SAOIRSE32

RTE

Counterfeiting operation uncovered in Co Meath

03 June 2005 19:29

Gardaí in Co Meath have uncovered what they believe to be the biggest DVD counterfeiting operation ever found in the country.

Polythene tunnels that were originally erected on a farm to produce mushrooms were used by a criminal gang to produce up to 600 DVDs an hour - up to 3 million a year - on 20 DVD burners and printers.

Gardaí say an adult and two juveniles have been detained and equipment worth about €300,000 was seized.

Belfast Telegraph

Firefighters facing threats over body

By Michael McHugh
03 June 2005

Firefighters who failed to find a man’s body while tackling a fire in Craigavon were last night subjected to threats from residents in the area.

The intimidation follows the weekend tragedy in Ardowen when Seamus Turkington (18), from Drumgor, was found dead in a derelict building.

His body was discovered by a Water Service worker last Saturday after a blaze the previous night had been dealt with by firefighters.

The Fire Service has launched an internal inquiry into why firefighters did not notice Mr Turkington’s body.

The latest threats have been condemned by community representatives in the area.

“It appears that the Fire Brigade in Lurgan received some calls from people threatening their well-being which have been linked to the Fire Service’s failure to discover the body,” Upper Bann Assemblyman John O’Dowd said.

“I would condemn any threats on the Service, I am sure that 99.9 per cent of the community would do the same.

“These individuals are not helping the Turkington family and they are not helping the wider community to recover from this sad tragedy.”

Officials from the Fire Brigade Union have approached local representatives for help in calming tensions following Mr Turkington’s death.

Belfast Telegraph

Claudy bombing arrests expected
Police poised to act in wake of 1972 atrocity

By Clare Weir
02 June 2005

Click to view - ‘Memorial to those who were killed in Claudy, County Derry, on Monday 31 July 1972. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded three bombs killing 9 civilians. The bronze figure is the centre part of the memorial which includes a number of plaques.’ From: CAIN

Detectives probing the Claudy bomb massacre that left nine dead in 1972, including three children, are poised to make arrests, it was claimed today.

Ahead of a meeting of the Policing Board in Londonderry today, a prominent member said police would soon make arrests in connection with the atrocity that rocked the Co Londonderry town.

At a public meeting in the City Hotel this afternoon, Chief Constable Hugh Orde was due to face questions on the progress of the investigation, which was re-launched in December 2003.

Policing Board member and DUP Assemblyman, William Hay, says he has been led to believe that arrests will take place in the near future.

He said he would press the Chief Constable for an update on the inquiry today and has tabled a question for this afternoon’s meeting.

“This inquiry is very welcome but it has been some time since we have heard any news,” he said.

“My knowledge is that there are going to be arrests.

“The families have been waiting for a long time to find out the truth and I will be asking Hugh Orde what the latest news is.

“This issue needs to be kept in the public domain. We need to see arrests and we need to see people charged.”

A police spokesman would not be drawn on the possibility of arrests but did confirm that a question on the Claudy bomb had been tabled for today’s meeting.

The Chief Constable was unavailable for comment.

The murders have always been blamed on the IRA - which has consistently denied the accusations.

There have also been claims that Catholic priest Fr James Chesney masterminded the three no-warning bombings and led the republican team responsible.

In a shocking development, it was revealed by police that both former Secretary of State William Whitelaw and the then Bishop of Derry were aware of the claims about the clergyman, who died in 1980.

In addition, an anonymous letter - the authenticity of which has never been proven - was sent to a Derry journalist and UUP councillor and survivor of the attack, Mary Hamilton.

In it, a man calling himself Fr Liam claimed that Fr Chesney broke down and confessed his part in the bombing shortly after the car bomb attack.

While Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kincaid initially led the inquiry, the investigation has now been taken over by Detective Inspector Robbie Paul and no significant announcement has been made in recent times.

Nine people were killed in the double bombing.

They were Kathryn Eakin (9), Joseph McCluskey, David Miller, James McClelland, William Temple, Elizabeth McElhinney, Rose McLaughlin, Patrick Connolly and Arthur Hone. William Temple was 16.

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BBC

NI receives peace funding boost

EU commissioner Danuta Hubner announced the funding

Northern Ireland will receive a further £97m from the European Union Peace II initiative.

Professor Danuta Hubner, the EU commissioner for regional policy, announced a two-year extension for the programme in Belfast on Friday.

The extra funding comes as a result of sustained campaigning from various groups in Europe and Northern Ireland.

The Peace II programme aims to achieve economic renewal and social integration in areas most scarred by the Troubles.

FIVE AIMS OF PEACE II
Economic renewal
Social integration
Inclusion and reconciliation
Local re-generation and strategic development
Cross-border cooperation
It aims to promote reconciliation and to help build a more peaceful and stable society.

Mrs Hubner said the money would allow the programme’s vital work to be “consolidated”.

“The European Union understands that economic and social development in support of peace and reconciliation at grassroots level is not a short term process,” she said.

“The programme provides real added-value in bringing communities together to address shared economic and social problems and opportunities.

Impact

“In face of the current difficulties in the peace process, this decision demonstrates the continued solidarity and support of the European Union towards permanent peace in the region.”

Peace II director Sean Henry said on Friday that the programme has had “a real impact on both Catholic and Protestant areas”.

Mr Henry said they wanted to encourage more groups to apply, particularly those from Protestant areas, and that the application process had been “greatly simplified”.

“We have set aside some money for community groups who have not previously applied for funding and for those who perhaps don’t have the skills to fill in application forms,” he said.

“With this type of effort, we should be able to ensure that this programme really gets to the people who need the money.”

Sinn Fein MEP Bairbre de Brun backed the extension, but called for a new Peace III programme to be set up that would run until 2013.

“Future funding should be directed to the twin goals of reconciliation and social inclusion, in order to combat the legacy of the conflict, particularly for those most marginalised in recent decades,” she said.

Jim Allister, the Democratic Unionist MEP, urged members of the rural community to apply for funding.

“Farmers to date have had a very poor experience applying for Peace II money and in particular measures which have been administered by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development,” he said.

Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson warned he would be scrutinising how the money was allocated.

“While the distribution of funds may have been imperfect, I will be placing pressure on both the government and the commission to ensure the equal distribution of funding in the future,” he said.

Beginning in 2001, the initiative followed on from the five-year Peace I, which distributed 500m euros. Peace I was established in the wake of peace developments in 1994.

Peace II covers Northern Ireland as well as the border counties in the Irish Republic.

Groups applying for Peace II grants must demonstrate their proposals will address the legacy of the Troubles and show how they will promote reconciliation and mutual understanding.

More than 5,300 projects have been funded by the programme.

BBC

NI receives peace funding boost

EU commissioner Danuta Hubner announced the funding

Northern Ireland will receive a further £97m from the European Union Peace II initiative.

Professor Danuta Hubner, the EU commissioner for regional policy, announced a two-year extension for the programme in Belfast on Friday.

The extra funding comes as a result of sustained campaigning from various groups in Europe and Northern Ireland.

The Peace II programme aims to achieve economic renewal and social integration in areas most scarred by the Troubles.

FIVE AIMS OF PEACE II
Economic renewal
Social integration
Inclusion and reconciliation
Local re-generation and strategic development
Cross-border cooperation
It aims to promote reconciliation and to help build a more peaceful and stable society.

Mrs Hubner said the money would allow the programme’s vital work to be “consolidated”.

“The European Union understands that economic and social development in support of peace and reconciliation at grassroots level is not a short term process,” she said.

“The programme provides real added-value in bringing communities together to address shared economic and social problems and opportunities.

Impact

“In face of the current difficulties in the peace process, this decision demonstrates the continued solidarity and support of the European Union towards permanent peace in the region.”

Peace II director Sean Henry said on Friday that the programme has had “a real impact on both Catholic and Protestant areas”.

Mr Henry said they wanted to encourage more groups to apply, particularly those from Protestant areas, and that the application process had been “greatly simplified”.

“We have set aside some money for community groups who have not previously applied for funding and for those who perhaps don’t have the skills to fill in application forms,” he said.

“With this type of effort, we should be able to ensure that this programme really gets to the people who need the money.”

Sinn Fein MEP Bairbre de Brun backed the extension, but called for a new Peace III programme to be set up that would run until 2013.

“Future funding should be directed to the twin goals of reconciliation and social inclusion, in order to combat the legacy of the conflict, particularly for those most marginalised in recent decades,” she said.

Jim Allister, the Democratic Unionist MEP, urged members of the rural community to apply for funding.

“Farmers to date have had a very poor experience applying for Peace II money and in particular measures which have been administered by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development,” he said.

Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson warned he would be scrutinising how the money was allocated.

“While the distribution of funds may have been imperfect, I will be placing pressure on both the government and the commission to ensure the equal distribution of funding in the future,” he said.

Beginning in 2001, the initiative followed on from the five-year Peace I, which distributed 500m euros. Peace I was established in the wake of peace developments in 1994.

Peace II covers Northern Ireland as well as the border counties in the Irish Republic.

Groups applying for Peace II grants must demonstrate their proposals will address the legacy of the Troubles and show how they will promote reconciliation and mutual understanding.

More than 5,300 projects have been funded by the programme.

Belfast Telegraph

Order calls for end to 50:50 policing quota

By Michael McHugh
03 June 2005

The Orange Order has backed calls for reform of the PSNI and demanded a reversal of the 50/50 recruitment policy.

The claims in the Orange Order’s online newsletter follow strongly-worded criticism of the PSNI by former Policing Federation chairman, Jimmy Spratt, earlier this week when he suggested that the PSNI was losing the intelligence war against the IRA.

The Policing Board has defended the post-Patten recruitment system in the past, but many unionists are unhappy with the quota system imposed by 50/50.

A piece in the latest edition of the Orange Standard said the policy was discriminatory and unfair and called for its abolition.

“It also goes without saying that the obnoxious discriminatory recruitment policy which mitigates against Protestants joining the PSNI must be scrapped,” the article said.

“It has been well-documented how unfair this recruitment policy is, with Protestants, who constitute 57 per cent of the population of Northern Ireland, restricted to less than 50 per cent of places on the PSNI.

“Northern Ireland is paying a heavy price for the blunders of the Patten recommendations implemented by a compliant Government,” the article continued. “The sooner this unrealistic policy is reversed the better it will be for Northern Ireland.”

Mr Spratt, a DUP candidate in the last Westminster election, questioned the PSNI’s ability to thwart major criminal raids through intelligence-led policing following the amalgamation of Special Branch with CID.

A spokesman for the Policing Board said they had no comment to make.

Belfast Telegraph

Loyalists in clash at murder case

By Brian Hutton
03 June 2005

A leading police officer today prevented a man being thrown over the fourth floor balcony of Belfast’s Laganside Courthouse as rivals in a murder case clashed.

Superintendent Roy McComb intervened in the bloody fracas outside Crown Court just minutes before judgment was to be given in the murder of Red Hand Commando drug dealing supremo Jim “Jonty” Johnston in the driveway of his luxury Co Down home on May 8, 2003.

A crowd of around 30 people were awaiting the judgment in the case of 41-year-old Robert John Benson Young at court 15, on the fourth floor of the courthouse, when the trouble erupted.

It is understood that a friend of the accused approached a friend or family member of Mr Johnston and after an exchange of words fists were thrown, just before the judgment was due to be heard.

Security staff radioed for help and plain clothes police moved in to separate the pair, who by then were circled by the crowd.

At one point one of the men was forced up against the glass safety panel of the fourth floor balcony when Superintendent Roy McComb and other plain clothes officers intervened, preventing him from being forced over the partition.

One woman ran into the court screaming “there’s murder out there”, to other members and friends of the Johnston family.

According to court reporter Mickey Donnelly, who was at the scene, one of the defendant’s supporters shouted “Up the Loyalist Volunteer Force” as that faction left the building.

Supporters of the accused were ordered off the premises - BBC photo

“He had his nose cut up and there was blood spattered over his clothes,” he said.

The family and friends of Mr Johnston remained in the court while the rival crowd left.

The case was adjourned with a time and date for a verdict to be fixed.

No arrests were made but it is understood that the incident may have been caught on the CCTV surveillance system.

Several police riot squads were among the large security presence at the courthouse for the case.

Young, from Ulsterville Park in Portadown, denies Johnston’s murder, while his 39-year-old sister Lorraine from Church Hill, Holywood, is accused of providing him with a false alibi.

A second Co Down woman, 35-year-old Susan Ferguson from Westlink in Holywood, is on trial with them accused of possessing a magazine for a 9mm Taurus pistol, which was found at the scene of the shooting.

She is also accused of having a second magazine found during a search of her home.

Johnston (46), was a senior member of the UVF- linked Red Hand Commando and was regarded as a major player in the drugs trade.

He was shot as he was closing the gates to his luxury Crawfordsburn home on May 8, 2003.

The trial had heard that the drug dealer was ambushed by two gunmen who fired 14 shots, hitting him 11 times.

His four-bedroom family home in the affluent Ballyrobert Road area was sold for £410,000 last November after it was seized by the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA).

Earlier this year, another four properties belonging to Johnston were sold off by the ARA for over a quarter of a million pounds.

IrishExaminer.com

Tristan father could face prosecution in Ireland

03 June 2005
Dan Buckley

THE Irish father of Tristan Dowse — the little boy left in a legal limbo in an Indonesian orphanage — could face prosecution here on charges of abandoning his son.
The Government is also to review legislation involving foreign adoptions in the wake of the affair.

In the meantime, Attorney General Rory Brady is taking take High Court proceedings against both parents in a bid to clarify the legal position of the adopted three-year-old.

Mr Brady will seek an order from the High Court to compel Joe and Lala Dowse to take care of the boy under constitutional provisions relating to the family.

The case is being taken in the hope that the couple will then take legal action to deregister the adoption in Ireland, freeing up the Irish and Indonesian authorities to find a solution relating to the legal quagmire involving the boy and to enable him to be readopted.

Joe Dowse, from Wicklow, may face prosecution if found to have abandoned his child under law without due care.

The Dowses adopted Tristan when he was two months old, but Mr Dowse returned him to an orphanage when he was two years of age, claiming the adoption “wasn’t working out.”

Minister for Children Brian Lenihan said his department was examining whether the return of Tristan Dowse to an orphanage by his adoptive parents was illegal and whether the law governing adoptions abroad needed to be tightened.

“This may be a case of an Irish citizen abroad who had abandoned an Irish child and we will be reviewing this to see if it was improper and what the consequences for this are under Irish law,” he said. Three-year-old Tristan faces spending the rest of his childhood in an institution unless he is re-adopted soon.

Officials in Indonesia have warned that if the legal quagmire is not sorted out before Tristan reaches the age of five, he cannot be adopted.

Under Indonesian law, children become ineligible for adoption at that age.

Tristan turns four this month and has already endured around two years in legal limbo. It is feared that further legal wrangles could now leave him trapped in an institution until he reaches the age 18.

The Indonesian authorities say Tristan’s adoption was illegal, and that it will take several months to get this situation rectified through their courts. In Ireland, a High Court action will seek to have Tristan’s name removed from the adoption register. Only when both these processes are complete can Tristan’s readoption process begin.

The registrar of the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI), Kiernan Gildea, said: “He simply isn’t eligible for adoption after the age of five and would probably have to stay in an institution until he reaches 18. We are certainly aware of the urgency and that time is running out for him.”

BBC

Man charged with McCartney murder

A 49-year-old man is due in court charged with the murder of Belfast man Robert McCartney.

A 36-year-old has also been charged with the attempted murder of his friend Brendan Devine.

Mr McCartney, 33, was stabbed outside a Belfast pub on 30 January and died the following day in hospital.

Both men, who were arrested on Wednesday, are understood to be from Belfast. They are due before the city’s magistrates court on Saturday.

One of the men was arrested in Birmingham and brought to Belfast earlier this week.

Mr McCartney’s sisters and partner have held a number of meetings with high profile politicians in their campaign for justice over the killing.

In March, they met US President George Bush at the White House in Washington.

They have also held separate meetings with US special envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss and the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

Irelandclick.com

Health system let us down says family of suicide victim

On the day he committed suicide he asked if he could go back into hospital and was told that he couldn’t.

The parents of a young man who took his own life through suicide have been told by medical professionals there was a “breakdown in communications” between their son and the health system prior to his death.
Gerard and Carole McCartan discovered their son Danny (18) had hanged himself on April 11.
In the nine months leading up to his death he was prescribed nearly 3000 tablets to combat his depression and anxiety including anti-psychotic drugs and sleeping pills. At one stage he was taking 18 tablets a day ranging in strength from 5mg right up to 300 mg.
He had been self-harming for three years and had cut his face, legs and arms with blades. Then last August after several months of taking medication, he took an overdose.
On the day he committed suicide he asked if he could go back into hospital and was told that he couldn’t. Danny fled and that was the last time his parents saw him alive.
Gerard and Carole said they feel that the system has let them down and that there was a lack of information as to why their son was taking so many drugs.
At a meeting in the Mater Hospital last week with a leading psychiatric consultant and staff from North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust, Gerard and Carole McCartan, who believe that no one understood how urgent Danny’s situation was, were told that there was a “breakdown in communications”.
The McCartan family are now lodging an official complaint against the Mater Trust, North and West Belfast Trust and Knockbracken, a facility in South Belfast, which houses young mentally ill patients.
“The system completely failed us,” Gerard McCartan said.
“We had to be on top of things all the time. We had to chase so many people to get anything done and all the time people were passing the buck. Shifting him from pillar to post.
“And the worst thing was that he was never diagnosed with anything apart from general mental illness. They said to us we you can’t label him, he’s so young, well that’s all well and good but Danny wanted to know if he was schizophrenic or whatever.
“We got the impression they were holding information back all the time. Danny was in the system for eight months and we were never given an explanation of the drugs.
“They should have been more open with us. They knew themselves the implications of what drugs he was on. We didn’t. We tried to deal with this as best we could.”
The Mater Hospital issued a statement confirming that staff from North and West Belfast Trust and the Mater Hospital Trust met with Danny McCartan’s parents, “to discuss a range of issues following his death”.
“We will continue to meet with his parents to try and resolve any concerns they may have regarding his treatment. We wish to extend our sympathies to the parents of Danny McCartan at this very difficult time.”

Journalist:: Áine McEntee

Irelandclick.com

Going going

Work finally begins on bringing down Girdwood
barracks, a place SF has branded North Belfast’s ‘Guantanamo Bay’

Girdwood army barracks was this morning being dismantled, bringing a legacy of the British army in North Belfast to a final and ignominious end.
A Sinn Féin councillor has branded the base in which Catholics were tortured throughout the conflict, as the “end to our Guantanamo Bay”.
And the new SDLP deputy mayor of Belfast, Pat Convery, also welcomed the start of work to demolish the massive base and called for a strategic plan to put the land to public use.
An MoD spokesman this morning confirmed work had started on the site that cuts a swathe through North Belfast.
Asked how long it would take contractors to demolish Girdwood, the spokesman said: “as long as it takes, but as soon as possible”.
Workmen were working on dismantling the communications towers and two huge cranes have been commissioned to take the base apart.
“The military installations will go first and the sangars and then the rest of the base,” said the British army spokesman.
The land is to be passed onto the Department of Social Development (DSD) but no decision has been made on what will replace it.
A DSD spokeswoman said the property still belonged to the MoD.
“It’s still MoD property and we have nothing to do with it until it’s passed onto the department.”
Pat Convery called for a “strategic approach” on the future of the site.
“I welcome this development. It shows that Girdwood is now being demolished and hopefully there will be a multi-purpose use for it,” he said.
“It can be used for housing, health care and leisure resources and business development in the community.”
Danny Lavery said “good riddance to Girdwood”.
“We are happy and grateful that Girdwood barracks is coming down after much pressure to go from Sinn Féin. This ends over 30 years of a legacy of murder, injustice, abuse and torture meted out to the nationalist community from within the walls of this base in North Belfast,” he said.

Journalist:: Andrea McKernon

Cryptome

**If you go to the above link, you can pick up the 688 page .pdf file on the:

REPORT ON THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE DEATH OF RICHARD BARRON AND THE EXTORTION CALLS TO MICHAEL AND CHARLOTTE PEOPLES

(It is listed as: Corruption of Northern Ireland Police /O June 3, 2005)

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BBC

Emergency text service for deaf

People will be able to text message the police using mobile phones

A new PSNI text messaging service will mean people with hearing or speech problems will be able to contact the emergency services using mobile phones.

The project was developed by the police in partnership with the Deaf Association of NI and British Telecom.

It is being launched by Chief Constable Hugh Orde.

People who register with the service will be able to use their mobile phones to text the police, who in turn will contact the relevant emergency service.

The messages, which can be sent from any part of Northern Ireland, will go centrally to the police service’s Belfast regional control centre.

Sign language

Staff at the centre will then direct the call to one, or all, of the required emergency services - police, ambulance and fire and rescue.

In addition to the scheme, the police are also training disability link officers in each of its 29 district command units.

The officers will be trained in both English and Irish sign language.

Hugh Orde said the new text service was another step towards making Northern Ireland a safer place for everyone.

“It also allows a group of people in the deaf and signing community who may in the past have found it difficult to communicate with the police and other emergency services and to deal with us in confidence,” he said.

“Policing with the community is all about partnership.”

Majella McAteer, of the Deaf Association of Northern Ireland said: “We are delighted with this recent development as it is vital that deaf sign language users have equal access to the emergency services of Northern Ireland.

“We hope that we can continue to break down barriers, raise awareness within the community and improve access to services for deaf sign language users.”

BBC

Boycott urged over ’sham’ inquiry

Mr Finucane, 39, was shot dead in front of his family

Amnesty International is urging senior judges not to sit on the public inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

The human rights group said the “sham” inquiry, set up under the Inquiries Act 2005, had been “railroaded” through parliament and would lack independence.

Mr Finucane, 39, was killed by loyalist paramilitaries at his home in 1989.

In a statement last December, the Northern Ireland Office said nothing would be withheld from the inquiry.

However, Amnesty International’s UK director, Kate Allen, said crucial evidence could be omitted from any final report at the government’s discretion.

“Any judge presiding over an inquiry into the Finucane murder, under the Inquiries Act 2005, would be presiding over a sham. We urge judges not to sit on any such inquiry,” she said.

Judge Cory has criticised government inquiry plans

“By rushing through this act, the government has placed itself beyond public scrutiny and dealt a massive blow to any hopes of transparency in government.

“Under the Inquiries Act 2005, there will be no more independent, public inquiries like those into the Ladbroke Grove train crash, the murder of Stephen Lawrence or the tragedy at Hillsborough.

“The government will be able to control what the public finds out, and what it doesn’t.”

In March, before the act was approved by parliament, it was criticised by the judge who investigated allegations of security force collusion in Mr Finucane’s murder.

Retired Canadian judge Peter Cory said the proposed new legislation “would make a meaningful inquiry impossible”.

Family concerns

He said the bill would set up “impossible terms for any international judge asked to chair the inquiry”.

Mr Finucane’s son John also said the government should reconsider changes to the law.

The Finucane family have concerns about the independence and the powers of the inquiry and said it did not comply with Judge Cory’s recommendations.

Mr Finucane’s killing was one of the most controversial of the 30 years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, mainly because of the allegations of collusion between the Ulster Defence Association and members of the security forces.

In 2001, Judge Cory was appointed by the British and Irish governments to examine allegations of collusion surrounding the Finucane and other controversial killings.

Judge Cory recommended a public inquiry into Mr Finucane’s death.

Last December, the NIO said the government wanted the inquiry to be able to get at the full facts of what happened.

However, because of national security, it said a large proportion of evidence would “have to be considered in private”.

Loyalist Ken Barrett, 41, was sentenced in September to life for Mr Finucane’s murder, after admitting his part in the killing.

1981 Irish Hungerstrikers

** I am sorry I did not get this posted on Sunday

MARTIN HURSON BEGINS HUNGER STRIKE - 29 MAY 1981

“On May 29th…Martin joined the hunger strike, replacing South Derryman Brendan McLoughlin who was forced to drop out because of a burst stomach ulcer.

In the Free State general election in June, Martin was a candidate in Longford/Westmeath, and although missing election, obtained almost four-and-a-half thousand first preference votes, and over a thousand transfers, before being eliminated at the end of the sixth count, outlasting two Labour candidates and a Fine Gael contender.”

>>>Read Martin’s biography

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THE BLANKET

A Salute to Comrades
Book Review

Dolours Price • 18 May 2005

After reading ‘Ten Men Dead’ I swore that I would never again read about the Hunger Strike of 1981. I cried at every page and my husband eventually hid the book. I bought another.

My levels of sadness rose at the same rate as my levels of anger. The targets for my anger were the usual ones: those identified by the Republican Leadership as responsible for the death of Bobby Sands and his comrades. Top of the list was Margaret Thatcher, then came busybody priests, political opponents, an uncaring Free-State Government and more and more.

Hunger-striking, the last resort of the brutalised political prisoner. The ultimate weapon, one’s own body.

>>>Read it

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