Senior republican admits two of the Disappeared may never be found

Source says those with knowledge of Joe Lynskey and Robert Nairac burials now dead

Allison Morris, Belfast Telegraph, April 12th, 2025

The remains of Joe Lynskey and Robert Nairac — two of the Disappeared — are unlikely to ever be found, a senior republican has admitted.

They said people involved in both cases have passed away, with all key leads now exhausted.

Last month, the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) said remains recovered from a grave in Co Monaghan were not those of Mr Lynskey — the former Cistercian monk turned IRA intelligence officer.

His heartbroken family were convinced his remains had been found after more than half a century and had even planned his funeral.

Mr Lynskey (40) was murdered by the IRA in 1972. He had been court-martialled for ordering an attack on a man whose wife Mr Lynskey had been having an affair with.

The unsanctioned shooting almost sparked a retaliatory attack, with the Provisional IRA initially thinking it was linked to tensions between the group and the Official IRA.

In November, remains were recovered from a rural graveyard plot belonging to the family of the former Bishop of Ferns, Brendan Comiskey.

The commission said they were acting on information that there had been unusual behaviour in the area at a time that matched Mr Lynskey’s disappearance.

But DNA testing confirmed the remains didn’t match those of the republican. They also do not belong to anyone from the family who owns the grave, nor any of the other three Disappeared victims who are still to be found.

“We had funeral planned and a priest ready’: Joe Lynskey’s niece on revelation that found remains not her Disappeared uncle

It means the case is now outside the remit of the ICLVR and in the hands of gardai. Gardai contacted the local coroner and said they will try to identify the remains.

However, the contact from the republican movement and the ICLVR had, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal, told them they did not think Mr Lynskey was in the grave or in that area.

Republicans also admitted they have now exhausted all leads and have no more information.

A senior republican source said: “We have passed on any and all information to the ICLVR. Anyone who would have information on both Lynskey and Nairac is now dead; it is unlikely we will be able to provide any more information on either.”

They added that, as a result, it was “highly unlikely” that either set of remains will be found.

It is also believed that recent reports by an unnamed man claiming to have information about the Lynskey murder have been examined and shown to be fabricated and dismissed as being of no investigatory use.

Lynskey and Nairac were devout Catholics

Army captain Robert Nairac was abducted and murdered after visiting a south Armagh bar while undercover, claiming to be called Danny McErlean.

He was driven to Co Louth where he is thought to have been killed and secretly buried.

Like Mr Lynskey, Nairac was a devout Catholic.

From a wealthy Gloucestershire family, he graduated from Oxford before joining the Grenadier Guards.

His role in Northern Ireland has always been the subject of conspiracy and controversy.

A tip-off led to a search last year but ended unsuccessfully.

The ICLVR said at the time that it had “sufficient credible information” to begin a search of private land in the Faughart area near Dundalk.

The information that brought about that search was not provided by the official republican go-between to the ICLVR, but by an independent source.

Immunity from prosecution is given to anyone who gives information leading to the recovery of remains of the Disappeared.

It is the second time the Lynskeys have been given false hope.

Uniting Ireland less important than building relationships

Sam McBride, Belfast Telegraph, April 12th, 2025

IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THE BELFAST TELEGRAPH, MICHEÁL MARTIN SETS OUT HIS POLICY ON NORTHERN IRELAND IN MORE DETAIL THAN EVER BEFORE. IN ITS OWN WAY, IT'S RADICAL — AND NOT WHAT NATIONALIST CAMPAIGNERS WILL WANT TO HEAR

Micheál Martin first crossed the border as a young man desperately curious about a place which, since his childhood, had been an erupting volcano of sectarian slaughter.

It was the early 1980s and, amid the hunger strike chaos, Martin's visit was atypical.

When the Waterford writer Dervla Murphy came north a few years earlier in 1976, she observed: “South of the Dublin-Galway line, there is little sense of personal involvement with Northern Ireland; it seems much further away than Britain… or even than the USA.”

The Taoiseach is an earthily practical politician. But sitting in Dublin Castle's grandeur, there's a fervour as he speaks about Northern Ireland.

Yet it's far less threatening than the rhetoric of his early predecessors who fed unionist suspicion that the south was itching to take over the north.

When Martin first came to Belfast, he had an uncomplicated republican view: “The simple solution to Northern Ireland was Brits out, 32-county Ireland — that's it, done and dusted. Everybody join up; they'll all be happy after.”

But what he saw reshaped his politics.

Turning Point

“That was the turning point for me. Particularly when we met young unionists in their homes and they were saying 'how would you like it if your uncle or your dad was killed and murdered just because he happens to be wearing the wrong uniform? And how are you going to unite Ireland if that continues to happen?'

“That set me thinking that this was much more complex.”

After becoming a TD in 1989, he went to Corrymeela with northern and southern politicians, among them another future Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and the Ulster Unionist McGimpsey brothers.

That week, he came to see that “the mythologies about each other, the perceptions, we got so wrong”.

Few votes in Cork South-Central turn on the issues dominating Radio Ulster's news bulletins.

Few votes in Cork turn on Unity

Yet Martin says he was “fascinated by the north because I was eight years of age when it blew up. And so all my teenage years were bombs, bullets, terrible atrocities, watching horrific things happening on one television channel… but we became immune; we actually believed it would never end.

“I never thought I would be a minister in a government signing an agreement for peace.”

The interview is on April 10, the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, and Martin talks about it almost as a sacred text.

Where Sinn Fein present the Agreement as a route to a border poll, Martin takes something very different from it.

Strive for unity

Earlier, in a speech in Dublin Castle's historic St Patrick's Hall, he quoted the Agreement's pledge “to strive in every practical way towards reconciliation”.

That speech set out the latest iteration of his centrepiece Northern Ireland policy — the Shared Island initiative. That €1.5bn fund encourages practical north-south linkages. A test for funding is that projects would make sense irrespective of whether the border is ever removed.

Despite latent suspicion, even many unionists see this as benign.

When asked if the initiative has anything to do with Irish unity, Martin says: “No, in the sense that it's not part of a political project or anything like that and it's most certainly not a Trojan horse.

“It very much is grounded on people-to-people connections and basically the simple question: Can we share this piece of ground together in a harmonious way that involves real sustainable peace and friendliness for generations to come?”

Emphasising the value of relationships, he says when he was last Taoiseach he visited the Orange Order and “they took back their reservations on Shared Island because of the engagement that I had with them”.

Valuing relationships

There is “increased and significant engagement” with unionists, he says. That was visible on Thursday, with Orange grand secretary Mervyn Gibson and Ian Paisley in the audience.

Senior unionists speak privately of Martin as someone they respect and with whom they can do business. They trust him in a way they didn't trust Leo Varadkar. Some of that is about circumstances; had Martin been Taoiseach in the worst of the Brexit years, he may well have followed Varadkar's course and been viewed with hostility. But he has a deeper well of goodwill from which to draw, having built decades-long relationships.

“People are coming to us with projects…some of the projects that unionist politicians are coming to us about are about shared identity or experiences across different traditions,” he says.

“Some are more practical in terms of greenways, which I think is a no-brainer. We put people into boxes too much; we label people too much. Part of Shared Island is taking away the labels. So if you're interested in biodiversity or climate change and you're from a particular community, where you're from or what tradition you're from or what politics you back should have nothing to do with a shared interest in developing a biodiversity project, for example, or in developing a greenway or a road or connectivity. I see the politics evolving differently, in a way, and it's also through reflection myself.”

Uncles in British Army

He tells how two of his uncles fought in the Second World War while his father was in the Irish Army; one of his uncles became a British Conservative supporter, another was a British Labour Party member, a third was a communist, and his father was a Fianna Fail member. His “staunchly republican” mother's family were involved in the War of Independence.

Sinn Fein is demanding a border poll by 2030, but Martin has almost as much of a veto on that as London. While the Secretary of State would legally call a referendum, it would be a hopeless cause without a detailed policy proposal for the new state.

Even Sinn Fein now accepts that is necessary, yet only the Irish Government can provide it.

When asked about a 2030 plebiscite, Martin is curt: “We're not planning for a border poll in 2030 and I believe the work we're doing now — making the Good Friday Agreement work, in parallel with that the Shared Island which is very practical incremental investment, continually engaging with people… it's less attractive politically. You will notice that I've never sought to trumpet the Shared Island initiative.

“Many of my own parliamentary colleagues say to me 'people don't know enough about it' or 'you're not broadcasting it'. There's a deliberate reason for that — because I understand the sensitivities that you asked me in the opening question.

“These are easy things to call for and I find some of the work around that — and I've met with the project from Notre Dame [university] and so on — and I would be somewhat concerned with some of what I would perceive to be a contrived approach to this.”

Contrived by who?

“People saying 'the end goal is this, so how do we get to the end goal?' And so then everything around research — and people would dispute that — but that's the sense I get at times whereas what I witnessed on the stage there, that is actually the future of the island.

“You can put what political shape you want on it afterwards but… politicians don't exist for political institutions' sake. Institutions don't exist for their own sake. They must serve the people — and that's what I'm about… the vast majority of middle-ground opinion on the island get this. There's been a huge response in the north; people just want to get on with this and the practicalities of it.”

Martin doesn't quite say he's indifferent to the border, but his entire emphasis is on uniting people rather than territory. This is John Hume reinterpreted for a modern audience.

Speaking of his own ideological evolution, he says: “The more fundamental change has been not to look at people from a different tradition as 'the other' and to seek to understand where people are coming from.”

It's hardly a coincidence that having seen his own views alter after building relationships, he now believes that is key to the future.

Repeatedly, he plays down urgently removing the border and plays up uniting people: “The whole Shared Island thing is about reconciliation. In a way, there's a comfort zone within political parties, saying 'here's our objective' and 'here's our aim' and here's this and here's that; it's much harder work to actually connect people and to do the hard work of reconciliation.”

What does he want Northern Ireland to look like in 2075?

Even here, he doesn't say “a united Ireland” but responds: “My vision is very much the Wolfe Tone vision that the people are much more comfortable in each other's skins… the political configuration I'm open about.

“What I mean by that is: It will evolve. I think politics has to work in Northern Ireland and there has to be a sustained manifestation of politics working in Northern Ireland so that even the politicians of Northern Ireland are comfortable working with each other.

“That has happened in starts and stops over the last number of years — too many stops. There needs to be a period where people engage and move things on and then, over time, I think let things evolve, but I don't believe in forcing people into anything.”

Does that mean prolonged Stormont stability is a prerequisite for a border poll? He doesn't quite say so, but comes close, saying that “politics does have to for its own sake work — if it's not working in Northern Ireland, it's certainly not going to work on a broader canvas… I mean, people have to be comfortable in whatever emerges.

“And we know the history of the northern state and all of that. We've had those arguments time and time again. It's very interesting when you look at De Valera and Lemass, for example, they both realised this, actually… De Valera realised early on that this had to be about building bridges and reconciliation. Lemass certainly did when he visited Terence O'Neill on that occasion. They were trying to free themselves from the rhetoric that surrounded them, and from where they'd come.”

In drawing on solidly republican predecessors to defend his stance, Martin will surprise some people. Yet despite Éamon de Valera and Seán Lemass being seen as exemplars of traditional anti-partitionist attitudes in the decades after 1921, both had a more nuanced view.

De Valera came to believe in improving cross-border relations and made clear his willingness for Northern Ireland to continue under Stormont's rule after unity.

Unity needs consent

Lemass said in 1969 that he would be appalled at compelling northerners into a united Ireland against their will, something he said would be “morally destructive”. Unity would need agreement, he said, “although not necessarily 100% assent by the people in the north”.

Thomas Duffy of New York's United Ireland Publicity Committee wrote to Lemass, dismayed at this lack of urgency around ending partition. He asked if they were “to just sit and wait it out, waiting for the Orangeman to see the light?”

The Orange Order's most influential figure still opposes unity, but his presence in Dublin Castle last week signifies how drastically relations have improved.

Writing in 1968, TK Whittaker, the brilliant Rostrevor-born bureaucrat who reshaped the Republic, told Lemass that after accepting partition couldn't be ended by force, they were “left with only one choice, a policy of seeking unity in Ireland by agreement in Ireland between Irishmen. Of its nature this is a long-term policy, requiring patience, understanding and forbearance and resolute resistance to emotionalism and opportunism. It is none the less patriotic for that”.

Martin is someone now confident to make clear he doesn't think Irish unity is on the horizon and will only happen after patient unglamorous toil.

Unity is No 1 priority of 1 Per Cent in South

Martin's approach will dismay Irish unity activists who believe unity is near at hand.

The difficulty for them is that Martin's stance is overwhelmingly popular with southern voters.

In a poll published by The Sunday Independent last weekend, when voters were asked to pick two issues which should be the Irish Government's most important priorities, a united Ireland was selected by just 1%.

Some unionists will be jubilant about this, but they should be cautious to avoid the mistaken assumption that the circumstances which now pertain will forever endure.

Martin's time as Taoiseach will be temporary.

Less than two years ago, the then Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said: “I believe we are on the path to unification. I believe that there will be a united Ireland in my lifetime.”

A few hours after Martin's interview with this newspaper, Varadkar said in Philadelphia that “every generation has its great cause — I believe ours is the cause of uniting our island”.

These are two fundamentally different southern visions of the future.

As someone with deep personal knowledge of Northern Ireland, and whose deputy chief of staff, Pat McParland, is from Camlough, Martin has thought this through carefully.

He knows Northern Ireland well enough to know the counter arguments. He's rejected them not from a position of ignorance, but from one of knowledge.

(There is a shorter version of this interview in today’s Irish Independent)

Derry man denies possession of firearms and explosive substances in the 1970s

By Ashleigh McDonald, Irish News, April 11th, 2025

A 72-year old man has appeared in court where he denied terrorist offences spanning back five decades.

Gerard Joseph Kelly, from Main Street in Dungiven, was arraigned on a total of four charges at Belfast Crown Court on Friday.

He was charged that on February 16, 1976 at Brockaghboy in Garvagh, he unlawfully and maliciously possessed or had under his control explosive substances namely two electric detonators and two improvised pressure mat switches, with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.

When asked how he pleaded to this charge, Kelly replied “I’m not guilty to none of that.”

A charge of possessing the same items on the same date in suspicious circumstances was then put to Kelly, and when asked how he pleaded he answered “not guilty.”

The court clerk then charged Kelly with possessing firearms with intent to endanger life.

He was charged that on February 16, 1976 at Brockaghboy in Garvagh he had in his possession two Walther pistols, one Browning pistol, a 0.22 rifle No C21075, a Remington shotgun and a quantity of ammunition with intent.

Kelly denied this charge and when a fourth offence of possessing the firearms and ammunition on the same date in suspicious circumstances was levelled at the pensioner, he replied “not guilty at all.”

Although no details about the alleged offences emerged on Friday, during an extradition hearing in Dublin High Court last year in relation to another man accused of the same charges, it was claimed the weapons were uncovered during an investigation into the murder of 25-year-old RUC Constable Robert John McPherson and the attempted murder of his colleague in July 1975.

No date for Kelly’s trial was fixed but Mr Justice Fowler said he would review the case on May 2.

'There can be no two-tier policing - we must go after all terror support equally' 

By Adam Kula, Belfast News Letter, April 12th, 2025

Troubles victims campaigner Kenny Donaldson has insisted that there must be not “two-tier” system when it comes to policing the glorification of present-day terror and past terror.

The director of the South East Fermanagh Foundation said that to do otherwise is “unsustainable”.

He was reacting to a recent court case in which a man was prosecuted for posts on a pro-dissident Facebook page.

Ciaran Kilifin, 27, with an address at Exchange Court in Newtownards, was given a suspended sentence for four posts on a page called Republican Activist Coalition.

The PSNI said afterwards that the case was a “landmark” one because it is the first time in Northern Ireland that a particular part of the Terrorism Act has been used to prosecute someone.

The Act has existed since 2000, but it was expanded in 2019 to include a new clause making it illegal to publish a statement which is “reckless” as to whether someone reading it “will be encouraged to support a proscribed organisation”.

The PSNI urged anyone posting online to “take note of the newly-introduced recklessness aspect of this offence”.

Will ‘glorifying PIRA be a criminal offence?

The DUP and TUV both reacted to the news by wondering if the case will now mean other prosecutions will follow suit for people who are “reckless” about glorifying non-dissident groups like the Provisional IRA.

Now Mr Donaldson has added his voice too, saying: "The prosecution of a 'dissident' republican for these offences means that those alleged of supporting other proscribed terrorist organisations including PIRA, INLA, UVF, UDA/UFF etc should also face prosecution.

"There cannot be a different approach taken. No two-tier system of pre and post-Belfast Agreement terrorist organisations can operate. All such organisations continue to exist, and criminal activities have continued post-1998.

"There cannot be a timeline given on the expression of support for terrorism – whether an organisation is deemed currently active or is in dormant mode, or indeed is said to have disbanded. It is the act of justifying violence which is a crime and must be treated as such.

"It is unsustainable for a different approach to be taken on these issues, wrong is wrong and right is right.

"We call for a consistent position and approach to be taken in the dealing of these matters.”

Surveys for dual language signs proceed in two streets despite warning of possible tensions

Michael Kenwood, Irish News, April 12th, 2025

SURVEYS for dual language Irish street signs will go ahead in two east Belfast streets despite council officials highlighting “potential adverse impacts”.

A DUP proposal to block surveys for Mount Merrion Avenue and Isoline Street failed on a vote at a Belfast City Council committee meeting this week.

A report for the council’s people and communities committee raised issues in relation to applications for Mount Merrion Avenue, Isoline Street, Onslow Gardens, Lismain Street, Kimberley Street, and Loopland Drive.

Members were given two options – to agree that surveys of occupiers of these streets be carried out, or agree that no surveys would be carried out, on the grounds of the potential adverse impacts identified, and then close the applications.

The council’s dual language street sign policy states that “each application will be subject to an initial assessment for any potential adverse impacts on equality, good relations and rural needs and where any adverse impacts are identified that information will be brought to the committee”.

The council report states: “The initial assessments were carried out for all the streets listed and potential adverse impacts were identified. Draft equality screenings were therefore carried out.

“The screenings have identified that the carrying out of surveys and the erection of Irish language street signs in these areas has the potential to give rise to community tension. Conversely the screenings also identified that the process could assist in promoting cultural and linguistic diversity.”

On Mount Merrion Avenue, councillor Davy Douglas, member for Lisnasharragh, raised a formal objection to the appliaction, stating:

A DUP bid to stop dual language in two streets in east Belfast failed

“Mount Merrion is a mixed area bisecting the Cregagh estate and Flush Park, both traditional unionist areas.

“There have been issues in the area in recent years around messaging and posters on the Cregagh bonfire, with election posters being stolen. However, a lot of progress has been made in the past couple of years.”

Divided on impact of changes

He added: “I feel that the adoption of Irish street signage could be seen as divisive and have an adverse impact on good relations within the community, undoing some of the progress that has been made to date. I would therefore ask that the council exercise its discretion not to apply its policy at this location.”

Regarding Isoline Street, councillor Ruth Brooks, member for Titanic, raised an objection stating: “According to the 2021 census results, this Council report street and neighbouring streets has a population of 352 people across 220 households. Of this figure, 8% claim to have ‘some ability’ in Irish, meaning that approximately 28 people would have some ability to understand an English-Irish dual language sign.

“ Conversely the screenings also identified that the process could assist in promoting cultural and linguistic diversity

At the committee meeting, a DUP proposal to agree that no surveys would be carried out on the two streets and to close the applications, failed.

Five elected members from the DUP were for the proposal and 15 against, from Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP and the Green Party.

Residents surveys will go ahead now in all of the streets raised – Mount Merrion Avenue, Isoline Street, Onslow Gardens, Lismain Street, Kimberley Street, and Loopland Drive.

Lessons for nationalists and unionists in signage row

Newton Emerson, Irish News, on the week that was April 12th, 2025

THE DUP has joined calls for SDLP MLA Cara Hunter to apologise after she referred to the “coloniser mindset” of unionists who object to Irish language on signs.

Hunter has stood up to the outrage her comment provoked and it is hard not to admire anyone who defies this sort of tiresome recreational anger.

Nevertheless, it is generally preferable to compare Northern Ireland to Belgium than to the Congo, for the sake of both peace and understanding.

Irish and Ulster Scots are regulated under the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages because our language quarrels, like most of our quarrels, can easily be seen in modern European terms – as ethnic tension around a disputed border, more than as a legacy of colonialism. This is also how our dispute is framed under the Good Friday Agreement.

The lesson for nationalists is that dislike of another language is normal cultural unease, rather than uniquely dreadful supremacist intolerance.

We are not even unusually uneasy: two years ago, the Flemish government tried banning Belgium’s other official languages from being spoken in its schools, including playgrounds.

The lesson for unionists is that it is normal to have to live with things you do not like.

Sinn Féin accused of double standards over interconnector

Irish News, April 12th, 2025

SINN Féin has been accused of “taking people for mugs” over a major infrastructure project linking Northern Ireland and the Republic’s electricity networks.

The north-south interconnector is projected to cost €350m and construct 85 miles of overhead cables, requiring 300 large pylons in the Republic and 100 in Northern Ireland.

Running through counties Armagh and Tyrone, it would cross the border into Co Monaghan and continue on through Cavan and Meath.

Planning permission has already been granted in both jurisdictions, but Sinn Féin are opposing the use of overhead cables in the Republic and support an underground option.

Meanwhile, Stormont’s Department for Infrastructure – headed by Sinn Féin’s Liz Kimmins – is defending a new legal challenge on the issue from Northern Ireland farmers and landowners in Armagh and Tyrone.

As well as objecting to the overhead cables, the legal action raises concerns about Northern Ireland being used to supply power-hungry data centres in the Republic.

Eirgrid opposed to underground cables

EirGrid, which manages the Republic’s network, has said an underground option is not viable and that the interconnector would lower electricity costs across Ireland.

Sinn Féin’s TD for Meath East, Darren O’Rourke, told RTÉ: “Sinn Féin’s position is absolutely clear in relation to this project and it’s an all-island position, there is no contradiction in relation to it.

“Sinn Féin supports the delivery of the north-south interconnector, it’s an important piece of infrastructure, but it absolutely has to be delivered underground, in fact we believe that’s the only way that this project will be delivered.”

Campaigners from Safe Electricity Armagh & Tyrone gathered outside the High Court in Belfast to voice their concerns about overhead cables being used in the north-south interconnector project

Matthew O’Toole, the SDLP’s leader of the opposition at Stormont, said Sinn Féin were “taking people for absolute mugs” by having a different position on either side of the border.

Speaking to the Irish News, he said the overground option was still considered the most viable option – and firmly endorsed by the Executive.

“It’s just astonishing to see two Sinn Féin ministers in the north (Ms Kimmins and Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald) in charge of delivering this crucial piece of cross-border infrastructure.

“But Sinn Féin in the south are apparently opposed to it in its current form, I just think that needs to be called out,” he said.

“It’s frustrating because Sinn Féin now has all the critical economic ministries in the north – Finance, Economy and Infrastructure.

“It’s unique, no party has ever held all of them. That is a critical opportunity for Sinn Féin to make progress on the all-island economic agenda.”

Addressing the concerns from landowners, including the use of high-powered data centres, he said: “We want to have a joined up energy infrastructure that can benefit (large energy) users in the north too.

“We can also export more of our electricity onto the continent of Europe. So I don’t accept this approach that we don’t want our neighbours using our resources.

“The all-island economy is about much more than data centres.”

A Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “The Infrastructure Minister at that time, SDLP’s Nicola Mallon, granted full planning permission for the inter-connector which is legally binding.”

The Department for Infrastructure has been contacted for a response.

Picture a Stormont that actually worked to improve people’s lives

Gail Walker, Belfast Telegraph, April 12th, 2025

Stormont spending £60,675 a year on photographers was one of the week's big revelations, tapping into all our worst suspicions about MLAs playing fast and loose with the public purse when it comes to their own self-promotion but unable to find funds for vital public services. It's a neat gotcha alright, but there's more to it than meets the eye.

TUV MLA Timothy Gaston is keeping up the admirable scrutiny pioneered by his party leader Jim Allister, who has now ascended to the lofty heights of Westminster in search of ever more fearsome dragons of political nefariousness.

Back home, Mr Gaston was diligent in dragging out of usually recalcitrant Executive departments data that they might have thought was embarrassing — except, of course, for the Executive Office which didn't disclose any of its expenditure at all.

The mental picture of MLAs queueing up in front of the big white umbrella of fashionable photographers is irresistible — “there you go, a wee dab of powder puff will take the shine off those rosy cheeks”; “you might want to take your glasses off, minister” or “don't worry, Photoshop will take care of that wee shaving nick for you”.

But setting all that beside lengthening hospital waiting lists, holes in the road, regional towns calling for central investment to save their high streets, rundown school buildings, even the sorry state of our inland waterways, makes for a salutary lesson.

Two problems

And Mr Gaston's adventure into this area highlights two real problems almost as asides — firstly, the reluctance of the Executive Office to reveal the information on a fairly simple request is dismaying to say the least. Who do these people think they are? It's a simple query about public funds being asked by an MLA.

Not only is the MLA entitled to know, I would expect that if a journalist had rung up and asked the same question they would have been given the answer.

However, in this case when a Belfast Telegraph reporter did contact the Executive Office, he did not get a response. This isn't government by secret. But unfortunately there, right away, is one of the biggest, most contentious difficulties.

The second problem

The second problem is that the ministerial photography budget is having to do an awful lot of heavy lifting with this administration.

Every department minister is going to need visual material not only to puff on their own social media accounts but also to provide to corporate and media websites, blogs and for annual reports.

Minister meets school football team, minister visits jail, minister tours factory, minister announces site for new social housing — you need to get photos of all of that.

It's about providing a public service, putting on the record the things government is doing and who they are doing it for.

While some is done in-house, a significant amount is outsourced. The biggest spend was £16,478 by the Department for Communities, headed up by the DUP's Gordon Lyons. The Department of Justice, where Alliance leader Naomi Long is minister, was next on £11,311, while the Department for the Economy, led by Sinn Fein's Caoimhe Archibald, spent £9,415. Andrew Muir's Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs spent £5,211 and Mike Nesbitt's Department of Health spent £5,142.

The result of many of those photographic assignments will end up used across local media where resources are not what they once were.

Thirty years ago, a minister could drop in on a charity and every media organisation would send along a photographer or camera operator, accompanied by a journalist to fire a few questions at them.

That's not the case now unless, say, it's going to be First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly doing some kind of cross-community visit that in 2025, hard as it is to believe, still has novelty value.

In many cases, though, if it weren't for the photographer booked by Stormont there might be no one there at all taking pictures to prove the event actually happened.

The truth is many outlets rely on the government's own photographic record to provide images to them.

While the £1,000 a week on photography is certainly a headline-making figure, when you spread it across eight departments and factor in a reasonable fee for a professional photographer for the work, it's not that much at all.

Nor is it 'dead money' — it's income that supports photographers' jobs. And those photographers really do earn their money — you try making cheque presentations and tape-cutting ceremonies and line-ups of people wearing hard hats on official visits to industrial sites look interesting.

The suggestion that a staff member could take a quick snap on their mobile may feel like a neat way of puncturing MLAs' perceived self-importance, but it would only make the Executive look even more ramshackle.

The problem right now is that people see that £1,000 a week figure and immediately conflate it with all the things in Northern Ireland they are told there is no extra money for and that can't be fixed.

Who can blame anyone for thinking those same politicians have a nerve blowing their own trumpet when the place is collapsing around us?

A bit rich?

Besides, it does seem a bit rich to be issuing carefully posed photos when all too often ministers decline to be interviewed.

Voters would not begrudge the money if they were seeing genuinely historical progress being recorded, if they really felt that politics was starting to work for them to tangibly make their lives better.

Where are the photos of a Stormont team announcing a once-in-a-generation plan to fix the health service?

Or of a cross-party Stormont team presenting its solution to the vexed legacy issue?

Or even a Trump-style weekly televised cabinet meeting where ministers report directly on their headlines for the week?

The reason why these two things were well highlighted by Mr Gaston is because the same truculent heel digging non-cooperation of the Executive Office is matched perfectly by the generally lowkey, low grade, low visibility of ministers themselves and actions taken by their respective departments.

Were either the Executive or its departments as pro-active as other administrations in other places, there'd be a story to tell that would have the media rushing what resources they have to cover it.

Unfortunately, the momentum from last February's restoration and Sinn Fein's victory at the polls has not carried through to spring 2025.

There is stasis, inaction, futility — all those words you don't want to hear. With an energetic mission-driven, target-setting, outcome-focused administration, the stories and photos happen on their own.

Preoccupation with image fuelled by inaction

None of the above seems to apply at Stormont. Instead, we are a quarter of the way into a new century and somehow we are still waiting for it to start.

Rather than exposing a practice of extreme lavishness in self-regarding publicity, Mr Gaston has exposed a defensive leadership worried about its image and ironically clamping down on information specifically related to how it goes about managing its image.

What the public wants to see is substance. Change, action, solutions. There aren't any. There haven't been any. There is no prophecy of when there will be any. We just have the same problems with new ones being added on. None are disappearing, none being solved.

It's hard to think of a single area of concern regarding public life or civic life in Northern Ireland which is proceeding in a visibly flourishing way.

When does Government start governing?

Success stories, even from government, are what make the news. It changes the atmosphere, grows confidence, makes abstract issues like health and education relatable.

One wonders if anything is actually capable of jolting Stormont into action? What would it take to have energetic, forceful leadership?

Are we meant to go on exactly like this day after day until the next Stormont election? The next council election? The next Westminster election?

When does government start here?

In a few weeks, MLAs will be off on their summer holidays until the middle of September. The years drag on. The decades disappear. And we are literally none the wiser.

Mr Gaston this week gave us another way of looking at the extraordinary institution that seems unable to communicate in any meaningful way with the people who put them there. You could say he put us in the picture.

Donald Trump’s playbook of authoritarianism, tariffs and threats is nothing new for US

Patrick Murphy, Irish News, April 12th, 2025

IT HAS not been generally recognised that what Donald Trump is doing is not all that unprecedented for an American president.

He is pushing forward on three inter-related fronts: trying to change the world economic order, bullying and threatening other countries, and creating an authoritarian society at home.

All three have been done before by many presidents to varying degrees. The difference is that Trump is trying to do them all at once.

Welcome to the concentration of American history into one obnoxious individual.

Trying to change the world economic order is nothing new for an American president.

Nixon imposed tariffs

In 1971, the US Treasury Secretary told President Nixon that “all foreigners are out to screw us and it is our job to screw them”. The way to do that, he advised, was through the reorganisation of the world economy, because the US was importing more than it was exporting.

So Nixon decided the dollar would no longer be backed by US gold reserves and each country would have to allow their currency to reach its own level.

He imposed a 10% tariff on imports, which would be removed only after there was a new international monetary agreement. Four months later he got his way and the tariffs were dropped. Trump this week reduced most of his tariffs to 10% for three months. He may have a better grasp of history than many realise.

What is known as the ‘Nixon Shock’ created a new world economic order of globalisation, which allowed greater foreign investment across the world. It is that level of US investment overseas which Trump is now trying to reverse, because America’s national debt is about £30 trillion. Unchecked, that will soon bankrupt the US government.

When US Treasury bonds fell this week, his government faced having to pay even more to borrow money. So he settled for Nixon’s level of tariffs.

Bullies

Meanwhile, he is making good progress on the second of his three policies – bullying other countries.

This is a long-standing American tradition. Since 1945, the US has invaded or intervened in 96 countries, under various pretexts including peacekeeping, humanitarian intervention and, ironically, even preventing war.

Trump himself recently ordered the bombing of Houthi rebels in Yemen. Mind you, the US has been bombing Yemen for the past 23 years, so there is nothing new there.

Threatening foreign countries is just part of what America does, usually claiming that its actions are in defence of US security (Greenland) or in defence of US trade (Canada).

Donald Trump holds one of the numerous executive orders he has signed during the opening months of his second term as US president

“ Trump’s third policy has received the least attention in Europe, but it may be the most frightening of all. He is turning the US into an authoritarian society, in which he is effectively acting as king.

Resuscitating McCarthyism

Trump’s third policy has received the least attention in Europe, but it may be the most frightening of all.

He is turning the US into an authoritarian society, in which he is effectively acting as king, using what is known as unitary executive power to make decisions. (That’s the bit where he signs executive orders and holds up the document for everyone to see.)

Some legal opinion claims that Trump’s executive orders are illegal.

To enforce his power he has surrounded himself with the unelected, whose only qualifications for office appear to be incompetence and loyalty to Trump.

He has placed loyalists in charge of the FBI and military and purged the Department of Justice, which dropped investigations against Trump allies.

Trump has also declared control over independent agencies such as the Federal Election Commission, punished media outlets for coverage he dislikes, and his allies suggest he could defy court orders.

Turkish national Rümeysa Öztürk, a PhD student, was arrested in the street recently by masked federal agents and issued with a deportation order because she “would compromise a compelling US foreign policy interest”.

Her ‘crime’ was to support a student group’s call for the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

This is a more widespread version of McCarthyism (after Senator Joe McCarthy) which in the 1950s alleged that much of US society, including the government, had been infiltrated by communists. Those of left-wing and liberal views were therefore open to persecution.

Until the 1960s, black people were persecuted for being black. Now it is the turn of Muslims and those Trump described as “communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin”. He may progress to leaving fascists off that list.

So Trump’s three-point plan has made progress on two fronts, but his attempt to reconfigure the world economic order may take a while longer.

Until he does, he may not be able to fully achieve his other two objectives.

Thousands march to derelict Casement Park to demand its redevelopment

A rally heard calls to end the long delays around rebuilding the gaelic games venue in west Belfast.

By David Young, PA, Irish News, April 12th, 2025

Thousands of gaelic games players and supporters have marched to the derelict Casement Park stadium in Belfast to demand its redevelopment.

Following the noisy parade through west Belfast, a rally held adjacent to the crumbling ruins of the GAA ground heard calls for the Stormont Executive and UK government to end the lengthy delays in rebuilding the sporting venue.

The event was staged ahead of Saturday’s Ulster Championship quarter-final game between Antrim and Armagh men’s senior gaelic football teams in nearby Corrigan Park, a venue with a limited capacity of 4,000.

Plans for a 34,000-capacity redeveloped Casement Park remain in limbo due to a major funding gap of around £150 million. Stormont ministers committed £62.5 million to Casement in 2011, as part of a strategy to revamp it along with football’s Windsor Park and the rugby ground at Ravenhill.

While the two other Belfast-based projects went ahead, the redevelopment of Casement was delayed for several years because of legal challenges by local residents.

With planning approval finally granted four years ago, the £270 million project has since been held up over a dispute over funding.

Funding dispute

In September, the UK Government ended hopes that the west Belfast venue would host Euro 2028 soccer games when it said it would not bridge the funding gap to deliver the reconstruction in time.

Thousands of GAA players and supporters took part in the protest on Saturday morning.

In addition to the £62.5 million committed by Stormont, the Irish Government has offered roughly £42 million while the GAA has pledged to contribute at least £15 million.

The UK government has said it will decide if it will make a contribution to the build costs following this summer’s UK-wide Spending Review.

However, Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has made clear that even if the Government does divert money to the project, the sum will not alone bridge the current funding gap.

DUP Communities minister Gordon Lyons, who has oversight for the project, has rejected claims that he is not prioritising the rebuild, while Mr Benn has also pushed back at suggestions the impasse is the fault of the UK Government.

‘We’re not waiting any longer’ – South Antrim GAA to hold Casement Park rallyOpens in new window

‘We get emotional talking about our memories of Casement. The kids now don’t even have memories of it. They’ve no concept of what it is.’

Among those who participated in Saturday morning’s march from nearby Rossa GAA club was former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.

Addressing the subsequent rally at Casement, Kevin Gamble, chairman of South Antrim GAA, told Mr Lyons and Mr Benn to end the delays.

“Our hearts are filled with pride and hope to see so many of our fellow gaels, young and old, marching and rallying in one voice in unison in their club and county colours from clubs from all over Antrim and Ulster,” he told the crowd.

Large crowds took part in the buoyant protest in west Belfast on Saturday.

“But unfortunately it’s also a sad day here today that we are not welcoming you all to what should be a world-class redeveloped Casement Park stadium, the home of Antrim GAA, the home of Ulster GAA, hosting schools, club, county, provincial and all-Ireland games right here in West Belfast.

“Our ambitious plans for a redeveloped Casement Park should be the pride of Ireland’s second city.”

Casement closed for 4,000 days

Mr Gamble added: “Sadly, Casement Park, as of today, has been closed for over 4,000 days – that’s 12 years and counting.

“Ulster Rugby got their stadium in 2014, the Irish FA got their stadium in 2016 and I’m sure everyone in this audience here today supports funding and investment in sport, regardless of what that sport is.

“We’re here today calling for equality, for the GAA to get the stadium that we were promised over 13 years ago.

“For too long, the GAA and members of Antrim and Ulster have been let down on the redevelopment of Casement Park. The British Government Secretary of State Hilary Benn and the Communities minister Gordon Lyons can no longer treat the gaels of Antrim and Ulster as second-class citizens.

“Their delaying tactics need to stop. The call from our rally today is ‘no more delay, it’s time to build Casement Park’.”

Broadcaster and former Armagh gaelic football star Oisin McConville also addressed the rally.

“Other sports have nothing to fear from the rebuilding and the redevelopment of Casement Park,” he said.

“They have their stadiums and rightly so. But now is the time to get this thing done. For years and years, we’ve looked out and we’ve had hope that this will become a Mecca some day.

Oisin McConville, former Co Armagh star gaelic footballer, addresses the rally

“This is not about the current generation. This is about the next generation. A lot of them are standing down in front of me here. This is not just about Antrim, this is about Ulster, this is about every gael in Ireland. This is about every province that we have in this country getting behind what is a must.

“Remember, this is not a ‘can we do it? will we do it?’ This is ‘just get it done’.

“Whatever needs to happen, whoever needs to come together to get this done, I plead with you, get it done, because the next generation we want to see playing in Casement Park.”