SAOIRSE32

Irish Heritage E-mail Group

This next treat was sent out by George through his Irish Heritage E-Mail Group (link above). It’s a beautiful rendition of

‘Silent Night’ by Enya.

Here follow the song lyrics in Gaeilge, along with their pronunciation:

Silent Night in Irish - Oiche Chiuin as Gaeilge

Silent night
Oiche Chiuin
ee-khhuh khhoon

Oiche chiuin, oiche Mhic De,
ee-khhuh khhoon, ee’ha vic day,

Cach ‘na suan dis araon,
kaw’k na soon, deesh arain,

Dis is dílse ‘faire le speis
deesh uhs deesh-uh far-uh luh spaysh

Naoin beag gnaoigheal ceananntais caomh
Neen byug gnee’hal kyan’antish kave,

Criost, ‘na chodhladh go seimh.
Kreest na kulah guh shave,

Criost, ‘na chodhladh go seimh.
Kreest na kulah guh shave,

***

Oiche chiuin, oiche Mhic De,
ee-khhuh khhoon, ee’ha vic day,

Aoiri ar dtus chuala ‘n sceal;
Airee air doo’s kulah nah shkay’l;

Alleluia aingeal ag glaoch.
Al-la-loo-ya angal egg glayuck,

Cantain suairc i ngar is i gcein
Kantan su-ark EE-gnar iss EEgain,

Criost an Slanaitheoir Fein
Kreest on slawn-a-hore fain,

Criost an Slanaitheoir Fein
Kreest on slawn-a-hore fain.

Newshound

**Love the ending

(Barry McCaffrey, Irish News)

It is exactly one week since former Sinn Féin official Denis Donaldson admitted being a British spy. Barry McCaffrey gives one of the most detailed pictures yet of how events unfolded.

Special Branch informer Denis Donaldson was last night (Thursday) still admitting the full extent of his life as a double agent to the Sinn Féin leadership.

As the 55-year-old remained in hiding further details emerged of the events which led to Donaldson being uncovered as a British agent last Friday.

Republican sources confirmed that neither Martin McGuinness nor Gerry Adams knew that the Sinn Féin administrator was a double agent when they were photographed with him at Stormont buildings on Friday December 9.

However, Donaldson’s double life began to unravel at 5pm the following day when uniformed PSNI officers visited his west Belfast home and informed him that he was going to be exposed in the media.

Police returned to Donaldson’s Aitnamona Crescent home at 9pm but he was not there.

Less than 15 minutes later he telephoned Declan Kearney, chairman of Sinn Féin’s northern executive and Donaldson’s immediate superior, to tell him that the PSNI had warned he was to be ‘outed’ as an informer.

Republican’s say it was a coincidence that Mr Kearney’s brother Ciaran was Donaldson’s son-in-law and his co-accused in the Stormontgate trial that never was.

Mr Kearney advised Donaldson to go to his solicitor.

Republican sources say that Mr Kearney’s instruction was in line with Sinn Féin policy in dealing with anyone who has been warned by the PSNI that they are about to be exposed as an informer.

It is unclear whether republicans believed at this stage that Donaldson was a double agent or were working under the misapprehension that this was a ’securocrat’ plot to discredit Sinn Féin’s leadership.

While Mr Adams would later claim that republicans had suspected for two years that there was a spy within their ranks, it is not thought that Donaldson had come under suspicion.

On Sunday Declan Kearney informed Sinn Féin’s former Stormont administrator that he would be interviewed at party headquarters the following day.

Following that interview Mr Adams was told that Donaldson had admitted to being a British agent and he informed the rest of the Sinn Féin leadership on the Tuesday.

On Wednesday December 14 Donaldson had two interviews with Declan Kearney and senior Sinn Féin official Leo Green at Sinn Féin’s Sevastopol Street offices.

It was at this meeting that Donaldson began to reveal the full extent of his role as a Special Branch and MI5 agent for more than 20 years.

He admitted meeting his Special Branch handlers two days before his arrest over the Stormontgate affair in October 2002.

Media reports suggested that Donaldson received £35,000 for his role as a double agent, although the real figure could total a six-figure sum, through regular payments.

At the end of that meeting Donaldson was informed that he was suspended from Sinn Féin and that he should contact his solicitor Peter Madden.

On Thursday December 16 Donaldson had two more meetings with the Sinn Féin officials, ending at 2pm.

At 4.45pm he received a telephone call at his home from a Special Branch handler, who identified himself as ‘Lenny’.

The handler is understood to have asked “Do you remember me?”

“I understand you have had a visit from our uniform boys,” he said.

“I think it’s time we got together.”

‘Lenny’ then gave Donaldson a mobile contact phone.

When The Irish News called the number last night it was on answerphone.

Later on Thursday night Declan Kearney met Donaldson again and informed him that he had been expelled from Sinn Féin.

It is understood that Donaldson, in the presence of his solicitor, then attempted to contact ‘Lenny’ but the number went to answerphone.

Hours later Donaldson and his family are understood to have gone into hiding in Dublin.

Less than 24 hours later Donaldson’s 30-year career as an Irish republican was in tatters.

Republicans point to the fact that the IRA had offered amnesties to informers on three occasions during the last three decades but Donaldson chose not to come forward on any of these occasions.

At 5pm Mr Adams and Gerry Kelly appeared at the Gresham Hotel in Dublin to publicly reveal that Donaldson was a British agent and had been expelled from Sinn Féin.

At 9.30pm that night a visibly shaken Donaldson appeared at a press conference to reveal his role as a double agent.

He revealed few details other than he had been a paid informer for more than 20 years.

Since then he has not been seen in public, although he is believed to be in hiding in the Republic.

A senior republican source last night confirmed that Donaldson has continued to meet with senior Sinn Féin officials over the last seven days to give detailed accounts of his life as an informer.

It is understood Donaldson’s admissions are now being assessed by the Sinn Féin leadership, although the source insisted that he was a ‘free agent’.

A Garda spokeswoman refused to state if it was aware of Donaldson’s whereabouts in the Republic.

However, it last night appeared that there was no way back for the veteran republican-turned-informer.

“We are not taking this lightly,” Mr Kelly insisted.

“This was a betrayal on a massive scale.

“He has betrayed his family and comrades.

“He played his part in helping the British government to bring down the power-sharing executive.

“He allowed himself to be used by the securocrats in their deliberate and calculated efforts to wreck the peace process.

“The question now is what Tony Blair is going to do to stop these people?”

December 24, 2005
________________

This article appeared first in the December 23, 2005 edition of the Irish News.

Belfast Telegraph

Margaret is following the path of peace

By Kathryn Torney
ktorney@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
24 December 2005

THE Belfast schoolgirl who made the world sit up and listen when she wrote to Tony Blair pleading for peace in Northern Ireland eight years ago is making a career out of her peace and community work.

Margaret Gibney touched the heart of the Prime Minister when she wrote to him in 1997 as part of a school project when she was just 13.

During a visit to America, Mr Blair referred to her letter in which she wrote that she had only known one year of peace in her whole life. The Shankill Road girl made international headlines when he then invited her to Downing Street.

She went on to meet America’s First Lady, Hillary Clinton, became a Unicef young ambassador of peace and delivered Channel 4’s alternative Christmas speech to the nation in 1997.

For years afterwards, she kept in touch with Mr Blair and other high-profile political figures like the late Mo Mowlam.

Now aged 21, Margaret works for the Challenge for Youth organisation full-time while studying for a degree in youth and community work part-time.

She said: “It is hard work to work alongside doing a degree but it is what I want to do and I love it.

“I work with young people in communities where they may not have had a lot of opportunities or where they have come into conflict with their community.”

Margaret said that her own experiences definitely played a part in her career choice.

“I want to help other young people realise that they can do things outside what other people’s expectations are of them,” she said.

Margaret, a former pupil of Mount Gilbert Community College and Belfast Royal Academy in Belfast, still lives in the Shankill.

“When I was growing up I always believed that things would change, and they did.

“For all the change that has happened it would just be unimaginable for it ever to go back to the way it was in Northern Ireland.

“Through my work I hope to help young people understand difference rather than fight about it.”

Its buildings, geography and people make Cork the perfect place for a winter stroll, says Christopher Somerville.

24/12/2005

‘Well, being an Englishman, now, you’ll know all about our saint and his horse?” said the old woman who was kneeling at her morning prayers in the sanctuary of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral.

She got slowly to her feet and began to spin me the story. “Well, Fin Barre was a very handsome, fair-haired man by all accounts, and when he went over to visit Rome he seems to have made himself a lot of friends. One was St David - isn’t he the Welsh saint? - well, anyway, Fin Barre called in to see him on his way back to Cork, and David lent him a great horse, and what did St Fin Barre do but ‘gallip’ the horse across the sea till they landed back in Ireland!”

She looked up at me consideringly. “Now, some might say that’s just an old species of story. But the creature could have swum it, no bother at all to him, if he’d a saint on his back!”

Cork’s Fin Barre Cathedral

You’re never starved of an enthusiastic word or 10 in Cork city, whether it’s in the snug of some roaring old pub or in the holy hush of a great cathedral.

Under the blue and gold angels of the high Gothic sanctuary ceiling I took a short course in Irish sainthood, and another in the city’s turbulent history.

“Burned to cinders!” whispered my friend, her sibilants hissing like snakes in the red marble gloom.

“Burned by King William in 1690, and burned again in 1920 by the Black and Tans. But sure it’s a grand old place, right enough.”

Grand old places need more than a set of historical horrors to rest on if they are to make a great winter walk.

Architecturally and geographically Cork has what it takes, in spades - a comfortable, lived-in appearance to the winding streets and back lanes, attractive low-level Georgian houses and public buildings, handsome church towers and spires to give drama to the skyline, and a fine succession of bridges spanning the twin channels of the River Lee that part and join to make an island of much of the old city.

St Patrick’s Bridge across the River Lee

As for atmosphere and vibe - Cork has been staging music, theatre and art exhibitions all year in celebration of its reign as European City of Culture 2005, and there’s nothing in the demeanour of the fun-loving Corkadians to suggest the party is going to end any time soon.

Out in the winter cold on the steps of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, I paused, hands plunged in pockets, to admire the space-rocket pinnacles and the sculptures of angels, saints and demons so exuberantly designed by wee William Burges, neo-Gothic architect to the rich and eccentric of Victorian Britain.

Then I crossed the South Channel of the River Lee and headed into the centre of the city.

Fat gouts of steam were rising into the leaden December sky behind the dully gleaming silos of Beamish & Crawford ’s brewery on South Main Street. I thought of the sweet tang of Cork stout, and of a rattling good reel.

“Oh, aye, there’ll be a session tonight all right,” agreed the barman in the dark, snug interior of An Spailpín Fánach (”The Wandering Labourer”). “There never isn’t, except on a Sunday. Do you play yourself? Well, you’ll be welcome.”

The centre of Cork: “there’s nothing to suggest the party is going to end”

Before the night’s music-making, I wandered around the English Market and the old lanes of the Huguenot Quarter, refuge and workplace for dozens of Protestants on the run from religious intolerance in pre-revolutionary France.

Cork celebrates its great men and women in the names of streets and bridges - MacCurtain Street in memory of the political murder of Tomás MacCurtain, first Republican Lord Mayor of Cork; Nano Nagle Bridge after a selfless educator of the 18th-century Irish poor; Christy Ring Bridge to commemorate the greatest hurler in the history of Irish sport.

In the Huguenot Quarter itself, Rory Gallagher Place honours the late blues and rock guitarist, who was brought up in Cork.

Bell chimes were floating down on the north wind from Shandon. I crossed Christy Ring Bridge and made for the tower of St Anne’s, high above the city.

“On this I ponder Where’er I wander, And thus grow fonder, Sweet Cork, of thee, With thy bells of Shandon That sound so grand on The pleasant waters Of the River Lee.”

Old Father Prout is certainly Shandon’s most famous son, but he might not be the most popular. His song The Bells of Shandon, written nearly two centuries ago, has drawn countless pilgrims to climb the tower on the hill and try to knock a tune out of the bells.

All day, every day, local residents must grin and bear the sound of punters chancing their ringing arms on Amazing Grace or Molly Malone. I had an over-confident go at Out On The Ocean, a jig I had temporarily on the brain. A nasty discordant mess of clangs and jangles shivered the midday quiet of the hill.

Back by the River Lee I passed the massive and futuristic face of Cork’s Opera House. I had a cup of tea in the Crawford Art Gallery and a look at its exhibition of Irish Impressionists.

Futuristic face: Cork’s Opera House

In Rory Gallagher Place an icy afternoon wind stirred the leaves. A young girl set up to play in the shadow of the Gallagher sculpture. She shivered as she sang a Kate Rusby song in a brave little voice. A red-faced old boy in a thick scarf stopped and doubled back to drop a couple of euros into her guitar case and nod, “Good luck, now.”

Towards nightfall a sudden hail shower scoured the streets of Cork. It drove me along Oliver Plunkett Street and up the steps into the Hi-B.

Now that is a bar made in heaven, a pub for a winter walker, a drinker’s warm paradise in ancient plush, firelight and recondite talk. Sartre? Never had any time for the man. Christy Ring, you said? Now there was a nice hurler if you like. Existential, if you like. I saw them goals of his in the ‘56 Munster final, didn’t I, Tommy? Wait till I tell you . . .

Stepping out

Map
Cork City map available from Tourist House, Cork City (see below).

Getting there
Flight: Aer Arann (www.skyroad.com) from Bristol, Edinburgh, Southampton; Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com) from Heathrow; Air Wales (www.airwales.co.uk) from Cardiff, Plymouth, Swansea; Bmi (www.flybmi.com) from Leeds Bradford; Bmibaby (www.bmibaby.com) from Cardiff, East Midlands, Manchester; British Airways (www.ba.com) from Manchester; Flybe (www.flybe.com) from Birmingham; Loganair (www.loganair.co.uk) from Glasgow; Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) from Stansted.

Ferry: Swansea Cork Ferries (www.swanseacorkferries.com).

Walk directions
From Tourist House Information Centre, left along Grand Parade; cross South Channel of River Lee by Nano Nagle footbridge; right along Sullivan’s Quay and Proby’s Quay to St Fin Barre’s Cathedral.

Return along Proby’s Quay; left across South Gate Bridge; up South Main Street between Beamish & Crawford Brewery and An Spailpín Fánach. Right along Tuckey Street , left up Grand Parade.

Right through English Market to emerge on far (east) side in Princes Street. Left to cross St Patrick Street and go up Carey’s Lane into Huguenot Quarter.

Right at Rory Gallagher Place, along Paul Street and Emmet Place, passing Crawford Art Gallery and Cork Opera House, to cross River Lee’s north channel over Christy Ring Bridge.

Left along Pope’s Quay for a few yards, then right up John Redmond Street to Firkin Crane Institute, Cork Butter Museum, Shandon Craft Centre and St Anne’s Tower (The Bells of Shandon).

From St Anne’s, right past Shandon Arms pub to reach North Cathedral. Leaving North Cathedral, right along street; left down Shandon Street to cross Griffith Bridge; left along Kyrl’s Quay and Coal Quay to turn right at the south end of Christy Ring Bridge.

Down Emmet Place and Paul Street; left down Frenchchurch Street; left along St Patrick Street; fourth right down Wintrop Street to Oliver Plunkett Street (Hi-B bar on corner).

Right along Oliver Plunkett Street ; fourth left down Princes Street; right along South Mall to return to Tourist House Information Centre.

Length of walk
Allow half a day.

Refreshments
Lunch/breakfast: English Market; lunch/tea: Crawford Art Gallery café; drink: An Spailpín Fánach, Hi-B bar.

Accommodation
Jurys Inn Cork , Anderson’s Quay (00 353 21 494 3000, www.jurysinns.com): from £57 for a double room, b&b.

Further information
Cork Kerry Tourism, Tourist House, Grand Parade, Cork City (00 353 21 425 5100, info@corkkerrytourism.ie; www.corkkerry.ie).

New York Times

December 24, 2005
By ALAN COWELL

LONDON, Dec. 23 - Gary Mitchell, a prominent Northern Irish playwright, has been forced into hiding along with his family following an attack on his Belfast home by what he called rogue paramilitary figures linked to the Protestant loyalist cause.

“We are a bit mystified, a bit frightened, a bit shook up,” he said late Friday.

In a telephone interview from a secret hideout in Northern Ireland, Mr. Mitchell, who is 40 and a Protestant, described months of intimidation of himself and members of his family apparently inspired by his plays depicting Protestant paramilitaries and their influence on Protestant communities in the hardscrabble, blue-collar districts of Belfast he has known since childhood.

“I depict the Unionist community in a fair light,” Mr. Mitchell said, referring to the Protestant groups that oppose Irish republicanism and seek continued ties with Britain. “I depict them the way I see them. Maybe they want it more romantic. I don’t find anything heroic in attacking 17-year-olds and pensioners.”

His flight into hiding on Nov. 23 reflected the seething unease across the sectarian divide that has persisted, despite the 1998 Good Friday agreement that was supposed to end the decades of strife between Protestants and Roman Catholics known as the Troubles, which have claimed 3,500 lives on all sides.

This year, Robert McCartney, a 33-year-old Belfast Catholic, was killed in a barroom Tattack blamed partly on members of the Irish Republican Army. Rival Protestant gangs fought battles in which four people died last summer.

The sectarian strife has touched Mr. Mitchell in increasingly dramatic ways. He was forced to move two years ago from the hard-line Unionist Rathcoole area, where he grew up and where he learned the harsh cadences that have made him what some critics consider the most authentic dramatic voice of working-class Unionism. Since then, he and his family have lived in the Glengormley district, a mixed area populated by middle-class Protestants and Catholics.

But, he said in the telephone interview, the volume of criticism about his plays - like “Loyal Women,” performed at the Royal Court Theater in London in 2003 - and of personal threat intensified this year, culminating in a warning to leave within four hours, or every member of his family would be killed.

“I have had threats, people saying they were going to get me,” Mr. Mitchell said. “The police have told me to alter my routine, not to frequent certain pubs and clubs. There’s a playground-bully mentality that I have lived with.”

Since the latest attack, he added, “my whole family and extended family are scattered around secret locations.”

Unlike the novelist Salman Rushdie, who was protected by British government bodyguards after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa against him in 1989 following publication of “The Satanic Verses,” Mr. Mitchell said he had no police protection. “We asked for police protection,” he said. “They said they were too busy.”

On Nov. 23, he said, men with their faces covered and wielding baseball bats came to his home and blew up his car, forcing him, his wife, Alison, and their 8-year-old son, Harry, to flee. “My car was bombed in my driveway,” he said. Simultaneously, the home of an uncle was also attacked. His parents had already been forced to leave their home.

“It’s very disruptive to watch a family struggle through it and see a little boy being frightened all the time,” Mr. Mitchell said. His son, he said, has been so disturbed by the bombing that he is afraid of every small noise.

But he said he is determined to continue to work: “It’s not going to stop me. I have a laptop. I have access to e-mail. I can send scripts off.”

“Once you go outside the reach of these people,” he added, “you are trying to establish a sense of normalcy.”

Part of the reason for the attacks on him, Mr. Mitchell said, may be that republican writers tend to “create heroes and legends.”

“I don’t do this to loyalist paramilitaries,” he said.

The Guardian newspaper in London recently reported that Mr. Mitchell’s plays, including “As the Beast Sleeps” and “The Force of Change,” show the continued power of paramilitary groups over Northern Ireland’s divided societies. His work has been performed in Britain, the United States and Germany.

Paradoxically, though, he was once accused in San Francisco of being biased against Roman Catholics and refusing to allow them to perform in his plays. A 1999 production of “Trust,” he said in a 2003 article in The Guardian, was favorably reviewed but poorly attended in San Francisco because of rumors that he would not allow Catholics to perform, direct or produce any of his work - a charge he denies.

He wrote in 2003: “Some of my neighbors have threatened me because I criticize the Protestant people. I can only offer that if I am being critical, then I am criticizing the human experience and not the Protestant community of Northern Ireland alone.”

In the interview on Friday, he said, “I think everybody is opposed to my work.”

BreakingNews.ie

24/12/2005 - 09:20:21

Police in the North have warned shopkeepers to be vigilant of potential incendiary bomb attacks in the Christmas period.

The PSNI fear dissident republicans could strike during the last-minute sales rush.

Owners have been urged to check premises before closing this evening and police patrols are to be stepped up.

BBC

Extra flights have been put on to cope with the holiday rush

More than 20,000 people are expected to pass through Belfast City Airport in the three days leading up to Christmas Day.

The figure represents an increase of 10% on normal traffic at the airport on the outskirts of east Belfast.

On Friday, four additional flights from London were put on to cope with the festive rush home.

Andrea Hayes, general manager of Flybe, the airport’s biggest airline, said all flights were “filled to capacity”.

However, traffic at the airport was not all one-way, with about one-third of passengers flying out of Belfast.

One man said he no longer lived in Northern Ireland and was on his way back to the Isle of Man.

“I’m going home… as you can see from the presents. It’s a bit strange because most of my pals are now arriving back from Germany, from Dubai and places like that, and I’m heading off,” he said.

“I have been here all week, seeing people, doing business and I’ve had a really good time and now I’ve got to try to get home tonight.”

A woman passenger, waiting for the same flight said: “We arrived last Saturday. We have had an early Christmas here in Belfast, just with family at home, and yesterday we celebrated my grandmother’s 90th birthday.

“We had a surprise party for her last night. Everything was wonderful. We are laden down with presents now and we are going back to the Isle of Man where we have lived for the past 16 years.”

Andrea Hayes said her company would put on extra flights “as and when they are required”.

“Because of the way Christmas is falling this year, with it being over the weekend period, rather than getting everybody travelling at the weekend, the traffic has been steady throughout the week, which of course, all helps.”

Irish Examiner

24 December 2005
By Jim Morahan

YOUNG people under stress are being urged to send a mobile phone text to the Samaritans.
Help is only a text call away, says the emotional support charity.

Texting the word SAM, followed by their region, to 51500 will get them a response.

Samaritan phone lines are answered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

A Samaritans spokeswoman, said: “Young people often feel that their worries and concerns aren’t important and don’t want to burden their friends or families if they are feeling low.”

Suicide trends over the past 10 years have shown a 36% increase in the Republic.

Ireland rugby star Brian O’Driscoll, who launched the service, said: “Exam pressures can be huge and I believe that it is very important that young people have an outlet to express their concerns. Samaritans provides a valuable confidential service and the mobile phone is a great way of reminding them that support is only a phone call away.”

Brendan Daly, Samaritans regional representative, said: “It is our aim to send SMS texts to students at various times in the year to let them know that by ringing our help line, they will be listened to in confidence, accepted without prejudice and given the opportunity to explore difficult feelings.”

He added: “With this new service we hope to see students forwarding our texts to another person who might want to know they have the option to ring or email Samaritans in confidence.”

There were many perceived barriers to asking for help, said Mr Daly.

These ranged from not knowing who to ask, to not wanting to burden or worry those close to them.

“Our research shows that simply having an awareness of our SMS and email service made young people more likely to feel that Samaritans is a good option if they want to discuss difficult issues in their life,” he said.

Research shows young people don’t perceive their problems as being serious enough to make contact with Samaritans, yet they are one of the most vulnerable groups within society in terms of emotional health.

The research also shows that once they were made aware of the existing email service young people were far more likely to get in touch to discuss issues that worried them.

It also demonstrated that they were more likely to perceive Samaritans as being relevant to their lives.

Púca chief executive Eamon Holmes said it was a very worthy cause, and the mobile phone was a logical communication channel to reach out to young people.