SAOIRSE32

Irelandclick.com

BBC photo

FAMILIES of those killed in the McGurk’s Bar atrocity this week met a representative from the Police Ombudsman’s office as part of their campaign to have the conduct of the security forces reinvestigated.
Pat Irvine said the meeting, which came just days before the 34th anniversary of the outrage, had been “constructive and meaningful”.
The meeting came on the same week that a member of the McGurk’s campaign group, Alex McLaughlin, travelled to Dublin for a high-profile meeting today with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.
Pat Irvine said the meeting with the investigation team had dealt with many issues surrounding the explosion on December 4, 1971 at the family-run bar in Little Georges Street.
A total of 15 people, including two children, were slaughtered in the atrocity, which was the biggest single loss of life in the conflict until the Omagh bombing.
“This was a very hopeful meeting and a very constructive one,” said Pat. “This is part of the process of reinvestigating events of bombing and we are looking forward to more meetings with the Police Ombudsman’s team. We need to get to the truth because our loved ones were labelled as bombers when the RUC and even a Stormont Minister at the time said it was a IRA own goal,” she said.
Questions remain unanswered as to how, despite high security force presence on the day, the UVF bombers got through to plant the bomb at McGurk’s Bar. At the time of the explosion the security forces were nowhere to be seen despite an intensive hunt in the area for IRA jail breakers from the Crumlin Road prison. Witnesses have been coming forward in the past weeks including a man, then a young boy, who saw the UVF plant the bomb in the doorway of McGurk’s.
“The case is opening up and the truth must be exposed,” added Pat.

Journalist:: Staff Reporter

RTE

02 December 2005 20:22

A firm of experts has recommended to Dublin City Council that a premises on the city’s Moore Street be listed as a protected structure.

16 Moore Street is thought to be the final headquarters of the leaders of the 1916 Rising.

The recommendation has been welcomed by Fine Gael Councillor Gerry Breen, who said 16 Moore Street was a building rich with history and significance for Irish people and the future citizens of Ireland.
Advertisement

The firm also recommended that a detailed survey of the building be carried out.

Irelandclick.com

Click thumbnail for full view - Belfast mural depicting Holy Cross - photo by CRAZYFENIAN

North Belfast priest Fr Aidan Troy, who helped children and their parents through the Holy Cross protest, is to publish his memories of the troubled times which made headlines across the world.
Fr Troy’s book, entitled Holy Cross: A Personal Experience, is to be released next week at a special launch in Holy Cross hall.

Little girls going to lessons at Holy Cross primary were subjected to sectarian abuse and violence from loyalist protesters over a 12-week period in 2001.

During the blockade they taunted the children, their parents, teachers and priests, as well as displaying pornographic posters, throwing balloons containing urine and even bombs.

The scenes of naked sectarianism horrified television viewers around the world.

Fr Troy had only arrived in Ardoyne a few months before the protest began and, despite being in place only a few months, he became a central figure in one of the most disturbing incidents in the North’s recent history.

He said he didn’t find the book hard to write, as the memories were still fresh in his mind.

“I didn’t find it hard to write it at all. This was something I had lived with for so long, it was almost part of a therapy to gather it all together,” he said.

“I didn’t keep a diary during the protest. But I had always kept letters that were sent to me about it, and I kept those, whether they were positive or negative. I answered as many as I could at the time because someone had felt it important enough to write their feelings down. I had a lot of interest and observation from people across the world and that provided an interesting insight four years later into what people were actually saying at the time.

“They all helped me to do some sort of assessment of what happened and what it meant to me.”
The protest was also the focus of another book, published last year by Daily Ireland columnist Anne Cadwallader.

Fr Troy is a Passionist priest originally from Bray, in Co Wicklow. He was ordained in the wake of Vatican II, and was elected to the general government of his order in 1994, a post he held until his transfer to Holy Cross parish in 2001.

The book is launched next Thursday at 7.45pm after Mass in Holy Cross. Everyone is invited to attend.
Proceeds will be channelled into the development of a cross-community family centre in the parish grounds.

Journalist:: Áine McEntee

Irelandclick.com

The principal of Holy Cross Boys School has spoken of his outrage that one of his pupils will have waited over two years to receive treatment for his special behavioural needs.
Headmaster Terry Laverty, his teaching staff and local councillor Margaret McClenaghan have all expressed their deep concern that a little boy, who was diagnosed with having possible Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) two years ago will only receive treatment in February 2006.
“Originally we were told by the North and West Belfast Trust that the books are closed on new referrals, but after the North Belfast News got in touch, the child now has an appointment,” Terry Laverty said.
“It seems that you can get a referral no problem in any part of the city for this, but in North Belfast it’s a different situation.
“The time this child and his parents have waited is totally wrong. I have several other children in the same position in the school who have been kept waiting for treatment for similar behavioural issues. I’m sure other schools in North Belfast are in a similar positioni.
“At the end of the day, you cannot be judged on your postcode, this is an equality and human rights issue.”
The six-year-old child from Ardoyne is a primary three pupil now and his needs in the classroom and at home are great.
He shows all the classic signs of ADHD, including an inability to concentrate, impulsiveness and hyperactivity. Together they are having a massive impact on the quality of his school and family life.
The primary school received a letter from the North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust in May of this year, stating they were unable to take any new referrals.
“I am unable to accept this referral as ADHD service is presently closed. We will keep a record of the referral so that if the service reopens we will offer [child’s name] an appointment,” the letter said.
According to NI-ADD, a Belfast-based organisation which helps parents and children deal with the effects of attention deficit disorders, ADHD is a condition that affects around five to nine per cent of school-age children here.
Co-ordinator Sarah Salters said in the past year they were contacted by over 500 people with enquiries.
“Now that’s just the concerned parents or individuals who know they have ADHD. There is a high number of people who don’t even know they have it,” said Sarah
The Department of Health does not have figures for how many children have been diagnosed with the disorder in the North of Ireland, but in England and Wales that figure is estimated at 40,000.
It is treated with drugs, like Ritalin for example, alongside other treatments such as counselling and behavioural therapy.
The North Belfast News asked the North and West Trust about the child’s treatment.
They informed us that a date of November 29 has been set for the child to see a specialist in a new ADHD pilot project working out of Townsend Street in West Belfast. But this date was incorrect and the Trust has now confirmed that the child will now be seen on February 7, 2006.
“The first group’s letters will be sent out on November 29 and the second batch, which this child is in, will receive their letters after Christmas. A date has set for this child for February 7.”
The spokeswoman added that ADHD is a complex problem which requires input from a wide range of professionals across a number of agencies.
“The Trust continues to work in partnership with child psychology at the Royal Victoria Hospital, educational psychology at the Belfast Education and Library Board and the Eastern Health and Social Services Board to further develop services.”

Journalist:: Áine McEntee

BreakingNews.ie

02/12/2005 - 12:11:09

The home of a Sinn Féin MLA has come under attack in west Belfast.

Ball-bearings were thrown at the windows of Sue Ramsey’s house during the overnight incident.

It was the latest in a series of attacks on the homes of Sinn Féin members in the area.

BBC

An investigation at Gaelic Athletic Association grounds in west Belfast is understood to be linked to the £26m Northern Bank robbery.

The GAA expressed shock that the police were conducting an investigation at Casement Park.

It said it had no prior knowledge of the operation and was not given any reason for the inquiry.

A police spokesman said the operation was part of an investigation into serious crime.

The GAA said there had been an indication it related to allegations about an individual and alleged activities unrelated to the GAA.

The GAA said it had reported the matter to the Dublin government.

Earlier, a man was arrested by police investigating last December’s robbery in Belfast.

The 50-year-old, from Carrickfergus, County Antrim, was arrested on Friday under the Terrorism Act, a police spokesperson said.

Northern Bank employee Chris Ward was arrested on Tuesday. On Thursday, police were given another three days to question him.

After the robbery, Mr Ward described how he was held captive in the raid.

He told the BBC’s Spotlight programme how he and a male colleague were forced to facilitate the theft of millions of pounds from the cash centre of the Northern Bank’s headquarters.

Prevented

A 22-year-old woman who was also arrested on Tuesday was released without charge a day later. Both people were arrested at different addresses.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for a man charged in connection with the robbery told the High Court in Belfast his client had been prevented from making a bail application.

The lawyer said the application, on behalf of Dominic James McEvoy, could not be made because the authorities were “withholding vital information”.

Mr McEvoy, 23, from Kilcoo, County Down, was charged after his DNA was allegedly found at the Loughinisland home of a bank employee who had been held hostage.

He was remanded in custody until 9 December.

Earlier this month, police investigating the robbery arrested several people.

Of the 11 people questioned to date in connection with the robbery, three have appeared in court.

The robbery happened at the bank’s Northern Ireland headquarters at Donegall Square West just before Christmas last year.

Some money seized in County Cork last February was linked to the robbery, but virtually all of the missing millions remain unrecovered.

The Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde, subsequently blamed the IRA for the raid.

Belfast Telegraph

Tom Brady
02 December 2005

Gardai have identified a former top Provisional IRA explosives expert as the manufacturer of an under-car bomb seized by detectives in Dublin last week.

The bomb was primed and ready for use against a targeted renegade republican in a feud between dissident splinter groups in the capital and on the border.

The identification of the bomb-maker has heightened concerns among senior anti-terrorist officers about the role of former Provisional activists in criminality in the wake of the Northern peace deal.

The explosives expert is from outside Newry but lives in Dundalk. He played a major role in the IRA’s terror campaign along the border in the 1980s and 1990s and was believed to have been heavily involved in the mortar attack which killed nine RUC officers at Newry police station in February 1985.

He spent some time behind bars. But after the internal row among leading Provisionals at a meeting in Falcarragh, Co Donegal, he split from the organisation and eventually joined the dissident Real IRA.

Since then, he has been heavily involved in organising robberies and was suspected of being linked to a couple of murders as well as drugs trafficking.

In recent months he has headed up a criminal outfit that comprised members of the Real IRA in Dundalk, the INLA in south and west Dublin and ordinary criminals.

But a falling out over the proceeds of “fund raisers” has led to a bitter feud between the dissidents and the under-car bomb was intended for a senior INLA man in Dublin.

Gardai think the likely target was the former INLA leader in the South.

Heavily armed members of the Garda’s Emergency Response Unit seized the bomb when they intercepted a vehicle on the M1 motorway at Cloghran, Co Dublin, a week ago.

The bomb, which contained under half a kilo of explosive, was primed and included a magnet to attach it to the undercarriage of the target car.

It was fitted with a mercury tilt switch which meant it would detonate when the car moved - similar to the assassination of the former Conservative MP and close associate of Margaret Thatcher, Airey Neave.

The Cloghran bomb was also fitted with an anti-handling device to ensure the safety of the man transporting it from county Louth to Dublin.

Gardai believe the bomb was taken from Dundalk to Drogheda where it was handed over to the man in charge of delivering it.

But detectives moved in before it had reached its intended destination and the bomb was defused by Army ordnance experts.

In follow-up inquiries detectives recovered more than 100 rounds of assorted ammunition at an industrial estate in Blessington, Co Wicklow.

Belfast Telegraph

Still no date for hearing: lawyer

By Chris Thornton
02 December 2005

The lawyer for the man jailed for killing solicitor Pat Finucane has reinforced his client’s complaints about a delay to an early release hearing.

Ken Barrett, sentenced to life last year, told the Belfast Telegraph this week he wants the same treatment as hundreds of other prisoners released for “Troubles crimes”.

He said cannot understand why his application for early release “has taken so much longer than anyone else’s”.

The Government has objected to Barrett’s release on the grounds that he could be a danger to society and over concerns he could rejoin the UDA.

The case was scheduled to have a hearing before the Sentence Review Commissioners next week, but the Government requested and received a delay until the New Year.

The Prison Service told the Commission the delay was needed because they had “just been advised” that secret intelligence could form part of the case against Barrett. If intelligence is used, it would require a special process to screen the information from Barrett and his legal team.

The Prison Service also argued more than one day was needed for the hearing. Joe Rice, Barrett’s solicitor, said he could not understand how the Government just found out about secret intelligence.

“They have known for the best part of a year this hearing would take place and they only find out now that damaging information might be included,” he said. “Mr Barrett has now been in custody for two-and-a-half years and the Prison Service are still not ready to bring this to a hearing.

“What they are doing is dragging their heels. This is a classic piece of obfuscation.

“We have no criticism of the Commission in this. The Commission has a real responsibility to protect the public.

“In this case there is not a scintilla of evidence that we’re aware of that Ken Barrett is a danger to the public.

“We do know he can never live in Northern Ireland if he is released.

“And he will never be taken back into the organisation he pleaded guilty of membership of. He wants to go back to making a normal life with his partner and family outside of Northern Ireland.”

A Prison Service spokesman said the Commissioners “have sought a range of material about this case, some of which is still being assembled”.

He added: “It may contain damaging information but this has yet to be confirmed.

“Only one day had been set aside for the hearing, but it has become apparent that more than one day will be required.”

Barrett is under 24-hour lock-up at Maghaberry Prison. Last year he pleaded guilty to murdering the solicitor in 1989.

The Government has approved an inquiry into the Finucane murder, but it has yet to be scheduled.

Mr Finucane’s family have objected to the new legislation drafted for the inquiry and campaigned to discourage judges from taking up its chairmanship under the new rules.

BBC

A plan to move loyalist groups towards politics has been shelved

The government was prepared to appoint an independent panel to assist loyalist paramilitaries to move forward, it has emerged.

The idea followed recent discussions between Downing Street and senior Ulster Unionists.

It is understood David McNarry and David Campbell met Tony Blair’s chief of staff about moving paramilitaries from violence to “peaceful politics”.

Loyalists, however, have not indicated a wish to cooperate with such a panel.

Following the discussions between the Ulster Unionists and Jonathan Powell, the government explored the creation of a three-strong panel as a way of improving communication with loyalist paramilitaries.

Initiative

BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport said the panel would have consisted of Mr Campbell, who was recently elected as Ulster Unionist chairman, the Church of Ireland bishop Alan Harper and the Northern Ireland Office’s former Security Director, John Steele.

This initiative followed a public appeal by Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey at his annual conference for loyalists to disarm and “call it a day”.

However, after recent meetings within loyalism, the panel idea seems to have been shelved, with the paramilitaries concentrating on continuing their own internal consultations about how to respond to the IRA’s decision to call off its armed campaign.

Belfast Telegraph

By Clare Weir
02 December 2005

The mother of a Derry boy waiting for a new heart today spoke of her mixed emotions as she plans a special Christmas for her three-year-old son Paul.

Bella Donnelly said she is on “tenterhooks” after another visit to the top English hospital where the live-saving operation will take place.

While the family are making plans to ensure Paul enjoys a great Christmas, Bella said it was sad to think that another child has to die in order for him to survive.

Paul and his mum have just returned to their Hazelbank home after another visit to the world-renowned Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, where they met with the two surgeons who will eventually perform the operation if and when a heart becomes available.

Paul, who suffers from dilated cardiomyopathy - an incurable enlargement of the heart - recently received a new pacemaker, the second he has had fitted in his short life.

The Hazelbank playgroup pupil was added to the standby heart transplant list in July, and has since been upgraded to an “active” list, meaning that his family will have to jet to England as soon as a suitable heart becomes available.

Paul’s mum Bella told the Telegraph that every day was now a “waiting game”.

“We have always had to take things one day at a time but we are really playing the waiting game now,” she said.

“Because Paul is actively on the list, we could get the call at any time. It’s sad to think that his life depends on the death of another child, but we’ve exhausted all the options.

“If he doesn’t have a transplant then there’s nothing else we can do. We met the surgeons over in Newcastle this week so we’ll have to play it by ear.

“It’s all systems go because this is the only thing that can save his life.”

Paul, who also suffers from a weak immune system, has been given the flu vaccine and last week was so ill he needed oxygen and a nebuliser because of the pressure on his lungs from his enlarged heart.

But Bella says that she and his brother and sister are hoping to cheer him up with a Christmas treat.

“When he first got really sick we got people to send him ‘get well’ cards and in the end we got hundreds from people all over the world,” she said.

“Now we are planning a big Christmas with lots of lights and decorations and we hope it will give him a wee lift.”

RTE

02 December 2005 11:46

A 50-year-old man from Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, has been arrested in connection with the Northern Bank robbery.

He was arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000.

A 24-year-old man arrested in Poleglass on Tuesday is still being questioned. It is understood that he is Christopher Ward, who worked as a bank official in the Northern Bank at the time of the raid and was held captive by an armed gang while the robbery took place.
Advertisement

A 22-year-old woman arrested in the same operation on Tuesday has since been released.

Prior to today’s arrest, a total of 10 people have been arrested in connection with the robbery in which £26.5m was stolen last December.

A Co Down man was charged with the robbery itself and the false imprisonment of a second bank official and his wife in Co Down. Two others face lesser charges arising out of the investigation.

BBC

The Policing Board holds the PSNI to account

A teenager from County Tyrone has become the youngest independent member of a district policing partnership.

Mark McMackin, 18, from Seskinore, outside Omagh is among 215 people appointed as independent members on the 26 partnerships in Northern Ireland.

They will work alongside councillors from all the parties except Sinn Fein.

Chairman of the Policing Board Sir Desmond Rea said it was “another very significant day for the community and for policing”.

“DPP’s have become an integral and accepted part of local policing and have brought policing closer to the community and the community closer to policing in a way that has never happened before here in Northern Ireland,” Sir Desmond said.

The appointments were announced by the Policing Board on Friday.

Statistics from the 2001 census and other data was used to ensure each DPP is representative of the local community.

Of the 215 independent members 129 and women and 86 men, 120 are Catholic and 95 non-Catholic.

The Policing Board reappointed 133 existing members and 82 from 516 who applied following an open public competition.

‘Shaping policing’

Sir Desmond said: “It is a legal requirement for the board to ensure that the composition of each DPP as a whole - elected members and independent members together - is representative of the community it serves.

“Therefore the board took into account the community background, gender, age, disability and sexual orientation of all candidates.”.

From farmers to photographers, housewives to publicans, engineers to nurses, the age of independent members varires from 18-78.

Sir Desmond said DPPs were making a “significant difference to policing” and those appointed will be at the “forefront of shaping local policing”.

“The board will be considering how best it may support the partnerships in the challenging role of gaining the co-operation of the public with the police in preventing crime,” he said.

Mark McMackin is part of a second wave to be appointed following the completion of four years by those who first held the posts.

He is currently studying for five A levels at the Christian Brothers School in Omagh.

“I realised the Policing Partnership was made up with members of the council - and I remember thinking their average age was rather high,” he said.

“I thought I could sit there and do nothing or go for it and change things.

“I am delighted to have been accepted, I have never been the youngest at anything before.”

District policing partnerships were set up across Northern Ireland under reforms initiated by a commission headed by former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten and implemented by the government.

They fall under the auspices of the Northern Ireland Policing Board which handles some of the most sensitive issues facing policing.

District policing partnerships are made up of councillors and members of the local community, who work alongside the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s 29 District Command Units in trying to meet local community policing needs.

An Phoblacht

**Photos from Relatives for Justice

BY SHANE Mac THOMÁIS

On 4 December 1983, at the height a crown forces’ shoot-to-kill policy, two unarmed IRA Volunteers were summarily executed by undercover British operatives. Nineteen-year-old Brian Campbell and 23-year-old Colm McGirr from Coalisland, County Tyrone, were gunned down in a hail of bullets on Sunday afternoon 4 December 1983 by an undercover SAS squad, seconds after they left their car to check an IRA arms dump off the Cloghodg Road. The fact that the SAS was in the immediate vicinity of the dump, showed they had awaited the arrival of the Volunteers and executed them on the spot without any attempt to arrest or detain them.

Locals reported hearing around 50 shots fired in rapid succession. A third IRA Volunteer was wounded as he drove away from the scene. After the ambush a local woman, Sarah Rafferty witnessed an ambulance arriving, yet almost a full hour later it left without removing the Volunteers’ bodies.

Apart from the severe mutilation caused by bullet wounds to McGirr’s body, both his wrists and arms were broken after he was shot and killed. There was also reason to believe that Campbell lived for a short time after the shooting, as he had black marks on his body caused by being kicked or thrown around.

Colm McGirr

Both bodies were eventually removed several hours after the shooting and taken to Craigavon Area Hospital where Brian Campbell’s mother Cathleen and a local priest were refused access by the RUC.

Volunteer Colm McGirr was the youngest of eleven children. He was arrested by crown forces a week before his killing and held for three days. Before he left Gough Barracks the RUC told him he would never see 1984. Volunteer Brian Campbell, aged 19 was the fifth child of Brendan and Cathleen Campbell. Brian was constantly harassed by the RUC, and that escalated after his brother Séamus’s escape from Long Kesh in 1983.

Brian Campbell

On the last occasion Brian was arrested the RUC told him it would be the last time as they were going to shoot him to ‘even up the score’ for Séamus’s escape.

An inquest into the shooting was called on 14 March 1984 but was adjourned when three of the SAS soldiers failed to appear. The coroner was told that one of the soldiers had left the army and was now out of the jurisdiction. Solicitor Paddy Duffy described the inquest as ‘a charade’. The inquest resumed for one day on 24 June 1985. None of the four SAS members that shot Brian Campell and Colm McGirr were present.

An Phoblacht

01 December 2005

Amid fears that unionist paramilitaries are developing a new type of pipe bomb to be used in attacks on nationalists, tension in North Belfast is high after two men were attacked by unionist gangs over the past week.

Newtownabbey Sinn Féin Councillor Breige Meehan told An Phoblacht that she is worried that loyalists are experimenting with new bomb-making technology after a mystery explosion on Thursday night 24 November. A blast was heard near the Cullyburn Road, close to Newtownabbey Council’s office and although the bomb was not targeted at anyone in particular Meehan believes unionist bombers may be testing new devices.

A 36-year-old North Belfast nationalist suffered a broken leg after a gang of loyalists ran him over in on Sunday morning 20 November. Eamonn Delaney said he and two friends had just left a 24-hour garage when a unionist mob shouted sectarian abuse and threw bottles at them before jumping into a silver Audi car and giving chase. “I got chased to the bottom of Old Church Road when the car came up behind me and I went up over the bonnet and landed on the ground. When I tried to stand up I realised my leg had been broken.”

Delaney said the driver turned the Audi and drove towards him again. “I threw myself over a small fence so they could not get to me and it was only then that the car sped off.”

Delaney reported the attack to the PSNI after he had his leg put in plaster in hospital. They said they were treating the attack as attempted murder.

Meanwhile a nationalist taxi driver had a lucky escape after a crowd attacked him as he dropped off a fare in the Crumlin Road area of Belfast. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he was driving up Crumlin Road when his passenger asked him to drive into Cambrai Street and then on to a smaller street off the Shankill Road. “The passenger had a number of items in the boot of my car and as he went round to take them out I wound the window down to get the fare when all of a sudden a loyalist gang appeared and started punching and beating me about the face and head.”

The taxi driver managed to escape and drove himself to hospital where he received treatment for bruising and facial injuries. “It was very scary because there were about ten of them. They must have recognised the taxi sign.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Margaret McClenaghan called on those responsible to end the senseless attacks before someone is killed or seriously injured. “These taxi drivers, and I don’t care what area they come from, are providing a very necessary service to all communities and should be left alone to do their work.”

Irish Examiner

By Harry McGee, Political Editor
02/12/05

THE controversy over the amnesty for so-called republican on-the-run fugitives (OTRs) dominated the latest meeting between the Government and Sinn Féin in Dublin yesterday.

Although the meeting also explored the next steps in restoring the Northern institutions, the OTR question featured strongly during the one-hour meeting at Government buildings attended by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams.

The Sinn Féin delegation, speaking to reporters, said they wanted to learn the intentions of both British and Irish governments in relation to the next phases of the peace process.

The party has argued that moves towards devolution should commence immediately in the wake of the IRA standing down and its decommissioning of arms.

However, DUP leader Ian Paisley has already publicly ruled out any negotiations in the short-term on the grounds that the Independent Monitoring Commission will not give the IRA a “clean bill of health” when it next reports in January.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has previously stated he would like to see the assembly in place by spring. But Irish Government sources say privately that this timescale now looks optimistic.