Republican councillor makes appeal to save centuries-old loyal order relic from bonfire
Garrett Hargan, Belfast Telegraph, August 16th, 2025
Republican bonfires sparked fury before they were set alight last night.
A politician had issued an eleventh-hour appeal for a centuries-old Apprentice Boys flag stolen from St Columb's Cathedral to be returned amid fears it would be torched.
Poppy wreaths appeared on a pyre in the Creggan, while another in the Bogside was festooned with loyalist flags.
Independent republican councillor Gary Donnelly asked for the loyal order relic to be spared after a source alerted this newspaper to the theft.
Mr Donnelly said: “The plain red crimson flag was hoisted in the early 1700s and flies at the east of the cathedral.
“Recently it was taken from the cathedral. Attempts to locate it have failed and I would ask at this eleventh hour if anyone knows where this is, and has any influence, could they use it to have this flag returned.
“This may not be a very receptive appeal within our community, and while it is an understatement that I have very little in common with British loyal orders, the flag in question, although a replica, is centuries old, is a historical article and should be returned to the place of worship.
“I would also like to thank the young people who recently returned other articles.” The Bogside bonfire has been at the centre of criticism in recent years due to offensive items placed on it.
Yesterday, poppy wreaths could be seen on the smaller Creggan bonfire, along with a number of flags.
It's suspected a US flag on the top was stolen from Foyle College.
It was flown at the US Naval Communications Station in the Waterside on the day US President John F Kennedy was assassinated.
A police riot shield, believed to have been stolen during disturbances in June, could also be seen.
Alliance deputy leader Eóin Tennyson condemned the pyres as “utterly unacceptable” and called for regulation to “end these shameful displays”.
“Each year we witness a repeating cycle of sectarianism, hate and bigotry during bonfire season,” he said.
“The placing of flags and offensive materials on bonfires is utterly unacceptable. This behaviour stems from those who only wish to spread intimidation and sow division, and is not welcome in our communities.
“We need a change in approach to better regulate bonfires and end these shameful displays.
“It's long past time for the First and Deputy First Ministers to take meaningful action to address these annual hate-fuelled celebrations, which continue to be disguised as cultural celebrations.”
A placard with the name of drowning victim Kyle Bonnes (15) appeared on the Bogside pyre, as did one with the name of former PSNI detective John Caldwell, who survived a New IRA murder bid. They have since been removed.
One bearing the name of Foyle Sinn Fein MLA Padraig Delargy also appeared after he criticised “anti-community” bonfires.
Material for the bonfire has been gathered from as early as April. Lorries were seen delivering pallets, and machinery was used to assist bonfire builders.
The base of the bonfire was covered in Union and Orange Order flags, Ulster banners, UVF and UDA terror flags, a Parachute Regiment one, and a flag bearing an image of King Charles.
Calls for removal of ‘offensive items’ from republican bonfires in Derry
A FOYLE MLA has condemned the hanging of “offensive items” from republican bonfires ahead of them being set alight in Derry.
It comes after a large number of flags were placed on bonfires in the Bogside and Creggan areas of the city.
Earlier in the week, the names of several people, including Sinn Féin MLA Padraig Delargey, were placed on the Meenan Square structure in the Bogside.
The name of Protestant teenager Kyle Bonnes, who died in a drowning incident in 2010, was also placed on the bonfire, but was later removed.
SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan said the inclusion of flags was “really disappointing”.
‘Wrong in July and wrong in August’
“We have to call this out for what it is, it’s wrong when flags and emblems are burnt on bonfires in July and it’s wrong in August too,” he said.
“I visited the Bogside bonfire site a couple of weeks ago and engaged with some of the young people involved in its construction.
“It was clear that they took enormous pride in their involvement and I wish we could harness the effort and application that they have put into this into something more positive.
“I attempted to explain to them the futility of burning flags and emblems and the hurt that can cause. I again appeal for all of these flags and symbols to be removed from both bonfires.”
He added that the bonfires were “turning into nothing more than an opportunity to poke the other community in the eye”.
“That gets us absolutely nowhere and leaves us trapped in a cycle that is holding this place and our young people back,” Mr Durkan said.
Last week, a loyalist bonfire in the Fountain area of Derry came under fire for burning Irish and Palestinian flags.
Alliance Deputy Leader Eóin Tennyson condemned those who placed poppy wreaths and flags on a bonfire.
“Each year, we witness a repeated cycle of sectarianism, hate, and bigotry during bonfire season,” he said.
“The placing of flags and offensive materials on bonfires is utterly unacceptable and has no place in a shared society. Those responsible only seek to intimidate, sow division and hold our community back.”
Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill said: “There is no place for illegal, unregulated bonfires or the burning of flags, whether that’s today in Derry or what we witnessed in July.”
Legal action planned to bring bones of Roger Casement to Co Antrim
Easter Rising planner and human rights icon expressed wish to be buried on Co Antrim post days before 1916 execution
By Paul Ainsworth, Irish News, August 15th, 2025
A group campaigning for the remains of Roger Casement to be moved to Co Antrim has said it is planning legal action in a bid to see the Easter Rising organiser’s wish fulfilled.
The 109th anniversary of the execution of the diplomat was recently marked with events at locations linked to his life and death, including Pentonville Prison in London, where he was hanged and initially buried, and Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery, where his remains were eventually laid to rest after being repatriated in 1965.
However, one of the Co Dublin rebel’s last wishes - outlined in a letter to his cousin Elizabeth Bannister days before he faced the gallows - was to be buried at Murlough Bay on the north coast of Co Antrim, where he spent part of his childhood following the death of his father.
He wrote that the area, with its “great panorama of island and hill and swirling waters” was what “made me realise what Ireland was to me”.
During this year’s anniversary events, the Roger Casement Commemoration & Reinterment Association, which hosts the annual gatherings, revealed it was stepping up its campaign to see Casement’s bones buried for a third, and final, time.
Speaking at a wreath-laying ceremony at Casement Park in west Belfast, association chair Alan Daly told attendees: “The association is calling for Casement to be brought home.
“We have instructed a leading human rights law firm to act on our behalf and are also in talks with a local funeral director who has previous experience in this field.
“Both parties are on board and we have initiated legal correspondence with Glasnevin Cemetery.”
Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery, which is managed by the Dublin Cemeteries Trust, is the resting place for a host of other significant figures from Irish history, including another Easter Rising icon, Michael Collins, poet Brendan Behan, and late Dubliners singer Luke Kelly.
The Roger Casement Commemoration & Reinterment Association held a wreath-laying ceremony at the cemetery earlier this month to remember the human rights activist, whose death sentence was for his failed attempt to import weapons from Germany to be used in the Easter Rising.
During their gathering at Pentonville Prison, where Casement had been unceremoniously dumped in an open grave and covered in quicklime after his hanging, the association unveiled a new plaque commemorating the location where his life ended at the age of 51.
Their annual commemorations conclude on Saturday with a wreath-laying at Murlough Bay.
The Irish News approached the Dublin Cemeteries Trust for comment.
Most unionists support pacts for next Assembly election — a third want a full-blown merger
Andrew Madden, Belfast Telegraph, August 16th, 2025
BACKING FOR POLL ALLIANCES STRONGEST AMONG UUP VOTERS, OUR SURVEY FINDS
More than half of unionist voters support pacts for the next Assembly election, according to a new poll.
The LucidTalk and Belfast Telegraph survey found backing for the move across the three main unionist parties.
A third of those surveyed supported a full-blown merger.
Last month, a senior Orangeman joined the DUP leader in calling for unionist unity.
Harold Henning, the Orange Order's deputy grand master, said cooperation between parties should be “demanded”, not just encouraged.
Gavin Robinson said division had cost unionism dearly.
Although neither specifically mentioned pacts, both want greater co-operation in future elections.
Northern Ireland is next due to go to the polls in the 2027 Assembly election.
Previous elections at both Westminster and Stormont levels have seen splits in the unionist vote.
At last year's general election, however, the UUP agreed not to contest East Belfast and North Belfast, while the DUP agreed not to fight for seats in Fermanagh-South Tyrone and Newry and Armagh.
Similar agreements were struck in a small number of constituencies in the 2019 and 2015 general elections.
While the idea of a full merger of all unionist parties has been floated over the years, it has never come to fruition.
Almost a third of Unionists want a merger
Our poll asked unionist voters about greater co-operation between the DUP, UUP and TUV for the 2027 Assembly election.
Some 32% of those surveyed were in favour of a full merger.
When broken down by party support, 41% of DUP supporters backed a merger, compared to 29% of TUV voters and 14% of UUP voters.
Separately, 54% of unionist voters were in favour of a pact but not a merger.
Support for a pact was strongest among UUP voters at 66%, compared to 54% of DUP supporters and 43% of TUV voters.
Around one in eight unionists (12%) said they didn't support either a merger or pact. TUV voters (29%) were the most sceptical, with 15% of UUP supporters and 4% of DUP voters also against any alliance.
A small number (2%) of all unionist voters were unsure or offered no opinion.
Earlier this year, this newspaper revealed the DUP and UUP had held secret talks in 2022 where a potential merger was discussed, but nothing came of it.
Our survey also asked Sinn Fein and SDLP supporters if they would be in favour of a pact ahead of the next Assembly election.
The SDLP has repeatedly ruled out formal election pacts with Sinn Fein in the past.
However, in 2019, the two nationalist parties and the Greens formed a loose alliance of pro-Remain parties for the Westminster election.
This effectively gave the SDLP's Claire Hanna a free run in South Belfast, while Sinn Fein's John Finucane was the sole nationalist candidate in North Belfast.
Our survey showed 54% of nationalist voters were in favour of a pact.
For Sinn Fein voters, this figure was 60%, compared to 30% of SDLP supporters.
Some 40% of nationalist supporters were against a pact, with 32% of Sinn Fein voters and 67% of SDLP voters ruling one out.
A small number took no view on the matter.
A merger between the SDLP and Sinn Fein has never been on the cards, with clear differences remaining between the parties, including on issues as fundamental as abstention from Westminster.
In 2010, Declan O'Loan, then an SDLP MLA, was suspended by the party after he broke ranks and called for a single nationalist party.
LucidTalk surveyed 3,028 people and used a scientifically weighted sample to reflect Northern Ireland's population for its final analysis
TUV leapfrogs Alliance and UUP to become the third most popular party in NI
Suzanne Breen, Political Editor, Belfast Telegraph, August 16th, 2025
JIM ALLISTER ALSO NOW FAVOURITE LEADER AMONG UNIONIST VOTERS
The TUV has overtaken Alliance and the Ulster Unionists to become Northern Ireland's third most popular party.
Support for Jim Allister's party continues to rise while the DUP remains on the slide. The TUV leader is the most popular politician with unionist voters and now enjoys a double-digit lead over Gavin Robinson.
A new LucidTalk poll shows Sinn Fein remains the largest party on 26% — unchanged from May. It has a comfortable lead over the DUP, which is down one point to 17%, the party's lowest score since the 2022 Assembly election.
On 13%, TUV is up one point, leapfrogging both Alliance and the UUP.
With voters growing increasingly disillusioned at Stormont's performance, support for all four Executive parties has either remained static or fallen.
On 12%, Alliance has dropped one point from May and is at its lowest level in over three years.
Alliance remains narrowly ahead of both the UUP, which has also fallen one point, and the SDLP, which is unchanged on 11%.
Claire Hanna's party continues to hold onto the mini-bounce it enjoyed when she took over as leader last year.
The Green Party (3%) and Aontu (2%) are also unchanged, while People Before Profit is up one point to 2%.
Some 3,028 people took part in our online poll from August 8-11. The sample was scientifically weighted to reflect the Northern Ireland population.
Hanna most popular leader
Ms Hanna (48%) remains the most popular party leader, although her approval rating has dropped six points — mostly with unionist and Alliance/Green voters — from last November.
Michelle O'Neill (44%) is in second place, up three points over the same period. Mike Nesbitt (41%) is in third spot, but the UUP leader has fallen five points as the health service crisis continues and controversy surrounds his £800,000 funding of gender identity services.
Mr Allister and Mr Robinson (38%) are tied in fourth place, with the TUV leader up a point and the DUP leader down five points.
On 37%, Naomi Long is down three points to become the least popular party leader. Her approval rating has fallen most significantly with Alliance/Green voters — down 11 points — who score Ms Hanna (60%) more highly than Mrs Long (57%).
However, the local politician who has seen the biggest overall drop in support is Emma Little-Pengelly, whose approval rating is down 10 points to 41%.
The Deputy First Minister's trip to Wimbledon last month, which cost the taxpayer £1,000 in flights and accommodation, along with a more hardline approach on a range of issues, has cost her support with nationalists and 'other' voters.
Mr Allister (65%) is unionists' favourite politician, up six points from November. In second spot is Ms Little-Pengelly (55%), followed by Mr Robinson (52%).
The DUP leader's popularity with unionist voters is down seven points with unionists, as is Mr Nesbitt's.
Like his predecessor Doug Beattie, the UUP leader is more popular with nationalists (44%) and Alliance/Green voters (43%) than unionists (35%).
On 37%, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has dropped six points, while Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald is up five points to 36%.
Secretary of State Hilary Benn is down 10 points to 33% and Keir Starmer is down 13 points to 18%.
The Executive's approval rating is just 35% with voters, down three points from November. It's scored most highly by nationalists (39%) and least by unionists (33%) and Alliance/Green voters (32%).
However, the Stormont administration's rating has fallen most dramatically with 'other' voters (down 14 points) and nationalists (down nine points), while it has risen eight points with unionists.
SF, DUP and Alliance content with power sharing deals that keep them in charge
ANALYSIS: Mark Bain, Belfast Telegraph, August 16th, 2025
Our government at Stormont divides many people. You don't need a poll to show that.
At one time in a land that many remember but want to move on from, it was lauded as a symbol of progress, filling a need at the new dawn of power-sharing.
But power is hard to share when those who hold it are so socially, economically, religiously and culturally in opposition.
When once the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP were the main players, the 'softer' side of unionism and nationalism led Northern Ireland into a new Troubles-free era. But now the harder-edged Sinn Fein and DUP sit sharing the throne — and it can be uncomfortable.
The problem with being in power is that the people who put you there expect it to be used for progress. But what good is that power when it's being constantly pulled in separate directions from within? The parties who lead the Executive are opposing forces, consensus is difficult to find and the consequences mean little can be achieved.
Others, meanwhile, are revelling in criticising from the sidelines, in opposition roles.
The SDLP do not have enough MLAs to qualify for a seat at the Executive table. And unburdened by the weight of decision-making expectation, the party enjoys a rare freedom.
Every government, unless extremely fortunate and progressive, suffers a mid-season slump. Take Westminster, where the clamour for change after years of Conservative dominance ushered a new dawn for Labour. But Sir Keir Starmer has found that the popularity that can be gained when decisions are not your own can very quickly disappear when you're in the hot seat yourself.
Stormont, though, is a conglomeration of opposition within opposition within opposition. It's an open goal when you can wave the hands of protest when the responsibility lies not with yourself — and let's face it, it's easy to criticise, particularly when those entrusted with the responsibility to do are hamstrung in that very ability.
It's no surprise that the dysfunctional nature of power-sharing lends itself to an increasing popularity for those who are not sharing power.
Dysfunctional Power
Claire Hanna, according to the latest LucidTalk polling, is the most popular of our party leaders across the board. The TUV may only have one MLA, yet is growing in popularity.
They both, like the public, have the freedom to challenge what disjointed authority is being wielded by the Executive. They are making hay while the sun shines on them.
But we're still almost two years away from the next Assembly election. Translating popularity now when it comes down to the actual voting is the real trick that has yet to be mastered, with an electorate still all too content to revert to type when the chips are down.
Refreshing though it may be to have a party in opposition to the Executive, it means little when Sinn Fein, the DUP and more recently the Alliance Party, despite all the faults of governance, sweep up the votes.
That mid-term 'protest' quickly disappears and support realigns along traditional routes.
Not one political party currently in the Executive has increased in popularity. Our latest poll shows support falling for three of the four parties — the DUP, Alliance and UUP. The fourth, Sinn Fein, is unchanged.
The reasons include an inability to make key decisions, be they unpopular or not, and a consistent begging to the Government in Westminster for more financial support. The shifting of the blame to those it is easy to point the finger at, deflecting from the faults closer to home, is evermore tiresome for the electorate to hear.
But as long as Sinn Fein, the DUP and Alliance are content in the knowledge that the balance of power will, in the end, lie in their favour, there is little prospect of change.
Alliance has made the case for a reform of the Stormont institutions. Naomi Long has consistently maintained her party will push for change while working in the power-sharing Executive, arguing that use of cross-community mechanisms such as the petition of concern is an “abuse” of democracy and needs to be reformed.
There is little appetite to change that diet of dysfunction from Sinn Fein or the DUP, and the menu being served remains the same.
Yet what is the alternative? No Assembly with key decisions affecting our day-to-day lives being taken hundreds of miles away at Westminster?
Perhaps a stronger opposition in the Assembly could move things in a better direction. Having slipped behind the TUV, polling suggests the UUP are now the 'third' unionist party.
Should they join in that opposition and increase the voice of criticism, perhaps both they, and Stormont itself, could enjoy a reversal of fortune.
The risk, though, is that with more power in their hands, the Executive parties will tighten their grip.
Power can be a dangerous tool in the wrong hands. It does have to be wielded wisely. But in what has been a largely insipid Assembly, it's hardly been wielded at all.
If unpopular decisions have to be made for long term gain, now is the time to do it.
The current 'status quo' at Stormont means even that is proving an unrealistic proposition.
It may be better than nothing, but what Northern Ireland is stuck with is the ultimate self-preservation society.
North’s health service has failed, and no-one has a plan to fix it
Paul Ainsworth, Irish News, August 16th, 2025,
IT’S TIME FOR HARD DECISIONS SAYS FORMER CHAIR OF BMA’s NI COUNCIL
THE health service in the north has failed to such a degree that “we wouldn’t accept it for our pets”, a senior medic has said, warning that “no-one has a plan of how to fix it”.
Dr Tom Black, a former British Medical Association NI council chair, who has served as a GP in Derry for more than 35 years, has delivered a devastating diagnosis of the health system.
In a platform piece for The Irish News, he laid the blame squarely at the door of politicians, insisting it was time for “hard decisions” and calling for those who could not make them to “resign and get out of the way”.
The GP warned that the calamitous state of the system means waiting lists – and even ambulance waiting times – can be longer than the life expectancy of patients.
Blaming underfunding, which leads to staff retention struggles, Dr Black compared the health service to that available across the border.
Thanks to significant investment there, Dr Black said more healthcare staff were choosing to work in the Republic, which he likened to “West Germany” when compared to the north’s “East Germany”.
“And it’s going to get worse,” Dr Black warned.
“By every measure the NHS in Northern Ireland isn’t failing; it has already failed and no-one has a plan of how to fix it.”
Healthcare ‘reset plan’ aimed at easing pressures says department
Responding to the criticism, Sinn Féin MLA and party health spokesperson Philp McGuigan said there was “no doubt” over the “enormous challenges” facing healthcare in the north after “15 years of British government underfunding and cuts”.
“The British government just do not provide the resources we need… that is why we want the Irish government and the executive to work together in cooperation to reduce the duplication of services and improve health care for the people of Ireland, north and south,” he said.
Mr McGuigan said healthcare planning on an all-island level “makes sense”.
“On an island of under seven million people – less than the population of most of the world’s great cities – it makes no sense having two separate health services,” he said.
“It is obviously better to work together to deliver better health outcomes for the people of this island. That work can start now.”
The DUP did not respond when approached by The Irish News for comment.
£600 million deficit
A Department of Health spokesperson said it was facing “unprecedented financial pressures, with a projected £600m gap between available funding and the cost of maintaining existing services this year”.
It said a healthcare ‘reset plan’ published last month was aimed at easing the pressures, but GPs and their teams “are working hard but are struggling to meet the demand from patients”.
“The financial challenges facing the Department of Health are well known,” the spokesperson said.
“In that context, the £9.5m in additional funding included in the 2025/26 General Medical Services (GMS) contract represented the best possible offer the department could make for 2025/26.
“It is a matter of regret that the department has not been able to reach agreement in relation to the 2025/26 GMS contract.
“Total investment in GP services this year will be more than £414m. This includes pay uplifts from last year, and the recently announced investments in MDTs (multidisciplinary teams) which will go directly to support GPs in meeting the needs of their patients by expanding capacity in practices.
“The department has also announced investment of £2.9m in GP elective care, which will benefit GPs directly while meeting the needs of patients.”
A Department of Health spokesperson said the £9.5m in additional funding included in the 2025/26 General Medical Services contract “represented the best possible offer the department could make for 2025/26”
Addressing staffing concerns, the spokesperson said health minister Mike Nesbitt has stated his intention to see pay recommendations from the recent Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration report implemented for 2025/26 “in full, which will see a further £11.5m invested in General Medical Services”.
“As the minister has stated, he remains open to discussion as to how best to secure the future of general practice so that it can remain a central part of primary care services now and in the future. The department has invited the Northern Ireland General Practitioners Committee to engage in formal negotiations to develop a new GMS contract for 2026/27.”
McMonagle free after jail term for sex crimes ends
Allison Morris, Belfast Telegraph, March 16th, 2025
A former Sinn Fein press officer has been released from prison after serving his nine-month jail term for sexually communicating with online accounts he believed were children.
Michael McMonagle was freed earlier this month and must now complete nine months on licence.
His conviction caused a political crisis after it emerged two of the party's press officers gave McMonagle a reference that allowed him to get a job with the British Heart Foundation (BHF), while under investigation for child sex offences.
While now free McMonagle remains on the sexual offenders' register having been convicted of 14 charges of online contact with what he believed were children aged between 12 and 16 years old.
When convicted he had an address in Limewood Street in Londonderry but since his release from prison he has been staying in Belfast.
In November last year a pipe bomb was thrown at a house in the street located in the city's Bogside.
An elderly couple inside, with no connection to the case, were not hurt but were still left badly shaken, and it is believed the attackers bombed the wrong house with McMonagle thought to be the intended target.
Sources say it has been made clear he is not welcome in the Bogside.
In August 2024, he plead guilty to 14 offences relating to various dates between May 2020 and August 2021.
During a sentencing hearing the judge said McMonagle had communicated with a number of online accounts which were run by police officers posing as children.
In total he contacted six decoys he believed were children ranging from 12 years to under 16 years.
Due to McMonagle's guilty plea, the judge said he was entitled to a reduction in his sentence.
A defence barrister criticised the coverage of the case in the media and said there “had been a near-total collapse of the truth”.
He described the defendant as “a victim of a media witch hunt” and said the case had been “politicised”.
However, following the sentencing PSNI Chief Supt Lindsay Fisher described McMonagle as a “predator who was combing the internet for underage victims”.
Police said that, during an operation led by their child internet protection team, it was discovered that over the course of 15 months from May 2020, McMonagle interacted with a number of child profiles online.
In August 2021, police said, he attempted to get what he believed to be multiple children aged 14 and under to perform sexual acts.
During the same month, detectives seized a number of electronic devices from his home to capture evidence of chat logs, images and identified usernames he was using online.
McMonagle was interviewed and charged to attend court in relation to the identified offences.
It later emerged that on August 20, 2021, McMonagle told his bosses at Sinn Fein that he had been arrested the previous day and questioned about offences of a child protection nature.
He was immediately suspended.
His employment with Sinn Fein ended in June 2022, and he secured a job with the BFH that September, with the help of two party press officers who provided statements. The charity were unaware that McMonagle was under investigation at the time.
Séan Mag Uidhir and Caolán McGinley resigned from the party in September 2024, when the issue came to light.
Sinn Fein said the party only became aware of the references a few days earlier.
In July 2023 the BHF also suspended McMonagle ahead of his first court appearance.
Photos later emerged of First Minister Michelle O'Neill in the Great Hall at Stormont, standing a few feet away from McMonagle, working in his role at the BHF at an event in February 2023.
McMonagle had worked as a newspaper journalist in Derry before being employed as a Sinn Féin press officer in the north west.
He was also an adviser for the party at Stormont for a number of years.
Mary Lou McDonald ordered “a complete overhaul of governance procedures” of Sinn Fein after the scandal.
Belfast republican Sam Baker led the review.
In May of this year the party said it had appointed a new HR manager after an overhaul of its internal governance procedures prompted by the case.
Ms McDonald said the director would be responsible for driving forward corporate governance, statutory compliance, and management processes within the party.
Former SDLP Leader Margaret Ritchie talks of 45 years serving people of South Down
John Manley, Political Correspondent, Irish News, August 16th, 2025
IN A political career that spans more than four decades and has seen representation in the council chamber, Stormont assembly, House of Commons and House of Lords, Baroness Margaret Ritchie’s high point was serving as a minister in the Northern Ireland Executive.
She had the social development portfolio for almost three years up to February 2010, the sole SDLP minister at the executive table, alongside political heavyweights Ian Paisley, Martin McGuinness, Peter Robinson and Reg Empey.
“It was interesting in that I certainly got my eyes opened,” she says.
“Very often on a Thursday afternoon when executive meetings were due to take place, myself, Reg (Empey) and Michael (McGimpsey) would be left for a couple of hours waiting for things to start. We assumed, probably quite rightly, that they hadn’t yet made decisions about certain things but nobody told us, we just sat there and drank tea and read our papers.”
She is nonetheless keen to reference her ministerial record: “There was lots of things I could do as a minister that didn’t have to be referred to the executive. Housing was one example: there had been little investment in the previous years under direct rule and at the end, I was building up to 2,000 social houses per year.”
While one of only a handful of females serving on the executive during that era, she recalls no misogyny from her colleagues, insisting that if there were any sexist attitudes she was “too busy to notice”.
‘Socially conservative’
Born in Downpatrick and living most of her life a matter of miles away in Annacloy, the 67-year-old peer professes to be “socially conservative”, “pro-life” and a weekly Mass-goer.
When in London weekly on House of Lords business, she stays at Nazareth House in Hammersmith, a facility run by the Sisters of Nazareth order.
She was educated first at Holy Family Primary School in Teconnaught before St Mary’s High School in Downpatrick, having missed the grammar threshold by a single mark.
She bears no bitterness against the north’s post-primary selection system, believing there is “a place for grammar school education” – ideally in the context of co-education.
Ms Ritchie qualifies her opinion by stressing that “it should not be at the expense of a more all-ability education, and the children shouldn’t be marginalised as a result”.
She never felt disadvantaged in her education, though points out “there wasn’t a big emphasis on science” at her secondary school.
Nonetheless, the qualifications she gained there were enough to secure a place at Queen’s University Belfast, where she studied geography and political science, graduating in 1979.
“My parents were both psychiatric nurses, who trained in the Downshire Hospital. They gave me an understanding and appreciation of compassion.
“I was more interested in geography than in political science, and at the time I probably wanted to be a geography teacher,” she says of her early ambitions.
University life is recalled as if poor housing conditions and “pursuing landlords all the time to get improvements done” was part of the zeitgeist .
‘Largely unscathed’ by Troubles
Her predominantly nationalist home town was “largely unscathed” by the Troubles, says Ms Ritchie, pointing out that among the most notable events in the area were two explosions in the early 1970s in which four IRA members were killed by their own bombs in separate blasts.
She credits the Sisters of Mercy with some small-p political influence during her schooldays and her Cavan-born mother for encouraging her to learn and speak Irish.
“My parents were both psychiatric nurses, who trained in the Downshire Hospital. They gave me an understanding and appreciation of compassion,” she says.
“I was brought up to understand that there are people maybe less fortunate than ourselves, but they’re still human beings, and they are to be valued and understood, and helped and supported.”
If there was a political catalyst, it came in 1980 when she was removed from the electoral register due to confusion around the use of her term-time address in Belfast.
“I was incandescent with rage. I thought this was a form of gerrymandering, so I joined the SDLP,” she recalls.
“I know my parents didn’t want me going down the politics road, they wanted me to have steady employment.”
She was always aware of the civil rights movement, and her father’s cousin John Ritchie was an SDLP councillor, so constitutional nationalism “was sort of a family interest”.
“As well as being the party that grew out of civil rights, I was also attracted by the SDLP’s commitment to non-violence,” she says.
“And it must be remembered that in the 1970s the SDLP was something new and different from the old forms of nationalism; it was about respecting political diversity and people with a different political viewpoint, but saying we can all come together, as encapsulated in the 1976 policy document Towards a New Ireland, which contained the embryo of the Good Friday Agreement.”
She was a member of the party’s central executive almost from the get-go and in 1985 was first elected to Down District Council.
“That was a revelation in itself,” she says of her first foray into elected representation, where she sat on the council alongside future South Down MP Eddie McGrady.
“Eddie was the group leader and he required high standards of us, so you didn’t disobey and you didn’t miss meetings.”
She went on to serve both as the local authority’s chair and vicechair.
In 1987, after McGrady won the South Down seat in a historic victory over Ulster Unionist incumbent En-och Powell, Ms Ritchie went to work for the newly-elected MP as a parliamentary assistant – or, as she terms it looking back, “a general factotum”.
“Eddie was a very good, very thoughtful employer,” she says.
“He was also good in terms of the politics and a very good MP, which can be seen in how Downpatrick developed during his time.”
In 1996, she sought and secured election to the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue, the body set up as part of a process of negotiations that eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement two years later.
The late Mr McGrady’s decision to step down from the assembly in 2003 gave Ms Ritchie the opportunity to replace her mentor at Stormont, while remaining as a councillor.
She was re-elected to the assembly in May 2007 and immediately appointed social development minister, a role which ultimately led to her resignation from the council after more than 20 years’ service.
Perhaps her most notable and controversial move as a minister was in 2007 when she cut funding for a what was termed a “loyalist conflict transformation initiative”, which she regarded as a front for the UDA.
“I felt there was a need to invest money in the Protestant working classes but not through giving money to paramilitaries,” she says.
“What the money was for wasn’t clear and at that time there was rioting and the UDA hadn’t decommissioned its weapons.”
The former minister recalls that at the executive table she was left to make the decision on her own, even though it was later overruled by the High Court because she hadn’t followed procedure on cross-cutting matters.
“In the end they got their funding but I think it was only right that the public knew how their money was being spent,” she says.
Elected leader in 2010
Arguably, 2010 was the most significant year in Ms Ritchie’s political career: in February she replaced Mark Durkan as SDLP leader, fending off a challenge from Alasdair McDonnell by the finest of margins and becoming the first female to hold the role. Three months later she was elected MP for South Down.
“It was something of a rollercoaster, though I got to do many, many things in politics that most people would never have the opportunity to experience,” she says.
On Remembrance Day 2010, she became the first leader of an Irish nationalist party to wear a poppy, while she also laid a wreath at the cenotaph in her home town.
However, within a year she had passed the leadership baton to Alasdair McDonnell.
“In the end I felt it was encroaching into so much of my time as an MP that I was unable to fulfil both roles satisfactorily – there’s only so much physically anybody can do, so I gave it 18 months, and then I was quite happy to move on.”
Ms Ritchie served as an MP for seven years, including being successfully re-elected in 2015. In 2017, in the post-Brexit snap election called by Theresa May, she lost her seat to Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard.
“I was sorry when it ended but people vote, they make choices and we have to accept that,” she says.
Nevertheless, she argues that the loss of her Westminster seat coincides with a decline in the quality of facilities in the constituency, and in particular in Downpatrick.
“Whenever the SDLP was in the majority, we built this place up – we got a new FE college, the St Patrick’s Visitor Centre, a new hospital, new administrative headquarters for the council, along with several regeneration schemes in Downpatrick and throughout the district,” she says.
“Sadly, that regeneration is no longer evident. Downpatrick deserves and demands better, and it is a problem because you have an executive that ignores the town and a council that ignores it too.”
A strong supporter of the county town’s early-Christian heritage, she believes more should be done to promote the area’s ties to St Patrick.
A matter of months after losing her Westminster seat, the former MP was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I don’t want that to define me,” she stresses of the personal low point from which she has since made a full recovery.
“People don’t realise that I didn’t feel sick at all because it was the good fortune of the mammogram service that my cancer was identified. The chemotherapy can make you feel very sick and persistently tired.”
Labour Peer
In 2019, she was made a peer, taking the title Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick.
As peerages run contrary to SDLP policy she “happily” resigned from the party and sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.
She has rejoined the SDLP and remains in regular contact with senior party figures. She concedes that the party’s stance on social issues doesn’t necessarily chime with her own views but has “no particular problem” with that.
“There are others like me in the party but they are a decreasing number and if you look at wider society, the way the party has gone represents that,” she says.
Ms Ritchie argues for reform of the House of Lords both in terms of its size and hereditary peerages, but has no qualms about being an Irish nationalist sitting in an institution that in many ways represents the epitome British establishment.
In terms of the Labour administration’s conduct in relation Israel’s continued military assault on Gaza, she says that she “understand[s] that as a party of government, they have to do certain things”.
“But through questioning them, I would hope that they would change their mind,” she says of her own contributions in the Lords.
“They came late to the table in relation to recognising Palestinian statehood, and it was conditional, which I don’t think it needed to be, and I don’t think dropping aid in from a helicopter or from a plane is sufficient.”
Ms Ritchie is similarly “disappointed” by the EU, which has been “maybe too cautious and too reticent” around Gaza.
“There’s no doubt that Hamas should release those hostages, that should be go without saying, but there also needs to be immediate action, irrespective of that, in terms of help, as it’s very hard to watch those poor children in Gaza.”
She is critical of Labour’s reduction in its overseas aid budget, arguing that it “speaks to the type of country and what kind of government you are if you try to do more to help the underprivileged and disadvantaged”.
“I will keep fighting to make my case and I know there are many like-minded peers in the Labour group.”
When asked if she’s considered resigning the whip, the answer is no.
