SAOIRSE32

IAIS

01/31/06 09:16 EST

The Democratic Unionists were accused today of trying to hollow out power sharing from the Good Friday Agreement.

Sinn Fein vice president Pat Doherty made the claim after the DUP published “take it or leave it” plans for phased devolution.

Nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan also criticised the document, insisting his party would not tolerate any dilution of the Agreement.

In the 16-page “Facing Reality” document, the Rev Ian Paisley`s DUP ruled out the prospect of power sharing with Sinn Fein in the foreseeable future.

But it put forward a number of low, mid and high-range models in which the Assembly could function short of a power sharing executive.

These included:

:: A shadow assembly;

:: A European Union-style model with British Government ministers operating a council of ministers taking decisions and appearing before Assembly committees.

Legislation on devolved matters would require both the approval of the ministers and the Assembly before going to Westminster;

:: Full-blown devolution without the formation of an executive but with a corporate assembly holding permanent secretaries, the most senior civil servants in Government departments, to account.

Following the document`s publication, Sinn Fein MP Mr Doherty called on the British and Irish Governments to stand by the Agreement and the principle of power sharing.

“The Good Friday Agreement is an international treaty passed overwhelmingly by the Irish people in referendum,” the West Tyrone MP said.

“The two governments have an obligation to press ahead with its full implementation in the time ahead. The DUP cannot be allowed to veto this process. The proposals published today by the DUP are a challenge to the two governments. They are an attempt to subvert the political process and delay the process of change.”

“The two governments have an obligation to stand by the Agreement and its power-sharing core. This includes the power-sharing executive. Sinn Fein will not countenance a move away from the fundamental principles which underpin the Good Friday Agreement.”

SDLP leader Mr Durkan said the DUP needed to face the reality that they have no right to write off the Good Friday Agreement and would not succeed in their attempts to do so.

“The DUP`s proposals are about `setting aside` executive devolution,” the Foyle MP said.

“But it is at the heart of the Agreement and the SDLP will never accept its dilution. Nor will we agree with DUP proposals to allow direct rulers a continuing role. Even if other parties are ambiguous, we are clear that there is no acceptable level of direct rule.”

“Finally, not once in what the DUP has said today have they mentioned the North-South agenda, yet it too is a fundamental part of the Agreement and an integral part of what the SDLP has always stood for. DUP papers which do not address North-South simply don`t address political reality.”

Sinn Féin

Published: 31 January, 2006

Sinn Féin TD for Louth, Arthur Morgan has welcomed the fact that former Louth Fine Gael TD, Brendan McGahon has finally admitted that he was wrong to blame the IRA for the killing of Seamus Ludlow at the time and has now accepted that loyalists were responsible. Deputy Morgan was responding to McGahon’s appearance at the sub-committee on the Barron Report in Leinster House today.

However, Deputy Morgan didn’t accept the former deputy’s partial amnesia in relation where he got his original information. Deputy Morgan also described as “incredible” comments made by McGahon that loyalists couldn’t have been suspected of the killing because he said they hadn’t been active in the area.

Deputy Morgan said, “While I would like to welcome the fact that former Fine Gael TD Brendan McGahon had finally admitted that he was wrong to blame the IRA for the killing of Seamus Ludlow by loyalists I find it hard to believe that he can’t remember what member of the Gardai gave him the information.

“More disturbing however was Brendan McGahon’s suggestion at today’s meeting that loyalists couldn’t have been suspected of the killing at the time because he says they weren’t active in the area at the time. This is an incredible statement given the fact that loyalists had been involved in the bombing of Dundalk in December 1975, Castleblayney in March 1976 and in other bombings in Counties Monaghan and Cavan in the preceding years. The reality is that Brendan McGahon tried to use the killing of Seamus Ludlow to advance his own particular anti-republican agenda regardless of the hurt and pain it caused the Ludlow family.” ENDS

RTÉ

31 January 2006 12:33

The Northern Secretary, Peter Hain, has said the economies of Northern Ireland and the Republic must forge closer links if they are to prosper in an increasingly competitive world marketplace.

In a speech at Stormont, Mr Hain said the island of Ireland faced common external threats from globalisation.

Mr Hain also said the British government is to order a comprehensive review of how tax money is spent in Northern Ireland to ensure funds are not wasted.

He said the review across all government departments would examine every spending programme.

BBC

The DUP has published its devolution proposals

The DUP has published details of its proposals to restore the NI assembly.

The Facing Reality document rules out executive power-sharing with Sinn Fein in the foreseeable future and was given to the prime minister last week.

The DUP does not want an immediate return to devolution in which local politicians take up ministerial posts in an executive.

It wants the assembly and committees back in a form of rolling devolution initially based on an EU model.

In its 16-page document, the DUP suggests reversing suspension - but only in part.

It said its two-step approach to devolution was a “take it or leave it” option.

The DUP said a return to executive power-sharing must have cross-community support.

In the meantime, a restored assembly could involve direct rule ministers taking part in a council or college of ministers and making decisions alongside the assembly.

Legislation

Legislation on devolved matters would require both the approval of the ministers and the assembly before going to Westminster.

The assembly might also be invited to agree the budget.

In time, the DUP suggests, the assembly could be given powers to legislate.

The committees could be given a role in shadowing departments with the direct rule minister occasionally attending committee meetings.

The party said the best model could be fleshed out in talks.

Sinn Fein vice-president Pat Doherty accused the DUP of trying to remove power-sharing from the Good Friday Agreement.

“The Good Friday Agreement is an international treaty passed overwhelmingly by the Irish people in referendum,” the West Tyrone MP said.

“The two governments have an obligation to press ahead with its full implementation in the time ahead. The DUP cannot be allowed to veto this process.”

SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the DUP “had no right to write off the Good Friday Agreement”.

“The DUP’s proposals are about setting aside executive devolution,” he said.

“But it is at the heart of the Agreement and the SDLP will never accept its dilution.”

Daily Ireland

Daily Ireland Editorial
Editor: Colin O’Carroll
31/01/2006

When asked what he thought of western civilisation, Gandhi is reported to have said that he reckoned it would be a good idea. That retort comes to mind as fair-minded MPs in the British House of Commons pledge to make the British Army criminal-free.
The initiative led by SDLP leader Mark Durkan and backed by the Pat Finucane Centre is a worthy one indeed and it’s to be hoped that the early day motion is carried.
However, the motion can’t be allowed to succeed because without soldiers willing to break every law in Christendom in order to impose the dictates of Parliament, the British Army couldn’t function.
In fact, the British enjoy the dubious honour of having perpetrated more brutality and torture on their colonial subjects than any other western power. While for some the word Empire may conjure up images of lords in ermine and knights in garter, in the developing world the word is synonomous with rapine and slaughter. All carried out by soldiers of the Crown.
In her just-published, devastating account of Britain’s colonial misdeeds in Kenya 50 years ago, “Britain’s Gulag”, author Caroline Elkins spells out in sickening detail the lengths to which the British Army went in order to supress the Mau Mau uprising. British Army-led forces were responsible for countless massacres
In the Kandara outrage, “the British security forces just went crazy”. “They stripped the local people naked and started beating them. Some were led off and shot; others were executed right there.”
The ‘UDR’ of the era, the Home Guard, were well schooled in British Army tactics.
“The Home Guard posts were the epicentres of torture,” writes Elkins. “If a woman was suspected of harbouring Mau Mau sympathies she could be sent to the Home Guard post. After a thorough beating outside of her hut, a woman was taken to the ndaki. The ndaki was about four foot deep, halfway filled with water…forcing those inside to fumble their way around in the darkness…there were generally a dozen or more captives inside. They often huddled together for warmth and for protection against the vermin and snakes that infested the cell….Sometimes the Home Guards took the initiative, squeezing and mutilating women’s breasts with pliers, pushing vermin and rifles into their vaginas, and forcing them to run naked while carrying buckets of excrement on their heads. The women were also raped, oftentimes repeatedly by several men. Resistance could lead to summary execution.”
Post-conflict, there was to be no public accounting in Britain, adds Elkins, for the “torture, murder and starvation of men, women and children. Indeed there was a great deal of sympathy, if not admiration for the professional soldiers”.
Criminals in the British Army? Perish the thought.

Daily Ireland

Motion calling for British army criminals to be kicked out of the military has received cross-party support from 23 MPs

By Connla Young
31/01/2006

The mother of murdered Belfast teenager Peter McBride has welcomed a new bid to have convicted criminals kicked out of the British army.
Jean McBride comments came after it emerged that that United States Consul General in Belfast Dean Pittman has agreed to meet her for a second time to discuss her continuing campaign for justice for her son who was gunned down by the British army in September 1992.
The teenager’s killers, Scots Guardsmen James Fisher and Mark Wright, were both readmitted to the British army on their early release from prison in 1998.
An early day motion drawn up by SDLP leader Mark Durkan has now received cross-party support from 23 members of the British parliament.
The motion calls for the British “government to affirm that human rights abusers, killers, rapists and bullies are permanently excluded from military service.”
The motion has received the support of British-based MPs who work closely with the families of young soldiers who have died in mysterious circumstances in British army bases across Britain.
Speaking to Daily Ireland last night, Mrs McBride vowed to continue her fight to have the men who murdered her son removed from the British army.
“We welcome this latest intervention and the support of other families who are also campaiging against the sheer arrogance of the Minister of Defence. We see from the cross-party support that we have almost all the parties represented in parliament signing up to this petition.
“I have written again to Tony Blair and asked him for a meeting and this will boost our campaign. It remains to bee seen if Tony Blair has the courage to face me across the table and justify the retention of Wright and Fisher.”
Mrs McBride will raise her family’s concerns over the relationship between of former British army officer Tim Spicer and the US government when she meets US Consul General Dean Pittman in the coming weeks.
Spicer was the offcer in charge of Wright and Fisher when they murdered Peter McBride.
Mr Durkan yesterday spoke of the need for the British army to protect the public.
“Our motion demands that all those convicted of murder, rape, torture and other serious crimes, are expelled from the army.
“Armies are meant to protect the public, that’s why they shouldn’t have serving in their ranks those who have murdered, raped and tortured. It is as simple as that.
“As the next step in our campaign we will be proposing amendments to the Armed Forces Bill currently going through Westminster to make the principles behind our campaign requirements of law.
“If the British government are at all serious about human rights we hope that they will get serious about this campaign and back our amendments and early day motion.”
British MPs supporting the motion include Peter Bottomley, Glenda Jackson and Jeremy Corbyn.

Irish Independent

**Via Newshound

Ivan McMichael

AN ex-policeman was fined €600 yesterday for driving a police Land Rover at women and children after rioting broke out at an Orange march.

Alan Alexander Leckey (40), who is no longer in the PSNI, was also banned from driving for 18 months after he was found guilty of dangerous driving.

At Belfast County Court, Judge Piers Grant described Leckey’s driving on June 29, 2002, at Springfield Road, West Belfast, as “disgraceful”. The judge said he had put at risk women and children when he drove onto waste ground, causing them to scatter.

“It is with some considerable regret that I conclude that the driving has all the appearance of an act designed to frighten, a parting shot to those left behind,” the judge said.

The fine and disqualification was the same penalty imposed when Leckey was convicted in 2003. He then appealed the sentence.

Newshound

(Barry McCaffrey, Irish News)

The IMC’s independence is being challenged in the courts with a claim that a company connected to one of its members receives payments from the PSNI.

The Independent Monitoring Commission is expected to report this week on whether the IRA remains involved in paramilitary or criminal activity.

However, High Court proceedings in London, issued on behalf of Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy, argue that it cannot be seen as independent because of former Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Grieve’s position as director of the John Grieve Centre for Policing the Community Safety.

Legal submissions obtained by The Irish News state: “The John Grieve Centre has confirmed that it receives payments from the PSNI for PSNI delegates who attend Commissioner Grieve’s centre.

“The John Grieve Centre also confirm that PSNI officers deliver lectures to seminars and conferences organised by, and for the benefit of [the centre].”

Mr Murphy’s lawyers argue that any direct or indirect financial relationship between Mr Grieve and the PSNI renders the IMC incapable of delivering “independent or fair” reports.

There is no suggestion that Mr Grieve has acted illegally or improperly.

An IMC spokeswoman said it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing court case, but reiterated the commissioners’ public statement on their independence in March 2004.

“We wish to make clear now, for the avoidance of any doubt, that we are an independent commission,” the four-member body stated.

“None of us would have accepted appointment as a commissioner or would continue in office if that were not the case. Nor would we continue if we felt that the governments were denying us access to the information we need.

“All the views we express will be ours and ours alone, reached after careful consideration of the material we have received.”

January 31, 2006
________________

This article appeared first in the January 30, 2006 edition of the Irish News.

Belfast Telegraph

By Brian Walker
31 January 2006

A major demonstration outside Westminster is expected to greet a final Commons vote tonight on a controversial new law banning religious hatred.

The Government is moving to close a gap in the law to shield Muslim belief from hateful attack, as Muslims of many races are not covered by a racial hatred law against single races.

But protesters outside the Commons and about 30 Labour MPs and the DUP within, claim the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill stifles free speech including a robust defence of religion.

The DUP’s Nigel Dodds, opposing the bill, declared the Government’s treatment of the issue “despicable and dictatorial.”

“The threat of a maximum prison sentence of seven years simply for stating your religious belief could be enough to curtail preachers and others from saying anything at all,” he said.

There was earlier speculation that years ago the young Ian Paisley could have been prosecuted under such a law for some of his fiery sermons attacking Catholicism.

But the Paisley issue was avoided today by Home Office Minister Paul Goggins in an interview on the Radio 4’s Today programme.

“The key thing is not debate or strong language but where people set out with the intention of stirring up religious hatred,” said Mr Goggins, when asked if Mr Paisley could have been prosecuted.

MPs are voting to strike down Lords’ amendments restricting religious hatred to threatening words and behaviour, rather than a wider definition of insults and abuse.

Under Government changes, a person “reckless as to whether religious hatred would be stirred up” could also be prosecuted.

An unlikely alliance of humanists, Christian evangelicals and some Muslims have united to oppose the bill.

Comedy star Rowan Atkinson, a leading campaigner, said it was unlikely he would be prosecuted because he was too well known, but he was “deeply concerned for all performers and entertainers, because the climate in which we work will be very different if the Government gets its way in the House of Commons today.”

BreakingNews.ie

31/01/2006 - 11:17:09

IRA murder victim Robert McCartney’s family today begged the driver of a mystery blue car to help end their year of torment and bring his killers to justice.

As police made a new appeal over the vehicle they believe was stopped at traffic lights near the scene of the Belfast city centre stabbing, the dead man’s sister Paula insisted the pain and trauma would not ease until the gang responsible were all caught.

On the first anniversary of the father-of-two’s killing, she said: “Our grieving process has been hindered by the fact that the people who took his life for no reason at all have not been held to account.

“We also believe if we had some closure by these people being brought to justice it would help in the grieving process of this family.

“We are practically begging people, please if they have any information at all, release it and put this family out of the misery they have been suffering for a year.

“The blue car is very significant. We would appeal directly to the person or persons in that car to please search their hearts and tell what they know.”

BreakingNews.ie

31/01/2006 - 12:18:09

Two men arrested during a Special Branch investigation into the activities of dissident republicans pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court today to explosives and ammunition offences.

Francis Mc Geown (aged 64), of Cedarwood Park, Cox’s Demesne, Dundalk and Pascal Burke (aged 42), of Marrowbone Lane, Dublin 8 admitted the unlawful possession of an explosive substance - 0.776 kilogrammes of black powder consisting of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulphur - at Smithstown, Julianstown, Co Meath on January 21, 2005.

They also both pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of 100 rounds of ammunition on the same date.

Prosecuting counsel Mr Tom O’ Connell SC told the court that charges against both men of membership of an unlawful organisation could be struck out.

A third man , Ciaran Dunne (aged 23), of Elmbrook Avenue, Lucan, Co Dublin pleaded guilty earlier this month to the same charges.

All three men were remanded for sentencing at a later date.

Belfast Telegraph

Today marks the first anniversary of the death of Short Strand father of two Robert McCartney. Crime Correspondent Jonathan McCambridge charts the McCartney family’s year-long battle for justice and hears that their struggle to bring his killers to court is far from over

By Jonathan McCambridge, Crime Correspondent
jmccambridge@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
31 January 2006 (published the 28th)

PAULA McCartney sits in the living room of the new home in south Belfast where she has lived for less than three months. She is adamant that she did not leave the Short Strand area where she grew up because of intimidation but rather because she could not bear to see the people who murdered her brother walking the streets.

One year on and the McCartney family are, by their own admission, hoping for a miracle every day. One man has been charged with and denies the murder of Robert McCartney. However, his campaigning sisters - Paula, Donna, Catherine, Claire and Gemma - know the names of 15 men who they believe were directly involved. Their struggle to ensure justice for their brother has brought them from the Short Strand to the White House, European Parliament and Downing Street.

Next week the sisters will return to the bar outside which Robert was stabbed and beaten to death. It will be a painful experience for them, but one they are determined to endure to help police launch a new appeal. Police now believe that a large blue car revved its engine in the area where Robert was being assaulted.

While the exact sequence of events which occurred late on January 30, 2005 in Magennis’s Bar in Belfast City Centre may seem unclear, Paula McCartney is able to describe what she is convinced happened in microscopic detail.

Thirty-three-year-old Robert was drinking in a bar with his friend Brendan Devine and they were watching a football match on TV. Paula says Brendan Devine made a gesture at the screen. There were a group of women who thought the gesture was aimed at them. A row started in the bar between Devine and a number of known republicans. During the fight Brendan Devine has his throat cut. Robert McCartney tries to get him out of the bar to phone a taxi. They are followed outside on to Cromac Street. Both Brendan Devine and Robert McCartney are beaten. Robert is stabbed and fatally injured.

Paula recalls: “It was late on Sunday night. I was getting ready for bed, I was already in my pyjamas. My son had been babysitting for Robert and he phoned me up.

“When we arrived at hospital Robert was in theatre so we could not see him. Later the doctors told us that he would not make it. They told me I could go in but I did not want to see him like that. Robert was a decent and loyal man. His loyalty cost him his life because he would not leave his friend.”

Within hours of Robert’s death his family had been told the full version of what happened and who was involved. The following day police arrested six men, including a senior republican. They were later released without charge.

Paula said: “When we were told about what happened to Robert we did not think there would be any problem with the police. There was no mystery, everyone knew the names so we just waited for the police to charge them.

“Then the police told us that there had been a forensic clean-up of the crime scene before they had arrived. This set alarm bells ringing but we were still hopeful. Then we were told that people in the bar on the night had been told not to say anything because this was an IRA operation; that was when we realised there was something more sinister going on.

“Even now the police have been told very little. They have 159 statements but most of them are very weak. There are 15 people who were directly involved in Robert’s death. We maintain that a senior IRA man gave the order that Robert should be stabbed.

“His killing was not sanctioned by the IRA but it was one of their men who gave the order and they closed ranks around him. He used and abused his position.”

Frustrated by the early lack of progress in the police investigation, the McCartney sisters and Bridgeen Hagans, the mother of Robert’s two sons Conlaed and Brandon, decided that they would go public as they battled for justice. It was a decision which was to open them up to global attention but also expose them to a sustained period of intimidation.

Paula said: “At this point the family felt that something just had to be done, we did not think about the consequences or about what might happen to us. We had all this information, what were we supposed to do - say nothing?”

The McCartney family quickly found themselves the centre of media attention, in demand for interviews across the world. Their campaign for justice seriously embarrassed and undermined the republican movement. Sinn Fein, which suspended a number of party members who were in Magennis’s bar, was caught in the position of demanding that members disclose what they knew but refusing to support the PSNI investigation. As the McCartney campaign grew, an embarrassed provisional movement offered to shoot the men who had killed Robert, a gesture which was met with ridicule. The ultimate blow for republicans occurred on St Patrick’s Day when the McCartney sisters met George Bush in the White House but the Sinn Fein leadership was snubbed by the US administration. The McCartneys also began raising money for a possible civil court action.

Paula said: “It is all a bit of a blur now. We made contact with the American Consulate and it was suggested we should go to the White House.

“We were just trying to get justice for Robert but it was like everyone else went mad and started shooting off in different directions.”

The cost of the high profile obtained by the sisters and Bridgeen was a series of threats and attacks. Bridgeen had the house where she lived with Robert’s two sons pelted with missiles. Paula was sent threatening letters and newspaper clippings about Robert smeared with excrement. Police told her of three separate death threats. Eventually the whole family decided to leave the Short Strand area. Paula was the last McCartney to leave, moving to a new home in south Belfast in October.

She said: “We were too angry to be afraid. They had already done the worst thing possible by taking Robert away from us. I just kept thinking what is wrong with these people?

“I had already decided to leave the Short Strand. It was not because of intimidation because I would not be intimidated. It was because I saw these people on a daily basis, they were people you had known all your life. Leaving was not as hard as I thought because I was already beyond disgust at the betrayal.”

The first anniversary of Robert’s death brings back painful memories for the McCartneys, particularly Bridgeen and her sons Conlaed and Brandon.

Paula said: “Christmas was horrific for Conlaed and Brandon. Bridgeen was also very down and just could not pick herself up. We all just wanted to get it over with. But we have to look forward now, we are sitting every day waiting for a miracle. We have to keep hoping and stay positive that the breakthrough will come. We have gone too far down this road to turn back now. The people who did this to Robert are still walking the streets bragging about it.

“As well as the new police appeal on Tuesday we will be going back to Robert and Bridgeen’s home in the Short Strand. We want to make it a day for them and will be inviting all the people who knew him to call round.

“We will also be launching a new website in the next few weeks so people can pass on information.

“There is also the civil action to consider, the planning goes on for that. It would be nice to think we would not need to go down that road but I think inevitably we will.”

The impact of the McCartney’s public campaign has been felt by victims from both sides of the community in Northern Ireland. It has encouraged other grieving families of paramilitary murders, like Lisa Dorrian and Craig McCausland, to refuse to be silent victims. The fear and deference towards paramilitary control has been challenged and diminished.

Paula said: “That is something which has surprised me. A lot of people have come forward and told us that what we did inspired them to speak up. I am glad that if we never achieved anything else then at least we have given some people the strength to demand justice for their loved ones.

“The police have done all they can. They gathered the evidence that was available to them but people will not come forward. I think the police are just as frustrated as we are. I am just hoping that someone who has not slept for a year because of what they know will decide to speak up.

“I don’t believe people are as afraid today as they were a year ago. I do not understand their fear anyway because the information can be passed on anonymously. I do not believe it is all about fear, I believe it is about loyalty too.

“After all this time and all we have done, I still can’t believe or accept Robert is dead.

“I do not know what it will take to make it register with me.”

Irelandclick

Representatives of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in the United States visited Belfast and Derry at the weekend to present donations to numerous charitable organisations and also to attend the Bloody Sunday commemorations, writes Seán P Feeney.

Dave Burke, National Director of the AOH, past National AOH President George Clough Jr, and Bob Collins of the National AOH Board attended various meetings, including an annual function at the Felons Club on Friday.

“For those of us on the National Board, like George, Bob and myself, it’s really not a socialising trip. Because of the positions we hold and the offices we hold we have a great degree of responsibility. We are here to get the latest information and attend important meetings,” said Dave Burke.

“It was because of George Clough that we started this and we give money to about six or seven organisations, such as the Green Cross and the Pat Finucane Centre in Derry.”

The AOH has been giving money to help the dependants of prisoners since 1972.

“In 1990 George and I owned gift shops and used to come over to the trade show at the RDS in Dublin. So we said why don’t we hand-carry the cheques over. A few years later we thought, why don’t we go to Belfast as well?

“So for the last 14 years we’ve been coming to Belfast and we go to a function at the Felons Club and we’ve been very privileged to give a little talk on the campaign for human rights. We usually get anywhere from 100 to 200 people, and a senior official of Sinn Féin usually holds an educational presentation.”

George Clough said that the campaign has expanded now that most republican prisoners have been released.

“Initially, for the first ten years it was to help the dependants of the people in Long Kesh. The money is substantial. We have raised well over a quarter of a million dollars in the past 15 years, maybe more.”

Bob Collins said that this money comes from various projects that the AOH runs throughout the year in the States.

“Dave has started a ‘Ten Club’, where every member gives ten dollars apiece throughout the country. We’ve raised quite a bit of money that way and every year during the month of December our National Chairman, Brendan Moore, does the AOH Christmas Appeal for political prisoners. We ask people to give a voluntary donation and whatever we raise we then disperse to the coordinating bodies over here.”

The American representatives of the AOH met with the members of the AOH in Derry on Saturday. Their National Chaplain, Father Patrick Sullivan, held a Mass at the AOH Club in Derry on Saturday.

AOH members from the States also flew over to march in the Bloody Sunday commemoration.

“We try and use it as an educational campaign and bring our members over here and have a few lectures and go to the Bloody Sunday march.“

Dave said there is one main project that the AOH is working on for the next ten years.

“I introduced a resolution at a convention last year to have advance planning for the hundredth anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. We don’t want the thing to be hijacked, we want it to be educational and of substance. We are hoping to have negotiations with the Irish government so that a full course is introduced on 1916 in all the schools.”

Past projects to which the AOH have made large donations include the 1798 Wolfe Tone Memorial in Kildare and the St Brigid’s Shrine in Dundalk.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians, formed in New York in 1836, is the oldest Catholic lay organisation in the United States.

Today they are the largest Irish ethnic society in the world with Divisions across the United States, and close ties with the AOH in Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.

Annual dances, concerts and parades sponsored at all levels of the Order raise millions for charity while providing a showcase for the positive contributions the Irish have made in every walk of American life.

BBC

Maze plan marries sport and politics

By Gareth Gordon
BBC Northern Ireland political correspondent

There used to be barbed wire, high concrete walls and dangerous inmates from all of Northern Ireland’s warring paramilitary groups.

Now the government’s vision for the once-troubled Maze Prison site, the ultimate marriage of sports and politics, is finally unveiled.

Click to see the plans for the Maze site - The 42,500-seater stadium and conflict transformation centre are half a mile apart, separated by an equestrian facility and exhibition centre. The masterplan also depicts new road and rail links.

Until now, the Maze masterplan, drawn up by the company which designed the template for the London 2012 Olympics bid, has been known only to a select band of designers, officials and a few politicians, but a copy has been obtained by the BBC.

It shows how the plan’s two most controversial elements - a 42,500-seater stadium and a conflict transformation centre, featuring some of the old prison’s most controversial history - are to be married together.

To complete this picture, add a 5,000-seat indoor arena; a rural excellence and equestrian zone featuring an international exhibition centre and showgrounds; an hotel; offices; cafés and restaurants and a multi-screen cinema alongside an industrial zone with the potential for up to 6,000 jobs; housing and parkland.

The plan also outlines how the government intends countering the other main reservation expressed about the Maze: its location.

The design shows a new junction and link road onto the site from the M1 to the south. And to the north, the Blaris Road to Lisburn will be upgraded.

There are also plans for a rail link and park-and-ride system close to the stadium, though these will not be ready by the stadium’s planned opening date in 2010.

The thinking is that two entry and exit roads will be required to the site to avoid, for example, problems which have been encountered by fans using the Reebok Stadium in Bolton.

WHAT’S PLANNED FOR THE MAZE?
–42,500-seater stadium
–Conflict transformation centre
–Indoor arena seating 5,000
–Rural excellence and equestrian zone with international exhibition centre and showgrounds
–Hotel
–Offices
–Cafés and restaurants
–Multi-screen cinema
–Industrial zone
–Housing and parkland
–Rail link and park-and-ride system
–Upgraded surrounding roads

The Maze consultation panel, which includes representatives from all four main parties, reached agreement on a way forward for the Maze/Long Kesh site in February 2005.

In June, the Reinvestment and Reform Minister, Jeff Rooker, appointed the London-based design specialists EDAW to draw up the masterplan.

The work also involved the architecture firm HOK, the company which designed the Arsenal and Wembley stadiums. They worked on the part of the plan linking the external stadium design with the rest of the site.

For this they drew up plans for a podium - just like at Arsenal and Wembley.

Underneath will be underground parking for 3,000 cars and service areas.

One of the H-blocks will house the conflict transformation centre

Above will be a large public space tying the stadium to the exhibition halls and the indoor arena, which are earmarked for sports like basketball, tennis and boxing.

The equestrian zone may become the new home for the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society, which currently stages the annual Balmoral Show at its headquarters in south Belfast.

The equestrian zone may also perform another very important function - it would separate the stadium from the International Conflict Transformation Centre (ICTC), a distance of more than half a mile.

For officials concerned about the sensitivities of housing both these facilities on the same patch of earth, the distance is important.

For Sinn Fein, preservation of at least part of the old prison site was key to them agreeing to the overall Maze plan.

It is hoped the stadium will be ready by 2010

But for some unionists the idea is anathema. It has even been derided as a “hunger strike museum” by some.

It is known that one of the old H-Blocks, H6, will be preserved - along with the prison hospital where the 10 republican hunger strikers died, as well as the administration block and two old aircraft hangars which date back to Long Kesh’s time as an airfield in World War Two.

Sources say that whatever form the ICCT finally takes, it must be agreed by the Maze Panel.

“In other words, the DUP will have a veto on what appears there, so it can hardly be viewed as something which will glorify republicans,” said one.

Opposition

But a glance at the popular Northern Ireland football fans’ website, Our Wee Country, shows that plans for the centre explain some of the opposition from a vocal group of supporters who do not want a stadium at the Maze.

Nevertheless, the decision by the Irish Football Association - along with the rugby and GAA authorities - to agree in principle to the Maze as a location, allows the government to move to the next stage which should see the three sports involved in the stadium design.

Sports Minister David Hanson would like to announce a decision within two months - though the tortuously slow progress to date suggests that timescale may be optimistic.

It’s hoped the stadium will be ready by 2010 - allowing two years for design and procurement and two years to build. The absolute cut-off point if it is to stage some soccer games in the 2012 Olympics is 2011.

There are still many potential obstacles which could make the Maze a non-runner.

But the OK from the three sports, albeit in response to a government deadline, and now the appearance of the Maze masterplan means the referee is closer to putting his whistle to his mouth.

Here are some photos I found on Yahoo search for yesterday:

Click to view - ‘An Irish Republican colour party carrying the Irish, right, and Republican youth flags, joins the Bloody Sunday 34th anniversary parade through the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006. The parade remembers the 13 civil rights marchers who were shot dead by members of the British Army’s parachute regiment on January 30 1972. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)’

Click to view - ‘An Irish Republican carrying an Irish flag, leads the Bloody Sunday 34th anniversary parade through the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006. The parade remembers the 13 civil rights marchers who were shot dead by members of the British Army’s parachute regiment on January 30 1972. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)’

Sinn Féin

Published: 30 January, 2006

Commenting after anonymous sources briefed sections of the media on the alleged contents of the forthcoming IMC Report, Sinn Féin Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness said that this was “the latest of many political briefings we have had over the last few months all designed to undermine attempts to get the political institutions back up and running”.

Mr McGuinness said:

“Even before the publication of the IMC report you have another anonymous ’senior source’ echoing the disputed comments from political detective Sam Kinkaid last week. Comments which were contradicted by British and Irish governments.

“The fact is the IMC is not an independent body with its own investigative powers.

“The fact is that the securocrats who were out briefing the media last night are the same people on whose word the IMC bases it reports - MI5 and PSNI Special Branch (C3). It is a completely farcical situation.

“This is only one of many political briefings we have had over the last few months all designed to undermine attempts to get the political institutions back up and running. The governments have stated their determination to move ahead. They shouldn’t allow intelligence agencies with a vested interest, either inside or outside of the IMC, to derail that work.” ENDS

Belfast Telegraph

By Maxine Frith
30 January 2006

The family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the innocent Brazilian shot dead by police at Stockwell Tube station last July, have demanded a public inquiry into his death following allegations that Special Branch officers changed vital evidence in an attempt to cover up fatal blunders in the case.

An undercover surveillance team altered an official log to hide the fact that they had wrongly identified Mr Menezes as a suspect in the failed July 21 bombings in London, according to a leaked copy of the official report into the shooting.

Mr Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician, was shot seven times in the head. Armed officers mistakenly believed he was a suicide bomber as he boarded a Tube train on 22 July.

Earlier this month a confidential report into the case by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service, which will decide whether any of the officers should face criminal charges.

A leaked copy of the report obtained by the News of the Worldsaid the IPCC found that the undercover surveillance team saw Mr Menezes coming out of a house in Tulse Hill and, according to a first draft of a police control room log, identified him as Hussein Osman, a suspect in the July 21 attacks. Commander Cressida Dick, the Scotland Yard officer responsible for the firearms team, then instigated Operation Kratos, the anti-terrorist strategy that permits suspected suicide bombers to be shot.

The IPCC report found that 10 hours after the shooting, by which time it was known the dead man was innocent, the Special Branch team attended a debriefing meeting in which they were allowed to make alterations to the log. A line in it was changed from saying the team said Mr Menezes “was Osman” by the insertion of the word “not” - passing the blame to the Scotland Yard team.

The amendments were supposed to be signed and accompanied by an explanation, but this was not done, in an apparent attempt to pass off the revised log as the original. According to the newspaper, the IPCC report concludes: “This looks like an attempt to try to distance Special Branch from the decision [to shoot Mr Menezes].”

The alleged changes were made 14 hours before Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was told that the dead man was the victim of a tragic case of mistaken identity. The surveillance team has reportedly denied changing the log and claims that elsewhere it makes clear that doubts had been raised about the identification.

Asad Rehman, who represents the family, said: “From the family’s perspective this is just one more in a long line of lies and deception. It makes them more adamant to learn how and why he died. The only way that can be done is by a full public inquiry.”

The family has called on the CPS to reach a decision on whether to prosecute by 16 February.

Newshound

(Bimpe Fatogun, Irish News)

A Republican outpost in the middle of loyalist east Belfast, the Short Strand’s sense of community emerges from more than 80 years of vicious interface violence.

Dotted around the grounds of St Matthew’s parish church, which serves the Short Strand residents, are little crosses no larger than five inches in height.

The black crosses, inserted into the tarmac on smooth white disks, represent parishioners killed during the parish’s turbulent history.

The church’s vulnerable position at the edge of the Short Strand close to the loyalist Newtownards Road has seen it come under attack at various times in the past.

As early as 1920 the church found itself under attack from a large mob, partly made up of workers from the nearby shipyard.

The church railings were breached and stones were hurled at the church itself and troops brought in to defend it.

Former Irish News journalist RPP Hayes recalled in Watching for Daybreak, a history of the parish: “I remember vividly the struggle to save St Matthew’s church from armed fanatics at the outset.

“The fighting was fierce in the extreme. Anarchy prevailed in the east end, with soldiers entrenched in the church grounds, while youthful members of the congregation kept the mobs at bay at side avenues to the sacred quarters.”

St Matthew’s was also targeted on Sunday April 23 1922 when a bomb was thrown into its grounds as the congregation was entering the church for evening devotions.

Elizabeth McCabe, a woman in her early thirties, was killed and a member of the RIC was seriously injured.

On May 21 1922 the congregation was fired on as it left Mass, with one man wounded.

Summer 1970 marked the start of another turbulent period for the area with loyalists and residents clashing amid gunfire and petrol bombs.

British troops moved into St Matthew’s Parochial Hall, making it the only Belfast parish where the military took up residence to defend a church.

St Matthew’s became a focus for attacks with an arson attempt in July 14 1989 and another two months later.

It was again set on fire after a sectarian clash in Bryson Street in May 1993.

“All through that time the feeling in the area was that the IRA was protecting us,” one resident said.

“For years the area has been surrounded by loyalist areas and has been attacked lots of times and the IRA has defended the area. Everyone has seen them very much as being saviours and protectors.”

More recently violence sparked during the Orange Order’s marching season has escalated into serious disturbances.

In 2001 and 2002 the area came under sustained attack amid accusations from both sides that the other was orchestrating the violence.

On one occasion St Matthews was attacked during a funeral.

However, according to people living in the Short Strand the Robert McCartney case has now caused internal tension.

One resident claimed: “For the last five, six, seven years the whole area has just gone downhill badly. There is no community spirit.”

Another resident, speaking anonymously, said: “Everyone knows everyone else in the district and everyone knows who was involved in what happened,” he said.

“These people are still walking along the streets and being involved in various other things. Basically they are a gang of bullies. They have been involved in a lot of skirmishes and fist-fights.

“For years teenage kids have been regularly threatened and when parents would have gone round to complain they would have been told the IRA did it.”

He claimed people were too frightened to speak out.

The decision of Mr McCartney’s five sisters and his fiancee to speak out against his killers and demand that they be brought to justice made headlines across the world.

“The majority of people I would say are fully behind the McCartneys,” the resident said.

“The McCartneys went through a hard, hard time and a long time and in the end they couldn’t take anymore of the constant harassment and reminder.”

Patricia Johnston of the Short Strand Women’s Group said there was no division in the area.

“This community stands behind the McCartney’s in their fight for justice. I don’t know if anybody can say who did it,” she said.

Others in the area say they feel that the image of the community has been damaged by the fallout from the sisters’ campaign.

Christy Keenan, a Sinn Féin activist and “republican of 35 years standing”, said Mr McCartney’s death shocked the whole community.

“He was a member of the community too and I would have called on him for help as quick as anyone else,” he said.

“However, we are angry at the way his death has been used to demonise republicanism.

“As a republican I would be working towards getting the justice that the family deserve.”

He was particularly angered by the sisters’ account to Irish America last St Patrick’s Day of an IRA which had turned away from its “romantic past” to gangsterism.

Despite these feelings of anger Mr Keenan insists there has been no split in the area.

“There are 2,500-odd people here. You are talking about a group of extended families. You are talking about a falling out between families and you know what that can be like. It can be very bitter,” he said.

“But at the end of the day you can not say this community is fractured. This community has come through 30 years and it’s going to still be here in another 30 years.”

The resident who declined to be named disagrees, insisting that the continued existence of people known to be the killers in the area is placing it under enormous strain.

“People draw a distinction between these people and republicanism,” he said.

“A lot of people in the area were republicans years ago. They would have served prison terms. They are proper republicans.

“A lot of community spirit has been lost going back for years because these people formed a Mafia gang. Now people are standing up to them but it’s still not the same.

“To be honest, if I had the opportunity I would move out tomorrow.”

January 29, 2006
________________

This article appeared first in the January 27, 2006 edition of the Irish News.

BreakingNews.ie

30/01/2006 - 17:24:11

Northern Ireland’s big two loyalist paramilitary organisations will co-operate on a major initiative to abandon all violence for good, a senior source said tonight.

Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force bosses are expected to make a pact not to recruit any men thrown out of either group during attempts to move away from crime.

Both terror groups have been holding internal talks over their future directions following the IRA’s decision to end its armed campaign and decommission.

But with senior loyalists unconvinced that all Provo guns were destroyed last September, an imminent disarmament move by the Protestant paramilitaries was ruled out.

Disbandment of either the UDA or UVF is also highly unlikely.

Instead the discussions, which British government officials are being kept abreast of, are centred on moving the organisations away from sectarianism and racketeering towards greater political and cultural involvement.

High ranking loyalists said the process has already yielded results in parts of Belfast where levels of drug dealing has diminished.

Part of this is due to the new regime installed in the east of the city by the UDA since its flamboyant commander Jim “Doris Day” Gray was ousted and assassinated last year.

“We’re both involved in processes,” an authoritative source confirmed.

“There will have to be a cross-over at a few stages along the line.

“If people are expelled from either organisation the other won’t take them in.

“There shouldn’t be a need to recruit anymore anyway. There’s no war out there.”

The UVF has set up a conflict transformation panel to draw up its future strategy.

No deadlines were installed, but it has been consulting thousands of members in units, or battalions, across Northern Ireland.

UDA contact with representatives from the British government and General John de Chastelain’s international disarmament body has also continued.

“Personally I wouldn’t see disbandment as likely,” a senior loyalist said.

“The IRA said it has left the stage, but P O’Neill (IRA pen name) issued a statement at Christmas.

“We’re not foolish enough to believe the IRA gave up all their weapons last year, so what loyalists do with theirs has to be dealt with.

“What happens is another thing. That would be for the interlocutor and de Chastelain.

“But we heard for so long that the IRA was going to make a seismic move on arms then it kept being put back. We will not be making any promises.”

BBC

The Independent Monitoring Commission has handed its latest report on paramilitary activity to the British and Irish governments.

The report will not be made public until later this week.

It is expected to report positively on the lack of IRA paramilitary activity since the organisation said it was ending its campaign last year.

However, the report is also likely to reflect the PSNI’s belief republicans are still involved in organised crime.

NI Security Minister Shaun Woodward said: “What people will have to do is wait to Wednesday, look at that IMC report and the question they have to ask is what progress has been made.”

He said he had “absolute confidence in the IMC”.

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness said there had been a “political briefing” to the media ahead of the IMC report’s publication.

“The fact is the IMC is not an independent body with its own investigative powers,” he said.

‘Portrayed as crucial’

The Independent Monitoring Commission was set up by the British and Irish governments in January 2004 to monitor the activity of paramilitary organisations.

It also monitors the “normalisation” of security measures in Northern Ireland.

Its four commissioners come from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Britain and the US.

BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport said: “The four IMC commissioners will be in Belfast on Monday finalising their report before, if all goes to plan, handing it to the governments during the afternoon.

“When the IRA called off its campaign and disarmed last year, this report was being portrayed as crucial to providing the organisation with a so-called ‘clean bill of health’.

“But in the intervening months, expectations have been tempered - especially after the leak of a confidential police assessment that the IRA was making some progress in some areas, but had not ceased involvement in organised crime.

“Government sources said they hoped today’s report would show the organisation was closing down, but they don’t expect a ‘council of perfection’.”