SAOIRSE32

IRA2

Former Long Kesh inmates to sue over CR gas effects

Scott Millar
Sunday Times
20 Feb 2005

FORMER republican and loyalist prisoners plan legal
action against the British government for using a
toxic gas to quell a 1974 riot in Long Kesh.

They claim the CR gas has resulted in a high incidence
of cancers and lung problems among former internees.
It is thought that more than 50 prisoners affected by
the chemical spray have died or become ill.

After years of denial by the British authorities, it
emerged earlier this year in documents released under
the new Freedom of Information Act that CR gas was
authorised for use in Northern Ireland in 1973.

Jim McCann, an internee in Long Kesh, has been
compiling a list of the prisoners there when the gas
was released. “It is clear that a lot of men were
badly affected by what happened to them that day,” he
said.The effect of the gas, which was dropped in
canisters from helicopters and then divided into
thousands of little droplets, was immediate and
debilitating. To think that it is now costing men’s
lives is horrifying.

“We have fought for years to prove that the British
used us as guinea pigs for a gas that even the
American armed forces would not buy. Blood samples
were taken from prisoners affected by the gas.”

Research into the effects of the gas is being carried
out by Coiste na n-Iarchimi, a republican
ex-prisoners’ association, by Madden and Finucane
solicitors and by Sinn Fein. All the cases are being
compiled for a possible action under international
human rights law.

CR or dibenzoxazepine is a skin irritant 10 times more
powerful than other tear gases. The effects of CR are
similar to those of CS, the more common riot-control
gas, except that CR also induces intense pain on any
exposed skin. The affected areas remain sensitive for
days and become painful again after contact with
water. An American government estimation of the
effects of the gas, which was produced in Britain, is
that it cannot be safely used because “not enough is
known about the carcinogenic or mutagenic effects it
might have”.

Many of the men in Long Kesh, near Lisburn, were
internees not charged with specific crimes. Among the
internees and sentenced criminals were members of both
the official and provisional wings of the IRA, and
loyalists, including Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein
leader, Richard McAuley, the Sinn Fein press officer,
and Gusty Spence, the leader of the Ulster Volunteer
Force.

The riot at the prison involved nearly 800 republican
inmates in a dispute with the Northern Ireland Prison
Service over visits, food and compassionate parole.
Prisoners were largely allowed to run their own
affairs at the time, even holding rival Easter
parades. They had already made respirators to combat
the CS gas they thought the British Army would use.

Republicans burnt 21 of the compounds used to house
internees and took over the entire prison complex,
destroying watch towers and prison buildings. Some
leaders, including Adams, refused to burn their cells.
The next morning the British Army set about
recapturing the prison. A helicopter fired gas
canisters, which are now believed to have contained
the CR gas. Prisoners were incapacitated and easily
overpowered by the guards.

McCann said: “The canister exploded above us and the
air was filled with fumes. It felt as if your lungs
were filling with water. It was overpowering.”

The cost of the burning of Long Kesh was estimated at
£1.5m (€2.2m). About 130 prisoners and nine warders
were injured.

BreakingNews.ie

McAleese cancels Shankill visit

20/02/2005 - 20:41:16

President Mary McAleese has cancelled plans to visit the Shankill Road in Belfast this week, it emerged tonight.

Her spokeswoman said the president would meet staff and patients at Belfast City Hospital, deliver the O’Connell Lecture at St Malachy’s College and visit the Hannahstown area in west Belfast, however.

President McAleese was caught up in a storm of controversy on the 60th anniversary of the holocaust when she stated that Nazi hatred of Jews was similar to the way in which Protestant parents had instilled a distrust for Catholics in their children.

BreakingNews.ie

Durkan attacks Adams over SDLP criticism
20/02/2005 - 20:21:56

Mark Durkan has dismissed claims by Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams that his party, the SDLP, has done nothing for the peace process.

Mr Durkan has accused Mr Adams of trying to lash out at other parties, instead of sorting out his own.

Durkan reminded Sinn Fein that the SDLP had consistently argued for their inclusion in the peace process.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern appeared to pull back from his cabinet colleagues’ position today that they were satisfied with intelligence indicating that the top level Sinn Fein politicians Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, and Martin Ferris were also members of the ruling seven-man IRA Army Council.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell made the claim on a radio programme today and was later backed up by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern.

However, Bertie Ahern would not be drawn on who he believed might be sitting on this council or attending its meetings.

BreakingNews.ie

McDowell: Adams, McGuinness ‘run the IRA’

20/02/2005 - 18:06:50

Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness tonight stood accused by the Government of being members of the IRA’s ruling Army Council.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell said the Sinn Féin President and party chief negotiator – both MPs – and Martin Ferris were three of the members of the seven-man council.

Others have suggested the three men were involved at the top of the IRA but Mr McDowell was the first to make the direct accusation.

“We’re talking about a small group of people, including a number of elected representatives, who run the whole [Republican] movement,” he said.

“We are talking about Martin McGuinness, Gerry Adams, Martin Ferris and others,” said Mr McDowell.

Consistently the harshest critic of the IRA and Sinn Féin within the Government, Mr McDowell spoke out as the republican movement reeled from the worst crisis it has faced in years following the Garda raids which netted over £2.3m (€3.3m) they linked to an IRA money laundering ring.

Tests are still being carried out to see if the money came from the £26.5m (€38m) Northern Bank raid in Belfast, which the IRA has been accused of carrying out.

Mr McDowell said many professions – solicitors, accountants and financiers - were also connected to the criminal operation north and south of the border.

“Many people are sucked into it, some wittingly and some unwittingly,” he said, adding there was a “deep, deep dishonesty that goes to the very heart of the republican movement”.

Martin McGuinness made an immediate denial that either he or his party colleagues were on the IRA Army Council.

“Its not true. I reject it completely. What he has alleged is totally and utterly false.

“I’m not a member of the IRA. I’m not a member of the IRA Army Council,” he insisted but admitted his past again saying “I was a member of the IRA many years ago”.

Conceding the current situation was serious, he said Sinn Féin would not tolerate any criminal links within its ranks.

“Neither Gerry Adams nor I would have anybody near us who was in anyway involved in any criminality of any kind,” he said.

But he was caught in an Government pincer movement. Soon after Mr McDowell made his accusations Foreign Affairs Minister, Dermot Ahern, said it was time the leadership of Sinn Féin came clean about their links to the IRA.

He said: “We are absolutely satisfied that the leadership of Sinn Féin and the IRA are interlinked…they are two sides of the one coin.”

He reaffirmed Mr McDowell’s statement that Irish police intelligence had revealed that prominent Sinn Féin members had seats on the IRA Army Council.

“It was quite obvious to us from all of this intelligence that, in particular in recent times, that there was an interlinking and inter-weaving of the situation from a decision point of view,” said Mr Ahern.

He also hit out at IRA links to cross-border smuggling and robberies and said it was inconceivable to think the IRA was not involved in the Northern Bank robbery.

Gerry Adams, meanwhile, speaking at a commemoration in Co Tyrone for three IRA men shot dead by the SAS 20 years ago, continued to paint a picture of republicans as whiter than white.

“No republican worthy of the name can be involved in criminality of any kind. If they are they should be expelled from our ranks. We are not involved in criminality and we will not tolerate such behaviour,” he said.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy and Mr McDowell meet tomorrow to discuss their joint drive against the IRA 24 hours before Mr Murphy tells the House of Commons what sanctions he will take against Sinn Féin over the bank robbery.

His statement follows a report from the Independent Monitoring Commission that the IRA carried out the robbery and leading members of Sinn Féin knew of and sanctioned the heist.

Mr Murphy is being pressed by unionists to set in motion the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly and exclusion of Sinn Féin. But he is more likely to take financial sanctions.

Removing parliamentary allowances from Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness and their two fellow Sinn Féin MPs could hit them to the tune of £500,000.

Mr Murphy and Mr McDowell meet when they attend the signing of a ground-breaking agreement between the Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde and Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy which will herald in the exchange of officers.

Under the joint protocols they sign – first proposed in the Patten Report on the reform of policing in Northern Ireland – personnel exchanges and secondments will be introduced.

The exchanges increase the high level of collaboration which currently exist as the two police services investigate the Northern Bank robbery and allegedly massive IRA money laundering in the Republic of Ireland.

Mr Orde said today he was unimpressed by the planting of £50,000 from the robbery at a police sports club in Belfast and branded it nothing more than a minor distraction from the main investigations into IRA activity.

The IRA had started to responded to his request that they give the £26.5 million stolen before Christmas back, he said .

The Chief Constable spoke out following confirmation that the firs money from the robbery had been recovered.

It was in five shrink-wrapped £10,000 lots – found hidden in the toilets of the Newforge Country Club in south Belfast and discovered during a search after a call to the Police Ombudsman from a man claiming to be a police officer.

Mr Orde said the money had clearly been planted by the IRA to try to divert attention from the money laundering investigation being conducted in the Republic and his own robbery investigation.

The money recovered was “a small amount of money in terms of the bank robbery,” he said.

“It‘s a distraction, it‘s people trying to take the focus of the key issue which is the operation run by the Garda and the major crime inquiry we still have ongoing.”

Amid some concern about the ability of the IRA to get inside a sports club run for serving and retired police officers and their families, Mr Orde said it had been easy to do.

“Places like sports clubs have become far more open, it was an easy thing to do.

“I’m not particularly impressed by it, but I did ask them to give the money back … they have started to listen.”

The Chief Constable said it was still too early to say with certainty whether the money seized across the border in Cork on Thursday was from the robbery.

Examination of over £2 million is being conducted by Irish police to see if the money they seized as part of their drive against IRA money laundering was from the Belfast raid.

Meanwhile the last person be be detained in the Garda operation – a man reported to police for allegedly burning sterling in the back garden on his home outside Cork – has been released without charge.

BreakingNews.ie

Adams: SF does not tolerate criminality

20/02/2005 - 16:18:37

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has made another defence of republicans today insisting they were not involved in the Northern Bank robbery or money laundering.

Hours after being named by the Government as a member of the IRA’s Army Council – though he has claimed for years he has never been in the terror group - he said republicans were not criminals.

“No republican worthy of the name can be involved in criminality of any kind. If any are they should be expelled from our ranks,” he said during an address in Strabane, Co Tyrone at a memorial service for three IRA men shot dead by the SAS 20 years ago.

Mr Adams added: “We are not involved in criminality and we will not tolerate such behaviour. Our opponents know that. But some of them can barely disguise their glee at the recent turn of events. There has been trial by media.”

A Sinn Féin member was arrested and released without charge “and the entire Sinn Féin party is condemned as criminal.

Money from the Northern Bank was found in the police sports club in Belfast “and this is reported as being an effort to embarrass British forces”, he added.

Mr Adams said the “campaign of vilification” was going to continue for some time, but there was no doubt that Sinn Féin would “weather this storm”.

Sunday Life

Stakeknifed in the back!

By Chris Anderson
20 February 2005

FORMER British intelligence officers have offered to meet the parents of a republican who was brutally murdered by the IRA’s notorious ‘nutting squad’.

The dramatic offer came as the parents of Johnny Dignam called for a public inquiry into claims their son was sacrificed by Army agents to protect their top IRA spy, Freddie ‘Strakeknife’ Scappaticci.

Pat and Irene Dignam, from Portadown, told Sunday Life they wanted Scappaticci and his Army spy masters to be summoned to give evidence.

“It’s hard to differentiate between the lies and the truth,” said Irene, holding a photograph of her son on her lap.

“But all we want is the truth, and we will not let this matter rest until we get the truth.

“As a family, we can’t be hurt anymore.”

Johnny Dignam, a 32-year-old married man, was abducted by the IRA’s ruthless internal security unit, along with fellow Provos Gregory Burns (33) and Aidan Starrs (29) in June 1992.

The trio were interrogated for a week before being shot. Their naked and hooded bodies were found on July 1, in a remote field along the south Armagh border. The IRA admitted the killings, claiming all three were working for the British security services, and that they had killed Portadown woman Margaret Perry.

The Provos later released an audio tape, purportedly of the men’s confessions.

Ironically, it later emerged that British Intelligence had infiltrated the ‘nutting squad’ that killed the trio.

West Belfast-based Scappaticci was working for the Army’s Force Research Unit, which also ran loyalist agent Brian Nelson.

The ‘nutting squad’s’ top man, John Joe Magee, is also now suspected of having worked for British Intelligence.

Thirteen years on, the Dignams believe that only a public inquiry can get to the truth.

In the immediate aftermath of the murders, the Garvaghy Road couple asked to meet with the IRA, to try to find out exactly why their son was killed.

“They tried to put conditions on any possible meeting,” said Pat.

“They said they wanted to meet with me alone, but I was advised not to agree to that. So that was it.”

Irene also has serious doubts about the authenticity of the IRA tape.

The family received the recording on April Fools Day, in 1993.

“I don’t believe it’s his voice,” said Irene.

“There’s just something about it. I’m not sure what, but I don’t believe that it is my son.”

Two years ago, she called for a face-to-face meeting with Freddie Scappaticci - after he was unmasked as Stakeknife - to ask him if he had shot her son.

Scappaticci was quoted as saying he wanted to meet relatives of the people he was alleged to have killed, to say he didn’t do it.

But the Provo executioner later quit Northern Ireland, after it was revealed he had secretly met TV journalists to talk about Martin McGuinness’s role inside the IRA.

As the Dignams spoke to Sunday Life, it emerged that a number of ex-intelligence handlers and agents had offered to meet the family.

The couple are delighted by the offer, and say they hope something positive will come out of the meetings.

Questions need to be answered: Family

DID British Intelligence recruit Johnny Dignam - and then allow him to be abducted, tortured and killed by an IRA team led by another Army agent?

It is a thought that haunts Irene and Pat Dignam. The couple were first alarmed by a newspaper report in February 2003, based on interviews with ex-Army intelligence officers, alleging that her son and his fellow victims, Aidan Starrs and Gregory Burns, had been recruited by the shadowy Force Research Unit.

It claimed the three had dealt devastating blows to the Provos in north Armagh, but feared their cover had been blown, and had asked their handlers to pull them out. However, a senior FRU officer allegedly refused, and all three were later snatched by the IRA’s ‘nutting squad’, which included Freddie Scappaticci, aka ‘Stakeknife’.

The Dignams say if the claims are true, the intelligence services had a responsibility to protect all three men.

“I need to know if these allegations are true. If they are, then Johnny’s death could and should have been prevented,” said Irene.

“I want the truth. I want to know if the authorities abandoned my son, and let him be killed, in order to protect other individuals.”

Pat added: “We won’t let this drop. I don’t care how long it takes, we will fight on until we find out what really happened.”

BreakingNews.ie

Gardaí release man in money laundering probe

20/02/2005 - 15:35:05

A man in his 40’s arrested in relation to a massive police investigation into IRA money laundering was today released without charge.

The man was detained by detectives following a raid on a house in Passage West, County Cork on Friday night.

He was held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act for almost 48 hours before being freed this afternoon.

Gardaí confirmed a file was being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

RTE News

McGuinness rejects McDowell’s IRA claims

20 February 2005 15:39

Sinn Féin’s Chief Negotiator, Martin McGuinness, has rejected claims that he, Gerry Adams and Martin Ferris are members of the IRA army council.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s This Week, Mr Mc Guinness said the minister’s remarks were politically motivated and an attempt to criminalise Sinn Féin.

Earlier, the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell accused the men of being members of the council while taking part in a radio debate on Today FM.

He said there were seven members of the council and that the IRA was increasingly trying to get involved in legitimate businesses, especially the communications industry.

The Northern Ireland Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, has repeated his assertion that the IRA was behind the Northern Bank Robbery.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s This Week, Mr Orde also said that £50,000 sterling in new notes found at a country club in Belfast were planted by the provisional IRA.

Earlier, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, said that Sinn Féin has to recognise that Provisional criminality lies at the root of the current crisis in the peace process.

Mr Ahern insisted that robbery and money laundering have no place in Irish society.

In a statement, he warned that Sinn Féin had to assume their full responsibility to resolve the situation before the Government and others can respond.

BreakingNews.ie

Gardaí set to be cleared for NI service

20/02/2005 - 12:59:39

A ground-breaking agreement clearing the way for police officers from the Republic of Ireland to serve in Northern Ireland is to be signed tomorrow, it was revealed today.

Under the agreement officers from Northern Ireland will also be able to be seconded to the Republic.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde and Noel Conroy, Commissioner of the Garda Siochana will sign a unique joint protocols which allow personnel exchanges and secondments between the forces.

The signing, at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down, will be attended by the Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy and Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

The agreement comes at a time of unprecedented co-operation between the two forces as they seek to track down the £26.5m (€38m) they believe the IRA stole in the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast before Christmas and as the Garda mount a linked crack-down on alleged IRA money laundering.

The idea for exchanges and secondments was first recommended in the Patten Report on the future of policing in Northern Ireland drawn up by former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten in 1999.

The Irish and British governments carried forward the idea in an inter-governmental agreement on policing which they signed in 2002.

Under that international agreement the two police services have devised the protocols which now facilitate the movement of officers between their forces.

Sunday Life

Sunday Life Comment: Leave our kids alone

20 February 2005

THE police and education authorities have wasted no time in investigating claims that the UVF has started a recruitment drive - at an Ulster school.

The allegation is that the terror group is trying to rope in kids at Dundonald High School, in east Belfast.

If true, this is a breach of the UVF’s ceasefire, and a gross betrayal of the principles of the Good Friday Agreement.

Has this province not suffered enough, at the hands of evil terrorists, representing loyalism and republicanism?

Now we could be witnessing the start of attempts to recruit a new breed of kids, into the ranks of paramilitarism.

It is too early to gauge the seriousness of this latest recruitment campaign for teenagers to join the UVF’s youth wing, the Young Citizens Volunteers.

But, the authorities are to be praised for moving so swiftly, to get to the truth, following a complaint from a concerned parent that second-year students were asked to sign-up.

Terrorism has had its day, in this country.

It brought untold suffering and misery to people on both sides of the sectarian divide, for more than 30 years.

We certainly don’t want to see another generation of terrorists being groomed in the evil art of killing and maiming.

Today, we offer this simple advice to any young person who is asked to join the UVF, or any other terror group:

Say NO - and mean it.

Sunday Life

Taking a stand
Justice for Robert: Sister says she may take on Shinners at ballot box

By Alan Murray and Stephen Breen
20 February 2005

THE devastated sister of ‘gentle giant’ Robert McCartney - slain in a frenzied knife-attack outside a Belfast pub - may take on Sinn Fein at the ballot-box.

Close pals of distraught Paula McCartney - whose 33-year-old brother was stabbed to death by a republican mob outside Magennis’s Bar, in the city centre - are urging the Short Strand woman to consider standing as an independent against Sinn Fein, in May’s local government elections.

Said one friend: “The Short Strand community turned out in force for Robert’s funeral.

“We have absolutely no doubt that they would do the same if a member of the McCartney family decided to take a stand against murder and intimidation.

“The decent people in this community are absolutely 100 per cent behind the McCartneys.

“The people will support them in whatever course of action they take to highlight the evil injustice they have suffered.”

Sunday Life can also reveal that a series of street protests over the horror slaying have been planned by members of the tight-knit east Belfast community.

One protest is expected to take place at Mountpottinger Road this week.

A former Sinn Fein election candidate is a prime suspect in Mr McCartney’s murder.

The man was again arrested last week, and questioned by detectives. The other main suspect is the IRA’s ‘officer commanding’ in south Belfast.

Detectives are still trying conclusively to link the Provo OC and the unsuccessful Sinn Fein candidate to the murder, after the IRA destroyed vital forensic evidence from the scene.

The failed Sinn Fein candidate was arrested on Wednesday, but was released without charge the next day.

Speaking to Sunday Life last night, Paula (40) said her family was “considering all the options”.

She said: “As my family continues the quest to have the men who brutally murdered my brother put behind bars, we have to look at all the options available to us.

“There is a possibility of contesting the local government elections, but a decision like that is a long way away, at this stage.”

“All we want is justice for Robert.

“We are determined to keep up the pressure on the people who murdered him.

“A senior republican, central to Robert’s murder, has been seen by a member of the family in conversation with a potential key witnesses to the killing.

“My family - and indeed the community as a whole - view this as a clear indication that these cut-throat murderers are not being shunned by the republican movement.”

Sinn Fein deputy Lord Mayor Joe O’Donnell - who represents the area on Belfast City Council - said last night that he would back the McCartneys’ fight for justice.

Said Mr O’Donnell: “My primary concern at the minute is the McCartney family - not votes.

“Whatever the McCartney family wants, needs or requests, I will support them.

“I will go to whatever lengths I can to help them.”

If a member of the McCartney family does decide to contest the council elections in Belfast’s Pottinger ward, they would face an as-yet unselected Sinn Fein candidate.

Mr O’Donnell has confirmed that he will not be standing again.

Significantly, more than 1,000 people turned out for Mr McCartney’s funeral.

Mr O’Donnell won the council seat in 2001 with just 1,264 votes.

sbreen@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Indymedia Ireland

Politics.ie Wiki

by John Sunday, Feb 20 2005, 12:23pm

Politics.ie has launched its own online encyclopedia

Politics.ie (http://www.politics.ie) has launched its own Wiki.

Their aim is “to create the largest central repository of political information on Irish politics. You may edit any page on this website, to add more information or correct mistakes, by clicking on the edit button which is visible on every page. You can also create new pages if you so wish. This is a member driven Irish political encyclopedia, so the more help you give us the better it will become.”

Join, edit and contribute

http://wiki.politics.ie

BreakingNews.ie

DUP: Punish SF for bank robbery

20/02/2005 - 11:14:25

The Government will come under fresh pressure today to give Sinn Féin a heavy financial penalty when Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy announces what sanctions will be imposed for the IRA’s audacious Northern Bank robbery.

Mr Murphy is being pressed to cut off parliamentary allowances to to Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and the other two Sinn Féin MPs.

He will make a statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday on how he will respond to the Independent Monitoring Commission report which pinned blame for the pre-Christmas £26.5m (€38m) bank robbery on the IRA and said Sinn Féin leaders knew about and sanctioned the robbery.

If he cut parliamentary allowances it could cost Sinn Féin some £500,000 (€724,000). One of the MPs, Michelle Gildernew who represents Fermanagh and South Tyrone, claimed £140,000 (€202,000) last year and her colleagues were not far behind.

Anger at the provisionals heightened following the discovery of £50,000 (€72,000)from the robbery in the Belfast sports club run for serving and retired police officers and their families.

Examination of the money proved last night that it had come from the bank robbery. Five £10,000 batches of new notes were still in their shrink-wrap wrappers and with serial numbers matching those of stolen notes.

The cash was found hidden in a toilet after a man claiming to be a police officer rang the Police Ombudsman with a tip off.

The Police Service said they believed the money had been planted to distract from the bank robbery investigation and divert attention from the Garda seizure of over £2m (€2.89m) as part of an investigation into IRA money laundering.

As part of the investigation officers were trying to discover how the money was smuggled into the Newforge Country Club in south Belfast in a worrying breach of security.

Because of its clientele there is security around the club including guards on the gate, though not at the same level as it was during the days of IRA killing and bombings.

Ian Paisley Jnr, a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board and Democratic Unionist Assembly member, said the find of money in the club indicated “just how hard the republican movement has been stung by events” of recent days.

It was an “act of desperation” by the IRA to deflect attention away from their activities.

Party colleague, Jeffrey Donaldson MP, said Mr Murphy must hit Sinn Féin hard this week.

“Paul Murphy’s announcement on Tuesday will be keenly awaited by all democrats.

“The sanctions he decides on will determine in the minds of fair minded people whether the Government is determined to punish Sinn Féin, or just give Adams and McGuinness a slap across the wrists,” he said.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has urged the British Prime Minister to dump Sinn Féin out of the political process.

He says Mr Murphy should announce the recall of the Stormont Assembly and put a motion before it calling for Sinn Féin’s exclusion. He said under the rules if the Assembly did not act, he could then do so himself.

BBC

Orde blames IRA over money plant

Hugh Orde: “I am not particularly impressed by it”

It is too early to say if money seized in the Republic of Ireland on Thursday was stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast, the chief constable has said.

Hugh Orde said he was convinced republicans planted £50,000 from the £26.5m raid in a police sports club.

There is speculation the robbers behind the raid may be trying to implicate the security forces in the crime.

Police discovered £50,000 in new Northern Bank notes at the Newforge Country Club in Belfast.

Mr Orde and the British and Irish governments have blamed the IRA for December’s raid, which it has denied.

Five shrink-wrapped packages each containing £10,000 were found in the club toilets on Friday.

Mr Orde said: “It is a small amount of money in terms of the bank robbery.

“It is a distraction. It is people trying to take the focus off the key issue, which is the operation run by the Garda, and the major crime inquiry we still have ongoing.

“Places like sports clubs have become more open. It was an easy thing to do.

“I am not particularly impressed by it, but I did ask them to give the money back in my first press conference and they have started to listen.”

It is the first cash from the robbery to turn up.

‘IRA criminality’

On Thursday, £2m - £60,000 of it in Northern Bank notes - was seized in the Irish Republic.

Tests are being carried out on the notes to see if they were part of the stolen £26.5m.

Irish police investigating alleged money laundering have arrested eight people in the past week. Six have been released, one is still being questioned and one man has been charged with membership of the Real IRA.

Mr Ahern said robbery had no place in Irish society

On Sunday, Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said Sinn Fein must recognise IRA criminality “lies at the root of the current crisis of the peace process”.

“Money laundering and robbery have no place in Irish society,” he said.

“Sinn Fein have to assume full responsibility to resolve the situation before (Irish and British) governments and others can respond.”

The DUP’s Ian Paisley Jnr blamed republicans for leaving the cash in the police club.

“I think this find by the police is an act of desperation by republicans, an attempt to throw the police off the scent,” he said.

Sunday Times

Parker Bowles business link

February 20, 2005

THE former husband of Camilla Parker Bowles has emerged as a business associate of Phil Flynn, the former Sinn Fein vice-president questioned by police in connection with allegations of IRA money laundering, writes Mark Watts.

Flynn, a 64-year-old banker, is a non-executive director of Chesterton Finance, a company in Cork that is being investigated by police in connection with December’s £26.5m Northern Bank robbery.

Until Friday, when he resigned, Flynn was also one of six directors of Harcourt Developments, a property company. In documents filed at Ireland’s Companies Registration Office Brigadier Andrew Parker Bowles, of Malmesbury, Wiltshire, is also listed as a director of Harcourt Developments.

He declined to comment last night.