Amnesty anger, MLA pay and ruff justice

Anger over a Troubles ‘amnesty’, calls to cut MLAs’ pay, and and brazen drug use right under judges’ noses are among the stories making headlines this week.

Soldiers who killed people during the Troubles “must face the consequences of their crimes like everyone else”, the Ulster Herald has been told.

It leads with an interview with the brother of two IRA men who were killed in 1988.

Nishey Harte’s brothers, Gerard and Martin, were shot by the SAS in County Tyrone in disputed circumstances.

The Hartes have long accused the SAS of operating a “shoot-to kill” policy, instead of arresting IRA suspects.

It followed a campaign by veterans’ supporters, who claimed prosecutors had unfairly prioritised cases against former soldiers.

Nishey Harte told the paper that the amnesty plan “amounts to nothing more than total injustice for families like ours”.

Inside, the paper reports that a County Tyrone primary school was left with just one child to teach earlier this month.

St Matthews Primary in Garvaghey has been facing closure since April due to dwindling pupil numbers.

For a whole week at the start of November, only one child was left on the school register.

The paper says the solitary student has now moved to another school and St Matthews is to shut after almost 80 years of service.

Santa may be gearing up for a spending spree, but Stormont politicians may have to “tighten their belts” this Christmas, according to the Fermanagh Herald.

MLAs face a pay review in December, after public concern that they are still receiving full salaries, despite the assembly having been out of action for almost a year.

The paper has conducted a straw poll among its readers, asking if Fermanagh’s five MLAs should continue to collect all their cash without passing go at Stormont.

You might be able to guess the result, but there’s no Christmas bonus for getting the right answer.

“Their response was loud and clear – absolutely and definitely not!” says the Herald.

The shelter specialised in looking after abandoned husky dogs, which have become fashionable pets since they were used to portray the fearsome “direwolves” in the TV drama, Game of Thrones.

The paper says many “short-sighted” fans who buy husky pups “do not realise how big the dog grows” or how much work is required to look after them.

It seems that even the shelter couldn’t cope and as the paper went to press, seven rescue dogs and five cats were again looking for new homes.

In County Down, it’s not abandoned direwolves but a “dire-looking Christmas tree” that is making headlines.

The sorry state of a Banbridge’s council-funded tree sparked a “flood of complaints” on social media, according to the Banbridge Chronicle.

The dishevelled specimen got the chop this week, and has now been replaced by a bigger, better version.

The first tree was removed “as it was deemed substandard by the council”, a spokesperson told the paper.

On its front page, the Chronicle reports on the Orange Order’s £1m plan to create a “lasting legacy” to its former grand secretary, Drew Nelson.

Mr Nelson, who died last year aged 60, was one of the order’s most influential members.

The Drew Nelson Legacy Project will include a residential centre in Belfast where “young Orange leaders can live, study and interact together”.

It was a case of “ruff justice” in Ballymena this week, when the town’s courthouse became the unlikely venue for a drugs raid.

Specialist PSNI dogs were brought into the building to sniff out suspects, after evidence of illegal drug use was found littering in the grounds.

The dogs’ reactions indicated that six people inside the court had “recently been in contact with drugs,” a police chief told the Ballymena and Antrim Times.

When officers searched the suspects, there were no “positive detections” but the PSNI said the operation showed drugs were not acceptable anywhere, “particularly in a court”.

Inside, the paper reports on a beef between a Ballymena butcher and vegan protesters that ended up in court and, surely, the strangest of parade disputes.

A butcher stands accused of common assault during a campaign which saw vegans allegedly marching through the town, entering butcher shops chanting “meat is murder” and “it’s not food – it’s violence”.

A defence lawyer told the court the vegan demonstration may have been illegal in the first place, as the protesters had not applied to the Parades Commission.

In County Armagh, residents of two of Craigavon’s most deprived housing estates have “lambasted” their local council for failing to provide a play park.

Community worker Tommy Sheridan tells the Lurgan Mail children are using makeshift swings tied to trees as they have no play facilities.

He complains that their requests for funding were turned down, leaving the estates “still stuck in the seventies”.

Craigavon, as it happens, is currently home to the “Best Park in Northern Ireland” and nature fans want to keep it that way.

Those behind the building project say it will “work in harmony with the environment”.

However, the Save Craigavon City Park and Lakes Community Group has vowed: “We will not let them destroy the Best Park in Northern Ireland.”

It’s a tale of two cities in the Derry News this week, when it emerged Belfast is in the running for a multi-million pound investment, while Londonderry “may get nothing”.

The bitter blow was dealt in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s latest budget, as he proposed that Belfast be granted a “city deal”.

The deals give UK cities new powers aimed at creating jobs and economic growth, and usually include significant extra funding from Westminster.

The paper says there is “outrage” that Derry has lost out to Belfast, especially as it was the first to campaign for a City Deal.

There were tears from the “hero” of the tragedy, Davitt Walsh, who saved a baby girl from the sinking vehicle.

The paper says Mr Walsh became “visibly upset” as he recounting having to let go of the baby’s eight-year-old brother, as the car filled with water.

“That was the last thing I saw – the young lad – and I had to let go because I was struggling as hard as I could.”

The boy, Evan McGrotty, died alongside his 12-year-old brother, their father, their grandmother and their 14-year-old aunt.