Sinn Féin to support no-confidence motion in education minister
TOMMY GREENE, Irish News, November 3rd, 2025
SINN Féin will back a motion of no confidence due to be brought against Education Minister Paul Givan, a Belfast MLA for the party has confirmed.
Former Lord Mayor of Belfast and executive minister Deirdre Hargey made the announcement at a Belfast city centre demonstration following days of criticism over Mr Givan’s role in a controversial six-day trip to Israel.
Hargey told demonstrators outside Belfast City Hall that the minister’s actions were totally inappropriate and have undermined public confidence in his ability to serve in office.
“The education minister’s decision to travel to Israel and use departmental resources to promote that trip is both inappropriate and unacceptable,” she said.
“In the past two years alone, Israel has murdered more than 20,000 children and 500 teachers and destroyed nearly every educational facility in Gaza.
“No minister should associate themselves with Israel’s genocide, ethnic cleansing, forced starvation and illegal occupation.
“Sinn Féin will support the motion of no confidence in Paul Givan when it comes before the assembly.”
Pressure has been mounting over the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) minister, with nationalist politicians and Alliance representatives branding the visit a ‘propaganda’ exercise.
Mr Givan has also drawn criticism from the Northern Ireland Teachers’ Council, which represents the region’s main teaching unions, amid international condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza. The minister described the trip as a “fact-finding mission”.
He was one member of a delegation of unionist politicians attending the tour, which was facilitated by the Israeli embassy. He was joined by DUP colleague Sammy Wilson, as well as Steve Aiken from the Ulster Unionist Party and Ron McDowell from the Traditional Unionist Voice party.
Department of Education used to promote visit
Further controversy has been generated by the use of Department of Education social media channels to ‘promote’ Mr Givan’s visit.
Ms Hargey, an MLA for South Belfast, made clear her party’s position at the City Hall rally on Saturday.
She accused Mr Givan and the wider delegation of visiting Israel to “try and sanitise what they are doing” in Gaza.
More than 67,000 Palestinians are thought to have been killed – among them an estimated 20,000 children – since Israel began its bombing campaign in relation to attacks by an armed wing of Hamas on October 7 2023.
“It is grotesque that the education minister has decided to visit Israel at this time,” said Ms Hargey.
“And, indeed, while the education minister was there, another 50 children were murdered in Gaza that evening by another military bombardment.
“A paid propaganda visit –- paid for by the Israeli government – to try and sanitise what they are doing.
“In reality, their leaders…are under scrutiny by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. And, indeed, their leaders have arrest warrants out for crimes against humanity.
“This is the context in which Paul Givan made his visit. Sinn Féin will be raising this on the floor of the assembly on Monday morning and holding the education minister to account.”
Despite a ceasefire having been brokered by the US a number of weeks ago, the Israeli military has reportedly attacked the Gaza strip for at least five consecutive days.
Israel denies the allegations of genocide levelled against it over the conflict.
People Before Profit motion
The motion against Mr Givan has been tabled by People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll.
The SDLP confirmed it will also be supporting Mr Carroll’s motion, with the party reportedly willing to use its Opposition Day time on Monday November 10 to allow for the issue to be debated swiftly.
The Alliance Party is yet to decide whether to support the motion or not. It is understood the party will discuss the matter at a meeting of its MLAs today.
SDLP councillor Paul Doherty was also at Saturday’s rally, along with Mr Carroll and Anthony Flynn from the Green Party.
Mr Carroll hailed the turnout at the demonstration, and said Givan’s actions over the last week was the “last straw”.
“He’s done a lot of abhorrent and disgusting things, but what he did this week was the last straw, and that’s why we’re saying today, loudly and clearly, he has to go, his time is clearly up,” he said, to applause, and shouts of “out, out”.
“I have been inundated with hundreds of emails of constituents who are appalled at what he has done, classroom assistants, teachers, Palestine solidarity people as well.
“I hope that the motion I will propose at Stormont is passed, and he is sanctioned, but equally the key thing that will make a difference in my view is not just the motion, is people here mobilising today but also protesting at Stormont on Monday, and every single public engagement he is on.”
Reacting to Saturday’s protest, DUP leader Gavin Robinson said Mr Givan has his full support.
“Paul Givan is going nowhere,” Robinson posted on the social media network X.
“Unionists will not be bullied by the whims of the pan-republican front.
“I choose who serves as DUP minister and whatever about the faux outrage and petty politicking. “Paul has my full support.”
Weir hits out at 'witch-hunt' against Givan over Israel trip
Alliance to back motion of no confidence in education minister Paul Givan
By David Thompson, Belfast News Letter, November 3rd, 16.30
The Alliance Party will join with Sinn Fein and the SDLP to support a no confidence motion in Stormont’s education minister when the issue is voted on in the Assembly.
The party’s deputy leader confirmed the position on Monday afternoon, after days of speculation about whether the party would back a call seeking Paul Givan’s resignation.
A motion of no confidence would require cross- community support to pass, which it will not receive given the DUP’s defence of its minister – and opposition to the People Before Profit motion from the Ulster Unionist Party and the TUV.
It is understood that the party will not sign the petition itself, which already has the required number of signatures from nationalists and others in the chamber.
However, it will vote for the subsequent motion of no confidence.
Speaking to the media at Stormont on Monday, the Alliance Party’s deputy leader Eóin Tennyson confirmed his party would support a motion of no confidence.
He said the visit “at such a politically sensitive time is nothing more than provocative coat trailing”.
The Upper Bann MLA said that minister Paul Givan “needs to account for his judgement as to why he was part of a propaganda mission for the Israeli government”.
The ongoing row started over a recent visit to Israel by the DUP minister, and whether departmental resources should have been used to promote a visit he made to a school in Jerusalem.
A petition was brought to the Assembly by West Belfast MLA Gerry Carroll. It subsequently received the endorsement of Sinn Fein and the SDLP, and is likely to result in vote in the Assembly, possibly next week.
Mr Givan insists he is a minister for all in Northern Ireland. Speaking to the BBC’s Nolan Show on Monday morning, he said the school he visited had teachers and pupils from an Arab background, a Jewish background and a Christian background.
“It was an integrated school that I went to. And yet we have this outrage that I had went and visited a school and reflected that through the department.
“I think people see through that, and I think it's purely because I went to Israel”, he said.
EX-DUP EDUCATION MINISTER SAYS POLITICAL REACTION TO VISIT 'HYSTERICAL'
MARK BAIN, Belfast Telegraph, November 3rd, 2025
A former DUP education minister has accused political opponents of a “witch-hunt” against Paul Givan.
Lord Peter Weir said the vilification of the current post holder, who faces a no confidence-motion in the Assembly after joining unionist politicians on a visit to Israel, has been “hysterical” in some quarters.
The motion is being brought by People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll, which Sinn Fein and the SDLP have confirmed they will support.
Lord Weir said: “I would simply say the DUP will choose its own ministers. They will not be dictated to on that front. Any attempt to say otherwise, hold a vote of no confidence, is nothing more than political grandstanding.”
A 'Givan must go' rally was staged at Belfast City Hall on Saturday over his visit to a school in illegally occupied east Jerusalem, which is a breach of UK foreign policy.
The Department of Education promoted the trip on its website.
More than 13,000 people have signed a petition calling for Mr Givan to resign.
Lord Weir said: “This is a clear attempt to gang up on Paul. It seems his opponents are treating it as if any comment on Israel, any visit, is political heresy.
‘Witch hunt’
“Their response has all the hallmarks of a political witch-hunt.
“This was Paul, as he has said, finding out facts for himself. There have been plenty of visits to other countries and I don't see them leaping in to criticise. We need look no further than the President of Ireland in waiting.”
In June 2018 Catherine Connolly undertook a week-long visit to Damascus, the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, and Aleppo when now-overthrown president Bashar al-Assad's forces controlled Syria's main urban centres.
“She has consistently described the trip as a 'fact-finding mission' and she travelled to 'see for myself the horror of war',” added Lord Weir.
“There was no criticism from Sinn Fein for that. Instead they were very keen to back her as their chosen candidate for support in the presidential election.”
The Ulster Unionist Party confirmed it will not be supporting the motion of no confidence. Its former leader Steve Aiken was also on the trip.
“We have consistently and unequivocally voiced our disgust about the tragedy of 7th October 2023, and the devastating loss of life that has followed in both Israel and Gaza,” the UUP said.
“However, given the dark and deeply troubling message posted at the time of the attack by People Before Profit's Gerry Carroll, 'Victory to the resistance', it is clear that this motion is not grounded in empathy. We share and understand the deep frustration and anguish felt by many across Northern Ireland at the ongoing suffering in the Middle East.
‘Crying out for leadership’
“At a time when our communities are crying out for leadership and delivery from Stormont, we need a focus on finding solutions together rather than more divisive rhetoric that delivers nothing for those we serve.”
A teaching union official has said Mr Givan's visit to Israel is at odds with “the values our education system stands for”.
Edel McInerney, a former president of the National Education Union and executive committee member, said: “At a time when our classrooms are teaching empathy, equality and peace, our Education Minister chose to stand with those accused of genocide.
“As teachers, we work every day to bring young people together across divides — we teach compassion, humanity, and critical thinking.
“For the minister to use the department's official platforms to promote a visit hosted by Israeli officials, during what the UN has described as a genocide, is deeply concerning.
“Education should never be used to legitimise oppression.
“Our teachers work daily to reduce the impact of sectarianism, to build understanding between communities still healing from conflict.
“Yet this visit, at the invitation of a government accused of war crimes, sends the opposite message.
“Education should build bridges, not burn them. It should teach peace, not partisanship.
“This is not about 'fact-finding'. It's about moral leadership, and right now our education system deserves better than this spectacle of selective empathy.”
It's not the first time the Assembly has been divided on the Middle East.
Last month the DUP tabled a call-in petition after Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald announced her department will not engage in future trade talks alongside the UK Government with Israel “while it continues to illegally occupy and impose apartheid on Palestine”.
The comments came after an Invest NI “review of investments to establish if funding was used to manufacture arms or their components for supply to Israel”.
On his Facebook page on Saturday, Mr Givan wrote: “Over the past week, I have been vilified by those who have sought to call into question my character and my commitment to the people of Northern Ireland. The very same people among whom, today in Belfast, were shouting the anti-Semitic chant 'From the river to the sea'.”
Givan unlikely to be sanctioned over Israel trip
JOHN MANLEY POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, Irish News, November 3rd, 2025
ANALYSIS
DURING his recent visit to Israel, Paul Givan showed support for an administration which over the past two years has been responsible for killing almost 70,000 people, around a third of which were children, while precipitating a humanitarian crisis that saw the population of Gaza starved in a clear breach of international law.
As we’re often reminded, the Israeli government has been responding to the Hamas attacks of October 2023, however, its widely accepted the scale of its assault on the Palestinian enclave, supported by the USA, UK and EU, is grossly disproportionate. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been accused of genocide and war crimes, and in the past week has breached the ceasefire on dubious grounds, killing more than 100 Gazans.
The trip on which the DUP minister was accompanied by party colleagues Sammy Wilson, David Brooks and Ben Mallon, along with Ulster Unionist MLA Steve Aiken and TUV deputy leader Ron McDowell, was paid for by the Israelis and cast as a “fact-finding mission”.
Yet as their itinerary shows, the places the group visited and the people they met over six days all tended to reflect a Zionist perspective. The voices of Palestinians and facts relating to decades of mistreatment at the hands of an apartheid state were absent from the politicians’ social media commentary.
But despite how objectionable and partisan Mr Givan’s analysis may appear to most right-thinking people, he is fully entitled to express such views. Albeit reluctantly, we must accept his morally-skewed views in the name of free speech, while acknowledging his right to voice support for Israel. Likewise, those criticising the minister and Israel are fully entitled to their opinion.
However, what is much less acceptable is the use the Lagan Valley MLA’s position as a minister to promote propaganda on behalf of a government that continues to kill, torture and illegally expand its territory.
‘Opportunistic visit’
The use of Department of Education resources to highlight an opportunistic visit to a school in illegally occupied East Jerusalem, by way of a press release and social media post, has at the very least blurred the lines between Mr Givan’s ministerial responsibilities and his political pronouncements. The civil service guidelines make clear that officials should not be using public resources to launch culture war missives on behalf of a minister.
The row is now expected to dominate assembly business over the coming days, with People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll confident he can achieve the necessary support for a petition expressing no confidence in the minister.
Sinn Féin and the SDLP have both signalled that they will support the move, which should ensure the required 30 signatures are received.
While the no confidence motion, if accepted by the assembly’s business office, may well gain majority support, it won’t get the necessary cross-community endorsement.
Meanwhile, DUP leader Gavin Robinson, fresh from his tactless tweet in support of Soldier F, is doubling down in support of his minister.
The East Belfast MP wheeled out the usual accusations of antisemitism, while labelling those criticising Mr Givan as the “pan-republican front”.
Notably, he mounted no defence of his minister’s use of public resources, the matter most likely to result in some kind of sanction.
But Mr Robinson is correct in his assertion that Mr Givan will remain in post. Those who have followed Stormont’s fortunes over the past quarter century will know that ministers only resign for political advantage rather than out of any sense of ignominy.
Add to this the fact that the code of conduct and associated sanctions that are meant to ensure ministers can be held accountable for their actions in office are effectively useless. This is a failing for which all parties are responsible, to a greater or lesser degree.
‘Performative Politics’
So what we will inevitably end up with is performative politics where each side will simply reaffirm their own position to the approval of their own base. Mr Carroll and those who support his motion feel they need to put a marker down but as far as the assembly chamber goes, it will be no more than that.
Getting to the bottom of what happened with the issuing of the press release and social media activity is likely to be a more protracted process but one that should yield more palpable results, even if the outcome is just a slap on the wrists for the minister, and potentially his officials too.
The fallout from this ill-advised trip will undoubtedly put greater strain on relations between Sinn Féin and the DUP but is highly unlikely to prove fatal.
It will nonetheless ensure progress on issues in which the agreement from both parties is required becomes even more difficult.
The likes of improved public services and a healthier environment have again become collateral damage in the DUP’s bid to demonstrate how deaf to the views of others it can be.
Only way to remove Givan is to collapse the Assembly, and that will not happen
Alison Morris, Belfast Telegraph, November 3rd, 2025
Two things can be true at once. Paul Givan using his ministerial position to promote Israel was an outrageous abuse of power, and there is not a single thing his Executive partners can do about it. The motion of no confidence in his position as Education Minister is performative. It is a reaction to public outrage.
But it is destined to fail.
Givan will still be the minister at close of business on Monday and the only thing that can change that is if Sinn Fein choose the nuclear option and pull the entire thing down.
I do not for one second think that the minister was caught off guard by the reaction to his department's official post regarding his visit to a school in east Jerusalem.
He would have been well aware of the outrage such a post would attract at a time when the bodies of Palestinian children remain trapped under rubble just a few miles away. The minister was in Israel as a guest of the government, who footed the bill for the unionist delegation to visit the country as part of a PR exercise at a time when the global reputation of the Israeli state is in the gutter.
Givan can claim he wanted to see for himself what the situation on the ground was, but all he really witnessed was the full five-star Israeli propaganda tour.
Israel is below both Ireland and the UK in terms of educational achievement, so any pretence that this was a learning mission for his department is nonsense.
How the Lagan Valley MLA chooses to spend his holidays is for him. If he wants to cosy up to a regime that is responsible for the deaths of 20,000 children and the maiming of thousands more, then that is for him.
Breach of UK policy
The use of his ministerial office to promote the visit to a school situated beyond the green line in illegally occupied Jerusalem is a breach of UK foreign policy, and has outraged many educators.
But there is little nationalist politicians at Stormont can do.
Even if the majority of MLAs vote to remove Givan, his name will remain on the door of the Education Department.
There are only four ways a minister can be removed — and a motion of no confidence isn't one of them.
Back in 2016 there was a vote of no confidence in Arlene Foster following the RHI scandal. Despite 39 Members backing the vote and 36 voting against her removal, she stayed in post.
People Before Profit's Gerry Carroll has called the motion, which will be debated in the Assembly chamber today. Sinn Fein have rowed in behind it, because in the circumstances they could do little else — they have been jumped into backing it because PBP got in there first.
Sinn Fein know their voter base is furious at the Israeli visit, they also know that support for Stormont is waning. The DUP and Sinn Fein are partners in government but the relationship between both parties has now reached toxic levels.
Growing animosity
They work together publicly, but privately there is a growing animosity.
And so while PBP triggered the motion of no confidence, the DUP are fighting back by dressing it up as a Sinn Fein attack on the party.
Party leader Gavin Robinson said Givan is “going nowhere” and continues to have his support.
Robinson, once considered to be a moderate in the DUP, is becoming more hardline by the day.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly also backed Givan, saying: “The DUP has no interest in what Sinn Fein has to say about who should or shouldn't serve in our ministerial team.
“We see the faux outrage and petty politicking. No attempt at bullying by SF or their friends across a pan-republican agenda will succeed.”
This all comes on the back of continuing rows about the Irish language, set to play out in court this week in relation to signs at Grand Central Station, with a Sinn Fein and DUP minister going head to head.
It is true that many people are angered at Givan's rage baiting around Israel, and in any other jurisdiction it may well have been a resigning issue.
But this is Northern Ireland, where it is rare that politicians are ever really held to account.
Only Robinson can remove one of his ministers from his post, and he has made clear that isn't going to happen.
Today's vote will give a chance to put on record the outrage at the Israel visit. It will no doubt be a fiery debate, with Sinn Fein on the attack and the DUP on the defensive.
But, ultimately, nothing will change.
The only way to remove Givan is for Michelle O'Neill to resign and walk her team out the door.
The big dilemma around that tactic is its permanency. Because if the Assembly collapses again, it is not coming back.
Stormont department agency staff bill hits £9m
CONOR SHEILS, Irish News, November 3rd, 2025
THE Stormont department responsible for tackling the Lough Neagh pollution crisis spent over £9 million in one year hiring temporary agency staff, it has emerged.
The latest figures from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) show that the department spent £9.33 million on agency staff last year.
The number represents a 237% increase on yearly agency staff spending compared with the same period five years ago. And the department’s agency staffing bill increased by more than £2.7 million from the previous year.
The figures showed that agency staffing costs shot up from £2.77 million in 2020/21 to £9.33 million in 2024/25, a jump of £6.56 million.
But it isn’t just the department which saw substantial agency staffing bills.
Many of DAERA’s arms length bodies also saw considerable jumps in staff wages in recent years.
Agency spending an ‘example of poor planning’
Across all DAERA entities combined, total agency staff costs rose from approximately £8.9m in 2020/21 to £16.6m in 2024/25 – representing an overall rise of about 87%.
Temporary Fixes
In fact, spending on temporary staff has increased consistently year on year across almost every DAERA body except one.
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency saw a steady climb in spending, from £2.67m to £3.63m, marking a 36% increase over five years.
Meanwhile, the Forest Service’s agency costs have surged more than fivefold, from £100,000 in 2020/21 to £541,000 in 2024/25.
The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute has spent around £17m on agency staff since 2020, with spending peaking at £4.02m in 2022/23.
Meanwhile, the Loughs Agency’s spending fluctuated heavily from £49,000 in 2020/21 to just £1,000 in 2023/24, before rising again to £35,000 in 2024/25.
The figures come in response to an assembly question from DUP MLA Diane Dodds.
Earlier this month, it emerged that Stormont has spent £1.7m on contractors working to prevent pollution at Lough Neagh in less than two years.
DAERA was contacted for a response.
SDLP Opposition DAERA spokesperson Daniel McCrossan said the figures showed poor planning within the department.
“These figures show DAERA’s spending on agency staff has spiralled, with costs in the department more than tripling in just five years. It’s yet another example of poor planning and a failure to re-cruit and retain permanent staff,” he said.
“Instead of wasting money on short-term fixes, the minister should be focused on building a stable workforce that can actually deliver. At a time when environmental targets are being missed and the crisis at Lough Neagh gets worse every year, we cannot afford to keep throwing money at temporary contracts.”
Credit due to community leaders for calm at interface
Pro Fide et Pro Patria, Irish News, November 3rd, 2025
IT is profoundly sad that, more than half a century after they first appeared, large so-called peace walls, some up to 25 feet high, still divide communities on religious lines in parts of Belfast, Derry and Portadown.
Many attempts have been made to scale down or entirely remove at least some of the structures, with the most comprehensive plan, proposing that they should all be demolished within six years, drawn up by the Stormont department of justice back in 2017.
They remain in place, with the target date having come and gone two years ago, and the firm indications are that drawing up a renewed schedule for dismantling them would be little more than an academic exercise.
“As our coverage on Saturday set out, a heartening reduction in trouble has followed prolonged efforts to engage with teenagers on both sides and help them to understand the consequences of their behaviour
The last detailed survey of residents, which was carried out back in 2012, suggested that more than two out of every three believed the walls were necessary due to the threat of sectarian violence, and it is unrealistic to suggest that feelings have changed to a significant degree.
Community needs vs traffic flows
However, through patient and often unnoticed community work, involving dedicated voluntary groups from both traditions, progress is being made on a number of fronts in a way which offers at least some optimism for the future.
Access to the Westlink motorway means that permanent barriers cannot be installed at the Broadway interface in west Belfast, allowing young people to confront each other during periods of often contrived tension.
The junction between the Falls and Village neighbourhoods has been the location of serious disturbances in recent years, with the PSNI confirming that over 700 incidents took place there between April 2024 and April 2025, requiring officers to spend more than 9,000 hours, at a cost of over £500,000, attempting to end the rioting.
There were reports of young people travelling from across Belfast, and even from as far away as Ballyclare, to become involved in fighting, as well as throwing petrol bombs and bottles.
However, as our coverage on Saturday set out, a heartening reduction in trouble has followed prolonged efforts to engage with teenagers on both sides and help them to understand the consequences of their behaviour.
Tensions still exist in other neighbourhoods, and it is concerning the clashes on Townsend Street, which links the Shankill and Divis districts, have forced a security gate to be closed earlier in the evening than scheduled.
It must be hoped that the kind of initiatives which have proved successful at Broadway can be extended to Townsend Street and elsewhere, allowing calm to be restored, with great credit due to the community workers who have been at the heart of this process.
Families offer prayers for remaining members of Troubles Disappeared
REBECCA BLACK, Irish News, November 3rd, 2025
PRAYERS have been said for the members of the Troubles Disappeared who remain missing.
Family members took part in their annual silent walk on All Souls Day at Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast yesterday afternoon.
Those who remain missing include former monk Joe Lynskey, Co Tyrone man Columba McVeigh, soldier Robert Nairac and Seamus Maguire, who were disappeared by republicans, and Co Down woman Lisa Dorrian, who was disappeared by loyalists.
A black wreath with five white lilies representing the five was laid, while Father Joe Gormley led prayers.
Dr Sandra Peake, chief executive of the WAVE Trauma Centre, which organises the annual event, said this year was particularly poignant as it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the murder and disappearance of Mr McVeigh.
A search by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) remains ongoing for Mr McVeigh at Bragan Bog, Co Monaghan. Ms Peak said they pray this search is successful and he can be brought home to Donaghmore, Co Tyrone, to be laid to rest.
His sister Dympna Kerr paid tribute to the families of the other Disappeared for their support.
“Columba will always be my big, wee brother,” she said.
“There is not a day passes that I don’t think of him and not a day passes that I don’t pray for him. For years I couldn’t bring myself to go to Bragan Bog.
“I force myself to go now but it is never anything but an awful nightmare. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a talker. But when I get to the track that goes up to the bog I can’t speak. When I say my blood runs cold that is not a figure of speech.”
She continued: “I can vividly imagine Columba being taken up the same track on that cold dark night.
“I can see him shaking with terror and hear him crying for his mum. And then he was left in that desolate place in an unmarked grave as if he never existed.
“That is the reality of what I and the other families of the Disappeared have to live with. And yet even on Bragan Bog I have hope”.
Black wreath, with five white lilies
A black wreath, with five white lilies representing the five Disappeared who remain missing, was laid at Parliament Buildings yesterday;
Columba McVeigh who was murdered and secretly buried by the Provisional IRA 50 years ago
“I meet the ICLVR team, the forensic archaeologists and the contractors who have worked on the Disappeared cases from the beginning and their commitment gives me hope.
“If Columba is there they will find him. But it is more than that. Their dedication and compassion gives me strength.”
She added: “Without the support of the Families of the Disappeared I just do not know how I would manage.
“Those of us still waiting and those who have had loved ones returned are one family and the warmth and strength and solidarity that is brought together is incredible.
“The silence and fear of the past is gone. Now we speak out. We will not be silent.
“We will not rest until the terrible wrong of denying our loved ones a Christian burial is put right and all the Disappeared are returned home.”
Anyone with information on any of the four outstanding ICLVR Disappeared cases – Mr Lynskey, Mr McVeigh, Mr Nairac and Mr Maguire – should contact the ICLVR by telephone +353 1 602 8655 or email to Secretary@iclvr.ie.
Ms Dorrian’s case falls outside the remit of the ICLVR because she was disappeared in 2005.
Anyone with information about her disappearance can contact police on 101 or online at www.psni. police.uk/report.
The list of Stormont failures reads like a litany of saints
TOM KELLY, Irish News, November 3rd, 2025
SOMETIMES they say a project is too big to fail. When a government says this, it often results in pouring more and more money into something which becomes increasingly difficult to manage or complete.
This can lead to a situation where the project becomes truly too big to fail, as seen with the heavily overbudget new children’s hospital in Dublin.
Construction work began in 2016, but as of August this year, only 15% of the rooms had been finished, with the cost spiralling to €2.4 billion.
By comparison, the ancient Romans built the Colosseum in just eight years and it has stood for nearly 2,000.
On this side of the border, Stormont is also an abject failure into which money and hopes have been poured.
Unfortunately, it’s also a carnivorous beast with an insatiable appetite.
That said, Stormont isn’t failing because it’s too big to fail – on the contrary, it fails because it’s too small to succeed.
The list of executive and departmental failures is now so long that it makes the reading of the Franciscan Litany of Saints of the Three Seraphic Orders seem like a shorthand note.
Imagine if there was a secular litany of debacles: Lough Neagh – Lord rescue us! No maternity hospital – Lord have mercy on us! No Casement – Lord hear our plea! Policing – Lord protect us!
There’s hardly a single department in Northern Ireland functioning efficiently or with accountability.
Short-termism and political opportunism appear to guide every move.
Our political classes have never run anything
The ministers are not incompetent or bad people. The reality is the overwhelming majority of our political classes have never run anything, let alone vast departments with huge budgets.
Liz Kimmins isn’t responsible for the stalling of the A5 over climate change targets. That should have been picked up by her departmental officials.
Mike Nesbitt is wholly sincere as he tries to cure the malaise within the health service and trusts, but the scale is now so great, it’s like trying to climb Everest in slippers.
John O’Dowd has to balance books, which just won’t and can’t balance.
Even the Opposition, which is an essential part of good governance, is not properly resourced.
In fact it is stymied in Stormont by the main opposition party in Dáil Éireann, Sinn Féin, who don’t seem to want the same level of accountability they expect down south.
The civil service in Northern Ireland is a law unto itself and often opts for managing stasis or allowing paralysis rather than demonstrating creativity or flexibility.
There’s no way to benchmark its performance.
It’s not part of the UK Civil Service and, unlike Scotland, there’s no CEO – only a first among equals titular head of the civil service who cannot censure or dismiss fellow permanent secretaries for non-performance.
Beyond repair?
Departments set their own targets, measure them and then get to mark their own homework.
(Though it has to be said that with the limited budget and resources at its disposal, the NI Audit Office (NIAO) does Trojan work, but even it can only scratch the surface of scrutiny. And does anything really happen after NIAO makes a report, or does it simply end up on a shelf, gathering dust in the catacombs of Parliament Buildings?)
The planning process in Northern Ireland is beyond repair and seems incapable of self-reform. There needs to be a new planning tsar brought in from outside the parish.
The solutions to the crisis at NI Water and Lough Neagh are blindingly obvious – but there’s no political will to act decisively.
Everything is measured by each of the parties through the cold calculus of electoral consequences.
Policing in the north is now precariously hovering on a precipice. If policing fails, it will bring the politics down too.
The political map has limited the north from realising its potential for too long – planning, budgeting and rationalisation should transcend our petty border mentality.
Lord Hear our Prayer!
Letter: I live in the Republic
Belfast News Letter, November 3rd, 2025
I see that the TUV's Jim Allister is at it again - recently stating, in the context of the Republic's presidential election, that “the treatment of Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys – targeted and abused because of her Protestant background – exposed the ugly undercurrent of intolerance that still runs through southern politics."
He is right in one sense – Heather herself admitted as much, saying: "My family and I were subject to some absolutely awful sectarian abuse. I was disappointed, because as a country, I thought we’ve moved on from that, and I do think there needs to be a greater understanding of other traditions in this country."
The issue is not that there were vile comments made online – it is how many of these there were, and how we can possibly claim that they were representative of the generality of public opinion in the Republic.
The short answer is, neither Jim Allister nor Heather Humphreys nor you nor I know. What I can say is as a communicant southern member of the Church of Ireland, a former Irish civil servant and CEO of an Irish state-owned company, I have barely been aware of any overt sectarianism in my lives in Dublin, Cork and Naas over many decades.
Also, as an historian of southern Irish Protestantism, the evidence would indicate that such sectarianism, where it existed, was light-years removed from the same phenomenon north of the border.
In 1995, fluent Irish speaker Church of Ireland Archbishop Donald Caird summed it up well, asserting that the Protestant community in the Republic is "a confident minority well understood and well accepted".
That is not to claim that life was always rosy for Protestants in independent Ireland, particularly up to the 1960s. But the point about well-known seemingly sectarian spats – such as the 1930 Mayo librarian case, the 1935 Limerick anti-Protestant riots, the Frost, Tilson and Fethard-on-Sea mixed marriage embroglios in the 40s and 50s – is how few of them there were.
This was helped on the Protestant side by a relative prosperity which allowed them to keep the head down. All this was reinforced by the construction of an invisible stockade, a border behind which southern Protestants could congregate within their own people.
Church of Ireland synods and parish vestries aped parliamentary and local government. Wider public service could be undertaken in the governance of denominational hospitals, schools and even a university. Voluntary engagement was through a cat’s cradle of church and charitable bodies, choirs and freemasons, and sporting and cultural organisations.
The State largely left them to their own devices. The structure was economically underpinned by Protestant firms and farms which, up to the 1960s, heavily favoured the denominational over the competent.
It was quite possible to live a Protestant life, and die a Protestant death, without much troubling the other side – which suited the other side too. All this more or less worked. It helped that the constitutional changes from 1922 to 1949 were relatively gradual, allowing southern Protestants to wind down their loyalism and royalism into something akin to a reluctant acceptance – but nevertheless an acceptance – of the Republic.
The multiculturalism of modern Ireland has further assisted the process. Historians of the later 21st century are much more likely to examine Muslims rather than Methodists, Poles rather than Protestants. The result has been that as regards Protestants and Catholics, they get on tolerably well. There is little evidence today of an "ugly undercurrent of intolerance" in these relations at any rate. In other parts of Irish society, things may be different.
Ian d'Alton, Naas, Co Kildare
New republican group issues warning to far-right activists
ALLISON MORRIS, Belfast Telegraph, November 3rd, 2025
MEMBERS OF CLANN EIREANN IN NORTH AND WEST BELFAST 'UNDER SURVEILLANCE'
A group calling itself the Socialist Republican Front has issued warnings and said it is “gathering intelligence” on members of the far-right group Clann Eireann living in north and west Belfast.
Clann Eireann members have been accused of vandalising republican graves in Milltown Cemetery and attacking murals welcoming migrants.
The group, led by Justin Barrett, uses Nazi-style iconography and has organised protests and parades in the Republic.
It wants all foreigners deported regardless of their legal status.
In recent days social media posts have linked people from north and west Belfast to the group, saying they have been “under surveillance”.
Security alerts in Belfast over the last number of weeks are said to be linked to the militant republican group.
In a statement online, Socialist Republican Front said it came together a year ago “to discuss the rise of right-wing and fascist organising across Ireland and particularly in the six counties”.
It added: “A number of initial meetings discussed various activities and organisations across the country, however, they primarily focused on the openly racist activity being carried out by the Nazi gang known as 'Clann Eireann', particularly in Belfast.”
It claims to have identified members of the far-right group living in the city and placed them under surveillance, entrapping them by placing republican posters close to homes.
The group also states that a second person from north Belfast is linked to the far-right group and has travelled to protests.
Racist graffiti
In July racist graffiti was painted on a Housing Executive van in Andersonstown. Police said they were treating it as a hate crime.
A short time later a house in the area had its windows smashed.
The statement claims: “We identified important persons of interest and, placing them under heavy observation, identified their homes, workplaces, universities, gyms, places of frequent attendance, and mapped out their families, friends and associates.
“Republican material was placed very deliberately near his home, and a plan put in place to constantly observe it over the next week.
“We didn't have to wait. In the early hours of the next morning, this individual was observed leaving his home and heading in the direction of the strategically placed material. Two cars which had been placed on standby were immediately called in.
“After being allowed to remove the material, and filmed doing so, the individual was immediately apprehended. It was made clear to him, as he received a 'stern talking to', that we knew who he was and where he lived.
“This person supplied us with information, further bolstering our intelligence, and which mostly aligned well with what we had already gathered.”
The group claims that in September its members observed people travelling from Belfast to join a far-right rally in Dublin wearing Clann Eireann uniforms.
Issuing a warning to anyone associated with Barrett's group, it added: “This is your opportunity now to disengage and cease your activities. Our work is only just beginning. And we will not stop with you.”
The PSNI said it is aware of a post on social media and enquiries are ongoing.
‘The house is on fire. Please answer’
KITTY HOLLAND Social Affairs Correspondent, Irish Times, November 3rd, 2025
Three women say they and their children have been left traumatised by a suspected arson attack on Friday night at an International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centre in Drogheda, Co Louth.
The women, who have been moved 12km away to the Mosney accommodation centre, yesterday said they had hardly slept since the incident.
Gardaí investigating the fire believe an accelerant was used to start it shortly after 8pm. Four children and an adult were rescued from the top floor of the building on George’s Street by firefighters, while 23 others were relocated to alternative accommodation.
Some of the rescued children, including a 20-day-old baby and a 17-month-old, were taken to hospital for assessment.
The women, who are from Nigeria and have lived in Drogheda for two years, asked not be photographed or to have their names published.
They said they could not understand how somebody would want to burn 28 people, including little children.
One of the women, a mother of girls aged eight and 12, was at her job as a healthcare assistant at the time. She showed missed WhatsApp calls and messages from her older child from 8.11pm onwards pleading with her to answer.
“THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE. PLEASE ANSWER,” one message stated.
“I left everything and I just jumped into the road,” the woman said. “One of the Sisters drove me home. What I saw was some smoke. My children were trapped upstairs.
“I saw my daughter . . . I wanted to climb the ladder to help her but the fire brigade people said ‘No’. They started bringing them out one by one. I was shouting. I was crying. I was thinking, ‘If they die what will I say to the world?’ ”
Another mother and resident, who works in a nursing home, had dropped her 17-year-old daughter to a friend’s house and was resting in their ground-floor room when the fire alarm went off.
“I ran to the kitchen. I met one of my neighbours and I said to her: ‘Go and pick your son from your room’. I checked the main door to the hall and when I open it [it] was full of smoke. I ran out to the back. A man called the fire service and they responded swiftly.”
A third woman was with her three children – aged six, nine and 11, at church, when she was called and told of the fire at their home.
“The children were crying, asking, ‘Where are we going to sleep?’ ”,
They cannot go back to their home to retrieve belongings.
New body to run military housing as MoD plans decade-long overhaul
CHRISTOPHER MCKEON, Belfast Telegraph, November 3rd, 2025
Armed Forces personnel and their families in Northern Ireland will benefit from the most significant transformation of UK military housing in more than 50 years, with more than 40,000 service family homes across the UK to be modernised, refurbished or rebuilt, the Ministry of Defence has said.
It comes as the Government is set to create a new quango to run military housing after concluding the MoD was not up to the job.
The new Defence Housing Service, to be announced by Defence Secretary John Healey today, will take over management of service accommodation after years of complaints about poor quality homes.
It will operate as an arm's-length public body, with Mr Healey saying the new service would “deliver better value for the taxpayer and fulfil our promise to provide homes fit for heroes”.
When created, it will be one of the largest publicly owned housing providers in the country.
Sources said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had “not been very good” at operating service accommodation itself, and would be better able to focus on “core defence responsibilities” once housing was hived off to the new body.
Ten year housing strategy
The creation of the new body is part of a 10-year defence housing strategy, also launching today, that will see £9bn invested in service accommodation and 100,000 homes built on surplus MoD land.
With a total of 901 service family accommodation (SFA) properties in Northern Ireland, the strategy marks a major step forward in improving the quality and sustainability of defence housing in the area, the MoD said.
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said: “We ask so much of our Armed Forces personnel and we owe them an enormous debt of gratitude for what they do.
“This investment in Northern Ireland's armed forces housing is an important step to ensure the wellbeing of the service personnel and their families, who do so much for us.”
The “forces first” approach, announced at Labour's party conference in September, will see military families given “first dibs” on new homes built on defence land.
The strategy will also see almost all of the 47,700 military family homes, known as service family accommodation (SFA), either refurbished or replaced.
It follows a decision earlier in the year to take 36,000 SFA homes back into public ownership, which the MoD said saves the taxpayer £600,000 per day.
The MoD has also promised to carry out an “urgent review” of single living accommodation (SLA), which houses more than half of military personnel.
Mr Healey has described the strategy as “the biggest renewal of armed forces housing in more than 50 years”.
Military accommodation has been heavily criticised in recent years, with a Commons committee last year finding problems with maintenance and historic underinvestment.
