SAOIRSE32

BBC

**It’s not enough

IRA expel three over city killing

Robert McCartney, 33, was killed near Belfast city centre

The IRA has said it has expelled three members from its ranks over the death of Robert McCartney in Belfast, Irish state broadcaster RTE has said.

It comes after what they called “an investigation” into last month’s killing.

The IRA said one of those expelled had made a statement to a solicitor and called on the other two to take responsibility for their actions.

Robert McCartney, 33, was stabbed in the city centre on 30 January.

The IRA statement comes 24 hours after Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams met the McCartney family.

The family had accused republicans of pressuring witnesses not to talk, although they welcomed an earlier IRA statement urging his killers to come forward.

‘Support for campaign’

Mr Adams described the meeting as “constructive”. “There is an onus on us to do everything we can to bring closure to this family,” he said.

He added that those responsible for Mr McCartney’s death should be brought to justice.

Mr Adams said that he was told up to 70 people, and up to 21 this week, had already come forward with information about his death.

The meeting took place on Thursday.

Mr Adams was speaking in Dublin at the launch of a campaign to urge the Irish government to prepare a discussion document on Irish unity.

Earlier this week, the McCartney family met with Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny in a bid to win support for their campaign to find those responsible for his murder.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said that a test of Sinn Fein’s stated opposition to criminality would be to turn in the killers. “Paramilitarism is ‘far worse’ than a bank raid”, said Bertie Ahern.

No-one has been charged in connection with the killing, although it is believed there were up to 70 witnesses to the crime.

BreakingNews.ie

British reaction to Dublin bombings ‘deplorable’

25/02/2005 - 19:03:34

The lack of British co-operation in the inquests of three men who died in the Sackville Place bombings in the 1970s was deplorable, campaigners said today.

Busmen Thomas Duffy, 24, and George Bradshaw, 30, were killed in a car bomb in Sackville Place, Dublin, on December 1, 1972.

Bus conductor Thomas Douglas, 21, was killed in another explosion in the same street on January 20, 1973.

Today a jury of three men and four women returned a verdict of unlawful killing by persons or persons unknown for all three men at Dublin Coroners’ Court.

They added a recommendation that the transcript of the inquest be sent to the Taoiseach and to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Speaking after the inquest Margaret Urwin, of support group Justice For The Forgotten, said the families were pleased that the inquest had finally been held.

But she said: “The lack of co-operation from the British authorities at all levels established by the state has to be greatly deplored.”

“We are also disappointed by the lack of information in the garda files, so that somebody looking at it today cannot have a clear understanding of what occurred.”

Earlier, the inquest had heard that two bombs went off in Dublin at Liberty Hall and Sackville Place on December 1, 1972, during a Dáil debate on the Amendment to the Offences Against the State Act.

Following a bomb warning called into the Newsletter offices in Belfast and the explosion at Liberty Hall, gardaí came into the CIE bus company canteen on Earl Place and told people there to evacuate the club.

Minutes later a bomb – planted in a silver Ford Escort which had been hired from a rental company in Belfast the day before – exploded in Sackville Place, killing the two men.

Today the inquest heard that Thomas Duffy died as a result of a lacerated aorta from a metal fragment and that father-of-two George Bradshaw died from severe head injuries.

More than 130 people were injured in the attacks on December 1.

On January 20, 1973, Thomas Douglas, who had moved from Scotland to Dublin to work, had just left his bus to buy a newspaper when an explosion occurred on Sackville Place.

The inquest was told that he died as a result of shock and haemorrhage due to multiple injuries.

The red Vauxhall Victor used in the second explosion was hijacked in Agnes Street, Belfast, a Protestant area where a number of cars were hijacked and used for subversive activities, the court heard.

Detective Superintendent John Maloney, who was not involved in the original investigation, said there was no evidence gathered that pointed to the involvement of any specific group or organisation.

No one has ever admitted, or been convicted in connection with, the attacks.

Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said the three men died in appalling circumstances and that he wished to apologise to the families that it had taken so long for inquests to be held.

He said he hoped the families would no longer feel isolated or forgotten.

“The lives of Thomas Duffy, George Bradshaw and Thomas Douglas are a paradigm for the condition of Irish society in the 1970s – striving to move forward to a brighter and better future.

“But their deaths emphasise the shadow of violence which has blighted that development.”

“I sincerely wish we never return to that situation,” he said.

Belfast Telegraph

IRA-linked gangster is released in the us
American led cops to body of gunrunner McIntyre

By Sean O’Driscoll
25 February 2005

A notorious gangster who led Boston police to the body of IRA gunrunner, John McIntyre, has been released after five years in prison.

Kevin Weeks

Kevin Weeks, once the most trusted lieutenant of Irish American crime boss, James Whitey Bulger, was let out last week.

However, Weeks, who showed police where McIntyre and two unrelated murder victims were dumped in a pit, has refused to go into the FBI’s Witness Protection Programme.

‘Whitey’ Bulger

McIntyre disappeared in 1984 after the interception of the Marita Ann gunrunning ship by the Irish navy. The ship, skippered by the current Sinn Fein TD for Kerry, Martin Ferris, had taken the guns from the Boston fishing vessel, the Valhalla, of which McIntyre was a crew member.

Irish American crime writer, TJ English, said Weeks’ decision to remain out in the open shows Bulger’s hold on Boston’s Irish community has collapsed.

This month marks the tenth anniversary of Bulger going on the run after he was tipped off that he was about to be arrested.

The mystery around Bulger has lead to a huge interest from publishers and film studios.

The Showtime network is currently working on Brotherhood, a series based on Bulger’s relationship with his brother Billy, the former president of the Massachusetts senate and University of Massachusetts.

Martin Scorsese is also scouring south Boston for a tale of Irish American gangsters and FBI agents that will feature Leonardo Di Caprio and Matt Damon.

While once fear would have kept Bulger underlings from telling their story, the disintegration of his criminal base had brought a rash of new book ideas, most noticeably Edward McKenzie Jr, author of Street Soldier: My Years as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob.

The 48-year-old Weeks drove police to the makeshift burial site of McIntyre, who may have been falsely accused of telling police about an IRA arms shipment to protect Bulger.

Belfast Telegraph

Next time I’ll be back for good, vows Adair

By Noel McAdam
25 February 2005

Maverick loyalist Johnny Adair has vowed to return to Northern Ireland for good after a flying visit - leaving a political storm in his wake.

The terrorist chief defied UDA death threats as he reportedly shook hands on the Shankill and went to Drumcree Hill in Portadown.

The leading loyalist walked the streets of the Shankill on the same day Irish President Mary McAleese had called off a visit to the area just a month after his release from jail.

On the Shankill, Adair (41) said he had been welcomed with people coming out to shake his hand.

“I told them it was only a flying visit but it wouldn’t be too long before I was back for good,” he said.

In a gesture of defiance to the UDA leaders who banished Adair, his family and supporters from the area, the convicted loyalist leader posed in front of a wall mural to the dead Loyalist Volunteer Force leaders Billy Wright and Mark Fulton in Union Street, Portadown.

He said: “They said I’d be shot on sight if I ever set foot back in Northern Ireland but it didn’t take an army for me to walk back around the Shankill road.”

Adair said he could not confirm when he would return to the province - but his plans were “coming along nicely”.

As word of his presence spread, the UDA sent men to the Seagoe Hotel area of Portadown where police vehicles also arrived.

A UDA spokesman described the situation as “volatile” but it was later confirmed Adair had again left the province.

SDLP Upper Bann Assembly member Dolores Kelly said: “This will be a worrying development for the entire community here.

“Portadown has quietened down in recent years and Johnny Adair’s presence here can only be a worrying sign.

“Johnny Adair brought nothing but death and destruction to the nationalist community and his own community in Belfast.

“He must not be allowed to do the same in Portadown.

“I have already been in contact with the police to express my concerns and will be liaising with them further on this worrying development,” she said.

Adair, who was released last month after serving two-thirds of a 16-year sentence for directing terrorism, was expelled by the leadership of the UDA in late 2002.

Belfast Telegraph

Call to probe jail conditions

By Deborah McAleese
25 February 2005

The Human Rights Commission has been asked to investigate allegations that republican prisoners are being forced to endure increasingly poor conditions in Maghaberry jail.

Major concern has been aired by the Republican Prisoners Action Group over issues including excessive strip searches, 23-hour lock ups, and poor access to a doctor.

A delegation from the group has met with NIHRC chief commissioner Professor Brice Dickson to highlight the “deteriorating conditions” within the jail.

A spokesperson said the situation was a concerted by British authorities effort to criminalise republican prisoners.

“We are asking that the NIHRC seek to highlight these grievances and again seek access to the prison so they can both speak to the prisoners and assess at first hand the attempts by the prison authorities to infringe on the human rights of our prisoners.”

The NIHRC assured the delegation they were concerned about the issues and have undertaken to visit republican prisoners in Maghaberry.

IrishExaminer.com: McGuinness condemns McCartney killers

McGuinness condemns McCartney killers

25 February 2005
By Dan Collins

SINN FÉIN’S chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, last night denounced those behind the murder of Robert McCartney.

“I do not want to be associated with anyone who was in any way involved in the killing,” he said.

However, he stressed that mistrust between the Nationalist community in Northern Ireland and the PSNI was a significant factor in the unsolved murder.

He said the party was “in total and absolute sympathy” with the family of the dead Belfast man.

“We have made it absolutely clear that this was a deplorable murder and that those responsible have no place in republicanism.”

He appealed to the Short Strand community in Belfast “not to hold back any information they might have” with regard to the killing and removal of evidence at the crime scene.

“Now, who do they give information to? Some people might decide to give that information to the PSNI, that’s a matter for themselves. I don’t have any confidence in the PSNI.

“These people have bugged the cars I travel in, they have bugged the very offices that I work out of and of course they bugged my home phone … how can I have confidence in the PSNI?”

Mr McGuinness said the IRA had made “very powerful contributions” to the search for peace. Those who portray the IRA as “the problem” in the peace process were making a big mistake, he said.

Sinn Féin will advance its position in forthcoming elections in the North after which Mr McGuinness predicted a return to the negotiating table by all sides.

“We are not going to shirk away from the difficult challenges which are ahead,” he said. Those challenges would also have to be faced by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the DUP, he said. Mr McGuinness reacted angrily to recent comments by Justice Minister Michael McDowell, which he said were part of a co-ordinated campaign of vilification by those who feel threatened by Sinn Féin. “He calls himself the Minister for Justice, but he is really the minister for smears,” he said.

Mr McGuinness was in Cork last night to attend a party fundraising event at Cork Greyhound Track.

IOL

**How much simpler this would be if the matter were handled internally so that the common person would not have to fear retribution

Adams appeals for info in McCartney murder hunt

25/02/2005 - 14:06:39

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has reiterated his call on anyone with information about the murder of Belfast man Robert McCartney to come forward to the authorities.

The 33-year-old was beaten and stabbed to death outside a pub in the west of the city on January 30, allegedly by senior IRA members.

His family has accepted that the killing was not an IRA operation, but has claimed witnesses are being intimidated to prevent them from providing information to the police.

The matter has led to a backlash against Sinn Féin among some of its staunchest supporters in republican west Belfast.

IOL

Man due in court charged with murder of Ennis taxi driver

25/02/2005 - 11:44:48

A 53-year-old man is due to appear in court in Co Kerry later today charged with murdering Ennis taxi driver Liam Moloney.

The man was arrested yesterday during a raid on a holiday home in a remote area of Co Kerry.

A 15-year-old youth who was arrested during a follow-up operation in Shannon, Co Clare, is still being questioned by gardaí.

Mr Moloney, a 56-year-old father-of-four, was stabbed to death in his cab on the night of February 11.

His body was found in a field in Ruan, near Ennis, the following day, while his vehicle was found partially burned out in the village of Barefield.

BreakingNews.ie

Ahern: ‘Release of McCabe killers off the table for good’

25/02/2005 - 11:13:30

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has reiterated his previous vow that the release of the IRA killers of Garda Jerry McCabe is no longer on the negotiating table.

The Government had been prepared to release the IRA gang behind the 1996 killing in Adare, Co Limerick, as part of a comprehensive peace deal that fell apart at the last minute late last year.

However, it subsequently took the offer off the table after accusing the IRA of being behind the £26.5m (€38m) bank robbery in Belfast.

Speaking in Limerick this morning, Mr Ahern said: “I don’t see it coming back on the table. The situation, as far as I’m concerned, is now closed on this.

“Whatever negotiations we have on the next round, this issue won’t be part of those discussions.”

BreakingNews.ie

Pat Finucane murderer moves step closer to early release

25/02/2005 - 11:46:29

The man convicted last year of murdering Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane has moved a step closer to being freed under the Good Friday Agreement after he was moved to a prison in the North.

Last September, 41-year-old UDA paramilitary Ken Barret was jailed for life by Belfast Crown Court after pleading guilty to carrying out the 1989 murder.

He was then taken to prison in England, where he would be ineligible for early release under the Good Friday Agreement.

However, his transfer to the North means he can apply to be released on licence under the terms of the 1998 peace deal.

The Finucane family have already said that they have no interest in Barrett’s fate and instead want those within the “members of the British establishment who planned the murder to be brought to justice”.

BBC

Stadium proposal for former jail

How the Maze site could look under the new proposals

A world-class sports stadium has been recommended for the site of the former Maze prison in County Antrim.

The Maze Consultation Panel has also proposed a national arts centre and centre for conflict transformation on the 360-acre site near Lisburn.

The cross-party body revealed its recommendations following two years of debate. The government will consider it before making a final decision.

The £55m stadium plan will see a 30,000 seat arena for soccer, rugby and GAA.

If the development goes ahead, the panel believes it could lead to £1bn of public and private investment.

The panel’s report is supported by all its members, including the four main political parties.

Panel chairman David Campbell said: “We now have the real prospect, as the prime minister said on commissioning our work, of literally turning swords into ploughshares and providing a beacon of hope for Northern Ireland and beyond.

“We strongly recommend that the government gives a firm commitment to the early development of all of the elements of our agreed proposals through a coherent masterplan.”

One of the notorious H-blocks would be retained if the plan goes ahead

As well as a stadium, the report also proposes an International Centre for Conflict Transformation built on another part of the site.

This would involve the retention of the prison hospital where republican hunger strikers died, and one of the H-blocks, as well as other buildings including the administration block.

It is proposed the centre would have links to Harvard and Boston Universities in America.

The proposals also include an international equestrian centre and showgrounds.

It is thought the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society wants to move from its current home at Balmoral where it stages an annual show.

The proposals also envisage a zone for industrial development.

Coca Cola has been linked to the Maze site, as facilities would include bars, restaurants and a hotel.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble welcomed the panel’s report.

“The panel’s recommendation will provide over £1bn of much-needed investment into the site and will turn it into a tremendous signal of positivity for Northern Ireland,” he said.

Plan includes a new £55m multi-sports stadium

Sinn Fein assembly member Raymond McCartney, a former IRA hunger striker, welcomed the retention of one of the H-blocks and commended the advisory panel on its work.

He added: “There is still a lot to be done to achieve the recommendations in the report. Key to this will be the commitment of the British Government to resourcing the recommendations.”

Edwin Poots, a Democratic Unionist panel member, played down the significance of retaining part of the prison.

“At the outset Sinn Fein were looking for a museum, there’s no museum here. If they ever want to get one, they will have to ask unionists to support it, so we have a veto over that.”

SDLP assembly member Patricia Lewsley urged great care in the handling of the International Centre for Conflict Resolution.

“We must be able to reassure victims that it will not be a shrine to paramilitarism or an instrument of retrospective justification for violence,” she said.

The Maze has been one of three locations short-listed for the site of the stadium.

The others have been the North Foreshore of Belfast Lough and the Titanic Quarter in east Belfast.

Last month, Sports Minister Angela Smith said no decision would be taken until a detailed economic appraisal and business case had been completed.

BBC

Blair warning over IRA activity

Tony Blair made the comments during a news conference

Sinn Fein cannot be part of the government of NI unless the IRA gives up paramilitary and criminal activity, Prime Minister Tony Blair has said.

He said the refusal of the IRA to give up such activity was the reason for the current political stalemate.

Sinn Fein is facing sanctions after a £26.5m Belfast bank robbery was blamed on the IRA. The IRA has denied this.

Mr Blair said the impasse had arisen because the governments had not got the commitment and action from the IRA.

“This has now got to happen. It’s the only way to move this situation forward, he told reporters at his monthly news conference at Downing Street on Friday.

The prime minister added: “The overwhelming view now in the whole of the island of Ireland, north and south, is there cannot be a place for Sinn Fein in an inclusive government in Northern Ireland unless there is a complete end to all forms of paramilitary activity and criminality by the IRA.

“That’s what the Good Friday Agreement said.”

Sinn Fein could face penalties of more than £500,000 a year following the accusations about December’s Northern Bank robbery.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy has given the party until next Tuesday to defend itself before a final vote is taken on the sanctions.

Poll indicates satisfaction with Gerry Adams is on the wane

Meanwhile, the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern appears to have toughened his position on republican demands for the early release of the IRA killers of a police officer.

Detective Jerry McCabe was shot dead by the IRA during a robbery in County Limerick in 1996.

Last December, Mr Ahern said the men would be recommended for early release as part of a political deal in Northern Ireland.

However, Mr Ahern told Radio Limerick on Friday that it would not happen on his “watch” and that the killers’ release was “no longer an issue”.

The comments come on the same day a poll in the Irish Independent newspaper suggested support for Sinn Fein was almost unchanged, despite claims about the Northern Bank raid.

The new Millward Brown IMS poll indicated that support for the party stood at 9% - down just one point on the last comparable poll in November.

However, the poll of 1,000 people in Ireland, also suggested a big drop in satisfaction with Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams.

Satisfaction with Mr Adams stood at 31%, down 20% since November.

Three out of every five people questioned also believed the IRA was responsible for the Northern Bank raid, while 62% said Sinn Féin and the IRA were “one and the same”.

It also indicated that 46% believed the claim of Irish Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, that senior Sinn Féin leaders were in the IRA.

BBC

McCartney family meets with Adams

Robert McCartney, 33, was killed near Belfast city centre

The family of a man murdered in Belfast last month has held a private meeting with Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams.

Robert McCartney, 33, was stabbed in the city centre on 30 January.

His family has accused republicans of pressuring witnesses not to talk, although they welcomed an IRA statement urging his killers to come forward.

Mr Adams described the meeting as “constructive”. “There is an onus on us to do everything we can to bring closure to this family,” he said.

He added that those responsible for Mr McCartney’s death should be brought to justice.

Mr Adams said that he was told up to 70 people, and up to 21 this week, had already come forward with information about his death.

The meeting took place on Thursday.

Mr Adams was speaking in Dublin at the launch of a campaign to urge the Irish government to prepare a discussion document on Irish unity.

Earlier this week, the McCartney family met with Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny in a bid to win support for their campaign to find those responsible for his murder.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said that a test of Sinn Fein’s stated opposition to criminality would be to turn in the killers.

No-one has been charged in connection with the killing, although it is believed there were up to 70 witnesses to the crime.

BreakingNews.ie

McAleese calls for end to ‘tradition of armed struggle’

25/02/2005 - 08:27:01

President Mary McAleese has pleaded with republicans “to close the door on the tradition of armed struggle” for the sake of future generations.

Speaking at St Malachy’s College in north Belfast last night, Mrs McAleese said the peace process was facing a difficult period, but all sides should make a renewed effort to achieve progress.

She said old patterns of thinking must give way to new ones that are unambiguously peaceful, lawful and egalitarian.

The President urged those involved in the peace process to show courage and honour their promises and commitments.

Daily Ireland

Gulags to GAA

Bobby Sands predicted that the “laughter of our children” would be the epitaph of the H-Block hunger strikers. Even he could hardly have envisaged a day when the H-Blocks would give way to a world-class stadium crammed to capacity for the gladiatorial clash of Ireland’s greatest hurlers and footballers.
That’s exactly the mouth-watering prospect served up to sports fans in the blueprint for the Maze-Long Kesh site which will be unveiled tomorrow. It would have been a brave person indeed back in the throes of the H-Block agony in 1981 who would have dared suggest we might someday move from gulags to GAA.
And that’s only half of the dream plan for the site that once epitomised conflict and anguish. The proposals to be endorsed tomorrow by the four main parties in the North also sign off on a pioneering conflict transformation centre and heritage site. Central to that development will be the H-Block hospital where the ten hunger strikers died, a H-Block, a watchtower and part of the perimeter wall as well as one of the internee ‘cages’.
Public access will enable visitors, from home and abroad, to visit the one-time crucible of conflict and to make their own mind up about what happened there.
On paper at least, we’ve come a long way from the proposal by the ‘no-men’ of unionism that the entire site be bulldozed. Rather than trying to bury the past, the refusniks should join the rest of us in trying to use the history of Long Kesh to build into the future.
All of this of course, could be just so much pie in the sky. There is the very real danger that rather than being a testament to the great unifying nature of sport here, the stadium, and indeed, the entire site, will be hijacked by the red, white and blue brigade who, with their flags and apartheid policies on the local council, have brought shame to Lisburn.
Similarly, there could be foot-dragging and bad faith on the proposals for a peace zone. Or the GAA may refuse to endorse the project on the basis that their own facilities are sufficient for their needs, thanks very much all the same. There are also very real worries about the decision to site a showcase stadium ten miles outside Belfast when best practice in urban regeneration throughout the western world is to bring stadiums into the heart of cities.
Of this we are sure: the days when the GAA or the nationalist community could be ignored when creating a flagship facility in the North of Ireland are long gone. In fact, if the stadium isn’t used as a national stadium rather than a six county venue, it’s doomed to failure. The implementation of the plan, bringing peace zone and stadium to fruition simultaneously, doesn’t leave space for any hurlers on the ditch. All those who want to see the stadium become a shared facility need to get to work now if the report of the Maze-Long Kesh panel isnt to gather dust on some bureaucrat’s desk.