DUP reaction to death of Pope Francis is sign of profound shift in NI life since Paisley era
Sam McBride, Belfast Telegraph, April 26th, 2025
UNIONISM HAS ALTERED IN WAYS WHICH WOULD HAVE APPALLED THE LATE IAN PAISLEY — AND HEARTENED ONE OF HIS FOES WHO EDITED THE BELFAST TELEGRAPH AS THE TROUBLES APPROACHED
There are moments in which the axis of normality tilts suddenly. Sometimes, that involves the drama of war, pestilence or famine.
At other points, what we think of as routine has shifted imperceptibly and the change only later becomes apparent.
TV news channels, the internet, and then social media have ushered us into an age of immediacy in which we are obsessed with what's happening in this moment we inhabit.
This can blind us to the full significance of what's just unfolded. Sometimes we need to zoom out to fully appreciate the context.
Recent days have involved several unrelated pieces of news which demonstrate a profound shift within unionism, and within Northern Ireland.
When Pope Francis died on Monday morning, it was sudden. He had seemed to be recovering from illness when a stroke and heart failure abruptly ended his life.
Yet the gravity of his hospitalisation earlier this year meant that those who this week paid tribute to this unusually consequential pontiff had time to consider their words carefully.
Last month, I wrote in the Sunday Independent that the DUP's response to the pope's passing — whenever that was — would say much about how reformable the party is.
Robinson recording
A senior DUP figure texted at the time to highlight what I'd said about Pope Francis shunning some of the Catholic Church's most ostentatious trappings and seeking to reform archaic or corrupt aspects of the Vatican.
He said: “You weren't to know this, but a few weeks ago Gavin recorded an obituary piece for the BBC which covers the above elements of the pope.”
Sure enough, one of the first statements to arrive with our newsdesk on Monday morning was from Gavin Robinson. The DUP leader's warm recognition of the pope's significance was followed by a similar sentiment from Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly.
Then on Wednesday, Robinson was interviewed by the BBC's William Crawley and went considerably further.
He spoke of how Pope Francis “brought the early principles of Christian faith that I would recognise into a role that I see quite far apart from that… he seemed a more gentle, humble, engaging and caring individual… I recognise that this is a significant moment for neighbours of mine… there is a role for a church leader like the pope”.
To some people, this will seem like simple good neighbourliness: while Robinson isn't a Catholic, he's showing good manners by understanding that this is a significant moment for others.
But that is to fail to comprehend the place from whence his party has come.
Ferociously anti-Catholic
When Ian Paisley founded the Protestant Unionist Party, which soon morphed into the DUP, ferociously anti-Catholic religiosity was at its core.
There are stories of Paisley earnestly representing Catholic constituents, and that did not jar with his worldview which — at least in theory — sought to separate the church from its parishioners. While he saw individual Catholics as mistaken, those running the Church were viewed as unrelentingly malevolent.
Paisley's most virulent denunciations were reserved for the Jesuits.
In 1984, the then Free Presbyterian moderator described the order as “the Gestapo of the Roman Catholic Church” who “are in reality the substance of devil worship; a cloven hoof is upon them”.
He claimed that Protestant churches (except his own, of course) had been “infiltrated” by Jesuits and they even controlled the press and broadcast media — a handy way to undermine in the minds of his followers any awkward news reports they might come across in relation to the DUP.
The sociologist Steve Bruce, one of the most perceptive writers on Paisley's religious views, observed how “Ian Paisley has argued that the Jesuits (and, by implication, all Roman Catholics) are not misguided Christians; they are actually pagans”.
Pope Francis was the first Jesuit pope. That the party Paisley founded and shaped would be so fulsome in its condolences on his death would long have been incomprehensible to both its members and the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland.
Signifier of things to come
This isn't just a few compassionate words; it's a signifier of what's to come.
This isn't a full decoupling of religion from constitutional preference in Northern Ireland, but it is a step on that road.
Already, the Catholic Church shares more policy positions with the DUP than with Sinn Fein or the SDLP. Already, some conservative Catholics have been voting for the DUP. I've spoken to several Catholics who signed the nomination papers for a DUP councillor. Already it is the DUP's Jim Shannon — not the SDLP — who has been speaking in defence of the Latin Mass, raising it in Parliament.
Yet the DUP's unrepudiated history of anti-Catholic rhetoric and protest has been repugnant to many more voters who might share the party's stance on issues like abortion or euthanasia.
By implication and by action, Robinson is discarding that past. As a Christian believer himself and someone steeped in politics from his teens, he's not doing it out of theological or political ignorance but as a conscious expression of what he believes and where he wants the DUP to go.
When they vote, many of the declining numbers of religious Catholics will prioritise cultural and nationalistic issues.
But if a border poll now seems to be receding into the distance, and if the DUP was able to restrain its most objectionable impulses (aided by the looming retirement of figures like Gregory Campbell), there is at least the possibility of some more conservative Catholics taking the view that they can vote for it in an election and vote for unity in a border poll if that comes.
Many others, even if uncomfortable with how the SDLP and Sinn Fein have changed, will think that a leopard can't change his spots; the DUP hasn't suddenly become a cuddly cross-community party.
Elsewhere in unionism, it now seems unremarkable that Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt put out words of warm condolence on the pope's death, saying the late pontiff's “sure-footed leadership was something all of us could admire, whatever our religion or faith”.
Yet in 1959 his party mutinied over the mere suggestion that Catholics might be allowed to join the UUP — and Paisley was protesting that those who'd made the suggestion hadn't been sacked by the UUP leadership.
Much of what happens in Northern Ireland conditions us to believe that nothing ever changes — the same tiresome tribal rows, the predictable election results, the extent to which even in a secular age a nominal religious affiliation is the best predictor of how someone will vote.
Yet this can obscure the mammoth changes which have happened over the lifetimes of those still in middle age.
Each change has a multiplier effect. Sinn Fein's dramatic decision to attend the Queen's funeral and King Charles's Coronation made the DUP's decisions this week easier.
Gulf is narrowing
Just as in warfare, small incidents can escalate into a calamitous conflagration, so here as one side softens — for its own calculated reasons — that makes it easier for the other side to reciprocate.
None of this means that the DUP and Sinn Fein are now the Alliance Party. Neither unionist party sent a representative to the papal memorial Mass in Armagh Cathedral on Thursday night.
But the gulf is narrowing. Rows over the Irish language at a railway station in some ways compensate for how little disagreement there is between the DUP and Sinn Fein over more substantive governance matters.
Both parties now support capitalism, neither wants to clobber the rich with much higher taxes, both blame the British Government for not sending Stormont enough money, and both want to avoid unpopular governmental decisions. The flags might be different, but many of the policies are indistinguishable.
Indeed even on social issues, there is increasingly shared ground.
Sinn Fein once took a radical stance on trans rights, arguing that teens accessing puberty blockers was “normal healthcare” while the DUP opposed this; now as public and medical opinion has shifted Sinn Fein has joined the DUP in banning puberty blockers.
Society is changing
All of this is happening amid a much wider societal shift.
On Monday, even the TUV put out a statement on the pope's passing. While perfunctory, it represented a recognition that this is an important moment rather than something towards which it can be entirely indifferent.
When Ron McDowell, one of the party's new crop of capable understudies to Jim Allister, spoke in Belfast City Council on Thursday, much of his speech was religious in nature but was highly respectful.
In an interview with my colleague Suzanne Breen before the pope's death, Allister's Stormont successor, Timothy Gaston, gave a highly significant signal that he will be different, saying that he will speak to Sinn Fein MLAs “in a professional way”.
Even in the religious sphere, the once proudly hardline Free Presbyterian Church is softening, to the dismay of some of its older figures.
This week the Rev Kyle Paisley — son of the DUP founder and still a serving cleric — was emollient, saying: “We can understand how Roman Catholics feel at the death of the pope and we would want in no way to interfere with their expression of sorrow and grief at this time.”
Just last week, Antrim Free Presbyterian Church organised an event exploring Irish Presbyterianism and the Irish language, an event attended by Sinn Fein chairman Declan Kearney.
Presbyterianism and Irish language
These developments all speak to drastic shifts.
They are not absolute. A loyalist band played a sectarian song about the pope on Monday. No doubt some Eleventh Night bonfires will again contain grotesquely sectarian imagery. There is bigotry within unionism and nationalism, as starkly displayed daily on social media where people's true selves are revealed behind the cloak of anonymity.
But increasingly those responsible for gross sectarianism are an embarrassment within unionism.
What's now happening has its roots in events which go back decades.
I was in Strasbourg in 2014 when Pope Francis addressed the European Parliament — the first time a pope had done so since Paisley interrupted Pope John Paul II's address to denounce him as the Antichrist — and it struck me that there was more chance of a feminist or secularist MEP interrupting the pope than a Northern Irish unionist.
It wasn't just that the DUP wanted Catholic votes; it was that by then it had increasingly found itself on the same side as the Catholic Church in multiple debates, and it had witnessed open conflict between church and state in the Republic.
The old battle lines no longer made complete sense.
Unanticipated consequences
All of this could have unanticipated consequences. Some DUP members will be pushed more towards the TUV, feeling that the DUP is no longer the party they joined.
A DUP-UUP alliance or merger, while by no means straightforward, is now easier as another of the obstacles dividing the parties is removed.
In 1966, still a few years before the Troubles, this newspaper's editor, Jack Sayers, wrote on the eve of the Twelfth of July: “Nothing is so wrong, politically as well as morally, as the extremist dogma that to survive Protestants must actively dominate Roman Catholics. Ulster's position today is simply that the more fairly it treats its minorities the longer it will endure.
“That is true not only of the attitude of an increasingly watchful British parliament, but of the response of Catholics, who are enabled to enjoy the privileges of British citizenship to the full. The signs of this are plain if purblind people would open their eyes long enough to see them.” He went on to refer to “the tumour in the constitution represented by the zealots who brag that they are its strongest defenders”.
Paisley loathed Sayers and his liberally-minded worldview. Three years later, Sayers would be dead while Paisley would go on to dominate unionism.
However, almost six decades later, it's Sayers' vision which has triumphed — even in the DUP.
Pope ‘led by example’ says President Higgins
Cillian Sherlock and Grainne Ní Aodha, Irish News, Irish News, April 26th, 2025
POPE Francis’s work on peace and sustainability must be remembered by those attending his funeral today, President Michael D Higgins has said.
Mr Higgins and his wife Sabina travelled to Rome yesterday to pay their respects at the lying in state of Francis in St Peter’s Basilica.
The couple will return to St Peter’s Square for the funeral, which will be attended by other world leaders including US president Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris, Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin and Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell are also expected to attend.
Yesterday First Minister Michelle O’Neill said she will attend.
She said: “I am proud to be attending the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, paying my respects on behalf of everyone at home who cherished his leadership and looked to him as a spiritual and moral guide.
“Pope Francis will be remembered as a leader of deep humility, compassion and courage, with an unwavering commitment to justice and peace.
“His passing is deeply felt in Ireland and across the world, leaving a legacy that continues to inspire millions.”
Generosity of Francis
In a statement ahead of the funeral, Mr Higgins said: “As president of Ireland, I am pleased to communicate the appreciation of all of the people of Ireland for the life, the documents and the contacts to the most vulnerable all over the world made by Pope Francis, who I was honoured to meet with on five occasions.
“The world was struck by the generosity given by Pope Francis, right until the very last moments of his life, in terms of seeking to embrace, as he put it, all of humanity.
“Through his life and his work, Pope Francis led by example in embracing so many of the most important issues facing humanity.
“In particular, he was a strong advocate for the fulfilling of obligations in relation to Mother Nature and the indigenous peoples who are paying the highest price for the consequences of climate change, he was a strong spokesperson for how global poverty could be eliminated and he gave leadership in relation to the rights of migrants.
“In attending the funeral and celebrating the life of Pope Francis, it is important to stress his work on our shared humanity and on the importance of peace, sustainability and of rights.”
Pope Francis with President Michael D Higgins during the pontiff’s visit to Ireland in 2018
This is the third papal funeral that Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, a Dubliner who works at the Vatican, will attend.
He is the secretary for discipline at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is responsible for religious discipline in the Catholic Church.
International event
The archbishop said Francis’s funeral will be more humble than other papal funerals, but it will have elements that will be typical of other papal funerals, such as world leaders being present.
“These world leaders are going to have a unique opportunity to meet each other, they’ll be there at the ceremony before it begins and I’m sure they’re going to exchange words,” he told RTÉ Radio, adding that the word “pontifex” means “bridge builder”.
He said the conclave would be “interesting” as Pope Francis had named three-quarters of the cardinals and many were from “far away places”.
“One of the challenges I think is that they are going to have to get to know each other. They might know each other’s names, and maybe even faces, but they have to understand what these men have in terms of a vision for the Church in the future.”
He added: “I would love to see people translating the love that they had for Pope Francis and the love for his beautiful simple gestures into the practice of understanding of their faith.”
The funeral is expected to begin at 9am Irish time.
DUP leader accuses Dublin of hypocrisy over legacy standards
John Manley, Irish News, April 26th, 2025
DUP leader Gavin Robinson says the Irish government is holding its British counterparts to a “standard it fails to meet itself”.
The East Belfast MP said Tánaiste Simon Harris had stood alongside Secretary of State Hilary Benn on Thursday at Hillsborough Castle criticising the British government’s record on addressing Troubles-related cases despite Dublin’s “catalogue of failures on legacy”.
The Irish government is continuing its legal challenge against the previous Downing Street administration’s decision to offer immunity for Troubles-era crimes.
While in opposition, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pledged to repeal the Tories’ controversial legacy act, which was universally opposed by politicians north and south.
However, Labour intends to retain the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), the legacy body set up under the legislation, which offers conditional immunity from prosecution.
Mr Harris said it would be apparent “within weeks” whether the two governments would have an agreed position on legacy.
The Fine Gael leader also highlighted how the family of murdered GAA official Sean Brown had waited “too long” for truth and justice, in common with “far too many families in Northern Ireland, far too many families across these islands”.
The tánaiste said he was “respectful” of the court process that the secretary of state was going through.
But according to the DUP leader, the Irish government “needs to confront its own shortcomings” in addressing legacy issues.
Mr Robinson earlier this month accused the Dublin administration of “gaslighting” victims of the Omagh bombing after the signing of a memorandum of understanding that gives the inquiry into the 1998 Real IRA atrocity access to information held by the Irish government.
The East Belfast MP said the memorandum of understanding provides “no ability to compel witnesses and no guarantee of full disclosure”.
In his latest remarks, the DUP leader said: “It’s deeply troubling to see the Republic of Ireland consistently point fingers at the UK over legacy matters while neglecting its own responsibilities.
“Justice must be a universal pursuit, not a selective one.”
He said the 1978 ruling by Republic’s High Court which denied Rita O’Hare’s extradition due to the so-called political offence exception was a “stark example of that double standard”.
The late IRA member and later Sinn Féin activist jumped bail and fled south in 1972 after being arrested for the attempted murder of a British Army warrant officer.
“Let’s be clear, her crime was naked sectarian terrorism,” Mr Robinson said.
“Shielding individuals from justice undermines the rights of innocent victims and erodes public confidence in the rule of law.
“Victims of the Troubles deserve transparency and accountability from all parties involved. It’s unacceptable for any government to evade its duty to address past atrocities.”
The DUP leader said Dublin needed to “demonstrate a commitment to confronting its own past and supporting all victims equally”.
Mr Harris’s office was contacted but did not comment.
Hark now, hear the signs of Stormont’s autumn season
Patrick Murphy, Irish News, April 26th, 2025
THE life cycle of the various Stormont administrations in recent years has tended to follow a seasonal pattern.
When a “new” Stormont emerges, it is spring time, season of pledges and promises, as the DUP and Sinn Féin tell us how privileged we are to have them rule over us.
Summer is when the promises fall flat, as in the recent, embarrassing programme for government.
Autumn’s arrival is signalled by sectarian arguments, which are used to distract from summer’s failures. And, as has happened in the past, Stormont sometimes hibernates in the political winter.
Right now it is the autumn of the current Stormont, as indicated by the increasing number of sectarian arguments between Sinn Féin and the DUP.
This time, however, it is a slow-burning autumn, because neither wants to rush into another winter. Stormont might not re-awaken from a prolonged hibernation.
So where, you ask, is the evidence for this fanciful theory?
Evidence
It lies in places like Belfast’s Grand Central Station, where an argument over Irish language signage is a welcome relief for Sinn Féin and the DUP. It distracts from the collapse of public services here.
The issue of Irish language signage is simple. Bilingual signs should be a standard form of cultural inclusiveness in all public amenities across the north, just as they are in Wales.
The DUP rightly claims that Sinn Féin has politicised Irish – but so too has the DUP. Indeed the British government used English as a political weapon to establish its empire across the globe, including in Ireland.
Conradh na Gaeilge, the main Irish language organisation, is certainly not political and it is not responsible for the manoeuvrings of others who try to exploit it for their own political ends.
A Sinn Féin infrastructure minister signed off Grand Central Station with no Irish signs in it. Then a new Sinn Féin infrastructure minister decided there should be Irish signs there, but not in any other bus or rail station in the north. Cue DUP opposition and the creation of Belfast’s Grand Sectarian Station.
Fruitful sectarianism
In what the poet Keats called the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Stormont’s autumn brings electorally fruitful sectarianism for Sinn Féin and the DUP, as half a million people wait for medical attention.
You will also find evidence of Stormont’s autumn in the executive’s failure to make key public sector appointments, which indicatesserious disagreement between the two main parties.
The two main parties don’t look like they are going to deliver progress any time soon
The sectarian standoff between Sinn Féin and the DUP is bad news for the sick, the poor, the hungry and the homeless. They will be forgotten in Stormont’s war of words
They include a public appointments watchdog, the head of the Strategic Investment Board, and a commissioner for victims and survivors.
Also stalled is the appointment of what has been described as a climate change czar.
Picking fights
So, cue another disagreement in which both sides will, no doubt, make carbon emissions a sectarian issue. Evidence of a breakdown in relations can even be found in the price of drink, because the DUP has reportedly failed to support Sinn Féin’s proposed minimum price for alcohol.
Perhaps the most significant sign of autumn was seen in Coalisland last Saturday. Having laid a wreath to commemorate Britain’s dead in the Stormont spring, Michelle
O’Neill spoke (rather briefly by all accounts) at what appears to have been a carefully managed Easter Rising event.
This was her first attendance at a republican commemoration since Stormont’s spring. The DUP responded with a condemnation of Sinn Féin’s “acceptance of those who committed heinous crimes in the United Kingdom”. Both parties have resorted to their default positions.
Despite this, neither party can afford to collapse the assembly.
Voters left to live in hope
Sinn Féin wants to retain Michelle O’Neill as First Minister, not for enhancing public services in the north, but as an indication to the southern electorate that the party can be part of the political establishment.
The DUP wishes to retain Stormont to head off the challenge from the TUV, by using Stormont to prove that it can obstruct what it sees as a nationalist agenda.
All of which means that the two main parties are not going to deliver progress any time soon.
That leaves those like the agriculture minister, Alliance’s Andrew Muir, perhaps literally ploughing a lonely furrow by getting on with his job in a professional manner, unhindered by sectarian priorities.
Meanwhile, the sectarian standoff between Sinn Féin and the DUP is bad news for the sick, the poor, the hungry and the homeless. They will be forgotten in Stormont’s war of words.
As Keats observed in the last line of his poem To Autumn, “And gathering swallows twitter in the sky.”
He unintentionally captured Stormont’s autumn better than most.
Stormont needs a step change if it is to deliver before election
John Manley, Political Correspondent, Irish News, April 26th, 2025
IT DOESN’T seem too long ago that Sinn Féin was celebrating superseding the DUP as the assembly’s largest party and paving the way for Michelle O’Neill to become first minister, yet in a matter of days we will be just two years from the next Stormont election.
The poll may happen sooner due to unforeseen circumstances but legislation dictates that it must take place no later than the first Thursday in May 2027, some five years since the last.
The early years of a mandate are supposed to be when the most difficult decisions are taken, with the level of risk politicians are willing to take steadily decreasing as the next election approaches.
The theory is that the electorate have relatively short memories and that the initial pain will be long forgotten by the time they enter the polling booth, hopefully seduced by a fresh set of promises.
Arguably, there are different dynamics at work in elections in the north, with a party’s record in government (or out of government) having little bearing on how they fare at the polls. However, the notion prevails that a mandate should begin with the heavy lifting and finish by buttering up voters.
Two lost years
The current administration is of course hindered by the fact the first two years of its five-year term were lost to the DUP’s boycott of the institutions, over concerns around the Irish Sea border. Since February last year, however, there’s been a functioning assembly and executive in place, driving policy across a range of departments, albeit in a shorter period than it should be.
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has accused others of “misrepresenting and embellishing” funding allocations
But while relations around the executive table have been largely positive, progress on range of policy issues has been slow or non-existent. In areas where action has been taken, such as Lough Neagh or on health waiting lists, critics have argued that it hasn’t gone far enough or been properly funded.
Blue-green algae has impacted Lough Neagh over the previous two summers
Meanwhile, the sense of urgency evidenced by many would-be ministers when the institutions were dormant appears to have dissipated.
If the executive is make a difference to people’s lives in the remainder of this mandate, it’s readily apparent that a step change is required, as the clock is ticking.
February’s programme for government (PfG) was important in terms of focusing minds and resources. While there’s a inexhaustible list of areas where things need fixing, it’s acknowledged that the executive must prioritise some over others.
Absence of clear targets
But a failing of the PfG was the absence of clear targets; too much aspiration and not enough action. Funding is also hand-to-mouth, with the two biggest parties refusing to countenance any significant revenue-raising initiatives.
Health service reform has supposed to have been a Stormont priority for almost a decade, yet it’s a nettle that our political leaders appear reluctant to grasp.
“ While relations around the executive table have been largely positive, progress on range of policy issues has been slow or non-existent. In areas where action has been taken, such as Lough Neagh or on health waiting lists, critics have argued that it hasn’t gone far enough or been properly funded
It’s argued that funds from the British government are necessary to transform the north’s public services but the Labour government insists Stormont’s current financial settlement is the best yet.
We therefore have a stand-off under which the status quo prevails, with more public money wasted and no improvement in the delivery health and social care.
Even efforts to make a dent in what are thought to be the longest waiting lists in Europe is proving problematic, with Health Minister Mike Nesbitt accusing others of “misrepresenting and embellishing” funding allocations.
Housing: An all-island problem
Housing supply is another issue where pressure is steadily building.
The crisis north of the border isn’t yet of the same magnitude as the Republic but that’s of little comfort to a generation being forced to outstay their parents’ welcome.
The PfG includes commitments, of sorts, to build more than 5,000 new social homes but realising this ambitious target is dependent on upgrading the region’s ailing wastewater infrastructure. To date, there’s no sense of an impending breakthrough in this regard, with some seemingly loath to concede there’s a problem.
Other areas were substantive action is needed, and expected, is in relation to childcare, police recruitment, improving productivity, and tackling climate change.
Nearly three years since Westminster passed the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act, which includes unprecedented provision for the Irish language, there’s also a responsibility on the executive to put tangible measures in place that promote and safeguard Irish.
Unfortunately, we’re already seeing the signs that Stormont is falling behind in its work programme, with much less legislation than had been hoped passing through the assembly.
As the executive’s lack of substantive action becomes more pronounced, expect diversionary tactics, such as a fuss being made over £140,000 spent on Irish language signs at Belfast’s Grand Central Station, or a sudden escalation in the legacy debate – the sort of dog whistles that traditionally motivate voters.
In less than two years we’ll be in the midst of an assembly election campaign but from where we stand at present, it’s unlikely to be fought on the parties’ record of delivery.
Revealed: £220k cost of foreign travel for ministers at Stormont
Andrew Madden, Belfast Telegraph, April 26th, 2025
SDLP OPPOSITION LEADER ACCUSES THE EXECUTIVE OF 'TAKING PUBLIC FOR MUGS'
The cost of sending ministers and their staff on overseas trips in the last year was just under £220,000, it can be revealed.
It includes stays in five-star hotels for some at a time when Stormont's finances are stretched.
SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole branded the expenditure as “beyond a joke”, with the Executive “taking the public for mugs” while pleading poverty for its departments.
The Belfast Telegraph asked the various departments for a breakdown of travel expenditure.
Six ministers have gone on trips outside the UK since Stormont was restored last year.
No economies for Economics Minister
Former Economy Minister Conor Murphy and staff took five trips: New York and Washington DC in March; Isle of Man in June; Toronto and Chicago in September; Berlin in October, and Singapore in November.
On some of these Mr Murphy and selected officials stayed in five-star accommodation, such as the Park Hyatt in Toronto and the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington DC. On occasion the minister was accompanied by up to four staff.
Across these trips, £23,609 was spent on hotels, £33,958 on flights, £10,626 on car hire, £1,919 on food and drinks, £1,337 on rail fares, and £405 on parking. That makes a total of £71,853.
The Department for the Economy said: “The role of the Economy Minister involves deepening economic ties, promoting trade, investment and tourism opportunities, and supporting Northern Ireland's businesses as they scale internationally.
“All travel arrangements are made through a central NICS-wide contract.”
The Executive Office had the highest spend on overseas travel, racking up a bill of £73,265 for five trips.
Two of these were for St Patrick's Day events in Washington DC and Brussels last year.
The US trip, which cost £54,000, was undertaken by First Minister Michelle O'Neill, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, two special advisers, four civil servants and a photographer.
Junior ministers Aisling Reilly and Pam Cameron were in the Belgian capital with two special advisers and two civil servants.
The junior ministers also went to France for the Somme commemoration from June 30- July 2, while Ms Little-Pengelly attended the D-Day commemoration in France accompanied by two civil servants.
Ms O'Neill was also accompanied by a civil servant on the return leg of a trip from Portugal when the Assembly was recalled last August.
The Executive Office refused to reveal which hotels were booked for the trips, citing security reasons.
Flights for these trips cost £40,478, hotels £18,281, and food and drink £2,046. There was also other expenditure, inluding on taxis and car services.
Communities Minister’s expensive foreign trips
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons and staff have taken three overseas trips costing £41,570, including Paris for the Olympic Games last August and a nine-day visit to the US and Canada in October.
The North America trip cost over £40,000, including accommodation at £13,170 in the five-star Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington DC, and flights at £25,639.
The Department for Communities said the costs were in line with the guidelines and followed the proper procurement processes for booking travel and accommodation.
Agriculture and Environment Minister Andrew Muir and staff have been on three trips in the last 12 months, two of which were to Brussels in March and November last year, and another in New York in September, all at a cost of £18,067.
Flights totalled £9,511 and hotels £7,379. A range of other expenditure was listed, including rail fares and subsistence.
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said when on official business the department is “required to use the most efficient and economic form of travel”.
“All staff are responsible for ensuring that no unnecessary costs are incurred, that value for money is achieved and that expenditure is justified and demonstrably reasonable,” it added.
Public taken for travel mugs
“Additionally, all air and sea travel and hotel accommodation must be booked in advance through the department's travel desk to ensure best value for public money.
“Overseas travel arrangements for ministerial visits also adhere to guidance for ministers in the exercise of their official responsibilities to ensure they are efficient and cost-effective.”
Education Minister Paul Givan went on one trip, to Washington DC for St Patrick's Day along with a private secretary and special adviser.
Travel costs were £9,359, accommodation (in the private University Club) £4,679, and subsistence £1,162. That makes a total of £15,200.
The Department of Education said: “All travel requests are made and approved in accordance with the NICS travel policy and booked via a travel management services framework.”
Mr O'Toole, the Opposition leader at Stormont, said the figures were “astonishing”, particularly given that ministers often complain about a lack of resources.
“Travel can be a legitimate and worthwhile ministerial activity, but these numbers are beyond a joke,” he said.
“How can the Communities Minister justify tens of thousands of pounds on three separate trips to North America at a time when his department insists it cannot help pensioners losing winter fuel allowance and disabled people anxious about cuts to their essential support?
“How can Sinn Fein Economy Ministers defend spending tens of thousands of pounds of public money on stays at five-star hotels while the SF Infrastructure Minister blames austerity for not being able to spend £5,000 pedestrianising one street.
“What do ministers say to the health and community organisations losing core funding while more is spent on five-star travel for ministers and special advisers?
“It is clear that the Executive parties, for all their sham fighting, can agree on one thing: taking the public for mugs and believing they won't be held accountable for it.”
Border vote decision should not be based solely on opinion polls says pollster
Bill White, Belfast Telegraph, April 26th, 2025
Opinion polls are nearly always controversial, and especially so when they focus on a united Ireland.
The issue has been back in the headlines this week after Northern Ireland Office Minister Fleur Anderson suggested they would help determine if or when a future border referendum would be called.
The NIO subsequently distanced itself from her comments.
Currently the Secretary of State is obliged to call a border poll if it seems likely that it will produce a pro-united Ireland result.
The key question is what criteria should be used to determine if a pro-unity vote is likely.
And 'likely' is the key word.
Current polling suggests it is possible (just about) that a referendum, if held today, could produce a pro-unity result. However, is it likely? No.
To use opinion polls as the sole criteria for such an important decision presents problems.
To start with, opinion polling and market research do not belong in the family of exact science. They're fallible, and they all have an error range.
It's a bit like medicine — an antibiotic may work on one person, but not on another.
It doesn't mean inexact sciences are less valuable than exact sciences, it's just they should be managed and interpreted differently.
Here in Northern Ireland, we are at a disadvantage in terms of the small number of research organisations that do local polling, therefore resulting in a low volume of polls on this issue.
During the 2016 EU Referendum campaign, there were hundreds of polls carried out in GB. This high volume provides a healthy averaging out of all the different polling methodologies, and allows a broad consensus to emerge.
In the context of the Brexit vote, nearly all were very close either way, and therefore were broadly saying that the final result was going to be close — as it was.
Knowns and unknowns
Analysis of recent border referendum polls shows a remarkable consistency in terms of voters favouring the Union.
All opinion polls on the constitutional issue in recent years put this number in or around 50%.
The four most recent polls over the last year have followed this trend with the pro-Union vote highest.
The LucidTalk poll for the Belfast Telegraph in February 2024 put it at 49%, as did the Liverpool post-election survey.
It was estimated at 48% in the ARINS project-Irish Times survey last December, and at 48% in the most recent LucidTalk-Belfast Telegraph survey in January.
One trend that has emerged is a small drift downward from 50%+ in the pro-Union score.
The remaining 50% varies in the polls between pro-Irish unity and 'Don't Knows'.
For example, the two most recent polls had pro-unity at 34% (ARINS project-Irish Times, December 2024), but at 41% (LucidTalk-Belfast Telegraph, in January 2025). Correspondingly the 'Don't Knows' for both polls were 18% and 11% respectively.
These differences are partly due to the polling methodologies.
Face-to-Face or direct telephone interview polls (like the ARINS and Liverpool post-election surveys) always produce a higher number of 'Don't Knows' than online polls, such as LucidTalk. This difference applies everywhere — there were similar differences for last year's US election, with online polls proving most accurate, even if still underestimating Donald Trump.
In addition, and in another way, this variation between pro-unity and the 'Don't Knows' in the polls isn't surprising, as the choice regarding the border doesn't offer a balanced choice between two options, both of which are equally known to the respondent.
The pro-Union poll score represents support for the status quo,
A united Ireland is still the “unknown” and, therefore, it's not surprising that within the 'other 50%' in the polls, opinion varies between pro-unity and 'Don't Knows'. This difference is not the fault of the pollsters — it just reflects the current situation. So what criteria should be used by a Secretary of State when making this decision?
Yes, opinion poll results should be an important part and input into any decision, but there are other criteria to consider as well.
These should include election results, the census, the make-up of local councils, views of elected representatives and political parties, views of local business organisations, civic society, and the churches and so on.
It would be worrying if any government, or any organisation, was making key decisions of this nature solely on the basis of opinion polls — and that's coming from an opinion pollster!
Bill White is managing director of Belfast polling and market research company LucidTalk
Thousands expected at loyalist parade hours before Open finale
Conor Coyle, Irish News, April 26th, 2025
TWO thousand people and more than 60 bands are expected to turn out at a loyalist parade in Portrush during the Open Championship.
The parade, organised by the Portrush Sons of Ulster, will feature 64 flute bands the night before the finale of the major golf tournament on the north coast this summer.
The Open, the only one of the four major golf tournaments to be held outside the US, returns to Royal Portrush in July, having hosted the prestigious event six years ago. Almost 280,000 tickets have been sold for the event being billed as the biggest tourist attraction of the year.
An application to the Parades Commission states that 64 bands will attend the parade on Saturday July 19 with 2,000 participants expected.
The march will start at around 8pm from and progress through Main Street. The deciding round of the Open is due to begin hours later.
The sporting event is one of the biggest dates in Northern Ireland’s tourism calendar, with the lucrative golf fan market rolling into town for the tournament between July 13 and 20.
Thousands expected at loyalist parade in Portrush hours before final Open round
Tourism NI says the event is expected to draw unprecedented crowds to the north coast and will bring a total estimated £100 million to the economy. A spokesperson said: “We are aware that discussions are taking place with the parade organiser in relation to the scheduled parade in Portrush on July 19.
Bands parade on Friday night
“Tourism Northern Ireland is not involved in these discussions but will work with all partners to ensure the smooth delivery of The 153rd Open.”
A meeting of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council this month heard officials have been “working closely” with Portrush Sons of Ulster and the golf body Royal & Ancient (R&A) to facilitate the parade.
Councillors were told the council’s own plans for music, entertainment and a pyrotechnics show would take place on the Friday night so they “wouldn’t compete” with the band parade.
“The plan, as it stands at the moment, is we are working closely with Portrush Sons of Ulster to facilitate the band parade which has been detailed for the Saturday night,” council director of tourism Peter Thompson said.
“We don’t plan to have any other major activities or event activities on the Saturday night. There’s no point in competing with it. We’re going to have large crowds in Portrush until 11 o’clock at night on Saturday anyway.”
The R&A declined to comment on its involvement with parade organisers.
A band parade was also held in Portrush during the 2019 hosting of the event, with former CEO of the golfing organisation Martin Slumbers saying at the time in response to the parade that “as guests we are very conscious that we want to be part of the community.”
SF council chair 'shut down debate' over tribute to Jim Lynagh
Andrew Madden, Belfast Telegraph, April 26th, 2025
EUGENE MCCONNELL ACCUSED OF BRINGING OFFICE INTO DISREPUTE
The Ulster Unionist Party has accused a Sinn Fein council chairman of closing down debate after he was pictured commemorating IRA man Jim Lynagh.
Mid Ulster District Council's Eugene McConnell was photographed standing behind a banner for “Oglach Jim Lynagh Cumann, Clogher” at an Easter Rising event last weekend.
Lynagh, a senior figure in the East Tyrone Brigade, was killed by the SAS in the Loughgall ambush with seven other IRA men.
Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald was pictured alongside Mr McConnell at the commemoration.
The photograph is understood to have been taken in Carrickmore on Sunday, where the Sinn Fein president addressed an Easter commemoration.
The UUP said Mr McConnell “closed down debate” regarding his attendance at the event during a council meeting yesterday evening.
In a joint statement following the meeting, councillors Trevor Wilson and Meta Graham added: “The council chairman shut down a debate on his attendance at an event that commemorated an IRA terrorist, Jim Lynagh, over the weekend.
“We strongly believe that his attendance at such an event is improper and falls far below the standards of integrity and brings the office of chairman into disrepute.
“Councillor McConnell had the opportunity to explain to the people of mid-Ulster why he felt it appropriate to attend a commemoration of a convicted terrorist.
“Instead, he closed down the debate in an attempt to wash away his actions.
“It is abhorrent in any manner to glorify terrorism and will cause much hurt across the entire community.
“Twenty-seven years ago, the people of Northern Ireland rejected the violence, and Councillor McConnell's actions do nothing but legitimise violence and cause more anguish to those that lost loved ones at the hands of the terrorists”.
DUP refers case to Standards Commissioner
The DUP also criticised Mr McConnell for attending the event.
Paul McLean, the party's group leader on Mid Ulster District Council, said: “It is deeply concerning that Councillor Eugene McConnell, as chairman of Mid Ulster District Council and its first citizen, took part in an event last Sunday commemorating Provisional IRA terrorist Jim Lynagh.
“By standing behind a banner displaying firearms and paramilitary imagery, Councillor McConnell's actions will understandably be seen as offensive and hurtful to the many victims of IRA violence.
“Whether intended as a tribute or not, this act appears to glorify an individual associated with sectarian terrorism and sends a profoundly damaging message about the values we are meant to uphold as elected representatives.
“The councillor code of conduct clearly states that we must promote mutual respect, uphold the law and avoid any conduct that could bring our office or council into disrepute.
“There can be no moral ambiguity when it comes to condemning terrorism.
“Glorifying those involved in sectarian violence only undermines the work of all who strive for peace and reconciliation in our communities.
“The DUP group will ensure that the Sinn Fein chairman, and any other councillors involved in this matter, are held accountable.
“We will also be referring this incident to the Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner for Standards for investigation.
“Councillor McConnell's actions have damaged public confidence and must be addressed with the seriousness they warrant.”
Sinn Fein said: “Everyone has the right to remember their dead with dignity and respect.”
The last confession of ‘Disappeared’ IRA man Joe Lynskey
Mark Hennessy, Ireland and British Editor, Irish Times, April 26th, 2025
Reading Martin Dillon’s new book on the Troubles, The Sorrow and the Loss, has prompted an Irish priest to tell the story behind a Confession given more than 50 years ago
Father Sean McManus had little to say when he appeared before Resident Magistrate John W Adams in Enniskillen Court in September 1971, charged with obstructing the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).
Days before, the Redemptorist priest had attended an anti-internment rally in the Fermanagh town, subsequently swearing an affidavit that the RUC had badly beaten a protester.
When the charge was read out, Fr McManus, then serving in Perth in Scotland, replied: “I am not pleading at all. I am not recognising the court.”
Fined £20, he left with his brother, Frank, a nationalist MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, telling reporters outside that he would not pay it.
The incident brought him to the attention of the IRA’s leadership, which led the organisation’s chief of staff, Sean Mac Stiofain, to meet him shortly afterwards in Navan, Co Meath.
A year later, Fr McManus was back from Scotland to visit his family in Kinawley, Co Fermanagh, ahead of making his way to the United States on the direct orders of his church superiors.
In the decades since, the strongly pro-republican Fr McManus has been a prominent figure in Irish-America as head of the Irish National Caucus, where he has been a loud critic of both the Irish and British governments, as well as an active lobbyist on Irish and Irish-American interests.
“I was being ‘transported’ by the Church and [in effect] by the State because I would not ‘give a solemn promise without equivocation or mental reservation’ never again to criticise England’s oppression of Ireland,” he told The Irish Times, speaking this week from his home in Washington DC.
Within days of returning to Ireland, Mac Stiofain made contact with him to make a direct and unusual request, one that lives vividly in the memory of the still vigorous, strongly spoken 81-year-old priest.
Fr McManus had been invited by a family to spend a few days at their hotel in a Co Louth village.
“The first time ever that I stayed in a hotel,” the priest remembers. Once there, Mac Stiofain quickly got in touch.
Sending a driver to collect the priest, the two men met.
“He said one sentence to me, just one: ‘One of our men wants to see a priest, would you go and see him?’ And I said, yes, I’ll do that.
“I assumed that this man, whoever he was, was important, couldn’t go out to church or be seen in case he was picked up, or whatever. And that’s why he wanted someone to come to him.”
A day later, he was picked up by two men, one of whom he now believes was killed more than two decades later by the Ulster Volunteer Force as he worked behind a newsagent’s counter.
The man he was to meet, though he did not yet know it, was former Cistercian monk Joe Lynskey. It would be almost four decades before the IRA admitted to Lynskey’s killing, when he was included in the list of “The Disappeared” – people who were abducted, murdered and secretly buried by republicans during Northern Ireland’s Troubles.
‘All very normal’
Today, Fr McManus is careful not to conflate what he knew then with what he has learned since 2010 when the IRA finally acknowledged that the Belfast man was one of those secretly killed and buried.
Fr McManus was not blindfolded, but he was told to close his eyes during the 30-minute journey. Today, he could not identify the house he was brought to. Even if he could, he would not identify it, he said.
Once there, he found two men in the kitchen. The priest believes the men were aged in their 60s; they were relaxed, had no guns, and there were no signs of tension.
“One said, ‘Hello Father.’ The other said, ‘Joe’s up there on the right’.
“They were pottering about, making tea. All very normal, relaxed, pleasant, not a care in the world. I had absolutely no feeling of anything else. I didn’t have the slightest feeling that he was a prisoner,” said Fr McManus. “None of that, absolutely none of that. That’s why, years later, I was amazed when I read the truth that he had been killed.”
Entering the small bedroom, Fr McManus met the casually dressed Lynskey: “He stood up. He shook my hand. He said: ‘How are ye, Father? Thanks for coming.’ It was all perfectly normal,” the priest said.
Fr McManus heard his Confession, which remains confidential. Today, he is careful repeatedly to make clear that it was a normal Confession, not a last Confession, or the last rites given to someone on the brink of death.
“I spent about 20-30 minutes with Joe. He was very amiable. A nice man. He shook my hand saying goodbye. He thanked me warmly,” said Fr McManus.
Leaving the house, the two men were still in the kitchen, still relaxed, still drinking tea. The 40-year-old Lynskey could easily have escaped, he believed, if he had wanted. Though Fr McManus did not know it, he had given Lynskey his final Confession because a court martial headed by Mac Stiofain had condemned him, says writer Martin Dillon.
Asked now if Lynskey knew he was to die, Fr McManus said: “I’m not really in a position to say. All I know is that later I was amazed to think that he had been so completely relaxed, at ease, at peace.”
A senior IRA intelligence officer who was involved in the paramilitary group from the foundation of the IRA, Lynskey had had an affair with the wife of an interned IRA volunteer. He subsequently tried to have the man killed.
Leading IRA figure Brendan Hughes found out and sought a court-martial, despite Lynskey’s high rank. He was taken south by another IRA member, Dolours Price, later jailed for the 1973 Old Bailey bombings.
“He sat in the rear, clutching a little overnight bag,” Dillon writes in his latest book, The Sorrow and the Loss. Lynskey tried to explain his actions, but Price did not want to hear. He made no attempt to escape.
“Nevertheless, she later felt a great deal of regret about leading a friend to his death,” writes Dillon, whose earlier book The Dirty War in 1988 revealed the IRA’s policy of secret killings and burials.
Looking back more than five decades, Fr McManus wonders at Lynskey’s conduct: “How could he have been so much at peace and calm and open and friendly and engaging? Everything was fine.”
Over later years, he “very occasionally” asked when he was back in Ireland if anyone knew Lynskey.
“Nobody, nobody ever had heard of him. And I thought: ‘Oh, good, because that means he’s fine,” he told The Irish Times.
The IRA told the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains about Fr McManus, which led its then lead investigator, Geoff Knupfer, to contact him eight years ago in Enniskillen.
“A very impressive man,” says the priest. “The very first thing I said to him was, ‘Geoff, was it British intelligence or the republican movement that told you I was the priest who heard Joe’s Confession?’ He answered immediately: ‘The republican movement.’
“I said: ‘Let me tell you upfront, there’s very little I can tell you.’ And he said: ‘It’s still important to meet.’ And I said, ‘okay, fine’.” Fr McManus sounds more surprised that the IRA had not told him that they were going to pass on his name than by the fact that they did.
Last July, long-standing commission investigator Jon Hill, who took over from Knupfer, travelled to Washington to see him. Though he has no doubts but that the commission would honour confidentiality, he had decided that he should be the one to tell the story of his involvement.
No comment
Responding to The Irish Times, the commission issued a short statement, saying, “Given our very strict adherence to confidentiality we cannot comment on sources of information or who the commission engages with.”
Fr McManus’s final prompt to go public came after reading Martin Dillon’s latest “powerful, poignant” book, which displays “great respect and sensitivity to all the victims”, leading him to contact the New York-based journalist.
“I wanted it to come from me, not someone else. I have nothing to hide because I did my duty as a priest, which any priest would and should do when told someone wants to see a priest,” said Fr McManus.
Saying that he had been happy to co-operate with the commission, he cautioned that he had nothing more to add.
“Not because I don’t want to do so, but because I don’t know anything else. I had explained it fully previously,” he said.
Near the end of their meeting, Hill asked the priest if he would meet Lynskey’s niece, Maria, telling him that he believed “she would get great comfort from meeting you and how he was at peace”.
The two met in Ireland last August, he said.
“She said it brought some comfort, as Jon said it would,” said the priest. “Of course, it would have brought back renewed pain too, as always. I was pleased to do it.”
Army and No10 clashed over removal of Crossmaglen sangar
Sam McBride, Belfast Telegraph, April 26th, 2025
GOC WANTED TO RETAIN OBSERVATION POST DUE TO THREAT FROM DISSIDENTS
One of Tony Blair's key advisers was worried about the existence of a “very dangerous” letter from the most senior Army officer in Northern Ireland in which he warned that what he was being ordered to do was putting the lives of soldiers and police officers at risk.
Among documents declassified at The National Archives in Kew are a series of exchanges over a key Sinn Fein demand during negotiations over decommissioning. They provide unusual insight into how Tony Blair's government took risks in downgrading security which the military wanted to keep due to the dissident republican threat.
Gerry Adams was pressing the government to dismantle multiple security installations in south Armagh. One of the most prominent was known as the Borucki sangar in Crossmaglen, named after Private James Borucki, a 19-year-old soldier who'd been killed by the IRA in 1976.
Adams raised the observation post, in the centre of the village, with the Secretary of State on June 2, 2000. Unusually, in that meeting Adams was accompanied not only by senior IRA figure Ted Howell, but by Mike Ritchie, who in the minutes was described as “a lawyer, formerly of CAJ [Committee on the Administration of Justice], whom Adams described as a consultant”.
Secretary of State Peter Mandelson told Adams the “removal of Borucki would begin when the assets were available to start the work”.
When Adams said there seemed to be an element of doubt over Borucki, “the Secretary of State repeated that they were a 'done deal'. Borucki would be removed”.
Needed to reassure Adams
Three days later Blair's chief of staff Jonathan Powell told the Prime Minister that after three meetings with Adams he was worried a “confidence-building measure” on IRA arms dumps would be lost if the British didn't give Sinn Fein more.
He said Adams was “very clear” that unless there were concessions on policing and on allowing on the run IRA member Rita O'Hare back into Northern Ireland, there was likely to be a problem.
Powell said Mandelson's officials “have broached the subject of the Borucki sangar with the GOC [General Officer Commanding] who is predictably resistant. I think Peter needs to tell the military they need to start taking it down this week. Adams needs this to get Slab Murphy [the notorious South Armagh IRA leader] on board”.
Powell said they had a “major problem” with allowing on-the-runs back without prosecution for Troubles murders or other crimes. He said: “Adams is pleading with me to give him a date for Rita O'Hare.”
By the end of that month Powell believed he had secured the removal of the Borucki sangar.
In a confidential memo to the PM on June 30, 2000, Powell told him “Charles Guthrie [the chief of the general staff] has sorted out the Crossmaglen issue”.
Army ‘bullied’
He reinforced this a few days later, claiming to have “bullied” the Army on the issue.
On July 5 he told the PM Adams had been complaining that the British were reneging on promises, making it hard for him to sell compromises to “activists”.
He said: “On demilitarisation I have bullied the Army into doing Crossmaglen at the beginning of August and they have done the recce we asked for. But we will need further steps in September, including in South Armagh, which we should be planning now.”
However, two days later the plan ran into difficulties when Mandelson received a strong letter from the GOC, Lieutenant General Sir Hew Pike.
The unusually explicit letter, marked as secret, said: “With dissident republican attacks increasing and their expertise constantly improving — in South Armagh now assessed as being at the same technical levels of proficiency as PIRA — I must now advise that the removal of the Borucki sangar substantially increases the risk of a soldier or policeman being killed in Crossmaglen.
“Since it remains necessary for soldiers to patrol the square and the streets leading to it in order to support the RUC in going about their duties in the area, both soldiers and policemen will be in significantly greater danger particularly from RCIED [remote controlled improvised explosive device] attacks which have hitherto been suppressed by ECM [electronic countermeasures] equipment held in Borucki.
“This capability cannot be completely replicated by manpack equipment, whilst its comparatively limited range renders it much less effective from the main Crossmaglen base; we lose ECM coverage across most of the square and its approach roads.”
He said the Army base itself and the police station would also be more vulnerable to attack by mortars or car bombs, and there would also be “a significant loss of surveillance capability”.
The senior officer added: “Under these circumstances of an increased threat, my military advice is that Borucki should stay for the time being. If, however, the political judgement is that it must go in the interests of the wider peace process, notwithstanding the substantial increased risk that its loss will bring, then I must register my concern that no further pressure will be placed on the Army to remove other South Armagh installations while the dissident republican threat continues to grow.
“Proposals for any further demolition would, I believe, lead to a most serious situation.”
‘Dangerous letter’ to leave on the record
The letter was copied to Downing Street, where it alarmed Powell.
In a handwritten note to the PM, he said: “This is very tricky indeed. We need to discuss with Peter [Mandelson]. Either we trust the security forces are safer if we win hearts and minds in S Armagh by removing installations or we don't.”
Alluding to the potential political danger of such a letter if a soldier or police officer was subsequently killed, he added that “leaving this on the record is very dangerous”.
However, 11 days later Powell told the Prime Minister that he intended to tell Adams — in what he expected to be a “difficult meeting” — the installation would be removed “shortly, as promised”.
He said: “It would be a good deal easier to get the Army to cooperate if they were not under regular attack from the RIRA. Adams has assured us that if we took steps of normalisation in South Armagh such attacks would be less likely.”
In a personal memo sent on July 21, Blair himself said: “I think it is important that the Army start with the Borucki sangar within the next fortnight.”
Four days later Susan Scholefield in the NIO's Security Policy and Operations Division sent the Secretary of State a secret draft letter from NIO permanent secretary Joe Pilling.
The letter to be sent to the GOC had been discussed with the Chief Constable, the Army's Headquarters Northern Ireland and the MoD. The letter said: “I can confirm that, in the wider context created by the confidence building measure undertaken by PIRA last month and the restoration of the political institutions, and notwithstanding the rise in the dissident republican threat since the Chief Constable's announcement on 9 May, ministers believe that it would still be appropriate to set in hand demolition of the Borucki sangar starting on 31 July and completing by 9 August.”
Within days, work began on dismantling the installation.
On September 6, 2000, Blair told Taoiseach Bertie Ahern during a meeting at the UN in New York: “We had a real problem in South Armagh because of the security advice that South Armagh would be the route through which the Real IRA brought their weapons. It was hard to take action when told that it would increase the risk to civilians and security forces.”
