SAOIRSE32

For immediate release
info@patfinucanecentre.org

19 May 2006

Jean Mc Bride is set to meet US Special Envoy Mitchell Reiss and US Consul General Dean Pitman in Belfast tomorrow (Saturday) in the Consul’s east Belfast residence at 10.30am. The purpose of the meeting is to raise concerns at the ongoing relationship between the Pentagon and the controversial British private security/mercenary company, Aegis Defence Services. Aegis, which was set up by former Scots Guards CO Tim Spicer, won a $293 million dollar US government contract to coordinate all private security in Iraq. The award of the contract to the former CO of the two soldiers who murdered Belfast teenager Peter Mc Bride in 1992 has led to protests from elected representatives on both sides of the Atlantic including Senators Kerry, Clinton, Schumer, Kennedy, Obama and others.

Following the murder Spicer sought to excuse the actions of his soldiers by defaming the victim, denying evidence that was held to be fact by the court and demanding the release of the two murderers on the basis that they ’should never have been charged’.

Jean Mc Bride said in advance of the meeting,

“Many many people in the US agree that this contract should not have been awarded. recently a video has emerged that shows Aegis employees shooting civilians who drive too close to their vehicles in Iraq. I’m not at all surprised. Spicer was involved in mercenary activities in Sierra Leone, the ‘Arms to Africa’ scandal and was arrested in Papua New Guinea where he was attempting to stage a coup. Its madness that he is now in charge of a bunch of gung-ho foreign fighters in Iraq. I am going to show this Iraq video to Mitchell Reiss. I told the Consul General last year and I will tell the Ambassador tomorrow-your government would not take kindly to the Irish or British governments doing business with someone who justified the murder of a US citizen. I don’t take kindly to the US government doing business with someone who has accused my son of carrying a bomb and who has justified the shooting, in the back, of my unarmed 18 year old son.”

Contact Paul O’Connor at the PFC for further details 07989 323418

Press can also view the Iraq shoot-to-kill video after the meeting which should end at 11.15am

See extensive background on Peter Mc Bride and Spicer at www.patfinucanecentre.org - Click under Peter Mc Bride in the menu items.

See original news story regarding the video >>here.

RTÉ

19 May 2006 20:42

Off-duty British soldiers are reported to have been banned from all bars in Ballymena, Co Antrim, where Catholic schoolboy Michael McIlveen was murdered a fortnight ago.

British military chiefs imposed the night-time curfew in a bid to ease sectarian tensions.

Local SDLP Councillor, Declan O’Loan, described the move as a wise decision.

‘Anyone caught in the pubs after 7pm will have the book thrown at them,’ one source said.

Michael, 15, was beaten to death in a gang assault which has traumatised Ballymena.

Six local teenagers have been charged with the murder.

The St Patrick’s College pupil was cornered and attacked with baseball bats after being chased through the town early on 7 May.

Daily Ireland

By Eamonn Houston
19/05/2006

The familiar image of 1981 hunger striker Patsy O’Hara grinning broadly dominates the gable of a house in the Bishop Street area where the O’Hara family lived. (Click photo to view)
Belfast artists put the finishing touches to the mural last week. It bears the message ‘let the fight go on’ in line with defiant self-sacrifice O’Hara made with nine others in Long Kesh prison in 1981.
The name of Patsy O’Hara is known to everyone in his home city. The former INLA leader in Long Kesh and Michael Devine were the two hunger strikers to die from the city.
His mother Peggy and family will watch as the monument and mural are officially dedicated on Bishop Street to mark the anniversary of his death on Sunday.
O’Hara, like many others, became politicised by the Civil Rights movement and Bloody Sunday, when 14 unarmed civilians died as a result of a British Paratroop massacre in the Bogside on January 30, 1972.
O’Hara would later write of the October 15 1968 Civil Rights demonstration: “The mood of the crowd was one of solidarity. People believed they were right and that a great injustice had been done to them. The crowds came in their thousands from every part of the city and as they moved down Duke Street chanting slogans, ‘One man, one vote’ and singing ‘We shall overcome’ I had the feeling that a people united and on the move, were unstoppable.”
It was in 1975 that Patsy O’Hara’s burgeoning political beliefs would lead him into the ranks of the Irish National Liberation Army.
In 1979 he was arrested for possession of a hand grenade. His imprisonment would end in his leaving the Long Kesh prison in a coffin after 61 days of refusing food.
O’Hara’s prison protest began with the blanket men. When O’Hara’s mother Peggy learned of her son’s decision to join the 1981 hunger strike she thought the political status demands of the prisoners would be met before death.
She said: “There is no use in saying that I was very vexed and all the rest of it. There is no use me sitting back in the wings and letting someone else’s son go. Someone’s sons have to go on it and I just happen to be the mother of that son.”
She was photographed at the weekend beside the new mural in memory of her son.
Patsy O’Hara’s prison writings reveal a committed socialist republican, determined to see his protest through to the end.
“We stand for the freedom of the Irish nation so that future generations will enjoy the prosperity they rightly deserve, free from foreign interference, oppression and exploitation. The real criminals are the British imperialists who have thrived on the blood and sweat of generations of Irish men,” he wrote.
When O’Hara died on May 21 1981, Derry was plunged into street violence and mourning.
There were claims that the prison authorities had abused his remains.
His funeral was one of the largest witnessed in his home city equalling those of the victims of Bloody Sunday.
O’Hara’s cortege was flanked by 34 INLA men and women as it made its way from his home to the city cemetery.
At the graveside a spokesman for the Army Council of the INLA said: “Our comrade did not die solely for the five demands of the political prisoners.
“He recognised that if the prisoners are criminalised, then the struggle for Irish freedom is criminalised.
“This is the reason why Patsy went on hungerstrike, and along with his comrades in death, Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes and Raymond McCreesh, courageously confronted the Thatcher regime and her loyalist lackeys.”
In an atmosphere of overwhelming tension in Derry, the INLA spokesman said that the organisation would not respond to O’Hara’s death wildly and emotionally.
Speaking at O’Hara’s graveside, Bernadette McAliskey of the National H-Block/Armagh Committee castigated the Catholic Church.
“As the cortege left the Long Tower church this morning, personally I could not help but cast my mind back to a time in 1969 when there was no ambiguity on the part of Catholic hierarchy as to the position of young men like Patsy O’Hara.
“It is tragic, in this time in our history, that the Irish people, who for centuries have defended their church and their religion, should be, by and large, so sadly abandoned by it in their hour of greatest need.”
In recent years O’Hara’s legacy would find expression in prison cells in Turkey where many political prisoners went on hunger strike over their status.
In his much changed city, free of the political turmoil that had gripped it in O’Hara’s youth, his image on the mural on Bishop Street a new monument in his memory stand as reminders of the sacrifice the young Derry man made during the depressing days of 1981.

Daily Ireland

Twenty five years ago this weekend Raymond McCreesh from Camlough in South Armagh and Patsy O’Hara from Derry City died on hunger strike in Long Kesh at the age of 24. We look at the their lives and the momentous events surrounding their deaths

by Mick Hall
19/05/2006

“Ray McCreesh had the ability to instantly switch from being very serious to being full of humour,” says Breandán Lewis, a childhood friend of the south Armagh hunger striker. “He possessed an energy both serious and light. I can only describe him as being full of life.”
The familiar publicity poster of the young republican icon laughing for the camera was taken in December 1975, when he was just 18 and six months before being arrested after a dramatic shoot-out with British paratroopers.
Breandán and his family members featured in the original photograph. (Click photo to view)
“I can remember vividly when it was taken. Ray had been talking politics at my family home. The tension then broke with some light-heartedness and his image was captured,” says breandan. The McCreesh and Lewis families first met within Irish language circles and remain close today, living in the same village of Camlough, Co Armagh. Seven generations of the McCreesh family had lived in the area.
Ray McCreesh attended Camlough Primary and St Coleman’s Secondary school in Newry. Breandán, now a local Sinn Féin councillor, went to the same school but was three years older. At St Coleman’s McCreesh is said to have shown an intense interest in Irish language and history, being described as “very conscious of his Irishness”. He later became a fluent native speaker during his incarceration at Long Kesh prison. A keen sportsman, he played under-16 minor football for Carrickcruppin GAA club.
After studying fabrication engineering at Newry Technical College, he began working at Gambler Simms Steel Ltd, but decided to leave, believing his personal security was being compromised by taking the same route through loyalist countryside each day. He returned to working on a milk round, which covered the Mullaghbawn and Dromintee areas of the south Armagh border, a job he had first started aged 14.
His involvement in republican activism at this point was already deep. In 1974, he was promoted to the IRA’s first battalion South Armagh aged 17, after joining the Fianna in 1973. His milk round gave him an intimate understanding of the local terrain and an insight into the movements of state forces.
“Although he spoke freely about politics with people he respected, he talked nothing of his military involvement,” Breandán says.
“He was committed, knew the seriousness of his situation and from the outset maintained an inner composure which precluded all such talk. He rarely drank and kept a low profile. It resulted in him never really being suspected by the police and army.
“When he was captured, people around Camlough were surprised at the extent of his involvement.”
Late on the evening of June 25, 1976, McCreesh and three other volunteers set out to ambush a covert military post opposite the Mountain House Inn on the main Newry to Newtownhamilton Road, near the town of Sturgan. After being dropped of by a volunteer in a commandeered car, McCreesh, Paddy Quinn and Danny McGuinness, made their way across fields, towards the post. The car made its own way towards the ambush point, being parked there to draw the soldiers’ attention. As the driver returned to join the others who were walking down the hillside following the line of hedgerows, he spotted paratroopers closing in on their position.
“The driver was armed only with a short Sten gun,” explains Paddy Quinn.
“He fired it in their direction and all of a sudden the field around us was being cut up with bullets.”
The driver was shot three times as paratroopers opened up with SLRs and light machine guns. Even so he managed to escape.
“Myself and Ray zig-zagged across fields towards a farmhouse. There were bullets flying everywhere. The house was empty and there was no car in the drive. Instead of taking off on foot we waited on Dan, who was hiding in a bunker beside the quarry on the hill where we were ambushed. He had been watching us from the hill and saw the amount of tracer bullets fired at our position. He thought we were dead, so he just stayed there.
“After several minutes a helicopter landed at the back of the house and as we made our way to the front, another landed, blocking our way. Paras got out and began firing through the windows, shooting up the house. We fired back and there was a stand-off.”
Shortly afterwards a local priest, Fr Peter Hughes, arrived at the scene and attempted to negotiate a surrender.
“I can remember Ray remember asking: ‘Should we fight our way out of here?’ I told him we would have no chance and if we surrendered we’d live to fight another day.”
The men agreed to surrender. As they walked from the house a paratrooper began firing.
“We went back inside. The NCO began cursing the soldier, saying he had orders to get us out before dark. We walked out again and were taken away by the RUC to Bressbrook barracks. We were interrogated and beaten for three days. Dan McGuinness was captured at the quarry the next day.”
After nine months on remand in Crumlin Road jail, McCreesh was tried and convicted, in March 1977, of attempted murder, possession of a rifle and ammunition, and IRA membership. He received a 14-year sentence, and lesser concurrent sentences, after refusing to recognise the court.
In the H-Blocks he immediately joined the blanket protest. He refused his monthly visits for four years, right up until he informed his family of his decision to go on hunger-strike on February 15, 1981, this year. He also refused to send out monthly letters, writing only smuggled ‘communications’ to his family and friends.
The only member of his family to see him during those four years in Long Kesh two or three times was his brother Fr Brian McCreesh, who occasionally said Mass in the H-Blocks.
“He was a jolly lad, but stubborn,” remembers Paddy Quinn.
“It was no surprise when he put his name forward for the hunger strike.”
One of the most controversial aspects of McCreesh’s hunger strike involved allegations that the NIO and prison officials had drugged him, in order to confuse the protester during the last week before he died. The intention, many believe, was to pressurise the McCreesh family to intervene and take him off the protest. After 50 days of fast, family members, including Fr Brian McCreesh and were called to the prison hospital at the request of the prison doctor. They were told by a medical officer that McCreesh had been given the last rites by a Catholic priest, which had left him “shocked and frightened”. Fr Brian McCreesh was said to be suspicious of this, knowing that his brother was a deeply religious man and would have taken comfort from the sacrament. The prison doctor then claimed that the hunger striker seemed to have replied “yes” when asked if he wanted him to save his life.
When questioned by family members Raymond was dazed and incoherent, although he slowly came round and reasserted his determination to carry his protest through.
Ray McCreesh died over a week later, 61 days into his protest, on May 21, 1981.
“It was a very dark time, and we have never really got over,” says Breandán Lewis.
“People in Camlough gathered to say the rosary every night. Others involved got in political activism. When Raymond died, the emotional impact was immense and it was long-term.”
The response in the prison was of sadness and determination.
Paddy Quinn said: “The more brutality you received the deeper you dig your heels in. Raymond’s death gutted us, but it made us more determined.”

Daily Ireland

19/05/2006

A CD book tracing the history of the 1981 hunger strike was launched yesterday on the Falls Road.
An Stailc Ocrais – A History Of Hunger Strikes In Ireland was compiled by nine young relatives of republican ex-prisoners.
Aged between ten and 18, they come from all over Belfast and worked on the project since the beginning of the year.
Working in conjunction with republican ex-prisoners organisation, Coiste na nIarchimí and Falls Community Council the young people researched the history of hunger strikes in Ireland from the days of the Brehon Laws up until 1981.
The project began as a booklet but on completion of this, the script was recorded on to a CD by the young people, who themselves, play the role of narrators throughout the recording.
Accompanied by background music, the CD is a wonderful compliment to the booklet.
Dominic Adams, Coiste’s youth development worker, said: “This is a great achievement by these young people. Each of them has had the experience of having a close relative imprisoned and it was this, which motivated them.
“They gave up their spare time and worked long hours researching and recording their findings.
“They wished to learn more about the hunger strikes and the reasons for their relative’s imprisonment.
“This project is a tribute to their willingness to do just that.
“The booklet and CD are a must have for all young people who wish to learn more about the hunger strikes – not just in 1981 but throughout Irish history.”
The CD is available from Coiste na nIarchimí at 028 9020 0770.

Daily Ireland

19/05/2006

A series of events is being held in the Falls area of west Belfast this weekend to mark the 25th anniversary of the deaths of the hunger strikers Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara.
The weekend of events is being launched tonight at 7pm in the Cultúrlann, 216 Falls Road. A video screening and national hunger-strike exhibition will be followed by a short talk by Seán Murray. Free refreshments will be provided.
Tomorrow will see a Gaelic football blitz for the Raymond McCreesh/Patsy O’Hara Cup at O’Donnell’s GAA pitch at McRory Park on the Whiterock Road, starting at 1pm. The games will involve teams from the Beechmount, Clonard, Falls, and St James’s areas.
The cup will be presented at a function in the Foresters Club on Albert Street, starting at 8pm. Shebeen will provide the music. Tickets cost £5.
On Sunday, a black flag vigil will start at 2pm. The assembly points are: Sevastopol Street Sinn Féin centre; corner of Beechmount Avenue; top of St James’s Road.
St Mary’s College at 191 Falls Road will host the event Talk Back: The Legacy of the 1981 Hunger Strike at 3pm.
The panellists will include former Sinn Féin publicity director Danny Morrison, ex-Armagh prisoner Mary McConville, former hunger strikers Bernard Fox and Pat Sheehan, and an IRSP spokesperson.
Sinn Féin assembly member Fra McCann, a former blanket man, will chair the discussion.

Daily Ireland

NIO is blasted over what is seen as attempt to affect make-up of march quango - Minister asked DUP MP and Orange chief to urge members to apply for jobs

BY Ciarán Barnes
19/05/2006

Former security minister Shaun Woodward encouraged leading members of the loyal orders to apply for posts on the new Parades Commission during a hush-hush meeting last autumn, Daily Ireland has learned.
The Labour MP met Orange Order Grand Master Robert Saulters and Democratic Unionist Party MP Nigel Dodds on September 7 to discuss controversial parades in the North.
A senior Northern Ireland Office official, whose name is known to Daily Ireland, also attended.
During the meeting, Mr Woodward encouraged Mr Saulters and Mr Dodds to ask members of the loyal orders to apply for positions on the new Parades Commission.
The NIO official then wrote to the leaders of the Orange Order, the Apprentice Boys and the Royal Black Institution asking for opinions on who should be appointed.
Within weeks, Co Armagh Orangemen David Burrows and Don MacKay were appointed to the seven-strong commission. At no time were nationalist residents’ groups encouraged to apply or consulted on whom should be appointed.
British secretary of state Peter Hain oversaw the appointment process.
Sinn Féin assembly member John O’Dowd accused Mr Hain of behaving like the “lord viceroy of Ireland”.
“The appointment procedure is in place to protect the rights of all in society. To abuse the procedure is to abuse the rights of all in society,” he said.
SDLP assembly member Dolores Kelly said it was clear the NIO had “interfered” with the appointment process.
She said: “I have to ask why this meeting took place. Was the NIO offering concessions to the DUP? I am very sceptical.”
A spokesman for the NIO confirmed Mr Woodward had met Mr Dodds and Mr Saulters on September 7.
Mr Woodward was replaced as security minister in an NIO shake-up last week. He was overseas and unavailable for comment yesterday.
A judge is to rule in the High Court in Belfast today on the legality of the appointment of Mr Burrows and Mr MacKay to the Parades Commission.
Mr MacKay resigned from his post this week. It had been revealed he had listed two referees on his application without having asked for their permission.
Mr Burrows also listed a referee on his application without asking permission.
He has so far resisted calls to resign.
Yesterday the Parades Commission granted the Orange Order permission to march along a disputed section of the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Co Armagh.
The Parkmount junior Orange lodge will parade past nationalist homes on Parkmount and Victoria Terrace on May 27.
Residents had opposed the march, which will pass along the part of the Garvaghy Road where DUP leader Ian Paisley and former Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble did their infamous celebratory jig in 1995.

Daily Ireland

Co Tyrone men tell of attempts to recruit them amid warnings not to tell the media

19/05/2006

A group of Co Tyrone men have claimed the PSNI tried to recruit them as informers.
The men, all from the Strabane area, went public after claiming the PSNI had been involved in a sustained attempt to recruit them as informers at different times over the last six months.
They said some of them had been warned not to reveal details of the recruitment attempts to the press.
Strabane republican Ben Brady said he was concerned that the PSNI would try to set him up or have him shot after members of the force approached him.
“I am being stopped every time I go out the door — four or five times a week. I think it is getting to the stage where they are going to set me up or I’m going to get shot.
“Look at that fellow in Ballynahinch [Steven Colwell]. They riddled him. When I’m on the road, they set up road blocks just for me and there is nothing to stop them opening up.
“I have been in jail for political offences and, if I’m found up a back road, nobody is going to give a damn.
“My solicitor has contacted the Police Ombudsman’s office. There are other people in this who are being asked to provide information about me as well as other things,” he said.
The Co Tyrone man said the PSNI had approached up to seven local men in recent months. Taxi driver Patrick Deehan from Sion Mills said two PSNI officers had tried to recruit him as an informer as he sat outside City of Derry Airport on Wednesday.
The healthcare worker said the PSNI had tried to blackmail him in recent months.
He also claimed PSNI members had warned him he would “end up like John Brady”, a jailed Tyrone republican who supporters believe was framed by the PSNI.
“I lifted a fare in Strabane and brought him to the airport. I now believe this man was a PSNI man. I didn’t know him but, when he got out of the car, two men I know to be PSNI men got into the car. I told them to get out and they asked me to run them into Eglinton village.
“I said no, that I wasn’t moving until they got out. They have tried to recruit me twice in the last six months and every time they try to blackmail me with something new.
“They have offered me cash and a car. I am getting married next month and earlier this week they threatened to tell my girlfriend that I have been seeing other women.
“I told them I didn’t care what they said. I wasn’t going to work for them. Then they said that, if I didn’t work for them, I was going to jail. I have a court case next month and they know this. They said they were going to keep coming back and that time was running out for me,” said Mr Deehan.
The Sion Mills man spoke of his fear for the future.
“At the start, I laughed at this but now it is serious. When the man I lifted in Strabane got out of the car, he paid me £25 [€37] for the taxi fare.
“The PSNI might have pictures of me taking the money and they could show it to other people and try to portray me as a tout. They said I could end up like John Brady and they could frame me if they wanted to.
“I am worried about this now and I want the PSNI off my back.”

Daily Ireland

By Padraig O Meiscill
19/05/2006

**See Royal Mail delivers record PROFIT

Royal Mail has come under fire over charging international rates for post moving from the North to the South of Ireland.
According to Royal Mail, posted items going to the Republic from the North are “international mail” and should be paid for as such.
An educational institution in Belfast received notification to this effect early in the week, stating: “Republic of Ireland mail should be treated in the same way as any international mail.”
The rate for people in the North of Ireland posting to the Republic is therefore the same as that for people living in England, Scotland and Wales.
Belfast Sinn Féin assembly member Michael Ferguson said: “Along with the extortionate rates we pay for gas, electricity etc., the British government are effectively making us foot the bill for their occupation of the North of Ireland.”
“It’s really illogical when you think about it that somebody posting a letter from Derry to Letterkenny or from Newry to Dundalk should have to pay an international tariff rate, whereas a letter going across the Irish Sea to England is treated as domestic mail” he said.
The West Belfast MLA claimed the tariff would have a negative impact on developing cross-border business. He said: “What we have here is a classic example of partition distorting the entitlements of the Irish people and probably economic growth as well.
“The people who set the rates in Royal Mail need to get their heads round the fact that Belfast and Dublin are in the same country and should be treated as such. The harmonisation of postal costs on the island should clearly become an element of the all-Ireland agenda.”
When contacted, a spokesman for Royal Mail said the tariff was not a recent development and that the North was treated no differently from “the rest of the UK”.

Daily Ireland

By Connla Young and Concubhar Ó Liatháin
19/05/2006

The PSNI has been accused of deliberately withholding statistics on the levels of sectarian attacks in Ballymena.
Last night local councillor Monica Digney questioned whether PSNI computers were as “bigoted as those who sit at them” after police chiefs claimed software currently used by them is unable to “provide analysis of the victims of sectarian incidents”.
The PSNI made the claim after Daily Ireland requested a breakdown of figures relating to sectarian attacks in the troubled town.
Bizarrely, the PSNI claimed they couldn’t provide the figures. When asked to explain why not, a spokesperson said: “In its present form, the software used by the PSNI to gather statistical information holds finite layers of information about a vast number of incidents. It is currently not possible to provide analysis of the victims of sectarian incidents for this reason.”
Last night Sinn Féin councillor Monica Digney said she wasn’t surprised to learn that the PSNI were reluctant to reveal the levels of sectarian attacks in Ballymena.
“I’m not surprised by this at all. Especially when you see some of the remarks that the PSNI have made over the past week. I just wonder are their computers as bigoted as those who sit at them?
“I don’t think anyone has any faith in the PSNI to be even handed in their dealings with the nationalist community, particularly in a place like Ballymena where anti-Catholic bigotry and sectarianism permeates every section of society.”

Newshound

(Jim Gibney, Irish News)

The most disturbing aspect of the comments attributed to Ballymena DUP councillor Roy Gillespie about the murdered school boy Michael McIlveen is that they are widespread although usually unspoken among sections of the unionist and Protestant people.

Gillespie’s reported remark that 15-year-old Michael “will not get into heaven” is sourced in his biblical belief, which is reflected in the same statement that, “the Pope is the antichrist and is head of the Catholic Church, which is not a true church or faith”.

Although such views are outrageous, insulting and insensitive to the murdered youth’s family, friends and the Catholic community of Ballymena and beyond, Gillespie is unlikely to face censure before the law for incitement to hatred or be disciplined by the leadership of the DUP.

Michael McIlveen was hunted down as if he was little more than an animal on a savannah who wandered into a gang of predators hungry for a ‘kill’. He was pursued relentlessly, separated out from his friends, his only source of protection, harried for half-a-mile, surrounded, cornered and then bludgeoned.

Michael was killed because he was a Catholic.

Although to many within the unionist and Protestant population Catholics are every bit as threatening as nationalists or republicans.

There is a danger that negative influences can be received through political parties, churches and organisations like the Orange Order and loyalist paramilitaries.

Sectarianism weaves its way insidiously through sections of the unionist and Protestant population.

It emerges publicly in an attitude which sees Catholics as less than full human beings.

Sectarianism, in its most extreme theological form, exists inside the Bible-based Free Presbyterian Church led by Ian Paisley. It is politically expressed by his party, the DUP, which is an extension of his church.

Ian Paisley did not create this mix of politics and religion. It exists among Protestants and can be traced back through various firebrand clerics for at least two centuries.

Paisley inherited this mix and shaped it into a formidable political force.

Sectarianism in its rawest form kills and the death of Michael McIlveen is the most recent example.

He is the third young Catholic killed in as many years by gangs of Protestants.

Fifteen-year-old Thomas Devlin was stabbed to death on Belfast’s Somerton Road and James McMahon (21) was kicked to death outside Lisburn Council offices.

Sectarianism also exists among many Catholics, nationalists and republicans and has resulted over the years in Protestants being killed and attacked.

Partition and the consolidation of the unionist and Protestant population into the six counties led to sectarianism being institutionalised and legitimised with state authority.

This led to a prevailing attitude that Catholics lives are expendable in the face of the denial of perceived Protestants’ rights such as marching down Garvaghy Road.

It matters little that several Catholics including the three Quinn boys were killed because the Orange Order insisted on marching this road.

Other Catholic children such as those in Holy Cross felt the fury of sectarian abuse from Protestants while David Trimble spoke about Sinn Féin needing to be “house trained”.

This week the UUP covered in a cloak of unionist respectability an organisation of dedicated Catholic killers, the UVF, when they absorbed the PUP leader into its Assembly ranks.

This UUP-UVF alliance confirms the experience of northern Catholics – their rights have always been secondary to unionist needs.

Although there are many individual unionists and Protestants challenging sectarianism in their own community Catholics like Michael McIlveen will always be in danger until that sectarianism is rooted out of mainstream unionism and Protestantism.

May 19, 2006
________________

This article appeared first in the May 18, 2006 edition of the Irish News.

Daily Ireland

by Ciarán Barnes
18/05/2006

**Fake jacket and pointy head!

THE PSNI raided a suspected counterfeit goods factory in north Belfast yesterday morning. The factory was allegedly responsible for producing a leather Team Red Bull motor racing jacket worn in court by the north Belfast loyalist Ihab Shoukri.
The 30-year-old is facing Ulster Defence Association membership charges. He stood in the dock before Christmas wearing the jacket.
In yesterday’s raid in a house in the Ballysillan area, the PSNI said it seized thousands of copied DVDs, CDs and computer games with a street value of at least £50,000 (€73,000).
Police also took away equipment used to copy the DVDs and CDs.
Also seized during the raid were replica Formula One and motor racing clothing — jackets, shirts and overalls — with a street value of around £25,000 (€37,000).
A police spokeswoman said there had been no arrests in relation to the seizures but a file was being prepared for the Public Prosecution Service.
Colleagues of Ihab Shoukri told Daily Ireland that the factory had produced the jacket worn by the loyalist in court last year.
“People are having a laugh because there was a photo of Ihab in the newspapers wearing one of the fake Formula One jackets,” said one UDA member.
“People are wondering if he had to pay for it.
“Ihab takes a lot of pride in his appearance.
“He will be embarrassed that people have found out he’s running around in fake designer clothes.”

Frank Millar, London Editor
19 May 2006

The Northern Ireland Policing Board has rejected the British government’s proposed guidelines for the operation of Community Based Restorative Justice Schemes (CBRJ) to deal with “low-level crime” in loyalist and republican areas.

The SDLP has been leading the opposition to the British government’s Draft Guidelines - fearing restorative justice schemes will provide cover for extending paramilitary control in the communities, and a new form of “political policing” which the Patten reforms were designed to eliminate.

And the party’s fears have been reflected by unionist members of the policing board, who agree the proposed operation of the schemes would permit CBRJ representatives to effectively “bypass the police in their engagement with the criminal justice system” in the North.

In a cross-party submission to criminal justice minister David Hanson ahead of publication of his final proposals next month, the policing board insists that CBRJ schemes cannot be allowed to participate in the criminal justice system without giving “unqualified acceptance” to the role of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). And it says schemes refusing to recognise the police should be denied “the imprimatur of the state.”

This emerged last night as SDLP and DUP members of the board insisted that Mr Hanson should present his proposed final “guidelines” to them in advance of a public announcement believed to be scheduled for June 18th.

And news of the board’s uncompromising response confirmed that the issue of restorative justice schemes is integral to the entire policing debate, which DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley says must be resolved as part of any powersharing devolution deal in November.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has attempted to allay concerns about the CBRJ issue, suggesting that the final proposals brought forward by the government will “of course” have to be agreed with the PSNI.

In a previously unpublished extract from an interview with The Irish Times last week, Mr Hain said: “Any taking forward of restorative justice has two cardinal principles underpinning it. One, it’s got to be agreed with the police. The other, it has to be in line with the rule of law. There is no compromise on those points.”

Despite Mr Hain’s apparent assurance, however, senior SDLP sources last night expressed their concern that ministers would seek to bypass cross-party opposition by proceeding in the first instance with a limited number of “pilot schemes” subject to only “minimal regulation”.

At the same time a senior member of the policing board said he did not know if the PSNI’s submission and statement of concerns was as comprehensive as that of the board.

The board says it believes CBRJ schemes could have a role to play in dealing with activities of concern to local communities in the North. In its submission to Mr Hanson, it says it is essential for any guidelines developed in relation to such schemes “to clarify what is meant by low-level crime”, in order that all involved should “understand the parameters of CBRJ”.

However, the board rejects “the rationale” apparently underpinning the Draft Guidelines, which it says “appears to be that, as at present there is nothing to stop people setting up schemes, then surely it is better to have them regulated than not regulated”.

RTÉ

19 May 2006 17:49

Several of the Afghan hunger strikers at St Patrick’s Cathedral have threatened to jump from the organ loft in the building.

A statement from the Church of Ireland this evening confirmed that they are now pursuing legal options to bring the stand-off to an end.

Earlier, one of the hunger strikers was taken away from the cathedral. He was taken out on a stretcher to an ambulance which had arrived there at about 4pm.
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Just before 3pm, more garda vans had arrived at the main entrance to the building, and 20 additional gardaí went inside.

Fifteen officers entered the cathedral shortly after 9am this morning, while at least 30 other officers were stationed in groups around the building.

One of the Afghan youths on hunger strike claimed the gardaí had given a 7pm deadline for the protest to end.

The 17-year-old claimed they had been told if they did not leave by then they would be arrested and put into prison.

An eighth minor was made a ward of court this afternoon.

However, the President of the High Court refused an request that the gardaí take the minors into custody when he made seven of them wards of court at the request of the HSE this morning.

Church of Ireland representatives have asked the men to leave the Cathedral.

A spokesperson said the request had been made in the light of threats made by the men to take their own lives.

The spokesperson said that threats of self-harm were not acceptable.

The spokesperson refused to confirm whether or not they would be requesting gardaí to remove the men.

Earlier, the hunger strikers were reported to have threatened to kill themselves if any attempt is made to remove them.

A spokesperson for Residents Against Racism, Henry Dent, criticised the garda operation and said there was an unnecessary number of gardaí in the area.

The group had earlier claimed some of the men attempted to commit suicide last night.

Rosanna Flynn of the group said that she was not aware if the men were injured or had received medical attention.

A number of garda vans are parked on nearby Kevin Street. St Patrick’s Close was earlier sealed off by gardaí.

So far, there does not seem to have been any attempt to remove the Afghan protestors, who are on the sixth day of a hunger strike.

Belfast Telegraph

19 May 2006

The family of an innocent victim of last summer’s loyalist feud has called on Northern Ireland’s politicians to throw support behind a campaign to bring the young man’s killers to justice.

Nicola McIlvenny, whose 20-year-old cousin Craig McCausland was shot dead by the UVF last July, said she needed political help in asking whether the terror group “is operating with the absolute impunity it seems to have”.

The young father’s family met with Tory MP David Lidington, the shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, on Monday in a bid to have the murder raised in the House of Commons.

“Mr Lidington said he was willing to raise the wider issue of the UVF’s apparent ceasefire in the House to help us out,” Ms McIlvenny said.

“Ideally what we want is Craig’s killers to be brought before the courts and punished for what they have done. It’s almost a year since he was killed and we feel that we’re at a standstill.

“But we also need help in raising the wider issue of loyalist murders. We are calling for all politicians and influential people in Northern Ireland to help raise this issue and join our fight for justice.”

The family launched the Justice for Craig campaign last year in the wake of the horrific murder. Craig was gunned down by the UVF on July 11 in his north Belfast home in front of his partner and her two young children. He left behind his own son Dean, then aged just two.

He was one of four men shot dead by the UVF last summer. His murder was thought to be a case of mistaken identity and police quickly confirmed that he had no paramilitary connections whatsoever.

Craig’s mother Lorraine was viciously attacked by the UDA 18 years earlier and then beaten to death with a breeze block.

Ms McIlvenny continued: “Lorraine was just 23 when she was murdered. We thought that murder could never visit our family again. Craig was just 20 and he left behind a son the same age as he was when his mother was killed.

“No-one has been brought to justice for either murder. When is it going to stop? A line has to be drawn somewhere. Someone has to be held accountable for the numerous murders the UVF has been responsible for since 1994. It looks to me like they are operating with absolute impunity.”

Ms McIlvenny said the full grief of losing Craig was only beginning to hit his family now.

“I think we’ve had a delayed reaction and it’s really only hitting home now.”