SAOIRSE32

IrishExaminer.com

There must be a united Ireland if majority votes for it, says Durkan

22 March 2005
By Paul O’Brien and Ian Graham

A UNITED Ireland would not necessarily require unionist “consent and assent”, the SDLP said yesterday. Rather, party leader Mark Durkan argued, it “is clear there must be a united Ireland if a majority in the North votes in favour” of it in a referendum.

The Good Friday Agreement provides that the British Government must negotiate with the Irish Government to provide for a united Ireland if a majority in the North vote for it.

Such a referendum should be held once the Northern institutions have “bedded down and are operating stably”, the SDLP believes.

But unity would not be about the “entrapment” of unionists.

Mr Durkan was speaking at the launch in Dublin yesterday afternoon of the SDLP’s proposals for achieving a united Ireland within the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Separate launches were held in Belfast and Newry.

“We believe that all the rights, protections and inclusion that nationalists sought within Northern Ireland while it is in the UK must equally be guaranteed to unionists within a united Ireland,” the document states.

Nonetheless, the SDLP said it did not agree with Sinn Féin that “unionist consent and assent” would be required to bring about a united Ireland.

“Uniquely, among the main parties in the North, the SDLP is clear that there must be a united Ireland if a majority in the North votes in favour.”

Under the SDLP blueprint, a Northern Ireland Assembly would remain with all its cross-community protections, but as a regional parliament of a united Ireland rather than Britain.

The right for differing sections of the population to identify themselves as British or Irish, and to hold passports of either country, would remain, as would co-operation between London and Dublin.

Just as there is Northern representation in the Seanad at present, those who wished it should still have representation in the House of Lords after unity, the party said. But instead of sending MPs to the House of Commons, the North would elect TDs to the Dáil, with far greater representation there than in Westminster and therefore greater power.

The SDLP said it would seeking the endorsement of all southern political parties for the strategy of achieving unity based on the Agreement.

In an effort to put clean water between the SDLP and Sinn Féin ahead of the British general election, Mr Durkan said his party was one of “true republicanism”.

The SDLP, he said, “don’t rob children of their father… We stand for justice, not in the way of justice.”

IrishExaminer.com

Woman put on drip during deportation flight

22 March 2005
By Paul O’Brien

A WOMAN deported from Ireland last week, along with 34 other people, needed medical intervention during the flight, it has emerged.

The woman was placed on a drip after the chartered plane left Dublin Airport just before midnight on Monday, March 14.

A garda spokesman yesterday confirmed the intervention had been required.

However, he stressed that, in line with standard procedure, all of the deportees had been medically assessed and deemed fit to fly before being put on the plane.

A doctor and nurse travelled with the deportees on the flight, in line with procedure. They administered the drip to the woman while en route, the garda spokesman said.

Another of the deportees claimed that, prior to take-off at Dublin Airport, the woman was held down by garda immigration officers and sedated by a doctor.

The garda spokesman yesterday refused to say if this had occurred, but believed it “unlikely”.

However, he stressed that immigration officers were permitted to use “reasonable force” to fulfil their duties in instances where deportees were reluctant to board flights.

Although confirming that the drip had been administered to the woman during the flight, he said questions about the precise nature of the medical intervention - or the woman’s condition - were a matter for the Department of Justice, because the medical teams worked under its aegis.

The department, however, refused to discuss the issue. “We never comment on individual cases,” a spokeswoman said.

The 35 people - including nine children - were flown to Lagos aboard the chartered flight after being arrested by gardaí acting on deportation orders signed by Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

One of the deportees, 19-year-old Elunkanlo Olunkunle, had been scheduled to sit his Leaving Certificate at Palmerstown Community School, Dublin, in June.

Mr Olunkunle has claimed he was not allowed to speak to his lawyer before being deported.

He has described how he was put on board the flight with no possessions and wearing his school uniform - his only clothes.

He has appealed to be allowed return to Ireland.

Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins described his deportation as “monstrous”.

About 50 of Mr Olunkunle’s classmates at Palmerstown are expected to join a protest being held outside the Dáil tomorrow by the Residents Against Racism (RAR) group.

Similar protests were held last week.

“We want all deportations stopped,” RAR spokeswoman Rosanna Flynn said yesterday.

The protest will get under way at 12.30pm.

BreakingNews.ie

Garda sergeants back Irish language requirement

22/03/2005 - 17:11:02

New Garda recruits from ethnic communities should have the “basic respect” to learn Irish , a conference heard today.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) voted in favour of keeping the language requirement for joining the force.

Sergeant Padraig Dolan from the Galway West division said he had no objection to recruits from new ethnic communities, which Michael McDowell intends to attract by relaxing the language requirement.

“But let them learn the ways of our Irish society, the ways of our Irish culture and community and have at least the minimum respect and support for our own native language,” he said.

He said, in Irish, that the issue had huge relevance in the Gaeltacht areas.

“If there isn’t a minimum standard for every person joining the Garda Siochana, to be able to write down the name and address of a person who wishes to give their name in Irish and to talk to them in some way, I think it would be very unfortunate.”

However, Sergeant Liam Tighe of the Garda National Immigration Bureau said he was concerned that the motion would be seen as exclusive.

“We should be inclusive because we have to police the entire country not just the Irish speakers,” he said.

He warned that Ireland was a rapidly changing country, with hundreds of thousands of new people arriving.

“With them comes an awful lot of good, but also there are, among some of these communities, some criminal elements. And we have to incorporate good people from these communities into the Garda Siochana to help us keep track of the bad that comes too.”

However, ASGI executive member Tony O’Donnell said there had been a historic fear of the language in the force.

“When I joined an Garda Siochana, there was a tendency to see that anyone who spoke the language had subversive leanings and we’d become used to seeing people with such leanings appear in our media and speak the ‘cupla focal’ (few words) and pretend that it makes them more Irish than the rest of us.”

He told the conference that gardai no longer had any reason to fear the language.

He added that the motion allowed time for new recruits to learn Irish before they became full members of the force.

The motion was carried.

Random Ramblings from a Republican

“Today, 24 years ago, Patsy O’Hara and Raymond McCreesh joined Bobby Sands and Francis Hughes on hungerstrike.”

**Biographical links on site

Raymond McCreesh

Patsy O’Hara

——————–

Daily Ireland

Letters to the editor - Sinn Féin can’t endorse unacceptable PSNI

For some years now politicians and political commentators have been urging, and some even demanding, that Sinn Féin join the North’s policing board in advance of the Patten Report recommendations on policing being implemented in full.
Few would dispute that society cannot function properly in the absence of a police force.
However, with the horrendous record of policing in the six counties since the formation of that state, perhaps no policing is better than corrupt policing.
There are too many issues involving the North’s police force which will have to be resolved before the nationalist community on this island can have confidence in the PSNI acting in an impartial manner.
It should not be forgotten that the police officers who sat in a Land Rover in Portadown and watched as Robert Hamill was beaten to death may now be wearing the new uniform of the PSNI.
Other issues, such as the murders of Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane have still to be resolved.
These questions must be addressed in line with the Cory Report, despite the reluctance of the British government to concede this demand.
To join the policing board in advance of this demand would be to confer an unwarranted respectability on an unacceptable police force.

Tom Cooper,
Cathaoirleach,
Irish National Congress.

Daily Ireland

Green paper a red herring

The Irish government last night ruled out producing a green paper on Irish unity.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, who was in Newry for the SDLP’s launch of their document on Irish unity, said a green paper was out of the question.
Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds yesterday told Daily Ireland he believed the time was right for the government to produce such a document, following the lead given by the SDLP yesterday and by Sinn Féin, who revealed details of their green paper last month.
However, speaking to Daily Ireland last night, Mr Ahern ruled out such a move.
“I don’t believe a green paper would be a relevant document. It’s a red herring,” he said.
“Those who are calling for a green paper are doing it to distract from getting the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement up and running again.
“People seem to think that a paper would be a panacea for all our ills. We already have a template for Irish unity in the form of the Good Friday Agreement which gives nationalists an aspiration for a united Ireland.”
Mr Ahern said the IRA was the main impasse to a united Ireland.
“The IRA is the single biggest barrier to Irish unity,” he said.
“We are at the stage now where we have had relative peace for ten years. There are still very insidious efforts to put fear into people. I think, to quote the McCartneys, ‘the situation is much different to ten years ago’.
“The existence of the vestiges of private armies behind a political party leaves it in such a way that you can’t continue to deal with these parties.
“That’s one of the reasons why we are at the impasse. These parties who had the adherence to physical force determination were meant to move away from that under the Good Friday Agreement. That’s on both sides of the divide.
“We have come to the fork in the road. We have to say enough is enough. It’s time for a decision and that time is now.
“What hapened in the past where violence was used to try to get Irish unity has put the case of Irish unity back.”

SDLP’s united Ireland would keep Northern Assembly

The SDLP yesterday launched its proposals for achieving a united Ireland within the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
As revealed by Daily Ireland yesterday, under the blueprint the North’s Assembly would remain with all its cross-community protections, but as a regional parliament of a united Ireland rather than the United Kingdom.
The ruling executive would be kept and all the Good Friday Agreement’s equality and human rights protections, including a Bill of Rights, would still be guaranteed.
The right for differing sections of the population to identify themselves as British or Irish, and to hold passports of either would remain, as would co-operation between London and Dublin.
Just as there is Northern representation at present in the Irish upper house, the Seanad, those who wanted should still have representation in the British House of Lords after unity.
Instead of sending MPs to the House of Commons, the North would elect TDs to the Dáil - and would have far greater representation there than in Westminster and therefore greater power.
Party leader Mark Durkan said: “We seek a united Ireland that is confident, pluralist and non-sectarian; one that can find magnanimity to offer a home, not only to those who are Irish, but also to those among us who are British; one that is unafraid of differing identities and allegiances; one that will respect and protect them all.”
Unveiling its proposals, the party said: “The SDLP’s vision of a united Ireland is based on equality. We believe that all the rights, protections and inclusion that nationalists sought within Northern Ireland while it is in the United Kingdom, must equally be guaranteed to unionists within a united Ireland.
“We are emphatic that unity must not be about the entrapment of a new minority.”
It said the Good Friday Agreement enjoyed more support than either a united Ireland or Northern Ireland remaining in the UK and it would be perverse for the Agreement not to endure in a united Ireland.
It added: “It is also right in practice. Those who rely on demographic change alone must realise that it will not deliver unity any time soon, nor will it deliver stability.
“Census politics will never do away with the need for consensus institutions of government.”
Making clear that all the Agreement’s protections would endure - regardless of a referendum’s outcome - provided the best context for winning unity, the SDLP argued.
A majority was most likely to vote for a united Ireland when reassured that it was neither a vote against the Agreement nor a vote for constitutional uncertainty, they said.
“They need to be certain that their rights, identity and interests will be protected in a united Ireland.”
The party said it would seek the endorsement of all Southern political parties for the strategy of achieving unity based on the Good Friday Agreement.
It would seek agreement for a date for a referendum and campaign vigorously in favour of a yes vote on unity while reassuring unionists of their guaranteed place in a united Ireland.
In an effort to put clear water between themselves and Sinn Féin ahead of the Westminster election, the SDLP accused Sinn Féin of being “misguided” if they expected unionists to negotiate now before a referendum.
Equally they were misguided if they expected negotiations after a referendum.
“Winning a referendum will be made much more difficult if voters know nothing of how they will be governed afterwards, other than that there will be negotiations,” the party said.

unison.ie - Irish Independent

Sisters are shaken by death letter

McCartney family threatened as murder inquiry hits ‘wall of silence’

THE sisters of Robert McCartney have been sent hate mail threatening them with the same fate as their brother who was stabbed to death by republicans.

The sisters discovered the threatening letter among others sending them good wishes in their campaign to bring the killers to justice.

Claire McCartney (27) opened the letter after returning from the US where the sisters had given President George Bush a dossier on the murder.

In childish scrawl, the badly spelt single-page letter said the sisters should be knifed and that Robert deserved to be in hell. Chillingly, it also contained a photograph of the sisters.

They were left badly shaken and “totally disgusted” by its contents. A family spokesperson said: “It was quite disturbing. Chilling, in fact. It said that Robert had deserved to die and that they hoped he rotted in hell.”

Police are investigating. A spokeswoman said the letter has been taken for forensic examination.

The letter came on the 50th day of the campaign for justice by the sisters and Robert’s partner, Bridgeen Hagans.

No-one has yet been charged with the murder of Mr McCartney who was stabbed and beaten to death on January 30 after a row in Magennis’s bar in Belfast’s city centre.

Just four statements from people who were in the pub have been handed to the Police Ombudsman.

The sisters say the inquiry has hit a “wall of silence”. They believe the level of non-cooperation proves republicans never genuinely wanted to aid their quest for justice.

The bar was packed with drinking IRA men and Sinn Fein members when the violence spilled outside.

But so far only three Sinn Fein representatives and a fourth, unidentified, witness have provided accounts on the brawl which have been passed from their solicitors to the ombudsman.

Party election candidates Cora Groogan and Deirdre Hargey, along with former Belfast councillor Sean Hayes, have given statements.

All three are understood to say they saw no fighting in the bar, and sources say they have added little evidential value to the police investigation.

But the sisters were astonished by Ms Groogan’s version, claiming she has not supplied vital information.

They claimed a taxi driver who took her to another bar in the city heard her describe events in Magennis’s over the phone.

So far 11 people have been questioned about the murder which has plunged a republican movement into its biggest crisis.

Louise McCall and Sam Smyth

BreakingNews.ie

Illegal diesel-laundering plant uncovered in Co Monaghan

22/03/2005 - 13:03:24

Customs officials have uncovered an illegal diesel-laundering operation in the Emyvale area of Co Monaghan.

The facility was raided at around 10.30pm last night. Two people were questioned at the site, but were released pending instructions from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Customs said 10,000 litres of laundered diesel was seized at the site, along with equipment and a vehicle.

It said the plant was capable of washing 8,000 litres of diesel every day and is believed to have been in operation for around a year.

It also said a large quantity of toxic residue was discovered at the site and was currently being examined by environmental experts.

BreakingNews.ie

Offices raided in money-laundering probe

22/03/2005 - 14:45:04

Police investigating a suspected money-laundering operation carried out a series of raids in Derry today.

The investigation is not connected with the £26.5m (€38.1m) Northern Bank robbery, said the PSNI.

Computers, filing cabinets full of documents, fax machines, photocopiers and other items were seized for examination during searches of offices at Waterloo Street and Harvey Street, said a spokesman.

A house at Victoria Road in the Waterside was also searched.

No arrests were made as part of a police operation which is set to continue.

Despite ruling out a Northern Bank connection it is understood links to republican and loyalists paramilitaries and the alleged money laundering has not been ruled out by detectives.

Just FYI:

Previously I have given a couple ‘dot.tk’ domain names to these blogs so the addresses would be easy to remember. There used to be only a minor pop-up window associated with it that most browsers easily dispensed with, but I see today there is a big banner at the top which does not go away. This is unacceptable. So if you use the dot.tk name, I am sorry. You might want to use the regular URL as I will probably drop the dot.tk if this continues. If I’m confusing anyone, I apologise. I think boring them would be more like it :p

Here are the regular links for current posts:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/fenian32

http://saoirse32.blogsome.com

http://fenian32.blogspot.com

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IRA2

**Received via group email

Ivan Morley writes, 21 March 2005:

I hope you can print my story: its in relation to Kevin Fulton, A.K.A Peter Keeley, and his involvement in the murder of my brother Eoin in 1990.

I am also sending a link below which is a report by the independent police ombudsman of Northern Ireland that was published last month. In this report, the ombudsman slams the police for a token investigation into Eoins murder and has gone on television here to say that she believed that police were shielding my brother’s killers.

I can reveal to you that the person named “A” in the report is Fulton, and that police deliberately didnt follow up obvious lines of enquiry so as not to expose him.

Far from being some kind of “James Bond” secret agent who was helping to infiltrate the I.R.A, Fulton was involved in the murder of my brother. He has blood on his hands.

I call on him to say whether or not he told his police handlers prior to Eoins murder what he was planning.

I believe the police allowed this murder to go ahead to provoke a feud between two republican groups (I.R.A + I.P.L.O).

I call on him to break his silence over this murder and tell us what he knows.

Thanks for your help.

Police Ombudsman - Morley Report

More links on the murder of Eoin Morley:

Police Ombudsman report (CAIN cache)

The Murder of Eoin Morley (The Blanket)

Police Ombudsman press release

Special Branch Blocked Evidence

Up The Ra!

**Received via email:

A Chairde,

For nearly the past 2 years many have you have visited
and used the Up The Ra! Website as a resource for
information on Irish Republicanism. At the beginning
of this year the site was hacked and the domain
“www.upthera.cjb.net” can no longer be used. But we
will not be silenced, and I have created a new
domain, http://www.up-the-ra.cjb.net.

Later this year we will have a “dot com” or “dot net”
domain as the site is going to be redesigned. I hope
you all will help spread the word that the Up The Ra!
Website is back.

Go raibh maith agat,

Up The Ra! Webmaster