SAOIRSE32

Daily Ireland

Comment

21/01/2006

I’m all for the Trevors investigating cold cases. The Historical Enquiries Team has started looking into murders that took place during the Troubles and that remained unsolved.

The team hasn’t wasted any time getting down to work. In fact, it has already completed its first interview of a suspect, which went very well, as this transcript shows.

Serious Crime Suite, Antrim Barracks, Friday, January 20. Interviewing officer: Detective Superinspector Trevor Simpson-Gibson. Suspect: Sammy “Knuckles” McClurg, alleged UDA brigadier and Shankill Road community worker.

Gibson: Interview begins 4.22pm. Just for the record, could you state your full name and address, please.

McClurg: Feck sake, Gibber. Are you joking or what? You weren’t asking me my name when we were in Fuengirola in July, and you knew my address when you called up for a game of poker on Saturday night.

Gibson: Ahem, yes, well… maybe we’d better skip that bit. I have here a picture of a Catholic man murdered in his bed by the UDA in July 1993. Have you seen this man before?

McClurg: Yes, you’ve got me bang to rights on that one.

Gibson: When and where did you see him?

McClurg: First time was when you gave me that picture a week before we whacked him. First time in the flesh was when you pointed him out to me when you drove me past his house.

Gibson: Look, Sammy… I mean, Mr McClurg, let’s just remember that this is all being taped. Fair enough? Now, where were you on the night of July 18, 1993?

McClurg: In the PSNI social club with you. Night at the Races, remember? You got pissed and got up on the table and sang The Billy Boys.

Gibson: What about later on, around 1.30am?

McClurg: Hmm, let’s see. Oh yes, we went and nicked a Vauxhall and decided to top yer man there in the picture. You weren’t with us, though. I can remember that clearly.

Gibson: Great, you’ll swear to that in court, won’t you?

McClurg: Certainly will. I wouldn’t tell lies about you Gibber. You were in the scout car in front of us.

Gibson: Let me ask you now about the shooting itself. We’ve been reviewing fingerprints found on a Smith and Wesson .38 that we recovered during a raid on a house in the Shankill three days after the murder. What would you say if I told you that we have now identified those fingerprints as yours?

McClurg: I’d say that’s very likely seeing as how you gave it to me in the bogs in the social club that night. You might find yours on it too.

Gibson: We’ve been speaking to a witness who will say that he saw you burning the getaway car and running off with a gun in your hand and wearing a balaclava.

McClurg: That nosey wee bastard in No 32, wasn’t it?

Gibson: Yes, but don’t you be going round there and annoying him now.

McClurg: You know me, Gibber.

Gibson: Yes, now, let me see… I want you now to look at this picture. It’s a still from a video of two masked men sitting at a desk with a Union jack tablecloth and two handguns. The men are reading out a statement claiming responsibility for the murder and warning of more attacks. That’s you on the right, isn’t it, Mr McClurg?

McClurg: Of course it is, Gibber, and that’s you on the left. Look at your big ears sticking out, ye blurt ye, and you didn’t even bother to take off your glasses.

Gibson: I’m looking at an intelligence file on you and, according to this, you killed your first Catholic for the UDA in September 1977.

McClurg: I deny that. I reject that completely.

Gibson: You do, eh?

McClurg: Bloody right I do. That was a UDR job. I didn’t join the UDA for another 18 months.

Gibson: How can you be so sure?

McClurg: Because you swore me in, Gibber, and then we went to your brother’s caravan in Portrush and got millered for the weekend. Happy days or what?

Gibson: I want to ask you now about how your standard of living fits in with the fact that you’re a voluntary community worker and you sign on the dole. Do you deny that you have a condo in South Beach, Miami?

McClurg: Now wouldn’t that be stupid, Gibber, when I lent it to you and Pamela for a fortnight last month?

Gibson: I have before me a portfolio of properties that you own in south Belfast, north Down, Donegal and Dublin.

McClurg: I know you have. I faxed it to you when you asked me the other night if I’d anywhere nice you could go for Easter.

Gibson: What about the Lamborghini, the Rolls-Royce, the his and hers Mitsubishi Shoguns, the Honda Fireblade and the Jet Skis?

McClurg: You do look good in the Roller, Gibber. I can’t deny it. If you’re asking me where I got them, it was by selling Long Kesh hankies. You know it, Gibber. You’ve got one framed above your fireplace. Beside the Michael Stone picture.

Gibson: I have here in front of me a sworn statement from a well-known builder who claims that you met him in a hut on a building site on the Shankill and demanded money from him with menaces. Do you want me to read out what you said you’d do if he didn’t give you a grand a week?

McClurg: That I’d send you round to sort him out?

Gibson: No, you said that you’d break his legs and shoot his workers.

McClurg: See, that’s where you’re wrong, Gibber. I said I’d shoot his legs and burn his workers. What is this, amateur hour?

Gibson: Mr McClurg, I must warn you that, with the information that we have gathered up to now and on the basis of what I’ve heard here today, I will be recommending that you be brought in again and questioned further about these matters.

McClurg: Bring your boss in the next time. I want to talk to him about an investment opportunity in Cyprus.

Gibson: Interview terminated 5.11pm.

McClurg: Thank feck for that. Fancy a quick one in the Black and Decker Arms, Gibber?

Daily Ireland

By Ciarán Barnes

21/01/2006

A stained-glass window commemorating the life of Easter Rising leader James Connolly could be erected in Belfast’s City Hall.
The city council’s policy and resources committee is preparing a report on the proposal and a series of others to commemorate the 1916 Rising, all made by Sinn Féin.
The party has agreed to back plans by unionists to stage a series of events to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, in which thousands of Belfast men lost their lives. In return, Sinn Féin councillors have asked unionists not to oppose the Easter Rising commemoration plans.
Before moving to Dublin, James Connolly played a key role in the formation of trade unions in Belfast and the development of workers’ rights. Sinn Féin councillor Fra McCann said that, for this alone, he should be honoured in City Hall.
“James Connolly was a champion of the rights of all workers in Belfast,” said Mr McCann.
“He worked for people across the religious and class divide, and he firmly believed too that the way to improve the rights of workers was through British disengagement and the unification of Ireland. As a man who made a great contribution to Belfast, he deserves be honoured in the City Hall.”
A plaque marking Connolly’s stay in the city is mounted at the front of his old home on the Falls Road in west Belfast.
If a stained-glass window commemorating his achievements is fitted in City Hall, this would be the first monument to a republican to go up in the famous building, which celebrates its centenary this year.
Last April, an image of Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the United Irish rebellion of 1898, was included in a portrait of former SDLP mayor Martin Morgan. The inclusion of the Protestant republican leader angered hardline unionists, who called for the painting to be removed.

Daily Ireland

By Connla Young

21/01/2006

British soldiers opened fire on the car Meehan and Maguire were travelling in - BBC photo from >this story

The daughter of a woman murdered almost 35 years ago by the British army has said she has no faith that her killers will be brought to justice by the Historical Enquiries Team.
Margaret Kennedy’s mother Maura Meehan was shot dead along with the mother’s 19-year-old sister Dorothy Maguire as they travelled in the back of a car at Cape Street near west Belfast’s Falls Road in October 1971.
The women were travelling in the back of a car during a period of severe unrest. Local people had warned that British troops were entering nationalist areas of Belfast. No one has ever been convicted of the killings.
Mrs Kennedy said her family continued to demand justice despite the passage of time.
The west Belfast woman was just nine years old when her mother and aunt were murdered. She said she believed the inquiries team would not deliver the truth for her family.
“All we want is truth and justice. If these people were independent and not part of the PSNI, I would have more confidence but this is about the British government investigating themselves.
“The Historical Enquiries Team are part of the PSNI and that says it all.
“If there was an independent body brought in, with no connections to the British government, then that would be a different matter.
“The British government hasn’t been too interested in revealing the truth to us or pursuing justice over the past 35 years, so why would they start now? This is a poor replacement for the real thing.”
At the time the two women were killed, the British army claimed that soldiers had been fired on from the car in which the women were travelling. This claim was later discredited.
Mrs Kennedy said the pain of her family’s loss remained vivid to this day.
“I was nine when my mother and aunt were murdered, and I remember it like it was today.
“Unfortunately it’s just close family members that remember what happened and that’s because there has been so many murdered over the years,” she said.
“Should I live to be 150, the loss will stay with me.
“My mother was 30 years old and had four children when she was murdered.
“As the only girl in the house, from that day on I became a mother.
“My father Jim died just 18 years later at 48 with a broken heart.
“Nobody has ever been convicted of the murder of my mother and aunt.
“If these people come to me, I will politely tell them that I have no confidence in them to bring my mother’s British army murderers to justice.”
Mark Thompson of the Belfast-based group Relatives for Justice repeated his call for an independent international inquiry.
“They have got the idea right and this goes halfway but they can’t allow people who are responsible for the government to investigate its activities,” he said.

Daily Ireland

21/01/2006

Justice minister Michael McDowell is “hoodwinking” the public into accepting a police force that is not properly trained, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) warned yesterday.
PJ Stone of the association said Mr McDowell’s plans for a 4,000-strong unpaid volunteer Garda reserve force was a smokescreen to disguise the failure to equip and resource the Garda force properly.
“This is a smokescreen, as far as we are concerned, in relation to a force that is not being properly resourced.
“There are members of the force going out on duty, and the feedback from our annual general meetings is that they are actually concerned for their own safety, and the best response from this minister is to introduce a reserve force,” Mr Stone said.
“The reality on the ground, even taking into account the numbers of people being introduced into the force, is that there are simply not enough members of the force to be detailed for duty.”
He said Mr McDowell’s response to bring in a reserve force was an admission there were not enough fully qualified members of the Garda to do the job.
Mr Stone said Mr McDowell was trying to “hoodwink” the general public into accepting a force that was not properly trained.
Mr McDowell had earlier called on Garda associations – including the Association of Garda Superintendents – to back him over plans for a 4,000-strong volunteer Garda reserve force.
The minister claimed the force had to change in order to prosper.

Daily Ireland

by Ciarán O’Neill

21/01/2006

The first ever accreditation system for Irish-English translators was launched in Dublin yesterday.
A panel of trained translators will be created through the initiative. They will be available to do translation work for organisations within the public and private sectors.
Foras na Gaeilge set up the new system at the request of Gaeltacht affairs minister Éamon Ó Cuív.
Established in 1999 as part of the Good Friday Agreement, Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for encouraging the use of the Irish language in the Republic and the North.
Speaking at yesterday’s launch, Foras na Gaeilge chief executive Seosamh Mac Donncha said linguistic challenges were increasing as the Irish language continued to evolve.
“The enactment of the Official Languages Act and the increased popularity experienced by the Irish language in recent times has placed a greater need for translators,” he said.
“This innovative accreditation system will ensure high standards in the translation industry while safeguarding the reputation of competent translators.
“The system is primarily for the benefit of individual translators and aims to make a panel of accredited translators available to the public sector.
“The system will ensure a professional translation service of the highest standard.”
Mr Mac Donncha said his organisation was delighted to be involved with this pioneering system for the Irish-English translation sector.
“The standard of translation is already high in Ireland, with the majority of translators being very dedicated to the language. An accreditation system will help ensure standards are met,” he said.
The new initiative will include an accreditation certificate. This will be awarded to translators who reach a level of excellence.
As a first step in testing the standard, an examination will be held in February 2006 and at regular intervals subsequently.
A panel of accredited translators will be established and will be available to the public and private sectors by May 2006.

Daily Ireland

21/01/2006

The relatives of Michael McKevitt, who was convicted of directing the Real IRA, have told Daily Ireland that the 55-year-old’s conviction did not cover the time of the Omagh bombing.
The clarification followed a story in Thursday’s Daily Ireland in which we revealed that relatives of the Omagh bombing victims were seeking a meeting with the head of MI5.
In a statement released to Daily Ireland, the McKevitt and Sands families said: “It was reported in Daily Ireland (Thursday, January 19 edition) that Michael McKevitt was ‘convicted of directing terrorism at the time of Omagh’. This is factually inaccurate.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time the media have carried false and misleading reports about Michael. Therefore we feel it is necessary for us to clarify. The period that Michael was convicted of was September 1999 to October 2000 — over a year later than the date of the bombing.”

Daily Ireland

By Ciarán Barnes

21/01/2006

An SDLP assembly member has been branded “insensitive” after he described a west Belfast suicide as a “killing”.
On Thursday evening, Shankill Road man Joseph Croft blasted himself with a shotgun.
He died in hospital several hours later.
The 22-year-old is believed to have shot himself after breaking up with his girlfriend.
Yesterday afternoon, Belfast West SDLP assembly member Alex Attwood released a statement on the incident in which he “condemned” the “Shankill killing”.
Mr Attwood want on to refer to it as a “terrible thing”, “shocking”, and a “horrendous event”.
Shankill community workers immediately condemned the SDLP man’s description of the events. They accused him of making political capital out of the situation.
Chris McGimpsey, a former Ulster Unionist Party councillor for the area, said Mr Attwood should get his facts right.
“This was not a feud killing. It had absolutely nothing to do with any paramilitary organisation.
“The SDLP is trying to make capital out of what is a tragic situation.
“This young lad died by his own hand.
“Politicians should be expressing condolences at this time instead of making clearly political statements,” he said.
Mr Attwood was unavailable for further comment.
Democratic Unionist Party assembly member Diane Dodds, who represents the Shankill area, offered her condolences to the Croft family.
“I am sorry to hear that a family finds itself grieving today and my thoughts go out to them,” she said.
Friends of Mr Croft told how his former partner, thought to be in her late teens, was devastated by what had happened.
One said yesterday: “They had fallen out and she moved back in with her family.
“Joe phoned her last night and said he was going to shoot himself.
“She got her stepfather to go round to his house, and they think he was still alive when they arrived.”

Daily Ireland

By Ciarán Barnes

21/01/2006

A leading north Belfast loyalist was bailed yesterday despite PSNI chiefs warning his return to the streets could spark violence.
As part of his £5,000 (€7,290) bail conditions Mark Haddock, who is charged with attempting to murder pub doorman Trevor Gowdy, has been barred from entering the council areas of Belfast, Newtownabbey, Carrick, Larne, Ards, North Down and Lisburn.
He is to reside at a secret address, has to surrender his expired passport, report twice daily to police, observe a 7pm curfew and an alcohol ban.
Opposing bail in Belfast’s Crown Court, PSNI Detective Inspector James Templeton predicted the loyalist would “instigate or be the victim of violence” if released.
Mr Templeton said the PSNI’s Assistant Chief Constable, Sam Kinkaid shared this view, revealing he had spoken with him by telephone about the loyalist on Thursday.
Despite these concerns Judge Anthony Hart agreed to Mr Haddock’s bail, based mainly on the fact that the accused has been remanded in custody on the charges since August 2003.
Until his release yesterday the 36-year-old had currently been the longest-serving remand prisoner in the North.
His return to the streets sparked immediate fears of a fresh outbreak of internal loyalist feuding.
Up until his jailing in August 2003, Mark Haddock was one of the most high-profile loyalists in the Mount Vernon area of north Belfast – an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) stronghold.
During his time in prison the north Belfast man has been plagued by rumours that he is a PSNI informer.
The informer claims have led to speculation that he could targeted for murder.
During his time in prison he received a number of death threats and spent months in isolation for his own protection.
The attempted murder charges Haddock faces relate to an attack on former boxing champion Trevor Gowdy outside a social club on the outskirts of north Belfast in December 2002.
Mr Gowdy was beaten with cudgels and stabbed repeatedly and left for dead.
Traces of Haddock’s blood were found at the scene. Defence lawyers claimed the accused had found Mr Gowdy outside the club and was trying to help him.
His trial began last November but was adjourned after Mr Gowdy was deemed emotionally unfit to give evidence.
Currently undergoing psychiatric treatment, Mr Gowdy is expected to be fit to return to the witness box in May.
In court yesterday Mark Haddock’s legal team revealed that when the trial resumes they will seek leave to have the prosecution stayed.
Darren Moore, a close friend of the accused, who was also charged with attempting to murder Mr Gowdy, successfully applied to have the prosecution case against him stayed.

Daily Ireland

21/01/2006

Former Conservative Home office minister Douglas Hogg has admitted he was privately briefed by RUC Special Branch on multiple occasions in the run up to the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
Douglas Hogg QC made the startling comments during a trip to Belfast this week to act as legal representative at the inquest into the death a British intelligence soldier, shot during a training exercise at Ballykinlar army base.
Members of anti-collusion group An Fhírinne and the murdered solicitor’s son John yesterday confronted the Tory MP about his comments as the inquest into the death of 42-year-old Warrant Officer Harry White came to a close.
Just weeks before the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane the Conservative MP told the House of Commons that some solicitors in the North were “unduly sympathetic” to the cause of the IRA.
He later went on to become a member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet.
His comments in the House of Commons were investigated by John Stevens during his report into alleged collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.
In reference to his questioning by the Stevens team, Douglas Hogg revealed this week that he had had so many meetings about Pat Finucane it would have been “impossible for me to remember them all”.
Mr Stevens later concluded that Mr Hogg’s comments had “not been justified” when the then minister made them during a Commons debate on anti-terrorism legislation on January 17, 1989.
Pat Finucane was gunned down by loyalists in his north Belfast home on February 12, 1989. Douglas Hogg, who was a Home Office junior minister at the time, later said he had made the comments after a briefing by RUC members.
During a break in the inquest proceedings this week, he admitted that he had been unable to recall the dates and times of the secret RUC briefings when asked by John Stevens because the meetings had been so frequent.
The former minister added that he had had to refer back to his parliamentary diaries to confirm the details of his meetings with RUC Special Branch.
The Tory MP was this week acting as Queen’s Counsel for the family of the late sergeant Harry White, who was fatally wounded during a live-fire exercise at Ballykinler army base.
As coroner David Hunter yesterday concluded his judgment on Mr White’s death, protesters holding pictures of Pat Finucane confronted Douglas Hogg.
The MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham looked shocked and stunned as the protesters called out: “What about justice for Pat Finucane?” and “Do you still stand by your comments?” from the public gallery of the Old Town Hall courthouse in Belfast.
Court officials led Mr Hogg out a back door of the courthouse.
Speaking outside the court, Pat Finucane’s son John said it was time for the Conservative MP to come clean about his private meetings with RUC Special Branch in the run up to the Belfast solicitor’s murder.
“We have never been given answers by Douglas Hogg about his briefings with the RUC,” said John Finucane.
“He has never apologised or even recognised the impact that his comments had and the distress they caused my family.
“I think it says a lot about his lack of remorse that he is willing to come to Belfast and practise law in the very place where a solicitor was killed following his inflammatory comments.”

Aljazeera.Net

Wednesday 18 January 2006, 18:28 Makka Time, 15:28 GMT

McGuinness was once a senior member of the IRA

Sri Lanka can learn from the Northern Irish peace process as it tries to avoid a return to civil war, a former senior member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has said.

Martin McGuinness, now a negotiator in the Sinn Fein political party, was asked by a local pro-peace group to visit Sri Lanka after a string of attacks by suspected Tamil Tiger rebel on government troops raised fears that a 2002 truce might fail.

“Just travelling around the streets here, what do I see on every street I go? I see policemen, soldiers, checkpoints. It just reminds me of what life was like in the north of Ireland over 10 years ago”, he told Reuters in an interview in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital.

“Now, thankfully, we’ve moved away from all that. It was over a period of time people came to the assessment there had to be a political solution to the conflict.”

In July, the IRA - responsible for half the 3600 deaths caused by bombs and shootings during the “troubles” as it fought for a united Ireland and an end to British rule - said it was downing its arms after 1990s ceasefires and a 1998 peace accord.

“The IRA have said … that it’s over now to the politicians — it’s their responsibility to sort it out,” said McGuinness, who says he was once a senior member of the IRA but is now solely with their political ally, Sinn Fein.

“They’ve effectively left the stage and it’s our duty and our responsibility to now tie up the pieces.”

Military stalemate

LTTE supremo Prabhakaran only rarely appears in public

A power-sharing provincial government in which Sinn Fein and Unionist parties that want to remain part of Britain would sit together has been on ice since 2002, hampered by deep distrust between the two sides, but while some communal violence has continued paramilitary attacks have largely ceased.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - whose two-decade-long fight for a separate homeland for the Island’s Tamils has seen over 64,000 dead on both sides - also say they want peace and deny recent attacks, but few believe them and analysts say the rebels have used the ceasefire to rearm and prepare again for war.

But McGuinness said just as both the IRA and the British Army had eventually realised they could not defeat each other militarily, the LTTE’s fight for a homeland could not be won in battle.

“My assessment is that the Sri Lankan Army will never defeat the Tamil Tigers and the Tamil Tigers will never defeat the Sri Lankan Army,” he said. “So what’s the next step? It has to be a negotiated settlement. It’s very stark.”

Vemue for talks

Face-to-face meetings between Tony Blair, the British prime minister and Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, had been key to the 1998 Good Friday agreement, he said, and direct contact between Mahinda Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan president and Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE leader, might also help.

But with the shadowy guerrilla leader only rarely appearing in public and leaving the task of carrying out overseas negotiations to others, few see a meeting as likely. So far, the two sides cannot agree a venue for talks.

“Any hang-up that people may have about the venue for talks … should be quickly dispelled,” he said, saying early Sinn Fein visits to Downing Street had been like going into the lion’s den. “These things have to be done and people have to take risks for peace if there is to be any risk of success.”

Reuters

Belfast Telegraph

By Michael McHugh
20 January 2006

Former police officers are escaping investigation by the Police Ombudsman’s office because they have retired, human rights lobbyists claimed today.

The legal loophole allows retired officers to refuse co-operation with Nuala O’Loan’s office and has been highlighted as the stream of complaints about Troubles incidents continues.

Jane Winter from the British/Irish Rights Watch pressure group said the matter needed to be pursued.

“Many of the incidents which the Ombudsman investigated are looking at cases which are very old and involve retired officers,” she said.

“At the minute these officers are retired and are beyond the reach of the Ombudsman’s office.”

Belfast Telegraph

Protest group demands answer

By Andrea Clements
21 January 2006

A former Tory minister has been heckled in a Belfast courtroom by an anti-collusion group demanding to know whether he stands over controversial comments he made before the death of Pat Finucane.

Douglas Hogg, QC, was in Northern Ireland yesterday to represent the widow of a soldier, Michael White, at his inquest when members of AnFhirinne (Irish for Truth) held up placards of the murdered solicitor and asked the barrister to outline his stance.

The group says it is wrong that the former Home Office minister sought justice for the White family after stating in the House of Commons in January 1989 during a debate over the prevention of Terrorism Act that some lawyers in Northern Ireland were unduly sympathetic to the IRA.

Mr Finucane was shot dead the following month.

Members of the campaign group AnFhirinne shouted: “Do you remember a statement in the House of Commons about some solicitors being unduly sympathetic (to the IRA)?

“Do you still stand by those remarks, Mr Hogg?”

But the MP, who was a Home Office minister in 1989, made no reply as he left by a rear door.

Former Scotland Yard chief Sir John Stevens, who investigated allegations that the security forces collaborated with Ulster Defence Association killers, found that Mr Hogg had been compromised by RUC officers who briefed him before his statement.

But relatives of Mr Finucane, who insist police were involved in the plot, remain incensed by what was said.

His son John, a trainee solicitor, said that he was appalled at Mr Hogg’s court visit to Belfast.

“He has treated my family with complete disdain and he has never offered an apology.

“My father was an officer of court in this jurisdiction and I find it galling that Mr Hogg was over here practising.

“Hopefully he will have to face a full and an independent public inquiry where he will have to account for what was said.”

AnFhirinne spokesman Robert McClenaghan said his group’s protest, which had not started until official legal proceedings had been completed, had been peaceful.

“We were highlighting in particular the death of Pat Finucane and hundreds of cases of collusion at the highest British government level.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Noel McAdam
21 January 2006

DUP leader Ian Paisley is to table his party’s devolution blueprint with Tony Blair next week, it was confirmed last night.

A DUP delegation is due to meet Mr Blair at Downing Street on Tuesday afternoon to outline its proposals which fall short of a fully-fledged Executive and have already been rebuffed by Sinn Fein and the SDLP.

Under the plan it is understood Assembly members would be allowed to scrutinise decisions by Direct Rule Ministers and have some role in relation to Northern Ireland legislation.

Mr Paisley said his party’s paper, entitled ‘Facing Reality … The Best way Forward’ is a realistic way of ensuring “the foundation of good government”.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein leaders were due to meet in Dublin today to debate their strategy to attempt to ensure “substantive progress” over the next few months.

Joined by a number of activists, the party’s executive (ard chomhairle) was also involved in involved in electoral preparations, both north and south, and a national recruitment campaign.

It has also emerged Ulster Unionists have submitted their own blueprint urging Mr Blair to set a date for recall of the Assembly in the next six months - and amend legislation so members can vote on structures short of full devolution.

Their envisaged interim arrangements at Stormont, which would then be collapsed for the next Assembly election in May next year, include an Assembly with legislative functions - dealing with Northern Ireland Bills, for example - rather than becoming another “talking shop”.

In what it is calling “modular devolution”, the party argues the Government is going to have to make a judgment call on whether a return of the Stormont Executive is likely.

BreakingNews.ie

21/01/2006 - 12:32:31

Sinn Féin today called for an end to the deadlock in Northern Ireland politics and said it was time the DUP joined the party in Government at Stormont.

Gerry Adams described the current impasse as farcical and warned that the political institutions and the Good Friday Agreement faced a decisive year.

The Sinn Féin President said the IRA’s decision to end its armed struggle had created the conditions to move the peace process forward and end British Direct Rule in the province.

Mr Adams said: “Sinn Féin is ready for progress and ready for the challenge of serving in Government with the DUP.

“We have told the Governments that republican initiatives have created new conditions for progress and that the onus is now on them to advance the process and re-establish the political institutions.”

The West Belfast MP said it was unacceptable that the current assembly, which was elected in November 2003, had never met.

Mr Adams added: “The stalemate cannot continue.

“There needs to be a genuine effort to end it in the months ahead.

“2006 will be a make-or-break year for the institutions and the Good Friday Agreement.”

Sinn Féin

Published: 20 January, 2006

A special meeting of the Sinn Féin leadership is taking place in the Regency Hotel in Dublin this weekend.

The party’s Ard Chomhairle, along with key activists from across the island, are coming together to agree the party’s key priorities and work programme for the coming year. This will include electoral preparations, north and south, a national recruitment campaign and a series of initiatives to challenge the inadequacies of the Irish government’s social and economic policies.

The party leadership will also discuss the current state of the peace process and the party’s strategy for ensuring that substantive progress is made in the next few months.

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams will be available to talk to the media at 12 noon tomorrow, Saturday 21th January, at the Regency Hotel, Swords Road, Dublin 9.