Northern Irish police call for witnesses to attack which left 15-year-old in critical condition
Police are calling for witnesses after a 15-year-old girl was stabbed in the neck in Lurgan, leaving her in a critical condition.
The incident happened around 9pm on Friday in the Deans Walk area of the County Armagh town, police said.
Continue reading...Police arrest two teenagers under anti-terror law after shooting of journalist in Derry
A new breed of terrorist is coming through the ranks in Northern Ireland, the detective leading the hunt for Lyra McKee’s killers said.
Police on Saturday arrested two teenagers in connection with the murder of the journalist in Derry. Officers suspect they are members of the dissident republican group New IRA.
Continue reading...After two decades away, Rory Carroll reflects on going back to Dublin to cover everything from Brexit and border issues to abortion law and Game of Thrones
I managed five months back in Ireland before falling into a bog. The patch of green moss looked firm, but when stepped on it dissolved into a pool of dark water. It swallowed my leg and encased a foot in muck, heralding a long day of squelching.
A daft thing to happen, but in my defence I was doing a story about bogs. Bord na Móna, the semi-state company that harvests peatlands, was closing “active bogs”, partly in response to climate change, so last November I found myself touring peatlands in County Kildare.
Continue reading...Officers urge dissidents to step away from violence after Lyra McKee shot in Derry riots
Police in Northern Ireland have issued a call for peace in memory of the journalist Lyra McKee, who died after being shot during rioting in Derry on Thursday night.
Evoking the 29-year-old’s own words about the power of conversation, police encouraged relatives of dissident republicans, who have been blamed for shooting McKee, to urge their family members to step away from violence and pursue peace.
Continue reading...Petrol bombs thrown and shots fired in Creggan area of city
A 29-year-old woman has died after shots were fired in Derry, with police in Northern Ireland treating the death as a “terrorist incident”. The victim was reported locally to have been a journalist and author who was covering the unrest taking place in the Creggan area of the city.
Assistant chief constable Mark Hamilton, from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said a murder inquiry had been launched after the death on Thursday evening. Petrol bombs were thrown and images from the scene show vehicles alight and others burnt out.
Continue reading...The KLF founder will ask citizens if they agree with a clause he proposes adding to the Good Friday agreement
His best-known actions include burning £1m, firing blanks at the 1992 Brit awards and dropping a dead sheep on the red carpet of a luxury hotel as a member of the KLF. But Bill Drummond’s latest public display is more sedate: on Good Friday, he will stand on the Irish border, handing out homemade hot cross buns and conducting an informal referendum.
Between 10am and 12pm on 19 April, Drummond will ask the first 40 people who cross the border between Derry and Donegal whether they agree or disagree with adding a clause of his creation to the Good Friday agreement:
Continue reading...Temperatures forecast to exceed 20C on dry and settled bank holiday weekend
Parts of the UK will be hotter than some of Europe’s top holiday destinations over the Easter weekend, with temperatures exceeding 20C (68F).
As sunseekers plan to go away over the coming weeks, the UK could be hotter than St Tropez in southern France, the Greek island of Corfu, Bodrum in southern Turkey and the Spanish island of Mallorca, which is forecast to be cloudy on Saturday and Sunday.
Continue reading...Powerful US Democrat meets ex-Labour MPs to discuss why they left the party and Brexit
The senior US Democrat Nancy Pelosi met three former Labour MPs on Sunday and discussed their concerns about antisemitism in the party before a meeting with the party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
The House Speaker said she had met Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie and Ian Austin “to hear their perspective on Brexit, why they left the Labour party, and the importance of standing unequivocally against antisemitism wherever it is found”.
Continue reading...Masked men stole the ATM from a garage in Dungiven, Northern Ireland, in the early hours of the morning on 7 April, tearing the machine out of the wall using a digger stolen from a nearby construction site before vanishing into the night. The audacious heist took less than four and a half minutes. It's the eleventh time the gang have struck in recent months
Thieves have raided 11 times, using stolen diggers to rip cash machines out of the wall
The thieves have honed their modus operandi in audacious raids across Northern Ireland and just across the border with Ireland.
Under cover of night they steal a digger, trundle into town and smash open a wall containing an ATM. The digger scoops out the cash machine and lowers it into a waiting vehicle. The thieves abandon the digger and vanish into the darkness.
Continue reading...Owen Jones speaks to Mary Lou McDonald about Brexit, the implications for the peace process and the possibility of a united Ireland, and tries to answer once and for all why her party will never take its seats in the British parliament
Continue reading...Families of victims accused former MP of obstruction after inquest into 1974 attacks
Chris Mullin, the journalist, justice campaigner and former Labour MP, has responded to criticism from families of victims of the 1974 Birmingham bombings, saying the names of suspected bombers were known to them only because of his investigations.
Mullin, whose investigative work helped to exonerate the Birmingham Six, was angrily denounced by some bereaved relatives when he refused to name any of the still-living suspected bombers while giving evidence at the recent inquest into the atrocities.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments, including the indicative votes debate as MPs choose from eight options
The Commons sitting has been suspended but, as my colleague Dan Sabbagh and others report, there is a bit of a row going on about the fact that the mace is still there.
Speaker has walked out suspending proceedings until the indicative votes are counted. But Tories are furiously pointing to the mace, still in its place, and trying to encourage deputy speaker Eleanor Laing to take the chair. Which would be a parliamentary take over...
The mace is still in place which I think is the cause of the uproar. It’s not meant to be there if we’re not sitting, but I don’t know if a brief suspension counts. It’s not normal for the Chamber to be occupied without anyone in the chair.
Speaker suspends sitting & vacates chair while we wait for results of this evening’s votes - as he had said he would do.
Tory MPs object that the mace is still there.
They object by trying to raise points of order to an empty chair.
What a total shambles of a parliament.
John Bercow, the Speaker, says he is not able to announce the results of the indicative votes ballot yet because they have not all been counted. But he says he hopes to be able to announce them soon.
So he suspends the house.
Continue reading...Two boys aged 16 and 17 and a 17-year-old girl died in incident in Cookstown, police confirm
A third teenager has died after a crush at a hotel on St Patrick’s Day in Northern Ireland, police have said.
Mark Hamilton, an assistant chief constable with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), confirmed a 17-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy had died. “It is heartbreaking an event which should have been fun should end in such a terrible tragedy,” he told reporters at the scene.
Continue reading...Discussions likely to cover role of Northern Ireland assembly if Irish backstop were used
The Democratic Unionist party is to continue intensive talks to try to reach an agreement to allow it to back Theresa May’s Brexit deal, with discussions focusing on domestic legal guarantees that Northern Ireland will have no regulatory divergence with the rest of the UK.
Downing Street is hopeful that the support of the DUP is key to unlocking the backing of many Conservative Brexiters when May brings her deal to the House of Commons for the third time.
Continue reading...‘Soldier F’ to be prosecuted for murder and attempted murder over 1972 killings in Derry
Only one former British paratrooper is to be charged in connection with the killings of civil rights demonstrators on Bloody Sunday, drawing dismay and calls for accountability from the families who lost loved ones more than 40 years ago.
Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) announced the decision after relatives of the 13 people who died on one of the darkest days of the Troubles in January 1972 marched together through the streets of Derry where the victims fell as a symbol of their demand for justice.
Continue reading...MPs vote by 321 to 278 to rule out no deal despite government whipping Tory MPs against motion, following 312-308 win for Spelman amendment
Folks, it’s time to wrap up the blog for the night.
I’ll be back in a few hours to launch a new Politics live blog, bringing you all of Thursday’s Brexit and other political news. A reminder of what’s on the agenda for Thursday:
There have been some remarkable turns of phrase from commentators and politicians in their attempts to capture just what exactly has gone on in British politics in the last few days.
This is a turd of a deal, which has now been taken away and polished, and is now a polished turd. But it might be the best turd that we’ve got.
The House of Commons was a Benny Hill chase on acid, running through a Salvador Dali painting in a spaceship on its way to infinity.
A vague, and vain attempt to make sense of the great mad nights in British political history.
Sketch here.https://t.co/4zCw505yNv pic.twitter.com/ZENHV8wTnz
PM puts new plan to Commons as Geoffrey Cox says legal risk over backstop ‘remains unchanged’
Boris Johnson, the Brexiter former foreign secretary, is speaking in the debate now. He says he had hoped that the EU would make the wholly reasonable changes the UK wanted. But the EU refused to do that.
Like Adam and Eve, they sowed a fig leaf that failed to cover the embarrassment of the UK, he says.
This deal has now reached the end of the road. If it is rejected tonight, I hope that it will be put to bed.
Continue reading...
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
Amber Rudd has apologised. According to the Press Association, she said she was “mortified at my clumsy language” and has apologised for describing Diane Abbott as “coloured”. (See 2.42pm.)
Amber Rudd, the work and pensions secretary, has referred to Diane Abbott as “coloured”. As Patrick Maguire reports at the Staggers, she used the term in an interview with Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. Speaking about the abuse directed at MPs (see 1.12pm), Rudd said:
It definitely is worse if you’re a woman, and it’s worst of all if you’re a coloured woman. I know that Diane Abbott gets a huge amount of abuse, and I think that’s something we need to continue to call out.
Continue reading...Attorney general’s claims met with incredulity as talks to break Brexit deadlock stall
Geoffrey Cox is facing a backlash in Brussels and Dublin after claiming the Irish backstop posed a risk to the human rights of people in Northern Ireland.
In the latest round of negotiations in Brussels, the attorney general told Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, the arrangement could potentially breach the European convention on human rights (EHCR).
Continue reading...