Gardaí have ‘no interest’ in prosecuting loyalists, victim’s family claims
CONNLA YOUNG CRIME AND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, Irish News, January 19th, 2026
THE family of a Co Louth man murdered by the Red Hand Commando (RHC) has accused the Gardaí of “having no interest” in prosecuting loyalists after a decision taken to bring no charges in the case.
Seamus Ludlow (47) was gunned down outside Dundalk in May 1976 by a loyalist gang believed to include members of the UDR and outlawed Red Hand Commando, which has close links to the UVF.
His case has been examined by the Kenova investigation team as part of Operation Denton, which has carried out a detailed review of the activities of the Mid Ulster UVF.
Mr Ludlow’s body was found on a narrow lane outside Dundalk on May 2 1976, and it is believed he was killed as he made his way home from a local pub hours earlier.
In 1979 the RUC gave Gardaí the names of four loyalists it suspected of being involved in Mr Ludlow’s killing, but nothing was done with the information.
In 1998 named suspects were arrested and questioned by the RUC.
Two of those suspected of involvement later allegedly made admissions and even drew sketches of the murder scene.
A year later the Department for Public Prosecutions (DPP) decided not to put anyone before the courts for the murder.
The Ludlow family has previously called for an independent inquiry into the Gardaí investigation and what happened to case files which went missing.
In 2006 a joint Oireachtas committee recommended that two commissions of investigation should be set up to look into the issues around the case.
The recommendations came after a report into the murder was produced by retired High Court judge Henry Barron.
In 2021 the Ludlow family failed in a Supreme Court bid to compel the Irish government to establish an inquiry into the Gardaí handling of the case.
‘Tried to bury the bad news over the holiday’
Mr Ludlow’s nephew Michael Donegan believes the decision to inform his family’s solicitor of the recent no prosecution outcome after 4.40pm on December 23 was deliberate. “They tried to bury the bad news over the holiday,” he said.
“We couldn’t respond to it, Christmas is basically a news down period, nothing gets reported.
“I would say it was very British of them – the British always bury their bad news on Friday evening.
“That’s basically what the Gardaí did.”
Mr Ludlow said the last meeting between his family and the Kenova team was in 2022 and his family was told by current PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher that he believed two individuals should be prosecuted.
“They did tell us on their last meeting that they had uncovered enough evidence that would justify prosecutions,” he said.
“I asked John Boutcher himself, how many people did he think should be prosecuted, and he said, ‘two’.
“They spent about three years investigating the case.
“They were satisfied they had evidence to justify prosecutions of two. They basically handed their file to the Gardaí the next day.”
Mr Donegan said the atmosphere changed when Gardaí became involved in the process.
“Over the next couple of years we had two meetings with the Gardaí,” he said.
“From then basically, the whole style was different.
“It wasn’t about how they were going to get prosecutions, it was going to be how difficult it would be to get prosecutions.
“We knew the way the wind was blowing.”
During the Troubles loyalist paramilitary groups were responsible for dozens of murders south of the border.
‘No interest in prosecuting Loyalists’
“They basically had no interest down there in prosecuting loyalists for anything,” Mr Donegan said.
“They just want to make it all go away and that’s basically what they were doing with us.”
The campaigning nephew said that his uncle’s siblings have died since the brutal murder almost 50 years ago.
“That’s what they wanted, they wanted them all to die, they let them all die,” he said.
“We are definitely trying – the problem is, we are all getting on ourselves.
“I think the Gardaí are playing the long game.
“We’ll all be going too and we can’t expect the next generation, who never knew the man, to carry the fight on. We have to face that reality.
“Delay, deny and death – that’s the game the Gardaí have been playing for years.”
Dublin authorities ‘fought them all the way’
Mr Donegan believes Dublin authorities have “fought them all the way”.
“They are determined there will be no further investigation into the murder of Seamus Ludlow,” he said. “It’s a scandal.” Over the past 50 years Mr Ludlow’s family has gathered information about the murder, and the identities of those believed to be involved are known to them.
“We have uncovered a lot of information about the case, and not through the help of the Gardaí or the Irish state,” he said.
“Anything we have uncovered has been in spite of them.
“The fact we keep uncovering information scares the life out of them.”
Gavin Booth, of Phoenix Law, said the DPP no prosecution decision “flies in the face of common sense”.
“These suspects confessed in the late 1990s to crossing the border at Omeath, to kidnapping Seamus and murdering him,” he said.
“We understand again these same persons confessed to Operation Kenova and still the DPP directed no prosecution.
“I’m unsure of any incidents that the Irish state prosecuted loyalists for murdering Irish citizens but this was an open net that they’ve chose to ignore.”
When contacted about Mr Boutcher’s alleged comments, a spokeswoman for the PSNI said “this would be best directed to Op Kenova”.
British army vehicle near murder scene on day body found ‘covered up’
Car holds a link to arrest of eight armed SAS members in days after murder, believes Seamus Ludlow’s nephew
CONNLA YOUNG, Irish News, January 19th, 2026
‘Arrangements are in place for members of the GNBCI (Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation) investigation team to meet with the family and their legal representative in early course to address any concerns they have’, Garda spokesman
THE family of murdered Co Louth man Seamus Ludlow has accused gardaí of “covering up” the presence of a British army vehicle believed to have been in Dundalk on the day his body was found.
The 47-year-old was shot dead outside Dundalk in May 1976 by a loyalist gang believed to include members of the UDR and Red Hand Commando, which has close links to the UVF.
On December 23, gardaí confirmed that there will be no prosecutions in the case.
The victim’s family has now said that a suspicious car spotted in Dundalk on the day Mr Ludlow’s body was found belonged to the British army.
Mr Ludlow’s nephew Michael Donegan said that details about the car emerged when a new witness came forward and that his family was asked not to make the information public.
He revealed that on May 5 1976, the day after Mr Ludlow was buried, the British army called at his family home in south Armagh and questioned his mother.
When his father went to Forkhill to complain to the RUC, he was put in a helicopter and flown to Bessbrook and “questioned by British army intelligence officer”.
“They wanted to know the gardaí’s line on inquiry.”
“The British army was concerned about this car that was seen in Dundalk.
‘They don’t hear us’
“We have been alleging a cover-up for the last 30/40 years, gardaí pretend they don’t hear us, they make no comment and, basically, we lose credibility because of that.
“But it turns out this car is effectively a smoking gun.
“Because this car has never appeared in any investigation, never been discussed, never been announced, you won’t read about it in any books written about the period.”
Mr Donegan believes the presence of the suspicious car in Dundalk is linked to the controversial arrest of eight armed SAS members near Omeath, Co Louth, on the night of May 5-6, 1976.
“What has never been publicised is that one of those cars was in Dundalk the morning the body was found,” he said.
“That is why the British army came to my house and questioned my mother.
“And that is why my father was questioned about the gardaí line of inquiry, they wanted to know was the gardaí investigating their car.
“That has been kept secret all these decades, five decades – that is the smoking gun, that there was a cover up.
“I am not alleging that they (SAS members) were involved, but certainly the Gardaí went to great lengths to ensure that the presence of that car in Dundalk on that morning was never reported.”
Mr Donegan said the Kenova team has confirmed that the British army vehicle was “not involved in any way with the killing”.
“We are not alleging they were near the killing at all,” he said.
“The fact is, that car was in Dundalk that morning and the gardaí have kept this secret for nearly 50 years.
“It appears to be a major part of the cover up and we have been alleging a cover up for decades.
“They refuse to comment and we lose credibility because they don’t comment.
“Here is direct evidence that there as a cover up.
“What else are they covering up?”
Mr Donegan said that the witness who came forward in recent years with information about the suspicious British army car had taken its registration details and later made a report when he learned a body had been found.
Days later he was taken to Dundalk Garda station where he identified the car.
“That has never appeared in any account of that period,” he said.
“It is very likely there was several gangs in or around Dundalk on that night.
“We only have information about the one gang – I suspect there were others involved. But we have no evidence.
“We are not happy with the way we have been treated, that’s for sure.
‘Nothing has changed in 50 years’
“As far as I am concerned nothing has changed in 50 years.”
A Garda spokesman did not respond directly to the concerns raised by Mr Donegan.
The spokesman said the force appointed a senior investigating officer in March 2023 to analyse all evidence, new lines of inquiry and material held by Operation Den-ton and the PSNI, which was submitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for a prosecution decision.
“An Garda Síochána does not comment on decisions made by the DPP and has no input on the timing of directions from the office of the DPP,” he said.
“When a direction is received, An Garda Síochána has a duty to inform victims, or in this case the family, of the DPP’s decision expeditiously.
“Arrangements are in place for members of the GN-BCI (Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation) investigation team to meet with the family and their legal representative in early course to address any concerns they have.
“The family also has the right to seek reasons for the DPP’s decision and to request a review of that decision.”
Service is held to mark 34 years since Teebane bomb
NIAMH CAMPBELL, Belfast Telegraph, January 19th, 2026
ANY ATTEMPTS TO JUSTIFY IRA BOMB MORALLY BANKRUPT, SAYS DUP MLA
The Teebane massacre was “sectarian murder”, and attempts by republicans to justify it were “morally bankrupt then and remain so today”, a DUP MLA has said.
South Antrim MLA Trevor Clarke's brother-in-law Nigel McKee (22) was one of those killed in the 1992 bombing in Co Tyrone.
Yesterday, a service was held to mark 34 years since the IRA attack that killed eight Protestant workmen who had been travelling in a minibus past Teebane crossroads between Cookstown and Omagh. Six others were injured.
The men's firm was targeted because it carried out work for the security forces.
Mr Clarke said these men “were construction workers returning from a day's labour”.
He added: “They posed no threat. They were targeted because they were working on a security installation.
“This was a sectarian attack, planned in advance and carried out with calculated intent. The Historical Enquiries Team confirmed that the IRA unit involved had originally intended to carry out the bombing earlier that morning but postponed it due to fog. They returned later that day and detonated a massive device as the men travelled home.
PIRA claimed responsibility
“The Provisional IRA claimed responsibility for the attack and sought to justify the murder of unarmed civilians by labelling them 'collaborators'.
“That justification was morally bankrupt then and remains so today.
“Despite arrests being made at the time, no one has ever been charged or convicted. One of the survivors, Bobby O'Neill, later described how, as he lay badly injured, he saw a bearded man calmly walk through the wreckage, showing no emotion and offering no assistance to the dying.
“He believed this man to be one of the bombers and assisted police in compiling a photofit.
“For over three decades, families have been left with grief, unanswered questions and a deep sense of injustice.
“What continues to cause pain is the selective approach taken to legacy issues. Sinn Fein regularly calls for prosecutions, yet their focus is overwhelmingly on former soldiers and police officers, while the reality remains that around 90% of all deaths during the Troubles were perpetrated by terrorist organisations. That fact cannot be ignored or rewritten. The men murdered at Teebane were ordinary working people — fathers, sons and brothers. Their only crime was going to work.
“Today we remember those who were murdered. If republicans believe it was a noble act, then let's have the names of the perpetrators.”
Victims' campaigner Kenny Donaldson of the South East Fermanagh Foundation said the attack was “premeditated sectarian slaughter”.
“The impact of the Teebane bomb attack reverberates to this day and it has received minimal resource focus down the years,” he said.
“This must change through any new legacy structures introduced and we will be pressing for these injustices to be redressed.”
Teebane massacre: Republicans should hand over names of terrorists
By David Thompson, Belfast News Letter, January 19th, 2026
A service to remember eight Protestant workmen slaughtered by the IRA at Teebane in 1992 has heard fresh calls for the killers to be brought to justice – and for republicans to hand over the names of the mass murderers behind the attack.
A roadside bomb, planted by the Provisionals, ripped through a minibus taking 14 construction workers home through rural Co Tyrone 34 years ago.
The republican terror group claimed the men were targeted because they were working on an Army base. However, the attack is widely seen as sectarian.
The bomb was placed at the Teebane crossroads, and detonated by the terrorists as the workers’ van passed by, killing eight on board.
A service commemorating the attack was held on Sunday, following the 34th anniversary of the atrocity on January 17. It has prompted fresh calls for justice for the eight men who were murdered.
The DUP MLA Trevor Clarke, whose brother-in-law Nigel McKee, 22, was killed in the IRA attack, said that republicans’ attempted justification for the murders was morally bankrupt then and remains so today.
“They were construction workers returning from a day’s labour. They posed no threat. They were targeted because they were working on a security installation.
‘Premeditated sectarian attack’
“This was a sectarian attack, planned in advance and carried out with calculated intent. The Historical Enquiries Team confirmed that the IRA unit involved had originally intended to carry out the bombing earlier that morning but postponed it due to fog. They returned later that day and detonated a massive device as the men travelled home.
“The Provisional IRA claimed responsibility for the attack and sought to justify the murder of unarmed civilians by labelling them ‘collaborators’. That justification was morally bankrupt then and remains so today”, Mr Clarke said.
The South Antrim MLA said if republicans “believe it was a noble act, then let’s have the names of the perpetrators”.
TUV Mid Ulster chairman Glenn Moore said the Teebane families have waited decades for truth and accountability, and have been denied both.
“Yet the self styled First Minister for all — who is also the local MLA for this area — has said of the IRA campaign that ‘at the time there was no alternative’.
“There was always an alternative to murdering civilians. And there is no excuse for denying justice. Teebane will not be forgotten.”
Kenny Donaldson, director of victims group SEFF, said Sunday’s service – facilitated by Rev Ivor Smith and Rev Wiliam McCrea – is always deeply poignant.
“Teebane was an act of premeditated sectarian slaughter carried out under the cover of economic motivated terrorism and presented by The Provisional as being justified due to some of the contracts work progressed by the employer within police stations.
SEFF still campaigning for accountability
“It remains a travesty that those responsible for the Teebane attack have not been held accountable for their heinous actions. SEFF’s Advocacy service continues to support bereaved families in their efforts pursuing justice, truth and accountability.
Relatives of David Harkness, 23, murdered by the IRA in the Teebane massacre, pay their respects at the memorial in County Tyrone.
“Eight innocent hard working men, many with their own families, perished that evening with several more of their colleagues surviving, but with life changing physical and/or psychological injuries.
“The impact of the Teebane bomb attack reverberates to this day and it has received minimal resource focus down the years, this must change through and new legacy structures introduced and we will be pressing for these injustices to be redressed,” Mr Donaldson told the News Letter.
‘I don’t like conspiracies and secrets’
JOHN BRESLIN, Irish News, January 19th, 2026
Former state pathologist Professor Jack Crane on legacy, dealing with death and Sherlock Holmes
IN the car park of Magee College in Derry, 62-yearold civilian prison worker Leslie Jarvis was executed by three gunmen who fired multiple shots through the front windscreen.
A young forensic pathologist, Jack Crane, was on call that evening, but he was in Belfast and it would take a couple of hours for him to arrive at the scene. He could easily have been in Derry or elsewhere in the area.
“There but for the grace of God,” says Professor Crane as he remembers how a booby trap bomb left inside the vehicle exploded and killed two police officers, Detective Inspector Austin Wilson and Detective Sergeant John Bennison.
“There were concerns about going to the scene and I remember that one case vividly,” the former state pathologist says.
This was 1987, a year during which close to 100 people died as a result of the conflict.
Four pathologists, including State Pathologist Professor Thomas Marshall, crisscrossed the six counties, attending the scenes of all suspicious deaths.
1,300 post-mortems a year
Murders were the most difficult cases, but they also dealt with suspected suicides, drug overdoses and road fatalities. They averaged approximately 1,300 post-mortems a year.
Weekends were always the busiest, as often there was only one pathologist on call and “you tended to get more murders at the weekend”.
“You’d become fixated with the news. You’d turn on the news and you’d hear there’s been a shooting in Strabane, there’s been an explosion in Derry,” Professor Crane said.
“And you knew exactly what you were going to be facing. So it was quite stressful. The cases were difficult.
“You have to be on your game. You mustn’t make mistakes.”
On one Sunday morning that same year, 1987, Professor Crane was driving from a death scene in Derry when he was stopped at a road check.
“And the police said to me…Dr Crane, there has been an explosion in Enniskillen. So I drove to Enniskillen.”
He was joined by other pathologists as they began to carry out post-mortems of 11 people blown up in the Poppy Day massacre.
“We started doing the post-mortem examinations that evening. And we finished, I think, about half of them at midnight or so.”
Everyone was getting tired “so I drove back to Belfast in the early hours”.
“Had a shower, a shave, a cup of coffee, and then drove back to Enniskillen to start doing the rest of them,” Professor Crane remembers.
Sherlock Holmes
AS a first-year student at Methodist College in Belfast, Jack Crane won a prize of the cost of a book from Mullan’s bookshop, which was in Fountain Street.
“And I bought a book on Sherlock Holmes…that fired my interest both in medicine, and in a way, crime detection.”
While studying medicine in Queen’s, Professor Crane gravitated towards histopathology, the study and treatment of “lumps and bumps and so forth”.
But the young medical student also took an interest in forensic pathology and came to the attention of Professor Marshall.
He began as a junior in 1980, learning under the highly experienced Professor Marshall and became a consultant in 1985.
In 1990, Professor Crane was appointed state pathologist ahead of other more experienced pathologists.
But he says: “The department had not changed much since the 1950s, this despite all the killings. It hadn’t progressed, even with the terrible events of the previous 20 years. We were still doing things the same old way. The textbooks in the department were out of date.
“So I suppose they saw me as perhaps somebody who was younger and maybe had some ideas about how the service could develop.”
Drugs and suicides
Over the next quarter century, there were many changes, far less murders as the Troubles tailed off and a significant decrease in road deaths, but fatalities caused by drugs and suicides have increased. In the past, the deaths from drugs were relatively straightforward, involving alcohol, barbiturates and aspirin.
In more recent times, there is a whole array of lethal substances, including synthetics and opioids, with deaths often caused by a cocktail, he says.
Professor Crane’s tenure as state pathologist, which effectively continued up until 2017, mirrored huge advances in the technology around forensics, particularly DNA.
“Our ability to detect small amounts of trace evidence is increasing all the time,” he says.
The introduction of computed tomography (CT) scanning that can capture detailed images of the inside of bodies has helped save time and resources but also reduces the need for invasive autopsies – a comfort for many families.
There were some battles along the way for Professor Crane, particularly as he raised concerns – which went public – with delays over toxicology results.
He also faced opposition from local politicians and families over the move to centralise autopsy examinations in Belfast, rather than them being carried in morgues locally.
Some “felt that the bodies should be kept in the area” but “gradually, though, people realised, this is working well”.
“The cases are being turned around quicker, the bodies are being returned quicker,” Professor Crane says.
The autopsies were also being carried out in an entirely new mortuary in the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital next to new offices and laboratories.
The pathologist was asked to add his considerable experience in dealing with the aftermath of bombings to the Manchester Arena inquiry into the 2017 bombing.
He, and other pathologists, also provided key evidence that led to a new inquest into the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster, in which 96 Liverpool fans died.
Many of the victims died after a certain time, which was the cut-off point in the original inquest after which the coroner refused to consider hearing evidence on, the pathologists concluded.
As a professor of forensic medicine at Queen’s, he has authored many papers, including on the methodology of terrorist bombings and on non-fatal child injuries.
He is also involved in training medical professionals on how to describe injures and in the challenging area of dealing with the justice system, particularly around court appearances.
Professor Crane has provided reports in cases where there are question marks around the deaths of individuals, including high profile ones in the south.
Still many unsolved Troubles legacy cases
For all the changes and advances over the years, there is still the legacy of the conflict and the still many unsolved deaths. Professor Crane is uniquely positioned to comment as someone who was at the scene of so many.
“I think we understood the difficulties there were in bringing people to justice for these crimes,” he says.
“One area that is perhaps controversial, but which I feel strongly about, is a lot of these cases, as you know, are 50 years old. And people still haven’t got closure. And to me, that’s not right.”
He admits there is little chance of criminal charges being brought in what are thousands of unsolved cases.
But he adds: “I’m all for giving people the truth, whether it’s palatable or unpalatable, but let them know what happened. I don’t like conspiracies and secrecy. You’re much better with everything out in the open.”
Professor Crane is open about how he approached the job of dealing with so much death. It simply had to be done and emotion could not cloud the task.
‘We need trolleys’
“People often say to me, do you not get upset, for example, say you’re dealing with the death of a young child or something like that?” he says.
“I say you have to try and detach yourself to do this work. You have to be objective. You mustn’t let your emotions affect how you’re doing your job.
“So I suppose I may be just a rather hard person, but it’s never really affected me.”
Then Professor Crane remembers the Omagh bombing – he gave evidence to the inquiry – and one thing sticks in his mind, a conversation with the daughter of a victim who went to the chapel where the bodies were brought.
“And she said they laid my mother out on the floor in the chapel. And she said to me, would you like your mother to be put on the floor?”
He went back to the Northern Ireland Office and told them “we need trolleys”.
“I said, you know, there’s no dignity in putting someone on the floor. It stuck in my mind… something like that. To me, it was important.”
TRIBUTES TO MOD ENGINEER WHO CAMPAIGNED FOR CHINOOK CRASH FAMILIES
SARAH WARD, Belfast Telegraph, January 19th, 2026
TRIBUTES ARE PAID TO MAN WHO 'STOOD WITH THE FAMILIES' IMPACTED BY THE 1994 DISASTER
A former Ministry of Defence aeronautical engineer who pioneered the investigation into the 1994 Chinook disaster and campaigned for justice has died after a two-month battle with cancer.
David Hill (69), a technical adviser to the Chinook Justice Campaign group, wrote three books examining the RAF Chinook crash on the Mull of Kintyre.
For more than 30 years he painstakingly collated, studied and made public official papers and technical analysis that has underpinned the campaign's recent progress over the last six months — and which led to the first meeting with ministers in 31 years on December 16, 2025.
Mr Hill's conclusions into the incident, that the Chinook Mark 2 helicopter was not airworthy and should never have been in the air, causing the deaths of 29 people including two pilots posthumously blamed for the crash, helped to clear them in 2011.
Rick Cook and Jonathan Tapper were both initially blamed for the crash before being absolved from responsibility due to Mr Hill's work.
The father-of-one died in a palliative care unit in Bristol on January 12.
Some campaigners called for him to be given a posthumous OBE and for a public inquiry to be established.
Mr Hill's books included Chinook ZD576, The Inconvenient Truth, and Their Greatest Disgrace.
‘Stood with families from earliest days’
Susan Phoenix, who campaigned with him for 30 years, said: “David stood with the families from the very earliest days, when it was hardest to challenge the official story and when few were prepared to listen. From the flawed RAF Board of Inquiry and the Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry onwards, to his work just in the last two months helping to pose 335 unanswered questions about the crash, he brought clarity, courage and extraordinary technical insight to a case that has been clouded by lies, secrecy and a distinct lack of candour.
“David was not only a colleague but a true friend. His invaluable work has helped to give our families a voice when they were being ignored, and his determination ensured that the truth could not simply be buried.
“We cannot believe that we have lost him now when we are at our closest point to justice in 31 years, thanks to him.”
Niven Phoenix, whose father Ian was killed in the crash, said: “David's contribution cannot be overstated. He understood the Chinook Mark 2 systems in forensic detail and was meticulous in analysing evidence that others either overlooked or chose not to interrogate.
“He demonstrated, repeatedly and rigorously, that the aircraft's airworthiness, software integration and system certification raised serious and unresolved questions. He is a massive loss to the campaign, and we are all devastated by his death...”
Chris Cook, whose brother Rick was one of the two pilots killed, said: “For our family, David's work was absolutely fundamental. The evidence he helped uncover and explain... thankfully demonstrated that my brother Rick and his colleague Jonathan Tapper were not to blame and should never have been blamed.
“After years of pain, doubt and injustice, David's determination helped restore Rick and Jon's professional reputation and gave our family something we had been denied for far too long: truth, dignity and peace. I cannot overstate my admiration for his professionalism as an engineer, but also his determination, resilience and bravery in ensuring the truth was told.”
Victim of bar bombing remembered by his family 50 years on
CONOR SHEILS, Irish News, January 19th, 2026
THE family of a man killed when the UVF bombed a Belfast bar have gathered to commemorate the sectarian attack 50 years on.
James Reid was one of two people killed when a no-warning bomb was thrown into the Sheridan Bar in the New Lodge area on January 17, 1976.
James (43) was married with 10 children and lived on Upper Meadow Street.
Also killed in the bombing was 46-year-old mother-of-five Sarah O’Dwyer, who lived on Hillman Street.
The Reid family gathered at the Wave Trauma Centre in Belfast on Saturday to mark the anniversary.
For Hugh Reid, son of James, the memories of that night remain vivid.
He was a week shy of his 15th birthday, working in a shop just 100 metres from the Sheridan Bar, when the bomb went off and he ran to the scene when the explosion happened.
“It was absolute silence. It was complete silence,” he recalled.
“A scientist later explained – an explosion creates a vacuum, sucks all the oxygen out of the air. And then gradually that comes back.”
Hugh ran home after witnessing the scene of the attack.
“There were lots of people around then, all sorts of horrible things happening with people getting literally dug out of the rubble,” he said.
Hugh recalls a neighbour stopping him, and saying: “You’re one of the Reids aren’t you? Listen son, your father’s been hurt, he’s really really hurt. He’s away in an ambulance.”
Hugh went home to wait with his younger siblings. The front door kept getting knocked.
“All the neighbours were like, ‘Where’s your father?’ And I said, ‘No, he’s okay, he’s alright, he’s in the hospital.’ Because that’s all I knew then,” he said.
Around midnight, two people carried his mother through the door.
“Mrs Maskey, who lived next to us, she walked up to me and says, ‘Your daddy’s dead.’
‘It doesn’t feel like 50 years ago’
“It doesn’t feel like 50 years ago. It is all so raw and fresh still in my head,” he added.
Hugh is now 65 and a solicitor based in England, from where he works with Belfast-based solicitor Kevin Winters on legacy cases.
He believes that the attack was allowed to happen.
“The New Lodge was absolutely swamped with British army,” he said.
‘‘There was a British army sangar at the top of New Lodge looking right down at that pub. If them guys were able to come in across the gardens, do that, and get back across the gardens again, unchallenged, it seems very strange to me.”
While Hugh is finding some solace in using his skills to help with legacy cases, his brother John has found another way to process the loss.
He has spent the past six months writing a poetry collection in honour of his father. The book, titled The Pelican, was launched on Saturday at the Wave Trauma Centre.
“I had done a book of poems for my mother when she died and I thought, well, he would probably be annoyed if I didn’t do the same for him,” said the 67-year-old.
The title was inspired by his father’s blood donor pin being shaped like a pelican, a 1935 Guinness poster featuring the bird, and myths surrounding it.
“The pelican, if she had no food to give her chicks, she would puncture her own chest in order to bleed so that she would feed her chicks with her own blood,” John explained.
“I thought between that and giving blood and sort of a self-sacrifice concept, that kind of fits as a symbol.”
The writing process for the book revealed something that stunned him.
Split memories
“Our family’s kind of split between an older half and a younger half. I was reminded that the younger half have no memory. They have no memory of their dad, of what he looked like, what he did,” he said.
“That’s why I wanted to write the book, to try to ‘recreate’ my father for myself in a way and as a gift to my siblings. I have tried to include as much of him, things he said, in it as possible.”
John has found some peace through forgiveness.
Inspired by Paddy McGurk’s response to the McGurk’s Bar bombing, he said: “I have never had feelings of anger or hatred or revenge. I have no hatred, I have nothing there.”
Yet he shares his brother’s frustration at the lack of justice, adding: “I’m kind of disappointed that there was no-one ever arrested for it. There seems to be no facts, nothing to back it up. It seems strange to me.”
Two Irish voices stand up for vulnerable victims of ICE in Trump's America
ALLISON MORRIS, Belfast Telegraph, January 19th, 2026
It's a quote that could apply to modern America, but it's actually from Anne Frank's diary, documenting her life in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”
The last time I read Anne Frank's diary was in school, but I was reminded of it in the last week watching reports of the chaos gripping US politics. And yet among that unfolding horror, two people have stood out — and both are from this part of the world.
Belfast-born journalist Niall Stanage and Presbyterian minister Neil Craigan are an unlikely pair to reference in the same sentence, but both have stood up for the marginalised in recent days.
During the 2024 US election campaign, Trump promised to deport any criminals illegally residing in the country. It proved a popular policy with voters.
Instead, the US government has hired hundreds of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents, with little or no vetting, who are now going from city to city as an armed militia demanding “papers”.
They've been dubbed “the Proud Boys with badges”, a reference to the American far-right, neo-fascist militant organisation that has promoted and engaged in political violence.
Instead of targeted arrests of the kind of illegal immigrants Trump promised to deport, they are going to businesses known to hire migrants and harassing and arresting hard-working first and second generation migrants.
Door to door raids
They are also arresting people at pre-arranged immigration hearings, and going door to door in neighbourhoods where high numbers of migrants live. Once taken, people's families struggle to find any information about their detention.
In the last year, 32 people have died in ICE custody. Until the shooting of a white American mother, Renee Good, this had received little international news coverage.
The actions are still being excused by many. The poem, First They Came, by Pastor Martin Niemöller, has never had more relevance.
Trumpism is basically just one large business transaction. The kidnapping of the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, in what the administration initially tried to say was part of a war on drugs, soon revealed itself when the heads of the major US oil companies landed in Washington for a meeting.
Trump, either through arrogance or stupidity, is known for saying the quiet part out loud.
While the Bush-Blair governments kept up the pretence of a “war on terror”, Trump has admitted he was taking over Venezuela because he is taking its oil.
And still the cult-like devotion to Trump continues. They are MAGA-conditioned to think that America should be able to take anything it wants because it is superior and international law doesn't apply. Many in the US media have stood back while the regime makes a mockery of the US Constitution and First Amendment freedom of speech protections.
That brings me to the now widely-shared press conference with Stanage and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on the ICE raids and the killing of Ms Good. I know Niall — I'm not going to pretend to know him well — but I know him well enough to say with confidence that he takes his role as a journalist speaking truth to power seriously.
When asked his opinion about the ICE killing, he responded truthfully saying: “You're asking me my opinion? Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably.”
Leavitt, known for using attack as a form of defence, went into a spiral, calling him a “left-wing hack”.
“You're not a reporter; you're posing in this room as a journalist...you're a left-wing activist,” she added.
Leavitt's style comes straight from the playbook of her boss.
Last November, Trump called New York Times reporter Katie Rogers “ugly”, and dubbed Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey “piggy” that same month.
Many people were only introduced to Stanage via the clip, but he is one of the most well-known political commentators in the US, appearing three times a week on NewsNation's Morning in America, along with shows on MSNBC, CNN and Fox News.
What struck me is how little support they received from fellow journalists, who stand idly by as their colleagues are personally attacked, rather than sending a strong message as a collective that they will not be bullied.
First Presbyterian Church in Minnesota standing up to Trump
And then there is the Rev Neil Craigan from Northern Ireland, who moved to the US as a teenager and is now pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of White Bear Lake in Minnesota.
On the BBC's Talkback, he said his church was bringing food to Hispanic residents who were afraid to leave home because of the ICE raids.
He spoke of togetherness and what he and his wife were doing to support marginalised members of his congregation, who are living in hiding.
Rev Craigan is living his Christianity rather than just preaching it.
We are living in dark times, but this too will pass, and when it does, there are those who can say they spoke up when others chose the safety of silence.
Irish man to continue leaking Ice agents’ identities
CONOR GALLAGHER, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish Times, January 19th. 2026
An Irish man responsible for leaking the identities of thousands of US immigration enforcement officers has said he will continue his work until the Trump administration stops targeting immigrant communities. Dominick Skinner is from Dublin but has lived in the Netherlands for over a decade. Last year, he started publishing the identities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers, as well as Border Patrol agents, when US authorities dramatically increased arrests and deportations.
Since then, his website Ice List has received millions of views, been targeted by hacking attacks and been dropped by internet service providers several times.
Last year, Mr Skinner was criticised by US Republican senator Marsha Blackburn, who called him an “online foreign activist”. She brought forward legislation to criminalise the public identification of Ice agents. Despite this, Mr Skinner said he had no plans to stop his work. “If they disband Ice, maybe I would stop collecting names.”
The 31-year-old said he started the website after seeing a post on X last June from Kristi Noem, the US secretary for homeland security. In it, she threatened to arrest any American who identified an Ice agent online.
“So I just reshared that and said, ‘that’s cool, I’m not in the US – so send them to me and I’ll do it’. And then that kind of went viral.
“By that night, we had private investigators messaging me. By the next week, we had a framework on how to work it.”
Mr Skinner, who operates the website with a “core crew” of five people, receives information on the identity of agents from people across America.
He uses AI and other tools to verify the information before publishing it. In some cases, the profiles of Ice agents include their photographs, addresses and phone numbers.
Much of the data came from “two massive leaks” received after an Ice agent shot dead Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota on January 7th, an event that triggered US-wide protests. One of these leaks contained the details of 4,500 agents.
He said his goal was not to incite violence against agents but to hold Ice to account and facilitate a boycott of its personnel, who often wear masks while on duty. It is illegal under US federal law to release personal details of Ice agents. Several people have been arrested to date.
Past attempts at unionist co-operation hit by personal discord – Gavin Robinson
By Jonathan McCambridge, Press Association, Belfast News Letter, January 19th, 2026
Gavin Robinson has urged incoming UUP leader Jon Burrows to “set aside issues of the past” in his response to an offer of talks between the two largest unionist parties
Past attempts at co-operation between unionist parties have floundered because of "personal discord", DUP leader Gavin Robinson has said.
Mr Robinson urged incoming Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Jon Burrows to "set aside issues of the past" in his response to an offer of talks between the two largest unionist parties.
The DUP leader said at the weekend that he had invited Mr Burrows for talks to discuss areas of co-operation.
The invitation came a day after the former senior police officer emerged as the sole contender to succeed Mike Nesbitt as UUP leader.
In the past, the two parties have co-operated in specific constituencies in a bid to maximise the unionist vote and secure seats.
‘Compete and collaborate’
However, outgoing UUP leader Mr Nesbitt has said the two parties can "compete and collaborate simultaneously".
Speaking at Stormont on Monday, Mr Robinson said he looked forward to engagement with Mr Burrows.
He said: "In one way or another I have been engaged in discussions around co-operation for almost the entire time that I've been in elected politics."
Mr Robinson referred to discussions which took place when he first ran for the East Belfast seat at Westminster.
He said: "Then and since, in support of other party leaders, I have found that the desire of the unionist people in Northern Ireland has fallen, not because of principle, not because of policy positions, but because of personal discord.
"I don't have any of that, I hope Jon doesn't have any of that. I hope anyone who believes in Northern Ireland's place in the union can set aside issues of the past for which they are not responsible and engage in this quest productively and responsibly.
"It is not about me or the DUP, it is not about any leader or their party, it is about our place in this country and how we can maximise the best outcome for the people we represent."
Mr Robinson added: "I have taken the opportunity to explore this every time there has been a change of leader.
"I've been involved in discussions personally, I've been involved in discussions in support of others.
"What you find are issues of the past are dragged into those discussions.
"I am interested in focusing on the future."
United in maintaining Union
"Very often parties are pitted against one another, very often there have been electoral battles in constituencies across the province over decades.
"Some find it difficult to move beyond those. There is now the potential for discussion with someone who is newly in post, who is not confined by or bound to those experiences.
"The opportunity is there and I think it is worth pursuing."
Mr Nesbitt said Mr Burrows would be meeting the leaders of all parties when he succeeded him.
He said: "In terms of what Gavin Robinson has called for, let me be clear, it is not an either or between competition and collaboration."
Mr Nesbitt referred to 2015, when his party co-operated with the DUP to win the Fermanagh and South Tyrone Westminster seat, but also won the South Antrim seat from the DUP.
He said: "You can compete and you can collaborate simultaneously.
"I think it is fair for the new leader of the Ulster Unionist Party to ask why the leader of the largest unionist party is reaching out.
"I am sure he will do that when he meets Gavin Robinson .
"People call for unionist unity, my message to them is we already have unionist unity and that every unionist and every unionist party wants Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom .
"What happens after that is that we diverge in terms of our tactics and our strategy for achieving that and that is perfectly natural."
Why Belfast can’t afford to lose 2 Royal Avenue
ANNE HAILES, Irish News, January 19th, 2026
“WHAT’S Belfast City Council playing at?” A question I was asked last week when news of the threat hanging over 2 Royal Avenue became public knowledge.
“Do these people know what’s on offer there? Do they know only a few weeks ago little children were able to stand under the huge Christmas tree, sit at the tables and write their letters to Santa and post them in the big red letter box? What excitement and a lasting memory which might not be available ever again. Disgrace.”
To prove the value to families, 50,000 visited Santa’s Post Office between the middle of November and Christmas.
So there you have it: Belfast City Council versus the public.
2 Royal Avenue is an iconic building, once a bank, built in the 1860s in the Gothic Revival style. Once austere, today it is like a Disney movie set: vaulted ceilings, pillars, colour everywhere, warm, bustling and an important public venue for all walks of life. It’s like a big stage set, with multiple events being played out every day.
Belfast City Council owns the property. They are saying they can’t afford to support it anymore; the building has to be “financially sustainable”. In other words, happiness must be a commercial enterprise. Although at the end of last week there were more meetings to try to persuade these councillors that being philanthropic isn’t a crime, perhaps by now they’ve seen sense.
Mags White-O’Kane, festival director of Imagine, speaks for many organisations who rely on the free space to bring people into Belfast to enjoy international events: “Everything from large-scale installations, communal drawing, platforming artists, stories, to NSPCC outreach, simply would not have taken place if our festival had not had free access to the space.
Community activity at risk
“The promotion of financial sustainability above community activity is a massive threat to the benefits experienced by the voluntary and arts sectors. Above all else, the people of Belfast, previously safe in the knowledge that they had a welcoming space at no cost to them, will lose their living room.”
Cultural management company MayWe, who have operated the venue for the last four years, welcome 30,000 visitors a month, last year winning the Inclusive Tourism Award for ‘Warmest Welcome’.
The arts and heritage organisation Thrive recently evaluated the space. What came through clearly was its value as an area that felt open, welcoming, and genuinely useful to organisations like Women’s Aid, RNIB, Barnardo’s, University of the Third Age, as well as health trusts, all of whom use the venue.
Walk through the front door and you feel the arms surrounding you; here you are safe to follow your own interests. Students in the developing university area come to study, a library for everyone’s convenience.
It’s a venue for crafters, for disability organisations with easy access for wheelchair users; many of the staff are multilingual and most go through rigorous training, including the JAM Card programme.
‘Just A Minute’ is a concept developed by social enterprise NOW Group that supports those experiencing special needs, and with one in five people in Northern Ireland living with a disability or communication issue, showing the JAM Card makes life a lot easier.
There are language classes, support for refugees, the Grapevine meetings every Tuesday where older people make friends and enjoy monthly tea dances. With isolation being a major concern nowadays, they have something to look forward to and friendships are made.
Charities welcome a place to meet free of charge; most don’t have money to go anywhere else, so struggle with forward planning.
‘A cosy space to explore’
There’s a huge range of opportunities for all ages: a children’s ‘cosy’ space to explore, a homework station, free Wi-Fi, study areas, meeting tables, even a grand piano for talented musicians—and bring your dog along if you wish. NI Pro Wrestling and LGBTQIA+ Project also use the space.
We should be proud that hundreds of cruise ship passengers use 2 Royal Avenue as a resting place when visiting the city, knowing they can enjoy a coffee, a traybake and a bit of craic.
It would appear the council is divided over the decision of what comes next. Surely they will take notice of the outrage from community organisations, families, teachers, universities, advocacy groups, charities, artists and musicians.
One comment: “It represents one of the last safe community spaces in the city centre. From feeding a baby, to having a coffee, playing chess or simply to unwind, it’s the embodiment of community spirit in the heart of the capital. If the City Council succeed in closing the doors to the community, where does that community go?”
2 Royal Avenue was never intended to be a money-making venture, although some funds are raised through bookings from corporate events. This area of income can be developed in the future, so please, give them a chance.
No-one expects a land of milk and honey, but surely we can do better than this?
DEIRDRE HEENAN, Irish News, January 19th, 2026
AS we enter 2026, the scale of the challenge faced by the Stormont government is hard to overstate.
Against a backdrop of severe financial constraints, the holy grail is to find more efficient ways of delivering services together with marked improvements to productivity.
Our politicians have rarely missed an opportunity to lament about the system of annual budgets, which have been depicted as a financial straitjacket, stifling innovation and making long-term planning almost impossible.
We have been repeatedly told that moving away from the time-consuming yearly scramble to spend budgets and renegotiate contracts would be a game-changer.
Financial stability would facilitate long-term planning, enable much-promised transformation, unlock innovation and creativity.
A multi-year budget would place government departments on a more sustainable footing, allow them to move away from fire-fighting and short-term pressures and focus on delivering value for money and strategic investment.
It would encourage efficiency in allocation of public resources by enhancing transparency and accountability in the budgetary process.
Additionally, by providing a mechanism for the systematic review of expenditure priorities and commitments, it would provide a framework for the realisation of sound fiscal policies.
Given the advantages of this tool for budget management, one would have imagined our politicians would have grasped the opportunity to introduce it with both hands. But instead, responsible fiscal planning has become the latest casualty of our dysfunctional government.
The finance minister has initiated an eight-week consultation on a draft budget, but there are fundamental issues with this process.
Firstly, what is being consulted on is not an agreed budget and is in fact John O’Dowd’s proposals.
Despite his pronouncement in December that he was confident an Executive spending plan would be agreed by the end of the 2025, this is very much a solo run.
No collective leadership or agreed vision
There is no collective ownership, no thrashing out an agreed vision on how to address systemic issues that continue to stymie progress.
To all intents and purposes, what is being proposed is business as usual, a framework to continue with the status quo. There is nothing innovative nor creative in the distribution of funding.
Finance Minister John O’Dowd published a draft multi-year budget last week
We know from a raft of reports from the Audit Office, the Fiscal Council and the Nuffield Trust that inefficiency and waste are endemic in the public sector. Yet there are no incentives to save money and no penalties for waste.
Importantly, the document is not explicitly linked to the Programme for Government and is not aligned to agreed political priorities.
Secondly, this plan does not balance. Overspends have not been factored in, therefore it is misleading and inaccurate.
“To all intents and purposes, what is being proposed is business as usual, a framework to continue with the status quo
What of the black hole of an estimated £500m due to planned overspending in health and education? Why has this not been subtracted from the baseline? Does the minister believe this will be written off by the Treasury as an act of generosity and goodwill? Highly unlikely.
Surely the starting point of any proposals is that they accurately reflect the financial realities. Given the history of persistent overspending and an inability to stay within financial limits, these proposals have a serious credibility problem.
Thirdly, John O’Dowd has repeatedly stated that he wants increased fiscal powers devolved from Westminster. This is somewhat ironic given that he has point-blank refused to use the powers at his disposal.
What powers does he want and to what end? This assertion seems little more than political posturing: sounds good but is completely meaningless. Beyond a modest rate increase, revenue-raising is sidestepped in his plan.
The minister urged Executive colleagues to engage with his proposals in a “constructive manner “and keep their “eyes on the prize” of a multi-year budget. But simply agreeing a financial plan is not in itself the prize.
The prize is to confound the critics, defy low expectations and predictions of failure, and work collectively to deliver for a weary public.
Blaming Brits no longer credible
Blaming the British government for all our ills is long past its sell-by date. Clinging to the mantra that we are victims of underfunding and austerity just doesn’t explain away dramatically increased spending and appalling outcomes.
As in the rest of the UK, health spending in the north has grown significantly: total spend has increased nearly 67% in real terms since 2002/03. That’s the second-largest increase among the UK nations after England. Per capita spending has increased by 63%, the highest across the four UK nations.
Governments across the world are facing fiscal and economic choices, but with power comes responsibility and this involves prioritising, forecasting, modelling and reform.
Frankly, this budget is devoid of strategic thinking about spending and investment. To date there has been no serious debate about how we spend the money we have.
For example, since 2016, unit costs of hospital care have risen by around 28%, compared to 7–8% in England. How can this be explained?
One might imagine understanding why our health costs haven risen exponentially would be a pressing concern. Apparently not.
No-one expects a land of milk and honey, but surely, we can do better than this?
Having responsibility for the budgetary process is an opportunity for our politicians to review spending priorities and decisions. Ensure every penny is well spent and make bold decisions.
Doing more of the same can hardly be described as governing.
'There is life after abuse. Women are much stronger than they realise'
Alison Morris, Belfast Telegraph, January 19th, 2026
TWO NI SURVIVORS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE AND STALKING SPEAK TO ALLISON MORRIS ABOUT THEIR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES, REFLECTING ON COMING OUT THE OTHER SIDE AND SHARING ADVICE FOR OTHERS
When Abi Lyle walked out with the Ireland team at the 2024 Paris Olympics' opening ceremony, she couldn't conceal her joy at the milestone moment.
The Olympic dressage rider had 14 years previously escaped an abusive relationship at the hands of horse trainer Jonathan Creswell, who would later go on to murder Katie Simpson, the younger sister of his then partner.
Creswell was jailed for six months in 2010 after pleading guilty to assaulting Ms Lyle, yet was welcomed straight back into the equestrian world in Northern Ireland, where a party was held to welcome him home.
While training for the Olympics, Abi was also preparing to give evidence against Creswell, who had been charged with murdering Katie.
The 21-year-old died in August 2020 from her injuries, with Creswell initially claiming she had tried to take her own life.
While victims often feel powerless to escape abuse, the Ballymena athlete said she wishes she could go back and reassure her younger self that there is “a wonderful life” waiting on the other side.
While domestic abuse can happen at any time, recent figures released by the PSNI showed a spike in domestic abuse in Northern Ireland over Christmas and the New Year.
Between December 20, 2025 and January 2, 2026, the PSNI said it received 1,407 domestic abuse calls — an increase on the 1,290 calls recorded during the same period in 2024/2025.
New Year's Day recorded the highest number of domestic abuse calls (116). This was followed closely by Christmas Day (115 calls) and December 27 (114 calls).
Police say the figures highlight that the heightened risk associated with domestic abuse does not end on Christmas Day, but extends throughout the holiday period and into the New Year.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph Ms Lyle said: “There are times I think, if the version of me now could speak to the version of me then, I would say: 'You're going to be OK. You're going to be better than OK. You're going to have a wonderful life.'
“I moved to England to escape [Creswell] and it was the best move I could have made,” she explained.
“I realised quite quickly that he was no one here — he was a small fish. No one knew who he was. He had no power — such a change from back home, where he was treated like a God in equestrian circles.”
Ms Lyle first met Creswell at an equestrian event in Belfast in 2008 and they began dating.
At first, he was “charming and very funny”, but she soon discovered he was incredibly jealous, coercive and violent.
“When I moved to England, I had a goal — and that goal wouldn't have been even a quarter of what I've achieved since,” she said.
“Working with horses is difficult. It's hard work and long hours, and that's what I concentrated on. That helped me.
“I did have to tell the people I was working with for safety reasons, as he was free at that time, but I was so supported. It really was a different world.
“I just started hitting my goals and then setting new ones, until I was at the Olympics.”
The impressive Château de Versailles was the venue for the equestrian events at the 2024 Games, but as part of the Ireland opening ceremony team, Abi visited the Olympic Village in Paris.
“Because we were equestrian, we were based in Versailles, so we didn't stay in Paris, but I got to the opening ceremony and walked around the Olympic Village.
“It's quite an experience. All the men and women looked at the peak of their physical fitness. I was 38, so I was on the older side of the athletes, but it was absolutely surreal.
“He [Creswell] had told me I'd never amount to anything, and for a while I believed him — and yet here I was at the Olympics.”
After her best-ever performance, Ms Lyle gave an interview to RTÉ that went viral, viewed millions of times as she excitedly told the journalist it was “the best ride of my life”.
“The journalist said: 'You were the stand-out interview of the day — you were so upbeat and enthusiastic.'
“He didn't know what was coming down the line, and neither did I. I laughed, and still do. I took it all in good humour.”
Ms Lyle was listed as a witness in the trial of Creswell for the murder of Katie Simpson.
After just one day of prosecution evidence, he took his own life.
“You have to remember, while I was training for the Olympics, I knew the trial was coming up — that I would have to face him and give evidence.
“Looking back, I really don't know how I coped with all that pressure, but I did.”
Abi now trains 10 horses and lives in Moreton-in-Marsh in the Cotswolds, England, where she has made her home.
“I was slightly disappointed that I didn't get to face him. I wanted to give my evidence to show him I was no longer afraid.
“I'm not surprised he did what he did. It was his last attempt to control the situation.
“I've read and studied a lot, and what I now realise is that people like him don't change — they just get worse.
“I would say to anyone going through it now: the first few weeks after you leave are tough. You'll struggle and doubt yourself at times, but, slowly, the clouds lift and you realise you are so much stronger than you think.
“I'm now looking forward to the LA Olympics and doing what I love. I'm excited for the future. And life is so much better than I could have imagined.”
Brenda McNally
For more than 23 years, Brenda McNally has been stalked by a man she met only briefly in her early 20s. After fleeing to the US for 10 years to avoid her stalker, she returned to find that, far from getting over his obsession, the man took up where he left off — even threatening her while she was heavily pregnant.
As a result of the harassment, she has moved home multiple times and had to change her car to avoid the man.
Her stalker, Brendan Haughey, was prosecuted in 2015 but claimed to be medically unfit to stand trial and was detained under the Mental Health Act.
This didn't stop the harassment, however, and he was later prosecuted again, only this time he was sent to prison.
Horrified by the lack of legislation to protect women in Northern Ireland at the time, Ms McNally began studying policy and, later, law.
She is now preparing to undertake a PhD on the subject.
When the abuse first started, police suggested that Brenda go into a women's refuge for her own safety.
Instead, she moved to the US, where she stayed for 10 years.
Within weeks of moving home from San Francisco, the man resumed his stalking behaviour, showing up in the street where she was living with her young children, and threatening her while she was heavily pregnant.
“Before I left for America, I taught ICT to over-16s. But this person kept turning up where I worked, running into the office. So I couldn't teach any more,” she explained.
“It wasn't that I originally wanted to study law, but I needed to do something. So I went to university, and I've just never left.
“It gave me some sort of normalcy. I did a policy degree, then a criminology degree.
“I did a master's in law, and now I'm going back to do a PhD.”
In Ms McNally's case, her stalker became violent almost immediately, trying to ram her car off the road and calling at her home after she rejected his advances in 2001.
She says that due to her advocacy work, she is often contacted by women going through domestic abuse or stalking who are struggling to find help.
Last year, she took part in a panel talk about violence against women and girls at Feile an Phobail.
“I get an influx of people constantly asking things that I would know, but other people don't, because there's no knowledge out there.
“I'm kind of glad, in a way, that people do contact me — but it's just a pity that they have to.”
Stalking became a crime in Northern Ireland in April 2022, while Stalking Protection Orders became available in Northern Ireland on October 19, 2023. However, two years on and only three further orders have been issued.
“I thought the orders would be transformative for people going through what I had to go through, but the legislation is not being used,” Ms McNally said.
“And further training is clearly needed to ensure that women are protected. It is something I feel really strongly about.”
She added that she tries to use her training to show other women that there is life after domestic abuse and that escape is possible.
“You don't have to stay and be a punch bag. There is life after this. I know it's difficult if you don't know what to do or what's out there for you,” she said.
“Go to Women's Aid. Knock a door. Make a phone call. There are so many places that you can go and get help — just don't stay under it. Get out and build a life.
“Women need to see how class they are. Women here have no idea how strong they are or how much they can do.
“When you're speaking to them, you think: you're managing an abusive relationship, managing home life, and still show up every day.
“Most women around the world don't have to do that.
“Hopefully they see that in themselves and get out and forge a life.”
‘Pink Ladies’ group holds city centre rally
CONNLA YOUNG, Irish News, January 19th, 2026
A GROUP accused of anti-Islamic hate speech has taken part in a rally in Belfast.
Members of the ‘Pink Ladies’ took part in the all-female anti-immigration rally outside Belfast City Hall on Saturday.
There was controversy last year when illegal ‘knuckleduster’ weapons were handed out in free “safety bags” given to those attending an anti-Islam rally in the city.
During the November event, which was attended by anti-immigration figures and a former UVF bank robber, one speaker led a chant of “f*** Islam”.
Originating in England, the ‘Pink Ladies’ have since established contacts across Britain and Ireland.
The stated aim of the group is to “protect the rights of women and children”.
Local members were in attendance on Saturday with some carrying Union, Ulster and Israeli flags.
Earlier this month a Belfast woman accused of handing out knuckledusters at the city centre rally in November failed in a bid to lift the ban on her posting about immigration issues on social media.
Robyn Barnes (38), of Solway Street, remains under a prohibition on attending any anti-immigration protests.
She is currently on bail charged with possession of an offensive weapon in a public place.
She faces a further count of selling or distributing a weapon, namely a knuckleduster.
Her partner and co-accused, Stephen Baker (45), is also on bail charged in connection with the same incident.
The PSNI was in attendance at Saturday afternoon’s rally.
Democracy campaigners 'worried' at Stormont’s 'co-option trend'
BRETT CAMPBELL, Belfast Telegraph, November 19th, 2026
ONE IN EIGHT MLAS UNELECTED
A democracy campaign group has expressed concern over the fact that one in eight of Stormont's MLAs are unelected — including the Deputy First Minister and the two people set to lead the Ulster Unionist Party.
The co-option process has come under fresh scrutiny after Jon Burrows was the sole candidate for UUP leader, with Diana Armstrong running on the joint ticket to be his deputy.
The former senior policeman was parachuted in last July to replace Colin Crawford, who quit after less than a year in the role. Mr Crawford himself had been co-opted to the Assembly after his elected predecessor, Robin Swann, won a seat in the House of Commons.
Ms Armstrong was drafted in to replace Tom Elliott in Fermanagh and South Tyrone after he received a peerage in 2024.
A spokesperson for Act Now NI warned that the practice is undermining people's trust in politics.
“The trend among political parties to co-opt unelected party members into MLA roles is a worrying one — meaning political representatives have not been chosen by the electorate — and serving to further weaken people's faith in the political system here,” they said.
“At a time when election turnout is at an all-time low, our political parties should be doing all they can to prevent the perception that seats can simply be passed around without the public having any say.
“This should be addressed now, in advance of the council and Assembly elections next year, when we are likely to see even more examples of this undemocratic practice.”
Despite a 2024 Electoral Commission report warning that the system of replacing elected representatives through co-option “removes the democratic choice from voters”, the practice continues, with 11 of our 90 MLAs currently in post with no mandate.
The independent regulator previously warned that co-option — designed to ensure the party preference of electors is maintained when seats become vacant — is likely to be exacerbated when Assembly and local council elections take place next year.
The DUP has the highest number of unelected representatives sitting at Stormont, closely followed by the Alliance Party, collectively accounting for more than half of all co-opted MLAs.
In addition to its most high-profile co-optee — Emma Little-Pengelly, who was ushered into Lagan Valley during Stormont's collapse in 2022 when Jeffrey Donaldson decided to remain an MP in Westminster — the party has three other unelected MLAs.
Cheryl Brownlee replaced David Hilditch in East Antrim after he retired on health grounds shortly before his passing in 2023, while last week Gareth Wilson signed in to represent Newry and Armagh after William Irwin stepped down.
Peter Martin was chosen to replace independent unionist Alex Easton in North Down following the Westminster election in 2024 — despite Mr Easton quitting DUP, claiming it had no “respect, discipline or decency”.
Alliance's Michelle Guy filled the Lagan Valley seat left vacant by Sorcha Eastwood following her successful 2024 General Election campaign, while Andrew McMurray replaced Patrick Brown in South Down following his resignation the same year.
Sian Mulholland, meanwhile, replaced Patricia O'Lynn, who quit her North Antrim seat the previous year.
TUV MLA Timothy Gaston replaced Jim Allister as the party's sole representative at Stormont after its leader became an MP in 2024.
Sinn Fein only has one unelected MLA as a result of Conor Murphy vacating his Newry and Armagh seat after being elected to Seanad Éireann last year; he was replaced by Aoife Finnegan. However, several current SF MLAs were co-opted during the previous mandate.
Currently, the SDLP is the only one of the five main parties with all of its MLAs chosen at the ballot box.
