SAOIRSE32

Belfast Telegraph

**Actually, according to my records, the statement was posted on DI shortly before 12.30pm

By Senan Molony
29 July 2005

‘P. O’Neill’, that mystery man, has gone upmarket. The production of an IRA statement on video is the first filmed IRA press initiative since leaders appeared at a secret press conference to signal that internment in 1972 had failed.

Long-time IRA prisoner Seanna Walsh read out the IRA statement on a DVD distributed to broadcast media.

A former prisonmate of Bobby Sands, he was carefully chosen to appeal to the heartland of volunteers, having spent a total of 21 years in prison.

First arrested as a 16-year-old in 1973 while robbing a bank, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment. Released in May 1976, he was free for only three months when he was charged with possession of a rifle.

Sentenced to ten years, Mr Walsh joined the blanket protest when he arrived in the H-Blocks, where he remained for seven years and seven months.

He was then caught making explosives and mortar bombs and was sentenced to 22 years. He was released under the Good Friday Agreement, aged 42, having spent over half his life in jail. A former Officer Commanding IRA prisoners, Mr Walsh was dressed in a plain white shirt, with no paramilitary trappings anywhere visible.

However, the IRA’s surprising use of a DVD was overshadowed by the manner in which the statement leaked out.

The momentous declaration was intended to be released at 2pm. Copies were distributed to select media from 10am, with an emphasis on the strict embargo to the afternoon.

But in fact the statement leaked out through the same technology the IRA has sought to harness. Shortly after 12.30pm, the embargoed statement was posted in error on the website of the Republican newspaper, ‘Daily Ireland’. Within minutes Sinn Fein sources telephoned the newspaper asking for the material to be removed.

The story was pulled - but in the meantime it had been seen by journalists hungrily scanning all news media. The news that the IRA’s war was over was now in the public domain.

At 12.49pm, RTE radio broke into the John Creedon programme to bring a newsflash from the newsroom.

Irish Examiner

By Shaun Connolly
29 July 2005

click to view - photo from here

DISMISSED until now as the political wing of the Irish Mafia, Sinn Féin are positioning themselves to become Ireland’s political wave of the future.

The peace dividend promises a rich electoral bounty for the party and threatens to dramatically alter the Republic’s balance of power forever.

If the shadow of the armalite is finally lifted from the ballot box, the resulting Sinn Féin surge could see it emerging as Dáil king-maker after the next general election.

A sobering thought for any democrat and a defining moment in the history of the State.

If that tipping point is reached and Sinn Féin is accepted as a legitimate mainstream party there will be no going back.

A ruthlessly efficient electoral machine, its lightning-strike success in the North has proved that once it enters the democratic process it grows and grows, like an alien feeding on a host body.

In the early 1980s, Sinn Féin began a twin strategy of cosying up to the then dominant SDLP and eating away at its nationalist bedrock.

The SDLP was marginalised, overtaken and left for dead. A few hundred votes many of them loyalist were all that saved it from a near wipeout at the May Westminster elections.

If the war in the North really is over, then new battle fronts are opening right across the South.

With five deputies in the current Dáil, Sinn Féin looks set to end up doubling that figure next time out with a possible high water mark of 13 seats.

The party has been extremely effective at targeting those left behind and bewildered by all the talk of a booming economy and soaring living standards.

As a result of that sharp focus, a concentration on grassroots community issues and a highly disciplined and energised presence on the streets, the capital is poised to give Sinn Féin gains in its central, north-eastern and north-west constituencies.

Donegal South-West is another prize in the party’s sights.

And with a strong wind in its sails, there is everything to play for in Cork’s two central divisions, as well as Meath West, Wexford and Dublin Mid-West and North Central.

The consequences of such an impressive surge would be far-reaching and would throw Bertie Ahern’s delicate manoeuvrings with the Sinn Féin leadership into a starkly pragmatic context.

Second-guessing an election that may still be two years away is a risky business, but Fianna Fáil will easily remain the largest party when the votes are counted, but seem likely to fall back from the 81 TD tally achieved in 2002.

With perhaps half of the Progressive Democrats’ eight TDs seen to be living on borrowed time, the way is open for Sinn Féin to decide whether Mr Ahern musters the 84 Dáil votes needed to achieve his cherished third term or not.

For it is clear the PDs are not ready to stomach backing a Government that relies on the indulgence of Sinn Féin and may well be too enfeebled electorally to prop up Mr Ahern on their own.

The balance of power was already beginning to shift last night as Mr Ahern made it clear the Irish political landscape suddenly had a whole new topography.

“If all this comes to pass they will have to be treated like any other party,” he said, referring to Sinn Féin’s new legitimacy in light of the IRA statement.

And in a telling aside, Gerry Adams said the question now was not whether Fianna Fáil would be prepared to go into coalition with Sinn Féin, but whether Sinn Féin would consider forming a government with Fianna Fáil.

Peace will unleash many possibilities one of which is a Sinn Féin wave smashing through the next Oireachtas.

Irelandclick.com

Pakistani priest visits West Belfast and makes plea

Appealing to the renowned generosity of the people of West Belfast, a Pakistani priest is in town for three weeks making it his mission to raise awareness of the plight of the very small Catholic community in Pakistan.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News, Fr James Shamaun detailed the plight of the tiny Christian population in the country.

“The Christian population of Pakistan is approximately one per cent of the total population. They are a tiny minority and are treated very much as second-class citizens. The vast majority of people are employed in low-paid jobs, mainly sweeping,” he said.

“The parish which I serve is known as St Joseph’s Cathedral Parish, it is situated near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. There are 15,000 Catholics in my parish who live in slums in sub-human conditions.”

Describing his parishioners as “very, very poor”, Fr Shamaun said the people earn a mere $1 per day and in some cases even less.

“It really is a miracle that these people are surviving on nothing but their dependence on God. The poverty is so intense that people are dying every day due to a lack of basic necessities including medication.

“Education is also a priority, 80 per cent of the people are illiterate yet the only government schools are staffed by Muslims and the syllabus is heavily biased and Islamic. Any Catholic children who attend these schools are subject to an apartheid of sorts. For example, they are not allowed to drink water from the same tap as the other children.”

Having met Father John Murray of St Luke’s parish in the Czech Republic some years back, this is the second time that Fr Shamaun has taken him up on the invitation to visit Belfast.

“Fr Murray invited me to his parish when we met in the Czech Republic. I came three years ago and celebrated Mass there and on Sunday past I celebrated Mass at Our Lady Queen of Peace. I told the congregation about my own parish, I wanted to make them aware of what is going on and perhaps they can help make some change. We cannot change everything but we can make some difference, through sharing we can experience real joy.”

Fr Shamaun went on to compare the situation in his own parish to the plight of Catholics living in the North.

“This is the first generation of Christians living in a 98 per cent Muslim country. They are treated as second-class citizens in the same manner as Catholics were here in the North of Ireland, it’s exactly the same type of situation with jobs and housing where Muslims are given priority over Pakistani Catholics.”

The priest is trying to establish his parish in Rawalpindi Cantt outside Islamabad but is up against great obstacles including an extremely stubborn military government. He and his parishioners urgently require the help of their fellow-Catholics not only in West Belfast but across the world.

“I need your prayers and financial support to build the faith of our people and complete the church which is currently under construction. The help of the people of West Belfast would be highly appreciated in Rawalpindi Cantt,” he added.

• Anyone wishing to donate to Fr Shamaun’s parish can contact Reggie Donnelly on 90 300980.

Journalist:: Francesca Ryan

Irelandclick.com

Féile an Phobail website

Féile fever is sweeping West Belfast as the city prepares for the 18th annual community festival.

Final preparations are being made ahead of the ten-day event which will see thousands descend on the West to take part in the festivities which kick off tomorrow (Friday).

Speaking to the Andersonstown News yesterday, Féile Marketing Officer Kelly Loughran said that over the ten days more than 200,000 people are expected to attend the breathtaking array of events during the festival.

“This month alone, the Féile website has received 197,626 hits from countries all over the world. Morocco, Romania and Poland are just a few of the far-flung countries which feature on the list. A staggering 76,500 Americans have logged on this month alone which is the greatest number, followed closely by France, Australia, the Netherlands and, of course, Ireland.

“There is no doubt that the popularity of the festival is growing and we are striving to increase these figures every year,” she added.

Sinn Féin’s Paul Maskey, who works as a Tourism Development Coordinator with the West Belfast tourist office Fáilte Féirste Thiar (FFT), said the office has been inundated with queries about to the festival.

“We provide information and services about West Belfast to the growing number of tourists who flock to the area every year, but this year has been crazy,” he said.

“The festival is definitely becoming more internationalised, we’ve had groups of Palestinians and Basques in asking about the festival. There are also a number of journalists from Dublin inquiring and looking for Féile programmes. It is actually quite frightening, this year has to be the busiest to date.”

Marnie O’Doherty, who runs O’Doherty’s Bed & Breakfast on the Andersonstown Road, told the Andersonstown News that she is fully booked over the festival period.

“At the minute I have four Norwegians and one German staying at the B&B. Next week I have bookings for Welsh and English people, they are all here for the festival and there is an air of excitement in the house as we wait for the festival to kick off,” she said.

“Only last week, there were two Dutch people staying.

“I had left the Féile programme in all the rooms and this couple were completely enthralled by Féile and have promised to return next year for the event,” added Marnie who has been turning away up to four people per night of late.

Journalist:: Francesca Ryan

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

BBC

City rocks during people’s festival

The streets of west Belfast will be rocking during the course of the next week as the annual festival gets into full swing.

The Féile an Phobail (The People’s Festival) began 18 years ago during the Troubles and was seen as an opportunity to portray Belfast in a more positive light.

As usual it features a mixture of local and international music acts, political tours, walks and talks, as well as hundreds of locally organised events.

The festivities begin on Friday night with the first music at the giants foot gathering, in Beechmount Leisure Centre, where Irish rockers Hothouse Flowers will entertain a packed house.

Over the weekend, dozens of events, plays and concerts will culminate in the lively carnival parade, which leaves Conway Street at 1300 BST on Sunday, finishing at MacRory Park on the Whiterock Road.

Major acts over the week include Scottish rockers The Proclaimers, Dublin balladeer Damien Dempsey and the Afro-Celts Sound System.

Sean Paul O’Hare, director of Feile an Phobail, said the festival started in 1988 when there was a lot of trouble on the streets of Belfast.

“Belfast at that time had a very negative image. Every year on the anniversary of internment we had a lot of trouble on our streets, conflict between the British Army and our young people,” he said.

“It was felt by Gerry Adams and our community leaders that we needed to change the image of west Belfast and we needed a clear role for our young people and what we created then was the west Belfast festival, Feile an Phobail.

“Féile an Phobail is about getting people together, to come in and enjoy the talent.”

In light of the recent IRA statement announcing an end to its armed campaign, Mr O’Hare said there would also be events at the festival where recent political developments would be discussed.

One of the most popular events during the week is West Belfast Talks Back, when a panel of unionist and nationalist politicians get a chance to discuss their views with an always lively audience.

This year’s panel for the discussion, which is taking place on 3 August, will be DUP Assembly member Arlene Foster, Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey, Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy and SDLP Assembly member Dolores Kelly.

The festival begins on 29 July and runs until 7 August.

BreakingNews.ie

29/07/2005 - 17:02:50

Members of the Green Party visited the Rossport Five at Clover Hill Prison today. The Mayo men are entering their fifth week in jail.

The men are demanding Shell change their plans for the Corrib gas pipeline.

Speaking outside the prison TD John Gormley said the men would remain there for as long as it takes.

“The message they want us to communicate is this that they are there on a point of principle. That it is about safety and they cannot leave this prison until the safety issues have been dealt with,” said Deputy Gormley.

Daily Ireland

by Ciaran O’Neill
c.oneill@dailyireland.com

A unique project to encourage young children to respect physical, racial and cultural differences was launched yesterday at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast.
The Media Initiative for Children is aimed at children between the ages of three and five on both sides of the Border.
The initial pilot, carried out with 95 local children in 2004, was hailed a huge success.
Organisers hope that every child within the early years sector in the North and the Republic will have an opportunity to access the programme by 2008.
The programme, a joint effort between NIPPA - the Early Years Organisation and Peace Initiatives Institute (Pii), involves children watching a series of short television cartoons called Together in the Park which feature animated characters who act out different situations of exclusion and
inclusion.
The impact and effects of the programme have been evaluated by Dr Paul Connolly of Queen’s University, Belfast: “The research results are compelling and illustrate the potential that this initiative can have in encouraging young children to embrace diversity and to be inclusive of others.
“After just three weeks the evidence from the pilot study showed that the children who took the programme were: more aware of children being excluded because of their differences; became more empathetic to those being excluded; and were more willing to play with and be inclusive of others, including those different to themselves. If this can happen in just three weeks, just imagine what could be achieved long term.”
In considering the wider implications of this initiative, Dr Connolly said: “We know that children from the age of three can and do develop prejudices against those who are different, whether in terms of physical or racial differences. Previous research I have conducted in Northern Ireland shows that children at this age are already beginning to have their attitudes and beliefs shaped by the ongoing community divisions. It is therefore essential that we begin to work with young children, parents and local communities to begin to address all of this and to give all our children a much better start in life. The evidence from the pilot study shows that programmes such as this present initiative can be extremely effective in doing this and need to be encouraged.”
Siobhan Fitzpatrick, chief executive of NIPPA, said: “We are delighted with the initial research results which indicate a significant change in the behaviour and attitudes of young children over a relatively short period of time. Between the ages of three and five children acquire the core values that drive actions in later life; the Media Initiative for Children is about helping to build a culture of respect from the bottom up through young children and out to their families and communities.”
Paul Harris, Executive Director of Pii, said: “It is critical to us that the Media Initiative for Children has been developed at a grassroots level involving people at many levels throughout the community and also to eventually involve all children in nursery and pre-school communities. We are confident that this programme will help more young children within Northern Ireland to understand what it feels like to be excluded and to be more willing to include others who are different from themselves”.

Daily Ireland

Robin Livingstone
columnists@dailyireland.com

Soldiers coming under Provisional fire in Lenadoon

I grew up with the IRA. Not in the IRA – never had the nerve – but with the IRA. I remember as an 11-year-old visiting my brother in Dundalk in my St Mary’s uniform when he was on the run.
He was ten years older than me, but at that time it seemed much more. These days you wouldn’t think there were two years between us, never mind ten.
As he sat speaking to our mother in an upstairs lounge, he leaned forward and his jacket moved to the side to reveal a handgun in the waistband of his trousers. As I sat there eating crisps and drinking Coca-Cola I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.
Occasionally my brother would venture home for a visit and he’d give me and my brothers 50p each to stand at strategic corners near our home in Lenadoon looking out for foot patrols. Which was nice.
Not so nice were the late-night visits by British soldiers with their faces blackened who ordered us out of bed.
As we left our bedrooms, soldiers would take up position at the windows in the hope that my brother would make a home visit in the wee small hours.
Downstairs we were marched – 14 of us in all – and herded into the front room where we sat through the night in total silence – over-15s on the chairs, everybody else on the floor – with a soldier on guard duty at the door.
I remember that in the dark, and with my mother and father staring powerless at the floor, I would run private films in my head to pass the time.
The movies involved me downing the guard with a Bruce Lee leg-throw and incapacitating him with a James Bond karate chop to the neck.
I’d relieve the stricken soldier of his weapon and, switching quickly to full automatic, cut a swathe through his colleagues, downstairs and up, before they knew what hit them.
When Lenadoon was a no-go area, young guys would walk the streets in snorkel anoraks carrying armalites with women’s stockings hanging from them (something about a twist grip, I think).
They used to crouch in the gardens of houses in Carrigart Avenue near the Suffolk Road in order to keep an eye on the commandeered Woodbourne Hotel, where at the windows of upstairs rooms British army snipers and UDA men rubbed shoulders.
As we played handball in the evenings against the big gable wall of Blessed Oliver Plunkett school, IRA men would drill in the ‘echoing hall’ – the enclosed courtyard where pupils would gather in the morning to be let into school.
As we thudded the tennis ball off the bricks, the stamp of marching feet and the call of “clé, deas, clé” drifted across the school yard.
Later, as a young journalist, I sat across the table from IRA men that I knew as friends and neighbours and spoke to them about war, about politics, about death and about dying and it struck me, as it does up to today, how the IRA was able to attract the brightest and the best from my estate and from many others.
These were no mumbling, jewel-encrusted louts, but intelligent and earnest men on a deadly serious mission.
Twenty years of growing up with the IRA, of seeing and knowing the men with the guns but never having them pointed at me, has had its effect.
I recall watching news of the Loughgall ambush in 1987 at home on TV and feeling sick to the pit of my stomach.
Next day it occurred to me that three years earlier, I had sat in a bar on the Lisburn Road as news of the mortar attack on Newry barracks came through and when customers started shouting anti-IRA remarks at the television, I felt more angry at the men shouting at the TV than I did at the men who had fired the mortars.
Though I was struck powerfully by the sense that this was wrong, more powerful was the sense that there was nothing I could do about it, that some inchoate notion of comradeship or shared experience picked up as a schoolboy on the streets of Lenadoon was stronger than my adult intellectualising that all violence was wrong.
So it was a relief for me, as the statement emerged yesterday and the prospect of the IRA going out of business loomed, to feel… nothing.
No vague, guilty pangs of regret or sorrow, no sense of being left abandoned or unprotected. Rather, it seemed to me that this was how it should be – should have been for quite a few years, in fact.
I’m just sorry now that it’s all over that I never told lies about the IRA the way so many journalists did because maybe today I’d be the toast of Fleet Street.
I was notorious as having the worst republican contacts of any journalist in Ireland because the makey-uppy ‘republican sources’ route was never open to me – I just couldn’t do it, for one thing because I had to look them in the eye in the supermarket aisle or down the pub; and for another thing because none of them ever told lies to me.
Which is why when I asked them yesterday if it was really over and they said yes, it was good enough for me.

Read Robin Livingstone’s ‘Here’s The Thing’ in tomorrow’s Daily Ireland.

Daily Ireland

Eamonn houston
To comment: e.houston@dailyireland.com

click to view this recent photo of Derry’s Bogside from this site

Gerry Doherty was born on Rossville Street in Derry’s Bogside. At 18 years of age, he lay injured close to IRA volunteer John Starrs as the 19-year-old’s life ebbed away after a gun battle on William Street.
Doherty had been “skinny” and was wearing an oversized coat as British SLR bullets had rained on the active service unit on May 13, 1972. Eight bullets struck Doherty’s frame. One tumbled through his arm, and the other seven harmlessly passed through the coat.
Doherty had joined the IRA at the age of 16.
In 1969, a 15-year-old Gerry Doherty would get irked at the fact that he and his friends had to take a two-mile (3.2-kilometre) detour to play a game of snooker in his home town. In normal circumstances, it would have taken less than ten minutes.
A year later, the shooting of 19-year-old Daniel O’Hagan during a riot in the New Lodge Road area of north Belfast brought home to Doherty that the situation in the North at the time demanded a military response.
“At 15 years of age, I had been throwing stones at the British army. The effect of the killing of Daniel O’Hagan had the effect on us ‘these bastards are killing us’. We had a realisation then that we couldn’t beat these people with stones.”
By 1971, Doherty was a fully fledged IRA volunteer. He had joined up and was signed in just ahead of the introduction of internment.
Bloody Sunday would crystalise Doherty’s commitment to what he describes as “the struggle”.
“Before Bloody Sunday, we were ill-equipped but we had been trained in the use of arms and explosives. Free Derry was in existence then but the British made plenty of incursions.”
The deadly extent of the Bloody Sunday massacre, when it began to emerge, further steeled Doherty’s resolve to react through physical force.
“I was at the march on that day but it was not until much later that night that the number of people killed became clear. But we weren’t surprised in the end, given the amount of gunfire from the Paras that day.
“Our motivation had nothing to do with any kind of political ideology. It was instinctive. We knew after that day that physical force was our only route to force change. It was like a gut feeling telling you. We had that gut, instinctive feeling that what we were doing was right.
“As time went on, I would see friends dying beside me. At the beginning, there was all of the allure of the secrecy and mysticism surrounding the IRA. But when friends and comrades started getting killed, it dispelled all of that.
“The romanticism disappeared and we realised that we were involved in a war. The British and the RUC were the enemy and that was that. We saw ourselves purely as soldiers – soldiers involved in a war.”
In November 1973, Doherty, known locally as “Mad Dog”, was sent to prison for the June 1972 bombing of Derry’s Guildhall, which he describes as a bastion of unionist rule.
On his return to the Guildhall to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday inquiry, Doherty took the stand and referred to himself as “a soldier in the IRA” on Bloody Sunday. He revealed that he was one of up to 50 members of the Provisional IRA locally.
“To me, the Guildhall was a symbol of miscontrol in a city where everything was wrong. Everything that was wrong was epitomised by that building,” he says.
For Doherty, the honing and maturing of the republican movement would occur in prison. Sentenced to 15 years in Long Kesh, Doherty served seven-and-a-half years. The day he was released is one of his most abiding memories. It burns deep. As Doherty made his way to the prison exit in 1981, one fellow Derry man had died on hungerstrike. Patsy O’Hara died at 11.29pm on Thursday, May 21 – on the same day as Raymond McCreesh, with whom O’Hara had embarked on the hungerstrike 61 days earlier.
Doherty describes the day as one of the most depressing days of his life.
“The day that I got out should have been one of the happiest days of my life. As I walked out, I was aware only of what was happening in a cell 100 yards away from me. It was a real downer, a surreal and terrible day. That’s what stuck out most for me on my release,” he says.
Doherty would remain active in the IRA.
“I quickly realised when I was released that we had all emerged much stronger and much more politicised. It was a different movement from my experience of it ten years before.
“I also realised that the enemy had moved on too. Their technology and surveillance techniques, their bugging equipment and use of informants brought home to me that we were in a very different phase of the struggle,” he says.
Doherty was again imprisoned, under the evidence of Derry IRA informant Raymond Gilmore. He says he became politically aware through reading and studying in prison.
“I think the 1994 IRA ceasefire came at the right time. We used to say that, if every volunteer in the IRA had spent two years in prison, the movement would have become even stronger.
“As in all struggles, people have to sue for peace. Sometimes that is a bigger statement than planting a bomb. It has a much bigger effect, like the Vietnamese travelling to London for peace talks. We were always aware through the military struggle that this was going to happen.
“Many people ask: ‘What was it all for? Was it worth it?’ The enemy will move the goalposts again, some say. All of these feelings are legitimate and it is important that the republican movement addresses all of these concerns.
“People gave a lot. The greatest battles are ahead. At least the movement has an ethos of healthy debate instead of blind faith. When all of the concerns are addressed, it can only help and enhance the movement as a bigger political force.”
For Doherty, joining the IRA was a matter of personal choice. However, he says that his childhood and youth were taken. He grew up within the framework of the armed struggle. It had a huge personal impact on his life.
“We didn’t have what the kids have now. We were born into the struggle.”
As for regrets, Doherty says that IRA “mistakes”, including the La Mon and Enniskillen bombings had a profound effect on volunteers in prison.
“We all knew that these weren’t deliberate acts. That had a profound effect. They were huge setbacks for us personally,” he says.
Gerry Doherty is now an accomplished actor, ironically playing the roles of RUC men and prison officers on stage and screen.
He now lives just yards from where he was shot during that ill-fated gun battle of 1972.

BBC

**This is a great story

The Church of Our Lady in Harryville has been attacked several times

There has been a gesture of solidarity by members of a Ballymena Presbyterian church following loyalist attacks on two Catholic churches in the town.

On Friday, people from High Kirk church handed out roses to Massgoers at All Saints church which was smeared with paint earlier this week.

They also scrubbed sectarian graffiti off the door and walls of the Church of Our Lady in Harryville on Thursday.

The church has suffered graffiti and paint attacks in recent weeks.

It was also the target of a loyalist picket between September 1996 and May 1998, linked to nationalist objections to a march by the Orange Order through nearby Dunloy.

“It was a very gracious gesture and I felt it was a very much a mirror of God’s love.”
Fr Paul Symonds

All Saints priest, Fr Paul Symonds, said the High Kirk members’ actions were “their way of saying ‘we are sorry for what has happened and the way you have been targeted by these paint bomb attacks’ and they were disassociating themselves from that.

“It was an absolutely lovely gesture, one of sheer love. It was a very gracious gesture and I felt it was a very much a mirror of God’s love.”

The priest was present at the Harryville church when High Kirk members used paint thinner and brushes to remove the graffiti.

“The graffiti was obviously done as an attack, as an expression of evil, and this cleanup is very much the opposite,” Fr Symonds said.

Jeremy Gardiner, youth pastor at High Kirk, said his church is in the middle of a community service week where they carry out “random acts of kindness”.

“Because of the attacks on the Catholic churches we wanted to show our kindness to the Catholic community. This is a show of solidarity,” Mr Gardiner said.

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton
29 July 2005

The Government has confirmed that IRA fugitives it has officially hunted for decades will be allowed back into Northern Ireland under the deal around yesterday’s IRA statement.

Rita O’Hare, the Sinn Fein official who went to America with Martin McGuinness for yesterday’s announcement, is among around three dozen IRA suspects known as “on the runs” who will be allowed back across the border without fear of arrest.

Secretary of State Peter Hain confirmed last night that in the autumn he will push through a plan, first unveiled in October 2003, to allow the return of fugitives like Ms O’Hare. She jumped bail years ago while awaiting trial for the attempted murder of soldiers.

The plan was issued over unionist objections but the Government said it would not be implemented until there was a complete end to IRA activity.

Under the 2003 plans, fugitives will undergo a trial to determine if their wanted status will be dropped. Even if they are found guilty of any offences, they will not serve a sentence.

Last October, Michael Rogan, one of the OTRs, was arrested in Tenerife and extradited to Northern Ireland, where he remains in custody. He skipped bail over an IRA attack on Army headquarters in Lisburn in which a soldier was killed.

Belfast Telegraph

By Patsy McArdle
29 July 2005

“The soldiers are still walking our streets, they’re stopping traffic in the roads and they’ve these spy posts on the hills … it’s now up to the Brits to call it a day.”

That was the view yesterday evening of a woman in one of the busiest stores in Crossmaglen, the south Armagh hot-bed of the IRA campaign since 1969.

Patrons in the town’s pubs were glued to television screens and one regular mused: “It’s funny, but this was the only day we didn’t have the police on the streets in a good while”.

Republicans in south Armagh are known to have been among those in the last echelon of the IRA campaign to support the call by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to give diplomacy a chance.

And there were real fears a fortnight ago of a serious change of heart by some hardliners after an 8-man British army patrol strayed across the border into the Republic - at Rassan in Co Louth.

On that occasion, a number of locals gathered hastily and engaged in a brief stone-throwing episode before the troops, accompanied by two PSNI officers, moved quickly back into Northern Ireland.

Yesterday, one prominent republican activist in Crossmaglen, who asked not to be named, said: “We just hope it will work ? but we will honour the republican code and abide by everything in the IRA statement”.

“The ball is now with the Brits; they will have to move out and demolish these hilltop spy posts.”

Locals have strongly objected over the years to three observation posts, which still remain some two miles apart, along the Louth and Monaghan border.

In Crossmaglen some residents said last night the focus by the security will remain on the role of dissident republicans.

One said: “The Real IRA and Continuity IRA may be insignificant at the moment but what happens next will depend on how this settlement goes.”

BBC

The army has begun dismantling posts in south Armagh

The Army has begun dismantling a number of security posts and bases in south Armagh following the IRA’s statement saying it had ended its armed campaign.

A base at Forkhill will close, while a watchtower at Sugarloaf Mountain and an observation post at Newtownhamilton police station will also be removed.

The British and Irish governments are considering the next steps to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

An updated programme of “security normalisation” will be published soon.

Commenting on the posts’ closure, the Army’s general officer commanding, Lieutenant General Sir Reddy Watt, said: ‘’In light of yesterday’s developments, the chief constable and I have decided that a further reduction in security profile is possible.'’

Sinn Fein has welcomed the move.

“The start made today must be built upon in the days and weeks ahead, not just in south Armagh but across the six counties,” Newry and Armagh MP Conor Murphy said.

“The demilitarisation of communities is an important element in consolidating the progress already made and ensuring that we build a new future free from conflict and division.”

However, unionists have reacted angrily to the news.

The DUP’s Arlene Foster said it was “criminally irresponsible”.

“It’s startling that when the IRA give a statement saying they will stop what they should never have been doing, that the government acts so soon,” she said.

The UUP’s Danny Kennedy said it was outrageous that the government had “foolishly decided to act on IRA words alone”.

‘Witnesses’

The DUP is also demanding that pictures are taken of IRA weapons being destroyed as proof.

However, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he believed photographic evidence of IRA decommissioning was not necessary.

Mr Ahern said it was “significant” that “witnesses from both traditions will be involved”.

“The carrying out of these IRA commitments will have to be objectively verified by the appropriate bodies,” he added.

The British government also intends to introduce legislation in the autumn to allow paramilitary fugitives to return home.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the IRA said it would pursue exclusively peaceful means.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has indicated he is ready to push forward with a number of measures which were put on ice after the failure to achieve a breakthrough leading to the restoration of devolution in 2003.

BBC Northern Ireland political editor Mark Devenport said government ministers would now expect to see some major acts of disarmament.

“On the political front, there may be a brief lull during August, but discussions are expected to get under way in earnest in September.

“The DUP remains openly sceptical,” he said.

“But the government hopes that if the IRA is as good as its word, positive reports from the four-strong commission which monitors paramilitary activity will encourage unionists to seriously engage with republicans sometime early next year.”

The IRA statement, released on Thursday, said: “All volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means.”

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said the move was a “courageous and confident initiative” and that the moment must be seized.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the statement, ending 30 years of violence, was a “step of unparalleled magnitude”.

Mr Hain said a return to devolved government at Stormont would not happen soon.

But - eventually - he would like to see the leader of the Democratic Unionists, the Reverend Ian Paisley, as the first minister.

Republicans had been under intense pressure to end IRA activity after the £26.5m Northern Bank raid in December and the murder of Belfast man Robert McCartney in January.

Political talks last year failed to restore devolution, which stalled amid claims of IRA intelligence gathering at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, in 2002.

The Provisional IRA’s campaign of violence was aimed at forcing an end to the British presence in Northern Ireland, leading to a united Ireland.

Irish Independent

THE IRA is expected to take the first step on a new path of peace within days by decommissioning its huge arsenal.

The Provisional movement, once described as one of the most efficient terrorist armies in the world, yesterday instructed its members to give up violence and embrace peace.

It called a halt to all paramilitary and criminal activity and promised to put its weapons verifiably beyond use.

All its units were ordered to dump their arms and become involved in the development of a democratic political process.

Following more than three decades of bloodshed which resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 people, the IRA took what could turn out to be an historic decision after three months of internal debate across the island.

The ground-breaking statement was widely welcomed in Dublin, London and Washington with reactions mixed in Belfast.

The IRA’s new code came into force at 4pm and there were indications last night that it was moving quickly on decommissioning with its appointed representative in contact with General John de Chastelain who has been on stand-by for the past week. Preparations for decommissioning have been almost finalised since before the collapse of the peace talks in Belfast last December and the IRA is now expected to go ahead. Two clergymen, from the Protestant and Catholic churches, will act as independent witnesses to provide verification.

In return for the historic statement, Sinn Fein has gained some of its outstanding demands. The British government, which released IRA bomber Sean Kelly from prison on Wednesday night, will introduce legislation in the autumn to arrange an amnesty for up to 40 OTRs (on the run suspects) who are wanted for crimes committed prior to the Good Friday Agreement.

But sources in Dublin confirmed for the first time that the group will not include two IRA men wanted by the Garda for the murder of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe in 1996.

Earlier, Justice Minister Michael McDowell had ruled out an early release for the four killers of Garda McCabe and said this had been accepted by Sinn Fein.

The Government will press ahead in September with plans to reform the Seanad to include a guarantee that some politicians from the Northern Assembly would automatically become members of the Seanad.

Despite the IRA statement, the Government is to beef up the Criminal Assets Bureau in a fresh drive to seize the millions of euro built up in the coffers of the Provisionals over the three decades.

Extra accountants are being hand-picked for the CAB while personnel are being sent to the United States for special training with the FBI on how to recover IRA assets.

The IRA statement came in the form of a DVD which had an ex-prisoner Seanna Walsh reading out the organisation’s declaration. It leaked into the public domain two hours before the IRA intended.

While unionists were sceptical about the IRA commitment, the Bush administration joined in the international welcome for the statement, describing it as “important and potentially historic.”

But it also urged republicans to “sever all ties to international terrorist organisations.”

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he believed the statement meant that the organisation had finally called an end to all actions.

“The war is over, the IRA’s armed campaign is over, paramilitarism is over and I believe that we can look to the future of peace and prosperity based on mutual trust and reconciliation and a final end to violence,” he said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the IRA statement as “a step of unparalleled magnitude” while Northern Secretary Peter Hain said the process of scaling back British military presence in Northern Ireland could be expected to begin within days.

But it was clear last night that the North’s biggest party, the DUP, remains to be convinced of the IRA’s bona fides and will take many months before engaging in talks on the restoration of power-sharing institutions, now almost three years in suspension.

DUP leader Ian Paisley said the IRA would be judged over the next months and years, based on its behaviour and activity.

Gerry Adams said the IRA statement was clear evidence of the commitment of republicans to the peace process and claimed it removed unionists’ excuses for not engaging with republicans.

Catherine McCartney, a sister of murder victim Robert McCartney, said the statement did not go far enough. “The IRA has not spelled out where it stands on those within its ranks who indulge in criminal activity,” she said.

“It tells them they have to stop it. But it does not say what happens if they don’t,” she added.

Gene McKenna
and Tom Brady

BBC

**Several live links on site

The Army is set to begin dismantling one of its watch-towers

The Army is due to begin dismantling one of its watch-towers in south Armagh in response to the IRA’s decision to end its armed campaign.

In an historic statement released on Wednesday, the IRA said it would pursue exclusively peaceful means.

The government has also said it intends to publish an updated programme of security normalisation shortly.

It also intends to introduce legislation in the Autumn to allow paramilitary fugitives to return home.

Disarmament

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has indicated he is ready to push forward with a number of measures which were put on ice after the failure to achieve a breakthrough leading to the restoration of devolution in 2003.

BBC Northern Ireland political editor Mark Devenport said government ministers would now expect to see “some major acts of disarmament”.

“On the political front, there may be a brief lull during August, but discussions are expected to get under way in earnest in September.

“The DUP remains openly sceptical,” he said.

“But the government hopes that if the IRA is as good as its word, positive reports from the four-strong commission which monitors paramilitary activity will encourage unionists to seriously engage with republicans sometime early next year.”

The IRA statement, released on Thursday, said: “All Volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means”.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said the move was a “courageous and confident initiative” and that the moment must be seized.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the statement, ending 30 years of violence, was a “step of unparalleled magnitude”.

The Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, also welcomed the statement and said much hard work was needed.

Mr Hain said a return to devolved government at Stormont would not happen soon.

But - eventually - he would like to see the leader of the Democratic Unionists, the Reverend Ian Paisley, as the first minister.

Mr Paisley himself greeted the IRA statement with scepticism, saying it had “reverted to type” after previous “historic” statements.

“We will judge the IRA’s bona fides over the next months and years based on its behaviour and activity,” he said.

Ulster Unionist Party Sir Reg Empey, told the BBC’s World at One it would take time to convince the people of Northern Ireland that this was more than just rhetoric.

Republicans had been under intense pressure to end IRA activity after the £26.5m Northern Bank raid in December and the murder of Belfast man Robert McCartney in January.

Political talks last year failed to restore devolution, which stalled amid claims of IRA intelligence gathering at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, in 2002.

The Provisional IRA’s campaign of violence was aimed at forcing an end to the British presence in Northern Ireland, leading to a united Ireland.

sinnfeinonline.com/

click to view
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Welcome to Sinn Féin’s Peace Process Special website. We have put this site together to give you all the latest statements and responses to the IRA’s historic statement (also view the video) as well as a chronology of the Peace Process. We have also provided biographies of many of Sinn Féin’s elected representatives.

Click on the links below to view:

• Sinn Féin’s statements
• British & Irish Governments responses
• U.S. and other responses

**I got re-directed when I clicked on my usual SF link, so I had to share