SAOIRSE32

Sinn Féin

Published: 29 September, 2005

Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney has said that British Secretary of State Peter Hain cannot effectively address the issue of Unionist paramilitary violence without addressing the issue of collusion.

Mr McCartney said:

“The call by Peter Hain for Unionist paramilitaries to follow the lead by the IRA to put their weapons beyond use and declare an end to their campaign cannot be done in isolation from the issue of collusion.

“The fact that the British Government through a deliberate policy armed, trained and organised the unionist paramilitary gangs also needs to be addressed. The British Government cannot portray itself as an honest broker as though they played no part in the development of Unionist death squads.

“The Brian Nelson affair exposed the British Government the policy of collusion with the importation of thousand of South African arms and the murders of many hundreds of Nationalists including solicitors Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.

“The British Government must come clean about collusion if we are to have any faith that this policy has finished to enable us to move forward confident that the British government are living up to the commitments of achieving political change in a completely peaceful and democratic way.” ENDS

Indymedia Ireland

by John Carmody - Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN)
Thursday, Sep 29 2005, 5:38pm
arancampaigns@eircom.net
address: ARAN Po Box 722 Kildare phone: 087-6275579

For Immediate Release:
October 7, 2005

Dublin, Ireland — Nude PETA members—with the Australian flag painted across their bloody bodies—will hold a lively protest at the Australian embassy against the wool industry’s refusal to embrace a landmark agreement between PETA and a prominent group of wool producers that would have resulted in an immediate reduction of lamb mutilations and an end to PETA’s international boycott campaign. Flanked by giant posters of bloody sheep and signs reading, “Australia: Stop Mutilating Lambs,” the naked PETA posse will officially re-launch the Australian wool boycott:

Date: Friday, October 7
Time: 12.00 noon sharp
Place: Australian Embassy, Fitzwilton House, Wilton Terrace, Dublin 2. (The Embassy is situated between Leeson Street and Baggot St Bridge, on the town side of the canal.)

This action in Dublin is one of multiple protests taking place around the world this week to mark the resumption of PETA’s international boycott of Australian wool after a moratorium was announced in August. The boycott resumes after two major wool industry groups, Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) and Wool Producers, flatly rejected a landmark agreement between PETA and the Australian Wool Growers Association (AWGA) that would have resulted in live export reforms and an immediate and industry-wide reduction in lamb mutilations.

The agreement between PETA and AWGA provided a timetable for phasing out mulesing mutilations (in which skin and flesh are sliced from lambs’ backsides with gardening shears) and would have ended exports of live sheep to countries failing to meet Australian animal welfare standards. AWI and others refused to do anything other than criticize the plan during the 45-day moratorium, despite the urging of major retailers—including Benetton, Gap Inc., Liz Claiborne, Lands’ End, L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, Jones Apparel Group, Nordstrom, and Ann Taylor—which have all expressed support for the PETA/AWGA agreement and interest in the new, more humane brand of wool created by the agreement. The new brand will provide retailers worldwide with wool from farmers who are part of the structured plan to end mulesing and live exports to countries that do not meet Australian domestic animal welfare standards.

“The wool industry has had 45 days to agree to consider the compromise agreement, but has done little more than lip service to their claims to care about animal welfare,”says PETA Europe’s managing director, President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “It’s only a matter of time before AWI and Wool Producers realize that they won’t be able to give their wool away until they agree to stop torturing lambs and sheep.”

For more information, please visit SaveTheSheep.com.

http://www.SaveTheSheep.com

An Phoblacht

The Squad and the Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins
By T Ryle Dwyer, Mercier Press, Price €12.95

Book Review by MATT TREACY

Parts of this book read like a fictional thriller. IRA men and British agents stalking one another on the streets of Dublin, with the occasional brief encounter in strange places like ‘Kidds Back’ off Wicklow Street and the Cairo Café in Grafton Street.

It was a war of subterfuge and stealth. British agents, for the most part Irishmen, attempted to identify and track down members of IRA GHQ, the Dublin Brigade and Volunteers like Seán Treacy and Dan Breen who had come to the city. In response the IRA set up what became known as ‘The Squad’, formally established at a meeting in 46 Parnell Square on 19 September 1919.

Officially the unit remained a part of the Dublin Brigade under Dick McKee from Finglas, but they were separate from the Battalion structure and directly under the command of Collins, McKee and Mulcahy. It was an effective arrangement. One that made it, by and large, secure from enemy infiltration and surveillance and thereby more effective.

Dependent on a vast network of sympathisers who ranged from Dublin Castle detectives to women working in lodging houses, the Squad was able to identify enemy agents and assassinate them. No less than any other killings the details of these, as recounted in Ryle Dwyer’s book, are gruesome.

The author must be congratulated on his use of the accounts of participants that starkly convey the manner in which enemies of the Republic were dispatched. Particularly gripping are the accounts of 21 November or Bloody Sunday, when the Dublin IRA, with the Squad at the forefront, went out to execute 35 British operatives. Around 50 were shot and 12 killed. But while not completely successful it dealt a massive blow to the British system of terror and espionage.

Ryle Dwyer also cites statistics which prove that far from being a spent force by the time of the Truce, the IRA was inflicting increasingly higher numbers of casualties. In the second half of 1920 174 Crown personnel were killed and 310 wounded. In the first six months of 1921 the corresponding figures were 317 and 638.

The book, as previously referred to, is mainly based on statements made by republican activists to the Bureau of Military History in the 1950s. These are now available to researchers in the National Archives in Dublin and can provide material for further original research on the period. Ryle Dwyer, meanwhile, must be commended for writing a gripping and valuable book.

An Phoblacht

Caral Ní Chuilin

As recently disclosed figures emanating from the PSNI reveal that sectarian attacks have doubled in the past year the relentless campaign of unionist violence continued across the North.

Among the targets picked by the unionists were a Catholic chapel in North Belfast which was paint bombed last week while homes in Belfast, Ballymena and Newtownabbey were targeted.

In Derry City three nationalist teenagers were beaten up.

Belfast

At around 2am on Sunday 25 September a unionist gang terrorised residents in the nationalist Carrick Hill area of North Belfast after they broke a number of windows, destroyed gardens and broke into another house in the latest in a long line of sectarian attacks on the estate.

Windows and garden ornaments were smashed and it is understood the sectarian gang tried to throw a garden bench through the front window of a house.

The men escaped in a dark people carrier. Maria Flynn, whose Stanhope Drive home was damaged, said unionists returned on Sunday and told her they would “finish it off”.

“We are tortured here, really crucified. They throw paint bombs, bottles and stones from the hill but these men driving into your estate, that would really scare you.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Carál Ni Chuilín said local residents were terrified at the latest sinister development.

“We have these men coming into Carrick Hill with ease and trying to get into people’s homes. This latest attack leads on from an incident a few weeks ago when loyalists broke open a fence between Carrick Hill and the loyalist Lower Shankill Road so that they could attack nationalist homes with golf balls and bricks.”

Also St Gerard’s Catholic Church, on the Antrim Road, was attacked in a paint-bomb attack in the early hours on Friday 23 September. White paint was thrown over the front doors of the church in a sectarian attack. It is the third time the church, which is not far from the unionist White City Estate, has been targeted.

Ballymena

The son of a nationalist woman said his mother was lucky not to be hurt during a sectarian paint-bomb attack on her Ballymena home on Friday 23 September.

Three paint bombs were thrown through the front windows on the Dunclug Estate.

Newtownabbey

On Wednesday 21 September, a Catholic mother of four had to use a garden hose to extinguish a petrol bomb thrown at her Newtownabbey home at around 6.30pm.

Anna Delaney was in the kitchen of her Longlands Road home when she saw flames at the back of her home. “I ran out and had a look to see if anyone was about and used the hose to put the fire out. I was shaking like a leaf and worried about the kids”.

Ms Delaney said she believes unionists were responsible.

Speaking to An Phoblacht Newtownabbey Sinn Féin Councillor Briege Meehan said the attack was an attempt to kill those in the house and she hopes this is not the start of an orchestrated campaign against the nationalist community.

“We have been trying to curb sectarian tensions in the area in fact only last week Fr Dan White postponed Cemetery Sunday at Carnmoney Cemetery because he did not want to bring a large number of people into the area at a time when unionists gangs are intent on causing trouble.”

Derry City

Three teenage boys were attacked by up to eight unionists as they walked along Prehen Park on the outskirts of Derry on Wednesday 21 September. One teenager was knocked to the ground and kicked about the body before the gang was disturbed and ran off towards Victoria Road.

Tyrone

A Catholic care worker had white paint poured on her car as she tended to a pensioner in Ballyheather Road near Ballymagorry between Derry and Strabane on Wednesday 21 September in a sectarian attack. A note containing sectarian comments was found on the windscreen.

Daily Ireland

Connla Young
28 September 2005

Lorraine Murphy

Just days after the IRA decommissioned its weapons, evidence has emerged that points to an ongoing intelligence war by British forces in the North.
As the world’s media descended on Belfast to report on the IRA’s historic move, residents in a Co Tyrone town were caught up in the murky world of the British army’s intelligence-gathering web.
In a dramatic series of events last week, the family home of Kevin and Lorraine Murphy in Coalisland became the centrepiece of a controversy that appears to lift the lid on the British government’s continued use of covert operations in the North.
The couple, who got married earlier this month, returned to their home last Friday to discover that neighbours had disturbed what they suspect to be an undercover British army unit trying to install a monitoring device in the couple’s home.
During the incident, the area where the couple live was swamped by PSNI men. The officers arrived to rescue two balaclava-clad men who had pointed a gun at a local man who tried to challenge them after the pair were detected moving through the couple’s empty home.
Locals say several PSNI members entered the couple’s home and escorted two men carrying holdalls from the premises to a Land Rover parked in the house’s front garden.
A PSNI spokesperson last night said the force was “aware of an incident” at the couple’s home last week but refused to elaborate further.
A spokesperson for the Police Ombudsman’s Office confirmed that the office was investigating an “alleged incident” at the couple’s unoccupied house.
In June last year, Kevin Murphy was acquitted along with three other men of conspiracy to murder and having a rocket launcher in Coalisland in February 2002.
During his trial, it emerged that Co Armagh man Gareth O’Connor was suspected of luring Mr Murphy to the scene and had been in contact with the PSNI by a mobile phone supplied by the force.
Speaking to Daily Ireland last night, Lorraine Murphy, who lived in the house with her two children until her marriage earlier this month, said she believes the British Army was behind the incident.
“I have no doubt it was them,” she said.
“Nothing was taken by these men and there was evidence of work being done. There are pieces of felt missing from the roof and dust located around a skirting board, as if it had been removed and put on again. It is my belief they knew Kevin was moving in here and they were trying to bug the house. I have lived here for 11 years and I am speaking out as the householder.
“There is no acceptable reason for somebody to be in this house. They had no reason to be there. I am disgusted by this. It just doesn’t seem like my own house any more. I don’t know whether these people planted this bug before they were disturbed and now I feel as if I’m living in the Big Brother House.”
She said her car had also been tampered with in recent weeks. The couple’s solicitor Peter Corrigan last night said he was very concerned about the development. “This incident requires a complete investigation. It was a terrifying experience for the man who had a gun pointed at him. I have been in touch with the PSNI and they have confirmed there was an incident but they will not give any more details even though I am the householder’s solicitor. There may also have been a breach of Article 8 of the human rights convention which protects people’s privacy.”
A spokesman for the British Army last night responded angrily to the bugging claim.
“You are asking me to respond to allegations of an occurrence of which there is no corroboration. Why has she [Mrs Murphy] leapt to the conclusion that it’s the British Army if indeed the event took place?”

Indymedia Ireland

by Dáil watcher Thursday, Sep 29 2005, 10:30am

Dáil Éireann, Leaders’ Questions, 28th September 2005

“The keys to the jail cells of the Rossport five are in the Taoiseach’s hands. All he has to do is pick up the phone and make Shell lift the injunction, thus letting the five decent men home to their families.”

Joe Higgins (Socialist Party): It is a national outrage that five Rossport men have been in jail for 91 days. Does the Taoiseach feign innocence as if he were Prime Minister of the outer Hebrides, not the Republic of Ireland which happens to include County Mayo? It is true that it was Shell Oil that got the High Court to do its dirty work but the Taoiseach and his Government carry full responsibility. The Government gave this multinational corporation the power to trample brutally on the safety of a small rural community. When it resisted, the Government allowed five representatives to be put into what I can only call indefinite preventive detention.
In 1989, the Taoiseach’s crooked colleague, the former Deputy and Minister, Ray Burke, gave the oil corporations a fabulous resource of gas for not a penny in royalties to the Irish people. In 1992, the Taoiseach, as Minister for Finance, gave them fabulous tax breaks. In early 2001, the Government gave the multinationals the power to expropriate the land of smallholders in Erris without consultation, any planning process or any proper environmental statement. Therefore, the Government has put the smallholders of Erris, including the area’s boglands and estuaries, at the mercy of a multinational corporation which has shown itself to be merciless in how it deals with such communities in other countries in its greed for profits which amounted to an incredible €18,000 million last year alone.
When people look back on the history of rural Ireland in 2005, they will not remember the Taoiseach’s flashy display of green wellies on the ploughing fields of east Cork, but the abject betrayal of a small rural community in County Mayo. The Taoiseach feigns innocence, however, as if he had been asleep since 1989, as soundly perhaps as his hapless Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, on a recent Tuesday morning. At least he was not pretending to be asleep like the Taoiseach.

An Ceann Comhairle: The Deputy’s two minutes have concluded.

J. Higgins: The keys to the jail cells of the Rossport five are in the Taoiseach’s hands. All he has to do is pick up the phone and make Shell lift the injunction, thus letting the five decent men home to their families. He should make Shell process the gas where it will not destroy the communities and the environment. While he is at it, the Taoiseach should tear up the contracts which have sold out this fabulous resource to the major corporations. Let us begin a process of developing this resource for the benefit of the people, not the bloated profits of Shell and others.

The Taoiseach: As usual, Deputy Joe Higgins knows that what he says is not true.

J. Higgins: What is not true? Tell me.

Noel Dempsey (Fianna Fáil): All of it.

Taoiseach: Most of what the Deputy said. They got the consents under the Foreshore Acts, Gas Acts, Continental Shelf Acts—–

Trevor Sargent (Green Party): It is nine kilometres inland.

An Ceann Comhairle: Please Deputy Sargent, it is Deputy Joe Higgins’s question.

The Taoiseach: —–Energy (Miscellaneous) Acts, Mayo County Council and An Bord Pleanála.

J. Higgins: It is nine kilometres inland.

The Taoiseach: All of those permissions were given by Acts that were passed by this House of which the Deputy is a Member. He is making a poor show of playing to the Gallery in trying to say that Shell moved without regard to these Acts.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Sinn Féin): The Taoiseach should answer the question.

The Taoiseach: I am answering the question. As regards the second issue raised by the Deputy, the five people concerned are in jail because of a High Court decision. There is a separation of powers in this State between the Executive and the Judiciary and despite the Deputy’s attitude, I would not do anything to breach a decision of the courts. As regards helping through mediation, I have already answered a constructive question from Deputy Kenny on that point.
As regards previous decisions, in 1992 the Government revised the licensing terms in order to stimulate exploration with the objective of increasing the State’s petroleum supply from indigenous resources. These have been accepted by all Governments in the interim. Petroleum leases enjoy a special tax regime and are not subject to royalties or production related levies in this country. Despite the allegations that the terms are overly generous, there has been a severely low level of take up here compared to other countries. Therefore, the view that these great terms were given and then used and abused is just not true. This has been covered over a period of 13 or 14 years.
We will do anything we can to help constructively. What the Deputy has said is entirely misleading and untrue. He should have thought of a better case over the summer than to come to the House and purport all these things happened outside the terms of the law to these unfortunate people who are arguing a case.
The application to the Department was for an onshore terminal and the assessment was carried out on that basis. All the environmental and safety studies, up to the current ones, are based on that, as the Deputy knows.

J. Higgins: It was the Taoiseach’s Government that provided every instrument by which the Shell Corporation is now acting. The Government gave them the power and therefore the Taoiseach carries a responsibility. Let us have done with the red herring of interfering with the courts. If, tomorrow, Shell so asks the President of the High Court, who incidentally threatened to imprison every landholder in Mayo if they did not carry out the court’s writ, the injunction could then be withdrawn. It is as simple as that. Why does the Taoiseach not pick up the phone after this debate and ask the chief executive of Shell to do just that? The men could then return home and discussions on the situation could begin. At a later stage, discussions could be held with Shell as to how the company could process its gas where it would not threaten communities.
Independent Deputies visited the men in jail last week. Deputy Cowley has worked tirelessly for the people of Erris. I visited Erris and Rossport last week and I can tell the House that, although they are suffering, the determination of the community, including the families of the men in jail, is unbreakable. They will not allow their communities to be put upon in a way that threatens their environment and, potentially in certain circumstances, their lives.

An Ceann Comhairle: The Deputy’s time has concluded.

J. Higgins: In this Dáil session, we will not let up in placing responsibility where it belongs, which is with the Taoiseach. Next Saturday, even if the Taoiseach is not listening, I hope people will come in their thousands to the protest rally in Dublin in support of the Rossport five and the issues they have raised.

An Ceann Comhairle: I call on the Taoiseach to reply. The Deputy’s time has long since concluded.

J. Higgins: As soon as this debate has finished, will the Taoiseach ring Shell?

The Taoiseach: Because the Minister believes the men had a point on the safety issue, he ordered a comprehensive safety review of the onshore, upstream gas pipeline to be carried out by Advantica, independent, internationally recognised experts.

Dr. Jerry Cowley (Independent): That is only a whitewash.

The Taoiseach: The safety review will examine critically all the relevant documentation relating to design and construction.

Dr. Cowley: That is a complete whitewash.

An Ceann Comhairle: I ask Deputy Cowley to resume his seat. There is no provision for any other Member, except Deputy Joe Higgins, to contribute on this question.

(Interruptions).

Dr. Cowley: But Ceann Comhairle, these people are in jail—–

An Ceann Comhairle: I ask the Deputy to resume his seat while the Chair is on its feet. Deputy Joe Higgins submitted a question and he is entitled to hear an answer.

Dr. Cowley: These people have been in jail for over 90 days.

An Ceann Comhairle: It appears to the Chair that the Deputy wishes to leave the House. He is being totally disorderly. I ask the Deputy to resume his seat.

Dr. Cowley: It is a scandal.

An Ceann Comhairle: It appears to the Chair the Deputy wants to make an issue of this by being put out of the House. If he wants to leave the House the Chair will facilitate him. It is his choice. I call on Deputy Cowley to leave the House for being disorderly.

Dr. Cowley: It is a disgrace and the Taoiseach should deal with it. He should not wring his hands and say he can do nothing. He is not doing enough.

Deputy Cowley withdrew from the Chamber.

Noel Dempsey: Now he will not be able to talk for them in here. It will be no good outside.

The Taoiseach: The safety review will examine critically all the relevant documentation relating to the design, construction and operation of the pipeline and the associated facilities, which was the point that Deputy Joe Higgins made.

J. Higgins: Will the Taoiseach pick up the phone to Shell?

The Taoiseach: Advantica has been asked to identify any deficiencies concerning safety and to make any recommendations on how to deal with these if they can be identified and remedied. The Minister has brought forward the review due to all the issues of concern that people had. A particular issue of concern to the local residents has been the proximity of the pipeline to inhabited dwellings. This will also be addressed in that report. The residents and, I hope, other Deputies who wish to go to the hearing and put their points as they did here yesterday during a three-hour debate at the committee will be able to do so. The two-day hearing will take place next week.

J. Higgins: Will the Taoiseach phone Shell?

An Ceann Comhairle: The Deputy should allow the Taoiseach to continue.

The Taoiseach: If anything can be done constructively on a mediator, we will certainly do that. However, it cannot be done by people being released first. If we can help, we will.

Irish Examiner

By John Breslin
29 September 2005

CAMPAIGNERS yesterday urged Government backbenchers to show courage and vote for an audit of the €30 million purchase of farmland as a site for a new super-prison or face “years of tribunals”.
Campaigners fighting against the plan to build the prison and a new Central Mental Hospital on 150 acres in north Co Dublin warned that if it goes ahead, “investigations and tribunals” will follow.

“We know something very wrong has happened,” said Teresa McDonnell, who lives close to Thornton Hall, where it is proposed to build the 1,000-inmate replacement for Mountjoy.

Protestors were joined by opposition leaders, Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny, Labour’s Pat Rabbitte and Socialist Joe Higgins, at a rally yesterday outside Leinster House. Dozens of people, mostly residents, gathered in the rain with one message: “Stop it now.”

Deputies debated last night a motion calling on the Comptroller and Auditor General to investigate the land purchase.

A vote is due to take place today. While protestors expect the Government benches to vote against the motion, Ms McDonnell said the residents are attempting to save the State close to €24m, the purchase price minus the e6m actual value of the land.

The Government is believed to have paid a deposit but the deal has not been closed.

“If they hear what we have to say, and based on that information, we feel they would have no option but to wait for the auditor to report,” Ms McDonnell said.

Those living in the area around the townlands of Rolestown and St Margaret’s have questioned how those making the decision “could get it so wrong” in recommending farmland in the centre of a close-knit rural community.

Access to the land is down a narrow country road, there is no public lighting, no footpaths or mains sewerage, while the closest public transport is over a kilometre away.

A Mountjoy Replacement Site Committee was set up to find land for the prison and received 31 submissions. The seven-person committee first met in July and by late November had picked a site at Coolquay in north Co Dublin, between the N2 and M50, for a price of €31.25m.

At the next and last meeting, attended by just five of the seven committee members, adviser Ronan Webster revealed the vendor had pulled out but had since been in contact to say he was still interested in selling.

It was only at that point Thornton Hall emerged as a candidate.

The terse committee minutes reveal that, after a short discussion, it was decided to recommend buying the site at just under €200,000 an acre.

BBC

A car parked in the drive was also damaged

A pipe bomb attack on a family in Ballymoney is being treated as attempted murder, police have said.

No motive has yet been found for the attack on the house, but loyalist paramilitaries are being blamed.

A pipe bomb was placed on the window sill of the property in Carnany estate where a couple and a three-year-old child were asleep upstairs.

It exploded at about 0230 BST, embedding a 12 inch long piece of shrapnel into a chair. No-one was hurt.

Shrapnel was also found in the ceiling of the living room and a heavy metal bolt was blown 50 yards down the road by the blast, where it hit the Carnany community centre.

Detective Inspector Nick McCaw said it was lucky no-one was seriously injured.

This piece of shrapnel was embedded in a chair

“When we catch the people responsible they will be charged with attempted murder,” he said.

He said that if someone had been in the living room “they would have been seriously injured or killed”.

Police have appealed for information and the house has been cordoned off for an examination by forensic scientists.

Condemning the pipe bombing, DUP MLA Mervyn Storey said local people are disgusted at the attack “on a family who have lived in the estate for many years”.

SDLP assemblyman Sean Farren said that whatever the motive, there was no place in society for people who would leave such devices.

“There is only one way to remove this danger and that is to have these people arrested, charged and jailed, ” he said.

BBC

A church in the Whitewell area of north Belfast has been the target of a paint attack.

The Methodist church in Greencastle had paint thrown at it overnight. Rev Peter Mercer said that it was the second attack in two days.

He said while there had been problems in other areas of Whitewell community relations in the vicinity of the church had been good.

“It’s annoying and saddening more than anything else,” he said.

He said that two other churches in the area had been attacked with paint - one in Whitehouse and another on the Antrim Road - but that he did not know whether the attacks were linked.

He added that locals helped clean the mess, and that local Catholics had stopped him to express their sympathy for the congregation and condemn the attack.

“I was hardly out of the car when the Catholic woman across the road came to express her condolences,” he said.

Belfast’s SDLP Deputy Mayor Pat Convery said the upsurge of attacks on churches was “an alarming business”.

“Places of worship were once protected by all, but now they are targets for sectarian abuse and attack,” he said.

Sinn Fein assembly member for North Belfast Gerry Kelly, said the attack could not be justified.

“Political and community leaders need to make it clear that this sort of sectarian behaviour is completely and totally unacceptable,” he said.

Police have appealed for witnesses to come forward.

BreakingNews.ie

29/09/2005 - 11:54:36

The Tánaiste Mary Harney has come under attack in the Dáil over the Minister for Justice’s criticism of RTÉ last night.

Michael McDowell accused the national broadcaster of airing a deliberately biased and misleading documentary this week about the Government’s purchase of a site for a new ’super-prison’ in Dublin.

RTÉ has rejected the accusation and has pointed out that the minister declined an invitation to speak on the programme.

The documentary claimed the Department of Justice paid €30m for the site in north Co Dublin when a nearby location was available at a lower cost.

Speaking in the Dáil this morning, Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte attempted to ask Ms Harney if she regarded RTÉ as an arm of the Government, but his efforts were blocked by the Ceann Comhairle.

“€30m for a farm worth €6m and what we get is a series of threats against RTE,” he said.

Fianna Fáil TD Sean Ardagh later defended the purchase of the site at Thornton Hall and accused the opposition of criticising everything without putting forward any alternatives.

Belfast Telegraph

By Noel McAdam
29 September 2005

The DUP has rounded on the Government for refusing to make public intelligence service estimates of the IRA’s terrorist arsenal.

The party also maintained its criticism of the two Church leader witnesses to the disarmament process: no-one doubted they had reported what they saw, the DUP asked: had they seen it all?

Secretary of State Peter Hain was adamant he would not contemplate compromising intelligence sources by revealing the estimates which were given to the International Decommissioning Commission.

But DUP party secretary Nigel Dodds said it was “startling” that the Government had missed another opportunity to boost unionist confidence.

“If the Secretary of State believes all weapons have been put beyond use and that the IRA is no longer a threat, then there is no excuse for the continued secrecy, unless of course there is something to hide,” the North Belfast MP said.

While the DUP and Ulster Unionists remained united over the demand for an official inventory of IRA weaponry, differences over independent witnesses Fr Alec Reid and the Rev Harold Good sharpened.

North Down Ulster Unionist MP Lady Sylvia Hermon said she had known former Methodist President Mr Good for 20 years and his word was good enough for her.

She said her husband, former RUC chief constable Sir Jack Hermon, had also worked closely with Mr Good and held him in the very highest regard.

DUP Upper Bann MP David Simpson, accusing the UUP of misrepresenting his party’s position, said no-one was impugning the integrity of the Church witnesses.

“No-one is disputing that the two men are faithfully reporting what they saw,” he said.

“The question is - did they see it all?

“General (John) de Chastelain has indicated the observers were not in possession of security estimates.”

www.dannymorrison.ie

DANNY MORRISON
Daily Ireland, 28 SEPT 05

I received a letter on Monday from a reader, John, in Ballina, County Mayo. He was talking about Sinn Fein’s response to the DUP last July when the IRA announced an end to its armed struggle. He said: “The DUP’s reaction to it was predictable – it will take them a long time to adjust to the new realities. But Sinn Fein should not be taunting them, by highlighting its (the DUP’s) inadequacy to deal with the new situation. If Sinn Fein is truly republican it will try and entice everyone along to share in the new and better society it hopes to create for everyone. In the first instance it will have to do this in cooperation with unionists in government in the North.”

Actually, Sinn Fein didn’t taunt the DUP – though I have, on many occasions, and on several occasions most recently, because of a visceral disrespect I have for that party’s leader, Ian Paisley, which spans forty years. The feeling is no doubt mutual. To me he is false, a bluffer, a hypocrite, a sectarian, a coward and an opportunist. However, if he ever apologises for his wrongs, demonstrates contriteness and makes good, in a verifiable fashion in front of international and independent witnesses (there’s no need for a photograph), I am sure that over a period of time I might be able to forgive him. But he really needs to begin soon. Because I might move on without him.

But seriously, I also have to remember that Ian Paisley is the chosen leader of the unionist people in the North – and although that also provokes some despair it has to invoke some respect, and I and many have to set aside our feelings if we nationalists and unionists are to realise a deal, share power and govern together. God bless Sinn Fein in their dealings with the Reverend. They will need an ocean of patience and a ton of cotton wool.

On the nationalist and republican side there is willingness to reconciliation, ultimately demonstrated by the unprecedented move of the IRA to put all its weapons beyond use, witnessed by General John de Chastelain’s commission and two independents. The extent of this move was succinctly described by former IRA prisoner Tommy McKearney in this paper yesterday as “an incredibly significant demonstration of republican hope over experience.”

That experience involved sectarian attacks on the nationalist community throughout the existence of the Northern Ireland state. The existence of an armed IRA, particularly after 1969, and because of 1969, was a comfort blanket to nationalists in interface areas and acted as a check on loyalist paramilitaries. The demobilisation of the IRA has, undoubtedly, unnerved many, many republicans. But times have changed. Despite the likeness, the PSNI is not the RUC and will not be leading any charge into the Falls, the way the RUC did in 1969. Increased scrutiny of the PSNI can only make it more accountable.

Leaders within both unionism and republicanism will be required to gamble: unionists taking the IRA at its word, republicans the public pledges of the British government, guaranteed by the Irish government, in lieu of or in combination with unionist pledges to work the institutions. Deceit on either side would blow up in all our faces and lead to distrust on an unimaginable scale.

The great irony now is that Ian Paisley, the man who destabilised any predecessor who dared to depart an inch from unionist fundamentalism, is himself now in the position of having to make a choice between pragmatism and dogmatism, which would only further impoverish his own community.

So what about the willingness of the DUP to deal? How are we to read its press conference last Monday?

There are many theories. Some are of the view that Ian Paisley would like to retire having become First Minister. However, the cost for him personally might be too great – having as his Deputy First Minister, Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness, both of whom he has described as ‘Sinn Fein/IRA’ and pledged throughout his career to smash. There could be no greater demonstration of his failure than for him to have to share power with them. Nor does the ongoing invective of the DUP suggest a party that is preparing its base for a return to power-sharing government. Indeed, Paisley came out of his meeting with John de Chastelain yesterday stating that the whole act of the IRA putting all of its weapons beyond use was a ‘cover-up’!

Another theory has it that Peter Robinson would like to do a deal, and thought that he might be First Minister, but was thwarted by Ian Og who talked his father out of a deal. That conversation wouldn’t have taken long. Last week Ian Og said that unionists preferred direct rule than to sharing power with Sinn Fein, except his language was more colourful.

It would be patronising to feel sorry for the unionists, the debacle of the recent rioting, for their PR deficiencies and for a leadership which lacks courage and substitutes ranting for rational discussion. The majority voted for Paisley but there must be scores of thousands of unionists who despair at where he is leading them.

But we have lives to live and to get on with. We need good government and we need representative government. If the DUP regrettably opts out of this process it does so as an act of free will not as an act of persecution or discrimination. And so we’ll need a different type of government or a rearrangement in the current system of government – one which takes on the views of elected representatives not opposed to reconciliation. That certainly requires greater involvement from Dublin to add its weight to ensuring that the British address the many outstanding issues, from inequality to policing, and get on with implementing change and tackling the institutionalised sectarianism within northern society.

What historic times we live in! Those who justified repression and repressive laws, and the state of the state, or who refused to negotiate on the pretext that there was an IRA armed campaign no longer have an excuse.

With all due apologies to John from Ballina, County Mayo, the party which really has to bite the IRA bullet is the DUP.

BBC

**From Wednesday

Trees were uprooted in Aghalee

Freak winds have brought down trees and damaged property in villages at either end of Lough Neagh in County Antrim.

Tiles were blown off roofs, windows were broken and a mobile home was overturned when storms hit Aghalee and Rasharkin just after 1330 BST.

Denise Greenan, who lives near Aghalee, said the wind had blown away her oil tank and also caused damage to her car.

“I looked out the back window and my child’s sand pit had lifted up and blown away,” she said.

“There was also a white car sitting and the back end of it lifted off the ground.”

Edna McConnell, who lives at Derryola Island Lane in the village, said the mobile home which she had just moved out of four weeks ago was turned on its side by the gales.

The McConnell family recently moved out of this mobile home

“We lived in it for a year and a half while we were building our house and we just moved into the house four weeks ago,” she said.

“I was just devastated when I came home from work and saw what had happened.

“I have never seen anything like this before, big trees that have been there for years and years were just pulled out by the root.

“It was very lucky that there was nobody injured.”

Peter Bunting, who lives just outside Aghalee, said the wind had blown about one third of the tiles off his neighbour’s house.

“I heard the noise and I thought it was my own roof, so I ran out the back and looked and my tiles were alright,” he said.

“The next thing I could see was a whirlwind with a lot of debris with it.”

The Road Service has cleared roads in the area which were blocked with fallen trees and other debris.

Meanwhile, what locals are describing as a “mini-tornado” blew down trees and damaged farm buildings in Rasharkin.

The Tamlaght Road outside the north Antrim village was also blocked for a time by fallen trees and branches.

BreakingNews.ie

28/09/2005 - 15:53:18

The family of murdered Dublin man Joseph Rafferty today dismissed an invitation to meet by Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams as a PR stunt.

Mr Rafferty’s two sisters believe republicans were involved in the death of the father-of-one outside his West Dublin apartment in April and claim Sinn Féin is protecting those responsible.

The case has been compared to that of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney and both families met in the Short Strand area two weeks ago.

Sinn Féin claims criminals with no links to the party were responsible for the crime and Mr Adams today offered to meet the Rafferty family.

However sister Esther Uzell, who yesterday met Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on the issue, said she would only meet Mr Adams if he had straight answers to her questions.

“It will have to be more than a PR stunt or a photo opportunity. I want hard answers to hard questions.

“I met with the McCartneys recently and he didn’t do them any favours as they are still being intimidated in their homes and on the street.”

Mr Ahern said after meeting the Rafferty family yesterday that he would raise the issue with Mr Adams at their next meeting.

Speaking outside the Dáil today, Mr Adams again denied any republican links and claimed criminals were responsible.

He offered to meet the Rafferty family to discuss their concerns.

Ms Uzell and her sister Sarah Little are due to meet Fine Gael Seanad leader Brian Hayes at Leinster House today.

Mr Rafferty, 29, died when he was shot twice in the upper body as he left his apartment at the Ongar Park housing estate in Blanchardstown last April.

The shooting is believed to have followed a minor dispute during a party in October 2004.

The Rafferty family claim they have been the victims of IRA intimidation in their Hogan Place south inner-city neighbourhood.

Earlier this month, Dublin City Council unanimously backed a motion by the family’s local councillor Garry Keegan for an immediate end to the intimidation of the Rafferty family.

Mr Ahern said yesterday that he was satisfied there was no official involvement by Sinn Féin.

“I don’t think there were any instructions given by the IRA,” he commented.

“Elements, probably of criminality, claimed they had links with republicans.”

The Rafferty family say they plan to take their campaign for Justice for Joseph to the international stage.

BreakingNews.ie

28/09/2005 - 23:07:40

InJustice Minister Michael McDowell is to complain to the RTÉ Authority about a Prime Time Investigates programme into how his department spent €30 million on a new site for Mountjoy Prison.

He told the Dáil tonight that the programme departed from acceptable standards of objectivity and professionalism in covering the issue on RTÉ One on Tuesday evening.

“I regret to say that the Prime Time programme gave, and was calculated to give, a most misleading impression to the viewers,” he said.

“Programme-makers in RTÉ are bound to be impartial in their treatment of current affairs.

“Yesterday was a sorry departure from those standards which I intend to take up directly with the RTE Authority.”

Prime Time Investigates raised questions about how the 150-acre site at Thornton Hall in north County Dublin was selected and how the purchase price was negotiated.

The location will house 1,000 prison inmates as well as patients from the Central Mental Hospital.

Mr McDowell was speaking during a Private Member’s Motion by Fine Gael on the issue.

Moving the motion, Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O’Keeffe described the acquisition of the land as “crazy and illogical”.

Labour’s justice spokesman, Joe Costello, called on the Comptroller and Auditor General to review how the Thornton Hall site was bought.

“Everybody knows that when the Government comes at you with a chequebook you quadruple the price,” said Fine Gael TD John Perry.

Local residents’ groups opposed to the super-prison development today marched from Parnell Square to the Dáil.

Members of the Rolestown and St Margaret’s Action Group were met by TDs outside Leinster House.

Spokeswoman Nessa Shevlin said: “Thornton Hall is totally unsuitable and we have been trying to tell Minister McDowell and the other Cabinet members that the Government has made a huge mistake by agreeing to buy this site and by forging ahead with this plan. But they are not listening, they don’t want to hear.

“If it goes ahead it will result in a massive waste of taxpayers’ money and will have untold consequences for our community, environment and heritage.”

The deal for the land – at almost €200,000 an acre – is due to be sealed next month.