Stormont Executive accused of dragging feet over investigation into clerical abuse

Noel McAdam, Sunday Life, May 31st, 2026

Survivors of abuse at Church-run schools and youth centres have demanded an urgent face-to-face meeting with the First Minister Michelle O'Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly.

It comes after an amalgam of campaign groups accused the Executive Office of obstruction.

A public inquiry has been recommended by independent safeguarding experts, child abuse and human rights experts but the Executive — already committed to a separate inquiry into mother and baby homes — has yet to make a decision.

A letter seen by Sunday Life accuses the Executive Office of attempting to further delay a potential inquiry by seeking more research.

Confidential research reports have already been with the Office for more than 10 months.

The letter said victims who attended a meeting with Junior Ministers Aisling Reilly and Joanne Bunting on April 30 were incensed by the clear attempt to avoid discussion of the public inquiry.

They were also frustrated by the refusal of the junior ministers “to engage in an open and transparent dialogue”.

The groups refused to accept a proposal from Ms Bunting for further research before discussion on an inquiry could take place.

Crux

Anthony Gribben, of the Interfaith Clerical Abuse Survivors group, which also includes places of worship, said: “The crux of the issue is that survivors want the truth as to why we were left exposed to the sexual interests of predatory clergy over a 40-year period.

“Only an independent public inquiry will get anywhere near the truth. The Executive already has sufficient evidence to support decision-making about an inquiry.

“But instead there were unbridled efforts by the Executive Office to keep the recommendation for a public inquiry out of the discussions between junior ministers and survivors on April 30.”

However, the office said there had been significant time dedicated at the meeting “to hearing the views of victims and survivors”. “This is an important, complex and sensitive issue, and ministers have been carefully considering the research,” a spokesperson added.

“Junior ministers Reilly and Bunting met the victims and survivors to hear their views on the calls for a public inquiry and discuss next steps to design support services and develop a programme of work to improve safeguarding.

“The ministers recognised the complexity and sensitivity of the issue as well as the benefits and challenges of different types of investigation.

“They advised that officials were undertaking work to further explore options for dealing with the past, including engaging with the PSNI, and this would support ministers' consideration of the issue.”

Almost anywhere you look, the once radical Sinn Féin has been tamed

Sam McBride, Sunday Independent and Sunday Life, May 31st, 2026

Why doesn't Sinn Féin want to govern? I don't mean on the side of the Border where it's desperately trying to get into government — I mean on the side of the Border where it has been in power for two decades.

There is a confounding lack of ambition in government from the party that, on paper, is the most ambitious of all in that it wants to unite Ireland within three-and-a-half years. This has been genuinely baffling. Having fought for years to get into power, it seems like the dog that finally caught the car.

It has long been clear in Northern Ireland that Sinn Féin's timidity at Stormont hasn't been working for it. Its poll numbers have tumbled, and grumbling within nationalism is now very public. And, after last week's dismal by-election results, it's clear that this approach isn't working for it in the Republic either.

The most credible explanation for the party's weakness in government was that Sinn Féin didn't want to scare southern voters. It wanted to show them they had nothing to fear from Mary Lou McDonald as taoiseach — that the party might talk tough to certain audiences, but it would act soft when it really mattered.

I don't know if this is the true explanation, but it's the only possibility that makes any sort of sense, especially given the party's focus on entering government in Dublin.

Whatever the motive, since Michelle O'Neill became first minister, the party's inertia has been the defining feature of how it has governed. It has become the Northern Ireland civil service party. Civil servants' ideas are routinely rubber-stamped, often with no political scrutiny. After years without ministers, the country now has several ministers in name only.

Those are not just my observations as an outsider. A senior Stormont official in a Sinn Féin department recently told me, with bafflement: "You've no idea what it's like. Whatever I write, they read out.” The official went on to express bewilderment at the lack of interest in policy from the minister and their special adviser, whose job is to ensure party policy and departmental policy align.

Sinn Féin, which once viewed civil servants with suspicion, believing them to be instinctively British and, in some cases, spies, has picked the worst possible time to be this subservient to Stormont's mandarins. The civil service is floundering, battered by repeated scandals and a slew of devastating audit investigations.

The Can’t Do Party

Almost anywhere you look, the once-radical Sinn Féin has been tamed. Had it moved from hardline to moderate positions, that would at least have made sense, even if it annoyed some traditional republicans. Instead, there is a perplexing lack of clarity as to what it wants to do.

The party doesn't want to tax the rich, doesn't want to hammer those destroying the environment and is now preparing to abandon climate change legislation that it championed just a few years ago. It can't make life-saving upgrades to the A5 road, can't clean up Lough Neagh, can't build Casement Park and can't build enough houses, even though those are among its top priorities in government. The party is thrashing around without direction.

In the Republic, Sinn Féin presents itself as being firmly on the left, yet in Stormont, the party is economically to the right of Keir Starmer. It refuses to use the tax-raising powers Stormont has — which cover most areas, except income and trade tariffs — to hit the wealthy. At the same time, it claims it is skint and that it would tax the rich in the Republic. In Stormont, it has decided that the poorest homeowners must subsidise the rates bills of those living in multi-million-pound mansions.

It has been clear for more than a year that the party's approach to Stormont isn't working, and that most of these failures have nothing to do with tribalism. If this baffling refusal to govern decisively was motivated by winning votes south of the Border, that obviously isn't working either.

The main reason for the party's poor performance in Dublin Central and Galway West isn't, of course, that voters are glued to coverage of the Northern Ireland executive. But, as an all-island party, Sinn Féin would be on the front foot if it were able to point with conviction to a glowing record in Belfast.

For now, all it has is blaming the unionists for not being nicer and blaming the Brits for not sending even more than the £32bn Stormont gets handed each year. Even many republicans no longer believe that's at the heart of the problem.

Second post-mortem due on body of Yves Sakila as family seek independent pathology

ALI BRACKEN, Sunday Independent, May 31st, 2026

A second post-mortem examination of the remains of Yves Sakila will be carried out this week by an independent forensic pathologist from England.

Mr Sakila (35) died on May 15 after an incident in which he allegedly stole perfume from Arnotts on Henry Street, Dublin. He had been restrained by security guards outside the department store.

The incident was captured on video, which shows Mr Sakila, who was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, becoming unresponsive. Gardaí performed CPR and then transported him to the Mater Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Dublin District Coroner's Court confirmed that the coroner has facilitated an independent postmortem examination of Mr Sakila's remains.

John Gerard Cullen, the solicitor representing the Sakila family, said he has engaged forensic pathologist Dr David Rouse to conduct a second post-mortem at their request.

Mr Cullen said the family have still not received the State's post-mortem results, but understands "from media reports that they appear to be inconclusive”.

Dr Rouse works for Forensic Healthcare Services in Essex, where a spokeswoman said he will arrive in Dublin on Tuesday "to conduct a PM in this case”.

Mr Cullen has requested CCTV footage from Arnotts, but says this has so far been refused. He said he asked gardaí 41 specific questions about the circumstances of the death, but has not received a response to most of them. He also questioned if the bottle of perfume Mr Sakila allegedly stole was recovered from the scene, and if fingerprints were obtained from it.

"These bereaved family members have, to their distress, received no specific information whatever from Arnotts. Has the bottle of perfume in question been fingerprinted for example?” Mr Cullen said.

Handcuffed when in need of medical attention

He has queried why Mr Sakila was handcuffed by gardaí at the scene when he appeared unresponsive and in need of medical attention.

He has sought CCTV footage from inside the shop during the alleged shoplifting incident; of the subsequent pursuit by security staff; the collision with an elderly man, who was knocked down when Mr Sakila allegedly sought to evade security staff; and Mr Sakila's restraint by security personnel, during which he became unresponsive.

Mr Cullen said he has requested this CCTV on the family's behalf, so an independent expert might examine it. Arnotts has refused to hand it over, citing an instruction from gardaí, he said.

The solicitor has informed a legal representative for Arnotts that he will take them to court to try to secure a redacted copy of the footage, which would blur faces to protect the identity of the security guards.

In response, a lawyer for Arnotts told Mr Cullen that gardaí had instructed the store not to release the footage to "third parties”.

"Please note that Arnotts have already received a strict instruction from An Garda Síochána not to release any CCTV footage to any third party, pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation,” the lawyer said.

"You will appreciate that Arnotts cannot in any way interfere with the ongoing investigation and any deviation from the direction provided by An Garda Síochána could result, inter alia, in criminal sanction.”

Arnotts was contacted for comment.

A garda spokesman said: "This matter is the subject of two investigations. As these are ongoing, and in order to protect them, An Garda Síochána will not be commenting further than the two statements it has publicly released. In such situations, An Garda Síochána appoints a Family Liaison Officer to engage with the family of the deceased.”

Fiosrú, the garda ombudsman, is also investigating the death, as there was interaction by officers with Mr Sakila shortly before he died.

Mr Sakila, who had criminal convictions for theft, was accessing homeless services at the time of his death and living in a shelter in Dublin 1.

His birth mother, who lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and his adopted mother, who lives in Ireland, are jointly considering whether his remains should be buried in Ireland or repatriated to Africa.

Cops treating Islam mural as hate crime

Andrew Madden, Sunday Life, May 31st, 2026

Police are treating the erection of an anti-Islam mural in Co Antrim as a “hate incident” and potential criminal damage.

The mural, which was unveiled yesterday in the Tulleevin Walk area of Newtownabbey, appears to be AI generated and shows a burning church with armed figures carrying green flags in front of it.

In large font in the centre of the mural are the words: “A new evil has arisen”.

At the top of the display are the quotes “Islam is heathen, Islam is satanic” and “Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell”, attributed to the late Belfast pastor James McConnell.

The bottom of the mural reads: “Churchill was right in 1899. Enoch Powell was right in 1968. Pastor McConnell was right in 2014.”

Winston Churchill penned several books in 1898 and 1899 that contain passages critical of Islamic ideology, while Enoch Powell was widely known for his virulent anti-immigration stance.

Report

Mr McConnell, who died in 2021, frequently caused controversy with comments about Islam.

Police said they received a report at 12.35pm yesterday concerning a mural unveiling in the Tulleevin Walk area of Newtownabbey. Officers attended the scene and examined the display.

“This report is being treated as a hate incident with potential criminal damage offences,” the PSNI said.

“Our enquiries are ongoing, and we will be engaging with community representatives and partner agencies in due course.”

Police appealed for anyone with any information to contact them on 101.

Meanwhile, on Friday police said they were investigating an incident in which an anti-immigration banner was put up in a children's play area in Dungannon.

The banner in the Moygashel area shows families playing in the sunshine with a Union flag in the background on the wall of an apartment block.

The PSNI said the matter was being treated as a hate incident.

Ex-soldier jailed for murder bids to clear name with new book

John Toner, Sunday Life, May 31st, 2026

FORMER UDR MAN WHO SPENT 15 YEARS BEHIND BARS SELF-PUBLISHES AUTOBIOGRAPHY

An ex-soldier who claims he was wrongly convicted of a sectarian murder has self-published an autobiography as part of his quest to clear his name.

Neil Latimer, a member of the 'UDR Four', spent 15 years in jail for the 1983 killing of Adrian Carroll

Mr Carroll, a 24-year-old Catholic, was shot in Armagh city, with the Protestant Action Force (PAF) claiming responsibility.

The PAF was a cover name used by elements of the UVF.

Noel Bell, James Hagan and Winston Allen had their convictions for the murder overturned after a high-profile appeal, but despite three attempts to clear his name, Latimer's conviction has stood.

All the while, a loyalist hitman suspected of the crime named James 'Jimmy Shades' Smyth has been enjoying his freedom, getting married in a lavish ceremony last year.

Neil's wife Jill, who has campaigned on his behalf for years, said the book Conviction had been 10 years in the making.

She added: “We had been hoping to clear 's name before now, and that has taken priority, so we have dipped in and out of the process, but more recently, we decided we needed to get on with it.

“It was finished in the last few weeks, and it has reinvigorated us again after so many years of setbacks.

“It's his story, in his words, about his childhood through to joining the UDR and getting arrested.

Appeals

“It explains what life was like for him in jail. There are some funny stories as well as the serious stuff.

“It details his experiences as a very young man going through this process up to present day.”

The Latimers need to raise £10,000 for a barrister for the next stage of the appeals process.

They said they have been forced to fundraise in Scotland because of a lack of support for their cause in Northern Ireland.

Jill added: “Politicians at have been told not to touch it. Nobody will discuss it or help in any way.

“One politician told us they're not allowed to talk about it, and they've all been told the same.

“It's extremely frustrating. This is one of the top miscarriages of justice in Northern Ireland, yet it's the one which has the least interest, funding or aid.

“We have had to get to this point by ourselves, out of our own pocket, and the people of Scotland have been amazing in helping us to raise £5,000.”

Conviction was self-published through Amazon after being turned down by several publishers because of Latimer's conviction.

“We've been relying on the kindness of others to get it over the line because they believe in our cause,” Jill said.

“It has been hard, but we are very grateful for everyone's help.

“This book will help to clarify a lot of misinformation. This is the truth.

“He wants to set the record straight and to remind people that this injustice is ongoing.

“There's also a few things in there which will annoy a few people, but my father told me to always tell the truth, no matter the cost.

“Neil has nothing to be ashamed of, and the truth must come out.”

UVF boss blows £50k from drug dealer 'fines' at the bookies

Sunday Life Reporter, May 31st, 2026

LOYALISTS TURN ON COMMANDER, WITH SHANKILL HQ OBLIVIOUS TO RUSE

A UVF boss notorious for 'fining' drug dealers is suspected to have been pocketing the terror gang's criminal cash.

The Newtownabbey loyalist has for many years been the '2IC' (second-in-command) of the organisation's East Antrim brigade and has repeatedly down offers to become overall leader, saying he is in his 60s and does not need the stress.

However, UVF sources said the real reason was that he was afraid of the paramilitary gang's Shankill Road leadership examining his finances.

He is suspected of stealing at least £50,000 from the UVF in the past three years, with most of it spent at a bookies in Glengormley.

“This is money that the Shankill had no idea about and from which it should have got a cut,” a UVF source told Sunday Life.

“The Shankill and Bunter (UVF leader John 'Bunter' Graham, below) have no idea how many dealers he has taxed down the years, and neither do a lot of other top UVF men in East Antrim.”

Fining drug dealers is an easy way for the UVF to keep illegal cash rolling in because the victims never go to the police.

This allows the terror gang's bosses to maintain the pretence that it is transitioning away from crime towards a community-based organisation.

ACT

The Action for Community Transformation (ACT) Initiative charity, which the UVF supports, has been handed millions in government and charity funds to help achieve this aim.

However, criminals like the 2IC make a mockery of ACT's genuine efforts.

“The UVF has got rid of three senior leaders in East Antrim and Rathcoole over the past while for stealing money, but the 2IC always survived,” added our source.

“No one can understand why when it's well known he's taking money and blowing most of it at the bookies.

“A close relative of his is also a dealer, and nothing is ever done about him. He certainly hasn't been fined.”

UVF members in the Rathcoole estate growing angry at the 2IC's demands that they fine drug dealers.

The amount is always downplayed when questions are asked internally.

“The 2IC uses a guy below him to collect the drug dealer fines — this fella has an alcohol problem and spends most of his time in a drinking den in Rathcoole.

“The men are getting sick of doing his dirty work, and the Shankill need to take a look at the antics of the 2IC.

“UVF men thought we were supposed to be moving away from criminality, not getting deeper into it to fund an idiot's gambling addiction.”

Drug dealer cuts ties with ONH after rivals threaten to shoot him

Sunday Life, May 31st, 2026

VIOLENT FACTION MADE UP OF EX-PROVO GUNMEN STRANGLING SOURCES OF INCOME FOR REILLY GANG

ONH boss Carl Reilly's criminal cash rackets are drying up after a drug-dealing businessman his gang was in partnership with was threatened by rival dissidents.

Not only was the drug dealer paying Reilly's ONH group protection money — he was also laundering its illegal funds through his legitimate car business.

But after being threatened by members of a violent breakaway faction, the terrified businessman told Reilly their relationship was over.

“The drug dealer has been told he will be shot if he continues to work with what is left of Carl Reilly's ONH gang,” a republican source told Sunday Life.

The threat against him came from a faction that split from Reilly's group 18 months ago.

Its members, including several seasoned ex-IRA gunmen, have aligned themselves with the Glór na hÓglaigh (Voice of the Volunteers) political party, which staged a show of strength at Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast earlier this year.

The breakaway group has targeted Reilly and his closest allies, shooting ex-ONH prisoner Sean O'Reilly several times in a murder bid last year.

Reilly remains the gang's top target, with any criminal doing business with him being warned their lives are in danger.

Earlier this year, the breakaway ONH faction told Sunday Life it was planning to kneecap drug dealers living in republican areas of Belfast.

“The ONH faction has identified a businessman from west Belfast who is involved in the car trade as a major source of income for Reilly's gang,” said a source.

“He pays protection money to be allowed to sell cocaine in Belfast, and he launders criminal cash for Reilly's gang through his business.

“This individual has been warned he will be shot if this continues.”

Insiders have linked the businessman to a £350,000 cocaine and cash seizure in Lisburn and west Belfast in 2024.

A car stopped by police on the A1 dual carriageway near Hillsborough was found to contain a 1kg block of cocaine valued at £100,000.

Follow-up searches at a house in the Ballymurphy estate in west Belfast led to the discovery of £260,000 in cash.

Caolan Herald, the driver of the car, told police he was on his way to Banbridge to meet an unknown person.

The 26-year-old, who was charged with possessing cocaine with intent to supply, said he had done the same thing eight or nine times, and did so after being approached in the street by men claiming to be from the “republican movement”.

The “republican movement” referred to by prosecutors in court is understood to be Reilly's ONH gang.

Consequences

Sources said that immediately after the drugs seizure, Reilly's ONH faction blamed the rival INLA in an effort to shift attention away from its own criminality.

A republican insider told Sunday Life: “Reilly's group hates the INLA with a passion, and after the cocaine and cash was seized, they put it about on social media that the INLA was responsible. This was all to shift attention away from their own criminality.”

Republicans said the £100,000 block of cocaine found in the car driven by Caolan Herald was linked to the businessman paying protection to Reilly's gang.

“This so-called businessman knows the score, and if he continues to work with Reilly's gang, he will suffer the consequences,” warned our source.

Before splitting into two factions 18 months ago, ONH carried out multiple murders in Belfast, including of the major drug dealers Jim 'JD' Donegan and Sean Fox.

It also killed criminals Warren Crossan and Mark Hall, and ex-ONH members Kieran Wylie and Danny McClean.

ONH split after Carl Reilly tried to take the organisation down a political path and accept funding from the British government in return for transitioning away from violence.

This was rejected by a large section of members, who broke away and aligned themselves with Glór na hÓglaigh.

The smaller number of members who stayed loyal to Reilly support the Republican Network for Unity political group.

Reilly served a recent 30-month prison sentence for ONH membership, with a charge of directing terrorism left on the books.

He previously spent five years in jail for his role in a Continuity IRA gun attack on a west Belfast RUC station almost 25 years ago.

It looks like it's one law for them, and another for us.

Suzanne Breen, Sunday Life, May 31st, 2026

Two months ago, MLAs secured a staggering 27 per cent pay rise. The extra £14,000 a year pushed up their salaries to more than £67,000.

Yet while its Stormont members live large on the public purse, the DUP is currently blocking the Good Jobs Bill.

Alliance and the SDLP support the legislation brought forward by Sinn Féin Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald.

Like the DUP, the UUP has expressed “concerns”. It is unfortunate that unionist parties yet again appear to be on the wrong side of progressive proposals.

This bill will benefit all employees here. Unionists, nationalists, and those with no position or interest in the constitutional question will be better protected at work.

You would think from the hysterical tone adopted by some business groups that we were on the brink of a revolutionary communist takeover. Northern Ireland is not about to become a Marxist state run by local soviets.

The Good Jobs Bill is neither extreme nor radical. It's about basic workplace protections.

It would restrict zero-hour contracts to all but genuinely seasonal and casual work.

Employees would have the right to clearer, written employment terms with reasonable notice of shifts and more secure working hours. They could keep the tips they earned.

There'd be a right to unpaid carer's leave, enhanced paternity leave, and better support for parents of babies in neonatal care.

Workers would have greater access to trade unions. That bit is key because it helps ensure that people would actually see the benefit of the changes.

Business has a right to voice its perspective on the Good Jobs Bill, but it absolutely shouldn't have a veto over public policy.

Corporate warnings must never be treated as gospel. Bosses should have a seat at the table, but they don't own it.

A healthy economy requires healthy, secure workers, not an exploited workforce trapped in zero-hour misery.

On Thursday, the DUP stopped the Good Jobs Bill progressing from the Executive to the Assembly. The legislation must imminently proceed to the floor of the chamber for first and second readings if it is to reach committee stage before the summer recess.

Compromise

If that doesn't happen, the timetable will be so tight that it will be almost impossible for it to pass ahead of next May's Stormont election.

Archibald offered an olive branch to the DUP and business on Friday. She decided to exempt businesses with fewer than 10 employees from the workplace trade union access provisions.

Almost 90 per cent of business here are 'micro businesses' with under 10 staff. There is now no logical grounds for groups representing them to continue to oppose this legislation.

Around 80 per cent of workers here are employed by large organisations, so the new arrangements would apply to them.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions said it would accept the compromise. The DUP adopted an ebullient approach. It welcomed the Sinn Féin minister's “U-turn”, but said there was still “much more to do”.

The party may well want to rebuild its relationship with business which was shattered by its support for Brexit.

It may also be keen to deny its republican rival even a single success in this Assembly term.

Sinn Féin has been bereft of wins since devolution returned two years ago.

But such an approach means that all workers lose — Catholic, Protestant and dissenter. And the DUP will have to own that come election time.

The trade unions have tiptoed around the party until now. They have turned their fire on business groups but left the biggest unionist party alone. Expect that to change if this bill is stymied.

There could also be repercussions for legislation from DUP ministers. Sinn Féin may decide to play hardball with their projects. Hopefully, there will be a change of heart and the stalling stops.

The Good Jobs Bill shouldn't be a pawn in a game of party politics. It deserves to reach the Assembly floor and to see line-by-line scrutiny at the economy committee, chaired by the very capable DUP MLA Phillip Brett.

If the party throws workers under the business bus, I don't know how it will look low-paid voters in the eye next May.

Cairns rules out formal left-wing pact for next election

Aisling Moloney, Sunday Independent, May 31st, 2026

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has said her party will not enter into a formal left-wing alliance ahead of the next general election.

She will talk to all parties about government formation after the election, but encouraging voters to "vote left, transfer left” will be the extent of any kind of agreement.

The pushback against a formal alliance comes after all left-wing parties supported Catherine Connolly in her successful run for Áras an Uachtaráin last year. Ms Cairns said this showed that the possibility of a left-wing government was "tangible”.

However, she opposed a proposal last week by Labour leader Ivana Bacik for Labour, the Social Democrats and the Green Party to support an agreed Seanad by-election candidate for the vacancy created by Seán Kyne's election to the Dáil. Fine Gael's Kyne won the recent Galway West by-election.

The so-called united left now appears to be fragmenting, as Cairns wrote to Sinn Féin and People Before Profit to include them in any agreement on a candidate after those parties were excluded by Bacik.

"I think it's clear that there is a difference between the parties on the left. I think it's clear that we have more in common with each other than with parties on the right,” Cairns said.

"The best way to approach this in the lead-up to the next election is to say to voters, 'Give the party on the left the first preference that you want', because there is a difference, and then, 'Please vote left, transfer left'.

"I think that's the extent of any kind of agreement that we would be entering into. We saw in this by-election that the Social Democrats not only took one of the seats and topped the poll in doing it, but we overtook two of the biggest parties, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, in both constituencies.

"I think it's undeniable now that we are a real viable alternative to be a bigger party with a big mandate in the next government, and that is our aim.”

Now Cairns, after topping opinion polls as the most popular party leader in the country, is eyeing up the prospect of doubling the Soc Dems' presence in the Dáil.

Party officers are also starting work on "even stronger deal-breakers” for government negotiations, three years ahead of the expected general election date.

She said the party will be vying for a turn in a rotating taoiseach agreement in any ruling coalition, which could see her become the first ever female leader of a government.

Speaking about Fine Gael, she said that party's policy position would make it difficult for the Soc Dems to go into government with them, but she did not single out Fianna Fáil in the same way.

Her comments come after success in the recent Dublin Central by-election increased the number of Social Democrat seats in the Dáil to 12, with the addition of a second party TD in that constituency.

Cairns would not say how many seats her party would target in the next election, but when asked if she is looking at doubling its current dozen, she said: "Certainly. I'm not going to put a number on it, but we'd  absolutely be looking for a big increase.

"Our strategy is that, for the first time, we will stand a candidate in every constituency in the country.”

If 24 seats were to be claimed by the party after the next election, it would propel the Soc Dems into negotiations with Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Fine Gael, placing them well ahead of other parties of the left, including Labour and the Greens.

"We can have even stronger deal-breakers this time,” she said. "I hope that we're in a really strong position in the lead-up to the next election to have even more in terms of what we will not renege on going into government.

"It's almost like the norm in Irish politics is to over-promise and under-deliver. It's kind of this plámásing the electorate. I find it really intolerable.

"We always want to be straight with voters.”

Cairns said these deal-breakers are "not ironed out right now, so I'm not going to put them on the table yet”. However, she added that they will start working on them now.

While she said she has been "really ambitious” about the future of her party, she is less forthcoming on her own ambition to be taoiseach. 

"I mean, obviously, it's hard to even imagine, in terms of a position like that,” she said. "I think the aim is just to get the party to that position. That absolutely is the aim. It's not about any one individual and a position.” 

In early May, the Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll revealed that Cairns had an approval rating as party leader of 39pc, followed by Mary Lou McDonald at 33pc, Micheál Martin at 33pc and Simon Harris and Ivana Bacik on 31pc.

According to the Programme for Government, an election is expected in late 2029 after Budget 2030 is unveiled.

When asked if she would be willing to step into the taoiseach's seat, she said: "That's the clear aim for us as a political party, of any political party — to be the largest party in a government.”

Asked again if it is a position she wants personally, and if the Soc Dems would negotiate for a rotating taoiseach position in any coalition, she said: "We're working towards that mandate.

"There's no way we'd be stepping back and saying another party could do that in our place, no way. We would, of course, be focused on having the strongest possible impact.”

Cairns said that, similar to the last general election, the Soc Dems will announce "five deal-breakers” they would not compromise on if in government.

'It's really difficult, but for us the geography is hardest part'

Sunday Independent, May 31st, 2026

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns talks to Aisling Moloney about the challenges of leading party while being a new mum

There is no way to "sugarcoat it”, Holly Cairns concedes, but having a baby and travelling 340km to the Dáil "oftentimes feels like chaos”.

In fact, the time limit on this interview is determined by the two nappies she supplied when she dropped off her daughter to a childminder in Skibbereen — and she thinks only two may have been a gamble.

The childminder in question is her mother, Madeline McKeever, who runs an organic, 30-acre mixed farm in west Cork.

The Social Democrats leader (36), who currently appears to be riding the crest of a wave of support, is still facing something of a new challenge — leaving her daughter, 18 months old, at home while she's in the Dáil, or has to travel the country.

"Now I'm getting used to leaving her in Cork every week when I go away, so that's another adjustment, and we just play it by ear and week by week,” she tells the Sunday Independent.

The Social Democrats contested the recent by-elections in Dublin and Galway: opposite sides of the country and far from Cairns' west Cork home. The hard work was worth it, with Daniel Ennis elected in Dublin Central.

It was the longest time she had been away from her daughter since she was born. "It was such an important week, an amazing week, but then, of course, that was the longest I would have left her,” she says.

When we sit down in O'Neill's coffee shop in the centre of Skibbereen, Cairns opts for a decaf, having had three cups of coffee already that morning.

She recalls how her little girl came into the world, on Friday, November 29, 2024.

It was polling day for the general election and, unable to leave the maternity ward and cast her own ballot, Cairns says it was a "surreal experience”.

"It was such an amazing day, because it was the arrival of our first child. It just blew our hearts wide open, and then we began getting notifications in,” she says, referring to the election of the party's TDs as the icing on the cake.

Since winning her first election to Cork County Council in 2019 by a single vote after two recounts, it has been quite a journey. Now, she is the most popular party leader in the country at 39pc, according to the most recent opinion polls.

In the months after returning from maternity leave last year, Cairns brought her partner Barry Looney and their baby up to Dublin with her when she was attending the Dáil. But she has made a conscious decision not to publicly reveal her daughter's name.

"She's busy learning to climb and learning nursery rhymes, and hasn't decided if she wants to go into public life or not, so there's no need to have it in the media or in the public sphere — she's a private individual,” Cairns says.

She adds that she was apprehensive about taking maternity leave, as it was "uncharted territory” for a party leader whose absence could affect "the trajectory of the party”.

But it does not appear to have impacted her.

Luck and privilege

"The fact that it hasn't had a massive impact is due to so many things that are, in many parts, luck and privilege, and I acknowledge all of that,” she says. "Like having support from family — not everybody has that. Not being a single parent . . . all of these things that make it so much more challenging. So I know that I'm lucky, and I'm extremely grateful for that.”

Cairns was not the first Irish politician to take maternity leave. Helen McEntee made history when she became the first sitting Cabinet minister to give birth and was facilitated in taking two periods of maternity leave for six months, while she was justice minister, in 2021 and 2022.

She says there is "no straightforward and easy solution” for parents who have to attend Leinster House 33 weeks of the year.

"It's really difficult, but for us the geography is the hardest part,” she says.

"We talk a lot about women in politics and different solutions, and I think it's so complex. Because if you were looking at women in politics in Dublin and the commuter belt, you'd say maybe this should be stretched into nine to five, Monday to Friday. But then if you're coming from a more rural constituency, that's more nights away from your family, so there's no easy solution.”

While she doesn't say whether she wants to have more children, she says that decision would not be impacted by her job or position.

"I wouldn't ever sacrifice something like that for something else, I think. [My daughter] is the centre of our universe more than anything else, I wouldn't change it for the world,” she says.

Three years ago she spoke publicly about being "absolutely terrified” when an online stalker began to show up at her home. She installed CCTV and extra security at home as a result.

Cairns says she is "not living in the same way I was in the immediate aftermath of that — a lot of time has passed, thankfully”.

She also doesn't have a constituency office, after closing one in Bandon due to security concerns and on the recommendation of gardaí.

The party is now looking for viable candidates to run in the next general election; Cairns wants to run a candidate in every constituency for the first time.

"Women in particular need to be asked multiple times compared to male candidates, that just seems to be the reality. It's a similar story for this in minority backgrounds, and there are so many different reasons for that,” she says.

She has had to deal with issues in her own parliamentary party, including the suspension of Eoin Hayes after he wrongly told the media that he had sold shares in a company he formerly worked for before he entered politics. The company, Palantir, has lucrative contracts with the Israel Defence Forces.

Then last September, just as she returned from maternity leave, Hayes was embroiled in another controversy after photos emerged of him wearing dark make-up when dressed up as former US president Barack Obama, about 16 years previously.

"As a party now, we're in a really good place, and everyone's working together as a team, and that's really positive for us. That's not to ignore that it was a difficult time,” she says.

Cairns criticised other politicians in the Dáil who voted against her recent legislation to end the mandatory three-day wait for women accessing abortion. It would allow terminations in Ireland in cases of fatal foetal conditions after the 20-week scan, as many women still travel to the UK for abortion in these cases.

The bill was defeated in the Dáil by 85 to 30, with Sinn Féin abstaining.

She said there was "quite the disparity” between where politicians said they would be positioned on the issue at election time, and the results of the vote on her bill.

Left-wing voters are not fooled by Sinn Féin's claims to be a left-wing party

Shane Ross, Sunday Independent, May 31st, 2026

The left's awake. Down in Galway West, they have been celebrating the colossal vote of Labour candidate Helen Ogbu in last weekend's by-election.

In Dublin, Social Democrat Daniel Ennis won a handsome victory. In both constituencies, the left coldly observed Sinn Féin licking its wounds. Not to mention the butchering suffered by Fianna Fáil.

Victory often heralds the problems of success, as well as opening golden opportunities. The big challenge for Labour's Ivana Bacik and the Social Democrats' Holly Cairns is the wake-up call that they could soon be forced to consider actually being in government. Possibly even together.

First out of the blocks was Bacik, surfacing on RTÉ's Morning Ireland last Thursday. The Labour leader grasped a few nettles that had been growing in the background, temporarily buried by the phoney left-wing consensus during the two Dáil by-elections.

She used the upcoming Senate by-election for the seat vacated by Galway West winner Seán Kyne as a hook to float the prospect of a united left candidate.

In truth, the Opposition has absolutely no chance of winning the Senate seat because by-elections to the Upper House are rigged in favour of the Government. The electorate is restricted to members of the Dáil and Senate. It will be a stitch-up. And, however united the united left, however worthy their candidate, they will lose.

Nevertheless, Bacik was beating the war drums. She wanted to use the by-election as a template for uniting the scattered left. She had written to Cairns and the leader of the Greens, Roderic O'Gorman, suggesting that they back a single candidate. And a woman, to boot.

There was a missing ingredient. She had not written to Mary Lou McDonald.

Asked on the programme why she had not included the Sinn Féin leader in her list of invitees, she pointedly replied that she had contacted the two parties that shared Labour's values and vision of solidarity and fairness.

She would start with Cairns and O'Gorman, and then seek further support. Sinn Féin could join the queue, but the nucleus of her united left team was her initial trio.

Sinn Fein different

Sinn Féin was different, Bacik insisted, in that its raison d'etre was nationalism; it disagreed with her and her favoured partners about two fundamental topics: climate change and immigration.

She didn't mention Sinn Féin's failure to support Cairns' recent bill liberalising abortion or its opposition to carbon taxes while simultaneously supporting carbon targets. She contrasted her reservations about the Shinners with paeans of praise for the Green Party's role in the last government.

It was clear from Bacik's message that her supporters will no longer have to endure the painful sight of seeing her standing silently beside the Sinn Féin leader on the Leinster House plinth at press briefings called by Mary Lou, posing as the so-called leader of the 'left'.

McDonald is the leader of the opposition, not the leader of the left. Ivana made that crystal clear in her interview.

She is right. Sinn Féin is not a left-wing party. They like branding themselves as on the left, because such cunning spinning puts them into a position to pick up left-wing parties' transfers.

Last week's by-elections have exposed the failure of Sinn Féin's posturing. The left-wing voters of Galway West and Dublin Central have sent a clear message that they consider Sinn Féin leaders as impostors when they claim to be part of the left-wing family.

Forget the number one votes in the by-elections for a moment. The second and later transfers paint a grim picture for Sinn Féin.

In Dublin Central, the message is chilling. Sinn Féin failed to attract significant transfers from the parties of the left. Labour voters overwhelmingly preferred Ennis for their second preferences to Sinn Féin's Janice Boylan. Their candidate, Ruth O'Dea, even gave Green candidate Janet Horner nearly six times as many transfers as the Sinn Féin candidate.

Sinn Féin picked up transfers elsewhere, but they came from far less palatable quarters. The bulk of them were from gangland figure Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch, who delivered two thirds (1,600) of his votes to Mary Lou's candidate.

The second-largest source of Sinn Féin transfers came from Malachy Steenson of the far right, who initially gave Hutch 1,400, followed next by Boylan with 350. Ennis only took 130 from Steenson's pile, while a mere 40 ended up in Horner's corner.

The voters of Dublin Central have not been fooled. They do not see Sinn Féin as left-wing at all.

While the Labour-Social Democrats-Greens left alliance seems to be a solid voting trio, Sinn Féin appears to have fitted into a rival, but unspoken, triangle of transfers with Hutch and Steenson. Not the best of company for a party often seeking to project itself as leading an idealistic group of law-abiding, anti-racist, progressive reformers.

If Boylan had won, she would have been elected courtesy of the votes of an alleged crime boss and an anti-immigrant right-winger. Sinn Féin somehow sent out all the necessary signals to these two toxic parties.

Going West

In Galway West, the result was even worse for Sinn Féin, where they came in seventh place. Revealingly, their candidate Mark Lohan, gave fewer transfers to Labour's outstanding candidate Helen Ogbu than to Independent Ireland's Noel Thomas. They preferred the anti-immigrant right-wing man to the left-wing Nigerian-born woman.

Bacik has rapidly read the runes: left-wing voters are not fooled by Sinn Féin's claim to be a left-wing party. The Shinners' championing of Catherine Connolly for the presidency has convinced few of Ireland's citizens. Sinn Féin is still seen as a nakedly populist group, lacking in any purpose except to yield to the latest change in fickle public opinion.

However, they should be wary. Other opposition parties are beginning to speak frequently about the three largest parties. Their narrative is bunching Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin into the same category. The smaller left parties are profiling themselves as the fresh faces, uncontaminated by the Punch and Judy Show in the Dáil. Sinn Féin is being branded as predictable.

Sad soul that I am, I sometimes watch the Leaders Questions' charade to sample a flavour of the week's mood in Leinster House.

It is not a pleasure. It is repetitive torture. The daily exchange of personal insults between Micheál Martin and Mary Lou McDonald is tedious. It is a ritual without winners. She booms and lambasts; he whinges and lectures. It is as though Sinn Féin, far from being a force for change, are part of the old Dáil routine programmed to switch on the outrage for 10 minutes every day.

And then, when Bacik or Cairns take their turns, there is a complete change of atmosphere. The temperature falls. Bacik is invariably polite, deadly serious and well-researched. She is genuinely left-wing.

Looking like the future

Cairns is passionate, withering maybe, but never personally insulting. Both raise serious issues, dial down the volume and are taken seriously. Both women are beginning to look like the future. I hope so.

Bacik put her finger on a sensitive reality last week. It is not an imperative that Labour coalesce with Sinn Féin. After the election, they would be prepared to talk to all three "big parties”. A government could be formed without necessarily being led by Sinn Féin.

Bacik has taken a big leap in publicly admitting that Sinn Féin is not a like-minded, left-wing party.

McDonald must be ruing the day she opted to disdain a quiet, lucrative life in the Áras. She would have been a shoo-in.

Witnesses, an alleged apology and a recording device in Donaldson's car

Christopher Woodhouse, Sunday Independent, May 31st, 2026

The jury heard the prosecution case in the first week of the trial in which two women accuse the 63-year-old of sexual assault. Christopher Woodhouse reports

On an unseasonably warm Tuesday morning, Jeffrey Donaldson walked past a crowd of press cameras, reporters and police officers outside Newry Courthouse, accompanied by his solicitor John McBurney.

The 63-year-old took his place in the dock of Courtroom 1, flanked by two prison officers, and confirmed he was ready for his trial. His wife Eleanor was not with him, having been deemed unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds. A jury of seven men and five women was selected in little under an hour and sworn in.

Jeffrey Donaldson has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency and 13 counts of indecent assault. The offences allegedly occurred between 1985 and 2008, and involve two complainants.

Eleanor Donaldson is accused of aiding and abetting, which she denies. The case against the 60-year-old will be subject to a trial of the facts in which the jury is tasked with determining whether she committed the alleged acts.

Over the course of three days of evidence last week, allegations of abuse of two women by Jeffrey Donaldson when they were children were outlined — and challenged. They include claims Jeffrey Donaldson apologised to one of the complainants and wrote a letter to another asking for forgiveness "for the hurt and pain I have caused”.

References to an alleged affair conducted by Jeffrey Donaldson and a listening device placed in his car by his wife Eleanor were also aired in court.

On day two, he returned for the prosecution's opening address — a summary of the case delivered by senior crown counsel Rosemary Walsh. During her opening, she told the jury how two complainants had come forward to police more than two years ago and reported "difficult and traumatic incidents they say happened when they were children”.

She said Witness B claimed she was sexually abused by Jeffrey Donaldson, claiming the defendant would put his hand in her pants "a lot” and that she remembered two incidents "vividly”.

In the first alleged incident, she told the police Jeffrey Donaldson had put his hands down her underwear, pulled her legs apart and then sexually assaulted her. She claimed she couldn't sleep and that the next morning she "felt sick”.

The second incident, she said, was at a different location, and that after going to get something she was followed by Donaldson who, she said, pulled up her top and felt her breasts. She claimed that Eleanor Donaldson walked in and then walked away, closing the door behind her.

Christian Rehab Centre

Ms Walsh outlined how, as a teenager, Witness B became involved in drugs and was sent to a Christian rehabilitation centre in the mid-1990s. She became friends with a woman there and said she told her she had been sexually abused. A meeting was later set up between the witness and Jeffrey Donaldson by people at the church.

Witness B said it was all a bit "weird” and that at that meeting Donaldson told her he wanted to apologise about what happened in the past.

Ms Walsh said Witness A had told police of occasions, aged six or seven, when she experienced "sensations in her private area”. The woman recalled an incident where Jeffrey Donaldson rubbed under her "sports bra” and that touching her in this way "was a very casual thing” and would happen "quite often”. She also recalled an occasion when she was 12 or 13 and Jeffrey Donaldson asked for a kiss, put his tongue in her mouth and pushed it around. The woman said she also told this to Eleanor Donaldson, who allegedly "laughed it off”.

Witness A said she went to university and around this time she became aware that what happened was "wrong and not normal”. Witness A met her husband and she told police he was the first person she told about the abuse. She also said she sent a letter to the two defendants about the secret "she had to keep” and the "inappropriate sexual behaviour”.

Witness A also reached out to a minister in her church and later spoke to a police officer about the criminal justice system, but made no specific complaint at that time.

Ms Walsh also told the jury of the arrest of Jeffrey and Eleanor Donaldson on March 28, 2024, and their interviews. She said when Jeffrey Donaldson was asked about Witness B's allegations, he told police he "had no memory of that happening” and that it was "unbelievable”. He denied lifting her top and touching her breasts. He said there was one occasion when they were alone, and she had sat on his knee, but that nothing untoward had happened.

Witness A was the first to give evidence on Thursday following the playing to the court of her ABE (Achieving Best Evidence) interviews with police.

Recounting one alleged incident, she claimed Donaldson was standing over her and she had no underwear on. She told detectives she wasn't sure if he had taken pictures at the time.

On another occasion, she said Jeffrey Donaldson kissed her and put his tongue in her mouth and moved it around, before laughing it off as a joke when she "recoiled”. The witness described how she "felt very dirty”.

Witness A said that when she was in her 20s, she realised "that was not normal and I became very angry”. She said she had "spent her life watching him in a public role, getting accolade after accolade”.

Following a short break, a second ABE recording with Witness A was shown to the jury. The shorter police interview, lasting around 20 minutes, discussed allegations of inappropriate touching. Witness A claimed that on one occasion, Jeffrey Donaldson put a hand up her blouse and sports bra and was "rubbing her breast area”. She said this lasted for around five minutes and Donaldson was quiet throughout. She told detectives that the inappropriate touching became "a very casual thing”.

Referring to the alleged abuse, she said that she "never said a word about it” until she told her husband.

Forgiveness letter

Ms Walsh also read a letter to the jury that Jeffrey Donaldson wrote to Witness A in 2020, in which he asked for her forgiveness "for the hurt and pain I have caused”. In it, he referred to "sinful and selfish actions” and that he was "seeking God's forgiveness”, adding that he wanted to "take full responsibility for all I have done”.

 "It is my hope, that in time, you will find it in your heart to forgive me,” he wrote. "I have seen myself what amazing grace can do to lift a sinner from a pit of sin,” adding that he was "a product of a sinful nature”.

"Seeking God's forgiveness is not enough in itself,” the letter continued. He said he must be "obedient to God's way and follow God's path. My hope and prayer is that God will help each of us. I pray especially for you … I believe God has great plans for you”.

Witness A told the court that she took the letter to be about the allegations of abuse. The woman told the court that she had thought the letter was an attempt by Donaldson "to apologise for perhaps the abuse which had occurred”.

Witness A was cross-examined by Donaldson's barrister, Kieran Vaughan. He asked her about medical notes from counselling sessions that she engaged in as an adult that stated her memories from childhood were "very poor, really bad”. "I struggle with my memory, but I would not use the words really bad myself,” she said.

Mr Vaughan then asked about notes where the witness spoke of being sexually abused by another man when she was around seven years old. Asked why she didn't tell this to police during her ABE interview, or in the two years since, she said that sexual abuse was "a complex thing”.

Second Christian counsellor

Mr Vaughan also asked Witness A about a counselling session with a second Christian counsellor in which she wrote in a questionnaire that this other man "was inappropriate with me as a child”, but did not mention the allegation made against Jeffrey Donaldson. "Why in that context do you not say anything about what you have told this jury?,” Mr Vaughan asked.

Witness A replied that she was "not ready for that to happen”.

Mr Vaughan pointed out in her police interview about the alleged Donaldson abuse that she had said events were "very unclear” and that she had used the words "I think” about what she claimed had happened.

Witness A said she had "great clarity” about some events while others were "foggy”.

He said: "All these incidents happened in your childhood. Your memory of those incidents are unclear?”

She said: "The incidents themselves — I remember significant detail, due to the nature of what happened.”

He said: "I am suggesting to you that things were quite foggy in your mind about these events.” She replied: "I do not agree with that.”

Mr Vaughan suggested she may either have "fabricated” the abuse or else "dreamt it and over the years come to believe it is true”. She said: "To imply someone would dream things without a reason is ridiculous, it is insulting.”

Her cross-examination continued into Friday, during which Mr Vaughan said it was not the case Donaldson had written the letter as an apology for alleged abuse. He also claimed that Witness A had not made the police aware of the context when she gave them the letter after they interviewed her in March 2024. Vaughan put it to her "this has nothing to do with you and sexual assault” and stated Jeffrey Donaldson was apologising for other behaviour.

The witness said there were "heavy connotations of guilt” in the letter, adding that Donaldson was a "very clever man” and that he would "never put in writing what he has done”.

Mr Vaughan also drew attention to a meeting Witness A had had with a police officer where she mentioned "touching over clothing”. She said: "If that is what she has written, that is what was said.”

Mr Vaughan said: "On the face of it, that is inconsistent with what you told the jury yesterday, about touching under clothes.” She said: "The facts are the facts, I am sticking to that.”

Mr Vaughan then referred to an incident where the woman had claimed Donaldson had "perched” over the top of her, using a light to look at her "private parts”. When challenged about her account, she said: "The light was focused on my genital area.”

Mr Vaughan said: "I suggest that is not true.” He added: "You were confused and you were not sure of what you had seen.” She said: "To this day I am still confused… I am honest about that.”

During the third day of evidence, Mr Vaughan also referenced allegations of an affair and the breakdown of the Donaldsons' marriage in June 2020. The court was told that in 2020 Eleanor Donaldson, suspecting her husband of having an affair and wanting to get evidence of that, planted a recording device in his car.

The trial continues.

Donaldson: THE EVIDENCE SO FAR

Christopher Woodhouse, Sunday Life, May 31st.

EMOTIONS AND TEMPERATURES RUN HIGH AS CASE GETS UNDER WAY COURT HEARS ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE AND IS TOLD OF APOLOGY LETTER DURING WEEK ONE OF EX-DUP LEADER'S TRIAL

Jeffrey Donaldson has spent most of his professional life in the public eye and at the sharp end of local and national politics.

But no prior experience could have prepared the former DUP leader for the intensity of the focus on him as his trial for alleged historic sex offences got under way at Newry Crown Court.

Over the course of three days of evidence, allegations of abuse against two women when they were children were outlined — and challenged.

Included were claims that Jeffrey Donaldson apologised to one of the complainants and wrote a letter to another, asking for forgiveness “for the hurt and pain I have caused”.

References to an alleged affair conducted by Jeffrey Donaldson and a listening device placed in his car by his wife Eleanor were also aired in court.

One of the complainants gave evidence and was cross-examined before the end of the first week of the case.

On an unseasonably warm Tuesday morning, Jeffrey Donaldson walked through a phalanx of press cameras, reporters and police officers outside Newry Courthouse, accompanied by his solicitor John McBurney.

UNFIT

The 63-year-old took his place in the dock of Courtroom One, flanked by two prison officers, and confirmed he was ready for his trial.

His wife Eleanor was not with him, having been deemed unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds.

A jury of seven men and five women was selected in little under an hour and then sworn in.

The next day, Jeffrey Donaldson returned for the prosecution's opening address — a summary of the case delivered by senior Crown counsel Rosemary Walsh KC.

Jeffrey Donaldson has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency and 13 counts of indecent assault.

The offences were allegedly committed between 1985 and 2008 and involve two complainants.

Eleanor Donaldson is accused of aiding and abetting, which she denies.

The case against the 60-year-old will be subject to a trial of the facts, in which the jury is tasked with determining whether she committed the alleged acts.

Before the case got under way on Wednesday, Judge Paul Ramsey KC allowed counsel to remove their wigs and robes due to the temperature in the courtroom caused by very warm weather.

During her opening address, Ms Walsh told the jury how two complainants had come forward to police more than two years ago and reported “difficult and traumatic incidents they say happened when they were children”.

She said Witness B claimed she was sexually abused by Jeffrey Donaldson, alleging the defendant would put his hand in her pants “a lot” and that she remembered two incidents “vividly”.

In the first alleged incident, she told police Jeffrey Donaldson had put his hands down her underwear, pulled her legs apart and sexually assaulted her.

She claimed she couldn't sleep and that the next morning she “felt sick”.

The second incident, she said, was at a different location, and that after going to get something, she was followed by Jeffrey Donaldson who, she said, pulled her top up and felt her breasts.

Closing the door

She claimed that Eleanor Donaldson walked in and then walked away, closing the door behind her.

Ms Walsh outlined how, as a teenager, Witness B became involved in drugs and was sent to a Christian rehabilitation centre in the mid-90s.

She became friends with a woman there, and told her she had been sexually abused.

A meeting was later set up between the witness and Jeffrey Donaldson by people at a church.

Witness B said it was all a bit “weird”, and that at that meeting, Jeffrey Donaldson told her he wanted to apologise about what had happened in the past.

Ms Walsh said Witness A had told police of occasions, aged six or seven, when she experienced “sensations in her private area”.

The woman recalled an incident where Jeffrey Donaldson rubbed under her “sports bra”, saying that touching her in this way “was a very casual thing” and would happen “quite often”.

She also recalled an alleged occasion when she was 12 or 13 where Jeffrey Donaldson asked for a kiss, put his tongue in her mouth and pushed it around.

The woman said she told this to Eleanor Donaldson, who allegedly “laughed it off”.

She also said she sent a letter to the two defendants about the secret “she had to keep” and the “inappropriate sexual behaviour”.

Witness A reached out to a minister in her church and later spoke to a police officer about the criminal justice system but made no specific complaint at that time.

Arrests

Ms Walsh also told the jury of the arrest of Jeffrey and Eleanor Donaldosn on March 28, 2024, and their interviews.

She said when Jeffrey Donaldson was asked about Witness B's allegations, he told police he “had no memory of that happening” and it was “unbelievable”.

He denied lifting her top and touching her breasts. He said there was one occasion when they were alone, and she had sat on his knee, but that nothing untoward had happened.

Witness A was the first to give evidence on Thursday, following the playing to the court of her ABE (achieving best evidence) interviews with police.

Ms Walsh read a letter to the jury which Jeffrey Donaldson wrote to Witness A in 2020, in which he asked for her forgiveness “for the hurt and pain I have caused”.

In it, he referred to “sinful and selfish actions”, and said he was “seeking God's forgiveness” adding that he wanted to “take full responsibility for all I have done”.

“It is my hope, that in time, you will find it in your heart to forgive me,” he wrote.

“I have seen myself what amazing grace can do to lift a sinner from a pit of sin.”

He added that he was “a product of a sinful nature”.

Witness A told the court she took the letter to be about the allegations of abuse.

She was then cross-examined by Donaldson's barrister, Kieran Vaughan KC.

Mr Vaughan asked about notes where the witness spoke of being sexually abused by another man when she was around seven years old.

Asked why she didn't tell this to police during her ABE interview, or in the two years since, she said sexual abuse was “a complex thing”.

Abuse complex issue

Mr Vaughan also asked Witness A about a counselling session with a second Christian counsellor in which she wrote in a questionnaire that this other man “was inappropriate with me as a child” but did not mention the allegation made against Jeffrey Donaldson.

“Why in that context do you not say anything about what you have told this jury?” Mr Vaughan asked.

Witness A replied she was “not ready for that to happen”.

Mr Vaughan pointed out that in her police interview about the alleged Jeffrey Donaldson abuse, she said events were “very unclear” and used the words “I think” about what she claimed happened.

Witness A said she had “great clarity” about some events while others were “foggy”.

Mr Vaughan said: “All these incidents happened in your childhood. Your memory of those incidents are unclear?”

She replied: “The incidents themselves — I remember significant detail, due to the nature of what happened.”

Mr Vaughan suggested she may either have “fabricated” the abuse or else “dreamt it and over the years come to believe it is true”.

She said: “To imply someone would dream things without a reason is ridiculous. It is insulting.”

Her cross-examination continued into Friday, with Mr Vaughan saying it was not the case Jeffrey Donaldson had written the letter as an apology for alleged abuse.

Behaviour

He also claimed that Witness A had not made the police aware of the context when she gave them the letter after they interviewed her in March 2024.

Vaughan put it to her that “this has nothing to do with you and sexual assault” and stated Jeffrey Donaldson was apologising for other behaviour.

The witness said there were “heavy connotations of guilt” in the letter, adding that Donaldson was a, “very clever man” and that he would “never put in writing what he has done”.

Mr Vaughan also drew attention to a meeting Witness A had with a police officer where she mentioned “touching over clothing”.

She said: “If that is what she has written, that is what was said.”

Mr Vaughan said: “On the face of it, that is inconsistent with what you told the jury yesterday, about touching under clothes.”

She said: “The facts are the facts, I am sticking to that.”

During the third day of evidence, Mr Vaughan also referenced allegations of an affair and the breakdown of Donaldson's marriage in June 2020.

The court was told that in 2020, Eleanor Donaldson, suspecting her husband of having an affair and wanting to get evidence of that, planted a recording device in his car.

The trial continues.

There is a joy in writing that cannot be replicated by algorithms

Máiría Cahill, Sunday Independent, May 31st, 2026

My now-15-year-old daughter was three when I wrote my first column for this paper. We were living in a rented house in Derry, a safe haven from Belfast, during my rape cases — just the two of us, learning to navigate life in a new way. There was no byline on the column, because I hadn't waived anonymity.

At the time, Sinn Féin had denied Micheál Martin's claim that the republican movement had internally "investigated” rape cases.

Pearse Doherty called Martin's assertion "unfounded and untrue”. Yet, I was living proof that Martin was correct, and I wrote as much. Lesson to politicians: never cross a wounded woman armed with truth. She will find her voice.

When I went public a year later, Anne Harris, then editor of the Sunday Independent, invited me to her office. She laid the proof of the front page before me and asked what I thought of the headline. Never reticent with my opinion, I gave my view. She changed it on the spot. In that moment, she made me feel like I mattered.

Anne gave me another gift that day when she asked me to write. Those early columns allowed me to organise my thoughts and use my voice wisely against a public campaign of vilification and smears. It was an extraordinary situation: a rape victim, who had in effect publicly been called a liar, armed with column inches, taking on a political party and a paramilitary organisation.

Other Sindo journalists who championed my case and whose columns stood the test of time also ensured the issue couldn't be buried. But the space to write, in my words, was invaluable.

In an early column, I wrote how, as a young west Belfast girl, and before my life was derailed, I had wanted to be a lawyer or a journalist. But I had had my fill of the law through a lengthy court case and the subsequent public fallout. Here, one career path circled back — though I was under-confident, with a heavy touch of impostor syndrome. Many writers probably are.

From 1897 to 1927, my great-great- grandfather Joseph Cahill was a typographer at The Northern Whig. It is thrilling to delve through the archives and see pages he set. Perhaps that is why the permanence of words matters to me.

AI virus

The invention, or intrusion, of AI has dulled the craft. For those who outsource thinking to a lump of metal, it becomes laborious. A recent study shows that only a fifth of journalists do not use AI. While it is no doubt a time-saver in newsrooms, there is joy in reading a humanly-crafted column — even those you don't agree with. Or perhaps especially so.

There is also joy, and a kind of catharsis, in writing. Even if the subject seems frivolous, a writer has, in a sense, expended something of themselves and their experiences. That should not be taken for granted; it cannot be replicated with algorithms.

Of all the topics I wrote about here, columns on Thalidomide, the Ballymurphy massacre, the Disappeared, racism and abuse victims mattered most.

So too did teasing out constitutional issues, asking people to think about how not to repeat the cyclical damage already done. My opinion holds no more weight than anyone else's, but I am grateful to all my editors for trusting me to write it.

Learning on the job was both terrifying and exhilarating. Like many columnists, I also have a full-time job. These pieces have been written in unusual places: on the kitchen floor while checking food in the oven; while praying for a child to go to sleep; in the middle of the night; and while on holidays.

Since the start of this year, they've mostly been written while lying down, navigating a health fallout from Lyme disease and a pituitary tumour that knocked me sideways.

There were also bizarre moments, such as the regular carousel of social media commentators who took issue with my piece based on the headline, without reading the rest. Or the committed person who, for years, contacted most of my editors in different publications because they did not want me to write.

There was the surreal hour-long phone call from Sinéad O'Connor, and her open letter to me. And there was the time I went on holiday to Cork, and found myself alone, interviewing Ian Bailey. When the hastily arranged photographer arrived, Bailey came to life, reciting poetry about gutting fish. My reaction in the photo said it all.

There are lasting, kind moments too, like unexpected letters from readers and the steady encouragement from other journalists.

And so, if I've learned anything, it is that all of these moments matter, and perhaps human connection matters most. Without it, words are simply arranged on a page. With it, they convey experiences, and the hope that something in them might land with someone else.

I will always hold a soft spot for the Sindo. It let me do what I love and gave me invaluable experience. I will still write columns, though my regular one here is ending. Thank you for reading.