SAOIRSE32

Irish Independent

Colombian court ‘was split’

THE COLOMBIAN appeals court which passed a 17-year jail sentence on three Irish republicans was split over its decision, it emerged last night.

Two of the magistrates voted in favour of a heavy prison sentence for IRA men James Monaghan and Martin McCauley and Sinn Fein representative Niall Connolly. Details of a minority judgment from the third magistrate are now being sought by lawyers on behalf of the missing Irishmen, whose whereabouts remain a mystery, although arrest warrants have been circulated in 182 countries through Interpol. The Colombian authorities have warned they will take action against any person or organisation known to be in contact with the men.

The defence legal team is expected to travel here from Bogota shortly to hold talks with campaigners and the families of the three and a decision will then be taken on what legal route should be adopted to challenge last month’s judgment.

Tom Brady
Security Editor

Irish Echo Online - News

No-fly order snagged Ferry deportation

By Ray O'Hanlon
rohanlon@irishecho.com

As he thought he was about to be deported to Ireland, a stunned and bemused Ciaran Ferry looked on as an expletive-laden row erupted between law enforcement officers charged with removing him from the country.

Speaking from Belfast, Ferry, who has vowed to keep up his legal fight to live in the U.S., described a surreal situation in which one arm of federal law enforcement prevented the other from enforcing his federally mandated deportation.

"It spooked all the passengers on the flight to Dublin," Ferry said in a phone interview.

Ferry was settling into the Continental Airlines flight out of Newark Airport on the evening of Dec. 21. He was being escorted across the Atlantic by three officers from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

On the surface, at least, Ferry appeared to be just another passenger. He was not in handcuffs or any other form of restraint.

"We were getting ready to take off when the captain came on saying there was a slight problem and that we had to return to the gate," Ferry said. "When we got to the gate, six Port Authority cops got on board and came down the plane to us." Ferry said that the Port Authority officers told him that he would have to leave the plane because his name was on the federal government's no-fly list.

The list is compiled by a number of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies and is provided to airlines by the Transportation Security Administration, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. The list, which has existed for about 15 years, was broadly expanded in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and is intended to prevent attacks against flights into and out of the U.S.

The controversial list made headlines last September when it resulted in the detention and deportation of Yusuf Islam, formerly the singer Cat Stevens, after he arrived in the U.S. on a flight from London.

Earlier in the year, the list raised many eyebrows following the airport questioning, on no fewer than five occasions, of Sen. Edward Kennedy. Kennedy has been stopped because the no-fly list carried the name "T. Kennedy." It took three weeks of effort by Kennedy and his staff to have the senator's name removed from the list.

Given his record of IRA membership, the inclusion of Ciaran Ferry on the list was rather less surprising than the inclusion of the senior senator from Massachusetts. But Ferry was perplexed as to why he would be pulled from a plane while under federal escort.

"It was bureaucratic nonsense," he said.

Ferry said that once had had walked off the plane, a row broke out between the various law enforcement officers.

Ferry said he stood by as the deportation officers, Port Authority cops, officers from the TSA and Continental Airlines security personnel debated what to do with him.

"There was a lot of what the f ... is going on here," Ferry said.

It was eventually decided that Ferry should not be allowed fly. He was taken to Hudson County Correctional Center in Kearny, N.J., for the night.

Ferry said his federal escort had been clearly frustrated by the snafu.

"They just wanted to complete their task," he said.

Ferry said that he had tried to keep things in perspective during the incident.

"I had this wry grin on my face and I was thinking that when you want to leave the country, they won't let you leave," he said.

A spokesman for the Port Authority police said that the authority officers were only present to assist the TSA. The mix-up over Ferry's flight status, he said, had been a federal one.

A spokeswoman for the TSA said that the no-fly list was provided to all airlines and that it was an airline's responsibility to check it before issuing a boarding pass.

The problem over Ferry's flying status was ultimately cleared up and Ferry was flown to Dublin on Wednesday, Dec. 22.

"I had to hand over my temporary travel document to a Garda officer when we got to Dublin," he said. "He just said, 'welcome home,' and that I was free to go."

Ferry's departure from the U.S. followed his agreeing to give up his habeas corpus bid which would have allowed him to return to his wife Heaven and daughter Fiona in Colorado.

Ferry said that he was now having to deal with mixed emotions. He was glad to be out of prison, but sad that he was thousands of miles from his wife and child.

"We had our wee plan, so we were fairly psychologically prepared for the separation," he said. "Our major concern was that Fiona would have a nice Christmas."

Last month, a Colorado judge denied Ferry's habeas corpus plea, which had been before the court for 19 months. He had been jailed since Jan. 30, 2003 after being detained when he turned up for the green-card interview with his wife.

Though the habeas corpus issue is now moot, Ferry still has an appeal against deportation pending before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. He said he was intent on continuing his legal fight to live in the U.S. with his family.

"Much depends on finances, but I'm prepared to take this to the highest court in the land," he said. "It's important that we make a stand so that others won't have to take the same road. Maybe we can pull something out of the fire yet."

This story appeared in the issue of January 5-11, 2005

An Phoblacht

Out of the ashes arose the Provisionals

BY SHANE Mac THOMÁIS

Remembering the Past

Mural photo by CRAZYFENIAN

On 11 January 1970, 35 years ago, Sinn Féin divided at its Ard Fheis on the issue of abstentionism from the Westminster, Dublin and Stormont Parliaments.

The origins and reasons of this split within the party began a decade earlier, when the Republican Movement, after the demoralising and isolated campaign of 1956-’62, was slowly infiltrated by a small group of intellectuals formerly associated with the British Communist Party. As popular support and many old activists withered away, this faction, led by Cathal Goulding, began to manipulate the movement towards a Marxist ideology.

Cathal Goulding was born and educated in Dublin. He came from a staunchly republican family. His grandfather was a Fenian and his father participated in the 1916 Rising. He joined the IRA in 1939. In 1945, Goulding was arrested by the Irish Special Branch and imprisoned for a year in the Curragh Internment Camp. After his release, Goulding conducted IRA training camps in the Dublin Mountains. In 1953, Goulding, along with Seán Mac Stiofáin and Maurice Canning, took part in an arms raid on a British Army Base in Essex. All three were arrested and sentenced to eight years. It is believed that while in prison, Goulding was converted to Marxism by the Russian Spy Klaus Fochs. Goulding was released in 1958. Within a year he became Quartermaster General of the IRA and in 1962 became Chief of Staff.

In this position he began to win the IRA away from the belief in armed struggle to achieve British withdrawal and an Irish Republic and over to his Marxist three-stage theory of how to win national liberation, a formula familiar in the official Communist Movement since the days of Lenin’s “For peace, for bread, for land” speech. The first stage was to unite the Catholic and Protestant working class. The second stage of National Independence was to be postponed until the first stage was obtained and the third stage of a Socialist state lay in an indefinite future. Unsurprisingly, many republicans living in the Six Counties in the 1960s rejected this theory and saw the IRA as the only defence against their continued oppression by unionist and crown forces.

In the typical Stalinist tradition, Goulding began to purge the Republican Movement of any internal opposition. Throughout the ’60s, many of the old guard were expelled from the ranks of the IRA. Jimmy Steele, the then OC of Belfast, was stood down after giving a funeral oration in Belfast in which he criticised the running down of the IRA. Many, like Joe Cahill, were given the cold shoulder and left in disgust at the treatment of their comrades and the winding down of the IRA. Goulding even began selling the IRA’s arms to Welsh separatists and at IRA training camps weapon training was replaced by political discussion.

While most republicans had no difficulty with the political campaigns undertaken by the leadership in the 1960s, and the necessary increased focus on social and economic issues, they were vehemently opposed to any dilution of the Movement’s position on the national question.

With the outbreak of sectarian pogroms in Belfast in August 1969, the IRA was totally unprepared to protect the nationalist population of the Six Counties. Unsupported by Goulding’s Dublin-based GHQ, the IRA men on the ground had no weapons to drive off attacks. Some of the old IRA men who had been sidelined by GHQ came forward and put up some resistance, but the nationalist community felt it had been let down by the IRA and the slogan ‘I Ran Away’ began to appear on Belfast walls. Demoralised by this, the IRA men who had taken to the streets during the pogrom set about reorganising a command structure independent of the Dublin GHQ.

Down south, the Marxists decided to hold an extraordinary convention of the IRA, where the leadership intended to push through two controversial resolutions. The first motion called for the IRA to enter a coalition of the left to be called the National Liberation Front and the second motion was to end abstentionism. Goulding made sure the convention would go his way. It was held late at night, in a small town outside Dublin. Many of the more traditionalist Volunteers were not informed of it. Many were promised lifts that then did not materialise and some were stopped from entering the hall. The convention, packed with Goulding supporters, voted 39 in favour and 12 against the two motions.

After the meeting, the traditionalists, under Seán Mac Stiofáin, met and decided to form the Provisional Army Council. They believed that the IRA GHQ’s obsession with parliamentary politics had undermined its role as a fighting force. Mac Stiofáin began travelling the country enlisting support; many long inactive and long suspicious of GHQ returned to the fold, especially from the campaign years and before.

With the split in the army, all attention was focused on the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, to be held in the Intercontinental Hotel in Dublin on 10 and 11 January 1970, where the two motions would be voted on again. This time, Goulding could not stagemanage the result. Many spoke against the motions including 1916 veteran Joe Clarke and Tom Maguire, the last republican member of the Second Dáil. On Sunday night, the resolution was voted on, with 153 in favour and 104 against. This was 19 votes short of the two thirds majority needed to change the Sinn Féin constitution. Goulding’s camp immediately called for a resolution supporting IRA policy, which would need a simple majority. In response, Provisional supporters walked out, refusing to take part in a vote of allegiance to what became known as the Official Army Council. The Provisionals marched to Kevin Barry Hall in Parnell Square, where Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was made president.

The Provisional IRA went on to reorganise itself and become one of the most effective revolutionary fighting forces of the 20th Century. The Official IRA, after a few military operations, called a ceasefire in 1972 It is now considered defunct.

Sinn Féin went on to gain the support of the nationalist communities of the Six Counties. In 1986, from a position of military strength and political unity at the annual Ard Fheis, a motion to end abstentionism from Stormont and Leinster House was passed by a two-thirds majority. About 30 people left the hall and formed Republican Sinn Féin. Official Sinn Féin went on to become the Workers’ Party, which later split and became Democratic Left. Its remnants can be seen in the leadership of the current Labour Party.

An Phoblacht

Seán Russell statue attacked in Dublin

Sinn Féin Dublin City Councillor Christy Burke has slammed the partial destruction of a memorial to Dublin republican Seán Russell and a journalist in the Sunday Independent who congratulated the vandals responsible. The attack on the statue of Russell, which saw the head removed, occurred in Dublin’s Fairview Park over the Christmas period.

Local people have been incensed at the desecration of this memorial to a figure of national importance who lived in the local area and whose relatives still live in Fairview.

The attack follows a year-long campaign in the Sunday Independent aimed at discrediting the memory of Seán Russell and which was used as another excuse by that newspaper to attack Sinn Féin. The local Sinn Féin cumainn has had held regular commemoration ceremonies at the Russell memorial.

Jim Cusack, who has led the Sunday Independent’s campaign against Russell, was also the journalist who published a statement on 2 January purporting to come from an unnamed group claiming that they had carried out the attack over Christmas and accused Russell of being a “Nazi collaborator”.

Veteran of the 1916 Rising and former IRA Chief of Staff during the early 1940s, Seán Russell has long been a figure of controversy within Irish republicanism for a number of reasons. These included his decision to launch an armed campaign in Britain during the Second World War and his attempt to acquire arms from Germany. However, Russell was not a fascist, nor did the IRA of that time support the Nazi regime. Indeed, under Russell’s direction, the IRA was in contact with numerous foreign agencies, including the Soviet Union and IRA supporters in the USA, for the purpose of acquiring arms.

Commenting on the attack, Councillor Christy Burke said: “Many local people have been angered at the destruction caused to Russell’s memorial by outsiders. They came into this area in the dead of night disturbing the peace of the Christmas period to desecrate a memorial to a local man whose family still live in the area and whose memory is respected. I do not believe that this attack was carried out by any genuine anti-fascist group as claimed by the Sunday Independent. I note that Sunday Independent columnist Ruth Dudley Edwards has congratulated those who carried out the vandalism in Fairview. This follows her newspaper’s campaign against Russell and criticisms of local Sinn Féin commemorations. The hypocrisy of her remarks in encouraging the destruction of national monuments should be seen in the light of her newspaper’s vehement opposition to direct political action of any kind when it doesn’t fit with that paper’s political agenda.”

Councillor Burke has offered his support to the campaign being undertaken by the National Graves Association to restore the monument to this Irish patriot.

An Phoblacht

Papers released under new Freedom of Information Act- Brits decided to let Hunger Strikers die

BY FERN LANE

Documents released under the new Freedom of Information Act, which came into force on 1 January, have revealed that in December 1975, the British Government made a decision that, in the event of a hunger strike by Republican POWs, it would let prisoners die rather than reintroduce Special Category status.

The resolution, promoted by officials within the Ministry of Defence and prison service, came after the implementation of the Gardner report earlier that year, which had recommended the ending of Special Category status and the introduction of the policy of criminalisation for all those convicted after 1 March 1976. Both MoD and prison officials, realising that there would be a response from republican POWs, demanded that the government “withstand the pressure” of dying prisoners in the event of a hunger strike. One MoD report early in 1976 stated that “the campaign will undoubtedly be conducted on one or possibly both sides at a certain level of nastiness and I do not propose that we should be unduly sensitive in our treatment of the subject”.

Earlier, on 29 December 1975, the Director of Prisons in the north of Ireland, one W I David, had written a report to the MoD observing that Special Category status had been introduced after hunger strikes in 1972. “Having seen what an administrative and discipline disaster this has proved to be, we should be resolute in our intention not to weaken in our decisions for 1976,” he writes. He also adds that the government should make the policy of allowing prisoners to die known to them, saying “the administration will withstand this pressure even after the death/s of prisoners”.

His view was reinforced a few weeks later when an official from the NIO (’Northern Ireland’ Office), J H Parkes, wrote that hunger strikes may take place in opposition to the ending of Special Category status. He suggested that prison officers refrain from force feeding prisoners, saying that “it is important to recognise that this may well result in prisoners being allowed to die; and prisoners should be made aware in good time that we are quite prepared to contemplate this”.

On coming to power in 1979, Margaret Thatcher, who oversaw the deaths of ten men on hunger strike in 1981, seems to have enthusiastically adopted this view that it was better to let people die than to acknowledge their political status. What neither she, nor her officials foresaw, however, was the long term effect of the Hunger Strikes on the political landscape of the north of Ireland. They saw their policy as a means of defeating Irish republicanism; instead it helped to make Sinn Féin the potent political force it is today.

UWC’s neo-fascist threat

As the loyalist Ulster Workers Council threatened and attacked workers into joining the strike aimed at bringing down the Sunningdale Agreement and power sharing assembly, a panic-stricken and “fearful” Brian Faulkner told the British Government that the situation was out of control and that the North of Ireland was in danger of becoming an “independent, neo-fascist” state.

The notes of a meeting between Stormont politicians and the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his Secretary of State Merlyn Rees, records that Faulkner told the government “with every hour that passed, the Secretary of State and the British Government on the one hand, and he and the Northern Ireland Executive on the other enjoyed less support and credibility, as it became increasingly evident that the administration of the country was in fact in the hands of the Ulster Workers Council”.

The solution, he argued, was a rapid “assertion of authority on the ground”. Negotiations, he said, were useless as “the situation is now out of the control of Mr West and Mr Paisley”.

Control had passed to other and more dangerous hands. The issue was not now whether the Sunningdale Agreement would or would not survive. The outcome which the Protestant extremists sought was “without question an independent, neo-fascist Northern Ireland”. Indeed the leader of Vanguard, William Craig, had said that the sectarian attack on Catholics during the strike was “unfortunate but understandable - if democracy is being trampled into the ground you have to take whatever action is needed”.

The papers also show that there was extensive discussion on whether or not the British Army should be brought in to secure fuel and electricity supplies, as loyalists had always “backed away” from confrontation with British forces.

Harold Wilson was incensed by the UWC strike and in the confidential notes of a broadcast to be made on 25 May 1974, he wrote that the strike “has nothing to do with wages. It has nothing to do with jobs - except to imperil jobs. It is a deliberate and calculated attempt to use every undemocratic and unparliamentary means for the purpose of bringing down the whole constitution of Northern Ireland so as to set up there a sectarian and undemocratic state, from which one-third of the people of Northern Ireland will be excluded.”

Wilson continued, making his now famous remark about loyalist and unionist “spongers”.

“British taxpayers have seen have seen the taxes they have poured out almost with regard to cost — over £300 million a year this year with the cost of the army operations on top of that — going into Northern Ireland,” he raged. “They see property destroyed by evil violence and are asked to pick up the bill for rebuilding it. Yet people who benefit from this now viciously defy Westminster, purporting to act as though they were an elected government, spend their lives sponging on Westminster and British democracy and then systematically assault democratic methods. Who do these people think they are?”

Of course, the irony was that for all Wilson’s ranting and raving, the British Government refused to take on the UWC, preferring instead to do nothing in the hope that the Executive would collapse of its own accord. In a memo to the prime minister, Merlyn Rees acknowledges that the UWC demand for fresh elections “has nothing to do with real power sharing” and that an election “is likely to be no more than a precursor to pressure for a Protestant state for a Protestant people”.

However, despite that knowledge, he continues: “While the Northern Ireland Executive remain in being, there can be no real movement. But the situation changes if they go. From our point of view the most desirable situation now is that they should go of their accord, in view of the intervention, they cannot make any plausible complaints that they have not received full support from HMG.” On 28 May 1974 Brian Faulkner handed in his resignation and the power sharing experiment came to an end.

Afterwards, Wilson wrote that the British Government was in a position of “responsibility without power” and likened it to “a Eunuch”. Events also made him consider the “doomsday” option of British withdrawal and international intervention. A further memo states: “The mere threat of international involvement… might so alarm the parties as to persuade them to an otherwise unthinkable compromise capable of averting international involvement altogether… Even if neither the threat nor the fact of international involvement produced any kind of settlement, HMG would at least be able to share with others the odium of failure and the blame for the ensuing chaos in Ireland.”

Heath’s fury over torture findings

Papers released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed the fury of then Prime Minister Edward Heath in 1971, when he was presented with the findings of the Compton report into the torture of detainees in the Six Counties.

In a memo, taken from an incomplete file on the matter, he thundered: “It seems to me to be one of the most unbalanced, ill-judged reports I have ever read”. The furious response came despite that fact that Compton had found that the treatment of prisoners including sleep deprivation, prolonged hooding, wall standing and other cruelties, did not amount to actual torture, but merely to “physical ill-treatment”.

However, the fact that Compton had not given the army “a clean bill of health” was more than Heath could stand, and he vented his frustration that the report did not understand that Britain was engaged in a war against the IRA. “It is astonishing that men of such experience should have got themselves so lost in the trees, or indeed the undergrowth, that they are proved quite incapable of seeing the wood,” he wrote.

And, he argued, the fact of the war justified the illegal mistreatment of those held to be republican detainees: “When you go through the report carefully, the number of incidents involved in the arrest of 300 odd men were small and, in the conditions of war against the IRA, trivial,” he said.

Heath goes on to further berate the report for not setting the allegation of torture in “context” and complains that these allegations are given the same credence and “tested evidence” from the RUC and British Army. “They seem to have gone to endless lengths to show that anyone not given three-star hotel facilities suffered hardship and ill-treatment,” he complains. “Again, nowhere is this set in the context of war against the IRA. What, above all, I object to… is that the unfounded allegations made for the most part by outsiders are put on exactly the same level as tested evidence from the Army and the RUC. This I believe to be intolerable.”

Idi Amin’s offer to mediate

During the height of the Ulster Workers’ Council Strike in 1974, an offer of help came from an unexpected quarter.

Idi Amin, dictator of Uganda, wrote to the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson offering “to avail my good offices to the opposing sides in Northern Ireland”. He writes that, “the political and security situation in Northern Ireland is becoming worse every passing day without any apparent feasible solution to it in sight. This serious and regrettable development calls for Britain’s best and sincere friends to come to her assistance”.

The British, who despised Amin as much for his pretensions to grandeur as his atrocities against his own people, would undoubtedly have baulked at being referred to as a “best and sincere” friend of the dictator and to have been offered assistance for a political problem by a colonial upstart such as him.

In the telegram, dated 28 May 1974, Amin says that as a former British colony, Uganda has the experience to help out with the conflict in the North of Ireland: “I suggest that representatives of the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland, as well as representatives of your government come to Uganda, far away from the site of battle and antagonism, for a conference on how to bring peace to their province”.

Amin then signs himself as “Al-Hajji General Idi Amin Dada, VC DSO MC President of the Republic of Uganda”. The records do not show any written response from the British Government, but it seems the offer of help was turned down.

Ambassador gloated over Dublin/Monaghan bombings

After the Dublin and Monaghan bombings on 17 May 1974, in which 30 people were killed, the then British Ambassador to Ireland, Sir Arthur Galsworthy, gloated that: "I think the Irish have taken the point."

His comments are contained in newly-released British Government documents from 1974. In writing on the atrocity, Galsworth also comments archly that "It is only now that the South has experienced violence that they are reacting in the way that the North has sought for so long", but that "it would be... a psychological mistake for us to rub this point in".

Galsworthy appears to be equally pleased that "the predictable attempt by the IRA to pin the blame on the British has made no headway at all". Thirty years later, only a few still argue that British agents were not involved in the atrocity, although the official British line is that the UVF were solely responsible.

The papers have also revealed that the then British Prime Minister Harold Wilson told Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave on a number of occasions that the British were "certain" they had interned the UVF men, although the Barron investigation found that he had not passed on this information.

An Phoblacht

Carnival of Reaction: A snapshot of Ireland in 1974 - Key Stormont documents ‘missing’

BY SEÁN MAC BRÁDAIGH

Irish and British cabinet papers, kept secret for 30 years, and released on 1 January, have revealed an Ireland in which the forces of reaction at that time fought and succeeded in holding back the tide of political, economic and social change.

Mysteriously, however, the key documents which should have formed part of the main series of files released by the Public Record Office in Belfast — the minutes of the Sunningdale Executive, have suspiciously “gone missing”.

Importantly, these would have included Ministerial decisions and views of Ministers recorded at the time. Dr Eamon Phoenix, who has been reviewing the release of cabinet papers under the 30-year rule for the past 20 years, has said in the Irish Times that it was the first time he found such a tranche of vital historical material to be unaccounted for.

Recurring problems

Many of Ireland’s problems North and South in 1974, revealed in these state papers, were to dominate the country’s political and social life for the following three decades. These included the failure of successive British Governments to face down unionist reaction, the inability of unionism to produce coherent political leadership and the conservatism of the political establishment in the 26 Counties.

The papers clearly demonstrate the extent and intensity of Britain’s military and intelligence apparatus in Ireland and the degree to which British Government policy was ultimately dictated by the threat and use of unionist violence.

The British oversaw elections to a new Six-County Assembly in June 1973 from which Irish republicans were excluded. This was despite huge support for republicans among the nationalist community in the North, which had been in open revolt against unionist domination and British rule for the previous four years and which had recently toppled the 50-year-old Stormont regime. But in 1974, Sinn Féin remained banned as a political party in the North, with its members subjected to arrest or assassination.

Sunningdale and the UWC

The result of the election saw the formation of the ‘Sunningdale’ Executive that involved unionists sharing power with the SDLP, led by Gerry Fitt. It took office on 1 January but within a week Brian Faulkner had resigned as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, following a vote of no confidence by the party’s Ulster Unionist Council. The UUP’s right wing opposed the Council of Ireland contained within the Sunningdale Agreement, claiming it undermined the unionist veto over the North’s status quo.

The Ulster Workers’ Council (UWC) — an overt and sinister coalition of unionist paramilitaries and politicians — stalked the streets of the Six Counties in 1974, boosted by the victory of anti-Sunningdale Unionists in the Westminster elections, which saw Labour’s Harold Wilson replace Conservative Edward Heath as British Prime Minister.

Elements within the British establishment, including Wilson, briefly considered the option of a form ‘withdrawal’, purely on British terms, and aimed at reducing British obligations to the North while securing its strategic interests there. It was not to be a full withdrawal by the British state in any real sense and was not aimed at producing a United Ireland. Their thinking was undoubtedly influenced by the UWC, who were touting the possibility of a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), which would inevitably be followed by widespread pogroms against the nationalist community and sectarian slaughter with the aim of a forced displacement of Northern nationalists to the 26 Counties.

British plans to defeat republicans

The documents that have now come to light confirm the republican analysis that the British aimed to divide Irish republicans and drag the IRA into a protracted ceasefire by offering the prospect of ‘withdrawal’. It was a deception aimed at fragmenting and defeating the Republican Movement.

On the streets, the neo-fascist form of unionism, which operated under the banner of the UWC, combined tactics such as the intimidation of workers, the shut-down of essential services, political boycotting, sectarian murder and co-ordinated bomb attacks against civilian targets in the 26 Counties. It was this unionist coalition, in concert with British secret service agents, which delivered the single biggest loss of life in the current conflict — the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

Ultimately, unionist bullyboy tactics succeeded and the Sunningdale Executive resigned. Wilson’s brief toying with ideas such as ‘dominion status’ were shelved in favour of direct rule from London and the co-option of the 26-County state in British counter insurgency efforts aimed at defeating the republican struggle. The right wing and the securocrats within the British system had won the day and the British settled in for a long war of attrition and the ‘Ulsterisation’ of the conflict. They expected the Dublin Government to acquiesce.

SDLP divided

Also revealed in the papers are major divisions within the SDLP in 1974, with Sean Donlan of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs reporting on divisions between leading party figures and leader Gerry Fitt over what was perceived to be Fitt’s unduly close and unequal relationship with Brian Faulkner. Fitt and Paddy Devlin openly disagreed on policy when they met Dublin Government ministers and Donlon noted that “Fitt seemed to act as an advocate” for Faulkner.

On a visit to the North a week after the collapse of Sunningdale, Donlon found the SDLP in complete disarray. Their assembly party unanimously reported a “massive swing away from support of their party to support of both wings of the IRA”.

Repressive atmosphere

The distinct impression of Ireland in 1974 as revealed in the state papers is of a country where the political atmosphere was one of repression North and South. The arrest by Gardaí of leading republican Martin McGuinness in Donegal in February 1974 may well have been as a result of a direct request by Brian Faulkner.

Faulkner told colleagues that he had urged the arrest of McGuinness during a meeting with the then Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Liam Cosgrave at Baldonnell. The Special Court at Green Street, Dublin, subsequently jailed McGuinness for a year for membership of the IRA. But it is clear that all sorts of political activists in Ireland were subjected to monitoring, harassment and arrest by state intelligence and security agencies then as now.

Secret files, now declassified, show that Irish Army Intelligence spied on anti-EEC campaigners, including Anthony Coughlan. The secret file even contains details of reference being made to Coughlan in a letter to An Phoblacht and the fact that Coughlan and fellow campaigner Mícheál Ó Loinsigh “signed a letter to An Phoblacht”. The Irish state also spied on leading British historian, biographer of James Connolly and Liam Mellowes and friend of Coughlan, Desmond Greaves, who had his travel plans logged.

While open warfare raged in the North throughout the 1970s, the attitude of the Southern state to political opposition, protest and dissidence was also moulded in this era and there is nothing to indicate that the type of behaviour exposed in these papers has changed and lots of evidence to show that it has not.

Fine Gael’s wealthy backers

During an economic period characterised by an energy crisis, spiralling inflation and dissatisfaction among ordinary workers at shouldering the tax burden in the 26 Counties, the coalition government in 1974 considered the introduction of a ‘wealth tax’. Negative reactions from a wealthy elite within 26 County society, directed at Fine Gael in particular as the party of the big farmers and the middle-class, saw the government considerably water down its tax proposals. John Bruton in particular lobbied the Taoiseach directly on this issue, warning of the dire electoral consequences of Fine Gael’s wealthy backers withdrawing support if the tax was introduced unamended. The government changed the tax proposals, exempting many of the categories included in the original plan.

Contraception trainsStill waiting

While Ireland has changed, radically in many respects, since 1974, many of the fundamental political problems are the same today. Despite the record of such governments it appears that 30 years later the Irish Labour Party is prepared once again to prop up a Fine Gael-led coalition, with all the attendant negative consequences for ordinary working people.

We are also waiting, three decades later, for the Irish and British governments and political unionism to summon the will to transcend the failure of the Orange state and carve out a new political future based on equality and justice for all.

An Phoblacht

No-one should lose sight of the tremendous progress made - BY MARTIN McGUINNESS

As we enter 2005 I am disappointed that we were unable to see the reinstatement of the Political Institutions and the implementation of the outstanding elements of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). But we should not lose sight of the tremendous progress that was made. Of course, we will always have the naysayers nitpicking through anything that they can’t claim ownership of and in doing so undermine the good work that has been done. What is needed now in the New Year is a renewed effort by both governments and all the parties to reach agreement. In order to ensure agreement happens in the shortest possible period, I am of the firm opinion that the DUP must enter into direct negotiations with Sinn Féin.

I also believe that proceedings would be accelerated tremendously if the Irish Government, the SDLP and Sinn Féin acted as one at all times representing the long term national benefits of all the people of Ireland. It should be remembered at all times that the GFA was not a Six-County agreement. It is all-Ireland in its intent and content and overwhelmingly endorsed in referenda by the people of Ireland. Its full implementation will have beneficial effects for all the people the length and breadth of this island. Therefore, all those claiming to aspire to all-Ireland institutions and unity have a responsibility to promote and develop its all-Ireland concepts without regard to selfish party political considerations.

It is also international in that it is a treaty between two sovereign governments lodged with the United Nations and supported by every political party in Britain and Ireland except the DUP.

I want to pay tribute to all those who played a positive role in the search for agreement in 2004 and to ask that they stay with us in 2005 to ensure that we complete the task of building a new society on this island on the basis of equality and respect for human rights. A society where all political aspirations can be pursued peacefully and with equal legitimacy.

Although some political leaders that should know better — for party political point scoring — have attempted to sow doubt in the minds of nationalists, I can assure you that the fundamentals of the Good Friday Agreement, including its power-sharing, all-Ireland and equality provisions, have been defended and key aspects of the Agreement have been further strengthened.

The overall political package that was achieved by the Sinn Féin Negotiators contained a range of measures -— each having its own significance.

• the reinstatement of the Executive, the Assembly and all-Ireland structures, including the All-Ireland Ministerial Council

• legislation in Westminster to remove the ability of the British Government to suspend the political institutions

• a stronger pledge of office by Ministers to ensure that they participate fully in the Executive

• a requirement of Ministers to engage with the All-Ireland structures

• the removal of the power of First Minister (or Deputy First Minister) to block the attendance of any Minister at all-Ireland Ministerial Council Meetings

• Northern Representation in the Dáil and Séanad

• Devolution of Justice and Policing

• An immediate programme of demilitarisation

• Measures to address the issue of people ‘on the run’ in both jurisdictions.

When implemented, these will be major steps forward by any reasonable person’s calculation.

With the Agreement having been strengthened through these adjustments, the DUP now hopes to prevent progress through unachievable demands for humiliation of republicans. Remember, the DUP is the only anti-Agreement Party and those claiming to be pro-Agreement should be cognisant of this fact when making statements of comfort to the demands of the DUP. The two-pronged agenda of the DUP over the course of the Peace Process has been ‘Smash Sinn Féin’ and ‘Smash the GFA’. Well, Sinn Féin is determined to ensure that they fail on both counts.

We have a huge opportunity to move forward. I believe that the DUP lack the courage and the political will at this time to sign up for a deal. But the fact that they have come so far represents real progress. I am convinced that with time and patience they will come to accept the reality of power sharing and all-Ireland structures as the only viable way forward. But in the meantime, the rest of us must continue to move the process forward. We cannot allow the DUP’s anti-Agreement agenda to set the pace of change for everyone else. The door must be left open for them to enter the process at the earliest convenience but the two governments and the pro-Agreement parties must proceed with delivering the benefits of the Agreement that the overwhelming majority of the people of Ireland voted for.

An Phoblacht

Mammoth miscarriage of justice - Nightmare continues for the Colombia 3

BY JOANNE CORCORAN

On 16 December, eight months after Niall Connolly, Jim Monaghan and Martin McCauley were found innocent by a Colombian judge, the verdict was overturned by an appeal court and they were handed down sentences of over 17 years each on trumped up charges of training left-wing FARC guerrillas.

The three men, arrested in Bogota in August 2001, had endured a 33-month nightmare up until their vindication in April of last year. They had remained in Colombia pending an appeal by the country’s notoriously anti-human rights Attorney General Luis Camilo Osorio, but had left prison and gone into hiding shortly after Judge Jairo Acosta cleared them of the serious charges levelled against them.

The men, their families and supporters, the Bring Them Home campaign, human rights organisations from across the globe, and the Dublin Government, had expected them to be home for Christmas.

But nine days before Christmas, the Colombian authorities dropped a bombshell. Behind closed doors, with no new evidence and only the transcripts of the original trial, which had found the men innocent, three judges had found the men guilty.

Osorio immediately issued an arrest warrant for the three men and called in Interpol to help find them.

Speaking exclusively to An Phoblacht on Tuesday, spokesperson for the Bring Them Home campaign, Sinn Féin MLA Caitríona Ruane was incensed at the reversal of the verdict.

“What we have here is a mammoth miscarriage of justice along the scale of the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four,” Ruane said. “This is a travesty of justice of international proportions. There are enormous questions around the role of the state in this decision, particularly the Attorney General’s office, and the Colombian Army and security services. What we now have is Osorio and his office trying to drum up international support for this decision. His record stands; he is the problem and he is bringing disrepute to the Colombian legal system.”

Ruane travelled to Colombia with fellow Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly soon after the ruling was made public to discuss the legal options now open to Connolly, Monaghan and McCauley. The Bring Them Home campaign will lobby intensively for the original verdict to be reinstated.

After a trial which lasted ten months, and 33 months after they were first arrested and detained, the Colombia Three were found innocent on 27 April 2004 of charges of training left-wing guerrillas.

The trial judge dismissed the evidence provided by the prosecution and ordered an investigation into the two ‘eye witnesses’ brought to the trial by the Attorney General’s Office.

“It was obvious to everyone that the prosecution case had been worthless and serious questions were being asked about the role of the Attorney General’s Office in fabricating evidence and preparing witnesses to perjure themselves,” Caitríona Ruane told An Phoblacht.

“Six-and-a-half months later, following an appeal by the Attorney General’s Office, we have a decision by three magistrates who met behind closed doors, who never spoke to any of the witnesses or defence lawyers.

“It is also important to note that in this appeal no new evidence was presented.”

The new judgement is 144 pages long and 32 of these pages repeated the prosecution arguments. Not even one page is given over to the defence arguments.

“This is a political judgement made by the Colombian Authorities,” Ruane said.

She added that the Bring Them Home campaign is currently exploring all international legal and political options open to the men.

“The worrying thing is that any of the options will take a minimum of three years,” she said.

Threats

She also told us that both herself and Gerry Kelly feared they would not get home for Christmas after a threatening statement was issued by the Attorney General.

“While we were there, Mr Osorio made threatening statements against organisations and people that worked closely with the three men,” she said. “We are used to his bullying and intimidation. We have suffered it since August 2001 when the men were arrested. I have travelled on more than 20 occasions to Colombia during the past three and half years. Many of our international observers travelled more than eight times for the trial. His bullying and crude intimidation has never stopped us campaigning for the rights of Martin, Niall and Jim. His most recent statements certainly will not stop us.

“This campaign will continue, intensify and internationalise. People throughout the world have shown that they are not prepared to accept this blatant violation of rights.”

So far, the Dublin Government has been relatively quiet on the subject of the men. In response to intensive questioning from the Bring Them Home campaign, it was stated that the Attorney General was examining the new judgement.

But the comments of Tánaiste Mary Harney in the wake of the sentences have not been helpful. Harney called for the men to hand themselves in, saying the Dublin government did not want to “cut across the judicial system in another country”. Harney went onto say that her main concern was “human rights issues”, nevertheless she was “not in a position to comment on whether or not the men had a fair trial”.

“Those comments were incredible,” said Ruane. “By any objective analysis, three Irish citizens did not receive a fair trial. I am calling on the Irish Government, at the highest level, to intervene to defend the rights of Jim Monaghan, Martin McAuley and Niall Connolly,” Ruane said. “We are planning to bring the case of these three Irishmen and EU citizens to the EU Parliament. We are not going to stop with this until these men get the justice they deserve.”

A breathtaking denial of justice

Speaking over Christmas, Gerry Kelly, who travelled to Colombia after the verdict was announced, said the situation was a breathtaking denial of justice.

“There is disbelief and anger at what has occurred,” he said. “It was obvious to anyone who followed the trial that the men had no case to answer on the major charge.”

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said the verdict was a “grievous miscarriage of justice, which will come as no great surprise given the record of Human Rights abuses by the Colombian Government”.

An Phoblacht

Raids and rituals as the year turns

With familiar resilience, one local Ballymurphy wit described the community’s response to the Christmas Eve PSNI raid on a neighbour’s home as “like a scene from Spartacus”. As several hundred people gathered outside the house to demonstrate their solidarity with the family and curb the ‘enthusiasm’ of the raiding party, a single voice rang out from amongst the gathering. “It’s under my mattress.” The cry was enthusiastically taken up by other members of the crowd.

Like the ancient imperial legions before them, the PSNI could do nothing but shuffle in their shoes and attempt to hide their shame. And it was shameful.

Over a decade into a Peace Process, members of the northern nationalist community were once again compelled to take to the streets to defend members of their community from state repression, PSNI style. Nationalist homes in the Lower Falls and North Belfast were also targeted on Christmas Eve.

Far from the Hollywood fantasy of families gathered around log fires and children going to bed with the hopeful anticipation of sleigh bells and sacks of toys, neighbours and friends were outside facing the icy winds of a winter’s night. Meanwhile, inside the homes of their neighbours, PSNI officers were opening children’s presents as part of their ongoing investigation into a multi-million-pound bank robbery.

Now if there is anyone out there that believes the media tomfoolery of the PSNI’s actions being regrettable but understandable ‘under the circumstances’, let’s focus on this seriously for one moment. According to the PSNI, the multi-million pound robbery at Belfast’s central Northern Bank on 20 December was highly organised and carried out with precision over many hours.

Head of the PSNI investigation, Detective Superintendent Andy Sproule, described the robbery as “a carefully planned operation” carried out by people who “had done their homework” and had a “detailed knowledge of the bank’s security systems”. Furthermore, the haul was so large that the vehicle used to carry the haul away returned to reload.

But the PSNI would like us to believe that once that cash had been taken, planning and organisation was thrown aside and the perpetrators inexplicably decided to hide their haul under a Christmas tree in Ballymurphy, or the Lower Falls or Ardoyne.

Such a scenario would, of course, require hundreds of Christmas trees and thousands of reams of wrapping paper disguise and no doubt tens of dozens of Santa’s little helpers, but this was not mentioned. Traditionally, Christmas may well be a time of collective credulity, but this is surely pushing the realms of make-believe too far.

In the days that followed, the clueless PSNI, like the RUC before them, did what they do best and attacked nationalist areas in Belfast.

To a number of nationalist homes, the PSNI added a children’s nursery, a job centre and a thrift shop to the list of West and North Belfast premises targeted in connection with their ‘ongoing Northern Bank investigation’. They also checked out the frozen food in a Twinbrook supermarket (presumably the PSNI are immune from the charge of wasting police time).

Amongst those premises targeted were business and community units in the Dairy Farm complex on the Stewartstown Road, Springbank Industrial Estate in Poleglass and the Blackstaff complex off Kennedy Way. The PSNI have already announced that they are planning more raids in nationalist areas of Belfast.

But of course, this nonsense is nothing to do with finding the lost millions and all to do with creating a media climate of blaming republicans. That’s why the first PSNI raiding parties going into West Belfast brought, along with their battering rams and sledge hammers, CS gas canisters and batons, hand picked members of the media to record the event. It was Stormontgate all over again.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams described the “heavy handed and aggressive manner” in which the raids were carried out as “deliberately intended to further destabilise the political situation”.

To date, none of the missing money has been discovered, no evidence has emerged following any of the raids and no one has been arrested. In other words, as well as the categorical statement from the IRA dismissing speculation that it was involved, there is not a scrap of evidence that points to republicans.

But that didn’t deter Gerry Moriarty of the Irish Times drawing the ‘obvious’ conclusion. “The fact that the searches were so concentrated in west Belfast last week, appears to indicate that at this stage the main finger of suspicion is directed at the IRA or other republican groups,” he wrote.

Well, not really Gerry. The fact that raiding was so concentrated in West Belfast only indicates that the PSNI would like it to appear that republicans are to blame — a distinction equally lost on Sammy Wilson of the DUP, whose comments were quoted enthusiastically by Moriarty.

For Sammy Wilson, the fact that the PSNI “carried out raids on high profile IRA homes” makes it “fairly certain that the IRA was involved”.

For the Sunday World, even if the evidence pointed to a criminal gang, republicans can still be blamed. And if you are asking yourself how this is possible, let me help you with the tabloid fantasy mindset in which all Provos are criminals and all criminals are ex-Provos. Determined to hedge their bets, the Sunday World decided it was a conspiracy in which republicans had got a criminal gang “to do it for them”.

But for Brian Feeney, writing in the Irish News, it was more a case of a PSNI fishing exercise in which they rounded up “the usual suspects” Casablanca-style. “It’s quite clear that the police had no information or evidence whatsoever to justify their raids,” wrote Feeney.

And as he pointed out, “the sort of PSNI tactics witnessed over the Christmas break aren’t going to win over anybody in those districts. On the contrary: they will confirm people in the view that the PSNI’s attitudes are no different from those of the RUC.”

Meanwhile, the PSNI ‘investigation’ appeared to be in total, and to some, curious, disarray. On receiving a tip off that “something was suspicious” about a van outside the Northern Bank during the robbery, the PSNI responded by sending two uniformed officers to take a look, but they didn’t see anything.

Post robbery, the PSNI announced some of the Northern Bank notes identified as part of the haul had been passed in Belfast during an ice hockey match, only to later claim that the two £20 notes were not from the robbery. It is thought that over 50,000 notes listed as stolen may be legitimately held within the public domain.

For Des Wilson, writing in the Andersonstown News, the whole escapade smells like the work of the British Security Services. He advises us to remember the Littlejohn gang, “the bank robbing British outfit in Ireland that were agents for the London administration”.

“If someone reported suspicious behaviour in a bank where two people were waving a Tricolour, the place would be flooded with police and troops within moments and yet a report of suspicious behaviour during a multi-million pound robbery only got the equivalent of the village policeman on a wobbly bicycle,” wrote Wilson.

Just before Christmas, Ian Paisley had demanded the ritual humiliation of republicans. Over Christmas the PSNI tried to deliver it.

An Phoblacht

IRA: Pandering to rejectionist unionists unacceptable

In its New Year message, the leadership of Óglaigh na hÉireann outlines how the achievement of a comprehensive agreement to resolve “all outstanding issues” was prevented by a demand for humiliation.

The IRA leadership also rejects, outright, recent attempts to criminalise IRA Volunteers and the republican struggle.

The leadership of Óglaigh na hÉireann sends New Year greetings to our Volunteers and to our friends and supporters at home and abroad.

We extend solidarity to our imprisoned comrades and their families.

Time and again over the past ten years the IRA has demonstrated its commitment to the Peace Process. On occasion, our initiatives have stretched the discipline and patience of our Volunteers and the wider republican base. To their credit, they have remained steadfast.

We set out the contribution we are prepared to make to a comprehensive agreement to resolve all outstanding issues. This included moving into a new mode which reflects our determination to see the transition to a totally peaceful society and also concluding the process to completely and verifiably put all our arms beyond use.

All of this is being prevented by an unachievable demand for humiliation.

The rejection of our substantial contributions has created a deep anger within the republican and nationalist communities and indeed, it has generated significant frustration.

We want to see peace on the island of Ireland and among all the Irish people. But a just and lasting peace is only possible on the basis of equality. The days of inequality and of discrimination are over. There must be an end to bigotry, sectarianism and racism.

Pandering by the two governments, once again, to a rejectionist approach by a unionist leader, will not work. The IRA will not accept it.

We reject recent attempts to criminalise our Volunteers. Through two decades, central to Britain’s policy in Ireland was the strategy of demonising and criminalising republicans. In prisons and on the streets, similar attempts and tactics were smashed, most notably by our comrades on hunger strike in 1981. Current attempts by those hostile to republicanism will also fail.

We commend our Volunteers and our support base. Their patience and discipline have been among our greatest strengths. We share a vision for the future.

This vision includes the unity and independence of Ireland.

While a Peace Process can produce an accommodation, and the IRA is prepared to assist this process, Irish unity and independence provides the best context for the people of this island to live together in harmony and prosperity.

We remain committed to our republican objectives.

P O’Neill,

Irish Republican Publicity Bureau,

Dublin.

Examiner

Fears missing boy may have been abducted

By Sean O’Riordan
06/01/05

FEARS grew last night that an 11-year-old boy may have been abducted while cycling near his home.

Senior gardaí said they couldn’t rule out the possibility that Robert Holohan had been abducted from his home near Midleton, Co Cork. They have issued a nationwide alert, which includes surveillance at airports and ports.

The boy was last seen by his family at 2.30pm on Tuesday when he left to go for a cycle on his new BMX, a Christmas present from his parents, Mark and Majella.

His worried parents started looking for him when three hours later a neighbour spotted Robert’s bicycle propped up against a ditch half-a-mile from his home at Ballyedmund, which is two miles north of Midleton.

Gardaí were alerted shortly before 10pm, and scores of local people started searching for the boy.

More than 500 people joined the search yesterday, including Robert’s father, Mark, who is a builder.

Dozens of gardaí, Red Cross personnel, Civil Defence units and an Irish Coastguard Sikorsky helicopter also scoured the countryside for the missing child.

Mark’s distraught mother, his sister Emma (8), and baby brother Harry (4), were being comforted by relatives and friends in the family home.

“We are worried to death about where he is. Please come home Robert,” Mr Holohan said.

He added that his son was in great form when he left the house and acknowledged there was a possibility that somebody could have taken him.

Robert had his mobile phone with him when he left home, but repeated efforts by his family and gardaí to contact him have failed.

Chief Superintendent Kieran McGann, who is leading the investigation, said he was very concerned about Robert’s safety.

“Hopefully things will work out, but at this stage we are very concerned and treating the matter very seriously,” Chief Supt McGann said.

Dozens of gardaí and hundreds of volunteers attended a special meeting in Midleton Golf Club yesterday afternoon to review what areas had been searched. Extensive searches of the immediate area failed to turn up any sign of Robert and teams started to scour Curragh Woods, a large forest to the north east of the town.

As night fell, gardaí called off their official search which is scheduled to resume again at 8.30am today. The Garda fixed-wing plane arrived on the scene last night along with the Garda Dog Unit.

Army units have been put on standby in case they are needed to join in the search.

However, a local Red Cross team with search and rescue dogs and dozens of family friends continued to search through the night.

Superintendent Liam Hayes urged anybody who saw Robert or has any information to immediately contact their local gardaí or Midleton gardaí at 021-4621550.

A boy fitting Robert’s description was seen near a petrol station in Dungarvan during the early hours of yesterday morning. However, gardaí do not believe it was him.

Robert is 4ft 11ins tall. He has blonde hair, blue eyes and when last seen was wearing a black jacket with Nike written in orange on the back and black tracksuit bottoms.

IOL

SDLP slams lack of IRA comment on Belfast bank raid

06/01/2005 - 12:23:54

The SDLP has criticised the IRA for not saying clearly whether it was involved in last month’s £22m (€31.2m) heist at Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast.

In its new year message, published today, the IRA criticised what it said were attempts by the Irish and British governments to criminalise and demonise republicans, but made no mention of the December 20 robbery. There was a general comment denying involvement in criminality.

SDLP Spokesman Alex Attwood accused the republican paramilitary outfit of evading the issue.

Unionists, meanwhile, are demanding that the PSNI state who it believes was responsible for the robbery and have warned that IRA involvement would scupper any peace talks in the short term.

The PSNI has already searched a number of houses and premises in republican areas of Belfast, but have recovered nothing connected to the raid.

IRA sources have also denied that the organisation had any involvement in the heist.

BBC

Police warn Adair over move

Johnny Adair is due for release from Maghaberry Prison

A senior police officer in Greater Manchester has warned loyalist paramilitary Johnny Adair that criminal behaviour will not be tolerated.

Chief Superintendent Dave Lea was speaking after reports that Adair will be moving to Bolton after his release from prison next week.

Adair’s wife Gina fled to the town after a loyalist feud two years ago.

Ch Supt Lea said his force would act “robustly” to deal with any criminal or anti-social behaviour.

‘Criminal justice’

He said his officers had a “practised strategy” for dealing with people released from long criminal sentences.

Ch Supt Lea said: “Bolton is a very diverse community.

“We welcome people into this community provided they wish to come here and have a law-abiding life.

“If they choose to engage in criminal activity or anti-social behaviour then we will bring the full force of criminal justice to bear.”

Adair is due for release from prison this month after serving two-thirds of a 16 year sentence for directing terrorism by the Ulster Freedom Fighters.

Gina Adair fled to Bolton after loyalist feuds

The exact date of his release is being kept secret but he is expected to leave Maghaberry Jail next week.

It will be the third time Adair has been released since his conviction in 1995.

He was previously returned to prison for breaching licence conditions in August 2000 after being released from prison under the terms of the Agreement a year earlier.

On 15 May, 2002, he was released having reached the 50% point of his sentence.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy ordered Adair to be sent back to prison in January 2003 at the height of a vicious power-struggle between his C Company faction and the rest of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).

Forced to flee

Days later John Gregg, a member of the UDA inner council, was shot dead near Belfast docks as he returned from a Glasgow Rangers football match.

Members of Adair’s brigade blamed for the killing were later routed and forced to flee their Shankill Road powerbase.

They took a ferry out of Northern Ireland and later travelled from Scotland to Bolton, where Gina Adair, who has been treated for cancer, is now living.

The family’s attempts to remain anonymous were disrupted when Adair’s teenage son Jonathan was sentenced last year for drug offences.

BBC

Police to blame IRA for bank raid

The IRA looks set to be blamed for the £22m bank raid in Belfast when Chief Constable Hugh Orde meets Policing Board members, the BBC has learned.

Mr Orde is due to brief senior members of the board about the raid on Friday.

It comes amid growing calls for him to publicly state if the IRA was involved in the robbery at the Northern Bank headquarters on 20 December.

Homes in republican areas of Belfast have been searched, but republicans have said the IRA was not involved.

‘Political fallout’‘Complete prohibition”

“There is no way that this thing is going to work or that other political parties will accept such a thing, rightly.

“We will have to wait and see what happens, but the ban on terrorist activity includes a complete prohibition on criminal activity as well.”

Mr Blair’s comments come a day after DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson called on the chief constable to “come clean” over speculation about IRA involvement in the raid.

Mr Robinson said the consequences of mainstream IRA involvement would be “far reaching”.