SAOIRSE32

An Phoblacht

Eyes of world on Fermanagh/South Tyrone

BY SHANE MacTHOMÁIS

On the fifth day of the 1981 Hunger Strike, Frank Maguire, the MP for the constituency of Fermanagh/South Tyrone, died of a heart attack.

Over the following three weeks the number of candidates for the by-election fluctuated up and down with, at one stage, as many as seven candidates being mooted, and almost an eighth candidate when by mistake an over-enthusiastic member of Sinn Féin took out under her own name, a second set of nomination papers for Bobby Sands.

Noel Maguire, brother of Frank Maguire, was first to declare his candidature, and lodged nomination papers at the electoral offices in Dungannon on Wednesday the 25 March. Bernadette McAliskey had also declared herself as a runner on a Smash H-Block/Armagh and anti-repression ticket.

Former Ulster Unionist leader Harry West was elected as their candidate at a party convention, and UDR lieutenant Roy Kells, with the encouragement of Ian Paisley, was announced as being prepared to stand, but only as an ‘agreed’ loyalist candidate. And, as expected, an SDLP convention in Irvinestown ratified Austin Currie, who had previously attempted to wrest the seat from the late Frank Maguire in the bitterly contested May 1979 election.

The 1979 election, contested without endorsement from the SDLP party executive, who correctly feared repercussions from splitting the nationalist vote, placed the local SDLP in a difficult position. They too were deeply divided over the wisdom of not just contesting the seat, but contesting it on an anti-IRA ticket, their fears being proven justified when Currie lost the election. (Click photo to view)

Currie’s self serving attitude in 1979 forced the party leadership to temporarily remove him from his executive position, though he was by 1981 reinstated. It was the fear of being ostracised for good, should he do a repeat performance that forced Currie to swallow a bitter pill, when the party executive decided to overturn the local selection convention and not to contest the election.

The SDLP had mistakenly calculated that Noel Maguire was a definite runner and that between him and Bobby Sands, who by this stage had emerged as a definite candidate, that the nationalist vote against a single loyalist contender would be already split enough. The SDLP withdrew from the election, only to be dumbfounded when Noel Maguire also withdrew at the last minute and joined the broad-based backing for Bobby Sands, which included Tommy Murray (SDLP), Neil Blaney (Independent Euro-MP), Frank McManus (Irish Independence Party), and Bernadette McAliskey (National H-Block/Armagh Committee). Two members of the Irish Independence Party and the SDLP’s Tommy Murray, signed Bobby Sands’s nomination papers.

The confirmation that Sands would be a candidate had come from a Sinn Féin announcement on 26 March. Earlier that morning, Bernadette McAliskey had revealed that if a hunger-striker was to run then she would stand down in his favour and ‘work the shirt off my back’ for him.

The Sinn Féin statement said that Sands’s candidature provided the electorate with the opportunity of quantifying their support for the political prisoners and against attempts to criminalise opposition to British rule. The statement made clear that under no circumstances, following Sands’s election, would the seat be allowed to fall to the runner-up, in the event of a court action to dislodge him

Meanwhile Ian Paisley’s attempts to push Harry West out of the running floundered when Paisley’s choice, Roy Kells withdrew when he did not get the full support of the UUP. But Paisley continued to orchestrate a campaign against Harry West, which included personal visits and appeals from the widows of four UDR and RUC men. West, however, performed a minor coup, got photographed smiling with the widows, and stood his ground. Even a poster campaign against West, favouring the UDR lieutenant, with transport and manpower laid on by the UDR in the middle of the night, failed to change West’s mind.

Bobby Sands’s nomination papers were lodged by Jim Gibney and Owen Carron on the last possible day, Monday 30 March. Noel Maguire intended to withdraw just before the deadline, when it would be too late for Austin Currie to respond. As the 4pm deadline approached Gerry Adams and Owen Carron waited in a car beside the electoral office just in case Maguire failed to withdraw. In his pocket Gerry Adams carried a statement announcing Bobby Sands’ withdrawal. With less than ten minutes to go Maguire arrived, went into the office and emerged with his nomination papers and called on his supporters to back Bobby Sands.

In a message to the electorate of Fermanagh/South Tyrone, their candidate Bobby Sands said that: “there is but a single issue at stake, the right of human dignity for Irish men and women who are imprisoned for taking part in this period of the historic struggle for Irish Independence.”

He went on to say: “We are not elitist; we do not seek a different status to that afforded the ordinary prisoner because we supposedly frown upon them. Our protest and this hunger-strike are to secure from the British government an end to its policy of labelling us as criminals. This can be done by them conceding to us the same status that several hundred men in the cages of Long Kesh and three women in Armagh prison have. The eyes of this nation and many parts of the world will be on the people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone on polling day.”

Key turning point in the struggle

BY JIM GIBNEY

I hid behind the wall of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, less than 200 yards from the front door of Dungannon’s Electoral Office in Northland Row. From this safe distance I could watch, unobserved, the comings and goings at the Electoral Office. It was short of 2.30 in the afternoon, a warm day as I recall now, some 25 years later.

My inside jacket pocket held a little piece of paper, pregnant with historical change, of far reaching proportions for republicans. Of course at the time I was completely unaware of this. As I paced up and down the car park behind the Church I was more concerned not to be seen by anyone who would recognise me and be alerted to my intentions. The little piece of paper in my pocket was Bobby Sands’ nomination papers to contest the by-election for Fermanagh/South Tyrone.

In Ballygawley Road housing estate, a few miles away, Gerry Adams was sitting by a phone. He was in communication with republicans in Lisnaskea, the home town of the recently deceased MP for the constituency, Frank Maguire. Gerry was also in communication with me, not I hasten to add by mobile phone, they were yet to be invented, but through Jimmy McGivern a local republican in his car.

Earlier Gerry had given me my instructions. They were simple enough. If by 3.50pm Noel Maguire, Frank’s brother, had not withdrawn his nomination papers from the by-election then I was to withdraw Bobby’s name from the contest. Four o’clock was the final deadline to withdraw papers. Three o’clock was the deadline for submitting a nomination. The leadership of Sinn Féin had decided Bobby Sands would not contest the election if there was another nationalist in the field.

At approximately 2.45pm the word from Gerry through Jimmy was that Noel Maguire was sighted in the company of a local republican in Lisnaskea shortly after 2pm. He had not been seen since then. The grapevine had it he had gone to ground. My heart sank with the news as I prepared myself to withdraw Bobby’s papers.

Then another courier arrived at the car park with a more positive rumour. Noel Maguire was on his way to the Electoral Office with the local republican but no one knew for certain why.

Lisnaskea was a difficult hour’s drive from Dungannon. We were all on edge. Would Noel make it to the Electoral Office before the deadline? Would he be stopped by the British Army at a checkpoint and delayed deliberately until after the deadline? Why was he coming at all if not to withdraw his name? Maybe he was just coming to tell the growing number of journalists outside the Electoral Office that he intended to stand?

I was not prepared to believe anything unless I saw it with my own eyes. Experience of the previous few weeks taught me that. It was packed with highs and lows as republicans grappled with what to do over the nomination of Bobby.

My anxious wait ended well within the time set for withdrawing a nomination. The solitary figure of the white haired Noel Maguire ascended the steps outside the Electoral Office. It was obvious he had decided to pull out of the contest. In keeping with his gentle demeanour he announced in a soft voice to the waiting journalists that he was withdrawing from the by-election because he had been told it would help save Bobby’s life. He could not have it on his conscience that any action of his would endanger another person’s life.

Noel Maguire’s gesture was not only magnanimous. It was a pivotal moment which shaped the future conduct of the republican struggle in a dramatic and unexpected way at the time. Had Noel stayed in the contest then Bobby Sands would not have been elected MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone because I would have withdrawn his name from the election. And the year 1981 might not have been the year the struggle changed so dramatically.

Bobby’s election rocked the Thatcher government and the Irish establishment. It also came as a huge surprise to many republicans with one very senior IRA man saying to me, as we watched the news of Bobby’s win on television, that it was worth 20 bombs. It was a spectacular victory against all the odds. It gave the prison struggle, and the struggle generally, a much needed boost.

Following Bobby’s election, Kieran Doherty and Paddy Agnew were elected TDs and other prisoner candidates did well across the 26 counties in that year’s general election. The election of two prisoner candidates as TDs was also significant for another reason. It ended Fianna Fáil’s reign as the dominant party in the south. They never again formed a government as a single party. That year also saw Owen Carron hold Bobby’s seat with an increased majority in the by-election caused by Bobby’s death.

In the middle of all that was happening and with Bobby’s win in the bag, I argued internally for Sinn Féin to contest the May local government elections held less than a month after Bobby’s success. Not surprisingly I lost the argument. Other organisations like People’s Democracy (PD), the IRSP, the IIP and pro-prisoner candidates did stand. The SDLP lost many of their council seats to these candidates including that of their leader Gerry Fitt who was still a Westminster MP at the time. Thereafter the struggle opened up a new front: contesting elections.

The election successes of 1981 gave republicans the confidence they needed to take the leap into the unknown electoral arena. I was not there for the internal debate which followed 1981. I was off to jail for the next six years. I can imagine it would not have been an easy debate to win. Republicans were very suspicious of participating in any form of struggle which they suspected was out of step with pursuing the armed struggle. For many in the leadership and elsewhere participating in elections was controversial and to be done selectively.

I was at an Ard Fheis in 1980 and heard Sinn Féin President, Ruaraí Ó Brádaigh denounce those republicans from Tyrone who put a motion to the conference to contest local elections in the Six Counties. Republicans in the 26 Counties were already contesting local elections. He warned delegates that anyone advocating such a course of action would face expulsion.

Between that Ard Fheis and Bobby Sands’ election there was a low level debate among some of the leadership of Sinn Féin about how best to build Sinn Féin into a popular political party and the role, if any, of participating in elections. The opposition to fighting elections was very strong. Indeed this was reflected in the extreme opposition among Fermanagh republicans to the proposal to stand Bobby.

I proposed standing Bobby in the by-election. It came to me in a flash on hearing the news on the radio of Frank Maguire’s sudden death. I thought it was a not to be missed opportunity to highlight the Hunger Strike and the protest for political status. I was to learn very quickly that not all republicans were taken by the idea.

The opposition in Fermanagh centred on the traditional republican hostility to elections. They were seen as a dangerous distraction summed up in the view that even if Sinn Féin won every seat in the country the Brits still had to be forced out by arms. There was also a genuine concern for the fate of Bobby and his comrades. Failure to win the seat would strengthen Thatcher’s main argument that the prisoners did not have popular support.

The opposition held out over several meetings against the combined persuasive powers of Ruaraí O Brádaigh, Daithí O Conaill, Gerry Adams and Owen Carron - all arguing to stand Bobby.

For republicans 1981 is, understandably so, one of the bleakest years of the conflict because of the deaths on hunger strike of the ten lads. It is also a seminal year in terms of opening up a new and challenging front, participating in elections. This led to other, equally important changes- taking seats in Leinster House and forcing republicans to build a serious party with a radical message.

It all started in earnest on 9 April, 25 years ago this Sunday, in Enniskillen’s Technical College, when the Returning Officer, in a breaking voice announced to the world, ‘Sands, Bobby, Anti H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner, 30,492, West, Harry, Unionist, 29,046′. Bobby Sands was declared MP for
Fermanagh/South Tyrone.

unison.ie

April 7th 2006

There’s been a set-back to the hopes of Irish immigrants in America.

A compromise plan to change US immigration law has failed on its first test vote in the Senate.

It comes just a day after leaders from both the Democrat and Republican parties had agreed to the plan and predicted it would have wide support.

Opponents of the measure complained it would give an amnesty to illegals in the US, of which, 20,000 are estimated to be Irish. Senator Ted Kennedy, a co-sponsor of the legislation has stated that, “politics got in the way of policy and there’s enough blame to go round”.

Backers of the bill were 22 votes short of the 60 needed in the 100-member Senate to overcome procedural hurdles and move the bill forward.

icWales

Apr 7 2006

Prosecution chiefs in Northern Ireland are to study a file on a Real IRA double agent questioned over a series of terrorist attacks prior to the Omagh bomb massacre.

Paddy Dixon, 42, was arrested by police in Holyhead, North Wales.

He was handed over to detectives in Northern Ireland and interviewed about serious terrorist crime.

Although Dixon was released yesterday, a police spokeswoman confirmed a report will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Alasdair Fraser.

The Dublin man, who was at one time living under a police protection scheme, was an Irish Special Branch informer who was asked to provide a car by the organisation which bombed Omagh in August 1998, killing 29 people.

Days before the atrocity he was told the car he was asked to supply was not needed.

But he later emerged as a key intelligence figure in the cross-border police investigation to track down the bomb gang.

He was held on Tuesday for questioning about dissident republican attacks across Northern Ireland in the months before Omagh as part of what became known as a linked inquiry.

Dixon, a former car thief who stole to order, first for the Provisional IRA and then later for dissident republicans opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process, worked for Detective Sergeant John White, who himself became embroiled in corruption allegations against the Garda in County Donegal where he was once based.

Dixon, fearing for his life from republican dissidents, later quit Ireland to live in Britain with a new identity.

But detectives involved in the Omagh investigation had been under pressure from relatives of the dead and injured to have him arrested.

It is understood he was questioned about car and mortar bombings in Banbridge, County Down, Markethill, County Armagh, Newry, County Down, Armagh City and Belleek, County Fermanagh.

In September, south Armagh man Sean Hoey, 36, is due to stand trial in Belfast for the murders of the 29 people killed in Omagh.

Derry Journal

07 April 2006

“REPUBLICANS WITH a grudge” were the most likely killers of Denis Donaldson, an INLA source told the ‘Journal’ last night.
As speculation continued yesterday, the source in the North West said there was no involvement by the INLA in the murder in Glenties, Co. Donegal, earlier this week.
“It’s all pure speculation at the moment. There are so many suspects in the pot, you could pick almost any of them.
“But it was most likely a republican killing. Republicans with a grudge,” said the source, who said he did not believe the killing was sanctioned by the IRA leadership.
“I can’t see it having been sanctioned from the top,” the source added.
Gardai were last night continuing their painstaking fingertip search around the remote cottage of the Sinn Féin official-turned British spy, who was shot dead on Tuesday.
In the latest develop-ment in the massive investigation to find the killers, a car was removed from outside the 19th century house were Mr. Donaldson had been hiding out after admitting in December he was a paid informer for more than 20 years.
Members of the Gardaí’s dog and water units have now been drafted in to assist in the huge search of two square miles of bog and lakeland which was immediately cordoned off after the murder.
At the time of going to press last night, a Garda spokesperson told the ‘Journal’ there had been no further developments in the hunt for Mr. Donaldson’s killers.
Post mortem results indicated the Belfast man died from a shotgun wound to the chest.
The IRA has denied involvement in the murder of the ex-Sinn Fein man who was warned by Gardaí that his life could be in danger.
Unionists, meanwhile, say they are unconvinced by the denials of the republican movement who have hinted that British intelligence could be to blame.
However, Peter Hain, the North’s Secretary of State, said yesterday that that assertion was “fanciful and rather desperate”.
Mr. Hain said it was more likely that dissident republicans carried out the shooting.
However, this allegation has been challenged by the INLA. “I would be surprised if dissidents were involved,” the source added.
Chief Superintendent Terry McGinn, who is leading the investigation into the murder, refused to be drawn on details of the killing, or on whether there had been a specific threat to Mr. Donaldson.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, she vowed that Gardaí would leave no stone unturned in their bid to track down those responsible.

BN.ie

07/04/2006 - 13:38:34

The president of the High Court today ordered the Rossport Five to pay the legal costs to Shell following their contempt of court over their Corrib Gas pipeline protest.

Judge Joseph Finnegan said that although the court had the right to punish the men for refusing to comply with the court order not to obstruct the construction of the pipeline across their land in County Mayo, he had decided not to impose a jail sentence.

He said he was having regarded to the time the men had spent in prison (94 days) and the disadvantages that three of them continued to suffer while they were in contempt.

But Judge Finnegan said he was making an order for the costs in the case, which could run into hundreds of thousands of euros to be awarded to Shell.

Daily Ireland

BY Ciarán Barnes
07/04/2006

The new-look Parades Commission last night ruled on four loyalist marches scheduled to take place in nationalist areas of Belfast and Tyrone on Easter Monday.
Daily Ireland understands that the Apprentice Boys have been allowed to parade past the Short Strand in east Belfast on April 17 but have been banned from marching down the lower Ormeau Road in the south of the city.
Rulings on parades through Ardoyne in north Belfast and Castlederg in west Tyrone are not yet known.
The Easter Monday Apprentice Boys marches are being viewed as the first real test for the new commission, which was appointed in November last year.
Nationalists are fearful that the appointment of the senior Orangemen David Burrows and Don MacKay as commissioners will lead to an increase in the number of disputed loyalist parades getting the green light.
Mr MacKay caused anger last week when he said he was fighting the cause of the loyal orders from “inside the fence”.
The decisions to allow the Short Strand parade and ban the Ormeau Road march were expected.
The rulings on Ardoyne and Castlederg are harder to predict and will be watched closely by a sceptical nationalist community.
Today, the Parades Commission will formally announce its rulings on the four parades.
In all, 39 Apprentice Boys parades are taking place in the North on Easter Monday, ten of which are in Belfast.
Four of the 39 marches are described as disputed by the Parades Commission.
Around 10,000 Apprentice Boys parade annually on Easter Monday at different locations in the North.

PFC News

enquiries@madden-finucane.com

info@patfinucanecentre.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Denis was a loving husband, a devoted father and grandfather and a good brother. The events of recent months have been very difficult for our family.

In December, Denis left his home in Belfast and moved to Donegal where it was his desire that he be left alone to rebuild his life. Unfortunately, he continued to be pursued by sections of the media, some of whom gave details about his whereabouts.

On Tuesday 4th April, Denis was murdered. We do not know by whom. But the difficult situation which our family has been put in is the direct result of the activities of the Special Branch and British Intelligence agencies.

We acknowledge the speedy statement from the IRA disassociating themselves from this murder. We believe that statement to be true.

We would ask those politicians and media commentators who have sought to use this tragedy to score cheap political points to stop doing so.

In the next few days, Denis will return home to Belfast to be with his family for one last time and to be buried. The funeral will be private and we would ask the media to respect our privacy at this time.

Finally, we wish to express our deep gratitude to friends, neighbours and the wider community for the compassion, solidarity and sympathy given to our family throughout this ordeal.”

ENDS

Irelandclick

By Fr Des

WHAT awful mistakes we must have made during all those years. Remember how we set up education projects out of our own money? Remember the street collections for them, the scraping and saving, the empty rooms and the people being asked to invent education without money and without teachers if necessary?

All madness – why did we bother? We should have sat on our hind ends, done nothing and waited for £30 million from Mr Hain’s government, the £30 million which comes, like everything, to those who wait. We should have gone out every election day and voted for the very people who kept the poor Protestant unionists in a state of bad housing and near poverty and a lot of ignorance. Look what it gets you, £30 million. But we did not. We had too much respect for them and for ourselves to vote that way.

Of course, the poor unionists were always just as badly off as the poor nationalists. So what difference was there between us in the deprivation stakes? Well, one difference was that the poor unionists voted for, paid for and often prayed for the political representatives who kept them deprived, while nationalists and republicans did not.

Don’t ask why the poor unionists voted for ‘the great deprivers’, it is one of those strange acts of a strange world. We voted against them.

We voted against the unionist politicians who wanted their own people to be poor enough to stay in subjection. Less poor than poor republicans or nationalists, of course, but poor all the same.

So where did we make our mistake? Was it in using our own resources to educate ourselves, was it by parents scraping up enough money to pay 100 per cent or 65 per cent or 25 per cent of the cost of a school for their children or a hospital?

Was it our mistake to set up all those community associations, credit unions, writers’ groups, nursery schools, public inquiries, small businesses?

Well, yes, it was, Mr Hain’s government would say, you should have waited; waited until the money for the shipyards ran out – like some of those who worked there – waited until the “security” jobs in the police, army, prisons, government offices had run dry, waited until the various sources of ready cash for virtuous government supporters had dried out – when by a miracle of riches in a cash-starved world, lo and behold, money in sackloads would appear pouring from the ready hands of those who love you still.

And would it be for us too? For all who wait sitting on their hands, or just for some? Ah no, it is reserved for deprived unionist waiters, of course.

And these, the once privileged, now deprived, it appears, are to be found in droves in all places where the union flag flies in reverence for the government and its representatives who made them poor. There they have waited, like the exiles in Babylon, the poor unionists.

Thank God they are still well-dressed and well-fed and so forth, and thank the lodge they have a deal of self-respect left too, but deprived.

Deprived because through some wickedness for which they are not responsible they have fewer community structures than ‘those others’ have, and, alas, they have made less use of education, and have rejected the kind of education ‘those others’ have made for themselves.

What foolishness. Why did we not just wait? We might have received Mr Hain’s government’s bounty too. Just sitting there and saying no to education, no to sharing, no to inventing things, no to making a real work ethic rather than a pretend one, no to being independent (maybe that is the trouble). Unionist leaders kept their opponents in as near to servitude as they could, and kept their own people in as near to poverty as they dared – provided, of course, that the ‘professional and business classes’ who led them were well-heeled themselves. But why think about that, sure after all didn’t the poor unionists vote happily and determinedly for the people who did all that to them? And would do it again. Provided their leaders, including Mr Hain’s government, will guarantee that while the poor unionists will have their acceptable level of poverty ‘those others’ will have worse.

You could call it their acceptable level of deprivation.

Well, good luck to the poor unionists who will now spend, what is it, £30 million? We will watch their space and see what they create out of it. If they create half as much as the republicans and nationalists created out of the nothing Mr Hain’s government allowed them, they will do well.
One doubts it, though.

Belfast Telegraph

By Noel McAdam
07 April 2006

DUP leader Ian Paisley has warned the Government that any moves towards new partnership arrangements with the Republic to jointly govern Northern Ireland will be strongly resisted.

The North Antrim MP said the proposals for a ’step change’ in North South co-operation if the re-called Assembly failed to agree on an Executive by November 24 would change the “status quo” and the British Government would prove unable to deliver on joint sovereignty.

Northern Ireland was now part of a United Kingdom where a foreign government has more say than the people in the province, he argued.

“Given the reality that there will be no Executive in the foreseeable future the best way forward is to get working in the Assembly,” he added.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, however, urged the DUP to say ‘yes’ to power- sharing and warned: “The days of unionist domination are over.

“We have concerns about aspects of the statement, but we think (it’s) a good forward step.”

As all parties studied the proposals, Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said his party will be there when MLAs meet for the first time on May 15.

Sir Reg said the partnership plan with Dublin were “quite a threat” but unionists should not be surprised.

Senior Sinn Fein negotiator Martin McGuinness said his party’s preference was for government with the DUP rather than any form of joint authority between London and Dublin, while the ultimate goal of Irish reunification remained.

The SDLP have welcomed the chance to elect a First and Deputy First Minister and get the Agreement working again.

“As we predicted, the DUP seem comfortable with these proposals and believe them to be right up their street. That street is a dead end,” SDLP leader Mark Durkan warned.

Irelandclick

In the grounds of Belfast Castle and beneath McArt’s Fort where Theobald Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen pledged to fight for a better Ireland, republicans gathered this week to mark the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising.
Flanked by two Sinn Féin councillors and relatives of people who have died in the conflict, Gerry Kelly officially launched this year’s Easter Lily Campaign.
2006 marks the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising, as well as the 25th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes.
The MLA said he was calling on people throughout North Belfast to make a special effort this year to wear an Easter Lily and honour Ireland’s patriot dead.
“This is a time when we can reflect on 1916 as a turning point in Irish history and, more importantly, seek to educate ourselves and take the lessons of that period forward with us into the new society we wish to create in the future,” he said.
The Sinn Féin politicians were joined by family members of three fallen IRA volunteers in the grounds of Belfast Castle.
Sharon McCabe’s brother in law Pat McCabe was murdered by the British army in 1973 when he only 17-years-old.
Mary McIlroy’s uncle Brian Smyth was also murdered the same year by the British army and in 1978 her nephew Michael Scott was killed after two gas canisters exploded at his house. Pat McIlvenna’s husband Sean was killed by the RUC in 1984 while on active service in Armagh.
The importance of women and the role they played throughout Ireland’s conflict cannot be overstated, the MLA said.
“In 1926 the Cumann Na mBan (League of Women) introduced the Easter Lily as a symbol of remembrance for those who died during or were executed after the Easter Rising,” Gerry Kelly said.
“Constance Markievicz, Kathleen Lynn and many, many more women played a leading role in the rising and throughout the year we will be continuing the work that they began for equality and Irish unity.
“We are also celebrating the activism of women who are today involved in political activity in communities across Ireland, including those women who are to the forefront of community development, women involved with voluntary organisations, women campaigning on socio economic and equality issues in their own communities, nationally and internationally.
“The 1916 proclamation promised equal rights and universal suffrage. On the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising it is important to remember and to revive the connection which existed at that time between feminism and nationalism.”

Journalist:: Áine McEntee

Irelandclick

The Human Rights Commissioner was so shocked by the real life experiences of mothers and children living in the New Lodge tower blocks that she is seeking an urgent meeting with Paddy McIntyre, the Chief Executive of the Housing Executive.
Monica McWilliams was invited to the area for the first time in her new role as human rights boss by Sinn Féin councillor Carál Ní Chuilín.
During her visit to the New Lodge Housing Forum and the tower blocks the human rights boss said she discovered some ‘very disturbing’ health and housing issues.
“The whole experience was very disturbing. There are real legitimate concerns here about families with young children being exposed to raw sewage in the flats in their bath water, infestation of insects, lack of play facilities which is associated in high rise accommodation, and a lack of short, medium or long-time plans by the Housing Executive,” she said.
“I listened attentively and I have agreed to take their concerns back and address this in whatever way I can. Clearly there needs to be a start by public statutory agencies in addressing this. I will be seeking a meeting with Paddy McIntrye to discuss this further.”
Housing campaigners say the Executive’s strategy to tackle alarmingly high levels of housing distress in nationalist North Belfast has failed miserably.
In six years of the seven-year North Belfast Housing Strategy, the level of nationalists living in urgent housing need has remained at a critical level from 81 per cent in 2000 to 78 per cent at the start of 2006.
Cllr Ní Chuilín said the housing situation had human rights implications.
“She talked to the families who lived in the high rise flats and heard what their daily lives entailed, and what it’s like to live in the flats with small children.
“We want to use every opportunity to highlight this and to ask agencies with responsibility to address this crisis in whatever way possible.
“I know that I and the families very much appreciated her visit. She made them feel they are not forgotten.”

Journalist:: Áine McEntee

Irelandclick

The Ardoyne Parades Dialogue Group (APDG) has again called on loyal orders to engage immediately in talks about the problem of contentious parades on the Crumlin Road.
Following a meeting this week with the new-look Parades Commission Joe Marley of the APDG said the group was very concerned that the loyal orders have so far refused to speak with nationalist residents even as another marching season looms.
The Ardoyne community worker said he was concerned that the loyal orders may once again be rewarded with another march on the Crumlin Road on Easter Monday despite their refusal to talk to nationalists.
“The APDG has demonstrated on two occasions over the last year (Easter Monday last and in December) our resolve in trying to move things on and create a positive climate by withdrawing our protest.
“Since last June the APDG has repeatedly tried through various ways to engage with the North and West Belfast Parades Forum, but we have been met with an ongoing refusal to engage in dialogue.
“There must be a clear message from the Parades Commission that the loyal orders and parade organisers will not be rewarded for this non-engagement.”
Joe Marley said the feeder parade organised by the Apprentice Boys for the Crumlin Road on Easter Monday was designed to intimidate.
“We view these feeder parades as nothing short of a coat trailing exercise designed to humiliate the nationalist community of the Crumlin Road.
“The marchers go through the Nationalist area only to board a bus to travel to the actual parade,” he said.
“This only serves to heighten tensions and create further divisions between communities.”
The APDG spokesman said that the North Belfast group had also made it clear to the commission that it believed the position of one of its commissioners Don McKay was now untenable.
“The appointment of two members of the Orange Order Don McKay and David Burrows to the commission earlier this year was greeted with disbelief in the nationalist community. It is hard to imagine how two people actively involved in this problem can act impartially in making determinations.
“However, the recent revelations that Don McKay was dishonest when filling in his CV for the commission and the fact that that he said last week in a public meeting in Portadown that he was fighting the cause of the loyal orders ‘from inside the fence’ now makes his position untenable.”
And although the first contentious parade of the year is now only 10 days away Joe Marley said that the APDG is prepared to talk to anyone in a bid to resolve this issue.
“If they are interested in finding a lasting solution to the problems caused by parades then they should open up meaningful talks with us as soon as possible,” he said.
But this morning Tommy Cheevers of the Apprentice Boys - who are to march on Easter Monday accused the APDG of not representing Ardoyne residents.
“We offered dialogue in 2001 and were in a process until last year until the violence (on the Twelfth).
“I would doubt at this last stage if there would be any talks.”

Journalist:: Evan Short

RTÉ

07 April 2006 12:01

The High Court has ruled that the five men who are objecting to the construction of the pipeline in the Corrib Gas Field through Rossport, Co Mayo, are not to serve any more jail time for their contempt of court.

The five men were jailed last June when they breached a High Court order restraining interference with the construction of the pipeline.

They served over 90 days in jail before being released last September.

Irish Independent

Edel Kennedy

THEY helped shape the nation we live in today, but Dublin City Council couldn’t get the spelling of the 1916 heroes correct.

As the city gears up for an Easter Parade next weekend, it was pointed out that the council took down a sign with the correct spelling of one of those killed - and put up another with the misspelled name.

A small lane just off Moore Street in the city centre has been called ‘O’Rathaille Parade’, in memory of Michael ‘The’ O’Rathaille.

But last year the English sign was removed.

It was then replaced with a new dual language sign, with the misspelled ‘O’Rathaillaigh’ and ‘O’Rathailly’ on show.

His grandson Prionsias O’Rathaille is furious that the council managed to get it so wrong.

“They still can’t get things right,” he said.

“Coming up to the 1916 commemoration parade, it’s very bad.

“It’s within a stones throw of where the fighting took place and close to where the anniversary celebrations will be.”

‘The’ O’Rathaille had been treasurer of the volunteers and helped Childers bring arms into Howth aboard the ‘Asgard’.

He was the only leader to be shot in action during the Rising.

Meanwhile, a granite stone honouring the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation was unveiled at the Curragh Camp yesterday by Defence Minister Willie O’Dea.

The Curragh was chosen as a location because the seven military barracks there were named after signatories, Clarke, MacDiarmada, MacDonagh, Pearse, Ceannt, Connolly and Plunkett.

Irish Independent

Aideen Sheehan and Allison Bray

IRELAND is on high alert following confirmation yesterday that a wild swan found dead in Scotland has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu and six swans in Northern Ireland are being examined for the virus.

Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan said that the risk to Ireland is rising because of our “close proximity” to the UK.

However, she said that there was no need to go over the top as Ireland was highly prepared and stressed there was no risk to consumers of getting bird flu if they cooked poultry properly.

The Agriculture Department’s Expert Advisory Group will meet today to discuss additional measures that might be needed to prevent or contain the disease here.

It is now “inevitable” that bird flu will spread to Ireland, given it is only a matter of miles from our coast, said Labour agriculture spokesperson Dr Mary Upton, calling for an emergency simulation of how to handle an outbreak, and an overall figurehead to coordinate the national response.

The case in Fife is the first time the deadly strain has been confirmed in a wild bird in the UK, making it the 14th country in the EU to succumb.

It could be only a matter of time before the virus reaches this country.

Bird watchers here are also being urged to keep a close eye on dead wild birds, as the Scottish outbreak has taken place at the peak of the migratory season.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland confirmed they were examining the badly decomposed remains of five swans in Portglenone, Co Antrim and one swan in Moira, Co Down for signs of avian flu.

If necessary they would test these birds for avian flu, but these examinations were routine as they had tested 20 birds since last autumn, all of which proved negative, a spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, in Dublin there was an upsurge of calls to the department’s avian flu helpline with 56 calls made yesterday, but there were no highly suspect dead birds being tested, a spokesman said.

Scotland’s Chief Veterinary Officer Charles Milne yesterday confirmed a swan found in Cellardyke, Fife had the lethal H5N1 virus and said a surveillance zone in the area was being extended to 2,500 sq km, covering over 3m poultry.

The Irish expert group meeting today will discuss whether additional precautions along these lines should be introduced here.

Around 100 people have died from bird flu since this outbreak began three years ago, but the World Health Organisation has warned of the serious risks of a global pandemic that could kill millions if the bird flu mutates into a form that is easy for humans to catch.

Department of Agriculture Secretary General Tom Moran said they were doing everything they could to prevent and/or contain the spread of the virus here. “We’re in a state of readiness. Risk assessments are now being carried out but it appears the swan was a visitor,” he said.

He added that it did not have an identity tag or “ring” revealing it was indigenous to the area.

“The Department is now working with the UK authorities to put a contingency plan in place,” he said, vowing that measures to stop the spread of the disease here “will be vigorous”.

“We have a contingency plan in place and will apply it,” he added.

However, the Government was criticised for delaying 24 hours to counter the threat by Fine Gael Agriculture spokesman Denis Naughten who demanded urgent action in light of the case in Scotland and suspect cases in Northern Ireland.

“It is also imperative that the public is given clear information on what to look out for and that there is little or no risk to the human population,” he said.

Members of Birdwatch Ireland will be keeping a vigilant watch on wild birds in light of the increased threat which coincides with the migratory season, spokesman Niall Hatch said yesterday.