SAOIRSE32

BBC

Striking Belfast postal workers have apparently decided to end two weeks of unofficial industrial action and return to work.

Royal Mail called on staff to end their action after it agreed to a review of employee relations.

A Communication Workers Union spokesman said the strike would be called off if there was a consensus amongst members that the proposals were acceptable.

About 200 strikers discussed the offer at Transport House in Belfast.

The union had said it wanted assurances from the company that it would not interfere with the independent body brought in to review employee relations at the firm.

It also said it did not want its members victimised when they returned to work.

On Thursday, the company said it had given the union the assurances it had asked for.

It said there was no longer any reason for the strike action to continue.

Workers at Tomb Street in Belfast began an unofficial strike on 31 January after staff alleged harassment by managers. Royal Mail denied the claims.

Mail deliveries have been disrupted, with Belfast the worst affected area.

Royal Mail has said mail sent from Northern Ireland to the Irish Republic was now being dispatched, although that mail posted to Britain and internationally was still affected by the strike.

On Monday, Royal Mail said it would allow a third party to look at future relations between management and employees if workers returned to work immediately.

The company’s offer also required staff to agree to a 12-month ban on industrial action.

Royal Mail has said that it will take three to four weeks to clear up the backlog of post once the strike is over.

Customers needing more information and advice have been advised to contact the company’s helpline number on 08457 740740.

Derry Journal

Friday 17th February 2006

Martin McGuinness has alleged that a member of MI5 tried to coax loyalists into launching a bomb attack on his Derry home. The Derry republican says he is totally opposed to any lead role new legislation may give to the British security service in running informers and agents in the North.

The measures are expected to be contained in laws enabling the transfer of policing and justice powers to a future devolved administration at Stormont Mr. McGuinness has also claimed a considerable amount of work on policing and justice will still have to be done before his party can participate on the North’s policing bodies. He said: “We are totally opposed to any MI5 role in intelligence gathering, let alone giving it the lead role. “In the circumstances of restored political institutions, we believe it should be the responsibility of the government in the North to deal with all of these matters. “Anyone who knows anything about the history of MI5 knows it has played a very negative role in events in the North over the past 25 years. “Indeed, I was informed at one stage that a member of MI5 tried to encourage a leading loyalist paramilitary to throw 30 lbs of gelignite through the window of a house I was living in in Derry. “The experience of MI5 among republicans has been very bad and I have to say anyone who thinks it is acceptable for MI5 to have a role in intelligence gathering is living in cloud cuckoo land.” MI5 is expected to take over the primary responsibility from the PSNI for running agents and informers in the North in late 2007. In preparation for its role, the organisation is believed to be preparing to move to a new base at Palace Barracks in Holywood, Co Down.
The proposal has, however, been criticised by SDLP leader Mark Durkan who warned Prime Minister Tony Blair at a meeting in London this week that his party would oppose any role for MI5 because it will be unaccountable to the Policing Board or an Executive at Stormont. PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has, however, defended the move, calling it a healthy split in responsibilities.
With Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain due to announce a new look Policing Board in April, there has also been considerable interest in whether Sinn Fein will take up the seats it has so far refused. However, as his party prepares to debate 37 motions on policing and justice affecting members on both sides of the Irish border at its Ard Fheis in Dublin this weekend, Mr. McGuinness insists there is still considerable work to be done. “In the negotiations that took place in December 2004 Sinn Fein outlined what was required,” the party’s chief negotiator said. “In the course of the coming days we are going to see the enabling legislation made public. That will have to be examined very carefully to see if it meets the needs of our constituents. “So there’s still quite a lot of work to do. The publication of the enabling legislation on its own is not going to be enough to resolve differences. “There will also have to be crucial discussions between the Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Fein and others about how we deal with policing and justice in the context of a restored Assembly. “There are a lot of ideas circulating as to how a department would work and how it would fit into the 10 ministries. We have our own ideas but we want to hear what the DUP and others have to say.”

Derry Journal

Friday 17th February 2006

Mark Durkan has accused the Irish and British governments of allowing the DUP to take “control of the political calendar.” The Foyle MP’s remarks follow his meeting with British prime minister Tony Blair at Downing Street on Wednesday.

Mr. Durkan told the ‘Journal’ last night: “Every time the governments say that they will not or can not set a date for restoring the institutions without a prior agreement, they are, in effect, telling the DUP that they will only restore them at a time and on terms that suits them. Of course, this isn’t new. “The negotiations in late 2004 and the so-called Comprehensive Agreement by the two governments, the DUP and SF, told the DUP this as well. “That agreement involved returning to a shadow Assembly and things would have moved on only when the DUP was content. “Those who conceded this to the DUP, along with various changes to the Good Friday Agreement, did so claiming that the DUP was on for powersharing and North-South co-operation. “We argued the folly of this attitude by the two governments and Sinn Fein while they kept saying that the DUP was ‘up for a deal’. Their mistaken attitude has fed the DUP’s arrogance and I believe that even they are now starting to recognise this.” The two governments, says Mr. Durkan, now need to let all the parties know that their talk of a “timeline” actually “means something more than idle spin.”
He added: “They can’t seriously continue to talk about a timeline while, at the same time, refusing to set a date for the restoration of all the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement. “Indeed, Peter Hain is sending dangerously confused signals when he talks of the government’s determination to move things on while simultaneously arguing against a date for restoration and then indulging the DUP suggestion of just having the Assembly in shadow mode.
“Both governments need to tell the DUP that Unionism got an effective veto on the institutions while the IRA refused to decommission and continued its activities - but that this has now gone. “They can tell the DUP that, under the Agreement, there are some vetoes that they will have inside the institutions but that they no longer have a veto on those institutions.” Mr. Durkan revealed that, during this week’s Downing Street talks, he made it clear that the SDLP does not accept the Comprehensive Agreement, of December 2004, as the “road map” for the future. “We never agreed the changes to the Good Friday Agreement that the two governments and Sinn Fein were prepared to concede in that document. These include drive-by vetoes on the Executive authority of nationalist ministers, a gross departure from democratic inclusion, and the stymieing of North South co-operation. “The DUP seem to believe that it can take all those erosions of the Agreement as givens and still stall things now. “The two governments and Sinn Fein need to make it clear that the so-called Comprehensive Agreement is dropped and that their position has returned to the Good Friday Agreement proper.”

Irelandclick

Guilty man walked free after instruction from Orange Order judges

The brutal sectarian stabbing of a Newington woman almost 60 years ago is the subject of a new book by an Antrim Road author.

Entitled: ‘Bloodstains In Ulster. The Notorious Case of Robert The Painter’

Tom McAlindon deviated from his normal subject of English literature to tackle what he calls the “terrible, terrible wrong had been done” in the collapse of the trial that became known as the gripping but notorious case of ‘Robert the Painter.’
The trial shocked people from Belfast because it tapped into the sectarian nature of the unionist state. And it was soon elevated from that of a routine murder to a show trial that split the community down religious lines.
In 1949 Minnie McGowan was in her home on Ponsonby Avenue when there was a knock on her door. She opened it to find a man named Robert Taylor asking to use her telephone. She let him in but immediately he became aggressive, grabbing her by the throat and choking her until she fell down where he then kicked and beat her. Minnie McGowan was then taken to hospital and the RUC arrived finding the house ransacked, a blood stained carving knife, and Minnie’s teeth lying on the ground.
The dying woman was conscious and was able to give a positive ID on who killed her - a painter from Meadow Street, called Robert Taylor. Taylor was arrested that day and bloodstains and hair were found on his overcoat which matched his blood group and the hair was Minnie McGowan’s.
The case engrossed Belfast because if Taylor was found guilty he would be the first person to hang in Belfast since 19-year-old IRA man Thomas Williams hanged in 1942.
Taylor pleaded not guilty to all charges and produced alibis that could account for his whereabouts that day. The jury were unable to agree and Taylor was sent for retrial in October 1949.
At his new trial Taylor again gave evidence but this time he could not convince the jury of his innocence and they found him guilty. He was sentenced to hang in November at Crumlin Road jail, but then the defence lodged an appeal against the conviction.
The outbreak of the conflict in 1969 caused a seismic shift in in Irish life, not least because all life became dominated with the unfolding events and everything was focused on the increasing spiral of violence.
But Tom McAlindon’s memories of the North are only from before the troubles, as this is when he left his native Belfast to start on his academic career. For this reason a court case regarding a grisly 1940s Newington murder, long forgotten by many, stayed with him and led him to complete a book on the case and make some extraordinary discoveries.
But what gripped the city was the revelation that a separation of the jury had taken place during the trial. On two nights while the jury was sitting they had gone by bus to Donaghadee and then Antrim. The judge had given permission for the jury to travel to Bangor for fresh air and exercise, but with orders that they were to be closely supervised and that they should at all time be kept separate from the public. However, the jury travelled on to Donaghadee where they made off in groups to spend time in the local pubs, walking in the area or visiting public cafes. On the second outing when they were in Antrim the jury visited a fruit shop and queued for their goods with members of the public. The blunder or otherwise led the judge to quash the Taylor conviction and release him immediately.
It is the fallout of this case that has stuck with Tom all these years and led him to write the book about Minnie.
“It happened when I was 17 or 18 while I was living on the Antrim road. Because I left Ireland in the fifties and went over to Cambridge and I didn’t experience all of the horrors of the 1970s 80s or 90s. As a consequence this very brutal murder stuck in my mind very vividly and has never left it. It seemed to me to be a very extreme and vivid case of the way sectarian politics made a mockery of justice and the law. Here was a man who was found guilty of a savage premeditated murder and the judge sentencing him said the sentence was based on conclusive, not convincing evidence. He got off on a technicality and couldn’t be tried again.”
Following his investigations, Tom McAlindon is convinced the collapse of the trial was engineered.
“It is very difficult to believe otherwise, and in fact the documents that I have unearthed in the Records Office point to the fact that the appeal court judges, both of whom were members of the Grand Lodge Committee of the Orange Order, now dead, were perfectly well aware of what was going on and the pressure on the judiciary was very strong. But I think it went from the ground up, right through the men of the jury and the RUC.
“It seemed to me an extreme example of what could go on. The unionist establishment had a complete control of the law.”
Tom McAlindon says that it is obvious the RUC disobeyed instructions.
“The jury was given very strict instructions that if they were to go out on a walk they were to keep together, two policemen at the front and two at the back, and this was because until 1976 there was a rule in Northern Ireland that a jury had to be kept together during the time of the trial.
“So they slept in the courthouse itself and had their meals there. This rule was stopped in England in 1946 but it continued in Northern Ireland for another 20 years.
“They had strict instructions to stay together, but as soon as they got to Donaghadee they got out and they broke up into four groups and with the police went in different directions.
“The second time they went out they went to Antrim and did the same thing – they broke up. The man (Robert Taylor) was sentenced to death on the Friday and low and behold on the Monday affidavits came from the jury and police saying in a very unashamed manner what they had done, which clearly infringed the rule.
“The appeal court judges had to quash the conviction. They said ‘by some strange accident’ and they are the very words they used, ‘by some strange accident, we don’t know how’. It’s laughable, but the problem is it happened at the very highest level of the judiciary and this is what is so appalling.”
Getting to the bottom of the case was something that Tom McAlindon says has been an invigorating experience for him.
“I found it very cathartic because I felt a terrible, terrible wrong had been done to that woman and I thought of her daughter, who left Belfast in disgust.
“I was able to track her down and she told me she left because she got on the bus shortly after Robert Taylor was released.
“There he was, sitting in front of her laughing and joking. She felt sick and left and very soon after (that) she disappeared. In fact people thought she was dead, but I was able to track her down and she helped me fill in any gaps there were and helped my understanding of the case,” he said.
Despite the interest in the book Tom says that it will be his one and only foray into the world of true crime and says he will now retire to read other books.
“This is totally different to anything I had done before and it will be my last book. I have too many books to read now I have retired,” he said.
“I want to spend the rest of my life reading good literature – that’s my seventh book so I am finished now writing. I am 73 now so I think I deserve some time off,” he laughed.

Bloodstains In Ulster is on sale now in local bookstores, published by The Liffey Press and priced £8.95.

Irelandclick

There has been a steady rise in the number of children attending Irish-medium schools and that increase has been hailed as a huge success by the chair of the Irish education body Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta.

This year is again in line with a 30-year trend in growth rates in the Irish-medium sector, said Seán Ó Coinn, Chief Executive of Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta .
“We have growth this year of almost 10 per cent, a figure which is in keeping with the constant gains the sector is making every year.”
Mr Ó Coinn said parents were seeing the benefits of Irish language education.
“It is evident that an increasing number of parents are choosing Irish-medium education for their children.
“Their reasons for sending their children to Irish-medium schools are numerous. Some have cited the education benefits of a bilingual education, the unique teaching environment and, of course, the opportunity to become fluent in Irish while gaining a deeper understanding of Gaelic culture and heritage. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that parents are continuing to vote with their feet and are choosing Irish-medium schools. In the North Belfast area alone there are two Irish-medium primary schools and four nursery schools and we look forward to further growth.”
For information on Irish-medium education contact Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta on 90321475 or email eolas@comhairle.org.

Journalist:: Staff Journalist

Irelandclick

Ahead of a meeting with the Irish government a North Belfast man whose son was murdered by the UVF has blasted the DUP for failing to support him in his campaign for justice. But the DUP has rejected the North Belfast man’s claims.

Raymond’s son Raymond junior was murdered by the UVF in 1997. He was 22.
The murdered man’s father says he has been forced to seek help from nationalists and the Irish government because unionists have failed him.
“One party here in Northern Ireland has helped me and that is the SDLP. Now, what’s the next stage for the likes of myself from a Protestant background? The DUP have turned their back on us – they don’t call for the arrest of UVF people even after the amount of murders they have committed in their own community.”
The grieving father said the DUP still refused to meet him despite holding talks with nationalist victims.
“Ian Paisley met with the Finucanes, and I fully support the Finucanes and I hope they get justice because there was collusion there, make no mistake about it. But the Finucanes wouldn’t be DUP voters – Ian Paisley doesn’t have a problem with meeting that woman or her family and yet they refuse to meet me.
“The DUP named three people who were involved in the [Robert] McCartney murder and yet it’s not even that they refuse to name the people who murdered my son, but they refuse to call for the arrest of the murderers of my son.
“The UVF have murdered something like 30 Protestants from their ceasefire and Ian Paisley has yet to call for the arrest of a UVF leader.”
Raymond McCord says it is the failure of the unionist parties to address the issue of loyalist murders that has driven him and other families to seek help from the Irish government.
A spokesman for the DUP this morning rejected the claims.
“Raymond McCord has been in contact with a number of DUP MPs and they have facilitated meetings with him and facilitated meetings with the Chief Constable and others for him.
“The DUP wants to see justice for Raymond McCord and for all victims of terrorism and we are, as always, standing ready to assist victims in any way we can,” said a DUP spokesman.

Journalist:: Evan Short

Irelandclick

The wife of a man murdered over 30 years ago by the British army has said she has no faith that his killers will be brought to justice by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET).

Ardoyne woman Alice Logan, who was married to Eddie Sharpe when he was gunned down at his door by the British army in March 1973, said she would refuse to cooperate with any new probe led by the PSNI.
“How I am going to get justice if the state is investigating the state? I want no part or parcel of it, and I won’t be cooperating,” Alice said.
“33 years ago Eddie was murdered. All the evidence was there, but it was all covered up by the British army and the RUC. Why do they want to know now, 33 years later? It’s a political stunt through and through to me.”
The HET has been up and running for just under a month now and it has been tasked with revisiting over 3,000 unsolved murders from 1969 until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Justice campaign groups such as An Fhrinne, Relatives For Justice and the Ardoyne Commemoration Project (ACP) are against the idea of the state investigating the state.
Alice and Eddie got married in December 1965 and they had had four children together, one of whom died at birth. On March 12. 1973 Alice’s world changed forever.
“I remember the night Eddie was shot we were making the tea before we went to bed. It’s amazing I still remember every little detail.
“Eddie went out to the front door and he called me out to look at the moon. I said to him to hold on a minute. I was just setting down his tea to go out when the next thing I heard was a shot. I called Eddie’s name three times but there was no answer. I thought, he doesn’t hear me, so I went out to the front door and Eddie was lying there dead, with his hands still in his pockets.”
Eddie had been shot dead by a British army sniper stationed at a nearby observation post. The British army later alleged that Eddie was a gunman pointing a rifle at them from his garden. But at the inquest it was admitted that Eddie wasn’t a gunman.
Alice and her children never received an apology.
At the time, Holy Cross priest Fr Myles Kavanagh launched a civil investigation into Eddie’s murder.
It was later called off after eyewitness Sean Murphy was shot and the inquiry was deemed too dangerous to continue.
In the ACP’s book, Ardoyne: The Untold Truth, Fr Myles said he believed it was the Paras that shot Sean Murphy.
“The state was not amenable. (We) agreed that if witnesses were going to be shot then it couldn’t go on,” he said in the book.
30 years on, Fr Myles said he believed that people had to make up their own mind about the HET team.
He joined the parish of Holy Cross as a priest in 1961 – he turned 70 last November.
“There’s a lot of people who are over it, have already dealt with the past. For some people they desperately need it [the truth],” the Holy Cross priest said.
“It can be devastating to have to relive it when you don’t want to.”
ACP spokesman Tom Holland said an independent inquiry, separate from the British government, was crucial for victims.
And he labelled the establishment of the PSNI historical inquiries team as another British stalling tactic.
“The main issue for any victims group, or family, in deciding whether they should co-operate with or give support to the HET, is whether or not they believe the HET intends to fully deal with the issues of the past in an independent, objective manner,” he said.
“Our position on the HET is that it is at best a delaying tactic by the British Government in the absence of it facing up to its responsibilities on the truth recovery issue.”

Journalist:: Áine McEntee

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton
17 February 2006

The Government has acknowledged a need for “local transparency” after MI5 takes the lead role in intelligence gathering in Northern Ireland.

In a discussion paper on the devolution of justice, that was published alongside Westminster legislation yesterday, the Government said it recognises that there is a crossover between intelligence about national security - which MI5 will handle - and organised crime, which police will continue to monitor.

The acknowledgement came as the Policing Board called for “clarity and reassurance” that progress made in intelligence safeguards over the past three years won’t be reversed by the switch to MI5. The call followed PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde’s remarks that he would object if he felt the handover to MI5 would deprive his officers of information they need.

In a nod to local transparency, the Government indicated local Ministers, the Assembly, Policing Board and Police Ombudsman could be briefed on MI5 activity.

“Even when policing is devolved, those with responsible for overseeing policing will need to understand how national security issues are handled,” the Government paper said.

“The Government has consistently recognised the importance of local transparency, as has the PSNI Chief Constable, though it will not risk compromising information or techniques that would jeopardise national security.”

Earlier this week, Sir Hugh Orde told Parliament’s Northern Ireland Select Committee that he has “no difficulty” with the transfer of responsibility to MI5.

“But I would have huge difficulty if I didn’t get back all the intelligence I need to fight crime,” he said.

“I’m not going to sign up to a system in which that is not the case.”

Yesterday members of the Policing Board were briefed about changes to the intelligence system by Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kinkaid.

In a statement afterwards, Board chairman Sir Desmond Rea said that members “were particularly concerned” that the enhanced role for MI5 could “reverse progress made during the last three years”.

“Board members agreed that clarity and reassurance around this issue must be provided prior to any change being effected, and would continue discussions on this matter with the Chief Constable,” he said.

Both the SDLP and Sinn Fein have objected to greater MI5 involvement.

BN.ie

**Download >>Sinn Féin Ard Fheis Clár 2006 (.pdf document)

17/02/2006 - 07:07:35

More than 2,000 Sinn Féin delegates gather in Dublin today to debate 500 motions at the party’s annual Ard Fheis.

The ’Irish Unity and Equality’ theme will coincide with the 90th and 25th respective anniversaries of 1916 Rising and the 1981 Hunger Strikes in coming months.

Sinn Féin’s Dáil leader Caoimhghin O Caolain will deliver the opening address, followed by a speech by chief negotiator Martin McGuinness on the peace process.

Guest speakers in the RDS will include Micheal O Seighin of the Rossport Five group and Joanne Delaney, who was sacked from her job in Dunnes Stores in Crumlin because she wore a union badge.

Other invited delegates include members of the NUE-NGL political group in the European parliament and visitors from Portugal, the Basque country, Cyprus and Sweden.

Newly-elected representatives in last year’s Westminster and local elections, including Newry and Armagh MP Conor Murphy, will also receive a special welcome.

This weekend’s event will also be the first Ard Fheis since the IRA ended its armed campaign and decommissioned its weapons last year.

Sinn Féin said the wide-ranging motions reflected the high level of debate that is ongoing through the party.

Party president Gerry Adams will make his keynote leader’s speech on Saturday at 5pm.

BBC

The Parades Commission rules on contentious marches

The Grand Lodge of the Orange Order is to reconsider its policy on parades at a special meeting.

Despite unofficial contacts, and one meeting of individual members with the Parades Commission, the policy of the Order is not to engage with the body.

Many would like to change this, but that may depend on a government commitment to review the framework on which the commission works.

The meeting is to be held in Belfast on Saturday morning.

However, the last review of the commission three years ago changed little.

If a commitment to change was forthcoming, there could be some engagement prior to this summer’s marching season.

Views at Grand Lodge are known to be diverse and any vote could easily go either way.

Church

But it is understood there is a recognition that the make-up and approach of the new commission - which now includes two Orangemen - is very different from any that went before.

The Orange Order members of the commission are David Burrows and Don MacKay, who are members of the Portadown lodge which wants to parade along the Garvaghy Road - a mainly nationalist area.

Orangemen last walked down the Garvaghy Road from a church service at Drumcree Parish Church in July 1997.

However, the Parades Commission has since banned them from parading down the road following objections by nationalist residents.

The commission was set up in 1997 to make decisions on whether or not restrictions should be imposed on controversial parades during Northern Ireland’s marching season.

New appointments, including Mr Burrows and Mr MacKay, were made to it in November 2005.

IAIS

02/16/06 20:08 EST

Sinn Féin spokesperson on policing Gerry Kelly has welcomed the British government’s introduction of an enabling bill for the transfer of powers on Policing and Justice to Northern Ireland.

Speaking today, Mr Kelly said Sinn Féin had been pushing strongly for the transfer of powers on policing and justice away from London.

“In negotiations with Sinn Féin in December 2004 the British government agreed to introduce this framework legislation as a first step. However the important detail of the powers to be transferred, what the best departmental model is and the timeframe involved are all issues which need to be worked out as a matter of urgency.”

“The DUP amongst others need to be ready to discuss the detail on transfer as a core issue in setting up the interdependent political institutions agreed under the Good Friday Agreement,” he said.

“Delays in dialogue need to cease and the DUP need to engage in the inevitable negotiations on these important matters now.”

Daily Ireland

PSNI Historical Enquiries Team yet to investigate circumstances of Francis McCloskey’s 1969 death

By Connla Young
16/02/2006

A new investigation into the death of a man regarded as the first victim of the Northern conflict has not yet begun, it emerged yesterday.
Almost three weeks after the launch of the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team investigation of killings committed during the conflict, the case of the first fatality has yet to be examined.
Francis McCloskey died after being beaten by the RUC in Dungiven, Co Derry, in July 1969.
Although the 67-year-old is regarded as the first victim of the conflict, the circumstances surrounding his death have yet to be investigated.
Differences have emerged between the PSNI and the Police Ombudsman’s office in relation to how cases involving people killed by the RUC should be examined.
This means that the investigation into those deaths has been held up indefinitely.
At a press conference held last month, representatives of the Historical Enquiries Team claimed that the case files would be dealt with in chronological order.
The PSNI was later forced to clarify that the first 100 cases to be examined excluded those people who had died as result of RUC actions.
Neither the PSNI nor the Police Ombudsman was able to say when the investigation into RUC killings would begin.
Lucy McCloskey, a neighbour and close family friend of Francis McCloskey, urged the HET and Police Ombudsman’s office to sort out their differences.
“An acknowledgment or an apology would make a difference,” she said.
“It would make a difference not just to the people of Dungiven but to people across the North.
“It would form part of the healing process, and there has to be a healing process if we are going to live together.
“My memories of Francis are that of a lovely man, a willing neighbour and a great help to my family.
“His death was a very grave injustice. And that extended to his sister Rose Ellen. He was the only family she had and she lived for many years after him and had to carry that pain until she died. She was the forgotten victim in all this.”
A spokesman for the Police Ombudsman’s office said: “A number of issues are still to be resolved and, at this stage, we are still in discussions with the Northern Ireland Office and PSNI about the transfer.”
A spokesperson for the PSNI confirmed that details of 48 RUC victims had been handed to the Police Ombudsman.
“The process of referring those cases to PONI [Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland] is the subject of discussions between HET and PONI. PONI’s acceptance of the cases is a matter for them.
“The relationship between HET and PONI is one of ongoing liaison through a structured process, which includes a protocol and memorandum of understanding. This ensures that both agencies can progress their independent and important work in a complementary fashion, especially in any cases where a process of parallel review may be necessary.
“It is important to clarify that, when reference was made to HET dealing with 100 cases in chronological order, this was intended to mean the first 100 cases which fall appropriately to be dealt with by HET,” said the PSNI spokesperson.
An inquest in 1970 into Mr McCloskey’s death found that the bachelor had suffered a fractured skull and torn artery.
His name was not included on the RUC’s official list of people killed in the conflict until the list was amended in 1995.

Daily Ireland

Connla Young
from 13/02/2006

A group representing republican prisoners is to meet prison service chiefs to discuss rising tensions in Maghaberry Prison.
Representatives of the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association have said the meeting on Wednesday was arranged to address complaints raised by republican inmates held in the Co Antrim prison’s Roe House unit.
Prisoners have complained in recent months that they are being harassed by prison staff.
It is understood several prisoners have complained of being physically attacked when taken to the prison punishment block, which is not covered by closed-circuit television cameras.
Other prisoners have complained after being put through numerous body searches, including strip searches.
One prisoner recently complained that he had been searched 42 times in one week.
An ongoing point of contention for prisoners at Maghaberry is the cancellation of open family visits at the last minute.
Prison authorities often attempt to justify this practice by claiming that sniffer dogs have detected illegal substances on visitors.
As well as facing rigorous searches, prisoners in Roe House are monitored through CCTV and listening devices.
Marion Price, a spokeswoman for the prisoners welfare group, said conditions were intolerable for prisoners in Maghaberry.
“We were told, once prisoners were segregated in 2003, there may be teething problems with the new regime but, once staff got used to it, things would relax.
“But that didn’t happen, and staff use the system to harass prisoners.
“The fact is people are being beaten up and continually harassed. Prison staff are not supposed to wear emblems or badges but they do.
“Also, they are supposed to cover up their tattoos but they don’t. For prisoners, it’s a hostile environment and we want to find a solution before the situation escalates.
“We will talk to anybody in trying to improve conditions for prisoners,” she said.
A prison service spokesman declined to comment ahead of this week’s meeting.

Ballymena News

16 February 2006

A ROW is brewing between Sinn Fein and the DUP over flags and emblems at Ballymena Council.
Ballymena Sinn Fein Councillor Monica Digney has said if the Union Jack and portrait of the Queen are to be kept in the Council chamber, a symbol of nationalist identity must be placed alongside them.
If no nationalist flags or symbols are to be displayed, said Cllr Digney, the existing flag and portrait should be removed.
DUP man Roy Gillespie has said he will resist any attempts to remove the Union Jack and the Queen’s Protest, and will stand firm against what he calls ‘republican stirring’.
Cllr. Gillespie who in the past fought to stop the Queen’s portrait being covered in the Council chamber, said there would never be a Tri-colour flown alongside the Union Jack in the seat of local government.
Cllr Digney’s comments come as the Council prepares to complete an EQIA (Equality Impact Assessment).
She said: “After my appointment to Council last year I immediately raised with the Council the issue of inequality within the Council Chamber.
“The display of a portrait of the British Queen alongside both the Union Jack and the Unionist state flag reflects the identity of the Unionist community but there is nothing in the Chamber to reflect ratepayers of a nationalist/republican persuasion.
“This Council is run using the money of ratepayers from across the entire community, not just one particular political or religious persuasion, and Council must take steps to address this. The Council must subscribe to either Equality or Neutrality when it comes to issues like this and I would expect the Council’s EQIA to reflect that.
“The Council must take steps to improve its image in terms of equality and tackling the issues of flags and symbols would be an all-important first step.
“I was elected on the commitment that I would combat inequality whenever or wherever I come across it and I have already opened a case with the Equality Commission regarding this.
“Be rest assured that if Unionist Councillors are in any way found wanting in terms of resolving this issue that I will not hesitate in taking this case all the way.”
Incensed, Cllr. Gillespie responded: “If the Union Jack and the Portrait of our majesty were taken down, I think the majority of people would be offended, that is my personal opinion.
“I have always stood for the flag of our nation for which so many men gave their lives. I will be totally opposing any changes.”
The DUP representative was equally unimpressed by the alternative: “There is no way that we can have the tri-colour the flag of a foreign state flying in our Council chamber. Nationalists and Catholics are treated just the same as everyone else in Ballymena. They enjoy the same benefits.
“Cllr. Digney is just trying to stir up tensions like she has been doing in Ahoghill and Portglenone. She is a British subject just like me and the rest of the people living in the Borough.”
The Equality Impact Assessment on Flags and Emblems is due to be completed by the end of March. The consultation documentation was issued by Ballymena Borough Council on February 6 and the closing date for responses is February 24.