I don't know where you are in the UK, Legallooptheloop, but I wouldn't take the use of the term "Tool" too personally. It's often used in friendly banter in Northern Ireland and you would recognise it as such if someone was talking to you in a Belfast accent. It's all part of the "craic" as they say locally.
Not so sure that works on a web forum...maybe in a pub with your mates, but not when you're having an impersonal discussion in writing on the WWW.
The administration considered Long Kesh (Maze) at the time. This location is right beside the main railway line south from Belfast, as well as the M1. It's 10 miles at the most from Great Victoria Street, and would have offered easy access by train, bus and car. Why they didn't choose it, I'll never know.
Agree totally...would have been a prime site. Although I suspect that those in authority did not foresee the rise in air travel, or the need for transport integration. The M2 / A57 was probably seen as a 'good road'.