SAOIRSE32

:: IRBB ::

Posted today by P.R.O. Na Fianna Eireann and sent to me by macliam73

Fianna Attacked and Arrested after Frank Gartland Function

Members of Na Fianna, supporters and members of RSF were in a senior member of Na Fianna’s house in Tallaght celebrating the success of the Frank Gartland Tribute night on Friday. The celebrations went on into the early hours. At approximately 05.45 members of the ERU (Emergency Response Unit) and members of the Special Branch appeared at the living room and kitchen windows brandishing handguns. There were calls for the front door to be opened; while the Fian was in the process of unlocking the front door, it was broken in on top of him by battery ram. Fianna members and RSF members were kicked and beaten and had 9mm handguns shoved in their faces. Fianna supporters in the house also had guns pointed at them and received kicks and punches.
Na Fianna and others present struggled with the Free Staters and tried to defend themselves but received only harsher beatings for this. The people who were not members of Na Fianna were then locked in a room under armed guard while the house was ransacked and sleeping Fians and supporters were dragged downstairs to receive the same treatment as their comrades.

RSF members from Kerry and from the 6 occupied counties were then both arrested under section 30 of the offences against the state act and taken to Tallaght barracks. The occupants of the house were held captive there for more than two hours.

We hope to show you the photographs of just some of the injuries received by those present in the house. It is Na Fianna’s opinion that this was an attempt by the 26 county Free State to steal the money raised from the function in as they did with the money raised by RSF at the Ard Fheis.

A member of Na Fianna with Cerebal Palsy was also assaulted. He was thrown over a sofa which caused him to hit his head on some banisters. He was then kicked in the head above the hairline; if that wasn’t enough he then had an ERU member stand on his head for about 5 minutes. He was also repeatedly searched and refused permission to use the toilet.

The two RSF members arrested are still in custody at this time.

The cot of the Fian’s baby (less than 6 months old) was dismantled and then irreparably damaged.

When asked for Identification a number of Gardai replied “*Expletive Deleted* off” and “go *Expletive Deleted* yourself”.

No warrant was shown.

Several of those present were handcuffed for the duration of the attack.

This was not a simple raid, this was an attack. This is the kind of behaviour suffered in the 6 counties by Nationalists and Republicans from the RUC and their ilk.

Photos to come.

Added by Celtic1981

The houses of the two people arrested were later on raided by the Special Branch and they took away bodhrans, mirrors and hankies. In the case of one of the people arrested, 6 branchmen raided the house and dug up his garden. While the men were being interrogated by the Special Branch the branchmen continually asked them to become informers and questioned them about the ballad night. The idea behind the raid was to try and take the money raised but they never got it. The members of the 26 County police arrived in a Ford Fiesta and the ERU arrived in a white transit van complete with ladders. This was clearly an attempt by the free to try to harass and intimidate us but we will never fear them nor will we ever give up the fight for a United Ireland so their attempts are all in vain.

Fianna Éireann Abú

More information at the IRBB

————–

Irish Heritage Email Group

ST. COLUMBA or COLUMCILLE 521-597
Feast Day June 9

click pic to view ‘St Columba’ by Duncan

St Columba is a saint who still, after fourteen hundred years, exerts an appeal upon our imaginations. Born in Ireland, in Donegal in the year 521, he was of the blood royal, and might indeed have become High King of Ireland had he not chosen to be a priest. His vital, vigorous personality has given rise to many legends, and it is a little hard to sift fact from what is more probably fiction. We do know that he was a man of tremendous energy, probably somewhat headstrong in his youth, but with his tendency to violence curbed by a gentle magnanimity.

It seems certain that he left Ireland as an act of penance, although it is less certain how far this was connected with his quarrelling over a copy of the Gospels he had made, a dispute that led to a bloody battle. He came from Ireland to Scotland, to the colony of Dalriada founded on the west coast by his fellow Irish Scots who were at that time somewhat oppressed by the dominant Picts. With twelve companions he founded his monastery on Iona in the year 563. These Celtic monks lived in communities of separate cells, but Columba and his companions combined their contemplative life with extraordinary missionary activity. Amongst his many accomplishments, Columba was a splendid sailor. He sailed far amongst the islands and travelled deep inland, making converts and founding little churches. In Ireland he had already, it is said, founded a hundred churches.

Of all the Celtic saints in Scotland, Columba’s life is much the best documented, because manuscripts of his Life, written by St Adamnan, one of his early successors as abbot of Iona, have survived. Iona itself remains a place of the greatest beauty, a serene island set in seas that take on brilliant colorsin the sunshine, recalling the life and background of this remarkable man whose mission led to the conversion of Scotland and of the north of England, and indeed carried its influence far further afield. It later became the site of a Benedictine Abbey and of a little cathedral. These were dismantled by the Scottish reformers in 1561, and part of Columba’s prophecy was fulfilled:

In Iona of my heart, Iona of my love,
Instead of monks’ voices shall be lowing of cattle,
But ere the world come to an end
Iona shall be as it was.

When Dr Samuel Johnson visited the island in 1773 he observed, ‘That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona!’ Columba was a poet as well as a man of action. Some of his poems in both Latin and Gaelic have come down to us, and they reveal him as a man very sensitive to the beauty of his surroundings, as well as always, in St Adamnan’s phrase, ‘gladdened in his inmost heart by the joy of the Holy Spirit.’ He died in the year 597.

Belfast Telegraph

Fresh plea on power cables near schools
Study leads to new fears on leukaemia

By Michael McHugh
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
11 June 2005

THERE were new calls yesterday for a halt to the siting of power cables near homes and schools after a study suggested the practice dramatically increased the chances of children devloping leukaemia.

Upper Bann Assemblyman Sam Gardiner was reacting to research carried out by Oxford University’s Childhood Cancer Research Group which surveyed 9,700 children from England and Wales with leukaemia and found a 70% increased risk of the killer disease.

Residents in the Craigavon area have raised concerns about this issue in the past but the latest findings have established one of the most alarming links so far.

Mr Gardiner said the findings would worry thousands of parents until more analysis was carried out and called for a ban on the siting of power cables near homes and schools until that work is complete.

“I believe there should be a moratorium of siting power cables near houses and schools until an answer to this question is definitively obtained.

That would be a prudent and sensible response,” Mr Gardiner said. “I believe this will involve new stringent planning guidelines.”

The Oxford researcher, Dr Gerald Draper, said that a variety of other factors could cause leukaemia including damage to the immune system and exposure to radiation before the baby is born but his findings are being taken seriously by public representatives.

“The only answer is for the Government to commission well-defined research which is targeted at producing an answer to this problem,” Mr Gardiner added.

“It is very worrying for many people because across the country (UK) around one per cent of all homes are estimated to be within 200 metres of high-voltage National Grid power lines.

“It is all very well saying to those people not to worry. It is a natural human reaction for people to be worried about their children.”

“This research involved more than 29,000 children (suffering from many cancers) and that is a pretty large sample,” added Mr Gardeiner.

Belfast Telegraph

Honour for Terry Enright, loyalist victim

11 June 2005

**See also Terry Enright

photo from the Terry Enright Foundation.org

A PLAQUE erected in memory of a community leader who was shot dead by loyalists in the centre of Belfast was due to be unveiled in the city’s Cathedral quarter today.

The plaque, erected in memory of Terry Enright, is being placed on one of the pillars of St Anne’s Cathedral to acknowledge the cross-community work undertaken by the west Belfast father of two.

Terry was shot dead by members of the LVF outside a nightclub close to St Anne’s in January 1998.

BreakingNews.ie

Pupils march against ASBOs

11/06/2005 - 16:40:56

Hundreds of students and school pupils marched through Dublin city centre today against Government plans to introduce ASBOs.

With Justice Minister Michael McDowell eager to adopt the orders this summer in a bid to end anti-social behaviour on the streets protesters claimed it was an attack on civil liberties.

Around 200 demonstrators paraded along O’Connell Street before holding a rally at the Central Bank and calling on the Justice Minister to abandon his proposal to use ASBOs on youngsters as young as ten.

Rory Hearne, Union of Students in Ireland (USI) deputy president, said it was time for the Government to see sense, abide by democracy and drop the ASBO plan.

“These measures if introduced will seriously impinge on young people’s freedoms and the civil liberties of everyone,” he said.

“The more public pressure we can put on the government then the less likely they will introduce these draconian measures. We are calling on McDowell to see sense, abide by democracy and the drop the proposals.”

Mr Hearne called on the government to tackle the root problem of anti-social behaviour such as inequality in education and the lack of recreational facilities in certain areas.

“ASBOs and other aspects of the Criminal Justice Bill which infringe on our civil liberties will not solve the so-called crisis of anti-social behaviour,” he said.

“The government and some opposition political parties appear to be using this serious issue for reasons of political expediency.”

Organisers claimed 46% of local authorities did not provide playgrounds, while there were twice as many golf courses as playgrounds in the country.

And they said youth clubs were closing because of a lack of funding while alcohol free entertainment venues were virtually non-existent.

Protesters also claimed cross party TDs were backing their campaign. Several Government TDs have expressed their concern at the move.

Hazel Nolan, from the Union of Secondary Students, said anti-social behaviour was a growing problem in Irish society.

But she warned using the orders to clampdown on kids would be seen as a lack of respect and understanding.

“The proposal to introduce ASBOs is a direct sign of lack of respect for young people, and it is hypocritical to presume that respect can exist if it is not mutual,” Ms Nolan said.

“ASBOs are a quick fix to a serious problem and are yet again another example of a reactive rather than proactive government.”

Ms Nolan said the cost of detaining one young person for a year could cover the cost of four youth workers.

“ASBOs and the measures proposed by the Justice bill are a complete abortion of natural justice,” she added.

Daily Ireland

Language summit

By Conor McMorrow

A convention is being held in Belfast next week to discuss Irish-medium education.
The Irish-language organisation Pobal has been working on a draft law for the Irish language in the North.
The proposed legislation is being drawn up because people in the Irish-language community in the North want to have their rights defined and protected in law.
They want an Irish language act that would give them due recognition in legislation and impose obligations on the state system.
Seán Ó Coinn, chief executive of Comhairle na Gaelscoilaíochta (the Council for Irish-Medium Education), said: “We want as many people as possible from the Irish education and the Irish-medium sectors to attend this convention, including principals, teachers and parents.
“This generation of children in the Irish-medium education sector in the North will benefit most from an Irish language act in future.
“The current Irish-medium education leadership has a grave responsibility because it is they who have to ensure that the rights of these children have legislative protection.”
There are currently more than 3,000 children in the Irish-medium education sector in the North. The convention is being held in the Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich on the Falls Road in west Belfast between 3pm and 6pm on Tuesday.
Organisers said they hoped the convention would raise questions over whether or not the Irish-medium education sector was being denied rights and what the best way forward would be to conteract this with an Irish language act.

Daily Ireland

**Go here for background info: The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition

Mac Cionnaith says ‘Drumcree is dead’

by Ciarán Barnes

click to view

The annual Drumcree march, which at its height brought the North to a standstill, is now regarded as a “dead issue” by nationalists, a Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition spokesman said yesterday.
Speaking to Daily Ireland, Breandán Mac Cionnaith said that “whether the Orange Order like it or not”, a solution has been reached regarding the Drumcree dispute.
The Orange Order is once again planning to march past nationalist homes down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Co Armagh, on its route to Drumcree church on July 10.

The last time Orangemen were permitted to go down the road was in 1997.
Since then, the number of loyalists protesting at Drumcree against the Parades Commission’s refusal to allow them to march the route has fallen from approximately 6,000 in 1998 to 600 last year.
Mr Mac Cionnaith said he saw this as proof that, even in the eyes of Orangemen, the Drumcree dispute was “no longer an issue”.
He said: “In the eyes of Portadown nationalists, Drumcree is a dead issue.
“We have reached a solution whether the Orange Order likes it or not. In a way, there is now a peaceful equilibrium between both sides and we can live with that.
“A decade ago, the very mention of Drumcree would get people’s backs up. Now the majority of people are not in the least bit concerned about it.”

click thumbnail to view CAIN photo of Garvaghy Road by Martin Melaugh

Mr Mac Cionnaith insisted that the massive drop in the number of loyalist protesters at Drumcree proved that many unionists also viewed the parade as a dead issue.
“During the last couple of years, things have been relatively quiet in Portadown.
“Everyone is happy with the way things are currently.”
The Orange Order is expecting at least 2,000 loyalists to turn up to next month’s Drumcree parade.
The Parades Commission has yet to announce whether it will allow Orangemen down the Garvaghy Road.
However, sources within the organisation claim there is “not a hope” of the Orangemen getting down the road.
Since 1997, a hardcore element of around 20 Portadown Orangemen have appeared at Drumcree church every Sunday demanding to be allowed down the Garvaghy Road.
The Parades Commission has refused every single request.
In previous years, a huge security presence has been drafted into Portadown during the run-up to Drumcree to prevent clashes between loyalists and nationalists.
However, as the march has became less volatile, the security presence has reduced considerably.
During the mid and late 1990s, the Drumcree dispute was the cause of widespread rioting across the North.
The stand-off between Orangemen and Garvaghy Road residents led to the loyalist murders of Portadown Catholics Michael McGoldrick and Robert Hamill, and the deaths of the three young brothers Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn in Ballymoney.
However, there has been little or no violence during the past three years.

Daily Ireland

They knew he was innocent three years ago

By Conor McMorrow

The Irish justice department knew for almost three years that Frank McBrearty Jr and Mark McConnell were no longer suspects in Garda investigations into the death of Donegal cattle dealer Richie Barron.

Daily Ireland has obtained evidence that the department was aware in late 2002 that the focus of the Garda investigation into Mr Barron’s death was on a hit-and-run incident and not on a murder.
Justice Frederick Morris officially declared last week that Mr McBrearty and his cousin Mark McConnell had been framed for the supposed murder of Mr Barron in 1996.
Earlier this week, Daily Ireland revealed that Garda commissioner Noel Conroy had stated in a letter to Mr McBrearty last year that Mr Barron’s death had been redesignated in February 2002 from a murder investigation to a hit-and-run.
Daily Ireland can now disclose that justice minister Michael McDowell knew that his department was aware of the redesignation of Mr Barron’s death as far back as November 2002. Mr McDowell made this admission in a response to a Dáil question from Labour Party TD Joe Costello in December last year.
However, Mr McBrearty and Mr McConnell were not told in 2002 that they were no longer suspects in Mr Barron’s death.
Mr McBrearty said last night: “The information that Richie Barron’s death was redesignated was not given to the Morris tribunal until I got it out of the Garda commissioner.
“The Garda commissioner at the time [Pat Byrne] and the justice minister prolonged my family’s agony that we were guilty.
“Minister McDowell has to go or, if he does not resign, he has to explain who is responsible for this and who is accountable for it.”
Details of the redesignation were never made available to the coroner’s inquest into Mr Barron’s death.
A Dáil debate will take place next Wednesday on the findings of the Morris tribunal.
Several opposition TDs are to raise the question of whether or not Mr McDowell was aware of the redesignation of Richie Barron’s death at the time the tribunal was set up.
Nobody was availbale for comment in the Department of Justice or the Garda press office yesterday.
In his reply to Mr Costello’s Dáil question, Mr McDowell said Garda commissioner Noel Conroy had written to Mr McBrearty on November 19 last year, telling him that the redesignation had been changed on the Garda computer on November 13, 2002.
However, in the letter from Mr Conroy to Mr McBrearty, obtained by Daily Ireland, the commissioner states that the redesignation took place on February 13, 2002 — the month before the Morris tribunal was set up.
Nobody was available for comment in the Department of Justice or the Garda press office yesterday.
In his reply to Mr Costello’s Dáil question, Mr McDowell said Garda commissioner Noel Conroy had written to Mr McBrearty on November 19 last year.
The commissioner told Mr McBrearty that the redesignation had been changed on the Garda computer on November 13, 2002.
However, in the letter from Mr Conroy to Mr McBrearty, obtained by Daily Ireland, the commissioner states that the redesignation took place on February 13, 2002 — the month before the Morris tribunal was set up.

RTE

M & S recall of 12,000 children’s clothing items

11 June 2005 15:27

Thousands of children’s clothes are being recalled by Marks and Spencers stores in Ireland and Britain after parents found sewing machine needles still attached to the garments.

The company has issued an urgent alert about 12,000 items of clothing following complaints that two children in Britain were scratched by the needles.

The clothes involved are a pink two-pack jogger set, pink gingham dungarees, a white T-shirt and denim jeans set, all of which have been available since last month.
Advertisement

Also affected are pure cotton chambray pyjamas, which have been available since March this year.

Shoppers seeking more information are being asked to contact the Marks and Spencers Customer Service desks at any store.

BreakingNews.ie

Unionists ’shouldn’t be allowed veto cross border links’

11/06/2005 - 14:32:51

Unionists should not be allowed to veto political progress by failing to respond positively to any moves the IRA may make to embrace democracy, it was claimed today.

Martin McGuinness, Sinn Féin MP, said the British and Irish governments had a responsibility to make it clear to the Democratic Unionist Party that they could not put a block on developing cross border links.

“If the DUP disappoint us I think then others have huge decisions to make particularly the British and the Irish governments and I think it has to be made very clear to the DUP that they are not going to have a veto on progress,” he said.

“There are many things, if the DUP indicate that they are not prepared to share power, that the two governments can do to move the situation forward in an all Ireland way.”

The Sinn Féin chief negotiator said officials on either side of the Irish Sea should look at building on the north-south institutions in areas such as health, education, energy and transport.

“There are a huge amount of things that can be done,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams made a call on April 6 for the terror group to abandon its armed struggle and achieve its aims through democratic means.

Speculation has mounted that the British and Irish governments have set the start of the Orange marching season on July 10 as an unofficial deadline for the IRA to respond.

But Mr McGuinness would not be drawn on when the IRA would answer.

“Obviously I am hoping for a positive outcome. I am hoping that the IRA will take huge decisions which will recognise the importance of what Gerry Adams has said vis-a-vis the need for all of us to go forward by purely political and democratic means,” he said.

BreakingNews.ie

McBrearty hits out at gardaí decision

11/06/2005 - 11:27:50

The Donegal publican framed for a murder that never was today hit out at a decision to transfer five gardaí named in damning Morris Tribunal reports to Dublin.

A garda spokesman confirmed two officers are to be moved from their posts in the north west to headquarters in Phoenix Park, one will be posted to Harcourt Terrace, while two others will serve elsewhere in the capital.

Raphoe businessman Frank McBrearty junior said the move was part of a ploy by garda management to make it look as though action was being taken against officers implicated in the corruption probe.

“This is a publicity stunt that Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy is involved in,” he said.

“The Garda Commissioner is coming down here and transferring men out of Donegal when he should be transferring himself out of Phoenix Park and resigning. They should not be transferred they should be sacked.”

The gardaí being moved are Martin Anderson, Letterkenny Garda station; Thomas Rattigan, Buncrana; James McDwyer, Ballybofey; Martin Leonard, Letterkenny, and Patrick McDermott, Lifford.

It is not known to which stations they will be posted or what duties they will perform.

But Mr McBrearty said he was not surprised by the decision to move the officers out of the Donegal division.

“Nothing surprises me any more, it’s a joke and a publicity stunt by the Garda Commissioner,” he said.

The transfers come ten days after Mr Justice Frederick Morris hastily published the Tribunal’s second interim report.

The judge heavily criticised several top officers and two superintendents have since resigned their posts, Supt Joe Shelly and Det Supt John McGinley.

The pair had key roles in overseeing the botched investigation into the hit-and-run death of cattle dealer Richie Barron in 1996-1997.

The Morris report found the Barron death probe, over which Mr McBrearty was framed for murder, was “prejudiced, tendentious and utterly negligent in the highest degree”.

Mr McBrearty has called on the Chief Superintendent Noel White of the Donegal division to order the transfer of every officer involved in the investigation out of the county while he pursues a civil suit.

He said he would continue with High Court action against the State and name up to 100 gardaí who he claimed harassed, intimidated and attempted to frame him for murder.

Lawyers from the Raphoe family are due to attend the Tribunal on Monday for an application for legal costs but Mr McBrearty said he would not be returning to the inquiry.

Jim Higgins, Fine Gael MEP, said the decision by Garda headquarters to transfer rank and file officers was bizarre and incredible.

“What is patently obvious is that the culture of long-fingering and whistling past the graveyard is still alive and well at Garda HQ level and is fully supported by Justice Minister, Michael McDowell,” Mr Higgins said.

“Instead of being transferred with full salary rights, the five gardai should have been suspended pending the examination of the file sent by Morris to the DPP.

“I find this incredible decision by Garda HQ and supported by Minister McDowell to transfer the five Gardai bizarre in the extreme. It is in total contempt for the Morris Tribunal findings.”

Mr Higgins said in the wake of the public and political outrage at the decision to accept the “so-called honourable” retirements of Supt Shelley and Det Supt McGinley the transfers were impossible to comprehend.

BBC

Arrested tree protest trio freed

Some of the trees were 150-years-old

Three people have been arrested but were later released in a row over trees more than 150-years-old being chopped down in Bangor, County Down.

Contractors moved in to chop down the beech, ash and chestnut trees on the boundary of an old detached property in the Beeches area at about 0730 BST.

Protesters, including local MP Lady Sylvia Hermon, tried to stop them.

Cutting stopped for a time while police searched the trees for nesting birds. No birds were found and work resumed.

There was no “for sale” sign nor any indication the property had changed hands.

It is understood that, as yet, no planning application has been lodged by the developer who owns the site.

Irish Independent

Hidden gun spurs charge of IRA membership

A MAN arrested when gardai found a handgun hidden in a van on Tuesday was charged with membership of an illegal organisation at the Special Criminal Court yesterday.

Vincent Kelly (20), Empress Place, Ballybough, Dublin, was charged with membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, on June 7.

Garda Brendan O’Sullivan, Clontarf, gave evidence of stopping an Opel Astra van at 10.30pm on Tuesday night. He said he arrested Kelly under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Garda O’Sullivan said Kelly was taken to Clontarf Garda Station. A firearm was found in the rear of the vehicle in a search. He released Kelly from arrest under the Misuse of Drugs Act and arrested him under the Offences Against the State act for the unlawful possession of a firearm. Garda O’Sullivan said Kelly made no reply after caution.

The court remanded Kelly in custody until Monday. A second man arrested with Kelly has been released and a file will be sent to the DPP.

Diarmaid Mac Dermott

Irish Independent

Number of Gaeltacht schools using Irish ‘in steep decline’

GAELTACHT schools are facing a crisis and unless they get more support, few of them will be teaching through Irish in 20 years’ time, says a major study launched yesterday.

It warns that if the perilous state of Gaeltacht education is not resolved, the future of the Gaeltacht areas themselves is threatened. There are 127 primary and 27 post-primary schools in these Irish speaking communities which are scattered over seven counties, mainly along the Western seaboard.

The report says that parents feel that the educational system cancels their efforts to pass on Irish as a living language to their children and to develop a loyalty to the language.

Already a significant number of Gealtacht schools have conceded defeat in the face of the difficulties they face and have switched to teaching through the medium of English while a number of other schools would appear to be wavering.

The study reveals that 10pc of the pupils leave primary and post-primary schools in the Gealtacht areas with little or no Irish.

A further quarter of the pupils who leave primary schools in these areas leave with only a ‘reasonable’ level of Irish, as do 18pc leaving the post primary schools.

The study was commissioned by An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta - the educational council for Gaeltacht and Irish-medium schools which was established in 2002 under the Education Act 1998.

Breandán Mac Cormaic who chairs the committee suggested that nothing had happened as a result of earlier reports and it would be a terrible blow to the Gaeltacht if the latest report met the same fate.

John Walshe
Education Editor

BreakingNews.ie

Five gardaí in Morris report transferred to Dublin

11/06/2005 - 08:51:02

Five of the gardaí referred to in the Morris report are being transferred from Donegal to Dublin.

The report was highly critical of the investigation into the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron in Donegal nine years ago and the attempt to frame two men over the death.

The Garda Commissioner has told the five they are being transferred later this month - two will be based at Garda Headquarters and the others at stations around the city.

BBC

It’s Sir Hugh boy now…