SAOIRSE32

Times Online

By Sean O’Neill and David Sharrock

THE property empire built up by the Provisional IRA’s chief of staff extends from Britain and Ireland into the economies of Eastern Europe, financial investigators believe.

An international inquiry is under way to trace assets linked to Thomas “Slab” Murphy and other IRA figures in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Romania.

Attempts are being made to examine bank accounts in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and offshore investment havens.

Mr Murphy, 56, who has amassed a personal fortune estimated at £40 million mainly from cross-border smuggling, is alleged to have begun laundering his money by investing in property and legitimate businesses only three years ago.

The IRA chief’s name is kept out of the transactions and it is possible that legal businesses will be unaware of the origins of new injections of funds.

After years of surveillance and covert inquiries into Mr Murphy, the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) raided homes and offices in Manchester and Cheshire this week. The target was a portfolio of 250 properties rented to private tenants and valued at £30 million.

Investigators searched the home and offices of Dermot Craven, a Manchester businessman who owns a network of property development and management companies.

The Irish Criminal Assets Bureau searched offices of accountants and solicitors in the border town of Dundalk, Co Louth. Mr Murphy, who lives near Dundalk in a farm on the Irish border, is reported to have invested a large sum of money in a local development.

A spokesman for the Garda, the Irish police, said: “Searches were conducted at professional offices. A quantity of documentary material was seized and is being examined. No arrests were made and the operation is ongoing.”

The Irish and British inquiry teams are understood to have joined forces six months ago in an investigation into Mr Murphy codenamed Operation Front Line. The Garda spokesman added: “We have been working with the ARA for a number of months in respect of this and other investigations.”

The inquiry into Mr Murphy became public ten days after the announcement that the IRA had decommissioned its arsenal. Until then efforts to tackle the IRA’s criminal activities were hampered by fears that the organisation might retaliate with a terrorist attack.

Further raids are likely to follow as investigators examine money-laundering schemes by other senior IRA figures.

IRA plc, as the organisation has been labelled since it moved into organised crime, is believed to have several divisions modelled loosely on its brigade structure. In addition to the South Armagh unit, run by Mr Murphy, there are thought to be crime syndicates making and laundering money in East Tyrone, Belfast and Derry in Northern Ireland, and two units in the Republic of Ireland.

Following the IRA’s money trail has led investigators to Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, where the organisation has established links with criminal gangs. There are also suspicions that tranches of the IRA’s wealth were invested in Spanish property in the 1990s.

More recently the focus has switched to Eastern Europe, where overseas investments have been subjected to less scrutiny. There have been investments in Prague, the Czech capital, and the property and nightlife sector in emerging holiday destinations such as Slovenia.

Daily Ireland

Letters to the Editor

In response to speculation in the media about the intentions of the republican socialist movement following the oration at the annual Séamus Costello commemoration in Bray, a few points need to be made.
The position outlined in Sunday’s oration has been held by the IRSP since 1998. We refer to the opening paragraph of the INLA’s ceasefire statement issued on August 22, 1998: “We have accepted the advice and analysis of the Irish Republican Socialist Party that the conditions for armed struggle do not exist.
“The Irish National Liberation Army has now shifted from the position of defence and retaliation to the position of complete ceasefire. We have instructed all our units to desist from offensive action from noon today.”
The ardchomhairle of the IRSP stated on the same day; “In the present changed political climate in Ireland, the INLA has also shown that it possesses both the leadership and vision necessary to provide the momentum required to continue the pursuance of that aim by peaceful methods.”
On the position of armed struggle, we have also been quite clear for many years, At the Séamus Costello commemoration in 2003, the IRSP asserted: “Today the IRSP has to face into the struggle for a socialist republic based on democratic principles, equipped with the integrity of republican socialist politics.
“This, alongside our determination to achieve Irish freedom, full social equality for all, and self-government, are the arms required for today’s struggle. The political conditions not only in Ireland but also internationally in 2003 demand that our response is measured and tailored to achieve victory, not wallowing in a self-righteous indignation, engaged in a fruitless armed campaign that our enemies long ago learned how to minimise and negate.”
It needs to be restated that the decision on whether or not the INLA decommissions lies solely with that movement, and that decision should only be taken with reference to the actual position on the ground for working-class communities who presently find themselves living under threat of violence and forced evictions.
It will not be taken on a request from the nationalist, pro-Good Friday Agreement republicans.
The republican socialist movement is clear on its position in relation to the GFA. That agreement represented a defeat for the Irish republican struggle. But as we said at the recent anti-internment demonstration in Ballymena: “The republican socialist movement accepts the need for changed tactics in a rapidly changing world.
“But changed tactics don’t mean changed principles. We stand by the republic of James Connolly and Liam Mellows.”
Only when the Irish working class achieves full economic and political freedom will we say that the struggle is over.

Eddie McGarrigle
IRSP National Executive

Daily Ireland

By Connla Young

BBC photo

The Irish National Liberation Army has no plans to put its arms beyond use, it was confirmed last night.
The group’s position on the issue came when Eddie McGarrigle, a senior member of the group’s political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, said there was no appetite for such a move within the Republican Socialist Movement.
Speculation has mounted over what direction the INLA would take after the IRA put its weapons beyond use last week. Confirmation that the INLA will not decommission comes just days after Mr McGarrigle called on anti-Agreement republicans to bring their armed campaigns to a close.
In a letter published in Daily Ireland today Mr McGarrigle, who is based in Strabane, Co Tyrone, said a decision on decommissioning “will not be taken on a request from the nationalist, pro-Good Friday Agreement republicans”.
Speaking to Daily Ireland last night Mr McGarrigle said decommissioning was a non-issue within the Republican Socialist Movement as long as unionist paramilitaries continued to pose a threat to nationalist communities.
“Anti-Good Friday Agreement republicans will not engage in decommissioning; it’s not an issue at this time. Republicans have a duty to defend their communities against loyalists.
“While there is no appetite for armed conflict there remains an onus on republicans to defend their communities. This is especially the case given the history of the state and the fact that unionists are not engaging in the process of conflict transformation and there is a strong element of distrust in nationalist communities. At grassroots level this issue is not on the agenda at this time.
“Paisley’s stance hardens attitudes. The attitude of unionist politicians to loyalist violence and weapons does little to fill people with confidence either. Republicans who have been outside the political process see no merit in it at all. All the signatories to the Good Friday Agreement said they would try to encourage decommissioning. But none of the signatories have ever approached the INLA or republican socialists and asked their opinion on the matter. The whole thing has been a red herring and directed at IRA weaponry. It was never raised as an issue with us, even in meetings with the governments.”
The IRSP man also renewed his call for anti-Agreement republicans not on ceasefire to call off their campaigns.
“I would again call on them to end their campaigns and to talk to other anti-Agreement republicans. The time for armed struggle is not at the moment. There is also an onus on provisional republicans to persuade other republicans that the conflict can be resolved through the stepping stone strategy they use.”
The INLA has remained relatively inactive since they called a ceasefire in 1998. While the INLA’s arsenal may not match that of the IRA’s, it is understood they have several hundred small arms and automatic weapons as well as access to explosives.

BreakingNews.ie

08/10/2005 - 16:33:15

A fourth person questioned by police about the murder of former Ulster Defence Association chief Jim Gray was tonight released without charge.

Three other people detained about last week’s killing were also released earlier today.

Mr Gray, 47, who was the former brigadier of the UDA in east Belfast, was shot dead by two men on his Knockwood Park doorstep on Tuesday night.

He was recently released from prison after being arrested on alleged money laundering charges.

Police allegedly found a bank draft for €10,000 and nearly £3,000 in cash in his car when he was stopped outside Banbridge, Co Down in April.

He was believed to have been heading for the Irish border.

Gray survived a previous attempt on his life in 2002 when he was shot in the face during a deadly feud within the UDA.

BBC

The girl was hit near a bar on Stewartsown Road

A man has been charged with motoring offences following an incident that has left a 14-year-old girl critically ill in hospital.

The girl was struck by a white van near the Hunting Lodge bar on Stewartstown Road at about 2030 BST on Friday.

Another girl was also injured in the incident, but not seriously.

One man is to appear at Belfast Magistrates Cout on Monday charged with dangerous driving and driving while under the influence.

Belfast Telegraph

08 October 2005

An IRA man questioned by gardai over the murder of Joseph Rafferty in Dublin has been returned to prison without charge.

The man is allegedly the friend of an IRA member suspected of gunning down the 29-year-old father of one outside his Ongar apartment on April 12 last year over a jealous grudge.

The Provisional, currently serving a prison sentence, was quizzed by detectives for two hours in connection with the Rafferty case.

He is an associate of the man gardai believe murdered the courier, who was originally from Fenian Street in Dublin.

The IRA man was approached by Mr Rafferty’s family before the murder, pleading in vain that a death threat against their brother be lifted.

The Rafferty family also approached Sinn Féin councillor Daithi Doolan on three separate occasions prior to the shooting.

Sources indicate that the gunman, in his mid 30s, is a close friend of one of Doolan’s election workers and claim the Sinn Fein man knows exactly who he is.

The courier was murdered over a dispute that stemmed from a row in a south inner city hotel bar last October.

After the row, Joseph Rafferty was told he was “going to get it from the ‘RA”.

Detectives investigating the case believe the killer watched Joseph Rafferty for two weeks before he dressed as a construction worker, drew a sawn-off shotgun and shot him outside his home.

An eyewitness is said to have identified the killer as he walked away from the scene.

Sources say the gunman is a well-known figure in the Grand Canal Street area of the city and is well known as an IRA member.

Associates of the man have mounted a campaign of intimidation against the Rafferty family in the wake of the killing.

The family has recently warned Councillor Daithi Doolan that they will seek a court injunction against him if he continues to use references to the murder in his campaign literature. The family claim that Doolan has been constantly “plaguing” them by calling to their home, which has led them to consider the legal action.

The family dismissed an invitation to meet Gerry Adams as a PR stunt. The case has been compared to that of murdered Belfast man Robert McCartney. Both families met in Belfast last month.

Belfast Telegraph

He will be back, says ex-RUC man

By David Gordon
dgordon@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
08 October 2005

Photo from Pacemaker

Johnny “Mad Dog” Adair is plotting a dramatic return to Northern Ireland, the retired cop who put him behind bars has warned.

Former RUC detective Johnston Brown also described Adair as more “street wise” than Jim Gray, the deposed UDA chief who was shot dead in east Belfast earlier this week.

Three people being questioned by police about the murder of Gray were today released without charge. One other person is still being questioned.

Mr Brown said: “Don’t write Adair off. He’s planning a return to Northern Ireland as we speak.”

Adair is currently awaiting sentencing for assaulting his wife Gina in Bolton last week.

The former Shankill godfather was arrested for domestic violence hours after a court case over his harassment of a fellow loyalist exile.

Mr Brown said Adair’s recent behaviour did not mean he was self-destructing in Bolton.

“That’s the way he lived here. Did he punch Gina before? Absolutely. Did she complain before? Not a chance.

“The police would do nothing about it. Now, he will be prosecuted for throwing a bit of paper onto the street.

“He’s not going to be allowed the same leeway he would have here,” he said.

The retired detective added: “Adair’s plotting a way back.

“He’s nobody over there. He and people like him will never be able to settle down into obscurity.”

Mr Brown provided the key evidence in 1995 that put Adair in prison for directing terrorism.

Adair and murder victim Jim “Doris Day” Gray were once fellow “brigadiers” in the UDA leadership.

They became enemies in a feud that led to Adair’s faction being forced out of Northern Ireland. Gray later fell foul of the UDA.

BBC

A leading Belfast republican, who was alleged in court to be the instigator of a riot, has been granted bail.

The High Court heard Bobby Storey, from South Link in Andersonstown, verbally encouraged a crowd of 40 rioters.

The court also heard he had allegedly prevented arrests being made during the disturbance on 4 September.

His solicitor told the court he had been summoned to quell the riot. He denies charges of riotous assembly, and assaulting and obstructing an officer.

The court also imposed a curfew on him from eight o’clock in the evening until seven o’clock in the morning.

BreakingNews.ie

08/10/2005 - 14:21:09

The president of the Irish Workers Party has been released on bail pending his potential extradition to the United States on counterfeiting charges.

Sean Garland, a 71-year-old from Navan in Co Meath, appeared at Belfast County Court today after he was arrested last night.

The US government alleges that he and others bought, moved and either passed as genuine, or re-sold high quality counterfeit $100 notes.

A defence lawyer claimed that Mr Garland “strongly protested” his innocence.

An Phoblacht

BY SHANE MacTHOMÁIS

In 1932 the workers of Belfast when put out of jobs quickly exhausted entitlement to the ‘bureau’ (dole), and were forced to turn to the Poor Law. The Belfast Board of Guardians applied the old workhouse test with rigor. Nothing was given until savings had been exhausted and relief was in the form of groceries obtained by ‘chits’ from named shops and successful applicants were humiliated by having their names posted on gable walls. Those in receipt of ‘outdoor relief’ had to work to receive benefit. Some unemployed married men were given work on corporation schemes such as repairing roads to get their dole.

By 1932 about 2,000 men were on this scheme, earning from 8 to 24 shillings a week for those with four or more children.

During 1932 an organisation called the Revolutionary Workers’ Groups, composed of elements from all political groups and communities, carried on a broad agitation among the relief workers and were able to organise the Outdoor Relief Workers’ Committee. It was composed of elected delegates from the various relief works and trade union branches. On 30 September at a mass meeting of 2,000 relief workers the decision to strike was endorsed and the following demands adopted:

o Abolition of task work.

o Increase in scale of relief to following rates: Man 15s 3d per week, wife 8s per week, each child 2s per head.

o No payment in kind — all relief to be paid in cash.

o Street improvement work under the Exceptional Distress Relief scheme, or schemes of like character, to be done at trade union rate of wages and adequate outdoor allowances to all single men and women who are unemployed and not in receipt of unemployment benefit.

The date set for the strike was 3 October 1932, and on that day 20,000 workers demonstrated in support of the strikers. The mayor and the board of guardians invited representatives of the Relief Workers’ Committee to meet for a discussion. Several small concessions were offered and rejected by the workers.

On 8 October, the Relief Workers’ Committee organised a house-to-house collection of money and food to establish a food depot to supply the strikers. They collected over £300 and food for the strikers.

On 9 October, mass meetings were held which resulted in the decision by the working women of the textile mills to demonstrate on 11 October. The government prohibited the meeting on 10 October and drafted in an extra 800 police from other districts to bolster numbers to 4,000 armed policed.

In spite of these elaborate preparations to smash the pickets, the unemployed came onto the streets on the morning of 11 October. However the government came up with a strategy to beat the strikers. Instead of firing indiscriminately at both Catholics and Protestants, the RUC were told to only shoot at Catholic areas. The Orange card was being played. The strikers were told that ‘the IRA were using the ODR strike as a cover to overthrow Protestant rights’. The police attacked with batons, and in areas where they could not disperse the demonstrators, they opened fire. Two workers were killed and over 100 were seriously injured. The two workers killed were John Geegan of Millfield and Samuel Baxter of Regent Street,

Throughout the day Protestant and Catholic workers fought side by side and ran from district to district helping and encouraging one another. This was the feature of the events that most worried the Belfast Telegraph: “It was significant that for once the religious question did not enter into the trouble. Youths from Protestant areas were to be found in Catholic districts and vice versa.”

The unity of workers and unemployed, men and women, Protestant and Catholic was sealed with blood. As well as two men killed, about 100 workers were wounded by rifle fire. The workers had only stones to defend themselves, yet it took the police all day to combat the resistance. Seventy workers were arrested, and others were made repair the street damage at gun point.

An Phoblacht, edited by Frank Ryan at the time welcomed the unity of Catholic and Protestant in the face of a common enemy:

“Belfast in revolt. Workers shot down by police. As we go to press there is a fierce conflict in progress. Already there has been one striker killed and many wounded by gunfire. All the signs of revolution are there: barricades, trenches, and at last organisation.” — An Phoblacht, 15 October 1932.

By 6am the next morning, a police cordon was thrown around the city and no one was allowed to leave or enter Belfast. But the unbreakable solidarity of the workers, and especially the heroic struggle against the armed police, forced the Board of Guardians to announce a new scale of relief.

The concessions won by a united front of the working class were:

o A man and wife were entitled to 2.5 days of work at 20 shillings per week.

o A man and wife with three or four children were entitled to 3.5 days and 28 shillings per week.

o A man and wife with over four children were entitled to four days work per week at 32 shillings per week.

The Relief Workers’ Committee accepted the terms. The General Secretary of the RWC Gehan announced: “What we have achieved gives the direct lie and contradictions to those who said the workers of Belfast could not be united and would not fight. They had seen Protestants and Catholics marching together on, and on Tuesday, fighting together.”

The funeral of victims of police brutality was attended by over 10,000 workers, and another 100,000 were reported to have lined the streets. The policed again mobilised for the occasion and accompanied the funeral procession with armoured cars, but no violence erupted.

The Belfast events of October 1932 showed that it is possible for workers of both communities to stand shoulder to shoulder against the injustices of the ruling classes.

rememberingthepast@anphoblacht.com

Irish Democrat

Owen Bennett reviews the Irish peace process and gives some thought to future developments

THE IRISH peace process developed within the wider historical context of Irish politics. Indeed it wasn’t so much of a peace process as more like a continuation of the national struggle by different means. It was primarily a product of the evolution of the republican movement, which in the 1980s, began to develop a mass political base in the north. Before this, republicans were mostly isolated individuals and tended to have a narrow vision of things, and saw the northern problem simply as a military contest between the IRA and the British army.

>>>READ ON

Daily Ireland

**Via News Hound

Ciarán Barnes

RSF denies crisis in its organisation after split

Continuity IRA (CIRA) units in Co Limerick are planning to merge with the Real IRA in south Armagh, Daily Ireland has learned.
In recent weeks leading CIRA members in Limerick have visited Real IRA leader Liam Campbell in Portlaoise prison with a view to linking up with his south Armagh unit.
The move comes in the wake of the CIRA split following the decision by its nine prisoners in Portlaoise to quit the organisation. The inmates left after a dispute with the CIRA in Limerick.
The prisoners accused the Limerick unit of withholding support funds from their families, while those in Limerick claimed the inmates were taking drugs and associating with criminals.
The mass resignation has left the CIRA and its political wing Republican Sinn Féin (RSF) in disarray, with two camps emerging – one in support of the prisoners and the other supporting the Limerick unit and RSF.
In a bid to strengthen their position, CIRA members in Limerick have been in negotiations with the Real IRA about a merger.
One former CIRA member told Daily Ireland the organisation was “hopelessly fractured”.
He said: “The Belfast brigade was stood down two months ago. They were useless, they kept on losing weapons. A couple of weeks ago the officer commanding in Dublin was stood down because he supported the prisoners in Portlaoise. He was ‘arrested’ by CIRA members in Bundoran, Co Donegal, and relieved of his rank.
“The Continuity IRA is in turmoil. There are volunteers in the North who want to carry on the war, but the organisation is controlled by armchair generals in Limerick and Fermanagh. They don’t have a clue.”
The dissident republican source said the planned merger between the Limerick CIRA and the south Armagh Real IRA was a bid by the Limerick units to retain control of the organisation.
He added: “They have been frightened by the walk-outs and resignations.
“Publicly they are saying everything is fine but privately they will admit things are very bad and that’s why they want to merge with the Real IRA.”
In a statement to Daily Ireland earlier in the week Republican Sinn Féin admitted a number of members had resgined, but denied there was a crisis in the organisation.
A spokesman said a campaign of spreading unfounded rumours about RSF was taking place.

BBC

Peter Robinson wants increased DUP representation on Policing Board

DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson has expressed hope that the government will make big changes to the Policing Board in the near future.

The DUP has called for the board to be reconstituted to reflect the party’s success in the 2003 assembly elections.

In August the government said it was asking the current 19 members of the board to continue into 2006.

Speaking on Radio Ulster’s Inside Politics, Mr Robinson said his party would not let the demand drop.

“Clearly we’ve been pressing the government to make changes that they should have made and we were entitled to have back in 2003,” Mr Robinson said.

“I hope that they will do that and I hope they’ll do it soon.

“I don’t think they can resist the strength of the argument nor have I seen any other political party being able to resist the strength of the argument either.”

The terms of office of all Policing Board members were due to expire this month.

The board is comprised of nine independent members and 10 drawn from the political parties.

The Northern Ireland Policing Board was established in November 2001 following recommendations in the Patten Report.

BreakingNews.ie

08/10/2005 - 09:23:54

Three people being questioned by police about the murder of former loyalist paramilitary leader Jim Gray were today released without charge.

One other person is still being questioned.

Jim Gray, who was the so-called brigadier of the UDA in east Belfast, was shot dead on his doorstep last week.

He had been facing a number of criminal charges.