Michael Cousins Acting Managing Editor

Welcome to your update from the team at the News Letter

Top stories:

The Orange Order has determined that May 28 next year is when brethren and bands will take to Belfast’s streets for a delayed display of national pride celebrating the Northern Ireland Centenary. The order’s leadership are now working on the assumption that Covid-19 restrictions will have been largely dissolved by the time the date rolls around in seven months.

The Ministry of Defence has agreed to provide pallbearers at the funeral of Northern Ireland veteran Dennis Hutchings. The 80-year-old, from Cawsand in Cornwall, died in Belfast after contracting Covid-19 while he was in the city to face trial over a fatal shooting incident in Co Tyrone in 1974.

Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton says that he is not “complacent” about the feelings many loyalists have towards the police, and that it is hoped to attract new recruits from that community. Speaking at the launch of a PSNI recruitment event, he said “another 10 years of hard work” could be needed in trying to make the PSNI more representative of different minority groups.

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