FROM OUR EUROPEAN UNION STAFF

REPORTS THAT JEFFREY Donaldson may ask a Newry court to vary his bail conditions to allow him live his wife, could see the former DUP leader and knight of the realm taking up residency in the Irish Republic if it’s accepted that both parts of Ireland are in essence the one jurisdiction, according to a senior British lawyer.

Mr Donaldson and his wife, who are co-accused, have been living apart – he in London, she in Northern Ireland – since he was charged with multiple historic sexual offences and she with aiding and abetting.

“The court might not like to have them living in the family home, together, even if they undertook not to discuss the charges they face, given they are such high-profile co-accused,” said Sir Denning Vista QC MC STD,” but it might be willing to let the couple move south of the now invisible border between the two parts of Ireland, perhaps somewhere like Dundalk, Monaghan, or Clones; or even a cottage in rural *Donegal. Somewhere he would feel safe and his privacy respected. The argument would be that since Brexit, both parts of Ireland are now essentially the one EU vassal, joined at the lip, if you will, so there would be no problem with either party leaving the jurisdiction, so to speak, always a concern for courts considering bail issues. Indeed, it was Sir Jeffrey who gave the green light for this useful situation when he agreed to the Brexit Protocol not long before he was charged. It might be argued that allowing him to go to London previously, did indeed permit him to leave the jurisdiction, but that’s for another day. The only practical difficulty with his moving south, that I see, would be the aforementioned concern of co-accused communicating with respect to the case they face, but that could be negated by, say, an Irish Special Branch, or Military Intelligence, surveillance team keeping round the clock tabs on the pair to make sure they don’t discuss the matters that are before the court.”

*Yes, we know Donegal is not to the south of Northern Ireland. We didn’t invent the nomenclature – ED