Sam McBride
@sjamcbride.bsky.social
Northern Ireland Editor of the Belfast Telegraph & Sunday Independent. Author of Burned: The Inside Story of the Cash-for-Ash Scandal. Any views mine alone.
Forty years ago today, the Belfast Telegraph reported the Anglo-Irish Agreement on its front page, along with this detail: "Controversial Assemblyman Gregory Campbell and former Castlereagh Mayor Cedric Wilson burned a Tricolour on the council balcony to cheers of supporters".
November 15, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Forty years ago today, the Belfast Telegraph reported the Anglo-Irish Agreement on its front page, along with this detail: "Controversial Assemblyman Gregory Campbell and former Castlereagh Mayor Cedric Wilson burned a Tricolour on the council balcony to cheers of supporters".
This is what the brilliant but brutal @infiniteguff.com believes I resemble: A hairy, grumpy, gloomy, four-fingered preacher of doom. If you've read For & Against a United Ireland & like it, you can vote for (or against) it in the @irishbookawards.bsky.social: www.irishbookawards.ie/nominee/for-...
November 14, 2025 at 7:54 PM
This is what the brilliant but brutal @infiniteguff.com believes I resemble: A hairy, grumpy, gloomy, four-fingered preacher of doom. If you've read For & Against a United Ireland & like it, you can vote for (or against) it in the @irishbookawards.bsky.social: www.irishbookawards.ie/nominee/for-...
Talking with former Irish diplomat Rory Montgomery and @fotoole.bsky.social on the @arinsproject.bsky.social about our new book For and Against a United Ireland.
🎧Full podcast episode: t.co/ELXfJv4jZG
📖Get the book here: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
🎧Full podcast episode: t.co/ELXfJv4jZG
📖Get the book here: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
November 6, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Talking with former Irish diplomat Rory Montgomery and @fotoole.bsky.social on the @arinsproject.bsky.social about our new book For and Against a United Ireland.
🎧Full podcast episode: t.co/ELXfJv4jZG
📖Get the book here: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
🎧Full podcast episode: t.co/ELXfJv4jZG
📖Get the book here: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
Amazon has sold out of For and Against a United Ireland, but you should be able to get it in any bookshop - with the added benefit that you'll be supporting a business that likely pays their fair share of taxes and treats their staff better than Jeff Bezos...
October 24, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Amazon has sold out of For and Against a United Ireland, but you should be able to get it in any bookshop - with the added benefit that you'll be supporting a business that likely pays their fair share of taxes and treats their staff better than Jeff Bezos...
A very pleasant surprise to discover that just days after publication, For and Against a United Ireland has been shortlisted in the An Post @irishbookawards.bsky.social.
👍If you've read the book and enjoyed it, you can vote here (and maybe win something for yourself): www.irishbookawards.ie/vote/
👍If you've read the book and enjoyed it, you can vote here (and maybe win something for yourself): www.irishbookawards.ie/vote/
October 23, 2025 at 10:35 AM
A very pleasant surprise to discover that just days after publication, For and Against a United Ireland has been shortlisted in the An Post @irishbookawards.bsky.social.
👍If you've read the book and enjoyed it, you can vote here (and maybe win something for yourself): www.irishbookawards.ie/vote/
👍If you've read the book and enjoyed it, you can vote here (and maybe win something for yourself): www.irishbookawards.ie/vote/
This is the dizzying office of Ulster University's vice chancellor atop the Belfast campus - I'd get no work done here. Talking to @fotoole.bsky.social & @markcarruthers7.bsky.social for Red Lines & The View about For & Against a United Ireland, now hitting bookshops.
🎧 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
🎧 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
October 14, 2025 at 7:07 PM
This is the dizzying office of Ulster University's vice chancellor atop the Belfast campus - I'd get no work done here. Talking to @fotoole.bsky.social & @markcarruthers7.bsky.social for Red Lines & The View about For & Against a United Ireland, now hitting bookshops.
🎧 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
🎧 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
You probably didn't know that David Trimble - then a hardliner close to Bill Craig & involved in bringing down Stormont's first power-sharing experiment - travelled to jail to teach republican students interned in 1971. Lots more nuance like that in @stepwalktv.bsky.social's new biography.
September 22, 2025 at 8:32 PM
You probably didn't know that David Trimble - then a hardliner close to Bill Craig & involved in bringing down Stormont's first power-sharing experiment - travelled to jail to teach republican students interned in 1971. Lots more nuance like that in @stepwalktv.bsky.social's new biography.
If your idea of culture is listening to me droning on about architecture, politics and the future of Belfast, tomorrow's your lucky day. If you have more conventional tastes, the good news is that there's lots of far better stuff on for Culture Night, and it's all free.
September 18, 2025 at 4:12 PM
If your idea of culture is listening to me droning on about architecture, politics and the future of Belfast, tomorrow's your lucky day. If you have more conventional tastes, the good news is that there's lots of far better stuff on for Culture Night, and it's all free.
Belfast Live seems to have now deleted its article - which was essentially Coors' press release - on this, so here's the press release in all its awkward glory.
September 17, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Belfast Live seems to have now deleted its article - which was essentially Coors' press release - on this, so here's the press release in all its awkward glory.
The first 500 copies have been signed by @fotoole.bsky.social and myself. Most have been pre-ordered but there are still some available from the publisher. Those copies should also arrive before the publication date of 20 October.
➡️ shop.ria.ie/products/for...
➡️ shop.ria.ie/products/for...
September 11, 2025 at 8:41 PM
The first 500 copies have been signed by @fotoole.bsky.social and myself. Most have been pre-ordered but there are still some available from the publisher. Those copies should also arrive before the publication date of 20 October.
➡️ shop.ria.ie/products/for...
➡️ shop.ria.ie/products/for...
It's arrived!
✍️For and Against a United Ireland by Fintan O'Toole and yours truly is hot off the presses, more than a year after the research and writing began. Each of us set out what seem to us the best arguments for and against removing the border.
📙In bookshops next month.
✍️For and Against a United Ireland by Fintan O'Toole and yours truly is hot off the presses, more than a year after the research and writing began. Each of us set out what seem to us the best arguments for and against removing the border.
📙In bookshops next month.
September 11, 2025 at 8:33 PM
It's arrived!
✍️For and Against a United Ireland by Fintan O'Toole and yours truly is hot off the presses, more than a year after the research and writing began. Each of us set out what seem to us the best arguments for and against removing the border.
📙In bookshops next month.
✍️For and Against a United Ireland by Fintan O'Toole and yours truly is hot off the presses, more than a year after the research and writing began. Each of us set out what seem to us the best arguments for and against removing the border.
📙In bookshops next month.
The Assembly's Finance Committee has agreed to a proposal from Stormont Opposition leader Matthew O'Toole to write to Michelle O'Neill, Emma Little-Pengelly and John O'Dowd to seek explanation for how Jayne Brady's performance is assessed.
September 10, 2025 at 2:19 PM
The Assembly's Finance Committee has agreed to a proposal from Stormont Opposition leader Matthew O'Toole to write to Michelle O'Neill, Emma Little-Pengelly and John O'Dowd to seek explanation for how Jayne Brady's performance is assessed.
The instructions to MI5 and Army Intelligence agent Willie Carlin to do everything - up to and including vote-stealing - to ensure Martin McGuinness got elected is an even starker example. (From Carlin's 2019 book 'Thatcher's Spy').
August 6, 2025 at 8:52 AM
The instructions to MI5 and Army Intelligence agent Willie Carlin to do everything - up to and including vote-stealing - to ensure Martin McGuinness got elected is an even starker example. (From Carlin's 2019 book 'Thatcher's Spy').
At the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, ex-SDLP leader Colum Eastwood says that a number of people from several parties have asked him to stand for the Irish presidency, adding: "I am considering it".
July 19, 2025 at 8:10 PM
At the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, ex-SDLP leader Colum Eastwood says that a number of people from several parties have asked him to stand for the Irish presidency, adding: "I am considering it".
When asked at the MacGill Summer School if Irish passport holders in NI should get a vote in Irish presidential elections, ex-Fianna Fail minister Mary Hanafin says: "Not yet, and not in isolation". She cites NI's lack of reconciliation and the recent bonfire disputes.
July 19, 2025 at 7:53 PM
When asked at the MacGill Summer School if Irish passport holders in NI should get a vote in Irish presidential elections, ex-Fianna Fail minister Mary Hanafin says: "Not yet, and not in isolation". She cites NI's lack of reconciliation and the recent bonfire disputes.
What a truly grotesque image: burning the effigies of migrants - who the organisers ensured all had brown skin. Even from the perspective of the loyalists involved, this is stunningly stupid: it might be a migrant's vote that swings a border poll. (Photo by the great @kscott94.bsky.social)
July 11, 2025 at 8:15 AM
What a truly grotesque image: burning the effigies of migrants - who the organisers ensured all had brown skin. Even from the perspective of the loyalists involved, this is stunningly stupid: it might be a migrant's vote that swings a border poll. (Photo by the great @kscott94.bsky.social)
🎧Podcast (free)
Who is the mystery owner of Ian Paisley Jr's valuable constituency office? Talking to @OliviaPeden_ about how a DUP MP was able to claim vast sums of public money to rent from an entity whose owner is hidden behind a dead man's name.
👉 www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/podcasts/the...
Who is the mystery owner of Ian Paisley Jr's valuable constituency office? Talking to @OliviaPeden_ about how a DUP MP was able to claim vast sums of public money to rent from an entity whose owner is hidden behind a dead man's name.
👉 www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/podcasts/the...
July 4, 2025 at 4:27 PM
🎧Podcast (free)
Who is the mystery owner of Ian Paisley Jr's valuable constituency office? Talking to @OliviaPeden_ about how a DUP MP was able to claim vast sums of public money to rent from an entity whose owner is hidden behind a dead man's name.
👉 www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/podcasts/the...
Who is the mystery owner of Ian Paisley Jr's valuable constituency office? Talking to @OliviaPeden_ about how a DUP MP was able to claim vast sums of public money to rent from an entity whose owner is hidden behind a dead man's name.
👉 www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/podcasts/the...
Tickets now available for the Dublin launch event accompanying the release of For and Against a United Ireland with @fotoole.bsky.social. Despite it being in the National Concert Hall, I promise not to sing.
🎟️Book tickets: www.nch.ie/all-events-l...
📙 Pre-order the book: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
🎟️Book tickets: www.nch.ie/all-events-l...
📙 Pre-order the book: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
July 3, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Tickets now available for the Dublin launch event accompanying the release of For and Against a United Ireland with @fotoole.bsky.social. Despite it being in the National Concert Hall, I promise not to sing.
🎟️Book tickets: www.nch.ie/all-events-l...
📙 Pre-order the book: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
🎟️Book tickets: www.nch.ie/all-events-l...
📙 Pre-order the book: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
Tickets now available for the Lyric Theatre event accompanying the release of For and Against a United Ireland: Fintan O'Toole for & against; yours truly for and against... and more.
🎟️Book tickets here: lyrictheatre.co.uk/whats-on/for...
📙 Pre-order the book here: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
🎟️Book tickets here: lyrictheatre.co.uk/whats-on/for...
📙 Pre-order the book here: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
June 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Tickets now available for the Lyric Theatre event accompanying the release of For and Against a United Ireland: Fintan O'Toole for & against; yours truly for and against... and more.
🎟️Book tickets here: lyrictheatre.co.uk/whats-on/for...
📙 Pre-order the book here: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
🎟️Book tickets here: lyrictheatre.co.uk/whats-on/for...
📙 Pre-order the book here: shop.ria.ie/products/for...
📢 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.
June 25, 2025 at 12:09 PM
📢 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.
It's massive. Goodness knows how it could ever be scientifically explored, but this is a subtantial economic reality. Ex-DUP MLA Sammy Douglas is one of the few to say openly what everyone knows.
June 24, 2025 at 8:31 AM
It's massive. Goodness knows how it could ever be scientifically explored, but this is a subtantial economic reality. Ex-DUP MLA Sammy Douglas is one of the few to say openly what everyone knows.
This is Sir Ken Bloomfield's final memo as head of the NI Civil Service: Typically eloquent, concise, perceptive & self-reflective. As a trained historian he demonstrated the value of the humanities, appreciating the significance of past mistakes and the significance of his work.
June 7, 2025 at 3:36 PM
This is Sir Ken Bloomfield's final memo as head of the NI Civil Service: Typically eloquent, concise, perceptive & self-reflective. As a trained historian he demonstrated the value of the humanities, appreciating the significance of past mistakes and the significance of his work.
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.
May 30, 2025 at 10:52 AM
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.
Just two of the many references given by the great and the good which helped secure for a UVF commander a more lenient prison sentence than the statutory minimum for his crime - which ludicrously wasn't classified as a terrorist offence.
May 24, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Just two of the many references given by the great and the good which helped secure for a UVF commander a more lenient prison sentence than the statutory minimum for his crime - which ludicrously wasn't classified as a terrorist offence.
Bliss was it in that sunset to be alive. Belfast, you beauty.
May 17, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Bliss was it in that sunset to be alive. Belfast, you beauty.