The slippery roads of Munich

By Rishi Iyengar and John Haltiwanger, Foreign Policy, Situation Report, February 14th, 2026

Welcome to the second pop-up edition of Foreign Policy’s Situation Report at the 2026 Munich Security Conference. It’s been an action-packed day dominated by conversations about whether the United States and Europe can hug it out and save their historic alliance.

Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offers Europe a softer touch (but stays on message), NATO chief Mark Rutte denies that there’s a disconnect with the U.S. on the Russia-Ukraine war, and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham makes the case for regime change in Iran.

Old Wine, New Bottle, slightly chilled?

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio marked Valentine’s Day by trying to kiss and make up with Europe, exactly a year (almost to the minute) after U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance left many across the continent questioning their relationship with Washington.

The venue for both speeches was the same—the main stage at the Munich Security Conference in the Bayerischer Hof Hotel—but the response from the room couldn’t have been more different.

Where Vance gobsmacked the audience in 2025 with a lecture about Europe’s retreat from “shared values,” Rubio spent much of his speech appealing to the United States’ and Europe’s shared history, culture, and heritage (including three mentions of Christianity) and telling Europeans that Washington wants to work together with them to “renew the greatest civilization in human history.”

At the first-ever Munich Security Conference in 1963, held against the backdrop of the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, the United States and Europe “were unified not just by what we were fighting against; we were unified by what we were fighting for,” Rubio said. “And together, Europe and America prevailed and a continent was rebuilt.”

It was a message Europe really wanted to hear after spending two days in Munich (and hundreds more before) fretting about the trans-Atlantic alliance. “In a time of headlines heralding the end of the trans-Atlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish—because for us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe,” Rubio added, in one of the biggest applause lines of his speech.

Many, including conference chairman Wolfgang Ischinger, who introduced Rubio, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who spoke shortly after him, said they felt “reassured” by the speech.

But Rubio also dedicated much of his address to reiterating points Vance made a year earlier, including warnings about the “crisis” of “mass migration” and the “climate cult” that has imposed “impoverishing” energy policies on Western countries. He also underlined the Trump administration’s retreat from multilateralism, calling the rules-based global order that Washington put in place an “overused term” and a “delusion.”

Much of it was old wine in a new bottle, slightly more chilled—a fact not lost on European officials we spoke to.

“When you talk about content, what Mr. Vance said and what Mr. Rubio said an hour ago was pretty much the same,” Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken told SitRep in an interview shortly after Rubio’s speech. Though Francken added that Rubio’s message was delivered “in a very diplomatic way” and was “more about our heritage, our bonds, so it was a very emotional speech, and it touched a lot of people in the room—and in Europe—really to the heart.”

‘Some damage has been done’

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide also recognized “the MAGA program” running through Rubio’s speech. “But [Rubio was] also basically saying: ‘We’re still here, and it’s not really America alone.’ So that’s my reading, but some damage has been done,” Eide added.

Rupture or rebuilding? In assessing the extent of that damage, Francken and Eide both pointed not to the speeches by Vance or Rubio, but to the one U.S. President Donald Trump gave in Davos last month in which he mused about a U.S. takeover of Greenland. That “was quite the shock to the trans-Atlantic family,” said Eide, who was in the room for that speech.

But Eide said that Europe’s assertiveness, which got Trump to back down from the Greenland threats, set a tone for the relationship that better prepared the continent to hear Rubio’s message this week. “The Europeans and Canada came to the position that now we have to say, ‘Enough is enough,’ and there was actually quite a lot of pride in finally saying that we’re allies, we want to remain allies, but there are certain things you simply don’t do,” the Norwegian minister added.

There also appears to be a desire in Europe to move forward from lamenting the breakdown of the global order, as illustrated by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday. “Instead of a moment of rupture, we must make it one of radical renewal,” Starmer said, somewhat subtweeting the words of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s own viral Davos speech. “I’m talking about a vision of European security and greater European autonomy that does not herald U.S. withdrawal but answers the call for more burden sharing in full and remakes the ties that have served us so well,” Starmer added.

That European assertiveness, bookended by the Vance and Rubio speeches and pushed into overdrive by Trump’s, appears here to stay and a baseline for the trans-Atlantic future. “Europeans went from a state of shock to a state of action, and the coalition of the willing was basically formed in the days after Vance’s speech,” said Eide, referring to a coalition of countries committed to supporting Ukraine. A year after that shock, “there is now a much more united Europe,” he added.

Or, as Francken put it more bluntly: “We need to step up in Europe. We can do it. We’re not a bunch of losers.”

In Conversation

Elbridge Colby, the U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy and the second-most-watched U.S. official in Munich, made his own attempt to reassure the Europeans in an onstage interview with FP editor in chief Ravi Agrawal later on Saturday afternoon. Trump “has shown in places like Venezuela and in Operation Midnight Hammer that he is prepared to use military force decisively to back up his pledges to work with our allies,” Colby said, when asked if the United States would come to the aid of a NATO ally who was attacked. (Operation Midnight Hammer is the code name for the U.S. military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025.) “But we’re putting things on a more sustainable basis,” Colby added.

On the Button

What should be high on your radar, if it isn’t already.

Rutte backs Trump on Russia-Ukraine. There’s been an evident disconnect between Trump and NATO allies when it comes to the Ukraine peace negotiations. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, for example, told the conference on Friday that Moscow “is not yet willing to talk seriously.” That same day, Trump told reporters in Washington that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to make a deal.

But NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, during a roundtable discussion with journalists here in Munich on Saturday, insisted there is no such disconnect.

When asked by SitRep whether NATO was working to get the White House on the same page as the alliance, Rutte said, “I think we’re on the same page. The issue is this, that it is the Americans who have to lead this—there’s no other way. And when you are leading peace negotiations, it’s only logical that you put pressure on everybody.”

“But at the same time, it is also clear, in all my talks with the American administration, that this is also a test. It is a test of the Russians—are they serious, is Putin really willing to play ball or not? Ukraine is, we know,” Rutte said. (It should be noted that in Trump’s Friday comments, the U.S. president appeared to accuse Kyiv of not being willing to play ball, saying that “[Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky’s gonna have to get moving. Otherwise, he’s going to miss a great opportunity.”)

The NATO chief pointed to the sanctions Trump placed on Russia’s two largest oil companies last October as “evidence he is really putting the pressure where it is needed,” adding that Trump’s efforts to continue “encouraging the Ukrainians” are also “logical.”

“That’s his [Trump’s] role as the one who is with his team leading this process. And he’s the only one who can do that,” Rutte said. “Europeans are completely kept informed of what is happening. NATO is being kept informed. So I think that’s in a good place in the sense of the process, but we are clearly not yet at a peace deal.”

Hot Mic

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham gave a full-throated endorsement of regime change in Iran during a press conference at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, as the Trump administration weighs conducting fresh strikes amid ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

“If you don’t want regime change, then move to Iran and live a year and call me back,” Graham told reporters, while referring to the Iranian regime as the “mothership of terrorism” and “religious Nazis.”

Graham criticized questions about what would happen after the regime falls as “boring,” and in response to a question from a reporter on whether the U.S. bombing Iran could potentially lead Iranians to rally around the flag, he said, “That’s the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. You think these people out in the streets would object to us bombing their oppressor?” He was referencing the recent mass anti-government protests in Iran that led to a brutal crackdown that’s estimated to have killed thousands of demonstrators.

While conceding that he doesn’t know “what’s going to happen next” if the regime falls, Graham said it would be a “good thing, not a bad thing” and that the “payoffs” of “helping the Iranian people take the Ayatollah [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] down, who’s incredibly weak,” outweigh the risks.

Graham also pushed back on the notion that U.S.-led regime change in Iran could turn into a situation similar to the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which resulted in a protracted and costly war that also catalyzed the rise of the Islamic State. “We’ve learned a lot,” Graham said, suggesting that what would be different this time is that there would be no need for U.S. boots on the ground in Iran. “Will there be problems? Yeah, but I’m telling you right now, the worst problem is to do nothing.”

Graham also had a lot to say about Russia and Ukraine during the press conference, which you can read more about here.

Quote of the Day

“The Ukrainian army is the strongest army in Europe. … I think it is simply not smart to keep this army outside NATO.”

—Zelensky in his speech to the Munich Security Conference.

McEntee upbeat following ‘conciliatory’ US position on Europe

‘The UN has served us extremely well ... but reform is needed’ Minister for Foreign Affairs says at Munich Defence Conference

DEREK SCALLY, Irish Times, February 14th, 2026

Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee has welcomed a renewed and “conciliatory” US commitment to the transatlantic relationship and signs that Washington is open to reform the United Nations.

At the Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Saturday, dominated by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the future of Iran, McEntee did not rule out the possibility Ireland could sign up to a French proposal to extend its nuclear shield to protect other nations.

McEntee was upbeat after US secretary of State Rubio’s address, describing Europe as an essential partner for the US. However, Rubio said Europe must follow the Trump administration’s shifts on security, economics and migration policy – and abandon its “climate cult”.

McEntee said this echoed views of other Trump administration officials she met recently in Washington, that “there are challenges but that the relationship between the US and EU is essential”.

“I think his speech was conciliatory, though there were clearly conflicts still there,” she said. “He talked about climate change as if it was not real. You only have to look at home and see people’s cars under water in the last week to know that the environment is changing and that we really do need to step up.”

McEntee said the last tense year in transatlantic relations, from trade threats to the Greenland crisis, “has shown us how much more we need to be united ... and more ambitious in Ireland and in the EU.

“Europe is united and needs to stay united and needs to step up when it comes to our overall security.”

In his address Rubio said the US had intervened in Gaza, Ukraine, Venezuela and elsewhere in part as response to a “powerless” UN.

Unlike more derogatory Trump administration remarks in the past, however, McEntee took heart at how Rubio said the UN “still has tremendous potential to be a tool for good in the world”.

“The way I took it, he said it needs to be reformed,” said McEntee. “The UN has served us extremely well ... but we all agree that there is change and reform needed to reform it from within to reflect the world we live in now.”

Shelter under French nuclear umbrella?

Amid ongoing concerns over Russia, and its future ambitions in Europe, McEntee did not rule out Ireland being part of a French-lead nuclear deterrent shield, as floated by French president Emmanuel Macron on Friday. She said this could fit into a broader push – backed by the Government and the wider population – to participate more in common European security plans.

“Where we can within our Constitution, within our parameters, where we can do more and be part of more, that’s where I want us to be,” she said. “Anything that is proposed, there will always be a need for us to look and see if this is something we can be a part of.”

McEntee said the upcoming maritime security strategy would address growing security and environmental concerns over a Russian-steered “shadow fleet” in European waters.

The Minister said strategy would “most likely be boarding [a] ship as opposed to seizing it”.

She said Ireland was open, too, to tapping EU funding pots to become a player in the defence field – in particular drone and drone-countering capabilities – without impacting the country’s tradition of neutrality.

“We don’t have a defence sector for all the obvious reasons,” she said, “but it is not to say that we cannot have businesses in Ireland involved in the defence sector.”

Asked about Government and Oireachtas dependency on Microsoft software and web services, McEntee said such platforms were “hugely beneficial and allow us to do more than we have ever done before, but there are risks to it”.

European digital sovereignty has featured prominently this year in Munich, following accusations by the International Court of Justice that Microsoft blocked service access to a chief prosecutor facing US sanctions – charges the US company denies.

“It is about diversifying, not moving away from any one company, brand or platform,” said McEntee, “and making sure we have the right types of structures to mitigate those impacts.”

In bilateral meetings McEntee flagged Ireland’s ambitions in its upcoming EU presidency on Ukraine and in the Middle East.

“We will use our voice and do what we can on Ukraine,” she said.

On the postwar situation in Israel, McEntee described as “appalling that Israel was not allowing enough humanitarian aid into the West Bank”. Though Ireland would not join the Trump-lead Board of Peace, and its efforts in the region, McEntee said: “We want to be as active and engaged as we can, given our past history”.

In Munich McEntee met the foreign ministers of Iceland, Moldova and Palestine and the defence ministers of Lithuania and Switzerland as well as United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East (Unrwa) and Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs and chief legal officer.

The Bad Bunny Doctrine

Arturo Chang, History News Network, February 14th, 2026

In the closing moments of the Super Bowl LX halftime show, Bad Bunny marched down the field naming more than 20 countries that comprise a broader, hemispheric American identity. Holding a football inscribed with “Together, we are America,” and shadowed by a screen reading, the only thing more powerful than hate is love, the message and stakes of the show were clear: America, as an identity and a community, need not be confined to the zero-sum politics of nationalism and the nation-state system. A more powerful and capacious understanding of “American” identity emerges when we focus on the shared cultural and political possibilities of our hemispheric community.

While Bad Bunny’s performance has resurfaced these points of conversation, the message is part of a broader tradition of hemispheric politics that has been sidelined by narratives that position the nation-state as the natural conclusion of revolutionary politics. But in the early 19th century — a period known as the Age of Revolutions — people across the hemisphere regularly spoke of their American identities as a way to center the political and cultural possibilities of the “new world.” These narratives of American emancipation and innovation in turn unified popular movements by signaling that they shared an investment in resisting the authority of colonial European powers. It was precisely these hemispheric conceptions of American identity that connected otherwise disparate movements conventionally understood today as revolutions for national independence.

While independence was certainly at stake for American movements, that outcome was not always the primary, or even immediate, solution to the problem of arbitrary subjection under colonial rule. The nation-state began as a precarious solution to the problem of empire, only eventually evolving into the system of global order that we continue to negotiate today. The contingency of this outcome could be seen on display in Bad Bunny’s performance, with the show-ending procession of national flags punctuating the artist’s larger message of hemispheric unity, and highlighting the way shared identities, experiences, and investments can be mobilized to subvert the legitimacy of imperial power as a form of de facto rule.

Bad Bunny and Jean-Jacques Dessalines Stunning Redefinition of “America”

Sidelining national narratives can prove fruitful for understanding the politics, cultures, and visions of the future that emerged from the hemispheric valences of American identity. These hemispheric conversations began in the 18th century as people across the continent questioned the legitimacy of European rule. As soon as revolutionary movements began to emerge, so did the language of a characteristically American project of emancipation, vengeance, and redemption. Here one might think of the hemispheric resonances of the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence (to begin with the event that “opens” the revolutionary period) which, as historian David Armitage argues, partially set the parameters for Americans to demand their own “right” to natural rights. The well-known claim to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” itself marked a hemispheric break from a colonial order that treated Americans — that is, Indigenous nations, Mestizos, enslaved peoples, Creoles, and others — as subject to the prerogatives of empire in different ways.           

The language of American belonging, emancipation, and governance would become fundamental to the declarations that historically marginalized groups made on the colonial state. As the “Age of Andean Insurrection” took hold, it was Indigenous leaders like Tupac Amaru who deployed the category of “americanos naturales” [natural Americans] in his Relación Historica (1780) to assert that it was the descendants of Inca nobility who held the strongest claim to legitimate rule in the region — not Europeans or elite Creoles. About ten years later, in Haiti, as revolution mounted and chattel slavery fell, so arose calls for the salvation of America. Haitian revolutionaries, in their critique of the hypocrisies of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), centered abolition as a facet of American politics. As Jean-Jacques Dessalines, one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution, famously wrote in “Liberty or Death” (1804): “Yes, I have saved my country; I have avenged America.”

The efforts in Haiti would in turn inspire movements in the Spanish Caribbean. In La Guaira, New Granada (current-day Venezuela), Black, Mestizo, Creole, and Indigenous actors organized to reject Spanish rule and distribute their own pamphlet, titled “The Rights of Man and of Citizen with Various Republican Maxims and a Preliminary Proclamations Directed to the Americans” (1797). These hemispheric connections, however, went far beyond rhetorical commiseration. The documents distributed in the “Guaira conspiracy” were printed in Saint Domingue with aid from Haitian revolutionaries, who would later support the independence project led by Simón Bolívar.

Hemispheric American politics informed constitutional design during the independence period. The first constitution of Mexico, codified in 1814, granted citizenship to all Americans, either born or allied, with the goals of emancipating the “new world” from colonial rule. While this vision for independent Mexico was ultimately suppressed by both the Spanish and Creole elites, it is worth recognizing that leaders like José Maria Morelos viewed independence as a project that was necessarily supported by a broader, hemispheric community. Similar politics were at play in current-day Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay when the “United Provinces of South America” declared independence in the early 19th century by drawing on the name, politics, and vision of the “United States of America.” In considering how to advocate for the legitimate authority of the provinces, leader Manuel Belgrano argued for a constitutional monarchy that would appeal to the sovereignty of the Incas as an “original” American empire (a short-lived 1816 proposal now known as the “Inca plan.”)

These events turned hemispheric American identities into a point of popular interest across the 19th-century United States. Historian Caitlin Fitz has shown that U.S. citizens celebrated the early successes of “sister” American republics through songs, celebrations, and even by naming their children after leaders like Simón Bolívar (two prominent examples being Simon Bolivar Buckner, a Confederate lieutenant general, as well as his son Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., who later served as a U.S. Army lieutenant general during World War II). The shared investments in hemispheric emancipation also appear among documents and speeches which are more conventionally associated with aspirations for regional hegemony. The 1823 speech in which the “Monroe Doctrine” was first articulated can be fruitfully analyzed as an appeal to hemispheric unity and to the necessity for commiseration, given that the nascent republics of the Americas remained exposed to reconquest. As President James Monroe made clear, “any attempt [by European powers] to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere (my emphasis) as dangerous to our peace and safety.” While the text is usually approached as a claim of regional authority, the language of American fraternity found throughout the speech is central to the argument Monroe develops. It was no accident, for example, that Monroe closed the speech by appealing to the “peace and happiness” of the “southern brethren” of the Americas. This rhetoric was echoed in efforts to “institutionalize” hemispheric bonds such as the 1826 Panama Congress envisioned by Bolívar, which ultimately failed to unify competing national interests across the Latin American republics or garner support from the United States.

America Is Not America Yet

Hemispheric attachments would recede with the advent of U.S. imperialism and its ambitions for global hegemony. By the late 19th century, the now-familiar idea of the U.S. as one “America” vis-a-vis the “rest” of the “Americas” was lucidly formulated by one of Cuba’s foundational figures, José Martí. His famous 1891 essay, “Nuestra America” [Our America], characterizes the fall of hemispheric commiseration as a matter of nationalist momentum and the allure of imagined communities, to use scholar Benedict Anderson’s term. As he writes:

For what other patria can a man take greater pride in than our long-suffering republics of America? … The haughty man imagines that because he wields a quick pen and coins vivid phrases the earth was made to be his pedestal; he accuses his native republic of hopeless incapacity because its virgin jungles don’t offer him scope for parading about the world like a bigwig, driving Persian ponies and spilling champagne as he goes. The incapacity lies not in the nascent country, which demands forms appropriate to itself and a grandeur that is useful to it, but in those who wish to govern unique populaces, singularly and violently composed, (my emphasis) by laws inherited from four centuries of free practice in the United States and nineteen centuries of monarchy in France.

The turn toward national idiosyncrasy described by Martí, while perhaps necessary and motivated by the advent of empire-building in the United States, marked a turn away from the hemispheric bonds that motivated anticolonial emancipation in the first place. Losing sight of the importance of hemispheric discourses in the break from empire, however, risks overstating the status of the nation-state system as a necessary outcome of the American revolutionary period. It is more fruitful to recognize that the break from empire motivated the rise of shared American identities, and thus that it was the return to empire which eventually led to them being forgotten.

The Super Bowl halftime show illustrated how discourses of shared American identities can be mobilized in response to the politics of empire, stratification, and erasure. Take, for example, the choreography referencing the electrical outages experienced by many Puerto Ricans as a result of material and structural marginalization under United States rule. This was equally apparent in the prominent use of a sugarcane plantation — a defining space for the economic, political, and cultural histories of the Caribbean — as the primary scene and environment of the performance. Here the case of Puerto Rico signals the living legacies of colonial rule in the Americas. As an “unincorporated territory” of the United States, Puerto Rico’s status resembles that of a contemporary colony under imperial rule — the island lacks voting representation, is economically dependent on the prerogative of U.S. institutions, and is thus subject to the prerogative of foreign officials. Thus, for many Puerto Ricans, Bad Bunny included, colonial rule remains a matter of lived experience.

Even as it drew attention to the particularities of life under colonial rule, the halftime show also pointed to the diasporic dimensions of American identities. The appearance of bodegas, street vendors, people playing dominos, and street parties throughout the performance simultaneously conjured Caribbean communities in the north and the places that their residents have left behind. These diasporic dynamics point to the broader legacy of hemispheric commiseration in the Americas. Since the early 19th century, cities like New York, Philadelphia, San Antonio, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, among many others, have operated as centers for political and cultural innovations that reached across the Americas. In this regard, it is fitting that the halftime show took place in one of these diasporic centers and resurfaced conversations on the who, what, and where of the American tradition.

At a moment in which many across the United States remain dangerously divided over the meaning of “America” and “American,” Bad Bunny interjected with a message that centered both unity and critical reflection — but hemispheric history, too. It is a message that is all too often obscured by national monuments, foundational myths, and narratives on independence: We are all America.

Unification inevitable, says ex-UUP councillor

AMANDA FERGUSON, Sunday Life, February 15th, 2026

STALE, DIVISIVE POLITICS 'A TURN-OFF FOR YOUNG AND LIBERAL VOTERS AND IS ENDANGERING UNION'

Former UUP councillor and police officer Linzi McLaren has described the unification of Ireland as “inevitable but not immediate”.

The 49-year-old, who worked as a constable, tactical support group officer and firearms instructor during her 18 years with the PSNI, said that as UK politics shifted to the right, unionists needed to reach beyond themselves.

“When unionism continues to focus on the loudest voices — usually loyalist commentators — and fails to take into account moderate and liberal unionism, it will never be attractive enough for that middle ground to vote for,” she said.

The Bangor woman, who now works with prisoners and as a media commentator, told Sunday Life she was “disillusioned” with unionism and saw herself as “politically neutral”.

She added: “I don't think young people are inspired by political unionism. They want the best prospects and are interested in social and ethical issues. Unionism is failing to see the bigger picture.”

Ms McLaren believes unionism is “reluctant” to reach beyond its base, and is doing itself a “disservice” by declining to take part in unity debates.

“Before, the idea of a united Ireland wasn't something I would ever have considered,” she said.

“Now, I am looking to the future for my children, and I want to live in a country which offers them the best health, wealth, education, job prospects and political direction. I do not want them growing up in a Britain led by Nigel Farage and a far-right party.”

Suspicious

After medical retirement from the PSNI, Ms McLaren became interested in politics, joined the UUP and was elected to Ards and North Down Borough Council in 2023.

She recalled: “I was always very suspicious of politicians and evasive answers, but I found Doug (Beattie) refreshing in admitting mistakes and talking about inclusion and fairness.

“I understand the difference a good leader can make. You have to have faith and be inspired by people in front of you.”

Ms McLaren left the party last year because she was uncomfortable with decisions she was having to take in the council around flags and other matters.

The UUP's positions on the Irish language and the redevelopment of Casement Park were the final straw.

“I found myself sticking out like a sore thumb,” she said.

The mother-of-four, from a Protestant background, is currently learning the Irish language.

“There is something brilliant about learning something outside of school,” she said.

“It's very much cafe talk at the minute. Recently, I ordered my coffee in Irish and said goodbye on the way out. It was lovely, so nice.

“When I was growing up, learning Irish was only something you did in Catholic schools. There was no real opportunity or desire to learn it.

“Now there is such a revitalisation of the language and people are proud to learn it.

“Irish is my ancestors' language too. I would love unionists to learn it.”

Ms McLaren did not vote while in the police, and she does not know who she will vote for in future elections.

‘Spirit of friendship’

“I am extremely disillusioned with political unionism. I worry the UUP is not going to offer a moderate choice for people,” she said.

She sees contradictions in the approach taken by new UUP leader Jon Burrows, noting he had made “broad liberal statements” on issues such as identity, language and cross-border cooperation, while being “emphatic in his support of the judicial review brought against Grand Central Station dual signage, and street signage”.

But Ms McLaren added: “He certainly doesn't strike me as putting himself out there to be used and abused by other unionist parties or loyalist commentators.

“Only time will tell if he has the ability or willingness to reach a hand over the divide in the spirit of friendship and to convince people who don't identify with the Protestant, unionist, loyalist community that there truly is a home for them and their culture in Northern Ireland.

“Otherwise, the notion that Northern Ireland is for all is a shallow one.”

DNA from notorious unsolved murder destroyed by PIRA bomb

Angela Davison, Sunday Life, February 15th, 2026

The brother of a 10-year-old boy killed in one of Northern Ireland's most notorious unsolved murder cases has said evidence destroyed in an IRA bomb could have provided the DNA proof necessary to put the killer behind bars.

Eddie McDermott still largely believes his other brother Billy murdered his youngest sibling.

An RUC detective at the time described it as the “most atrocious crime” ever in Northern Ireland.

Ten-year-old Brian McDermott disappeared from a playground in Ormeau Park in Belfast on September 2, 1973.

His charred and mutilated body was discovered in the River Lagan by a search team a week later. The murder remains unsolved.

Eddie, who was 19 when the schoolboy was killed, said a sack in which his brother's body was found, and which could have helped solve the case thanks to advances in DNA testing, was destroyed in an IRA attack on a police station, thought to be the 1992 bombing of the Northern Ireland Forensic Science Laboratory.

Still a suspect

The 71-year-old added his brother Billy McDermott was still suspected of killing the boy.

Billy, who changed his name by deed poll to William Stewart, strongly refuted the claims when Sunday Life caught up with him earlier this month.

Three years ago, the documentary Lost Boys: Belfast's Missing Children reported the murder could be linked to the child abuse ring at the old Kincora Boys' Home in east Belfast, but Eddie has been told police do not believe that to be the case.

Speaking to Sunday Life from his home in Leicester, he said: “There has been lots of speculation about what happened. The PSNI are convinced it is not Kincora. I believe the suspect is Billy, my younger brother.”

Brian's murder became headline news when his dismembered body was found.

Both his legs and an arm had been hacked off, and an attempt was made to incinerate the headless torso, burning the features beyond recognition.

The remains were tied up in a hessian sack and dumped in the River Lagan. He was only identified after fingerprints from a hand were compared with those on a school exercise book.

Eddie said: “The only evidence they had was the sack. It was stored in a police station which the IRA blew up. It was never recovered. It could have been used for DNA testing with modern technological advances.

Confession

“A knife recovered was too rusted, but if DNA was found on it, I know it would have put my brother in the frame.

“Billy said Brian fell from a tree and died. There must have been other people involved, but Brian was very petite, half the size of Billy.”

Eddie said that in a 1976 admission Billy made to police, he gave details about using a bread knife which a pathology report indicated could have been the murder weapon.

He later retracted the confession, claiming RUC officers had forced him into it.

Police found a knife during searches after the killing but it was too rusted to show any DNA.

Eddie added that he was not totally convinced of his brother's guilt, explaining: “Previously, I would have said '100 per cent, definitely Billy', but now I have a slight doubt in view of the (Lost Boys) programme.

“I don't know, but either way, I still think that Billy knows something or was involved.

“It's always been the case for quite a few years that Billy was the prime suspect after my interview with the police in 2003. It seemed pretty conclusive that it was Billy.

“Just the way he reacts, the way he reacted when he was arrested, the way he treated his second ex-wife. He's definitely a violent character.

“Plus, the fact the jealousy motive is there. He would have wanted to kill Brian because of me. Me and Brian got on very well, and Billy didn't.

“On the Saturday night (before), I intervened and wouldn't let him (Billy) touch him (Brian), and that is motive enough for him to get his own back on Brian.”

On hearing what Billy told Sunday Life, including his denial and suggestion of a possible sexual motive, Eddie responded: “If that's the case, why didn't Billy go to the police or tell his mum and dad? I'm sure if he had told Dad, Dad would have hit the roof.

“It seems rather strange that since Kincora has come out, he can now say that Kincora was involved. Anything to take the light off him.”

Billy claimed his parents had to live with their decision to let Brian go to the park. “Why they let him go, you know, in a city torn with violence is, for me, unforgivable.”

Asked whether his parents held some responsibility for his young brother's death, Eddie said: “That's utter rubbish. I don't think for one minute that he can try and blame my parents for letting him go to Ormeau Park.

“It was only less than a mile away, and kids back in them days in the 70s, we all went out. We all stayed out to eight o'clock, so he can't say that, no.”

As well as confessing in 1976 to the murder and subsequently denying it, Billy McDermott was arrested in 2004, but prosecutors decided to take no action.

In 2008, a Worcester court was told that McDermott had admitted the killing to his ex-wife Sarah MacLeod. He would have been 15 at the time of the murder.

He was sentenced to four months in jail for sending her abusive text messages. On his release from prison, he told the Worcester News he was “fairly sure” he did not kill his brother.

“I have had to question if I am responsible for this. I am fairly sure I did not kill him. I have never had any flashbacks like you see on the television,” he said.

McDermott again denied the killing in 2013 to the BBC, saying: “I have been treated very badly. As far as the police are concerned, they believe that I am guilty. They said to me 'Billy, we have the evidence', and they tried to get me to confess to something that I did not commit. I am innocent and remain so until proven guilty in a court of law.

“My mother seemed to believe, right to her very end, that I might have been responsible. It's horrendous. I don't keep in touch, speak or communicate with the other members of my family. They have ostracised me. They think I did it. They think I was responsible.

“I would love somebody to come forward. Even if they were to remain anonymous, that would take the finger of suspicion away from me.”

Brian set out from his home on Well Street in Belfast's Woodstock area in September 1973, making his way to Ormeau Park.

When he failed to return by the afternoon, the alarm was raised. Six days later, a lance-coporal from the Queen's Own Hussars, whose soldiers were patrolling the banks of the Lagan, found his mutilated body at Annadale Embankment.

Justice

Last September, 52 years on, the PSNI launched a new appeal in a bid to solve the case, but Eddie said officers had privately told him they did not hold out much hope of success.

Police said Brian left his home at around 12.30pm and failed to return for his dinner. He was last seen playing alone in a playground between 1pm and 3pm.

Eddie doesn't believe he will ever see justice for the killing.

He said: “I don't think I ever will. Back in 1973, Billy beat the whole police force of Northern Ireland. That's just not right.

“How can a 16, 17-year-old kid get away with murder and then try and say that it's down to his mum and dad because they let (Brian) out? That's rubbish.

“Unless Billy confesses or comes forward, or unless the police let rip about Kincora or something else, I don't think the murderer of Brian will ever be found.”

“You have Billy on one hand, Kincora on the other. It's not very nice going through life thinking 'Did he or didn't he?'”

The death brought some of the family closer together, Eddie said. He added: “Had we known back then what we know now, it would obviously have been a very difficult situation. (It's) so very difficult.”

He also confirmed he had no contact with his brother Billy.

The PSNI said: “Despite the passage of time, this murder case has never been closed, and (we are) hopeful that someone may be able to provide information, no matter how small, which may open a new line of inquiry, or add a new dimension to information already available.

“It is also possible that someone who did not volunteer information at the time may be willing to speak with police now. Legacy Investigation Branch Detectives will consider all investigative opportunities as part of the review into Brian's murder.”

Detectives can be contacted on 101 or by emailing LIBEnquiries@psni.police.uk, quoting reference RM05003065

Ireland must summon the moral courage to boycott Israel 

SUZANNE BREEN, Sunday Life, February 15th, 2026

Forget that night in November 1993 in Windsor Park when the two teams on this island went head-to-head. Ireland's matches against Israel this autumn are far more politically charged.

Uefa and Fifa rightly sent Russia into the international wilderness after it invaded Ukraine. Despite more than 70,000 dead Palestinians, Israel has faced no similar ban.

Ten per cent of Gaza's population have been killed or injured since October 2023. Uefa's only response has been to stop Israel playing at home, and sources suggest even that could change soon.

So here's the deal. Ireland should show a spine and boycott those two Nations League games. Whatever consequences follow, so be it.

This is a state the UN says has committed genocide. It cannot be business as usual.

The 'beautiful game' mustn't be allowed to mask the ugly reality of what Israel has done. Sporting sanctions are temporary. Lost lives are gone for ever.

Some 421 footballers have been killed or died from starvation — including 103 children — according to the Palestinian Football Association.

There are many more who can't play because their legs have been amputated. Football stadiums and training grounds have been reduced to rubble.

Former Ireland manager Brian Kerr says the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) needs to show “a real bit of balls” and refuse to play Israel.

Like others, he believes Uefa hasn't upheld its own rules. “Israel have at least six teams playing on grounds and in stadiums that were previously the land of the Palestinian state, and there's been no real punishment for that,” he told Virgin Media.

Those are words the taoiseach should be speaking, but Micheal Martin — surprise, surprise — strongly believes the matches should go ahead.

Struggle

If Ireland doesn't fulfil the fixtures, it could face fines or be put out of future competitions. Two technical defeats for refusing to play Israel are certainly on the cards.

Yet when the issue is genocide, principles trump points on a table. The FAI needs Uefa's money, and doesn't want to rock the boat.

Ireland's manager and players have been put in an uncomfortable position, but let's not overdose on sympathy. Here's the thing about principles. They're not just there to talk about: actions count.

In 1984, a 21-year-old Dublin shopworker refused to serve a customer buying two South African grapefruits.

Mary Manning was suspended from the Dunnes' store in Dublin, and nine colleagues walked out with her in protest. They were in a far less powerful and financially secure position than any of our footballers.

Karen Gearon, Cathryn O'Reilly, Tommy Davis, Theresa Mooney, Veronica Munroe, Sandra Griffin, Alma Russell, Michelle Gavin, and Liz Deasy — all aged between 17 and 28 — stayed on the picket line for three years.

They survived on £21-a-week strike pay, a fifth of what they'd been earning. It was a long and lonely struggle during which even their union let them down.

Slowly, public support grew for them. In 1987, Ireland became the first Western country to impose a total ban on South African imports.

Last month, the UN called on Israel to end “systemic discrimination” against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

“This is a particularly severe form of discrimination and segregation that resembles the kind of apartheid system we've seen before,” it said.

Today — just as in 1984 with South Africa — Irish people are told to know their place and not meddle in the complexities of international politics.

We're a small island on the edge of Europe, but that shouldn't stop us from standing tall for what's right. Those women workers in Dunnes set a fine example in much tougher times.

The men in the FAI and the Ireland team don't live in a bubble. They have seen Israel's actions on their phones and TV screens.

Will they choose to put on their big boy pants and do something?

Unfortunately, Uefa will never find its conscience, so Ireland must act on its — and give Israel a red card.

Minister spied on by parishioners told PCI has closed his case

ANGELA DAVISON, Sunday Life, February 15th, 2026

CLERGYMAN SUFFERED BREAKDOWN AND HAD TO TAKE TIME OFF AFTER LEARNING FULL EXTENT OF SURVEILLANCE

A former minister who was spied on by members of his own congregation has been told the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) considers his case a closed matter.

This is despite the PSNI saying in 2019 it warranted a criminal investigation but was outside the statute of limitations.

Rev Robin Greer said the shutting down of his case showed the need for a public inquiry into the PCI, which is facing accusations of bullying and harassment of clergy.

His comments came ahead of next week's Special General Assembly.

The retired minister, who waived his anonymity last year, said he experienced a culture of bullying during his time with the church.

Charts

Between October 2012 and January 2013, he was spied on several times a day by members of his own congregation, who filled in surveillance charts and sent them to the South Belfast Presbytery.

The spying charts showed the times at which lights were on and in which rooms, if a car was at the property and if blinds were open or closed, as well as detailing any coffee meetings he had.

When the evidence was disclosed, the clergyman contacted police, who said while the matter warranted a criminal investigation, because the alleged offences had taken place more than six months beforehand, they were statute-barred.

The Information Commissioner's Office said the minister was being “covertly monitored” for “insurance purposes” and ordered a church secretary to stop after the extent of the surveillance was discovered.

The situation led to Rev Greer having to go off sick, later suffering a mental breakdown.

The former minister also claimed that when he tried to bring evidence of the spying before the General Assembly, he was refused by the then clerk and former moderator Dr Rev Trevor Gribben, who told him he was not allowed to speak.

A spokesperson for the PCI previously said they would not be making any comment about Rev Greer's claims.

Despite the church promising to move forward with openness after last year's safeguarding scandal, it has not yet publicly addressed allegations of the bullying and harassment of some its own ministers.

It has also yet to deal with a dossier of complaints commissioned by Lord Alderdice and sent to the Charity Commission three-and-a-half years ago.

Victims like Rev Greer feel the church is ignoring them.

Meeting

With no apparent resolve from the PCI, he contacted North Down MP Alex Easton, who emailed the PCI on his behalf.

In a reply, seen by this newspaper, General Assembly deputy clerk Rev Peter Gamble said: “Once again, I apologise for not responding sooner to your correspondence and emails which you have sent on behalf of Rev Robin Greer.

“Having consulted with others, the matters referred to have been the subject of correspondence from Mr Greer since 2015.

“As far as the church is concerned, all those matters are closed, and Mr Greer has been advised previously that the church does not intend to reopen them nor enter into any correspondence about them.”

Sunday Life previously revealed how Rev Gamble had admitted destroying important notes from a controversial meeting in his previous role as clerk of the Armagh Presbytery.

Rev Greer said: “The PSNI can only act on criminal actions, the Charity Commission is basically toothless, it seems, and the PCI is fobbing us off.

“I was spied on and the Data Protection Act was breached. I feel bullied, gaslighted and harassed.

“The only way to find answers is to call a statutory public inquiry. I have written to (Deputy First Minister) Emma Little-Pengelly.”

A formal police investigation into the Presbyterian Church in Ireland continues.

The Charity Commission of Northern Ireland has also launched a statutory inquiry.

Mystery over exit of Presbyterian church safeguarding chief

ANGELA DAVISON, Sunday Life, February 2nd, 2026

PCI REFUSES TO COMMENT ON REASONS FOR DIRECTOR'S EXIT

A senior safeguarding official with the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) is understood to have left his position.

Dermot Parsons was the director of the Council for Social Witness.

The exact circumstances surrounding his departure are not known.

Mr Parsons, who had been in the post since 2021, had overall responsibility for safeguarding the church's congregations, care homes, addiction centres and ex-offenders' hostel.

A spokesperson for the PCI said: “As an employer, we never comment on the personal circumstances of any employee.”

Mr Parsons' exit follows revelations by Sunday Life last month that he was among a 16-strong panel that received a damning report in 2023 from former PCI head of safeguarding Dr Jacqui Montgomery-Devlin.

The report highlighted failings in safeguarding practice and said a major scandal was looming if church leaders did not pay heed.

In what came to be a prophetic warning, it detailed how the safeguarding department was under-resourced and highlighted the lack of record-keeping.

Vulnerable

“From the outset of my role, it was evident that the denomination was acutely vulnerable, with a single individual expected to manage safeguarding across the PCI's extensive and complex portfolio,” Dr Montgomery-Devlin said.

Her comments were echoed by safeguarding expert Ian Elliott, who said his warning to the church was also largely ignored.

Mr Elliott added: “The reports that I wrote and contributed to the PCI were ignored, including a briefing report to (former moderator) Trevor Gribben which was submitted in October 2023 (and) which spelled out clearly that there was a major problem (that), if not addressed, could lead to significant crisis.

“I also sent it to Dermot Parsons, and wrote to him again outlining my concerns the following month. Nothing came back, and so I wrote again in April 2024 after the departure of Dr Montgomery-Devlin. I sent three separate emails, and he replied in May.

“Dermot Parsons knew of the absence of proper case records (prior to Dr Montgomery-Devlin's appointment) in October 2023.”

A letter to disband the safeguarding panel from Rev David Brice and Dermot Parsons was sent to members in August 2024.

Mr Elliott said he did not understand why the panel had been stood down, because it was “never more relevant”. Before it was stood down, Mr Elliott resigned, frustrated that simple questions about safeguarding were not answered.

In a statement, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland said, “Since a criminal investigation has been announced by the PSNI, and a separate inquiry by the Charity Commission, we are unable to make any comment in relation to the matters raised which may form part of either investigation.”

Mr Parsons previously declined to comment on the matters raised in this report.

NEW LAWS TO TARGET CRIME GODFATHERS 

BOSSES FACING UP TO 14 YEARS BEHIND BARS UNDER CRACKDOWN

CIARAN BARNES, Sunday Life, February 15th, 2026

Crime godfathers are to be targeted by legislation designed to smash their illegal rackets and put them behind bars for up to 14 years.

A new offence of 'directing and participating in serious organised crime' is set to be introduced by the Assembly.

The new laws are in part a response to a breakdown in old paramilitary groups, with some shedding the pretence of politics and moving into out-and-out criminality.

These include the South East Antrim UDA and elements of the Belfast INLA.

Amendments to the current Justice Bill will create a statutory definition of an organised crime group (OCG) and new offences of 'directing' and 'participating' in organised crime.

A briefing paper provided to MLAs, including Justice Minister Naomi Long, contains a PSNI assessment on how there are currently 61 OCGs operating in Northern Ireland.

DRUGS

It states: “Forms of organised crime can include cyber-crime, drug trafficking, modern slavery, counterfeiting, fuel laundering, tobacco smuggling, fraud or money laundering.

“Some OCGs in Northern Ireland have paramilitary connections.

“In 2025, the Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) observed increasing interaction between some paramilitaries and OCGs involved in the drugs trade.”

Changes to the Justice Bill would define an OCG as one which carries on criminal activities with a “view to obtaining (directly or indirectly) any gain or benefit” and “consists of three or more persons who act, or agree to act, together”.

A separate clause would provide for the offence of 'participating' in the criminal activities of an OCG, with a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.

There is also provision to charge someone with 'directing' the criminal activities of an OCG, a crime that would carry a jail term of up to 14 years.

The briefing paper presented to MLAs also acknowledges the crossover between paramilitary and organised crime groups.

It notes the Independent Reporting Commission's summary, which found an “increasing interaction between some paramilitaries and OCGs involved in the drugs trade”.

“Indeed, one of the features of the overall landscape is the increasing impact of these OCGs in areas in Northern Ireland where paramilitary groups have traditionally operated,” said the IRC report.

CRIME

“Some paramilitary groups — or individuals within them — have links to organised crime. Some operate akin to organised crime groups”.

Northern Ireland is an outlier in comparison to the rest of the UK when it comes to having specific legislation relating to organised crime.

In England and Wales, the Serious Crime Act 2015 provides for the offence of participating in the activities of an OCG.

In Scotland, the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 includes a section relating to a person who “agrees with at least one other person to become involved in the commission of serious organised crime”.

The planned changes to the Justice Bill, which will incorporate offences aimed specifically at OCGs, will be debated by MLAs in the coming weeks, with new legislation set to come later this year.

Some organisations, including the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, have expressed concerns around the risk that victims could be prosecuted under the new legislation.

Serial killer's lover stays silent over his release

HADDOCK 'UNDER NO THREAT IF HE STAYS AWAY FROM NI' LONG-TERM PARTNER OF NOTORIOUS UVF DOUBLE AGENT MADE REGULAR TRIPS TO VISIT PSYCHO IN GB PRISON

EXCLUSIVE: SUNDAY LIFE REPORTER, Sunday Life, February 15th, 2026

The long-term lover of serial-killing UVF agent Mark Haddock is refusing to say if she's standing by her man.

Helen McAllister - who has publicly supported the notorious loyalist in court and visited him in prison - was tight-lipped when asked by Sunday Life if she had anything to say about his release from jail.

A friend rushed to her aid, shouting “go away” when our reporter quizzed her about Haddock, who she has been in a relationship with for more than two decades.

Loyalist sources explained how McAllister had been a regular visitor to the high-security Wakefield Prison in England to see Haddock while he served a 12-year sentence for stabbing former pal Terry Fairfield.

Abducted

Prior to that she accompanied him to court and offered support from the public gallery when the 56-year-old was caged for inflicting GBH on pub doorman Trevor Gowdy, who was abducted by a UVF gang in 2006.

McAllister was pictured at the time leaving a Belfast court with Haddock and his UVF henchman Darren Moore, smiling at press photographers as they attempted to hide their faces.

“Helen McAllister travelled regularly to England to visit Haddock while he was in Wakefield Prison. She would go there with members of Haddock's family,” loyalist sources told Sunday Life.

“No one can get their heads around why she is sticking by him. He is a serial killer, a violent psychopath and an informant who provided information that led to the arrests and jailing of loyalists throughout north Belfast and Newtownabbey.”

UVF sources believe Haddock, who was released last month, will settle in the Coventry area in the English Midlands, where he has relatives.

They are adamant that he is not under threat from so long as he does not return to Northern Ireland.

Loyalists maintain the biggest risk to Haddock is from relatives of his many victims, particularly young men who he had kneecapped over 20 years ago, some of whom are now established criminals.

“They are the biggest threat to Haddock, not the UVF,” said our source. “The only way that Haddock would be at risk from the organisation is if he came back here or used Darren Moore's contacts to send drugs from England to Northern Ireland.”

Moore, a drug addict who lives in Ballymena, was one of Haddock's former lieutenants in the agent-ridden Mount Vernon UVF. He has remained in touch with his old terror boss, something loyalists say is concerning.

When Haddock ran the Mount Vernon UVF, from the mid-1990s until his exposure as an agent in a 2007 Police Ombudsman report, he was involved in up to a dozen murders and attempted murders.

The Operation Ballast investigation into his activities found RUC Special Branch blocked attempts to charge him over these crimes.

Killings in which Haddock personally pulled the trigger include that of Good Samaritan Sharon McKenna, who was shot dead in 1993 as she helped an elderly Protestant neighbour on Belfast's Shore Road.

Shot

Three years later, Haddock murdered loyalist Tommy Sheppard in a pub in Ballymena, blasting him in the head and chest in front of stunned drinkers.

He also ordered the killing of RAF serviceman Raymond McCord Jnr, who was beaten to death in 1997.

The Police Ombudsman found that during his years as a Special Branch informant, Haddock was paid £80,000 from the public purse.

Darren Moore was charged with carrying out the attempted UVF murder of Haddock in 2006 when the informant was shot six times.

The case against him later collapsed when close pal Haddock withdrew his witness statements.

Moore was recently named in court by UVF supergrass Gary Haggarty as being part of a UVF gang that kicked John Harbinson to death in north Belfast in 1997.

He was also named in court as the getaway driver in the UVF loyalist feud murder in 2000 of UDA boss Tommy English.

Bryson wants ex-Ombudsman dropped from Finucane probe

CIARAN BARNES, Sunday Life, February 15th, 2026

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson is mounting a legal challenge against the appointment of Baroness Nuala O'Loan as an assessor to the independent public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane.

Solicitors for Mr Bryson, who represents four UDA men linked to the notorious 1989 killing, have written to government officials.

They claim public comments made by the former police ombudsman around legacy issues make her unsuitable for the position.

In a letter to the Department Solicitor's Office on behalf of Mr Bryson, Andrea Reid Solicitors write: “I urge the Northern Ireland Office to reconsider any proposed appointment of Baroness O'Loan (or similar figures with comparable pronouncements) to roles involving oversight, governance or adjudication in legacy investigations.”

Mr Bryson added that the four UDA members who he represents, including prominent loyalist Jim Spence, continue to deny involvement in the Finucane murder.

He said: “None of those previously linked to the incident were involved. Their links to the incident were all based upon untested, untestable intelligence and the word of self-confessed murderers who, after the incident, offered their services to the security forces as paid informants.”

The Northern Ireland Office confirmed it was in receipt of the letter sent by Mr Bryson's solicitors.

O’Loan appointed last June

Baroness O'Loan was appointed as an assessor for the independent inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane last June.

Human rights barrister Francesca Del Mese will also take on the role of assessor, with Sir Gary Hickinbottom chairing the inquiry.

While assessors will provide advice to the chair, they are not part of the inquiry's panel, and are not responsible for its final report.

The NIO has yet to say when or where the inquiry will take place.

The 1989 murder of Pat Finucane by the UDA is one of the most controversial of the Troubles.

In 2012, David Cameron apologised after a detailed report by Sir Desmond de Silva found there was RUC collusion in the case.

UDA hitman Ken Barrett, who was convicted of the Finucane murder in 2004, named several other loyalists who he said planned the killing, including Jim Spence.

Former UDA boss Spence, who now lives in London, is represented by Jamie Bryson, and recently denied involvement in the assassination.

Speaking on his behalf, Mr Bryson said: “Mr Spence has been clear that should he be compelled to attend the inquiry, then he will of course do so, but he has nothing to say in respect of the matter and will be of no assistance.

“The Pat Finucane incident is of no interest nor concern of Mr Spence.

“He knows nothing about it.”

However, that jars with statements to police from Barrett, who said in a written confession: “Spence's contact wanted (the killing) done.

“The contact was a police officer known as 'McWhirter'.

“McWhirter and other police officers were putting the word out (during interviews of loyalist prisoners) that Finucane should be hit.”

Fall from grace of ­Epstein's associates is entirely deserved

Those who turned a blind eye to financier's paedophilia should not get sympathy now they are paying for it

MÁIRÍA CAHILL, Sunday Independent, February 15th, 2026

'They're a bunch of sick f**ks.” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint, after viewing the unredacted Epstein files on Tuesday evening, echoed what most people have been thinking. "I think the part that is just so disgusting”, she added, "is that so many people knew.”

If they did, no one is admitting it. But how did Jeffrey Epstein get away with it? How can an operation involving over 1,200 ­victims go largely unnoticed? He was ­surrounded by powerful people in his villas, on his island and on his private jet, yet all claim not to have noticed wrongdoing. Ghislaine Maxwell told victims he needed three massages a day to orgasm. Did everyone truly ignore the signs?

The files are horrific, citing ­examples of children plucked from school and summer camp, groomed to massage and masturbate men and have sex with other children while voyeurs observed. Children who were encouraged to strip for cameras and withstand penetrative objects taken from baskets openly lying around.

Children who were groomed to stay for years and who became ­financially dependent on Epstein. Children who were forced to choose whether to be abused themselves or to find other children to sacrifice, making them feel complicit.

Children who, the files show, were photographed naked with quotes from Nabokov's Lolita written on their skin, a sickening bridge ­between fantasy and reality.

Nobody saw anything.

Just as Ireland's clergy and ­paramilitary abuse scandals ­revealed, powerful institutional bias enables continuation.

In Epstein's case, even after his conviction in 2008, the wealthy ­welcomed him back into their world. These people all profess to find child abuse repugnant. So, why did they think it acceptable to ­remain connected with a man ­convicted of "soliciting prostitution” from a 14-year-old? What message did that send?

Those who continued to have ­contact with Epstein included ­Howard Lutnick, now Donald Trump's secretary of commerce, who took him to lunch with his wife and children in 2012; Peter ­Mandelson, who expresses regret now he has lost his position; Sarah ­Ferguson, who publicly ­"abhorred paedophilia”, but flew to meet Epstein two days after his release; former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak; Noam Chomsky; Deepak Chopra; Bill Gates. The list goes on.

While they were exercising poor judgment, Epstein was still in ­contact with girls, asking one in an email when she finished school and telling her he was arranging for her to see a "pussy doctor”.

Maxwell, his co-abuser, pleaded the Fifth at a congressional hearing last week, but now dangles withheld information in hopes of ­clemency. Trump, named in the files as ­Epstein's close associate, may still pardon her. Before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, attorney general Pam Bondi insisted there was no evidence of Trump's wrongdoing. Her combative manner towards Democrats insulted victims seated just yards away. The victims are highly critical of Bondi's department, accusing it of a cover-up. Who could blame them ­after the way they have been ­treated?

Even now, some insist we should all hang back and wait for more evidence before believing them. When Virginia Giuffre first accused former Prince Andrew of having sex with her, some labelled her a fantasist. Her testimony reportedly secured £12m (€13.8m) from the man now known as Andrew Mountbatten-­Windsor (who denies wrongdoing). In 2015, she successfully sued Maxwell for calling her allegations "obvious lies”.

Suicide

Her soul broken by bitter experience, she is now dead by suicide.

Such is the cost of speaking out. Victims are either tossed on a sea of self-righteousness or drowned in ­delays and cover-up. They are accused of being political footballs, stripped of agency once again. They are depicted as liars by opponents or sanctified as "survivors” by those who attach themselves to their cause.

When the noise dies, they face chronic stress, online abuse and the loss of control that comes with being public property. Every aspect of their lives is picked over, ­vulture-like. And yet, they retain their integrity. That, for most, is a price worth paying. What drives them is the hope that it will not happen again.

Ireland has had its own history of covering up abuse. It also has contemptible people who still associate with or make excuses for those who enabled it, and people who will only believe allegations of rape if they witness it with their own eyes.

A Central Statistics Office 2022 report found that, confronted with the statement "Women often make up or exaggerate reports of rape”, almost a third of men (31pc) were uncertain of its veracity, as were a quarter of women (25pc). The rate for provably false rape accusations in the UK is just 2pc.

That reluctance to believe the worst of people whom we place on pedestals is, in part, why abusers like Epstein thrive and victims feel stifled. All those in power who kept their friendship with Epstein after 2008 (and hid that detail from the public) now find it comes at a hefty cost. Shed no tears. There are real victims of the Epstein fallout who deserve your sympathy.

SUNDAY INDEPENDENT - LETTERS:

Defence of unionism bordering on absurd

Sunday Independent, February 15th, 2026

Madam — Máiría Cahill's ­defence of Gregory Campbell in her column ('Ball is in President's court when it comes to listening to unionists', February 8) and her defence of unionism's sensitivities towards a border poll was both laughable and unsurprising.

She accuses people in the Republic of not understanding unionists, when it is apparent that she doesn't understand them herself.

In respect of her defence of Campbell's rudeness in reminding President Catherine Connolly that in Derry she was on his turf (in a city where nationalists are in a vast majority), presumably Ms Cahill would also defend the right of any prominent nationalist politician to be equally forthright in confronting the next British royal to visit ­Ireland, north or south, in a similar manner?

Hardly likely when not so long ago the Irish rugby player Ronan O'Gara was pilloried for keeping his hands in his pockets when being introduced to Queen Elizabeth.

Tony Fearon, Poyntzpass, Co Armagh

Legal system hard to see in Hinds' sight

Madam — Perhaps it is just as well that Ciarán Hinds chose to become an actor rather than a lawyer if he thinks that Northern Ireland's legal system was abolished a year before he became a student of the subject at Queen's University Belfast "and therefore we were studying something that didn't exist” ('North star', People&Culture, February 8).

Mr Hinds seems to have confused the end of the parliament at Stormont with the extinction of the entire legal system. In fact, the separate legal ­system and judiciary in Northern ­Ireland continued after 1972 and survives today.

CDC Armstrong, Donegall Road, Belfast

Mitchell a scapegoat for university sheep

 Madam — To Eilis ­O'Hanlon's column last week ('Rush to judge peacemaker over Epstein emails has echoes of a ­Soviet show trial', February 8), we might add: eaten bread is soon forgotten.

Senator George ­Mitchell steered the peace talks in Northern Ireland to a successful conclusion and the citizens there now enjoy a peace many thought would never arrive.

Queen's University Belfast, quite properly, unveiled a bust of Senator Mitchell and provided a scholarship in his honour. Now both are gone.

What did he do to warrant this insult? Nothing. There is indeed an allegation, but a ­dubious one. Is anybody in Queen's aware of the McCarthyite allegations in the US in the 1950s?

The university actually ­admits Senator Mitchell has done nothing wrong. It is confirmation that our intellectual elite are no different to a crowd of louts in a pub deciding to beat up somebody because one of them heard a rumour that he was up to no good.

Sheep, the lot of them.

Anthony Hanrahan, Salruck, Renvyle, Co Galway