SAOIRSE32

IAIS

02/18/06 11:30 EST

The greatest strategic challenge facing Sinn Féin is the advancement of the peace process and ensuring that the Belfast Agreement is implemented in full, Sinn Fein president gerry Adams said this afternoon.

In his keynote speech to party delegates in Dublin, Gerry Adams said there was no possible excuse for the British and Irish governments not to “fully and faithfully” implement the Agreement and warned that history would not be kind to any government that put its party political considerations above the peace process.

Mr Adams said he had huge reservations about how the two governments were approaching the current phase of talks. He said that the main objective must be to end the suspension of the political institutions and deliver on the outstanding aspects of the Agreement, including the “deeply problematic issue of policing in the North”.

Another major challenge facing the party was its relationship with unionism, Mr Adams said. He added that there were many good people within unionism who have worked with Sinn Féin in committees and at councils.

But he also directed a question at DUP leader Rev Ian Paisley and asked: “Are you ready to begin the process of building a shared future?”

Mr Adams warned that change would continue and that regardless of the disposition of the DUP, republicans have to engage with unionist communities. “We now must deepen our engagement, our understanding of unionism if we are to have partners in conflict resolution.”

The party president also said that Sinn Fein was capable of building a fair and equal society in tandem with a successful economy and that people should have easy access to a home, a fair wage, a good education, affordable childcare and a well-run health system.

He said the party was committed to ending the two-tier health system and said that no one should have to languish on a hospital trolley in a corridor in the era of the Celtic Tiger.

Mr Adams told delegates that between now and the next ArdFheis they had a lot of work to do to prepare for elections, both north and south. “Our objective is an All-Ireland parliament for all the people of Ireland.”

He criticised the Taoiseach for reneging on his commitment to proceed with northern representation in the Oireachtas (Irish parliament).

Mr Adams said if the party has a mandate and if it can secure an inter-party government and a programme for government which is consistent with its republican objectives, “we will look at being in government in the south”.

“Our sole purpose of going into government is to bring about the maximum amount of change.”

Earlier, Sinn Fein delegates voted in favor of an electoral strategy motion to repeal the Offences Against the State Act as a pre-condition before any coalition talks.

This decision effectively ties the hands of the party leadership in advance of next year’s General Election.

The 1939 Act led to the establishment of the non-jury Special Criminal Court which tries terrorist cases.

Dublin South-West TD Sean Crowe earlier urged the party not to limit its options in advance of the general election.

He said: “I do not know if government is ready for me, but I am ready for government.”

The party’s chief negotiator Martin McGuinness drew laughter from delegates when he remarked that he had experience of coalition government, and with unionists.

But he warned that voters would make the decision whether the party entered government or not.

He said: “I don’t think we can afford to be presumptuous. The people who will decide the next election with be the electorate.”

Introducing the motions on electoral strategy, vice president Pat Doherty said earlier that the party must focus on securing the biggest possible mandate from the public.

“The issue of coalition in the 26 counties will never arise if we do not substantially increase our mandate and our representation. That is the real politick. Our policies will never see the light of day if we do not all leave this hall an deliver the best possible electoral performance in the next Leinster House election.”

A local cumann speaker said earlier: “We need to put Fianna Fail out to grass for a couple of years. They have taken the brown envelope. Under no circumstances should we go into government to prop up Fianna Fail after the next election.”

Daily Ireland

18/02/2006

The father of a member of the British army murdered by loyalists wants to meet with Gerry Adams to discuss his son’s death.
Raymond McCord told Daily Ireland he is seeking a meeting with the Sinn Féin president in the coming weeks. The campaigning father met with senior officials from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s office in Dublin yesterday.
Next week he will hold discussions with Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey, and Alliance party chief David Ford.
During the meetings, Mr McCord outlined the circumstances surrounding the murder of his son, Raymond McCord Junior, and the alleged police cover-up that followed.
The 22-year-old Royal Air Force member was beaten to death in a quarry on the outskirts of north Belfast in November 1997 by an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) gang. Three of those involved were high-level paramilitary informers.
They escaped prosecution in return for continuing to provide police with information on UVF gangs in north Belfast and south Antrim.
Mr McCord Junior was killed because he had threatened to expose the double agents’ drug-dealing activities.
After his meeting in Dublin yesterday, Mr McCord said face-to-face discussions with Mr Ahern are now only weeks away.
He also revealed he wants to discuss his son’s death with the Sinn Féin leadership.
“I’m a Protestant from a unionist background and my son was a member of the RAF, but that shouldn’t stop me meeting with political parties who could take up my case,” said Mr McCord.
“Asking for a meeting with Gerry Adams will raise a few eyebrows, but the fact of the matter remains, my son’s murder is one of the greatest examples of collusion in the last 30 years.”
Mr McCord said he asked Irish government officials to call on the British government to explain why there has only been two prosecutions in relation to 30 UVF murders since 1994.
He added: “Politicians like to use the word equality, well, what about equality for the victims of the UVF.
“The group has killed 30 people in the last 12 years, the majority of whom are Protestants. Only two people have been prosecuted for involvement in two of these murders. Why is this? I believe it is because the PSNI is still protecting its UVF informants.”
Meanwhile, speculation was mounting last night that the UVF is preparing to make a statement announcing the disbandment of its unit in the Mount Vernon estate in north Belfast.
The unit, which is riddled with police informers, has been responsible for more than a dozen deaths in the past decade, including that of Raymond McCord Junior.
More recently its members stabbed to death 15-year-old schoolboy Thomas Devlin as he walked home after buying sweets at a shop.
The Mount Vernon gang has been a source of embarrassment to UVF in recent months, with its members featuring regularly in sensational Sunday tabloid newspaper articles.

Daily Ireland

BY Robin Livingstone
18/02/2006

You have to think that if they can recruit blokes like Denis and get huge bugs into Connolly House they can do just about anything.

Sinn Féin party stalwarts are said to be singularly unconcerned by the fact that they’ve been infiltrated and bugged for God knows how long, as one told me from Rio de Janeiro and another said from a coal bunker on the outskirts of Drogheda.

I think they’re right to be unconcerned. Some months ago I discovered that every room in my house had been bugged over a period of some 18 months. I confronted my old pal, Chief Constable Hugh Orde, about the matter. Sadly, Hugh refused to hand over the entire transcripts, but he was good enough to slip me an A4 summary which was discussed recently at a staff meeting of the Joint Irish Section of the Joint Intelligence Committee chaired by the director and co-ordinator of intelligence at the NIO.

Target: Robin Livingstone. Male journalist. Extreme republican thought to be on the point of compromising and/or exposing our network of informers and agents provocateurs in west Belfast referred to hereinafter by the codename CIRA. Also believed to be an IRA quartermaster.

Room no 1 (reception/TV area)
Subject has clearly been trained in sophisticated anti-surveillance techniques as he continually lies vertically on the settee out of the scan of our pinhead camera and places the television remote control on his chest to run electronic interference on the sonar wave microphone. Subject is in habit of listening to music, especially at night and at weekends when regular and unidentified pops and cracks can be heard.

Please disregard our initial assessment which identified the noises as experiments in improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Acoustics experts have since told us they are wine bottles and beer tins being opened.

Room no 2 (kitchen/dining room area)
Subject has secreted a two-way radio in this quadrant in which he carries on one-way, sometimes exasperated and frequently hostile conversations with a number of his superiors with RoI accents who we have identified as 1) Marian Finucane; 2) Pat Kenny; 3) Des Cahill; 4) Vincent Browne. Suggest all four are terminated with extreme prejudice.

Penchant for international cuisine suggests that subject has travelled widely to training camps or on fund-raising missions: Old El Paso fajitas; Goodfellas pizza; chilli Pringles; Birds Eye chicken tikka. Also, the presence of HP sauce suggests he may have been involved at some stage with the England Department.

Room no 3 (bathroom and toilet)
Subject is in habit of singing in the bath/shower – particularly favours The Broad Black Brimmer and Sniper’s Promise. When exiting bath/shower sucks belly in and makes muscleman poses in front of mirror.

Voracious reader of seditious material while performing evacuations. Experiments frequently with facial disguises while shaving possibly in preparation for resumption of hostilities – left goatee beard on, for instance, but quickly removed it when children burst out laughing; tried three-inch sideboards and bandido moustache, but quickly removed them when children burst out crying.

Room no 4 (bedroom)
Subject is clearly an experienced and considerate lover whose lengthy nocturnal activities often necessitate a shift change for exhausted monitoring teams. Three female agents removed from operational duties after trying to contact subject without authorisation and on their own time.

‘Pillow talk’ information is unfortunately limited because heavy bass tones of Barry White songs on CD make satisfactory audio recording difficult; video images similarly unsatisfactory because bedroom is usually lit only by candles. Possible link with Tokyo branch of the Red Army Faction as subject favours mid-thigh-length silk Japanese dressing gown with bell sleeves and a dragon on the back. Subject is extremely ___ - ___ ___ and often ___ his _____ with –––––– or ––––different ––––– in a typical night. Frequently _____ his ______ exotic massage techniques are _____by his _______ who ________ amazed and eternally grateful (Transcription incomplete – message ends).

Daily Ireland

18/02/2006

Postal workers in Belfast were claiming victory last night as the 18-day strike that crippled services throughout the city came to an end.
Staff voted to go back to work after Royal Mail agreed to a review of employee relations, the issue that led to more than 200 workers taking unofficial industrial action.
Royal Mail insisted yesterday that there had been “no winners”. However, jubilant posties who gathered in bars in downtown Belfast last night were celebrating triumph.
A Communications Workers Union spokesman said: “Throughout the strike, the CWU has continued to repudiate the industrial action, encourage its members to return to work, whilst trying to find a resolution to the dispute.
“At the request of Royal Mail, the union became involved in discussions to help resolve the dispute and is pleased that Royal Mail has now given a written statement to the union, via the Labour Relations Agency, which has enabled the dispute to be brought to an end and facilitated a return to work.”
The unofficial strike halted all deliveries of post in north, south and west Belfast, as well as all mail being sent to Britain.
Royal Mail is being threatened with massive claims in compensation for delayed post.
Small-business leaders claimed to have been struggling because of the stoppage. Hospital appointments, particularly in the greater Belfast area, were seriously hit.
Royal Mail personnel manager Gary Crawford said the strike had been “completely unnecessary”.
He said the company would bring in extra people and vehicles to help process and deliver the 18-day mail backlog.
“Other mail centres in Britain will also be helping to process the mail, speeding up our ability to get it delivered to customers as quickly as possible,” he said.
“Our special delivery service will also be reinstated from Monday.
“However, we need to be completely honest with customers, and we estimate that it will take three to four weeks to clear the backlog,” said the personnel manager.
Mr Crawford said the company’s second task would be to start improving the climate of the firm’s industrial and employee relations to ensure that customers did not face such disruption again.
The agreement hammered out between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union allows a third party to look at future relations between management and employees.
The deal also requires staff to agree to a 12-month ban on industrial action.

RTÉ

18 February 2006 17:54

Members of the Islamist militant group, Hamas, have rejected calls to commit to peace talks and previous accords with Israel.

At the inaugural session of the newly-elected assembly, the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas to form the next government following its victory in last month’s parliamentary election.

A senior Israeli government official has warned that the Palestinian Authority would define itself as a ‘hostile entity’ if the new Hamas-led government did not recognise Israel’s right to exist.

Hamas’s speaker of parliament, Abdul Aziz Duaik said the group could not negotiate under Israeli occupation.

Indymedia.ie

Mayo County Council repeatedly fail to act

Saturday February 18, 2006 19:07 by JM
**Table graphs onsite

The ongoing situation at the proposed Bellanaboy gas refinery site has become an environmental concern. No work is progressing on construction as agreed by Shell and their partners, with local observers maintaining a day to day vigil.

However, on-site visitors have been witness to a criminal display of arrogance and neglect regarding the condition of the site at present, and the aluminium contaminated surface/ground water running directly into the drinking water supply for the whole region.

Shell continue to drag their heels operating a new treatment system, which was admitted by John Egan (a Mayo man!?) on MidWest radio last Thursday (16/02/06) as not operational yet, and with no date set for installation completion.

At a Project Monitoring Committee meeting on January 11th this year, Gerry Costello of Shell informed Mayo County Council, the North Western Regional Fisheries Board, Bord na Mona, An Garda Siochana and all others in attendance that the now famous (locally at least) Axonics treatment units would be up and running continuously within two weeks. This was a repeat of the line spun out by them since last August.

Mark Carrigy, Mayo project Manager for Shell, told Shell To Sea that everyting was “working perfectly” on the 15th February. People from Shell are contradicting each other every time they open their mouths.

Because of this, and the fact that Mayo County Council are the statutory body responsible for monitoring events, a protest at the Coucil offices in Castlebar was staged in January, and again last Friday as part of the “Day of Action” organised by the Rossport Solidarity Camp.

What follows is a brief account of the meeting that took place between Shell To Sea members and Mayo County Council, as well as the text from the letter of protest presented to County Manager Des Mahon.

************************************

Mayo County Council (17/02/06)

A meeting between members of Shell To Sea and Mayo County Council took place at lunchtime today (at Aras an Contae, Castlebar) to discuss issues raised about the quality of water leaving the proposed Bellanaboy gas refinery site, and it’s subsequent impact on Carrowmore Lake.

Des Mahon (County Manager) and Peter Hynes (Director of Services) went immediately on the defensive, maintaining that all tests done by the Council on Carrowmore Lake and the drinking water leaving thereafter were within allowable limits for drinking water. The consistent line was that the existence of a testing regime was sufficient to fulfil their obligations on the matter.

When the screamingly obvious lack of urgency evident on the ground was pointed out to them, the much repeated stance was that Mayo County Council were, in fact, being “very hard” on Shell, who are operating the construction site with Roadbridge Ltd. This “hard” approach consisted of a letter from the Council to Shell last September … end of story!

The fact that surface water treatment was described as “urgent” last summer, and that Shell have failed to live up to the promised “two to three weeks” installation and operation period required, was completely ignored. A total of 115 days (and counting) of unhindered access for environmental works without any results is an utter disgrace, and something that really staggers belief. Four whole months of inaction… a third of a year!

A letter of protest, including a number of questions and photographic and statistical evidence of pollution, was presented to Des Mahon as a matter of form, as no REAL response from the Council can be expected. The visiting group, including Mayo Independent TD Dr. Jerry Cowley, were treated with disdain, arrogance and supreme contempt, and all arguments put forward were dismissed out of hand.

Meanwhile, a successful low-key protest by around fifty Erris residents (none of whom are actually serviced by Carrowmore water) took place outside the building, to coincide with an “International Day of Action” as part of the re-instatement of the Rossport Solidarity Camp for the upcoming construction season; people power ready to stand up for basic human rights.

Definitely an interesting and educational visit to the County Town, but the continued imperious attitude of those governing this County, and this State, must not and will not be tolerated by the multitude who have to live with decisions taken on their behalf.

****************************

Bellanaboy update (17/02/06)

Mayo County Council should by now be aware of the ongoing threat to the water quality of Carrowmore Lake (the main drinking water supply for Erris) from the operations at the proposed Corrib gas refinery at Bellanaboy. This has been the subject of media scrutiny and comment from a number of sources, including the Project Monitoring Committee and Mayo County Council itself.

Recent observations made by the local community on the Bellanaboy site have revealed that an alarming amount of aluminium-contaminated water has built up there, and that a substantial quantity of this has been allowed to flow freely into the Bellanaboy River and on to Carrowmore Lake. This situation was outlined to the Council on a number of occasions (specifically 27th October 2005, again on 2nd February this year and also yesterday 16th February).

A specialised “Axonics” treatment system to deal with aluminium has been delivered to the site, but has yet to be fully operational. Full access has been available to Shell, Roadbridge and security staff since December 5th 2005 (75 days) and for 40 days previous to that. Shell had informed the Council last year that 2-3 weeks were required for installation and commissioning of the equipment.

Test results available on the Council’s public file in Belmullet clearly show a sudden increase in the amounts of aluminium present in both the lake and the water leaving Bellanaboy. This fact raises a number of questions;

1–Does the Erris waterworks plant have the capacity to remove excess aluminium?

2–How many times can a recorded breach of “acceptable drinking water limits” be allowed before any action is taken?

3–Is Mayo County Council required to notify the public about sub-standard water quality?

4–Has the water treatment equipment been certified by Axonics?

5–Has Mayo County Council approved the discharge from Axonics to be released into public drains?

This is a most serious issue affecting the health and wellbeing of virtually all the inhabitants of Erris. In spite of the above circumstances, Mayo County Council saw fit to announce on MidWest Radio yesterday (16/02/06) that the quality of water in Carrowmore Lake is “fine”.

Is this situation a deliberate attempt by the Council to ignore any issues regarding the Corrib gas project, and is it just another example of dirty industry being thrust upon the inhabitants of the west at any cost?

John Monaghan
Rossport South
Ballina
County Mayo

Related link >>shelltosea.com

BN.ie

18/02/2006 - 15:59:23

The Offences Against the State Act must be wiped from the Irish statute books before Sinn Féin goes in government in the Republic, the party decided today.

Ard Fheis delegates voted narrowly in favour of a electoral strategy motion insisting that the anti-terrorist legislation be repealed as a pre-condition before any coalition talks.

This decision effectively ties the hands of the party leadership in advance of next year’s general election.

The 1939 Act led to the establishment of the non-jury Special Criminal Court which tries terrorist cases.

Dublin South-West TD Sean Crowe earlier urged the party not to limit its options in advance of the general election.

He said: “I do not know if government is ready for me, but I am ready for government.”

The party’s chief negotiator Martin McGuinness drew laughter from delegtes when he remarked that he had experience of coalition government, and with unionists.

But he warned that voters would make the decision whether the party entered government or not.

He said: “I don’t think we can afford to be presumptuous. The people who will decide the next election with be the electorate.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton
cthornton@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
18 February 2006

SDLP leader Mark Durkan has asked Home Secretary Charles Clarke to name the top MI5 officers in Northern Ireland.

Mr Durkan tabled a series of written questions at Parliament in Westminster yesterday relating to the Government’s plans to give MI5 an extended role in Northern Ireland.

The agency, officially known as the Security Service, will take over the lead role in intelligence gathering about national security issues from the PSNI next year.

Mr Durkan tabled eleven questions about MI5 and its operations in Northern Ireland, including the names of its senior officers and how many former RUC members are serving in its ranks.

Many of the questions highlight the difference between police reform in Northern Ireland in recent years and a lack of information about MI5.

“I’m trying to show we really know nothing about MI5, so how can we be expected to have confidence in them,” said Mr Durkan.

He has also asked whether external cultural diversity training is given to MI5 recruits in Northern Ireland and whether they must register membership of either the loyal order and Freemasons - measures that currently apply to PSNI officers.

He also wants to know whether 50/50 recruitment applies to MI5, what is the religious breakdown of MI5’s Ulster recruits over the past 10 years, and the agency’s current religious composition.

“The PSNI has had the Patten report. The reforms are not perfect and complete but they are well under way,” Mr Durkan said.

“MI5, by contrast, is unreformed and largely unregulated and unaccountable.

“I have asked these questions to highlight this fact.”

Mr Clarke is due to answer the questions soon. “We’ll see what his answers tell us and his non-answers tell us,” Mr Durkan said.

Irish Timesl

British prime minister Tony Blair is considering a plan to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly with initially limited powers and an absolute deadline for the re-establishment of an inclusive power-sharing Executive, writes Frank Millar, London Editor.

This emerged last night amid the confusion and uncertainty generated by Mr Blair’s decision to cancel a planned trip to Belfast next week to deliver a major speech intended to force the pace in negotiations with the political parties about the return of devolution.

Sources close to DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley have suggested Mr Blair “has no plan” and is unlikely to reinstate his proposed visit to the North.

However, as reported in The Irish Times on Thursday, Downing Street maintains Mr Blair’s trip has been postponed rather than cancelled, and that the prime minister now has “a clear idea of how to proceed”. Usually reliable sources suggest this was likely to be by way of a time-limited initiative allowing the Assembly to get up-and-running “in some sort of shadow form” but with an end-date set for an Assembly vote on the formation of a new power-sharing administration.

While allowing that the emergent plan is nowhere near completion, and that difficult negotiations lie ahead, the sources suggested the timetable for such an initiative could be between six months and a year.

This would seem to offer a variation of proposals put to Mr Blair by the SDLP and Ulster Unionists at their meetings at Westminster on Wednesday. Crucially, however, a fixed one-year time-frame would arguably allow the DUP a credible period in which to assess the continuing state of IRA activity through recurring reports of the Independent Monitoring Commission.

At the same time, assuming an eventual clean bill of health for the republican movement, it could put the onus on the DUP to take responsibility for collapsing the political institutions should Dr Paisley still refuse to enter government with Sinn Féin.

It is also suggested that Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain might use new powers to call a snap Assembly election later this year, in order to avoid having any successful moves toward resumed power-sharing derailed by the hardened rhetoric which would inevitably attend the elections scheduled for May 2007.

Recent republican rhetoric has persuaded some Ulster Unionists that Sinn Féin might “pull the plug” on any proposal to restore the Assembly without a functioning Executive as prescribed by the Belfast Agreement.

However the calculation appears to be that neither Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams nor Dr Paisley would want to take the blame for wrecking an initiative offering at least the prospect of breaking the political impasse.

The suggestion of a time-limit would also appear to satisfy SDLP leader Mark Durkan’s objection that current DUP proposals for a limited role for the Assembly could be used to “encamp the parties” on such terrain indefinitely.

However, Mr Blair faces major difficulty persuading the SDLP to co-operate with any initiative in the context of London’s clear determination to legislate for the alternative “comprehensive agreement” which the British and Irish governments failed to conclude with the DUP and Sinn Féin in December 2004. After his latest meetings with both governments, Mr Durkan insisted “the so-called ‘comprehensive agreement’ was not a basis for progress”.

Following Thursday’s publication of a new Northern Ireland Bill designed to quickly enable any new agreement, Mr Durkan warned: “There is real danger of political misadventure if the governments try to implement the failed comprehensive agreement.”

Globe and Mail

A Journey Through Truth, Myth and Terror in Northern Ireland

Derek Lundy was born in Belfast. His family emigrated when Derek was an infant, first to England, then to Canada. He has made many trips back to Belfast over the years to visit relatives.

He is the bestselling author of The Way of a Ship and Godforsaken Sea. Derek Lundy lives on Salt Spring Island, B.C.

PROLOGUE

The story has two versions. In the first, a Viking war party in a lean, dragon-headed longboat closes with the coast of northern Ireland. It is hunting priests’ gold and red-haired, smooth-skinned slaves. The leader of the fierce Northmen urges on his warriors: the first man to touch the sweet Gaelic strand with his hand or foot takes possession of it. He gets to keep whatever is there — precious metal, cattle, women, boys. There is a man aboard the longboat called O’Neill. It is an Irish name and, perhaps, in the style of slithery allegiances in Ireland, he is a turncoat. He has abandoned his family and sept and gone over to the Norse raiders, wilder even than the wild Irish. This man desires plunder and the haven of his own piece of land. It seems he craves those things more than reason, certainly more than any Viking aboard. As the longboat approaches the shore, the crew strains for the jump and its prize. Then O’Neill, the man from Ireland, lays his arm along the bulwark. He severs his hand with one swift sword blow and throws it ashore onto the sand before anyone else can make the leap. His Viking chief keeps his word. He gives that part of Ulster to his mutilated mercenary, and O’Neill takes the bloody hand as his crest and symbol.

In the second version of the story, two rival Scottish clans race each other to Ireland across the twelve miles of the wind-whipped North Channel. They have agreed that whichever reaches the Ulster shore first will take the land. The leader of the MacDonnells lusts for it just as O’Neill did — like the intense desire some men have to keep living when death comes to claim them. He’ll do anything for it. But his boat lags behind and he sees beautiful, wild Ulster, rich in cattle and slaves, sliding away from him. He severs his hand with one swift sword blow and throws it ashore onto the sand. He claims the land for himself and takes the red hand as the crest of the MacDonnells of Antrim.

Ireland has a long and complicated history of conquest, rebellion, endemic violence, and political tumult. The Irish struggle against English invasion and occupation now has the aspect of an old story—of history. The people of the independent, and now prosperous, Republic of Ireland see it more and more in that way, too. But the severed red hand still seems to be a perfect symbol for the province of the United Kingdom known officially as Northern Ireland. Its six counties, with their Protestant majority, were partitioned from the rest of Ireland in 1920 in the course of the Irish war of independence against Britain. In the North, the malignant motifs of the Irish past hung on: sectarian hatred, oath-bound private armies, guerrilla war, atrocity and outrage, riots, bombings, British soldiers on Irish ground, political dysfunction, walls and barbed wire, segregation of Protestants and Catholics, war drums and triumphalist parades, forced population movements, propaganda — the whole apparatus of civil war.

Low-level conflict went on inside Northern Ireland and along its border from the time of its inception, but chaotic and terrible open war began in 1969. It went on for thirty years and is known, with quaint understatement, as “the Troubles.”* Now they’re probably over — although perhaps not. To the outsider, their longevity and intensity are almost incomprehensible. It’s as if O’Neill or MacDonnell never stopped hacking off their own hands. They saw away at their flesh, driven on by fear of losing the thing they desire most. Through historical accident during the seventeenth century, the red hand became the exclusive totem of the Protestants of Northern Ireland. It fits them well: Celtic in origin but denoting loyalty to Britain. Yet to the British people it has no meaning. It is, therefore, a near-perfect expression of the strange, ambiguous claim by Ulster Protestants — whose roots in Ireland go back three or four hundred years — that they are “British” and not Irish.

Nevertheless, the bloody red hand is an apt symbol of what both Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland have done during the thirty years of the Troubles. Viewed from outside the province, the hard-liners on both sides (who, in Northern Ireland, constitute the majority) seemed to be acting out a part in some bizarre and bloody anachronistic pageant. Could this terrible hysteria really be taking place in Europe in the late twentieth century, among people who look just like us, in a region of Great Britain, supposedly one of the most civil of societies?

The Protestants, in particular, have created an appalling public image for themselves. They look like unreasonable and unreasoning bullies and bigots who refuse to share political power with Catholics, shout “No Surrender!” and “What we have, we hold!” loud and often, and insist on marching through Catholic neighbourhoods in peculiar parades that mix bowler hats and rolled umbrellas with the harsh, primitive rattle of the giant Lambeg battle drum. Many of them follow the preacher Ian Paisley, who isn’t kidding when he calls the Pope the Antichrist. During the Troubles, they tortured and killed Catholics and set off bombs in Catholic pubs and sports clubs. On the gable ends of their mean little row houses they painted murals depicting a seventeenth-century Dutch prince called William, whom they idolize. They sprayed graffiti on walls that said “No Taigs on our streets!” (”Taig” is an abusive term for a Roman Catholic and is the insulting equivalent of “Prod” for a Protestant); “Fuck the Pope!” or just “FTP!”; “Remember 1690!” (the long-ago year of a battle on the River Boyne); and “Still Under Siege!” (referring to the Catholic siege of Protestant Derry three hundred years earlier). They formed numerous paramilitary militias—one of which called itself the Red Hand Commandos. They swore loyalty to Britain, a country whose people and government detested them and who thought they were just another bunch of violent paddies. For fifty years, until their sectarian regime went under in 1972, they ran a government that kept Catholics down, using a Protestant police force that looked like an army, with its heavy weaponry, and auxiliaries who were always ready with the truncheon and the gun.

The Catholics have always looked better. They appear to be conducting a version of a political movement — and a guerrilla military campaign — for civil rights and equality, for “liberation,” that resembles many such struggles around the world. Their fight also looks like a continuation of the ancient Irish striving for autonomy from British control—or from domination by those British stooges, the Ulster Prods. Catholic ideology and goals appear rational and comprehensible in a way that those of the Protestants do not. However, as we’ll discover, that rationality is more apparent than real. And, of course, “there’s bad bastards on both sides,” as someone once said. No one could outdo the Provisional Irish Republican Army (the IRA) or the Irish National Liberation Army (or more recently, the splinter groups, the Real IRA or the Continuity IRA) for atrocity. The IRA acted at first as a self-defence force to protect Catholics from Protestant pogroms, but it soon branched out into sectarian outrages of its own. It invented the car bomb, the mainstay weapon for all contemporary terrorists. Its hard men, too, killed, tortured, and bombed, often at random. Almost sixty per cent of the military, police, and civilian dead of the Troubles were killed by Catholic gunmen whose violence—compared with the sporadic activity of Protestants—was sustained and unrelenting. Their goal was to shoot and bomb the Prods of the North into a united Ireland against their will. The IRA and its offspring, like their Protestant paramilitary equivalents, degenerated into criminal gangs and mafias years ago.

The numbers involved look small (almost 4,000 dead, 40,000 wounded) compared with the casualties in other places — the Balkans, some African countries, the Middle East. But there aren’t many Irish (or, if you like, British) in Northern Ireland. If the numbers of casualties during the Troubles were proportionately reckoned in the United States, they would amount to almost 800,000 dead and more than eight million wounded. The effect of such killing was intensified by the small size of Northern Ireland — it’s half the area of the state of Maryland. And a majority of the casualties were suffered within a segment of the population: among the farms, villages, and little market towns near the border with the Republic, and especially in the crowded, scummy city precincts of the working class. In the narrow streets of Belfast and Derry, the cramped sectarian territories abut each other in close-by chunks and blocs. The slaying was sometimes intimate—the killer and victim well acquainted, perhaps neighbours. That fit into the ancient Irish pattern; it was a sort of comfortable tradition. But things were worse, went the old saying from some previous insurrection or sectarian outrage, when the hard men began killing people whose names they didn’t even know. During the Troubles, both forms of communal murder happened all the time.

BBC

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has said his party will not join a new Policing Board due to be in place by 1 April.

Sinn Fein is debating policing at its annual conference in Dublin this weekend.

It comes a few days after the publication of a new bill on the devolution of policing and justice.

Speaking on BBC NI’s Inside Politics Mr Adams said the bill was not sufficient for his party to drop its opposition to the PSNI, in time for the new board.

“Can we get an extraordinary ard fheis (conference) before that, can we get legislation before that, can we get the DUP on board before that - that all appears to be unlikely.

“If we do all of that of course I’m quite prepared to go before ard chomhairle (party officers) whether it’s April fool’s day or not,” Mr Adams said.

BBC ON THIS DAY

18 February 1978

Some victims were burned beyond recognition

Police in Northern Ireland have arrested at least 20 people in connection with the La Mon restaurant bomb.

Yesterday’s blast killed 12 people - including children - and injured 30 others.

The blast was the second worst since the present wave of troubles began in 1969.

Only six of the bodies have been formally identified after the petrol bomb exploded in the La Mon House entertainment complex at 2100GMT, in a usually peaceful area of County Down, 14 miles from Belfast.

None of the people detained after police and army raids has been officially named and the round-up operation continues.

A police statement described the people they picked up as “suspected of being active in IRA terrorist activities and their numbers include members believed to be prominent in the command structure of the IRA.”

The IRA has not admitted involvement in the bombing, but a spokesman for its political wing Sinn Fein revealed nine of their members had been arrested, including executive member Gerry Adams.

Remnants of the bomb timer and two petrol cans have been recovered and forensic experts suggest it is a new kind of device involving a small explosion that throws out a massive flame.

The bomb had been taped to the window of the Peacock Room, where all the casualties were found.

The victims were all Protestants and included 45 members of the Irish Collie Club and the Northern Ireland Junior Motor Cycle Club.

A total of 450 people were forced to flee from elsewhere in the highly flammable plastic and wooden hotel structure.

Northern Ireland Secretary Roy Mason - who flew back to the UK hours before the explosion - said it was “an act of criminal irresponsibility” carried out by “remnants of IRA gangs”.

Before leaving Mr Mason made a speech to an Alliance Party delegation about the decreasing terrorist activities of the Provisional IRA.

Many Loyalist activists and politicians blame his complacent attitude for the attack.

In Context

The next day the IRA issued a statement from Dublin admitting their part in the explosion that killed 12 civilians and that their nine minute warning was inadequate.

Analysts described the content of the bomb as home-made napalm - as used in the Vietnam War - where sugar was mixed with petrol so flames ’stuck’ to whatever they burnt - including people.

Gerry Adams was charged with membership of the IRA but he was cleared in September 1978 due to insufficient evidence.

Over 20 years later some people were still being treated for the injuries they sustained at La Mon.

The La Mon firebomb Commons campaign was launched in February 2002 to encourage the British Government to launch an official inquiry into the incident.

BBC ON THIS DAY

18 February 1996

Police said they received no warning of the bus bombing

Three people are feared dead and eight have been hurt after a bomb exploded on a double decker bus in the heart of London’s West End.

The front of the bus was destroyed by the force of the blast on the Aldwych near the Strand.

The bus had travelled over Waterloo Bridge along Lancaster Place and was passing a Ministry of Defence building and turning onto Aldwych when the bomb exploded.

The explosion comes just nine days after the IRA ended its ceasefire with a bombing in the Docklands area of London, which killed two people.

Scotland Yard says it received no warning of the explosion which happened at 2238GMT.

The blast, thought to have been on a New Cross to King’s Cross bus, could be heard five miles (eight kilometres) away and witnesses described devastation at the scene.

Six people have been taken to St Thomas’s Hospital. Three of the injured have “significant” head injuries.

A further two people have been taken to University College Hospital.

One man is “serious but stable” in intensive care while another was admitted with minor cuts.

Three of the casualties were in two cars in front of the bus when the explosion happened.

Paul Rowan, 31, a BBC employee, described how the bus was a tangled mess, with metal and glass scattered over about 50 yards.

“I saw one woman who looked in a very bad way. She was face down on the road with bad-looking head injuries. There was blood all over the place.”

Ten ambulances, five fire engines and four paramedic units were called to the scene.

A large area of the Strand was cordoned off amid fears over another device and police with loudspeakers warned people to move away or to stay inside restaurants, theatres and hotels.

Charing Cross railway station was closed, preventing many people from catching their last trains home to south-east London and Kent.

No-one has admitted carrying out the attack but one theory is that the bomb exploded as it was being taken to another destination in London.

Detectives are sifting through the wreckage and the London Central bus company is to hand a tape from the video recorder fitted to the bus over to Scotland Yard for examination.

The Prime Minister John Major was being briefed by officials at 10 Downing Street about the attack. The Irish Government condemned the explosion as “an appalling outrage”.

In Context

Irishman Brendan Woolhead, who suffered a fractured skull and pelvis in the explosion, was initially regarded as the prime suspect and placed under police guard in hospital.

Mr Woolhead’s name was cleared but he died of an asthma attack in October 1996.

It later emerged that one person died in the explosion - IRA bomber Edward O’Brien. He was blown up and killed by his own device when it accidentally detonated.

Bob Newitt, 49, the bus driver hurt in the blast, suffered back and chest injuries while perforated eardrums have left him permanently deaf.

Several devices were found in the months after the bombing as the IRA launched a series of attacks on mainland Britain following the breakdown of a ceasefire.

On April 24, 32lb of semtex - the biggest bomb of its kind ever planted on the mainland - failed to explode on Hammersmith Bridge in west London.

On 15 June 1996, a massive bomb exploded in a busy shopping area in Manchester. Two hundred people were injured. Police believe the IRA planted the device.

BN.ie

17/02/2006 - 13:23:30

The Orange Order in the North has welcomed An Post’s decision to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme with a commemorative stamp.

The Order said today that it had received a letter from An Post confirming that a special stamp would be brought out to mark the occasion.

Spokesman David Hume said the Battle of the Somme was remembered in many parts of the Republic, particularly border counties like Donegal, and the gesture would be greatly appreciated with the unionist community.

He also said he was disappointed that the Royal Mail in Britain was not making a similar gesture to mark the First World War battle.

BN.ie

17/02/2006 - 13:23:30

The Orange Order in the North has welcomed An Post’s decision to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme with a commemorative stamp.

The Order said today that it had received a letter from An Post confirming that a special stamp would be brought out to mark the occasion.

Spokesman David Hume said the Battle of the Somme was remembered in many parts of the Republic, particularly border counties like Donegal, and the gesture would be greatly appreciated with the unionist community.

He also said he was disappointed that the Royal Mail in Britain was not making a similar gesture to mark the First World War battle.