Conn Kilpatrick has married his long-time partner Michaela Diamond in a glamorous wedding in the Algarve

Tyrone footballer Conn Kilpatrick has shared stunning photos from his wedding to his long-term partner earlier this month.

The Red Hand midfielder exchanged vows with Michaela Diamond in the Algarve, surrounded by loved ones and close friends.

The couple had been together for eight years before tying the knot – and by all accounts it was a great occasion.

Diamond, from Co Derry, told Evoke.ie: “It was always going to be Portugal for us; my family have a home here, so we have been coming for over 13 years.

“It was me and Conn’s first holiday together. We love the people, food, culture, and we have had so many special memories here.”

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Kilpatrick enjoyed a superb campaign with his county this season, putting in impressive performances in midfield as Tyrone progressed to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Their summer ended in defeat to Kerry at the last-eight stage, but it was one of the standout matches of the Championship, with Kilpatrick central to a gallant Tyrone display. And many pundits are backing Kilpatrick to claim his first All-Star award this year.

The Edendork clubman lifted the All-Ireland title in his debut senior season in 2021. However, his journey to becoming one of the country’s finest midfielders has not been without its challenges, with the Tyrone man having previously spoken candidly about how a gambling addiction affected his early adult life.

Kilpatrick accumulated debts of “£15,000-£20,000 in debt” by his 21st birthday, and while he managed to stay away from gambling for 18 months, he ultimately fell back into old habits.

During an appearance on The GAA Social, Kilpatrick recalled: “The lowest point was getting caught again, it was the friends that heard the first time and they rang my dad again.”

He explained: “My mother wasn’t in the house at the time and I begged him not to tell her, that me and him could do this, but he couldn’t keep that from her.”

Describing his parents’ reaction, he said: “Seeing the hurt again was the main thing when they thought everything wasn’t that bad. My dad was just like ‘how could you let this happen again, how could you put us through this again?’.”

Reflecting on the impact, Kilpatrick admitted: “I was just thinking everyone is going to see my mum and dad and think, ‘their son is the gambling addict’, which hurt as it was nothing to do with them, they didn’t lead me down that path. I brought shame onto the family and that was the thing that I was most wary of.”

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James, was last seen via video message on Friday, August 21, 2026, at around 10.45am.

His last location is unknown, but he has connections to the Hindley area.

James, 29, from Wigan (Image: GMP)

James is described as a white male, about 5ft 10in, stocky, with short light brown hair and a short ginger beard.

He is believed to be wearing a red top and a black jacket.

Anyone with information should contact Greater Manchester Police on 0161 856 7145, quoting MSP/06LL/0001826/26.

Plans have been submitted to Bolton Council to convert The Royal Hotel, at the junction of Vernon Street and Davenport Street, following its closure in March this year.

The two-storey pub opened for the final time on Sunday, March 22, after its operator announced the venue was to close and be sold.

Now, a planning application is seeking permission to turn the prominent building into accommodation for 12 people.

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Documents submitted today (August 24) with the application show the plans would create six en-suite bedrooms on the ground floor and a further six en-suite bedrooms upstairs.

Shared kitchen and living facilities would also be provided, while the existing car park at the rear would be used for amenity space, parking, secure cycle storage and waste storage.

The site of the former Royal Hotel

The planning statement describes the former pub as a prominent feature of the street scene and says it is “most likely known as a local landmark”.

Under the proposals, there would be no significant changes to the exterior of the building, with its existing doors, windows and distinctive architectural features retained.

Pub advertising would be removed, but the words “The Royal Hotel” on the stone parapet would remain.

The application argues that finding a new use for the building would help secure its future.

The planning statement says: “Due to a downturn in the general pub trade over the past years it is unlikely that the building will be secured again for long-term use as a public house and as such it is reasonable that an alternative use be found.”

A crime impact assessment produced by Greater Manchester Police’s Design for Security team has also been submitted as part of the application.

It confirms the proposed change of use to a 12-bedroom HMO and says the currently vacant building could otherwise give rise to problems including fly-tipping, criminal damage, loitering and drug or alcohol misuse.

However, the assessment identified a number of security measures which would need to be addressed for Design for Security to support the scheme.

These include measures to protect the privacy and security of ground-floor bedroom windows next to the pavement, burglary-resistant doors and windows, secure post arrangements and an audio-video entry system.

A separate noise assessment was commissioned to examine whether the building would be suitable for residential use.

It found road traffic on Vernon Street and the surrounding road network was the dominant source of noise.

The assessment concluded that required indoor noise levels could only be achieved with windows closed and an alternative means of ventilation.

It said alternative measures, such as mechanical or hybrid ventilation, may therefore be needed if overheating occurs.

Despite this, the acoustic consultants concluded that noise “should not be a limiting factor” in the planning application.

The Royal Hotel had been operated under Admiral Taverns’ Proper Pubs division before its closure.

When the closure was announced, the company said it had taken the decision to sell after concluding the pub did not have a viable long-term future.

The pub held a farewell party before its closure.

The planning application will now be considered by Bolton Council.

Share your memories of the pub in the comments.

The Geneva conventions, which were signed in August 1949 in the aftermath of the horrors of the second world war, are generally accepted as the gold standard of international humanitarian law. They set the rules for the treatment of both combatants and civilians during wartime. But they were preceded by more than 12 centuries by a law drawn up by a monk amid the violence of seventh-century Ireland.

Adomnán, the Abbott of Iona, the great Columban island monastery off the western Scottish coast, was a man of many talents. Noted for his biography of St Columba, he was a scholar, teacher, mentor, poet, calendarist and negotiator. He was also known for his efforts to obtain legal guarantees from Pictish, British and Irish kings granting protection from violence to women, children, clerics and others, especially in wartime.

Conflict was commonplace in early medieval Britain and Ireland, we know that much from contemporary written sources, such as the Annals of Tigernach, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of England and the Chronicon Scotorum. Civilian populations routinely ended up on the receiving end of military violence.

Adomnán knew only too well the effects of war trauma on non-combatants. He and his mother Ronnat had once encountered the horrific sight of a battlefield strewn with the mutilated corpses of mothers and babies. It was actually Ronnat who urged her son to do something about the murder of innocents in war.

While on a diplomatic mission in the northern British kingdom of Northumbria, Adomnán convinced its king, Aldfrifth, to release civilian prisoners of war into his care. Adomnán no doubt heard their survivor testimony as he accompanied them back to Ireland. Experiences like these led Adomnán to try to effect a change in attitudes among the powerful towards the defenceless and the innocent – not just during war but across society in general.

Lex Innocentium

And so, in AD 697, at a church synod in Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland, Adomnán campaigned successfully for his vision of protection for civilians to be accepted. Called the Lex Innocentium (Law of the Innocents), it became known as Adomnán’s Law, or Cáin Adomnáin. According to surviving texts, the Lex Innocentium received the backing of approximately 91 Irish, Pictish and northern British kings, bishops, abbots and other senior figures. All present were required to swear oaths that they would uphold the law.

The Lex Innocentium is preserved in two manuscripts, a 15th-century copy held at Oxford’s Bodleian library and a 17-century version kept in the Bibliothéque Royale in Brussels. Biographical material had been added to the original text by the 11th century, but the guarantors list and legal stipulations themselves are accepted as authentic.

Among its rulings, the Lex Innocentium decrees a range of penalties for anyone found guilty of violence against women, children or clerics. Mostly, these penalties are fines of varying amounts, depending on the type of violence involved, but execution, bodily mutilation and forced penance in a monastery are also given as options.

Not everyone accepted Adomnán’s proposal. A group of Irish kings threatened to kill him rather than cede anything resembling freedom to women. The Ireland of Adomnán’s day was deeply patriarchal and organised by rank, status and wealth. The legal system was biased in men’s favour, mainly men of means.

Although women had some agency in situations such as marriage and divorce, their legal rights were very much restricted.

Adomnán is likely to have anticipated opposition to his Lex Innocentium but he dealt with dissenters quickly by cursing them and their families with divine retribution. This might seem strange to the modern mind, but the medieval world was rife with superstition, something Adomnán understood he could use against his adversaries.

Speaking truth to power

He was also unafraid to speak truth to power and it helped that King Aldfrifth of Northumria had once been Adomnán’s student, as had other kings. With friends like this, small wonder Adomnán had the confidence and poise to move amongst elite circles, seeking to form a coalition of the willing.

It is unclear how exactly the Lex Innocentium was enforced or even for how long it was observed. It was renewed at least once after Adomnán’s death and it was mentioned appreciatively in later sources. But no actual legal proceedings associated with it survived.

It may well be that the Adomnán’s Law represented an ideal that was never truly attainable, at least not at the time in which it was drafted. What does stand out from the story of the Lex Innocentium is Adomnán’s remarkable feat in getting buy-in for his proposal from so many prominent people.

Adomnán’s Law has sometimes been described as an medieval Irish forerunner to the Geneva conventions, a comparison that has been dismissed as wishful thinking. Yet what are the conventions if not a series of initiatives born in response to a time of darkness – a collection of efforts by conscientious individuals determined to make conditions that little bit better for human beings trapped in conflict.

If anything, the Lex Innocentium offers us a lesson in the impermanence of progress if it is not sustained and respected. That, perhaps, is the true legacy of Adomnán’s Law.

On Saturday, PC Tom Clough, 38, and PC Matthew Blades, 37, died when a Volkswagen Passat, which officers had been pursuing until seconds before, collided with their marked armed response car on the A66 near Middlesbrough.

All five of the Passat’s occupants – Saddington, Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Jacob Matusiak, 23, Theo Rae, 17, and Cole Robert Worthy, 17 – also died.

A video posted on the TikTok account believed to belong to Saddington in March 2025 showed him and four other young people involved in what appears to be a police pursuit. The video has since been deleted.

BBC Verify analysed the 94 second-long clip, which showed the car driving on footpaths and parkland in Ormesby, Middlesbrough, with Saddington a rear-seat passenger.

Another video posted by the same account, also since deleted, appears to show a joyride where a passenger is smoking, with the speedometer showing 100mph.

Then, later in the video, a different car is set on fire. The passengers in this video are not identifiable.

Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Matt Storey said: “Without being able to say whether that was anything like involved in this case, it’s absolutely idiotic for anybody to be doing anything other than being completely 100% focused on the road when they’re behind the wheel of a vehicle.”

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that someone filming themselves or others driving dangerously is “absolutely ridiculous, and of course nobody should be doing that”.

“It is a worrying situation if that’s becoming more prevalent because it is incredibly dangerous”, he added.

Miniso, a global lifestyle brand known for collectables and fan-favourite brands including Star Wars and Hello Kitty, will be opening in the former Luxe Company premises at 40 Coney Street.

The 12-noon opening will feature a goodie bag giveaway to the first 200 customers who spend £5 or more.

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The retailer has posted on its website: “Get ready to discover all your favourites: Hello Kitty cuteness, Disney treasures, plushies, lifestyle gems, tasty snacks, plus new collabs like Star Wars and Hello Kitty.

“Be among the first customers on opening day and enjoy a FREE £25* goody bag packed with treats and surprises!

“We can’t wait to welcome both familiar faces and new friends — come celebrate with us!”

Miniso promises to be  a “playground of endless fun and excitement.” (Image: Pic supplied)

The Chinese company has almost 8,000 shops worldwide, 61 of which are located in the United Kingdom, the closest being in Leeds, according to the company website.

It also said: “MINISO isn’t just a store; it’s a playground of endless fun and excitement!”

“MINISO is your go-to destination for all things vibrant, quirky, and downright delightful. Life is for fun, and at MINISO, we take that mantra seriously.”

Will you be going there to see the ‘excitement’ on offer? Have you been to one of their other branches? What did you think? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.