H Blocks of Long Kesh
A set of 89 photos on Flickr created by >>Slainte.
This set includes photos of Bobby Sands’ hospital cell.
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23/04/2006 - 21:00:21
The first-ever attendance of Democratic Unionist Party members at an Anglo-Irish institution set up under the Good Friday Agreement is very significant, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said today.
The high-powered DUP delegation at the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body (BIIPB) convening tomorrow in Co Kerry will be led by deputy leader Peter Robinson and includes fellow MPs Iris Robinson, Nigel Dodds and Jeffrey Donaldson.
The presentation by the DUP is scheduled to last up to one hour at the Brehon Hotel in Killarney.
Speaking at Fianna Fail’s annual commemoration at Arbour Hill, Dublin of the Easter 1916 Rising, Mr Ahern said: “For many years we wanted to see unionist involvement.”
“The fact that we’re about to see that should be seen as very significant.”
“I welcome the decision of the DUP to engage with their peers and lay out their stall,” said Irish BIIPB co-chairman, Pat Carey TD. “I have no doubt that a lively debate will develop, and I look forward to a robust and constructive exchange of views”.
The twice-yearly BIIPB, which is chaired by former Northern Ireland Secretary of State Paul Murphy, is meeting over two days.
Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern will also address the BIIPB’s 68 members tomorrow afternoon on behalf of the Government.
The BIIPB was established in 1990 as a link between the Irish and British governments.
It originally comprised 25 Irish and 25 British members drawn from the upper and lower houses of both parliaments.
In recent years the membership of the body has been extended, to include representatives from the Welsh Assembly, the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly – when convened – and the Isle of Man and Channel Islands.
Mr Murphy said of the DUP’s attendance: “It is very important. It has shown how barriers have broken down in recent years. I’m delighted that members can listen to their presentation and ask them questions afterwards.”
The Welsh politician said he expects goodwill to be shown towards the unionist party at the BIIPB.
“It will be a very significant day in British-Irish relations and in the way in which the body operates,” he said.
Mr Murphy refused to speculate on whether the DUP would agree to join the BIIPB in the near future.
“When they come and talk to us they will make their minds up,” he said. “It’s a first step.”
The BIIPB meets for the first time in Belfast at the end of the year, which Mr Murphy said would be another landmark development.
**excerpt
Monday 20 April 1981
Three Irish TDs (Teachta Dáil; Members of the Irish Parliament) together with Owen Carron, then Bobby Sands’ election agent, paid a visit to the Maze Prison. Following a meeting with Sands the TDs called for urgent talks with the British government. [Margaret Thatcher, then British Prime Minister, announced on 21 April 1981 that the British government would not meet the TDs.]
Photo from Coiste: A Museum at Long Kesh or the Maze?
Tuesday 21 April 1981
Margaret Thatcher, then British Prime Minister, spoke to a press conference in Saudi Arabia and stated that the British government would not meet with Irish TDs (Teachta Dáil; Members of the Irish Parliament) to discuss the hunger strike. Thatcher went on to say: “We are not prepared to consider special category status for certain groups of people serving sentences for crime. Crime is crime is crime, it is not political.”
Thursday 23 April 1981
Marcella Sands, the sister of Bobby Sands, made an application to the European Commission on Human Rights claiming that the British government had broken three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights in their treatment of Republican prisoners. [Two Commissioners tried to visit Bobby Sands on 25 April 1981 but are unable to do so because Sands requested the presence of representatives of Sinn Féin (SF). On 4 May 1981 the European Commission on Human Rights announced that it had no power to proceed with the Sands’ case.]
Saturday 25 April 1981
Two Commissioners from the European Commission on Human Rights tried to visit Bobby Sands but are unable to do so because Sands requested the presence of representatives of Sinn Féin (SF). Sands had insisted that he would only meet the Commissioners if Brendan McFarlane, who had taken over as leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the Maze Prison, and Gerry Adams, then Vice-President of SF, and Danny Morrison, then editor of An Phoblacht, were also allowed to attend the meeting. [On 4 May 1981 the European Commission on Human Rights announced that it had no power to proceed with the Sands’ case.]
Tuesday 28 April 1981
The private secretary of Pope John Paul II paid a visit to Bobby Sands in the Maze Prison but was unable to persuade him to end his hunger strike. Humphrey Atkins, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, stated that: “If Mr Sands persisted in his wish to commit suicide, that was his choice. The government would not force medical treatment upon him.” In the United States of America (USA) Ronald Reagan, then President of the USA, said that America would not intervene in the situation in Northern Ireland but he was “deeply concerned” at events there.
Wednesday 29 April 1981
The private secretary of Pope John Paul II held talks with Humphrey Atkins, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, before paying another visit to Bobby Sands in the Maze Prison.
Monday 4 May 1981
The European Commission on Human Rights announced that it had no power to proceed with the case brought against the British government by Marcella Sands, the sister of Bobby Sands. [The case had been announced on 23 April 1981.]
Published: 23 April, 2006
Sinn Féin Assembly member for North Belfast Gerry Kelly today spoke at the annual Crossbarry commemoration, remembering the British Army operation of 1921 which set out to eliminate Tom Barry’s famous Third West Cork Flying column. The operation ended with the deaths of 4 IRA Volunteers and 39 enemy troops.
During the course of today’s speech Gerry Kelly recalled meeting with Tom Barry in Cork. He also reflected on the current phase of the Republican struggle and he said that ‘the inescapable question for the DUP at this time is whether they are prepared to join with the rest of us in sharing power’.
Mr Kelly also demanded more action from the Irish government, reminding the audience that the Irish government has ‘a constitutional imperative to work for a United Ireland’.
The Full text of Mr Kelly’s speech follows:
Is onóir mór domhsa bheith anseo inniu, ag labhairt libh san ait stairiúl seo.Agus is fior ait stairiúl é de thairbhe go bhfuil muid cruinnithe anseo ag cuimhniú ar na fir a chuaigh amach, ar an la sin chuin troid ar son na saoirse.
In the small hours of March 19th, 1921, a huge British Army operation involving well over 1000 troops, began. The British set out to eliminate the very active Third West Cork Flying column, which contained a total of 104 IRA volunteers. What the British underestimated, to their cost, was the military prowess of the legendary Commandant General Tom Barry and his officers. They also grossly underestimated the conviction, bravery and determination of Irish men and women fighting for the freedom of their country and their people. It is a miscalculation they paid for dearly at the time and many times since.
By the end of that fateful day 4 volunteers lay dead while 39 British soldiers lost their lives and forty seven were wounded.This is the 85th Anniversary of the Crossbarry ambush. It is also the 90th Anniversary of Easter week 1916, which was one of the greatest historical events of the last century. It started the bush fire of decolonisation, which was to engulf what was then the British Empire. It inspired generations of Irish Republicans and peoples throughout the world who rose up against the tyranny of colonial rule, imperialism and oppression. It is a fire still burning in the heart of every Irish republican.
If 1916 was the catalyst to mass resistance to oppression then Crossbarrry was arguably the catalyst to negotiations between the British and Irish which commenced a few months later in July 1921. The 1918 election which ratified the establishment of Dail Eireann as the sovereign parliament of a 32 County Republic was the democratic will of the Irish people writ large. The British of course tried to suppress that will through terror and brutality. This drove more and more Irish men and women to take up arms throughout the country.
Out of the talks came the partition of Ireland and while it removed the British occupation from the 26 Counties. The oppression in the 6 North Easter Counties continued and intensified resulting in rebellion in every generation culminating in the insurrection triggered off by the pograms of 1969.
I met Tom Barry in Cork in 1972. I was a young volunteer in the IRA in the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast. I didn?t then realise the coincidence with the Ballymurphy townland which was headquarters to the West Cork Brigade.
I think Tom Barry was in his 70?s. There was about a dozen of us down from Belfast as there was a short truce at the time. We were all teenagers and on active service. What I remember most about our conversations was that despite our youth he showed us respect and discussed the struggle in the North on an equal basis. He had his own opinions and advice but he also listened attentively to our views and discussed the issues out. As far as he was concerned it was the continuation of the struggle for Irish freedom to which he and his comrades had dedicated themselves. He was indeed an inspiration. Tom Barry made no distinction between the IRA volunteers of his generation and the volunteers of our generation.
In commemorating and celebrating the bravery of our fallen comrades, I want to pay tribute to the volunteers and leadership of the IRA of today because they have shown outstanding valour and vision on and off the battlefield. They have played a central role in this phase of the struggle and I commend their initiatives, patience, discipline and tenacity.
The now famous battle in West Cork in 1921 epitomises the David and Golaith struggle of the IRA throughout the generations. If courage were the yardstick of success then the British would be long gone from the whole country.
Indeed individual and collective courage have been the mainstay of this long struggle. It was the courage shown by the leadership of the IRA in calling a cessation of military operations in 1994 which was the catalyst for not only the overall peace process but for the ongoing development of the republican strategy which has brought us so far today.
On July 28th, 2005 the Irish Republican Army announced that it had formally ended its armed campaign. This was a courageous and truly historic step to advance the cause of peace and the cause of Irish freedom.
There are turning points in a nation?s history that change the course of that nations people. The 1916 rising was such an event so was the Crossbarrry ambush, as was the Hunger Strike of 1981. Despite the profound difficulties for many Republicans the IRA statement of July 28th, 2005 could be another such event. The IRA has provided a golden opportunity to advance a new era in our long struggle. It is crucial that this opportunity be grasped by Republicans and opponents alike across the island.
In the coming weeks there will be renewed efforts to advance the peace process. Republicans have taken hugely important decisions. It is time for others to respond in like manner. The challenge is there not just for the DUP but for the British and Irish governments also.
The Assembly will be reconvened on May 15th. Sinn Féin will be there with a focus on forming a power sharing government on the basis of the Good Friday Agreement. The inescapable question for the DUP is whether they are prepared to join with the rest of us in sharing power. If they refuse then the 2 governments must deliver on their commitments to jointly implement all other elements of the Good Friday Agreement.
Sinn Féin has become the largest political party in the North. We became the 3rd largest party in Ireland. We are the only all-Ireland party. Republicans have the capability of achieving a united Ireland and we are constantly building the capacity to achieve that goal.
We will only do that by leading with courage and imagination, by taking initiatives and above all by hard work. More and more people in Ireland North and South are looking to us for leadership. It has meant activists changing and adapting their role in our struggle. Perhaps few activists thought they could adapt, but, as they say, ‘the proof is in the pudding’.
It has been the Republican ability to face each new situation, each new obstacle to overcome, in an open and imaginative way, which has proven the versatility and ability of the Republican activist. There is no lack of work in this struggle and make no mistake the work that republicans put into this struggle is the envy of political struggles the world over.
The Good Friday Agreement is about the rights and entitlements of citizens. They are not negotiating chips to be bartered for, or withheld. They are absolute and should be defended. Sinn Féin is not going to stand by and allow Human rights, equality, ending discrimination, the rights of Irish language speakers, the achievement of an acceptable policing service or any other of our rights, to be subject to any unionist veto. These are our rights and we will persist until they are achieved.
Republicans believe in people. We believe in empowering people, in working in partnership with local communities to tackle problems and map out new policies.
One of the most encouraging aspects of this phase of our struggle has been the numbers of young people attracted to our struggle. A new generation of activists are taking their place in the struggle and we must ensure that place is secured. The first people out to defend our areas against physical attack are youth - they should also be in the vanguard of our political project.
Sinn Féin is a republican party. We are the only All-Ireland party. Our goal is to see a United Ireland, which delivers real social and economic change. We are the only party with a strategy and policies for achieving Irish unity and independence. An All Ireland democracy. An Ireland of equals
We will never again accept the status of second-class citizens. Neither will we ever impose second-class citizenship upon anyone else. But unionists too have responsibilities and this includes the need to break with sectarian politics. The politics of domination.
However, in this process we also have to remember that for many unionists the change we have embarked upon is a terrifying prospect. Change is always difficult. When taken in the context of a conflict resolution process, change can be traumatic. And this can be made even more difficult when there are those, both within sections of unionism and within the British political and military establishment who still want to hold on to the old ways. The effect of political policing over the last few years, especially where the institutions were collapsed on a lie, demonstrates the dangers. That is where the most serious threat to the peace process comes from at this time.
Our goal as Irish republicans is an Irish unity that is inclusive, that unionists will feel welcome in, that they are a part of.
There is much work to do. But we believe that we are in the countdown to a united Ireland. We believe that together we can make further progress and truly transform society on this island forever.
Is the British government up for this?
Time will tell.
Is the Irish government up for this?
Let’s test that. The Irish Government has after all a constitutional imperative to work for a United Ireland.
We are commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Hunger Strike, we can mirror the 5 demands of the Hunger strikers with the Irish government.
1. The Irish government should produce a Green paper on Irish unity.
2. The work of the all-Ireland ministerial council should be expanded and additional all-Ireland implementation bodies created.
3. MPs elected in the 6 counties should be accorded speaking rights in the Dail.
4. Voting rights for Presidential elections should be extended to citizens in the six counties.
5. The Irish government should actively engage with the British government and unionism to promote and seek support for reunification.
Is Sinn Féin up for it?
The answer is a word unionist political leaders need to learn. The answer is YES.Sinn Fèin is up for making this work. Our activists and supporters are up for it.
Is the IRA up for it?
Who, except for the most vitriolic and blind anti republican elements could doubt that the IRA is up for it. Republicans have stretched themselves repeatedly to keep the peace process on track.
The people we represent have rights. So does everyone on this island, unionist and others alike. We have been through pre-condition, after pre-condition, after pre-condition.
We are all on the journey. It is always easier to begin a journey. The hard thing is to reach the end.
Sinn Féin is in this process to the end. We want the British government and the Irish government and the unionists to work with us and to finish the work we have all started. The length of the journey can be shortened and the ups and downs on the road can be smoothed out if we go at it collectively. If we do it together.
This also is a day for remembering fallen comrades and all of those who died as a result of conflict. We are here to celebrate their lives and we send out solidarity greetings to their families and friends.
Let’s also remember POW?s still incarcerated. There are still political prisoners in jail. They should be released immediately. There are people on the run. They should be with their families.
Republicans are not chained by history. They learn from it and use it. That is why important initiatives have been taken on so many occasions. While unionists are fixated with slowing down and frustrating change republicans want more change, want to move on from the past. But there will be a need for more discipline and a well of patience by republicans. More courage is called for. Those who have set their minds against change will be more provocative. The bigots and the securocrats dream of wrecking the structures of change. They want to destroy rather than build. Their tools are bigotry, mistrust, political policing and paramilitary attacks. They should be starved of anything that feeds their frenzy.
Republicans have a better vision.
Let me say now what I have said many times when commemorating fallen comrades. I do not claim to speak for the dead. I cannot give you Tom Barry’s view of our strategy or Padraic Pearse’s or Tom Kellehers or Bobby Sands. I can only tell you this: The duty of those who take up the mantle, those who are privileged to lead, is to carry on that struggle for a United Ireland to the best of their ability. To use the best strategy and tactics suitable for 2006. Learn from 1916, 1921, and 1981 but lead in the 21st Century.
I am confident that we will build on our achievements and substantially increase our political strength. We must continue to build on that strength, the stronger we are the closer our goal of a free independent, and united Ireland will come.
We face difficult challenges ahead but also with great opportunities. We s tand on the threshold of great change. Previous generations have struggled for a united Ireland. It is, however, our generation who have the possibility of achieving that goal. So go out and do what you do best.
Bígí cinnte go dtiocfaidh ar lá.
ENDS
23/04/2006 - 13:07:44
A forensic psychologist whose testimony helped free the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four is to give evidence to the Morris Tribunal this week.
Professor Gisli Gudjonsson, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, has been called to give an insight into the tactics used by police to break suspects, forcing them to make false confessions.
Prof Gudjonsson’s expertise has been central to some of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in Ireland and the United Kingdom over the last 20 years.
He is expected to give an insight into the minds of both detectives and suspects during interrogations as officers investigated the death of cattle dealer Richie Barron.
Some 12 Donegal people, many related to the McBrearty family, were arrested and detained in the botched death probe. The killing remains shrouded in mystery but it is accepted Mr Barron died in a hit-and-run.
Tribunal sources suggested Prof Gudjonsson’s evidence will be hugely relevant to all those involved in this module.
A former officer in the Icelandic police force, the professor gave evidence at the appeal courts in London in 1989 and 1991 as the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six fought to have their false convictions for a murderous IRA bombing campaign quashed.
And he also testified in appeals of the UDR Four – British army soldiers jailed for the 1983 murder of Catholic man Adrian Carroll in Armagh city.
Three of the men were released in July 1992 on appeal, but the fourth man Neil Latimer served 14 years in jail before being released under licence in 1998.
He is still battling to have the conviction quashed.
Professor Gudjonsson’s evidence comes in the wake of shocking admissions by two officers, Garda John Dooley and Detective Sergeant John White, that two sisters were subjected to hours of verbal and psychological torture in Letterkenny station.
Katrina Brolly and Roisin McConnell claim they were shown graphic pictures from Mr Barron’s post mortem as lights were flicked on and off, threatened that their children would be taken into care and even asked to pray to the dead.
Det Sgt White has claimed he was acting under orders to break the women.
In all detectives quizzed 12 people over the Barron death including Raphoe publican Frank McBrearty junior, and his father Frank senior.
Others detained were Frank junior’s cousin Mark McConnell, who was arrested twice, his wife Roisin, and her three sisters Katrina Brolly, Edel Quinn and Charlotte Peoples.
But despite pleas for co-operation, Mr McBrearty Jnr has insisted he will not assist the tribunal any further. He claims the terms of reference are too narrow and that hefty legal bills have left him at a disadvantage.
Professor Gudjonsson’s testimony could now prove central to establishing the practices among gardai in Donegal. The tribunal has already uncovered a culture of lying, deceit and determination among officers not to hang their own.
In over 200 publications on police interrogation, the professor has identified a range of important emotional and mental factors, such as compliance, suggestibility and personality disorders that have been ignored through the entire history of criminal justice.
He has identified suspects’ psychological vulnerabilities and their cracking points and pioneered the measurement of suggestibility where police coerce innocent suspects into accepting they committed a crime.
The professor is also considered an expert on the reliability of evidence, false confessions and the attribution of blame.
Over the last 16 years, the professor has been credited with identifying problems in interrogations and suggesting solutions to secure confessions from the guilty but not from the innocent.
He has recommended officers be banned from lying to suspects and has called for the mandatory videotaping of all interviews.
23 April 2006
IT has been revealed the car used by the UVF in the massacre of six Catholics in a Loughinisland bar in 1994 was supplied by a security force agent.
The shock revelation emerged during a probe by the Police Ombudsman into UVF Special Branch agents, sparked by the 1997 murder of Raymond McCord jnr.
Nuala O’Loan’s office is already carrying out a separate probe into claims of collusion in the Heights Bar massacre and the competence of the murder investigation.
Down SDLP councillor Eamonn O’Neill said: “This information confirms one of the grave suspicions we have had about what happened in this atrocity.”
Mrs O’Loan’s report is expected to claim the police informant - codenamed ‘The Mechanic’ and now living outside Ulster - supplied the Triumph Acclaim used by the east Belfast-based UVF gang.
They shot dead the six men as they watched Ireland playing Italy in the World Cup on TV.
The move to re-examine the case was prompted after Mr O’Neill delivered a dossier to Mrs O’Loan on behalf of relatives of the six men on the 10th anniversary of the atrocity.
Mr O’Neill added: “I have been assured that the police investigation into the murder is continuing and the Police Ombudsman’s report is pending.”
Mrs O’Loan’s office is understood to be investigating concerns that the RUC did not follow up a letter purportedly written by someone who was a witness to the planning of the massacre.
There is also hope that a match can be made with DNA samples taken from tests on the rifles and balaclavas used. They were found buried near Saintfield.
Loughinisland has become known locally as the “forgotten” tragedy of the Troubles, because no one has ever been charged.
The victims included the oldest person to die in the Troubles, Barney Green (87). His 59-year-old nephew, Dan McCreanor, died beside him.
The youngest to die was Adrian Rogan (34). Brothers-in-law Eamon Byrne and Patsy O’Hare, and Malcolm Jenkinson, were the other victims.
NI politicians cannot continue to cite fears over IRA terrorism as a reason for not joining a power-sharing government, Peter Hain has said.
The secretary of state was speaking ahead of a report by the commission set up to monitor paramilitary activity.
The assembly is also to be recalled on 15 May with a 24 November deadline for electing a new executive.
Mr Hain said that Northern Ireland was “light years away” from where it had been.
Speaking on GMTV’s Sunday Programme, Mr Hain said republicans were increasingly heading towards engagement in democratic politics.
He said the IRA was “cracking down” on criminal activity, although there were still problems with some dissidents as well as loyalist paramilitaries.
“But the overall picture is of a Northern Ireland light years away from where it was,” he said.
“I don’t think that any politician in Northern Ireland can use the excuse for much longer that the IRA poses a terrorist threat or that it’s organised some central criminal conspiracy as a reason not to join in a power-sharing government over the coming period.”
Asked whether November would herald a new era of power-sharing, Mr Hain said it was for the politicians to decide.
“They have to ask themselves a question: what is the future of democratic politics in Northern Ireland if they will not exercise the responsibilities for which they were elected?” he asked.
“It’s up to them - we can’t continue as we are and we won’t.”
The deadline would not be extended, Mr Hain added, and the DUP had a “historic destiny” to take their place.
On Thursday, the government published emergency legislation to enable the Northern Ireland Assembly to be recalled on 15 May.
It imposes an “immovable deadline” of 24 November in place for forming a power-sharing executive.
The government also confirmed the next assembly elections would be postponed until May 2008 if the executive is restored by this date.
The legislation is expected to become law by 8 May.
Devolved government at Stormont was suspended in October 2002 following allegations of a republican spy ring.
Three men accused of being implicated in it were later acquitted.
by Gerry Adams
** From Thursday, January 12, 2006
It was around this time in early January 1981 that Bobby Sands sent word to me that it was his intention to go on hunger strike. This was at least the second time he had expressed this intention. The first time was immediately after the first hunger strike ended in 1980. That was just before Christmas. At that time Bobby made it clear that he did not believe that the British Government would honour the commitments it had made in a paper presented to the political prisoners. However, after strenuous lobbying from taobh amuigh (outside), he agreed that the prisoners would do everything they could to avoid such a course of action. This meant that they would work with the prison administration to tease out all the outstanding matters which caused the five-year-old prison protests in the H Blocks of Long Kesh and the Women’s Prison in Armagh.
Many Irish people of my age, especially those of us who were close to the prisoners or active in support of their demands, probably presume that everyone knows about the hunger strikes of 1981. We tend to ignore the fact that these events happened 25 years ago. So anyone nowadays aged 35 or younger would have only a vague recollection of that time and the awful summer of 1981 when ten men died on hunger strike inside a British prison outside Belfast, while almost 50 other people, including uninvolved civilians, prison officers, republicans and members of the British Crown forces died outside the prison. Among those who died were seven killed by plastic bullets, three of whom were children and one a 30-year-old mother. Hundreds more were seriously injured.
So what do people think about the hunger strikes and the hunger strikers? I have tried to analyse my own feelings many times. Even now, a quarter of a century later, my emotions are still raw. Why is this so? I know many people who died violently in the conflict. Some were close friends.
Most of them were young people. Their deaths were sudden and shocking. Three were relatives. Yet even though I still miss some of them deeply I never feel the same emotion about these deaths as I feel when I think about the men who died in the Blocks.
Perhaps this is because of the bond which grew between us on taobh amuigh and the people on the inside. Maybe it is because of the huge generosity, self-sacrifice and unselfishness of the hunger strikers. Maybe it’s because all the other deaths were sudden, usually abrupt and part of a cycle of killings. The hunger strikes were public. In censored times, the prisoners cut through all the spin and disinformation. They put it up to us. Whether we supported the prisoners or not, we became part of the equation. We were forced to take sides with either Thatcher or the prisoners.
The hunger strike deaths polarised Irish society. It was also an indictment of our society and our political representatives, particularly the Irish government of that time, that almost 500 hundred prisoners were held in conditions described by the late Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich after a visit in August 1978 as “the nearest approach to it that I have ever seen was the spectacle of hundreds of homeless people living in the sewer pipes of the slums of Calcutta. The stench and the filth in some of the cells with the remains of rotten food and human excreta scattered around the walls was almost unbearable. The authorities refused to admit that these prisoners are in a different category from the ordinary, yet everything about their trials and family background indicates that they are different.”
It is a measure of the maturity of the political prisoners that this happened after the conditions described by Cardinal Ó Fiaich had been endured for five years. These developments were created when the British Government, supported by Dublin, brought in legislation as part of its efforts to criminalise republicans. The securocrats’ logic was simple. A struggle could not be depicted as mere wanton criminality, if there were political prisoners (as there were at that time, and I was one of them) who were afforded a special status. So the Mother of all Parliaments decreed that this status would end on 1 March I976. From that point, conflict with the prisoners was inevitable. It became a reality when the first republican prisoner to be sentenced after this date, Kieran Nugent, refused to wear the prison uniform. The rest, as they say, is history.
The first hunger strike, involving women in Armagh prison and men in the H Blocks, started in October 1980. It ended just before Christmas. There existed the basis for a settlement and there was a huge effort by the protesting prisoners to make this a reality. But Bobby was right. Elements within the British system saw the ending of the first hunger strike as a sign of weakness. They saw the prison as a breaker’s yard for the republican struggle. Like others today, they had no interest in a settlement.
The second hunger strike started on 1 March 1981. Bobby Sands, then an MP, died on 5 May after 66 days without food. He was followed by Francie Hughes, 59 days; Patsy O Hara, 61 days; Raymond McCreesh, 61 days; Joe McDonnell, 61 days; Martin Hurson, 46 days; Kevin Lynch, 71 days; Kieran Doherty, then a TD, 73 days; Tom McElwee, 62 days; and Michael Devine, 60 days.
After the strike ended, the British Government moved to bring about the prisoners’ five demands. The prisoners won, but at a terrible price. Meanwhile, British Government policy, devised by securocrats, had failed.
The hunger strikes were a watershed in modern Irish history. They are credited with accelerating the growth of Sinn Féin. They did much more than that. They helped to create the conditions which later gave birth to the peace process. For that reason, if for no other, at the beginning of another new year and yet another effort to advance the peace process, the events of that time should be studied and discussed by anyone interested in learning lessons of our past. But for the privileged few who knew the hunger strikers, for former Blanket men or Armagh women, for their families and for all of us who worked for the political prisoners, this 25th anniversary of the deaths of the H Block hunger strikers will be a personal as well as a political remembrance.
**Via Newshound
by Scott Millar and Vincent Browne
Thursday, April 13, 2006
On 2 April the Sunday Independent led with the headline “Exposed: SF’s secret plan to stir up unrest”. The article was written by Jim Cusack, who writes for the newspaper on security issues. According to an exchange with Jim Cusack on Monday 10 April (this was after a commentary in last week’s Village on that Sunday Independent article) he stated the article was based on an internal Sinn Féin document, the annual report of the Six County Executive of the party. However, nothing in the document suggested any intention to “stir up unrest”. We asked Jim Cusack how the document substantiated his claim that there was a Sinn Féin plan to “stir up” unrest. He refused to answer our question.
He followed that 2 April story up with another front page piece on 9 April under the headline: “Provos hired hitman to kill Donaldson”. The headline (for which we presume Jim Cusack was not responsible) left casual readers to infer that the murder of Donal Donaldson, the self-confessed republican “spy”, was authorised by the IRA leadership in clear breach of its commitment to engage henceforth in purely political and democratic activities.
In fact the article was based solely on anonymous Garda sources (or source?) and, far from suggesting that the IRA leadership had been responsible for the murder, the suggestion was that it was dissidents within the organisation, acting in defiance of the leadership.
The article was replete with claims based unvaryingly on anonymous sources and amounting to no more than speculation.
Well into the article in the turn over on to page two, there was the following: “The Donaldson murder could have serious consequences for the IRA leadership’s plans, which the Sunday Independent has learned, propose to turn the IRA into a quasi-political force on Catholic areas in the North and even in the Republic”.
He offers not a single piece of evidence or substantiation for this extraordinary claim. However he goes on to write: “Sinn Féin has drawn up a blueprint, seen by this paper. For what is termed ‘community safety partnerships’.” The article goes on to claim: “Sinn Féin’s community service partnerships are being set up to try to ensure that Catholics in the North do not co-operate with the legitimate police groups. They are likely to set up similar operations in the Republic, initially in Co Donegal, as a prelude to trying to spread this ‘alternative’ policing. Sinn Féin does not recognise the Garda Síochána or the Defence Forces”.
The community services partnerships are being sponsored by the Northern Ireland Office (website: www.communitysafetyni.gov.uk). Sinn Féin’s engagement with them is seen as a prelude to the party’s acceptance of the PSNI and to taking its place on the police authority. Sinn Féin has openly recognised An Garda Síochána and has cooperated with it openly in the South.
The document from which Jim Cusack quotes is an annual report of the Six County Executive of Sinn Féin and is the document which he showed to us at Village. Nothing in the document suggests any subversive intent of any sort. It deals solely with positions Sinn Féin might take on a variety of issues and on positions the party representatives on various public bodies.
Jim Cusack goes on to quote from the document (and this conveys its overall flavour): “A clear policy on tackling crime and community safety issues needs to be developed and articulated by our spokespersons, for example, community restorative justice, befriending services for the elderly, youth outreach, road safety awareness and traffic calming initiatives and community-based prevention/intervention programmes in drug, alcohol and solvent abuse.”
He follows this up with a final paragraph: “Gardaí believe that Sinn Féin is intent on extending its ‘community’ policing ideas to the Republic.” Again he offers no substantial for this claim, other than the reference to the anonymous Garda source.
On 26 February the paper confidently stated in its front page article: “Hardcore republicans spent weeks orchestrating yesterday’s Dublin riots which saw 14 Gardaí and civilians – including RTÉ’s Charlie Bird – injured… Hundreds of highly organised republican demonstrators – including members of Sinn Féin and dissident groupings – descended on the capital.” No evidence emerged then or since to suggest Sinn Féin members played any part in those riots.
On the same front page, Jim Cusack condemned Garda management for not heeding a warning of trouble. The warning, he claimed, was an article in the Republican Sinn Féin weekly Soirse which had called on readers to “Oppose the Loyalist March”.
On 29 January, Jim Cusack was already heralding Republican attempts at community policing as a major threat to the security of the state. To such an extend that these ‘plans’ were legitimate cover for Michael McDowell’s Garda reserve. His front page story stated: “Fears of IRA plans to set up ‘community’ policing groups in the Republic are believed to be behind the Government’s decision to push ahead with the controversial Garda voluntary reserve force”. Once more anonymous Government and Garda sources were cited, along with an anonymous GRA source.
On 18 December “Garda sources” disclosed to the Sunday Independent that “A prominent Sinn Féin figure in the Republic, and two other members of Gerry Adams’s inner circle, are being described as the second, third and fourth moles at the top of the IRA who passed key intelligence to the Garda and the police in the North”. This “exclusive” followed the outing of Denis Donaldson – none of the other “spies” have yet emerged.
On 21 August another Cusack front-page stated “Tony Blair has refused to deny claims that Phil Flynn, a close associate of the Taoiseach, has visited No 10 Downing Street”. Phil Flynn has denied ever visiting Downing Street.
On 14 March 2004, following the al Qaida attacks in Madrid, Cusack wrote an article stating: “The Real IRA – the group responsible for the Omagh atrocity – is believed to have passed on information about mobile phone-controlled bombs identical to those that exploded in Madrid’s train system on Thursday”. This was not only to ETA, a group which it latter transpired had no links to that atrocity, but “dissident republicans are also blamed for passing the technology on to Middle Eastern groups who have been using the same devices to attack American soldiers and police in Iraq”.
Again, more of “it is believed”, “it is understood”, no identified sources. p
(We emailed Jim Cusack with this article prior to publication to permit him to make a response.)
(Sharon O’Neill, Irish News)
The thwarting of a dissident republican bomb plot in Co Armagh highlighted the “importance of having good intelligence,” the body which represents rank and file police officers said.
Special Branch – now known as C3, which is attached to the PSNI’s Crime Operations branch – is highly likely to have been involved in the massive security operation in Lurgan on Wednesday.
Components for a 250lb car bomb – linked to the Continuity IRA – were recovered and four people, including a prominent businessman from the area, were arrested.
Over the years Special Branch has been embroiled in controversy.
Famously dubbed ‘a force-within-a force’ officers have been accused of colluding in murder and failing to pass on vital intelligence to their CID colleagues.
The 1999 Patten police reforms recommended that Special Branch be fully merged with CID.
The Crime Operations department, under which C3 now operates, was also set up as part of the Patten changes.
When stepping down as vice-chairman of the Policing Board, Denis Bradley reaffirmed his belief that the force-within-a-force image had now been dismantled.
However, the the past activities of Special Branch continue to come under scrutiny.
A number of recent cases has also kept it in the spotlight, including the roles of agent, former Sinn Féin official Denis Donaldson, who was shot dead earlier this month, and alleged informer, suspected IRA murder victim Gareth O’Connor, whose body was pulled from a Co Down canal in June last year.
However, the Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said Wednesday’s seizure showed the importance of the role of the PSNI’s intelligence unit.
A spokesman said: “It illustrated the importance of having good intelligence capabilities if these attacks are to be thwarted. It [hte bomb] underlines the fact there remains a threat to people.”
April 22, 2006
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This article appeared first in the April 21, 2006 edition of the Irish News.
(William Graham, Irish News)
SDLP leader Mark Durkan has claimed the expansion of MI5’s role will diminish those of the PSNI and Police Ombudsman
MI5’s expanded role in Northern Ireland is “a dangerous move” which will diminish the roles of the police service, the Police Ombudsman and Policing Board, the SDLP has claimed.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan, speaking during the committee stage of the Miscellaneous Provisions Bill at Westminster, said that ‘the securocrats’ are relocating.
Mr Durkan said intelligence gathering structures inside the PSNI were being replaced.
“By expanding the role of MI5, which will go beyond the reach of the minister for justice, the Police Ombudsman, the Policing Board or any of us… unless the government rethinks its dangerous plans in this area.”
Mr Durkan pointed to the example of Omagh and the confirmation last month that MI5 did not pass on a warning they received about the bomb which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
“In fact they only bothered to pass the warning about this bomb to the PSNI Omagh investigation this year. Seven years after the bombing,” he said “Will the head of M15 even meet with the Omagh families to discuss their concerns? No. She has refused.
“So much for accountability. So much for sharing of intelligence. So much for the protection of the public against terrorism,” Mr Durkan said.
April 22, 2006
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This article appeared first in the April 21, 2006 edition of the Irish News.
Liam Clarke
April 23, 2006
THE latest report of the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) on Wednesday is not expected to upset this week’s round of negotiations, according to Irish government sources. The report will not give the IRA a completely clean bill of health, but will state that steady progress is being made.
It will confirm that the IRA is no longer recruiting or preparing for a return to violence. It is understood that the IRA is continuing to gather intelligence on political and economic matters and does not pose a threat to the security forces. The organisation has also scaled back some of its criminal enterprises.
The 10th report from the IMC will cover from the beginning of September 2005 to the end of February 2006, and so will make no reference to the murder of Denis Donaldson, the former senior Sinn Fein official and British agent who was gunned down at his holiday home in Donegal earlier this month. Investigations into Donaldson’s death continue.
Neither will the report cover a recent robbery involving a truck hijacking. One of the three men later charged was a republican.
Both incidents will be covered in the next IMC report, at the end of October. The IMC’s conclusions, particularly on the death of Donaldson, will be crucial in determining the re-establishment of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive by the November 24 deadline.
The IMC exists to monitor paramilitary activity and security normalisation. Previous reports have covered security force normalisation measures.
The IMC has been criticised by Sinn Fein and the Progressive Unionists, the political wing of the Ulster Volunteer Force, but it is seen as credible by mainstream unionists, the SDLP and the Alliance party.
If the Northern Ireland executive gets up and running, the IMC may be given the enhanced role of monitoring compliance of parties to the commitments they have made to operate the political structures and pursue peaceful means.
Dick Kerr, a former CIA official who is one of the IMC’s four members, hinted at this earlier this month. He said that two of the commissioners, Lord Alderdice and John Grieve (a former deputy assistant commissioner in London’s Metropolitan police), would have a role in the assembly. Kerr said, of the assembly and the commission, “it seems they will impact on each other. Two of our four commissioners have roles as ombudsmen, if you will, to follow up accusations against other parties.”
Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday April 23, 2006
The Observer
Northern Ireland ’s Policing Board is to investigate the alleged involvement of English off-duty police officers in an air rage incident that occurred just before Easter.
Police sources in Northern Ireland confirmed last night that a number of the 10 men who were taken off an Easyjet flight from Belfast to Newcastle-upon-Tyne were officers from north-east England. They were accused of causing a violent disturbance during the flight across the Irish Sea on 13 April.
It took place on flight EZY554, which had been due to arrive in Newcastle at around 5.15pm with 139 passengers on board. An Easyjet spokesman said that due to ‘an incident’ the plane was forced to turn around and land at Belfast International Airport.
An official at the airport confirmed that 10 men were not allowed to re-board the Easyjet aircraft, which took off again after a delay that lasted 90 minutes. The Easyjet spokesman added that ‘the nature of this incident will be investigated by police’.
So far none of the men has been arrested or charged with any offence.
Alex Attwood, the SDLP’s justice spokesman, said that he would be raising questions at the Policing Board as to why none of those involved was taken into custody or charged with air rage offences. ‘I will be asking the Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, at next month’s Policing Board meeting about this incident,’ he said.
‘I want to raise this matter because the public have to be confident that there is not one law for them and another for members of police forces, regardless of where they are or where they come from.
‘If that is the situation, then the law itself has been brought into disrepute,’ Attwood added.
A spokesman for Northumbria Police pointed out that none of their officers was arrested at Belfast International. He added: ‘There was nothing on the computerised log to suggest any officers on board and no information passed to our Professional Standards department.’
A spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said that they could not comment on the matter.
22/04/2006 - 20:06:56
Police in the North tonight charged a second man in connection with a bomb parts find in Lurgan, County Armagh, earlier this week.
The 27-year-old man will appear before magistrates in Craigavon on Monday on charges of possessing explosives with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to cause explosion.
Earlier 22-year-old Daire McKenna, from Lurgan Tarry in Lurgan, appeared at Craigavon Magistrates Court.
The court was told he made no reply when charged with possessing explosives with intent to endanger life.
Magistrates were told that police on Wednesday discovered an ammonium nitrate-based fertiliser and sugar mix which could have been used in a bomb attack.
It was believed the mix was a component for a 250lb car bomb.
Amid tight security in the courtroom, Mr McKenna, who was flanked by police officers in riot gear, was remanded in custody to appear in court next week.
A third man was released tonight, pending reports to the Public Prosecution Service.
A fourth man was also released last night.
Mr McKenna’s solicitor, Paula Collins, today also told Resident Magistrate Mandy Henderson in Craigavon that they were considering lodging a bail application for her client.
Lawyers acting for the men are also taking a judicial review in the High Court over the police’s failure to guarantee that conference rooms in Antrim Police Station, where all four men were questioned, were not bugged.
That hearing is expected to take place in the High Court in Belfast on Monday.
Victims of IRA violence have launched a multi-billion pound law suit against Libya in the American courts.
They claim Colonel Gaddafi’s Libyan regime helped the IRA by supplying them with money, Semtex and other weapons.
The lawyer behind the action, Jason McCue, explained the reason for the action in Washington DC.
“What we’re trying to achieve is to get some justice for these 170 people who have not received any over the last 20 or 30 years,” Mr McCue said.
“The idea of state sponsors of terrorism - the way you deter them from doing it is to hit them in the pocket.”
The litigants include Colin Parry whose son died in the 1993 Warrington bomb.
Earlier this month, Mr McCue said the case would take into account 10 IRA attacks, including the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bombing in 1987, which killed 11.
The Harrods bomb of 1983 which claimed the lives of six people and the Manchester bomb of 1996, in which no-one died, also form part of the case.
Mr McCue said the lawsuits were based on any attack where Semtex allegedly supplied by Libya was used for a bomb or to boost a fertiliser bomb.
He said UK victims of the IRA were able to take action in a US court if they joined a legal action being brought by US citizens.
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