SAOIRSE32

Daily Ireland

**Take 2

BRITISH AGENT REVELATIONS OPEN UP CAN OF WORMS

Ciarán Barnes

PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde will tell Bertie Ahern today that the Police Ombudsman gave the Stormontgate operation a clean bill of health. However, a top solicitor is now asking if the Ombudsman knew the PSNI’s main suspect was a British spy.

The SDLP is considering calling on the Police Ombudsman to conduct a second inquiry into the 2002 Stormont raids which led to the collapse of the Assembly, it emerged yesterday.
Newry and Armagh MLA, Dominic Bradley, told Daily Ireland that, in light of the Denis Donaldson spy revelations, Nuala O’Loan’s office may have to revisit the original investigation.
The SDLP man’s comments came after a lawyer acting for one of the men at the centre of the Stormontgate affair raised doubts about the ombudsman’s investigation.
Kevin Winters, a solicitor for Ciarán Kearney, said issues have arisen in relation to material provided to investigators by the PSNI.
Both Mr Bradley’s and Mr Winters’ concerns centre on whether the Ombudsman knew Donaldson was an informer during its probe into PSNI raids connected to the alleged Stormont spyring.
The investigation ended in August 2004, 16 months before Donaldson was unmasked as a spy.
It found that the raids at homes of republicans in west Belfast and Sinn Féin’s Assembly office were justified.
However, the Ombudsman’s refusal in recent days to comment on the crucial issue of its knowledge of Donaldson’s role as an informer has cast doubts over these findings.
Mr Winters believes a lot of legal issues arising out of the probe require considerable analysis and examination.
He said: “One of these areas is the Police Ombudsman investigation and its remit, specifically on the issue of the material provided to the Police Ombudsman to conduct its investigation.”
Daily Ireland understands that the PSNI had no obligation to inform the Ombudsman that Denis Donaldson was a spy unless investigators asked that specific question.
Republicans are convinced that this key fact was hidden from the Ombudsman in order for it to give the PSNI Stormont raids a clean bill of health.
During searches of homes in west Belfast officers found a bag allegedly containing sensitive documents taken from Stormont.
This discovery was said to be the catalyst for the raids on Sinn Féin’s Stormont offices that led to the fall of the Assembly.
The bag was found in the home of Special Branch agent Denis Donaldson.
Republicans are convinced it was placed there purposely by Special Branch to provide an excuse for the raid and bring down the Executive.
Donaldson admitted his role as a 20-year Special Branch and British military agent at a press conference in Dublin last week.
The admission came shortly after he, Ciarán Kearney and Billy Mackessy were acquitted of charges of being part of an alleged IRA spy ring at Stormont.

Daily Ireland

ZOE TUNNEY

A man forced to live in the Republic because he is wanted in the North for alleged IRA offences yesterday welcomed Sinn Féin’s decision to call for the controversial on-the-runs legislation to be scrapped.
Stiofain MacGibb spoke out as the controversy over the legislation continued yesterday with the a new war of words between Sinn Féin and the SDLP.
Mr MacGibb was arrested along with 48 others during a British army swoop of west Belfast in 1978.
Just days before his nineteenth birthday he went before court charged with membership of the IRA and possession of firearms.
“I was neither a member or had any weapons,” he said yesterday.
He was granted bail but fearful of the diplock court system and the terrorism legislation in the North, he went across the border to escape his inevitable fate at the hands of British justice.
He has been forced to live in the South for the past 27 years. In that time he missed the funerals of his parents and grandparents and has never returned to his Belfast home.
Last month, the British government presented new legislation which would allow on-the-runs to return to the North under certain conditions.
The controversial plans included special tribunal hearings where cases would be heard in front of a retired judge and no jury, have all normal powers although the fugitive would not have to appear.
If found guilty, the OTRs would be allowed to go free under a licence like those granted under the Good Friday Agreement.
When the OTR legislation was first announced, Mr MacGibb said he would never recognise a British court never mind go before one.
“It’s legitimising the British crown and admitting I did something wrong. I would have to live under licence,” he said.
“There are certain things republicans will simply never do.”
The most controversial element of the legislation which angered republicans most was attempts by the British government to include British army and RUC personnel accused of state collusion in the murder of nationalists in the amnesty.
Sinn Féin argues it had not agreed to the inclusion of security forces in the bill and on Tuesday the party dramatically called for the Northern Ireland (offences) Bill to be scrapped.
Mr MacGibb yesterday welcomed the move and defended Sinn Féin’s decision.
“It was a bad piece of legislation which was not negotiated properly,” he said.
“I believe it was negotiated in good faith but I also believe the British government tried to piggy back British soldiers, Special Branch and the RUC in through the back door.”
Sinn Féin’s Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness yesterday reiterated that his party want the legislation scrapped because it was not what they had agreed with the British government. He also hit back at the SDLP for their criticism of Sinn Féin over the on-the-runs issue.
SDLP South Belfast MP Alasdair McDonnell said that Sinn Féin’s “continued insistence’ that it did not agree to all aspects of the on-the-runs bill showed the party to be “deluded at best and devious at worst”.
“Sinn Fein’s credibility has already nose-dived thanks to its wheeling and dealing. By insisting that it agreed to the on the runs bill at Weston Park, the party is only succeeding in undermining itself further,” he said.
The Irish Labour Party last night claimed Sinn Fein’s U-turn on the proposed legislation let the Irish government off the hook.
Leader Pat Rabbitte said the decision by Sinn Fein to oppose the bill has allowed the government to drop its proposals for dealing with the problem.

Belfast Telegraph

Via Newshound

**I don’t agree with Maloney’s apparently favourable view of brit motives, but I am posting the article because it makes several interesting assertions.

The Sinn Fein theory, that the spooks are out to destroy the peace process, suffers from a fundamental flaw. Not only is it rubbish, but the exact opposite is the truth, says Ed Moloney

By Ed Moloney
featureseditor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
21 December 2005

IT is difficult to say which of the two spectacles visible in the wake of Denis Donaldson’s outing as a long-term British spy was the more depressing to watch: the sight of the Sinn Fein leadership once more trotting out the securocrat conspiracy theory - this time that it was MI5 and the PSNI Special Branch who had invented the Stormont spy ring - or that of so many in the media again giving this nonsense credibility.

Of the two the latter has to be the most disturbing. One can hardly blame the Shinners for raising the securocrat scare again. Blaming obdurate security force personnel for shoring up unionist intransigence over power-sharing went down a treat with their own people, provided a ready-made excuse not to do things like decommissioning and sharpened the sectarian divisions which fuelled their electoral rise.

Why drop a winning formula, especially when the media happily swallowed it?

This time the Provo leadership had another reason to use the ploy, and that was to cover their embarrassment over the Donaldson revelation.

This is a development which, alongside Freddie Scappaticci’s exposure as a spy within the IRA’s counter-intelligence section, raises valid questions about who really has been running and guiding the Provisional movement in recent years: the British, the Adams-McGuinness leadership, or the two together?

The Provos have good reasons to seek refuge behind securocrat skirts, but by this stage of the game - post-Northern Bank - the media should have learned to regard everything said by Sinn Fein as a potential, if not probable, lie.

Not only that, but in the light of the recent sensational claims made by Messrs Adams and McGuinness it is surely time to exercise a critical judgment and to assess the evidence.

Boiled down to essentials, what the Sinn Fein leadership is saying amounts to this: in an attempt to prevent Sinn Fein staying in government, and as part of an effort to kill off the peace process, MI5 and the PSNI leadership conspired to subvert the policies of their democratically elected Prime Minister, Tony Blair by inventing a spy ring at Stormont, thereby ensuring the collapse of the Executive.

If this is true, and the spooks had managed to get away with it, then Stormontgate would represent one of the most audacious anti-democratic plots in British history - one that dwarfs the allegations of spookish dirty tricks against Harold Wilson in the 1970s.

Common sense suggests that in such circumstances, amounting to a grave constitutional crisis, Tony Blair would have to move quickly to crush such dangerous dissent or see his authority fatally eroded. But he hasn’t. And that is because he knows Adams and McGuinness are playing politics and that what they say is so much eyewash.

The Sinn Fein conspiracy theory - that the spooks are out to destroy the peace process - suffers from a more fundamental flaw. Not only is it rubbish, but the exact opposite is the truth. The peace process represents the wildest fantasies of the security establishment come true and the last thing the spooks want is to see it destroyed.

The peace process has enabled MI5 and the PSNI Special Branch to achieve something that very few if any security forces have ever accomplished: to see their enemy defanged by its own leadership and led out of violent revolutionary ways into constitutional politics and a world where the principle of consent overrides the Armalite.

MI5 and the PSNI know they could never have done this themselves, that they needed people like Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to do it for them.

So why on earth would the spooks want to undermine them, to frustrate them and place obstacles in their way as the Provo leadership claim they have consistently done - most recently with Stormontgate?

To have done so would have been to act fundamentally against their own interests. It just wouldn’t make sense.

Not only does the Sinn Fein conspiracy theory not hold water, but the evidence about securocrat behaviour is strongly to the contrary. Three episodes tell the story.

Not long after the IRA robbed the Northern Bank and the Provos were under pressure, Martin McGuinness singled out a civil servant in the Northern Ireland Office called Joe Pilling as a perfect securocrat-type.

Calling him the ‘Chief British Intelligence Officer’, Pilling was berated for deploring the prospect of a Sinn Fein Assembly majority in the course of a talk in the United States.

Joe Pilling was not a spook but the Permanent Secretary at the NIO at the time the Good Friday Agreement was negotiated. It was Pilling who strongly pushed to decouple IRA decommissioning and the release of IRA prisoners against the wishes of many unionists. He succeeded and prisoners got out without the IRA giving up a single bullet, but if he hadn’t the peace process would have been pitched into a real and possibly fatal crisis. Was this the behaviour of a securocrat out to destroy the process?

In October 1996 Gerry Adams faced the greatest crisis in his IRA career. An IRA Convention had been called in the wake of the collapse of the IRA ceasefire and dissidents were planning to overthrow him.

What did the RUC Special Branch do when they found out? According to ex-Chief Superintendent Bill Lowry, successful efforts were made to stop dissident delegates attending. Adams survived by the skin of his teeth, as did the peace process, but if those dissidents had got to the meeting it might have been a different story.

Was this the behaviour of securocrats out to destroy the process?

In 1987, Gerry Adams opened secret contacts with then Northern Ireland Secretary Tom King and the peace process was under way. A year later British military intelligence discovered, via UDA agent Brian Nelson, a plot to kill Gerry Adams. They stepped in and Adams’ life was saved, and with it the peace process.

Was this the behaviour of securocrats out to destroy the process?

Ed Moloney is the author of ‘A Secret History of the IRA’

Kildare Nationalist

Thursday, December 22, 2005

WHAT an extraordinary island we live on. In the south, a government minister uses D·il privilege and confidential garda files to destroy a man’s reputation and livelihood, while in the north a British agent at the heart of Sinn Féin is hung out to dry by his erstwhile handlers. Both cases illustrate an abuse of power made more worrying by the fact that neither British nor Irish ministers seem to find anything wrong with it.

Take the Frank Connolly case first. The minister for nonsense Michael McDowell believes that Connolly, a former journalist who now heads the independent Centre for Public Inquiry, represents a serious threat to the security of the Irish state. This was his justification for leaking garda files to a national newspaper. Despite the eminent people sitting on the board of this relatively new body, Mr McDowell was so concerned at Connolly’s involvement that he launched a campaign that resulted in the effective destruction of the Centre for Public Inquiry as well as the blackening of an Irish citizen’s name. In the minister’s eyes, this was a good day’s work.

It should be a cause for alarm that a minister in charge of the internal security apparatus of this state takes such a cavalier attitude to civil rights and due process. Mr McDowell is answerable to us, the citizens of this country. He appears to think it’s the other way around.

Frank Connolly may well have questions to answer about whether or not he has ever been to Colombia and, if so, what he did there. However, this disgraceful episode is certainly not the way to go about getting those answers.

Mr McDowell’s pathological hatred of republicanism appears to be mirrored by the reformed Police Service of Northern Ireland - or at least elements within it. How else to explain the so-called Stormontgate affair of 2002, when conveniently placed television cameras captured dramatic footage of the PSNI ‘raid’ on Sinn Féin’s offices at the Stor-mont Assembly? It was widely reported in the media that a ‘republican spy ring’ had been broken and the spies arrested.

It now appears that the only spies operating in Stormont were paid British agents. Yet this was the pretext for a high-ly public police raid that led to the deliberate collapse of a democratically-elected legislature. And they call this policing?

The taoiseach himself has said he is baffled, declaring that: “It never added up. A large number of police and huge armaments, storming in, to collect a few clerks and a few files and the TV was in first. It stretches my imagination.

“This was a huge case. It doesn’t get any bigger than bringing down democratically elected institutions that people voted for. What this is about I just don’t know.”

It seems obvious that some within the PSNI, particularly in the Special Branch, will never be able to reconcile themselves to the legitimate aspirations of Northern nationalists. To that end, they were willing and able to subvert the Northern Assembly. Until such time as the Special Branch is disbanded and the rogue elements within the PSNI are brought to heel, it is unreasonable to expect the nationalist community to make any positive moves on policing.

One can only hope that the New Year brings more enlightened political leadership on both sides of the border.

**Not holding my breath…

BreakingNews.ie

22/12/2005 - 18:16:56

New anti-immigration legislation going through the US Congress could create criminals out of illegal Irish people, it was claimed tonight.

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act (2005) may have disastrous consequences for tens of thousands of undocumented Irish.

He urged the Irish Government to lobby Washington politicians to ensure the maximum possible level of protection for Irish citizens.

“The Bill has now passed through the House of Representatives and if it is passed by the Senate in its current form, its impact will be to criminalise the estimated tens of thousands of Irish people resident in the US without proper documentation,” Mr Rabbitte said.

“Many of these people have been in the US for a considerable period of time, have put down roots and, in some cases, have homes and families there.

“They may now find themselves facing arrest and deportation, or even imprisonment.”

Mr Rabbitte said there had been a long history of emigration from Ireland to the US but there have always been those who operated outside of the system.

“The US authorities were often prepared to turn a blind eye, but in the new post September 11 climate, hardworking, honest people now find themselves regarded as potential criminals.

“While I accept that Ireland is not exactly a shining example to the rest of the world in regard to how we treat people without proper documentation in our own country, I would urge the Taoiseach to lobby President Bush and the members of the Senate to ensure that as many people as possible are given the opportunity to regularise their positions, rather than face deportation.”

Urgent action is now required by the Irish Government in cooperation with members of the Senate who are sympathetic to the plight of the Irish, the Labour leader added.

BreakingNews.ie

22/12/2005 - 16:57:45

Up to 280 prisoners will be granted temporary release this Christmas, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said tonight.

This figure represents 9% of the prisoner population and is a small reduction on the number released last year, which was 294.

Many of the prisoners being released are nearing the end of their sentences, while others are serving relatively short sentences.

“The overriding concern in considering applications for Christmas release from prisoners is the safety of the public,” Mr McDowell said tonight.

In addition to compassionate and humane considerations, other criteria taken into account include the nature and gravity of the offence, length of sentence served to date, prior record on temporary release, if any, and previous criminal history.

The periods of release, under the Criminal Justice Act 1960, vary from a few hours (in some cases accompanied by another responsible person) to up to eight nights.

All releases are subject to stringent conditions, which in the vast majority of cases includes a requirement to report on a regular basis to his/her local garda station.

Any offender who breaks these conditions may be arrested and returned immediately to prison by the gardaí.

BBC

Thomas Devlin was murdered in a knife attack

Detectives investigating the murder of schoolboy Thomas Devlin have seized a number of items during searches of homes in north Belfast.

The police said the premises in the Mount Vernon area had been searched on Thursday in connection with his death.

Thomas, 15, was stabbed five times as he and two friends walked along Somerton Road on 10 August.

In September, the PSNI confirmed the prime suspects in the inquiry were two young men with a black and white dog.

Stabbed

Thomas, a student at Belfast Royal Academy, was a talented musician who played the horn at school.

He had just bought sweets from a nearby shop and was on his way home when he was stabbed in the back five times.

His 18-year-old friend was injured in the attack, but not seriously. A 16-year-old boy managed to escape.

A number of people detained for questioning about the murder were subsequently released without charge.

Thomas’ mother Penny Holloway has said whoever attacked her son meant to kill him.

BreakingNews.ie

22/12/2005 - 12:14:57

A small number of Sinn Féin supporters have engaged in minor scuffles with Gardai during a protest outside Government Buildings in Dublin this morning.

The scuffles broke out while PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde was arriving to brief the Taoiseach about the latest developments in the so-called Stormontgate scandal.

Up to 20 republicans had mounted a protest against what they describe as “political policing” by the PSNI.

w ere protesting about political policing as the Chief Constable of the P-S-N-I, Hugh Orde, arrived for talks on security matters in the North.

Gardaí had to hold back some demonstrators who tried to breach security at the Taoiseach’s office to get closer to Mr Orde’s car.

Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald says the protest was designed “to make it clear to Hugh Orde that he and the British administration have very serious questions to answer around what’s come to be known as Stormontgate”.

Irelandclick.com

I would like to make a few comments regarding the continued bombardment of the black taxis in the Andersonstown News.

In reply to your reader’s letter on December 10 asking for the black taxis to be reviewed, I totally agree but not for the reasons given by your reader, ‘Taxi User’. An explanation to that question is simple: get up out of bed earlier, lazybones.
Now and again members of the public have a stab at the black taxi driver. Maybe some deserve it, who knows? But for once, as a black taxi driver’s wife, I would like to have my say.
Some members of the general public think that by giving the black taxi driver £1 they are doing him/her a favour. Others think that if a driver asks a parent or guardian to put a child on a seat of their own that he is trying to get his/her arm in.
My husband, like most taxi drivers, works long anti-social hours to make ends meet and, unlike the general public, he does not get paid any overtime, no time and a half, no double time, no days off, no holiday pay, no days in lieu and, dare I mention it, they can’t even charge an extra penny at Christmas time.
Like most housewives I have to make ends meet, but how many wives can say that for the last 15 years their husbands haven’t had a pay rise?
The black taxis have been operating for close to 40 years through thick and thin, never complaining. Some have lost their lives serving the general public and all we hear is disgruntled people claiming to be discriminated against.
What about the new indoor complex at Castle Junction, who do you think put up the money for the land? It was the drivers themselves, so that they could secure their jobs and provide indoor facilities for the general public.

Fact: in the past few years their insurance has more than doubled.
Fact: in the past few years their taxis have doubled in price.
Fact: in this year alone the price of fuel has risen four times and is still rising.
Fact: unlike buses the taxis are not subsidised by the government.
Fact: who do you think has footed the bill for all these increases, the general public? No, the black taxi driver and his family.

Like your reader stated, since it started the black taxis have been run the same. I agree it is time for people to wake up and smell the coffee. Nearly 40 years of service, back then Andytown was 10p, now it’s a miserly £1. Gee whizz, that caravan holiday is looking closer by the year.
On numerous occasions I have asked my husband to try the private taxi industry but for some strange reason his loyalty lies with the West Belfast Taxi Association. All I can do is echo the sentiments of all taxi driver wives. Our partners have shown commitment to the West Belfast Taxi Association, it’s time you should show your commitment to the drivers and put the fares up to at least match the cost of living. West Belfast Taxis do not have to compete with bus fares. You provide a unique multi-drop multi-pick-up service; this is why the general public uses the service. I should know, I am one of them.

TAXI DRIVER’S WIFE

Irelandclick.com

Go raibh am Nollag áthasach agus beannaithe.

May Christmas be a blessed and happy time for everyone.

Christmas is too often overshadowed by tragedy. This Christmas is. Our sympathy must go to the families who have been hurt by losing loved ones by death or in other ways, especially at this time.

People who have political and economic power have a duty to see to it that Christmas is not just a time for them to be hymn singing and asking the Almighty to cure evils which they could have prevented if they had acted decently, never mind religiously.

People with power have deliberately created hurt , engineered war and havoc, threatened one part of the population and bribed others forgetting that they have a duty – which powerful people hardly ever fulfil – of protecting the people not abusing them.

Have those powerful conniving people made the world a better place since the last time they stood up in churches and sang hymns asking the Almighty to clear up the messes which they created themselves?

Are there fewer homeless and miserable people than there were last Christmas?

Have we come nearer to civilised peace which decent people want rather than to war which the selfishly powerful demand?

One of the greatest tragedies of our situation is that many of the worst evils of the world have been created by strong Christians who speak with strident voices and rule with iron hearts, minds and hands.

The Christian message of this time of year – if not drowned out by the jingle of their money, the ring of the tills, the blaring music of supermarkets and the inspections by lord Archbishops of troops engaged in an illegal war – if it ever disappears from the face of the earth it will disappear not because of poor people refusing it but because of powerful people abusing it.

For the less powerful, the tragedies of smashed bodies in smashed motor cars will bring tears to the eyes of everyone who values neighbours and mourns the loss of the tremendous potential for good which has been sacrificed.

The tragedy of a man whom we knew and respected being sucked into cooperation with a vicious government will bring tears to the eyes of friends and neighbours, families and fellow workers. Our sympathy must go to all those who are suffering from all this.

And our anger must be directed again and again and again against the powerful people who have used our neighbours as pawns in their appalling political games.

If we are to look forward realistically to a next Christmas when official humbug will be replaced by government honesty and when powerful Christians and others will persuade their people towards peace and not train them for war, when government will do its duty and protect the people rather than involve them in its own evil, we shall have to take a strong and demanding attitude towards those who have power. It would help if Mr Ahern and Mr Blair would present us with evidence that they are committed to peace and a new settlement in Ireland’s northeast.

They have presented little evidence for it so far. We are lectured without end about the need for trust and about our not having it.

How much more trusting can you get than to trust again and again and again, in permament goodwill, prime ministers and taoisigh who have consistently encouraged and facilitated everything that tends to break down their own international agreement?

We must admire the patience and skill of republicans and nationalists who in spite of the cynicisms of Downing Street and the inertia of Leinster House have come back again and again and insisted that agreements must be kept and only thus can right prevail.

It would help if Mr Ahern and Mr Blair would show more than soothing words as proof of their commitment to peace for our people.

It would also help if the recommendation of our people were accepted, that unless and until every single member of the old RUC is gone from any public office we shall never have a satisfactory police service.

Patten was told that in clear terms. He and his team and his government chose to ignore the people’s wisdom.

Now we see what all that means as we are condemned to more years of secret plotting in secret lodges and dark police caves because government had not the decency to retire every member of a discredited police force and employ police which could be controlled, rather than police which would control both government and people.

It would help also if Mr Orde were to go home.

At this time, when so many tragedies occur, good people have to stand steadily and not allow governments or their secret police – under government control or out of it – to decide whether we shall be prosperous and free and dignified or not.

So indeed may Christmas be a happy and blessed time. And it will be, provided we stand together firmly and keep our dignity, refusing to be swayed in whatever direction by what bad government, greedy people and their secret police dictate.

Irelandclick.com

JANUARY
Squinter was in a supermarket last week (over whose name we shall draw the usual veil of silence) and on his shopping list was a packet of hot dog baps (don’t ask).
Squinter only needed six, but all he could find was a packet of 12.
Reluctantly, he put the baps in his basket – the other six would in all likelihood never be eaten that day and probably never would, because, let’s face it, nobody’s going to freeze six hot dog baps.
Squinter’s not, that’s for sure, because the freezer section of his fridge is like a monkey puzzle. Getting anything new in there is the real-life equivalent of a game of Buckaroo! One wrong move and you’re covered in a light dusting of ice followed immediately by an avalanche of frozen peas, fish fingers and pizza. And while Squinter’s willing to stand in a cold garage for half an hour with his tongue poking out trying to manoeuvre some steak or chicken products in there, 40p’s worth of fluffy hot dog baps just isn’t worth the candle.
Squinter has a pathological hatred of wasting food and money for two reasons: 1) He’s a right-on modern guy who wants to save the planet and eradicate hunger and need, and 2) His da was a Prod. So, with a heavy heart, Squinter trudged towards the tills where worse was to come.
At the check-out the lady told Squinter that the baps were in a two-for-the-price-of-one offer and invited him to go back to the bread section and get another packet.
Squinter balked.
And when he told the woman that he didn’t want any more hot dog baps, she looked at him as if he had produced a Bowie knife.
“You can freeze them,” she suggested, obviously never thinking for a moment that a mere man could already have considered that possibility.
Squinter remained firm.
“You can give them to somebody else,” she said, almost pleading now.
But Squinter was having none of it and off he went. As he exited the automatic doors, he could feel her icy stare of disapproval drilling into his back.
Turned out too that it wasn’t just hot dog baps. If you’d bought ten sausages they’d have given you twenty; two litres of milk and they’d have given you four; 24 eggs instead of 12; six snowballs, not three.
How much of this gets chucked out doesn’t bear thinking about.
Whether that’s worse than deciding to have two snowballs with your tea, or eight sausages with your dinner is another question altogether.

FEBRUARY
The National Union of Journalists thinks it’s time that journalists were subjected to regulation in the same way that lawyers and accountants are.
As it stands, anybody at all can call themselves a journalist.
Squinter, who’s been covering community centres and Irish dancing festivals for close on 20 years for the right to put the word hack on his passport, had to laugh when watching the TV the other night to see one notorious internet blogger described in a caption as “commentator and journalist”.
(What’s a blogger? Well, anyone who keeps their own ‘web log’ is a blogger and what they do is make totally unsubstantiated and deeply libellous claims about people they don’t like and invite their friends to write in doing the same. And if the object of their ire is republicans, then they’ll be writing columns and doing TV interviews quicker than you can say ‘Log on!’)
Squinter’s old pal Phil Whyte, that distinguished veteran journalist who’s written for pretty well all the Irish papers over the years, and even some English ones when he hits paydirt, is enthusiastic about the prospect of a journalist watchdog. He writes…
About time too. Those of us who care about this profession, about ethics and truth and accuracy and professionalism, are thrilled that liars and charlatans may finally be on their way out of the inky trade.
I’ll never forget the day I got my first front page story in 1972. It was handed to me at the bar in the Europa Hotel by a very helpful bloke called Nigel in a green jumper with patches on the shoulders.
It was headlined ‘Bloody Sunday Dead Were Part of Crack Provo Ambush Team’. That was an early lesson for me: those Provos, they’d stop at nothing, and from then on I made it my business to expose their murderous ways.
Nigel, who I think was some kind of journalist fairy godmother-type chap, came up trumps again during a spot of heavy drinking involving him, myself and a few other journos in a very nice public house in Lisburn called Thiepval Barracks.
‘West Belfast Women Strip at Bedroom Windows to Set Squaddies Up for Snipers’ was quickly followed by ‘Static Electricity in Knickers May Kill Lady Firebombers’ and my name was mud, sorry, made.
These young reporters today, they don’t know they’re born, what with the interweb and pens and suchlike.
Back then we started work early – the bars opened at eleven and we’d stand there drinking and gossiping and waiting for Nigel to arrive.
Sometimes I’d throw up and pass out around teatime from sheer overwork and when I woke up there’d be Nigel, with his lovely black shiny boots up on the table, on the blower to my newsroom, phoning in my story, whatever it was.
Things have changed immensely over the years, but the basic principles remain the same. I’m a bit thinner on top, a bit thicker around the waist, a bit redder in the face and I’m a martyr to the gout. I can’t get around as much as I used to, so it’s lucky that Nigel and I both have mobile phones.
And the exclusives just keep coming.
I was particularly pleased with ‘Stormontgate: Hugo Duncan and Julian Simmons Named on Provo Death List’ and ‘Stabbing: Kitchen Devil Bread Knife Found in Republican’s Top Drawer’, or it might have been a top republican’s drawer. Anyway…

MARCH
6pm: Guests will gather at the stained glass UDR window where some classic roadblock scenes will be re-enacted, including the ever-popular “Derry? Never heard of it”, “Seamus? What kind of name is that?”
6.30pm: The UDR Reverend ‘Roaring’ Hugh Hanna Memorial Band will play Land of Hope and Glory by Elgar and Simply the Best by Tina Turner
7pm: A volley of shots will be fired over the statue of Queen Victoria and 10,000 red, white and blue balloons will be released
7.30pm: Solemn dedication and handing over of the Union Flag and the Drumcree standard – ‘Here we stand we can do no other’
8pm: Pre-dinner drinks, Lambeg drum and sword-dancing display, Davy Crockett hats optional
8.30pm: Dinner
Loyal toast
Terrine of wild Aughrim salmon
Duck a l’Orange and the mash my father wore
Compote of winter
Londonberries in a royal blackberry coulis
10pm: Dancing to the big band sound of Wee Stewarty and the Part-Timers

APRIL
Squinter was left alone on Saturday night while his missus went out flying her kite. Not that he was too upset. Live Spanish football, Match of the Day, cold beer in the fridge, Chinese takeaway leaflet on the telephone table – shweet.
Two of the terrors nodded off with minimum effort on their father’s part, but the middle one insisted on playing hairdressers, which Squinter didn’t object too strenuously to, as it merely involved him watching football while she stood behind him gently combing and crimping with a toy hairdressers set. Granted, this is not something that every father would agree to, but it kept her happy and – crucially – required zero physical effort.
Somewhere in the middle of this madness she took off her hairband and put it on Squinter’s head, which in retrospect, for a hunk of prime Irish manhood like Squinter was probably an indulgence too far.
It was pink and spangled with little silver stars, designed to tie back flowing tresses, not to sit atop a greying short-back-and-sides – but what the heck.
It wasn’t long after this that Mr Sandman won his third victory of the night and as Squinter pulled her Bratz duvet up to her chin and descended the wooden hill, it seemed at this time of night a little music was called for. And so he stretched out on the sofa, turned on the CD player and the hits started rolling.
Some time around 12.30am, the sound of a key in the door signalled the return of the wanderer and a number of high-spirited voices in the hall further signalled she’d brought some pals back for a nightcap. Squinter straightened himself up and imagined he cut a caring, modern figure as he listened to music while the children slept upstairs. For a second he wondered why the visitors were standing still at the living room door instead of advancing, and why there were muted giggles instead of greetings.
And then he remembered the hairband.
Squinter tried to explain, but struggled to be heard over the raucous laughter. So, he bade the company a sheepish goodnight and shuffled in sock soles towards the stairs.
As he lay awake, the muffled sounds of conversation drifted from below and every high-pitched laugh was like a dagger to his heart. What sad and sorry scenarios they were enacting over the wine Squinter could only miserably imagine as he fell into a fitful, troubled sleep.

MAY
Squinter loves the Balmoral Show, wouldn’t miss it. All those horses, bulls, sheep and tractors; the judges in bowler hats, the rosettes, the Barbour jackets, the boots, the jodhpurs.
Anyone who believes farmers when they say they have no money should go along to the show.
There are pieces of machinery there that would get you a detached house in Malone, and then there’s the Charles Hurst stand. You’d think that if farmers are to be believed, and that they really are getting it hard, then Belfast’s biggest car dealer would have a Ford Escort or a Vauxhall Astra on display, but no.
The two cars that took pride of place when Squinter visited last Thursday were a Jaguar XKR Convertible (about £52,000 on the road) and an Aston Martin DB9 Convertible (£20,000 more than the Jag). Now both of these are excellent cars with many fine qualities, but let’s face it, they’re not at their best rounding up sheep or carrying bales of hay.
Apart from their cars, what farmers clearly love best is chocolate. And ice cream. Every five yards, it seems, there’s a big caravan selling either chocolate in novelty shapes (culchies like boats and rabbits best, it seems) or pokes the size of a postbox.
They’re also fond of union jacks.
Despite the fact that there were many country folk there with fadas in their names and wearing GAA coats, the showjumping ring was surrounded by five union jacks.
As the bloke selling the cut-price bridles from the back of a box van might have put it… Not one union jack, no madam. Not two union jacks, sir, not here and not today. Not three union jacks, folks, I’m not here to insult your intelligence. Not four union jacks, but five! Five whopping great union jacks so big that they’d cover a field of winter barley on a frosty night.
Finally, Squinter must confess to feeling sorry for the salesmen and women, because it has become clear to him after his years at Balmoral that to ask a farmer to pay the ticket price for anything is a bit like insulting his granny, or his prize Holstein. “40p for a packet of crisps? Jeez, boy, if there’s a penny’s wortha spuds in that beg Ah’d be surprised, so Ah wud.”
So you can see how difficult that same farmer might be when it comes to buying a combine harvester, or even an Alfa Romeo. “Seventy two thousand pound? Kyatch yerself on, love. Luk, throw in a Ford Fiesta for the missus and tek kyer o’ thon tax and insurance for a year and we’ll start talkin’.” About the luck penny, needless to say.

JUNE
Father’s Day isn’t what it was. Come to think of it, Father’s Day was never what it was.
To say that last Sunday was a disappointment would be seriously to underplay the sheer gut-wrenching sense of desolation that swept over Squinter as Sunday turned into Monday and daddy’s day of days was gone for another year.
It didn’t start well. A single card with a picture of a football on it accompanied by two pieces of toiletry clearly bought the night before in a 24-hour garage were a less than ringing endorsement of Squinter’s performance as head of the family over the past year, while the breakfast was not exactly the full Irish. The full Albanian, more like.
And then Squinter had to go to work, which was a bit of a bummer, there’s no point denying it. But because Squinter had arranged to meet some fellow-fathers in the Roddy’s at around 4.30m, there was still a chance that the day could bring its rewards.
Of course, 4.30 came and went and as the afternoon gave way to evening with no sign of the job being finished, the bitter sense of injustice tasted worse than the hamburger that had passed for Sunday dinner.
It was some time around 8.30pm that Squinter took his seat in the Roddy’s only to find that those Father’s Day revellers who hadn’t gone home were in that happy-smiley mood that only an afternoon in the pub can bring on and which is so totally objectionable to anyone who’s vaguely sober. Squinter made his way home after an hour or so, only to find the house empty. The family hadn’t moved out or anything, the truth was rather more prosaic: a bedtime story for the four-year-old had turned into a family sleep-in.
And so Squinter took his place in front of the TV with the Sunday papers and watched and read and dozed as the clock ticked disconsolately on the mantlepiece.

And as the minute hand finally moved to 12.01, Squinter felt as though something had changed forever and things would never be the same. Unless he dons a Batman suit and takes a banner on to the dome of City Hall.

Irelandclick.com

In the second of our series on the huge Westlink roadworks scheme, Roisin McManus looks at the implications for public transport

Serious concerns have been raised by the black taxis in relation to the work due to start on the Westlink and M1 motorway in the New Year.
Stephen Long, General Manager of the West Belfast Taxi Association, says that he fears that the roadworks due to start in January could lead to total gridlock in West Belfast.
Stephen says that he believes that the road network in the West of the city just won’t be able to cope with the displaced traffic from the extensive roadworks, which start in January and are expected to last three years.
“At the moment the roads in West Belfast are already over their full capacity,” said Stephen.
“There are a number of factors why this is. Many people use the Stewartstown Road as an alternative to the M1 coming in from Lisburn and that has an impact on vehicular traffic. Following the demographic changes, in particular the building of Lagmore, the roads just can’t cope.
“There will be total gridlock unless there is some sort of revamping of the traffic layout. The biggest problem will be with displaced traffic,” he added.
Stephen says that he believes that the expected level of traffic locally will have an impact on every aspect of our daily lives, including getting to work and going to and from school, and he fears that the essential services may be affected.
“We have serious concerns that people’s lives may be put in jeopardy unless the current traffic arrangements are looked at,” said Stephen.
“It is the Association’s plan to submit to the Roads Service Strategic Route Improvement Team what problems currently exist and we are sure that, equally, members of the community, community groups and business people could and should have their own input and we would encourage them to make contact.”
Stephen said that the local roads infrastructure needs to be looked at in great detail, including traffic islands, the sequence of lights, additional off-road parking and the extension of bus lane operational times.
“I don’t think that this work and the associated traffic chaos will encourage people to use public transport, quite the contrary,” said Stephen.
“Public transport, like everything else, will have its own problems. It is pretty obvious that if people don’t have service availability they will elect to make journeys in cars and this will impact on the amount of traffic.
“What I can see is that clearly there was no consultation with the residents or businesses or the community groups within West Belfast, and who better is there to talk to than those who use the roads daily? Are we being discriminated against?” he asked.
Damien Bannon, Translink’s Falls Depot Manager, says that the huge roadworks schem will cause no significant changes to Translink timetables.
“Our service fundamentally won’t change, we have an excellent service on the Falls Road,” said Damien.
“We have 12 key corridors and the Falls is probably the most frequent corridor out of them, we have a bus every seven and half minutes.
“The service fundamentally won’t change and it will be the same level of frequency on both the Falls and the Glen roads,” he added.
Damien said that Translink have reviewed the situation over the last year, bringing double-deckers into the fleet to increase the number of seats available to customers.
“That is in view of the forthcoming Westlink works and that provides an increased capacity, we probably have a 50 per cent more capacity on the Falls Road to cater for the expected increase in demand come the Westlink works,” said Damien.
“We do have concerns about the Falls Road and while we have quite extensive bus lanes both in and out of town there is potential scope for improving the current bus lanes. There are two sides to the improvements: the enforcement issue, which is crucial because if the bus lanes are abused that will impact on our customers, and the speed with which they are going to get in and out of the town.
“Obviously, with the work traffic congestion is expected to be that bit worse and we would hope that people would be reasonable and not abuse the bus lanes. If the bus lanes are jam-packed with cars that impacts on our service and its reliability. Hopefully the local community will recognise the need not to abuse that. If the hours of operation for the bus lanes were extended that would benefit us greatly and I’m sure our customers would welcome that,” he added.
Damien said that Translink believes that the roadworks may have a positive impact on public transport in the long-term.
“We see this as an opportunity in that whilst it will have a serious impact on our operation and the reliability of the service, with the right infrastructure in place in terms of bus lanes and park-and-ride sites we see this as a long-term opportunity in increasing our customer base and retaining that customer base,” said Damien.
“I would suggest that people leave earlier and give themselves some time, people’s travel plans are going to be fundamentally altered and people have to be conscious of that fact. Even for things like the school run, where kids usually get a lift, I would be encouraging parents to use public transport,” he added.
A spokeswoman for the Roads Service said that it is not possible to construct a civil engineering project of this scale without causing disruption.
“Furthermore, there is little opportunity to provide alternative routes during construction for the 65,000 vehicles that use Westlink each day, as many of these alternative routes are already congested,” she said.
“As a result, it will be necessary to accommodate traffic through the works,” she added.
The spokeswoman said that Roads Service is well aware of the potential of these roadworks to cause significant disruption to traffic throughout Belfast and has planned a range of temporary traffic measures to lessen the impact. These measures include: maintaining two traffic lanes through the works, providing signed alternative routes and undertaking improvement works along these roads, providing variable message signs in advance of these alternative routes and at exits to the Port of Belfast.
Additional CCTV cameras will be installed to monitor traffic through the roadworks and adjoining roads and, where possible, traffic signals will be altered to improve traffic conditions.
“Roads Service is committed to providing up-to-date traffic and travel information during construction,” said the spokeswoman.
““This will be through a range of channels, including radio traffic bulletins, direct emailing and regular press releases. Roads Service would encourage all road users to use this information and plan their journeys accordingly,” she added.

• An institution that will feel the effects more than most when the work starts in January is the Royal Victoria Hospital. On Monday we consider how the roadworks will impact on the hospital, its huge staff and its vital work.

Journalist:: Roisin McManus

Irelandclick.com

by Ciarán Barnes

The company behind the building of an asbestos dump next to a residential area in West Belfast has admitted the facility presents a serious risk to the public.

Sensitive documents obtained by the Andersonstown News from the Department of Regional Development reveal the dangers posed by the plant, which controversially won planning permission earlier this year.

Among these documents is a safety inspection carried out in July 2004 by site owners, Grove Services Group (GSG).

The safety inspection notes that there is a high risk to residents living near the dump breathing in cancer-causing asbestos fibres.

There is also a high risk, according to the inspection, of asbestos escaping from bags being transported to the dump, and a medium risk of the deadly dust escaping during manual handling by plant workers.

The Andersonstown News has also learned that containers attached to lorries taking an average two tonnes of asbestos to the dump each week in the Blackstaff Way area will not be airtight.

Despite this, the Health and Safety Executive said it had no objections to the opening of the dump, leading the Planning Service to grant it planning permission.

Residents have staged a number of protests outside the offices of GSG.
Belfast City Council has backed them by opposing the asbestos dump planning application.

However, the dump is on course to open early next year.

Local Sinn Féin councillor Paul Maskey, who organised a residents’ protest outside GSG’s offices, has called for a inquiry into how the asbestos dump received planning permission.

“The health of thousands of people living in West Belfast will be put at risk when this asbestos dump opens, even GSG admit this.

“Why then has the Planning Service and Health and Safety Executive given the plans a clean bill of health?”

Although contacted, no one from GSG was available for comment.

In a statement released to the Andersonstown News earlier this year, a spokesperson said, “We are complying with government regulations, policies and every part of the law in this process.

“We work with asbestos a lot and know the pitfalls associated with asbestos so everything we do is done under stringent control and is monitored by the Environment and Heritage Service.

“We are also taking every step we can to reduce the risk of contamination.”

Journalist:: Ciaran Barnes

Irelandclick.com

by Francesca Ryan

A YOUNG West Belfast woman has spoken to the Andersonstown News of her fear after she received a death threat and a bullet in the post on Monday.

Signed by a dissident republican paramilitary group, the letter warned the 24-year-old that if she did not leave her St James’ home, she would be shot dead.

“I can’t believe this has happened,” said the distraught mother-of-three, who asked not to be named.

“I was opening Christmas cards that had just arrived and then I opened this letter. I just felt terrified, I thought I was going to have a heart attack on the spot. I can’t go over the door for fear of being shot and it’s five days before Christmas.”

The victim said claims in the letter that she was a drug dealer were “ridiculous” and added that she had no idea why she was being targeted.

“I keep myself to myself, I don’t bother with anyone and have never been in trouble, yet my life is being threatened. I don’t understand it, I haven’t even been living here a year and am at a loss to understand what is going on.”

The woman is currently trying to relocate her family to a new home.

“I just want out of this house, I am terrified for me and my children’s safety.
“The Housing Executive offered me a place in a hostel but I need a home for my family not a hostel with strangers walking in and out at all hours, my nerves wouldn’t let me settle in a place like that.”

The Housing Executive told the Andersonstown News that they were aware of the family’s predicament and the threat that looms over them.

“The Housing Executive offered temporary hostel accommodation but this was refused.

“Should they wish to take up the offer of temporary accommodation, they should contact the Housing Executive.

“In the meantime, their application for intimidation status is currently being investigated and they will be kept fully informed of progress.”

The PSNI confirmed the death threat and told the Andersonstown News that a number items had been taken away from the house for forensic examination.

Journalist:: Francesca Ryan

Belfast Telegraph

By Jonathan McCambridge and Claire Regan
jmccambridge@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
22 December 2005

QUESTIONS were being asked about bail and remand policies in Northern Ireland today after a man accused of murder was given permission to travel abroad for a Christmas holiday, while a distraught father serving a sentence for robbery was told he must watch his daughter’s funeral from behind bars.

Bernard Rooney, who is serving his sentence at Maghaberry Prison, has been refused permission to attend the funeral of his daughter today.

Fifteen-year-old Jamie Lee Rooney was one of two people who died in a horrific car smash on the Falls Road in west Belfast at the weekend.

The Rooney family took a judicial review in court to attempt to gain parole for their devastated father, but instead he will only be allowed to watch the service by video link in the prison in the company of a chaplain.

It is thought the decision was made over fears Rooney would abscond, but this morning his relatives described it as “barbaric”.

Their anger was intensfied with news that 38-year- old Stephen Paul McFerran, from Haywood Park, Belfast, who is accused of the murder of a Johnny Adair associate, has had his bail conditions varied yesterday so he can go to Amsterdam for Christmas and the New Year.

McFerran denies the murder of 32-year-old Roy Green, who was shot as he left a bar near the Ormeau Road in January 2003.

At Belfast Crown Court yesterday Mr Justice Hart varied McFerran’s bail conditions - this is the second time he has been allowed to travel abroad since he was charged.

In the Rooney case, speaking on behalf of Jamie Lee’s mother Margariette from the family’s Springfield Park home, a family spokeswoman said: “It is just ridiculous - we couldn’t believe it when we heard.

“Why should a murder suspect be allowed out of prison to spend Christmas abroad but a heartbroken father cannot go to say goodbye at the funeral of his daughter?

“It just doesn’t make sense to us.

“Bernard and Jamie Lee worshipped the ground each other walked on. She absolutely adored him. We fought this decision as hard as we could but we’ve just had to accept that Bernard will not be there. This will kill him.”

A Prison Service spokesman said: “The judge considered the evidence in court and we will abide by his decision.”

The Church of the Annunciation opened shortly before 9am today to allow the video equipment to be installed ahead of the 11am Mass.

DUP Policing Board member, Ian Paisley Jnr, said he was astounded by the different attitude the courts had taken in the two cases and described the decision to allow McFerran to travel abroad as “atrocious”.

He said: “Our penal system is more about comfort and convenience than punishment and contrition.

“Once again today the public will be rolling their eyes in disbelief at the inconsistent decisions being made by our courts.”

SDLP justice spokesman, Alban Maginness, said the public would find it difficult to understand the different approaches to the two cases.

“First of all these are separate - one man is in prison serving a sentence while the other is on remand and the judges look at each case individually.

“However, there is obviously a sharp contrast between the two cases and that is what will confuse the public. This is the sort of thing which makes people ask questions.”