SAOIRSE32

spiked-online.com

10 November 2005

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Why are former Royal Ulster Constabulary officers seeking compensation for stress now, 10 years after the end of the Troubles in Northern Ireland?

by Chris Gilligan

The Police Federation of Northern Ireland’s five-year campaign to bring a class action for compensation for police officers who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder arrived in the courts this week (1). One retired officer told reporters outside the court in Belfast, where the case opened on 7 November: ‘You have nightmares…You relive the events you have seen - the murders, the bodies, the body parts you have picked up.’ (2)

The role that the police played in the frontline of the conflict in Northern Ireland - when they were called the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) - will certainly have placed strains on individual officers. Between August 1969 and 1994, when the Irish Republican Army (IRA) declared a ceasefire, 296 members of the RUC were killed as a direct result of the conflict; many more were injured.

And yet, exposure to traumatic incidents is not the basis on which the class action is being taken. As the Police Federation press release points out: ‘The officers are not claiming for the exposure to traumatic incidents in itself - they accepted the risks of service in Northern Ireland… The plaintiffs’ case is that they were inadequately equipped to deal with the effects of the extremely traumatic nature of their duties… their authorities failed to deal properly with the predictable psychiatric and psychological consequences of such duties….’ (3)

In other words, individuals knew of the physical dangers involved in joining the RUC but were not fully aware of the psychiatric risks - and the RUC as an employer was apparently wrong not to carry out a systematic risk assessment which would have helped its employees to deal with the psychological hazards involved in fighting a counterinsurgency war.

Interpreting experiences from the past in terms of ‘trauma’ is a relatively recent phenomenon; as such, it is more a product of the peace process than of the Troubles. A study of serving RUC officers carried out during the conflict, at the end of the 1980s, noted that ’stress is not a feature of their talk about the paramilitary threat’, and ‘the occupational-therapy unit is not valued highly among ordinary policemen and women because it is seen to be where the “weirdos go”‘ (4).

What has changed in the last decade-and-a-half that has turned the issue of mental health from the preserve of ‘weirdos’ to one of the main campaigns of the Police Federation, the organisation that represents the interests of former and serving police officers in Northern Ireland?

In the past, the fact that police officers were engaged in a war against the IRA meant that they understood their experiences in political terms. In 1991, academics John Brewer and Kathleen Magee noted that, among officers, ‘there is no wish to give the paramilitaries this degree of satisfaction or influence; and the masculine occupational culture militates against the public expression of emotional feelings’ (5). Both of these factors constrained officers from expressing their experiences through the idiom of stress. Today, neither of these factors still exists - thus there is a space for theories of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to make sense of past experiences. With the development of a peace process, the paramilitaries no longer represent a threat to the social order in Northern Ireland - and today’s wider therapy culture encourages people to give public expression to their emotions.

The impact of therapy culture in Northern Ireland can be seen in the way that the police have embraced the language of victimhood. As part of the peace process, there was a review of policing in Northern Ireland. Chris Patten, the former Conservative Party minister, was appointed to oversee a process of consultation on policing reform. His report recommended far-reaching changes to the police service - including changing its name from the RUC to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). It was in the context of the Patten report, as one commentator observed, that the RUC started using the language of victimhood as ‘part of an effort to thwart proposals for radical change and to ensure that an “evolutionary” perspective of police reform prevailed’ (6). In this sense, the Police Federation is taking its cue from the PSNI itself, and the class action is simply the latest initiative to present the police as victims of the Troubles.

In representing their members as victims, the federation is calling on a theme that has powerful resonance in contemporary society. But is it really fighting for its members’ interests with such a lawsuit? Will serving or retired police officers really benefit from the argument that their problems are caused by stress and may be helped or alleviated by therapy and compensation?

An interesting study of the psychological health of retired RUC officers carried out in 1998 found that nine of the 20 officers interviewed were diagnosable as suffering from PTSD. The violence they witnessed was not, however, the only issue on their minds. Two of the former officers made explicit reference to the early release of convicted terrorists as part of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and assessed their past actions in relation to these present events. The report’s authors note that two of the retirees ‘were particularly dejected about their current psychological state, asking, “What was it all for?”‘ (7).

The question ‘what was it all for?’ goes to the heart of the issue. The experiences that these officers went through had meaning for them at the time: as they saw it, they were fighting for a reason, for a cause. But in the context of the peace process, they have been deprived of this meaning. The problem, it seems to me, is not so much that the context has changed, but that no new framework of meaning has been developed through which people can make sense of the past or of their experiences in the present.

The agreeing to disagree nature of the Good Friday Agreement allows each faction to provide their own story about the Troubles: some argue that it was a war of liberation, others that it was a war fought in defence of the Union, and others still that it was a war against terrorism. Such a free-for-all means that people can start wondering what they fought for, whether it was worth it, and can begin to see their earlier actions as having a detrimental psychological impact.

The spread of therapy culture in Northern Ireland is a product of the peace process. As the conflict recedes into the past but debates about its impact on individuals continue, so individuals - even police officers - can claim to be stressed and disorientated. The Police Federation is seeking a solution to these problems through the courts, but it is only in the political domain that an answer to the question ‘what was it all for?’ might be found.

Chris Gilligan is a lecturer in sociology at the University of Ulster, and reviews editor for the journal Ethnopolitics.

Read on:

spiked-issue: Ireland

(1) PTSD group action - one month to trial, Police Beat, October 2005, p. 36 ; Police Officers’ Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Case Opens, Police Federation for Northern Ireland, Press Release

(2) Police officers seek trauma compensation, BBC News, 7 November 2005

(3) Police Officers’ Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Case Opens, Police Federation for Northern Ireland, Press Release

(4) Inside the RUC: routine policing in a divided society, John D. Brewer (with Kathleen Magee), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991, pp. 178-9.

(5) Inside the RUC, p. 178.

(6) Mulcahy, A., 2000. ‘Policing History: the Official Discourse and Organisational Memory of the Royal Ulster Constabulary’. British Journal of Criminology, 40(1), p. 82

(7) Paterson, M.C., Poole, D., Trew, K. and Harkin, N., 2001. ‘The Pyschological and Physical Health of Police Officers Retired Recently from the Royal Ulster Constabulary’. Irish Journal of Psychology, 22(1).

Daily Ireland

The murder of County Armagh man Martin Conlon may be connected to a violent robbery carried out close to the border several months ago, Daily Ireland can reveal.
It is understood a substantial sum of cash was taken in the raid at the home of a businessman during which a number of adults and small children were held hostage.
Several independent sources in County Armagh last night claimed that Mr Conlon may have been gunned down in the fallout that followed the violent raid.
It is understood that the robbery was particularly vicious and a young child was left extremely traumatised by the actions of the raiders.
The circumstances surrounding the robbery are understood to have generated extreme bad feeling in the Border region.
Mr Conlon died several hours after being found at the side of a road where he had been dumped just minutes after being taken from the house of a friend in Armagh City.
The 35-year-old’s abductors used a stun gun to disable the former lorry driver as the homeowners three children, all under the age of ten, looked on in horror.
The Continuity IRA yesterday denied involvement in the Armagh man’s murder.
Local sources have pointed the finger of suspicion at a faction of the Real IRA.
However, Daily Ireland understands that Mr Conlon, although having spent time in jail for Real IRA offences, was at the time of his death no longer a member of that organisation.

Daily Ireland

Raymond McCord says that he won’t be intimidated after being warned by the PSNI that paramilitaries planned to murder him if he didn’t stay away from trial at Belfast Courthouse

Ciaran Barnes

The PSNI warned a victims’ campaigner to stay away from the trial of a leading loyalist over fears the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) would kill him coming out of the court house.
Raymond McCord has been a regular visitor to the public gallery since the trial of Mark Haddock, Darren Moore, Alexander Wood, James Loughlin and William Loughlin began on Monday.
Haddock and Moore are accused of attempting to murder night-club bouncer Trevor Gowdy in December 2002, falsely imprisoning him and setting fire to his car.
Wood and the Loughlin brothers are charged with conspiracy to assault Mr Gowdy and causing him actual bodily harm.
When Mr McCord arrived in Belfast crown court he was warned by the PSNI that the UVF was planning to kill him when he left, on the eight anniversary of his son’s death.
Raymond McCord junior, 22, was murdered by the UVF on 9 November 1997.
Since his death Mr McCord has been a constant critic of the paramilitary organisation.
In the Dáil two weeks ago Labour leader Pat Rabbitte named Mark Haddock as the UVF commander who gave the order to kill Mr McCord junior.
He also claimed Haddock was a RUC Special Branch informer whose role allowed him to escape prosecution despite involvement in eight murders.
Mr McCord told Daily Ireland that despite the threats he would continue to come to court every day to witness Haddock’s trial. He said: “The UVF will not frighten me into not coming to court.
“I have had more than 20 death threats since I started my campaign for justice. I am determined that the my family and the families of those targeted by the UVF get justice.”
The trial of Haddock, Moore, Wood and the Loughlin brothers is expected to last two weeks.
The man they are alleged to have attacked, Trevor Gowdy, took the stand yesterday to give evidence against them.
He has been in hiding under the witness protection programme since being attacked three years ago.
Recalling the incident Mr Gowdy told the court that on 20 December 2002 Moore and a third man called at his home to tell him that Haddock wanted to speak to him, and that he was to go with them to a social club in the Monkstown area of north Belfast.
Mr Gowdy refused, but drove himself to the premises. He said that when he arrived at the club Haddock accused him of hitting two of his men. Mr Gowdy described how he was then attacked by Haddock, Moore and the third man.
He said that Haddock shouted at him “that if he had got me on Thursday night I’d be hanging from a tree”.
Mr Gowdy was then subjected to a series of violent assaults. He said he was struck by Haddock with a baton or crow bar, and by the third man with a hatchet.
He alleged that he was then bundled into the boot of his car and stabbed with a knife by Moore before he was able to escape from the boot.
Mr Gowdy said his attackers then fled from the scene.
The trial continues.

Daily Ireland

Cíarán Barnes

The woman whose evidence led to the arrest of leading loyalist Andre Shoukri has been living under an Ulster Defence Association (UDA) death threat since July, Daily Ireland has learned.
She fled the North after a UDA member put a gun to her head and told her she would be shot for “stealing UDA funds”.
Paramilitaries were angry at her attempts to clean up a pub they were using as their unofficial headquarters in north Belfast.
For months the woman had tried to force Shoukri’s UDA faction off the premises.
However, they refused to move and in the end forced her out when they threatened to kill her.
The woman left the north before contacting the PSNI and agreeing to give evidence against the UDA gang.
She gave the PSNI details on criminal rackets that were being planned in the bar and methods the north Belfast UDA use to launder cash.
On Tuesday morning detectives from the PSNI’s Organised Crime Squad arrested Andre Shoukri and his elder brother Ihab.
A close friend of the Shoukris from the Ballysillan area of north Belfast was also lifted, as was a fourth man in east Belfast.
All are still being questioned about serious crime in the north of the city.
The UDA is planning to ‘stand down’ Shoukri as its boss in north Belfast following his arrest. The 27-year-old’s successor has already been chosen.
Opponents of Shoukri within the north Belfast UDA spoke openly of his terror campaign against the woman who has now agreed to give evidence against him.
One said: “He had this girl tortured, I’m not surprised she has gone to the police. Shoukri and his gang would go into the bar where she worked and demand free drink, and they would take money out of the tills to pay for bets in the bookies.
“The woman was trying her best to make a go of her business.
“People had been staying away in their droves because Shoukri’s gang drank there, she knew this and was trying to turn the place around.
“She had enough when one of Shoukri’s mates put a gun to her head. She knew then that she had to get out and she left,” added the UDA insider.
Since joining the UDA in the mid-1990s Andre Shoukri has regularly courted trouble. In 1996 he was jailed for his involvement in the death of Dubliner Gareth Parker who was run over by a car after being punched by Shoukri.
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. During the 2002 UDA feud, Shoukri was arrested with a gun in his car.
He was initially jailed for six years but the conviction was overturned on appeal. Elder brother Ihab, also a convicted blackmailer, has a lower profile but is currently awaiting trial for UDA membership.

Newshound

(Margaret Canning, Irish News)

Dundalk pop band The Corrs should have Run Away from accepting honorary MBEs a Sinn Féin councillor said yesterday (Wednesday).

Although he admitted to appreciating The Corrs’ musical efforts, Barry McElduff said: “An MBE (member of the British Empire) should not be something an Irish person should carry proudly.

“The history of the British Empire is disgraceful,” he said. “They pillaged, exploited and sacked wherever they went.”

Describing MBEs as an anachronism, the Omagh councillor added: “People can dress the MBE up any way they like, but it is still antiquated and a throwback to the Middle Ages. Why any Irish person would accept it I don’t know.”

In reference to the Limerick-born presenter Terry Wogan’s OBE and honorary knighthood, he said:”I think a lot of people are tired of the Terry Wogans of this world.”

He also referred to Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney’s defiant expression of nationalism: “Be advised! My passport’s green.

“No glass of ours was ever raised to toast the Queen.”

As the Corrs received their award on Monday, violinist Sharon said they were surprised to be given the award by “another country” but that it was nice for them to be recognised for their music and voluntary work.

She said the band had considered in advance the likely reaction to their acceptance of the awards.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he was pleased to see the band’s work acknowledged.

“They have been exceptional ambassadors for this country,” he said.

November 10, 2005
________________

This article appeared first in the November 9, 2005 edition of the Irish News.

Daily Ireland

Republican group moves to end speculation on murder

Connla Young

“Mr Conlon was never a member of the Continuity IRA and never had any dealings with the Continuity IRA. It is not for us to speculate why he was shot”

The Continuity IRA has moved to end speculation that it was behind the murder of County Armagh man Martin Conlon.
In an exclusive interview the Officer Commanding the organisation’s Armagh City unit told Daily Ireland that 35-year-old Mr Conlon was not killed by the armed republican group.
Mr Conlon died after being shot several times in the head on Monday evening. He had earlier been dragged from a friend’s house in the Monaghan Road area of the city.
In recent days certain media reports have speculated that Mr Conlon may have been murdered after a fall out between armed anti Good Friday Agreement groups in Armagh City. The Continuity IRA’s Armagh City OC, accompanied by his second in command, last night said Mr Conlon was not a member of the organisation and slammed reports that republican groupings are at loggerheads in the Cathederal City.
“The Continuity IRA had nothing to do with the murder of Martin ‘Golfball’ Conlon. There is absolutely no conflict with the different republican groups in Armagh City. We have a good working relationship with other republican groups in this city. Despite what has been suggested there is no dispute involving either Continuity IRA or Real IRA prisoners either. Mr Conlon was never a member of the Continuity IRA and never had any dealings with the Continuity IRA. It is not for us to speculate why he was shot.
The senior CIRA man also moved to end speculation locally that Mr Conlon may have been killed because he was working with British security services. The unemployed lorry driver’s body was discovered dumped a short distance from the scene of a recently failed CIRA bomb attack leading some to speculate that the murder site was symbolic.
“We can claim responsibility for the anti-personnel booby trap device left outside Armagh last week. We phoned in two warnings and the British government jeopardised civilian lives by leaving the device there for two days. Martin Conlon had nothing to do with that incident. An active service unit from Armagh City placed that device it had nothing to do with Martin Conlon, he wouldn’t have known about it. Any speculation to the contrary is wrong.
“We have called this conference out of respect to the Conlon family and make them aware we had nothing to do with his death. We express our sympathy to the family.”
The Continuity IRA spokesman denied that a number of men, including a prominant north Armagh republican, had been ordered out of the country by the group in recent weeks.
“No-one has been expelled from this city. We believe these reports are being generated by British forces trying to fire things up because the organisation is getting support.
The CIRA spokesman reissued a death threat made against three alleged drug dealers ordered out of Keady, County Armagh, several weeks ago.
“Three men were expelled from Keady (County Armagh) a few weeks ago for drug dealing. These three men are dead men walking if they do not leave the country.”

Sinn Féin

Published: 10 November, 2005

Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey has reacted angrily to comments made the SDLP leader Mark Durkan accusing republicans of being involved in collusion with the British government in covering up the past.

Mr Maskey said:

” As a victim of the British State policy of collusion I am angered by Mark Durkan’s insensitive and ill-informed remarks yesterday.

” Unlike the SDLP Sinn Féin has always supported the victims of state violence and collusion. Many of our party members were among those targeted, injured and killed. I have personally lost close friends and comrades and have been shot myself. Sinn Féin continues to stand beside these families as we have done for years.

” The hypocrisy and barefaced dishonesty of the SDLP in claiming that we are in collusion with the British government in covering up the past has caused great offence to many victims families who I have spoken with today.

” During the long years that our party was targeted by unionist death squads controlled and directed by the British State and RUC Special Branch, the SDLP dismissed our assertions of collusion. When the families of those killed through the collusion policy lobbied Westminster the SDLP MPs ignored them. When they travelled to Stormont for a similar lobby the SDLP once again snubbed them.

” Sinn Féin will continue to challenge the British government for the truth about their activities in our country and we will continue to support the families in their campaign for justice. The SDLP on the other hand will continue to sit in the British parliament attacking Sinn Féin and Irish Republicanism while trying to score cheap political points.” ENDS

Sinn Féin

Published: 10 November, 2005

Sinn Féin Assembly member for North Antrim Philip McGuigan this morning said he was ‘outraged and angry’ after posters appeared overnight in Ahoghill warning local people not to wear GAA jerseys in the town.

Mr McGuigan said:

” I have this morning been contacted by nationalist residents in Ahoghill who have woken this morning to find posters erected warning people not to wear GAA jerseys in the town.

” It seems that this is the latest stage in the unionist campaign to force all Catholics and nationalists from the town. Over the summer this campaign used pipe bombs, paint bombs and violence to force innocent people from their homes. It seems that this has now moved on to a poster campaign aimed at nationalists and in particular nationalist children and young people living in and visiting Ahoghill.

” Ahoghill is home to a successful GAA club and this campaign is clearly aimed at that club, its members and the wider nationalist community in the area. People in Ahoghill will wait now to hear the response of the local MP Ian Paisley who was of course very slow in coming forward to deal with the violent campaign over the summer months.” ENDS

Sinn Féin

Published: 10 November, 2005

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has written to the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern asking that the government urgently intervene to purchase a finger printing machine used by the British to take the finger prints of the leaders of the 1916 Rising shortly before their execution.

Mr. Adams said:

“It has recently been revealed that a finger printing machine, which was used to take the fingerprints of the executed leaders of the 1916 Rising, is to be auctioned in England on December 14th. This is an artefact of national importance. It should not be allowed to remain overseas in private hands.

“I believe that the Irish government should ensure that this machine is secured for the state. If necessary the government should buy it.

“In other countries around the world, particularly those emerging out of colonialism every effort is made to tell the story of how freedom and independence was achieved. The record of successive Irish governments in this respect has been poor - witness the continuing controversy around 16 Moore Street, or the sell-off of the 1916 surrender note by Padraig Pearse.

“The Irish government has a responsibility to preserve, honour and commemorate the men and women who fought and died in pursuit of freedom and democracy.” ENDS

BreakingNews.ie

10/11/2005 - 15:16:42

The search is on for a new Assistant Chief Constable for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, it was announced today.

The Northern Ireland Policing Board is looking for a replacement for ACC Sam Kincaid who retires next February.

Senior officers – Superintendents or above – within the PSNI and other British forces can apply.

Senior officers from the Gardaí, or indeed any force worldwide, can also apply provided they have completed either the Strategic Command Course or Senior Command Course at the Bramshill police college.

It is known a number of Garda officers and others from further afield have done so.

An advertisement will be placed in the Police Review tomorrow and applications need to be returned by December 9, with interviews expected to start in late February.

The post could pay up to £92,829 (€137,944), plus what is described as an “attractive package” including annual allowances in the region of £12,000 (€17,832).

Policing Board chairman, Professor Sir Desmond Rea said: “The appointment of senior PSNI officers is an important responsibility of the board.

“In making this appointment the board will be looking for a candidate with the necessary skills and ability to join the Chief Constable and his senior officer team and build on the progress that has been completed in policing to date.”

BreakingNews.ie

10/11/2005 - 15:20:55

The organisation led by convicted Real IRA leader Michael Mc Kevitt was responsible for “murder and mayhem on this island”, his appeal heard today.

State counsel Mr George Birmingham SC said that Mc Kevitt’s organisation was responsible “for the murder of men, women, children and unborn children and has sought to subvert the Constitution of this State”.

Mr Birmingham, in legal submissions for the State on the third day of McKevitt’s appeal against conviction for directing terrorism, said that the State was obliged by the Constitution and by international agreements to bring the particular individual who led that organisation to trial.

McKevitt (aged 54), of Beech Park, Blackrock, Co Louth was jailed for 20 years by the Special Criminal Court in August 2003 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 State for the offence which was introduced after the Real IRA bomb attack in Omagh in 1998 in which 29 people died.

Mc Kevitt also received a six years concurrent prison sentence for membership of an illegal organisation which the court said was the Real IRA. Mc Kevitt was in court for the appeal which was also attended by his wife Bernadette Sands McKevitt.

Mr Birmingham told the Court of Criminal Appeal today that FBI agent and supergrass David Rupert, who infiltrated the Real IRA and who was the chief prosecution witness in Mc Kevitt’s trial, had performed tasks that he had agreed to do with “remarkable skill, resourcefulness and courage”.

“His courage and resourcefulness has served all the people of this State,” he added.

Mr Birmingham said that the decision to bring Mc Kevitt to trial was unique in that it involved three different states, with three different law enforcement agencies, each with a commitment to the rule of law.

He said the Director of Public Prosecutions had gone to elaborate lengths to ensure that McKevitt was given a fair trial.

“The disclosure that took place in this case was without precedent in the history of this State,'’ he added. It involved impressing upon the FBI and British Security Service the necessity for full disclosure to the defence of all relevant material.

Mr Birmingham said that this even involved making officers of the British Security Service available for interview by lawyers retained by McKevitt.

Mc Kevitt’s lawyers have appealed against conviction on the grounds that there was not full and proper disclosure of all material relating to David Rupert and that the Special Criminal Court erred in law by not adequately assessing Rupert’s credibility as a prosecution witness despite his history of involvement in criminality.

BreakingNews.ie

10/11/2005 - 15:40:24

A bitter row erupted today between nationalists in Northern Ireland over claims that Sinn Féin had secured legislation which would cover up the truth about collusion between members of the security forces and loyalist terror groups.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan was accused of making insensitive and ill-informed comments after he claimed Sinn Féin had negotiated an amnesty for rogue members of the police and British army which would keep them out of jail.

The Foyle MP said yesterday: “That may not bother the British Government or Sinn Féin.

“It will certainly go down well with the (British ) army’s Secret Forces Research Unit that spearheaded collusion.

“But it will bother victims of state planned murder. They have not been consulted about a word of this.

“We have seen collusion in the past between the state and paramilitaries. Now we are seeing collusion on the past between Sinn Féin and the British government - each helping the other to cover up their dirty secrets.”

His allegations infuriated Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey.

“Unlike the SDLP, Sinn Féin has always supported the victims of state violence and collusion,” the South Belfast MLA responded today.

“Many of our party members were among those targeted, injured and killed. I have personally lost close friends and comrades and have been shot myself.

“Sinn Féin continues to stand beside these families as we have done for years.

“The hypocrisy and barefaced dishonesty of the SDLP in claiming that we are in collusion with the British government in covering up the past has caused great offence to many victims families who I have spoken with today.”

Mr Maskey claimed for many years the SDLP dismissed Sinn Féin’s claims that its members targeted by loyalists were victims of collusion.

He accused the SDLP of also ignoring victims of alleged collusion when they travelled to Westminster and Stormont.

“Sinn Féin will continue to challenge the British government for the truth about their activities in our country and we will continue to support the families in their campaign for justice,” Mr Maskey said.

“The SDLP, on the other hand, will continue to sit in the British Parliament attacking Sinn Féin and Irish republicanism while trying to score cheap political points.”

SDLP justice spokesman Alban Maginness stood by his leader’s accusation, insisting the Bill would deny victims of collusion, state killings and the IRA the truth about what happened.

“It covers not just Provisionals, but loyalists and people in the police or (British) army who committed murder,” the North Belfast MLA said.

“Not one of them will do time, and that is what Sinn Féin has signed up to.

“It is a good deal for Sinn Féin, whose Provo associates walk scot-free without even having to turn up in court.

“It is a good deal for the British government, which can close the books on everything from the Finucane murder to the Dublin/Monaghan bombings without answering awkward questions.

“But it is a very bad deal for everyone else.”

BreakingNews.ie

10/11/2005 - 16:39:16

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said today he fears proposed legislation to legalise undocumented Irish in the US will not lead to permanent residency.

US congress is considering a number of proposals to give temporary legal status to up to 11 million illegal immigrants. It is estimated that 50,000 of these could be Irish.

The Minister told the Dáil that failure to grant permanent residency could lead to bigger problems.

“If there isn’t some nod given in regard to the issue of permanent residency, what will happen is those people, undocumented, will not come forward…even if they’re given a temporary visa for three or six years, on the basis that they would have to declare themselves,” he said.

“At the end of that period they will then be in the system and the system will know where they are.”

Yahoo! News

BELFAST (AFP) - Politicians in Belfast have warned the British government against holding terrorist suspects for long periods without trial after saying that such measures, known at the time as internment, backfired during the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

Politicians from Northern Ireland joined British lawmakers in London on Wednesday in defeating a government proposal for holding such suspects for up to 90 days without charge.

It was a rare display of unity in a British province that remains divided along sectarian lines, despite an end to most violence and major advances toward a lasting settlement.

Alasdair McDonnell, the moderate Catholic Social Democratic and Labour Party deputy leader and member of parliament from South Belfast, voted against the 90-day proposal backed by Prime Minister
Tony Blair.

“We have seen how the stain of internment in the north robbed many people of their rights and only served to further alienate one section of the community,” McDonnell said.

“It is shocking that this Government has not learned the lessons of the past,” he said.

In Northern Ireland, the security forces widely abused the detention powers which were introduced in 1922, which allowed terror suspects to be held indefinitely without trial.

Seized with panic when the conflict flared in the early 1970s, the autonomous Protestant-dominated government convinced the government in London to allow the internment of all those suspected of aiding the secessionist Catholics.

In all, 1,981 people were incarcerated, some for more than a year. Among them were 1,874 Catholics.

In reaction to the harsh detention measures, riots increased and many Catholics took part in a campaign of civil disobedience.

The emergency measures were finally eliminated in 1976 and detention was limited to seven days, but left deep scars on Catholics.

Though politicians from both sides of the divide rejected the 90-day proposal, Protestants split from Catholics in backing an amendment to hold suspects for up to 28 days, the measure that eventually passed in London.

However, support for the 28-day measure by the nine members of the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party deputies in London and one Ulster Unionist Party politician did not undermine a widely-held view that detention without trial had backfired during the conflict in Northern Ireland.

David Adams, a former Protestant paramilitary leader loyal to British rule in Northern Ireland, said long detentions without trial were counterproductive.

“The best way to create anger and resentment, and a potential support base for terrorist groups is to introduce measures like this and focus them on a particular minority within society,” Adams said.

“With fundamentalist lunatics who are doing their best to convince Muslim youth that the state is biased towards them, all we need is a state that proves them right by throwing their co-religionists in jail for long periods of time without trial,” he said.

He echoed warnings by British politicians who voted against the 90-day detention plan, who expressed fears that the measure would isolate a Muslim community whose cooperation is needed to thwart terrorist plots.

Kathleen Cavanaugh, a professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Galway in the Irish Republic, said “the parallel with Northern Ireland is stark because the measures introduced by the state are aimed at a specific group within the community”.

“In Northern Ireland, politicization and particularly militarization of the Catholic youth developed during the internment period,” she added.

“In deprived nationalist areas, young men joined the IRA (
Irish Republican Army) by the dozens.

“There is a similar danger with the new legislation in Britain. There is a clear risk that long periods of detention without trial aimed at the Muslim community may have a similar effect,” Cavanaugh warned.

BreakingNews.ie

10/11/2005 - 07:56:24

A number of opposition TDs have called on the State to drop charges against five anti-war activists accused of causing criminal damage to a US warplane.

The five, who are all members of the Catholic Worker organisation, attacked the aircraft with axes and hammers at Shannon Airport in February 2003, as the US was preparing to invade Iraq.

Their trial has collapsed on two occasions, with the second falling apart earlier this week due to concerns about the judge’s links to US President George W Bush.

The five are charged with causing criminal damage to the US plane without lawful excuse.

However, they have argued that they had a lawful excuse as they were trying to save the lives of innocent Iraqis and prevent a greater crime from taking place.

The TDs calling for their release include Green Party chairman John Gormley, Sinn Féin’s Aengus O Snodaigh and independents Finian McGrath and Tony Gregory.

BreakingNews.ie

10/11/2005 - 10:45:36

The family of a Dublin man allegedly murdered by a member of the IRA is meeting the US ambassador today to discuss their campaign for justice.

Twenty-nine-year-old Joseph Rafferty was shot dead last April in the Ongar area of west Dublin.

His family believes the father-of-one was murdered by a leading IRA man as part of a feud between two families in the area.

They say he had been warned a number of times beforehand that he would be “got” by the IRA.

The dead man’s family have compared the case to that of Belfast man Robert McCartney, who was allegedly murdered by an IRA man in January.

They are hoping today’s meeting with US Ambassador James Kenny will boost their campaign in the same way that a visit to the United States helped the McCartney’s get their voices heard.

RTE

09 November 2005 16:40

The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, has said that arrangements for Republican suspects on the run will not apply for anybody still wanted in connection with the killing of Garda Jerry McCabe or the wounding of his colleague Ben O’Sullivan.

The Government is to establish a new Eligibility Body to look at the cases of people wanted for paramilitary offences committed before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

The body will decide if they should be recommended for a presidential pardon.

Mr McDowell’s comments come after today’s publication by the British government of proposals that will allow Republican suspects on the run to return to Northern Ireland.

The proposals cover an unknown number of people wanted for crimes committed before the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

They would have their cases heard by a special tribunal, and if found guilty would be freed on licence without having to go to jail.

Some of the prominent republicans covered by this legislation include a former Sinn Féin MP, Owen Carron, and Liam Averill who escaped from the Maze prison dressed as a woman in 1997.

Unionists have known for a long time that these measures were coming as the government of the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, made a commitment to the legislation in negotiations with Sinn Féin.

In a bid to soften unionist concerns, the Northern Secretary, Peter Hain, said soldiers and policemen charged with crimes prior to the Good Friday Agreement would also be able to avail of the new provisions.

However, the UUP and DUP will oppose the measures and the Tories and Liberal Democrats will back them.

Mr Blair is expected to face considerable opposition when he seeks to get the legislation through the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

He is expected to get the legislation through the House of Commons, but the law’s approval by the House of Lords when it surfaces there early in the New Year is less certain.

RTE

10 November 2005 11:22

Representatives of police officers in Northern Ireland have said laws which would allow rogue members of the security services and paramilitaries to avoid arrest for offences committed before 1998 are unacceptable.

In a letter to Northern Ireland Security Minister Shaun Woodward the Police Federation’s secretary, Terry Spence, said his members were opposed to any moves to allow ‘on-the-runs’ to return without fear of incarceration.

This follows yesterday’s announcement that the Government is to establish a new Eligibility Body to look at the cases of people wanted for paramilitary offences committed before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

The body will decide if they should be recommended for a presidential pardon.

Under the new Bill, ‘on-the-run’ paramilitary suspects as well as civilians, police and soldiers suspected of crimes before 1998 will have to apply to a certification commissioner to qualify for the scheme.

Irelandclick.com

Squinter’s taxi driver pal Liam was running a fare home around midnight last week when he was flagged down by the Trevors on the Ballygomartin Road near Tesco – the one where nobody wears a poppy.

He was running a fare home from the other side of the city and he wasn’t too bothered about getting pulled in because he didn’t work for Treasure Island Taxis, and everything about his vehicle was shipshape and Bristol fashion.

Nevertheless, it was soon clear that this was one Trevor who wasn’t going to let a minor detail such as legality get in the way of him doing his job.

A slow and methodical walk around the vehicle revealed to the Trevor that the car did indeed have four doors and four wheels, that the big rubber things round the wheels had grooves on them, that light was coming from the red lamps at the back and from the white ones at the front. A closer inspection revealed that there was glass where glass should be, that there were no dead bodies strapped to the roof, and that the passenger was not bound and gagged, but sitting happily listening to the radio.

The clock ticked on as our Trevor got down to the nitty-gritty of checking papers. Road tax okay, licence okay, insurance okay, PSV badge okay. Trevor walked around the car a few times more contemplating this outrageous act of compliance before returning to the driver’s window.

– Can I ask you why your PSV badge is on the dashboard?
– That’s where we all keep them. (Squinter can confirm this, as can anybody else reading this who has ever ridden in a private hack)
– Do you know, sir, that you’re required by law to wear your PSV badge ‘on your person’?

Poor Liam could only puff out his cheeks and shake his head as he was handed a ticket and a £30 fine – the first time he’s ever had a black mark against him in 36 years of professional driving.

“My passenger knew more than I did,” says a still disbelieving Liam. “She told me after two minutes that this Trevor was going to do me for something no matter what, and I thought she was being paranoid. You live and learn.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Tom Brady
10 November 2005

A handful of Provisional IRA activists are expected to be granted a presidential pardon in the Republic as part of the measures being introduced by the Irish and British governments for “on the run” terrorists.

The Irish Government has opted for a straightforward pardon paramilitaries who qualify - in contrast to the complex legislation being used in Northern Ireland.

It is estimated that less than 10 activists will qualify for the pardon.

They are all wanted by the gardai in connection with terrorist crimes carried out before the Good Friday agreement in April 1998.

But Justice Minister Michael McDowell last night confirmed that the “amnesty” group will not include two prime suspects for the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe in June 1996.

Fingerprint evidence would have formed a key part of the state case against the two men - a veteran republican who had been living in Co Clare but moved to Spain after the shooting and a Cork man now living in South America.

Gardai have also been anxious to interview a man they believe sanctioned the abortive Adare robbery which led to the McCabe murder.

He had been living in Tallaght but fled to Spain after being demoted from his post as officer commanding the Provisional IRA in Dublin.

Mr McDowell said last night: “It is the clearly stated position of the Government that those already convicted of offences related to the cowardly killing of Garda Jerry McCabe and the wounding of Garda Ben O’Sullivan will not benefit from early release.

“Equally, arrangements being proposed in this jurisdiction for dealing with what have become known as the on-the-runs will not apply to persons in respect of these offences,” he added.

Qualifying persons must apply to an eligibility body which is being set up to examine their applications. The body will then make recommendations on a pardon to President Mary McAleese.

The British government yesterday introduced its legislation, which will mean that activists on the run from the authorities in Northern Ireland can apply for a certificate guaranteeing them they can return there without fear of being arrested or jailed for their offence.

A special tribunal with the same powers as a non-jury crown court will be established to consider the evidence against them and they will not be forced to appear.

If convicted, they will be allowed to remain free on licence.

The group is understood to include a man alleged to have been responsible for the Enniskillen bomb blast and another accused of murdering three police officers.

The suspected killer of an 11-year-old boy in an explosion is also on the list, while the highest-profile republican is Sinn Fein lobbyist Rita O’Hare, who was active in the United States during the summer, explaining the IRA statement.