Sam McBride

📢Some news from me: I've written a book with the erudite & eloquent Fintan O'Toole in which we each argue for - and then against - Irish unity, setting out objectively what seem to us each side's best arguments, and the issues people across the island of Ireland should consider.

More than one in ten of people in Northern Ireland agree with intimidating migrants out of an area; 8% think it's fine to burn migrants out of their homes. We need to separate these hardcore racist thugs from those with lawful political views on migration. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/co…

Where did Jeffrey Donaldson’s fortune go? Mystery over huge earnings, unpaid mortgage, and sums which don’t add up: Records obtained by the Belfast Telegraph show the ex-DUP leader has signed his house over to his lawyers as a c£500,000 bill looms. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/comment/news-a…

When he spoke to the Belfast Telegraph, Cllr Glover told us he stands over the message and said that girls shouldn’t dress "as if they’re standing at a street corner. I don’t like that in a girl”. But after a call from DUP HQ, he apparently "regrets the way he expressed himself".

It's not the central element of this story, but when @clairegdickson showed me Cllr Reuben Glover's text message earlier in the week, it was almost unintelligible - quite literally. He simply couldn't express whatever was in his head. Mind-boggling. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/…

“We have a model of factory farming where most of the profits and meat go overseas and we are left drowning in shit.” thedetail.tv/articles/moy-p…

@DiscipleElland Journalists don't work as a collective, any more than politicians do. As political correspondent at the News Letter, I was responsible for what I did - not for what UTV or the Irish News or the BBC or anyone else did.

@SJAMcBride I wasn't specifically referring to the NL as I am fully aware that many local journalists (both print media & television media) had specific information relating to Donaldson's alternate gay lifestyle. Bearing in mind his prominence, there was a collective journalistic failure..

Did journalists cover up Jeffrey Donaldson's hypocrisy? Those making this claim fail to understand the libel laws and the difference between rumour & evidence. I rang the MP 16 years ago to put marriage split rumours to him - but that never got into print. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/comment/i-put-…

@DiscipleElland The idea that a small regional newspaper like the News Letter in 2010 had a editorial or legal budget like that of the Washington Post in the 1980s is rather starkly mistaken.

@SJAMcBride Surely proper follow-up investigative journalism would have delivered the information which satisfied the evidentiary barrier? Old fashioned Washington Post style journalism, ie. tailing the target, observing where he went and who he met?

This is the disturbing image former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson sent a young woman after he'd given her a tour of the Palace of Westminster - and after she says he sexually assaulted her. Yesterday she reported him to the police, @AllisonMorris1 reports. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-…

If you're interested in studying journalism, but don't think you can afford to do so, this bursary is now open again for Ulster University's excellent postgraduate journalism course. For details, contact Colm Murphy: c.murphy@ulster.ac.uk.

This is a brilliant @StormontSources podcast discussion in which two former DUP insiders discuss the reality of the party's woes, including a "culture of fear" where "people are afraid to speak". This is about far, far more than Donaldson. x.com/StormontSource…

The real political damage for the DUP has barely begun - and the crisis ahead is about far more than Jeffrey Donaldson. Flaws in Gavin Robinson's leadership are now evident but the party's critical problem is a deep rot which it's not confronting. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/comment/news-a…

When @SuzyJourno asked the DUP questions relating to claims about what Emma Little Pengelly allegedly told a woman who Ian Paisley described as a "victim" of Donaldson, the reply came from solicitor Paul Tweed's law firm, which specialises in libel cases. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/…

After the Jeffrey Donaldson scandal, there is the growing likelihood that next year’s Assembly election will deliver the most incoherent unionist representation in Northern Ireland’s history, with an emaciated DUP too weak to sustain the Executive. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/co…

Loyalist paramilitaries - including paramilitary leaders - involved in recent racist disorder says Chief Constable @NualaMcAllister | @SJAMcBride | @JamieBrysonLLB | Alan Mains | Prof Lee McGowan bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0…

For and Against a United Ireland reviewed by Patrick Cockburn in the London Review of Books: "lucid and highly informed" (and 4,132 other words). lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/…

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has told the Policing Board: "It is clear that members of loyalist paramilitary groups were present at some disorder and were involved in directing the violence at a number of locations, including east Belfast". 2/2

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has now confirmed to the Policing Board the accuracy of the Belfast Telegraph's reporting. At the time, the PSNI said it had no evidence that loyalist paramilitaries were orchestrating last month's race riots. We said they were. 1/2

There's much more to come on who knew what and when in relation to Jeffrey Donaldson's extraordinary hypocrisy - and what, if anything, they did about it.

The senior PSNI detective, the MI5 sting operation, international gun-running and how Jeffrey Donaldson’s gay sauna visit emerged: As conspiracy theories about ex-DUP leader swirl, senior officer explains real story behind extraordinary encounter. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/comment/news-a…