SAOIRSE32

Larkspirit

Monday 16th

I had a wonderful visit today with my mother, father and Marcella. Wonderful, considering the circumstances and the strain which indeed they are surely under.

As I expected, I received a lot of verbal flak from Screws going and coming from the actual visit. Their warped sense of humour was evident in their childish taunts, etcetera.

I wrapped myself up well to keep me from the cold. My weight is 58.25 kgs today, but I burnt up more energy today with the visit. I’ve no complaints of any nature.

I’ve noticed the orderlies are substituting slices of bread for bits of cake, etcetera — stealing the sweet things (which are rare anyway) for themselves. I don’t know whether it’s a case of ‘How low can you get?’ or ‘Well, could you blame them?’ But they take their choice and fill of the food always, so it’s the former.

They left my supper in tonight when the priest (Fr Murphy) was in. There were two bites out of the small doughy bun. I ask you!

I got the Sunday World newspaper; papers have been scarce for the past few days.

There is a certain Screw here who has taken it upon himself to harass me to the very end and in a very vindictive childish manner. It does not worry me, the harassment, but his attitude aggravates me occasionally. It is one thing to torture, but quite a different thing to exact enjoyment from it, that’s his type.

There was no mirror search going out to visits today — a pleasant change. Apparently, with the ending of the no-wash protest, the mercenary Screws have lost all their mercenary bonuses, etcetera, notwithstanding that they are also losing overtime and so on. So, not to be outdone, they aren’t going to carry out the mirror search any more, and its accompanying brutality, degradation, humiliation, etcetera.

Why! Because they aren’t being paid for it!

I’m continually wrapped up in blankets, but find it hard to keep my feet warm. It doesn’t help my body temperature, drinking pints of cold water. I’m still able to take the salt and five or six pints of water per day without too much discomfort.

The books that are available to me are trash. I’m going to ask for a dictionary tomorrow. I’d just sit and flick through that and learn, much more preferable to reading rubbish.

The English rag newspapers I barely read, perhaps flick through them and hope that no one opens the door. A copy of last week’s AP/RN was smuggled in and was read out last night (ingenuity of POWs again). I enjoyed listening to its contents (faultless - get off them ! - good lad Danny (Morrison)). I truly hope that the people read, take in and understand at least some of the truths that are to be regularly found in it. I see Paddy Devlin is at his usual tricks, and won’t come out and support the prisoners…

Well, that’s it for tonight. I must go. Oíche Mhaith.

Mural detail from >>CAIN

RTÉ

16 March 2006 17:56

One thousand gardaí will be on the streets of Dublin tomorrow to police the St Patrick’s Day parade and other events taking place in the city.

They will be clamping down on people who drink on the streets.

500,000 people are expected in the city for the parade, although the weather is expected to be very cold and windy.

BN.ie

16/03/2006 - 17:26:36

A furious row has broken out in the North over comments made by the SDLP MP Eddie McGrady, apparently supporting the idea of recalling the assembly without power-sharing.

McGrady called for the restoration of devolution, if necessary with a temporary executive of non-elected members, or with the current B ritish ministers until the parties could agree.

Welcoming the comments, the DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said they were a “helpful step forward”, falling “within the DUP’s proposals of a phased approach to power sharing.”

Sinn Fein reacted furiously, saying that the SDLP was sending out mixed messages and challenging the party to come clean.

Mr. McGrady said the DUP had got the “wrong end of the stick” and that he had “only been seeking information, not making concrete proposals.”

Sinn Féin

Published: 16 March, 2006

Sinn Féin today said that the BBC was either guilty of deliberate misinformation or the worst kind of unprofessional sloppy journalism after they ran a story wrongly claiming that Senator Ted Kennedy supported the position of the US Administration regarding Gerry Adams fundraising in the USA. Mr Kennedy had in fact stated the exact opposite at the press conference being reported by BBC NI journalists in Washington, and has previously been on the record stating this position.

A Sinn Féin spokesperson today said:

“Since early morning broadcasts the BBC have been running a story filed in Washington claiming that US Senator Ted Kennedy shared the position of the US Administration regarding Gerry Adams fundraising in the USA.

“The basis of this report was a press conference given by Senator Kennedy yesterday. However at that press conference Senator Kennedy once again clearly stated that his views on the matter differed from those held by the Administration a fact reported by other media outlets who attended the press briefing.

“However the BBC alone reported the exact opposite and continued to do this throughout much of today. This BBC story was then picked up by other outlets and has been widely covered during the course of today.

“This is a disgraceful piece of journalism and leaves very many questions needing to be answered by the BBC here in Belfast. The BBC need to tell us how a situation arose when their journalists alone distorted and misrepresented the content of yesterdays press briefing. Was this a case of unprofessional sloppy journalism or was it a case of deliberate misinformation. The public will draw their own conclusions.

“Sinn Féin will be writing to senior BBC management demanding answers to these and other very serious questions which this episode raises regarding the nature of BBC coverage.” ENDS

Belfast Telegraph

By Noel McAdam
16 March 2006

The US special envoy to Northern Ireland Mitchell Reiss has increased the focus on the DUP over its refusal to hold direct talks with Sinn Fein.

As the stateside St Patrick’s events moved towards a climax, UUP leader Sir Reg Empey also criticised the DUP for staying away. Only Ian Paisley Jnr is in Washington, as a member of the Policing Board.

Mr Reiss told a Congressional committee that the DUP’s refusal to work with Sinn Fein was preventing progress on policing.

He said: “Sinn Fein is worried that the DUP may never enter into a government with it. If that is the case, if the DUP will never negotiate directly with Sinn Fein, why should Gerry Adams take the difficult step to have his party endorse the police service, a step some of his followers oppose?”

In a report to the House of Representatives sub-committee on international relations, Mr Reiss added despite all the progress over the past year, the DUP still harboured doubts on whether Sinn Fein and the IRA are truly committed to democracy.

But Gerry Adams and the entire Sinn Fein leadership deserved “enormous credit” for moving the republican movement in this direction pointed up by the Independent Monitoring Commission, he said.

His comments came after Secretary of State Peter Hain warned the DUP would have to talk to Sinn Fein “sooner rather than later” and firmly rejected DUP calls for Sinn Fein to be excluded from a future Assembly.

Sinn Fein MP Pat Doherty said he hoped Mr Hain’s remarks marked an end to Government “pandering” to the DUP but must now be followed up with action.

DUP leader Mr Paisley, however, said the only way into government of Northern Ireland was “for everyone to commit to exclusively peaceful and democratic means”.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan, meanwhile, referred to criticism by Mr Reiss of the DUP and Ulster Unionists in dismissing Mr Adams’ criticism of US policy towards his party as biased. He said: “Let’s remember Mitchell Reiss called the UUP and DUP leadership short over the Whiterock parade. I don’t see how the US government has been partisan.”

BN.ie

16/03/2006 - 10:29:32

A young Irishman is among two patients in a critical condition at a London hospital following a disastrous drugs trial.

Ryan Wilson Flanagan is fighting for his life after being injected with a new drug for the treatment of serious conditions like leukaemia.

The 21-year-old, whose mother is a native of Dublin, is one of six people in hospital following the trial.

He and another of the patients are both fighting for their lives.

Witnesses say the men involved in the trial “went down like dominoes” and were writhing in agony shortly after receiving the drug.

BBC

Mark Durkan is in Washington for the Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations

Sinn Fein claims that the US government has become biased in its handling of the peace process have been rejected by SDLP leader Mark Durkan.

Speaking in Washington, Mr Durkan said Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams was wrong to criticise the Bush administration.

He said the US had been critical of unionist politicians for their stance on the violence that erupted last year over the Whiterock parade

Mr Adams’ comments have taken some US politicians by surprise.

Speaking in New York before travelling to Washington for Saint Patrick’s Day this Friday, Mr Adams said he was bewildered and surprised that the US government would not allow Sinn Fein to fundraise when the IRA had put all of its weapons beyond use.

‘Partisan’

However, his accusation that the US government and its special envoy Mitchell Reiss had been partisan was dismissed by Mr Durkan.

“I don’t see how the US government has been partisan in recent months,” he said.

“I think Mitchell Reiss has done a good job in calling things straight on the need for a lawful society.”

“Let’s remember Mitchell Reiss called the UUP and DUP leadership short over the Whiterock parade.

“He criticised them for a failure in leadership in terms of their attitude to try and justify and excuse that violence and blame and attack the police, that’s because he was trying to hold the line for a lawful society.”

IAIS

03/15/06 12:23 EST

Former Irish premier Albert Reynolds has told the Irish American Information Service that the decision by President Bush’s administration to again place fundraising restrictions on Sinn fein was discriminatory.

Mr Reynolds was largely responsible for convincing the republican movement to dedicate itself to a solely political path when he was Taoiseach back in 1994.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has been granted a visa but denied the right to fundraise in the US. He is invited to the White House for the St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

It is the second time within recent months that Mr Adams has been denied a fundraising opportunity.

Mr. Reynolds said that that the US administration’s decision to restrict Sinn Fein’s fundraising activities was “a case of clear discrimination” since no such restrictions were placed on the other Northern Irish parties.

He also told the IAIS that he was extremely doubtful DUP leader Ian Paisley would ever share power with republicans.

“Paisley has said he will never give reason for ‘Lundy’ to appear on his headstone. I am not optimistic that we will see him lead his party into a power-sharing administration with Sinn Fein,” the former Taoiseach said.

Gerry Adams has also attacked the US administration for what he called its “partisan behaviour”.

“Not only does this go against the principles of equality and inclusion that are at the heart of the peace process, it is being used by those opposed to the Good Friday Agreement”.

“It’s quite remarkable, I don’t understand why this restriction is being put on me. I’ve been invaluable to the White House, and I don’t understand why I can’t walk around the corner and go into a restaurant,” Adams said at a press conference, referring to a fundraising event planned in Washington tomorrow.

“I’m surprised and bewildered as to the rationale and the purpose” of the fundraising ban, Adams told journalists.

“The issue is that the administration has chosen to treat Sinn Féin differently than it treats the other parties, and the peace process is based upon equality, and based upon inclusivity,” Adams said.

“And I find it quite remarkable, given the huge advances that have been made by Irish Republicans in Ireland last year and the IRA putting its weapons beyond use,” Adams said.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain are also taking part in events.

Earlier today, Mr. Hain ruled out a DUP suggestion that Sinn Féin should be barred from a power-sharing government in the North.

During Question Time in London’s House of Commons, Mr Hain told Ian Paisley that sooner rather than later his party needed to talk to Sinn Féin, the second largest party in Northern Ireland.

On the need to restore devolved government, Mr Hain said this year was decisive and that all the party leaders would be facing some hard choices.

Responding to Mr. Hain’s remarks, Sinn Féin’s Pat Doherty MP said: “The politics of exclusion are the politics of failure and this is the message which we have been pressing home for well over ten years.”

“Those of us who wish to see progress made in the coming weeks can only hope that today’s intervention by Peter Hain is the start of the two governments ending the pandering to the DUP and getting back onto the agenda of the Good Friday Agreement.”

“It has long past the time when Ian Paisley should have been debunked of the notion that there was any possibility of political progress which did not involve Sinn Féin. That reality has been stark for many years. If the DUP are going to live up to their responsibilities and start delivering for the people who elect them in a power sharing arrangement, then such an Executive will involve Sinn Féin. Any notion which the DUP may harbour of pressing ahead towards some sort of majority unionist rule is a fantasy and simply will not happen,” Mr. Doherty said.

“Today’s remarks by Peter Hain must now be backed up with decisive action from the two governments through injecting momentum into the process and setting a speedy timeframe for the lifting of suspension and the restoration of the political institutions.”

Derry Journal

By Ian Cullen
Tuesday 14th March 2006

THE EDDIE Fullerton Justice Campaign will continue right to the heart of the British and Irish Governments - this was the message from the graveside of the murdered councillor’s son. Many hundreds of people attended the funeral of 44 year-old Albert Fullerton at Cockhill on Saturday, after his death following a tragic road accident last week.
In an oration at the graveside of his “friend and comrade”, Buncrana’s Mayor Padraig MacLochlainn pledged that the years of hard work of the ” inspirational campaigner for truth and justice” would not have been in vein. He said that Mr. Fullerton would never have let the voice of his father be silenced after the Sinn Fein councillor’s murder by a loyalist hit squad in May 1991. “Today I tell you the voice of Eddie Fullerton and his beloved son Albert has never been louder,” said Colr. MacLochlainn. “If there are those who believe that with the passing of Albert comes the passing of truth and justice for his family and the community that loved him and his father then they are sadly mistaken. “I want to send a clear message from this graveside today that the Eddie Fullerton justice campaign will continue until all those responsible including right up to the doors of 10 Downing Street take responsibility for the murder.” Mr. MacLochlainn said Mr. Fullerton knew from day one when his father was murdered that “those who did the dirty work did not act alone”. He knew that the amount of “detailed intelligence” used in the hit posed very serious questions. “In the absence of an adequate Gardai investigation, Albert took on the role of investigator. He spoke to dozens of witnesses and potential witnesses over the years trying to piece together the jigsaw. Key witnesses emerged because of their admiration for Albert’s integrity and decency.
“Today we know that at least three of the Gardai directly involved in his fathers murder investigation stand condemned by the Morris Tribunal. “We also know that the British State in the guise of British Military Intelligence planned and co-ordinated the murder of a democratically elected representative in another legal jurisdiction. We also know the only way the British State and their proxies could silence Eddie Fullerton was to murder him,” he said.
Colr. MacLochlainn added: “Let Albert Fullerton’s life be your inspiration.” Mr. Fullerton’s sister, Amanda told mourners during the funeral service in the adjoining St. Mary’s Church that “Albert wore many hats, namely as a devoted partner, father, son, brother, uncle, cousin and friend to many.” “We all looked up to him after Dad’s death. We knew he was carrying a heavy burden, constantly being vigilant regarding the campaign. “Then he was a spokesperson for the EFJC, but much more than that, he was sleeping, living, eating and breathing getting to the bottom of what really happened, usually while massive obstacles were being thrown in his way. “He was a very strong, focussed and utterly determined person who managed to engage with people at any level, he just told it as it was.” She added that her brother was “very disillusioned with Michael McDowell for our obstructing our quest for the truth and Bertie Ahern and other influential political figures for their apathy regarding our campaign”.

Irish Independent

Special chemical marker found in raids on ‘Slab’ Murphy home

Edel Kennedy and Kathy Donaghy
16 March 2006

A SPECIAL chemical ‘marker’ used only by Irish customs to identify smuggled fuel was found at the home of IRA chief-of-staff Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy.

The Revenue Commissioners last night confirmed to the Irish Independent that an investigation is under way into how the special chemical agent ended up at the home of the Provo leader.

The ‘invisible’ marker was among items seized from Murphy’s home during the joint Garda/PSNI raid involving up to 420 officers last week.

Sources last night claimed the discovery of the chemical marker - which has a complex chemical make-up used solely by Irish customs officials - has sparked a major “witch-hunt” for a potential ‘mole’ by the Revenue Commissioners.

“It’s something no-one (involved in the search) banked on - there’s a major panic on at the moment,” one source said.

A Revenue spokesman confirmed officials had begun an investigation into the discovery of the chemical marker.

But he denied any Revenue or Customs staff are under suspicion.

He said the chemical component found on Murphy’s farm is not a controlled substance, but admitted he is not aware of it being used for anything else.

The invisible marker is added to kerosene when it is imported here and all taxes and duties paid.

It is likened to a ‘DNA strand’ which distinguishes into which country the fuel was imported.

Customs officials, who check for illegally-imported or laundered kerosene, have a special test to determine if the marker is present.

If it is, this shows all the taxes have been paid.

“It’s just impossible to tell if the fuel been laundered after adding the marker,” the source said.

Anyone who has access to this marker can add it to kerosene themselves, thus avoiding paying the duties.

Alternatively the kerosene could be bought in the North - where the taxes are considerably lower - and its ‘Northern’ marker stripped out.

The ’southern’ marker is then added and sold down here at a higher price.

Kerosene is largely used for home heating.

Homes in urban areas largely rely on piped gas or oil but homes in the country are mostly heated with kerosene.

Suppliers in the North are charged 17.5pc VAT by the government when they import the fuel.

They charge the customer a further 5pc VAT but then claim back 12.5pc from the Revenue. This means they pay a total of just 5pc.

This compares with the 13.5pc the Irish Government charges.

A standard 1,000-litre delivery will be up to €150 cheaper in the North as a result, making it a lucrative business for criminals.

Meanwhile, the cross-border investigation targeting the homeland of Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy is following a money trail of cheques written by legitimate businesses found in a hayshed at his property.

The Irish Independent has learned that cheques worth €0.5m were found with stg£250,000 in cash at the property after last week’s cross-border operation.

It is understood that gardai will now move to interview the owners of businesses who wrote cheques found in the barn.

BBC ON THIS DAY

16 March 1988

Three shot dead at Milltown Cemetery

A gunman has killed three mourners and injured at least 50 people attending a funeral for IRA members shot dead in Gibraltar.

It is understood he also threw four grenades into the crowd of 10,000 people gathered around the Republican plot at Milltown Cemetery in Roman Catholic west Belfast.

The casualties have been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast in a fleet of private vehicles and 10 ambulances.

Eyewitness reports describe mourners gripped with panic, screaming and shouting while others collapsed to the floor.

The initial shot was mistaken for an IRA salute as the dead, Mairead Farrell, 31, Daniel McCann, 30, and Sean Savage, 23, were buried.

But shortly after 1300 GMT as the last of the three coffins was lowered into the joint grave, another shot was fired.

Attacks condemned

Another shot was quickly followed by two blasts 50 yards away which is said to have sent black smoke and earth into the air.

Several more shots were fired amid a burst of what is thought to be grenades.

Funeral stewards made repeated appeals for calm as the course of reconciliation in Northern Ireland faced another setback.

There are some reports the man was then pursued by hundreds of youths oblivious to the danger.

The Northern Ireland Secretary Tom King, has condemned the attacks and appealed for calm, echoing calls from other political quarters including Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.

But Mr Adams accused the RUC of collusion in the attack.

The RUC had agreed to stay away from the funeral after representations from the Roman Catholic church and political leaders.

The Ulster Defence Association, the largest of the Protestant paramilitary organisations, denied any part in the attack.

It added the outlawed Ulster Freedom Fighters had no part in today’s events either.

In Context

The funerals were for three IRA members shot dead by British special forces in Gibraltar, where they allegedly were planning an attack on the British garrison.

A lone loyalist gunman, Michael Stone, was chased by mourners at the cemetery but was arrested by police.

Michael Stone

The east Belfast man had been active on the fringes of loyalist para-militarism before the Milltown killings and was ultimately sentenced for a total of six murders when he eventually came to trial.

The Ulster Freedom Fighters member was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years imprisonment by the trial judge.

But he was released, despite massive outrage, after serving 12 years under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.