THE LABOUR GOVT AND LEGACY LAW - A YEAR ON

Jeffrey Dudgeon, Convenor Malone House Group (MHG)

[Edited version published in News Letter on 29 August 2025 under the headline – ‘Labour must now see that appeasing Irish nationalism on legacy does not work’.]

The Labour Party won a massive majority at the general election in July last year. So how has the Government fared on legacy, the NIO’s most important job aside from providing Stormont with money?

It would be true to say the welcome Hilary Benn experienced when he took over as Secretary of State has evaporated. The optimism has gone. Labour seems to be in an impasse.

Legacy is now a hard grind and the law could well end up much where the Tory government was. The NIO’s hope that Dublin could pull them out of difficulties and take the nationalists off their back was never a winning policy given the implacability of both, egged on by the Queen’s University Law Department and legacy practitioners.

The Conservatives’ Legacy Act received Royal Assent in September 2023. The section bringing to life ICRIR, the new investigations body, under Sir Declan Morgan, commenced in May 2024. However Mr Justice Colton had in February ordered the Act’s dismemberment with a series of declarations of incompatibility under section 4 of the Human Rights Act and through disapplication of other sections by virtue of Article 2 of the NI Protocol and Windsor Framework.

Key elements of the Act like the stopping of further Troubles inquests and civil suits were thus determined to be contrary to the ECHR, as was the section preventing Gerry Adams (and a hundred others) being compensated for internment in the early 1970s.

Benn’s first decision - actually that of the Attorney General, Lord Hermer just days after the election - was not to appeal the ECHR element of the Colton judgment. That was to be the last time Hermer was involved in legacy matters as it was realised he had represented Gerry Adams in a civil suit in London. He had to recuse himself thereafter.

A declaration of incompatibility is only a judicial statement addressed to Parliament but Hermer decided to abide by most of it, leaving just an NIO appeal on the Windsor Framework aspect in what is known as the Dillon case. It will be heard in the Supreme Court in mid-October.

Govt cannot afford to lose Dillon

London cannot afford to lose Dillon otherwise EU law will trump the United Kingdom’s equality, rights and immigration laws in Northern Ireland, with inevitable seepage into GB law. The cost of these various judgement in the Belfast courts is never taken into account but we are talking of a billion or more pounds on civil suits, public inquiries and reopened inquests, unless, as the NIO proposes, ICRIR takes over the role of coroner. That is assuming it survives the imposition of an Irish commissioner and the removal of Peter Sheridan.

Benn chose also to make a single exception by announcing a public inquiry into the Pat Finucane murder (with Baroness O’Loan as an assessor) while an extra £50 million was provided toward the erection of a Casement Park stadium. These concessions to nationalism failed to have any effect on lawfare or Dublin. Rather the opposite, as the cries grew for a public inquiry into the Sean Brown murder following another Belfast court pronouncement, also being appealed by the NIO to the Supreme Court.

The verdict in the Clonoe inquest in February 2025 which resulted in the coroner, Judge Humphreys, asking prosecutors to consider charges against army veterans, finally brought the Ministry of Defence to life. The following month it announced two judicial reviews of the coroner’s ruling as it inferred army criminality in the Clonoe deaths; one for the MoD and another funded one for the soldiers. No more appeasement of judicial overreach where veterans are concerned.

Remedial Order in Limbo

Benn’s powers of manoeuvre are increasingly restricted. Unusually, he introduced a lengthy Remedial Order, on foot of Hermer’s advice, designed to remove the offending sections of the Legacy Act. Westminster’s Joint Committee on Human Rights found there was an absence of the necessary “compelling reasons” for such a drastic measure which dispensed with the normal legislative route of repeal and re-enact. The Remedial Order has been in limbo for months and has not reappeared nor has the announcement of Benn’s replacement for the Legacy Act, let alone a decision on inquests.

Then came the Prime Minister’s announcement that Ministers will look at “every conceivable way” to prevent Gerry Adams receiving compensation. Sir Keir Starmer added he would “strive to make sure this did not happen” ignoring the fact that if he simply faced down the Belfast judiciary, as he is entitled to do, the six figure compensation would not be paid.

This circle is near impossible to square so, at best, Benn’s new Legacy Act will not have effect before 2028. Meantime the Supreme Court will be the ultimate arbiter of legacy law, if and when it curbs the increasing separatism of the Belfast judiciary and our associated government quangos like NIHRC.

Back to ICRIR?

The Malone House Group stood out alone in supporting the Legacy Act and, in particular, ICRIR’s role in information recovery, the one aspect of legacy that can bring some finality to distressed relatives where reinvestigations cannot.

Unfortunately the political parties - Unionist and Nationalist - have not budged from their refusal to endorse that body, or worse, like Alliance, indulge in thoughtless antagonism. For that reason, MHG has sought to intervene formally in the Dillon case at the Supreme Court. Amnesty, NIHRC and Wave, amongst others, are already accepted as interveners against the Act. If our request is granted - and the NIO has objected arguing there is not enough time in the three-day hearing for oral submissions - it would be a first for a non nationalist body.

We had previously sought leave to intervene at Strasbourg in the hostile inter-state case brought by Ireland against the UK but were informed last month that, “The Chamber decided to adjourn the Court’s proceedings pending the final outcome of the ongoing domestic proceedings for judicial review in the case Dillon and Others which are currently pending before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom…your request will be examined at a later date.” Everything awaits Dillon.

No surprise then that Hilary Benn won’t meet the Malone House Group, despite an earlier commitment, while the Labour-dominated Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in the Commons refuses to hear evidence from us despite calling in a host of witnesses on the lawfare side of legacy like QUB, CAJ, Wave, Baroness O’Loan, the Pat Finucane Centre andNIHRC.

One welcome development, in recent days, is the involvement of Jamie Bryson in encouraging non-nationalist victims’ families to use the good auspices of ICRIR. He has broken the silence of Unionism in that quarter and is also putting it to legacy practitioners to consider serving their clients’ interests in different ways. Hopefully army families will follow suit.

The Tullyvallen massacre 50 years on: 'There's never been a sense of bitterness or revenge'

Andrew Madden, Belfast Telegraph, August 30th, 2025

IRA ATTACK ON RURAL ORANGE HALL WHICH LEFT FIVE MEN FATALLY WOUNDED AND SEVERAL OTHERS INJURED CAME DURING A 'VERY DARK PERIOD' FOR PROTESTANTS IN SOUTH ARMAGH

Although it only lasted about 30 seconds, for those in the room it must have felt like an eternity.

When the gunfire stopped in a rural Orange Hall 50 years ago on Monday, five men lay fatally wounded and seven more were injured.

The echoes of the massacre at Tullyvallen Orange Hall, just outside Newtownhamilton in Co Armagh, two miles from the border, are still heard today.

IRA gunmen burst into the hall on the night of September 1, 1975, killing John Johnston (80), 73-year-old James McKee and his son Ronnie McKee (40), Nevin McConnell (48), and William Herron (68), who died two days later.

It was the latest episode of vicious republican violence in the area.

A fortnight before the atrocity at Tullyvallen, a member of the same Orange Lodge, LOL 630, was murdered by the IRA.

Grocer William Meaklim, a retired RUC reservist from Newtownhamilton, was kidnapped while making deliveries on August 14. His tortured body was found near the border at Crossmaglen the following night.

On August 30, off-duty UDR man Bertie Frazer, father of the late victims' campaigner Willie Frazer, was murdered by the IRA in nearby Whitecross.

The following night, 46-year-old Protestant farmer Joe Reid was shot dead by the IRA in Keady, eight miles from Tullyvallen.

Because of these murders, there was talk within LOL 630 of postponing their monthly meeting for September 1975, but members decided to go ahead.

Worst fears realised

Within minutes of opening prayers beginning, their worst fears were realised.

Two masked IRA men armed with assault rifles burst into the small hall through a kitchen door at the back of the building and opened fire on the 17 people present. Another gunman began shooting from outside through a window.

Writing about the events in a 2023 book, survivor Berry Reaney said: “James McKee was about 10 feet from the terrorists when they entered, and he was cut down immediately. Nevin McConnell shouted, 'Run for the toilets!' Some of the men ran towards the toilets to try to get out of the room, while others fell to the ground.

“Some leapt to get under the big table that held the Bible on top of it — anything to get out of the direct fire of the bullets that were being sprayed towards them.

“Nevin got halfway down the hall when he was hit several times in the upper body and fell to the floor.

“Ronnie McKee, realising what was happening, quickly turned around and lifted a chair above his head to throw it at the terrorists, but was hit with a hail of bullets.

“I just threw myself to the floor while the scent of gunfire and raw flesh started to fill the hall.

“Then it went quiet. Some say their lives flash before their eyes in time near death. I asked God: 'Please give me something better to remember in life than this.'”

One of those in the hall was an off-duty RUC man. He returned fire from his personal weapon, believing he wounded one of the IRA men.

This caused the IRA gang to flee, but not before leaving a 2lb cylinder bomb outside the hall, which would have exploded when those wounded left the hall to summon help. Thankfully, it did not detonate.

Alasdair Cooke is the Worshipful Master of LOL 630 at Tullyvallen. His grandfather James McKee, one of those killed alongside his son Ronnie, held that position at the time of the atrocity.

He was 15 at the time of the massacre.

“We lived fairly close to the hall and I have very vivid memories of the evening. There's absolutely no doubt about that, and of the days afterwards,” he said this week.

‘A lot of helicopter activity’

“The first thing we noticed was a lot of helicopter activity. Now, helicopter activity wasn't unusual, but it was quite sustained and quite local.

“So we went outside to see what was going on and realised that it was in the vicinity of the hall. We could see the searchlights. Then our phone rang and basically, that was it. That's how we found out.

“Communication, obviously, in those days, was an awful lot slower than it would be today. So the event had happened and it was over and done with by the time we found out what it was.

“It was a huge blow to the community, of course it was. Those murdered were all committed family men, active members within their own churches and within the community and business as well.”

For Tullyvallen, the events of the night of September 1 and the murders of local Protestants in the preceding weeks weren't the end of the bloodshed.

A seventh Tullyvallen Orangeman, Joe McCullough (56), a part-time UDR soldier, was murdered by the IRA on his farm, just five months after his brethren were slaughtered. He had taken over the chaplain's role in the Orange lodge from a Tullyvallen victim, John Johnston.

Rev Mervyn Gibson, Grand Secretary of the Orange Order, said it was devastating, especially for a small, rural lodge.

“A fortnight before the massacre, the IRA had murdered a member of the Tullyvallen lodge, and another five months after,” he said.

“That's a huge amount for that one lodge, which might have only had around 30 members.

“But that was happening around the province, there were a lot of attacks, but because of the scale of the massacre, it certainly impacted the whole institution. While there was security in the halls before Tullyvallen, security in the halls was stepped up after that.”

Victims' campaigner Kenny Donaldson grew up just five miles from Tullyvallen and has a family connection to one of the victims of the massacre. John Johnston was his grandmother's cousin.

“John was the lodge chaplain and he was also a member of Freeduff Presbyterian Church,” Kenny said.

“Members of our family who personally knew him have described him as a gentleman who had a strong Christian faith and who was generally very well liked and respected by his neighbours.

“He was viewed as unassuming and was at a point in his life where he was taking things that bit easier.

Lodge table saved lives

“For years I attended youth club in Tullyvallen Orange Hall with my brothers, not fully appreciating the happenings within that hall, being ignorant to the fact that the table which was used to support monitors for computer games was the lodge table which carried significant scorch damage from the bullets which struck it on that fateful night.

“It is accepted that the stability of that table may in part have helped save lives or additional physical injuries for some of the survivors. Terrorism did not break many within the minority Protestant community across south Armagh who refused to be forced away from their ancestral homes and land. No, they knuckled down, worked hard and not only survived but in many circumstances — thrived.

“The bereaved families and injured of Tullyvallen are dignified, humble people who have never sought notoriety, they are people of resolute faith, quiet courage and decency.”

In the immediate aftermath of the atrocity, a caller to the BBC admitted responsibility on behalf of the 'South Armagh Republic an Action Force', stating the attack was in retaliation for the “assassinations of fellow Catholics”.

Republican Action Force

The IRA was on ceasefire at the time and the Tullyvallen massacre was carried out by IRA members, simply using the 'South Armagh Republican Action Force' as a cover name.

Five months later, the same cover name would be used to admit responsibility for the murders of 10 Protestant workmen on the night of January 5, 1976, at Kingsmill.

It subsequently emerged that weapons used in the Tullyvallen massacre were also used at Kingsmill, as well as several other IRA attacks.

Danny Kennedy, a former MLA for Newry and Armagh, is from Bessbrook, about 12 miles from Tullyvallen. He was 16 at the time of the atrocity and shortly after joined Tullyvallen Silver Band.

“It was a very dark period in south Armagh for the minority Protestant community,” he said.

“They were very beleaguered because the community were stalked by fear, really. It was a particularly dark and dangerous time for the Protestant community.

“I remember the sense of fear and the sense of not being safe to travel within the wider area of south Armagh. You were very much confined to where you lived. We were always very aware of the security dangers.

“I think there was that sense of dread and where, you know, they just had to be really, really careful. And when darkness fell you were basically locked in for the night, particularly in those rural parts of south Armagh.

“In terms of the Tullyvallen atrocity, I think the families have behaved with quiet dignity. There's never been a sense of bitterness or revenge or anything like that.

“They have just carried their grief and gone on with their daily lives. That doesn't mean to say that it is not remembered. It is remembered every day, particularly by the families affected.”

Killers never convicted

None of the gunmen who took part in Tullyvallen were ever brought to justice.

However, 22-year-old John Anthony McCooey, who drove the killers to the Orange Hall and was also party to the murders of Joe McCullough and Robert William McConnell (32), a UDR man who was killed by the IRA in Tullyvallen in 1976, was convicted.

McConnell would himself be posthumously linked to several loyalist paramilitary atrocities.

McCooey, who lived about 10 miles from Tullyvallen, was handed seven life terms in November 1977 — a record number at the time.

Handing down the sentence at the time, the judge said: “These crimes displayed a degree of barbarity rarely equalled during these past years.”

He added: “I have heard soft spoken men from Co Armagh whose friends have been killed or wounded give their evidence quietly with sadness in their eyes and with real dignity. They will not submit to violence or the threat of violence.”

Ten per cent of Troubles dead

Rev Gibson said it is important to note that one in every 10 people murdered during the Troubles was a member of the Orange Institution.

“In many, many of those murders, nobody's ever been brought to trial. For those who killed the innocents at Tullyvallen, they haven't been brought to justice yet, and that is a concern,” he said.

“And when we see terrorists being feted for all sorts of things, the on-the-run letters, it's very hard to stomach.

“Prisoners being released, it's been very hard for those who have suffered and the loved ones to accept that and come to terms with it. That goes for the Orange Institution as well.

“The fact that the Tullyvallen lodge not only kept going after the massacre, but grew, is a testament to the lodge, the institution itself and the resilience of the Protestant community in that area.”

The 50th anniversary of the Tullyvallen massacre is not about those who carried out the barbaric act, but remembering the innocents whose lives were taken.

Alasdair Cooke said it is poignant for him to go to Tullyvallen Orange Hall for meetings and sit at the same table where his grandfather sat on the night he was murdered. “It also gives me a degree of pride that I'm in a position where I'm able to do that,” he said.

“We've had a memorial service every year since this happened, since 1976.

“We've had more notable events on the 25th and the 40th anniversaries, and now this time is the 50th year.

“The idea is to remember and to perpetuate the memories of not only the five who were murdered that night, but Brother William Meaklim, who was killed the fortnight before, and Brother Joe McCullough, who was murdered about five months later.

“Both were killed in the local geographical area. In fact, Joe McCullough was killed a stone's throw from the hall. So seven active members of the lodge were murdered in as many months, but the lodge has continued to thrive in the community.

“Members are from the community and part of the community. That's why it has continued to move forward.”

He added: “Tullyvallen is still a very strong lodge with between 40 and 50 members, a lot of whom are younger men who obviously weren't born at the time of the attack.

“It's the younger generation to whom we are now trying to impart the true story of Tullyvallen - the true story of what actually happened that night and of the men who were murdered.”

International Day of the Disappeared marked where body thought to be buried

John Breslin, Irish News, August 30th, 2025

FIVE white crosses were set in a Co Monaghan bog as a gathering took place to mark the International Day of the Disappeared. It included, Baroness Nuala O’Loan, Maria Lynskey, Michael McConville, Anne Morgan, Dympna Kerr

Relatives of those still missing and found travelled to Bragan Bog, where a new search is currently ongoing for the remains of Tyrone man Columba McVeigh, abducted, murdered and buried in 1975,

Thousands of people gather in various parts of the world for the annual International Day of the Disappeared, organised here by the Wave Trauma Centre.

The five white crosses represent Mr McVeigh, Joe Lynskey, Seamus Maguire, Robert Nairac and Lisa Dorrian.

Among those at Bragan Bog were Dympna Kerr, sister of Columba McVeigh, Maria Lynskey, niece of Joe Lynskey, Michael McConville, son of Jean McConville, and Anne Morgan, sister of Seamus Ruddy.

Former Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Baroness Nuala O’Loan attended. Prayers were said by Father Joe Gormley from Derry.

Wave chief executive Sandra Peake said it is “particularly poignant” marking the day at the bog, the scene of several searches for Mr McVeigh’s body over a number of years.

Ms Kerr said: “All we want is to bring Columba home to rest beside his mum and dad in Donaghmore.

“If the ICLVR are given the right information I know they will find Columba.

“I hope and pray that they do.”

'So proud of community I come from… especially the girls'

Suzanne Breen, Belfast Telegraph, August 30th, 2025

TRACY KELLY, THE DUP'S FIRST FEMALE LORD MAYOR OF BELFAST, REVEALS INFLUENCE THE LATE CHRISTOPHER STALFORD HAD ON HER BECOMING A POLITICIAN, AND PROMISES TO PUT HER 'WHOLE HEART' INTO THE HONOUR OF REPRESENTING THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY

Sipping tea from fine bone china in the lavish Lady Mayoress's parlour in Belfast City Hall, Tracy Kelly notes that such a scene of splendour is many times removed from the world which she normally inhabits.

“I'm not used to having staff or being served tea. I'm used to being the staff, to working behind-the-scenes, to looking after others and serving the tea,” says the first female DUP Lord Mayor.

She was born and raised less than a mile away in the loyalist Village area. She lives in a two-up, two-down house on the Donegall Road.

Kelly's mother Hazel and her siblings hadn't even visited City Hall until she became Lord Mayor two months ago.

“Due to ill health, my mummy couldn't be at the installation ceremony,” she says. “But she came down to tea in the parlour the following week. It was very emotional for her. She shed a wee tear.

“She sacrificed so much for us over the years. We'd a very happy childhood, but there were hard times too growing up on benefits. I'm so proud of where I come from and very humbled to be Lord Mayor.”

Kelly asserts that too often people like her haven't occupied such roles. “I want to show my community, especially the girls, that we can hold these positions,” she says.

“It's a positive when working-class loyalist communities are represented by people whose lived experience includes deprivation, disengagement and a feeling of disconnection from the city centre.”

‘A second Mummy to them’

Kelly (48) is the eldest of six children. “I was a second mummy to them,” she says. “Like the oldest in any big family, I'd no other choice. My brothers and sisters would say I was mummy's favourite.

“My mummy is a very strong unionist. My step-dad Kenny helped raise me from the age of eight. He was there for me when it mattered.

“He was a plasterer, in and out of work, so we had no regular income coming in. But we had lots of laughs. I've plenty of great memories. Kenny has since passed away from cancer.”

Childhood holidays were spent in the family caravan in Ballyhalbert, Co Down.

“When I was nine, I went to the US as part of a children's summer programme to escape the Troubles, and oh my word was that an experience,” Kelly recalls.

“I'd never been out of Northern Ireland, never been on a plane, never stayed in a hotel. I was paired with Collette, a Catholic girl from the Falls. We stayed with a family in Greensboro, North Carolina, for six weeks.

“I didn't stay in touch with Collette. I think had we been teenagers or had there been mobile phones and social media, then we would have, but in 1987, there was none of that.”

Kelly attended Donegall Road Primary School.

“I was expected to pass the 11-plus,” she explains. “My mummy had high hopes for me. She wanted me to go to grammar school, to Hunterhouse College.

“Our house was small, but she made a wee room for me to study under the stairs with a desk and a chair. I became sick when sitting the 11-plus. I ended up in hospital for a fortnight with hepatitis.

“My mummy tried to explain to the education authorities. She fought tooth and nail for me. She tried to appeal the result. She asked if I could resit the test, but she got nowhere — it didn't happen.”

Captain of school hockey and football teams

Kelly went to her local secondary school, Deramore High. She was very sporty, captaining both the junior hockey and basketball teams. She left with “five or six GCSES, enough to go to the Met (Belfast Metropolitan College) to take a course in business administration”.

She recalls: “I set my sights on an office job. I'd always loved to work. I'd a job sweeping the floor in a hairdresser's when I was 12. At 14, I went to work in Mr Michael's chippie on Donegall Avenue, and I stayed there until I was 29 because the craic was ninety.

“Even when I was working in Halifax Bank, I'd do weekend shifts in Mr Michael's. If it was still there today, I'd be working in it. The banter was brilliant.”

Kelly has also worked in community development, including for a loyalist prisoners' enterprise project. In 2016, she applied for a job as the manager of South Belfast DUP MLA Christopher Stalford's constituency office.

“I'd known him from childhood when we both went to the Free Presbyterian Martyrs Memorial Church. He was six years younger, so we hadn't been friends,” she says.

“My job interview was hours after the Brexit referendum result. Christopher was in great form. I'd have dreaded doing that interview had Remain won because he'd have been in a foul mood,” she jokes.

Stalford died in 2022, aged 39. Kelly's admiration and affection for him is palpable. During the interview, she repeatedly speaks of him in the present tense. Although they had different personalities, they “got on like a house on fire”.

She says: “At meetings, I'd do the small talk with people, and he'd do the big picture politics. We were a great team. We just slagged each other all the time. We had fun. There were selfies wherever we went.”

Kelly had never thought of becoming a politician herself.

“I knew I was good at administration, at running an office. I was just happy working away in the background,” she explains.

“But Christopher kept telling me I'd make a great councillor so I stood and I was elected in 2019.”

She jokes that Stalford would be “very proud” of her “and maybe just a wee bit jealous”. While he'd been High Sheriff and Deputy Lord Mayor, he'd have loved the top job in City Hall, but his career path took him to Stormont.

Other parties have had female lord mayors long before the DUP. The UUP had one in 1981, Alliance in 2009, the SDLP in 2014 and Sinn Fein in 2018, so why has it taken Kelly's party so long?

She believes it may be because the DUP has had fewer female members and councillors, with those women in the ranks perhaps reluctant to put themselves forward for positions over the years.

Only four DUP councillors women

Only four of the DUP's 14-strong City Hall team are female.

“It's not a case that the party doesn't want women or that DUP men are holding the women back,” Kelly says.

“My experience is the opposite. When I began managing the South Belfast (Assembly) office, it was the three men in it — Christopher and councillors Paul Porter and Nathan Anderson — who were pushing me forward and encouraging me to run for election.”

Edwin Poots succeeded Stalford as the DUP's South Belfast MLA. There has been some speculation that he may retire and not contest the 2027 Assembly election. So would Kelly consider running?

“I don't know,” she says. “It's two years away, and that's a long time in politics. Being Lord Mayor will raise my profile, but I just love being a councillor and working in the Sandy Row office.

“I've seen other councillors go to Stormont and it takes them away from the community. I'm a people person. I want to be on the ground. The community is my bread and butter.”

Asked who inspired her in politics, Kelly replies that she doesn't have political heroes.

“I admired Margaret Thatcher,” she says. “I didn't agree with everything she said or done, like ending free school milk or closing coal mines.

“But I liked that she was the 'Iron Lady' who stood her ground in politics when surrounded by all those men. I also look up to Arlene (Foster). She was the first female leader of the DUP and always offered great encouragement.”

Kelly is married to Eddie, a painter and decorator, 10 years her senior. She has two children from a previous relationship — Justin (26), who works for a recycling company, and Brooklyn (19), who is studying film at Queen's University.

Eddie has four grown-up children from a previous relationship, and the couple now have 11 grandchildren.

Defends ‘low grade’ asbestos Village bonfire

Kelly defends the Village bonfire going ahead last month on a site containing asbestos despite warnings of the risk.

Speaking as a local councillor and not as Lord Mayor, she says: “It was the lowest of low-grade asbestos left on that site in 2011. It was deemed not dangerous.

“It's a massive site. It was portrayed that this bonfire was getting built on top of the asbestos and kids were playing all over it. That's completely false: the community placed a cordon around it and the kids were nowhere near it.

“The community was demonised. The whole episode wasn't handled well in the media.”

Kelly attended the controversial bonfire. “I felt it was important to go to give the community support,” she says. “The majority of people stood on the street outside the site.”

DUP representatives were accused of not being visible or active enough during racist attacks in the Sandy Row area last summer. Speaking again as a local councillor, Kelly rejects the criticism.

“We were on the ground,” she insists. “We mightn't have been seen by the media, but we were seen by the people who matter. Others were giving interviews when I was rapping doors of ethnic minority residents and asking them if they needed support.

“We were trying to calm things down behind the scenes. The media coverage was unfair.”

Opposed Irish language signage at Grand Central

Kelly opposes Irish language signs being erected at Grand Central Station. “The Boyne Bridge — a bridge whose name has such historical significance — was taken down against local people's wishes,” she says.

“To remove such a huge piece of the community's heritage, and then to try to insert somebody else's heritage without even consulting the community, is wrong and disrespectful.”

Earlier this month, Kelly attended the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Wexford and accepted a special harp as part of a handover to Belfast, which will host the music festival for the first time next year.

“I'd a fantastic time,” she says. “I was there doing what I needed to do as Lord Mayor of Belfast. Everybody was so welcoming. The hospitality was amazing.

“There wasn't rebel music at the Fleadh —it was traditional Irish music and dancing, which I love. I go to Dublin all the time. My hubby and I go down every year on our wedding anniversary. I was there with my daughter last year as well. We had a great time enjoying the music in Temple Bar.”

Outside of politics, how does the Lord Mayor relax? “I just like chilling in my jammies and watching Netflix, mostly true crime dramas,” she says. “I enjoy weekends with my hubby in our caravan in Millisle. We'll go out for a meal and a couple of drinks.

“I have the odd blowout with the girls now and again. I love holidays — most of my wages go on holidays. I was in Turkey at Easter, and in Corfu the week after the Twelfth.

“I love a cruise or a city break. I love lying by the pool with a book or holidays where you do stuff.” Kelly is also a big Linfield and Liverpool fan.

‘I still have my faith’

In terms of religion, she says: “I still have my faith, but I don't go to church regularly.”

Kelly had a rough time after Christopher Stalford died.

“I sort of lost myself. I went into myself,” she explains. “Christopher's death in February 2022 was a total shock.

“You're trying to cope with that, and then with an Assembly election less than three months later. You're closing the old office and then opening the new office, Edwin's office. And you have to just smile and get on with it for constituents.

“I found it all extremely hard. I didn't have a breakdown but, by the end of the year, I had to reach out for help. I wasn't great.”

Kelly believes that had she been able to take time out after Stalford's death, it might have been different. “But we all had to keep going, we had no other choice,” she says.

“And I've found myself again over the last 18 months. I've a healthier lifestyle. I'm out walking. I feel great, I feel more me.

“It's an absolute honour to now be Lord Mayor. I take nothing for granted. I'm putting my whole heart into representing the people of Belfast to the best of my ability.”

Catherine Connolly sells herself as ‘uniting candidate’ on visit to Sinn Féin heartland

Independent TD says she wishes to see a united Ireland ‘in my term as president’ but objects to claim she is ‘courting’ Sinn Féin

Seanín Graham, Irish Times, August 30th, 2025

Presidential election candidate Catherine Connolly has said she would “of course” want to see a united Ireland during her term in office and would “use her voice” to achieve it.

But the Independent TD said she also recognised that Irish unity would be guided by political decision making.

Speaking to reporters outside Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich on the Falls Road in Belfast on Thursday, Ms Connolly rejected suggestions that her visit was a waste of time given that people in the North have no vote in the upcoming poll.

“Wasting my time? Absolutely the opposite. I have always felt that we have cut off a limb of our body in having Northern Ireland cut off from us,” she said.

“I have spoken more than once on the importance of giving the vote to the Northern Irish people, in this election in particular ... unfortunately that is not going to happen for this election.”

Would like to see Border poll during her presidency

Expressing her support for Irish unity, she said it was “difficult to put a time limit” on a Border poll.

Any move towards a united Ireland would “have to be a process” and could only be done by the “the consent of the majority of people” as “enshrined in our Constitution”.

“It will be gradual, it is a building of trust for a united Ireland where we value everyone,” Ms Connolly told reporters.

“Of course I would like to see it in my term as president, but whether that will happen will be a political decision.

“But I will use my voice in every way possible for that vision to be a reality.”

Asked if she was “courting” Sinn Féin, which has yet to nominate a candidate, Ms Connelly said she disliked the word.

“I look forward to support from every single side. I look upon myself as a uniting candidate, somebody that can draw people together and unite on the basic issues that are important to us.”

Ms Connolly said her decision to enter the presidential race was based on the “enormous amount of messages” of support she received and “ignored for too long”.

“It wasn’t in my ambit,” she added.

Following the press conference, she met representatives from the Irish language sector and the campaign group Mothers Against Genocide.

Ms Connolly also visited Irish language medium schools in west Belfast during her campaign trip.

Gary Murphy, professor of politics in Dublin City University, described her decision to travel North as a strategic one to “get Sinn Féin to support her”.

“She would have a decent chance of getting a good vote if Sinn Féin rolled in behind her. If it doesn’t and nominates its own candidate, she has no chance whatsoever,” he said.

Visiting a republican voting stronghold “makes sense”, according to the academic, in that Ms Connolly has “never really been associated with Irish unity in any way and has no record of being vocal on that”.

“A cynic might say, ‘What is she doing up on the Falls Road when she should be in west Cork?’,” Prof Murphy added.

“The optics are quite extraordinary, that a candidate would go up to a Sinn Féin heartland and make a statement, take a few questions, in a place, to be frank about it, where there are no votes.

“I can only think it is, whether subliminal or not, an effort to show Sinn Féin voters that she would be friendly to the idea of pushing for a united Ireland.”

'There is no justice': Survivor of paedophile Christian Brother speaks out after his death at 89

Donal McMahon, Local Democracy Reporter, Belfast Telegraph, August 30th, 2025

VICTIM OF TWISTED CLERIC IS SEEKING A PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO SERIAL ABUSER

A survivor of paedophile Christian Brother Paul Dunleavy has said “there is no justice in his death”.

Former Abbey primary school headmaster Dunleavy was sentenced to 10 years in November 2024 after being convicted of 36 charges against former pupils.

He died on Tuesday aged 89 at a hospital outside of Maghaberry Prison.

As a young boy, Brian Ellison became a victim of the unrepentant abuser.

Now 66, the Newry man has called on Stormont to hold a public inquiry into clerical abuse.

Mr Ellison said: “There is no justice in Dunleavy's death.

“It's sad that the victims and those are the ones who are now dead, three which I knew personally, never had justice, and believe me there are a hell of a lot more.

Civil Action

“The reality is we are not going to have any more convictions, but I intend to bring a civil action and when I take that case I will go the whole way.

“I am upset by the way his death is being reported and the fact that nobody had the decency or the courtesy to ring the survivors in advance of that disclosure.

“He died on Tuesday, they knew that, they had Tuesday and Wednesday to have contacted us, but nobody, nobody did it.”

He added: “It hasn't been a good few days for me, it evokes everything. When I think of the people who are dead that I knew and the way their lives were ruined because of the abuse. It does not bring closure.

“That will only come, and this comes from a lot of survivors who have been through trials, they all want to hear a full and contrite apology and they want the redress to be dealt with.”

He said: “My late brother Kevin went to Rome in 1996 for the beatification of Edmund Ignatius Rice, the founder of the Christain Brothers, when he met with Pope John Paul II, because Kevin was the 'miracle man', having been cured by a relic of Edmund Rice.

Made first complaint in 1997

“And I made my first complaint to the RUC when Fr Brendan Smyth went to stand trial in 1997, and then the cover-up started.

“The detective just sat there and listened, and did nothing, even though I gave him two witnesses.

“I believe Dunleavy has about 500 people who he abused. When you understand how he would pick up vulnerable boys in his car, outside of school, and abuse them, and how many times that would happen… it beggars belief.”

The Historical Institution Abuse (HIA) Inquiry was held in 2015 examining child abuse allegations in church, state and voluntary children's residential institutions dating back to 1922.

It set aside a dedicated module on the case of the late peadophile priest Smyth, who was convicted of more than 140 offences against children over a 40-year period and spent time in prison on both sides of the border.

Despite the HIA inquiry, Mr Ellison is still pursuing a public inquiry.

He added: “Since Fr Brendan Smyth appeared on TV being extradited to the south of Ireland, that sparked it in all of us, everyone of us.

“That awakened a demon that had visited us when we were children of nine to 11 years of age.

“Everybody I have met through all the trials has said that.

Perpetrators need to be made accountable

“There is a document on a review of the procedures I am involved in as well, and that paper has been written and sits in front of the First and Deputy First Minister.

“It is basically looking for a public inquiry into abuse and it is for all colours, creeds and nationalities.

“It sits there for them to peruse and decide whether we get a public inquiry or not. I am not holding my breath.

“From every survivor, and from the victims' families, they want to hear that apology and they want the redress resolved, so they can start to move on with their lives.

“This is not about money for compensation, it is redress.

“It is no different to a murder or any other trial. You need closure and that only comes when the people who are accountable and responsible actually say: 'We acknowledge your hurt'.”

The Executive Office was contacted for comment.

Man charged with murder of Co Down Sex Offender

Belfast Telegraph, August 30th, 2025

A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of convicted sex offender Sean Small in Co Down.

Mark Bready (41) was handcuffed as he stood in the dock at Newtownards Magistrates Court yesterday morning.

The defendant, from Slievenabrock Avenue, was a neighbour of the 84-year-old who was found dead at his home on the same street in Newcastle last Sunday. He spoke only to confirm his name and that he understood the charge against him.

Police have previously said Small was subjected to a “brutal attack”. No details were revealed during the hearing.

The victim was jailed in 2022 for a series of child sex offences committed over a period of nearly two years.

He was sentenced to six years in prison, with three to be served on licence.

It is understood that Small had been released from jail just weeks before his killing.

Yesterday, a police officer told the court they could connect the accused to the murder charge. No bail application was made.

District Judge Amanda Brady remanded Bready into custody and ordered an Article 51 mental health assessment.

Adjourning the case, she ordered Bready be produced via video-link before Downpatrick Magistrates Court on September 25.

Stormont ignored London request to pardon accused to defuse 1920 Derry riots

Sam McBride, Belfast Telegraph, August 30th, 2025

THE SUSPECTS WERE EVENTUALLY CLEARED FOUR YEARS LATER AFTER TWO TRIALS, BUT PAPERS SHOW HOW FLEDGLING PARLIAMENT DISREGARDED THE WISHES OF WESTMINSTER TO RECOGNISE AN AMNESTY INTRODUCED FOLLOWING PARTITION

For almost a century, the file's contents were judged too sensitive to be made public. As its pages yellowed, the aging bundle of papers — with the handwritten words 'closed for 100 years' on its cover — lay in government departments, and then the closed vaults of The National Archives at Kew in London.

But even a period as long as a century eventually passes, and now the file, relating to the bloody period in which Northern Ireland came into existence, has been opened.

The typed documents and handwritten notes relate to a grisly murder which, even in a time of wanton slaughter, stood out.

Yet this is more than a human story; it provides an insight into how the fledgling Stormont Parliament exerted control and disregarded the wishes of the Westminster machine to which it was nominally subordinate.

The extent of that local control — in a legislature where nationalists could never be in power and even Catholic unionists would eventually be barred from joining the one party that wielded power — would ultimately become a vulnerability.

When Westminster eventually started paying close attention to Stormont's behaviour, by then it was too late and the system was heading towards implosion.

The file discovered by the Belfast Telegraph in Kew was created in the Imperial Secretary's Department, an office which existed for four years from 1922-1926 as that of the secretary to the Governor of Northern Ireland, the monarch's representative in Belfast.

Victim was son of Apprenctice Boys Governor

The file relates to the murder of a prominent unionist in Londonderry on June 21, 1920. The victim, Howard McKay, had been shot in cold blood at the Showgrounds on Lone Moor Road. Newspaper reports at the time said he was 25; the family gravestone puts his age at 34.

McKay's father was an even more prominent figure; not only a leading Orangeman, but the governor of the Apprentice Boys of Derry.

A day later the murder was raised in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Wilfred Ashley, who told the chamber: “I would draw attention to a most foul crime which I could not believe any inhabitants of the United Kingdom could be guilty of. It is more worthy of darkest Africa or some savage Asiatic potentate.”

McKay's murder came amid an almost complete breakdown of law and order in Derry, where for several days IRA and UVF units fought each other in the streets with rifles and revolvers.

The Press Association's Derry correspondent said in a telegram on the day of McKay's murder there had been “fierce rioting” which prevented “thousands of factory girls” from getting to work and meant “all shops, banks and business premises are closed”.

He said there were “masked parties of unionists carrying rifles with fixed bayonets” who “kept up a rapid rifle fire” from Carlisle Road into Bridge Street, while “nationalists with revolvers occupied strategic points from which they kept up a brisk response”.

He reported “for the first time the nationalists appeared with service rifles”, and republicans had placed a line of sandbags at the bottom of Bridge Street.

It was a scene of anarchy. Phones were down and the last portion of the telegram didn't reach London for hours. There was “a determined effort to raid the mail train arriving from Dublin”, another reporter said.

Soldiers and Police lost control

Soldiers and police were sporadically present, but not in control.

Eventually troops, supplied by a field kitchen, took up positions and opened fire.

Another reporter at the scene said in the Irish Examiner: “Londonderry at present is only comparable to a state of civil war.”

According to the Freeman's Journal, then a leading nationalist newspaper, there were 22 people murdered during the disorder, 15 of whom were Catholics.

The declassified file begins three-and-a-half years after McKay's murder when the Imperial Secretary, SG Tallents, received a confidential letter from Sir John Anderson, the top civil servant in the Home Office in London.

Anderson had been a pivotal figure in Irish affairs, having been involved in setting up the Black and Tans, negotiating the truce that ended the Irish War of Independence, and helping decide where precisely the border should go.

Writing on December 4, 1923, he said: “The Colonial Office have just drawn my attention to the case of two men, J. Hillen and J. Keenan, who were arrested on the 7th November and are being charged with the murder of Howard McKay in June 1920.

“This case would appear to come quite clearly within the Royal Amnesty of 12th January, 1922, which read as follows: 'HM the King has been pleased, at the moment when a Provisional Irish Government is about to take office, to grant a general amnesty in respect of all offences committed in Ireland from political motives prior to the operation of the Truce on July 11th last.'”

The letter went on: “I can say from my own knowledge that the amnesty was deliberately made to apply to offences [underlined] in order that there might be a completely clean sheet.

“Moreover, however brutal this particular murder may have been, there were certainly some far more brutal ones in the South.

“Having regard to the date at which the murder was committed and the terms of the amnesty which I have just quoted, I think His Majesty's Government would be in honour bound to advise the Governor that in the event of these men being convicted he should grant them a free pardon, and I feel bound to let you know this without a moment's delay.”

The Imperial Secretary immediately conveyed the message to the head of the new Northern Ireland Civil Service, Lt Col WB Spender in Stormont Castle — a man described by John Oliver, who joined the Civil Service in the 1930s as “a survivor from a bygone era of English colonial life”.

Three days later he wrote with further news: “The trial of Hillen and Keenan at Armagh for the murder of Howard McKay ended yesterday when the jury were unable to agree… I spoke about the case informally to [Stormont Prime Minister James] Craig at lunch in the Club today.

“He seemed disposed to question whether this murder could be described as a political offence, and said in any case they could hardly stop the trial; and I do not know what view the Government will take about the fresh trial [at] present ordered to take place at Derry.”

He enclosed a newspaper clipping from The Northern Whig which reported that James Hillen and James Keenan had pleaded not guilty, with the case against them being presented by the Attorney General of Northern Ireland, Richard Best.

The court was told that McKay had been taken prisoner by armed men and then put up against a wall. Keenan was alleged to have asked him where the Ulster Volunteers kept their guns, something McKay refused to divulge, while also telling Keenan that he would recognise him again.

Another man present called James McGee allegedly said that “dead men tell no tales”, before an argument among those holding McKay as to what to do with him.

Ultimately, it was alleged that a handkerchief was put around his face before he was shot.

“A girl named Sweeney” allegedly was found “dancing on the body and kicking it” and “there were some cards on the body”, something the defence disputed, saying that there were no such marks on the corpse.

The defence counsel said that “the case was a weak one — weaker than water”, involving an uncorroborated account by an eyewitness who came forward three years and five months after the murder.

“The men in the dock were innocent and they were asked to rob them of their lives”, he told the jury, adding: “How could any jury be satisfied with that evidence?”

The Crown's main witness was a man who was brought up a Catholic but had recently converted to Protestantism and joined the 'C' Specials.

Stormont Minister said amnesty was ‘impossible’

On December 15, 1923, Dawson Bates, Stormont's Minister of Home Affairs, wrote to Spender to say he'd gone to London to discuss the cases with Anderson in person and “explained the exact position of affairs to him”.

He said: “As regards the amnesty, I corrected the erroneous impression which he first had in his mind — and in regard to which he now admits I am correct — that our Government had nothing to do with the amnesty.

“In order to avoid any question being raised in regard to its Terms, that we had handed over all the prisoners which the Imperial Government indicated came under the terms of the amnesty to the Imperial Government who in due course released them, and that we regarded the amnesty as only applying to such prisoners or to those actually convicted of such offences, I suggested to him that it was impossible to amnesty an individual until the individual had been convicted and an opportunity had first been given, as the result of evidence produced at the trial, of ascertaining whether or not the motives underlying the crime came under the terms of the amnesty; that an individual had a right to have his character cleared if he could do so.”

Cited as precedent for ‘On the Runs’ letter

Ironically, this very argument would come up in the early 2000s from a very different source. As Sinn Féin pressed Tony Blair to get on the run IRA fugitives back without any legal process or prison time, Irish Attorney General Michael McDowell suggested pre-emptive pardons, something he said had been used earlier in British history.

The UK Attorney General confirmed this had been done, but so long ago that they had fallen into disuse and he questioned whether such an approach would stand up in court in the 21st century.

In his letter, Bates went on: “On the other hand, I pointed out the difficulties which would follow if his contention was correct that no individual should be put on his trial for offences alleged to be of a political character.”

He said that on top of this, if the Stormont Attorney General directed there to be an abandonment of the case, it would be “entirely misunderstood by the public”.

He said that “personally, I took the view that it was unlikely there would be a conviction in the case”. If that happened, “this in the end would have the same result as the amnesty, without weakening the hands of the Government in administering the law”.

He added: “Sir John, I think, was a good deal impressed with the argument I put before him... meanwhile, the question has not been raised officially…”

Three months later, the second trial on St Patrick's Day 1924 would see the defendants walk free.

A March 18 News Letter report in the file said that after just 25 minutes' consideration, the jury returned a not guilty verdict, after which there was applause and as they left court a “dense crowd” loudly cheered. The report said that with a bunch of shamrock in their button holes “amid a scene of wild enthusiasm they were lifted shoulder-high and escorted by an excited throng to their homes”.

McKay had survived the hell of the Great War in France with the North Irish Horse only to return home and be murdered up against a wall, with his body lying for hours.

But it wasn't just McKay who'd served in the British Army — so had his alleged assassins. When the pair were charged in November 1923, the Irish Independent reported the news under the headline: “Sensation in Derry City... ex-soldiers charged with murder.”

While McKay had been part of the 36th (Ulster) Division, Hillen had served in an unspecified regiment and Keenan had been in the Royal Artillery, having been wounded to the extent that he was dismissed as medically unfit in 1915.

Men whose units had been fighting for the same cause in France returned home to find themselves on opposite sides of a very different form of barbarism — and some of what then went on was judged too sensitive to be made public until everyone involved was long dead.

Little appetite for celebrities airing political views, new polling suggests

Little appetite for celebrities airing political views, new polling suggests

MOST people do not pay attention to celebrities expressing their views in support of political causes, according to new polling.

While just over half of people think it is acceptable for celebrities to raise awareness about such causes, the vast majority say they are not interested in hearing more about these issues from famous people, according to a recent survey.

The polling, commissioned by the PA news agency, was carried out over a weekend which saw a string of bands pull out of a UK music festival after Irish folk music group The Mary Wallopers claimed they were “cut off” for displaying a Palestinian flag.

Organisers of the Victorious music festival in Portsmouth later issued an apology to the band over what had happened and pledged to make “a substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people”.

Increasing numbers of artists have spoken out over the war in Gaza in recent times, including singer Madonna and rock band U2, with many performers using social media or the stage as their platform.

Online polling by Ipsos for PA of just over 1,000 people across Great Britain suggested 60% have not paid attention to a celebrity expressing their views in support of a political cause.

In polling, most people said they do not pay attention to a celebrity expressing political views. Right, Irish author Sally Rooney has been in the headlines over her support for Palestine Action

Those polled were most likely to say they either trusted family and friends or no-one (32% for each) when it comes to hearing views on political issues, with just 5% saying they trust celebrities on such matters.

Asked about which groups they would be interested in hearing more from on political issues, 8% said celebrities.

This came below the royal family (10%), politicians (13%) and academics (20%).

More than half of people felt it was acceptable for celebrities to raise awareness about political causes (55%) and to encourage people to write to their MP about a political issue (57%).

But 52% said it was unacceptable to encourage protest which might break the law such as supporting a banned organisation.

Just over a fifth (22%) felt this was acceptable.

Award-winning author Sally Rooney recently hit the headlines for saying she will donate her earnings from her books and BBC adaptions to support Palestine Action, a group recently proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK.

The Irish author of Normal People said that if backing Palestine Action “makes me a ‘supporter of terror’ under UK law, so be it”.

While the group was recently proscribed in the UK, it is not banned under Irish law.

Ms Rooney currently lives in the west of Ireland.

Writing in the Irish Times earlier this month, she said: “I want to be clear that I intend to use these proceeds of my work, as well as my public platform generally, to go on supporting Palestine Action and direct action against genocide in whatever way I can.

The Ipsos polling was carried out between August 22 and 25 and was of 1,100 people aged 16-75 across England, Scotland and Wales.