It was reassuring yesterday to hear Nigel Dodds, the DUP deputy leader, keep the focus on Sinn Fein.

It is tempting for unionists to succumb to a sense of the seemingly inevitable: that if Sinn Fein cannot be in power, Stormont falls.

That has been the position. At no point since 1998 has Sinn Fein faced specific sanction.

When the IRA spied at Stormont and broke into Castlereagh, all parties suffered the suspension of the Executive.

When the IRA raided the Northern Bank and some of its members murdered Robert McCartney, all Northern Ireland parties were disinvited from St Patrick’s Day at the White House, not just the IRA’s political wing.

Unionists have had to accept the Sinn Fein-must-always-be-included doctrine because of the implicit threat of direct rule with a green tinge.

Imagine the position was reversed, and it was made clear to nationalists that a unionist party had to be included, regardless of criminality or flagrant breaches of democratic norms.

And imagine it was Dublin that was implying to nationalists that they would face a more Orange form of government if they failed to go along with it.

Such a scenario is inconceivable, yet the reverse has happened.

But some things are aligning in Northern Ireland politics.

First, the flaws in the system of permanent rainbow coalition with no opposition are becoming harder to ignore.

Second, the leeway period long granted to Sinn Fein given its heritage is coming to an end. The party and its associates will have to behave as would a governing party in Sweden or Australia or Canada.

And these trends are happening when a standalone Conservative government will hold power until at least 2020.

David Cameron and Theresa Villiers (who has been far from outspoken in the current crisis) will at some stage in this parliament have to address the intrinsic problems in the Stormont arrangements. This crisis is the opportunity to set that process in motion.

The circumstances of Mike Nesbitt’s decision, fuelled by growing unionist concern about the current status and intentions of the Provisional IRA, are in one sense very specific.

But viewed from another perspective, this decision is as rooted in public dismay at an Executive which has shown itself incapable of reform as it is in the again bloody hands of individuals from Sinn Fein’s ‘military wing’.

It would have been a much bigger decision for the UUP — which despite its recently weakened position has historically been the party of government in this Province — to walk away from a functioning government.

But, as it was, many Ulster Unionists have for years been itching to get away from a sluggish and divided administration, given that they had little control over its direction but were jointly held accountable for its various failures to deliver — a situation mirrored in the SDLP.

Given that even the First Minister, in an interview with the Economist earlier this year, described the Stormont setup as “an outrageous system”, the remaining Executive parties and the Government must share responsibility for their failures to reform the Executive.

Crucially, those reforms will have to involve a formal, properly constituted opposition. That has been recognised by the Government and by every other Executive party yet nothing substantive has been done to give the Executive that sort of democratic accountability. The Stormont House Agreement said that the structures for a formal opposition would be in place by March. Four months after that deadline, nothing has happened, despite other aspects of the stalled agreement — such as civil service pay-offs — moving forward apace.

The Government and the Executive have to recognise that, long before the serious events of recent days, Stormont had on their watch become a laughing stock. An opposition would be a modest move towards rebuilding its credibility.

As Stormont teeters on the brink of collapse, the blame game has begun.

PIRA’s existence and diversions from benign ‘comrades club’, or UUP ‘electioneering’, are seen as chief culprits. Neither accusation is satisfactory.

Whether one heeds the ‘it’s gone away’ claim of the IRA’s most knowledgeable non-member, the bigger threat is not PIRA remnants but republican militants beyond, striving to acquire IRA title deeds.

The charge of ‘electioneering’ – just fancy, a political party doing that – seems odd. UUP fortunes were reviving anyway, before the walkout. Better leadership and election pacts have helped. Opposition could even bolster a revived Stormont.

With the UUP again jumping first, in a different direction from 1999, there are few incentives for the DUP to remain in the Executive. Unionist leaders never lost ground by criticising Sinn Fein or the IRA and suspension seems inevitable.

Of longer-term significance is whether there is a future for an Executive which has achieved virtually zero in the last two years.

It’s not that the people reject the Executive, Assembly or even the concept of power-sharing. The 2015 Northern Ireland Election survey revealed majorities in favour of all three – among unionists and nationalists.

On this basic reading at least, the loveless marriage should stay together – for the sake of the electors.

Yet the same study also shows the visceral loathing between unionists and nationalists which has healed not one jot and renders the institutions so dysfunctional.

Twenty-one years after fighting a far bloodier conflict, England and Germany were settling differences in a World Cup final.

Twenty-one years after the first PIRA ceasefire, Northern Ireland’s two main communities remain locked in a dead-end of mutual suspicion and recrimination, fighting a proxy war which both fear they are losing.

Not all think the ‘war’ is over. Fewer than half of DUP and UUP voters believe that there is a lasting peace.

The extent of antipathy is still acute. Less than one per cent of Sinn Fein voters offer any sort of liking for the DUP. Just in case we don’t get the message, 98 per cent say they ‘dislike’ or ‘strongly dislike’ the DUP – and no prizes for guessing which of those two categories is the larger.

Liking for the UUP soars to 1.6 per cent – possibly a disquieting doubling for the UUP leadership, whilst, among DUP and UUP supporters, two per cent admit to some regard for Sinn Fein.

The overwhelming hostility towards parties from the ‘other side’ might matter less if the institutions were seen as functioning, but only 28 per cent of Sinn Fein voters believe unionist and nationalist parties are cooperating well in the Assembly.

Yet voters appear warm and trusting compared to party memberships. A majority of DUP members believe that policing reforms have gone too far. Only 36 per cent view policing boards as having benefited from Sinn Fein’s presence and those believing that most Catholics now support the police are in a minority.

Most believe that republican violence remains ‘a major threat’ and, as an issue, it ranks higher than education, crime, environment and housing.

Only a minority of those DUP members believe cross-community consent should be necessary to pass legislation. As for views on their main government partner, Sinn Fein, take your pick between ‘strongly dislike’, at 87 per cent, or the comparative warm bath of mere ‘dislike’, at 11 per cent.

Trust in the Deputy First Minister? A rating of 0.8, on a 0 (no trust) to 10 (maximum trust) scale suggests a certain scepticism. No doubt if Sinn Fein ever open up to a membership survey, the antipathy-ometer will reach reciprocal heights.

All this enmity – and that’s before we consider all those issues not dealt with by the Executive, where divisions are equally acute: parades, prosecutions and the past. Neither direct rule nor devolved power-sharing offer much hope of resolution.

The assumption of advocates of power-sharing is that differences between rival national blocs will eventually bio-degrade, as fears and suspicions diminish. We still await the evidence.

• Jon Tonge is Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool. He directed the 2015 Northern Ireland election study and co-authored The Democratic Unionist Party: From Protest to Power.

I’m pretty sure the news that the IRA still existed didn’t come as a huge shock to most people – although we had hoped that they were withering away year by year.

What shocked us was the PSNI ‘assessment’ that elements of the organisation remained armed and active and had been involved in murder. Which is why most of us would have agreed with the DUP’s original statement of response to the news: “The basis upon which the DUP entered government with republicans was a commitment to exclusively peaceful and democratic means through support for the police, the courts and the rule of law as well as the dismantling of the structures of their terrorist organisation. That remains the basis upon which parties serve in the Executive.”

The UUP – and I have been arguing this for a few years – already had a number of legitimate reasons for withdrawing from the Executive. It is dysfunctional. The DUP and Sinn Fein have a tendency to strike their own private side deals. There’s clearly been an orchestrated, negative briefing campaign against Danny Kennedy for a very long time. There is no sense of collective responsibility. Nothing ever seems to get done. And, let’s not forget, when Mike Nesbitt complained in the past, both the DUP and Sinn Fein told him to leave the Executive.

Well, that’s just what he’s done and now they accuse him of political opportunism. Would that be the same opportunism the DUP displayed when they came up with the plan in 1999 to take their Executive seats but not attend Executive meetings? The same opportunism they displayed when they withdrew from the Executive in October 2002, calling for an election and saying: “We need a new system that does not include unrepentant murderers at the heart of government”? The same opportunism Adams displayed in 1994 when he said the IRA “haven’t gone away,” or the same opportunism displayed in last week’s statement that, “they have gone away”? Or even the opportunism displayed by Sinn Fein when they did their massive U-turn on welfare reform and plunged the process into an earlier crisis?

All eyes are now on the DUP. What will they do? What can they do? As I’ve noted in previous columns Peter Robinson does not want his career as DUP leader and First Minster to end with a collapsed Assembly and his party outflanked by Mike Nesbitt. And nor does he want the DUP’s exit from the Executive to look like it’s a kneejerk reaction to what the UUP has done. My gut reaction is that the DUP does not want to be marooned in the Executive as the sole unionist party: that said, it is worth considering what would make them stay.

Robinson would need to be able to present substantial and unambiguous evidence that no tangible link exists between Sinn Fein and any IRA structures that still remain. That means irrefutable evidence that Martin McGuinness and other senior, influential Sinn Fein figures have not been liaising with the IRA or seeking their opinion on any aspect of Executive policy, proposed legislation or inter-party agreements.

Remaining in the Executive with Sinn Fein would also require a resolution of the ongoing and debilitating impasse on welfare reform: because that, in turn, would allow the Stormont House Agreement to be taken off the life support machine.

Robinson can’t be seen to stay because he’s afraid of the consequences of collapse. Any decision to stay must be accompanied by proof that relations between the DUP and Sinn Fein had improved and that progress on key areas was now possible.

On a broader point, Robinson will need some sort of reassurance that the UUP’s decision to withdraw is not proving popular with the unionist electorate. His party isn’t used to taking risks – in their entire history they have rarely demonstrated the courage of their convictions – and they certainly won’t choose what some might describe as “the courageous-in-the-best-interests-of-all-of-us” option if the price is lost votes. Some polling is being done over the next couple of days on the UUP’s decision, so the DUP will be monitoring the findings in minute detail.

Would Robinson and McGuinness – and it would require both of them to carry it off – be able to host a joint press conference and persuade people that they could continue to work together? The relationship between both parties has been particularly dreadful since the summer of 2013 (the fallout over the Maze) and wasn’t exactly a close one in the earlier years.

It would take something fairly spectacular to convince anyone – let alone their respective parties – that things could be markedly different and noticeably better if they decided to plough on together.

So, as I’ve said, the odds seem heavily stacked against the DUP remaining in the Executive.

If nothing else what Mike Nesbitt and the UUP have done is force a very important conversation into the public domain: namely, what is actually required for unionism and republicanism to work together in the Executive if there are so many lingering doubts about each other, particularly when it comes to the central issue of trust.

Most people are tired of the manufactured, faux crises which have dominated the institutional landscape since June 1998. A grown-up conversation between the parties and the people of Northern Ireland is long overdue.

Two women have been stabbed during an attack at a house in west Belfast.

The incident took place in the Cloona Manor area shortly after 2am on Monday morning.

The victims, one aged in her 30s and one in her 50s, were treated in hospital but their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

Detective Inspector Harry Colgan from the PSNI said a 35-year-old man and 28-year-old woman had been arrested in connection with the stabbing.

He said: “Both currently remain in custody assisting police with their inquiries.”

Police are continuing to search Leafair Park in Londonderry after claims that an explosive device had been left in the area.

A PSNI spokesman said nothing untoward has been found but enquiries are continuing and members of the public to report any suspicious objects or activity.

Inspector Tony Moore said: “If you do see something that is out of place or arouses your suspicions, do not touch it.”

A car parked outside a house in Lisburn was destroyed in an arson attack on Sunday.

It was reported to officers at around 11.30pm in the Bog Road area of the city.

As well as the car being “completely destroyed”, the PSNI said the house suffered scorch damage.

Two men were seen running from the area at the time.

Three men who plotted to murder former loyalist leader Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair in Scotland have been jailed.

Anton Duffy, 39, Martin Hughes, 36, and Paul Sands, 32, were convicted in July of conspiring to kill former UDA chief Adair and his right-hand man, Sam McCrory.

After a nine-week trial at Glasgow’s High Court, Duffy and Hughes were also convicted of terrorism charges.

Duffy – the “instigator and driving force” behind the plot – was jailed for 17 years.

He will also be supervised for a further three years following his release, under the terms of an extended sentence imposed by judge Lady Scott.

Hughes was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment, while Sands was given an extended sentence, involving 10 years behind bars and supervision for three years after that.

Two other men found guilty of organised crime charges were also jailed at the same hearing.

Craig Convery, 37, was locked up for nine years while associate, Gordon Brown, 30, was given a six-year jail term.

Duffy, Sands and Hughes were arrested in 2013 after two major Police Scotland investigations into terrorism and organised crime.

Duffy, from Donegal, was the ringleader of a unit inspired by dissident republicanism and planned to carry out the double murder with Sands and Hughes while on home leave from prison, according to police.

Operation Hairsplitter was set up late in September 2012 to investigate an attempt to procure firearms, including an AK47, by Duffy’s gang.

It was feared that if the murders had been carried out there would have been huge ramifications on both sides of the Irish Sea.

MI5 and Police Scotland carried out investigations throughout 2013, including using covert listening devices, to gather information.

Duffy, Sands and Hughes were arrested in October 2013, while Convery and Brown were held three months later.

Adair was a leading figure in the UDA during the Troubles and moved to Scotland after being released from prison as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

Speaking outside court, Adair said the convicted men “deserved every minute” of the sentences they were given.

“The severity of the sentence reflects the seriousness of the charges and I’m just delighted that justice has been done today,” he said.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Cuddihy, of Police Scotland, said: “Make no mistake – the intent of those who have been sentenced today was to carry out a murderous terrorist attack on the streets of Scotland.

“There is no doubt Police Scotland officers have saved the lives of two men and prevented significant negative community impact across Scotland and further afield.”

Praising all those involved in bringing the case to court, he added: “Today’s verdict shows that justice is not simply a concept, it is a reality.”

UK healthy foods store Holland and Barrett has turned to Northern Ireland’s Free’ist for a range of products for shoppers concerned about sugar and gluten.

Holland and Barrett is featuring the Free’ist range of sugar free products, a number of which are also gluten-free, in its roll-out of extensive free-from sections within its retail outlets particularly its online site and also in its ‘click and collect’ service to health conscious customers.

The latest listing, the outcome of extensive discussions between the Belfast based business and the UK retailer which has more than 1,000 outlets across the UK and Ireland.

“Winning business from one of Europe’s leading and quality-conscious retailers of health products is a marvellous boost for our growing range of sugar-free foods,” said Free’ist founder and MD Gerard McAdorey.

“It’s a tremendous endorsement of our successful focus on developing foods which are delicious and are sugar-free and many also gluten-free.”

The range being listed by Holland and Barrett includes a variety of biscuits, chocolate bars,chocolate wafer bars and chocolate wafer sticks and sugar-free jams.

GM Marketing has experience over 15 years in the UK and Ireland as a marketer of a broad range of branded foods, such as Typhoo Tea, Tilda Rice, Nestle cereals and Robert McBride, in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Ulster’s farmers are to stage one of the largest demonstrations seen at Stormont in protest over increasing pressure on the industry as a whole.

Amid reports of cattle culls and warnings that some producers could go to the wall before the end of the year, the Ulster Farmers Union will co-ordinate the demonstration this Friday ahead of a meeting of European farm ministers on Monday, September 7, in Brussels.

The aim, says UFU president, Ian Marshall, is to let the agri-food industry in Northern Ireland send a very clear message to the European Commission that the entire economy, and not only farmers, need it to accept the seriousness of the position facing all parts of the farming and food industry.

Even though the Assembly is in recess, Mr Marshall said he is hopeful of political support, adding that the venue reflected a wish to demonstrate, without inconveniencing consumers who have been supportive of the industry.

“People in Northern Ireland understand the importance of a vibrant food industry to the local economy – our aim is to make sure this message is heard in Brussels,” he said.

“We do not want to be in a situation where the farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, sees protests in Dublin, Paris or anywhere else but not in Belfast – and uses that as a reason to conveniently ignore us,” said Mr Marshall.

A sizeable UFU delegation will also join forces with farmers from across the EU at a major protest in Brussels.

It is being held to coincide with the meeting of the Commission with national farm ministers to discuss the income crisis facing farmers throughout Europe – a crisis the UFE says has been exacerbated here by the weakness of the euro against sterling.

The meeting will be attended by Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill and Mr Marshall said her presence raised further concerns about the vacuum that could be created if the local Executive or Assembly were to collapse.

“As a body, the UFU never has and will not engage directly in mainstream politics,” he said.

“However over this issue the government at Westminster and the devolved administration here, in Scotland and in Wales have very different views of what the industry need.

“We are concerned that in an era of UK devolution we risk being marginalised in Westminster and Brussels if we do not have our own local political representation,” he said.

An elderly man is in a critical condition in hospital after being attacked during a burglary in his Bessbrook home.

The aggravated burglary took place in the Clogharevan Park area in the early hours of Monday morning.

He was taken to Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry but was later transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

Detective Inspector Harry Colgan said: “At approximately 2.40am police received a report that three men had broken into a house and entered a bedroom where the elderly, disabled male occupant of the house was in bed.

“They then proceeded to assault him with a sharp implement. He received several wounds to his body as a result of this assault.”

Police said a sum of money was stolen.

UUP MLA Danny Kennedy, who is from the area, said: “This was a despicable act and I am horrified that a gang would target an elderly, disabled man. I wish the gentleman well as he recovers from his injuries.

I would appeal to anyone who has any information that will help the PSNI catch those responsible to contact the police immediately.”

More than fifty people opposed to the EU’s policies on refugees protested amid heavy rain outside the offices of the European Commission in Belfast on Monday.

The protesters were calling for an end to the EU’s reluctance to take the thousands fleeing civil war in Syria.

In recent weeks, hundreds of men, women and children have perished as a result of taking to the sea in over-crowded vessels.

Last week, 71 people were found suffocated in a lorry carrying refugees through Austria.

The protest was organised by Belfast-based immigration lawyer Barbara Muldoon.

She said: “Each day that passes, men, women and children are dying in what has been dubbed, and is, the biggest refugee crisis since the second world war. We have to act now, tomorrow will be too late to save all of those who will die today”.

It came as the EU handed France £3.6 million to build a better camp for migrants attempting to cross to Britain.

The €5m of funding will help create improved facilities for around 1,500 of those clustered at the makeshift Calais site dubbed The Jungle.

In total some 5,000 are said to be living in squalid conditions at the existing camp.

The move to improve the Calais camp, announced by European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans, is likely to prove controversial.

It comes after an extraordinary meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers was called for two weeks’ time in Brussels to discuss migration.

In a statement, Luxembourg – which holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council – said the issues had recently taken on “unprecedented proportions”.

In a statement with counterparts from Paris and Berlin earlier, UK Home Secretary Theresa May suggested reception centres were needed at key arrival points and a list of “safe” countries should be agreed to speed up asylum decisions.

Monday saw furious exchanges between the UUP and DUP — just three months after the parties presented a united front with a pact in four seats during the General Election.

The spat between the parties’ leaders saw Mike Nesbitt tell Peter Robinson that the Northern Irish public would remember its past “flip-flopping” over power-sharing with Sinn Fein, while the DUP accused him of making “personal and petty remarks about the First Minister”.

It came after Mr Robinson clearly signalled that the DUP is not preparing to walk-out of the Stormont Executive in protest at the allegation that Provisional IRA men murdered Kevin McGuigan in Belfast.

Returning from holiday to personally take control of the DUP response to the crisis, the First Minister furiously attacked the Ulster Unionists for their decision to quit.

Mr Robinson, who today will meet the Prime Minister, gave his first response to the UUP walk out in a lengthy newspaper article.

Writing in the Belfast Telegraph, he said “even before the present crisis caused by the murder of Kevin McGuigan we faced major problems that, without resolution, would have resulted in the collapse of the Assembly. The events of the last few weeks have multiplied both the gravity of the situation and the challenge to politicians”.

Turning to the UUP’s dramatic move, he said: “Now is a time for cool heads, clear thinking and a steely resolve to ensure that democracy and the rule of law triumph over terror and murder.

“The decision of the Ulster Unionist Party to leave the Executive nine months before the next scheduled election is not one of principle but of political expediency. One would have more respect for the decision if there were even a degree of honesty about the motivation behind it.

“Exiting the field of play is not a tactically clever first option. It can only ever be a last resort.

“Punishing your own community for the wrongs of others and rendering yourself irrelevant is hardly a brave, bold or sound strategy. Having fled dramatically, the Ulster Unionist Party has taken the pressure off republicans.

“Now they have marginalised themselves what do they do for an encore?”

The UUP’s sole minister Danny Kennedy will formally tender his resignation today.

Mr Robinson said it should be “republicans and not unionists who pay the price for the misbehaviour of the IRA” and suggested some unspecified new mechanism for punishing Sinn Fein. He insisted it will not be “business as usual” at Stormont.

UUP leader Mike Nesbitt hit back at Mr Robinson, saying that it was “incredible that he chooses the language of the battlefield to defend his stance.

“Does he think the people of Northern Ireland have such short memories that they do not recall that when the DUP flip-flopped on their ‘Never, Never, Never, Never’ stance regarding sharing power with Sinn Féin, they promised ‘a battle a day’?

“The problem for Peter Robinson is that there is no battlefield under his command.

“The Ulster Unionist Party will put country ahead of selfish party interests and do what’s right for Northern Ireland.”

However, Mr Nesbitt incorrectly claimed that it had taken “until the last day of August for Peter Robinson to comment on the latest IRA murder”.

In fact, Mr Robinson was interviewed about the murder at the time and then commented in a statement almost two weeks ago when IRA involvement was alleged by the PSNI.

This fact prompted the DUP to release a statement calling on Mr Robinson to publicly apologise for the claim, which it described as “downright dirty and deceitful”.

Meanwhile, DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson has suggested that his party wants to see the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) set up again to report on the status of terror groups’ ceasefires.

Mr Donaldson told The Guardian: “That (a new monitoring commission) would be one but not the only desired outcome.

“If there is going to be a new monitoring mechanism for paramilitaries it has to be one that has teeth.”

Ukip MLA David McNarry criticised the UUP’s walkout. He said: “In the midst of Sinn Fein caught in the headlights of the Provo murder squad and unable to command respect, the facile response of sham moral indignation by the UUP has only served to undermine unionism.”

Van Morrison aficionados had travelled from as far away as New Zealand for a chance to see their hero perform at the starting point of his own remarkable journey.

The special Cyprus Avenue concerts marking the musician’s 70th birthday were the climax of the EastSide Arts Festival and the organisers had invited international visitors to post a message explaining why they were flying thousands of miles to attend.

Many of the fans felt this was a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage opportunity that couldn’t be missed.

Within hours of the tickets going on sale, special hospitality packages were snapped up by fans in Australia, New Zealand, America, Scandinavia, South Africa and across Europe.

Jean Calhoun from Washington state said: “I’ll be travelling 7098.02km to hear the awesome Van the Man in concert again and to enjoy beautiful Belfast and environs.”

Sean O’Neill from Pennsylvania posted the message: “The chance of a lifetime to celebrate the core music of my lifetime in the heart of his conjuring! Plus, it’s a grand and alluring impetus to finally visit my family’s Belfast area roots.”

Every vantage point was taken for the two gigs with almost every garden close to the stage packed with friends and family of the owners.

Although the affluent Cyprus Avenue is a world away from the tiny terraces of his Hyndford Street childhood home, Morrison obviously harboured no sense of envy and instead recalled the tree-lined thoroughfare’s mystical qualities in song many times.

As well as the title of a track on the Astral Weeks album, it has been mentioned on others such as Madame George and On Hyndford Street, and is almost certainly the location being referenced on others such as ‘the avenue’ and ‘avenue of trees’.

A concertgoer allegedly took another man’s car while in Belfast for the Tennent’s Vital festival, a court has heard.

Jonathan Brady is also accused of carrying out assaults on a police officer and a member of the public during his weekend trip to the city.

A judge was told the 21-year-old had been drinking despite being on medication for mental health issues.

Brady, of Cusher Green in Mountnorris, Co Armagh, was granted bail but ordered not to be drunk in public.

He faces charges of taking a Peugeot 406 without the owner’s consent and attempted criminal damage to the vehicle’s rear window.

The alleged offences are connected to an incident in the Balmoral Road area on Saturday.

Further charges of common assault, assault on a policeman and resisting a constable were put to him as he appeared before Belfast Magistrates’ Court.

Opposing bail, a police officer claimed there was a strong risk of reoffending.

A defence lawyer disclosed: “This happened at the Tennent’s Vital concert. (He had) too much alcohol taken.”

Despite police objections, District Judge Desmond Perry ruled Brady could be released from custody.

“We are dealing with a rather sad case,” he remarked.

Mr Perry also directed that the accused must live with his mother and abide by a night-time curfew and electronic monitoring.

Brady is due back in court on September 28.

SSE Airtricity has launched the second year of their scholarship programme to support students from the West and North-West of the country going on to third level education.

The 2015 SSE Airtricity Scholarship, which totals almost £100,000 annually, was unveiled by Employment and Learning Minister Dr Stephen Farry with Chairman of SSE Ireland Mark Ennis. The Scholarship, which is funded by wind energy, is one of the most significant bursary schemes available to full time students in Northern Ireland.

The SSE Airtricity Scholarship is directly supported by the Regional Fund from SSE’s Slieve Kirk Wind Park near Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland’s largest wind farm. The Scholarship is open to applicants living in Co. Derry-Londonderry and Co. Tyrone and is designed to provide funding support from wind energy to students living in the vicinity of Slieve Kirk Wind Park who are going forward to Third Level education.

The 2015 SSE Airtricity Scholarship is now open for applications for this coming academic year.

Around 20 students are expected to be selected this year to receive 50 per cent funding support from SSE Airtricity towards the cost of their Third Level student fees at Ulster University and South West College. Students applying to either institute for the Scholarship are urged to apply before the deadline on September 30.

Employment and Learning Minister, Dr Stephen Farry said: “SSE Airtricity is to be congratulated for its initiative in providing this scholarship. The company’s scheme provides very welcome support to a number of high performing students.

“The focus on engineering, computing, life and health sciences, management and leadership aligns with a number of my Department’s priorities and with the needs of the economy in Northern Ireland. It is very encouraging to see a local business investing in the future of our young people.”

Mark Ennis, Chairman of SSE Ireland, added: “When we launched the Scholarship last year we said it was all about supporting the educational future of the next generation through local energy. After one year, we’re extremely proud of the success of our inaugural Fund having supported more than 20 students in gaining access to high quality education at two of Northern Ireland’s most outstanding educational institutions.”

A Carryduff based bathroom manufacturer has created eight new jobs having secured £400,000 from the Growth Loan Fund.

The finance, which is to invest in R&D to help the company develop its new products, brings the total investment in the business to over £1m since a takeover this time last year.

Finance for the £50m Growth Loan Fund – which provides loans to established Northern Ireland SMEs seeking to access growth finance – has been provided by Invest Northern Ireland and private investor, Northern Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee (NILGOSC).

Established in 1885 Adamsez currently employs 26 people with six of the eight new positions already filled. Its product range includes baths, showers, whirlpools and accessories with over 300 stockists in the UK and Ireland. The brand is also exporting to China and Singapore.

Ciaran Hunter, director of Adamsez said: “The business has been around for 130 years and we are one of the few remaining bathroom manufacturers to still make our products in the UK. When we purchased the company last September we wanted to keep on this tradition and build on the success of the business as we saw it had great potential.

Exports outside of Northern Ireland make up the majority of the company’s sales said Mr Hunter: “We are currently exporting 80% of our products outside of Northern Ireland and this is expected to increase to 90 per cent in the next year. We expect to have exports going into Holland and India in the next 12 months.

“As well as creating eight new full time jobs we are aiming to offer three apprenticeships in the coming year.”

WhiteRock Capital Partners LLP, which is authorised and regulated by the FCA, was established in 2012 to manage the Fund by the consortium of three partners – Braveheart Investment Group, NEL Fund Managers and Clarendon Fund Managers.

The murder of a Moy SDLP activist by loyalists 40 years ago is “still as fresh” in his daughter’s mind as if it had happened only yesterday.

Denis Mullen, a father-of-two, had only recently been appointed to a job as ambulance controller at South Tyrone Hospital in Dungannon when he was shot dead at the front door of the family home on the night of September 1, 1975.

His wife Olive survived the attack by running across nearby fields, despite 13 bullets being fired at her.

Veteran SDLP man Seamus Mallon, as well as party leader Dr Alisdair McDonnell, joined the family at St John’s Church in Moy for Mass on Saturday evening and afterwards at the parochial hall to remember Mr Mullen.

His then-four-year-old daughter Denise, now an SDLP councillor on Mid Ulster District Council, had stayed beside her father’s body until emergency services arrived on the night of his murder.

Speaking ahead of the gathering to mark the 40th anniversary of the killing, she said: “It just seems like it happened yesterday, it has never left me. Daddy’s murder is still as fresh in my head as that night.

“I know it will be difficult for my mother at the weekend but she, as do we all, want to do something to remember daddy because he was such a good man.”

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Tullyvallen massacre, when republicans murdered five Orangemen at a remote south Armagh hall. Here the Orange Order’s director of service, Dr David Hume, reflects on the legacy of the atrocity, ahead of tonight’s memorial service at the hall

The murders at Tullyvallen Orange hall remind us of a terrible past that we hope has been left behind. The attack was the most specific and most murderous on the Orange Institution over the Troubles.

We do not want to see any more heartbreak or loss in the manner in which tragedy and loss were brought to Tullyvallen 40 years ago.

The Troubles as they were called were a direct challenge to the mechanisms of the state, and, sadly, the state did not measure up too well.

The Orange Order lost 332 of its members, including the brethren at Tullyvallen.

In the new Museum of Orange Heritage one of the most striking installations is the Memorial Window to the murdered members of the Institution.

It reminds us of a sad chapter in the history of the Institution.

At the Loughgall museum site there is a memorial garden which fulfils the same purpose.

The past is a challenge to us all.

It is important that the victims of terrorism are not forgotten and that their families are not forgotten.

It is important that government is constantly reminded of its moral obligations to its people.

The philosopher Thomas Hobbes argued that states arose because man wanted to emerge from a ‘state of nature’ – where only the strong survived – and be empowered through the protection of the power of the state.

The moral duty of the state was thus to protect its people.

During the Troubles the state reacted by encouraging men and women to join the security forces in the fight against terrorism. It also localised the problem through the policy of ‘Ulsterisation’, with the emphasis on locals being put in the front line.

This resulted in high risk and a high death toll among those who served in the part-time security forces.

In the context of the Orange Order over 80 per cent of the murders of our members remain unsolved.

In any other democratic western state, such a statistic would be of the gravest embarrassment.

Successive London governments have managed to hide their blushes.

While governments have a moral responsibility, the republican community also have to address the legacy of a murderous campaign in the name of an Irish Republic.

Sinn Fein can dance around the issue of many Protestants being murdered because they were in the security forces. This avoids the real issues of ethnic cleansing on the border, the murder of only sons on farms and the like.

But Tullyvallen cannot be explained away in such fashion.

It was a direct attack on men because of their membership of the Orange Order.

Those who survived would never be the same again.

The families who suffered the loss would never recover.

Forty years on, it is time for someone to express remorse. There can be no excuse for Tullyvallen. Republicans have a moral responsibility to genuinely address this. Silence is not enough.

Recently Lord Alderdice recommended that people should re-read IMC (Independent Monitoring Commission) reports with particular reference to tracking the IRA transition from ‘war’ into peace.

In the reports it clearly mentioned the collapse of the military sections of the IRA but not its disbandment.

The IMC report did not “foresee that there will be formal announcements about the disbandment of all or parts of the structure”. It would have helped in the last couple of weeks if people had had these reports to hand, especially elected public representatives.

It would have assisted them in making sure they did not take any impetuous decisions. In my opinion the IMC should not have been wound up.

In 2004 both the Irish and British governments founded the IMC, which then operated until March 2011. The remit of the IMC included amongst other matters “monitoring any continuing activity by paramilitary groups”.

Having observed the workings of the IMC at close quarters, I was very impressed at their ability to get to the heart of various issues involving paramilitary activities.

This left them in a position to make a clear and concise statement, which then could inform both governments.

I was one of the many people who made known my view that the IMC should not be stood down. I believe it was a major mistake to end the IMC and depend on the Secretary of State to make an assessment without the analytical approach of the IMC.

I also believe it is unreasonable to expect the chief constable to issue statements that can appear to be entering into ‘political speak’.

Whilst circumstances in Northern Ireland are different to the rest of the United Kingdom, I don’t believe it is the job of the chief constable to be informing us, in his opinion, of which politicians are committed to the peace process.

That is why I believe it is an imperative to bring back the IMC. I take the point made recently that it would take some time for the IMC to get up to speed again on paramilitary activity.

However, if they were still in situ we would be awaiting their report in order to make informed political decisions that effect the Governance of Northern Ireland.

• Rev Chris Hudson acted as an intermediary between the UVF and Dublin government in the run-up to the 1994 loyalist ceasefire.

Since then he has continued to be part of talks with loyalists, and was informally involved in discussions with the IMC until its dissolution in 2011.

He is currently a Non-Subscribing Presbyterian minister at All Soul’s Church, Belfast.