A security alert at a Border village has ended after a controlled explosion on a suspicious object.

The object was found to be “nothing untoward”, said the Police Service of Northern Ireland, after an operation saw the closure of Main Street in Derrylin, Co Fermanagh.

A number of homes and businesses were evacuated during the alert which lasted a number of hours.

Several road diversions in the area, including on the main cross-border road from Cavan to Enniskillen, have been lifted.

Chief Inspector Graham Dodds said army bomb experts examined the object following a controlled explosion on Saturday afternoon.</s>A nine year contract by the Department of Finance (DoF) to provide telecommunications services to all public sector bodies across Northern Ireland has gone to BT.

The telecoms firm will deliver network and unified communication services including new hardware, software and network security services across eleven Government departments and other public sector bodies. The contract, valued at around £50m, could grow to a maximum of £400m with other services and customers on the new network.

Paul Murnaghan, BT Enterprise’s regional director in Northern Ireland, said: “BT is committed to playing its part in helping to shape and deliver transformational public services for people across Northern Ireland now and into the future. This contract will see us deliver a commercially innovative communications framework, which will provide the building blocks for a future-proofed solution to meet the developing needs of public sector users and citizens. Connecting public sector employees, citizens and services in ways that haven’t been possible before.

“We are committed to ensuring best value for money, providing the opportunity for all local communication providers to deliver their services.”

Paul Wickens, CEO of Enterprise Shared Services, Northern Ireland Civil Service, said: “This advanced network solution will allow us to provide high quality services. The new telecommunications infrastructure will replace a wide range of diverse networks. It offers high levels of security and operational stability, providing strong foundations for the new IT system for Northern Ireland’s citizens, who make use of a variety of public sector services.”

The first core network services will be available for use by summer 2019. BT will manage the core telecommunications infrastructure, including business continuity plans for the network.</s>BELFAST (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - “Game of Thrones” actor Kristian Nairn said on Friday it is “crazy” that same-sex marriage is still banned in his home of Northern Ireland yet legal in the rest of the United Kingdom.

“It confuses me why we always have to be that little step behind on social issues like this,” said Nairn, who is himself gay, in an exclusive interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“It should be brought into line with the rest of the UK,” said the actor who played Hodor on the hit TV series, which returns for its final season on April 14.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), one of the most socially conservative in Europe, has repeatedly blocked gay marriage despite opinion polls in recent years showing a majority in Northern Ireland in favor.

Northern Ireland is governed separately on many issues from the rest of the United Kingdom, a legacy of the domestic conflict between Republican and Unionist groups over whether to unite with the Republic of Ireland to the south.

The British government, which legalized same-sex weddings in 2013, has refused to impose gay marriage on the region, with ministers in London stating it is a matter for Northern Ireland’s politicians to decide.

The region has been without a functioning government for more than two years, after a power-sharing agreement between the two sides collapsed.

Same-sex marriage was legalized in the Republic of Ireland following a referendum in 2015.

“It makes it hard to be an ambassador from here,” said Nairn, who was the resident DJ at LGBT+ nightclub Kremlin in Belfast for 16 years and used to perform as a drag queen called Revvlon.

“There’s a lot of very amazing things about Northern Ireland, but the gay rights issues are definitely not one of them.”

Nairn said LGBT+ matters have “to be talked about in schools”.

“It’s not as if we’re going anywhere,” the actor said. “We’re human beings and we’re no more, no less than anybody else.”

Nairn said he was happy that “Game of Thrones”, much of which was filmed in Northern Ireland, had featured gay characters such as Loras Tyrell.

“I was glad that he was represented as being a badass as well, and being one of the best warriors in the kingdom,” he said. “I was glad, actually, that gay sex was featured.”

The question of whether straight actors should play LGBT+ characters has caused controversy in Hollywood recently, with Rami Malek winning the Oscar for best actor this year for playing Queen front man Freddie Mercury.

“Acting is acting, to me,” Nairn said. “And in the same way I don’t mind a straight guy doing a respectful depiction of a gay person, I would like to play heterosexual people also.

“I don’t want to be limited by that and I don’t think they should be limited either.”</s>Northern Ireland will not be the "plaything" of the European Union when it comes to Brexit, Jim Allister has warned.

The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader was addressing his party's annual conference in Cookstown.

His party is staunchly in favour of leaving the EU and has said MPs should not back a Brexit deal unless the backstop is changed.

The backstop is the insurance policy to maintain an open border in Ireland.

Mr Allister said this week had seen Brexit betrayed, after MPs rejected leaving the EU without a deal.

"The question now is whether Northern Ireland is next," he told his party.

He said his concern with the backstop was that it could separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

He was scathing of the EU and said: "We're not your plaything, we're an integral part of the United Kingdom and are determined to remain so. Hands off Mr Tusk! Stagger off Mr Juncker!"

Mr Allister said the strategy of Brussels and Dublin with the backstop was to place Northern Ireland in a "waiting room for Irish unity".

He also criticised the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) for seeking changes to the deal, amid reports it was attempting to get the government to rework its legal advice on the backstop.

"Nor, should anyone fall for sleights of hand in massaging legal advice to obtain an excuse to support the deal," he said, also critiquing the idea of a "Stormont lock" on the backstop.

Sinn Féin has called for a referendum to be held immediately in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

"On the contrary, a proper Brexit which liberates the UK will bring added prosperity which will benefit all our citizens and therefore diminish the appeal of nationalism," said Mr Allister.

The TUV has nine elected councillors and one assembly member, Mr Allister.

He said the party hoped to build on its success in the upcoming council elections on 2 May.

The keynote speaker at the conference was author and broadcaster Ruth Dudley Edwards.
The village of Derrylin, close to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, is sealed off after a suspicious object is found. The object is later determined to be “nothing untoward”.