for offences committed pre-1973.

These include Soldier F, acquitted of two Bloody Sunday murders, and two soldiers whose trial for the 1972 murder of Belfast Markets republican Joe McCann collapsed.

The fifth is John Downey, the now 73-year-old accused of the murder of two UDR soldiers in an IRA bomb attack in Enniskillen in 1972.

He has yet to go on trial but it was during one of his bail hearings, in 2019, that Robert Clarke was identified as being wrongly released early under the peace agreement.

When the case of Clarke was raised, it led to a flurry of communications between top level officials at the Northern Ireland Office, the Public Prosecution Service, the Sentence Review Commission (SRC) and senior police officers, according to court documents.

But the police declined to pursue Clarke as being unlawfully at large, said Mr McNamee. This led to seven years of legal action with the Secretary of State pitted initially against the SRC, but culminating in Clarke taking a judicial review.

Robert Clarke was jailed in 2019 for his part in a fuel laundering operation

Lemass, O’Neill, a handshake and the echoes of history

RONAN MCGREEVY, Irish News, April 13th, 2026

ON January 4 1965, Jim Malley, the private secretary of northern premier Terence O’Neill, visited Dublin.

There he met with his southern counterpart, TK Whitaker, who introduced him to the Taoiseach, Seán Lemass.

Malley’s message was simple: would Lemass meet O’Neill?

Lemass, as was his wont when his mind was made up, immediately agreed.

Ten days later, he travelled north in the greatest of secrecy.

It was the first time the two leaders of a partitioned Ireland had met since 1925.

Lemass believed O’Neill’s invitation stemmed from a growing realisation that the unionist government was getting an odious reputation for its treatment of the Catholic minority.

The year previously had seen the Divis Street riots and the beginnings of the civil rights movement.

Between 1967 and 1969, Lemass gave 23 interviews to the businessman and Fianna Fáil supporter Dermot Ryan.

These recordings, amounting to 22 hours and 270,000 words, were intended to form the basis of a political memoir edited by Ryan, but it has not come to fruition until now.

“I would say O’Neill was very much concerned with the ugly image the Six Counties has in the world, and with the deterioration in community relations, which it should be his job, as head of the government, to improve,” Lemass told Ryan.

Lemass had come to the realisation that his work to improve north-south relations had been in vain, telling Ryan during one of the interviews in 1968:

“As you know, in recent months they (the unionist government) are back again to square one.

“I would say O’Neill knew that the Six County situation could not really be put right until there was a greater harmony between the two elements in the population and an acceptance of the need for co-operation in the Six Counties, including the nationalists.”

Like all southern nationalists who had lived through the partition of Ireland, Lemass saw it as a great injustice, but differed from his predecessor Éamon de Valera who believed it was the responsibility of the British government, who created partition, to end it.

Lemass saw the problem differently. It was not the British government which was the impediment to unity, but the “Carsonite” unionist majority who would resist any attempt to create a united Ireland without consent.

“It would have made a situation in which the ending of partition would be even worse than the partition situation; it would have to be done by military force, with all the legacy of bitterness and hate that would result from it – a permanent and perpetual sore for the Irish people.

“We would have to turn the north into a police state to prevent various movements from breaking out again and I could not see this being helpful to Ireland.

“I could see it as almost a disease which would ultimately destroy the nation, and I therefore began to talk about unity as a spiritual and not a political conception – something which would only follow upon the removal of these misunderstandings, these bigotries, these historical animosities.”

Ending Stormont boycott

In his memoir, Lemass recalled that he persuaded the Nationalist Party, led by Eddie McAteer, to break its boycott of Stormont and become the official opposition.

McAteer was suspicious of southern politicians, believing that their northern counterparts were the “b*****d children of the Republic”.

Lemass told McAteer that Stormont would likely remain even in the event of a united Ireland, and that it made sense for the Nationalist Party to participate in the assembly.

“I tried to give him a logical basis for political action up there, which he had not got before that.

“You see, before that their attitude was ‘We are against it’. That was a basis perhaps for a programme of action outside parliament, but it was not a basis for action by a parliamentary party.

“On the basis that a united Ireland would leave a Six County parliament in existence, they had a framework within which to operate.

“Mind you, he accepted this and the nationalists became the official opposition party shortly afterwards and participated in the working of parliament to a greater degree than before.”

Though Lemass participated in the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War, he came to despise the IRA.

During the negotiations that ended the ‘Economic War’ in 1938, he recalled that Taoiseach Éamon de Valera had received a “private undertaking” from British prime minister Neville Chamberlain that he would seek to bring about a change of attitude towards partition in Britain.

Lemass believed the IRA’s bombing campaign in Britain which began in 1939 was a disastrous intervention at a critical time.

“This was so contrary to Irish interests at the time that I always suspected that the British secret service was behind it, that the IRA had been infiltrated by some secret service man.”

Lemass was equally scornful of the IRA border campaign of 1957 to 1962, regarding it as cowardly and counterproductive.

The work started by Lemass and O’Neill began with such promise, but both men were overtaken by events.

Yet their vision of north-south cooperation is as relevant today as it was when they first met more than 60 years ago.

Seán Lemass: The Lost Memoir, edited by Ronan McGreevy and published by Ériu books, is out now, priced £22.

US gun-running: UK Govt feared extraditions could upset peace talks

SAM McBride, Belfast Telegraph, April 13th, 2026

DOCUMENTS PROVE CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROCESSES WEREN'T KEPT ENTIRELY SEPARATE FROM POLITICS, WITH US ASKING IF REQUEST TO EXTRADITE PROVOS 'WOULD BE WELCOMED' — AND UK OFFICIALS SAYING IT WOULDN'T HELP PEACE PROCESS, WRITES SAM MCBRIDE

British officials believed it might be unhelpful to the peace process to extradite IRA members to the US to face charges linked to a massive post-Good Friday Agreement gun-smuggling operation, declassified files reveal.

The Florida gunrunning has never been admitted by the IRA, even though the republican at the heart of the trial, Connor Claxton, admitted in court that he was a member of both the IRA and Sinn Féin and had been authorised to get guns into Ireland.

In 2014, self-confessed gun-runner Mike Logan told BBC Spotlight that Sean 'Spike' Murray — now one of Sinn Féin's most senior backroom figures — was involved in the plot. Logan said Murray was his main contact in Belfast and that hundreds of guns had been involved. Murray strongly denied the allegations.

The PSNI said it was re-examining the case. Four years later, prosecutors decided not to prosecute, saying the evidence was “insufficient to meet the test for prosecution”.

Murray would stay as a senior Sinn Féin backroom strategist, and remains an influential party figure to this day.

Now a previously secret file discovered by the Belfast Telegraph in The National Archives in Kew sheds new light on the case.

It does nothing to support those who believe the British authorities were ambivalent towards convictions of those caught red-handed in the US. The file shows a keen interest in their conviction with the prosecution being given active support via British diplomats in the US.

However, after their conviction was secured, the idea of widening the net to republicans in Belfast received a far less enthusiastic response.

Connor Claxton, Martin Mullan and Anthony Smyth were charged with a host of offences linked to the gun-running.

‘Confident of securing convictions’

On March 29, 2000, an NIO official said that he'd been told by the RUC that the FBI were “confident of securing convictions, including on more serious charges linking the offences to terrorism”.

This, he said, “may well generate further publicity in relation to the PIRA ceasefire and the Secretary of State's decision last August”.

However, that doesn't seem to have discouraged active support for the prosecution.

There then began regular detailed updates from British diplomats sent to the court each day as the trial unfolded in Fort Lauderdale.

On the first day, diplomat Paul 'PJ' Johnston said there were several key journalists present with “considerable interest around the Ciaran Hughes connection and how close it puts senior PIRA members in Ireland to this operation”.

He said jury selection revealed “a snippet of American life that fell somewhere between the Oprah Winfrey and Jerry Springer shows. One juror was excused after he said, with unblinking eyes, that jury duty would hinder him seeing this psychiatrist and taking his medication. Another potential juror…said that his son had been imprisoned for shooting Elvis”.

Johnston said he had been told by the lead FBI special agent in the case that Larry Butler, a former White House national security adviser, was happy to give evidence in support of the prosecution.

However, the FBI man said “the White House/State [Department] were not keen to have someone who had been involved in the peace process take the stand apparently taking one side”.

Johnston said that when Connor Claxton took the stand, he admitted he had joined the IRA in 1991 and also worked for Sinn Féin, but then “went back on active service”.

‘Defensive purposes’

He said that, under cross-examination, Claxton “claimed that he…had the authority of PIRA for the operation” but the guns were to be used for “defensive” purposes.

The diplomat said: “Perhaps the questioning which had the most visible effect on the jury was when [prosecutor] Scruggs asked what PIRA did to people who cooperated with the police.

“Claxton chillingly said that PIRA was the de facto Government of Ireland and traitors went before a court martial and were executed.”

On the second day of Claxton's cross-examination, the diplomat said that “bit by bit Claxton's initial cockiness is evaporating”.

Johnston said some supporters of the defendants were “attempting subtly to intimidate the British contingent” and “there is also a suspicion that the prosecution attorneys are being followed”.

The diplomat praised prosecutor Richard Scruggs' skill.

At one point, he said Claxton claimed that he went to Boston and received $12,000 for weapons from a woman whose name he didn't know and could only describe as a redhead: “Scruggs asked how he knew who to approach or had they arranged to meet in a 'no redhead zone'.”

However, several years later, Scruggs would be disbarred as a lawyer and jailed after attempting to bribe a judge in another case.

In a briefing for the Secretary of State while the jury were considering their verdict, Northern Ireland Office official William Keowns said: “If the jury deliver a guilty verdict, there will clearly be opportunity for people to question the PIRA ceasefire. Not only did Claxton admit this was an official PIRA operation, but it was suggested during the trial that senior PIRA individuals had been involved.”

All the defendants were found guilty of conspiring to commit offences against the US, but not guilty on two other counts relating to providing material support for terrorists and conspiring to murder overseas.

Shocked defendants’ families

Another British diplomat said that initially the defendants' families “showed some excitement” after the early not guilty verdicts, but after a long recitation of “guilty”, they appeared “shocked” and “several members of the families broke down in tears”.

He said: “The defendants themselves appeared more stoic and Claxton even managed a raised fist salute as he was led away and called the IRA war cry ('Our day will come', in Gaelic of course) which his sister then called back.”

He added: “Shortly after the end of the trial, the local reporter for the Sun Sentinel newspaper (John Holland) came to talk to Scruggs having first interviewed at least two of the jurors.

“According to the jurors, the jury actually believed that the government had proved the case against all three defendants on counts two and three but because they were aware (from a reserve juror dismissed at the very start of the trial for mentioning a press article) of the possibility of life sentences they were unwilling to convict the men.

“In short, the jury had taken it upon themselves to try and dictate the sentencing of the men despite the judge's explicit instructions not to do so.”

He said the mood among the FBI and prosecutors was still positive; they had achieved a total of 82 guilty verdicts and just seven not guilty verdicts.

One supporter of the defendants allegedly told Scruggs he deserved “a bullet in the head”.

Prisons of south Florida less palatable than Maze

Johnston noted wryly that the defendants “may find the prisons of south Florida less palatable than the Maze”.

A few weeks later, the defendants were sentenced — Claxton to four years and eight months, Smyth to three years and a $6,100 fine, and Mullan to three years and a $1,000 fine.

He said the sentences were close to the highest that the judge could award and that the judge had commented: “If in a crack-cocaine case a person can get a life sentence for possessing $400 worth of cocaine, this kind of offence ought to be a death penalty.'”

Two months later, Alexander Fraser in the Home Office wrote to the NIO for advice on an approach from the US Department of Justice in Washington in relation to other suspects in the case.

He said: “As you will note, the US has paused before making extradition requests for PIRA suspects believed now to be in Northern Ireland but who were allegedly involved in this weapons smuggling racket.”

He said the Home Office's judicial co-operation unit had been asked “how they thought extradition requests would be received by the UK during the current delicate stage of the political peace process”. He said the initial response “which I share” was that “in the light of other ministerial exchanges which he had seen of late, high-profile extradition requests might well upset the rhythm of whatever political discussions might be taking place”, although he “qualified this view by saying he did not see it as part of his role to actively discourage requests”.

Informal amnesty

In a December 8, 2000 memo, Katherine Herrick in the NIO's security and extradition unit said that “the US authorities now have reason to believe that there is sufficient evidence to bring to trial a number of individuals for involvement in the Florida gun running case.

“It would appear that these individuals are currently resident in Northern Ireland”.

At that point, she said the Americans had not yet made a formal extradition request but asked whether the offences were extraditable and “to get a sense of whether such a request to extradite PIRA affiliated individuals to face charges at this time would be welcomed by the UK authorities”.

In a letter she drafted to be sent to the Home Office, they were to be told that while the Florida District Attorney might be interested in extradition “I would be surprised if [the] political climate within the US would be in favour of actively pursuing these cases”.

The note continued: “In terms of the steer which the US are seeking from us concerning the possible impact on the peace process, our line must be that while it would not necessarily be helpful in the present circumstances for the US to pursue a high profile extradition of PIRA affiliated individuals, our advice to the American authorities should mirror the action which we are taking in similar extradition cases.

“The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has announced that he will no longer seek the extradition of convicted individuals who might benefit from the early release under the Good Friday Agreement.

“However, the UK Government is still in the position of pursuing the extradition of pre-conviction cases where there is sufficient evidence to afford a realistic prospect of conviction and where the public interest requires a prosecution.”

Families back home after 'hoax' bomb alert

ADRIAN RUTHERFORD,  Belfast Telegraph, April 13th, 2026

RESIDENTS WERE ASKED TO EVACUATE HOMES AS POLICE SEARCHED THE AREA

A security alert that forced residents from their homes in north Belfast was declared an elaborate hoax by police.

Police were at the scene of the incident in the Canning Place area on Sunday morning.

Ammunition Technical Officers arrived at the scene at around 12.30pm, where they checked a number of vehicles and hedges.

A number of residents in the area were asked to evacuated their homes.

Police later described the device as an “elaborate hoax” as the alert ended at approximately 7pm and residents were able to return to their homes.

Local policing Sergeant Kelly said: “ A suspected pipe bomb was found at the front of a residential property on Sunday morning, April 12.

“A number of residents were advised to evacuate during the public safety operation that followed, with local facilities opened to accommodate this.

“Ammunition Technical Officers (ATO) attended the scene this afternoon and examined the item, deeming it to be an elaborate hoax. The item has now been taken away for forensic examination.

“Those who were evacuated are now able return to their homes and the cordon has been lifted.

“We appreciate that people were out of their homes for a period of time as this public safety operation was conducted and we thank them for their patience.”

Security incidents

There have been a number of security alerts across Northern Ireland in recent weeks.

The most serious of those occurred on March 30 when a fast food delivery driver in Lurgan was hijacked by two masked men, one of whom was armed with a pistol.

The men placed an object in the boot of the white Audi A4 car and the driver was ordered to drive it to Lurgan Police Station or he would be killed.

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

That attack was linked to dissident republicans.

Meanwhile, on April 8 police examined a suspicious object in east Belfast.

A man was charged after a security alert in Glenarm, Co Antrim, on April 6. On that occasion there was a report of a suspicious device which was deemed viable.

He was charged with doing an act with intent to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property and with obstructing police.

On April 3 there was another report of a suspicious object in north Belfast.

Residents were evacuated and a controlled explosion was carried out on the item which was believed to be an elaborate hoax.

There is no indication the incidents are connected.

Rory McIlroy overcomes demons to retain Masters title 

Philip Reid at Augusta National, Irish Times, April 13th, 2026

The green jacket has proven to be a perfect fit for Rory McIlroy, so much so that it will remain in his wardrobe for another year. On another of those rollercoaster days which have formed such a part of his DNA, the Northern Irishman lost control of his own destiny and then brilliantly reclaimed it to put on a masterclass around Amen Corner to find deliverance. Again!

Where it took a playoff win a year ago, McIlroy’s mastery – after a shaky start – saw him stand clear and alone atop the leaderboard in this 90th edition of the Masters, after a final round 71 for a total of 12-under-par 276 gave him a one-stroke winning margin over Scottie Scheffler.

McIlroy doesn’t do easy. The colour-friendly green Whoop device on his right wrist clocked every up and down of a heartbeat which, when it mattered most in the heat of battle, remained calm and collected, so that he became the first player since Tiger Woods in 2002 to successfully retain the title, joining an elite group of four men numbering Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo – and now McIlroy.

But that’s the company that McIlroy’s standout career has merited.

And, on a beautifully sunny day with only the slightest of breezes, McIlroy’s walk to the first tee, by the old Oak tree to the putting green and then on to the box where the starter’s message of “Fore, now driving”, got his round under way with the promise of greatness hanging in the air.

Yet, the demons of old resurfaced. On the Par 3 fourth, a wild tee shot was so far awry that it finished left of the bunker. His pitch over the trap ran to 10 feet but he three-putted for a double-bogey six and a bogey on the sixth had him two behind his playing partner Cameron Young.

Others were on fire too, not least Justin Rose – the vanquished from that sudden death of 2025 – who went on a run of three straight birdies from the seventh to move to 12-under, while Tyrrell Hatton and Collin Morikawa found hot streaks of their own.

And most menacingly of all world number one Scheffler caught fire with birdies on the 15th and 16th so that the roars came back to McIlroy of a surge that ultimately came up just short. Scheffler’s bogey-free 68 for 11-under-par 277 left the champion of 2022 and 2024 alone in second.

When it mattered, McIlroy took his destiny in his own hands. The back-to-back birdies on the seventh and eighth – where, on that Par 5, he executed a beautiful 6-iron from 229 yards to find the green and then two-putt – saw him move down the 10th and onwards to Amen Corner with a pep in his stride.

The iconic Par 3 12th – a 9-iron to eight feet – delivered a birdie and a wonderful drive on the 13th set up another birdie to move into a three-stroke lead.

Nerves of Steel

Nervy moments after that? Well, a poor pushed drive on the 15th and a lay-up and then an approach that had his heart in his mouth, as the ball just cleared the water, for one. A safe par, though. And then a tee-shot over the back of the Par 3 16th, from where – with nerves of steel and wonderful artistry – he chipped and expertly used the slope so that the ball finished tap-in distance for par.

A good up and down par save on the 17th, and McIlroy allowed himself to gently touch the offered hands on the walkway to the 18th tee. Driver or 3-wood? Caddie Harry Diamond handed him the driver. But McIlroy’s aggression raised further raised heartbeats, as his tee shot was pushed into the trees and on to pine needles with the only escape route being to play a high hook.

McIlroy’s approach found the front greenside bunker. Thankfully, his Titleist RORS marked ball didn’t plug, and he splashed out to 15 feet. The old adage of taking two putts if just two were needed was applied, as McIlroy two-putted for a finishing bogey five to reclaim the title.

McIlroy’s back-to-back wins in the Masters have elevated the Northern Irishman up a further notch to the level of greatness among European players, joining Seve Ballesteros as a two-time winner of the Masters and joining Nick Faldo as a six-time Major champion, the most of the modern era.

McIlroy, 36, has a decade – or perhaps even more – to further his playing legacy but his second Masters win, only the fourth player to win in consecutive years (joining Faldo, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods) in a special quartet, has earned him a place among the greats.

“I felt like the [career] Grand Slam [last year] was the destination, and I realised it wasn’t. I’m on this journey to ... I don’t know, I just won my sixth major, and I feel like I’m in a really good spot with my game and my body.

“I don’t want to put a number on it, but I feel like this win is just, I don’t want to say a stop on the journey, it’s just a part of the journey. I still have things I want to achieve, but I still want to enjoy it as well.

“I’ve waited so long to win the Masters, and all of a sudden I win two in a row. So I still want to enjoy it. I’ve got a couple of weeks off before I go back to play competitive golf, but I don’t think I’ll go through that lull of motivation or the sort of things that I was feeling last year post winning this tournament.”

Shane Lowry’s grand hopes were extinguished early. A bogey on the first – where someone audibly coughed on his chip shot – set the tone for a miserable closing round, which included no fewer than three double-bogeys, on the fifth, 11th and 16th, where he found water left off the tee. Lowry, who started the final round in solo fourth two shots adrift of McIlroy and Young, cut a sorry figure on departing the 18th, after a closing 80 for 287 in tied-30th.

Coalition’s worst week shows how unprepared country is for an economic downturn

Pat Leahy, Irish Times, April 13th, 2026

Ministers neither expected nor understood wave of protests and blockades

The clearing of blockades by gardaí and the announcement of a €500 million package to reduce the pressure of high fuel prices has – for now anyway – brought to an end a period of genuine crisis for the Government.

Often when a government is said to be in crisis, it really isn’t. But this past week, it was. Critical parts of the country and the commerce upon which it depended for revenues were brought to a near standstill by a wave of protests and blockades that Ministers neither expected nor understood, and which they seemed – for much of the week – utterly unable to deal with.

It was the most serious challenge the Government has faced since it was formed last year and for much of the week it floundered.

Whether this weekend’s twin-track course of action – announcing a package of supports while reasserting the authority of the State on the streets – turns out to be a permanent resolution remains to be seen. The Government certainly hopes so, but hope is a poor substitute for strategy. The protesters themselves do not seem to know, insofar as they can be said to have one mind on anything.

Ultimately, a lasting resolution may depend on something over which neither protesters nor Government have any control: the price of oil. If that remains high, or gets even higher, further turbulence surely lies ahead.

For all the uncertainties of the current position, two things are surely true: first, the Government cannot continue to spray money around indefinitely and, second, many businesses and farms cannot operate with permanently high diesel prices.

Unpalatable choices

The postmortem examination in Government is unlikely to be flattering. The online organising of the protests and blockades seems to have gone entirely under the radar to an extent that when the tractors and lorries began parking across roads on Tuesday there was no sense of alarm bells going off – only a mixture of irritation and complacency.

By the time the Government announced it was calling in the Army on Wednesday, the protesters and blockaders were too well ensconced to be easily moved. And, anyway, the Army didn’t arrive until days later.

There was a failure to appreciate the differences between protests and blockades. There was a farcical attempt to involve the protesters in talks and then to shut them out as the character of the events on the streets began to be more obviously coloured by contributions from far-right and anti-immigrant agitators.

Ordinary people squeezed by the cost of living were there in their droves, for sure. But the far right was seizing on the protests and nobody on the barricades was stopping them. On Sunday, the Government sought to solve the problem by – of course – throwing money at it. But it has been a very bad few days for Micheál Martin’s administration.

The only consolation for the Government was that the Opposition seemed equally wrong-footed. Initially attracted by the protests, presumably on the basis that my enemy’s enemy is my friend, left-wing Opposition parties were soon alarmed by demands from the protesters to shut centres for asylum seekers, begin drilling for oil off the Co Cork coast and for the Taoiseach to resign.

The dilemma was especially acute for Sinn Féin, hardly averse to a bit of populism itself. Mary Lou McDonald found herself unable to say whether the protests should continue. The party’s response this weekend – putting down a no-confidence motion in the Government – will enable the Coalition to rally its troops, just at a time when old divisions in Fianna Fáil were beginning to resurface.

The week also provided another clear example of something that we have seen signposts to repeatedly in recent years – a new political energy on the right that is driven by cost-of-living concerns but supported by anxieties in some quarters about migration and, to a lesser extent, the perceived adoption by Government and agencies of a woke agenda.

Political vehicle – for whom?

That energy was again evident last week – even if it is clear that it has not formed itself or become attached to any political vehicle. The Independent Ireland party seems ready to audition for the role, though. If so, they will have a decision to make sooner or later about their relations with the far right.

The past week has also been – perhaps above all else – a demonstration of how ill-equipped the Government, and politics more broadly, is for a deterioration in the State’s economic fortunes. Given what is happening elsewhere in the world, that should be a pressing concern for everyone involved.

SAS incursion over Border: When Anglo-Irish relations hinged on their fate

SAM McBride, Sunday Life, April 12th, 2026

When on a cold May night, Corporals Ilisoni Ligairi and John Lawson were stopped by a solitary garda on a lonely Louth road, it was quickly apparent that these were no ordinary soldiers.

Despite wearing civilian clothes, the SAS men were armed with Sterling machineguns, pistols and 82 rounds of ammunition apiece.

It was 10.50pm on May 5, 1976. Two hours later, six more SAS men arrived — some dressed as civilians, others in uniform, and with a sawn-off shotgun — and were arrested.

What were they up to? Amid the slaughter of the Troubles, the arresting officer was understandably suspicious.

No one involved could then have known what they'd triggered. Half-a-century later, a British file originally meant to be sealed for 100 years has been declassified at The National Archives in Kew and discovered by The Sunday Independent.

Even access to the file by civil servants was to be “strictly on a 'need to know' basis” and when examined in 2001, an official kept it closed because it was “packed with sensitivities”.

What's inside tells an extraordinary story of British meddling in the Irish justice system — and the willingness of Irish ministers, from the taoiseach down, to facilitate that interference.

Did the Irish government bow to pressure from London to inappropriately tamper with a criminal trial? The British thought that might have happened, and they weren't at all unhappy about it.

Immediately, the case presented a trilemma of crises: political, legal and security.

The soldiers were quickly charged with possessing firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life, as well as a lesser charge of possession without a certificate.

They appeared before the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, were bailed, and left Ireland.

The SAS had been deployed to south Armagh four months earlier after the Kingsmill Massacre, and mystique enveloped the elite regiment.

If they were on some ultra-secretive mission that night, there's no hint in the released material.

The file was classified top secret — the highest security classification. Some 66 pages remain closed, but most of it is open.

If the incursion was deliberate, then the British cabinet was misled; they were told there wasn't authorisation and soldiers needed permission to go within 100 metres of the border.

Ligairi and Lawson had been sent to assess a possible risk to an observation post watching an IRA figure, ministers were told, but that on a dark and misty night they misread a map, took a wrong turn, crossed the unmarked border, and were stopped 600 metres into Louth.

If that was a cover story, it was maintained impeccably through multiple documents.

The anger caused by the incident suggests it was true. There appears to have been genuine disbelief that soldiers risking their lives to protect civilians would be tried for misreading a map.

The men were photographed and fingerprinted by gardai and questioned about the Dundalk murder of Seamus Ludlow, but no link was established.

What followed was more about politics than law.

British ministers were divided on whether the men should return for trial or go on the run.

On January 28, 1977, with the trial just weeks away, the British Ambassador Robin Haydon relayed that Irish Attorney General Declan Costello had told Northern Ireland Secretary Roy Mason that “there was no danger of the men finishing up in prison”.

Tensions

Whitehall was informed that Irish Justice Minister Patrick Cooney told the ambassador he could not imagine the men would serve “a single second” in an Irish jail.

But there were tensions within Whitehall. A Ministry of Defence (MoD) official wrote internally on February 13, 1977: “Unless we take the lead in protecting the men's interests, we can be quite certain that no one else will — other ministers are interested only in diplomatic/political aspects; we only are concerned with the men and the morale of the army.”

Ten days later, a secret intelligence assessment by ex-SAS officer Lt Col Ian Cartwright, which he cleared with MI5, said, “We consider there will be a serious threat to the men's lives,” fearing “IRA sympathisers” within the Republic's security forces or proactive targeting by named IRA figures.

Another assessment considered potential assassination or kidnapping.

Days later, a secret analysis referred to an emerging solution — a Bill of Immunity to be rushed through Westminster if the men were to be jailed. They would apply for bail, fly out, and the law would prevent extradition.

It was an extraordinary measure which demonstrated the importance and desperation of the moment.

The main argument against the men going to Dublin was that the Government “have a responsibility to protect the men who committed no more than an understandable map-reading error while engaged in dangerous operations in support of the Government's security policy”.

If it emerged that the Government wanted the men to return while facing serious risks, “there would be consternation within the Army,” it warned.

On February 28, 1977, the ambassador was informed of Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave's advice — that it might “advance the case” if the men pleaded guilty to the lesser charge, and that it was “99.9% certain that the men would never serve any sentence of imprisonment”.

Just months earlier, the ambassador's predecessor, Christopher Ewart-Biggs, had been murdered in Dublin.

The MoD feared a repeat of that attack because the route from Baldonnel aerodrome to the court was predictable; they believed the IRA had access to heavy machineguns and surface to air missiles.

Amid intense debate, the head of the British Army expressed concern that if the men jumped bail then any future incursions would see soldiers refused bail and “interned for some time in an Irish gaol”.

Consequences

If the trial was to happen, Brigadier John Watts, the SAS director — its top officer — insisted he attend because if he was advising his men to return to Dublin he believed he should share the risk.

An internal MoD memo said “the knowledge that he is accompanying the men into a difficult situation will have a steadying effect on the SAS as a whole” but if the regiment felt let down it could lead to an outflux of men.

The Army's top officer strongly agreed with this, but the British Ambassador did not, fearing that Watts' presence would increase the security risk.

With the trial days away, Prime Minister Jim Callaghan wrote forthrightly to Cosgrave on March 2, warning that if matters “go wrong…the consequences for evil between our two countries would be incalculable”.

Britain had been pressing the Irish Government to agree that if sentences were handed down it would immediately remit them.

While saying he understood the taoiseach couldn't give him a formal assurance on this, Callaghan said: “I must make it clear, without qualification, that if I advise the men to answer their bail and to return to Dublin to stand trial, this will be on the firm assumption that under no circumstances will the men spend any time in prison in the Irish Republic. I would not wish you to be in any doubt about this.”

What was unfolding represented a clash of competing cultures. The Irish were giving a nod and a wink that they'd find a way to sort it. The British wanted that spelt out firmly in writing.

Replying that same day, Cosgrave said: “I do not think that the question of detention will arise but if it does you can be assured that it will be in a military barracks.”

Cosgrave told the PM “I appreciate your frankness” and “we particularly value the special relationship between our two countries…we both now have a common interest in stopping political violence. The Irish Government are totally committed to ending this evil — as I know you are.”

Callaghan responded warmly that night to “my dear Liam”, pronouncing himself satisfied: “I do not see how you could have gone further at this stage.”

The next day, senior Whitehall officials considered contingencies “if things went wrong” when the trial started.

If the defendants were attacked, they believed “the Irish would have a common interest with us in taking immediate remedial action”, not least because “members of the Irish police or armed forces may themselves have been killed or injured in the incident”.

Another contingency was trickier: prison sentences. Defence counsel were to immediately appeal and seek bail. If refused, the ambassador “should without further instructions make representations at the highest possible level that the sentences should be remitted forthwith”.

Armoured

Eventually Brigadier Watts pronounced himself “well satisfied” with the security arrangements. The 12-minute journey was to be in armoured personnel carriers.

The ambassador said in a subsequent analysis of the case that on the second morning of the trial, Cosgrave informed Callaghan “that the men would be acquitted if they gave evidence but would be found guilty otherwise”.

That doesn't perfectly tally with Downing Street's note of the call — but it does show the taoiseach advised on what to do.

It said Cosgrave “mentioned his understanding that if the SAS men did not give evidence today, there was a possibility of conviction, whereas if they did, it was very likely that their evidence would be accepted”.

After attending the trial, the ambassador described it as “a curious affair” where “it seemed to me that the prosecution presented their case less vigorously than they might”.

He said they couldn't rule out the possibility that “the Irish Government, while appearing to respect constitutional propriety, made it clear to the prosecution that a prison sentence would be intolerable.”

Although delighted by the outcome, he said it had been necessary to impress on the taoiseach that “custodial sentences would have caused an outburst of fury in the UK” against the Irish community.

The ambassador said they'd “had to lean heavily” on the taoiseach on both security and the legal outcome of the case.

The men were eventually acquitted on the main charge. After pleading guilty to the minor offence, each was fined £100.

That wasn't quite the end of the story. Ilisoni Ligairi ultimately would end up in jail, but not in Dublin.

The man who'd strayed over the Armagh-Louth border would return to his native Fiji, set up a special forces unit, and ultimately lead a coup. It failed, but not before parliamentarians had been held hostage at gunpoint, for which Ligairi would lose his liberty.

Now in his late 80s and in declining health, he is again a free man.

'Troubles survivors deserve better than this'

IVAN LITTLE, EXCLUSIVE, Sunday Life, April 12th, 2026

HUNDREDS OF VICTIMS TO MISS OUT AS 'PENSIONS' SCHEME TO WIND UP TWO SOLDIERS URGE LONDON TO STEP UP AS DEADLINE FOR COMPO LOOMS

Two former British soldiers badly injured in IRA bombings have urged Secretary of State Hilary Benn to help prevent hundreds of Troubles victims from missing out on a controversial government compensation scheme.

A British Legion official has also called for an extension of the August deadline for new applications to the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme, also known as the Troubles pension scheme, which was established in 2021.

Victims campaigners have said more needs to be done to let victims living outside Northern Ireland know about the scheme, which pays up to £12,500 a year and which thousands of people have availed of.

“The scheme has failed to live up to it national status billing,” said Kenny Donaldson of the South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF).

Disputes

“It is essentially a Northern Ireland scheme with others as add-ons by chance, not by design.”

The programme, overseen by the Victims' Payment Board inside the Department of Justice, was set up to provide payments to people who suffered a permanent disability, be it physical and/or psychological, as a result of an injury caused through no fault of their own in an incident related to the Troubles.

The injury must have resulted in a permanent disability level of 14 per cent, as assessed by a healthcare professional.

So far, more than £120million has been allocated to more than 7,000 people, but the scheme has been affected by delays and disputes over funding.

The SEFF is one of five groups that have welfare staff in place to support people wanting to make an application, and to date it has helped 2,800 victims.

Mr Donaldson said: “We are aware that, relatively speaking, there continues to be limited numbers of applications which have been submitted from victims/survivors based outside of Northern Ireland.

“The lack of promotion of the scheme outside of Northern Ireland is linked to the budget situation, with the Northern Ireland block grant picking up the tab on this as things stand. The net result is that GB-based victims/survivors are again failed.”

The SEFF reckons that upwards of 300,000 soldiers served during the Troubles, and many could be eligible to seek payments, along with civilians caught up in terrorist attacks in Great Britain, where a number of people injured in Northern Ireland also relocated.

Mr Donaldson said politicians, clergy and community groups should do more to spread the word about the scheme, the deadline for which was extended in 2024.

Former soldiers Simon Utley and Dave Hardy have received pension payments, having succeeded in getting them by different routes.

Mr Hardy (59) was in a coma for weeks after being injured in the IRA's 1988 Ballygawley bus bombing, which killed eight of his colleagues from the 1st Battalion the Light Infantry.

He said: “I remember leaving the airport and waking up on the road, unable to get up, but the next thing I recall was coming out of the coma in hospital four weeks later.”

He was treated in hospital in Dungannon and Belfast before undergoing rehabilitation in Surrey and being medically discharged from the Army.

Mr Hardy, who lives in Durham and is still affected by the injuries her suffered, only found out about the scheme by accident.

He said: “I went back to Northern Ireland to revisit the scene of the roadside bomb, where I met Kenny Donaldson of the SEFF. He told me about the scheme and said they would sort everything out for me.”

Mr Hardy believes more could be done to promote the scheme, especially through the use of social media.

Mr Utley, who lives in Dorset, was hurt in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, in which four of his fellow soldiers and seven horses were killed.

He was 17 at the time and riding through the park on his first guard duty with the Household Cavalry.

Exploded

Mr Utley said: “We had just left the barracks. The bomb exploded about two minutes later. I was two horses' lengths, 22 feet away, from the blast.

“The four soldiers behind me were killed. I suffered blast injuries to my hip and my ear. I was diagnosed with combat stress — post-traumatic stress disorder — in 2013/14.”

Mr Utley had the necessary documentary evidence and a psychiatric report to back up his claim.

“I'd been watching developments in Northern Ireland for ages, and when the scheme was finalised in August 2021, I did things independently and found it quite easy, especially as I had the evidence I needed because obviously officials aren't going to trace the evidence for you,” he said.

Mr Utley believes many people in Britain who were injured in the Troubles aren't aware of the scheme.

He said: “When a lady came over from Northern Ireland to carry out one of my assessments, she said I was the first person in Britain that she had ever spoken to, which is crazy, considering that the scheme is closing on August 31.

“An extension to that date is needed, and that's why victims' groups like the SEFF are lobbying for it.

“The process is extremely slow. Some people who were injured have told me they can't be bothered applying for the assistance, while others don't want to revisit bad memories.”

Accessing the relevant records about the past is also difficult, he said.

Simon's friend Tom Richardson, a voluntary British Legion treasurer and a secretary of the Army Benevolent Fund, said few people in Britain knew about the scheme.

He added: “I only know about it because of what Simon has been through.

“There needs to be more information in newspapers and on social media.

“With the input of the right people in organisations like the Royal British Legion, there would definitely be more uptake.

“The problem is, of course, that it's so late now, with so little time left before new applications to the scheme close.”

SAORADH LEFT RED-FACED BY TOP FIGURE'S DRUGS BUST

JOHN TONER, Sunday Life, April 12th, 2026

EXCLUSIVE: ANTI-NARCO STANCE OF NEW IRA'S MOUTHPIECE IN TATTERS LEADING DISSIDENT COTTER ADMITTED DEALING PREGABALIN

The political wing of the New IRA has been left red-faced after closing ranks around a drug dealer, claiming his arrest was politically motivated before finally disowning him after he admitted charges.

Ian Cotter (52) was handed a suspended sentence at Laganside Magistrates Court in Belfast last month for dealing powerful prescription drug pregabalin.

Following his conviction Saoradh released a statement trying to distance itself from his offending and reiterating its supposed zero tolerance approach to drugs.

The statement read: “When it came to light that this individual had been charged with possessing drugs he was suspended from Saoradh...

“He was later dismissed and has had absolutely no dealings with our party since.”

The New IRA has in the past murdered men it accused of drug dealing, including Kevin Kearney and Conor McKee.

But that did not prevent it from putting Cotter front and centre of its Easter commemorations last year.

Cotter was on bail when he read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic in Belfast's Milltown Cemetery last April to mark the 1916 Easter Rising.

He was later charged with various drugs offences after his home was raided in July 2025.

During the raid police seized a quantity of drugs and a billboard dedicated to IRA man Kevin Hannaway.

Saoradh attempted to pour scorn on the drugs allegations against Cotter at the time.

But he would later admit four counts of offering to supply pregabalin.

A statement released at the time said: “Saoradh can reveal that the so-called 'drugs charges' never existed, a fact confirmed by family members and the Republican himself.

“(This) desperate smear attempt was a cynical ploy to distract from the Crown Forces' recent failures... to undermine Republican resistance.”

Hannaway was one of the 11 IRA 'Hooded Men' who were subjected to torture by British special forces during the Troubles.

The seizure of his mural by the PSNI sparked anger among dissident republicans.

In 2015 Hannaway sought to overturn a controversial 1978 judgment by the European Court of Human Rights which described the treatment of the Hooded Men as “inhuman and degrading”, but not torture.

Celebrity lawyer

One of the barristers representing them was Amal Clooney, wife of Hollywood actor George Clooney.

In 2015 Hannaway was one of five men charged at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin with assisting the IRA.

He was convicted and jailed in 2018 for three years and nine months.

Hannaway, a cousin of Gerry Adams, was a founding member of the Provisional IRA, but was at odds with Sinn Fein over its political strategy.

After pleading guilty to drug dealing last month and receiving a two-month jail term, suspended for three years, Cotter told Sunday Life to “f*** off” when approached at his home.

Laganside Magistrates Court had previously heard how police seized his blue Nokia phone during searches of his address in May 2024.

He later provided them with the passcode to the device, the court heard, with officers going on to discover a group chat he was part of, a group called North and West Belfast FTF Only.

The group contained messages relating to drug dealing, with pregabalin being offered at £50 per “strip”. One message warned the group was for “verified sales and sellers” only.

The court heard Cotter's partner was summonsed for possession of class C drugs last May and later accepted a caution.

Cotter was initially charged with offering to supply tramadol, cocaine and pregabalin, as well as four charges of supplying pregabalin.

He later entered guilty pleas to the supply of pregabalin, while the offering to supply charges were withdrawn.

Cotter's house on Rodney Drive in west Belfast is just yards from where two drug dealers were murdered by the dissident republican gang ONH. There is no suggestion he played any role in, nor had any knowledge of, these attacks.

Warren Crossan was shot dead on Rodney Parade in 2020, while his best friend Mark Hall was gunned down a year later at his mum's home on Rodney Drive.

Cotter's drug dealing conviction is hugely embarrassing for both Saoradh and the New IRA because details of his links to the groups emerged just 24 hours before Saoradh staged its national Easter commemoration this year.

The event, which has been a magnet for trouble and rioting in the past, was held in Derry on Monday afternoon with participants marching from the Creggan shops to the City Cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony.

In previous years masked men dressed in paramilitary uniforms have made up the colour party, while youngsters have thrown masonry and petrol bombs at the PSNI afterwards.

Dregs

Cotter's treatment over his drugs convictions is an example of growing desperation among Saoradh to recruit footsoldiers to the cause, according to one veteran republican who spoke to Sunday Life.

“If anyone needs any more proof that Saoradh and the New IRA will take in the dregs of society, this is it,” they said.

“I can't think of anything more embarrassing than having a drug dealer read out the proclamation at an Easter Rising commemoration. Does Saoradh not do background checks on morons like Ian Cotter?

“Both it and the New IRA are so desperate for numbers that they will bring in anyone, including drug dealers.”

Any shred of credibility the gang retained in the eyes of dissident republicans was further eroded earlier this month after the New IRA claimed responsibility for a botched bomb attack on Lurgan PSNI station.

The “amateurish” attempt saw a crude but viable device driven to the police base via a pizza delivery driver, who was held at gunpoint, sparking a major security alert, with roads closed and homes evacuated.

Dissidents disgrace after defacing nun mural site

EXCLUSIVE SUNDAY LIFE REPORTER, EXCLUSIVE. Sunday Life, April 12th, 2026

A pair of Derry dissident republicans have been blamed for spraying graffiti on a wall due to host a new mural to a late nun from the city.

The artwork was to be in memory of Sister Clare Crockett, who died aged 33 while working as a music teacher in Ecuador.

The former actress was killed when the house in which she was living in the village of Playa Prieta collapsed during an earthquake in 2016.

At the end of last month, 'Free Niall Sheerin IRPWA' was sprayed on the blank gable end in crude letters.

Sheerin was jailed for seven years in 2022 for having the gun used to kill journalist Lyra McKee in the city in April 2019, for which the New IRA admitted responsibility.

Caolan Brogan and Tiarnan McFadden have been put in the frame for the vandalism after being spotted by several onlookers.

They are awaiting sentence for posting the New IRA's claim for responsibility for the attempted murder of DCI John Caldwell.

A Derry republican told Sunday Life: “McFadden and Brogan went out drunk late at night and scrawled 'Free Niall Sheerin' on the wall.

“There was outrage about it the next morning when people saw the graffiti and found out who was responsible.

“Saoradh and the New IRA contacted community workers and the Crockett family to deny involvement, but everyone knows they are lying as McFadden and Brogan were seen by several different witnesses.

“This has really backfired on them as per usual. Complaints have been made to Fergal Melaugh, but nothing will be done.

“The improvement work on the Sister Claire mural was widely known around the Brandywell and had been publicised in the media, so for anyone to claim that McFadden or Brogan didn't know about it is another lie.”

Disgusting

The wall previously had a mural of Sister Clare along with her motto 'All or nothing', but it was due to be painted with a new version.

Work on the new mural was set to begin this week after a successful fundraising campaign to pay for its restoration.

A Facebook page dedicated to the memory of Sister Clare branded those responsible “disgusting humans”, adding: “You do nothing for our community.”

A statement in the name of the IRPWA (Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association) posted on Facebook said it had “nothing to do with the marking of this site”.

“We recognise the sensitivity of this location and the respect owed to the memory it represents,” it added.

“To ensure clarity and maintain community cohesion, IRPWA representatives have liaised with the family.

“Following these discussions, the family has fully accepted that the IRPWA and its activists were not responsible for the recent markings.

“As a gesture of respect and community support, IRPWA activists have committed to repainting the wall to restore it to its proper state.”

In March last year, Brogan and McFadden pleaded guilty to possession of an article for use in terrorism.

They were charged in August 2023 after a typed letter was pasted on a wall on Central Drive in the Creggan area of the city.

It was a claim of responsibility by the New IRA for the attempted murder of DCI Caldwell.

He was shot several times at a sports complex in Omagh that February where he had been coaching a kids' football training session.

Previous bail hearings were told Brogan and McFadden collected a bucket from a third man's home and then travelled to paste the notice on the wall.

Around 20 minutes later, it appeared on a Twitter on an X account named Republic Media.

Sheerin was refused early release by Parole Commissioners late last year after serving more than half of his seven-year term.

They assessed the 32-year-old to still pose a risk to the public and deemed he was still committed to violence.

Danger

He was handed an extended custodial sentence which included a five-year licence period upon release.

Sheerin admitted charges of possessing a .22 calibre Hammerli self-loading pistol along with a magazine and a quantity of .22 calibre cartridges on dates between September 22, 2018, and June 6, 2020.

Sentencing Sheering at Belfast Crown Court, Mr Justice Fowler said he was “an associate of a terrorist gang who posed a danger to the public”.

“He voluntarily assisted them by storing this weapon in a condition that it could be readily used again,” he added.

Ms McKee was hit by a bullet fired from the gun as she observed a riot in the Creggan area of Derry in 2019.

Three men have been charged with her murder, possessing a firearm and ammunition, and other linked offences including rioting and possessing and throwing petrol bombs.

The Derry trio are Paul McIntyre (58) from Kells Walk, 25-year-old Jordan Devine from Bishop Street and Peter Cavanagh (37), from Mary Street, all of whom deny the charges against them.

Charged alongside them are six co-accused who face charges including rioting and throwing petrol bombs.

They are Christopher Gillen (45) from Balbane Pass, Joseph Campbell (25) from Gosheden Cottages, 33-year-old Patrick Gallagher from John Field Place, Jude McCrory (28) from Gartan Square, Joseph Barr (37) from Sandringham Drive, and 57-year-old Kieran McCool from Ballymagowan Gardens.

The site of the Sister Clare mural is not far from her former home in the Brandywell area of the city.

The first mural was completed in 2020, funded by the sale of commemorative candles.

At the time, her sister Megan Nicell paid tribute to all those who had donated, saying: “It was the people of Derry and beyond who got the mural done.”

Last year, the family launched a fundraising appeal to fund the estimated £5,000 cost to have the wall on which the mural was painted repaired and the mural redone.

Sister Clare's grave in Derry's City Cemetery has become a popular pilgrimage site, with the Catholic Church declaring her a “servant of God” — the first step towards being made a saint.

Unionisms’ fawning over Trump looks more foolish by the day

SUZANNE BREEN, Sunday Life, April 12th, 2026

Press the rewind button. This time last month, some of our politicians were preparing to fly to Washington to celebrate St Patrick's Day with Donald Trump.

It was sold as a vital, unmissable opportunity to whisper in the ear of the leader of the free world. Those photos of our representatives in the White House have aged badly.

They should be squirming at their schmoozing on March 17. Let's look at what the US president has said and done since.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” he posted on social media.

“Open the F*****n' Strait, you crazy b******s, or you'll be living in Hell — Just Watch!” This is the man whom our two biggest unionist parties think it's important to meet, greet and engage with.

Is it consistent to condemn the IRA for bombs which devastated towns across Northern Ireland decades ago, but have time for a man contemporaneously threatening civilian infrastructure?

Two days after the president's expletive-laden rant, we got this: “A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.”

Trump threatened to wipe out a whole country and its 90 million citizens. His statement was perhaps the clearest case of declared genocidal intent in modern international criminal law.

Yet it doesn't seem to have raised an eyebrow — certainly not a public one — among those who aren't shy about focusing on the words, or reported words, of Gerry Adams decades ago.

Imagine if republican dissidents issued such a genocidal statement today? There would rightly be strong and sweeping condemnation from those who are silent on Trump's threat to wipe out an entire population.

They appeared to be unmoved by his menacing message that he might bomb an Iranian island “a few more times just for fun”. The idea that access to Trump offers political and economic advantage for Northern Ireland is highly questionable. His focus is on making billions for his family and his cronies — little else gets a look-in.

Unhinged

Everything revolves around him. Here he was at an investment conference in Florida a fortnight ago: “I don't ask for screening of the questions. You can ask me anything you want. You can talk sex.”

The Iranian regime is a theocratic dictatorship, so it's alarming when the US president looks more unhinged than the ayatollahs.

Indeed, they're mocking him. Following his “Open the Strait” demand, the Iranian embassy in Zimbabwe tweeted: “We've lost the keys.”

The embassy in South Africa said: “Shh . . . the key's under the flowerpot. Just open for friends.” The embassy in Bulgaria responded: “Epstein's friends need keys.”

The London embassy posted a Persian poem by Rumi on the dangers of placing a sword in the hands of a madman, accompanied by a Mark Twain quote: “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

Leadership requires gravity. Trump offers only gimmicks. Except the bluster and the bombast don't work anymore.

Iran was done. Finished. Toast. The big, beautiful bombs had worked, he told us. But boasting buzzwords in full capital letters online doesn't make them true.

The US president has been exposed by his Iranian adventure. He believed the war would be over in three days.

His ignorance of history, geography, and his enemy has been laid bare. He's now ridiculed more than he's respected, and that's so sad for the leader of a once magnificent nation.

Trump doesn't govern, he performs. He's a circus clown who is not 'Making America Great Again'. Rather, he has turned the White House into a bizarre big top.

Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Alliance made the right decision in boycotting it. Those who showed up should think carefully before returning next year.

It's an Atlantic bridge too far, a right royal nightmare-in-waiting.

IVAN LITTLE, Sunday Life, April 12th, 2026

King Charles wisely won't be spending time with his own son in the States but is still stumbling ahead with ill-advised plans to meet the son of a b**** that is Donald Trump.

The monarch's proposed trip later this month comes as his brother's reputation lies in tatters because of his association with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

I couldn't usually give a toss about what the King does or doesn't do, but his imminent state visit to the US at a time when his host has plunged the world into chaos should surely be called off.

Not least because the self-styled king of the world has been lambasting — with thinly disguised relish — Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for not supporting the American war in Iran.

God knows, or Trump thinks he knows, where we'll all be down the line.

Assuming things could even be worse, it'll be fascinating to hear the address by King Charles to Congress after Trump doubtless does another volte-face and issues a honeyed welcome to the monarch and Camilla.

Like his mother, Charles has a habit of weaving a diplomatic way out of a moral maze, but where's the middle ground surrounding Trump's manic behaviour? How can any speech avoid mentioning the presidential elephant in the room?

Buckingham Palace had delayed giving any dates for the visit, but Trump predictably jumped in with both feet on social media, saying the trip would run from April 27 to 30, with “a beautiful banquet dinner at the White House on the evening of April 28”.

Peacemaker

He said it would be “terrific” but stopped short of offering his services as a peacemaker to the King and Prince Harry, who now lives in California.

Will Charles accept the invitation to meet with the families of Epstein's victims? I doubt it, but Sky and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of Virginia Giuffre, are going to continue to press for a discussion.

Even without a meeting, it's going to be rather uncomfortable for Charles to be in a country where officials want his brother to testify about Epstein and the late Ms Giuffre, who was paid $12milllion said to have come from the late Queen Elizabeth.

You really couldn't make it up, and while I've been joking for years that the men in white coats should be called for Donald Trump, it's no longer a laughing matter. It's an imperative.

His recent actions and comments about the war in Iran suggest he really is unhinged.

His swearing and his threat to kill an entire civilisation were only the latest indicators that all is not well with his mental health.

More and more US commentators are daring to suggest the commander-in-chief has lost his marbles.

Daring? Yes daring. Any journalist who dares question the president's integrity or veracity quickly finds themselves on the receiving end of a tirade of wearisome fake news claims and abuse about their professionalism.

Any officials in Trump's coterie who have the audacity to criticise him are quickly out of office on their backsides.

Conundrum

All of which leaves the conundrum of what can be done to get shot of him, and I'm obviously not advocating assassination here.

If it's finally acknowledged that Trump is losing the capacity to run his nation, never mind the world, who is going to force him from power?

The danger signs are growing more apparent. Last week, he took the world to the brink of disaster before pulling back at the very last minute with a ceasefire he said was a great day for world peace, peace that he himself had threatened.

It was a ceasefire that was wobbling within hours, and the president's Brylcreemed buddy Pete Hegseth didn't help with his provocative gloating that the Iranians had been begging for a deal.

I hope the rats who brought shame on Cliftonville with their violence and 'Up the RA' chants at the Irish Cup semi-final at Windsor Park in Belfast last week are proud of themselves.

These thugs don't give a damn about the club and are nowhere to be seen at anything other than big matches, but they have raised tensions over the future of the Reds' games at Windsor Park, with the DUP unhelpfully joining the debate.

The 'fans' are just like the part-timers who skulk out of the shadows for big Linfield games with their UVF songs and pyrotechnics.

These troublemakers constitute a tiny minority of the supporters of both clubs, which have to fork out large fines for the scandalous behaviour done in their name.

The real fans from both sides are the ones who joined together in a charity initiative a few weeks back after the death of Michael Newberry, who played for Linfield and Cliftonville.

Incidentally, UTV's coverage last weekend on what went on at the Irish Cup game deserved a red card.

While the report referred to the disturbances, it didn't mention who was responsible. The casual observer might have thought Dungannon fans were to blame, not the Cliftonville hangers-on.

Pussy Galore

You mightn't believe this, but Pussy Galore from the James Bond film Goldfinger used to purr about the Paragon fabrics shop on Belfast's Cregagh Road.

The late Honor Blackman discovered it when she stayed in digs in the area during engagements in the city.

When I met her in London after a play, she said she loved visiting the Paragon to get bits and pieces for dressmaking and the like.

The shop has now gone, but other Paragons remain and a new cafe called Hometown is now in the space. A welcome addition to the road it is too, a road that is fast gaining a reputation as one of the go-to areas for coffee.

MI5, MI6, MoD and Govt lawyers tried to cover up Stakeknife

SAM MCBRIDE, NORTHERN IRELAND EDITOR, Belfast Telegraph, April 11th, 2026

ONCE-SECRET FILE SHOWS THAT OUR FORMER POLITICAL EDITOR WAS RIGHT, AND THE INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES KNEW IT, BUT THEY WERE ALSO WORRIED ABOUT WHAT HE WAS WRITING ON MCGUINNESS INVESTIGATION

When one of Northern Ireland's most respected journalists revealed the existence of a top-level IRA informer called Stakeknife, the Government put immense pressure on him to buckle.

But declassified files show officials knew his story was fundamentally right and feared that if they went to court “iniquity would be revealed”.

Liam Clarke, then at The Sunday Times, would go on to become the Belfast Telegraph's political editor until his sudden death in 2015.

In 1999, he broke a stunning story which caused a meeting of MI5, MI6, the Ministry of Defence, their lawyers, and senior officials from across several government departments.

A once-classified file sets out the internal debate about how they handled the crisis, and shows that senior officials almost immediately sought to cover up what they at the very least feared was serious criminality, asking: “How could we prevent disclosure of alleged illegal activities?”

Clarke's article said 'Steak Knife' (the spelling he used) was earning up to £60k a year (about £150k in today's money).

“Steak Knife was and is the crown jewel of British intelligence in Ulster,” the article said. He “had to be kept happy at all costs”, “his source reports were read by ministers” and his output “was, and remains, so prolific that two handlers and four collators work full-time on them”.

It said that “though now a wealthy man, he cannot attract attention by spending the cash he receives”.

Last year's Operation Kenova report into the British state's handling of Stakeknife said: “The first public claims about a FRU [Force Research Unit] agent codenamed Stakeknife operating within PIRA during the Troubles appeared in articles by Liam Clarke published in the Sunday Times in August 1999.

“Mr Clarke's source was a former member of FRU, then referred to as 'Martin Ingram' and later identified as Ian Hurst, and the claims resulted in MoD obtaining injunctions against Mr Hurst and The Sunday Times in the High Court in London.”

The work of ‘securocrats’

Clarke's story was essentially accurate — and that's why the Government was so worried. Yet it wasn't just the Government he had to contend with. Another leading journalist and author of the Troubles era, Ed Moloney, wrote in 2017: “Not all journalists were as keen to follow the story up. Sinn Féin spread the word that Liam Clarke's story was the work of 'securocrats' — remember them? — who wanted to bring the peace process crashing down.”

Moloney, who died last year, continued: “By this stage the media in Belfast had, in considerable measure, divided into camps differentiated by their approach to the peace process. The pro-process camp in large measure closed up shop and contented themselves with simple daily reportage of events. But no digging worth the name. The school eventually adopted the moniker 'Peace Journalism'.

“They accused those who wouldn't go along with this, who approached the peace process as they would any other story, as being politically motivated, propelled by a desire to do the process damage.”

Other journalists active in this era say this categorisation by Moloney is too simplistic.

What's clear, however, is that far from Clarke being fed by “securocrats”, the British intelligence machine was desperately trying to close down the story.

In a stern letter to the Sunday Times on August 12, the Treasury Solicitor wrote about the MoD's alarm at the final line of Clarke's first article that month in which he promised another story the following week on the life of the IRA informer Frank Hegarty, allegedly murdered after being lured back to Londonderry by Martin McGuinness.

The letter said: “Having seen the degree of confidential detail published in the article of August 8, 1999… my clients are extremely concerned about the further harm that could be caused.”

He complained that “the article published on August 8 was not submitted by The Sunday Times in advance for advice as to whether the contents could damage national security, in accordance with the safeguards provided by the D Notice procedures; nor was any approach made to the Ministry of Defence for direct advice.”

He said Rear Admiral David Pulvertaft, secretary of the D Notice committee which issues non-binding legal notices to editors about material the Government believes would damage national security, had complained to the paper about another article Clarke had written earlier that month but “fortunately that article was not considered to be harmful for a variety of reasons”.

He said that if the newspaper didn't back down, the MoD would go to court to seek to injunct publication.

The letter went on to confirm that Clarke's source, 'Martin Ingram', was indeed a former FRU member who had access to details of agent handling and sensitive intelligence, and that “the methods of operation of this unit remain a closely guarded secret”.

‘IRA's torturer- and killer-in-chief’

He said that if handlers or agents were captured, they expected to be “tortured and killed” — an extraordinarily ironic claim when it is now known that Stakeknife himself was the IRA's torturer- and killer-in-chief, Freddie Scappaticci.

The solicitor said the MoD believed “that some of the material the Sunday Times has disclosed is extremely valuable to terrorists”, and they assessed the article was “placing at least one life at risk”.

He expressed alarm at what might emerge about Hegarty, saying “it is clear that the source 'Martin Ingram' has access to other, highly sensitive and confidential material that is not in the public domain”, and added darkly: “There are aspects to the 'Frank story' which are potentially damaging, both to national security and to people's lives.”

Ultimately, the story about Hegarty did run — and the central allegation was that Hegarty had been lured back to Derry by McGuinness, who'd lied to his mother that he would be safe but had instead been involved in deceit which culminated in his murder. Who the security services were seeking to protect here remains unclear.

The solicitor concluded by demanding that the newspaper promise not to publish any further information from Ingram, to hand over its copy of Ingram's memoir, and to hand over or destroy all copies of its interview with Ingram.

The letter was signed on behalf of the Treasury Solicitor by a Miss SJ Ross.

In a confidential August 20, 1999, memo to the Secretary of State, David Brooker, head of the NIO's IPL Division, recommended that “while the article has potential to cause embarrassment, no action should be taken” over the impending article on Hegarty. He said that earlier that week the MoD had obtained an injunction to prevent Ingram from making any further disclosure, but the Sunday Times intended to run another article based on what he had already told it.

He said the paper had shown a draft of the article to the MoD in an attempt to demonstrate that it would not endanger national security. However, the MoD then passed it on to the NIO because of “controversial references to Martin McGuinness”.

Those “controversial” references were to him having been “a leading provisional” in 1979, to having been IRA chief of staff in 1984, to having been “secretly in contact with MI6” and having asked Frank Hegarty to keep IRA arms before playing a part in his murder when they were seized by the security forces.

The file contains a draft version of the Sunday Times article which was faxed to a number in the MoD on August 19, 1999.

Analysis of that draft with the final printed version shows a very small number of minor changes, which the newspaper appears to have made in order to get the story out.

In a confidential September 3, 1999, memo from Brooker to a Mr Keown and copied to others including MI5, he recorded a discussion that morning in the Cabinet Office, seemingly to work out how the Government had failed to stop the various stories emerging.

The meeting was to discuss the Sunday Times article “and related developments”.

The meeting was attended by MI5 and chaired by Security and Intelligence Co-Ordinator John Alpass, MI5's former second in command. Also present were MI6, MoD officials, MI5's lawyers, and a member of the Treasury Solicitor's Department.

Speaking defensively, Brooker told the meeting that “the article of August 2 did not contain any intrinsic problems for the NIO” and at that point they hadn't realised they would be “faced with a series of articles”.

He said: “On the legal process, there was quite a lot of concern amongst the SIS [MI6] and Security Service [MI5] lawyers that MoD did not seem to be contemplating a police investigation of Ingram under the official Secrets Act… MoD, who, to be fair, had been concentrating on fighting the Sunday Times rather than Ingram himself, seemed slightly chastised and undertook to examine urgently whether a police investigation should be mounted.”

He went on: “Generally, there was a fair amount of anxiety about the Government's dealings with the Sunday Times.”

In an unintended compliment of the editorial independence of the newspaper, he said: “They were regarded as pretty unreliable and prone to making their own decisions about the potential damage to our interests of the various disclosures.

“MoD and the intelligence agencies agreed to get together for a conflab about how they might concert their activities towards the paper.

“I doubt whether the NIO need be involved in that. Overall, John Alpass reiterated that the Government's posture on people like Ingram, and the newspapers to whom they turned, was to come down hard on breaches of confidentiality.”

Brooker also set out how the Government's actions had rebounded on it, revealing that what it was saying publicly was very different to what was being said privately.

Lawyers creating problems

Referring to the August 12 letter from the Treasury Solicitor, he indicated that the lawyers had inadvertently created problems.

The legal letter said: “The recent murders of Eamon Collins and Charlie Bennett, and the attempted murder of Martin McGartland, demonstrate that terrorist groups are still targeting those that they believe to be informers.”

After receiving this, the Sunday Times immediately seized on its significance, publishing an article which featured the headline “Ceasefire breached, says MoD” — an awkward contradiction for a government which was insisting that the IRA and loyalists weren't breaching their ceasefires.

In an August 23, 1999, loose minute, TE Taylor in the MoD pedantically insisted that because the solicitor's letter “did not attribute these [murders] to any specific group… the claim that MoD has said that the ceasefires have been breached is therefore false”.

In an undated note to Brooker, an official called Sally, whose department is unclear, said the MoD's lawyers were considering pursuing a claim for a breach of confidence but no decision had yet been reached.

She said: “One caveat, though: the part of the claim in which you are interested could be defeated by the argument that an iniquity would be revealed [those words are highlighted and underlined]. Counsel's advice on this would be needed.”

A handwritten note beneath this reads: “How could we prevent disclosure of alleged illegal activities?”

This demonstrates that before going after the Sunday Times in the courts, officials had identified the central problem: Stakeknife had been allowed to commit crimes and the Government was going to struggle to defend or explain this.

A briefing was drawn up for the Secretary of State to answer questions on the article. Mo Mowlam was advised not to get drawn into discussing the detail of the article and was told that, if asked whether it was true that McGuinness was in contact with MI6, she should say they “never comment on intelligence related matters of this kind”.

To this day, the Government refuses to confirm or deny the widely known identity of Stakeknife.

Last year, the High Court in London took the highly unusual step of holding a secret hearing in which it was decided that this protection of Scappaticci would extend after his death, to the extent that his will remains secret, hiding how wealthy he was and those to whom he left that money.

Executive Office urged to publish clerical abuse report provided nine months ago

CONOR COYLE, Irish News, April 11th, 2026

THE first and deputy first minister are facing fresh calls to publish the findings of a report into the historical clerical abuse of children in Northern Ireland.

Three reports were provided to Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly last July following independent research commissioned by The Executive Office on clerical child sexual abuse.

One of the recommendations included the establishment of an independent public inquiry into institutional abuse.

The research was first commissioned by the executive a decade ago, while victims groups have repeatedly called for the report to be published in recent months.

Approximately 100 institutions were identified by the Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry as places where people suffered abuse, with thousands of victims having been identified to date.

Alliance Executive Office spokesperson Paula Bradshaw MLA said the findings of the publicly funded research must be published, following on from safeguarding concerns at a north Belfast church.

An investigation into an alleged incident of inappropriate behaviour by a senior leader found a “culture of indifference” towards safeguarding at Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle.

“We cannot have institutions marking their own homework,” Ms Bradshaw said.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly have been urged to publish the findings of a report into historical clerical abuse of children

“The only reasonable response to today’s news is to publish that report to provide clarity to victims and survivors that their interests, not those of institutions, are being prioritised.

‘They know what needs to be done’

“Then we need to see immediate action from the First and deputy First Minister on those findings and recommendations – they know what needs to be done, now they need to get on with it without delay.”

Solicitor Kevin Winters, who represents many of the victims and survivors of clerical abuse, says his clients have received no substantial update from TEO since December 2025.

“With respect, we can see no reason why publication cannot now proceed, even if further work remains ongoing as to how the recommendations may be advanced,” a letter to the Stormont department from Mr Winters said.

“Publication would be an important and tangible indication to victims and survivors that the Northern Ireland Executive takes allegations of historical clerical abuse seriously and is taking steps to address them.

“Our clients’ concerns have only increased as a result of the absence of any meaningful, visible progress since the reports were provided.”

An Executive Office spokesperson said: “This is an important, complex, and sensitive issue. Ministers have been carefully considering the research reports.

“The research was commissioned to build evidence, improve understanding and inform Ministers’ decision making. The research projects which were commissioned in summer 2024, will be published at the appropriate point.”

The department faced the wrath of victims’ groups earlier this year after an attempt was made to alter the wording on a memorial plaque at Stormont to remove reference to “the state” from the groups responsible for the historic abuse of children.

TEO later reinstated the wording following the backlash from a number of victims’ groups.

Former top Army general questions UK government's focus on legacy deal with Ireland

By David Thompson, Belfast News Letter, April 11th, 2026

A former army general says he doesn’t understand the government’s objectives behind its Troubles legacy framework agreed with the Republic of Ireland – and has questioned the deal’s impact on veterans and national security.

General Sir Nick Parker, visiting Belfast to make the case for veterans ahead of Friday’s 28th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement, says the Dublin deal and subsequent UK legislation allowing for the prosecution of former soldiers who served in Northern Ireland undermines the armed forces.

The retired army chief says it appears that Labour’s focus was on a legacy deal with Ireland, without realising the plans would undermine their relationship with the military – arguing the government hasn’t “thought this through”.

The previous Conservative government’s Legacy Act meant an effective amnesty for Troubles-related incidents, but fell foul of EU laws still applicable in Northern Ireland as a result of the same administration’s Windsor Framework deal with the EU.

General Sir Nick Parker has warned that the government's Troubles bill will undermine the confidence of service personnel.

When Labour came to power ministers pledged to scrap that legislation and are replacing it with a Troubles Bill – which ends any amnesty for soldiers and terrorists alike. Last year, it jointly announced its plans with Dublin, before MPs were given a chance to scrutinise the proposals.

NI Secretary Hilary Benn said the plans represent “the best way forward to finally make progress on the unfinished business of the Good Friday agreement”.

However, Sir Nick Parker – who oversaw the withdrawal of troops from the streets of Northern Ireland two decades ago – says he doesn’t understand the “grand strategic objective” of the deal with Dublin.

“What are they trying to do? Is it worth it for the impact that it’s having on the veteran community, who are at the heart of the government’s national security for the future?” he said.

“It looks as if all the attention was on this framework agreement with the Republic, and they simply didn’t realise what they were doing was going to undermine their relationship with their own people. It seems very odd. The 2023 legacy agreement was working, and now everything is up in the air again.

“I just don’t think they’ve thought that through”, Sir Nick said.

Speaking to the News Letter on a visit to Belfast this week, the retired general was asked if he was more comfortable with the last government’s plan, even if that meant that some terrorists would be given an amnesty.

‘It drew a line’

“Yeah. I mean, it drew a line. Now sitting here in Northern Ireland, I recognise that my view is very GB-centric, because we're not living in the community. And if you're living in a community, my goodness, it must be difficult if there are people who live near you who you associate with conflict.

“So I accept that my view may be rather linear, but yes – it drew a line. It's not never going to be perfect. So even the ‘23 act required firm leadership to take us forward, to make us look forward, rather than to allow sores to fester”, Sir Nick said.

Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Alex Burghart this week told the News Letter that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has to choose on legacy between the Irish government and veterans. He said the government is “too weak to admit that it has got this wrong from start to finish” – and should do the right thing and ditch its legacy legislation.

Sir Nick said he did not believe it was that straightforward, as Northern Ireland veterans he has met and served with, “are prepared to move forward provided they feel that they're getting some strong leadership”.

“My views are partial, in that I come from GB and I don’t live here” he said. Sir Nick argued that a far greater priority should be given to the Legacy Commission for those people who want to understand what happened to their loved ones.

Protections for veterans in the government’s proposals have been criticised by former service personnel as too weak or meaningless. They include: a right not to travel to NI to give evidence, protection from repeated investigations, consideration of the health and wellbeing of witnesses; and a right to seek anonymity.

The government has also pledged that it will fundamentally reform the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, strengthening its independence, governance and powers – and rename it the Legacy Commission.

Ministers say repealing the Legacy Act’s immunity scheme will end the prospect of immunity being granted to terrorists. Inquests that were stopped by the Legacy Act will resume, with other previously directed inquests subject to a robust independent assessment by the Solicitor General, the government says.

The "primary route” for new inquests will be via the reformed Legacy Commission.

When it comes to Donaldson trial, DUP will want justice done — and speedily too

SUZANNE BREEN, Belfast Telegraph, April 11th, 2026

Jeffrey Donaldson didn't just leave the DUP — he was deleted from its history. His disappearance was swift and surgical.

Within minutes of his resignation, his face and statements were purged from the party website.

The DUP had been no stranger to drama previously, but nothing could have prepared it for the events of two years ago.

It entered uncharted territory. No political party on these islands had experienced anything like it. Alex Salmond had departed as SNP leader five years before his arrest, with Nicola Sturgeon at the helm.

Symbolically, the timing couldn't have been worse for the DUP: rape and historical sex charges caused the leader of a Christian party to resign on Good Friday. Donaldson denies the charges.

Today, the man who led the DUP for three years is 'he whose name shall not be spoken' in its ranks.

“Nobody talks about him,” says one insider. “We just want justice done, and done as soon as possible.

“He was a big figure in unionism. He was around for a long time, but he's not in the DUP now. Nobody saw this coming.

“We were transparent from the beginning. He resigned as leader, and he was immediately suspended from membership. We did everything right. It was a textbook handling of the situation.”

Despite being written out of the party's script, Donaldson is set to imminently return to the public stage.

The former DUP leader and his wife Eleanor, who faces charges of aiding and abetting, which she denies, are due to stand trial next month in Newry Crown Court, although a number of previous dates have slipped.

It will be one of the most high-profile criminal cases in Northern Ireland's legal history with a huge media presence.

While the DUP's response since Donaldson was charged can't be faulted, it's impossible to believe it won't take a hit with the trial.

Any party would in such circumstances. He wasn't a non-entity. He was one of Northern Ireland's best-known and longest-serving politicians.

Restored Devolution

He may have begun his career as an Ulster Unionist, but he'd been in the DUP for over two decades. It was his deal, which just weeks before his arrest, had restored devolution. He was his party's public face. Nobody else even came close.

The trial, which opens on May 26, is expected to last four weeks. The DUP will be fighting a crucial Assembly election less than 11 months after the case ends.

Insiders disagree on the impact the trial will have on the party's fortunes in the 2027 Stormont poll. One admitted that the charges against Donaldson had hurt it — along with the Irish Sea border controversy — in the last Westminster election.

On a 22% vote, it fell nine points on its previous general election performance. It lost three MPs, and was lucky not to lose a fourth with Gregory Campbell hanging on by his fingernails in East Londonderry.

On occasions during the campaign, DUP canvassers faced abuse centring on the charges against Donaldson.

However, some in the party say the charges are now “priced into people's votes”. Gavin Robinson is “well established” as a leader, with a line in the sand drawn under his predecessor's tenure.

The party recently knocked thousands of doors in west Belfast, where it hopes to pick up a seat in next year's Assembly election, and Donaldson's case “wasn't mentioned once”.

Yet another insider sees the situation more negatively. They said that while Robinson has successfully built a fresher, younger team with party unity greater than it has been in years, the potential damage from the trial “can't be wished away”.

The source said: “There will be wall-to-wall media coverage. Every report will include the words 'former DUP leader' before or after Jeffrey Donaldson's name. It will be an uncomfortable period.

“I've no doubt that we will recover, but nobody knows how long that recovery will take.”

Judge Paul Ramsey KC will review the case on May 5, three weeks before the trial is set to open.

At a review hearing in February, defence barrister Ian Turkington described Eleanor Donaldson as “seriously unwell”.

Under the Mental Health Northern Ireland Order, fitness to be tried can only be determined on the evidence of two medical practitioners.

“We have one at the moment suggesting that Mrs Donaldson is unfit, but obviously that is insufficient — we require two,” he said.

Another review hearing a fortnight ago heard that further medical reports on her had been handed to the court.

Ivor Bell precedent

In 2018, criminal proceedings against veteran republican Ivor Bell were halted using mental health legislation. He had been charged in connection with the murder of Jean McConville.

Belfast Crown Court heard that Bell had been diagnosed with dementia. A prosecution-appointed consultant psychiatrist agreed with defence experts that he would be unable to fully participate in his own trial.

While Eleanor Donaldson has not been deemed unfit for trial, her defence could potentially argue that she is “unwell for trial”. If that was accepted by the judge, her case could be split from her husband's and parked.

Jeffrey Donaldson's legal team would have to decide whether to accept such a move or to ask for his trial not to proceed until hers did. The judge would then rule on that request.

If Mrs Donaldson's case proceeds, special measures such as regular breaks are likely to be in place for her during proceedings.

It is understood that prejudicial material about the couple on social media has been raised as a concern, including comments on the Facebook page of a large media organisation with hundreds of thousands of followers.

The defence may argue that potential jurors have been exposed to such material, which jeopardises a fair trial.

However, a standard part of jury selection to ensure a fair trial involves asking potential jurors if they have read about a case on social media. They are also warned against researching parties on Facebook, Twitter or TikTok.

The case against the Donaldsons is unaffected by the criminal barristers' strike because the couple aren't in receipt of legal aid. Indeed, the strike means there is no doubt of the courtroom's availability in the weeks leading up to the summer recess.

The DUP doesn't just want justice done, it hopes it will be done speedily. The party needs this case in the rear-view mirror before it can truly move on.

COMMENTS: Davy Adams on A New Ireland and that Rory McIlroy win

Davy Adams:

Thank you for carrying my Irish News piece on Friday, where I criticised some of the most prominent voices on their ideas for a New Ireland – and also the deafening silence of more important and influential people on this matter. I appreciate that.

However, I found your introductory heading to be quite misleading. I am not having second thoughts on a New Ireland, as the heading suggested. Rather, I am calling for realistic suggestions from those who may well be involved in the designing of a New Ireland; for them to be decidedly accommodatory in their suggestions; and an end to the denigration of unionist/Protestant communities by high-profile “influencers”.

These tactics are not only wrong, but wholly counter productive. As I’ve said on numerous occasions, just nailing six counties on to twenty-six is a recipe for disaster. Reconciliation is the only way forward if we are to create a New Ireland that is worth having.

 Best regards,

Belongs to All Of Us

Mick Fealty: Rory Proves (Again) That Sport Belongs to All Of Us

Golf can be a rich man’s game. The courses, the clubs, the travel — it adds up fast, and for most families it stays out of reach.

But every now and then, who carries a whole community quietly. Who never forgets the modest club on the hill, his oul da behind the bar, and the town that believed in him first.

Northern Ireland has often struggled to celebrate its own. A divided society, split along lines of religion and allegiance, keeps asking the wrong question — not what have you achieved, but which side are you on.

Rory spent his entire career manfully navigating the mess left him and his generation by those who came before him. Which flag? Which anthem?

Questions that players from almost anywhere else never had to answer. From a young age, he took it all on. And here he is. Again. The best in the world.

Talent doesn’t negotiate with division. It just keeps showing up.

Back in Holywood (or Tenerife) , whoever we are we all cheer the same man. In Northern Ireland, that’s not a small thing.

It’s more than a start. It’s another beginning. So once more, thank you Rory (Gerry, Rosie, and grandad Jimmy)!

Big Congratulations

 Raymond McCord: A big congratulations to the winner of the Masters again in America, the greatest sports person to come out of Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland, Rory McIlroy. What a champion. He's done himself and our great little country Northern Ireland proud. To those who mock our country's existence look at our latest champion who represents all the people and our country. The People's champion of Northern Ireland.