The deaths of prisoners will be investigated by an independent prison ombudsman, prisons minister Shaun Woodward has announced.
Mr Woodward said the new system would give “greater transparency and ensure that the human rights of prisoners are protected”.
The new arrangements will apply to all deaths in Northern Ireland prisons from 1 September.
Prisoner Ombudsman Brian Coulter took up office in May.
Previous Whiterock parade some years back
The decision to route a postponed Orange Order parade through a disused factory site has been criticised.
The Whiterock parade was delayed by the Order in June, in protest at putting it through the former Mackies site instead of allowing it through Workman Avenue.
North Belfast DUP MP Nigel Dodds said the Parades Commission’s decision to re-route it caused him “anguish”.
Nationalist Springfield Road residents had opposed the parade, due to take place next Saturday.
In its determination on the parade the commission cites a possible adverse effect on community relations if the march was allowed on the Order’s preferred route.
“The commission has cause to believe that should the parade process the entirety of its notified route, there will be an adverse effect on community relations and a potential for public disorder,” it said.
Mr Dodds said the decision “rewarded intransigence and the threat of violence”.
“Over the summer the Orange Order and others have displayed absolutely no violence or provocation,” he said.
“The Order and its followers have been subjected to intense violent attacks but have not even responded in time.”
He said the effort to achieve this was being “cast aside by the Parades Commission through this disgraceful decision”.
The Orange Order has said that it will not comment on the ruling until after it has met to discuss it.
Published: 2 September, 2005
Sinn Féin North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly has described the response of the leaders of the UUP and DUP to the campaign of attacks against Catholics being orchestrated by unionist paramilitaries as ‘a disgrace’ and urged Reg Empey and Ian Paisley Snr to use their considerable influence with paramilitaries to end the sectarian violence.
Mr Kelly said:
“The response of both the leaders to campaign of attacks against Catholics being orchestrated by unionist paramilitaries is a disgrace. On a daily basis Catholics homes, schools, businesses and places of worship are being attacked.
“As leader of the UUP Reg Empey met the IMC not about the 100+ attacks or the five murders carried out by unionist paramilitaries but about the IRA. As leader of the DUP Ian Paisley threatens to break off contact with the Irish government and is not acting to resolve sectarian violence in his own constituency.
“Reg Empey and Ian Paisley need to take their heads out of the sand and use their considerable influence to bring an end to these sectarian attacks.
“It is time that both began to show leadership on the issue of sectarianism. There is a political vacuum that is being filled, as it always is, by unionist sectarian violence. The failure to engage in the dialogue required to get the political process back on track is a failure of leadership.
“Sinn Féin are ready and willing to engage in getting the political process up and running. Continued delay by unionist leaders only creates the space and political cover for unionist paramilitaries to continue their sectarian campaign.” ENDS
Smash attack on home - Catholic family’s home attacked
A Catholic family who live in the Whitewell area had their front window smashed by a loyalist gang on Tuesday night.
The attack on the house follows a sharp increase in attacks on the community in the past month.
A PSNI spokeswoman said detectives have yet to establish a motive for the attack.
Earlier in the week the home of a nationalist family at Old Throne Park, which is also in the Whitewell area, was attacked with paint bombs.
North Belfast Sinn Féin assemblyman Gerry Kelly has requested a meeting with Irish Foreign Minister, Dermot Ahern, to discuss the situation.
“Over the past number of weeks the sectarian campaign being waged against Catholics and nationalists has intensified,” the MLA said.
“It has not met with a robust response from the PSNI. In fact the contrary would appear to be the position.
“Instead of confronting those organisations responsible, too often the PSNI has publicly failed to even acknowledge that the motivation behind this campaign is sectarian.
“In doing so they are providing cover for those behind the nightly attacks and sending out a message that there is a toleration of loyalist violence and an acceptance that these attacks will continue without hindrance.”
Gerry Kelly said the fact no one has appeared in court in relation to recent attacks on nationalists is proof the PSNI is not doing its best to address the situation.
SDLP Deputy Mayor of Belfast Pat Convery has condemned the attack along with the weekend petrol and paint bomb attacks at Greymount Park and Old Throne Park.
“There is no sense or justification for anyone to throw petrol bombs. In the past we’ve seen the death and destruction they can cause, and it really is shameful that there are still some people in Belfast intent on raising tensions and causing serious damage and suffering,” he said.
“These wicked attacks must stop and they must stop now.
“I appeal to the local community to fully co-operate with police investigating these attacks.”
Bleach Green family attacked again
Sectarian thugs have revisited the McKay family home in Bleach Green Avenue in Newtownabbey.
Marie McKay who lives with her daughter Charlotte was also the subject of an attack in July when they had their van, an essential part of a painting and decorating business, set on fire.
A boat and a jeep belonging to the family were also destroyed in a previous incendiary attack.
The Catholic family, who have lived in the predominantly Protestant estate for nearly 30 years, have now been subjected to a paint bomb attack.
Twenty-year-old Charlotte had been at the kitchen sink when the attackers struck.
“I was just washing a few cups before I went to bed and was startled by what sounded like a scuffle in our back.
“The next thing I heard was the smashing of the paint bombs against the wall and window.
“I was directly in front of the window. It was really frightening.”
Mrs McKay is bewildered as to why her home and family are being singled out.
“We have lived here since the estate was built. I have never had any problems with my neighbours. They were the first to come after these attacks. You could not ask for better people to live with.
“I reared my seven children in this house. They are all married now except for Charlotte who still lives with me.
“Some of my children are married to protestants and we have always employed protestants in the family business.
“Why are we being picked on?”
SDLP Councillor Noreen McClelland has expressed her concern that there has been another sectarian attack and stated: “Obviously our thoughts are with this family having been attacked once again.
“These attacks are totally despicable and the upset and distress caused to the families is simply immeasurable.
“Those who carried out this attack in Bleach Green have no respect for the family or their property and I totally condemn this vicious, unprovoked, sectarian attack.”
Call for more security after latest Old Throne attacks
Families who live in the Old Throne housing estate, which backs onto Hazelwood Integrated Primary School, have called for tighter security and want a buffer zone created between the school and their homes.
Residents of the estate, which is just off the Whitewell Road, say that youths from White City are breaking into the primary school and using its grounds as a base to launch attacks.
The latest attacks on the homes came in the early hours of Monday morning when two houses were attacked.
John Meredith was up late watching a film on TV and immediately after he switched off his living room lights the attack was launched, he said.
“It was a total shock. I had just switched the light of and I heard two very loud bangs. At first I thought it was a blast bomb or something like that. The attackers are obviously very determined. They lay in wait until the lights went out.
“It was a stinking night outside, it was blowing a gale and the rain was bouncing. Why anybody would even be out on a night like that, never mind lying in a field awaiting their chance to attack us is beyond me.”
Mr Meredith’s wife Kellie and two children Megan (9) and Darragh (3) were asleep at the time.
The paint bombs hit the patio window smashing the double glazing and causing substantial damage to the house.
John Meredith called for more protection.
“The attacks come from the school grounds and have been ongoing for months now. Something needs to be done about the security arrangements.
“There is a notice saying that there is 24-hour guarding, that is joke I have never seen any security guards patrolling in all the time I have lived here.’’
A simultaneous attack was carried out on his next-door neighbours with the paint hitting an upstairs bedroom window just feet away from Ann Marie Brown’s children’s bunk beds.
“I really fear for my family’s lives if these had have been petrol bombs or anything more lethal someone would have been killed,” said Mrs Brown.
SF Councillor Tierna Cunningham said the attacks were part of a continuing sectarian campaign and has slammed both the attacks in Old Throne and Graymount.
“The Whitewell has seen a long list of attacks against nationalists since before Christmas.
“Clearly a pattern has emerged here and it is one that has to be brought to an end.
“I have appealed before, and I am appealing yet again, for those with influence in the loyalist community to do whatever is in their power to bring attacks in the Whitewell to an end.
“These attacks are wrong from whatever section of the community they come from and need to be brought to an end immediately.
“Sunday night saw three homes being attacked in Old Throne and Graymount. Those who are carrying out the attacks need to desist now before somebody is seriously injure or killed.
“Some residents have raised concerns about attacks like this being launched from Hazelwood’s grounds, but my understanding is that Hazelwood has 24-hour security and it should be examined in order to help stop these attacks.
“However this should not deflect from where these attacks are coming from, or who is behind them.
“Ultimately it is up to loyalist and unionist political representatives responsible, to do what they can to help stop attacks being launched from the school grounds.
“Sinn Féin has been vociferous in its opposition to such attacks and have been working actively to bring them to an end.
“What we need to see now is Unionist political leaders taking the same action not just in North Belfast but right across the North of Ireland.
“They sit with loyalist paramilitaries on forums and need to be using these platforms to put whatever pressure they have to influence loyalist paramilitaries and help end sectarian attacks.”
No other way says mum
Young mother Caitriona Savage says there is “no other way but to go” after her home was the target of a paint-bomb attack at around 7pm last Saturday night.
Ms Savage had just finished feeding her 10-month-old daughter Aimee in the kitchen and made her way into her living room when she heard a large bang at the rear of her rented house.
Aimee’s toy car and clothes on the washing line were destroyed in the attack although no-one was hurt.
Ms Savage says that she saw up to 12 men, aged between 18 to their early 20s from the upstairs window of her home.
She added: “five or six paint bombs were thrown” but only two hit.
The young mother has lived at the property for a year and a half and says this is the fourth attack on her home.
She has begun packing up her belongings and is insistent on leaving saying: “I haven’t eaten since it happened, I don’t know who else to turn to.”
Brick attack on home
A mother of four has said she is going to leave her home after it was attacked this week.
A brick was thrown through the hall window of her house at Deerpark Road on Monday night at 10.30pm.
The Catholic woman who lives in the house with her four children has said she now intends to move out.
The woman, who did not want to be identified, has lived in the house for the past year.
She said her house had been attacked twice before and she believes both incidents were sectarian.
The PSNI said it is treating the incident as criminal damage, and that enquiries are continuing.
Councillor for the area Danny Lavery said he condemned the attack.
“I would call on unionist politicians to control unionist paramilitaries. It seems like its almost ethnic cleansing that’s going on here, and the British Government and Secretary of State seem to have their heads in the sand.”
Journalist:: Staff Reporter
The 33-year-old father-of-two was stabbed near the city centre
A man accused of murdering Robert McCartney outside a Belfast bar in January has been released on bail.
Terence Davison, 49, from Stanfield Place in the Markets area, was ordered not to have contact with Mr McCartney’s family.
Mr Justice Morgan made the ruling after a Crown lawyer said they had been subjected to threats.
Mr Davison was also ordered not to contact the family of Brendan Devine who was injured in the same incident.
A Crown lawyer said it would be difficult to oppose the application in view of the fact that Mr Davison’s co-accused, James McCormick, was freed on bail last week.
Mr McCormick was charged with attempting to murder Mr Devine.
The judge fixed personal bail at £2,500 with two cash sureties of £2,500 and directed that Mr Davison must live at an address handed into court, report to police daily and surrender his passport.
Mr McCartney’s sisters and partner have held a number of meetings with high profile politicians in their campaign for justice over the killing.
In March, they met US President George Bush at the White House in Washington.
They have also held separate meetings with US special envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss and the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.
A court artist’s drawing of Sean Gerard Hoey
Omagh bomb suspect Sean Hoey has been committed for trial for the murders of the 29 people killed in the 1998 Real IRA atrocity.
Mr Hoey, 36, of Molly Road, Jonesborough, denies the charges and others connected to more Real IRA attacks including one in 2001.
Belfast magistrate Desmond Perry said the south Armagh man had a case to answer on 58 charges.
He dismissed three others. A date for the trial has not yet been set.
The charges which were dismissed were connected to an attack in west Belfast.
“The Crown invited me to look at the cumulative effect of the huge quantity of evidence that the defendant was the man who manufactured these 14 devices, the most devastating of which decimated the centre of Omagh and resulted in the tragic deaths of 29 innocent people,” the magistrate said.
“I am satisfied there is a case to answer.”
Mr Hoey stood expressionless in the dock and shook his head mouthing the word “no” when asked if he had anything to say.
02 September 2005 10:13
A move by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny to find a legal compromise to help bring about the release of the five Mayo men jailed for contempt of court over their opposition to the Corrib Gas pipeline has been rejected by Shell Ireland.
Following a visit to the men at Cloverhill Prison, Mr Kenny said a legal precedent dating back to the 1970s might offer hope of a compromise.
However, a spokesman for Shell said the case in question varied in many ways from the current one.
The five men have now been in jail for two months. So far, they have refused to purge their contempt and Shell has refused to lift an injunction it has taken against them.
The Fine Gael leader asked Shell to examine a legal precedent based on a 1977 High Court case which he said might offer the possibility of a compromise between the company and the men.
He said that case had drawn a distinction between criminal and civil contempt.
He suggested to Shell that, as work on the project had been temporarily halted, it should consent to the men’s release while leaving open the possibility of seeking the same order if the need arose in the future.
Reacting to the suggestion, a spokesman for Shell said the 1977 case being cited by Mr Kenny varied in many ways from the current one and the company believed a legal impediment to removing the injunction remained.
Efforts to bring about the release of the five men are to continue but, despite several initiatives in recent weeks, there appears to be no sign of an early breakthrough in the controversy.
The Alliance Party wants the government to make changes to the scheme for dealing with so-called “on the runs”.
Legislation is due to be enacted this autumn on people suspected of terrorism who have not been brought to court and those who have fled prison.
However, Alliance leader David Ford has said it contains anomalies.
“There was nothing in the IRA statement in July about those who they have exiled from Northern Ireland,” Mr Ford said.
“We believe that the first thing that should happen is the secretary of state should have to certify that any threat against exiles has been lifted before an organisation’s on the runs should be allowed home.”
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain announced the government would bring forward legislation on the issue after the IRA said it was ending its armed campaign in July.
Mr Ford said that another major weakness in what the government is proposing is that on the runs would not have to appear in court.
“An appearance in court would give some limited recognition of the offences committed, and may give some victims a limited sense of justice,” Mr Ford said.
The aunt of a north Belfast man killed during a loyalist feud has criticised the PUP leader for not supporting a council motion condemning his murder.
David Ervine left Belfast City Council chamber before the vote on a motion condemning the killing of Craig McCausland.
Cathy McIlvenny said Sinn Fein members supported her campaign for justice.
Mr McCausland, 20, was murdered on 11 July by three men who burst into his home at Dhu Varren Park.
Sinn Fein councillors remained in the chamber during the debate but abstained from voting.
Ms McIlvenny, who was in the public gallery during the debate, said: “What would concern me… was the fact that David Ervine decided to leave the chamber and didn’t take a vote on the motion that was put forward.
Meeting agreed
“I’d like David Ervine to condemn Craig’s murder. If he can’t do it through his political grouping, then as a person, just to condemn it as a murder.”
Afterwards, Mr Ervine agreed to a meeting with the McCausland family.
Asked if he condemned the murder, Mr Ervine said he could “condemn anything you want me to condemn”.
“In real terms, you would have to worry about whether I meant it or not,” he said.
“I condemn all of it, it’s tragic, it’s shameful and I can tell you, eleven years after ceasefire, no one is more wounded and gutted than me and people in the Progress Unionist Party who, I think, have risked life and tried really hard.”
Mr McCausland’s family had written to city councillors asking for their help in bringing his killers to justice.
His death was linked to loyalist feuding, however his family and the police said he was not a member of any paramilitary organisation.
The 20-year-old’s partner and her two children, aged nine and six, were in the house when the was murdered.
Although there have been arrests, no-one has been charged over the murder.
Loyalists are believed to have been responsible for a petrol bomb attack close to Donegall Pass police station in south Belfast.
Five devices were thrown at a car park where officers leave their cars. No-one was injured.
Earlier loyalist and nationalist youths clashed in the Cromac Street area.
They threw stones, bottles, paint and other missiles. Police and community workers spent most of the evening trying to keep the two sides apart.
About 100 people gathered in lower Donegall Pass area and a second group assembled in the lower Ormeau Road area.
Motorists were asked to avoid the area during the trouble.
There has been a petrol bomb attack in east Belfast.
Shortly after midnight a Vauxhall Vectra car was set alight outside a house in Glen Lea Park in the Garnerville area.
The car was destoyed and damage was caused to the front door and the window of the house. A woman and children who were in the house escaped unhurt.
Police have appealed for anyone who witnessed the incident to get in contact with them.
Ulster Unionist councillor Jim Rodgers said he hoped it was not the start of more violence in the area.
“This family clearly had a fortunate escape and and those responsible must be hunted down,” he said.
There has been a petrol bomb attack in east Belfast.
Shortly after midnight a Vauxhall Vectra car was set alight outside a house in Glen Lea Park in the Garnerville area.
The car was destoyed and damage was caused to the front door and the window of the house. A woman and children who were in the house escaped unhurt.
Police have appealed for anyone who witnessed the incident to get in contact with them.
Ulster Unionist councillor Jim Rodgers said he hoped it was not the start of more violence in the area.
“This family clearly had a fortunate escape and and those responsible must be hunted down,” he said.
Thu 1 Sep 2005
Photo by Mark Wilson
• New Orleans mayor estimates death toll in the thousands as city abandoned
• 110 confirmed dead in Mississippi while rooftop rescues continue elsewhere
• Looters take advantage of confusion; shark reported in New Orleans street
BY SHANE Mac THOMÁIS
1 September, 2005
Photo: The historical significance of 16 Moore Street hasn’t been forgotten
At eight o clock on Friday evening 28 April 1916, with the GPO engulfed in flames, the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic and IRA men and women retreated from the building and endeavoured to make there way to the Four Courts’ Garrison. They left the GPO by the side entrance in Henry Street and made there way under constant sniper fire to Moore Lane.
When they reached Moore Street they entered number five, Dunne’s Butchers, and immediately began tunnelling from one house to another. The next morning, Saturday, they quickly realised that the wounded James Connolly, who had been placed on a panel door as a makeshift stretcher would not fit through the openings they had made. The men then placed Connolly in blankets and bundled him in great agony from house to house. When they reached number 16, Plunkets, a poultry shop, they placed him upstairs in the back room.
This small room, in a small house, in a small market street, in the heart of the capital city was to be the last place where the members of Provisional Irish Government held their council of war. Pádraig Mac Piarais, Joseph Plunkett, Tom Clarke and Seán Mac Diarmada all took their places around James Connolly and discussed what to do, while Elizabeth O’Farrell, Winifred Carney and Julie Grenan tended the wounded. At the meeting a plan was put forward to rush the British barricade on Parnell Street but when Tom Clarke made his way down to the last house occupied by the IRA on Moore Street he simply shook his head and said that they would never succeed.
Tom Clarke returned to the council of war and reported what he had found and the meeting continued in hushed tones. Pádraig Mac Piarais who, through a shattered window had seen three men carrying white flags shot down, decided that they must surrender. Connolly agreed that the imminent risk of sacrificing further lives must not be tolerated. The leaders argued, wrangled and pleaded to convince themselves that the fight could be continued. But bitter reality just could not be ignored. The frail, grey-haired 58-year-old Fenian, Tom Clarke, openly wept at the final decision.
Conveying the message to the enemy was entrusted to the dauntless Elizabeth O’Farrell. With Captain O’Reillys handkerchief tied to a piece of stick, she passed through the doorway of Number 15, bravely walking down the street of the dead. The British military assisted her over the barricade and conveyed her to Tom Clarke’s little shop in Parnell Street. There, General Lowe demanded that within a half an hour she must return with Pádraig Mac Piarais to the Moore Street barricade, insisting that the only terms acceptable to him was unconditional surrender. It was 2.30 when Pearse shook each Volunteer’s hand in final farewell.
In his heavy military overcoat and Boer shaped hat he marched down towards the barricade, Elizabeth O’Farrell by his side. Here he was received by General Lowe, to whom he handed his sword, pistol and ammunition, also his tin canteen which contained two large onions. On the footpath, outside of Byrne’s shop at the corner of Moore Street an old wooden bench was brought out from the shop, here Pearse stooped and signed the document of surrender which had been placed upon it.
Elizabeth O’Farrell agreed to their joint request to deliver the documents of surrender to the various Dublin outposts. Without speaking and with a smile he grasped her hand for the last time.
Stunned
At Moore Street headquarters the Volunteers were stunned on learning the terms of the surrender. Most of them insisted on fighting to the death. But Connolly was adamant; his boys must not be burned to death.
Volunteer Séamus Devoy, nephew of the Fenian John Devoy, returned to number 16 informing them that he had made the necessary arrangements to have the Parnell Street barricade opened to receive Connolly. The rest of the men began to gather in the street. Filing up and forming ranks, with sloped arms, the first group marched off under Captain O’Reilly picking up any stragglers on the way. Next, Willie Pearse headed the main body waving his white flag. Close behind him walked Tom Clarke and towards the rear walked Seán Mac Diarmada and Joseph Plunkett, supported by his brave comrades Julia Grenan and Winifred Carney.
Leaving 16 Moore Street, the temporary headquarters of the Provisional Government, marched these weary warriors, to a prison cell or grave. They were the spark which lit the fuse that will continue to burn until Ireland is united and free.
Today Moore Street caters for a new Ireland, an Ireland where citizens of the world come to for a better way of life. Connolly, the internationalist would be proud. But in the middle of this new Ireland, an Ireland created by the vision of the men and women who held their council there, number 16 is slowly falling into ruin. Developers want to reduce it to rubble and build a shopping centre in its place. We must save 16 Moore Street.
Rival crowds gathered in south Belfast
There have been disturbances just outside Belfast city centre, police have said.
Rival gangs of loyalist and nationalist youths clashed in the vicinity of Cromac Street, near the Markets area.
They threw stones, bottles and paint at each other. Police and community workers worked to keep the sides apart.
Police were also targeted but the area was later described as being quiet. Five petrol bombs were thrown into Donegall Pass police station.
About 100 people gathered in lower Donegall Pass area and a second group assembled in the lower Ormeau Road area.
Motorists were asked to avoid the area during the trouble.
'So venceremos, beidh bua againn eigin lá eigin. Sealadaigh abú.'
--Bobby Sands
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