SAOIRSE32

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin will continue to oppose the Thatcherite sell-out of our publicly owned resources

Published: 25 May, 2005

Dublin South Central Sinn Féin TD, Aengus Ó Snodaigh has said the decision to privatise Aer Lingus “will have implications for the jobs of thousands of workers and for the future of the Irish economy.” Speaking in the Dáil this evening on Sinn Féin’s Private Members Motion, which calls on the Government to retain Aer Lingus in State ownership, he said, “Sinn Féin will continue to oppose the Thatcherite sell-out of our publicly owned resources.”

Deputy Ó Snodaigh said, “This decision, both in terms of Aer Lingus itself, and in terms of the airports, will have implications for the jobs of thousands of workers and for the future of the Irish economy.

“I represent a Dublin constituency and I am well aware of the serious concern among thousands of workers in Dublin Airport from throughout this city and from throughout the Greater Dublin Area about the Government’s mishandling of aviation policy. The workforce in Aer Lingus itself has already been seriously reduced. The indecision and dithering of the Government over the past four years on the development of the Airport has sapped confidence. Last week’s Cabinet decision has done nothing to restore it.

” The 19 of April was the European Transport Workers Federation Civil Aviation Action Day. The main concern of the Irish and other European unions on that day was to call a halt to the race to the bottom in the pay and conditions of aviation workers. Workers have shown their flexibility and their willingness to change work practices where necessary but they are right to oppose lowering standards. And it is lower standards for workers and passengers that have followed privatisation of State airlines elsewhere. That is why privatisation should be opposed and we in Sinn Féin will continue to oppose the Thatcherite sell-out of our publicly owned resources.” ENDS

Full text of speech:

Is cuid fíor-tábhachtach de bhonneagar na tíre seo é Aer Lingus. Ó 1936, nuair a bunaíodh é, chuidigh sé le forbairt eacnamaíochta an oileáin. Bhí sé riachtanach go mbeadh an nasc seo againn leis an domhan agus é i seilbh an Stáit. Tá sé chomh tábhacthach sin fós. Ach anois tá sé fógraithe ag an rialtas, faoi dheireadh, go bhfuil siad ag dul síos bóthar an phríobháidiú. Cuireann muidne i Sinn Féin i gcoinne an pholasaí sin agus tacaíonn muid le oibrithe na comhlachta agus le gluaiseacht na gceardchumann i gcoitinne sa seasamh sin.

This is a debate the Government did not want to have here in the Dáil. The Aer Lingus Bill 2003 provided for the employee shared ownership scheme but tagged onto that Bill were sections that enabled the Government to sell off the national airline at the time of its choosing and without direct reference to the Oireachtas.

The Cabinet has now taken the fateful decision to sell off our majority share in our airline. This decision, both in terms of Aer Lingus itself, and in terms of the airports, will have implications for the jobs of thousands of workers and for the future of the Irish economy.

So let it be noted that but for tonight’s Sinn Féin Private Members motion this fundamental Government decision would not have been debated in the Dáil. We would simply be presented with a fait accompli by the Government in a number of months time.

This motion gives the opportunity to Deputies to state clearly where they stand on the privatisation of one of this State’s vital strategic assets. They cannot dodge the question. Fianna Fáil members in particular cannot talk behind their hands and pretend they opposed the decision in the background but lost out to the party leadership. Tonight they have to come out in the open and vote on the issue Yes or No.

In the Government’s amendment and in the reply of Minister Cowen last night, there was no attempt to refute the point in the Sinn Féin motion that there is no impediment under EU competition rules to Government investment in Aer Lingus. From time to time the Government has used the argument that its hands are tied by the EU and that it cannot put money into the company. But the trade unions have shown clearly that as a majority shareholder in Aer Lingus the State can do so. Minister Cowen claimed that the company was being sold to allow it to avail of all options in terms of investment. But this decision closes down the most important option of all.

I represent a Dublin constituency and I am well aware of the serious concern among thousands of workers in Dublin Airport from throughout this city and from throughout the Greater Dublin Area about the Government’s mishandling of aviation policy. The workforce in Aer Lingus itself has already been seriously reduced. The indecision and dithering of the Government over the past four years on the development of the Airport has sapped confidence. Last week’s Cabinet decision has done nothing to restore it.

We have totally inadequate public transport provision in this city. A bigger airport with more passengers will be welcome, provided it is properly planned and operated. But where is the fully integrated Dublin public transport system to cater for the greatly increased numbers? This Government is more interested in its ideological crusade to privatise Bus Átha Cliath routes than it is in providing proper public transport in this city. We are still the only capital city in Europe whose airport is not served by a railway.

19 April was the European Transport Workers Federation (ETF) Civil Aviation Action Day. The main concern of the Irish and other European unions on that day was to call a halt to the race to the bottom in the pay and conditions of aviation workers. Workers have shown their flexibility and their willingness to change work practices where necessary but they are right to oppose lowering standards. And lower standards for workers and passengers have followed privatisation of State airlines elsewhere. That is why privatisation should be opposed and we in Sinn Féin will continue to oppose the Thatcherite sell-out of our publicly owned resources.

BreakingNews.ie:

€700,000 for Pearse surrender note

25/05/2005 - 21:13:55

A surrender note written by Irish revolutionary icon Padraig Pearse fetched €700,000 – almost 10 times its guide price – at auction in Dublin tonight.

The document, dated April 30, 1916 had been estimated to sell for about €80,000 by auctioneers James Adam and Sons.

A spokesman for the firm said tonight: “There was huge interest and it exceeded its guide price incredibly. It finally went to an anonymous bidder.”

Several state organisations had viewed the historic letter, which was penned by Pearse from his prison cell days before his execution by firing squad after the ill-fated Easter Rising.

The letter had been stored carefully by an anonymous family for the past 80 years since a Capuchin priest, Fr Columbus, collected the letter from Pearse’s cell in Dublin’s Arbour Hill Prison.

The letter attracted interest from overseas, including American collectors, when it was displayed in a Bond Street auction room in London and in Belfast over the past few weeks.

An original copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic recently went for a record €390,000 at the same salesrooms in Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green.

Pearse wrote the note before he was executed with 14 other rebels captured in the battle to overthrow English rule.

The letter reads: “In order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have decided on an unconditional surrender, and commandants or officers commanding districts will order their commands to lay down arms. P.H. Pearse. Dublin 30th April 1916.”

Pearse came to the fore as a revolutionary in the early 20th century with calls for a blood sacrifice to rid Ireland of British rule.

Fr Columbus brought the hand-written note to forces in the Four Courts who had refused to give up the fight a week after the Proclamation was read on the steps of the GPO.

On reading the letter Captain Gary Holohan, who was in charge of the Four Courts Command, eased hostilities and surrendered.

Other surrender notes, which are now in state hands, were typed up for Pearse to sign and one other hand-written letter also exists.

::: u.tv :::

Monitoring commission accused over report

A report which claims the IRA remains heavily involved in criminality and is still recruiting and training new members lacks credibility, Sinn Fein said today.

By:Press Association
TUESDAY 24/05/2005 15:31:49

Alex Maskey, Assembly member for South Belfast, went on the offensive against the study submitted by the four member Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) to the British and Irish governments, claiming it was neither impartial, fair or balanced.

“The IMC was set up at the behest of the unionists and is the tool of the British securocrats,” the former Belfast mayor said.

“It operates outside the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and has no positive role to play in the development of the political process. It was created and has been used to discriminate against Sinn Fein and our electorate.

“This report, like the previous reports, is based solely on the information provided to the IMC by the securocrats.

It, like previous reports, has little or no credibility and is neither impartial, fair nor balanced.”

In its fifth study of terrorist groups, the commission welcomed Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams`s appeal to the Provisionals to abandon the armed struggle for a democratic alternative.

But it also warned that as things stood the organisation still had the capacity to mount a full scale terrorism campaign should it wish to do so.

The report said the organisation was also heavily involved in criminal enterprises such as fuel and tobacco smuggling and money laundering.

The commission confirmed that the Provisionals continued to recruit and train new members “including in the use of firearms and explosives”.

The report said: “At the end of September 2004, the police discovered 10,000 rounds of PIRA (Provisional IRA) ammunition suitable for use in assault rifles, of a type not previously found in Northern Ireland.

“This may have only been part of a larger consignment and it demonstrates PIRA`s continuing efforts to maintain its preparedness.”

The IMC said intelligence it received had led them to believe:

:: Provisional IRA members were involved in the murder of Belfast father-of-two Robert McCartney. But it was not sanctioned by the leadership in advance and it appeared the killers were acting on the instructions of a local commander;

:: The organisation was involved in robberies such as December`s £26.5 million Northern Bank heist which used violence or the threat of violence;

:: PIRA members were behind an arson attack at a fuel depot in early September;

:: While the Provisionals allowed some people they had banished to return to the republican Short Strand district in east Belfast after the murder of Mr McCartney, there was no indication that other exiled people could return to their homes in other parts of Northern Ireland;

:: The organisation carried out five shootings and six assaults since August 2004.

The IMC`s report said that in the wake of the murder of Mr McCartney and the Northern Bank raid, people had several questions about Sinn Fein and the IRA`s future.

It identified these as: “How does Sinn Fein now view the claim made by PIRA to be the lawful government and representative of the people of Ireland, north and south ?

“Does the party seek power in Ireland, north and south, using paramilitary muscle to back its participation in the political process?

“Does it ultimately intend to participate fully in democratic politics, and to observe all the standards that requires, but to reach that position maintaining for the time being some form of slimmed-down military capability ?

“Or is it now ready to ensure that PIRA ends all forms of illegal activity and to engage wholeheartedly in democratic politics and in policing ?

“In his statement of April 6, as president of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams indicated views related to some of the considerations we have raised earlier in this section and if he is able to develop this and to deliver as he seems to have suggested, he will have demonstrated leadership of a high order.”

BreakingNews.ie

Father praises teenager who rescued death crash daughter

25/05/2005 - 18:18:33

A father tonight praised a heroic teenager who rescued his injured daughter from the worst schoolbus crash in Irish history.

As five families prepared to bury their loved ones, Michael Maguire thanked 17-year-old Robert Connell for dragging his unconscious daughter, Julieanne, from the bus after it overturned outside Navan in Co Meath.

Mr Maguire said he was relieved that Julieanne, 17, who is one of five people who remain in a stable condition in hospital, was alive, but he sympathised with the parents who had been bereaved.

Five teenage girls were killed and 46 people were injured when the bus taking them home from secondary schools in Navan overturned at Kentstown on Monday afternoon.

The vehicle was not fitted with seatbelts and the tragedy has led to a massive public outcry for safety on school vehicles to be upgraded.

The Irish National Parents Council has proposed a boycott of all buses without seatbelts when the new school year starts in September.

President Eleanor Petrie said: “If we don’t make this stand, we will have blood on our hands. We have to stand up now.”

Education Minister Mary Hanafin said it would be impossible to instal seatbelts on all schoolbuses by September but junior minister Síle de Valera later said the Government was hoping to phase in the features.

Julieanne Maguire, 17, from Dollardstown, Co Meath was knocked unconscious by the impact of the crash and trapped under three other students.

But her 17-year-old neighbour, Robert Connell, pulled her out from under the three male pupils and then went in to the bus again to recover her schoolbag and mobile phone.

Her father Michael Maguire said Robert had acted even though his own arm was injured.

“It’s nice to think there’s lads like that who don’t think of themselves,” he said.

When Robert visited Julieanne in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, he told her grateful family: “Anyone would have done it.”

“He’s the modest type,” said Mr Maguire.

Julieanne, a pupil at St Michael’s Loreto Convent in Navan, has a badly bruised back and has been given morphine injections to relieve the pain.

Other children who lost classmates in the accident are suffering nightmares, sleeplessness and eating problems, experts have warned.

The makeshift shrine at St Michael’s Loreto Convent for four of its pupils killed in Monday afternoon’s crash continued to grow today as schoolgirls added more bouquets and messages.

Francis O’Toole, who is co-ordinating the counselling service, said the 700 students of the school were going through all the emotions associated with tragedy.

“You’re talking about shock, what has happened, the pain, the loss of a loved one,” he said.

“You’re talking about the fear, breaking down, what you say to your friends. There may be anger – is someone to blame for all this? They are the normal stages of grief people will go through and that’s going on for students and teachers.”

The symptoms reported among students include problems with sleeping, eating, talking and not being able to go the toilet. Many have also experienced nightmares.

Gardaí said they were making steady progress in interviewing and taking statements from the schoolchildren on the bus and other witnesses.

Superintendent Gerry Smith, of Navan Garda Station, said the three drivers involved in the accident had not yet been formally interviewed.

The bus and the two cars have been removed from the scene for forensic examination, along with sections of the road.

Mr Smith said it was still unclear what caused the accident.

“There’s a lot of witnesses to be interviewed and a lot of technical evidence to be examined,” he said.

St Michael’s Loreto Convent will be closed for the rest of the week, with the funerals of Deirdre Scanlon, Sinead Ledwidge, Claire McCluskey and Lisa Callan taking place tomorrow and the funeral of Amy McCabe taking place on Friday.

A guard of honour will be provided by the girls’ schoolmates at each funeral and students will sing in the choirs.

Businesses in Navan will shut down as a mark of respect during each funeral and a special Mass will be held at 2.30pm tomorrow in St Mary’s Church in the town.

:: The funeral of Deirdre Scanlon will take place in the Church of the Assumption, Beauparc at 11am tomorrow.

:: The funeral of Sinead Ledwidge will take place in the Church of the Assumption, Beauparc at 2pm tomorrow.

:: The funeral of Clare McCluskey will take place at the Church of the Nativity in Rosnaree at 11am tomorrow.

:: The funeral of Lisa Callan will take place at the Church of the Nativity in Rosnaree at 2pm tomorrow.

:: The funeral of Amy McCabe will take place in the Church of the Assumption, Beauparc at 11am on Friday.

BreakingNews.ie

**Fortunately for the unionists, they do NOT have to wait for all the loyalist paramilitaries to quit their shite before they can enter government.

Unionists welcome possible SF Stormont ‘freeze-out’

25/05/2005 - 15:02:34

British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s suggestion that the freezing of Sinn Féin from regional government was one option for Northern Ireland was today welcomed by the Democratic Unionists.

After exchanges between the Prime Minister and the nationalist SDLP in the House of Commons, DUP negotiator Nigel Dodds welcomed Mr Blair’s comments that an alternative to inclusive power-sharing may have to be sought if the IRA fails to end all paramilitary and criminal activity.

During Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Blair told the SDLP’s Eddie McGrady it would be “far better” to find a way forward which included Sinn Féin.

But he stressed there were only two ways forward in Northern Ireland.

“One is inclusive of Sinn Féin and for that to happen there has to be a complete end to all forms of paramilitary or criminal activity as the Good Friday Agreement indicates,” he told the South Down MP.

“Or, alternatively, a way forward without Sinn Féin which actually depends on your party.”

The IRA is currently engaged in an internal debate on their future following Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’s appeal last month for it to abandon armed struggle and embrace the democratic alternative.

But the DUP have been pushing the British government not to wait for republicans to end all IRA activity.

They have urged ministers to bring back a different form of devolution, promoting a voluntary coalition between unionists and the SDLP which freezes out Sinn Féin.

However SDLP leader Mark Durkan, who will meet Mr Blair in Downing Street today, has ruled out such a move.

After today’s exchanges in the House, Mr Dodds said: “I welcome the Prime Minister’s indication that is he is willing to consider a way forward without Sinn Féin/IRA.

“It is time for the democratic parties to move on as quickly as possible in light of the results of the general and local government elections which demonstrated that the vast majority of people support an exclusively peaceful and democratic way forward.

“There can be no fudge between democracy and terror and the DUP is determined that stunts and statements designed to take the pressure off Sinn Féin/IRA will not succeed.

“The days of IRA words gaining them access to government in Northern Ireland are over.”

The DUP has also argued that if a voluntary coalition cannot be set up the British government should instead make direct rule from Westminster more accountable, with Stormont Assembly members or local councillors being given a scrutiny role over the work of Northern Ireland Office ministers.

A report by the Independent Monitoring Commission yesterday claimed that the Provisional IRA was still recruiting members and training them how to use firearms and explosives.

Daily Ireland

Sinn Féin excluded

By Connla Young c.young@dailyireland.com

A leading council authority in the North was branded “pathetic” last night after its only Sinn Féin representative was excluded from every council committee.
Coleraine Borough Council came under attack after unionist councillors excluded its first elected Sinn Féin councillor, Billy Leonard, from any committee positions.
The D’Hondt system of power sharing was applied to just 20 council positions.
“This was a night of gutter local politics,” said Mr Leornard.
“The incoming DUP mayor spoke of a ‘forward-looking borough’ yet his party, by their actions, admitted they can’t move forward. They were excluding Sinn Féin and they were prepared to ignore the group of people who voted for Sinn Féin candidates right across the borough.
“When I said that they were on a programme for exclusion from many of the positions, one DUP councillor openly said they were excluding ‘only the Shinners’. Now we have an important equality committee that doesn’t reflect the equality legislation. It’s pathetic.”
The Sinn Féin man accused the Ulster Unionist Party of aiding and abetting the Democratic Unionist Party.
“The public should also know that it wasn’t just the DUP. The Ulster Unionists were very good at making additional proposals to force a confidential vote. Obviously, when that happened, Sinn Féin was always excluded.”
In Newry, Co Down, republicans were celebrating after Pat McGinn was selected as mayor of the city.
“I am now the third republican elected representative who has been appointed chair of this council. Like my colleagues Brendan Curran and Davy Hyland, I am determined to use this position not for personal gain or advancement but to provide effective, accountable and active leadership for all the citizens of Newry and Mourne,” he said.
In Dungannon, Co Tyrone, veteran Sinn Féin councillor and assembly member Francie Molloy was selected as mayor for the next 12 months.
He said: “I want to see people being able to build a home in the areas they live in. In light of the review of public administration, I want to make the case for local government. I want to make the case for Dungannon as a major council in the future,” he said.
Sinn Féin’s Sean Kerr captured the top post in Magherafelt, Co Derry, while the SDLP’s Patsy McGlone was expected to secure the chairman’s position in neighbouring Cookstown District Council last night.
In Ballymena, DUP man Tommy Nicholl was chosen to take the mayor’s chain. There had been fears that loyalists would try to prevent the district’s first Sinn Féin councillor, Monica Digney, from taking her seat but no protest took place.

online.ie: news

Money laundering suspect given bail

online.ie
2005-05-25 12:40:02+01

A Co Cork chef arrested as part of a garda investigation into IRA money laundering had his bail conditions varied by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today to allow him to visit his parents.

Don Bullman (aged 30), a chef and father of two , of Fernwood Crescent, Leghanamore, Wilton, Co Cork was charged in February with membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on February 16.

Bullman was granted bail on his own bond of €500, an independent surety of €30,000, ordered to report daily to Togher Garda station in Co Cork, to surrender his passport and not to travel outside Co Cork.

The court also ordered him not to associate with anyone convicted of subversive crime or to associate with four named individuals - Conor Mc Laughlin, Christopher Mc Elhinney, Tom Hanlon and George Hegarty.

Today Bullman’s counsel Ms Anne Rowland BL applied to have Bullman’s bail conditions varied to allow him to visit his parents at their home at Naas, Co Kildare and to stay overnight.

Mr Justice Richard Johnson, presiding, said the court would vary the bail on condition that Bullman gave the gardaí twenty four hours notice before he left Co Cork.

Last February Detective Superintendent Diarmuid O’ Sullivan of the Special Detective Unit, objected to bail for Bullman and said that he believed Bullman would interfere with evidence if granted bail.

He said that gardaí had found a bag containing a Daz box and the box contained over €94,000 wrapped in three individual wrappings of €30,000 each when Bullman was arrested at Heuston Station in Dublin in a northern registered jeep.

The Detective Supt said that Bullman was “a central individual” to the activities of the IRA prior to February 16 and that activity was “a money laundering operation for the IRA, in which he is central”.

The Det Supt said: “I have an apprehension he will continue to launder money for an unlawful organisation, the IRA.'’

Bullman, in evidence, said: “I am not a member of any unlawful organisation and never was.'’ He also denied that he was in the IRA and agreed to give any undertaking sought by the court.

BreakingNews.ie

**Full report

Amnesty slams Ireland’s human rights failures

25/05/2005 - 13:07:29

Amnesty International has criticised the Government’s ongoing failure to address human rights concerns in a number of areas.

In its latest annual report, the organisation highlighted allegations of ill-treatment by Gardaí, failure to tackle racist crimes and unsatisfactory conditions and treatment for patients in psychiatric institutions.

Amnesty has criticised Ireland in relation to these matters on numerous occasions in the past.

In today’s report, it reserved its strongest condemnation for the United States, which it accused of primary responsibility for a worsening of human rights throughout the world in recent years.

IrishExaminer.com

Exhibition reveals the secrets of life inside Mountjoy

25 May 2005
By Cormac O’Keeffe

THE bright pink air fresheners catch your eye.

Five of them are lined across the cistern of a toilet, situated in the corner of a small prison cell.

A prisoner, aged somewhere in his 30s, is sitting on the edge of his bed, a couple of feet from the toilet. Two bottles of cleaning fluid and a large container of industrial-strength cleaner stand out in the photograph.

The inmate is caught just as he’s about to roll a cigarette from tobacco and rolling paper.

His stark cell contains other clues as to the person behind the prisoner. Two Easter cards from his children are placed beside his basic, metal framed bed. Behind him are pictures of his children and wife.

In one, two of his children smile innocently up at the camera as the play. Another is a typical family picture of him posing with his wife and three children.

Above that seems to be a small religious photograph depicting Jesus.

The picture is part of an exhibition of Mountjoy Jail, simply called The Joy, on show in Dublin’s Gallery of Photography.

The photographs were taken by artist Noel Bowler, who spent two years going into the notorious jail.

He said his aim was to “convey the mundane reality of doing time.”

He captures different scenes such as prisoners sitting in their cells, in some cases smoking a cigarette, in other cases just sitting.

Various pictures capture the stark, cold, uninviting nature of visiting rooms, television rooms and recreation yards.

The overall impression is of anonymity, confinement, inactivity, boredom and the weight of time.

The inactivity is all the more pronounced given that almost all of the prisoners depicted are dressed in tracksuits and runners.

Noel Bowler spent two years gaining the confidence of the prisoners, closely observing and sharing their daily routines.

He said the idea of people “waiting” for such an extended period of time to be released seemed incomprehensible and contrary to most people’s lives.

He said the photographs, which were shot with little dramatics, focused on the “everyday lives of prisoners in an environment of boredom, repetition, isolation and routine.”

Not all photographs are grim, however. One captures a young man in a metal workshop, posing for the camera.

Dressed in overalls, he has a cheeky smile, containing perhaps a hint of pride in his work.

Another photograph depicts a prisoner lying on his bed in his cell, with a slight smile on his face.

That young man’s cell is clean and tidy and the walls look plastered and well-kept.

Behind him are four birds either stuck, or painted, onto the wall. Reinforcing the freedom imagery is a framed painting of five helicopters and a car in open countryside.

Numerous tidy shelves in the cell contain fragments from his life outside.

Framed pictures of his partner and children and other family members surround him. There are also toys from his children and what looks like a soccer trophy, suggesting talents other than crime.

There is no information in the exhibition about the crimes these men have committed, nor the victims they left behind.

But amid constant claims of prisoners living like kings, the exhibition is a quiet reminder of the price prisoners have to pay when convicted.

The Joy runs in the Gallery of Photography, Temple Bar until the end of the week.

BreakingNews.ie

e-Bay cancels auction of bugging device found in SF offices

25/05/2005 - 12:23:04

The online auction site e-Bay has cancelled the sale of a listening device found in Sinn Féin’s headquarters in Belfast last year.

The device, believed to have been planted by British intelligence, was found last September hidden in a ceiling.

It had been up for auction on e-Bay and had attracted bids of up to $1,000 (€796).

However, the Internet auction firm withdrew the item from sale today, saying it had a policy against selling any form of listening device.

Sinn Féin has claimed the decision followed pressure from embarrassed British security agencies and said the device remains on sale on its own website.

BBC

Parties dispute council positions

The SDLP and Sinn Fein are in dispute over council posts

A row has broken out on Magherafelt council between the SDLP and Sinn Fein.

It follows the council’s annual general meeting on Wednesday where Sinn Fein claimed 30 out of the 59 posts.

Sinn Fein said it was entitled to the positions as it holds eight of the 16 council seats, however, the SDLP claimed this stance was unfair.

The SDLP has said it plans to lodge a complaint with the British and Irish governments over what it sees as a “mis-use of the d’Hondt system”.

Sinn Fein councillor Sean Kerr said seat allocation should reflect the respective political strengths of the parties.

However, SDLP councillors Kate Lagan and Jim Campbell argued such a move “created a mockery of power-sharing”.

The SDLP was elected to five posts on the council.

Tuesday’s meeting of the council was the first since it was elected two weeks ago.

Guardian

School ‘failing youth of Northern Ireland’

Agencies
Tuesday May 24, 2005

Too many young people in Northern Ireland are leaving school without qualifications, according to a report published today.

In her second report on education in Northern Ireland, Marion Matchett, the chief inspector of the Education and Training Inspectorate, said: “The gap between those achieving the highest and lowest levels of attainment is unacceptably wide, even while taking into account the circumstances occasioned by adverse social and other environmental factors.”

She said disadvantage had to be tackled through more effective management and better targeted teaching.

Many young people in Northern Ireland entered further education and vocational training with significant literacy and numeracy problems, Ms Matchett said. As a consequence, they often failed to finish courses and their employment prospects were much reduced.

Ms Matchett said a multi-agency approach was needed to help schools to support, motivate and retain disaffected young people.

“Schools cannot do everything on their own; they need the support of many agencies. Experience from inspection shows that uncoordinated and poorly managed support can be more disruptive than helpful,” she said.

Nonetheless, she said, there had been evidence from the past two years to show that some schools had benefited considerably from a multi-agency approach to disadvantage.

There were parts of Northern Ireland characterised by extreme social disadvantage and related low levels of attainment, where there was a lack of conviction that education and training, on their own, could help young people to progress, she said.

“Low- and under-achievement, particularly among young males, and the need to ensure that all school leavers and young people are numerate and literate, are major challenges for those involved in education and training, particularly - but not only - in these areas,” she said.

Launching her report before an audience of representatives from the education, training and youth sectors, Ms Matchett said: “We need to move beyond thinking of education as successful insofar as it helps young people do well in exams, and we need to explore further how education can help motivate young people to contribute positively to their communities.”

There was also a need to develop a greater trust in education and training as ways of helping young people to overcome disadvantage.

“Having trust on all sides means that we are working together for the best outcomes for the young person,” she said.

BBC

**It seems to me that anyone with half a brain shouldn’t have to ask if the RUC “could or should have done more” to avert Mr Hamill’s death. What the hell kind of question is that?

Hamill murder inquiry adjourned

Sir Edwin said the inquiry would look at a number of issues

A public inquiry into the murder of County Armagh man Robert Hamill has opened at Craigavon courthouse.

Mr Hamill, a 25-year-old Catholic, died in hospital after being attacked by a loyalist mob in Portadown in 1997. No one has been convicted over his death.

Armed RUC officers were stationed in a Land Rover near to the scene but allegedly failed to intervene.

The inquiry has now adjourned and will not sit in public again until November at the earliest.

The inquiry is one of four in NI recommended by ex-judge Peter Cory, who was tasked to probe alleged collusion.

The others were into the deaths of Rosemary Nelson, Billy Wright and Pat Finucane.

“We are very conscious of the many emotions to which the death of Robert Hamill has given rise and we repeat that our overriding concern in this inquiry will be to do all we can to ascertain where the truth lies.”
Sir Edwin Jowit

Up to 100 witnesses are set to testify at the public inquiry into Mr Hamill’s death, which is being chaired by former High Court judge, Sir Edwin Jowitt.

Evidence will be studied to assess whether any failure or omission on the part of officers to halt the attack, identify the killers or properly investigate the murder was deliberate or negligent, the retired High Court judge said.

Sir Edwin said the inquiry would look at a number of issues.

Among them, it will consider whether or not the RUC “could or should have done more” to avert Mr Hamill’s death on the night he was murdered.

‘List of recommendations’

It will also examine whether RUC officers at the scene could have done more to identify, or facilitate the prosecution of those who carried out the attack.

The RUC’s follow-up investigation will also be scrutinised, with the inquiry seeking to establish whether or not the police could have done more to investigate the murder.

The inquiry will also look at whether there was any attempted obstruction of the investigation itself.

Robert Hamill was attacked by a loyalist mob in 1997

Finally, it will issue a list of recommendations it believes should be made in light of its findings.

“We are very conscious of the many emotions to which the death of Robert Hamill has given rise and we repeat that our overriding concern in this inquiry will be to do all we can to ascertain where the truth lies,” Sir Edwin said.

Solicitor Barra McGrory, who is representing the Hamill family, said he hoped the inquiry would get to the truth.

“It is hoped and anticipated that the tribunal will hear a lot of detail about the circumstances of this murder, which has not been heard in the general public, by the general public, before,” he said.