UK and Irish govts ‘working intensively’ to find agreement on legacy issues

20 May

David Young, PA, Irish Times, May 20th, 2025

TÁNAISTE ENGAGING WITH BENN TO DELIVER ‘JOINT FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT’

The UK and Irish governments are working intensively to find an agreed “landing zone” on a revised framework for dealing with the legacy of the Troubles, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said.

Speaking after a round of meetings with political leaders in Belfast on Monday, Mr Harris said he was engaging with Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn to see if it was possible to deliver a “joint framework agreement” in the coming weeks.

Since taking office last year, the Labour government in London has pledged to repeal and replace some of the provisions of the contentious Legacy Act that was introduced by the last Conservative government.

The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 halted scores of civil cases and inquests into Troubles deaths and also offered conditional immunity to perpetrators of conflict-related crimes in exchange for their co-operation with a new investigatory and truth recovery body.

The Act was opposed by all the main political parties in Northern Ireland, the Irish Government and many victims’ representative groups.

Moving beyond ‘shadow of pain’

Mr Harris said the ongoing work with his UK counterpart was an attempt to move “beyond the dark shadow and the huge pain caused by the Legacy Act.

“I wanted to meet all of the political parties to get their sense of the way forward on legacy issues,” the Fine Gael leader said after Monday’s meetings at Parliament Buildings, Stormont.

“I’m conscious this is an extraordinarily sensitive area, but I have been working intensively with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in recent months really to see if it is possible to find a landing zone that can allow the two governments to agree a framework in terms of legacy issues in the coming weeks.

“Listening to the parties today, of course, people have different perspectives, people come at this from different viewpoints (but) I do think they’re all united in wanting to see a way forward for victims and their families. I think that’s very genuine across all the parties.

“And I now, on the back of this, intend to continue to work with the Secretary of State, but also intend to continue to meet with and listen to victims groups. I met a number last week. I’ll be meeting a number in the weeks ahead.”

Providing families with Legacy Infrastructure that delivers truth and justice in ways not forthcoming so far

He added: “I … want to move to an infrastructure around legacy that can provide all families with truth and justice in a way that simply hasn’t been forthcoming so far.

“I’m very conscious when I meet with victims’ families – and people are getting older now, I mean, you’re talking to people who are in their 80s and their 90s – and they’re desperately looking for answers and information that has been withheld from them or that they have been deprived of to date.

“This process, this peace process, has always worked best when the two governments pull together.”

In 2023, the Irish government initiated an interstate legal case against the UK in the European Court of Human Rights, claiming the Legacy Act breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The case remains active, with ministers in Dublin wanting to see how Labour resolves its concerns over the legislation before any decision is taken to withdraw the action.

Commenting on the case on Monday, Mr Harris told reporters: “The Irish Government never wanted to be in a position where it had to take its nearest neighbour to an international court.

“We did so more out of sorrow than anger, because we could not find another mechanism to address issues.

“We explored every diplomatic and political channel available. And human rights matters, international law matters, and we felt it was important in support of victims and their families to take that case.

“Of course, if we get to a point of agreement – and we’re not there – in terms of a framework, and if that agreement is then faithfully translated into legislation, of course, at that stage, I will engage with government colleagues in terms of deciding if the time is right to take a different course of action in relation to the interstate case."

Families need answers says Benn

Mr Benn said the UK Government had been working “very hard” in discussions with the Irish Government to find a way forward.

“We were elected on a commitment to repeal and replace the Legacy Act. It’s been found to be unlawful in a number of respects.

“Any government that came into power last July would have had to do something about it, but I want to come up with arrangements.

“They may not satisfy everyone, but I want to get the widest possible support so that above all, the people, the families who’ve been waiting sometimes for decades to really find out what happened to their loved ones, can get the answers that they have for too long been searching for.”

Meanwhile, Mr Harris insisted a public inquiry is currently the only way to deliver a human rights-compliant investigation into the murder of GAA official Sean Brown.

Mr Benn has applied for a Supreme Court appeal on judicial rulings in Belfast that compel him to establish a public inquiry into the 1997 murder by loyalist paramilitaries.

Mr Brown (61), the then chairman of Wolfe Tones GAA Club in the Co Londonderry town of Bellaghy, was ambushed, kidnapped and murdered as he locked the gates of the club in May 1997.

No-one has ever been convicted of his killing.

Preliminary inquest proceedings last year heard that in excess of 25 people had been linked by intelligence to the murder, including several state agents.

It had also been alleged in court that surveillance of a suspect in the murder was temporarily stopped on the evening of the killing, only to resume again the following morning.

This year Appeal Court judges in Belfast affirmed an earlier High Court ruling compelling the Government to hold a public inquiry.

However, Mr Benn is attempting to take the case onward for further appeal at the Supreme Court, insisting the case involves a key constitutional principle of who should order public inquiries, the Government or the judiciary.

Mr Harris met members of the Brown family, including Mr Brown’s 87-year-old widow Bridie, in Dublin last week.

After meeting political leaders at Stormont to discuss legacy issues, the Tánaiste made clear he supported the family’s call for a public inquiry.

“That’s been the long-established position of the Irish Government, and it remains the position of the Irish government,” he said.

“I want the Brown family to have a mechanism that has never been provided to them, which has to be Article Two (of the European Convention on Human Rights) compliant in terms of human rights and international law.

“I met the Brown family last week, and I was really, really taken by the huge level of pain and suffering, and the lack of answers that they are going on, that is continuing to this very day.

“A public inquiry is currently the only mechanism for it that is Article Two compliant.” - PA

‘I lost my mind during dirty protest … but writing helped me heal’

Sophie Clarke talks to Malachy ‘Muffles’ Traynor, Irish News, May 20th, 2025

Former republican prisoner Malachy Trainor speaks to Sophie Clarke about his memoir I Only Went Out For The Paper!, and his Troubles journey from facing up to the ‘anger and rage’ of Paisley to the trauma of Long Kesh – and how writing helped him heal

A FORMER H-Block prisoner hopes his autobiography will help educate the next generation and offer a better understanding of life during the Troubles.

Malachy ‘Muffles’ Trainor worked alongside researcher and academic Siobhan Hughes to write ‘I Only Went Out For The Paper!’ which details his life from growing up as the youngest of eight in the early 1960s to his time in Long Kesh and the subsequent impact the experience had on him.

Speaking to The Irish News, Malachy admitted that he was initially reticent about writing a memoir because he was unsure about reflecting on the past.

“I’d written a play called ‘Pushed to the Edge’ in 2002 which was performed in London at one point and that’s really what sparked my interest in writing,” he explained.

“Then I got into poetry and had a fair bit of success with that – as far as I know I have about 41 anthologies.”

After his last book of poetry was published, he said: “Siobhan contacted me and asked if I would do a memoir”.

“I’ll admit that I hesitated,” he tells me, adding: “Not because I was afraid or anything like that but just because it would take a lot of looking back at things that happened on the blanket and it wouldn’t be a fictional account like the play – it would have to be honest and authentic.”

However, after giving it some thought he decided to “step up to the plate” as he felt it was important for people “to know what really happened”.

“There’s a famous quote which says ‘the only people who really know are the people who drunk out of the same soup bowls’ and that’s exactly right,” says Malachy.

“But I think the younger generation are curious and they wonder about it.

“ I believe I lost my mind during the dirty protest and it’s only through poetry and writing that I have managed to carry on my life”

“I actually met a young fella who had bought a copy of my play and asked me to sign it and when I was chatting to him he said, ‘people want to know what it was like living through that time’.

“I was surprised by that, but I understand it because what went on has had a knock-on effect on younger people.”

Malachy describes himself as a product of the “time [he] was born into”. Despite having a relatively normal upbringing he explains that it was easy for young people to “get swept up by radical ideologies”.

He describes November 30 1968, the events of which inspired the title of the book, as the day “everything changed”.

He recalls being sent out to collect the daily papers for his family before running into a large civil rights march near the Mall in Armagh which he decided to join.

In the book he describes it as an opportunity to face up to the “anger and rage of Ian Paisley and Ronald Bunting”.

Peoples Democracy

This led to getting involved with the People’s Democracy, a political organisation which aimed to achieve civil rights through militant pickets, occupations and marches.

“We were often beaten up by hardline Paisleyites during marches,” he says.

“In the book I describe the People’s Democracy as being my baptism of fire because that’s when I really got a taste for socialism.”

However, in 1976 Malachy was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment after being arrested for armed robbery and possession of explosives and a revolver.

After coming out of remand at Crumlin Road gaol, he was transferred to the H-Blocks at Long Kesh where he shared a cell with Brendan ‘The Dark’ Hughes, which he says was next to the cell in which Bobby Sands was being held.

“Bobby and Darkie talked a lot, either through a pipe between the cells or cracks in the doors,” he recalls.

“They usually spoke Irish, which we were told to do so that the guards wouldn’t be able to understand.”

The book goes on to describe Malachy’s time ‘on the blanket’ as well as taking part in the dirty protest which he describes as “worse than hell”.

Accidental protest

In his memoir he explains that the blanket protest “sort of happened by accident” as the result of a fellow prisoner, IRA man Kieran Nugent, refusing to wear a prison uniform.

Above, a cell in H Block No. 4 of the Maze/Long Kesh prison near Lisburn, below, where 10 IRA Hunger strikers died in 1981. Below right, Gerry Adams pictured with Brendan ‘The Dark’ Hughes in Long Kesh prison. Hughes – an IRA hunger striker – was Malachy Trainor’s cellmate

A People’s Democracy march was attacked at Burntollet Bridge in Co Derry in January 1969

“It is reportedly said that Kieran told prison wardens ‘nail it to my back’. The wardens threw him into the cell naked along with a blanket. This was the birth of the blanket protest.”

Malachy joined the protest almost as soon as he entered Long Kesh in 1976 and stayed on it for two years before engaging in the dirty protest in 1978, recalling that the orders came from the officers commanding (OCs) to “stop showering”.

“A shower was only allowed at the discretion of the screw who was in charge of the cells at the time. It was bloody miserable. We were taunted, slapped, abused,” reads a passage from the book.

“We were only allowed to shower once a week. We were often beaten as we approached or left the bathrooms.”

He continues, describing how he and other prisoners “bust the windows”, after being held in their cells for 24 hours “stinking”, and days when he was feeling “so rotten” that he would lie in his cell with maggots crawling over him.

However, it was when Malachy was subjected to “forced washing” that he claims there was a real “turning point”. “This was particularly the case for Bobby and Darkie who would soon begin their first hunger strike as a result,” says Malachy, although he never engaged himself.

Inpact on Health

“I read one time that if you’re in jail for over four or five years it has a huge impact on your mental health – which sounds about right,” Malachy tells me.

“You can imagine what we were like locked up for long periods of time in really small cells. It was difficult.

“I believe I lost my mind during the dirty protest and it’s only through poetry and writing that I have managed to carry on my life.”

In 1983 Malachy was released from prison and although he acknowledges that his time in Long Kesh has had a profound impact on his life, he doesn’t believe there’s much point in being bitter.

“To tell you the truth I’m only starting to wake up now to how much it affected me,” he said.

“But I think it’s just something you learn to live with, you have to become immune in some ways.

“You can’t live with the bitterness all the time because it would eat you up.”

Cathartic

He adds that working on the book was “incredibly cathartic” and allowed him to address and reflect on memories he wouldn’t have looked back on otherwise.

“It was a relief for me because it was near enough a confession – I was able to get it all out there which was brilliant,” he says.

“And I couldn’t get over the reception – not just from locals but from people outside of Ireland as well.

“It was a difficult one to handle but hopefully it gives people an idea of what went on.”

Reflecting on his experience, Malachy says he has made his “peace with the past” but admits he “probably would do things differently” if given the chance.

“You’d need to be mad to put yourself through something like that again,” he explained.

“I think most of us would’ve done things differently but no matter how you plan your life you can’t always get what you want – which is actually an old Rolling Stones record,” he laughs.

Culture war fires spreading in Legacy vacuum

Lyons warns groups: ‘Disrespect’ will jeopardise your arts funding

John Manley, Political Correspondent, Irish News, May 20th, 2025.

GROUPS and organisations that engage in “any activity disrespectful of any tradition” will jeopardise their Arts Council funding, DUP minister Gordon Lyons has signalled.

But the Communities Minister has been urged to back his words with action amid concern among both nationalists and unionists that public funds are being used to promote activities that could be deemed sectarian.

Mr Lyons made his remarks about the potential withdrawal of funding in a letter to Arts Council chair Liam Hannaway.

In February’s so-called Letter of Expectations, the minister sets out his “priorities”, which he says will all allow Mr Hannaway “to frame the work of the council to align with those priorities”.

In one section, the East Antrim MLA highlights his desire that those in receipt of Arts Council funds do not indulge in “disrespectful” behaviour.

“To ensure maximum accessibility and inclusion, I expect the council in the terms and conditions of its funding programmes to ensure that any activity disrespectful of any tradition, in locations or by groups receiving council funding, results in specific and substantive action as regards funding,” he wrote.

In recent weeks, concerns have been raised about grants for bands that have taken part in parades commemorating UVF members, while some unionists have serially raised objections about funding for Féile an Phobail, which has previously featured sell-out concerts by the Wolfe Tones.

In the assembly yesterday Mr Lyons criticised rap trio Kneecap claiming their actions amounted to the “glorification of terrorism” and went well beyond artistic licence.

No Irish language funding so far

However, in reply to a question, he confirmed that neither his department nor any of its arm’s length bodies had provided funding to the Irish language group since 2017.

In relation to the minister’s February letter, the Department for Communities said the Arts Council would be responsible for “investigating any allegations or evidence of provisions not being complied with”.

Alliance communities spokesperson Sian Mulholland said her party welcomed “any moves to ensure that public monies are directed to activities and projects that promote understanding and celebration of culture in safe and inclusive ways”.

“Whilst freedom of creative expression is central to any democratic society, we are long past the time when celebration of culture should involve any sectarian, racist or derogatory overtures,” she said.

“As such, we welcome the minister’s commitment to ensuring funded activity is not disrespectful of any community in Northern Ireland.”

Groups flout rules ‘with no consequences whatsover’

SDLP West Tyrone MLA Daniel McCrossan said groups in receipt of arts council funding were often seen “flouting these principles with no consequences whatsoever”.

“These comments from the minister must be backed up with action,” he said.

“We need to see an end to arts funding being doled out along tribal lines, while projects who make a real difference in their local communities miss out as funding pots wither.”

Irish News columnist Brian Feeney, who last week called for loyalist bands who play offensive tunes to be penalised, said Mr Lyons had set out “clear expectations” but failed to act against “flagrant sectarian behaviours”.

“Why did he not follow up on this injunction when the Arts Council did not comply with his requirements?” he asked.

“Instead they gave full funding to bands engaged in flagrant sectarian behaviours.”

Governments warned to ‘consider their actions’ over cash for Kneecap

Jonathan McCambridge, Irish Independent and Irish News, May 20th, 2025

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said the actions of the the band amounted the “glorification of terrorism” and went well beyond artistic licence.

The group has seen gigs cancelled after historic concert footage appeared to show a member of the group shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”, and another video allegedly showing one calling for Conservative MPs to be killed.

Made up of Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin and JJ Ó Dochartaigh, the group has faced an investigation by counter-terrorism police after the videos, filmed in 2023 and 2024, became public.

Mr Lyons was asked during ministerial question time at the assembly yesterday if his department had provided funding to Kneecap since 2017.

He said: “Neither my department nor any of its arm’s length bodies have provided any funding to Kneecap since 2017.”

TUV MLA Timothy Gaston referred to a planned gig in Belfast this August where Kneecap is to support Irish rock band Fontaines DC.

He said: “As the minister responsible for local government, what are you doing to stop this pro-IRA rap group from turning Belfast City Council-owned Boucher Road playing fields into their personal propaganda stage?”

Mr Lyons responded: “The member will be aware that although I oversee local government legislation, it is up to individual councils to make their own decisions in those regards.

“But I hope that local councils would take into consideration some of the good relations issues that have been raised in light of some of the comments that have been made by Kneecap.

“Not only by Kneecap, but all of those that would seek to engage in what is essentially the glorification of terrorism.”

Last year, Kneecap won a discrimination case against the UK Government in Belfast High Court after former business secretary Kemi Badenoch tried to refuse them a £14,250 funding award.

New EU-UK Deal: Implications for Northern Ireland

Sam McBride, Belfast Telegraph, May 20th, 2025

Agreement softens Irish Sea border, but also dilutes 'best of both worlds' status for North

Sir Keir Starmer's deal with the EU involves a drastic softening of the Irish Sea border which will simplify trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The agreement involves highly technical issues, but will be noticed by consumers by expanding their choice of what they can buy and simplifying how they buy it.

The deal mainly covers sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues — plant and animal health and food safety — but that has been the most complicated area to resolve.

It is this area which has thrown up the absurdist and most controversial sea border issues — from a ban on soil from Great Britain entering Northern Ireland to a ban on lots of native British plants crossing the Irish Sea, despite having done so for millennia, while plants from 1,000 miles away can enter freely.

For businesses trading in plants, animals or food, this deal will make it seem like the entire UK is back in the EU in these areas of law.

Until now, Northern Ireland has effectively been in the EU for the purposes of plants, animals and many foods; now, the entire UK is effectively in the EU in these areas.

Nationally, this involves an embarrassing admission that Brexit has failed in these areas. The UK took back control, but even after being willing to treat Northern Ireland differently, found that it gained less than it lost and didn't want to change much from the EU's rules anyway.

Fishermen were able to catch more fish but found they could no longer easily sell that fish to the EU.

Rule taker

Now, the UK is following EU rules but is in a worse position than before Brexit because it has no democratic say over how those rules are made.

This is a political deal which will now require months of detailed work on the legislation which implements it.

Until that is in place, the Windsor Framework — incorporating the NI Protocol which created the sea border — will continue to be implemented.

The Windsor Framework will also remain in force for the areas not covered by this deal, and as a fallback position should the new agreement fall apart or be revoked by a future government.

Once in place, this deal will end the requirement for many foods sold in Northern Ireland to have 'Not for EU' labels, a cumbersome complication which it was feared could see some food companies stop supplying Northern Ireland.

The labels were also a bureaucratic absurdity. They pointedly did not say 'Not for sale in EU' because they involved high-risk products where the EU has zero tolerance for contamination entering its territory.

Consumers and traders

Yet thousands of shoppers cross the border every day to load up their boots with products banned from the EU — and this was fully known to everyone, yet no one even pretends to enforce it.

The situation exemplified how so much of the sea border had become about bureaucratic box-ticking rather than genuine protection of the EU single market.

The deal will eradicate the need for costly and time-consuming export health certificates on food coming from Britain. It will also mean abandoning the NI plant health labels introduced by the Windsor Framework.

All banned plants will be able to travel freely; all banned meats will be able to travel freely. There will be no mandatory physical or documentation checks.

Agricultural goods moving back and forth for processing will no longer require paperwork.

That's likely to mean the huge border control post under construction in Larne will sit largely empty and should help to ease the shortage of vets which had been exacerbated by the requirement to approve export health certificates and man border control posts.

However, there are multiple significant areas which won't change under this agreement.

There is no impact on the customs border between GB and NI. That has been hardening over recent months with stricter customs rules for parcels — a highly visible aspect of the sea border to consumers, given the scale of online shopping.

The deal also doesn't resolve the veterinary medicines problem which the industry says involves a looming crisis at the end of this year when a grace period is due to expire. The British Veterinary Association has said it does not expect a deal to be reached by the end of this year.

Given what has previously been claimed, there will be unusually high levels of scepticism about what is now being claimed.

Boris Johnson and his Secretary of State Brandon Lewis denied there was any sea border.

More than two years ago, Rishi Sunak came to Belfast to claim that he had got rid of “any sense of an Irish Sea border”.

Last year DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson went further, claiming that he had got rid of the sea border full stop.

Will be a revolving door

On paper, the agreement is permanent rather than time-limited. In practice, it will always be open to revocation by a future government — or the EU if it is unhappy at the implementation or other UK decisions.

A Prime Minister Nigel Farage would almost certainly ditch this deal. Even a Tory PM may tear it up.

In those circumstances, Northern Ireland remains the point of friction because the sea border has been softened rather than eradicated.

This deal also reduces the scope for Northern Ireland having 'the best of both worlds' through unfettered access to both UK and EU markets.

That was the basis on which the NI Protocol was sold, but there were few examples of where it delivered.

Trade statistics and wider economic data demonstrate no drastic increase in prosperity because of the protocol. That's partly down to the constant uncertainty; a business which set up a Northern Ireland factory because of the unique SPS market access would now have seen its advantage eradicated.

There remains acute uncertainty over the future of these rules, and therefore a business investing because they would be gambling that they'd still be there in a year of two, let alone in 10 or 20 years.

The deal now pits principled unionists against pragmatic unionists. The latter will be happy to accept a deal which gets rid of a large chunk of the sea border, irrespective of how that is achieved. Almost certainly, the UUP will warmly welcome this agreement, while the TUV has already been emphasising that the sea border remains a constitutional outrage.

Unavoidable choices face Unionists

But where does the DUP position itself?

The party's instincts are firmly pragmatic and its acceptance of the Windsor Framework demonstrated its calculation that even a problematic deal was better than the long-term absence of Stormont.

Yet, since losing ground to the TUV last year, the party has been hardening its rhetoric.

Talking about TUV leader Jim Allister, former DUP strategist Lee Reynolds said last year that the broad view among unionist voters was that “they like having Jim about the place, but they wouldn't want him in charge”; they believe he's needed to “keep broader political unionism honest”.

If he's right, this deal could help the DUP stem the flow of support departing for the TUV.

But there is another potential implication: the UK is creeping back further and further towards the EU.

If the Union is more important to the DUP than Euroscepticism, and if the UK is now in a worse position than before Brexit because it now has no democratic say over EU rules, might the DUP one day come to campaign for the entire UK to rejoin the EU?

Despite the embarrassment of such a U-turn, there is a compelling logic behind it — but politics isn't always about what's logical.