Families of GAA friends murdered by loyalists mark 50th anniversary
Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, August 25th, 2025
A MUSTY old coat tucked away carefully in a wardrobe in a Co Derry farmhouse bears the scars of trauma that has endured for half a century.
The last time the green velvet coat was worn, it was on the back of Colm McCartney when he was shot four times by sectarian assassins 50 years ago.
The treasured coat is a physical reminder of the wounds inflicted not just on Colm, but also his loving family, left shattered by his callous killing.
A ring and stick of Wrigley’s spearmint gum are kept nearby – poignant reminders of a young life cruelly cut short.
The 22-year-old was returning from the All-Ireland semi-final in Dublin with his friend Sean Farmer (32) when they were gunned down at a lonely roadside near Newtownhamilton, south Armagh, 50 years ago yesterday.
The friends were united by their love of Gaelic football.
Bellaghy native Colm had made the trip to see his Derry take on Dublin while Sean, although an Armagh man, was cheering on Tyrone in the minor match that day.
The pair worked together on the new road between Newry and Armagh, where Sean was a digger driver. Colm, who was a mechanic, had been staying at digs in Newry.
Still wanting to know
On the day he was killed, Colm left his home just outside Bellaghy and lifted Sean in the Moy, Co Tyrone, on his way to the match.
‘You want to know how far up in the RUC it went; you want to know the agents too’
Families of friends murdered by loyalists at bogus checkpoint still seeking answers on 50th anniversary
On the return leg, Colm had planned to leave Sean back to the Moy before returning to Newry to prepare for the week of work ahead.
On the fateful journey, the pair encountered a bogus UDR checkpoint, which included members of the Glenanne Gang, at Altnamackin.
The notorious loyalist gang comprised members of the UDR, RUC and UVF, and is believed to have carried out more than 120 murders in the 1970s.
Shot six times, Sean died at the scene of the ambush along with his young friend.
The killer gang then made from the area in Colm’s car before burning it out.
RUC stopped at same fake UDR checkpoint
It later emerged that an RUC patrol was also stopped at the fake UDR checkpoint and on becoming suspicious, had sped from the area.
Despite concerns, neither the police nor British army went to investigate.
A short time later Colm and Sean drove into the same roadblock and were shot dead.
Now, 50 years later, Colm’s sister Betty Campbell remembers how details of the RUC patrol hitting the checkpoint were reported on an early morning news bulletin but later dropped.
Unaware the tragic report was connected to her older brother, she and her mother Rea went to Mass in nearby Bellaghy.
“We knew nothing about it until Monday morning,” she said.
“There was a mission on in Bellaghy and mammy and me were at Mass and we came back.
“We saw the cops driving up and down past and then they came in.
“The [policeman] had Colm’s licence in his hand.”
Betty said RUC officers had to support her mother such was the shock of hearing her son had been murdered.
“They had to help mammy back into the living room and I went out onto the road,” she said.
“The [police] apparently had been at the parochial house… and they couldn’t get the priest, and they were afraid of us hearing it.
“It was on the news apparently at that stage, but they just told us, mammy and me, at the back door.
“I always say that was the worst part of it, her and me there.”
‘Never the same again’
Betty recalls how her family home “was never the same again” and that her father John “dropped dead” in 1984, aged 65.
The loving sister reveals that her father was determined to keep his murdered son’s memory alive, and how her brother Jamesie McCartney, who now lives in the family home, has fulfilled that wish.
“We still have the coat that Colm died in and his ring and a stick of Wrigley’s spearmint chewing gum,” Betty said.
“On the night of the inquest my father came in with it and he said ‘I mightn’t have that long here, but I never want that coat to go out of this house’.
“Jamesie is living in the home place now and it’s still there.
“I wasn’t at the inquest, but I remember my father coming in with it.”
From Betty’s kitchen table a spectacular view takes in Lough Beg, Church Island and Co Antrim shoreline on the far side of the historic lake.
Seamus Heaney
The strand was made famous by poet Seamus Heaney, who was a cousin of Colm’s.
In his poem The Strand at Lough Beg, Heaney wrote about the murder of his dead relative.
The poet also wrote evocatively about another Bellaghy man and loyalist murder victim Sean Brown, who lived a short distance from the McCartney homestead.
Despite their unimaginable loss, Betty tells how her family was not left in peace to grieve.
She reveals how on the morning of the first anniversary of Colm’s murder the RUC and UDR raided the family home and arrested her brother Sean.
“The Troubles were going so many years and there was never one of those outfits [RUC or UDR] through the gate,” she said.
“And the morning of the first anniversary they landed, police and UDR soldiers, and they tumbled the house upside down and took Sean.”
Father Faul
Jamesie tells how campaigning Catholic priest Fr Denis Faul, who himself was targeted by the Glenanne Gang, had warned the family they would be singled out for attention.
“As the years went on the torture went on more, they hit the house 10 or 12 times,” Jamesie said.
“I remember Fr Faul came to our house a night or two after [Colm was killed] and he said ‘be prepared for plenty of torture from the police and army’.”
Jamesie said that Fr Faul told the McCartney family they would be targeted in a bid to manufacture context and justify the killing to the wider community.
“We knew after what he was talking about,” Jamesie said.
“I saw mornings they came there at 5am and didn’t stay half an hour.
“They searched the house and away they went again.”
Just like the McCartney family, the Farmers also have their own mementos and cherished memories of their loved one.
Originally from Clonmore in Co Armagh, he lived in the Moy with his wife Margaret and four children when he was killed.
The Farmer family had suffered heartache two months earlier in June with the death from illness of Sean’s daughter Mary Martha, who was just 13 months old.
Memories of their father
Although aged just five, his son Brendan has memories of his father.
“I remember him coming home from work and the smell of oil off him and you would sit on his knee when he’s eating his dinner,” he said.
Another son Paul, who was four, can recall the morning his father left the family home for the last time.
“I have a vague memory of da heading to the football that morning, we were typical children, crying looking to go, and Colm pulling up at the front of the house and lifting him,” he said.
Brendan also has “memories of the police coming to the door” the morning after the murder before being taken to stay with friends of his mother.
Paul says growing up he and his siblings knew what had taken place and who was responsible.
“We always knew what happened,” he said.
“Ma never liked the UDR, the onus was the UDR, that was it, police, collusion.”
He said that in later years his mother, who has since died, referred to the 1976 inquest into his father’s killing.
Court laughing match
“She was talking about the time of the inquest, she said about the police, it was just one big laughing match at the back of the court, it was a complete joke…it was never taken seriously,” he said.
The death of Sean had a massive impact on the young family and Brendan tells how his mother had to take on extra work to raise her children.
Paul also highlights how he and his siblings missed everyday experiences and opportunities growing up.
“I would say we probably missed out a lot too, you’d have been at football and stuff because da would have been a football man,” he said.
“We never really had anyone come to come supporting us.
“I suppose education wise too. “Education was a big thing too, we would come home from school and ma was home from work and then feeding us and then maybe homework was neglected, not that we cared at the time.
“I see a lot of difference with my wife and daughter now too.”
The activities of the Glenanne Gang are currently being investigated by the Kenova investigation team.
While that team has met relatives of those impacted by the gang in recent weeks neither the Farmer or McCartney families have been contacted.
Boutcher
Brendan reveals how he met previous Kenova boss Jon Boutcher, who is now PSNI chief constable.
The brother’s say the PSNI man’s departure from Kenova to the police dented his confidence in the process.
“It was alright but then he changed his coat very quick,” he said.
“He’s [now] the head of the outfit that he was investigating,” Paul added.
He said that he ultimately wants “to know who the triggerman was”.
“You want to know how far up in the RUC it went,” he added.
“You want to know the agents too, it could have been any one of them,” Brendan added.
The Farmer family held an anniversary Mass in Clonmore yesterday and later travelled to the spot near Newtownhamilton where Sean was killed to lay flowers.
A similar Mass will be held in St Mary’s Church Bellaghy on August 28 for Colm.
It will be celebrated by Fr Seamus Kelly, who officiated at his requiem Mass 50 years ago.
A commemoration event will also be held at his graveside in Bellaghy at 7.30pm tonight.
'Slab' was believed to have been on IRA Army Council: declassified file
Sam McBride, Belfast Telegraph, August 25th, 2025
THOMAS MURPHY'S NAME WAS ON TIP OF POWERFUL TONGUES IN BOTH UK AND US
Major gangster Thomas 'Slab' Murphy was on the IRA Army Council in 2002, according to a previously secret Downing Street file — with both British and US officials repeatedly speaking of him by name.
Files opened at The National Archives in Kew show how Britain kept close watch on the makeup of the IRA's key body, assessing not just who was in charge of the IRA, but also the outlook of those people and what it meant for the balance of power within the terror group.
Such discussion wasn't confined to the RUC, MI5 or military intelligence, but extended to discussion by politicians, senior civil servants and diplomats of named individuals they said were at the top of the IRA.
The files also reveal tensions within Sinn Fein, with Gerry Adams criticising senior colleague Pat Doherty.
In 2001, the then DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson used parliamentary privilege to name individuals he alleged to constitute the Army Council. He named Murphy as the IRA's chief of staff at the time.
Declassified documents show that the following year that tallied with what some of the most senior figures in Tony Blair's Government were saying.
Changing balance of power
Blair's powerful chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, who is now Sir Keir Starmer's national security adviser, said in a September 25, 2002, memo that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness had to be “a little more bold with their membership than they have been”.
He added: “With Brian Keenan terminally ill, Slab Murphy thinking of retirement, and a new ally on the PAC [Provisional Army Council] for them, in Sean Gerard Hughes, it is possible for them to move in army terms.”
Almost two years earlier, in a secret November 24, 2000, memo, John Sawers in Downing Street — a future head of MI6 — said he still believed it was preferable to retain military surveillance towers in places like south Armagh rather than return to widespread use of troops on the ground.
He continued: “At the same time, we have to retain and improve our ability to crack down on racketeering and smuggling. The customs officers on the border are exposed, and a reduction in the overall security presence will weaken their position further.
“The Irish are better placed to pursue the Al Capone route against both PIRA and RIRA on their side of the border (though whether they would ever put Slab Murphy in the dock on smuggling charges is doubtful).”
Ultimately, the Irish authorities would prosecute Murphy, a notorious fuel launderer, for tax evasion — and he would be jailed in Dublin before being released.
Criminal activity in plain sight
In a private conversation with a British diplomat in November 2004, US envoy Mitchell Reiss was said to have referred to the “incomprehensibility of allowing 'Slab' Murphy to perpetuate criminal activity within our sight”.
In a confidential November 27, 2000, memo, Jonathan Powell recounted a conversation with senior Irish diplomat Dermot Gallagher in Helsinki. Powell said Gallagher “had found Adams sombre, claiming that things were difficult. He was particularly annoyed with Pat Doherty saying publicly that Sinn Fein would be encouraging people not to join the new police service and that Sinn Fein had decided not to take their seats on the Police Board. This was not their position.”
Adams said “he could not go back to the IRA leadership in the current circumstances. They distrusted him...”
Almost two years later, in October 2002, Blair made a significant speech in Belfast's Harbour Commissioners' office in which he said: “The fork in the road has finally come… we cannot carry on with the IRA half in, half out of this process. Not just because it isn't right any more. It won't work any more.”
Ultimately, that did happen, with the Northern Bank robbery more than two years later becoming the moment of over-reach for republicans, prompting such a backlash that the IRA rapidly moved to announce it was winding up.
But there was also massive criminality in this period on the loyalist side, which often spilled over into internecine feuding and murder.
Racketeering corroding society
In February 2002, David Trimble told Secretary of State John Reid that there needed to be a major focus on serious criminality. A note of the meeting said: “It should not just focus on conventional law and order responses to racketeering, but on the corrosive effect of such activity on the whole of society.
“Terrorism apart, Northern Ireland had been a relatively law-abiding society until recently. The paramilitary groups had moved into racketeering and organised crime.
“People in both communities were inclined to be over-tolerant of this, as they had been when violence was politically directed. They needed to be shaken out of this, and understand the corrosive effect of what was happening.”
In response to a request from Tony Blair for advice on what action could be taken against organised crime and loyalist violence, the Secretary of State told him in February 2002 that they could appoint a “commissioner on organised crime”, something he said the Chief Constable accepted.
The secret memo said the PSNI had “created a group to focus specifically on the UDA leadership, with the aim of prosecution for any [underlined] offences”.
The Secretary of State stated: “I am persuaded of the case for enabling the use of telephone intercepts in evidence on a UK-wide basis (but, if necessary, for Northern Ireland alone). [Chief Constable] Ronnie Flanagan now agrees.”
But in a January 2002 meeting with Trimble, the Secretary of State told him that there had been “complications” around setting up a commission on organised crime, with “a negative reaction” from the Policing Board.
Ballymena - Safe school return ensured after rioting
Mark Bain, Belfast Telegraph, August 25th, 2025
The Education Minister has insisted everything is in place to ensure a safe return to school for children after race riots in Ballymena this summer.
Paul Givan said his department has been working with the Education Authority to make sure pupils feel welcomed in the school environment.
In June, it was reported that the rate of pupils absent from some schools in the Ballymena area had spiked after several nights of rioting.
Mr Givan said 84 new pupils at Harryville Primary School had not been attending class and only 65% of pupils at St Patrick's College had been at school.
He said it was “outrageous” that children had been traumatised as a result of trouble, but added “alarmingly, we're also dealing with some children who engaged in the rioting and attacked some of the houses of the very children in their class.
“This was an appalling situation, one which is complicated and required intervention.”
The violence followed a peaceful protest in the town over the court appearance of two teenage boys accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. The pair spoke through a Romanian interpreter to confirm their names and ages.
Mr Givan added that work has been undertaken ahead of pupils' return.
“The Education Authority has been particularly working with schools where there have been tensions,” he said.
“That has been in Ballymena and where there are tensions in other areas.
“I've been in many schools where I've seen 20 or maybe 30 different nationalities and they're very much integrated within those school communities. Schools are really good at making themselves a safe haven.
“It's right that where people are in the country that we have respect, particularly for those children in schools.
“They have to be protected. They have to be that safe place.
“Work has been ongoing through the Education Authority leading on these issues to make sure that people feel they can come to school in September, and we are there to support those schools to make sure that all of their young people are able to return.
“There is a time and a place to debate immigration policy, but whenever you are in Northern Ireland, and particularly whenever you are a child in Northern Ireland from whatever background, you have to be treated with that respect, you have to be supported and you need to be protected.”
At the end of June, Mr Givan admitted the Education Authority had stepped in to try to defuse tensions in some schools.
“My team had been engaged with a number of schools as a result of the picture that we had to deal with,” he said.
“We engaged the emotional wellbeing unit within the Education Authority, the intercultural services and try to provide support for these schools.
“I remain committed to do all I can to ensure all children can safely return to the classroom.”
Stormont’s collapse in vision is written across 350 empty acres
Noel Doran, Irish News, August 25th, 2025
THE massive site officially known as Maze Long Kesh (MLK) has been back in the headlines again, sadly strengthening the perception that it is a symbol of everything which is wrong with the Stormont executive.
While the dispute last week over the refusal to approve most of the handful of formal requests for permission to visit the complex was a relatively minor one, it still reminded us that MLK is a testament to political failure at a spectacular level.
It might all have been so different if central figures had held their nerve during periods of pressure and allowed ambitious but carefully considered and comprehensively funded plans for the former prison, which had been agreed across the board, to proceed.
We would have ended up with a state-of-the-art 40,000 seater multi-sports stadium, bringing together the GAA, Ulster Rugby and the Irish Football Association, and also used for high-profile concerts, alongside an impressive and thoughtfully designed peace centre which reflected the views of all traditions and attracted large numbers of international visitors.
Instead, we have been left with 350 sprawling acres just outside Belfast, and close to the region’s main road, rail and air links, effectively lying empty for most of the year and sending out a firm message that devolution is not working.
The DUP’s abrupt withdrawal of support for the peace centre in 2013 has been well documented as a negative turning point for Stormont, and the demise of the stadium project five years earlier was also a huge loss in sporting terms, with wider implications for both political stability and community relations which may not have been fully appreciated at the time.
Most outside observers might have expected that Gaelic games officials would have had considerable difficulty endorsing a major new ground in a location so closely associated with the notorious H Blocks, which was also in a staunchly unionist area.
Instead, led by the redoubtable provincial director Danny Murphy, they threw themselves into the project with a commitment and indeed a passion which plainly surprised the representatives of the other codes.
Murphy, who died in 2016, was always a formidable operator, given to quoting sections of constitutions from around the world, with, as I recall, India a particular favourite. He was as likely to raise politics as sport when he regularly contacted me about coverage in The Irish News which displeased him.
The former Maze Long Kesh prison site near Lisburn
“ Instead, we have been left with 350 sprawling acres outside Belfast, close to the region’s main road, rail and air links, effectively lying empty for most of the year and sending out a firm message that devolution is not working
He defended every aspect of the GAA resolutely, as well as articulating a compelling case for the MLK stadium as a key element in driving the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement forward.
Murphy relished the idea of encouraging closer links between the main sporting bodies, and opening up fresh opportunities for Gaelic games, but not everyone in the other codes and significantly in the DUP, shared his enthusiasm.
Some rugby administrators felt that the MLK arena was too big for their purposes, grassroots voices from individual soccer clubs were plainly unwilling to share a facility with the GAA, and the first indications of a split between the reformers and the traditionalists in the DUP were beginning to emerge.
The plug was effectively pulled on the scheme just before Peter Robinson became first minister, although it may have been a decision he privately regretted, and the prospect of new understandings across the divide was lost.
What was not anticipated were the tensions which subsequently accelerated when, to their credit, rugby and soccer successfully redeveloped their old homes at Ravenhill and Windsor Park respectively but the GAA encountered serious obstacles – some of which were their own responsibility with others of a firmly political nature – as it tried to expand Casement Park.
The GAA was largely ignored by unionist leaders for most of its history, certainly for the early stages of my 25 years as Irish News editor, and, apart from the occasional tribal dig, was not on their radar.
As it grew in influence and scale, and arguments over Casement funding intensified – with the Conservative secretary of state Chris Heaton -Harris specifically guaranteeing in 2023 that the required money would be allocated, only to abandon all his promises – it seemed almost no contribution from a DUP or TUV stalwart was complete without a denunciation of the GAA.
It has all helped to poison the atmosphere at Stormont to an extent where the basic cross-party consensus necessary to finalise important legislation is often unlikely to be found, and another eventual collapse of the institutions cannot be ruled out.
Other factors are obviously involved but it is reasonable to suggest our society would be in a much better place today overall if the original MLK strategy had been implemented as intended.
Like many aspects of life here, it’s a huge pity.
Mary Lou uses Hunger Strike commemoration to renew Irish unity call
Mark Bain, Belfast Telegraph, August 25th, 2025
MCDONALD WANTS NEW IRISH PRESIDENT TO MAKE PUSH FOR POLL THEIR PRIORITY
Mary Lou McDonald has made a fresh demand for preparations for an Irish unity referendum to start immediately.
Speaking in Belfast, the Sinn Féin president said momentum for a united Ireland was growing — and challenged whoever becomes Irish president this autumn to be a leader for reunification.
However, she gave no indication as to whether she will stand, having hinted at the weekend that she is mulling a possible run.
Ms McDonald was addressing the national Hunger Strike Memorial event at Dunville Park on the Falls Road.
She said a united Ireland was getting closer, stating: “We are getting there, inch by inch, day by day, year by year.
“Remember — this state was designed to prevent a republican from ever becoming First Minister. The good and great said it would never happen. Well, as Mandela said, 'It always seems impossible until it is done'.”
Repeated polls have shown support for Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK, albeit the gap is narrowing.
A LucidTalk poll for the Belfast Telegraph in February suggested 48% of voters would opt to maintain the Union while 41% would back a united Ireland if a referendum was held immediately.
In our survey a year earlier, there was a 10-point gap between the two sides: 49% supported staying in the UK, while 39% wanted Irish unity.
Ms McDonald said: “The momentum for Irish unity is growing all the time. Both the Irish and British governments must catch up.
“Partition has failed all of our people. It has failed Ireland.
“So, the planning and preparation for democratic constitutional change must start now.
“The planning and preparations for unity referendums must start now.”
Ms McDonald said she wanted a society where people were “so confident in our Irishness that we have no desire to chip away at the Britishness of others”.
Sinn Fein has not yet decided whether to run a candidate in the Irish presidential election.
Speaking on Saturday evening Ms McDonald said the party still had to choose between running its own candidate or throwing its weight behind another.
“We are still talking about that. It is August now and in September we will make that call,” she said.
Asked if she was considering a run, she said she had “obviously been thinking about things on a personal level but more importantly I've been leading and involved in, and listening to the party conversation”.
In Belfast on Sunday, she gave no further clues as to the party's thinking on a candidate.
However, she did say northern voters deserve a say in who becomes president.
“This autumn we will elect a new Irish president. It is a disgrace that Irish citizens living in the north of Ireland cannot vote for their president, for our president,” she said.
Returning to the theme of Irish unity, she said whoever succeeds Michael D Higgins should make it a priority.
She added: “Whoever is elected to this important office must understand and honour their duties to Irish citizens living in this part of Ireland. And must understand also that the days of saying 'yes to unity but not now' are over.
“It's time to get on the pitch, to stop being bystanders as history unfolds, to finally shed the harness of partitionism, and become leaders for the reunification of our country. That's what a government with real vision would do. That's what a patriotic government would do. That's what Micheál Martin should do. These are the values that the Irish president must advance.”
SF leader condemned for using 'blood drenched' memory of IRA hunger strikers to push for border poll
By The Newsroom, Belfast News Letter, August 25th, 2025
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald has stated that the route to Irish unity is getting there “inch by inch”, as she urged people to stop “being bystanders”. Photo: PA
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald has stated that the route to Irish unity is getting there “inch by inch”, as she urged people to stop “being bystanders”.
The leader of Sinn Fein has been condemned for using the “blood drenched” memory of the IRA hunger strikers to push for a border poll.
The comments were made after Mary Lou McDonald addressed the National Hunger Strike Commemoration in Belfast today.
In her address she stated that the route to Irish unity is getting there “inch by inch”, as she urged people to stop “being bystanders”.
Mary Lou McDonald claimed that the day the public will have a say on a united Ireland “is coming”.
Republicans gathered for the annual event to remember the 10 men – all jailed for IRA terror offences – who died during the 1981 hunger strike.
Ms McDonald told those gathered at Milltown Cemetery that the momentum for a united Ireland is growing.
Next President ‘should be leader for reunification’
She also said that whoever takes on the role as next president of Ireland should be a leader for reunification.
“Friends, it is our duty as activists carve the avenue through which we will reach a united Ireland. We are getting there, inch by inch, day by day, year by year,” she said.
“It’s time to get on the pitch, to stop being bystanders as history unfolds, to finally shed the harness of partitionism, and become leaders for the reunification of our country.
“That’s what a government with real vision would do. That’s what a patriotic government would do. That’s what Micheal Martin should do. These are the values that the Irish president must advance.
“The day is coming when the people will have their say on unity. Our job is to build the most positive campaigns possible. To win those referendums and to win well. I say we can do it. I say we must do it. I say we will do it.
“As our long walk to nationhood continues, we never forget other peoples who yearn for freedom. We stand in unwavering support of Palestine and the people of Gaza as Israel’s barbaric genocide continues.
“As occupation, apartheid, starvation, bombardment, brutality, Israeli barbarism plays out for all the world to see.
“As Britain, the United States, the European Union facilitate, enable and finance genocide.”
She said the people of Palestine can count on the people of Ireland and pledged to continue to support them.
“As the powerful turn a blind eye to unimaginable suffering, as they aid and fund this brutal genocide, the people of Ireland will never be silent,” she added.
“With everything we have we will champion Ireland’s values of freedom, peace, and human rights. Together we say, sanction Israel, stop the genocide, end the occupation, free Palestine.
“Young people have always been at the forefront of the struggle of equality and justice.
“The hunger strikers were young. The average age of the 10 who died was 28.
“Thomas McElwee, the youngest, was only 23 when he died. Joe McDonell, the eldest, was only 30.
“Their story shows us that young people can change history. Our job is to inspire within them the power of activism.
“To instil in them the politics of defiance, over despair, the politics of hope, over fear. To instil in them the spark to rock the system, to shake things up, to be the living embodiment of Irish republicanism.
Speech condemned by TUV
However TUV legacy spokesperson Sammy Morrison said the key point from her message was that Ms McDonald is still using the legacy of IRA members who were jailed for terrorist offences to push for a border poll.
He said: “It is noteworthy that at today’s Hunger Strike commemoration, Sinn Féin hailed their position at Stormont – a position they only hold because other unionists surrendered their promises on the Sea Border and put them there – as proof of momentum towards an all-Ireland.
“And where did Mary Lou McDonald choose to make this fresh demand for a border poll? At the annual Hunger Strike commemoration on the Falls Road – an event glorifying men who were IRA terrorists.
“An event celebrating the actions of men who murdered, maimed, and left a trail of destruction across this Province. Carál Ní Chuilín – one of the organisers this year – openly declared: ‘We do not come here in sorrow, but in pride, and in defiance.
"Our hunger strikers are the foundation stones of the Republic we will build’.
"That is the spirit in which Mary Lou McDonald called for so-called ‘unity.’ Not from a platform of reconciliation or peace, but from one drenched in the blood of terrorism.”
He added: “Let us remember exactly who was being honoured:
• Francis Hughes – murderer of an RUC officer.
• Raymond McCreesh – caught in possession of the rifle used to murder ten Protestants in South Armagh.
• Thomas McElwee – convicted of bombing offences, including the firebombing which killed Yvonne Dunlop, a Protestant shop worker and mother of three.
“These are the ‘heroes’ around whom Sinn Féin rallies as they demand constitutional change.
“For all their talk of inevitability, the truth remains clear: the majority of people in Northern Ireland still wish to remain part of the United Kingdom.
"What Sinn Féin once sought to achieve by the bomb and the bullet, they now seek to achieve through the Stormont system – helped along by the weakness of those who once promised resistance but instead delivered surrender.”
Newry and Mourne Police and Armed services memorial parade in Kilkeel this weekend
By Philip Bradfield, Belfast News Letter, August, 22nd, 2025
The annual parade in memory of 222 members of the police and armed forces who were killed in Newry and Mourne during the Troubles will take place in Kilkeel this Sunday.
The Newry and Mourne Police and Armed services memorial parade will begin next to Kilkeel Firestation at Greencastle Street at 3pm and the religious service will take place at the Police and Combined Services Memorial at the Lower Square Kilkeel at 3:30pm.
Organisers say it is it is intended to remember the 222 “brave men and women of the police and military” named on the memorial who lost their lives in the Newry and Mourne District due to their service and in the pursuit of peace.
The annual event began in 2007 after a community campaign to erect a permanent memorial in the town to those who were killed.
The number of people that take part each year can up to several hundred, with one band due to lead the procession on Sunday.
DUP Councillor Henry Reilly was a key mover behind the erection of the memorial.
"I knew a lot of the people who had been killed in the line of duty in Newry and Mourne area and I just felt there was a need for all their names to be permanently remembered,” he told the News Letter.
The memorial was very warmly received by the families and friends of those killed, he said.
DUP Councillor Henry Reilly speaks at a previous Kilkeel parade in memory of fallen members of the security forces.
DUP Councillor Henry Reilly speaks at a previous Kilkeel parade in memory of fallen members of the security forces.
"It was also a massive community effort to see the memorial realised. It is probably one of the most impressive anywhere in Northern Ireland and it was all done through community support.
It was only fitting that the memorial was launched with a formal procession through the town, which has become an annual fixture in the Kilkeel calendar, he added.
An additional stone was added to the memorial with the names of four PSNI officers who died on duty in Warrenpoint in 2008.
Constables Kevin Gorman, James Magee, Kenny Irvine and Declan Greene were killed in a fire in their 4x4.
They were travelling down a dark, wet road outside Warrenpoint on their way to help a colleague when they were involved in a fatal crash.
Smyth was the reluctant leader unionism never had
OPINION: ALEX KANE, Irish News, August 25th, 2025
WITH the exception of John Taylor, Martin Smyth was probably the most significant Ulster Unionist politician not to become leader of the party.
He did make two unsuccessful bids for the role, though. In September 1995 he was in the race to succeed James Molyneaux, who had been leader since 1979. He was expected to do reasonably well, having been linked to the party for decades, held South Belfast with resounding majorities in general elections since 1982 and, as Grand Master of the Orange Order, was likely to attract considerable support from an Ulster Unionist Council top-heavy with members of the Order.
He did very badly, eliminated on the first count with just 60 of the 806 votes cast. The Orange vote went to David Trimble (which also wrecked John Taylor’s chances) on the back of what was seen as a successful outcome to the Drumcree standoff in Trimble’s Upper Bann constituency. And at 65, Smyth was also too old and too similar in outlook and approach to Molyneaux. The party wanted someone noticeably younger and savvier.
Smyth was also extremely uncomfortable with the Good Friday Agreement. In fairness to him, he had told the BBC, in an interview in October 1993, that Sinn Féin could be included in talks at some future point, albeit with certain conditions having been met. And in August 1994, as talk of an IRA ceasefire grew louder, he accepted that the renunciation of violence and handover of arms would mean unionists would have to ‘learn to deal with SF’.
It’s also worth mentioning that after the NI Convention dissolved in 1975, he took part in below-the-radar talks with the SDLP, in an attempt to break the deadlock.
His problem with the GFA, as it was for many unionists – including those in the UUP who voted for it – was what was often referred to as the ‘constructive ambiguity’. I remember Smyth quoting an article I had written in the autumn of 1998, in which I noted that a real danger for Trimble was the possibility of constructive ambiguity morphing into destructive reality if key issues weren’t nailed down pretty quickly.
When I met him at a UUP event a week or so after the article was published, he told me that he believed the British government was so desperate to keep the IRA and SF in the process that all the pressure would be put on Trimble, leaving him with no choice but to buckle or walk. That assessment turned out to be fairly accurate, which is why Smyth challenged Trimble for the leadership in March 2000.
Personally, although he would never confirm it for me, I don’t think he wanted to stand, not least because he was almost 70. There had been an expectation that Jeffrey Donaldson, the party’s anti-agreement champion, would be the challenger, but he, as one former ally of his put it to me, “bottled it because he wanted to be handed the crown rather than fight for it”.
Trimble defeated Smyth by 56.8% to 43.2%. That may look like a reasonably comfortable margin of victory, but it was a victory over a weak candidate, and it also represented a slippage of support for Trimble. If Donaldson had stood, he would probably have won or pushed Trimble so close that he would have been deprived of all authority within a couple of weeks. Interestingly, if Donaldson had carried the day, I don’t think the DUP would have made the electoral breakthrough it made three years later, and a raft of key figures would have remained in the UUP rather than defect.
But Smyth remained in the party, as he had done after his flirtation with Bill Craig and Vanguard between 1971 and ’73. In that sense, he was a very traditional United We Stand, Divided We Fall unionist: content to connect with fringe movements and harry the UUP leadership, yet unwilling to defect entirely. Had he demonstrated more naked ambition for the leadership, he might well have made it. But he would have stopped short of signing the deal that Trimble did in 1998.
Lough Neagh algae spreads across waterways to coastal beaches
Rebecca Black, Belfast Telegraph, August 25th, 2025
An environmental crisis at Lough Neagh has become a political problem, it has been claimed.
Blue-green algae returned to the lough for the third summer in a row in recent weeks, with some describing the current situation as the worst they have yet seen.
This summer the condition of the lough caused the eel-fishing season to be cut short.
The blue-green algae has also spread to other waterways, causing two north coast beaches to close for bathing at the weekend.
Earlier this month, Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir said he was “determined to turn the situation around”, explaining that a number of key decisions are coming up, and urged others to back him.
Lough Neagh Partnership chief Gerry Darby expressed his frustration with a lack of action, telling this newspaper that it is not an environmental problem, but a political problem.
While the Assembly has agreed a Lough Neagh Action Plan, Mr Darby stressed the importance of delivering the Nutrients Action Programme (NAP) to target nutrient pollution, particularly phosphorus and ammonia.
The farming community was critical of the NAP during a public consultation which closed in July.
A stakeholder group is to review the consultation responses and contribute additional proposals ahead of a second consultation later this year.
Mr Darby said the situation on the lough is “the worst I've seen”.
He attributed the issue to nutrients going into the lough from the farming sector, sewage treatment sector, septic tanks and general industry.
However, he said the recent warm weather and sunny spell in May have exacerbated the situation.
The spread of the invasive zebra mussel species is also understood to have played a role in the blooms, as they have made the water clearer, allowing more sunlight to penetrate, stimulating more algal photosynthesis.
Meanwhile, climate change is thought to be having an effect, with the bottom of Lough Neagh having increased in temperature by a degree in the past 20 years.
“It's hard to predict, but the reality is there's certainly no policy implementation at this moment in time that has changed the number of nutrients, or the amount of nutrients going into the lough, so the reality is nothing has really changed,” Mr Darby said.
“In one sense, it's not an environmental problem, it's a political problem.
“Unless the majority of parties come together to agree with Minister Muir, and the farming sector, it will never be solved.
“The farming sector is not the only sector supplying the nutrients, but they are the biggest and the majority, so that is where they need to start.
“The minister is more than open, in my view, to listen to any and to meet somewhere in the middle.
“Politics is all about meeting in the middle and compromise.
“There are no solutions, only trade-offs of different priorities. And without a discussion you're not able to work out what those trade-offs will be.”
Kneecap gig in France is interrupted by protesters
Abdullah Sabri, Belfast Telegraph, August 25th, 2025
Belfast rap group Kneecap have said that a “group of Zionists” interrupted their performance at a festival in Paris.
The trio took to the stage at the Rock en Seine music festival yesterday before protesters emerged.
A video uploaded by Kneecap shows activists being escorted from the crowd as they blew whistles in an attempt to disrupt the show.
“A group of Zionists with flags and whistles tried to interrupt the start of our gig in Paris just now,” the group said in a post on Facebook along with footage.
It comes after local authorities, French Jewish groups and government officials opposed the Irish-language trio's concert from going ahead.
The municipality of Saint-Cloud, a local governing body, pulled £34.5k of funding from Rock en Seine.
The objections follow Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs as Mo Chara, facing terrorism charges in a London court after displaying a Hezbollah flag at a gig in November.
The French Authorities and event organisers were contacted for comment.
