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Daily Ireland

Mural and plaque dedicated to former IRA chief of staff who died 60 years ago today

by Mick Hall
11/05/2006

A republican who died on hunger strike 60 years ago today will have a mural and plaque dedicated to his memory unveiled this evening in Belfast.

Photo of Séan McCaughey from Larkspirit’s The Forgotten Hunger Strikes

Former IRA chief of staff Seán McCaughey, who lived in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, went on hunger strike at Portlaoise Prison in Co Laois on April 19, 1946.
His hunger strike for political status ended when he died on May 11.
He had began refusing water after the fifth day of his protest.
Hundreds of republicans are expected to attend this evening’s commemoration, which will start at 6pm in Brompton Park, Ardoyne.
A mural by the local artist Michael Doherty will be on display.
Seán McCaughey was sentenced to death in 1941 after being convicted at Dublin’s Criminal Court of falsely imprisoning and assaulting the suspected IRA informer Stephen Hayes.
He subsequently had this sentence commuted to life imprisonment. He was incarcerated at Portlaoise with several senior republicans, including Liam Rice and Jim Crafton.
Taoiseach Eamon de Valera’s Free State government denied the prisoners political status.
In a forerunner of the H-block protests of 1976 to 1981, the men went on a “strip strike”.
From 1941 to 1943, they were held naked in solitary confinement.
They were also refused permission to use the toilet outside their cells.
McCaughey received no visits during this time at the prison. After the hunger striker’s death, one witness who saw the body described McCaughey’s tongue as having “shrunk the size of a threepenny bit”.
North Belfast resident Barry Mullan, a grandnephew of McCaughey, told Daily Ireland his great-uncle had been a committed republican who had, like many at that time, endured severe repression during and after World War II under the government of the 1940s.
“Seán was one of the first blanket men. His story has unfortunately been displaced amid the chaos of the past 35 years of conflict and I welcome this commemoration,” he said.
“We are commemorating 1916 and 1981 this year and, in doing so, it is also fitting that people are also remembering Seán and his comrades, who went through another dark period for republicans during this century.”
At an inquest held in the jail immediately after McCaughey’s death, former IRA man Seán MacBride — acting as counsel for the next of kin — was denied the right to cross-examine the governor.
MacBride asked the prison doctor if he would have treated his dog in the way the Belfast man had been treated. The doctor replied: “I would not treat any dog in that manner.”
Martin Óg Meehan, organiser of this evening’s event, said McCaughey’s death had had the effect of breaking through war-time censorship, exposing to the public the conditions suffered by republican prisoners at Portlaoise during those years.
“Few had any idea at the time about those barbaric conditions. It was only through Seán’s inquest and subsequent Dáil questions that the situation was exposed.”
With a change of government in 1948, General Seán Mac Eoin, the new justice minister, released the political prisoners, who numbered around 800.
Seán McCaughey, originally from Aughnacloy in Co Tyrone, moved to Ardoyne in the early 1930s.
He was a keen player of Gaelic games and a qualified teacher of the Irish language.
He joined the Belfast IRA in 1935 and was quickly promoted to chief of staff of the organisation after the Stormont regime interned most of the IRA leadership in the North during the late 1930s.
The National Graves Association will hold a special service in memory of Seán McCaughey at his graveside in west Belfast’s Milltown Cemetery this Sunday.

Sinn Féin

Published: 11 May, 2006

Tomorrow, Friday 12th May, marks the 25th Anniversary of the death on Hunger Strike of legendary IRA Volunteer Francis Hughes. Republicans across Ireland will gather to mark the event. The main commemorations are as follows:

South Derry

Friday 12th May - Black Flag Vigil on the Glenshane Pass 6.30pm

Saturday 13th May - Republican Centre in Guladuff at 8pm discussion on the legacy of the Hunger Strike involving Laurence McKeown, Danny Morrison and families of the Hunger Strikers

Sunday 14th May - Annual Francis Hughes Commemoration will take place at 2.30pm in Bellaghy graveyard. Francie Molloy will be the main speaker.

Dublin

Friday 12th May - White Line Picket in memory of Francis Hughes and James Connolly at the GPO at 1.30pm

5.30 - 6.30pm - Vigils - Drimnagh Road; Kylemore Road Roundabout; Dolphins Barn Bridge

Vigil at junction of Marine Road and Georges Street in Dun Laoghaire at 5.30pm

Belfast

Black Flag protests will take place across Belfast from 5.30 - 6.30pm

Cork

Commemoration at the Tadhg an Astna monument in the town centre at 8.30pm

Vigil 7pm Ballincolig

Louth

Drogheda - Black Flag vigil on the Peace Bridge, 5.30 - 6.30pm

The Blanket

Review

Forum Magazine Editorial • April-May 2006

‘Over recent weeks the usual coterie of revisionists have been out peddling their anti-republican invective during the debates concerning Easter 1916. As is customary, the mainstream media has granted their dinner-table history lectures a disproportionate amount of air and column space. Thus, we have been deluged with disparaging depictions of the Rising as a nihilistic blood sacrifice which lacked a democratic mandate and as an ultimately counterproductive event in that just as much could have been achieved had constitutional nationalism been granted sufficient breathing space. It is necessary to counter these attempts at revising the Rising.’

>>Read on

BN.ie

11/05/2006 - 15:50:10

The US government will do what it can to help shut down a website linked to the terror group behind the Omagh bombing, the families of the victims were told today.

Relatives of some of those who died in the Real IRA atrocity spent over an hour in talks with the US consul general to Belfast, Dean Pittman.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was among the 29 who died in the no-warning 1998 bombing, said they were anxious to have the website of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement closed, especially its noticeboard which he described as particularly offensive.

He added: “Mr Pittman said if there was anything they could do they would do it in support of the families.”

The website service provider is in Canada, but it has a sister company in the US. The group is on the Bush administration’s international terrorist list, he said.

“The Consul General said he had already talked to the US embassy in London about the issue and had been asked by London to talk to the families,” said Mr Gallagher.

He added: “There was nothing he could guarantee us, except that our allegations about the site would be seriously looked at - and if it is possible to do something they will do it.

“He said the US has very good relations with Canada. We are asking the US government to talk to their Canadian cousins and say this website is contrary to the current climate of putting pressure on terrorists and terrorist supporters.”

Speaking on behalf of the Omagh families, Mr Gallagher said the meeting had gone well and Mr Pittman had pledged to keep them informed of any progress.

The families used the meeting to thank the US administration for their support in the civil action against five men they suspect of plotting the bombing.

The landmark case at the High Court in Belfast will not be heard until after the trial of South Armagh man Sean Hoey, the only man accused of involvement in the Omagh bombing. The trial is expected to open in September.

BBC

Toxic waste from the fuel plant was removed

Customs officers have seized 12,000 litres of contaminated diesel from a fuel laundering plant in County Armagh.

The agency estimated that the plant at Belleeks could have produced 150,000 litres of fuel a week, with a potential loss to the revenue of £3.5m a year.

More than four tonnes of toxic acid waste was removed, some found in an underground concrete slurry pit.

Pat Curtis from HM Revenue and Customs said there was evidence of leakage into the surrounding countryside.

“This is not just about organised criminality, with a few individuals lining their own pockets,” he said on Thursday.

“For every 10,000 litres of fuel laundered a tonne of toxic waste is produced which is then indiscriminately dumped in our countryside.”

The plant has been dismantled and a number of other items have been seized. No one has been arrested.

It was the second laundering plant to be discovered in Northern Ireland in the past 48 hours.

Daily Ireland

Bloody Sunday families ‘kept in the dark’

by Eamonn Houston
11/05/2006

The final report of the Bloody Sunday inquiry will not be published until next year, the families of those killed said last night.
This would mean a delay of two-and-a-half years after the ending of the seven-year probe.
A spokesperson for the inquiry would not be drawn on speculation about the publication of the findings.
“We have nothing further to add,” the spokesperson said.
Families yesterday issued a statement claiming that they had been kept in the dark by the tribunal.
The inquiry was announced by British prime minister Tony Blair in the House of Commons on January 29, 1998.
The opening statement was made by Lord Saville of Newdigate on April 3, 1999. Marathon oral hearings began on March 27, 2000.
The families of the 14 people who died as a result of the Parachute Regiment’s operation on January 30, 1972, say the inquiry has brushed off their requests for an idea of the timetable for the final report’s publication.
They claim that sources outside the inquiry and from within the British and Irish governments have indicated the report will not be published until next January.
The families’ statement added: “Over the last few months, the families have made direct approaches to the inquiry team and only received the reply that, due to the immense amount of material to be considered, it was impossible for them to give a date as to when the report would be completed.”
The response given to the Bloody Sunday Trust was of a similar nature but stated that the families would be given “substantial notice” as to its completion.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan, the Foyle MP, tabled a parliamentary question in Westminster and got a similar reply.
The relatives said: “The Irish government informed the families at the end of last week that, when secretary of state for Northern Ireland Peter Hain was asked about the report, his response was that it will not be completed until early 2007.”
John Kelly, whose brother Michael was killed on Bloody Sunday, said: “This situation, where no one has the decency to speak to the families directly and give them a clear answer on when the report will be released, is totally unacceptable.
“Even though the families have waited for 34 years for the truth to be told and certainly will wait another few months, what we demand of the inquiry team and the British government is that they have the basic courtesy to update the families as to where the report sits and stop keeping the families in the dark.”
The Bloody Sunday inquiry interviewed and received statements from around 2,500 people. Of those, 921 were called to give evidence.
There were 245 military witnesses called. Most of those gave their evidence at Central Hall in Westminster, London.

Daily Ireland

by Ciarán Barnes
11/05/2006

Loyalists in Ballymena are planning a massive march past the spot where a Catholic teenager was murdered.
Concerned churchmen in the grief-stricken town yesterday called for the parade to be postponed in order to reduce sectarian tension and as a mark of respect for Michael McIlveen.
The 15-year-old died on Monday after being beaten by a baseball bat-wielding loyalist gang last weekend.
On May 20, the Ballykeel Loyal Sons of Ulster flute band are planning to stage a major late-night march through the town.
More than 1,000 loyalists and 30 bands will take part. The parade will pass close to the area where Michael was attacked.
Church leaders in Ballymena yesterday joined together to call for the parade to be postponed.
Rev Daniel Kane, of the Ballymena West Presbyterian Church, believes such a move would reduce tensions in the town.
He said: “It would be a good idea to postpone this parade. For the good of everyone and as a mark of solidarity with the McIlveen family it is the right thing to do.”
Ballymena priest Fr Paul Symonds, who has been counselling the McIlveen family, said a postponement would be a positive step forward. “The current route will see marchers pass close to the spot where Michael was attacked,” he said.
Loyalists in Ballymena have yet to respond to the church leaders’ calls.
Speaking yesterday, leading Co Antrim loyalist Darren Smyth, who gives political advice to the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), said he was working to reduce sectarian tension in the town.
“We realise tensions are going to be high but we will be striving to do everything in our power to ensure tragic circumstances such as this never happens again.”

BBC

It is difficult to pick a date in Northern Ireland that is not the anniversary of something depressing or divisive, but I wonder if they consulted their calendars in Downing Street before deciding to reconvene the Stormont assembly on 15 May.

By Kevin Connolly
BBC Ireland correspondent
11 May 2006

It will be exactly 32 years on from the day in 1974 from the start of a loyalist general strike designed to smash the fragile experiment in power-sharing government agreed the previous year in talks at Sunningdale in Berkshire.

Ian Paisley was excluded from the deal back in 1974

On one level, they succeeded. Power-sharing collapsed and was gone for a generation.

On another level, the strikers probably inflicted a degree of damage on the image of loyalism in the eyes of the British establishment from which it has never really recovered, but that’s an issue for another day.

Much has changed of course since 1974.

Between the first day of January in that year and 15 May, more than 100 people had been killed in acts of political violence.

This year, it is no more than three - and the shock which has greeted the sectarian murder of the schoolboy Michael McIlveen in Ballymena is a grim demonstration of how far we have come.

But there are, of course, some common features hewn from particularly hard-wearing historical rock which have survived however much time may have eroded the rest of the Northern Irish political landscape.

Gerry Adams has seen Sinn Fein’s political power increase

Now, as then, Gerry Adams was a key figure in the republican movement, although his public profile in 1974 was much lower.

Ian Paisley, by contrast, was as much a public figure back then as he is now - although back then his ability to articulate the anger of the Protestant street wasn’t filtered as it is now by decades of parliamentary experience.

The longevity of public figures in Northern Ireland is worthy of study in itself.

Gerry Adams was on the IRA delegation flown to London for secret talks with the British government in 1972, and Ian Paisley has been making headlines since at least 1963 - the era of John F Kennedy and Harold Macmillan.

Anywhere else in the developed world, it would seem extraordinary that the same two men find themselves at the centre of events again now, just as they did 32 years ago.

Roads were blocked by loyalist paramilitaries during the strike

Again, there are differences, of course. Gerry Adams has a huge democratic mandate now, which the IRA did not have in 1974.

And the power-sharing game is being played for higher stakes in a sense - in 1974, Britain was trying to engineer a deal between the relatively polite, relatively centrist parties from each community.

The Paisleyites on one side, and the republicans on the other were excluded.

This time, thanks to the results of the last Stormont election, they are centre stage and the inclusion of Northern Ireland’s two extremes in the political equation makes it harder than ever to secure a deal - and securing a deal was never easy.

The republican movement wants devolution and power-sharing restored immediately - for all their discomfort with the politics of Paisleyism.

Mr Paisley’s Democratic Unionists say they want devolution too; just not yet.

They argue that Sinn Fein hasn’t done enough to distant itself from the paramilitary violence and criminality in the IRA’s past.

‘Benign friction’

The DUP is perfectly content to see the Stormont assembly recalled but will not permit the formation of a government from its ranks.

Neither Sinn Fein nor the nationalist SDLP is happy to see the assembly resurrected as a toothless talking shop, but they have reluctantly agreed because there is no other hope of progress.

DUP leader Ian Paisley pictured outside Stormont in 1969

The government’s plan is to somehow keep all the parties involved at Stormont and hope that a kind of benign friction produces some sort of agreement.

The government has set a deadline of 24 November, warning it will close Stormont if no deal is reached by then.

Not everyone is convinced they will carry out the threat, not least because it would mean 32 years of aspiration down the drain, but for the moment, Downing Street insists that the next six months represent a last chance for power-sharing.

The DUP is still very much Ian Paisley’s personal vehicle, and probably only he knows for sure if he will agree before that deadline.

The smart money in Northern Ireland, sadly, is always on no.

BBC

The Stormont government has been suspended since October 2002

Sinn Fein and DUP assembly members have been appointed as deputy assembly presiding officers, NI Secretary Peter Hain has said.

Those appointed on Thursday were Jim Wells, DUP, South Down, and Francie Molloy, Sinn Fein, Mid-Ulster.

Mr Hain also formally confirmed the appointment of former Alliance party deputy leader Eileen Bell as the presiding officer.

Mr Hain said everything was “in place for the assembly’s recall on Monday”.

He also published the standing orders under which the assembly would operate.

“This is an important step in the process of building towards the restoration of devolution in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“I know that all the parties in the assembly will want to do all they can to ensure that we can once again hand over the reins of power to locally-elected politicians, directly accountable to the people of Northern Ireland.”

Executive

Mr Wells said he was “honoured” to be appointed.

“While I count it as a great personal privilege, it is also an honour for the DUP in terms of the tremendous strides forward we have made in representing the people of Northern Ireland as the largest political party,” he said.

Mr Molloy said that he would not “chair or take part in debates on issues over which the assembly has no power”.

“I will play a full role in trying to get an executive elected and through that allowing the assembly to begin to do its job,” he said.

An attempt will be made on 23 May to elect a first and a deputy first minister.

If the parties fail to elect an executive, the 108 members get a further 12 weeks to try to form a multi-party devolved government. If that attempt fails, salaries will stop.

The British and Irish governments would then work on partnership arrangements to implement the Good Friday Agreement.

Devolved government at Stormont was suspended in October 2002 following allegations of a republican spy ring.

A court case arising from the allegations later collapsed.

:::u.tv:::

**Via Newshound

Possible dissident republican terrorist attacks on both sides of the Irish border and the UK have been foiled by recent police operations, the Republic’s top officer has revealed.

WEDNESDAY 10/05/2006 11:09:53
By: Press Association

Six members of the Continuity IRA and eight Real IRA suspects were prosecuted last year as a result of intelligence, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy disclosed.

In his annual report for 2005, Mr Conroy said monitoring of dissident republican activity remains a key activity for An Garda Siochana.

“Recent operations have resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of key players and the prevention of attacks in Ireland and in Northern Ireland and the UK,” he said in his report to Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

“An Garda Siochana continues to monitor various groups both domestic and foreign who are assessed as posing a threat to State security or capable of carrying out a terrorist act either here or abroad.”

Intelligence-led operations contributed to three prosecutions for possession of explosives in 2005, the report revealed.

The Criminal Assets Bureau continued to target proceeds of crime and officers restrained €7million, while forwarding €18.5million to the Exchequer.

A total of 33 garda operations targeted organised crime in 2005, while the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation profiled more than 120 of the most active criminals and criminal gangs in the state.

The report revealed there were 94 racially motivated offences reported in 2005, an increase on the 84 seen in 2004.

The gardai targeted a 25% reduction in the number of fatal road collisions in the year but the number of deaths rose to 399 in 2005, an increase of 6.4% in the figures reported in 2004.

There were 5,997 separate reports of missing persons in 2005 of which 75 remain untraced.

Three officers were dismissed from the force in 2005 under Regulation 40 of the Garda disciplinary code, which allows the Commissioner to fire an officer without pension rights if he finds that the officer is unfit for retention, subject to the approval of the Minister for Justice.

A total of 16 officers were suspended from duty in 2005, which left a total of 26 on suspension at the end of the year.

Two people died in Garda custody during 2005 having been detained at Store Street and Monaghan Garda Stations.

An officer from outside the Garda Division was appointed in each case to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths but inquests have not been finalised in either instance.

Overall, the report confirmed the provisional crime statistics released by Minister McDowell in January, which showed an increase in headline, or most serious, crime of 2.7% and a 12.2% increase in non-headline crime.

BN.ie

11/05/2006 - 10:13:13

The biggest birthday party ever staged in Belfast will be held in the city streets at the end of the month.

Belfast City Hall - click photo to view - image from >>here

It was announced today that the annual Lord Mayor’s Show is being turned into a carnival with the theme “Celebrate Belfast” and will focus on the 100th birthday of City Hall, the most famous and recognisable landmark in the city.

Giant floats, stilt walkers and hundreds of performers will take part in the carnival parade , which will feature a giant City Hall birthday cake.

Carnival merrymakers dressed as streetscapes from around the city centre, birthday candles and presents will join distinguished birthday guests such as the Albert Clock and Big Fish.

A well-known mural depicting Belfast industry will be brought to life through music and banners.

Lord Mayor Wallace Brown said the event was another opportunity to show off the city’s creative talents.

“Over the last three years, the Lord Mayor’s Show has changed and evolved, and it has developed a distinctive carnival feel that allows the creative talent of the city to be put on show for all to see.

“That is why this year, for the 50th show, we have decided to rename it the Lord Mayor’s Carnival, to more accurately reflect what the show has become, a carnival to remember,” said the Lord Mayor.

BEAT, the Belfast carnival company, is busy working with artists and community groups as well as bands from all corners of the island to bring the carnival party alive on Saturday May 27.

A road show will entertain the crowds at City Hall before and after the main parade around the city streets, and the hugely popular Continental Market returns to the City Hall grounds for the bank-holiday weekend.

BN.ie

11/05/2006 - 11:31:46

Abuse was hurled at five teenagers as they appeared in court today accused of the sectarian murder of a schoolboy in the North.

All of the suspects, including one aged 15, are from Ballymena, Co Antrim, where Michael McIlveen was beaten to death.

The St Patrick’s high school pupil was battered with baseball bats in a town centre car park early on Sunday morning.

The 15-year-old had been chased half a mile from an entertainment complex, where he had gone with friends to buy a takeaway pizza.

With tensions high since the killing, there was a heavy police presence as the five charged went into the dock at Ballymena Magistrates Court.

Both Aaron Wallace (age 18), from Moat Road and Christopher Kerr (aged 19), from Carnduff Drive, replied “not guilty” when they were formally accused at Antrim Police Station, the court was told.

The 15-year-old suspect said “no” when charged, while the other two, both aged 17, made no reply, Detective Inspector Robert Paul said. None of these three can be named for legal reasons.

The officer said he could connect all five with the murder.

Michael managed to make his way home to the Dunvale estate after the attack, but was rushed to the Antrim Area Hospital, where he lost his fight for life a day later.

The murder has raised fears of further violence in Ballymena, a town riven by sectarian divisions.

As the five suspects were led from the court, remanded in custody until June 8, those tensions surfaced between the rival factions.

One woman had already muttered “scumbag” before walking out.

Another shouted: “I hope you rot in jail.”

A man stood up and said: “Scummy wee bastard.”

But on the other side of the public gallery others offered messages of support.

One woman said to one of the accused: “Keep your head up.”

Newshound

(Barry McCaffrey, Irish News)

Three loyalists jailed for a total of 34 years yesterday (Tuesday) were part of a UDA kidnapping team.

Security sources last night linked the gang to a series of robberies, including the kidnapping of a bank official’s family in north Belfast less than a month before they were finally captured.

Loyalist sources claim robberies were being carried out to try to clear chronic gambling debts amassed by north Belfast UDA ‘brigadier’ Andre Shoukri.

William Seenan (45) of Hesketh Park, Stephen Douglas (24) of Bilston Road and Jonathan Rossborough (24) of Twinburn Road, all north Belfast, were jailed yesterday over the attempted abduction of a bank official’s fiancee in November 2004.

The plot came four days after Andre Shoukri read out a UDA public statement in Tiger’s Bay in north Belfast claiming the organisation was ending all involvement in criminal activity.

The UDA men were arrested after a PSNI undercover operation at the bank official’s home at Loopland Gardens in east Belfast.

A team of officers took over the house and the official’s fiancee was ‘replaced’ by a female police officer.

Seenan was seen on several occasions in the area and in the vicinity of a First Trust Bank in north Belfast in the days leading up to the attempted kidnapping.

On the day of the abduction bid, all three men were spotted in Loopland Avenue dressed in workmen’s clothing, pretending to be working on roadworks.

The UDA men were watched as they approached the bank official’s home and Rossborough knocked on the door.

When the female officer answered he produced a gun and pushed her back into the house. However, he was quickly overpowered by other officers hiding in the hallway.

Seenan and Douglas were arrested close to the scene.

During a follow-up search of Seenan’s car, details of the bank official’s fiancee were found along with a baton and cable ties which were to be used to tie her up.

The pistol was found to be a replica modified for live rounds, but was not loaded at the time.

The court was told that following the attempted abduction, the bank official and his fiancee were forced to move home and change jobs.

Seenan, who has served an 18-year sentence for attempted murder, was said to have played a leading role in the plot and was sentenced to 14 years’ jail yesterday.

His barrister, Eugene Grant QC, said his client had been a “foot soldier” in the abduction attempt.

Douglas and Rossborough’s barrister, Arthur Harvey QC, said both men had become involved after “attracting attention” from paramilitaries.

They were sentenced to 10 years in jail, with a year’s probation when released.

All three were given 18-month concurrent sentences for conspiracy to assault and concurrent five-year terms for possession of the weapon.

Rossborough was given an additional five-year concurrent sentence for assaulting a police officer.

Prominent north Belfast loyalists Alan McClean and William Mullan were originally charged with similar offences, but the charges were subsequently withdrawn.

Mullan, who has previously been convicted of a sectarian murder and was released under the Good Friday Agreement, is currently opposing the Secretary of State’s decision to return him to prison.

Yuk Shoukri, whose brothers Andre and Ihab are alleged to control the UDA in north Belfast, attended a previous court hearing in the abduction case.

Security sources last night confirmed that Seenan, Rossborough and Douglas were all members of a north Belfast UDA kidnapping team.

The trio are understood to be the main suspects in a similar kidnapping less than a month before they were arrested.

In that robbery a gang of five masked men dressed in workmen’s clothing burst into the home of a Post Office employee on the Deerpark Road in north Belfast shortly after 9.30pm on Sunday October 17.

The employee’s husband and two daughters, aged three and six, were taken barefoot from the house in their night clothes and at gunpoint and driven to a derelict house in Antrim where they were held for several hours.

The woman was then forced to go to Deerpark Post Office and remove a substantial sum of money from a safe, which was handed over to the kidnappers.

Although the gang claimed to be from the INLA, it is understood the three UDA men were questioned about the Deerpark kidnapping when arrested.

There are currently more than 20 north Belfast UDA members in Magahaberry prison serving sentences or awaiting trial on extortion, racketeering and drug dealing charges.

May 11, 2006
________________

This article appeared first in the May 10, 2006 edition of the Irish News.

BBC

Two men alleged to be members of the Real IRA who were arrested in Spain have been released on bail.

The men, one from Northern Ireland and the other from the Republic, were detained in Malaga at the weekend on suspicion of smuggling.

Thomas Philip Corley, 32, from Dublin and 41-year-old Aaron William Jordan from Lisburn were arrested after police seized half a million cigarettes.

It had been alleged that the men were raising funds for the organisation.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said the men were being held on suspicion of attempting to smuggle the cigarettes from Spain to Britain.

The men were detained after two lorries were seized on an industrial estate.

A major shipment of cigarettes had just arrived at a nearby port.

Police said a large quantity of documents were also found in the warehouse.

The Real IRA is an outlawed dissident republican organisation which was behind the 1998 Omagh bombing in which 29 people died.

Irish Examiner

By Claire O’Sullivan
11 May 2006

IRISH stroke sufferers are more likely to die within six months of their stroke than most of their European counterparts, new research shows.

The study reveals Ireland has one of the worst outcomes for stroke patients among 11 countries in Europe and also in Canada.

The Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) claimed the statistics highlighted the lack of dedicated stroke care facilities in Ireland and its impact on mortality and dependency following stroke.

According to the research, one-in-five sufferers in Ireland died within 180 days of a stroke. All Germans survived this period. In Finland, 4% died.

The average result within the 12 countries was 15%.

Ireland was found to have the worst overall record for stroke sufferers, with 67% of stroke sufferers dead or dependent after six months.

Meanwhile, only 2% of Irish stroke sufferers have access to an acute stroke unit while 5% have access to a stroke rehabilitation unit.

On average the study showed 39% of stroke victims overall attended an acute stroke unit while 31% availed of a dedicated rehabilitation unit.

Ireland, at 39 days, was also found to have the longest length of hospital in-patient stay for stroke patients, compared to 11 days in Denmark and Finland and 16 days the average. The countries surveyed included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Britain.

Geriatrician and chairman of the IHF’s Council on Stroke, Professor Des O’Neill, said the study showed Ireland was far less developed in providing services following stroke.

“While aspects of the study did not compare exactly like-with-like, it did confirm Irish stroke services were less developed. The success of these units in improving outcomes in other countries shows clearly the need to develop these units across the country,” he said.

Details of the study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, were announced as the IHF began its biggest annual fundraising event, Happy Heart Weekend. The IHF will use the money raised, from selling €2 heart emblems, to improve stroke services by recruiting more stroke nurses.

The IHF has also started a national audit of stroke services, co-funded by the Department of Health.

Stroke impact

*Around 10,000 people suffer stroke each year in Ireland, leading to about 2,500 deaths.

*Stroke accounts for more deaths than breast cancer, lung cancer and bowel cancer combined.

*More women die of stroke than of breast cancer.

*30,000 people live with residual disability from stroke.

*Stroke risk can be reduced by not smoking and having regular blood pressure and cholesterol check ups.

Irish Examiner

By Alan Erwin
11 May 2006

OMAGH bomb victims will today urge the US Government to help them shut down a website linked to the group behind the blast.

Relatives of some of those murdered in the Real IRA massacre are meeting theUS Consul General in Belfast, Dean Pittman.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was among 29 people killed in the no-warning strike on Omagh, said the focus would be on winning Washington’s backing for a move against a site promoting the 32 County Sovereignty Movement.

“The service provider is based in Toronto [Canada], but they have sister companies in the US,” Mr Gallagher said.

“When they put something up on the internet they are broadcasting it into the US. We are asking the US Government to talk to their Canadian cousins and say this website is contrary to the current climate of putting pressure on terrorists and terrorist supporters.”

Mr Gallagher was in Toronto earlier this year as part of his campaign.

He told them how the 32 County Sovereignty Movement was the Real IRA’s political wing.

The Omagh families will also use the meeting at Mr Pittman’s offices to express their thanks for the US administration’s support for their civil action against five men they suspect of plotting the August 1998 bombing.

Mr Gallagher added: “We also want to thank them because it was an American FBI agent, David Rupert, who infiltrated the Real IRA and was a key aspect in getting Michael McKevitt, its leader, convicted.”

BBC

Michael McIlveen died after being attacked in Ballymena

Five teenagers including a 15-year-old juvenile have been charged with the murder of a Ballymena schoolboy at the weekend.

They are expected to appear at the town’s magistrates court on Thursday, a police spokesman said.

Two other juveniles were arrested on Wednesday evening and are being questioned by police.

Michael McIlveen, 15, died on Monday after a gang attacked him in the town in the early hours of Sunday.

Family and friends held a vigil outside his home on Wednesday evening.

Candles were lit in the vigil for Michael McIlveen

Flowers were laid and candles were lit while music played at the front of his home in the Dunvale area.

The teenager was attacked after buying a pizza in the early hours of Sunday.

Michael was a pupil at St Patrick’s College in Ballymena which held a special assembly on Tuesday morning.

In this issue:

1. Hunger strikers remembered in Dublin, Galway
2. Nationalist youth dies following sectarian attack
3. Sectarian abuse on Bebo website
4. Sectarian attacks in Derry
5. British State collusion with loyalists exposed.
6. Loyalist sectarian attack at Glenshane Pass
7. Sellafield operators sued over leak at processing

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