We are not a kind of a luvvie outfit,’ says Mary Lou McDonald

Ellen Coyne, Irish Times, January 1st, 2026

Sinn Féin leader says her party’s approach is to support a ‘rules-based’ immigration system

Calling for a “rules-based” immigration system is a “classic left-wing position” for a party that supports the working class, Mary Lou McDonald has said.

The Sinn Féin leader said she would “contest absolutely” the claim that her party, which has positioned itself as the prospective lead of the State’s first left-wing government, is not truly left wing.

Some within the unified Opposition parties, such as Labour and the Social Democrats, have already publicly and privately questioned Sinn Féin’s left-wing credentials. McDonald’s party has been criticised for the stance it has adopted on a number of policy issues, including immigration.

“I think a classic left-wing position is to subscribe to a rule-based system, because that protects everybody. It keeps you right. It protects those that are making applications. It protects the host communities and society. It protects social cohesion and the social contract,” McDonald said, in an interview with The Irish Times.

“And we represent working-class communities. We represent an awful lot of communities who, for generations, have been told to stand at the back of the queue consistently. And when they raise issues around just practical day-to-day things, around access to housing, access to public services, a responsible party of the left – of the working class – listens to that and responds to it in a way that is responsible and leaderly, and compassionate, and decent, and anti-racist, and all of those things.”

She said that pointing to a “rule book” on immigration is how a political party protects people’s rights.

Sinn Féin made “no apologies” for representing “working people”, she said. “We represent people who are doing well, who are kind of tipping away, and we represent people who aren’t doing well and who live in poverty. We are not a kind of a luvvie outfit.”

Asked if that was a reference to the Social Democrats, McDonald said: “It’s not a reference to anybody.”

McDonald said it was important for struggling communities to know that “we’re not going to discount them, and we’re not going to point fingers at them and call them names” on immigration.

Last month, the Minister for Justice, Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan, said he believed that high numbers of people seeking asylum could be a threat to social cohesion.

Asked if she agreed, McDonald said: “It can be – of course it can be.”

Younger voters

McDonald had previously criticised a Government system that paid more for households hosting migrants from Ukraine than to those hosting migrants from other countries as a threat to social cohesion. “That was hugely problematic, yeah,” she said. Polls show that Sinn Féin has consistently enjoyed popularity among younger voters, but McDonald remains concerned about voter apathy among young people.

When Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were once again returned to power after the 2024 general election, she became “extremely conscious” that there had “been so much talk about this change in government, Sinn Féin coming into government, an alternative government between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. And then that didn’t happen,” she said.

“And I was conscious of the morale effects for very significant sections of the population, but particularly for young people.”

She said this was one of the reasons why Sinn Féin took some time to consider which candidate it would support for the 2025 presidential election. McDonald said her main concern was getting someone into Áras an Uachtaráin who young people would feel was “in their corner”.

Before ultimately backing Catherine Connolly as a candidate, there had been some speculation about McDonald potentially running herself after she declined to rule it out when asked by journalists during the summer. She said she was being sincere in considering if she would run or not.

“I wasn’t trying to be mischievous or facetious or diversionary or any of those things,” she said.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has since said that his party did not have any “heavy hitters” within Fianna Fáil who were obvious candidates for presidency.

Sinn Féin, on the other hand, did have one high profile party grandee. Was the party afraid of a presidential campaign where Gerry Adams would be asked over and over again if he was in the IRA?

“I think Gerry, especially for a lot of the younger demographic, would have been a really popular choice,” McDonald said, but he “didn’t want to contest it”.

“It’s actually as straightforward, believe it or not, as that. He just wasn’t interested.”

McDonald doesn’t agree with analysis that suggests younger Sinn Féin voters are more interested in the political project of getting Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out of power than they are in the political project of unification.

“I think they probably conceptualise those two things as one thing,” she said.

But if Sinn Féin is now defined as the party that is trying to get Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out, has McDonald now made it politically impossible for herself to ever consider a coalition with Fianna Fáil?

‘Political realist’

“We have to be true to ourselves. And my true ambition is government beyond Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. That’s what I want,” she said. But she added that she is also “a political realist”; in the end, “the numbers for government have to add up – it is just a reality around that”. McDonald grew up in a community near Herzog Park in Rathgar, south Dublin, an area with a Jewish community that has recently rallied against a proposal to strip the name of Chaim Herzog, the sixth president of Israel, from the public amenity.

The proposal to rename the park was abandoned by Dublin City Council on a technicality, but the campaign to rename it was supported by Sinn Féin, among other parties.

“How I view this is an action by activists who are desperately seeking every means and mechanism to put the Israeli regime now under maximum pressure,” she said.

But is this measure worth it, if it does harm to the local Jewish community?

“We need to be careful here not to make an assumption around every Jewish person and what they think and what they make of Israeli actions,” McDonald said.

“I know lots of Jewish people who are utterly appalled with Israeli war crimes and genocide, and I know people beyond that who understands that it is absolutely consistent to be vehemently against anti-Semitism and to call it out for the racist bile that it is, and to consistently say also that Israeli war crimes are wrong, genocide is wrong, Zionism, land grabbing, occupation, all of those things that have played out in tortuous slow motion against the Palestinian people, that is equally wrong.

“Clearly, it is a political statement, and it is about contemporary Israel. It’s about Netanyahu, but it’s also about things that have happened over many, many decades.”

McDonald was speaking to The Irish Times the same week that Belfast rap trio and Irish language activists Kneecap had played a sold-out gig in the 3Arena in Dublin. After the concert ended, buses, trains and streets across Dublin city were filled with young men wearing tricolour balaclavas.

The balaclavas have become an unofficial uniform for Kneecap fans in a way that doesn’t seem that dissimilar to how a fan of country music star Garth Brooks might wear a Stetson hat.

“I noticed that, yeah,” McDonald said.

While many Kneecap fans probably are engaging sincerely with political issues such as language, identity and unification, does it concern her at all that what some might recognise as the iconography of the republican struggle has effectively now become a costume that’s worn once for a concert, and then discarded? McDonald said she is “hugely comfortable with it”.

“Kneecap are rappers, right? And their job is to kind of push the envelope in popular culture, and it’s sometimes to say the unsayable, think the unthinkable, and use, shall we say, colourful language,” McDonald said.

“It’s a cultural phenomenon, and it’s a pushback against . . . the establishment and all that. I think it’s absolutely powerful. I think the sheer energy that they have brought to the question of the North, the question of reunification, the question of an Gaeilge, has been utterly powerful.”

McDonald’s highlight of this year was bringing then presidential candidate Catherine Connolly to Courtney Place, an inner city flat complex which became the scene of the now famous keepie-uppies footballing video.

McDonald recently returned to cut a ribbon on a new community room at Courtney Place and the children, she said, were asking of the President: “An bhfuil sí ag teacht arís?”

She described the death of nine-year-old Harvey Morrison Sherratt as one of her lowest professional and personal points of the year. Harvey, who had scoliosis and other health issues, died in July after waiting a number of years for spinal surgery.

“It’s mind boggling what happened to that child. But he’s not on his own,” she said.

“How do we actually challenge a system that casually fails and disregards children’s most fundamental rights, including very sick children?”

McDonald’s party will contest a by-election in her Dublin Central constituency this year, for the seat vacated by Paschal Donohoe, the former Fine Gael minister for finance.

In the 2024 general election, McDonald failed to bring in her running mate Sinn Féin councillor Janice Boylan. In the same election there was a large turnout of support for veteran criminal Gerry “The Monk” Hutch.

Did a disenfranchised community in Dublin Central vote for Hutch over McDonald’s party because they see Sinn Féin as part of the establishment?

“He came, he saw, he did not conquer,” McDonald said of Hutch.

“I’m representing the people of Dublin Central a long time now. So we are very established. We’re very strong in the constituency. I don’t think, although we are established, that for a second we would be seen as establishment,” she said.

“They think the establishment find me to be a pain in the arse, actually, and the people that I represent kind of enjoy that for the most part, and expect that, more to the point.”

NI asylum seekers sharing info on ‘no-go areas’ after racist attacks

Race hate crimes in the north have reached record high in what human rights organisation brands a ‘year of hate and fear’

Conor Coyle, Irish News, January 1st, 2025

Increasing numbers of racist attacks and violence on the streets of Northern Ireland have led immigrant groups to share information about ‘no-go areas’ they should avoid.

Race hate crimes in the north have reached a record high in what a human rights organisation has branded a ‘year of hate and fear’.

The last two summers of this year and 2024 saw racially motivated disorder, which has led to the rising numbers of hate crimes and incidents which have been reported to the PSNI.

Migrant businesses and homes were attacked last August in south Belfast, while others fled from burning homes following the unrest in Ballymena in June of this year.

Now asylum seekers of various nationalities are receiving information about certain areas which they should avoid living in or travelling to in order to escape racist incidents.

Speaking to The Irish News about their experience of living in Belfast, two members of the Sudanese community in the city said those arriving to the north are quickly given information about areas which are deemed unsafe.

Sudanese asylum seekers represent one of the largest nationalities of those who come to the north.

Soma Haroun, who fled Sudan after a brutal civil war broke out in the country in 2023, said she has found Belfast to be a welcoming place for the most part, but that attitudes towards asylum seekers and people of colour are not always positive.

“People in the street, it depends. It depends in which part of the street you are on,” Ms Haroun said.

‘There are places’

“I live in north Belfast, so it’s mostly very welcoming people. People will greet you, say hi, but there are some places in Belfast I really avoid to go.

“The people who lived here before I came, they gave us instructions about where to go and what to do if you get harassed, or someone has been racist to you.”

The university graduate says she was given a rude awakening to life in Belfast after she went out with a friend who had tried to get part-time work as a hairdresser.

“The first week I came here, me and my friend were going around one of the streets in Belfast, we didn’t know the historical background and people were very, very rude to us.

“I was like, why? Why are they being rude? My friend loved to work in salons so we just visited a couple of salons and they said no before we even tried.

“So when I told the others, they told me that I shouldn’t go there, it is one of the dangerous places.

“So yeah, I think it depends where you are, it depends on the people that you hang around with.

Attack

“Other people that came with me they have had different experiences. My friend works in a restaurant which had a very serious racist attack. It was difficult for her because she didn’t speak the language.”

Twasul Mohammed, another Sudanese national who has lived in Belfast since 2016, works with a local rights organisation providing support to newly-arrived refugees and asylum seekers.

While she says Belfast remains a “welcoming place”, Ms Mohammed added that knowledge and information about certain geographic areas of the north get passed down to immigrants from those who have arrived before them.

“It comes with experience. I work with housing issues, so many people will come to me because their houses were attacked, their windows were smashed or graffiti was written on their wall.

“So from all the complaints I have received, I could tell quickly which places aren’t welcoming for refugees, asylum seekers or people of colour.”

Stormont must make difficult decisions in 2026 to deliver balanced budget, warns Benn

CLAUDIA SAVAGE, Belfast Telegraph, January 1st, 2025

The Executive must make “difficult decisions” in 2026, Hilary Benn has warned.

In his new year message, the Northern Ireland Secretary pledged to give businesses in the region stability but said Stormont must “live within its means”.

He also reiterated his commitment to working with counterparts in the Republic of Ireland to establish a new framework for dealing with the legacy of the Troubles.

In her new year message, First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the greatest challenge faced by the region was “the severe underfunding of our public services” and that “London has never and will never prioritise the interests of the people of the north of Ireland”.

Recent months have seen Executive struggle to find the cash to deliver pay parity with colleagues in the rest of the UK for healthcare workers, teachers and police staff.

There have also been spats between Sinn Fein and DUP ministers, particularly around funding allocations.

Mr Benn said Northern Ireland “offers all the right ingredients for economic success: exceptional talent, unique opportunities, a tradition of creativity and a strong spirit of private sector entrepreneurship”.

Referring to the Government's “record financial settlement of £19.3 billion a year”, the Secretary of State claimed “the Executive is being funded above Northern Ireland's independently-assessed level of need”.

He added: “Like all governments, the Executive must now make the difficult decisions needed to live within its means and deliver a balanced budget.

“I look forward to working with them in the year ahead as they do so.”

Legacy

In September last year, British and Irish leaders unveiled a joint framework to address longstanding legacy issues in Northern Ireland.

One measure the current UK Labour Government has taken to deal with those issues is the introduction of legislation known as the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, which aimed at reforming parts of the 2023 Legacy Act.

The 2023 Act halted scores of civil cases and inquests into Troubles deaths and also included a contentious conditional offer of immunity for the perpetrators of Troubles crimes in exchange for co-operation with a truth recovery body.

Mr Benn said he looks forward to further engagement with the Irish government but “much work” remains on both sides to “implement the commitments” made in the joint framework.

He said: “Our legislation has now been introduced, and has started its parliamentary scrutiny process.

“My aim is to establish a new Legacy Commission that can command public confidence in helping families to find answers, and we will continue to talk to victims, survivors, veterans, and others to get this right.

“During the past year, I have listened to many stories of grief, loss and unimaginable pain that families have shared with me about what happened during the Troubles to those they loved so much.”

Two ministers in charge of fixing housing crisis met just once in year

LIAM TUNNEY, Belfast Telegraph, January 1st, 2025

EXECUTIVE PARTIES ACCUSED OF MAKING EMPTY PROMISES

Two Stormont ministers whose remits are crucial to the building of new homes have met just once in the last 12 months to discuss one of the key elements holding back construction.

NI Water has said there is limited or no capacity for new connections to the network due to ageing infrastructure and underinvestment.

There are around 100 areas in Northern Ireland where the wastewater system is deemed at or above capacity, with a further 30 expected to reach this level over the next two years.

The impasse is delaying the building of social housing, with almost 50,000 people currently on the Housing Executive waiting list.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons indicated last month that achieving a programme for government target of 5,580 social housing starts within the current mandate would be “extremely challenging”.

The two ministers responsible for solving the problem, Mr Lyons and Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins, have met just once to discuss the issue over the last 12 months.

The details were revealed in response to an Assembly question from SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan which also indicated that just one piece of correspondence had been sent by Mr Lyons to Ms Kimmins regarding wastewater capacity.

Mr Durkan said the Executive needed to step up its efforts.

“Ministers meeting once a year about one of the biggest issues facing people right now just doesn't cut it,” he added.

Chronic under investment

“We're stuck in a system where chronic under-investment in water infrastructure is paralysing housing development.

“Despite commitments from ministers on collaboration, we're seeing very little in the way of action.

“Yet again, we have another example of the Executive talking from both sides of their mouth on issues they claim are a priority.

“People have been failed long enough, and empty promises won't put a roof over families' heads. We need the Executive to step up and to actually deliver for our communities.”

The cost of repairing the existing infrastructure has been estimated at more than £2.1bn, with restrictions on development holding back 16,500 homes.

Earlier this month, the industry body Build Homes NI said the Executive's approach was “tinkering around the edges” of the problem.

Welcoming a consultation response in which 60% of respondents rejected proposals for developer contributions towards wastewater infrastructure, director Paul McErlean said: “The fundamental problem is NI Water's broken funding model and its £2bn funding gap.

“As the consultation acknowledged, developer contributions won't address this issue. Wastewater is a civic good that benefits all of society. We urge the Executive to consider a fairer and more realistic approach that at least begins to address systemic failures in our infrastructure and how we fund NI Water.”

Neither department responded directly when asked to clarify why only one meeting relating to wastewater capacity had taken place between them in the last year.

The Department for Communities said its officials continued to engage with their counterparts in the Department for Infrastructure.

A spokesperson added: “The initial estimate for social home construction in 2024/25 was 400 units.

“Thanks to additional funding, the Social Housing Development Programme achieved 1,504 starts. In 2025/26, the programme is likely to achieve 1,750 starts.

“Capacity constraints in water and sewerage infrastructure significantly hinder development, a recurring concern in discussions with stakeholders, especially given rising housing stress.

“While water infrastructure falls within the remit of the Department for Infrastructure, Minister Lyons will continue to press for solutions to progress much needed social housing construction.

“Officials continue to engage regarding this issue through the housing supply strategy and the development of the first action plan.”

The Department for Infrastructure said it was leading a “working group” focusing on “innovative solutions”.

New thinking

A spokesperson said wastewater capacity had been “unlocked” for more than 5,000 properties during the current mandate, including 3,000 in the Londonderry area.

“The minister has been clear that funding is not the only answer,” they added.

“The announcement connecting 400 properties in Newry shows what can be achieved when traditional thinking is challenged and the focus is on smarter, more sustainable solutions.

“The minister looks forward to NI Water using innovation to unlock wastewater capacity and protecting the environment in other areas across the North.

“This lies at the heart of the three-pronged approach which Minister Kimmins is progressing and delivering.

“This includes securing more investment for wastewater infrastructure from Executive colleagues, considering the approach to developer contributions, and bringing in legislation to provide for sustainable drainage systems.

“Additionally, the department has secured £15 million in funding from the transformation fund that will implement a pilot project to help transform the way in which rainwater is managed in the Belfast area, and is progressing further bids to the transformation fund for investment in wastewater treatment.”

 NI Water dispute escalates to one day strike by workers

CHRISTOPHER LEEBODY, Belfast Telegraph, January 1st, 2026

Hundreds of NI Water workers have taken to the picket line as part of a one-day strike, with the union representing workers warning further action could be considered.

Around 350 workers from the utility company began the strike yesterday over a dispute around salary and terms and conditions.

Earlier this month, members of Nipsa voted in favour of industrial action, delivering what it described as “a strong mandate to their union in ongoing negotiations” with the water company.

In a statement released by NI Water on Tuesday, the company said it would “make every effort” to ensure there was no impact on services.

The company also said it had a “pay offer ready” and was “committed to finding a way forward”.

Speaking at the picket line, Nipsa general secretary Carmel Gates urged the company to “come to the table” with an agreement about how to move forward and said a failure to do so could lead to further action in the new year.

“About 350 Nipsa members from NI Water are out on strike,” Ms Gates told the Belfast Telegraph.

“They are out on strike over pay. Some years ago NI Water introduced a new pay system which meant people doing the same jobs are now on different terms and conditions and different pay structures.

“Those who accepted the pay structure without the necessary information have subsequently realised they are at a detriment.

No pay rise since 2022

“Nipsa has been trying to negotiate with NI Water to get the issue resolved. Some of these workers have not had a pay increase since 2022. Tomorrow is going to be 2026. It is entirely unacceptable.

“These workers do not want to be out on strike.

“Today they are on strike. Tomorrow, they begin action short of strike action, which means they are not going to be covering vacancies and they are only going to be doing their own jobs, and goodwill will be withdrawn because they have had enough.

“They are angry now this has been going on for several years.

“After tomorrow we may have to consider further strike action.

“We now appeal to NI Water to come to the table.

“Don't set your terms for how you come to the table. We need you to come to the table with a joint agreement of how we move forward. Nipsa wants to resolve this.”

In a statement, NI Water director of people and learning Rose Kelly said: “While we are keen to avoid any form of action, we want to reassure the public that we will make every effort to minimise impact on NI Water's operational services.

“Ministers Kimmins and O'Dowd have authorised pay awards in line with the wider public sector for 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 that have been accepted by our frontline unions Unite and GMB.

“This dispute however centres on a technical issue around how NI Water and Nipsa negotiate pay for a section of our workforce, and the company has proposed an appropriate route for NIPSA to secure that determination.

“NI Water has made repeated efforts throughout 2025 to engage with Nipsa, including taking part in mediation earlier this month, and we remain open to continued discussion with the union.”

Farage is pushing Scotland to independence

Wales and Northern Ireland may not be far behind as the further right Westminster goes, the more the Union falters

James Kanagasooriam, The Times, December 30th, 2025

Almost half a century ago, Tam Dalyell famously raised the imbalance between English MPs and their Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts. This so-called West Lothian question, named after his constituency, still illuminates British politics.

Now there is a new significance to this southern shore of the Firth of Forth. History likes a rhyme, so it was here of all places that Reform UK won their first elected Scottish councillor a few weeks ago. One of West Lothian’s nine wards, the towns of Whitburn & Blackburn, returned a former police officer, David McLennan, by 149 votes over the SNP.

• Reform UK wins first by-election in Scotland

Reform’s victory in a left-tinged ward is a strong signal of its growing strength in Scotland — and of future challenges for the Union.

Nigel Farage’s success in England is baked into public consciousness. Victory for the 2016 Leave campaign aside, his Ukip vehicle won 27 per cent of the vote at the 2014 European elections; his Brexit party increased that to 30.5 per cent at the next European elections in 2019, coming first in 267 of Britain’s 372 local authority areas.

That 2019 election map looks uncannily similar to today’s Westminster forecasts showing Reform with more than 300 Commons seats — and the SNP taking most of Scotland. It was a harbinger that Scottish nationalism tends to thrive when the harder-edged right does better in England.

What’s different this time

What’s different today is Farage’s political success in Scotland. In 2015, Ukip was backed by one in eight voters across Britain but only one in 60 Scottish voters. In 2024, under the banner of Reform, this edged up to one in seven UK voters and about one in 14 north of the border. Recent polling from Ipsos Mori has Reform being backed by one in five voters in Scotland.

Based on modelling from my company Focaldata, a quarter of Farage’s biggest gains in parliamentary vote share over the past decade are in Scottish seats — high when you consider how few Westminster seats are Scottish. Projections for next year’s Holyrood elections show Reform has a real chance to become the official opposition. Equally clear is the gap between Reform and the SNP, with the latter 17 points ahead.

• SNP obsessed with optics and independence, says think tank

The good news for the SNP doesn’t end there. Support for Scottish independence is now polling at 52 per cent. More tellingly, Ipsos indicated one in six unionists would reconsider their support for the UK if a Farage-led Reform government was returned in London. If it was a Conservative government, only one in 25 unionists would have cause to rethink their support for the Union.

But if all these unionist waverers acted on their concerns over a Reform government, support for Scottish independence would edge up towards 60 per cent, something approaching endgame territory for the UK.

If we believe the current polls about Reform’s rise — and council by-elections like the recent West Lothian one suggest we should — we should also take seriously the evidence suggesting weakness in the Union. Britain’s gravely fragmented politics means winning parliamentary elections can be done with an enthusiastic coalition of just over a third of voters. Referendums, by contrast, with their static winning post of 50 per cent plus one, are won thanks to the apolitical or ideologically conflicted. It appears the idea of a Farage government is giving ideologically conflicted Scottish unionists pause for thought.

Unionism is not under threat just by dint of Reform’s rise. The past 11 years since the question was last posed to Scotland’s electorate have seen multiple seismic events (Brexit, the 2019 election, Covid and the Liz Truss budget) all of which have increased — temporarily — support for independence.

On top of that, our modelling at Focaldata indicates that when the right-wing parties — the Conservatives or Reform — do better across Britain, support for Scottish independence rises. For two parties that support the Union, this points to a dysfunctional relationship across the border.

Sandcastles

• The Holyrood elections in 2026 will bring a very different parliament

Like a Tom Stoppard play within a play, Scottish and Westminster politics interact dynamically with each other while maintaining the fiction they are played out separately. Political shocks inflate support for independence from time to time, but it tends to evolve more in response to whether the right-wing vote south of the border grows or shrinks. The collapse of Labour’s nationwide sandcastle majority and the rise of Reform have led to the collective right-wing vote across the country rising by nearly ten points since the 2024 election.

Right-wing ascendancy at Westminster brings constitutional pressure in Scotland. I’ve long been convinced that the key to understanding constitutional politics north of the border at any given time is determining what is more important to left-wing unionists — their politics or their unionism. The data suggests that the possibility of a Reform UK government may mean some unionists prioritise their left-wing beliefs ahead of a desire to remain part of the UK.

• Who is Lindsay Whittle? The man behind Plaid Cymru’s victory

Nationalism is also likely to ride high in Welsh elections next year. Plaid and Reform are vying for first place in the Senedd and Wales looks set to split on national identity, with Reform likely to do better among those who regard themselves as English and/or British and Plaid among communities which identify as Welsh. In Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein is still topping the opinion polls before the 2027 assembly elections. The next couple of years could see parties that wish to break up the Union in first place across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; a moment of peril for the Union.

Yet the great paradox of all of this is that widespread political dissatisfaction, and voter concerns over the economy, the health system and immigration, are similar across these islands. The same desire for change and a reboot is producing quite different outcomes across the home nations.

For unionists there is a chink of light. In Scotland, a third of Reform voters are pro-independence. Such voters — let’s call them Leave-Leave — are an underexplored and fascinating tribe in Scotland. And Farage has the opportunity to convince his own voter base, in Scotland and across the UK, of the merits of the Union. Even those who oppose Reform may wish him well with this challenge.

James Kanagasooriam is chief research officer of Focaldata

Operation Kenova exposed weaknesses of NI criminal justice system

Dr Austen Morgan, Belfast News Letter, December 29th, 2025

Of the senior British police officers involved historically in Northern Ireland (‘NI’), the most unfortunate has been Jon Boutcher, the current chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (‘PSNI’).

This is because – I submit – of his determined overreach as a Dickson-of-Dock-Green-type office holder on government policy on the legacy of the troubles; that is for ministers and parliament – basic constitutional law.

Back in July 2005, as a silver commander in Scotland Yard (with Cressida Dick as gold), he was responsible collectively for the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes – a Brazilian electrician unconnected with Islamic terrorism – at Stockwell tube station.  The story of the metropolitan police as Keystone cops (with the police shooters having to stop for petrol for their jalopy) may be followed in the Strasbourg judgment:

Readers in NI, particularly former and current police officers (who may not have done that badly despite criticism), may find it professionally interesting.

Bizarrely, the human rights court found no breach of article 2 substantive (the right to life) in the de Menezes case, in order to dismiss an application under article 2 procedural (effective investigation).  Met officers shoot Brazilian electricians, don’t they?

Scroll forward to 2016, when Jon Boutcher, then chief constable of Bedfordshire, was asked by the PSNI to investigate Freddie Scappaticci, a IRA enforcer who voluntarily doubled as an army agent.  Thus was established operation Kenova (to which was later attached a number of other police investigations ordered by activist courts).

Operation Kenova was to take over nine years, and cost just under £50 million.  It reported initially in October 2023, and finally in December 2025.  These twin peaks produced a mole: the extradition, unusually for Dublin, of Martin McCauley, of Columbian FARC fame, in January 2025, for the murder of three police officers in Lurgan in 1982, for which he is currently on bail; if McCauley ever attends court, he will be facing a maximum sentence of two years for three murders.

Boutcher did try and prosecute the deputy director of public prosecutions in Belfast, for misfeasance in a public office – namely not doing as she was requested.  He failed to get Scappaticci on a rap of animal pornography in London, the latter having lived after 2003 under the protection of the army (dying in 2023 as Frank Cowley in Guildford, Surrey).  The IRA never caught up with him.

Boutcher, victims and Sinn Fein

Boutcher had reached out to victims from 2016 (of whom there were approximately 3,750 in the NI troubles, 1968-98).  His interim report was dedicated sentimentally to some of them.  He seemed not to appreciate the basic statistics, nor the law: 60 per cent killed by republicans unlawfully; 30 per cent by loyalists unlawfully; with the state killing ten per cent, many lawfully.

Scappaticci’s victims, murdered by the IRA, were – in provincial argot – ‘touts’.  This did not inhibit Sinn Féin, and especially John Finucane MP (abstaining at Westminster in person), from embracing their memory, courtesy of the BBC.  That is the sort of weird place NI is permitted to remain.

The chief constable, in his two reports, shows himself to be a grand old duke of York: in his police green uniform, he marched the victims (including their family successors), and the legacy practitioners, up to the top of the hill with the promise of prosecution;  and then he marched them down again, save for the relatives of the three murdered police officers, who might see Martin McCauley – if he does not possess a comfort letter – gaoled for a symbolic time.

The final report – doused embarrassingly in Boutcher self-regarding – included:

‘Kenova has from the outset put the interests of victims and families at the heart of its approach.  We learned that an outcome through the criminal justice process may in fact not always be achievable or even what is desired.  Kenova detectives prioritised listening and being responsive to questions unanswered for decades.’

So, why did they submit dozens of files to the public prosecution service, only to have them rejected as not meeting the legal test – all of which was predictable?  The process has become the punishment.

Jon Boutcher, like a first-year law student at Queen’s university, Belfast, covered himself in article 2 warpaint.  There are 43 such references in the interim report, and 15 in the final report.  The local human rights commission – a provincially woke body imagining itself to be metropolitan – is cited as sole legal authority.  There is a crass example of legal juvenilia in note 69 of the final report (no article 2 obligation, contra the chief constable’s legal experts disputing the supreme court, means…no article 2 obligation period).

Few yet appreciate the corruption of NI’s criminal justice system from 1997, by principally Tony Blair and his number 10 amigo Jonathan Powell: statutory amnesties to secure decommissioning of terrorist weapons and the revealing of ‘the disappeared’; the early release of terrorist prisoners by parliament (the origin of the two-year rule also applying to state forces); the granting of immunity to witnesses to the Saville, and other, tribunals; above all, the administrative scheme, from 2000 to 2014 (if not continuing), of comfort letters issued to republican supporters of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness (not loyalists and not dissident republicans).

229 IRA prisoners were released at the beginning of the secret peace process after the 1998 Belfast agreement; subsequently, at least 187 of another 228 Provos were given John Downey-type letters (as revealed in his aborted 2014 Old Bailey trial).

In November 2023, Jon Boutcher took over the PSNI as chief constable.  In NI, it is the policing board – including political parties sitting beside independents – which appoints the chief constable.  Whatever of the interim report (to himself), he chaired the press conference when his deputy, Sir Iain Livingstone, presented the final report recently.

Political parties, practising clientelist politics and fearing relatives in their electoral catchments, wanted to hide behind Jon Boutcher, with his evangelical outreach to victims.  They give the impression of loving him, just as he talks about loving the people.  It is a sick and sad situation.

Few appreciate that NI is now run by an alternative justice system, with: the police ombudsman; the human rights and equality commissions (two when one would do, as in London); a political chief constable like Jon Boucher; and, above all, the NI judiciary, under Dame Siobhan Keegan, the lady chief justice, engaging in separatist decision-making on legacy, since Sir Declan Morgan retired as the top judge in September 2021; the result is lawfare, with republicans amnestied, police and soldiers in the firing line in full-scale show trials, and loyalists accused of collusion.

The only thing standing between civilization and barbarism is the UK supreme court, which seems to have spotted the provincial undermining of the rule of law, with a succession of ongoing case: McQuillan (December 2021); Dalton (October 2023); Thompson, just decided in December 2025 (when Jon Boutcher got a roasting for trying to destroy ‘neither confirm nor deny’); Dillon heard in October 2025, with judgment next year; Brown forthcoming; to say nothing of the likelihood of Clonoe making it to the supreme court, a NI judge having held that the SAS should have invited a heavily-armed IRA gang politely to surrender.

In 2023, Brandon Lewis MP secured the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act.  It led to the first successful legacy body, the international commission on reconciliation and information recovery, led by….Sir Declan Morgan.  This is the statute Hilary Benn, on behalf of Sir Keir Starmer (with Jonathan Powell back in the shadows), is attempting – not very successfully – to repeal and replace.

One thing is predictable after the fiasco of the failed Kenova prosecutions: there will be no call for Sir Jon Boutcher to arise; much less Lord Boutcher of victimhood to don the ermine and swear allegiance.

Dr Austen Morgan is a barrister at 33 Bedford Row Chambers.  He is the author of: Pretence: why the United Kingdom needs a written constitution, London 2023.

Catherine Connolly – an Irish president who seems soft on Assad and on Hamas

By Liam Kennedy, Belfast News Letter, December 11th, 2025

​It is a year since the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. We knew this was one of the most repressive regimes of the modern world.

The repertoire of terror included the use of poison gas against Assad’s own people. But the recent release of secret photographs of torture victims of the regime underlines its sheer viciousness. It is estimated that half a million Syrians were slaughtered by Assad’s regime and millions displaced.

Putin’s Russia supplied essential airpower to crush popular uprisings when the conflict was in the balance.

When the Dáil debated Syria in 2017, Catherine Connolly denounced sanctions against the regime

Eight years ago, in the run up to Christmas 2017, Dáil Éireann debated a motion on sanctions against Syria. One deputy, Catherine Connolly, now President of Ireland, denounced existing sanctions against the Syrian regime.

She had a point. She argued that indiscriminate sanctions might deepen the suffering of the Syrian peoples by preventing the importation of medicines such as insulin, anaesthetics, antibiotics among other vital supplies.

The Irish government’s position, however, was that it would continue to work with the European Union and the United Nations using ‘targeted sanctions, to put pressure on the Syrian regime to end the violent repression of civilians’.

The following year Connolly undertook a ‘fact-finding’ visit to Syria in the company of political activists, some of whom could be described as ambivalent on the Syrian conflict.

During her presidential campaign in October of this year, Connolly was remarkably reticent about the trip, refusing

to say who had organised it. She did, however, claim she had funded it herself.

It turns out it was funded from her parliamentary allowance. Whether this was being economical with the truth is a matter for judgement.

During that election campaign denouncing Israel took up much of Connolly’s airtime on international affairs. She did agree, when pressed by William Crawley on BBC Radio Ulster, that Hamas was a terrorist organisation but did not agree the October 7th attack on Israeli civilians was genocidal.

She went on to say that Hamas was ‘part of the fabric of the Palestinian people’ and later criticised the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, for saying that Hamas could not be allowed to participate in the future governance of Palestine.

How a totalitarian faction with genocidal intentions such as Hamas could govern with others was never explained. One of Hamas’ first actions after coming out of hiding following the recent ceasefire was the public execution of fellow Palestinians.

Connolly’s attitude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine seems confused. (In ultra-left circles, there is only one imperial power in the world system, that of the United States.) When the German government announced it was increasing spending on its armed forces in response to the Russian threat, Connolly likened this to Nazi rearmament during the 1930s. Mr Putin, sleepless in the Kremlin, may be reassured, President Connolly is in favour of ‘peace’.

Nearer home, there were questions as to whether the barrister Connolly had acted for banks in repossessing people’s homes in the years after the financial crash of 2008. In less polite words, had she offered legal advice to those in the business of evicting homeowners? This might be seen as normal legal work except that Connolly, divested of her wig, had made impassioned speeches in the Dáil denouncing the housing crisis. Some saw possible hypocrisy there.

After a period of silence, Connolly admitted in carefully crafted words that she had ‘acted for credit institutions’. The emotive word ‘banks’ was not in view.

Brexit

Surprisingly, for a largely Europhile country, one that has benefited greatly from EU largesse, Connolly’s negative attitudes to the European Union, did not grate. This will raise a smile among Brexiteers who may need to be reminded of Connolly’s congratulatory message to the 17 million voters, as she put it, who had supported Brexit. Should Nigel Farage and his Reform UK Party sweep to power at the next general election, the lady in the Phoenix Park and the gadfly of British politics will have at least something in common.

A united Europe may be a bridge too far, but she will use all in her power to secure Irish unity during her term in office. This promise may have been at the prompting of her principal backers, Sinn Féin.

In fairness to the Irish electorate, which in recent decades has chosen a sequence of outstanding presidents – Mary Robinson, Mary McAleese, and Michael D. Higgins – Connolly might be seen as a president by default. Due to a series of mishaps, including the late withdrawal of the Fianna Fáil candidate during the election and a rather byzantine nomination system, the Irish electorate was presented with only two candidates.

The other candidate, Heather Humphries, from a Presbyterian background in County Monaghan, was visited with a fair amount of sectarian bile despite favouring a united Ireland. Apparently, the unity of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter wasn’t all that urgent after all.

The turnout in the election was less than half (46%) but the more significant point is that there were more spoiled votes than in any previous Irish election.

Almost a quarter of a million voters took the trouble of going to the polls to cast a spoiled vote, a sure sign of the electorate’s disenchantment.

There is a longer-term issue, one that stretches over seven years. Can a President, who with considerable determination and guile has avoided or deflected questions about her political past and her current world view, command moral authority in her public pronouncements? Or maybe the wagons of public opinion will be circled round the Áras, as the Presidency remains one of the few sacred institutions in Irish society still standing tall.

• Liam Kennedy is emeritus professor of History, Queen’s University Belfast

Tributes after two SDLP veterans die within hours of each other

GARRETT HARGAN AND LIAM TUNNEY, Belfast Telegraph, January 1st, 2025

Tributes have been paid following the deaths of two long-serving SDLP politicians just hours apart — Mary Bradley and Joe Byrne.

Mrs Bradley was an MLA for Foyle between 2003 and 2011, a veteran councillor in the city, and was mayor of Derry from 1991-92.

She died on Tuesday at the age of 83.

Foyle colleagues described her as a “fierce advocate for our city” and said she was passionate about supporting people struggling with their mental health.

Foyle MP and former SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said Mrs Bradley was “a force to be reckoned with”.

“As a councillor, as the mayor of Derry and later in the Assembly, she was both a fierce advocate for our city and a great friend to everyone who knew her,” the former SDLP leader said.

“I was lucky enough to be a councillor for Shantallow alongside Mary and got to see first-hand just how hard she fought for people in our community and the lengths she went to help anyone who needed it.

“She was an old-school politician who rolled up her sleeves and got stuck in wherever she could.

“I was grateful to be able to learn from her, to have her advice on the council and, later, to take over from her after she stood down from the Assembly.

“Mary spent more than a quarter of a century as an elected representative. And after retiring in 2011, I can tell you that her passion for people and making this a better place for everyone never dimmed.

“She was always involved with her community, in helping with campaigns and getting stuck in.

“I was so sorry to hear of her passing. Her wide circle of friends in the SDLP and far beyond will be deeply saddened by her loss.

“I'm thinking of her much-loved family, her husband Liam, her daughter Paula and her grandchildren at this difficult time. I sincerely hope they're comforted in the knowledge that she was so well respected and that her life made a difference to so many.”

SDLP leader Claire Hanna MP said Mrs Bradley was “a strong voice for Derry” and her local community in Carnhill.

“She worked hard to improve the lives of those who put their trust and faith in her,” Ms Hanna said. “She was a passionate and tenacious public representative and a true champion for the underdog. She recognised that the most important thing in politics is always people.

“She will also be warmly remembered for her contributions to grassroots and youth football, for working to advance the role of women in public life and her efforts on behalf of older people.

“After her retirement from politics, she remained active in Derry, using her experience to assist others and continued to serve her community.

“She leaves a lasting legacy in Derry and in politics here and will be sadly missed. On behalf of the SDLP, I'd like to extend my deepest sympathies to her husband Liam, daughter Paula and the entire family circle.”

Public service ’giant’

Joe Byrne (72), who also passed away on Tuesday, was a “giant of public service”, Ms Hanna said.

He served as MLA for West Tyrone between 1998 and 2003 and again from 2011 until 2015.

He also previously served as a councillor on Omagh District Council, and was party chairman.

In the 1997 General Election in West Tyrone, he was only 1,161 votes behind William Thompson, who took the seat for the UUP.

Ms Hanna said he would leave a “lasting legacy”.

“Joe Byrne was a giant of public service who devoted his life to the people of Tyrone, serving his community with integrity, compassion and quiet determination,” she said.

“He believed, deeply and genuinely, that politics should always be about people. Joe's political career spanned decades, from Omagh District Council to the Northern Ireland Forum to MLA for West Tyrone.

“Not only did he play a key role in the SDLP during the Good Friday Agreement negotiations, locally he championed rural communities and was key in the ongoing campaign for the A5.

“He also cared deeply about education, agriculture, and the local economy.

“Joe will leave a lasting legacy in his community in Tyrone, and it will be one of decency, fairness and hope.

“On behalf of the SDLP, I'd like to extend my deepest sympathies to his wife Ursula, children Aoife, Emer and Eoin and the entire family circle.”

A death notice for Mr Byrne said he passed away “peacefully surrounded by his loving family”.

He was the “much loved husband of Ursula. Devoted father of Aoife, Emer and Eoin. Brother of Geraldine McNamee (Edmund) and PJ (Theresa). Son of the late Patsy and Mary Alice RIP”, added the notice.

Violent deaths, drug overdoses, prison time – what happened to the loyalists who met Martin McAleese?

JOHN BRESLIN, Irish News, January 1st, 2025

Two decades on from meetings, the UDA still exists and remains involved in drugs-related criminality, money laundering and loan sharking, along with being linked to intimidating Catholics out of homes

IT was an intriguing line buried in the annual state papers, the attendance at a meeting between Martin McAleese and the UDA of a ‘jovial’ Jim Gray, at the time a drug-dealing gangster based out of east Belfast.

This is believed to be the first time Gray, shot dead two years after the meeting, has been publicly named as being involved in the extraordinary series of gatherings between leading members of the UDA and the husband of President Mary McAleese.

Others Mr McAleese met have also since died, either violently or from drug overdoses. Some were convicted of paramilitary-linked offences.

A few are still in positions of power and influence in their own communities, where the UDA still exists.

One north Belfast man whose son was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries has called on Mr McAleese to admit he made a mistake to engage and to apologise for what the campaigner describes as the pain caused to victims.

“Why did he even think he had the power and reasoning to bring these gangsters into the fold,” said Raymond McCord, whose son, also Raymond, was beaten to death with concrete blocks in 1997.

“I was critical of him (Mr McAleese) then and I am still critical of him.”

A government briefing note, released this week, said there was a series of meetings, including one at Aras an Uachtarain “involving 50 Unionists/Loyalists that focused on cross-community issues”. This happened in April.

Jackie McDonald, then, and still, the leader of the organisation in south Belfast, was the key contact between the UDA and Mr McAleese.

An innocent abroad

The pair developed a strong bond, with McDonald confirming in an interview with The Irish Times earlier this year that he remains in touch with both Martin and Mary McAleese.

According to the state papers, there were “several meetings with the UDA Brigadiers (including a ‘jovial’ Jim Gray) and others”, the briefing paper stated.

While the meetings involving the UDA leadership were reported at the time, fewer details of the names involved emerged beyond Mr McDonald.

When the meetings began in 2003, the blond haired Gray, known as ‘Doris Day’ and for his flamboyant and lavish lifestyle, was the leader of the UDA in east Belfast. He was a known drug dealer.

At the time, there was an ongoing feud within the UDA that involved elements of the LVF. Gray was shot in retaliation for the murder of LVF member Stephen Warnock in late 2002.

Leading loyalist John Gregg was shot dead in March 2003, just weeks after Mr McAleese’s first meeting with UDA members.

Gray was later ousted from his position in east Belfast and was shot dead by his own former UDA comrades at his father’s house in October 2005.

One of the victims of the feud was Alan McCullough, in June 2003 abducted outside his home in the Shankill area and later found dead on the outskirts of Belfast. He was a close associate of Johnny Adair.

Ihab Shoukri from north Belfast, along with William ‘Mo’ Courtney, was arrested and charged with his murder, but this was later dropped. He did spend time in prison on a charge of membership of the UDA.

The latter charge followed a raid on a bar in Belfast in March 2006. Mr Shoukri, along with his brother Andre, were among 10 loyalists who met Mr McAleese at the Wellington Park Hotel in south Belfast weeks earlier.

Shoukri died of a heroin overdose in 2008, while his brother was jailed for nine years on multiple counts of extorting money from businesses across north Belfast in 2004 and 2005.

Another of those who met with Mr McAleese, a leading UDA member in west Belfast, was charged with the 2014 attempted murder of Shoukri and an associate, John Boreland. The charge was later dropped. Boreland was shot dead outside his north Belfast home in 2016.

Two decades on from those first meetings with Martin McAleese, Jackie McDonald appears lukewarm over the idea of disbanding the UDA, the UVF or other loyalist groups, telling The Irish Times earlier this year criminal elements would “fill that void”.

A few weeks ago, the PSNI secured a forfeiture order linked to an on-going investigation into the “drugs-related criminality, money laundering and illegal money lending (loan sharking) by the West Belfast UDA”.

Feuding, sometimes violent, continues between various loyalist factions. UDA members in north Belfast were also accused of involvement in intimidating Catholics out of their homes earlier this year.

In the briefing paper contained in the Northern Ireland state papers, Mr McAleese had “admitted to being a relative innocent abroad” but added he was struck by “the sincerity of all those he had met, and would tend to take them at face value until he knew otherwise”.

“For our part we commended his initiative and the progress that had been made,” a senior British civil servant noted following a meeting with Mr McAleese in September 2003.

State Papers

'Adams is in IRA and can help end violence'

SAM MCBRIDE, Belfast Telegraph, January 1st, 2025

CLAIM IN DECLASSIFIED 1994 FILE EMERGES LESS THAN YEAR AFTER HIS DENIAL IN COURTROOM

A declassified file shows that the Government believed Gerry Adams was a senior member of the IRA's Army Council in the early 1990s.

The former Sinn Féin president (right) denies ever being in the IRA despite a host of sources stating the opposite. In a libel action against the BBC last year, Mr Adams said it “wasn't a path I took”.

But in a confidential 1994 cable from the British Embassy in Washington, Ambassador Sir Robin Renwick recorded that in a meeting, UK Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd had told a US National Security Adviser that Mr Adams “in his capacity as a senior member of the Provisional Army Council... was able to bring about a cessation of violence”.

Adams was 'senior member of IRA Army Council who could end violence'

LESS THAN YEAR AFTER EX-SF PRESIDENT SWORE HE'D NEVER BEEN IN PROVOS, FILE REVEALS WHAT FOREIGN SECRETARY TOLD THE US

Less than a year after Gerry Adams swore on oath in an Irish courtroom that he was never a member of the IRA, a declassified Government file shows that he was described as a senior member of the IRA's Army Council in the early 1990s.

The former Sinn Fein president has long denied ever being an IRA member despite a host of sources — spanning from British and Irish security officials to former IRA members — stating categorically that he was a senior IRA figure.

In his successful libel action against BBC Northern Ireland in a Dublin court last year, the former Sinn Fein president was pressed in cross-examination about the issue and stated firmly that he was never in the IRA, telling the jury: “It wasn't a path I took, that was a decision by me, not to join the IRA, [but] to join Sinn Fein.”

However, in a confidential February 1994 cable from the British Embassy in Washington, Ambassador Sir Robin Renwick recorded something very different.

The cable came after the failure of intense British efforts to persuade Bill Clinton not to give Adams a visa to enter the US. The issue had strained UK-US relations, with Clinton overruling some of his most senior advisers who London had thought would ensure the visa was blocked.

In the cable, which was sent just after Adams' visit had begun and has been declassified at The National Archives in Kew, the ambassador said that in a meeting with US National Security Adviser Tony Lake, Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd had told him that “Adams had been presented with two clear conditions to meet, but had got what he wanted by serving up deeply evasive language.

“In his capacity as a senior member of the Provisional Army Council, he was able to bring about a cessation of violence.”

After the Foreign Secretary criticised the Clinton administration's decision to give Adams a visa on expectations which weren't borne out, the cable said: “Lake, shifting nervously, said that he had kept us closely informed of the administration's decision.

“Their terms attached to the visa were not strict conditions, but 'topics to be addressed' by Adams. He thought the nuances in his weekend statements had been useful, and was still hopeful that there would be a positive outcome from Adams' speech at the conference tomorrow.”

In an earlier confidential January 21, 1994, memo, Prime Minister John Major's private secretary, Roderic Lyne, set out his attempts to dissuade the US from granting the visa.

He said that he had been unable to reach the US National Security Adviser, who wasn't returning his calls. Instead, he said he used the secure telephone to tell Lake's secretary that “private indications suggested strongly that the Provisionals had decided not to accept the Joint Declaration as it stood, and were deliberately stringing us and the Irish Government along in the hope of obtaining concessions through their calls for 'clarification'.

“I added that we believed that Sinn Fein was likely to increase the level of violence.”

Previous British ID card plan caused concern for Irish citizens in UK 

Idea, revived by current PM Keir Starmer, led to fears for identity rights under Good Friday Agreement

Mark Hennessy, Irish Times, December 27th, 2025

The British Government’s plans to introduce national IDs in 2005 caused concern in Dublin, with fears that the plan could discriminate against Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland and Britain.

The plan, which has been revived by current British prime minister, Keir Starmer, features in a large number of the files released by Irish government departments to the National Archives.

Though pushed by London in an effort to curb terrorism, illegal migration and identity fraud and to ease public administration, ID cards could have complicated the century-old Common Travel Area between Ireland and the UK, Irish officials feared.

The legislation became law the following year, but was plagued by problems, ran significantly over budget and was never fully rolled out – before it was finally scrapped by Conservatives when they came to power in 2010.

The British Labour government, which returned to power in 2024, has revived plans to introduce ID cards – commonly, but incorrectly, known as “Brit Cards” – before the next Westminster elections in 2029.

Concerned about the implications for, and the attitude of Dublin, British Home Office officials briefed the Department of Justice in Dublin and Irish Foreign Affairs officials throughout 2005.

The implications for the Irish-born community in Britain were raised frequently, too, by Irish officials, especially when the British side made clear that ID cards would be compulsory for everyone living for more than three months in the UK.

Following this, the British side clarified that an ID card could be produced that would not include the holder’s nationality, though it could not be used as a travel document within Europe.

“There may be some elements in the Irish community who will be reluctant for the British state to maintain information on them,” a summary of a lengthy discussion between Irish officials noted.

“ID cards, for some who lived through the 1970s and 1980s, will be objected to as a matter of principle and gut instinct, and it may prove difficult to persuade them otherwise. It is difficult to gauge the degree of opposition, or reluctance,” the note goes on.

Threat to Belfast-Good Friday Agreement

From the beginning, the Irish side had concerns that the ID cards could interfere with the rights offered by the 1998 Belfast Good Friday Agreement to people living in Northern Ireland to be Irish, British, or both.

Some people could be unhappy about how their nationality would be displayed, while those considering themselves as dual-nationals “may not be happy to have themselves designated as only British, or Irish”.

Equally, the ID cards could be problematic for those “living on one side of the Irish Border, and working on the other”, while officials fretted, too, about the “possible impacts” on free movement and North/South co-operation.

The files make clear that the Irish Government reluctantly accepted that the ID plan was not in itself objectionable, given that 25 EU states - “all apart from the UK, Ireland, Denmark and Latvia” - already had such cards.

British home secretary Charles Clarke had been “very open” in a meeting with the then Minister for Justice Michael McDowell early on, it was noted.

In June 2005, Home Office officials, Trudy Payne and Stephen Harrison said obligations under the 1998 Belfast Agreement had been met because NI residents “were free to designate themselves as Irish, British, or have no nationality listed”.

“There may in the future be many more people claiming dual nationality than there are now” in Northern Ireland”, the officials noted, but added that an ID card without citizenship details “would be the obvious choice for them”.

By September 2005, the Home Office’s Trudy Payne noted that the 7/7 July bombings had “stiffened resolve both for, and against” ID cards, noting Charles Clarke’s comment that they would not have prevented the attack, since all involved were British-born.