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Daily Ireland

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GEARÓID Ó CAIREALLAIN
To comment: columnists@dailyireland.com

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Israel is the only state in the world, as far as I know, that has managed to revive its own language.
For a century and a half we here in Ireland have been trying to keep our own native tongue out of the grave and the best we can say, probably, is that the patient is still on the life support machine. I, of course, am ever-optimistic and firmly believe that Irish is on the right track to recovery. There are even places where I would declare the patient to be doing fine.
In Israel the Hebrew language is spoken by everyone.
Hebrew was once in a worse state than Irish ever was. I don’t know the history so I could be talking through my hat here, but I think the Hebrew language was gone as a vernacular by the end of the nineteenth century and existed only as an archaic and religious relic.
There was a Hebrew revival movement before the founding of the Israeli state but I believe that it was almost the passion play of a number of individuals rather than a true movement.
The big change came when the Israeli state was set up after the second world war when the new government decided to re-establish Hebrew as the vernacular tongue of the new country.
Now, I know I am in deep here, and that my friends in the pro-Palestinian movement in Ireland are probably bristling with anger already. Bear with me a moment, and perhaps clarity will come dripping down – as the poet said. To proceed…
The reason why I have broached the thorny subject of the language of Israel at all is because Dr Shlomo Izre’el, Professor of Semitic Languages in Tel Aviv university and a renowned expert world wide on the revival of Israeli Hebrew, is coming to Belfast next month to delivery a lecture entitled, ‘Athbheochan Eabhrais Iosraeil – Ceacht don Ghaeilge?’ which means ‘The Revival of Israeli Hebrew – a Lesson for Irish?’. I am very much looking forward to attending.
Obviously, the circumstance of Israel and Ireland are entirely different and were entirely different when their language revival got under way. At the same time, however, they did change the normal spoken language of their people from whatever it was to a new form of modern Hebrew within one generation. This miraculous feat took place little over 50 years ago.
I want to find out how the Israelis did it, and I want to find out if there are any lessons for us. Like many others I spend a lot of my time and energy wrestling with the ongoing effort to revive the Irish language – so I am interested in finding out how a similar revolution was carried out somewhere else.
Now to the difficult bit. Well, it’s not really difficult. Some people associated with Palestinian support groups here in Ireland have expressed surprise that Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich is supporting a speaker from Israel. One such person – an Irish speaker for whom I have nothing but the highest regard – has taken the view that by inviting Shlomo Izre’el to Belfast we are in some way bestowing legitimacy on the Israeli government, or implying acceptance with the Israeli government.
Let me tell you now that I believe what the Israeli government is doing in Palestine is completely wrong. Historically, America backed and supported the looting of the Palestinian territory to facilitate the founding of a Jewish home-state.
Without going into the whole history of the region, let me say that the terrorist war that the state of Israel wages against the Palestinian people to support and continue their land grab should be opposed by all right-minded people in Ireland, or anywhere else in the world.
Dr Shlomo Izre’el is not a supporter of the Israeli government – in fact in 1982 he was one of the few Israelis, and certainly one of the very view Israeli academics – who protested against the Israeli occupation of the Lebanon. In other words, Shlomo Izre’el is an independent thinker who probably dislikes his government as much as many of the Irish Palestinian supporters do.
However he can tell us how the Israeli people managed to revive their language.
The lecture on the revival of Israeli Hebrew will take place at 3pm in Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich on Sunday, August 7 as part of Féile an Phobail. Admission is free, and everyone is welcome. Following the Cultúrlann lecture and a workshop the following day Shlomo Izre’el will be heading west to address Údarás- sponsored meetings in Conamara and Donegal.
The Cultúrlann event is this year’s Padraig Ó Donnchú Memorial Lecture, jointly organised by Cultúrlann and Forbairt Feirste. Padaí Dubh was a great and enthusiastic Gaeilgeoir who devoted his life completely to achieving a new and better society in Ireland. Tragically he died at 27 with cancer – it must have been 16 or 17 years ago – and every year he is remembered with this annual lecture. Éamann Ó Cuív gave it one year, as did the Dublin Gaeilgeoir Ciarán Ó Feinneadha.
This year Daily Ireland publisher Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, one of Padaí Dubh’s friends and comrades from back then, will deliver a short address on the life and times of Pádraig Ó Donnchú.
I knew him well myself – he was always laughing, always working, always enthusiastic, always very serious about achieving his political and cultural aims.
Who knows, perhaps Dr Shlomo Izre’el can point us in the direction of achieving the most important political and social aim that Pádraig Ó Donnchú had – the re-establishing of the Irish language as the normal, vernacular tongue in Ireland.

Gearóid O Cairealláin is a journalist, film maker and Irish language Activist.

NEWSHOUND

Liam Clarke
Sunday Times
July 24, 2005

TWO independent commissioners who supervise decommissioning have been asked to remain in Ireland this week as expectation grows of a significant gesture by the IRA.

Although security sources are stressing that there could be further delays, both General John de Chastelain and Andrew Sens were asked to stay on in Ireland for the next few days instead of returning home to America this afternoon as planned.

The British and Irish governments believe the IRA could move as early as Thursday and Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator, has said he believes the IRA will make a positive statement on its future.

In preparation for the move, McGuinness, Gerry Adams, and Martin Ferris, the TD for Kerry North, have resigned from the IRA’s ruling army council. The resignations are part of a reform of the IRA leadership, first revealed in The Sunday Times on May 1.

The story was confirmed by Michael McDowell, the minister for justice, on June 20 at a session of the Irish Peace Group. He said that McGuinness, Adams and Ferris “are now in the process of actually trying to get out of” the army council but would remain in control of the Provisional movement.

McDowell said the change was a “good thing” because it meant the IRA “is not going to be the centre of their political struggle in future”.

Sean Gerard Hughes, a Co Armagh hardliner, also resigned from the army council some months ago after losing interest in the peacetime IRA. Brian Keenan, a former chief of staff, has also resigned due to ill health.

Security sources believe that the current army council consists of Thomas “Slab” Murphy, as chief of staff; Brian Arthurs, the IRA commander in Tyrone; Bernard Fox, a former hunger striker; Sean “Spike” Murray from Belfast; Martin Lynch, an Adams loyalist from Belfast; Brian “Ginger” Gillen, from Belfast and a Dublin man who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Government officials are stressing that the IRA statement needs to be definitive and to be matched by a total and verifiable act of decommissioning. “In short order they are going to have to do enough to satisfy everybody both in words and in deeds,” said a source, stressing that it would be better for the IRA to delay the statement rather than to fall short of what is required.

The IRA statement and possible move on decommissioning is in response to a call from Adams on April 6. Adams said: “The way forward is by building political support for republican and democratic objectives across Ireland and by winning support for these goals internationally. I want to use this occasion therefore to appeal to the leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann (the IRA) to fully embrace and accept this alternative. Can you take courageous initiatives which will achieve your aims by purely political and democratic activity?” The statement, when it comes, will be closely scrutinised to see whether it moves things on from what has been said previously. The quality of decommissioning will also be scrutinised. In the past the IRA has refused to give General de Chastelain permission to say what weapons were decommissioned, or to take photographs. But if decommissioning is completed, an exhaustive inventory will be given by de Chastelain to the two governments who will be free to publish it.

Newshound

(Irelandclick.com)

A leading Belfast loyalist who is facing serious drug offence charges has been released on bail for the seventh time in seven months.

William ‘Spud’ Murphy, a close friend of deposed Ulster Defence Association commander Jim Gray, will appear in Belfast Magistrates Court again on July 26 to face two counts of possession of cocaine, one count of possession of cocaine with intent to supply and one count of possession of cannabis.

This will be the eighth time Murphy, 42, will face the charges, having walked free from court on his previous seven appearances. The latest charges relate to an incident on December 4 2004 when the PSNI stopped Murphy, Gray and a third man in a car on the King’s Road in East Belfast.

Mr Murphy has been a long-time associate of ex-loyalist leader Gray. He was by his side during a court appearance last year when Gray was accused of hitting a PSNI man with his car.

Murphy also helped Gray carry the coffin of murdered South Antrim UDA leader John ‘Grugg’ Gregg, who was shot dead in 2003 by members of Johnny Adair’s UDA C Company faction.

When Milltown Cemetery killer Michael Stone was released from jail to attend a loyalist rally in Belfast’s Ulster Hall in 1998, Murphy acted as his bodyguard during the event.

With his bleached blonde hair and flamboyant dress sense he is often mistaken for his close friend Gray, who has been languishing in jail for the past three months facing money laundering charges.

Murphy is one of many senior loyalists to have been bailed in recent months despite facing serious charges.

UDA boss William ‘Mo’ Courtney, who is accused of murder, is out on bail, as is leading North Belfast loyalist Laurence ‘Duffer’ Kincaid, who is accused of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.

In 2003 North Belfast UDA leader Andre Shoukri was granted bail while facing charges of possessing a gun with intent to endanger life.

In the same year his brother, Ihab Shoukri, was also bailed while facing murder charges.

Other leading loyalists to be bailed while charged with serious offences include Belfast men Thomas Potts, Gary MacKenzie and Portadown loyalist Jim Fulton, who had his bail conditions altered so he could watch a July 12 Orange march.

July 22, 2005
________________

This article appeared first on the Irelandclick.com web site on July 21, 2005.

BreakingNews.ie

24/07/2005 - 19:26:41

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte today called Shell on to waive the injunction against the ‘Rossport Five’ by lifting a High Court injunction against them.

The five Mayo men have spent a month in prison for blocking the construction of an offshore pipeline near their home.

However, Communications Minister Noel Dempsey said yesterday that Shell may have breached the terms laid down by the Government when granting permission for the project.

“In light of yesterday’s statement by the minister that the energy giant may have breached the terms of the permission given for developing the pipeline, things should be resolved by Shell going to court next week to have the injunction lifted,” said Mr Rabbitte.

Mr Dempsey said on Saturday that he has written to the company asking them to respond to his “very serious” concerns.

The breaches may relate to the welding of large sections of pipeline on the Corrib Gas terminal site, according to sources.

Up to 2,000 people staged a protest in Dublin on Saturday at the jailing of the five landowners.

Meanwhile, the Green Party tonight called for Mr Dempsey and his officials to appear before an emergency meeting of the Oireachtas Communications Committee.

Energy spokesperson Eamon Ryan said: “It is clear that the department has serious questions to answer concerning its own failure to ensure that conditions stipulated as part of its first initial consent to Shell were properly observed.

“It also needs to explain what appears to be the obstructionist and secretive manner in which it has dealt with issues raised by local residents in Rossport.”

RTE

24 July 2005 19:17

A major earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale has struck an area near the Nicobar Islands off India’s eastern coast.

The US Geological Survey said authorities near the epicentre of the tremor should be aware of local risk of tsunamis.

According to Japanese experts, the quake took place 6.2 miles below the surface of the sea. Thailand issued a tsunami alert and ordered thousands of people living along the Andaman Sea coastline to evacuate.
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In the capital Port Blair, hundreds of people are reported to have ran out of their homes in panic and rushed to open places.

There are over 550 islands in the remote Indian Ocean archipelago that was devastated by last year’s tsunami.

DANNY MORRISON

We awoke to screams and the banging of bin lids. I ran down the stairs and out into the street which was packed with neighbours. Someone was shouting hysterically, “They’ve introduced internment! They’ve introduced internment!”

The air was acrid with the smell of burning vehicles and tyres. At the top of our street we rioted as the Brits tried to prevent local youths from building barricades. They scattered the crowd with live rounds – first over our heads, then into the huge Guinness advertisement at the top of Iveagh Parade, then at body level, by which time we were on the ground crawling towards the entries for cover.

At 8am I listened to the news. Hundreds had been arrested out of their homes; one soldier had been killed and there was rioting in all nationalist parts of Belfast as well as in Derry, Newry, Omagh and many other towns. But within the space of a few days the death toll was to dramatically rise to over twenty, and the injured in the hundreds, as civilians, soldiers, RUC men and IRA Volunteers were killed or seriously wounded.

Just as the Falls Curfew one year earlier had alienated huge swathes of the nationalist community, the bloody introduction of internment on 9 th August 1971 was to see the conflict rise to new levels. Only nationalists were interned. Reports soon emerged of torture being used against prisoners – and was confirmed by the Irish government which took the British government to the European Court on human rights abuses.

Recruits flocked to the IRA and there was an exponential explosion of activity.

Meanwhile, the man who had cleared the introduction of internment, the British prime minister, was getting a nice tan. While men, women and children were dying on the streets of the North over which hung the darkest clouds, he was sailing his yacht, Morning Cloud, to victory in the British Admiral Cup. The closest he came to Ireland was off Mizen Head in County Cork as he sailed past Fastnet Rock.

Ted Heath’s election as British Conservative prime minister in June 1970 was a disaster for the nationalist community. Within three weeks the Falls Curfew was imposed. Under his rule the British military had more say than ever.

A few days before Bloody Sunday on 30 th January 1972 Heath received a memo from his most senior civil servant, Sir Burke Trend, recommending that he review the activities of the Parachute Regiment. The Paras, “have gratuitously provoked resentment among peaceful elements of the Roman Catholic population,” wrote Trend who was concerned about what they would do next.

Heath met with unionist Prime Minister Brian Faulkner and discussed the forthcoming anti-internment march in Derry but the details of their conversation and that of the military strategy committee were withheld when state papers were released under the 30-year rule. Nor were they given to the Saville Inquiry.

Heath announced an inquiry into Bloody Sunday under the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery. Many years later it emerged that Heath had secretly met Widgery before the inquiry and said: “It had to be remembered that we were in Northern Ireland fighting not only a military war but a propaganda war.” He also asked that the Paras be allowed to give their evidence first, so as to establish a lead in terms of defence and the perception of the facts. Widgery subsequently largely exonerated the soldiers, saying they fired in self-defence.

Heath appeared before the Saville Inquiry and was asked a simple, black or white question by Michael Lavery QC, representing the victims’ families. He asked him several times if innocent people were murdered on Bloody Sunday. With typical arrogance Heath said he had not made a statement about that issue at the time and would not do so now.

Heath died, aged 89, last Sunday. He was described as “a man of great integrity and great courage”; “a political giant”; and “a very great man and an enormous patriot.”

I wondered was I thinking about the same person and then realised, yes, but only if the working-class dead don’t count, mean nothing, remain anonymous, and can be airbrushed from history.

Even An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in his eulogy, made no mention of a Fianna Fail administration taking Heath’s government to an international court on torture charges. Instead, “Sir Edward will be remembered with particular affection in Ireland because it was he who negotiated the Sunningdale Agreement of 1974 which in many ways was the model for every subsequent effort to bring about peace and stability on the island of Ireland.”

It’s true that Sunningdale was negotiated by Heath. Does that absolve him from everything else? He also sanctioned William Whitelaw, the first Secretary of State after direct rule was introduced, to secretly talk to the republican leadership. Whitelaw’s successor, Tory MP, Francis Pym, released me from internment for which, under Bertie’s criteria, presumably, I should be eternally grateful.

Richard Weight, author of ‘Patriots: National Identity in Britain, 1940-2000’, tells a story about his mother, Angela (a young Labour supporter) and Heath. On the first day of Heath’s premiership she, along with 4-year-old Richard, mingled with the crowd of admirers outside 10 Downing Street (in the days before there were security barriers). As Heath stood outside the front door she threw a bucket of red paint around him, splashing his blue suit. Police jumped on her and Heath said: “That was a stupid thing to do, wasn’t it?” Whitelaw (who was forever described as being ‘avuncular’) hissed at her, “You fucking bitch!”

She spent a few nights in a police cell and was fined.

Years later Richard Weight was interviewed by Heath who was looking a principal researcher as he wrote his memoirs. Wright told him who he was and Heath began laughing and told him he had got the job. Later, he invited Angela Weight to his home where they were ‘reconciled’ – although that’s too strong a word for what I’m trying to say, but it might say something a little positive about a man whose first day as prime minister was marred.

Nevertheless, Ted Heath was responsible by commission or omission for the curfew, internment, the torture of the hooded men, Bloody Sunday and Operation Motorman, to name but a few of the infamous events which marred not just one day in the life of the nationalist community but the lives of a generation.

Danny Morrison - Irish author, journalist and political commentator

Daily Ireland

BY Robin Livingstone

The International Monitoring Commission (IMC) has decided not to bang out a stand-alone, early report on the latest loyalist feud in the way it did after the £26m robbery in Belfast last Christmas.
It seems the murder of two men and a series of shootings that makes 1930s Chicago look like Walnut Grove are not as serious as the fact that the Northern Bank doesn’t know how to look after your money.
Thrillingly, though, the IMC has said that it will be looking at the shootings in its next report, whenever they get round to it. Which is nice. It’s their job and it goes without saying of course, but it’s still nice.
When the IMC reported on the Northern Bank robbery in February, it found that the raid had been carried out by the IRA.
It added that if the Executive had been up and running it would have recommended the expulsion of Sinn Féin.
It further found that if your granny had balls she’d be your granda and that if you’re going to San Francisco you’d be well advised to wear some flowers in your hair.
Strange creature, the IMC. Its job is to ask the agents of the British state to tell it some things about the IRA that the British government already knows so that it [the IMC] can include them in a report that can betut-tutted over by the British government and its pals.
So, for example, how does the IMC know that the IRA carried out the Northern Bank raid? It knows because the PSNI Special Branch and British intelligence told them. How does it know that the IRA is continuing to target and recruit? Because some British spooks told them.
Of course, Tony and Bertie already know this information, but because it’s repeated in front of an expectant media by a handful of old codgers who would otherwise be doing a crossword or pruning the roses it takes on a whole new life.
Sitting down with spooks and asking them about the IRA is like sitting down with a dog and asking it what it thinks of cats.

Knees-up Mother Orange
Enough talk of retired old men smelling of cough drops and carbolic and, this still being July, back to the Orange Order, which you seem to enjoy if the response to last week’s outburst/column is anything to go by. Shame on you.
Orangeism is actually a very vibrant and relevant culture, the full richness of which can only really be appreciated when you consider that the most popular tune on the Twelfth was not Dolly’s Brae, The Sash or The Billy Boys, but Show Me the Way to Amarillo, performed, of course, in the Shankill stylee…

When the day is dawning
On a Shankill Sunday morning
How I long to pee there
With Kylie-Lee who’s waiting for
me there.
Every lonely city
Where I hang my cat
Ain’t as half as pretty
As where my blue bag’s at….

Is this the way to Amarillo?
Every night I’ve been sick on my
pillow
Dreaming dreams of Amarillo
And Kylie-Lee who waits for me.

Round where I live you could hear music drifting across the still, warm night as the Orangemen and their supporters celebrated into the wee small hours.
At first I though I recognised the air of some popular hymns, Ye Servants of God Your Master Proclaim, perhaps, Christ Whose Glory Fills the Skies maybe, or Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.
I padded across the bedroom, opened the windows and cocked an ear; with a sense of disbelief I realised that they were actually playing Chas ’n’ Dave. You think that’s a joke, don’t you? You think I made that up because I don’t like the Orange Order. Yes, it’s true, I don’t like the Orange Order and I make it my life’s work to write nasty things about it, but if I could I’d reach out of this page, place my hand on your aged mother’s head and swear it: there was an Eleventh party in Belfast where they played Chas ’n’ Dave all night long.
There Ain’t No Pleasin’ You, Gertcha!, One Fing ‘n’ Anuvver, Got My Beer in the Sideboard Here. I stayed there for a while with my elbows on the windowsill, bare feet tapping time with the cockney rhythm, and cor, luvvaduck, and knock me dahn wiv a fevver if the hits didn’t just keep on coming.
To tell you the truth, I felt an outcast from life’s feast as I pictured UDA footsoldiers linking arms with their mules/girlfriends for a knees-up in the flickering light.
As dawn prised a pale gap in the black sky, I reluctantly closed the windows, padded back to bed and lay there wondering if they were going to give us a bit of Rabbit, Rabbit.

Mind your language
With the sound of explosions and gunfire echoing through the streets of London, the BBC has told its journalists that its credibility should not be undermined by “the careless use of words which carry emotional or value judgments”.
It points out that “the word ‘terrorist’ can be a barrier to understanding and its use should be avoided.”
Funny how they only twig when it’s not Irish bombs exploding.
I don’t know about you, but I reckon terrorist is quite a reasonable term to apply to anybody who puts a bomb in a crowded tube carriage. And aren’t people not only entitled but morally required to make a value judgment on someone who blows up a double decker bus?
It’s your ordinary decent Asian I feel sorry for because I can sort of understand what they’re going through at the minute.
I was an ‘A’ level student spending the summer working in a soft drinks plant in London (I won’t say which one – Sssch!) in London when the IRA killed Lord Mountbatten and 18 paras in August 1979.
When I went to work the next morning there wasn’t a single person in that huge factory who would look at me, never mind speak to me, even though I’d been quite the popular little Paddy up to that point.
I don’t mind admitting I was afraid – afraid to smile at anyone, afraid to say hello in case somebody hit me over the head with a bottle of soda water.
Later that day they told me I was off the production line, gave me a bucket of soapy water, a scrubbing brush and a pair of yellow Marigolds and told me to clean the stacking chairs in the canteen.
It kept the factory happy if the sneering grins were anything to go by, and it didn’t worry me much because I remember that at that time in my life I didn’t think too much of people who had baked beans with a fry in the morning.
Back home they were writing ‘13 Dead but Not Forgotten, We Got 18 and Mountbatten’ on the walls.
I contented myself with not doing a very good job on the canteen chairs.

Sunday Life

By Alan Murray
24 July 2005

THE Police Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, is facing a morale crisis within her own office, it has been claimed.

For an internal survey - leaked to the Sunday Life - has revealed that a majority of the Ombudsman’s key staff do not see a “fair career path” for themselves within the organisation.

The survey, which covered 60 key staff, reveals that two-thirds of them felt morale wasn’t good.

Mrs O’Loan’s office issued a statement to Sunday Life, on Friday, admitting the report indicated there was “a morale problem with a small number of staff”.

But, the statement also said: “Overall, the survey showed that our staff are very proud of their work, and very committed to it.”

However, sources within the office, which investigates complaints against PSNI officers, believe the results of the survey, underlines a growing divide between locally recruited staff and London recruited investigators.

Sources claim that investigators recruited from within the Metropolitan Police enjoy more favourable conditions, and are allowed to benefit from special conditions, which cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds each year.

The results of a survey conducted within the Office, which Sunday Life has seen show:

• A majority do not see a “fair career path” for themselves - 41 out of 61 asked.

• A majority of staff do not feel they can achieve their “career development aspirations” within the office - 41 of 63 asked.

• 37 out of 62 asked said they do not feel that “morale is generally good”.

• Most do not feel that “good decisions are made quickly” - 35 out of 62 asked.

• Most do not feel that “people can try out new ideas” - 36 out of 61 asked.

• More than half do not feel that “new ideas are encouraged” - 36 out of 63 asked.

In a statement on Friday, the Ombudsman said: “The survey did suggest there was a morale problem with a small number of staff. We are now looking at the areas they say they are concerned about.”

Sources who contacted Sunday Life had claimed two investigators had been tasked to ferry senior members of staff to dinner engagements, on one occasion when one investigator was on an overtime rate payment.

The Ombudsman’s office responded: “Never has any member of Police Ombudsman staff been used to transport management on private business. When necessary, proper and secure arrangements are made for senior officials to be taken to work-related events and functions.”

In answer to other queries raised in response to claims by sources, the statement stated: “All Police Ombudsman recruitment is carried out having strict regard for relevant employment legislation and guidance. All expenses payments are subject to management approval, and are audited both internally and externally”.

The statement said overall there were 74 investigators among the 128 staff employed at the Ombudsman office

Sunday Life

It’s an ‘old-up’

By Ciaran McGuigan
24 July 2005

AMERICAN cops are investigating claims that former IRA gun runner James ‘Whitey’ Bulger may be behind a number of stick-up robberies in the US.

Security camera footage of a man known as the “Senior Citizen Bandit” is being studied to see if the gun-totting pensioner is in fact the on-the-run former Mafia boss.

According to reports in the Los Angeles Times, there are similarities between the Senior Citizen Bandit, who has recently held up three banks in Orange County, and one-time IRA gun runner Bulger.

Both men are of fairly similar build and stature, and both share the snowy white hair that earned ‘Whitey’ Bulger his nickname.

And there have been previous reported sightings of Bulger in the same area in the Orange County area, in recent years.

Bulger (75), one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted, has been believed to be holed up in Ireland for several years, as the US authorities try to track him down in relation to at least 19 murders.

He fled 10 years ago, and managed to go unnoticed for seven years, before a chance meeting on a London street with a former associate put the FBI back on his trial.

Their subsequent investigations took them to Dublin, where they discovered cash deposit boxes and Bulger’s Irish passport.

There have been a number of alleged sightings of Bulger in the west of Ireland since.

One of the most notorious Mafia figures in recent history, Bulger controlled much of Boston’s drug traffic.

In 1986, he was linked to a guns-for-drugs swap with the IRA, but the plot was exposed, and weapons seized, when the Marita Ann was captured off the west coast of Ireland.

Bulger’s younger brother, William, is the former president of the Massachusetts Senate and of the University of Massachusetts.

cmcguigan@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sunday Life

24 July 2005

THE victim of a brutal INLA murder-bid last week asked the Police Ombudsman to investigate claims that a rogue RUC Special Branch officer set him up to be killed.

Tommy Boswell (46) believes that he was targeted by an INLA hit-squad after the former cop “handed him up on a plate” to protect a high-ranking informer.

Boswell, then just 19, was sadistically tortured, blasted six times and left for dead by his interrogators.

The Turf Lodge man - who now lives in Co Down - miraculously survived.

However, he still bears the scars of bullet wounds in his arms, legs, chest and jaw that he suffered as he tried to escape.

He told Sunday Life that he believes that a Special Branch officer identified him as an informer, in order to protect a high-ranking mole within the republican terror-gang.

Last week he handed over the name of the top cop and asked Nuala O’Loan’s investigators to look into the case again.

Said Mr Boswell: “I contacted the Police Ombudsman again and this time handed over the name of the Special Branch officer who set me up to be murdered.

“He was happy to let me be tortured and then shot dead, just so he could protect an informer.

“It’s about time that myself and the other victims of the Troubles started to get some justice.”

Mr Boswell had previously made a complaint to the Ombudsman in relation to the incident.

However, at the time of the initial complaint, Nuala O’Loan’s office did not have the powers to investigate incidents more than 12 months old and the file was closed.

He is now set to ask the Ombudsman to reconsider the complaint.

A Police Ombudsman spokesman said: “We did receive a complaint about the circumstances surrounding the murder attempt.

“It came in during the early days of the office and, at that stage, we did not have retrospective powers and therefore it fell outside our then remit.”

cmcguigan@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sunday Life

By Stephen Breen
24 July 2005

THIS is leading Orange historian Dr Clifford Smyth dressed as a woman.

Last week, the well known unionist commentator wrote frankly and movingly about how he fought his transvestite compulsions.

And today, with his consent, Sunday Life publishes an exclusive picture of Dr Smyth from his days as a drag queen - the first time he has appeared dressed as a woman in a newspaper.

Our photo of Dr Smyth as ‘Deirdre Blanchflower’ was taken at a charity Christmas function in Belfast, in 1993.

It is a part of the historian’s life, which he spoke about for the first time in the Belfast Telegraph last week.

In a candid series of articles for the newspaper, the ex-DUP man told how he had struggled against the urge to dress up in women’s clothes, his bid to seek help and his resignation from the Orange Order.

Speaking to Sunday Life last night, Dr Smyth said he had received great support since the publication of his revelations.

“I have been very embarrassed because people keep telling me how brave I was to speak candidly about the transvestite compulsions, which have been a big part of my life.

“My family and friends have been right behind me and I can’t thank them enough because we are still coping with the grief of losing my son Martin, in an horrific car crash in Australia,” he said.

“Many people who have contacted me believe my honesty can help other men in Northern Ireland, who find themselves in the same position as me.

“I also received a letter from an academic in Manchester who thanked me for confronting the super macho and aggressive subculture in this society. He believed my openness would be shocking to many, but would also encourage people who battle with the issues that I have dealt with to confront them through the grace of God.”

But Dr Smyth, who is a key contributor to the BBC’s annual Twelfth coverage, also told how he had received one concerned call this week.

He added: “I received a call from a friend this week who is very protective of me.

“Although they appreciated my honesty, they believed my revelations could have been used by enemies against me.

“I don’t know if I have enemies but I think he was talking about the IRA, who know all about me because of my views on Orangeism.”

The historian went on to say how he was warned by police in 2003 that the Provos had targeted him.

“My wife and I had only just got home from Australia when the police visited me to warn me that my name was on a IRA intelligence gathering list, which they discovered in Belfast,” he said.

“The information the Provos had was that I had relatives in the RUC and watched TV wearing a dress and smoking a pipe.

“I may have wore a dress in my time, but I did not smoke a pipe.

“After a while my family joked about the threat and said that I would be bottom of the IRA’s hit-list.

“I took some precautions but what else could I do. I still had my faith.”

Dr Smyth also spoke to us about his time in drag, adding: “I did this for charity and there was an amusing side to it. I remember getting stopped at an RUC checkpoint and the young police officer waving me on.

“For all he knew I could have been a terrorist, dressed as a woman!”

“I also remember losing my bag with my clothes in it at a hospital function, and having to sit in a canteen packed with people.”

sbreen@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Sunday Life

By Stephen Breen
24 July 2005

LVF warlords, in east Belfast, last night vowed to kill pirate taxi drivers who work for the UVF.

Loyalist sources told us LVF leaders have warned a number of men to keep out of Garneville, Knocknagoney and Holywood.

The UVF controls a number of illegal taxis in the east of the city.

The threat was issued, after we revealed, last week, how the UVF had vowed to “wipe out” the LVF in their ongoing feud.

Sources claim UVF godfathers have told their taxi drivers to ignore the latest LVF threat.

Last week’s UVF gun attack in the Sydenham area, of east Belfast, is also believed to be in response to the latest LVF threat.

Another gun attack in the area was also linked to the feud.

Taxi drivers were caught up in a feud between the LVF and UVF in north Belfast, earlier this year, and many fear similar attacks could be repeated in east Belfast.

The UVF has already murdered Jameson Lockhart and Craig McCausland, the 20-year-old whose family say had no paramilitary connections.

LVF gunmen have left one man fighting for his life.

As tensions between the two groups continue to rise, there are fears that more lives will be lost over the coming weeks.

Said a loyalist source: “The LVF leader in east Belfast has instructed his units to shoot at the UVF’s taxi drivers.

“These drivers might not be paramilitaries, but that won’t stop the LVF targeting them, because they will be trying to get at the UVF.

“The UVF has a number of illegal taxi drivers working for them, and the LVF knows how much money they make from these guys.

“Innocent people have been caught up in feuds in the past, and you only have to look at the recent murder of Craig McCausland.

“The LVF are desperate to hit back at the UVF, and if they can’t get near its leaders, then they will go for anyone with tenuous links to the group.”

sbreen@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

RTE

24 July 2005 15:30

Irish Rail has said the Dublin to Belfast rail service re-opened at about 3pm, after being out of action since yesterday morning after two suspicious devices had been found on the line.

The service this morning only operated as far as Dundalk on the south side and Newry on the north side.

One package was dealt with yesterday but the second one could only be cleared this morning.

The alert led to the cancellation of special trains that had been due to carry hundreds of fans to the Ulster final replay in Croke Park yesterday afternoon.

In Co Antrim, resident were allowed to return to their homes early this morning after a suspicious package in Castlereagh was also declared a hoax.

Guardian

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the face of the innocent young man, Jean Charles de Menezes, shot dead by the London police. The officer shot him 5 times in the head at point blank range with an automatic pistol because he thought Jean Charles was a bomber.

He was not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BBC

The attack on Holy Cross church has been condemned

A petrol bomb attack on a Catholic church in north Belfast is being treated as sectarian, police have said.

Two devices were thrown at Holy Cross Church and monastery at about 0200 BST, causing damaged to the roof.

A third petrol bomb was thrown when police and fire crews arrived. Stones were also thrown at the police.

Parish priest Father Aidan Troy said he was thankful that no-one was injured in the attack, but that it had put people in danger.

“Once you throw a naked light into a house where people are sleeping, and a monastery is a house, then you have, in one sense, endangered their lives,” he said.

“I wouldn’t want to say that there was anybody very close to it, but it could have gone wrong, it could have gone disastrously wrong.”

Sinn Fein North Belfast assembly member Gerry Kelly said there was no justification for the attack.

“Holy Cross monastery is a focal point for the local nationalist community and last night’s attack targeted this,” he said.

“It could very easily have been much worse. It is fortunate that we are not dealing with worse damage here, and indeed deaths, as a result of this petrol bomb attack.”

He said unionist leaders must use “whatever influence they have” to bring such attacks to an end.

Sunday Business Post

24 July 2005
By Pat Leahy

Government inspectors have found that Shell has carried out unauthorised works at Rossport, Co Mayo, backing up claims made by the five men imprisoned for their protests against the Shell pipeline.

A senior official in the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources wrote to Shell chairman Andy Pyle on behalf of minister Noel Dempsey yesterday, warning him about the unauthorised development and demanding an explanation.

Officials from the department made their findings - which have been seen by The Sunday Business Post - after inspections of the site in Co Mayo last week. They found that Shell had welded about three kilometres of pipeline without first obtaining permission from the department.

Each stage of work at the Rossport site must be authorised in advance by the department.

There are seven stages in all, of which two have been largely completed. The work carried out was “stage three’‘ work, but Shell has yet to receive permission from the department for these works.

Shell did send notification to the department that some welding work had been carried out, but it was not picked up by officials, as no permission for that scale of work had been granted.

A reliable senior source said this weekend that the findings of the inspectors - who made their report to the minister last week - had severely undermined trust between the department and Shell in the future.

“There’ll be a lot less taken on faith from now on,” the source said.

“We’ll want to verify everything that’s happening. The department has been completely let down by Shell.”

In a letter delivered by courier yesterday, a senior department official told Shell that the company had “acted outside the terms of the extant consents’‘.

The department was seeking immediate observations, following which the minister will decide on further action.

Speaking to The Sunday Business Post this weekend, minister Dempsey said he regarded the breach of permission as “very serious’‘.

“But there’s a legal process and I have to follow legal procedures.

“I have to wait for a response from Shell,” he said.

The revelation that unauthorised work has been carried out by Shell bears out some of the arguments made by the ‘Rossport Five’ - the five local men who have been imprisoned for refusing to abide by the terms of an injunction secured by the petroleum giant.

BBC: ON THIS DAY

24 July 2000

Loyalist paramilitary hitman Michael Stone has been released from the Maze prison in Northern Ireland.

He was given a 684-year sentence in 1989 for six murders and five attempted murders, but has been set free as part of the Good Friday peace agreement.

Stone, 45, became a leader of the largest loyalist paramilitary group in the Maze - the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) - and a hero for the loyalist cause outside.

“I do not regret any fatalities that have occurred.”
Michael Stone

Dressed in black and sporting his trademark ponytail he was greeted by about 50 supporters outside the jail at 1045 BST before heading for east Belfast, where he grew up.

In a candid interview at the Avenue One pub Stone said: “Today is a day of celebration for my friends, myself and my family.”

“But I recognise that there are those in the nationalist-republican community who view my release with sadness and anger, just as the release of the republican prisoners on Friday will also anger the loyalist-unionist community.”

Television cameras caught Stone launching a gun and grenade attack at the funeral of the three IRA men shot dead by the SAS on Gibraltar in March 1988.

As well as the three men killed and 60 people injured during his lone assault on the Milltown Cemetery, he also killed another three Catholics between 1984 and 1987.

But although he had welcomed the ceasefire Stone will not apologise for his past.

“If I was to say sorry, I believe it would fall on deaf ears. I would be called a hypocrite. Those operations were military operations. I do not regret any fatalities that have occurred,” he explained.

Stone has nine children from two failed marriages and three grandchildren and hopes to settle in an affluent area of east Belfast with his fiancée Suzanne Cooper.

Speaking about his future, Stone laughed off the idea of any involvement in politics, but looks forward to work in the community, like many other former paramilitary prisoners.

In Context

Michael Stone has a house in east Belfast he shares with Ms Cooper, seven dogs and a reinforced tank of tropical fish.

He rarely stays there but moves between various safehouses to avoid being hunted down by republicans seeking revenge, or other loyalists who resent his support for the Good Friday Agreement.

In 2001 Mr Stone and Ms Cooper exchanged bullet-proof jackets as Christmas gifts.

Since leaving prison Michael Stone has concentrated on being an artist - a hobby he began in the Maze. His paintings are vivid and not so much political as topical. They fetch between a few hundred and a few thousand pounds each.