The role of Mandelson in watering down Patten policing reforms is still being felt today
ALLISON MORRIS, Belfast Telegraph, February 23rd, 2026
Figures linked to the latest PSNI recruitment drive show yet another dip in the number of Catholics applying to join the service.
The PSNI currently employs approximately 6,300 officers, 67% of whom are “perceived Protestant” and 32% of whom are “perceived Catholic”.
New figures released by the organisation on Wednesday show that more than 4,100 people applied to join the PSNI in the latest drive to increase the number of officers to 7,000.
Just over a quarter of those are from a Catholic background. The figure of 27% is two percentage points down on the 2025 recruitment drive and the lowest since at least 2013.
Come November, the Police Service of Northern Ireland will be 25 years old.
I clearly remember working a weekend shift in the newsroom and calling the RUC press office. The following day, when I rang the same number, the person on the other end said: “PSNI press office, how can I help you?”
Back then the press room was still staffed by police officers, mainly those nearing the end of their career.
I once asked for a comment on a police raid on a house in west Belfast. The officer on the other end of the line said: “My dear, we search houses; we don't raid them.”
That told me.
They were the early days of a very fragile peace, and policing was a huge part of the negotiations.
Between 2001 and 2011, while the 50:50 recruitment policy was in place, the proportion of Catholic officers grew from around just 8% to roughly 32%.
If trends continue as they are, the numbers could dip to the low 20s in the next ten years.
There are those who argue that the PSNI should just stop asking the background of officers and forget about counting Catholics, Protestants and everything in between.
But any police service, regardless of where in the world it is located, should reflect the population it serves.
Policing is a vocation; it is just not the kind of vocation that most nationalists traditionally considered. The reasons for that are well rehearsed.
Legacy, dissident threat, the perception of policing in general.
The PSNI has come a long way, but it is still not what Chris Patten had in mind when he undertook the important work of planning out what police reform might look like in Northern Ireland.
Lord Patten — as he is now titled — headed up the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, established in 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement.
Better known as the Patten Commission, it produced a report in 1999 called 'A New Beginning: Policing in Northern Ireland'.
Gold standard
It remains the gold standard in post-conflict policing reform and was used as a template in other countries rebuilding after war.
However, the original Patten report was watered down. And who was the man responsible for that? None other than Peter Mandelson, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that Mandelson is currently back in the headlines.
The Teflon Don of the Labour Party — a man who has had more comebacks than George Foreman — was a close friend of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
With the man formerly known as Prince Andrew getting his collar felt this past week as part of an investigation into his dealings with Epstein, Mandelson must be worried he will be next.
It's interesting that the investigations are looking at any insider secrets they were sharing with the American sex offender and not any alleged impropriety concerning victims. Is it any wonder so few victims speak out publicly?
But back to policing in Northern Ireland.
Patten wanted a new police service, a PSNI free from the stigma of the past.
And while there are those who like to tell us what a great and gallant force the RUC was, I have four boxes filled with Police Ombudsman reports, public inquiry findings and inquest rulings that show just why reform was seen as a necessary path to peace.
Patten recommended that the name of the RUC be replaced completely to the Northern Ireland Police Service, later changed to Police Service of Northern Ireland. Mandelson changed this to a dual name that retained RUC, and ensured the new name was only phased in.
He also introduced the establishment of the RUC George Cross Foundation to permanently honour the force's history, a move not in the original report, but one that helped ease the disquiet among those who strongly opposed the reforms.
Completely contrary to Chris Patten's recommendation for a new and neutral badge, Mandelson changed it so the symbol would retain the traditional harp and crown. That was meant to be phased out but remains in the logo to this day.
Patten also recommended that all officers take an oath to the new service.
The then-Secretary of State said only new recruits would be required to take the new oath, sparing serving officers and, arguably, leaving them clinging on to the past and not feeling loyalty to the new service.
He also — and probably most controversially — retained Special Branch and CID as independent units. Patten had recommended that they be merged.
He also watered down the powers of the policing board that would give political oversight to the force.
So, as we learn more about Mandelson's character from the Epstein files, remember that he was the man who sliced and diced up the Patten reforms, making changes that are still being felt today, 25 years on.
SDLP leader attends Orange lodge celebration after backing Liggett’s award of MBE
CONOR COYLE, Irish News, February 23rd, 2026
SDLP leader Claire Hanna has attended an event at an Orange Hall in south Belfast to mark one of its member’s award of an MBE.
The South Belfast and Mid Down MP was pictured at the event at Ballynafeigh Orange Hall on Saturday.
The event was held by the local lodge to celebrate the awarding of an MBE to long-time lodge member Noel Liggett.
Mr Liggett was awarded the title as part of the King’s New Year’s Honours list for “demonstrating outstanding determination, tenacity, and drive in promoting good relations and community cohesion in south Belfast for 30 years as District Master of the Number 10 District Lodge”.
Among the achievements cited as part of the honour for the Orangeman was a 2018 cultural exchange between Ballynafeigh Orange Lodge and Bredagh GAC, which was described as “a model for peaceful co-existence in south Belfast”.
Ms Hanna attended the event on Saturday alongside Belfast Lord Mayor Tracy Kelly of the DUP and senior figures from the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland.
The SDLP leader had been invited to the event after writing a letter in support of Mr Liggett’s application for the award.
“Claire Hanna was approached as the MP of our area seeking support for Noel’s application to the honours systems,” Ballynafeigh Orange Hall commented in a post on social media.
“Ms Hanna wrote a very supportive and factual letter of support for Noel.
“As such, every person who wrote letters of support, Ms Hanna was invited to attend our celebration of Noel’s achievement.
“Whilst our political views may not align, yesterday the entire room of 50 plus people were in unison for their appreciation of Noel’s 30 plus years service to our Loyal Orders and the wider Ormeau Road community.”
Ms Hanna said she was happy to be invited to the event.
“Ballynafeigh Orange Lodge is a long established civic institution in my constituency and as the MP I was very glad to accept their invitation to afternoon tea on Saturday,” she told The Irish News.
“It was marking an honour received, in part, for contribution to good community relations and engagement with sports and other local clubs in the neighbourhood,” she added.
“My politics and those of the SDLP are proudly about engagement and respect for a wide range of identities.
“South Belfast is a shared community and I am honoured to represent it and the many traditions that make it what it is.”
I don't believe people in Republic want a united Ireland, says Paisley
ANDREW MADDEN, Belfast Telegraph, February 23rd, 2026
FORMER DUP MP REVEALED HIS FATHER CARRIED PERSONAL PROTECTION WEAPON
Former DUP MP Ian Paisley has claimed that people in the Republic don't want a united Ireland.
Mr Paisley made the comments in an RTE interview recently, in which he also said unionists “should be doing a better job” at marketing their case for remaining in the UK.
He also said his father had a personal protection weapon right up until a year before his death in 2014.
Mr Paisley lost his North Antrim seat, which he had held since 2010, when he was ousted by TUV leader Jim Allister in one of the biggest shocks of the 2024 General Election.
Since then, Mr Paisley has kept a relatively low profile, bar taking part in a BBC podcast series in which he said his “mind is open” regarding the idea of a united Ireland.
Speaking during a wide-ranging interview with RTE's Oliver Callan, Mr Paisley said he is keeping busy behind the scenes since his exit from political life.
He said he “had an offer” for other work “within 72 hours” of losing his seat on the green benches, and has been engaging in business consultancy recently.
“My business has flourished since then, and I can only thank God for that. I'm very grateful,” he explained.
“I do some consultancy work and some other advisory work for people. I do a lot of stuff in the United States of America.
“After spending 30 years in the public sector, I know my way around regulations quite well. I wrote quite a lot of them and was engaged in a lot of them, and regulations can sometimes get in the way of business.
“I'm helping businesses with regulations, understanding them, making sure that they perform to their maximum capacity, whilst fulfilling their regulatory obligations. I'm quite good at that.”
Mr Paisley was asked if, as he has previously said, he genuinely believed people in the Republic do not want a united Ireland.
“I don't [believe people south of the border want reunification],” he replied, adding it “isn't just about the money” that it would cost the Republic.
“I mean, I hardly ever hear it talked about,” he said. “When I spoke to some of the school children in the middle of Ireland about this, and I said to them: 'Well, look, to accommodate me, to accommodate my identity, how would you feel about changing your flag, your national flag, which you hold dear?'
“How would you feel about changing your national anthem? How would you feel about changing those historical points of your identity that make you who and what you are as Irish citizens? And I understood their resistance to that.
“Because I find it difficult to want to change parts of my identity and to accommodate. But I have to, because Northern Ireland is a complex and disputed territory. The south of Ireland isn't a disputed territory.”
‘A very good political product’
He said the Union is a “very good political product”, which has “not always been best marketed”.
“Unionists should be doing a better job, because there's something to be very, very proud of,” he said.
“And I say that as much as a chastisement to myself, as a former unionist politician. But we should continue to market, proudly, this great product that we have, which is the Union.”
Mr Paisley also spoke of growing up in the shadow of his father and namesake, and how his family were targeted by the IRA during the Troubles.
“My father was driven in a police vehicle, [with] four police officers with him most of the time,” he said.
“Our house was like Fort Knox. I do remember that our house was attacked. Our house was blown up at one point, firebombed, very early on. My father was shot out in the car with my brother.
“I have had two attempts on my life.”
The former MP said his father “carried a gun his whole life” for his own protection.
“A number of people were given personal security like that. Not only did he have a police guard, but he was carrying a personal weapon,” he explained.
“He surrendered the weapon about a year before he passed away.”
Mr Paisley was also asked about reports that he has been consulted over setting up a branch of the US conservative organisation Turning Point, which was founded by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last year. The Belfast Telegraph revealed earlier this month that Mr Kirk's widow, Erika, could visit Northern Ireland as part of a tour to recruit young people to the organisation.
Mr Paisley said: “I would say this: if Erika was to come to the United Kingdom, to Northern Ireland, any part of it, I'd definitely welcome her.”
He added: “The thing that struck me most about her was [when] at the memorial to her husband, her words were: 'I forgive you.' What a powerful Christian message.
“And I think for her to be able to explain that, that would probably say more things to young people.
“Because remember: Turning Point is aimed at people slightly younger than you and me, between 15 and 26.”
Campbell 'obnoxious' over Irish President comments: McDonald
ANDREW MADDEN, Belfast Telegraph, February 23rd, 2026
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has branded the DUP's Gregory Campbell “obnoxious”, after he challenged Irish President Catherine Connolly for not using the place-name “Londonderry” when she visited the city.
During her recent visit, Mr Campbell hit out at Ms Connolly's use of language during what he called a “one-sided” speech to an audience in the Guildhall.
In a reference to his participation in a debate in Dublin later that night, the DUP MP also told Ms Connolly: “You're in our country; tonight I'm going to your country.”
During an interview with RTE, Ms McDonald was asked if Mr Campbell was right to challenge Ms Connolly regarding referring to the city “Derry”, given his constituency's official name is East Londonderry.
The Sinn Fein president replied: “He wasn't, no. He was obnoxious in his approach to Uachtarán na hÉireann [President of Ireland], who I think was poised and gracious, as ever, by way of response to him. You don't have the right to put your words in somebody else's mouth.”
Ms McDonald added: “Unionists use their terminology. I think we could reduce important work that needs to be done in terms of reconciliation and building communities and building momentum for unification.”
Mr Campbell has defended his comments to the Irish President.
“It would have been remiss of me not to mention the contrast — and there was a contrast — between her day previously in Belfast,” he said.
“I wasn't there, but most of the reports, and from people I spoke to, it was reasonably balanced. And then yesterday in the Guildhall, on the west bank of the Foyle, there really wasn't an attempt to take a balanced approach at all.”
During her RTE interview, Ms McDonald also defended a social post in which she paid tribute to the late IRA figure Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane on the first anniversary of his death, for “a life well lived”.
McFarlane was sentenced to life in prison for his part in the 1975 Bayardo Bar bombing, in which five people were killed.
The Sinn Fein president said: “Unionists are indispensable to the building of a new Ireland and Irish unity. And unionists are entitled to remember their dead as well. We have contested history.
“But I would also say that in the journey to peace, many, many republicans were very significant figures in making that possible and sustaining that peace, and Bik McFarlane was one of those.”
DUP MLA Phillip Brett said Ms McDonald's tribute was offensive.
Mandelson could be called as witness to UVF murder inquest
VICTIM'S DAUGHTER WANTS DISGRACED EX-SECRETARY OF STATE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ON USE OF INFORMERS
CIARAN BARNES, Sunday Life, February 22nd, 2026
VICTIM'S DAUGHTER WANTS DISGRACED EX-SECRETARY OF STATE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ON USE OF INFORMERS
Disgraced ex-politician Lord Mandelson could be called as a witness at the inquest into the loyalist feud murder of a UDA boss.
The peer - who is being investigated by police over his links to millionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein - was Northern Ireland secretary of state when Jackie Coulter was gunned down by the UVF in August 2000.
The following day he signed off on the arrest of UDA leader Johnny Adair who was lifted on Belfast's Shankill Road for breaching his early release licence and flown by helicopter to Maghaberry Prison.
Jackie Coulter's daughter Tracey believes as a former secretary of state, Mandelson may have knowledge of UVF informants involved in her father's murder.
The inquest into his killing - and that of his friend Bobby Mahood who was also shot dead by the same gunman - is due to start next month.
“If Peter Mandelson had the power to have Johnny Adair arrested and flown by helicopter to Maghaberry Prison, he would also be aware that the police had UVF informants on the Shankill,” said Tracey.
“These were the people who planned and carried out my daddy's murder, and who I believe were protected from prosecution afterwards.
“I want Peter Mandelson to come to Belfast and tell the inquest what he knows. I'll be there and I'll look him in the eye if he has to give evidence.”
Jackie Coulter and Bobby Mahood's murders were the first killings of the UDA/UVF 2000 feud which claimed seven lives.
They are also the focus of a long-running Police Ombudsman investigation code-named 'Operation Abraham' into several murders carried out by the Shankill UVF between 1999 and 2010.
The central allegation to this probe is that the loyalist killers were protected because they were working for the State.
Tracey added: “All of these killings stink and government figures need to be held accountable and to reveal what they know, and if that means Peter Mandelson being called to my daddy's inquest then so be it.”
Lord Mandelson succeeded Mo Mowlam as Northern Ireland secretary of state in October 1999, remaining in the post until January 2001 when he resigned from government.
During that period he oversaw some of the most historic developments in Northern Ireland's modern history, including the devolution of full powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the Holy Cross school protests.
Killings
Mandelson was also in charge during the loyalist feud in 2000 which involved the most intense breakout of tit-for-tat killings since before the 1994 ceasefires.
Last year he was sacked as British Ambassador to the US after Downing Street said new information about the depth of this relationship with Jeffrey Epstein had emerged - the peer had been in post for just seven months.
Earlier this month police launched an investigation into Mandelson amid claims he passed on market-sensitive government information to Epstein.
This came in the wake of the US Department of Justice releasing thousands of documents which include emails to the millionaire financier and convicted paedophile who died in prison in 2019.
These include messages from Mandelson in 2009, when he was business secretary in the Labour government, appearing to discuss Treasury plans for a one-off tax on bankers' bonuses with Epstein.
Other emails appeared to indicate that the politician gave advance notice to Epstein of a €500billion payment from the EU to save the Euro. Mandelson, who has been asked to testify to the US Congress over his links to Epstein, denies any wrongdoing.
Belfast Council probing uvf slur as staff 'in fear' slur
STAFF REPORTER, Sunday Life, February 22nd, 2026
PROTESTANT CLEANSING DEPARTMENT WORKERS TARGET OF SECTARIAN POST
Belfast City Council is investigating a poison pen sectarian hate campaign targeting Protestant workers in one of its cleansing departments.
A baseless message widely circulated on social media has accused four members of staff of allegedly being in the UVF.
According to workers, the individuals concerned are now fearful for their safety working in nationalist areas of Belfast.
Veteran Ulster Unionist councillor Jim Rodgers said he has been made aware of the hate campaign and plans to raise it with senior City Hall officials.
The former lord mayor said: “This is very concerning and I intend to raise it at the highest levels.”
Five Protestant members of staff are named in the message — four of whom are accused of being alleged members of the UVF. A fifth is described as being in the British Army and Orange Order.
A Belfast City Council spokeswoman said: “It is our policy not to comment on matters relating to individual employees, but we can confirm we are aware of this message and are looking into it further.”
Sources in the council's cleansing department have accused a known dissident republican supporter of being behind the hate campaign.
One revealed: “He's been at this carry-on for years, and it's all because he doesn't want Protestants cleaning the streets in republican areas. It's ridiculous, staff should be able to work safely where they are sent, there shouldn't be any no-go areas in this day and age.”
Insiders explained how street cleaning teams are often religiously mixed and work in areas labelled by them as green for nationalist, orange for unionist, and grey for mixed zones.
“That's how the areas are described by the workers, but there's usually never a problem with any crossover,” added our source. “But after this message was circulated on WhatsApp the guys accused of being in the UVF are terrified of going into a nationalist area, and who can blame them?
“I thought we had put all this crap behind us, 99% of the staff here don't want any of this.”
This is not the first time a sectarianism row has rocked Belfast City Council's cleansing department.
A decade ago staff complained of religious harassment after it was revealed City Hall bosses were dealing with at least one alleged incident per month.
Other workers complained of being intimidated when the union flag was flown at the Agnes Street depot off the loyalist Shankill Road and an Irish tricolour at the Springfield Road depot in republican west Belfast.
Before that politicians from either side of the political divide and trade unions had united to condemn threats against council staff, both Catholic and Protestant.
