Other News In Brief

New Political Records From 2000-2001 Added To CAIN Website

Public records dating from 2000 and 2001 relating to the establishment of new political institutions in Northern Ireland have been added to the CAIN website.

This collaboration between the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and Ulster University provides valuable insights into the early years of the Good Friday Agreement.

The newly released material includes documents related to the development of policies on issues such as victims, language, and a potential national sports stadium.

It also sheds light on how the Northern Ireland Executive responded to major international events, such as the 9/11 attacks and the foot and mouth crisis.

David Huddleston, PRONI Acting Director, emphasised the importance of this ongoing collaborative project, highlighting the increased accessibility of these historical records to a global audience.

Dr Brendan Lynn, CAIN Deputy Director, expressed his gratitude to the Department for Communities for funding that enabled the completion of this latest addition to the online archive.

This brings the total number of PRONI documents available on the CAIN website to just over 4,610 items.

2025 Must End Possibility Of Ransom Politics – Long

Alliance Leader Naomi Long has called for 2025 to be the year of reform for local institutions and "we remove the possibility of ransom politics". She said although 2024 had seen the return of the Assembly and Executive, issues still remained on the table, which were exacerbated by the possibility of another collapse in future.

"As a party which rightly criticised the DUP for collapsing the institutions and Sinn Féin for doing likewise before, we very much welcomed their return. However, Alliance was always clear restoration was not a silver bullet to resolve all of the challenges still facing us as a society," she said.

"That includes putting public finances on a more sustainable footing, delivering health transformation and stabilisation, making our streets safer, tackling education underfunding, ensuring we have a thriving economy and building a vibrant, prosperous and united community.

"While having two Alliance Ministers in the Executive has allowed us greater influence and control over the work to address some of those challenges, the legacy of our system and previous collapses means it is often an uphill battle, and the constant risk of further collapse remains live.

"The institutions are as stable as they were the day before the last collapse. That ongoing instability has caused immeasurable damage, not only to public confidence but also to our public services, finances and our community.

"The need for institutional reform to remove the ability of any single party to hold us all to ransom and paralyse the entire system in the process remains pressing.

"With new Governments in London and Dublin and relative stability here, 2025 offers an opportunity outside of crisis and chaos to reflect on how we can improve the stability of the institutions and make progress on reform to end ransom politics for good. The people we serve deserve nothing less – together, we need to deliver for them."