The rest of today's news from the North in brief
Ruane appeal on Eleven Plus
The Sinn Féin education minister Caitríona Ruane has appealed to “breakaway grammar schools” in Northern Ireland to support her proposals to do away with the controversial Eleven Plus test.
Ms Ruane presented her “guidance” blueprint to replace the Eleven Plus test in the Assembly yesterday while admitting that because she could not gain Northern Executive support for her proposals that grammar schools could set their own transfer acceptance tests.
Unionist politicians opposed the proposals. Alliance MLA Anna Lo said Ms Ruane’s proposals would “create anarchy rather than clarity” because of the prospect of numerous grammar schools imposing their own transfer tests.
€277m for Ulster university
The university of Ulster yesterday announced a £250 million (€277 million) redevelopment of its Belfast city centre campus, in what constitutes the largest single investment in the university’s history.
The university is to purchase the Interpoint Centre, the location of the ongoing inquiries into the deaths of Rosemary Nelson and Robert Hamill, which adjoins the Belfast campus, to accommodate the extra students being relocated from its campus outside Belfast at Jordanstown, Co Antrim.
The university said it intends to “rebalance” student numbers between the two campuses. At present, there are over 13,000 students at Jordanstown and only 1,200 at the Belfast campus.
Presbyterian minister who helped broker ceasefire dies
A PRESBYTERIAN minister who helped to persuade the main loyalist paramilitary groups to call their initial ceasefires in 1994 has died. The Rev Roy Magee (79) had suffered from Parkinson’s disease in recent years.
He spent most of his years as a minister based in Dundonald in east Belfast, but also worked in some of the most deprived loyalist areas of the city. He saw his negotiations with loyalist leaders as an extension of his pastoral work.
The UVF and UDA ceasefires of October 1994 came in the wake of the Provisional IRA ceasefire of August 1994, and helped to bring about the all-party talks which culminated in the Belfast Agreement of 1998. It emerged after the ceasefire that Mr Magee had been talking to loyalist leaders for several years in an effort to persuade them to reject violence.
The Rev John Dunlop, also a Presbyterian minister, praised Mr Magee for his bravery in talking to paramilitaries. “He took the initiative in getting involved in dialogue with loyalist paramilitaries to try to persuade them to move away from violence,” he said.
Presbyterian moderator the Rev Dr Donald Patton also praised Mr Magee’s contribution.
Two on 1991 murder charge
The ex-partners of a man and woman found dead in a car filled with smoke fumes nearly 20 years ago were charged with their murders today.
Dentist Dr Colin Howell (50), and mother of four Hazel Stewart (45), appeared at the court in Coleraine, Co Derry.
They were charged separately with the murders of RUC officer Trevor Buchanan (31) and Lesley Howell (30), whose bodies were discovered in a car in the seaside town of Castlerock, in May 1991.
Howell from Ballymoney, Co Antrim, was remanded in custody until next Monday, but Stewart was granted bail of £15,000 even though the Crown objected and police revealed they feared she would take her own life if she was released from custody.