Soldier F has no case to answer due to a lack of evidence, murder trial is told
JOHN CASSIDY, Belfast Telegraph, October 14th, 2025
FELLOW PARA IS BRANDED A 'LIAR AND FABRICATOR' BY DEFENCE LAWYERS
A former paratrooper on trial for the murder of two unarmed civilians on Bloody Sunday has no case to answer due to a lack of evidence, his lawyers have submitted.
Soldier F is accused of murdering James Wray (22) and 26-year-old William McKinney on January 30, 1972. He denies the charges, as well as five counts of attempted murder.
Soldier F has been present at Belfast Crown Court throughout his non-jury trial, but is screened from the public and press.
Thirteen people were shot dead by the Parachute Regiment after a civil rights march in the Bogside area of Derry.
It is the prosecution's case that shots fired by soldiers at unarmed civilians as they tried to run away were “unjustified”, “unlawful” and “deliberate”.
Yesterday, senior defence counsel Mark Mulholland KC told trial Judge Patrick Lynch KC that he had a “three-pronged approach” to his no case to answer application to stay proceedings, and the court had the power to determine whether the case against Soldier F should continue.
Firstly, said Mr Mulholland, the evidence of Soldiers G and H, which had been admitted into the trial by the judge as hearsay evidence, “is so unconvincing'' that any conviction would render it unsafe.
He submitted that the soldiers' evidence should be excluded from the trial as “its probative value was outweighed by its prejudicial effect'' and which remained “the decisive evidence in this case on all counts on the indictment''.
‘No evidence Soldier F fired his rifle’
He also contended that the trial judge could stop the case as there was “no evidence before this court that Soldier F fired his rifle at all in Glenfada Park North” on Bloody Sunday. “Taking the prosecution case at its highest, it doesn't establish that Soldier F has a case to answer,” said Mr Mulholland.
“The prosecution case at its highest and its simplest is firing by G and F having entered Glenfada Park North together and both opening fire in and about the same time, followed by H, who himself opens fire.
“Of all of the civilian accounts which the court has heard either by live oral evidence or by having been read is very clear, there is no support for that proposition for the simultaneous firing and this is not borne out by the civilian evidence. No civilian witness has claimed to have seen more than one soldier firing in Glenfada Park North and others claimed to have not personally seen any soldier fired.''
Mr Mulholland said the evidence in the case is “fundamentally inconsistent”.
He added that the prosecution did not open its case with Soldier E opening fire, which it had submitted in its hearsay application to admit statements of Soldiers G and H into evidence, which were made to the Royal Military Police around 2am on January 31, 1972.
“Nowhere does Soldier E in any account provide any evidence of seeing Soldier F fire in Glenfada Park North.
“The entire prosecution case on G's hearsay account is Soldier G goes in first, immediately followed by F and they both open fire simultaneously. G first, followed by F.
“There is positive civilian evidence that undermines that account.
‘Lone soldier… acting on his own’
“We have at least two live witnesses who told this court definitively and in no uncertain terms that the second soldier in did not fire his weapon. That second soldier in, on the prosecution case of the G narrative, is said to be Soldier F.
“There is overwhelming evidence in relation to a 'lone soldier', the first soldier at the front, acting on his own, separate from the others, being responsible for firing into the south-west corner of Glenfada Park.
“There are a phalanx of witnesses who do not see more than one soldier fire in Glenfada Park North.''
Judge Lynch interjected by saying: “On my calculation, there are eight witnesses who identify one soldier firing, but don't talk about a second soldier firing.''
Mr Mulholland also called into question the evidence of Soldier H, who was part of the four-man brick of Paras who entered Glenfada Park.
Soldier H claimed he spotted a “sniper” behind a frosted pane of glass in the bathroom of a house in Glenfada Park North and fired 19 shots at the window, hitting the gunman.
This was subsequently disputed at the Saville Inquiry, as there had been no reports of any window in the area being hit that many times.
A house next door in Glenfada Park North occupied by an elderly couple was hit with one round to their bedroom window.
The court heard that the shooting incident Soldier H had referred to most likely took place in the Rossville flats area.
Mr Mulholland told Judge Lynch: “This is an unreliable witness from start to finish.
“This is a liar. This is a fabricator. This is the type of evidence the prosecution has placed before this court.''
The trial continues.
New legacy legislation to be introduced at Westminster
CONNLA YOUNG, Irish News, October 14th, 2025
NEW legacy legislation is expected to be introduced at Westminster today. The development comes after the Irish and British governments revealed a joint framework on the past last month.
It is understood political parties and non-governmental organisations have been told it is likely new legislation will be introduced today.
This is expected to include a rebrand of the controversial Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) as the Legacy Commission.
The body was set up under the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, which ended all inquests and civil cases, as well as introducing conditional immunity.
Many impacted by the Troubles are strongly opposed to the ICRIR, believing it to be part of British government attempts to protect state participants from accountability.
The Court of Appeal has found that a British government veto over sensitive material that can be disclosed by the commission to relatives of the dead is not compatible with human rights laws.
As well as the ICRIR rebrand, a separate body will be created to deal with information recovery.
It is expected new legislation will lift the ban on legacy-related civil cases and allow the resumption of inquests halted by the Legacy Act.
Call for ‘fundamental reform’
Daniel Holder of the Committee on the Administration of Justice said: “The British government committed in the joint framework to replacing the ICRIR with a new Legacy Commission through ‘fundamental reform’ of what is in the Legacy Act.
“The detail in the forthcoming legislation is the first real test as to whether this commitment will be implemented in good faith.”
The new legislation will be introduced on the same day the British government appeals a ruling linked to the Legacy Act to the Supreme Court in London.
The case was brought after several bereaved relatives argued through the courts in Belfast that the commission was not sufficiently independent.
Darragh Mackin, of Phoenix Law, who represents the victims said: “Despite losing in both the High Court and Court of Appeal, we are yet to see legislation being implemented to repeal the unjust and unlawful provisions that remain.
“The reality is, for these victims, talk is cheap.
“Actions speak louder than words and absent any realisable change to this draconian regime, these victims are compelled to continue their fight and defend this appeal before the London Supreme Court.”
Justice minister voices her concern over MI5 surveillance of journalist
CONNLA YOUNG, Irish News, October 14th, 2025
JUSTICE Minister Naomi Long has voiced concern that MI5 admitted carrying out surveillance on a former BBC journalist. Details of the spy controversy emerged during a hearing of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) in London last month.
The tribunal looks at complaints from people who believe they have been the victim of unlawful covert interference.
In a rare admission, MI5, sometimes referred to as the Security Service, confirmed it unlawfully obtained communications data from Vincent Kearney’s phone on two occasions in 2006 and 2009 when he worked with the BBC in Belfast.
Mr Kearney, the current Northern Editor with RTÉ, was appointed home affairs correspondent at the BBC in April 2006.
The IPT admission came before a review into PSNI snooping on journalists and lawyers was published last month.
The McCullough Review, headed by Angus McCullough KC, revealed that the PSNI carried out two ‘defensive operations’ involving hundreds of journalists over a 13-year period between 2011 and 2024.
The review also confirmed 21 unlawful uses of covert powers to iden-tify journalists’ sources.
It has emerged that eight journalists were subject to unlawful use of powers to identify their sources.
Lawyers also under surveillance
Lawyers were also placed under illegal surveillance.
Yesterday, the PSNI confirmed that journalists’ data will continue to be provided to British intelligence agencies, which includes MI5.
Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said personal data held by the PSNI will be supplied to intelligence agencies if there is a “lawful policing purpose”.
The National Union of Journalists and Committee on the Administration of Justice have voiced concern about the PSNI’s policy.
In response to an assembly question from UUP member Jon Burrows, justice minister Naomi Long said the “actions of MI5 against journalists” is not within her remit but is the responsibility of Secretary of State Hilary Benn.
The minister voiced concern that Mr Kearney’s data had been accessed.
“I do recognise, however, that potential MI5 surveillance of special status groups was not covered as part of the recent McCullough Review, and would share the concern, expressed by many, about the IPT’s recent discovery that the Security Service illegally obtained communications data from the phone of a then-BBC journalist in Northern Ireland,” she said.
“Freedom of expression is a core human right in the UK and must be respected.”
Beattie calls for change in how non-jury trials are held amid rise in gang killings
ALLISON MORRIS, Belfast Telegraph, October 14th, 2025
CROSSOVER IN CRIMES 'MEANS LEGISLATION REQUIRES A RETHINK'
The rise in gangland-style killings in Northern Ireland requires a change in how non-jury trials are held, a member of Stormont's justice committee has said.
Several of the most high-profile gangland-style slayings in recent years — including that of Robbie Lawlor, the Dublin crime boss gunned down in Ardoyne in 2020 — will be heard in front of a jury.
Current legislation means that only cases where a paramilitary link exists can be held without a jury in Northern Ireland. But UUP MLA Doug Beattie has said the crossover between organised crime and paramilitary crime means that a rethink is needed.
The murder of crime boss Malcolm McKeown was a non-jury case due to his past links to loyalist paramilitaries and the fear of interference with a jury.
Said by the prosecution to have been carried out by The Firm crime gang, it is one of a number of murders recently linked to the gang.
Because of the complicated nature of the legislation, two of those cases had non-jury certificates issued — Malcolm McKeown and Kevin Conway, but at least one other will proceed by jury trial.
Dublin Special Criminal Court
Northern Ireland's legislation differs from the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, where both terrorist and gangland murders are held in a judge-only court.
The Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 allows the Director of Public Prosecutions to certify that a case can be heard without a jury in exceptional circumstances, such as a risk of jury intimidation. The legislation states a non-jury certificate can be issued “where the defendant has a link to a proscribed organisation” or “the defendant could be a present or former member of a proscribed organisation or be an associate of a member or former member”.
It further states that judge-only trials will be held if the “offence is committed on behalf of a proscribed organisation” or if a “proscribed organisation that is connected with the affairs of NI interferes, or assists with interference, with the investigation or prosecution”.
The non-jury system, named after Lord Diplock, was introduced in 1973.
At the height of the Troubles, more than 300 cases a year were tried by a judge sitting alone, but in 2021, there were just eight non-jury trials. Mr Beattie said: “NI's justice system is unique in many ways and non-jury trials for terrorist or paramilitary-related crime are a necessity.
“However, the crossover between organised crime and paramilitary crime is well-documented with organisations, such as The Firm, showing how paramilitaries, from all sides, work together.
“It is inconceivable and frankly ridiculous to have members of The Firm charged and go to trial for murder under a non-jury trial while alleged members of the same gang, have a jury trial.
“Our criminal justice system must look at this in a holistic manner, The Firm, although not a paramilitary organisation, has serious links to paramilitarism.
“In this instance, a common sense approach needs to be adopted and any such trial, as they do in the Irish Republic, needs to be non-jury”.
Protest organised against leisure centre Irish signage
MARK ROBINSON, Irish News, October 14th, 2025
A PROTEST has been organised against the “forcing” of Irish language signage at a Belfast leisure centre.
It comes after dual language signs were approved for the Olympia Leisure Centre by Belfast City Council last September.
The plans had been held up for three years after unionist councillors opposed the move due to the centre being located next to the largely Protestant Village area of the city.
In February 2024, a legal battle was won by Irish language activist group Conradh na Gaeilge (CnaG), when the majority ruled that transparency was needed surrounding the council’s decisions on this matter.
A public consultation on dual language signs at the centre found that almost 80% of respondents supported the move.
According to a recent CnaG survey, nine out of 10 residents on streets that had dual language signs approved supported their installation – while just under 3% opposed.
On Saturday criminal damage was caused to a sign in the Shandon Park area of east Belfast in what police are treating as a “hate-motivated” incident and an anti-dual language signage protest is due to be held outside Olympia Leisure Centre on Friday.
“The Olympia Leisure Centre Protest against the forcing of Dual (Irish/ English) signage on the local community will be held on Friday, October 17, at 7.30pm at the front entrance to Olympia Leisure Centre,” a poster for the protest reads, “Irish language signage not wanted at Olympia. Let us all support this protest!”
A representative for Irish language campaign group An Dream Dearg said that the support for the signage at the centre was reflected in previous consultations which showed an “increasing support for a dual-language approach” and that “support for retaining the current English-only signage” decreased.
“That decision was subsequently supported by a large majority of elected councillors on Belfast City Council and passed through rigorous legal scrutiny,” they said.
“The result is an inclusive, citywide leisure centre, one that caters for local Irish medium schools and the wider Irish language community on a very regular basis.
“No English language signs have been removed as a result of this policy, rather Irish has been added, and as such, the rights of English speakers have been in no way diminished.
“The very definition of language equality is for both English and Irish to be side by side on signage in shared spaces.”
TUV and DUP at odds as motion slamming dual language signage policy defeated
LIAM TUNNEY, Belfast Telegraph, October 14th, 2025
A Stormont debate on a DUP motion calling on Belfast City Council to review its policy on dual language signage in the city has ended with the party accusing the TUV of “attacking a fellow unionist”.
The motion, brought by North Belfast MLAs Phillip Brett and Brian Kingston, and East Belfast representative David Brooks, described the council's policy as “undemocratic and oppressive”.
Under the policy, which was introduced in 2022, an application from a resident, elected member or a developer for a dual language sign on a particular street triggers a survey among residents of that street.
A threshold of just 15% is required for the proposal to move forward for approval by a council committee.
The DUP motion said just 12% of applications approved since the policy was introduced had majority support among residents living on the street, and referred to it as “the marking of territory”.
In his remarks, TUV MLA Timothy Gaston said the “tyranny of the minority” had been permitted and rounded on the DUP's approach to the Irish language. “While some here rightly condemn Belfast City Council, the DUP sit in an Executive recruiting a language commissioner,” he said.
“If indeed you oppose what's happening in Belfast City Council, then use your powers in the Executive to stop the next phase of this Republican project.”
‘Unionists should be standing together’
In his summing up, the DUP's Phillip Brett hit back at Mr Gaston, accusing him of an “attack” on a fellow unionist.
“The TUV have taken this opportunity, when unionists should be standing together on this issue, to attack a fellow unionist,” he said.
“No mention, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, that it was a unionist party who brought this motion forward, but Mr Gaston has to read from his pre-scripted remarks that were given to him before he came into this chamber today.
“When we hear of unionists standing together, I'm very happy to stand with them, but I'm not going to sit here and take attacks from one party and expect us then to roll in behind them on another. Our agenda on this issue is clear.
“This was an opportunity for unionists to stand together, and instead he wasted half of his time trying to attack the DUP.”
During the debate, many nationalist representatives gave their opening remarks in Irish, including Sinn Féin's Pat Sheehan, who said the 2022 policy had “broad support”.
“In 2022, democratically elected Belfast City Councillors from a range of parties voted overwhelmingly to adopt this progressive bilingual street signage policy,” he said.
“It was developed in line with international best practice on the visibility of minority languages, with signage now installed on hundreds of streets across Belfast.
“The Irish language is thriving and that is evident throughout Belfast, which is at the forefront of its energetic revival.”
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said it was the DUP who had politicised the language.
“Clearly the DUP are vexed at the sight of bilingualism and Irish anywhere. I think they're the biggest culprits of this weaponisation and this negative politicisation,” he added.
Some 69 MLAs voted on the motion, which was defeated by 41 votes to 28.
Wreath set alight at loyalist memorial in ‘hate crime’
MARK ROBINSON, Irish News, October 14th, 2025
AN incident involving a wreath being set on fire at a loyalist band memorial site in north Belfast is being treated as “arson and as a hate crime” by police.
The damage was believed to have been caused at around 6.40am on Sunday when a poppy wreath on the Pride of Ardoyne Flute Band memorial on Alliance Avenue was set on fire.
In a post online, the band said: “Once again the Pride of Ardoyne FB Memorial has been attacked and vandalised by a mindless, heartless cowardly moron.
“This memorial is dedicated to band members, family members and local residents no longer with us so this act of vandalism is an attack on the whole community.
“You can destroy objects of remembrance with your hatred but you can never destroy the love and memories we have in our hearts.”
Police are appealing for witnesses and information following the incident.
A spokesperson said: “We received a report at around 9.55am on Monday, October 13, of criminal damage in the Alliance Avenue area, where a wreath on a memorial was set on fire. It is believed the damage was caused at around 6.40am on Sunday, October 12.
“Enquires into the incident, which is being treated as arson and as a hate crime, are ongoing.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact officers on 101.
MLAs clash after being urged to ‘stand as one’ on intimidation
DAVID YOUNG, Irish News, October 14th, 2025
UNIONIST MLAs have accused rivals of trying to use recent acts of intimidation against Stormont politicians to silence scrutiny in the assembly.
The claims were made during an at-times-heated debate on events of last week, in which an explosive device was left outside the Newry constituency office of Sinn Féin Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins and party colleague, MP Dáire Hughes, and when a crowd of protesters, some of them masked, gathered outside the home of Alliance Justice Minister Naomi Long and her Belfast City councillor husband Michael.
Ahead of the debate, Speaker Edwin Poots had urged MLAs on all sides of the chamber to “stand as one” to condemn the incidences of intimidation against politicians.
While there was universal condemnation during the subsequent exchanges, members clashed over claims that rhetoric within the assembly may be fuelling hostility towards politicians.
Alliance deputy leader Eoin Tennyson opened the debate with a call for MLAs to “reflect” on the “tone and tenor” of their public commentary.
“The words uttered in this building are not without consequence,” he said.
“And I think all of us must now reflect on the tone and tenor of our contributions to public discourse.”
Sinn Féin MLA Sinéad Ennis accused unionist politicians of “dangerous” language.
“There has been language and rhetoric emanating from this chamber in recent weeks that hasn’t helped matters,” she said.
“Week in, week out, we’ve seen a bingo card of dangerous rhetoric from the unionist benches. It’s not enough to stand here and condemn these recent actions, condemnations with a ‘but’ are not condemnations.
‘A message of fear and intimidation’
“I ask what is the message that some members across this chamber are sending out week in, week out? It is a message of fear and it’s a message of suspicion.
“People in this chamber have a responsibility to speak factually about the important issues facing our communities, not send out lazy dog whistles, which is what we have seen rising over recent weeks and months.”
An explosive device was left outside the Newry constituency office of Sinn Féin Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins and party colleague, MP Dáire Hughes earlier this month
DUP MLA Paul Frew said: “Parties should be very careful that they do not exploit this and these atrocious actions for some political point-scoring.
“And even today, when we have the opportunity to unite, we’ve had attack – that is horrific.”
Mr Frew said the assembly must continue to be a forum for “robust debate”.
“There should be no political party seeking to score political points in order to diminish our role as scrutinisers of this place and of the departments and of the individual ministers. And that is what concerns me here today,” he said.
‘Democracy under attack’
Ulster Unionist MLA Jon Burrows also voiced concern.
“I’m afraid to say democracy is under two attacks today, the attack from those who are mobs outside, and the attacks from those who are in here, who want to silence accountability and scrutiny and who want to link the actions of a mob with the legitimate voice of people in this chamber,” he said.
“It is, in my view, shameful. The answer whenever democracy is attacked is more democracy, more scrutiny, more accountability.”
Mr Burrows also criticised a post on X by Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw, in which she accused him of a “feigned attempt” to show concern for Mr and Mrs Long.
“It went against every fibre in my body to be accused of somehow feigning,” he said.
At the close of the debate, Mr Poots urged all MLAs to reflect on the issues discussed.
“We need to ensure that these things don’t happen on our constituency offices and our homes are safe places,” he said.
“We also need to ensure that we are able to engage in a full way in this chamber, so that people outside don’t feel the need to vent in some way.
“And I don’t believe there is any justification for people to engage in what they’ve done last week, because we have a place like this, and our local council chambers, and Westminster and so forth, where people are able to go and express issues on behalf of the public that elected them, and that’s where those things should happen.”
Michelle Gildernew may think NI is a s******* but will a united Ireland flush away problem?
Malachi O’Doherty, Belfast Telegraph, October 14th, 2025
I don't know if the readers of this newspaper would be content to see in print here the word that Michelle Gildernew used to dismiss Northern Ireland as worthless.
An analogy might be a septic tank, a storage place for manure, a receptacle for excrement, a dark, malodorous and cavernous accumulation of human waste. Definitely a place tourists would avoid, lest the stink of it overcome them.
I have been in some sickly and bleak places, so I know a bit about foul and dirty backwaters. The worst such place was Yerevan in Armenia around the year 2000. I was invited there for a conference on journalism.
The place had not recovered from the collapse of the Soviet Union. The bath in my hotel room would have needed a sand blaster to clean it.
I went one night to a performance of Mozart's Requiem at the Khachaturian Hall and the stench from the toilets was so powerful that all instinct rebelled against walking in there.
I am told Yerevan is lovely nowadays.
A few years earlier, I had spent a couple of weeks in Gaza. This was at a time of optimism, when there was a lot of new building going on. I was with a party of writers and journalists offering a training course to local journalists and broadcasters. They have probably just been having the worst time of their lives and are unlikely to have all survived.
Actually, Gaza seemed superficially clean, but we all had horrible diarrhoea. I could write a book about diarrhoea, having lived for a time in my youth in India. I would reserve in it a whole chapter for Gaza though.
I was so sick that once my guts had emptied, I started throwing up something that looked like chopped spinach. The muscles in my stomach ached for days afterwards from the reflexive pumping of that stuff out of me.
So, I know a bit about wells of ordure and such places.
Delhi Belly and Cloggers
In India, we called our suffering Delhi Belly. When we met other Westerners travelling through we talked about our visceral disruptions and evacuations in the way in which at home we might normally have discussed the weather.
We exchanged advice on 'cloggers' — the medications best suited to stabilising the stormy weather in your bowels.
The most effective, we agreed, was one that is now banned because, Google informs me, 'it has been shown to cause subacute myelo-optic neuropathy'.
Actually, when I hear people sneer at homeopathy I can't help but recall that the tiny pills I took alternately every few hours, to switch the flow on and off, worked well for me. At least they didn't leave me with sub acute myelo-optic neuropathy.
So when Michelle Gildernew summons up the image of an entire region steeped in faeces, I can correct her on that, having been around a few calamitously-steeped places myself.
And I do not count the lakelands of Fermanagh among them.
That's the constituency she has represented at Stormont and — in abstention — at Westminster. And it is a beautiful part of the world.
Whatever criticism you might have of Northern Ireland, considering the inadequacy of government, obsessive identity politics, the sectarian social order, the wastelands of Casement Park and North Street, the creaking health service and — yes — an antiquated sewage system ill-suited to further housing development and our foetid and discoloured Lough Neagh — well, yes, things are pretty bad — it's a little harsh to liken the place to a turd reservoir, a cack store, a Giant's Bedpan.
More fragrance required
Yes, maybe if she was talking about Lough Neagh and our contaminated rivers; oh, all right, she'd have a point there.
But the big weakness in her argument is the presumption that a united Ireland would flush away our problems.
Does she think that government down there is so efficient that it could put this place right?
Her party leader, Mary Lou McDonald, doesn't think so.
She spends her life telling the government what a failure and a disgrace it is.
Does she think that combining the talents of the northern and southern parliaments would produce unprecedented efficiency? Hardly when neither is excelling in the territory it already governs.
Or does she think that government here is so inept that it needs the input of southern talents and southern money? But why would she expect Dublin to inject more energy and resources into this place than London does?
The interesting response came from Michelle O'Neill. She didn't exactly say that Northern Ireland isn't a dump sump, but she understood that a first minister can not disdain so crudely the ground she walks on, the territory for which she has responsibility.
But maybe she should have another look at the list of unfinished projects and ask herself how she can make this place just a little more fragrant.
‘Thatcher, the lady who turned’
How Thatcher, born 100 years ago this week, abandoned unionism
ALEX KANE, Irish News, October 14th, 2025
FEBRUARY 11 1975 looked like a good day for Ulster unionism. Harry West, leader of the UUP (at that point still the dominant political/electoral voice of unionism), said it was the best day since the prorogation of Stormont in March 1972.
Enoch Powell, who had been elected UUP MP for South Down just four months earlier, told the News Letter that it represented a turning point in the fortunes of both unionism and Northern Ireland’s status within the United Kingdom.
It was the day Margaret Thatcher, defying the odds, replaced Edward Heath as leader of the Conservative Party.
Heath was hated by unionism: for closing Stormont; for breaking the parliamentary link with the UUP; for confirming, in November 1971, that a future UK government would facilitate a united Ireland if it was evident a majority in NI wanted it; for endorsing the concept of an ‘Irish dimension’ in local politics in October 1972; and for, in the opinion of many in the UUP, pressurising Brian Faulkner to accept a Council of Ireland during the Sunningdale negotiations in 1973.
In the months after the Ulster Workers Council strike and the shutting of the assembly, unionism was drifting.
Labour’s PM, Harold Wilson, had no interest in resetting relationships with any of the various elements of the United Ulster Unionist Coalition (UUUC), and Secretary of State Merlyn Rees expressed concerns about what he described as the rise of ‘Ulster nationalism’ within unionism.
The government’s decision to establish a Constitutional Convention, to be elected in May 1975, was viewed by the UUUC as simply another route to power-sharing and underpinning of the Irish dimension.
What Thatcher – born 100 years ago yesterday – offered unionism, or so it believed, was a breakaway from the bipartisan approach to Northern Ireland which had been adopted by Heath and Wilson. An approach which rejected the 1921-72 status quo of a unionist majority being allowed to govern as it wished, while Westminster retained an arm’s length distance.
Those days were gone; and a flurry of statements, Green Papers, White Papers and parliamentary votes seemed to make it pretty clear that they were not coming back.
But unionism dared to hope, believing that a combination of Powell and Thatcher (who was a huge admirer of Powell at the time) would be to its advantage.
One of Thatcher’s earliest appointments was of Airey Neave as her NI spokesman. He was tough on the security problem and accused the media in London and Belfast of ‘over-publicising’ the IRA.
In later speeches he described power-sharing as being ‘no longer practical politics’ and was thought to be responsible for shifting Thatcher away from federalism and devolution altogether and towards the integrationist policy supported by Powell and the UUP parliamentary leader, James Molyneaux.
This would have involved recasting the former NI Parliament as what Molyneaux called a ‘super council of sorts’, with maybe two or three other regional councils.
Meanwhile, Westminster, rather than a power-sharing local assembly, would be responsible for key decisions.
It clearly wasn’t an ideal replacement for the NI Parliament, but most of unionism would have accepted it rather than another version of Sunningdale.
Ruling out Integration
Yet within months of the May 1979 general election (precipitated by 10 of the 11 unionist MPs supporting Thatcher in a motion of no confidence against Labour), Thatcher ruled out the integration option in favour of a new round of inter-party talks with the UUP, DUP, SDLP and Alliance: talks which the UUP boycotted. Within months the talks were suspended indefinitely.
At that point Thatcher switched tactics. In May 1980, she met newly-appointed Taoiseach Charles Haughey in Downing Street, and the subsequent communiqué confirmed closer political cooperation between the UK and Ireland, building towards a ‘unique relationship’.
In December, Thatcher, accompanied by her Foreign Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and NI Secretary of State, met Haughey in Dublin and agreed to joint studies on a wide range of subjects, part of a process to review the ‘totality of the relationships between the two countries’.
This was a hammer blow to unionism. Some argued that Thatcher had been pushed towards the new relationship with Ireland because of the murder of Airey Neave in March 1979 and the murders five months later of 18 soldiers and Lord Mountbatten. And there was certainly an argument to be made in favour of improving relations with Dublin in order to jointly tackle the security problems in Northern Ireland; as well as ensuring that the doors opened to local nationalism in 1972/73 could be nudged open again.
Ian Paisley of the DUP and Ulster Unionist leader Jim Molyneaux address a rally of tens of thousands of unionists in front of Belfast City Hall following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement between the British and Irish governments in 1985
But the ‘totality of relationships’ agenda seemed to take the ‘Irish dimension’ promised in 1972 to a whole new level.
Ian Paisley accused Thatcher of undermining Northern Ireland’s constitutional guarantee, while Powell said that it meant Irish involvement irrespective of whether Northern Ireland was governed by a unionist majority, a mandatory power-sharing coalition, or even by permanent direct rule from Westminster.
It might be over-egging the situation to say that it paralysed unionism, but it certainly placed it in its most vulnerable position since the original Home Rule crisis.
Thatcher had closed just about every door of possible protest.
Unlike the 1973 assembly, there was nothing to bring down. The new British-Irish process could withstand anything unionism or loyalism could throw against it.
There was no solace to be sought from Labour, either.
Thatcher hoped that a new assembly (elected in October 1982) would ease unionist concerns, but it was boycotted by both the SDLP and Sinn Féin – in its first Stormont election – while the UUP involvement was lackadaisical at best.
The entire direction of travel from May 1979 ended in the Anglo-Irish Agreement in November 1985. Thatcher was later to say she had made mistakes, but she made those mistakes because she also ignored every unionist concern.
Worse, from the unionist perspective, was the absence of a Conservative parliamentary rebellion: a clear sign it had, to all intents and purposes, been abandoned by the sovereign parliament of the United Kingdom.
The political and constitutional realities of that abandonment are still apparent 40 years on.
Irish News: LETTERS
No self-respecting nationalist would ever accept a British identity card
SO, the latest British prime minister has shown not only his arrogance but also his total lack of understanding of the nationalist people in the occupied six counties of the north-east of Ireland.
Sir Keir Starmer, to give him his full imperial title, the knighted leader of the supposedly working-class Labour Party, has unilaterally made a proposal which is an insult to many on this part of the island. He has, almost unbelievably, proposed to introduce British identity cards for all the people currently under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. This would include all of us in the six counties who regard ourselves as being Irish – not an unreasonable position, as we were all born on the island of Ireland.
Does he not realise the blatantly obvious fact that the majority of people in these six counties have never regarded themselves as British and never will. We are not a part of Britain, we are an unwilling part of the United Kingdom.
For Starmer to think that he can force upon us British identity cards after all that has happened here in the last century is beyond any comprehension. Is this man totally oblivious to the situation here or is his arrogance such that he believes that there is no dissent to an innocuous proposal such as this? Starmer can be sure of one thing and that is that no self-respecting nationalist would ever accept a British identity card and will never allow one to be forced on them under any circumstances.
In the past nationalists have opposed all efforts to strip us of our Irish identity and to force us to accept a pro-British identity. We can go back hundreds of years to the 17th century plantations when the British government attempted to rid this country of Catholics and nationalists and replace them with British Protestant families. They also tried to kill off the Irish language and everything else that was even remotely Irish. They failed miserably and the proof is visible even in these six counties where both Catholicism and the Irish language are making strong advances. Protestantism is equally thriving and in the new Ireland both will continue to live side by side with no aggression between the two.
Surprisingly, even the DUP is opposed to this proposal by Starmer although not for any political reason, but on the basis of its usefulness and its ability to curb what they see as the problem of increasing numbers of illegal immigrants entering the United Kingdom.
Nonetheless, their opposition is to be welcomed for whatever reason and must show Starmer that such a proposal has no chance of being accepted in the six counties with both major traditions in total opposition.
There is also clear evidence that Scottish and Welsh nationalists are equally opposed to being forced to accept British nationality over their claims to be first and foremost Scottish and Welsh. Even Starmer’s own party is divided over the issue but has not been fully involved in this decision-making process.
Starmer may not last long in his current position, the Labour Party may have already suffered irreparable damage under his leadership, but the message from the electorate is clear – BritCards are not welcome and most definitely not wanted. Irish nationalists are no strangers to underhand attempts by Britain to strip us of our Irishness. Starmer will learn, and soon, that no British prime minister and no British government will ever again enforce its decisions on Irish nationalists unilaterally.
BritCards are offensive to Irish nationalists and unacceptable to unionists in these six counties – learn the lesson.
SEAN SEELEY Craigavon, Co Armagh
NAMA case: Cushnahan was 'at the very heart of Stormont', his lawyer tells trial
SAM MCBRIDE, Belfast Telegraph, October 14th, 2025
NAMES AND DEBTS ON NAMA'S LOANBOOK — SHOWING €846M AS LARGEST SUM OWED — REVEALED IN COURT
Frank Cushnahan — now facing charges linked to an alleged multimillion-pound fraud — was “at the very heart of the Northern Irish government”, his trial was told yesterday.
The former banker was a key figure in several Stormont Castle bodies, the jury at Belfast Crown Court heard, and Nama — the Irish state's 'bad bank' — knew this from the outset when it appointed him to its Northern Ireland Advisory Committee (NIAC).
On the seventh day of the trial, the jury was also told that DUP minister Sammy Wilson had proposed two NIAC members who were judged “not appropriate” — in one case, because he was a property developer massively in debt to Nama.
As the cross-examination of former Nama chairman Frank Daly continued, the court was also shown a breakdown of all Nama's Northern Ireland loans, showing that the top debtor owed a staggering €846m.
Frank Hugh Cushnahan (83), of Alexandra Gate in Holywood, is charged with fraud by failing to disclose information and fraud by false representation.
His co-accused, former solicitor Ian George Coulter (54), of Templepatrick Road in Ballyclare, faces two charges of fraud by false representation, and charges of making or supplying articles for use in fraud, removing criminal property, and transferring criminal property.
Both men deny all the charges.
Cushnahan was appointed to NIAC in May 2010 after Mr Daly said the first two names proposed by Mr Wilson were rejected by the then Irish Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan — “one because Nama realised he was a Nama debtor so wouldn't have been appropriate; the other because the Department of Finance took the view that because he was a civil servant, he wouldn't have been appropriate”.
Frank O'Donoghue KC for Cushnahan told the court that Mr Wilson proposed Stormont senior official Richard Pengelly, and Neil Adair, who was a Nama debtor owing (alongside Patrick Kearney and PBN) €178m.
When they were rejected, Mr Wilson proposed Cushnahan. The second external member of NIAC was Brian Rowntree. Mr Daly said he understood that he had been proposed by Martin McAleese, husband of the then Irish President.
Taking the witness to Cushnahan's initial declarations of interest, Mr O'Donoghue said he described himself as a “corporate financier”, recording that he was chairman of Wineflair and had been managing director of Chase Bank in Ireland — but also held a series of appointments at the top of Stormont.
‘At the very heart of the Northern Irish government’
Cushnahan said he was chairman of the Performance and Delivery Unity in the Office of First and Deputy First Minister (OFMdFM), putting him in a key role overseeing efficiency savings, as well as being a director of OFMdFM and chairman of OFMdFM's Audit and Corporate Governance Committee.
Mr O'Donoghue put it to Mr Daly: “It was well known to the Nama board and to Mr Lenihan that in appointing Mr Cushnahan, you were appointing someone who, although he wasn't a politician… was at the very heart of the Northern Irish government.”
Mr Daly said he didn't initially realise this but “very quickly, I became aware afterwards, and don't disagree with you that he was at the heart of the Northern Ireland government, as you say”.
Mr O'Donoghue said Cushnahan “had an extensive network of contacts” in business and finance and he “never sought to hide it from anyone”.
The barrister showed the jury a June 2013 letter from Mr Wilson to his Irish counterpart where he raised “the potential….for Nama's legitimate activities in Northern Ireland to create political problems between our administrations”.
He said that in a meeting in Dublin the previous week he'd “mentioned that there is some investment interest in the Nama loanbook for Northern Ireland” and “I have already had discussions with some of those who are interested”.
Mr Daly said that, actually, at this time, there was “remarkably little political friction”. Asked about the unpopularity of Nama's decision to foreclose on the Ramada Hotel in Portrush, owned by the Kennedy family, Mr Daly said Nama had been careful to take a long time to do so and had then invested in the business.
Referring in his letter to an expression of interest from major US investment fund Pimco in buying all Nama's Northern Ireland loans, Mr Wilson went on to say: “I believe there would be advantages in pursuing these proposals for both the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive.”
Mr Daly said he believed Mr Wilson supported a closed-bid process giving Pimco preferential treatment, rather than them being put on the open market.
However, Mr O'Donoghue said that when Cushnahan had the issue first raised with him by Nama at a NIAC meeting on October 7, 2013, he supported an open-market process.
Mr Daly said “there was certainly no pushback” to the idea of an open bid.
Mr O'Donoghue put it to the witness that Cushnahan never said anything to support the Pimco bid or support a closed sale and never said it should be sold undervalued. Mr Daly agreed that was the case.
Mr O'Donoghue said it was “a brilliant deal for the Republic of Ireland and Nama” because of the difficulties in recouping the value of the loans from those to whom the money had been lent. Mr Daly agreed it was regarded as a “good outcome” for Nama.
The court was shown a table of the loans which made up the Northern Ireland loanbook in October 2013, plus the names associated with many of those loans, mostly taken by developers who were suffocating under debt they'd built up during a spending spree when banks were willing to lend huge sums.
The total value of the loans was €1.9bn, which had been written down to €1.6bn.
Debtors
The top entry involved three names — developers Frank Boyd, Andrew Creighton, and an unidentified Mr Snoddon — who collectively owed €846m, written down to €652m.
Next was McAleer and Rushe Ltd, which owed €217m (a figure not written down), followed by PBN/Patrick Kearney and Neil Adair, who'd owed €178m, written down to €157m.
Mar Properties Ltd (€172m), Gerard O'Hare (€149m), John and Helen Miskelly (€74m) and a host of other developers were listed alongside huge numbers.
It is alleged that Cushnahan was secretly working with Pimco on its bid to buy the Nama loans — and deliberately failed to disclose that he was in line for about €5m if the deal went through.
Taking the jury to the rules for NIAC meetings, the barrister told them that an agenda should be circulated to members at least three working days before a meeting — something which would allow them to consider if they had a conflict of interest and declare that at the start of the meeting.
There was an exception for urgent business which could be introduced at short notice, but Nama had known about Pimco's bid for weeks, he said, and so “it wasn't urgent” when it was raised at the October 7 meeting without having been put on the agenda. However, Mr Daly said that as a meeting progressed, at any stage a member had a responsibility to make a declaration if an issue arose which they knew involved a conflict of interest for them.
He added: “I don't believe that anyone in that meeting is not aware of... the obligation to disclose, to raise one's hand, continues throughout that meeting”.
The jury was told that in a paper prepared for an October 2013 Nama board meeting, senior Nama executive Ronnie Hanna, who'd had discussions with Pimco, set out its usual strategy.
He said: “They prefer to execute privately and quietly once a target acquisition has been selected. They are prepared to incur substantial costs when in an exclusive position with regard to an acquisition, but shy away completely from open market processes…”
Mr O'Donoghue said this showed “they're not interested in open market processes”, contrary to the later claim they'd been alarmed at the consequences of paying Cushnahan.
He said the jury had to decide if Pimco was genuine in claiming concern at Cushnahan's payment or if it just didn't want to take to take part in an open market process. The trial continues.
FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH CONDEMNS MURDER
By Carryduff FPC, October 14th, 2025
The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster has been dismayed by the attempts to legitimise murder on the BBC podcast, ‘Borderland — UK or a United Ireland’. In this podcast comments were made by former Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildernew and loyalist activist Jamie Bryson. In answer to the question “do you think murder was justified?” they both voiced the opinion that it was.
The Free Presbyterian Church has consistently taken the stand that murder is wrong. We did so when murderers were being released under the terms of the “Good Friday Agreement” and we have consistently made the point that God’s command is “Thou shalt not kill.” We have also always upheld the right and indeed the duty of the government to be a “terror’ to evil in its midst (Romans 13:3). Michelle Gildernew sought to justify republican murder by saying that the British Army had brought war to our streets. There is a Scriptural difference between the actions of terrorist murder gangs and the legitimate state forces when they act according to the rule of law. Romans 13:4 says of the ruler that he is “the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” We are dismayed that there are those who are at the heart of our society and in positions of influence that can justify murder and we would call on all public representatives to make their positions clear. The ministerial code of the Northern Ireland Executive asks ministers to pledge “commitment to non-violence and exclusively peaceful and democratic means.” Given that Michelle Gildernew was a former minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Executive we ask did she lie in her pledge and is her “mental reservation” common among her colleagues?
We think of the innocent victims of terrorism in all of this. They are the people who are being retraumatised and forgotten and the BBC is not innocent in their willingness to broadcast this podcast. We want to offer help to those who have been suffering and assure them of our prayers.
Rev Gordon Dane, gbdane@hotmail.co.uk
Stormont votes in favour of Belfast City Council's Irish street sign policy
Anthony Neeson, Belfast Media, October 14th, 2025
THE President of Conradh na Gaeilge has welcomed a vote at Stormont in support of Belfast City Council’s dual-language policy.
A motion brought by DUP MLA Brian Kingston in the Assembly on Monday opposing the council policy was defeated by 41 votes to 28. Mr Kingston called on Belfast City Council to “urgently review and replace its policy that Irish language street signs can be imposed upon communities with just 15 per cent support”.
The North Belfast MLA said: “In the early days of the new policy, councillors adopted a convention of not approving an Irish language street sign where more residents voted against than for. However, since March this year, nationalist councillors, supported by Green Party councillors, have been forcing applications through, ignoring the majority wishes of residents and the objection of unionist and even Alliance councillors.
“In my constituency of North Belfast, for Sunningdale Park North, 22 residents voted for an Irish language sign, but 33 voted against it. Some 60 per cent of respondents were against, yet the sign was forced through by nationalist and Green Party councillors.”
He said he has been visited by residents who have told him that Irish signage could reduce the value of their property “by reducing potential interest from the unionist community”.
Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan said opposition to bilingual street signs was minimal. Yesterday, ahead of the debate Conradh na Gaeilge published the results of a survey that found that nine-out-of-ten people in Belfast supports the Council's new dual language signage policy.
“Since this policy was introduced, and the first streets were approved in January 2023, more than 530 streets have been surveyed across Belfast," said the West Belfast MLA. "Opposition has been minute. Only 2·9 per cent of all residents surveyed expressed any opposition – an average of 1·7 per cent per street. In more than three quarters of streets surveyed, not a single resident objected. Even if you exclude the Gaeltacht Quarter, the pattern is the same. Across 244 streets, only 3·9 per cent of residents opposed dual-language signage, while around nine out of 10 people who responded supported it.
No objections in 54% of streets surveyed
“On more than half of all streets — 54 per cent — there was not a single objection, and, in 96 per cent of cases, more residents supported dual-language signage than opposed it. Across all 536 streets surveyed, not a single street — not one — returned a majority opposed to dual-language signage. That tells us something important: the policy is not divisive; it is inclusive. It reflects the modern and confident city that Belfast has become.”
Welcoming the rejection of the DUP motion, Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin, President of Conradh na Gaeilge, said: “Tonight, the Assembly rejected attempts by the DUP to undermine that policy, voting against a DUP motion by 41 to 28, affirming their commitment to a minority rights compliant policy based on guidance from the United Nations and other international experts.
"Whilst the DUP have attempted to create the illusion of mass, widespread opposition amongst residents across the city, research carried out by Conradh na Gaeilge, examining the data of Belfast City Council surveys, shows that across 536 streets, only 2.9 per cent of residents opposed signs. As many contributors added during tonight’s debate, dual-language signage includes both Irish and English, side by side, and is in and of itself a physical demonstration of equality in places shared by various linguistic groups.
"There is nothing to fear from equality, rather, let us celebrate and respect diversity and inclusion. We urge members of the Executive to quickly return to their own obligations on the Irish language, to finalise the appointment of an Irish Language Commissioner without any further delay and finally adopt an Irish Language Strategy which has been a legal duty since 2006.”
British Supreme Court to examine NI Troubles legacy law
The British Supreme Court is to examine Northern Ireland Troubles legacy law during a three-day hearing which will centre on a judgment handed down by the Court of Appeal in Belfast last year
By David Young, PA, Belfast News Letter, October 14th, 2025
The challenge to the UK’s highest court has been brought by Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn
The Supreme Court will later hear a Government appeal against a judicial ruling that found aspects of contentious legacy legislation dealing with the Northern Ireland Troubles to be unlawful.
The challenge to the UK's highest court has been brought by Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn , who said the case would examine "constitutional questions" related to the Legacy Act, which was introduced by the last Conservative government.
While the Labour government has already pledged to significantly reform the legacy legislation brought in by the Tories - and is set to scrap many of its most controversial provisions - Mr Benn is pressing ahead with the Supreme Court appeal, as he contends it will focus on issues that have wider implications beyond the Legacy Act, including the interpretation of the post-Brexit Windsor Framework.
The three-day hearing will centre on a judgment handed down by the Court of Appeal in Belfast last year in a case involving the Government and several bereaved victims.
The three appeal court judges, led by Northern Ireland's Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan , found the Act breached human rights laws and rights provisions within the Windsor Framework.
They ruled that a Government veto power over what sensitive material can be disclosed to bereaved families by the Act's investigative and truth recovery body - the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) - was unlawful.
The judges also found the commission does not provide victims and their next of kin adequate means to participate in its processes.
The Legacy Act offered conditional immunity to the perpetrators of some Troubles crimes in exchange for their cooperation with the ICRIR.
Conditional Immunity undermines victims rights
The Court of Appeal ruled that the Act undermined the rights of victims, specifically in respect of a commitment within the Windsor Framework to protect the human rights entitlements provided for in Northern Ireland's historic Good Friday peace agreement.
Article 2 (1) of the framework states that the Government must ensure that various rights entitlements in Northern Ireland , which were enshrined following the 1998 peace deal, cannot be diminished as a result of the UK leaving the EU.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the Legacy Act did bring about a "diminution" of rights for victims, suggesting that Parliament would not have been able to pass such a law if the UK had remained within the EU.
While the Government has already announced a series of reforms designed to make the Act compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), including the axing of the immunity provision, Mr Benn is hoping the Supreme Court will offer clarity on how the Windsor Framework should be interpreted in respect of rights issues in other domestic legislation in Northern Ireland going forward.
The Supreme Court hearing will be before Lords Reed, Hodge, Lloyd-Jones, Hamblen and Stephens.
One of the victims involved in the case is Martina Dillon , whose husband Seamus was shot dead by loyalists in Dungannon in 1997.
Ahead of the Supreme Court case beginning, she said: "The Government should not be fighting bereaved families in the courts.
"We've already endured years of delay and disappointment. It's time the Government stopped defending this discredited law and started helping victims get the truth and accountability we've been denied for too long.
"Legislation to repeal and replace the Legacy Act must be urgently introduced to protect our rights."
Amnesty International is also involved in the case.
The organisation's deputy director in Northern Ireland , Grainne Teggart , said it was "deeply disappointing" that the Government had brought the case to the Supreme Court .
"The Court of Appeal judgment should have drawn a clear line under this discredited Legacy Act," she said.
"Instead, the Government is dragging victims back to court, prolonging their suffering and defending the indefensible."
Act opposed by main political parties in Northern Ireland
The Conservative government introduced the Legacy Act in the face of opposition from all the main political parties at Stormont and the Irish government. The legislation prompted ministers in Dublin to initiate an interstate legal case against the UK in the European Court of Human Rights.
The Labour government has taken a different approach to legacy and worked in conjunction with the Irish government to develop a new framework on legacy, which was unveiled by Mr Benn and Ireland's deputy premier Simon Harris last month.
The new blueprint has raised expectations that the Irish government is moving closer to dropping its interstate legal case.
Measures in the framework include:
- The Legacy Act placed a bar on Troubles-related civil cases in UK courts and halted inquests on conflict-linked deaths. Both those moves have been reversed.
- Significant restructuring of the ICRIR. It will be renamed the Legacy Commission .
- A separate truth recovery mechanism will be created called the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval .
- Reform of disclosure processes to address the concerns over the veto power held by the Northern Ireland Secretary of State on what sensitive information can be accessed by legacy bodies.
Alliance minister says relations at Stormont are a "battle a day".
By Rebecca Black, PA, Belfast News Letter, October 14th, 2025
Agriculture and Environment Minister Andrew Muir also said while he was not expecting the administration to collapse, he did not rule that out before the next Assembly election due to take place in 2027.
The Executive was resurrected in January 2020 following a three-year collapse, and suffered political paralysis between 2022 and January 2024 amid DUP protest action against post-Brexit trading arrangements and the Irish Sea border.
Since then it has seen the first programme for government agreed in a decade.
However, Mr Muir said the current Executive led by First Minister Michelle O'Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly is currently a "battle a day".
He also hit out at the slow pace to get items agreed, saying he tabled Northern Ireland's first environment strategy in March 2024 , and it did not get agreed until September, and he has a green growth strategy "sitting since December".
"We need to be better at how to get those issues turned around," he told BBC Northern Ireland.
"Some of that, to be honest, is because the DUP and the terms that they entered this Executive are very different to what we were aware of in February of last year. Any of the major decisions have to go to party officers and it takes a while for that to come back."
Mr Muir said he notices a difference between the Executive that was reformed last year, and how it is now.
Ministerial Collegiality has ended
"I saw that the First Minister and deputy First Minister were working in a collegiate manner, but in recent times that has ended," he said.
"It seems that what we're having at the moment is a battle a day. We need to be very conscious that these institutions are as unstable as the day they were before restoration, and all it takes is one crisis to then push us over the edge in terms of collapse, and people need to be very conscious in terms of what they are pursuing in terms of their politics, where that could lead us to. They need to be very, very conscious of that.
"(Collapse) is not on my agenda, I don't see that on the horizon but I don't rule it out."
Mr Muir said his party, the Alliance Party , wants to see Stormont reformed, and has spoken to both the Irish and UK governments about that.
He said they want "simple solutions" and the removal of "vetoes" around the election of a speaker and parties who walk out of the Executive.
"If one party decides to leave, the show continues, and if that happens, they wouldn't leave because there are significant parties in Northern Ireland , particularly the DUP and Sinn Fein , who suffer majorly from FOMO (fear of missing out), and if the show continued without them I don't think they would leave, and it would also give us stability and give us an incentive to be able to work round the table," he added.
Mr Muir also expressed disappointment in unionist parties.
"In recent months I have been really disheartened by the approach of the DUP. It's been not focused in terms of a positive vision for Northern Ireland but just picking out wedge issues, very much from the playbook of Nigel Farage and Donald Trump , and the UUP to be honest are now much more of a lost cause, the idea of them being a moderate voice for unionism is not the case," he said.
Sinn Fein MLA refuses to say if he supports arrest of vandals who damage Londonderry signs
By Adam Kula, Belfast News Letter, October 14th, 2025
A Sinn Fein MLA has ducked a question of whether he supports republican vandalism of signs which say ‘Londonderry’.
Pat Sheehan was among those contributing to a debate tonight on the subject of Belfast City Council’s Irish language policy.
Throughout the debate there was condemnation a recent attack on a bilingual sign in Shandon Park, east Belfast; on Saturday evening, someone had cut the Irish part off of it with an angle grinder.
The sign had been put there because 16.8% of the residents of the street said they wanted it.
Pat Sheehan was responding to the UUP’s Jon Burrows' question in the Assembly on Monday night
Some 45.5% of residents had explicitly said they did not want it, but it is council policy to ignore them as long as 15% or more of the residents are in favour of the new signs.
The DUP had tabled a debate on the issue tonight.
The motion which it asked MLAs to endorse said: “This Assembly deplores that, since 2022, only 12% of applications for Irish language street signs approved by Belfast City Council commanded the majority support of residents living there, according to recent media reports;
‘Policy is undemocratic and oppressive’ says DUP
"Contends that with the wishes of the minority trumping the view of the majority in almost nine out of 10 cases, this policy is undemocratic and oppressive;
"Is alarmed that in a number of cases residents have been surveyed repeatedly in an attempt to garner the necessary support;
"Condemns the marking of territory in this way, as well as the imposition of minority rule on residents from all backgrounds and traditions;
"And calls on Belfast City Council to urgently review, and replace, its policy that Irish language street signs can be imposed upon communities with just 15% support.”
Opening the debate, DUP MLA for North Belfast Brian Kingston said: “The new policy is that a survey can be triggered by a request from just one resident in a street or by a councillor to that DEA, who doesn't even have to live in the street.
“As a result of this drastic change, the system has been overwhelmed with requests for surveys at a rising cost to the ratepayers.
"Let me be clear: where residents consent to an Irish sign with no or little opposition, the DUP does not oppose the request.”
However, “we do oppose and will continue to oppose applications for which a majority of residents who have responded to the survey say they do not want a dual language sign”.
He gave two specific examples from his constituency.
In Sunningdale Park North, he said “22 residents were for bilingual signs, but 33 voted against; 60% of respondents against, yet that was forced through by nationalist and Green Party councillors”.
And in Ben Madigan Park South “23% were in favour, but 26% against – and again this was forced through disrespecting the majority wishes of respondents”.
Among those denouncing the angle grinder attack on the Shandon Park Irish sign was Mr Sheehan, representing West Belfast.
Defacing Londonderry signs
At one point North Antrim UUP MLA Jon Burrows interjected to ask him: “Would the member condemn the defacing of Londonderry signs, and would he support people being arrested for that offence by the PSNI – yes or no?”
Mr Sheehan, a former IRA member, replied: “Well, you as a police officer should be able to tell us whether the police carried out any investigations into that or not.
"So I'm here, I'm here to talk about Irish street signs, Irish language, dual language signage.”
After giving his answer in English, he went on to continue his speech in Irish.
One of the things that was cited repeatedly in the course of the debate was the historic involvement of Protestants in the language.
Reacting to this, DUP East Belfast MLA David Brooks said: “I want to address a particular element of the debate that, I think, grassroots unionism is sick and tired of: the disproportionate weight given to outlying examples from a unionist or Protestant background as if they are examples of what unionism really desires...
"I have heard the usual things invoked today, including the history of the Presbyterians in the Irish language, which I respect. We have heard talk of Linda Ervine, who is no doubt passionate about the Irish language.
"As a unionist, however, I know that many people whom I represent are sick of having those examples thrown at us as if they mean that we must adopt it as our culture. Do not tell me what my culture is. Do not tell me what my language is.”
In the end, the DUP motion was defeated by 28 votes for to 41 votes against.
