SAOIRSE32

Sinn Féin

Click to view - last official portrait of the Miami Showband

**See also >>UDR men jailed for Showband killings

Published: 11 December, 2005

Sinn Féin MP for Newry & Armagh Conor Murphy today said that he is extremely concerned at media reports suggesting that the British government papers relating to the Miami Showband killings, due to be released under the 30 year rule, have been suppressed.

Mr Murphy said:

“It has already been established that many of those responsible for the Miami Showband killings were serving members if the British Army. What has yet to be established is how far up the British chain the planning of this operation went.

“Some of the answers may well be held in these British State papers due for release under the 30 year rule. However weekend media reports suggest that the British government will suppress these papers, apparently offering the reason that they are being held in a building containing asbestos and therefore cannot be accessed.

“People will simply not believe this excuse, it is not credible and it will not be accepted. It seems that the British securocrats, masters in the art of covering up their involvement in state killing, have once again set out to suppress the truth and frustrate the families of those killed in their search for the truth.”

BreakingNews.ie

**See also Francis Bacon Image Gallery

11/12/2005 - 14:38:48

Click to view - Self Portrait 1971 - Francis Bacon

Controversial Dublin-born artist Francis Bacon used gruesome images in medical books for inspiration for some of his most shocking paintings, it was revealed today.

Dr Margarita Cappock, the head of the permanent collection at Dublin’s Hugh Lane gallery said textbooks on skin disorders, forensic pathology, surgery and x-ray techniques were behind some of Bacon’s most eye-catching paintings.

“He was very interested in medical imagery,” said Dr Cappock, who has just penned a book, ’Francis Bacon’s Studio’, on the rebuilding of the artist’s painting den in the Dublin city gallery.

A painstaking restoration project got underway at the gallery in 1998 after his long-time companion donated the studio and its contents.

Among the 7,500 items – including dirty paint brushes, books, photographs, drawings and slashed canvases – found strewn across the floor of Bacon’s chaotic studio in South Kensington, London, there were sheets ripped from books containing images of diseased toes.

“Twelve other medical textbooks were found in the studio. Some contain relentlessly gruesome images, such as A Colour Atlas of Forensic Pathology and A Colour Atlas of Nursing Procedures,” she wrote.

“A lot of people are horrified by his paintings,” Dr Cappock admitted, adding a close examination of his distorted paintings can reveal people with skin flaws and bodies modelled on meat carcasses.

More than 100,000 people have been to view the lifelike reconstruction of the artists London studio in the Hugh Lane gallery since the walls, ceiling, doors and entire contents were moved to Dublin and opened in the gallery in 2001.

Dr Cappock said the 83-year-old artist, known to have a taste for alcohol and socialising, had stuck to his cramped studio in No 7 Reece Mews in South Kensington between 1961 and his death in 1992 as he liked the light in the building.

Dr Cappock revealed: “He said he liked to work in chaos as it bred images in him. The chaos was important to him.”

The book, which is being launched on Tuesday, revealed the materials found in the studio have shown a host of topics captured the attention of the artist including paranormal phenomena, political leaders, war and assassination attempts.

“Several loose leaves with features on the assassinations of Leon Trotsky, John F Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were found throughout the studio,” she said.

The author said Bacon had experienced a lot of violence during his life, from 1914 when his father went to work in the War Office in London, to their return to Ireland during the war of independence
Dr Cappock said Bacon had found it inhibiting to work from live subjects and had instead relied on photographs – with 1,000 black and white images and 420 colour photographs found in his studio.

“He only painted close friends and contemporaries, rarely took commissions, he felt he had to know a person’s character intimately before he could paint them,” she said.

She said: “Some of his images are so distorted, looking at it you see a distorted thing, but the amazing thing about Bacon is no matter how distorted you can always see who the portrait was of. In one way Bacon was trying to capture the essence of a person.”

Around 100 slashed canvases were found in Bacon’s studio after his death. “They were very interesting as they were never seen before. The interesting thing about the ones we found in the studio was the meticulous way he cut out the faces, some were slashed quite violently with a Stanley knife,” she said.

Dr Cappock said the art experts carrying out the reconstruction had made a major find in the discovery of 41 drawings. She said the works refuted Bacon’s persistent denials he had ever made preliminary sketches for his paintings.

Times Online

**Via >>Newshound

Richard Oakley and Enda Leahy
December 11, 2005

FRANK CONNOLLY, the former journalist at the centre of a row with Michael McDowell, the justice minister, will not face charges over his alleged use of a false passport to travel to Colombia with a senior IRA figure.

Sources close to the case have said the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has decided that the current file does not contain enough evidence to prosecute Connolly, the executive director of the Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI).

McDowell used Dail privilege last week to provide details of the false passport Connolly is alleged to have used, and linked him to an IRA plot to sell terrorist expertise to Farc guerillas.

Connolly has denied the allegations and insisted he has never been to Colombia. He has said the person in the CCTV footage is not him and the allegations were a bid to damage the CPI, which recently released a report critical of the Corrib gas pipeline.

He has accused McDowell of usurping the functions of the gardai and the DPP. He said the minister was seeking to destroy his reputation by publicly making allegations of a criminal nature.

McDowell is understood to have discussed the file with Atlantic Philanthropies, the charity founded by billionaire Chuck Feeney, who was bankrolling the CPI, a self-styled ethics and anti-corruption watchdog, to the tune of $4m (€3.38m) over four years.

Following last week’s revelations by McDowell, Atlantic Philanthropies announced that it was withdrawing its financial support with immediate effect.

Sources said the DPP had reviewed the garda file on Connolly and found it insufficient to support a criminal prosecution in its current form. It is understood the DPP believes CCTV footage that shows a man, alleged to be Connolly, entering Bogota is not of a high enough quality and wouldn’t be strong enough to use as evidence in a trial. Connolly did not want to discuss the matter yesterday, but said he was not aware of the DPP’s position and that he should have been told about it.

The board of the CPI, chaired by Feargus Flood, a former high court judge, is to meet this week to discuss the implications of Feeney’s funding being withdrawn.

A spokeswoman for McDowell yesterday responded to criticism of his use of Dail privilege to detail garda intelligence on a member of the public.

“The Official Secrets Act 1963 allows a minister to provide official information when it is in the interest of the state to do so,” she said.

Jim O’Keefe, Fine Gael’s justice spokesman, said he had “grave concerns” about McDowell’s handling of the matter. A spokesman for the Labour Party said McDowell had “created a very dangerous precedent by quoting garda intelligence under the privilege of a Dail question”.

A political source close to McDowell said: “Frank Connolly has not challenged McDowell to repeat the allegations he made under Dail privilege. If this were to happen, Connolly could sue for libel on the basis that they were false as he claims.”

Sunday Business Post

**Via >>Newshound

By Simon Carswell
11 December 2005

A board member of the Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI) has launched a verbal assault on Minister for Justice Michael McDowell for his Dáil attack last week on the centre’s executive director, Frank Connolly.

Broadcaster Damien Kiberd, a former editor of The Sunday Business Post, said McDowell sought “to deprive Frank Connolly of his right to earn a living as a journalist and by extension to support his wife and children’‘. Kiberd said: “Like most bullies he [McDowell] is completely yellow.” However, a spokeswoman for the minister said that he stood over what he told the Dáil last week.

McDowell claimed that Connolly travelled to Colombia with his brother Niall and Padraig Wilson, a convicted IRA member, in April 2001 on a false passport.

Three months later, Niall Connolly and two other Irishmen, later to become known as the Colombia Three, were arrested in Colombia while travelling on false passports.

McDowell said last week in a reply to a Dáil question that both parties had been involved in a “well-organised sinister enterprise’‘ in which the Provisional IRA provided explosives training for Farc guerillas in return for large payments of money raised from the cocaine trade.

Connolly, a former Sunday Business Post journalist, has vehemently denied McDowell’s allegations, accusing the minister of joining “a witch-hunt’‘.

This weekend, Kiberd said: “The minister’s office confirmed to the Irish Examiner in an article last Friday that there was no possibility of a prosecution being taken against Frank Connolly.

“Therefore, the minister has no evidence to sustain a criminal prosecution against Connolly and has created a lynch mob to destroy him.

“Effectively, the minister’s behaviour seeks to deprive Connolly of his right to earn a living as a journalist and by extension to support his wife and children. This is not an isolated case.

“The minister also accused Daily Ireland of being a Nazi organisation. They sued him and he said he would see them in court. When they got to court last week, the minister advanced what is known as the Pinochet defence - he said he should be immune from prosecution.

“Like most bullies, he is completely yellow. I regard the whole thing as completely outrageous.”

In response to Kiberd’s comments, a spokeswoman for McDowell said: “The minister stands over every word of his statement to the Dáil last week.”

Kiberd edited The Sunday Business Post while Connolly worked as a reporter at the paper.

Atlantic Philanthropies, the charitable trust founded by Irish-American philanthropist Chuck Feeney, said last week it was ceasing its €800,000 a year funding to the CPI.

The board of the CPI will meet this week to discuss the withdrawal of Feeney’s funding. The CPI employs five people, including Connolly, and may have to close unless it finds other funding.

The decision of Atlantic Philanthropies to withdraw funding arose after McDowell raised concerns about Connolly earlier this year and the minister’s comments in the Dáil last week.

The CPI, which is chaired by retired High Court judge Feargus Flood, was set up to investigate matters of Irish public importance. It has so far issued reports on a planning matter in Co Meath and the Corrib gas pipeline in Co Mayo.

Examiner

By Michael O’Farrell and Ann Cahill
10/12/05

UP to 150,000 people took to the streets yesterday (Friday) as the Irish Ferries protest mushroomed into the largest public demonstration the country has seen for two decades.

Unprecedented levels of support for the series of eight simultaneous marches across the country surpassed all expectations, leaving the Government under intense pressure to respond.

However, in a move likely to anger many of those who took part, Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney said the action had been “very disruptive”.

Despite widespread public support for the march, Ms Harney said it should not have been held during the week and indicated that all public sector workers who attended should be docked a day’s pay.

However, along the entire route of the 100,000-strong Dublin march there was little sign of frustration as thousands of shoppers and commuters stopped to cheer the protest on.

Similar reactions were reported throughout the country, despite widespread public transport disruption during the afternoon.

Although there had been fears of school disruption in advance of the marches, none was reported subsequently.

Speaking at Dublin’s rally, Irish Congress of Trade Union (ICTU) president Peter McLoone said the union movement wanted to send a very clear message “to Government that we do not want a society that is founded on injustice, blackguardism, and the exploitation of workers”.

ICTU general secretary David Begg told the march there was “a threshold of decency below which the Irish people will not accept anyone being dragged, no matter where they come from”.

“If the Irish people were of a reflective turn of mind they might conclude that it would be safer, more judicious and altogether more honourable to plan for a future where fairness, decency, equality and tolerance governed our workplaces and our society,” he said.

SIPTU president Jack O’Connor said the issues at stake had been raised before. “Less than two years ago we told the Government and we told the employers that there was an issue about exploitation, that there was an issue about employment standards in Ireland and they wouldn’t listen. Well maybe they’ll listen now.

“Here in this wealthy country, we don’t need to have our infrastructure built and we don’t need to have our goods transported and we don’t need to have our services provided by vulnerable migrant workers who are paid slave wages,” he said.

Meanwhile, after four days of intense late-night talks at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) earlier this week, both sides in the dispute are expected to be called back into negotiations on Monday.

However, despite a set of creative measures proposed by the National Implementation Body (NIB) last week, there remains little prospect of a deal as the dispute nears its third week with no progress on the central issue of Irish Ferries’ intention to circumvent Irish labour law by registering its vessels in Cyprus.

Along with other business groups, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) criticised yesterday’s protest, saying it “undermined the industrial relations process in this country”.

BBC

Police raided Sinn Fein offices at Stormont in October 2002

There was no political interference in the decision to drop charges linked to an alleged IRA spy ring at Stormont, NI Secretary Peter Hain has said.

Mr Hain said the attorney general knew the prosecution would be offering no evidence “in the public interest”.

The arrests in October 2002 led to the collapse of the power-sharing assembly.

Mr Hain said he too had been told but was not consulted days before. He said the idea the DPP could be influenced by any minister was “preposterous”.

“This was a decision for the director of public prosecutions exclusively: as an independent Northern Ireland prosecution service they took that decision,” he said.

“The idea that they would be influenced by any politician and certainly any minister is preposterous.”

He said suggestions that there was an attempt to deflect attention from the announcement by making it on the same day the Queen was visiting Belfast were “equally preposterous”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Politics Show, Mr Hain dismissed various conspiracy theories about why the charges were dropped.

“Any republicans seeking, as some have done, to present the prosecution as some kind of gigantic conspiracy by so-called securocrats or politicians are 100% wrong,” he said.

“Just as any unionists who have suggested in recent days that this is a big plot by myself as secretary of state or the government in one guise or other to cover up on behalf of republicans are equally wrong. Both versions are preposterous.”

Would he lie?

Sinn Fein’s Denis Donaldson, son-in-law Ciaran Kearney along with William Mackessy had a total of seven terrorism charges against them dropped on Thursday.

Mr Donaldson said there had been no spy ring and the charges were “politically-inspired”.

‘Huge grief’

Irish PM Bertie Ahern said the affair caused him and Tony Blair “huge grief”.

The three were arrested following a police raid on Sinn Fein’s offices at Parliament Buildings on 4 October 2002, when documents and computer discs were seized.

The arrests led to the power-sharing executive at Stormont being suspended, after the DUP and Ulster Unionists, led at that time by Mr Trimble, threatened to collapse the executive with resignations.

However, at an unlisted hearing at Belfast Crown Court, the three were told all charges were being dropped after the prosecution offered no evidence “in the public interest”.

Mr Donaldson said they were now consulting legal representatives about what course of action they could follow in connection with the arrests.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said the collapse of the case once again underlined the need to “face up” to elements within the PSNI who, he claimed, were opposed to political progress.

Both the DUP and the SDLP are seeking meetings with Attorney General Lord Goldsmith to clarify the reasons for the charges being dropped.

The Public Prosecution Service would not clarify what it regarded as the nature of the public interest which led to the charges being dropped.

RTE

11 December 2005 11:34

A bomb has exploded outside a post office in Spain’s northern Basque region, causing substantial damage but no injuries.

Police said the attack was probably the work of the ETA separatist guerrilla group.

They said the explosives used were similar to others used in recent attacks by the group seeking independence from Spain.

The blast in the town of Igorre near Bilbao damaged the post office substantially but did not require residents in the rest of the building to be evacuated.

RTE

11 December 2005 10:42

Gardaí have released without charge a 56-year-old man arrested in connection the discovery of a bomb on the M50 motorway earlier this week.

A file is being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

A 22-year-old man appeared before the Special Criminal Court yesterday, charged in relation to the discovery of the bomb.

Martin O’Rourke was charged with the unlawful possession of the improvised explosive device and with membership of an illegal organisation, styling itself the Irish Republican Army.

Sunday Life

By Ciaran McGuigan
11 December 2005

ASSETS belonging to slain crime boss Jim Gray’s closest pal have been restrained by police.

Cops have been granted an order under the Proceeds of Crime Act preventing Gary Matthews disposing of his assets before a High Court hearing, due to be heard early next year.

Sunday Life understands that the restraining order is related to a police investigation into alleged money laundering during which Jim ‘Doris Day’ Gray, his girlfriend Sharon Moss and Belfast estate agent Philip Johnston were all charged.

Now police have moved to prevent Matthews disposing of money and assets.

It is not clear whether his assets include paintings which Milltown murderer Michael Stone claims were stolen from him by Jim Gray in 2002.

As Sunday Life revealed last week, killer-turned-artist Stone believes Gray stole two of his canvases and passed them on to his friends as gifts.

Matthews was Gray’s ‘business partner’ and owned shares in the slain crime lord’s former Belfast bars, the Bunch of Grapes and the Avenue One.

He was also his second-in-command in the UDA’s east Belfast brigade until the pair were booted out of the loyalist terror group.

The pair had spent time in jail together in the early 1990s while awaiting trial on blackmailing charges.

The case against them collapsed, however, due to the unreliability of the main prosecution witness.

And when they walked free from court, Gray and Matthews returned to east Belfast to take over the running of the UDA.

The pair were back in court last year when they tried to sue the Axa Insurance Company for more than £60,000 following a fire at the Bunch of Grapes in January, 2001.

The claim was broken down into £45,000 for repairs and £15,000 for loss of revenue.

Cops investigating the murder of loyalist hitman Geordie Legge shortly before the fire probed a possible link between the blaze and Legge’s horrific death.

The claim for damages was eventually withdrawn after Axa stated that Gray had failed to disclose his involvement with the UDA .

Matthews stayed away when his pal was buried in October after being gunned down by their former pals in the UDA.

Sunday Life

Police farce

by Stephen Breen
11 December 2005

THIS is the Ulster cop who faces a whopping £10,000 legal bill if he loses his case to have police dump their GREEN, WHITE and GOLD uniform!

In an extraordinary hearing before an Industrial Tribunal in Belfast last week, Constable Philip Crawford accused Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde of “political and religious” discrimination over the colour of the police uniform.

Crawford - a cop since 1983 - believes the police-issue green pullover, white shirt and gold badge is representative of “Sinn Fein and the IRA”.

But PSNI barrister Neasa Murnaghan told the tribunal that Crawford’s case was “patently misconceived”.

Crawford - who is representing himself - made his first complaint in April 2002 after the new police uniform was introduced.

The tribunal’s ruling is expected early in the New Year. If Crawford loses his case, he has been told by the tribunal’s chairman, Duncan Buchanan, that he will have to pay the legal costs.

Although police bosses took a decision to introduce a gold insignia, the colour was changed to silver after the Policing Board introduced the PSNI’s new crest.

But Crawford went ahead with his case because a number of the jumpers with the gold insignia were - and remain - in circulation.

The case finally went ahead last week following a number delays.

Crawford told the hearing: “I am of the Protestant faith and from a unionist background, but that does not mean I want a red, white and blue uniform.

“I have carried several murdered colleagues to their graves, watched pictures of the Queen being taken down and the name of the RUC being changed.

“But I was angry and frustrated when I saw this uniform. I think the colour-scheme is representative of Sinn Fein and the IRA and it causes offence and injury to my feelings when I see it being worn.

“The whole force was not surveyed and there was no question on the questionnaires sent out on the new uniforms about the colour combination.

“I think the colours on the uniforms should be amended because they have caused offence to me and others. The Catholic officers have no difficulty complying with the requirement.”

But Ms Murnaghan told the tribunal: “The claimant has failed to demonstrate how the colour co-ordination could amount to better treatment for other members of the force.

“The claimant has spectacularly failed to prove that there was some sinister motivation to appease a certain section of the community with the colour combination.

“The colours green, white and gold are also not used on any election literature by Sinn Fein or the Irish government. His claim is fundamentally wrong.”

And she added: “The claimant’s objection to the colour co-ordination is neither reasonable or justifiable.

“The claim is so patently misconceived that there must be an order of costs made in favour of the respondent (PSNI).

“The manner in which witnesses were also cross-examined on matters which did not assist the tribunal only prolonged it.”

The tribunal also heard evidence from Assets Recovery Agency boss Alan McQuillan, who helped oversee the introduction of the new uniform during his time as Assistant Chief Constable.

Mr McQuillan told the tribunal: “A series of police roadshows about the new police uniform were undertaken and there were no objections.

“And of the 3,000 officers who responded to a survey which was sent to 12,000 officers, only 40 officers raised concerns about the uniform.

“The uniform was just an issue of aesthetics and wasn’t seen as controversial. The colour scheme had been for use in the RUC for years.”

Sunday Life

by Alan Murray
11 December 2005

NORTHERN Bank raid suspect Chris Ward has asked to be moved to the republican wing at Maghaberry jail, Sunday Life can reveal.

Ward (24), requested “separated” status at the top-security prison on Friday so he can be housed with IRA, Real IRA and Continuity IRA inmates while on remand.

The Prison Service refused to comment last night on bank employee Ward’s request for “separated” status.

But Sunday Life sources at the jail confirmed he has asked to be held alongside republicans pending his trial.

Said one senior source: “He [Ward] will probably be moved to Roe House on Monday, where republicans are held.

“He would have been moved there on Friday, but staff weren’t available to complete the paperwork and make the necessary cell arrangements.”

Ward was remanded in custody last week accused of robbing the Northern Bank’s Belfast HQ of £26.5m last December.

He denies the charge and has protested his innocence.

In a statement read to the court, Ward claimed his home and a holiday apartment had been bugged by the police.

Ward had told cops that the raiders took over his parents’ home and warned him that, if he didn’t follow their orders to the letter, his family would be killed.

The next day, Ward and fellow bank employee Kevin McMullan were forced to empty the bank vault of more than £26m.

Mr McMullan’s wife, Karen, was forced to crawl to safety after the IRA gang released her in a pitch-dark forest miles from her home after the raid.

Karen was severely traumatised by her ordeal and said her abductors had boasted that they would only get 15-year prison sentences if they killed her and Kevin.

Ward was remanded in custody until January 4, but is expected to make an application for bail in the High Court before then.

Sunday Independent

ALAN MURRAY and SHANE HICKEY

THE failure of the prosecution service in Northern Ireland to provide an otherwise satisfactory explanation was yesterday fuelling speculation that the mysterious collapse of the Stormont spy ring trial was caused by political interference.

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern were yesterday more anxious to look to developments in the North’s political process next year than to dwell on the political fallout of the bizarre end to the spy ring case.

The Public Prosecution Service yesterday did nothing to ease public concern by refusing to engage on informed speculation which might have explained the trial’s collapse.

It was being speculated that a special counsel appointed by the UK Attorney General to examine secret papers related to the case successfully argued in camera against the inclusion of certain documents which might expose an informer within the ranks of Sinn Fein.

The absence of a proper explanation for the collapse of the trial led to growing speculation in Dublin yesterday of political interference.

Two senators, John Minihan of the Progressive Democrats and Fine Gael’s Brian Hayes, were yesterdaydemanding answers.

In a dramatic development on Thursday, the prosecutor told Belfast Crown Court that it was withdrawing all evidence against the men and a prosecution was “no longer in the public interest”.

With no evidence against them, Mr Justice Hart ruled that the three men should be found not guilty.

He acquitted Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney and civil servant William Mackessy after the Public Prosecution Service said it would offer no further evidence.

The three were arrested in October 2002 at the time of a police raid on Sinn Fein’s offices at Stormont.

Donaldson, 55, of Altnamonagh Crescent in West Belfast, and his son-in-law, Kearney, 34, of Commedagh Drive, were charged with having information which was likely to be of use to terrorists. Civil servant Mackessy, 47, from Wolfend Way in North Belfast, was also charged.

Yesterday, the Progressive Democrat senator, John Minihan said there were now serious questions to be answered. He said: “I think everybody is entitled to an explanation as to why it collapsed or indeed, if the evidence wasn’t there, why charges were pressed in the first place.”

He added: “It is imperative that the Crown Prosecution Services give a very clear and unambiguous explanation of why it was dropped, otherwise we are leaving the whole charade open to accusations.”

Fine Gael Senator Brian Hayes said he would be “very suspicious” of the way in which the charges were dropped, given the fact that in recent months everybody had been led to believe that there was solid evidence against the individuals concerned.

Mr Hayes said the possibility of political intervention in the case was “one possible interpretation”.

Yesterday the Public Prosecution Service refused to even confirm whether a ‘Special Counsel’ saw the secret papers at the heart of the Stormontgate affair.

Despite attempts to get answers from the PPS it refused to confirm if the British Attorney General had appointed a Special Counsel to examine the secret papers and recommend what documents should be seen by defence lawyers in the case.

In February Mr Justice Coghlin took the unprecedented step of asking Sir Peter Goldsmith to appoint a senior barrister not connected with the case to examine the secret police and intelligence service documents relating to the IRA’s Stormont spy ring.

Daily Ireland

BY Gearoid O Caireallain

I had just finished watching the television news reports when a colleague from Galway rang.
He was in a quandary over the RUC raids on Sinn Féin offices at Stormont, the allegations that the IRA had been caught in the middle of the biggest political spying operation since Tinker Tailor, and the arrests of two Sinn Féin workers – one of whom was a former prisoner and current head of the party’s operation at the seat of government.
Because my bemused friend had worked in Belfast and knew the lay of the land here, punters were looking to him to explain what was going on.
On the face of it, the Provos had got nabbed red-handed, Sinn Féin were in the thick of it, all this take about going political was just baloney, there was no difference between the party and the volunteers, Sinn Féin/IRA, Trimble was right all along, Paisley was right all along, it’s all just a big conspiracy, they never meant a word of the Good Friday Agreement and the unionists had no choice but to pull out and let those lying, republican so and sos stew in their own fat.
So I advised him to look again, closer this time. There may have been 100 Land Rovers roaring up past Carson’s statue, they may have confiscated computers and disks and a million pieces of paper. They may even have raided houses all over the place and taken suspects in for questioning, but what was their evidence?
Nothing, I said. The only conspiracy here is the one that the police themselves are taking part in, aimed at discrediting Sinn Féin and stalling, yet again, the progress towards equality and justice that the party has been spearheading.
Okay, he retorted. But what about the two boyos they have lifted? What are they going to do, just let them out again on the QT when no one is looking?
Well… yes, I replied.
As it turned out, Stormontgate stormed in the media for weeks, months, even. The unionists walked out and the political institutions were collapsed by the British government for the third time. Over three years later they still have not been recalled, with the Assembly and the power-sharing Executive lying idle and the political institutions in the North of Ireland once again run by absentee overlords.
And what was the cause of it all? Not a master spy operation, anyway. Not political espionage.
The PSNI yesterday were still insisting that the IRA were involved in all this John Le Carré stuff but, despite all the arrests, the raids and the confiscations of documents, their investigation has come to what it was always going to come to: nothing.
‘Stormontgate’ was more than a conspiracy, it was a coup d’état. Elements within the British security services, operating on behalf of, and in conjunction with unionist and pro-British elements within the political and civil service sectors, and with the strong arm of PSNI muscle, conspired to bring the government of the North of Ireland down, and they succeeded.
Their aim was to give Trimble an excuse to walk out and to have the political institutions here set aside, and the British government – functioning as usual as the behest of the unionists – were happy to oblige. As this column has pointed out on numerous occasions, a majority of unionists would prefer to languish under direct rule than to have to share power with Sinn Féin.
There is, of course, no chance of getting an official inquiry set up into Stormontgate. The PSNI stated that they acted on foot of allegations that the IRA were engaged on a spying mission.
Who made those allegations? What were the nature of those allegations? What evidence was presented to convince Hugh Orde that the allegations should have been acted upon as they were?
There is no chance of getting a public inquiry into ‘Stormontgate’ and even if one was set up, it would probably last ten years, cost €20 million and tell us nothing in the wind up.
Ciarán Kearney was right on Thursday when he said that it is of the utmost importance that the police can never be used again for political purposes. What kind of society would we have if the police force was at the beck and call of politicians and warlords every time they decided that the government should be brought down?
Well, actually the answer to that one is simple enough – the kind of society that existed in the six counties since the formation of the state.
We might get at the truth when the responsibilities of justice and policing are devolved from the British overlords to local, Irish politicians. When elected representatives can walk into the vaults of their own departments and instruct the civil servants – including the police – to show them the documentation, the memos, the instructions and the orders that led to the ‘Stormontgate’ raids, then we might get at the truth.
When our own people can sit down with representatives from Daily Ireland and other media and piece together the timeline of events that resulted in the collapse of government, then we might get to the truth.
When elected representatives from the Falls Road and Crossmaglen, from south Derry and west Tyrone, when the elected representatives of the oppressed are actually in charge of the police service, then we may well be able to make sure that political policing in the North of Ireland becomes a thing of the past.
‘Stormontgate’ is now over, but the team behind it is still alive and kicking. Well alive and kicking.
The startling similarities between ‘Stormontgate’ and the investigation into the Northern Bank robbery are there for all to see. Yet again the PSNI declared the IRA to be the guilty party. Yet again they have conducted raids and carried out arrests and confiscated computers and documents to back their case up.
Again the amount of actual hard evidence amassed amounted to diddly squat.
For almost a year now, the PSNI have been spearheading the campaign to hinder the progress of Sinn Féin.
The Irish government and various pro-unionist elements in the North are on the bandwagon and laughing their heads off.
No one could be expected to do business with bank robbers. Sinn Féin are not fit for government.
How long do you think it will be before all charges against everyone held arising out of the Northern Bank heist will be dropped?
Dropped quietly, dropped suddenly, and dropped after the damage has been done…

Daily Ireland

The family of murdered Belfast human rights solicitor Pat Finucane is to meet Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey MP next week for the first time to discuss the case.
The talks with the former Stormont Economy Minister are part of a series of meetings with political leaders across the political spectrum in Ireland to lobby support for an independent public inquiry into Pat Finucane’s murder.
Mr Finucane was gunned down in front of his family in his North Belfast home by a UDA gang operating out of the Lower Shankill. British army agent Brian Nelson supplied the murder gang with intelligence on Pat Finucane and helped plan his murder.
Special Branch agent Billy Stobie, who was murdered by the UDA in 2001 after calling for a public inquiry into the solicitor’s murder, admitted telling his RUC handlers before the killing that he supplied the murder gang with a weapon used in the attack. At least two other Special Branch agents - former West Belfast UDA leader Tommy Lyttle and UDA gunman Ken Barrett, who was found guilty of Pat Finucane’s murder last year, were also involved in the killing.
In 2003 former Metropolitan Police chief John Stevens said believed Pat Finucane was a victim of collusion between members of the security forces and loyalists and that his murder could have been prevented.
A spokesman for Mr Finucane’s family said that Monday’s meeting with Reg Empey at Unionist Party headquarters was the latest in a round of meetings with the leaders of political parties.
“We are looking for cross-party support for our demand for a full independent public inquiry into Pat’s murder,” said his brother Martin Finucane.
Retired Canadian judge Peter Cory recommended separate inquiries into Mr Finucane’s murder, and three other killings including the deaths of solicitor Rosemary Nelson, loyalist Billy Wright and Catholic father of two Robert Hamill, but there’s alarm at British moves to ensure the tribunal into Mr Finucane’s murder is held under the restrictive Inquiries Act.

Daily Ireland

Jane Kearney has a message for PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde: “If he wants to know where the real threat to peace in the North of Ireland is, then he need look no further than his own force.”
At around 7am on Friday, October 4, 2002, the PSNI put Mrs Kearney’s husband, Ciarán, into a Land Rover and took him away for three months before he was released on bail.
At around the same time on the same day, the same force put Mrs Kearney’s father, Denis Donaldson, into a Land Rover and took him away for precisely the same length of time until he too was released on bail.
Ciarán Kearney and Denis Donaldson, alongside Billy Mackessy, were both charged with possessing information that could be useful to terrorists.
On Thursday of this week, the three men were found not guilty on all counts by direction of Justice Hart in Belfast Crown Court.
Two other people charged in the interim with alleged associated offences previously had all the charges against them dropped.
While much of the focus has been on unfounded PSNI allegations against the three men about a so-called ‘Stormont spy-ring’, few have attempted to understand the immense personal impact of the PSNI’s actions over the past three years against one wide family circle.
Speaking to Daily Ireland last night, Jane Kearney gave a lucid account of the turmoil experienced as a result of her family’s treatment by the PSNI and prosecuting authorities. Her mother Alice Donaldson outlined the personal impact on the health and well-being of innocent people torn apart from their loved ones more than three years ago.
“This entire episode started for us at 5 o’clock one Friday morning, when armed men, hyped-up and highly aggressive, shouting and banging, wearing masks and black boiler suits smashed their way in to our house and placed us under room arrest – with no regard whatsoever for the presence of two small children who were terrified,” Mrs Kearney said.
“We were all in shock and I remember asking if I could phone my parents to get them over to help us, at which stage the peelers started laughing. But I picked up the phone anyway and mammy answered and I told her the peelers were raiding the house and she said they’re raiding here too. I couldn’t believe what was happening.”
Mrs Donaldson only remembers the PSNI invading her house “like a herd of cattle” and then receiving her daughter’s helpless phone call.
“I couldn’t take it in. I was in shock. I know they placed us under room arrest and that’s about all I can remember from the raid,” Mrs Donaldson said.
Almost simultaneously, father and husband were arrested by the PSNI and taken away. Mother and daughter were “left devastated, trying to cope with a completely unreal situation”, Mrs Kearney said.
At the same time, the PSNI raided Sinn Féin’s offices at Parliament Buildings.
Over the following 48 hours, the media published the names, addresses, ages, and personal backgrounds of all those arrested. Unsubstantiated and untrue allegations about the raids and arrests littered the media like confetti both before and after charges were preferred.
After Denis Donaldson was charged on Sunday, October 6, 2002, his daughter answered her front door the following day to find an English journalist who called her by name. She shut the door in his face, only to open it a few hours later to another PSNI raiding party.
“They came back on the Monday afternoon, and maybe because the girls were at school and they didn’t need me to hold it together, I was more physically upset. At the time of the second raid, Mammy had been put on sedatives by the doctor and was sleeping up the stairs in my house. We just couldn’t believe it,” Mrs Kearney said.
“I remember, in particular, someone coming in supposedly to take carpet fibre samples, yet they weren’t wearing any gloves and there was no attempt to avoid cross-contamination. They took most of Ciarán’s clothes.”
Mrs Donaldson said the PSNI “were grasping at straws to try and keep Ciarán”.
“They didn’t get any evidence during the first raid and they didn’t get any during the second raid, yet they still held him for seven days before charging him. I couldn’t believe it. It was terrible.”
After being remanded to Maghaberry Prison, both Ciarán Kearney and Denis Donaldson were kept apart, prevented from even sharing a cell for over a month.
Their families were deeply concerned that the presence of loyalists and criminals put their lives in danger.
While trying to manage prison visits in a co-ordinated way, the families faced consistent and disruptive harassment from prison warders.
Subsequent High Court bail applications were “a sham”, Mrs Kearney said.
“The PSNI approach was about sullying the reputations of my husband and my father with some of the most bizzare and untrue allegations you could ever imagine. Denis was made out to be Bin Laden’s man in Ireland and Ciarán was supposed to have spoken at a major public meeting in America. It was ludicrous, but also highly dangerous because untrue allegations were being made and then carried verbatim by the media to justify the so-callled ‘spy-ring’ fantasy.”
Mrs Donaldson was too ill to attend any of the bail applications but she hit out at the “vindictiveness” shown against her husband and son-in-law. Despite both men being eventually released after three months under the terms of the European Convention on Human Rights, they had to wait exactly three more years to have their long-held assertions of innocence vindicated by Justice Hart on Thursday.
“There was absolutely nothing to it apart from dirty tricks and underhand political policing by Special Branch. They had no evidence, yet turned our lives upside down for over three years. And despite the direction of ‘not guilty’, there are still people trying to cast a shadow over their innocence,” Mrs Donaldson said.
Mrs Kearney said the families are still waiting to get large amounts of personal belonging back from the PSNI.
“Ciarán’s father, Oliver, was in very poor health before the arrests and afterwards he deteriorated rapidly. It had a terrible effect on him and he died a few months after Ciarán got out on bail.
“The real examination now must be about Operation Torsion and political policing. If they can tear down a government and wreck lives once, they can do it again.
“These people think they are a law unto themselves,” Mrs Kearney said.