North’s violent post-conflict society isn't down to one factor

Allison Morris, Belfast Telegraph, August 26th, 2025,

The death of a man in Newcastle, Co Down brings to nine the number of people murdered in Northern Ireland in the last two months alone.

The pensioner in his 80s has been named locally as Sean Small, with police confirming a murder investigation is under way.

While the circumstances of his death have yet to be made public, the victim was well known to police and was previously convicted of child sex abuse. In total, it brings to a dozen the grim toll of people murdered here since the start of the year.

The murder of the Co Down pensioner comes just days after that of Shane Lowry in Twinbrook.

The man in his 30s was fatally stabbed on Thursday. His brother Martin has been charged by police with his murder.

Since the start of the year there have been four females and eight males murdered, among them two children.

Vanessa Whyte and her children James (14) and Sara (13) were shot dead in a murder-suicide in Maguiresbridge in Co Fermanagh.

The children's father Ian Rutledge turned the weapon on himself and died in hospital a few days later.

On June 28, mother-of-two Sarah Montgomery was found dead at her home in Elmfield Walk, Donaghadee. Ms Montgomery died with her unborn son Liam Arthur.

The geographical spread of the murders covers Belfast, Co Down, Co Fermanagh, Co Armagh and Co Derry.

The victims range in age from 13 years old to the eldest being in his 80s.

The increase in violent crime in Northern Ireland is a cause for concern.

Last year murders doubled

Last year there were 16 people murdered in Northern Ireland, double the number of murders recorded in 2023.

Explaining the increase in violent crime requires taking a number of factors into consideration.

We live in a post-conflict society and one that has a history of armed violence.

But can that history really excuse the rise in murders over 30 years after the paramilitary ceasefires?

While the political situation has changed, the hangover from that time is still very much evident in many aspects of society.

Mental health caused by generational trauma is now a recognised condition.

Northern Ireland has a pitiful record when it comes to dealing with mental illness, with lengthy waiting lists and a shortage of residential treatment facilities.

There is also a significant issue with drug use and addiction, with an over reliance on prescription medication.

While the vast majority of those suffering trauma or addiction will never show violent tendencies, there are clearly missed opportunities and a gap in the kind of services that will identify those who do pose a risk to themselves or others.

Several of the murders in the last two years involved people who were already known to the statutory agencies, prison service or police as having severe mental health issues.

Policing in Northern Ireland was once almost solely focused on the security situation.

While things have changed, there is still work to do in the community policing sector to identify risk.

There needs to be a joined-up approach to identify those who pose a danger much earlier.

And then there is the deterrent - lengthy sentences that fit the crime.

A criminal justice response that sends a clear signal to those who lift a knife, a gun or their hands to another, that they will spend a lengthy time in prison as a result.

Blue-green algae: List of five demands to fix Lough Neagh

By Grainne Ni Aodha and Rebecca Black, PA, Belfast News Letter, August 26th, 2025

​A rally has been held at Lough Neagh over the environmental crisis facing the UK's largest freshwater lake.

Blue-green algae returned to Lough Neagh last week for the third summer in a row, with some describing the current levels as the worst they have seen.

An overpowering smell from the algae was noticeable at Battery Harbour in Cookstown, near a popular campsite.

Local residents, swimmers and fishermen attended the demonstration yesterday organised by the Save Lough Neagh coalition.

Protestors called for five demands to be met during the rally at the Finn McCool statue on the shores of the lough in Antrim.

They want:

Fines and penalties for “major polluters”;

A well-funded public water service;

An end to the exploitation of Lough Neagh through sand-dredging;

Investment into research and recovery actions for the lough; and

Protections for the natural environment.

Polluters

Nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertiliser running off fields and from wastewater treatment are said to be a contributory factor in the blue-green algae blooms.

The spread of the invasive zebra mussel species is also understood to have played a role in the blooms, because they have made the water clearer, allowing more sunlight to penetrate, stimulating an increase in algal photosynthesis.

Climate change is another factor as water temperatures rise.

The condition of the lough has resulted in the eel-fishing season to be cut short this summer.

The blue-green algae has also spread to other waterways, causing two north coast beaches to close for bathing at the weekend.

Last week Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister Andrew Muir said he was “determined to turn the situation around” and the assembly has agreed to a Lough Neagh action plan.

The protest was told that the agreed action plan does not go far enough and Mr Muir needed to “put the environment first for once”.

The local fishing group Western Shore Angling said more locals needed to attend protests about Lough Neagh.

“Unfortunately the people who are shouting from the rooftops and commenting underneath every post about the situation failed to show up and attend,” they said in a post on Facebook.

Irish presidential race shines a big spotlight on Sinn Féin’s lack of a serious candidate

John Manley, Political Correspondent, Irish News, August 26th, 2025

ANALYSIS

It’s unlike Sinn Féin not to have a finalised plan and for everybody within its ranks to be on the same page, yet in regards to running a candidate in the Irish presidential race, the party appears all at sea.

No more than 11 weeks from polling day, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said a decision on whether or not to run a candidate will be made next month. Some may try to cast this as the party playing its cards close to its chest, or as an indication of ongoing internal debate. However, the stalling and indecision suggests something more simple: the party can’t identify anybody who’ll mount a serious challenge.

Sinn Féin isn’t unique in this regard. It’s a dilemma that faced Labour, which ultimately chose not to run Ivana Bacik and instead back former member Catherine Connolly. Fianna Fáil too is unable to identify a suitable candidate, creating a vacuum in which its former leader Bertie Ahern may well emerge as the frontrunner among its supporters.

Senator Frances Black would’ve been an independent candidate that Sinn Féin could have enthusiastically supported but she ruled herself out in June, meaning the party would either have to find its own candidate or back someone with broad support on the left.

Sinn Féin has only ever contested two presidential elections – in 2011 and 2018.

In the former, Martin McGuinness, then serving as deputy first minister in the Stormont Executive, received a respectable 13.7% of first preference votes, though that was roughly a third of winner Michael D Higgins’ total and around half that received by independent Sean Gallagher.

When President Higgins won his second term in 2018, Sinn Féin’s Liadh Ní Riada polled less than half that of Mr McGuinness’s showing at 6.4%, trailing in fourth place behind Gallagher and fellow independent Peter Casey.

There are many considerations in deciding whether to run or not. In terms of campaigning, it is costly and demanding on party resources.

Coming so soon after the Republic’s general election, there’s unlikely to be much appetite among any of the parties for getting out on the doors, unless they genuinely believe their candidate is in with a serious shout.

“Whoever is selected needs to be free of controversy, have a strong public profile and, preferably, not have any other political commitments

Each party must also think about how defeat will reflect on their brand.

But arguably the biggest challenge is finding a suitable candidate, a problem which Sinn Féin appears unlikely to overcome. Whoever is selected needs to be free of controversy, have a strong public profile and, preferably, not have any other political commitments.

“The real difficulty for Sinn Féin is who they put up as a candidate,” says Irish News columnist Brian Feeney.

“That person has to be well known – in other words, it has to be Mary Lou McDonald.”

Yet he is not confident of Mrs Mc-Donald’s prospects.

“A month ago, I wrote that if she stands she’ll probably lose – if she stands now, she’ll definitely lose,” he says.

The Humphrey Factor

Mr Feeney cites support for former Fine Gael minister Heather Humphries as one clear obstacle to a Mary Lou McDonald victory but also raises concerns about how the Sinn Féin president would manage her transition from leader of the Dáil opposition to presidential candidate, and potentially back again.

“Presidential candidates are usually retired or a grandee within the party so it’s unclear what Mary Lou McDonald does in these circumstances – does she resign as leader, because I believe that would be the end of her,” he says.

“And Sinn Féin need Mary Lou, as she’s their best campaigner; she saved the party from pretty poor returns last November.”

Mr Feeney believes Sinn Féin should throw its lot behind Catherine Connolly rather than putting forward a candidate who “won’t cut the mustard”.

Fellow Irish News columnist David McCann finds it “odd” that Mrs McDonald is still being touted as a candidate this late in the race to the Áras.

“The presidency, while an important symbolic position, is just a symbolic position, and Mary Lou MacDonald was a contender for taoiseach just a few months back, and she’s the opposition leader,” he says.

“I’m not sure why she would step away from that to run for the presidency. It sends the wrong message about how credible Sinn Féin thinks its chances are of getting into government at the next general election.”

The Slugger O’Toole deputy editor argues that only Michelle O’Neill has a stature that comes close to the party leader but that a poor election would “damage her political standing”.

“The fact is they don’t have someone who would be seen as a natural fit for the presidency,” he says.

“I believe that because it’s so soon after the general election, many parties are struggling to find a candidate.”

Mr McCann, like Mr Feeney, believes that ultimately Sinn Féin will end up endorsing Catherine Connolly.

The pain Bertie Ahern caused to this country is not forgotten

Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times, August 26th, 2025

Good morning, John. Did you know there’s a fella hiding in your kitchen cabinet who wants you to “guess which footballer’s been caught with his pants down again”?

As John and his unnamed female partner go about the business of preparing breakfast, he opens the pantry door. Inside, sitting at a little table drinking a cup of tea is a scrunched-up little man in a suit and tie, squeezed between the carrots and the biscuits. Bertie Ahern, for it is he, says: “Never thought I’d end up here, but I’ve the latest on today’s big match.”

He never thought he’d end up there, making an eejit of himself as a shill for Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World – a rag so rotten that Murdoch had to kill it off in 2011. And it’s easy to imagine the creative types in the ad agency brainstorming the idea: “Nah, he’d never do it, would he? I mean it’s not so long ago since he was taoiseach, right?” And: “Well, he does like a dig-out . . .”

The weird thing about the ad is that it ends up as a micro horror movie. After John closes the door on Bertie, he looks queasy. He turns to his partner and asks: “Love, will you finish the breakfast?”

The subliminal message from the ad-makers seems to be: even this poor guy couldn’t stomach the sight of such self-abasement.

Yet it seems that a lot of people in Fianna Fáil think it’s now time to take Bertie out of the pantry and put him into the Áras. According to Mary Regan, who has been canvassing the views of the party’s backbenchers for the Sunday Independent, “‘He would walk it’ is the unanimous view”.

One TD told her that “people have moved on from the harsh view of wanting to hang him for everything. It’s now recognised that the financial crash was more of a global event”.

The presidency is ultimately about one thing: national dignity. We are (in principle) a republic of equals. We don’t have a monarchy, titles or an aristocracy. But we have one office whose holder has the job of embodying the notion that we can hold our heads up, not with arrogance or vanity but with self-respect.

And every holder of the office has done that. Some have been dull, but all have been dignified. It is worth remembering that one of them, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, felt he had to resign in 1976 when he was subjected to a loutish attack by Paddy Donegan, then the minister for defence. Ó Dálaigh did so, as he put it, “to protect the dignity and independence of the presidency as an institution”.

The opposite of national dignity is national humiliation. The News of the World ad resonated because it dramatised the way Ahern had belittled public office and degraded the State. It is actually tempting to want Fianna Fáil to nominate him for the presidency, because we do perhaps need a sharp reminder of what collective shame feels like.

If the TD who thinks that “people have moved on” into amnesia is correct, it might be no bad thing to recollect what it is we are supposed to have moved on from. A Bertie campaign would be a live episode of television’s Reeling in the Years, and what would be reeled in would look like a mass fish-kill on the Blackwater.

Stomach turned

What we might be forced to relive is a double indignity. There is the ignominy of a minister for finance who lined his own pockets with donations from wealthy individuals.

In explaining to the Mahon tribunal why he gave Ahern money, one businessman, Barry English, encapsulated the culture in which this happened: “I work in the construction industry and my clients are developers and the like, and I don’t think it does me any harm to be known as a friend of Bertie Ahern’s.”

The other side of this equation was equally well summed up in English’s recollection of what Ahern said to him when he handed over the money: “Thanks very much and I’ll sort you out.”

If citizens don’t have their stomach turned like John’s in the News of the World ad by the memory of this denigration of public office, then they will surely remember their own humiliation. Bertie stood down before the crash of 2008, but he was more responsible for it than anyone else.

This was not just because of his idolisation of the bankers, especially ‘Seanie’ Fitzpatrick of Anglo Irish Bank, and developers who shaped the disaster. (One of the nightmarish flashbacks of a Bertie campaign would be his special guest in the palace of Westminster when he addressed a joint session of the UK parliament in 2007: the egregious developer Seán Dunne.)

The whole disaster (now, apparently, to be whitewashed as a “global event” for which no one in Ireland was really responsible) was made possible by the corrosive effect of political corruption on financial regulation over the years – banks that became casinos, regulators who had reason to fear that the fingerprints of their political masters might be all over fraudulent schemes.

Dead banks

And all this resulted in the ultimate national humiliation: the loss of our sovereignty. We became wards of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. The Irish budget was scrutinised by a committee of the Bundestag in Berlin before it was submitted to the Dáil. We had to meekly hand over our national pension fund so that it could be pumped into dead private banks.

This was personal. People lost their houses. They took their own lives. And the pain is not forgotten. Listen to the brilliant CMAT singing: “All the big boys/ All the Berties/ All the envelopes, yeah they hurt me/ I was 12 when the das started killing themselves all around me . . .”

Tucked away in the public memory of national indignity and private shame, there’s Bertie, crouched at his little table. Does Fianna Fáil seriously want to open that door and let him out?