Funeral to be held for former senior IRA man Brendan McFarlane
The funeral of former senior IRA man Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane is to be held.
McFarlane, from the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, was known for taking part in the biggest escape in UK prison history.
He died at the age of 74 after a short illness on Friday.
Crowds, which included former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, Donegal TD Pearse Doherty, Cavan Monaghan TD Matt Carthy and North Belfast MP John Finucane, gathered outside his family home off the Cliftonville Road for a burial service and blessing by priest Father Gary Donegan.
Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly is set to deliver a graveside oration at Milltown Cemetery later.
The party's president Mary Lou McDonald described McFarlane as 'a giant of Irish republicanism'.
He was sent to Maze Prison after being convicted of a deadly bomb attack on a pub in the Protestant Shankill Road area in 1975.
McFarlane was the officer in command of the H-Block prisoners during the 1981 hunger strike over conditions in the Maze.
He was among 38 IRA inmates who fled the Maze in Co Antrim in September 1983.
They used smuggled guns and knives to overpower prison staff before hijacking a food lorry and driving to the main gate.
He was later recaptured with fellow escapee Mr Kelly in the Netherlands.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
21 minutes ago
- Politico
IRA incentive boosters take to the airwaves
Presented by Recycled Materials Association With Daniel Lippman AD BLITZ: Advocacy groups and trade associations continue pouring money into advertising to support various priorities in the reconciliation bill. Two new campaigns launched this week to support the Inflation Reduction Act's clean energy incentives alone. — They include a six-figure ad blitz from Advanced Energy United, a coalition made up of energy stakeholders and tech companies that is targeting Republican senators the group sees as winnable on the issue of protecting the IRA tax credits. — The digital campaign, the details of which were shared exclusively with PI, will target constituents of Sens. Todd Young (Ind.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Dave McCormick (Pa.), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Jerry Moran (Kan.) with display and Facebook ads touting the economic benefits of the IRA incentives in their respective states. The ads will also run inside the Beltway to target Hill staffers. — The ad buy will be accompanied by a letter campaign from local energy companies urging senators like Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to protect the clean energy incentives. It follows a similar campaign on the House side by the coalition, whose members include NRG, Microsoft, Blink, Rivian, Oracle, Carrier and Ford. — A second new campaign to save the IRA provisions is focused on persuading President Donald Trump (or at least his inner circle). The $2 million ad buy from GOP-led Built for America will run over the next three weeks on platforms closely watched by Trump and his allies, including on Fox News, Truth Social and various conservative podcasts. — The 30-second spot borrows Trump's own language to make the case against gutting the tax credits, contending that 'Trump country is booming' thanks to the incentives, which are helping put 'America first.' — The Association of Equipment Manufacturers is also out with a new nationwide ad buy supporting the reconciliation bill's tax extensions specifically, with a minute-long ad arguing that the bill would keep equipment manufacturers in America by providing certainty to make investments. Happy Wednesday and welcome to PI. Send tips. You can add me on Signal, email me at coprysko@ and be sure to follow me on X: @caitlinoprysko. FIRST IN PI — FLANAGAN'S CORPORATE MONEY FLIP-FLOP: Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who's running for an open U.S. Senate seat, has made rejecting corporate money a major part of her campaign platform. But she accepted millions of dollars in corporate cash on behalf of the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association when she was its chair, Daniel reports. — Flanagan's launch video said she wouldn't take 'one dime from corporate interests.' In April, she said in a video on X that 'taking corporate money is a choice' and she is 'not taking money from corporations and I never will.' — But Flanagan helped raise more than $2 million in corporate money last year when she was chair of the DLGA. That included half a million dollars from the pharmaceutical industry, almost $300,000 from the tech industry and around $100,000 from the tobacco industry, according to a PI analysis of FEC records. — And even as Flanagan says her campaign won't take corporate cash, NOTUS reported last week that DLGA plans to spend big to support lieutenant governors like Flanagan who are running in open primaries and has already maxed out in direct contributions to her campaign — meaning that at least some of that money could have come from corporations. — Flanagan is facing Rep. Angie Craig (D) in the campaign to fill the Senate seat of Sen. Tina Smith (D), who's retiring. Before joining Congress, Craig, as part of her private-sector job, ran a corporate PAC that gave to many prominent Republicans. Last cycle, she was the 12th-largest recipient among House Democrats of money from corporate PACs, taking $1.3 million from them during that time, according to OpenSecrets. — 'Peggy is the only candidate in this race to reject corporate PAC money,' campaign spokesperson Alexandra Fetissoff said in a statement to PI. 'This is a transparent attempt to distract from Angie Craig's continued funding from big corporations like Elon Musk's SpaceX. People want leaders who are willing to take a stand and make the choice to only be beholden to their constituents. Only Peggy has made that choice.' QUIGLEY CHIEF HEADED DOWNTOWN: Allison Jarus has left the Hill after 12 years to join Arnold & Porter as a policy adviser. Jarus spent the past decade working for Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), most recently as his chief of staff. — Jarus helped handle Quigley's work on the House Appropriations Committee and was a key architect of the 2021 legislation to increase access for experimental treatments for ALS patients. Before joining Quigley's office, she worked for Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and former Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). FLYING SOLO: 'Lobbyists usually run in herds at bipartisan firms, but a slice of K Street takes a lone-wolf approach to the influence game,' Bloomberg's Kate Ackley reports. 'Those who opt to go it alone say it makes for a leaner, more nimble operation, reduces potential client conflicts, and gives them control over how they operate the business.' — 'In good times, a single-lobbyist enterprise can rake in big money that the rainmaker doesn't have to share. But risks abound. … Solo lobbying firms are more vulnerable to the whims of elections, and often rise or fall on which policy fights are hot at the moment. The presidential transition and flip in control of the Senate can ripple into K Street bottom lines, with one-person firms especially susceptible.' — Still, 'more than 50 solo shops reported revenue of $1 million or more last year, according to a Bloomberg Government analysis of federal lobbying disclosures, accounting for nearly $80 million in fees.' INSIDERS, TRADING: 'As markets tanked in the wake of President Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs in early April, members of Congress and their families made hundreds of stock trades, shining a spotlight on a controversial practice that some lawmakers have pushed to ban,' according to the Wall Street Journal's Katy Stech Ferek, Jack Gillum, James Benedict and Gunjan Banerji. — 'From April 2, when Trump launched the sweeping tariffs, to April 8, the day before he paused many of them, more than a dozen House lawmakers and their family members made more than 700 stock trades, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of disclosure filings.' FLY-IN SZN: A handful of health care groups headed to the Hill today, including the Children's Hospital Association, which focused on urging lawmakers to strengthen Medicaid, grow the pediatric health care workforce and address the mental health crisis among youth. Kidney Care Partners also trekked up Pennsylvania Avenue to lobby for improved access and coverage for those with kidney failure. — Advocates with the American Telemedicine Association were in town as well to advocate for the industry's top priorities, which include making permanent various telehealth permissions and expanding coverage for telehealth services, including prescription digital therapeutics and virtual medical nutritionists. The trade group was slated to meet with more than 40 offices on the Hill, including leaders in the House and Senate and on key committees. — And more than 1,000 homebuilders were fanning out across Washington for a fly-in focused on several priorities of the National Association of Home Builders, including loosening energy standards for new homes and addressing workforce shortages. — Tax policy was also expected to be front of mind in the group's more than 250 meetings on the Hill and with the Trump administration: NAHB is pushing for an expanded low-income housing tax credit, fewer SALT cap restrictions and the preservation of clean energy tax credits. — Leaders from the convenience services industry will be on the Hill tomorrow, but the National Automatic Merchandising Association will kick off the fun with a pop-up micro market at tonight's Congressional Baseball Game. SPOTTED at a reception hosted by the Alpine Group celebrating the recent opening of the firm's new Dallas-Fort Worth outpost, per a tipster: Keenan Austin Reed, Barry Brown, Rhod Shaw and Greg Walden of Alpine Group; Pat Shortridge of TrailRunner International; Stewart Hall of PPHC; Reps. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), Marc Veasey (R-Texas), Brandon Gill (R-Texas) and Jodey Arrington (R-Texas); Katie Vincentz and Russell Thomasson of Arrington's office; Andrew Leppert of Gill's office; Ryan Dilworth and Brayden Woods of Van Duyne's office; Tasia Jackson of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' office; Mark Longoria of Rep. Michael Cloud's (R-Texas) office; Matt Esguerra of Rep. Lance Gooden's (R-Texas) office; Karen Navarro of Rep. Monica De La Cruz's (R-Texas) office; Raven Reeder of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton's (D-D.C.) office; Hayden Upchurch of Rep. Nathaniel Moran's (R-Texas) office; Jianna Covarelli of Cornyn's office; Emily Stipe of Vistra Corp.; Nick D'Angelo of Eaton Corp.; and Drew Wayne of Siemens. Jobs report — Doug Sellers has joined the advisory board at BGR Group. He's a senior counselor at Palantir and was a special assistant to Trump during his first term and served as White House associate staff secretary. — Adam Minehardt is joining Chainlink Labs as head of public policy. He was previously a principal at FS Vector. — Connor Rabb has joined the National Association of Manufacturers as senior director of tax policy. He was previously a legislative assistant for Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa). — Sabrina Singh is joining Seven Letter as a partner. She most recently was deputy press secretary at the Defense Department and is a Kamala Harris alum. — Tom Corry is joining Rubrum Advising to launch a government affairs practice at the firm. He was most recently managing director of Corry Advisors and was previously assistant secretary for public affairs at HHS and senior adviser to former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma. — Jennifer Short has joined Capital Park Partners as an adviser. She was most recently a senior military assistant to the secretary of Defense in both the Biden and Trump administrations and is an Air Force veteran. — Sam Varie is joining the Australian Embassy as U.S. media and external relations manager. Varie was previously communications director for Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.). — Karina Lubell will be a partner at Brunswick Group. She previously led the competition policy and advocacy section at DOJ's Antitrust Division. — Ashley Moir has launched Ashley Moir Media, a PR company with booking services, media training and comms strategy. She most recently was director of national broadcast operations at Deploy/US and is a former senior booker at Fox News. — Gopal Das Varma is now a vice president at Cornerstone Research. He previously was vice president at Charles River Associates and is a DOJ Antitrust Division alum. — Allison Rivera will be vice president for government and industry affairs at the National Grain and Feed Association. She most recently was executive director of government affairs at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. — Steven Ferenczy has joined the American Council of Life Insurers as assistant vice president for paid leave policy and implementation. He was previously a first vice president and compliance consultant at Alliant. — Richard Johnson has joined OpenAI as its national security risk mitigation lead, Morning Defense reports. He was previously DOD deputy assistant secretary for nuclear and countering weapons of mass destruction policy. — Joseph Humire is now a deputy assistant secretary of Defense for policy, per MD. He was previously executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society and a senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute and Heritage Foundation. New Joint Fundraisers Team Coughlin (Coughlin for Congress, One Country, One Destiny PAC) New PACs AMERICANS READY TO WORK PAC (Super PAC) Cohabitate PAC (PAC) Empire State Patriots PAC (PAC) PATIENTS RISING PAC (PAC) Reengineer NJ PAC Inc. (Super PAC) New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS Alston & Bird LLP: Performance Health Atlas Crossing LLC: Trinity University Capitol Counsel LLC: Boviet Solar USa Capitol Resources, LLC: The Federation Of Korean Industries Coreweave, Inc.: Coreweave, Inc. Dc Advocacy, LLC: Konecranes Finland Corp. Dc Advocacy, LLC: Logistec Marine Services Ulc Fgs Global (US) LLC (Fka Fgh Holdings LLC): Six Continents Hotels, Inc. Franklin Square Group, LLC: Fiat Chain Holdings LLC Holland & Knight LLP: Wood Mackenzie Invariant LLC: Oldendorff Carriers USa, Inc. King & Spalding LLP: Lifegift Kyowa Kirin, Inc: Kyowa Kirin, Inc Leavitt Partners, LLC: Orchard Therapeutics North America Mercury Public Affairs, LLC: Novant Health, Inc. Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP: Flashpoint Intelligence Polsinelli Pc: Clairity, Inc. Resolution Public Affairs, LLC: Jp Morgan Chase Holdings Rutledge Policy Group, LLC: Brownstein (Bhfs, LLP) Obo Apollo Global Management Sorini, Samet & Associates, LLC: Popp Forest Products Inc. Stapleton & Associates, LLC: Intellisense Systems, Inc. Steptoe LLP: Early Warning Services, LLC Stoick Consulting, LLC: Resident Home, Inc. Sullivan Strategies LLC (Fka Sb Capitol Solutions): Vontier Business Services, LLC New Lobbying Terminations Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP: Vector Group Ltd
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump Picked the Worst Possible Time to Hold a Military Parade
This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME's politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. It's sometimes easy to go numb living here in Washington. On most days, the Vice President's motorcade rumbles under many of our office windows, traveling from the Naval Observatory to the White House in the morning and back shortly after his workday ends. It's not uncommon to spot a trio of white-topped helicopters zipping over the Potomac while crowds are having dinner down at The Wharf; one is transporting a head of state while the other two are decoys. And was that the Irish Taoiseach hanging out at Little Gay Pub and Kiki on St. Patrick's Day weekend? Yes, that nation's then-leader was visiting from Dublin and making the rounds on the LGBTQ circuit after his official day ended. But the scene in my neighborhood the last two nights stood as a stark reminder that this weekend is shaping up to be surreal, even by D.C. standards. It's been hard to miss the military tanks rolling by on flatbed trucks around Eckington, Bloomingdale, and Shaw, heading past the city's convention center to get in position for a pricey parade on Saturday ordered by President Donald Trump. And if that spectacle were not shocking enough on its own, these giant weapons of war have been rumbling through residential streets in the U.S. capital at the same time as U.S. troops are deployed in the nation's second-largest city to help advance deeply unpopular immigration raids that have sparked protests across the nation. The jarring split-screen reality is one that is arriving at perhaps the most tone-deaf moment so far of Trump's second term. Ostensibly, the parade is marking the quarter-century birthday for the U.S. Army. (It also just happens to be Trump's 79th birthday, which is a very convenient coincidence that has even some of the President's apologists rolling their eyes at the cover story.) On the West Coast, as many as 2,000 National Guardsmen have been ordered up for active duty in Los Angeles, in direct violation of protocols that defer to each state's Governor, who is nominally the commander in chief of their reserve military. Trump also sent 700 Marines to Los Angeles to add to the uniformed legions that, to this point, have inflamed tensions, not quelled them. And there are whiffs that Los Angeles is merely a test case to see just how compliant Americans will be to see the world's greatest fighting force turn against the very people who pick up its tab. As Trump told reporters on Tuesday, those choosing to object publicly may come to regret it: 'For those people that want to protest, they're going to be met with very big force.' So as Trump stands in Washington this Saturday, watching M1A2 tanks, Stryker armored vehicles, and M109s tear up some of D.C. iconic boulevards, an actual live military operation stands to be unfolding on the streets of Los Angeles—and maybe other cities as well, given Trump's orders are not limited to that one locality. D.C.'s airspace will be shut down for hours to make way for flying fortresses to buzz overhead. And a trick parachute troop plans to airdrop to the viewing platform to deliver Trump an American flag that is destined to land in his future presidential library. It's one thing to watch a military display for show; it's another to watch live ammo be fired into the air to put down domestic demonstrations. The disconnect between Trump's stagings of brute force is striking and more than a little worrisome for those who have long thought civilian control of the military would have stopped such a craven choice. Trump has long fetishized the military hardware he controls. During his first term, he sought to flash this power after seeing a similar demonstration on a visit to France for Bastile Day; his military brass convinced him it was a bad idea and not worth the price. Given his long-standing obsession with autocratic regimes, it's little surprise that he is plunging ahead with a flex that feels more like something we'd see in Moscow or Pyongyang. The public is far from covering Trump's flank here. Trump's standing in polls sank underwater in March and hasn't recovered since, according to Nate Silver's modeling. A Quinnipiac poll out Wednesday puts Trump's approval rating at a measly 38%. He's even drawing a decided deficit on immigration and deportations—previously thought to be his best issues. Going back through post-World War II polling indices, Trump is faring worse than any President since 1953, save for how he was doing during his first term, according to analyst G. Elliott Morris. So as D.C. streets are clogged with war tools staging for Saturday's pricey pageant—6,600 soldiers, 50 aircraft, and 150 military vehicles at a price of as much as $45 million—it's worth reminding ourselves that this is a show that seems to have little purpose beyond boosting Trump's ego. But as his legions of supporters like to say, forget your feelings. The American public is not behind this show, let alone the policies that the White House is hoping it distracts from. The split screen between Washington and L.A. is disturbing, the implications dire. It's easy to forget that the nation and the world watch what happens in Washington far closer than the folks who live it day to day, and the war footing being adopted in a city fast approaching warzone timbre is not one that inspires confidence in America as the world's peacemakers. In fact, Trump's birthday blowout could be seen as a reboot of the entire post-Cold War ethos America has strived to convey for the last three decades—all over a parade coinciding with a domestic military crackdown. Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter. Write to Philip Elliott at
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Disorder breaks out in Northern Ireland for third straight night
By Conor Humphries BALLYMENA, Northern Ireland (Reuters) -Public disorder broke out in different parts of Northern Ireland for the third successive night on Wednesday, as rioters attacked police with petrol bombs in the main flashpoint of Ballymena and a fire was started at a leisure centre in the town of Larne. Hundreds of masked rioters injured police and set homes and cars on fire in the town of Ballymena, 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Belfast, during the previous two nights in what police condemned as "racist thuggery." Riot police and armoured vans blocked roads in Ballymena on Wednesday evening as a crowd of hundreds watched on. About two dozen masked youths threw some rocks, fireworks and petrol bombs at police, a Reuters witness said. Police warned the crowd to disperse immediately and deployed water cannon against them for the second successive night. Riot police were also in Larne where masked youths smashed the leisure centre's windows before starting fires in the lobby, BBC footage showed. Swimming classes were taking place when bricks were thrown through the windows and staff had to barricade themselves in before running out the back door, a local Alliance Party lawmaker, Danny Donnelly, told the BBC. "There is absolutely no excuse for what has taken place in Larne and it must be condemned," Northern Ireland's Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, a Democratic Unionist Party representative for the area, told Cool FM radio. Police said youths were setting fires at a roundabout in the town of Newtownabbey, a flashpoint for sectarian violence that sporadically flares up in the British-run region 27 years after a peace deal largely ended three decades of bloodshed. Debris was also set alight at a barricade in Coleraine, the Belfast Telegraph reported. The violence initially erupted after two 14-year-old boys were arrested and appeared in court on Monday, accused of a serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in Ballymena. The charges were read via a Romanian interpreter to the boys, whose lawyer told the court that they denied the charge, the BBC reported. Police are investigating the damaging of properties in Ballymena, which has a relatively large migrant population, as racially-motivated hate crimes. Two Filipino families told Reuters they fled their home in the town on Tuesday night after fearing for their safety when their car was set on fire outside the house. The British and Irish governments as well as local politicians have condemned the violence. (Rreporting by Conor Humphries and Amanda Ferguson; Writing by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
