Words and Deeds: Taking antagonism out of Irish language

Words and Deeds: The man aiming to take the antagonism out of language

The newly-appointed Irish language commissioner wants everyone to embrace the indigenous tongue.

He spoke to Irish News Political Correspondent, John Manley

THE inclusion of Irish signage at Belfast’s Grand Central Station is a “no brainer”, according to the newly-appointed commissioner for the language.

Pól Deeds told The Irish News that rather than representing division, through what critics often claim is the marking of territory, dual language signage on public buildings instead “marks out shared space”.

Mr Deeds was speaking on his second day in the role as the north’s first ever Irish language commissioner.

He was appointed last month alongside a commissioner for Ulster Scots and the Ulster-British tradition, Lee Reynolds, and the director of the Office of Identity and Cultural Expression, Katy Radford.

The Irish language commissioner’s primary role, he says, is “to oversee and implement the law in terms of language”, as set out in the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022.

The west Belfast-born 47-year-old would have preferred if the legislation had been “standalone” and “rights based”, as recommended by committee of experts from the Council of Europe.

O’Neill and Little-Pengelly appoval needed

He also notes how the standards of best practice relating to the use of Irish by more than 100 public bodies that he is tasked with compiling are “rather unhelpfully” required to be approved by the first and deputy first ministers.

Another “weakness”, according to the commissioner, is a failure to match corresponding legislation elsewhere that deals with areas such as the administration of justice, the political sphere, education, and media and broadcasting.

This is why he believes the complementary Irish language strategy, currently being developed by the Department for Communities and earmarked for publication next year, is so important.

“The strategy is another key component, because hopefully it will deal with the areas that are missing from the act,” he says.

“These things should have been included in the legislation, as the experts would argue that they should be covered in law, but if it’s going to be in a strategy that’s properly

resourced and that I can have a role in overseeing it, then that will be a significant.”

When the commissioner’s best practice standards are published and adopted, he is optimistic that by the end of his five-year tenure “there will be a different face to the public sector”.

“It will be more welcoming face to Irish speakers and users of public service who have Irish or come from the Irish language community,” he says.

The inclusion of dual-language signage at Belfast Grand Central Station is the subject of a legal challenge

While maintaining that the legislation is far from ideal, he argues that it includes “real genius” in that it creates a “peace role” for him and his counterparts.

“I see this legislation as completing part of the jigsaw of the Good Friday Agreement and I have to say it fills me with hope, because as well as being an Irish language campaigner, I’m somebody who grew up in Belfast,” he says.

“ I see this legislation as completing part of the jigsaw of the Good Friday Agreement and I have to say it fills me with hope, because as well as being an Irish language campaigner, I’m somebody who grew up in Belfast

Pól Deeds

“My parents were born in the 1940s and lived through the worst of the Troubles, so I have a deep desire to see the peace that we have here, which is quite turbulent, bedded down for the future, for my children and for their children.”

His “dual role”, as he sees it, involves promoting Irish but also working with Mr Reynolds and Ms Radford “to bring people together”.

“Finally enshrined in law is protection not only for progressive measures to support the Irish language and Ulster Scots but to protect the celebration of both our indigenous languages and all identities here,” he says.

“As well as being clever and necessary in order to complete the vision of the Good Friday Agreement, I think it couldn’t be more timely – if you look at what’s happening around Ireland and around Britain, we are now saying: ‘We are an open, welcoming society who will celebrate all of the cultures that make up the rich tapestry of who we are’.”

It may surprise some to learn that Mr Deeds is a strong supporter of Ulster Scots, stressing that it is a language, rather than a dialect, having been deemed such by the Council of Europe, which oversees the European charter for regional and minority languages.

Ulster Scots

“I’ve been on a journey with Ulster Scots myself, having once been one of the people years ago who ridiculed it, hooked on this conversation about whether or not it’s a language or a dialect, and that’s where it all goes awry,” he recalls.

“Having had the opportunity to work with the Ulster Scots Agency in my former role at Foras na Gaeilge, I realised that they don’t care – all they want is that people will enjoy and appreciate it, and just stop making fun of Ulster Scots.”

He now accepts fully that Ulster Scots is “part of my own heritage”.

“In fact, since taking an interest in it, I found that there’s a lot of Ulster Scots heritage in my own background, so I fully accept Ulster Scots as one of our indigenous minority languages that needs to be protected and should be protected.”

Visibility of the Irish language, so long either hidden or ghettoised, is “crucial”, according to Mr Deeds.

“Visibility is recognised in all the best practices as being one of the fundamental components of developing a minority language, so it should be seen across the public sphere, in neutral spaces,” he says.

This explains his support for Irish language signage at Belfast’s Grand Central Station, which he describes as a “no brainer”.

The decision to include the signage is currently the subject of a legal challenge, which has seen DUP Communities Minister Gordon Lyons granted permission to intervene in the proceedings on the ground that the decision was cross-cutting.

At a hearing in September, High Court judge Mr Justice McAlinden urged the Stormont executive to resolve the row without spending public money on a legal battle.

“Any project of that scale and importance should reflect the diversity of language communities in Northern Ireland – the importance of recognising minority languages through promoting their visibility is the cornerstone of best practice internationally,” says Mr Deeds.

“People say when they’re opposing it that it marks their territory, whereas the consensus internationally is that it does the very opposite: it recognises that an area is shared by people of different linguistic backgrounds.”

The commissioner believes he may be asked for his opinion by the judge and indicates that he’ll most likely tell it as he see it.

“When I had the opportunity to meet with the minister (Liz Kimmins), along with the Foras na Gaeilge chief executive in July this year, I commended her for making the decision that she made, and I would stick to that,” he says.

“ I’ve been on a journey with Ulster Scots myself, having once been one of the people years ago who ridiculed it, hooked on this conversation about whether or not it’s a language or a dialect, and that’s where it all goes awry.”

“I think it was a brave decision, given the context and the likely opposition, which of course, has since manifested.”

Mr Deeds’ approach suggests that while he won’t be cowed, he is not setting out to be deliberately antagonistic or confrontational.

He wants members of the unionist community to appreciate and embrace the Irish language and see it as “theirs”.

“I want to dispel some of the myths around the Irish language and really help members of the PUL (Protestant, unionist, loyalist) community to understand that this is just another minority language of the UK,” he says.

“It’s an indigenous language of the UK; it’s a native language of Northern Ireland, and I know there’s a lot of people who won’t want to hear that, but that’s both the fact and the reality – and it’s now the law.”

‘I don’t do Kneecap’: Irish language commissioner distances himself from ‘divisive’ rap trio

Christopher Leebody, Belfast Telegraph, November 22nd, 2025

The new Irish language commissioner has said he will “steer clear of anything” rap trio Kneecap do, claiming they can be used as an example of the Irish language being “weaponised”.

Pól Deeds, the deputy chief executive of the cross-border body Foras na Gaeilge, was formally appointed to the post of Irish language commissioner at the end of October.

Talkback presenter William Crawley said that on Good Morning Ulster Mr Deeds stated he was “not a fan of kneecap”.

The presenter said he wanted to “explore that a little bit”, saying that in recent decades there has been “no phenomenon quite like this for the Irish language” as he pointed to the global audiences the west Belfast and Derry trio play to.

Mr Deeds was asked in what other forum that is happening, to which he responded: “Well, you can't. And yes, there's value in that, I suppose.

“There's probably even more value in the amount of young people who have been encouraged to use and learn and come back to their Irish.

“In my previous role, I was the Director of Education in Foras na Gaeilge and I had quite a unique insight into just how successful that has been, as a result, by and large, of Kneecap and other recent cultural phenomena. So I'm not disputing that.

“It's just not a way that I would seek to see the Irish language promoted.

“But I suppose that's more a personal view than anything else.”

Asked about collaborating with Kneecap or other bands who perform on stages in front of ‘45,000 kids’ using the Irish language, Mr Deeds added: “That's not something that I personally have any interest in or my office would have any interest in and, when I was with Foras na Gaeilge, it's not the kind of thing that they would promote either but there was an effect. I'm not disputing that.

Opposed to weaponisng the language

“My problem with it is that it can be quite divisive and I suppose my specific problem this morning when it was brought up in Good Morning Ulster, [it] was brought up in the context of the idea of the Irish language being weaponised.

“And I suppose that's my real problem with it. I don't [think they’ve done that], but I think it can be used as an example of that.

“And therefore, I prefer to steer clear of anything that they do. It's just, it's not my personal taste. I don't think it helps what I am going to try to do in my role.

“So, no, I don't do Kneecap.”

The issue of outreach to people from a unionists and protestant background, who “may feel alienated from the Irish language”, was also discussed.

Mr Deeds said: “Well, firstly it's what I want to do because it's what I've always done and I've done it well and it's part of who I am.

"It's what I enjoy doing it's not my job. My role is very clear, it's an oversight role, it's a monitoring role I'm here to implement the Identity and Language Act as far as it relates to the Irish language.

“However, I do want to do that because it's what I've always done and enjoyed and I think there's a need for it.

“And I think it will make my work easier as well if I can do that if I can help to support and advise people in in the broader community and especially within our public authorities, in terms of how they can see the Irish language as something that relates to them and their identity, then absolutely I want to do that.”

Kneecap was contacted for a response.

Ivana Bacik’s careless words are causing alarm among unionists

If this is how the Left chooses to present a united front, there will be wider ramifications

Newton Emerson, Irish Times, November 22nd, 2025

Sinn Féin MEP Kathleen Funchion told a British minister in London on Monday that the British and Irish governments must “establish an appropriate date” for a Border poll because “I believe that the conditions laid out in the Good Friday Agreement [Belfast Agreement] for a referendum on Irish reunification have been met”.

Funchion was mistaken.

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has no grounds to believe nationalist victory in a poll is “likely”, as the agreement requires and as Northern Secretary Hilary Benn has made clear.

But at least she framed her demand in terms of the agreement’s conditions. At least she addressed her call to the British government to a member of that government. Only the venue was inappropriate.

So the Sinn Féin MEP was a model of diplomacy compared to Labour leader Ivana Bacik. Addressing her party’s conference in Limerick last weekend, she said: “I am calling now on the Irish and British governments to set a clear timeline for the holding of a unity referendum.”

Bacik did not mention the Belfast Agreement in her 2,500-word speech, let alone tie her call to its conditions. Her only allusion to a timescale was to say “we know better than to run a referendum in haste”, suggesting she does not believe the conditions have been met.

Date or timeline?

Perhaps there is a difference between setting a date and setting a timeline.

Bacik may have meant agreeing a schedule of steps between deciding to hold a poll and a poll being held. That would not be quite so outrageously at odds with the agreement as simply demanding a date some time hence.

But the Labour leader indicated no such distinction. Had she been taking that much care with her words, she would not have said any of this in the first place.

Bacik’s carelessness is all the more lamentable given her party’s proud record on the peace process. As tánaiste and minister for foreign affairs in the 1990s, Labour leader Dick Spring negotiated the Downing Street Declaration and the IRA ceasefire, co-chaired the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and led the Irish delegation in the all-party talks that produced the Belfast Agreement.

Spring remains a party member but his views no longer fit the party line.

Speaking at Queen’s University Belfast last week to mark the 40th anniversary of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which he also negotiated, Spring said: “I don’t think that we’re ready for a referendum, or for debates. There’s an awful lot of work to be done. It’s a long way away.”

Bacik’s speech will reinforce a growing sense among unionists since Brexit that nationalism unilaterally rewrites the Belfast Agreement once it feels empowered to do so.

However, the speech will only upset unionists who noticed it. Most are not paying any more attention to a small party in the Republic than it is paying to them. The British government will ignore Bacik’s call – that is the only tactful response, as the Labour leader must have known.

The speech’s target audience was south of the Border. Its purpose was to position Labour in the bloc that won the presidential election, without conceding leadership of that bloc to Sinn Féin.

Bacik opened her remarks by praising the presidential campaign for having “brought together the parties of the Left – and other parties too. It united many of us who, for far too long, had focused on our differences”.

She closed by saying “we now have three bigger parties. And we have significant differences with each of those. But we are closely aligned in our values with the Green Party and Social Democrats.”

In other words, an association with Sinn Féin is useful but it should still be kept at arm’s length.

The obvious way to have something fundamental in common with Mary Lou McDonald’s party while distancing yourself from it on everything else is to proclaim your commitment to a united Ireland. You might be so keen to send this signal without getting bogged down in the details that you might casually drive a coach and horses through the Belfast Agreement.

If this is how the Left chooses to present a united front, there will be wider ramifications. The Government may feel compelled to respond in defence of the agreement, as may the British government, at least indirectly.

However, Government parties may still be pushed towards planning for a Border poll, as opposed to demanding one. Unionists would certainly notice that enough to be upset about it. Nationalists may not be happy either, as it becomes clear all this is politicking in the Republic, and little else.

How the UK’s asylum changes will affect Ireland

Naomi O’Leary, European Correspondent, Irish Times, November 22nd, 2025

Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit deal may scupper Westminster’s immigration reforms

A soft-spoken young woman pulls a large suitcase up Mount Street to the International Protection Office in Dublin city centre, her final stop on a long journey from South Africa through Britain to seek asylum in Ireland as a refugee.

“I’ve heard that compared to the UK it’s better here, and that over there the law is always changing,” she says gently, before heading inside to take her shot at a new life.

Many, but not all, of the people met by The Irish Times as they waited to be seen at the office this week had travelled to Ireland through the Common Travel Area with Britain, a route the Government has said is being used by a large proportion of people who claim asylum in Ireland. The Common Travel Area is a long-standing arrangement that permits ease of travel between the two countries.

The Government has aired concerns that plans announced by British prime minister Keir Starmer this week to toughen the United Kingdom’s migration policy may cause more people to come to the Republic to lodge asylum claims, as they can travel from Britain through Northern Ireland.

“I am committed to ensuring that Ireland is not viewed more favourably than the UK by those seeking to claim asylum,” Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said this week.

Both the Irish and UK governments presume that asylum seekers are motivated by “pull factors” of favourable treatment or legislation, and select where to travel to accordingly.

Many of her clients trafficked

This is not the case, says Sinead Marmion, an immigration lawyer with the Belfast-based Phoenix Law. Many of her clients are trafficked: brought in and put to work in nail salons or in cannabis farming, paying back debts their traffickers claim they owe. “A lot of the time, those people won’t have any control over their journey or know where they’ll end up, in my experience. There will be people who have no idea where they are,” Marmion says.

“Pull factors – in my view, that’s really a myth.”

Some people appear to travel to Ireland if the United Kingdom doesn’t work out for them, however.

A Belarusian couple seemed determined and full of hope as they strode up to the International Protection Office door this week, their hands firmly clasped.

“We were in Scotland, but Scotland separated us. We are a family,” the man said. They left their home because their area became occupied by the Russian military, he said, due to the invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

A raven-haired young woman from Vietnam was shivering in the cold as she waited to enter. Why come to Ireland?

“London no good,” she said. How did she get here? “Belfast.”

She typed a phrase into a translation app and held up her phone. “I took the ferry,” the text read.

As rhetoric on the issue hardens in the wake of protests outside accommodation centres, the Irish Government has presented the use of this route by asylum seekers as an “abuse” of the Common Travel Area and as illegal.

This is rejected by human rights organisations that work with refugees.

“Under international law, every person has the right to seek asylum once they are in a country’s territory. The manner in which someone arrives does not remove that right,” says John Lannon, chief executive of Doras, which works to protect the rights of people from a migrant background.

Either way, Ireland and the UK are on course to diverge in their asylum and migration law in ways that may have complex implications for the Common Travel Area.

Hard-fought deal

Ireland is implementing a hard-fought deal agreed by European Union member states, the EU migration and asylum pact, which aims to achieve rapid processing of claims, cross-border co-operation, sharing of information, and more deportations.

The UK plans to overhaul its system in a different way. Its plan is partly inspired by policies introduced by EU countries, but may include some changes that are incompatible with EU law or older international human rights treaties.

Adding to the complexity is that the UK government may face legal challenges to the implementation of some of its planned changes in Northern Ireland.

Article Two of the Windsor Framework, the post-Brexit settlement for Northern Ireland, prevents certain equality and human rights from being watered down, including those of asylum seekers.

The Northern Ireland High Court ruled in 2024 that a since-abandoned Westminster plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda could not apply in the North on that basis.

“We would expect that anything that would breach the Windsor Framework wouldn’t be applied across the UK,” said Úna Boyd, an immigration solicitor with the Belfast-based Committee on the Administration of Justice, an independent human rights group.

The Irish Government uses the number of asylum claims made in the International Protection Office in Dublin city centre compared with those entering the State at ports or airports as a proxy for the proportion of asylum seekers who arrive via Northern Ireland.

For the year to date, this proportion of total claims at the IPO was 87 per cent, with the remainder registering at ports and airports. The Department of Justice believes that a “significant proportion” of the 87 per cent comprises people who entered over the land Border. This assumption is “based on the experience of staff and others working in the field, and based on the material gathered at interviews”, according to a spokesman.

Asylum seekers also continue to travel in the other direction, into the UK, via Northern Ireland. There are “established smuggler routes” through Dublin Airport, particularly for people from Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea who are seeking to enter the UK, according to Marmion.

“I would hear a lot of that in my clients’ stories where they come to Dublin and are taken in a car and then left off at the Home Office in Belfast,” she said.

With Britain’s departure from the EU, it left an agreement whereby asylum seekers can be returned to be processed in the first European country they entered.

Ireland and Britain agreed informal, “non-legally binding operational arrangements” to return asylum seekers to each other in 2020, the British Home Office said last year.

Sinn Féin has urged the Government to pursue a formal bilateral agreement with the UK on returning asylum seekers.

Given how difficult this has been for Britain to agree with France, and for EU states to agree with each other, this could be a fraught process, particularly if one state fears it would end up taking in more people as a result.

“Whether people are in Britain coming from Ireland or vice versa, my guess is that it will be a much greater level of people in this State who have come from Britain,” said Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy, who chairs the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration.

Tougher asylum laws

Does the British government have more freedom to change its asylum law than Ireland does, because it is no longer in the EU?

Yes and no.

The British government has said Brexit has freed it to make support for asylum seekers discretionary rather than automatic because it is no longer bound by a 2004 EU law. However, the UK had its own domestic law providing for accommodation for asylum seekers dating back to 1999.

London has also cited measures by various EU member states as an inspiration for its proposals, including the Netherlands, France, Austria, the Czech Republic and Belgium.

A major source of the UK’s ideas is Denmark, which has more leeway than most EU states because it has an opt-out from joint legislation covering migration and asylum. Ireland also has an opt-out on this, though a slightly different one, designed around the protection of the Common Travel Area with Britain.

The main obstacle to Britain’s plans may ultimately not be EU law, but older human rights law that predates the EU such as the European Convention on Human Rights and UN Refugee Convention.

Some of what the UK government has announced may never be intended to be implemented.

Denmark’s strategy for the past decade has been to project an unfriendly image to refugees, including with laws aimed to send a message rather than to be used.

Its 2015 Jewellery Law allowed authorities to seize the valuables of refugees to help pay for their accommodation. The Danish government ran ads in Lebanese media announcing it, hoping to dissuade Syrian refugees. Government figures show that it was actually rarely used and some years not at all.

The big picture is that the UK is far from an outlier. Efforts are well under way across Europe to harden asylum laws, influenced by the rise of anti-immigration politics over the last decade. Ireland appears to be going in the same direction.

Covid Inquiry cost NI £192 million

The vast volumes of evidence of Stormont's chaos will suit many politicians

IT WILL BE THE MOST EXPENSIVE PROBE IN BRITISH HISTORY, YET IT ALL REEKS OF WEAKNESS. THE RHI INQUIRY WAS EXHAUSTIVE EVEN THOUGH IT INVOLVED LOST MONEY - WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT SOCIETY THAT THIS IS LESS RIGOROUS WHEN IT'S ABOUT LOST LIVES? COMMENT

SAM MCBRIDE, NORTHERN IRELAND EDITOR, Belfast Telegraph, November 22nd, 2025

The only justification for the immense cost of a public inquiry is if it fearlessly and transparently sets out the truth in all its reality, whether pleasant or ugly.

If ever there was a justification for a public inquiry, it was into the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. If ever there was a failure of such an inquiry in this regard, it is that chaired by Dame Baroness Hallett.

On Thursday, the Covid Inquiry published an 800-page report into how the UK's political system handled the pandemic, a significant section of which dwelt on Stormont's obvious failings.

Anyone taking the time to read through this vast — and in places turgid — document would learn little about Stormont's incompetence which they hadn't realised from reading the newspapers at the time.

Both Sinn Fein and the DUP are criticised for failing to lead by example at a time of national crisis. Even mass death couldn't shake off the green and orange lenses through which these parties see the world.

But we knew that years ago, and in truth the criticism of the parties is about as mild as it could be without appearing hopelessly out of touch with reality.

‘Any other business’

The inquiry found that Covid was only discussed under 'any other business' in Executive meetings as late as February 24, 2020. The report says: “It should have been equally apparent to the First Ministers and Deputy First Ministers of the devolved administrations that, by this point, Covid-19 was the most pressing issue facing their governments.”

It said the risks from Covid “ought to have been apparent to all ministers. Ms Foster and Ms O'Neill, as well as the Northern Ireland Executive Committee, ought to have led a robust, coordinated response to the situation that was developing throughout February. They should have interrogated advisers as to what arrangements were being made (eg for testing) as the pandemic gathered momentum.”

The Executive “fundamentally underestimated” the scale of the crisis as is swept across Europe, the report says.

Imperfectly handling a once in a century crisis is forgiveable and in fact inevitable. Basic individual conduct which viewed this through a tribal prism is not.

The report said: “Regrettably, some political leaders in Northern Ireland were not always able, in this time of extraordinary crisis, to set aside political and sectarian divisions and to govern jointly and effectively in the interests of the whole of Northern Ireland.

“Power-sharing had the potential to give government decisions in Northern Ireland a higher degree of democratic legitimacy than in other parts of the UK. It gave ministers the ability to say that decisions made were regarded by all political parties as being in the best interests of Northern Ireland (and that they had been informed by a diverse range of interests).

“However, some allowed political interests to inform their decision making. At certain critical points in the pandemic, ministers (from the two main political parties) failed to put the common interest of all people in Northern Ireland above their party political interests.”

The report highlighted how early in the crisis there was “rapid degeneration” of Executive decision-making as Michelle O'Neill demanded schools be closed after that happened in the Republic — despite the Executive not being in a position to do so, in part because she herself had just agreed not to close schools.

This, the report found, should have been resolved internally rather than O'Neill “undermining the Executive”.

Funeral that became a Covid political circus

It said that O'Neill's attendance at the huge public funeral for IRA leader Bobby Storey “and her initial refusal to apologise for this” made the situation worse.

It also found that the DUP's use of its cross-community veto later in the pandemic to block restrictions recommended by the Chief Medical Officer was “inappropriate”, saying that “there was no minority issue at stake”.

It said there was “no evidence” to suggest that “there was any real economic dividend from those periods during which businesses were permitted to reopen”.

The report also criticised Edwin Poots' claim that transmission was astronomically higher in nationalist areas, something it said wasn't based on evidence and “was an undisguised attempt to blame one section of society for rising rates by reference to the political views they held”.

The inquiry rightly criticises how Stormont mishandled this period of unique crisis.

But the inquiry itself deserves to be scrutinised for how it has behaved.

More than 500 pages into this report, the inquiry states: “The dysfunction in decision-making in Northern Ireland seen during the pandemic, as evidenced by these incidents, should never be repeated.”

Sometimes an inquiry needs to state the obvious, but do we really need to pay hundreds of millions of pounds for observations such as this?

Politicians buryied evidence as well as people

The most egregious failure of the Covid Inquiry is how it has hidden evidence from the public.

It is continuing to hide from us thousands of messages between senior civil servants, top politicians, the police, the Army, senior medics and other figures at the heart of managing the emergency. That's the hidden evidence we know about because we can piece together its existence from what has been published; other hidden evidence remains unknown.

This is a decision it has taken consciously, and has refused to reverse.

More than a year ago, in this column, I revealed that the inquiry was choosing not to publish a vast volume of evidence given to it, despite having told me it would be published.

Indeed, some of those who submitted this evidence to the inquiry have told me they believe it should be published and are themselves dismayed at the inquiry's secrecy.

One witness told me it was “bizarre” and they fully expected everything they submitted to be published, even if that involved some redactions.

From reading the witness statements it is obvious that there are thousands of pages of evidence which are being withheld.

Much of this involves email or WhatsApp messages. Indeed, it is to the credit of many witnesses that they handed over so much. Andrew McCormick — who at one point in the pandemic was Stormont's most senior civil servant — gave it 51 separate WhatsApp threads. It's reasonable to assume that at least some of these were enormous.

Yet 96% of the WhatsApp threads he gave to the inquiry haven't been published.

Witnesses told to self-censor themselves

Witnesses were told only to submit material which was relevant to the inquiry's remit. Is it really credible that Stormont's most senior civil servant — who had been through this process just a few years earlier with the RHI Inquiry — was 96% wrong about what was relevant?

That simply doesn't make sense.

Looking down the lists of who handed over evidence to the inquiry and the evidence made public, there is witness after witness from the civil service, from politics, from the health sector, from the military and from elsewhere whose messages have been withheld.

This is compounded by the inquiry's stampede through witnesses when they appeared before it in person.

It spent just 11 days taking evidence from Northern Ireland witnesses in Belfast. The inquiry says it has taken evidence from other Northern Irish witnesses in London as part of other modules. That is true, but this was the module which explored most of Stormont's response.

What took place during those 11 days demonstrated the value of doing this in far more depth. The incisive Clair Dobbin KC, counsel to the inquiry, managed to extract from witnesses such as Foster and O'Neill admissions or information which they'd previously not divulged.

But she was doing so against a ticking clock. The witnesses knew they wouldn't be brought back day after day to answer questions, as is common in other public inquiries.

The great strength of the RHI Inquiry was its transparency and its exhaustiveness. It amassed more than a million pages of evidence and only withheld sections of documents where there was a sound basis for doing so.

Its 114 hearings were fully public and many key witnesses were forced to return over and over until the inquiry was satisfied that they'd been asked all the important questions.

What does it say about the seriousness with which we treat this issue that the Covid Inquiry spent less than 10% of the time the RHI Inquiry spent questioning witnesses in Belfast and published just a fraction of the evidence made public by Sir Patrick Coghlin?

Probing was far deeper when money was involved

RHI involved money; Covid involved lives — yet the extent of the probing was far deeper when money was involved.

The Covid Inquiry hasn't been a waste of time. It has brought into the public domain evidence which otherwise we'd never have seen.

Some of its recommendations are sensible, such as the call for the Executive to “urgently consider how decisions that would usually be subject to ministerial approval would be taken should an emergency occur during the suspension of power-sharing arrangements” and the recommendation that the Chief Medical Officer should be an independent adviser to the whole Executive rather than being seen as a Department of Health figure.

But it has been a wasted opportunity to conclusively examine and expose what really went on here.

 Thursday's report rightly criticised the culture of government by WhatsApp, both locally and nationally. But its recommendations in this area are naïve.

 The report said that using private phones to communicate government business “makes official record-keeping of decision-making more difficult and less reliable, which is likely to undermine external scrutiny of decision-making, transparency and, ultimately, public accountability.

 “The ability of government to comply with its legal obligations (including those under the Public Records Act 1958) in response to Freedom of Information requests, during court processes and in the work of public inquiries may also be impeded.”

 Does Dame Hallett think politicians don't know this? That's precisely why so many political figures value such communications; the whole point is to avoid scrutiny.

 Has anything in this inquiry made them fear that keeping such information hidden could have serious consequences for them? It's unlikely.

 The fact that the inquiry itself hasn't been prepared to publish most of this material even when it has obtained evidence of what it says shouldn't have been happening reeks of weakness.

 Dame Hallett had the power to publish this but didn't do so. Instead, it will one day be destroyed — exactly as the politicians and others involved no doubt hoped.

 I asked the inquiry why it hasn't published much of the evidence it received.

 A spokesman said: “The inquiry process involves obtaining and considering much more documentation than is needed for each module's investigation. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry publishes all the evidence that is relevant to its hearings and reports. It does not comment on material which is not sufficiently relevant to be published.”

 The inquiry highlighted that all evidence is privately shown to 'core participants', which includes government departments and lawyers for the families, who are able to make representations about what should be published.

 Stormont alone has spent more than £12m on participating in the Covid Inquiry. For more than two years, over 40 civil servants have full time been involved in assisting the inquiry — much of it involved in finding and submitting documents which we'll now never see.

 The overall inquiry is likely to be the most expensive in British history. It has already spent £192m.

 Getting to the truth costs money. But if we're not really getting full transparency, there's a strong argument that the public interest would have been better served by spending this money elsewhere.

 After all, £192m would pay for about 500 experienced nurses for a decade. Did we get better value from a report which tells us Stormont is dysfunctional but won't show us the full evidence of that dysfunctionality?

Families of Covid-19 dead insist on changes to ‘dysfunctional’ executive

Calls comes following scathing report into how Stormont handled crisis at crucial times during pandemic

JOHN BRESLIN, Irish News, November 22nd, 2025

PROPOSED changes to the north’s “dysfunctional” government when faced with critical emergencies must be introduced “fully and without qualification”, the families of those died during the Covid-19 pandemic are insisting.

Bereaved families described a report published on Thursday into the handling of the pandemic as a “damning assessment” of political decision making in the region.

“Some political leaders in Northern Ireland were not always able to set aside political and sectarian divisions and to govern jointly and effectively in the interests of the whole of Northern Ireland,” said solicitor Enda McGarrity, on behalf of Northern Ireland Covid Bereaved Families for Justice (NICBFFJ).

Petty party politics vs public health

The report by Baroness Heather Hallett “vindicates the position” of the families, who “have always been of the view that the approach of many of our elected representatives during the pandemic was characterised by petty party politics rather than public health considerations”.

Baroness Hallett focused on two crucial periods, one as the first wave was beginning in March, 2020, and in October as the second wave started. She flagged politically-charged arguments over school closures and the “circuit break” shut down, and multiple leaks from Executive meetings.

“The dysfunction in decision-making in Northern Ireland seen during the pandemic… should never be repeated,” she concluded.

The Covid inquiry chair recommended the executive amend the ministerial code to impose a duty of confidentiality on ministers that prohibits the disclosure of the individual views expressed during meetings.

She also recommended that a review be carried out “of the structures and delegated powers of government to empower the first and deputy first minister jointly to direct the work of other ministers and departments during an emergency”.

The role of the chief medical officer should effectively be independent of the Department for Health, Baroness Hallett also said.

“The next step is for the executive to implement these recommendations fully and without qualification in collaboration with… key stakeholders,” Mr McGarrity said.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill said it is “crucially important that we learn lessons”.

“We’ve already started to change in terms of how we prepare for emergency planning, also in terms of recruiting our own chief scientific advisor,” Ms O’Neill added.

“I think it’s really important that as a whole of the executive that we reflect on all those lessons and take them on board and actually make changes and improvements,” she said.

DUP MLA Diane Dodds, the economy minister for a time during the pandemic, said the “vast majority” of decisions were taken “without any controversy or any real issues whatsoever”.

Ms Dodds told the BBC’s The View: “We operate in a mandatory coalition in Northern Ireland, that means we have parties with differing views on many subjects.”.

However, she added that if another pandemic happened the government should make sure “we are well prepared, have a considered response, and there should be a contingency plan that is fully operational and able to be stood up at very short notice”.

Lack of political leadership

Relatives of people from Northern Ireland who died during the pandemic wore red and held pictures of their loved ones outside the inquiry

The SDLP’s Matthew O’Toole, the opposition leader in the Assembly, said the report’s conclusions “again highlight the lack of political leadership at Stormont”.

The report “underlined the need for a serious programme of institutional reform to ensure better government”.

“The report is a significant milestone, and it is important that we now take time to properly consider the recommendations,” a spokesperson for The Executive Office (TEO) said.

“We acknowledge there are lessons to be learned and the cross-departmental group established to take forward recommendations continues to meet and will now consider the re-port’s findings.

“We will also continue to engage with NI Covid Bereaved Families for Justice and other stakeholders to ensure their experiences inform this work.”

Covid-19 Inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett

Safeguarding scandal could tear Presbyterian Church apart: former minister

BRETT CAMPBELL, Belfast Telegraph, November 22nd, 2025

CO-AUTHOR OF REPORT ON CULTURE OF BULLYING SAYS CRITICS HAVE BEEN SILENCED FOR TOO LONG AND THAT ENTIRE CHURCH MUST NOW BE 'GUTTED' WITH FULL DISCLOSURE ON WHAT IT KNEW ABOUT ABUSE

The scandal currently engulfing the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) has exposed unhealed wounds and a culture of secrecy that threatens to rip the 185-year-old institution apart.

The unprecedented resignation of moderator Dr Trevor Gribben as a result of “serious and significant” safeguarding failings has triggered an emergency meeting of the general assembly in December.

Those present will be seeking clarity on the exact nature of the shortcomings which have resulted in people being harmed and prompted a PSNI investigation — but clergy members will also be tasked with charting a way forward.

First they will have to work out how the church fell into a crisis that no one outside the inner power circle saw coming.

According to a former Presbyterian minister, who co-authored a report into allegations of bullying and a culture of abuse within PCI, the writing has been on the wall since at least 2018.

Over concentration of power

Roy Simpson believes “too much power” has been concentrated in the hands of a small group of individuals within the church since the institution severed ties with the Church of Scotland in opposition to its more liberal stance on same-sex relationships.

“And this power has not always been used appropriately,” he said.

“There began to be a scenario in the church that if you spoke out of turn, if you were deemed not to be a person of the right calibre, you would be accused of contumacy.”

The legal and ecclesiastical term is used to describe individuals who show wilful contempt for the authority of the church.

“It became a tool for enforcing silence or for shutting people down,” Mr Simpson said.

“And then I think they developed a pattern of what I would call bullying and harassment and treating people very unfairly — spying, stalking, threatening behaviour, and so forth.”

The former minister of Ballyarnett Presbyterian Church in Derry also led a congregation in Knowhead, Co Donegal between 1973 to 1980 and admits he is “very fondly disposed towards” the church.

But he is appalled by what he described as a pattern of secrecy that has developed within PCI and the “inquisitions” launched against its own members, which have resulted in a raft of legal settlements subject to non-disclosure agreements.

“If the church is doing nothing wrong, why are they getting people to sign NDAs?” Mr Simpson asked.

“They have to be doing something wrong if they don't want details to be made public.”

The retired management and training consultant, who moved to England 14 years ago, said the same pattern of secrecy was on full display when Rev Dr Gribben announced he was to be the first moderator to step aside and confirmed he was retiring as clerk of the assembly and as general secretary.

His claim to not be directly responsible for safeguarding failings spanning more than a decade — from 2009 to 2022 — could not be challenged as he refused to take questions from the media after expressing deep “personal regret” and his unreserved apology.

Church leaders then admitted failures to refer concerns to statutory bodies as they appealed for potential yet unknown victims to come forward as “major gaps” in record-keeping meant they had no way to know exactly how many people were affected.

Less than a week after the shock press conference — branded a pantomime by a number of former church members — took place in Assembly Buildings, a criminal investigation was launched by the PSNI.

Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck said the force was previously unaware of “the potential scale” of the failings.

The probe has raised further questions about the timeline of events as police provided information to PCI in May 2024 following the conviction of former primary school teacher William Maher for child sexual offences.

An internal church review was only launched a year later following further convictions of the same individual.

Mr Simpson questioned the timing of Dr Gribben's resignation which he described as “surprising” given Dr Gribben himself said he was “not directly responsible for the professional delivery of safeguarding”.

He also said Dr Gribben's decision has left the church without leadership now. The ex-minister said the entire PCI leadership needs “gutted” as he said they must have known “things were not right”.

“Unless they've got blinkers on,” he added.

“It beggars belief that they didn't know — it's laughable, if it wasn't so sad.”

Mr Simpson noted the church's ongoing silence on the safeguarding scandal which he said mirrors its response to the stories he helped compile on those who have been “hurt, damaged and bruised”.

He warned that the institution “cannot be trusted to mark its own homework” as he called for oversight and urged the church to reform its “medieval” processes or risk causing a schism.

Even if a split is avoided, Mr Simpson said the church must go through a painful process if it is to survive, pointing out that “before there can be a resurrection, there must be a crucifixion”.

An expert in the sociology of religion from Queens' University Belfast said it's difficult to get to the bottom of the current leadership crisis due to the absence of “basic information about what happened and who was responsible, across a range of cases”.

Priority has been to protect

Professor Gladys Ganiel said resignations usually indicate that an institution is taking responsibility but noted “a sense that perhaps PCI is not telling us all we need to know” which sends a competing signal.

“That signal is that there is still a culture of secrecy and a desire to protect the institution,” she added.

“We have seen religious institutions around the world act this way, repeatedly — including other churches on this island.”

The academic, who stressed the crisis within PCI is not unique, said it is unfair to blame failures in safeguarding “on conservatism per se” as anyone is capable of prioritising an institution above the well-being of people.

“But at the same time, it does appear that the leadership of PCI has acted without transparency in some cases involving more liberal voices within the church, as documented in Lord Alderdice's report to the charity commission,” Prof Ganiel continued.

“Dissenters have been bullied and pushed out of the denomination.

“NDAs also seem to have been used exclusively against liberal or dissenting voices.”

The expert also cited the case of Rev Dr Katherine Meyer who resigned as minister emerita of Christ Church in Dublin after being found guilty of failing to “yield submission in the Lord to the courts of the Church” by attending a Pride parade in 2024.

It led to critics accusing PCI of having an “obsessive preoccupation” with sexual identity and of singling out LGBT people.

Prof Ganiel pointed out that conservatives within PCI continue to push back on the ordination of women despite the issue being settled decades ago as she said there has always been exceptions to the church's claim to welcome dissent as healthy.

She was referring to a famous graduate and former principal of the then Presbyterian College in Belfast who was accused of heresy in 1926 for suggesting certain beliefs and practices had become inadequate for contemporary needs — views which disturbed the leaders of the day.

While Professor J Ernest was later acquitted of all five charges — the controversy led to a split as his accusers formed a more conservative breakaway group known today as the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

“While those examples may seem like ancient history, they can't be discounted,” Prof Ganiel cautioned.

However, she suggested a more likely outcome in a less religious age may not be a formal split but “a quiet walking away” of the dissenters from the pews either to more inclusive denominations or away from church altogether.

The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has been contacted.

The PCI previously welcomed the police probe and vowed to fully co-operate to ensure “a thorough, trusted and transparent outcome”.

During the week a spokesperson said that in light of the investigation, the church would be making no further comment.

Time for ‘Patten Two’: a police service that has confidence of whole society?

PAUL GOSLING, Irish News, November 22nd, 2025

THE PSNI veers from one serious problem to another. The latest is the Police

Ombudsman’s report laying clear the failures of the force in its investigation of Alexander McCartney, who was conducting online blackmail through ‘catfishing’.

Lack of resources and an appropriate focus on cyber-crimes led to unacceptable investigation delays: faster action should have avoided the suicide of one of his victims in the United States, 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas.

But under-resourcing is not the only challenge for the PSNI – its unlawful surveillance of some journalists has severely damaged its reputation within the media.

Meanwhile, there remains an embedded distrust of the organisation across parts of nationalist and republican society.

That distrust hinders recruitment from those with Catholic and ethnic minority backgrounds – which in turn reinforces that distrust.

As part of the research for my book ‘A New Ireland – A Five Year Review’, I submitted Freedom of Information requests to the PSNI to determine whether it was truly a new police service and to what extent it had distanced itself from the RUC past. I find the statistics deeply troubling.

Still two-thirds Protestant force

As at the beginning of December last year, 65.97% of serving officers were ‘perceived Protestant’, compared to 32.62% ‘perceived Catholic’. The backgrounds of 1.41% were not determined.

While this is bad, the situation regarding civilian staff is far worse. A very concerning 78.75% of PSNI civilians were Protestant, with a mere 18.9% Catholic and 2.35% not determined.

Police civilian staff conduct some of the most important roles within administration and investigations. Just 0.69% of police officers and 0.71% of police civilian staff are members of ethnic minorities.

It is not only the composition of officers and staff, but also their prior relationships with the RUC that is deeply troubling.

As of September last year, 880 civilian PSNI staff (39%) had continued employment from the RUC. The same was true of 524 PSNI officers and 111 part-time reserve officers (10%).

These figures understate the situation, as they do not include former RUC officers and civilian staff who left and were then re-employed after the creation of the PSNI.

A further dimension to these concerns is illustrated by memberships of outside bodies.

PSNI officers patrol the streets of Belfast. FOI figures reveal fewer than a third of officers are from a Catholic background

“ At the beginning of December last year, 65.97% of serving officers were ‘perceived Protestant’, compared to 32.62% ‘perceived Catholic’. The backgrounds of 1.41% were not determined

A troubling 132 officers have declared themselves to be freemasons (membership of which is often kept secret).

Some 94 officers were members as at September last year of the Orange Order, another 42 of the Royal Black Preceptory, and 23 of Apprentice Boys of Derry, as well as smaller numbers who were members of other notifiable bodies.

By contrast, a mere one PSNI officer was a declared member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Just as worrying is that PSNI civilian staff are not required to make any such declarations.

In a brief period as an advisor to a Policing Board member, my concerns about the imbalance of backgrounds increased substantially, hearing comments made by PSNI officers in private meetings that I found deeply troubling.

Chris Patten’s Independent Commission on Policing, which led to the founding of the PSNI, reported 26 years ago. It noted that: “Since 1922 and the establishment of the Royal Ulster Constabulary… the composition of the police has been disproportionately Protestant and Unionist.”

The report stressed the need to move to a model of community policing, which in much of the north remains noticeably absent today.

“But real community policing is impossible if the composition of the police service bears little relationship to the composition of the community as a whole,” concluded Patten.

So not much change there, then. In much of republican and nationalist society, there is quiet anger about the PSNI’s lack of evident success in taking down loyalist paramilitaries and the connected criminal gangs, with a perceived lack of equivalence in relation to republican and loyalist paramilitaries.

This, I suggest, is the right moment for a review – a ‘Patten Two’ – of the PSNI to consider the extent to which it has moved beyond its legacy of the RUC.

Such a review should also assess the ability of the Policing Board to hold the PSNI to account.

We have yet to arrive at a policing service that has the confidence of our whole society.

Paul Gosling is the author of ‘A New Ireland – A Five Year Review’, published by Colmcille Press

HIV blood attack on PSNI officer among 2,630 assaults in past year

GARRETT HARGAN, Belfast Telegraph, November 22nd, 2025

POLICE LAY BARE TOLL OF TRYING TO COPE FOLLOWING HORRIFIC INCIDENTS AT WORK

The PSNI has revealed an officer tending to a detained patient, who was HIV positive, faces months of worry and medicated treatment after blood was sprayed directly into her face and eyes.

It was one of the “shocking and disgusting attacks” on officers which have been strongly condemned by Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton who is calling for respect to be shown to officers whose aim is to keep communities safe from harm.

From October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025, there were 2,630 assaults on officers and in this calendar year there have been more than 100 reported incidents of police vehicles being rammed. This year alone, 21 vehicles have required repairs at an estimated cost of £140,000.

Police are introducing a dash-cam pilot scheme in south area next month, with the aim of deterring ramming incidents, keeping officers safe and enhancing criminal justice outcomes when offenders weaponise vehicles against police.

Vehicle ramming injuries

Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said: “Most vehicle-ramming incidents occur as a result of individuals attempting to evade police or avoid arrest. This can be for a range of offences, from no insurance to more serious offending like robbery or assault.

“In these cases offenders are, in essence, using their vehicle as a weapon against us, and this is a scary and traumatising experience for any police officer to go through. “

“Unfortunately, a number of officers have been subjected to disgraceful and, quite frankly, disgusting behaviour being assaulted whilst simply doing their job.

“Assaults ranged from being pushed, kicked, and bitten and blood being spat at them, while one officer was sexually assaulted. A number of people have been arrested following these incidents and they will proceed through the criminal justice system.

“It should never be accepted as 'part of the job' for anyone to be punched, kicked or spat at. Police should expect to be able to do their duties without fear of attack.” The incidents officers have endured include a neighbourhood officer based in Newry, Mourne & Down who suffered leg injuries after a police vehicle was rammed by a car back in 2023.

Two years on he's still dealing with his injuries. “As a result of the collision I tore a ligament in my knee, which has made it very sore and weak. The injury caused me on one occasion to fall down the stairs in my house due to my leg giving in as it was so weak.

“Recently, my wife had our baby and I am extremely hesitant to use the stairs when I have my daughter in my arms.”

Sexual assaults

A Local Policing Team officer from Armagh was subjected to a sexual assault while on duty in January 2023 during the arrest of a man. He kept rubbing his face into the officer's chest.

She said: “During the arrest the male became verbally abusive, threatening to cut my throat and saying he was trying to 'abuse me'. He kissed my hand and placed his face into my chest and when I pushed him away, he leaned forward and placed his face on my chest again and nuzzled my chest with his face before I pushed him off again.

“He then kicked me in the knee quite hard which resulted in a bruise and an injury to my tibial plateau (bone below knee).”

The male was convicted of sexual assault in court and received a custodial sentence and was also subjected to a Sexual Offenders' Prevention Ordee.

However, the officer still deals with the repercussions of the incident, she added: “For weeks I really struggled in my home life, I had nightmares and struggled with sleeping. I was referred to a psychologist where I was tested for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and did receive therapy.”

In another shocking incident, this August, an officer from Armagh was sprayed with blood on her face, eyes and mouth by a suspect who was HIV and Hepatitis C positive, and had removed his cannula (tube put into vein).

She said: “ I went the next day to the Royal Victoria Hospital for a course of medication for the following 28 days. This medication was three tablets a day for the duration and made me feel very unwell so I was absent from work for a period of time from work.”

The Police Service recently launched an initiative to support officers impacted by these sorts of attacks.

‘My friends will not leave you alone’

Sinister threat to Vietnamese man whose nail salon business was attacked six months after opening

ALLAN PRESTON, Irish News, November 22nd, 2025

A south Belfast nail bar owner has spoken of the string of threats and attacks he and his business has suffered in the last six months.

The Good Nails premises on the Ormeau Road was set on fire in the early hours of Monday morning, with police describing it as arson with intent to endanger life and “a particularly reckless attack”.

Causing substantial damage to the shop front, it also forced an African man living upstairs to flee for his safety.

Speaking to the Irish News, the Vietnamese owner of the salon, Tony, said he invested £70,000 into the business but now feels he must choose between making a living or his safety.

Asking not to be photographed, he said: “I really don’t know how to tell you what I’ve just gone through the past few years.

“I took over Good Nails less than six months ago and it happened to me three times.

“When I was a foreigner and had a very difficult life due to language barriers, culture, etc. But I tried to live well and be useful to society.

“I had to work a lot compared to my health because I have a family and little children who are far away from us.

“I had to try to earn every penny to raise our children and I always thought that living must be responsible for the country that gave me this life. But I really lost everything. Now I don’t know what to do.”

He added: “For the past two years I lived and worked in Belfast. And last six months I invested £70,000 to open this shop.

The Good Nails salon on the Ormeau Road remains closed after the most recent arson attack on Monday

I work hard and pay my taxes

“I work hard and pay my tax, rent, rates, bills and serve our community in Ormeau road.

“But for some reason, my shop was targeted twice before. I informed police but I know nothing what they have done with their investigation, now look what happened.

“My shop was attacked in and around 2am, substantial damage has been done, life of people above the shop are put in danger and three people that we work in shop have been left with no work.”

In the days following the first ar-son attack against his business in August, Tony said he was approached by two men.

Loitering inside the premises, he said they told him: “You should surrender… my friends will not leave you alone.”

Expressing frustration at the PSNI response so far, Tony said: “I spoke to police and asked what should I do, I need to put bread on my table.

“I have my business responsibilities, but they are doing nothing as far as I am informed. They told me that they are investigating but if I was inside the shop I would have lost my life, and really I am not happy with information that police is providing to me.

“I am stuck in this situation and I do not know what to do next. Should I go and repair the shop and start working, what I really should do, or should I just accept losing £70,000 investment and walk away?

“Police should advise me on my safety. I am really terrified, frightened for my safety, yet nobody is advising me.

‘Very sad that someone sees me as different’

‘I’m very sad that someone sees me as different, as other and justified in the 21st century to attack hard working people, put the life in danger, and possibly kill.

“We were very lucky not to be inside the shop. I am still shaky and trying to digest this situation.”

A PSNI spokesperson confirmed that previous incidents at the address were reported on September 1 and August 5. They are not being treated as racially motivated attacks at this stage.

A report from August 5 describes a similar attack which was treated as deliberate ignition, with police attending a report of items burning on the ground outside a business shortly before 3.20am.

Addressing the latest incident, they added: “Detectives are continuing to investigate the circumstances and possible motives surrounding a fire at commercial premises on the Ormeau Road on Monday, November 17, with various enquiries made to date and available evidence and CCTV footage reviewed.

“Following the incident, advice on crime prevention and safeguarding premises was provided to the injured party, with officers from the Crime Prevention Team due to speak with them again about this. A news release was further issued, with an appeal for information and witnesses.

Damage caused to the inside of the salon after Monday’s attack

“Police patrols are being increased in the area and enquiries are ongoing as the investigation continues.”

Anyone with any relevant information on Monday’s arson attack has been asked to call 101, quoting reference number 64 for November 17.

Rising hostility sparks fear in Ireland’s Bangladeshi community,

Kitty Holland, Irish Times, November 22nd, 2025

As gardaí investigate numerous alleged assaults, many of the estimated 25,000 people here with Bangladeshi roots worry as they go about their day-to-day lives

The Bangladeshi father of a 13-year-old boy allegedly attacked in Co Galway last month says his “heart is broken” as he fears “Ireland is less friendly” than when he arrived almost 20 years ago.

The father of two, who co-owns a restaurant in Tuam and drives a taxi, did not want to be named, to protect his family’s privacy.

His wife and he did not find out about the incident, which was filmed and widely shared on social media, until contacted by friends. His son had feared telling them, he says.

Gardaí confirmed they are investigating an alleged attack by two youths on the boy on or near Shop Street in the town on October 16th.

“I was 100 per cent upset and angry,” the father said. “Me and my wife totally shocked. We are two, three weeks we cannot sleep. The whole family is upset,” the father told The Irish Times.

Asked whether his family had experienced abuse before, he said occasionally people refuse to pay their taxi fare using racial slurs. “Sometimes they are rude. Some say: ‘Paki b*****d. Go home.’ They are talking and they run away.”

There had never been violence, however. “No, no, no, no violence. It is a very big shock.

“I always tell Bangladeshi living in Europe: ‘Ireland is like heaven, Ireland is nice country, safe country, peaceful country.’ I am proud to tell them I live in Ireland, but now recently I find it more difficult.”

Of sadness to him is that his son is Irish-born and yet was subject to an alleged assault.

“Now I worry Ireland is less friendly. To be honest my heart is broken. I feel so sad. We came from a poor country and came here to work. Irish people [are] migrants too. I am working and we not do anything wrong.”

Irish-born children

His concerns are echoed among others in the estimated 25,000-strong Bangladeshi community, particularly for their Irish-born children.

Dr Arman Rahman, assistant professor of anatomy at UCD, who has been in Ireland since 2008, and restaurateur Mohammed Mostofa, in Ireland since 1989, worry now every time their children go out.

An alleged assault on an Irish-born Trinity College student in Dublin city centre last week “shook every member of the community”, they said.

A Garda spokesman confirmed investigations were under way into “an alleged assault that occurred on Pearse Street in Dublin 2 at approximately 3pm on Friday, November14th, 2025”.

“A male in his late teens received treatment for non-life-threatening injury,” he said.

Ireland had always felt welcoming, said Dr Rahman, but things “drastically changed” in recent months. “There is aggression in the air. The increase of the far right for me to witness, that it is very painful.

“This is home. My daughter is 18 and going to Maynooth University. For the last two months every time she goes to university my heart is beating fast. I am checking, ‘Is she on the bus?’. ‘Has the bus arrived okay?’. ‘Has she come home?’

Watching all around

Mr Mostofa said his university-age daughter is “watching all around” if out alone. “We don’t want them to grow on that fear. It is not right.”

The two brought their concerns to Minister of State at the Department of Justice Niall Collins earlier this week.

A Garda spokesman said the force was “aware of and investigating a number of incidents in which members of Ireland’s Indian and south Asian community have been injured parties”.

“Each of these individual incidents is being fully and thoroughly investigated, and An Garda Síochána is liaising with the injured parties in each case.

“Without commenting on any specific incident, the Garda national diversity unit is actively engaged with the Federation of Indian Communities in Ireland (FICI) – the umbrella group for several Indian community groups across the country – to address present concerns.

“Gardaí have also provided safety advice talks to members of the south Asian community in Dublin at a number of community events,” he said.

Protestant men ‘particularly welcome’ to apply for zoo job

ALLAN PRESTON, Irish News, November 22nd, 2025

PROTESTANTS are told they are “particularly welcome” to apply for a new £65,000 a year management job at Belfast Zoo.

Advertising the ‘Zoo Development Manager’ role, Belfast City Council said “Protestants and males are currently known to be under-represented in this job group” so applications would be “particularly welcome”.

The council describes the job as an “exciting leadership opportunity” and a “rewarding job” that will see the successful candidate “manage all issues relating to animal husbandry; historical buildings and artefacts; horticulture; hospitality and tourism; catering franchise agreements; procurement and contracts and the management and supervision of many cross functional and dedicated teams at Belfast Zoo”. Other under-represented groups across the council workforce in general were those under the age of 35, from minority ethnic communities and people with disabilities.

A guaranteed interview scheme is also in place for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post.

Belfast City Council stated that as an equal opportunities employer, all applications for employment are considered “strictly on the basis of merit”. The successful candidate would be responsible for developing long-term plans for the zoo’s growth and improvement as well as manage all issues relating to animal husbandry, historical buildings, tourism and more.

Applicants will need to have a relevant qualification in zoology, veterinary medicine or zoo management and have at least seven years’ relevant management experience in a zoological facility.

According to a 2021 audit of inequalities from Belfast City Council just over half (50.2%) of council employees were from a Protestant background, with 45% from a Catholic community background, 99% were from a white ethnic group, while 62% were male and 37.8% female as well as 5.3% having a disability.

In June this year, the latest fair employment report from the Equality Commission showed that across the monitored workforce in Northern Ireland 41.5% were Protestant and 42.3% were Catholic, with 16.2% non-determined.

Chief Commissioner Geraldine McGahey said at the time that fair participation across the workforce had been “substantially achieved” since monitoring began in 1990.

Supreme Court ruling on religious education is a godsend for DUP

NEWTON EMERSON, Irish News, November 22nd, 2025

THE Supreme Court ruling on religious teaching and worship in Northern Ireland’s schools might be considered a godsend by the DUP.

The party has been revelling in culture war skirmishes on education. Suddenly, it has been gifted an enormous battlefield, allies, weapons, and a phantom enemy.

The Supreme Court has not demanded secularism, merely some room for other faiths and none under a largely unchanged system, with Christianity still dominant.

The timing is perfect for Paul Givan, the DUP education minister. He is in the process of establishing a statutory management authority for controlled schools, or ‘state schools’ as they are often known.

They are the only sector without such a body and creating one was recommended by a 2023 independent review, so Givan is objectively correct to set it up. However, some of the DUP’s opponents have accused it of wanting a ‘Protestant CCMS’.

All Stormont has delivered is a better class of sectarianism

PATRICK MURPHY, Irish News, November 22nd, 2025

IT is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the conclusion that, with some exceptions, Stormont might now reasonably be considered a political dole office for the otherwise unemployed.

If you think that is a harsh analysis of our political system, maybe you have not lived here for the past 27 years.

Perhaps you have missed the collapse of our public services; the unending rise in poverty and homelessness; the crippling of the NHS; the deterioration of our roads; the inability to produce a programme for government; the failure to manage a budget; the preservation of a child-damaging education system and the continuing sectarian divide.

In fairness, Stormont has generated a better class of sectarianism.

Insults, jibes and taunts are now publicly funded, provided they are preceded by incantations such as “Madam, Deputy Speaker”. The Assembly has introduced a new etiquette for sectarian slanging.

This column has previously expressed the then unpopular view that Stormont cannot govern for the benefit of its people.

That former heresy is now generally accepted as truth by those people and political parties who sang the peace process anthem ‘There’ll be days like this’. They have now noticed that the good days never arrived.

Why give up power without responsibility?

The solution, they say, is to reform Stormont (whatever that means). However, the Executive parties have power without responsibility, so why give that up?

No matter how the parties perform, they will still be re-elected. For the second year running, for example, the NI Audit Office has been unable to approve the accounts of the Department for the Economy. Noone will be sacked and its Sinn Féin minister will be re-elected.

This newspaper has reported that about £650,000 was claimed in unverified travel allowance in the past three years, including almost two years when Stormont was closed. There were also “failures to ensure proper records were kept”.

(In 1948 the British health minister explained how he would convince private medical consultants to join the NHS. He said he would “stuff their mouths with gold”. Stormont’s parties appear to be rewarded on that same principle.)

Then there are MLAs’ well-paid allowances for party offices, subsidised meals (including room service), with no educational qualifications required (although being able to read a prepared script, however badly, is desirable).

Political dole office

Stormont might reasonably be considered a political dole office for the otherwise unemployed

“ At the time of the Good Friday Agreement, I thought it daft of London, Washington and Dublin to believe that the solution to a sectarian war was to replicate it with sectarian politics

At the time of the Good Friday Agreement, I thought it daft of Lon-don, Washington and Dublin to believe that the solution to a sectarian war was to replicate it with sectarian politics. Did they not see that the system could not possibly facilitate rational decision-making for social and economic policy?

Perhaps they were not so daft. The three governments did not want a Stormont which would challenge free market capitalism, minimal government intervention or privatisation – what we call Thatcherism.

Flag-waving would keep the Assembly away from real politics, a system defended recently by Senator George Mitchell, who told us not to expect “impossibly high standards” from our politicians.

So, is Stormont just occupational therapy for a sectarian elite?

Sectarian violence allowed Thatcherism to be introduced here unchallenged. (When she was beating the miners into submission, we were killing their sons and brothers.) Sectarian politics in Stormont would allow Thatcherism to remain unchallenged.

No-one at the Good Friday talks advocated the republican objective of uniting Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter. Instead, the public were sold the idea of power-sharing (but not responsibility-sharing) based on partnership. That myth was exposed recently when Paul Givan (DUP MLA for the Occupied Territories) pointed out that his party was not in partnership with SF – the two were merely in a compulsory coalition.

Oddly, what the three governments wanted to prevent here has now turned up in New York.

The city’s newly-elected mayor, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, advocates free bus travel, frozen rents, free universal child-care, a higher minimum wage and higher taxes for wealthier residents. He is Trump’s worst nightmare.

We could have been Tony Blair’s worst nightmare. Instead, our parties hid behind flags and they now blame their failings on “British government austerity”.

However, in 2023-24, the Executive spent £15,371 for every man, woman and child here (19% higher than the UK average). The figure for England was £12,625. Disguising incompetence as “austerity” is Stormont’s excuse for everything.

On Tuesday, this newspaper reported that a Fermanagh man with stage 4 cancer was left lying on the floor of Altnagelvin Hospital for more than 50 hours.

Anyone with the slightest understanding of politics could have foreseen that under institutionalised sectarianism at Stormont, there’d be days like this – and there’ll be lots more of them.

Watchdog denies carrying out audit of church

By Philip Bradfield, Belfast News Letter, November 22nd  , 2025

A safeguarding watchdog has confirmed it is not auditing the Presbyterian Church in Ireland - apparently contradicting claims from church leaders.

The church announced last week that moderator Rev Trevor Gribben was standing down after it found “serious and significant failings” in safeguarding from 2009 to 2022.

Church leaders have since said they have signed up to an "external" review by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI) – an interagency partnership including all statutory bodies responsible for safeguarding in NI.

However SBNI has told the News Letter it “is not auditing” PCI - but that the church is using its publicly available template to carry out a “self-audit”.

Last week Church Convenor Rev David Bruce appeared to say the church had asked SBNI “external to us” to review its safeguarding.

BBC presenter William Crawley asked him: "You could have an external body who does a full investigation into the fitness for the purpose of safeguarding in the Presbyterian church right now. Why not sign up to that?"

Rev David Bruce replied: "Already done. It's the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland who, external to us, have an audit process in place. We have signed up to that audit. It has begun, and when it is completed it will be launched with the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland."

On Sunday a statement claiming that “an external audit is already under way” was read out in every congregation.

In the statement, Acting Clerk of the Presbyterian General Assembly Rev David Allen said: "We will not sweep this under the carpet, we will open ourselves to external review, and will cooperate fully.

"An external audit is already under way, designed by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland, called Section 12.

"This audit will review our practices and processes, and will be submitted to the Safeguarding Board."

No Audit taking place

However the watchdog has told the News Letter: “The SBNI is not auditing the PCI child and vulnerable adults protection systems".

SBNI said it monitors all of its members in part through a mandatory safeguarding audit based on nine key standards.

However it added that PCI "is not a member agency of the SBNI" though any organisation can use the audit template.

But it warned: "The audit framework is not a substitute for an external independent review of safeguarding practice.”

SBNI said it was aware that PCI is "undertaking a self-audit" using the template, which are normally returned to SBNI for evaluation.

Asked why it did not pick up on the collapse of PCI safeguarding dating back to 2009, SBNI replied that PCI "is not, and has never been a member of SBNI therefore they have never completed a self audit using the SBNI framework tool".

Current members of SBNI include organisations such as Barnardos, NSPCC, Voypic and the Catholic Diocese Down and Connor.

The News Letter asked PCI why it said it has signed up to an external audit when it is actually conducting a self-audit?

And if it would now adopt an audit by an independent professional team?

However, PCI declined to answer questions.

A spokesman replied: ““Since a criminal investigation has been announced by the PSNI, which the Church has welcomed and will cooperate fully with, we are unable to comment on any aspect that may be part of their investigation.”

Paul Givan ‘Under my leadership, Christian faith will continue to shape education in Northern Ireland’

By Paul Givan, Belfast News Letter, November 22nd, 2025

It is already a legal requirement that religious education in controlled schools is based upon the Holy Scriptures. Writing in today's News Letter in the wake of this week's Supreme Court ruling, education minister Paul Givan says he will not allow those who wish to drive out the Christian ethos from our schools to succeed

On Wednesday the UK Supreme Court delivered what has been described as “probably the single most important legal decision, certainly in the last century” concerning religious education and collective worship in Northern Ireland. This ruling has significant implications for our schools, and I want to address it clearly and decisively.

I know there will be many from a faith background who are anxious about the potential consequences of this judgment.

I want to reassure them that as education minister, I will not permit those who would wish to drive out the Christian ethos from our schools to succeed.

I will chart a course that respects the law while safeguarding the role of faith in education.

The case concerned a child from a non-religious family who were concerned that by the time the child had commenced primary two she had absorbed and adopted a religious (specifically Christian) worldview, which was not consistent with their own views and beliefs.

The Supreme Court held that the teaching of religious education (RE) and the arrangements for collective worship such as assemblies in the primary school attended by the child breached her and her father’s European Convention rights.

While this case arose from specific circumstances, clearly it has wider implication for education in Northern Ireland.

Importantly, the courts did not strike down the existing legislation which requires education based on the Bible, but not specific to one Christian denomination.

We should not be naive.

There are those in Northern Ireland who are involved in fighting a cultural war.

There are those who would wish to see faith driven from our schools to be replaced by every progressive cause, including trans-extremism.

NI Humanists openly claim that they have been working on the issues addressed by this judgment for 10 years.

Were the Department of Education to be under the control of the Alliance Party, a direct rule minister or those who do not value the role of faith in our schools, there is a very real chance that this could indeed have very far-reaching implications.

But it need not be so.

The High Court made it clear that it is for the department not the courts to ensure that the school syllabus in relation to the teaching of religious education and collective worship is compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights.

That is why it is so important who controls the Department of Education.

Of course we must abide by the decision of the Supreme Court, but there is considerable discretion in how that might be achieved.

The court has held that in the case it determined convention rights were breached, it does not dictate how the Department should remedy the situation.

Though this case long predates my time as education minister, it does fall to me to navigate a way through the judgment.

In doing so I will consider the complete judgment and not selective interpretations designed to undermine the role of faith in our schools.

I will also balance these legal obligations with existing statutory requirements.

I will take time to fully understand the implications of the judgment and what steps might be required to ensure compliance with the European Convention rights.

Immediate knee-jerk reactions would be wrong.

Schools cannot be expected to interpret this complex ruling or make sweeping changes without clear guidance.

The Department will issue comprehensive advice in the coming weeks to ensure consistency and legal compliance.

The judgment has two key areas:

-          the religious education taught as part of the school curriculum; and

-          the collective worship held in schools mainly through assemblies and other services.

The department is reviewing the overall school curriculum – for the first time in almost 20 years.

The churches are agreed there should be a review of the religious education curriculum and I do not think it would be controversial to take this forward.

Importantly, the court has acknowledged that Christianity can remain the predominant feature of any revised curriculum.

Crucially, it would be for me to select the drafting group of people who have an interest in the teaching of religious education in grant-aided schools and then by Order to specify any core syllabus.

For controlled schools there is already a legal requirement that this religious education is based upon the Holy Scriptures.

Developing RE as a strong academic subject is essential for its long-term future because academic rigour ensures credibility, relevance and respect within the wider curriculum.

A robust academic framework protects RE from being marginalised or reduced to tokenistic practice.

In this way RE will continue to be important because it helps pupils understand the beliefs and values that have shaped the culture, laws and traditions of their community.

The area of collective worship is potentially more complex.

In Northern Ireland there is a right to withdraw a child from collective worship, though in the case before the Supreme Court it was held that the arrangement in place at the school did not satisfy the European Convention.

I will initially explore whether there are arrangements for withdrawal that could be put in place that might satisfy any legal requirements.

A complex Judgement

This is a complex judgment which cannot be ignored, but nor should it be twisted and exaggerated.

Schools will have many questions about the implications for what they should do.

I will over coming weeks provide clear, legally sound guidance to schools to avoid confusion and ensure a unified response.

We will comply with the law, but we will do so in a way that preserves the values that underpin our education system.

Faith has shaped education in Northern Ireland for generations. Under my leadership, it will continue to do so.

DUP MLA Paul Givan is the Stormont minister for education

Brighton bomb did not spook Thatcher into the Anglo Irish Agreement - says former aide

​By Ben Lowry, Belfast News Letter, November 17th, 2025

​Lord Powell rejected the idea, put to him in a question by the News Letter, that the IRA atrocity – which killed five people, including one MP and the wife of a Tory cabinet minister, and which also paralysed the wife of another cabinet minister – might have unnerved the then prime minister.

The blast, in Brighton’s Grand Hotel, was detonated during the Conservative Party conference in October 1984, a mere 13 months before the Anglo Irish Agreement was signed. Mrs Thatcher, who came very close to being killed, had also in the autumn of 1984 famously said ‘out … out … out’ after an Anglo Irish summit to any suggestion of an all Ireland state or joint authority over Northern Ireland, yet a year later she signed the deal with Garret Fitzgerald, which gave Dublin a formal say in running NI.

The Grand Hotel in Brighton after an IRA bomb in October 1985 killed five people, and almost killed Mrs Thatcher. It strengthened her view that the UK needed security co-operation with Ireland

The Grand Hotel in Brighton after an IRA bomb in October 1985 killed five people, and almost killed Mrs Thatcher. It strengthened her view that the UK needed security co-operation with Ireland

Asked if perhaps that was in part a reaction to the psychological impact of the bomb, Lord Powell said: “No, I think probably the opposite. I mean, the bomb resolved her that we must, must press ahead and do better on getting co-operation across the border on terrorism. And she was refused to be blown off course by this. And so it hardened her resolve that we must push ahead in trying to get something that would avoid bombs in future."

Charles Powell had been in Brighton the night before the blast. “Robin Butter [the head of the civil service] was there that night. My colleague on the domestic side and I was in London and co-ordinating things from there, which is actually turned out to be rather necessary because there was no way of communicating between London and Brighton = Number 10 and the delegation down there – except coming through the Number 10 Downing Street telephone exchange.”

He said of her reaction at the scene: “It's a pretty remarkable performance. I mean, you know, she got to bed about five in the morning. She was up again at six. She was speaking to the party conference at 10, maybe 11, I can't remember now. And then was going about normal business, having visited a few of those who were wounded in hospital.”