SAOIRSE32

BBC

Mr Finucane, 39, was shot dead in front of his family

The Irish parliament has backed an all-party motion calling for a full public inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

The all-party motion called for the British government to hold “a full, independent, public judicial inquiry”.

The NIO said the motion was “fundamentally flawed and misleading”.

Mr Finucane’s murder by the UDA was one of the most controversial of the Troubles due to allegations of security force collusion.

His family have said they do not think an inquiry held under the Inquiries Act would be able to get to the truth.

Moving the motion on Wednesday, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said the Irish government had consistently raised the issue over several years with the British government, the European parliament, the Council of Europe and the United Nations.

“The position of the Irish government remains firm and emphatic. We ask the British government to establish a full, independent, public, judicial inquiry into the murder and nothing less,” he added.

‘Strategic decision’

Labour Party TD Michael D Higgins accused Downing Street of taking a “strategic decision” to withhold the truth on the Finucane death.

“One can only conclude that the British government want to indulge in a major cover-up in order to prevent the true nature of the collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the loyalist paramilitaries who murdered Pat Finucane coming into the public domain.”

Mr Finucane’s widow, Geraldine, and sons Michael and Dermot were in the Dail visitors’ gallery to hear the debate.

Opposition leader Enda Kenny, who originally suggested the proposal to Mrs Finucane, said the world had lost a human rights defender as well as a loving husband and adoring father in the most savage of circumstances.

The Fine Gael leader said: “In this time of new and fragile peace, it behoves the British government to confront, unequivocally, what is a major disquiet for people north and south.

“The inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane must be forensic, independent and public. In terms of both justice and human decency, it is long overdue. It is needed now.”

Retired Canadian judge Peter Cory recommended separate inquiries into Mr Finucane’s murder, and three other controversial killings in Northern Ireland.

These were the killings of solicitor Rosemary Nelson, leading loyalist Billy Wright and Catholic father of two Robert Hamill.

The Finucane family, human rights campaigners and nationalist politicians, as well as Judge Cory, have expressed alarm at moves by the government to ensure the tribunal into Mr Finucane’s murder is held under the Inquiries Act, which was passed earlier this year.

They have claimed the Act will suppress the truth about what happened, with Amnesty International saying crucial evidence could be omitted from any final report at the government’s discretion.

Taxi drivers have been warned there is a threat against them

Police are investigating reports of threats being made to taxi drivers in north Belfast.

Officers visited drivers and depots on Tuesday night to tell them of the threats.

It follows an attempt to shoot a taxi man at the weekend. That attack was admitted by the Red Hand Defenders - a cover name for the UDA.

One driver, who did not wish to be identified, said it was a very worrying development.

“Drivers are on real alert, we do work across the whole of north and west Belfast through Catholic and Protestant areas,” he said.

“People are very, very edgy. It is disgraceful the way things are going, they are targeting people who are trying to make a days living.”

Daily Ireland

Former Belfast IRA leader Martin Meehan describes dramatic TV meeting with lieutenant whose men savagely assaulted him after raid on club in 1971

Jarlath Kearney
08/03/2006

A shocking photograph that the British army took after savagely beating one of the North’s best-known republicans has surfaced — 35 years later.

Click photo to view

The photograph emerged as veteran Belfast IRA leader Martin Meehan met a British soldier who wanted him dead.
Mr Meehan was brought to meet Lieutenant Cliff Burrage as part of a BBC programme broadcast last night.
The former British soldier produced a previously unpublished photograph depicting savage injuries inflicted by his Green Howards regiment on Mr Meehan in November 1971.
That beating triggered a episode of events that saw Mr Meehan hospitalised after the brutal assault inside Flax Street Mill in Ardoyne, north Belfast.
He was later interrogated and tortured at Palace Barracks. Within weeks, Mr Meehan had escaped British imprisonment by climbing over the wall of Crumlin Road jail.
Mr Meehan told Daily Ireland last night about his recent encounter with Lieutenant Burrage in the heart of Ardoyne as part of a wider conflict-resolution process.
“He said his ambition every time he went out on patrol was to kill me,” Mr Meehan said.
“I lost a lot of comrades and he lost a lot of comrades so I had reservations about it. There was apprehension. You had mixed feelings.
“I hold no animosity towards the individual. Any animosity that is held is towards the uniform they wear because the uniform represents bigotry, injustice and inequality,” he said.
The meeting between Mr Meehan and Lieutenant Burrage took place at the League Club (Ardoyne Working Men’s Club).
Mr Meehan had been attending a meeting with other republicans in the club when the British army raided it on November 9, 1971. Lieutenant Burrage was one of those leading the raid, which developed into an intense fight.
“The fight lasted 15 or 20 minutes and, at the end, they put everybody against the wall and then they got into me. When they were beating me, the situation was, as far as I was concerned, that they were just going to beat me to death.
“They had these wee batons with lead in them, and they were battering me with rifle butts and kicking me,” Mr Meehan said.
The raiding party had intended to bring everyone from the club to Flax Street Mill for intelligence screening but the fracas in the club and a developing riot outside scuppered that plan.
“Eventually they got me into the Saracen [armoured personnel carrier] and were trying to gouge my eyes out with rifle muzzles, right into the socket of the eye.
“They got me into Flax Street Mill and they were all cheering and shouting. They trailed me out of the Saracen and there was a wee step, and my head hit the step and then hit the ground.
“The beating was so savage and they were shouting and roaring that much, I thought the best way to ensure my own survival was to let on I was unconscious.”
It was at this stage that the photograph of Mr Meehan’s horrific injuries was taken, as he lay spread-eagled on the stone-slab floor.
Mr Meehan stressed that the photograph of his experiences at the hands of British soldiers “only serves to illustrate what hundreds of detainees and other arrested people suffered.
“I wasn’t the only one. There were many men and women and householders who got beatings beyond belief and there was never a word about it. That is something people should remember when they see the current actions of British soldiers torturing and beating people in Iraq,” he said.

Larkspirit

Sunday 8th

In a few hours time I shall be twenty-seven grand years of age. Paradoxically it will be a happy enough birthday; perhaps that’s because I am free in spirit. I can offer no other reason.

I was at Mass today, and saw all the lads minus their beards, etc. An American priest said Mass and I went to Communion. One of the lads collapsed before Mass, but he’s all right now. Another was taken out to Musgrave military hospital. These are regular occurrences.

I am 60.8 kgs today, and have no medical complaints.

I received another note from my sister Bernie and her boyfriend. It does my heart good to hear from her. I got the Irish News today, which carried some adverts in support of the hunger-strike.

There is a stand-by doctor who examined me at the weekend, a young man whose name I did not know up until now. Little friendly Dr Ross has been the doctor. He was also the doctor during the last hunger-strike.

Dr Emerson is, they say, down with the ‘flu… Dr Ross, although friendly, is in my opinion also an examiner of people’s minds. Which reminds me, they haven’t asked me to see a psychiatrist yet. No doubt they will yet, but I won’t see him for I am mentally stable, probably more so than he.

I read some wild-life articles in various papers, which indeed brought back memories of the once-upon-a-time budding ornithologist! It was a bright pleasant afternoon today and it is a calm evening. It is surprising what even the confined eyes and ears can discover.

I am awaiting the lark, for spring is all but upon us. How I listened to that lark when I was in H-5, and watched a pair of chaffinches which arrived in February. Now lying on what indeed is my death bed, I still listen even to the black crows.

Irish Examiner

By Kieran McDaid
08 March 2006

AN original copy of the Proclamation of Independence picked up in O’Connell Street in 1916 has been donated to the National Museum of Ireland.
The family of Joseph McCrossan, who worked for many years as librarian in the Oireachtas, handed over the document.

It is similar to one that sold for a world record €390,000 at an auction in Dublin in 2004.

Arts Minister John O’Donoghue said he was delighted the National Museum of Ireland has acquired the valuable document.

“It will help interpret, in a very real way, the new 1916 exhibition being built by the museum,” he said.

National Museum director Dr Patrick Wallace said he was deeply honoured to be presented with the document, which represents one of the most important historical documents in modern Irish history.

“We are extremely grateful to the McCrossan family for their co-operation in making this significant document available to the National Museum and to the State,” he added.

Research has failed to establish how many Proclamations survived the Easter Rising, but it is believed around 20 still exist.

Keeper at the National Museum, Michael Kenny, said this copy has been examined in great detail.

“It is in good condition and comes with a good provenance,” he said.

“The Proclamation was picked up on O’Connell Street in 1916 by Mary McCrossan, the paternal grandmother of the McCrossans, who hid the document in the lining of her hat to protect it.”

The Proclamation will be central in the forthcoming 1916 commemorative exhibition The Easter Rising: Understanding 1916.

The exhibition will open in the National Museum of Ireland - Decorative Arts and History, Collins Barracks, in April to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

Located in a newly renovated exhibition space, museum experts can ensure acceptable levels of light and humidity in order to display such documents safely.

The acquisition was made possible under the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, which provides for tax relief in respect of the donation of important national heritage items to the national collections equal to the value of the item.

Another copy of the Proclamation is due to go under the hammer next month as part of James Adam and Son and Mealy’s Auctioneers’ Independence Sale.

Sinn Féin

Published: 8 March, 2006

Sinn Féin MLA for North Belfast Gerry Kelly has today called upon unionist politicians to stand with the taxi firms in North Belfast to bring an end to the UDA’s latest campaign of intimidation against nationalists in North Belfast.

Mr Kelly made his comments after the PSNI delivered a warning of death threats made against at least three North Belfast taxi firms and to the homes of a number of local men last night.

Speaking this morning Mr Kelly said:

“Last night’s threats are the most recent attempt by the UDA in North Belfast to crank up sectarian tension and intimidation. The PSNI last night visited at least three taxi depots and the homes of a number of nationalists to warn them about threats made against them.

“This latest development coupled with the attempted murder of a taxi man at the weekend is further evidence that the UDA’s public pronouncements on ending criminality are nothing more than a PR stunt. How do they square this circle when they are making threats under the names of the Red Hand Defenders.

“I want to take this opportunity to call upon unionist politicians to stand with the rest of us in solidarity with those providing a public service, to have the death threats against the nationalist community of North Belfast removed. Their silence has been deafening on this matter. They sit on forums with these loyalist organizations and need to speak out publicly and call on the UDA to withdraw such threats.” ENDS

BN.ie

08/03/2006 - 12:23:47

Three Wexford men charged with membership of an illegal organisation following a Garda Special Branch investigation into the activities of the Continuity IRA have now been granted bail and are due to return to court on April 4 when a book of evidence may be served.

Jackie Bates (aged 55), of Jacketstown House, Jacketstown, Drinagh, Billy Phillips (aged 45), of Harbour View, Maudlintown and Robert Kearns (aged 31), of Redshire Road, Murrintown all Co Wexford were charged last Friday with membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann , otherwise the IRA on March 1.

All three were also charged with the unlawful possession of 160 rounds of ammunition on the same date.

Mr Bates was also charged with possession of a firearm without a firearms certificate at Jacketstown House Co Wexford on March 1 and Mr Kearns was also charged with the unlawful possession of an improvised explosive device at Mooretown, Co Wexford the same date.

All three have now been granted bail at the Special Criminal Court on condition they sign on daily at Wexford Garda Station, continue to reside at their given address and surrender any travel documents.

A cash lodgement of €20,000 was given to the court in relation to Mr Bates and Mr Kearns whilst a cheque for €10,000 was submitted in the case of Mr Phillips.

They must also undertake to be of good behaviour and not to associate with anyone convicted of a scheduled offence or their co-accused.

Belfast Telegraph

Was the north Belfast UDA really about to call a halt to criminality? Security expert Brian Rowan investigates

It is the new Jekyll and Hyde of the Ulster Defence Association - the new two faces of the paramilitary organisation. This is the UDA in north Belfast. It is not something that will be said out loud, but the loyalist leadership now has its biggest problem since Johnny Adair and his so-called C Company.

The UDA in the north of the city and its leader Ihab Shoukri have been in the news spotlight since a police raid on a pub meeting six days ago. Eleven men were subsequently charged and we now know that a hand written UDA document was seized.

Over the past 24 hours, a dispute has emerged about the nature of the pub gathering. Was it a rehearsal by Shoukri and his men for a paramilitary “show of strength” or were they getting ready to “announce an end to all criminal activities”?

In the Jekyll and Hyde world of the UDA in north Belfast, the answer could be both. Adair and his C Company had the same two faces - a public position that suggested support for the peace process, while, privately, the reality was something entirely different.

Whatever is suggested by the words written in that UDA document seized last week, the facts are different. Shoukri and his men have replaced Adair and his C Company as the most malign influence within loyalism.

That is something that is said privately within the loyalist paramilitary world, and is an opinion held within the most senior ranks of the PSNI.

“They are almost akin to the dissidents of republicanism,” a senior police source said. “There is a group in the UDA in the same mode, and it’s for their own ends.”

Last week’s police operation was about “sending a message” to Shoukri and the UDA in north Belfast and it was an indication of where the PSNI believes the biggest threat exists within loyalism.

Adair brought unwanted attention to the wider UDA organisation. The Shoukris - both Ihab and Andre - have done the same.

Last week a senior loyalist source told this newspaper that the UDA in north Belfast was “filling its pockets”. This was a reference to its involvement in criminality. Now, just a few days later, we are being asked to believe that those same individuals are going to cut holes in their paramilitary pockets to stop them from being filled again. Only a fool would fall for that one.

The changes that are being considered within loyalism will threaten the money, and the lifestyles and the status of some of those at the top of this paramilitary organisation, including some of its leaders in north Belfast. Maybe that is why there is a line in last week’s seized document that reads: “We’ll never go away you know.”

As one police source observed, if they really were going away, why would they need balaclavas, rubber gloves and uniforms?

To go away would mean ending their criminality. To go away would mean giving the loyalist community a chance to breathe and to find its feet again, and to go away would require those in the paramilitary world to give up their power. Some of those who still have that power and who talk about deprivation in the loyalist community have been the destroyers of that community and its reputation.

For a very long time now, some in the leadership of the UDA and the closely associated Ulster Political Research Group have been talking about change - change that will see this organisation re-involve itself in the peace process. In the background, there has been a lot of talking with many different people. But is the UDA leadership in north Belfast hearing what is being said?

“They let on they are listening,” a senior loyalist paramilitary source told the Belfast Telegraph.

So, if he is not convinced that the UDA in the north of the city is up for change and up for peace, why should anyone else believe the talk of taking the “fight into the political arena”?

The UDA has a leadership, a six-man Inner Council. Ihab Shoukri (north Belfast) is part of it, as are Jackie McDonald (south Belfast), Matt Kincaid (west Belfast), Billy McFarland (north Antrim/Derry), and two other ‘brigadiers’, in east Belfast and south-east Antrim, who we are not naming at this stage.

That Inner Council of six ‘brigadiers’ will decide the future shape of the UDA organisation - its position on guns, on politics and on peace. It has been a long wait for its decision, and, in the waiting, the credibility of the internal and external discussions that are taking place is once again being questioned - questioned because in the middle of that debate, someone thought it would be a good idea to put on a pub performance in paramilitary dress.

There is a similar debate going on inside the UVF and the closely linked Red Hand Commando. There are people who want to move loyalism on, to give it a place in the peace process, but there are others who are stuck in their old ways and whose positions are threatened by change. There is a moment of choice coming for the loyalist paramilitaries. What is it to be?

==========

Bar room letter read out in court

A four-page handwritten statement was read out in court by Crown counsel David Hopley who said it was intended to be delivered at the UDA/UFF function the following night.

Mr Hopley said it was found in the possession of one of the defendants, Gary McKenzie (34), of Clare Heights, Belfast, and after quoting several details he handed the statement to Lord Justice Sheil who retired to his chambers to read it.

When the judge returned he told Mr Hopley to read the following statement in open court:

“In the summer of 1972 when the IRA threatened our very existence young Protestant men flocked in their thousands to join vigilante groups across Ulster to defend Ulster from Republican aggression.

“These brave young men manned barricades at their street to defend their homes as the enemy drew in.

“These vigilantes became what is now the Ulster Defence Association. “At one stage in 1974 the UDA made the loyalist community so strong that it was able to topple the Sunningdale Agreement.

“Friends and comrades, thank you for showing your support for tonight’s event. As you know know the PIRA has surrendered. “This in itself was a victory for the loyalist community although our Unionist politicians and the Secretary of State don’t want to seem to give us any concessions.

“So we must now take our fight into the political arena. However, this does not spell the end for the UDA. We want to reassure you all that the Ulster Defence Association is here to stay.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to let our prisoners and their families know that we will continue to fight for them.

And while Hugh Orde continually calls us criminals and puts only North Belfast Brigade Staff in jail on trumped up charges, we remain as strong as ever. We’ll never go away you know!”

“Only for these brave men who knows where we would be today.

So tonight we would like to show our appreciation to some of them who have made it here (Get Willie to hand out plaques).

“Could we please also show our appreciation to our four office staff for their tireless work and endeavour.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Jonathan McCambridge
08 March 2006

For years Ihab Shoukri has lived in the shadow of his notorious brother Andre.

When the two brothers were convicted of a blackmail offence in 2000 - for forcing a pizza business to pay protection money - it was Andre, widely believed to be the UDA’s north Belfast commander, who attracted most of the headlines. But last week’s events in the Alexandra bar changed that for ever.

Among differing accounts, the one thing that is certain is Ihab was in the Alexandra Bar when police launched a raid last Thursday.

His defence team alleges that he had merely gone to the bar for a drink and was not involved in any UDA activity. Police believe he has broken the terms of his bail and should be put back in prison.

Ihab (31), has now found himself in the middle of a dispute between the Chief Constable and the judiciary and the subject of immense public concern about his bail conditions.

Ihab Shoukri has been waiting almost three years for his trial on two counts of UDA/UFF membership. During that time the issue of his bail has continued to attract controversy.

In 2004, Shoukri revoked his own bail because he believed the terms were so onerous he could not live under them.

He was granted fresh bail in April of last year but ordered to stay out of Belfast, Newtownabbey and Bangor and not to associate with anyone convicted of a terrorist offence. This would have included his brother Andre.

However, the terms have been altered on several occasions. Last May, the condition that he does not associate with anyone convicted of a terrorist offence was removed and in October a court agreed that he could stay at an address in Belfast.

This was despite an incident last September when he was seen by police in Belfast - in breach of his bail condition at the time. When a judge asked a Crown Court lawyer why Shoukri had not been arrested immediately he was told: “There are certain things I am not at liberty to go into.”

Shoukri’s latest curfew dictates that he must stay indoors after 10pm - the Alexandra Bar raid took place before 7.30pm. It has also been admitted that the Alexandra Bar was not part of any exclusion zone set out by Shoukri’s bail conditions. However, police claim that his presence in the Alexandra goes against the “spirit” of his bail while he is facing a charge of UDA membership.

Perhaps stung by criticism directed against him in court yesterday, Sir Hugh Orde pointed out the PSNI had opposed the variations in Shoukri’s bail conditions. This, he said, was the responsibility of the “judges, not the police”.

Belfast Telegraph

By Jonathan McCambridge
08 March 2006

Chief Constable Hugh Orde has defended the police operation against an alleged UDA show of strength following savage criticism in Belfast Crown Court.

Sir Hugh said the UDA were not “having a teddy bears’ picnic” when police swooped and fired 70 CS gas canisters into the Alexandra bar during a planned operation last Thursday.

Earlier, a barrister had accused Sir Hugh of waging a “gladiatorial” public campaign against alleged terror boss Ihab Shoukri after the PSNI made an application to have his bail revoked.

Instead, Arthur Harvey QC claimed loyalists meeting in the bar were planning to bring an end to all UDA crime and violence.

Police arrested 17 men during the operation. Eleven have been charged with attempting to organise a meeting in support of the UDA and the rest released pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service.

One of these is Shoukri (31), currently on bail awaiting trial on two counts of UDA membership.

Shoukri sat in the dock yesterday as the court heard that police believe he has broken the spirit of his bail conditions because of his arrest in the bar.

Crown barrister Sheena Mehaffey said: “The Crown accepts that he was not in paramilitary clothing but the police view is that he is a senior member of the UDA in north Belfast.

“The spirit of the conditions of his bail prevent him from associating with members of the UDA/UFF.”

However, defence barrister Arthur Harvey insisted his client had arrived in the bar moments before police swooped and that Shoukri was downstairs while the alleged UDA meeting was going on upstairs.

Police dispute this version of events arguing that Shoukri was found in a downstairs store with men who were dressed in paramilitary uniform.

Mr Harvey said: “It’s somewhat ironic that the plea had been advanced by police that the individuals in the upstairs bar were involved in some sort of show of strength.

“In fact they were attending a meeting, the result of which was to announce the end of all criminal activities by the UDA. Police have documents to prove that.

“The Chief Constable has sought some sort of gladiatorial contest to pitch himself against the defendant.”

Judge Tom Burgess reserved his ruling for 24 hours and Shoukri was allowed to leave the court.

Meanwhile, across the road in the High Court, three of the men charged by police after the bar raid were making successful bail applications.

Alan John McClean (19), Robert Joseph Neill (21), and 48-year-old John Davis - the owner of the Alexandra Bar - had been charged on Monday with assisting in arranging a meeting in support of the UDA.

During their bail application the court heard that in the bar police discovered balaclavas, gloves, bomber jackets and UDA flags.

Crown counsel David Hopley also said that police had seized a hand-written speech which was due to be read out during an event in the bar last Friday.

The speech described the UFF as a “well-oiled ruthless killing machine” but said “we must take our fight into the political arena”.

Later at a Press conference, the Chief Constable responded to the criticism in court by saying: “We have continually objected to his (Shoukri’s) bail. The conditions have been watered down over a period of time - that is a matter for the judges, not the police.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton
08 March 2006

The head of MI5 has rebuffed a request for a meeting with Omagh survivors and the families of victims.

The Omagh Support and Self-Help Group received a letter yesterday from Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director general of the Security Service, saying she is “unclear as to why the group should wish to meet me”.

The group asked for the meeting before the PSNI revealed that her agency did not pass on intelligence to the RUC - a dispute to which she referred in yesterday’s letter.

Now the head of the group, Michael Gallagher, said it is more incumbent on her to listen to the families’ concerns.

Last month, PSNI officers told the families that MI5 did not tell the RUC about a warning that Omagh was a dissident republican target - four months before the blast that killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

The revelation - discovered in American files - came in the middle of a transition that will see MI5 take over national security responsibility from the PSNI.

Last week, Sir Hugh Orde told the Policing Board that the MI5 information would not have helped the inquiry into the murder, but he would not comment directly on how it may have served as a warning.

In her letter, Ms Manningham-Buller said she regrets the distress the situation has caused the families.

“It might seem odd if I did not touch on the recent publicity over the Omagh bombing,” she wrote.

“The Chief Constable made a clear statement to the Policing Board on the 1st of March that the Security Service did not withhold intelligence that was relevant or would have progressed the Omagh inquiry. I have nothing to add.

“I recognise that these allegations aired in the media are likely to have caused concern and much regret the added distress this will have caused the Omagh families.”

Mr Gallagher, whose son died in the bombing, said the group will continue to insist it meets with the head of MI5.

“There have been concerns raised in the public domain. The least she can do is meet the families, listen to what they have to say, and respond to them. That’s all we’re asking her to do,” he said.

“This is a lady who is no more important than the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach and they haven’t refused to meet us.

“We are not saying that MI5 was holding back information that may have helped the Omagh inquiry.

“They withheld information that may or may not have changed the outcome of August 15. “The RUC had the right to that information and they had the right to every chance to try and avert what happened.”

Breaking News.ie

08/03/2006 - 11:27:33

The Provisional IRA has taken a strategic decision to follow a political path and does not present a terrorist threat, the latest report from the Independent Monitoring Commission said today.

“The IRA leadership has given instructions that the membership of the PIRA should not engage in public disorder,” it said in a report on security normalisation.

Any illegal activity which may be engaged in by the organisation or its members was mainly of a kind to be addressed by the police without the need for military assistance, it added.

But the report said dissident republicans continued to pose a threat to the security forces and aspired to mount attacks on them and the public and trained and acquired equipment to that end.

The IMC said the dissidents’ capacity to mount a sustained campaign was limited, but they were “prepared to resort to extreme violence”.

Their threat was higher in certain places, of which South Armagh was the most obvious, and they were heavily engaged in organised crime.

Loyalist paramilitaries, said the report, were heavily involved in organised and other crime, including drugs.

They had shown themselves capable of extreme violence, but the IMC said it did not think they presented a continuing threat to the security forces akin to that of the dissident republicans.

None of the loyalist groups have taken a strategic decisions similar to that of the IRA.

But the IMC said: “We believe there are signs of a possible readiness to turn away from some of their present criminality.”

It added: “It is impossible to say at this stage how far, if at all, these signs will develop into any real changes of behaviour.”

The report is the ninth presented to the British government by the IMC but its first on the security normalisation programme set in motion by Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain last August.

It was received by the British government from the IMC last week and published today as Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern met in London to review their plan for revising devolution in Northern Ireland.

BBC

Loyalist’s bail not being revoked

Ihab Shoukri is charged with UDA/UFF membership

Belfast Crown Court has refused a police application to revoke prominent loyalist Ihab Shoukri’s bail.

Mr Shoukri, 32, from Alliance Road, Belfast, denied membership of the UFF and UDA at his last court appearance.

He was arrested in a raid on the Alexandra Bar in north Belfast last week and later released.

Judge Tom Burgess said the accused was downstairs having a drink while an alleged UDA meeting was going on in an upstairs lounge.

The police had claimed he breached his bail conditions, banning him from associating with paramilitaries, by being in a bar where they were meeting.

However, Judge Burgess, told the court there was no evidence in front of him which suggested that Mr Shoukri had broken any of his bail conditions.

He said the accused had not broken conditions which bar him from certain parts of Belfast or his curfew.

Mr Burgess was critical of the Crown over the delay in Mr Shoukri’s trial for UDA membership.

He said three times a date had been set for the trial, only for the prosecution to cancel it each time.

The accused has now been on bail for two years and nine months and the judge said that on Monday he would hear arguments for and against fixing a date for the trial.

A total of 17 people were arrested in the raid on the Alexandra bar. Eleven of them were charged by police and have appeared in court.

Irish Independent

Kathy Donaghy

‘THE Soldier’s Song’ will be confined to barracks unless we change our tune, according to a worried politician.

Dublin Fianna Fail TD Martin Brady wants to give those who mime or mumble the national anthem their marching orders.

Children should be taught to sing it in second level schools so they do not end up tongue-tied at sporting and other events, he said.

It seems our MTV-obsessed playstation generation are blissfully unaware of the burden of history they shoulder and Mr Brady is not pleased.

“In their darkest hour in the GPO the men and women of 1916 sang Amhran na bhFiann to raise their spirits,” the TD said. “It was their rallying call and was repeated in internment camps when republicans were taken from their homes and the ones they loved.”

He has called on Education Minister Mary Hanafin to consider making the teaching of the anthem part of the school curriculum.

Guardian

By Shawn Pogatchnik
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday March 7, 2006 10:16 PM

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - Brendan “Bik'’ McFarlane, a legendary Irish Republican Army figure who oversaw the biggest prison breakout in British history, should stand trial for kidnapping, the Irish Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The ruling reopened memories of one of the bloodiest IRA acts in the Irish Republic: the 1983 kidnapping of supermarket baron Don Tidey, when the outlawed group shot dead a police officer and soldier the moment the kidnappers’ hideaway was found.

McFarlane, a confidante of Sinn Fein party chief Gerry Adams, was arrested in the Irish Republic in 1998 and was charged with the false imprisonment of Tidey and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

But McFarlane has been free on bail since then, while his legal team fought a protracted battle with state prosecutors. In 2003, Ireland’s second-highest court ruled that McFarlane could not receive a fair trial because police had lost three evidence exhibits from the kidnappers’ hideaway - a cooking pot, a milk carton and a plastic container - that allegedly had McFarlane’s fingerprints on them.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court overturned that verdict in a 4-1 ruling that should allow the case against McFarlane to begin later this year.

Justice Adrian Hardiman, reading the verdict, said police had retained sufficient photographic and forensic evidence from the three objects for the case to proceed.

He said McFarlane’s lawyers had failed to demonstrate “that any additional advantage might have accrued to the defendant on the basis of a comparison with the actual mark made on the item as opposed to photographs of them.'’

Hardiman chided Ireland’s police for what he called “an unfortunate inability to keep track of evidence,'’ and cited embarrassing examples from other high-profile cases when detectives lost key documents and forensic clues.

In November 1983, an IRA unit disguised as police officers seized Tidey. They held him for more than three weeks, demanding the equivalent of $7.5 million in ransom. A joint Irish police and army search found the kidnappers’ hideaway, freeing Tidey.

But the IRA kidnappers killed a police officer and a soldier as they escaped - an exceptional event, because the IRA had a policy of not attacking security force members in the Republic of Ireland.

McFarlane received five life sentences in 1976 for his role in a gun-and-grenade attack on a Protestant pub in Belfast that killed three men, a woman and a 17-year-old girl.

He became “officer commanding'’ IRA men inside Northern Ireland’s Maze prison during the group’s 1981 hunger strike, which left 10 inmates dead. His secret, smuggled communications with Sinn Fein’s Adams outside the prison formed a major part of the IRA narrative of that threshold event.

In September 1983, McFarlane oversaw the biggest escape in British penal history when 38 IRA members, including himself, overpowered guards and shot their way out of the Maze. He was arrested in Amsterdam in 1986 and extradited to Northern Ireland, then became one of the first IRA men to walk free from the Maze following the 1998 Good Friday peace accord. Police in the neighboring Irish Republic immediately re-arrested him, citing the fingerprint evidence from the Tidey kidnapping.