Son of bombings victim given ‘participation rights’ in legal challenge to Denton report

ALAN ERWIN, Irish News and Belfast Telegraph, February 28th, 2026

THE son of a victim of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings has secured participation rights in a legal action aimed at stopping publication of a final report into the terrorist gang behind the atrocity.

Patrick Askin was granted notice party status at the High Court challenge mounted by the family of murdered loyalist William Marchant.

His father, Patrick Askin snr, was among those killed in the UVF bomb attacks on Dublin and Monaghan in May 1974.

A total of 33 people, including a pregnant woman, died and nearly 300 others were injured in the coordinated explosions.

The outrage forms part of an investigation into a wider series of UVF attacks attributed to the so-called Glenanne Gang.

Based in the mid-Ulster area, the terror unit was said to have comprised paramilitaries along with some corrupt RUC officers and locally-recruited UDR soldiers.

Detectives from the Operation Denton review team have examined almost 130 murders blamed on the gang.

The sectarian killing spree also included the 1975 Miami Showband massacre.

In December last year a summary issued by the Operation Denton team found evidence of collusion between loyalist terrorists and some police officers and members of the military at the time.

However, no evidence or intelligence of state cooperation in specific UVF attacks was identified.

Family of alleged perpetrator opposed to publication of report

Those findings were released following a failed attempt by relatives of Marchant to obtain a High Court injunction.

However, they are pressing ahead with a wider legal challenge against the final Operation Report.

Concerns have been raised that Marchant could be linked to the Dublin and Monaghan attacks through jigsaw identification.

Widely reported to have been a leading loyalist figure, he was shot dead by the IRA on Belfast’s Shankill Road in April 1987.

Lawyers representing his family claim police do not have legal power to commission a non-criminal investigation through Operation Denton.

Part of the case relates to an alleged briefing of campaign groups in Dublin in October 2025.

The Marchant family also contend there was no statutory authority to permit the disclosure of intelligence material outside the jurisdiction.

They initially sought an order to quash any part of the Denton report which named or made adverse findings against him, based on alleged breaches of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act and Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

But it was later confirmed that the case has expanded into seeking to prevent any publication of the final report, based on a challenge to the legality of the whole operation.

Relatives of another man said to have been named at the briefing in Dublin have also issued judicial reviewing proceedings.

They obtained an interim anonymity order after arguing he was never previously named publicly.

In court yesterday, counsel representing Mr Askin jnr successfully argued that he should be allowed to participate in the case.

He was among family members of victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings said to have attended the briefing last year.

It identified a number of UVF members from Belfast who planned and carried out the attacks, court papers contended.

With Mr Askin seeking as comprehensive an account as possible of the events which led to his father’s death, it was claimed that publishing the full Operation Denton report would address allegations of security force collusion.

Mr Justice McLaughlin granted the application to be a notice party at the forthcoming full hearing, his lawyers confirmed.

Outside court, solicitor Kevin Winters of KRW law firm said: “Paddy Askin lost his father in this atrocity and has been looking forward to the release of the long-awaited Denton report.

“Given that he is directly affected by the outcome of the challenge to its publication, he is pleased the court has granted him notice party status.”

Infamous UVF mural will be removed as part of loyalist transitioning project

ALLISON MORRIS, Belfast Telegraph, February 28th, 2026

GUNMEN PAINTING WILL BE REPLACED WITH AN IMAGE OF EDWARD CARSON

An infamous east Belfast mural featuring two UVF gunmen will be removed as part of loyalist transitioning.

The move has been welcomed by Gavin Robinson, the DUP MP for the area, who described it as “a hugely positive step forward”.

The mural has been on the gable wall of a corner where Dee Street meets the Newtownards Road since 2011.

The Belfast Telegraph understands its removal is part of a long-running project, and as a result of lengthy, behind-the-scenes talks with loyalist representatives.

It marks a remarkable turnaround in the area where just a few years ago tensions flared between factions of the paramilitary group. A 'show of strength' in June 2024 also brought hundreds of men onto the streets.

This was linked to a parade honouring Robert Seymour, a UVF member killed by the IRA in 1988 and was attended by now-jailed UVF commander Winston 'Winkie' Irvine.

Since then, there has been extensive mediation to end any tensions, and meetings have also taken place with an interlocutor appointed by the British and Irish governments to look at ending all paramilitary activity.

Fleur Ravensbergen, an independent expert in conflict resolution, was appointed last September by the two governments to lead a year-long scoping exercise on the disbandment of paramilitary groups.

Her role involves assessing whether a formal engagement process for group transition is supported.

Loyalists have met with Ms Ravensbergen, but say that plans for the mural are not directly linked to that process, but have been under discussion for some time.

Transformed, not disbanded

They added that total disbandment has, for now, been ruled out.

A senior loyalist source said: “Transformed groups, which retain a cohesion and structure, can engage in these kinds of processes and deliver positive outcomes. Disbanded organisations cannot.”

The new mural will feature an image of Edward Carson, the Dublin-born unionist politician who led the opposition to Home Rule.

Both 'factions' of the loyalist leadership are expected to attend the unveiling of the mural, in a rare and public show of unity.

The loyalist source added: “Relationships have been rebuilt in east Belfast. The two 'factions', following the split of 2023, are working together on issues of common good, and this is evidence of that, and more generally, a cohesive UVF commitment to transformation.

“Relationships have stabilised and this positive outcome is just one example of what can be achieved when working together.”

The UVF mural features two gunmen and a UVF badge, with the words 'East Belfast Batt' beside the words 'We seek nothing but the elementary right implanted in every man — the right if you are attacked to defend yourself'.

The return of militarised murals, featuring masked and armed men, started around the time of rising tensions, culminating in the 2012 loyalist flag protests, and was considered at the time as a backward step.

Following the peace process, many of the old murals were painted over with images of sporting stars or historic figures. East Belfast murals were replaced with images of the shipyard and footballer George Best. However, tensions around flags set back any transitioning work, with a return of more sinister images.

The Belfast Telegraph understands this is the first in a series of planned transformations of other paramilitary murals in the area. The work is supported by the Executive Office-run Communities in Transition project.

The project is part of the Executive Action plan on addressing paramilitarism.

There are eight Communities in Transition areas, based on projects around community safety, health and wellbeing, arts and culture, area regeneration and personal transition.

MP Gavin Robinson said: “I welcome this move as one that has been agreed with all interested parties. It represents positive progress and the transition required within our community.

“I see this as a hugely positive step and commend NI Alternatives and all interested parties and stakeholders involved in making this happen.”

A spokesperson for NI Alternatives said: “Northern Ireland Alternatives in partnership with the East Belfast Memorial Committee and Legacy Network can confirm there has been agreement on the reimaging of the large Ulster Volunteer Force mural on the Newtownards Road.

 “The work on this project will soon commence, and it represents the product of lengthy positive negotiation and discussion with all stakeholders in the area.

“This project has unanimous support from all sections of the loyalist community in east Belfast and we welcome the collaborative working and rebuilding of relationships, which is at the core of delivering this outcome as part of the ongoing process of transition.

 “Northern Ireland Alternatives would like to thank Communities in Transition, The Executive Office, for their support of this reimaging project.”

SDLP soaring ahead of Sinn Fein in the battle for ideas within northern nationalism

Sam McBride, Northern Editor, Belfast Telegraph, February 28th, 2026

UNDER CLAIRE HANNA, THE SDLP IS THE NATIONALIST PARTY WITH ENERGY, CONFIDENCE, IDEAS, LEADERSHIP AND A SENSE OF PURPOSE WHICH IS INCREASINGLY EXPOSING SINN FEIN'S PART IN FAILING NI ESTABLISHMENT

For as long as I've been a journalist, the job of SDLP leader has seemed one in which the height of ambition might have been to emulate the words of the poet John Donne: “He doth not dig a grave, but build a tomb.”

The party was dying, but it might at least leave some memorial more permanent than those which typically follow deceased political organisations.

The party may now be at a moment where that is no longer the case. We cannot yet know if that is so; the world is an uncertain place in which confident pronouncements about what may or may not be several years hence are more foolish than ever.

Yet, one thing is indisputable: the SDLP today is the nationalist party with energy, confidence, ideas, leadership and a sense of purpose to an extent which increasingly exposes Sinn Fein's part in the new — and failing — Northern Ireland establishment.

Despite being far smaller than Sinn Fein, the SDLP is in the driving seat of northern nationalism. Foolish republicans will sneeringly dismiss this; wise republicans realised this some time ago and should be seeking to adapt to it.

Just a few weeks ago, this drastic shift was encapsulated in an SDLP Assembly motion which condemned the failures of the Executive; despite now leading that Executive, Sinn Fein sheepishly voted to condemn its own administration.

That is not the behaviour of a confident party which is setting the agenda.

A few weeks ago, Claire Hanna came into the Belfast Telegraph's office for a long podcast interview with my colleague Ciarán Dunbar. The SDLP leader turned up on a bicycle, without any press officers or flunkies.

For almost an hour, she answered questions — some of them the typically esoteric questions Ciarán loves to ask — with enthusiastic confidence.

Pressed to explain her political ideology, the South Belfast and Mid Down MP set out her worldview as that of a social democrat where she pragmatically accepts that the world we inhabit is not the one she'd prefer, but she believes in incremental change rather than revolution.

“It's about social cohesion, about trying to reconcile competing interests, about finding opportunity for people, finding ambition for the region, rewarding people's work while looking after the vulnerable,” she said.

A new sort of nationalist?

Ciarán pointed out: “You haven't said you're an Irish nationalist.”

Hanna responded elliptically: “I'm in the Irish nationalist tradition.”

Drawing on the SDLP's history, she said its’ aims at the start of the Troubles had evolved into today's ethos: where it was founded to help end the violence, now it works to build reconciliation; where it once argued for power sharing, now it is focused on getting good government; where it once argued for equality, now it wants to see that to create universal opportunity and prosperity; where it once was a party seeking to expand north-south links, now it is actively pursuing planning for Irish unity.

Yet, while talking much more about Irish unity, significantly last week she also pointedly visited Ballynafeigh Orange Hall.

She joined the local lodge to celebrate the awarding of an MBE to long-time lodge member Noel Liggett.

Hanna has said: “It is the SDLP's core mission and values, but I'm leading the party in 2026 and not 1996. We're adapting to the world around us.”

The extent to which she has reshaped the SDLP is all the more remarkable because she has done this while leading an Irish nationalist party from Westminster.

Her approach to the House of Commons is that it's important to engage, pointing out that it still sets tax and foreign policy among other things, but she isn't apologetic about being in her constituency or with her young family rather than sitting through “a debate about a train station in Dorset”.

After listening to the podcast, two things immediately struck me. First, I couldn't imagine Michelle O'Neill doing such an interview; the First Minister does almost no long-form interviews.

Some sympathetic commentators once viewed this as a wisely cautious strategy but, increasingly, it reeks of weakness.

If O'Neill did do such an interview, it's inconceivable that she'd sound like Hanna. Her heavily scripted responses, trotted out in Assembly statement after Assembly statement and in the few short interviews she gives to selected journalists, are often deployed almost regardless of the question asked.

The most absurd of these phrases is that almost every Stormont failure is the fault of the big bad Brits, who won't send even more than the £32bn a year given to Stormont to spend annually. It's a limp excuse for the failure to fill in potholes or to be able to properly pedestrianise a tiny cobbled street in Belfast, while being able to find money to have photographers follow ministers and for huge MLA salary increases.

Yet a party which has grown fat and lazy by having too much power for too long keeps tossing out such lines. This can surely only happen in circumstances where Sinn Fein's internal mechanisms reflect those of an out-of-touch monarch whose court are so terrified of his wrath that they fear to tell him the unpleasant truth.

The second thing which struck me about Hanna's interview is how atypical it sounded for a 21st-century political leader.

This must be what it felt like for a northern nationalist to hear John Hume speak in the 1960s.

Here was a rebellious nationalist leader telling others on her side that they were wrong — just has Hume had done.

Here was a leader questioning received nationalist, as well as unionist, orthodoxy — just as Hume had done.

Here was a leader speaking with eloquence and intellectual rigour — just has Hume had done.

And here was a nationalist leader telling her supporters that Northern Ireland's problems aren't simply the fault of unionists, or partition, or the British Government — as Hume had done.

Rejection and reinvigoration

Central to the SDLP's revival has been a decision which has nothing to do with Hanna, but was taken by voters: the SDLP's ejection from the Executive. Its role as the official Opposition in Stormont has reinvigorated the party, giving it a purpose which transcends tribal disputes.

It also fits with the philosophy of Hume, who, in the seminal 1964 Irish Times article which launched him into prominence, wrote: “It must be said the blame for the situation which prevails must lie principally at the door of the unionist government. But the present Nationalist Political Party must bear a share of it.

“Good government depends as much on the opposition as on the party in power. Weak opposition leads to corrupt government.”

Lacerating his own side, Hume continued: “Nationalists in opposition have been in no way constructive. They have quite rightly been loud in their demands for rights, but they have remained silent and inactive about their duties.

“In 40 years of opposition, they have not produced one constructive contribution on either the social or economic plane to the development of Northern Ireland, which is, after all, a substantial part of the United Ireland for which they strive.

“Leadership has been the comfortable leadership of flags and slogans. Easy, no doubt, but irresponsible.”

Hume accepted there was Catholic bigotry and stressed that “the Protestant tradition in the north is as strong and as legitimate as our own”.

He continued: “We must be prepared to accept... that a man wishes Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom does not necessarily make him a bigot or a discriminator.”

He urged “acceptance of the constitutional position”, arguing: “There is nothing inconsistent with such acceptance and a belief that a 32-county republic is best for Ireland.”

He bemoaned the “dangerous equation of nationalism and Catholicism” and the situation whereby “Catholics of all shades of political thought are expected to band together under the unconstructive banner of nationalism”.

It is easy now to forget how radical this was in early 1960s Northern Ireland — even if Hume's critics would say that, as the SDLP swallowed up the nationalist vote, this element of his radicalism faded.

What didn't alter was Hume's unique intellectual talent. Along with diverse figures such as Paisley, Robinson, Adams, McGuinness, Trimble and others, the era produced politicians of a calibre which few match today.

Take Hume's interview with Anthony Clare in 1989. This was long after the heady idealism of the 1960s, long after the forlorn hope of the Sunningdale Agreement, and more than three years after the unfulfilled possibility he saw in the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

Hume spoke of Irishness as something which entailed “extraordinary diversity. For a small island, we are probably one of the most diverse peoples in the world.” He referred to “the streams that made up Ireland — the Celts, the Normans, the English, the Scots”.

He described the Irish as “the biggest wandering people in the world — we're a much bigger wandering people than the Jews” and he recounted how St Columba had struck an “early Anglo-Irish agreement” between tribes in dispute about whether to pay tribute to kings in Ireland or Scotland, reminding the largely southern Irish audience that what is now Northern Ireland had developed differently to the rest of the island long before the plantation.

It's not just the eloquence of Hume which stands out, but also the intellectual heft which he effortlessly deployed.

You might disagree with him, but you can't dismiss him as someone ignorant of history or unthinking about the present.

Who knows how Hume would have fared in the age of X, TikTok and widespread disdain for politicians.

Recently my colleague Kurtis Reid reported how, over the past year, the SDLP has come from behind to overtake Alliance in reach on Instagram and TikTok, two important social media platforms for younger voters.

A key figure there is not only Hanna, but also Matthew O'Toole, the leader of the Stormont Opposition and one of the Assembly's sharpest MLAs.

A party for years headed by Hume and Seamus Mallon, two of the biggest political beasts of their era, now has new figures who are rekindling a fire which had grown dim.

Despite opportunity, the SDLP still faces huge challenges.

Personal popularity not reflected in polls

Shifts obvious to those watching Stormont closely won't be reflected in polls for some time. Most voters give Stormont no more than a derisory glance. Many won't even be aware the SDLP are now in Opposition. It will have to hold its nerve if next year's election shows minimal change.

There are other challenges. At the heart of Hanna's politics is a sense of moral indignation. Given Stormont's sorry state, this is easy — and appropriate. Nevertheless, it will be harder for her to sustain than it was for Hume — not only because the world is now a far more sceptical age, but also because direct rule involved very different political realities.

Politicians could maintain a purity — or at least convince their voters they had — while they'd scant real power. Unionist, nationalist or other, they were all in opposition to a technocratic government of civil servants nominally overseen by British MPs who flew in and out.

The awkward trade-offs of real politics didn't exist. It's no coincidence that the longevity of political leaders during the Troubles was immense. The world is no longer thus.

Despite being shrunken and even though in opposition, the SDLP is far closer to power now than it was then. It has MLAs who chair Assembly committees, a leader of the Stormont Opposition, and MLAs who vote on Stormont legislation.

In short, it has to take real decisions, even while outside government. It is a mistake to assume that executive power is the only form of power. Often it's not even the most powerful; the memoirs of former politicians recount how they felt carried along on the tides of media reporting, ferocious lobbying or civil service advice.

The central question to which the SDLP needs a simple convincing answer is whether, if it got a few more MLAs next year, would it rush right back into the Executive it has spent two years denouncing?

The SDLP is still nowhere near its pomp. Sinn Fein is infinitely bigger, wealthier and better organised. But for all that, Michelle O'Neill should be worried.

A party that has failed to clean up Lough Neagh, can't build Casement Park, can't build the A5 because of making a law it didn't understand, and which can't come up with a more convincing explanation than 'it's the Brits' fault' has deep, deep problems.

Message to unionists from John Taylor -get ready for Irish unity

Alex Kane speaks to John Taylor, last surviving minister of the old Stormont government, about civil rights, John Hume, Ian Paisley, and the mistakes unionism keeps making

Irish News, February 28th, 2026

JOHN Taylor, also known as Lord Kilclooney, who turned 88 last December, has had a remarkable political career. He was first elected to the old Northern Ireland Parliament, for South Tyrone, at the age of 27 in 1965 and served as Minister of State in Home Affairs in the last cabinet and government.

He was subsequently elected to the 1973 Assembly, the 1975 Convention, the European Parliament in 1979, the 1982 Assembly, the House of Commons in 1983, the 1996 Forum and the 1998 Assembly.

Taylor served as David Trimble’s deputy leader from 1995 and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2007.

As I say, a remarkable career, not to mention his record in business as proprietor of a chain of local newspapers.

But when I met him at his home in Armagh (where the union flag still flies daily over the house, serving as much as a guide to the exact location as a statement of identity), I reminded him that he probably owed that career to my dad, who had saved him from drowning in Rossnowlagh harbour in Co Donegal when he was a boy.

“I had gone down a number of times and actually thought that was it. I was drowning and I couldn’t get my head back above the water. And then along came your dad (a friend of Taylor’s parents), who had seen that I was in trouble and jumped in,” he said.

He has kept his head above water since then.

His family was not an overtly political one (which was fairly typical of middle-class unionism at the time) and he only got involved in unionism when he joined the Young Unionists at Queen’s University, where he graduated in applied sciences and technology.

“I was a very active member and took part in lots of things and that stirred up my interest in a possible political career,” he said.

Taylor became chair of the QUB Conservative and Unionist Association in 1959 and the Ulster Young Unionist Council in 1961. All useful profile-building.

Just before the 1965 Northern Ireland general election, the UUP member for South Tyrone, William McCoy, who had fallen out with the leadership over his support for dominion status (he didn’t trust a British government to protect the long-term interests of Northern Ireland), stepped down and Taylor secured the nomination and the seat.

Then on February 25 1972, during his time as Minister of State at Home Affairs, he had another brush with death.

OIRA assassination attempt

“I didn’t know what was happening. I thought it was a bomb. It was my fault,” he recalled.

“The police were with me where my office was in Armagh, and I told them to stay there while I walked the short distance to get my car, and I’d come and lift them. So they stayed there.

“I went round the corner, got into the car and started the engine – and thank goodness I did. That saved my life.

“Two IRA men walked towards the car, firing at me. They hit me in the jaw. My foot jammed on the accelerator and as the engine roared like mad, it brought out a crowd.” I asked about residual pain. “I was in hospital nine times that year for operations and I lost most of my jaw. It never affected me at all. I returned to total activity.

“In these last few weeks I lost a tooth that was hit by one of the bullets and I found it floating round my mouth and I put it in the bin here.

“But it has affected my speech after all these years, and I find it difficult to pronounce some words for the first time since that assassination attempt. It’s very odd but there’s no residual pain.”

He says he was shot because he was blamed for internment, although it had been introduced by Brian Faulkner six months earlier.

Very different from Border campaign

Yet the willingness of the IRA to kill a cabinet minister shocked him and hammered home the reality that this was going to be very different from the paramilitary group’s 1956-62 campaign.

I asked him about Terence O’Neill, whom he described as being very much an older establishment man.

“He was a decent man but not the leader that unionism needed then. Brian Faulkner was very much a man of the people,” he said.

“If we had had Faulkner a few years earlier as leader of the UUP we would have done much better. When he finally arrived as PM it was too late to save Stormont.”

What he said after that was both interesting and surprising.

“And history is going to repeat itself again – over the reality that there is going to be a united Ireland. Unionism needs to be prepared for that if we are to avoid more violence.”

He agrees that one of the long-standing problems with unionism is that it has never really been prepared for each crisis as it came along.

He is particularly critical of the DUP – “the best supporters of Irish nationalism and they don’t realise it, because they are very much a parochial evangelical organisation”.

Had there, I wondered, ever been a British prime minister or government with a genuine political, emotional, electoral or constitutional attachment to Northern Ireland and unionism.

No friends in Downing Street and ‘missing a trick’ with NICRA

“I personally have never known a UK PM who was committed strongly to Northern Ireland remaining in the UK. I’m sorry to say that even the Tory party, never mind the Labour party, was an unreliable friend.”

He wouldn’t trust Reform UK, either.

Since he seems so sure of Irish unity, I asked him if unionism missed out on a major trick by not reaching out to nationalism and trying to win at least some people over.

“I agree with that strongly. We should have. I think religious differences between Protestants and Roman Catholics played a part in making that reach-out impossible. And of course the Orange influence on key parts of unionism/loyalism.”

Should unionism have reached out to the Civil Rights Association in the late 1960s and talked about possible accommodation? Was that also a mistake?

“Absolutely. We did miss a trick. We’ll probably miss it again in the future because we need to be thinking about the possibility of a united Ireland and what would be required for unionism.

“There are things unionism needs to be raising internally about how it would manage and survive if a united Ireland did come.”

I take him back to Brian Faulkner and whether he regretted falling out with him over Sunningdale, and then being instrumental in bringing him down in January 1974.

Was the UUUC (United Ulster Unionist Council) wrong not to have a plan in place for when the power-sharing government came down?

His answer brings him back to what has become a running theme in the interview.

“Yes. And as I’ve already said, unionism is going to make the same sort of mistake again. They are not thinking ahead or planning for anything that might come,” he said.

I ask what he thinks of the current assembly.

“I think it’s important to have an elected voice in Northern Ireland, especially at Stormont. Unionists and nationalists have to work together in Northern Ireland in a way which is separate from working under Dublin or something like joint authority.”

What about Ian Paisley’s legacy and the argument that his change of heart saved the Good Friday Agreement?

Paisley was ‘bad news’ for Northern Ireland

“He was bad news for Northern Ireland – and whether the deal with (Martin) McGuinness was a genuine change of heart, I have no idea.”

By contrast, he admits that he found William Craig – future leader of the paramilitary-linked Vanguard – fairly easy to work with.

But Taylor notes that Craig realised fairly quickly the British didn’t care less about Northern Ireland and that he didn’t even the see the writing on the wall about the prorogation of the Stormont Parliament in March 1972.

Citing Craig’s experience as another reason why modern loyalism/ unionism needs to remember how it was treated in the past, he added: “It hasn’t really changed.”

IS there anything unionism can do to underpin the union over the coming years? “I don’t think there is much they can do at this stage. I think they are going to be caught on the hop – which may explain why their reaction could include violence. Although it wouldn’t last.”

I suggest that unionism might, in advance of a border poll, reach out to the thousands of immigrants who have moved here over the years.

“They don’t. But do you know who does? Alliance and the SDLP. The unionists ignore them totally. Big mistake,” he said.

Taylor says he had a good relationship with John Hume.

“I was able to work very happily with John Hume. And he was a very strong nationalist.

“The reason he was able to get recognised in America in a way that a unionist wasn’t was because the Irish are so important in America.

“There was no other figure in Irish nationalism then who could do what he did to energise support for Irish unity. No-one had the same presence on either side of the border.

“The unionist community are not admired in the same way – even though Ulster Presbyterians helped to start the country. There are still parts and places in America which reflect the Presbyterian and Ulster Scots heritage, but they don’t identify with Ulster unionism.”

Why was there no unionist leader of similar status?

“The British in Great Britain have changed dramatically in the last 40 or so years. There has been a huge change in their thinking and sense of identity. A growth of a new sense of specifically English nationalism.

“Over here the influence of the Orange Order has changed. Maybe still influential in rural areas, but the swing away from religion generally has had an impact in Northern Ireland. Sadly, in my opinion.”

I tell him that he has been accused of being deliberately offensive to nationalism in the past, offering examples such as saying in 1993, after an upsurge in killings, that “Catholic fears might be helpful”; telling a Young Unionists conference that the IRA was winning and that the SDLP was riding on the coattails; and comments about the shootings at Sean Graham’s bookies that “these Catholics would not have been murdered had the IRA not firstly committed the terrible slaughter of eight Protestants at Teebane”.

“Are you conceding that your language has, at times, been both crass and offensive?” “I am.” “Does it worry you in any sense?” “There are always things you regret having said. But I still like to look forward and that is why I want to appeal to unionists to start thinking in terms of what is Northern Ireland’s position within a united Ireland.”

“Your political/electoral record in the UK is extraordinary. Any big regret?”

No major regrets

“Nothing major that I regret. But right now, I regret that unionists are not thinking in terms of the changes that are going to take place.”

I ask how he sums up unionism today.

“Ulster unionists are a minority within the island of Ireland. They have got to learn to live alongside the majority of Irish nationalists.

“And that also means Irish nationalists have to accept that Ulster unionists in Northern Ireland are a different breed and different type of people they will have to accommodate. Which means that in any united Ireland there would probably have to be a separate institution in Northern Ireland in which unionists and nationalists would work together for the whole of Northern Ireland.”

I ask if Ulster unionism is an entirely different identity from the type of nationalist identity now being expressed in England.

“I think the Ulster unionist people in Northern Ireland are totally different from English nationalists or similar types in England,” he said.

“Unionists in Northern Ireland, especially the DUP, have to learn to live with that reality.

“Today you have the TUV and Jim Allister, who is much more effective with the unionist community than the Ulster Unionists.

“But the new leader of the UUP, Jon Burrows, has given more leadership in the past few weeks than the previous leaders did in the past number of years.”

On the future of the UUP and unionism, he states baldly that “unionism will not survive”.

“The people in Great Britain are no longer interested in Northern Ireland, and society in England and Great Britain is changing and at the same time society in Northern Ireland is changing, because the majority are going to be in favour of a united Ireland.”

John Taylor has long been viewed as a weather vane across unionism – and usually pointing in the same direction as mainstream thinking.

That’s why what he says throughout the interview is hugely significant; not least because I wasn’t expecting him to be so firm about the inevitability of Irish unity.

He has been knee-deep in unionist politics for 70 years and has been a very significant player at key moments, including the downfall of Faulkner, his support for the 1974 Ulster Workers’ Council strike and his backing of David Trimble and the Good Friday Agreement.

As it happens, I don’t agree that Irish unity is inevitable. But I do believe there will be a border poll – and sooner than some think.

Being prepared for either of those eventualities is essential for unionism.

You can agree or disagree with his pessimism about the union, but he is right about unionism not being able to afford being caught on the hop again.

Here’s an idea: performance related pay for our MLAs

PATRICK MURPHY, Irish News, February 28th, 2026

DEAR Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly. You have rightly acknowledged that people are angry at the proposed £14,000 annual pay rise for MLAs, but you offered only a partial explanation for that anger.

Public annoyance is not just based on income inequality between MLAs and other occupations such as nursing.

It stems significantly from the fact that MLAs are seen as being paid for achieving so little – indeed, some would argue that despite the salaries and generous expenses, Stormont has made life worse for many of us.

Of course, none of this is the personal fault of either of you, but you are the heads of government here and that means the buck stops with both of you politically.

So in terms of governance, you are responsible for resolving our many difficulties, including: pothole-ridden roads; five-year waiting lists for health care; the 110,000 children in poverty; the 29,000 homeless households on the social housing waiting list; the estimated 100 food banks and the thousands who rely on them; the A5; the crumbling school buildings; the pollution of Lough Neagh, and a host of other problems, which reflect the growing social and economic inequality in our society.

There is little evidence that you intend to sort out any of those issues.

A month into 2026, the Assembly had spent just nine minutes debating legislation. This newspaper has reported that in the past two years, MLAs have passed 10 pieces of legislation, while the Scottish parliament has passed 31.

So Stormont is understandably seen by many as a country club for the political elite, who show little understanding of life beyond the club’s carefully manicured lawns.

MLAs’ membership of the club costs about £12 million annually in claimed expenses – paid for by the public.

“Work” in Stormont appears to mean reading inane, party-written statements, which trigger an exchange of sectarian insults, before the parties go off together to eat their subsidised meals in a dining room which recently cost £520,000 to refurbish.

MLAs took a month off at Christmas and, for five of the past nine years, they drew an income while there was no assembly to go to.

Public anger and disgust

You have not just generated public anger, you have created public disgust.

Stormont First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly

“ This idea is based on a positive rewards system, rather than a punishment based model, which might suggest that if Stormont does not clean up Lough Neagh, for example, MLAs should be forced to bathe in it every week

Last year, in your Programme for Government (PfG), you promised you would work for us. Have you?

For example, you said we need to tackle the problems at Lough Neagh urgently. When Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir published an excellent plan to tackle the issue, your parties distanced themselves from it – urgently.

The PfG contained no budget to explain how it would be financed, and the Fiscal Council has said British government bail-outs risk ‘normalising’ serious financial mismanagement. Are MLAs worth a pay increase in that context?

Last June, after a delay of 19 years, you produced an anti-poverty “strategy”, which did not have a single measurable objective, or one deadline date.

It said, for example, that family break-up can cause poverty and offered the solution that “the benefits of a good family structure will be promoted”.

That document was an insult to those in poverty and it should be a cause of embarrassment to both of you.

Unless you improve Stormont’s performance, public anger will continue to grow.

‘No progress, no pay rise’

So here’s an idea. Leave MLAs’ £53,000 basic salary in place and introduce performance-related pay for every improvement they make to society. Let’s call it: “No progress, no pay increase.”

This idea is based on a positive reward system, rather than a punishment-based model, which might suggest that if Stormont does not clean up Lough Neagh, for example, MLAs should be forced to bathe in it every week.

There would probably be widespread public support for that suggestion, but this column could not possibly condone such a scandalous idea (well, just a bit).

So if the Executive delivers pothole-free roads, abolishes child poverty, or ends the need for food banks, MLAs will get a bonus on top of their present salary.

You might then have your photographs taken together as the last food bank closes down, or welcoming the last victim of child poverty to Stormont.

That would be a welcome change from other photographs you have had taken.

Of course, if performance-related pay sounds too much like hard work, you can always soothe the public anger with old-fashioned sectarianism – blame the other side for our troubles as next year’s election draws near. Waving a flag cures all Stormont’s failings.

So what’s it to be: continued public anger, performance-related pay, or the same old sectarian politics?

Most people would think they already know the answer.

In Northern Ireland sectarianism keeps rising, much like our MLAs' pay

Gail Walker, Belfast Telegraph, February 28th, 2026

You will have heard of Benjamin Franklin's famous quote about how in life there are only two certainties — death and taxes. In Northern Ireland, we can add two more — sectarian tensions and pay rises for MLAs.

With Stormont in the midst of several years of truly Olympic-standard inaction, the sectarian temperature is visibly rising as we enter another election cycle towards the Assembly poll in Spring 2027.

At an awards ceremony in Dublin, Lola Petticrew made an acceptance speech, describing being from a background in west Belfast where “the system is not designed for kids where I am from to survive, let alone thrive” due to violence which the actor took to be fostered by the British presence in Ireland. Tough and contentious talk certainly, which led to extraordinary claims and counter-claims and abuse and posturing and clamour.

UUP MLA Robbie Butler picked up on the comments, posting on social media how when he was young and his family were driving to Springmartin in west Belfast his parents advised children to “duck down in the back of the car as we drove through republican controlled areas in case the IRA “got us'”. He was glad Lola “didn't have to grow up with what my family and I did”.

This reminiscence also drew serious flak, much of which made no sense at all except to be abusive. Neither Petticrew nor Butler could be permitted to talk about their own experiences.

Meanwhile, SDLP MP Claire Hanna was photographed at Ballynafeigh Orange Hall marking the award of an MBE to one of its members, Noel Liggett, an honour she supported by letter. A welcome example of outreach? Forget it. Once again, out came the goblins from every angle you can imagine and many you can't.

The routine survives. The background noise gets louder and louder and it is never disturbed by change or progress or reason.

Which is why we have elected representatives in the first place. They should be out in force providing measured sensible positive responses, creating the civic space where people can hold views without being shouted down and abused.

Instead nothing happens. Rarely do MLAs proactively engage with the underlying animosity. Butler attempted to share another perspective and got set upon. Mostly, there is no urgency to hold the conversations about how we lived in the past and how we regarded people who thought differently to us and behaved differently to us.

One of the things that people have a right to be is wrong.

Imagine a phalanx of MLAs immediately stepping forward, each of them saying: “I don't want to hear anybody slagging off anyone in this constituency because their background, experiences, memories, are different. When I see that happening, I will be challenging it.”

Legacy ‘isn’t just about names on plaques’

That is part of what 'legacy' is all about. Legacy isn't just about names on a plaque or a monument. First of all, it's about a change of attitude, a change of behaviour.

Legacy is still ignored after nearly 30 years of elected representatives. We haven't made it unacceptable to voice certain attitudes.

There was a row this week about the use of a racial slur at the Baftas. Leaving aside the nuances of the context of Tourette's, there was a word used which is so taboo that it cannot even be printed here.

In Northern Ireland, do we have a list of terms of abuse that are not allowed? Do we have attitudes that are no longer permissible? Here, it's still alright to promote the killing of people, to goad victims like Ann Travers online, to shout down, harass and even threaten people for historic grievances.

Intemperate, real-time abuse doesn't trigger us the way it can trigger other communities.

As far as that goes, literally nothing has changed. Sectarian wrangling, sniping, grandstanding and positioning are still the daily fare of our political and civic life.

Now there is the most astounding example of brass neck-ery in the western hemisphere.

Amid the crisis in our health system, crocked infrastructure, declining services, overspends and systems failures, comes a recommendation that MLAs get a 27% pay hike, taking their salaries from £53,000 to £67,200 a year. The total wage bill jumping by almost £1.3m to £6.7m per year. Nine times the rate of inflation.

Talk about “having a tin ear” “Not reading the room” “Putting the arm in…”

This is no independent recommendation. The legislation to set up the Independent Remuneration Board was passed at Stormont itself.

These are not performance-related bonuses. These aren't the result of an appraisal for each Assembly member about how well they have performed their tasks or not.

Most other people spend their working lives being watched like hawks, under pressure to keep up with targets and get the job done promptly. Pay rises are meagre. Geraldine, a domestic in a hospital, told the Nolan Show she earned £12.21 an hour. Out-of-touch doesn't cover it.

Nothing improves our standard of living. Nothing.

But there is always a demand for us, the taxpayer, to raise the standard of living of MLAs. It brings a tear to your eye how much cross-community harmony the promise of cash in hand brings about.

Ulster Scots and White House

Now here's a thing. Yet again, this St Patrick's Day Sinn Fein is not going to the White House. Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly will travel to Washington. In other words, another very clear signal of the division here. Again, we are caught fibbing to the world about the success of our peace process.

The only reason anyone goes to the White House is to Get Stuff. What you hope for is business investment: jobs, money, tourists, longterm partnership deals.

St Patrick's Day is an open goal for Ireland by a cultural fluke of the Irish diaspora. The point is to gain some of the very substantial billions from the US economy.

Sure, protests. But there hasn't been a decade since the war when the US hasn't been involved in some foreign military intervention. There were riots in the UK protesting against President Bush in 2003 and 2008. But the eyes on the prize is to benefit one's own economy.

We have never properly benefited from the Irish association in the US. Last month a Stormont committee heard that a US multinational pulled plans to create 300 jobs due to concerns about political positions adopted by Sinn Fein.

If St Patrick's Day is too Irishy for your palate, look at Secretary of State Marco Rubio's speech two weeks ago in Germany where he spoke about the impact of “that proud, hearty clan from the hills of Ulster” on US culture and politics. He namechecked Davy Crockett, Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt and Neil Armstrong. Rubio is a Cuban American who has no connection with Northern Ireland except for the fact the nation for which he is Secretary of State has deep Ulster Irish roots and he shares in those because he is an 'American'.

Incredibly, nobody made much of his comments here. Nobody lifted that as a point of contact, as a pathway towards partnership today.

Imagine if we could tell a different story Stateside and elsewhere, saying look at how people's stories have been seen and recognised, how viewpoints have been protected. How political representatives are freely able to cross the divides. Look at how MLAs dial down the animosity in gatherings.

But no.

Everywhere there is a chance to draw tribal lines they take it. Every time salaries are mentioned, the paws shoot out.

No wonder taxpayers agree they shouldn't get a single red cent more.

Republicans vandalise Queen Victoria statue at Belfast hospital

CONOR SHEILS, Irish News, February 28th, 2026

A statue of Queen Victoria on the grounds of the Royal Hospital on the Falls Road was vandalised by Lasair Dhearg with red paint

A REPUBLICAN group has vandalised a statue of Queen Victoria at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital.

The incident took place when members of the Lasair Dhearg grouping poured red paint over the statue of the former British monarch yesterday afternoon.

“Belfast activists moments ago paid a visit to the ‘Famine’ Queen statue situated within the grounds of the Hospital on Belfast’s Falls Road,” the group said in a social media post.

“British monarch, Victoria, oversaw the Great Hunger and the decimation of the Irish population as millions perished and emigrated.

“In a Socialist Republic all the symbols of Empire will be stripped from the land; street names, statues, institutions, and those that will stand against the people organising for a better future.

“Only the fight for a Socialist Republic can bring about the end of occupation and Imperialism in Ireland. Join us, bígí linn.”

Ulster Unionist Party Health Spokesperson Alan Chambers described the incident as “disgraceful”.

“The disgraceful defacing of the statue at the Royal Victoria Hospital was a completely senseless and unacceptable act of vandalism,” he said in a statement to The Irish News.

“Whatever views individuals may hold about history or heritage, there is absolutely zero justification for targeting a healthcare facility in this manner.

“The Royal Victoria Hospital exists to provide care and treatment to some of the sickest people in Northern Ireland and at the most vulnerable moments in their lives. It is a place dedicated to saving lives and supporting families – it should never be seen as an opportunity for idiotic political protest or criminal damage.

“Every pound that now has to be spent repairing this damage is a pound taken away from the health service.

“At a time when our health service is already under immense pressure, with budgets stretched, it is utterly irresponsible that scarce resources will now have to be diverted to clean up this mess.

“Those responsible have shown a clear disregard not just for our shared public spaces, but for the patients and staff who rely on the Royal Victoria Hospital every day. That is why I hope they will be identified and held fully accountable. I urge anyone with information about this despicable incident to come forward.”

The PSNI confirmed a re-port relating to criminal damage has been made to police.

A PSNI spokesperson said: “It was reported that paint was thrown over a statue in the area.

“Enquiries are at an early stage, and police would appeal to any witnesses, or anyone who might have any information which could assist us, to get in touch.

“The number to call is 101, quoting reference number 677 of 27/02/26.”

Residents ‘living in fear’ next to controversial bonfire site

CONOR SHEILS, Irish News, February 28th, 2026

RESIDENTS living next to an east Belfast bonfire site are “living in fear” due to yearly anti-social behaviour and safety concerns, a councillor has warned.

Brian Smyth raised the issue at Party Group Leaders in Belfast City Council this week, calling for legal and enforcement action against the landowner of the Lismore Street/London Road site.

“That site has been home to a bonfire for a number of years, but it’s extremely problematic in terms of anti-social behaviour in and around the area,” said the Green Party councillor.

“Local residents are terrified. All political parties are getting complaints here.

“There’s a general sense of lawlessness that comes around it for about four to six months of the year. A lot of the residents in and around there are living in fear, just because of the high levels of anti-social behaviour.”

Meanwhile, the site had been earmarked for social housing with over 100 homes planned, but the councillor confirmed the developer has now pulled out.

“We’ve now been told that the developer is not going through with this,” he said.

“There will be a new plan and application submitted in due course, whenever that is. Effectively, that site is in limbo.”

He described the collapse of the scheme as a significant blow for the local area.

“There’s over 2,000 people living in housing stress in east Belfast. This would have provided a decent solution to some of that,” he added.

Councillor says those living close to bonfire ‘scared to speak out’

He told The Irish News that frightened residents were too scared to speak out publicly.

“A lot of people are scared to speak out. That’s why they’re privately coming to different political parties. I can categorically say that I know all the political parties in east Belfast are being contacted over this,” he said.

He called on parties in the area to show political leadership in an attempt to get the site moved.

“Other political reps need to stand up and have that sort of political leadership to diffuse tensions and make residents feel safer in their homes, but also to make sure that these bonfires are managed a lot more safely,” he said.

“I think a lot of the issues with bonfires in the city have gotten a lot better in recent years and I think that’s a credit to the council and the bonfire diversionary work that it does. But we still have a small number of bonfires that there are issues with.”

A spokesperson for Belfast City Council said: “Belfast City Council’s approach to managing bonfires is led by elected members. A member-led decision-making process has been agreed to consider issues and make decisions on a site-by-site basis.

“We continue to engage with elected representatives and community representatives to minimise any potential negative impact of bonfires and associated anti-social behaviour on residents, businesses, customers and property.”

Bid to throw out charges against Lyra McKee accused rejected

Judge notes ‘deeply disturbing’ behaviour by PSNI officer

ASHLEIGH McDONALD, Irish News, February 28th, 2026

BIDS to have the cases thrown out against nine Derry men accused of offences linked to the death of Lyra McKee were rejected yesterday.

The 29-year old died after being struck by a bullet fired at police during a riot in the Creggan area of Derry on April 18, 2019.

A total of 10 men from the city were charged with a range of offences and a trial commenced at Belfast Crown Court in May 2024.

Three defendants were charged with murdering Ms McKee, possessing a firearm and ammunition and other linked offences including rioting and both possessing and throwing petrol bombs.

They are not alleged to have fired the gun used to kill Ms McKee but with intentionally encouraging or assisting the gunman on a joint enterprise basis.

The trio are Paul McIntyre (58) from Kells Walk, 25-year old Jordan Devine from Bishop Street and Peter Cavanagh (37) from Mary Street – all of whom deny the charges against them.

Their co-accused were charged with offences including rioting and throwing petrol bombs.

They are Christopher Gillen (45) from Balbane Pass, Joseph Campbell (25) from Gosheden Cottages, 33-year old Patrick Gallagher from John Field Place, Jude McCrory (28) from Gartan Square, Joseph Barr (37) from Sandringham Drive and 57 year old Kieran McCool from Ballymagowan Gardens. A 10th defendant, 58-year old William Elliot from Ballymagowan Garden in Derry, died in England in last February.

The Prosecution closed its case against the defendants last year and following this, legal teams representing the remaining nine defendants launched ‘no case to answer’ applications.

The defence submitted this on the grounds that none of the defendants have a case to answer based on insufficiency of evidence.

Insufficiency of evidence argument rejected

The question for the court, which was sitting without a jury, was whether it is convinced that there are no circumstances in which it could properly convict on the evidence.

As she gave her detailed ruling at Belfast Crown Court yesterday where Ms McKee’s loved ones sat in the public gallery, trial judge Mrs Justice Smyth said: “Having considered all of the evidence I do not consider that there are no circumstances in which I could properly convict any of the defendants charged with murder.”

Regarding the remaining defendants, Mrs Justice Smyth said that whilst there were “weaknesses in the identification evidence”, she said: “Having considered the evidence as a whole, I do not consider that there are no circumstances in which I could properly convict any of the defendants charged with the remaining offences.”

Prior to outlining her conclusion, Mr Justice Smyth said the defendants could be divided into two groups.

The first were “masked individuals” alleged to have been involved in the riot – namely McIntyre, Cavanagh, Devine, Gillen and Campbell.

The “unmasked individuals” accused of assisting or encouraging the masked individuals to riot are Gallagher, McCrory, Barr and McCool.

The senior judge said the prosecution case was “based on circumstantial evidence” including footage from MTV who were making a documentary about Saoradh and who were filming in Derry on the afternoon and evening of April 18.

Other strands of evidence included identification/recognition evidence from PSNI officers at controlled viewings, evidence from imagery analysts and bad character evidence.

Regarding the identification evidence, Mrs Justice Smyth said she was “satisfied” a member of the PSNI’s Major Investigation Team showed footage of suspects to officers in the Waterside District Support Unit because those officers “had specialist knowledge of dissident Republicans suspected of the disorder and the killing of Lyra McKee”.

She told the court she did not accept that the evidence established bad faith or that the purpose of showing the footage was to falsely identify any individual.

Unhealthy desire to identify perpetrators

However, she added: “That does not in any way justify what can only be regarded as deeply disturbing behaviour by an experienced police officer who displayed an unhealthy desire to identify the perpetrators at any cost.”

Deeming this a breach in her ruling, Mrs Justice Smyth determined this identification evidence was not admissible because the “egregious breaches rendered the recognitions of masked individuals unreliable”.

After concluding her ruling and rejecting all the ‘no case to answer’ applications, Mrs Justice Smyth said all the evidence in the case “must be considered as a whole” and that “final conclusions” about the weight of all the evidence “cannot be determined at this stage of the trial”.

Following this, she addressed the defence to enquire whether any of the defendants wanted to give evidence.

Mark Mulholland KC, representing McIntyre, said he needed a little time to consider today’s ruling and consult with his client.

He suggested indicating to the court administratively on Monday when the trial will be in position to reconvene.

After other defence barristers took the same stance, Mrs Justice Smyth agreed to this defence request.

Repeat Irish sign survey for street branded ‘absurd’

ANDY BALFOUR, Irish News, February 28th, 2026

DERRY City and Strabane District Council will carry out a second survey of residents over proposed Irish language street signage after it was claimed renovation works may have prevented some from taking part.

The move has been labelled “absurd” by the DUP deputy mayor, who said demand for the sign “didn’t meet the threshold – end of”.

Survey correspondence over a proposed bilingual sign at Creggan Heights was sent to the street’s 141 properties last October, but the council received only 25 responses.

The council’s dual language street naming policy was updated last year, with the residents’ support threshold for any new sign reduced from 50% to just 15%.

Out of the 25 responses from Creggan Heights, the 15% threshold was not met.

Independent councillor Gary Donnelly said he had spoken with residents of the street who were unaware of the survey.

However, at February’s full council meeting, the local authority’s director of environment and regeneration, Karen Phillips, said officials had investigated and found normal processes were followed.

She said that as the threshold was not met, then under the policy “it would be three years before we can reconsider this matter”.

Mr Donnelly noted that members had discussed late postal delivery across the entire district “for months and months”, while SDLP councillor John Boyle proposed the council reissue the survey at Creggan Heights due to “extensive renovations works” on the street.

UUP alderman Derek Hussey said members “might as well be blaming it on climate change”, while DUP alderman and deputy mayor Niree McMorris argued that as late post was an issue for the entire district it should not lead to a second survey.

“The reality is out of 25 responses they didn’t meet the 15% threshold, so why do we keep revisiting decisions that have already been through the process so the outcome can be changed?” she asked.

“The responses were received, it didn’t meet the threshold – end of.

“This regurgitating of decisions until we get the right decision that people want, I just think it’s absurd.”

Mr Boyle’s proposal was approved, despite the UUP and DUP votes against it.

West Belfast GAA club to get major extension despite objections from residents

MICHAEL KENWOOD, Irish News, February 28th, 2026

A WEST Belfast GAA Club has received approval for a major extension and facelift, despite objections from local residents.

St Teresa’s GAC, at Glen Road Heights, has been successful in its application for an extension to the existing clubhouse to provide an indoor sports hall, changing rooms, reception, a fitness suite, and a new pitch.

Elected representatives at the February meeting of the Belfast City Council Planning Committee unanimously approved the application, which includes a proposed relocation of a grass pitch and the creation of a new 3G training pitch with integrated ball walls, as well as a new building to be used as a club store and match day shop.

Other site works will include increased parking, new fencing, catch nets, floodlighting, dugouts, and paths.

The site currently has two large sports pitches with a clubhouse and associated parking. There is also an existing nursery school within the site opposite the existing clubhouse.

Statutory consultees raised no objections, but at the time of the committee approval final comments from Shared Environmental Services and DfI Rivers Agency were outstanding. Council officers recommended the application for approval.

Objections ‘out of character’

The council received 14 letters of objection from local residents. Some said the design plan was “out of character for residential area” and warned about future issues relating to floodlighting, noise, traffic and parking, and access for emergency vehicles

Objectors raised concerns about children’s health and safety due to increased air pollution, the impact on the mental health of locals, on wildlife and biodiversity and about the loss of green space and views for residents. Objectors said there was no community consultation, and the proposal amounted to overdevelopment.

The council officer planning report states: “The proposal seeks to extend the existing clubhouse, formalise the existing car parking area and add a 3G training pitch adjacent.

“This is proposed in the existing car parking area as well as part of one of the existing sports pitches. Two pitches are proposed directly adjacent to this area, extending in a northeast direction, where the existing large pitches are currently, ie, a GAA grass football pitch and a smaller GAA grass training pitch.

“The proposal does result in a net loss of open space, approximately seven percent of the site. The predominant use is for recreation and the proposal seeks to complement the existing recreational use in terms of extending the facilities. It is considered in accordance with the requirements of policy.”

The report adds: “Concerns were raised by objectors that the proposal would result in a loss of their view of the landscape nearby; however it is considered that the proposed pitches would have a negligible visual impact on the locality.

“The extension to the clubhouse will have no greater visual impacts than the existing building on site. All buildings and structures are of a scale and character that would be reasonably expected at a sports facility.

“The proposed scale, form, massing, design and materials are considered acceptable and will not adversely impact on local character. On balance, the proposal would not result in adverse visual impacts.”

It states: “The proposal will result in the loss of approximately 2,600 metres squared of green space, which is approximately seven per-cent of the overall site, albeit that there is additional green space outside the red line of the development. The proposal’s small footprint in relation to the facility as a whole will not negatively impact the availability of open space.

“Officers are therefore satisfied that on balance, the loss of open space would not result in detriment to the overall green infrastructure provision. There would be no adverse landscape or biodiversity impacts, and the proposal would have minimal impact on sustainable drainage systems given the large areas of surrounding grassed open space.”

NIO finds no record of Epstein staying at Hillsborough

GRÁINNE NI AODHA and DAVID YOUNG, Irish News, February 28th, 2926

THERE is no record of Jeffrey Epstein visiting or staying at Hillsborough Castle, according to a search at the Northern Ireland Office (NIO).

The search also found no indication that Epstein had any contact with Lord Peter Mandelson during his short tenure as secretary of state.

Lord Mandelson, who has been accused of passing sensitive information on to paedophile financier Epstein during his time as business secretary, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

He was released on bail until May.

It follows a call for a “full review” by DUP MP Carla Lockhart that the late convicted paedophile visited the Castle on at least one occasion.

In a letter to Ulster Unionist Party leader Jon Burrows, Secretary of State Hilary Benn said officials had searched records for “any association” between Epstein and Lord Mandelson during his time at the NIO.

He said that while no such link was found, the NIO retains information “only for as long as necessary” and that records of visits are “disposed of” after three to six years.

“Following your request, officials have carried out comprehensive searches of all records held by the Department, including those covering Lord Mandelson’s time as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (October 1999 – January 2001).

“This has included carrying out electronic searches as well as reviewing physical files from the time.

“As a result of these searches, we have not identified any information to indicate that Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein had any official contact during the period October 1999-January 2001.

“Additionally, the Department holds no information that indicates that Jeffrey Epstein ever visited or stayed at Hillsborough Castle.”

He said that official visitors’ books at Hillsborough Castle, which records “significant” visitors, were searched but found no reference to Epstein.

“It is important to note that the Northern Ireland Office operates under an Information Retention Policy which forms part of our overall Information Governance Framework,” Mr Benn said.

“As a result, the NIO retains information only for as long as necessary for business, legal, regulatory, and accountability purposes, adhering to GDPR and the Public Records Act 1958.

“Records are stored, with key documents selected for permanent preservation or National Archives transfer, while others are securely disposed of post the retention period.

“Visits records were therefore disposed of after three to six years. Visits by significant individuals to Hillsborough Castle are recorded in the official visitors’ books and would have been retained for longer.

“These books have been searched for records of Jeffrey Epstein visiting Hillsborough Castle and again no reference to him has been found.

“The UK Government has firmly stated it will co-operate fully with all police investigations on this matter.”