SAOIRSE32

IOL

SF members being questioned in NI bank raid probe
17/02/2005 - 17:16:06

It is believed that two of the seven people being questioned tonight as part of a major investigation into money laundering are members of Sinn Féin.

Three men a woman were arrested in Co Cork while three men were detained in Dublin as part of the same operation.

More than £10m (€14.4m) was seized during the operations.

Police forces on both sides of the border said there was nothing at this stage to link the recovered money with the £26.5m (€37.8m) robbery from the Northern Bank in Belfast.

A garda spokeswoman said the four people arrested in Cork were being detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act in various stations in the city.

“During the course of the arrests, a quantity of cash was seized in the Douglas area, and a substantial amount of cash in the Farran area,” she said.

“As part of the same operation, three men were arrested in Dublin city last night and are currently detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against The State Act in various stations in Dublin.

“This operation is ongoing.”

A spokeswoman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland insisted it was too early to link the seizure with the £26.5m (€37.8m) robbery from the Northern Bank in Belfast before Christmas.

“It is too early to say at this stage if any of the money found was connected to the Northern Bank robbery but both forces are in contact,” she said.

A spokesman for Justice minister Michael McDowell said he was being continuously briefed by gardaí on their investigation.

Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kincaid, who is in overall charge of the investigation into the Northern Bank robbery, was in Dublin today for talks with senior detectives where the raid was discussed.

Detective Superintendent Andy Sproule, who is heading the day-to-day operation of the probe, is expected to travel to Dublin tomorrow.

IOL

Gardaí carry out more money laundering haul raids

17/02/2005 - 18:38:49

It has been reported that the gardaí have launched raids in Meath and Westmeath connected to money laundering operations.

It comes after seven people were arrested earlier today in Cork and Dublin as part of an investigation into the multi-million pound robbery at the Northern Bank in Belfast.

Three men and a woman were detained in Co Cork and a large amount of cash was seized in the garda operation.

Belfast Telegraph

700 cattle set for BSE cull on Ulster farms

By Michael Drake
mdrake@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
17 February 2005

Almost 700 cattle will be culled from 200 Northern Ireland farms because of BSE.

They are the cohorts - born on or after August 1996 of parent cattle found to have had the disease.

The operation is part of a managed transition towards lifting the Over Thirty Months (OTM) rule which prevents animals of that age entering the food chain.

Before the OTM rule is replaced by testing and the export ban can be lifted, the UK will be required, like all other EU member states, to cull the cohorts of BSE cases.

Cohorts are defined as cattle born within a year of the birth of a BSE case; or reared with a BSE case.

It is anticipated it will take two to three months to complete this exercise.

Irelandclick.com

Hurling fans asked to show passport at border

Local hurling fans were subjected to an immigration check as they crossed the border en route to Dublin last Sunday.

Mystified fans contacted the Andersonstown News to detail what happened as they made their way to Parnell Park to watch Rossa in the All-Ireland Club Senior Hurling Championship semi-final.

“We were about a mile across the border on the Republic side when we were stopped by the Gardai who said they were conducting an immigration check.

“They asked for passports but of course nobody needs their passport for a trip to Dublin so a lot of us just showed bank cards and licences,” said one bewildered caller.

Whilst the Gardai were happy enough to accept these forms of ID from most people, they apparently focused their attention on a black man and removed him from the bus. Another caller claimed the same thing happened to him the previous weekend and that Asians were taken from his bus which consequently continued its journey to Dublin without them.

Daily Ireland

St Pat’s row hits bonfire site plan

Sinn Féin and the SDLP have launched a joint attempt to block unionist efforts to have Belfast City Council provide designated bonfire sites for July 12 bonfires.
The move came as a direct response to unionists on the council rejecting an application by organisers of the Belfast St Patrick’s Day Carnival for £30,000 funding to stage a concert outside City Hall on March 17.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s powerful Client Services Committee, Sinn Féin and the SDLP managed to get the designated bonfire site proposal, which was due to be approved, postponed until next month’s meeting of the committee.
The parties argued that it was unfair for the council not to fund St Patrick’s Day, yet provide loyalists with publicly-owned land for bonfires.
Former Sinn Féin Belfast Mayor Alex Maskey said: “The bogus argument unionists used against funding St Patrick’s Day was that it was not an inclusive event. Well, this argument can be applied to loyalist July 12 bonfires which are definitely not inclusive.”
North Belfast SDLP councillor Martin Morgan backed this view insisting the council should not fund a non-inclusive event. He said: “At last year’s July 12 bonfires loyalists burned posters of nationalist politicians and images of the Pope. The council cannot be seen to be funding such an event just days after the St Patrick’s Day fiasco.”
Under the designated bonfire site proposal the council agreed to allow bonfires to be burned at Inverary, Pitt Park, Westland, Mount Vernon, Annadale, Taughmonagh, Sunningdale and Highfield. The City Hall also offered loyalists managing bonfires in these areas up to £2,500 to organise cultural activities. In return for this the council sought assurances from loyalists that they would not dump wood at the locations prior to July 1 and they will marshal the bonfires.
Ulster Unionist councillor Davy Browne described the Sinn Féin and SDLP block on the scheme as “nationalists throwing their toys out of the pram”.
The High Sheriff of Belfast said: “No one ever said July 12 bonfires are inclusive.
“The reason why the council came up with new proposals on the bonfire issue was to stop areas being turned into illegal rubbish dumps in the months leading up to the Twelfth.
Last year’s clean-up bill wasclose to £20,000.

RTE News

Student remanded over Holohan death

17 February 2005 14:22

The 20-year-old engineering student charged with the manslaughter of Robert Holohan in Midleton last month has been remanded in custody for a further fortnight.

Wayne O’Donoghue of Ballyedmond, Midleton, Co Cork, is charged with killing Robert Holohan on 4 January.

Judge Michael Patwell extended time for service of the Book of Evidence beyond the 42 days which the State is allowed in law.

Supt Liam Hayes described the file on the garda investigation into Robert Holohan’s death as huge.

He said it involved more than a 1,000 statements and 2,000 checks. He added that Gardaí would need more time to compile it.

BBC

Young boy killed in bike accident

The mini motorbike lies in the road after the crash

A boy has died following an accident in the Shankill Road area of west Belfast.

David Spence from the Shankill estate was a passenger on a mini-scrambler motorbike which was being ridden by an adult.

The accident happened at the junction of Berlin Street and Riga Street. Police officers are still at the scene of the crash.

It is understood the child, who is thought to have been about four-years-old, was on a mini-motorbike which was in collision with a car.

Ulster Unionist councillor Chris McGimpsey said it was a “terrible accident” which had shocked everyone.

The accident happened at about 1130 GMT on Thursday.

BBC

Police seize Northern Bank notes

More than £26m was stolen from the Northern Bank

Police in the Irish Republic have arrested seven people and recovered a large amount of cash.

Over £2m is said to have been seized by police during raids in the Cork area, with more than £60,000 reported to be in Northern Bank notes.

Irish police have not confirmed if the raid is connected to the £26m Northern Bank robbery in Belfast in December.

The IRA has been blamed by the British and Irish governments for stealing the money. The IRA has denied this.

Arrests

The arrests were made as part of an on-going investigation into money-laundering.

Two men were arrested on Wednesday night in the Douglas and Passage West areas of Cork and another three were also detained in Dublin.

A man and a woman were arrested in a follow-up operation in the Farran area on the outskirts of the city on Thursday morning.

An Irish police spokeswoman said the suspects are being detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuiness said he was unaware of the arrests and said he would make no comment on the matter until he had more information.

He said there had been previous reports of Northern Bank notes being found and those reports had been false.

The party’s leadership has said they believe IRA denials that it did not carry out the bank robbery.

Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kincaid, who has been in charge of the Northern Bank investigation, was in Dublin on Thursday for meetings with senior Garda officers.

It is understood the raid was high on the agenda for the discussions.

A police spokesman in Northern Ireland said it was too early to say whether or not the arrests are connected to the robbery.

“The PSNI is working closely with An Garda Siochana as we have done since the start of the investigation,” he added.

BreakingNews.ie

Trimble to seek support for plan to exclude SF

17/02/2005 - 07:13:09

Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble is due to meet Irish Government officials today to discuss the ongoing fall-out from December’s £26.5m (€38.3m) bank heist in Belfast.

Mr Trimble is expected to seek support for his proposal that Sinn Féin be excluded from politics in the North as punishment for the IRA’s alleged involvement in the robbery.

The UUP leader has called on the British government to recall the Northern Assembly so MLAs can vote on a motion to exclude Sinn Féin from the body.

He said if this was not successful, London should use powers it granted itself two years ago to throw Sinn Féin out.

BBC

Device sent to home of DPP member

Army bomb experts dealt with the device

Army bomb experts have made safe a device sent to a member of a district policing partnership in County Down.

SDLP councillor Michael Carr became suspicious after the device was posted to his home in Warrenpoint.

“I am very annoyed and angry - there are children in this house who could have opened the package,” he said.

Mr Carr said he believed it was sent by the Real IRA. He said the dissident republicans have threatened him before, sending bullets inside sympathy cards.

He added: “The actions that were required to deal with the package inconvenienced my neighbours, some of whom are quite elderly.”

A number of SDLP members of district policing partnerships have been the target of intimidation.

District policing partnerships were set up across Northern Ireland under reforms initiated by a commission headed by former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten and implemented by the government.

They fall under the auspices of the Northern Ireland Policing Board which handles some of the most sensitive issues facing policing.

District policing partnerships are made up of councillors and members of the local community, who work alongside the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s 29 District Command Units in trying to meet local community policing needs.

BBC

Pressure on for bombings inquiry

Relatives of some of those killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings

The British government is under increasing pressure to hold a public inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1972 and 1973.

An Irish parliamentary committee has recommended its government bring a case before the European Court of Human Rights.

It wants to force the British government to hold a public investigation into the atrocities.

No-one has ever been convicted for the attacks which killed nine people.

On Wednesday, the seven-member sub-committee published a report in Dublin calling for the Irish and British parliaments to pass resolutions endorsing legal proceedings in the Strasbourg court.

The sub-committee also called for both houses of the Irish parliament and UK parliament to pass a motion endorsing the report’s recommendation of court action.

Criticism

Its report criticised authorities in Britain and Northern Ireland for their lack of co-operation over the investigation of the bombings.

Sub-committee chairman Sean Ardagh said: “They have a moral responsibility as well as a responsibility to justice to co-operate with us.

“We will continue in every way to pursue them and continue to attack their position.”

The Justice for the Forgotten group, which represents victims’ families, welcomed the recommendation to take the UK government to court.

Chairperson Bernie McNally said: “This is something positive for us. We hope that it can put pressure on those who are withholding information.

“The Irish government is finally beginning to take us seriously now and we want them to back us all the way to bring the UK authorities to court to set up a public inquiry to get answers.”

An Irish government spokesman said the cabinet welcomed the report and said it would be carefully considered.