Living in Legacy Act limbo
Before the discredited Legacy Act rudely set their analysis aside, the transitional justice academics of QUB had a powerful influence on developing the proposals of the Stormont House Agreement. They now write as if the Legacy Act which superseded it is fully in force. But it isn't. It's in limbo pending a new Act restoring inquests and civil actions. What actively survives is the ICRIR, the Legacy Commission, shorn of its original powers of immunity, which the Commission itself agrees were incompatible with the ECHR and are being corrected.
Profs Bryson and Mallinder assert that ‘the weakness of the Commission's truth recovery functions inhibits its ability to contribute to reconciliation’. What are those weaknesses? No international element of investigation? They don't say.
They insist that ‘truth is a pre-condition of reconciliation’ which any system must indeed encourage, but they do so without answering the vexed question of how. Do they still hanker after the restoration of trials? If they do, why not spell it out? Or do they concede that the evidence for successful prosecutions isn't available?
They criticise the unionist Malone House Group and its supporters for promoting a ‘two tribes version’ of the Troubles and diverting attention away from state culpability. Arguably the Group makes too much of the dominance of the republican narrative of the Troubles. But pressure for state disclosure will not go away.
The professors are on strong ground in arguing in favour of dialogue. The Commission is not the only institution able to encourage this, both in private and open forums. The PSNI's initiative in starting a dialogue with collusion victims is surely worthy of support? It will not survive without access and candour.
The fundamental issue of course is the requirement for all sides to disclose and the absence so far of either compelling pressure or incentive to do so, with or without legal process.
Are PSNI and ICRIR fit enough for purpose?
The PSNI with a continuing, but impossibly burdensome obligation to investigate is displaying its’ independence by calling out MI5 for dragging its feet over Kenova. This is probably only the tip of a much bigger institutional state iceberg. Changing it is probably the British government's most dauting task even if it has the stomach to try. Remarkably , the Commission (ICRIR?) believes it will succeed.
Progress is slow. 85 inquiries from victims leading to 8 investigations by last September are the only figures I've seen. But at least paramilitary omerta and state guilt are both being eroded by a combination of faction fighting, powerful journalism and public pressure arising from favourable court decisions.
The professors highlight all the objections to the discredited Legacy Act. But even they are not - at least here - arguing for a full restoration of legal process. That option is closed. Let's see what the Commission (ICRIR?) comes up with before dismissing it.
This at least seems to be the UK government's view, when to the fury of the entire nationalist establishment, they rejected the court's recommendation of a public inquiry into the murder of GAA official Sean Browne suspected by the notorious renegade RUC Glenanne gang, leaving it open for the Legacy Commission to take it on by default. Not the most enticing of invitations but the hardest test yet of the Commission's public viability".
And, in the absence of any viable alternative, the profs are certainly right to insist on transparency and independence in any state sponsored version of the Troubles, including the proposed official history of British state strategy.
Brian Walker
Apartments plan for bonfire site stalls over capacity for wastewater
Conor Coyle, Irish News, July 8th, 2025
PLANS for the development of 115 new apartments on vacant wasteground in east Belfast currently occupied by a massive bonfire have stalled due to a lack of wastewater capacity in the area.
Safety concerns have been raised by residents in the area about damage to individuals and to homes in the area around the bonfire site on the London Road in east Belfast.
Planning permission to build the apartment block on the site was approved in September 2024 and plans included a number of social housing units, but work has yet to begin on their construction.
The Irish News understands delays to the development have been caused due to issues with Northern Ireland Water’s wastewater capacity, which has held up developments across the north in recent years.
The waste ground has seen multiple reports of anti-social behaviour in the area recently, while it’s understood concerns have been raised with the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service over the building of a bonfire at the site in close proximity to a number of houses.
The 140-pallet high pyre is due to be lit alongside others ahead of the annual Twelfth celebrations this weekend.
The owners of the ground, property developers DLL Properties, declined to comment on the development when approached by The Irish News.
An NI Water spokesperson said it has worked alongside the developers to come up with a solution to the wastewater issue.
“The proposed development is in an area where the foul sewer network is constrained due to capacity constraints,” a statement said.
“The developer has engaged with NI Water through its wastewater impact assessment process to come up with a solution.
“In this case the developer is undertaking the removal of storm water from the existing NI Water foul/combined sewer to provide capacity for a foul only connection.”
Multi-millionaire Mobuoy crooks will be free in months - but clean up will take years
Sam McBride, Northern Editor, Belfast Telegraph, July 8th, 2025
EX-MINISTER SAYS DPP DECIDING NOT TO APPEAL LENGTH OF TERMS A 'SORRY STATE'
Prosecutors have refused to appeal the sentences of the two businessmen who enriched themselves by creating the biggest illegal dump in the UK — meaning they'll both be out of jail by next year.
The crooks are believed to have pulled in tens of millions of pounds from burying waste — some highly toxic — on land at Mobuoy just outside Londonderry.
The dump is polluting both above and below the water table, and is leaching contamination into the River Faughan, from which drinking water is drawn.
That contamination is a potential threat to human health until about 2140, experts believe, and is likely to cost taxpayers more than £100m to even make partially safe.
Yet the criminals responsible are now sure to be out of jail shortly.
When sentenced by His Honour Judge Rafferty KC in June, Campsie Sand and Gravel Ltd director Paul Doherty (67), of Culmore Road in Derry, and City Industrial Waste Ltd director Gerry Farmer (56), of Westlake in the city, received short jail sentences. Doherty was given a 12-month term but will serve only half that in jail, meaning he will be out for Christmas.
Farmer got 21 months. He'll also only serve half that time in jail, so will be out of prison in 10 and a half months.
Those sentences contrast starkly with the jail time other judges have handed out for far lesser offences.
Penalising the Poor
In 2016, a Belfast man was jailed for a month for stealing two steaks and two candles from Tesco.
Two years ago, a Belfast man was sentenced to eight months in jail for stealing £8,000 of designer clothing to help feed a drug addiction.
In January, a Belfast woman who stole £2,000 of Victoria's Secret pyjamas was jailed for seven months.
Judges have to consider a multitude of factors, including past convictions, and some of those jailed for minor thefts had extensive criminal records.
Judges have to take into consideration guideline judgments from the Court of Appeal, but — unlike England and Wales — Northern Ireland does not have clear Crown Court sentencing guidelines set by a sentencing council.
Former Minister questions leniency shown polluters
Nevertheless, the Mobuoy sentences were challenged by Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan, a former environment minister.
In a letter to the SDLP MLA, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said that the Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Herron, had decided not to appeal the verdict. The letter from Mr Herron's deputy, Michael Agnew, said: “Having carefully considered all relevant materials the director has concluded this is not a case where he should exercise his power to refer the sentences to the Court of Appeal on the basis that they were unduly lenient,” adding that there would not be “a proper legal basis” to do so.
He said the judge cut the original sentence by 25% because the two men had — after years of lying about their involvement — eventually pleaded guilty.
He explained the judge cut a further six months from the sentences due to the failure of the justice system to ensure the case was dealt with in a reasonable period of time, something which meant their human rights were undermined.
Mr Herron said that he asked a KC for a view on the sentences and their view was that they wouldn't be found to be unduly lenient if taken to the Court of Appeal. The letter said: “It will not be sufficient if the court considers that the sentence was simply lenient or that another judge might have reached a different view. Rather, the sentence will only be found to be 'unduly lenient' if it is one that is outside the range of sentences a judge could reasonably have imposed, having regard to the relevant law and sentencing guidelines.”
The letter accepted that “an argument could have been made for the starting point to have been set even higher having regard to the scale of the offending in this particular case”.
Manifestly unfair sentecing
Disagreeing with the decision, Mr Durkan said that “prison sentences of 12 and 21 months for the largest ever illegal waste dump ever found on these islands were manifestly unduly lenient”.
“The failure to refer Mobuoy to the Court of Appeal says to waste criminals that the opportunity to make millions from waste crime — over £42m at Mobuoy — is well worth the risk when the courts and the prosecution service believe 12 and 21 months in prison (before remission) is the measure of the crime.
“This has been a bonanza week for waste criminals. The failure of the PPS to refer the Mobuoy sentences to the Court of Appeal and a withering NI Audit Office Report on waste crime mean criminals and organised crime are laughing all the way to the bank and on to their next waste target.
“What a sorry state of affairs. I shall be writing to the PPS to challenge its decision on a number of points.” Mr Durkan said he would be challenging three elements — the PPS's acceptance that the judge had been “generous” in discounting the men's sentences, its acceptance that a higher initial sentence could have been set due to the scale of the crime, and its failure to deal with the fact that many of the delays in the case were “at the behest of the defence”.
Is pollution control a waste of time?
A PPS spokesperson said that “while sentencing is a matter for the independent judiciary”, the DPP had the power to ask the Court of Appeal to consider what it believed was an unduly lenient sentence but “to be referred, a sentence must not just be lenient, but must be unduly lenient”.
Last week a scathing report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office found that Stormont's approach to waste crime is failing miserably.
It established that available profits from the illegal dumping outweighed the potential sanctions by 17 to one; fines imposed by the courts for waste disposal offences totalled approximately £1m while the total cost of legally disposing of the waste would have topped £17m.
We asked the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) if minister Andrew Muir will bring legislation to the Assembly to increase sentences for waste crime.
At the time of going to press, there had been no response.
Families to visit Tuam mass grave site ahead of excavation
Cillian Sherlock, Irish News, July 8th, 2025
FAMILIES and survivors of a notorious form;er mother and baby home in the west of Ireland are to visit the site today ahead of its major excavation next week.
The full-scale excavation of the site of St Mary’s mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway will try to identify the remains of infants who died at the home between 1925 and 1961.
In 2014, research led by local historian Catherine Corless indicated that 796 babies and young children were buried in a sewage system at the Co Galway institution across that time period.
The St Mary’s home for unmarried mothers and their children was run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a religious order of Catholic nuns.
In 2021, Taoiseach Micheál Martin delivered an apology on behalf of the state for the treatment of women and children who were housed in mother and baby homes across Ireland.
The Bon Secours Sisters also offered a “profound apology” after acknowledging the order had “failed to protect the inherent dignity” of women and children in the Tuam home.
Speaking to the PA news agency yesterday, Ms Corless said she found it “overwhelming” to see the excavation work proceed after her 10-year campaign.
Putting a wrong right
“There was no will to do anything for those babies except leave them there and put a monument over them.
“But this was a sewer system and I couldn’t give up on them. They were all baptised, they deserve to be in consecrated ground.”
Ms Corless said it was a “huge relief” to be able to “let go and back off”, after being faced with obstacles in her campaign from people she initially thought would be helpful.
“It is huge for me to know those babies are finally going to get the dignity they deserve – it is a wrong put right.”
Anna Corrigan, who discovered that she had two older brothers who were born while her mother was a resident at the Tuam home, visited the site yesterday.
Speaking to reporters, she said: “These children were denied every human right in their lifetime, as was their mothers. They were denied dignity – and they were denied dignity and respect in death. So I’m hoping that today maybe will be the start of hearing them because I think they’ve been crying for an awful long time to be heard.”
The work at the burial site, which is being undertaken by the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention Tuam (ODAIT), will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible and re-interment of the remains at the site.
Yesterday, ODAIT held a media briefing which gave members of the press access to the site.
The site, surrounded by a 2.4 metre-high hoarding, is subject to security monitoring on a 24-hour basis to ensure the forensic integrity of the site during the excavation.
Stormont urged to remove a ‘cruel’ clause in mother and baby homes bill
Rebecca Black, Irish News and Belfast Telegraph, July 8th, 2025
STORMONT has been urged to remove a “cruel clause” that “writes out” thousands of women, girls and their children in a mother and baby homes bill.
Campaigners, including survivors of the homes run by the Catholic Church, religious orders, some Protestant denominations as well as the State, and relatives, gathered at Parliament Buildings yesterday.
More than 14,000 women and girls are thought to have passed through the institutions, with many found to have been mistreated, held against their will and forced to give up their children for adoption.
The Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill was introduced at the assembly earlier this year, and is being scrutinised by the Executive Office Committee.
The bill is to establish a statutory public inquiry and a statutory redress scheme, with a payment of £10,000 to be made to eligible claimants, and a £2,000 payment to eligible family members on behalf of a loved one who has died since September 29 2011.
Adele Johnston, of Birthmothers and their Children for Justice NI, described the 2011 cut-off date as “cruel”.
“On one hand we are pleased we have finally got as far as the legislation being written but there needs to be a lot of work done to make it acceptable to victims and survivors,” she said.
Lot more to be done
“There are a lot of aspects that need to be discussed and hopefully amended.
“We are quite hopeful going forward, but it all depends on their decisions at the end of the day.
“It’s been a long, long campaign, and a long, hard campaign, jumping through hoops, meeting ministers, baring our souls to the public. It’s not easy. But with one cruel clause in the bill, they have written out thousands of women, girls and their children.
“The 2011 date for posthumous claims is utterly unacceptable and we will continue to fight that.”
Roisin and Lisa Morris were among those who attended Stormont yesterday.
Their mother Madeline Morris was sent to the Marianville Mother and Baby Home on the Ormeau Road in south Belfast when she was 18, after becoming pregnant, and forced to give her baby up for adoption.
Mrs Morris died in 1992, and the bill as it is currently written will not recognise her.
“That’s why we’re here today,” Roisin Morris said, adding that they had not found out what happened to their mother until her first child came searching for her last year.
Lisa Morris said: “As things stand at the minute, our mummy won’t be recognised, and it’s very unfair, so we’re going to be her voice.”
Meanwhile, the Executive Office Committee has made an appeal to hear from people directly affected by the Bill, and is holding a series of events.
Committee chairwoman Paula Bradshaw said: “This is a bill to make provision relating to one of the most distressing and hurtful episodes in Northern Ireland’s history.
“At this stage, the committee’s role is to ensure that the bill leads to the creation of a truth and redress scheme that is strong, robust, fit for purpose, and capable of delivering the greatest possible impact.
“Getting the foundations of the Inquiry and the Redress Scheme right is essential, and the Committee takes this responsibility extremely seriously.
“Whilst personal narratives and testimony are not the focus at this stage, they remain a vital part of the broader context, having significantly informed the Bill’s creation and will help us in our role of scrutinising this important piece of legislation.”
Aidan McAnespie’s nephew and Tyrone minor teammates honour GAA man shot dead by British army
By Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, July 8th, 2025
ALL-IRELAND WINNING TYRONE TEAM STOP AT BORDER MONUMENT
July 07, 2025 at 3:09pm BSTA nephew of Aidan McAnespie was among the triumphant All-Ireland winning minor squad to visit the spot where the GAA man was shot dead by the British army almost 40 years ago.
Darren McAnespie was joined by his teammates at a monument to Mr McAnespie near Aughnacloy on Sunday.
His teammate Vincent Gormley, whose father Brian Gormley is a cousin of Mr McAnespie, also proudly took his place at the memorial.
Earlier in the day, both teenagers were part of the Red Hand squad to beat Kerry in the minor decider in Co Kildare.
On the way back to their home county the entire winning team lined up with the Tom Markham Cup at the spot where Mr McAnespie fell.
It has become a tradition for All-Ireland winning Tyrone teams to stop at the roadside monument to Mr McAnespie in recent years.
The 23-year-old was shot dead close to a checkpoint in Aughnacloy in February 1988 as he made his way to Aghaloo GAC’s grounds.
In 2023 former British soldier David Holden was given a suspended sentence for the manslaughter of Mr McAnespie, who was unarmed when he was shot.
Holden, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, was the first British soldier to be convicted of a conflict-related killing since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1988.
Call for ‘sickening’ SAS flag mocking death of IRA men to be taken down
Connla Young, Irish News, July 8th, 2025
THERE have been calls for a “sickening” SAS flag to be removed from a Co Tyrone village where three IRA men where shot dead.
The appearance of the SAS themed flag, which mocks the deaths of three republicans in the village of Coagh, has been branded “sectarian”.
The recently erected flag include the words ‘SAS 3 – IRA 0’ and includes the British army unit’s distinctive ‘winged dagger’ crest.
In June 1991 three IRA members Pete Ryan, Lawrence McNally and Tony Doris were killed during an SAS ambush when the car they were travelling in was raked with gunfire.
The republicans are believed to have been on their way to shoot a UDR soldier before they were killed.
Relatives of the dead believe their loved ones were the victims of a shoot-to-kill operation.
Last year a coroner concluded that the British soldiers were justified in their use of force.
Mid Ulster Sinn Féin mla Linda Dillon has now called for the removal of the flag.
“These sickening flags are clearly intended to retraumatise the families of three men killed in a horrific attack by the SAS in Coagh,” she said.
“I have contacted the PSNI to request their immediate removal.
“There is no place for this kind of disgraceful sectarian behaviour in our society, particularly the targeting of victims.”
A spokesman for the PSNI said: “Police have been made aware of a flag on display in the Hanover Square area of Coagh.
“Every case reported to police is considered on an individual basis and, where offences have been committed, they will be dealt with.
“Our Neighbourhood Policing Team officers will continue to engage with local community representatives and partner agencies around any complaints about flags.”
Glasgow air gun attack an example of ‘anti-Protestant, anti-Orange hatred’ says Order
Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, August 8th, 2025
THE Orange Order in Scotland has claimed an apparent air gun attack on band members is an example of “a rising tide of anti-Protestant and anti-Orange hatred” in the country.
Scottish police are investigating after four people taking part in an Orange Order procession were hit with what are believed to be air weapon pellets.
The parade was passing along Sauchiehall Street near Kelvingrove Street in Glasgow when the incident happened on Saturday.
The Orange other said four members of a flute band and members of the order were struck by someone “hiding in a nearby building site” who used a “high-pressure gas-powered gun to fire pellets directly at marchers”.
“Let us be absolutely clear, this was no prank,” a spokesman said.
Police described the incident as a ‘dangerous occurrence’
Motivated by hatred
“This was a deliberate act of violence motivated by hatred. It was a calculated assault on a law-abiding religious and cultural community. It is the latest – and most disturbing – example of a rising tide of anti-Protestant and anti-Orange hatred in Scotland. And yet, disgracefully, there has been almost total silence from those who should be leading the charge against such bigotry.”
The Orange Order has called for a strong political and police response.
“And let us say this, the Orange Order and the broader PUL [Protestant Unionist Loyalist] community are no strangers to bias, exclusion, and hostility in modern Scotland,” it said.
“From local councils refusing to support legitimate cultural celebrations, to media outlets portraying us as something to be ashamed of, to social media mobs who believe that attacks on Protestants are not only acceptable but humorous – we are increasingly being treated as a community that doesn’t matter.
“Well, we do matter. And we will not be silenced.”
Pride organiser offers to meet person who allegedly spread slurry in town on day of parade
Mark Robinson, Irish News, July 8th, 2025
ONE of the organisers behind the first Pride parade to take place in Ballymena has said that they would “like to meet” the individual spreading slurry on part of the route in an attempt to disrupt the event.
The first Mid and East Antrim (MEA) Pride parade was held in the town on June 28, with hundreds coming out to line the route and take part in the procession.
Prior to the event taking place, slurry was sprayed on one of the roads in what police described as suspected hate crime. Officers later arrested two men in relation to the incident.
Isaac Adams (19), from Lislaban Road in Cloughmills, appeared in Coleraine Magistrates’ Court on June 30 where he confirmed his identity and that he understood the three charges against him.
These related to causing criminal damage, causing manure to be deposited on the road and possessing a bladed article.
He has since been released on bail.
Separately, a 20-year-old man who was arrested following the incident was earlier released on police bail.
In a statement posted by MEA Pride, an organiser said that they have “no hatred in [their] hearts” and that they would “like to meet the individual involved”.
Nothing to fear
“I’d like to meet the individual involved at some stage to show them that they have nothing to fear with a Pride celebration in Ballymena,” the statement said.
“For some people they’ve never experienced out and proud members of our community, they see fear of the unknown as the true threat.
“We are not a threat. We are your neighbours, the guy who serves you every morning in your local supermarket, the carers and doctors of your loved ones and more.
“We’re not expecting the individual to be out waving a rainbow flag at Broadway next year, we are only asking for respect for our right to exist. There’s enough room for all of us.”
MEA Pride thanked the local businesses, community groups and organisations who supported their first parade and those who came out to support on the day.
