SAOIRSE32

BBC

Dissident link to illegal factory

Police have linked a counterfeiting operation to dissident republicans

Police have said a counterfeiting factory discovered in County Tyrone is linked to dissident republicans.

Four men have been arrested in connection with the raid at a farm property in the Aughnagar Road area of Cappagh in Dungannon.

Thousands of fake DVDs, CDs, counterfeiting equipment and cash were taken away during the planned searches. Police believe the operation could be worth millions of pounds to those involved.

A computerised printing press and up to 70 DVD recording machines were also discovered at the site.

Police have described the find as “highly significant”.

PEOPLE ARE DYING

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CNN story

Zimbabwe extends demolitions to rural areas

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Sunday Herald

Mugabe takes revenge

Tyrant’s destruction of urban slums is yet another atrocity Western leaders are likely to ignore, reports Fred Bridgland in Cape Town

IN raids reminiscent of Kristallnacht in Germany and of Pol Pot’s Return to Year Zero in Cambodia in the late 1970s, Robert Mugabe’s police and soldiers have in the past three weeks torched, bulldozed and sledgehammered the homes of two million of Zimbabwe’s poorest of the poor.

Officially heralded as a clean-up of Zimbabwe’s teeming urban slums, ordinary black Zimbabweans have been turned into roofless internal refugees in the middle of southern Africa’s short winter when night temperatures dip below zero.

Amid the smoke from smouldering homes, the poor are dying from exposure and starvation and there are reports of suicides among broken people driven beyond despair. Moving thousands from the cities to the countryside means only more poverty, hunger and unemployment.

President Mugabe says the blitz on the very people he says he fought to liberate is necessary “to restore sanity” to the cities, although many people are questioning the 81-year-old leader’s own mental health. Out of the earshot of agents of the much-feared Central Intelligence Organisation the name “Mad Bob” has been whispered. They say this is Mugabe’s revenge on urban dwellers for voting for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in parliamentary elections last March.

As well as the mass destruction of housing and the small roadside businesses of the poor, more than 30,000 have been arrested in Mugabe’s continuing Operation Murambatsvina, which translates as “operation drive out the rubbish”. Entire families are sleeping in the open. Others are battling to find scarce transport to take them to relatives’ rural homes. Many are burning furniture and their few surviving possessions before they depart.

“I believe only the survivors of South Africa’s apartheid-engineered forced Bantu removals would be able to appreciate the scale and ferocity of this operation,” said Vincent Kahiya, editor of the weekly Independent newspaper. “The police are going about the rapine with gusto, destroying everything deemed illegal, never mind that the officers carry no papers from any recognised court of law. There can be no worse lawlessness than this callous operation.”

Tendai, aged 10, and his four-year-old brother Chipo may be among the dead in Mugabe’s onslaught. They were among many Aids orphans being looked after by Zimbabwean and Irish Dominican nuns in the Harare suburb of Hatcliffe. For the past decade, the Catholic sisters had distributed anti-retroviral drugs there to HIV-positive women while running a crèche for 180 orphans in an entirely legal brick building.

Sister Patricia Walsh, one of the senior nuns, got word that police bulldozers had moved into the township and that police were destroying the homes of the poor, pouring petrol on the debris and setting it ablaze. She dashed to Hatcliffe and was initially lost for words when she saw that bulldozers had demolished the Dominican clinic.

Surveying the wrecked building, Walsh said: “I wept. Sister Carina was with me. She wept. The people tried to console us. They were all outside in the midst of their broken houses, furniture and goods all over the place, children screaming, sick people in agony.

“How does the government say that Tendai and Chipo are illegal? We provided them with a wooden hut when their mother was dying of Aids. She has since died and these two little people had their little home destroyed in the middle of the night. When we got there, they were sitting crying in the rubbish that was their home. What do we do with them?”

“How can the little ones of the world be brutalised in this way? Their only crime is that they are poor, they are helpless and they happen to live in the wrong part of town and in a country that does not have oil and is not very important to the West. We stand in shock and cry with the people, but we also have to try to keep them alive. When will sanity prevail? Where is the outside world?”

Yesterday, unconfirmed reports suggested that Tendai and Chipo had died in the assaults by Mugabe’s stormtroopers.

With Zimbabwe’s new Chinese warplanes and Alouette helicopters, newly provided with spares by South Africa, sweeping overhead, police demolition squads turned Mbare into a battleground, completely demolishing houses and shelters in street after street. Families with remaining possessions on their heads, wooden planks, tin sheets, pots wrapped in blankets and plastic – or in makeshift carts are on the march, like refugees in some terrible war, after the mass demolition of their homes.

It is a scene of desolation and despair, being repeated right across the country in the attempt to drive hundreds of thousands of people back to the rural areas. Miloon Kothari, the United Nations special representative on housing for the poor, told reporters in Geneva he feared Mugabe planned to drive between two and three million Zimbabweans in a population of 11.5m into the countryside in Operation Murambatsvina.

“We have a very grave crisis on our hands,” said Kothari. “This is a gross violation of human rights. People are desperate. They have nowhere to go.”

But Zimbabwe’s local government minister, Ignatius Chombo, said: “This is the dawn of a new era. To set up something nice you first have to remove the litter, and that is why the police are acting in this way.”

The weekly Standard newspaper responded editorially: “Chombo’s explanation is nonsensical and an insult to the intelligence of the people of this country. The government should not delight in the suffering of people when it does not have a ready-made alternative for them.”

Brian Raftopoulos, Professor of Development Studies at the University of Zimbabwe told the Sunday Herald: “It may well be that Mugabe is looking to remove ‘surplus’ elements of the urban population ahead of the next presidential election by drawing them into more controllable rural political relations.

“The long-term implications of this process do not bode well for democratic politics.”

Simon Phiri and his wife Tsitsi are victims in the chaos as well. They rescued the essentials from their Mbare township shack before a state bulldozer razed it. Simon, 39, and Tsitsi, 32, who have four children, saw their home of 12 years crushed to pieces. Close to tears, Simon, who until early this month sold second-hand clothes at Mbare’s colourful but now burnt out Mupedzanhamo market, looked at the wrecked remains of his shack and said: “This is the only home I know but government and the city council have just destroyed it.”

12 June 2005

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Belfast Telegraph

Demolition of Zimbabwean homes kills two children

By Elizabeth Davies
24 June 2005

Two Zimbabwean children were crushed to death during the demolition of illegal houses this month in a government crackdown that has made tens of thousands of impoverished city dwellers homeless and prompted an unprecedented international outcry.

Zimbabwe’s official Herald newspaper reported yesterday that a one-and-a-half year-old child died after being buried beneath the rubble of bulldozed buildings in Harare’s Chitungwiza township on Sunday. Another baby died earlier this month in similar circumstances.

“If the reports are simply half true… this is a situation of serious international concern, and no government that subscribes to human rights and democracy should allow this kind of thing to go on effectively under their noses,” the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told journalists.

The news of the deaths emerged as the United Nations and the African Union came under mounting pressure to take urgent action against the Zimbabwe government’s Operation Murambatsvina, or “Restore Order”.

An unprecedented coalition of more than 200 African and international NGOs urged the organisations to intervene to save thousands more from destitution. They called President Mugabe’s mass evictions “a grave violation of international human rights law and a disturbing affront to human dignity”.

The groups, including Amnesty International and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, released smuggled video footage showing hundreds of thousands of people on the move from shanty towns after police torched and bulldozed their homes. Condemning the evictions, in which more than 300,000 people have lost their homes, the NGOs urged Nigerian President Obasanjo, as chair of the AU, to put the crisis on the agenda of the AU Assembly in July.

“The AU and UN simply cannot ignore such an unprecedented, wide-ranging appeal on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe, particularly from African civil society,” the coalition said in a joint statement. “African solidarity should be with the people of Africa ­ not their repressive leaders.”

The appointment of a UN special envoy to investigate the destruction was welcomed by the groups. But they called for the UN to publicly condemn the evictions and to take immediate action to prevent them.

Sinn Féin

Hillsborough protest at Internment of Sean Kelly

Published: 24 June, 2005

Sinn Féin North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly speaking at the Free Sean Kelly Campaign protest outside the Hillsborough Castle residence of the British Secretary of State has said that Peter Hain would have some distance to go before he could prove to nationalists and republicans that he was capable of standing up to the anti peace process securocrats within his own system.

Mr Kelly said:

“The malicious determination of the British Secretary of State Peter Hain to bow to the insatiable demands of rejectionist unionists and securocrats within his own system in the decision to intern Sean Kelly last weekend suggests to nationalists and republicans that Peter Hain is unwilling or incapable of standing up to the very securocrats and spooks that he was once a victim of himself.

“Peter Hain should know that if progress is to be made then history tells us that these faceless individuals have to be faced down and their anti peace process agenda defeated. Given the record of Peter Hain so far and in particular his action around Sean Kelly he has some distance to travel before he will persuade nationalists and republicans that he is capable of carrying out this task.

“The fact that Sean Kelly will not be in a position to defend himself against baseless accusations made by faceless securocrats because he will not have access to the information that was used to intern him is clearly unjust and unfair. It only serves as a reminder of the flaws within the approach of the British government to justice in Ireland, particularly when it comes to republicans.

“Hidden unaccountable accusations by Special Branch And their ilk in the secret intelligence world was supposed to be a thing of the past. So was internment without trial.” ENDS

Daily Ireland

Contentious parade to pass Short Strand

by Ciarán Barnes
c.barnes@dailyireland.com

The Parades Commission yesterday gave the Orange Order the green light to stage a massive march past a nationalist area in Belfast on July 1, despite the parade being classed as “illegal”.
Next week, 3,000 Orangemen, accompanied by thousands of loyalist supporters and more than 35 bands, will parade down the Albertbridge Road past the Short Strand.
The march, billed as the annual Battle of the Somme commemoration parade, has previously been the scene for a number of paramilitary displays.
Last year, bands carrying Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association banners and flags took part.
Short Strand residents have reacted with shock to the Parades Commission ruling, claiming the group has given into loyalist threats.
Last week DUP and Ulster Unionist politicians warned the PSNI could find itself in a Drumcree-style stand-off if officers prevented Orangemen from taking part in marches in east Belfast.
A spokesman for the Short Strand residents group said: “The decision by the Parades Commission to allow this march on the Albertbridge Road can only be viewed as an award for those who failed to abide by previous determinations.”
The Somme parade has been classed as illegal because Orangemen purposely did not fill in the parading application form properly.
This is done, apparently, to prevent the PSNI from questioning individual members about illegal incidents at parades.
Previously, the Orangemen would put the names of district masters and secretaries on parading application forms.
So far this year there have been three illegal Orange Order parades in east Belfast. The PSNI has yet to prevent any taking place, although during the last 12 months they have questioned a number of senior Orangemen.
Both Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionist Party met with the Parades Commission yesterday to discuss upcoming loyalist marches.
Speaking to Daily Ireland after the meeting, former Ulster Unionist Belfast mayor, Jim Rodgers, welcomed the Somme march ruling.
He also denied seeing paramilitary displays at last year’s Somme parade and insisted he did not have a problem marching next to banners of the old UVF which fought during the First World War.
He said: “The Parades Commission should be congratulated for placing no restrictions on the July 1 Somme parade. It is a victory for common sense.”
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin MLA Caitríona Ruane has criticised the Parades Commission after it granted permission for a a loyalist band parade in Ballynahinch.
Ms Ruane accused the Commission of treating local nationalists with “’tter contempt”.
Despite hearing detailed complaints from Ms Ruane and other representatives last week, the Commission refused to place any restrictions on the march.
Tonight’s march, which is expected to involve dozens of bands, is organised by the Ballynahinch Protestant Boys.
Last year, local nationalists claimed the march was marked by the widespread display of loyalist paramilitary emblems and sectarian abuse.

Indymedia Ireland

Michael McDowell is Quickly Trying To Consolidate A Shitload Of Power

by sheeeessshhh
Friday, Jun 24 2005, 3:33pm

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Guardian

32 years on, IRA admits killing teenage girl

Staff and agencies
Friday June 24, 2005

The IRA today admitted killing a teenage girl in error in the 1970s, in a statement which the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams said he hoped would bring “closure” for her family.

Kathleen Feeney was a 14-year-old schoolgirl when she was hit by a sniper’s bullet aimed at British troops on patrol in Derry in Novermber 1973.

At the time the IRA blamed the army for the killing, and later murdered a soldier “in retaliation”.

The Ulster Unionists (UUP) have now demanded that the IRA also apologise to the family of the dead soldier.

“This type of despicable and deplorable behaviour is what we have come to expect from the IRA. There is no justification whatsoever for murdering a child.” said David McClarty, the UUP member of the legislative assembly for East Derry said

“The IRA claimed it was the army who shot the young girl and in retaliation for the army’s alleged actions murdered a soldier on the streets of Derry.

“Whist we fully appreciate the significance of this statement for the Feeney family and are mindful of their situation, when is the IRA going to apologise to the family of the soldier they shot dead?”

But, speaking in Dublin, Mr Adams said: “The most important element in all of that is the Feeney family. I would hope that the statement helps to bring closure to that family and I therefore welcome that statement.

“At least the IRA is prepared to stand up and take responsibility for something that they did. There is an absence of that both in terms of armed organisations and in terms of politicians.”

A youth, who was 16 at the time of the tragedy, was charged with her murder two years later. He was acquitted and cleared on two separate charges of IRA membership and of attempting to murder soldiers.

But he was jailed for seven years after admitting possession an Armalite rifle and ammunition. The judge said the Crown had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he fired the fatal shot.

Four shots were fired but the defendant told police he only fired one. The judge concluded a second and possibly more experienced gunman was involved.

Mr Adams also said today that the bodies of the so-called “disappeared” will eventually be found and returned to their families.

He welcomed a decision by the British and Irish governments to seek a forensic expert to help find the remains of those murdered and secretly buried by the IRA since the 1970s.

“I’m fairly certain, without raising expectations, that we will eventually get those remains and give them back to the families,” he said. “We have never stopped trying to help. I understand that this is a horrendously difficult issue, particularly for families who are being denied a funeral.”

BBC

McCartney friend jailed over raid

A man stabbed and left for dead along with murder victim Robert McCartney has been jailed for robbing a security van.

Brendan Devine, of Mayfield Village in Glengormley, was sentenced to seven years at Belfast Crown Court.

Appearing alongside him were William Francis Evans, 24, of Albert Street and John O’Connor, 33, of Torrens Avenue, both of Belfast.

Both men were also jailed for seven years over the robbery which took place on 24 February 2004.

Evans and O’Connor were ordered to spend two years of their sentence on probation.

The men were virtually caught red-handed carrying out the raid on the Cash-Co security van as it made a delivery to Finaghy Post Office in south Belfast, the court was told.

Devine, who had rugby tackled a security guard delivering the cash, was caught a short distance away after throwing the cashbox over his shoulder while being chased by police on foot.

Evans, who was the driver of the getaway car, and O’Connor, his front seat passenger, were arrested in nearby Locksley Parade after abandoning their stole car.

‘Anxiety’

The court heard that Devine, who suffered “extensive and life threatening injuries” when knifed outside a Belfast bar in January, had since made a full recovery physically, but mentally was suffering from post-traumatic anxiety disorder.

His defence barrister said the father-of-two had run up “significant and uncontrollable debts” because of his “serious and tragic abuse of drugs”.

In order to fund his lifestyle and business Devine, who was spending up to £1,000 a week on his habit, agreed to get involved “out of desperation”, and had “succumbed to the temptation of immediate profit,” his counsel said.

However, the lawyer claimed that despite his involvement in the robbery, “his offending seems to have been totally out of character”.

He said that while out on bail, Devine’s “situation was changed very significantly by events which occurred recently - the circumstances of which are clearly in the public domain”.

Devine, he added, was the “victim of a quite serious attack” in which “unfortunately his colleague (Mr McCartney), who was with him, was not so fortunate”.

Drug abuse

Defence barristers for Evans and O’Connor, said their involvement also stemmed from the need to fund their drug abuse.

Jailing the trio, Judge Rodgers said he would “not make any distinction between them as each had a role to play”.

He added that all three had financial problems which they thought could be solved by committing the robbery.

He said as robbers they were “playing for high stakes and must accept appropriate sentence when caught”.

BreakingNews.ie

Presentation Sisters’ web page about Nano Nagle here

Nun named Ireland’s greatest woman

24/06/2005 - 13:04:51

click to view icon

An 18th Century nun, credited with establishing girl’s education in the State, was today named Ireland’s Greatest Woman.

Sister Nano Nagle, who died in 1784, was awarded the accolade over a host of well-known figures including campaigner Christina Noble, disgraced Olympic swimmer Michelle Smith and journalist Veronica Guerin.

Listeners’ to the competition on RTE Radio’s Marian Finucane show awarded the prestigious title to Cork-born Sr Nagle, who was credited with establishing girl’s education in Ireland through the founding of the Presentation Sisters.

Sr Jo Piggott said she nominated Sr Nagle for her extensive achievements and in light of Cork being the European Capital of Culture for 2005.

Sr Piggott said the nun, who was born into a wealthy family and educated in France, had a change of heart after viewing the disadvantaged women in Cork.

“They were very disadvantaged,” Sr Piggott said. “So she choose education and she came back to Cork and formed her little followers, she also brought the Ursuline Sisters to Cork. She built a house for them.”

The Ursuline Sisters were founded primarily for the education of girls and the care of the sick and needy.

“She died at 69, worn out. She never gave up but was a very spiritual woman towards the end.” Sr Piggott added.

The nation wide phone poll at the radio station had listeners pitch over the past few weeks the reasons why their nominee should be given the accolade of ‘Ireland’s Greatest Woman’.

Ms Finucane said the listeners’ poll, which has been running on the show for several months, had received massive publicity over the amount of people who voted for Ms Smith.

The swimmer, who was banned from the sport for four years in 1998 for charges of manipulating a sample, was one of the 10 finalists in the show’s competition.

Smith, who won four medals for swimming at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, was nominated by her husband Erik De Bruin for the competition.

There were over 25,000 votes cast for the nominees for ‘Ireland’s Greatest Woman’ with 23.5% going to Sr Nagle, 21.4% for former President Mary Robinson and 19.8% for Michelle Smith.

The presenter, who is leaving her mid-morning slot for a weekend radio show, said: “One of the things, presumably why this got so much coverage around the world, was the amount of people that voted for Michelle Smith.

“It really was quite astonishing and it was from all over the country. It was said that Michelle Smith was in disgrace but it would appear that there are an awful lot of people that don’t except that.”

She added: “We were really quite astonished about this and it looks like the Irish people have not accepted the international view that Michelle is in disgrace.”

Some of the well-known names, of those living and dead, who were nominated included charity worker Christina Noble, Peig Sayers, Maureen Potter and former President Robinson.

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click to view - For all the children killed in conflict
(mural from here)
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Belfast Telegraph

1973: the IRA kills Kathleen Feeney (14)
2005: they apologise

Provos urged to ‘come clean’ on all their murders

By Brendan McDaid and Jonathan McCambridge
24 June 2005

The IRA was today facing demands to come clean over all its murders following a historic apology for shooting dead a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Derry 32 years ago.

In a statement the IRA said it was apologising “unreservedly” for killing Kathleen Feeney in 1973.

Kathleen was killed during an IRA sniper attack on a British Army mobile patrol in the Lecky Road area of the Bogside on November 14, 1973.

Policing Board vice-chairman Denis Bradley - who knew the victim - said today he hoped the apology would bring closure for her family.

Kathleen was shot in the head with an Armalite rifle while she was playing with other children in the street in the Brandywell area of the city.

The IRA had previously blamed the Army for Kathleen’s killing.

But in a statement issued today, after the family approached the IRA seeking a full explanation of what happened to the young girl and an unconditional apology, a spokesman said: “The leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann has been asked by the Feeney family to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of their sister and to publicly acknowledge that she was killed by the IRA.

“The IRA leadership agreed to do so.

“We found, as the Feeney family have always believed, that Kathleen was hit by one of a number of shots fired by an IRA active service unit that had fired upon a British Army foot patrol in the Lecky Road area.”

The IRA spokesman said that the organisation accepted it had “only added to the hurt and pain of the Feeney family” by failing to own up to the killing for over three decades.

Mr Bradley said: “This is an important statement and an important development.

“As someone who was around in the city at that time and who knew the child, her parents and her family I have to say this is not before time.

“I hope it brings some closure for the Feeney family.”

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s political leaders today called upon the IRA to come clean over all murders it has committed and denied after the unprecedented apology.

DUP MP Gregory Campbell said the onus was now on the IRA to give a full account of the murders it has carried out and then denied during the Troubles.

Mr Campbell said: “We have to look at the ramifications of this.

“How many other murders have the IRA carried out which they originally denied, and after the murders occurred, then carried out retaliatory killings for murders they had committed?

“This shows just how the IRA have created a deepening cycle of violence and more violence.”

Mark Durkan, SDLP leader, said no family should ever have lost a daughter and a sister to such violence.

“No family should have had to wait so long for the truth. No family and no community should have been left for so long with a false understanding of such a great loss,” he said.

Mr Durkan called for perpetrators of similar crimes to come forward.

He said: “The SDLP believe that everyone who has lost loved ones through violence is entitled to truth.

“All organisations whether state forces or paramilitaries who have taken life owe it to the victims and to the wider public to provide the truth.”

Kathleen was killed just yards from her Quarry Street home in the Brandywell.

Her father Harry saw his daughter falling down from the doorway of their home.

Following her death, controversy arose over who fired the shots.

At the time the IRA had maintained it was the Army that carried out the shooting.

The organisation also later claimed that it had killed a soldier in retaliation.

The British Army has always maintained that it was not involved in the young girl’s death.

The Army said at the time that one of its patrols was fired upon but did not return fire.

Unison.ie / Irish Independent

Crippling virus hits eircom.net clients through rogue emails

A POTENTIALLY crippling computer virus which is sweeping the country purports to originate from an Eircom email account.

Thousands of eircom.net email customers across the country have been sent and continue to receive the emails containing the virus from at least two separate eircom.net accounts.

If activated, the virus disables existing anti-virus software, leaving computers wide open to viruses from which they may previously have been protected.

Subject matter in the emails can vary, but one accuses subscribers of sending “a huge amount of unsolicited spam messages” and asks them to open the attached document “so you will not run into any future problems with the online service”. The file attached to the email is not a document but a programme, which if initiated disables a computer’s anti-virus software.

A spokesperson for eircom.net, the country’s leading internet service provider, has confirmed that the potentially damaging emails have not been sent by them but by a spammer who “uses a legitimate brand or company name to disguise where their emails are originating. This is what has happened in this case and we can assure our customers that the mail has not been sent by us.”

The spokesperson confirmed that the virus, called ‘W32/Mytob.EP@mm’, is a mass-mailing worm which opens a back door into systems and lowers security settings on the compromised computer.

If the attachment is opened on a PC with even the most up-to-date anti-virus software, it can send itself from user to user. This means it can be sent to another computer without the sender’s knowledge.

Eircom asks anyone affected by the virus to contact them as soon as possible. “We have a dedicated security section on our support site which offers people tips and advice on how to avoid viruses, and highlights all current viruses which people should avoid.” Computer users are warned not to open attachments on emails from people unknown to them or emails that seem odd.

Last week, thousands of bogus emails were sent from Leinster House after a virus infiltrated its computer system. People on email lists at the Oireachtas were bombarded with spam emails after a virus caused its system to send out thousands of them.

Up to 70pc of all viruses being detected in Europe are variants of the Sober virus. A generation of viruses which can infect mobile phones and could threaten to collapse wireless networks has also been uncovered recently.

More than 50 viruses targeted at mobiles have been detected in the first six months of 2005. The figure has alarmed security firms as it is only a year since Cabir, the first mobile phone virus, was identified.

At least one virus, Commwarrior, infects a handset through a Bluetooth connection.

Pat Flynn

::: u.tv :::

Adams pledge on disappeared

FRIDAY 24/06/2005 12:09:13
Press Association

The bodies of the so-called Disappeared will eventually be found and returned to their families, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams pledged today.

He welcomed the decision by the British and Irish Governments to seek a forensic expert to help find the remains of those murdered and secretly buried by the IRA since the 1970s.

“I`m fairly certain, without raising expectations, that we will eventually get those remains and give them back to the families,” he said in Dublin.

“We have never stopped trying to help.

“I understand that this is a horrendously difficult issue, particularly for families who are being denied a funeral.”

He claimed the idea for a forensic expert was suggested by Sinn Fein to the British and Irish Governments over three years ago and that he had had the name of a suitable candidate for more than 14 months.

“I welcome that they have finally moved but there`s a question mark as to why it took so long,” he said.

The body of Armagh father of two Gareth O`Connor was found in his car in the Newry Canal earlier this month after a tip-off to police.

He had gone missing in May 2003 while travelling to Dundalk garda station to fulfil bail conditions and was due to face charges of Real IRA membership.

BreakingNews.ie

Academics plan motorway protest at Tara

24/06/2005 - 10:22:16

International academics will gather at the Hill of Tara site on Sunday to protest against the M3 motorway planned for the area.

Last month Environment Minister Dick Roche cleared the way for the construction of the project by issuing strict instructions to Meath County Council on how archaeological work is to be carried out.

The international scholars, who are experts in Celtic studies, Irish history, Irish literature, linguistics, archaeology and anthropology, sent a petition to the Irish Government in April calling on it to re-route the motorway through the Tara/Skryne Valley.

The academics are based in various European countries, the US and Canada, Australia and Russia.

The project was approved by An Bord Pleanala two years ago, but many archaeologists and historians have argued that part of Ireland’s most important heritage site will be destroyed.

The academics will also be attending the Ulster Literary Cycle lecture series at Maynooth University.

They will be discussing ancient mythical tales such as Irish epic Tain Bo Cuailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) which claims warrior Cú Chulainn’s head and right hand are buried at Tara.

Some visitors marking summer solstice celebrations at the Hill of Tara this week also held a silent protest at the motorway plans.

Those attending at Tara on Sunday include Henry L Shattuck, Professor of Irish studies at Harvard University; Professor Joseph F Nagy, Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles; Professor Ronald Hicks, professor of anthropology, Ball University, Indiana; Professor Ann Dooley, University of Toronto; and Dr Charles Doherty, School of History, University College Dublin.

Newshound

Kelly arrest a blatant act of provocation

(Jim Gibney, Irish News)

The imprisonment of Ardoyne republican Sean Kelly is a blatant act of provocation.

It is aimed at undermining republican confidence in the peace process.

Sean Kelly is not a Johnny Adair figure. Those who put him in prison know this.

He supports the peace process. He has worked tirelessly to defuse interface conflict in Ardoyne.

It is for this reason and no other he is back in prison on a manufactured intelligence report.

What sort of message does this type of sinister manipulation of a man’s liberty send out to republicans?

Evidence that this report is contrived to suit a political attack on the peace process was revealed by news organisations.

They showed recent correspondence from the PSNI to a unionist representative complaining about Sean Kelly’s presence at peaceful protests.

In a curt response the PSNI stated that Kelly was not breaking the law.

In fact, Sean Kelly was defusing tension and preventing sectarian clashes.

Those responsible for his imprisonment are the securocrats, the DUP, some sections of the media and a secretary of state, still wet behind the ears, who thinks it beneficial to pander to the DUP.

Sean Kelly was easy prey for those who have tried many times to derail the peace process.

Loyalist politicians opposed his release and demanded his re-arrest but took a completely different attitude towards Adair-led loyalists when they were creating havoc on the Shankill Road.

And this weekend as in previous years the same loyalist politicians will walk in an Orange parade on the Springfield Road, which has for years been imposed on the nationalist people of that area and in the past included a banner glorifying a UVF man who killed a Catholic.

For many republicans, Sean Kelly’s arrest confirms for them that the peace process is in a crisis.

The implications of Peter Hain’s decision to imprison Kelly are on a par with Mo Mowlam’s decision to force an Orange parade down the Garvaghy Road a short time after she arrived here.

Mowlam’s credibility among republicans never fully recovered from that decision.

I suspect Hain will suffer similarly.

The new British secretary of state shares the same Christian name with a previous secretary of state, Peter Mandelson.

He needs to be careful this early in his tenure he doesn’t end up being viewed as negatively as Mandelson.

The news of Kelly’s imprisonment was breaking as the people of Ardoyne were dealing with the violence of an Orange parade forced past their district.

Ardoyne is a small community.

They suffered grievously and disproportionately during the conflict.

Ninety-nine people lost their lives.

Hundreds of men and women were in jail.

For 20 years the people lived under military occupation.

They have been traumatised as a result.

They must be wondering to themselves if they are ever going to live in a society which respects and protects them.

If the comments of the PSNI officer in charge of the Ardoyne operation are anything to go by then we are a long way from that.

He told the press his main concern was to “force the parade and supporters through”.

He said nothing about the effect of his actions on the people of Ardoyne nor did he make a comment about the Orange Order insisting on walking past Ardoyne.

Indeed this year there is practically no focus on the consequences of the Orange Order’s marching plans.

This anti-Catholic organisation is threatening violence if it is prevented from marching where it wants to.

Their threats are being echoed by the DUP.

It is obvious the Orange Order and the DUP are out to test the resolve of the British government.

The British government must stand firm against this sectarian intimidation.

Orange Order marches should be re-routed away from areas where they are not wanted and where they cause – and are intended to cause – deep offence.

And Sean Kelly, a pro-agreement, pro-peace process republican activist should be released immediately.

June 24, 2005
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This article appeared first in the June 23, 2005 edition of the Irish News.

BBC

IRA apologises over child killing

The IRA has apologised for killing a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Derry more than 30 years ago.

The IRA blamed the Army for shooting Kathleen Feeney near her Brandywell home in 1973, and claimed later it killed a soldier in retaliation.

The Army had said a patrol came under fire in Quarry Street, but insisted none of the soldiers opened fire.

In a statement in the Derry Journal newspaper, the IRA said that one of its members shot the teenager.

The IRA said it apologised unreservedly for what happened and admitted that its failure to accept responsibility for the killing added to the family’s hurt and pain.

The statement was issued in response to a request from the Feeney family for the IRA to publicly acknowledge that its members killed the schoolgirl.

On Friday, the family said the statement “brings closure for them”.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said that he welcomed this development.

“The most important element in all of that is the Feeney family,” he said.

“I would hope that the statement helps to bring closure to that family and I therefore welcome the statement.”