“Utility businesses are coming into the city and digging up where they need to and just filling in a hole when they leave.”

A Co Down councillor has dropped “the F word” over concerns about utility companies leaving Lisburn pathways in a poor state.

Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council’s regeneration and growth committee heard a Stormont department was now been engaged over the matter.

Companies digging up the streets to install cables and other materials have been criticised on claims of damaging the public realm with a “fill a hole” attitude.

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Downshire East DUP councillor Uel Mackin said:”I am going to drop the F word and what I mean is about footpaths in Lisburn

“Utility businesses are coming into the city and digging up where they need to and just filling in a hole when they leave. The public realm of the city is suppose to be an attraction to visitors and shoppers and they should be in a good condition.

“Something that we worked on with a good deal of pain to have a good public realm in Lisburn.

“The utility companies are now at it again on Bridge Street. Is there anything as a council we can do about this?”

A council officer responded: “We are in contact with the Department for Infrastructure.

“The difficulty is that there is an adopted area of the footpaths. I would say that it is not just utility companies, but HGV lorries coming in and off loading with the area left in a poor state.

“We will contact DfI again about this.”

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Bryonie Gawith, 29, and her children Denisty Birtle, nine, Oscar Birtle, five and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle, perished in the fire that was deliberately started by her sister’s jealous ex

A mother and her children faced several terrifying hours before they died in a blaze that tore through their family home. Bryonie Gawith, 29, and her children Denisty Birtle, nine, Oscar Birtle, five and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle, perished in the fire in Bradford in the early hours of August 21, 2025.

Today (March 6), her sister’s ex Sharaz Ali was handed a whole life term for murdering the family in a revenge attack. Prosecutors said Ali started the fire while “fuelled by drink and drugs” at the time.

He had been dating Bryonie’s sister Antonia Gawith – who was also in the property on Westbury Road when it set alight. Antonia was sharing Bryonie’s bedroom on the night after finishing a shift at Tesco.

Ali began messaging Antonia accusing her of being with another man. She told police in the interview that Bryonie had told her to ignore him and started to fall asleep.

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“I never thought he’d come and do that. Why would he do that?” she said to officers at the time. Antonia then heard the doorbell ring downstairs and anxiously headed to the front door.

That’s when she discovered her ex and another man – Calum Sunderland – had kicked the door down. “(Ali) started pouring petrol on me. I was saying ‘please don’t, I love you, I’ll come back, don’t do this’.”

But despite begging, his rampage continued. She told officers how she tried to grab the lighter from Ali’s hands before running out of the house, assuming he would be close behind.

However, when she turned to look Ali had set the staircase on fire as Bryonie attempted to protect her children by kicking him down the stairs. “I pulled the petrol off him and tried to get him out, and then he hit the lighter. I seen him set on fire, and all the stairs, and my sister,” Antonia said.

The fire erupted fast as Antonia attempted to get her sister out of the house. Antonia said Bryonie, who had rung 999 while coming down the stairs, then threw her phone out of the window and she picked it up, shouting down the line “telling them to send everybody – the police, ambulance, fire brigade”.

“I was just screaming, trying to get back in the house and I couldn’t get in. I couldn’t save them,” she said through tears.

Ali was quickly arrested as police arrived on scene, but by the time the fire service arrived it was too late to save Bryonie and her children. Antonia recalled how Ali was “controlling” throughout their relationship, and had tendencies to drink and taje drugs.

She had left the relationship weeks earlier, with Ali seemingly blaming her sister Bryonie for being the one to sway her to call it quits. She was asked by prosecutor David Brooke KC about a message Ali had sent her in the days before the fire which said: “I’ll be gone in two days. Remember your so-called friend will not look at you again in two days and that I promise.”

Antonia was asked about another message from Ali which said: “I know who has caused this in my life, whether they meant to or not. Better start praying cos now I’m going to get involved in her life and everyone is going to feel it. I promise you one thing, they’re going to regret it.”

Antonia replied she thought the messages must have referred to her sister because they had been staying together at the time, and that she felt he “blamed” Bryonie for her part in ending the relationship.

At the sentencing, the judge said Ali was motivated by “revenge and sexual jealousy” and that he is convinced there was “substantial” pre-meditation and planning behind the murders.

Noting the defendant’s severe injuries he says his life would be difficult whether he was in custody or not. “He is the sole author of his own predicament,” he concludes. “It was part of a plan to wipe out a whole family.”

Calum Sunderland, 26, was convicted of four counts of manslaughter for his part in the crime. He had helped Ali fill up a cannister with fuel, then helped him drive to the home, before fleeing.

Representing Sunderland, who was convicted of four counts of manslaughter, Nicholas Worsley KC repeats his client’s position during the trial that he believed he had been recruited by Ali on the night in question to burn a car.

When he discovered Ali’s true intentions, Worsley says Sunderland turned to Ali and said: “Are you mad?” Noting his client knows he is facing a long term in prison, Worsley reads out a letter of apology Sunderland sent to the Gawith family.

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“There is nothing I can say to bring them back, nothing I can say or do to stop the pain or hurt you’re all feeling,” the letter says. “Kicking that door down will forever be the biggest mistake of my life.”

The family of Bryonie, Denisty, Oscar and Aubree have released the following statement: “Today, the judge sentenced the monsters who killed our beautiful family, Bryonie, and her three children Denisty, Oscar, and Aubree.

“But no sentence, no matter how long, can ever heal the pain they caused. No sentence can bring back their laughter, their hugs, their voices, their love. No sentence can bring back four hearts that should still be beating. Every day, our hearts ache with the emptiness they left behind. Every day, we feel the weight of their absence, the joy we lost, the moments that will never come. Every day, we remember them, the love, the light, the life, they gave to us so briefly, so beautifully.

“We carry them in every heartbeat, every tear, every memory, every act of love. They live in us, and through us, they will never be gone. Bryonie, Denisty, Oscar, Aubree, you are forever loved, forever ours, forever remembered and forever young.”

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The production arrives in town for one night only on Saturday, March 7 with a 7.30 pm curtain up.

Billed as a high-octane blend of precision Irish step dancing, “jaw-dropping magic”, and a sweeping, cinematic score, Celtic Illusion has built a strong following on tours across Australia and New Zealand.

International stage phenomenon Celtic Illusion will bring its high-energy blend of Irish dance and grand-scale magic to Darlington Hippodrome for one night only on Saturday, (Image: Supplied)

The show is the creation of Australian dancer and choreographer Anthony Street, a former principal dancer in Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance.

His vision brings together a cast of champion dancers and world-class musicians in a production that aims to appeal as much to fans of blockbuster magic shows as to lovers of traditional Celtic culture.

Producers say audiences can expect refreshed choreography, new illusions, and a contemporary soundtrack for the UK run, designed to give the familiar language of Irish dance a bold, modern twist.

Tickets are on sale now from the theatre’s box office at 01325 405405 and on its website.

Stuart Robertson, 46, was attacked by Moses Kashita, 26, with a razor blade inside HMP Shotts, Lanarkshire.

A gangland killer was scarred for life after he was slashed in a brutal revenge attack behind bars.

Stuart Robertson, 46, was attacked by Moses Kashita, 26, with a razor blade inside HMP Shotts, Lanarkshire. Robertson had been sitting with inmates when Kashita ambushed him and cut him on the cheek.

He was treated for a five inch scar in January 2024 while Kashita was thrown into solitary confinement and lost all privileges for a month. Kashita, now being held in HMP Kilmarnock, appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted assaulting Robertson to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

Sheriff Linda Nicolson ordered Kashita, previously jailed for attempting to murder a woman, to serve 30 months but that it will run consecutively to his present 16 year term.

Depute fiscal Daisy Bentley said: “Mr Robertson was in the association area and was mingling with other prisoners before taking a seat in the shared space. Mr Kashita also entered the association area accompanied by other prisoners and walked around the area.

“Mr Kashita then walked away from his group and walked slowly towards Mr Robertson and came to a stop directly behind him. Mr Robertson was completely unaware of Mr Kashita’s presence and continued talking to the group of prisoners he was talking to and Mr Kashita then removed his right hand from the front of his trousers and lunged towards Mr Robertson.

“He drew a blade of a shaving razor across his right cheek towards his ear and Mr Robertson then broke away and grabbed for the wall.”

Lorna Clark, defending, said: “The position is that the complainer had previously assaulted Mr Kashita and was making ongoing threats of harm towards him. Mr Kashita, in fear of a man capable of serious violence, wrongly took matters into his own hands and committed the offence.”

Sheriff Nicolson said: “I have taken on board all that has been said and your position that you have put forward but against that this is a very serious offence occurring in a prison and against a backdrop of your serious previous conviction. It can only be marked by a custodial sentence.”

Robertson was jailed after blasting rival Jim McDonald to death in May 2007. The pair had been part of a long-standing drugs feud which had also claimed the lives of two other men in Pollok, Glasgow.

The feud dates back to April 2002 when McDonald’s brother Derek was fatally stabbed outside his Pollok home. Kashita was jailed after shooting Felicia Samuel in Glasgow’s Charing Cross in December 2020.

His earliest release date is in 2037.

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​Last year, North Yorkshire Police (NYP) recorded 93 crimes at or around Scarborough General Hospital, according to its data.

​Between January 2025 and January 2026, 78 per cent of the incidents recorded were marked as violence and sexual offences.

​North Yorkshire Police also recorded 175 crimes at or around York Hospital over the same period, of which around 48 per cent were violence and sexual offences.

​The York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust condemned “any form of violence or abuse” and said it actively encouraged staff to report “all incidents so they can be investigated, and the appropriate action taken”.

​It noted that “encouragingly, we are currently on track to record our lowest yearly incident figures in the past five years, reflecting our sustained focus on prevention and support, while ensuring our teams can provide care in a safe environment”.

​According to official police definitions, violence against the person includes a range of offences from “minor offences such as harassment and common assault, to serious offences such as murder, actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm”.

​Sexual offences include “a broad category of sexual offences, including indecent assault and unlawful (under age) sexual intercourse,” the police website states.

​The 2024 NHS Staff Survey found that 14.3 per cent of NHS staff who completed the survey had experienced at least one incident of physical violence from patients, service users, relatives or other members of the public in the last 12 months. This was a 0.5 per cent increase from the 2023 results.

​A spokesperson for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Our staff have the right to come to work and care for patients without fear of verbal, physical or sexual assault, and we take any form of violence or abuse towards our staff extremely seriously. We do not expect staff, patients, or visitors to accept threatening behaviour or discriminatory language, and where appropriate incidents are reported to the police.

​“We actively encourage staff to report all incidents so they can be investigated, and the appropriate action taken. We have clear policies in place, carry out risk assessments where concerns are identified, and provide support to any colleague affected.

​“A range of resources is also available to staff as part of our commitment to reducing incidents, including enhanced training and preventative measures.”

​The NHS Staff Survey also found that 25 per cent of NHS staff who completed the survey experienced at least one incident of harassment, bullying or abuse in the last 12 months from patients/service users, their relatives, or other members of the public.

​The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, has previously said it has lobbied for increasing the maximum penalty for common assault against emergency workers, and has worked in partnership through the social partnership forum to support the development of a strategy.

​The spokesperson for the York and Scarborough NHS Trust said: “We continue to monitor incidents closely across our sites and take further steps where needed to keep everyone safe.

​“Encouragingly, we are currently on track to record our lowest yearly incident figures in the past five years, reflecting our sustained focus on prevention and support, while ensuring our teams can provide care in a safe environment.”

How do you solve a problem like Morrissey? I think there are some pretty decent tunes on his 14th album, Make-Up is a Lie. Over an eclectic jangle of genres – post-punk, chanson, soul-disco bops – the 66-year-old singer is in fine, velvety voice, crooning his classic stock of despair, defiance, devotion, disdain and drollery into a microphone he’s always seemed to love more than his fellow humans. But instead of falling face-first into music as we once did and enjoying a good old wallow in self-pity, we must now approach it as a minefield. Oh, sweetness, was he only joking when he said…?

He doesn’t make it easy. Partly out of exhaustion, I thought I might have a go at reviewing this record without getting into Morrissey’s many controversial worldviews. But that’s not what he wants. Quite the opposite: he gets straight into it on album opener “You’re Right, It’s Time”, telling us over moodily meshed guitars, swerving synths and propulsive bass line, “I want to speak up and not be trapped by censorship”. Presumably, he’s still cross that his previous label, Parlophone, didn’t release his single about the 2017 Manchester bombing, “Bonfire of the Teenagers”, in which he condemns a society he claims went “easy on the killer”.

“I cast no shadow or reflection in a mirror now,” opines the man who’s since signed to another major label imprint (Sire) and who filled the O2 Arena with adoring fans last month. But he wants more, pleading, “I wanna let somebody love me if they can…”

In many ways, this is the push-pull schtick he’s been using since the early days of The Smiths. It reminds me of an old interview in which fellow literary Eighties rock star Lloyd Cole was asked to reflect on their friendship. Cole recalled: “He kept changing his phone and then he would send me postcards saying ‘You don’t call me!’ I got a little tired of that.” And yet, like so many Mozza fans, Cole couldn’t cut the cord, hoping that he was “still Cousin Lloyd”.

What’s good about this record? Well, the title track comes laden with musical drama – pounding percussion, violins and moreish zither – and lyrics about a meeting with a Parisian woman (Simone de Beauvoir, perhaps?). It’s a nice callback to Morrissey’s classic doomed romance. Then there’s a cool cover of Roxy Music’s “Amazona”, on which Morrissey’s vocal sweeps through the rambling art-school melody with glorious, grandiose yearning. If you’ve always enjoyed his anti-love songs about the dreary compromise of real-life relationships, then the slow-mo, trip-hoppy, xylophone-dappled “Headache” is the one for you. “What God has joined together, let no headache separate…” he purrs over an acidic electric guitar solo. “I don’t even like you”.

As for the bad… Morrissey’s conspiracy theory tune “Notre-Dame” (on which he peddles a swiftly debunked claim about the fire that ripped through the Parisian cathedral) can go in the bin. That and the daft nursery rhyme “Zoom Zoom The Little Boy”, with its lines about saving “cats and the dogs and bats and the frogs and the badgers and hedgehogs”. It’s funny to hear him celebrating music criticism on “Lester Bangs” (“this nerd hangs on your word”), given our miserable efforts trying to get a review stream for this album.

“How does it feel?” Morrissey asks the dead critic. “Bloody annoying,” says this living one. It would all be so much easier if the light of his creativity had totally gone out. But at his best, Morrissey still has the capacity to scoop up your heart and arrange it like a bunch of gladioli… before stomping it to bits, of course.

A week of attacks on Iran and the killing of its supreme leader and senior commanders have plunged Iran into crisis – who’s in charge now and who could take his place?

Which senior leaders have died?

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was the prize target and an Israeli strike on the first day of the war obliterated his Tehran compound, killing him and members of his family.

Latest live updates on Iran conflict

The 86-year-old had been in power for 37 years after taking over from the regime’s founder in 1989.

He had final say in all matters of state – above the country’s president – and led a system that brutally supressed public dissent and killed its own people.

Israel claimed 40 top military commanders were eliminated in the early airstrikes.

Among them are said to be armed forces chief of staff General Abdolrahim Mousavi and defence minister General Aziz Nasirzadeh.

Also reportedly killed was the head of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Major General Mohammad Pakpour.

Pakpour had only been in the job since June, when he replaced Hossein Salami after he was killed in the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025.

Ali Shamkhani, a top security adviser to Khamenei, also died in airstrikes, according to Israel. He had been overseeing the recent negotiations with the US over Iran’s nuclear and missile programme.

Who’s in charge now?

A three-person leadership council has temporarily assumed the duties of supreme leader, in line with Islamic Republic law.

It comprises Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, head of the judiciary and former intelligence minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, and Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, head of Iran’s seminaries.

Ali Larijani, national security council secretary and top adviser to the slain supreme leader, is also likely to be playing a key role.

Following the US-Israeli airstrikes, he said on social media that Iran would ​not negotiate with US President Donald Trump and accused him of “delusional ambitions”.

Who chooses the new supreme leader?

An 88-member panel called the assembly of experts is deciding who will take over – although Mr Trump has said he also wants a say.

The panel is made up of Shia clerics whose candidacies are approved by Iran’s constitutional watchdog.

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One member, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, told ​state TV the candidates had been identified but did not publicly name them.

Under the country’s law, the selection process must happen as soon as possible – and a decision is believed to be imminent.

The announcement could be withheld until the assembly is assured the new supreme leader is as safe, as far as possible, from enemy attacks.

Israel has promised to hunt down whoever is chosen.

Mr Trump has said he now wants to select the new Iranian leader – in a similar way in which a president sympathetic to the US was recently installed in Venezuela.

“We’re going to have to choose that person along with Iran,” he told the Reuters news agency

Who’s favourite to take over?

The supreme leader must be a senior figure with political and religious authority.

Khamenei’s power was often wielded through close advisers but it is unclear how many survived, and he was never publicly recorded as naming a successor.

His son, Mojtaba ​Khamenei, is strongly believed to be the frontrunner and has long been tipped as potential successor.

He fought for a battalion of the IRGC in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and he’s still believed to have close links to it.

The 56-year-old has great influence within Iran internally, despite being only a mid-ranking cleric and having never held government office.

A US diplomatic document disclosed by WikiLeaks in 2008 described him as “principal gatekeeper” to his father and “the power behind the robes”.

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Hassan Khomeini – the grandson of the first supreme leader and founder of the republic Ayatollah Khomeini – is also believed to be a candidate.

However, his support for the reformist faction that’s been sidelined in recent decades makes him a less likely pick.

Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, one of the three on the temporary ruling council, is also thought to be under consideration.

Regime change

In the wake of Saturday’s first attacks, Mr Trump urged Iranians to overthrow the regime – which has been accused of murdering thousands of its own citizens in recent weeks.

He called it the “single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country”.

Mr Trump claimed many in the IRGC, military and police forces “no longer want to fight”.

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However, the feared IRGC still appears to have stayed loyal and there so far appears to be no signs of further popular uprisings on the streets.

Many experts say airstrikes alone cannot force a change and that a ground force would be needed.

Kurdish forces in neighbouring Iraq have told Sky News they are desperate to get involved but would need more support from the US to pave the way.

Before the Iranian revolution, Iran was ruled by a monarchy, with the king called the “shah”.

Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of the shah who was deposed in the 1979 revolution, has said: “With [Khamenei’s] death, the Islamic Republic has in effect reached its end and will very soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.”

Mary starred on Bake Off back when it aired on the BBC from 2010 until 2016

Dame Mary Berry has revealed the reason why she avoids watching The Great British Bake Off following her exit from the popular series.

Mary appeared on the debut episode of the iconic series back in 2010 alongside Paul Hollywood. The now 90-year-old became a global star after Bake Off became a global juggernaut in terms of viewership numbers.

Serving as a judge for the first four seasons of Bake when it aired on the BBC, Mary made the decision to leave the series in 2016, one year before it moved to Channel 4, where it continues to air to this day.

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Having been replaced by Dame Prue Leith, May has now revealed that she stopped watching the programme due to it being the last thing her 93-year-old husband, Paul J.M. Hunnings, would want to see after working with food all day long.

She told the Daily Star newspaper: “I don’t think it’s fair on my husband. We’re testing recipes all the time, thinking what’s going in the next book. It’s not fair in the evening to turn on a cooking show as he’s seen quite enough of it.”

It’s been a turbulent period for Bake Off, with Prue announcing at the beginning of the year that she was leaving the programme. Prue has since been replaced by food writer Nigella Lawson.

Having her say on the news, Mary is ‘absolutely delighted’ that Nigella will be on the programme’s 2026 series, which is expected to air in mid-to-late September.

Speaking at January’s the Radio Times Covers Party 2026, Mary said: “I’ve also recently heard Nigella Lawson is the new Bake Off judge, and I’m absolutely delighted. It will give Bake Off a wonderful new flavour, and Paul and her will get on like a house on fire.”

Offering her advice to Nigella, she added: “The skill to be the judge and to be fair, be kind and encourage everyone to enjoy baking.”

Another person who is looking forward to seeing how Nigella fares is Prue, who admitted that she will be ‘very different’ to how she was on the series.

“She’s a class act, she really knows what she’s doing. She knows her onions – people will expect her to know about cake, which she certainly does, but what they won’t expect is how clever she is, how sharp, witty – she’s really erudite. She’s a fantastically clever woman,” she told the Daily Star.

Nigella recently admitted that she will leave all the technical judging to Paul and focus on the ‘eating’, as she does not ‘look for fault’.

She said on This Morning: “I feel that I’m not someone who looks for fault. I look for pleasure as a basic. That is my basic – I wouldn’t say it’s philosophy – my basic attitude in life.

“And I feel that Paul Hollywood is, you know, Mr. Technical. I’m all about the eating. You know, if I see my job as eating, I feel it’s not so it’s not too daunting. I can eat.”

Nigella continued: “Well, I’m really looking forward to it. Listen, I think Prue is just fantastic, and Mary Berry was fantastic before. So if I think about it like that, I do, then I feel like, ‘Oh no’, you know, I get really frightened.

“So I’ve just got to say, you know, that they have given me the honour of offering me this, and I just want to do it as well as I can, and just, you know, become a part of it and enjoy it.

“I’m very excited about meeting all these new bakers to come. And that’s it. It is very much about them [on] the show, and that’s how that’s what I love about it as well. You know, lots of competition programmes can be a bit hard edge, and it’s [not that].”

Speaking ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday, Michelle O’Neill praised the uplift in women “stepping into the political world”, but said too many still face online abuse ranging from comments on their appearance to threats of physical or sexual violence

Stormont’s First Minister has described the “gendered lens” through which her and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly are criticised.

Speaking ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday, Michelle O’Neill praised the uplift in women “stepping into the political world”, but said too many still face online abuse ranging from comments on their appearance to threats of physical or sexual violence.

She served as the first female mayor of Dungannon and South Tyrone council from 2010 to 2011 and was the first woman to become deputy first minister in 2020, serving alongside Baroness Arlene Foster, the first female first minister.

Ms O’Neill said her more than 20 years in politics is a “significant time to witness an awful lot of change” and comparing the political world in 2026 to her time in Dungannon council is “day and night actually”.

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Of Sinn Fein’s 27 MLAs in the Northern Ireland Assembly, 16 are women, a fact Ms O’Neill said she was proud of, but that there is still a “journey to be travelled”.

“I think that there’s a very ugly climate, and we could describe it at times for women in politics, I think people in politics in general, but women in particular, face an awful lot of misogyny, and it’s not just online,” she told the Press Association.

“We talk a lot about what we receive online, but I, even this week in preparation for International Women’s Day, was speaking to my own team of female MLAs, and you see some of the stories that they have told me of their experience of being a female elected representative – it is scary.

“These are young mothers, in some cases, who have been accosted by people on the street. They regularly feel the pressure from the online abuse… people who think it’s fine to attack them with threats of sexual violence, with physical threats, and it makes a real chilling factor, I think, for women coming forward into politics.”

She added: “As First Minister, I see, even in the Assembly chamber here, a real creeping, real negative commentary and quite an aggressive tone being demonstrated by some of the male elected Assembly members.

“I don’t think that’s a nice space. Let’s disagree where we disagree. Let’s agree where we can also, but don’t be introducing an atmosphere where it becomes a real chill factor, where someone thinks ‘I don’t want to be a part of that’.”

Ms O’Neill is currently serving as First Minister alongside Ms Little-Pengelly, DUP MLA for Lagan Valley, and she said there is “more of a gendered lens to the questions we get asked at times”.

“I don’t recall even whenever Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson were first and deputy first minister, I don’t recall people focusing on the nature of their relationship,” she said.

She acknowledged herself and her partner in the Executive Office “come from two very different backgrounds, two very different outlooks on life, and two very different outlooks where we think we should be in the future in terms of the constitutional question”.

“But the job for us to do here is actually to work together politically, to lead in the Executive, to try to deliver positive things and make a difference to people’s lives,” she said.

“And that’s where we should be questioned in terms of the policy choices, in terms of what we’ve been able to achieve here and what we’re able to deliver for people, as opposed to, ‘are you mates?’, ‘Do you get on?’, ‘Do you text each other?’ which sometimes, often becomes the starting point for a lot of the questions that women in politics get asked.”

According to Women’s Aid since 2020, 28 women in Northern Ireland have been killed by men and the region is consistently flagged as having one of the highest rates of femicide in Europe.

Legal proceedings are currently ongoing into the murders of 21-year-old Chloe Mitchell and 32-year-old Natalie McNally, who was 15 weeks pregnant when she was killed.

The Executive’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, introduced in 2024, aims to tackle this culture through prevention programmes in schools, stronger protections and support services for victims, and co-ordinated multi‑agency action to reduce gender‑based violence.

Ms O’Neill pledged that strategy would be a priority for her on the return of devolved government and she said she has “lived up to that commitment”.

“I actually feel really, really proud of the work that we have started around ending violence against women and girls,” she said.

“The reality is, unfortunately, that we’re not going to turn this over overnight, but we are making progress and even I’ve just come from an International Women’s Day event, and a lot of the groups were talking to me about the positive work that they’re doing on the ground, speaking to young people.

“We have to change that attitude in society and that’s not just down to us as women. That’s down to everybody in society. Everybody has a part to play.

“I think in terms of the Natalie McNally trial, a beautiful young woman, when you think about Chloe Mitchell and her family, young women are looking at that and thinking, ‘how horrendous is that and that happened in our place, this is our home’.

“And that would make some women, young women, feel naturally unsafe, but I would say to everybody, we’re entitled to be safe, to feel safe and to be safe.”

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