Sam McBride
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sjamcbride.bsky.social
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.
For those asking, this is the full Supreme Court judgment: supremecourt.uk/uploads/uksc.... If rigorously enforced, what it means is that there could actually be an *increase* in school 'collective worship' - the law says that must happen daily, but many schools do it weekly or biweekly.
supremecourt.uk
November 20, 2025 at 1:28 PM
This line will panic some in Stormont: "You cannot expect a US company to make a major investment here if they cannot be certain when they will get an answer from planning authorities." But this could also backfire - if SF now say yes, it will be seen to be under Trump pressure.
November 19, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Tonight Donald Trump's Ambassador to the UK, Warren Stephens, has used an address in Belfast to lay into Stormont over this gold mine: "We need a decision on the Dalradian gold mine, fast". He says it's "harming [NI's] reputation" and "you are sitting on a literal goldmine".
November 19, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Thank you!
November 15, 2025 at 10:02 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".
November 15, 2025 at 9:29 PM
The everything!
November 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Now on iPlayer, this is the brilliant film by Allison Miller and Darragh MacIntyre referred to in this article: It's Robert Nairac's story but it's also ex-IRA prisoner Martin McAllister's story. Both are compelling, and the cinematography is painterly.
BBC One - The Disappearance of Captain Nairac
The search for missing British army Captain Nairac by a former enemy - nearly 50 years on.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 10:57 PM