Former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson’s ‘regret’ letter was not an apology, court hears
The jury in the trial of the former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson on a series of sexual abuse charges has heard more testimony today from one of the complainants.
She described the suggestion that the abuse had never taken place as ‘insulting and patronising’.
Former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson’s ‘regret’ letter was not an apology, court hearswww.channel4.com/news/former-…
A number of leading figures within the League of Ireland, as well as a former Ireland manager and women’s captain, have signed an open letter calling on the FAI to refuse to play Israel in the UEFA Nations League later this year.
A campaign by Irish Sport for Palestine, titled “Stop the Game” has been launched, with an open letter backed by high-profile figures in Irish soccer.
Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland chair and Shamrock Rovers captain Roberto Lopes – who is set to play in this summer’s World Cup for Cape Verde – urged the FAI to reverse its stance.
“We have to stop the game. As players and fans, our natural instinct is always to get out there and compete, but this is a moment where we need to look at the bigger picture. We can’t ignore the humanitarian catastrophe in Palestine; the sheer loss of life there has to take precedence over any sporting consideration. Ireland has an opportunity here to lead—to be a pioneer and do what others won’t. We need to be brave enough to say enough is enough. We can’t just stand by. Please, stop the game,” Lopes wrote.
Former men’s national team manager Brian Kerr and 2019 FAI women’s player of the year Louise Quinn are among those from inside the sport that added their names to the campaign.
Christy Moore, Fontaines DC and Kneecap are also among the 38 signatories.
The open letter addressed to the FAI called on them “to refuse to participate in the two scheduled UEFA nations league games against Israel.”
With “the clear and ongoing serious breaches of UEFA & FIFA statute regarding Israeli teams playing on occupied Palestinian lands”, adding “as a member of UEFA you have a duty to upload [sic] these rules if UEFA will not”.
The letter also highlights the landslide vote of FAI members last year, where 93% voted to instruct the organisation to call for Israel’s suspension to UEFA.
The FAI confirmed it would be fulfilling the fixtures, stressing that “serious consequences” would result from forfeiting the games, which would “materially harm the long-term sporting interests of Irish football”.
The governing body said at the time they had consulted with the government and An Garda Síochána and were satisfied that the home tie could be staged in Dublin.
“I don’t see a difference between Fifa and Uefa banning Russia and not Israel,” – Irish Manager Heimir Hallgrímsson
Heimir Hallgrímsson wants Israel thrown out of UEFA and FIFA competitions ; “Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson believes Fifa and Uefa should remove Israel from their competitions in the same way that they banned Russia.
Both Fifa and Uefa banned all Russian clubs and international teams on February 28th 2022, four days after the invasion of Ukraine.
“I don’t see a difference between Fifa and Uefa banning Russia and not Israel,” said Hallgrímsson. “I don’t see the difference.
“I am not speaking on behalf of the FAI – I just don’t see the difference.”
Jurors in the trial of the former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson will hear about “difficult and traumatic incidents” the two alleged victims in the case allege occurred to them as children, Newry Crown Court has heard.
The long-delayed trial of former Democratic Unionist party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and his wife Lady Eleanor Donaldson is due to start on the week beginning May 25 2026. An unusual development has occurred.
A May 20 2026 RTÉ News Report states :
A judge has ruled that the wife of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson is unfit to face a criminal trial on sexual offences charges due to the state of her mental health.
Eleanor Donaldson, aged 60, will now face what is called a “trial of facts” rather than a normal trial.
That means a jury cannot find her guilty but will be asked to determine whether she committed the offences she is charged with.
Jeffrey Donaldson, 63, will face a normal criminal trial on 18 charges which he denies.
The former DUP leader has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency and 13 charges of indecent assault.
Ms Donaldson has pleaded not guilty to five charges including aiding and abetting her husband.
The 23 charges relate to offences allegedly committed against two plaintiffs between 1985 and 2008.
Their trial is scheduled to begin next week.
Judge Paul Ramsey ruled that Ms Donaldson is unfit to face a normal criminal trial after hearing evidence from a consultant forensic psychiatrist and reading reports from two doctors.
Dr Christine Kennedy told the court that Ms Donaldson was found to be “severely depressed”, suicidal and suffering with “high levels of anxiety”.
She said that on the balance of probabilities Ms Donaldson would not be able to instruct her legal team, could not follow the trial proceedings and would not be able to give evidence.
The judge heard legal submissions about whether the trial of facts will be heard simultaneously with Jeffrey Donaldson’s trial or run as separate proceedings at a different time.
People at the vigil for Yves Sakila on Henry Street. Photo by Shamim Malekmian.
It reminded him of George Floyd, pinned to the ground and dying under the knee of a cop on the streets of Minneapolis, said Jude Hughes, a Black Irish community activist.
“It’s literally George Floyd on the streets of Dublin. I can’t believe that scene and that guy with his knee on his neck,” he said, in a Zoom meeting on Monday night.
The emergency meeting was organised by the Africa Centre for Black people across the country to come together and process their feelings about what had happened on Friday – and strategise on how to respond.
More than 100 people had joined.
On Friday, Yves Sakila was pinned to the ground on Henry Street by a few men, a video circulated on social media showed.
At one point, one of them, an older man in a black suit, throws himself onto his neck and pushes down with his right knee.
A few seconds later, he removes his knee, but keeps pressing on his neck with his hands. Someone else is pinning his head to the ground. Other men press on his body.
You can hear Sakila grunting and moaning amidst the chatter of the passersby.
By the end of it, he seemed unconscious. He was later pronounced dead.
On May 19 2026 Ebun A Joseph posted this important message on her facebook page
Yves Sakila is dead. A man lost his life on the streets of Dublin over an alleged case of shoplifting. Let that sink in.
What makes this even more disturbing is that, had the 4:44 minutes footage not emerged, many people would likely have accepted a simplified version of events without questioning what actually happened. The video raises deeply troubling questions: multiple men restraining one individual, excessive force being used, knees pressed onto his body, hands pulled back. It is impossible to watch without feeling shock and real distress.
No one should die over an unproven allegation of shoplifting. What were they thinking? Are people losing their humanity? 🤐
A life has been lost over something allegedly taken from a shop — something replaceable. Yves Sakila is not replaceable. He was a human being.
There is also a wider and painful reality that many Black people recognise too well: the disproportionate suspicion, surveillance, and criminalisation of Black bodies in public spaces, including shopping centres and retail environments. These experiences cannot be separated from the public concern and grief surrounding this case.
This cannot become another social media moment that fades away without accountability or answers. There must be a thorough, transparent, and independent investigation into all the circumstances surrounding Yves Sakila’s death.
A man is dead. His family deserves answers. The public deserves accountability. And communities deserve reassurance that justice applies equally to everyone.
The ex-taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader is helping to create a new far-right cover which will be used to justify fresh atrocities at accommodation centres, random attacks on immigrants, racist violence and murder.
There is blood on Bertie’s hands. Perhaps Fianna Fáil will expel Ahern again.
Ahern resigned from FF in 2012, days before he was due to be expelled. The state’s Mahon Tribunal ruled he was financially corrupt. This was Ahern’s stellar achievement : the dimmest dogs 🐶 in Irish ☘️ streets know the Fianna Fáil party has been corrupt since its foundation in 1926! The former leader rejoined the Soldiers of Destiny in 2023.
Getting expelled from an organization more financially dodgy than the average Swiss Bank is an Olympian feat.
Bertie continues to cause no end of trouble for his party – so, perhaps, he will jump into the Independent Ireland party, where he can wallow in racist gutters alongside other ex-colleagues such as the dangerous and eccentric Cork North-Central TD Ken O’Flynn.
Two Ukrainian activists, Andrii Movchan and Nina Potarska, have been arrested by the armed forces of the genocidal Israeli state.
Israeli Navy’s criminal attack on Gaza flotilla: Ukrainian team among detained crews. Release them all now!
April 30, 2026
The European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine (ENSU) has learned that the vessel carrying the Ukrainian team as part of the Sumud Global Flotilla 2026 was one of those illegally seized by the Israeli Navy early this morning.
According to an Al Jazeera report seven out of the 58 vessels were captured by Israel near Crete, over a thousand kilometres from the coast of Gaza.
ENSU coordinator Szymon Martys described the raid as “a blatant and cynical attack on unarmed vessels navigating peacefully in international waters”. He demanded the immediate release of the detained crews, which include the Ukrainian team of Nina Potarska and Andrii Movchan.
Martys said that ENSU, which is supporting the two Ukrainian peace and human rights activists, had no information as to their situation, but assumed that they, along with other crews, were being held illegally on an Israeli navy vessel.
“They must all be freed immediately”, he added, and called on the Ukrainian government, along with the governments of all the kidnapped crews, to demand their immediate release.
Martys commented that the Israeli’s government’s action–attacking the flotilla when it was far from Gaza and before public attention on its mission would be at a peak–betrayed its fear of the power of international solidarity with the Palestinian people.
“We in the Ukraine solidarity movement understand this truth”, he added. “Powerful governments, like Netanyahu’s and Putin’s, although armed to the teeth, can be brought low by the mass mobilisation of all who stand for the rights of peoples. The Sumud Global Flotilla is symbol of popular indignation at the murderous violence of war and of people’s determination to stand with the oppressed.”
The Ukrainian team had joined the Sumud Global Flotilla to help the humanitarian effort for the blockaded people of Gaza, towards whom they, as members of a nation also victim of brutal invasion, feel a special duty of solidarity.
I invite you to read my new English translation for Спільне / Commons: “Breaking the Gaza Blockade: Ukrainians on the Sumud Flotilla.”
It is a thought-provoking interview with Ukrainian activists Andrii Movchan and Nina Potarska about Gaza, Ukraine, occupation, human rights, and solidarity.
Press Statement – Government decision ‘heartless and cruel’ and must be opposed says Irish Left With Ukraine
Irish Left With Ukraine (ILWU) has condemned as “heartless and cruel” the government decision to withdraw accommodation supports for Ukrainian refugees, and has called on the trade union movement and all progressive forces to immediately launch a campaign to “reject firmly the government’s pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment.”
“In the midst of a housing crisis, the threat to throw 16,000 Ukrainians out of state-provided accommodation will mean evicting many of these people into homelessness,” said ILWU in a statement. “It will mean people being uprooted from their communities, children having to leave schools in which they are settled and have made classmates and friends, and people having to quit their jobs.
Alongside this, the decision to cut and eventually end altogether the Accommodation Recognition Payment will impact directly on a further 42,000 people who are currently accommodated in people’s homes across the country.
Donnacha Ó Beacháin discussed the Hungary elections with Flor MacCarthy and
@shonamurray.bsky.social on Oireachtas TV. Defeating Orbán is one thing, dismantling Orbánism quite another Expectations are high and Magyar’s support base is diverse, even contradictory. Managing expectations will be key to avoiding fragmentation
Discussed Hungary elections with Flor MacCarthy and @shonamurray.bsky.social on Oireachtas TVDefeating Orbán is one thing, dismantling Orbánism quite anotherExpectations are high and Magyar’s support base is diverse, even contradictory. Managing expectations will be key to avoiding fragmentation
Kavita Krishnan examines the fall of Orbán in greater detail here :
Writing in The Hindu after Viktor Orbán’s 12 April 2026 electoral defeat, Indian Marxist-feminist Kavita Krishnan draws six lessons for an international readership and, above all, for India under Narendra Modi. She argues that illiberal democracies can be ousted at the ballot box; that obituaries for universal democracy are premature; that Ukraine won the Hungarian vote; that regime-change accusations are confessions; that Orbán’s fall is a defeat for Xi Jinping as well as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu; and that pro-democracy forces must now discard the “West versus rest” map and consolidate their gains across borders. [AN]
Hungarian voters have swept their far-right strongman Viktor Orbán out of office, ending his 16-year run as Prime Minister and electoral autocrat. Here are six lessons the world can take from them.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 