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Daily Ireland

By Connla Young

GAA clubs in Co Derry have been urged to check their premises after the PSNI warned they are being targeted by loyalists.
County board officials contacted 18 clubs in the district yesterday after the PSNI claimed they received intelligence that GAA clubs in the Magherafelt District Command Unit area were under threat of loyalist attack.
It is understood the loyalist plot involves scattering crushed glass on playing surfaces at club grounds across south Derry where hundreds of adults and children train and play daily.
The PSNI last night confirmed that they have carried out searches at GAA clubs in the Magherafelt area.
News of threat comes one week after a St John’s Catholic church, Magherafelt, which sits just yards from the town’s O’ Donovan Rossa GAA club, was targeted in in a sectarian graffiti attack. It was the second incident at the small historical church in two weeks.
The adjacent GAA facility formed part of yesterday’s PSNI searches. The club has been the target of several loyalist pipe bomb and glass attacks in recent years.
In the late 1990s a number of GAA clubs in the south Derry area were targeted in a series of sectarian pipe bomb attacks. These attacks were widely believed to have been the work of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). The GAA community across the island was rocked in 1997 when Bellaghy Wolfe Tones chairman Sean Brown was abducted and gunned down by the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) as he locked up at club premises.
South Derry Board secretary Brian Smyth says the latest warning is being taken seriously by members.
“We have sent word to all clubs that this is to be treated as a serious warning. That is not a guarantee that something is going to happen but we are putting everybody on alert because of their seriousness of the calls we have received.
“Clubs in the area have been targeted in the past and of course Sean Brown was murdered, which is still in the headlines. These sorts of things do create fear but I would like to think that this fear will not stop us playing our games.
“We were told when contacted that intelligence was received that crushed glass would be used on local fields. But we have advised clubs to be on the look out for anything suspicious.”
Magherafelt Sinn Féin councillor Sean McPeake condemned the latest attack.
“I would hope this is not the start of another campaign against the GAA in this area.
“It’s very worrying when you consider the attack on the nearby church in recent weeks. The GAA provides an important service for the youth of the area and it’s unacceptable that loyalist paramilitaries and people of evil intent would act in this way.”

Daily Ireland

BY GEARÓID O’CAIREALLAIN

In his by now legendary address in Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich in Belfast last month, Dr Shlomo Izre’el, Professor of Semitic Languages in Tel Aviv University, Israel, identified two prerequisites for the survival, revival and flourishing of the Irish language in Ireland, namely idealism and necessity.
The former, he observed, we have in spades, the latter he was less sure of. In fact, his study, his observation, his gut feeling and his common sense told him that while English was a linguistic necessity all over Ireland (excepting, perhaps, the Gaeltacht areas), the pure necessity for Irish as a linguistic tool in Ireland was negligible.
He went on to compare the Irish situation with that of Israel, where Hebrew today is a linguistic necessity. You just cannot live a full and proper life in Israel today without Hebrew. In Ireland it is impossible to live a full and proper life without English.
The fact that Hebrew went from having no speakers of the modern language to having over six million within 100 years was one of the reasons why I invited Shlomo to come to Cultúrlann and share his view of the Hebrew experience with us.
Despite the various arguments, boycotts, protests and differences of opinion, I am glad that Professor Izre’el accepted the invitation to deliver the annual Pádraig Ó Donnchú commemorative lecture, and I am convinced that Irish does, indeed, have a lot to learn from the experience of Hebrew in Israel.
I, too, have identified two prerequisites for the survival, revival and flourishing of the Irish language.
Let us be clear about a thing or two from the outset. My over-riding interest in Irish is as a linguistic tool for Irish people. A means of communication that is particular to us, our own, Irish language: the Irish language of today and tomorrow for the Irish people of today and tomorrow. We need our own, Irish language to ensure that we remain distinctly Irish in the world.
I know the Irish language is the repository for a rich and wonderful literature, both oral and written. I am happy to think of the great stories and sagas that were to our ancestors as movies and television soaps and dramas and theatre are to us today. I read modern Irish literature all the time from Ó Cadhain to Mac Grianna, from Aodhán Ó Rathaille to Cathal Ó Searcaigh, from Nuala Rua to Deirdre Ní Ghrianna. I love poetry and novels, short stories and plays but they are all bunkum as far as reviving the language is concerned.
I am not interested in learning Irish just to be able to read and appreciate our great language, the oldest in Europe.
Sure, I might as well learn Latin or ancient Greek, if it is all just about reading and appreciating literature. If you are thinking of learning Irish just to be able to read and appreciate literature, take my advice and forget it.
I want Irish to be the living, vibrant, no-nonsense, irreverent and beautiful everyday tongue of the people of Ireland.
Most people in Ireland don’t read great literature in any language, so why should they in Irish. It’s page-turners we want, full of murder, deceit, high-speed action and sex. Like every normal person waiting for a plane, or a train, we want to be entertained, but not to be taxed in the brain. We want to escape, not be burdened by the nobility of art and culture.
Or else we want music mags, camera mags, car mags, computer mags – any damn mag that is useful – in Irish.
Of course some people – like yours truly – want class literature, but we are in a minority. Also, even those of us who demand highbrow literature (I have read Cré na Cille, let it be known), also want lowbrow stuff as well. Like a movie mag, to keep up with the comings and goings of the stars. Or a gossip mag to keep up with the comings and goings of, well… the stars.
All these weird and wonderful toys of leisure will come when market forces detect a need for them.
If a publisher thought he could make a few quid profit by sticking out a DIY – Does – Exactly – What – It- Says mag in Irish, then a publisher most certainly would do so. Until then, however, I don’t think so.
Basically, in order to have the type of services in Irish that we already enjoy in English – whether they be of the written variety or otherwise – we need more Irish speakers. A lot more Irish speakers.
Which brings me two my two prerequisites for the survival, revival and flourishing of the Irish language.
First, learn Irish. Second, use Irish. Learn Irish, use Irish – couldn’t be simpler.
In a dream world, an ideal world, the Irish government would instigate a short-term action plan to have a critical mass of the Irish people speaking Irish within, say, three or five years. Five years. Enough people speaking Irish to create the necessity for other people to speak Irish.
This is not an impossible proposition. Irish is an easy language to learn, although the idea of the current Irish government going on a crusade to revive the language is a bit hard to picture.
Imagine walking into a shop in Andersonstown, or Lucan, or Dundalk and your first instinct would be to speak Irish. That you just knew that Irish would be language most likely to be used by the shop guy and most of his customers.
Imagine if you wanted to find out who won the match last night, or how the Israeli pullout from Gaza and the West Bank was getting along, or what’s the betting for Saturday’s three-thirty at the Curragh, or whatever, that you immediately went to Lá, or TG4, or Raidió Fáilte, Raidió na Life or Raidió na Gaeltachta…
Imagine a world where you spoke Irish most of the time to most of your friends, most of your family, most of your school mates, work colleagues, political comrades, political enemies.
This is all possible, provided you follow my two step guide to reviving the Irish language: learn Irish, use Irish.
First of all we have to want to. More next week…

BBC

Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern is to meet his Colombian counterpart, Carolina Barco, in New York next week.

They are expected to discuss requests filed by the Colombians for the extradition of the three Irishmen convicted of training Farc rebels.

The extradition papers are being examined by the Department of Justice in the Irish Republic.

The talks will take place on the fringes of next week’s meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan were sentenced to 17 years in jail after being convicted of training Farc rebels, but vanished in December 2004 while on bail awaiting an appeal.

They returned to the Irish Republic in August.

Irish Independent

A BRITISH man wanted as part of a major child porn investigation in Britain is believed to be hiding in Ireland.

Jason Ryan Cooke (34), from Anglesea in Wales, disappeared two months ago after being sought by police in connection with a major child porn investigation.

Cooke is wanted for allegedly downloading 372 indecent images of young boys and girls from the internet, and police also found 68 video clips of children. Cooke has numerous connections in Ireland, including contacts in both the Republic and the North. British police believe Cooke has spent time in Ireland previously and could now be hiding here.

Police have appealed for help in tracing him. Cooke, a white male, is of large build with long hair and a full beard. Anyone who may suspect they’ve seen Cooke is asked to contact their local garda station or the British police.

Ralph Riegel

BBC

Loyalist protests have disrupted rush-hour traffic

A crowd of mainly women and children blocked Donegall Road in south Belfast for a time, in the sixth consecutive day of loyalist protests in the city.

They gathered near Shaftesbury Square at about 1530 BST, moved towards the Boyne Bridge for a time then returned.

The protest has now ended and the road has re-opened.

Rush-hour traffic has been disrupted since Monday by loyalists angry at the police’s response to disturbances which followed a re-routed Orange march.

On Friday, UUP leader Sir Reg Empey called for an end to the demonstrations, saying that they were causing loyalist areas to suffer.

“The government’s attention is now being focused on concerns that people have in many of these loyalist areas,” he said.

“There will be no progress made while these disturbances continue.”

However, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said there had been “a total failure in unionist leadership”.

“Like others, I have to ask why it has taken him (Sir Reg) a week to scramble to that sort of line of sense,” he said.

Belfast Telegraph

By Jonathan McCambridge and Deborah McAleese
17 September 2005

Belfast remained on a knife-edge last night following sinister attempts to bring traffic chaos to the city.

Police took a robust line in keeping roads open after loyalist protests in a number of areas - there were scuffles between police in riot gear with dogs and protesters on the Donegall Road.

At one point Great Victoria Street in the City Centre was closed by police following a road-block, despite calls by UUP leader Sir Reg Empey for an end to the demonstrations.

Earlier in the day rumours swept Belfast claiming that shops, businesses and schools were to shut down from lunchtime amid fears of mass loyalist roadblocks.

Some schools reported bogus calls claiming to be from Translink telling them to send children home because buses were cancelled.

There have been warnings that the ongoing disturbances could put international investors off coming to Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile Secretary of State Peter Hain has told the Belfast Telegraph that he believes his decision to release Shankill bomber Sean Kelly has stoked loyalist anger - but claimed he could not have handled the situation any other way.

He has defended the amount of time it took him to drop recognition of the UVF ceasefire, claiming he did not want to jeopardise behind closed doors attempt to end their bloody feud with the LVF.

Mr Hain has also said it would be “unreasonable” to exclude all republicans - as distinct from IRA members - from joining the police.

Belfast Telegraph

I’m still living in fear says Catholic victim

By Deborah McAleese
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
17 September 2005

A Ballymena loyalist who strangled and repeatedly stabbed a Catholic man in an horrific sectarian attack and then planned to cut up his body with a saw was last night starting a 16-year sentence behind bars.

But even with the depraved thug safely off the streets the victim of the horrific murder attempt said he would never be able to put the terrifying ordeal behind him.

Neil White (30), from Wakehurst Road, Ballymena, was one of three men who tried to strangle 31-year-old Michael Reid with a phone chord and then stabbed him repeatedly with a knife shouting sectarian abuse in October 2003 at a house in Patrick Place, Harryville.

Mr Reid was forced to pretend he was dead in the hope that White and the two accomplices - who have never been caught - would stop attacking him.

As he lay motionless in a pool of blood White and the two men continued to kick and stab him to make sure he was dead and then started to discuss how they would dispose of his body. They then decided to get a saw and cut him up.

While the two other men left to get a saw White stayed with the body but Mr Reid was able to fight White off and make his escape.

He ran from the house but collapsed a short distance away where he was picked up by a passing police patrol.

As White was imprisoned at Belfast Crown Court yesterday, Mr Reid, who has been forced into hiding, said he was still living in fear. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph he said: “I am still in fear for my life as the two other men are still out there. I want police to keep trying to get them.

“I expected White to get about 16 years so I suppose I am happy enough with that but I wish he had got more. I will never be able to put this behind me but I’m just trying to get on with my life as best I can.”

Sentencing White, Mr Justice Coghlin said sectarianism was a “corrosive toxin that remorselessly eats away at the social fabric surrounding many communities in Northern Ireland”.

He said: “Mr Reid was a Catholic in Harryville, the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Over time sectarianism has been cynically exploited by politicians and paramilitaries.

“No child is born sectarian but rather acquires such attitudes and beliefs as a result of social contact and influence including family, peer groups and the wider community.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton, Political Correspondent
cthornton@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
17 September 2005

Freeing Shankill bomber Sean Kelly has contributed to the sense of grievance among loyalists, Secretary of State Peter Hain has admitted - but he says he couldn’t have handled Kelly’s imprisonment and release any other way.

The Secretary of State also defended the length of time it took him to drop recognition of the UVF ceasefire, saying he didn’t want to jeopardise attempts behind closed doors to end the feud with the LVF.

But he said he was not specifically attacking unionist politicians yesterday when he accused unionists of becoming fellow travellers with “thuggery and gangsterism” in the wake of this week’s loyalist rioting.

“Nothing I have said since the riots and gangsterism of last weekend has in anyway suggested that unionist politicians either incited or condoned the violence,” he said.

“I have a good relationship with all unionist politicians and leaders and respect for them as we work together on the forward agenda. I well understand how difficult the present situation is for them.”

Yesterday the Belfast Telegraph reported Mr Hain’s remarks - which concerned a failure to react strongly to the violence against police - applied to unionist politicians. He has now indicated the remark applied generally to some unionists.

At the same time, SDLP leader Mark Durkan attacked unionist politicians for sitting alongside the UVF and UDA on the North and West Belfast Parades Forum.

After UUP and DUP councillors decided to boycott the Belfast Police Partnership, Mr Durkan said: “Clearly the UUP and DUP prefer to work with gunmen than the police.

“They prefer to work with people who shoot at the police than with the men and women whose job it is to enforce the law.”

Mr Hain had returned Kelly to prison in June over suspicion he had again become involved in terrorism. But he released him in July the day before the IRA declared an end to its armed campaign.

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Hain said: “There was no forward plan to let him out.

“I locked him up because he was breaching his licence. I had a report that arrived in my red box one night from the PSNI and it would have been irresponsible of me not to have acted on that.

“Equally it would have been wrong of me to ignore the fact that the IRA statement was of a historic and completely different kind from anything that had come before and opened up a new era in Northern Ireland, a statement to which he was signed up.

“Given that sequence of events, I don’t think any other Secretary of State could have taken any different decisions.

“Is it the decision I’m most proud of? No, of course not. But given the circumstances I don’t think any of those decisions could have been different.”

In the wake of last week’s rioting, Mr Hain said the Government would no longer recognise the UVF ceasefire.

UVF violence has been an issue for several months, but Mr Hain said he delayed the decision because of ongoing attempts to stop the group’s feud with the LVF.

“There were other reasons why I delayed making a decision, in terms of other moves that were going on in an attempt to bring the feud to an end and attempts at dialogue - not by me, obviously,” he said.

“And actually a premature specification could have got in the way in that.

“I don’t have any regrets about the specification, either, but would it have changed anything on the ground over that weekend? I rather doubt it.

“And in a way there was a whole political hullabaloo around it, as if this was the be and end all. Now people are saying what difference has it made and that was my point all along.”

Mr Hain said it would be “unreasonable” to exclude republicans - as distinct from IRA members - from joining the police.

“This is very simple,” he said. “Anybody joining the Police Service, whatever their personal political position, whatever community they come from, have to conform to the same very high recruitment and vetting standards. Full stop, end of story.

“In a sense I don’t want to know what their political views are. But I do want a Police Service, as it has increasingly become, that is representative of the community.

“And I do want republicans who have signed up for the democratic and peaceful future, I do want them to be supportive of the police and engage with the police.

“If people are saying that a 19-year-old from a family that has had republican connections is barred from joining the police straight out of school as a young recruit, despite satisfying all the standards, then obviously not. Obviously that’s unreasonable.”

But he said he was not saying “you can demobilise paramilitaries and integrate them”. “Absolutely not,” he added.

BreakingNews.ie

17/09/2005 - 13:41:33

Unionist political leaders were accused today of “almost soliciting” the loyalist violence which erupted in Northern Ireland a week ago.

The rhetoric used the Rev Ian Paisley and Sir Reg Empey ahead of last Saturday’s contentious Orange Parade in Belfast was heavily condemned by SDLP leader Mark Durkan.

And he said it appeared the loyalist paramilitary tail was now almost wagging the unionist dog.

Hitting out at the Democratic Unionist and Ulster Unionist party leaders, Mr Durkan said: “Effectively the signal they sent to people was ‘do your worst and we won’t blame you, do your worst and we will blame the police.

“Do your worst and we will blame the Parades Commission and we will blame the Secretary of State’.

“Of course that is exactly what they have done since.”

Mr Durkan, speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Inside Politics programme, said the leaders of the two unionist parties had allowed the loyalist paramilitaries to take the lead over policing and parades.

“It seems as thought the whip hand in unionist politics actually lies with the paramilitaries who showed their real nature last weekend,” he said.

He dismissed the DUP call for a “root and branch” review of the Parades Commission – what the party really wanted was its abolition, he said.

Mr Durkan said ahead of the re-routed Whiterock parade Sir Reg had not, through the terms he had used, made his position clear.

“It was, I believe, the rhetoric used by himself and Ian Paisley, even in advance of last weekend, that almost solicited the sort of violence we had,” said Mr Durkan.

Meanwhile two Anglican bishops today offered to help communities caught up in the loyalist violence.

The Church of Ireland Bishop of Connor, Alan Harper and Bishop of Down and Dromore, Harold Millar, said they hoped to meet people in the areas affected.

Bishop Harper said they “wanted to understand the issues behind the violence”.

He said: “The first thing we intend to do is to meet the clergy on the ground from those parishes that have been directly concerned in Belfast.

“We will then invite them to talk to us alongside members of their own congregations whom they will identify as being able to talk freely to us about that matter.”

In a joint statement the bishops said they rejected violence as a legitimate method of expressing grievances.

The bishops also demanded an end to the “unseen intimidation” of stones through widows, finger-pointing and the subtle violence which was as real as the riots.

“It is time to move beyond this and to create genuine processes that engage more than a handful of people in our land in determining the future,” they added.

:: A 14-year-old Catholic schoolboy allegedly joined loyalist rioters to attack the security forces in Lisburn, Co Antrim last week, it was revealed today.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was allegedly videotaped throwing stones and police and troops last Monday.

He was released on bail and ordered to stay indoors between 6.00pm and 8.00am when he appeared at Lisburn Magistrates Court.