Liam Tunney | Journalist

‘He wasted half his time attacking us’: TUV and DUP at loggerheads as motion slamming dual language signage policy defeated ?

🔴 | DUP motion calling for a review of Belfast City Council's dual language signage policy is defeated

Unionist MLAs Timothy Gaston and Phillip Brett clashed during the twilight debate at Stormont

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Warning as Asian hornet found in Northern Ireland for first time: ‘This is a harmful species’ The sighting of an Asian hornet in Northern Ireland has been confirmed for the first time, the NI Environment Agency (NIEA) has said.

This is alarming and significant: the first sighting in Northern Ireland of the Asian hornet, a ferociously aggressive predator which decimates the bee population by mass attacks where it rips the heads off bees - which are crucial for pollination.

Warning as Asian hornet found in Northern Ireland for first time: ‘This is a harmful species’ The sighting of an Asian hornet in Northern Ireland has been confirmed for the first time, the NI Environment Agency (NIEA) has said.

🔴| NEW: Dept confirms the presence of the Asian Hornet for first time in NI after report from resident

🐝| DAERA Minister @andrewmuirni.bsky.social said the species represented a "serious threat".

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

In the spirit of Baby Loss Awareness Week, sharing my daughter Fionnuala's story and highlighting the importance of marking this week.

Full video: tinyurl.com/2w7whzh

Woman suffered suicidal thoughts after unlawful detention for five days at NI immigration centre A Spanish woman who was detained unlawfully in a Northern Ireland immigration centre suffered suicidal thoughts and had to be constantly watched, an inspection report into the centre has revealed.

End Deportations Belfast are quoted in this @belfasttelegraph.co.uk article by @ismiseliam.bsky.social on Larne House immigration detention centre. 6000+ people have been detained here since opening in 2011. This Spanish woman suffered under the 'lock up first, ask questions later' sytem.[1/2]

📝 @enddbelfast.bsky.social said alternatives to detention needed to be explored.

"This report is a long-awaited wake up call that demands immediate action," added a spokesperson.

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📝 The lack of Home Office staff at the NI facility gave rise to concerns over confidentiality and an ability to effectively monitor CCTV.

Only one of the 12 2021 recommendations - which related to the Manchester site - was deemed to be achieved.

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📝 One recommendation said failure to adequately separate male and female detainees was a 'risk to safety' - four years later the problem persists.

That's aside from the shocking failure that saw a Spanish woman unlawfully detained for almost a week.

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Woman suffered suicidal thoughts after unlawful detention for five days at NI immigration centre A Spanish woman who was detained unlawfully in a Northern Ireland immigration centre suffered suicidal thoughts and had to be constantly watched, an inspection report into the centre has revealed.

📝 A fairly scathing report carried out in July showed almost no progress made towards recommendations from a previous inspection in 2021.

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

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Delay on language commissioner appointments ‘deeply disappointing’, says Conradh na Gaeilge president The delay in appointing Stormont language commissioners promised more than five years ago is “deeply disappointing”, the president of Irish language advocacy group Conradh na Gaeilge (CnG) has said.

⭕ "This is going to drag on. We're not going to leave it. We're not going to accept that there'll be no Commissioner."

Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin said the delay in appointing Stormont's language commissioners is "deeply disappointing".

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Jim Allister is a (v good ) Barrister & has said multiple times that he would have no qualms taking the case of an IRA person if he was approached because the cab rank rule is fundamentally part of the legal system here.
JIM ALLISTER.
So quit with this angle about Catherine Connolly, it’s a smear

Conradh na Gaeilge president Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin

💬 During the event Mac Giolla Bhéin also expressed solidarity with @naomilong.bsky.social and @michaelalong.bsky.social whose home was targeted by masked men overnight.

"We stand in solidarity with Naomi and Michael in the face of intimidation and threats," he told the crowd.

🏛️ An event has been held at the gates of Belfast City Hall to mark the passing of the Council's new Irish language policy.

@cnagaeilge.bsky.social President Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin told the crowd the language has grown "in every part of the city".

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

That's on the list for tomorrow's commute too 😂

Mr Paisley I believe in conversation with Michelle Gildernew and Jamie Bryson. Haven't got listening to it yet but I've seen the fallout!

BelTel Politics: Irish signs, Labour snubs, the SDLP targeting Alliance, and will Farage eat the Tories? Domestically, Northern Ireland politics has been consumed by Irish language issues this week and unionists reel in the wake of Belfast City Council’s new bilingual policy – is it just the result of de...

🎙️ Realise we're competing with another big podcast today 👀 but myself and @ciarandunbarrach.bsky.social have been dissecting the last week in politics with Alex Kane and @dmcbfs.bsky.social

⭕️ Language policy, the Labour conference and the SDLP on the agenda

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Owners of almost 600 boilers have stopped engaging with department over RHI scheme Almost 600 boiler owners eligible for legacy payments under a proposed renewable heat incentive (RHI) closure scheme have stopped engaging with the department responsible.

🔥 An uplift in the tariff is expected to be in place by the end of this month. Officials told the Economy Committee today that owners of some 590 boilers have not engaged with the Department.

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Health trusts spend more than £22m on restricted surgeries with little or no monitoring of rules Health trusts failed to verify they followed policies on the use of resources in relation to 12,000 restricted operations carried out at a cost of around £22m, the Audit Office (AO) has found.

DoH: Monitor spending on restricted procedures

Trusts: lolz

An NIAO report has found "inadequate approaches" to data recording and 'no assurances' the Dept policy was followed.

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

‘We will not be deterred’: Sinn Féin minister responds to pipe bomb attack on constituency office Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins has said she “will not be deterred” after a pipe bomb was left outside her Co Down constituency office over the weekend.

🔴 | LATEST: "This is a reckless attack but it won't stop me in my role as Minister"

Liz Kimmins and First Minister Michelle O'Neill have hit out at those responsible for the attack in Newry.

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

It was completely omitted from the analogy he made about football.

He did indeed. That was the only mention. Scunthorpe steel and even "the data centres of Essex" got a mention. Humberside too.

NI Secretary must ‘put neck on the line’ and grant public inquiry, says family of Sean Brown Secretary of State Hilary Benn needs to move beyond sympathetic words and “put his neck on the line” to grant a public inquiry into the death of Sean Brown, his family have said.

On the fringes of the Labour conference, Sean Brown's family continued their battle for truth about his murder.

Secretary of State Hilary Benn had earlier defended a Govt decision to oppose the calling of a public inquiry.

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Starmer appears to forget NI in speech analogy... while Secretary is left to put blame on Stormont Remember that time David Healy scored the winner for Northern Ireland against England?

✍️ The absence of NI from the speeches of Labour's big hitters - Starmer, Reeves - meant Hilary Benn was left to carry the can alone, but his comments on Stormont competence will jar with many people's experience.

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Me: I'm doing a thing.

TikTok:

"When one considers the amount of thought which must have been put into it by scores of coaches one is surprised that the result is so spasmodic. The sense of frustration seemed to be the prevailing feature from beginning to finish."

☝️Not my words but I concur 😂

‘A very sloppy game’: How NI reacted to its first taste of American football during World War Two – at Ravenhill One of the biggest sporting spectacles will be staged in Dublin this weekend – more than eight decades since an unlikely match-up in Belfast.

🏈 A look back at when the US Army teams gave Belfast its first taste of American Football.

Croke Park will tomorrow host Ireland's first in-season NFL match between Pittsburgh Steelers & Minnesota Vikings.

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Belfast Telegraph receives five nominations at prestigious Media Freedom Awards The Belfast Telegraph has been shortlisted across five categories at the prestigious UK-wide Society of Editors Media Freedom Awards 2025.

🙌 Delighted to be among these five nominations.

My work on the FBA Brand Builder has been shortlisted for the Media Freedom Awards Investigation of the Year (Regional).

Congratulations also to @kscott94.bsky.social & @sjamcbride.bsky.social also 👏

📰 | @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Michelle O’Neill slams Keir Starmer’s plans for ‘Brit Cards’: ‘This proposal is an attack on the rights of Irish citizens’ First Minister Michelle O’Neill has slammed the Prime Minister’s plan for digital ID cards in the UK, calling it “ludicrous and ill-thought-out”.

🫆 Quite a reaction locally to Keir Starmer's reported plan to introduce digital ID 'Britcards' cross the UK.

📰 @belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Love that film. Was also the first game I ever got with the Playstation 1 😂

Major IT outage in NI health trust resulted in around 1,600 cancelled appointments Some 1,600 healthcare appointments were postponed across the Southern Trust as a result of a major IT failure this week, the Department of Health has confirmed.

🏥 | Some 1,600 appointments were cancelled as a result of this week's major IT outage in the Southern Trust.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has said work was underway to determine the cause of the failure.

📰| @belfasttelegraph.co.uk