SAOIRSE32

Daily Ireland

by Jarlath Kearney
03/02/2006

PSNI statistics reveal that the force will not become representative of wider society in the North until at least 2027.
The projections are based on the current recruitment trends for the 9,409-strong force at January 1, 2006.
The present percentage of Catholics in the PSNI stands at just 16.39 per cent (1543 members).
It can also be revealed that only one officer from the Garda Síochána has taken part in a mutual personnel exchange – without police powers – with the PSNI since new protocols were exchanged between the Irish and British governments at Hillsborough a year ago.
The revelations emerged as PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde launched his force’s annual report in Belfast yesterday.
Figures obtained by Daily Ireland demonstrate that the PSNI is failing to implement the target of recruitment laid down by the Patten Commission report which emerged from the Good Friday Agreement.
Eight years after the agreement and six years after the introduction of the Police Act 2000, key elements of the Patten Commission’s recommendations on policing remain unfulfilled.
For instance, the Patten Commission recommended that the full-time Reserve should be disbanded, a recommendation which the PSNI has failed to fulfil.
The Patten Commission also recommended that the part-time Reserve could be significantly expanded to increase the rate of Catholic composition. Again, the PSNI has failed to progress this recommendation.
The PSNI Reserve (encompassing both full-time and part-time) accounts for 20 per cent of the force (1,890 members).
Since the reserve has historically been even worse in terms of its composition than the overall force (currently 5.9 per cent Catholic members), major changes to this element of the PSNI could impact rapidly on overall Catholic participation. However, both the PSNI and NIO have resisted implementing the Patten Commission recommendations in this regard.
The PSNI have been implementing the 50:50 recruitment programme at entry level which the Patten Commission recommended.
However, based on current recruitment trends, the PSNI is failing to meet the target for the number of Catholic police officers which the Patten Commission recommended by 2005 – namely 18.7 per cent.
By 2006, the commission said the number of Catholic police officers should be 20.6 per cent.
As the latest statistics demonstrate on January 1, 2006, the number of Catholic police officers in the PSNI is just 16.39 per cent.
Given that the number of PSNI members since 50:50 recruitment was introduced has increased at a rate of just 1.3 per cent annually, it would take over 20 years – until 2027 – for the force to achieve parity with current community representation across the North.
The Policing Board yesterday announced that it had, in principle, agreed to explore the possibility of recruiting civilians to patrol local areas with limited powers.
However, this suggestion – which has been put forward by the PSNI – does not correspond with the Patten Commission’s recommendation to significantly enlarge the part-time reserve in mainly nationalist areas.
Welcoming moves to introduce the new initiative of police community support officers, Policing Board chairperson, Des Rea, failed to address the PSNI’s failure to implement the Patten Commission’s recommendations.
“At today’s meetings, Board Members’ discussions also reflected the desire to meet and implement the requirements of the Patten Report in a way, which meets the needs of policing today, while taking account of developments in England & Wales: ensuring that the operational needs of the service are met; and guarding against any potential for PCSOs to become a route into policing for paramilitaries,” Mr Rea said.

Daily Ireland

POLICE REPORT: No equality in PSNI recruitment until 2027

by Ciarán Barnes
03/02/2006

- 148 constables, 19 sergeants, 28 full-time reservists and five part-time reservists
have a criminal record

- Police failing to implement recruitment targets laid down by Patten Commission
– only 16 per cent of force is Catholic

Two hundred officers currently serving in the PSNI have criminal convictions, Daily Ireland can reveal.
Northern Ireland Office (NIO) statistics show 19 sergeants, 148 constables, 28 full-time reserve officers and five part-time reserve officers have criminal records.
The figures came to light on the same day that Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton confirmed seven officers were convicted of drink-driving last year.
At a meeting of the Policing Board, he revealed a further 28 officers may be prosecuted for alcohol-related motoring offences. Mr Leighton claimed the prosecutions showed PSNI members are treated in the same manner as the public.
The statistics have alarmed politicians and policing board members worried at the high-levels of criminal convictions among members of the PSNI.
SDLP assemblyman John Dallat last night called for a review of the criteria used to decide whether officers with criminal convictions are retained.
He said: “Police officers are supposed to lead by example, but clearly in the cases of these 200 officers they have not.
Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey accused the PSNI of trying to cover up rates of criminal convictions among its officers.
He said: “It should come as no surprise that a culture of concealment has transported itself from the RUC to the PSNI.”
During yesterday’s Policing Board meeting, independent member Pauline McCabe questioned the disciplinary action taken against PSNI members convicted of drink-driving.
PSNI bosses have admitted that of the seven convicted only one was dismissed. Ms McCabe said: “Members were shocked we hadn’t taken a tougher line on these offenders.”
Confirming 200 members of the PSNI have criminal convictions, direct-rule minister, Shaun Woodward, said: “The majority of the offences concerned are traffic offences. People with serious or terrorist backgrounds are not considered to be suitable to serve in the police service.”
A PSNI spokesman said: “We are very clear on the regulations concerning standards to join the PSNI. The PSNI continue to adhere to the regulations determined by the legislation.”
Last week, police chiefs admitted a Co Down detective convicted of fraud is still in the pay of the PSNI. Charles Metcalfe was given a 12-month suspended sentence after admitting earning hundreds of pounds a day as a bodyguard in Iraq while on official sick leave at home.
In Belfast County Court on Tuesday, former PSNI officer Alan Leckey was found guilty of dangerous driving. The actions of the 40-year-old, who received a police pension after retiring on health grounds, were branded “disgraceful” by the judge.

Indymedia.ie

by Ciaran Long - Alliance For Animal Rights pagan_animal_liberation_front at hotmail dot com

Animal rights group, the Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS) has strongly criticised the decision by the Arts Council to allocate120,000 euros to Irish circuses containing animal acts, and described it as “further state funding for animal abuse by this government”. CAPS Irish spokesperson Nuala Donlon is calling on the Arts Council to reconsider its decision in light of the serious concerns about animal welfare and public safety which surround such travelling menageries.

Animals in circuses suffer extreme deprivation and are subjected to physical abuse in their training routines, facts which have become public knowledge in recent years following several undercover operations.

Wild animals are particularly badly affected, travelling as they do thousands of miles every year in beast wagons and chained (in the case of elephants) and caged (other species) while circuses are on sites. According to Ms. Donlon “There is no way a travelling menagerie can provide such animals with the facilities required to fulfil even their most basic behavioural needs”.

The brutal nature of the training methods used by circuses has also been well exposed by now. The nature of these training methods is revealed by the tools of the trade. Whips are seen in the ring, but the use of screws hidden in the base of walking sticks, spikes concealed in tasselled sticks, and hotshots or electric shock devices has been documented.

And the Arts Council calls this art!!

In 2005 alone at least six people were injured, one of them critically, after being attacked by circus animals.

“Given our serious concerns for the welfare of circus animals, and the public safety issues which surround such travelling circuses, we call on the Arts council to take the humane decision and withdraw this funding”. – Nuala Donlon

For further information contact Nuala Donlon, Irish spokesperson, Captive Animals Protection Society, at 086 – 3985761

Related Link: http://www.captiveanimals.org/

BN.ie

03/02/2006 - 18:04:56

An electrician accused of murdering 29 people in the Omagh bomb atrocity tried to escape arrest by hiding in bushes, a court heard today.

As Sean Hoey, 36, launched a new bid to be released on bail, prosecuting lawyers claimed he could flee across the border to the Republic of Ireland if freed.

Friends are prepared to lodge £50,000 (€73,285) in cash, a farm and land assurities that he would turn up for trial, Belfast Crown Court was told.

Hoey’s mother, Rita, would also hand over her total savings of £1,500 (€2,200) and put up the family home as reassurance.

But the Crown insisted there was a further risk of dissident republican terrorist attacks if the accused, of Molly Road, Jonesborough on the south Armagh border, was granted bail.

Gordon Kerr, QC, said: “That’s to be coupled with the fact that when police came to arrest him in September 2003 it is submitted that he tried to escape and was found in undergrowth some distance from his house by the police.”

Hoey faces a total of 58 charges relating to the August 1998 Omagh bomb massacre carried out by the Real IRA and a series of other terrorist strikes at around the same period across Northern Ireland.

The court was told he has already been in custody for 882 days, with his defence stressing that in England remanded suspects obtain an automatic right to bail after 112 days.

But Mr Kerr told the judge, Mr Justice Weir, that his main objection was the fear that Hoey, who is due to go on trial in September, would not surrender again to police.

“The accused comes from an area adjacent to the border in Jonesborough,” he said.

“He has connections to relatives on both sides of the border and he has a mobile occupation in the sense that he’s an electrician.

“We have a document that he was in fact working in the Republic of Ireland at a time not distant to his arrest.”

Mr Kerr added that evidence linking Hoey to the construction of bombs used at Omagh and in other towns showed these were devices all connected with rogue terrorist organisations.

“The evidence suggests he had a significant role in that activity and that at present dissident republican groupings are not, on my instruction, on ceasefire but are continuing to operate in a terrorist capacity.”

Dressed in a grey jacket and jeans, Hoey, who denied the charges against him, listened intently in the dock throughout the three-hour-long hearing, while some family members sat in the gallery behind him.

Seamus Treacy QC for the defence, told the court the accused had no relevant criminal record, either north or south of the Irish border.

“He’s a person who comes before the court with an unblemished character,” he insisted.

The QC also argued that Hoey had been arrested in September 1998 and again in June 1999 when he was held for up to seven days on both occasions.

He was questioned about the Omagh bombing both times but released, the barrister said.

Mr Treacy claimed his client would have realised that he was under police suspicion of involvement in the bombing and yet he did not try to flee the jurisdiction.

When police rearrested him in September 2003, it was at his own house, the court was told.

After the judge said being taken from under a bush was not a normal place to make an arrest, Mr Treacy reasoned that Hoey had already been held on twice at Gough Barracks and wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of another week there.

“That’s quite a different matter from suggesting this is a person that if he was granted bail wouldn’t turn up for his trial,” the QC said.

He added later: “My instruction was that he ran towards and was in the bush where he was apprehended.

“This was discussed during the course of interviews and he explained to police at the time.”

Mr Treacy also told the court his client had now been in custody for almost eight times the maximum permitted period before the automatic right to bail begins in England.

He added that Hoey was prepared to surrender his passport and agree to any residency requirements.

“There are also very substantial sureties available,” he said.

“One of the individuals is prepared to lodge a sum of up to £50,000. Another individual doesn’t have cash, but does have property, land and a farm. He’s prepared to obtain money on foot of that property.

“The applicant’s mother, Rita Hoey, doesn’t have much but has £1,500 in savings and there’s the parental home.

“They are prepared to do whatever is required to secure their son’s release.”

Mr Justice Weir, who had earlier told both sides that he represented up to 30 people injured in the Omagh bomb in criminal injury claims before he was appointed a judge, said he would decide on the application on Monday.

BBC

**Sure takes a lot of guts to terrorise school children

A pipe with wires protruding was left at the gates of the school

More than 700 pupils were sent home from a school on the outskirts of Belfast following a security alert.

The alert began at 0930 GMT on Friday at St Colm’s High School, Twinbrook, when a pipe with wires on it was discovered close to the front gates.

Meanwhile, a clearing up operation is under way on the Antrim Road in north Belfast after a controlled explosion was carried out on a suspect car.

The vehicle was parked outside Antrim Road police station.

The alert followed a telephone bomb warning.

Houses in the area were evacuated as the security operation got under way.

‘Swift response’

School principal at St Colm’s High, Imelda Jordan, commended staff and pupils for their swift response and condemned those responsible.

“The children’s parents sent them to school today believing they would be in our care and kept safe throughout the school day, I wasn’t able to do that,” she said.

“I had to send 700 children home without transport and without being able to contact their parents.”

The device was later declared an elaborate hoax.

Local assembly members described those responsible as despicable.

—————————–

Blast bomb

Near Derry, a couple and their 10-year-old daughter have escaped injury in a blast bomb attack at their home.

The attack happened at Benview Estate in Coshquin shortly after midnight.

Jimmy Poole who was in the house with his family at the time said it was a personal dispute with loyalists.

He said the attack was not political.

“They are all cowards. They won’t come to your face. They come behind your back and do it. They won’t come straight to your door,” he said.

Sinn Fein condemned the attack. The party said loyalism needed to move away from violence.

“Our party’s reaction is shock,” said Councillor Billy Page.

“This is a very close knit community, a mixed community and a very elderly community around them. We totally condemn it.”

The Poole family said they would not be intimidated out of their home.

Police investigating the attack said no motive had been established.

They have appealed for information.

Derry Journal

Friday 3rd February 2006

Cara Gunn, the Derry mum at the centre of a tug of love custody battle over her seven year old son Dylan, has been given a date for a appeal hearing on an earlier court decision to grant custody to the child’s American father. Ms Gunn, who was forced to return to Florida with her daughter Laura in September 2003 in order to continue her custody battle, lost her case in December of that year, but has now been thrown a lifeline as her appeal date, to be heard by three judges, has been set for February 28.

Speaking to the ‘Journal’ last night Cara’s mother Dolores Moore said her daughter, like herself, was ‘afraid to get her hopes up’. “Cara has her up and down days but she is determined to return to Derry together with Dylan and Laura” she said. “I miss them all so much, it’s really hard, especially missing out on Dylan growing up.” Dolores added that while Cara’s legal team have told her to be hopeful of a ruling in her favour, both women fear the worst. “Even if this hearing doesn’t produce the result we are all hoping for we will continue to fight to bring Dylan home to Derry” she said. “It’s heartbreaking talking to him on the phone, he keeps telling me he’s coming over for a holiday. “I just wish it was all sorted out.” The appeal hearing, which will examine evidence presented in the original case aimed at making sure statute was followed and that Dylan’s best interests were at heart, will take place at Daytona Beach, Florida, at 10.00am US time on February 28.

Derry Journal

Friday 3rd February 2006

The PRO of the Solicitors Criminal Bar Association, Derry man Pearse MacDermott, has said that solicitors in Derry and across the North may have to withdraw their co-operation from the PSNI if client/solicitor confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. He was speaking after it emerged that a Limavady solicitor, Mr. Johnny Sandhu, was being questioned by police about ’serious terrorist activity’ and that the questioning was based on tapes made in Antrim police station when the solicitor was meeting with clients.
Mr. MacDermott said last night: “We are gravely concerned and angry that there appears to have been serious interference with client/solicitor confidentiality. “How can any client feel confidence in briefing their solicitor if they cannot be guaranteed that this conversation will remain private.” He added: “Client/solicitor confidentiality is an integral part of protecting a client’s rights under the law and if the police are going to breach it in this way then we will have to consider what action we can take.” Mr. MacDermott added: “We have not yet decided what we can do about this situation but one option we will be considering is withdrawing our services from police stations until this matter is resolved.

“If we cannot meet our clients confident that this is not being recorded then we may have to simply refuse to meet with clients in the precincts of a police station.” Following a court appearance where the PSNI applied for an extension of the time to hold Mr. Sandhu his solicitor Mr. Joe Rice complained about the taping of the conversations.
He said those conversations, allegedly taped at Antrim police station, led to Mr Sandhu being questioned about serious terrorist activity including membership of a loyalist paramilitary organisation. In a letter to the Law Society Mr. Rice complained about what had happened and said: “It is a sad day for our criminal justice process that a solicitor cannot guarantee that his advices to his client in a police station may not be free from state interference. “I am sure you will share my concern that the right to confidentiality that must exist between solicitor and client has now been eradicated. “This is a deliberate move by the authorities and no solicitor can at present guarantee his client that any preinterview or indeed post-interview consultations at police stations in Northern Ireland are private and confidential.” It is also understood that the Law Society has demanded a meeting with Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde over the arrest.

BBC

Democratic Unionists may appoint a representative in the United States to put the party’s case to opinion formers, the DUP leader has said.

On the eve of his party’s annual conference in Belfast on Saturday, Ian Paisley said the time was right to lobby for support in America.

Mr Paisley also intends to accept an invitation to meet four US senators in Washington in March.

Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists have established strong links in America.

“About 100 years ago there were Ulster societies all over the place but they merged themselves into the country,” Mr Paisley said.

“The Irish have never fully merged themselves. It is still Irish America. We need to address this issue.

‘Right time’

“This is the time to do it because the present administration in Washington is more favourable than the Democrats,” he said.

The DUP leader, who will be 80 years old in April, also insisted that he has never contemplated retiring from politics.

“If I were to give in at this stage, all my followers would be aghast,” he said.

“They would be saying: ‘The Big Man must know we are going to lose.’ I just couldn’t afford to do that,” he said.

The Democratic Unionist Party became the largest party in Northern Ireland, after it captured nine Westminster seats in the 2005 election.

Irelandclick

The father of a North Belfast teenager who took his own life has blasted Channel 4 for showing a programme in which a man attempted to escape from hanging himself.

The stunt was carried out in the opening programme of a heavily trailed series called ‘Death Wish Live’ which has been running all week on Channel 4’s sister channel E4. Aired on Monday, the programme was called ‘Cheating the Gallows’, and the station’s publicity described how escapologist Jonathan Goodwin would be trying “to avoid being hung execution-style on live television.”

In the event, Goodwin had to be cut free by an assistant when he failed to free himself after 30 seconds. He said: “I was told it was dangerous and stupid and it turns out that the advice was right.” He was examined afterwards by paramedics and was said to be suffering from rope burns. Phlip McTaggart, whose son Philip hanged himself two years ago, said he was disgusted by the programme.
“It’s an absolute disgrace that people are making entertainment out of people who are depressed or unhappy or feeling down. You wouldn’t get away with it if it was cancer or some other sort of disease.”

“I was at a support group last night and some of those who were there had seen the programme and had to turn over because they were really very upset. I don’t think Channel 4 realise how sensitive an issue this really is. Talking on the basis of the island of Ireland where 600 people would take their lives each year, and even in England, Wales and Scotland where there is a very very high number of people taking their lives, this is such a sensitive issue that should not be made into entertainment.

“Any loss of a child under any circumstances is difficult enough, but when a parent loses a child through suicide it is more difficult because of the stigma that is attached to it and this type of programme is not doing anything to help break down the barriers. Making entertainment out of this is horrendous and to think that families would see this does not bear thinking about. Channel 4 should look at this again.”
Philip fears that the work of groups such as the suicide prevention group Pips will be put back because of the E4 show.

“There are groups like Pips who are out there working tirelessly to break down the barriers around this issue and then you are coming up against things like this that think someone trying to take their own life is entertainment. We will now be writing to Channel 4 about this and let them know how distasteful it was.”

No one from Channel 4 was available for comment.

Journalist:: Evan Short

Belfast Telegraph

03 February 2006

The average £85,000 going in salaries and allowances to Assembly politicians will not continue to be paid if the “state of paralysis” on the restoration of the institutions continues.

That was the warning issued in Dublin yesterday by Northern Secretary Peter Hain who said it was not a case of him “wielding a big stick” but of the people demanding that something was done.

Mr Hain said the total cost of the Assembly since it was suspended three years ago was £78m, adding: “We can’t keep spending this money for nothing.”

“It’s not possible to have an Assembly elections in May 2007 when there is not an Assembly to elect representatives to,” he added.

“No serious political figure in Northern Ireland disagrees with me on these points.”

The Northern Secretary played down differences in the respective reports on IRA activity by the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) and the Independent International Commissioning on Decommissioning (IICD), headed by General John de Chastelain. “I don’t see a real difference between them,” he said. “I got exactly what I expected in the IMC report.

The bigger picture is that things have changed massively even in the past few months,” he said.

Mr Hain said he accepted that Ian Paisley and the DUP would not be “galloping into Government tomorrow”. But he said he did believe that there was “an appetite” to move things forward, adding that nobody believed the status quo was sustainable.

He felt that, like the other parties, Dr Paisley wanted to see the Assembly up and running again.

Mr Hain said that in next week’s talks at Stormont, he looked forward to hearing the views of all the parties, including the DUP who had put forward a “very interesting” set of proposals. “2006 is a make or break year for Northern Ireland,” he said.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he recognised there were still problems to be resolved before the Northern institutions could be restored.

Referring to the IMC findings, he said: “Obviously there are issues in the report where we would like to see no blips whatever.

“We don’t want to see anything about references to arms or criminality or any such issues,” he said.

Belfast Telegraph

By Jonathan McCambridge
03 February 2006

One of the last remaining border outposts of the PSNI is to close, the Policing Board has confirmed.

The members of the board yesterday endorsed the Chief Constable’s proposal to close the police station at Middletown in Co Armagh.

The heavily fortified barracks is in a staunchly nationalist area and its high security requirements make it a suitable candidate for closure, police believe.

The station has operated for some time on restricted opening hours and police have said that its closure would free up more officers on the ground.

Policing Board chairman Sir Desmond Rea said: “Having considered detailed information on the PSNI’s consultation with the local community on the proposed closure, the plans for alternative policing arrangements for the Middletown area, and the views of Armagh District Policing Partnership and their consultation with the public, the board has decided to endorse the proposal.

“However, the closure of any police station is a sensitive issue. In this instance the board is pleased that the alternative policing measures being put in place will be of benefit to policing in the area.

“Both the board and Armagh DPP will observe developments closely in order to ensure that alternative arrangements set out in the commitment document will ensure that the people of Middletown are not disadvantaged in any way by this closure and that policing with the community continues to be the focus of the police in the area.”

He added: “The board therefore believes that the closure of Middletown station will allow for more effective and efficient use of police resources.”

The closure of the Middletown base is part of the PSNI Estates Strategy which plans for the construction of new police stations as well as the maintenance, upgrading and security review of existing stations.

The strategy also identified 61 stations for review and possible closure.

Irelandclick

The brother-in-law of a man who has been missing since New Year’s Day has spoken of the family’s disbelief at how the PSNI could spare over 30 officers to raid a poker club this week, but claim they lack resources to search for a missing man.

Martin Kelly (21) was last seen coming out of Pat’s Bar in Sailortown in the early hours of New Year’s Day and the family believe he fell into the water. Despite the family’s emotional appeals for the police to search the water, PSNI divers have only searched the water of the Docks for one hour. Paul Kelly said that has left the heartbroken family “frustrated” and “angry”.

“We have video evidence showing that he was last seen at the water’s edge – CCTV evidence – so we had a token gesture by the police two weeks ago when they went in for one hour and covered a strip of about seven metres out from the bank, but what we want now is a more extensive search of the lough,” said Paul Kelly.

“We are not only frustrated, we are angry because we believe that any missing person has the right to be found and to be honest we are actually disgusted, not with the individual police officers because those diving teams are amazing. We are just angry at the system.”

The weekend raid of the Cavendish Club in Corporation Street, which lies a short distance from where the family believe Martin went missing, has also caused a lot of hurt, with Paul Kelly questioning the actions of the PSNI in deploying so many officers to raid a poker club while making only a “token gesture” in the search for missing Martin.

“We were listening to the news in the other night and the police sent 30 officers in to close a poker club and yet we can’t get the resources to look for a body. Even when we fought with the police to go in they said there wasn’t enough evidence that Martin was in the water, even though the CCTV showed that the last place he was seen was at the water’s edge. Then they said they would actually need to see him jumping in before they could search. Then they told us that it was too dangerous to go in so they couldn’t search. We have had excuse after excuse, but with the pressure we put on them they eventually went in but they made a token gesture at going in.”

The Kelly family have secured the help of professional divers from throughout Ireland and say they hope to begin a search for Martin at the weekend. They have also hit out at the PSNI for refusing to allow their volunteers to help in searching the water.

“The Harbour Master in principle has no objection to the professional volunteer divers we have going in to work alongside the police as long as they are under the control of the police. However, the police will not accept any volunteers, professional or otherwise, to join them. This is for health and safety reasons, they say.”

This is another cause of frustration for the Kelly family.

“It’s wrong – we just feel it is totally wrong and that the system must be changed and the regulations must be changed to let these divers in. We have got 30 professional divers from the South of Ireland, from the Boyne diving club, the Dundalk diving club and the Mourne diving club – they are all professional divers who were involved in the search for Conor Bogues in Ardglass last week. They are the people who found the first body but even up there it was ridiculous because the police created a 100m diving zone that no one was allowed to search in and this was only lifted under public pressure.
“Sometimes people think that the word volunteer does not mean professional but these are professional divers who are underwater contractors and who have set up voluntary search and rescue services and the police will still not work with them. So this Saturday we are preparing ourselves for a dive by volunteers from the Republic of Ireland.”

Paul said he hoped there would not be a stand-off at the Docks this weekend.

“It is up to the PSNI. We hope that the PSNI won’t stop us and the Harbour Police won’t stop us going in the water but we will be there come what may.”

A spokesman for the PSNI said the search for a missing person could not be compared to a raid on an “illegal casino” but added that another water search was planned.

“Plans are being developed at the moment to commence a search at Belfast Harbour at the start of the week and this will be confirmed closer to the time. It is anticipated that an area of 300 metres on either side of the barrier at which CCTV showed a figure will be searched. The family will be kept informed at all times.”

Journalist:: Staff Journalist

Sinn Féin

Published: 3 February, 2006

Sinn Féin Human Rights and Equality Spokesperson, Caitríona Ruane MLA has said that Sinn Fein will call for urgent action to address the huge under representation of Catholics with the core of the NIO and demand that the NIO along with a number of other organisations, including th4e BBC, is designated under Section 75 of the Equality legislation.

NIO Minister has revealed that only 155 out of 657 core departmental staff, dealing with issues including equality, criminal justice and security and political development, based in the north is Catholic. This represents just under 24% of personnel.

Ms Ruane said:

“Sinn Féin has consistently argued that the NIO, along with a number of other agencies and bodies, should be designated under section 75 of the equality provisions. These latest figures show that it a cold house for
Catholics. It is also unacceptable that the NIO refuses to monitor in detail the deployment of Catholics throughout the department and demonstrates the urgent need for the NIO to be designated.

“We will again be raising the issue of inequality across the civil service and the urgent need for effective monitoring and radical action to tackle the structural inequality and discriminatory practices, such as the ban on Irish nationals from key civil service posts, in the political negotiations.

“The NIO has huge power in the state and wields particular influence in the peace process. It is very worrying that the level of Catholic under representation is lower in the NIO than in any other government department.” ENDS

Sinn Féin

Published: 3 February, 2006

Sinn Féin MEP Bairbre de Brún will meet with representatives of West Belfast based Irish Langauge Development Body Fobairt Feirste at their Falls Road offices ‘An Nasc’ later morning (11.00am) to receive an update on progress with plans for the development of a designated ‘Gaeltacht Quarter’ in West Belfast.

Fobairt Feirste has been working along with other Irish Language and Business interests in partnership with representatives of DCAL. DSD and DETI to progress the recommendation of the West Belfast and Greater Shankill Task Force for the creation of a Gaeltacht Quarter Development Board and the creation of a designated Gaeltacht Quarter centred on the Irish Language corridor on the Falls Road.

Speaking today Ms de Brún said:

“Today’s briefing with Fobairt Feirste provides an opportunity to receive an update on developments for the Gaeltacht Quarter in the heart of West Belfast. The Irish language has been thriving in recent years across the city of Belfast. In spite of government neglect and indifference to the language both north and south, the Irish language community has worked hard to ensure the sustainability of the education system, cultural and economic sectors.

“The plans for the development of the Gaeltacht Quarter are both exciting and ambitious and are rooted in the recommendation of the Ministerial Task Force which recognised the unique regeneration opportunity presented by properly resourced development of the cultural cluster centred on the Falls Road into a designated Gaeltacht Quarter. Such a development would compliment the massive revival of the language and promote a self
contained area where language enthusiasts can live and work. It would also open up further employment opportunities for Irish speakers and is a unique selling point for the City of Belfast in terms of attracting visitors and potential investors to a vibrant and unique cultural quarter. The Gaeltacht Quarter would undoubtedly become a long term tourist and regeneration centre on the Falls Road.

“It is now essential that there is a strategic focus between local businesses, the Irish language sector, the relevant British government departments and Belfast City Council to prime-pump activity in the area and to the develop a comprehensive business case and development plan for the Gaeltacht Quarter.

“The recent decision to designate Irish as an official working language of the European Union is a testament to the tenacity of Irish language enthusiasts from across Ireland to influence European decision-making. A similar level of commitment to the Gaeltacht Quarter will ensure it comes to fruition and receives the support of the local community as well as that of government.

“I will be also looking to other European regions to look at similar cultural-based regeneration models with a view to facilitating linkages and partnerships and to seeing what lessons which can be learned from them.” ENDS

Note to Editor:

Forbairt Feirste was established in 1994 to ‘promote our cultural heritage through economic regeneration’. The organisation’s main aim is ‘the creation of jobs and new opportunities for Belfast’s’ Irish speaking community’.

Irish Independent

Bernard Purcell
London Editor

BRITAIN’S Irish population is disappearing, according to official statistics.

The social phenomenon of returning emigrants, or their children, is not new but for the first time since records began the number of Irish people in Britain has gone into decline.

The trend appears set to continue as age and time takes toll on a generation of 1950s, and later, emigrants.

Historian Ultan Cowley, a member of the Irish Episcopal Commission for emigrants and author of The Men Who Built Britain, points out that 500,000 Irish moved to Britain in the years after World War Two.

In 1960 alone, emigrants’ remittances amounted to Stg£15.5m, just half a million pounds short of the overall Irish education budget, he says. Between 1939-69, Stg£2.2bn was posted back to Ireland.

Some of those people, the pre-1953 workers who have no Irish National Insurance Contributions, now receive a partial State Pension.

As of 2004 there were just 12,000 people in Britain (and Northern Ireland) in receipt of such payments.

But the people who sent home those Postal Orders and sterling notes are dying and dead, returning home in their infirmity or seeing their adult children and adult grandchildren move to Ireland.

The Office of National Statistics has just recorded for the first time a downward trend in the numbers of Irish in England and Wales.

It is the first statistical phenomenon of a widely observed social and business trend.

In 1991 the Department of Foreign Affairs routinely assessed the number of Irish in Britain at 845,000 people with three million second and third generation.

Among those were 592,283 ‘Irish-born’ Irish living in Britain. But by 2001 this had dropped to 494,850. Overall the 2001 Census recorded 632,000 Irish in England and Wales. This figure has been plummeting because of a combination of deaths over births and reverse migration.

The just published ONS figures show population growth but record an overall decline among those people officially categorised as ‘White British’ and ‘White Irish’.

They show a net decrease of 19,000 or 1.5pc of Irish people between 2001 and 2003. Irish government statistics of the net inflow to Ireland in the last three years mean this trend has yet to peak. In the past, mortality was more than offset by a constant flow of new Irish into Britain but since 2000 the numbers migrating to Ireland have exceeded 20,000 a year. Since 2001, , at least 132,000 people moved to Ireland.