SAOIRSE32

Daily Ireland

One man released on bail after two arrested in relation to Co Derry incidents

by Mick Hall
01/05/2006

Nationalist politicians have condemned an attack on Catholic homes and a Catholic-owned hotel in Co Derry.
The two homes and the hotel on Garvagh town’s main street were attacked at around 10.30pm on Friday night.
Sinn Féin Coleraine councillor Billy Leonard said the attacks were “most definitely sectarian and utterly despicable”.
It is understood that a wedding party leaving the hotel on Friday was subjected to sectarian taunts and attacks and that two nearby homes then had their windows broken.
A car was also damaged during the attacks. The hotel owner claimed his life had been threatened.
The PSNI said two men had been arrested in connection with the incidents. One man was later released on bail.
Mr Leonard said: “We know that this is the work of pathetic sectarian people who are a minority of the mainly unionist community in Garvagh town. However, when Sinn Féin has previously highlighted attacks in the town, we have been criticised in the usual way by the usual suspects who want to deny the reality that these people operate in their midst.
“What happened on Friday night was most definitely pure sectarian hatred, whereby thugs play out their mindless games denigrating and physically attacking those who are the good people in this scenario.
“The sectarian attackers have put pressure on the home and hotel owners but they will continue to live and work as they have done and they will also continue making a contribution to the community, something their attackers seem incapable of doing,” he said.
Mr Leonard said his party was calling on unionist representatives to work against those involved in making the name of the village a byword for sectarianism.
Referring to the first loyalist march of the year held on the same night in neighbouring Coleraine, Mr Leonard said: “I am not making a direct connection but it must be said that some people in Garvagh have said that, if the tension of marches is to be played out like this, then it does not bode well for the summer marching season.
“I obviously hope this is not the case and that all people connected with marches will do their utmost this year to lessen tension.”
East Derry SDLP assembly member John Dallat also condemned the attacks.
He said those responsible had nothing positive to offer the community of Garvagh.

Indymedia.ie

1981 Hunger Striker Talks About Sinn Fein of 2006

Posted by ok
Tuesday May 02, 2006 16:21

Brendan McLaughlin sits jack-knifed in his wheelchair, a knot of gathered anger, and snaps the filter off another cigarette. He hasn’t been able to taste tobacco, or much else, since the stroke he suffered seven years ago, so breaks the tips off before smoking them . . . 40 a day . . . right down to his kippercoloured fingers.

Old photo of Brendan McLaughlin from >>Larkspirit

Photographs and republican paraphernalia wainscot the walls of his council bungalow . . . photographs of volunteer graves, pictures of famous IRA men, a bodhran made in Portlaoise jail. But it’s a pencil sketch of the 10 men who carried their protest right to the end that draws his eye.
“You see them boys up there?” he says. “They died for nothing.”
He’s angry about a lot of things . . .
Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness (”scum bastards”), the peace process (”a sell-out”) and the Brits (”no business being here . . . never had, never will”).
“They’re all getting ready to sit in Stormont, ” he says, “when there’s still a war to fight.”
Paralysed down one side, he’s no longer capable of prosecuting that war, but it goes on in the theatre of his head.
“I haven’t changed, ” he says. To him, it’s a badge of honour. “See the rest of them . . . all them other boys you’re talking to . . . they have changed.
They’re supporting what’s going on.
McGuinness and Adams . . . accepting the 26 counties! Accepting the six!
They’re sitting in Dail Eireann. Now they’re sitting up in Stormont.
“The next thing they’re going to do is go on the police board and you know what that means. They’re following the same lines as Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera. It’s Irish history repeating itself, that’s what it is. What did Michael Collins do? He turned the gun on his own men in Dublin. De Valera . . . what did he do? He got into power and done the same thing in the ’40s. IRA men killed. The same thing will happen when they go on this police board. You can take it from me.”
His two teenage boys come in and out at regular intervals. He’s separated from their mother, who lives just a few doors away.
“We still get on okay. I’m easy-going.
I try not to get down, ” he says, anxious not to sound like an ornery old man trapped not only in a wheelchair but in a perpetual past.
To him, the Troubles were part of a long continuum that started eight centuries ago and will only end once the last British soldier has left and Ireland is unified. Ten or 15 years ago just about every republican he knew believed this. Now, all he sees is compromise and fudge. “Money, big jobs, big houses . . . that’s all it’s about, ” he says.
In 1981, he was 29 and well into a 12year sentence for possession of a pistol when he was chosen to replace Francis Hughes, the second man to die, on the hunger strike. But less than a week into his fast he was rushed to hospital suffering from a perforated ulcer and internal bleeding.
The aim of the hunger strike was to crank up the moral pressure on the British government by way of a series of drawn-out, highly publicised deaths. A sick hunger striker was a liability. The doctors said that a combination of gangrene, blood loss and oxygen starvation to the brain would have killed McLaughlin within 48 agonising hours. The IRA took him off the protest.
“I’d have gone the whole way, ” he says. “I’d have done it. They [the prison authorities] were putting the food in the cell every day, hoping I’d have a nibble. I was too f**king hard for that. I’d no fear of death. I’ve been around too many corners in my time.”
Would he have gone on hunger strike had he foreseen where the republican movement would be 25 years on? “Probably not, no. It’s sad that 10 men died. And for what? See, I knew the best of them boys. Joe McDonnell was in the cell next to me. I knew Bobby Sands as well. I think they’d turn in their graves, them 10 there, with the way things are now.”
His voice rises an octave. “Hit them in England, that’s what I say. Forget about this country. I said that over 30 years ago. Hit them in their own country, where it hurts.”
Some of his old comrades, who ask about him and still think fondly of him, say that it’s being largely housebound and cut off from the mainstream of republican thinking, that has him still thinking about the conflict in abstract terms.
“No, it’s just that they’ve changed and I haven’t, ” he adds, flashing a proud smile, then twists a cigarette in the bottom of the ashtray and lights another.

Daily Ireland

Daily Ireland examines a fascinating journey into the hearts, minds, deep comradeship and everyday life of those who endured the torturous years of 1976-81 in the H-block cells

02/05/2006

Not just a new generation of educated, confident, young nationalists will be delighted by the reprint of Nor Meekly Serve My Time: The H-Block Struggle 1976-1981, but also an older generation who bought it when first published in 1994 but then lent it out to other avid readers never to have it returned.

Nor Meekly Serve My Time surely stands as one of the most powerful books to have come out of the conflict. Powerful, because it was written by those who experienced the blanket protest, no-wash protests and finally the hunger strikes during the years 1976-1981. Ingenious, because the book was written in the prison by the prisoners who were still in Long Kesh ten years after the hunger strike then smuggled out to the outside world, as a gift to us. Fascinating, as it batters your emotions – laughing loudly at one page to sobbing openly at the next, the book takes us into the H-block cells and into the hearts, minds, and everyday life of those who endured those torturous years.

The most amazing aspect of the book, however, is the sense of warmth you get from it, the dignity of those who wrote their accounts, and the feeling of deepest comradeship that shines through. The prisoners in the H-blocks and Armagh Jail smashed the attempts to criminalise them – at a terrible cost – but they also achieved much more than that. They overcame the attempts to dehumanise them.

In Nor Meekly Serve My Time you don’t hear bitter or angry voices but very personal, intimate, almost bashful accounts of people who while still in their teenage years were placed on the frontline of battle. British military strategists had thought them the weakest link, the ideal front upon which to launch an attack upon the revolutionary republican forces. How could they ever have known that what they were going up against was something more powerful than prisons, tanks, and guns. They were challenging the will of a people to be free.

Laurence McKeown, one of the editors of Nor Meekly Serve My Time, and a weekly columnist with Daily Ireland, spoke of his experiences writing the book:

“The book was part of a creative process within the prison whereby we were telling our own history, not allowing others to interpret it for us. I think it was unique in that sense.There are very few other liberation struggles where those engaged in it are also recording their thoughts and feelings at the time and then making those available to the public. In fact when the book was eventually released there were some republicans who were a little uneasy that maybe too much was revealed. But I think that our struggle can only be made stronger by showing how it is real people who are involved in it. Real people with all the fears, anxieties, weaknesses, strengths, hopes and failings that only real people can have.

As we wrote at the end of the book, there was no blueprint for what happened in the prison and it would be all too easy in hindsight to tell the history of the struggle there as one built on careful analysis on our part. It wasn’t. We were all fairly naive when we first were put in prison. Our response to the policy of criminalisation was more instinctive than analytical, but that’s what real people around the world do when first engaging in struggle. The analysis and political maturity come later, developed as a result of struggle and it was as an outcome of that process that we believed we should get our message out to a wider world.

If we were going to make history by our actions then we should write that history using our own words.”

Speaking for the publishers, Beyond the Pale Publications, Bill de Laval said: “It is hard to believe that 12 years have passed since the first edition of Nor Meekly Serve My Time.The book is an outstanding read but has been out of print for a number of years.We are delighted to have produced this special 25th anniversary edition with new cover and introductions, including a foreword dedicated to Brian Campbell, the original book’s compiler who died aged 45 last October.”

The book is available from bookshops (including Sinn Féin bookshops in Dublin and Belfast), Coiste na nIarchimí, on-line from the publishers (www.btpale.com), and at hunger strike 25th anniversary commemorative events.

eupolitix.com

A US congressman has sharply criticised the German government for not taking enough measures to tackle prostitution during this summer’s World Cup.

Over one million mostly male soccer fans are expected to gather in Germany for the soccer tournament, fuelling fears of an increase in sex trafficking.

As many as 40,000 additional women are expected to be enlisted in the ranks of the 400,000 women in Germany’s legalised sex industry.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Christopher Smith, a republican and chairman of the US Congress global human rights sub-committee, said it was a “disgrace”.

“Germans are rushing to accommodate the trade in women by facilitating the construction of mega-brothels and ‘sex huts’ and cities hosting the games will issue special permits for street prostitution, creating a virtual partnership with brothel owners, pimps and traffickers,” he stated.

Smith urged Germany to change its course and if Berlin fails to do so, he warned that Congress may list Germany as a violator in Capitol Hill’s annual human rights report.

Supporting Smith are some 40 national and international groups, including Evangelicals for Social Action, Russia’s Angel Coalition and the Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition.

The EU has also seen a need for action and is set to introduce tougher border surveillance to prevent the mass trafficking of women into Germany, especially prostitutes drafted in from eastern Europe.

European justice commissioner Franco Frattini told reporters last week he was confident that the German government is preparing “quite well against this terrible threat”

German leader Angela Merkel is due in Washington on Wednesday for her second official visit since becoming her country’s leader.

BN.ie

02/05/2006 - 14:34:51

A nightclub doorman stabbed in a frenzied attack fears he will be killed if he returns to the North to testify against a Belfast loyalist accused of trying to murder him, a court heard today.

Crown lawyers urged a judge to let Trevor Gowdy give his evidence through a live television link from an undisclosed location in England.

But legal representatives for Mark Haddock (aged 37), the man charged with the ferocious assault, resisted the application at Belfast Crown Court.

They claimed it was an unprecedented move as the victim has already given partial evdence.

Warning that they may ask for the trial to be halted if the prosecution’s move was successful, the defence insisted that the post traumatic stress disorder suffered by Mr Gowdy since the attack was so severe that his evidence would have little worthwhile quality.

Mr Gowdy was found unconscious in the Monkstown Estate, Newtownabbey, in December 2002.

The victim, from Ballyclare, Co Antrim, had been repeatedly stabbed and struck with a hatchet and baton.

Police found him lying on the ground. His car had been set on fire.

Haddock, of Mount Vernon Park, north Belfast, has been charged with arson, assault and unlawful imprisonment as well as the attempted murder.

In court today Charles Adair QC, prosecuting, revealed details from a psychiatric report into the condition of Mr Gowdy, who is now living in England under a witness protection scheme.

Reading from the medical assessment prepared by a Dr Turner, Mr Adair said: “I think he fears if he returns to Northern Ireland he will be murdered.

“If he has to return to Northern Ireland to give evidence in this case my opinion is he will experience intense fear and distress.”

The trial judge, Mr Justice Weatherup, retired to consider his ruling on the application.

Times Online

Via Newshound

By David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent
The Times
May 02, 2006

WOULD Bobby Sands have seen the hunger strike that ended in his death 25 years ago this week as a price worth paying for his IRA comrades to share power with the Rev Ian Paisley under the British Crown? With renewed interest in Sands and his nine prison comrades who also starved themselves to death in pursuit of “special category status” over eight violent months in 1981, there are new revelations about how the IRA manipulated the men, prolonging the fast to serve its political ambitions.

The anniversary of his death on Friday — Sands was the first of the hunger-strikers to die — should have been a moment to reunite the “republican family”. But the decision by his relatives to hold a private event in the hospital block of the Maze prison, where he died after 66 days during which he was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, has presented a public challenge to the Sinn Fein leadership.

The family have refused requests for interviews but their views on the Adams-McGuinness leadership and the peace process are well known. Bernadette Sands-McKevitt, Sands’ sister, is a leading light in the 32-County Sovereignty Committee and married to Michael McKevitt, the Real IRA leader who split from the Provisional IRA in 1997. In the past she has made clear that the family are opposed to the Sinn Fein leadership and that her brother would never have sacrificed himself for the political solutions embodied by the Good Friday agreement: recognition of Ireland’s partition until a majority of Northern Ireland’s citizens decide otherwise.

Revelations of secret negotiations between the republican leadership and the Government, combined with the unmasking of British agents, have added to an embittered atmosphere. It now seems that the republican leadership was prepared to settle for much less than British withdrawal far sooner than it did.

If that was the case, many are beginning to ask, why did so many die? A TV documentary about the hunger strikes being broadcast tonight by Ireland’s state broadcaster, RTE, will support the theory that, contrary to Sinn Fein orthodoxy, the obstacle to ending the hunger strikes in 1981 was not Margaret Thatcher’s intransigence. The documentary claims that the IRA was offered a deal by Mrs Thatcher that would have saved the lives of at least six of the hunger-strikers.

Denis Bradley, the former priest who was an intermediary between the IRA and the Government and until recently was vice-chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, confirms that the deal on offer was virtually the same as that finally accepted. This included the right of prisoners to wear their own clothes and the waiving of obligations to do typical prison work: in other words, a category that delineated IRA inmates from common criminals.

Mr Bradley tells RTE: “The memory, and there is some dispute about this, is that there was a phone call direct to Maggie Thatcher as she was on her way to a conference in Portugal. What she was offering that night was basically what the hunger-strikers settled for.”

His comments support the version offered by Richard O’Rawe, a former senior IRA inmate who claims that he and Brendan MacFarlane, the “officer commanding” during the hunger strikes, accepted a government offer shortly before the fifth man died. Mr O’Rawe was vilified by Sinn Fein when he made his allegation since it indicated that half the men’s deaths could have been avoided.

Nobody disputes that Sands was determined to continue his fast to the end, turning himself into an international symbol of the IRA in the process. He was the Provisional IRA’s “officer commanding” in the Maze and had been jailed for weapons offences. The protest ended when families of the men removed them from their fasts as they lapsed into comas.

It is understood that on Friday the Sands family will hold a ceremony at the hospital wing of the Maze — a block of the defunct building that has been preserved. Sinn Fein leaders will later hold their own commemoration at the site.

PRISON TACTICS

• Hunger striking has a long history within Irish republicanism. In 1920 Terence MacSwiney, then Lord Mayor of Cork, died in Brixton prison, London, on day 74 of his fast

• Bobby Sands began his hunger strike on March 1, 1981, exactly five years after the ending of “special category” status for republican prisoners
• After Sands’s death in May 1981, his election agent, Owen Carron, contested and won the resulting by-election
• At Sinn Fein’s 1981 annual conference, Danny Morrison described the new policy as that of “Armalite and ballot box”
• As a response to Sands’s election as an MP, the British Government proposed making it impossible for prisoners to stand as candidates
• Two other hunger strikers were elected TDs in 1981
• On October 3, 1981, the six surviving hunger strikers ended their fasts

Newshound

(Sharon O’Neill, Irish News)

A priest who played a key role in securing the IRA’s ceasefire has been snubbed by the organisation over his efforts to help the family of a republican shot dead as an informer.

The Irish News can reveal that Fr Gerry Reynolds was helping relatives of Anthony McKiernan as they tried to prove his assassination as a Special Branch mole may have been carried out to protect other agents.

On the night he was abducted and killed in 1988 McKiernan was to meet Freddie Scappaticci, a senior member of the Provisionals’ internal security unit known as the ‘nutting squad’ who fled his home almost three years ago after being unmasked as an informer.

Behind-the-scenes contact between McKiernan’s family and the IRA was reopened in January after The Irish News highlighted the case.

Relatives of the murdered man asked Clonard Monastery Redemptorist priest Fr Reynolds to mediate.

“Two weeks after the story was published republican representatives came to my door. I took them to be IRA,” McKiernan’s daughter Sharon Murtagh said.

“One of them was the same guy dealing with the case four years ago [who failed to get back].”

Although the IRA said it wanted the matter swiftly resolved, the family have heard nothing more from the organisation, despite passing on inquest documents.

Fr Reynolds, pictured above, refused to comment when asked whether he had contacted the IRA, only confirming that the family had approached him.

But it can be revealed that the Provisionals rejected his services.

“The IRA have told him there is no place for Fr Gerry or the Church in it, that they have been in touch with us themselves,” Ms Murtagh said.

“We wanted him to be present to give us a fair hearing. I thought if we had him on board they [the IRA] wouldn’t mess us about any more.”

McKiernan (44), a bomb-maker, was at one time the IRA’s ‘officer commanding’ in the Markets area of south Belfast.

Scappaticci also lived in the area for a while, while another unmasked British agent, Denis Donaldson, came from nearby Short Strand.

McKiernan was involved in IRA activity in south Armagh and was highly active before his murder.

Ms Murtagh said a senior IRA man told them shortly after the murder that he was confident McKiernan had not been an informer.

“He said there were a lot of people under suspicion around this area and he himself had been taken away for four days and interrogated,” she said.

“We believe he [McKiernan] could have known things about other IRA members, who were probably informers, and was on to them.”

May 2, 2006
________________

This article appeared first in the May 1, 2006 edition of the Irish News.

Via PFC email

For some weeks the PFC has collaborated with the Irish News on an investigation into collusion between the UDR and loyalist paramilitaries. The results of this investigation by journalist Steven Mc Caffery can be read in the Irish News today. This follows on from our discovery of documents at the Public Records Office in London earlier this year while carrying out joint research with Justice for the Forgotten (JFTF). Dublin based JFTF represent families of those killed in a number of loyalist attacks in the Republic including the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974. During several days at the Public Records Office in January this year we uncovered a secret official intelligence briefing titled ‘Subversion in the UDR’ and other significant memos and papers. The ‘Subversion’ report was prepared for the Joint Intelligence Committee, the most senior committee of its kind at Westminster, and came to a number of startling conclusions about collusion in the UDR in the early seventies. These include the estimate that between 5% and 15% of members of this locally recruited frontline regiment were loyalist paramilitaries and that the UDR was the single largest source of (stolen) weaponry for loyalist groups.

The Irish News is running a 9 page special on the documents that we discovered with five pages today and another four page special tomorrow. Reaction will be carried on Thursday. We will make all the documents available on the PFC website in the near future and we will also ensure that the Irish News investigation is accessable online for subscribers living outside of Ireland.

Alan Brecknell, a researcher for the PFC, lost his father in a gun and bomb attack on Donnely’s Bar, Silverbridge, Co Armagh on December 19 1975 when three people died. Members of the UDR and RUC assisted loyalist paramiliaries in this and many other attacks. Commenting on the revelations Alan said,

“The importance of these documents cannot be exaggerated. Imagine for instance if it emerged that the US federal government, including the President, were aware that the National Guard was heavily infiltrated by the KKK, that up to 15% of Guardsmen were also klansmen and that the National Guard was the single largest source of weapons for the Klan and yet despite this the National Guard was put on frontline duty in black communities during civil unrest. This is what successive British Prime Ministers did. In fact the role of this regiment was expanded.

As the Irish News editorial states this morning, ’some form of political solution might have emerged at a much earlier stage’ had the issue of collusion in the UDR been dealt with when the authorities became aware of the sheer scale of the problem. The fact that it wasn’t dealt with but in fact got worse raises strong suspicions that loyalist paramilitaries were in effect pseudo-gangs being used as death squads as part of an official government counter-insurgency strategy aimed at defeating the IRA.”

We will advise subscribers when the relevant materials become available online.

PFC

Please delete all other PFC email addresses and replace with info@patfinucanecentre.org

Irelandclick

By Francesca Ryan

An FhÍrinne campaign group is launching its new website at the Roddy McCorley Social Club this Tuesday.

Made up of the relatives and friends of hundreds of Catholics, nationalists and republicans who have been murdered by unionist death squads in collusion with the British, the group is stepping up their campaign to highlight the truth behind state murder.

Among the many relatives and friends attending the event will be the family of Dundalk man Seamus Ludlow.

On May 2 1976, the 47-year-old, a Catholic forestry worker, was abducted and murdered by loyalists from north Down after leaving the Lisdoo Arms pub in Dundalk.

He was shot three times and his body was found the following day about a half mile from his home in County Louth. The case went cold when An Garda Síochána refused to travel north of the border to question the suspects because, they say, they didn’t want the same rights reciprocated to the RUC.

This excuse was recently shot down by Belfast republican Pat Livingstone who was questioned by the RUC when he was detained in at a Garda station in Dundalk five months prior to the Ludlow killing.

The Ludlow family is continuing to fight for the truth.

“The launch of the website is coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the murder of Seamus Ludlow,” An Fhirinne’s Jennifer McCann told the Andersonstown News.

“We are honoured to have the Ludlow family attend this launch and look forward to gaining more support for all these cases on the international stage via the new website.”

The launch will take place at the Roddy McCorley’s Social Club at 11am on Tuesday where Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams, will deliver a speech.
The website can be found at www.anfhirinne.org.

Journalist:: Francesca Ryan

Irelandclick

Former prisoners are still being discriminated against says Coiste na nIarchimí director Mike Richie

by Damian McCarney

Twenty-five years after the hunger strikers won political status for prisoners convicted as a result of the conflict, former republican prisoners are still facing the effects of criminalisation on a daily basis. Discrimination stemming from ex-prisoners’ previous convictions have led to obstacles in many areas of life including gaining employment, and obtaining loans.

Speaking to the Andersonstown News, Mike Ritchie Director of republican ex-prisoners’ welfare group Coiste na nIarchimí, said that the criminalisation of former political prisoners lies at the centre of the problem.

“The main problem is that having been processed through the courts and sentenced they have a ‘criminal record’. It is a unique problem faced by political prisoners, who do not see themselves as criminals.

“This is the 25th anniversary of the hunger strikes, the culmination of a long campaign in jail for political status, which resulted in prisons conceding that they were different from other prisoners,” said Mike.

Coiste are campaigning to have the special status that was acknowledged in prisons to be recognised in normal society, removing the obligation on prisoners to disclose details of convictions stemming from the conflict.
One of the most significant problems facing ex-prisoners is gaining employment.

The startling extent of the problem is illustrated by figures that show long-term unemployment among former prisoners standing at approximately 60 per cent, compared to the national average of five per cent.

For ex-prisoners, finding a job is fraught with difficulties, as many, particularly those that involve contact with children or vulnerable adults require security vetting. In such instances it is likely that convictions arising from the conflict will be equated with those derived from criminality.

“Political prejudices come into play as well, so when they see any IRA related offences, they immediately refuse to employ that person.

“Unfortunately it is not illegal to discriminate on grounds of a person’s criminal record,” said Mike.

Some employers appreciate that the former prisoners would not have been imprisoned had it not been for the conflict, however many more still perceive them as dangerous ‘terrorists’.

“Rather than assume that the application is from a ‘terrorist psychopath’, they [employers] should meet with them and talk about their record, and judge them on the contribution that they could make to the place of employment.

“I am confident that many would come up to the mark of being very good employees.

“Ex-prisoners now already hold jobs as headmasters, teachers, prominent community workers, and elected representatives.

“Martin McGuinness even became a minister, and yet he couldn’t be a civil servant in his own department,” said Mike.

In terms of specific jobs, for many years the Department of Environment enforced a de facto ban on ex-prisoners becoming taxi-drivers, by requiring the applicant to be, in their opinion, a ‘fit and proper person’ before issuing a taxiing license.

Up until recently it was routine for ex-prisoners to be turned down, and they would have to appeal to the Magistrates’ Court.

“Happily though they seem to have decided that enough time has passed and it is only in exceptional circumstances that they refuse,” said Mike, who has been Coiste’s Director since 1998.

Family life is also deeply affected by this far-reaching discrimination. For instance, some ex-prisoners who missed out on the normal child rearing age, due to lengthy periods of imprisonment, are unable to adopt or foster children as Department of Health guidelines preclude people convicted of violent offences from doing so.

Family holidays are something that most people take for granted, but for ex-prisoners, they have to take three of the more popular countries off their list of potential destinations.

Gaining entry to Canada or Australia is problematic and such is the difficulty in visiting the United States, that Coiste advise former prisoners against even trying.

“They [ex-prisoners seeking to visit the States] are interviewed by a consul official in incredibly moralistic terms about their views on violent politics, and their views on the police.

“Uniformly they tell us that the interview is an attempt to humiliate.
“Then they are left to wait weeks and weeks and only in exceptional cases, basically senior Sinn Féin members, are they allowed to visit America. Our advice is to avoid trying,” said Mike.

Dealing with financial institutions provide yet more problems. Obtaining mortgages, insurance, and bank loans require disclosure of convictions and some companies will view conflict related convictions as commensurate with criminal convictions.

In terms of insurance, if previous convictions are not disclosed, then the policy is unlikely to be valid in the event of an accident.

The problems faced by republican ex-prisoners are equally shared by their loyalist counterparts, however Coiste are hopeful that there may soon be movement on the issue of discrimination.

“All ex-prisoner networks have been in discussion with British and Irish governments over the last 12 months and we hope to see some fruits to these discussions in the coming months.

“We have been making these arguments for some years, particularly after the IRA statement of last July and we can see no reason why there should be any delays.

“We believe that since the conflict is over, the residual effects of the conflict should also be over, and we are campaigning for ‘criminal records’ to be expunged, to enable former prisoners to achieve full citizenship,” said Mike.

Journalist:: Staff Journalist

Irelandclick

Republicans across West Belfast are being urged to attend a black flag vigil being held this Friday, May 5, to commemorate the death of hunger striker Bobby Sands.

West Belfast MP Gerry Adams is leading the calls for locals to gather to remember the sacrifice of Bobby and the nine other hunger strikers who died in the H Blocks in 1981.

“The fifth of May is a very significant date in West Belfast,” said the Sinn Féin President.

“Twenty five years ago, Bobby Sands took on the British Government and their attempts to criminalise him.

“Bobby died on hunger strike on this day and for many, this still will be a very emotional time.”

The vigil is just one of the many events that will kick start an action-packed weekend to commemorate the anniversary of Bobby Sands.

Other events include the 24th annual Bobby Sands Lecture at The Devenish Complex on Friday night which will be delivered by South African ANC activist, police chief and foreign affairs Robert McBride.

“We’ve come a long way since the first Bobby Sands Lecture in 1982,” Sam Baker, an organiser with the Colin ‘81 Committee, told the Andersonstown News.

“The first lecture was held in the Kilwee in Twinbrook which held a few hundred local people.

“Next Friday’s event will be a national gathering attracting over one thousand people.

“We are honoured to have Robert McBride delivering the lecture, he is the first international speaker to do so.”

Among many other localised events, on Saturday at 6pm, Lenadoon will commemorate the anniversary with a march from the Lenadoon shops to the Roddy McCorley Social Club where Gerry Adams will be the main speaker.

Meanwhile Twinbrook republicans will be attending the unveiling of a sculpted rock dedicated to the hunger strikers before the estate’s newest hurling team, Cumann na Fuiseoige, named in honour of Bobby Sands, take on Dungiven’s Kevin Lynch Club in their inaugural game.

The black flag vigils will be held from 5pm to 6pm on Friday on the Falls Road, Springfield Road, Andersonstown Road and Stewartstown Road.

The gathering points for the vigils at 5pm are as follows:
-Falls Road Sinn Féin Centre, Sevastopol Street
-Beechmount Avenue/Falls Road junction
-Whiterock Road/Falls Road junction
-Top of the Monagh Road
-Connolly House, Andersonstown Road
-Mairead Farrell Sinn Féin Office at the Dairy Farm Centre

Journalist:: Staff Journalist

Irelandclick

By Roisin McManus

Falls Residents’ Association have called on the PSNI to make public the names and addresses of paid informers they are using in the Lower Falls area.

The association hit back after the PSNI delivered questionnaires in the area recently asking local people to name those involved in anti-social behaviour in the area.

Chairman of the Falls Residents’ Association Robert McClenaghan said that the PSNI Community Safety Team questionnaire is ridiculous because many of those involved in anti-social behaviour are paid PSNI informers.

In light of this situation Robert McClenaghan submitted his own questionnaire asking the PSNI to provide the names and addresses of touts responsible for death driving and drug dealing in the area.

He also asked how much they were being paid and what crimes they have committed and what crimes they have been allowed to get away with.

Submitting the questions to Woodbourne Barracks the local community worker said the PSNI questionnaires had caused outrage among many residents in the Lower Falls.

“Given the history of local hoods being recruited by the PSNI as paid informers to act as their eyes and ears in the Falls area, this latest cheap publicity stunt has caused deep anger amongst the local community,” said Robert.

“As the PSNI were handing out their questionnaires a delegation from the Falls Residents Association confronted a local drug dealer who was selling “Blue Bombers” from his home to children as young as 12 years old, These are the type of people who the PSNI regularly employ as informers,” he added.

Robert said that he wants the questions posed on his questionnaire to be answered.

“It is important that these questions are answered given the endemic problem of anti social behaviour in the Lower Falls much of which is carried out by PSNI informers.

“We will wait and see if these questions are answered but I don’t hold out much hope,” he added.

A spokeswoman for the PSNI said:

“This is being dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act. We cannot comment further on it.”

Journalist:: Roisin McManus

Belfast Telegraph

By Michael McHugh
02 May 2006

The Government came under fire last night after the Ministry of Defence refused to establish a fund supporting the widows and children of UDR victims of the Troubles.

The DUP has vowed to oppose the decision, which follows the establishment of a Police Fund for RUC widows and disabled officers.

The refusal was given in a written response by Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram to Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson and follows the announcement earlier this year of a substantial package of support for Royal Irish Regiment soldiers, who include UDR veterans, who are being made redundant.

There are already a series of support services in place for widows but Mr Donaldson said the news still came as a blow.

“I am very disappointed. We had made the case that the establishment of the Police Fund created a precedent which ought to be replicated in the case of the UDR widows,” he said.

“The fund helps provide practical assistance and support to RUC widows and their children and helps RUC officers who are disabled as a result of terrorist violence and we felt that there was a need for a similar fund to be created for the UDR.

“We owe a great debt to the UDR soldiers who lost their lives or were seriously injured as a result of the service that they provided to the whole community in protecting people against terrorism.”

Mr Ingram’s parliamentary answer said the matter was analysed by his officials last summer.

“This study indicated that post-1974 UDR widows were no worse off than their RUC counterparts and most are somewhat better off,” he said.

“Should there be any individual hardship cases, those concerned would be eligible for assistance either from the UDR Benevolent Fund or through the Royal Irish Regiment Welfare Staff, but there are no plans to establish a separate fund on the lines suggested.”

The UDR Benevolent Fund helps organise outings and social gatherings with widows and their children as well as providing practical assistance.

Jim Potter, who helped establish the first UDR welfare provision in 1985, said that while more cash would be welcome, there was already significant provision.

BN.ie

02/05/2006 - 08:27:01

A number of people were injured and two arrested after trouble broke out on the Glenshane Pass on the main road between Belfast and Derry late last night.

It is believed the trouble began when a group of loyalists travelling to Derry in a minibus damaged a mural in a nationalist area and assaulted a farmer who tried to stop them.

A woman and her sons were also assaulted in their home on the Glenshane Pass, said a local Sinn Féin councillor.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said there had been clashes between two groups and the minibus was taken to Magherafelt Police Station, where two of the occupants were arrested and the bus escorted on to Derry.

Those arrested were charged with assault and causing criminal damage and bailed to appear in court at a later date, said a spokeswoman.

Sinn Féin councillor Patrick Groogan said the trouble was started by the loyalists on the bus when they damaged a mural.

“There was some drink taken and there were up to 30 young fellas on a bus. They sort of went berserk.

“A mother and two children were hospitalised. They were taken away in the ambulance.”

BBC

Loyal Orders representatives are to meet the SDLP for the first time
Representatives of the Loyal Orders are to meet the SDLP for the first time to discuss the Protestant marching season.

Drew Nelson of the Orange Order said he was committed to such meetings to explain the wider community the importance of parading in his culture.

SDLP spokesman Alex Attwood said people must work together “to recognise each other’s cultures and traditions”.

“Sustained face-to-face dialogue” with community groups was vital in resolving “local marching disputes”, he said.

But he added that the talks, being held at Stormont, were “not an alternative to dialogue with residents’ groups”.

“The SDLP would encourage the Loyal Orders to acknowledge that it is genuine, sustained, face-to-face dialogue with local host communities and representative groups that is the single most important commitment required to resolve local marching disputes,” he said.

‘End boycott’

Mr Nelson said he hoped that Tuesday’s discussions with the SDLP would not be a “one off” meeting.

“I hope that it will lead to further contact,” he said.

“It is very important for the Orange Order to explain to the wider community, the importance of parading to our culture.”

Mr Attwood also called on the Orange Order to “end its boycott of the Parades Commission”.

The assembly member said the fact that the Loyal Orders were meeting his party could not “justify any significant shift by the Parades Commission around any disputed parades”.

The Protestant marching season is one of the fixed elements of Northern Ireland life, and in recent years some parades have led to disputes and street violence.

The government-appointed Parades Commission was set up in 1997 to make decisions on whether controversial parades should be restricted.