Omagh inquiry costs hit £11m ..as it’s delayed by six months

JOHN BRESLIN, Irish News, April 8th, 2026

COSTS for the Omagh Bombing Inquiry have topped £11m since it began two years ago, it has emerged after it was announced the next public hearings would be delayed for six months.

The majority of the £11.1m spend to the end of December last year, close to £9m, went on legal costs, the inquiry’s financial statements reveal.

The total is likely now to top £13m to the March end of the financial year, based on costs in previous quarters.

However, a significant amount of money, over £400,000, was spent on information technology and this is likely to produce a new infrastructure to view material linked to national security issues, set to be installed after the end of April.

Issues around viewing certain material was highlighted by the inquiry’s lead counsel last month, with Paul Greaney KC revealing it can only be viewed on special terminals connected to secure networks.

A facility to house these terminals in Northern Ireland will not be completed until the end of April, after which the IT infrastructure will be installed, Mr Greaney said.

“That state of affairs is not satisfactory,” Mr Greaney said, adding the inquiry has “taken steps” to ensure time lost can be gained back, including a “surge” in resources to the inquiry team working on this material.

‘Acutely disappointing’ for victims

Mr Greaney added the legal team is “acutely aware of how disappointing this will be for many people”

The Omagh inquiry was established in 2024 by the UK Government to consider whether the bombing in Omagh, Co Tyrone, on August 15, 1998, could reasonably have been prevented by UK state authorities.

The Real IRA killed 29 people, including the mother of unborn twins, when the bomb exploded in the centre of the town on a Saturday afternoon. Relatives of the victims fought for years for a public inquiry.

According to the inquiry’s latest financial statement, the spend for the last three months of 2025 was £2.7m, which included £1.3m for barristers and solicitors, just over £800,000 for legal representatives of participants and approximately £200,000 in salaries and expenses for chairman, Lord Turnbull, and his staff.

While a significant amount of money, more than £200,000, was spent on communications in the first year of the inquiry, the amount had dropped to just over £1,000 in the last quarter of 2025. Expert evidence costs amounted to £143,000 over the same quarter.

The next phase of hearings will take place in September, six months after they were first scheduled to start in early March.

These hearings will look at what happened on the days before and after the atrocity, including construction of the bomb, warning calls, claims of responsibility, arrests and subsequent court proceedings.

Mr Greaney told the tribunal the delay was due, in part, to material “originating from the Republic of Ireland not being available”.

The volume of the material should not be “underestimated” and will not be fully disclosed until June, he added.

Legislation is making its way through the Oireachtas which will allow current or former members of the Gardaí, the Irish army, the Civil Service or the government to engage with the inquiry.

Omagh inquiry postponed due to ‘state of disclosure of material from Republic’

FREYA McCLEMENTS, Northern Editor, Irish Times, April 4th, 2026

Bombing inquiry has received ‘very significant quantity’ of Garda material but some matters still need ‘ironing out’

The resumption of the Omagh Bombing Inquiry has been postponed for six months due to a delay caused, in part, by the “state of disclosure of material from the Republic of Ireland”, the lead counsel to the inquiry has said.

Delivering an update at a daylong procedural hearing of the inquiry in Belfast on Thursday, Paul Greaney said the opening of chapter three, which had been scheduled to begin earlier this month, had been postponed until September 21st.

“One of the reasons, but we stress, not the only reason, for adjourning the March 9th date was due to material originating from the Republic of Ireland not being available,” the barrister said.

“Material expected from An Garda Síochána would not be disclosed to the inquiry, processed and/or provided to core participants in time for that start date [in March].”

Such is the volume of material that, although disclosure will take place on a “rolling basis”, it is not expected to be completed until June, the barrister said.

He said the inquiry legal team was “acutely aware” of how “disappointing” the delay would be for many people, but a start date earlier than September was “simply not feasible”.

A total of 31 people, including unborn twins, died and hundreds were injured when a car bomb planted by the dissident republican group the Real IRA exploded in the centre of Omagh, Co Tyrone, on August 15th, 1998.

The inquiry into the atrocity, which opened in 2024 and heard its first evidence last year, was ordered by the UK government to examine whether the atrocity could reasonably have been prevented by British state authorities

Nearly 450,000 pages of open disclosures

Chapter three, which is expected to last four weeks, will examine how the Omagh bombing was carried out and who was responsible.

A “significant statement” prepared by the Police Service of Northern Ireland has recently been disclosed to core participants which “identifies those suspected of participation in the Omagh bombing [and] some of the evidential basis for that suspicion”, Greaney said.

Continuing his update, the barrister said the inquiry has “received a very significant quantity of [Garda] material from the Government of Ireland” with “in excess of 20,000 pages” already disclosed.

While the disclosure process was at an “early stage”, the legal team had been “struck by the constructive, positive sentiments that have been expressed” and which have now received “very substantial support from the product the inquiry has already received from the Government of Ireland”.

Greaney said the inquiry’s experience thus far “is that those we are dealing with in the [Garda] are responsive to our communications and have kept the necessary deadlines required for the efficient processing of this material”.

However, he added that “inevitably” there were matters that required “ironing out”, including access to sensitive material, and while there was “still undoubtedly a long way to go with the completion of disclosure” of Garda material it was “appropriate … that we acknowledge” the “considerable” efforts and “effective” progress made by the Irish Government.

The inquiry was continuing to work with the Government regarding the disclosure of other State materials, he said.

In total, Greaney said the inquiry currently held “approaching 450,000 pages of open disclosure” and 18 “tranches” of documents comprising more than 100,000 pages had been disclosed to core participants.

Kids with petrol bombs ‘the last thing anyone wants to see’

MARK ROBINSON, Irish News, Apri8l 8th, 2026

Condemnation after images of young children wearing masks emerged from Easter Rising commemorations in Derry

THE PSNI has said that it takes the safeguarding of young people “extremely seriously” as images of masked young children carrying petrol bombs in Derry on Easter Monday have been described as “the last thing anyone wants to see”.

A group of children, one of whom appeared to be a pre-teen, were pictured with their faces covered and carrying petrol bombs at the republican Easter Rising commemoration.

While most of the youths appeared to be in their early teens, at least one child, pictured wearing a red balaclava and holding a petrol bomb in one hand and a lighter in the other, could be even younger.

One source told The Irish News that despite efforts to engage with local young people in the area, some are “told not to engage”.

While the parade itself passed off without any major incident, unrest following the procession included a car being burnt out in the Creggan area.

Police confirmed that an investigation into the parade had been launched, with a spokesperson adding that they take “the safeguarding of children and young people extremely seriously”.

“Where officers encounter a child or young person in the context of public disorder, safeguarding considerations are a priority,” they said.

“Where appropriate, children are referred to local safeguarding partners, including Health and Social Care Trusts, in line with established child protection procedures.”

Reacting to the scenes on Monday, Foyle MP Colum Eastwood said that “the last thing anyone wants to see is young kids wandering the city with petrol bombs in their hands”.

“It’s extremely dangerous and it will ruin their lives in the long run,” he said.

“The people responsible for putting those in the hands of kids or encouraging them need to stop and listen to people in Derry who want to leave that in the past.

‘Remembrance and commemoration is difficult in divided society’

“Some of the scenes over the last few days have been really disappointing and the criminal damage to a car in Creggan is totally unacceptable. We need to do better.”

He thanked youth and community workers for their work and added that there had been “far less violence, criminality and disruption” than might have been seen this week.

“Remembrance and commemoration is difficult in a divided society,” he said.

“We still have a long road to travel to understand one another and to remember the pain experienced by every community here. That’s a work in progress but it’s something our city can and should lead on.”

Sinn Féin councillor Emma McGinley said that “everyone has a right to remember and commemorate the dead in a respectful way” but added that images of young people with petrol bombs and subsequent unrest “do not belong in republicanism”.

“Scenes of young people masked and posing for photos with petrol bombs while standing on graves in the cemetery, the torching of a local person’s car and attacking a local community centre do not belong in republicanism,” she said.

“Creggan is not a playground for this type of activity and the cemetery should be treated with decency and respect,” she said.

“Those involved need to catch themselves on and leave our community alone.”

March organisers Saoradh condemned the anti-social behaviour which took place following the event and said that they would “continue to engage with the community” as part of their “ongoing efforts to challenge and reduce anti-social behaviour”.

Child protection expert's challenge to parents over bomb-wielding kids

ABDULLAH SABRI, Belfast Telegraph, April 8th, 2026

A child protection expert from Northern Ireland has challenged parents whose children participate in terror processions to “reflect on what they are doing”.

It comes after a number of boys were seen attending Easter commemorations in Londonderry, some of whom were seen brandishing weapons, including petrol bombs.

Others were seen posing for selfies with petrol bombs at the city cemetery.

Jim Gamble, who formerly led the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), condemned the scenes and urged parents to consider who and what is influencing their children.

The former police officer said: “When you see young people posing with petrol bombs for selfies, you've got to ask yourself questions about influencing them. Who's having a positive influence, and who's having a negative influence?

“What they're doing is wrong and the fact that they're celebrating it in a photograph is wrong. So the real issue here for me is those politicians, from whatever side of the divide, celebrating the acts of terror.

“Those messages are just reinforcing young people that what went on wasn't wrong. And regardless of who you are, where you're from, you have to draw a line under what happened in the past and make sure that our children, as they grow up today, can differentiate between what's right and wrong.

“I think politicians from all sides need to come out and condemn it. And the parents of those children need to reflect on what their children are doing and why they're doing it and what they can do to stop them.”

Mr Gamble appealed for social care staff to engage with parents as well as ensuring young people receive “the right influences”.

He added: “Otherwise, at some stage down the line, some young person is going to end up finding themselves in serious trouble, hurting someone else, doing something that can't be undone. And nobody wants that.”

Commenting on the recent republican processions, SDLP MP Colum Eastwood said that “we need to do better” as he condemned scenes of youths brandishing petrol bombs.

However, Mr Eastwood took the opportunity to praise young people and community workers across Derry for mitigating violence.

A video from Monday's parade in the north west captured a man preventing an adolescent from setting a vehicle alight.

“The last thing anyone wants to see is young kids wandering the city with petrol bombs,” Mr Eastwood said.

“It's extremely dangerous and it will ruin their lives in the long run. The people responsible for putting those in the hands of kids or encouraging them need to stop and listen to people in Derry who want to leave that in the past.

“Some of the scenes over the last few days have been really disappointing and the criminal damage to a car in Creggan is totally unacceptable. We need to do better.

“But I want to really thank the youth and community workers who were about the city over the last few days and have been working with young people throughout the year — from what I've seen, they've made a difference and we've had far less violence, criminality and disruption than we might have had this week.”

He added: “That's a work in progress, but it's something our city can and should lead on.”

Assembly’s challenge to pass raft of bills in just 12 months

JOHN MANLEY, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, Irish News, April 8th, 2026

The Northern Ireland Assembly faces a busy 12 months ahead as it seeks to sign-off at least three dozen items of legislation before the end of the mandate.

Stormont departments are seeking to introduce 21 pieces of proposed legislation in the coming months, which are in addition to the 15 Executive-sponsored bills currently being considered by MLAs

With little over 70 sitting days between now and when the Assembly is suspended ahead of next May’s election, there is concern that some bills, in particular those sponsored by individual members, will not make it onto the statute book due to time constraints.

Only three members’ bills, all of which are sponsored by Sinn Féin MLAs, have so far been introduced to the Assembly. It now looks increasingly likely that a majority of 23 proposed MLA-sponsored bills will not progress in this mandate, with Executive business afforded priority.

There is also potential for substandard legislation to be passed due to the limits in how effectively bills can be scrutinised in a tight timeframe.

Since the institutions were restored more than two years ago, the Assembly has passed 12 bills. A majority of the legislation so far in this mandate can be characterised as ‘housekeeping’, including five budget bills.

MLAs have passed legislation on defective premises and school uniforms, while fast-tracking legislation that paved the way for the their basic wage to rise from £53,000 to £67,200.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly laid out the legislative programme for 2025-26 in October.

Among the proposed legislation ministers aim to table in the coming months are the Department for the Economy’s Employment Bill, the Executive Office’s Race Equality Bill and a Department of Communities bill that will bring the north into line with Britain when it comes to investigating welfare fraud.

Stormont departments are seeking to introduce 21 pieces of proposed legislation in the coming months, which are in addition to the 15 Executive-sponsored bills currently being considered by MLAs.

Irish News columnist and Slugger O’Toole deputy editor David McCann said that by this time next year, Stormont will be dissolved and the election campaign underway.

“The number of breaks and the fact that the chamber only meets two days a week means time is short for meaningful scrutiny of legislation before the next election,” he said.

“There is a danger that in a rush to get bills on the books that they do not get the scrutiny they deserve. MLAs need to be mindful of some of the rushed pieces of legislation from the previous mandate, as having to unpick some of the bills passed in the previous mandate simply fuels public scepticism about the institutions.”

Mr McCann advocated a “less is more” approach in which the Assembly focuses on the quality of legislation rather than quantity.

No lessons learned from saga of free hospital parking act

JOHN MANLEY: ANALYSIS

The Hospital Parking Charges Act (Northern Ireland) was passed in the Assembly in March 2022

YOU’D like to think our MLAs regard the Hospital Parking Charges Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 as an important lesson learned.

Originally a private member’s bill proposed by the then Sinn Féin MLA Fra Mc-Cann, the baton was passed to party colleague Aisling Reilly in the closing weeks of the last mandate.

The bill’s aim was clear: end parking charges for staff and patients at hospitals across the north.

It was expected to prove popular with voters, and accordingly received cross-party support, before being passed on March 24 2022 – the Assembly’s last sitting day ahead of the election.

But fast forward two years to the Assembly’s restoration in February 2024, after the DUP ended its anti-protocol boycott, and one of the first real items of business was to defer the introduction of free hospital parking.

It transpired that the Department of Health relied on the £7m-odd generated by parking charges. Removing the charges would put an already cash-strapped department under even greater pressure.

Then there’s the Climate Change Act, a well-meaning piece of legislation that in parts proved to be ill-thoughtout, and one that may yet scupper the long-awaited A5 upgrade, as well as other important road improvements.

The lesson for MLAs is clear: don’t bite off more than you can chew, as failure to properly scrutinise and amend bills accordingly results in bad law.

While the purpose of the Assembly is to legislate, rather than score political points over opponents, it’s often the latter that takes priority, especially in the two years or more since restoration.

It means there’ll now be a lot of business crammed into the next 12 months, with little more than 70 Assembly sitting days before the next election.

At the moment there are some 36 bills to be passed – and that’s before consideration is given to proposed legislation sponsored by individual MLAs, such as the bid by Alliance’s John Blair to ban hunting with dogs, independent unionist Claire Sugden’s anti-age discrimination bill or the three already tabled bills from Sinn Féin’s Declan McAleer, Danny Baker and Pat Sheehan.

No doubt there’ll much burning of the midnight oil at Parliament Buildings and perhaps extra sitting days to cope with the workload.

However, don’t be surprised if bills are shelved as our legislators become overburdened.

Perhaps one consolation is that apart from a handful of notable exceptions, the majority of the proposed legislation is unlikely to have a meaningful impact on most people’s everyday lives.

'A situation as near hopeless a one as I've ever seen': What Tory MP told Heath before Bloody Sunday

SAM McBRIDE, Northern Ireland Editor, Belfast Telegraph, April 8th, 2026

MP ST JOHN-STEVAS VISITED NI IN 1972, BUT LEFT 'DEPRESSED' BY UNIONIST DELUSION OVER ANTI-CATHOLIC DISCRIMINATION AND ARMY OPTIMISM THAT THE IRA WOULD SOON BE DEFEATED

A Conservative MP who spent three days meeting senior figures in Northern Ireland told the Prime Minister it was as near a hopeless situation as he'd ever seen — and that was days before Bloody Sunday.

Norman St John-Stevas sent a confidential eight-page report to Ted Heath on January 17, 1972 which sets out in stark detail the extent of the delusion among both unionists and top military commanders who believed they were on the brink of defeating the IRA.

In his three-day visit, the outsider formed a more prescient view of the crisis in Northern Ireland than many of those immersed in it.

The document is held in a secret Ministry of Defence file which was initially to have been kept closed to the public for a century with official access on “a strictly need to know basis”.

However, it has now been declassified at The National Archives in Kew.

During his visit from January 12-14, St John-Stevas met Prime Minister Brian Faulkner, SDLP members, the Civil Rights Association, senior clerics, top Army commanders and others.

In his report to Heath, he said: “I came away with the general impression of a Province sunk, politically, in gloom and politically virtually paralysed.

“Although, by nature, an optimist, I was profoundly depressed by the rigidity of the positions taken up by the various protagonists, and the lack of flexibility in the situation.

‘Gripped by death wish’

“Many of the leaders in Northern Ireland seem to be gripped by a death-wish and to be unable to escape from their own positions.

“Anyone who imagines there is an easy solution to the Northern Ireland situation should pay a short visit to the Province when they would be immediately disabused of this illusion. At times one felt that there was no solution or way forward at all.”

The MP, who would go on to become Leader of the Commons under Margaret Thatcher, said he was “greatly impressed by the fine morale of the British troops” and “struck by the calibre of General Tuzo”, saying: “We are fortunate to have someone in command of our troops who combines military competence and efficiency with political ability and sensitivity.”

He added: “I was told by all the officers to whom I spoke that the IRA have been brought under control and that the battle was about to be won.

“I am not in a position to assess the accuracy of this, but certainly the incidents taking place in Northern Ireland seem to be increasingly desperate.

“On the other hand, it seems to me these can be carried on for a long time to come, since so little is needed in the way of men and material for the kind of guerrilla warfare which is being conducted. I believe that we should resign ourselves to a continuance of violence over a fairly long period to come.”

St John-Stevas said Faulkner was “clearly a man of great ability. He stands head and shoulders above his ministers, and I was equally impressed by their low calibre. Dr GD New, for example, although clearly a man of great integrity, does not seem to me to have very much ability”.

“The Catholic population dismiss him [a token Catholic minister put into the cabinet by Faulkner] as being of no account. The same could be said of most of the other ministers.

“On the other hand, the civil service is well run and has a number of very good people in it.”

‘Important contemporaneous account’

The report provides an important contemporaneous account of what was said by key figures as Northern Ireland began what would be the worst year of the Troubles.

He wrote: “I had one point of disagreement with Mr Faulkner, who indicated that he would not wish to have anyone in his Cabinet who actively wanted a united Ireland.

“This would exclude, he said, people like Gerry Fitt. On the other hand, he was prepared to have Mr New because the latter had more or less shelved his desire for a reunited Ireland.

“I feel that the line of demarcation should be drawn rather differently. Those who want a united Ireland, either in the short or long term, should be admitted to any office at Stormont, provided they are prepared to carry this out by peaceful means. Those who will not renounce violence or condemn it should not be included.

“I was struck by the failure of any unionists, including MPs, to realise the depth of the feeling against the regime amongst Catholics, and some did not seem even to appreciate the gravity of the crisis. Some appear to be under the impression that once the IRA have been defeated and there will be a return to 'normalcy'.

“Others find it hard to recognise, or admit, that Catholics have ever suffered any injustice.”

He also said: “Ian Paisley is, at the moment, in decline. I feel, however, that his position could easily revive if there was a major setback for the Government. If Brian Faulkner falls there is no other leader at Stormont who could replace him. This creates a dangerous situation.”

He found the Catholic community “now totally alienated from Stormont…not only working class Catholics, but middle class Catholics as well are now almost totally disaffected. They sympathise with the IRA, although they do not identify with them”.

Cardinal Conway on divorce and contraception

“Stormont is regarded with a degree of hatred and mistrust which is alarming… Catholics are sunk in a mood of sullen despair… the community is drifting in increasing bitterness to a mood of extremism. Something needs to be done to lift them out of this mood and to give them something to hope for.”

In a two-hour meeting with Cardinal Conway, the MP, who was himself Catholic, was convinced that he was appalled by violence even though he “regards a united Ireland as the only permanent peaceful solution”, which would involve “a federal system…at any rate for a certain period”.

Far more intriguingly, he said Conway told him “in a reunited Ireland divorce would have to be accepted, and so would the sale and availability of contraceptives” — two changes the Catholic Church continued to oppose.

St John-Stevas proposed Stormont reforms which were remarkably similar to those of the Sunningdale Agreement two years later, whereby there should be a power-sharing devolved administration.

He also recommended transferring security policy from Stormont to Westminster — as would happen two months later — and the running down of internment, which also happened.

He added gloomily: “The Northern Ireland situation is as near a hopeless one as any I have ever come across in my life. However, if one believes that, basically, human beings are rational and that Government by discussion can still contribute something in this type of situation, one has to continue to follow a constructive policy.”

Thirteen days later members of the Parachute Regiment ran amok in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday, killing civilians in cold blood. So many recruits flooded towards the IRA that it struggled to cope with the influx.

That year almost 500 people were killed in Northern Ireland.

Former Noraid director Galvin leading US delegation in 10-day 'fact-finding mission' around NI

SUZANNE BREEN, Belfast Telegraph, April 8th, 2026

AOH MEMBERS WILL MEET FAMILY OF GAA OFFICIAL MURDERED IN 1997

Former Noraid publicity director Martin Galvin is leading a 43-member Ancient Order of Hibernians delegation on a “fact-finding mission” around Northern Ireland.

In a 10-day visit, the group will hold talks with campaigners for Irish unity and be briefed by those lobbying on justice issues.

Mr Galvin is now the AOH's Freedom for All Ireland chair. The delegation will meet the family of murdered GAA official Sean Brown. The Government is appealing to the Supreme Court a court ruling that ordered it to hold a public inquiry into his murder.

The 61-year-old was attacked by an LVF gang as he locked the gates of the Wolfe Tones GAA club in Bellaghy in 1997.

He was bundled into the boot of his own car and driven to Randalstown where he was shot six times. Nobody has ever been convicted of the murder of the father-of-six.

The Browns have asked that the Government's appeal be abandoned, and have called on Secretary of State Hilary Benn to “do the right thing” and hold a public inquiry.

Mr Galvin claimed the Government's actions “in trying to prevent families like the Browns from getting even a gist of truth about collusion” raised serious doubts about how it would “interpret any new legacy legislation”.

Critical role

He said: “Irish America has a critical role to play on issues like legacy justice and Irish reunification. We are bringing a high level AOH-Ladies delegation to the north to highlight American support for those like the Brown family, and so many others still fighting for legacy truth.

“It is crucial now more than ever that we bring the facts back across America and do more nationally to support those still denied justice and freedom.

“We will be visiting the sites where Sean was abducted and murdered. Belfast High Court and the Court of Appeal upheld the coroner's actions in acknowledging that intelligence reports linked multiple British agents to the murder, and ordering a public inquiry.

“The family is now deeply concerned that Hilary Benn's approach will end their hopes for truth and force them to seek justice in the European Court.”

In Belfast, the AOH delegation will meet Relatives for Justice's Mark Thompson and Amnesty International's Grainne Teggart to discuss legacy issues and be briefed on the Springhill-Westrock massacre inquest, with the verdict due soon.

Five civilians, including three teenagers and a priest, were killed in the massacre on July 9, 1972.

In Derry, the AOH delegation will receive a briefing from SDLP MP Colum Eastwood. They are also set to meet the Bloody Sunday families and relatives of former Sinn Fein leader the late Martin McGuinness at the Museum of Free Derry before a tour of Bogside Murals with the Bogside Artists.

The AOH is also presenting nearly $150,000 in Freedom for all Ireland grants which will be broadcast live to the US from the grounds of Holy Cross Church in Ardoyne on Saturday.

The 17 successful applicants include the Ballymurphy Massacre Campaign, the Bloody Sunday Trust, Relatives for Justice, and the EALU Centre for its work with former republican prisoners in Tyrone.

Other recipients include Ireland's Future, Ardoyne Youth Club, Belfast National Graves and Tyrone National Graves, Bridges Beyond Boxing, and the Martin McGuinness Foundation.

Trimble told Blair they both 'turned blind eye' to paramilitary criminality

UUP LEADER WILLING TO 'WRITE OFF' BREACHES IN RETURN FOR NEW 'ZERO TOLERANCE' APPROACH

David Trimble told Tony Blair they'd both been willing to “turn a blind eye” to IRA and loyalist criminality — and said he was willing to “write off” major ceasefire breaches such as Colombia and Castlereagh.

Amid continued stuttering attempts to get devolution to work after the Good Friday Agreement, the UUP leader told the Prime Minister that he was willing to make a significant concession if it was matched by republicans.

On 28 June 2002, a 'confidential and personal' memo to the PM from his powerful chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, told Blair that they'd been given a paper by Trimble and attached it to his memo.

In proposing a tougher test of Sinn Fein's continued participation in the Executive if IRA violence continued, Powell told his boss that the Government would “face a problem when “it is pointed out that our list appears to exclude punishment beatings and activities to defend republican areas, and we are accused of condoning such activities”.

In Trimble's paper he lamented how the IRA and UDA had both broken their ceasefires while the UVF “show considerable signs of tension and are possibly now anti-Agreement”.

The IRA continued to re-arm “and to engage in paramilitary operations”, he said, while there was “no evidence” that Sinn Fein was “prepared to halt PIRA activity”.

He went on: “We have all turned a blind eye to PIRA and loyalist activity in the vain hope that it would recede and disappear. Rather, it has increased. There is now a moral imperative on us to end this situation.”

The UUP leader proposed as a possible solution “drawing a line in return for zero tolerance”.

He said all parties and terror groups should reaffirm the Mitchell principles of commitment solely to democracy and opposition to violence — with anyone failing to do so being excluded from the Executive.

If that happened, he proposed that “all parties agree to draw a line under the past and to move forward collectively to fulfil, and provide the stability and peace promised by, the Agreement”.

He also proposed that “the decertification of the UDA” — effectively agreeing that it was back on ceasefire — “should be traded for an immediate act of verified decommissioning”.

That same day, NIO political director Bill Jeffrey relayed to the Secretary of State details of a meeting with Trimble.

He said the UUP leader had explained that if Sinn Fein re-committed to the non-violence principles and agreed any future breach would see the party out of office then “Colombia, Castlereagh, etc would be written off”.

The senior NIO official went on to allude to a largely unspoken reality — that the Government was willing to accept serious IRA violence so long as it didn't involve attacks on state forces.

He said: “At the moment, there is a tacit political understanding that, if the IRA 'really' broke their ceasefire, ie. started attacking security targets or exploding large bombs, the SDLP would join with the unionists in voting to exclude Sinn Fein ministers from office.”

Supporters criticise Cliftonville’s silence over cup-tie fan disorder

ALLAN PRESTON, Irish News, April 8th, 2026

A FOOTBALL supporters’ club has criticised Cliftonville FC for their silence over scenes of disorder at Windsor Park last week.

Fireworks and bottles were thrown ahead of the Irish Cup semi-final against Dungannon Swifts on Friday.

Around 200 Cliftonville supporters were taking part in a fan parade, which had been approved by the Parades Commission.

Nine police officers were injured and a child was hit by a bottle, with a 19-year-old man charged with a number of offences, including riotous behaviour.

It also led to criticism from the assembly speaker Edwin Poots, who said that local residents may have to block the roads to make sure Cliftonville supporters are unable to access Windsor Park for future matches.

Yesterday, a statement issued by the Tommy Breslin North Belfast Reds Cliftonville Supporters Club condemned the “inappropriate conduct”.

Stating they had no involvement in the parade, they demanded answers over reports that a director of Cliftonville had made the application to the Parades Commission.

They also said they were deeply concerned by “intimidating” scenes inside the stadium,” with the use of flares and some “so-called fans” dressed in black and wearing face coverings.

“A number of supporters, particularly children and individuals with additional needs, appeared distressed – some were visibly upset, experienced difficulty breathing, and required support from those around them due in particular to flares and fireworks,” they said.

The security at Windsor Park was described as “inadequate and chaotic” and meant that “many upper stand ticket holders unable to access their seats due to the apparent inability to control crowd surges and aggressive behaviour.”

“Friday’s events appear to reflect a wider pattern of concerning and escalating behaviour at fixtures in recent months, including reports of abuse, offensive chanting, misuse of pyrotechnics, and disorder which have cost the club in terms of fines through disciplinary sanctions.”

The supporters’ club has urged Cliftonville to review the available footage, identify those responsible and take appropriate action.

“We also call on the management committee to publicly condemn the behaviour witnessed at the semi-final and other recent fixtures; and to introduce educational initiatives to promote respectful and football-focused supporter conduct.”

Stating that the vast majority of those attending the matches were “true football fans,” they added “we do not want our club dragged into the past.”

The PSNI had previously said that they will “not tolerate disorder or criminal behaviour of any kind” and noted that they will “continue to work with football clubs to address any inappropriate behaviour linked to people attending matches and ensure that the local community is kept safe”.

Cliftonville FC was been contacted for a response.

'No coincidence' rally cars crashed on Tyrone road haunted by ghost of soldier: Ex-IRA man

SUZANNE BREEN, Belfast Telegraph, April 8th, 2026

Two cars in the Circuit of Ireland Rally crashed at a spot in Co Tyrone believed to be haunted by the ghost of a young British soldier, a prominent republican has said.

Former IRA gunrunner turned historian Gerry McGeough said local people thought it was “no coincidence” that the accidents last weekend occurred on the stretch of road where the soldier was executed by his own commanders over 400 years ago.

“The Circuit of Ireland was passing through the Brantry area of Tyrone on Holy Saturday when two participant cars crashed at the spot reputedly haunted for centuries,” Mr McGeough said.

“Travelling in high-speed succession, they crashed over the hedges on either side of the narrow road. We were very fortunate in that no one was killed or seriously injured.

“In previous generations, people were very reluctant to walk the road at night due to the presence of a roadside bush that was known as the 'Soldier's Tree' near to which fiddle music could be heard from time to time.”

The tree marked the burial spot of a soldier who was executed by his commanders for refusing to march any further, according to local lore.

“The soldier was known to have been an accomplished fiddler, and a ghostly version of the instrument's music has lingered in the stories of local people for generations,” Mr McGeough said.

“The proper name for the road is Prunty, which most likely derives from Priomh Tigh, the Curate's House, and it was part of the old highway to the hamlet of Carnteel.

“We have a record of a significant military force passing through the area on Thursday, June 15th, 1643, to be precise, which may be the source of the story.”

Mr McGeough said that, according to a local priest Fr Turlough O'Mallon, who was resident in the nearby Franciscan Friary in Gort Tamlacht na Muc in the Brantry, a large Anglo-Scots army had come into the area.

“Fr O'Mallon said they proceeded to burn, plunder and massacre the local population which had been supplying the Irish Army of Ulster under Owen Roe O'Neill with food and material following the 1641 Rebellion,” he added

“Fields around the old site of the Friary, still known as Maigh na hArgana and the Field of the Atrocity, remain a testimony to this episode. The plunder was then carried off to Carnteel where a camp was established for the night.

“Fr O'Mallon recorded the events in a journal written in the now extinct East Ulster dialect of Irish. The document itself is preserved in Cork University.”

‘Geographically incomprehensible’

Mr McGeough said the tree where the soldier was buried was chopped down several years ago and “a bureaucrat somewhere arbitrarily changed the name of the road to something geographically incomprehensible”. It was renamed Carricklongfield Road.

Local people believed the crashes at the spot were “no coincidence and were linked to its history”, he added.

In 2011 Mr McGeough became the first republican jailed for historic offences since the Good Friday Agreement after he was convicted of the 1981 attempted murder of part-time UDR man Sammy Brush 30 years earlier. He was released in 2013.

Mr McGeough joined the East Tyrone Brigade in 1975 aged 16. In 1981 he shot Mr Brush, who also worked as a postman, as he delivered mail in Aughnacloy.

A bulletproof jacket saved his life and he returned fire with his own pistol, wounding Mr McGeough.

The IRA man was treated in a Dublin hospital but escaped despite being under armed guard.

In 1983 his application for political asylum in Sweden was refused.

In 1988 he was arrested crossing the Dutch-German border with weapons in a car. He was charged with attacks on the British Army of the Rhine and held in Germany for four years.

Mr McGeough was then extradited to the US where he was charged with attempting to buy surface-to-air missiles in 1983. After serving three years in American jails he was deported to the Republic in 1996

He went on to be a prominent figure in Sinn Fein, sitting on its ard chomhairle and becoming national director of its 'No To Nice' campaign. He later left the party in protest at its abortion stance.

Mr McGeough was arrested in connection with Mr Brush's attempted murder in 2007 on leaving a count centre in Omagh after standing as an independent nationalist candidate in Fermanagh and South Tyrone in the 2007 Assembly election.

The truth is we have the politics we want

ALEX KANE, Irish News, April 8th, 2026

THE problem with optimism is that it tends to be accompanied by one dashed hope after another: and with those dashed hopes comes one disappointment after another.

Pessimism, on the other hand, rarely gives you surprises, dashed hopes or disappointments. That’s because pessimism is based on the expectation that if something can go wrong, then it will go wrong.

Sometimes, particularly when it comes to politics, I find myself wondering what exactly the optimists have been smoking or inhaling that makes them so upbeat and so utterly blind to the problems all around them.

But something happened to me a couple of weeks ago.

I was reading a profile of Bryan Stevenson, the death row lawyer who has spent his life fighting racial discrimination in the US justice system.

He was relentlessly upbeat about the challenges he faced; so upbeat, in fact, that the writer profiling him (Edward Luce, the Financial Times’ US national editor) noted: “It strikes me that he cannot afford the luxury of pessimism. He tells everyone, black or white, innocent or guilty, that they are worth more than the worst thing they have ever done.”

Can pessimism ever be a luxury, though? I thought long and hard about that question. And I kept on thinking about it over the next couple of days.

As a columnist and commentator, who has been in the business since my first published piece in August 1979, I have established a reputation as a congenital pessimist when it comes to local politics.

In fairness, the evidence of the last 50 years or so has, all things considered, generally justified my pessimism.

I supported the original power-sharing project in 1974, only to watch it collapse. I supported the Good Friday Agreement and, almost 30 years on, I’m still waiting for my rare moment of optimism to deliver.

‘Distrust and incivility… the obvious choice of majority’

Yet, something else has been niggling me. My pessimism is usually on the right track, but so what? Writing over and over and over again about how and why things went wrong, and how they’re likely to go wrong again, doesn’t really amount to a hill of beans, does it?

For example, I know things will go wrong again because I also know that in a situation where the two primary community/constitutional blocs support and will continue to support competing and contradictory outcomes for the future, then a genuine middle ground they can both settle on cannot and will not exist. I wish it were otherwise, but it isn’t. And never will be.

A lot of people tell me that my pessimism is unjustified because I’m ignoring all the people who do want change and are working hard for change.

“ If a new generation – new era way of doing politics here – hasn’t emerged by now, I really don’t see it happening at all

Hmm. In the 2022 Assembly election and 2024 general election, just under 80% of those who voted did so for the two primary constitutional blocs. Alliance averaged 14%. That doesn’t suggest to me hard evidence of a desire for change.

Opinion polls before and after the GFA indicated 70-80% support for integrated education, yet only around 10% of schools are fully integrated.

Thirty years after the 1994 ceasefires, stories about cross-community projects still make the news. Most of us still live in us-and-them areas rather than significantly mixed ones. So, where’s all the change I keep being told about?

Further on in the profile, Bryan Stevenson said: “You’re absolutely right. If you really want things to change, do the thing that makes the change. I don’t have much interest in creating a lot of language that is excluding.”

I wonder what the optimists and pessimists here would suggest as the ‘thing’ that would make the change. Would it, for instance, make a difference if the parties in the Executive took full responsibility for the Programme for Government and stopped attacking each other on a daily basis?

Yes, it probably would make a difference. The problem is that the Executive is not built along those lines: the individual parties prioritise their own bloc when it comes to decision-making. Always have and always will. There is no kind of reform which will end, or come close to ending that brutal reality.

People also tell me that the parties need to go back to the drawing board and learn from how the Executive and Assembly have worked – or not worked – since 1998.

Here’s a hard truth for the optimists: the Assembly and Executive are working precisely how the 80% who continue to support the primary community blocs want them to work.

If a new generation – a new era way of doing politics here – hasn’t emerged by now, I really don’t see it happening at all.

The ongoing status quo of distrust and incivility is the obvious choice of the majority.

The past deserves to be remembered honestly, not curated to suit present

LETTER: Irish News, April 8th, 2026

EVERY Easter we are told that we remember the dead – parades are held, wreaths are laid and speeches are delivered in honour of those who gave their lives for an Irish republic. Their sacrifice is invoked and we are reminded that their memory must never be forgotten.

But remembrance, if it is to mean anything, must be honest and honesty requires acknowledging that the way the past is remembered today is often selective.

There are certain volunteers whose names are spoken with reverence at official commemorations. Their stories are repeated and their place in the history of the struggle is emphasised. They are held up as symbols of sacrifice and commitment. And rightly so – their role deserves recognition.

Yet, there are others whose memory sits less comfortably within the carefully managed narrative that surrounds modern republican commemorations.

” If remembrance is genuine, it cannot celebrate sacrifice in general terms while quietly sidelining those with views that later became politically inconvenient

Figures such as Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price were republicans, volunteers and participants in the same struggle that is commemorated every Easter, yet their names rarely feature in the same way at organised events. Their perspectives sit uneasily beside the political direction that mainstream republicanism eventually chose to follow.

Both were openly critical of the settlement that emerged from the peace process and of the political path that followed the Good Friday Agreement. They believed that the republican movement had moved away from the goal that generations of republicans believed they were fighting for – a free and united Irish republic.

Whether one agrees with their views or not is beside the point. They were part of the same history that is remembered each Easter. They were part of the same struggle that is invoked in speeches and commemorations across the country.

Much is made today of the idea of ‘Building an Ireland of Equals’, a phrase often used to describe a vision of a fair and inclusive Irish Republic. It is a powerful idea, and one that reflects values many people would support. But equality must also extend to memory.

If remembrance is genuine, it cannot celebrate sacrifice in general terms while quietly sidelining those with views that later became politically inconvenient. The history of republicanism was never neat or unanimous. It was shaped by debate, disagreement and differing visions of how a republic might be achieved.

The past deserves to be remembered honestly – not curated to suit the present.

As George Orwell wrote: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

BARRY FENNELL Belfast BT11

Figures illustrate growing scale of the housing crisis

Irish News, April 8th, 2026, Pro Fide et Patria

THE north’s housing crisis – and it can only be described this way – has been evident for some time, but latest figures underline its scale.

Despite chronic need, Northern Ireland is building fewer homes now than a decade ago.

Output peaked in 2018, when more than 8,600 homes were started and over 7,600 completed.

However, as detailed in this paper, Department of Finance data shows there were just 6,624 starts in 2025, compared to 7,457 in 2016.

Just over 1,000 homes were started in the final quarter of 2025, described by the industry as the lowest level since housing started recovering from the crash in 2013, and down almost a third on the same period the previous year.

“ While some additional funding has been committed by the Executive, it falls far short of the level required and, as in other many other areas, there appears to a refusal to confront the scale of the problem or the hard choices that need to be made

Unsurprisingly, the falling number of new homes has coincided with a sharp rise in rent prices.

According to Property Pal, the average rent across Northern Ireland has risen by more than 50% since 2020, from £659 to almost £1,000 per month. In Belfast the figure is even higher.

This has priced many families out of the market and is likely contributing to numbers presenting as homeless.

Almost 50,000 households were on the Housing Executive waiting list at the end of 2025, a figure that has been steadily rising in recent years.

Demand outstripping supply

The basic issue is that demand is outstripping supply, and one major reason is the north’s crumbling wastewater infrastructure.

If planned new homes cannot be connected to sewage systems, they cannot be built.

The industry estimates a colossal £2 billion funding gap for wastewater improvements, preventing construction of thousands of homes.

This denies many families the basic right to a safe and affordable place to live, as well as costing the economy through lost construction work.

While some additional funding has been committed by the Executive, it falls far short of the level required and, as in other many other areas, there appears to a refusal to confront the scale of the problem or the hard choices that need to be made.

With no new money likely from the Treasury, house-builders have suggested a modest ‘infrastructure levy’ on rates bills averaging around £1.25 a week to help NI Water plan ahead.

The Housing Executive also needs powers to borrow money to provide much-needed new social homes.

A survey confirmed this week that lack of affordable housing is among the top concerns for voters in the Republic.

It is fast becoming just as pressing an issue north of the border, and sadly, our political leaders appear equally incapable of an adequate response.