Police attacked with petrol bombs
Police have been attacked with petrol bombs during a search operation in north Belfast.
Officers were conducting the searches in the Ballysillan Avenue area of the city, at about 1830 GMT on Monday, when they were attacked.
The tyres on four police vehicles were damaged in the incident. One person has been arrested.
A spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said there were no reports of any injuries.
Pastor’s anger over feud violence
By David Gordon
dgordon@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
24 January 2005
A Shankill minister today called for a public campaign against Protestant terror groups, as fears grew of a surge in inter-loyalist feuding in west and north Belfast.
Pastor Jack McKee also blamed the UVF for weekend attacks in which several taxis were hijacked and torched.
The targeted taxi company is owned by leading loyalist Jackie Mahood, who split from the UVF’s political wing, the PUP, in the 1990s and has since survived a number of murder bids.
The weekend attacks were the latest in a series of incidents involving taxis in loyalist areas.
There have also been rising tensions in north Belfast, involving UVF and LVF elements.
Pastor McKee called for a community campaign to halt all “terrorist activity”.
The taxi hijackings occurred at around 7pm on Saturday in the Ballysillan, Highfield, Glencairn and Woodvale areas.
We Say
Another hurdle to clear
Few would have imagined that ten years after the first IRA ceasefire, the future of the peace process would depend on Sinn Féin accepting the PD view of history.
But that’s exactly what Tanáiste Mary Harney demanded yesterday when she insisted there would be no place in politics for Sinn Féin unless they “stated clearly” that the murder of Jean McConville was a crime.
Thus the price of participation for Sinn Féin in Government north and south isn’t decommissioning, the Mitchell Principles, the retirement of the IRA or even agreeing to share power with Paisleyites. Now they have another hurdle to clear: brand your own campaign as criminal.
That’s a Rubicon republicans aren’t going to cross.
But they aren’t alone in clinging firmly to their own interpretation of history; even as they engage in the difficult work of making peace with old enemies.
The Labour Party has no plans to expel its members with roots in the armed revolutionaries of the Official IRA over the execution of Ranger Best.
The British aren’t close to admitting that the shooting of schoolgirls Julie Livingstone and Carol Ann Kelly was a crime.
The loyalists are more likely to ‘celebrate’ Greysteel and Loughinisland in gory wall murals than declare their campaign criminal.
And the unionists queueing up at the doors of power in Stormont are never, never, never going to acknowledge that the creation of Northern Ireland and the subjugation of its nationalist minority was a criminal conspiracy from the word go.
How come then that those sworn enemies could not only replace war, war with jaw, jaw but were set for an historic compromise before Christmas? Because they all concur on one thing: the past, unlike the future, is a subject on which the parties to the conflict will always disagree.
The killing of Jean McConville was an abomination. The laws of the land decreed it a crime. But whether those who carried out that grim deed viewed themselves as criminals is another issue altogether. In fact, it’s a core republican belief — eventually accepted by British and Irish authorities after lengthy prison protests — that they were in fact soldiers at war. Even wars, of course, have codes of conduct and it would be a foolish person indeed who would say those rules were never broken by the IRA — or the other participants.
Was every IRA member who picked up a gun in a society where peaceful change had been stymied a criminal? And was everyone who provided a safe house for republicans on the run commiting a crime? The law says they were.
The PDs believe that to be the case. The majority of nationalists, however, especially those in the frontline in areas such as Ardoyne and Crossmaglen, beg to differ.
Until now, the peace process was constructed on allowing the former parties to the conflict to make their own reconciliation with the past. All that is now changed with the insistence of the PDs that there can only be one take on history: theirs.
In political terms, that’s a great strategy for the PDs and the recent opinion polls do suggest that Sinn Féin is going to take a PR battering if it continues to stand over every act the IRA carried out in the midst of a brutal and horrific conflict.
However, that’s Sinn Féin’s prerogative. The voters can give their own verdict on that stance in due course. What can’t be tolerated is that the past be elevated above the future in the next critical phase of the peace process. To do so will lead only to stalemate and deadlock — which may play well with the PD constituency — but which will only lead to despair and heartbreak in constituencies which bore the brunt of 30 years of conflict.
Seven Stars Republican Socialist News
Henry McDonald and Seán Russell
In the Observer (16 January 2005), Henry McDonald accused Liam O Ruairc of
‘Nazi like denial’ of the alleged collaboration between Sean Russell and the
Nazis. (see article)
However, it is Henry McDonald who gets his facts wrong:
“The facts about Russell’s tenure as IRA O/C as well as his death are
crystal clear. As British cities were relentlessly bombed during the
Luftwaffe Blitz Russell dispatched bombers of his own to England.
Explosions killed civilians in cities such as Coventry…”
Unfortunately, Henry McDonald is factually wrong. The IRA’s 1939-1940
campaign and the Blitz did not take place at the same time. It was on Monday
16 January 1939 that the IRA bombing campaign in England began -nine months
before the Second World War began. It had peaked by the time the Prevention
of Violence (Temporary Provisions) Bill was introduced by Westminster on 24
July 1939. The Coventry explosion mentioned by Henry took place on 25 August
1939. And by the time Barnes and McCormack were hanged on 7 February 1940,
the campaign was well on its way out. The Battle of Britain began in the
summer of 1940, and the Blitz officially started on 7 September 1940. That
was a year after the Coventry explosion. It is thus factually incorrect to
imply that the IRA and Luftwaffe campaigns took place at the same time.
“Moreover, Russell was feted in Berlin and travelled there voluntarily. In
order to aid the IRA campaign to disrupt the British war effort Russell was
transported back from Berlin in 1944 on a U-boat.”
Again, Henry gets the facts wrong. It was on August 1940 that Russell and
Ryan were sent back to Ireland by U Boat. By 1944, Russell had been dead
four years.
Henry writes: “Usually intelligent republican writers and critics such as Liam
O’Ruaric in Belfast have also gone down the Nazi-like denial line pointing
to Ryan’s
presence on the submarine and the fact that so many IRA veterans like him
fought on the Republican side in Spain.”
My argument about Russell is not based on Ryan’s presence but on a series of
well-established evidence.
“Sean Russell was essentially a physical-force republican and from what we
know he had little interest in ideologies and politics.
The Nazi attempts to indoctrinate Russell with their philosophy and politics
failed spectacularly. Sean Russell told one German official: “I am not a
Nazi. I’m not even pro-German. I am an Irishman fighting for the
independence of Ireland. The British have been our enemies for hundreds of
years. They are the enemy of Germany today. “If it suits Germany to give us
help to achieve independence, I am willing to accept it, but no more, and
there must be no strings attached.” (The Irish Times, 6 June 1958).
The Public Records Office has released files, which show that, after
intensive post-war interrogation of German intelligence agents at the
highest level, British intelligence itself concluded in 1946 “Russell
throughout his stay in Germany had shown considerable reticence towards the
Germans and plainly did not regard himself as a German agent”.
In his 1958 novel, Victors and Vanquished, Francis Stuart observed of the
Russell-based character: “Pro-German when it comes to the English and
Pro-Jew when it’s a question of the Germans”.
One might dismiss this as a literary invention were it not that this
assessment was corroborated by a more significant witness - Erwin Lahousen,
the first and most important witness for the prosecution at the Nuremberg
War Crimes Trials in 1945. Lahousen had been head of the second bureau of
the German Intelligence
Service from 1939 to 1943. Lahousen wrote that Russell was “a real
republican of the old school”, who may be willing “to use the Germans for
his own political ends”, but who “regarded the Nazi philosophy as anathema”.
In conclusion, Mr McDonald’s argument is very shaky and needs to provide a
great deal more evidence to back up his claims of Liam’s “Nazi like denial”.
Cautious welcome to Mountpottinger news
Belfast Deputy Mayor and Short Strand Sinn Féin Councillor, Joe O’Donnell has given a cautious welcome to reports that the future of Mountpottinger Barracks is under review.
The barracks, which is currently only open on a part time basis, is listed along with a number of other PSNI installations as subject to review pending permanent closure. This follows in the wake of the weekend closure of Andersonstown Barracks.
Councillor O’Donnell said, “The maintenance of Mountpottinger Barracks in the midst of the Short Strand has been a constant reminder to the local community of the official state policy of keeping the croppies in their place.
“If nationalist areas are to receive any long terms benefits from the peace process then military installations such as Mountpottinger need to be removed immediately.
“Over the past number of years I have campaigned along with the community for the replacement of Mountpottinger Barracks with a social housing scheme which would help to alleviate the serious housing shortage in the Short Strand.
“To this end I had a meeting with Jane Kennedy when she was NIO Security Minister and wrote to John Reid, requesting a meeting, during his tenure as British Secretary of State.”
Originally an RIC station, the barracks has been located in the area since before partition. It has had a long and controversial relationship with the people of the Short Strand. In December 1983 an RUC man based in Mountpottinger shot dead 18 year old Tony Dawson.
Journalist:: Staff Reporter
British did gas POWs in Long Kesh
30 years on and the truth finally comes out
A former republican prisoner has vowed to fight for justice for his dead comrades after a new freedom of information act – which came into effect on January 1 – revealed that the chemical CR Gas was employed by the British Army against republican prisoners in Long Kesh 30 years ago.
The dramatic breakthrough proves the British did inflict poison gas on both sentenced and interned prisoners after they burned the notorious Cages in protest at conditions in October 1974.
Over 50 former prisoners have either died prematurely through cancer or have been diagnosed with the disease possibly as a result of the choking poison that the British Army rained down on over 800 men.
As revealed by the Andersonstown News in several articles over the past five years, prisoners including internees, both republican and loyalists, as well as the British armed forces deploying the weapons, were exposed to their deadly toxins.
It will vindicate former POWs who have been fighting for several years for the British government to admit that they used CR Gas and it will severely embarrass the British government who denied the sinister attack ever took place.
Former POW Kevin Carson said it showed how the British engaged in chemical warfare against “defenceless” prisoners in Long Kesh and said it was particularly poignant that the news should break on the week of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz where tens of thousands of men, women and children were gassed by the Nazis.
In 1998 John Spellar, minister for the British armed forces, in a written answer to Labour MP Ken Livingstone denied that CR Gas had ever been used ‘operationally’.
Some time later former shadow Secretary of State for the North Kevin McNamara asked the same minister what quantity of CR gas was used on October 16 1974. Again Spellar denied it was used by significantly saying that “some 200 hand held spray devices containing 0.05 per cent CR were held at HM Prison Maze at the time”.
But now the secret go-ahead to use the chemical weapons has been revealed in papers from 1976 that show that the use of CR or Dibenzoxazepine – 10 times more powerful than tear gas – was allowed from 1973 to be released onto Long Kesh.
Documents show that the authorisation was so sensitive that officials involved in organisation training with the chemical were told: “All concerned should be told of the consequences of idle talk”.
Kevin Carson described how the CR Gas fell on the prisoners, describing the attack as “hell on earth”.
“These prisoners compared to any random group suffered a high percentage of premature deaths as a result of internal cancers,” he said.
“The gas affected your sinuses and throat. That continued down the nose and throat with mucus.
“It was like you were drowning in your own mucus and your eyes filled up with water. The gas filled the whole football pitch in the jail in a dense fog.
“The bombs fragmented into smaller bomblets of gas leaving the dense effect on the ground.
“The result has been agonising diseases suffered by Irishmen at the behest of the British,” he said.
Journalist:: Andrea McKernon
Travellers hit out at government
Members of the Traveller Community in Belfast have hit out at the government after becoming “extremely frustrated” with delays to a proposed housing scheme.
Michael Mongan (right), a spokesperson for the Traveller Community, said that he and other members of his community have been waiting for five years for the British government to live up to its promises to provide a group halting site at the Monagh Bypass in West Belfast.
“We are at our wit’s end. Settled people think that we choose to live like this on the roadside. Since 1999 we have been waiting for a group housing scheme to start and not a sod of earth has so far been turned.”
The scheme requires the Department of Education (DENI), who currently own the site, to sell the land under the direction of the NIHE, and enable a housing association to develop the site for Travellers.
“These people in suits need to know that each day they delay the scheme is a day that we remain in Third World conditions,” said Michael Mongan.
Derek Hanway, Director of Belfast Travellers Support, believes that the delay is unacceptable.
“It is disgraceful that this has gone on for five years. It is tantamount to having people homeless for five years and you can imagine the uproar that would cause. Technically the Travellers are homeless, they are not choosing to live on unserviced sites.
“There appears to be a lack of will from people to implement the scheme. If you compare this to the scheme on the Glen Road, you can see what can be achieved if the political will is there.
“Many Travellers suspect that this is part of a longer term plan to slowly strangle the scheme, to have so many delays that they just slowly move away.
“If they do not want to go ahead with the scheme they should come out and say so but they should not make false promises,” he added.
A DENI spokesperson told the Andersonstown News that “there are still ongoing discussions as to that part of the site which is required to be retained”.
Journalist:: Staff Reporter
Celts fans quizzed on Northern Bank
Celtic fans travelling to Saturday’s SPL game with Motherwell at Parkhead were quizzed by Scottish police about the Northern Bank raid.
The Andersonstown News received phone calls yesterday from various supporters telling how they were singled out and questioned by Dumfries and Galloway police at Scottish ports, while making their way to and from the match, and some supporters said they were shocked to find themselves being questioned on the £26.5million Northern Bank heist.
As we went to press last night there were reports of other Celtic fans being detained.
Scottish cops ask fans if they knew who was involved in robbery
Celtic supporters from Belfast, who were detained by Scottish police over the weekend, found themselves being questioned about the Northern Bank heist.
And the Andersonstown News can reveal that fathers and mothers bringing their kids through Cairnryan port over the weekend were also asked details about their children and other members of their families.
And as we went to press last night there were further reports of other Celtic fans being detained at Scottish ports as they made their way home from Glasgow, many of them again said that they were questioned on the £26.5million Northern Bank robbery.
New ‘anti-terror’ laws have seen a number of supporters being detained by Scottish police over recent months as they travelled to Celtic games.
However, over the weekend Celtic supporters have told the Andersonstown News that more people than ever seemed to be detained and questioned for long periods of time.
As fans made their way to Saturday’s Celtic versus Motherwell match, cops asked many supporters their names, ages and place of birth of their kids – many of them just 10-years-old and younger.
A number of Celtic supporters contacted the Andersonstown News over the weekend to tell how they had been:
• detained in “cabins” for hours and interrogated by Dumfries and Galloway police without any access to a solicitor
• asked details of their kids and their fathers and mothers
• told that ‘files’ had to be updated
• told they could be held for up to NINE hours
• questioned on what they knew about the Northern Bank raid
• had possessions including mobile phones tampered with.
Hundreds of Celtic fans from Belfast make the journey to Scotland every week to watch their heroes.
Last night ex-political prisoner Eddie Higgins – a regular Celtic visitor to Parkhead – who was travelling with two friends to see Celtic’s 2-0 victory over Motherwell expressed outrage at his treatment.
And he said he also suspected his detention was because of a rally to commemorate Bloody Sunday taking place in the centre of Glasgow on Saturday.
He was travelling with mates Tomboy Loudon, a father of three, and Gerard Magee, a father of seven.
“They just asked a lot of stupid questions. It’s just a lot of harassment for people going to a match,” he said.
“They asked one of us did we believe the IRA carried out the Northern Bank job, and we just refused to comment on it. It was ridiculous, but they detained us for several hours.
“There was a Bloody Sunday march that was attacked by loyalists on Saturday in Glasgow, which was the first time it had been in the city centre.
“I am well used to being stopped, but I take exception when my kids are being asked about.”
Scottish folk group Shebeen who were travelling back to Glasgow after playing two nights in West Belfast said they had been asked the same questions about the Northern Bank heist.
Singer Alan Quinn who performed at the Andersonstown Social Club and the Roddys said he was asked if he knew “anyone involved in the peace process” who had been involved in the robbery.
“They also asked about our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and kids. They held us for four hours from around 9.20 in the morning to the afternoon,” he said.
“They took fingerprints and had sniffer dogs around our van.
“A sister of one of the group who came over to play with us for the first time was really distressed.
“We were asked if we knew any republicans.
“We had £500 payment for the band and they took down the serial numbers of all the Northern Bank notes.”
Sinn Féin MLA Fra McCann said he had written a letter to both the Scottish First Minister and to Celtic to highlight the abuse of Irish supporters being harassed by Scottish police.
“I was stopped from making a public speech in August about collusion.
“There is a whole range of issues here. In parts of Glasgow they are coming in and demanding the removal of Irish songs from jukeboxes.
“Again it’s the criminalisation of republicanism,” he said.
“The politicians are staying mute about it despite a rise in sectarian attacks against Catholics in that country.”
A spokesperson from Dumfries and Galloway police constabulary last night refused to comment.
Journalist:: Staff Reporter
McGuinness suggests ’securocrats’ were behind Belfast raid
11:48 Monday January 24th 2005
Sinn Fein MP Martin McGuinness has suggested that British military intelligence agents may have been behind last month’s £26.5m bank heist in Belfast.
The PSNI, backed by the Irish and British Governments and all the North’s political parties except Sinn Fein, has publicly blamed the Provisional IRA for the robbery.
However, in an article in the Derry Journal today, Mr McGuinness appeared to suggest that British intelligence carried out the raid to undermine the peace process.
The Sinn Fein MP referred to a string of recent incidents that were blamed on the IRA, despite the lack of evidence or criminal charges against republicans.
He also referred to the 1973 bank robbery trial of the Littlejohn brothers, who said they were paid to work for British intelligence against the IRA.
Republicans celebrate police station’s closure with a storming of the barricades
REPUBLICAN protesters burst through the security gates of one of the most attacked police stations in the North yesterday.
A crowd of 100 Sinn Fein supporters held a protest outside Andersonstown Police Station in west Belfast, which closed its doors yesterday in preparation for demolition next month.
As a senior police officer prepared to stage a press conference to cover the closure, a number of protesters made their way through the security gates but did not gain access to the station.
They left peacefully after making a token protest.
Chief Inspector Peter Farrar said police did not plan to take any action following the breaching of the security cordon.
He said: “Every police station is a public building and we aim to serve the public and that’s all members of the public. Our only purpose within west Belfast is to make west Belfast safer.”
Mr Farrar said the closure of Andersonstown, which was established in 1887, was the end of an era for policing in the area.
“There are mixed emotions when any police station closes. Police officers worked here for over 100 years so there are many happy memories and some tragic and sad memories.
“Society has changed and policing has changed across Northern Ireland so we are trying to keep up with society by making sure what we are doing is the most effective and progressive way of policing in west Belfast,” he added.
Work has begun to dismantle the base, with the communications mast and other equipment already removed.
Three other stations in the area, Grosvenor Road, Woodbourne and New Barnsley, will remain open to provide policing in the west of the city.
Sinn Fein Assembly member for the area, Michael Ferguson, said no tears would be shed by republicans over the closure.
“Let’s not forget the base that the Special Branch watched while they sent their agent Michael Stone into Milltown to murder mourners at a funeral,” he said.
The station closure was recommended by the local district commander in 2003 and endorsed by the Northern Ireland Policing Board last month.
Gary Kelly
Murphy ‘fully confident’ of winning Omagh retrial
24 January 2005
By John Breslin
COLM MURPHY, whose conviction in connection with the Omagh bombing was overturned on Friday, expects to walk out of Portlaoise Prison on Wednesday.
The 52-year-old former builder, who claims to have been financially destroyed following his arrest and subsequent conviction, said relatives are trying to raise the cash so he can make bail.
Murphy must make a cash lodgement of €50,000 and provide two independent sureties of €25,000 each before he is released from prison.
“It will happen around Wednesday because it will take some time to raise the money. I’m on legal aid. I’m relying on relatives to raise the money,” he said.
The former builder told the Sunday Business Post he is “fully confident” of winning his retrial. It was ordered after three Court of Criminal Appeal judges ruled his conviction for conspiring to help the Omagh bombers is unsafe.
He is the only man to be convicted in connection with the bombing. He denies any involvement and his retrial could be held within the next few months as extra judges are to be appointed to speed up Special Criminal Court cases.
The appeal court ruled that the conviction was unsafe on two grounds. The three trial judges failed to bring to the “issue of the possible contamination of evidence or to the evaluation of the surviving that degree of extra critical analysis” warranted after allegations emerged that two gardaí falsified interview notes and lied under oath.
They also should not have referred to previous convictions when making their judgment.
Murphy, who says three years in jail led to the collapse of his marriage, said his lawyers knew from day one the conviction was unsafe. As soon as the judges referred to his previous convictions, his lawyers felt the conviction would not stand up on appeal, he said.
The families of victims of the bombing have called for a full public inquiry into what they believe to be a deeply flawed investigation in to the bombing, both here and in the North.
In Omagh, there is anger at the quashing of Colm Murphy’s conviction. One Saturday shopper told RTÉ: “People are hurt and upset that this is going on and on forever.”
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, asked whether the court judgment that the conviction was unsafe proved the investigation was flawed, said: “The Omagh investigation continues on, and will continue on. In the end I don’t know about the present prosecution but in the end, I don’t think the Omagh investigation is going to end.
“They have a huge amount of intelligence as you know, but proving it in these cases is always difficult,” said Mr Ahern in Hong Kong as he prepared to return home following a week-long trade mission to China.
In a separate but related development, Detective Sergeant John White, who claims an informant gave him critical information that may have prevented the bombing, has threatened to name in open court a senior garda whom he claims ignored the warning.
Det Sgt White, cleared this week of six charges of making false statements and three counts of perverting the course of justice, said he will name the member who allegedly said: “John, we’re going to let this one go through.”
Ferris claim - Government showdown with SF looms
Irish Examiner
24/01/05
YESTERDAY’S naming of Deputy Martin Ferris as a member of the IRA’s
Army Council represents a bombshell twist in the Government’s ongoing
assault on Sinn Féin links with paramilitarism and criminality.
It was an unprecedented development as Tánaiste Mary Harney said she
believed the North Kerry TD to be among “Oireachtas members” on the
council, the high command of one of the world’s most ruthless
terrorist organisations.
Not surprisingly, Mr Ferris restated his denial of the allegation as
despicable and accused the PDs of trying to damage Sinn Féin
electorally.
There seems no upper limit to the insulting and damaging charges
levelled at Sinn Féin by the PDs.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell has long waged a one-man campaign
against them.
Sinn Féin leaders stand accused of knowing in advance about the €32
million Northern Bank raid, blamed on the IRA.
They also stand condemned for refusing to admit that the
murder of Belfast woman Jean McConville was a crime. No warped
doctrine can excuse that heinous crime.
A showdown is looming when the Government and Sinn Féin meet
tomorrow.
Harney in scathing attack on SF
By Harry McGee
24/01/05
TÁNAISTE Mary Harney yesterday accused Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris of being a member of the IRA Army Council.
In an unprecedented public denunciation of a fellow member of the Oireachtas, Ms Harney also suggested although without naming any individual that more than one of Sinn Féin’s five Dáil deputies may sit on the council.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s ‘This Week’ programme, Ms Harney said: “Some of the Oireachtas members, I understand, sit on the army council.”
When asked what members she was referring to, she replied: “I understand Deputy Ferris may well be a member of the army council, but that’s a question you should put to him.”
Mr Ferris yesterday trenchantly denied the allegations and described them as despicable. “I have answered that question before. I am not a member of the IRA and am not a member of the army council,” he told the Irish Examiner.
The Kerry North deputy said: “This is a continuation of concerted efforts by the Progressive Democrats to make false allegations against members of Sinn Féin and try to damage (the party) electorally.”
The Tánaiste’s spokesperson said she was referring specifically to Mr Ferris when she said some of Sinn Féin’s Oireachtas members were on the IRA Army Council. The spokesperson said Ms Harney had a solid basis for her view, but was not prepared to say how she was aware of the information.
Yesterday’s outspoken remarks by the Tánaiste further escalated the already bitter stand-off between the Coalition parties and Sinn Féin in the aftermath of the Northern Bank robbery.
The Taoiseach is expected to adopt a tough stance with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams when they meet tomorrow for the first face-to-face encounter since the December 20 robbery. In two angry responses to Mr Ahern in the past week, Mr Adams has demanded an apology for the Taoiseach’s ‘insulting’ accusation that the SF leadership had prior knowledge of the robbery.
Ms Harney yesterday ruled out any possibility of that happening. She said she did believe the IRA denial of the robbery nor did she believe that Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness had no prior knowledge of the robbery. “I don’t believe anything happens in that organisation that they are not aware of. They can’t be treating us as fools. Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness are key players in the Provisional movement. Very little happens without their knowledge. Very little happens without their approval. Of that, I have no doubt.”
Ms Harney later said: “I think we are getting a bit fed up quite honestly with what’s coming from Sinn Féin. It’s about time they made it clear that paramilitarism in all its forms is not acceptable.”
Justice Minister Michael McDowell, speaking earlier on Today FM, claimed the Adjutant of the IRA in Belfast had authorised criminal acts on both sides of the Border. The Adjutant, he claimed, was on “brushing shoulders” terms with Mr Adams.
SF’s Dublin MEP Mary Lou McDonald, speaking on the same programme, retorted that SF did not support criminality. She asked why there have been no prosecutions if Government evidence was as solid as it was claimed to be.
However, in keeping with her party’s position, she refused to describe the abduction and murder of Jean McConville as a crime. “I think it was an awful, dreadful thing to happen. I would not attempt to justify it for a second. It was part of a litany of horrific things that happened over 30 years of conflict,” she said.
The Government confirmed last night that the Taoiseach will also meet delegations from the SDLP and the UUP in Government buildings tomorrow.
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