Editorial: Michelle O'Neill is cool about a major weapons investment that is good for Northern Ireland and for Europe

The prime minister is making a major investment in Thales in Northern Ireland to build weapons for Ukraine.​

Instead of welcoming this, our first minister, Michelle O’Neill said she found the news “incredulous”.

Presumably she meant that she found it incredible, as in extraordinary in an unwelcome way, rather than ‘incredulous’. A person is ‘incredulous’ at something, rather than finding something ‘incredulous’.

The bad grammar, however, is a secondary matter. NI’s prime minister is being cool about a massive investment for Northern Ireland in advance of a cause that is worthy in three respects. First, it is not only money for manufacturing industry here but particularly for a sphere in which the province has a good reputation – aerospace, defence and security.

Second, it is welcome because the entirety of Europe needs to spend much more on its own defence, particularly in light of President Trump retreating from the role of European protector (which is not entirely unreasonable, given that western Europe is wealthy).

Third, because it is helping Ukraine. Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression is not a matter about which Sinn Fein is vocal, certainly not in comparison to its criticism of Israel, but there could hardly be a more worthy recipient than Kiev of the fresh focus on defence.

As this newspaper was going to print last evening, Sir Keir Starmer and his Irish counterpart Micheal Martin were unveiling more of the reset in UK-Ireland relations. To date, that has merely seemed to be Sir Keir gushing about Ireland, with no pushback against even its legacy legal action against Britain.

But spending on NI’s defence industry is a good move by the government and helps cement the sense that the province has always played a role in UK national security while Ireland, so far, freeloads off British military expenditure and expertise.