CLAUDIA SAVAGE, Irish News, November 14th, 2026
THERE was an “absolute failure” of counter-terror policing prior to the Omagh bomb atrocity, a former senior investigating officer has said.
Norman Baxter, former head of the Serious Crime Branch at the PSNI, also said there was a “Garda-MI5 source” involved in carrying out the attack.
A legal representative for some bereaved families has reiterated calls for the Irish Government to conduct its own public inquiry, saying evidence heard thus far raises “very serious allegations about the role of Irish State agencies” into the worst single atrocity in the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
On August 15 1998, a dissident republican car bombing in Omagh killed 29 people, including a woman who was pregnant with twins.
The Omagh Bombing Inquiry, chaired by Lord Turnbull, is holding evidential hearings in Belfast.
Counsel to the inquiry, Paul Greaney KC, read a section of Mr Baxter’s statement to the inquiry where he outlines his “strong indications that the Garda and the Irish Republic had knowledge of dissident Republican activity” which was not shared with the RUC or the PSNI prior to or after August 15.
Mr Baxter had told the inquiry on Thursday that he believed “a human intelligence source” had driven the car across the border from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland.
Yesterday, he clarified: “I should have concluded that the assessment is that that source was a Garda-MI5 source, and that’s part of the reasoning in relation to referring to the Irish Republic.”
Mr Greaney said Mr Baxter had been “careful not to name” the source and claimed there is “a good reason why we’re not identifying that person”.
The barrister established Mr Baxter’s position that “intelligence was held about those who carried out the Omagh bombing in relation to earlier attacks that they had carried out”, to which the former officer agreed.
PIRA and state involvement with dissidents
The inquiry was then played a number of contemporaneous news reports about the Omagh bomb in which journalists referred to members of the Provisional IRA moving to or working in collaboration with dissident republican groups.
Mr Greaney posited that “if the media knew all of those things, one would have expected UK state authorities to have known even more”.
He asked Mr Baxter: “If the state knew who was carrying out these attacks, why was that group, why were those individuals not disrupted before the 15 of August 1998?”
Mr Baxter told the inquiry: “This was about risk management.
Norman Baxter, the former head of PSNI Serious Crime Branch, says there was a ‘Garda-MI5 source’ involved in carrying out the Omagh bombing in August 1998
“All policing is about risk, and the risk was increasing from 97 from the splits within republicanism, and the risks increased over the summer, and then Omagh happened, so in my view, there’s a failure of risk management. There’s a failure of addressing the risk.
“And the inquiry may be looking at why that happened, but from a policing point of view, it was a failure to deal with the emerging and increasing threat.”
He added: “I’m very proud of my time in the police, but this was a failure at leadership, a failure at government level, it just should not have happened.
“These people should have been intervened, and then the weight of two state intelligence organisations, the Republic and the United Kingdom, with all the apparatus they had, all the technology, their source network – these people should have been stopped, and there has to be a reason why that didn’t happen.
“Because I am confident that the Chief Constable did not intend any of this to happen, but it did happen, but there has to be a reason why effective policing was not put in place.”
‘Should have been stopped’
The former officer agreed that those responsible “should have been stopped” and said intelligence indicates that there were “ample opportunities to arrest individuals”.
“The whole purpose of counter-terrorism policing is ultimately to get a prosecution, but equally to degrade and to disrupt,” he said.
“So, if you can degrade an organisation by making an arrest, causing internal security inquiries, causing mistrust within organisations, seizing their equipment, intercepting their finance, you damage their capability and their tempo to carry out operations.
“It was an absolute failure, and it saddens me to say that, a total failure to do any of that leading up to Omagh.”
The inquiry has previously heard evidence on a number of issues relating to intelligence or information in possession of Irish police or government not being relayed to security services across the border.
In a high court proceeding in Dublin last month, it was heard that on the night before the bombing, a warning call was received by the Irish Army at Finner Camp in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, which ended with the ominous words, “Omagh, Omagh, Omagh”.
At the inquiry in Belfast, Mr Greaney asked Mr Baxter: “Are you concerned that the government of Ireland had information of relevance in the period before the Omagh bombing, so that is to say, in the week before the Omagh bombing, they had information that indicated that a bombing attack was imminent somewhere in Northern Ireland?”
Mr Baxter replied: “Yes, they were aware that a bomb was imminent.”
Stephen Toal KC, lead counsel for bereaved families and survivors of the Omagh bomb, said Mr Baxter has “carried a huge burden on behalf of the victims for the past 25 years” and thanked the former officer on their behalf.
Feeling guilty
Mr Baxter responded: “What I would like to say is the legal constraints, and I feel guilty about this.
“I sat for many meetings with various victims’ groups, and I listened to what they were saying about Garda collusion.
“I listened to what they were saying about Garda knowledge, about Irish government cover-ups, about everything in the north, and I knew they were telling the truth, but legally I couldn’t tell them.
“And I have to pay great respect to the effort that has brought the victims to this place where there is a legal forum where the truth can be told without fear of prosecution.”
A legal representative for bereaved families and survivors said evidence that has been heard thus far in the inquiry “raises major questions for State authorities on both sides of the border”.
Enda McGarrity, solicitor for some families, said: “The glaring issue in this inquiry is the role of the Irish government and its agencies.
“Despite the best efforts of the inquiry, the jurisdictional limits of the legislation and the inquiry’s Terms of Reference make it very difficult in practice to investigate whether Irish State agencies could have prevented the bombing.
“The evidence heard so far, not least the damning comments from Norman Baxter concerning the possibility that a positive decision was made to allow the bomb car to travel across the border, makes it abundantly clear that the Irish government must establish its own independent statutory inquiry.
“That inquiry must fully investigate the very serious allegations about the role of Irish State agencies, including An Garda Síochána, before the bombing.”
Shawneen Conway, whose brother Gareth Conway was killed in the Omagh bombing at age 18, said her family is “still suffering and living with the effects of what happened”.
She added: “Going through this inquiry almost 30 years later has been extremely difficult, not just for my family but for everyone affected by the bombing. We are being retraumatised and having to relive the events and the devastating impact they have had on our lives all over again.
“It is deeply distressing to hear evidence that there may have been warnings and opportunities to prevent or disrupt the bombing. After all these years, we still have so many unanswered questions.
“We need to know what was known, what action was taken and whether everything possible was done to protect innocent lives.
“While the Inquiry has made progress and we are beginning to get a clearer picture of what happened, there is still a long way to go and many important questions remain unanswered. We need to see those questions pursued fully, and we need the Irish Government to properly address its role and responsibilities.”
'I believe gardai colluded with dissidents on Omagh bomb'
ANDREW MADDEN, Belfast Telegraph, September 14th, 2026
SENIOR PSNI OFFICER ALSO TELLS INQUIRY PROVOS COULD HAVE STOPPED MASSACRE
The Omagh Bombing Inquiry has heard allegations that Garda officers “colluded with dissident republicans” who carried out the atrocity.
Senior members of the Provisional IRA could have seized the Omagh bomb the night before it went off in the town and prevented the deaths of 29 people, the man who led the investigation into the atrocity also said.
Norman Baxter said the “only definitive point I know that the bomb could have been stopped” was when Provos confronted two dissidents in a car, which was loaded with the device, in Cullaville, south Armagh, less than 24 hours before it went off.
Mr Baxter, who led the investigation into the atrocity, further alleged that an informant who drove the car carrying the Omagh bomb was jointly handled by An Garda Síochána and MI5, and there may have been a second informant involved in the bombing.
The Omagh Bombing Inquiry is examining whether the atrocity, which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, and injured hundreds, could reasonably have been prevented by the UK authorities.
Mr Baxter was the senior investigating officer into the bombing from May 2002 to November 2008, when he retired.
He was asked by counsel for the families of some of the victims regarding his witness statement which mentioned “collusive conduct” by An Garda Síochána officers.
The barrister said Judge Peter Smithwick, who chaired a tribunal examining Garda collusion in the 1989 IRA murders of two senior RUC officers, said Mr Smithwick defined collusion as either “active” or “deliberately ignoring the matter and turning a blind eye”.
Based on that definition, Mr Baxter was asked whether he believed gardaí were involved in collusion, either in a series of previous bombings carried out by the Real IRA prior to the 1998 atrocity, in the Omagh bombing, or both.
Mr Baxter replied: “I believe that some members of An Garda Síochána did collude with dissident republicans.”
PIRA and INLA
The former senior RUC and PSNI officer also outlined how members of the Real IRA and Continuity IRA came to Omagh on August 15, 1998, the day of the bombing, but members of the Provisional IRA and INLA were also involved in its preparation.
Mr Baxter said the detonator used in the device was of a “Provisional IRA origin” and a member of the INLA supplied the vehicle.
Asked by counsel for the inquiry if “we should be thinking about a group of violent dissident republican terrorists operating cooperatively” on the bombing, Mr Baxter said using the term 'dissident' would be “restrictive” as “there would have been members of the Provisionals somewhere helping”.
“There was quite a lot of fluidity, sharing of knowledge and equipment between the Provisionals, dissidents and people who were still officially within the Provisional IRA but willing to help those who had openly left,” he said.
He was asked about whether dissident republicans could have carried out the bombing without the assistance of Provisional IRA members.
Mr Baxter said he would have to “tread very carefully” on this issue, before outlining how the “night before” the Omagh bombing, the stolen maroon Vauxhall Cavalier used in the bombing was at a GAA club in Cullaville, south Armagh.
This incident was mentioned earlier in the inquiry by journalist John Ware, however Mr Baxter went much further. Mr Ware said the incident happened on August 13, not August 14 as Mr Baxter contends, and said the bomb was not in the car at the time.
Mr Baxter continued: “There were a number of people who saw the bomb car, including senior members of the republican movement
“At that gathering on Friday night, and I think six or eight people saw the two people in the car, the bomb was in the car, the bomb was in the maroon [Vauxhall Cavalier].
“There was an issue at the club, and then they moved to a public house. So there were members of the Provisional IRA present with the bomb the night before.
Bomb could have been stopped
“That is the only definitive point that I know that the bomb could have been stopped in Northern Ireland.
“If one of those people had called the security forces and said X and X, because both are identified, have a bomb. Because they knew there was a bomb, there was a discussion about the bomb.
“And they could have stopped it, they could have saved lives in Omagh.”
Acknowledging that this is “probably difficult for the families to hear”, Mr Baxter said this was “the only point in the whole cycle that I can say this bomb could have been stopped” and to this day not one of these people has come forward.
Mr Baxter added: “They could have seized the car off them. They could have physically surrounded the car and said, 'Right, we're taking this car.' But instead, [they said], 'We don't want this here — move off.'”
On Thursday, Mr Baxter was asked about a Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS) involvement in the bomb, and he said “one of the people who brought the bomb to Omagh on the day was an agent”.
Expanding further on this during his evidence yesterday, the former senior police officer said: “I probably should apologise to the inquiry for yesterday in relation to my statement where I said that I believe that a human intelligence source had driven the car over.
“I should have included that the assessment is that that source was a Garda/MI5 source.”
He later added that “it's probably not safe to assume there was just one informer in the context of this bomb” and that “there may well have been a second”.
Garda Collusion
Mr Baxter was also asked about previous allegations from Garda whistleblower John White, who alleged that gardaí were prepared to allow vehicles carrying bombs to travel across the border into Northern Ireland for the purposes of gathering intelligence.
“There was the allegation that some devices were being allowed to travel into Northern Ireland and then there were other devices which had come into Northern Ireland which [John White's] source had provided to dissidents, and those devices had exploded,” Mr Baxter said.
“So there are a combination of issues there… There was also an issue of, which we haven't addressed before, the issue of — did Garda officers commit a criminal offence which could be prosecuted in the United Kingdom, that is carrying out an act of terrorism, by colluding with dissident republicans to facilitate the delivery of bombs?”
Radical woke agenda would be foisted on us if Stormont falls, warns Robinson
REBECCA BLACK, Belfast Telegraph, November 14th, 2026
DUP LEADER INSISTS DIRECT RULE WOULD HARM UNIONISM
A return to direct rule from London would see a “radical woke agenda foisted” on Northern Ireland, Gavin Robinson has said.
The DUP leader warned his party faithful what could happen if they pulled down the power-sharing government in the region, pointing to the “most liberal abortion law in Europe” being imposed on a previous Stormont collapse.
Mr Robinson is under pressure from some quarters of unionism to withdraw his party's deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly from post to force First Minister Michelle O'Neill from her position.
It comes in the simmering political fallout following the Drumcree parading dispute, which saw an Orange Order procession unable to walk the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road despite a Parades Commission green light.
A number of Sinn Féin representatives, including Ms O'Neill, have been interviewed by police and investigated for alleged breaches of the commission's determination in terms of a protest on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
While Ms Little-Pengelly remains in post, the DUP has stopped facilitating joint engagements between her and the First Minister.
This included last weekend, which prevented both ministers from taking part in the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at Belfast City Hall in their official capacity.
However, Upper Bann Carla Lockhart has resigned from the DUP, saying the party should have ensured serious consequences for Ms O'Neill.
In his weekly letter to party members, Mr Robinson said he understands the “real frustration with Sinn Féin”.
He wrote the overriding desire is for Northern Ireland to work and for the Stormont Executive to “meet the expectations of the people it serves”.
He added that key to that is a budget, which the Executive has not yet been able to agree on due to what ministers have argued is insufficient funding from London.
“The clock is ticking and agreement has yet to be reached. We continue to press the Government to deliver a sustainable funding package, one that allows us to reform public services, deliver pay awards for nurses, teachers and other public sector workers, and keep health and education provision going. It is the basic job of government,” he wrote.
A hand on the brake
“I know there is real frustration with Sinn Féin. Their arrogance has been on show time and again. But the answer is to stop Sinn Féin's agenda, not to tear down the institutions that give unionists a hand on the steering wheel and a foot on the brake.
“We need to punish the lawbreakers, not everyone in Northern Ireland. Walking away would not punish republicans. It would leave the Sinn Féin-kissing Labour Secretary of State in full control of all our affairs.”
Mr Robinson urged a long-term view and cautioned what can happen when unionists “cannot apply the brake”.
“The most liberal abortion law in Europe was imposed on Northern Ireland by Westminster while Stormont was down. Not one MLA voted for them,” he said.
“If we returned to direct rule, the radical woke agenda would be foisted on our schools, our public sector and every other part of life, with no ability to stop it.”
He added: “Some without responsibility think only of their next Facebook post. As Democratic Unionists, however, we have a responsibility to think long term and ensure that no action we take, regardless of the law-breaking republicans, plays into our enemies' hands.
“That is why we will not be goaded by Sinn Féin. Instead, as I said to the Prime Minister this week, we want a sanction in place that will punish all Sinn Féin ministers who broke the law.
“We will keep holding Sinn Féin to account and keep fighting for a budget that works.
“Every lever we have will be used to protect the values of the people we represent.”
Lighting of City Hall in support of abortion rights ‘will not happen’ says councillor
JOHN BRESLIN, Irish News, November 14th, 2026
BELFAST City Hall will not be illuminated with lights in support of abortion rights on Easter Sunday, a councillor has insisted amid a now international outcry over claims that it might happen.
The potential lighting up of the building to mark an annual global day of action around abortion on March 28, has provoked threats of legal challenges and a motion filed in the House of Commons by Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart.
But Green Party Councillor Anthony Flynn, who moved the motion to revive a plan to illuminate the building in support of abortion rights, said it will not happen on Easter Sunday, Councillor Flynn told The Irish News he is also open to the illumination taking place outside of Holy Week after making reference at a recent full council meeting to it happening the week before the annual March 28 Global Day of Action to De-stigmatise Abortion.
Unionist councillors and pro-life organisations, local and international, are opposed to the “billboard for abortion”, but are rallying around the Easter Sunday link.
It has also led to the Commons motion by Ms Lockhart, which reads that the House is opposed to “lighting up Belfast City Hall….to promote abortion on any date” but “deplores the particular insensitivity of choosing Easter Sunday, when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ”.
Plans to illuminate City Hall green for International Safe Abortion Day on September 28, 2026, were put on hold after the DUP triggered a council ‘call-in’ procedure, which legally puts the brakes on any proposal.
At the November meeting, councillors voted 36-14 in favour of Mr Flynn’s proposed alternative date of March 28 2027. He added that the building could be illuminated the week before that date. A fresh ‘call in’ has been filed.
Mr Flynn told the meeting: “The day is a global effort to challenge harmful narratives around abortion healthcare, to dismantle barriers and to demand stigma-free access to abortion everywhere.”
“We are open to a different date” outside of the week before March 28, he said, adding that whatever happens it will not be Easter Sunday as he understood the “extreme sensitivity”.
Precious Life, the Belfast-based pro-life organisation, and other groups from the UK and beyond have posted condemnation of the decision to light up the building “in support of abortion” on Easter Sunday.
Bernadette Smyth, of Precious Life, said the group is seeking legal advice over the latest vote and, “if necessary, we will pursue a judicial review”.
“To use this sacred day to promote abortion is deeply offensive to Christians and demonstrates an extraordinary disregard for the religious convictions of many people across Belfast,” the organisation said.
Human cost of Troubles legacy for families running out of time
GAIL WALKER, Belfast Telegraph, November 14th, 2026
With the suggestion this week that the cost of investigating Troubles-related deaths and serious injuries could rise to £628m, and the usual shock-horror response, we wonder again if there is any real appetite to do what is necessary to resolve legacy issues here.
When Sir Declan Morgan, chief commissioner of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), cited the figure to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster, its chair Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour MP for Gower in Wales) described it as “eye-watering”.
But it's not really. Sir Declan was setting out a business case to “scale up” the ICRIR's current ring-fenced budget of £232m. Since becoming operational in 2024, it has spent £65m.
Right now, it has a workload of around 200 investigations relating to almost 300 deaths — but fewer than 200 investigators.
Once new legacy legislation is passed in the UK and Ireland, Sir Declan said that “countless people” will be able to get answers. He estimated the body would end up with 650 cases that could take up to seven-and-a-half years.
Time and again this spectre of cost comes up in a way that is not only crass, but also insulting.
If any GB politicians' eyes really need watering, they should get a look at the vast quantities of cash spent on bricks and mortar here.
Belfast's Grand Central Station cost an estimated £340m. The new maternity building at the Royal Victoria Hospital site is tens of millions of pounds over budget, with costs now set to exceed £100m.
Remember the £1.6bn for Thales in Belfast to manufacture 5,000 advanced air defence missiles for Ukraine? And what it will cost to solve the deathtrap that is the A5? Last put at £1.7bn.
These projects are wheeled out to us, like multi-tiered wedding cakes with little Orange and Green figurines embracing on the top of them, symbols of how we are moving forward into a happy future together.
Time is the undertaker
But anything spent on the very real damage to people and communities that everyone knows civil violence inflicts is viewed as wasteful.
Sir Declan's request for £628m is rational. He needs to fund the jobs that have to be carried out here for the good of society. There is nothing unnecessary about this.
Yet every time, when it comes to victims, as years go by, surviving relatives get fewer and fewer as mortality is busy doing the Government's job for it, making sure that those awkward, unappeasable survivors gradually leave the scene.
Soon the last injured victim, the last maimed or traumatised survivor will be gone. Not only will the victims be dead, but in time everybody who remembered them will be dead as well.
It's the perfect throw of the dice for the powers-that-be. No embarrassing revelations. No awkward questions.
The Omagh bomb relatives had to campaign for decades for the public inquiry currently delivering its disturbing disclosures. Earlier this year, its costs were put at £11m to date. A drop in the ocean of the human cost of that horror.
No wonder people think it's not accidental that every effort at legacy solutions meets obstruction. Even today, the conflict is everywhere in our politics and our cultural and social life, but we cannot bring ourselves to find anything that can accommodate the immensity of the grief and bitterness and resentment and loneliness and despair that violence created.
The ICRIR has had its problems. A report earlier this year found a toxic and divided working culture. It has been criticised for so far having published only one findings report, yet the impact of it upon the family was huge. Anne Frances O'Kelly described how she and her brother Roger — on his deathbed — learnt details for the first time of their father Rory O'Kelly's murder in 1977 in Coalisland by an IRA gunman. They were “moved into a space of serenity and light, all anger taken away. I would never have expected to know this sort of release”.
The killer was never caught. He was estimated to have been between 19 and 22 years old, so he may still be alive. The O'Kelly family's catharsis did not include a sense of justice.
Realistically, we all know that, in most cases, the triggermen and women are not going to be identified. That goes without saying. Even at its best, the process will be incomplete.
But in the absence of perfect, the next best thing will do. And it turns out that an acknowledgement of what literally happened provides a form of emotional release too. The reintroduction of the murdered person's name and face into the civic bloodstream can prove hugely beneficial. To use a popular phrase, people feel seen. They feel a sense of psychological validation that their struggles and suffering have been recognised and understood.
Hoping to provide that sort of closure in 650 cases, Sir Declan is offering very good value for £628m. If it helps to build a future here and to restore some sense of common solidarity among people, of doing the right thing by our neighbours, it's affordable and necessary.
It is always cheaper to murder somebody than to repair the damage of a murder. Those who suffered most and lost most during the Troubles deserve the most. The children. The widowed. The maimed. The traumatised. The lives changed irrevocably.
Terrorism dug huge gouges out of the population — here and elsewhere.
Sir Declan said that ICRIR cases already include the 1974 IRA pub bombings in Guildford, the M62 coach bombing that same year, and the 1979 Warrenpoint ambush, in which 18 British soldiers were killed.
He also pointed out that in the event the ICRIR ended up in a position where it couldn't deal with these cases, there would be a “shedload of people looking for public inquiries, and they will cost a fortune”.
This week, BBC NI's The State of Us podcast revealed the inquest into the death of Noah Donohoe cost about £3.9m of public money.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act gave a detailed breakdown of expenditure, including the sums racked up by the PSNI and the Department for Infrastructure, as well as the legal aid bill.
It's a valid story, but how are we meant to respond to it? Again, shudder at the amount?
Yet Noah's disappearance and the circumstances surrounding it became a contentious and vexatious narrative, one that threatened confidence in the police. There were questions about the PSNI response, rumours about involvement by loyalist paramilitaries, speculation on social media that leaned into conspiracy theories. We still do not have all the answers about what happened to 14-year-old Noah, whose body was found in a culvert six days after he left his home in Belfast in June 2020.
Still, after months of exhaustive hearings, some important facts were established. During his summing up, the coroner, Mr Justice Rooney, ruled out several possibilities, including drugs, foul play, suicide, or a psychotic experience.
Fiona Donohoe needed to find out what happened to her son. Thousands of people who continue to suffer due to the Troubles need answers too.
Let us not be a society obsessed with the price of everything, but one that knows the value of truth, justice and closure.
Lighting of City Hall in support of abortion rights ‘will not happen’ says councillor
JOHN BRESLIN, Irish News, November 14th, 2026
BELFAST City Hall will not be illuminated with lights in support of abortion rights on Easter Sunday, a councillor has insisted amid a now international outcry over claims that it might happen.
The potential lighting up of the building to mark an annual global day of action around abortion on March 28, has provoked threats of legal challenges and a motion filed in the House of Commons by Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart.
But Green Party Councillor Anthony Flynn, who moved the motion to revive a plan to illuminate the building in support of abortion rights, said it will not happen on Easter Sunday, Councillor Flynn told The Irish News he is also open to the illumination taking place outside of Holy Week after making reference at a recent full council meeting to it happening the week before the annual March 28 Global Day of Action to De-stigmatise Abortion.
Unionist councillors and pro-life organisations, local and international, are opposed to the “billboard for abortion”, but are rallying around the Easter Sunday link.
It has also led to the Commons motion by Ms Lockhart, which reads that the House is opposed to “lighting up Belfast City Hall….to promote abortion on any date” but “deplores the particular insensitivity of choosing Easter Sunday, when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ”.
Plans to illuminate City Hall green for International Safe Abortion Day on September 28, 2026, were put on hold after the DUP triggered a council ‘call-in’ procedure, which legally puts the brakes on any proposal.
At the November meeting, councillors voted 36-14 in favour of Mr Flynn’s proposed alternative date of March 28 2027. He added that the building could be illuminated the week before that date. A fresh ‘call in’ has been filed.
Mr Flynn told the meeting: “The day is a global effort to challenge harmful narratives around abortion healthcare, to dismantle barriers and to demand stigma-free access to abortion everywhere.”
“We are open to a different date” outside of the week before March 28, he said, adding that whatever happens it will not be Easter Sunday as he understood the “extreme sensitivity”.
Precious Life, the Belfast-based pro-life organisation, and other groups from the UK and beyond have posted condemnation of the decision to light up the building “in support of abortion” on Easter Sunday.
Bernadette Smyth, of Precious Life, said the group is seeking legal advice over the latest vote and, “if necessary, we will pursue a judicial review”.
“To use this sacred day to promote abortion is deeply offensive to Christians and demonstrates an extraordinary disregard for the religious convictions of many people across Belfast,” the organisation said.
Man jailed for handling pipe bombs says he was putting up flags
ALAN ERWIN, Irish News, November 14th, 2026
A MAN jailed for handling pipe bombs which exploded outside homes in Derry was wrongly denied a proper chance to explain he had just been innocently putting up flags, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday.
Senior judges were told Noel Logan was misinformed about the limits of his DNA connection to the devices.
Defence barrister Martin O’Rourke KC argued: “How could he possibly provide an explanation that would meet all of the issues police were presenting to him, inaccurately as it transpired.”
Logan is seeking to overturn his conviction for possessing explosives with intent to endanger life.
The 38-year-old, of Nelson Drive in Derry, was prosecuted over blasts outside three homes in the Waterside area between July 2017 and September 2019.
Two of the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were found at Montgomery Close while the third was uncovered at Bonds Place.
Police investigating the attacks arrested him following a house search in December 2020.
With Logan’s DNA detected on tape attached to bomb remnants, scientific experts assessed the chances of the forensics in two of the cases not being his as one in a billion.
There was a one in 1.7 million chance that DNA on the third device belonged to someone else.
Fitted with ball bearings and nails which acted as shrapnel with the IEDs exposed, they were described as capable of inflicting serious injury or death.
Logan was said to have lived less than a mile and a half from the three targeted houses.
In March, Logan was handed an eight-year sentence following a non-jury trial.
He continues to deny any involvement in the pipe bomb attacks and claims there is an innocent explanation for the DNA link.
Forensic evidence
A roll of tape he used to attach flags to lamp posts for Twelfth of July celebrations was discarded and then deployed by someone else to construct the pipe bombs, according to Logan’s case.
Mr O’Rourke disputed the assessment of forensic evidence and an adverse inference drawn against his client
“The (trial) judge wrongly rejected the evidence of the defendant and his witnesses that they had put up flags and used tape in the course of doing so,” he submitted.
The court heard Logan was questioned as part of a wider investigation into 20 devices in the city, but only linked to three incidents in which he was not suspected of deploying the pipe bombs.
Over half of voters in north say UK should rejoin EU but support down from referendum
JONATHAN McCAMBRIDGE, Irish News, November 14th, 2026
MORE than half of voters in Northern Ireland believe the UK should rejoin the European Union a decade after the Brexit referendum, a new opinion poll has suggested.
The poll suggests that 52% of voters in Northern Ireland agree that the UK should rejoin the EU and assume the same obligations as other member states, but that figure is down from the 55.8% that voted ‘remain’ in the 2016 referendum.
More than three-quarters of respondents to the new Queen’s University Belfast poll also welcome the prospect of an upcoming EU-UK summit agreeing to reduce checks and controls on goods moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland.
The results of the latest public opinion polling, conducted for the university by LucidTalk, also indicate that support for the Windsor Framework continues to weaken, with 45% regarding it as “on balance a good thing for Northern Ireland”, its lowest level since June 2021.
Only 44% of respondents to the poll believe the Windsor Framework is an appropriate means of managing the effects of Brexit on the region, a decline from 60% in February 2024.
The academics behind the poll said the findings highlight continuing divisions over the post-Brexit settlement and growing concerns about its economic, constitutional and political consequences.
The Windsor Framework is the post-Brexit deal between the UK and the EU aimed at reducing trading frictions between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Next week Prime Minister Andy Burnham will travel to Brussels for a UK-EU summit where he is expected to sign new agreements on food and energy.
The Queen’s University report is the 16th in the Testing The Temperature series on views on Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol/Windsor Framework led by Professor David Phinnemore and Professor Katy Hayward.
The latest poll was conducted by LucidTalk between October 23-26, using a weighted sample of 1,050 respondents from across Northern Ireland.
Will ‘pragmatism outweigh Brexit purism’?
According to the results, 77% of respondents believe there is a need for a “serious dialogue” about the UK’s long-term relationship with the EU.
However, 69% of respondents said they do not believe there is sufficient information available to facilitate an informed public debate on options for the UK-EU relationship.
Almost two-thirds of respondents (63%) think that Brexit has been more disruptive than they anticipated in 2016.
The poll suggests that 52% of voters in Northern Ireland agree that the UK should rejoin the EU and assume the same obligations as other member states, with 38% opposed.
Support for the UK rejoining the EU is highest among SDLP (88%), Sinn Féin (86%) and Alliance (83%) voters.
TUV voters (92%) are most opposed to the UK rejoining the EU, followed by DUP (84%) and then UUP (63%) voters.
The report also shows that respondents continue to view the impact of the Windsor Framework on political stability in Northern Ireland as being more negative (49%), compared with 28% who see a positive impact.
The UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016 but the majority of voters in Northern Ireland would like to be back in the EU
It also suggests more voters continue to see the impact of the Windsor Framework on Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market as negative (44%) rather than positive (27%).
Prof Phinnemore said: “Voters in Northern Ireland generally welcome the prospect of the UK having a closer relationship with the EU.
“But with the UK prime minister keen to have a ‘serious dialogue’ on where next, it is striking how few, 16%, believe that politicians will be able to debate options in an informed manner.
“Most respondents do not regard Brexit as having been good for the UK.
“It certainly appears that it has done little to improve trust in politics.”
Professor Katy Hayward said: “Our findings suggest that opposition to the Windsor Framework is driven less by resistance to practical cooperation with the EU than by concerns about Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.
“Reducing GB-NI trade barriers through UK-EU agreement attracts support even among those who remain firmly pro-Brexit.
“As the UK Government seeks closer cooperation with the EU that brings tangible benefits, it will be hoping pragmatism outweighs Brexit purism among Leave voters.”
Politicians not doing their jobs on climate crisis, warn NI students
MARK BAIN, Belfast Telegraph, November 14th, 2026
BRITISH COUNCIL HOSTS MOCK SUMMIT TO GIVE 100 PUPILS A VOICE ON ISSUE
School pupils taking part in a mock COP 31 negotiation at Ulster University have told politicians they shouldn't get paid unless they start taking the necessary steps to address the climate crisis.
The British Council-run event was attended by around 100 pupils from 17 schools, with the young people hoping the event will provoke politicians into listening to the issues important to them.
The students spent the day attempting to negotiate climate deals, mirroring what's currently taking place while politicians negotiate for real in Turkey at the annual climate summit.
Richard Marshall (18), from New-Bridge Integrated College in Loughbrickland, Co Down, said there was plenty of frustration that politicians weren't doing their jobs to protect the environment for future generations.
“We're going to be the ones tackling this issue in the future,” he said.
“This lets us get down to the real issues. The world is precious. Whenever we do damage it shows.
“The world we have today is not going to be the one we have in 100 years. This is about making a difference, establishing our goals as a young generation.
“As younger people, we're marginalised, we're not taken seriously. Everyone thinks about the economic concerns, the job market, the graduate prospects. There's never the incentive to get the planet cooler, stop a tsunami in a country you've never heard of.
Politicians not serious
“It's quite disgusting. You're left thinking they don't take it seriously at all.
“I don't think our own politicians here in Northern Ireland are doing anything actually. They shouldn't have jobs if they're not doing their job. It's a disgrace they're even getting paid.”
Polly Tsilindrova, also from New-Bridge College, said she felt the day was an important step in trying to get the voices of young people heard.
“They need to starting thinking not only for this country, but for the world,” she said.
“With an event like this we get to understand just how serious things are in other parts of the world, that this isn't just about us in Northern Ireland.”
The event was attended by DAERA Minister Andrew Muir, who also expressed his frustrations at the continued blocking of climate policies he's trying to bring through the NI Assembly.
“Climate change is the defining issue of our generation,” the minister said.
“It's critical we listen to the voices of young people. We're seeing the impact of climate change across Northern Ireland.
“We also know the benefits of climate action. Why would we not want to grab these opportunities? As politicians we have a duty to the young people here to take the actions needed to build resilience otherwise we're facing a catastrophe.”
Colm McGivern, director of the British Council in NI, said the day was a “great learning experience on the complex nature of negotiations”. “The pupils are exploring some really difficult issues that are facing the world,” he added.
“Young people have a real clarity of thought around climate change. They know that the stakes are high and it's their future that's being gambled with.
“You can sense a great deal of anger, but also a great deal of commitment to try to change things for the better.”
A united Ireland could cost up to €25bn – we cannot afford that
Richard Curran, Irish Independent, November 14th, 2026
Public servants in the North could only look on with a degree of envy at a pay deal in Dublin that will deliver a further 10.75pc in pay rises between now and 2029.
The Government’s pay agreement came the same week that Fine Gael published its blueprint for a “Unified Island”, which explores the costs and options for different versions of a new All-Ireland state.
A united Ireland in 34 pages? Somehow, I don’t think so. The document was very well researched. So well examined that the figures show that proving a major obstacle to unification are the various costs.
Economist Stephen Kinsella estimated that, depending on the scenario, it could cost up to €25bn in the first year to unite the two parts of the island into one administration. The lowest estimate was €3.2bn.
New drug discoveries and new software development need a whole infrastructure around them and we don’t have the scale
His analysis injected a sense of realism into what has become a regular stomping ground for naivety and unrestrained nationalist conjecture.
Fervent nationalism on the dream of having a united Ireland isn’t often accompanied by an examination of the practicalities. Kinsella did not fall into that trap.
Hard cash
Discussions about a future united Ireland are usually all about compromises on a flag or a national anthem, but rarely about hard cash.
Central to the cost is whether the British would agree to continue paying the pensions of already-retired public servants, and the cost of Northern Ireland’s share of British national debt – whatever that might be estimated to be.
The difference between Britain absorbing all these costs or none of them could be as much as €10bn a year.
In 1922 the deal was that Britain would pay the pensions and then be repaid by the Free State each year, which it was through the 1920s until Éamon de Valera stopped the payments in the 1930s.
When Britain pulled out of the EU, London agreed to pay its share of EC pensions as part of a €44bn exit deal. It seems the country altering the status quo always gets a bad deal.
Kinsella looked at scenarios where there is a single, unified state and a federal arrangement where Stormont is retained. Crucially, he also looked at the cost of harmonising social welfare and pension rates across the two jurisdictions over many years.
How on earth could scenarios be reflected in a menu of options for a referendum? A preferred scenario would have to be chosen and then put to people on both sides of the Border. But who would select this “preferred” choice?
The gap between support for the status quo and Irish reunification has closed again, according to latest polling
A “federal” structure doesn’t work either because to be truly federal you would need a new overarching national government above Leinster House in Dublin and Stormont in Belfast. The costs are off the charts.
Scotland
When it comes to deciding the future destiny of a nation, it should never be just about money. But there are lessons from Scotland here.
In the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, nationalists clearly won the identity arguments, but weren’t convincing enough on the finances of a new Scotland to convince people to take the risk. They lost.
Here, the financial obstacles are very real. So too is the economic potential of a new 32-county nation. As someone who has spent most of my life living in border counties, I see the opportunities that could exist if the Border was no longer there.
Northern Ireland will never get to fulfil its economic potential as a small region attached to the much larger UK. It could do so as part of a unified Ireland.
But equally, joining up with the Republic will carry much greater financial risks if the economy gets in trouble.
In a future referendum, which way would the majority of Northerners vote – a chance to achieve full economic potential with greater risk, or continued economic underperformance with less risk?
The biggest challenge doesn’t lie with the potential of the all-island economy which can grow regardless of a referendum. It lies with the finances of the State. Up north, 27pc of employees work for the public sector.
Let’s say a referendum is called and somehow a model for the new Ireland is selected to go on the ballot.
Over representation
Northern Ireland is already massively over-represented in political terms. It has half the number of elected councillors (462) as the Republic (949) with just one-third of the population.
It has another 90 MLAs at Stormont and 18 MPs in Westminster. Before Brexit, it also had three MEPs.
The political machine north of the Border is big business and cutbacks in a unified Ireland would not be acceptable.
Neither would cuts in civil service numbers on either side of the Border. Keeping everybody on payroll would wipe out any chance for better efficiency or cost savings in administration. In the real world, there would be none.
However, the pressure for public sector pay and welfare equalisation would be enormous – and understandable.
German option?
Public servants in the former East Germany do earn less than the western regions, but as a truly federal system, teachers, nurses and police work for their regional government – not the national one.
After 30 years of political violence to bring about a united Ireland, republicans settled for power-sharing in a Stormont Assembly which has less political autonomy than the Scottish Assembly – where not a shot was fired.
Stormont can’t set taxes and raise its own income. It has delivered enormous benefit to society in the North because it represents compromise despite its apparent limitations and party-political dysfunctions.
However, in financial or fiscal terms, Stormont has been made a trapped servant of a relatively disinterested Westminster.
Pushing for a referendum here in the Republic might seem like a reasonable thing to do. “Why not give it a go and let’s see?” is the approach. The campaign would be incredibly divisive and runs the risk of setting things backwards on this island.
The temptation to stick a Brexit-style exaggerated figure of cost savings on the side of a referendum campaign bus might be overwhelming for a party like Sinn Féin that is desperate to achieve a prescribed outcome.
As an architect of the peace process that has stood us well, John Hume believed in a nationalism based on people rather than territory. Let people slowly shape their future and see where it goes. The Good Friday Agreement created just enough space to do that.
That’s why the Shared Island approach adopted by Micheál Martin is the way to go.
The most meaningful preparation people in the Republic could make for a united Ireland would be to get to know the North and its people. Start there and stop talking about the planning.
Let’s call the transfer test what it really is – a form of child abuse
PATRICK MURPHY, Irish News, November 14th, 2026
TODAY is National Child Abuse Day in the north – and to make sure it is effective, there will be another one next week.
Yes, today is the day when what is laughingly called our Department of Education decides that 60% of our 10 and 11-year-olds should be labelled as failures, thereby aiming to segregate them socially and economically from what is called the successful 40%.
Despite their fetish for equality, our politicians oversee educational apartheid through what they describe as academic selection. One test in the selection process takes place today and another will be held next Saturday.
The system produces an A-Level elite and a long tail of failure in which a quarter of our children leave school without any qualifications.
It is social stratification dressed up as education, in which our grammar schools (catering for the 40%) hold a higher social status than secondary schools (which teach the remaining 60%).
A 10-year-old who cannot remember the difference between a rhombus and a trapezium may fail to gain a grammar school place.
He/she might remember the difference aged 12, but it is what you remember at 10 or 11 that decides your fate in life.
“You are 10 and you don’t know when to use a semi-colon? Oh dear, the grammar and syntax experts at Stormont say you are a failure.”
Garvaghy a one way cul-de-sac
Those who wanted to march down the Garvaghy Road and those who rushed to block them are united in what is effectively cross-community child abuse.
You may disagree with that term, but how else would you describe telling a 10 or 11-year-old child that he/she is a failure – in a failed education system?
Queen’s University has recently issued the latest research findings on academic selection at the age of 10–11.
The report concludes that it contributes to educational inequality, places unnecessary pressure on children and families, and is sustained more by social and political factors than by evidence of educational benefit.
The summary document suggests that academic selection impacts on “children’s emotional wellbeing in three main ways: the stress and anxiety associated with preparing for a high-stakes test at age 10 or 11; the negative impact on self-esteem and confidence; and the longer-term stigma and labelling”.
(You will have noticed that there is no need for a semi-colon before “and”. It is probably a typographical error, but it has no doubt caused outrage among the educational experts at Stormont.)
Thousands of children will sit the first of two transfer tests today
Of course, most parents see the system as offering the best life chances for their children. This is perfectly understandable. It is the only system we have.
Families with enough money can afford private tuition for their children. Grammar schools tend to be better financed and thus better equipped than secondary schools. That gives them a social prestige and by hand-picking their intake, they perform better than secondary schools at GCSE and A-Level.
Tell the north’s middle classes that academic selection will not exist in a united Ireland and they will reject a border poll.
In some cases, academic selection can disrupt the life of the school and the education of its children by spending time preparing for a narrow test and ignoring broader learning.
The apparent logic of selection is to divide our children into those who will work with their hands and those who will never have to dirty them. On that basis, aspiring surgeons, dentists and vets should not go to grammar school.
Of course, the current system allows secondary school children to enter a grammar school post-GCSE, to sit certain A-Levels. However, that just proves that children develop at different rates and that segregating them at 11 shows no understanding of the learning process.
It is time to declare an interest. For over 40 years, I have served as a teacher, manager or governor at every level of education here from nursery to university.
I have found it a fragmented and seriously under-funded system, corrupted by academic selection. It is held together by dedicated staff, who labour under policies from an ill-educated Stormont, where politics outweigh pedagogy.
(That’s “politics” as in shouting sectarian abuse at each other. Even their ignorance is segregated.)
The outcome of it all is that we are a society in which education is not the great leveller it should be. Here it is the great divider.
As a result of academic selection, are we an educated society? Of course not.
If we were, we would not have elected the politicians we have – and we would not persist with child abuse at the age of 10 or 11.
Eleanor Donaldson sobs as she is put on the sex offenders register
ALLISON MORRIS, Belfast Telegraph, November 14th, 2026
Eleanor Donaldson sobbed as she was put on the sex offenders register yesterday for aiding and abetting her paedophile husband.
She was told she must serve a supervised treatment order for three years and will be on the More than half of voters in the north say UK should rejoin EU but support for Europe is down from referendum
register for five years.
The wife of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson faced a trial of the facts after being found unfit for a conventional trial on mental health grounds.
Jeffrey Donaldson (63) was convicted in June of 18 sex offences, including one count of rape, relating to the abuse of two women when they were children. The offences were committed between 1985 and 2008.
He has been sentenced to 15 years and will serve half of that in jail.
Eleanor Donaldson appeared briefly in Newry Crown Court via remote link yesterday for her case to be dealt with.
Victims in Court
The two female victims, Complainant A and B, were in court.
The 60-year-old, from Dublinhill Road, Dromore, Co Down, could not be given a prison sentence. The options were a hospital order, a supervised treatment order and an absolute discharge.
The court heard briefly from two experts, one for the prosecution and one for the defence.
Both agreed that a supervised treatment order was the best way forward.
Rosemary Walsh KC, for the prosecution, said it was important to set out the matters before the court yesterday.
In relation to the rape of Complainant B, she said that the facts were that she knew serious “sexual offending would occur and that a degree of planning was involved”. In relation to Complainant A, it was that Eleanor Donaldson was made aware of the offending and “exposed the victim to risk of sexual abuse”.
She said “pain permeated” throughout the statements from both of the victims.
Ms Walsh asked that the order be put in place for a period of five years.
Defence barrister Ian Turkington KC said the medical evidence regarding his client “was clear”.
Mr Justice Paul Ramsey set out how the court had arrived at this point.
The judge said the “exercise” to make the determination of a trial of the facts had taken place in the absence of a jury, prior to the trial and that expert oral and written evidence had been provided to the court by three experts.
“I was therefore satisfied on the totality of the evidence provided that Eleanor Donaldson was unfit to stand trial,” he said.
The judge then rose for a few minutes to allow Eleanor Donaldson to appear on the link in order to hear the outcome. She had been absent throughout the process.
Donaldson's solicitor sat alongside her as she appeared on screen — the first time she had been seen in court since 2025.
Wearing a black jumper she kept her eyes down and sobbed into a tissue as the judge told her what was required of her.
There were also several cuts visible on her forehead.
Conditions
She nodded to confirm she understood the order. The judge told Donaldson she would be under the supervision of a social worker from the Craigavon Community Mental Health Team for three years.
He told her this would include her attending appointments, undergoing treatment and allowing the social worker to visit her at home
He told her she would be subject to the notification provisions of the sex offenders register for five years.
When asked if she understood, she nodded her head and said “yes”.
Eleanor Donaldson is appealing against the jury verdicts.
Jeffrey Donaldson is also appealing against his convictions.
Afterwards, Bronagh Muldoon, assistant director for NSPCC Northern Ireland, said it was right that Eleanor Donaldson faced consequences for her actions.
“Jeffrey Donaldson repeatedly sexually abused two girls for many years, while his wife Eleanor Donaldson aided and abetted what he was doing,” she said.
“It is right and important that the role she played in these terrible crimes has been recognised in court today.
“The women involved in this case have shown incredible bravery in coming forward to ensure the Donaldsons have both been held accountable.”
After trial of the facts, a jail sentence was not an option available to judge
CHRISTOPHER WOODHOUSE, Belfast Telegraph, November 14th, 2026
In a trial of the facts, the accused cannot be convicted of the offences of which they are charged. They can only be determined to have, or have not, committed the acts.
This seldom-seen scenario came about in this case because Judge Paul Ramsey KC, after considering medical reports, deemed Eleanor Donaldson not mentally capable of taking part in the trial process.
She did not appear in court or take any part in the trial at Newry Crown Court.
The first time she was seen in court — albeit on a screen — in more than a year came yesterday as a judge imposed a three-year supervision and treatment order (STO) and ordered her to sign the sex offenders register.
After 15 days of evidence and submissions, the jury convicted Jeffrey Donaldson on all 18 charges of historic child sex offences and found Eleanor Donaldson to have committed acts of aiding and abetting four of those offences.
Under the legislation which allows for a trial of the facts — The Mental Health Order (Northern Ireland) 1986 — a prison sentence was not an option available to the judge.
The judge could have made Eleanor Donaldson subject to a guardianship order, or an order for absolute discharge. Another high-profile example of a trial of the facts was in the trial of former IRA leader Ivor Bell in 2019.
Bell, from Ramoan Gardens in west Belfast, was cleared of soliciting the murder of Jean McConville in 1972.
In England, Lord Janner was charged with 22 sex offences after multiple police inquiries in 2015.
The peer, who had dementia, was ruled unfit to plead, and died at the age of 87 before a trial of the facts could take place.
It was recently announced that a senior judge will review the current law around trials of the facts in Northern Ireland.
Sir John Gillen will look at the law and procedures on unfitness to plead.
Traffic chaos, bomb threats and an eye-watering bill -what did EU leaders actually achieve?
AISLING MOLONEY, Irish Independent, November 14th, 2026
Issue of funding Ukraine dominated event, but threat of AI came to the fore
The Government is breathing a sigh of intense relief as European and world leaders departed Irish airspace after two days of high-level meetings in Dublin.
Swathes south and north of the Liffey were on lockdown for large parts of the week, causing chaos to traffic, working arrangements, concert-goers and reducing footfall for some local businesses.
In addition to hundreds of hoax bomb threats to schools, media organisations and elsewhere in the run-up to the official events, there was a hoax bomb placed at Connolly Station on Thursday.
The Army bomb disposal unit was scrambled to Merrion Square yesterday afternoon to deal with a "crude but viable device” inside the "ring of steel”.
The cost of the whole six months of glad-handing EU ministers under the presidency of the council of the EU was already a talking point, but the cost of this event alone will be a headline once all the invoices are in.
From hundreds of journalists reporting to Croke Park for airport-style screening before being bussed to the docks, and gardaí being bussed up from the RDS, to the native plants dotted around the Convention Centre, and the mammoth media centre - it will be a long receipt.
Proving Ireland can convincingly host a meeting of this magnitude, though, is priceless.
Even the fuel protesters failed to throw a spanner in the works.
The inevitable question now is: what was actually achieved?
While there are no decisions made at these informal meetings, the Taoiseach said "a lot can happen” among the flurry of handshakes and motorcades.
Let's see if he was right.
Ukraine
Europe has a war on its doorstep in Ukraine, Russia is dictating who can attend peace talks and demanding security guarantees for the future after invading its neighbour - simply put, Europe needs to "grow some bigger balls”.
That's exactly how the Latvian prime minister Andris Kulbergs phrased it as he arrived at the informal meeting of EU heads of state yesterday in the Convention Centre.
Latvia, a small nation among the behemoths in the 27-member EU bloc, but one with a frontier with Russia, needed to grab headlines to make its point.
Mr Kulbergs said Europe is bigger than Russia in military might and economic capability, so why should they be following Russian demands?
"In discussions, Russia is raising points that we have to accept? Sorry, that's the aggressor which is losing on the frontline. We should be raising our expectations in what has to be done on Ukraine's security,” he said.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he wouldn't "repeat the phrase” used by the Latvian PM and added that "sometimes Europe can be overly self-critical about itself”.
"If you think about this, I remember when the war broke out, everybody told me it would be three - I think we're five years; terrible that it's five years. Europe has stood up,” he said.
Mr Martin said there was "no disagreement” on the coherence of the EU's response, "in what is a very challenging, pressurising and difficult environment over the last number of years.”
Peace talks gathered more momentum this week after meetings in Abu Dhabi, with further details around a prisoner swap, and Putin's permission for a European representative at future peace talks raised spirits. However, none of the European leaders said they were convinced this means Russia actually wants to give peace a chance.
"We don't get any sense yet that Russia is serious about peace,” the Taoiseach said, closing the meeting yesterday.
Having high-tailed it from Abu Dhabi to Moscow to speak to Russian president Vladimir Putin, US special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff made a quick swivel to Dublin to see Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who was here for the European Political Community meeting.
Mr Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, said he stressed to Putin how important it is to have European delegates at the talks. He said Putin was "willing to give it a try”.
Europe's pushback?
EU leaders discussed the situation over lunch. Where normally they wouldn't make any decisions at an informal meeting, poked by Putin, they made a decision.
They nominated a "European team” of negotiators: Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland.
EU Council President Antonio Costa said: "Europe must speak with one clear and united voice in all discussions that shape the future of Ukraine and the security of our continent, and this is ultimately a team effort.”
Artificial Intelligence
Europe has been seen as a laggard on Artificial Intelligence, with no ability to participate in the arms race between the big AI tech powers of the US and China.
Arthur Mensch, CEO of Paris-based AI start-up Mistral, was brought to Dublin to get the leaders serious about their competitiveness on the technology.
But with supermarket fridges across Europe being hacked, and hybrid attacks like hoax bomb threats increasing due to AI, leaders were leaning in to hear about the downsides.
The 'Godfather of AI', Professor Geoffrey Hinton, gave the EU leaders a "stark message” about the societal impact of AI.
The Nobel Prize laureate and a British-Canadian computer scientist worked on developing AI at Google for 10 years until 2023, when he quit due to concerns about the "existential risk” posed by the technology.
Earlier in the week, Prof Hinton said he would use his audience with the EU leaders to tell them about analysis that shows that an AI accident could wipe out humans in three years.
The Taoiseach said it was a "stark message”, and the EU needs to make sure that AI is designed "for the benefit of mankind, not the ruination”.
"He's a scientist, not a policy expert. But he was clear that Europe was the bastion of regulation in relation to AI,” Mr Martin said.
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Prof Hinton described the "enormous risks” of AI.
She said Europe was once the receipt of "quite massive criticism” for developing the EU AI Act and stifling innovation.
"Today we get a lot of praise that we were the first ones to regulate AI. It's not perfect, no question,” she added.
It was the first in-depth discussion on the technology at leader level.
Money
Larger questions around financing Ukraine into next year, and the money needed to catch up in the AI race, were kicked on to more formal future meetings.
Kyiv has said it has a €70bn hole in its funding next year. Earlier this year, the EU finalised a €90bn support loan for the country battling against Putin's aggression.
Discussion has also begun on a "post-war prosperity package” for Ukraine as Europe looks to the future after peace with Putin.
There is also at least €500bn of investment needed to improve the EU's tech sovereignty, with the AI arms race needing massive funding behind it.
Mr Costa said leaders are "pooling public and private funding” to "catch up” with global peers on AI.
The Taoiseach and his EU counterparts reunite in Brussels at the end of this month for budget talks, with a deal likely to be contingent on all of the EU countries agreeing to back a mammoth new €45bn loan for Ukraine.
