It was just two days ago that we suggested Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI), Stormont’s business development agency, needs:
…a full review into all current… spending to see if further skeletons lurk in the closet.
That was following revelations in the Belfast Telegraphthat showed Invest NI was ploughing public money into a software company helping ICE’s murderous intimidation campaign across the US. Now campaign group Act Now has shamed the corporate welfare body again, by highlighting its role in assisting Cooneen Group.
Act Now spoke to the Belfast Telegraph, who report that the County Tyrone-based company’s subsidiary Cooneen Protection Limited secured from Westminster:
…two Israel export licences for one of the group’s subsidiaries, Cooneen Protection Limited.
Defensive equipment still aids war crimes
That was in 2015. One license permitted the subsidiary to provide “armoured plate, body armour, helmets”. Often, those supplying the illegitimate settler-colony attempt to justify sales of military equipment on the basis that it is for defensive purposes.
This is a meaningless distinction. Defensive equipment enables continued offensive action. Iron Dome interceptors can protect offensive ‘Israeli’ hardware from damage, enabling the terror regime to continue its genocidal violence. Body armour can sadly protect an Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) soldier from death, enabling them to continue raping and murdering their way round Palestine and beyond.
Despite this, Invest NI have continued to pump funds into Cooneen Group. The company has:
…received more than £1,397,000 from Invest NI since 2004.
The Telegraph also report that as recently as September 2025:
…Invest NI sponsored and exhibited with the group at the Defence and Security Equipment International exhibition in London, the world’s largest arms fair, attended by companies that sell weapons to Israel.
Roan Ellis-O’Neill of Act Now emphasised this continued support long after the first export licenses to the Zionist entity were granted:
Invest NI have been using taxpayers’ money to provide specialised financial support to drive overseas trade before and after the UK government granted the Cooneen Group the military export licences in 2015.
Act Now: revelation is “clearest link yet” between Invest NI and ‘Israel’
He suggested that Act Now’s findings show:
…the clearest link yet between publicly funded local companies exporting military goods and Israel.
He continued, regarding Invest NI:
Our research reveals that public money has been provided to the Cooneen Group to expand their overseas trade.
There is a real chance that Invest NI provided specialised support so that the Cooneen Group could build the relationships and networks that must be first established before applying for a military export licence.
Even if the funding was not for the purpose of securing an export licence to Israel, the grant types and the reasons support was offered by Invest NI demonstrate how crucial that funding was to develop trade links with countries such as Israel.
The likelihood is that Invest NI and those running the department of the economy of the years just didn’t care about the ethics of potential involvement in human rights abuses. They were just focused on corporate handouts to potentially profitable firms.
After all, they didn’t care when it came to helping to build F-35 warplanes, or when assisting ICE. Similarly, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) apparently saw nothing wrong with buying software and body armour from the land thieves of so-called ‘Israel’.
The fact that we now know a company inside the north of Ireland makes body armour, renders the PSNI’s purchase all the more shameful. We’ll say it again and go further – Invest NI, and all public bodies, need to ensure they have an ethics code that prevents this shit happening again. A good start would be to simply have a rule forbidding the funding of anything arms-trade related.
Featured image via the Canary
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