SAOIRSE32

Sinn Féin

Published: 15 July, 2005

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams speaking in Dublin this afternoon said “It isn’t tenable that with each contentious parade, society is brought to the brink. This problem cannot be parked until next year. It needs to be dealt with now. It’s time for those within the Loyal Orders, and those unionist politicians who are among their leading members, to engage in a meaningful process of dialogue.”

Mr. Adams said:

“This week rejectionist unionist politicians, who are also leading Orangemen, steered the Orange Order on a course which could have resulted in the political atmosphere being poisoned at a time when the IRA is engaged in its internal consultation and at a time when traditionally tensions run
high.

“Given the decision of the Parades Commission, the situation in Ardoyne had the potential to be a disaster. It had the potential to lead to the loss of lives.

“That is why Sinn Féin put so much effort into trying to ensure that the situation remained calm. We engaged with the local community, the Parades Commission, the churches and young people. And for the most part we succeeded. Residents in Ardoyne are to be commended for the discipline they showed this week.

“But the underlying problem remains. It isn’t tenable that with each contentious parade, society is brought to the brink. This problem cannot be parked until next year. It needs to be dealt with now.

“It’s time for the Loyal Orders, and those unionist politicians who are among their leading members to engage in a meaningful process of dialogue.

“If we are seeking to make progress over the next few months then obviously having the rest of the marching season peaceful assists that. That is our focus. The Orange Order and the DUP need to step up to the mark as well.”ENDS

BBC

Eamonn Magee has appealed for return of his title belt

World Boxing Union welterweight champion Eamonn Magee said he was devastated at the theft of his title belt from his mother’s home.

The diamond-studded belt, worth thousands of pounds, was taken from the house at Holmdene Gardens, north Belfast.

Mr Magee, 33, successfully defended his title in March after suffering multiple injuries in an attack last year.

He said the belt had value to him, but “was useless to anyone else”.

The black leather belt was decorated with a gold crest surrounded by diamonds and carried the number 49.

“I just appeal to the intruders to bring it back; no action will be taken,” he said.

Doctors told Mr Magee he would never fight again because his injuries were so severe.

However, he went back into training and won his comeback fight against Danish boxer Allan Vester.

He said he hopes to defend his title in the King’s Hall, Belfast, in October.

breakingnews.ie

15/07/2005 - 11:20:57

Campaigners against suicide in the North have condemned the loyalists who erected a slogan on a bonfire in Belfast earlier this week poking fun at nationalists who have taken their own lives.

The slogan reading “Up the Ardoyne bungee jumpers” was erected on a loyalist bonfire ahead of the annual Twelfth of July celebrations.

It was a clear reference to the high incidence of suicide among young men in the nationalist Ardoyne area.

The bonfire was part-funded by Belfast City Council as part of moves to limit the environmental damage caused every year as a result of the massive blazes.

Campaigners have now called on the council to withdraw funding from any future bonfires unless there are guarantees that that no sectarian or insulting banners will be flaunted.

Phil McTaggart of the Public Initiative to Prevent Suicide in Ardoyne said the slogan at Monday night’s bonfire was deeply insulting, while Margaret Wylie of the Shankill Mothers Hope group said Protestants were just as offended as Catholics.

Local priest Fr Aidan Troy also said the banner had remained on top of the bonfire for three days after he complained to the police.

Loyalist bonfires are traditionally draped with Irish tricolours, Sinn Féin election posters and anti-papal slogans.

breakingnews.ie

15/07/2005 - 14:30:23

Justice Minister Michael McDowell has reiterated that he has no power to get involved in an internal DPP inquiry in relation to the Brian Rossiter affair.

The Director of Public Prosecutions is investigating how manslaughter charges were laid against a 25-year-old man in connection with the death of the teenager.

Brian Rossiter died after he was found unconscious in a garda cell in Clonmel three years ago.

Noel Hannigan, from Colleen’s Close in Clonmel, was subsequently charged with manslaughter and assault causing serious harm in connection with the case, but it has now emerged that the DPP did not authorise the charges.

Fine Gael has demanded that Mr McDowell explain how this could happen, but the minister insisted today that he had no power to do so.

“That is a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions and . . . It would be constitutionally wrong for me to start interfering in his business,” the minister said.

“There’s an absolute rule in Irish law that the conduct of prosecutions is above and outside the political process.”

breakingnews.ie

15/07/2005 - 14:31:29

Sinn Féin has claimed that certain Catholic areas in the North are not receiving a fair share of British Government funding designed to encourage investment.

The party said the latest annual report from the Invest NI organisation showed that Catholic areas west of the River Bann, along the border and in north and west Belfast were not receiving the levels of funding they deserve.

It said west Belfast received fewer offers of financial assistance than any other area, while five border constituencies received less in total than relatively affluent south Belfast.

Sinn Féin also said the seven constituencies west of the Bann had received just 10% of the assistance given in the past and were only due to receive 10% of future investment.

BBC

Three Real IRA men from County Louth arrested in Slovakia after an elaborate MI5 sting operation have had their jail sentences reduced by two years.

Fintan O’Farrell, 41, Declan Rafferty, 44, and Michael McDonald, 46, were caught when MI5 officers posed as Iraqi intelligence agents and arms dealers.

They were jailed in May 2002, however, that sentence was reduced from 30 years to 28 years by the Court of Appeal.

The judge said the sentence was being reduced in light of their guilty plea.

Lord Justice Hooper, sitting with two other judges, said the court was reducing the length of the jail terms handed down by a judge at Woolwich Crown Court in south London “not without some reluctance”.

“We have concluded, not without some reluctance, that a reduction of 1/5th was appropriate to reflect the plea (of guilty) and we therefore reduce the sentence from one of 30 years’ imprisonment to one of 28 years’ imprisonment,” he said.

Evidence against them was obtained during an undercover operation in 2001 when officers taped and filmed conversations at an Arab restaurant in a Slovak spa resort.

At one meeting the men wrote down their shopping list - 5,000kg of plastic explosives, 2,000 detonators, 200 rocket-propelled grenades and 500 handguns - on a paper napkin.

Earlier this week, the same judges dismissed a bid brought by the three to challenge their convictions.

They had pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause explosions and other charges under the Terrorism Act, following an unsuccessful application to the trial judge to have the proceedings against them halted as an “abuse of process”.

The sole ground of appeal to their conviction challenge was a submission that the judge at their initial trial was wrong not to accede to the defence’s submission that proceedings against the three should be stayed as an abuse of process because they had been “unlawfully extradited from Slovakia”.

However, the Court of Appeal ruled that the judge had been entitled to reach the conclusion he did.

Irelandclick.com

by Joe Nawaz

As the dust settled and the embers cooled on another Twelfth of July, the aftermath of this year’s parades and bonfire celebrations could be seen scattered around the south of the city.

Bags, bottles and discarded flags littered the streets of Belfast on Tuesday evening while the debris from the previous night’s bonfires was still burning the following day.

On Tates Avenue on Tuesday morning, the smoking ruins of a bonfire obstructed the main road, forcing cars to veer dangerously around the obstacle.

Nearby, plastic traffic island pillars had been burned away by the heat of the blaze, leaving just two melted stumps.

Roads Service were unavailable for comment

Just around the corner on Boucher Road, while previous night’s revellers were lining the streets to cheer on the bandsmen, a still-burning bonfire had incinerated a public billboard next to it.

Even at council-sponsored bonfires organisers found it difficult to keep order – five masked UVF men appeared on stage at the council-supported Pitt Park bonfire to fire a volley of shots into the air.

The site was one of eight to receive £2,500 in funding to help bring it under proper control.

The other two in South Belfast – at Annadale and Taughmonagh – appeared to pass off with less controversy, although the clean-up bill has yet to be counted.

Speaking before eleventh night, council spokesperson Stephen Walker said, “I would hope that all our eight sites this year will avoid an overt display of paramilitary imagery or presence.”

He was unable to say afterwards whether the night’s events had jeopardised future council sponsored bonfires.

In the final analysis, half-burned kitchen units and sofas, scorched walls and even a burned-out van next to Donegall Pass PSNI station indicated that it was “business as usual” for the eleventh night in South Belfast.

Colin Halliday, loyalist community representative for the Village area, said that events had gone better than planned and added that South Belfast parades had been amongst the best organised in Northern Ireland.

“I was delighted with how the eleventh and twelfth went this year. It’s a real testimony to organisers that we got things right and there was no trouble.”

He denied any knowledge of obstructive or illegal bonfires on Tates Avenue.

“I was all over the Donegall Road and Sandy Row on Monday night – I didn’t see anything like that at all. I would say that it’s been a success overall.”

On march day itself, thousands of flag-waving, beer-drinking revellers lined the main arterial route of Lisburn Road as bandsmen paraded by.

The weather proved to be kind, as parades from all over South Belfast converged at Barnett’s Demesne and then returned into town later that evening.

Apart from several drink-induced brawls, it was a relatively peaceable day and a far cry from the sobering events that were unfolding in Ardoyne at the same time.

However, residents on the lower Ormeau Road were party to the other side of the coin, as locals were abused and several attacked by bandsmen who had been allowed, at the last moment, to change their route, taking them closer to the mixed, residential Holyland area.

Local councillor and MLA, Alex Maskey, said that marchers had been “intimidatory” and “triumphalist” as they marched near to nationalist homes.

“They were abusive and violent, directly in front of a parades commission observer. This kind of thing is detrimental to an area which has in recent years been relatively quiet.

“There needs to be stiffer action taken by the Parades Commission to ensure the rights and safety of people from other communities over the twelfth. There is not just one community living here and that should be taken that into account for future years.”

A day of contrasts, then, for both nationalists and loyalists living in the most mixed region of Belfast.

As residents from the Markets, Short Strand and Lower Ormeau battened down the hatches to weather another Twelfth of July, their counterparts from the Village and Sandy Row took to the streets with Lambeg drum, fife and sash to celebrate their culture/ affirm their superiority – depending on who you talk to.

Colin Halliday, comparing the marches here with those that had erupted in violence in the north of the city said, “On the whole it’s been a real quiet and enjoyable Twelfth of July in South Belfast. It was the most peaceful for years and long may it last.”

Journalist:: Joe Nawaz

Belfast Telegraph

By Brian Hutton
15 July 2005

Senior loyalist terror leaders were among a contentious Orange Order parade as it passed through the Ardoyne flashpoint on Tuesday, it was claimed last night.

SDLP MLA Alex Attwood said that two “very senior” members of the UVF were among the supporters which preceded the parade on its return leg.

Almost 90 people were injured, some seriously, when nationalist rioters attacked police after the march passed through on its way to Ligoniel as part of the annual July 12 celebrations.

“I have very reliably been informed that these people do not live in north Belfast and under no circumstances can be considered individuals that are governed by parade legislation,” said Mr Attwood.

“They had no proper purpose for being on the road. Their presence was planned and it was provocative,” he added.

Mr Attwood, who was at the interface during the trouble, has raised his concerns with PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton.

He alleged that “some of the most unsavoury loyalist leaders there are” were on the parade “in order to say we have reclaimed this ground”.

Mr Attwood called on the Orange Order to take responsibility for who attends its marches.

“I am informing the Parades Commission of this information and urging that this becomes a key factor and influence in forthcoming Commission decisions,” he said.

The Orange Order said it could not possibly know everybody that was on the march.

“Given the serious rioting that occurred in Ardoyne which put the lives of civilians and police officers at risk, we are astounded that Alex Attwood has chosen to focus his attention on peaceful supporters,” said an Orange Order spokeswoman.

“He would be better spending his time helping the PSNI to identify those involved in the violence rather than taking cheap shots at the Orange Order,” she added.

The PSNI said it is currently studying the events of July 12 closely.

Belfast Telegraph

By Ben Lowry
15 July 2005

Frank Pantridge - BBC photo

The Ulster doctor who developed the portable defibrillator, which has saved countless heart attack patients, is to have a statue erected in his memory.

The monument to Professor Frank Pantridge will stand at Lisburn Council’s headquarters building - Lagan Valley Island.

The distinguished cardiologist, who died in December aged 88, produced the first portable defibrillator while based at the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1965.

The plans for a statue have been welcomed by politicians and former colleagues, many of whom have been critical about the failure to award a knighthood or peerage to Professor Pantridge during his lifetime.

The Second World War veteran, who survived Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, received the CBE.

Lisburn Council’s Corporate Services Committee has recommended the statue should be placed adjacent to Lagan Valley Island’s main entrance, on the canal side.

The DUP Mayor of Lisburn, Jonathan Craig, welcomed the decision to erect a monument to the Hillsborough-born physician.

“Professor Pantridge’s contribution to the medical field has been a great one,” Mr Craig said: “My wife is a paramedic and she uses his equipment on a daily basis, and it does save lives.”

Prior to Professor Pantridge’s portable version, defibrillators - which apply an electric shock across the chest to correct a disturbance of the heart rhythm - only existed in hospitals.

His first portable model was operated by car batteries and weighed 70 kilos, and was transported to the scene of a heart attack by ambulance.

The success of this innovation was clear by 1972, when the so-called Pant- ridge Plan was used to manage US President Lyndon Johnson when he suffered a heart attack.

Professor Pantridge’s expertise in heart disease had its origins in the 1939-45 war, when he became ill with cardiac beri beri and his heart swelled to three times normal size - and he deduced what was wrong.

Later in the 1940s, he spent time working in Michigan under FN Wilson, the then world authority on electrocardiography.

On appointment to the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1950, Professor Pantridge quickly established an internationally acclaimed cardiology unit.

BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Illegal fuel ‘harms environment’

Illegal fuel laundering is harming the environment

Illegal fuel laundering in Northern Ireland is harming the environment, customs officers have warned.

It follows the discovery of an illegal fuel operation at Camlough in south Armagh on Thursday.

Two vehicles adapted with concealed tanks for transporting fuel and 17,000 litres of laundered fuel were seized.

John Spence from HM Revenue and Customs service said the chemicals used in the laundering process caused damage to the surrounding area.

The harmful chemicals are used to remove the red dye from “low tax” diesel intended for agricultural use. The fuel is then sold to motorists.

“We estimate that there was a potential revenue loss of £1m from a plant like this over the course of a year,” said John Spence.

“However, we also need to be aware of the environmental and safety issues of illegal laundering plants.

“We need to consider what happens to the waste by-product and the damage caused to our land, our water and our rivers.

“We know that waste like this has been dumped close to where this laundering plant was and that clearly causes damage to our environment.”