The M1 motorway remains closed in the citybound direction at time of writing following a three-vehicle crash.
It happened just outside Lisburn at around 8.30am.
The country-bound lanes of the motorway – which stretches from Dungannon to Belfast – are still operational, but teams are continuing to work to remove the crashed vehicles.
Traffic disruption is understood to be serious.
There are no details of any injuries at this stage.
A child is in a critical condition in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast after an accident in the north of the city on Monday night.
The child – described by police only as being aged under 10 – was struck by the vehicle at North Queen Street.
He was taken to hospital in a critical condition and as of Tuesday morning his status had not changed.
No-one has been arrested in connection with the incident.
Everton footballer Darron Gibson has been sentenced to a 12-month community order and banned from driving for 20 months after he ploughed into three cyclists and drove off.
Gibson, 27, was also over the legal drink-drive limit when his vehicle mounted the pavement in Bowdon, Cheshire, and struck the men who had stopped at the roadside to fix a broken bicycle chain.
The ex-Manchester United midfielder then sped off in his black Nissan Skyline GT-R Nismo from the injured trio before he pulled into a nearby petrol station on the morning of August 16.
Police were called by a concerned garage attendant after Gibson hit a petrol pump and began filling his vehicle with fuel while wearing no shoes.
Officers noticed an “obvious strong smell of alcohol” on Gibson’s breath when they attended, and the footballer and his vehicle were then positively identified by one of the cyclists.
Gibson was arrested and taken to a police station where he gave a positive reading of 57 microgrammes per 100 millilitres of breath - the legal limit being 35.
Today, the Republic of Ireland international entered guilty pleas at Trafford Magistrates’ Court to driving with excess alcohol, driving without due care and attention and failing to stop after a accident had occurred.
Gibson must perform 200 hours of unpaid work as part of his community sentence and was ordered to pay £4,500 in damages caused to one of the bikes, a carbon composite model which was written off.
He was told to pay £1,000 compensation to the cyclist who he directly hit and £100 each to the two other men.
Gibson was also told to pay £295 court costs.
Children were subjected to sectarian abuse by staff at a state-run institution in Northern Ireland, a lawyer has told a public inquiry.
Catholic and Protestant residents fought at Lisnevin training school in Newtownards, near Belfast, during the height of the conflict, witnesses have told the Historical Institutional Abuse probe.
Lawyer Christine Smith QC said there were “daily fights between Catholic and Protestant residents” during the 1970s.
Lisnevin in 1973 was non-denominational between Catholics and Protestants. However, Ms Smith said there was “sectarian abuse from other residents and from staff”.
Retired judge Sir Anthony Hart is leading the HIA probe, one of the UK’s largest inquiries into physical, sexual and emotional harm to children at homes run by the church, state and voluntary organisations.
Its seventh module, expected to last until November, will focus on allegations arising out of St Patrick’s Training School and Hydebank Young Offenders’ Centre in Belfast, Rathgael Training School in Bangor and Lisnevin Training School in Newtownards, Co Down.
Some of the residents spent time in one institution, some in all four. A total of 27 people have come forward to make claims about St Patrick’s which will be the first to be dealt with, Ms Smith said.
This module will hear evidence from about 48 applicants to the Inquiry. Evidence will be heard first about St Patrick’s, which was run by the De La Salle Order of Catholic brothers on the Glen Road in West Belfast.
The final institution to be considered will be Lisnevin Training School, which was located in Newtownards from 1973 to 2003 and Hydebank Young Offenders’ Centre, which opened in June 1979 with accommodation for 325 young people and is still operating.
Children could be admitted to one of the schools for truancy, some of the witnesses have said they were in need of care and should not be put in the same place as offenders.
One 1970s inmate told the inquiry: “I was sent to Rathgael because I was playing truant, I was in there with boys who had committed considerable offences, for example...paramilitary activities. I turned from being bullied into being a bully.
“I was not safe.”
The prosecution of an Irish nanny accused of murdering a one-year-old girl in America has been branded a disgrace by her lawyer, after the charge was dropped.
Aisling Brady McCarthy had been due to stand trial accused of killing one-year-old Rehma Sabir in Massachusetts in 2013.
The 37-year-old spent almost two-and-a-half years in jail before being released on bail in May.
Prosecutors have now dropped the case after a state medical examiner reversed a finding that the baby’s death was a murder caused by shaken baby syndrome, and instead said it was “undetermined”.
Ms McCarthy’s lawyer Melinda Thompson said: “It was a tragedy that a child died, but, quite frankly, the way this prosecution was handled was a complete disgrace.”
She said the nanny had not stopped crying “out of joy” since hearing the news the charge had been dropped.
“This was an absolute nightmare. It changes a person. She can’t get those years back,” said Ms Thompson.
She added that Ms McCarthy still faces uncertainty as US immigration authorities want to detain her.
The state medical examiner made the change after finding that Rehma had past medical issues and may have had some type of undiagnosed disorder.
Marian Ryan, the district attorney for Middlesex in Massachusetts, said: “Based on an assessment of the present state of the evidence, including the amended ruling from the medical examiner who performed the autopsy, the Commonwealth cannot meet its burden of proof.”
Ms McCarthy is originally from Cavan in the Irish Republic but has been in the US illegally since 2002 and had been Rehma’s nanny for around six months when the baby died in January 2013.
The medical examiner said the decision to change the cause and manner of death came after additional materials were reviewed.
These included expert witness reports, additional transcripts of police interviews, transcripts of testimony heard ahead of the planned trial, additional medical records and additional medical testing related to the girl’s death.
The reports states: “These additional materials put forth several different and often conflicting opinions about the cause of Rehma’s death.
“In particular the overall state of Rehma’s health and her past medical issues raise the possibility that she had some type of disorder that was not able to be completely diagnosed prior to her death.”
People in Ms McCarthy’s hometown of Lavey are relieved at the news, local priest Rev Kevin Fay said.
“It’s fantastic news, just fantastic news,” he told the Boston Globe. “We all know the family very well. There’s a sense of great relief for everybody,” he added.
The ruling comes almost a year after charges were dropped in another Middlesex murder case which alleged a baby had been shaken.
A father accused of killing his six-month-old son in 2010 had the charge against him dropped in September last year after his lawyers discovered there was a rare genetic vulnerability to ruptured arteries or veins in the family’s medical history.
The Democratic Unionist Party has been defeated in a bid for a four-week adjournment of the Northern Ireland Assembly to allow for political negotiations, a party spokesman said.
The Ulster Unionists have decided to leave the devolved powersharing ministerial Executive after police said the IRA still exists.
The largest party, the DUP, had called for Assembly meetings which are due to begin next week to be stalled during crisis talks but was overruled by the other parties.
DUP leader Peter Robinson is due to meet Prime Minister David Cameron in London later.
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable George Hamilton has said the Provisional IRA still exists and some members, along with a group styling itself Action Against Drugs, were involved in the murder of a father-of-nine last month.
A DUP spokesman said: “We have sought to extend the Assembly recess, to not return until October. That was not successful.”
Mr Cameron is expected to come under pressure to penalise Sinn Fein when he meets Mr Robinson and his DUP deputy Nigel Dodds at Downing Street today.
Mr Cameron’s official spokeswoman said the Downing Street meeting with Mr Robinson was “an opportunity for both of them to discuss the latest political situation in Northern Ireland and how we can continue to move forward”.
The PM’s spokeswoman added: “We are clear we want to work with parties there to implement the Stormont House Agreement.”
The political fallout following the murder of IRA man Kevin McGuigan will also top the agenda in Dublin where Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers will sit down with Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, who has asked Irish police chiefs to review Provisional IRA (PIRA) activity.
The controversy was sparked when the chief constable said the PIRA still exists and some members, along with a group styling itself Action Against Drugs, were involved in the murder of Mr McGuigan. Police believe the killing was a revenge attack by republican associates of IRA commander Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison who was gunned down in May.
The chief constable said the PIRA is not engaged in terrorism - instead pursuing peaceful, political republicanism - and that there is no evidence the McGuigan killing was sanctioned by the IRA leadership.
But the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) said it could no longer work with Sinn Fein because trust has been shattered.
On Saturday it unanimously voted to leave the power-sharing Executive and the party’s only minister, Danny Kennedy, is due to resign today.
Although the move is not enough to collapse the Executive it has put pressure on the DUP.
Mr Robinson, who has been on holiday, branded the UUP decision irrational, illogical and based on “political expediency” rather than principle.
Walking away should be a last resort, he said.
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein said it would not be “deflected” and accused political opponents of exploiting murder.
Conor Murphy, MLA for Newry and Armagh, said: “We and the 178,000 people who voted for us in the last Assembly elections will not be excluded or discriminated against. Those days are over.”
Employment in the manufacturing sector fell for the first time in more than two years last month as the sector was held back by sustained export weakness - with China’s slowdown likely to add a further headache.
The closely-watched CIPS/Markit purchasing managers’ index (PMI) survey posted a reading of 51.5 in August - where 50 separates growth from contraction. This was down from 51.9 in July.
A reading for employment growth turned negative for the first time in 26 months as larger manufacturers made cutbacks, though small businesses continued to add staff.
Exports fell for the fifth month in a row, blamed on the strength of the pound, weak sales in the eurozone and the slowdown in China.
Domestic business kept the sector going, with consumer goods remaining a source of strength - though there was ongoing weakness in those sorts of goods used by firms to make other products.
Manufacturing has been growing for two and a half years according to monthly PMI data, but August’s reading was well below the average pace over that period.
Sterling fell by one cent against the euro.
Rob Dobson, senior economist at survey compilers Markit, said: “The sector looks unlikely to make much of a contribution to the solid gain in broader GDP growth expected for the third quarter.”
He said the impact of China’s slowdown was likely to be minimal since it only makes up a small proportion of UK overseas sales.
“However, it is too early to say what the indirect impact may be if there is any knock-on effect for broader global economic growth,” Mr Dobson added.
Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said the survey would fuel suspicions of a weak third quarter for manufacturing after it contracted by 0.3 per cent over the April-June period.
He added: “Lacklustre manufacturing activity is worrying for hopes that UK growth can become more balanced and less dependent on the services sector and consumer spending.
“On the export front, manufacturers will be concerned about the ongoing strength of sterling against the euro, and they will also be worried that global growth could be held back by a marked slowdown in China.”
The figures come after latest official data last week showed trade was the biggest positive contribution to UK gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter.
Samuel Tombs, of Capital Economics, said the strong pound was “crimping exporters” and the report suggested “that the major support net trade provided to GDP growth in the second quarter will be a blip”.
He added: “Sterling’s appreciation and the continued sluggishness of the eurozone economy’s recovery suggest that a sustained revival in the export-orientated manufacturing sector will remain a distant prospect.”
An American man charged over an alleged air rage incident does not accept responsibility for the costly diversion of a transatlantic flight, a court has heard.
The United Airlines plane was en route from Rome to Chicago on June 20 when the captain made the decision to touch down at Belfast International Airport after concerns were raised about the man by cabin crew and other passengers.
Jeremiah Mathis Thede, from California, appeared before Antrim Magistrates’ Court charged with endangering the safety of the aircraft, disruptive behaviour on board and common assault.
Defence barrister Aaron Thompson described the high-profile case as “novel” and said his client was “not even aware” of common assault as an offence.
It is claimed the plane had to dump 50,000 litres of fuel before making the unscheduled stop.
As the crew would have exceeded their legal flying hours if the aircraft had resumed the journey straight away, 282 passengers were forced to wait almost 24 hours before the plane could take off again, with many having to sleep on the terminal floor.
Diverting the plane was a decision for the pilot, Deputy District Judge Sean O’Hare was told.
“These are all decisions taken by the flight crew,” said Mr Thompson. “The pilot takes a decision to divert at a large cost.”
Dressed in dark trousers with a loose white shirt and carrying a bag, Thede stood beside his lawyer in the public gallery as it was decided the case should proceed to a higher court.
The 42-year-old, from Berkeley, spoke several times during the brief hearing to confirm he did not wish to give evidence or call witnesses at this stage.
Thede, who has spent time in custody, is already significantly out of pocket as a result of having to stay in Northern Ireland for the case, the court heard.
“He was never meant to be here,” the barrister said. “He is an American citizen who was diverted. His flight was diverted at a cost, if you read the newspapers, of about $500,000 (£326,000). He is now held here on bail.”
Releasing Thede on his own bail of £500, the judge said novel areas of law would have to be explored.
The case was adjourned until October 14.
Outside, Thede declined to comment and shielded his face from a camera.
A man with nearly 250 previous convictions has been jailed again for violence against two police officers.
Kieran Kelly is to serve four months behind bars after pleading guilty to assaulting the constables amid efforts to get him somewhere to stay.
The 52-year-old, with an address at University Street in Belfast, also admitted a further charge of disorderly behaviour.
Sending him to prison, District Judge Peter King highlighted his 247 past convictions.
He said: “It’s certainly one of the more striking criminal records I have had to deal with either at the Bar or on the bench.”
Kelly was arrested following an incident in the city’s Townsend Street area on August 18.
Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard police had been alerted to a highly aggressive and drunk man.
He told officers he had nowhere to live, with the assaults said to have been committed as they tried to find a local hostel for him.
Kelly had been out on bail pending sentencing, with a condition that he was not to take any alcohol.
But he was returned to custody after being found, apparently drunk, on the edge of the M1 motorway.
The Irish government has signalled independent monitoring of the IRA could help resolve the latest political crisis in Northern Ireland.
After a two-hour meeting with Secretary of State Theresa Villiers, Dublin’s Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said a number of options were on the table.
Little detail was given but he suggested fresh multi-party talks, with London and Dublin overseeing the process, could be imminent.
“I would expect there will be a level of talk and negotiations over the next few weeks,” he said.
“A number of options were discussed by the Secretary of State and ourselves as to how best we might facilitate the restoration of trust and confidence in the Northern institutions.
“In the event that talks take place, we will have a fundamental role in facilitating, influencing and advocating a reengagement on the part of the parties in Northern Ireland towards the Good Friday Agreement.”
Mr Flanagan added: “One option has been that there be some form of independent monitoring arrangement. Again, the detail wasn’t discussed, however it remains an option.”
The Foreign Affairs Minister said the need for round table engagement is “essential”.
Warning of very serious challenges in the weeks ahead as the Stormont Assembly returns, he urged “all five party leaders” in Northern Ireland to recommit themselves to the letter and spirit of the Good Friday Agreement .
Ms Villiers also suggested that bringing back the Independent Monitoring Commission, which last reported in 2011, could restore trust between unionists and republicans.
“The problem we have at the moment is real. There’s a genuine concern about the current situation,” she said.
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, who also met with Ms Villiers in Dublin, released no fresh information on any IRA activity after a high-level meeting with the Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan this morning to discuss security.
She said there was an ongoing review and that both the Garda and PSNI agree on their security assessments.
“If there is evidence emerging that has implications here in the south, clearly that will be acted upon,” she added.
Earlier, the Democratic Unionists were defeated in a bid for a four-week adjournment of the Northern Ireland Assembly to allow for political negotiations.
The Ulster Unionists have decided to leave the devolved power-sharing ministerial Executive after police said the IRA still exists.
The largest party, the DUP, had called for Assembly meetings which were due to begin next week to be stalled during crisis talks, but was overruled by the other parties.
DUP leader Peter Robinson is due to meet Prime Minister David Cameron in London later.
PSNI chief constable George Hamilton has said the Provisional IRA still exists and some members, along with a group styling itself Action Against Drugs, were involved in the murder of a father-of-nine last month.
They believe the killing of Kevin McGuigan was a revenge attack by republican associates of IRA commander Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison, who was gunned down in May.
The chief constable said the PIRA is not engaged in terrorism - instead pursuing peaceful, political republicanism - and that there is no evidence the McGuigan killing was sanctioned by the IRA leadership.
But the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) said it could no longer work with Sinn Fein because trust has been shattered.
Mr Robinson, who has been on holiday, branded the UUP decision irrational, illogical and based on “political expediency” rather than principle.
Walking away should be a last resort, he said.
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein said it would not be “deflected” and accused political opponents of exploiting murder.
Conor Murphy, MLA for Newry and Armagh, said: “We and the 178,000 people who voted for us in the last Assembly elections will not be excluded or discriminated against. Those days are over.”
Ms Villiers said the “most crucial” aspect of the latest crisis was to allow the PSNI to investigate the Davison and McGuigan murders.
The family of a 57-year-old worker who died after a lorry accident were in court on Tuesday as his inquest was shown video footage of the incident.
William Stephen Hegarty was killed in the workplace tragedy at Chain Reaction Cycles premises on August 26, 2014, to the west of Ballyclare.
At the outset of the inquest the jury was shown black-and-white CCTV from the yard at the Kilbride Road premises, taken at roughly 9.20pm.
The short clip – played amid absolute silence in court – showed the open courtyard, Mr Hegarty standing at the gate, and a huge white lorry from Carna Transport Ireland arriving.
It manoeuvred into position and began to reverse.
As it reversed back through the yard, Mr Hegarty moved into its path.
The vehicle then stopped and moved forward. Visible on the very edge of the camera footage, Mr Hegarty was then seen to tumble to the ground from behind the vehicle.
The inquest heard that he had been crushed against a trailer parked in the yard.
Mr Hegarty – a Belfast-born father-of-three who lived in Ballyclare’s Millview Drive and worked as a warehouse operative – is listed on the court file as having died at the scene as a result of spine and chest injuries.
Taking to the stand to confirm his details, his widow Ruth Hegarty said that the two had been married for 28 years, and that for roughly around the last 18 of those he had worked at the firm.
She told the court she had no concerns about his health or his well-being before his death.
Fellow worker Martin Racz was then questioned about what he had seen that night.
A forklift driver who was working nearby at the time, he ran to the scene when he saw him being crushed.
In a statement read to the court, he said Mr Hegarty had slapped the side of the lorry to signal for it to stop before it hit the trailer.
Questioned over exactly which part he had slapped, he said: “I definitely saw him slapping the back of it when he got stuck between them.”
Mr Hegarty was on “spotter duty” at the time, he said.
It meant checking for nearby traffic and “just observing – [he] doesn’t tell the driver where to go or anything”.
However, he added Mr Hegarty had intervened to prevent the lorry hitting the trailer in this case.
Mr Racz had known Mr Hegarty for around six years, and said he was an experienced spotter.
Ronan Daly, barrister for Chain Reaction Cycles (who described Mr Hegarty as “a long-standing and esteemed member of staff”), asked: “In all that time had you ever seen Mr Hegarty go behind a trailer like that?”
“No,” replied Mr Racz.
The inquest continues.
A burglar has assaulted a man in his nineties in the his Lisburn home.
Police are appealing for information about the attack, which took place in the Ballymacash Road area on Monday about 10.45pm.
The burglar entered the house and assaulted the pensioner, demanding car keys and fleeing in his blue Ford Mondeo. The resident was not hurt.
At around 11.10pm, the car hit a wall and was set on fire in the Distillery Street area of West Belfast.
Detective Inspector Cummings said: “The burglar is described as being aged in his late twenties or early thirties. He had short dark hair and is thought to be about 6ft tall.
“I would ask anyone with any information about this incident to contact detectives in Lisburn Police Station on the non emergency number 101.”
Information may also be passed to police anonymously via Crimestoppers 0800 555 111.
A Belfast taxi driver has told a jury how he thought he was going to be shot after a passenger pointed a gun at him and threatened to blow his brains out.
The Value Cabs employee, who was giving evidence at Belfast Crown Court, claimed the threat was issued by a passenger who asked whether he was “a Prod or a Taig”.
When asked about the threat and how it left him feeling, the taxi driver tearfully said: “I honestly believed he was going to shoot me.”
Currently standing trial on three charges arising out of the alleged incident in December 2012 is Lee Hosie, from Shore Road in Belfast.
The court heard the alleged offences occurred on the same night of the first rioting linked to the loyalist flag protest.
The 23-year-old denies possessing a firearm or imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, threatening to kill the taxi driver and making off without paying the £6.60 fare.
Hosie’s barrister said that while his client admitted being a passenger in the taxi, and being “rude, obnoxious and quite disgusting” to the driver, he didn’t have a gun.
The jury heard that in the aftermath of the alleged incident, the taxi driver picked Hosie out during an identification process.
Hosie initially denied being in the taxi on the night in question. However, during a later interview he admitted he was a passenger, denied having a gun and claimed the taxi driver made up the allegations about the weapon and threats following a dispute over the fare.
At hearing.
A debate is to be staged on the future of the Northern Ireland’s status within the EU on Friday when the UUP brings a string of MEPs to the Province for a visit.
UUP MEP Jim Nicholson will host the trip by 16 MEPs from the European Conservatives and Reformists group, of which the UUP is a member, from Wednesday to Friday.
The debate will be between the UUP’s Mark Cosgrove (who is Northern Ireland and Scotland director of freight firm Redhead International) and two MEPs – the Tories’ Helga Ford and Flemish politician Helga Stevens.
It will be at 8.30am on Friday at the Titanic building in Belfast.
Mr Nicholson said: “The delegation includes MEPs from across the EU, including Finland, Latvia, Denmark and Poland.
“I am particularly pleased that a number of Polish colleagues are visiting us, as a key focus of the itinerary is commemorating the sacrifice and service of Polish airmen who were based in Northern Ireland during WWII.”
South Down MLA Jim Wells has hit out over what police have described as a sectarian attack on five businesses in Dundrum.
Bricks were thrown at the windows of five premises at 3.30am on Monday in the village’s main street.
Initial investigations indicate that the incidents were “hate” crimes of a sectarian nature, police said.
Mr Wells said he was “appalled to learn of the blatant sectarian attacks on businesses in the village”.
He added: “It is very noticeable that whoever did this appears to have bypassed businesses which would be perceived to be Catholic in order to attack businesses which would seen as Protestant.”
His local sources had been adamant that all businesses attacked were perceived as Protestant.
However, a spokesperson for one of the businesses was not so sure all five businesses were seen as Protestant.
“There had been no tensions in the village,” they said. “Dundrum is very quiet. There was a bit of tension in July over bonfires but there has been nothing recently. We have a mixed staff so we can’t see why we would be targeted.”
There had not been any sectarian graffitti, they said.
MLAs have agreed that a businessman rumoured to have explosive evidence about the NAMA scandal should testify at Stormont on Thursday.
Gareth Graham will appear at the Assembly’s finance committee on Thursday morning, though MLAs will first consider legal advice on what he should be allowed to discuss.
Mr Graham, whose family ran a well-known bookmakers, is in a legal battle with Cerberus, the US vulture fund that bought NAMA’s Northern Ireland loan book last year.
The DUP MLA Jim Wells has expressed concern that Mr Graham might want to give evidence “to assist him in his case”.
The committee’s Sinn Fein chairman, Daithi McKay, said that was “speculative” and party colleague Máirtín Ó Muilleoir said that he had spoken to Mr Graham and added: “I believe he does want to assist the committee.”
Mr McKay said that he believed it would be in the public interest for Mr Graham’s evidence to be heard publicly by the committee.
The North Antrim MLA said it was a “significant decision” by the committee, which until now has struggled to get answers on the NAMA scandal, partly because the National Crime Agency is undertaking a criminal investigation into certain aspects of the affair.
Mr McKay said: “I have no doubt that this will engender huge attention from right across the island of Ireland on Thursday.
“I have no doubt that Gareth Graham has evidence that will be very worthwhile and of significant use for the committee’s inquiry.”
It is not known whether Mr Graham’s evidence will relate to the allegation made in the Dail that millions of pounds in an Isle of Man bank account were for a Northern Ireland politician.
This page is usually ‘lock, stock and barrel’ about Northern Ireland - its past, its people and its places.
This page is usually ‘lock, stock and barrel’ about Northern Ireland - its past, its people and its places.
Local connections with other countries are sometimes recounted here too, or our associations with lonely locations at ‘the back of beyond’.
Today Roamer isn’t giving beautiful Ulster ‘the cold shoulder’ but he has been ‘caught red handed’ in Scotland!
All those sayings were coined and popularised by Sir Walter Scott, Scotland’s iconic poet, novelist, ballad-collector and author of historic masterpieces like Rob Roy, Waverley and The Lady of the Lake!
Roamer recently received a kind invitation from the Visit Scotland organisation headlined Borders Railway Choo Chooses Tourism.
Their endearingly ‘tongue in cheek’ (another Scott-ism!) invitation announced the debut this coming Sunday of Scotland’s newest scenic railway and offered me a car-drive preview “into one of Europe’s most unspoilt regions...beautiful countryside famous for inspiring Sir Walter Scott.”
Britain’s longest new domestic railway line in over a century will be officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen next Wednesday, the day that she becomes our longest serving monarch.
The Queen will be joined by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for the historic steam journey.
Special steam-trips are available for the public too, but the approximately £300 million, 30-mile, hop-on hop-off route with 10 stops and eight new stations will mostly be serviced by half-hourly diesel trains.
The 55-minute journey from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, depending on where you embark, can start at Waverley Station opened in 1854, its name confirming the measure of Scott’s influence in his native land.
“My heart clings to the place I have created,” Sir Walter said of his awesomely beautiful, stone-and-lime, Tweed-side Abbotsford home – “the Delilah” of his imagination.
On my way to Sir Walter’s heavenly gardens and strikingly beautiful rooms bulging with original artefacts, I visited a less lyrical concept in stone that clings to the top of another architectural wonder – Melrose Abbey’s bagpipe-playing pig!
“They believed it kept evil spirits away in the 1600s,” one of the Cistercian Abbey’s attendants told me, “bagpipes were made from pigs’ stomachs in those days.”
The carved-stone pig vied for height, space and tourists’ cameras with sculpted demons, dancing hobgoblins and ghostly faces atop the soaring walls of the rose-stoned Abbey church.
The multi-arched building with its powerful stone buttresses, vaults and piers, dates almost entirely from its reconstruction following a devastating raid by Richard II’s army in 1385.
Regarded as one of the marvels of medieval church architecture anywhere in the UK, the vast, fascinating Abbey also contains Robert the Bruce’s heart, buried there in 1331; one of Scotland’s earliest pairs of reading glasses and some ancient portable urinals that were concealed under the monks’ robes for use during lengthy devotions.
Cistercians were hard-working, strictly vegetarian, ruled by severe asceticism.
“Our food is scanty, our drink is from the stream, under our tired limbs there is but a hard mat,” quilled Melrose’s Abbot Aelred of Rievaulx in the mid-1100s.
He should have booked into the Roxburghe Hotel near a village called Heiton by Kelso!
Dating from the 12th century, the hotel is a beautiful, stately, home-from-home with picture-postcard gardens, prime fishing rivers, and a championship golf course.
Open, log-burning fireplaces set around with period furniture are framed with tall bookcases of old tomes.
My giant four-poster bed would have soothed Abbot Aelred’s tired limbs, with ample room for most of his mat-weary monks too!
Whilst dietary requests were invited, my dinner-order in the hotel’s Chez Roux restaurant (Albert Roux of Le Gavroche) most definitely wasn’t 12th century Cistercian!
It began with hand rolled crab tortellini in creamy crab and brandy bisque, followed by Riesling wine-marinated breast of Guinea Fowl with crispy Serrano ham and foraged Scottish girolles (mushrooms).
Next came lightest-of-light caramelised lemon tart with raspberry sorbet prior to a sunset-evening’s round of croquet in the shade of a lush spreading chestnut.
Amidst such culinary, architectural and natural splendour, my short sojourn was homely and relaxed, stirring some similar senses included in Abbot Aelred’s description of Melrose Abbey “Everywhere peace, everywhere serenity, and a marvellous freedom from the tumult of the world.”
The locally-sourced traditional Scottish ingredients used by Chez Roux were succulently evident at breakfast; foraged mushrooms and haggis, with bacon and sausages from pigs that never played, but undoubtedly heard, bagpipes!
Visit Scotland’s regional director Paula McDonald told me that the new railway journey “isn’t just a one-trip opportunity. Every time you come, it will reveal something else to you.” Paula stressed the proximity of countless visitor attractions, easily accessed by local buses, good roads, bicycle routes and tree-clad country walks.
In two intriguing days Roamer also visited Sir Walter Scott’s and Field Marshall Douglas Haig’s graves in ancient Dryburgh Abbey; the 1,300-year-old carved ‘rock of ages’ outside Mary Queen of Scots house in Jedburgh, where a scrap of silk said to come from the dress that she wore on the morning of her execution is on display, and Scott’s View where Sir Walter often stopped to gaze on the awe-inspiring panorama. His funeral cortege’s horses reportedly paused there of their own accord “to allow their master a last look” at the Border’s landscape.
Roamer will take Visit Scotland’s advice and ‘strain at the leash’ (a concluding Scott-ism!) to return to these wondrous places, and many more, on the new Borders Railway route.
For more information on holidaying in Scotland go to: www.visitscotland.com and for the new Borders Railway see www.visitscotland.com/bordersrailway and www.bordersrailway.co.uk
A 70th anniversary lunch marking the end of World War Two is to be held on Wednesday at Belfast City Hall – with surviving veterans of the conflict invited as VIPs.
The date was chosen because it marks the signing of Japan’s surrender document on the deck of a US warship in 1945.
Music from the era is to be performed by a group called The Nostalgia Trio.
Each of the veterans – most of whom are aged over 90 – will receive a commemorative medallion as a keepsake.
Belfast veteran Alfie Martin, 95, who won the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery, will be among the guests.
“This is a very nice gesture by Belfast City Council, and one which is very much appreciated,” he said.
“It will be a very nostalgic event for all of us, and I am looking forward very much to meeting with other veterans.”
First Minister Peter Robinson has joined calls for independent monitoring of the IRA and urged the British Government to suspend the Assembly and convene urgent political talks.
The Irish government has already signalled its support for a new body to investigate the IRA ceasefire, after senior police said the organisation still existed, and warned multi-party talks with London and Dublin overseeing the process could be imminent.
Mr Robinson met Prime Minister David Cameron last night after failing in a bid to suspend Stormont to allow dedicated negotiations to take place.
The DUP leader said: “Our concern is that the process requires urgent talks; the Prime Minister and Secretary of State (Theresa Villiers) agreed with that analysis.
“Our view was that those talks should be held in an atmosphere where people were concentrating on those issues and normal business was not proceeding.
“I think that there was a recognition on their part that we had done the right thing by trying to adjourn the Assembly to allow the talks to take place.”
Mr Robinson added that decisions need to be made by Monday on how to clear space for talks.
Asked about independent monitoring of the IRA, he said: “I see that as being a small part of the issue of how to deal with paramilitary organisations.
“It is, on its own, not sufficient.”
PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton has said the Provisional IRA still exists and some members were involved in the murder of a father-of-nine last month.
The revelations have shaken the political establishment, following Sinn Fein assurances that the IRA had gone away and the assessment of a 2008 British and Irish Government-appointed Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) report which declared that the IRA had disbanded its terrorist structures and relinquished the leadership necessary to wage war.
Police believe the killing of Kevin McGuigan in east Belfast was a revenge attack by republican associates of IRA commander Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison, who was gunned down in May.
The Chief Constable said the IRA was not engaged in terrorism – instead pursuing peaceful, political republicanism – and that there is no evidence the McGuigan killing was sanctioned by the IRA leadership.
But the Ulster Unionist Party said it could no longer work with Sinn Fein because trust has been shattered and decided to leave power-sharing.
Ms Villiers also suggested that bringing back the IMC, which last reported on paramilitary activity in 2011, could restore trust between unionists and republicans.
Dublin’s Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said: “I would expect there will be a level of talk and negotiations over the next few weeks.”
Earlier, the Democratic Unionists were defeated in a bid for a four-week adjournment of the Assembly to allow for political negotiations after other parties voted against the proposal.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he would be prepared to take part in a new talks process.
“I don’t think it was a good idea looking for a suspension of the institutions for a four-week period and I think it would be an even worse idea if David Cameron were to effectively suspend these institutions and return direct rule ministers for whatever time.”
Sinn Fein is seeking an urgent meeting with Mr Cameron.
Downing Street said Mr Cameron realised the gravity of the situation and had asked Ms Villiers to hold talks with Stormont parties and the Irish government to help secure an agreement.
A spokeswoman said: “The Prime Minister recognised the gravity of the current situation and the need to rebuild trust and confidence in the political process in Northern Ireland.
“He reiterated his commitment to the devolved institutions and to tackling any remaining paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland.
“The Prime Minister has asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to hold further urgent talks with the political parties in Northern Ireland and the Irish government with the aim of agreeing a way forward that builds a better future for the people of Northern Ireland.”
Lord Trimble, former Ulster Unionist leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his peace process work, and current UUP leader Mike Nesbitt have argued that setting up a new IMC would help restore trust in Sinn Fein, which maintains that the IRA does not exist.
Survivors of the Tullyvallen Orange Hall massacre have joined with relatives of the five victims to commemorate 40 years since the republican gunmen struck.
The five men who died were members of the local Orange lodge who were attending one of its regular meetings.
On September 1, 1975, a number of terrorists burst into the isolated south Armagh hall and fired indiscriminately on the occupants.
Four men were killed and a fifth later died from his wounds.
The Order’s grand master Edward Stevenson was among those who attended Tuesday night’s poignant service.
South Armagh man Berry Reaney, 72, was present on the night of the killing spree which cost the lives of William Herron (68), John Johnston, (80), James McKee, (73), William Ronnie McKee, (40) and Nevin McConnell (48).
He had spoken in the News Letter on Saturday, ahead of the anniversary, and interviewed in the most recent edition of the Orange Standard – the Order’s newsletter – he was asked if he could ever forgive those behind the massacre.
He replied: “It is not something in my power to forgive them – that is between them and God.
“The problem I feel is [the perpetrators] see this as something of a badge of honour and they are not interested in forgiveness.”
He added: “I know the state is not going to get us justice and there is no point in me ruining my own life about it. Let the people that did it suffer their own consequences.”
He had been injured in the arm by a bullet as he sought shelter beneath a table from the gunfire, and had not been well enough to attend the funerals of his five murdered brethren.
Mr Reaney also said that the after-effects of the massacre continue to present medical problems for survivors today.
Victims’ campaigner Willie Frazer attended the service. He said: “It was encouraging that 40 years later people had not forgotten the atrocity. It was very moving service”.