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8/11/2005
SF TD suspended from Dáil
08/11/2005 - 18:35:07
Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris was tonight suspended from the Dáil for repeatedly trying to raise a constituency matter during the Order of Business.
The North Kerry representative was attempting to ask Taoiseach Bertie Ahern about funding for Tralee General Hospital when he was ruled out of order by Ceann Comhairle Rory O’Hanlon.
After several warnings, Mr O’Hanlon suspended Mr Ferris from the House until next week for being disorderly.
Paramilitary chief and mother held in raids
08/11/2005 - 18:55:29
A loyalist paramilitary chief and his mother were both being questioned by police in Northern Ireland tonight after detectives launched a major operation against organised crime.
Andre Shoukri, leader of the Ulster Defence Association in north Belfast, was held when officers launched a series of swoops on homes across the city.
Three other men – at least one of them another senior UDA man – and Shoukri’s mother were also detained.
A senior security source confirmed: “This is an extremely significant operation.”
It is understood that a decision to hold another person under the police’s witness protection scheme was linked to the arrests, which involved officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s organised crime branch.
Houses in the Westlands estate in north Belfast as well as the Castlereagh area of east Belfast were searched.
During a visit to the loyalist Kilcooley housing estate in Bangor, Co Down, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said he did not think the arrests were specifically aimed at loyalists but were an attempt to tackle criminality and paramilitary activity.
“That doesn’t equate to loyalism,” he said.
“People shouldn’t be acting in a violent or criminal fashion. I understand that the arrests have been designed to stop that happening.”
Mr Hain added that it was vital that anyone involved in criminal or paramilitary activity, whether they were republican or loyalist, knew that the police would come after them.
“They have been doing that this morning and they will continue to do it, and they have my absolute 100% support.”
Paramilitary chief and mother held in raids
08/11/2005 - 18:55:29
A loyalist paramilitary chief and his mother were both being questioned by police in Northern Ireland tonight after detectives launched a major operation against organised crime.
Andre Shoukri, leader of the Ulster Defence Association in north Belfast, was held when officers launched a series of swoops on homes across the city.
Three other men – at least one of them another senior UDA man – and Shoukri’s mother were also detained.
A senior security source confirmed: “This is an extremely significant operation.”
It is understood that a decision to hold another person under the police’s witness protection scheme was linked to the arrests, which involved officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s organised crime branch.
Houses in the Westlands estate in north Belfast as well as the Castlereagh area of east Belfast were searched.
During a visit to the loyalist Kilcooley housing estate in Bangor, Co Down, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said he did not think the arrests were specifically aimed at loyalists but were an attempt to tackle criminality and paramilitary activity.
“That doesn’t equate to loyalism,” he said.
“People shouldn’t be acting in a violent or criminal fashion. I understand that the arrests have been designed to stop that happening.”
Mr Hain added that it was vital that anyone involved in criminal or paramilitary activity, whether they were republican or loyalist, knew that the police would come after them.
“They have been doing that this morning and they will continue to do it, and they have my absolute 100% support.”
Man jailed in Cork kidnap case
08 November 2005 16:19
A 38-year-old former IRA member has been jailed for 20 years after he was convicted of falsely imprisoning and threatening to kill a couple in their home in Cork last May.
Gerard Clarke from St John’s Terrace, Upper John Street in Cork, has 45 previous convictions for offences including attempted murder, conspiracy to cause explosions and possession of firearms, as well as membership of the IRA.
A second man, Edward Gaffey from Dundalk in Co Louth, was jailed for 12 years.
Clarke was a member of the Provisional IRA and was in charge of a punishment squad in Belfast which carried out knee-cappings.
He was jailed for 14 years in 1993 before being released under the Good Friday Agreement. He moved to Cork two years ago.
At the Circuit Criminal Court in Cork last Friday, Clarke changed his plea to guilty on the seventh day of his trial.
He admitted charges of possession of weapons and of falsely imprisoning and threatening to kill Katie and Gary O’Donovan at their home in Rochestown, Cork last May.
The couple told the court today their world had changed since the attack. Their home had been violated and the safety they had felt there no longer existed.
McKevitt appeal begins
08/11/2005 - 12:47:51
Michael Mc Kevitt - BBC photo
The appeal by convicted Real IRA leader Michael Mc Kevitt against his conviction has opened at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin.
Mc Kevitt (aged 54), of Beech Park, Blackrock, Co Louth was jailed for 20 years by the Special Criminal Couret after he was convicted of directing the activities of a terrorist organisation between August 29, 1999 and October 23, 2000. He was the first person to be convicted in the Republic of the offence which was brought in after the Real IRA bomb attack in Omagh in 1998 in which 29 people died.
McKevitt also received a six years concurrent prison sentence for membership of an illegal organisation which the court said was the Real IRA.
Today three judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal began hearing legal submissions by Mc Kevitt’s lawyers and the appela hearing is expected to last four days. Mc Kevitt was in court for the appeal which was also attended by his wife Bernadette Sands Mc Kevitt.
McKevitt’s counsel Mr Hugh Hartnett SC said there were 42 grounds of appeal.
He said that the case against Mc Kevitt has relied exclusively on the evidence of Mr David Rupert, an American who was a paid agent of two security services, the British Security Service and the FBI.
Mr Hartnett said that Mr Rupert’s background, credibility and veracity were central to the prosecution case against Mc Kevitt.
Counsel submitted that siginificant areas of disclosure about Mr Rupert’s past, incuding his tax affairs, his criminality and payments made to him by the FBI had been sought by the defence but had not been provided.
Mr Hartnett said that a statement by a New York Strate trooper had described Mr Rupert as a lifelong criminal, drugs smuggler and a smuggler of arms and explosives. He said that the defence were interested in why on two occasions in 1974 and 1994 Mr Rupert was under investigation for various offences and on both occasions he had been recruited by the FBI as an agent.
He said that Mr Rupert had settled a $750,000 tax bill with the US Internal Revenue Service for $25,000 and it would appear that there was some involvement by the security services with that.
Mr Hartnett also said that documents provided by the British Security Service referred to Rupert’s “trickinesses” and the defence wanted to know what these referred to.
Mr Hartnett said there had been a significant failure of disclosure which tainted the whole trial.
The appeal is continuing.
Chief gardaí appear in alleged Real IRA members’ trial
08/11/2005 - 14:38:41
Two Detective Chief Superintendents have given evidence at the Special Criminal Court of their beliefs that three men accused of being Real IRA members were members of an illegal organisation.
Detective Chief Superintendent Philip Kelly, who heads the Special Detective Unit, told Mr Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting, it was his belief that Adrian Kirwan was a member of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise the IRA on December 5th last year.
He also said that he formed the same opinion in relation to Sean Connolly on the 14th of December last year.
In both cases he said his opinion had been formed before the date of the men ’s arrests.
He said that he based his belief on information available to him but he wished to claim privilege on the source, on the grounds that it could endanger life and hamper ongoing security operations in the State.
Detective Chief Superintendent Noel White from the Donegal division said that he believed that Colum Wiggins was a member of an illegal organisation on December 5th last year.
He told Ms Ann Roland BL, for Mr Wiggins, that this information was based partly on that of an informant.
He said he did not know if any money or other favours had been given to this informant.
Adrian Kirwan (aged 25), a native of Ballymun in Dublin, with an address at Ardilaun Green, Ballymahon Road, Mullingar, Co Westmeath and Colum Wiggins (aged 24), of Annagry, Letterkenny, Co Donegal have each pleaded not guilty to membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on December 5th last year.
Sean Connolly (aged 26), of Bernard Curtis House, Bluebell, Dublin has also denied membership of an illegal organisation on December 14th.
The trial is continuing.
Second man held over two murders
A 25-year-old man has been arrested by police investigating the murders of two teenagers in County Armagh more than five years ago.
Andrew Robb, 19, and 18-year-old David McIlwaine, both from Portadown, were stabbed to death on 18 February 2000.
The man was arrested in Hillsborough, County Down on Tuesday morning.
Another man aged 25 is still being questioned about the killings after being arrested in Coalisland on Monday. A third man was released on Sunday.
A report on the 54-year-old’s arrest was sent to the Public Prosecution Service.
The bodies of Mr Robb and Mr McIlwaine were found on the Druminure Road outside Tandragee, a few hours after they had left a disco.
No-one has been convicted of the murders which were carried out during a loyalist paramilitary feud in the Portadown area.
However, police and both families said neither of the young men had any connection with a paramilitary organisation.
Four held in terrorism operation
Four people have been arrested under terrorism legislation during a police operation in Renfrewshire.
Few details have been released by Strathclyde Police beyond confirmation of the operation, which took place last Thursday evening.
Three adult males and a female were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 and are presently being held at a police station in Glasgow.
The investigation is linked to “matters of affairs in Northern Ireland”.
A police statement said it was “in no way linked to the terrorist incidents which took place in London during the summer”.
The four people are being held in Govan, which is designated as the station where people held under the terrorism legislation are detained.
Money not stress solution - Orde
Hugh Orde says proper treatment is the answer for officers suffering stress
Money is not the solution to stress suffered by police officers, Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has said.
About 5,000 former and serving officers started legal action on Monday over trauma they say they suffered during the troubles.
Tens of millions of pounds in compensation could be paid out by the government if their case is successful.
“Money may not be the solution, the solution is to make sure these people are properly treated,” Sir Hugh said.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show, he said the PSNI’s “occupational health system, is without doubt the best in the United Kingdom, because we still have officers we ask to face extreme dangers”.
He said the action was being taken against an organisation which has “moved on”.
About 2,000 serving officers are among those taking the case.
The claimants say the police service failed to diagnose or treat post-traumatic stress disorder.
The chief constable said if officers were suffering from stress to the extent where they should not be on the streets then they would not be.
He dismissed suggestions that the 2,000 serving officers taking part in the case were “compromised”.
“Officers are delivering, are reducing crime and if a fifth of them were not team players that would not be the case,” Sir Hugh said.
Shoukri brothers held in early morning raids
By David Gordon and Chris Thornton
08 November 2005
Big brother Ihab - BBC photo
UDA chief Andre Shoukri and his brother Ihab were arrested today in a major police swoop in north Belfast.
The pair were among five prominent loyalists lifted in an early morning operation against organised crime.
A PSNI spokesman said searches in the north of the city were expected to continue for much of the day.
“The searches are being carried out as part of an operation into organised crime,” he added.
The Shoukris are understood to have been arrested in the loyalist Westland estate. Ihab Shoukri was only permitted to return to an address in Belfast late last month following a variation of bail conditions.
Today’s police move appears to have caught the UDA by surprise.
One loyalist source said the UDA’s political wing, the Ulster Political Research Group, was in the estate this morning seeking to find out more information about the arrests.
The arrest of Andre Shoukri - nicknamed The Egyptian because of his family’s Middle Eastern background - comes amid intense rumours of friction between him and other UDA chiefs.
Shoukri is seen as the last of the “Brigadiers of Bling” - UDA chiefs known for their expensive clothes and lifestyle.
He and south Belfast UDA boss Jackie McDonald publicly denied a rift in June this year.
But rumours of tensions persisted, fuelled by a stand-off between north and south Belfast UDA members in the Sandy Row area.
The loyalist murder of Jim “Doris Day” Gray - the flamboyant former UDA boss in east Belfast in September - prompted speculation of further moves against the remaining “Bling” elements in the terror organisation.
The Shoukri brothers have long associations with north Belfast loyalists - with Andre, the younger of the two, reputed to have taken over the UDA in that part of the city while still just 25.
When he was fined for speeding earlier this year, a court heard that Andre earns £150 a week as a barman - but police suspect he is the main earner behind a number of UDA enterprises.
In July 2002, Andre Shoukri was part of a UDA delegation that met Secretary of State John Reid.
Initially an associate of Johnny Adair, Andre wound up siding with the main body of the UDA in the feud that brought Adair down.
During the feud, Shoukri was arrested with a gun in his car. He was initially jailed for six years but that conviction was overturned on appeal.
Andre Shoukri first came to public notice in 1996, when he was tried over the death of Dubliner Gareth Parker.
Shoukri admitted punching the 23-year-old. Parker was run over by a car after being knocked over by the blow.
The loyalist was back in court in 1998, when he was jailed for attempting to smuggle cigarettes.
Two years later he was jailed again for his part in a blackmail plot against a Catholic businessman.
Big brother Ihab has a lower profile, but is currently awaiting trial for UDA membership.
Eighth man arrested in bank raid
An eighth man has been arrested by police investigating last December’s £26.5m Northern Bank robbery.
The 40-year-old was arrested in Derry on Tuesday. Four men are now being questioned about the robbery, while two were released without charge.
A 39-year-old man was arrested in Belfast on Monday night in connection with the robbery.
The latest arrest came as a second man appeared in court charged in connection with the raid on Monday.
Martin McAliskey, 42, of Ballybeg Road, Coalisland, denied giving false police statements. He was granted bail.
The charge concerns the alleged purchase, possession and sale of a Ford Transit van believed to have been used in the raid.
Earlier on Monday, a 22-year-old man was arrested in Kilcoo in County Down in connection with the robbery.
On Friday, a 23-year-old County Down man who appeared in court denied involvement in the robbery. He was remanded in custody.
The robbery happened at the bank’s Northern Ireland headquarters at Donegall Square West just before Christmas last year.
Some money seized in County Cork last February was linked to the robbery, but virtually all of the missing millions remain unrecovered.
Leading loyalist arrests in city
Andre Shoukri is believed to have been arrested
The police have arrested a number of prominent loyalists in Belfast in an operation against organised crime.
It is understood UDA leader in the north of the city Andre Shoukri is one of four men and a woman in custody.
A search operation is continuing in the Westlands estate area. Another operation has taken place in Castlereagh to the east of Belfast.
It is understood that as part of the operation, a person has been taken into the police witness protection scheme.
Trial collapses over claim judge was linked to Bush
McDonagh - Bush ceremony claim
THE trial of five anti-war protesters accused of causing millions of dollars of damage to an American warplane at Shannon Airport collapsed for a second time last night.
The development came after the defence suggested the trial judge had attended George W Bush’s first presidential inauguration.
Judge Donagh McDonagh told the jury he had “no option” but to withdraw.
Counsel for the activists claimed Judge McDonagh had been invited to the inauguration ceremonies in 2000 and 2004.
Michael O’Higgins SC also said the judge had posed for photographs with President Bush.
He claimed there might be a perception among the jurors and the public that the judge was biased.
Judge McDonagh said the allegations were half right and half wrong and that he had no option but to dismiss the jury. It is the second time the case has collapsed. In March Judge Frank O’Donnell discharged a jury on day six of the trial, but on that occasion the reason was not made public.
Gun murder victim is identified
The victim was found lying at the side of the road
A man who died from gunshot wounds in County Armagh has now been identified by police investigating his murder.
His name has not yet been released, however he has been named locally as Martin Conlon, 35, from Armagh city.
He was found unconscious on Farnaloy Road close to the Madden estate outside Keady at about 1830 GMT on Monday. He was taken to hospital but later died.
It is understood he had republican connections. Police are examining two cars, one of them the victim’s.
It was found about a mile and a half from the scene, the other in Armagh city.
It is understood Mr Conlon was released recently from prison in the Republic of Ireland where he had served a four year sentence after been arrested at a Real IRA training camp.
Police are expected to make a statement later on Tuesday on the murder, but it is believed detectives are working on the theory that he was killed by dissident republicans who were one-time associates.
A number of people are understood to have stopped to help the injured man and police would like to speak to them.
They also want anyone who noticed cars moving suspiciously on the road or cars parked on the road to contact them.
The police have said that the road will remain closed until further notice. A post mortem will be held later.
Mother of teen murdered by soldiers seeks confrontation
08/11/2005 - 07:15:14
Peter McBride
The mother of a Belfast teenager killed by two Scots Guards now serving in Iraq was today hoping to confront their former commanding officer about the decision to allow them back into the British army.
Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher served three years in jail for the murder of father-of-two Peter McBride who was gunned down in the New Lodge district of north Belfast in September 1992.
In 1998 the pair were allowed to rejoin their regiment and are currently in Iraq.
Following the launch in the UK’s House of Commons of a new campaign aimed at closing a loophole which enables soldiers convicted of murder to return to military service, sources close to Peter McBride’s mother Jean said she was hoping to meet former Scots Guard Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer at today’s Royal United Services Institute conference in London.
“Jean has been registered for the conference and intends to confront Spicer directly,” they revealed.
The Falklands War veteran is the head of the private security firm Aegis Defence Services which has been bidding for US security contracts in Iraq.
Human rights lawyer Phil Shiner, nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan, Labour MP Joan Humble, Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather, Paul O’Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre and Helen Shaw of INQUEST last night launched a Parliamentary campaign against the readmission of soldiers convicted of rape, murder and manslaughter.
Mr Shiner said he was backing the campaign because there would be outrage if a soldier convicted of murder in Iraq was allowed to serve in Northern Ireland.
The Birmingham-based lawyer explained: “If soldiers were convicted of murder in Basra, sentenced to life imprisonment, released early and then posted to Belfast people there would be outraged.
“This is essentially what has happened in reverse in this case.
“We must end impunity. The Ministry of Defence dismisses soldiers who fail a drugs test but not those who murder another human being. This is quite simply unacceptable.”
At a public meeting in September, London Mayor Ken Livingstone also condemned the retention of Guardsmen Fisher and Wright under Queens Regulations 9404 which states soldiers given a custodial sentence should be dismissed unless there are exceptional reasons.
The families of British army recruits who died at Deepcut barracks in Surrey have given their support to the McBride family.
Liz Green from Durham in northern England, whose son Anthony died after he was shot at Ballykelly Army Base, Co Derry, in 2001 said there were similarities with her own case.
“Another soldier was convicted of manslaughter for the killing of my son. He served a year, was released and readmitted back into the army the next day,” she said.
“Soon after he was promoted just as in the McBride case.
“The MoD thinks it’s above the law and its time that the law was changed. The soldier who shot my son dead should have been automatically dismissed. The soldiers who shot Peter McBride dead should have been automatically dismissed.
“Soldiers who bully someone to the edge of suicide or who murder civilians in Iraq should be automatically dismissed.”
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the family’s campaign was based around a very straightforward principle.
“Nobody who has been convicted of serious human rights abuses – like murder, rape or torture – should be allowed to serve in the British army,” the Foyle MP said.
“No other European army allows this and nor should the British army.
“Be it on the streets of Belfast or of Basra, the public are entitled to know that killers and torturers are not sheltered in army ranks.”
Petrol attack on SDLP man’s home
Mr McMenamin’s house has been attacked before
There has been an attack on the home of a West Tyrone SDLP assembly member.
Eugene McMenamin’s car was doused with petrol and a burning rag thrown at his home. The attack took place at about 2215 GMT.
The petrol failed to ignite. It is the latest in a series of attacks on the MLA’s home.
“It may have been related to my condemnation of the bomb alerts which have been blocking roads in the Strabane area recently,” he said.
Mr McMenamin and his wife Kathleen were in the house at the time of the attack and heard a loud bang.
They went to the window where they saw flames and as they ran outside they smelt petrol.
“My car had been doused in petrol and a burning rag tied to a missile of sorts had been thrown,” Mr McMenamin.
“Thankfully it hit my window and landed in a flower window box preventing it from falling to the ground.
“Otherwise the house would have been engulfed in flames and the car would have been a fireball.”
The assembly member has had cars destroyed, a hoax device left at his house and earlier this year a crude incendiary bomb was sent to him - it was discovered by workers at the post office.
He said people have to be seen to stand up to intimidation.
Ulster Unionist assembly member Derek Hussey said it was a reckless attack carried out by “a bunch of mindless thugs”.
“I would call on all right-thinking people to stand together and confront this sort of senseless intimidation,” he said.
Sinn Fein West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty said it was “a despicable and senseless attack devoid of any kind of political rationale”.
“Everyone has a right to live free from such despicable arson attacks, including elected representatives,” he said.
North Korea gave Official IRA many fistfuls of dollars in forged notes
Paramilitary group split amid accusations that leaders used some of counterfeit cash to fund lavish lifestyles
Ciarán Barnes
Daily Ireland today reveals the full extent of the Official IRA counterfeit dollar scam of the late 1980s and early ’90s.
We can further disclose details of the sophisticated operation carried out by experienced Official IRA volunteers to offload the counterfeit $100 bills for genuine currency in a blitz on financial institutions the length and breadth of Ireland.
In another exclusive revelation, we can report that, as well as receiving huge amounts of counterfeit “superdollars” from North Korea in 1989, the Official IRA received in that same year a consignment of 50 handguns of .32 calibre as well as a large amount of ammunition from President Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994.
The weapons were used in robberies throughout Ireland. The counterfeit cash was exchanged for genuine currency, which the Official IRA then used to build a multimillion-pound business empire.
The story began in 1988 when a number of senior Official IRA men — including a man known as “the Devil”, a Belfast businessman and a veteran paramilitary from the Republic — visited North Korea to attend celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of the formation of the state.
They travelled first to the North Korean embassy in Moscow, where officials arranged for them to get into North Korea without the travel documents that are usually required. The three men stayed in a guarded compound in the capital Pyongyang for two weeks.
While there, they met then president Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il, who became ruler of North Korea and chairman of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea after his father’s death.
President Kim and his son promised the Official IRA team whatever help they needed to carry out the “Irish revolution” to which the Irishmen told the North Koreans they were committed.
The Official IRA men were shown huge amounts of weapons and ammunition and the high-quality counterfeit US dollars that the North Koreans were churning out on state-of-the-art printing presses.
In 1989, the Official IRA collected its first consignment of US$1 million in cash from the North Koreans. The money was moved to the North Korean embassy in Moscow before being transferred to a popular holiday destination in eastern Europe to await collection.
The Official IRA organised a group visit to the region. That group was made up entirely of Official IRA supporters, mostly married couples and pensioners to avoid suspicion. The “tourists” took the cash back to Ireland strapped to their bodies.
Just before the group returned, an Official IRA representative in Moscow was involved in a shoot-out with the Russian mafia. This led to the Official IRA losing $100,000 in fake notes that were also bound for Ireland.
Meanwhile, 28 handguns — still in mint condition and still in the hands of the Official IRA — were transported to Ireland via Moscow and France.
With the $1 million in fake notes safely stored in Ireland, the Official IRA began planning the difficult task of switching the counterfeit bills for real money. The plot they devised saw the formation of five four-man teams of experienced volunteers, a number of whom were the Official IRA’s most successful armed robbers.
Three of the teams were designated areas of the North. Two teams set to work south of the Border.
The five units visited banks and bureaux de change, where the high-quality “supernotes” were exchanged for sterling or Irish punts with no questions asked.
Members of the units were paid either £50 or £100 a day, depending on how much cash they converted.
Daily Ireland understands that, at the peak of their activity, the units were between them exchanging between £30,000 and £40,000 per day.
To avoid fingerprint detection, volunteers in the units were spraying a liquid solution on their hands known as a “second skin”. However, with so many of the $100 bills in circulation, banks were becoming suspicious. An attempt by the Official IRA to change fake currency at two banks in east Co Antrim in 1990 failed.
The volunteers were not apprehended but bank officials contacted the US Treasury, which confirmed the notes were forgeries.
The Official IRA panicked when the RUC shortly afterwards raided the Belfast home of the organisation’s Moscow representative as part of a counterfeit cash investigation.
This brought an end to its attempts to change the fake cash in Ireland. By this stage, the country was already awash with fake dollars.
After sitting on what was left of the counterfeit money for close to a year, the Official IRA transferred it by plane to London.
The volunteers who had been involved in changing the fake cash in the North were sent to England to resume the operation.
They stayed in London’s top hotels and lived the high life during their time in the English capital. Within a short time, one of the men was arrested in a bureau de change trying to change a quantity of fake dollars. The remaining Official IRA men dispersed and the rest of the “superdollars” were returned to a safe house in Ireland.
The man who was arrested told police he had found the fake cash in a stolen car. When captured, he had around $1,000 in counterfeit money in his wallet. He later pleaded guilty in court to knowingly attempting to change fake currency. He received a light sentence.
Realising the authorities in Ireland and Britain were aware of the “superdollar” scam, Official IRA chiefs hurriedly offloaded the money to criminals in continental Europe.
The money made in that counterfeit cash operation was not returned to the Official IRA. It was used primarily by the Official IRA men who had visited North Korea in 1988 to fund lavish lifestyles and set up a number of businesses, including for the importation of stolen religious icons, coal and tyres into Ireland in the mid-1990s. This angered a sizable section of the Official IRA, which broke away from the rest of the organisation in 1996 and took a stockpile of weapons with them.
A former Official IRA member told Daily Ireland there was “no accountability” when it came to funds and “no democracy” within the organisation.
“The Official IRA was working too closely with the state for my liking,” said our source.
“Many members have suspicions that one of the men who travelled to North Korea in 1988 is a British agent.”
Such was the impact of the “superdollar” scam that the US Treasury changed the design of its $100 bills in 1996. The picture on the note of former president Benjamin Franklin was enlarged.
Even this did not deter the North Koreans, who developed a new “superdollar” with the “big-headed Benjamin” by the end of the 1990s. Via the North Korean embassy in Moscow, the Official IRA later resumed contact with the diplomats who in 1989 had provided them with the $1 million consignment of “superdollars”.
Dissident republicans say more chaos is on the way
Ciarán Barnes
Dissident republicans are threatening to cause “mayhem” through a series of bomb hoaxes in the run up to Christmas.
The warning comes after the cancellation of a Co Down weekend horse racing festival on Saturday, and the evacuation of 2,000 businessmen from a retail conference at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall last week.
Both events were disrupted by bomb warnings from dissident republicans.
Speaking to Daily Ireland yesterday a Continuity IRA source said the organisation was planning other bomb warnings in the run up to Christmas.
He also claimed dissident republicans were among the 9,000 people evacuated from the racecourse, and were there to make sure “things went well”.
“The race festival was targeted because PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde and a number of senior unionists were attending,” said the source.
“There will be more in the run up to Christmas. We will be targeting major commercial events and premises.”
The PSNI carried out further searches in the vicinity of Down Royal racecourse yesterday.
Four suspicious packages were found on Saturday afternoon after dissident republicans telephoned two bomb warnings.
The packages were declared “elaborate hoaxes”.
Direct rule Security Minister Shaun Woodward described the race festival disruption as a “cowardly deed”.
He said: “Those who carried out this cowardly deed were clearly intent on disrupting a major sporting and social event enjoyed by literally thousands of people.
“Those involved in such activity have no part to play in any normal, civilised society and only serve to frustrate the will of the mass majority of people in Northern Ireland.”
Ulster Unionist peer Ken Maginnis, who was at the race meeting, claimed the cancellation would have a major financial impact.
He said: “There were lots of very good horses racing and it meant that horses that were warmed up had to be boxed and taken off the course.
“They won’t come back, and when you consider that some of these horse owners have come from the length and breadth of Ireland it’s an absolute disgrace.”
Last Thursday SDLP Deputy Leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell warned that the Waterfront Hall bomb scare, which was also the work of the Continuity IRA, could endanger new investment.
The South Belfast MP said: “All the positive potential that this conference held for Belfast and its future economic and tourism development has been put at risk as, once again, our old problems came back to haunt us.
“To see delegates herded out of the Waterfront and onto the streets because of a bomb scare was disheartening to say the least.
“This is not the image of Belfast, and indeed of Northern Ireland, that we wanted delegates to take away with them.
“But the stark reality is that this is exactly what will happen. The one memory that will stand out in the mind of those 2,000 people is their conference being interrupted by a bomb scare.”
Today in history: Bomb kills 11 at Enniskillen
8 November 1987
The IRA has been blamed for the blast
A bomb has exploded during a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen in County Fermanagh, killing 11 people.
It is the highest death toll in a terrorist attack in Northern Ireland for five years.
At least 63 people were injured in the blast, nine of them seriously.
The device went off without warning at 1045 GMT at the town’s cenotaph where people had gathered to pay their respects to the war dead.
The bomb is believed to have been hidden in a nearby hall.
It blew out one of the building’s walls, showering the area with debris and burying some people in several feet of rubble.
The dead included three married couples, a retired policeman and a nurse.
Thirteen children are among the injured.
The Queen has sent her “heartfelt sympathy” to the people of Enniskillen.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has said the bombing was “utterly barbaric”.
“It’s really desecrating the dead and a blot on mankind,” Mrs Thatcher said.
The head of the Church of Ireland, Archbishop Robin Eames, who was at Enniskillen said he “wished the bombers could have seen what I have seen”.
As yet no organisation has said they planted the device but the chief constable of Northern Ireland has said he has no doubt the bomb was the work of the IRA.
Enniskillen is a town with a long military tradition having sent many soldiers to the battlefields of the First and Second World Wars.
Its proximity to the border with the Irish Republic, a ready escape route, means it is an easy target for the IRA.
In Context
In the aftermath of the bombing a tone of forgiveness was set by Gordon Wilson whose daughter, Marie, was killed and who was himself injured in the attack.
“I bear no ill will. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was a great wee lassie,” Mr Wilson said.
A group called Enniskillen Together was set up to further the cause of reconciliation in the area.
The IRA lost support worldwide after the bombing.
On Remembrance Day 1997 the leader of the IRA’s political wing, Gerry Adams, formally apologised for the bombing.
In December 2000 the last victim of the Enniskillen bomb died.
Ronnie Hill, 68, went into a coma two days after being injured and never regained consciousness.
'So venceremos, beidh bua againn eigin lá eigin. Sealadaigh abú.'
--Bobby Sands