SAOIRSE32

An Phoblacht

Photo: Unionist youths riot

THE PSNI came under increasing political pressure this week after their apparent reluctance to confront continuing violence by unionist paramilitaries. In the face of serious rioting orchestrated by the UVF, PSNI officers remained in their vehicles rather than challenge the rioters. Commenting, Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly compared the eagerness with which the PSNI deployed water cannon against North Belfast nationalists “within seconds of one golf ball being thrown” to the hours of unchallenged serious rioting by unionists.

Violence erupted onto the streets of Belfast on Monday around noon, following a number of raids in the Greater Shankill area after UVF gunmen appeared in the Shankill. The unionist paramilitary show of strength took place during a march in honour of sectarian killer and UVF member Brian Robinson at the weekend.

Four hours of rioting followed the arrest of a man in the Woodvale area after the discovery of a gun linked to a unionist paramilitary display that had accompanied Saturday’s parade. A mob of over 100 youths pelted the PSNI with stones and petrol bombs in Disraeli Street, Parkview Terrace and Cambrai Street. Fire engines called to the scene were also attacked.

Vehicles were hijacked and set alight during rioting that lasted several hours. One hijacked vehicle, a Coca-Cola lorry, was looted before being burnt out. A gang of masked rioters smashed the lorry open and began to distribute the drink. Teenagers running with armloads of coke bottles and mineral water were seen passing the booty to adults who deposited the goods in houses and car boots.

Monday’s violence was the third major incident to occur in the area within three days, including a riot involving a 50-strong mob in Enfield Street on Saturday night. The PSNI defended their lack of action, claiming that their decision not to deploy plastic bullets and water cannon (the latter was used eventually on one occasion) followed talks with community representatives.

The violence is being seen as orchestrated by the UVF in an effort to thwart further raids and arrests. Media reports claimed that teenagers were being actively encouraged to riot after receiving text messages on their mobile phones urging them to take part in further rioting.

Unionist paramilitaries have been blamed for a number of shootings at the weekend, including the shooting of two 21-year-old men in Tynan Drive on the outskirts of North Belfast and a similar gun attack the previous night in the Areema Drive area of Dunmurry.

RTE

09 September 2005 14:32

A man accused of murdering the Belfast man, Robert McCartney, outside a pub in the city last January has been remanded on bail.

Terrence Davidson, who is 49 and from Stainfield Place in the Markets area of Belfast, will appear again before Belfast Magistrates Court in November.

He was released earlier this month on bail, but ordered to have no contact with the McCartney family.

Mr McCartney died after he was stabbed and beaten outside Magennis’s Bar in Belfast city centre on 30 January.

Since the killing, Mr McCartney’s sisters and his fiancée, Bridgeen Hagans, have maintained that IRA members were involved and have campaigned for the killers to be brought to justice.

BreakingNews.ie

09/09/2005 - 13:39:53

The PSNI has appealed for calm at a contentious Orange Order parade in Belfast tomorrow.

The march was originally due to go ahead in June, but was postponed when the Parades Commission banned it from the nationalist Springfield Road.

Orangmen are now planning to hold the march tomorrow, but the commission has insisted that the restrictions imposed in June must still be honoured.

Unionists and loyalists have reacted angrily to the decision and there are growing fears that paramilitaries will use the occasion to engage in street violence.

PSNI assistant chief constable Duncan McCausland said today that the police would be enforcing the commission’s ruling, rejecting claims by DUP leader Ian Paisley that his officers would not be able to handle the situation.

Mr McCausland urged loyalist paramilitaries to stay away from the march and called on unionist political, community and church leaders to use their influence to prevent violence.

BreakingNews.ie

09/09/2005 - 15:50:11

British government funding to help the Omagh families take civil action against those they believe were responsible for the Real IRA bomb which killed 29 people has been put on hold, a court was told today.

The Northern Ireland High Court heard that Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer accepted a judgment last month that he had overstepped his powers and the mechanism for providing some £800,000 (€1.18m) to help the civil action was unlawful.

At a resumed hearing Judge Mr Justice Coghlin was told by Bernard McCloskey, QC, the Lord Chancellor accepted the court’s judgment and acknowledged that he must deal with the court’s concerns.

Mr McCloskey said the Lord Chancellor would do so by revoking his direction to the Legal Services Commission – under which the money was paid – within 14 days.

The Lord Chancellor also pledged the LSC would make no further payments to the families over the coming 14 days, said Mr McCloskey.

Sums in excess of £400,000 (€592,000) have already been handed over by the LSC to help pay for the legal preparation of the civil action.

There was no suggestion in court that money already paid would have to be returned or the remainder would not be paid eventually.

The Lord Chancellor will look at ways of introducing new legislation to legalise the payments to meet the judgment of the court, said Mr McCloskey.

He added: “That is going to require some reflection and may require some consultation and liaison with other government ministers.”

The judge said he was grateful for the time the Lord Chancellor had taken to deal with the issue.

He said he was satisfied with the undertakings given on behalf of the Lord Chancellor and there was therefore no need for him to make an order declaring the Access to Justice Order passed in 2003 – under which the money was paid - unlawful.

The legal action was started by convicted Real IRA godfather Michael McKevitt - one of those facing the civil action.

He challenged the legality of the British government aiding the Omagh families financially while he was refused legal aid to contest their action.

McKevitt had initially been granted legal aid to fight the civil action but it was revoked after he was jailed in the Republic of Ireland on Real IRA changes.

McKevitt, 54, from Blackrock, Co Louth, and four others – Seamus Daly, Seamus McKenna, Liam Campbell and Colm Murphy – are being sued for £14m (€20m) by the Omagh families.

BBC

Two Catholic churches in County Down have been daubed with sectarian graffiti.

St Patrick’s Church, Dromore Street, and St Teresa’s Church, Scarva Road, in Banbridge, were both targeted in the overnight attack.

Council workers have spent the morning attempting to clean off the slogans. It is understood both churches were targeted by hoax bombers last year.

Superintendent Mervyn Waddell said he was “disgusted” at the attack.

“Families have enjoyed good community relations for years and we will not let a small minority ruin that,” he said.

“Those responsible have not only caused unnecessary upset to the local clergy and parishioners, but have also shown disrespect for their own community.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton
09 September 2005

Tomorrow’s controversial Orange parade in west Belfast is becoming increasingly volatile, DUP leader Ian Paisley said today as he continued to try overturning the Parades Commission decision to reroute the march.

Mr Paisley was expecting to meet Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde today to discuss policing the Whiterock Parade after the Commission said it would not review its decision to divert the postponed march.

Mr Paisley and UUP leader Sir Reg Empey spoke jointly to Secretary of State Peter Hain by video link yesterday, but Mr Hain told the unionist chiefs that he does not have the power to change the Commission’s ruling.

The Commission also defended its decision to reroute the parade, saying it had only been diverted by 100 metres.

The march was originally scheduled to take place in June, but the Orange Order decided to postpone the parade - eventually pushing the marching season into extra time - when the Commission would not approve their original route.

Instead the Orangemen applied to march tomorrow. But the Commission stuck to its original ruling, which keeps marchers off part of the Springfield Road.

Instead of entering the road from Workman’s Avenue, the Commission said the marchers should go through the former Mackie’s site.

The Commission also said bands would be permitted to play tunes on the Springfield Road, a relaxation of previous conditions.

After yesterday’s discussions with unionist leaders, Mr Hain said he has “no legal authority in this situation to change the decision of the Parades Commission.

“I am legally bound to respect their independence,” he added.

Daily Ireland

Jarlath Kearney

More people in the North took their lives through suicide than were killed during thirty-five years of political conflict, Daily Ireland can reveal.
According to shocking new figures released by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, a total of 4,451 people died through suicide between 1969 and 2002 in the North.
Sinn Féin president and West Belfast MP Gerry Adams obtained the figures through the North’s freedom of information provisions.
The revelations come as health minister and Tánaiste Mary Harney prepares to launch a so-called “national strategy for action on suicide prevention” in Dublin this morning. Despite being billed as a “national strategy”, the new ten-year plan stops at the Border and only covers the 26 counties.
In the North, after months of sustained public pressure NIO health minister Shaun Woodward commissioned a new suicide prevention strategy to be completed by the autumn. The NIO strategy is only expected to cover the six counties.
A wide variety of political representatives and community activists from across Ireland – alongside relatives of those who have taken their own lives – have highlighted the need for an integrated all-Ireland approach to tackle the issue of suicide.
In 2004, a total of 584 recorded deaths across Ireland were attributed to suicide. Since the start of 2005, a disproportionately high number of suicides have taken place in deprived areas of north and west Belfast.
Speaking to Daily Ireland last night, Mr Adams said:
“With World Suicide Awareness Day this Saturday, the official statistics which have now been disclosed make a compelling case – which I have been making for some time – for suicide prevention to become a strategic priority for the health departments in Belfast and Dublin.
“It is a measure of the human cost of suicide in Ireland that more people in the six counties have taken their own lives through suicide than were killed during the conflict since 1969. That does not even take into account the hidden trauma of families bereaved and those who have survived suicide.
“The official statistics also reveal that during the last decade, more people in the North of Ireland have died as a result of suicide than from road accidents. While the efforts to reduce road accidents – including the resources invested by govenrment agencies in this work – is creditable, it begs the question why suicide prevention does not merit the same or greater resources.”
Mr Adams said that the current moves by health departments in Belfast and Dublin to devise separate suicide prevention strategies only happened after “intense lobbying by relatives and campaign groups”. He said the strategies will be judged on their merits.
“In particular, we will examine closely whether the necessary resources are made available and how this strategy is likely to impact on suicide prevention across the entire island,” Mr Adams said.
When reporting statistics on suicide, NISRA states that it is conventional “to combine cases where the cause of death is classified as ‘suicide and self-inflicted injury’ and cases where the cause of death is classified as ‘undetermined intent’”. However, even when “suicide and self-inflicted injury” deaths between 1969 and 2002 are examined in isolation, the alarming total still stands at 3,595.

BBC: ON THIS DAY

09 September 1999

Badge should change, says report

The Royal Ulster Constabulary should undergo wholesale reform, a report published by the Police Review Commission has recommended.

Report chairman Chris Patten acknowledged some of the recommendations would be difficult to accept by the police force at the frontline of terror in Northern Ireland.

Among the proposals of the commission were the suggestions the RUC change their name to the “Police Force of Northern Ireland” and adopt a new oath and badge.

The reforms, intended to make the police force more acceptable to all people in Northern Ireland, received the approval in principle of the British government but a mixed reaction from the RUC itself.

Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam said “Mr Patten has put together a report that gives hope for a better policing system.”

‘Shoddy piece of work’

But a member of the senior RUC officers union, told the BBC that while it welcomed many of the reforms it disagreed strongly with others.

Chief superintendent Hugh Wallace said they were “disappointed and hurt in relation to the change in the name and symbolism”.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble also objected to the proposed name change and called the Patten Report the “most shoddy piece of work I have seen”.

The mostly nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party broadly welcomed the report, but a spokeswoman for Sinn Fein said it did not go far enough and said the police force should be disbanded.

Mr Patten said the RUC needed to be transformed but not disbanded and memorials to murdered colleagues should remain.

“But the greatest memorial of all will be a peaceful Northern Ireland with agreed institutions - including an agreed police service,” he said.

In Context

An act implementing many of the recommended changes was passed by the UK Parliament in November 2000.

The RUC changed its name to the Police Force of Northern Ireland on 4 November 2001.

The uniform and badge were changed in March 2002 and the first recruits of the new service graduated on 5 April 2002.

Key Recommendations

Change of name to “Northern Ireland Police Force”
New oath and badge
Force cut from 13,000 to 8,000 officers
Raise level of Catholic recruits from 8% to 30%
The Police Authority to be replaced with a Police Board which would include Sinn Fein
All changes to be scrutinized by an international commissioner