PSNI paid out more than twice as much to lawyers as it did to victims - Boucher

Jonathan, McCambridge, Irish News, April 24th, 2025

THE “attritional” approach of security agencies in dealing with Troubles compensation claims is creating a “greenfield site for lawyers”, Jon Boutcher said yesterday.

The chief constable told MPs on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that the force had paid out more than twice as much to lawyers as it did to victims in civil claims over a six-year period.

Mr Boutcher said the PSNI’s annual cost of dealing with legacy issues was the equivalent of around 400 police officers.

The committee heard evidence from the chief constable as part of its investigation into how the government is addressing the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland.

Under the Legacy Act introduced by the previous government, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), has taken on the responsibility from the PSNI to carry out investigations into deaths and serious harm related to the Troubles which occurred between January 1 1966 and April 10 1998.

However, MPs were told that the act had not diminished legacy costs for the force, and may actually increase them.

Mr Boutcher said when policing powers were devolved to Stormont, there was no agreement over how legacy investigations would be funded within the police.

Mounting costs - £3.7 m to Victims and £17.7 m to Lawyers

“We have a legacy investigation branch that was the successor unit to the HET (Historical Enquiries Team),” he said.

“That unit cost £5.3 million a year to fund.

“We also have ongoing civil cases. That’s over £3m a year it costs to deal with those cases.”

The chief constable added: “Between 2018 and 2024, the PSNI resolved 30 challenging civil cases. In those cases we paid out to families, claimants, victims, a total of £25m, which we are not funded for.

“Of that £25m, I am told that £7.3m went to the victims, the claimants themselves; £17.7m went to the lawyers.

“Because we have this attritional approach to legacy by all the security agencies around information disclosure and provision, it creates a green-field site for lawyers.

“This is public money. It is public money that the PSNI is not funded for.

“That is taking money from contemporary policing.”

Mr Boutcher said the PSNI cannot do all that it wants to do because of resources dedicated to legacy claims.

Millstone

He said: “Some of the figures around what we are spending now, year on year it varies, we are spending just over £20m a year – that would be around 400 police officers.

“We have been left with this millstone, this anchor, which holds the PSNI back because families, victims, on all sides of the different victims’ profiles, see that lack of action as our fault, our responsibility.

“We are trying to design a plan now to go to the secretary of state, go to the executive and try and make sure they don’t just think about the ICRIR, they think about moving society in Northern Ireland forward by trying to help the PSNI do what we were never intended to do, dealing with these legacy issues.

“It is a considerable burden on us.”

Losing public trust

Detective Chief Superintendent Claire McGuigan told the committee that the only legacy funding the force had received was from the Department of Justice to help with inquests.

She said: “The PSNI has had to find the funding from our own budgets to deal with that (legacy).

“Over the seven years, if you look at investigations we have done, if you look at civil actions in terms of resourcing them and the compensation, it has cost around £126m. That’s quite a significant amount of money.”

She added: “Nothing has stopped because of the Legacy Act, we still have investigations to continue, we still have the civil claims, we still have over 1,100 civil claims to deal with.

“We don’t have anywhere near the resources to actually resource and deal with those.

“Nor do we have the money to settle them.

“We are in a position that is very difficult and it doesn’t build trust with the community because it looks like we are stalling, we are taking too long to do these things.

“We simply don’t have the resources. To get the resources I would have to take more out of contemporary policing.”

Ms McGuigan said: “Nothing has stopped with the Legacy Act but the provisions within it are likely to put statutory obligations on to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

“With that and public inquiries that are legacy related, I think we are looking at another £4-£5m on top of what we are currently spending.”

O’Loan: Irish government ‘needs process’ over Omagh

Jonathan McCambridge, Irish News, April 24th, 2025

THERE needs to be a “determined process” where the Irish government makes available all information relating to the Omagh bombing, Baroness Nuala O’Loan has said.

The former police ombudsman told MPs that too often assurances had been given by Dublin that information would be made available on terrorist incidents, but was then not provided.

Lady O’Loan was giving evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, which is investigating the UK government’s approach to legacy issues. A public inquiry is examining whether the 1998 Real IRA bombing of Omagh which killed 29 people, including a woman who was pregnant with twins, could have been prevented.

It was recently announced that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been agreed between the inquiry and the Irish government to allow inquiry chairman Lord Turnbull and members of his team to access material held by the Irish State.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has since said that gardaí and others should testify at the Omagh Bombing Inquiry if requested.

However, some unionists have said the MoU is not sufficient and have said a parallel public inquiry should be set up in the Republic.

Lady O’Loan told the committee that she saw the MoU as “indicative of a will to assist” by the Irish government.

‘An awful lot of information held in Republic’

She added: “An awful lot of the crime which occurred, actually occurred in planning terms in the Republic of Ireland and an awful lot of information is held in the Republic of Ireland and it is a bit difficult to get that information out.

“ There does need to a determined process through which the records in the Republic of Ireland are made available when necessary so that the Omagh Bomb Inquiry can do its work

“I would have expected, and I said that the Republic should have established, some sort of independent inquiry on Omagh to run parallel to our inquiry because there is clear evidence that that bomb was planned down there. But this is repeated across many incidents in the Troubles.

“I think that there needs to be probably legislation in the south to enable the transmission of intelligence and information which the Republic holds.

“I think they would need some sort of commission which would, at the very least, assist the workings of whatever we end up with in terms of a legacy investigation commission.

“There are very difficult jurisdictional issues to that, there are difficult political issues to that, but we have to be innovative and find new ways.”

DUP leader Gavin Robinson asked Lady O’Loan if she believed the Irish government should be doing an “awful lot more” over releasing information on Omagh.

She responded: “I absolutely do. “It would have been remiss of An Garda Síochána if they had not been gathering intelligence and information about the activities of terrorists, IRA people in the jurisdiction.

Imperative to share information

“They were gathering such information and it would be imperative that such information is shared.

“If we look at Omagh, we know that the bomb which came to Omagh and which exploded came up from the south.

“I think there has been too much of a process where assurances have been given that all information will be provided… but when you go back for the information it is not provided.”

She added: “There needs to be a really serious look in the Republic of Ireland, and I know how difficult it is going to be, because I know the dynamics, the constructs, the context are difficult, but there does need to a determined process through which the records in the Republic of Ireland are made available when necessary so that the Omagh Bomb Inquiry can do its work.”

‘A duty to be honest’

Mr Robinson said: “Baroness O’Loan’s support for further action by the Republic of Ireland highlights what victims and their families have long demanded, truth and accountability from all sides.

“The Irish government must now confront its role in the events leading up to the Omagh bombing.

“This is not about blame, it’s about responsibility and respect for those who lost their lives.

“We cannot talk about truth and reconciliation with credibility if only the UK government is scrutinised especially when the bomb was planned, prepared and transported from the south.

“If there were gaps, missed intelligence or critical inaction, the Irish government has a duty to be honest about that.”

Boutcher accepts it is 'bizarre' to debate identity of Stakeknife

Belfast Telegraph, April 24th, 2025

The PSNI Chief Constable has agreed it is “bizarre” that the British agent codenamed Stakeknife cannot be publicly named and called on security services and the Government to be more open with potentially sensitive information.

Jon Boutcher gave evidence yesterday to the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee's hearing on 'The Government's new approach to addressing the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland', where he repeatedly accused authorities of being too reticent to disclose information to legacy inquiries.

The top PSNI officer agreed with DUP leader Gavin Robinson's suggestion that “it is bizarre that we're having a discussion about naming” the British Army's top agent inside the Provisional IRA during the Troubles, known to be the now-deceased former head of IRA internal security, Freddie Scappaticci.

Mr Boutcher also warned that “the lack of information being provided” on legacy cases “creates conspiracy theories”.

“I would hope the Secretary of State will see that. But he will be receiving arguments from lawyers saying: you can't name him, because that will have a chilling effect. I would argue strongly that it will not,” he added.

“Sometimes, you lose the right to have that sort of voice when you have failed to manage informants and agents properly, when they have behaved in the way they have behaved, which we set out in the Kenova report.

“There has to be a line around national. But we have prevented even uncontroversial information from coming out.

“If [naming Stakeknife] doesn't happen, I think that is the sounding of a bell to legacy not succeeding moving forward.”

Mr Boutcher headed up Operation Kenova, which linked the spy to at least 14 murders and 15 abductions.

However, when the interim report was published in March 2014, it did not confirm Stakeknife's identity, which is known to the PSNI chief.

“I cannot make his name public without official authority,” Mr Boutcher said at that time.

Impact of failure to provide information

Baroness Nuala O'Loan, the former Police Ombudsman for NI, also gave evidence to the hearing and agreed that it was time to name Stakeknife.

The UK peer argued that the state's failure to provide information was having a negative impact on legacy inquests and used the example of murdered GAA club chairman Sean Brown's family, who “have been back in court something like 58 times trying to get information”.

Baroness O'Loan also called on the Labour Government to find a new approach to legacy issues, saying that the low number of cases brought to the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) “is indicative of the fact that people don't trust it”.

She said it should set aside a specific budget to deal with legacy issues, “in particular to ringfence a separate legal legacy budget to cover all aspects of providing a criminal justice system to deal with the past”.

“The reality is our criminal justice system is quite profoundly broken. Rape cases are being listed for 2028 and 2029,” Baroness O'Loan continued.

“For victims, the horror of that situation. For those who are accused and are innocent, unless and until they are found guilty, that is also a terrible situation.”

Flute band mockery of pope’s death continues to reverberate

Mark Bain, Belfast Telegraph, April 24th, 2025

ITS NOT JUST THE BAND MOCKING POPE’S DEATH THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE ITS TUNE

There are some people in Northern Ireland who take great pleasure in poking a finger in the eye of those who don't see the world as they do.

Likewise, there are those who take great offence when it's their eye on the receiving end of the finger.

Sadly we have not yet learned Newton's third law of motion, which says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

It would be wonderful to see the wheels swing into motion in the opposite direction for once. A hand of friendship can just as easily be reciprocated.

We can look back at events in Newcastle in September 2022. It was the weekend after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and a video of a number of people drinking in Quinn's Bar and celebrating the death of Her Majesty appeared on social media. It was, of course, widely shared.

The bar called the display “abhorrent”. Unionists, naturally, were quick to condemn the episode. Condemnation from other sections of society was not so forthcoming.

There were plenty of similar incidents, including Shamrock Rovers FC having to condemn a video which appeared to show fans at a Europa Conference League fixture celebrating the Queen's death.

So, are we really surprised that on the day the death of Pope Francis was announced, a loyalist band parade returned the 'favour'?

Again, sadly, no.

Around 50 bands and 6,000 people took part in the annual Apprentice Boys parade in Lisburn on Monday.

Footage from the event showed the Pride of Knockmore Flute Band playing No Pope of Rome.

The song's lyrics include:

No, no Pope of Rome

No chapels to sadden my eyes

No nuns and no priests

No Rosary beads

Every day is the 12th of July.

It has been played before and, no doubt, will be played again, unfortunately.

Magnified in the wake of the pope's death, it's no different to the singing of songs celebrating the death of the Queen.

Predictable but not acceptable

But just because the actions have come to be expected doesn't mean they should be accepted.

Eventually, one side or the other has to prove they are 'the bigger person' and put an end to the mocking across the religious divide.

The moral high ground is still proving too steep a climb for some.

By adopting the motto 'If you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all', we would have a start, but some mouths just can't stay shut.

There is, of course, a lot of history to contend with. The further we go into the future, the further that history will be behind us.

But history teaches us one thing: some people in Northern Ireland are unwilling to learn.

While there may be hundreds of words of respect — that due regard for the feelings, wishes or rights of others — the power of a single video on social media can render those words meaningless in an instant in the minds of those hellbent on confrontation.

Predictable does not mean its acceptable

After the death of the pope was announced, DUP leader Gavin Robinson acknowledged “the profound respect and admiration” many had for “the humble caretaker who entered the priesthood and died as the head of the Roman Catholic Church”.

“At this moment, we acknowledge their sorrow and offer our sincere condolences,” he said.

After the death of the Queen, Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill said: “I would like to offer my sincere sympathies and condolences to her children, and her extended family circle, as they come to terms with their grief.

“I wish to especially acknowledge the profound sorrow of our neighbours from within the unionist community here, who will feel her loss deeply.”

All those sentiments frittered away on the breeze of a catchy tune broadcast across social media, where image is everything.

Perhaps those who celebrated the death of the Queen should listen to the words they delighted in singing that night.

Likewise, loyalist bands could try playing the pipes of peace to the tune of mutual cultural acceptance.

PM sidesteps 'unionist' question as border poll raised

Mark Bain, Belfast Telegraph, April 24th, 2025

The Prime Minister has been challenged over a Northern Ireland Office (NIO) minister's claim that opinion polling would determine if or when a border vote is held.

Ulster Unionist MP Robin Swann urged Sir Keir Starmer to respond to remarks by Fleur Anderson.

Earlier, UUP leader Mike Nesbitt said it would be wrong to rely on surveys when determining the timing of any referendum.

The comments from Ms Anderson, who is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, are the first indication of the criteria that could trigger a vote on the constitutional arrangements.

Under the Good Friday Agreement, the power to call a border poll rests with the Secretary of State.

The NIO has distanced itself from Ms Anderson's comments.

PM Questions in Commons

Mr Swann raised the matter at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) yesterday.

He said: “The principle of consent is a key aspect of the hard-fought-for Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, now relied on and quoted by many.

“Unfortunately, we have seen in the past week a poor understanding of the Agreement by the Northern Ireland Office ministers.

“I took the opportunity to ask the Prime Minister directly to address this with his Northern Ireland ministerial team and asked for his commitment to the Union.

“I have written to the Secretary of State seeking clarity, and I hope to meet with the PM to discuss this further.”

Earlier, addressing the Commons, Mr Swann asked the Prime Minister to confirm his understanding of consent in the context of the Agreement and to confirm that he was a 'unionist'.

Ms Anderson was unable to say in her interview if she was a unionist, saying she was “not sure”. In response, Sir Keir made no mention of her comments, instead saying: “The Good Friday Agreement is one of the proudest achievements of the last Labour government.”

He added: “I absolutely stand four-square behind the principles, some of which I was doing my part to help implement when I was working in Northern Ireland. They will always drive me on the issues that he raises with me.”

When asked after PMQs if Starmer is a unionist, his official spokesperson said: “I think the Prime Minister said before that, of course, he is the Prime Minister for the whole of the UK, including in Northern Ireland.”

When pushed if he was a Scottish unionist but not a Northern Irish unionist, the spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister is of course Prime Minister for the entire United Kingdom.

‘Of course he is a Unionist’

“So, of course, he is a unionist.”

Mr Nesbitt, meanwhile, urged the NIO not to be swayed by opinion polls.

“It would be a brave Secretary who would rely exclusively on opinion polls for that evidence, given people might well vote aspirationally in opinion polls, but more cautiously come the real thing,” he said.

DUP deputy leader Michelle McIlveen has already been critical of Ms Anderson's comments from the interview, originally published by AgendaNI, branding them “ill-judged”.

The NIO has said, “responsibility for a referendum sits solely with the Secretary of State”.

“This is clearly set out in the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which gives effect to the Good Friday Agreement and the principle of consent,” a spokesperson said.

“This has been — and remains — the only condition. The Secretary of State has been clear that there is no evidence that this condition has been met.”

'Others' will matter most in battle to save Union come a referendum

Suzanne Breen, Belfast Telegraph, April 24th, 2025

Unionists across the spectrum have criticised NIO minister Fleur Anderson for indicating that opinion polls will determine when a referendum is called on Northern Ireland's constitutional future.

Professor Jon Tonge of the University of Liverpool says using such criteria has pluses and minuses for those who wish to preserve the status quo.

“Fleur Anderson's comments have clearly been disowned by the NIO,” he says. “The Secretary of State is much more comfortable with a situation where there are no fixed criteria. It allows him to make a political judgement without being pinned to a formula.

“I've some sympathy for the position that it shouldn't just be opinion polls used when making the call as they can be manipulated, particularly online ones which lack 100% proof of residential address.”

However, Tonge identifies a risk for those who don't want a referendum if polling is dismissed from the criteria.

“It's potentially problematic because election results for quite some time have shown unionists and nationalists neck-and-neck.

British Govt doesn’t want poll

“The British Government most definitely doesn't want to hold a border poll. It needs to retain the support of the 'others' — those who don't vote unionist or nationalist — if the Union is to be maintained.

“At the moment, the Government has majority support among the 'others', but the question is whether it will remain that way in perpetuity.”

Tonge says the Irish Government's “lack of drive” on unity makes it difficult to convert 'other' voters to the cause.

“There is no prospectus from Dublin to engage and excite them,” he explains. “Many of the 'others' aren't that interested in politics so an exciting greenprint on unity is needed to entice them and bring them over the line.”

Tonge says that Westminster election surveys by his university, and Assembly election surveys by Queen's University Belfast show more 'other' voters support the Union than unity.

“There's a notable difference between these results and LucidTalk's,” he says. “The British Government don't want to call a border poll in a million years because it would be divisive, although it's rightly confident that it would win one.

Once process begins can happen every seven years

“I think a 60%-40% vote would be realistic, but that wouldn't put the issue to bed. Once the process is started, there can be a poll every seven years if there's evidence of movement. Demographic change will alter the balance, although we don't know how quickly. A border poll may be 25 years away.”

LucidTalk polling shows 31% of Alliance and Green voters support Irish unity; 26% remaining in the UK; and 43% undecided.

Managing director Bill White believes online polls here are accurate. In Northern Ireland, the politics of a face-to-face or telephone interviewer can often be established by their name or accent, he notes.

White says that being interviewed by “Brendan or Mary McKenna from Tyrone” or “Julie or Paul Thompson from North Down” would make a difference for many people.

“This can significantly affect the answers given which is why these 'direct human interaction polls' like Liverpool's always produce a much higher number of 'don't knows' than online polls like ours.

“Don't know is a safe, non-committal, non-risk answer to give,” he adds.

White states that polls which show support for Irish unity lower than LucidTalk's aren't in line with election results. “The Sinn Fein, SDLP, People Before Profit vote is now consistently above 40% in all elections,” he explains.

White says all recent opinion polls have consistently shown support for the Union hovering around 50%, with the last four polls showing a “small downward drift” to 48%-49%.

Threat posts to O’Neill after remark on partition

Irish News, April 24th, 2025

Michelle O’Neill has been the victim of online threats after the Sinn Féin vice-president spoke of “the end days of partition” at a republican commemoration.

The posts appeared in a Facebook called ‘United Ulsterman Group’.

They were published under a posting of a newspaper article about Ms O’Neill speaking at a commemoration in Coalisland, Co Tyrone on Saturday.

One person commented: “Never a sniper about when you need one.”

In response, another person posted an image of two bullets.

The private Facebook group, which contains 11.4k members, describes itself as: “Ulster people resisting any form of a so called United Ireland by ‘using all means which may be found necessary”.”

The comments come after Ms O’Neill told a crowd at the republican plot in Coalisland that “we are living in the end days of partition”.

During the speech she honoured “the sacrifices that were made by those during Easter week of 1916” as well as “every generation before and since”.

Stating that republicans were witnessing “a pivotal moment in history” and that a border poll should be held by the end of the decade, she also said: “We are living in the end days of partition.”

A Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “Michelle O’Neill will not allow these threats to deter her from the important work she is doing in moving our society beyond this type of intolerance and disrespect.”

A PSNI spokeperson said: “We do not discuss the security of individuals and no inference should be drawn from this, however we never ignore anything which may put an individual at risk.”

Kelly denies he was in charge of IRA reorganisation to bring it under centralised control

Sam McBride, Belfast Telegraph, April 24th, 2025

VETERAN SINN FEIN MLA SAYS INFORMATION IN PREVIOUSLY CLASSIFIED 1996 FILE COVERING HIGH-LEVEL SECURITY MEETING 'NOT TRUE', INSISTING NONE OF THE DETAILS DISCUSSED BY BRITISH OFFICIALS HAD EMANATED FROM HIM

Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly has said information about him in a previously classified British Government file is “not true”, and was not communicated to any part of the authorities by himself.

Among papers held at The National Archives in Kew, the Belfast Telegraph discovered a detailed 1996 reference to the North Belfast MLA.

The claim — that Kelly was involved in a reorganisation of the IRA at the time — was made during a high-level gathering attended by senior officers from the Army, RUC and NIO.

The Security Co-Ordinating Meeting was held every month at the NIO and regularly discussed intelligence on paramilitary organisations, as well as discussing how some of them were moving into politics.

On September 6, 1996, Jonathan Margetts filed a record of what was discussed in that month's meeting.

The IRA's 1994 ceasefire had been shattered by the Docklands bombing seven months earlier and the authorities were trying to work out what the Provos would do next.

The official's report said RUC Deputy Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan “reported that PIRA continued with their background activity in all areas. Intelligence gathering, QM [quarter master] activity and civil administration were of particular note. Security force personnel and loyalists connected to paramilitary groups or believed to be involved in Drumcree disorder had been the subject of PIRA targeting activity”.

“The training of PIRA members in the use of weaponry, field craft and in political doctrine remained in vogue, demonstrating the Provisional hierarchy's desire to keep volunteers employed and at a high state of readiness should they be needed.

PIRA capabilities intact

“PIRA brigades in South Armagh and South Derry continued to possess mortar systems. Indications suggested that the South Derry mortars were merely for testing purposes. The South Armagh system, however, might be for operational purposes, possibly on the mainland.

“Gerry Kelly continued to work towards a reorganisation of the IRA possibly featuring a large degree of centralisation of control over operations and resources.

“Kelly anticipated that there may be hard-line resistance to his proposals as some members of the IRA perceived their autonomy to be threatened. He was prepared to instigate swift and decisive action to quell any opposition to his recommendations.”

The following month Flanagan told the same committee that there had been no intelligence about the IRA's major bomb attack on the Army's Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn.

But he indicated there had been considerable intelligence gathered since the attack, telling them that “further PIRA attacks in Northern Ireland were at an advanced stage of planning, including attacks on security force bases and close quarter assassinations”.

The Belfast Telegraph put to Mr Kelly that the document set out not just what he planned to do, but showed officials discussing his thinking.

We asked him if he had been a member of the IRA in the mid-1990s, when and why he had left the organisation, and whether he had communicated the information to the RUC, NIO or any other state body.

Solicitor’s letter

In a statement issued through his solicitor, Mr Kelly said: “The information provided in the British Government declassified files is not true and I certainly had no such communication with the paramilitary police force that was the RUC, or any branch of the British Government or their intelligence agencies.

“I also resent the insinuation behind your question. However, as is well documented, Martin McGuinness and I did meet a representative of the British Government in Derry in March 1993, on behalf of the Sinn Fein leadership.

“I was not a member of the Irish Republican Army in the mid-1990s, but I was a member of Sinn Fein's negotiations team throughout the talks process leading up to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and afterwards.”

The file in which that reference to Mr Kelly is made contains the minutes of several other meetings of the Security Co-Ordinating Meeting around that time.

In November 1996 Assistant Chief Constable Tim Lewis told the meeting an IRA General Army Convention had been “held on 1/2 November in southern Ireland” and appeared to have elected an Army Executive which selected an Army Council.

It said: “There are indications that the makeup of the PAC [Provisional Army Council] had survived largely as before and formed the backbone of the Army Executive. Five other hard-line and influential PIRA personalities completed the group.

“The composition of the Army Executive was now weighted in favour of the military-minded within PIRA and had the potential to play a fuller and more dynamic role than the previous veteran dominated Executive did.

Dual strategy continued

“However, the dual strategy of the armed struggle working in tandem with political effort remained their favourite option and would form the Provisionals' immediate strategy.”

The nature of the discussion at the meeting shows close analysis by the security forces of the make-up of the Army Council, categorising its members as either hardline or more pragmatic.

In May 1997 ACC Lewis told the meeting: “The Provisional movement continued to be short of finance due to ongoing PIRA activity and Sinn Fein's general and council election efforts.

“Republicans had lucrative weekly lottery games running in Belfast and Londonderry, while PIRA/Sinn Fein collectors had been visiting business owners in nationalist areas seeking donations.

“Sinn Fein were alive to the fact that annual wages and expenses of an MP could realise up to £200,000 for the party, or £1m over the five-year life of Parliament.”

RUC intelligence said that “republicans were intrigued by the potential of their new position and how far their strong mandate could take them. As part of this process Sinn Fein's legal advisers were exploring ways to circumvent the oath of allegiance at Westminster”.

The RUC also said “Sinn Fein influence was driving militant sentiment with many residents' groups” opposing Orange parades.

The meeting was told: “Sinn Fein operatives in the residents' groups had received unambiguous instructions to sound reasonable in public, but stick in practice to a completely unyielding line.”

What are my politics? Or am I just a “pestiferous scribbling rodent”?

Sam McBride, Northern Ireland Editor, Sam McBride, Belfast Telegraph, April 24th, 2025

Hello,

Last week I got a message from an editor at an Irish language newspaper. He was editing an article in which he said the writer had described me as "the unionist journalist Sam McBride". He didn’t think this was right, and he was asking for my view.

I appreciated his diligence in going above and beyond the call of duty by seeking to ensure that the copy he was editing was as accurate as possible. I told him that I’m not a unionist journalist and have never described myself as such; I am, and always have been, simply a journalist. Yet lots of people have described me that way, without ever checking my thoughts on the matter.

There are journalists who are firmly driven by ideology. Charles Moore of The Daily Telegraph is clearly right wing; Kevin Maguire of the Mirror is clearly left wing. There is nothing wrong with this, and sometimes those with a firm ideology see things which others don’t.

But plenty of journalists are motivated by other values, whether insatiable curiosity, a belief that anyone in power should be held to account, a desire to uncover hidden truths, or simply a need to put bread on the table. That’s one of the reasons that journalists often move freely between outlets with very different worldviews.

One of my former editors, Rankin Armstrong, worked in senior roles for all three Belfast dailies. That didn’t mean his personal politics lurched wildly every time he moved jobs; he was simply a professional trying to serve the readers of the outlet which employed him.

When I was appointed News Letter political correspondent in 2009, my brief from the editor was to be on top of what was happening within unionist politics. That made sense; the paper was firmly unionist, as were the great bulk of its readers. In a competitive media landscape, it’s important to find a niche and it makes no sense for every paper to report the same stories in the same way.

Never asked his politics or religion

But at no point was I asked if I was Protestant, if I was unionist, what I thought of any of the political parties or anything which in any way linked my own views to my ability to cover this beat. It was a role in which successive editors gave me remarkable freedom – and that often involved standing up to complaints from the then dominant party of unionism, the DUP, when it didn’t like my coverage.

While it might look like I was still at school in this photo, this was an interview with William Hague in 2009 after I became News Letter political correspondent

While it might look like I was still at school in this photo, this was an interview with William Hague in 2009 after I became News Letter political correspondent

By the end of his time as First Minister, Peter Robinson was refusing to be interviewed by me, while Arlene Foster refused to be interviewed by me just a year into her tenure, objecting to my coverage of the RHI scandal. I’ve had a small mountain of solicitors’ letters on behalf of DUP figures and had an employee of Foster suggest a boycott of my then employer due to what I was writing.

None of this really fits with someone who saw their role to argue for unionism, yet in Northern Ireland’s binary society, many people put everyone into one box or the other. To some people, if I worked for a unionist paper, then I must be a unionist. The absurdity of this is demonstrated by that newspaper’s fair employment data, which is publicly available. That data doesn’t record political opinion but religion; despite having an overwhelmingly Protestant readership, its staff has long been very religiously mixed.

Journalist as civic activist

By digging into what was going on within unionism, sometimes that meant stories from unionist sources which fitted their worldview; other times it led to awkward revelations which were met with indignation. I wasn’t terribly worried by either reaction. If the story was interesting and was in the public interest, that was my only concern.

Since joining the Belfast Telegraph, my role is very different. I’m not primarily covering politics (that’s my able colleague Suzanne Breen) and have the freedom to range across lots of areas, from crime to the environment, and, especially when wearing my Sunday Independent hat, cross border issues or developments which I think might interest someone in Galway or Kilkenny.

My politics, such as they are, haven’t changed. I believe in voting as a civic duty, something I picked up from parents who weren’t very political but who thought it was their responsibility to vote.

Some political journalists refuse to vote, believing that doing so improves the purity of their journalism. I think that’s mistaken. The reality is that in choosing what to cover and how to cover it, we can exert more influence in how we report election campaigns than we do in our single vote.

Politicians will often denounce journalists, or newspapers, when it suits them to do so. Sometimes they do so out of sincerity; at other points, we’re convenient whipping boys.

The first front page I had in the Belfast Telegraph as a young freelance reporter came after the late Ian Paisley gave me a few words after I’d phoned him at breakfast and he then slammed down the phone, cutting me off. Unknown to me at the time, even though I’d go on to have a good professional relationship with him, he’d an enduring antipathy for the Telegraph, stemming from an incident decades earlier when the then editor Jack Sayers refused to take his Free Presbyterian Church adverts due to what he felt were the offensive sermon titles.

Paisley denounced "the scribbling serpents of Royal Avenue" who wrote for "that fivepenny falsehood known as the Belfast Telegraph".

If you think that’s an exaggerated criticism, in 1965 Paisley spoke of "the whirring multitudes of pestiferous scribbling rodents commonly known as press reporters, newsmen and journalists...they usually sport thick-lensed glasses, wear six pairs of ropey sandals, are homosexuals, kiss holy medals or carry secret membership cards of the Communist Party. Most of them are communistoids without the guts of a red-blooded Communist, or Roman Catholics without the effrontery of a Pope Pius XII. Sometimes these anonymous editorial writers are a mixture of the two. Spineless, brainless mongoloids. But, because of it, as maliciously perilous as vipers."

The irony of this, of course, was that Paisley was a master of publicity who knew how to manipulate media coverage to often suit his ends. Sinn Féin would later denounce the Belfast Telegraph as a unionist mouthpiece. Yet just a few days ago I came across a line in a declassified government file where Gerry Adams indicated to the Government that IRA members read the paper.

In June 2000, the then Sinn Féin leader told the PM that for IRA members "it would be very important that when they opened their Irish Times or Belfast Telegraph on Wednesday morning the IRA people could read that Patten was being implemented". Again, Adams was someone not only adept at denouncing the media but at using it.

Those who think I’m a “unionist journalist” often distribute hilariously poor takes based on the mistaken idea that I’m some sort of unionist propagandist. A column about Irish unity which involves nothing more than what’s come into my head that week takes on for these people profound significance as evidence of some shift in unionist thinking. You, dear subscriber, will know otherwise.

That’s all for this week. See you next week.

Sam

PS If you’ve any thoughts on this email newsletter, or issues you’d like me to address, send them to newsletters@belfasttelegraph.co.uk or to view this newsletter in your browser click here

Kneecap in the running for prestigious Ivor Novello for best original film score

Casey Cooper-Fiske, Belfast Telegraph, April 24th, 2025

THE BELFAST IRISH LANGUAGE RAPPERS JOIN STAR-STUDDED LIST OF NOMINEES

Belfast Irish language rappers Kneecap have joined a star-studded list of nominees for this year's Ivor Novello Awards.

They are among the first contenders announced, together with some of the biggest names in music including Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Lola Young and Raye.

Kneecap got the nod for best original film score, joining a shortlist that includes Fly Me To The Moon, Hard Truths, The Substance and The Zone Of Interest.

Comedy film Kneecap, a semi-biopic about the west Belfast trio, was shortlisted in the best international feature award category and best original song for Sick In The Head at the Oscars.

While it didn't secure an Academy Award, the film was a big winner across categories in the Irish Film and Television Academy Awards earlier this year.

After picking up 17 nominations, including best film, best script and best actor nominations for all three leads Naoise Ó Caireallain, JJ Ó Dochartaigh and Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, the film won four awards.

Young (24) topped the list from the Ivors Academy with three nods for best album for This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway, best song musically and lyrically for Messy, and the rising star award after a breakthrough start to the year saw her top the UK singles chart for four weeks.

Singer Raye, rapper Ghetts and songwriter Conor Dickinson are the joint second most nominated with two nods each.

Raye is nominated for best song musically and lyrically for Genesis, and for most performed work for Casso and D-Block Europe collaboration Prada.

Ghetts is nominated for best album for On Purpose, With Purpose, and best contemporary song for Double Standards; while Dickinson is nominated for his work on Young's debut album, and best song musically and lyrically for his work on Messy.

The rest of the contenders in the best album category are Charli XCX for Brat, which created the cultural phenomenon Brat Summer, Jordan Rakei's The Loop, and Who Am I by Berwyn.

Also nominated for best contemporary song are former Little Mix singer Jade for Angel Of My Dreams, Pa Salieu for Allergy, Sans Soucis for Circumnavigating Georgia, and How Black Men Lose Their Smile by Bashy.

The other nominees for best song musically and lyrically are Irish rock band Fontaines DC for In The Modern World, Orla Gartland for Mine, and Laura Marling for Child Of Mine.

Alongside Prada in the most performed work category are Wham! for Last Christmas, Dua Lipa for Houdini, Harry Styles for As It Was, and Myles Smith for Stargazing.

Competing with Young in the rising star category is Bea And Her Business, Liang Lawrence, Lulu, and Nia Smith.

The Ivors, which are judged by songwriters and composers, are celebrating their 70th anniversary this year, with the winners to be revealed in a ceremony at Grosvenor House in London on May 22.

Tom Gray, chairman of the Ivors Academy, said: “Everyone knows The Ivors are the most joyful celebration of music making in the calendar.

“It's a huge privilege for the Ivors Academy to champion music creation in all its forms.”

U2 will become academy fellows at the ceremony, while songwriter of the year, outstanding song collection, the visionary award, the special international award and the icon award will also be presented, with nominees yet to be announced.