SAOIRSE32

Indymedia.ie

by Paul Doyle - New Republican Forum
May 27, 2006 18:00

Irish prisioner Aiden Hulme has been subject to shocking medical neglect since his imprisonment in England and will loose his leg if immediate action is not taken. Join the protest!

A picket calling for the immediate repatriation of Irish prisoner Aiden Hulme will be held outside the General Post Office in Dublin on 17th of June 2006 from 2-3pm.

Aiden, 27, was imprisoned for alleged involvement in the 2000/2001 ‘Real’ IRA bombing campaign in London. Prior to his arrest and imprisonment he was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him with a severely injured leg. After the accident Aiden was receiving treatment in Belfast and his condition was improving. However, upon imprisonment in Britain’s notorious Belmarsh Special Secure Unit (SSU), Aiden’s medical condition began to deteriorate at an alarming rate. After long delays the Belmarsh authorities reluctantly acquired the services of a specialist to examine Aiden’s injured leg but after a brief examination the Belmarsh-appointed specialist informed him that the injured leg should be amputated. Aiden’s family and friends, disturbed by and suspicious of this opinion, immediately sought a second opinion.

After intensive and prolonged political lobbying by the Irish Political Status Committee and other groups an independent specialist was permitted to examine Aiden. After the examination the independent specialist deemed the limb “saveable” – contrary to the opinion of the prison-appointed specialist. However, the independent specialist insisted it was essential that Aiden receive appropriate medical treatment, warning he “feared the worst” if it was not forthcoming. Aiden underwent surgery, but due to continuing medical neglect he is now once again facing amputation. Several operations aimed at saving Aiden’s leg have also been cancelled by the prison authorities.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan has contacted the British Home Office and the Department of Justice requesting that Aiden’s repatriation application be processed without delay. Sinn Féin General Secretary Mitchel McLaughlin has also called on the Irish Government to intervene immediately. He said: “Aiden Hulme’s application for repatriation to an Irish prison has been with Michael McDowell in the Irish Department of Justice since last September (2005). I call on Mr McDowell to process this application immediately so that Aiden Hulme can come back where he will be close to his family and receive the much needed medical attention that he is entitled to.”

Aiden, who is on 23-hour lock down, has instructed his legal team to initiate proceedings against HMP Full Sutton on account of the treatment meted out to him.

Various other political and humantarian groups have spoken out about this case and an online petition has been lauched: >>here.

For information visit www.ia-pl.org or www.newrepublicanforum.ie

Email: pauldoyle2006@hotmail.com

Phone: 0851048298

Write to:

The New Republican Forum,
PO Box 10,
Dundalk Sorting Office,
Dundalk,
Co Louth,
Ireland.

Indymedia.ie

By Cllr Keith Martin
May 27, 2006 18:25

A wreath was laid at the foot of the monument which marks the 2nd meeting of what would become the Land League, which took place there in 1879. It was at this meeting that Davitt and Parnell first addressed the public together.

>>Photo: Cllr Keith Martin, Dail Candidate Harry Barrett and Cllr Johnny Mee laying the wreath

Cllrs Johnny Mee and Keith Martin, Dail Candidate Harry Barrett and officers and members of Mayo’s Labour Party Branches gathered on the Newport Road on Saturday to honour Michael Davitt in this week which marks the 90th anniversary of his death.

A wreath was laid at the foot of the monument which marks the 2nd meeting of what would become the Land League, which took place there in 1879. It was at this meeting that Davitt and Parnell first addressed the public together.

Speaking at the ceremony, Westport Branch Chairman, John Tiernan, said “It is only fitting that we remember Michael Davitt here in Westport today. Davitt was a visionary who saw that there was a better way and who devoted his life to achieving social change and better conditions for the farmer and for the worker. It is only appropriate that as we approach the 90th anniversary of his death we remember him and his work.”

Labour’s Dail Candidate Harry Barrett spoke of how “the crossroads on the Newport Road and the Golf Course Road in Westport are the site of a pivotal and often overlooked piece of national history. It was at this crossing that the second meeting of what would become the Land League which took place on the 8 June 1879.”

“From the success of this massive meeting Davitt and Parnell went on to found the Land League of Mayo, in August 1879. It was at the Westport meeting that the farmers of Ireland were told to ‘keep a firm grip on your homesteads and lands’ by Parnell but today we must also keep a firm grip on our quality of life and the equality of opportunity for land ownership. In Mayo and all through Ireland there are too many young people who stand no chance of owning their own home. This must change” concluded Mr Barrett.

Cllr Keith Martin said land ownership was still an issue today and pointed out that before the Labour Party was established there was a Labour movement lead by men like Michael Davitt. “Michael Davitt was a labour leader in Ireland and Britain, and established a weekly paper, ‘Labour World’ to highlight the plight and views of the workers of the two islands. We should remember all aspects of the man’s life on the 90th anniversary of his death” he said.

Sunday Tribune

**Via Newshound

Suzanne Breen
21 May 2006

HE’S THE chattering classes’ favourite former paramilitary.

Gerry Adams might look more statesmanlike, Martin McGuinness might pen poetry, but invariably, it’s David Ervine who is hailed as a beacon of hope in a society of bigots.

You’d never guess he was the political representative of an organisation which refuses decommissioning, is up to its neck in criminality, and continues shooting, beating and targeting nationalists and ethnic minorities, as last month’s IMC report points out.

The PUP leader is rarely even asked about this. Gerry and Martin must wonder how he pulls it off.

An Ulster Unionist politician in Ervine’s east-Belfast constituency remarks enviously: “Some people in the staunchly loyalist areas see him as a traitor, but the ladies on the (middleclass) Belmont Road love him. He’s ‘the thinking woman’s thug’.”

That’s unfair. Ervine’s flowery metaphors do grate . . . he’s known as ‘Dictionary Dave’ on the Shankill . . . but he’s widely regarded as a nice guy who carries little clout with the UVF. He stepped out of the shadows after the 1994 ceasefires and became the first loyalist to be liked outside his own community. He smoked a pipe (and unlike Gerry Adams, still occasionally does) and enjoyed a bowl of Irish stew and a pint of Guinness.

The only marching he ever did in Dublin was to the Abbey for Frank McGuinness’s Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme. His is a modern, anti-sectarian unionist “free from the Pope, the Queen and King Billy.”

Despite family objections that it was “a Fenian name”, he called his son Owen after the protagonist in his favourite book, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist.

“That’s probably the only book Davy’s ever read, ” jokes a friend. “He’s not really into literature, he does a bit of bluffing. Liverpool Football Club and horse racing are his passions.”

He admires the Taoiseach’s political skills but is more impressed by the meatier approach of ex-SDLP deputy leader Seamus Mallon. “He could take somebody’s scrotum, slice off their balls . . . it would be over in a second and they wouldn’t know it was done, ” Ervine has said, disclosing that, as a man with a vasectomy, he knows what he’s talking about.

He can be breathtakingly non-PC.

Explaining why marrying Jeannette at 18 was the best thing he’d ever done, he said:

“We got to be chums and we’re that good chums, she now washes my socks.” But his heart’s in the right place. When the Assembly debated abortion, he was the only politician to speak in favour of a woman’s right to choose. Northern society, he says, treats women “like something it walked in on its heel”. He’s no stranger to social problems. His grandson Mark, hanged himself two years ago at the age of 14. “It nearly destroyed Davy, ” says a friend.

Ervine was reared, the youngest of five, in a two-up, two-down house. “No garden, oilcloth on the floor, an outside bog, and your Da’s coat over the bed at night, ” he says, keen to show not all Protestants lived in luxury pre-Troubles.

His father supported the civil rights movement and the Northern Ireland Labour Party. His mother was more reactionary and still keeps Ervine on his toes.

“She never ceases to remind me I’m getting showers put in for elderly people by the Housing Executive, but I’m a lazy bastard and haven’t done it for her.”

As a child, wandering into a tin bath of hot water permanently scarred his back.

He didn’t shine academically at Orangefield Boys’ School, where pupils included Van Morrison and former Beirut hostage Brian Keenan.

Aged 19, Ervine joined the UVF after Bloody Friday . . . when 22 IRA bombs killed nine people. Two years later, he was arrested with a car bomb. He has appeared uncomfortable talking about it, declining to name the intended target, a Catholic pub.

He served six years in Long Kesh. UVF commander Gusty Spence encouraged him to think politically. There was mischief too. He learned enough Irish to cause havoc among IRA prisoners during drill practice, shouting ‘about turn’ through the wire, reducing republican ranks to chaos.

Last week, the chaos was in the UUP ranks. Its only MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon, was “deeply distressed” by Ervine’s admission to the Assembly group. Councillor Ronnie Crawford said UUP members were now tainted with paramilitarism.

Despite the popularity of Ervine’s move among some . . . as a poke in the eye to Paisley . . . it may have seriously weakened the UUP leadership. As this Assembly is unlikely to ever elect an Executive, the extra UUP ministerial seat is theoretical anyway. “Pain without gain, ” complain the grassroots. Raymond McCord, whose son was murdered by the UVF, is as relentless as the McCartney sisters in his justice campaign. He’ll now hound Empey and Ervine.

It’s surprising that, after years denouncing ‘fur-coat’ unionism, Ervine joined the party most embodying it. UK Unionist leader, Bob McCartney, doesn’t rate Ervine, who to him sounds “like an amalgamation of Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King and the local probation officer”.

Some see Ervine as a fraud, a carefully manufactured personality. He dismisses claims he’s MI5.

The SDLP’s Alban Maginness says Ervine is “a little verbose, but very talented, and one of the few unionists in whose company I feel comfortable.” The DUP’s Sammy Wilson says: “After committee meetings, he won’t join the rest of us for a cup of tea and a yarn. He’s affable but aloof. He’s not flash but he’s fallen into a position whereby he gains status promoting himself as a philosopher.”

Outside politics, it’s different. After a few pints, Ervine thinks he’s Frank Sinatra. “He sings a very bad ‘My Way’, ” a friend says.

“Davy never shuts up. He does pontificate on things he knows nothing about and he’s a man for a grand vision, not fine detail. He laughs at himself for being pompous.”

His generosity is legendary, a loyalist friend says: “His bet came in and he went to split the winnings even though it had nothing to do with me. He’ll buy drink all night and you’ll have to tell him to let these other f*****s pay for rounds. Once, we were at a policing conference in New York, and he was heading home early. He knew I was short of money. He slipped a few hundred dollars into my pocket, saying ‘get something for the wife’. You couldn’t find a better friend.”

C.V.

Occupation: Leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, the UVF’s political wing
Born: Belfast, 1953
Educated: Orangefield Boys’ School, Belfast
Married to: Jeanette. Two sons
In the news: Has decidedly altered the balance of power in the North by joining the Ulster Unionist Assembly group at Stormont

BN.ie

27/05/2006 - 17:11:31

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams tonight claimed he had been snubbed by a prestigious British museum.

The 57-year-old, who has been welcomed in the White House, No 10 Downing Street and the home of Nelson Mandela, said the Victoria and Albert Museum in London had refused to invite him to its Che Guevara exhibition.

He hit out at the museum for claiming that his presence would be neither relevant or appropriate on the launch night.

“I think its stance is especially absurd given that this particular exhibition is about an iconic revolutionary figure, with family connections to Ireland, who fought against injustice and oppression both in Cuba and in South America.”

Mr Adams had been invited to the opening of the Che Guevara exhibition in the V&A next month by its curator, Trisha Ziff. She had previously worked with him on a Mexican-Irish art exhibition and an exhibition of photos about the shooting of unarmed civilians on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972.

According to Mr Adams, Ms Ziff was told that all her invite list was approved “except Gerry Adams who is neither relevant or appropriate for this occasion”.

The exhibition, which will run from June 5 until August 28, centres on the iconic photograph of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Díaz Korda in 1960. It contains photography, posters, film, fine art and clothing inspired by the image from more than 30 countries.

When Ms Ziff queried the Museum’s refusal to invite Mr Adams, she was told by another member of staff that there would be 1960’s fashion show and a display of 1960’s graphics running alongside the exhibition, with models, actresses and fashion journalists expected to attend. The staff member said that the presence of Mr Adams might not be appropriate because of this joint event and offered to arrange a private viewing for him.

Ms Ziff was later told that the Museum had a policy of not inviting people affiliated to any specific party but that she could bring Mr Adams as a personal guest.

Mr Adams, who has consistently denied allegations that he is a member of the IRA’s army council, said one possible reason for the Museum’s decision was that it was OK to struggle against injustice, but not against British injustice.

“On the basis of the current ’reason’ offered by the Victoria & Albert Museum, of refusing to invite politicians, it would appear that if Che was still alive he would be barred from his own exhibition. The British Establishment works in wondrous ways.”

However, even if the invite had been issued, Mr Adams would have been unable to attend. He is due to travel to Spain next month to meet Basque political parties in the wake of the ETA ceasefire.

A spokeswoman for the V&A Museum was contacting senior staff for comment.

Belfast Telegraph

26 May 2006

The Respect MP George Galloway has said it would be morally justified for a suicide bomber to murder Tony Blair.

In an interview with GQ magazine, the reporter asked him: “Would the assassination of, say, Tony Blair by a suicide bomber - if there were no other casualties - be justified as revenge for the war on Iraq?”

Mr Galloway replied: “Yes, it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it - but if it happened it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of 7/7. It would be entirely logical and explicable. And morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq - as Blair did.”

The Labour MP Stephen Pound, a persistent critic of Mr Galloway during previous controversies, told The Sun that the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow in east London was “disgraceful and truly twisted”.

He said: “These comments take my breath away. Every time you think he can’t sink any lower he goes and stuns you again. It’s reprehensible to say it would be justified for a suicide bomber to assassinate anyone.”

The Stop the War Coalition criticised Mr Galloway: “We don’t agree with Tony Blair’s actions, but neither do we agree with suicide bombers or assassinations.”

Just hours after four bomb attacks killed 52 people on London’s transport system last July, Mr Galloway said the city had “paid the price” for Mr Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Ten thousand Osama bin Ladens have been created at least by the events of the last two years,” he told MPs in the Commons that day.

Mr Pound said at the time: “I thought George had sunk to the depths of sickness in the past but this exceeds anything he has done before.” The Armed Forces minister, Adam Ingram, accused the Respect MP of “dipping his poisonous tongue in a pool of blood”.

Mr Galloway yesterday made a surprise appearance on Cuban television with the Caribbean island’s Communist dictator, Fidel Castro - whom he defended as a “lion” in a political world populated by “monkeys”.

Mr Galloway shocked panellists on a live television discussion show in Havana by emerging on set mid-transmission to offer passionate support for Castro. Looking approvingly into each others’ eyes, the pair embraced.

Belfast Telegraph

By Debra Douglas
27 May 2006

The security forces were step ping up patrols in north Belfast last night over fears of a bloody UDA feud.

The fate of the Shoukri brothers was under the spotlight once again as they met their supporters in the city.

With the UDA Inner Council set to declare its decision on the future of Andre and Ihab within the organisation early next week, last-minute crunch talks were taking place last night.

An ‘investigation’ into the alleged criminal activities of paramilitary leaders in north Belfast - including Andre and Ihab Shoukri ended about two weeks ago but the brothers are still waiting to hear the outcome.

The inquiry followed allegations that 28-year-old Andre, whose brother Ihab is the UDA’s North Belfast brigadier, gambled more than £860,000 over a two-year period.

During it, churchmen and community workers in north Belfast told the ‘inner council’ that crime and drug-dealing in the area had been substantially reduced over the last 18 months.

And businessmen in the area also told how they have been forced to hand over large sums of cash to the Shoukris.

The decision whether or not to expel the brothers is seen as the biggest test of the UDA’s authority since it expelled its Shankill leader Johnny Adair and his associate John White.

The UDA wants to deal with the issue peacefully, but fears a ‘last stand’ by the Shoukris could spill over into a bloody feud.

Senior figures on the inner council - and in the linked Ulster Political Research Group - want to expel the Shoukris and their associates.

There is also concern in some camps that if the brothers are not expelled, it could lead to friction with other UDA leaders.

But others fear attempts to force the north Belfast leadership to back down could result in a bloody split.

Belfast Telegraph

Brian Rowan
27 May 2006

The UDA command - its ‘inner council’ - has moved to dismiss Ihab Shoukri from its leadership.

The organisation’s most senior leaders met in the city on Thursday to discuss their recent investigation into the alleged criminal activities of the Shoukri brothers, Andre and Ihab, and their closest associate.

Its decision was immediately delivered to the paramilitary organisation in north Belfast.

A clear majority of UDA ‘brigadiers’ are no longer prepared to share a leadership table with the Shoukris.

They have in effect expelled Ihab Shoukri from the inner council and distanced the rest of the organisation from the three most senior members of the north Belfast leadership.

The North Belfast UDA was understood to be meeting last night to discuss the implications of Thursday’s meeting.

One source said every member was ’summoned’. A statement from the inner council is expected to do so soon.

It first wants to hear the reaction of the UDA membership in the north of the city.

If those members want to be represented at a leadership level within the UDA, then they will first have to remove Ihab Shoukri, his brother Andre and a third loyalist from their leadership positions.

That third loyalist is a one-time close associate of Johnny Adair.

If the three are removed, then according to one source, ‘it’s business as usual’.

The UDA has six so-called ‘brigade’ areas ? each represented on the inner council. Ihab Shoukri is the north Belfast ‘brigadier’ but has been excluded from meetings of the leadership for many weeks, and he will have been further isolated by Thursday’s decision.

Four of the other five UDA brigadiers are no longer prepared to recognise his leadership, but the position of the organisation in south east Antrim is still not clear. Its leader did not attend the Shoukri investigation but sent a representative.

If the UDA in south east Antrim sides with the organisation in south, east and west Belfast and in north Antrim/Derry, then it will be the end of the Shoukris and their closest associate inside the paramilitary organisation.

The question is, can it be achieved peacefully and without a major split within the UDA.

The position of all parts of the organisation should be known by next week.

BN.ie

27/05/2006 - 11:08:25

A new report on homelessness has revealed that 400 children are experiencing the problem in Dublin.

The report by the state-run Homeless Agency revealed a decrease in the numbers of young people accessing homeless services and emergency shelters.

But support groups say there has been a rise in hidden and unreported child homelessness and say there is notable Government inaction in this area.

Minister for Housing Noel Ahern says that current strategies to combat homelessness are under review.

“We are working on a new strategy in which all the voluntary bodies and the service providers have been involved. This is very much a collaborative operation,” he said.

CBC News

26 May 2006 23:38:11 EDT

A former member of the Irish Republican Army was sent back to Ireland this week while en route to Fort Augustus, P.E.I., for Irish heritage celebrations.

Pat Treanor, the mayor of County Monaghan in Ireland, had been to Canada twice in the past year. But when he flew into St. John’s on Wednesday, border security officials asked him whether he had a record.

He told them he was convicted once — for being a member of the IRA. He was refused admittance to Canada and sent back home.

“I’m disappointed and I would like to be part of the celebrations on Prince Edward Island,” he told CBC News in an interview from his hometown.

But he expects he’ll get this travel problem straightened out. “I do believe it was just some kind of a cock-up at the airport, seeing that I got in twice before. I will be meeting with the Canadian ambassador and I’m fairly confident we’ll resolve whatever difficulties there are there.”

The IRA officially ended its armed struggle against British rule in July 2005.

Treanor said he was a member for a few years in the 1970s, but that he’s never committed any crime. He remains a member of Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political wing.

The Canada Border Services Agency won’t talk about the case. But spokeswoman Jennifer Morrison said people can be turned away for a number of reasons, such as having a criminal record or belonging to a terrorist group.

Treanor was travelling with three other members of the Monaghan county council, who were able to continue on to Fort Augustus.

BN.ie

26/05/2006 - 23:00:19

The 10th anniversary of the killing of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe will be marked with a new RTE documentary.

True Lives – Jerry McCabe: Murder on Main Street – will retell the story of the bungled post office robbery in Adare, Co Limerick, and the hunt for his killers.

The 52-year-old detective was gunned down by an IRA gang in June 1996.

It will also focus on the effect his death has had on his family and the political consequences of the entire affair.

The programme, to be screened on RTE One on Tuesday, June 6, is part of the station’s summer schedule unveiled today.