SAOIRSE32

BBC

Two men have been remanded in custody on charges of Real IRA membership and smuggling cigarettes worth £1m.

Aidan Grew, 50, from Benburb Street, Blackwatertown, and Noel Abernathy, 37, of Glebe Mews, Dungannon, appeared at Banbridge Magistrates Court.

Mr Abernathy was also charged with having articles for use in terrorism.

Defence solicitors claimed evidence from MI5 agent David Rupert formed the basis of the prosecution case. A police officer refused to comment.

The defence also claimed their clients had been denied private consultation with their legal team.

Both men were remanded in custody until 20 June.

Irish Examiner

The Special Criminal Court has reserved its judgment in the trial of a 21-year-old Dublin man who denies being a member of the IRA.

The three-judge court will deliver its judgement on June 16 following the four-day trial of Vincent Kelly of Empress Place, Ballybough, Dublin, who was arrested after gardaí found a gun inside a van in north Dublin.

He has pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA, on June 7, 2005.

In evidence today a garda told the court the accused had told her he was “going to the chipper” when she approached him after he got out of a white Astra van, which had pulled over on the Malahide Road in Dublin on the evening of June 7, 2005.

Garda Anna Marie Gilmartin told Mr Tom O’Connell SC, prosecuting, she asked the accused to return to the van where she observed the driver as well as another unknown man in the back.

She said the driver later got out of the van and opened the back door, at which stage a third man ran across the road and escaped over the railings of a nearby school.

The witness said she later drove the van back to Clontarf Garda Station, where she searched it with a colleague.

In the front passenger-side door she found what she believed to be a bottle of CS gas. She later searched the back of the van, where she found two balaclavas, a pair of gloves and a gun partially concealed by another pair of gloves.

Under cross-examination from Mr Diarmaid McGuinness SC, defending, she agreed there had been nothing unusual about the way Mr Kelly was dressed and she said he had no gloves on his hands at any stage.

She also agreed the unknown man in the back of the van was immediately behind the driver’s seat in the position where she subsequently found the gloves and the gun.

Summing up the case for the prosecution Mr Remy Farrell BL (with Mr O’Connell) said the court was entitled to draw inferences from the activities and associations of the accused.

He said that while the accused himself was not in possession of the canister, the gloves and the gun, he was associated with persons who had those items available to them.

However, Mr McGuinness said that out of seven people who were stopped by the gardaí that day his client had been singled out as the only one to face a charge of membership (of an illegal organisation.)

He said the court was entitled to draw an inference from that, that there was no evidence at all to sustain the proposition that what was involved that night was an IRA operation.

He also rejected an assertion by the prosecution that a tee-shirt the accused was wearing under his jumper bearing the words Óglaigh na hÉireann was almost akin to an admission of his guilt.

He said it was evidently an old tee-shirt that had been worn and was not evidence of membership on June 7, 2005.

He said the prosecution had not sought to establish that the tee-shirt was a fashion garment exclusively available to members of the IRA and he said it was simply a tee-shirt that was likely to have been purchased in a shop, or perhaps given as a gift.

Mr Justice Richard Johnson remanded Mr Kelly on continuing bail until June 16.

Belfast Today

Posted by Artybhoy (Saoirse na hÉireann)

01 June 2006

Martin McGuinness has said the allegation that he was a British spy is nonsense. Political Editor Stephen Dempster talks to Martin Ingram, the man who said Freddie Scappaticci was Stakeknife and is now saying that the Sinn Fein MP and chief negotiator was a double agent

FORMER Army intelligence officer Martin Ingram said last night: “I’m going after Martin McGuinness and I will get him, just as I got Freddie Scappaticci.”
The man who this week made the startling claim that the Sinn Fein MP was a British spy reiterated the allegation to the News Letter, saying he would stick by it and eventually see it proved true.
“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” he said. “I was discredited and vilified over Scappaticci. It took 18 months from outing him to seeing him flee to Italy. Does anyone now dispute that he was Stakeknife?
“I have no wish to lie or make things up for the sake of it. That’s not what I am about. I believe Martin McGuinness to be an agent. He has been a protected species.”
Mr McGuinness has described the suggestions that he was working for MI6 as “a load of hooey”, “absolute nonsense” and “total rubbish”.
And he pointed the finger at a DUP/Special Branch agenda to discredit him and destabilise the peace process and
republicanism – similar to previous scandals that have arisen at crucial moments in political talks.
Most people cannot believe that a man who has been for 35 years so prominently entrenched in republicanism could possibly be a British agent.
Some in the media have also dismissed Ingram’s allegations and noted that the evidence published by the Sunday World was “flimsy”.
It amounted to an alleged transcript of a phone conversation between an MI6 handler and an informer codenamed J118, who a
Special Branch officer has identified to Ingram as Mr McGuinness.
But given that Ingram has credibility and a strong track record in the area of outing spies and misdeeds in the shadowy intelligence world – particularly in the Scapaticci and Pat Finucane cases – the Sunday World believed in its source and published.
The News Letter tracked Ingram down and asked him if he could prove his claim, noting that Martin McGuinness said he was “one million per cent” sure there was no evidence to stand it up.
Ingram said: “I would agree with him. I will not be able to produce a document or a tape that proves he was a British agent.
“I could not do that in relation to Freddie Scappaticci, to convince everybody of what I was saying. It took time for it to sink in and be established.
“People should remember that Martin McGuinness has a history of lying throughout the Troubles and I have a history of telling the truth.”
Speaking of the MI6 transcript and the verification he said he got from a Special Branch man, Ingram said: “The man is a serving Special Branch officer who’s coming to the end of his time and is frustrated at what’s gone on, and I have no reason whatsoever to doubt him when he says J118 is McGuinness.
“I have had this document for two years. It’s not just happened overnight. Frankly, I wanted more material but things did not go just as I wanted.
“Am I in any doubt that the document refers to McGuinness? What is crucial here is what the republican movement believes. It will know.”
It is understood Mr McGuinness met IRA intelligence officer Bobby Storey and Sinn Fein man Declan Kearny for a debriefing at Connolly House in Andersonstown on Monday morning.
Ingram also claims he has been told that republicans are very suspicious on the issue.
He hinted that more could emerge on Mr McGuinness, and vowed to deal with a succession of incidents that have marked the Sinn Fein man’s political and paramilitary life.
“I will address these points, given time,” said Ingram, who served as a Force Research Unit (FRU) handler in Derry in the 1980s and knew of Mr McGuinness and his activities intimately. Let’s take Martin McGuinness and just some of what we know. He lived in Derry from the start of the Troubles. He was an IRA commander in the city – self-confessed.
“Never interned. Never charged with any terrorist offences in Northern Ireland.
Never attacked by loyalists. But I have testaments from loyalists who say they were going to kill him but were compromised or thwarted by sudden military presence.
“Then there are the supergrasses Raymond Gilmour and Bobby Quigley, who put 50 people away in Derry and were both willing and able to testify against McGuinness on his operational role in Derry and Ireland, and the police were stopped from charging him with an offence.
“Moving on, the Cook Report in the early 90s made a string of allegations against McGuinness which led to Operation Taurus, a police investigation into him.
“The evidence gathered for prosecution was dropped because it was not in the public interest to prosecute him? What was the public interest?”
Mr McGuinness is alleged to have played a role in the murder of IRA informer Frank Hegarty.
He has always denied ordering the killing and Scappaticci denied carrying it out.
But Ingram had been Hegarty’s handler in Derry, which will lead sceptics to suggest that this personal interest leaves him open to suggestions of a vendetta against Martin McGuinness.
“Look, I’m totally open about that issue. This is a very serious subject and it took the life of one of my agents,” he said. “I, of all people, do not treat this stuff lightly.
“I am doing this for the truth and for justice. There’s no money involved. I never sought, nor was offered a penny (for the Sunday World story]. Nor is there a book deal.
“The motivation is the truth of what has happened – though I did promise Ryan Hegarty (Frank Hegarty’s son] that I would bring Scappaticci and McGuinness to justice for their roles in his father’s murder.
“By that I do not mean kill them. I mean justice. I got Freddie. He is a man on the run and I am pursuing him through the courts for perjury. Now I’m going after McGuinness and I will get him, just as I got Freddie.”

Irish Examiner

By Shaun Connolly, Political Correspondent
01 June 2006

OVERWHELMING public outrage at the looming early release of up to six child rapists rocked the Government to its core last night and left Justice Minister Michael McDowell fighting for his political survival.

His honesty was called into question by Labour leader Pat Rabbitte after 24 hours of apparent Government confusion over events leading up to the freeing of a self-confessed rapist of a 12-year-old girl.

The wave of anger which flooded radio phone-in shows and led to the spontaneous organisation of a mass march on the Dáil tomorrow left Fianna Fáil TDs reeling.

And in a major climbdown for the Government last night, Mr McDowell said emergency legislation to restore the crime of statutory rape would be rushed through tomorrow.

Mr McDowell told the Seanad that he would restore protection for children under the age of 15 and that the debate was being moved forward by five days.

Mr McDowell attempted to regain the political initiative last night by telling the Seanad he had “no inkling” until last Tuesday of the Supreme Court case which led to the striking down of statutory rape laws as unconstitutional. He said had he been aware of the case, no legislation could have been introduced while it continued as it would have undermined the State’s arguments.

Tánaiste Mary Harney earlier told the Dáil the Justice Department had been informed of the case by the Chief State Solicitors Office in November 2002.

She said an “information deficit” had then followed.

She apparently contradicted Mr McDowell’s claim the Director of Public Prosecutions handled “the carriage” of the case, by revealing the Attorney General’s office was also involved in it.

Mr Rabbitte insisted Mr McDowell had questions to answer regarding his “truthfulness” in the matter: “Serious questions now arise as to the competence and honesty of the Minister for Justice.”

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said Mr McDowell’s position was “incredible”.

“Is there any greater risk than the unconstitutionality of a law that lets the rapist of young children walk free in society to do it again possibly and with the spectre of the possibility of others following him out there?” Mr Kenny said.

The political storm raged as the Supreme Court agreed to hear an application by the State tomorrow to appeal the High Court decision to release a 41-year-old man, Mr A, jailed for having sex with a girl aged 12.

The girl’s mother said she did not believe her daughter would survive the recent turn of events. She called for a meeting with Mr McDowell after saying she found out about the release in a newspaper.

“I went to court on the Monday and it was like reliving it all again. He’s out and I can’t believe it, he should still be in jail, and even for the time he got he should have got more,” she said.

Daily Ireland

There is a theory doing the rounds that the future caighdean oifigiuil in Irish will be determined in Belfast. Two generations ago people used to learn Munster Irish.
The centre of gravity switched to Connacht sometime in the 1950s when nobody was looking, and was firmly implanted there with the establishment of TG4, while Donegal seized the stage in Irish language song.
The fervour which kept the Irish language alive is recorded by the ten contributors to Fionntan de Brún’s new book on the Irish language tradition in Belfast.
“All the early teaching of Irish in Belfast was Munster Irish. One of the first teachers in the Ardscoil was Gearóid Ó Núallain, Myles na gCopeleen’s uncle, and even though he had grown up in Belfast he taught Munster Irish,” says de Brún.
“It was very hard to get published material in anything except Munster Irish.
“As late as the 1930s there were protests that Belfast boys were being taught Munster Irish in the schools.”
Customs and excise men from Cork, Kerry and Limerick lead the language revival at the beginning.
“The first Irish speaking family to fill in the census form in 1901 saying all their children spoke only Irish was a family from Limerick whose father was a customs and excise man and their servant from Kerry,” says de Brún.
“PT McGinley from Donegal was a customs and excise man, as was Pédraig Ó Sé from Kerry. It was a self help movement, and remained so as the Stormont government did everything in its power to stifle the Irish language movement.”
Belfast has an image of a dark industrial city with a utilitarian ethos and people clung on to a cultural revival as an antidote to that. Even back in the 18th century Robert McAdam was a great collector of manuscripts.
A lot of the Irish literary tradition, songs, stories and history was collected by McAdam.
Here was a classic Belfast protestant industrialist with his own iron foundry, and this was his passion, cultural revival and cultural antiquarianism.
In 1795 when Bolg an tSoláir, the first Irish language magazine, was published in Belfast by the Northern Star. MacAdam had plans for the first Irish language newspaper in the mid nineteenth-century, now we have Lá, an Irish language daily published in Belfast - not to mention the Daily Ireland and The Irish News’ Irish pages.
There really hasn’t been a time when the Irish language has not been a central part of the life of Belfast.
When you hit the 20th century you have a group in a working class area of the Falls Road running a small university ignored by the states.
Even the strong pre-independence protestant Irish speaking tradition managed to survive. R R Kane, the Orange Grand master and organiser of the first convention to oppose Home Rule, was a member of the Gaelic League, and an early banner inscribed Erin go Brágh indicates “that part of unionist tradition saw regional identity,” according to de Brún.
Fionntan grew up in North Belfast living off the Crumlin Road and then the Antrim Road.
He graduated form Queens in 1992 with a degree in Irish and French and taught in St Mary’s for the past eight years, moving to Coleraine in the autumn to teach Irish literature and Irish language.
“I was inspired to put together a collection of essays on the history of the Irish language mostly because I was sure the Irish language had featured prominently in the history of Belfast from its earliest roots as a settlement down to the present day,” he says.
“I was eager to see how the story would develop and what the overall picture would look like.
“I think it is important at this time, with Belfast undergoing major change, that people are aware of the place of the Irish language in the city’s history and culture.”

Daily Ireland

One of Ireland’s leading architects has called on the British government to commission a design competition for the proposed centre for conflict transformation earmarked for the Long Kesh prison site.
On Tuesday direct-rule minister David Hanson announced an international competition aimed at the world’s top architectural practices, for the showcase stadium proposed as part of the same masterplan for the site ten miles outside Belfast.
“A design competition doesn’t just engage the interest of the world’s most highly regarded architects,” said Belfast-based architect Ciaran Mackel, who is also Daily Ireland’s architecture correspondent.
“It also is best practice, upgrades the importance of the project and leads to truly worldclass work.
“The international centre for conflict transformation, beside the preserved H-Block and prison hospital must be an iconic building, symbolic of the past and expressing hope for the future.
“It requires the same levell of expertise as the stadium and in fact even more imagination and verve since it is a challenge as unique as the Guggenheim in Bilbao or the new Holocaust museum in Berlin.”
Sources in the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister said the stadium had been selected for the design competition because it was a larger project than the peace centre.
Aound £7.5 million (€11 million) will be spent on working up the a masterplan to design stage with at least £1.5 million (€2.2 million) being allocated to the design competition for the stadium. The three main sporting codes and the four leading parties in the North will be represented on the selection panel.
Mr Mackel added: “It’s a mistake to have a design competition for the stadium but not for the conflict transformation centre. This should be a unified devellopment with an overarching theme for both flagship projects.”
Since the proposal for a peace centre and stadium was first made, unionists have worked to downgrade the peace centre building, arguing that it be out of eyesight to people approaching the stadium and “buffered” from the stadium by parkland – concessions granted in the outline masterplan unveiled on Tuesday.
“Unionists want a showcase stadium but they are quite happy to have the conflict transformation centre housed in a shed,” said an Office of First Minister source.

Daily Ireland

By Connla Young

A loyalist band parade has been given the go-ahead to pass near where a teenager was kicked to death last month.

Nationalist opponents of the parade had urged loyalist bandsmen in Ballymena, Co Antrim, to shelve plans to march past the spot where a gang attacked Michael McIlveen on May 7.
The Parades Commission is known to have been reluctant to place restrictions on the parade. It postponed making a final decision until yesterday.
The Pride of the Maine Flute Band, the parade organiser, will now hold a parade involving 45 bands and 1,500 supporters this Saturday.
The parade has been given permission to pass Ballymena’s All Saints Catholic church and Broughshane Street, which is near where the Catholic teenager was beaten.
It is believed parade representatives have given several assurances to the Parades Commission.
Bandsmen have said they will hold a moment’s silence “for all young people who have been killed or have suffered as a result of violence in the Ballymena area”.
They have pledged to play “respectful tunes” in the area of the chapel and leave predominantly nationalist north Ballymena before 10.30pm.
Sinn Féin North Antrim assembly member Philip McGuigan accused the commission of “copping out”.
“I recognise and welcome steps by parade organisers with regard to this parade but the short and simple fact is that this parade is viewed by people in the north end of Ballymena as sectarian and triumphalist.
“Without engagement, the Parades Commission has shown that it hasn’t got the moral courage to reroute,” he said.
SDLP Ballymena councillor Declan O’Loan said: “We note the undertaking by the parade organisers and the expectation of the Parades Commission that Saturday evening’s parade will be respectful and dignified.
“Dignity and respect will contribute to building confidence and trust throughout the communities in Ballymena. Of primary importance is the peace and tranquillity of local residents.
“Those who would protest also have a clear obligation to show respect and dignity and to operate within the law.”
Commission chairman Roger Poole said: “All those involved are keenly aware of the sensitivities in Ballymena at this time, and the commission is pleased that the parade organiser has undertaken to ensure that this parade will take place in a respectful and dignified way.
“The commission also welcomes the organiser’s plan to observe a moment’s silence during the course of the parade in respect for all young people who have been killed or have suffered as a result of violence in the Ballymena area.
“The commission will not be issuing a determination in this case and anticipates that the conduct of Saturday’s parade will contribute to a lowering of tensions in the town.”

Daily Ireland

Relative says tabloid allegations that lawyer was in IRA are false

by Connla Young
1 June 2006

A brother of Pat Finucane has denied claims that the murdered solicitor was a finance officer for the IRA.
The lawyer’s brother Séamus has also denied allegations made in a Sunday tabloid that he himself was recently dismissed from the IRA “with ignominy” for taking cash from the organisation’s funds.

Patrick Finucane - click photo to view

The Ulster Defence Association shot Pat Finucane dead in 1989 at his Belfast home.
Several people involved in the murder have been revealed as Special Branch informers.
In a statement released last night, Séamus Finucane said the articles were intended to smear his brother Pat’s name.
“These articles make unsubstantiated allegations about me, stating that I was dismissed from the IRA with ignominy. It is alleged that I misappropriated IRA money to fund a lavish lifestyle, that I own properties at home and abroad, that I own building companies run by front men. It further alleges that I was involved in threatening the newspaper’s reporters.
“The basic allegation is that I am or was involved in IRA finances and that I have misappropriated IRA money for my own personal gain. None of these allegations are true.
“Each of the articles about me contained a large photograph of my late brother Pat, the solicitor who was murdered in February 1989 by the UDA directed by a British army unit. These articles have nothing to do with him.”
Mr Finucane also dismissed recent claims by the informer Seán O’Callaghan.
“In an article published on March 12, 2006, this same newspaper published repeated lies by Seán O’Callaghan that Pat was a member of the IRA and was their financial adviser.
“O’Callaghan alleged that Pat was involved in IRA finances. O’Callaghan has made this allegation a number of times and it has been rejected as a lie by the family and by Pat’s colleagues and those who knew him well.
“It has also been rejected by the RUC chief superintendent who investigated Pat’s murder and by John Stevens and Judge Peter Cory,” he said.
“This paper should know that Seán O’Callaghan’s allegations lack credibility since he is an admitted murderer and liar.
“It is clear that all this is designed to tarnish Pat’s respected worldwide reputation. I can answer for myself but he can’t.
“For myself, I refute the allegations made about me. They are untrue and no evidence of any of these allegations has been put forward. I have nothing to hide,” said Mr Finucane.
The Belfast man said recent reports about him were clearly designed to cast a shadow on his brother’s name and the Finucane family’s campaign for an independent public inquiry.
He said: “My family have campaigned long and hard for a public judicial inquiry into Pat’s murder. The British state has been accused of involvement in this murder.
“We currently disagree with the British government’s proposals for an inquiry.
“We say that these proposals are in violation of the Weston Park agreement and contrary to article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to life.
“I am now considering my position and I have consulted with my solicitors to determine what options are available to me to counter these untruthful assertions.
“The family’s campaign will continue to seek justice for Pat Finucane. These attacks on me using Pat’s photograph as a backdrop should be seen for what they are in reality — namely, an attack on my brother Pat, who unfortunately can’t answer for himself.
“Those who continue to peddle these lies will be exposed if and when a proper public inquiry is established.
“They can come along to the hearings and give evidence and be cross-examined, which is a bit more difficult than making assertions in newspapers when they know that there is no mechanism available to challenge the truthfulness of those assertions in that forum. I will look forward to that day.”

Sinn Féin

Published: 1 June, 2006

Sinn Féin Assembly member for Upper Bann John O’Dowd today said that the Orange Order had serious questions to answer after the conviction of yet another one of their members with UDA activity, this time in Scotland. Mr O’Dowd’s comments come after an East Fife Orangeman Stephen Moffett was last week convicted in Edinburgh of UDA membership and other serious offences including the possession of weapons.

Mr O’Dowd said:

“Last week a 45 year old Orangeman from East Fife Stephen Moffett was convicted in an Edinburgh court of being an active UDA member and of possessing UDA weaponry. This individual is the latest in a long line of Orange Order members who have been convicted of involvement in loyalist death squads.

“The Orange Order claim to be a religious organisation. They claim to be committed to peaceful activity, yet time and again the Orange Order are caught out with individuals like Moffett in their ranks. We witness the close links between the Orange Order and loyalist paramilitary gangs each summer during contentious parades in the north. Last summer both the UDA and UVF orchestrated serious rioting in Belfast on the foot of a re-routed Orange march.

“This latest conviction raises very serious questions for the Orange Order and once again places in the spotlight their links with violent unionist paramilitaries and demonstrates clearly to nationalists that the Order is not the peaceful, cultural, religious organisation that it claims.” ENDS

Wexford People

A Book of Evidence is expected to be served on June 27 in the case of three Wexford men charged with membership of an illegal organisation, following a Garda Special Branch investigation into the activities of the Continuity IRA.

Jackie Bates (55), of Jacketstown House, Jacketstown, Drinagh, Billy Phillips (45), of Harbour View, Maudlintown and Robert Kearns (31), of Redshire Road, Murrintown, were charged on March 3 with membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on March 1.

All three were also charged with the unlawful possession of 160 rounds of ammunition on the same date.

Bates was also charged with possession of a firearm without a firearms certificate at Jacketstown House, County Wexford on March 1, and Kearns was also charged with the unlawful possession of an improvised explosive device at Mooretown, County Wexford, the same date.

All three were remanded on continuing bail at the Special Criminal Court on Tuesday to appear again next month.

BN.ie

01/06/2006 - 14:52:43

Gardaí in Donegal investigating the murder of Denis Donaldson have issued an appeal for information.

The former Sinn Féin member was shot dead at his house in Donegal in April.

Gardaí are seeking information from anyone who was in the Glenties area around the April 3 and 4 to contact them.

In particular, gardaí want to speak to people they haven’t already interviewed that were in the area of Cloghercor or the road between Gweebarra Bridge and Doochary the week prior to the murder.

Anyone with information has been asked to contact them at Glenties Garda Station or to call the Garda confidential line.

Dennis Donaldson, who had admitted being a British agent for more than 20 years, was found by a neighbour shot in the head.

He had been living in Donegal since his admission of spying last year.

The IRA has claimed it had no involvement whatsoever in the killing.

BBC

Police raided a number of houses during the operation

One hundred and twenty police officers have taken part in a major operation against alleged drug dealers in the Ballymena area.

Fourteen people were arrested after police carried out early morning raids in Ballee, Ballymena, as well as in Belfast and County Tyrone.

A quantity of class A and class C drugs were seized along with a sum of cash.

Police met in Antrim at 0600 BST on Thursday and travelled to 10 addresses in the Ballymena area.

They also targeted one address in Belfast and an address in Sion Mills, County Tyrone.

Twelve men and two women are in custody in connection with the operation.

Commanding officer Mark Dennison from Ballymena CID said the operation had been planned over a long period of time and involved months of evidence gathering against individuals named in arrest warrants.

Within the last three years, there have been 60 convictions for supplying class A drugs in the Ballymena area.

“Our job is to catch more of them, convict more of them and to treat more of them,” he said.

“It should be noted that Ballymena police have convicted almost 60 people in the last three years for supply of Class A drugs.

“As a result of the arrests today, that figure could rise significantly.

“The operation today is not only about enforcement. Ballymena PSNI work with a range of statutory and voluntary agencies in the district.”

Irelandclick

by Francesca Ryan

Plans for development at the former site of Long Kesh were unveiled by the British government on Tuesday.

At the heart of the masterplan for the 360-acre site is a proposal for a 42,000-seater stadium which has been given the go-ahead despite strong opposition from Belfast City Council.

Opponents say the stadium should be built in Belfast, but the British government has opted for the disused prison outside Lisburn.

David Hanson, the direct rule development minister who is responsible for the project, told a press conference that all three main sports that would use the stadium – GAA, soccer and rugby – were behind the proposal.

“This is the only site that can attract all three sports required to make a stadium operationally viable,” he said.

The controversial stadium, however, is only a part of the development envisaged by the masterplan which includes an International Centre for Conflict Transformation in the hospital wing of the prison where Bobby Sands became the first of ten republicans to die on hunger strike in 1981.

The centre was crucial in getting Sinn Féin on board the project, and the party’s representatives attended the launch with the other main parties to endorse the project on Tuesday.

Sinn Féin’s Paul Butler, Deputy Chairman of the Maze/Long Kesh Monitoring Group, said the party’s primary concern had been the preservation of part of the prison site because of its historical importance to both republicans and the wider community.

“We are pleased to see the prison hospital, where ten republicans died on hunger strike, a H-block, a cage and other prison buildings which make up the listed prison buildings, will be central to the proposal for an International Centre for Conflict Transformation,” said Councillor Butler.

“Long Kesh is a place associated with the conflict here over the last 30 years and it mirrored and informed the development of the conflict outside these walls.

“It is a unique example of international prison history.

“It was both an icon and a microcosm of the conflict. It is a contested space, it has contested histories and contested policies.

“However, it now provides us with a huge opportunity to bring about a major physical expression of the ongoing transformation from conflict to peace.”

As well as the stadium and the International Centre for Conflict Transformation, plans reveal that the site will contain a hotel, conference facilities and leisure and entertainment outlets including bars, cafes, restaurants, specialist retail outlets, a multi-screen cinema and a possible ice rink. These aspects have been welcomed by Lisburn Ulster Unionist councillor, Basil McCrea.

“Anything that’s good for Lisburn, we support it, and we look forward to seeing this major development,” Councillor McCrea told the Andersonstown News before warning that the plans must have cross-party support.

“There is a lot of history at this site so if we are to go forward, it has to be with a shared vision, which is why we need to involve all communities and all sports, otherwise we will end up with a white elephant.

“We have to get this right.

“Lisburn is changing dramatically and this investment and infrastructure, which will provide plenty of jobs, is our chance to get it right.”

A new junction on the M1 motorway and link road have been incorporated into the proposals in a bid to overcome reservations about the site – as have plans for a park-and-ride scheme and a new railway station.

Mr Hanson said the proposals represent a fantastic opportunity to showcase all that is good in the North in terms of regeneration, sharing the future and conflict transformation.

“The opportunity now exists to turn security and military assets so long associated with conflict into symbols and engines of economic and social regeneration, renewal and growth.

“This particular initiative lies at the heart of what the transformation is about – learning not just locally and regionally, but internationally, about our experience here of the move from conflict into peace.”

Despite the proposed plans, a final decision could still be 18 months off.

Journalist:: Francesca Ryan

Belfast Telegraph

By Jonathan McCambridge
01 June 2006

Leading loyalist Mark Haddock is likely to have been set up for Tuesday’s murder attempt by former UVF allies, it has emerged.

A senior detective revealed that Haddock, who is fighting for his life in hospital, was not wearing body armour when he was shot six times.

Although paramilitary involvement is a line of inquiry, he would not name the UVF as the prime suspects.

Haddock (37) is the ex-Special Branch informer at the middle of a Police Ombudsman investigation into alleged security force collusion with the UVF in north Belfast’s Mount Vernon estate.

It has now emerged he was ambushed and shot multiple times as he got out of his car near the Mossley Orange Hall at 3:50pm on Tuesday.

This has increased speculation he had been conned into meeting former UVF colleagues. One loyalist source said: “It looks like he came here for a meeting.”

It is believed he staggered from the scene of the shooting near Mossley Mill in the Doagh Road area and made his way to a neighbour’s house.

Detective Inspector Gareth Nicholl said Haddock was receiving treatment in the intensive care unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital and police have not yet been able to talk to him.

He said: “We believe the victim arrived in a black Peugeot 206 car, registration RCZ 1401, and parked on the verge. At about 3:50pm he was approached standing outside the vehicle and shot a number of times.

“We appeal to anyone who was in the area between 3 and 4pm and who saw the Peugeot or who saw an adult in or around that vehicle to contact us.

“We are also appealing to anyone who saw a silver car in close proximity or anyone passing by or near the Orange Hall.”

DI Nicholl refused to speculate on UVF involvement: “We are keeping an open mind, we are not 100% sure.”

He would not comment on why Haddock was in the area or if he was in breach of bail conditions.

Although the UVF are the main suspects in the assassination attempt, David Ervine, leader of the PUP and the organisation’s chief political adviser, said he had been told by authoritative figures no authorisation was given.

He said: “Events will unfold that will make that clear. I believe it was opportunistic. This man clearly had a substantial number of enemies.”

Haddock was currently on bail on a charge of attempting to murder doorman Trevor Gowdy at a social club in Monkstown.

The shooting has piled huge political pressure on the Ulster Unionist Party because it has aligned itself with the PUP.

Sir Reg Empey commented last night: “We have a political arrangement with one MLA (Mr Ervine) and that does, of course, have negative things with it.”