El Paso Times
With all the interest in ‘Dermot’s’ blog, thought you might also like to read this one.
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16/1/2005
cryptome: Trowbridge Ford
**Via IRA2
Trowbridge Ford: Louth County Blogger
16 January 2005
From: “Trowbridge Ford”
Subject: URGENT - Louth County Blogger
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 11:43:11 +0100
Dear John,
Since I have finally made contact with you, I am sending you evidence of my various e-mails to show that they were sent to Cryptome.org and the RBB [Republican Bulletin Board], though my orginal one to you has been updated, and expanded upon because of what has happened in the last week or so.
I must add that your continuing trashing of my work, pure fiction by someone who might be a deep spook, is not only wrong, but truly offensive, explaining why I have such a poor opinion of you.
How anyone can think who has read my articles about former DCI Richard Helms, Al Haig as ‘Deep Throat’, ‘Executive Action’ director William King Harvey, MI5’s Peter Wright as the Soviets’ leading spy, how the CIA restored itself in the wake of Watergate, why John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate Reagan, etc. in the Trowbridge Archive at codshit.com that I am some deep spook is beyond me! For those who are still unpersuaded, I am willing to undergo the most intensive scientific testing - truth serum, lie detector tests, you name it!
As for your claim that there is no basis in fact for my claims, I want to call your attention to the article which you refused to post on your site, and, subsequently, trashed in correspondence with me - the one about how Simon Hayward’s activities, especially the publication of his autobiography, Under Fire: My Own Story, caused the fall of Thatcher’s government and her Conservatives. This article was published then on informationclearinghouse.info, and codshit.com.
The article in almost entirely based upon what Hayward wrote - his two tours of duty in N.I.; how he was set up on a drug smuggling charge in Sweden by a member of the IRA, code name DUKE, and a woman companion, called Heather Weissand, just when British officials were most involved in capturing the ship Eksund, loaded with Libyan weapons intended for a PIRA ‘tet offensive’; how Hayward was treated by British officials while his activities were being investigated by Swedish police, how Francisco Notarantonio was killed instead of DUKE when Hayward’s appeal was hanging in the balance, how Hayward completely unloaded in his manuscript on Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe, FO Minister David Mellor, the FO Undersecretary, Ministry of Defence officials, and others when he was sentenced to five years in prison for the alleged offence, how his charges were so explosive that PM Thatcher reshaped her cabinet without either Howe or SOD George Younger to soften the blow, etc.
In sum, my article was almost totally based upon what Hayward said, and what happened because of it. While you might not consider what he wrote authoritative, preferring some imagined official documents to confirm the story if true, I believe that Hayward is the best source on what he did, and what its outcome was - as should any respectable historian.
And I am willing to supply a similar account of the evidence any other article is based upon - given the fact that they appeared on the web,which did not require it - if you so wish. Just say which article you want more substantiation of.
Sincerely yours,
Trowbridge Ford
P.S. I wonder if you can explain that when I went on the RBB site this morning, the entry on MSN welcomed me back, stating that “…your last visit was: Today, 04:50 AM -”. Of course, I was not on the site then, but in bed. I do notice that your post on the RBB was at 4:44 AM this morning. Do you have some entry into my computer, per chance?
—– Original Message —–
From: Trowbridge Ford
To: Republican Bulletin Board
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 1:06 PM
Subject: corrected, rejected message sent again
—– Original Message —–
From: Trowbridge Ford
To: Republican Bulletin Board
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 12:01 PM
Subject: Re: setting up former Garda SB det. sgt. Owen Corrigan for assassination
—– Original Message —–
From: Trowbridge Ford
To: John Young
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 8:08 PM
Subject: setting up former Garda SB det. sgt. Owen Corrigan for assassination
Dear John,
I see that your crazy efforts to support Martin Ingram aka Captain Simon Hayward and Captain James Rennie regarding the runaway Louth County Blogger in setting up the above for possible assassination has resulted in failure, and has ended up with the whole effort being quashed by London, Dublin, and Washington.
Corrigan was a most principled officer who cleaned up, or complained about much of what Ingram, your buddy, had done. And I say this after you went out of your way to discredit me by printing two articles about Hayward, letters from me about him which you requested, and an incomplete set of mug shots about the PIRA leaderhip, and then Martin Ingram’s dismissal of my claims as if he were a recognized, veteran reporter of N.I. affairs rather than the British Army’s deepest, most troublesome covert operator.
The incomplete set of mug shots left out the top leadership of the PIRA’s Army Council - what would have included Padraig Wilson - making the photo of Freddie Scappaticci in List C seem more like the truth of who ‘Steak Knife’, the BA’s deepest, longest service tout in the PIRA, really is. And the photo you printed of Hayward from the back of the dustjacket for Tony Geraghty’s hard cover edition of The Irish War was done in a way to minimize the shortened middle and ring fingers of his right hand rather than in a way to clearly demonstrate it.
Corrigan helped manage the arrest, and ultimate extradition of crazy Dominic McGlinchey to N: I. in 1985 - the terrorist Hayward shot up South Armagh in the fall of 1982 in an attempt to kill, what resulted in the famous Shoot-to-Kill murders which still haven’t been adequately resolved. For a good account - expect for what Hayward, who has acknowledged being there, did in the process - see Peter Taylor, Brits: The War against the IRA, pp. 243-53.
When Corrigan cooperated with the RUC’s SB Chief Superintendent Harry Breen, and Superintendent Bob Buchanan in 1989 right after the assassination of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane - an effort which threatened to get to the bottom of the cross-border assassinations, especially the ones already mentioned, and the killing of Lady and Lord Justice Maurice Gibson who had helped cover up Hayward’s efforts as best he could - they were themselves assassinated when they made their way back to Northern Ireland from Dundalk. Blaming Corrigan for these murders was an ideal way of covering up everything.
Especially when Corrigan spoke out ten years later about the totally unnecessary murder by the SAS and the RUC of Seamus Ludlow in 1976 - who they had mistaken apparently for Daithi O Conail. O Conail was a most hard line Provisional who the Gardai had been trying to capture since the 1974 ceasefire, and Colin Wallace, the Senior Information Officer (Psychological Operations) at N. I. Army HQ, tried to set up by forging a document for him, indicating that the PIRA was falling apart, and if discovered, would lead to its assassination of him, as Danny Morrison has just indicated in his article on the long war.
Ingram wanted to see Corrigan taken out as an alleged PIRA tout because of the threat he represented to what he had done - Maggie’s revenge killings in 1982, his dirty work as Ops Officer of the 14 Intelligence Company’s South Detachment from June 1985 to March 1987, and what his colleagues, especially in the Force Research Unit, did, once he was imprisoned in Sweden, to try to rectify his complaints about them. And there can be no doubt that Ingram endorsed the outing of Corrigan as the tout responsible for the shootings, since he explained to Mick Hall in an e-mail on the RBB that there was nothing either new or controversial in what the Dundalk Blog had allowed to be posted.
It must be really nice to help continue to cover up the dirty work of such a slime ball. AND I WONDER WHAT THAT MAKES YOU?
Sincerely,
Trowbridge Ford
american sleaze
Abu Ghraib abuse firms are rewarded
As prison ringleader awaits sentence, defence contractors win multi-million Pentagon contracts
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday January 16, 2005
The Observer
Two US defence contractors being sued over allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison have been awarded valuable new contracts by the Pentagon, despite demands that they should be barred from any new government work.
Three employees of CACI International and Titan - working at Abu Ghraib as civilian contractors - were separately accused of abusive behaviour.
The report on the Abu Ghraib scandal implicated three civilian contractors in the abuses: Steven Stefanowicz from CACI International and John Israel and Adel Nakhla from Titan.
Stefanowicz was charged with giving orders that ‘equated to physical abuse’, Israel of lying under oath and Naklha of raping an Iraqi boy.
It was also alleged that CACI interrogators used dogs to scare prisoners, placed detainees in unauthorised ’stress positions’ and encouraged soldiers to abuse prisoners. Titan employees, it has been alleged, hit detainees and stood by while soldiers physically abused prisoners.
Investigators also discovered systemic problems of management and training - including the fact that a third of CACI International’s staff at Abu Ghraib had never received formal military interrogation training.
Despite demands by human rights groups in the US that the two companies be barred from further contracts in Iraq - where CACI alone employed almost half of all interrogators and analysts at Abu Ghraib - CACI International has been awarded a $16 million renewal of its contract. Titan, meanwhile, has been awarded a new contract worth $164m.
Despite the allegations in the internal US army report, the two companies have described the claims against them ‘baseless’ and as ‘a malicious recitation of false statements and intentional distortions’.
The disclosure of the new contracts comes as Specialist Charles Graner - described as the ringleader in the group of soldiers leading the abuse of Iraqi prisoners - was found guilty on Friday after a court martial rejected his claim that he was only following orders.
Some of the most graphic evidence against Graner came from Hussein Mutar, an Iraqi who arrived at Abu Ghraib accused of car theft.
He testified how, after jumping on him, Graner and other guards ordered him to strip, masturbate and simulate oral sex, and then photographed him and led him back to a cell, which they had soaked with water, where he had to sleep naked. Graner is now awaiting a sentence of up to 15 years in jail.
The jury of 10 soldiers deliberated for five hours before convicting the reser-vist of assault, conspiracy, maltreatment of detainees, committing indecent acts and dereliction of duty, as well as one battery count.
However the controversy over abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay is likely to be reignited later this month with the publication of The Torture Papers: The Legal Road to Abu Ghraib by Cambridge University Press, the first compendium of the so called ‘torture memos’ of the Bush administration.
Compiled from material already in the public domain and other material acquired under the US Freedom of Information Act, it documents the chilling progress in the Bush administration’s legal advice that allowed it to redefine the meaning of torture so much that it felt able to use interrogation techniques that amounted to the most serious physical abuse.
In one memo, Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee advises the legal counsel to the president, Alberto Gonza les, that ‘physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death’.
He adds that actions by interrogators ‘may be cruel, inhuman or degrading, but still not produce the pain and suffering of requisite intensity [to be torture]’.
In a new development, the New York Times revealed last week that Congressional leaders have scrapped fresh legal measures that would have imposed strict new restrictions on the use of extreme interrogation techniques by US intelligence interrogators.
The proposal - which emerged in the fall-out of the Abu Ghraib scandal and complaints over the treatment of internees at Guantanamo Bay - had been approved by the Senate by almost a unanimous vote.
It would have explicitly ensured that US intelligence officers were covered by the same prohibitions on the use of torture, and required the CIA and Pentagon to report to Congress on the techniques that they were using.
The issue of the CIA’s treat ment of detainees first arose after agency officials sought legal guidance on how far its employees and contractors could go in interrogating suspects and whether the law barred the CIA from using extreme methods, including feigned drowning, in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, the first of the al-Qaeda leaders captured by the US. He was apprehended in Pakistan in early 2002.
It was in response to this reply that Bybee gave his ruling defining the scope of torture, which was later swiftly revoked when it became public.
Marie Wright
Marie Wright
Anthony McIntyre • Christmas Day, 2004
Turning into the home strait for Christmas always sees those hectic final days spent in town picking up the last minute things that should have been got much earlier but are invariably overlooked or put off. It was while returning from one such trip the Monday before Christmas that I met a former republican prisoner and ex-blanket man in Castle Street. We bump into each other frequently enough so long gone are the expressions of cheery bonhomie and the firm handshakes accompanied by the stock ‘haven’t seen you in a while.’ The first thing he said to me was that the former republican prisoner Marie Wright had died the night before. She had waged a long battle against illness. During her life Marie had waged many battles, all of which she managed to win. This one was different. It has the measure of us all…
Saor Eire
A Little Known Republican Military Group: Saor Eire
Liam O Ruairc • 13 January 2005
If one looks at the list of proscribed Republican organizations North and South of the border, all of them (IRA, INLA, IPLO, Fianna Eireann) are well known with the exception of one: Saor Eire. Little is known by the general public about that organization, not to be confused with either the Saor Eire political party of the early 1930s or the Saor Uladh group of the 1950s…
war of words
Irish Examiner> Breaking News>
War of words over restored government in North
15/01/2005 - 1:48:28 PM
A war of words erupted between nationalists in the North today after an SDLP representative raised the possibility of restoring devolved government without Sinn Féin involvement.
South Down MP Eddie McGrady said all options should be explored in the wake of the security assessment that the IRA was behind the £26.5m (€37.8m) raid on the Northern Bank.
Mr McGrady said all aspects of the political process had to be reviewed and that included the possibility of a new coalition.
“The democratic process must not be held up by the decisions of the IRA Army Council,” he added.
But Sinn Féin Assembly member Catriona Ruane accused Mr McGrady of being prepared to abandon the politics of inclusivity espoused by former SDLP leader John Hume.
Ms Ruane, who is contesting Mr McGrady’s seat in the next Westminster election, said: “Many nationalists will be horrified that Mr McGrady is prepared to contemplate the politics of discrimination and exclusion.
“Sinn Féin is the largest nationalist and largest pro-Agreement party in the North and we will not allow the rights of our electorate to be undermined by the SDLP.”
Mr McGrady angrily denied he was breaking ranks with the leadership of his own party.
“I totally subscribe to the principle of inclusivity but we have a situation whereby people do not want to conform to requirements of democracy,” he said.
“If people want to stay out of something because they don’t want to accept the rules of the game then that’s their decision.”
Mr McGrady said that if the Sinn Féin leadership divorced themselves from the IRA this would change the political landscape.
“They don’t seem prepared to do that. They talk about their political mandate but people didn’t mandate them to encourage or protect the criminal activities carried out by the IRA.”
Tom McGurk
Decision time for the IRA
Tom McGurk
16 January 2005
Once again, the peace process has collapsed into its Rubik’s Cube complexity. Ten years after the original IRA ceasefire, and approaching six years after the signing of the Belfast Agreement, nobody has yet worked out how to align all the pieces of the historical puzzle successfully. As one piece is painfully eased into place another piece falls out of alignment.
The prolonged process has, in its own way, profoundly changed both the Northern and the Irish/British political scene. In the North, the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist parties have lost majority political status in their respective communities, while the commonality of political approach between Dublin and London has never been greater.
The enormous achievement of the process is often forgotten because of the continuing failure to finalise devolution in the North. That achievement has been the agreement between the two sovereign governments, democratically mandated North and South, to resolve the historic partition settlement into a new context. Critically, that context has sought to address the causes of the ancient conflict.
Whatever about the political classes in the North, the population long ago started to reap the benefits of the end of violence and civil disorder. Towns and communities are rebuilding, social and economic life has benefited greatly, and the Northern landscape has improved immeasurably. One can’t forget that many people are alive who might well be dead if the peace process hadn’t happened.
Despite the posturing of the political classes in the North, in many ways the days of the Troubles are fast becoming history. It is important to remember all this in the context of recent events, which have pushed the possibility of political agreement further away.
The crisis of the continuing failure to agree on devolution has its roots in another failure: that of all parties to understand the fundamental change the Agreement was supposed to bring about. That change was the creation of a political context where paramilitarism would be superseded by democratic structures and, consequently, the secret armies would be out of the loop.
Tragically, from the outset, the unionists and the then British Conservative government refused to let go of the IRA bone. It seemed at the time like they were trying to re-fight the war and seek a victory over the IRA, even within the context of the ceasefire. First it was the question of the ‘permanence’ of the ceasefire, next it was the Sinn Féin ‘decontamination period’ and then the ‘decommissioning’ argument.
The political reality of this approach was that, far from isolating the paramilitaries, it ended up according the IRA army council a level of political leverage beyond anything it had known – even when the IRA was not on ceasefire.
Astonishingly, after 30 years of demanding that terrorists would have to end violence and enter the democratic processes before they could partake of any political agreement, the Conservative government and unionists gave a post-ceasefire IRA a virtual veto over the entire political process by demanding varying degrees of surrender.
So obsessive has this demand become that, despite an agreed International Decommissioning Body being set up to oversee the destruction of arms, Ian Paisley’s demand for photographic evidence scuppered the IRA at the point of total decommissioning.
In turn, Sinn Féin’s political ambitions have equally been stymied by this process. While the nature of its relationship with the IRA is unknown - though I suspect the commonality of the leadership of both organisations is significant - the linkage is fast becoming the party’s political albatross.
Maybe this is the purpose of the continual recasting of the peace process in the context of the IRA but, whatever the case, it has effectively halted progression to devolution.
In the context of the Northern Bank robbery, even Sinn Féin must begin to see the alarming prospect of continuous political stalemate in the North as evidence of a clear requirement for new thinking. The party is ten years into the peace process with not much more to show for it than a huge political party all dressed up with nowhere to go and with a secret army still following it around.
Its furious complaint that there are securocrats determined to stymie its political progress, is probably as true as it is pathetic. But it should expect to have the bitterest political enemies at the heart of the establishment who can never forgive or forget.
How on one hand can you extol an ‘undefeated IRA’ and not, on the other hand, expect such local difficulties? Lectures from Sinn Féin on the true political nature of the DUP also don’t help - have they never heard of the old political adage that you can expect nothing from a pig but a grunt?
It is time that Sinn Féin understood that all that matters in politics is results. High-minded political failures end up as the footnotes of history. It is now obvious that the twin strategy of the ceasefire, Armalite in one hand and the ballot box in the other, has run its course. Political power in the North - and possibly even in the Republic - awaits the big decision. Sinn Féin’s leaders don’t need me to tell them who should make that decision.
At this moment, they actually hold their own destiny in their hands - or more precisely the IRA does. If the IRA unilaterally decommissions now and moves into a post-war status, the political floodgates would open because, in the end, unstoppable public opinion will support the brave and the bold.
Funny, isn’t it, that all of this is supposed to be about the people and how often their unstoppable power is forgotten.
Isn’t it time that somebody or other in Sinn Féin remembered that ancient Republican tenet, the ‘people’s sovereignty’?
Andersonstown station
Work starts on dismantling Belfast police station
16/01/2005 - 2:20:18 PM
Work got underway today to dismantle one of Belfast’s best known police stations.
A communications mast was removed from Andersonstown station in west Belfast ahead of its demolition next month.
On January 23, police will formally leave the site.
The distinctive station which towers over a roundabout facing the Falls Road, Milltown Cemetery and the Glen Road, witnessed many killings of police officers, republicans and civilians.
It was also the focus of many Sinn Féin street protests against the police.
The decision to close the station was taken last month by the Northern Ireland Policing Board on the recommendation of the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s District Commander in west Belfast, Chief Superintendent David Boultwood.
Andersonstown station has operated limited opening hours since last July and all community policing has been based at other stations in the area for over 18 months.
Chief Superintendent David Boultwood said the station was closing because it was no longer suitable for the type of policing required in the area.
“Policing has changed dramatically since this building was established and it is important that we make decisions which reflect these changes,” he said.
“Andersonstown police station is no longer fit for purpose and its closure next weekend will assist us in consolidating our resources.
“This consolidation will assist in the provision of a more efficient, effective and accountable police service to the people of West Belfast.”
The station was established in 1887 to replace another in Hannastown and has been part of West Belfast district from 1897.
Once demolition is completed, the site will be put up for sale.
Nationalists want the site to be used for economic regeneration.
SDLP Policing Board member Alex Attwood said the demolition was proof of the power of Northern Ireland’s Policing Board.
“Only six weeks ago, the board decided to close Andersonstown and quickly the police have moved to vacate the site,” the West Belfast MLA said.
“In one swoop the board and the police have done more to normalise policing than others who have spent months negotiating and normalised nothing.
“The real issue now is the future of the site. This landmark site needs a landmark building representing the future.
“No one should forget that police officers were attacked and killed in and around the station and that many many civilians were hurt and abused by policing practice in the past.
“This needs to be remembered and the site developed symbolising the future and the best of West Belfast.”
MI5
MI5 boss admits bugging Adams
David Leppard
January 16, 2005
THE head of MI5, Eliza Manningham-Buller, has admitted that British intelligence agents have been bugging Gerry Adams and other top Sinn Fein officials.
Manningham-Buller told a closed meeting of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee before Christmas that MI5 had planted a sophisticated listening device at the head offices of Sinn Fein at Connolly House in Andersonstown, west Belfast.
In the security service’s first formal acknowledgment of the bugging operation, MI5’s director-general told the committee, which monitors Britain’s intelligence services, “they [Sinn Fein officials] had to almost shred the office to find it”.
The 5ft device was found last September hidden in a floor joist at the headquarters of the party, which is the IRA’s political wing.
Sinn Fein said at the time that two live microphones were found, one pointed towards the upstairs office and the other at a downstairs conference room.
When the bugging was disclosed, Downing Street and the Northern Ireland Office declined to discuss the matter. But the find embarrassed Tony Blair who only days later had to face Adams, the party president, and other Sinn Fein officials for talks.
Adams described the bug as “a serious act of bad faith” and “a violation of human rights”. He added: “The British make it very, very hard to make peace when this goes on . . . this is a violation of the peace process.”
Manningham-Buller’s admission of the MI5 bugging operation comes as the peace process is under renewed threat because of the IRA’s alleged involvement in the £26.5m robbery at the Northern Bank last month.
Hugh Orde, the chief constable of Northern Ireland, has said that “intelligence” has linked IRA leaders to the crime.
The Connolly House bug was the latest in a series to have been found in property used by senior Sinn Fein and IRA members.
Just a week earlier, a listening device had been found at the home of Paula McManus, who works in Adams’s west Belfast constituency offices. She is not suspected of any wrongdoing but her home was targeted because of her friendship with Martin Lynch, the adjutant-general of the IRA. He in turn is said to have met Bobby Storey, the IRA’s director of intelligence, at the flat.
That bug consisted of a microphone, six battery packs and a transmitter. It was concealed in the beam in the loft of the flat, which could be accessed from a communal area at the front of the building.
Adams and Martin McGuinness, the party’s chief negotiator, blamed Paul Murphy, the Northern Ireland secretary, for authorising the surveillance operation.
In 1999, a sophisticated listening and tracking device worth £20,000 was found built into a car owned by Lynch. Adams and McGuinness said the car had been used to take them to meetings with the IRA leadership. The bugging occurred during the review of the Good Friday agreement by George Mitchell, the former US senator.
The intelligence and security committee was set up by an act of parliament in 1994 as a watchdog for the intelligence services.
It is chaired by Ann Taylor, the former Labour chief whip, and comprises senior MPs and one member of the House of Lords. It reports directly to the prime minister on the work of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping agency.
the Assembly
NI assembly is ‘unsustainable’
Northern Ireland’s Assembly is becoming unsustainable following the failure to restore devolution, a leading loyalist MLA warned today.
With the €37.8m Northern Bank raid shattering hopes that the Assembly could be restored soon, Progressive Unionist leader David Ervine said there was a danger that people were getting used to life without it.
The East Belfast Assembly member told PA: “I am getting to the point where I believe the Northern Ireland Assembly, as constituted, is unsustainable.
“The more we can survive without it, the more we can continue our day to day lives without it no matter how bad the decisions are from incumbent direct rule ministers, the more people are coming to terms with the view that they could do without a Northern Ireland Assembly.
“I think that’s dangerous. I think, as it is constituted, there is virtually no credibility left with the Assembly.
“Now don’t get me wrong. There’s no question MLAs are doing their constituency work and I am not for one moment suggesting that they have lots of energy left after they have finished a week’s work.
“They are working hard but the credibility of a Northern Ireland Parliament is slipping and that is very dangerous.”
Assembly members have received an annual salary of £31,187 since December 2003 despite calls from some people in the province for them not to be paid a penny until devolution returns.
They also receive allowances, claiming mileage.
However in a House of Commons statement last week on Chief Constable Hugh Orde’s claim that the IRA carried out the Northern Bank heist in Belfast, Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said it was difficult to estimate when power sharing might return.
He also told MPs in a series of talks with the Northern Ireland parties he would explore their positions on a number of difficult issues facing them.
These included “the appropriateness of continuing to pay the salaries and allowances of the individuals elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in November 2003 and on our proposed way forward on the regulation of donations to political parties in Northern Ireland”.
Unionists have claimed it would be wrong for the Government to continue with direct rule from Westminster, claiming it penalises those parties which do not have links to paramilitary groups for the sins of others that do.
The Democratic Unionists have proposed a voluntary coalition involving themselves, the nationalist SDLP and the cross community Alliance Party as a way of bringing stable devolution to Northern Ireland, arguing such a system already works successfully in Scotland.
The Reverend Ian Paisley’s party has also suggested if that is not possible, the running of the 11 government departments should be handed over to the Assembly itself, with Stormont committees rather than ministers making the key decisions.
The SDLP has also come up with a proposal that power should be transferred back to Stormont with a team of commissioners drawn from civic society running government departments until MLAs are able to become ministers.
The Assembly would sit again, with commissioners facing the scrutiny of Stormont committees.
Both plans have, however, been rejected by David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists.
Mr Ervine said today it was difficult to see any way out of the current political crisis.
However he repeated his view that a statement from the IRA directly addressing Hugh Orde’s claim about its involvement in the Northern Bank robbery could help.
“It is very difficult to see us getting off this hook,” he admitted.
“But if the smart money is on the IRA being responsible for the Northern Bank, then the people who got us on this hook are republicans and the people who can get us off are republicans.
“We need the IRA to respond, not through sources or Sinn Féin leaders but in a statement by P O’Neill, to the Northern Bank claims and put its own credibility on the line.
“We also need clarity about what the IRA exactly meant in the recent talks about it ’going into a new mode’ and it also means movement from the IRA in the process with no prizes or prices extracted.”
suicide
Bereaved families take action to tackle suicide
Three Co Leitrim families devastated by the suicide of loved ones have been moved to organise a two-day seminar on the suicide issue in their home village next month.
The McTernan, Fallon and Kerins families have established a committee, STOP (Suicide: Teach, Organise, Prevent) to explore ways of reaching out to depressed people so that those in need can get help.
Just over a year ago, John and Mary McTernan of Dromahair lost their son Gary, 24, after he hung himself in the family garage.
The happy-go-lucky factory worker had said good night to his parents the previous night without any warning of what was to follow.
In the same village three years previously, Sean and Carmel Fallon buried their son Kevin, 26, after he ended his own life while the nearby Kerins family lost Pat, 27 in May 2001.
Mary McTernan, a former psychiatric nurse, believes that each of the 10,000 attempted suicide cases every year should be assigned adequate psychiatric assessment.
“Parents are often so close to their children that they don’t see the warning signs. They’re not really aware of what they’re looking for.”
“I believe now that Gary was depressed and if only he had got treatment he may be alive today.”
“He left a note saying that he loved us and not to be annoyed. He asked us to pray for him and talk to him now and again.”
Mary believes that the Government’s priorities are misplaced when it comes to “Irelands secret tragedy” of suicide.
She said: “Suicide kills more young people than road traffic accidents, yet the Government spends millions on high-profile road safety campaigns and ignores our young men and women who may someday kill themselves.”
“Suicide is still the social stigma it always was even after it was decriminalised. A Government-funded public awareness campaign could educate people on the issue and not leave so many bereaved families asking the agonising question ’what if’?
The conference on February 18-19 will be opened by RTÉ’s Northern Editor Tommie Gorman who has local connections in Dromahair and will be addressed by 2FM presenter Gareth O’Callaghan who has suffered from depression.
Suicide bereavement counsellors, researchers and psychiatrists will also speak over the two days in the Abbey Manor Hotel.
Oldest bird
At 55, gull found in Ireland is oldest wild bird in world
GULL: Manx shearwater
LARA BRADLEY
MONOGAMY, a raucous personality and plenty of globetrotting could be the secret to a long life, according to ornithologists who have discovered the oldest wild bird in the world living in Ireland.
A type of gull called a Manx Shearwater, living on a group of islands off Co Down, has reached an incredible 55 years of age, making it theoldest recorded wild bird in the world.
A study has revealed that the bird was thought to be at least five years old when it was first tagged with an identity ring on the Copeland Islands in July 1953.
The bird has been recaptured and retagged five times in the intervening 50 years and was last captured in 2003 in the same place. It is thought to still be alive and edgingtowards its sixth decade.
Neville McKee, who helps run a bird observatory on Copeland Island, said: “This bird is just one of the earliest to have been ringed. We have many birds coming up to that age. We have 3,000 pairs of breeding Manx Shearwaters. They are monogamous birds, but the males and females are identical so we can’t tell what sex this oldest one is. We suspect it may still be breeding, but we have no way to prove that. We have one in its 40s that we know is definitely still breeding.
“These birds are with us from March until September and then they head off to the Brazilian coast. They spend Christmas in South Africa and will be in Newfoundland now.
“Their only real problem,” Mr McKee added, “is thatthey are very tasty for many creatures to eat, including Australians.
“They are called mutton birds in Australia, where about a million a year are sold nicely wrapped up and ready to cook in the supermarkets.”
In its long life, the world’s oldest wild bird is estimated to have clocked up around five million miles of flight. The Manx Shearwater, also known as the Puffinus Puffinus, is about 30cm long with a wingspan of up to 83cm. It emits a raucous, coughing call which can be deafening as large numbers move in and out of colonies.
The males and females share responsibility for caring for their offspring and they have one chick at a time. They feed mostly on fish and krill and get their name ‘Shearwater’ from their tendency to glide along the troughsof waves.
The second oldest recorded wild bird in the world in the study by the British Trustfor Ornithology is another Manx Shearwater, which was 52 years old when it was caught on an island off Wales last year.
McGuinness: ‘unacceptable’
McGuinness: IRA involvement in bank raid would be “unacceptable”
12:56 Sunday January 16th 2005
In the North, Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness says that if the IRA had carried out the £26.5m Northern Bank raid it would have been “unacceptable”.
He again said he believed IRA denials they were not involved in the robbery.
Mr McGuinness said if the IRA had been involved in that robbery it would have been a defining moment in Sinn Fein’s leadership work with the IRA.
He said he would not have stood for it and it would have been totally and absolutely unacceptable to him.
No-one in the Sinn Fein leadership had any knowledge of the raid, he said, and it was not in the interests of the IRA to have carried it out.
Doing so would have been a risky operation, which would have undermined the republican contribution to what he called the “vitally important peace process”.
Ahern and Adams
Ahern snubs Adams since bank heist
JIM CUSACK and
LIAM COLLINS
BERTIE Ahern was enjoying a short break in Marbella while his department was busy last week ignoring the protestations of the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams.
Mr Ahern flew out to Puerto Banus on Monday and returned on Thursday, during which time he received updates on Mr Adams being “offended and disappointed” that his telephone calls were not returned.
But the Taoiseach is no longer worried about sensitivities of the Sinn Fein President - at least not at the moment.
For Mr Ahern has received garda intelligence which reveals that an IRA man from south Armagh was in charge of the Northern Bank robbery.
This terrorist, along with other hardliners, had urged a return to a bombing campaign in Britain, something which was seriously discussed at a high level in Sinn Fein/IRA. It was decided, however, to carry out the bank heist instead.
The Taoiseach has been told that the south Armagh terrorist sits alongside Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Sinn Fein TD, Martin Ferris, on the IRA’s seven-man Army Council.
As a result of this piece of intelligence, gathered in the last fortnight, Mr Ahern declared his belief that the Sinn Fein leadership was aware of the robbery beforehand.
Mr Ahern is still furious with Mr Adams and his associates for duping him over the £26.5m heist.
He intends to ignore the Sinn Fein leadership until he returns from a trade mission to China on Saturday.
Mr Ahern and four of his ministers depart for the Far East tomorrow.
Such is the Taoiseach’s indifference to the complaints of Gerry Adams last week, that he was said to be more concerned about the death of his elderly tabby cat, ‘Benjamin’, than he was at petulant foot-stamping of the Sinn Fein President.
The cat, taken in by Mr Ahern almost five years ago, was discovered by the Taoiseach when he returned to his home in Drumcondra last weekend, shortly before he jetted out to sunny Spain.
“Ben used to meet Bertie at the door every night when he returned to his home, no matter how late it was. The Taoiseach will miss him,” a source said yesterday.
Yesterday, meanwhile, further details were emerging as to why the Sinn Fein leadership sanctioned the heist.
The Sunday Independent has learned that there has been a debate at the top of the terrorist organisation about relaunching its bombing campaign in Britain.
Senior security sources in the North have disclosed that a return to its ‘military’ campaign was only avoided when Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness agreed to the robbery in its place.
The Adams/McGuinness faction are concerned that post-September 11, and the Al-Qaeda bomb attacks on trains in Madrid, that, internationally, Sinn Fein would be cast into the political wilderness.
It is believed theyreluctantly agreed to therobbery instead of the return to a bombing and murder campaign.
The south Armagh IRA man suspected of leading the bank raid was elevated on to the IRA Army Council only two years ago in a move that caused concern among senior gardai at the time.
This was because he has a reputation as a purely “operational” figure.
It is estimated that in his career in the IRA he was involved in at least 60 killings from the massacre of 10 Protestant mill workers in south Armagh in 1976 to the killing of 18 British soldiers at Warrenpoint in 1979.
The man, who is in his 50s, lives on a small farm close to the border.
Gardai now regard the south Armagh IRA as holding control over the entire crime operations. There is still no sign of the whereabouts of the £26.5m stolen before Christmas.
Police sources in Northern Ireland say there is no basis, so far, in reports that the money is being sold on the black market at rates of three times less than its face value.
Several rumours to this effect have emerged but, as yet, none of the money has been found. Sinn Fein, meanwhile, may face having its Westminster Parliamentary allowances of over £400,000 annually withdrawn if a DUP motion seeking to stop the money is carried next month.
DUP chief whip Nigel Dodds said yesterday: “A party that is inextricably linked to an organisation that illegally raises millions of pounds each year and has just taken possession of £26m should not receive parliamentary allowances of £400,000.”
Conservative leader Mr Howard was joined by Opposition Northern Ireland spokesman David Lidington, Basingstoke MP Andrew Hunter and Ulster Unionist the Rev Martin Smyth in signing the DUP motion.
However, Labour has so far held back from indicating its position on the motion.
Padraigin Drinan
Newsmedianews | Northern Ireland news
Leading Human Rights Solicitor “Shut Down” by Law Society
Society claims ‘substantial history of complaints going back … years’
Exclusive report by Sean Mc Aughey
January 13, 2005
Sources and friends close to Northern Ireland lawyer Padraigin Drinan are saying the official reasons behind an enforced closure by the Northern Ireland Law Society of the offices of Ireland’s foremost human rights defender and solicitor remains wide open for damaging speculation.
Former clients who contacted the Law Society say they were immediately re-directed to a voice mail inbox belonging to the Deputy Secretary; Suzanne Bryson who was unavailable.
On Wednesday a Law Society spokesman was asked if Ms Drinan’s certificate to practice been fully revoked. The spokesman described the measures against Ms Drinan as a “removal of her provision to practice.” and added that a full Law Society press statement on the matter would be available.
In a statement released on Friday, January 14, 2005, the Law Society said: “Ms Drinan has a substantial history of complaints going back a number of years. These have led to a series of decisions by the Law Society to bring proceedings against Ms Drinan before the Disciplinary Tribunal, established for this purpose by the Solicitors (NI) Order 1976, as amended. The Disciplinary Tribunal operates independently of the Law Society.”
However, no clarrification of the substance or nature of the ‘complaint’ was given. The statement continues: “Complaints against Ms Drinan came before the Disciplinary Tribunal in May 2004. On considering the evidence presented by the Law Society, the Tribunal found that the complaints had been duly substantiated. It may be helpful to explain that in addition to imposing certain fines and costs penalties, the Tribunal Order records as follows; ‘The Tribunal noted with regret the Respondent’s (Ms Drinan) previous history of proven complaints before the Tribunal which were all similar to the complaints today. They formed the view that the Respondent was not functioning at any acceptable level as a single practitioner and that in the interest of the public and the Respondent herself, they are ordering that she is restricted from practising on her own account or in partnership. She may accept employment from another solicitor provided they have at least seven years post qualification experience. The Tribunal also orders that she shall not work in any practice using her name on the title or as one of the principals.’ The Tribunal were prepared to defer the implemantation of the Order for a reasonable period to allow Ms Drinan to make alternative arrangements. This deferment initially applied until September 2004 with a subsequent deferral to a date than fixed by the Tribunal at 6 January 2005.
“As and from that date, Ms Drinan is not entitled as a matter of law to practise on her own account. If she continues to do so, she will not only be in breach of the Order of the Tribunal, but will also be committing a criminal offence. In these circumstances the Law Society is under an obligation to see that the terms of the Tribunal Order are complied with.
“Ms Drinan is not inhibited from practice as an employed solicitor.
“The inability of Ms Drinan to continue in practice on her own account is not an action taken by the Law Society but is a function of an Order made by the Disciplanary Tribunal. Ms Drinan has not to our knowedge at any time sought to contest or appeal the Orders made by the Disciplinary Tribunal.” The statement was signed by Don Anderson, for the Law Society.
An informed source close to Ms Drinan said it was believed that as a result of her civil rights involvement she was seen by the establishment as an embarrassing and troublesome ‘thorn in the side’ who had done nothing wrong other than to try to provide legal advice to those who could not otherwise afford it.
IRSP spokesperson, Terry Harkin described Ms Drinan as “someone who was on par with James Connolly especially in terms of helping the poor and the voiceless all over Ireland” and he asked “where will the most vulnerable in our society get legal help now ”?
“Padraigin Drinan,” he continued, “is a once in a lifetime heroine who ought to be recognized and elevated for her tireless work and not punished, bullied and intimidated by some of her colleagues, who have left her open to a humiliating whisper campaign. ”
A Spokesperson for the Anti Racism Network described The Law Society’s actions as “questionable” and she asked where was the Law Society’s energy when legal immigrants were imprisoned with their children, being bombed from their home or loosing their legs due to frostbite. The immigrants she said are only a small example of the many communities throughout Ireland who are indebted to Padraigin Drinan. ”
Padraigin Drinan speaking from her Belfast office said: “At this stage it appears that I am accused of being a poor business manager but not guilty of any financial impropriety. I have been instructed also that I must amalgamate with other solicitors. ”
But she added: ”I am heartened by the hundreds of calls from well wishers and supporters from all over the world including a call from among others, Gareth Pierce.”
background items
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Lawyer’s dismissal draws sharp rebuke
15th January 2005
By Sean Mc Aughey
“Whoever is responsible for closing Ms Drinan’s practice is failing the most marginalized and vulnerable people in our society and depriving them of the legal representation of their choice.” Eileen Calder, the Rape Crisis & Sexual Abuse Centre Northern Ireland
The recent removal of Padraigin Drinan’s Human Rights Advocate inscription from her office door, emanating from a decision by a Disciplinary Tribunal presented with evidence from the Law Society has eradicated not only Ms Drinan’s right to practice law as a single practitioner for the foreseeable future but it has rendered null and void her more than 30 years of pioneering legal experience and achievement, writes Sean McAughey.
Further stipulations by the Disciplinary Tribunal seem to cut off most reasonable options and serve only to render Ms Drinan’s letterings as invisible especially as a named partner on any other legal advising door or business card. Whether such invisibility is intended or not, Ms Drinan’s horizons appear to be little more than an office clerk providing she can find a solicitor with at least seven years post qualification experience to employ her.
Many onlookers might flippantly regard this affair as much ado about people with big letters after their name. But ironically, the polar opposite is being interpreted by countless frightened, vulnerable and marginalized people in Ireland because they largely accredit their ability to face life once again to the compassionate and altruistic intervention of Padraigin Drinan.
Eileen Calder of the Rape Crisis & Sexual Abuse Centre Northern Ireland said: “Whoever is responsible for closing Ms Drinan’s practice is failing the most marginalized and vulnerable people in our society and depriving them of the legal representation of their choice.”
Ms Calder said: “Padraigin Drinan has given her time and help free of charge to the Rape Crisis Centre for the last twenty five years. It is the opinion of our organization that there is no other solicitor in the North of Ireland either professionally capable or personally willing to represent and assist these people to whom we have referred to Ms Drinan over the years.
“Padraigin’s work with the Chinese and Indian communities on immigration issues and on behalf of refugees is unique to her practice, there is no other lawyer in Northern Ireland who shares either her level of expertise or interest in this work.”
Ms Calder further said: “Not only has Padraigin dealt professionally with more clients who have been raped or sexually abused than any other solicitor in Northern Ireland, she has also carried out much research and entered submissions to working parties and government commissions on changing Northern Ireland’s archaic laws on sexual offences. Again this work is unpaid.
“I cannot think of another person I know, in any profession who has shown the kind of single-minded dedication to her life’s work that Padraigin Drinan has. She has done this with little thought of financial reward and no thought of personal glory.”
