SAOIRSE32

uk.news.yahoo.com

Tuesday January 17, 03:35 PM

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Scientists in Ireland may have found the country’s most fertile male, with more than 3 million men worldwide among his offspring.

The scientists, from Trinity College Dublin, have discovered that as many as one in twelve Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a 5th-century warlord who was head of the most powerful dynasty in ancient Ireland.

His genetic legacy is almost as impressive as Genghis Khan, the Mongol emperor who conquered most of Asia in the 13th century and has nearly 16 million descendants, said Dan Bradley, who supervised the research.

“It’s another link between profligacy and power,” Bradley told Reuters. “We’re the first generation on the planet where if you’re successful you don’t (always) have more children.”

The research was carried out by PhD student Laoise Moore, at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity. Moore, testing the Y chromosome which is passed on from fathers to sons, examined DNA samples from 800 males across Ireland.

The results — which have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics — showed the highest concentration of related males in northwest Ireland, where one in five males had the same Y chromosome.

Bradley said the results reminded the team of a similar study in central Asia, where scientists found 8 percent of men with the same Y chromosome. Subsequent studies found they shared the same chromosome as the dynasty linked to Genghis Khan.

GENGHIS KHAN EFFECT

“It made us wonder if there could be some sort of Genghis Khan effect in Ireland and the best candidate for it was Niall,” Bradley said.

His team then consulted with genealogical experts who provided them with a contemporary list of people with surnames that are genealogically linked to the last known relative of the “Ui Neill” dynasty, which literally means descendants of Niall.

The results showed the new group had the same chromosome as those in the original sample, proving a link between them and the Niall descendants.

“The frequency (of the Y chromosome) was significantly higher in that genealogical group than any other group we tested,” said Bradley, whose surname is also linked to the mediaeval warlord. Other modern surnames tracing their ancestry to Niall include Gallagher, Boyle, O’Donnell and O’Doherty.

For added proof, the scientists used special techniques to age the Y chromosome, according to how many mutations had occurred in the genetic material over time. The number of mutations was found to be in accordance with chromosomes that would date back to the last known living relative of Niall.

Niall reportedly had 12 sons, many of whom became powerful Irish kings themselves. But because he lived in the 5th century, there have been doubts the king — who is said to have brought the country’s patron saint, Patrick, to Ireland — even existed.

“Before I would have said that characters like Niall were almost mythological, like King Arthur, but this actually puts flesh on the bones,” Bradley said.

When international databases were checked, the chromosome also turned up in roughly 2 percent of all male New Yorkers.

Sinn Féin

Published: 17 January, 2006

Sinn Féin Assembly member Gerry Kelly will take part in a debate on Policing in UCD this evening. Others taking part in the discussion include former Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald, Alliance party MLA Eileen Bell, Fianna Fail adviser Martin Manseragh and SDLP leader Mark Durkan.

Speaking before the debate Mr Kelly said that Sinn Féin were determined to deliver effective and accountable policing throughout the island.

Mr Kelly said:

“Sinn Féin wants to see an all-island police service established. In the interim, we want policing services North and South that can attract widespread support from, and that are seen as an integral part of, the community as a whole.

“We want effective policing with local democratic accountability, shaped as a community service and imbued with that human rights ethos. We have an opportunity now to shape the policing of the future for the people of Ireland. It is critical that we get it right.

“Any modern society needs and wants an effective and responsive police service. Ireland is no different in that regard. Where we differ substantially is in the history and experience of policing as an instrument of repression particularly in the six counties.

“Rightly because of the legacy of the RUC as a unionist paramilitary militia and the failure to date of the British government to implement Patten in full there has been much focus on getting policing right in the north.

“Seven years ago, the negotiating process culminated in the Good Friday Agreement. We won the argument that the status quo had failed, including policing and justice. The Agreement declared we needed a new beginning to policing and defined the criteria for a civic policing service. That is the position Sinn Féin supports. Achieving this is a priority issue and task for Sinn Fein.

“Since 1998, we have seen the British government enact flawed legislation on policing and on justice. On both occasions, we have fought and eventually won amending legislation to repair some of the damage and restore the agenda for change.

“The record of the last seven years shows the huge advances which have been made. We know that good laws will not in themselves end bad policing. But bad laws would make good policing all but impossible.

That is why the onus is on the British government to bring forward its proposals and to enact legislation to give full expression to the transfer of powers away from London and out of the hands of British securocrats.

“However our vision is much wider than that. At the weekend we held a conference in Belfast as part of the process of setting out an all-Ireland vision of policing and justice on the island.

“People whether they be in Kerry or Derry deserve accountable, civic policing in which they can place their trust. Reform and greater accountability of the Gardaí are urgently needed . The onus for change is on the Minister and the key to this is reform that introduces effective oversight of the Garda Síochána and real accountability to communities.

“The Gardaí are a legitimate police service, and I recognise the good work done by many Gardaí over the years. However, their history is not unblemished. And it is not just a case of a few bad apples in the Heavy Gang, or a bushel of them in Donegal. Misconduct has been much more widespread. The Special Branch has also been used as a political police force against republicans. The power of the Gardaí has been abused and those guilty have generally gotten off scot-free.

“Clearly it is long past the time for the establishment of the fully independent complaints procedure under a single Garda Ombudsman. Indeed, the Good Friday Agreement commitment to equivalence in human rights protections north and south requires the establishment of a single Garda Ombudsman.

“Republicans don’t pretend to have a monopoly on ideas in relation to justice and policing. There are questions about the future development of policing and justice on this island which we must consider as a society. Sinn Féin are determined to make our contribution to that debate. “ ENDS

Western People

By: Christy Loftus
Tuesday, January 17, 2006

SINN Féin are on the March in Mayo. The Party was out in force on Sunday in Swinford to select Cllr Gerry Murray as their candidate in the forthcoming general election. Up to two hundred delegates provided a loud and resounding endorsement of his candidacy in the Gateway Hotel.

Against a backdrop of huge banners of the 1916 proclamation and the seven signatories, of Michael Davitt, Kathleen Lynn and the hunger strikers Jack McNeela, Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg, the delegates set about the job in a brisk and businesslike fashion.

There was no back-clapping and, unusually for party political conventions, no back-stabbing. The Chairman of the East Mayo cumann briefly welcomed the delegates before giving way to Tom Mangan, Chairman of Sinn Féin Mayo whose job it was to welcome their guests.Among them were Caitriona Ruane, South Down MLA, the Castlebar native who was born in Swinford, the former candidate Vincent Wood who secured a creditable two and a half thousand votes in the 2002 election and now a member of the Sinn Féin Árd Comhairle, Mark Kenny the Roscommon/ South Leitrim candidate, Cllr Mick Mulligan, Roscommon and Micheál O’Sheighin (of the Ross-port 5) agus a bhean Caitlín, for whom a special welcome was cheered out.

The chairperson set out the agenda which allowed for debate on a one or two candidate strategy, but the delegates were having none of it and moved immediately to nominations.

Ms Rose Conway-Walsh of the Sean McNeela Cumann, Ballycroy proposed Cllr Murray “an Irish Republican who strives to bring about a sovereign 32 county republic and works to bring an end to partition and achieve the united, independent and free Ireland previous generations have struggled for.”

She pointed out that in the last local elections (2004) the established parties had searched up every tree in East Mayo to find someone to ‘take Murray out.’ He had not reacted or retaliated but quietly gave them their answer by top-ping the poll with almost 2,000 votes.

His stand alone independence on Mayo County Council had earned him the respect and support of people all over Mayo. He had shown an excellent appetite for work and was deeply involved in reorganising the Party in the county.

“Gerry Murray recognises the need for a fully inclusive society where the people are sovereign and equality is not just a buzzword. Unlike other parties and individuals who are driven by elitism and the need to control people, Gerry Murray and the Sinn Féin Party work towards the empowerment of people,” she said.

“The people of Mayo are fed up with the gombeen politics that has existed in this county for years and the disempowerment of people by the granting of so-called ‘favours’ by politicians who do not want people to be aware of their rights. Instead they want to hold on to the dependency culture whereby people feel obliged to vote for them.

“The greatest fear of the establishment politicians is an empowered nation where people are aware of their rights and are no longer afraid,” she said.

Quoting the late great Republican Joe Cahill she said it was easy to make war but hard to make peace. There was a difficult task ahead of them but with a candidate like Gerry Murray “our road will be much easier to travel.”

Cllr Murray’s nomination was seconded by Castlebar delegate Tommy Deveraux… a development that augured poorly for Castlebar town councillor Noel Camp-bell’s chances of securing the nomination.

Campbell was proposed and seconded but withdrew from the contest after pointing out neglect of Castlebar and Mayo over the past decades by successive goverments had prompted his nomination. The recent Euro and local elections had resulted in huge gains for Sinn Féin in Mayo and they could win a seat in the general election if that momentum was maintained.

“Gerry is a fine candidate who secured 23% of the vote in the Swinford area, he is a very experienced member and nobody can argue with the merits of his candidacy. I withdraw my name in favour of Gerry Murray and promise him my full support,” he said.

Congratulating Cllr Murray on his nomination, Mr Vincent Wood said the candidate was a man of considerable intellect and unquestionable integrity who continued to outperform the two major parties on Mayo County Council who united as one against him.

Ms Cathriona Ruane said the next twelve months would be difficult and time consuming for Sinn Féin. The IRA decision to decommission put the peace talks back on the agenda and they were now faced with the prospect of sharing power with a very right wing political party. But it was the right thing to do at this time so that the Executive could get back into politics on behalf of the people.

They would also be commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Maze hunger strikes. It was important that they remind themselves of Bobby Sands and people like Frank Stagg, Jack McNeela and Michael Gaughan.

The media gave the impression that Sinn Féin was in disarray but that was far from the truth. She urged the right wing media to read about Bobby Sands and the Sinn Féin people who were beaten, jailed, tortured and marginalised. The regressive legislation Michael McDowell was introducing to curb Sinn Féin served only to unite the marginalised behind the one party that offered an alternative to the right wing policies of the Government.

Referring to Cllr Murray she said he was committed, hardworking, shrewd and cunning but he combined those characteristics with being an ordinary, decent person who fights for the ordinary people.

“I have watched him in action. I have canvassed with him. He is honest. He does not patronise. He is part of the Mayo team and part of the 32 county team.

“We need to show that Mayo is on the move and the best way to do that is to get Gerry Murray elected. You have to start marching and get moving now,” she said.

In a wide ranging acceptance address, Cllr Murray said sovereignty and independence were still core issues in Irish politics. Continued partition denied Irish independence and the potential for political, social and economic progress. The Good Friday Agreement was a compromise which caused great difficulty for Irish republicans and yet remained unimplemented.

“The Irish Government has a key responsibility to ensure the implementation of the Agreement and Sinn Féin will continue to hold the Government fully to account in Leinster House and in the constituencies on this matter,” he warned.

He added that Irish sovereignty also meant the sovereignty of the people. Such sovereignty did not exist where multinational corporations like Shell were been control of the natural resources and were allowed ride roughshod over local communities.

“Equality does not exist where we have a two-tier health system where wealth buys the best care in the private system while our public health service struggles from crisis to crisis. And there is no real independence where an Irish government has subordinated foreign policy to the needs of NATO and an increasingly militarised EU,” he said.

Cllr Murray identified Knock Airport, the Western Rail Corridor and the empowering of local communities as key planks in his platform in the campaign and laid it on the line for the three major parties when he stated: “the recent scare tactics used by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and Justice Minister Michael McDowell have been made in the vain hope of stopping Sinn Fein’s growth.

“This is the same mind set that sustained and anchored British Rule in this Country for over eight hundred years. It is the same mind set and mentality that Repulicans have had to struggle against for centuries.

“The reality is that Sinn Féin represents disadvantaged communities across this country who have long been abandoned by both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. And the current attacks are an attempt not just to stem the growth of Sinn Fein but to force us to starting singing from the same economic hymn sheet as the established parties in this state.”

BBC

Policing Board members were told IRA still involved in organised crime

The BBC understands that the PSNI’s most senior detective has told Policing Board members that the IRA is still involved in organised crime.

The comments came in a private briefing to the board on Tuesday.

The assessment from the assistant chief constable in charge of crime operations Sam Kinkaid contrasts with comments from Security Minister Shaun Woodward.

Last month, Mr Woodward told the BBC that the IRA was no longer involved in criminal activity.

BBC NI political correspondent Mark Devenport said he understands Mr Woodward was present during Tuesday’s briefing and said he stood by his original comments.

It is believed Mr Kincaid said there had been significant progress in terms of ending some activities on the part of the IRA, such as paramilitary attacks and armed robberies.

However, he told board members that no paramilitary group, including the IRA, has ceased involvement in organised crime.

He said the police had seen no change in this for a year.

Neither the police or the government has commented on the matter as they say it was a private briefing.

RTÉ

17 January 2006 17:59

The Dublin Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the deal reached between the GAA, IRFU and FAI today that will see rugby and soccer internationals being played at Croke Park in 2007.

The chamber says the deal will support jobs in Dublin.

The DCC Chief Executive, Gina Quin, said the capital’s economy could have lost more than €90 million over the next two years if soccer and rugby home internationals were switched overseas.
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Ms Quin said studies had shown the three soccer and two rugby internationals which will take place in 2007 will each contribute up to €30m to the Dublin economy.

The deal between the GAA, the IRFU and the FAI, was announced in a joint statement this afternoon.

It has been confirmed that Lansdowne Road will not be available in 2007 because of redevelopment.

It is expected that at least two rugby internationals scheduled for February 2007 and three soccer fixtures in March, October and November 2007 will be played in Croke Park.

GAA, IRFU, FAI to review deal in 2007

The three organisations have not discussed the situation after 2007, which is to be reviewed in the context of the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road.

The agreement comes weeks before the FAI and IRFU are required to confirm their international home fixture venues with their respective international boards.

Seán Kelly, President of the GAA, has welcomed the deal, saying it was practical and necessary to ensure that Irish sport and Irish sports followers did not have to travel abroad.

Mr Kelly added that the deal means the Irish economy will still benefit from rugby and soccer internationals while Lansdowne Road is being redeveloped.

The Chief Executive of the FAI, John Delaney, described today’s agreement as a historic day for soccer and for sport in Ireland.

Mr Delaney added that the prospect of an Irish international soccer team playing in Croke Park would appeal to everyone with an interest in sport.

Philip Browne, Chief Executive of the IRFU, said the agreement was a significant milestone in Irish sporting history, and said the entire rugby community would look forward to what he said would be magnificent sporting occasions at Croke Park.

MedicalPost.com

A physician-author recrafts an historic event into a struggle of love versus loyalty

By Philip Hall

In the endless annals of humans’ inhumanity to our own kind, Northern Ireland’s decades of “troubles” are but one brief chapter. Except perhaps for the Irish, the carnage and potential lessons from that era have been obscured by America’s disastrous adventures in Iraq. But such forgetting is opportunity lost.

In Ulysses, James Joyce has Stephen comment that “History . . . is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” Ireland is now among Europe’s most prosperous and peaceful nations. Perhaps we should be less profligate with our attention.

Ulster-raised Canadian author, doctor and reasonably talented sailor Patrick Taylor has written Now and in the Hour of Our Death, a cracker of a novel that takes us back to deeply divided Northern Ireland of 1983. On Saturday Sept. 25 of that year, a large number of Provisional Irish Republican Army “Provos”—the BBC initially reported 38 but later estimates were more than 130—escaped from the infamous Maze maximum security prison near Lisburn. One prison officer was stabbed and later died, while five others were injured but survived, one shot in the head. The largest prison breakout in British history, this event at “The Kesh” became a major government embarrassment. Ten escapees were recaptured within hours—four discovered underwater breathing through reeds in a river close to the prison—and another nine by the following Wednesday. By 1992, four more had been apprehended and three were killed in ambushes. The rest were either pardoned during Northern Ireland’s peace process or disappeared for good.

Dr. Taylor has re-crafted this historic event into a compelling tale of passion and internal struggle between loyalty to a cause and love for a soulmate.

The book is a sequel to Dr. Taylor’s Pray for Us Sinners (2000, Insomniac Press), set in 1974. It is unnecessary to have read it to enjoy its sequel, but I was so captured by this latest narrative that I reread Sinners for its similarly gripping story and writing skill. The characters in both use raw Ulsterspeak, for these works would be shallow simulacra without that blunt reality.

The narrative moves back and forth with counterpoint between the outer tension of County Tyrone and the inner tension of Fiona Kavanagh, who had retreated to the peace of Vancouver nine years before when her lover, Provo bombmaker Davy McCucheon, was incarcerated indefinitely in the Kesh. He is among the escapees, and with that I will leave this first-rate story for you to discover for yourself. But be prepared to read masterful use of antithesis; Dr. Taylor is not an author who scatters clues as to how his stories will end.

He leaves unanswered whether any good came from the lives lost from and ruined by Ireland’s cruelly violent troubles. But I think that is intentional, if not the central point of his story. Permanent closure of the Kesh was written into the Good Friday Agreement, and the last inmates transferred in September 2000.

With eloquence, Dr. Taylor offers reflections of both the darker and lighter aspects of the human soul and a hint as to why the murderous troubles finally burned out.

Philip Hall is professor at the University of Manitoba and a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at St. Boniface General Hospital.

Reuters

Tue Jan 17, 2006 8:54 AM ET
By Peter Apps COLOMBO (Reuters)

Suspected Tamil Tigers launched several attacks on Sri Lankan troops on Tuesday while Nordic truce monitors said they were suspending operations in the east because of security fears.

The army said one soldier had been killed and thirteen military personnel wounded in two claymore mine attacks in the minority Tamil-dominated north and east, while two civilians died in the crossfire.

Two more civilians, including a known rebel sympathizer, were shot dead in another incident.

Over 100 people, half from the military, have been killed in a flare-up of fighting in Sri Lanka since early December, straining a 2002 ceasefire between the Tigers and the government almost to breaking point and hammering the stock market.

The benchmark Colombo stock index fell 1.43 percent on Tuesday, continuing a slide since early last month.

The latest attacks came as Nordic envoys visited the Tiger headquarters ahead of a visit by peace broker Erik Solheim next week, seen as perhaps the last hope of averting a return to a two-decade-old civil war that has killed over 64,000.

The two sides have been unable to agree even a venue for talks, and while the Tigers deny involvement in recent attacks they accuse the army of a rising tide of rights abuses they say could spark conflict in the island once again.

A senior official from the United States — which brands the Tigers as a terrorist group — is also due to visit next week for talks with the government, while a Northern Irish political leader is in town to discuss lessons from that conflict. “Accommodation can only come through dialogue, that’s been the lesson of the Irish peace process,” said Martin McGuinness, chief negotiator for Irish Republican Army political ally Sinn Fein. “There can be no military solution to these types of political problems.”

TOO MUCH VIOLENCE

President Mahinda Rajapakse has already ruled out Tiger demands for a Tamil homeland encompassing the de facto state they control as well as nearby government-controlled Tamil areas, but the rebels are seen as unwilling to compromise.

In the northeastern port of Trincomalee, where a claymore attack on a navy bus wounded 12 sailors earlier in the day, the Nordic truce monitors said the security situation had become so bad they had suspended operations in the town — something they have done before in the north, but only rarely.

“There’s too much violence on the ground, culminating in the claymore attack today, making it too difficult to work,” said Helen Olafsdottir, spokeswoman for the Nordic-staffed unarmed Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission.

Aid workers in Trincomalee, a city that is home to members of the island’s Sinhalese majority as well as minority Muslim and Tamil communities, say ethnic tensions have also made their work difficult in an area hard-hit by last year’s tsunami.

The rebels’ official Web site said SLMM chief Hagrup Haukland had expressed concern at the rising violence when he met Tiger political leaders earlier in the day. For their part, the rebels again alleged mounting violence against Tamil civilians.

On Tuesday, the rebels’ political proxies, the Tamil National Alliance, interrupted parliament as it held its first session of the year, shouting slogans and carrying placards alleging army abuse.

The students union in the northern city of Jaffna — army-held but seen as the rebels main objective if war comes — said they would stop university activities in protest. The army says the rebels have incited the students, some of whom are said to have now gone to the Tigers for military training.

“Government violence and atrocities have been unleashed on Tamil society in the form of cordon and search operations, sexual abuse of women, attacks on students … shooting, baton-charging and assaults and threats in the name of search operations,” the union said in a letter to the university vice-chancellor.

(Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal in COLOMBO, Joe Ariyaratnam in JAFFNA and DUBLIN bureau)

The Australian

Rick Wallace
January 18, 2006

A FORMER IRA commander jailed for killing a British soldier and a Canadian professor with a string of criminal convictions in the 1960s are fighting the federal Government for the right to visit Australia.

Tommy McKearney and Bob Gaucher are among a group of speakers scheduled for a conference in Tasmania next month calling for the abolition of prisons, organised by prisoners’ rights group Justice Action. The group has accused the Government of “dragging the chain” on the men’s visa applications and jeopardising their visit.

Justice Action also hopes to secure a visa for Irish republican activist turned playwright Brenda Murphy, jailed during The Troubles for being a member of the IRA and possessing a gun.

The Government has the power to refuse visas to former prisoners who have served more than a year in jail on character grounds, and is assessing their applications.

Justice Action says the trio are examples of former prisoners who have turned their lives around..

Mr McKearney served 16 years in a Belfast jail for killing part-time soldier Stanley Adams. He has since set up a former prisoners’ support group in Ireland called Expac.

Justice Action said Professor Gaucher had a criminal record for robbery, burglary, cannabis possession and common assault, but said the crimes were in his distant past. He is now an associate professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa. Murphy now writes plays and short stories.

In 2004, the Irish pair were blocked from entering Canada to speak at a conference run by the University of Ottawa.

Justice Action spokesman Brett Collins said this decision and the delays by the Australian Government were outrageous.

An Immigration Department spokesman said an international events co-ordinator had been working with Justice Action since the middle of last year on the visa applications.

He said the department had to ensure people wanting to visit passed health and character criteria.

RTÉ

17 January 2006 17:06

British troop levels in Northern Ireland are about to drop to their lowest level in 30 years.

A battalion from the Royal Welch Fusiliers, based in Bessbrook in south Armagh, are starting to pull out and will be gone before the end of the week.

Their departure will see troop levels fall below 9,000, lower than at any time since the beginning of the 1970s.

One of their key tasks has been the manning of hilltop border observation posts. Three have been demolished but five remain.

A British Ministry of Defence spokesman said today that soldiers from the Cheshire Regiment, based in Ballykinlar, Co Down would transfer to Bessbrook to man the remaining observation posts.

Indymedia.ie

by Ógra B - Ógra Shinn Fein Tuesday, Jan 17 2006, 10:04am
osf6county@yahoo.com

End Political Policing!

Fifteen months after their arrest, two Ógra Shinn Féin activists John McDermot from Strabane and Daniel Turnbull from Omagh have appeared in court charged with obstruction, disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest.

At the time of their arrest in September 2004 Sinn Féin in Omagh accused the PSNI of heavy handed tactics after a number of protestors were beaten with batons and the two arrested at a peaceful protest against a British Army PR exercise at the Silver Birches Hotel.

Both men were released after two hours following a protest in which 100 people blocked the main entrance to Omagh PSNI Barracks.

Turnbull and McDermott appeared at Omagh Court House on Thursday 5 January. In order to coincide with the appearance, Ógra Shinn Fein held a solidarity protest which also aimed to highlight ongoing political harassment by the PSNI. Omagh Town Councillor Martin McColgan, Sean Begley and Barry McElduff MLA attended the protest.

Ógra Six-County Organiser Barry McColgan said: “The ongoing harassment and intimidation of Ógra activists and young nationalists and republicans across the North and especially here in Tyrone is totally unacceptable. I would call on all the main political parties and right thinking people to condemn this ongoing campaign of politically motivated harassment. We demand an end to this political policing.”
The verdict on the trial of the two Ógra activists will be announced on Wednesday 18 January.

http://www.osfbf.pro.ie

Daily Ireland

Letters to the editor
17/01/2006

The 87th anniversary of the Soloheadbeg ambush will be commemorated at the ambush site on Sunday, January 29. Mr Con O’Callaghan, chairperson of the Kilmichael Crossbarry Commemoration Committee, will deliver the oration.

Despite it being held in the depth of winter, this commemoration, which marks the start of the War of Independence and the meeting of the first Dáil Éireann, annually attracts a very big attendance. The parade will leave Coffeys Forge on the Tipp town to Cappawhite Road headed by the Seán Treacy Pipe Band at 2.30pm and will proceed to the ambush site. The organisers of this commemoration do so independent of any political organisations or associations and have done so from its formation.
Their aims are to remember the brave men who challenged British Empire rule in Ireland on a quiet Tipperary rural by-road on a cold January day in 1919, within a few miles of one of the largest British military bases in provincial Ireland.

The names of Dan Breen, Tadgh Crowe, Seán Hogan, Paddy McCormack, Paddy O’Dwyer, Séamas Robinson, Michael Ryan and Seán Treacy – the men who fired the first shots that inflicted fatal casualties on the British armed forces after Easter Week 1916 – began the War of Independence. Seán Ó Meara was in constant touch with the ambushers and Limerick Junction railway station, where dispatches were arriving, probably from the IRB in Dublin.

Those who made themselves available in the ambush over the course of the week, while awaiting the police escort, included Maurice Crowe, Arty Barlow, Con Power, Dinny Lacy, whose memories we equally honour. As a line from an old Fenian ballad states: “We may have great men but we will never have better” than the men who assembled at Soloheadbeg to challenge British rule.

Constable McDonald and Constable O’Connell who lost their lives in the ambush are also remembered in the prayers and their relatives attend the ceremonies annually and are an appreciated part of what is now a major event, marking the memorable beginning of unstoppable change in Irish history, at the place where it started —Soloheadbeg.

John J Hassett,
Thurles, Co Tipperary

Daily Ireland

Letters to the editor
17/01/2006

The 87th anniversary of the Soloheadbeg ambush will be commemorated at the ambush site on Sunday, January 29. Mr Con O’Callaghan, chairperson of the Kilmichael Crossbarry Commemoration Committee, will deliver the oration.

Despite it being held in the depth of winter, this commemoration, which marks the start of the War of Independence and the meeting of the first Dáil Éireann, annually attracts a very big attendance. The parade will leave Coffeys Forge on the Tipp town to Cappawhite Road headed by the Seán Treacy Pipe Band at 2.30pm and will proceed to the ambush site. The organisers of this commemoration do so independent of any political organisations or associations and have done so from its formation.
Their aims are to remember the brave men who challenged British Empire rule in Ireland on a quiet Tipperary rural by-road on a cold January day in 1919, within a few miles of one of the largest British military bases in provincial Ireland.

The names of Dan Breen, Tadgh Crowe, Seán Hogan, Paddy McCormack, Paddy O’Dwyer, Séamas Robinson, Michael Ryan and Seán Treacy – the men who fired the first shots that inflicted fatal casualties on the British armed forces after Easter Week 1916 – began the War of Independence. Seán Ó Meara was in constant touch with the ambushers and Limerick Junction railway station, where dispatches were arriving, probably from the IRB in Dublin.

Those who made themselves available in the ambush over the course of the week, while awaiting the police escort, included Maurice Crowe, Arty Barlow, Con Power, Dinny Lacy, whose memories we equally honour. As a line from an old Fenian ballad states: “We may have great men but we will never have better” than the men who assembled at Soloheadbeg to challenge British rule.

Constable McDonald and Constable O’Connell who lost their lives in the ambush are also remembered in the prayers and their relatives attend the ceremonies annually and are an appreciated part of what is now a major event, marking the memorable beginning of unstoppable change in Irish history, at the place where it started —Soloheadbeg.

John J Hassett,
Thurles, Co Tipperary

Daily Ireland

Patricia McKenna
17/01/2006

The proposed legislation that would have allowed people currently classified as “on-the-runs” to return to Northern Ireland without having to serve time in prison for offences committed before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement has been scrapped. The decision has be warmly welcomed by all political parties as well as by human-rights and victim support groups.
While opposition to the legislation came from all sides, the reasons against it were varied. British criticism of the legislation focused solely on the possibility that the legislation would grant an amnesty to terrorist suspects. Their criticism didn’t stretch to the fact that the proposal covered all members of the British security forces involved in state killings or in collusion with loyalist paramilitary groups.
Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy condemned what he called his government’s plans to allow terrorist suspects to return to Northern Ireland and walk free after facing a special tribunal. He said: “There are serious problems with a scheme which doesn’t even require an accused person to appear in court. What does that say about our attitude to justice and what kind of signal does that send to their victims?” But what kind of signal is Britain sending out to its own citizens and to the international community if it allows state-sponsored crimes to go unchecked?
It is essential that soldiers and other members of the security forces who killed people be held accountable and that those higher up who either had knowledge of or ordered the killings be exposed. The question of whether they ever go to prison or are punished for their crimes is not the priority. Exposure of the truth must take precedence.
It is interesting to note that, while there was international involvement in the negotiations on the peace process itself and issues surrounding it, such as policing reform, prisoner releases and decommissioning, there was no international involvement in the drafting of this legislation and no provision for any such involvement in its enactment. Perhaps because international figures would have taken a dim view of provisions allowing state-sponsored crime off the hook, they were kept out of such negotiations.
It is clear that the principal beneficiary of the legislation proposed by the British government would have been the British state itself. The British drew up the legislation and tried to push it through their parliament.
Victims’ groups had already listed a number of concerns, including the lack of provision for the involvement of relatives and the fact that decisions on what if any information should be provided to families would be discretionary.
They also raised concerns about the role of the secretary of state, the power he would have, and the possibility that the process would be open to political interference.
This scepticism is clearly justified for, even without the legislation, it is difficult to get answers. For example, at the Barron inquiry, the Northern secretary withheld documents and refused to give evidence to the inquiry. As Margaret Irwin of Justice for the Forgotten said: “How can we trust a process totally determined by the Northern secretary and the NIO? It’s not rocket science to figure out that the NIO will use the ‘national security’ clause to close down anything that might embarrass them on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.”
Paul O’Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre in Derry was right when he said: “This legislation is a dream come true for the spooks at Vauxhall Bridge [MI5 headquarters].
“Had this legislation been in place in 1992, the secretary of state could have withheld the name of Brian Nelson, directed that the RUC, FRU [Force Research Unit] and MI5 withhold evidence from the prosecution and withheld all information regarding charges and eventual prosecution from the Finucane family. The NIO cannot be allowed to determine this process. It is part of the problem.”
While the SDLP and Sinn Féin criticised the inclusion of security force personnel in the legislation, Mr Hain defended their inclusion and said it would not only be illogical but indefensible to exclude them. How can Mr Hain defend the right of the British state to conceal the truth about its involvement in the killing of citizens? Does he want the British government to be included on George W Bush’s list of “terrorist” and “rogue” states? We are talking here about state-sponsored murders — state agents paid by the public being allowed to murder them and get away with it. All civilised and responsible governments have a duty under international law to uphold the rule of law and to stay within it. The rule of law is non-negotiable. We cannot allow for exceptions.
Apparently, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, on a BBC programme in November, dismissed concerns and said he did “not envisage that any people who were involved in the murders of nationalists… is ever going to be brought before a court in this day and age”.
To adopt such a defeatist attitude is a mistake and will give the British government the signal it needs to allow state violence off the hook.
Sinn Féin’s desire to get its own people back has clouded its judgment. Its initial support for the legislation appears to have been hasty and ill-advised. The party should have checked the small print first.
There are believed to be between 20 and 30 on-the-runs, living mainly in the Republic. Should their interests be put above the interests of all those who lost loved ones at the hands of the security forces? Killings such as those of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson or bombings such as in Dublin in 1972 and Dublin and Monaghan in 1974 are crimes that, because of the suspicion of British state involvement, cannot be left unresolved. We have an opportunity, through the peace process, to deal with the past in a truthful way and it should not be squandered. Relatives have a right to know the truth regardless of how much it may embarrass the British government.
There is a difference between terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism. Terrorists are exactly that — terrorists. They don’t respect any law. But agents of the state paid for by the people are supposed to operate within the law. That’s what democracy is all about.
For the victims of violence, whether it was perpetrated by the IRA, Ulster Volunteer Force, security forces, it makes little different to their grief and suffering. Nothing will bring their loved ones back.
But for governments and the political establishment, it is essential to expose and root out state violence because failure to do so will ensure that the state and organs of the state never achieve public confidence and support.
Patricia McKenna is a former Green Party MEP for Dublin. She is an active campaigner on a range of issues from justice to human rights to the environment and food safety.

Daily Ireland

Eamonn Houston
17/01/2006

Former SDLP leader John Hume said last night that the Good Friday Agreement should be fully implemented and held up as a prime example of conflict resolution.
He was speaking to Daily Ireland ahead of delivering a key address at Boston University in honour of Martin Luther King.
“It is the duty of all democrats and all of the political parties in Ireland to implement this agreement. The people of Ireland have spoken overwhelmingly. That is the first time in Irish history that it has happened,” he said.
Mr Hume, a key architect of the Belfast Agreement, hinted that it had been built to get opposing parties in the North around the negotiating table. “When historians look at the Good Friday Agreement of Northern Ireland, they will see the same three principles. Principle No 1: Respect for difference. The identities of both communities are fully respected in the Agreement.
“Principle No 2: Institutions that respect both identities. In order to do so, a legislature is elected by a system of proportional voting, not bullet voting for one candidate, in order to ensure that every section of society is represented in the assembly.
“The assembly takes this a step further and also elects the government by proportional voting and ensures that all of the people have representatives in government.
“When those institutions are firmly in place, the third principle — the healing process — will go into action and will ensure that the representatives of all sections of our people will be working together in their common interests — social and economic development — rather than waving flags at one another or using bombs and guns against one another.
“They will be, as I have often repeated, spilling their sweat and not their blood, breaking down the barriers of centuries as our common humanity transcends our difference and, in a generation or two, once this process gets under way, a new Ireland will evolve based on agreement and respect for difference.”
Mr Hume cited Martin Luther King as one of his chief influences.
“When I first entered public life as a young man in 1968, I was very heavily influenced by Martin Luther King as we started the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.
“I had read a lot of what he had said and quoted him regularly in my speeches. We Shall Overcome became virtually a hymn to us and our party. Indeed, it is still sung every year at the end of our annual convention.
“Martin Luther King was a very inspirational leader and his philosophy is a philosophy that is very meaningful for any area where there is injustice, hatred and conflict, as there was in Northern Ireland,” said Mr Hume.
Millions of people in the United States yesterday remembered the civil rights leader, who would have been 77 two days ago.
In Chicago, the Reverend Jesse Jackson praised King as a prophet whose dream had not been fully achieved.
In Washington, President George W Bush visited the national archives and paid tribute both to King and to Abraham Lincoln.
Mr Bush said yesterday that King “lived on that admonition to call our country to a higher calling” and “called Americans to account when we didn’t live up to our ideals”.

BBC

New legislation is needed in Northern Ireland to deal effectively with street prostitution, the police have said.

The comments were made to residents from Belfast city centre during a public meeting at the city hall.

Dozens of people who live in new apartment blocks near Linenhall Street voiced their concerns to police and councillors.

The meeting was told there were about 50 brothels in Belfast. Some of NI laws on kerb crawling are 150 years old.

Detective Inspector Jeff Smyth said: “What has emerged and what has been highlighted in tonight’s meeting is that there seems to be a gap in legislation,” he said.

“Currently, we deal with legislation which is 150 years old.

“Our colleagues in police services elsewhere in the United Kingdom, in mainland England and Wales, have a more updated legislation specifically designed against kerb crawlers.”

People living in the city centre said prostitutes and kerb crawlers operated in the area seven nights a week.

Business people were also unhappy at the situation. Peter Brown, the manager of a gym in the area, said it was affecting his staff and customers.

“We have got male members who are getting propositioned by the prostitutes,” he said.

“Likewise, my female members leaving the club and cars (are) stopping when they are trying to cross the road.

“My female staff on their breaks are getting propositioned by people stopping in their cars.”

One local resident, who did not wish to be identified, accused the authorities of ignoring the problem.

“The most annoying thing about it is the feeling that you have to put up with this, week in week out, year in year out and that the police will turn a blind eye to it,” he said.

On Tuesday, the UK government will announce a new crackdown on prostitution in England and Wales, getting tougher on men who buy sex, and helping women get off the streets.

Belfast residents want the same tactics used in Northern Ireland

But Belfast City Council also came under pressure to act.

Pat McCarthy of the SDLP said: “These women flaunt it so openly in your face, they don’t seem to fear anything.

“I would call upon the government to extend the legislation covering kerb crawling into Northern Ireland to give the police something to work on.”

Esmond Birnie, Ulster Unionist, said it was very important to have a groundswell of public opinion to bring about a change in the law.

“The law should be changed to bring it into line with England to make kerb crawling an offence,” he said.

The police said they needed more people to come forward with complaints so they could use other legislation to prosecute.