SAOIRSE32

Impartial Reporter

**Via News Hound

“Total” decommissioning does not cut much ice with the IRA’s victims in Fermanagh nor security sources concerned that dissidents still hold weapons and explosives that have a deadly capability.

There are still a number of terrorists in the county who regard the destruction of any republican guns and explosives as a betrayal and surrender.

A former senior RUC officer reckons a significant proportion of former Provisional IRA men have jumped camp and are now operating within the Continuity and Real IRA.

“They (the dissidents) would be very keen to continue the armed struggle. Certainly they have the capability,” he stated.

He pointed out that in the past 11 years the dissidents have carried out a series of attacks in Fermanagh. They were responsible for bombing the former Castle Cineworld and Mirage Nightclub Complex in Enniskillen, the Carrybridge, Killyhevlin and Mahon’s Hotels, the Customs and Excise office on the Killyhevlin Industrial Estate, Enniskillen Townhall and most recently Rosslea Police Station.

The security forces also intercepted a “barrack buster” mortar in a van at Teemore. Three men were apprehended and are currently serving lengthy prison sentences in relation to that incident.

On Monday the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning reported that the IRA’s massive arsenal of guns, explosives and ammunition had been put beyond use in an operation lasting several days.

The head of the Decommissioning body, General John de Chastelain said the amount of weapons destroyed was consistent with British and Irish security force estimates of the arms held by the IRA. It included rifles, handguns, flame throwers, rocket propelled grenades and surface to air missiles.

The decommissioning was witnessed by the Rev. Harold Good, a former president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, and the Rev. Alec Reid, a Redemptorist priest. They said the process demonstrated to them that “beyond any shadow of a doubt” the arms of the IRA had been decommissioned.

The thought that any Sam 7 missiles might still be in circulation rather than encased in concrete in some secret bunker would send a nervous shiver through security chiefs. Bought in the United States, it was the most sophisticated weapon ever to fall into the hands of the IRA. In the history of the Troubles it was used only once and that was in an attack on an army Wessex helicopter patrolling the Border near Kinawley. Had it hit its target the army would have been forced to ground its helicopters. That would have left them with a security nightmare as to how to operate in republican areas in relative safety. At the time no details of the incident were made public. It has since emerged that the pilot saw a flash and took evasive action. The heat-seeking missile missed its target but according to one source “it was damn close.” The tail fin of the weapon was recovered in a follow-up search.

Without a detailed inventory it is impossible to know if all Sam 7s have been put beyond use or if there are any others out there, possibly in the hands of dissidents.

That has left people like Alan Madill of the South East Fermanagh Foundation victims’ group sceptical about decommissioning. In an interview on the BBC he expressed his distrust in the view that the IRA had put all its weapons beyond use.

On the same programme Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams described Mr. Madill, a former member of the RUC, as a “former combatant,” and offered to meet him to discuss the issue. Mr. Madill could not be contacted this week to see if he would take up the offer.

RTE

01 October 2005 15:11

The DUP leader, Ian Paisley and the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, are to hold separate meetings with the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in Downing Street next week.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and Mr Blair will meet to review developments in the peace process later this month.

Last Wednesday, DUP and Ulster Unionist groups met the clergymen who had witnessed IRA decommissioning - retired Methodist minister, Harold Good and the Redemptorist priest, Alex Reid.

It is understood that Fr Reid made a significant impression on several DUP members.

Daily Ireland

After 94 days in prison for trying to protect their families and homes, the men who have become known as the Rossport Five are… Free at last

By Connla Young

The Rossport Five woke up this morning from a three-month nightmare after being set free from jail by the High Court in Dublin yesterday.
After 94 days behind bars, the five Co Mayo men — Willie Corduff, brothers Philip and Vincent McGrath, Mícheál Ó Seighin, and Brendan Philbin — walked unbowed and unbroken from Dublin’s Four Courts after a consortium led by the multinational oil giant Shell withdrew a High Court injunction.
The family men — four small landowners and a retired teacher — were jailed on June 29 after being found to have breached a High Court order taken out by Shell Exploration and Production Ireland — comprising Shell Oil, Statoil and Marathon.
The injunction barred the men from interfering with work on the potentially dangerous Corrib gas pipeline on their land.
Until yesterday, the men were in Dublin’s crowded Cloverhill prison after refusing to purge their contempt and give an undertaking not to interfere with future Corrib pipeline construction work in Co Mayo.
Speaking to Daily Ireland just hours after his release from jail, Vincent McGrath spoke of his relief at being reunited with his family.
“I am just about beginning to recover now.
“It’s not a time for recriminations. It’s a time for family and friends and for all the people who helped us.
“We would like to thank those people who helped us, manned the picket lines and supported us in any way.
“Eventually the pressure came to the fore and it is as much about the people who helped as it is about anybody else.
“Hopefully this situation will not arise again and that Shell and our government will look at the situation in a different way.
“But if the same circumstances prevailed again, we would have no choice but to take the same action.
“Nobody else was prepared to take responsibility for our safety and the safety of our families as Irish citizens.
“The state must now guarantee our safety,” he said.
The five men walked free from court yesterday after Joseph Finnegan, the president of the High Court, said the injunction taken out by Shell and its partner companies no longer served a “useful purpose”.
The men will appear before the High Court again on October 25 when it will be decided if they should be punished further for refusing to purge their contempt.
Andy Pyle, managing director of Shell E&P Ireland, said he hoped to forge ahead with the Corrib project.
“We fully recognise the concerns of the objectors and the very difficult situation which the men and their families have been through.
“For the past three months, we have worked to bring about the conditions under which the men could come out of prison while maintaining our lawful right to complete this authorised development.
“We have suspended all onshore and offshore works and have offered to engage in third-party independent mediation.
“We believe that new information regarding the timing around the safety review, together with the minister’s initiatives, allow us to now move towards a successful conclusion and a resumption of the project,” he said.

Daily Ireland

by CIARAN BARNES

A Belfast men arrested in Spain for his alleged involvement in an IRA attack in Germany 16 years ago was last night released on bail from a prison near Madrid.
Leonard Hardy (44) was arrested in August while on a family holiday in Torremolinos after a European arrest warrant was issued relating to an extradition request from Germany.
German authorities want to try him for the mortar bombing of Osnabruck British army base in August 1989.
Supporters of Mr Hardy argued that the extradition proceedings represented an infringement of his civil liberties and that his freedom should be protected under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Hardy’s wife, Donna, this week hit out in Daily Ireland at the delay in her husband receiving bail.
In 1990, the Belfast man was sentenced to five years in Portlaoise prison in the Republic after being caught with explosives as he got off a ferry in Rosslare.
Since his release, he has lived openly in Co Louth with his wife and now has four children.
The family regularly took holidays in Spain.
Donna Hardy (formerly Maguire) was convicted in 1994 for the same attack in Osnabruck but was released after the court took into account time spent in custody awaiting trial.

Belfast Telegraph

By Treacy Hogan
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
01 October 2005

IRELAND has been hit with a whopping €21,600 (£15,000) a day fine by the European Commission because of a row over peat.

The massive fine which could eventually add up to millions of euro is being imposed by the EU which feels the government has failed to honour a judgment by the European Court.

Taxpayers will be hit with a bill of €669,600 (£420,000) for every month the Government fails to implement a directive over the effect of peat extraction on the environment.

The European Court of Justice found that Ireland was in breach of a number of provisions in the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, particularly in relation to the extraction of peat for commercial use.

In a tough judgment it ordered the country to bring in the directive. But the EU is unhappy with Ireland’s response.

It has asked the court to impose a daily fine of €21,600 until it complies with the ruling and implement the directive. The State will have to hand over the cash every day until it becomes compliant.

The government has been summoned before the Court of Justice on October 11 when the EU will ask the court to impose the fine until such time as environmental impact assessments are introduced for peat extraction.

The EU began its action as far back as 1999. But it went to the European Court in July, 2003. EU sources said that the concerns related to certain peat extraction projects.

Ireland is also in the European dock over failure to introduce a raft of other directives including actions over drinking water quality, habitats and illegal waste.

In its 1999 judgment the court said: “Peat extraction has significant and irreversible environmental effects.”

It also pointed out the failure of Irish legislation to take account of the significant environmental effects which afforestation projects might have in areas of active blanket bog. “Since afforestation entails ploughing, drainage, the use of fertilisers and a radical change in vegetation, it transforms the peatland ecosystem so fundamentally that it is effectively destroyed.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Nevin Farrell
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
01 October 2005

THE cost of policing 193 parades in the council district with the second lowest population in Northern Ireland was a whopping £285,000, it has been revealed.

Ballymoney has a population of around 28,000 and a senior police officer, speaking at a meeting of the area’s District Policing Partnership, revealed that manpower, planning and other costs from local budgets for parades for this year’s marching season from February to September was £160,400.

Chief Inspector Allan Barton said that covered everything from church parades to larger ‘orange’ and ‘green’ marches and stressed the figures included the cost of all officers on duty anyway at the time of parades.

But in addition, it cost £125,920 for tactical support group units to be drafted in to the area to police ‘contentious’ parades.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that out of that £125,920 figure it cost £52,000 to police one contentious parade alone - that of Ballymaconnelly Sons of Conquerors Flute Band which was met with a nationalist protest in Rasharkin in August.

The costs for that parade included standard policing, overtime, meals, travelling, planning and five tactical support groups.

Mr Barton said parades had been “a way of life” in Ballymoney and Northern Ireland in general and he said he was not making any comment on the “rights or wrongs” of parades. He said in February next year they will have a new system which will be able to tally the policing costs of parades “to the penny”.

Independent member of Ballymoney DPP Michael Fleming asked if the police could foresee circumstances where those who organise events requiring police attendance and traffic control like sport and “parades of any sort” will be required to contribute to the PSNI’s costs.

Mr Fleming said the costs of the average parade “is a hell of a lot more money than the people who are holding them are raising for their funds”.

Mr Barton replied that in England football clubs made a contribution towards policing costs at matches and said it would be a decision for the Government if any such system was to come in for events in Northern Ireland.

DPP member north Antrim DUP MLA Mervyn Storey said that many band parades provided marshalls to help with events and he said there are many smaller parades when the events can be effectively marshalled without police input.

He said he had attended parades in the past when, because of events elsewhere in the province putting pressure on resources, the police told them to look after their own events.

Mr Barton said that at contentious parades police had to prepare themselves for the worst possible scenario but he said they were fortunate in the Ballymoney area this year that there was no violence at parades.

Belfast Telegraph

By Tom Brady and Debra Douglas
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
01 October 2005

GARDAÍ will be working alongside the PSNI in Northern Ireland within weeks, it has emerged.

The groundbreaking initiative has been almost finalised between the two police forces and is seen as a big boost to the prospects of the PSNI being accepted fully by the nationalist community.

And unionists have reacted calmly to the news, saying that co-operation between the forces is welcome if it leads to enhanced experience.

Members of the PSNI will also work with the Garda in the Republic, and the first swap of personnel will take place under an exchange programme that will be confined largely to non-operational posts.

A Garda superintendent will be sent north next month and will be based at the Garnerville training college in Belfast.

The senior officer will be followed by members of other ranks early in 2006. They will stay with the PSNI for up to a year.

Personnel in the exchange programme will not have policing powers and will be dressed in plain clothes. Their duties will include acting as observers, human resources and training, and community policing.

After the programme gets under way, senior officers from the two forces will then concentrate on the secondment phase, which will involve members being given full police powers and assigned to operational tasks. Officers on secondment can work with the host police force for up to three years and they will eventually be sent out on patrol on the streets of Northern Ireland and the Republic. A decision has not yet been taken on whether these officers will wear a uniform.

The changes are in line with the recommendations of the Patten Commission

DUP MLA and Policing Board member Sammy Wilson said the exchange programme was to be welcomed if it benefited the PSNI, however he warned that the motive could be met with a degree of suspicion.

“If these secondments enhance the skills or improve the efficiency of officers in the PSNI then we would be the first to welcome them,” he said.

“The difficulty is that the Good Friday Agreement arises a degree of suspicion that things are being done for political reasons, rather than us learning from them and them from us.

“If the secondment of officers from the Garda brings benefits to the PSNI, we have no difficulties with it, but if there are political connotations attached, then we have absolute objection. I think it is a case of waiting to see what happens.”

The PSNI said it could not confirm any date for the first secondment.

“Discussions between the PSNI and the Garda are ongoing in relation to the implementation of the exchange programme,” a spokeswoman said.

“A launch date is imminent and the details of the plans will be launched shortly.”

BreakingNews.ie

30/09/2005 - 19:41:22

A man was arrested today in connection with a pipe bomb attack on the home of a couple and their three-year-old son.

The explosion in Carnany Drive, Ballymoney, Co Antrim, left two pieces of steel embedded in the living room.

Police said the man, who was detained following a search in the area, will face charges of attempted murder.

The family were asleep when the device detonated at around 2.30am yesterday on the window sill of their home.

Detective Inspector Nick McCaw said the crime was carried out by loyalist paramilitaries and could have proved fatal.

He confirmed two 5-inch pieces of steel entered the living room and became embedded in the ceiling and sofa.

A car in the driveway was also damaged by the bomb, which sent debris hurtling into the street.

One bolt was found 50 yards away, next to a community centre.

The family were unhurt but have been left traumatised by their ordeal.

Daily Ireland

GEARÓID Ó CAIREALLÁIN

Now what have yis got to complain about? That was my own first reaction to the IRA announcement that full and final decommissioning had taken place – what will the die-hard, unreconstructed, head in the sand, old-style Unionists have to complain about now?
The IRA is gone, their arms, ammunition and explosives have gone, the republican movement has committed itself in front of the world to pursue its aims and objectives in a solely peaceful and democratic way – and to top it all, they are bound by the Good Friday Agreement to accept the legitimacy of the constitutional position of the Northern Ireland state within the United Kingdom until such time as a majority in the Six Counties votes otherwise.
If Brian Faulkner had got the half of that thirty years ago he would have been claiming victory from the roof of Stormont and from every treetop leading up to it.
This week Paisley is complaining that he has no faith in the veracity of the decommissioning process, no trust in either of the governments and no pity for the two saps who were fooled into giving false witness to the shambles. No doubt as time goes on he will discover other grounds for complaint.
But what really bothers Paisley’s brand of Unionism is the plain and simple fact that nationalism, Irish nationalism, the movement towards a united and equitable Ireland has not been eradicated.
Changing conditions have led to the demise of the physical force tradition, but the ultimate aim of that tradition is still there.
In fact, there is a suspicion, indeed a fear, at the back of the mind of every old-style Unionist that with the IRA now off the scene the momentum towards constitutional change might even pick up and become, well… unstoppable.
In any event, they are near damn sure (not that they would use such strong language) that the IRA did not give up the ghost without making some kind of a secret deal with the Brits. Yes, I’m talking sellout, here.
Despite the fact that Paisley has been denouncing the British government for selling Ulster out to the republicans since 1968, I must say that I see little sign of the deal around here – but that is an article for a different day.
The end of armed republicanism has changed the political landscape, utterly. In the North you can nearly reach out and touch the change. It’s partly psychological but also involves a realignment of vision, a different way of looking at things, as if mankind has just learned to walk for the first time.
The immediate target following the completion of decommissioning is the re-establishing of the political institutions with a guarantee that the Unionists will not be allowed to crash them again at a whim.
This week the two governments confirmed publicly that they are allowing a moratorium until after the International Monitoring Commission delivers its January report, but after that – provided it contains no unexpected surprises – they expect to be on the run-in to a re-assembled Assembly.
Paisley can say no, of course, and most likely will say no. But the British government already realises that even DUP nay-sayers can be brought around by largesse, promises of this and that and – perish the thought – even a secret deal.
The biggest stick to beat the Unionists into Stormont, however, is likely to be the realisation that whatever would come about to replace the Good Friday Agreement would be worse for Unionists that what they have now.
One way or another, it is clear that we are on the road to revamping Stormont. My guess is that we will have elections to the Assembly here in March of next year. Just what we need – more elections.
The political institutions represent one strand of the Good Friday Agreement, but the underlying anchorage of the Northern peace process is the inevitable movement towards equality. And equality is the real antithesis of old-style Unionism.
Unemployment in the Six Counties is still twice as high within the Catholic community as within the Protestant community. The much-vaunted peace dividend never really materialised with the result that the poorest and most deprived areas of the North never experienced the regeneration promised in the run-up to the original IRA ceasefire of 1994.
The Irish flag, the Irish national anthem and the Irish language still have no official recognition in this part of Ireland. The ethos of the civil service, of the police service, of the fire service, of all branches of state is still completely British, or more or less completely British.
Even anti-sectarian legislation means little in the Six Counties, where thugs can come up to family cars and attack the occupants just because they are displaying the colours of their own county who had just won the All-Ireland football championship.
Tackling the rampant inequality in Northern society is one of the biggest tasks facing nationalist politicians and the British government – and we shouldn’t have to wait until a united Ireland to achieve it. Equality should be there already.
I have always believed that had the Unionist government provided total equality for the Catholic community in the Six Counties when the Northern Ireland state was set up in 1921 the troubles that followed partition would not have taken place.
Ironically, it is the inevitable surge towards equality now that will probably sound the final death knell for the Northern state.

Irish Independent

AFTER 94 days in prison, five men tasted freedom yesterday after an epic David and Goliath battle with the multinational Shell oil company.

The Rossport Five will savour their triumph today when they will head a major rally in Dublin - just 24 hours after their release.

There were tears and cheers for the Co Mayo men who faced prison rather than obey a High Court order not to interfere with the construction of the Corrib gas pipeline.

The famous rotunda of the Four Courts has seldom seen such emotional scenes as those that greeted the men as they walked from court into the arms of family members and friends.

The eldest of the group, 65-year-old Micheal O Seighin, with his wife Caitlin by his side, spoke of his delight at being free.

“It was OK in jail. Not having freedom was the worst part, not having a nail file, very small things,” he said.

The story of the titanic struggle that has gripped the nation took a further twist yesterday as it emerged that Shell itself may face a possible contempt of court hearing.

The company had demanded the men’s imprisonment. But yesterday High Court President Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan told counsel for Shell, Patrick Hanratty, he wanted the company to address its breach of an undertaking not to do anything not permitted by the licence of Marine Minister Noel Dempsey.

Later today, the men will take their place at a rally organised to highlight what many saw as the “scandal” of their three-month sojourn in jail.

The continued defiance of brothers Philip and Vincent McGrath, Willie Corduff, Micheal O Seighin and Brendan Philbin turned them into national heroes since they were sent to prison for contempt of court on June 29. But all five will be back in the High Court on October 25 to hear whether they will have to face punishment for their initial contempt.

There were also encouraging sounds from Shell E&P Ireland (SEPIL) which had applied to have its temporary injunction against the men set aside. The company said it welcomed a Government-led mediation initiative and safety review.

SEPIL managing director Andy Pyle said the corporation fully recognised the concerns of the objectors and the very difficult situation the men and their families had been through.

“For the past three months we have worked to bring about the conditions under which the men could come out of prison while maintaining our lawful right to complete this authorised development,” he said.

Onshore and offshore works had been suspended and the company had offered to engage in third party, independent mediation, he said.

The Rossport Five were mobbed by well-wishers and media as they walked triumphantly from the Four Courts.

They said they had no regrets and the fight to protect their families and their safety would continue.

Mr Philbin said it was very hard in a democracy that they had to go to jail to prove their point.

“I thank all the prison inmates and say hello to all the staff in the kitchen of Cloverhill,” said Mr Philbin.

“I feel we’ve won a victory,” said Philip McGrath.

Fergus Black