'Some people think I'm mad, but I don't hate them ... everybody has a right to remember their dead'
Suzanne Breen, Belfast Telegraph, April 11th, 2025
STEPHEN TRAVERS, SURVIVOR OF THE MIAMI SHOWBAND MASSACRE, OPENS UP AHEAD OF CONTROVERSIAL COMMEMORATION FOR ONE OF THE UVF KILLERS
Stephen Travers has every reason to be angry about tomorrow's commemoration for a UVF killer in Moygashel, Co Tyrone.
Almost 50 years ago, Wesley Somerville was a member of the gang behind the Miami Showband massacre in which Travers was seriously injured and his three friends killed.
Hundreds of people and 30 bands are set to take part in a parade to commemorate the loyalist who blew himself up — along with accomplice Harris Boyle — in his own bomb that night in July 1975.
But Travers is not incensed about the event in Somerville's home village.
“I didn't object to the parade because it doesn't bother me at all,” he says. “Everybody has a right to remember their dead.
“Three of our lads were killed and two of their people died that night. None of it should have happened. I felt that at the time when I was in hospital.
“Each and every one of the five deaths was regrettable. Obviously, I knew Fran (O'Toole), Tony (Geraghty) and Brian (McCoy) and I didn't know their killers, but they were human beings as well.
‘I was never able to hate them’
“I was never able to hate them. I did try to, but I couldn't manage it. I know some people think I'm mad, but I didn't feel it in my heart. And I'm glad I don't hate them because that would have been a huge burden to have carried for half a century.”
The Miami Showband's minibus was stopped near Newry as they travelled back to Dublin after a gig in Banbridge.
They were detained by a fake Army patrol involving UVF and UDR members. The musicians were forced to line up by the side of the road while attempts were made to hide a bomb on their bus.
However, the device exploded prematurely, killing Somerville and Boyle. The rest of the UVF gang then opened fire on the bandsmen. Travers was hit with a dumdum bullet which exploded into 16 pieces, damaging his bowel and lung. But the bass guitarist survived along with saxophonist Des McAlea.
“The killers had been joking with us minutes beforehand,” Travers says. “Us five bandsmen were standing with our hands raised above our heads for them.
“They were joshing with us about how they bet we would rather be in bed than standing on the side of the road with them, and we bantered back. I thought it was a big adventure. I was looking forward to getting home and telling my wife Anne all about it.”
The force of the blast swept the bandsmen off their feet and into a field. The surviving gunmen started shooting them. “I lay there, unable to stand up,” Travers recalls.
“I crawled on my stomach in that field where the body parts of our dead assailants had also been blown.
“A few months afterwards, Des and I met the RUC officers investigating the attack. They showed us photographs. 'I don't know what this is,' I said to one detective.
“'It's what you get when you mess around with the bombs.' he replied. It was a picture of one of the murderers. He had no head, it was just his torso.
‘Overhelmingly sad’
“I found it overwhelmingly sad that, whatever beliefs and convictions these men held, it had led to them leaving their lives like that.”
Despite not opposing tomorrow's commemoration, Travers says he “struggles to understand” how 30 bands are taking part.
“I always feel there's a community in music, that we're a family of musicians,” he says. “It's difficult to comprehend how musicians could honour those who murdered three fellow musicians, but I would never tell people what they should or shouldn't do.
“We must always try to understand each other's pain. The families of the killers lost their loved ones. Each year on the anniversary of the attack, I know they're suffering as well.”
The Miami Showband was religiously mixed. “I didn't know until he was dead that Brian (McCoy) our trumpeter was a Protestant,” says Travers.
“It never occurred to me to ask the other band members their religion.”
Before the fatal shots were fired, McCoy tried to pull Travers away as he lay in the field.
“Here was the son of an Orangeman — a Protestant from Caledon in Co Tyrone — saving me — a Catholic from south Tipperary — and getting murdered in the process. He was shot in the back of the head and died beside me,” Travers says.
‘I love coming North’
Despite the attack — maybe even because of it — he continues to cross the border. “I love coming up north. I love the people. I feel I'm understood better up here. It's a comfort,” he adds.
Victims' group Relatives For Justice says that if the Moygashel parade “has the consent of the host community and is done in a dignified way that doesn't cause offence”, they don't object to it.
Chief executive Mark Thompson says: “These events should never be coat-trailing exercises or dancing on people's graves. If loyalist, republican and state commemorations are conducted in a respectful and sensitive manner, then we have to allow space for them.
“However, I note that unionist politicians who are normally up in arms about republican commemorations seem to be silent on the loyalist one in Moygashel on Saturday.”
Some UVF victims have raised their objections to the parade through their solicitor Owen Winters.
Their views are shared by Mid-Ulster SDLP councillor Malachy Quinn. “We all know the history of what Wesley Somerville did,” he says.
‘Totally inappropriate’
“A celebration of somebody of that ilk is entirely inappropriate whether they're a loyalist or a republican. It's a complete disgrace.
“Wesley Somerville is not someone to put on a pedestal for the community to celebrate and for children to look up to. The very idea of that is horrific.”
Tuesday was the 41st anniversary of the death of Mary Travers, who was murdered by the IRA. Two gunmen ambushed her family as they left Mass at St Brigid's Church off the Malone Road in Belfast.
The 23-year-old teacher was shot in the back. Her father Tom, a magistrate, was hit six times but survived. His wife Joan escaped with her life after a gun pointed at her head jammed.
Ann Travers, Mary's sister, believes the parade for Wesley Somerville in Moygashel should have been banned.
“There should not be public commemorations for anyone who belonged to an illegal terrorist organisation,” she says. “Obviously, their families will want to remember them, but it should be done privately and quietly. There's no need to have a huge party for these individuals.
“Twenty-seven years on from the Good Friday Agreement, people shouldn't be holding marches or standing in cemeteries for those who murdered their neighbours.” Travers distinguishes between republican and loyalist commemorations, and those organised by the state. “You just can't compare IRA or UVF commemorations with Remembrance Sunday ceremonies,” she says.
“The vast majority who served in the security forces didn't carry out criminal acts. They didn't murder and maim innocents. They didn't shoot people in the back of the head in darkness as they left work or as they sat in their cars.”
Travers accuses republicans of hypocrisy for “demanding the right to remember their dead but not respecting other victims”.
‘I’ll get abuse from republicans’
She says: “Every year on Mary's anniversary, I'll post something on social media. The vast majority of people are nice but I'll get abuse from republicans.
“On Tuesday, I almost didn't tweet because of that abuse, but then I decided to do so anyway because Mary deserves to be remembered.
“I've had republicans this week telling me to 'dry my eyes', that Mary wasn't the only victim. I've been told that 'horrible things happen in war'.
“I've been told that my dad 'knew the rules', whatever that means. I'm often accused of wrapping myself up in a 'blanket of victimhood'.”
Travers says she has never heard a Sinn Fein leader call out those abusing IRA victims.
“I see no consistency at all,” she says. “The people attacking me for remembering my sister don't tell those remembering the republican dead to stop 'hyping up' what happened to them.
“The Bloody Sunday and Ballymurphy families are rightly not called 'celebrity victims', but why am I branded as one when all I'm doing is speaking up for my sister?”
Travers feels “sad and sick” when she sees or hears of republican commemorations.
“Many IRA victims feel that way, and we shouldn't have to,” she says. “We don't all need to like each other or each other's politics, but we must be respectful around each other.”
Hilary Benn ‘taking steps’ to ensure ICRIR can investigate Sean Brown murder
By Jonathan McCambridge, Belfast News Letter, April 10th, 2025
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has said he is taking steps to ensure a new truth recovery body is capable of carrying out an independent and rigorous investigation into the murder of Sean Brown.
The Secretary of State said he is “carefully considering” a recent judgment from the Court of Appeal in Belfast which stated that the Government’s failure to order a public inquiry into the killing of the GAA official was unlawful.
Mr Brown, 61, the chairman of Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAA club in Co Londonderry, was ambushed, kidnapped and murdered by loyalist paramilitaries as he locked the gates of the club in May 1997.
No-one has ever been convicted of his killing.
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has said he is taking steps to ensure a new truth recovery body is capable of carrying out an independent and rigorous investigation into the murder of Sean Brown.
Last week, three judges at the Court of Appeal in Belfast said the Government’s failure to order a public inquiry into the murder “cannot stand” and gave Mr Benn four weeks to “reflect upon the judgment” before another hearing.
Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill wrote to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer this week urging him to establish a public inquiry into the killing.
Speaking during a visit to Coleraine, Mr Benn said he had brought the case to the Court of Appeal on the constitutional principle of who should order public inquiries.
He said: “I want there to be a full, independent, rigorous investigation into the murder of Sean Brown.
“That is not the issue at hand in the appeal.
“The appeal relates to a constitutional principle about who orders public inquiries in the United Kingdom, and the long-standing convention is it is governments and not the courts, and that is an important constitutional principle.
“Now, I understand why, from the Brown family’s point of view, they’re not concerned with that.”
Mr Benn had challenged an earlier High Court ruling that he must set up a public inquiry, instead arguing that the case could instead be dealt with by a new Troubles investigatory body, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).
Last week the Court of Appeal said the limitations of the ICRIR to deal with cases such as Mr Brown’s killing are “apparent”.
The panel of judges said the commission, as it is currently established, is not equipped to deal with cases which involve sensitive material.
Mr Benn said: “I am determined also to make sure that the independent commission (ICRIR) will be compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights, and what the courts are saying is there has not yet been an Article 2-compliant investigation into the terrible murder of Sean Brown.
“I want there to be an Article 2-compliant investigation into the murder of Sean Brown.
“That is why I’m taking steps to ensure that the independent commission has the capacity to do that.”
Last year a coroner halted an inquest into the killing, expressing concern that his ability to examine the case had been “compromised” by the extent of confidential state material being excluded from the proceedings on national security grounds.
Preliminary inquest proceedings had already heard that in excess of 25 people had been linked by intelligence to the murder, including several state agents.
It had also been alleged in court that surveillance of a suspect in the murder was temporarily stopped on the evening of the killing, only to resume again the following morning.
The ICRIR was established as part of the previous government’s contentious Legacy Act.
Mr Benn is repealing the Act but is retaining the ICRIR, stating that he wants to improve its disclosure regime and, in specific circumstances, enable the commission to hold public hearings.
Widow accuses Benn of ‘putting salt in wounds of all Troubles victims’
Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, April 11th, 2025
THE widow of a man shot dead by loyalists has accused Secretary of State Hilary Benn of rubbing “salt in the wounds” of victims after permission was granted to appeal a court ruling linked to her husband to the Supreme Court in London.
Martina Dillon’s husband Seamus Dillon was shot dead by the LVF as he worked on the door at the Glengannon Hotel, near Dungannon, in December 1997.
Collusion is strongly suspected in the murder of the former republican prisoner.
An inquest into his death was halted before the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 , which ended all inquests and civil cases, came into operation last May.
Oversight of legacy cases has since transferred to the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), which is opposed by many victims and families, who believe it is part of British government attempts to protect state participants from accountability.
The Labour government has pledged to repeal and replace the Legacy Act, although the ICRIR is to be retained.
Incompatible with Human Rights Law
The Court of Appeal in Belfast last year found that a British government veto over sensitive material that can be disclosed by the ICRIR to relatives of people killed during the Troubles is not compatible with human rights laws.
It was also found the legacy body does not give victims and relatives adequate means to take part in its processes.
Lawyers for Ms Dillon say the Supreme Court has now granted permission for British government to appeal the findings.
Ms Dillon was critical of the latest British government move.
“The continuing efforts by the secretary of state to appeal against the decisions of the Belfast Court only puts salt in the wounds of all victims,” she said.
“We warmly welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to expedite this case and we look forward to defending our rights in London before the end of June.”
Solicitor Darragh Mackin, of Phoenix Law, said it is “disappointing that the Secretary of State has continued to utilise every available mechanism to try and uphold the Tory pet project of the Legacy Act.
“That being said, despite the secretary of state’s best endeavours, every court to date has been clear, provisions of the legacy act are incompatible with human rights and the NI Protocol.”
Mr Mackin added that the Supreme Court has “confirmed that it will hear this case on an expedited basis” before the end of June if possible.
“Our clients relish the opportunity to again take a stand against this act on behalf of all victims affected by this egregious legislation,” he added.
Mr Benn said the government was committed to repeal and replace the Legacy Act.
“But there were aspects of the Dillon judgment that raised wider constitutional questions that go beyond the legacy act, and that is why the government is appealing,” he said.
“I’m pleased that the Supreme Court has granted leave for that appeal and that will be heard when the Supreme Court is ready to do so,” he added.
Family of teenager killed by loyalists believes there was collusion
By Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, April 10, 2025
SEAMUS MORRIS AND PETER DOLAN SHOT DEAD BY UVF IN 1988
The family of a teenager shot dead by a loyalists believes there was collusion in the attack after the Police Ombudsman highlighted “investigative failings and omissions”.
Seamus Morris (18) and 25-year-old Peter Dolan were shot dead separately by a UVF gang in Ardoyne, in north Belfast, in August 1988.
The teenager, who was a student was killed after shots were fired from a passing car as he walked across Etna Drive.
A short time later the gang opened fire on a Guinness delivery lorry striking Mr Dolan who was sitting in the passenger seat.
Police Ombudsman: Report uncovers collusive behaviours in loyalist killingsOpens in new window
He died a short time later in hospital.
The double attack was later claimed by the Protestant Action Force, a cover name for the UVF.
PONI gagged
A complaint was made to the Police Ombudsman’s office in 2013 by the family of Mr Morris and included their belief that members of the security forces colluded with loyalists.
In a public statement issued on Thursday, ombudsman Marie Anderson said that due to a court ruling earlier this year she is unable to “express a view in relation to potential collusive behaviours on the part of former police officers”.
In February, the High Court found the Police Ombudsman exceeded her legal powers in making findings of collusive behaviour by RUC officers in a series of loyalist killings.
Ms Anderson’s office is set to appeal the ruling.
Seamus’ sister, Lisa Morris, said she believed there was collusion.
“We are aware that because of a court ruling the Police Ombudsman cannot make a finding of collusion or collusive behaviour,” she said.
“As far as we are concerned, the contents of the report confirm there was collusion.
“It’s a pity that the ombudsman has been prevented from going that far.”
Catalogue of RUC failings
Ms Anderson has highlighted a catalogue of failings on the part of police.
These include incorrectly linking one of the guns used in the attack to the loyalist 1992 Sean Graham’s bookmaker’s atrocity, which claimed the lives of five people, to the murders of Mr Morris and Dolan.
In her report Ms Anderson highlighted the “misattribution of weapons to murders” by the Weapons and Explosives Research Centre, a unit within Special Branch, or Northern Ireland Forensic Science Laboratory, to the PSNI “as a potential systemic issue”.
One of the weapons used in the double murder was a Czech-made VZ58, believed to have been smuggled into the north with the help of British intelligence.
Ms Anderson has confirmed that Conor Morris, the victim’s brother, provided a statement to police and a description of a front seat passenger in the car used by the killers.
She adds there is no record that police considered showing him witness photographs of suspects or that he was invited to take part in an identity parade.
“This may have led to the identification of suspects and allowed police to carry out arrests and searches,” she added.
The ombudsman added that there is no record of the enquiries being carried out along the getaway route.
“Had police enquiries been conducted in this area, a witness may have been identified who held information relevant to the murder investigation,” Ms Anderson said.
The ombudsman is also concerned about the police handling of exhibits, including a cigarette butt recovered from the getaway, car that has since gone missing.
Ms Anderson concludes the butt “could have been significant due to later advancements in forensic technology”.
It has also emerged that a fingerprint taken from the car used in the murders has since been attributed to a suspect known as Person Y.
In 1988 the print was compared to a list of 499 loyalist paramilitary suspects, known as the ‘Belfast Protestant Political Collection’, but showed up negative despite Person Y being on the list.
The ombudsman has revealed there is no evidence that the clothes of two suspects arrested in the days after the murders were tested for gunshot discharge residue.
Ms Anderson said her investigators identified no intelligence received prior to the killings that could have “forewarned of, or prevented” them.
She also said she could neither confirm nor deny “if an individual was, at any time, an informant”.
Ms Anderson said that “given the investigative failings and omissions identified, I believe that Mr Morris’ family were failed by police in their search for accountability for the murders of their loved ones”.
‘Damning indictment’
Setanta Marley of KRW Law, who represents the Morris family, said the ombudsman’s report “represents a damning indictment of the RUC who absolutely failed the Morris family”.
“Unfortunately, this latest statement chimes with an ever expanding and depressing back catalogue of Police Ombudsman statements all of which collectively point to institutionalised RUC failings right across the conflict,” he said.
“How many of such similarly themed statements must families of Troubles victims have to read before the British government and its agencies finally accept that such failings were systemic and not isolated?”
Mr Marley added that chief constable Jon Boutcher should now apologise to the Morris family.
Paul Butler from Relatives for Justice said the campaign group believes “the sectarian murders of Seamus Morris and Peter Dolan bear all the hallmarks of ‘collusive behaviour’ between the RUC and the UVF”.
Mr Butler added “there was a catalogue of failures in the murder investigation which included missed opportunities, protecting Special Branch agents and failing to act on intelligence”.
The PSNI was contacted.
GFA never intended to be permanent model for democratic government
LETTERS PAGE, Irish News, April 11th,
IN a recent Irish News column, Alex Kane posed a question that deserves far more attention than it gets: is better governance even possible under Northern Ireland’s current political structures?
It’s a question that should concern all of us. Because while the Good Friday Agreement was a remarkable and necessary peace deal, it was never intended to be a permanent model for democratic government.
As a 50-plus-year-old, I have no problem with championing the GFA. My family and I lived through the worst years of the conflict. My wife, as a nurse in the Mater Hospital in Belfast, tended the grievously injured on the day of the Shankill bomb. I am tired of explaining how many times we were searched by British soldiers on our way to my grandparents’ home in Bellaghy.
And yet, 26 years later, we are still governed by the same framework – one that has delivered peace, yes, but has repeatedly failed to deliver stable, effective government.
Stormont has been collapsed or suspended for nearly a third of its existence. Health and education reforms have been repeatedly stalled.
“We need to be honest: the institutions created in 1998 were never designed to last forever. Reform is difficult, but it’s not impossible
Budgets are routinely sent back to London – not because of interference from Westminster, but because local ministers can’t agree how to spend them. Our politicians continue to bemoan the lack of Westminster financial support, while our Public Accounts Committee highlights the gargantuan waste of taxpayers’ money on badly managed capital projects.
This isn’t power-sharing. It’s parallel governance, where parties operate in silos with no shared agenda and no real incentive to compromise. That kind of politics serves no-one – except those who profit from the stalemate.
No accountability and no alternative
Even more troubling is that the current system offers no real accountability.
In any normal democracy, when a government under-performs, voters can replace it. Here, the same parties return to government by default, not because of performance, but because of how they self-designate and how the rules of mandatory coalition work. There’s no real mechanism for voters to change the government – only to reshuffle its balance. That’s not democracy; it’s managed deadlock.
Meanwhile, the consociational model, designed to protect communities from domination, has ended up entrenching division. Mandatory designations – ‘unionist’, ‘nationalist’ or ‘other’ – have frozen identity politics into the heart of government.
MLAs from non-aligned parties like Alliance or the Greens or even SDLP are treated as second-class legislators. In a supposedly democratic institution, that’s indefensible.
Young people increasingly reject those old binaries. They want housing, opportunity, and climate action – not tribal grandstanding.
We need to be honest: the institutions created in 1998 were never designed to last forever. Reform is difficult, but it’s not impossible. A mature democracy should be able to update its foundations – especially when they are no longer fit for purpose.
Let’s start with the basics. End mandatory designations. Explore voluntary coalition. Introduce weighted majorities. Create space for politics that isn’t defined by flags or historic grievances.
And crucially, build a system where voters can actually change their government – not just endure it.
The Good Friday Agreement was a landmark peace deal. But it has become a straitjacket.
EUGENE REID Ballymena, Co Antrim
IRA Volunteer saw UDR soldier as legitimate target
Alan Erwin, Irish News and Belfast News Letter, April 11th, 2025
MAN charged with the IRA murder of a part-time British soldier in Co Armagh 46 years ago allegedly told interviewing detectives the victim was a legitimate target in “a war”, the High Court has heard.
Prosecutors claimed James Donegan (67) made the comments when first questioned by gardaí about the killing of Joseph Porter.
Mr Porter, a 64-year-old farmer and part-time Ulster Defence Regiment member, was shot dead close to his home on the Creggan Road in Mountnorris on June 24 1979.
Donegan, of Bruce Manor in Arvagh, Co Cavan, was extradited from the Republic earlier this month to be prosecuted over the attack.
He denies charges of murder, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and membership of a proscribed organisation.
The victim was found dead at the entrance to his farm yard after being gunned down by killers who are believed to have ransacked his home.
Days later the Provisional IRA claimed responsibility for the murder, stating that Mr Porter had been “interrogated and executed” because of his involvement with “the British war machine in Northern Ireland”.
Remnants of ammunition recovered from the scene of the killing established that the same gun was used in other attacks on the security forces.
HET involved
The court heard Donegan is allegedly linked to the murder by a fingerprint recovered on a bedroom door at Mr Porter’s house.
In 2012 the Historical Enquiries Team reviewed the case and established a match to a print previously obtained from the defendant.
With Donegan living in the Republic, the PSNI asked Garda to take over the case five years later.
A further strand of alleged evidence relates to comments he made during interviews with gardaí in March 2017.
Donegan denied being at the victim’s home and suggested his fingerprint must have been planted by the RUC.
But prosecution counsel also disclosed: “He said he had been a soldier in a war and that Mr Porter would have been a legitimate target as a UDR soldier.”
At that stage prosecutors in the Republic decided not to charge Donegan with any offence.
He was detained again last year after the PSNI reopened the investigation and ultimately presented himself for arrest following the failed extradition battle.
Chief Justice to study extradition judgement
An application for bail was opposed amid claims Donegan could abscond to avoid the threat of imprisonment if ultimately convicted.
“He has been a resident in Co Cavan for several decades and has no close ties to this jurisdiction,” the prosecution lawyer submitted.
“As a former member, the prosecution says, of the Provisional IRA, he would have access to a network which would assist his flight if he wished to use it.”
Michael Forde, defending, argued that Donegan suffers from heart disease and poses no risk of fleeing.
“He’s a man in poor health with no access to a passport; where is he going to go, and how would he get there?” the barrister asked.
Mr Forde also stressed that he denied any involvement in the murder during the 2017 Garda interviews.
Asked if his client made the further alleged comments, counsel replied: “On the face of what is stated on the warrant, yes, but they are not admissions to this offence.”
Adjourning proceedings, Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said she wanted to study the extradition judgment before ruling on the bail application.
Taoiseach launches key 'shared home place' part of his NI policy
Sam McBride, Belfast Telegraph, April 11th, 2025
ANNOUNCEMENT MADE AT SHARED ISLAND EVENT ATTENDED BY EX-DUP MP PAISLEY AND ORANGE GRAND SECRETARY GIBSON
As the Orange Order's most influential figure and former DUP MP Ian Paisley watched on, the Taoiseach yesterday launched a new segment of his lavishly-funded centrepiece policy on Northern Ireland.
Named after a phrase used by former SDLP deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon, Micheál Martin said the new “shared home place” project would help to tell the stories of the island's diverse peoples.
The announcement was made in Dublin's historic castle as part of the Taoiseach's Shared Island initiative, which is now in its fourth year.
The scheme has already seen €500m allocated — much of it on projects in or around Northern Ireland — and there will be a further €1bn spent over coming years.
The scheme has helped fund an hourly train service between Belfast and Dublin and the Narrow Water bridge to link south Down and the Cooley Peninsula, a structure now under construction.
Among the audience were Northern Ireland politicians, including SDLP leader Claire Hanna and several Alliance MLAs.
Also present were former DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr and the Orange Order's Grand Secretary, Mervyn Gibson.
‘Shared island, not shared Ireland’
The Rev Gibson told the Belfast Telegraph he was there because “it's a shared island event — it's not a shared Ireland event”. He said that similar projects often had “the agenda of a united Ireland” but he didn't believe there was any such agenda to Mr Martin's initiative.
He said: “Yes, people have their aspirations; I'm not naive about that… but that's not what this is about. This is about sharing resources.
“There are dangers for unionism to a certain extent; an all-island economy is something that Brexit brought about for us and we see a danger in that. But there's other things — sharing tourism, sharing healthcare; we want to be good neighbours. We live on this island, and I think we can be good neighbours.”
In an address before a fife and flute musical performance, the Taoiseach said that to achieve reconciliation there is a need for “a deeper appreciation of how different traditions and heritages have shaped every townland on this island”.
He said: “Irishness — in all its variety — does not stop at the border, neither does Britishness… nor is there a county on this island that has not been shaped by both, and more besides.”
Mr Martin said he welcomed the new approach of Sir Keir Starmer and Hilary Benn to the legacy of the Troubles, saying the Republic “stands ready to consider any approach which can move these issues forward in a comprehensive and significant way across these islands”.
However, he gave no indication that the Republic is going to drop its European court case against Britain over the Legacy Act whose central amnesty provision is now being ditched.
Mr Martin said he wanted to work with Stormont on improving education in deprived communities, as well as on tourism, enterprise and environmental conservation.
The Fianna Fail leader said he looked forward to Ireland jointly hosting with the UK the Euro 2028 football finals and the T20 Cricket World Cup. The Irish government recently approved funding for a national cricket stadium at Abbotstown in Dublin, while plans are progressing to expand the Stormont cricket ground also used by the Irish team.
However, the dramatically increased cost of redeveloping Casement Park and a lack of political consensus around funding that project means that it will not be ready in time for Euro 2028 and so Belfast will miss out on hosting any of the games.
Mr Martin added: “I look forward to working with the First and deputy First Minister and the Executive as a whole to agree new cooperation that will help to address common challenges and needs for the island.”
These include “ending gender-based violence; strengthening emergency management across this island; and introducing a green hydrogen refuelling corridor on the Dublin to Belfast route”.
The 'shared home place' story-telling programme will involve communities engaging with the past as well as the present of their areas. Mr Martin said: “A Shared Home Place borrows from my late friend Seamus Mallon's words and his endeavour to deepen a shared connection to place and to community.
“This participative, community initiative will be open to people across every town on this island; to build new connections and consensus on our place-based heritage.
“It will engage also with Irish communities in Britain and further afield, and with the contributions of Irish, Anglo-Irish and Ulster-Scots traditions across the island of Ireland — recognising how these are an integral part of the heritage of every county today and crucial to how we approach and build our future.”
He said it would also include “the greater ethnic and cultural diversity of the island”. He said this was important “however the island may be constituted”.
Quoting the poet Eavan Boland's words “now I could tell my story, it was different from the story told about me,” Mr Martin said: “As we recount and rediscover our home place stories to and with each other, they may well be different in some respects from what was told about or to us previously.”
For an interview with the Taoiseach on his government's policy towards Northern Ireland, see tomorrow's Belfast Telegraph
QUB Irish language group reject 'cultural passion project' claims against campaign
Flávia Gouveia, Belfast Telegraph, April 11th, 2025
An Irish language group at Queen's University Belfast has rejected claims that its campaign for dual language signs on campus is a “cultural passion project”.
It follows a statement by young unionists at the University who oppose the campaign and said funding should be directed towards other initiatives such as free period products instead.
The campaign is being led by the university's Irish language society, An Cumann Gaelach.
On Wednesday, a demonstration organised by the group saw over one hundred students gather outside the gates of the university.
The students were calling for more visibility of the Irish language on campus, including signs in English and Irish.
An Cumann Gaelach said that a petition has also received over 1000 signatures.
In a statement posted to social media, the committee of the QUB Ulster Young Unionists, said it had met with the university's administration ahead of the demonstration.
The student-led unionist group said there were more pressing issues “than cultural passion projects”.
“The cost of such signage is not something which we would want to see the university try to cover, especially when the university is already facing cutbacks in some areas,” the statement read.
“There are more pressing issues than cultural passion projects, such as the recent rollout of free period products across campuses.”
The group urged the University to “consider a balanced approach to language support” adding that they are campaigning for support for the Ulster-Scots language on campus.
Responding to the comments made by the young unionists group, An Cumann Gaelach it rejected claims their campaign was a “cultural passion project”.
A spokesperson for the group added: “The comments made refer to the necessity for QUB to be a neutral and shared space, An Cumann Gaelach believes that QUB cannot be a neutral nor shared space as long as it remains a monolingual one and as long as Irish speakers continue to be marginalised.
“People from all backgrounds are integral to both the Irish Language and An Cumann Gaelach.”
The spokesperson added: “Queen's University Belfast has a responsibility and obligation to promote an inclusive and diverse campus, one that is welcoming for Belfast's thriving and ever-growing Irish language community.”
A spokesperson for the University said: “Queen's management team are keen to listen and engage on the issues that matter most to our student body and staff.
“Ahead of yesterday's planned protest, the University's leadership met with Young Unionists over their concerns, and also responded to the meeting request received on Tuesday 8 April from Cumann Gaelach, agreeing to meet with this group to discuss this important issue next week.”
