SAOIRSE32

Daily Ireland

Zoe Tunney

The family of missing Tyrone teenager Arlene Arkinson yesterday called on the PSNI to resume searching for her body.
The 15-year-old went missing near her home in Castlederg after returning from a disco in Co Donegal in August 1994.
The family have also demanded a public inquiry into the police handling of the case after a television documentary exposed the full extent to which the RUC and PSNI botched the investigation into her murder.
Members of the Arkinson family met with Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office, David Hanson, yesterday. The minister said he was looking into the details of the documentary and promised to pass on the family’s request for a public inquiry to the relevant government ministers.
The Police Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, has also said her office will now begin an investigation into the police handling of the case.
A spokesperson for her office said: “We have received a complaint about the police investigation into the handling of the Arlene Arkinson case and we are now investigating that complaint.”
The Arkinson family said they are “disgusted” by the details of the police handling of their sister’s murder and have called on the police to find her body.
“They could have destroyed any hope we had of finding Arlene’s body, never mind her killer,” said Arlene’s sister Kathleen. “We blame the police for everything we have been put through for the past 11 years.
“But after what we have seen we will never give up now,” she added.
Last month, Robert Howard originally from Wolfhill in Co Laois was acquitted of the murder of Arlene Arkinson.
The convicted child killer is already serving a life sentence for the murder of 15-year-old schoolgirl, Hannah Williams, and has a criminal record which spans over 40 years which includes rape and sexual assault.
However, during his trial for Arlene’s murder, the PSNI decided not to allow the details of his past to be mentioned in court. An ex-detective is to be questioned about documents relating to the investigation which he allegedly held onto even after he retired from duty.
Robert Howard is now also wanted for questioning by gardaí over the disappearance of a number of women in the south.
The Arkinson family have consulted their solicitors with regard to getting a public inquiry into the police handling of the case.
Kathleen Arkinson said the family want the police to begin fresh searches for Arlene’s body.
“We want them to start looking again. No matter what it takes to find Arlene’s body the PSNI must do it.
“They owe us that much at least and we owe it to Arlene.”

BBC

Ulster Unionists will not serve on a new Policing Board under the terms announced by the secretary of state, party leader Sir Reg Empey has said.

NI Secretary Peter Hain said he wants a reconstituted board to take over next April.

He indicated if Sinn Fein did not join he would give their two seats to independent nationalists.

Sir Reg said this was unacceptable and would turn the board, which holds the PSNI to account, into a “quango”.

“The Policing Board has been engaged in good work,” he said.

“It should continue to be accountable and democratically controlled.

“Instead we are facing the reality of a Policing Board which is made up of a majority that does not represent the voting intentions of the public.

Formula

“This is a crisis in the making. We will not serve on a quango.”

On Thursday, Mr Hain told the House of Commons the d’Hondt formula would be used to appoint members in April next year.

Mr Hain said this would mean 4 DUP members, 2 SDLP, 2 UUP and 2 Sinn Fein. But he said Sinn Fein had “expressed no intention” of joining the board.

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

Mr Hain said: “I accepted the arguments… that the DUP was in an unfair situation and that the present composition of the board - its political section - did not reflect the last assembly elections.”

He added: “It is vital that community balance is maintained. I don’t know if Sinn Fein are going to come onto the board.

“They have expressed no intention of doing so, but if they want to get involved in devolved government… they will have to take their responsibilities for policing seriously, including going on the board.”

SDLP Policing Board member Alex Attwood said his party had also been told that Sinn Fein’s seats on the new board would go to nationalists if they were not taken up.

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton
14 October 2005

Secretary of State Peter Hain has said the Government will address concerns that the £30m review of Troubles murders could be undermined by legislation over IRA fugitives.

East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson raised fears that upcoming legislation to deal with “on the runs” (OTRs) could provide a loophole for anyone accused of old murders.

The PSNI is conducting a “cold case” review of some 1,800 unsolved murders.

The OTR legislation - expected to be introduced later this month - will allow a number of wanted IRA suspects to return to Northern Ireland without the possibility of going to prison.

The DUP have said the proposals amount to an amnesty, while the Conservatives have said they will lead opposition in the Lords if suspects are not subject to a licence that could see them returned to prison.

Mr Hain said in the House of Commons yesterday that there will be mechanisms for bringing those suspects to prison if they are believed to have become involved in crime.

But Mr Wilson said the legislation could have “serious implications” for the cold case review.

“Will those whose evidence is being gathered during review be exempt from prosecution or will they simply have to skip across the border for a few days to qualify for the conditions of this legislation?” he said.

“The families who eagerly await the reopening of loved ones’ cases will be shattered, if even when evidence is found to enable prosecution of their loved ones’ murderers, the Secretary of State then grants them an exemption from prosecution.”

Mr Hain said: “The proposition is not an amnesty because that would mean people who committed offences would in advance be released for ever from being punished for them.”

He added: “Cold cases being reviewed by the Chief Constable and his officers will lead to people being charged, if evidence exists.

“If such people come under OTR legislation, they will be subject to the appropriate judicial process, so there is no question of being let off the hook.”

Mr Hain said the OTR controversy was a good example of why “the process of ending violence is difficult”.

Sinn Féin

Published: 14 October, 2005

Sinn Féin MP for West Tyrone Pat Doherty has demanded that the British government make a statement on the activities of former Special Branchman Eric Anderson. Mr Doherty said that he is ’stunned’ that neither Security
Minister Shaun Woodward nor his boss Peter Hain have made any comment on the Eric Anderson affair before now.

Mr Doherty said:

“It is now well over 24 hours since former Special Branchman Eric Anderson admitted on camera to stealing confidential files relating to murder investigations in a bid to frustrate the work of the Police Ombudsman.

“I am stunned given the gravity of the matters exposed that neither security Minister Shaun Woodward nor his boss Peter Hain have yet to make any public comment on what can only be described as a developing scandal.

“Nationalists and republicans have long known about the destructive role being played by the RUC old guard both inside and outside the current policing structures. Nationalists and republicans know only too well the
role of Special Branch in passing confidential files onto loyalist death squads in the past.
“The British government and the PSNI need to realise that this issue is not going away. Eric Anderson has admitted involvement in serious criminal activity. The response of the British government and its agencies to this matter is an acid test of their commitment to the process and their commitment to tackling malign influences who have up until now had a free reign to try and undermine efforts to consolidate and advance the peace process.” ENDS

BBC

A west Belfast club chairman’s links with IRA members was sufficient reason for not allowing him to have a firearm, Appeal Court judges have ruled.

Liam Shannon of the Irish Republican Felons’ Club had a shotgun certificate, but it was revoked after he applied to have it extended to a .22 rifle.

His appeal to the secretary of state was dismissed after police said he “associates with members of the PIRA”.

On Friday, the decision not to grant a review of that ruling was upheld.

Mr Shannon had originally been granted the shotgun certificate after he became a member of a clay pigeon club.

Lord Justice Nicholson said that Provisional IRA members had recently been involved in crimes including murder and robbery.

“It would be naive to suppose the chairman of the Felons’ Club is unaware that a number of his associates must be actively involved in these activities.

“This is not to suggest he condones their activities. But, inevitably, he may be liable to pressures placed on him to make any firearms legitimately held by him available to them.”

Irelandclick.com

North Belfast Unionist MLAs have started a war of words over so-called ‘concessions to republicans’.
UUP MLA Fred Cobain has warned that if people thought the protestant community was de-stabilised at the moment, government plans and proposals would make it worse.
“With IRA decommissioning apparently over Republicans will get to the sweetshop again. If people think the protestant community is de-stabilised at the minute some of the proposals being put forward by government will make it worse.
“We can expect movement shortly on On The Runs (OTRs) and it is being suggested that people might not even have to face a tribunal. The C8 cases may be targeted as well.
“With new forensic technologies some of those who may be facing charges could be offered immunity certificates.
“Another big issue for the public is the perverse situation where former or serving police officers may face charges while terrorists walk free.
“Unionists were told that the conveyor belt of concessions had come to an end under the DUP. This is not the case. In the months ahead we can expect many more by government to placate Republicans.”
The DUP’s Nelson McCausland hit back at his UUP counterpart and blamed the Ulster Unionists for causing the problem in the first place.
“At last it has dawned on Fred Cobain that the unionist community is unhappy with concessions given to republicans.
“It’s a pity the Ulster Unionist Party didn’t realise this fact whenever they signed up to the concessions that continue to work their way through the system.
“No matter what Fred Cobain might say, the DUP’s approach to Republican concessions differs massively from that taken by the Ulster Unionist Party.
“While the DUP has resisted and opposed every giveaway to republicans, the UUP, during its tenure, signed up to the very concessions to Sinn Féin/IRA that Fred Cobain now objects to.
“The UUP are in no position to lecture anyone on concessions.
“From the Belfast Agreement to the Joint Declaration, the UUP’s fingerprints are all over every concession to Sinn Féin/IRA.”
Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly urged the Unionists to stop bickering.
“Instead of complaining and attempting to score cheap political points about what Republicans are doing they need to work out what they need to do for their own communities.
“They need to get their act together in terms of facing down sectarian attacks, the loyalist paramilitaries control of areas and the use of loyalist guns that are still there and being used.”

Journalist:: Staff Reporter

Irelandclick.com

Despite the intervention of community workers, politicians and conflict resolution experts, the number of attacks on Catholic homes in North Belfast interface areas continue to grow. Two weeks ago the North Belfast News exclusively revealed that over 350 attacks had taken place between January and September this year. Now reports of an increase in both the veracity and relentlessness of the attacks are emerging…

Missile attack on residents of Oldpark estate

Residents of Rosevale Street just of Rosapenna Street have told of the constant barrage of missiles being thrown over the 60ft high wall and fence, which separates their homes from the Lower Oldpark Estate.
Kathleen McDonald, who has lived in the street for over 20 years, says the homes were “under sustained attack’ for the whole of last weekend.
“It started about six o’clock on Friday evening and carried on right through until Sunday evening.
“The PSNI were called but as they came down our street with the sirens blaring the stone throwers disappeared.
“Everything from screwdrivers and stones to fireworks have been hurled at us.
“You would think that they would not be able to get stuff over the big wall but they must be using catapults or something.
“Our house backs on to the wall but they are actually managing to get it right across to houses on the other side of the street.
“We really are in fear of something more serious being thrown over. I live here with my 20-year-old daughter Katrina who is about to have a baby any day now.
“The nursery was planned for the back of the house now we have to move it to the front and redecorate.”
Roisin and Phillip Rooney live next door to the McDonalds with their two children, including a three-month-old, have had their windows broken and have also suffered from the attacks.
Roisin told North Belfast News.
“We are getting really scared now.
“The constant barrage over the weekend terrified our eldest child.
“Two of our back room windows have been broken a couple of times.
“Some of the houses have had grills fitted and we will reluctantly have to consider doing the same although this seems to be giving in to the thugs. We want to live in peace and not behind high fences and bars on our windows.”

Siege in Catherine Court

Catherine Court, a small new development of about 30 houses at the bottom of the Whitewell Road, has become a living hell for the residents who moved into it just over a year ago.
Since around Easter this year the residents of the tidy little enclave have been living under siege conditions.
Gangs of young thugs have been using an alleyway, which runs from the loyalist Graymount estate to launch a barrage of attacks both physical and verbal on the residents and their cars and properties.
The attacks have escalated in recent weeks with heavy duty fireworks being launched at the homes.
Roisin Loy, whose home has borne the brunt of the nightly onslaught has appealed to have gates fitted to the alleyway to repel the attackers.
Recognising the need for the Graymount community to use the alley for excess to the shops, which include a Post Office and a Chemist, the mother-of-three young children said: “The erection of alley-gates would help stop these attacks.
“The hoods who come from as far away as Mount Vernon use it as a ‘rat run’ to mount the onslaught.
“We do not want a no-go area created for the good residents of Graymount. There are a lot of elderly folk who depend on the shops here, particularly the Chemist.
“If the gates were fitted and locked every night around six o’clock it would go a long way to stopping these attacks before someone is seriously hurt.”
Sinn Féin Councillor for Castle Ward, Tierna Cunningham, has visited the residents and is backing their claim for the gates to be fitted.
“The sectarian attacks against the small development of Catherine Court in Whitewell must be brought to an end immediately.
“People have a right to live free from sectarian harassment and attacks and clearly this isn’t happening. The residents are only trying to get on with their lives and to live in peace.
“Sinn Féin have held consultation with local residents in light of ongoing attacks and on the back of this we will be meeting with the NIO in a bid to get a secure gateway constructed on the small pathway.
“This would be similar to other gates across North Belfast that are opened during the day but closed at night time
“Unionists leaders also need to play their part.
“They need to come out strongly against these attacks and use whatever influence they have to help put an end to them.”

Journalist:: Alex Crumlin

Irelandclick.com

Bomb’s devastation - BBC photo

• Police Ombudsman meets families with view to probing RUC investigation
• Taoiseach to send Foreign Affairs representative to meet with relatives
• Murders to come under historical inquiries team on conflict-related deaths

Relatives of those killed in the McGurk’s bombing have met with the Police Ombudsman with a view to probing the original RUC investigation into what was the worst atrocity of the conflict before the Omagh bomb.
The Ombudsman has confirmed a meeting took place recently with some relatives with a view to looking into the circumstances surrounding the bombing 34 years ago. It is one of a number of possible developments in relation to the atrocity that have been gathering pace recently, the North Belfast News has learned.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will next week send a representative from the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin to the Victims and Survivors Trust in West Belfast to meet with some of the relatives about the continuing controversy over the outrage.
And it is believed the multiple murders will come under the new PSNI historical inquiries team looking into conflict-related deaths.
Some 15 people – including two children were butchered in the loyalist attack on McGurk’s Bar on December 4, 1971.
Relatives have been fighting to uncover the truth about the bombing after only one man was ever convicted for his part in the slaughter.
The North Belfast News understands the man convicted, Robert James Campbell, may form part of any possible Police Ombudsman probe into the identities of the other bombers.
Officers acting on behalf of Nuala O’Loan’s office will also wish to establish if Campbell told the RUC the names of his accomplices in his confession statements at the time.
Until recently the PSNI said that an investigation had taken place and that a man had been convicted of the McGurk’s outrage.
But yesterday a spokeswoman from the PSNI said its new historical inquiries team, with funding of £30 million announced by Paul Murphy earlier this year would “review all deaths” attributed to the conflict “between 1968 and 1998”.
Before Campbell’s conviction, the bombing had been blamed as an IRA own goal by British officials and a Stormont unionist minister maintaining the IRA was making a bomb on the premises when it went off.
Explosive experts from official British sources announced in the immediate aftermath of the explosion that the bomb had gone off inside the bar despite first reports from eyewitnesses who said it had gone off in the doorway and had been left there by a man.
Relatives say statements insisting the bomb was the work of IRA bomb makers branded their innocent relatives culpable.
Alex McLaughlin, whose father Thomas was killed in the explosion in North Queen Street, said he was encouraged by the new developments and a possible probe of the conduct of the RUC investigation at the time.
“For years when we mentioned the bombing it was always thrown back at us that it was an IRA own goal.
That stuck even after Campbell was convicted. We have never received an acknowledgement from the British government that its statements were wrong and we’ve never received an apology,” he said.
“We don’t want to be dragging this up all the time, but we want to know if Campbell told the RUC who his accomplices were and if so why they weren’t brought to justice. Then I can let my father rest in peace.”
A spokesman for the Police Ombudsman’s office said: “We met with relatives of some of some of the victims of the McGurk’s Bar bombing.
“They expressed concerns about the circumstances of the bombing and the subsequent investigation. We are now looking at those concerns and carrying out some initial research into the issues raised.”

Journalist:: Andrea McKernon

Belfast Telegraph

By Noel McAdam
14 October 2005

The mothballed Stormont Assembly has cost taxpayers more than £70m since it last met three years ago, it can be revealed today.

New statistics show the total cost of the Assembly operation from its suspension on October 14, 2002, stands at £71m.

The exact total worked out to the last penny - £71,040,712.54 - runs up to September 30 last.

The largest slice of the three-year bill - £30.7m - is made up of the salaries and allowances paid to the 108 Assembly members.

But close behind is the cost of the Assembly secretariat - £25.8m - which continues despite suspension.

The remainder - £14.5m - comes under general capital costs, including property, accommodation and business services.

Year on year, the salary and allowances costs of the Assembly are continuing to increase, the figures obtained from the Northern Ireland Office, reveal.

In the first full financial year after the last Assembly was suspended, from April, 2003 to March, 2004, the total salaries/allowances cost was given as £10,102,376.

By the next financial year, from April to March this year, the total had increased to £10,415,731.

Yet the total running cost for the Assembly overall went down across the two financial years, from £21m in 2003-4 to £20.4m in 2004-5.

The cost revelations come amid fears the current Assembly, elected in May, 2003, may pass into history without having a single sitting.

Some Government officials privately fear it could take until the next Assembly election, May, 2007, before a devolution deal involving the DUP and Sinn Fein can be achieved.

Yet Secretary of State Peter Hain has given no hint he could put the Assembly into abeyance - and there is no clamour from civic society for it to go.

The new figures come just over a month after it emerged that during the year 2001-2, when the Assembly was fully functioning, the salaries and expenses paid to members came to £10.1m.

During the following financial year - in which the suspension of devolution took place - MLAs were paid a total of £10.2m. It also emerged travel expenses claimed by members added up to £524,176 and allowances paid to Assembly members for the running and staffing of their offices cost £4,636,069.

Belfast Telegraph

Protestant girl beaten to death 18 years ago

By Ashleigh Wallace
14 October 2005

The family of a Protestant woman beaten to death by a UDA gang 18 years ago have renewed their appeal for information on her brutal death.

Lorraine McCausland, from Glencairn in the greater Shankill area of Belfast, was 23 when her semi-naked body was found in a stream behind a community centre in Ballysillan.

She left behind two young sons: five-year-old Stewart and his two-year-old brother Craig.

And in a cruel twist, Craig McCausland - a father-of-one from the Woodvale area - was shot dead in his girlfriend’s home earlier this year.

Since Craig’s murder, his grieving family have launched a website aimed at getting justice both for the 20-year-old and his mother Lorraine.

Nicola McIlvenny, Craig’s cousin, said: “Although the website is about getting justice for Craig, it’s also a chance for people who knew Lorraine to leave posts and speak out about what happened to her.

“The Police Ombudsman has been investigating her death for around a year-and-a-half and we are trying to get the case reopened.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Marie Foy
14 October 2005

Google says they look something like this

An unusual pet lizard - which can grow to up to 3-ft - has been snatched from a Co Antrim shop- and its owner is worried about its welfare.

Lee-Ann McCormick (23), from Larne, says that her Egyptian Uromastyx needs a lot of tender loving care.

And she is anxious to get her 18cm, charcoal grey, pet back to make sure it is properly looked after.

The lizard was swiped from a tank in the Family Petz Store in the town’s Main Street a few weeks ago and nothing has been heard since.

“I bought the lizard as a partner for my other lizard, called Tortie because his face looks like a tortoise.

“But they didn’t get on and when my boyfriend had to have an operation I couldn’t look after him, both lizards and my five cats as well, Lee-Ann said.

“I asked the shop, where my boyfriend works part-time, if they could keep the lizard for me for a while but it was stolen one Saturday afternoon. It looks like someone came into the shop and took it.

And Lee-Ann is worried that without specialist care the lizard could die.

“They are vegetarians and need the right food, like courgettes and snap peas.

“They need to be kept in really high temperatures during the day and have lots of ultra-violet light.”

Anyone who can help with the return of the lizard should call 028 2827 8931.

BreakingNews.ie

14/10/2005 - 11:08:13

The Democratic Unionists will not be bought off into going into a devolved government simply on the back of gaining peerages and extra seats on the North’s Policing Board, a senior member warned today.

East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell said the DUP would still require the underlying problems in the province for the unionist community to be addressed.

The former Stormont Regional Development Minister said: “It may be the case that important issues like numerical changes to the DUP’s under-representation on the Policing Board and the House of Lords are easiest to address for the Government.

“It could also be the case that they naively believe a number of DUP elected representatives offered positions to which we are entitled might be an incentive towards hastening a return to devolved government. The latter is a fallacy that has to be dealt a fatal blow.

“If we were to be offered five times the number we are likely to get of members of the House of Lords, the underlying issues remain to be addressed.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain yesterday announced plans to reconstitute the Policing Board next April, which will mean the DUP will increase its representation from three to four.

The British government is also expected to announce soon the first DUP peers, with Eileen Paisley, wife of the Rev Ian Paisley, among those being tipped.

These moves are being interpreted as British recognition of the change in political climate in the North since the 2003 Stormont Election, which has seen the DUP become the largest party.

However, Mr Paisley’s party has also presented Downing Street with a 64-page document of issues it feels will need to be addressed before they can contemplate reviving devolved government.

Among the issues the DUP has demanded is a generous severance and training package for Royal Irish Regiment soldiers affected by demilitarisation plans which will axe its three Northern Ireland based battalions, changes to the Parades Commission, and a financial package to revitalise working-class Protestant neighbourhoods.

Mr Campbell said today: “Our society in Northern Ireland has reached a level of almost inherent bias against unionism.

“It is this bias that needs tackling, culture, employment, education, minority Protestant recruitment to the police, EU funding are just a few of the areas that need resolving, not just agreeing to have them addressed.

“Important and justifiable as any additional appointments might be to the Policing Board, and to the House of Lords if they come, they do not even begin to address the disadvantage and marginalisation felt by our community.

“It is when measures are implemented which make a difference that political progress becomes a realistic and lasting proposition, rather than belatedly making up numbers for the largest political party in Northern Ireland.”

BBC

Army bomb disposal experts examined a suspicious object
A security alert in County Armagh has ended and been declared an “elaborate hoax”.

Army bomb disposal experts had been called to examine a suspicious object on Tandragee’s Main Street shortly before 0500 BST on Friday.

It was discovered following a telephoned warning.

A controlled explosion was carried out on the object and a number of families were moved from their homes during the alert.

An Phoblacht

Brian Campbell received a presentation a week ago for his role as a former editor of An Phoblacht

Brian Campbell was not one to make a dramatic entrance. Not the one at the meeting who raised his hand repeatedly to restate what the three speakers before him had just said. But he was the one you spoke to afterwards to see what thoughts he had on taking the project forward because he was sure to have them. And not just thoughts but notes too, because for Brian a pen and notebook were an essential element of dress.

We worked together on several creative projects over the years, in prison and later on the outside. When the poetry workshops began in the H-Blocks in 1987 Brian was an eager participant and compiled a small collection of poems entitled, Scairt Amach (Shout Out). In 1989 we founded An Glór Gafa (the Captive Voice) and Brian became its first editor, establishing it as a quality magazine, produced entirely by republican prisoners. It continued to be published until just prior to the jail being closed in 2000.

Before he left prison Brian compiled and co-edited, Nor Meekly Serve My Time: the H-Block Struggle 1976-1981, containing the accounts of 28 prisoners involved in the Blanket Protest and Hunger Strikes. After release we continued to collaborate on projects; H3, the feature film about the Hunger Strike; and two dramas, The Laughter of our Children and A Cold House, both staged by Dubbeljoint. Brian also produced his own works; Des, on the life of Father Des Wilson; and Voyage of no Return, again both staged by Dubblejoint. His play for radio, Tiger Leaping Gorge, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and last weekend he was completing his latest play for Dubbeljoint.

For Brian there was always a project and one of his greatest strengths lay in his capacity to not only envision the end goal but have the practical ability to realise it. No project was too large. The longest journey begins with a single step and for Brian that first step was to jot down a few notes, even just words and phrases that would later be worked and reworked into a political strategy, a press release, a play, a film, or just a simple poem.

Bobby Sands wrote once “The Men of Arts have lost their Hearts”. Well, Brian never lost his. He had a huge heart that beat strongly — until it stopped suddenly last Saturday morning. For Brian there was no distinction between art and politics. Each was the other and his application of both was seamless. For him, art existed in the real world. It was all around him. He didn’t have to invent it or distort reality to create it. “What is more dramatic than the lives of people in struggle,” he would say.

And yet he could never be pigeon-holed as a mere propagandist churning out empty rhetoric, something he despised as much as redundant words or worn out clichés. For Brian, each word had a reason for being on the page and was backed up with a passionate set of beliefs. There was no place in his world for verbal republicanism of the ‘wrap the green flag round me’ brand. For Brian, republicanism had to be about putting food on the table of the hungry, providing education for the young, proper hospital and medical facilities for the ill, an end to discrimination regardless of who it was directed, at and the creation of a society of equals. It had to be about the here and now as well as the future.

And that’s what he worked towards. From 1996-’99, as Editor of An Phoblacht, he brought to the paper his precision as an editor, his interest in not just the local but the global, and his concern for personal and social commentary as well as the political. From 1998 he worked locally in Newry and South Armagh as part of the strategy team to build Sinn Féin in the area. His greatest satisfaction was in seeing Conor Murphy, a close personal friend and someone for whom he had the greatest respect, elected as MP for the area.

And just as he interweaved his politics with his art so too he reflected both in his personal, home, and social life. He always had time for words with a friend, for his favourite sport, football, and his local team, the Mitchels, who he helped train and manage. And through all of his activities be a devoted father to his children, Niall and Mairéad and a committed and loving husband to his wife and partner in life, Gráinne.

Brian was not one to make a dramatic entrance but his departure last Saturday was felt across the entire country and further afield because Brian grew on you; grew on you until one day you suddenly realise he is not just important to you; he has become an important part of you.

Unlike writing, life does not give us the chance for a rewrite, a second or third draft. It’s as it is on the page. Brian certainly filled those pages during his all too brief life and left a testament to the richness of republicanism and to what can be achieved. He was a poet, writer, playwright, IRA Volunteer, political prisoner, political activist, friend, partner, husband, father, and valued member of the community.

We will miss you a chara but we are richer because you were with us for a time.

Laurence McKeown

An Phoblacht

Alan McQuillan - the Assistant Director of ARA, previously a senior RUC Special Branch officer

By LAURA FRIEL

The ARA operates in both Britain and the North of Ireland. The Assistant Director of the ARA, a former senior RUC Special Branch officer and PSNI Deputy Chief Constable, Alan McQuillan is no stranger to political controversy. In 2002 he was caught out after he claimed republicans were planning to bring mayhem to the streets of North Belfast. McQuillan claimed: “Violence was planned on a major scale at a protest in Ardoyne as the Orange marchers passed through the area.”

Press briefings about an imaginary republican threat helped to defuse adverse coverage against the decision to push through an Orange parade through a nationalist area despite weeks of anti-Catholic violence by Orange supporters. During a press conference, McQuillan’s Assistant Chief Constable Colin Taylor produced metal spikes he described as a cache of lethal missiles and weaponry uncovered during raids in Ardoyne. The spikes had been “specifically made to injure members of the security forces”, said Taylor.

Unfortunately for McQuillan and Taylor a vigilant International Observer had photographed the British Army removing security spikes from a rooftop earlier that day. Similar security barriers appear on rooftops throughout Belfast.

Four years earlier while in charge of the RUC in Derry, McQuillan had made similar allegations during an eve of march press conference during which he claimed republicans in the Bogside were manufacturing petrol bombs and planning a riot.

McQuillan also played a key role in the notorious Stormontgate raid that brought down the power-sharing institutions of 2002. As Assistant Chief Constable McQuillan oversaw Operation Torsion for the PSNI high command. Lines of armoured vehicles and PSNI officers in full riot gear provided perfect film footage for the selectively briefed waiting media. Torsion was specifically timed to coincide with political events and had profound political consequences. Commenting on the Manchester raids Sunday Business Post journalist Paul T Colgan said that the ARA actions had provided Ian Paisley with “more wriggle room”.

The ARA had provided Paisley with “some much needed breathing space”, said Colgan. In his response to the IICD report on IRA decommissioning Paisley had been exposed as “playing silly beggars” but courtesy of the ARA “in a single bound he was free”.

“The fact that they [the raids] happened when Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were in Downing Street only reinforces their contention that the raids were politically motivated,” says Colgan. “Regardless of whether any prosecutions arise from last week’s raids the political impact caused by such action cannot be underestimated.”