Sam McBride

📢 Some news from me: I've written a book with the erudite and eloquent Fintan O'Toole in which we each argue for - and then against - Irish unity, setting out objectively what seem to us each side's best arguments, and the issues people across the island of Ireland should consider.

Rhinos, Provos and loyalist terror bosses: Northern Ireland has become the land of the absurd where words have lost their meaning. Society is pretending all is well, when deeply abnormal behaviour has become not only acceptable but encouraged.

Stormont descends into chaos as Michelle O’Neill walks out, leaving Emma Little-Pengelly unable to continue: After O'Neill belatedly agrees to attend scrutiny committee, FM-dFM chasm is impossible to conceal or deny. This is now government in name only.

Jeffrey Donaldson’s incessant trips to the developing world raise dark new questions about shadow career abroad: DUP MP visited African country 10 times in less than 3 years, helped flog weapons alongside a British general & worked with special forces man.

London shouldn’t give Stormont any more money - extra cash has been perversely making things worse for the public. The Executive is an emperor with no clothes: It’s strutting around buck naked and far too many people who know this are silent.

Apologies to Sir Chris Bryant for inadvertently referring to him as 'Sir Christ Bryant' in my email newsletter last night. Although I'm sure he's been called worse, the correct version, minus Biblical title, is now online.

When did suicide become an argument? www.economist.com/britain/2026...

As Barack Obama speaks to an audience of more than 10,000 people in Belfast's O2 Arena, talking abut the fragility of democracy around the world, someone shouts out loudly from the crowd: "F**k Stormont".

Counterintuitive as it seems, many senior unionists — and even some top Orangemen — will have been quietly delighted when, late on Friday evening, the Garvaghy Road parade was banned. But how this situation has developed now creates major problems.

Imagine if the Executive parties treated the Lough Neagh scandal with even half the effort which they expended on Drumcree: Crisis meetings, emergency court cases, constant pressure - even breaking the law to achieve a goal. Instead, there's simply no urgency as the lough dies.

Factory farming is killing Lough Neagh – and despite Andrew Muir’s opposition to this, he’s incentivising it. Muir is a radically different minister - yet his ‘kill them young’ scheme is squeezing out traditional farming and encouraging US-style megafarms.

Next Thursday night I’ll be in discussion at the Belfast Exposed gallery with poet & ex-journalist Angela Graham. Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has described her latest collection, inspired by the horrors of the Ukraine War, as “exceptional”. Free🎟️below:

There are no true believers in Stormont any more. Everyone has lost their faith. It is a place united in despondency where MLAs knock off early. The Drumcree standoff is threatening to topple Stormont but this is merely a symptom of an underlying disease.

Was on #BBCRedLines discussing the potential electoral implications of Drumcree with @sjamcbride.bsky.social @markcarruthers7.bsky.social and Gareth Gordon www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

🎧 What's it really like inside Sinn Féin? Siobhán Fenton was recruited as an outsider - who doesn't even support what the Provisional IRA did. She became Mary Lou McDonald's deputy chief press secretary, but left in December 2024. I sat down with her.

Could a ‘one and done’ final Drumcree parade work? Before he died, the most senior Orangeman in Portadown told me of a secret plan to definitively resolve the Drumcree dispute — with the Catholic Church at its heart.

🎧 The Drumcree crisis and what's likely to happen next, with @ciarandunbarrach.bsky.social, Allison Morris, Andrew Madden and Claire Dickson.

Amid myriad crises and without a budget half way through the financial year, Stormont is spending three days debating if someone can invent their own gender...& if people should be jailed for trying to "suppress" that. It's been a remarkable debate so far.

After head-hunting and then ditching an opponent of IRA violence, Sinn Fein stands at a crossroads. Siobhán Fenton's journey into and then out of SF - right up to deputy press secretary to Mary Lou McDonald - reveals SF's vulnerability when it opens up.

Look forward to discussing my forthcoming book 'Troubled Waters' with Sam McBride and others as part of this event on Sunday. Tickets are still available and there's more info at the @shhomeplace.bsky.social event link here: seamusheaneyhome.com/event/a-loug...

More money well spent by Stormont. Sometimes all one can do is marvel at the wisdom of our rulers. It's frankly outrageous that the horrid Treasury isn't sending billions more so that Jayne Brady can get a proper pay rise. Shocking austerity.

An intriguing shift has been happening of late: Some staunch Northern Ireland unionists are making a pro-Irish argument in favour of the Union. This is not entirely novel but a rediscovery of an argument which had become rusted through disuse.

Stephen Walker was yesterday given an exceptional send-off by his wife and remarkable children, who did him proud. I've never attended a funeral where there were so many laughs amid the inevitable sadness. Stephen epitomised so much of the best of Northern Ireland.

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. The tape lay hidden until another deeply sinister figure — Jeffrey Donaldson — was convicted of child rape three months ago.

This year's PISA survey asked questions on AI use at school and the results are clear: increased AI use in school is associated with lower scores.

Secret files reveal how politics overrode security advice about Queen's NI Silver Jubilee visit: Security assessment considered possibility of suicide bomber or IRA divers & fears Duke of Edinburgh young people could be shot, but visit judged politically imperative.

Leading loyalist bandsman warns that re-opening the Drumcree dispute could be disastrous for parades across Northern Ireland - and reveals the NIO in 2023 rejected him for the Parades Commission in favour of Billy Gamble, who has just quit in controversy.

Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy’s error was simple, but catastrophic. Unknown to the IRA gangster, the newspaper he was suing had all but abandoned hope of winning. A previously secret file reveals key elements of The Sunday Times' seminal libel victory in 1990.