SAOIRSE32

Irish Independent

Sinn Fein and DUP join forces in voting against EU Constitution

MEPs demonstrate after the vote in favour of the European Constitution yesterday at the European Parliament, in Strasbourg. The parliament gave its overwhelming endorsement to the EU’s first-ever constitution, which faces widespread opposition in EU skeptic countries.

WHILE members of the European Parliament voted in huge numbers to support the new EU Constitution yesterday, for once Sinn Fein and the unionists were united as they voted against the draft document.

Irish EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy dismissed the negative stance of Sinn Fein.

He suggested that it was merely a tactical stance to build the party’s electoral appeal.

Following the vote - which was carried with 500 in favour and 137 against - the Commissioner said he would take a prominent role in campaigning for a Yes vote in the forthcoming domestic referendum.

Irish members of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour and independent Marian Harkin voted in favour of the constitution.

However, both Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald and Barbara de Brun, along with the DUP’s Jim Allister and the Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson voted against, along with the other independent MEP, Kathy Sinnott.

The unlikely voting combination provoked a jibe from Proinsias de Rossa of Labour, who said that for once both DUP and Sinn Fein were singing from the same hymn sheet.

“The DUP and Sinn Fein continue to squabble in Northern Ireland over the outcome of the 17th century Battle of the Boyne. Nevertheless, they are united in their opposition to the draft European Constitution.”

Mr Allister emerged as one of the most prominent speakers on behalf of the eurosceptics.

“Happily, the vote that matters is that which will be held in the various member countries.

“I look forward to actively campaigning for a No vote in the UK,” he said afterwards.

There were also a number of colourful protests by many of anti-constitution campaigners. Some Poles held aloft an old Soviet flag with a hammer and sickle and shouted “Brussels-Moscow”, comparing the EU with the former communist domination.

Although the main political parties all voted in favour, far right MEPs like Frenchman Jean Marie Le Pen and the far left GUE group, which includes Sinn Fein, all voted no.

Fianna Fail’s European party also revealed a deep split, with seven Polish members voting against the draft constitution.

After the vote, which comes before any of the dozen national polls in the year ahead, Mr McCreevy pledged to play an active role campaigning in favour of the domestic Irish referendum on the constitution.

The first referendum will be held in Spain next month and the Irish electorate is expected to vote late this year, or possible in early 2006.

Already, two countries, Lithuania and Hungary, have ratified the constitution by Parliamentary votes, although all 25 must give their assent before it can take affect.

While numerous countries might vote no, such as Ireland, Denmark or the Czech Republic, it seems inevitable that Britain at least will vote against the constitution, but the consequences of that are unclear at this stage.

Conor Sweeney
in Strasbourg

Irish Independent

Drink, scuffles broken glass and catcalls

DRUNKEN scuffles, smashed pint glasses and republican abuse thrown at gardai outside a nightclub - sounds like a typical Saturday night out in Dublin.

Except this time, one of the people involved was the wife of a politician. A Dail deputy, in fact and his party’s justice spokesperson to boot.

Sinn Fein’s Aengus O Snodaigh was not on the scene the night his “extremely drunk” wife smashed a pint glass over the bonnet of a squad car.

He was not there when a group - including his wife, Aisling Ni Dhalaigh and her sister, Niamh Ni Dhalaigh - threatened gardai that Aengus would have their jobs.

He couldn’t join in the little sing-song in the back of the garda van after Aisling, Niamh and the third accused, Martin Farrell delighted the arresting gardai with their rendition of ‘A Nation Once Again’.

Yet his name was always going to be linked to the events of the early hours of the morning of May 22 last when gardai claimed they were subjected to republican abuse and profanities (”F— Garda Siochana”) as well as chants of “Up the IRA” from the group, who were coming from a Sinn Fein function on Dublin’s Middle Abbey Street.

A string of gardai as well as an independent witness yesterday outlined the events of the night to Dublin District Court, where Aisling Ni Dhalaigh was convicted of a breach of the peace and both Niamh Ni Dhalaigh and Martin Farrell were convicted of obstructing gardai.

All three denied all charges and claimed they were not drunk or abusive.

Despite none of the accused having a previous conviction, Judge William Early would not apply the Probation Act, as he said “people who invoke political parties and other organisations to threaten gardai” did not deserve it.

According to the Garda Bernard Mullins, after the glass was smashed on the car (which the judge had “no doubt” was done by Aisling Ni Dhalaigh) the group chanted “republican rhetoric” associated with Sinn Fein and the IRA.

“Niamh called me a f—ing scumbag, a free state bastard. She said the husband of one of the people was a Sinn Fein politician and I’d lose my job and be in trouble,” added Garda Garrett Kane.

Martha Kearns

Irish Independent

Poor stranded in ‘food deserts’ due to growth of supermarkets

THE spread of large supermarkets has led to ‘food deserts’, in which people on low incomes are stranded and unable to buy groceries, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

Despite the growth of large supermarket chains in Ireland, people on low incomes were forced to buy in local shops and garages which were more expensive, according to the St Vincent de Paul.

The result was ‘food deserts’ where difficulties in getting to supermarkets and little money meant that people could not access a healthy diet, according to Audry Deane of the St Vincent de Paul.

She told the Joint Oireachtas committee on enterprise and small business that a study revealed a single mother on a low income would have to spend 80pc of her current income in order to sustain a healthy diet.

And Jim Walsh of the Combat Poverty Agency (CPA) told the committee that “food poverty” - where people can not have a healthy diet due to the cost - affected 200,000 people in Ireland.

Instead, low income families focused on the cost of food rather than the quality, he said.

“Poor people are entitled to eat healthy diets as well as everyone else,” he said.

Ms Deane said that grocery chains should be obliged to offer transport and delivery services to low income households and that grocery shops in disadvantaged areas should be encouraged through planning policies.

If the issue was not dealt with, there would be the development of “car access only” shopping areas and neighbourhood shopping would be swept aside, said Jack Dunphy of social welfare agency, Crosscare.

Concerns were already being raised in the UK where there was retail development “by retailers and not planners”, he said.

The committee heard that ‘dumping’ of produce from other countries happened in the Irish market, where bigger markets would send excess goods which subsequently ended up on supermarket shelves here.

And, while the cost of Irish produce was higher than in the UK, Irish producers had higher costs in terms of distribution, transport, and refrigeration said Simon Walsh of the Dublin Meath Growers’ Society Ltd.

Pat O’Connor told the committee that the number of growers in the society had dropped from 1,200 in 1980 to between 350 and 400 in 2004, a number of whom were small operations.

The chairman of the TASTE council, Peter Ward, said that there was huge potential for growth in the speciality food area, although there needed to be changes in all sectors, such as canteens, in order to expand.

However, one of the greatest barriers to expansion was the issue of regulation and the perception that it was “plagued with inspectors”, he said.

Instead, there needed to be recognition of the skilled preparation that was involved in the production of specialist foods such as cheeses, said John McKenna from TASTE.

The committee agreed to invite the new consortium that has bought out Superquinn to address it in the coming weeks.

Shane Hickey

BreakingNews.ie

DUP seeks removal of Westminster allowances from SF

13/01/2005 - 14:17:36

The Democratic Unionist Party has tabled a motion in the House of Commons calling on the British Government to withdraw parliamentary allowances and privileges from Sinn Fein.

The party said the measure was warranted following the PSNI’s statement that it believes the Provisional IRA carried out last month’s £26.5m (€38m) bank heist in Belfast.

The IRA has denied involvement in the raid.

IOL

‘Anti-fascist’ group beheads IRA memorial

13/01/2005 - 14:28:50

The family of a former IRA leader who requested Nazi German aid were today said to be devastated after his memorial was broken and defaced by youths claiming to be anti-fascists.

A statue of IRA Chief of Staff Sean Russell, who died on a German submarine during the Second World War, was beheaded in an attack two weeks ago.

Sinn Féin councillor Christy Burke slammed the removal of the head and right arm of the memorial in Dublin’s Fairview Park, and rubbished claims that Russell was pro-Nazi.

A group claiming responsibility for the damage stated that, as Europe prepares to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps, “citizens of this state can no longer tolerate the shameful presence of a memorial to the Nazi collaborator Sean Russell in a public park in our nation’s capital city”.

The Irish National Graves Association (INGA), which takes care of the memorials of republicans across the country, said it had received many letters of outrage and donations over the desecration.

Mr Burke said: “I think it was an outrageous and malicious attack on a statue of Sean Russell, who at the end of the day was the Chief of Staff of the IRA. It was there to commemorate that and he still has standing in the North Strand area.

“I wouldn’t consider Sean Russell pro-Nazi. He went to Germany to seek financial aid or weapons in the struggle to remove British Forces from Northern Ireland. From a republican point of view it doesn’t say he agreed with their policies.”

Mr Burke added it was clear that Russell was trying to seek weapons and aid without supporting any other administration, as had been done throughout republican history.

“What the Nazis were doing at the time was absolutely appalling and I don’t believe any right-minded person could support their policies,” he said.

Russell’s role in early republicanism is still well-regarded by many and newly elected Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald spoke at a rally to commemorate him in the north Dublin park in 2003.

Matt Doyle, secretary of the INGA, said the association was working to repair or replace the badly damaged memorial with the support of the family.

However, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Paris, the world’s largest Jewish human rights organisation, called for it to be left unrestored as a symbol of Ireland’s “shame” for its neutral status in the Second World War as thousands of Jews were put to death.

Russell travelled to Germany during the Second World War to request Nazi German aid to mount an IRA invasion of Northern Ireland to remove the British military.

He was travelling back to Ireland on a German U-boat in an attempt to foster a coup in the Irish Republic when he died from an alleged perforated ulcer 100 miles off the coast on August 14, 1940.

Mr Doyle said the people who carried out the attack were not aware of the true facts. He added that it had come out on many occasions that Russell was “no Nazi”.

The INGA said the vandalism had occurred due to a “throwaway” remark during the elections for the European Parliament last year.

“The family were obviously upset. Russell was buried at sea so there is no grave, so this gave some solace to the family,” Mr Doyle said.

Mr Burke said there absolutely no documentation to show that Russell agreed with German policies, including the extermination of Jews, at the time.

“No-one has got anything to say he sat down with Hitler and discussed their policies, there is nothing to say he agreed with that,” he said.

Nuremburg War Crimes Trial witness Erwin Lahousen, who had been the key figure in an aborted pre-war plot to assassinate Hitler, said Russell completely disagreed with Nazi philosophy and had blasted their attempts to convert him.

Mr Lahousen said the republican leader wanted help to achieve independence but stressed there must be no strings attached.

IOL

Omagh role for Police Ombudsman

13/01/2005 - 17:58:30

Part of the Omagh bomb inquiry is to be investigated by Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan, it was revealed tonight.

Her office is to probe the circumstances surrounding an anonymous telephone call which warned of an attack to take place in the Tyrone town on the day of the atrocity.

The Ombudsman will be seeking details after it emerged that a former Special Branch officer is to be interviewed by detectives attempting to establish the source of the call.

It was made to police on August 4, l998, 11 days before the bombing, but the information was never passed on to officers on the ground.

Relatives of some of the 29 people killed, which included a mother pregnant with twins, had urged the Ombudsman to carry out her own investigation into the phone call.

Four years ago she issued a damning report of the investigation by the Royal Ulster Constabulary and claimed the leadership and judgment of the then Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan was seriously flawed, an allegation he rejected amid a monumental row.

Her spokesman confirmed tonight that her officers, headed up by executive director Dave Wood were back on the case.

He said: “The Police Ombudsman office has received a complaint about the circumstances surrounding the call. The PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) team investigating the bomb has also raised this issue with us.

“The Police Ombudsman’s office is now investigating all the circumstances relating to this matter.”

The Special Branch officer has already been questioned as part of an investigation unrelated to the Omagh inquiry, but it is not known if he has yet been interviewed in an attempt to trace the source of the telephone call.

He has been transferred from Special Branch to other policing duties.

A spokesperson for the PSNI said tonight: “As there is an Ombudsman investigation in this area, we will be making no further comment.”

A male caller had contacted the CID office in Omagh at 10am on August 4, 1998 when he spoke to a detective constable.

He named two men whom he claimed would be bringing across the Irish border four dismantled AK47 rifles and two rocket launchers belonging to the Continuity IRA which he said, would be used in an attack on police in Omagh on August 15.

At the time, the CID officer believed the caller to be genuine, briefed the senior detective on duty and then travelled to Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, where he informed Special Branch officers. They allegedly told him there was nothing in the information and that the two men named were ordinary criminals.

However, one of the officers asked to be present in the Special Branch office in Omagh the next day for a second call. It never came.

The August 4 call and the text of the information was never registered on the database which was set up for the huge investigation and it was not until two years later during a review of the inquiry by the Royal Ulster Constabulary that officers in Omagh became aware it had been made.

But the source was never identified.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was among those killed, said tonight the authorities in Dublin should also carry out a similar investigation after claims the gardaí did not act on warning of a planned Real IRA attack in Northern Ireland at the time of Omagh.

He said: “We do not wish this (Ombudsman’s) inquiry to become a political football. All politicians should support the families, the Ombudsman’s office and the police inquiry team to establish the truth of what happened in Omagh before, on and after August 15 so that we can start to move forward.

“This is a very limited inquiry and there are issues, north and south of the border, that need to be fully investigated. It’s for this reason we need a full cross border public inquiry.

“The Ombudsman’s office has lived up to the confidence placed in it by the families in the past. We will watch with interest the outcome of this inquiry.”

IRA2

PIRA 9’s jail term requires warrant

(Seamus McKinney, Irish News)

A former Provisional IRA man, sentenced to three months in prison for
refusing to cooperate with the Bloody Sunday inquiry, will not be
arrested until a warrant is issued by the courts.

The Derry man, known as PIRA 9, was sentenced on Friday when he
appeared at Belfast High Court on a charge of contempt.

The Bloody Sunday tribunal had referred him to the court after he
refused to cooperate with the inquiry or give evidence to it.

Passing sentence, the High Court ruled that PIRA 9 should have until
noon on Monday to change his attitude.

Failing that, he was to serve three months in prison.

PIRA 9 said he decided not to cooperate with the inquiry because he
believed it would not serve the Bloody Sunday family’s best interests
and he did not like the way it was treating republicans.

Since the court appearance, he has stated he has no intention of
changing his attitude.

He said he was quite willing to go to prison rather than make a
statement to the tribunal because, he added, he was not present on
the day.

His sentence has sparked angry protest in Derry. Sinn Féin’s Martin
McGuinness des-cribed it as “absolutely scandalous”.

John Kelly, a brother of Bloody Sunday victim Michael, said while the
families encouraged everyone to come forward to the Saville Inquiry,
it was wrong that someone should be jailed for not doing so.

January 13, 2005

BBC

Interpol seeks Irishmen warrant

Arrest warrants have been issued for the three men

Interpol in Colombia has asked its head office to issue an international arrest warrant for three Irishmen convicted of training Marxist rebels in the country.

Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan were sentenced to 17 years after an appeal court reversed their earlier acquittal on the charge.

The men vanished while on bail awaiting last month’s court of appeal decision.

They could be arrested in 182 countries if a “red notice” is issued by Interpol for their capture.

The men, who had been accused of being IRA members, were found guilty in the April trial of travelling on false passports.

They were acquitted of training Farc guerrillas, but the Colombian attorney general appealed against that decision.

A judge had ordered the men to remain in the country pending the outcome of the appeal.

Airport arrests

McCauley, 41, is from Lurgan in County Armagh, Monaghan, 58, is from County Donegal and Connolly, 38, is from Dublin.

The three had been detained at Bogota’s El Dorado airport in August 2001 as they were about to board a flight out of the country.

Their arrest led to speculation that Irish republicans had formed links with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

The main charge against them was that they had been teaching the rebels urban terrorism techniques.

The Irishmen strenuously denied this, saying they were in the area to monitor the fledgling peace process as well as being eco-tourists.

Guardian

Mark Thatcher admits coup role in plea bargain

Staff and agencies
Thursday January 13, 2005

Mark Thatcher outside the high court in Cape Town. Photograph: Howard Burditt/Reuters

Mark Thatcher today admitted his role in a failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea under a plea bargain that saves him from prison.

The Cape Town high court ordered the son of the former prime minister to pay a 3m rand (£265,000) fine and gave him a four-year suspended prison sentence. Judge Abe Motala warned Thatcher that if he does not pay the fine he will face a five-year prison sentence with a further four years suspended for five years.

Thatcher, 51, admitted to paying for a military helicopter used by the mercenaries in the failed plot but maintained that he believed it was to be used as an air ambulance.

He is now expected to leave South Africa and join his wife and two children in Dallas, Texas. After the hearing, Thatcher told reporters: “There is no price too high for me to be reunited with my family.”

A mocking banner strung from an office block opposite the courthouse read “save me mummy”.

It is not known whether Equatorial Guinea will pursue his extradition or renew efforts to compel him to answer questions about the conspiracy.

The coup plot was led by former SAS officer and mercenary Simon Mann, one of Thatcher’s friends and former neighbours in Cape Town, where Thatcher has lived since 1995.

Mann was sentenced to seven years in jail in Zimbabwe for his part in the conspiracy, although his lawyer revealed today this had been cut by three years.

According to the plea bargain agreement, Thatcher said Mann had told him in November 2003 that he was getting involved in a transport venture in west Africa and asked if he could charter a Bell Jet Ranger III helicopter.

Thatcher told Mann he would be interested in becoming involved and in early December 2003, he told Mann about two Alouette II helicopters that had become available. Mann then asked Thatcher to contact Crause Steyl, who operated his own air ambulance company.

Thatcher met Steyl at a Johannesburg airport where they discussed the Alouette and other helicopter options. Thatcher said he later began to doubt Mann’s true intentions and suspected that he might be planning mercenary activity.

However, the plea bargain statement said that “despite his misgivings the accused [Thatcher] decided to invest money in the charter of the helicopter”.

Shortly before January 9 2004, Thatcher was asked by Mann to make a payment of US$20,000 (£10,000) to reserve the helicopter, which he did.

Steyl later told the South African authorities that the helicopter’s purpose was to provide air support for the military overthrow of Equatorial Guinea’s president, Teodoro Obiang. In March 2004, Mann was held in Zimbabwe along with a group of mercenaries over the plot.

Five months after the Zimbabwe arrests, Thatcher was arrested at his Cape Town home and charged in South Africa with violating its anti-mercenary law - a charge he had always denied until now.

Prosecutor Anton Ackermann, of the Scorpions, South Africa’s equivalent of the FBI, which led the investigation, told Judge Motala today that it was in the interests of the administration of justice that the case be disposed of as quickly as possible. “One of the reasons being that the accused will assist the prosecution with further investigations in this matter,” Mr Ackermann said.

Thatcher is expected to pay his £265,000 fine with some of the proceeds of selling his £2.3m house in Cape Town.

He is believed to have discussed his decision to admit the charge with his mother, Lady Thatcher, 79, when she visited him at Christmas. Her daughter Carol told London’s Evening Standard: “You have to remember that she is a trained lawyer.”

Lady Thatcher said today: “This has been a difficult time for all of the family. Obviously I am delighted that it has been brought to an end.

“I know that what matters to Mark now is to be reunited with Diane and the children as soon as possible.”

Speaking in London, Lord Bell, who has been acting as a spokesman for Mark Thatcher in the UK, told Sky News: “He’s extremely relieved. He’s pleased to get back to his business life and his private life and that the ordeal is over.”

Equatorial Guinea is still vigorously pursuing the “London connection” to the coup attempt although Lord Bell said that Equatorial Guinea has not served an extradition warrant. A Guernsey court is due to decide next month whether Mann’s offshore bank details should be handed over, identifying the coup’s financiers

Late last year it emerged that the UK government had known about the plot five weeks before the mercenaries were arrested for planning it. The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, faced questions from his Tory shadow, Michael Ancram, about exactly what he had known at the time.

Belfast Telegraph

Heist may affect key election fight

By Chris Thornton
13 January 2005

The political fallout from the Northern Bank robbery could affect the general election in one of the key nationalist battlegrounds.

The SDLP, which holds South Down, and Sinn Fein, which is challenging for the seat, have exchanged sharp words over accusations that the IRA carried out the robbery.

South Down MP Eddie McGrady, who said he is a friend of the Loughisland family kidnapped by the robbers, told the House of Commons on Tuesday that the Government was selling out “democracy to political Sinn Fein, the IRA in lounge suits”.

Sinn Fein candidate Catriona Ruane said the description was “disgraceful” and could have come from the DUP.

South Down has long been an SDLP stronghold, with Mr McGrady holding a majority of almost 14,000.

But Sinn Fein has been building in the constituency. Their share of the vote rose from 15% in the 1998 Assembly election to 26% last year.

Mr McGrady, who turns 70 this year, had been expected to step down but there have been suggestions from within the SDLP that he has been encouraged to stand again.

Belfast Telegraph

Crime figures: OAPs urged to lock up homes

By Jonathan McCambridge
13 January 2005

New crime statistics revealed today show there are 2,500 victims of violent crime or robbery in Northern Ireland every month.

However, police today insisted that the number of offences against the person, robberies and burglaries is falling.

And they have urged older people to take basic security measures to protect their homes.

A Crime Prevention Officer said he was “horrified” by the number of crimes which are committed because people leave their doors and windows open.

Fear in the elderly community has been heightened following the murder of Tyrone pensioner Patrick McGrath and the horrific ordeal suffered by his sister Philomena (67), who was sexually assaulted.

But newly-released figures show that the proportion of crimes committed against pensioners continues to be only a small proportion of overall offences.

In the eight months between April 1 and November 30 last year, police recorded 19,549 offences against the person - only 235 of these were recorded against those aged over 65.

Offences against the person includes all assaults, murder, manslaughter, intimidation, harassment and threats.

There were 451 robberies in the same period, 45 against pensioners, and 4,944 domestic burglaries, 680 against pensioners.

Crime Prevention Officer Sergeant Norman Gibson said older people had a fear of crime which is out of proportion to their risk.

He said: “We do not want people to turn their homes into fortresses but they need to do the minimum they can get away with to secure their homes - this can mean a good solid door with a mortice deadlock.

“But police are continually horrified by the number of domestic burglaries against older people which are caused by open doors and windows.

“Older people also need to be confident enough to realise that their homes are private, they can say no to people at their doors and ask for ID, no one is entitled to free access to their home.”

Mr Gibson added: “I cannot deny there have been too many incidents where older people have lost money because they keep it about the house - this feeds the criminals’ bad habits.”

IOL

UUP man seeks unionist pact to prevent SF electoral gains

13/01/2005 - 10:28:58

An Ulster Unionist Party Assemblyman has called for a pact between the UUP and DUP in an effort to prevent Sinn Féin from making any further electoral gains.

Danny Kennedy claimed such a pact would restore confidence among unionists in the respective leaderships of both parties.

Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy is expected to win a Westminster seat in Mr Kennedy’s Newry/Armagh constituency this year when the current MP, Seamus Mallon of the SDLP, steps down.

BBC

Adams tells republicans ‘resist’

Gerry Adams warned republicans to resist discrimination

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has said that republicans must be ready to “resist any attempts to discriminate against them”.

Speaking about the £26.5m Northern Bank robbery, Mr Adams said Chief Constable Hugh Orde had no evidence to back up his claim that the IRA carried it out.

“Do nothing of any knee jerk,” Mr Adams advised republicans.

“But be ready to resist any attempts to discriminate against our electorate,” Mr Adams added.

‘Deeply damaging’

He said resistance should be in the form of “entirely peaceful democratic strategies”.

Mr Orde said on Friday that he believed the IRA was behind the £26.5m Northern Bank raid.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Tony Blair said the chief constable would not have made the claims without evidence.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy told the Commons on Tuesday the impact of the bank raid on the political process was “deeply damaging”.

The bank raid is thought to have been one of the UK’s biggest cash robberies.

The robbers stole millions from the vaults of the bank in Belfast on 20 December as the families of two bank officials were held hostage.

Mr Adams said: “If the governments are going to go in the direction of discriminating against Sinn Fein or to bash Sinn Fein, that leads us with no option but to defend our position.”

He added: “It is only through dialogue and inclusivity that we are going to move this forward.”

IOL

Colombia Three put on Interpol list of wanted fugitives

13/01/2005 - 08:20:49

The three Irishmen who are facing lengthy prison terms for training anti-government rebels in Colombia have been placed on an Interpol watch-list for wanted international fugitives.

The men were put on the list at the request of the Colombian authorities.

James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly were originally found not guity of training the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in bomb-making techniques.

Their acquittal was overturned last month following an appeal by the Colombian Attorney General, but the three Irishmen failed to turn themselves in to police and are believed to have left Colombia, despite being ordered not to do so.

IrishExaminer.com

Brutal discovery brings end to massive search

13 January 2005
Dan Collins

THE discovery of a body, believed to be that of missing schoolboy Robert Holohan, near Inch Strand yesterday brought closure to one of the most intensive missing person searches ever undertaken in this country.
The disturbing find, shortly after 1pm yesterday, was made as gardaí were processing 90 calls in relation to the case.

These calls to the garda incident room at Midleton Golf Club followed Tuesday’s televised reconstruction of the schoolboy’s disappearance on January 4.

On that day, Robert left his house on his new BMX bike, a Christmas present from his parents.

At 2.36pm that day he made a phone call to a friend living close by before his credit ran out. His mobile phone was turned off shortly afterwards.

That evening, at 5.30pm, Robert’s bike was discovered against a ditch, near the local golf club, half a mile from his home.

His parents, Mark and Majella, puzzled by the fact that his phone was disabled, started looking for him.

At 10pm gardaí were alerted.

The intensive search began on January 5, sometimes involving more than 1,000 people civilian volunteers, gardaí, army and civil defence.

This week, a child resembling Robert cycled his bicycle from the family home at Ballyedmond, in a reconstruction of the boy’s last known movements.

After that, gardaí said they wanted to talk to a man reported to have been seen in a field near the boy’s house. The dark-haired man was described as being smartly dressed at the time.

The man was seen in Egan’s Field on the day Robert was last seen and was spotted again at 2.40 pm in the same place.

Gardaí were also hoping to interview three men who were playing golf at the East Cork Golf Club on Tuesday January 4 the day Robert went missing. These men have made no attempt to contact gardai despite repeated requests.

Further information was also being sought on a man seen driving a small red van in a car park near Curragh Woods on January 4.

The unsettling turning point in the operation came shortly after 1pm yesterday. Volunteers, who were focusing on rural scrub land near Whitegate, spotted a limb, said to be that of a young person, protruding from the undergrowth.

The garda incident room in Midleton received the report at 2.15pm and officers were immediately dispatched to the scene.

Superintendent Kevin Donohoe of the Garda Press Office, said the body had been discovered following a search by gardai, army personnel and volunteers.

“We have an area at Inch beach cordoned off and we are now commencing a technical examination. It’s lying in an inaccessible area so at this stage I can’t confirm either age or gender,” he said.

A local priest accompanied the gardaí and prayers were said at the scene which has been cordoned off.

Members of the Dublin-based Garda Technical Bureau will this morning examine the area hoping to produce vital clues to the circumstances of Robert’s disappearance.

The body was found in scrub land, adjacent to a boreen off the main access road to Inch Strand.

Later, back at the incident room, those who were searching at Inch strand, many of them civilian volunteers, were visibly shocked and distressed.

Some searchers were friends of the Holohan family or had children attending the same school as Robert.

A second body discovered yesterday in Midleton was understood to be that of an elderly man.

His body was found in the town, beside the Owenacurra river, near the Cork Road bridge last evening. Gardaí did not believe the discovery was related to the Holohan case.