‘No area should have less than 20% from one community’ says Pivotal think-tank while future of Schools and Maze Prison site remain contested
‘No Northern Ireland housing area should have less than 20% from one community’
says Pivotal think tank three years after Stormont passed Integrated Education Act passed
By John Manley, Politics Correspondent, Irish News, March 13th, 2025
The Stormont Executive has been urged to set targets to break down sectarian barriers in housing and education.
A new report from centrist think tank Pivotal also calls for agreed definitions for terms such as integration, reconciliation and sharing, arguing that while there will always be differences of opinion and preference, clarity of language will make the process easier.
Pivotal argues that targets must be set to reduce the number of districts with less than 20% of residents from one of what it terms “the two main traditions”.
The think tank also advocates a series of measures to increase the appetite for and access to integrated education, including clustering shared housing projects and integrated schools, and encouraging public transport to move between single-identity areas, enabling a “more liberal flow of people”.
‘No Northern Ireland housing area should have less than 20% from one community’ says think tank
It also recommends the reduction of “paramilitary influence and visibility”, particular in single-identity areas.
Recent research conducted by Pivotal found there has been “some progress towards the ambitious vision in the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement but significant barriers remain”.
The Government has said it wants a big increase in housebuilding in the coming years
Pivotal's research found there was a historically low level of new build housing, coupled with 'long-established marking of territory and intimidatory behaviour' (Andrew Matthews/PA)
It identified practical problems, such as an acute housing shortage, as an impediment to integration, while noting that “segregation in schools and in neighbourhoods mutually reinforce each other”.
The research found there was a historically low level of new build housing, coupled with “long-established marking of territory and intimidatory behaviour in certain areas that suggest newcomers will not be welcome”.
It says demand for integrated education is not being met, with admissions data showing that around 20% of first preferences for a place at an integrated school are not able to be fulfilled.
73% of people want integrated schools
The Department of Education has said that demand for integrated school places outstrips supply in six of the region’s 11 council areas.
The survey data indicates that 73% of the population would prefer to live in a mixed neighbourhood but only 31% of people perceive their area as mixed.
The think tank notes that often the most pressure to integrate is placed on single-identity areas that are also suffering from poverty, poor health outcomes and educational underachievement.
Pivotal director Ann Watt said the research aimed to “inform and encourage discussion about how we can achieve greater integration in education and housing”.
She said most people wanted to see more mixing in schools and in housing “but the reality is our communities remain very separate”.
“Part of the reason for this is that many schools that appear segregated are simply reflective of local demographics,” she said.
“It is difficult to solve educational segregation without addressing housing and community segregation too.”
Housing crisis
Ms Watt said shared neighbourhoods with homes that people wanted to live in can have a big impact but a “significant housing crisis” meant the number required were not being built.
“Moving house is becoming less common as housing becomes more expansive. In areas of high deprivation, people’s priority is just having a roof over their heads,” she said.
“Fixing this will require infrastructure investments, particularly addressing the enormous problems in wastewater management.”
But the Pivotal director said the most important element was the need for “clear vision and leadership from politicians”.
“Achieving this kind of societal change is extremely challenging, and it will require our politicians to set an ambition and ensure it is delivered,” she said.
Attaining integrated status in NI 'has become a lot more difficult'
MINISTER'S DECISION ON TWO BANGOR SCHOOLS HAS DRAWN HEAVY CRITICISM
Mark Bain, Belfast Telegraph, March 13th, 2025
A decision to deny Northern Ireland's biggest post primary school the chance to switch to integrated status has “made things very, very difficult” for others contemplating the move, Stormont's Education Committee has been told.
Education Minister Paul Givan's decision in January to reject a bid from Bangor Academy and Sixth Form College to transform is now subject to a legal challenge, as is the decision to reject a proposal from neighbouring Rathmore Primary School.
The DUP minister's decision came despite almost 80% of parents who responded to a school ballot voting in favour of the move.
The Department of Education has received pre-action letters signalling the legal challenges to the minister's decisions in both cases.
While the Department said it would be “inappropriate to comment” given the legal action, MLAs were told that as the case is not yet live, they were free to discuss.
Chief executive of the Integrated Education Fund (IEF) Paul Caskey said he found the minister's decision on Bangor Academy “difficult to comprehend”, particularly given the Department of Education's call to meet “unmet demand” for integrated schools in areas, including Ards and North Down.
“On the one hand there was a call for schools to come forward to meet that demand, then when a school does come forward it is ignored by the minister,” he said.
“The decision has left schools in a very, very difficult position. Schools which wish to transform have a three or four year period of investment in the transition. I can fully understand why a principal at any school would think about pulling back from the process.
“We will not be deterred in trying to assist any school which does wish to seek integrated status,” he added.
“But it is certainly a more difficult environment.”
According to documents published by the Department, officials had recommended that both North Down schools be allowed to transform.
However, in rejecting the bids, the minister said there was not adequate evidence that there would be enough Catholic pupils at each school for it to provide integrated education, citing Stormont legislation which says that there should be “reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic children” in integrated schools.
Integrated schools increase diversity
“We are three years on from the Integrated Education Bill and still we are no clearer on a definition of what 'demand' is,” said Mr Caskey.
“What we have seen is that the majority of integrated schools do increase their minority, that's the general experience post transformation.”
Sean Pettis from the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education said his reading of the legislation was that 'reasonable numbers' could be achieved in the future once transformation to integrated was approved.
“This is not about the percentage at the starting point, this is a journey,” he said.
“It is about where you can get to, not where you are. The minister seems to have a different view.”
Also giving evidence was Barry Corr, principal at Seaview Primary in Glenarm which transformed to integrated status in September 2021 — the first Catholic Maintained primary school to make the switch.
Explaining the benefits he said: “Before integration we were 70% Catholic, 20% Protestant and 10% other,” he said.
“Now we are 45% Catholic, 35% Protestant and 20% other. In 2019 we had 42 pupils. CCMS wanted to close the school. Now our numbers have risen to 108.”
The legal action, which has come from two parents, one connected to each school, is supported by the schools who issued a joint statement: “In the absence of an appeals process, the Board of Governors of both schools feel that in reaching his decisions the minister has left parents no other recourse and therefore understand and support those initiating such action.”
Also giving evidence, Department of Education official James Hutchinson was unable to provide answers when questioned on the Bangor Academy decision due to the legal action.
Maze site - Shrine to Terrorism or Peace Centre?
Jonathan McCambridge, Belfast Telegraph and Irish News, March 13th, 2025
POLITICAL agreement is needed to unlock the potential for development at the site of the former Maze prison, MLAs have been told.
It came as the DUP chairman of a Stormont committee reaffirmed that his party would “continue to block any attempt by any party to develop any form of shrine to terrorism” at the site.
Plans to develop the grounds of the former prison near Lisburn in Co Antrim, which held scores of paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles, have not progressed in several years. While some of the site has been utilised for Balmoral Park for the annual agriculture show and by the Ulster Aviation Society, a large part of the grounds, including where the former prison buildings stand, remains derelict.
The DUP blocked plans to build a peace centre at the Maze in 2013 over claims it would become a “shrine to terrorism”.
The former prison only comprises part of the 347-acre site that falls under the remit of the Maze Long Kesh Development Corporation, established in 2011.
MLAs on the Economy Committee visited the location yesterday where they were given a briefing by members of the corporation.
Interim chief executive Bryan Gregory told the committee that the corporation maintained a “determined optimism” over the future of the site.
He said: “I think it is quite clear from statements made in the assembly that all parties recognise the very significant potential of this site.”
Mr Gregory said the success of the Balmoral Show, as well as the work of the air ambulance charity and the Ulster Aviation Society on the site, were an example of its potential.
The former Maze prison only makes up a part of the large site near Lisburn
However, he said an “essential” priority for development needed to be improving connectivity. He said it would take up to eight years to develop a link road to the M1.
He added: “Any future development will be dependent on being able to accommodate the additional traffic generated as a result of that.
“That is why our focus is very much on the delivery of a motorway link road.”
Alliance says site potential ‘phenomenal’
Alliance MLA David Honeyford said the potential of the site was “phenomenal” and added it was for the Executive Office to push the project forward.
He said the “elephant in the room” was how to manage what remained of the former prison buildings.
He added: “We go around the world and ask people to invest in Northern Ireland, yet we are not prepared to do it ourselves, that is the frustration.
“We have the potential sitting here but we can’t realise it,” he continued.
Mr Gregory told the committee: “We do believe that there is a means, certainly the tools are in place, to deliver the regeneration of this site.
“It is not a technical solution, we can’t walk away and do some analysis and say ‘hey presto, this is the answer to it’.
“This requires a political solution to enable the main barrier that has been in place since 2013 to be resolved.”
Committee chairman and DUP MLA Phillip Brett said: “For the record, this party will continue to block any attempt by any party to develop any form of shrine to terrorism at this site.
“That is not something I believe that the corporation board are trying to do but it is simply for the record.”
Concerns anti-immigration protests could spark violence in Belfast and Derry
ANTI-RACISM RALLY WILL ALSO TAKE PLACE AT THE SAME TIME IN BOTH CITIES
Gabrielle Swan, Belfast Telegraph, March 13th, 2025
Police have urged people to stay within the law ahead of a series of anti-immigration protests in Belfast and Londonderry later this month.
Last summer saw anti-immigration demonstrations in Belfast erupt into violence.
The rallies are due to take place on Sunday, March 23, with anti-racism counter-protests also planned in both cities for the same day, organised by groups including United Against Racism and Progressive Politics NI.
Mayor of Derry Lilian Seenoi-Barr — the first Black mayor in Northern Ireland — has called for “collective opposition” to the protests in her city .
The SDLP councillor also expressed concern at rising racist sentiment in Northern Ireland, having herself received abuse with a racist undertone online at the start of the month.
The PSNI received reports of 1,777 racist incidents in 2024, and 1,150 racist attacks — the highest figures to date.
Twenty-nine demonstrations across 27 UK cities took place during the summer last year.
It was sparked by the murder of Bebe King (6), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7) and Alice Dasilva Aguiar (9).
The girls were murdered by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport, prompting the anti-immigration protests, with some — such as in Belfast — evolving into rioting.
The teenager, now 18, is serving a minimum 52-year sentence. Recent reviews into the length of the term were rejected by the Court of Appeal last month.
A series of migrant owned shops were burnt out by racist rioters, such as Sham Supermarket and Bash Café in Sandy Row, both of which remain closed.
Sahara Shisha in Botanic was also targeted though remains open. A series of hotels were also attacked, of which housed migrants.
No justification
Said Mrs Seenoi-Barr: “It is important that any intimidation and fear is nipped in the bud at an early stage, and that the PSNI enforce the law against those involved in any incidents of racist intimidation.
“I will continue to seek assurances from the PSNI in relation to any planned protests asking them to take the appropriate measures to protect all communities.
“There is no justification for racism or for the violence and intimidation.
“I am confident that Derry, the social justice capital of the world, can be a beacon of hope by showing strong collective opposition to any type of anti-immigration protest and show its support for the local migrant community.”
A PSNI spokesperson said: “Police are aware of this scheduled event, and we will be playing our part to ensure the safety of participants and to facilitate the lawful exercise of freedom of expression.
“The right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are fundamental human rights. They are protected in law and allow individuals to engage in peaceful protest.
“However, these rights must be balanced with the need to uphold the rights of others, protect public health and safety, minimise disruption to normal life and by the need to prevent and detect crime.”
PONI reports of collusive behaviour by RUC need ‘health warnings’, says judge
Alan Erwin, Irish News, March 13th, 2025
POLICE Ombudsman reports which found collusive behaviour by RUC officers in a series of loyalist murders may require “significant health warnings”, a High Court judge said yesterday.
Mr Justice Scoffield suggested an agreed form of words could be inserted into the public statements as a remedy following his ruling that Marie Anderson exceeded her legal powers.
Last month he held that the ombudsman acted ultra vires by reaching conclusions in public statements which amounted to determinations of misconduct.
The watchdog body’s role is to investigate rather than adjudicate, the judge stressed.
It followed a legal challenge by the Northern Ireland Retired Police Officers Association to the contents of three separate reports into Troubles-era killings.
Even though the ombudsman is set to mount an appeal, lawyers on both sides returned to court yesterday as part of efforts to agree on any action needed to reflect the ruling.
Counsel for the association proposed that a copy of the judgment and explanatory notes could be included at the introduction of the reports.
Mr Justice Scoffield responded: “These documents have been out and published for some time, it’s impossible to put the genie back in the bottle completely.”
But he provisionally indicated that further steps beyond his stand-alone determination may be necessary.
“For the moment, pending appeal, the statements have to come with a significant health warning,” the judge stated.
The association has been locked in a long-running legal attempt to have the three public statements declared unlawful.
One of the cases focuses on a probe into a series of loyalist paramilitary murders in the south Belfast area between 1990 and 1998.
Sean Graham attack
In 2022 Mrs Anderson found evidence of “collusive behaviour” by police in the attacks, which included the February 1992 massacre at the Sean Graham betting shop on the Ormeau Road where UDA gunmen shot dead five Catholic victims.
Legal action was also taken over the report into the police handling of loyalist killings in the northwest region from 1989 to 1993.
A third challenge related to findings in the case of four men wrongly accused of murdering a British soldier in Derry.
Known as the Derry Four, the ombudsman concluded that RUC officers had unfairly obtained confessions from them for the killing of Lt Stephen Kirby in the city in 1979.
The four men later fled Northern Ireland until their acquittal in 1998.
The retired RUC officers claimed Mrs Anderson was legally forbidden from making findings which effectively branded them guilty of colluding in brutal terrorist murders without proper due process.
A Court of Appeal judgment in 2020 restricted her scope to accuse former police of the criminal offence of collusion with paramilitaries.
Those proceedings related to a previous case taken by retired senior policemen Raymond White and Ronald Hawthorne over the contents of former ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire’s report into the 1994 Loughinisland atrocity.
Acknowledging her limitations, Mrs Anderson said she had identified conduct within the RUC amounting to “collusive behaviours”.
PONI misunderstood role
But the association argued that she misunderstood her permitted role and cannot use that term without establishing a malign motive.
The ombudsman had wrongly labelled all police working in those areas at the relevant times as complicit with the terrorists responsible for brutal campaigns of murder, it was contended.
The legal team representing the ombudsman hit back by suggesting the retired officers were becoming “collusion deniers”.
He told the court she had carried out a forensic analysis to reach legally-sound findings, identifying behaviour indicative of collusion without being determinative.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Scoffield acknowledged each of the reports was the product of detailed investigation and significant hard work by the ombudsman and her team of officers.
Health warning
For the moment, pending appeal, the statements have to come with a significant health warning
However, he held that a distinction drawn by the ombudsman between “collusion” and “collusive behaviours” was either unsustainable or insufficiently clear.
She reached conclusions beyond a proper remit set out by the Court of Appeal, the judge found.
He ruled that the published reports represented an extension of the ombudsman’s role beyond its statutory bounds.
In court yesterday, David McMillen KC, for the association, indicated there has been a potential “meeting of minds” on the issue of further remedies.
“A copy of the judgment should be appended to each of the published reports, and a statement included in the introduction to highlight the existence of the court’s decision and key elements,” he suggested.
Adjourning proceedings for two weeks, Mr Justice Scoffield encouraged both sides to agree on a final form of relief.
Irish spoken ‘for first time’ at Question Time
Paul Ainsworth, Irish News, March 13th, 2025
SDLP leader Claire Hanna uses ‘cúpla focal’ to invite Keir Starmer to Belfast Fleadh
THE Irish language has been used for what is understood to be the first time ever during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) at Westminster by SDLP leader Claire Hanna.
The Belfast South and Mid Down MP spoke a ‘cúpla focal’ after being chosen to ask Sir Keir Starmer a question during yesterday’s House of Commons sitting.
Ms Hanna spoke in Irish to wish the house a happy Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish Language Week) and upcoming St Patrick’s Day, before inviting the prime minister to Belfast to attend the Fleadh Cheoil, which is taking place in the city for the first time in 2026.
Mr Starmer accepted the invitation and spoke of the need for a “strong and settled relationship” between the UK and Ireland.
Speaking afterwards, Ms Hanna said: “It was a fitting occasion to mark both Seachtain na Gaeilge and St Patrick’s Day by using Irish for the first time at PMQs as people around the world get ready to celebrate their Irish heritage and culture with celebrations over the next few days.”
Ms Hanna added of next year’s fleadh: “It will be a chance for people to come together to see the best of what our city has to offer and I look forward to welcoming the PM to Belfast.”
Although Ms Hanna is understood to be the first person to speak Irish during PMQs, the first recorded use of the language in the House of Commons was in 1901 by West Kerry MP Thomas O’Donnell.
Wife of Kingsmill massacre's sole survivor dies - tributes paid to Margaret Black, beloved wife of Alan
By Iain Gray, Belfast News Letter, March 12th, 2025
The wife of the sole survivor of 1976’s brutal Kingsmill Massacre has passed away.
Margaret Black, beloved wife of Alan and who raised three children with him in the aftermath of the atrocity, died peacefully surrounded by her loving family on Sunday (9th).
Late of College Square East in Bessbrook, Co Armagh, she passed away in Newry’s Daisy Hill Hospital, with the family stating her death was deeply regretted and her life “lovingly remembered by her sorrowing family circle”. The Black family have stated donations can be made in lieu to the Renal Unit at Daisy Hill Hospital.
A funeral service for family and friends took place today (12th) at 11am, followed by interment in the cemetery of Bessbrook Presbyterian Church.
A death notice described her as the “beloved wife of Alan, loving mummy to Alan, Robbie and Karen (Danny), caring Nanny to Daniel, Kyle, Evie and Korey”.
Alan Black was one of 11 Protestant textile workers whose minibus was stopped by gunmen near the village of Kingsmill in Co Armagh on January 5, 1976.
The gunmen, who have since been declared to be IRA members despite a supposed ceasefire at the time, lined the workmen alongside the minibus and shot them.
Mr Black was hit 18 times, but miraculously survived – the only member of the attacked workmen to live.
Now in his eighties and in poor health, he has been a relentless campaigner for the truth about the massacre.
Former RUC officer to be prosecuted for murder after investigation by the PONI
By Jonathan McCambridge PA. Belfast News Letter, March 13th, 2025
A former RUC officer is to be prosecuted for murder and conspiracy to murder following an investigation by the Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland.
Ombudsman Marie Anderson confirmed the prosecution following her legacy investigation, called Operation Newham, which encompasses 125 murders, largely attributed to the UVF in the mid-Ulster and South Armagh areas of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland during the 1970s.
The murder and conspiracy to murder charges relate to an incident in Northern Ireland.
The ombudsman said the former officer will also be prosecuted over an aborted attack in Ireland.
Mrs Anderson said she is pausing the publication of her Operation Newham report due to the risk of prejudicing criminal proceedings.
The probe investigated the activities of the notorious UVF Glennane Gang which was responsible for a sectarian murder campaign in the mid-1970s
Mrs Anderson said she had considered publishing a “significantly amended” public statement, but believed that “would not adequately address the complaints made by the families”.
Mrs Anderson said: “To publish the full public statement would potentially be prejudicial and I, therefore, gave careful consideration to publishing an amended form of the report.
“However, given the significant amount of linked information, such a report would be so substantially changed that it would not present a complete and comprehensive account of the investigation and could be misleading.
“It is my intention to provide as full a narrative as possible of all matters relevant to my investigation and its conclusions.
“The only viable option open to me, therefore, is to seek an extension to the timeframes permitted under the transitional arrangements of the Legacy Act for completion of reports before April 30 2025.”
Prosecution still pending
The ombudsman said she was engaging with the NIO to ask for the deadline to be extended to allow criminal proceedings to take place, after which she would deliver her full report.
Mrs Anderson said due to legal considerations, she could not provide further detail on the specific matters to which the charges relate.
A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said: “We can confirm that a decision was taken to prosecute one person reported on a file submitted by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland in connection with their Operation Newham investigation.
“The decision to prosecute the former RUC officer for offences which include murder and conspiracy to murder was taken in February 2024.
“Due to ongoing proceedings the PPS is unable to comment any further at this time.”
Under laws passed as part of the Legacy Act, no fresh prosecutorial decisions on legacy cases can be taken after April 30 2024.
‘Answers needed’ on how PSNI officer off sick was employed by ICRIR legacy body
By Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, March 13th, 2025
A legacy body has been urged to explain how a PSNI officer was recruited to work for it while still on the police payroll.
Concerns have been raised after it emerged that a senior officer has been suspended as part of an investigation into double jobbing allegations.
It has been reported that the officer was off sick while at the same time working for the contentious Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), set up last year after the introduction of the Legacy Act.
The law was opposed by victims’ groups in Northern Ireland and all the main political parties at Stormont
The Court of Appeal later found that a British government veto over sensitive material that can be disclosed by the commission to relatives of the dead is not compatible with human rights laws.
Many people impacted by the Troubles are strongly opposed to the ICRIR, believing it to be part of British government attempts to protect state participants from accountability.
While the British government plans to repeal the Act, it intends to retain the ICRIR.
Its chief commissioner is former Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, while ex-senior police officer Peter Sheridan heads its investigations.
Concerns over potential conflicts of interest
Concerns were raised last month after it emerged that ten former RUC officers and staff are employed by the commission.
At the time Daniel Holder, of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, suggested “conflicts of interest can arise if you are involved in investigation engaging the actions of an institution you were part of.”
Mr Holder has now questioned how a PSNI staff member also held a role at the commission.
“It is difficult to comprehend how the vetting procedures of the ICRIR did not pick up that an applicant was still working for someone else, and in particular another agency where conflicts of interest considerations would obviously kick in,” he said.
“The ICRIR should really be transparent and explain what has happened here.”
A spokeswoman for the ICRIR said: “The Commission does not comment on employment issues concerning individuals.
“The employment of all staff is governed by open, transparent, and accountable mechanisms.
“All recruitment processes are carried out in accordance with the ICRIR Code of Conduct, the ICRIR Declaration and Management of Outside Interest Policy, and approved government vetting procedures, that remain under review in line with best practice.”
A spokeswoman for the PSNI said: “An officer is suspended pending the outcome of criminal and misconduct proceedings.
“As these proceedings are ongoing, we will not be making further comment.”
