Tony Blair

Members of the Orange Order march to Drumcree church in 1998. Picture DAVID JONES/PA

Orange Order was willing to accept Garvaghy Road ban in secret 2003 deal

An Iranian woman stands overlooking the water as ships are seen anchored in the Strait of Hormuz on August 10, 2026 off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran (photo by Ali Saeedi/Getty Images)

NI petrol prices almost back at their highest point since Iran war began

Andy Burnham says hospices must be “properly funded and sorted out” before any assisted dying law is implemented.

Burnham: Hospices must be sorted out before assisted dying law

Morning View

Editorial: Fresh proof that UK lost control of immigration

Morning View

Editorial: Blair is right about Labour but partly to blame for UK ills

As leader of the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch has branded the 2050 net zero target "impossible" and "catastrophic" for family finances

Letter: Badenoch's net zero vow won’t come to fruition

Morning View

Editorial: Alliance MLA must clarify his NI hunting ban plan

Letters to editor

Letter: Sinn Fein don’t want to draw a line under the past

Morning View

Editorial: Fuel costs are a disgracefully high burden

Morning View

Editorial: Stormont like Westminster has to boost manufacturing skills in NI

Keir Starmer's National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell leaves 10 Downing Street, London last week. He was also a key adviser to Tony Blair from 1997. Then, as in 1922, PIRA was at the British Army’s mercy, but the soldiers were ordered to surrender their victory. Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Geoffrey Sloan: Blair had Powell resume tactic of appeasing Irish republicans

Peter Mandelson retired from House of Lords earlier this week amid controversy over his links to Jeffrey Epstein

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Before condemning Mandelson, remember we are all fallible

PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher speaking to the media at the Stormont Hotel, in Belfast, following the publication in December of the final Kenova report by the PSNI

Letter: Questions on immunity

Morning View

Editorial: Immigration laws must be as strictly enforced in NI as in rest of UK

Chancellor Rachel Reeves after delivering her Budget in the Commons yesterday

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Starmer's government doesn’t know what it’s doing

Morning View

Editorial: Cross-party, cross-UK complacency on the security threat from China
News Letter editorial on Friday October 17 2025
Editorial

Ex Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, ex taioseach Bertie Ahern and Jonathan Powell, right, in Northern Ireland for the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement. Mr Powell has previously advocated controversial talks with groups that are hostile to the UK

Blair's IRA talks man 'had no role in collapse of Chinese spy case'

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn delivers a speech during the Labour Party Conference at the ACC Liverpool. Picture date: Tuesday September 30, 2025.

Hilary Benn: Reform UK’s efforts to walk away from ECHR are ‘reckless’

Peter Mandelson on a visit to Omagh in January 2000. The former NI secretary of state held deep concern for the victims of the 1998 Omagh bomb, and helped secure them legal aid in their the successful civil case against the bombers

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Why Mandelson is a hero to Omagh bomb victims

The launch of Stephen Walker's book 'David Trimble: Peacemaker' (published by Gill Books) at the Great Hall in Queen's University on Tuesday evening (September 9). The event was introduced by the BBC journalist Mark Simpson, and guests included Lord Trimble's widow Lady (Daphne) Trimble. Photographs by Andrew Towe, Parkway Photography

New book reveals Lord Trimble's 'gracious' gesture towards former rival

The iconic photograph that was originally taken in 1998 of Tony Blair, David Trimble and John Hume sat underneath the Antrim tree

Iconic century old tree that helped forge peace in NI could be UK’s finest

Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage has accepted that NI wouldn't leave the ECHR with the rest of the UK. Photo: Jacob King/PA Wire

Farage accepts NI wouldn't leave European Court with rest of UK

David Trimble was intelligent, open-minded and a man of rare decency, honesty and courage

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Trimble was treated appallingly over SF talks

Clement Attlee had much in common with Tony Blair, a successor as Labour leader and prime minister

Clement Attlee’s Labour government transformed post-war Britain

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer trips as he departs 10 Downing Street, London yesterday, Wednesday. He just can't multi-task and is a lawyer in every atom of his being. Pic: Lucy North/PA Wire

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Blair and Thatcher were leaders – Starmer not

Trevor Birney

New documentary ‘The Negotiator’ by Trevor Birney set for gala screening in Belf...

Morning View

Editorial: Labour’s foolish approach to mass immigration
How very foolish has this Labour government been when it comes to immigration.
By The Newsroom

Morning View

Editorial: Indiscipline on money risks a global crisis

David Trimble had already gone through hell in in the negotiations for the Belfast Agreement — abandoned by the DUP, which would later, when it suited them, sell out spectacularly

Ruth Dudley Edwards: We must keep telling truth of how governments betrayed NI

What did the DUP know about the appeasement of the IRA? The then secretary of state Peter Hain, first and deputy first ministers Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, Tony Blair prime minister and taoiseach Bertie Ahern at the return of Stormont in 2007.

Ross Hussey: Unionists should have made more of how Blair appeased IRA

Pinsent Masons’ senior associate Matthew McMurray (back row, centre) presents copies of Alastair Campbell’s ‘Why Politics Matters’ book to pupils at Dunclug Primary School. They are joined by school principal Alastair Beacom (r) and teacher Scott Marcus.

Books donation aims to spark debate among children

In 2005 cross-border smuggling (mostly controlled by PIRA) cost the UK and Irish exchequers £300 million annually in lost duties. This has grown to close to £1 billion per annum. Does anyone seriously think that PIRA simply handed this over?

David Campbell: We an investigation into the IRA's role in organised crime

Former prime minister Sir Tony Blair (left) leaving following the funeral service of Lord John Prescott at Hull Minster, Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire on January 30, 2025.

UUP calls for probe into Tony Blair IRA files

Morning View

Editorial: More weakness from the Labour government on the international stage

Morning View

Editorial: Canadian voters finally tire of their ultra liberal PM, Trudeau

Fewer people will do difficult physical jobs. They might end up earning better than certain people working in offices

Ben Lowry: We might find some blue collar work is paid more than white collar

Tony Blair once suggested that nationalists in NI could support England in the World Cup after Ireland was knocked out

Blair asked if Irish nationalists would support England in the World Cup

Then Prime Minister Tony Blair (right) poses for photographs inside 10 Downing Street with leader of Northern Ireland's Sinn Fein party Gerry Adams before talks in London.

Tony Blair tried to change Gerry Adams' speech on IRA disarmament

Former deputy prime minister John Prescott has died aged 86 following a battle with Alzheimer's

Tony Blair leads tributes to John Prescott after his death aged 86

Journalist Ken Reid has died at the age of 69 after an illness, his family has announced

Veteran journalist Ken Reid dies aged 69, family says

McFly's 21st birthday concert was recorded at the 02

Saturday TV choice: McFly the 21st Birthday Party (ITV1, 5.30pm)

The aftermath of the IRA’s La Mon 1978 firebomb in which 12 people died, one of numerous examples of their slaughter of innocent civilians

Letter: I wish Mrs Finucane an end to her heartache - and want probes into IRA

A policeman searches through the wreckage of a building after the explosion of a Russian rocket in the northwestern outskirts of Kharkiv amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The war in Ukraine, causing mass death and destruction, has been ongoing for two-and-a-half years now

Ruth Dudley Edwards: International crises are less terrifying for the old

Tony Blair: Modern technology heralds a new era of governance

Tony Blair: Modern technology heralds a new era of governance

Hilary Benn who has been appointed Northern Ireland Secretary

Hilary Benn appointed as Northern Ireland Secretary

Morning View

Editorial: A huge Labour majority will have an impact on NI

Chairman of the largest independently owned catering, cleaning, events and support services company in Northern Ireland has revealed that the business almost went under during the Covid-19 pandemic. However Trevor Annon (pictured), who founded Mount Charles in 1988, also told how the company fought its way out of crisis following the darkest days during which they were forced to lay off some 500 staff

NI boss: ‘Covid nearly killed our business but, somehow, we came back stronger’

A ban on hunting in England and Wales was passed in 2004 - however, a two-year investigation by environmental journalist Charlie Pye-Smith into the effects of the legislation claims that life for the fox and hare has been made considerably worse, and they are killed far greater numbers, all unseen by the public

Letter: Hunting ban has failed to improve wild animal welfare

Residents of apartments at the Victoria Square complex in Belfast had to vacate the building for safety reasons and face losing their entire investment. Ben was impressed by their location, their aspect and indeed their symbolism. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Ben Lowry: I wanted to buy one of the flawed Belfast apartments

Khaula Bhutta, Congressman Joe Kennedy III, Emma Stephenson and Queen's Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Ian Greer pictured at the event in Queen’s University Belfast

Congress invited to invest in forward-looking NI that's reaping peace dividends

Baroness May Blood became a community worker in the late 1980s. Her hatred of paramilitaries was influenced by many factors, writes Philip McGarry

Philip McGarry: May Blood's values of decency deserve to prevail over terrorists

TV presenter Kate Garraway returned to ITV's Good Morning Britain via a videolink on Monday morning (February 5). Credit: ITV

Kate Garraway to return to TV following husband's funeral

Then Prime Minister Tony Blair (right) and his press secretary Alastair Campbell, leave his home in Islington, north London. Photo by Martyn Hayhow. See PA Story POLITICS Blair.

Wimbledon FC move to Belfast not the craziest idea discussed in 90s – Campbell

Former prime minister Sir Tony Blair was keen on an idea to relocate then-Premier League football side Wimbledon FC to Belfast in the late 1990s. Previously confidential state papers include a note from 1997 described as "following up earlier informal discussions about the possibility of an English Premier League football club relocating to Belfast".

Tony Blair backed plan to relocate Wimbledon football team to Belfast

Morning View

Editorial: Cabinet papers a reminder that Blair helped unionists at key points

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