‘I do not believe I have done anything worthy of an apology'

The Stormont Communities Minister has insisted he does not believe he has done anything worthy of apologising for following criticism over a social media post.
Gordon Lyons was accused of 'poor judgment' following the post, sent hours before a crowd gathered outside Larne Leisure Centre and it was set alight, causing significant damage.
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His post detailed that some individuals had been temporarily moved to Larne Leisure Centre in the early hours of the morning following disturbances in Ballymena, adding that as an MLA for the area, neither he nor his DUP council colleagues were made aware of that until that afternoon.
A police officer outside Larne Leisure Centre following an attack on the facility. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA.
He went on to say that the individuals had since been moved out of Larne, adding that while protesting is a legitimate right, violence is not, and urged everyone to remain peaceful.
Mr Lyons faced a grilling by MLAs over the post at the Assembly on Monday.
He insisted that police had encouraged him and other elected representatives to share the message that those who had fled disorder in Ballymena, and had been accommodated at Larne Leisure Centre, were no longer there.
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Mr Lyons pointed out that the location had already been publicised by others, and that his post pointed out that no one was sheltering at the leisure centre.
He also accused those criticising him as 'attempting to score political points'.
Opposition leader Matthew O'Toole put to Mr Lyons that his instinct appears to be to 'double down' and to be 'pugilistic rather than empathise with people who have been put out of their homes'.
He asked Mr Lyons to express 'some measure of regret and responsibility taking, for what was said on that post and the fact that it put vulnerable people in real fear.'
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Mr Lyons said he rejected that characterisation.
'I took the decision to put a post up later on that afternoon because of the rumours that were circulating, because at lunchtime, a post had gone up on another page saying that there was going to be a protest at the leisure centre that evening,' he told MLAs.
'I was making it clear that there was nobody at the leisure centre anymore, which was the reason for the protest in the first place.
'That's the clarification that I was providing, that the council had already provided, as well, that the news outlets were reporting as well. So I was trying to temper the situation, to try and stop it getting out of hand.'
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Mr Lyons also said it was 'absolutely outrageous' that people have tried to get 'political capital out of the horrendous events that have taken place'.
'I think that it is absolutely outrageous, I think violence is wrong, I thought that we saw absolutely despicable scenes and we should be united together as a House in condemning the violence,' he said.
'We should be united in support of victims, we should be united in support of police, we should be united in listening to the communities that have been affected and yes, those who are affected by some of the immigration policies that we have in place as well.
'He's asking me to say sorry for my role in this, and I simply do not believe that I have done anything that is worthy of an apology.'
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Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn had said Gordon Lyons should reconsider his words after the social media post Photo: Ben Whitley/PA.
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First Minister Michelle O'Neill called for Mr Lyons to resign last week, while Secretary of State Hilary Benn said he should reconsider his words.
Mr Lyons said he had had a private conversation with Mr Benn since then.
He also cautioned that some comments made about him by 'a number of individuals that were not just wrong but offensive'.

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Times

an hour ago

• Times

How the IRA stole £26.5 million in a single night — and got away with it

If you ever thought, as I did growing up there, that Northern Ireland's fame was limited to 30 years of bombs and bullets, or building a ship that sank on its maiden voyage — you'd better think again. Twenty-one years ago, we were also host to the biggest robbery in British or Irish history at the time — in fact, the sixth biggest robbery in the world. Pretty impressive, eh? In one sense, it was impressive. On December 20, 2004, £26.5 million in cash was stolen from the Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast's city centre — in clear view of the public as Christmas shoppers strolled round the continental market just feet away. Glenn Patterson, an admired Belfast-based novelist, has written a book showing how the robbers did it, and how they got away with it. It was not just a monetary robbery, but a symbolic one. The Northern Bank building is a landmark in Belfast's post-industrial city centre, a great, sturdy 1970s edifice in concrete. It's a building you can imagine Bill Bixby walking out of, coat over shoulder, in the credits for The Incredible Hulk. But the robbery was not the first of its kind that year. Already in 2004 there had been other 'tiger kidnappings', where robbers would take family members hostage and force bank employees to help them to carry out the heist. In response, the Northern Bank had changed its operations so that two key holders were needed simultaneously to access its cash vaults. The criminals' solution? To abduct two employees' family members at once. Kevin McMullan, the bank's assistant manager, and Chris Ward, a junior employee, both had a knock on the door the night before the robbery. Armed men took over their homes and held their families hostage while McMullan and Ward were taken away. The men were held overnight, then told to go to work the next day and act normally. At clocking-off time they were to use their access to remove cash from the vault, disguised in containers to look like rubbish, and load it into a waiting white van. And so they did: great blocks and boxes of new and used notes, kilos upon kilos of it. The cover of Patterson's book shows a CCTV image of Ward leaving the bank's side entrance with a holdall over one shoulder. The holdall contains £1.2 million. Little wonder he's leaning to one side to counter the weight. So who did it? There's no doubt: the only criminal outfit in Northern Ireland with the organisational capability to plan and execute the robbery so methodically was the IRA. (The single sign of amateurishness was that two men in the van wore Russ Abbot-style ginger 'Jimmy' wigs beneath their baseball caps. This odd sight alerted passersby and almost foiled the robbery.) Opinions are divided on why the IRA carried out the robbery. For a pension fund? Investment abroad? • The 21 best history books of the past year to read next The whole story is presented beautifully by Patterson, who adopts the right tone for each phase of the tale. The abduction scenes have the horrible tension of a thriller, and reminded me of Brian Moore's great Troubles novel Lies of Silence. Elsewhere, Patterson adopts a tone of amused incredulity at the shocking details of the robbery and its aftermath. 'You have to take your hat off to this country. It has a way of exceeding your worst, most lavish expectations.' But the robbery also presented a political problem for the British and Irish governments. In 2004, the fledgling Northern Ireland Assembly had collapsed, and there were 'talks about talks' to get it up and running again. Indeed, when MI5 detected high levels of phone activity between senior IRA men the night before the robbery, they optimistically — naively — thought it meant an announcement was imminent on the decommissioning of IRA weapons, to break the political deadlock. When it was announced who the likely culprits were, Sinn Fein — the IRA's political wing — complained of a smear on republicans. But as Patterson points out, in one of the few passages where he sounds truly angry, this was a common tactic for Sinn Fein. He reminds us about the brutal murder of Robert McCartney after an argument in a Belfast bar in January 2005, when nobody in the pub — including the future Stormont minister Deirdre Hargey of Sinn Fein — would speak to the police about what happened. Instead, Hargey claimed that reports of IRA involvement in the murder were 'part of the onslaught by the media and governments and political parties to criminalise Sinn Fein and the republican movement'. As Patterson coolly observes: 'There is chutzpah, and there is chutzpah.' • Read more book reviews and interviews — and see what's top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List Hardly any of the money has been recovered, and only one person was prosecuted for the robbery. That person was … one of the victims, Chris Ward, who was prosecuted on circumstantial evidence that the robbery had been an inside job — the IRA men were so well prepared that someone in the bank must have helped them. The case was abandoned partway through. Patterson attended every day of the trial. The case was clearly not an outstanding example of prosecutorial craft. Phil Flynn, who was vice president of Sinn Fein, took the view that 'there was nobody killed. At the end of the day, it was only money.' But it wasn't only money. The robbery revealed a lot about what was important in Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein was welcomed back into government. And in a world where every conspiracy theorist sees two-tier justice in any outcome they don't like, the aftermath of the robbery provided a real example. The senior IRA man Bobby Storey — believed to be the brains behind the robbery, and 'a great human being' in the words of Gerry Adams — died in June 2020 and his funeral attracted more than 1,500 people, in contravention of Covid regulations. Other people could have no more than 30 at theirs. None of the Sinn Fein politicians who attended were prosecuted, while at a Black Lives Matter protest in Belfast a few weeks earlier, 70 people were fined. Patterson had once planned to write a screenplay of the robbery. I wish he had. It has everything: tension, dark comedy, human interest, big issues and more. But this book will do very nicely in its place. And if the Northern Bank heist was indeed a symbolic robbery, then here is the other symbol. Why did they do it? Because they knew they could get away with it. As Patterson points out: 'Something [else] disappeared in that white van in December 2004 that has never been recovered.' The Northern Bank Job: The Heist and How They Got Away With It by Glenn Patterson (Head of Zeus £16.99 pp272). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members

Daily Mail​

an hour ago

• Daily Mail​

Trump turns against Fox News after shock poll and singles out anchor Jessica Tarlov for 'soiling' evening broadcast

Donald Trump continued his recent feud with Fox News, saying liberal commentator Jessica Tarlov's appearances are what 'make MAGA absolutely hate' the network. Trump posted to Truth Social Friday: 'Why does Fox News allow failed TV personality Jessica Tarlov to 'soil' The Five? Her voice, her manner, and above all else, what she says, are a disgrace to television broadcasting.' The president appears to be reacting to Tarlov - the most consistent Trump-hating voice on the show and network - discussing negative polling numbers on Friday's show. 'I've had the best poll numbers that I've ever had, and she is constantly saying the exact opposite. The just out highly respected Rasmussen Poll is at 56%, Insider Advantage 54%, and many others are at 56% to 68%! Sadly, the audience has to listen to her spew off that I am doing poorly in the polls, while I am beating the democrats by 15%+ points and, more importantly, I just won an election against two candidates, Sleepy Joe and Kamala, in a Landslide by winning all 7 Swing States, and the Popular Vote by millions, with records broken everywhere!' Trump still stood by commentators Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld, saying the pair are 'terrific' but that they 'don't see all of these poll numbers and can't, therefore come to my defense. But I can!' He continued: 'Nobody can stand Tarlov! She lies over and over again, and MAGA is complaining, BIG LEAGUE, that she's all over Fox. Watch their ratings go down by keeping her on the show — nobody wants to listen to her. Why doesn't she talk about the fact that I had ZERO illegal aliens come into our Country last month, whereas Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 62,000 people in, many from prisons, mental institutions, and gangs.' The president finished by writing that 'people like Jessica Tarlov make MAGA absolutely hate Fox!' Tarlov was citing polls that had Trump in the red with both independents and overall voters on key issues. The president appears to be reacting to Tarlov (pictured) - the most consistent Trump-hating voice on the show and network - discussing negative polling numbers on Friday's show 'When we say the people don't like this, they don't like it. That doesn't mean that Democrats aren't still unpopular. That doesn't mean I don't know if the election was held again today Donald Trump might very well win again if it was.' However, she said that 'directionally' the polling numbers are going against the president. His comments Friday come after Trump went on a tear Thursday morning after a new Fox News Channel poll showed Americans split on the Republican's immigration policy. 'The Crooked FoxNews Polls got the Election WRONG, I won by much more than they said I would, and have been biased against me for years. They are always wrong and negative,' Trump posted to Truth Social. 'It's why MAGA HATES FoxNews, even though their anchors are GREAT,' Trump fumed. 'This has gone on for years, but they never change the incompetent polling company that does their work.' He then pointed to the latest survey. The poll, which was released Wednesday, showed Trump with a 46 percent approval rating overall, with another 54 percent disapproving of the job he's done so far. His numbers on 'border security' were better - with 53 percent approving and 46 percent disapproving. Trump still stood by commentators Jesse Watters (pictured center) and Greg Gutfeld (pictured right), saying the pair are 'terrific' but that they 'd on't see all of these poll numbers and can't, therefore come to my defense. But I can!' When voters were asked about 'immigration' his numbers were lower again. Forty-six percent said they approved and 53 percent said they disapproved. His lowest numbers were actually on the topic of 'inflation,' with 64 percent disapproving of Trump's handling of this top economic issue, and just 34 percent approving. Still, he took offense at how he was being rated on the border. 'Now a FoxNews poll comes out this morning giving me a little more than 50% at the Border, and yet the Border is miraculously perfect, NOBODY WAS ABLE TO COME IN LAST MONTH,' he wrote. '60,000 people came in with Sleepy Joe in the same month last year.' 'I hate FAKE pollsters, one of the Worst, but Fox will never change their discredited pollster!' the president complained. The outburst came Thursday morning as the world continued to wait and see whether the United States would join Israel in its current bombing campaign against Iran. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night that Trump had signed off on an attack plan for Iran but the president had yet to issue a final order. Overnight Thursday the U.S. did not get involved in the week-long war between Israel and Iran. 'The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!' also wrote on Truth Social Thursday morning. The president also slammed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell - who he appointed - after the Fed decided Wednesday not to push interest rates down as Trump has demanded. '"Too Late" Jerome Powell is costing our Country Hundreds of Billions of Dollars. He is truly one of the dumbest, and most destructive, people in Government, and the Fed Board is complicit,' Trump wrote. 'Europe has had 10 cuts, we have had none,' he continued. 'We should be 2.5 Points lower, and save $BILLIONS on all of Biden's Short Term Debt.' 'We have LOW inflation! TOO LATE's an American Disgrace!' Trump wrote.

Times

2 hours ago

• Times

Sex addict Anthony Weiner on jail, Trump and Hillary Clinton

As nominative determinism might suggest, Anthony Weiner was perhaps always doomed. A prominent New York congressman and rapidly rising star in the Democratic Party, married to Hillary Clinton's glamorous adviser, Huma Abedin, it all came crashing down — in spectacularly lurid style — in May 2011, when Weiner accidentally posted a sexually explicit photo of his bulging crotch to Twitter. The headlines wrote themselves, with the New York Post gleefully declaring, 'Weiner exposed'. First, though, he denied it, claiming his account had been hacked (the New York Post — 'Weiner: I'll stick it out'), before admitting to having sent similar pictures to numerous women ('Naked truth'), and finally resigning ('Weiner's rise and fall'). Six months later, Abedin gave birth to their son, Jordan. Undeterred, Weiner attempted a return to politics in 2013 in the bold hope of becoming mayor of New York ('Weiner's second coming'), before more reports of sexting emerged — this time under the alias Carlos Danger — and he crashed out in the primary. Through this all, Abedin stood by him. But in 2016 it emerged that he had posted a sexually explicit photo with Jordan, then four, sleeping next to him. And, a few weeks later, that one of those he had sexted was a 15-year-old girl. An FBI probe was launched the following year and he was sentenced to 21 months for transferring obscene material to a minor (he served a little over 15 months in prison). Abedin filed for divorce ('Huma cuts off Weiner') and would later say that Weiner 'didn't just break my heart, he ripped it out and stomped on it over and over again'. In the decade since, Weiner faded from view, before reappearing as an in-house liberal at WABC, a conservative talk radio station. He continued therapy for what he says is a sex addiction. Now, 14 years after first derailing his own promising career, the indefatigable Weiner is staging (another) comeback, running for a seat on New York City Council. Sarah Batchu, one of his opponents, told The New York Times that Trump's victory has allowed other scandal-prone politicians to believe they too could return. ('Trump got elected as a 34-time felon,' Weiner himself said last month.) 'Everyone deserves a second chance, but this guy has had third, fourth and fifth chances,' Batchu said. And, just days before his former wife Abedin marries Alexander Soros, the son of billionaire George Soros and heir to his fortune, 60-year-old Weiner is walking the streets of the East Village in Manhattan, dog and journalist in tow, in his bid for elected office once again. Tabloid-friendly surname aside, this was not supposed to be Weiner's trajectory. At the age of 27, the Brooklyn native became the youngest councillor in New York City's history; then, as an acclaimed, gifted congressman representing New York and known for his straight-talking, sometimes brash modus operandi, a rising star in the Democratic Party and an eligible bachelor in DC circles. In 2007, he began dating Huma Abedin, the glamorous longtime aide to Hillary Clinton. In her 2021 memoir, Both/And, Abedin wrote that after their first kiss her 'head started spinning and didn't stop'. At 32, it was her first serious relationship. They married in 2010, in a ceremony officiated by Bill Clinton, and became a bona fide Washington power couple. • NYC mayor election: Everything you need to know As if his infidelities — from less than a year into their marriage — weren't painful enough, they came with possibly catastrophic professional and political consequences too. Little over a week before the 2016 election, the FBI said it had messages between Abedin and Hillary Clinton, her boss, which they found on Weiner's seized laptop. It was his laptop, in other words, that prompted them to reopen the investigation into Clinton's private email use. Clinton herself credits the probe as a decisive factor in her loss. 'If the election was on October 27,' she said of the day prior to the announcement by James Comey, then the FBI director, that the probe would be reopened, 'I would be your president.' Weiner tells me he thinks 'things are much more complicated' but that it's 'not nothing'. Our dog walk is in the area of the city where Weiner is running for a council seat — a pocket he's never before represented. 'I mean, look, it was a very close race, and she lost by a small number of votes, and so you can point to anything and say that was the difference,' he says in his defence. He never made a 'direct amendment' to Clinton. 'I think I wrote her a letter saying I'd like an opportunity [to apologise] at some point. I don't think we ever spoke about it.' In fact, Weiner is never excessively contrite about any of the scandals I raise as we walk the neighbourhood. He is open, for example, about his belief that he was severely punished and has done his time. 'It was a slow news week and my name is Weiner,' he says at one point. At another: 'I knew that prison was ridiculous. For obscenity, it was pretty ridiculous. I mean, everyone did what they were supposed to. Look, the higher the monkey climbs, the more you can see his ass.' This is how Weiner talks — profane, direct, often curt. But he is not guileless. I ask about his treatment for sex addiction. This is a contested term. Sex addiction is not listed as a formal diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, while the World Health Organisation recognises compulsive sexual behaviour disorder as a impulse-control disorder, not an addiction. It's perhaps an 'academic conversation', Weiner says. He attends groups once a week and attendance, he says, is growing — 'Rooms are fuller and fuller, more and more people, more and more meetings.' Weiner has drawn connections between his past career and his sexual behaviour. 'You become obsessive about people's affirmation,' he says when I press him. So the obvious question is, isn't there now a high risk of relapse if he returns to politics? 'I don't think this is an example of an alcoholic who wants to be a bartender,' he says. But he does admit the link. 'I would argue that a lot of people in public life are really jazzed up by the affirmation. They get it. I just have to be mindful of it. But it's a reasonable question.' Nonetheless, one might suggest that running for public office would be the very last thing you would do if you were him, so… why? 'The candidates were running this kind of frictionless campaign,' he says of his opponents, 'trying not to offend any of the traditional Democratic constituencies.' But in the end, Weiner thought, 'The only reason not to run is that people would say something mean about me, or would bring up my past, and I didn't think that was a good enough reason.' He raised the idea of running again with Huma and Jordan, now 13, over dinner one night. They were supportive. 'Her take was, look, this is what you're good at.' He reckons the issues associated with running in this new part of the city — and as 'more of a centrist candidate in a very progressive district' — are arguably bigger challenges than the scandals. I ask about Abedin and her imminent wedding to Soros. It is the only few seconds of the interview that I get the sense he weighs his words with much care. 'I don't know what's public and I am not going to comment on it.' He does confirm, when I mention it's due to take place the following weekend, that he isn't going. 'That's the day that polls open here… Yeah, I will not be going. I wish them all the best and she seems very happy and Jordan likes them [all]. So it's all great.' His former wife has moved on — is he dating too? 'That's a big word.' At this point his dog, Billy, finds herself in a harmless brawl in the dog park. This is a welcome distraction — 'She's just being the neighbourhood school mom' — but Weiner returns to our earlier topic and says that, yes, he does go out on dates. I ask if he uses the apps. He doesn't, he says, but he's clearly amused. 'That's kind of a funny idea.' He admits the task of persuading people to trust him is harder than for most. 'Yes, I just had this conversation with someone recently.' With someone he's dating? 'Dating is… It's a lame word…' He trails off before talking about the dog instead. 'You see, she wants to play. She just doesn't quite know how to do it.' At this point Billy begins humping another dog. I suggest this might be too on the nose to include in the interview. 'A little bit,' he concedes. 'You can kind of see the lead for your piece taking shape right now in front of us. I'll write your lead for you: 'You can tell Anthony Weiner's dog has been around him for a while.' ' We wrap up the subject of dating. 'Put it this way: it's fraught. But I don't date much.' Does he stand any chance of winning, though? Weiner thinks his opponents in the upcoming council election are tame. 'In today's world, you've got these other people that I'm running against [who] cut their teeth in a very different time, where it's: how do you get this? How do you not offend this group?' He talks about homelessness. 'You have homeless people who are mentally unwell living on our streets. It's a problem. Everyone recognises [it], every candidate recognises it… This group of politicians that I am up against, they look at the situation and say, all right, who's on this side of the problem? Who's on this side? 'And there are people like the American Civil Liberties Union, who said that a homeless person has a right to be on that street right now in our public space. But most people in this part [of the city], most people who vote, they look at that and say, 'How do we solve that problem?' ' His putative return to politics is not without backlash. Sarah Batchu proposed a bill in February nicknamed the Weiner Act that would ban registered sex offenders — of which Weiner is one — from holding public office. His top opponent is Harvey Epstein, a previously unknown candidate who went viral when Saturday Night Live did a sketch about his name: neither Harvey Weinstein nor Jeffrey Epstein. We leave the dog park and a man walks towards us holding a camera. 'You've got some nerve running for office after sending that dick!' Weiner is unfazed. 'Say, one of these Trump motherf***ers!' Most of what is shouted over the next three minutes is even more unprintable than that. 'You kiss your mom with that mouth?' Weiner asks him, repeatedly shouting, 'Trump motherf***er, go home!' and, 'Another Trump motherf***er!' to those in the park who are, by this point, beginning to turn their heads. The man repeats the usual charges. 'Your fault that Trump got elected in the first place, motherf***er!' he rages. 'They used your sex crime to sink Hillary!' The episode feels reminiscent of the 2016 fly-on-the-wall documentary, Weiner, which introduced me and countless others to Weiner's brusque style while his mayoral campaign (and then marriage too) combusted in real time, its whole extraordinary disintegration captured on camera. This time, a number of young men rally to him. 'Mr Weiner,' one says. 'Don't even talk to him. He's worthless.' These aren't the only men we bump into on our walk who are supportive of Weiner — and they are largely men. But it's difficult to tell if he stands a chance in the council election. 'It's too small a district to really poll,' he says. But he knows his pitch well. 'I just think that my gift is the absence of really giving a shit about whether I might offend someone… And it sounds to people like, oh, I'm doing something different. 'No, what I'm really doing is just practising the only form of politics I know how to do now. Is it going to fit well with this moment? Does it fit well with this electorate? Does it fit well with my scandal? Who the f*** knows. But I don't know any other way to do it. I don't know any other way to do it.'