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Showing posts with label Catherine McGinty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catherine McGinty. Show all posts
Catherine McGinty ✏ writing in Derry News.

Taken to a secret interrogation centre in the North, the men were subjected by British forces to the ‘five techniques’

On this, the 55th anniversary of Internment (August 9, 1971), the names of 14 internees, out of the 342 people arrested and detained that day, are particularly significant.
Derry's Micky Donnelly One of the 14 'Hooded Men' tortured during Internment - Reporter


Jim Auld, Joe Clarke, Michael Donnelly, Kevin Hannaway, Francie McGuigan, Paddy Joe McLean, Sean McKenna, Gerry McKerr, Patrick McNally, Michael Montgomery, Davy Rodgers, Liam Shannon, Pat Shivers and Brian Turley - known collectively as ‘The Hooded Men’.

Taken to a secret interrogation centre in the North, the men were subjected by British forces to the “five techniques” - a group of interrogation methods developed by Britain during the twentieth century and currently regarded as a form of torture.

The “five techniques” were: hooding, stress positions, continuous white noise, sleep deprivation, and food/water deprivation—alongside severe physical beatings. The 14 were also thrown to the ground from low-flying helicopters.

Speaking to The Derry News about being one of the ‘Hooded Men’ Michael Donnelly, who lived in the William Street area of the city at the time, said he never thought the British Government would introduce Internment. “I thought it would be a big mistake,” he added.

Recalling the morning of Internment, Mr Donnelly, who was 22 and married with one child at the time, said:

I heard a bang and as I was getting out of bed the room filled with soldiers. There must have been six or seven and they were all crammed in.
So I was taken away and there was a corporal, he was very enthusiastic, he started throwing punches at me. I was taken in a landrover down to Victoria Barracks and held there for a while.
I just remember it was dawn. It was quite cold. I was wearing a tee-shirt and trousers.
There was nobody else there, then they brought in Micky McNutt. We were held there for a while. There was a lot of activity - landrovers and saracens going in and out of the barracks.
I had a soldier standing in front of me with a rifle and the sergeant major said, ‘If he moves, shoot him. You have my permission to shoot him.

After what he thought was half an hour, Mr Donnelly was put in the back of an army lorry. Mr Donnelly, who was taken to Sea Eagle at Ebrington Barracks in the Waterside said:

A whole pile of soldiers came in and threw me on the floor and they all cocked their rifles and started jabbing me and Micky McNutt. There were six or seven rifles all pointing at us, stuck into us, jabbing us said 

He added\: 

I remember them saying, ‘You better hope we don’t go over a bump. 
In there there was a whole pile of people and they all stood in a line outside. I remember Barney Gilmore being brought in. He was an elderly man. They held him in the back of a landrover while they drove about raiding and they fired a rubber bullet into his stomach at point-blank range.
Myself and Joe McGlinchey, they threw Barney Gilmore down at our feet, so we went to help him and both of us were hit with rifle butts. Eventually they dragged Barney away and he went to Altnagelvin. Apparently he had a serious operation and his health wasn’t great for then on.
We went into Ebrington Barracks. There was a big, long line. There were Brits all around with batons and rifles. We went down into this portacabin and there were two Special Branch men sitting, and there was an army blanket with a slit in it hanging up.

Mr Donnelly, who finished up in the back of a furniture removal van, with “a dozen or two dozen others” and was driven to Magilligan, said:

We marched in and the Special Branch man spoke to the blanket. ‘What about this one?’ he asked, and whoever was behind the blanket disguised his voice and said ‘Yes’. The Branch man turned to the Brits and said, ‘Take him out. We're keeping him.’

At this stage, Mr Donnelly had still received nothing to eat or drink. He recalled:

They started taking people down and questioning them. You were marched down to another hut, between policemen, and they said, ‘We’ll make you an offer. Tell us what you know. You are going to jail but tell us what you know. If you tell us a little, you’ll be in jail for a long time but if you tell us a lot, you’ll not be too long’. “I said, ‘You’ve the wrong man’ so they marched me back up again but I still think to this day there was somebody giving them information.
Gradually people started going away and the numbers in the huts were getting smaller and I finished up in a hut on my own. At roughly nine o’clock at night, I was taken out and put in another hut with Paddy Joe McLean, Pat Shivers and Mickey Montgomery.
The Brits started battering the hut with their batons and shouting in and telling us what they were going to do to us. As the night went on we didn't get any sleep and we still hadn’t got anything to eat or drink.

Mr Donnelly added: 

Paddy Joe McClean said ‘Boys, I think they’ve separated us for something special, you better prepare yourselves. This went on till three or four in the morning, . . . then we could hear helicopters starting up outside.

Michael Donnelly's wife Martina immortalised in a poster for Derry's annual
radical  bookfair from an old black and white photograph. | Submitted

RUC Chief Inspector Singleton called a Constable Hood and he came down behind me and pulled a hood over my head and started punching me. I was handcuffed behind my back and dragged out and dumped into a helicopter and somebody was dumped on top of me.
I could feel the wind because the door was open. I heard it opening when we were up in the air. Somebody was shouting and getting dragged over to the door. Then they pulled my hood up a bit. I could feel his hand against my ear. They dragged me to the door and said, ‘Are you going to talk?’ and I said, ‘Up the Republic’.
So they held me at the door. There was a hand behind my head. I was spun round and threw out of the helicopter. I’m guessing it was maybe eight or ten feet up in the air. I didn’t know how high up we were. I landed on my back.

“I was then dragged over rough ground into a hut with the hood still over my head,” Mr Donnelly said said who added he saw a doctor and an orderly when his hood was accidentally pulled up a little.

Mr Donnelly was then made to stand facing against a wall in a stress position and subjected to continuous noise, in between Special Branch interrogations. The torture continued for days.

Michael Donnelly was interned from August 9, 1971 until January 1974.

None of the ‘Hooded Men’ were ever convicted of any offence.

In 1976 the European Commission on Human Rights (ECHR) heard an application by the Irish Government on behalf of the Hooded Men and ruled they had been tortured. The Court found the torture ‘showed a clear resemblance to those methods of systematic torture which have been known over the ages…’

According to Mr Donnelly, he named some of the RUC personnel involved in the torture ot the ‘Hooded Men’ when he was told by the PSNI it was unable to locate any records relating to those responsible.

“This information has not been followed up, as far as I am aware,” said Michael Donnelly.

⏩Catherine McGinty is a journalist covering the North West.

'Hooded Men' Still Fighting For Justice For Internment Torture

Catherine McGinty ✍ Conor Cruise O'Brien did it. Margaret Thatcher and Douglas Hurd did it. Even Féile an Phobail did it.

They censored voices and attempted to stifle opinions with which they disagreed and of which they were afraid.

Belfast’s Hilton Hotel was the venue on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, for the Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s Voices from Ireland and Europe event organised by Women’s Rights Network NI (WRN NI).

The event was originally scheduled to take place in St Mary’s University College Belfast as part of Féile an Phobail 2026. However, on July 21, 2026, Féile an Phobail, in response to an online campaign, cancelled the event, claiming in a social media post “it would promote campaigns against rights for the Transgender community”.

A sold-out audience which had travelled from all over Ireland and England, listened to and engaged with a stellar panel: Nora Calder (WRN NI); Danielle Loughrey (Gaels For Fair Play), Sorcha Nic Lochlainn (The Countess), Marianne Driessen (Athena Forum) and Fiona McAnena (Sex Matters), moderated by Derry journalist, Catherine McGinty.

Opening the event, Ms Calder described WRN NI as representing “the majority of women in Northern Ireland who believe biological sex is immutable”.

“Women who understand, when we stop recognising biological sex, we start rolling back women’s rights,” she said.

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Sex Discrimination Order. For half a century, it has protected women (in Northern Ireland) because of our sex, just as it has done across the rest of the UK,” she added.

However, there is one important difference - the Windsor Framework. Following Brexit, the UK Government agreed Northern Ireland would continue to keep pace with six EU equality directives.
After the Supreme Court's judgement in For Women Scotland, the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) asked the High Court whether the Windsor Framework changes the legal position in Northern Ireland.


“We say it does not,” said Ms Calder. Those directives require men and women to be treated equally. They do not redefine sex. Ms Calder said:

We have heard the argument applying the Supreme Court's judgement would diminish the rights of men entering women's single-sex cases but a right that has never existed cannot be diminished. Our concern is the opposite. If Northern Ireland becomes the only part of the UK where the Supreme Court judgement doesn't apply, it will be women's rights that are diminished. That is why WRN NI is involved in three legal cases currently before the High Court. 

Highlighting the real-life implications of removing a person’s legal right to hold gender critical beliefs, Ms Calder continued:

Whilst one woman is denied female intimate care, we won't be silenced. Whilst one lesbian is told that she must include men in her dating pool, we won't be silenced. Whilst one woman seeking help from a rape crisis centre is told that she must reframe her trauma, we won't be silenced. And whilst one female police officer in PSNI is told she must intimately search a man, we won't be silenced.

She concluded: "Whilst women are told that our rights, our privacy, our dignity, and our safety must come second, we won't be silenced.”

Following Féile an Phobail’s de-platforming of Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s Voices from Ireland and Europe, Geraldine McGahey, chief commissioner of Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) issued a statement in which she said:

Commentary, whether on social media or elsewhere, is misleading and wrong if it suggests that people who hold protected ‘gender critical beliefs’ or ‘gender identity beliefs’ are not entitled to hold those beliefs or should not be able to express them respectfully.

The guest speakers at ‘Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s Voices From Ireland and Europe’,
from left: Marianne Driessen, Danielle Loughrey, Fiona McAnena, Sorche Nic Lochlainn and Nora Calder.

Ms McGahey added: 

Employers and service providers should be encouraged and supported to ensure that their policies and their implementation are operating in a way that affords everyone dignity while at work or accessing services.
Public debate that fails to respect everyone’s dignity or that mispresents the law can make these responsibilities under equality law more difficult to meet. Ultimately, equality law in Northern Ireland protects everyone’s right to be treated with dignity and respect.

Danielle Loughrey, co-founder of Gaels For Fair Play - a network of players, coaches and volunteers - spoke about its advocacy for fair and safe sport for women and girls who play Gaelic Football and Camogie.

Ms Loughrey said: 

We continue to campaign for the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) to return to protecting the female category. Sport Ireland and the UK Sports Council have both agreed, through thorough consultation, the majority of people want the single-sex categories protected and to remain as they are.

She added:

Sports bodies really should be looking to protect those categories by providing open or other categories to prioritise fairness for all. The GAA sports bodies can look into making their male categories more inclusive. They should be looking to welcome non-conforming males and make them comfortable within the male category.

Ms Loughrey said the LGFA’s policy of “allowing trans-identified men to play on women’s teams had thrown the safeguarding of children and adults out the window”.

She continued:

Not only is this policy creating the risk of extra injury on the pitch, it is forfeiting our right to build safety and dignity within our changing rooms and within our facilities.
The LGFA policy was introduced without any consultation at grassroots level and with no guidance provided to the clubs on how to deal with changing facilities.
Club and county officials have been deterring and blocking members from even raising their concerns with LGFA management because they [officials] fear repercussions.
A parent at one club came to Gaels For Fair Play about a serious safeguarding concern they had regarding their underage daughter’s team. The girls faced a number of clubs with a juvenile male player. At one match, the girls came over to their parents and said, ‘Please, we don’t want to play against boys’.

Ms Loughrey, who warned girls under 12 and under 14 were already starting to self-exclude from their sport added:

30 parents have since signed that letter from that club and sent it to the LGFA National Safeguarding Officer. As of yet, parents still haven't received any information on whether the LGFA opened an investigation into it or if it is looking at creating any review. The parents are sitting in limbo wondering if, going into next season, they are going to be faced with that same scenario.

Sorcha Nic Lochlainn, director and sport spokeswoman for The Countess, focused on the reality of what happens when women’s rights are not respected.

It has become quite clear there is a major clash of rights where trans-identified men are demanding to be treated as if they are actually women, and given access to women's spaces and women's sports.

She continued: 

The simple fact remains: humans cannot change sex. Women cannot become men, and men cannot become women. Having a transgender identity does not change one's sex.
Effective safeguarding requires that no one be above suspicion. This was a hard learned lesson and should never be forgotten.
The shocking revelation that a violent male prisoner was being held in the women's wing of Limerick Prison was the focus of the first ever tweet by The Countess.
Barbie Kardashian had a harrowing upbringing and a history of violence against women. He had previously attacked a social worker and was charged with threatening to rape and murder his own mother. He was placed in the women's wing of Limerick Prison upon conviction because he had a gender recognition certificate, making him legally female.

Ms Nic Lochlainn added: 

No women's organisations or civil rights NGOs said anything about this. The Countess spoke up instead. Their response to the tweet was swift condemnation. Not of the practice of housing violent men with women but of us for calling attention to it, for not understanding this was acceptable collateral damage, the price to pay for inclusion.

She explained:

A petition was started, an open letter was penned, condemning us for our bigotry, and calling for women, for us, and for women like us, to be disenfranchised within media and politics.
This petition was signed by individuals and organisations such as Amnesty International Ireland, the National Women's Council of Ireland, and the Irish Penal Reform Trust - a powerful few.
This petition has now closed. I looked the other day; it has 974 signatures. In comparison, a petition to remove Barbie Kardashian from the women’s wing of Limerick Prison had more than 7,000 signatures when it closed.

Based in The Netherlands, education specialist Marianne Driessen represented Athena Forum at Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s Voices from Ireland and Europe.

Ms Driessen has written on the protection of women's sports, lesbian visibility, and reform of the gender care for youth.

She said: 

Last May, I spoke at a Dutch educational symposium, arguing that schools should teach about the biological reality of sex rather than the activist concept of gender identity. 
Afterwards, teachers lined up to thank me, not for saying anything radical, but for finally saying something true.

She added: "They told me how much they self-censored. I got comments such as, ‘If I said even half of what you just said, I would be fired’."

‘Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s voices from Ireland and Europe’ question and answer session, from left: Fiona McAnena, Sorcha Nic Lochlainn, Danielle Loughrey, Marianne Driessan, Nora Calder, and Catherine McGinty

She continued: 

Across Europe, we know self-censoring and cancellations very well. Contrary to what some might think, they have not died down, and the EU continues to develop new instruments to label speech as hateful when it comes to sex and gender.
While much attention focuses on the European Union, the Council of Europe, whose primary role is to promote human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, and in which the UK continues to participate fully, has been an even earlier driver of the gender identity concepts, not through binding legislation, but through soft power, recommendations, resolutions, strategies, funding programmes, expert forums, and partnerships with NGOs.

Marianne Driessen explained:

Instead of seeking democratic majorities at a national level, these activist organisations focus on influencing international institutions, where highly specialised policy processes often attract less public attention and very little organised opposition. From there, these recommendations and policy frameworks filter back into national law and more into the wide array of public sectors with the authority of so-called European standards. One of the most profoundly affected fields is education. Contested concepts, in confusing language, like for example, sex can vary, children are assigned sex at birth, and that children can be born into the born body have made their way into teaching materials and even into the core curriculum objectives of children as young as four.

While: 

At the same time, European institutions have increasingly promoted the idea that certain forms of speech about gender identity should be regarded as harmful, hateful, and discriminatory. Genuine harassment should never be tolerated, but the boundary between protecting people from abuse and protecting ideas from criticism has become blurred.

Originally from the Pennyburn area of Derry City, Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at Sex Matters, which promotes human rights where they relate to biological sex, closed the presentations, with the observation "blatant discrimination” such as the Marriage Bar (against women) was outlawed by the 2010 Equality Act and “a set of consistent laws in Northern Ireland”.

Ms McAnena said:

Sex discrimination is outlawed in principle, but the law recognises sometimes the fair or safe thing to do is to treat men and women differently or separately, and that is because of reality. We’re intellectually equal. Some women can be stronger than some men, maybe, but the reality is that, on average, men are bigger and stronger than women. We all know that. That’s why we need separate sports’ categories.

She continued: 

In boxing, the difference between a man and a woman of the same weight, so the sex difference alone, is equivalent to eight weight classes. You can’t train away from that, it's a biological reality. That takes us into male violence, and in particular, male sexual violence. Of those prosecuted for violent crimes in the UK, 91% are men, for sexual crimes, it is 98%.
It is one reason we have single-sex spaces as separate across society, anywhere strangers take their clothes off or are vulnerable. This was never contested. Everyone accepts the constraint you don’t go into the other sex’s spaces, and that’s for everyone’s privacy and peace of mind. And of course, for women and girls, it is about more than that.

For Fiona McAnena:

Some people talk about human rights and claim it is all very complicated, but it’s simple. Everyone’s human rights are being considered and factored into the laws we have and they work on a group or category level. There can be no exception for men who claim they are not a risk. I am furious this has become a negotiation. It isn’t branding all men as predators. It is all men because it is some men, and we can’t tell which ones.The vast majority of men don’t complain they are being labelled predators. They know they are not. They understand and accept the Social Contract.

“The problem,” she added, “is if anyone can claim to be a woman, then any man, even the wrong’uns can access women’s private spaces, single-sex services and support just by claiming to be trans."

‘Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s Voices From Ireland and Europe’ hosted by WRN NI in Belfast’s Hilton Hotel.

She claimed that: 

It is not opening the door to a small number of trans people, it is opening the door to all men.
So, for the sake of 51% of the population, the female majority, the boundaries must be based on sex, not on identity. We still need single-sex provision to help keep us safe.

Ironically, Féile an Phobail amplified the voices of the women they sought to silence.

And, the law of unintended consequences served only to give veracity to Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai who said: “We realise the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.”

⏩Catherine McGinty is a journalist covering the North West.

Respect, Rights And Reality 👭 Women’s Voices From Ireland And Europe

Catherine McGinty ✏ writing in Derry News.

‘Most egregious use of data I have seen in my entire clinical life’ - former WHSCT Consultant

The veracity of Western Health and Social Care Trust (WHSCT) claims regarding outcomes for patients in Derry’s Altnagelvin Hospital requiring emergency general surgery (EGS) is being challenged.

There are also concerns about the level of over-inference or optimism the WHSCT attaches to outcome measures.

The data relates to patient outcomes following the centralisation of EGS provision in Altnagelvin.

Speaking to The Derry News, London-based statistician Paul Bassett said there was “a lot of uncertainty around the Trust’s figures”.

Mr Bassett specialises in the application of statistics in medical research and clinical trials.

A former WHSCT Consultant described the Trust’s claims as the “most egregious use of data I have seen in my entire clinical life”.

While an independent clinical professional said it was a “poorly thought through use of metrics”.

They added:

The outcome (mortality) itself is poor and there is a lack of methodological clarity about how the patients were counted at a basic level. Small changes between admission groups from new pathways of care could have a big effect on these data.
There are other measures much more valuable to measuring the quality of emergency surgical care at individual patient level.
It is easy to come up with these if you look at the most recent reports about pancreatitis, bowel obstruction and gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding, from the National Confidential Enquiry [Into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD)]. Why isn’t there a bigger focus on taking processive care measures from these reports?
It is disappointing that there are highly paid professionals not doing adequate due diligence on using information. Especially when the initial consultation seemed to involve significant missteps - said the clinical professional.

Processive care measures are the specific steps or activities carried out to deliver patient care. These are potentially more important than weak (statistically uncertain) indicators of mortality outcomes.

The WHSCT “temporarily” suspended EGS provision at Enniskillen’s South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in December 2022.

Altnagelvin is currently providing EGS for local patients, in addition to patients who have had to travel from Fermanagh and Tyrone to Derry because, three and a half years later, the SWAH EGS suspension remains in place.

Jimmy Hamill from the Fermanagh-based Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) campaign said the disparities in the WHSCT’s data first emerged at a meeting of the Assembly Health Committee.

On March 13, 2025, the Committee held a session titled ‘Review of Emergency General Surgery at the South West Acute Hospital: Department of Health; Western Health and Social Care Trust’.

Appearing before the Committee were, Dr Tomas Adell (Head of Elective Care, Department of Health); Mr Mark Gillespie (Director of Surgery, Paediatrics and Women's Health, WHSCT); and Dr Brendan Lavery (Medical Director, WHSCT).

Chairman, Philip McGuigan (Sinn Féin) voiced concern about “double emergency department (ED) waits”.

He said: 

It is of major concern that people are waiting in EDs twice [in SWAH and in Altnagelvin], before travel and after travel.
How are you getting on with the [RQIA] recommendation on increasing the number of ambulances? 

According to the Hansard record of the meeting, Dr Lavery replied that patient outcomes were “actually better”.

He added: 

We use a company called CHKS [Caspe Healthcare Knowledge Systems] which analyses the admissions across every trust in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. CHKS looks at every admission - thousands of admissions - and does a statistical analysis of age, sex, comorbidities and the diagnosis that the patient was admitted with using 250 categories of diagnoses. CHKS uses all that data to generate a risk-adjusted mortality index (RAMI).
At the time of the temporary suspension, the figure for the South West Acute was 110, and the figure for Altnagelvin was 85.
We got the figures in July or August last year [2024]. Effectively, the RAMI scores for Altnagelvin have continued to fall - to the extent that, if you extrapolate the data to look at mortality rates, you find that, due to the change that we have made, every 40 days, one patient survives who would not have survived.

Later in the session Dr Lavery said: 

The Public Health Agency (PHA) has independently reviewed the information. There is no adverse outcome for patients who live in that area.

"SOAS was immediately dubious about the WHSCT’s RAMI claims,” said Mr Hamil.

He added: 

We subsequently discovered that, writing to the Trust’s Medical Director on October 3, 2024, Joanne Mc Clean, the Director of Public Health, described the WHSCT’s data as needing ‘some more work. 

The Derry News has seen a copy of the confidential email which SOAS obtained under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the PHA.

In it, Ms McClean wrote:

While you could say … there is no evidence of an increase in in-hospital mortality following the service change … I don’t think you could go beyond that without some more work.

She added: 

The biggest issue is that the absolute number of deaths per month is very small and subject to significant month to month variation … This means that the RAMI figures calculated are likely to have wide confidence intervals.

A ‘confidence interval’ is the statistical range which tells where a true population value is likely to fall.

Mr Hamill continued: 

SOAS was also aware that in December 2018 CHKS published its ‘Hospital mortality measures’ guidance which stated: ‘Indicators that count events such as deaths suffer from huge uncertainty.

That document said:

To be confident of a rate (to within 10 percentage points) approximately 1,000 deaths must be included in the dataset.
Many smaller hospital trusts have fewer than this number of deaths in a whole year, and analysis of a smaller subgroup of deaths (a specific condition, for example) would require proportionately more years of data before an acceptable degree of confidence about the underlying rate can be reached.

The former WHSCT Consultant told The Derry News, there was no way the Trust had this amount of deaths.

They added:

When we go to scientific meetings, whenever data is presented, there are always confidence intervals, and when you see confidence intervals as wide as they are in the Trust’s data, you can have no confidence. You cannot draw any conclusions from the data.
Speaking to the Assembly Health Committee, the Trust’s Medical Director just took the numerical change and said this is an improvement but with the confidence intervals, you cannot say that. It could have improved. It could have disimproved. We have no idea.
The PHA told the Trust not to use the data but it went ahead and used it. It is the wrong analysis.
The claim that for every 40 days one life is saved is outrageous because the Medical Director has derived that data from the RAMI. He looked at the reduction in mortality and he extrapolated it to the number of deaths. He said the number of deaths is now is reduced by X every 40 days.
“It is all complete nonsense. The whole methodology is flawed. It is the most egregious use of data I have seen in my entire clinical life.

Mr Hamill said SOAS realised rigorous interrogation of the Trust’s RAMI data was essential. He explained:

We therefore commissioned a ‘Statistical evaluation of data on the change in Emergency Surgery provision in Western Health and Social Care Trust’ (November 19, 2025) - an analysis of the Trust’s RAMI data by Paul Bassett (Statsconsultancy Ltd).

Mr Bassett subsequently told The Derry News: 

Because of the nature of the hospital and the fact mortality is quite an unusual occurrence, there is a lot of uncertainty around the [WHSCT] figures.
It is hard to say with any certainty that things have gotten better or worse because the numbers are quite small. If there have been some changes, which they are claiming, there is no statistical justification that those differences are genuine ones and not just a chance variation over time.
There is certainly no evidence to suggest it is what we normally call a statistically significant change, in other words that the difference is unlikely to be due to chance and as a result is likely to be a genuine effect.
Although there have been some slight improvements, the uncertainty around the estimates is such that it is highly likely that those are just due to chance.
There is no definitive conclusion that those are genuine improvements in the performance as a result of the centralising of ESG provision in Altnagelvin Hospital.

Essentially, the WHSCT’s has been criticised for using analytic approaches that have significant uncertainty but attach strong inference without any degree of statistical skepticism or triangulation with other critical metrics of process.

This has been described as “a very poor example of medical leadership and strategic planning for change of this magnitude”.

On Monday (July 6, 2026) WHSCT issued a press release titled, ‘Western Trust highlights independent evidence of safer Emergency General Surgery pathways following inaccurate public claims’.

It has also established an Emergency General Surgery Information Hub.

The Trust said:

Independent evidence has confirmed continued improvements in Emergency General Surgery patient pathways across the Western Trust, with both the RQIA Inspection Report and the independent CHKS review highlighting better patient outcomes, improved patient flow and enhanced patient safety.
The full Trust statement is available.

 ⏩Catherine McGinty is a journalist covering the North West.

'Grave Doubts On Validity Of Western Trust Data'

Catherine McGinty ✏ writing in Derry Now. 

‘IS 465 is a fraudulent standard because it was specifically designed to ignore pyrrhotite and internal sulphate attack, the scientifically proven cause of defective concrete and defective concrete products’ - Donegal County Councillor Frank McBrearty Jr

Homeowners in the North impacted by defective concrete blocks purchased in Donegal must be included in a Public Inquiry, according to a Donegal County Councillor.

Cllr Frank McBrearty (Independent) made his remarks following publication of the National Standards Authority of Ireland’s (NSAI) Revised Irish Standard (IS) 465, on Tuesday (June 2, 2026).

The controversial IS 465 included the standardised protocol for determining whether a building has been damaged by concrete blocks containing certain excessive amounts of mica.

Introduced on November 13, 2018, IS 465 was the gateway testing regime to the Irish Government’s initial 90/10 Redress Scheme, which opened in January 2020. IS 465 only applied to Donegal and only tested for mica in the county.

The revised standard has broadened its scope to include Internal Sulphate Attack (ISA) caused by reactive iron sulphides like pyrrhotite and pyrite. It also established updated methods for extracting core samples - including foundations - to accurately assess the full structural damage caused by these “devastating” minerals.

Following the NSAI revision, Cllr McBrearty has renewed his call for a Public Inquiry into the Defective Concrete Scandal, particularly the roles played by central government and local authorities.

“Such a Public Inquiry must also include home and property owners in Northern Ireland who are also affected by this defective concrete scandal,” said Cllr McBrearty. He added:

My own investigations and extensive research, following initial test results from my mother and father’s home which was structurally failing before our very eyes, led me to the conclusion I repeatedly expressed in Donegal County Council meetings and outside over the last five years - I.S. 465 was a fraudulent standard
It is a fraudulent standard because it was specifically designed to ignore pyrrhotite and internal sulphate attack, the scientifically proven cause of defective concrete and defective concrete products.
Blaming mica was a false flag, as I explained in my 2023 position paper: 'All Deleterious Materials and Sulphide Minerals Scandal: Republic of Ireland'. I have been vindicated [by the Revised IS 465].

The Raphoe councillor said:

It became very apparent from laboratory result analysis on my parents’ home from Petrolab in Cornwall, UK, that concentrating only on certain deleterious materials such as Free Muscovite Mica in Donegal and Reactive Pyrite in Mayo, has become a fatal flaw in the testing process originally set down in IS 465. 
Firstly there was zero official oversight or regulation of quarries or concrete manufacturers or building contractors in the Republic, which led to thousands of homes, and other buildings, in Inishowen Municipal District (MD), Letterkenny/Milford MD, Lifford/Stranorlar MD and wider Donegal, built on defective concrete foundations, with defective concrete blocks, literally crumbling before the eyes of their owners, 

Cllr McBrearty added:

This begs the question, why were the official standards governing the three stages in the production of concrete products not enforced by those in central and local government with the legal obligation to do so?

As we all know, there are three stages in the production of concrete products, each with an official standard to which it must legally adhere.

Aggregates used to manufacture concrete products must adhere to IS EN 12620 (governed by the National Standards Authority of Ireland) - the harmonised European Standard EN 12620 – and this standard does not contain or consider mica.

Ready-mix concrete must adhere to IS EN 206 (the Irish adoption of the European standard for concrete specification, performance, production, and conformity) and this standard does not contain or consider mica.

He added:

Finally, concrete blocks must adhere to IS EN 771-3 and this standard does not contain or consider mica,” he added. “Furthermore, I.S. 465 and now their renewed IS 465 cannot be used in any building development to test any concrete product. Only the standards above can be used and this is the starting basis for the much needed Public Inquiry.

Cllr McBrearty said:

Only a Public Inquiry can determine, why these Irish standards were not adhered to? Why was there no official oversight of quarries, concrete manufacturers or the construction industry? Why was mica fraudulently used as the basis for the Government’s two failed grant schemes (90/10 and Enhanced)? Why did I.S. 465 only test for mica, and only in Donegal?

In addition, it would pave the way for countries outside the Republic to possibly sue the State for selling defective concrete and products into Northern Ireland, Britain and Europe. We know there is wide-spread deterioration in some homes in Derry and Tyrone as a result of the use of defective Donegal concrete blocks and products.

The people responsible for the creation of I.S. 465 must be held to account. In addition, every homeowner who entered either grant schemes and was given any option other than full demolition has grounds for an appeal, now there is scientific evidence mica was not and is not the cause of defective concrete blocks or products.

“The test results from my father and mother’s home proved categorically its deterioration was due to internal sulphate attack on their blocks and internal and external sulphate attack on their foundations - not mica - therefore the removal and replacement of foundations needs to be included in any future redress scheme.

He added:

I believe a Public Inquiry should also examine the possible serious health effects on the people living in these homes, and resulting from dumped material from demolished homes to date. I feel these are being ignored by Donegal County Council.

⏩Catherine McGinty is a journalist covering the North West.

Homeowners In North Impacted By Donegal Defective Concrete Must Be Included In A Public Inquiry

Catherine McGinty ✏ Foyle pollution: Citizen rights to voice concerns hampered by North - South ‘precise, legally defined, mutually agreed international boundary’

An apparently minor omission by the North’s Department for Infrastructure regarding Dalradian’s proposed goldmine project in County Tyrone’s Sperrin Mountains could trigger a constitutional crisis.

That is the view of seasoned environmental activist, Enda Craig, chairperson of Donegal’s Community for a Clean Estuary (CFCE) campaign.

He explained:

There is no precise, legally defined, mutually agreed international boundary between the Republic of Ireland and the North.
Essentially, this means people living in Donegal may be excluded from the ongoing Transboundary Public Consultation (TPC) on Dalradian’s proposed gold mine.
They will therefore be unable to express their concerns, primarily that pollutants used in the gold mining process will enter the River Foyle and Lough Foyle.

The legal requirement for a TPC abruptly halted the Planning Appeals Commission public inquiry into the proposed goldmine at Curraghinalt near Greencastle, on January 15 - two days after it opened in the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh.

Inquiry chairperson, Jacqueline McParland, was informed the Department of Infrastructure, headed by then Minister John O’Dowd (Sinn Féin), had failed to consult the relevant Irish authorities on the transboundary implications of the proposal.

Responding to a question from Labour party leader, Ivana Bacik TD, in Dáil Éireann on February 11, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne, confirmed the statutory responsibility for transboundary consultation was enshrined in the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context - the Espoo Convention for short - to which Ireland and Britain are both signatories.

Espoo is a United Nations Economic Commission for Europe treaty legally obliging signatories to assess the environmental impact of certain activities at an early stage of planning, and to notify and consult each other on projects likely to have a significant adverse transboundary impact.

Subsequently notified by the Department of Infrastructure, the Dublin Government began a TPC on Dalradian’s proposed goldmine project. Led by Donegal County Council, the TCP opened on February 26 and closes on April 23; anyone in Ireland can make a submission.

Mr Craig, who keeps a weather eye on any developments which might have a detrimental impact on the Foyle, set about compiling a submission on behalf of CFCE, based in Moville on the Lough Foyle shore of the Inishowen peninsula. He said:

That was when, unbelievably, I discovered no international boundary exists between the two regions!

I know because I consulted the official map where it can be seen there is no international boundary line whatsoever in relation to any part of Lough Foyle - especially between Muff and Greencastle on the County Donegal coastline. The boundary indicator stops at Muff.

Map showing the watercourse from the proposed site of the Dalradian gold mine in
County Tyrone which flows into the River Foyle, Lough Foyle and into the Atlantic.

To enable CFCE to prepare a thorough and accurate submission, I have therefore sought clarification on the location of the international boundary in relation to the River Foyle and the identification of the lawful owners of its riverbed, soil and waters, from Donegal County Council - TPC lead. To date this has not been forthcoming.
Clarity on the international boundary is vitally important in the case of Dalradian’s gold mine application. Without a clear agreement on the boundary, citizens of the Irish Republic cannot effectively invoke their rights under the Espoo Convention.
CFCE is therefore urging the Irish Government and Donegal County Council to step in and halt proceedings until this crucial matter is addressed.
As such, until this boundary issue is resolved, the Department for Infrastructure is required to place Dalradian’s planning application on hold.

⏩Catherine McGinty is a journalist covering the North West.

Tyrone Goldmine Proposal Could Trigger ‘Constitutional Crisis’

Catherine McGinty ✒ 'The scariest bit for me is that someone was trying to find out my address' - Domestic violence survivor.
A young Derry mother fleeing domestic violence had her hospital records accessed by an unauthorised Western Health and Social Care Trust (WHSCT) staff member.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, received written confirmation of the data breach from WHSCT chief executive, Neil Guckian.

In his letter of apology, Mr Guckian confirmed to the woman her records had been unlawfully accessed by a member of her ex-partner’s family - a Trust employee, seeking to ascertain her address.

Speaking to Derry News, the woman, who was understandably upset, said the “breach of confidentiality and trust has exacerbated the difficulties I face”.

“It has also raised serious concerns about the integrity of the Trust’s operations. I am committed to shedding light on this issue and ensuring others do not suffer similar injustices,” she added.

In his letter of March 24 to the woman, Mr Guckian said there was “evidence” the Trust employee had accessed the Patient Administration System (PAS).

He wrote: “This system allowed [them] access to your address and hospital appointments. 

Continue Reading @ Derry Now.

Hospital Records Of Derry Domestic Violence Survivor Illegally Accessed

Catherine McGinty 🔨 Disgrace - local dementia groups slam length of waiting times for dementia diagnosis.

15-January-2024
“I went to the doctor in June 2018 and was diagnosed in April 2022.”

Two months shy of four years, that is the shocking length of time Graham, a Dementia NI member from Derry, had to wait for his young-onset dementia diagnosis.

“That was from initial referral to receiving a diagnosis,” Graham told Derry Now.

“I first went to my GP because I was having a few issues around memory with dates and times and people,” he explained.

My doctor did a memory test, which started the ball rolling. She said I hadn’t scored too well on the memory test, so she referred me to the memory clinic.
It took a few months for that referral to come through. I then sat down and did a very similar memory test with them. They then discussed that with their colleagues and the process of diagnosis rolled out from there.
I am told there were three brain scans, a few more memory test meetings, and a few more meetings with a specialist because of my age.


Continue reading @ Derry Now.

Derry Man's Shocking Four Year Dementia Diagnosis Wait

Catherine McGinty 🔖 'British were allowing operations which would kill civilians and outrage public against IRA' - author claims.


With publication of the Kenova report – an investigation into the activities of notorious British agent Freddie Scappaticci - imminent, Richard O’Rawe’s book ‘Stakeknife’s Dirty War: The inside story of Scappaticci, the IRA’s nutting squad and the British spooks who ran the war’ is cogent, comprehensive and well-timed.

As illuminating as it is compelling, ‘Stakeknife’s Dirty War’ is a valuable addition to the literary canon of Irish and British political science - and maybe political psychology, too.

It was US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert Makros who described ‘clean war’ as “the unicorn of armed conflict”. Writing in 2017, Makros said there was “no such thing as a ‘clean war.’”

Nowhere is this analysis more accurate than when a methodical and even-handed O’Rawe interrogates the suggestion the British state acted as agent provocateur during the war in the North.

Speaking to this paper before the book’s Derry launch on Saturday, in the Ex-POP Centre in William Street, O’Rawe cited the case of Patsy Gillespie from the city.

Continue reading @ Derry Now.

Stakeknife's Dirty War Derry Launch

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