UK and Irish Govts to appoint interlocutor for scoping exercise into paramilitary disbandment
Allison Morris, Belfast Telegraph, July 24th, 2025
TWO GOVERNMENTS TO APPOINT EXPERT WHO WILL CARRY OUT SCOPING EXERCISE
An interlocutor appointed by the British and Irish governments to carry out a scoping exercise into paramilitary disbandment is to be announced in the first week of August.
The two governments said in February that they would appoint an independent expert to examine the potential for a formal process of engagement with paramilitary groups.
The appointed person will decide if there is merit and support for a formal process to facilitate “comprehensive paramilitary group transition” to disbandment.
The Belfast Telegraph understands that loyalists wanted Jonathan Powell to be considered for the role.
Mr Powell, a former adviser to Tony Blair, was present at the launch of the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) in 2015.
The LCC has the backing of mainstream sections of the UDA, the UVF and the Red Hand Commando.
The South East Antrim UDA did not participate in the LCC process and has been involved in separate talks with the UK Government through an intermediary.
Given that the interlocutor will also engage with dissident republican groups, Mr Powell, the Labour Government's current National Security Adviser, was ruled out at an early stage due to his previous working relationship with loyalists.
Republicans have instead said the interlocutor needs to be someone with “international credentials and a background in negotiating with armed resistance groups and state forces”.
Long shortlist
The Belfast Telegraph understands that a shortlist of 16 potential candidates with experience in international negotiations and peace building was compiled.
The Irish Government and the NIO have overseen the appointment, with an announcement expected in early August and work to begin in the Autumn.
The independent expert will operate within the Independent Reporting Commission's existing legislative framework.
The four commissioners — solicitor John McBurney, former Women's Coalition leader and ex-human rights commissioner Monica McWilliams, Irish former civil servant and diplomat Tim O'Connor and former US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland Mitchell Reiss — welcomed the agreement.
Secretary of State Hilary Benn said this will include a programme of engagement with paramilitary bosses to “scope out perceived barriers to paramilitary group disbandment”.
“We will ask the independent expert to produce a final report within 12 months setting out their conclusions on whether there is merit in a formal process and whether there would be public support for it, and if so, how it could be established”.
Dissident republicans
Dissident republican groups, the New IRA, Oglaigh na hEireann, and the Continuity IRA, will all be part of the scoping exercise, as will the INLA, which, while on ceasefire, has retained internal structures.
The New IRA has so far said it will not be engaging with the expert.
The LCC is expected to engage collectively with the expert, with the South East Antrim UDA engaging as a separate entity.
The Belfast Telegraph reported this week that the SEA UDA had moved forward with plans, removing murals and stopping recruitment.
The group have been heavily impacted by the Paramilitary Crime Task Force (PCTF) which, from April 2023 to March 2024, made 83 arrests.
While some of this activity was directed towards the INLA, the majority was aimed at loyalists.
The East Belfast UVF and South East Antrim UDA were the two groups targeted most frequently by the specialist police unit.
Not all are in favour of the scoping exercise.
Alliance Party MP Sorcha Eastwood said last night: “Paramilitarism is a poison in our society, offering nothing but causing more misery and destruction across the community.
“Paramilitaries do not need to be negotiated with, encouraged or offered inducements to get off the backs of the community.”
A Northern Ireland Office spokesperson said: “We anticipate that we will be in a position to make a formal announcement on this appointment shortly.”
Patience has run out: latest bid to disband paramilitaries must be last chance saloon
Allison Morris, Belfast Telegraph, July 24th, 2025
Another year, and yet another process aimed at disbanding the remaining armed groups.
There is a public weariness when it comes to what many see as a process that — like the countless initiatives before it — is doomed to fail.
In just over a week the two governments are expected to announce an independent expert who will carry out a 12-month scoping exercise, meeting personally with the leaders of paramilitary groups to see what — if anything — can be achieved.
There is an air of 'last chance saloon' about the initiative.
Both the British and Irish Governments are only too well aware of the public mood, but not to try could also have repercussions for years to come.
Finding the right person to act as an interlocutor has not been easy, given the expert will need to deal with two governments, with at times conflicting agendas, and numerous factions of armed groups, some loyalist, some republican.
The expert will also have to be given access to up-to-date intelligence assessments to establish whether the people they meet are speaking out of both sides of their mouths.
All those involved in the recent disbandment talks with the UVF have been left with egg on their faces over Winston Irvine.
The leading loyalist is currently serving a jail term for gunrunning that happened while he had been negotiating a “peaceful transition” with both governments.
They will need assurances that those who agree to meet with them are operating in good faith.
The New IRA have said they will not be engaging with the interlocutor. They are currently the greatest threat to national security and are still involved in gathering intelligence on police and prison officers.
Of those who have agreed — tentatively — to engage, what are the expected demands?
Secretary of State Hilary Benn has said there will be no money for disbandment.
But for those remaining groups there is potentially a bigger prize.
Early release?
For dissidents, this centres around prisoners, those currently serving a sentence and those awaiting trial.
There will be no Good Friday-style early release scheme. But could they negotiate more favourable remission terms, say of 60%?
That may sound controversial, but the Home Office has suggested introducing up to 70% remission in England and Wales to deal with jail overcrowding.
Then there is the separated prison regime. Republicans are currently held in Roe House.
If any normalisation strategy involved their prisoners being moved into the main inmate population, that would be considered unacceptable to those groups who protested for the right to be housed separately.
Loyalists have different considerations. For them it is about retention of the name.
They have claimed if they announce disbandment the hawks will simply use the name to carry on with business as usual.
Instead, they have asked that they be de-proscribed to allow them to use the name in remembrance events.
They have also sought assurances on historic prosecutions.
Loyalists know they cannot take everyone along with them.
It is simply too profitable for those involved in criminality and who are shielded by the badge of the organisation.
Loyalists say they could deliver three quarters of members
But they have said privately that they could potentially deliver three-quarters of their members in the right circumstances.
What's left will be considered an organised crime gang in the way the remnants of the Loyalist Volunteer Force have joined The Firm, the Armagh-based drug gang linked to three recent murders.
Recent circumstances have been shaped by the effectiveness of the Paramilitary Crime Task Force and, to a lesser degree, the National Crime Agency, which has targeted assets.
But there is also a lesser talked about 'pressure group'.
A source involved in the process said: “You would be amazed at the role women, the wives and partners, are playing in getting the leadership to the table.
“The Paramilitary Crime Task Force has focused their minds. The arrests have a negative impact on family members who are not always in support of what their husbands are doing.
“We are meeting with hardened paramilitaries who tell us: 'My wife has said the next time the cops put the door in they're off and they'll not be back'.
“Those women want a normal life for their children and are refusing to live under the constant fear and scrutiny, and they have a much greater influence on the men than we ever could.”
The NIO said: “We anticipate that we will be in a position to make a formal announcement on this appointment shortly.”
‘Sensitive’ document suggested role of state agents should be concealed
Connla Young, Crime and Security Correspondent, Irish News, July 24th, 2025
A ‘SENSITIVE’ British government document suggested the existence of state agents should be concealed, weeks after a coroner confirmed several were linked to the sectarian murder of GAA official Sean Brown.
Details of a “statement” circulated by former home secretary James Cleverly emerged during a recent Supreme Court case linked to the 1994 murder of Paul ‘Topper’ Thompson.
Mr Thompson’s inquest was one of several involving the state use of Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificates that were halted last year.
PII applications are made when state agencies do not want information placed into the public domain.
Last year former Tory secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris and PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher took legal action to stop a coroner producing a ‘gist’, or summary of facts, at the inquest.
Lawyers claimed any summary breached the British government’s secretive Neither Confirm Nor Deny (NCND) policy.
The PSNI later accepted a court ruling in the Thompson case after the legal challenge was dismissed.
In a bid to stop the gist being issued the British government has since taken the case to the Supreme Court in London.
Boutcher apology to family
On Tuesday Mr Boutcher apologised to Mr Thompson’s terminally ill brother Eugene Thompson on behalf of the PSNI.
The apology confirms Paul’s murder could have been prevented if the RUC had taken “dedicated action” after a hole was cut in a Belfast peace line and used by the killers.
It also reveals that police failed “to investigate and arrest three potential suspects” and “disseminate information” from a separate investigation that could have identified a fourth.
Importantly, Mr Boutcher said the PSNI believes “that further information about Paul’s murder can safely be released to Eugene and hopes that the pending Supreme Court judgment will allow for this to happen”.
Last February a coroner at the inquest of Mr Brown revealed that more than 25 people had been linked by intelligence to his murder, including several state agents.
Tory Minister correspondence
Documents disclosed during the recent Supreme Court action reveal that on March 28 – weeks after the Brown gist – Mr Cleverly wrote to Victoria Prentis, who at the time was attorney general for England and Wales and advocate general for Northern Ireland.
In the letter, the Conservative minister said the British government’s NCND policy “has come under considerable pressure in recent weeks in the context of Northern Ireland legal inquests, with coroners moving to issue gists of sensitive material which would, in the view of the government, risk damage to national security and public interest”.
Details of a ‘statement’ circulated by former home secretary James Cleverly emerged during a recent Supreme Court case linked to the 1994 murder of Paul ‘Topper’ Thompson,
Mr Cleverly, who was appointed to the shadow cabinet this week, also enclosed “a statement on the NCND policy”.
The statement was sent weeks after a coroner confirmed several state agents were linked to the sectarian murder of GAA official Sean Brown,
That document, which is marked ‘official’, offers examples where it is used and refers to a report issued by a Westminster intelligence and security committee on international partnerships, which produced a redacted report.
Concealing state agents
Significantly, the Cleverly document suggests the existence of state agents should be concealed.
“It is vital that the approach to the protection of the kind of sensitive material described above, as well as current and former agent identities or the fact that agents were involved at all, remains consistent across government agencies and departments,” it said.
The statement goes on to highlight “agent involvement in activities and events in the past which could, today, present a risk to the lives of those agents/or their family members”.
Daniel Holder, director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, said the document “only emerged due to the relentless campaigning of Eugene Thompson”.
“It really lays bare what the national security veto is really all about, namely a mechanism which allows ministers to conceal wrongdoing by agents of the state,” he said.
“This NCND policy document openly states that the ‘fact that agents were involved at all’ in an incident should not be disclosed.
“This is not restricted to lawful activities of state agents, but could cover the involvement of informants in serious human rights violations, including kidnap and murder.”
The Northern Ireland Office was contacted.
Bulgarian family faced “terrifying and horrendous” attack on home during Ballymena riots
Children were among those present at the property as members of the crowd tried to get inside, a judge was told
By Alan Erwin. Irish News, July 23rd, 2025
A Bulgarian family were subjected to a “terrifying and horrendous” attempt to break into their home during racially-motivated rioting in Ballymena, the High Court has heard.
Prosecutors said Adam Connolly (32) repeatedly kicked at a locked internal door after others had forced open the front entry to the house on Clonavon Terrace last month.
Children were among those present at the property as members of the crowd tried to get inside, a judge was told.
Connolly, of Tobar Park in Cullybackey, Co Antrim, faces a charge of burglary with intent to cause unlawful damage over the incident on June 9.
Refusing his application for bail, Mr Justice Humphreys declared that all of those involved in the unrest in the town had brought shame on themselves.
“A Bulgarian family lawfully living, working and contributing to the community in Northern Ireland were subjected to a terrifying and horrendous assault on their property,” he said.
“One can only imagine how those children felt as grown men repeatedly kicked at their door, where the only purpose could have been to try to get access to that property and to cause harm to the family that lived there.”
A number of homes were targeted when street disorder broke out following an alleged serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in Ballymena.
The court heard Connolly was seen on CCTV footage as others put in the front door to one of the houses on Clonavon Terrace.
“He entered the property, kicked an internal door three times and then exited while others entered and continued to riot outside,” Crown counsel submitted.
Handed himself in
The defendant handed himself in to police earlier this month, dressed in the same clothes worn that night, after his image was released to the public.
Identifying himself on the recordings, Connolly claimed he attended the scene for an arranged protest but denied directing any of the subsequent events.
He told police he intended to protect a friend’s property, only entered to remove others and had no memory of kicking the door.
Aaron Thompson, defending, argued his client initially remonstrated with rioters in a bid to get them away from the house.
Connolly then stupidly got caught up in the heat of the moment by inexplicably directing three kicks at the locked internal door, the barrister contended.
During exchanges Mr Thompson accepted it could be regarded as a potential racially-motivated attack and attempted invasion of the family’s home.
“Thank God it wasn’t breached,” the judge responded.
I’m not a racist
Mr Justice Humphreys was told the defendant, a father of two, is not charged with any rioting offences and has an “emotional close link” to the family of the alleged sexual assault victim.
“He is particularly ashamed of himself… he had a personal reason in his own mind for being there, it wasn’t just a public outcry, he knew the people involved,” defence counsel added.
“When he was shown the footage of himself kicking the door he was pretty shocked… he said to police ‘I can’t believe that, I don’t recall doing that, I’m not a racist’.”
Bail was denied to Connolly due to the risk of re-offending.
Mr Justice Humphreys also stated: “The idea that this group of individuals were engaged in some sort of support for a victim of crime, or were in some way uniting the community of Ballymena, could not be further from the truth.
“All these people were achieving was terrifying the people of Ballymena, and the only contribution this makes is to criminalise young people and to terrify families not originally from Northern Ireland but who have chosen to live and work here.
“It brings shame on everybody who was engaged in this behaviour over those nights in June of this year.”
Letter: We must stop labelling people concerned about mass immigration as 'racists'
Belfast News Letter, July 24th, 2025
Riots broke out across Northern Ireland last month after two Romanian-speaking teenagers were charged with attempted rape after allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Ballymena
With one of the three accused of the alleged sexual assault last month in Ballymena having gone back to Romania, it's time we re-evaluate the whole issue of illegal immigration.
Illegal immigration includes those arriving without documentation. According to the UK Government sources, this amounts to tens of thousands each year.
We don't know their past. We don't know what age they really are. Therefore many will have criminal records and many adult migrants will be placed in schools.
From experience we know that many are placed in vulnerable communities and therefore the Ballymena incident was a tragedy waiting to happen. What other outcomes are there going to be? The solution is to send them back.
This is the illegal immigration I'm talking about. Let's be clear about that.
Legal immigration into the UK can be on a points system, based on health, age, English language proficiency, academic and vocational qualifications, criminal record, and suitability for the UK's workforce and shortages of labour thereof.
We need to stop the labelling of all those concerned about mass immigration as 'racists' when incidents like what happened in Ballymena show their concerns were and are justified.
All those calling for unbridled and 'All welcome' style immigration also need to be called out for the lunacy of this approach.
The geo-political reasons for allowing mass immigration will be made clear most likely when it's too late and the consequences are irreversible, but it won't have been done in anyone's name as such matters have been absent from the ballot box - with those vulnerable communities absent from any consent procedures.
Louis Shawcross, Co Down
Joe Cahill GAA controversy: UK minister silent on impact on £50m Casement Park grant
By Iain Gray, Belfast News Letter, July 24th, 2025
A UK minister has been silent on whether a GAA tournament named after leading IRA figure Joe Cahill could affect a £50m government grant for Casement Park – but said sport should bring people together, including Northern Ireland communities.
The comments from Secretary of State for Sport, Stephanie Peacock, came during a debate on the future of GAA stadium Casement Park in the House of Lords this afternoon.
This summer’s Feile an Phobail festival in West Belfast includes a youth GAA tournament named in honour of a man who was integral to the founding of the Provisional IRA and became commander of its Belfast brigade then overall chief of staff during some of the worst years of the Troubles.
Joe Cahill, who died in 2004, was also sentenced to a three-year stretch after the Irish Navy caught on him on board a ship with five tons of armaments from the Colonel Gadaffi’s Libyan regime, bound for Northern Ireland.
The Cahill controversy has already seen the DUP query the use of public money to pay for the Feile, while Northern Ireland’s Arts Council has demanded its logo be pulled from Feile sports events, stating that they don’t fund sports events.
In Westminster, Baroness Arlene Foster brought up the decision to name a youth tournament after “a self-declared leader of the IRA in Belfast”, asking: “Where does that sit with the government’s criteria for giving grants?”
The Secretary of State didn’t go into detail on the planned £50m grant for Casement, but stated: “The government believes in the power of sport to bring people together, and our focus is on supporting activities that unite communities in Northern Ireland, not that divide it.
“With regard to the glorification of terrorism, obviously prosecutions are an operational matter for the PSNI, but let’s be very, very clear – community events should be about uniting the community and we need to make sure that is the case.”
She also stated there is a “responsibility both on the UK government [and] on the Northern Ireland Executive, but also on all local politicians and local community activists” to make sure sport brings people together.
During the debate, Ms Peacock, also reinforced that the £50m grant was the upshot of pledges the Tory government made in 2011.
Answering questions from Baroness Kate Hoey, she stated that “at the heart of this is a previous commitment from the previous government in 2011”, to revamp Windsor Park, Ravenhill and Casement Park stadiums, but Casement still hasn’t happened. “This is delivering on the promises that were made,” she said.
Plans to redevelop Belfast’s principal hurling and GAA stadium into a much larger facility ran into a long series of battles with West Belfast residents, who didn’t want the originally planned 40,000-seat stadium in their area. In 2021, it won planning permission as a 34,500-capacity venue; construction was meant to begin in 2023, but it suffered a further setback when the firm contracted to build it went bust.
Mooted as a Euro 2028 host stadium, by September last year the cost of building the venue in line with UEFA regulations had ballooned to £400m and the UK government refused to fund it. It has now been downsized to a £170m project.
Teen accused of attacking houses and police barred from Ballymena
Alan Erwin, Irish News, July 24th, 2025
A TEENAGER accused of attacking houses and police amid racial disorder in Ballymena is to be barred from the town, a High Court judge has ordered.
The prohibition was imposed on Harvey Shaw (19) as he was granted bail on a charge of taking part in last month’s rioting.
Shaw has admitted becoming involved in the unrest, which erupted following the alleged sexual assault of a schoolgirl in Ballymena.
Prosecutors said police came under attack from masonry, bottles and petrol bombs as racially-motivated unrest flared on the streets.
Investigating officers identified Shaw, of Lanntara in the town, in footage recorded during two successive nights, the court heard.
On June 9, he attended the scene but did not participate in the disorder at that stage. However, the following night he was allegedly spotted throwing seven bottles at PSNI lines stationed on Clonavon Road.
Masked Group
Less than an hour later, he was said to be present as a masked group attacked homes in the Bridge Street area.
“The applicant joined in by throwing glass bottles at windows of these houses, causing damage,” Crown counsel claimed.
Shaw also hurled two stones at the police and tried to break up a larger rock to produce further missiles, according to the prosecution.
Mr Justice Humphreys described the scale of the disorder in Ballymena as ‘truly appalling’
Arrested a week later, he provided clothing believed to have been worn at the disorder and stated that he had initially attended protests to show support for the local community.
He admitted involvement in the rioting on June 10 but denied any racial motivation.
“He said that he followed in with the crowd, thinks he threw items at police between 10 and 15 times and accepts it was pure stupidity,” the prosecutor disclosed.
“He said it had nothing to do with race, that he works with foreign nationals and the reason he was there was to show up the wee girl’s family.”
Shaw, who faces a charge of riot, confirmed it was him in the footage and stated he was very sorry for his actions that night.
Stephen Law, defending, stressed his client’s clear record and employment as a forklift driver.
“He made full admissions to police, co-operated and answered all of their questions,” the barrister confirmed.
Mr Justice Humphreys described the scale of the disorder in the town as “truly appalling”.
“There was nothing for the benefit of the people of Ballymena in attacking the police or attacking the properties of people who live and work there,” he stated. “It brought, frankly, shame upon the people who engaged in that.”
But granting bail to Shaw, the judge cited his lack of previous convictions and stable job, along with his admissions and expressions of remorse.
He ordered the defendant to live under curfew at an alternative address in the nearby village of Ahoghill.
“He is not to be in association with more than three people at any time, anywhere in Northern Ireland and he is particularly to stay out of Ballymena,” Mr Justice Humphreys directed.
Man says youths encouraged him to riot
Meanwhile, bail was refused to a 56-year-old man who claims masked youths persuaded him to take part in another night of street violence.
Robert McDowell, of Patrick Place in Ballymena, is charged with rioting on June 11.
The court heard he was observed trying to conceal his face before throwing three bottles at police lines on Bridge Street.
During interviews he made admissions and identified himself on the footage.
“He claimed that he walked towards where the rioting was taking place merely out of curiosity and was approached by a couple of youths who encouraged him to participate and provided a balaclava,” the prosecutor said.
“He explained that he threw the bottles in a moment of stupidity.”
Bail was denied after the judge cited his previous record.
‘Bit rich’ for DUP to criticise lack of bonfire leadership says SDLP
Mark Robinson, Irish News, July 24th, 2025
AN MLA has criticised the DUP for its response to a republican bonfire in Derry, citing their “failure to deal” with bonfires in other areas.
SDLP MLA Mark Durkan said it was “a bit rich” for the party to criticise a “lack of political leadership” relating to a bonfire which is currently being built in the Meenan Square area of the Bogside.
The bonfire is being built on privately-owned land which has been earmarked for an £11 million redevelopment project in conjunction with the Executive Office.
Bonfires on the site have previously attracted controversy, including last year when police said they were investigating flags and banners placed on the pyre as hate crimes.
Last week, it was reported that a man fell from the structure during its construction.
DUP MLA Gary Middleton criticised a lack of leadership over the bonfire and said that the redevelopment project had been stalled due to contractors not wanting to remove materials from the site over concerns for safety.
Mr Durkan said his party would “prefer there to be no bonfires taking place” but highlighted a failure to regulate pyres which leads to communities being “challenged by these issues every summer”.
“In the absence of an agreed way forward, steps will have to be taken to manage this bonfire safely so that it passes off with minimal harm to our environment and the local community,” he said.
“It’s a bit rich to hear the DUP call for leadership around bonfires given their failure to deal with these issues in other areas and their refusal to consider any kind of regulation in the past.
Bonfire on ‘urban village’ site
“The Executive Office’s inability to progress the Meenan Square project is partly why we find ourselves in this situation again and the blame for that cannot be laid at the feet of young people in the Bogside.
“There are plenty of other organised activities for young people in the area – I would encourage them to participate in these.”
Mr Durkan added that those organising the bonfire should refrain from burning flags, symbols or effigies.
It comes after a number of controversial loyalist bonfires earlier this month, including an effigy of a migrant boat being burned on top of a pyre in Moygashel.
“We have seen some sickening displays of hate recently and I really hope that young people here can rise above such activity,” he said.
Elsewhere, Sinn Féin MLA Ciara Ferguson said that there is “no place for these bonfires in our society which attract anti-social behaviour” and noted that the safety of local residents “must come first”.
“Derry is a city bursting with pride and potential. The images portrayed this summer must project a community that is working together to move forward and build a better future,” she said.
The Meenan Square bonfire in Derry in August 2024
She added there were “hundreds of positive events” taking place across the city in August.
‘UDR Four’ ex-soldier convicted of 1983 murder asks Trump to help him clear his name
Christopher Woodhouse, Belfast Telegraph, July 24th, 2025
A former soldier has said he hopes to raise his Troubles murder conviction with Donald Trump.
‘UDR Four’ member Neil Latimer believes the US president is his only hope of overturning his conviction for the 1983 killing of Catholic man Adrian Carroll.
The 63-year-old has unsuccessfully appealed the Diplock court conviction three times.
He feels abandoned by local politicians who pledged to support veterans.
“There’s hardly a republican case that goes to court they don’t win, yet there’s not a politician here who will mention my name because MI5 and the powers-that-be have told them this case is to die,” he said.
Latimer and his wife Jill contacted the US consulate in Belfast in bid to have the matter referred to Trump’s political staff.
“We have no support from any politician in Northern Ireland, and the government doesn’t want the case coming out because of the corruption and collusion in it,” said Jill.
Neil asked: “If I’m guilty, why are they afraid to talk about it?”
Released under Good Friday Agreement
Latimer spent 15 years in jail until he was freed under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. He is still subject to a life licence.
Former regimental colleagues Jimmy Hagan, Winston Allen and Noel Bell were also found guilty but had their convictions overturned on appeal and eventually received £500,000 in compensation.
Mr Latimer challenged his conviction on the grounds of unreliable eyewitness testimony and the reliability of the confession he made during interviews at Castlereagh police station.
“I was down as the gunman, but I was told by people they had to ‘keep one in’, because if the four of us got out, there’d be a hell of a lot of pressure on the RUC. A lot of questions would need answered,” he said.
“If I had (gone) to court and won, the RUC would have been ripped apart over what they did.”
“The gunman and the driver, who is a respected businessman, their names are out there,” said Jill.
“Neil did 15 years, and there’s not a week goes by when people don’t message us with those names.
“We don’t have anyone who will go against the government because of the collusion in the case.
“That wouldn’t affect Donald Trump at all. He would be the only man brave enough to look at this case and get the information out the way it should have been all those years ago.”
Adrian Carroll was murdered in 1983.
Repeated threats
Jill said she and Neil had received repeated death threats in person and online because of their battle for his case to be re-examined.
She added: “I just want him to see this is what our government does to our veterans. At the end of the day, Neil and I are both veterans.
“This case is as dangerous as being in the UDR and getting up to do your day job. You come into the world with your name, and that’s all you leave. Neil is a convicted murderer still on a life licence, and that shouldn’t be the case.”
Mr Carroll was shot dead in an alley near his home on Abbey Street in Armagh, with the Protestant Action Force — a cover name for the UVF — claiming responsibility for his murder.
Sunday Life revealed last year the man who actually shot Mr Carroll was notorious UVF member and convicted murderer Jimmy ‘Shades’ Smyth (58).
Smyth has also been named as the gunman in the loyalist murders of Cormac McDermott, Eamon Fox, Gary Convie and Gerard Brady.
He was only convicted of the McDermott killing, and was recently cleared of the Fox and Convie shootings.
After finding him not guilty, Mr Justice O’Hara told Smyth he was “happy to murder Catholics just for being Catholics”.
Boutcher hospital visit points the way forward on legacy
Pro Fide Et Patria, Irish News, July 24th, 2025
THE visit by PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher this week to the terminally ill brother of a man murdered by loyalists 30 years ago was significant for a number of reasons.
Mr Boutcher travelled to the Mater Hospital in north Belfast on Tuesday to deliver an apology to Eugene Thompson.
Mr Thompson’s only brother, Paul ‘Topper’ Thompson (25), was shot dead as he sat in a taxi in 1994 in a blatantly sectarian attack.
His UDA killers had cut a hole in a peaceline fence at Springfield Park in west Belfast to gain entry to the nationalist area.
The hole was reported by a resident to both the RUC and Northern Ireland Office, but no action was taken.
“The case exposes again the real human impact of British attempts to ‘draw a line’ under the past through the odious Legacy Act and other actions to conceal what happened during the Troubles
Mr Boutcher spent some time talking to Mr Thompson, who has terminal cancer, and delivered a lengthy apology on behalf of the PSNI.
Crucially, it confirmed that the murder may have been prevented if the RUC had taken steps to patrol the area where the hole in the fence was reported.
In the aftermath, police also failed “to investigate and arrest three potential suspects”.
That the chief constable took the time to personally deliver the apology is an admirable gesture for which Mr Thompson has expressed his gratitude.
Mr Boutcher acknowledged that it came too late for the victim’s mother, Margaret, who died in 2004, and accepted that the “wider family and community still do not know all the available information now, over 30 years later”.
That is chiefly due to the continued refusal of the British state to reveal all it knows about the attack, and in particular information made subject to secrecy at an inquest.
Mr Thompson’s inquest was one of several halted last year after Mr Boutcher and then secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris took legal action to prevent a coroner issuing a ‘gist’, or summary of facts.
The PSNI later accepted a court ruling which dismissed the challenge, but the NIO has fought the case as far as the Supreme Court, which has yet to deliver its findings.
The clear concern is that this may come too late for Mr Thompson, and the need for senior judges to expedite their ruling is obvious.
Mr Thompson deserves enormous praise for his tireless efforts, supported by family members and campaign groups, to pursue truth and justice for his brother.
The case also exposes again the real human impact of British attempts to ‘draw a line’ under the past through the odious Legacy Act and other actions to con-ceal what happened during the Troubles, in particular around state agents.
The Labour administration should move without further delay to repeal the legislation and begin putting in place structures that have the confidence of all and respect the memory of all victims.
Letters, Irish News, July 24th, 2025
Stormont coalition has left us with a public debt that we all must pay
THE recent publication of a position paper by the Construction Employers Federation, Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations and NI Chamber of Commerce should be read by everyone. It clearly sets out how the Northern Ireland Executive, led by Sinn Féin and the DUP (aided and abetted by Alliance, the UUP and SDLP through the years), has built up one of Northern Ireland’s biggest public debts we have ever accumulated since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998.
The paper states that ‘decades of underinvestment have left Northern Ireland Water facing an enormous circa £2 billion funding gap over the upcoming Price Control period 2027-33’. To plug this gap, the average ratepayer in Northern Ireland will have to pay some sort of contribution towards ensuring there is enough funding for further wastewater infrastructure investment – around £101.15 in a ‘domestic only infrastructure levy’ if NI Water was able to borrow against its revenue, or up to £792 per year if NI Water was to be fully funded without borrowing.
The authors of the paper highlighted, however, that Northern Ireland ‘has the lowest average earnings in the UK’ – something that is often repeated by our politicians who decry the ‘cost of living’ as the reason for not increasing our own indigenous streams of revenue.
If we don’t do anything about the wastewater crisis, we risk blocking the construction of 6,150 homes over the next three years – the Executive set out a target of 5,850 new-build social homes by 2027 in its Programme for Government earlier this year.
The usual arguments from Stormont are well rehearsed – austerity under a Tory or Labour government is the excuse presented by Sinn Féin or the DUP as the reason why NI Water is not adequately funded.
The real reason why NI Water, like many other public services, is not fully funded nor adequately equipped to deal with major challenges ahead is because the Executive has self-imposed a so-called austerity on the people of Northern Ireland. Each time our politicians refuse to introduce local revenue-raising measures here, they increase our debts to taxpayers from other parts of the UK and Ireland.
What is the answer from Liz Kimmins on the funding gap for NI Water? Developer contributions on new-build connections to the water network. This proposal risks doing something that Sinn Féin complains about in the Republic of Ireland – inflating house prices for those young people aspiring to own their own home. Developers will likely pass this cost to the homeowner – which will likely affect the chances they have to get a mortgage.
Devolution at Stormont should not continue to be used as a shield from the reality that Northern Ireland must pay its fair share of the funding granted to its public services. The Scottish government and Welsh government serve as examples of what devolution can be for Northern Ireland – a vehicle to improve the lives of 1.9 million people no matter if it is in the United Kingdom or part of a united Ireland. Those improvements are possible now if our politicians genuinely wish to achieve them.
The reality is that Northern Ireland taxpayers now will continue to pay their taxes for underfunded services, while the politicians at Stormont continue to let our debts rise. It is a moral duty for our politicians to face the reality that unless they have the courage to raise revenue locally, we will hand our children and grandchildren a place not worth living in.
EDWARD FERRIN Belfast BT14
Homes, not more museums, are needed in west Belfast
IWAS astounded to read that the former Connolly House and adjacent land on the Andersonstown Road in west Belfast may be the subject of plans to develop a museum dedicated to the 1981 Hunger Strike.
There are currently more than 2,000 people and families in west Belfast who are on the housing waiting list, many of them for more than five years. Here is an ideal opportunity to help ease that waiting list and ease the homelessness crisis in west Belfast.
There is already a republican museum in Conway Mill, with many Hunger Strike artefacts.
We also have the James Connolly museum on the Falls Road, the Roddy McCorley museum on the Glen Road, and Davitt’s GAC were recently awarded funding for a museum.
Surely we have enough museums in west Belfast that can display additional Hunger Strike artefacts.
Hopefully those involved will rethink their proposal and build affordable social homes.
G REILLY Belfast BT11
