sjamcbride.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

A former spy within the IRA says that Northern Ireland’s new Troubles investigation body is demanding sensitive details of his new identity abroad...just weeks after a data breach where it mistakenly sent him material about an unlinked atrocity.

submitted 9 hours ago • 0 comments

The embedding of paramilitaries within certain communities is now so deep - and so accepted by officialdom - that it has become like the situation in Animal Farm, with the supposedly respectable and the supposedly illegal are formlessly entwined

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

The DUP is calling for a conversation on migration - but that could rebound on it. The party doesn’t want its voters to know that it lobbied for increased migration...and specifically low skilled workers for big chicken, focused on areas such as Ballymena.

submitted 3 days ago • 8 comments

It's impossible to simultaneously lobby for increased immigration while decrying the effect of more foreigners — but that’s what the DUP's been doing, pushing on behalf of big business for more cheap labour from abroad while criticising what that means.

submitted 4 days ago • 6 comments

🎧Podcast (no paywall) Talking to @ciarandunbarrach.bsky.social about Sir Ken Bloomfield, a man who was no ordinary civil servant, who survived an IRA assassination attempt, and whose colossal legacy contrasts starkly with that of the NI civil service's leadership today.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Alina Bohdan fled war in Ukraine. She has young children and is suffering from cancer. Last night she was huddled in fear reading the Bible to them as a baying racist mob swept down the street, seeking whom they might devour. What sickening insanity.

submitted 6 days ago • 4 comments

The two criminals responsible for the vast Mobuoy toxic dump polluting Londonderry’s drinking water repeatedly lied about their role — and then claimed when caught that the court process was hurting their own health.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

North-south bodies were once one of the most contentious aspects of the Good Friday Agreement; now, they're one of the least controversial elements. Few people could even name them. Yet a far older north-south institution is booming: The Enterprise train.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Great read by @sjamcbride.bsky.social on Sir Ken Bloomfield, arguably the most influential & significant administrator in N Ireland’s history & whose career spanned the last days of… erm Rome (the fall of #Stormont), the fraught, false dawn of Sunningdale & the long years of direct rule #devolution

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

If you live in Northern Ireland & don’t know about Sir Ken Bloomfield, you should – because you live in what he substantially shaped. His lot was to play on a tough wicket, but he racked up runs. Sir Ken's record now reproaches a floundering civil service.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

“The revelation means that MI5 has effectively given false evidence in this case to every organisation or court which is supposed to have access to the Security Service's secrets and is responsible for holding it to account” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

submitted 11 days ago • 2 comments

Sir Ken Bloomfield had more influence for longer than any other civil servant in Northern Irish history. In the Troubles, he personified the quiet defiance of most people. His death reemphasises the lamentable state of the once-august institution he led.

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

The Belfast Telegraph & other media organisations have successfully resisted an attempt to impose drastic reporting restrictions to stop us reporting the trial of a prominent figure for alleged offences, including fraud, linked to the huge 2014 Nama deal.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

The BBC has refused to say why its report at the heart of Gerry Adams’ libel victory last week remains online unamended days after a jury ruled it defamatory. The article remains accessible on both sides of the Irish border.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

The profoundest implications of Gerry Adams' Dublin court victory over the BBC may be borne not by British licence fee payers, but by the Irish public. Geoblocking BBC content to Ireland is now being discussed...and it hurts the Irish unity campaign.

submitted 17 days ago • 5 comments

As Gerry Adams’ trial began, Denis Donaldson’s daughter sent me an email we can only now print, revealing an intriguing rift. The family - steeped in republicanism, and with links to the top of Sinn Fein today - once backed Adams. No more.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Gerry Adams is a man of towering intellect and ambition who had no moral qualms about securing his united Ireland goal through murder. He never gave any reason to believe he truly saw slaughter as immoral. Murder was a price worth paying for Irish freedom.

submitted 19 days ago • 2 comments

A massive decision in a trial of historical significance: A Dublin jury has found that Gerry Adams was defamed by a BBC report of a claim by a British agent within the IRA that the Provisional IRA murdered informer Denis Donaldson, & Adams would have sanctioned it.

submitted 19 days ago • 2 comments

The ex-PSNI officer who at the weekend retracted sectarianism allegations against ex-colleagues yesterday contacted the Belfast Telegraph to apologise for misleading us. Meanwhile, a DUP MLA says he wishes 'Sean' well and hopes there is now "closure" on the situation.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

UVF boss Winston Irvine was brought to Kabul to advise “key decision-makers” in Afghanistan’s government on how to address victims’ issues as part of a deal with the Taliban - and 15 other times the terrorist worked with government authorities unseen.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

The Prime Minister’s national security adviser was in secret talks with UVF commander Winston Irvine until six months ago — long after he’d been caught red-handed with guns and ammunition, it can be revealed.

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

Art should provoke but artists aren't above the law. Kneecap wants us to believe that shouting “Up Hezbollah” means 'Down Hezbollah' - or "kill your MP" really means 'don't kill MPs'. For a band wanting to be taken seriously, this is profoundly unserious.

submitted 23 days ago • 2 comments

The former PSNI officer who alleged that he suffered repeated gross sectarianism from police colleagues now says he lied and made the whole thing up – just two weeks after repeating the allegations. He has changed his number & won't talk. A bizarre story.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

Winston Irvine is UVF commander but was feted by government, clerics & police. When caught red-handed with guns, he lied & lied - but still got help from people whose names read like a Who’s Who of senior figures from polite society. Read how NI works...

submitted 25 days ago • 2 comments

In Saturday's Belfast Telegraph: The court character references which helped UVF commander Winston Irvine secure a derisory sentence for being caught with guns, ammunitition & UVF material. Several prominent referees tried to keep their letters secret...but have failed.

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Veteran Sinn Féin member Eddie Barrett has apologised in court for a campaign of "outrageous" defamatory tweets which sought to damage BBC presenter Stephen Nolan by likening him to a top Nazi, claiming he promoted terrorism & urging the BBC to sack him.

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments

Today's UK-EU deal drastically softens the Irish Sea border but also reduces Northern Ireland’s supposed ‘best of both worlds’ advantage. The deal will divide principled unionists from pragmatic unionists - and will be noticed by consumers.

submitted 29 days ago • 1 comment

Bliss was it in that sunset to be alive. Belfast, you beauty.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

Documents reveal NIE could have paid Storm Éowyn compensation bill five times over – but Sinn Fein accepted it not paying a penny. They also show that ministers actually made power restoration harder and still haven't fixed the central problem.

submitted 32 days ago • 2 comments

Forget Brits out – Sinn Féin’s hapless ministers can’t even get cars out of a tiny Belfast street. Out of a £19billion budget, SF implausibly claims austerity is stopping it putting in a few bollards. This reveals something far deeper about how SF governs.

submitted 38 days ago • 2 comments

Stormont is listing old buildings but won't pay to repair them, so they're collapsing at an accelerating rate. This broken system isn't working for either buildings or their owners - while the Republic is spending vast sums to protect its built heritage.

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

Five other sources corroborated allegations about Gerry Adams that were made by an anonymous contributor to a BBC documentary, lawyers representing the broadcaster have told a libel trial.

submitted 40 days ago • 2 comments

A Catholic ex-PSNI officer who said he was taking legal action over alleged sectarianism now isn't doing so, the Chief Constable says, adding that he doesn't believe there was sectarianism in his TSG unit - but the man says: "I stand by every word".

submitted 40 days ago • 1 comment

In the mid-1990s, David Ervine was threatening to “bomb the **** out of Dublin” if the Irish Government didn’t “behave itself”. This is one of the stories @sjamcbride.bsky.social discovered in formerly secret documentation, as he explains on the latest episode of The BelTel. 🎧 tinyurl.com/3tyhjh2d

submitted 42 days ago • 2 comments

One of the world’s most prestigious publications has featured Northern Ireland in a recent edition — illustrated with a picture of a view that no longer exists.

submitted 42 days ago • 0 comments

The reality of NI schools: Drugs, attacks and abuse as suspensions at highest level for more than a decade. Almost three quarters of those suspended are boys, with 15% of those suspended put out of school three or more times a year.

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments