Rare display of unity at Stormont as parties reject Starmer's digital 'Brit Card' plans
LIAM TUNNEY, Belfast Telegraph, September 27th, 2025
HANNA CALLS FOR NI TO BE EXEMPT FROM SCHEME L ALLISTER WILL FIGHT TO 'PROTECT INDIVIDUAL PRIVACY'
Northern Ireland's political parties have delivered a resounding rejection of the Prime Minister's controversial 'Brit Card' plans.
The proposals unveiled by Sir Keir Starmer will see digital IDs rolled out across the UK in an attempt to help tackle illegal immigration.
The Labour leader hailed the measure as an “enormous opportunity” for the UK.
But in a rare moment of unity, the plans have been shot down by all of the main parties here.
SDLP leader Claire Hanna called for the region to be made exempt from the rollout because of “complexities of identity, movement and governance”.
“A one-size-fits-all digital ID imposed from Westminster risks ignoring those realities and undermining the progress we have made,” she warned.
“The truth is that a Brit Card won't fix the actual problems we face. Here in Northern Ireland, where people cross the border every day for work, family and study, imposing this scheme could be especially problematic.”
First Minister Michelle O'Neill slammed the plans as “ludicrous and ill-thought-out” as she described the proposal as “an attack on the Good Friday Agreement and on the rights of Irish citizens in the North of Ireland”.
Even unionists expressed strong opposition to the PM's plan.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson said the scheme would do “very little” to stop illegal immigration.
“Serious questions remain about how such an intrusive scheme would operate,” he added.
“There are also legitimate concerns about data security.
“The Government has not demonstrated that such sensitive personal information could be safely stored, or that it would not be vulnerable to abuse, leaks or hacking.
‘Fundamental shift in relationship between the individual and the state’
“Most worrying of all is the compulsory element. Forcing citizens to carry a digital ID card would be a fundamental shift in the relationship between the individual and the state, undermining liberty and privacy in ways that are totally unacceptable.”
In a joint statement, Ulster Unionist MLAs said the party would oppose the Government's plan “at every turn”, branding the concept as an “excessive and ill-conceived” threat to the “fundamental right to privacy for law-abiding citizens”.
“Such a system would undermine trust and liberty by granting the state unprecedented control over personal lives, jeopardising the core democratic values of liberty, privacy, and accountability,” they warned.
“This proposal must not become law, and we will work to protect the freedoms that people throughout the United Kingdom cherish. We are calling on the Labour Government to abandon this misguided policy and focus on solutions that respect the privacy and autonomy of the individual.”
Anyone starting a new job or seeking to rent a home will be required to produce the electronic identification on a smart device app; it would then be checked against a central database.
Currently, these checks are carried out using physical documents. However, the ability to carry out checks online has existed for some people since 2022.
Alliance Party MP Sorcha Eastwood branded the plan as “appalling” as she noted a complete lack of support for it in Northern Ireland.
‘People really frightened’
“If anything, we are actually seeing people really frightened, to be honest, with really genuine concerns. It is not something I will be supporting,” she told Cool FM.
“Let's not make any mistake about this. This is about privatisation, about money. It's about people's private data. For the Government to say this morning that people won't be able to get a job if they don't have a card, that's completely appalling.”
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll, meanwhile, accused Sir Keir of trying to distract from his own “precarious” position as Labour leader.
“From Windrush to the Afghan resettlement scheme, the British Government has repeatedly demonstrated that it can't be trusted to protect people's personal data,” he said.
“Tony Blair attempted to introduce a similar scheme 20 years ago and was rightly met with widespread opposition.
“Many people throughout the North will once again reject attempts by the British Government to expand their technocratic surveillance regime for political gain.”
TUV leader Jim Allister said digital ID cards would not address immigration issues and he expressed “serious concerns about centralised control of personal data and its misuse”.
The North Antrim MP said it is important that Northern Ireland's voice is heard in Parliament.
“I will happily join in the national battle to protect individual privacy and details,” Mr Allister added.
“ID cards are a national issue, which, if they were to exist, must apply across the whole United Kingdom.”
It comes as a flash poll carried out by YouGov revealed that around 45% of voters across Parliament's four main parties opposed the plans, with 42% in favour.
The results revealed that 30% of voters strongly opposed the plans, with just 14% strongly in favour.
Almost six in 10 (58%) Reform voters were strongly opposed to the proposal.
Are digital IDs so bad? Ben Lowry’s Dissenting Voice
By Ben Lowry, Belfast News Letter, September 27th, 2025
Ben Lowry: Unionists are again at risk of helping nationalists achieve their goals via the vehement cross-party opposition to digital ID plans?
So Stormont is entirely united against digital ID cards. Can unionists not see that Keir Starmer might then decide to press ahead in the rest of the UK, and create and Irish Sea border?
The three unionist parties oppose it as strenuously as do Alliance, SDLP and Sinn Fein. So Keir Starmer has been told that Northern Ireland will not accept it, under any circumstances.
Can unionists not see where this might lead? To Sir Keir pressing ahead in Great Britain and carving out an exception for NI. Yes, another border in the Irish Sea.
Neither the Ulster Unionist statement yesterday, which was issued in no-one’s name, and which said “we will oppose this at every turn,” nor the DUP leader Gavin Robinson’s statement, which said the party “will firmly oppose” the plans, mentioned this obvious and massive risk.
They could have said at the top of their press releases that the most important thing is that the scheme is either implemented across the UK or else not in any part of it.
Now nationalists are calling the idea Brit Cards. We know that even the Tories will not properly stand up to nationalist grievances, and Labour will never do so.
This happened over the Legacy Act. While it was perfectly reasonable for unionists to express contempt for the idea of a conditional amnesty, Labour and the Irish government seized on the cross-party opposition to implement an anti-security forces, Irish nationalist approach to legacy.
And it could happen over leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, something I believe the UK must leave. But unionists need to be preparing now arguments against the claims that Northern Ireland cannot leave.
Also: are digital IDs so bad?
I am not a particular fan of the idea but the reach of digital information and its ability to cross-reference data and its power is already huge, as I was reminded this very week when I processed an online authorisation form.
PSNI urging continued vigilance in fight against misogyny and abuse
HANNAH PATTERSON, Irish News, September 27th, 2025
THE PSNI is urging people to remain “vigilant” to misogynistic behaviours and abuse, as it marks three years since the launch of their Tackling VAWG Action Plan.
In the 12 months leading up to July 2025, there were 21,729 recorded offences of violence against women and girls – a drop of 4% from the previous year.
Three years since the launch, officers have made 5,042 arrests under new legislation, which includes cases of domestic abuse, stalking and non-fatal strangulation.
The average monthly figures reveal 84 arrests were made for domestic abuse, 19 arrests for stalking, threatening and abusive behaviour, with 76 arrests each month for non-fatal strangulation.
However, Detective Chief Inspector Leah Crothers, one of the PSNI’s Tackling VAWG leads, told The Irish News: “Our figures of recorded crimes of violence against women and girls are decreasing. Our arrest rates are increasing.
“Perpetrators need to understand that we are going to keep going, we will relentlessly pursue perpetrators.
“It is a real societal issue. We all need to play our part in tackling this.
‘If you see it happening, call it out.’
Be vigilant and open to recognising the signs of abuse. If you see it happening, call it out.”
‘Sophie’ (not her real name) is a survivor of sexual assault, who lives in London, and spoke to The Irish News about her experience, when she studied at Queen’s University Belfast in 2021.
She was in a “casual relationship” with a man for around a month, after meeting him on the popular dating app Tinder.
One night, after initially engaging in consensual sex, he bit her on her face and body and began committing sexual acts on her without her consent.
She suffered injuries and bruising from the encounter.
“He told me we’ve been doing it your way, now we’re going to do it my way. He had bragged that he was the roughest some girls had ever had… that night he was a different person,” said the 24-year-old.
“It wasn’t about whether I was enjoying it. He bit me everywhere. Left marks on my face and on my neck. He held my mouth closed with his teeth so I couldn’t ask him to stop.”
“The whole time I was telling him I am not enjoying this, I was crying… It was very visible that I was not enjoying it.”
‘Sophie’ later reported the assault to police.
She wants to encourage other survivors to talk about their experiences, to “hold them (their perpetrators) to account”.
In 2024, Fearghall Mulgrew, of Mullaghmoyle Road, Stewartstown, pleaded guilty to sexual and physical assaults and was sentenced to 22 months, half on licence, and will be on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Bloody Sunday survivors set to give evidence when Soldier F trial resumes
REBECCA BLACK, Irish News, September 27th, 2025
THE trial of a former paratrooper accused of the murder of two men on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972 is set to resume next week.
The non-jury trial at Belfast Crown Court will hear evidence from three men who survived the shootings as well as civilian witnesses and former soldiers.
It comes after Judge Patrick Lynch on Wednesday ruled that key hearsay evidence in the trial can be admitted as evidence in his trial.
He granted an application by the prosecution to admit a number of statements made by other soldiers on the ground during the shootings on January 30 1972 which the defence had argued were not reliable.
Members of the Parachute Regiment shot dead 13 civilians in Derry on Bloody Sunday after a civil rights march.
Soldier F, who cannot be identified, is accused of murdering James Wray and William McKinney.
Family members of those killed on Bloody Sunday will return to Belfast Crown Court next Wednesday when the trial of Soldier F continues
He is also charged with five attempted murders during the incident in the city’s Bogside area, namely of Joseph Friel, Michael Quinn, Joe Mahon, Patrick O’Donnell and a per-son unknown.
He has pleaded not guilty to the seven counts.
He sits in the courtroom behind a curtain during each day of the trial.
The court sat for a brief hearing yesterday, and heard that the trial will resume next Wednesday morning, and is expected to last between two to three weeks.
Some witnesses reluctant to testify again
There was some discussion around witnesses being subjected to cross-examination, with Mark Mulholland KC for the defence arguing that they were “quite exhaustively questioned at the lower court”.
“After the various years of media, Saville (inquiry) sittings, being at the hearings, what has occurred even in the last few years of these proceedings, there is a risk of innocent contamination,” he said.
Judge Lynch said he thinks cross-examination should take “more or less its normal form”.
“It’s an open forum, an open trial, and also it’s of assistance to the court as well – to see witnesses describing events is different to reading about it on page after page of deposition,” he said.
The trial will sit again next Wednesday.
British soldier ‘protection’ plans criticised by brother of child victim
CONNLA YOUNG, Irish News, September 27th, 2025
THE brother of a Catholic schoolgirl killed by the British army has criticised plans to introduce protections for former soldiers who served in the north.
British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed the protections will apply just to former soldiers a week after Secretary of State Hilary Benn and Tánaiste Simon Harris revealed joint proposals for dealing with legacy.
The British government later said the deal involves a package of protections for former British soldiers, including “a protection in old age”.
There is also “protection from repeated investigations”, with a potentially significant condition that “veterans will not be required to provide unnecessary testimony on historical context that has already been established”.
Former soldiers will also have a right to seek anonymity and “to stay at home”, suggesting they cannot be compelled to give evidence in person.
Sir Keir has now confirmed these measures will not apply to paramilitary suspects.
“We have made a provision for veterans in relation to it, the protections have been put in place,” he said.
‘No, it’s for veterans’
Asked if the protections will apply to everyone, including paramilitaries, he replied: “No, it’s for veterans.”
During the Troubles hundreds of people were killed by the British army, while members of the UDR provided loyalist paramilitary groups with information later used to kill Catholics.
Mark Kelly’s 12-year-old sister Carol Ann was killed by a plastic bullet fired by a British soldier in Twinbrook, on the outskirts of west Belfast, in May 1981.
The child was struck on the head as she returned home from a nearby shop with a pint of milk.
“Time after time they just keep throwing things at us, ‘we want to do everything for the victims’ and then they don’t” Mr Kelly said.
“They seem to just want to give amnesties to these soldiers and policemen.”
Mr Kelly, who was with his sister when she was killed, questioned the quality of previous police probes.
“Investigations that were carried out before, they were absolutely botched, and useless, no thought into them at all,” he said.
Never approached by police
“I was standing a foot and a half away from my sister when she was shot, I have never been spoken to by the police.
“Never have they approached me in any way, shape or form.”
Mr Kelly said he is aware of other witnesses that were not spoken to.
“They really just don’t want the investigations to go anywhere, they keep moving the goalposts further and further and further way,” he said.
“And it is all to save soldiers and policemen from being convicted of criminal offences that they definitely carried out in the north of Ireland.”
Impunity in perpetuity
Mark Thompson, of Relatives for Justice, said “any attempt by the British government to protect former soldiers responsible for fatal shootings from investigation and prosecution will amount to continued perpetuation of impunity”.
“It would be unlawful,” he said.
“Victims of state violence will not be treated as second class, nor will their rights to accountable justice be denied.
“In such a situation RFJ (Relatives for Justice) will support families to legally challenge any attempt to amnesty or indemnify state actors.”
Sinn Féin MP John Finucane said “there can be no amnesty or protection for British combatants suspected of criminal acts, including murder, during the conflict”.
Dystopian 'papers please' policy shows Labour does not see NI as an intrinsic part of the UK
ALLISON MORRIS, Belfast Telegraph, September 27th, 2025
When Labour won the last election by a landslide — and it's easy to forget it was less than 15 months ago — no one could have predicted how quickly the country's support would fade away.
But even Keir Starmer's most loyal supporters are now struggling to find words to defend his record as Prime Minister.
He started badly with plans to remove the Winter Fuel Payment, and has been on a downward trajectory ever since. His latest plan to save the fortunes of this Labour Government is mandatory ID cards.
In a scene straight from political drama The Thick of It, someone — and that person should be named and shamed — has decided it should be called the 'Brit Card'.
I can only imagine Peter Capaldi's character, Malcolm Tucker, and his facepalm moment when that particular nod to those painting the St George's Cross on roundabouts was suggested.
This dystopian 'papers please' policy, is, Starmer thinks, the answer to stopping illegal immigration.
Writing for the Telegraph
Writing for The Daily Telegraph, the Prime Minister said his government would make a “new, free-of-charge digital ID that would be mandatory for the right to work by the end of this parliament”.
The idea behind the 'Brit Card' is that it would verify a citizen's right to live and work in the UK.
It was spoken like a man who has never known a single person working off the books for cash in hand. Let's, for one second, take this suggestion at face value and say that from now on only those with a 'Brit Card' can live the dream working as a Deliveroo driver for below minimum wage.
Long before immigration was a front page news story, employers paid cash in hand to workers who did dish washing, cleaning, labouring or a few hours in a local corner shop.
No 'Brit Card' required. That is not going to change.
Aside from that, this expensive, crackpot plan, no better thought out than the £700m the Conservatives spent not sending migrants to Rwanda, has managed to unite both left and right in opposition.
The plan isn't even original: it was floated by former Prime Minister Tony Blair when he was in power.
Wartime ID Cards scrapped in 1952
The UK has only previously had mandatory ID cards during wartime — with the last scrapped in 1952.
The mishandling of immigration by successive UK Governments has caused the issue Starmer now faces. The underfunded system allowed for a backlog of applications that increased year on year.
Those seeking asylum are not permitted to work while their application is processed.
Chasing Reform UK cost the Tory party power and Starmer, having learned nothing from their mistakes, is now doing the same in an increasingly divided Britain.
There are civil liberties issues at play here as well, something being ignored by a Prime Minister who once served as a human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
There is the issue of data breaches and harvesting of citizens' private information, open to exploitation by foreign governments and corporations who wish to exploit or use such information for financial gain.
It is authoritarian and undemocratic and will have little impact on those working illegally, other than moving them away from JustEat and Deliveroo to other forms of cash-in-hand income.
Back home, it shows that this government, much like the last, does not see Northern Ireland as an intrinsic or equal part of the UK. It does not consider the Good Friday Agreement that allows citizens here to identify as British, Irish or both.
It is red, white and blue, cartoon patriotic, flag-waving nonsense and is typical of the desperation being shown by a Labour Party that has long since lost its way and abandoned its founding principles.
PSNI must heed lessons from Leveson after spying scandal
NEWTON EMERSON on the week that was, Irish News, September 27th, 2025
THE PSNI must feel it has got off lightly in the independent review of its spying on journalists.
The final report, from barrister Angus McCullough, finds no evidence that “covert surveillance” was “systemic or widespread”. Much of it was not spying at all as most people understand it.
Surveillance was unlawful in fewer than two dozen cases, including those of Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey, who were investigating the Loughinisland massacre.
McCullough and Jon Boutcher, the chief constable, believe the PSNI can put the matter behind it with an apology and some tightening up of procedures.
If so, the long-term consequences may be similar to those of the Leveson Inquiry, which is referred to incidentally throughout McCullough’s report.
Although that 2011 inquiry is most associated with the ‘phone hacking’ of celebrities, it was equally concerned with police officers leaking to journalists – the same concern that drove most of the PSNI surveillance examined by McCullough.
Exposure of this caused trust to break down. Procedures were then tightened up, keeping both sides at a distance ever since.
The result, now widely acknowledged, is that the media struggles to tell an accurate story about policing and the police struggle to get their story out through the media.
Mistrust and misinformation proliferate, aided by social media.
Public faith in Police
Public faith in policing in Britain held up until 2019 but has since collapsed, according to opinion polls. While that has many causes, no communications strategy has been able to reverse it.
The PSNI needs to heed this as a dire warning. activist Jamie Bryson were brought to the court’s attention, Judge Patrick Lynch said they may have given rise to an application to abort the trial had there been a jury, but as there is not, “the views of Mr Bryson are a matter of total indifference”.
When Bryson challenged this “judicial commentary” in an open letter emailed to the judge, he said it was “entirely inappropriate that anyone should try to communicate with a judge in regard to a case at hearing” and referred it the Public Prosecution Service.
A charge of contempt of court would usually require an allegation of prejudicing proceedings, which seems incompatible with being a matter of total indifference.
In further confusion, Bryson’s main complaint throughout is that commentary by others is not being treated as contempt. Does he want that applied to him as well?
“ The result, now widely acknowledged, is that the media struggles to tell an accurate story about policing and the police struggle to get their story out through the media.
They are performance artists — and this botched legal case handed rappers even bigger stage
KURTIS REID, Belfast Telegraph, September 27th, 2025
It is a strange moment when the outcome of a case rests not on the evidence, but a mistake with paperwork.
Yesterday, the terrorism charge against Kneecap rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, better known as Mo Chara, was thrown out after prosecutors failed to bring it within the legal time limit.
The judge was blunt: the proceedings were “instituted unlawfully and are null”. To most people, that sounds like a technicality, and lawyers might shrug and say that it happens.
But in a case that has created headlines and cost a significant amount of public money, it feels like something bigger.
If this case was ever really about evidence, it has now collapsed due to a lack of basic competence. That is hard to see as anything but a massive waste of time and resources.
Kneecap have long been more than a music act. Their Irish language lyrics, political references and often provocative imagery have made the rap group lightning rods in cultural debate. To supporters, they are fearless in challenging establishment narratives; to detractors, they are reckless in courting controversy.
Either way, they have thrived on the attention that surrounds them — and this case has only added to it.
That raises another question: What has been achieved?
Beyond the headlines, this case has tied up time, money and attention.
At a moment when public services, not only here but also in England, where this case took place, are under strain, the collapse on a technical error does little to reassure the public that priorities are being set wisely.
Critics of Kneecap may have hoped that such legal turmoil would deliver a lasting blow: to tarnish their reputation, discourage future performances (particularly in more sensitive jurisdictions like the US, where they've already cancelled tour dates), and constrict their ability to speak, perform and expand their reach.
Momentarily at least, they are not just a music group
After all, momentarily at least, they were not just a music group — they had become a legal story, a test case, a cause célèbre.
And now the legal system has inadvertently transformed them anew: they are no longer only a band caught in controversy, but also a symbol of a flawed process. The procedural failure in prosecuting Mo Chara amplifies the band's narrative: that they were prosecuted not for the strength of evidence, but perhaps for the strength of their voice.
Even those who neither celebrate nor support Kneecap's politics may see in this case a cautionary tale about state power, bureaucratic error and symbolic prosecution.
So what has changed? Put simply: the stage has broadened. Rather than disappearing into the shadows of a single court case, Kneecap now occupy a kind of public theatre that extends beyond their music. In legal circles, the message is unmistakable: the system must observe its rules before wielding its prosecutorial power.
In cultural circles, Kneecap fans and observers will see them no longer just as Belfast and Derry rappers, but also as artists who endured a court spectacle — and survived.
It is too soon to say whether this will galvanise or grind Kneecap's momentum. Some doors — tour dates, licensing markets, or media platforms — may remain cautious.
But the signal sent by this judicial failure is loud: an attempt to sideline dissent via legal theatre is itself vulnerable to procedural scrutiny.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that a case some hoped might suppress Kneecap may instead elevate them.
The legal system, by misstepping, has offered them a world stage they may never have fully occupied otherwise.
Man convicted of attempted pipe bomb attack on GAA weeps in court
JOHN CASSIDY, Belfast Telegraph, September 27th, 2025
BIGOT WHO PLANTED DEVICES AT PITCHES SET TO BE SENTENCED IN DECEMBER
An east Belfast man wept as he was found guilty of planting crude pipe bomb devices at a GAA ground.
John Wilson had denied possession of explosives in suspicious circumstances.
The 59-year-old, of Lower Braniel Road, also denied three further offences of attempting to intimidate members of the East Belfast GAA Club from attending or playing at Henry Jones Playing Fields.
However, a jury at Belfast Crown Court unanimously found him guilty.
Jurors deliberated for about four hours over the course of two days before Wilson was found guilty of all counts.
After the verdict was read out, he started crying into a handkerchief.
Wilson was released on continuing bail to "get his affairs in order" and will be sentenced on December 5.
Opening the Crown case earlier this week, a senior KC prosecutor said the charges related to August 5, 2020, when two pipe bomb devices were left on the cars of players from East Belfast GAA attending a training session at the playing fields on Church Road.
It wasn't until the following day that the devices were found on the windscreens of two cars owned by players. They were recovered and sent to forensics for examination.
The senior prosecutor said: “They were the component parts to a bomb. These were crude devices and they would not have been effective if they detonated. The offences in this case were nakedly sectarian.”
He told the jury that a “threatening in nature” 999 phone call was made at 8pm from a payphone outside a pharmacy on the Ballygowan Road near the junction with the Knock Road.
The caller said that four pipe bombs had been left at the playing fields.
A forensic scientist who examined the devices said they “represented the separated components of pipe bomb-type improvised explosive devices, each comprising a length of steel pipe sealed with a hexagonal nut and bolt, a length of green fuse and an explosive firework composition”.
‘Some backlash’ to Club
The prosecutor said the club had only been set up 11 weeks earlier and there had been “some backlash” after the first training session in June 2020.
The jury also heard that, in July 2020, 'GAA Scum' and 'GAA not welcome' had been sprayed on the pavilion at the playing fields.
The prosecutor said CCTV footage from the pharmacy on the Ballygowan Road was seized by police and showed a silver Peugeot Partner van arriving in the rear of the pharmacy, “and that van is connected to the accused”.
The driver got out and walked towards the phone box in front of the pharmacy at around 8pm and remained there for around 50 seconds.
Wilson was arrested at his home by police. A number of items were recovered, including silver duct tape and a mobile phone.
Examination of his phone revealed messages about the incident, as well as an apparent grievance with the East Belfast GAA using the playing fields.
In one exchange on Facebook Messenger on July 17, 2020, Wilson said: “OK mate, what's happening with this GAA, surely something needs to be done?”
A further message said: “I have a plan LOL.”
‘They have just took over.’
On July 23, he was asked if he had taken up 'funny football', Wilson replied: “Not happy mate. Watch this space LOL.”
The man corresponding with Wilson stated 'Fenian Lives Matter', to which Wilson replied: “Scum mate.”
Another message said: “I was up a few times and got dirty looks for wearing a Northern Ireland top. They just park anywhere. No one can get past.”
On August 10, he wrote: “OK mate, have had a running battle the past three or four weeks with the GAA up at Henry Jones. They have just took over.
“Good people can't even kick a ball with their kids.”
The prosecutor told the jury: “We say the messages show a clear animus state of mind by Mr Wilson, which is aimed at the East Belfast GAA club and the use of the playing fields.”
They heard that on the evening of the incident, CCTV at the playing fields showed a small silver van, “consistent with Mr Wilson's van'', driving slowly past the entrance.
Six minutes later, a figure walking a large dog moves past cars in the car park.
Wilson was interviewed, but gave no comment answers to police questions.
“After all the evidence was put to him at the second interview, Mr Wilson provided a prepared statement, which said the messages on his phone were to his friends to arrange to play football at Henry Jones, but they couldn't get in because of the GAA,” the prosecutor said.
He further told police that he returned home from work at around 3.30pm, and at 6.30pm left home with his dogs and went to Castlereagh Church to visit a grave. Wilson said he tried to get into the playing fields, but the car park was full and he parked up on the verge and took his dogs for a walk for about 15 minutes.
Wilson was questioned by his defence barrister, Rosemary Walsh, who asked him about when he first became aware that the GAA was using the playing fields. He said it was around July 2020.
Wilson said people in the area “weren't happy about it”, that his friend's father had been told to get off the pitch and that he had been called an “orange B” while wearing a Northern Ireland top.
Asked about a message he sent to a friend on July 29, 2020, when he said 'I've a plan LOL', Wilson said this was to get a group of men up to the pitches to play a game of football.
He confirmed that on the evening in question, he was at the playing fields walking his dogs.
‘I just done what I was told’
Wilson said a group of three or four men were there and after walking past them, one of them called his name who, “basically told me to go to the Ballygowan Road”, ordered him to call the police from a telephone box and that they “told me to say there was a bomb in the bin, or something. I remember them saying about a bomb in the bin”.
He added: “I just done what I was told.”
Under cross-examination from the senior prosecutor, Wilson was asked about the statement he gave to police.
Accepting that he initially denied calling the PSNI from the phone box, Wilson said his statement was “a lie, full stop”. Asked about his views on the GAA playing in east Belfast, he replied: “I have no problem with the GAA, one of the guys I work with plays for East Belfast GAA and we are the best of friends.”
The prosecutor asked Wilson about messages he sent and received in the weeks before the incident.
“Who are you referring to as 'scum'?” He replied: “Terrible, embarrassing, wrong.”
Memories of the Maze: 'Up until the end we were still plotting our escapes'
Belfast Telegraph, September 27th, 2025
SOME 25 YEARS AFTER THE PRISON DOORS SLAMMED SHUT FOR GOOD, A FORMER INMATE AND EX-GOVERNOR RECALL THEIR VERY DIFFERENT MEMORIES OF HIGH-SECURITY JAIL. BY ALLISON MORRIS
Once considered the most secure prison in Europe, it became the scene of protests and infamous escapes that made headlines around the world.
But 25 years ago on Monday, the heavy steel doors of the Maze shut for the last time.
The future of the 347-acre site remains in doubt, with opinion split as to what should happen to the now dilapidated prison estate.
But while the years have passed, the memories for those locked up remain all too vivid.
Jim McVeigh was one of the last prisoners to leave the H Blocks as part of the early release of prisoners under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Near the end of his sentence the veteran republican was the officer commanding of the IRA prisoners, as the jail that once held over 600 prisoners started to empty. Now an author and historian, he later served as a Sinn Fein councillor in Belfast.
“In the last few years we had total freedom in the block,” he recalled this week.
“We were locked in the wing but the cell doors were unlocked. In fact when younger prisoners were coming in, we started to do lessons, to remind them what went before, reminding them how hard won it was. A lot was happening politically in those last few years, but we never took for granted that we were getting out.
“There were a lot of delegations coming into the prison, I remember Martin (McGuinness) coming in to speak to us and we said, 'Get the best deal, but don't make us the priority'.
“Of course people wanted out, but we were also prepared to stay.
“And so right up until the end we were still plotting escapes.”
Christmas 1997
During a Christmas party in December 1997, IRA prisoner Liam Averill escaped, dressed as a woman, blending in with visitors in women's clothes and a wig and walking out the gates.
“No one even noticed he'd escaped —when they finally found out I remember the screw's face turned white.”
In March that year, a 40-foot tunnel was discovered during a heavy period of rain. The prisoners had been tunnelling beneath the prison and towards the perimeter wall.
“When the riot team came onto the wing to search after the tunnel was found, they opened three cells and we had them filled with mud right up until the ceiling and yet the floors outside the cells were spotless.
“I don't think they could believe what they were seeing.
“We didn't know if the negotiations were going to work, or if — and at one point it did — it was all going collapse. So nothing was taken for granted.
“I do remember near the end it was a free for all, people were unscrewing signs from walls to take as memorabilia.
“I was glad to get out, of course I was, I'd a young family.
“I went back years later and it was eerie. The hospital had an atmosphere about it. Everything looks different when it's empty and no longer a functioning prison.
A shame there is no agreement on future
“The site should have been put to use as was agreed. No one expected it to be a shrine, but it is a part of history and it's a shame there is still no agreement from unionists on that.”
William McKee started working as a prison warden at the Maze site in 1977, at first working the compounds and then transferring to the H Blocks.
He worked his way up through the ranks to the role of prison governor.
“I was there in the darkest of times,” he recalled.
“During the dirty protests and the hunger strike, 16 prison officers were murdered.
“You were always thinking that you were going to be next.
“I moved house three times, on one occasion getting a call to say 'they (IRA) are on their way, get out now'.
“During those years there was no relationship at all between the IRA prisoners and the staff — they were our enemy and we were theirs.”
During the hunger strikes, 10 republicans died before the protest was called off when the next of kin of prisoners started to intervene with medical treatment when they fell unconscious.
In the years afterwards, the prison changed completely and the prisoners, both loyalist and republican, had freedom of movement within the wings.
“I was working through all those headline grabbing times,” Mr McKee added.
Day Billy Wright died
“I was in charge the day Billy Wright was murdered.”
LVF leader Wright was shot dead in December 1997 by members of the INLA who had smuggled a gun into the prison. They shot him in the back of a prison van.
“We really went through it all, I will say Wright being killed was different in that it was one day,” Mr McKee added.
“I was in charge of H Block 6 and we had great staff who looked after each other and supported each other — there was a comradery there. We relied heavily on black humour to see us through.”
Now a best-selling author, Mr McKee has written two books about his time working in one of the most infamous prisons in Europe. Governor — Inside the Maze, and Collusion in the Maze both discuss Wright's murder.
“In the later years we had a working relationship with the prisoners, I know many people are amazed to hear that,” Mr McKee added.
“I would try and sort their issues out — visits, food and letters were the three most important things to the prisoners.
“If they were all running well, the prison was quiet. I would meet the paramilitary leaders once a week.
Like a business meeting
“With IRA it was like a business meeting, they would show up with files and pens and take notes.
“The loyalists were more direct — you knew where you stood with them. With the IRA you never really knew.
“What the people on the outside wouldn't understand is that we were in charge of 600 of the most dangerous prisoners in the western world.
“Our job was to keep a lid on the Maze, and remember the prisoners had a massive say in the peace process as well, so we were always aware of that.”
Mr McKee said the escape in 1983, when 38 IRA prisoners walked out the gate, was one of the darkest times.
One prison officer, Jimmy Ferris, was stabbed and died of a heart attack. Another was shot in the head but survived.
“Because someone had died and someone almost died, a darkness fell over the entire jail,” Mr McKee said.
“It was bad. I'm emotional even now thinking about it.”
Mr McKee said he still thinks that the jail should be turned into a visitor centre with all sides able to tell their story.
“I know unionists are worried it would be a shrine but I think there is a way it could be done,” he added.
From IRA gunman to deacon: a story of faith, hope and love
MARK LENAGHAN, Irish News, September 27th, 2025
FEW who encountered the gentle, generous and deeply spiritual figure of Mark Lenaghan could have guessed at his remarkable journey to become a deacon in the Catholic Church.
It was during a jail sentence for IRA activities that the Belfast man radically re-assessed his life, turning his back on violence and committing himself to use his own “brokenness” to help lead others back to faith.
He went on to work with young people in schools and on retreats, share his story as part of peace and reconciliation projects, and ultimately undergo the five years of training to enter the diaconate.
His funeral in Castlewellan, Co Down heard that he “touched the hearts of so many, many people” before prematurely passing away with cancer earlier this month.
Mark was the middle child of three boys born in 1960 in the predominantly Protestant Woodvale area of west Belfast.
He had a quiet childhood, largely oblivious to the gathering political storms, until the violence that exploded on the streets entered his home with a bomb attack at the outbreak of the Troubles.
Further attacks following the introduction of internment in 1972 saw the family ordered out by a loyalist gang and move with other refugees to the new estate of Twinbrook, a place “seething with resentment” towards the state and its forces.
Mark became highly politicised, studying Irish history and turning away from religion and faith.
“I chose to get involved. I chose to fight back,” he said.
“I became convinced as a young man that the only way to get Britain out of Ireland was to fight them.”
Having joined the auxiliary IRA while still at school, carrying out ‘punishment’ attacks in the local community, he progressed to an active service unit and training in the use of guns and explosives.
All the time he was living a dual life, studying Russian at Queen’s University while rising through the ranks to act as a quartermaster and intelligence officer for the IRA.
Botched ambush
His life changed following a botched ambush of British soldiers in February 1983.
His IRA unit had taken control of a house on the Falls Road to launch a gun attack into the back of a passing army jeep.
Lenaghan missed with his shot from a semi-automatic weapon, instead hitting a nearby civilian, and was arrested after crashing into a foot patrol while attempting to escape on a motorcycle.
He was sentenced to 12 years and joined IRA inmates in the Maze prison, where he was ‘OC’ of his wing and remained convinced of the merits of armed struggle, until an exchange with a visiting priest, Mill Hill missionary Fr Paddy Kenny, prompted him to start thinking more deeply about his life.
“I began to question a lot of my motivation and the masks I was wearing. I discovered that what had driven me was rage, anger, shame, guilt, a lot of base emotions.”
He asked to make his confession and ultimately announced his resignation from the IRA, to the disbelief of fellow prisoners.
“ Mark’s short ministry spanned only two-anda-half years, but in that time he touched the hearts of thousands with the prayerful hope that he might set them on fire with the same faith he himself discovered
On his release after six years, he said he was “bursting with enthusiasm and energy” and after a period with the Mill Hill order in Dublin where he considered priesthood, he came to believe his calling lay in retreats and education.
He got a job in St Malachy’s College in north Belfast – where he could see his former cell in Crumlin Road jail from the classroom window – and became co-ordinator of religious education for its junior years.
Peace Petition
Outside work he continued to lead retreats, give talks, take part in inter-denominational and cross-community events, and work with St Vincent de Paul, the Samaritans and Trócaire. At one point he organised a major petition for peace.
Mark found great happiness in marriage to Catherine Smith, with whom he would spend 32 years. They were blessed with three children.
In 2019 he retired from teaching and took on a role as an entertainment facilitator at a nursing home in Catherine’s native Castlewellan.
He had by now also applied to study to become a Catholic deacon, and was ordained by the late Bishop of Down and Connor Noel Treanor on a proud day in 2022.
His ministry would tragically span only two-and-a-half years, but in that time his family said he “touched the hearts of thousands with the prayerful hope that he might set them on fire with the same faith he himself discovered”.
“His work in the Kilmegan Parish brought comfort to the suffering, hope to the desolate, and a new joy to those who had long felt ostracised or disconnected from the Catholic Church.
“As a deacon, Mark oversaw many baptisms and weddings, but it was in funerals that he said he found a certain vocation within a vocation.
“He had a gift of seeing people just where they where – not merely where he or others wanted them to be – entering into their suffering, and going above and beyond to spend time with the family during the week and understand the life of the deceased, their struggles and successes, and the impact they had made on the family and beyond.
“It was this radical self-giving that parishioners noticed most about Mark’s ministry.”
Mark was diagnosed with cancer on Good Friday this year and despite his rapid and aggressive illness, he was still always the first to care for those caring for him, even at the very end.
During his last hospital admission, he had smitten the ward of the Cancer Centre as their favourite patient, being quick to share a joke and a story.
He died on the evening of September 4 – the feast of St Macnissi, the founder of the original Diocese of Connor which he had faithfully served – with his family at his bedside, listening to his favourite novena Mass at his spiritual home in Clonard Monastery in west Belfast, during the singing of the Magnificat.
Mark Lenaghan is survived and sadly missed by his wife Catherine, their children Matthew, Sarah and Rachel, grandson Ethan, brothers Terry and Pat and family circle.
Digital ID could pose challenges for cross-border workers: chamber
MARGARET CANNING, Belfast Telegraph, September 27th, 2025
BRITISH-IRISH BUSINESS GROUP HIGHLIGHTS 'SERIOUS' POTENTIAL HURDLES
Proposals for digital IT cards in the UK could pose “serious challenges” for cross-border workers in Northern Ireland, a British-Irish business group has said.
Announcing the scheme, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it would combat illegal working while making it easier for the “vast majority” of people to use government services.
There will be no requirement for individuals to carry their ID, but it will be mandatory to prove a 'right to work' in the UK.
The Government has said digital ID will be a requirement by the end of the Parliament, which means before the next General Election, due before August 2029.
It said the digital ID would be held on mobile phones and would “in time” make it easier to apply for services such as driving licences, childcare and welfare, “while streamlining access to tax records”.
But a spokesperson for the British Irish Chamber of Commerce said it was concerned about the prospect of digital ID being a requirement for working in the UK.
The body, which promotes business links between the UK and Ireland, including between Northern Ireland and the Republic, said cross-border workers who live in the Republic but work in Northern Ireland could face challenges as a result.
The spokesperson said: “We certainly think that the draft proposals could pose serious challenges for cross-border workers in Northern Ireland, of which there are many.
“How it could work alongside the Common Travel Area, which grants reciprocal rights for Irish and UK citizens to live and work freely in each other's country, is not clear at all.
No Irish Equivalent
“Ireland doesn't have any mandatory equivalent ID card that could even be proposed for reciprocal recognition.
“There are questions about how this will impact other EU citizens as well, [who are] currently residing and working in the UK.”
The chamber said it would look at the exact details of the scheme when they are available.
“We will be talking to our members to understand how they believe this will directly impact them, and feeding that back to the UK Government to make sure that any such measure does not undermine the Common Travel Area, or the rights of people in Northern Ireland as protected by the Good Friday Agreement.”
Number 10 Downing Street declined to provide a direct response but has maintained that the scheme would ensure that everyone with a right to live and work anywhere in the UK could do so “easily and securely”.
It's also understood that the Prime Minister's office aims to ensure that the Good Friday Agreement and Common Travel Area are respected “absolutely”.
It has also said that it's been in touch with “counterparts” in Ireland and would work “closely” with them to ensure systems work in keeping with the Agreement, and that it would also work to ensure that the scheme worked in practical terms for people living and working in Northern Ireland and in the Republic.
It has further said that it will maintain close and continued consultation with the Irish Government.
Cabbie who fled scene of Southport massacre very different to taxi drivers I met during Troubles
GAIL WALKER, Belfast Telegraph, September 27th, 2025
The taxi driver who dropped off the Southport killer heard the “harrowing” screams of the little girls, saw them running in fear of their lives and instantly drove off. It is an incredibly bleak insight into human nature and a very different response from taxi drivers I met during the Troubles.
Gary Poland's first instinct was flight. We know this because of a call he made to his best friend almost immediately after driving away, where he said he had “heard these f****** shots and I just f****** shot off. Lucky he didn't f****** shoot me weren't it.” There were no shots.
He got another fare in before returning home to his wife. He eventually called police 50 minutes later.
None of us knows how we would react when confronted with violence, but we would surely hope we would try to do something, anything, to help people.
Our ambition wouldn't be to leg it, ring a mate to say what a lucky escape we had and then wait almost an hour to call the police.
Mr Poland said he was in “a state of complete mortal terror and shock”. He was recounting his experience on that day to the public inquiry as a witness helping to shed light on the dreadful events.
Of course, he was a taxi driver caught up by chance, not one of the many professionals who, in the months leading up to the attack, failed to divert Axel Rudakubana from killing Bebe King (6), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7) and Alice da Silva Aguiar (9) and injuring eight other girls and two adults.
Hitting ‘999’
Nobody would expect Mr Poland (56) to charge into a dance class and disarm an assailant, but it is difficult to fathom why he couldn't hit 999 on his mobile.
In the time it took for him to ring his mate, pick up another fare and go home to his wife, the worst attack on children in British history since Dunblane took place.
We certainly didn't expect Mr Poland to boast that if he had known the killer had “only a knife” he would have “got out and disarmed him”.
No, he wouldn't. He shouldn't try to cast himself retrospectively as a have-a-go hero. 'Here's what I would have done if I had been someone else entirely. Hold my coat.'
The thing is, we do see courage and selflessness frequently. People who never pause to think of the risk to themselves — or who do pause for a second and still head towards danger, because it is the right thing to do.
Mr Poland is not typical of the taxi drivers whose courage and decency I encountered on numerous occasions as a news reporter during the violence here.
Taxi drivers found themselves the targets of sectarian murder. It was Phone a Prod or Phone a Taig. The names of most are hardly remembered, but people may recall Michael McGoldrick, shot dead during the Drumcree dispute, whose parents were formidable peace workers.
The most dangerous job in Europe
Being a cabbie in Northern Ireland was, at various times, the most perilous occupation in Europe.
But I remember drivers showing extraordinary care and fearlessness, putting themselves into risky situations that they needn't have done.
I recall a female taxi driver whose first instinct upon arriving at the scene of an atrocity was to pull over, hurry over to the carnage and offer to take the injured to hospital. A taxi driver used to regularly ferry me into work at the crack of dawn. He was a Catholic from west Belfast and we would natter away together, getting to know a little of each other's lives.
One day, the newsdesk dispatched me to cover a murder in the west and he arrived to take me there. He was not happy about being seen anywhere in the area, especially with a reporter in his car. He was also worried for me, because I was a Protestant.
Nearing the scene, he became increasingly agitated. I told him to drop me off and drive away, but as I got out, he called me back: “See just over there, I'll be waiting for you.” I told him not to take any risks. “Hurry up and get what you need — I'll keep an eye on you from here,” he replied.
Another time, I was just finishing an interview in Rathcoole with the Protestant partner of a Catholic taxi driver who had been shot dead hours earlier, when word reached us that it would be in my interests to get out of the estate as quickly as possible. It would take someone from the newsroom half an hour to reach me so I rang our taxi firm, explained my predicament, then started walking quickly. Less than 10 minutes later a taxi drove into view, speeding to my rescue.
One taxi driver risked his life to remove a pipe bomb from a car and take it to a more remote area. Another refused to hand over the keys of his car to an IRA hijacker for a terrorist mission. Days later, he was shot in both legs.
These experiences show that the qualities of character required are not as rare as we may be led to believe. Many people have huge reserves of courage and a sense of self-sacrifice.
This always seems to take us by surprise, even though history is full of people who put themselves in the way of harm to help others.
Just because people survive and don't get injured or even killed doesn't lessen the courageous act of protection or intervention. It means that something worked, which is memorable for those people who were involved. It may not always make the news.
Nobody seeks out these situations, leaving home in the morning, thinking 'I hope I come across something today, which will make a hero of me'. That will have been as far from Mr Poland's mind as from any of the local drivers I have written about.
Making a Choice
We don't get to choose what happens in every instant of our day, but we do get in an instant an opportunity to make a choice. It can't be avoided.
Mr Poland will have a lifetime to think about the choices he made on that shocking day in Southport, which brought him into intimate contact with a mass murderer of children.
He says he still hears the children's screams, regrets he did not help, feels it is his fault because he drove Rudakubana there. No one would wish to carry that burden.
He will continue to tell himself that if only he had known it was a knife and not a gun, he would have responded differently.
But I can't help feeling that most people would hope they would behave very differently to Mr Poland anyway if presented with the circumstances he was in.
I absolutely know there are people in our small, much-maligned, much-caricatured population who would have been out of that cab like lightning if they had seen such an attack underway.
Because I've met them.
Tributes paid to ‘crucial’ figure in peace process - Martin Mansergh
CILLIAN SHERLOCK, Irish News, September 27th, 2025
TRIBUTES have been paid to former Dublin junior minister and key Northern Ireland peace process adviser Martin Mansergh, who has died aged 78.
Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams expressed condolences to the Mansergh family and Fianna Fáil.
In a statement, he said: “Martin Mansergh was a key figure in the efforts to build the peace process and the success of the negotiation leading to the Good Friday Agreement.
“He was one of those who met with Sinn Féin in the late 1980s on behalf of Fianna Fáil and we retained a close relationship since then.
“Martin served a number of taoisigh and his crucial role, along with other senior government officials, and John Hume, and Sinn Féin representatives, was in the build-up to the negotiations at Good Friday in 1998 and in the work that was done after that.
“I value very much the numerous engagements that we had and the relationship that we developed as a result of that.
“I wish to extend my sincere condolences to his wife Elizabeth and his five children.”
Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said he learned of the death of the former TD and senator with “deep sadness”.
Mr Mansergh had been on a trip to the Sahara with other retired parliamentarians at the time of his death.
Mr Martin said: “I had the honour of knowing Martin for over four decades.
“He was unquestionably one of the most important public servants in our recent history, filling many different roles and having a profound impact on issues deeply important to the Irish people.”
Mr Mansergh served as an adviser to leaders of Fianna Fáil, both in government and in opposition.
Mr Martin said he was “exceptional in his knowledge and devotion to the cause of peace” on the island of Ireland and throughout Europe.
He added: “His contribution to securing peace on this island mark him as a figure who will always be honoured.
Essential work in peace settlement
“His early, secret negotiations in Belfast on behalf of Taoisigh and his work through more than a decade were essential in securing the peace settlement and the overcoming of many later hurdles.”
Mr Martin, who expressed sympathies to Mr Mansergh’s wife Elizabeth and the rest of his family, said: “Martin was a one-off, a true Irish republican. A man of great accomplishments who leaves a proud history”.
Meanwhile, tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris also expressed his “deepest condolences” to Mr Mansergh’s friends, family and colleagues.
Mr Harris said Mr Mansergh had played an “instrumental role” in drafting amendments to the constitution which was part of the ratification of the Good Friday Agreement in the Republic.
“Few people were as consequential in shaping Irish Government policy on Northern Ireland and few on the Irish side were more crucial to the peace process, whether through his role as an intermediary or his work to craft a new political and intellectual framework for peace.”
Belfast-based academic Frank Costello also praised the contribution of Mr Mansergh during his political career.
“Martin Mansergh’s contribution to building peace and stability on this island over many years cannot be emphasised enough,’’ he said.
“While he advised several taoisigh and government ministers he was more than a behind-the-scenes player.
‘‘In his quiet unassuming way he built trust and developed lasting relationships with people on all sides while making sure also that people were not marginalised for their viewpoints.
‘‘I knew him as a friend who was also a scholar in his own right as well a genuine Irish patriot of deep integrity who made a point of listening carefully to people in their communities and giving them access to those in power.
‘‘We are all much the better for his skill and commitment to making peace happen.”
L largely unknown Parliamentary veto on a border poll exists ... but Govt dismisses idea of rogue minister
SAM SMYTH, Belfast Telegraph, September 27th, 2025
AN ALMOST UNHEARD OF SECTION OF THE LAW WHICH ENACTED THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT GIVES MPS AND PEERS AT WESTMINSTER A VETO ON CALLING AN IRISH UNITY POLL — AND THAT COULD BE HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT
Most people — even those with deep knowledge of the subject — would say confidently that the legal power to call a border poll rests with the Secretary of State alone. I believed so until two days ago, but it's now clear that this isn't quite true.
The Good Friday Agreement had, at its core, concepts which had been years in gestation and then weeks in negotiation but whose final form emerged from a sleep-deprived stampede.
After being approved in referenda, officials then had to work under intense pressure to translate the deal into what became more than 100 pages of legislation.
The Northern Ireland Act 1998 put the Agreement into law — and it is that law which determines when and how a referendum on Irish unity might be held.
While keenly debated at the time, the focus quickly moved to other areas such as decommissioning.
Only after Brexit has there been widespread discussion beyond academia of how a border poll might operate.
A great deal of consideration has been given to this in recent years. But there is another possibility which has been given almost no consideration.
It involves the possibility of a rogue Secretary of State calling a referendum with no planning. It is what military planners would describe as a low-likelihood but high-impact event. It's very unlikely to happen, but if it did, it could be disastrous because so few people had considered the possibility.
Benn is an unlikely suspect
As a cautious incrementalist who believes in pragmatism, the current Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, is not a man who will ever embark on such a foolhardy enterprise.
But not all politicians now think that way; Benn represents a political breed which once dominated politics but now competes with rawer rivals.
Despite his vast Commons majority, Sir Keir Starmer looks increasingly weak; he may not lead Labour into the next election.
Yesterday, YouGov polling and analysis projected Nigel Farage's Reform UK winning 311 seats to Labour's 144 and 45 for the Tories. That might never happen — but what if it did?
When asked privately about the possibility of a rogue Secretary of State, two former cabinet ministers with considerable knowledge of Northern Ireland dismissed the possibility as all but unthinkable.
One suggested that as soon as the minister would go to their officials for assistance, the Cabinet Secretary would be alerted, who in turn would alert the Prime Minister, and the rebellious minister would be thwarted. That is how the system operated in their day.
Until very recently, the proposition that anyone judged worthy of ministerial office would act so dangerously might have seemed fantastical.
But this is to assume that all those likely to be in power in years to come will share their predecessors' values. Already, it is clear that this is not so.
A wily minister wanting to subvert the system wouldn't go anywhere near the civil service. There is no legal stipulation that a minister must involve the civil service. That assumption rests, as with so much in politics, on convention.
There have long been unionist suspicions about Farage's commitment to the Union. At various points he has appeared indifferent to Northern Ireland.
Would Reform rewrite Agreement?
Two weeks ago, Farage's deputy, Richard Tice, suggested rewriting the Good Friday Agreement without the consent of nationalists.
In pushing her desire to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, senior Conservative Suella Braverman said of its implications for Northern Ireland: “If there needs to be a border poll, then the people should have a vote.”
Some of these people are zealots who care more about their vision of post-Brexit Britain than they do in keeping Northern Ireland within the Union.
If a Farage-type figure was Prime Minister, it might be attractive to some of these people to simplify post-Brexit trade rules and immigration law by calling a border poll.
There are two types of border poll which can be called: a discretionary power to call one at any time, and a mandatory referendum if it appears likely to the Secretary of State that there would be a vote for a united Ireland.
No PM could say that they wanted part of the UK to leave. Instead, it might be dressed up as based on a belief that the Union would triumph, thus taking the issue off the agenda.
But there is another possibility.
Dealing with the discretionary border poll, Schedule 1 of the Northern Ireland Act states that “the Secretary of State may by order direct the holding of a [border] poll”.
Everyone assumes that the Secretary of State referred to is the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. However, this is not specified in the legislation — neither in Schedule 1 itself nor in the interpretation section of the Act.
Any Secretary of State
The Interpretation Act 1978 states that the meaning of the words “the Secretary of State” in legislation “means one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State”. In other words, this refers to any cabinet minister who is a Secretary of State.
This appears to mean that any Secretary of State, in any department, could trigger a border poll at any time and for any reason.
This might appear mad, and is quite mad, but it is in fact the law; it's just that everyone quietly agrees to respect departmental walls and not take decisions relating to a colleague's department.
As the constitutional historian Peter Hennessy famously opined, the British constitution works on the basis of being operated by “good chaps” — people who think a certain way, behave a certain way and adhere to certain unwritten rules.
This genteel age has long gone; the unthinkable is now routine. Donald Trump has demonstrated how it is possible to reshape a country in previously unimaginable ways by (mostly) staying within the law but taking the law to its absolute limit through liberal use of executive orders, mass firings of officials, slashing budgets of organisations he dislikes, and so on.
As a disciple of Trump, we should not be surprised if a Farage premiership was to mimic such legal shock and awe.
A Farage cabinet would likely be filled with unorthodox individuals. Even if not sanctioned from above, there would be the possibility that a disgruntled minister, or one who believed strongly in Irish unity, or who wanted to confirm the Union, or who believed a referendum would settle this issue, could bypass colleagues and issue an order for a border poll.
Once triggered, there is no immediately clear mechanism in the Northern Ireland Act 1998 for such an order to be cancelled. Parliament is sovereign and so could legislate to annul the order, but by that stage it would be a political, rather than a legal, problem.
To nationalist Ireland, this would likely appear to be perfidious Albion trying to undo something it had for decades demanded.
I put this scenario to the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) this week and asked if the Secretary of State might consider clarifying the law.
It said in a statement that there were no plans to amend the legislation, adding: “The UK Government operates on the basis of collective agreement. As set out in the Cabinet Manual, Secretaries of State exercise the functions the Prime Minister has allocated to them.”
Convention is not the law
That is true, but it is about convention rather than law.
The Cabinet Manual itself states clearly: “Most statutory powers and duties are conferred on the Secretary of State; these may be exercised or complied with by any one of the secretaries of state.”
A Secretary of State who transgressed their departmental boundaries would presumably be summarily sacked. But by then it would be too late.
However, the NIO went on to say something far more significant: “The Northern Ireland Act 1998 specifies that an order calling a poll must be approved by both Houses of Parliament before it can become law. A border poll would be included in this protocol.”
I was amazed by this, because it indicated that Parliament could veto calling a border poll.
I asked for clarification and the NIO said: “Schedule 1 and Section 96 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 make it clear that the Secretary of State may direct the holding of a poll by order, which is a form of statutory instrument. Section 96 requires that a draft of the statutory instrument be laid before each of the Houses of Parliament and approved by resolution… Parliament must affirm any order made by the Secretary of State under Schedule 1.”
Based on what those sections say, it appears clear that what the NIO is saying is accurate: there is an explicit parliamentary fetter on the power of the Secretary of State to call a border poll.
It has always been the case that Parliament would have to approve the outcome of a plebiscite by passing legislation necessary to detach Northern Ireland from the Union.
But that is stated unambiguously in the law, and, as the academic Brendan O'Leary has written, for Parliament to vote down the wishes of the people at that point would be to break international law, because the UK has, in an international treaty, agreed that this is a matter for the people of the island of Ireland to decide.
Act of recklessness
More starkly, it would be an act of sheer recklessness which would lead to mass civil unrest and thus is almost unthinkable other than in circumstances where there was credible evidence that the result involved mass fraud.
What the NIO is now saying is far less clear from reading the legislation, because what appears straightforward in the section on calling a border poll — that it is a matter for the Secretary of State alone — is contradicted by an entirely different section of the legislation which is not explicit about its effect.
In simple terms, it appears that the ultimate judge of whether a border poll should be called is not the Secretary of State but Parliament.
If a government had a huge majority, the whipping system should ensure that this is just a procedural box to be ticked.
But there might not be a huge government majority. And even if there is, a vote of this magnitude might prove challenging for whips; MPs may regard a referendum on breaking up the Union as a matter of conscience, such as a vote on abortion.
Even if MPs passed it, the Lords might not. In that scenario, the Parliament Act could not be invoked to force it through unless this was in the manifesto of the governing party, which would be unlikely.
Parliament would have to approve legislation on how a border poll would work, as happened before the EU Referendum. But if the Secretary of State had the sole power to order the referendum, this would be something of a fait accompli; MPs would struggle to vote down the whole idea.
Here MPs and Peers would be asked almost at the outset for their sign-off. They may well take the view that there would be no point putting that power in the legislation if it was merely intended as a rubber stamp.
Looking back at how MPs debated what became the Northern Ireland Act on a late night in July 1998, even then there was confusion on this point.
Ian Paisley said sole power was being given to the Secretary of State to call a referendum without any parliamentary vote. He asked NIO minister Paul Murphy: “Where in the Bill is the Secretary of State required to come to this House to ask it to hold a border poll?”
Mr Murphy replied: “I agree with the honourable gentleman…”
But later that night, Mr Murphy changed course, saying there were “safeguards” to calling a referendum. He added: “I have now discovered something else lurking in clause 77(3) and Schedule 1. In order for the mechanics of that poll to be agreed by Parliament, there would be an opportunity... for both Houses to review the Secretary of State's decision if it were judged rash and ill-defined and if it was believed that a border poll was being held without basis in reason or common sense.”
Some people will dismiss this as utterly — or almost — impossible. Yet one of the lessons of the past decade is not to assume that something can't happen based on our expectation of what might have happened in the 1980s or 1990s.
Brexit, Trump, a major war in Europe and the pandemic all serve as a rejoinder to the conceit that the world as we have known it heretofore will be the world as we know it hereafter.
Allowing lethal A5 to remain unchanged is not an option
Pro Fide, Pro Patria. Irish News, September 27th, 2025
“All the obstacles which have been placed in the path of the new road are still capable of being removed, and it is realistic to expect that decisive progress can be achieved in the new year
IT is essential that close scrutiny is paid to the costs involved in preparing for the new A5 road, which have been growing steadily even though it is impossible to establish if and when work on the project can actually begin.
As an Irish News report confirmed yesterday, the amount spent to date by the Stormont Department for Infrastructure has increased from £110m to £153m in the space of just nine months, with more than half of this figure going to consultants.
The final A5 bill, in the event that it ultimately receives legal approval, could reach £2 billion, so our elected representatives have a clear responsibility to monitor the related developments in detail at every stage.
However, it should be accepted that, despite the latest intervention from the Ulster Unionist MLA Diana Armstrong, all major construction schemes will inevitably incur significant expenditure long before the bulldozers arrive on site.
Ms Armstrong, a long-term critic of the A5 plan, directly questioned if it should proceed at all in light of the rising estimates, pointing out that not a metre of new carriageway has so far been provided and no compensation has been paid to farmers who face losing their land.
Although she suggested that health, education and urban regeneration should be prioritised instead, the basic justification behind a fit-for-purpose link between the outskirts of Derry city and the border at Aughnacloy, on the main route to Dublin, remains overwhelming.
50 lives lost
The blueprint was first approved by the Stormont Executive back in 2007, but, as legal and other delays have followed, an appalling total of more than 50 people have since been killed along the existing A5.
Every single loss of life there represents a human tragedy of enormous proportions which might well have been avoided if the existing narrow and twisting road, carrying major volumes of traffic every day, met modern safety standards.
Most politicians who have assessed the issue, including Ms Armstrong’s fellow Ulster Unionist MLA Robbie Butler, are adamant that an upgraded A5 is the only possible outcome.
The High Court ruling in June that the scheme did not comply with official climate change targets was bitterly disappointing, and its implications must be comprehensively considered in advance of the appeal scheduled for December.
All the obstacles which have been placed in the path of the new road are still capable of being removed, and it is realistic to expect that decisive progress can be achieved in the new year.
Allowing the present A5 to be left unchanged for a single day more than absolutely necessary cannot be regarded as an option.
