Is England’s difficulty really always Ireland’s opportunity?

TOM KELLY, Irish News, May 18th, 2026

ENGLAND’S difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity has been a well-worn phrase within Irish nationalism since the days of Daniel O’Connell. But is that always true? Not necessarily. The interconnectedness of the two nations is multilayered, which is why the UK leaving the EU was and remains an all-too-real threat to Ireland’s economic well-being.

In militant republicanism, the saying has been rehashed on many occasions. Most of which were fruitless – particularly amongst those nationalist fanatics who even sought a dalliance with Hitler and Nazism during WWII.

But in truth a political and constitutional crisis in Britain may lead to a calamity in the north, especially in terms of stability.

Yes, as Matthew O’Toole eloquently articulated recently, the prospect of Reform in government may assist in having a mature debate with sensible voices within unionism who want no truck with the societal upheaval that Farage and his cronies are bringing.

Initial signals from political unionism (with the notable and praiseworthy exception of Mike Nesbitt) are that they would throw their lot in with Reform.

In fact, some seem overly eager, like joyous lemmings heading for the cliff. (Just like the less-thancentrist UUP are doing in trying to deselect Doug Beattie for being too moderate).

Mainly what drives this nonsensical and doomed false hope by unionists is the annoyance (and horror) Reform obviously cause within Sinn Féin, the SDLP and other nationalists.

Like petulant children, they are enjoying the discomfort. It is, however, a discomfort which will pass but not without some pain.

The battle-a-day approach between Sinn Féin and the DUP is a form of shadow boxing where no one actually lands a punch.

Plus, it throws some red meat to the media which can appear somewhat lost without a daily dose of reportable sectarianism, whataboutery and mud-slinging.

The sham encounters also distract from the actual poor performance of the Executive in governing the north.

No-one can predict the outcome of a scenario should Reform get into government. Farage is mischievous enough to call a border referendum to defeat it, as the first one will almost certainly be lost. Or he could continue to stone-wall into the next decade, at the behest of his unionist friends.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage made substantial gains in elections in England, Scotland and Wales. (Though he also has the not insignificant hurdle of explaining his financing arrangements – especially receiving a £5m cryptocurrency ‘gift’ and buying a house for £1.4m in cash).

Fruitcake fanatics

Of course, he may never enter government, given the number of fruitcake Reformers who seem to have been elected to English councils, including an outed racist bigot and former porn star.

The fragmentation of politics will force various coalitions of unlikely bedfellows, like the Tories and Greens in one local authority.

But the break-up of the union won’t be quick – if at all – and is much more likely to be an internal combustion of trust in public institutions and public authorities. We are about to enter the political equivalent of a twilight zone.

The Sinn Féin president and other commentators have run ahead of themselves in trying to make the UK election results suit their unity narrative.

Plaid Cymru did not even campaign on an independence ticket, and Welsh people have never shown much interest in actual political separation – except when they play in the Principality Stadium and national consciousness expresses itself through hearty renditions of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (Land of My Fathers).

Scotland has its own laws and kept its national identity intact despite subjugation after the Battle of Culloden.

But the pathway to independence is not helped by the emergence of Reform in Scotland as a major player, and whilst a Reform government at Westminster would send shivers down the spines of every patriotic Scot, Holyrood is also unlikely to get a sympathetic ear from Tice, Anderson and co.

As pointed out last week, Labour under the current incumbent, Andy Burnham or Wes Streeting will not green-light a border poll – no matter how much it’s called for by nationalists.

Add into the mix the rise of the right-wing in the Republic, many of whom are only too happy to partner right-wing loyalists who are pro-Russian and against the EU and immigrants. These plastic patriots want an Irish Trump and seem less keen on Irish unity as a priority than SF, SDLP, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil or Labour.

Commentators are right to say the political landscape has changed – but there is as much risk in those changes as there is opportunity.

In this writer’s opinion, unabated populism carries more risk than opportunity in the short term, as societal recalibration is a long process, not a quick reboot. Who would have predicted a second term of Trump or the collusion of the US Supreme Court in the gerrymandering of districts to disenfranchise African Americans?

A doctrine of hate has replaced hope in most Western democracies. It took the Hungarian nation 16 years to get rid of Orbán despite his bared-faced corruption and cronyism.

The forthcoming by-election in Greater Manchester offers a glimmer of hope, loaded with a lot of ‘ifs’ – if Andy Burnham gets approval to run, if he gets support of the local CLP, if he can inspire enough of the electorate to vote for him, if he can withstand the bitterness of the Reform racist dog whistles, if he then beats Starmer, and if it’s not too late to turn around a sceptical English public, it may just ignite a fight back by the middle ground.

What is it they say about ‘ifs and ands’?

The state cannot hold back the longed-for tidal wave of justice’

GARBHÁN DOWNEY, Irish News, May 18th, 2026

THERE is a pair of grainy family photographs in the middle of the book, of the Browns gathering turf out in the middle of Seamus Heaney country, on a sunny summer’s day sometime in the mid-1990s.

In one of them, Seán Brown is standing on top of a trailer-load of sods, with his wife Bridie and son Damian, and their friend Francis Murray, in the bog nearby – all tired but satisfied looking, after a good day’s digging.

A few years after his father’s death, Seán’s son Seán told the author Des Fahy how his father saw himself in Seamus Heaney’s poetry – and was intimately familiar with the places and people celebrated in the Bellaghy man’s work.

Indeed, in February 1996, Seán, the father, would conceive and then organise the massive, cross-community homecoming in Bellaghy after the poet received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

It was one of his proudest moments. A little over a year later, Seamus Heaney would pen a memorable eulogy to Seán in The Irish News, in which he described his murder, at the gates of the Bellaghy GAA clubhouse, as ‘a crime against the ancient Olympic spirit’.

‘He was a man of integrity and goodwill,’ the poet wrote, ‘he represented something better than we have grown used to.’ It was a universally-held sentiment.

As Laurence Diamond told the Irish Times on the 25th anniversary of his friend’s death, ‘Above all, Seán Brown was a great human being – he is such a loss.’

In Derry city, during the long campaign for an inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday, our campaigners also drew comfort, and inspiration, from the words of Seamus Heaney.

In times of despair, The Cure at Troy reminded families, and supporters, to ‘hope for a great sea-change on the far side of revenge’ and to ‘believe that a further shore is reachable from here’.

As advice goes, it was both fitting and uplifting. The inquiry, which finally opened in 2000, for all its many imperfections, proved to be a catharsis. It afforded the people of the city their opportunity – their right – to experience that ‘sea-change’; that ‘self-healing’ and ‘self-revealing’.

In 1972, the day after the Bloody Sunday funerals, the Derry Journal reported how ‘Even the Skies Wept’. Thirty-eight years later, the widow of victim Barney McGuigan, another Bridie, remarked at the conclusion of the Saville Inquiry, how the sun shone in Derry to welcome the findings. Bizarrely, however, for a society that has supposedly progressed out of the dark days of the Troubles, into a ‘new dispensation’, the Browns have now been kept waiting for an inquiry longer than the Bloody Sunday families.

As our other Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats wrote, ‘Peace comes dropping slow’. Too slow. Seán’s son Damian, who led the campaign for more than two decades, tragically did not live to see justice – and Bridie, now eighty-eight, worries that neither will she.

And this, we must remember, is not a case where there is a mere allegation of wrongdoing by state agents. Collusion – and the involvement of the state – in Seán’s murder is a matter of fact. It has been established by the High Court and confirmed in the public record.

‘State-sponsored murder’

As Damian himself predicted, long before the documents were finally released, his father’s death ‘was state-sponsored murder.’ What we are left considering now is how long the state can continue to conceal what it did and what it knows – or, more pertinently, how much it did and how much it knows.

Tellingly, Seamus Heaney also warned us, in his collection North, about those who deliberately fail to act – those who stand dumb; those who ‘cast the stones of silence’; and those who would ‘connive in civilised outrage’. Or in contemporary parlance, those who issue Public Interest Immunity Certificates and refuse to allow even the most private of hearings; those who run to their own courts and hide from others; those who claim they have ‘enormous sympathy’ but… perhaps they should read Seamus Heaney’s rules for good governance in Republic of Conscience, in which he advises: ‘At their inauguration, public leaders must swear to uphold unwritten law and weep to atone for their presumption to hold office.’

After countless delays and numerous setbacks, the Browns and the Pat Finucane Centre decided on a new and different course of action. And, while the book they have produced can never fully right the wrong, it will stand as a measure of their love for Seán Brown, as a measure of their own most real outrage, and as a measure of their determination never to quit until they win justice for ‘a great human being’.

The final picture in the photo gallery was taken by Margaret McLaughlin at the Walk for Truth this time last year. At the head of the march are four generations of the Brown family, and they are followed by thousands of campaigners who came to Bellaghy to voice support for their crusade.

This campaign, which in the early years was sustained by just a handful of dedicated family members and loyal friends, is now a movement; a national and international touchstone. The GAA, the Irish government, the Northern Irish judiciary, are all demanding a public inquiry, with even the Chief Constable confessing that the Browns have been ‘failed by the Establishment’.

As our great poet instructed us, we must believe in ‘miracles, and cures and healing wells’. The state cannot hold back the ‘longed-for tidal wave of justice’ forever. Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.

The Browns will prevail, and hope and history will rhyme once more.

‘A Bitter Harvest: the good life and unresolved murder of a Derry GAA man’ by Garbhán Downey was commissioned by the Brown family and Pat Finucane Centre and is published by Colmcille Press

‘The people standing here are going to be the beginning’

JONATHAN MCCAMBRIDGE, Irish News and Belfast Telegraph, May 18th, 2026

Hundreds attend protest rally over Lough Neagh environmental crisis

HUNDREDS of people have taken part in a protest demanding urgent environmental action to protect Lough Neagh.

Former MP and civil rights campaigner Bernadette McAliskey addressed the event yesterday, which had received support from TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham.

The lough, the UK and Ireland’s largest freshwater lake by surface area, has been blighted by noxious blooms of blue-green algae in recent summers.

The cause has been put down to an excess of nutrients from a number of sources, including waste water, septic tanks and agriculture, exacerbated by climate change and the invasive species zebra mussels.

Lough Neagh supplies 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water and sustains a major eel fishing industry. Stormont ministers have agreed an action plan to tackle the environmental crisis.

The event started at the Battery Harbour in Co Tyrone and retraced the route of an anti-lignite mining protest in 1986 to Ardboe High Cross on the shores of the lough.

Delivering an address at the rally, Ms McAliskey said: “All the people standing around here are going to be the beginning, not the end, the beginning of showing we don’t need to be told what the problems are and we are tired listening to how hard it is going to be to find a solution.

“We know what the problems are, we know what the solutions are, we know what the science is and none of this is going to be dealt with unless all the people around here gather up more of all the people around here and we’ll do it for ourselves.

“Nobody ever got anything, none of the ordinary people like us off the people sitting looking down their noses at us by believing they were going to do something on our behalf rather than use us for something on their own behalf.”

She added: “If we pledge to take care of it, be responsible for its restoration, collectively take over the stewardship and ownership in that sense, to guarantee the recovery of the lough and to guarantee the harmonious life of human beings and nature integrated in each other.

“That doesn’t mean we are going to have to leave our houses and live in huts of clay, it means we just have to change some of the things we do and recognise enough is enough for all of us.”

Padraig Mac Niocaill, spokesman for the Save Lough Neagh campaign, told the rally: “Our water infrastructure remains extremely underfunded.

“NI Water is not able to treat the amount of sewage going into our water and the British Government seems hellbent on introducing water charges as an austerity measure.

“I really hope that everyone here today, the minute that Stormont says we have to pay the price for what corporations and greedy politicians have done to our lough, I hope you will march with us again against any attempt to bring water charges to our doorsteps.”

Giving his backing to the protest march, Packham said “The destruction of Lough Neagh is a national scandal unfolding in plain sight.

“One of these islands’ most important freshwater ecosystems is being sacrificed because governments and regulators have failed to act with the urgency this crisis demands.

“Toxic algae, collapsing biodiversity and sewage pollution are not inevitable, they are the consequences of political choices.”

QUB to review 'best practice' on dual signage after Pól Deeds meeting

BRETT CAMPBELL, Belfast Telegraph, May 18th, 2026

Queen's University is set to review “relevant models and best practice” for introducing bilingual signage.

It will also consider the financial cost of signs, and this will be included in its budget submissions to Stormont.

It comes after a letter was sent to the university's vice-chancellor, Prof Sir Ian Greer, calling on him to publicly commit to rolling out a comprehensive Irish language policy and a timeframe for implementation.

The correspondence from An Cumann Gaelach and Queen's Students' Union acknowledges the university has “taken steps in the right direction” by launching the An Scéim Chónaithe residential scheme, creating an Irish language officer and providing an increasing number of joint-honours degree courses offering Irish as a core subject.

However, it notes that change is not reflected in the physical infrastructure of the university and calls on Sir Ian to seize the “historic opportunity”.

More public disability

“Instead of openly celebrating the Irish language and embracing the diversity present on campus, the university is hesitant to give developments like these the public visibility they deserve,” the letter states.

“The recent all-student vote marks a defining moment for the Irish language community at Queen's and provides you, as Vice-Chancellor of the university, with a historic opportunity to mark a new era of equality for the Irish language across Queen's campus, one that celebrates bilingualism and promotes inclusivity and diversity, and brings an end to decades of monolingualism and exclusion.

“An Cumann Gaelach and Queen's Students' Union now calls on you, as Vice-Chancellor of QUB, to provide a public commitment that the university will develop and implement a comprehensive Irish language policy and set out a timeframe for implementation.”

The request comes after Irish Language Commissioner Pol Deeds met with QUB representatives last week.

A spokesperson for the commissioner's office said the meetings “are focused on discussing proposals that will inform advice to be issued to both universities in due course”, adding that it would “not be appropriate to comment further on the content of these discussions at this time”.

A referendum on Irish language rights on campus took place in March, resulting in more than 90pc of voters backing proposals for dual signage. Over 5,000 ballots were cast in the poll which asked whether Irish and English should be given equal status, and if QUB's name and logo should be in both languages.

Students ‘go without heat, skip meals and rely on food banks’

STAFF REPORTER, Irish News, May 18th, 2026

STUDENTS in Northern Ireland are facing worsening financial hardship, with rising numbers skipping meals, relying on food banks, and considering leaving education altogether due to mounting cost of living pressures, a new report says.

The 2026 Cost of Living Report from NUS-USI, which represents students in universities, colleges, and furthereducation institutions across the region, paints a stark picture of the growing financial and mental health crisis affecting learners throughout the north.

Among the key findings in its survey of 1,973 students and apprentices across further and higher education institutions are: l 43% of students say they are skipping meals, up from 33% in 2024 l One in 10 students have accessed food banks l 27% worry about money “all the time”, compared to 20% in 2024 l 56% say work is negatively impacting their studies l 34% have considered leaving their course due to poor mental health l 17% have missed classes because they could not afford transport l One in five have gone without heating l A quarter have been unable to pay their rent in full

The findings also highlight the increasing pressure students face balancing employment alongside education. Two-thirds of respondents now work while studying, with onethird of working students employed for more than 20 hours per week.

Students described making impossible choices between food, heating, transport and continuing their education.

One respondent said they were “missing class because I’m just so tired from working,” while another reported going “without heat during extreme winter conditions”.

NUS-USI warns that financial pressures are increasingly affecting educational outcomes, mental wellbeing and student participation in campus life.

More than four in 10 students said they had missed out on social activities due to the cost of living, while 43% reported the crisis was having a moderate to major impact on their mental health.

NUS-USI is calling on political leaders and institutions to take urgent action to support students, including increased maintenance support, affordable housing measures, and improved access to mental health services and transport assistance.

Its president Ben Friel said: “Students are being pushed beyond breaking point. Young people are working longer hours, skipping meals, missing classes and sacrificing their mental health simply to stay in education.

“Students should not have to choose between heating and eating, or between attending class and affording transport. Yet for far too many, that is now the reality.”

He added: “For too long, the government has relied on students’ resilience. But for young people in Northern Ireland, staying in education is quickly becoming synonymous with poverty.

“All parties in Northern Ireland must commit to increase student financial support, tackle housing costs, and ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed regardless of their background or income.”

“When students prepare to vote in the upcoming assembly elections, they’ll be looking for parties that understand their priorities and are willing to engage with the issues that matter most to them. We encourage all parties to listen carefully to student concerns and reflect them in their commitments.”

Activist quangos funded by the tax payer debase human rights in Northern Ireland

By Owen Polley, Belfast News Letter, May 18th, 2026

​Last week, the unionist parties at Stormont slammed the NI Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) and the Equality Commission (ECNI), following a Supreme Court ruling that limited how EU rights laws are imposed here through the Windsor Framework.

The UUP’s justice spokesman, Doug Beattie, said the quangos had effectively “joined the lobby” for Northern Ireland’s annexation by the Republic, and the TUV called for resignations.

The DUP MLA, Phillip Brett, said the court’s judgment showed, “They (the NIHRC and ECNI) are wrong. They have wasted public money and it is now time for each and every one of them to consider their position.”

In Northern Ireland in particular, human rights and equality had already become two of the most abused concepts in politics. The two public bodies in question have undoubtedly played a role in degrading the ideas they are supposed to uphold.

The NIHRC was established as part of the Belfast Agreement to “consult and advise on the scope for defining, in Westminster legislation, rights supplementary to the European Convention on Human Rights, to reflect the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland”.

Right from the start, it seemed unable to stick to this remit and it was inclined to stray into activism.

The rights it proposed for Northern Ireland were either protected already, by the European Convention and the UK Human Rights Act, or they amounted to debatable political demands.

The Labour government under Gordon Brown, hardly a flinty, right-wing administration, decided that the quango’s work was of limited use. “Over half the rights proposed by the NIHRC’s advice are equally as relevant to the people of England, Scotland and Wales,” it said.

Despite failing to perform the task assigned to it, the organisation continued to lobby for a Bill of Rights.

In 2020, the NIHRC also supported the campaign to change British citizenship law, so that people in Northern Ireland would be treated differently to those in the rest of the UK. Its report claimed this would avoid, “the negative connotations of forcing British citizenship on persons on the island of Ireland…. (which) are the story of the struggle for independence of Ireland”.

This statement of Irish nationalist ideology was published by a body that was supposed to serve all communities in Northern Ireland, rather than pursue partial political objectives.

The NIHRC, along with the ECNI, more recently demanded that the government and executive should, “ensure North-South equivalence of rights, by aligning with changes to EU equality and human rights law, even where not required to by the Windsor Framework”.

The Supreme Court has now thankfully rejected claims that the framework should be used to strike down UK immigration laws and other Westminster laws in Northern Ireland.

The chief problem with the NIHRC is that human rights have gradually become an almost meaningless concept. They no longer cover only things like our entitlements to life, freedom of conscience and a fair trial, which they were invented to protect.

Instead, almost any political demand can now be described as a human right, in an attempt to exempt it from criticism.

Equality is a similarly debased idea, particularly in Northern Ireland.

It no longer means simply that people should not be prevented from getting on in life, because of their religion, gender, race or sexuality. Instead, it has come to imply that certain groups get privileges over others, determined, usually, by how vehemently they claim victimhood.

Take, for example, the demands of trans activists to access female-only spaces, despite the distress and discomfort this causes to many women.

Meanwhile, for Irish nationalists, ‘equality’ consistently means that their aspirations for an all-Ireland state should be treated as if they were just as important and should have just as much effect as the democratic will of a majority to be part of the UK.

Against this backdrop, it is not even a question of whether the NIHRC and the ECNI are partial on Northern Ireland’s constitutional position. No doubt they would deny that they are.

So-called progressives

By definition, they are part of an industry that supports expanding the scope of these ideas. It is so-called progressives, in Northern Ireland nationalists and the Alliance party, who have co-opted this language and this way of framing political arguments.

It is admittedly a clever tactic, because human rights and equality sound like principles that no reasonable person could oppose. But they are consistently used to defend otherwise indefensible positions, like preventing people from voicing legitimate political opinions, or blocking the deportation of foreign criminals, or imposing controversial theories, like trans ideology, in public life.

In Northern Ireland, we have an enormous array of commissions, ombudspeople and quangos, all funded by taxpayers. These bodies need to justify their existence, which means they are inclined to expand their remits.

It was therefore always likely that the NIHRC and the ECNI would become activist organisations, working to an agenda that troubled unionists. The things they were supposed to protect, after all, were already well protected by law.

That does not mean that their recent interventions are excusable, nor does it invalidate the criticisms they received from pro-Union parties last week.

Indeed, it seems unlikely that bodies like these can ever operate in a way that commands confidence across the political spectrum. If that is the case, we must ask, not just whether the NIHRC and ECNI leaders should resign, but whether their organisations serve any useful purpose in the first place.

Fianna Fáil was never truly an all-Ireland party

NOEL DORAN, Irish News, May 18th, 2026

IF the recent plans of some figures in Fianna Fáil had come to fruition, it would have celebrated the centenary of its launch at the weekend by sitting in government in the south while simultaneously having a direct influence at Stormont.

Instead, the party’s northern wing has seldom been less visible, and it is difficult to identify any momentum behind its sporadic efforts to develop a presence which might eventually allow it to claim that it was a true all-Ireland entity.

It is hardly what the activists who came together to form Fianna Fáil at the long-disappeared La Scala theatre, just off O’Connell Street in Dublin, on May 16 1926, and who were drawn from both sides of a border then in its infancy, envisaged.

The meeting was chaired by Countess Constance Markievicz, who died the following year at the age of 59, but the architect was of course Éamon de Valera, who among his many other later accomplishments as Taoiseach and President was the abstentionist Stormont MP for South Down between 1933 and 1937.

De Valera had resigned as Sinn Féin chairman two months before the La Scala gathering, following the defeat of his ard fheis motion calling on party members to be allowed to take their seats in Dáil Éireann if the contentious Oath of Allegiance was removed.

He was said to have seriously considered retiring from politics at that stage, but was persuaded by Seán Lemass, another future Taoiseach, to instead establish Fianna Fáil, together with other committed associates including Seán MacEntee and Frank Aiken.

McEntee, born in 1889 and educated at both St Mary’s CBS and St Malachy’s College in Belfast, was from a business family, with a range of present-day connections in the city, who owned and lived beside the bar now known as Cosgrove’s on the corner of King Street and Castle Street.

He was a staunch nationalist, fighting in the GPO in 1916, and receiving a death sentence, which was commuted to life imprisonment before his release in the general amnesty the following year.

McEntee then became a Sinn Féin politician until he switched to Fianna Fáil, and in a distinguished career went on to hold a range of ministerial posts and serve as Tánaiste from 1959 to 1965. When he died in 1984, he was the last surviving member of the First Dáil.

His family were personal friends of Joseph “Wee Joe” Devlin, the legendary nationalist politician and Irish News chairman during the post-partition era, and McEntee’s portrait hung in the paper’s old Donegall Street boardroom for decades, through the intervention of Devlin’s successor, the late Jim Fitzpatrick.

Longest serving

Aiken, born in 1898 in Camlough, Co Armagh, was an IRA commander in his home area during the War of Independence, before, like McEntee, taking on multiple key roles in Fianna Fáil, including Tánaiste, and became both the longest serving cabinet member and the second-longest serving TD ever.

“IF the plans of some figures in Fianna Fáil had come to fruition, it would have celebrated its centenary by sitting in government in the south while having a direct influence at Stormont

During his high-profile period as minister for external affairs, he attended a dinner for past pupils of his old school, the Abbey CBS in Newry, in the Ballymascanlon hotel, just south of the border, in the early 1960s.

He found himself sitting beside my late father, Arthur, who was not easily impressed but was struck by the quiet authority of Aiken, who declined de Valera’s invitation to run for the presidency in 1973 and died 10 years later.

More recently, Rory O’Hanlon from Mullaghbawn, Co Armagh, represented Cavan-Monaghan for Fianna Fáil at Leinster House for 35 years, and was Ceann Comhairle as well as a ministerial veteran.

I met O’Hanlon, who died six weeks ago at the age of 92, and was the father of the acclaimed Father Ted actor Ardal, on a number of occasions, and always noted his encyclopaedic knowledge of his native south Armagh and his insider’s take on Stormont.

Given this strong tradition within Fianna Fáil, it is genuinely surprising, even allowing for changing wider circumstances, that the party leadership seems disinterested in putting its case to northern voters, and is content to allow Sinn Féin an unchallenged opportunity to steadily and, from its perspective, logically expand as a 32-county force.

A much-heralded new link with the SDLP was unveiled in 2019, with hints that a full-blown merger could follow, but plainly there were enduring doubts in each camp about the relationship.

Little of substance ever emerged before the project was officially dropped after three years, with the SDLP instead formally deciding to become the official opposition within the Assembly.

Fianna Fáil has some committed individual members across the north, and maintains student branches in the two main universities, but the structures could only be described as low key.

The likes of McEntee and Aiken had very different ambitions 100 years ago.

'Absurd' for Tourism Northern Ireland to say 'the North' instead of country's official name'

By Adam Kula, Belfast News Letter, May 18th, 2026

The UUP and DUP have criticised references to the Province as “the North” by Tourism Northern Ireland.

Ulster Unionist deputy leader Diana Armstrong laid the blame with the Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald, and challenged her to “say the name” of the country.

Meanwhile DUP MLA Phillip Brett said the trend is “absurd”.

Tourism NI did not respond, while the Department of the Economy – its parent body – send a statement from the minister saying: “The diversity of language and terminology used by people across our society in this regard should be treated with respect and tolerance.”

UUP MLA Diana Armstrong said it was ‘shameful’ that Caoimhe Archibald cannot say the words ‘Northern Ireland’

The News Letter’s interest in the issue was piqued when Tourism NI had said, in response to an enquiry about the recent NW200: “The event is estimated to generate more than £9 million into the north's economy.”

When the News Letter inquired if this had meant the north coast’s economy, Tourism NI said it meant “the Northern Ireland economy”.

It turns out that the agency has been using the term with increasing frequency.

The oldest iteration of the term on the Tourism NI website comes from July 2024, in a quote from then-Sinn Fein economy minister Colm Murphy.

Sinn Fein had taken over control of the Department of the Economy in February 2024.

It was first used without quotes in January 2025 in Tourism NI’s 10-year plan (which contains 21 iterations of the term “the North”, and five of “Northern Ireland” – three of which are references to organisations or laws with “Northern Ireland” in their name).

Since then, “the North” has been used in 17 more articles on the Tourism NI website – though use of the term “Northern Ireland” remains more common overall.

UUP economy spokeswoman Ms Armstrong said: “This is a place we are immensely proud of, and we will always say so by its proper name.

“Tourism Northern Ireland does vital work in promoting what is a truly exceptional destination, and that work deserves to be matched by language that reflects the pride we have in this place.

“What is deeply troubling, however, is the pattern we are now seeing from the economy minister, a persistent and deliberate use of 'the North' in official strategy documents, speeches, and press releases.

Frankly shameful

“It is frankly shameful that the minister responsible for growing Northern Ireland's economy cannot bring herself to say the words 'Northern Ireland'.

“This is not an oversight. It is a choice, and it shows a profound disrespect for the hundreds of thousands of people who are proud to call Northern Ireland their home.

“We hear constant calls from the first minister for respect and equality.

“The economy minister should take heed.

“Revise the language.

“Say the name.”

And Mr Brett, the DUP chairman of Stormont’s economy committee, said: “Tourism NI was created to promote Northern Ireland, not to airbrush its name out of existence.

“I have written to the chief executive seeking answers.

“This comes on the back of me questioning why Tourism NI published an event-promotion social media post that highlighted various Belfast events in July last year, but noticeably left out Northern Ireland's largest cultural parade on the Twelfth.

“For a publicly funded body with ‘Northern Ireland’ in its very title to repeatedly replace it with ‘the north’ raises serious questions about the culture and thinking within the organisation.

“This is not some accidental typo or one-off mistake.

“It appears to reflect a deliberate pattern of language designed to avoid using the proper name of Northern Ireland.

“Most people across the United Kingdom would find it absurd that a national tourism body seems uncomfortable even saying the name of the place it represents.

“Northern Ireland is not a dirty word.

“It is the recognised constitutional and legal name of this part of the United Kingdom and public bodies should use it proudly, clearly and consistently.

“Taxpayers expect Tourism NI to focus on growing tourism and promoting Northern Ireland around the world, not engaging in needless constitutional debates through politically loaded language.”

Celtic must be 'more accountable' after trouble mars league title decider

ANTHONY BROWN, Belfast Telegraph, May 18th, 2026

A senior Police Scotland officer has called on Celtic to be “more accountable”, as he expressed frustration following fan disorder in the wake of the Scottish Premiership decider.

There have been 14 arrests in Glasgow so far following Celtic's Scottish Premiership win on Saturday, which was followed by scenes of disorder in parts of the city.

Of the 14 arrests, 10 were related to Celtic fans gathering in the Trongate area following the match, while four were at the stadium.

Some 3,000 supporters congregated in the area to celebrate their team's victory over Hearts.

Officers had “missiles, including glass bottles” thrown at them while assisting with a medical emergency, police said.

Police Scotland's assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland said two officers were injured during disorder in the Trongate, while three members of the public were either injured or suffered medical episodes.

He said that, so far, there have not been any arrests in relation to the pitch invasion at Celtic Park, but work on the police response to this is ongoing.

Mr Sutherland added: “On this issue, more must be done.

“Celtic must be more accountable, supported by the local authority with police, to ensure there are safe spaces for people to celebrate, that are licensed, controlled.

“And this level of disorder that our officers have faced doesn't happen again.”

Officers injured

Asked if there is anger from the police force towards Celtic, he said: “Absolutely. I have two officers injured this morning. I have many more officers who have had rest days cancelled.

“Over 400 people had to have their rest day cancelled.

“Next year we must have a better plan and a better contingency, so that there's not such a big impact on our officers and staff.”

The senior officer said he accepted that planning official fan events would be difficult, but stressed he did not think they were impossible.

Of the two injured officers, Mr Sutherland said one had suffered a “significant” facial injury and the other was severely bruised.

He said that, “astonishingly”, police came under attack as they were responding to a medical emergency.

This prompted police to “show a use of force” to end the disturbance.

Police Scotland are working with Hearts, Mr Sutherland said, and will take “robust and swift action” if any criminality is established.

Streets were awash with green and white as jubilant fans streamed out of Celtic Park.

Fans were seen climbing on traffic lights and other objects around the Trongate. Images on social media showed scuffles in the crowd and some clashes with police.

By around 7.30pm, the streets were mostly empty, though large amounts of rubbish had been left behind.

The disorder came after Police Scotland had earlier accused Celtic of failing to put plans in place for official Premiership title celebrations.

The 3-1 victory over the Jambos confirmed the Scottish Premiership title for Martin O'Neill's Celtic side.

Hearts players were escorted off the pitch as thousands of Celtic fans spilt on to the field following the third goal from Callum Osmand.

The Edinburgh club later released a statement condemning the “shameful” scenes, saying: “Reports of serious physical and verbal abuse towards our players and staff, both on the pitch and elsewhere, are deeply disturbing.

“We are investigating this fully and are in dialogue with Police Scotland.

“We will make no further comment at this time other than to say that it is completely unacceptable that our players and staff were put in that situation.”

The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has confirmed referee Don Robertson ended the game when some Celtic fans invaded the pitch in the eighth minute of stoppage time of the title decider.

There were 30 seconds of injury time remaining when Osmand finished into an empty net to effectively seal the title, with Hearts requiring two goals.

However, the Hearts players were taken off the pitch for their safety when hundreds of Celtic supporters flooded the pitch in celebration, with some confronting the visiting players.

The game did not restart, with Celtic crowned champions.

The SPFL has confirmed that referee Robertson communicated that the match was over and it had not been abandoned.

Witnesses sought after ‘racist assault’ on taxi driver

EMMA GALLAGHER, Irish News, May 18th, 2026

POLICE are appealing for information and witnesses following a report of a racist assault on a taxi driver in north Belfast.

Police received a report around 11.10pm on Saturday that a taxi driver, a man aged in his 30s, was in the Talbot Street area when he was approached by two men and a woman.

“One of the men reportedly got aggressive after he was refused a “ lift due to a pre-arranged booking already in place,” police said.

“The man became verbally aggressive, using racial slurs – as well as spitting on the taxi driver twice, and punching his taxi window.”

As the driver exited his vehicle, the man reportedly punched him in the face, causing him to fall to the ground and lose consciousness briefly. As he stood up, he was punched once more by the man.

The three suspects then moved towards the city centre on foot, stopping briefly at the Hill Street area.

“There is no place for hate, racism or violence in our communities, and everyone has the right to feel safe and treated with dignity and respect,” the PSNI said.

“The area was fairly busy at the time as would be expected for a Saturday evening. We’d ask anyone who witnessed this assault to get in touch.”

The woman was reported to be wearing a black dress, while both men are described as being of muscular build and were wearing a white shirt and red t-shirt.

Anyone with information on the assault, can contact police using 101 number, quoting the reference number 1810 16/05/26.

£300k ‘squandered’ maintaining empty buildings at the Maze site

PAUL AINSWORTH, Irish News, May 18th, 2026

THE bill to maintain listed buildings at the former Maze prison site continues to grow, with Stormont spending more than £324,000 since 2018.

The ongoing cost to taxpayers has been criticised as an “absolute scandal”, with the money “squandered” on the site, where redevelopment plans appear as far away as ever. Among the listed structures at the Co Antrim site are one of the famous H-Blocks, the prison hospital and chapel, and the emergency control building. Since 2019, the listed buildings requiring maintenance also include two former aircraft hangers.

The Maze prison closed in 2000, and was where the hunger strike by IRA prisoners, including Bobby Sands, took place in 1981.

Plans to redevelop the Maze site at a cost of £300m have been stalled since 2013, when then-DUP first minister Peter Robinson blocked a proposed peace centre at the site, over fears it would become a “shrine to terrorism”.

Months later, the European Union withdrew an offer to support a peace centre project to the tune of £18m.

In 2024, the body created to oversee any redevelopment, the Maze Long Kesh Development Corporation, had discussions with National Museums NI, but the Executive Office confirmed no decisions had been made about a way forward.

In response to a written Assembly question from TUV MLA Timothy Gaston, the first and deputy first ministers revealed the total cost to maintain the unused site from the start of the 2018/19 financial year to the end of 2024/25 is £324,225.

‘Delisted and bulldozed’

Buildings at Maze ‘should be delisted and bulldozed’

The bill for the past financial year up until April is not yet available.

Timothy Gaston criticised the costs, which emerged in a week in which victims organisations staged a demonstration at Parliament Buildings over funding concerns.

“It is an absolute scandal that over £324,000 has been squandered on maintaining the ugly prison buildings at the Maze while only this week innocent victims groups were up protesting at Stormont about a funding crisis in the sector,” the North Antrim MLA told the Irish News.

He also hit out at the spend on Maze building maintenance as other listed buildings elsewhere are “left to rack and ruin”.

“One thinks particularly of the genuinely historically important Craigavon House which unionists were promised would be renovated and preserved under the New Decade New Approach deal in 2020 but has been forgotten about,” he told The Irish News, adding that “hundreds of thousands are being squandered on structures which were initially rejected by the Historic Buildings Council as unsuitable for listing because they had no architectural merit”.

“One really does have to question what the DUP are doing in the Executive Office when they allow this lavish expenditure to continue unchecked,” he added.

“These buildings are hampering the economic potential of the site, draining public money and preserving structures which should never have been listed in the first place. They should be delisted and bulldozed.”

The Executive Office has been approached for comment.

Thousands take part in separate pro-Palestine and Christian demonstrations

HANNAH PATTERSON, Irish News, May 18th, 2026

THOUSANDS took to the streets of Belfast over the weekend for two separate large demonstrations.

A march for Palestine got underway from Writers Square at 12pm, which was then followed by a March for Jesus after 2pm from Ormeau Park.

The PSNI had advised road users to expect traffic disruption on Saturday while both parades, expecting thousands of participants each, made their way through the city.

The ‘March for Palestine: 78 years of Nakba’ was for the remembering of the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Thousands set off from Writers’ Square at noon and proceeded along the Royal Avenue through the city centre before finishing a Donegall Square East.

The march was organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (ISPC). Large Nakba commemorations marches were also held in Dublin and London on Saturday.

A ‘March for Jesus’ event followed, which was also attended by thousands.

The event, described by organisers as a free “large-scale, non-political, family friendly public event celebrating the Christian faith” saw parts of Belfast closed off as the demonstration made its way through the city centre.

After four hours of build-up at Ormeau Park the parade left at 2pm and wound its way through the city centre before finishing at Belfast City Hall.

The crowd then stood in the rain and took part in worship, prayer and listened to testimony from fellow Christians as part of the wider March for Jesus movement.

The organisers behind the ‘March for Jesus’ were seeking to raise €7m to build a new church headquarters in Dublin.

The demonstration was organised by All Nations Church, a Christian religious group based in Dublin but with a small presence in Belfast established in 2024.

The church was established by Pastor John Ahern in Dublin in 2007.

The parade was initially cancelled in 2025 due to safety concerns over expected large crowds, before being rescheduled to last August where around 10,000 were believed to be in attendance.

Both parades passed peacefully.

Reaching out is key to broaden unionism's base: gesture politics isn't enough

DAVID GRAHAM, Belfast Telegraph, May 18th, 2026

Unionism must be more self-reflective

One message that was clear and consistent through focus groups and conversations throughout my time in politics was that unionism needs to reach out and accommodate the wider community in Northern Ireland.

I am a strong advocate of reaching out and I continue to believe that there are important strategic moments for unionism which should be utilised effectively. Perception is in many ways more important than reality. Political scientists will often talk about 'manufactured reality'.

At times, you could argue that republicanism has been ahead in terms of public relations strategy and engagement. Outsiders looking in will say that republicans are “more comfortable in their own skin”.

Moreover, 'unionism' in the form of the Orange Institution and other community groups have fallen into the trap laid by republicanism for the past 30 years.

The world's media focusing on the downtrodden residents' groups who feared the 'triumphalism' of the big bad Orangeman did not happen by accident, and unfortunately we have taken the bait too many times.

It would appear, on the surface at least, that republicans seem at ease with making gestures, such as standing at cenotaphs, while unionism seems to struggle to come to terms with our place within British and Irish politics.

Failing to attend the Irish presidential inauguration handed a whip to political opponents to use as and when the opportunity arose. There are many other examples where unionism tries to explain its way down a rabbit hole it's dug for itself.

Too many unionists have picked up a republican brush and painted themselves into a corner.

However, is this perception true or fair?

I know, having discussed it with a number of republicans, the challenges when Martin McGuinness met the Queen, or when Michelle O'Neill attended the King's coronation.

The recent Belfast Telegraph poll underlines the internal challenges that grassroots republicans have with the perceived soft approach by Sinn Féin. Indeed, the public betrayal of legendary republican Brendan Hughes underlines that all is not well within the republican family.

Republicans don't want to admit it, but they walk a tightrope when they send their leadership to events led by the very organisations they purport to have fought for generations.

We've seen the clumsy actions of Michelle O'Neill and other senior republicans who present themselves as representing the entire community while trying to justify their presence on speaking platforms at IRA commemorations.

Moreover, Sinn Féin cannot get in front of a microphone quickly enough to condemn militant republicans who hijack cars to detonate a bomb outside police stations in 2026 whilst then claiming it is their right to remember republican “patriot dead”, or claim there was no alternative to a 30-year terrorist campaign.

Beyond the Pale

Let's not forget, those patriots shot and maimed innocent men and women simply because of their religion or nationality. The irony that elected representatives condemn the very same actions family members and political colleagues carried out is beyond the pale.

For unionism, we can sometimes become almost self-obsessed with trying to justify ourselves and our identity to the wider community. That is why I am heartened to see the great work being carried out by the Belfast Bands Forum, where marching bands will take part in the Fleadh.

Too often, progressive actions like this have seen people being described as 'Lundys'. We should be loud and proud of who we are, and what we represent. The Imperial Guards taking part in Belfast's St Patrick's Day parade powerfully challenges the idea that bands exist to oppose 'the other side'.

Yes, it is important to reach out, and it is important to try to broaden our base.

That is a key part of increasing vote share each election and a key facet for any future border poll campaign — the middle ground will win or lose any such referendum.

However, there is a realisation within unionism that, as a senior member of the DUP told me after numerous visits to a Ramadan event, an Irish language school, attending a GAA match or meeting a wide range of church leaders, this can in many ways become “an end in itself”.

Who exactly are we reaching out to and why? The unconvinced, the middle ground, or is it simply expending energy on a project that could well cost more votes than it gains? If there isn't party discipline and clarity on narratives, it can become a self-defeating policy.

Detoxification within politics is very important but, sometimes, doing for doing's sake is akin to running on a treadmill instead of a road. Yes, you move and cover ground, but do you actually go anywhere new? What happens when you try to step off the treadmill when it's going at max speed? The irony is not lost on anyone when we see victims of terrorism such as Arlene Foster, who was targeted twice during her childhood, having to justify herself to someone like Gerry Adams, particularly around a throwaway line about a crocodile.

That is why I believe that unionism must be more self-reflective. Who exactly are 'we' and who do we purport to represent?

That is not simply a case of wrapping yourself in a flag on July 12 and then try to find balance by a symbolic gesture elsewhere. That creates a constant pendulum effect where we swing from one side to the other.

Boxers rarely win fights by a lucky haymaker; they win by consistently landing jab after jab, waiting strategically for their opponent to drop their guard. Many champions have built their careers on a judge's scorecard rather than relying on their chin and being able to keep standing and keep swinging.

Reaching out is a vital component of unionist strategy, but it must be done from a position of strength. If not, we simply mirror republicans and try to keep a score.

Unionism must decide what it is, who it is, and where it wants to be in modern-day society.

RUC wanted to push loyal order parade through nationalist village 

CONNLA YOUNG, Irish News, May 18th, 2026

FORMER RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan threatened to push a controversial loyal order parade through a mainly nationalist village because those taking part needed to “get back to their farms to milk their cows”.

The claim is made in a new book about the abduction and LVF murder of GAA official Seán Brown as he locked up at Bellaghy GAA club on May 12, 1997. Members of the Brown family were joined by friends and supporters in his home village for the launch of the book yesterday.

‘A Bitter Harvest: the good life and unresolved murder of a Derry GAA man’ is penned by former Irish News journalist Garbhán Downey.

More than 25 people have been linked by intelligence to the murder of Mr Brown, including state agents.

An inquest into Mr Brown’s death was abandoned by a coroner in 2024 because of a refusal by state agencies to provide information about his murder.

After his death, loyalists falsely claimed the GAA official was involved in a bitter parading dispute

Former RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan that gripped Bellaghy during the mid-1990s.

In August 1996 tensions came to a head as members of the Royal Black Institution insisted on marching through the nationalist village despite the objections of local people.

Retired Bellaghy parish priest, Monsignor Andy Dolan, who was involved in the mediation and later officiated at Mr Brown’s funeral, said the then Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan arrived at his door at 2am during the dispute.

He explains how the senior police officer “was looking for the issue to be sorted out quickly” and how talks with concerned residents and monitoring groups got underway.

He tells how, after a night of talks when he and Mr Flanagan were alone, the policeman said he was going to have to push the parade through the nationalist town.

“At eight o’clock in the morning, there was nobody left in my sitting room, only Ronnie Flanagan and myself,” he said.

‘Cows can wait’

“And he said to me that they were going to have to put the march through – without agreement – because the marchers needed to get back to their farms to milk their cows. I believe he was trying to stampede me. He obviously didn’t think a priest would know anything about cows – but I was reared with them.”

The priest reveals how he urged the chief constable to wait.

“So, I told him, ‘Don’t you worry about them – they can wait. I think we’re too close here to a settlement. It’s worth a delay’.

“And to cut a long story short, an agreement was reached at 10am, just two hours later.”

Fr Dolan said the agreement struck that day “more or less, has been in place since”.