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Islamic Republic News Agency

Elections expected to further polarize Northern Ireland politics

London, April 23, IRNA
UK-Elections-N. Ireland

Britain’s general election is likely to result in an even greater polarization in Northern Ireland between the pro-British Democratic Unionists (DUP) and the Irish republican party Sinn Fein.

According to News Letter, a Belfast daily, the more moderate Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) could lose a further three of its 4 remaining parliamentary seats, including that of its leader, David Trimble, who was Northern Ireland’s previous First Minister.

Using the odds of local bookmaker, Barney Eastwood, it predicted that the DUP would increase the number of its MPs from 5 to 7 to confirm its position as the largest party.

Sinn Fein would also increase its lead as the largest nationalist party, up from 4 to 6 seats, despite recent criticism about the alleged involvement by the IRA in a massive Pnds 26.5 million (Dlrs 50 m) robbery in Belfast last December.

A major realignment in redrawing Northern Ireland’s political map started at the 2001 general election following failure to fully implement the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. Previously it was dominated by the UUP and more moderate nationalist SDLP.

Subsequent disputes led to the suspension over two years ago of Belfast’s devolved assembly and with it the power-sharing executive.

Attempts since to find a compromise failed last December and were followed by the IRA being blamed for the UK’s biggest bank robbery.

Despite the predictions of gains by Sinn Fein, which has political links with the IRA, its leader Gerry Adams suggested the wave of publicity, blaming the paramilitary group for the robbery and its alleged involvement in a recent murder, could hit his party at the elections.

“I have no doubt the exploitation, particularly of the killing of Robert McCartney, by our opponents will have a negative effect,” Adams was quoted saying by Reuters on Friday. “That’s what it’s aimed to do,” he said.

At the opening of the election campaign, Adams made a direct appeal to the IRA to take a historic decision and fully embrace political and peaceful means of achieving its objectives for a reunited Ireland.

The position of the DUP, which originally opposed the peace agreement, has been to call for Sinn Fein’s exclusion from power- sharing arrangements until the IRA disbands.

With both the DUP and Sinn Fein at the extreme ends of the political spectrum in Northern Ireland, expected to make further gains, questions remain about the future survival of an inclusive peace process.

HC/2323/1412

Daily Ireland

SF slur sparks school row

A row erupted at a Co Derry school yesterday after a teacher allegedly made anti-republican remarks to pupils.
The dispute began yesterday afternoon after the alleged comments were made by a teacher at St Mary’s Secondary School in Limavady.
However, a meeting between the boy’s parents and the principal of St Mary’s Secondary School was yesterday abandoned when the boy’s mother brought along Sinn Féin’s East Derry Westminster candidate, Billy Leonard.
The school insisted that only the boy’s parents should attend the meeting.
However, the boy’s mother says she will ask her solicitor to write to the school’s board of governors about the incident.
The remarks were allegedly made after a few students were told to remove republican badges from their uniforms.
“I was outraged when my son arrived home from school extremely distressed,” said the woman.
“When I asked what had upset him he reluctantly told me that his teacher had called Sinn Féin criminals and that he had to sit there and listen to it.
“This is completely and utterly inappropriate behaviour in the school.
“The classroom is not the place to make political points of this sort.
“My son has been very upset by the incident and had to take the day off school.
“I brought along Billy Leonard because of the direct implications for Sinn Féin of such a statement,” she added.
The woman added that she had the “highest regard” for the school, but insisted that yesterday’s incident would have to be remedied.
Despite repeated attempts to contact the school, no one was available for comment yesterday.
A spokeswoman from the Catholic Council for Maintained Schools (CCMS) said the incident was a matter for the school.
“Anything like that would be a management issue for the school and we wouldn’t even necessarily be contacted about something like that,” she said.
Sinn Féin’s East Derry Westminster candidate Billy Leonard said that any teacher with a problem with Sinn Féin should refrain from addressing their comments to schoolchildren.

Daily Ireland

Illegal Orange Order march to go ahead

Almost 300 Orangemen are planning to take part in an illegal march past one of Belfast’s most notorious interfaces.
Loyalists from around the city will gather at the Albertbridge Road Orange Hall in east Belfast tomorrow, before marching around the nationalist Short Strand enclave. The area has been the scene of intense sectarian rioting in recent years, particularly in 2002, when a number of people were shot and homes were bombed.
Tomorrow’s parade, billed as a service for widows of Orangemen, has been deemed ‘illegal’ by the Parades Commission because organisers did not fill in their marching application forms properly.
Instead of naming the members who are co-ordinating the march, the Orange Order chose to only name the lodge taking part.
This policy was adopted by Orangemen in east Belfast last year following the PSNI questioning of senior Orange Order members Harry Whiteside, Raymond Spiers and Raymond McMichael after an alleged breach of marching guidelines.
According to east Belfast Orangeman and former Belfast mayor Jim Rodgers, if no names appear on a parade application form no one can be questioned. The Ulster Unionist politician said: “This is a policy I support and it was brought into being following the questioning of senior Orangemen last year.
“The Parades Commission needs to understand that individual Orangemen are not responsible for organising parades, it is the entire lodge’s responsibility. The Parades Commission can describe Sunday’s parade as illegal if they want, but it will still go ahead.”
Short Strand residents have sought legal advice in a bid to halt the march.
Local Sinn Féin councillor and Deputy Mayor of Belfast, Joe O’Donnell, said it would be the second illegal parade to pass by the area in recent months. “If this march is allowed to go ahead it will show how willing the PSNI is to facilitate illegal parades in east Belfast,” said Mr O’Donnell. “If this was nationalists marching illegally past a unionist area, I am certain there would be serious security and legal repercussions.”
A spokesperson for the PSNI said that in the absence of a Parades Commission ruling, policing decisions taken in relation with any parade will be proportionate and appropriate. He added: “Police use all methods available to them to closely monitor parades and will have no hesitation in reporting breaches of the law to the Director of Public Prosecutions.”

Belfast Telegraph

Belfast Telegraph Campaign:
What price a child’s life?

Sign up now to save our lollipop patrols

22 April 2005

The plan to cut more than 100 lollipop patrols in Belfast is quite literally a matter of life and death.

Anyone who has ever been on the school run knows just how vital a service these committed men and women provide.

They take their lives in their hands to see children safely across the city’s busy roads - who knows how many lives they have saved down the years?

That is why the recommendation of a Belfast Education and Library Board committee to axe dozens of patrols across the city must be opposed.

We support the board’s efforts to prioritise in terms of making education cutbacks but it must get its priorities right.

Although the current reduction plan is limited, there is no room for compromise on safety.

The Belfast Telegraph is today launching a snap petition to save the lollipop patrols and there is no time to lose.

The board is due to deliver its verdict on the recommendation next Thursday and we want to ensure the voice of the people is heard.

Cut out today’s coupon and have it signed by as many people as possible. Feel free to photocopy the form if you need to and send the completed forms to our office as soon as possible.

There will also be a box at our front counter where the forms can be delivered by hand. We will ensure they are all delivered to the board meeting next week. The more people who sign up to the cause, the more chance there is of having this penny-pinching decision reversed.

Some board members have already pledged to do all they can to save the patrols. But they need your support.

Please get on board the Save our Lollipop Service campaign now. There is no time to lose.
Click here to get the campaign coupon

School leaders back campaign

By Claire Regan

The Belfast Telegraph today launches a campaign to save the vital lollipop service that protects the lives of our children.

We are calling on the public to throw their support behind our plea to the Belfast Education and Library Board (BELB) to abandon plans to axe dozens of school crossing patrols across the city.

Save Our Lollipop Service is calling on readers to sign our petition urgently by cutting out the coupon printed today and getting it signed by as many people as possible. We will then deliver these petitions to the Belfast board next week when members meet to decide on whether to rubber-stamp plans that will seriously jeopardise the lives and safety of school pupils.

Politicians and school leaders today urged people to support our campaign against the proposals which will see the lollipop service cut at 54 lunchtime patrols, 14 at post-primary schools and 38 on roads where there is also a pelican crossing or traffic lights.

BELB vice chairman Jim Rodgers, who is bitterly opposed to the cuts, said he feared the plans would lead to the death of pupil.

“I have been absolutely inundated by calls and emails from parents, teachers and principals with serious concerns about this decision,” he said.

“People are really angry - there is a feeling of disbelief that these cuts could even be considered.

“This campaign is a wonderful initiative that will give people a voice to tell the board that these proposals are unacceptable. It’s an issue that affects the lives of everyone in this city and I call on readers to have their say.”

Principal of Belfast Royal Academy Billy Young said his pupils would be particularly affected, as the school operated from a split site on the Cliftonville Road.

“We need a crossing patrol all the time. These measures could put a child’s life at risk,” he said.

“At a time when there is so much emphasis on the protection of the child, it seems madness that pupils could be denied a basic service provided to protect their safety. I would ask people to support the Belfast Telegraph’s campaign and get this vital service reinstated.”

Alliance education spokeswoman Naomi Long said: “I understand the financial pressure that the boards are under but this is outrageous. What price can you put on a child’s life?”

The board’s general purposes and finance committee voted for the move this week, which will save almost £300,000 as part of a package of cuts of almost £7m reluctantly passed by BELB to cope with budget shortfalls from the Department of Education. The total stripped from services across the five education boards hit £30m.

Public service union Nipsa was today balloting more than 5,000 of its members employed in the education and library sector on strike action. If there is a positive vote for industrial action the union, along with other non-teaching unions, will be calling its members out on strike on May 13.

Union in call for strike at schools

Cash cutbacks lead to ballot

Non-teaching staff at Northern Ireland’s financially crippled education boards were set to receive ballot papers in the post today to vote on whether they should strike over cash cutbacks.

Northern Ireland’s largest public service union Nipsa is balloting over 5,000 of its members employed in the education and library sector on whether they should join an all-out strike on May 13.

The action is a backlash against cutbacks of £30m reluctantly agreed by the five education boards to stay within the controversial budget allocations handed out by the Department of Education for this financial year.

The boards were forced to remove funding from vital frontline services such as school meals, maintenance, transport and special needs education. The ensuing turmoil has led to fears of mass redundancies among teaching and non-teaching staff and concern over potential school closures.

Tommy Wright, Nipsa assistant secretary, said they were urging all members in the five education and library boards, in schools, board headquarters, libraries, youth services and other locations, to vote for strike action in order to give the Government “a clear and unambiguous message that cutbacks in education services and jobs are totally unacceptable”.

“It is not acceptable that the Government can get away with not properly funding education and library services,” he said.

“It is despicable that these cutbacks will directly impact in a very serious way on the most vulnerable children in our community, in particular children with special educational needs. Nipsa cannot sit on the sidelines and witness the destruction of our education services.

“We are calling on our members to show their determination to resist these cutbacks by voting emphatically for strike action.”

BreakingNews.ie

PSNI to quiz children after school shooting horror

23/04/2005 - 12:35:39

Police officers in Northern Ireland are today preparing to interview pupils, teachers and parents about an incident where a five-year-old boy was shot in the head in a school playground.

Darren Summers was shot yesterday lunchtime in the playground of Mullinaskea primary school in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.

He was taken to Erne Hospital with serious head injuries and later transferred to the Royal Hospital in Belfast, where he was in a critical condition.

The five year-old, who lives with his parents Gerald and Janine Summers, in a housing estate in Drumbeg, just outside Enniskillen, was in his first year, known as primary one, at the Catholic school in Enniskillen.

Detectives are meeting today for a conference in Enniskillen to discuss the next steps in the investigation, including quizzing pupils, teachers and parents.

A spokesman for the PSNI said detectives were still trying to establish the weapon used in the shooting.

“It could have been a pellet gun – but it could have been a less serious or more serious weapon,” he said.

The local parish priest Fr Matthew Brady said the community was shocked by what had happened.

“We have to hope now that the young boy will be all right. That’s the main thing,” he said.

The Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) said the shooting was a horrific incident. “For those immediately around the boy at the time, the pupils, the teachers and other school staff, it was a very traumatic experience. But it’s shocked everybody in the area,” said local assembly member Tommy Gallagher.

He added that the shooting was alarming for all parents in the area.

“Like all of us, parents would assume when they leave their child at school that they’re safe. That’s a very distressing thing as well, that something like this could happen.”

Derry IRSP

INLA STATEMENT REGARDING DRUGS FIND

The following statement was received by the IRSP from the INLA on 21-04-05:

“The Tyrone Brigade of the INLA wish to put it on record that it has no involvement whatsoever in the drugs trade. The person arrested in Dungannon has had no association of any kind, directly or indirectly with the INLA or IRSP for 16 years.

“We do not accept any kind of responsibility for the actions of ex-members who have went down the road of criminality Our position is clear and unequivocal in relation to the drugs trade – anyone using the name of the INLA or inferring any type of association, directly or indirectly with our movement will be executed.

ENDS”

BBC

Officer refutes ‘no-go’ comments

A senior police officer has said there is no question of any part of Derry being a no-go area for officers.

Chief Superintendent Richard Russell, district commander for the Foyle area, was responding to comments made in the High Court on Friday.

A crown lawyer said police do not go into the nationalist Galliagh estate because of fears of civil unrest.

However, Mr Russell said his officers police the entire city.

He added that to suggest otherwise was a misunderstanding of the situation.

The comments about Galliagh were made during a bail application for a man accused of using a hammer in an attack on two men on the estate last weekend.

Crown lawyer Charles McKay said police were targeted by stone-throwing mobs of young people in the Galliagh area.

“This is an area with excessive policing problems,” Mr McKay said.

“After children come home from school the police don’t go into this large housing complex because they are suddenly attacked.”

BreakingNews.ie

Toddler critical after NI school shooting

23/04/2005 - 09:44:08

A five-year-old boy remains in a critical condition in a Belfast hospital after apparently being shot with an air-rifle.

It is understood the incident happened at a primary school in Enniskillen, in Co Fermanagh. The child is suffering from head injuries.

Sinn Féin Councillor Pat Cox says locals are finding the news difficult to take in. “People are shocked beyond belief. It’s something you read about happening in America and these places, but when it comes to your own doorstep it’s a different story,” he said.