SAOIRSE32

Daily Ireland

by Ciarán Barnes
c.barnes@dailyireland.com

The PSNI has been accused of trying to protect a senior loyalist who is on remand in prison on serious charges.
The claim was made by Raymond McCord Sr, who contacted detectives in May 1999 to allege that the man had threatened to kill him.
The loyalist was arrested and charged but the charges were dropped several weeks later.
Mr McCord said police had told him a file on the loyalist had been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. He said detectives had later told him that the DPP had decided there was not enough evidence to prosecute.
Mr McCord never accepted this explanation. Last week, he received a letter from the new Public Prosecution Service confirming his suspicions that the PSNI has been protecting the loyalist.
The letter, seen by Daily Ireland, states that prosecutors never received a police report on the threats to kill.
Mr McCord, whose son Raymond McCord Jr was murdered by an Ulster Volunteer Force gang in north Belfast in 1997, said: “This letter has destroyed my faith in the PSNI.
“It proves the police lied to me when they said it was the DPP who had decided not to pursue charges against this man. It disturbs me that the police never even bothered sending a file on the threats I received to the DPP. That begs the question: Why would the police lie to me?
“They are obviously trying to protect someone. I believe the man they are protecting is this senior loyalist.”
Mr McCord said he hoped to meet Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, the Belfast West MP, and the SDLP’s Belfast South MP Alasdair McDonnell to discuss his son’s murder.
He added: “I don’t care who I have to meet to get justice for my son and to prove the Special Branch covered up the details of his death.
“I’m a Protestant from a loyalist area but that doesn’t mean I can’t talk about the situation with republicans and nationalists.”
At the beginning of the week, the human-rights organisation British Irish Rights Watch announced it had compiled a dossier on the McCord murder.
Group director Jane Winters said it seemed as if UVF members who doubled as police informers could act “with impunity”.
Copies of the report have been sent to the United Nations, the United States Congress, Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan and the Independent Monitoring Commission.
The McCord family specifically instructed British Irish Rights Watch not to forward a copy of the report to the PSNI.
The Police Ombudsman’s office is investigating the PSNI handling of the McCord murder case and is expected to release a report later this year.

BBC

Ex-cabinet minister Mo Mowlam is widely popular

Former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam is critically ill, hospital officials have said.

The popular and charismatic ex-cabinet minister oversaw the negotiations which led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Ms Mowlam, Labour MP for Redcar between 1987-2001, is well-known for her outspoken views and tactile charm.

A spokeswoman at King’s College Hospital said Ms Mowlam, 55, had been admitted at the weekend. She described her condition as “critical but stable”.

She would not give further details of Ms Mowlam’s illness or say whether it was connected to a previous brain tumour.

Controversy

Ms Mowlam, who is married to merchant banker Jon Norton, was popular with voters, partly because of her determination to carry on as Northern Ireland secretary despite treatment for a brain tumour which caused hair loss.

In 1998 she took a particular political risk by going inside the Maze Prison when it became clear that the peace process would only succeed with the backing of the prisoners. The loyalist UDA/UFF prisoners had previously withdrawn their support for the process.

She spoke to the prisoners face-to-face for 60 minutes, and two hours later the paramilitaries’ political representatives announced they were being allowed to rejoin the talks.

She told reporters at the time: “I didn’t negotiate, I didn’t do a deal. If you want progress, you ain’t going to get it if you don’t have talks.”

Standing ovation

She made the peace agreement a personal triumph, but reconciliation eluded her.

In 1999 she was replaced as Northern Ireland secretary by Peter Mandelson, and became Tony Blair’s cabinet “enforcer”, seen by some as merely being a minister for the Today programme.

Her time in the cabinet was somewhat marred by a steady flow of reports that someone in a high place was “briefing against her”.

There were also claims that Mr Blair was annoyed that the 1998 Labour Party conference had given her a standing ovation during his speech - a charge denied by the prime minister.

BBC

Professor Desmond Rea is the chairman of the Policing Board

The government has asked the 19 current members of the Policing Board to continue to serve into next year.

NI Secretary Peter Hain said for reasons of stability and continuity he wanted members to continue for a period ending no later than October 2006.

The DUP wanted a complete revamp of the board to reflect its strong showing in the last election, whilst the SDLP was in favour of an extension.

The terms of office of all board members were due to expire in October.

The board is comprised of nine independent members and 10 drawn from the political parties.

Mr Hain said he hoped the board, which holds the PSNI to account, could be reconstituted before October 2006.

He added: “I am well aware of the different positions from the parties on this issue.

“However, my overriding concern during these deliberations has been that the board, which successfully fulfils a vital role in policing accountability arrangements, is provided with stability and continuity to continue its important work. ”

Mr Hain added: “All parts of the community must support the work of the Policing Board and I pay tribute to the board’s continued commitment to their role in ensuring that the PSNI is effective, efficient and accountable to community.”

The current Chairman, Professor Desmond Rea, and Vice Chairman, Denis Bradley are to continue in their roles.

Mr Rea said the board would remain focussed on supporting the PSNI, holding it to account through the chief constable, and making arrangements for obtaining the co-operation of the public with the police.

The SDLP’s Alex Attwood welcomed the secretary of state’s decision as the “right” one.

Mr Attwood said: “The announcement yesterday by the British government revealed how it is the IRA who have held up normalisation given that what was announced yesterday was agreed and published over two years ago.

“Despite the efforts of Sinn Fein and the IRA to hold up policing over the same period, they have failed, and failed miserably.

“Sinn Fein should cut their loses on policing and join us in implementing far reaching policing change.”

DUP anger

However, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson said it was a disgrace that the board no longer accurately reflects Northern Ireland’s political landscape.

“This is dictatorship over democracy,” he said.

“It’s political bias over fairness and it is an attempt by the government to ensure that it has got a board which will drive through the agenda which is required to placate Sinn Fein on policing.

“We are sick and tired of these slaps in the face to our community while he (the secretary of state) bends over backwards for a bunch of terrorists.”

In a statement the DUP’s Policing Board members said their party’s co-operation on the board “cannot be taken for granted”.

The Northern Ireland Policing Board was established in November 2001 following recommendations in the Patten Report.

Irish Examiner

03 August 2005
By Paul O’Brien

THE Government was accused of favouring ‘big business’ over people last night after Natural Resources Minister Noel Dempsey granted oil giant Shell permission to construct the offshore section of the controversial Corrib gas pipeline.

Mr Dempsey gave his blessing despite having recently ordered a safety review of the onshore element of the project, the results of which will not be known for several weeks.

The minister’s decision showed the Government was clearly “on the side of Shell”, said Green Party energy spokesman Eamon Ryan, adding that it made “a mockery of his own supposedly independent safety review of the onshore section of the same pipeline”.

“If the Government was really representing the public interest, then it would ask Shell to hold back on any further work on the project - offshore as well as onshore - until all the safety issues are properly addressed,” Mr Ryan said.

Mayo Independent TD Jerry Cowley said he was “totally disgusted” by the decision, adding that the Government was “kowtowing” to Shell.

Last week, it emerged the company had carried out work on the onshore section of the pipeline without permission. Within days, Minister Dempsey ordered Shell to dismantle the 3km-long section of pipeline it had welded together onshore, but has now given his blessing for work to begin on the 70km stretch of pipeline offshore.

Mark Garavan, a spokesman for the five Mayo men imprisoned because of their opposition to the project, said the decision underlined the “incoherence” of Government policy.

“We have this crazy situation where he is telling them to dismantle pipeline at the weekend and (now) he’s giving them permission to build part of the same pipeline offshore,” he said.

The pipeline is designed to link the gas fields in the Corrib with a processing terminal at Bellanaboy, five kilometres inland.

Local opposition to the project centres on fears that the onshore section of the pipeline will run too closely to homes, posing health and safety risks.

The overall project already has permission. However, under an agreed programme, consent for construction work is effectively being sanctioned in seven distinct phases. Of these, phases 1,2, and 6, and preparatory works of phase 3, had already been approved. Yesterday’s decision related to phase 4.

Shell welcomed the approval, saying it would “now carefully consider the terms of the consent and shortly make a decision on when to undertake this work”.

Derry Journal

Tuesday 2nd August 2005

Irish government moves to allow Northern Ireland MPs and MEPs to debate in Dail Eireann would be a welcome recognition of the rights of Irish citizens north of the border, Sinn Fein has said. Foyle MLA Mitchel McLaughlin welcomed reports that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s government will embark on plans in the autumn to allow 18 MPs and three MEPs from Northern Ireland to take part in Dail debates on issues affecting their region.

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey has reacted furiously to the proposal which, he claimed, was another concession to Sinn Fein in the wake of the IRA’s announcement that it is abandoning its armed campaign. However, Mr. McLaughlin confirmed it was a demand his party’s negotiators had pressed for.

“The Irish government have given commitments to facilitate this, as an expression of the right of northern nationalists, of Irish citizens, to participation in the political life of the nation. “I welcome any move by the Irish government to give effect to these commitments.”

Mr. Ahern was warned yesterday that, in the event of devolution returning, Ulster Unionists would retaliate with their own sanctions if speaking rights were given in the Dublin Parliament to Northern Ireland MPs and MEPs. Former Stormont Economy Minister Reg Empey said the proposal was outside the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and was a breach of the principle that the consent of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland would be required before there is any change to the province’s constitutional status.

“I believe this move is very dangerous because it would effectively be setting up an embryonic all-Ireland Parliament,” the East Belfast Assembly member said. “When the idea was first mooted two years ago, the UUP opposed it. We told the two Governments then, and have repeatedly since, that if it is pursued by Dublin, we will no longer be obligated to our support for north-south institutions.”

Sinn Fein would like to see its five MPs, including Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, and their Northern Ireland MEP Bairbre de Brun being given speaking rights. There have also been suggestions they could play a part in Dail committees. Mark Durkan’s SDLP would also be expected to welcome the move and send its three MPs to the Dail.

Mr. Empey’s threat against north-south bodies was reminiscent of Ulster Unionist sanctions during devolution aimed at Sinn Fein. During the last Assembly, his predecessor, David Trimble, refused to nominate Sinn Fein ministers for crossborder meetings with Irish government ministers because of the IRA’s reluctance to disarm. Should devolution return and unionists refuse to attend or even recognise cross-border institutions, it would cause difficulties for a section of the Good Friday Agreement many nationalists hold dear. Sir Reg accused the rival DUP of failing to grasp the significance of the speaking rights move. “The DUP fell asleep at the wheel on this issue in negotiations last year,” he said.

Newshound

(Susan McKay, Irish News)

The IRA says the war is over and the weapons are to be destroyed. Cue a unionist panic attack. Shouting “No surrender” when there’s no-one at the city gates is simply foolish.

The siege mentality gave unionism meaning. What will Paisley do now he can no longer claim he’s defending his people against their traditional enemy? If Ulster’s darkest hour is over, what next?

Wait and see if the IRA’s promises are for real, said that prophet of doom. For months or years. Weasel words should not be believed. Hole-in-the-corner decommissioning would prove nothing, said Peter Robinson. The party would “sit it out”, said the pride of Lisburn, Edwin Poots. It was not “gagging for power”. (Poots last week declared the law allowing gay people to celebrate love and commitment through civil ceremonies was immoral and “sticks in the throat”. A new siege looms for Lisburn city. Sodomites in the Cherry Room? Never!)

The new Ulster Unionist Party leader, Reg Empey, revealed he is to follow in the footsteps of his failed predecessor, David Trimble, in trying to be more Paisleyite than Paisley.

The DUP had “fallen asleep at the wheel”, he warned. Moves were afoot to bring about “an embryonic all-Ireland parliament.” The UUP would obstruct the all-Ireland implementation bodies.

The UUP claims it supports the Good Friday Agreement. How to prove it? Block it. The SDLP rightly described this as “intolerable madness”.

A loyalist spokesman said loyalists wouldn’t accept the IRA’s statement and that more dialogue was needed. Dialogue? Loyalists? Look what is happening in the streets. David Ervine, the one unionist leader who welcomed the IRA’s statement and bravely said it could lead to peace, has admitted his party has no remaining influence on the paramilitary UVF, currently on another internecine killing spree.

The latest victim of that feud, Stephen Paul, was in the LVF, set up in 1997 to defend the Orange Order’s right to march through catholic areas. No dialogue. Traditional methods would sort the matter out. Catholics were duly murdered. Paul (29), wore the gold chains with which loyalism rewards its soldiers. He was a drug dealer whose other criminal activities included seriously beating up his young wife.

The Orange Order also had the UDA’s support at Drumcree. The UDA has repeatedly claimed it is cleaning up its act and returning to the traditional roots of loyalism. Self-styled brigadier and so-called community worker Jackie McDonald said this week his people were suspicious. Republicans must think they are within touching distance of a United Ireland. If so, he predicted a new era of violence: “Loyalism and unionism would rebel… we would become what the IRA were.”

McDonald plays golf with President Mary McAleese’s husband and the president was said to have embarrassed him by her recent claim that some protestants brought up their children to hate catholics (she apologised).

McDonald’s warning should be taken seriously. The UVF evicted enemies from loyalist estates last week, humiliating the PSNI. The police were attacked by loyalist rioters over the weekend. Sammy Duddy of the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) which purports to give political advice to the UDA, claimed republicans had hijacked the peace process, a campaign of ethnic cleansing was going on against Protestants, and that “the Protestant people are still alienated”.

His last claim is true. Protestants are alienated. Many are prospering and enjoying the peace but unionist politicians and the loyal orders refuse to translate that into an explicit acknowledgement that the bad times are over, and it is time to settle down to dialogue and democracy. Instead, they encourage old fears. Catholics, and the British and Irish governments, are moving on. The watchtowers are coming down. The RIR is to be disbanded.

Paisley could be first minister any day he wants. And he wants.

But his hunger to make republicans wear sackcloth and ashes has not been appeased. He also wants to wipe out the UUP in assembly elections.

The farce that was the Sean Kelly affair – arrested at the behest of the DUP, released at the behest of Sinn Féin – shows the British are past pretending that normal politics or legal processes currently apply here in the land of dreary steeples.

The poet Derek Mahon wrote in 1972 of the lure of “bleak afflatus” and “fierce zeal”, in a country where a one-eyed king can stand on the corner “stiff/with rhetoric, promising nothing under the sun”. Unionists still love that country. It is a dangerous patriotism.

August 3, 2005
________________

This article appeared first in the August 2, 2005 edition of the Irish News.

::: u.tv :::

WEDNESDAY 03/08/2005 11:25:41

Police investigating the murder of the GAA official Sean Brown in 1997 have arrested a man in England.

The 44-year-old, who is originally from Northern Ireland, was arrested in the Whittlefield area of Nuneaton this morning.

Two houses and business premises in the area have also been searched.

Sixty one year-old Sean Brown from Co Derry was abducted from outside the Gaelic football club in Bellaghy eight years ago.

He was driven to a spot near Randalstown where he was shot dead and his body was discovered next to his burnt out car.

The LVF admitted carrying out the killing.

Belfast Telegraph

Victims’ anger as Shankill bomber keeps his freedom

By Chris Thornton
03 August 2005

Shankill bomb victims were today threatening to take Secretary of State Peter Hain to court because he withheld the evidence allegedly showing bomber Sean Kelly was a danger to society.

Kelly was a free man today after Mr Hain failed to meet last night’s deadline for putting forward evidence to justify keeping the killer in jail.

The decision means the Sentence Review Commission has no option but to rubber stamp the IRA bomber’s release.

DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson - who was bringing bomb victims Michelle Williamson and Bobby Baird to meet Mr Hain today - accused the Secretary of State of failing in his duties to protect the public. Both Ms Williamson and Mr Baird lost relatives in the 1993 blast.

Mr Hain ordered Kelly’s arrest in June because he said he had evidence that the bomber - who murdered nine people by bombing Frizzell’s fish shop on the Shankill Road - had become re-involved in terrorism.

But he released him last week, and has kept the evidence against Kelly out of the hands of the Commission, which has the power to revoke Kelly’s release.

“I think it’s disgraceful that the Secretary of State has information in his possession that Sean Kelly has re-engaged in terrorist activity but he has refused to give that information to the statutory body established to look at such matters,” Mr Donaldson said.

“We are seeking legal advice about launching a judicial review because we believe Mr Hain may have failed to fulfil his obligations under the legislation and believe this should be challenged.

“We believe that he may have acted beyond his powers. There is a deep sense of hurt at what the Secretary of State has done in releasing a mass murderer onto the streets.”

Ms Williamson failed in legal action to oppose Kelly’s initial release from prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 2000. The conditions of that release specified that he could be brought back to prison if he returned to terrorism.

He was unexpectedly returned to prison in June, the day after the Orange Order’s Tour of the North parade sparked rioting in Ardoyne.

Mr Hain said last week that he approved Kelly’s detention because the PSNI had shown him evidence indicating that the bomber had become a danger to society.

Kelly spent just over a month in Maghaberry prison. Mr Hain released him on the eve of last Thursday’s IRA statement, which pledged an end to the Provos’ armed campaign.

At that stage, Mr Hain said Kelly was on “temporary release” pending a decision by the Sentence Review Commission. The Commission could have revoked Kelly’s licence if shown evidence that Kelly had become involved in terrorism.

But the Secretary of State decided that the evidence he relied on to return Kelly to jail would remain secret once the IRA made its pledge. He had until last night to show the evidence to the Commission, but did not do so.

Last week Mr Hain indicated that the evidence would not be shown to the Commission. He said the IRA statement “materially affected the evidence that I would have submitted to the Sentence Review Commissioners”.

“I have therefore concluded that I should not submit this material to the SRC,” he said.

PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has confirmed that Mr Hain was shown material concerning Kelly, but said Kelly’s detention was no longer a policing matter.

Throughout Kelly’s return to prison, Sinn Fein suggested there was no evidence against Kelly.

But after Kelly was released, unionists said he had been given his freedom to appease the IRA.

In a separate meeting today DUP leader Ian Paisley was due to confront Mr Hain on the Government’s decision to disband the RIR. Mr Paisley was also due to raise the issue with Tony Blair tomorrow.

Belfast Telegraph

Sir Reg tells of ‘political reality’

By Noel McAdam
03 August 2005

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey today warned the DUP the political reality is that the British and Irish governments will do side deals with republicans.

Sir Reg, who took a lead role in the negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement, said a determined British Government with its own agenda would pursue its own interests “despite what Ian Paisley says or threatens”.

Following a number of Government moves which unionists view as concessions to republicans, Sir Reg said it must be becoming clear to the DUP “that it is not as easy as they thought”.

And the east Belfast MLA also repeated his offer to work with the DUP and “like-minded” unionists to oppose the disbandment of the Royal Irish Regiment.

His overture came as a number of senior party figures, including a recent contender for the party leadership, also urged an end to inter-unionist bickering and rivalry.

Assembly member David McNarry said: “If unionists are serious about unity then now is the time to demonstrate their sincerity by getting together under the umbrella of a joint unionist convention”.

And former Assembly group deputy leader Lord Kilclooney said both parties must stop pointing the figure of accusation against each other.

“It is pathetic and bores the unionist electorate,” said the ex-MP, who suggested a joint delegation to Tony Blair to alert the PM to the “collapse of unionist morale”.

Sir Reg said: “It is a matter of regret but a political reality that frequently side deals are made between republicans and both Governments.

“This happened when we were the lead unionist party and seems to have accelerated under the DUP’s tenure despite promises to end all concessions. ”

But he said unionists could play the blame game back and forward between each other “until the cows come home”.

Sir Reg said: “I will trade blow for blow if I have to. I am not prepared to be the DUP’s whipping boy every time something happens that displeases unionists.

“The DUP is the larger unionist party. They will have to take responsibility upon their own shoulders.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton
03 August 2005

The dismantling of Army posts that started this week means that the Government has now closed more than two-thirds of the military installations that existed in Northern Ireland when the IRA first declared a ceasefire in 1994.

The number of troops has fallen by almost half during the same time period.

As the DUP travelled to London today to protest at the security cuts, Ministry of Defence figures revealed that 33 military sites, including bases, training areas, joint police and Army bases, communication sites and watchtowers, stay in operation. Records show that there were about 19,000 troops using 106 sites shortly before the IRA began its ceasefire.

Around one-third of the sites were closed in the five years that followed and 5,000 troops were shipped out of Northern Ireland.

Three weeks ago, there were 66 military sites closed, with 40 remaining in operation.

Seven more posts have been deemed to be closed since the IRA announced an end to its armed campaign last Thursday, although soldiers remain on those sites to carry out demolition work that is expected to last for months.

On Friday the Army began dismantling three posts in south Armagh, including its base at Forkhill.

Army engineers began working on two more south Armagh installations on Monday, along with watchtowers at Masonic in Londonderry.

Yesterday they started to tear down the observation post on the top two floors of Divis Tower in west Belfast.

The number of troops has fallen to just over 10,000. About 6,000 are regular Army, around 3,000 are members of the Royal Irish Regiment’s home service battalions and approximately 1,000 are RAF personnel.

Five thousand soldiers are due to go in the next two years. The disbandment of the RIR battalions will account for most of those cuts.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams visited Divis yesterday and welcomed the removal of the observation post, saying it “served no useful purpose”.

“We are told that it was there for our protection but people were killed in my constituency office, people were killed in this neighbourhood - all within sight of the squaddies on this tower,” he said.

“Local people will warmly welcome the work which commenced today to remove this spy post from this community.”

BreakingNews.ie

03/08/2005 - 07:11:32

Ian Paisley will today urge the British Government to ban Sinn Féin from any future power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland.

Still seething over a major security scale down in the North and sceptical about the IRA’s pledge to end its armed struggle, the Democratic Unionist leader is to hold talks with Secretary of State Peter Hain in London.

He will also meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair on tomorrow to vent his fury at demilitarisation moves involving the disbandment of Royal Irish Regiment battalions.

Although the government announced the normalisation process in response to the IRA’s decision to abandon violence for politics, Mr Paisley refused to be convinced.

He vowed: “The unionist people are not to be duped.

“It will be my business and the business of my colleagues to lay it on the line to both the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister that there can be no place in any future government of Northern Ireland for IRA/Sinn Féin.

“As the representatives of the majority of the Ulster population, we will not be engaged in any negotiations with that aim.

“The aim of the Belfast Agreement to put terrorists into government will not take place and if the Government, allied with IRA/Sinn Féin and the Dublin Government, press forward with such measures, then they will have to face the righteous indignation of the unionist population.”

Unionists have been stunned at the speed of the demilitarisation process.

Soldiers have begun dismantling army watchtowers in south Armagh, Derry and west Belfast as the government responds to the unprecedented IRA declaration.

But decommissioning chief General John de Chastelain, who has had fresh talks with an IRA representative, has returned home to Canada – dimming hopes of an imminent weapons destruction.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has urged Mr Paisley to enter new political negotiations in a bid to revive the Stormont Assembly.

But the DUP leader appeared in no mood for compromise.

He insisted: “There is no way forward for this province to have peace until all terrorists are banned from its government and only democrats hold and control the levers of power.

“Into their counsels, the unionists of Ulster will never enter nor will they gain their goal of a united Ireland.”

Socialist Worker

by Chris Bambery

“The IRA put the gun into Irish politics,” is the message pumped out ceaselessly by politicians and the media.

Yet the truth is rather different. The gun was always present in Northern Ireland — from the state’s very inception in 1921, the police were always armed.

In August 1969 the Provisional IRA did not exist — in fact there were no effective Republican military organisations in Northern Ireland. But that changed after 12 August 1969, when Derry exploded in anger.

The Unionist government had decided to allow Protestant supremacists to march through Derry city centre, despite overwhelming opposition in a city where the majority were Catholics. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) poured into the city to ensure the march went ahead.

The mood in the Bogside area of Derry was angry. The previous October a civil rights demonstration had been brutally beaten off the street by the same police. In April police had burst into a house and beaten an unarmed man to death.

Residents of the Bogside erected barricades to stop the march entering their community. The police baton charged, but they were repulsed with stones.

That night they attacked again and entered the Bogside before being driven back by petrol bombs. The area was under siege.

On 13 August police fired live rounds, wounding three people — the first shots fired in Derry.

The next day British home secretary, Labour’s James Callaghan, received a phone call from the Northern Ireland cabinet requesting that British troops be deployed in Derry.

At 4pm on 14 August British troops entered the Bogside. For residents their immediate reaction was relief. But in Belfast things were turning even nastier.

The RUC spearheaded a Protestant mob in an all?out assault on the Catholic Lower Falls area of the city. Police opened fire with heavy machine guns mounted on armoured cars.

Over two nights eight people were killed, 500 Catholic homes burnt out and 1,500 Catholic families forced to flee the area.

Republican activists in the city came together in the aftermath of this pogrom to create the Provisional IRA. The overwhelming motivation was to ensure that never again would Catholic areas be defenceless.

For 50 years Britain had presided over a state it had carved out in the north eastern corner of Ireland on the basis of a sectarian head count that would ensure a permanent Unionist majority.

Catholics were second class citizens in Northern Ireland, discriminated against in jobs, housing and education. Electoral boundaries were rigged to ensure Unionists ran towns like Derry, despite them having Catholic majorities.

The security of the state was guaranteed by an armed all-Protestant police force and by repressive laws that won the admiration of the racist rulers of South Africa.

By agreeing to send in troops, the Labour government also decided to prop up this rotten system.

That policy held for a quarter of a century. The Provisional IRA swelled into the most efficient guerilla force in the developed world, enjoying mass support in Northern Ireland.

Their best recruitment sergeant was the British government. In a long catalogue of state repression three events stand out.

In the early hours of 9 August 1971 hundreds of Catholics were dragged from their homes to be interned indefinitely without trial.

On Bloody Sunday — 30 January 1972 — the crack paratroop regiment was deployed in Derry with orders to flush out the IRA.

A massive civil rights demonstration was taking place and the IRA had removed its weapons from the area. British paras opened fire killing 13 unarmed, innocent civilians.

Finally in May 1981 Bobby Sands died on hunger strike in prison. As an IRA volunteer he had demanded recognition as a political prisoner. Nine other prisoners died on hunger strike.

On each of these three occasions, membership and support for the IRA swelled.

From the Irish Republican Information Service (no. 28)

Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie
Date: Lúnasa / August 1, 2005

Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom

http://saoirse.rr.nu

FACTS ABOUT REPUBLICAN PRISONERS IN MAGHABERRY JAIL

• 31 Republican prisoners currently imprisoned in Maghaberry jail.

• PSNI/RUC approval required before prisoners permitted on Republican landing.

• Constant use of strip-searching to humiliate prisoners contrary to international law. One prisoner received 31 strip searches and 1,135 rub-down searches in a six-month period.

• Prisoners locked in their cells for alternately 21/23 hours per day.

• Controlled movement with only three prisoners permitted out of their cells on the landing at any one time and prisoners accompanied at all times by prison officers moving from cells to shows/gym.

• No access to Open University and serious restrictions on education facilities.
• Abuse of the sniffer dogs to force closed family visits which take place through Perspex screen.
• Denial of compassionate paroles for family and religious occasions.

• Parole for funerals of immediate family members often restricted to six hours or less.

• Prisoners attacked by loyalists while at legal visits.

• The power of the Governor to punish a prisoner by taking away remission was found unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights. After Republican prisoners were separated the power was reintroduced by the British government, but only for separated prisoners.

• The Prison Rules have been amended to take away the right of separated prisoners to spend their time in prison constructively.

• New powers were also introduced allowing Republican prisoners to be transferred to England.

• Access to doctor available only once a week.

• Interference with correspondence.

• Denial of Irish language and culture rights.

8. WEXFORD DEMO FOR POLITICAL STATUS

ON July 23 last the Pádraig Ó Pearaill Cumann of Republican Sinn Féin in Wexford town held a demonstration to support the entitlement of full political status for Irish political prisoners in Maghaberry prison.

It captured the interest of not only the locals but the huge influx of holiday makers to the town over the weekend, which included Spanish tourists where views of a similar interest were shared regarding Basque ETA prisoners who are being held in Spanish and French jails.

The prize for the largest audience would have to go to the local Special Branch of the 26-County police who swarmed the demonstration in typical fashion. Regardless of their presence Republicans on duty remained calm and held their positions. To conclude events Robbie Kearns of Republican Sinn Féin gave a short statement.

He said: “Today we highlighted support, solidarity and our pledge of 100% commitment to achieve full political status for Irish Republican prisoners currently being held captive in Portlaoise prison and Maghaberry jail in Co Antrim.

“Over decades the Free State government in Dublin have done their utmost to criminalise Ireland’s struggle for freedom. They have tried this on with Irish Republicans from the days of Wolfe Tone, Bobby Sands and his fellow comrades in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh to the present day.

“We will remind them that they failed then and they will fail again, such is the strength of Republican resistance to any form of British rule in Ireland or attempts to criminalise them in their efforts to finally rid the tyrant from our shores.

“We won’t let them, Gerry Adams or the Provos, who let us not forget signed away political status in 1998 in the failed British Stormont Agreement, deter us in our efforts for full political status for our prisoners. They are prisoners of war not criminals and we in Republican Sinn Féin are determined in our efforts to ensure that their entitlement to full political status is achieved.

“We remind them that, to paraphrase Terence MacSwiney’s words, it is not whose who can inflict the most but those who can endure the most, will finally win this war. May our prisoner’s unconquerable spirit be of inspiration to us all. Victory to the prisoners.”