SAOIRSE32

An Phoblacht

Photo: • Jim McVeigh at the launch of the Hunger Strike events (click photo to view)

Interview: Jim McVeigh, National Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee

The Hunger Strikes - this generation’s 1916

An Phoblacht: What do you think the Hunger Strikes represented in terms of the Republican struggle?

Jim McVeigh: Well I think it is true to say that they represented the 1916 of our generation. They radicalised both the older and younger generations. Tens of thousands of young people got involved at the time.

What really puts this in perspective is a very famous picture of a group of young people gathered at Martin Hurson’s graveside. Years later many of these people had been imprisoned or were dead. It was a monumental event and had a huge effect on public opinion. It brought a whole new generation into the struggle.

In terms of the present, do you see a role for these commemorations in reaching out to today’s youth?

The committees are pretty broad based and have people who are not involved in party politics and this gives them a reach greater than Sinn Féin. Young people are increasingly disillusioned with establishment politics. They are looking for role models, someone they can look up to and hold out as an example. They certainly can’t look up to anyone in the current Irish political establishment.

I think the Hunger Strikers were such models of bravery and integrity that they certainly can become an icon for a new generation. We intend to be outside or inside any event that attracts young people. We will be leafleting and inviting these young people to attend events in their local area. We should be active on this in every college in the country and the local committees should target colleges and schools in their areas. Some of the youth have very little memory of Bobby Sands and the rest of the Hunger Strikers. Even if we can get them to ask who these people were, it will be a significant achievement.

One of the events organised is a travelling exhibition of H-Block artefacts. Can you tell us about that?

Yes, it’s a very interesting exhibition. It is definitely one for the schools and colleges and is a compelling demonstration of bringing history alive. Some of the really interesting things on this exhibit include communications between the prisoners and the outside, comms as they were called.

There are also miniature An Phoblachts that had been smuggled into the prison for the prisoners. My own personal favourite is the Maggie Taggart. This is the nickname given to small homemade radios that the prisoners used to keep themselves informed. It was named after a prominent journalist of the time. It has been out now for about three weeks and has already been to about a dozen places including Ballina, Navan, Carrickmore, Belfast and Dundalk. I would urge all local areas to investigate the possibility of having it exhibited in local colleges. It takes you right into the Blocks with the prisoners and is absolutely fascinating.

Events and exhibitions are planned for all over the country. These will include films, dramatisations, vigils and lectures. On 9 March in St Mary’s College Belfast we will see the launch of Denis O’Hearn’s book, Bobby Sands: Nothing but an Unfinished Song.

On 11 April the third James Connolloy memorial lecture will take place in Dublin, in Wynn’s Hotel and it will focus on the 1981 Hunger Strikes.

On 30 April a commemoration has been organised at Fords Cross Hunger Strike Memorial by the Newry and South Armagh Committee.

I don’t want to offend areas by leaving them out, but obviously I cannot list all the events. For a full catalogue of events you can log on to >>www.hungerstrike81.com or phone 028 9074 0817.

Could you describe the overall tone of the commemorations?

These are very sombre and tragic events that are being remembered. Nevertheless, I think it is extremely important that these commemorations should be a positive celebration of the lives of these people and a celebration of their vast contribution to the struggle. This is about bringing in a new generation and advancing the struggle. Events should be occasions that unite republicans, socialists, radicals and liberals, in celebration of the Hunger Strikers.

How significant is it that these commemorations will be happening in tandem with the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising?

I think that is very significant. Like the Volunteers of 1916, the Hunger Strikers were fighting for the Republic, not just political status. As I have already said, the Hunger Strikers were this generation’s 1916. Like those who participated in the Rising, they inspired a whole generation to strike out for the Republic. We will be making this point all the time and we will be drawing clear parallels between the two events. I think it is a very positive thing that these two landmark anniversaries fall together. It certainly adds a context and a historical continuity to the events.

Another very obvious connection between the two is the Irish language. Many of those who were out in 1916 had played a significant role in revitalising the Irish language through the Gaelic revival movement. Similarly the prisoners in the Blocks and former prisoners, played a major role in revitalising the Irish language in the Six Counties.

——————-

Bobby Sands’ name uttered with fondness by oppressed the world over

BY LAURENCE McKEOWN

All of us have a story to tell. There’s few though whose life, cut short at 27 years of age, can be said to have impacted so dramatically on the course of Irish politics and to have become such an internationally recognised icon as Bobby Sands. Guerrilla fighter in the Irish Republican Army, he was elected a member of the British parliament shortly before his death on hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh on 5 May 1981.

I shared a prison wing with Bobby for several months in 1979. Later I joined the Hunger Strike that he had just died on. I approached Denis O’Hearn’s biography of Bobby therefore with a little trepidation. I should not have been concerned. It is an excellent book. It tells, not just the story of Bobby, the prison protest and Hunger Strikes, but accurately captures the atmosphere of the prison - the good times and bad, the hopes and despair, the pain, the joy and the totally selfless love that is rarely witnessed between a group of males. The strength of the book is that O’Hearn does not attempt to tell what he thinks happened behind prison walls (as other academics have) or to interpret events within his own ideological paradigm. Instead he facilitates others - friends, associates and comrades of Bobby - to tell of the person they knew and allows that person to become alive and vibrant on every page.

Most importantly, the book traces the development of a very ordinary, young, politically naive, high-spirited boy from a working class background on the outskirts of Belfast, to the highly politicised, articulate, prolific, competent revolutionary that he became in later years. In this way O’Hearn informs a new generation of political activists in Ireland and elsewhere that they too can become a ‘Bobby Sands’ but hopefully never have to make the life and death decisions that he was faced with.

This year, the 25th anniversary of the Hunger Strike, it is timely for this biography to appear. It demonstrates the global interest that is retained in events that happened over a period of 217 days in 1981, when ten men died, one after the other, in prison cells in a struggle to be treated as the political prisoners they were. No wonder that states tremble before the power of such an idea that cannot be conquered, quenched, bought off or tortured into submission. No wonder that from the lips of oppressed peoples around the world the name, Bobby Sands, is uttered with such fondness and admiration.

——————–

Vigils mark Hunger Strike anniversary

Twenty five years ago on 1 March 1981, Bobby Sands began his historic Hunger Strike. The anniversary was marked by pickets, demontrations, exhibitions and candlelight vigils at various venues around Ireland and abroad last week. (click photo to view)

Sinn Féin leaders,including Party President Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness joined a candlelight vigil outside the GPO in Dublin on Wednesday evening. The GPO was a focal point for H-Block campaigners in 1981, where signatures in support of the prisoners’ demands were gathered and where information and literature was distributed to thousands of people throughout the course of the hunger strike, while the 26-County media and RTE in particular, played a shameful role in failing to adquately inform the population of the horror of the H-Blocks and the plight of the protesting prisoners.

The Patrician Hall, Carrickmore, County Tyrone was the venue for a National Hunger Strike Exhibition on Saturday, 4 March. Over 700 people passed through the exhibition during the course of the day, viewing posters from the time, contemporary newspaper articles, and a short film and photo exhibition.

A commemorative lecture was attended by upwards of 200 people. Danny Morrison provided a fascinating insight into the negotiations which took place outside the prison at the time. Barry McElduff MLA provided an overview and analysis, while former blanketmen Sean Coleman, Sean McGuigan and Bernard Fox held the audience in thrall with an account of their experiences in the Blocks. The most moving contribution came from Brendan Hurson, brother of hunger striker Martin. He spoke of the awesome responsibility himself and his brother faced as Martin’s condition deteriorated and of the election campaign when Martin stood in Longford.

Chairing the proceedings was Sinn Féin chair of Omagh council Mickey McAnapsie, to whom organisers were particularly grateful, as he has only recently suffered a family bereavement.

Addressing a Hunger Strike commemorative vigil in Dunloy, County Antrim on 3 March, Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí McKay said: “Wednesday 1 March 1981 marked the beginning of an emotional phase of the Irish revolutionary struggle on this island. 1 March, 1981 was the day that Bobby Sands embarked on his first day of hunger strike which aimed to highlight and break the British Government’s policy of criminalising republicans in the prisons. At the time ,Bobby Sands was sharing a cell with Malachy Carey, a republican from Loughgiel who was later shot by loyalists in Ballymoney.”

In cold and snowy conditions, a large crowd gathered to commemorate the 10 young men who died in 1981. The event is the first of a series of events to mark the 25th Anniversary of the Hunger Strikes across North Antrim that will be held over the next few months.

“The prison protests of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and in particular the Hunger Strike of 1981, were watershed moments in Irish history. To many, it does not seem like 25 years ago when 10 republican prisoners lost their lives when faced with an intransigent British Government in London, and an Irish Government in Dublin more concerned with self interest than in seeking a resolution to the situation in the H-Blocks and Armagh prison”, McKay said.

“This forthcoming year will provide an opportunity to reflect upon the ten volunteers who died, the contribution they made and the sacrifices made by their families during the summer of 1981. These events will be about more than just looking back. They must also be about looking to the future, exploring how best we move our struggle forward in the coming years and how best we complete the job of delivering Irish unity and independence.

“The commemorative calendar will also allow a new generation of Irish people, who weren’t even born in 1981, to learn about the time and participate in mapping out the future. Irish republicans will never forget those terrible months from March to October when ten men died in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh and over 50 others died on our streets, but in marking the 25th anniversary of the Hunger Strike we have an opportunity to celebrate their lives, remember their sacrifice and rededicate ourselves to advancing the struggle for a United Ireland of Peace, Justice and Equality.”

London

London republicans gathered in the snow and ice at Downing Street last Wednesday to take part in a candlelit vigil to commemorate the Hunger Strike, the first in a programme of events in England throughout the forthcoming year, which have been organised by the Wolfe Tone Society.

A delegation from the Society had earlier delivered a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, calling on the British Government to respect Sinn Féin’s electoral mandate and implement the Good Friday Agreement.

Also at the vigil was Sinn Féin Councillor Matt Carthy, who told An Phoblacht that he was there, not only to support the event, but also as part of the party’s renewed efforts to build closer relationships with supporters in Britain. He acknowledged the work of British-based Irish republican organisations such at the Wolfe Tone Society, Troops Out and the Connolly Association, particularly during the most difficult times of the conflict, when anti-Irish racism was endemic in British society and political activists experienced harassment by the authorities.

Addressing the London gathering, Carthy said: “Twenty five years ago Bobby Sands was elected as an MP and people honestly believed at the time that the British government and Margaret Thatcher could not ignore his electoral mandate. So it is ironic that we are here outside Downing Street on the anniversary of the start of the 1981 Hunger Strike and that a British Government is refusing to respect the mandate of Sinn Fein”.

Dundalk

Ógra Shinn Féin at Dundalk Institute of Technology held a day long exhibition. There was a great interest in the exhibition from the students, most of whom were far too young to remember the events of 1981 and in many cases were not even born.

A book of condolence was signed by a number of students in honour of the Hunger Strikers.

Those involved in the Hunger Strikes of 1980 and 1981 were ordinary men and women who, in extraordinary circumstances and with the support of people throughout Ireland, defeated this policy.

Waterford

A group of over 20 people from south Kilkenny held a silent protest on Waterford Bridge last week to commemorate the start of the Hunger Stike. Many local people remember the marches held in Waterford, including one of the largest protests held in all of Ireland at that time and the large tournout on the canvass trail for Hunger Strike candidate Kevin Lynch. The South Kilkenny crowd last week were joined in their vigil by many people from Waterford.

——————–

Castlebar to commemorate Hunger Strikers

Castlebar Town Council is to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes later this year. Sinn Féin councillor Noel Campbell successfully put a motion to the council calling on the authority to join with Mayo County Council in marking the anniversary.

Earlier this year, Sinn Féin Mayo county councillor Gerry Murray was succesful in getting cross party support in the chamber for his motion calling on that council to mark the extraordinary lives of the Hunger Strikers.

Larkspirit

Wednesday 11th

I received a large amount of birthday cards today. Some from people I do not know. In particular a Mass bouquet with fifty Masses on it from Mrs Burns from Sevastopol Street. We all know of her, she never forgets us and we shan’t forget her, bless her dear heart.

I also received a card from reporter Brendan O Cathaoir, which indeed was thoughtful. I received a letter from a friend, and from a student in America whom I don’t know, but again it’s good to know that people are thinking of you. There were some smuggled letters as well from my friends and comrades.

I am the same weight today and have no complaints medically. Now and again I am struck by the natural desire to eat but the desire to see an end to my comrades’ plight and the liberation of my people is overwhelmingly greater.

The doctor will be taking a blood test tomorrow. It seems that Dr Ross has disappeared and Dr Emerson is back…

Again, there has been nothing outstanding today except that I took a bath this morning. I have also been thinking of my family and hoping that they are not suffering too much.

I was trying to piece together a quote from James Connolly today which I’m ashamed that I did not succeed in doing but I’ll paraphrase the meagre few lines I can remember.

They go something like this: a man who is bubbling over with enthusiasm (or patriotism) for his country, who walks through the streets among his people, their degradation, poverty, and suffering, and who (for want of the right words) does nothing, is, in my mind, a fraud; for Ireland distinct from its people is but a mass of chemical elements.

Perhaps the stark poverty of Dublin in 1913 does not exist today, but then again, in modern day comparison to living standards in other places through the world, it could indeed be said to be the same if not worse both North and South. Indeed, one thing has not changed, that is the economic, cultural and physical oppression of the same Irish people…

Even should there not be 100,000 unemployed in the North, their pittance of a wage would look shame in the company of those whose wage and profit is enormous, the privileged and capitalist class who sleep upon the people’s wounds, and sweat, and toils.

Total equality and fraternity cannot and never will be gained whilst these parasites dominate and rule the lives of a nation. There is no equality in a society that stands upon the economic and political bog if only the strongest make it good or survive. Compare the lives, comforts, habits, wealth of all those political conmen (who allegedly are concerned for us, the people) with that of the wretchedly deprived and oppressed.

Compare it in any decade in history, compare it tomorrow, in the future, and it will mock you. Yet our perennial blindness continues. There are no luxuries in the H-Blocks. But there is true concern for the Irish people.

Daily Ireland

BY DAVID LYNCH
11/03/2006

A planned auction of historical documents and artifacts associated with the 1916 Rising has been described as a “scandal” by an opposition politician.
Adam’s the auction house is co-hosting the sale of important Irish historical artifacts in Easter week, including the original words and music of the Irish national anthem.
Adam’s is offering clients the first opportunity to view and bid online live for any lot being sold in the sale-room by logging on to www.liveauctioneers.com or www.eBay.com.
“In our business, clients come first and this new bidding system is designed with them in mind to ensure they don’t miss an opportunity with any of our sales,” said Eamon O’ Connor, associate director of James Adam & Sons.
“Adam’s believes on-line live bidding will be of particular value at the forthcoming sale of important Irish historical artifacts, the ‘Independence Sale’, that is certain to attract a global audience on 12th April, as well as internationally popular Irish art and Irish furniture auctions throughout the year.”
However, this Independence Sale has provoked strong opposition from Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh.
Mr Ó Snodaigh said it was a scandal that there was a plan to sell-off some of the last letters of executed signatories of the Proclamation.
Also included are manuscripts of Pádraig Pearse and Thomas MacDonagh, a handwritten copy of the National Anthem by its author Peadar Ó Cearnaigh, a tricolour believed to have flown from the GPO in 1916 and Michael Collins’s typewriter, “among other unique historical items”.
“It is scandalous that these priceless historical documents and other irreplaceable parts of our national heritage are to be auctioned off to become the private prestige property of wealthy individuals,” said Mr Ó Snodaigh.
“There is nothing to stop these items being taken out of the country.
“To add insult to injury, the auction firms are promoting this sale by linking it to the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising.
“The government should immediately intervene with emergency legislation to prevent this sell-out of our heritage.
“Successive governments have failed to put in place legislation to protect heritage items from market forces.
“If anything, it should spur long-overdue action.
“For any government to allow these items to be auctioned in this way makes a mockery of our reputation for cherishing our history and culture, something that is touted around the world as one of the main reasons for people to visit Ireland.
“The state has the legal authority to declare an historical site a national monument.
“It also has the power to issue compulsory purchase orders on lands in certain circumstances.
“Similar powers should be put in place for historical items such as those about to be sold off,” Mr Ó Snodaigh said.

Irish Examiner

By Donal Hickey
11 March 2006

**Please see dingle-peninsula.ie for a great article and more photos on the Blasket Islands

THE long-awaited purchase by the State of Great Blasket Island is to go ahead this year, the Government announced yesterday.

However, there could still be obstacles in the way of the €1.7 million buy-out because agreements on commercial rights to the island, including the landing of visitors, have not yet been finalised, according to local sources.

Dingle solicitor Peter Callery, whose company Blascaod Mor Teo owns 17 of the 25 holdings on the island, has accused the State of not honouring an agreement made three years ago.

His company operates a ferry service between Dingle and the Great Blasket.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) is currently taking legal advice on whether controversial landing rights will be included in the purchase agreement.

The Government decision to acquire the historic island, best known for its literary heritage, was announced last July and confirmation came yesterday that it will shortly take place.

A Fianna Fáil spokesman said the purchase had now been ‘ring-fenced’ with other investments, to take place this year under a conservation programme.

The long-term plan is to have the island designated as a world heritage park.

Kerry Fianna Fáil councillor Tom Fleming, also a nominated FF candidate for the next General Election, said the purchase would turn the Dingle Peninsula into a world heritage centre.

Evacuated in 1953, the Great Blasket remains uninhabited, but is open to visitors who make the three-mile journey from the mainland by using ferries operating out of Dingle and Dunquin.

Under a plan for the future of the island, visitor numbers will be limited and the aim is to conserve the island very much as it looks today.

The village, home to many of the island’s writers, has long since been in ruins and will not be restored.

Holiday homes and camping sites will not be allowed, but toilets, an information centre and catering facilities are to be provided.

The overall plan for the island is reckoned to cost in the region of €8 million and will include the building of new piers at Dunquin and on the island.

Work on the piers is due to start this year.

Times

By David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent
10 March 2006

THE net finally closed yesterday around the farm renowned as the centre of activities of one of the Provisional IRA’s most feared commanders.

Hundreds of officers supported by helicopters made a dawn raid on the farm owned by Thomas “Slab” Murphy in one of the largest security operations in the notorious South Armagh and northern Co Louth region.

Police refused to name the two men and a woman who were arrested. With the help of soldiers and customs officers from both sides of the Irish border they seized guns, money, vehicles and cigarettes. Eight other properties were also searched.

The farm complex of the alleged chief of staff of the Provisionals has been at the heart of IRA activity since the Troubles erupted at the start of the 1970s. It was considered sufficiently threatening to British security for the erection in 1986 of two army watchtowers — known as Golf Two Zero and Golf Three Zero — to maintain 24-hour surveillance. The towers are expected to be dismantled by the end of May as part of the Army ’s normalisation programme.

Scores of soldiers and police have died in the area, which became so dangerous that movement was restricted to helicopters. Local people were amazed to see police vehicles on the roads yesterday; for 25 years they have been absent.

Thirty thousand smuggled cigarettes and 8,000 litres of fuel were seized in the operation, according to Irish police, as well as £140,000 in minor currency. Two shotguns, computers and financial records were also taken away. Three fuel trucks and a large tractor trailer that had a fuel container hidden inside were also seized.

Police said that they arrested three people, a man and woman in their early 50s and a second man aged in his 60s. The two men had sped in a car through a police checkpoint at Hackballs Cross, Co Louth, on the southern side of the border. All three were released without charge last night.

Police in Northern Ireland said the operation had been aimed at a sophisticated criminal enterprise. A detective in the Republic, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the raids were conducted in the hope of identifying links to a portfolio of properties in Manchester that was frozen last September on suspicion that it had been bought with IRA cash.

One of Mr Murphy’s brothers has acknowledged that he owns some of those properties but denies any link to the IRA.

A Garda spokesman said later that the searches had “found no direct linkage” with the properties. He added that the police “were not searching for individuals. We were searching for evidence”. The Social Democratic and Labour Party, which represents moderate nationalist opinion in Northern Ireland, welcomed the raids as a sign of co-operation between police forces.

“The threat of organised crime recognises no borders,” Alex Attwood, its policing spokesman, said. “Any crime boss or foot soldier must know there is no hiding place for them.” Sinn Fein, the Provisional IRA’s political wing, declined to comment.

Mr Murphy has never been convicted of any crime, but anti-terrorist police and several published histories of the IRA identify him as the outlawed group’s long-time chief of staff. Since the early 1980s he also has legally operated, then shut down, a series of fuel distribution businesses that customs and police officials have long suspected of tax evasion through cross-border smuggling.

Mr Murphy has twice sued The Sunday Times, which described him as a millionaire smuggler and a pivotal figure in plotting bomb attacks. Both times he lost. In 1998 a Dublin jury found that he was an IRA commander and a smuggler.

Irish Abroad

**Via Newshound

By Sean O’Driscoll

A BRITISH agent who infiltrated the IRA has claimed that his British agent handlers sent him to New York to buy sophisticated bomb making equipment for the IRA.

The agent, who goes by the pseudonym Kevin Fulton, also claims that he arranged to have a prominent Republican in Queens, New York deported on behalf of British agents.

He made his claims in this month’s edition of the U.S. current affairs magazine, Atlantic [subscription only].

The magazine’s reporter, Matthew Teague, said he had verified details of Fulton’s trip to New York and was satisfied that he was telling the truth after verifying details with the FBI and deportation records.

The interview comes just as the Irish government launched an independent public inquiry into the murder of two Northern Ireland police officers in 1989, based on Fulton’s claims that there was collusion between the IRA and rogue members of the Irish Republic’s police force, the Gardai.

Fulton’s name also featured very prominently in the public inquiry into the Omagh bombing in 1998, in which 29 people were killed in a Real IRA attack.

Fulton claimed at the time that he had met some of the bomb makers as they were preparing the bomb and had alerted his British intelligence handlers.

In the new interview, which took place in London, Fulton claims that the British wanted to keep his cover in the IRA by encouraging him to make more sophisticated and deadly bombs.

He said that they arranged for him to travel to New York to buy infrared triggers for bombs and that they arranged for him to stay at the Murray Hill Inn in Midtown Manhattan.

While there, he was instructed to set up a man living in Queens for deportation as he was considered a danger by the British.

Teague, known for his writing in GQ and Atlantic, said in an online interview that he was initially suspicious of Fulton’s claims.

“As a reporter, I kind of kept one eyebrow cocked until I started tracking down the details. And every single detail checked out, down to the most minute peripheral details, such as his trip to New York. Everything was confirmed,” he said.

Teague said he checked out the Murray Hill Inn where Fulton claims to have stayed, and also confirmed some details with an FBI agent.

INS records also showed that the Queens man was deported at the exact time Fulton claimed it had happened.

“He referred to an FBI agent as being involved. So I called the agent and he confirmed his involvement, although he couldn’t discuss details or accuracy…He (also) described the deportation of an Irish man in Queens which had resulted from a meeting with him during that trip.

“And the INS records show that the man was deported exactly the way Fulton described. So everything sort of triangulates. It really happened,” Teague said.

The revelations could throw some light on Fulton’s credibility, as his claims of garda collusion as the basis for The Smithwick Tribunal into the murders of Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan, which opened in Dublin this week.

The pair were murdered in Armagh after traveling back from Louth in the Irish Republic, where they had a meeting with senior Gardai. Fulton is adamant that there was Garda collusion in the killing.

Derry Journal

Friday 10th March 2006

Derry mother, Cara Gunn has lost her appeal to gain custody of her son Dylan in the American courts and has said she is doubtful over whether to continue her long custody battle. The bad news came yesterday following good news earlier in the week when Ms. Gunn was awarded a green card ensuring her permanent residency in the United States.

In 2004, after her visa expired, she faced the prospect of having to leave her son behind in the US when a court granted custody to her estranged American husband. Ms. Gunn had fled the US earlier in the year, following the break-up of her marriage, but was subsequently forced - as a result of international law - to return to face a custody hearing. Her case sparked uproar and money needed to appeal the custody decision in favour of her exhusband was raised within four days. However after a long battle, the ‘tug of love’ mother was told yesterday that her son would be staying with his father.

Speaking to the ‘Journal’ following the decision Ms Gunn said that she had expected the appeal to fail but it was still disheartening. “The appeal wasn’t based on any new evidence so it means that they didn’t have the evidence about my green card so my one chance is that if I do apply for a supplemental petition we can get an opportunity to put that information forward.”

However, Cara admitted yesterday that the battle through the courts has taken a lot out of her. She said: “At this point, I’m wondering how long I can drag this out. Maybe it’s just time to accept that the best I can hope for is more visiting time. Dylan is so content at the moment and it seems unfair to put him through this.” Ms Gunn lives with her fifteen year old daughter who is currently awaiting her green card. “As soon as Laura gets her green card, we’ll be able to get back to Derry for a visit,” the Derry mother said yesterday.

“In the meantime I’m just going to get on with work and try and spend as much time with both my children as I can.”

Irish Times

Kathryn Holmquist
11 March 2006

Immigration policies could cause serious difficulties for Irish workers if there is an economic downturn, a new report has warned. It urges the State to take control of immigration policy and stop allowing employers to decide who comes here for work.

“The lack of effective policies and thinking to protect the employment prospects of local workers in a less favourable economic environment is a serious weakness in Ireland’s current labour immigration system,” states the draft report commissioned by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC).

The NESC commissioned the report from the International Organisation for Migration, (IOM), which has 116 member countries including Ireland. The IOM was set up in 1951 as an inter-governmental organisation to resettle displaced Europeans, refugees and migrants. It now encompasses a variety of migration management activities throughout the world.

The second draft of the report says Ireland lacks a “coherent” immigration policy. Increasing numbers of unskilled migrants are entering the State to work for the minimum wage - yet it is unclear if a lack of local labour justifies this, according to the report.

Illegal working and exploitative work practices are being allowed to continue unmonitored and unpunished, threatening to reduce wages and conditions for Irish workers, it continues. Migrants masquerading as international students are significantly affecting the economy, particularly students from China attending unregulated educational institutions.

Without a proper system of data collection and collation, the report says it is almost impossible for the Government to analyse how many migrants are here, where they are from, how long they are staying and what they are working at.

In the past five years, 750,000 PPS numbers have been given to migrants from the 25 EU states and from outside the EU, but the State does not know how many of these have stayed and how many family members have joined them, it concludes. Computer systems of the four Government departments that collect data are incompatible, making tracking the immigrants impossible. The economy needs the best workers and must encourage them to remain here, the report says. Such highly skilled workers are unlikely to be satisfied with temporary work permits and should instead be offered permanent residency status on arrival in the country, it advises.

The report is titled Managing Migration in Ireland: A Social and Economic Analysis.

BBC

Peter Robinson said they would consult with the party

The first meeting between two DUP MPs and the chairman of the Loyalist Commission was “useful”, the party’s deputy leader Peter Robinson has said.

Mr Robinson said he and Nigel Dodds met Reverend Mervyn Gibson to see what the DUP could do to help end loyalist criminality and paramilitary activity.

He would not be drawn on whether the party would go further than meeting the loyalist umbrella body and see the UDA.

He said they wanted to report back to colleagues before giving more details.

“I want to encourage people to end paramilitary and criminal activity,” he told BBC Radio Ulster’s Inside Politics programme.

“Where people are clearly intent on doing that, encouragement will come from us.

“The form of it would be a matter for the party to decide and I wouldn’t want to prejudice any decision that they might take.”

Earlier this week, the Independent Monitoring Commission said loyalist paramilitaries remained heavily involved in organised crime, although there were signs of a possible readiness to abandon some criminality.

The Loyalist Commission is an umbrella group which includes members of the UVF, Red Hand Commando and the UDA, as well as clergymen and community representatives.

Belfast Telegraph

By Linda McKee
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

11 March 2006

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have learned how early Christians in Co Down protected themselves from raiders - they went underground.

A 1,000-year-old tunnel system discovered at Rooneystown near Raholp would have been built so that families could take refuge with their valuables when threatened by Vikings.

The mysterious stone tunnel was uncovered by a builder working on new housing after the ground gave way beneath his digger.

Environment and Heritage Service archaeologist Ken Neill confirmed that the tunnel was a previously unrecorded example of a souterrain, built during the early Christian period more than 1,000 years ago.

“Souterrains are usually known as caves or coves throughout the countryside,” he said. “They were underground tunnels built as a refuge against raiders. Some were rock-cut, but most were built by digging a trench, lining it with drystone-walling and placing heavy stone lintels across the top before covering with earth.

“It was one of these lintels which had given way under the weight of the digger to expose the souterrain. Many were built within circular earthen raths or stone cashels, but others, like this one, are discovered in apparent isolation although there was almost certainly originally a house nearby.” Mr Neill said the design and complexity of the souterrain supports the idea that it was built as a place of refuge from neighbouring tribes or even Viking invaders.

Belfast Telegraph

By Nevin Farrell
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

11 March 2006

A PROTESTANT church in Ballymena has agreed to make its car park available to Catholic parishioners using a nearby church.

Harryville Presbyterian Church is making its car park available tonight to Mass-goers at the Church of our Lady, the scene of a controversial loyalist picket.

Harryville minister the Rev John Finlay confirmed that the car park has been offered.

Harryville parish priest Fr Paul Symonds also welcomed the scheme. “It is a very gracious gesture from Harryville Presbyterian Church,” he said.

“Someone from the church will have to come along specially on a Saturday night to open the car park and it will be open anyway on Sundays for their own services and they said we are welcome to park then as well.”

Last summer the Catholic church in mainly unionist Harryville was targeted several times by paint-bombers.

But members of Protestant church congregations, in a show of solidarity with their Catholic neighbours, helped scrub off the paint.

And, in recent times, Fr Symonds has built up close links with the Harryville Ulster Scots Society. The Ulster Scots Society has worked closely with the Ulster Political Research Group to hammer out an initiative which will see the removal of a UDA mural overlooking Harryville Chapel and replaced with an Ulster-Scots theme in April.

Tricolours and other emblems erected by nationalists in the north end of Ballymena will also be taken down as part of the deal.

BBC ON THIS DAY

11 March 1974

**See also An Phoblacht article about the Littlejohns

The men disappeared among neighbouring houses

Two self-proclaimed British Government spies have escaped from a top-security prison in Ireland where they were serving sentences for armed robbery.

It is another embarrassment for the authorities at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin coming just five months after a helicopter plucked three leading IRA members from Mountjoy’s exercise yard.

The latest escapees, brothers Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn, were jailed last year for a £67,000 robbery at a Dublin bank - the biggest to date in Irish history.

During their trial the Littlejohns claimed they were working for the British Government against the IRA.

They said they had been told to stage the robbery to discredit the republican organisation and force the Irish Government to introduce tougher measures against its members.

However, the British Government denied all knowledge of the brothers

Kenneth was sentenced to 20 years while his brother received a 15-year term.

Since being jailed the brothers have exhausted all the appeals processes - their last appeal was turned down in January this year.

Hunger strike

The brothers escaped from Mountjoy during an exercise period.

They scaled the 25-foot (7.6-metre) high main prison wall with home-made ropes while other prisoners distracted the guards.

But the pair were spotted as they climbed an outer wall.

Keith, 29, who had injured his ankle, was recaptured near to the prison.

However, Kenneth, 32, disappeared without trace and is believed to heading for the border with Northern Ireland.

His successful bid for freedom has come as a surprise.

He had been weakened by a hunger strike he had been conducting since February in support of a demand for political prisoner status.

Since the brothers were jailed the British Government has steadfastly continued to deny all knowledge of them.

But the brother’s tale did receive partial validation last year.

Ireland’s former Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, admitted he had been given diplomatic reports from the British authorities in January 1973 about the UK’s contact with the Littlejohn brothers.

In Context

Kenneth Littlejohn was not recaptured for 20 months.

During his time on the run - mainly in mainland Europe - he gave several interviews to the press including one to the BBC.

Details of some of the claims he made about working for the British authorities stood up to scrutiny leading to embarrassment for the UK Government.

Littlejohn was eventually caught in London and extradited to Dublin to serve out his original sentence.

In 1976 the Littlejohn brothers made another escape attempt but were unsuccessful.

They were released early in 1981 on condition they leave Ireland.

However, the following year Kenneth was jailed for six years for his part in an armed robbery in Chesterfield, England.