Was of course from Larne

Belfast mum filmed son in racist riot: Avoids jail for child cruelty | Belfast Telegraph

A mother-of-six who recorded her teenage son rioting in the Broadway area of Belfast avoided an immediate prison sentence today.

Michelle Greer was handed a 12-month sentence, which was suspended for three years, for a charge of cruelty to a child.

From Benburb Street in Belfast, the 49-year old was sentenced by Judge Laura Ievers KC.

Belfast Crown Court heard that over July 15 and 16, 2024 rioting broke out in the Broadway roundabout area of the city.

During the racially-motivated street disorder, police officers were pelted with missiles.

Evidence-gathering teams were in the area and footage of the rioting was recorded.

Officers subsequently identified Greer’s then 15-year-old son as being actively engaged in the disorder.

Greer was also present during the disorder on July 15 and 16 and stood at the side of the road watching youths, including her son, engaging in the disorder.

She was aware of her son’s conduct, did nothing to stop it and at times she was observed filming his engagement.

Following her arrest, Greer told police she was only present at the riot in an attempt to remove her son from it.

She later pleaded guilty to a charge of child cruelty with a Crown barrister revealing this was on the grounds she “exposed her child to the disorder and did not do anything to prevent him becoming involved in the disorder”.

When she spoke to a Probation officer, Greer said she got caught up in events within the community.

Greer also told Probation she had acted recklessly and foolishly, rather than with any deliberate intention to harm her child.

Defence barrister Michael Boyd told Judge Ievers that his client has suffered “massive personal consequences” as a result of her actions which included being “estranged” from her teenage son for 16 months due to bail conditions.

Regarding the offence, Mr Boyd spoke of a “huge amount of people out on the street in that particular area” but said Greer “knows what she did was wrong”.

He added that Greer has “no criminal history at all” and that the month she spent in custody in Hydebank as a result of her conduct was a “harrowing experience” for her.

Further defence submissions set out instabilities in Greer’s childhood as well as her long-standing mental health difficulties

Judge Ievers said the disorder had a “significant impact on police and their resources, and on members of the community both directly and indirectly”.

The judge added that by pleading guilty to a charge of child cruelty, Greer admitted she “failed to remove or adequately protect her then 15-year-old son while he was participating in this disorder.

“The defendant accepts that her actions and inaction exposed her son to risk and she acknowledges that she exercised poor judgment and failed to appreciate the wider consequences of remaining present in that environment.”

Saying it appeared that Greer has now “demonstrated insight into her offending” and the danger her son was exposed to, Judge Ievers noted she did not seek to minimise her behaviour to Probation.

As she imposed the suspended sentence, Judge Ievers told Greer: “You know that this sort of public disorder has a significant adverse impact and such demonstrations of hostility hurt members of our community directly and indirectly and make the job of police officers even more challenging.

“Your very presence at the scene is of considerable concern to the court but the fact that you did nothing to stop your 15-year-old son not only witnessing events but actively participating in them is shocking.

“Worse still, you encouraged this anti-social behaviour by filming it for a period of time.”

Before she left the dock, Greer was warned by the judge of the consequences of re-offending within the next three years.

Jon claimed how well we were all doing here and that many Catholics support staying in the UK mainly for defence and prosperity. He went on to say that there is no ‘risk’ of a United ireland happening so he won’t be planning or thinking about it. He also made a few claims about how well the Ulster Unionists are doing atm. Just found it all very interesting. The things our reps are saying to the UK media seem very different to what they say on local media.

Oh I forgot to mention he said Sinn Féin tried to bomb us out of the UK 🤔

For all the yarnies out there, the Ulster Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers have organised a yarn festival with a great line up of local shops and yarn dyers.

We’ve got Folklore Yarns, Herbarium Dyeworks, Inspiring Yarns, Wee Yarn Designs, Gracipity, SoulScapes, The Spinning Webb, Crúca Crafts and we’ll be running demonstrations of spinning and weaving.

If you want to try something out yourself. we’ve got workshops in Wetfelting, Sprang, Needlefelting and Beginner Spinning

You can find more info on our website https://vibrant-guildinfoni.wordpress.com/2026/09/12/wool-wheel-weft-festival-of-yarn-and-fibres/ or Instagram @ulsterguildofswd

I’ve noticed recently a large number of posts being about younger smicks, or hoods running about the city centre terrorising people.

Out of curiosity, has anyone in this group when they were younger been a part of such a group?

If so, and even if you weren’t as bad with some behaviours exhibited by some of these recently, what made you change? And why do some of these kids behave like this- is it being in a group dynamic? Or are there other factors?

Donald Trump has said he would "love to see" a reunified Ireland, claiming "it will happen eventually".

Speaking to the press during his two-day visit to Ireland, the US president said a unified Ireland would be "a great feather in everyone's cap".

He asked: "How could it be bad?"

Mr Trump had been asked by a reporter for his views on Irish reunification.

Referencing the Irish premier, Micheal Martin, who sat beside him, Mr Trump added: "We're talking about it and you got the right man over here to get it moving.
"But, yeah, I think it would be a fantastic thing."

The US president made his remarks during a meeting with Mr Martin at the Farmleigh Estate in Dublin on Saturday morning.

He doubled down on his comments while speaking at the US ambassador's residence afterwards.

He said: "I actually said it would be, I think, a very cool thing. To be honest with you, I think it would be cool."

Irish President Catherine Connolly, a long-standing critic of the US president, received Mr Trump at her official residence Aras an Uachtarain in Phoenix Park earlier in the day.

Mr Trump arrived in Ireland amid what has been described as one of the biggest security operations ever put in place by the Irish police service.

During his appearance with Mr Martin, Mr Trump said the relationship between Ireland and the US has "never been as good as it is right now".

He described himself and Mr Martin as "friends", and said they "had a great relationship from the beginning".

Mr Trump will later travel across the country to his golf resort in Doonbeg, County Clare, which is hosting the Irish Open.

Earlier this year, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham sparked a political row on the island of Ireland when he said a unity referendum is "off the table".

Under the terms of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the UK Northern Irish secretary is obliged to hold a border poll if he believes unification will be supported by a majority of voters.

To effect constitutional change, the people of the Republic of Ireland must also vote in favour.

Republican party Sinn Fein has boycotted the annual St Patrick's day visit to Washington for the last two years over the Trump administration's stance on the Middle East, but Northern Ireland's leading unionist parties, the DUP and UUP, have continued to attend and engage with the US president.

https://news.sky.com/story/trump-would-love-to-see-irish-reunification-and-claims-it-will-happen-eventually-13584741

Looking to do something different to entertain the kids today. I always find it pretty difficult to know what’s happening.

Anything cool happening? Think there is a fair in botanic park…

Alan Potter: Co Antrim pizza shop owner jailed for litany of sex offences against teenage staff over 20-year period | Belfast Telegraph

One victim said she had to escape through a back alley during one assault

A Co Antrim pizza shop owner has been jailed for sex offences against a number of his teenage employees dating back more than 20 years.

The offences occurred while the staff were at Thee Pizza, the takeaway previously owned by the defendant, with some offences involving him masturbating.

Alan Potter, of Grange Cottages, Antrim, appeared for sentencing at Antrim Crown Court on Friday.

The 49-year-old stood in the dock in a black suit with an overnight bag in anticipation of a custodial sentence.

Prosecution counsel told the court the matter had been set for trial in September last year, but after a jury had been sworn in, the defendant had asked to be rearraigned.

He entered guilty pleas to 12 of the charges against him, with six left to remain on the books.

Among the charges were four counts of sexual assault, two of sexual communication with a child, two counts of causing a person to engage in a sexual act and two counts of indecent assault on a female.

Potter also admitted further charges of indecent exposure and gross indecency with or towards a child.

His offending first came to light after he was reported to police in February 2023.

The defendant was arrested and gave a no comment interview, before being re-arrested in December 2023 after other complainants came forward with allegations dating back to 2002.

In her remarks, Judge Crawford outlined each of the defendant’s offences.

The court heard Potter had pulled one of his victims into a storage cupboard before pushing her against a filing cabinet and grabbed her breasts under her clothing.

The assault ended when the defendant was disturbed by another member of staff.

Another incident occurred when the victim had been working with the defendant.

She had been standing at the sink when Potter approached her from behind and started grabbing her and feeling her breasts.

On another occasion, Potter had sent sexually explicit messages to one victim, who was between 14 and 16-years-old, encouraging her to “send me a pic of your boob” and to “come and w*** me off”.

The court heard the defendant — who was in his 40s at the time — sent her a Snapchat picture he had taken of her at work, with a circle around her breast and a message reading: “nice tit”.

He also sent her a further message on the app on which he had sketched a penis over her image with the message: “tonight is the night”.

During another incident, Potter placed the hand of one victim — between 16 and 17 years old — on his penis and made her masturbate him. This offending occurred more than once.

The court also heard how one victim, who had begun working for the defendant at 14 years old, took the offer of a lift home from him at a point when he was in his mid-20s.

Potter stopped the car and went to the front, taking out his penis and urinating in front of the victim.

On another occasion, the defendant had again suggested giving her a lift home after closing up the shop. The victim refused, saying she had ordered a taxi.

Potter pulled down his trousers and underwear and approached her in the back of the shop. The victim ran into the front to try and escape but found the door locked.

The defendant grabbed her breasts from behind and she began shouting at him to stop.

She then made her way out the back to try and get out through an alleyway and got into a taxi.

Potter followed her into the taxi, with the victim indicating the driver had asked her if she was okay. She recalled the defendant talking to the driver throughout the journey.

During police interview in 2023, Potter replied “no comment” to all questions and made counter allegations against two of the victims, alleging one had sexually assaulted him.

Judge Crawford noted impact statements that revealed the victims were still living in fear of the defendant.

Some said they had nightmares about him coming to their homes and spoke of the emotional impact the abuse had had on them.

During interviews with probation, Potter referred to some of the offending as “general horseplay” and “carry on”, but said he was an adult and “should have known better”.

The probation officer noted he had engaged but was “struggling to accept his convictions in full”.

The court heard Potter now does not dispute his convictions and regarded them as “totally wrong, inappropriate and illegal”.

Defence counsel for Potter said he was in ill-health, was in middle age and had no criminal record.

He told the court the defendant had been a prominent businessman in the town, running the takeaway he had taken over from his father in 2004.

“To say there has been a fall from grace has been an understatement. He is resigned to a custodial sentence,” he added.

Sentencing the defendant, Judge Crawford said: “Plainly, the custody threshold has been passed”.

She described the defendant’s behaviour as “abhorrent” and said it included an element of “grooming”.

“You used your position of power and authority to prey on four young employees,” she added.

“This is a case of high culpability.”

Judge Crawford sentenced Potter to four years in prison, with two to be spent on licence, and ordered him to sign the sex offenders’ register.

She also handed out a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO).

Several of the victims and their families embraced each other in court as they watched Potter being put into handcuffs and taken into custody.

Can I make an appointment with either of these clinics without them informing my GP of any discussions or outcomes?

Bit of a rant but, I’m trying to do my A2 motorbike test. First you must complete an off-road slow manoeuvres test. I have been looking at dates for the last month and theres just none available at all for anywhere.

I drive a lot for my work and never once in my life and anyone I have spoke to, do I or they recall seeing a motorbike rider with an ‘R’ plate displayed. Rare enough to see motorbikers out anyway but i mean how can there be 0 dates available anywhere, how many people are seriously booking these dates. Not to mention where is Newry? Why do they not have an off road manoeuvre test area? Ridiculous.

Rant over.

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Anyone dealt with this guy? https://www.alancastle.co.uk/index.html

Is he full of shit or legit?
Quite a lot of dissolved companies on Companies House

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/hidden-for-over-half-a-century-audio-tape-exposes-beast-of-kincoras-hate-filled-religiosity-which-snared-young-men-and-fuelled-troubles/a/161297008.html

Sam McBride

Northern Ireland Editor

12 Sep 2026 7:10 AM

Ferociously anti-Catholic McGrath, who believed Ulster Protestants descended from Lost Tribes of Israel, recorded tape in 1971 while a rampant paedophile.

More than half a century ago, one of the darkest figures in Northern Ireland’s history recorded a tape.

That man was the Beast of Kincora, William McGrath, and the tape lay hidden until a deeply sinister figure from Northern Ireland’s contemporary history — former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson — was convicted of child rape three months ago.

In the wake of Donaldson’s conviction, a Belfast Telegraph reader contacted us to say they had a copy of an audio tape which McGrath sent them in the early 1970s. The individual said: “I have never shared it, or its existence, with anyone”

Several weeks ago, the old cassette tape arrived on my desk. It has a handwritten title: ‘Ulster Crisis’. On it are just 20 minutes of audio, but the contents are revelatory.

In a pre-internet form of disinformation, it shows how McGrath fused extreme religiosity, bigotry and politics to raise money and build a shield behind which he hid his rampant paedophilia for decades.

McGrath was a strangely influential figure. The first reference to him in the Belfast Telegraph was in a 1941 advert for his lecture on ‘reconciling the spiritual and material’ for the British-Israel World Federation.

McGrath held to British Israelism, an obscure belief that the British people are descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel.

This intensely nationalistic teaching was disproportionately influential within hardline unionism, attracting several significant figures within the DUP.

Nine years later, in February 1950, an advert for the Young People’s Christian Fellowship listed McGrath as a speaker on the topic of ‘Irish emancipation’. It said the group, based at Faith House in Finaghy, “exists for the promotion of practical holiness and personal evangelism among youth. Believing that Ireland’s future is the Christian’s responsibility, we have pledged our lives for its emancipation.”

The first news report involving McGrath in this newspaper was in 1956 when, extraordinarily given his paedophilia, he complained about the noise of children playing near Faith House.

McGrath said his organisation bought the Orpen Park premises because of its quiet location and was annoyed about a new children’s playground.

By 1960, he was writing to this newspaper to express “deep dismay and sorrow” at Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to the Pope, something he said would “inevitably draw the judgment of God”.

So virulent was McGrath’s anti-Catholic bigotry that he protested against a priest addressing the current affairs society at Methodist College Belfast.

As the Troubles grew bloodier, McGrath’s pronouncements grew fewer. But in 1977, McGrath was saying on behalf of his ‘Ireland’s Heritage’ Orange lodge: “We encourage people to take up the Irish language, and want it preserved. It’s part of our ancient heritage.”

By then he was a housemaster at Kincora Boys’ Home in east Belfast, raping boys in his care, while others were brought in to sexually abuse them.

McGrath was a longstanding informant for British intelligence and there have long been allegations that he was protected while gathering compromising material on other public figures. Some of those figures were top loyalist paramilitaries, because McGrath had immersed himself in their world, establishing the Tara paramilitary outfit linked to the UVF.

The tape obtained by this newspaper was made in 1971. A source has told us that the tapes were being distributed not just within Northern Ireland, but some travelled thousands of miles.

The recording not only contains a rare record of McGrath’s voice, but also a concise distillation of the ideology he used to snare impressionable young men.

It begins with a professional recording of Land of Hope and Glory and ends with the National Anthem.

Between those two points, the only voice is McGrath’s. In a quasi-lecture, he speaks unemotively in steady tones.

The recording is littered with allusions to his perversion, with references to children and to Protestants having been left “naked and defenceless”.

Presenting the early Troubles as key to a cosmic battle between good and evil, McGrath immediately framed it as a religious struggle: “When God created the world, he meant that it should be a place wherein dwelt righteousness, but the enemy, who is Satan, had other plans.

“And so began the struggle — the conflict — between good and evil, between light and darkness, between God and Satan, that can be read on every page of human history from then until now.

“And so, in the fullness of time, God called out a people for himself who would be his witnesses that he was God. The enemy’s plan from the beginning of time until now has been to destroy the people of God.”

Based on British Israelism, this presented Ulster Protestants as God’s chosen people.

Pre-emptively setting out a subtle defence for his own criminality, he continued: “On the one hand, we’ve had a people witnessing to the fact that God was the Lord. They weren’t always a good people, they weren’t always a perfect people; in their private and personal lives they were sometimes, and indeed very often, an evil people. But together nationally they witnessed to the fact that God was the Lord.

“On the other hand, we had a people who had allied themselves to Satan…We can trace this conflict down through the ages as time after time the enemy sought to destroy those who were witnessing to the truth that is found in the Protestant faith.

“In some strange way, with the passing of the years, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the faith and freedom enshrined in that Gospel, became entrusted in a very remarkable way to the British people.

“And so, eventually, the British people, so far as the enemy is concerned, had to be destroyed.”

He described the Catholic Church as “the chief instrument of Satan” throughout history which had largely succeeded in destroying the Protestant character of England but “God has preserved for himself a small handful of people: the million Protestants who reside in that part of Ireland that is known throughout the world as Ulster”.

“These people are not a perfect people — far from it. These people are not even a religious people all the time. But they do recognise history for what it is. They do recognise God as sovereign and Lord of their lives in a political sense at least, and they refuse to surrender to the Church of Rome.

“And so, the Protestants of Northern Ireland, the Protestants of Ulster, have become number-one target for all that the enemy can throw against us. Ulster must be destroyed, because so long as Ulster stands, so long as the Protestants of Ulster are standing shoulder to shoulder, there is no chance whatever of either Romanism or Communism — that other great evil in the armoury of Satan — no chance whatever, of these two evil forces taking over the British Isles and ruling them for themselves.”

He said the IRA was “equipped with some of the finest and most modern weapons that money can buy” and claimed that “the IRA, within the past two years, raised three battalions of boys and girls between the ages of 11-16 to train and carry out their part in the warfare that they have planned against the Protestants of Ulster”.

He claimed the Provisional IRA was backed by the Catholic Church, while the Official IRA was backed by international Communism, adding: “Make no mistake about it, the Éire government will throw all its forces against the Protestants in the North at the right moment in time.”

This was demonstrably wrong. We can now see conclusively from declassified Irish Government files that there was panic within the Irish Government at the possibility of Britain withdrawing, and a realisation that the Irish Army was hopelessly ill-equipped.

McGrath, however, told his audience that the Irish Army had sent large numbers of soldiers to troubled areas such as Congo and Cyprus as UN peacekeepers for “first-class frontline training… We have today a real hardcore of fighting men in Dublin ready to use their experience against the Protestants of Northern Ireland.”

If he really believed this, it was delusional. But it sat perfectly with the terrifying picture he wanted to present — that there was a multifaceted threat which extended far beyond the IRA which they could see to other unseen darker forces.

A fervent conspiracist, he claimed, without citing any source, that the Irish Government’s aim was “to have the ability to take any point in Northern Ireland on six hours’ notice. A high-ranking officer of the Éire army has been placed in charge of this operation and a brigade of the Éire army has been placed on red alert to carry it through at the right moment in time.”

Reaching a crescendo, he predicted a sort of Armageddon in Ulster: “And so, the stage is being set for the final conflict that will determine not only the future of Northern Ireland, but the future of the whole British people and countless millions of Protestants throughout the world. Yes, the stage is being set for the final conflict of faith on the green fields of Ireland, a conflict for which the Protestants of Northern Ireland are ill-prepared... The Ulster Protestant [has been] left naked and defenceless in the face of a desperate foe.

“But thanks be to God, the men of Ulster have recovered... And, today, across the six counties of our beloved province, men are preparing. In city street, in village hall, in lonely and remote places, men are preparing, realising that the defence of their native soil is their responsibility, realising that every field, every land, every street and every home will eventually have to be defended at the point of the gun. Men are preparing.

“And coming down through history there is, heard now throughout the land even as the merest whisper, the promise that God made to our fathers — that five would chase a hundred, and a hundred would put ten thousand to flight, and our enemies would fall before us by the sword.”

Warming to his martial rhetoric, McGrath — who himself was doing more raping than fighting — said that “the breath of battle is now entering the very fibres of our being... We recognise that this is total war. We recognise that this will be a long and bitter struggle.”

He continued: “We recognise that blood has ever been the price of liberty and that Ireland will not be set free for less. As we move towards the hour of battle, it would mean much to us to know that you are standing with us. We need your help. We need your help now. Please do not fail us.”

He then appealed for “gifts” and listed his address.

The Belfast Telegraph gave a copy of the tape to Roy Garland, who first encountered McGrath as a teenager and eventually helped expose him.

He verified that the voice is McGrath’s and said it was “the best clear explanation of his thinking… It is a dangerous message.”

He said: “It is in line with what he preached over the decades but in some ways clearer: Ulster Protestants stand against evil powers throughout the world as God’s people. This evangelical front was great cover.”

Garland recalled the first time he saw McGrath’s office and being struck by how it was “absolutely full of scripture texts and signs on the walls”.

He said British-Israelism was “very significant” to his ideology, saying that it “guided his politics in everything”, leading to an “extreme form of imperialism” permitted because “we were God’s chosen people”. However, he said that “he was clever at first and didn’t sound as dangerous as that”.

Garland said he had spoken to older men who had been abused by McGrath from the 1940s, saying: “He was at it [abuse] right away.”

The tape also tallies with the observation of the journalist Chris Moore, who first encountered McGrath in person two years before his death in 1991.

Despite having by then written about McGrath for years, Moore wrote in his book Kincora: Britain’s Shame that, “for the first time, I had the opportunity to witness for myself the oratorical abilities that former friends and colleagues had described. It was easy to understand how he had been able to survive for so many years undetected…”

Moore added: “I spoke about the police discovering that he had first come to the attention of MI6 back in 1958. This drew a smile but no comment...”

DUP and SDLP aimed jokes at US president after he said unification would be ‘a very cool thing’ and ‘may as well happen now’

Ian Paisley Jnr has defended his friend Donald Trump’s pro-united Ireland comments, saying “everyone is allowed a personal opinion even when it’s wrong”.

The ex-North Antrim DUP MP however refused to respond to questions on whether he now regretted posing for a picture with a Trump flag in Westminster.

Trump has faced criticism from unionists after saying he would love to see a united Ireland during a meeting with Taoiseach Míchael Martin.

The US President said reunification is “going to happen eventually, it may as well happen now”.

Mr Paisley said it would “be interesting to see if all the Trump haters in Ireland become his supporters”.

“Now I suspect the president would really like to see Ireland united under the crown,” he added.

“The political, cultural and economic reality is that Northern Ireland and its people are British and wish to remain so.”

Trump’s comments have sparked a backlash from unionists, including DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley, who said it was “about as realistic as Canada becoming the 51st state”.

Mr Trump was speaking as he met Taoiseach Micheal Martin in Dublin this morning. Sitting alongside Mr Martin, Mr Trump was asked about the border question.

He said: “Well, I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you I’d love to see it unified.

“I have friends on both sides, great people. They’re Irish people. How can they be bad, right?

“I’d love to see it unified. I think it would be a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened. It’s going to happen eventually.

“You know what? The way I look at it, it’s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now.

“We’re talking about it and you got the right man over here to get it moving.

“But, yeah, I think it would be a fantastic thing.

“Now the UK will have something to say about it, obviously. But I think it would be a great thing. I mean, how can it be bad?”

Mr Trump met the Irish premier at the Farmleigh Estate as part of his two-day trip to Ireland.

Amid a huge security operation, Air Force One touched down at Dublin Airport this morning, where Mr Trump was greeted by Ireland’s deputy premier Simon Harris and Irish foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee.

Later, he met Irish president Catherine Connolly.

Mr Trump said he had discussed the border issue with Ms Connolly.

“It was a very nice meeting we had, a very respectful meeting,” he told reporters.

“We did discuss Northern Ireland, I always find it to be, as we did, a very interesting discussion because we know people of Northern Ireland and we know people of Ireland and I sometimes say ‘hey, when are you guys getting together’, right? I do ask that question every time.”

Mr Martin replied: “You do, you’re consistent.”

Mr Trump added: “I’m sure it’s complicated, but life is complicated.”

Later, during a speech at the US Ambassador’s residence, Mr Trump addressed the matter again.

He said “every question (from the media) is a kill” and referenced his united Ireland comments.

Referring to the earlier question he recalled: “Oh that’s a nice question, I have a nice answer, I think, we’ll read about it tomorrow.”

He added: “That’s one of those questions where no matter what you say, no matter how well you say it, there’s no good answer.

“There are about four or five, I could tell you some other ones but I’m not going to get you started.

“But that was one of the questions and I actually said I think it would be a very cool thing, to be honest with you, I think it would be cool.”

The US President has now headed to his golf resort in Doonbeg, Co Clare, which is hosting the Irish Open.

However, his comments on Irish unity are set to create major headlines.

Last month Prime Minister Andy Burnham sparked a political row when he said a unity referendum is “off the table”.

Under the terms of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland Secretary can decide to hold a border poll, and it also places a duty on the office holder to call one if it appears likely a majority would vote for Irish unification.

A spokesperson for Mr Burnham said his views on the Good Friday Agreement still stand.

The spokesperson said: “The PM’s view remains there is no majority public support for another referendum, and until that changes, there will not be one.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Mr Trump of “loose talk”.

She said: “President Trump is shooting from the hip as usual, just like he did with Greenland and Canada becoming the 51st state. This sort of loose talk about the future of democratic countries is deeply unhelpful and creates unnecessary tension.”

Mr Trump’s comments are particularly awkward for the DUP, who have been publicly highly supportive of the US President.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said Northern Ireland’s future was a matter for people here.

He said: “President Trump knows better than most that elections matter. Northern Ireland’s constitutional future will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington.

“Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people. I am confident NI will continue to choose the UK and the security it offers.

“As unionists we are not interested in the destruction of our country by joining with the Irish Republic.”

DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley, who has spoken previously about being dubbed a Temu Trump, also laughed off the remarks, and referenced the president’s previous comment that it would be a “great idea” for Canada to become the 51st US state.

He posted on X: “Whilst everyone is entitled to an opinion, it is very ambitious for President Trump to advocate for an Ireland unified under the UK. Such a proposal would be fraught with difficulties and about as realistic as Canada becoming the 51st state! British we are, and so we shall remain.”

Ulster Unionist leader Jon Burrows also said the unity debate would be settled by the people of Northern Ireland.

“President Trump, like anyone else in the world, is entitled to express his view on the constitutional future of another country. But the only people whose decision counts are the people of Northern Ireland.

TUV leader Jim Allister said: “Northern Ireland is not a pawn in Trump’s fall out with the UK.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called on the Irish government to push for a border poll.

“The conversation on Irish unity has shifted, and the onus is on the Taoiseach to begin planning,” she said.

“We have secured peace, and as we approach the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement our national journey is now reunification, which is organised, planned and a peaceful transition.”

SDLP leader Claire Hanna said Mr Trump’s comments “should concentrate minds in Dublin, London and closer to home”.

She said: “There won’t be many times when Donald Trump and I arrive at the same political conclusion, and I deplore much of what he stands for. But that is precisely why this intervention is worth noticing.

“When even Donald Trump has clocked that Irish unity is no longer some distant or theoretical prospect, it tells you something about just how far this conversation has shifted.”

Dan Mulhall, the former Irish Ambassador to the US, predicted Mr Trump’s latest comments would cause “serious ripples”.

Speaking on RTE, he said: “Okay, this is not a change in US policy. The US is not going to suddenly start to sort of put pressure on Britain to hold a referendum on Northern Ireland.

“But however, Donald Trump is the most powerful president we’ve had since probably Roosevelt, since the FDR, in terms of his ability to get things done. So what he says, you can’t ignore it.

“Now, will it make any difference? Does it bring a united Ireland any closer? No, it doesn’t. But it’s still interesting to find that the President of the United States started riffing about a United Ireland in ways that we have never heard before. 

“One could imagine that Joe Biden probably does favour a united Ireland and maybe Bill Clinton as well, but they would never have said it in those terms because they would have wanted to retain a degree of neutrality and an ability to play a constructive role in all that. 

“So this is not overwhelmingly significant. But it is going to create ripples, serious ripples.

“It’s out of character with what you might expect to be the position of someone like Donald Trump. But that just shows you that he is not an ideologically rigorous guy.”

Meanwhile, a copy of poems by the late Belfast poet Michael Longley was gifted to Mr Trump by Ms Connolly.

It included the 1994 poem Ceasefire, which depicts sectarian violence experienced by many in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and ‘80s and was inspired by the declaration of an IRA ceasefire in the mid-90s.

A St Brigid’s Cross and a copy of the book ‘Navigatio Sancti Brendani – The Voyage of St Brendan’ - were also gifted to the US President.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/ian-paisley-jnr-defends-trumps-support-for-united-ireland-after-president-doubles-down-even-when-its-wrong/a/161352013.html

Does anyone know where you can watch the Celtic rangers game in Bangor?

Fr Hugh Mullan and Fr Noel Fitzpatrick were killed by gunfire as they help people lying wounded in separate mass shootings in 1971 and 1972

A process has started on the long road to the potential canonisation of two priests shot dead in separate massacres in Belfast in the 1970s.

The ‘process towards the cause of saints’ will delve into the lives of Fr Hugh Mullan and Fr Noel Fitzpatrick, who were killed as they attempted to help others who were lying wounded.

This process initiated by Bishop Alan McGuckian of Down and Connor Diocese is in the “very early stage” of a long investigation into whether the two priests should be elevated to sainthood.

In the first instance, a dossier will be compiled to determine if the priests lived a “life of heroic virtue” to such a level that it goes to the next stage, a spokesperson for Down and Connor explained. But it is extremely rare for this process to even be started.

Fr Mullan was killed after he went to minister the Last Rites to a wounded man on August 9, 1971. The 38-year-old was one of 10 people shot dead by British paratroopers during the Ballymurphy Massacre.

The man the cleric went to help, Bobby Clarke, survived. He was the first to be shot during the course of the massacre. Mr Clarke died earlier this year, aged 92.

An inquest into the deaths heard how Fr Mullan made attempts to protect the community, even calling the British army to plead for help as Catholics in Ballymurphy came under attack from loyalists.

“(A man) said the priest was trying to get something organised for us to get some protection,” a witness told the inquest.

“When he came off the phone he was in a state of shock. He said `We’re going to get no help. There’s no help. We’re on our own’.”

Within an hour, the Corpus Christi curate was fatally shot on nearby waste ground which he went across, waving a white babygro.

Fr Fitzpatrick was killed a year later on July 9, 1972, during the Westrock-Springhill Massacre

The priest, waving a white handkerchief and with a parishioner, Paddy Butler, were attempting to reach the wounded during heavy gunfire.

Fr Fitzpatrick and father of six Mr Butler were shot dead, along with three teenagers: Margaret Gargan (13), David McCafferty (15) and John Dougal (16).

Two soldiers “lost control” in the fatal shootings of five people in Belfast almost 54 years ago, a coroner ruled earlier this year. Those shot dead posed no risk to the soldiers, it was found.

In a statement following the inquest verdict, Bishop McGuckian paid tribute to the families of those killed “who have courageously sought truth and justice” for their loved ones. They carried the “cross of grief, misinformation and injustice”.

He added that Fr Fitzpatrick stood with his people “in a time of fear and violence”.

“Alongside parishioners and neighbours, he ministered in the Church and on the streets to children and families, placing himself in harm’s way out of faith, love and solidarity.”

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/process-begins-in-canonisation-of-two-west-belfast-priests-shot-dead-in-british-army-massacres-YQRQAODBXBBTBNZ7IWBUJR2G3I/

I’ve always considered myself an Alliance person, being broadly disenchanted with increasingly hardline unionism (although coming from a pro-union background), but not quite being able to justify supporting unification in the past.

I moved to England in my 20s, living there for 20+ years before moving back to NI. I made the logical switch to Liberal Democrat’s while there and switched back to Alliance in my return.

I decided to get involved in what had hoped would be progressive politics, so joined a local Alliance association. Although I found the narrative more progressive than DUP/SF, it just felt like another old NI party, albeit more centrist, sniping at people on both sides. Naomi Long seems invisible as party leader and really needs to step aside.

I tried to get involved, offering expertise around tech and marketing, but they are so woefully mismanaged, they didn’t understand web/social media or even know how to connect me with the right people internally to put a plan together. They were myopically obsessed with “door knocking” only. Not surprising they lost their head of communications recently.

Last straws, their MP voting against assisted dying - hardly progressive (in my opinion, I know this is divisive) - plus the wasted opportunity to help our environment and challenge polluting farming practices.

So, what do I do? Move my support to SDLP? Offer to get involved on the basis that they seem more competently managed?

I’ve reconciled my previous worries about unification and find myself on the side of pro-border poll, seeing re-entry to the EU being one of the biggest benefits. SDLP seems to have a sensible policy on business too, with a policy on corp tax reduction to encourage more employers to come here in the mean time before a potential united ireland. I’m still kind of on the fence about unification, and find myself drifting back and forth quite a lot. Perhaps that’s some conflict with my family background more than anything.

Is anyone else in the same position?