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Latest News 29th July 2010 |
Today's
News and the Week in Review
Adams
welcomes publication of massacre documents Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has welcomed the decision by the Catholic Church to release archive documents surrounding the killing in August 1971 of eleven people from the Ballymurphy area of Belfast. Speaking today, Mr Adams said: “The families of those killed have borne this trauma for almost forty years. They have courageously campaigned for the truth. I welcome the fact that the Church is now prepared to release eyewitness accounts which lend support to the families’ quest for a fully independent international investigation in these deaths.” The MP for West Belfast urged the Church to check its records and to publish other similar accounts it may hold of past incidents, including the killings in Belfast’s Springhill district on 9 July 1972 when the British army shot dead five people. Among the fatalities that day was the second Catholic priest to be shot dead by the British army in greater Ballymurphy. He was administering the Last Rites to victims when he himself was gunned down. Of the four others killed, three
were teenagers and the last was a father of six children who was with
the local priest.
Catholic
Church to release Ballymurphy Massacre documents The Catholic Church today backed calls for an independent inquiry into the British Army killings of 11 people in west Belfast almost 40 years ago. The Bishop of Down and Connor, Noel Treanor, will urge the British Government to apologise and declare innocent those shot dead in the so-called Ballymurphy massacre when he meets bereaved families tomorrow. He will also hand the relatives previously undisclosed church archive documents relating to the deaths in August 1971. Catholic priest Hugh Mullan was among the 11 civilians shot dead by British soldiers over a three-day period in the republican neighbourhood. The military entered the area to round up suspected paramilitaries after the Northern Ireland government introduced the controversial policy of internment without trial. The relatives’ calls for an internationally chaired independent inquiry have intensified since the publication in June of the Saville report into the British army killings of 14 people on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972. Some of the soldiers who were involved in that notorious incident in Derry had been in Ballymurphy six months earlier. A spokesman for the Catholic Church said Bishop Treanor would take a tour of the area where the shootings took place before handing over the archive files to the relatives. “The bishop will be voicing his support for the families’ request to have an inquiry,” he added. The documents include the church’s report into what happened, based on eyewitness accounts. A number of British military personnel are among those interviewed. The authors of the report said the killings were not justified. “We are convinced that the British army units involved, whether through fear or vindictiveness, unnecessarily fired a large number of rounds into the waste grounds across which innocent men, women and children were fleeing ... certainly the fatalities did not occur in a cross-fire,” it stated. The church is to conduct further
searches of its archives in an attempt to find other material related
to the Ballymurphy killings.
CIRA
leaders deny ousting claim The Continuity IRA leadership has insisted that it has not been ousted by a new more militant and more Northern based CIRA “army council”, as was claimed by representatives of the purported new leadership. The Continuity IRA leadership through the “Irish Republican Publicity Bureau” issued a statement last night rejecting claims by four representatives of the self-styled army council that it had overthrown what it described as the “old guard” or “pensioner” leadership. The new faction in an interview in yesterday’s Irish Times said that a so-called “army convention” held in Bettystown, Co Louth, in the late summer had deposed the CIRA leadership and replaced it with a more Northern-based “army council”. But the original leadership said last night that this convention had no legal standing under CIRA regulations and warned of “consequences” for those claiming to be the new leadership. “The leadership of the republican movement wishes to reiterate our statement of June 8 that contrary to claims made in The Irish Times of July 28th by those who have set up a splinter group, no General Army Convention of Óglaigh na hÉireann, popularly known as the Continuity IRA, has been held,” it said. “The constitution of óglaigh na hÉireann is very clear as to the circumstances under which a general army convention may be held. The holding of an unauthorised meeting to supplant the leadership is an undermining of the movement and will not be tolerated,” added the CIRA statement. “The army council is intact and is fully in control of all matters concerning the army. We once again warn that the unauthorised use of the name of the army can have consequences,” it said. The statement was signed “B Ruairc”, the equivalent of the “P Ó Neill” signature that the Provisional IRA used to authenticate its statements. The four representatives of the purported new leadership described the meeting in Bettystown as a “takeover of the movement by the volunteers. It is a takeover of the military end of things”. It accused the original leadership of effectively “running down” the CIRA’s paramilitary capability and threat. It also accused a “prominent” dissident in Belfast of “siphoning off” more than £20,000 intended for the CIRA. The new faction said it would
rebuild the CIRA “for a long struggle” to force the British
government to “declare its intention to withdraw” from
Northern Ireland.
Tensions
rise as Andre Shoukri shows his face again The return of loyalist maverick Andre Shoukri to his old stomping ground is raising tensions in north Belfast. There are fears that the return of the ousted UDA leader after his release from prison will lead to bloodshed and an increase in drug dealing in loyalist areas. Locals say Shoukri has been spotted with several other men in various parts of north Belfast since he was released in May — after he served four-and-a-half years for blackmail and extortion. The former UDA ‘brigadier’ was spotted at several Eleventh night bonfires and other celebrations over the Twelfth. On Tuesday he was stopped and searched by police on the Shore Road, just yards away from where local UDA leaders were meeting. They watched from their offices as Shoukri was told to lie on the ground before he and his cronies were searched for weapons. Shoukri originally said he would move to Spain on his release, but is now living in Glengormley on the edge of his former territory. Sources say he is now boasting that he will regain control of the organisation in a matter of weeks. Fears are growing that any attampt to seize power will result in loyalist feuding and bloodshed. One resident from a loyalist area, who didn’t want to be named, said: “They talk about political animals and these boys are pretty much the same. “They get addicted to power and want to strut around with everyone kowtowing to them. “They can’t seem to realise that times have changed and nobody wants them anymore, but people are still scared they are trying to come back as we’ve seen the results before with the drugs and the feuds and the crime.” Several threats have reportedly been issued to high-profile UDA leaders in the north Belfast area. Some are said to have moved from their homes as a precaution. The UDA, which is seeking to transform itself into a community organisation, has said it will let the PSNI handle the situation and will not get involved in violence. The public face of the organisation, south Belfast leader Jackie McDonald, is understood to have already met with police chiefs. Rev Robert Beckett of Crosscollyer Church said he felt tension in the area was rising. He said: “It’s difficult to know exactly what is going on, but I hope it will all blow over without any violence. “What has happened in north Belfast is nothing short of miraculous. “It used to be that police couldn’t go into some places but now they can go in and are on first name terms with people.” The PSNI said it had been called to deal with a “verbal clash” between groups of loyalists on Tuesday, but when officers arrived in the area, all was quiet. A spokeswoman said officers would be continuing to patrol and police the area. Analysis: A loyalist bogeyman
haunting his old foes Andre Shoukri is one of those loyalists who’s always in the headlines, never quiet, never anonymous, always up to something. He is a bit like Johnny Adair. At one time both had seats at the loyalist top table — inside the inner council leadership. They were part of a collective paramilitary command, but both made the mistake of thinking they were bigger than the organisation, that they could rule the roost. Adair is now in exile, but after his release from prison Shoukri is in the face of the UDA in the north of the city. What is happening there is a test for the organisation. It is still trying to prove its commitment to the ceasefire and demonstrate that its decommissioning was genuine. There are those who would gladly use old methods to deal with the Shoukri problem — reach for a gun, get it over and done with. No one believes that every weapon was put beyond use. But UDA leaders Jackie McDonald and John Bunting understand that if one bullet is fired then the UDA is finished. That is why they want the PSNI to deal with this. “It’s a policing problem,” Bunting told this newspaper. “It’s everybody’s problem.” Shoukri is one of the loyalist
bogeymen — back to haunt a fragile peace.
I'm finished
with UDA – Shoukri Former north Belfast UDA leader Andre Shoukri claims he has no plans to regain his paramilitary leadership. The 33-year-old, who was released from Maghaberry jail seven weeks ago after serving four-and-a-half years for blackmail and extortion, told the News Letter: "I am telling you straight, I will never be in control of north Belfast UDA ever again. I have no interest." The top loyalist spoke out amid mounting speculation that he and former paramilitary figures have been regrouping. Shoukri said: "I would rather stick needles in my eyes than go back anywhere near it. It's laughable that they think that. There is no mileage in me going back to that. "It is a whole different game now for me and I just have no interest in it. "I have three children. I don't want to go back to jail." Shoukri's reign formally came to an end in June 2006 after the other five so-called brigadiers in the UDA leadership decided to expel him, his brother Ihab, and another associate. The expulsion was, at the time, claimed to have been a result of the organisation's stated commitment to a move away from criminal activity. He then set up a breakaway faction of ousted UDA members. Shoukri denied that he and his associates were now reorganising, saying: "We are more truthfully - I know no better way to put it - a group of mates. "We don't have any structure. Whatever we had in guns and ammunition, we gave in. As far as we were concerned that was it and we were getting out of jail and we were hoping to be left alone. "We don't like them and they don't like us. That is how it is. As long as they just give us a break we are happy enough. "I mean, what are you going to get out of taking over the UDA again? They are finished. I have had enough. I don't want to go back to jail and I don't want any part of them whatsoever. How anyone could grasp onto the idea that we would even be thinking this over again, it's ludicrous." Shoukri claimed he did not want to "paint myself out to be an angel, I have had my bad things and all that, but everything has been magnified in the media". "Don't get me wrong, I had a gamble but that was magnified that I spent a million pounds," he said. "But the past is the past. "I have not so much turned over a new leaf, but I am not interested in taking over the UDA. I am just interested in living my life if I can do that, if they would leave me alone. Through their own fear and paranoia they are doing it." When asked if he regretted joining the UDA, Shoukri said: "I don't want to get into that by saying what I regret. I joined for my own reasons and I did what I did - obviously, I have some regrets. "But it's over. I am looking to the future now and the country has a wee bit of normality now. At the same time, we will not be pushed out by the UDA. "We are no threat to them but at the same time we are not going to be pushed about like eejits. "All their goading and all the lies they are telling are not working. We are not guilty of anything
they are saying - and the proof of that is if we were, we would have
been lifted because we are being watched 24/7.”
West
Belfast youth shot in legs A teenager has been shot in the legs after he was abducted by four masked men in the Falls Road area of west Belfast. The gang forced the 18-year-old into a car on La Salle Drive at around 2200 BST on Wednesday. He was driven about two miles to Corrib Avenue, in the Lenadoon area, where he was taken out of the car and shot twice, once in each leg. He was taken to hospital for treatment for non life-threatening injuries. The police are appealing for witnesses. They say the car involved was an old-style silver Peugeot 406 estate. Dissident republican paramilitaries
have been responsible for a series of similar attacks.
Musicians
reel in the audiences for Féile an Phobail The annual Feile an Phobail — one of the largest community festivals in Europe — gets underway in Belfast today. Now celebrating its 22nd year, the hugely successful West Belfast Festival has attracted acts such as Westlife, Christy Moore, Girls Aloud and the London Community Gospel Choir over the years. Among the highlights in the 2010 programme — which runs until August 8 — are appearances by singer Damien Dempsey, Nobel Literature Laureate Seamus Heaney and veteran comedian Lenny Henry. Also featured will be Texan singer Michelle Shocked, Lara Marlowe, Ceol go Phailistín, and Neville Staple, a former member of The Specials. The 10-day festival features over 200 events, including exhibitions, debates, children’s events, an international food fayre, music and drama. “We are honoured to host in St Mary’s University College, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney who will be giving a reading dedicated to his former headmaster from his student teacher days in St Thomas’s, Michael McLaverty,” said festival director Sean Paul O’Hare. “And we have international
star and son of Beechmount, musician Brian Kennedy and Irvine Welsh,
author of the best-selling book Trainspotting.”
British
Army Still Closing Irish Roads éirígí general secretary Breandán MacCionnaith has said the requisitioning of a road in south Down by the British army is proof of the abnormal nature of the British presence in the Six Counties. The stretch of the Shore Road close to Ballykinler British army base has been closed indefinitely to civilian traffic after an executive order was issued to that effect this week by the British secretary of state Owen Patterson. The British government’s Justice & Security Act of 2007, which is applicable solely to the Six Counties, gives the British army permanent powers to requisition property. This power had previously only been available to the British army under emergency legislation. MacCionnaith said: “The disruptive nature of the British army presence in the Six Counties can be seen again with the closure of the Shore Road in Ballykinler. This closure should be seen for what it is: a declaration of intent on the part of the British government to protect its occupation by any means deemed necessary. “Three years ago, we were told that, with the ending of Operation Banner, the role of the British army in Ireland was effectively at an end. Yet here we are in 2010 and the British army is seizing and closing an Irish road to everyone but the Crown Forces. “The establishment parties who support the current dispensation in the Six Counties have been extremely quiet in the face of this clear act of aggression on the part of the British government. Perhaps the litany of false dawns they have proclaimed has shamed them into silence.” MacCionnaith continued: “The
British army’s malign involvement in Ireland cannot be allowed
to go unchallenged. Now, more than ever, republicans should begin
organising themselves for renewed resistance to the British occupation.”
'They
are tired old men and women who want to think they are generals' By Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor INTERVIEW: The men who insist they are the Continuity IRA’s new ‘army council’ say the dissident republican group will continue to target police officers The eldest of the four representatives of what they insist is the new “army council” of the Continuity IRA gave his description of the “old guard”, which they claim to have deposed. “They are tired, weary old men and women who want to think they are generals but don’t do anything. Who do they represent? They don’t represent the membership,” he said. The four range in age from their 20s to their 60s and were speaking to The Irish Times at a secret location in west Belfast. No names were disclosed. The interview flowed from an Irish Times report last month when the purportedly ousted CIRA leadership said that a “CIRA convention” held in the early summer in Bettystown, Co Meath, was improperly called and represented an attack on the leadership. CIRA said it had “dismissed” members from the organisation, while a number of others were “suspended”. The four men however were adamant that it was a “legitimate” and “extraordinary army convention” called to form a new leadership to bring a lost “military” edge back to the CIRA and to deal with some alleged financial impropriety by a senior dissident republican in Belfast. One of the spokesmen said the delegates represented 95 per cent of the “volunteers” who were fully behind the breakaway group. The CIRA has been involved in many attacks since it became active in 1994 after the first Provisional IRA ceasefire. In March last year, one of its members shot dead Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon, Co Armagh. It is separate from other dissident organisations such as the Real IRA, although the organisations have co-operated from time to time. The CIRA has been also accused of playing a role in the Real IRA bombing in Omagh in 1998 in which 29 people were killed, including a woman pregnant with twin girls. One of the four CIRA representatives said the organisation would continue to target police officers. “Police are legitimate targets because they are members of the British security forces,” he said. Some senior people in the Irish and British political, security and intelligence world have wondered is there any way dissident republicans could be inveigled to join with their mainstream republican former allies and support the peace and political processes. They would take no comfort from these four representatives of the purported new CIRA “army council” who acknowledged that their basic ideology remained “Brits out”. “It is Brits out,” said a CIRA representative. “As long as Britain is involved there will be conflict, as long as there is even one person prepared to challenge the British presence there will be resistance, that is the tradition of all colonisation and occupation.” They said they were absolutely confident that they had usurped the “old guard” or “pensioners” whom they view as virtually moribund, and that the bulk of “volunteers” are with the new leadership. There is still some regard for Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, who recently stood down as president of Republican Sinn Féin (RSF), the paramilitary wing of CIRA. It was Ó Brádaigh, who, with the late former IRA leader Dáithí Ó Conaill who formed RSF in 1986 after Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness led Sinn Féin towards Dáil politics. “We have the utmost respect for Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s contribution to republicanism for over 60 years,” said the older man. “We are convinced that Ruairí allowed himself to become part of an inner circle, of a kitchen cabinet who would not have the best interests of the people at heart.” Rows within republicanism down the years have led to bitter and murderous feuding. The CIRA representatives predict that would not happen this time because the purportedly ousted leadership is just too weak. “Logistically, I can’t see how it would be possible that there would be such a feud,” said one of the four. Their main complaint was that the “old” leadership effectively had almost overseen the winding down of the CIRA. They said that previously it was a Southern-dominated leadership but that the new “army council” and executive is representative of the entire membership, but with a loaded Northern dimension. “There were a number on the army council who have sat there for years, some of whom haven’t put a foot across the Border in years,” said one of the spokesmen. “They have no contact with volunteers on the ground. About two years ago, they nominated a man to be chief of staff from the South who was in his late 70s. In fact he was a phantom chief of staff because nobody knew who he was . . . that has led to the present situation.” Another of the four denied that the CIRA helped fuel the recent rioting in Belfast and other areas but said some CIRA people were involved in the sit-down road protest on the Twelfth of July at Ardoyne. “Nobody wanted the rioting but it just got out of hand,” he said. “The Continuity IRA had members in the crowd but were not involved in the trouble. Violence continued because residents did not want it stopped they were so angry over the Orange parade.” They said a growing number of young people are being drawn to the CIRA regardless of the fact that there are about 100 dissidents in prison in Ireland, North and South, with many of those at Maghaberry close to Lisburn involved in a “dirty protest”. Such are the level of arrests and convictions it appears clear there is a high level of security penetration of the dissidents through informants. One of the representatives said that wouldn’t be a serious deterrent to recruiting. “I don’t see us as being very infiltrated. We were at one stage but a lot of that is gone now. There are new controls but we have to be always on our guard.” They all made clear that they see themselves carrying on the flame of republicanism despite what they describe as the “betrayals” of Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and others. One of the four recalled that he was involved in republican paramilitarism for most of his life, served time in prison and knew some of the hunger strikers, and had seen some of his colleagues die or suffer severely both physically and psychologically. “My duty to them is to carry on that struggle,” he said. The people of Ireland voted for the Belfast Agreement of 1998, but in their view that has no legitimacy in terms of Irish people having determined their own political future. “People were corralled into voting for something they knew nothing about; there is an agreement but it can be overruled at any time by the Westminster government,” said one of the four. He added: “The existence of the Northern Executive is in the gift of the British government; they would take it away if it was in their interests to do so . . .it is now in the interests of Britain to have that junta at Stormont.” They said they didn’t want
to bomb a million unionists into a united Ireland. “There is
no sectarian element in our organisation. We hold to the line of what
Wolfe Tone said: ‘we act for Protestant, Catholic and dissenter’,”
said one of the men.
The pure
heart of Bannside So Ian R K Paisley, aka Lord Bannside - what was it that first attracted you to the creature we call Democracy? Was it a vision you had on a hillside about twenty-five years ago when you took the salute from several hundred men displaying (no, don't laugh) their rifle licences? Was it that time you posed with a sledge-hammer, quite like but of course seriously different from the loyalist death squads who used to sledge-hammer down front doors before storming in and killing their unfortunate victims, except you merely vowed to 'Smash Sinn Fein', a legal political party? Maybe we do best to leave your mind a mystery, for in that place there are dark corners and twisting ways which would leave most of us gasping for breath and wishing we'd never come. Whatever it was that led you to this moment, Your Lordship, it is indeed good news to hear that you would accept Martin McGuinness as First Minister, if the voters should decide to make Sinn Fein the biggest single party. It's a bit less good news to be told, as a number of DUP politicians have informed us, that the unionist people would not accept Mr McGuinness in that role. That is to say, having spent about thirty years urging republicans to leave the path of violence and commit exclusively to democratic ways, unionists (according to their politicians) will simply reject the decision of the ballot box if it doesn't produce the result they see as their God-given right - viz, to have now and always a unionist First Minister. Of course, this anti-democratic unionist stance may change, now that IRKP aka the good Lord has decided that he is a man who respects the decision of the electorate. Especially as those unionist politicians who've said a republican First Minister simply cannot be will probably be so impressed by the purity of heart displayed by the former DUP leader, will know that he speaks only for the welfare of the people of the six counties and not at all with any notion of damaging the present DUP leadership - overcome with this realisation, they will very likely fall on their faces, heap cinders on their heads and call upon God and the electorate to forgive them their wrong-headed ways. By the way, isn't it odd how in
common with other Protestant fundamentalists, IRKP cannot call any
man Father but God, and yet he experiences no pain, physical or spiritual,
in having other men and women call him Lord?
Rivals
press DUP on SF first minister Rival unionists have questioned whether the DUP would stay in the executive should Sinn Fein take the first minister's post in next year's assembly election. In a contribution yesterday to the News Letter's Union 2021 series on the future of Northern Ireland, Lord Bannside, who as Ian Paisley led the DUP until 2008, said that he would "accept the will of the people" if a Sinn Fein first minister emerges. Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey, who in his own Union 2021 article somewhat side-stepped the question of whether he would accept a Sinn Fein first minister, said that Dr Paisley's article raised questions about the DUP policy. "What is the DUP's position? Is he speaking for them and are they prepared to work under Martin McGuinness?" he said. "It is as a direct result of Ian Paisley's mismanagement at St Andrews that the issue arises in the first place because the will of the people – as Ian Paisley describes it – was expressed in the referendum, with more than 71 per cent of people accepting the 1998 Belfast Agreement. "It was Ian Paisley who then refused to accept the will of the people." Asked whether the UUP would continue in the executive if Sinn Fein secured the top post in next year's election, Sir Reg would only say: "We are prepared to work with him, not under him." TUV leader Jim Allister said: "Confirmation by Ian Paisley that he would meekly accept IRA commander McGuinness as first minister is not in itself surprising, considering it was he who gave us McGuinness to rule over us as part of the 'chuckle brothers' routine. "But it is a sad commentary on how far Ian Paisley has departed from his previous stands that the man he once described as one who 'fomented the conflict and brought it into being' is now an acceptable first minister. "The other striking feature of Ian Paisley's contribution in today's News Letter is the obvious discord with the present DUP leadership, epitomised by his jibe about how things were different on his watch." But Alliance assemblyman Trevor Lunn welcomed Lord Bannside's rejection of a single unionist party in the article. He said: "It is very interesting that Ian Paisley has spoken out against creating a single unionist party. "Tribal unity has a very negative impact as it moves political debate away from the big issues of the day like the economy and our public services onto tribal arguments." A DUP spokesman said: "Dr Paisley said he would accept the will of the people but would campaign against Sinn Fein becoming the largest party. "Many fail to realise that
on the last election result Sinn Fein would not be the largest party...
the only people talking up the possibility of a Sinn Fein first minister
are those who have an electoral interest in trying to divide unionism
and turn it in on itself."
Goal
must be unionist unity, says Robinson The goal for unionism must be to form a "united unionist party", says Peter Robinson. During the interview, conducted last week, Mr Robinson outlines a somewhat different future for unionist politics to that set out by former DUP leader Ian Paisley in his article for yesterday's News Letter. Dr Paisley set out clear opposition to the creation of a single unionist party but Mr Robinson says that while a single party is not achievable in the near future, it should be the "goal". "I think the goal must be that we have one united unionist party. "I don't think that it will be achieved in one step nor will it be achieved quickly. For it to be achieved I think we do need a strategy to bring unionism together and to widen and embrace a larger band of support within the community." And he cautions: "It is meaningless having unionist unity unless it is a unity based on a common strategy with common principles and common values." Setting out the reasons why he believes a single party is preferable, Mr Robinson says: "The nature of politics in Northern Ireland has changed forever, Sinn Fein is now a very significant presence, there is no indicator that the SDLP are making a comeback, and therefore it does need a strong unionist presence to be able to counter that." The DUP leader stresses that it is not just the first minister's post which is at stake, but other key executive posts allocated under the power-sharing D'Hondt system. But when asked whether he would accept a Sinn Fein first minister, Mr Robinson said: "I don't contemplate failure on that front so I don't have to address the alternatives. But that is one of the dangers. "But the danger goes beyond that it's not just the first minister's position, but by being the largest party you have the first choice of portfolios... by being the largest party and first minister you have a key position when it comes to positioning around the world. "I don't believe that the unionists of Northern Ireland want Sinn Fein represented as speaking for them in the States and elsewhere." Asked about his relationship with his predecessor Dr Paisley, now Lord Bannside, Mr Robinson says it is "very good", quickly adding: "he doesn't obviously come to the assembly as much as he used to. "We sit down and chat frequently, a good relationship. You caught me unaware, I'm not used to the Lord Bannside term." When asked what he thought of
the new title, Mr Robinson comments: "I think, it was an obvious
title given the early days. But like everything else we have to get
used to the new title."
Robinson
looks to Iris's return Iris Robinson could return to Belfast this autumn, first minister Peter Robinson has revealed. In an interview with the News Letter, the first minister said he had "high hopes" that his wife would be returning to Northern Ireland soon as her health has recently shown signs of improvement. The DUP leader said that Mrs Robinson
was still being treated in hospital in London, more than six months
after she resigned her Strangford MP seat following revelations about
her affair and financial Speaking about his personal turmoil, Mr Robinson says that "the rockiest part of the journey is over" and insists that despite losing his Westminster seat, he has no intention of standing down as either DUP leader or first minister. And, in the interview, conducted last week, Mr Robinson set out a very different goal for unionist politics to former DUP leader Ian Paisley, who in yesterday's News Letter said that he opposed the creation of a single unionist party. But, speaking before Dr Paisley's
article, Mr Robinson said: "I think the goal must be that we
have one united unionist party."
Five
to face terrorism charges Four men and a 16-year-old boy are due to appear at court in Belfast charged with a number of terrorism and firearms offences. They were charged on Tuesday night by detectives from the PSNI's Serious Crime Branch investigating alleged dissident republican activity. The men, aged 47, 40, 34, and 33, and the 16-year-old boy were arrested after two guns were recovered during a police operation on the Falls Road in west Belfast last Thursday. They are due to appear at Belfast Magistrates Court later. The men were arrested at about 2200 BST last Thursday after an incident a few minutes earlier on the St James's Road in west Belfast. It is understood a man was the target of a so-called punishment shooting in a house. It is believed that although a shot was fired, he was not injured. The arrests took place during
a police follow-up operation.
Adams'
bluff called over talks' A north and west parades group has said it has called Gerry Adams' bluff over the Sinn Fein president's calls for its members to talk to Sinn Fein. The offer came after a member of the Greater Ardoyne Residents' Collective (GARC) announced their determination to have a sit-down protest to block an Apprentice Boys feeder parade from passing the Ardoyne shops on August 14. A similar protest on the Twelfth as an Orange feeder parade passed sparked the worst violence seen in Belfast in recent times, with four consecutive nights of rioting during which scores of police officers were injured. Last week Mr Adams called for Orangemen involved to engage with his party. "I am asking that they set aside past differences... and engage in dialogue with Sinn Fein and local host communities affected by marches," he said. But the chair of the North and West Belfast Parades and Cultural Forum, Tommy Cheevers, told the News Letter last night that the calls were "disingenuous" and that his group had never been contacted by Sinn Fein. He said he was up for meeting Mr Adams any time and challenged the Sinn Fein president to name a date. "Gerry Adams has rowed back from his previous position, saying he wants to talk to us; now he says he wants to facilitate dialogue between local residents and those taking part in parades," he said. "It is completely disingenuous – we have been meeting with Ardoyne residents for the last 10 years. "The forum is not clear, does Adams want to set a date or not, why do they say they want dialogue only through the media." A spokesman for Mr Adams last night said if Mr Cheevers wanted to meet Mr Adams, "he knows where he is". "From our perspective, Sinn
Fein will speak to anyone," he said.
Northern
Ireland leaders united in plan to tear down ‘peace walls’ Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness have pledged to lead concerted efforts to remove peace walls at sectarian flashpoints. But it's been stressed that the dismantling of the barriers will only happen “over time” and with the support of local communities. The goal was outlined in a long-awaited community relations strategy unveiled yesterday by the First and Deputy First Minister. The draft Programme for Cohesion, Sharing and Integration (CSI) will be the subject of a public consultation process running until the end of October. A series of public meetings is planned in September. Among the issues tackled in the document is the continued existence of dozens of peace walls. It states: “What is required is a number of interventions to tackle the issues which sustain the maintenance of peace walls. “To this end, OFMDFM will lead in the development of a ... programme with departments, agencies and the community on how best to work actively towards the removal of peace walls. “The ultimate objective is to create security and safety for the community in ways which would allow the physical interface barriers to be removed over time. “Decisions can only be taken when the process has reached the point where people from the local community are ready.” Among the themes outlined in the CSI programme are tackling sectarianism and racism, and ending attacks on “symbolic premises” such as GAA and Orange halls. Sectarian behaviour at “spectator sports events” is described as being “of particular concern”. A sexual orientation strategy is also planned by the department. The CSI document has been held up due to disagreements between DUP and Sinn Fein on its contents. In one of his last acts as PSNI Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde last summer wrote to the First and Deputy First Minister to press for its publication. Mr Robinson said yesterday: “We have all come a long way in the past decade and it is important that we now build on the good work that has already been achieved in shaping a better future for everyone.” Mr McGuinness said: “Events in recent weeks emphasise how important it is for dialogue, agreement and joint working.” The publication of the CSI document was a key demand of the Alliance Party, ahead of its leader David Ford joining the Executive as Justice Minister. Alliance MLA Stephen Farry said
his party supported the “document going out to public consultation”.
Row over
renaming of airport A row is brewing over whether an airport should be named after a political hero or a sporting one. Sinn Fein wants Cork Airport renamed in honour of Terence MacSwiney, the famous lord mayor of Cork who died on hunger strike in 1920 at the height of the War of Independence. However, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael representatives -- while supportive of MacSwiney's legacy -- believe the airport should be renamed in honour of a more modern figure. Suggestions so far have included arguably the greatest hurler in history, Christy Ring, and legendary blues guitarist Rory Gallagher. Several Fianna Fail officials have even proposed naming the airport after former Cork hurler and Taoiseach Jack Lynch. However, Sinn Fein Councillor Jonathan O'Brien has tabled the proposal in favour of Terence MacSwiney Airport to mark the 90th anniversary of his death, which falls on October 25 this year. "I think it would be very
fitting. When people step off the plane in Cork the first thing they
would encounter would be a very important part of our history,"
Mr O'Brien said.
Ministers
launch consultation over anti-sectarian plans The NI first and deputy first ministers have published their proposals for tackling sectarianism, racism and hate. Progress on the so-called shared future strategy was a key demand from the Alliance Party before its leader, David Ford, agreed to take the job of Justice Minister. The public is now being asked to consult on the document over the next three months. The consultation period will run until 29 October 2010. The document has been delayed for around two years due to disagreements between the DUP and Sinn Fein about how to proceed. Public meetings on the Programme for Cohesion, Sharing and Integration are also set to take place during September. The Stormont Executive pledges to urgently address the "physical and community division created by interfaces" as a key goal of the draft strategy published on Tuesday. Ministers will also be committed to tackling "the visible manifestations of racism, sectarianism, intolerance and other forms of prejudice". They will also adopt a "zero tolerance" approach to incidences of, and reasons for, attacks motivated by sectarian, religious, racist or hate prejudice. These include those on symbolic premises, cultural premises and monuments. Another goal is take action which will address sectarian behaviour at spectator sports events. Stormont politicians were criticised for putting the strategy on "the back burner" by Sir Hugh Orde before he stepped down as PSNI Chief Constable last year. Meanwhile, SDLP assembly member Dolores Kelly said the strategy published for consultation "lacks vision and conviction". Mrs Kelly said the document "fails to provide clear methods to tackle sectarianism". Alliance Party assembly member Stephen Farry welcomed the consultation decision. Mr Farry said: "While doing so, we also recognise that it remains deficient and flawed in a number of respects. "These include the clarity of the vision and direction for Northern Ireland, the economic and financial dimensions, resourcing and delivery mechanisms, targets and timetables." Sinn Fein assembly member Martina Anderson said that "there is a need to develop a coherent strategy to tackle sectarianism, racism, homophobia and other forms of hate in our society". Ms Anderson added: "Equality is the foundation of good relations. We welcome that the document reflects this." Launching the plans, First Minister Peter Robinson said: "We have all come a long way in the past decade and it is important that we now build on the good work that has already been achieved in shaping a better future for everyone. "We want to build a society where everyone shares in and enjoys the benefits of peace and stability." Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said: "The draft programme provides the framework for co-ordination across government departments for action against sectarianism, racism and all forms of hate. "Working together, we will
build a shared and better future for all based on fairness, equality,
rights, responsibilities and respect."
March
for Political Status in Lurgan Over 500 people marched in Lurgan on Sunday afternoon [July 25] to demand political status for the republican prisoners incarcerated in Maghaberry jail. Despite a heavy PSNI presence and attempts by the force to stop people travelling from outside the town reaching the assembly point, the hundreds of marchers made their way through the centre of Lurgan, led by the families of political prisoners. Upon reaching the Shankill estate, the rally was chaired by former anti-H-Block campaigner and one-time member of the Relatives Action Committees Maura McCrory. A statement from the political prisoners in Maghaberry was read out, while Paul Duffy, the brother of Lurgan republican and current prisoner Colin, gave the main oration. The low-flying Crown Forces helicopter failed to drown out McCrory as she ended the rally by pledging that those present would break the British government’s policy of criminalisation, just as was done in the early 1980s. Rúnaí ginearálta éirígí Breandán Mac Cionnaith, who was one of the many party activists to attend Sunday’s march, said: “The conditions which the republican prisoners in Maghaberry are forced to endure are completely unacceptable. Degrading strip searches must be ended and the right to free association among republican prisoners must be recognised. “The refusal to recognise these rights has created a pressure cooker type situation within Maghaberry that has the potential to escalate further.” Mac Cionnaith continued: “In
éirígí’s opinion, the restoration of political
status for all republican prisoners is the only just solution to this
conflict. There is no requirement on anyone to agree to a certain
political position to recognise this fact – all those with an
interest in human rights should join the campaign for political status.”
Wicklow
Republicans Oppose Windsor Visit Following the recent indication by the Dublin government that Elizabeth Windsor will be invited on a state visit to the Twenty-Six Counties, éirígí Cill Mhantáin activists, joined by other republicans and socialists, held a day of action on Friday [July 23] in the People’s Park on Main Street, Inbhear Mór [Arklow]. éirígí’s Adrian O’Reilly said: “Republicans and socialists are rightly appalled by Brian Cowen’s decision to invite Elizabeth Windsor on a state visit while his administration refuses much needed funding for the Justice for the Forgotten campaign. “Fianna Fáil and the Green Party don’t seem to care that Elizabeth Windsor is the commander-in-chief of Britain’s armed forces. These are the same armed forces that are currently occupying the Six Counties and waging a war of aggression against the people of Afghanistan.” O’Reilly continued: “Our aim on Friday was to highlight to the people of Wicklow the lies that the likes of Brian Cowen and Mary McAleese are telling in order to facilitate a state visit by Elizabeth Windsor. Relations between Britain and Ireland are not normal; they are from it in fact. The British government continues to forcibly partition Ireland, using a vast apparatus of occupation, including 5,000 British soldiers, 9,000 paramilitary police and hundreds of MI5 operatives, to enforce its unwanted presence. This is the core reason why Elizabeth Windsor should not be invited on a state visit to the Twenty-Six Counties. “It has been estimated that
the security bill for a Windsor visit would be in the region of €8-10
million [£6.7-8.3 million]. éirígí totally
disagrees with wasting public money on British royal visits. At a
time of economic crisis, we demand funding for employment and housing,
not propaganda stunts aimed at legitimising the occupation of the
Six Counties.”
Ready
to protest march again By Eamonn McCann Support for the idea of a civil rights march against the draconian public order law the DUP/Sinn Fein coalition wants to bring in appears to be growing. Meanwhile, the strategy of supporters of the proposed Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests Bill is to direct all argument towards contentious parades, ignoring the fact that the most contentious aspect of the measure itself lies in its effect on public assemblies of a different sort. The meeting at Ardoyne last Thursday evening protesting against rioting in the area would have been illegal under the DUP/SF measure. So would the protests against the killing of Kieran Doherty last year. Likewise, anti-racism rallies at the time of attacks on Roma in south Belfast, or the instant demonstrations against the Israeli assault on Gaza in December 2008. In none of these cases would the time-frame have allowed the required permission to be obtained from the suggested new Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests Body. Participants would have been liable to arrest without warrant by any police officer and in danger of six months imprisonment or a £5,000 fine or both. To recap: The proposed legislation was drafted by a working group set up last February during the Hillsborough talks on policing to come up with a replacement for the Parades Commission. Members of the group were Nigel Dodds, Stephen Moutray and Jeffrey Donaldson of the DUP and John O'Dowd, Michelle Gildernew and Gerry Kelly of Sinn Fein, advised by former Loyalist Commission chairman Mervyn Gibson and ex-commander of the IRA in Belfast Sean Murray. None of these eight has so far offered any explanation of how a mandate to devise a new way of dealing with Orange marches came to be interpreted as an invitation to impose drastic restrictions on the right to public assembly. One possible explanation is that the two parties are preparing in advance to curb and control reaction to the spending cuts which are coming. Both the DUP and Sinn Fein vehemently deny this motivation. But what, then, prompted them to produce a draft law reminiscent of the old Special Powers Act? If, prior to the proposed October
5th march, any DUP or SF member of the Assembly would care to debate
the issue in public, I'm sure it can be arranged.
Miami
showband massacre film planned The story of the 1975 Miami Showband massacre is to be made into a film. Three members of the popular showband were shot dead on a country road after a gig in Banbridge, County Down, in July 1975. They had been waved down at a British army roadblock at a checkpoint outside Newry. As well as members of the British army – the Ulster Defence Regiment - members of the UVF were present. The plan was to place a bomb onto the tour bus and have it explode as the band drove south to Dublin. While the band members were lined up outside the bus, two men attempted to plant a bomb in the van. It exploded prematurely killing them instantly. The rest of the death squad then opened fire on the band members killing lead singer Fran O’Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy. Singer Des Lee and guitarist Steven Travers survived the tragedy, despite being shot. A book - The Miami Showband Massacre: A Survivor's Search for the Truth - which was written by Mr Travers and journalist Neil Fetherston-Haugh, was published in 2007. So long after the attack, Steven Travers said he had been surprised by the level of interest shown by film companies. But he wanted the right kind of film to be made. “I waited 30 years to write the book so I’m in no great hurry for a film,” he said. “But since the book came out, we have had six different companies - two in Ireland, two in the UK and two American companies - approach us about the film rights. “We signed an option on December last. If we are happy when they put everything together we will go with it. But it is such a sensitive subject. You have to be very careful. “You have got to get a balance,” he said. “The incident on that night; that just took place in one day whereas what the band brought to people lasted a long, long time - many, many years. “If we can get some young fella to change his mind and to do something like we did rather than what the bombers did... We are on to a winner then.” The massacre, which happened thirty-five years ago this week, remains one of the worst atrocities committed by the British establishment during the most recent phase of conflict in Ireland.
The Miami
Showband Massacre, 1975: A survivor's search for the truth
The Miami Showband massacre took place 31 July 1975, near Newry, in South Armagh, while the band was travelling home to Dublin after a gig in Banbridge, County Down. Their tour bus was stopped at a roadblock, flagged down by men who were not only serving soldiers in the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment but active members of a unionist death squad, the Ulster Volunteer Force. Two soldiers planted a bomb in the bus but it exploded prematurely and killed them outright. Three members of the Miami, one of the most popular showbands in Ireland at the time, were then gunned down by the other soldiers. Teenage heart-throb and lead singer Fran O'Toole (29) and trumpet players Tony Geraghty (23) and Brian McCoy (32) were killed by the UDR soldiers. There are still unanswered questions about that night - why did it happen, who was behind it all, and who was the mysterious professional British Army officer with the clipped English accent who gave orders at the murder scene? Thirty-two years after the atrocity, one of the two surviving band members has published a book to try and find the truth in the name of justice. The Miami Showband Massacre: A Survivor's Search for the Truth, has been written by Stephen Travers, who was wounded but survived the attack, and Dublin journalist Neil Fetherstonhaugh. ELLA O'DWYER spoke to Stephen Travers about an event that shocked a nation. Stephen Travers joined the Miami Showband as its new bass player only two months before the atrocity. From Carrick on Suir, in County Tipperary, he was 24. The band was hugely popular and attracted crowds of young people to dance floors the length and breadth of Ireland. Despite 'The Troubles', the Miami regularly played in the North. Stephen Travers recalls what happened in the early hours of 31 July 1975, as the band travelled south after another successful gig, in Banbridge. It was after 2.30am in the morning. "We were half-way to Newry when we were stopped at a UDR roadblock. There have been misconceptions regarding issues around the whole event and that's one of the reasons for getting the book out. I want to set the record straight. "For instance, some people think the roadblock was a bogus one. It was, in fact, a regular roadblock with uniformed UDR soldiers present. "We were told to get out of the minibus and line up alongside it." Initially, things looked normal enough. "At the start, the UDR men seemed relaxed and confident, joking and having the craic basically." While the boys in the band were standing by the roadside, the soldiers looked to be searching the vehicle. Shortly afterwards, a car pulled up. What looked like a professional British Army officer to Stephen Travers appeared. "Whether he got out of that car or whether I hadn't noticed him before, I'm not sure. He was very much an authority figure and immediately the whole atmosphere changed. I remember his demeanor — very fit, active, good-looking and well-spoken. I remember admiring the 'Action Man' aspect; the combats he had on. I was a young fella myself, just 24. "When he arrived, things became very professional." That was reinforced by Brian McCoy, another member of the band. "He nudged me with his elbow and told me not to worry. 'This is British Army,' he said. That was to comfort me. Brian was from the North and he was used to that kind of thing. "I had been well-used to English accents because when I left school I went to London and worked as a trainee broker at Lloyds, so I was in no doubt but this was an upper-crust Englishman. He was also dressed differently than the UDR men. As soon as he arrived, the joking stopped. "There was another man giving the orders until this British officer arrived and changed the orders. Initially, the UDR soldier Thomas Crozier was ordered to get our names and addresses. The British Army officer asked the UDR man in charge — I think he was Rodney McDowell — what Crozier was doing and was told he was taking the names and addresses. The army officer said: 'No. I want the names and dates of birth.' " The mood changed noticeably and the soldiers' joking with the band stopped. Suddenly there was a loud bang. Two of the soldiers had been planting a bomb in the minibus. The bomb went off prematurely and the two men carrying the device, Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville, were killed instantly. The blast ripped the bus in two. The explosion threw all the band members into the air. The rest of the UDR soldiers opened fire on the band members lined up along the roadside with their hands on their heads. Submachine-gun and pistol bullets were flying everywhere. Dozens of spent cartridges littered the road. Fran and Tony started to drag Stephen to safety but he collapsed and they could carry him no further. The UDR soldiers jumped down into the field in pursuit. Fran and Tony tried to flee. "It was there [in the field] that the gunmen caught up with them," Stephen remembers. "I heard them screaming, begging not to be killed. I can still hear them crying out. There was a long, loud burst of gunfire... and then silence." Stephen was badly wounded by a bullet in the thigh. Fellow guitarist Des McAlea was blown into a ditch by the bomb blast, away from the immediate kill zone, and relatively uninjured. "I was shot in the right hip by what they call a 'dum-dum' bullet. On impact the bullet fragments and does a lot of damage inside the body. It went up to my lung and exited under my left arm. One of the soldiers walked through the debris of the shattered vehicle, kicking the bodies and checking to see if anyone was alive. "I heard him walking towards me. As he came closer, I decided I'd just stay where I was and pretend to be dead, face down in the dirt. What happens is that your instinct for survival takes over and it allows you to do things that you wouldn't normally be brave enough to do." Stephen Travers stayed motionless as the soldier approached. "Then somebody else shouted, 'Come on! Those bastards are dead. I got them with dum-dums.' That's the first time I heard the term 'dum-dums'. In fact, I thought that meant they were blanks." When the soldier checking the bodies turned and walked anyway and Stephen thought the place was clear, he eventually got up and walked around. "I'd had a lot of internal bleeding and found it difficult to breathe because the bullet had punctured my lung. "When I walked around you can't imagine the scene. They'd pumped 22 bullets into Fran's face. It was horrific." After Des McAlea had been blown over into the ditch, he hid and then made his way to Newry RUC Barracks. Ambulances were called but the RUC and British Army were reluctant to go to the scene in case the bodies were booby-trapped. "Eventually they got me to the hospital, about 45 minutes later. I was taken to Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry and my faith in human nature returned once I woke up because the staff there were so good to me. I remember the doctors wanting to cut my jumper to get at the wound and me telling them not to - it was only new," Stephen laughs. "The RUC questioned me while I was on the operating table. They didn't know who we were, that we were a band. I felt like I was being interrogated. They were asking me, 'What are you doing up here?' I said I was playing and they said, 'Playing at what?' They hadn't a clue who we were." Even though he was in hospital, Stephen still feared that the immediate nightmare wasn't over. "Once I got off the critical list I started to worry in case, as a surviving eyewitness, I could be bumped off. They reluctantly agreed to transfer me to Dublin." He was taken to a nursing home in Elm Park. "I was as tough as old boots and fit, only 24 years old, so I was out in two or three weeks. "I didn't know for about a week that the lads had been killed. I suppose you block things out. You're in denial." To him, the Miami was 'just a showband', playing to all sorts of audiences and in no way politically active. Stephen Travers disapproves of violence from any quarter: "I have no time for violence. The Miami Showband were musicians, not political animals." So why does he think the band was targeted? "The band was made up of people of different religions — Protestants, Catholics, Pagans and all," Stephen smiles. "The one healing agent at the time for young Catholics and Protestants was entertainment. So if you could frame a prominent, well-known band like ours and make us appear like bombers, the healing function we had in bringing people together would have been discredited. "We were the catalyst that brought people together. We were apolitical but, with hindsight, I see that we were overcoming sectarianism." Unanswered questions about the night the music died Stephen Travers wants the British Government to admit to its security policy in Mid-Ulster in the 1970s and its consequences. "First, I'm asking them: 'Was this your policy? You've never addressed that.' "I feel that there are three main players involved here: the foot soldiers who actually did it; us, the victims, for want of a better term; and the people who orchestrated, financed and organised the whole thing. "Two of those parties, the victims and the UVF, have addressed the issues around what happened that night. But the third party, the British Government, continues to ignore their part even though they are the people who equipped, trained and sent out their operatives to kill innocent people. "I believe this goes all the way up to the top. "You wouldn't like to think that your next-door neighbour had a policy of murdering your children. It was British policy to murder people in Ireland. That's exactly what it was. Collusion is a nice, sanitised word but it's actually direct murder. You send out somebody trained in Sandhurst or wherever and they come out and command this bunch of people who are either brainwashed or told on their parents' knees to hate the other side. "It was a British Army regiment - the largest regiment in that army and commanded by a British Army officer on the night - so it was collusion. "I wondered why was it just the foot soldiers the only ones getting questioned? Why were the upper echelons not being questioned? I mean, these people don't work alone. "In our book, we make no bones about saying there are questions to be answered and the British Government have to address the issue." And people shouldn't forget those bands and performers who insisted: 'The show must go on.' "People say that was bad luck, being caught in the ambush, because I'd just joined the band — 'You picked the wrong horse' - but I feel privileged to have shared the last months, days and seconds with the lads. "I firmly believe that some of the greatest heroes of the conflict were the musicians who, when nobody else cared they would entertain people of all political and religious shades and gave them hope. These people were perfect examples of Irish men and women who could work together, not caring what political or religious background the other came from. "They should be commemorated, not air-brushed out of Irish history." Prime suspects It was later discovered that the two soldiers who died in the attack on the Miami - Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville - were also members of the UVF at the same time as they were members of the Ulster Defence Regiment and the British Army. A severed arm was found a hundred yards from the scene with a UVF tattoo on it. Both UDR soldiers were given UVF funerals. Two other UDR men, Thomas Crozier and Rodney McDowell, were sentenced in 1976 to 35 years each for the murders. Later, James Somerville, Wesley Somerville's brother and also a UDR soldier, was also tried and given 35 years. All are among a number of UDR soldiers and RUC officers believed to have been members of what has been dubbed 'The Glenane Gang' of the Ulster Volunteer Force in Mid-Ulster. Named after the County Armagh farmhouse owned by an RUC Reservist that served as a base for many UVF attacks, the Glenane Gang has been implicated in dozens of attacks, including:-
The Irish Government complained to the British Government in August 1975 that four members of the RUC in the Portadown area were also members of the UVF linked to Glenane, which was run by the then UVF commander in Portadown, Robin Jackson, also known as 'The Jackal'. And who was the British Army officer with the distinctive English accent who stood head and shoulders above the UDR soldiers who murdered the Miami? Former British Army Intelligence officer Captain Fred Holroyd, who ran undercover intelligence operations in Portadown between 1972 and 1975, has said that Captain Robert Nairac (killed by the IRA in 1977) organised the attack with the UVF on the Miami. Colin Wallace, a former British Army senior information officer who carried out psychological warfare operations for British Army HQ in Lisburn, told the Barron inquiry into the Dublin/Monaghan bombings that Nairac "seems to have had close links with the Mid-Ulster UVF, including Robin Jackson and Harris Boyle". In his research for the book, Stephen Travers met a UVF leadership figure nicknamed 'The Craftsman'. "He said Robert Nairac's
involvement was a possibility he wouldn't rule out. I don't know who
it was."
Paisley
would 'accept' SF first minister Ian Paisley has said that he would "accept the will of the people" if a Sinn Fein first minister is elected. In the latest article for the News Letter's Union 2021 series of essays on the future of Northern Ireland, the man who once vowed to 'smash' Sinn Fein said he would have to accept the outcome of next year's assembly election – even if Martin McGuinness takes Stormont's top post. And, amid numerous calls by his own party for unionist unity, the former first minister, who earlier this month entered the House of Lords as Lord Bannside, spelt out his clear opposition to the creation of a single unionist party. The DUP founder warned that such a move would only benefit those who "want power". Dr Paisley said he supported better inter-party relationships, but argued that a single party – as called for by Orange grand master Robert Saulters – would remove choice from the electorate. "Limiting that choice is not in the interests of the province but merely in the interests of those who want power," he said. Dr Paisley, who handed over the
DUP leadership to Peter Robinson in 2008, also stressed: "When
I left off the leadership I left my party as having the largest mandate...
Sinn Fein didn't become the majority party on my watch."
Why I
would accept a Sinn Fein first minister By Ian Paisley If Northern Ireland's unionist parties follow the 'unionist unity' path into a single party it will only benefit those who want power In being asked to write this article the News Letter posed five questions they wanted addressed. I am going to take those questions and give you my answers to them as best I can. Question 1: What do you think Northern Ireland's Union with Great Britain will look like in 2021? Eleven years is not a very long time. It may seem 2021 is a brave bit away but when you reach 84 years of age, as I have, you learn that time is very swift indeed. I believe that the Union with Great Britain is strong today and that the establishment of devolution across the Union has in fact strengthened that bond. While devolution gives each region a degree of independence to address local issues in a manner best suited to them, it also requires the Union to operate better between the regions too. I believe that this strengthens our hand as a nation when dealing with Europe and it also means that the British government has a responsibility to deal with the various first ministers in a very direct way and that is my idea of direct rule! So as far as the Union goes, I am very optimistic about it. Question 2: What would you like it to look like? I would like the Union by 2021 to have curtailed the authority it has been handing away to Europe. The recession we have been going through has taught us the importance of financial independence and what a disaster entering the Eurozone would have been for us. Furthermore, I would like the work of the Commonwealth to be maintained and strengthened. Indeed, I hope by 2021 that the Republic of Ireland will have re-joined the Commonwealth. Questions 3 and 4: Is unionist unity essential for the achievement of your vision? And, if so, what does that mean? Unionist unity in its broadest sense within Great Britain is essential for the health of the nation. A unified sense of loyalty to the throne and to the constitution ought to be top of the agenda with each of the devolved institutions. Within Northern Ireland, unionist unity in the sense of one grand political party is, in my opinion, a non-runner. The unionist community here has more choice available to them today than they ever had and they need to look at what each unionist party is offering and make their choice. Limiting that choice is not in the interests of the province but merely in the interests of those who want power. We need to be careful to protect what we have achieved by opening that choice for the unionist community and not let others who have failed to secure a mandate for what brand of unionism they are offering undermine it. Cooperation for the greater good of the province is of course important. The challenge for unionist politicians now is to engage with the electorate on the day-to-day issues that concern them and see that they are offering and delivering the necessary goods. Thank God we are entering a period of political life where that is the challenge instead of the terrorists agenda dominating. Question 5: Could you accept a Sinn Fein first minister? I have to accept the will of the people. For many years I had to accept that the Democratic Unionist Party that I founded and led was not the majority party. But, I worked at it and when I left off the leadership I left my party as having the largest mandate in Europe, the largest mandate in Westminster and the largest mandate in Stormont – we even had a few Lords! Sinn Fein didn't become the majority party on my watch. Naturally as a unionist I will
continue to play my part to prevent that happening in the future.
Roll on the centenary of our beloved Ulster for I believe it will
be grand!
Advisors
to UDA call for unionist unity The body which gives "political advice" to the UDA has called for unionist unity and attacked Ulster Unionist Basil McCrea for opposing a coming together of the DUP and UUP. In a statement calling for unionism to unite, Colin Halliday, chairman of the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) in south Belfast, singled out Mr McCrea – who is expected to run for the leadership of the UUP – for particular criticism. Referring to the Lagan Valley assemblyman, Mr Halliday said: "Certain leading members of the UUP have claimed that this will be counterproductive and that a single unionist party would crack under the strain of multiple opinions but not before it had brought about republican unity. "However, we in the UPRG feel that historically more damage has been done in the long term to the unionist family through bickering and in-fighting which has in effect ruined the confidence of those who vote for the two main unionist parties." The DUP and Orange Order have led calls for unionist unity, with DUP leader Peter Robinson endorsing a DUP-UUP pact in the assembly and councils. In a speech in May, Mr Robinson spelled out some of the detail of his "stepping stone approach" to unity, saying that he wanted to eventually see the UUP and DUP fielding agreed candidates, taking a joint whip at the assembly and undertaking "joint ventures on issues of common concern". Mr Halliday said: "There is a big challenge ahead for unionism and to best represent the community this same unionism has to be strong and united, this is necessary for the people to feel that they are safe and secure within the United Kingdom. "A strong, confident unionist electorate can then decide on the issues which many on the street feel important; at a time of public spending cuts matters on health, education and the economy have to come to the fore, but with many still stuck in their traditional position of suspicion it will be even harder to achieve and this certainly isn't helped if the unionist community don't come out to vote which is what we are seeing in many areas which are supposedly unionist." The UPRG said that it had carried out surveys in areas considered as staunchly loyalist and found widespread apathy to politics. In some areas, it said, only 50 per cent of eligible residents were registered to vote, with half of that number actually voting. Pointing to what he described as the "strong and united" Orange Order, Mr Halliday argued that the institution proved that differing opinions could successfully coexist within a single unionist entity. Meanwhile, former SDLP vice-chairman Tom Kelly has said that he believes there will be unionist unity "driven by fear on one hand and a genuine dissolution of differences between the DUP and UUP". Speaking at a dinner commemorating
the united Irishmen in Rostrevor, the nationalist commentator said
that the moves towards unionist unity, Fianna Fail's opening of an
office in Northern Ireland, and other political upheavals on both
sides of the border, meant that "political re-alignment is on
the cards right across the political spectrum".
Conservative
MP Hopkins questions Sinn Fein expenses The right of Sinn Fein representatives to claim parliamentary expenses has been attacked by a Conservative MP. Sinn Fein's five MPs are currently entitled to access public funds despite refusing to take their seats. But Kris Hopkins, MP for Keighley and Ilkley, used a point of order to ask the Commons Speaker for guidance on how the practice could be stopped. In June the DUP's Ian Paisley Jnr attacked the party over London allowances. Mr Hopkins served in Northern Ireland as a member of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment "Mr Speaker, you will be aware of the recent Westminster hall debate in which we were reminded that one party with representatives elected to this House still refuses to take up its seats yet claims its allowances and expenses," he said. "May I ask you to make a ruling as to how we can bring this shameful activity to an end? "Do you not agree that it is an affront to members who believe that it is a privilege to serve and debate in this House, and that it is not, as some others believe, possible to be an associated member of the Houses of Parliament?" Speaker John Bercow said he was grateful to Mr Hopkins for raising the subject. "I respect the fact that there is concern about this issue in some sections of the House. "The honourable gentleman might be aware that a resolution of the House regarding the use of facilities and the ability to claim expenses that touched on precisely the matter that is of concern to him was passed on 18 December 2001. "If the House wishes at any
stage to consider this matter again and to debate and vote upon a
resolution, it will, of course, be entirely open to the House to do
so," Mr Bercow added.
IMC plans
special report on killing of Shankill loyalist Bobby Moffett Northern Ireland's ceasefire monitoring body is to produce a special report on the loyalist murder of Bobby Moffett on Belfast’s Shankill Road. The Government-appointed Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) will reveal its conclusions by the autumn. Police blamed UVF members for the gun attack in May. There was widespread speculation that the murder was sanctioned by UVF chiefs. It also raised doubts over the paramilitary organisation's claim to have decommissioned all its weapons. The leader of the UVF-linked PUP, East Belfast MLA Dawn Purvis, quit the party in the wake of the Moffett killing. The IMC announced its plans for an “ad hoc” report on the case in a Press release issued yesterday. It said: “We will continue our investigation and we will deliver the report in advance of our next full report on paramilitary activity, due in late October. “The British and Irish Governments have been informed.” Welcoming the move, SDLP justice spokesman Alban Maginness said: “Up until now there has been only speculation and strong suspicion, but we can now expect a detailed and comprehensive report. That's to be welcomed.” Mr Moffett was shot dead on a busy Shankill Road on May 28, with women and children among the traumatised witnesses. The 43-year-old father-of-six was shot three times at close range by two masked gunmen at lunchtime. He had been a member of the UVF-linked Red Hand Commando and is thought to have been in a dispute with UVF figures. Previous IMC reports have been followed by financial sanctions on both the PUP and Sinn Fein by the Northern Ireland Office. These involved action on remuneration paid to the parties' political representatives. However, the Dawn Purvis resignation has left the PUP without any Assembly seats. Mr Moffett's funeral was attended by an estimated 2,000 mourners, defying an attempt by UVF elements to intimidate people into staying away. A vigil was also held on the Shankill
in protest at the killing.
Double
standards over Twelfth of July protest Letters A chara, I was one of the people involved in a peaceful sit-down protest on the Crumlin Road on July 12. I was disgusted, but not surprised, when I heard the utterances of Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly when he condemned us for doing what he and others had done for years on the Garvaghy, Springfield and indeed Crumlin roads. I am not from Ardoyne, but as a republican I had every right to protest against bigots and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the residents. I remember on many occasions being asked to go to similar protests and in fact sat linking arms with Tom Hartley and Jim Gibney on the Ormeau Road in 1996. I can't see any difference between then and now. Perhaps this is the price that some pay for getting into bed with unionists. I was reading through old newspaper clippings and came across the following: “Unless the residents invite the Orangemen to march, there won’t be a parade, and if there was one against the wishes of the people, I would be sitting with them in the middle of the road.” Gerry Adams, February 2010. Perhaps Gerry was on holiday and unable to join us while the PSNI battered and dragged us off the road? Is mise, Pádraic Mac Coitir,
Adams
agrees to Apprentice Boys talks An offer from a loyal orders' parades group to meet Gerry Adams has received a guarded welcome from Sinn Fein. As revealed in Saturday's News Letter, the North and West Belfast Parades and Cultural Forum has offered to take part in a ground-breaking meeting with the Sinn Fein president in an attempt to prevent rioting at future Ardoyne parades. The loyal orders' offer follows the prolonged rioting, orchestrated by dissident republicans, which surrounded the Twelfth of July parade past Ardoyne shops, during which scores of police officers were injured. An Apprentice Boys' parade is to pass the same spot on August 14 and dissidents have vowed to again attempt to disrupt it with a 'protest'. On Saturday, Winston Irvine of the North and West Belfast Parades Forum told the News Letter: "The forum has declared that they, along with parade organisers of the Apprentice Boys Of Derry parade due to come down the Crumlin Road on August 14 would be prepared to meet with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams ahead of the parade." A spokesman for Mr Adams last night said: "In relation to the request, Sinn Fein are happy to meet with anyone to discuss the issues and we have made that clear. "We are also happy to facilitate discussions because in our opinion the real discussion needs to take place between those who want to march through areas and the people who live there." The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland has a strict policy of refusing to meet Mr Adams and a spokesman yesterday reiterated: "Grand Lodge have absolutely no plans to meet with Mr Adams." Orange grand secretary Drew Nelson has in the past said that the order "would not even consider" meeting the West Belfast MP until there is an apology for the IRA murder of more than 300 Orangemen during the Troubles. However, individual Orangemen have met Sinn Fein representatives for local discussions, most notably in Portadown, where District Master Darryl Hewitt controversially met Mr Adams in 2008 over the Drumcree dispute. And earlier this year, as part of the Hillsborough negotiations on devolving policing and justice, senior Orange figure the Rev Mervyn Gibson was involved in talks with Sinn Fein about a replacement body for the Parades Commission. Mr Gibson was officially present
as an adviser to the DUP, rather than as an Orange representative,
but it is the closest that the Orange leadership has come to direct
talks with republicans.
Billy
Wright report date is set The report examining the circumstances surrounding the murder of loyalist leader Billy Wright will be published on 14 September. Secretary of State Owen Paterson said nothing in the report breached national security or endangered the lives of those who gave evidence to the inquiry. Billy Wright was shot dead by the INLA inside the Maze prison in 1997. Mr Paterson said Lord MacLean, who chaired the inquiry, will keep the report until publication. Earlier in July, the secretary of state said the contents of the report had to be checked to see that it complied with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights and national security. "I am satisfied that the report can be published in full and I have advised Lord MacLean of this," said Mr Paterson. However, given the time needed to finalise and print the report, it can not be put to parliament before the summer recess. Mr Paterson said the report had only be seen by the five-member team who checked the report. "I have not been briefed on the contents of the report, nor have any officials other than those in the checking team," he added. The secretary of state added that
he could consider giving those who were designated as "represented
parties" by the inquiry access to the report a short time before
publication.
Bond
between NI unionists and Israelis celebrated at ceremony The Affinnity between Northern Ireland unionists and the Israeli people was highlighted at a ceremony in Dublin to mark the 62nd anniversary of the state of Israel. The DUP mayor of Craigavon Stephen Moutray MLA said: “We as unionists in Northern Ireland can empathise with the government and people of Israel as we know only too well what it is like to suffer injustice, to have our name blackened in the international community and to be misrepresented by the media . . . “We also know that even in the darkest hour, there is always hope; a hope born out of a deep faith and a solid determination to survive as a people come what may. “That is why we are able to stand with Israel in her hour of need; to understand what the Israeli people are going through as they face the deadly threat of Hamas terrorism and the dark shadow of international contempt.” He brought “fraternal greetings from the First Minister of Northern Ireland, the Right Honourable Peter Robinson MLA, who I know would wish to be associated with these celebrations and in particular the tribute to his excellency ambassador Zion Evrony, ambassador of Israel to the Republic of Ireland.” Paddy Monaghan, of the Irish Christian Friends of Israel group, which organised last Thursday’s event, described Ireland as “the most pro-Palestinian country in all of Europe”. He continued: “But the Irish attitude to Israel can change and perhaps unionist politicians from Northern Ireland could be a catalyst for it. “On the 14th of June David Trimble was appointed as an international observer on the Israeli inquiry into the Gaza flotilla issue. “There was a noticeable
change in the political climate – now the Israeli narrative
on the event was not contemptuously dismissed. Even The Irish Times
started to change its tune.”
Pardons
given to 13 IRA fugitives since agreement Northern Ireland Office responds to FOI demand from lawyers The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has revealed for the first time that a total of 13 IRA fugitives have been granted the Royal Prerogative of Mercy (RPM) since 2000. A further five prisoners whose paramilitary affiliations are not known received similar amnesties prior to the year 2000. Earlier this month in the Crown Court in Belfast, Mr Justice McCoghlin ruled that the NIO did not have to disclose documents held on amnesties and pardons for on-the-run prisoners. But in response to a Freedom of Information request, the NIO last week confirmed that the RPM had been granted 18 times since 1998. Lawyers for republican Gerry McGeough demanded documents about amnesties and pardons from the NIO in relation to a potential abuse-of-process application in June. His legal team had raised questions over his prosecution, claiming that he has received unfair and discriminatory treatment compared to other on-the-runs. McGeough was arrested in March 2007 as he left a polling station in Co Fermanagh, where he was standing as an independent republican in the Assembly elections. He was charged with IRA membership and the attempted murder of a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment in 1981. McGeough wanted the NIO to disclose if there was a category of individual known as 'on-the-runs'. He also wanted to know if some on-the-runs had been treated more favourably than others because of lobbying by Sinn Fein, and whether deals were done which meant they would not be prosecuted even if there was evidence against them. The NIO said that 18 people had been granted RPMs for a total of 36 offences and that all RPMs granted from the year 2000 related to those perceived to be prisoners with republican affiliations. The response said that the cases from 2000 onwards were used in connection with the prisoner early release scheme set up following the Belfast Agreement of 1998, and that in each case the RPM was used to address anomalies that otherwise prevented the application of the scheme. The NIO said that the 13 individuals who benefited from the RPM from 2000 were considered to be on the run as they had previously escaped from prison. The response said the NIO understood
that the term 'on-the-runs' referred to individuals wanted by the
police or prosecuting authorities in relation to offences committed
before 10 April 1998 in connection with terrorism.
Police
given more time to question gun suspects Police have been given more time to question five men who were stopped in a car in west Belfast shortly after a paramilitary style attack. The police seized two guns when the car was searched on the Falls Road on Thursday night A magistrate in Antrim granted police an additional 72 hours to question them. Officers stopped the car after an incident a few minutes earlier on St James Road. It is understood a man was the target of a so-called punishment shooting in a house. It is believed that although a shot was fired, he was not injured. The arrests took place during a police follow-up operation. Dissident republican paramilitaries have been responsible for a series of similar shootings. Army bomb disposal experts were
called to examine the car that had been stopped.
Loyalists
'will meet' Adams over Ardoyne A loyalist parades group, including members of the Loyal Orders, has agreed to hold talks with Gerry Adams. The North and West Parades and Cultural Forum has signalled that they would be prepared to sit down with the Sinn Fein President ahead of a planned Apprentice Boys parade past Ardoyne in a fortnight. The group said it was to make the move "to remove all doubt around the commitment and resolve of the parade organisers in reaching a compromise solution that is acceptable to everyone". The announcement comes in the wake of three nights of intense rioting over the Twelfth in Ardoyne, when dissident republicans attacked police following the passing of an Orange parade. Trouble flared after residents' group the Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective (GARC) staged a sit-down protest on the Crumlin Road near the Ardoyne shop fronts. The same group threatened to repeat the protest before the Apprentice Boys feeder parade in two weeks time on August 14. On Friday, Gerry Adams had challenged leaders of the Loyal Orders to hold talks on contentious parades. A spokesman for the Grand Orange lodge said they "had absolutely no plans" to meet him. However, in a surprise move last night, Winston Irvine of the North and West Belfast Parades Forum told the News Letter: "The forum has declared that they, along with parade organisers of the Apprentice Boys Of Derry (ABOD) parade due to come down the Crumlin Road on August 14 would be prepared to meet with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams ahead of the parade". Mr Irvine added: "I would like to gently admonish Gerry Adams on his request to meet the leaders of the Loyal Orders. "If Gerry Adams is genuine and serious about discussing in a meaningful way any concerns around the upcoming parade, then it is the organisers of the parade that he needs to engage with. "The autonomy lies with the
local leaders in relation to local parades". "The North and West Belfast Parades Forum, including the parade organisers, would be prepared to enter into discussions in order to remove all doubt around the commitment and resolve of the parade organisers in reaching a compromise solution that is acceptable to everyone". Mr Irvine said: "The determination
and leadership shown by the ABOD should be commended and I would hope
that others in leadership positions would step up to the plate."
A president,
some policemen and a queen... President Mary McAleese is a woman who, in a number of ways, I admire. When the BBC was making a documentary about Queen's University's 150th anniversary, she was a major contributor and over several days I got to talk to her and watch her interact with others. Outstanding intelligence and humanity at work. So when I heard she'd been the guest of honour at a PSNI passing-out parade, I was interested. Why was she there? Well, the reason she WASN'T there is that she's interested in policemen. Or that she figured they'd like to see her, or that Matt Baggot might make her and her husband a nice cup of tea. She was there because QE2 is planning to come to Dublin next year. The presence of the President of Ireland (well in practical terms the president of the twenty-six counties, since none of us north of the border is allowed to vote for her) at the ceremony, the pictures of her and Matt Baggot smiling and complimenting each other, the President's denunciation of the people who had 'set their faces like flint' against any reconciliation - all that is meant to make nationalists feel good, that their top woman has definitely got a toehold and a voice north of the border. The flip-side of which is that when QE2 comes to Dublin she needs must be wined and dined at Áras an Uachtaráin, she must be greeted with courtesy and warmth by the populace, and above all, nobody must MENTION THE WAR. Or if they do, it's all done now and we're all friends together, right? That old Irish question has been answered, finally and completely. Right? And isn't it great? President McAleese makes an important point when she says the time has come to put aside old enmities. Sad to say that can be done only on the basis of justice and democracy. The fact is, Britain rules the northern corner of this island and the majority of Irish people don't want that. Over 5,000 British troops are stationed in the northern corner of this island and the majority of Irish people don't want that. It'd be nice if such uncomfortable facts could magically vanish and we could welcome the head of state of our nearest neighbour the way any civilized country should. But it's not going to happen while Britain insists on maintaining its political and military grip in Ireland. If President McAleese thinks that
attendance at a PSNI passing-out parade will mute the almighty outcry
which will accompany such a visit, then the woman from Ardoyne, for
all her intelligence, is sadly out of touch with nationalist/republican
feeling throughout Ireland.
A Twelfth
holiday for Republic? Letters Madam, – I’m a bit bemused by the words of our former minister for justice, tánaiste and ex-Progressive Democrat leader Michael McDowell at the MacGill Summer School that “generally speaking there is an under appreciation of the Orange tradition in Ireland”. He went on to say, “You look at the problems in the Ardoyne and for people in the Republic one of the most offensive things is to see the Tricolour being waved by people who are engaging in sectarian rioting.” That may be true, but I would have thought that the burning of the Tricolour, as well as the sectarian burning of effigies of Catholics on top of Orange bonfires, would be far more “offensive” and willing of his words. But then again, as a Republican and somebody who abhors all forms of sectariansim maybe I just “under appreciate the Orange tradition in Ireland”. Yours, etc, Rob Walsh
President
assures PSNI graduates of 'overwhelming' support across island President Mary McAleese has told graduating PSNI officers that they enjoy overwhelming community support from all the people of Ireland, even though there are still dissident paramilitary “wreckers” out to try to destroy the peace process. She told the graduates that regardless of the many challenges that faced them, including the dissident threat, they were “not alone”. She quoted Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy who, after meeting PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott earlier this year, said: “An attack on one member of one force is an attack on both forces.” President McAleese was guest of honour at the invitation of Mr Baggott at the police training college in Belfast yesterday, where she addressed 41 new graduate officers, presented the best recruit prize, and reviewed the passing out parade. She is the first Irish president to attend such an occasion. She made her speech at a time when dissidents have been targeting police officers in gun and bomb attacks, and more than a year after the Continuity IRA murdered Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon, Co Armagh. She was also speaking in the wake of the serious rioting in her home parish of Ardoyne in north Belfast. President McAleese said “many thousands within the former RUC, and now the PSNI, worked courageously to facilitate the [policing] transition process, so much so that today Northern Ireland is rightly recognised internationally as a model for police reform”. “On this day we think with respect of all those who have honoured that trust, those who have paid with their lives and their health and the families that live today with loss and heartache,” she said. “We think of you, today’s graduates, holders of that trust, commencing your careers, welcomed enthusiastically by the vast majority of citizens, still vulnerable to the tiny minority of wreckers who have set their faces like flint against the humanly decent dynamic of this peace,” she added. “In facing down the many challenges ahead you are not alone, the PSNI is not alone. You have the support of all the major political parties, North and South; you have the overwhelming backing of local communities; you have the solidarity and fluent co-operation of your colleagues in An Garda Síochána, with whom you now co-operate so closely and to such great effect.” She said the PSNI “more than ever” reflected the diversity of the community it served and enjoyed overwhelming community support. “You will be working in a context where the old embedded culture of paramilitarism, and the violence which hallmarked it, is fading but not yet fully extinguished,” she added. “The peace that was endorsed by the Good Friday Agreement 12 years ago, when many of you were still youngsters, is growing and consolidating by steady and remarkable increments,” said President McAleese. “You face a local context of ongoing sectarianism and inter-communal strife but against an encouraging backdrop where so many people at community level are trying hard to turn the tide of history in favour of this precious peace.” Separately, Mrs McAleese decrying the violence at Ardoyne, said she was “scandalised” that young children and teenagers were involved in the disorder. “If they were my children I would want to know where they were,” she said. She said a date had still not
yet been set for the expected visit of the British monarch Queen Elizabeth
to the South, although the “circumstances have been set”
for the visit. She hoped the projected visit would help create a “transforming”
moment in British-Irish history.
Civil
rights founder to oppose protest laws One of the founding members of the civil rights movement has said many of the original members of the campaign are opposed to new legislation on parades and protests. Fionnbarra O Dochartaigh, a co-founder of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in 1967, said he has been in contact with several civil rights veterans who are concerned about the proposed legislation, which could make spontaneous protests illegal. Mr O Dochartaigh said: "During the 40th anniversary commemorations which took place in 2008 we set up a Derry and North West Civil Rights Veterans Network. I have discussed this planned legislation with a number of those people and we are intending to do everything we can to oppose it." The civil rights campaigner said they intend to lobby politicians regarding their concerns. "We will write to councillors, MLAs, and MPs from all parties, as well as the Deputy First Minister, voicing our opposition to this legislation, which in my view is more or less a return to the Special Powers Act. It is like putting the clock back instead of moving towards a more progressive society," he said. Mr O Dochartaigh also said the civil rights veterans will be supporting the October 5th march against the new laws. "We support any call for a public demonstration. We will be taking part in the march and we would encourage other groups to do the same," he said. Veteran civil rights campaigner
Eamonn McCann has also announced that he is planning a civil rights
protest march in relation to the legislation on October 5th.
Five
arrested after punishment shooting bid Five men have been arrested and two guns discovered by police in west Belfast. Officers stopped a car and detained the men on the Falls Road at about 10pm last night after a shooting a few minutes earlier on nearby St James Road. A man was the target of a punishment shooting in a house, but he was not injured. The arrests took place during a police follow-up operation. Army bomb disposal experts were called to examine the car that had been stopped. The Falls Road was closed between the junction with Whiterock Road and the Falls bus depot. The arrested men were taken to
Antrim serious crime suite for questioning.
'Good
response' to ombudsman Creggan bomb investigation The Police Ombudsman's Office has said it has received a positive response to an investigation into how the RUC dealt with an IRA bomb attack in 1988. Three people were killed when a booby-trap device left for the security forces exploded at Kildrum Gardens in Creggan in August 1988. On Thursday, representatives from the ombudsman's office were in Creggan to appeal for information. Louise McKenna from the office said it was a worthwhile exercise. "We didn't really know what to expect but we were happy with what we got," she said. "So we thank everyone who did turn out today and also say if anyone was unable to make it they can contact the ombudsman's office and we will be more than willing to speak to them "It's early days yet and we really need to go away from here and see what information we have received and see where it takes us." The ombudsman received a public complaint about how police dealt with the booby-trap bomb. Sean Dalton, 55 and Sheila Lewis, 60, were murdered by the bomb. Another man Gerard Curran died the following year from his injuries. Negligence Lost Lives, the book which chronicles every death in Northern Ireland's Troubles, said the incident was described as the "good neighbours bomb". The IRA had kidnapped a man and booby-trapped his flat in the expectation it would be searched by the security forces. Instead the three victims, who had noticed their neighbour's absence, went to the man's flat. Mr Dalton managed to get inside which detonated the bomb and demolished the flat. According to Lost Lives Mr Dalton's family later claimed the police had been negligent in allowing civilians to approach the flat. They allege the police were aware it had been booby-trapped but the bomb had been left in place to protect an informant. The family stressed that the IRA
was ultimately responsible for what happened but said the RUC should
have also accepted its responsibility.
Take
cold cases out of PSNI budget: McCrea The finances and resources to deal with Northern Ireland’s past cannot keep coming out of the PSNI’s budget, a member of the Policing Board has said. UUP MLA Basil McCrea said that it is “impossible” for the PSNI to keep policing the past when trying to deal with a severe dissident republican threat and tackle all other current crimes. Mr McCrea said that the funding for historical inquests and inquiries is going to have to come from another budget, such as health or education. “The PSNI does not have the manpower or the finances to do what people want done,” said Mr McCrea. “These are really expensive
inquests and inquiries and the specialist personnel is not available.
If people want this then the funding is going to have to be found
DUP Policing Board member Jimmy Spratt warned that tough decisions lie ahead for all political parties. And Chief Constable Matt Baggott has raised concern about the cost of policing the past. Mr Baggott said valuable resources are being diverted away from current police investigations. The Chief Constable told the Belfast Telegraph yesterday that he has a duty to protect the public from becoming victims of crime now and that funding for policing in the future is going to be “tight and challenging”. Earlier this month the Policing
Board was told that the PSNI could be facing massive cuts of more
than £1m a week over the next four years.
Harmonise
public holidays North and South – Doherty Responding to a call from Michael McDowell for the 12th of July to be made a public holiday in the six counties Sinn Féin Dáil Senator Pearse Doherty has called for the harmonisation of all bank holidays across the island of Ireland. Speaking yesterday, Senator Doherty said: “Bank Holidays should be harmonised north and south. That is what business wants and that is what people want. “It is ludicrous that in May for example the bank holidays fall on consecutive Mondays instead of the same day. “The trend in recent years in the six counties has been to move away from the 12th being a day when everything closed down and people were forced to take time off work. In recent years more and more shops and businesses have been able to open and people have been able to go about their normal business. “Making the 12th a public holiday in the south flies in the face of this reality and would do nothing to deal with the issue of contentious orange parades. That issue requires the Orange Order to sit down with the communities they wish to march through and come to a resolution. So far they have refused to do this. “To me this is more about
McDowell having been rejected by the electorate chasing a headline
at a summer school rather than anything which is actually going to
happen.”
Cowen
opens latest FF office in North Brian Cowan travelled to Crossmaglen last night to mark the opening of a Fianna Fáil office, in the process becoming the first Taoiseach to visit the republican heartland town. He was greeted in the town square and said he was “very glad” to be in the south Armagh town. He was welcomed by local Fianna Fáil members, including former IRA prisoner, Martin McAllister, now a senior Fianna Fáil member in the area. “I believe I am the first Taoiseach to have visited Crossmaglen, much to my surprise,” he said. “I am very glad to be here to be meeting the many people who will be enjoying this social occasion.” Mr McAllister, who in the early 1970s served a prison sentence for IRA activity, said he was delighted that Mr Cowen turned up for the opening of the office and the Crossmaglen Fianna Fáil dinner.“We wanted the Taoiseach up here because he is our Taoiseach too,” said Mr McAllister. He said there were some 70 members in the Crossmaglen office. “It is a growing membership all the time,” added Mr McAllister. Mr Cowen joined some 150 people, including Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív, former Ceann Comhairle Dr Rory O’Hanlon, and Cavan-Monaghan TD Margaret Conlon, for the dinner in the Cross Square Hotel. Mr Cowen was reluctant to make any comment about Fianna Fáil possibly contesting elections in the North. “These are decision for the party for the future,” he said. But his visit to the staunchly republican town comes as Fianna Fáil is carefully and quietly building up party strength in Northern Ireland, with the ultimate ambition, according to senior party sources, of running in Assembly and other elections. Fianna Fáil already has quite successful cumainn in Queen’s University, Belfast and in the University of Ulster. In the past two years it had established three “forums” in Northern Ireland, in counties Armagh, Fermanagh and Down. It is planning further forums
in the remaining three Northern Ireland counties, starting with Antrim
and then setting up similar bases in Derry and Tyrone. Mr Ahern, Dr
O’Hanlon and some other TDs based close to the Border have been
centrally involved in this development. “This is about a bottom-up
approach and there is no question of us contesting elections in the
immediate future,” said a senior Fianna Fáil source yesterday.
No room
for 'token flag waving' on Rising anniversary Upcoming celebrations to mark the 1916 Rising should not take the shape of “token flag waving” and should include a commemorative museum on Moore Street where leaders of the Rising met for the last time, according to Eamon Gilmore. The Labour leader was yesterday brought on a tour by the descendants of the 1916 leaders, including James Connolly Heron, great grandson of James Connolly. The relatives are campaigning for the national monument at 14 to 17 Moore Street to be protected from redevelopment. The site around the GPO and Moore Street is set to be redeveloped after An Bord Pleanála approved planning permission in March for a major redevelopment of the Carlton Cinema site. Developer Joe O’Reilly was granted permission for an 800,000 sq ft development which will comprise 98 retail units, 69 residential units, 48,400 sq ft of restaurants and coffee houses and about 700 car parking spaces, taking in most of a block of Upper O’Connell Street and fronting on to Henry Street, Moore Street, O’Rahilly Parade and Parnell Street. The facade of the buildings would be preserved, but the relatives say around 60 per cent of the internal structure would be affected by such a development, infringing on a battlefield site of national interest. The group followed the route taken by some of the leaders and volunteers from the GPO to 16 Moore Street, where some leaders of the Rising and several of the garrison met for the last time, and where their surrender was arranged. Mr Gilmore said the buildings should be developed as a commemorative museum. “There is a lot of talk now about the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising coming up, and the Labour Party supports the campaign which has been initiated by the descendants of the leaders of the 1916 Rising to have these buildings properly preserved, properly commemorated, and an appropriate museum and commemorative centre developed there in conjunction with the GPO. Our commemoration of 1916 should not just be a token flag-waving commemoration, but it should be real, and I think there is an obligation on the State to respond positively to the relatives of the 1916 leaders to go with this project.” Mr Connolly Heron said a museum site should be developed separately. “Our position is that the Moore Street district or area should be treated as a separate development from the proposed retail development, and that it be developed as an historic or cultural quarter as a fitting memorial to the 1916 Rising.” |
