Free Republic

Footage of rap group Kneecap allegedly calling for the death of British MPs is being assessed by counter-terrorism police. A video has emerged of the west Belfast trio at a November 2023 gig appearing to show one person from the band saying: "The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP." The Metropolitan Police also said that another video, from November last year, is being assessed. The footage appeared to show a band member shouting "up Hamas, up Hezbollah" at a performance in London. Kneecap have said on social media that they have "faced a co-ordinated smear...

READFIELD, Maine — A Maine man is accused of killing his wife while they were visiting his parents' home in Readfield, according to authorities. Samuel Whittemore, 34, of Belfast, has been charged with the murder of his 32-year-old wife, Margaux, officials announced Thursday. Maine State Police troopers and Winthrop police officers responded to a home on Giles Road shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday after receiving a 911 call. Troopers discovered Margaux Whittemore dead outside the home and found Samuel Whittemore's mother, Dorothy Whittemore, injured inside the residence. Dorothy Whittemore, 67, was transported to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. She...

Ziad Khawla, 25, is accused of attacking the youth following a chance encounter close to the city centre. The Palestinian-born defendant appeared at Belfast Magistrates’ Court for a preliminary enquiry into the strength of the prosecution case. He is charged with rape and two counts of sexual assault over the incident on March 2 last year. It was previously disclosed that the teenager phoned police to claim he had just been attacked by a stranger who approached him near the Waterfront Hall. The man was reported to have offered him a cigarette before they then walked a short distance to...

According to a report in The Belfast Telegraph, an excavation conducted in what is now the center of Derry uncovered city walls constructed between 1613 and 1619. Archaeologist Ruairi Ó'Baoill of Queen's University Belfast said that the work, which was open to the local community, focused on Nailors Row, a street that featured terraced housing adjacent to the city walls in the late eighteenth century. The last of these houses were demolished in the 1970s. "We know that people have been living in Derry for thousands of years and this area close to the double bastion is close to an...

A judge has warned that anybody present at a riot will be remanded in custody, even if they were only a “curious observer”. District Judge Francis Rafferty said that someone’s presence at a riot made them involved in the riot as he refused two bail applications. The judge spoke as four men appeared in Belfast magistrates’ court charged in relation to disorder in the city. Cameron Armstrong, 18, from Belfast, was charged with rioting in the Connswater area of east Belfast, which saw “violent disorder, petrol bombs, fireworks and different projectiles thrown at police and extensive damage caused to property”,...

"It's not easy to stay here—more for my life and my safety; I can't try over and over again with the same result." Mohammed Idris, who owns Bash café, in south Belfast, says he will not reopen after his business was set alight during violent protests. Disorder broke out after an anti-immigration protest in the city on Saturday. Mr Idris has told BBC News NI his businesses have been targeted before, saying his shop on Sandy Row was targeted last year. "My computer shop was completely damaged just like this café. This café was a hope, a place for a...

Police are treating 'Irish lives matter' graffiti which has appeared in west Belfast as a 'hate incident' The graffiti appeared after signage saying the community "will no longer accept the re-housing of illegal immigrants" was erected in the Suffolk area on Tuesday. The West Belfast MLA Gerry Carroll said there was no place for this "racist poison". While Sinn Féin MP Paul Maskey described it as an "attempt to create fear and intimidate people". Inspector Andrew Matson said: “We are treating the matter as a hate incident. “Our local Neighbourhood Policing Team have been undertaking enquiries in the area and...

VIDEOJoe Biden in Belfast strongly hinted that he is descended from Robin Hood of Nottingham. Not a joke! Perhaps next week Elizabeth Warren will claim to be descended from Montezuma.

A security scare shadowed President Biden’s trip to Northern Island on Wednesday after a top-secret document containing the itinerary for his visit to Belfast and information about his protective detail was found in the street. A passerby discovered the police paper, which detailed where the president was staying in Northern Ireland as well as the phone numbers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland officers in his security detail, BBC Radio Ulster reported.

American President Joe Biden, accompanied by his son Hunter and his sister Valerie, touched down at a military base outside Belfast on Tuesday evening as he prepares for a four-day tour of Nothern Ireland and the neighbouring Republic of Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Peace agreement. Mr Biden was met on the tarmac by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after arriving in the country at around 9 pm local time at the Royal Air Force base in Aldergrove in County Antrim near Belfast.

I am watching the show... I have watched some of the movies nominated for Best Picture...BELFAST...DUNE...WEST SIDE STORY... NO TIME TO DIE song was nominated...I want to see if that Bond song wins Oscars... BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS...Won by Ariana Debose...WEST SIDE STORY...She was fine in the movie...

Northern Ireland’s health minister is suing Van Morrison after the singer called him “very dangerous” for his handling of coronavirus restrictions. The Belfast-born singer opposes restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, and has released several songs criticizing lockdowns. He denounced Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann during a gathering at Belfast’s Europa Hotel in June after a Morrison concert was canceled at the last minute because of virus restrictions. The defamation suit relates to three incidents in which Morrison criticized Swann, calling him “a fraud” and “very dangerous.” …

Northern Ireland police faced a barrage of petrol bombs and rocks on Thursday, an AFP journalist said, as violence once again flared in Belfast despite pleas for calm. Riot police on the republican side of the divided city were pelted with projectiles as they tried to prevent a crowd moving towards pro-UK unionists. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Irish counterpart Micheal Martin had earlier called for “calm” following days of violence that included a petrol-bomb attack on a moving bus. Martin and Johnson held telephone talks in which they stressed that “violence is unacceptable” and “called for calm”, the...

Masked loyalists are seen after hijacking and setting a car on fire at the Cloughfern roundabout in Newtownabbey, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Saturday, April 3, 2021. Masked men threw petrol bombs and hijacked cars in the Loyalist area North of Belfast. Loyalists and unionists are angry about post-Brexit trading arrangements which they claim have created barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. (Peter Morrison/PA via AP) The disturbances followed unrest Friday and Saturday in unionist areas in and around Belfast and Londonderry, also known as Derry, that saw cars set on fire and projectiles and gasoline bombs hurled...

Hillary Clinton has been appointed as the new chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast, the college announced on Thursday. The former US first lady, secretary of state and senator, who has been a regular visitor to Northern Ireland going back to the first visit of President Bill Clinton in 1995, becomes the university’s first female chancellor. Ms Clinton, who failed in her bid to be elected US president, holds an honorary doctorate from Queen’s. She will serve as chancellor for a five-year term.

News broke on Thursday morning that the Pantsuit Princess has accepted a post as the new Chancellor at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland: Emerald Robinson ✝️ ✔ @EmeraldRobinson Hillary Clinton is going to be the head of a university in Northern Ireland? That's an interesting choice. Discuss.https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-50970400 … Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton is new chancellor of NI university The former US presidential candidate takes up five-year role with Queen's University, Belfast. bbc.com 241 9:29 AM - Jan 2, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy 315 people are talking about this The post is largely ceremonial, according to the BBC,...

Hillary Clinton is to be the new chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast (QUB). She is the university's 11th chancellor and first woman to take up the post. In a statement, Mrs Clinton said it was a "great privilege" to become the chancellor of QUB. She takes up her role immediately and will serve for a period of five years. Mrs Clinton succeeds Dr Tom Moran - who died last year. While the role of chancellor is mainly a ceremonial one, securing Mrs Clinton will be seen as a coup for Queen's. The chancellor often presides at graduation ceremonies and is...

A case involving a Belfast bakery, that refused to make a cake with a pro-same-sex marriage slogan for a customer, has been referred to the European Court of Human Rights. Ashers Baking was found guilty of discrimination in 2015 for refusing to make a cake for Gareth Lee. Mr. Lee requested a cake with the words “Support Gay Marriage” iced on top, but the owners of the bakery refused due to their Christian beliefs. The bakery has said its objection was to the message on the cake, not the customer. Mr. Lee’s legal bid in Europe’s highest court will argue...

Zookeepers say a group of chimpanzees used branches weakened by a storm to make a ladder and escape from their enclosure at the Belfast Zoo. Video filmed Saturday by visitors to the Northern Ireland zoo showed several primates scaling a wall and perching atop it, with one walking down a path outside the enclosure. Zookeeper Alyn Cairns said trees in the chimps’ enclosure had been weakened by recent storms, allowing the animals to break them and fashion a ladder to escape.

In the shifting narratives of the Trump-Russia probe, a Maltese academic named Joseph Mifsud has remained a linchpin regarding claims of collusion. He is the professor who allegedly told Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos that the Russians had emails related to the Clinton campaign. The FBI says it opened its investigation in late July 2016 after Papadopoulos relayed that information to Australian diplomat Alexander Downer, and the Australians tipped off U.S. authorities. While some news accounts describe Mifsud as an accomplice to Russian clandestine operations or a “cut-out” (intermediary), others contend he is a full-fledged Russian spy. In an official...