SAOIRSE32

BBC

Peter Hain will meet Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern

The British and Irish governments have “no problem” with the DUP’s decision not to attend talks with them, the Northern Ireland Secretary has said.

The party said the governments “already knew their position on the issues” to be discussed at Hillsborough next week.

However, Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern revealed that the DUP will meet his government in Dublin on Friday.

Mr Ahern said the Dublin talks were “no more important” than the “stocktaking talks” at Hillsborough on Monday.

Arms issue

“We offered that we would either meet jointly or separately up here and this has been the way that discussions have taken place before…” he said.

Speaking after the meeting, Sinn Fein MP Martin McGuiness said the British and Irish governments had told his party that Ian Paisley would go into government, “but for the issue of arms”.

“Ian Paisley tells us he is a man of God. I would like to know if he is a man of his word,” he said.

The other parties at the talks were the PUP and Robert McCartney’s UK Unionists.

Issues tabled for discussion included parades, policing and restorative justice.

The SDLP and the Ulster Unionists and Alliance will hold discussions with the ministers on 24 November

Mr McGuinness said there were “issues no party could block”

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said it was for the DUP to “decide whether they wanted to tell the two governments their views”.

However, the DUP’s Nigel Dodds called the talks “a stunt on the part of the government to try and give the impression that some process” was beginning.

“We have made it very clear that there can be no such process until the issues of confidence, equality and human rights for the unionist community, which have been sadly lacking as part as this process, are addressed,” he said.

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey accused the DUP of “play acting”.

“They should be in those talks along with us and others fighting to get as much as we can for the pro-union community. We know that there are major social and economic issues,” he said.

UDA statement

At a news conference before Monday’s talks, Mr Hain referred to a statement made on behalf of loyalist paramilitaries, the Ulster Defence Association, on Sunday.

The statement, read by leading loyalist Tommy Kirkham at a Remembrance Day ceremony in Rathcoole, north Belfast, suggested that the UDA was willing to discuss its future with the British government.

Mr Hain said he hoped words would “be followed up by concrete action”.

“If this is a genuine political breakthrough, that the UDA are really saying they are turning their back on violence and murder and gangsterism and want to go down the political road, then we are happy to take them with us,” he said.

::: u.tv :::

The PSNI were tonight accused of partisan policing for failing to introduce CCTV cameras in west Belfast.

By:Press Association
MONDAY 14/11/2005 18:28:11

Peter Robinson

DUP Deputy Leader Peter Robinson said almost 3,000 arrests in the north, south and east of the city have been attributed to surveillance cameras.

But he called on Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde to explain why there is no CCTV in predominately republican west Belfast.

Police said the roll-out of cameras was currently under review but Sinn Fein dismissed the significance of the technology in combating crime.

Mr Robinson said: “Given that CCTV has proven to be so successful in the rest of Belfast, why shouldn`t west Belfast be placed under the scrutiny of these systems whenever CCTV has been in place in other parts of Belfast since as long ago as 2000?

“In the same way that there is an overwhelmingly disproportionate amount of motoring offences recorded in the south and the east of the city compared to the west, one is almost forced into the conclusion that this is more to do with politics than policing.

“Is the absence of any CCTV cameras at all in the West Belfast District Command Unit because Sinn Fein/IRA have made it clear that they are opposed to them?

“Responsible public representatives should be demanding that their areas and the people they represent are protected by CCTV.”

The East Belfast MP said police figures for west Belfast from April to September showed considerable increases in offences against the person, domestic burglaries, robberies and criminal damage compared to the same period last year.

A PSNI spokesman defended the force`s position.

“The roll-out of CCTV cameras across the province is currently under consultation and is being progressed,” he said.

“Closed Circuit Television is just one option within a much larger anti-crime strategy which may or may not work in particular areas or for particular crimes.

“The decision on where and when additional CCTV cameras are situated must always take place following consultation with all community groups.”

Sinn Fein expressed concern that CCTV only drives crime into residential areas.

A party spokesman said: “West Belfast has one of the lowest crime rates in the north despite the fact that there has been a policing deficit for decades.

“The community has stood strong against crime although there are very serious problems, such as death driving, which could and should be addressed by an accountable and representative police service.”

Irish Independent

15:32 Monday November 14th 2005

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has said that a Sinn Fein-Fianna Fail coalition in the Republic is out of the question unless the party changes its economic policies.

Minister Ahern met with the Republican leadership in Hillsborough today, during a round of meetings on the North’s political process.

The minister warned that Sinn Fein’s taxation and other fiscal policies make them unlikely bed-fellows: “in relation to the issue of Sinn Fein moving into the political process exclusively, they potentially can be part of the democratic process.”

However he continued: “when is comes down to hard-ball economics, right across the spectrum in the Republic Sinn Fein are completely on a different side of the spectrum to my party.”

The leader of SF in Leinster House Caoimhghin O’Caolain is treating the remarks with contempt, and accused the main parties in the south of ‘Sinn Fein-bashing’.

Sinn Féin

Published: 14 November, 2005

Sinn Féin Director of Elections, West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty has accused the British government of deliberately trying to remove 70,000 names from the electoral register.

Mr Doherty said:

“The Electoral Office has confirmed that at least 70,000 people entitled to vote are to be removed from the electoral register due for publication in December.”

“In the last few years there has been a huge decline in numbers of people registered to vote. This has arisen as a result of the introduction of new and restrictive procedures for registration. Just 8 months ago, in response to this decline in the electoral register the British Government announced that to maximise the numbers entitled to vote in the May elections 70,000 people who were earlier removed from the register would be placed back on it.

“It is therefore incomprehensible that the British Government are again in intent on removing these same people from the election register, and effectively denying them their right to vote in the next election.”

“I have asked for an urgent meeting with the British Direct Rule Minister, David Hansen, on this issue. It must be addressed as a matter of urgency in advance of the publication of the new register which comes out next month. Everywhere else procedures are being introduced to make it easier to register for voting and cast a vote. It is unacceptable that different standards are being applied here.” ENDS

RTE

14 November 2005 17:47

Áras an Uachtaráin has confirmed that President Mary McAleese was last night admitted to the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin after feeling unwell.

She was given intravenous antibiotics on her arrival at hospital.

She is expected to be discharged tomorrow morning.

Her engagements for the next few days have been postponed.

Sinn Féin

Published: 14 November, 2005

Responding to comments on Sinn Féin from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and Justice Minister Michael McDowell, Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin has said these parties are “using scare tactics in the vain hope of stopping Sinn Fein’s growth”. He said the Taoiseach “had a brass neck to accuse Sinn Féin of being agents of poverty and disadvantage while he presides over a wealthy economy where one in seven children live in poverty”.

He said Fine Gael and the PDs were engaged in a contest over who are the biggest anti-Sinn Féiners “designed as much to damage Fianna Fáil as Sinn Féin”.

Deputy Ó Caoláin said: “It is a measure of the political bankruptcy of all these parties that their main focus has been on scare tactics designed to stem the growth of Sinn Féin. Fine Gael and the Progressive Democrats are engaging in a contest over who are the biggest anti-Sinn Féiners. Both parties are desperate to present Fianna Fáil as Government partners-in-waiting with Sinn Féin in order to, as they see it, boost Fine Gael and PD prospects in the General Election.

“The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was clearly rattled by the vacuous speech delivered by Enda Kenny in Cork on Saturday. The only memorable thing about that speech was the Fine Gael leader’s effort to link Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil. In what can only be described as a panic response, the Taoiseach has reverted to the old tactic of the ‘red scare’. And he rushed into the arms of the viciously anti-republican Sunday Independent to deliver his message.

“The Taoiseach has a brass neck to describe Sinn Féin as agents of poverty and disadvantage while he presides over a wealthy economy where one in seven children live in poverty. Sinn Féin represents disadvantaged communities across this country who have long been abandoned by Fianna Fáil and the other conservative parties. The Taoiseach’s sudden interest in Sinn Féin’s policies will fool very few people. He knows Sinn Féin is not a Marxist party but his attack has nothing to do with our ideology or our policies. It is all about decommissioning some of the political weaponry of Fine Gael and the PDs in advance of a General Election.

“For our part Sinn Féin will continue to challenge the conservative parties, including the Fianna Fáil-PD government and the Coalition of the Confused that poses as an alternative. The coalition we want to build is with the Irish people as we work together to create an Ireland of Equals. Scare tactics will not stop the growth of Sinn Féin.” ENDS

Sinn Féin

Published: 14 November, 2005

Responding to yesterday’s announcement by the UDA that they have completed a consultation with their members, Sinn Féin Assembly member for North Belfast Gerry Kelly said:

” Given that the UDA over recent years have made a number of positive statements only for this to be contradicted by actions on the ground people will be rightly sceptical about this latest initiative.

” However if this is a genuine attempt to move forward then that would obviously be a welcome move. The UDA have said that they have a clear understanding of their future. People need to hear what this is. We need to hear that their violent sectarian campaign against Catholics is over. We need to hear that their guns and bombs will not be used again and that they want to move forward peacefully with the rest of us.” ENDS

BBC

The traditional Orange marches take place in July

History will be made when Irish Republicans sit alongside members of the Orange Order to be questioned by MSPs in Glasgow on Monday.

Reforms to laws governing contentious marches and processions in Scotland are being examined by a Holyrood committee.

Among those due to appear are James McLean of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland and Jim Slaven of Cairde na h’Eireann (Friends of Ireland).

Parade reforms were proposed after a review by ex-police chief Sir John Orr.

Senior representatives of Scottish police, councils, unions and football bodies are also due to address the special session being held at Glasgow City Chambers.

Common ground

The Justice 2 Committee is taking evidence on the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill, which proposes football banning orders as well as changes to the laws relating to public processions.

Labour MSP Bill Butler, who chairs the committee, said holding the meeting in an area affected by such issues could gain a valuable insight into the issues related to marches.

Representatives from Cairde na h’Eireann and the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland are expected to find significant common ground in their evidence.

Both are concerned that the restriction and regulation of marches be applied consistently, with decisions left to elected representatives.

The European Convention on Human Rights may be raised as a possible stumbling block to the proposals. Some people are reported to regard the freedom to march as being a fundamental human right while others who live on march routes believe they have a right to peace.

The Scottish Executive wants to see new laws in place before the 2007 marching season.

Council powers

As well as a possible “behaviour bond” for organisers, which would be forfeited if marchers caused trouble, measures include more council control.

Local authorities would have greater freedom to ban marches or impose conditions, and the notification period from organisers would be extended to 28 days from the current seven.

The executive said it was aiming to find a balance between the right to march and the right of communities to have a say in how, where and when marches take place.

The plans will affect all marches including political demonstrations and local celebrations.

Local councils and police currently have to deal with more than 1,500 parades in Scotland, and in 2003 policing costs amounted to £1.5m.

Daily Ireland

DUP fails to show ‘real’ political leadership

“Are they finally going to stop hiding behind rhetoric and show real political leadership?” Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness hits out at the Democratic Unionist Party’s refusal to take part in today’s Hillsborough Castle discussions

Ciaran O’Neill

The Democratic Unionist Party yesterday said it would not be attending talks hosted today by the British and Irish governments.
News of the DUP’s refusal to take part in the discussions at Hillsborough Castle in Co Antrim came just hours after Sinn Féin accused the unionist party of failing to show “real political leadership”.
The Hillsborough talks, which will be hosted by Secretary of State Peter Hain and Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, are expected to focus on a range of issues including parades, policing and restorative justice.
Representatives of the North’s main political parties have been invited to take part.
However, the DUP’s Nigel Dodds said both governments are aware of the party’s position on the issues and know what is needed to create unionist confidence.
He claimed the talks seemed to be nothing more than stock-taking.
“What we are about is the real business of meeting with government ministers, from Tony Blair and Peter Hain down, on a regular basis,” he said.
“We were doing it last week and we’ll be doing it next week and also with the Dublin government as well, about the real issues of confidence building, equality and so on.”
Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness yesterday said the DUP had blocked a return to devolution for far too long.
Speaking at a republican commemoration in Edentubber, Co Louth, Mr McGuinness said that, during talks last year, the British and Irish governments had told his party that DUP leader Ian Paisley had said the only obstacle to a return to power-sharing was weapons.
The Mid-Ulster MP said that, now that the IRA had completed disarmament, Mr Paisley had no excuse to refuse to share power.
“We need to get the political institutions back up and running. Week by week, the direct-rule administration is taking decisions based not on the needs or requirements of the people but on fiscal considerations in the British Treasury,” he said.
“Are the DUP content to sit back and watch this happen? Or are they finally going to stop hiding behind rhetoric and show real political leadership?”
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin will tomorrow launch a campaign which aims to raise awareness of the impact direct rule has had.
The Cost of Direct Rule campaign, which will incorporate a wide-ranging discussion document, will focus on the social and economic factors which have suffered since devolution was suspended in October 2002.
Sinn Féin general secretary Mitchel McLoughlin said direct rule had been bad for the economy and bad for society.
“We will be taking forward this discussion document and engaging with civic society, with trade unions, business leaders, NGOs and the community and voluntary sector,” he said.
“We will be stepping up our campaign to get the political institutions back up and running.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Brian Walker
14 November 2005

Fears that council reform could lead to a division of Northern Ireland and deepen sectarian divisions will greet the outcome of the long-awaited Review of Public Administration, due to be announced in a week’s time.

Mr Hain and his ministers are putting the finishing touches to reforms aimed at making savings up to £200m a year by drastically reducing the number of councils, scrapping the health and education area boards and any quangos.

The new regime will replace the system of councils and boards that has been in place since 1973.

Ministers are expected to see reducing the number of councils from 26 to 7 as the most efficient and cost-saving choice, while increasing the powers of new, bigger councils to take control over local planning, roads and the environment.

They will be funded by the combined regional and district rates.

However, the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists have already voiced fears that the seven council option will create a DUP/Sinn Fein carve-up, permanently splitting the province into a “Green” west and an “Orange” east, with only Belfast as a 50:50 council area.

Sinn Fein approval for the option is only likely to increase their concerns.

To prevent marginalising large minorities and deepening sectarian divisions, yet more consultations will be held to devise new forms of council power sharing.

An unresolved fundamental question is whether to make power sharing compulsory for the new councils, following the precedent of the Assembly.

To create roughly equal areas, a boundary review will finally define seven new council districts.

The replacement of the four Health and Social Service Boards and 18 trusts is to follow more radical lines than those suggested in the RPA.

Ministers are this week deciding how to implement the recommendations of the Appleby report, which slammed the province’s poor record of reducing waiting lists and using hospital theatres efficiently.

Seven local health and social service agencies bodies are expected to match the new districts, but a purchaser - provider split is likely to reserve real power for an independent central board.

This body would set budgets and performance targets for the local health and social services agencies to follow.

A single support body will replace the five education boards.

The Youth Service and the Arts Council are expected to survive intact.

Local forums based on the councils will be formed to provide joined-up co-ordination of local services.

To oil the wheels of the new system, water and sewerage services will be wholly financed by the controversial “tap tax ” run by a State water company from 2007.

As a result, £500m will be freed for other projects.

Belfast Telegraph

By David Gordon
14 November 2005

The clergyman who heads a loyalist umbrella group today called on the Northern Ireland Office to respond positively to a talks overture from the UDA.

The Rev Mervyn Gibson was commenting on a statement issued by the terror group yesterday indicating that it was ready to discuss its future with the Government.

Mr Gibson, who chairs the Loyalist Commission, said he believed both the UDA and UVF could end up in a position where they saw “no need for their current structures”.

“The Commission very much welcomes yesterday’s UDA statement,” he said. “I would encourage the Government to devote some energy and resources into working with loyalist paramilitaries on conflict transformation.”

Mr Gibson said discussions on the way forward for loyalist paramilitarism had been held up by the feud between the UVF and LVF.

“That feud is now over so that barrier is gone. There will be other barriers along the road that will have to be dealt with.

“The way I see it is that they are pointing in the right direction and they need to be encouraged along the road,” he added.

There has been growing speculation about the future of loyalist paramilitary groups, following the IRA’s declaration that it was ceasing all activities and its subsequent decommissioning act.

The LVF announced last month that it was winding up and there have been internal discussions within the UVF on the way forward.

The UDA’s statement yesterday was issued at a loyalist Remembrance Day gathering in the Rathcoole estate.

It was read out by Newtownabbey councillor Tommy Kirkham, a leading member of the UDA-linked Ulster Political Research Group.

Claiming that the IRA had been defeated, the UDA said requests for meetings with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Secretary of State Peter Hain had been repeatedly rebuffed.

“How can the attention and pressure be redirected for loyalism to make the next move? We have always been willing to discuss the future,” it said.

“We wish to make our position absolutely clear that over a two month period we have consulted our entire membership.

“On behalf of the Inner Council the message must go out today that at this time the UDA has a clear understanding on the future. We are open minded and waiting on contact.”

The UUP and DUP welcomed the statement as potentially significant, but urged the paramilitary group to end all terrorist and criminal activities.

But SDLP MLA Alex Attwood commented: “The Chief Constable has repeatedly advised the Policing Board that there are examples of UDA involvement in serious crime, drug dealing, extortion and other activities.

“These latest words do not measure up against the evidence of UDA intentions.”

Irelandclick.com

North Belfast News Editorial

We can guess what the Orange Order would say if they were told for their Twelfth of July parade in Belfast that they would be required to ditch their collarettes and sashes and get rid of anything orange on the day.
That’s how absurd it sounds to nationalists who only want to celebrate their culture with St Patrick’s Day parades around the world.
Banning football jerseys suggested by DUP councillor Nelson McCausland is a valid point and it’s true the event should be inclusive to all, but banning the flag of the nation of Ireland is just preposterous.
Northern Protestants celebrate St Patrick’s Day as ex-pats across the globe, and wouldn’t even think of being offended by the orange and the green.
The Irish tricolour is green for republicanism, orange for Protestantism and white for peace, so Councillor McCausland is banning his own identity and his policy and resources committee could be robbing nationalists of theirs.
It’s time to cut out this nonsense and come up with a realistic plan so that Ireland’s second city can for once stage a council-endorsed St Patrick’s Day event.

Irelandclick.com

‘The feud came to a close after a settlement was brokered between the two wings by two local priests, Fr Des Wilson and Fr Alec Reid.

The IRA feud, and particularly the events of November 11, have been largely overshadowed by more recent atrocities, but for the families and friends of the victims, it remains a painful memory…’

by Damian McCarney

THIS MONTH marks the 30th anniversary of one of the bleakest periods in West Belfast’s turbulent history.

In November 1975 a bloody feud between the Provisional and Official wings of the IRA ripped through the nationalist community as tensions from the split within the republican movement five years earlier resurfaced. Ultimately the renewed hostilities would claim the lives of 11 people and leave more than 40 injured.

What triggered the burst of attacks remains unclear to this day. The Provisional IRA issued a statement at the time saying that their actions against Official IRA members had been to “stamp out criminal activities.”
For its part, the Republican Clubs, the political wing of the Official IRA, said the feud had been sparked after a fist fight between an Official and a Republican.
Whatever the reasons, the consequences were appalling in the final days of October and in the first two weeks of November 1975, a period when both wings of the IRA claimed to be on ceasefire.

The feud reached its bloody height with a torrent of bloodletting on Tuesday November 11 with OIRA man John Brown from the Markets area becoming the first of the day’s victims. The 25-year-old father-of-two was shot nine times in front of his family in his Cooke Place home. In the same attack John’s 15-year-old brother was shot a number of times in the stomach but survived.

Owen McVeigh, who had no connection with any political organisation, was killed later the same day in what was a case of mistaken identity. Two masked OIRA gunmen broke into the father-of-two’s Grosvenor Place home and, as he tried to escape, shot him in the back. The gunmen ignored the pleas of the 28-year-old’s wife not to kill him. It was reported that witnesses heard one of the gunmen shout as they fled, “We’ve got the wrong house”.
Teenage Official IRA member Jack McAllister became the third to die on this dark day. The 19-year-old Ballymurphy man was with his fiancée, waiting for a bus, when he was shot. Only a week earlier Jack had mourned the death of his close friend James Fogarty, an earlier victim of the same feud. Jack’s mother, Ethel McAllister, had been a prominent civil rights activist and in the days following her son’s death was prominent in attempts to broker a truce between the two factions.

The final victim of the day’s violence was former Republican Clubs man Comgall Casey. Aged only 18, he was working as an apprentice joiner when gunmen shot him. They entered his place of work and asked for him by name before coldly carrying out the execution. As the Andersonstown man pleaded for his life the PIRA gunmen brought him into a separate room and shot him in his back and head.

The following day, November 12, saw the final death of the factional war when the chairman of the Falls Taxi Drivers’ Association, Michael Duggan, was gunned down by the OIRA. The gunmen burst into St Paul’s Hall in Hawthorn Street and opened fire indiscriminately, shooting the 32-year-old man twice in the back. Another man was wounded when he was shot in the groin. Michael Duggan had not been connected to any paramilitary organisation.

The first fatality of the feud had been two weeks earlier on October 29 when OIRA man Robert Elliman was gunned down in McKenna’s bar in the Markets area. On that same night 16 people were wounded in attacks related to the feud.

The following day saw the tragic death of six-year-old Eileen Kelly. She was killed in her Beechmount Grove home when PIRA gunmen tried to shoot her father, who had no link to the Official IRA and was described in reports as a Republican Clubs sympathiser. The following year two teenagers received life sentences for her murder.

In the days following Eileen’s death, Short Strand OIRA man Thomas Berry and Sinn Féin member Séamus McCusker were killed. Republican Clubs member James Fogarty was shot dead in his Ballymurphy home on November 3 before a six-day period of peace was shattered by the killing of 19-year-old OIRA man John Kelly near the Antrim Road.

During this period there were a number of protests by women’s groups calling for peace, and attempts by various members of the clergy and an Andersonstown News representative to find a peaceful resolution. The feud came to a close after a settlement was brokered between the two wings by two local priests, Fr Des Wilson and Fr Alec Reid.

In a report in the Andersonstown News dated November 22 1975, the PIRA claimed that they suspected “British agents” had carried out a sub-machinegun attack on a local club, in which no one was killed, to keep the feud running. But thankfully the feud was over.

The IRA feud, and particularly the events of November 11, have been largely overshadowed by more recent atrocities, but for the families and friends of the victims, it remains a painful memory that they will never forget.

Irelandclick.com

by Damian McCarney

A lively policing debate turned into a war of words between Sinn Féin and the SDLP, further highlighting the stark divide between the parties on this crucial issue.

Throughout Thursday’s Conway Mill discussion, chaired by Daily Ireland columnist Anne Cadwallader, the SDLP’s Alex Attwood and Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly concentrated in attacking the other party’s stance on policing.

On the issue of accountability, Mr Kelly targeted the failure of the policing structures to fully adopt the recommendations of the Patten Report, and highlighted his party’s endeavours to address the shortfalls.

Meanwhile, the SDLP policing spokesperson accepted that policing was not perfect but praised the current structures, particularly the work of the Police Ombudsman, saying, “I do not know what more can be done to ensure there is rigour and accountability.”

Mr Attwood proceeded to accuse the republican party of reneging on public assurances they had given to support the new policing structures once a Policing Act was introduced.

“A Sinn Féin spokesperson in autumn 2002 said that when the policing bill is passed Sinn Féin will not be found wanting, but when it was passed they changed the goalposts and said that now the real issue is policing and the transferral of powers,” said Mr Attwood.

In response, Mr Kelly criticised the SDLP for “jumping too soon” and undermining the bargaining position of nationalists in policing negotiations.

He said that the British government had informed Sinn Féin that the SDLP were reluctant for any further changes to the policing structures in the future as it would “embarrass the SDLP”.

Unconvinced by the PSNI’s even-handedness in dealing with nationalist and unionist areas, Mr Kelly recounted his own personal experience of the force’s handling of a number of riots in North Belfast last summer.

“In Ardoyne it took 45 seconds to turn the water cannon on me – and I had been talking with to the PSNI for the previous ten hours. Then one week later, on the Woodvale Road, there were 10 hours of rioting where petrol bombs were used and vehicles damaged before they resorted to such measures.”

As the discussion started to turn towards Community Restorative Justice, Anne Cadwallader intervened, insisting that this was a topic for another day.
The chair then asked the 50-strong audience for a show of hands on whether the opinions of anyone in the audience on policing had altered during the course of the debate. Unsurprisingly perhaps, not one hand was raised.

Journalist:: Damien McCarney

Irelandclick.com

Bishop Patrick Walsh officiates at the opening of new church in the heart of Ballymurphy

by Anthony Neeson

It was a time of celebration in Ballymurphy yesterday as the Bishop of Down and Connor, Patrick Walsh, officiated at the solemn opening and dedication of the altar of the new church of Corpus Christi.

The dedication of the new church saw the completion of an innovative partnership between the diocese of Down and Connor and the Fold Housing Association which has transformed what was quite literally a wilderness in the heart of Ballymurphy into a modern complex of family homes around a beautiful new church, together with offices for the Corpus Christi Services which caters for the social needs of local people.

The altar furnishings were designed by the well-known sculptor Ken Thompson of Cork who was also the sculptor for the furnishings of the restored St Peter’s Cathedral.

Speaking yesterday, Bishop Walsh said: “This church will radiate the light of Christ over the parish, a parish which has lived through many dark days.
“So many families have lived through dark days, dark days of suffering. But through all those dark days, those dark years, the Church was at your side, the priests of the parish were always at your side, living among you and two of your priests, Fr Hugh Mullan and Fr Noel Fitzpatrick, were shot dead ministering to you – and they are rightly remembered in the plaque in their honour at the entrance to this church.

“We remember them today with gratitude and with pride especially at this time when we all feel ashamed and distressed at how some priests have abused children.

“I know that you hold in high regard the priests who have served you, who stood by you, who suffered with you – in the case of Fr Hugh and Fr Noel laid down their very lives for you.

“In the words of our Divine Lord himself: ‘Greater love than this no man has than to lay down his life for his friends.’ And all the other priests who served in this parish, who are with you today, quite literally they too spent themselves in their care for you, they spent their lives for you, they suffered with you.”

Bishop Walsh also praised the new homes clustered around the church.
“But there is a much more desolate wilderness than a physical wilderness, there is the moral and spiritual wilderness in which some, for whatever reason, find themselves, the wilderness from which God is absent, from which the Church is absent.”

The Church, he said, wanted to call those parishioners “out of the wilderness of their lives”.

Journalist:: Anthony Neeson

Irelandclick.com

Despite widespread objections from councillors and heated opposition from residents of West Belfast, an unwanted asbestos dump has been given the go-ahead by the city’s Planning Service, it can be revealed.

The decision has been slammed as “totally undemocratic” by local Sinn Féin Councillor Paul Maskey.

The City Council has been at loggerheads with the Planning Service over the proposed asbestos holding site at Blackstaff Way since an application was made by Grove Services Group.

Despite all sitting members of the Council’s Town Planning Committee voting against the proposal last month and remaining councillors adding their objections at November’s monthly meeting, Planning Service over-ruled the Council and gave the asbestos site the green light in a decision last Friday.
Upper Falls Sinn Féin Councillor, Paul Maskey said the granting of planning permission for the Blackstaff asbestos holding site was dangerous as it will set a precedent for other sites to be located throughout Belfast.

Cllr Maskey said, “This decision is riding roughshod over the views of the people of West Belfast. It will open the floodgates for further dumps throughout Belfast. It is a very dangerous situation and will set a precedent allowing asbestos to be driven from all over Ireland and end up transported into West Belfast,” he warned.

Cllr Paul Maskey said feeling was running so high over the contentious topic, as all political parties had voiced their objection at the approval of the planning application. He warned angry words would be exchanged at this Thursday’s Town planning Committee meeting and he would be seeking legal advice on the matter.

“Councillors are of a unanimous opinion against this asbestos dump and I expect there will be angry words said to representatives of the Planning Department. I know I’ll be letting them know of my feelings on the matter in no in certain terms.

“The people of West Belfast will not take this decision lying down, there will be protests outside Grove Services offices’ and the Planning Services and I would appeal to them both to listen and take into consideration the views of the people who live here, they do not want this asbestos site on their doorstep,’ said the Sinn Fein Councillor for Upper Falls.

Cllr Maskey said he would call for a judicial review on the matter if the decision is not reversed.

In a letter to Chief Executive of Belfast City Council, Peter McNaney explaining Planning Service’s decision, Divisional Planning Manager, John Cummins stated,

“The planning merits of the case have been re-assessed in light of the views expressed by the Council and I must inform you that the Department’s opinion remains unchanged. In coming to this opinion, the Department took full account of the issues raised by the Council and objections raised by local residents regarding the potential impact of the development on the surrounding area.”

Journalist:: Victoria McMahon

BreakingNews.ie

14/11/2005 - 07:34:23

The SDLP is vowing to campaign against any attempt by the British government to abandon the rule that requires half of all PSNI recruits to be Catholic.

The 50-50 Catholic-Protestant recruitment quota was introduced as part of the Patten reforms to boost the number of Catholics in the North’s police force

However, over the weekend, Denis Bradley, the vice-chairman of the Policing Board, told the SDLP annual conference that the rule was wrong from a human rights points of view and should be removed as soon as possible.

Unionists are vehemently opposed to the 50-50 quota, believing it discriminates against Protestants, who still account for the vast majority of applications to the PSNI.

The SDLP, however, has said it will fight to ensure the quota remains for at least 10 years as envisaged by the Patten Report on policing reforms.

Irish Examiner

By Dan Collins
14/11/05

THE Government has welcomed indications that one of the main loyalist paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland is preparing to decommission.

In a statement read out to supporters at a Remembrance Day ceremony in Rathcoole in the outskirts of Belfast yesterday, the UDA said it wanted to discuss its future with the British Government.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said he would welcome moves by all paramilitary groups towards decommissioning. Mr Ahern said any efforts to bring about a lasting settlement in the North should be praised.

The minister is scheduled to meet Northern Secretary Peter Hain for talks at Hillsborough Castle today at which the UDA’s overtures will be discussed in detail.

Reacting to this latest development in the wake of the IRA’s decommissioning, the SDLP’s Alex Atwood said the loyalist paramilitaries would have to go beyond words.

UUP leader Sir Reg Empey said the UDA statement pointed towards the likelihood of an intense push to restore devolution in Northern Ireland.

“If you take it together with the LVF’s declaration that it is winding down, the UVF’s internal debate and Gerry Adams’s comments that the war is over, if there are serious measures to address the loyalist community’s concerns and positive IMC reports in January and April, I think we will have the potential for significant progress.”

Yahoo! News UK

By Anne Cadwallader
Monday November 14, 01:49 AM

BBC photo

BELFAST (Reuters) - Change in Northern Ireland may be so slow it appears imperceptible, but the writing is on the wall for one of… its cultural traditions — murals glorifying paramilitary violence.

Often covering entire side walls of buildings, they are a common sight in working class areas of large towns, acting as a territorial marker, badge of victory or mark of sorrow in a country still deeply divided along religious and national lines.

However, with the IRA pledging to end its armed campaign and some paramilitary groups loyal to Britain also committing to end violence, the menacing paintings that for decades symbolised the province’s conflict are slowly being replaced.

Where once masked gunmen and shadowy assassins loomed from building walls, pictures of sports stars, authors and landscapes are beginning to spring up — most recently in “unionist” or “loyalist” areas where armed groups are starting to stand down.

“At the start, many loyalists were ambivalent about the peace process,” said Bill Rolston, professor of sociology at the University of Ulster, who has written three books on the murals.

“Murals were a way of telling their political representatives to hold the line. They were a not-too-subtle reminder that the paramilitaries had not gone away,” he added.

“But gradually they began to realise that they could not simply keep on painting the same subjects over and over again, that things had to change.”

The political process has been slower to make progress.

Efforts to establish political stability in Northern Ireland following a peace deal in 1998 have been sluggish. A Belfast-based government that shared power between Catholics and Protestants, set up under the Good Friday Agreement, was suspended in 2002 and has been on ice ever since.

NARNIA STORIES

But last month flags were taken down and murals painted over ahead of an announcement that one loyalist paramilitary group, the Loyalist Volunteer Force, would stand down.

A portrait of Belfast-born writer C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia stories, now graces a wall in east Belfast, as does a painting of George Best, Northern Ireland’s favourite soccer-playing son.

In the past, even depictions of apparently harmless cartoon characters had menacing undertones. Popular subjects included Spike, the gruff bulldog in “Tom and Jerry”, and Eddie, a sinister, skeletal figure portrayed on Iron Maiden CDs.

“I think it’s great that people are moving on. The murals are certainly less political and in-your-face than they were,” said Anne Robinson, a supermarket worker from west Belfast.

According to Neil Jarman, director of the Institute for Conflict Research in Belfast, mural painting has been a feature of unionist popular culture since the early 20th century.

“They appeared as part of an assertion of the Protestant people’s sense of British identity during an extended period of political crisis,” he wrote in an article.

Loyalist Kenny McComb, who served time in prison for paramilitary activities, is involved in replacing a mural in County Down. He said that whereas the drive to change murals previously came from groups such as charities, communities were now starting to press for new pictures to represent them.

The mural he is helping to replace once depicted loyalist gunmen. The new one includes pictures of the Bronte sisters — authors who lived in the area before moving to northern England — a local mariner, and the town centre.

“It’s taken away the paramilitary stigma from the estate and encouraged people back into the area. The old murals served their purpose, they sent out a message but it’s time to re-build a sense of community pride now. Things have moved on,” he said.

POWERFUL SYMBOL

For many, the garish murals are the central image of Northern Ireland’s three-decade sectarian conflict between Irish nationalists, who want a united Ireland, and those who want the province to remain part of Britain.

“I have lost count of the number of people who tell me the first time Northern Irish politics broke into their consciousness was seeing a journalist report against the backdrop of one of my murals,” said Danny Devenney, who paints murals in Irish republican areas of Belfast.

Ironically, he said, it was a British government minister trying to defuse tension in the province who was inadvertently responsible for starting the Irish nationalist mural tradition many years after the unionists.

In the mid-1970s, the then Northern Ireland Secretary Roy Mason commissioned a group of Belfast art students to paint a series of murals in the city depicting the conflict as merely “two tribes fighting each other”.

Resenting this simplistic account, a students painted one of the most militaristic republican murals in response — a picture of IRA snipers lying in undergrowth on a mountainside firing on British soldiers.

“They made people talk, they loved them. They brightened up the streets and reflected what people were saying in their everyday lives,” Devenney said.

“They were also cheap. It took money to print posters and stick them up. It was our response to censorship and the inability of mainstream media to reflect how we saw the conflict.”

Now, he said, painting out the threat of violence could prove an important step as the province tries to rebuild itself following a conflict that cost 3,600 lives over 30 years.

BBC ON THIS DAY

14 November 1973

Gerry Kelly, 19, was one of eight known IRA members to be convicted

Six men and two women have been convicted of exploding two IRA car bombs in London in March this year.

All eight were active members of the Provisional IRA.

A ninth defendant, 18-year-old Roisin McNearney, was acquitted.

One person died and almost 200 were injured in the two bombs. One blew up outside the Old Bailey criminal court, while the other went off outside Scotland Yard.

Strict security

The 10-week trial at Winchester Crown Court has seen some of the strictest security precautions in British legal history.

The court was heavily guarded throughout, and as the verdict was delivered, four rows of plain-clothes detectives sat bethind the dock and at least 15 prison officers surrounded the defendants. All doors to the court were bolted.

First, the jury returned a not-guilty verdict on Roisin McNearney, a known IRA activist who is believed to have helped the police identify the other conspirators.

As her verdict was handed down, the other defendants began to hum the Dead March from Saul, and one threw a coin at her, shouting “Take your blood money with you” as she left the dock in tears.

A number of threats have already been made to members of her family and she has said she is unlikely ever to be able to return to her native Belfast.

‘Murderous enterprises’

As the eight guilty defendants were led to the cells below the court several gave clenched fist salutes to relatives and friends in the public gallery, who shouted “Keep your chins up” and “All the best”.

The judge then addressed Miss McNearney, saying, “You have learned a bitter lesson and I hope it has taught you and others like you not to dabble in murderous enterprises.”

He then ordered that she be given police protection.

The two women defendants, Dolours and Marian Price, were believed to have played the most important role in the conspiracy, along with a third defendant, Hugh Feeney. All three were student teachers in Belfast.

The other conspirators were Gerald Kelly, 19; Robert Walsh, 24; Martin Brady, 22; William Armstrong, 29, and Paul Holmes, 19, all from Belfast.

A tenth person, William McLarnon, 19, left the dock on the first day of the trial after pleading guilty to all charges.

In Context

The eight conspirators were jailed for life, and almost immediately began a hunger strike, demanding to be transferred to prisons in Ireland.

The four ringleaders - the Price sisters, Gerry Kelly and Hugh Feeney - continued their strike for several months, force-fed by prison authorities. They were finally transferred to Irish jails in 1975.

Marian and Dolours Price were released from jail early on medical grounds, both suffering from anorexia nervosa.

Marian Price now chairs the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association and is active in the political wing of the Real IRA, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement.

Dolours Price married Protestant Republican actor Stephen Rea.

Gerry Kelly escaped from the Maze Prison in 1983, but was recaptured in 1986.

He was a member of Sinn Fein’s negotiating team for the Good Friday Agreement, and also served as a Sinn Fein Assembly Member for North Belfast in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Hugh Feeney spent time in America working for the Irish Republican Movement after his release from prison.

Roisin McNearney was given a new identity so that she could not be traced.