SAOIRSE32

Belfast Telegraph

Evidence ‘updated’ in UVF murders

By Chris Thornton
11 April 2005

New material about the murder of two teenagers near Portadown five years ago has been submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

A file on the stabbing murders of Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine has been “updated” by detectives, according to security and legal sources.

The move follows a decision by police to undertake new DNA tests last year on clothing and other material seized immediately after the murders in February 2000.

But the family of one of the murdered teens, David McIlwaine, say the authorities “don’t have the will” to bring a case to court because a UVF informer may have been involved in the killings.

The two teenagers were butchered by UVF members after a night out in Tandragee, Co Armagh. Both were subjected to frenzied stabbings and had their throats cut.

The killing happened during a UVF-LVF feud and it is believed the killers attacked the boys after their original targets - two LVF members - failed to turn up in Tandragee.

David McIlwaine’s family say they accept that the murders were not sanctioned by the UVF leadership.

A Tandragee man was charged with the murders, but released after ten months on remand.

There were no other charges brought, in spite of bloodstains being found on clothing and cars linked to several suspects. Police ordered the new DNA tests last year, after papers released to the families through a court case revealed the extent of evidence against a number of suspects.

Alan Steele, an uncle of David McIlwaine, said: “Hugh Orde said recently that police need two things to solve the murder of Robert McCartney - witnesses and evidence.

“This case has both, so why has there not been any progress.”

Newshound

Bono speaks of IRA threats

(Suzanne McGonagle, Irish News)

Bono has revealed for the first time how U2 was warned in the 1980s that the IRA would attempt to kidnap them after they spoke out against them in the US.

In a new book Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas, the lead singer reveals that British intelligence officers treated the threat “very seriously”.

He said the band had to give their fingerprints and toe prints to police who feared they would be kidnapped.

The singer also talks about his relationship with his father, who died in 2001, as well as the night Nobel Peace Prize winners John Hume and David Trimble shook hands on stage at a U2 concert.

The book also promises Bono reflecting on his transformation from an extrovert singer into one of the most famous individuals in the world and speaking candidly about his faith, family, influences and passions.

But what will perhaps interest Irish readers most is his revelation that the group were targeted by paramilitaries following their criticism of paramilitarism in Ireland and America.

Bono said that when the group, who have sold 130 million albums and won 14 Grammy awards, toured the US in the 1980s they deliberately tried to dry up funds for the IRA in the country.

The singer said his outspoken condemnation of the violent campaigns by paramilitaries and the resultant drop in funding in the US prompted the death threats.

It is understood the threats were issued after a documentary film of U2 was made in 1988 that included a mixture of concert footage and a look at America through the eyes of the Irish rockers.

In the film, Rattle and Hum, Bono make a speech against the support that many Irish-Americans gave to the IRA campaign in the north.

Bono spoke on stage at a US concert on the day 11 people were killed in an IRA bomb at a Remembrance Sunday ceremony in Enniskillen.

He angrily challenged the idea that what was going on in Ireland was somehow “glorious” before giving an emotional performance of the song Sunday Bloody Sunday. In the book he also described an incident in which the band were confronted by a group of republicans who surrounded their car.

“One had the Tricolour around his fist trying to smash the windows of the car with his bare hands, screaming “Brits, Traitors”.

April 12, 2005
________________

This article appeared first in the April 11, 2005 edition of the Irish News.

Daily Ireland

The Stickie business of demonisation

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The greatest virtue attaching to the statement of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams at the Conway Mill last Wednesday is that finally – eleven years after the IRA cessation of military actions against the British – it de-couples the process of change within Irish republicanism from the process of political negotiation and bartering, primarily with Britain but also with Ulster unionism.
Previously, the future direction of republicanism was the hostage of a process in which petty-minded individuals like David Trimble (a Nobel peace laureate) could “raise the bar” at the last moment after extracting concessions from Sinn Féin and/or the IRA. Trimble’s petulant behaviour scuppered the second last attempt by republicans to reach a settlement with Ulster unionism which might provide a permanent basis for peace.
Now Adams has chosen to make a unilateral appeal to the men and women of the IRA to choose an alternative road to the one upon which they embarked, most recently, in 1970. He does so with the authority of his office as Sinn Féin president. And he does so, while making the point that on previous occasions he has fully defended the right (in his opinion) of the IRA to wage war against the British occupiers of part of Ireland (this is, after all, the man who carried the coffin of the Shankill bomber a decade ago regardless of the public relations disaster that this meant for him and for his party).
There are a number of problems, however, associated with the Adams statement of last week, problems which will be familiar to its author. In the first place the process of dismantling the IRA’s military machine was supposed to take place in tandem with the dismantling of Britain’s military presence in the six counties. There is no particular evidence to show that Britain has taken this task seriously: even the Free State minister Dermot Ahern – who is no friend of Sinn Féin – drew attention to this problem in recent days.
Secondly, what will happen if loyalists attack Catholic districts in Belfast and elsewhere this summer or in 2006 and 2007? Clearly, members of the republican movement will try to defend their areas against attack, but if they do so will they not be accused of hypocrisy by the Dublin and London media? Even though your house might be about to be burned, this won’t stop people in the media from demanding that you apply higher standards to your own behaviour than they would apply in their own lives.
The prize which Adams seeks to win for Sinn Féin is a continuation of the party’s political advance. But he must be aware that this process will continue to be obstructed by a massive campaign of falsification, regardless of whether or not the IRA is “stood down”. In other words, the IRA might agree to go away, but the people who depend for a living on their capacity to attack the IRA won’t. These are the people who staff the upper echelons of Independent News and Media, The Irish Times and RTÉ among other media organisations.
At the weekend the Free State justice minister, Michael McDowell, repeated his bizarre claim that the IRA was “well on the way” in creating a state within a state (presumably within the Free State). This is a line which has been faithfully trotted out by so-called investigative journalists within the Irish Independent and Sunday Tribune in recent weeks (who on earth was briefing them?). They apparently have swallowed the line that the buoyant southern economy with its two million workers and its perennial budget surpluses is about to be overwhelmed by what they call SF/IRA, even though Sinn Féin holds just five of the 166 seats in Dáil Éireann.
There is no evidence at all to support McDowell’s ludicrous rhetoric. The only people who have genuinely used the process that Marxists refer to as “entryism” to subvert the institutions of the Free State in recent decades are the old, now almost defunct, Workers’ Party who seized control of parts of The Irish Times, Independent News and Media, RTÉ and SIPTU (in the 1980s) and who now – lacking any obvious ideological mission – simply use their positions to provide jobs for their relatives and friends. Nell McCafferty, in her recent autobiography Nell, unwittingly provided a unique insight into the Workers’ Party attitude to the mass media when she told of how she used to meet monthly with the Official IRA boss Cathal Goulding to talk about the situation in Derry after she was appointed as a reporter with The Irish Times in the 1970s (see page 252 of her recent book). I want to make it absolutely clear here that Nell herself was never a Stickie and never sought or received any favours from those who were Stickies, merely that meeting Goulding was then considered normal in the world in which she had to make a living.
The process of demonising Sinn Féin these days cannot be contained, regardless of whether or not Adams succeeds in his bid to wind-up the IRA as a fighting force. The reportage of criminal activity in Dublin in recent days proves that the opponents of the republican movement within the Dublin media have adopted a technique known as “the Big Lie”. Any murder – regardless of whether it is caused by a personal vendetta or by a dispute among criminals – will be attributed to republicans. Political activists working for Sinn Féin will be smeared by hack writers who appear to see part of their primary functions as a willingness to attack Sinn Féin.
This is a dirty business. As Adams tries to dismantle the IRA, the primary opposition to him is not coming from Britain or even from Ulster’s fragmented unionists. It is coming from Dublin where important people fear the advance of Sinn Féin. Neither state possesses a shred of evidence that Adams authorised the robbery of the Northern Bank in December (have you noticed the number of people arrested in connection with this event?). Yet McDowell’s leader Mary Harney felt confident enough to accuse Adams, and Martin McGuinness of complicity in this robbery on RTÉ radio and RTÉ saw fit to broadcast this piece of programming which essentially pre-judged the guilt or innocence of named persons in connection with a crime which dwarfed the Great Train Robbery in terms of its scale.
The Progressive Democrats seem to be obsessed with threats to Irish democracy. They should keep their eyes open. They are sitting around the cabinet table with people who signed blank cheques for Charlie Haughey. People who have forgotten what their parents believed in, and who are now embarked on a nihilist effort to wreck the peace process (to shore up their own political mandate) and who no longer have any interest in the pursuit of republican objectives. Shake hands with them, and count the fingers on your hand afterwards.

Damien Kiberd is a writer and broadcaster. A presenter for Newstalk 106 in Dublin, he was previously editor of the Sunday Business Post.

Belfast Telegraph

Police vow to seek out dealers after drug haul

By Deborah McAleese and Geraldine Mulholland
12 April 2005

Foyle police chief Richard Russell today vowed to track down major drug dealers after officers in Derry seized drugs with a potential street value of £250,000.

A kilo of cocaine and a significant amount of pharmaceutical bulking agents were uncovered during during planned searches in the Shantallow area of the city last night.

The find is believed to be one of the biggest of its kind in Ulster.

Ch Supt Richard Russell said: “This is a very significant result. Obviously our efforts are concentrated on the main dealers and the amount of cocaine found would suggest that, at some stage, it was in the possession of a major dealer.

“We will continue our inquiries to find out where these drugs are coming from and the chain involved in getting them to the city.”

A 33-year-old man arrested during the seizure is still in custody.

Three houses were searched in an on-going police operation.

Recent statistics showed that last year Derry police seized drugs on an average of eight times a month.

A total of 92 seizures were recorded from 2003 to 2004, with 124 people arrested.

Two major imports of cocaine destined for Derry were also intercepted.

The latest seizure is one of the biggest hauls of cocaine uncovered by police in the province.

The largest seizure of the class A drug so far was last May, when detectives uncovered cocaine with an estimated street value of £1.2m in a van on the M1 near Broadway.

There are increasing fears about a surge in cocaine use after the amount of cocaine seized by the PSNI over a six month period last year soared by over 800%.

Daily Ireland

EU ban runs against natural justice

Up until 1999, St John’s Wort, a popular herbal remedy effective for treating depression, was available in the Republic of Ireland over the counter. However, from January 1, 2000, it became available on prescription only and people now travel north across the Border to purchase it. This decision to restrict availability, taken by the then Minister for Health, Brian Cowen, was strongly opposed by users of the herbal remedy and by health shop owners.
An estimated 75,000 Irish people used the herb in 1999.
Minister Cowen made his decision based on advice from the Irish Medicines Board, which expressed concern over a number of issues, including possible side effects and the possibility of the herb interacting with prescribed medicines. The position of the IMB was arrived at without any proper involvement or consultation with those trained in alternative medicine.
Some months after the restriction was put in place a report was published in the British Medical Journal saying doctors should prescribe the herb as a “first choice” treatment for patients with mild to moderate depression.
However, the Irish Medicines Board declined to comment at the time on the new research, which indicated that St John’s Wort was as effective a remedy for depression as conventional drugs, and had fewer side effects.
At the time the restrictions were being introduced, health store owners and consumers warned that this was the beginning of a campaign – driven by the vested interests of the pharmaceutical industry – to clamp down on the growing alternative healthcare market. It appears their fears were justified because, not long after that, the EU Commission came forward with a proposal to restrict, through an approved list, consumer’s access to vitamin and mineral supplements.
This contentious Food Supplements Directive, which effectively proposed to ban 75 per cent of vitamin and mineral forms, was approved by EU governments in 2002 and was designed to tighten controls on the growing market in products sold under the health food heading of “natural remedies, vitamin supplements and mineral plant extracts”.
When the legislation was going through the European Parliament, MEPs were inundated with letters and emails from the public urging them to oppose the directive but David Byrne, the Irish EU Commissioner proposing it, dismissed these. In Mr Byrne’s view, these were likely to have come from people “who had been seriously misled by those who profit by this legislation not going through the system”. The legislation was approved and is now due to come into effect later this year.
The food supplements the EU intends to allow, some 30 vitamin and 80 mineral substances, will be placed on what is known as a “positive list”. If a substance is not on the list it cannot be sold. Supplements can be added to the list provided manufacturers can prove their effectiveness and safety. But this involves a highly bureaucratic and expensive procedure that small companies do not have the resources for. Thus, many products would be banned by default. In this way, ingredients that have been part of the human diet for thousands of years, and which are increasingly difficult to derive from conventional foods due to modern intensive chemical methods of production and processing, would be lost and would not be able to be supplemented.
When the law comes into effect over 5,000 products could disappear from the shelves of health stores as a result. These include the main natural forms of Vitamin E, several forms of vitamin C, the key natural form of folic acid and a range of minerals such as vanadium, silicon and boron – products which millions of consumers choose to take as part of their regular health regime and have done so without any ill effects for many years.
What is at issue here is the individual’s right to freedom of choice to take safe natural health products. A large number of people take vitamins and minerals and believe passionately in the benefits of natural, preventative healthcare.
The influence of pharmaceutical companies in getting such laws passed to begin with is something that needs serious investigation. Why is such an effort being made to ban or restrict access to natural health care products, and push all innovative dietary supplements through a tortuous regulatory process designed to force them off the market? Is it so they can no longer compete with pharmaceutical prescription drugs?
Without having to justify any health hazard, and without considering any benefits, safety has been used as a reason to restrict the availability of natural food products.
With rapidly declining vitamin and mineral content in fruit, vegetables and other foods, and continuing increases in degenerative diseases such as heart disease and cancer, this is a very important issue worth focusing on.
In the UK, where one third of women and a quarter of men take supplements, the health food supplements market is estimated to be worth at least €490 million (£335m) a year, the largest in the EU. So it’s not surprising that a group of vitamin producers, traders and health food stores based in the UK initiated a court challenge to the new EU law.
Last week, European Court of Justice Advocate-General, Leendert Geelhoed, concluded that the EU food supplements directive lacked clearly defined rules and norms and should be annulled. In a statement released in Luxembourg he wrote: “I must conclude the (EU legislature) has seriously failed in its duty to design such a far-reaching measure with all due care.
“The Directive infringes the principle of proportionality, because basic principles of (EU) law, such as the requirements of legal protection, of legal certainty and of sound administration have not been taken into account.”
His comments carry judicial weight, but remain only advisory. A final court verdict on the directive is not due until the summer. However, in most European Court cases, the judges follow the Advocate-General’s advice. If his recommendations are adopted the directive will be declared illegal and consumers will be able to continue using the natural food supplements that they believe are beneficial to their health.
However, there is no denying the fact that consumers do need protection against health and nutritional claims that don’t tell the whole story. Legislation will have to be introduced to end false and misleading claims by some sections of the industry, such as labels declaring, “90 per cent fat free”. But this must not be at the expense of people’s right to choose.
Patricia McKenna is a former Green Party MEP for Dublin and a political activist with special interest in human rights, disarmament and social justice.

Daily Ireland

Probe call for Dáil

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Minister of Justice Michael McDowell will face renewed demands in the Dáil today for full disclosure of the facts in a 14-year-long murder investigation.
Sinn Féin councillor Eddie Fullerton was shot dead by the UFF at his home in Buncrana, Co Donegal, in the early hours of May 25, 1991.
Suspicions about the role of the RUC in assisting the murder gang’s escape have led to complaints from Mr Fullerton’s family about state collusion.
Following widespread public concern about the original investigation and a dripfeed of revelations about the actions of the Garda, Mr Fullerton’s family successfully forced a re-investigation of the case which reported privately at the end of last year.
Two months ago TG4 broadcast a documentary which revealed startling new evidence about the murder, including the account of a crucial eyewitness who implicated both the Garda and RUC in relation to assisting the getaway of the killers.
Mr Fullerton’s son Albert has called on Minister McDowell to provide full disclosure when he is questioned about the affair in the Dáil later today.
“We’re hoping that Minister McDowell is aware of the detail of the latest Garda re-investigation and that he will disclose whether he has had any dealings with the DPP,” Mr Fullerton told Daily Ireland last night.
“Given the declared close co-operation between the Garda and the PSNI, we will also await with interest whether he raised the matter with top PSNI officials in Belfast during their high-profile meeting in February.”
Criticising Minister McDowell’s treatment of his family and his father’s memory, Mr Fullerton said:
“Hopefully this re-investigation vindicates our stance about the inadequacy of the original investigation. Will Minister McDowell now initiate a full public inquiry into the murder of Eddie Fullerton?
“To date the family feel like we have effectively been ignored, and if Minister McDowell gave this case a fraction of the attention that he has given to the Robert McCartney case, then perhaps we would find ourselves someway nearer to the truth.
“The detail coming out of the Morris Tribunal about the conduct of the Donegal Garda raises huge, huge questions about the first so-called investigation.
“Given the lack of operational expertise and political will to deal with this issue all along, the family remain to be convinced that the necessary political will exists to secure justice today,” Mr Fullerton said.
Sinn Féin justice spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh said he will outline in the Dáil the “strong evidence of British security forces collusion in the murder”.
“We will also ask the Minister if he agrees that the murder of an Irish elected representative demands a full public inquiry similar to ones demanded in other cases,” Mr Ó Snodaigh said.

Daily Ireland

Poster support for arrested republican

Posters supporting a republican arrested over the murder of Robert McCartney have gone up in homes in Belfast.
Photographs of Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison with slogans including “I believe Jock” adorn front windows of several homes in the Markets, where the senior republican lives.
Mr Davison was arrested during the investigation into the murder of 33-year-old Robert McCartney but was later released without charge.
While Mr Davison admits he was in Magennis’s Bar the night Robert McCartney was stabbed to death, he insisted he had nothing to do with the father-of-two’s murder.
During an earlier interview with Daily Ireland in March, Gerard Davison claimed: “I’m as much a victim of circumstances as anybody else.”
Sinn Féin representatives from the Markets area where Mr Davison was born, and the Short Strand area, where he now lives say they do not know why the posters have been erected now.
Meanwhile, Mr McCartney’s family yesterday said they had confidence in the PSNI investigation into their brother’s death.
Speaking after a meeting in Dublin with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, his sister Paula McCartney said they disagreed with Martin McGuinness’ comments that the PSNI were not charging anyone to maintain the political pressure on republicans.
“We know that people have told police some information but what is actually happening is they’re being told what to say and what not to say, so the full picture is not emerging,” she said.
“I don’t believe that the PSNI haven’t been proactive.
“What has to be remembered here is there was a forensic clean-up, there was intimidation of witnesses, and given all these facts, we can see why the process is so slow.”
She said that the reason the people Mr McGuinness believed could be charged were not admitting what they had done was because they wanted “to go down as Irish volunteers and not psychopaths”.
She also said that the family did not believe their campaign was affected by Gerry Adams’s call last week for the IRA to follow a political and democratic path.
“Our campaign has never been about disbanding the IRA – it’s not in our interests to do that. Our only interest is for the murderers of Robert to be delivered,” Paula said.
She said the family was “very encouraged and reassured” following their meeting with the Taoiseach yesterday.
“We just asked him to make a commitment that this will be an issue, that he personally will not rest until it is resolved and I think he assured us about that.”
The family vowed to carry on the fight for justice for Robert with a rally in Dublin and a vigil outside the pub where he was killed in Belfast in January.
“It’s never entered our heads to give up.
“We’ll never give up until these people are brought to justice,” Paula said.
Paula was joined by her sister Claire and Robert’s partner Bridgeen Hagans for the meeting with the Taoiseach at Government Buildings.

BBC

Hostage held in £1m city robbery

Police have cordoned off part of the filling station

More than £1m in cash is believed to have been stolen from a security firm in Belfast in a robbery where a woman was held hostage for up to eight hours.

An employee of the firm Brinks was ordered to drop off the money at a filling station in the Finaghy area on the outskirts of south Belfast.

The woman was later freed unharmed in the Annadale area of the city.

It is understood the woman was taken from her home at Belvoir in the early hours of Tuesday.

She was held hostage at a disused property in Annadale Avenue.

At the same time, her partner, an employee with the security firm was told to drive a cash delivery van to the forecourt of a filling station in the upper Lisburn Road area of Finaghy

He was given instructions on how to hand over the large sum of cash.

Incident room

Brinks looks after many ATMs, and it is understood such security vans could carry as much as £1.5m.

Detectives have set up a special incident room and have appealed for information.

They have also cordoned off Diamond Gardens which runs alongside Creighton’s filling station at Finaghy.

The large disused house on Annadale Avenue in south Belfast where the woman was held was also cordoned off.

Forensic scientists have examined the driveway and a garage in the back garden.

A large disused house was also cordoned off

Police want to hear from anyone who saw any suspicious behaviour in the upper Lisburn Road area, Belvoir area or Annadale between midnight to 0800 BST.

Meanwhile, about £10,000 was stolen during an armed robbery in east Belfast.

A man armed with a handgun got out of a car outside the Northern Bank on the Upper Newtownards Road at about 1230 BST.

He approached a security guard and grabbed a cash box.

The robber then assaulted the man before making off in a car. It was found a short time later in nearby Holland Park.

Belfast Telegraph

Drugs use in prisons at record
Figures show six-fold increase

By Michael McHugh
12 April 2005

Concerns at drugs use in Ulster’s prisons surfaced again today after a huge increase in the amount of sleeping tablets recovered.

Prison authorities logged a rise to record levels of diazepam and ecstasy while the amount of cannabis confiscated from prisoners also rose during 99 searches between December and February.

The news has sparked concern from prison officers about the availability of drugs.

233 diazepam tablets were found by Northern Ireland Prison Service authorities, a six-fold increase from the previous three months.

The chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, Finlay Spratt, admitted that drug use made his members’ jobs more difficult.

“Any drugs which get into a closed environment like prisons makes our job more difficult, which is why it’s important that we are vigilant to stop the drugs from reaching people,” he said.

“We are trying to make prisoners better people and this makes our job more difficult.

“The prison system is indicative of society in general and its drug culture and we as prison officers are constantly on the look out to reduce the amount of drugs available.”

Mr Spratt said the statistics showed prison officers were exercising vigilance in seizing the drugs.

There were 38 other cases where prisoners swallowed packages when approached by officers.

223 grammes of cannabis, and 100 ecstasy tablets were discovered, although the tally of 157 steroids represents a fall.

SDLP Lagan Valley Assemblywoman Patricia Lewsley called for an urgent inquiry into the findings.

“We need an investigation into how these drugs are brought into prison and we need some checks and balances to be put in place,” she said.

“Whatever they are using to find the drugs (on smugglers) is not working as people seem to be able to get past them.

“It is disappointing that the situation has not been improved and whatever procedures are in place are obviously not working.

“I would call on the Board of Governors at Maghaberry to look into this situation and look at models of best practice elsewhere to see if there is something which can be done.”

A Prison Service spokeswoman said: “The Prison Service has a duty and responsibility to tackle drug misuse and has a rigorous policy in place which aims to reduce drugs coming into prisons as well as provide education and counselling for prisoners.”

Belfast Telegraph

PSNI probe theft of official NIO paper

By Chris Thornton
12 April 2005

The PSNI confirmed today that police are investigating an SDLP complaint of theft over an 11-year-old NIO document outlining South Down MP Eddie McGrady’s private criticisms of former leader John Hume’s peace strategy.

Mr McGrady linked the document to the theft of material from the NIO by an alleged IRA spy ring, although police have not confirmed the origin.

“Police are investigating an allegation of theft following a complaint from the SDLP,” the spokesman confirmed.

In the document written by a senior NIO official, Mr McGrady is quoted as predicting that the republican movement - allegedly described by the MP as “the scum of the earth” - would string out negotiation with the British Government.

And he predicted that his party would suffer as a result.

Belfast Telegraph

Pearce (9) all smiles after vital operation
Doctors are hopeful after surgery on brain tumour

By Debra Douglas
12 April 2005

These are the first pictures of brave little Ulster boy Pearce Gilmore to be taken after his life-saving operation in the US.

Smiling for the camera, the nine-year-old was in good spirits.

Just hours after an operation to remove a large tumour from his brain, Pearce, from Coleraine, was sitting up and joking with the nurses.

Staff at the hospital are pleased with his recovery so far - the determined youngster is five days ahead of schedule already.

Although his parents face an agonising few days before they find out more about the tumour, of which 80% was removed, they are happy with Pearce’s progress at this point.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph from New York, Dad Seamus said the doctors were hopeful the tumour is benign.

More than £40,000 was raised by Belfast Telegraph readers throughout the province to send Pearce to Montefiore Children’s Hospital, New York City, for the vital operation.

Pearce, Seamus and mum Sophie travelled over last week to meet Dr Abbot, the paediatric neurosurgeon who carried out the operation.

Tests, including an MRI scan, were carried out on the youngster ahead of his five-hour surgery.

Several weeks ago, Dr Abbott, who works and teaches at the Einstein Centre in the Bronx, told the Belfast Telegraph that his practice specialised in the type of operation Pearce has undergone.

He said the centre was “renowned internationally” for it and carries out around ten similar operations each year.

Pearce is suffering from an unusual brain condition and his family were losing hope he would live to see his tenth birthday later this month.

Pearce was given no hope of survival when the brain tumour was diagnosed last May but Mary Clare McCullagh, a teacher at Pearce’s former school, St John’s Primary in Coleraine, began a global search for help.

She saw an article in Readers Digest about how Dr Fred Epstein, a director of paediatric neurosurgery at the New York University Medical Centre, saved a boy’s life despite the youngster suffering from “two virtually inoperable” tumours.

Almost one year on, Pearce still has a long way to go, including five to six weeks of daily radiation treatment, which he can have here in Northern Ireland, but judging by our photographs, the little Ulster lad is on the right road to recovery.

BBC

Police launch arrest operation

Police are probing allegations of illegal dumping

A major police arrest operation is under way in connection with allegations of money laundering and illegal waste disposal.

It is understood commercial premises in Fermanagh and Belfast are among those being targeted by police teams.

The operation follows an investigation into illegal dumping going back a number of months.

Last November, police investigating illegal dumping in Fermanagh recovered stolen goods worth about £200,000.

BreakingNews.ie

SDLP announces election policing plans

12/04/2005 - 11:04:56

The SDLP has unveiled a nine-month plan to scale down security in the North.

The document calls for the demolition of British army watchtowers and the de-fortification of PSNI stations.

It also urges the British government to give the PSNI primacy in intelligence gathering and to drop plans to hand the lead role to the MI5.

The SDLP also wants proposals brought forward for the phased introduction of unarmed police officers.

BBC

School children to get ID cards

From today, thousands of secondary school children in Antrim will be given a new identity card.

Antrim Council is the first council in Northern Ireland to introduce the Citizen Card scheme to all secondary schools within the borough.

It believes it will make it easier for retailers to distinguish the age of young people when selling products such as alcohol and cigarettes.

The council said there had been a very positive response from businesses.

“They’ve been delighted that we have been rolling out this scheme in such a comprehensive manner throughout schools,” environmental health officer Philip Thompson said.

“The uptake from school children in the borough has been tremendous and we are approaching approximately 2,000 cards being issued.”

The council took on board the views of local businesses before deciding to introduce the Citizen Card.

This resulted in a multi-agency partnership being set up to ensure all pupils under the age of 18 have easy access to the card.

The partnership included representatives of Antrim Borough Council, local secondary schools, local businesses, the police and Citizen Card.

The initiative is being launched at Clotworthy Arts Centre on Tuesday.

IRISH REPUBLICAN INFORMATION SERVICE (no. 12)

Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie
Date: 11 A1breán / April 2005

Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom

In this issue:
1. RSF in Derry reject RUC call
2. Continued harassment of Republicans
3. Finucane family vow not to back restricted inquiry
4. Kelly family demand answers on RUC/PSNI inaction in murder case
5. Basque hunger strikers: call for support
6. British government approve new plastic bullet
7. Immigrant workers discriminated against in workforce
8. PFC documentary to screen at Belfast film festival

RSF IN DERRY REJECT RUC CALL
ON April 9 Republican Sinn Féin (RSF) in Derry city urged people not to go to the police with information about a loyalist attack on a memorial to veteran Derry Republican Seán Keenan.

The Fahan Street monument to Seán Keenan - who was RSF Life Vice-President before his death - was daubed in red, white and blue paint over the Easter weekend. And while a spokesperson for the organisation said they deplored the attack, he insisted anyone with information about it, should not go to the PSNI. He was reacting to an appeal issued by RUC/PSNI detectives at Strand Road.

“We reject the recent calls of the British colonial police for people with information on this attack to come forward,” the spokesman told the Derry News. “These are the selfsame people who interned Seán Keenan without charge or trial on several occasions throughout the course of his life. They are the first line of defence for English rule in Ireland - an occupation Seán Keenan resisted all his life. No one should dishonour his memory by collaborating with these agents of the British Crown.”
The spokesperson also revealed that the memorial would be fully restored in the near future.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Keenan family have offered to meet those behind the attack in a bid to end the ongoing vandalism of the monument. His grandson Colm Barton said: “As a lifelong Republican, Seán was totally opposed to sectarianism. The only way to ensure that this vandalism fails is to ensure that it is not used to raise sectarian tensions in the area.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to offer to meet with unionist community leaders or elected representatives to see if there is anything we could do to bring these attacks to an end. The same offer applies to those who carried out this attack.”

2. CONTINUED HARASSMENT OF REPUBLICANS
FIVE men were arrested on April 7 in Counties Tyrone and Armagh, two of whom were subsequently charged.

Kevin Sutton was arrested at his mother’s house in Dungannon, Co Tyrone and was charged on April 8 in Omagh with possession of explosives. His two brothers were also arrested after his house was searched but released without charge.

Jeff Cooling, Dublin was arrested on the Armagh-Moy Road, his car searched and was subsequently charged in Banbridge, Co Down with possession of “information likely to be of use to terrorists”.

Both men were remanded to Maghaberry prison. Also on April 7 the home of Paddy Fox in Co Tyrone was raided for three-and-a-half hours. Paddy was later arrested and released the following day. When he arrived home his home was again being searched by the colonial police.

3. FINUCANE FAMILY VOW NOT TO BACK RESTRICTED INQUIRY
THE family of murdered Belfast human rights solicitor Pat Finucane reacted angrily to reports that the British government is to press ahead with controversial new laws limiting the scope of inquiries.

Pat Finucane’s son Martin said if the Inquiries Bill - permitting the British government to hold evidence sessions in private - is pushed through, the family would withhold co-operation from the inquiry.

“The family has made its position quite clear regarding this new legislation. If it goes ahead we certainly could not accept it or participate with the inquiry.”

British Six-County Secretary Paul Murphy agreed last year to hold an inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, who was shot dead in front of his family in 1989.

But he indicated that because of so-called British national security concerns, new legislation would have to be drafted to allow evidence to be considered in public.

Last month, Canadian Judge Peter Cory, who investigated allegations of British state collusion in the murder, criticised the British Government’s plans.

Judge Cory, whose report led to the British government agreeing to an inquiry, wrote a letter to a Washington Committee stating that new legislation would make a meaningful inquiry impossible.

He added: “If the new act were to become law I would advise all Canadian judges to decline an appointment in light of the impossible situation they would be facing.”

4. KELLY FAMILY DEMAND ANSWERS ON RUC\ PSNI INACTION IN MURDER CASE
THE family of murdered a murdered nationalist councillor Patsy Kelly have called on the RUC/PSNI to explain in public why it has not interviewed any of the people named by a former British Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldier as being directly involved in the killing.

Patsy Kelly, a 33-year-old nationalist councillor, was murdered after he went missing from the Co Tyrone village of Trillick in July 1974.

On Tuesday April 5 the RUC/PSNI arrested four men in connection with Patsy Kelly’s murder but they have since been released without charge. The four men are thought to have all been former members of the UDR and included convicted loyalist killer, Robert Bridges.

The RUC\PSNI said that files on two of the men questioned would be sent to the Six County Director of Public Prosecutions. It is understood that the files are unrelated to Patsy Kelly’s murder but is in connection with other offences committed 30 years ago.

The release of the four men came as no surprise to Patsy Kelly’s family who say they have no faith in any RUC\PSNI investigation and are demanding an independent inquiry into the murder.
The family, through their solicitor Pat Fahy, have demanded that the RUC\PSNI publicly explains why it has not arrested any of the men implicated in Patsy Kelly’s murder by the late David Jordan in 1999.

David Jordan, a former UDR soldier, broke down in a bar and confessed to having been present when Patsy Kelly was murdered. He named two of his former fellow UDR members as being the killers.

“The Kelly family have been making this point to police in private for the past five years,” said Pat Fahy. “They are now asking publicly why the PSNI has not interviewed the people named by the late David Jordan as being directly involved in the shooting of Patsy Kelly.

“The family do not object to police following lines of inquiry, but they do object to police not following specific lines of inquiry. The men arrested and subsequently released this week were not the men the family have been directing the police to,” added Pat Fahy.

There have since been calls for David Jordan’s body to be exhumed for post-mortem because of the suspicious circumstances in which he died.

5. BASQUE HUNGER STRIKERS: CALL FOR SUPPORT
THE son of Derry hunger striker has called for local people to show support for prisoners currently on hunger strike in the Basque country.

Michael Óg Devine, whose father Mickey died during the 1981 Hunger Strike, urged local people to write to the Spanish and French embassies in Dublin expressing concerns.

Michael Óg Devine said an estimated 720 Basque political prisoners were involved in an indefinite hunger strike.

He said: “This comes at a time when we enter into the 24th year since my father and his comrades died on hunger strike.

“We are very watchful of the similar pain and sacrifice unfolding in the prisons of France and Spain. Their struggle, in many ways, does resemble that which my father and his comrades embarked on against a policy of criminalisation.”

Michael Óg Devine called on French and Spanish states not to repeat the “mistakes” of the British government in dealing with the demands of IRA and INLA prisoners which, he claimed, “led to the death of my father and his comrades”.

6. BRITISH GOVERNMENT APPROVE NEW PLASTIC BULLET
BRITISH ministers have approved a new plastic bullet for use by the RUC\PSNI.
The so-called Attenuating Energy Projectile or AEP will be available for use by police in England, and Wales from June 21. However in the case of the Six Counties not only will the RUC/PSNI have use of them but also the British army. Seventeen people have been killed by rubber and plastic bullets in the Six Counties over the past 36 years.

7. IMMIGRANT WORKERS DISCRIMINATED AGAINST IN WORK FORCE
UP to 800 workers from the Gama Construction firm downed tools twice during last week (Monday, April 4 and Tuesday, April 5) in protest over their pay and conditions on building sites in Ireland.

In Galway they gathered in Eyre Square and in Dublin the workers held a protest at the Spire in O’Connell St and then marched to the SIPTU headquarters at Liberty Hall. Several of the men claim they are being paid as little as €1.80 an hour including Ali Ihsan Semerci from Istanbul who says that was his rate of pay for the last 16 months.

Amidst allegations that 30 workers were locked into a site in Ballymun to stop them joining the protest, a spokesperson for the workers said they ‘condemn the victimisation of any workers’ and that all they are looking for is ‘the money they are owed, the immediate implementation of trade union rates of pay and a 48-hour week’. They further claim that their money was paid into Dutch bank accounts without their knowledge. Gama denies the allegation.

The labour inspectorate has undertaken an investigation into ‘allegations of mistreatment of workers’ employed by Gama and Michael Martin claims he is ‘anxious to publish it’ but Gama have secured a high court injunction to prevent this. A previous investigation into Gama found no evidence of any ‘wrongdoing’.

There are only 21 labour inspectors for a workforce of 1.6millon compared to 41 health officials policing the smoking ban and 50 dog wardens. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions want the number of inspectors increased to 150. President of SIPTU, Jack O’Connor said “the widening gulf between workers’ rights on paper and their evidence in practice highlights the abysmally inadequate resources allocated to the enforcement of the employment legislation”.

The problem of exploitation of immigrant workers is nothing new Last year Irish construction workers working for Gama picketed the South Dublin Co Council Offices on two fronts. They claimed that the Turkish workers were being exploited by Gama who paid them well below the union rate and because Of this Irish workers were not being employed. The protest once again highlights the ‘bonded slavery’ system which keeps the immigrant workers with one employer.

This is a system that should not be allowed in any country. This is a system that allowed Irish ferries to pay Salvacion Y Ortenero Orge, just over €1 an hour. After a stand off, in which Ms Orge refused to leave the MV Isle of Inishmore and was represented by SIPTU, Irish Ferries paid over what is believed to be in the region of €25.000 and Ms Orge returned home to the Philippines.

Now however the Irish branch of the International Transport Federation has called on Irish ferries to reimburse two more Filipinas who worked on the MV Normandy and have returned home. They too had been paid below the required wage.

The exploitation of all workers, nationals or not, must stop immediately. The laws on work permits must be changed to allow the workers to move on if they so wish. Many of our immigrants have been accused of not wanting to work - but the fact that so many have worked for so long for such scandalous wages give lie to that.

8. PFC DOCUMENTARY TO SCREEN AT BELFAST FILM FESTIVAL
THE PFC documentary, Lifting a Dark Cloud - The Kathleen Thompson case will screen at the Culturlann, Falls Rd at 7.30 on Wednesday 13 April as part of the 5th Belfast Film festival. The 45 minute film was directed by award winning local director Ann Crilly and produced by the Pat Finucane Centre in association with the Nerve Centre.

From the perspective of the Thompson family it tells the story of the night in November 1971 when the 47 year old mother of six was shot dead in her own back garden by soldiers of the Royal Green Jackets regiment and the legacy this left for her family and the community. The investigation lasted only two hours and the soldier who fired the fatal shot was not charged. In 1980 the family received a compensation cheque for £84.07. Members of the Thompson family will attend the screening this coming Wednesday.

Lifting a Dark Cloud - The Kathleen Thompson case is also to be shown later this month in Tel Aviv, Israel during a series of events featuring artists from the north of Ireland.

ENDS

Guardian

The last milestone

Gerry Adams’ call for IRA disbandment puts republicanism on the last stretch of the road from militarism

Niall Stanage
Monday April 11, 2005
The Guardian

Few speeches are truly historic. But the one delivered by Gerry Adams on Wednesday should not be seen any other way. His call for disbandment of the IRA - and that is what it was, despite the artfulness of the Sinn Féin president’s language - was the most momentous event that Ireland has witnessed since the signing of the Good Friday agreement. As was the case when Irish republicans and Ulster unionists settled on that accord in 1998, something that once seemed unimaginable has just happened.

Analysis of Adams’ move has so far highlighted the role played by the McCartney sisters, who have become vociferous critics of the republican movement since their brother Robert was murdered in a Belfast bar brawl late in January. The McCartneys have had some impact, but to suggest that they alone brought the IRA to this point is simplistic.

The sisters may have discomfited Sinn Féin in the halls of Washington and drawn the spotlight of the international media. But their capacity to hurt the IRA in its heartlands was very limited. The McCartneys’ real effect has been to give a sharpness and a human face to an argument that many republicans were already accepting: that the IRA has become a hindrance rather than a help to the achievement of republican objectives.

The IRA’s existence no longer adds to the pressure for a final settlement of the Irish conflict. Tony Blair said as much in a landmark speech in 2002: “The very thing republicans used to think gave them negotiating leverage doesn’t do it any more,” he insisted. It seems that Gerry Adams has come to agree with him.

Disbandment of the IRA is also the logical conclusion to the course Adams and his like-minded comrades began to chart almost a quarter of a century ago - even though no one, including the Sinn Féin leader himself, could have envisioned the end point with any clarity back then.

As time passes it becomes increasingly obvious that the election of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands as a Westminster MP - a victory that was announced 24 years ago today - was the fulcrum upon which the conflict turned.

At the time, Sinn Féin’s ramshackle nature and lowly standing could be seen in the fact that Sands did not even stand on the party ticket; his official designation was “anti-H Block/Armagh political prisoner”. But his victory proved to Adams and others that there was a broad latent republicanism in Ireland that could be harnessed by the Provisional movement if it acted nimbly enough.

Sands’ triumph also provided a potent refutation of the argument made by the British government of the time, and by Margaret Thatcher in particular, that the IRA was nothing more than a criminal gang, devoid of public sympathy. Adams became Sinn Féin president and was first elected to Westminster two years later.

At first republicans argued that participation in electoral politics strengthened the hand of the IRA. But the duality summed up in the infamous phrase “the Armalite and the ballot box” could not be maintained for ever.

The IRA’s campaign put a cap on Sinn Féin’s growth. The cacophony of bombs and bullets drowned out the arguments made by the movement’s nascent political wing. And among many who did hear that analysis and harboured some sympathy for it there was a reluctance to cast a vote that would be regarded as an unambiguous expression of support for the armed struggle.

Only two years before the IRA ceasefire, Adams, then his party’s only MP, lost his seat to a moderate nationalist, Joe Hendron of the SDLP.

Today Sinn Féin has four MPs and a real chance of wiping out the SDLP in the forthcoming general election. Its progress in the Irish Republic has been no less dramatic - it now has five members in the parliament there. The lesson is clear: a huge number of Irish people who were unwilling to vote for a republican armed struggle are happy to vote for a republican political agenda.

The critical issue now is how the IRA responds to Adams’ speech. Officially, it has committed only to giving “his appeal due consideration”. But to most observers it is inconceivable that Adams would have asked for de facto disbandment in public if he were not already sure of the answer.

Some IRA activists will bridle at the idea of disbandment. A few of them may join the small dissident groups. The traditional republican idea that armed resistance to British rule is a sacred duty will never be totally expunged from Ireland.

But the strength of the modern IRA did not come primarily from old-style nationalist fervour. It was rooted in a sense that Northern Ireland was both egregiously unjust and inherently unreformable. Those who saw the IRA’s campaign as, in essence, an armed struggle for civil rights have been reluctantly convinced that politics is the only way forward.

Irish republicanism has been through a tumultuous journey. It now stands at the last milestone on the road away from militarism.

· Niall Stanage is a correspondent for the Dublin-based Sunday Business Post

niallstan@hotmail.com

Irelandclick.com

Collusion

In the early hours of the morning of April 4, 1989, Gerard Casey was shot by loyalist paid assassins in front of his wife and child. His murder was a direct result of collusion between the British establishment and loyalist death squads.
A joiner by trade, Gerard was a well-respected member of the community in Rasharkin and in the wider north Antrim and Derry areas. Gerard was a gifted footballer for Rasharkin GAA club at the time of his murder. However, it was the many injustices facing the Irish people which led Gerard to join the ranks of Óglaigh na hÉireann in north Antrim. Harassment against Gerard, like many other nationalists and republicans across the North, was a daily occurrence. Once when he was arrested he was told he would be shot and that loyalists would claim his murder. It wasn’t surprising then, that at the time of his murder his killing was claimed by the UVF.
Gerard Casey was only 29 years old when he died as a result of collusion.
Gerard was one of over 800 people killed by the British policy of collusion. People like Eddie Fullerton, a Sinn Féin councillor in County Donegal at the time of his murder, Patsy Kelly a nationalist councillor in Omagh at the time of his death, Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane have also fallen victim to this policy. The British, acknowledging that they could not break the will and spirit of the Irish people to their right to national self-determination, used their dirty tricks on us, the republican community of the North. However the croppies wouldn’t lie down.
At the Ógra Shinn Féin national congress in Derry in January we launched our national anti-collusion campaign. The aims of the campaign are
1.) To remember the victims of collusion and their families.
2.) To bring someone to account for the murder of loved ones.
3.) To get a public, independent judicial inquiry into the murders of the over 800 victims and for the facts to be made public.
4.) To call for an immediate end to the policy.
It is our last aim that may shock people. Many people think that the policy of collusion is a thing of the past, however, it is alive and kicking as it was 16 years ago when assassins murdered Gerard Casey. Ógra’s campaign of anti-collusion has thus far seen us take part in rooftop protests, white line pickets and occupying buildings in our call for the truth about collusion. Indeed in a number of months we will head off for England to visit good old Maggie Thatcher in our pursuit of the truth. We will target a number of buildings in England such as Tory HQ, MI5 HQ, 10 Downing Street and the house of ‘The Iron Lady’ herself in our call for the truth to be exposed about the British policy of collusion.
Through the policy of collusion the British tried to demonise and demoralise republicanism in Ireland. This demoralisation of republicans continues today. When we look at the history books we have seen successive British governments attempt this ploy. In 1976 it was known as the ‘criminalisation’ policy, however five years later Bobby Sands and his nine comrades showed that neither they nor their communities were criminals. Just like it was defeated in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh in 1981 it will be defeated once again in 2005.
Laoiaine Ni Pheacoig,
Ógra Shinn Féin

Belfast Telegraph

Celtic tiger threatens mystical Tara, where kings were once crowned

A battle is raging between old Ireland, steeped in history, and the modern nation over plans for a motorway where high kings once were crowned. David McKittrick reports

11 April 2005

click to view ‘Hill of Tara’ - photo from Virtual Tourist

Claire Oakes is plainly right to say there is something unique about Tara, the spot near Dublin whose thousands of years of history caused W B Yeats to call it “probably the most consecrated spot in Ireland”.

She regularly travels to the graceful hill in Co Meath from her home two miles away. “My special time for going up is at dusk,” she said. “There’s a great sense of being connected to all that’s gone before us, over the millennia. You can see that a lot of people recognise something within the land itself - they walk around more reverently.

“When it’s clear it’s amazing how far you can see, but when the prominences in the distance are shrouded in haze it’s quite magical and mystical. It changes with the seasons, but it’s always pretty wonderful.”

An hour spent on Tara is enough to confirm that Mrs Oakes is right when she talks about the sense of timelessness there, a sense that has made it important to countless generations. Its unusual geography comes as a surprise, for at its heart is a modest hill whose summit suddenly offers, by some idiosyncrasy of topography, sweeping views of perhaps half of the Irish Republic’s 26 counties.

Thousands of years of history, pre-history and legend have gone into the history of Tara, as a place and as an idea, so that it has been described as the centre of the Celtic world. One of its numerous legends is that it served as an entrance to the “Otherworld”. Here high kings of Ireland gathered with their warriors to perform a ceremony to ward off attacks coming from this netherland.

Today, however, another set of people’s priority is to seek, not a gateway to another world, but more prosaically access to the city of Dublin, where they have to get to work every day. These are the commuters who face the drag into Dublin from towns beyond Tara, spending hours each day crawling along inadequate roads not far from the hallowed site. They too are plainly right when they say they need an improved transport system.

The prosperity brought by the Celtic tiger has caused phenomenal house price rises in Dublin, leading thousands of families to move out of the city to fast-expanding towns such as Navan, Kells and Dunshaughlin. The Republic of Ireland has been furiously building and upgrading roads to get this new generation of commuters in and out of Dublin every day. Now they want to build a motorway, the M3, close to the hill of Tara.

Over the past year fierce arguments have raged over whether ancient heritage or transport infrastructure should take precedence. Most local commuters are enthusiastic about the road, but the heritage people are horrified. Ancient and modern perspectives have been pitted against each other in a battle which says much about Irish values, posing the question of whether a nation can undergo extensive modernisation without shedding its irreplaceable past.

The government is to announce a decision on the motorway in the next few weeks. It will probably say the new road should go ahead, though some warn that, if it does, the whole project will face legal challenges that could mean years of delay.

The Irish have, without question, a deep sense of history and a tendency to regard it as a living thing. In the letters columns of Dublin newspapers, for example, scarcely a day goes by without correspondence on issues such as the 1798 rebellion and the 1916 rising. Yet the constant re-examination of history has of late taken second place to a sense of a country revelling in new-found prosperity. Politicians no longer continually invoke the past as they once did: politics is now conducted much more in the here and now. It is a country where materialism often prevails over the old ways. This was particularly seen in the authorities’ decision not to call a national day of mourning for the Pope.

Certainly the biggest political party, Fianna Fail, which has been in power for years, succeeds by convincing voters that they are the soundest managers of the generally booming economy. But they and other parties are, more thoughtful observers say, fairly limited once they stray from the basic financial fundamentals: “The vision thing” is noticeably lacking.

The heritage lobby, in common with many Catholic clergy, allege that the pursuit of materialist goals is changing Irish society and culture for the worse, and is thus endangering Tara.

It was William Wilde, father of Oscar, who perhaps best conjured up the glory of Tara. He wrote: “Here sat in days of yore kings with golden crowns upon their heads, warriors with brazen swords in their hands; bards and minstrels with their harps; druids with their oak-leaf crowns; learned historians; wise brehons and subtle lawyers; smiths, artificers, charioteers, huntsmen, architects; the chess-players and cup-bearers, whose places are all specified in the ancient annals relating to Tara.”

Its significance as a place of political and religious importance is dated as early as 4,000BC, around the beginning of the Neolithic period. It was in use right through the Stone Age. A few thousand years later it became the seat of power in Ireland, with more than a hundred Irish high kings crowned there, reaching a peak in the early centuries after Christ. A particular stone on Tara was said to roar in approval when a new and worthy high king touched it.

No survey of Irish legend is complete without St Patrick, and he is said to have come to Tara to confront the ancient religion of the pagans at their most powerful site. They say he took on and defeated Laoghaire, king of Tara, and the druids who organised feasts “of pagan worship with many incantations and magic, rites and other superstitious acts of idolatry”. Thus, legend has it, did Christianity win out in Ireland.

In the next 1,500 years or so Tara was linked with major historical events such as monster meetings held by the Liberator, Daniel O’Connell, and the 1798 rising against the British.

The proposed new motorway will not carve through the hill of Tara itself, but some of its supporters have accused the heritage lobby of saying or implying that it will. The anti-motorway people claim they have been cast as being against all innovation and improvement, insisting they are not against a new road but want it to curve away from Tara.

One of the big arguments is whether Tara should be regarded simply as a hill or as a much larger landscape. Anti-motorway campaigners argue that the mount cannot be viewed in isolation, and is part of an integrated archaeological and historical landscape, containing thousands of years of material. A campaigning archaeologist, Joe Fenwick, explained: “Most of the monuments in the surrounding landscape are invisible because they are below the plough zone. But Tara isn’t just confined to the hill - it’s part of a much wider vista, as a cultural landscape.”

His fear is that a new motorway would attract more and more housing and industrial buildings along its path, making this, at present, reasonably tranquil area busier and busier, to the detriment of Tara. The roads authorities have already explored the route of the planned motorway by digging test trenches, which have turned up 28 sites described as being of definite or potential archaeological interest. The heritage lobby says this indicates that the entire area is rich in buried historical material.

An opposing view came from a local politician: “The argument put forward by the archaeologists with regard to the richness of the area is a bit of a myth. There is no road in this country whose construction has not yielded up something of historical value.”

The heritage lobby responded through a group of expatriates who wrote: “A four-lane motorway through the Tara landscape will destroy the integrity and beauty of a priceless culture treasure. It is akin to defacing a national icon.”

The competing claims of modern life were set out by local chambers of commerce who stressed the present rather than the past. One declared: “This is a living, breathing modern landscape with a 21st century community living and working there. We are not talking here of a mummified world.”

Another said: “No one is rejoicing at having to build a motorway but until families stop expanding, houses stop being built and people stop needing to go to work, there is no other option.” Kells chamber of commerce has put up posters in the town with the slogan: “Sick of commuting four hours per day? - support the M3!”

Everyone agrees that the present road system is inadequate and unsatisfactory. Several towns are suffering from chronic congestion, blighted daily by bottlenecks and jams. Safety is also an issue, with existing towns experiencing an accident rate of one and a half times the national average.

An outspoken politician, Jackie Healy-Rae, put the case for putting transport before archaeology bluntly. “People are crying out for a motorway,” he said. “Men will be out with tablespoons scraping the ground instead of large excavators making a road that is badly needed.” Another politician said dismissively that too much importance was being given to “pots and pans”.

The debate has descended into bitter exchanges in the media and at parliamentary committees. Rival petitions and surveys have been produced, and disparaged by the other side. Pro-motorway people complain of an “incessant barrage of misinformation and propaganda,” accusing the heritage lobby of “a massive and terrible hoax” by “hoodwinking” people into thinking the proposed motorway goes through the hill itself. This is hotly denied by their opponents who say they themselves have been subjected to “a fusillade of abuse”.

The issue has gone to the highest level, to Bertie Ahern, who as Taoiseach, might be described as the modern equivalent of a high king.

He said lately of his distant predecessors: “I am not trying to upset the kings. If I had known that they were there I would have gone around them.” As one correspondent observed, it was not clear if he meant he would have canvassed the kings to win their approval, or would have favoured a detour to leave them undisturbed.

He displayed his pro-motorway views clearly enough, however, when he added: “I don’t know who was there five thousand years ago, and I’m sure they were very significant people, but somewhere along the way you have to come to an end of a process.”

His words signalled that fast-moving, modern Ireland is gradually coming to prevail over the traditional reverence for the past. The purists in this case may thus be doomed to defeat, with today’s politics set to win out over yesterday’s history.

But it has been an informative and educational debate which may cause some at least to question whether more could be done to protect the Irish heritage, and wonder whether the competing claims of the new Ireland and the old could be better balanced.

Sunday Life

Top Provos tapped
Spooks re-launch phone-y war on IRA leadership

By Alan Murray
10 April 2005

PHONES used by key IRA figures are being monitored around the clock again, following the £26.5m Northern Bank heist.

Secretary of State Paul Murphy is understood to have signed dozens of wiretap warrants within days of the IRA robbery - after a critical shortfall in intelligence gathering on the IRA was exposed.

In spite of a request made under the recently-introduced Freedom of Information Act, the Government last week refused to disclose how many warrants for telephone intercepts have been signed by Mr Murphy, since last December.

But it is understood that many of these warrants were renewals of warrants allowed to lapse since the Belfast Agreement in 1998.

Many related to home and mobile telephones regularly used by key IRA players.

One security source said: “There was a considerable relaxation of intelligence gathering on the IRA, prompted by the signing of the Belfast Agreement and the creation of the Stormont Executive.

“Since the Northern Bank robbery, the Secretary of State has been scribbling away, putting his signature to new requests for warrants to tap phones which used to be constantly monitored and one or two numbers previously not monitored.

“It’s a clear sign that some in the intelligence community realise the Government has been sold a pup by the IRA and they’re desperately trying to regain the initiative.”

In a written response last week, the NIO’s Freedom of Information team said the request to disclose the number of warrants was denied under Section 23 (5) and Section 24 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act.

The first section deals with security matters, and the second deals with national security.

The letter said: “We neither confirm nor deny whether any warrants were issued.”

It added: “We have determined that the public interest in maintaining the exclusion of the duty to confirm or deny outweighs the public interest in confirming whether or not the information is held.

“To give a statement of the reasons why the exemption applies would involve the disclosure of information that is itself exempt.”

The loss of around 400 experienced Special Branch handlers and analysts, and the discarding of hundreds of human intelligence sources together with the relaxing of electronic telephone surveillance measures has resulted in a major shortfall in the volume and quality of information on planned IRA operations.