SAOIRSE32

Sinn Féin

Gerry Adams - decline in rural communities must be treated as a national crisis

Published: 15 June, 2006

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams is in Mayo today for a series of engagements with party representative Councillor Gerry Murray. He will meet with health groups and workers and address the Michael Davitt Memorial Lecture.

Commenting on today’s report from the Western Development Commission, Mr. Adams said:

“Today’s report from the Western Development Commission detailing severe decline in rural communities, particularly in the West, confirms what many people have been saying for years. How could it be otherwise when, despite their good intentions government promises for rural development have never materialised into real action. The West is an area of great potential and the reason it continues to suffer from population decline is well documented. It is due to a lack of jobs, infrastructure and the ongoing withdrawal of essential services. The government needs to start recognising that this is a national crisis and treat is as such.”

Mr. Adams went on to call for the re-establishment of the Land Commission which was abolished by the Irish government in the 1990s.

He said: “While developers and speculators have made huge windfall profits as a result of the rezoning of land, would-be home owners and small farmers seeking to expand their holdings have suffered. In particular the escalating cost of building land has frustrated the social housing programmes of local authorities.

“The period during which land prices began to escalate at unprecedented levels coincided with the winding down of the Land Commission which had been in existence in one form or another since 1881. Its dissolution in 1999 under the Irish Land Commission (Dissolution) Act, 1992 was short sighted.

“The Land Commission was abolished on the grounds that its original purpose of reforming landownership was no longer valid. This is clearly not the case. The difficulty in acquiring land has become a block to social progress.

“In order to ensure that the land of Ireland is used to the benefit of the people of Ireland there is a compelling case to be made for the re-establishment of a land commission.

“A reconfigured Land Commission would ensure that where land becomes available it is not priced beyond the means of local (small) farmers who wish to expand their holdings, or beyond the means of local authorities and communities who require land for housing or essential facilities and amenities.

“A new Land Commission could be used to facilitate new people entering the farming sector - but who would find it impossible to acquire the land needed - to lease holdings or purchase land at a reduced cost. In particular it could be used to facilitate those who wish to become organic farmers. It could play a significant role in rural regeneration at time when the numbers of farms and farmers in the state continues to decline.

“In addition, almost 130 years after the Land War we still have a situation in many parts of Ireland where ground rent is still being paid to absentee English landlords. This is unacceptable to Sinn Féin. It would certainly be unacceptable to Michael Davitt. Ground rents should be abolished.”ENDS

Full Text

The Michael Davitt Centenary Lecture - By Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP MLA

Castlebar, County Mayo June 15th 06

Ninety years ago an alliance of Irish republican organisations and others, including elements of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army, Sinn Féin, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the woman’s movement, socialists, trade unionists, nationalists and Irish language activists, rose up against British rule in Ireland and declared a Republic.

Easter 1916 was a defining moment in Irish history.

At his court martial, addressing those British officers who condemned him to death, a defiant Pádraig Pearse defined it perfectly:

‘Believe that we, too, love freedom and desire it. To us it is more desirable than anything in the world. If you strike us down now, we shall rise again to renew the fight. You cannot conquer Ireland. You cannot extinguish the Irish passion for freedom.’

That desire for freedom and justice, and the efforts of all of those who participated in 1916, were a consequence of the great efforts and sacrifices of other Irish men and women in the generations which preceded them.

They built on the foundations laid by John Mitchel, Fintan Lalor, O’Donovan Rossa and foremost among these was Michael Davitt.

Much has been written of Davitt. And, as with all great leaders there are those who years later seek to claim him as one of their own, or to use his legacy in a partisan fashion. And of course there are elements of the establishment and the revisionist media who seek to de-radicalise Davitt - to tame him.

But what is indisputable is that he was an idealist, a nationalist, a fenian, a republican, a revolutionary, a labour activist, a writer and journalist, a historian and internationalist, and perhaps most importantly a Mayo man.

As a writer his “The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland”, the story of the Land League is widely regarded as a seminal account of those events.

For Francis Sheehy Skeffington, Davitt was “the greatest Irishman of the 19th century”.

While James Connolly was critical of some aspects of Davitt‚s approach he nonetheless described him as “honest” and an “unselfish idealist”. Shortly after Davitt’s death Connolly wrote, “it is as the Father of the Land League that Davitt will live in history”.

This year we mark the 160th anniversary of Davitt‚s birth and the centenary of his death. In his 60 years of life he packed in more political activism, and helped formulate and promote new and effective methods of struggle, and changed for the better the lives of countless millions of Irish people in his and subsequent generations, than almost any other Irish political leader, before or since.

As a child he experienced the hardship of rural Ireland during the Great Hunger. Born in Straide in 1846 the family was evicted from their home. Like so many hundreds of thousands of others during and after the great hunger Martin and Sabina Davitt uprooted their family and took them to Haslingden, near Manchester, in the north of England.

It must have been a harrowing time for them. Friends and neighbours dying from hunger and the ravages of disease, and many others scrapping together their bits and pieces and fleeing across the Atlantic or to Britain or elsewhere around the world in search of hope and a better life.

And as they left famine stricken Ireland, so too did ships so laden with food that their bellies were low in the water. Not for the first time the interests of the wealthy landlord were put before the people.

At the age of 10 he began working in a cotton mill and at 11 he lost his arm in an accident.

At 19, after many years of self-education, he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was an enthusiastic Fenian and this led him to London where in 1870 he was arrested trying to smuggle arms. He was sentenced to 15 years penal servitude and subsequently spent 7 years in prison. The conditions for all of the republican prisoners held at that time were horrendous. They were held in isolation, often shackled, and treated with a brutality which saw many lose their minds. Tom Clarke and O‚Donovan Rossa wrote about this period in their lives.

Their accounts make frightening reading but at the same time give a real sense of the courage and humanity of Tom Clarke and O‚Donovan Rossa and Michael Davitt.

Davitt became a passionate penal reformer as a result of this experience.

He returned to Ireland and to Mayo in 1879 to find that many in the west of Ireland were again experiencing the trauma and threat of hunger. Three years of rain had decimated the potato crop. Falling prices were causing an economic crisis elsewhere in the country.

In Mayo there was a threat to evict a number tenants for arrears of rent. At a meeting in Claremorris it was agreed to initiate a campaign of agitation to reduce rents. The first meeting was held at Irishtown, near Ballindine on April 20th 1879.

Canon Ulick Burke was the first to be targeted by this campaign and he was forced to reduce his rent by 25%. Other landowners followed suit and the evictions were cancelled. From this success emerged the Land League of Mayo. It was formally founded in this town, Castlebar, on August 16th 1879. Davitt was the driving force behind it. His slogan was simple; “the land of Ireland for the people of Ireland”.

The lesson was simpler. If the people stood together there was nothing they could not accomplish.

Parnell lent his support to the endeavour and two months later the National Land League was founded in Dublin. Parnell was the leader and Davitt was one of its secretaries. Its demand was for the three F’s “Fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale”.

Davitt was also one of the key architects of “the new departure” which united physical force fenianism with the Irish Parliamentary Party and others.

The British government supported the landlords with military intervention, evictions and coercion.

The subsequent Land War took many forms - intimidation, the killing of landlords and their agents, the maiming of animals, the destruction of crops, and rent strikes. The 19th century is notable for the number of coercion acts passed by the British Parliament in respect of Ireland. At least one per year for over 100 years. That was the means by which Ireland was held for the Empire.

Undeterred the Land League continued with its struggle and its most famous action introduced a new word into the English language and a form of protest and activity which was to be copied by others around the world - boycott. It inspired people like Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama and Mahatma Gandhi in India.

The British eventually responded with some reforms but not enough. In 1881 Davitt was arrested and imprisoned for his speeches and agitation work for the League. In 1882 he was elected as an MP for County Meath but was disqualified from taking his seat because he was in prison.

99 years later another Irish republican prisoner Bobby Sands was elected as an MP and after his death the British changed the law to prevent prisoners from ever standing for election. In the British approach to Ireland some things remain constant.

The National Land League was suppressed. Its leadership, which was male, was imprisoned. In 1882 Davitt helped establish the Ladies Land League which proved just as effective at agitating for land reform as the men had. In the words of Constance Markievicz, “it ran the movement and started to do the militant things that the men only threatened and talked of’ — and was eventually forced to disband”.

More reforms were introduced by the British and for the next 40 years a succession of reforms were brought in to deal with the issue of land ownership.

Davitt clearly saw a relationship between land reform and national independence. But his vision saw beyond land reform. He advocated social reform as well, and in England he helped establish the English Labour Party with Kerr Hardie in the early years of the 20th century.

In 1890 he initiated the Irish Democratic Labour Federation whose task was to advance proposals around free education, land settlement, worker housing, working hours, universal suffrage and much more. A very radical programme for the time.

Davitt was also anti-sectarian. Speaking at a meeting in the local Orange Hall at Loughgall in 1881 Davitt told the crowd that “the landlords of Ireland are all of one religion - their God is mammon and rack rents, and evictions their only morality, while the toilers of the fields, whether Orangemen, Catholics, Presbyterians or Methodists are the victims.”

Davitt was an avowed internationalist. He travelled widely supporting struggles against injustice whether in Russia, in Australia, and in Africa.

He was also elected to the British Parliament again but in October 1899 he withdrew from parliamentary politics. Addressing the Parliament he said: “I have for years tried to appeal to the sense of justice in this House of Commons on behalf of Ireland. I leave, convinced that no just cause, no cause of right, will ever find support from this House of Commons unless it is backed up by force.”

Seven years later, not long before his death, Davitt wrote about his own beliefs. “I am not a socialist myself; I am content to be an Irish nationalist and land reformer but there are many articles in the political creed of socialism to which I willingly subscribe socialists are not, so far as I can see, either drunkards, gamblers or wife-beaters. If they were, they would vote Tory and the Churchmen would not denounce them. They are sober, earnest, intelligent citizens, who see clearly the exiles of existing systems in their effects upon the industrial and civic lives of the wage earning masses, and who have the courage to put forward proposed reforms which shall minimise, if they cannot eradicate, these evils in the existence of the labouring poor.”

Davitt died on May 30th 1906. He was a big-hearted, generous, champion of the disadvantaged. We must always judge events and individuals in their own time. Without doubt Michael Davitt was one of this nation‚s great leaders.

He was a man of his time. He saw injustice and throughout his life he relentlessly campaigned against it and sought to shape and change the adverse political conditions which impacted on the Irish people.

He was not afraid to contemplate new ideas, new ways. But at the heart of his activism was a belief in the Irish people, a belief in our right to be free, and a determination that we would construct a better future, a more equitable future than that which existed then.

These ideals must be as much a part of our future now as they were 100 years ago.

The Ireland of today is much different from that of Davitt’s time.

Significant progress has taken place politically, socially, and economically. But on one big issue, with which Davitt is forever linked, he would find it ironic that in Ireland today many of our young people cannot afford to buy homes. Particularly in this part of the country and in the era of the Celtic Tiger.

Why? Because Land prices across Ireland, but particularly in the 26 counties, have rocketed over the last decade. While developers and speculators have made huge windfall profits as a result of the rezoning of land, would-be home owners and small farmers seeking to expand their holdings have suffered.

Soaring land prices mean that land is too expensive for community amenities and necessary facilities such as schools and care facilities for the elderly. In particular the escalating cost of building land has frustrated the social housing programmes of local authorities.

The period during which land prices began to escalate at unprecedented levels coincided with the winding down of the Land Commission which had been in existence in one form or another since 1881. Its dissolution in 1999 under the Irish Land Commission (Dissolution) Act, 1992 was short sighted.

The Land Commission was abolished on the grounds that its original purpose of reforming landownership was no longer valid. This is clearly not the case. The difficulty in acquiring land has become a block to social progress.

In order to ensure that the land of Ireland is used to the benefit of the people of Ireland there is a compelling case to be made for the re-establishment of a land commission

A reconfigured Land Commission would ensure that where land becomes available it is not priced beyond the means of local (small) farmers who wish to expand their holdings, or beyond the means of local authorities and communities who require land for housing or essential facilities and amenities.

It would ensure that rural communities would be more socially cohesive. It could also help shift the focus of development away from the East Coast.

A new Land Commission could be used to facilitate new people entering the farming sector - but who would find it impossible to acquire the land needed - to lease holdings or purchase land at a reduced cost. In particular it could be used to facilitate those who wish to become organic farmers. It could play a significant role in rural regeneration at time when the numbers of farms and farmers in the state continues to decline.

In addition, almost 130 years after the Land War we still have a situation in many parts of Ireland where ground rent is still being paid to absentee English landlords. This is unacceptable to Sinn Féin. It would certainly be unacceptable to Michael Davitt. Ground rents should be abolished.

Mayo today is also the county of the Rossport Five. If Davitt was alive today it would be the Rossport Six.

Michael Davitt would stand up to Shell as he stood up to unscrupulous landlords or anyone else who would seek to deprive the Irish people of what is theirs by right.

Despite the great wealth that exists in this part of the island at this time there is significant underfunding in health, education, roads, and tens of thousands living in poverty. At a time of unprecedented growth, 15% of all children live in consistent poverty, while one in four children are deemed by the government’s own statistics to be at risk of poverty.

After 15 years of growth it is a disgrace that people are left waiting for days on hospital trollies, that people can’t afford a home to live in and that the transport system is gridlocked.

People in the West of Ireland are forced to campaign year after year to try and get the government to invest in jobs and infrastructure. Sinn Féin believes that balanced regional development is essential. We believe that an integrated transport system, including the re-opening of the Western Rail Corridor is essential. We are working to make it happen.

So there is much to be done here in the West and across Ireland.

The British still occupy part of the national territory.

Sinn Fein’s goals are straightforward; an end to partition, an end to the union with Britain, the construction of a new national democracy, a new republic, on the island of Ireland, and reconciliation between orange and green.

But we are not prepared to wait until we have achieved these goals for people to have their rights to a decent home, to a job and a decent wage, to decent public services like health and education, and a safer cleaner environment.

Irish republicans want change in the here and now.

Our policies provide a real alternative to the uninspiring and jaded approach of the other parties. Before election time they promise radical measures. After the election they go on to replicate the mistakes of those they temporarily replace.

Irish republicanism is better than that. Our republicanism is about positive, progressive change - fundamental, and deep-rooted. This places an enormous responsibility on us to deliver change. Sinn Féin is about empowering individuals and communities to achieve change.

We are about building an alternative to the kind of government which presides over one of the wealthiest economies in the European Union, yet fails to provide ordinary citizens with decent public services, in health, in education, transport and housing. We are about transforming an economy where the income of the wealthiest ten percent is thirteen times that of the lowest paid workers.

The heart and soul of our approach is rooted in the Proclamation of Easter 1916.

It is a Proclamation of Freedom and a Charter of Liberty which “guarantees religious and civil liberty; equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all its parts cherishing all of the children of the nation equally “.

Sinn Fein’s objective is to turn these objectives into reality.

Sinn Fein has a vision for the future. We are totally committed to establishing an entirely new Ireland built on positive change, on equality, on partnership.

An Ireland which is open, transparent and accountable - a people-centred republic - owned by and responsible to the people. An Ireland where no one waits for a hospital bed, a home or a job.

This vision is as real and as attainable for this generation as was land reform for Michael Davitt and his.

Michael Davitt was a visionary. The men and women of 1916 were visionaries. This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strike and the deaths of 10 hungers strikers. They too were visionaries. We need to be visionaries also.

I want to invite you to join Sinn Féin.

I especially want to appeal to women to come into our party and to change it. Women are the majority on this island but they are mostly absent from the decision making processes. We want women to be at the heart of Sinn Féin‚s decision making processes. We want to build a stronger, egalitarian national political movement which is capable of making our vision a reality.

The West is Awake once more. Let’s ensure that the leadership which Mayo is capable of has its place as of right in the vanguard of our struggle.” ENDS

BBC

A memorial service to mark the tenth anniversary of the Manchester IRA bomb has been held at the city’s cathedral.

The candle was lit at exactly the same time as the bomb exploded

A candle was lit at exactly 1117 BST and four seconds - the same time a 3,300lb bomb exploded on Corporation Street on 15 June 1996.

It was lit by Lydia Ballam, eight, a pupil from Chetham’s School of Music.

There were readings by politicians, civic leaders and a representative of the Irish Government with prayers read by leaders of all faiths.

Victims of the Manchester city centre attack attended along with VIPs and dignitaries.

Bible lessons were read by Michael Lonergan, First Secretary for Political Affairs at the Irish Embassy, and Councillor Pat Karney, Chairman of the City Centre Committee.

Manchester journalist Ray King read an extract of his book Detonation - the rebirth of a city.

Council leader Richard Leese placed an icon of the New Manchester against the altar as a symbol of the city’s resurgence.

In the service address Canon Paul Denby, the sub dean of Manchester, recalled entering the cathedral after the blast.

“I remember standing at the back of the nave thinking only of the cathedral and how on earth we would get back to normal.”

He praised those responsible for the city’s regeneration but added: “I have heard many people speak in these past few days of the bomb and ‘what a good thing’ it was for Manchester.

“I know what they mean, but bombs are never ‘good things’ and thought we rejoice in a city that in many ways, leads not just this country but the world with its magnificent architecture and vibrant culture, we cannot forget those whose lives were traumatised, and for some, remain traumatised by that violent intrusion into their lives.”

Newshound

(by Suzanne Breen, Sunday Tribune)

Even in death, they don’t want to be together. In Belfast City Cemetery, an underground wall separates the Catholic and Protestant dead. Sectarian division exists from the cradle to the grave.

Catholic and Protestant children go to different schools and live in different areas. When they grow up, only a minority work in districts dominated by the ‘other’ religion. The peace process was meant to bring a transformation. While the murder rate has fallen, little else has changed.

“Belfast is far from being the post-conflict city dreamed of by planners, investors and British and Irish politicians,” says University of Ulster lecturer, Pete Shirlow, co-author of a new book which discloses the naked sectarianism that still resides in the North.

In North Belfast alone, there were 6623 sectarian incidents from 1996 to 2004. Shirlow’s research exposes deep divisions there. Upper (Protestant) Ardoyne contains no shops. There are six grocers in Lower (Catholic) Ardoyne. Less than one in five Protestants will use them. Eighty-two per cent of Catholics refuse to use the leisure centre in Protestant Ardoyne.

An Ardoyne Protestant says of his neighbours across the peaceline: “I would love to burn those bastards out. The soap dodgers (derogatory name for Catholics) breed like rabbits. All you ever hear from them is whinge, whinge, whinge. Why don’t they get jobs and live like decent people?” Another says: “If I knew my neighbour was shopping in Fenianville, I’d take a pounder (hammer) and knock his head of his shoulders.”

One Ardoyne Protestant who shops in west Belfast has to hide such ‘disloyalty’: “We shop in Curley’s. It’s so cheap and who is going to know we are Prods? But we take Tesco bags with us and put the shopping in them before we go home. If I walked up that path with Curley’s bags I’d get my windies (put) in.”

An Ardoyne Catholic says: “One of my neighbours bought a suite of furniture from a place in the Shankill. I told him I wouldn’t be in his house as long as that furniture was there. He was giving money to people who (had) attacked us.”

Shirlow found much of his research depressing: “You’d see a playground on one side of the fence, and it was out of bounds for the kids on the other side of the fence. Generation after generation is growing up like this.”

Rather than challenging division, the peace process is about managing it, he says. At the time of the Belfast Agreement, both sides were told they’d won. Instability over the North’s constitutional future, and continuing inter-community conflict, was inevitable. There’s been a growth in attacks on symbols of tradition such as Orange Halls, GAA clubs, and churches.

In some Belfast communities, three-quarters of people refuse to use their closest health centre if it’s in an area dominated by the other community. Such attitudes are understandable. A third of all victims killed in Belfast were murdered in their homes or metres from their homes. This war was very personal.

Although they could still be strongly nationalist or unionist, pensioners – with experience of pre-1969 society – held less sectarian attitudes than younger people.

They were more likely to say, ‘I come from Belfast’. The younger generation, steeped in parochialism, were more likely to say, ‘I come from West Belfast’ or ‘I come from East Belfast’.

Only 11% of Catholics and 7% of Protestants live in religiously mixed areas. Graffiti such as ‘KAT’ (Kill All Taigs) or KAH (Kill All Huns) is common in flashpoint areas. Recently, there have been efforts to camouflage peacelines through landscaping. They’re hidden by parkland or industrial buffer zones. Shirlow finds “attempting to normalise the abnormal is absolutely bizarre”.

Catholics working for mainly Protestant firms tend to be safer if they’re not on the shop-floor. A personnel manager says: “The worst thing that could happen in the offices is that someone would throw a bagel at you. On the shop floor, you could get a spanner in the teeth.”

In the religiously mixed, middle-class Carryduff area of south Belfast, residents were less likely to vote DUP or Sinn Féin. But there were interesting social differences there. Three-quarters of Catholics, compared to only half of Protestants, went out for a drink; 60% of Catholics but only 45% of Protestants went to the cinema.

Although they disagreed on nationality, both sides in Carryduff were united in the belief they’d picked a great place to live because house prices there were sure to rise.

During the conflict, 78% of civilians killed in Belfast died in the north or west of the city. More prosperous south and east Belfast endured minimal violence.

Shirlow says Belfast has undoubtedly become “more chic” in recent years with the development of luxury apartments, business premises, restaurants, and bars.

“But it’s those who suffered the least in the conflict – the middle-classes – who are benefiting the most from this. Those who suffered the most – the Catholic and Protestant working-class – are benefiting the least. The irony is that, if they came together, they’d access far more than by standing separately.”

–Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City, Peter Shirlow and Brendan Murtagh, Pluto Press.

June 15, 2006
________________

This article appeared in the June 11, 2006 edition of the Sunday Tribune.

Irelandclick

by Damian McCarney

Springfield Road nationalists have been made to wait for a ruling by the Parades Commission on the contentious Whiterock parade. A decision on the march, which is planned for next Saturday (June 24), was anticipated yesterday afternoon, but it is now thought that it will now not be made before Friday.

It is understood that the decision is being delayed in order to avoid scuppering the compromise negotiated in Friday’s Tour of the North parade which passes an interface at the Crumlin Road shops.

The Parades Commission held a series of meetings on Wednesday morning with Sinn Féin and SDLP representatives.

After the meeting, Lower Falls Sinn Féin Councillor Tom Hartley said, “We stressed today that given the extent of the events of last September that we wanted to see an accommodation. Dialogue is very important as the only way to resolve the issue is through agreements between residents on both sides of the Springfield Road.

“There is an alternative route available through Mackies’ Walkway, which I believe has been on the table for the last three years. I hope that sense will prevail as this is an opportunity to find a solution to a longstanding problem.”
SDLP West Belfast MLA Alex Attwood said, “The Parades Commission should hold to last year’s Whiterock decisions.

“In the absence of agreement or accommodation, any other decision sends out the wrong message, particularly after the vicious riots of last September.”
His party colleague, Upper Falls councillor Tim Attwood, said, “The outcome of dialogue around Ardoyne sets a standard.

“Talk long and hard and reach an agreed outcome. This is not where, at least yet, the Springfield talks are. In these circumstances the Commission must stand by the 2005 Commission decision.”

Journalist:: Damien McCarney

Irelandclick

By Damien McCarney

West Belfast people are being called on to support efforts in North Belfast to find a resolution to tomorrow’s contentious Tour of the North parade. Local community representatives urged people not from the area to stay away, as last year the majority of the 24 people arrested at the North Belfast march were from the West of the city.

This week, the Ardoyne Parades Dialogue Group (APDG) and the loyalist North and West Belfast Parades Forum came to an accommodation on this Friday night’s Tour of the North parade along the Crumlin Road.

The North and West Belfast group agreed to voluntarily restrict the numbers involved in this year’s parade and to bring the timing of the return route of the march forward by an hour-and-a-half in a bid to reduce tension.

The Ardoyne group reciprocated by scaling down its protest on the night and both sides now expect that there will be a huge reduction in the PSNI presence on the night.

Joe Marley of the APDG said that people in West Belfast can play a big role in supporting the residents’ group’s efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution.

“We have always valued the support of the nationalist community in West Belfast on the parading issue down through the years.

“However, we have noticed in recent years that some young people from the West of the city are travelling to North Belfast on the night of parades in the expectation of trouble.

“Last year, some 20 young people from West Belfast were charged with public order offences connected to trouble which followed last year’s parades on the Crumlin Road. We don’t want to see any young person at risk of being injured or going into the criminal justice system. We would appeal therefore to people in West Belfast to do all in their power to prevent young people from heading over to Ardoyne on Friday night. We don’t want anything to jeopardise this opportunity for progress.”

Mr Marley said that this week’s accommodation is about building confidence between the two groups and is the first step in a longer process.

“We have been in negotiations, independently chaired by British trade unionist and academic Bob Fryer, since April this year in a bid to find a resolution to the parades issue. We have been exploring ways in which the rights of marchers and the host communities can be recognised and respected. There is a very long way to go but the fact that substantive talks have been taking place and both groups have committed to further dialogue is a very positive development.”

The Ardoyne man said that in order for confidence in the process to be built it was important that Friday night passes off peacefully.

“It is vital that the local community remains disciplined and peaceful in its protest. It is in the interest of everyone who has a stake in the future of this community to ensure that this process is given a fair wind.

“We are calling on clergy, school teachers, local politicians, youth leaders and community workers to work with us on Friday night and in the time leading up to the parade to ensure that we seize this opportunity to build on the dialogue.

“We have called two public meetings to brief the community on the progress of the talks and our position has been endorsed. People in this community want a peaceful resolution to the parading issue and no one wants a repeat of the scenes of violence of recent years which have left the community battle scarred.”

Journalist:: Damien McCarney

Irelandclick

Benefit fraud team accesses your children’s private files to establish your personal and home circumstances.

by Roisin McManus

Benefit fraud investigators can gather information from children’s school records, the Andersonstown News has learned.

Benefit Investigation Services, part of the Social Security Agency (SSA), seek information from a number of sources – schools now included – in investigations against benefit fraud.

The SSA say where there is a suspicion of fraud, educational facilities, including schools, are legally required to give information under the Social Security Fraud Act (Northern Ireland) 2001.

The SSA claimed that cases where they request information from schools are rare.

Local Sinn Féin MLA Fra McCann has slammed it as a “Big Brother” tactic.

A local school principal said it was news to him and that if he was asked for the information, those asking the questions would be “shown the gates”.

“This is a terrible infringement of people’s rights and this is the long arm of the state going into very private and personal details,” said Councillor McCann.

“This is obviously being done to find out whether parents are living together and who collects a child from school to catch people who are claiming benefits for one-parent families.

“This is Big Brother-style intimidation and this practice should stop immediately.

“I will be writing to the DSD Minister David Hanson on this matter,” he added.

A local school principal, who did not wish to be named, said he was shocked by the news.

“This practice is disgusting and despicable. We are school teachers and not policemen, we are here to look after children and families. If we were asked for this type of information we would show them the gates,” he added.

A spokesperson from the Social Security Agency said, “When investigating cases of benefit fraud, Benefit Investigation Services pursue information from a wide range of sources to help determine whether benefit is being paid correctly.

“In appropriate cases this may include seeking information from schools.

“Cases where it is deemed necessary to approach a school are rare.

Requests for information are made in writing through a ‘subject of enquiry letter’. At no time are investigators sent into schools to search pupil records.

“Investigators are entitled to ask for any information which may help them either to corroborate or disprove any allegation of benefit fraud,” added the spokesperson.

Journalist:: Roisin McManus

Daily Ireland

by Mick Hall

A boost for the Irish language in the North’s schools has been given a guarded welcome.
The draft Education (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, which will go before both houses of the British parliament for approval before the summer recess, will allow schools to offer Irish as a foreign language second-level curriculum course.
It is scheduled to come into operation on August 1, 2006, if passed.
However, Sinn Féin education spokesman Michael Ferguson said that the amendment was simply a recognition of the government’s obligation to adhere to Section 75 equality legislation under the terms of Good Friday Agreement. He said the decision had resulted from pressure from equality campaigners, but claimed the provision of Irish language education had become a bargaining chip on the issue of whether academic selection should be scrapped and replaced by a more egalitarian educational system.
It is understood that government ministers have assured the DUP, which supports academic selection, that the controversial system would not be replaced unless a restored Stormont executive decides otherwise.
He told Daily Ireland: “I welcome the fact that the British minister Maria Eagle rang me this week to say that the draft order had now been amended to enable schools, other than Irish-speaking schools, to include Irish in their minimum language entitlement at Key Stage 4.
“This is an issue that I raised with her when we meet on May 20 at Hillsborough Castle and with her predecessor Angela Smith at Stormont.
“But this development unfortunately comes hot on the heels of a very negative decision to play political football with the issue of academic selection.
“The British government, by neglecting to ensure that all children had an entitlement to the Irish language, was in breech of the European charter on minority languages and in breech of the 1998 Section 75 equality legislation.
“Equality of educational entitlement can not be defined as a concession and the British minister should view this amendment to the order as a move to rectify the mistake in the original draft and the recognition of the right to Irish language education,” said Mr Ferguson.

Daily Ireland

by Ciarán Barnes & Eamonn Houston

A car used by loyalists in the brutal murder of six Catholics which may have contained crucial forensic evidence has been destroyed by the PSNI.
Relatives of those murdered in the Loughinisland massacre will reveal further information about the vehicle and more details on the killings at a press conference in Belfast today.
They will also comment publicly for the first time on why they felt it necessary to lodge a complaint with the Police Ombudsman about the RUC investigation into the slaughter.
Eamon Byrne, Barney Green, Malcolm Jenkinson, Daniel McCreanor, Patrick O’Hare and Adrian Rogan were murdered by the UVF at the Heights bar, Loughinisland, in June 1994.
The six were watching Ireland play Italy in a World Cup game when the gunmen struck.
Last week it emerged the red Triumph Acclaim used in the murders was provided to the UVF by an RUC informant code-named ‘Mechanic’.
He told his RUC handlers of his role in the killings in August 1994 but was never prosecuted. ‘Mechanic’ repeated his confession in the summer of 1997 during a police debriefing session after the UVF discovered he was an agent, but again he escaped prosecution.
The car was discovered abandoned by the RUC less than 24 hours after the murders on the Listooder Road near Crossgar, Co Down.
A police spokesman last night admitted the vehicle was destroyed, but was unable to say when this occurred.
“At that time all reasonable examinations of the car were undertaken and all forensic samples completed before the vehicle was disposed of,” said the spokeswoman.
“All the families of those murdered in Loughinisland have been kept informed.”
Niall Murphy, the solicitor acting for the Loughinisland families, said a huge amount of questions about the murders remained unanswered.
He said: “The families will for the first time speak publicly about their campaign for truth and justice, whilst also commenting on recent revelations surrounding collusion and the role of informers in the case.
“They will also comment on why they felt it necessary to lodge a Police Ombudsman complaint.”
Last week the PSNI arrested a man and woman form the greater Belfast area in connection with the killings. They were released without charge.
It is believed the arrests came about as a result of information provided to the PSNI by former UVF boss and Special Branch informant Mark Haddock.
The UVF shot Haddock six times on the outskirts of north Belfast two weeks ago. He miraculously survived the attack.
It is understood Haddock gave the PSNI information on the massacre in return for a guarantee that he will be relocated in England under a new identity.
Haddock’s knowledge of Loughinisland stems from his relationship with the police agent ‘Mechanic’ who provided the car used in the killings.
Mechanic is Haddock’s best friend and godfather to his daughter.
A total of eight people have been arrested in connection with the Loughinisland murders. No one has been charged.

Daily Ireland

Decision postponed until weekend ruling

by Ciarán Barnes

Fears of destroying a historic agreement between nationalist residents and the Orange Order has forced the Parades Commission to postpone making a decision on a second controversial loyalist march.
The commission was due to rule yesterday on an application by Whiterock Orangemen to parade along the nationalist Springfield Road in west Belfast on June 24.
But frightened a decision could wreck an unprecedented deal between the Orange Order and residents of the Ardoyne area in north Belfast, the commission has postponed their Whiterock ruling until the weekend.
On Tuesday, Ardoyne residents and loyalist community workers issued a joint statement in which they agreed a series of compromises ahead of Friday’s controversial Tour of the North march. In previous years the Orange Order parade has been the catalyst for serious sectarian rioting.
Speaking after meeting the Parades Commission yesterday to discuss the Whiterock parade, west Belfast Sinn Féin councillor Tom Hartley said: “Dialogue is very important as the only way to resolve the issue is through agreements between residents on both sides of the Springfield Road.
“There is an alternative route which I believe has been on the table for the last three years. I hope that sense will prevail as this is an opportunity to find a solution to a long-standing problem.”
The SDLP also met with the Parades Commission. West Belfast MLA Alex Attwood said: “The Parades Commission should hold to last year’s Whiterock decisions. In the absence of agreement or accommodation, any other decision sends out the wrong message, particularly after the vicious riots of last September.”
After Orangemen were banned from marching along the Springfield Road last year, loyalists rioted for five nights. More than 60 people were arrested in violence that saw paramilitaries and the PSNI open fire more than 300 times.
In relation to Friday’s parade, Ardoyne Parades Dialogue Group spokesman Joe Marley yesterday said it was important the event passes off peacefully.
“It is vital that the local community remains disciplined and peaceful in its protest,” he said.
“It is the interest of everyone who has a stake in the future of this community to ensure that this process is given a fair wind.
“We are calling on clergy, school teachers, local politicians, youth leaders and community workers to work with us on Friday night and in the time leading up to the parade to ensure that we seize this opportunity to build on the dialogue.
“We have called two public meetings to brief the community on the progress of the talks to date and our position has been endorsed.”

Residents to stage protest against parade
Daily Ireland

Nationalist residents of the Duncairn Gardens area of north Belfast are to stage a protest against a controversial loyalist parade set to pass through the area.
Hundreds of Orangemen taking part in the Tour of the North event, will march past Catholic homes on Friday evening.
Earlier this week the Parades Commission cancelled a meeting with locals at which they were to register opposition to the march.
Duncairn resident Gerry O’Reilly said the community had been treated badly by the commission.
“When the commission was originally considering the route of the march it was working off old maps that do not contain much of the new nationalist homes,” he said.
“A number of Orange parades pass by this area each year but avoid going directly along Duncairn Gardens. Why do organisers of the Tour of the North insist on coming this way when there are alternative routes?”
Mr O’Reilly said nationalist homes on Duncairn Gardens had been wrecked in the past by Orangemen.
“People are frightened this could happen again,” he added.
“There have been nine nights of trouble in this area recently. This makes the Parades Commission decision even more unbelievable.
“At the minute, we are calling for calm and also urging those with influence in the community to ease tension.”

BBC

15/06/2006 - 13:27:52

The families of the six Catholic men murdered by loyalist paramilitaries during the 1994 World Cup have said publicly for the first time that they believe the police colluded in the massacre.

The victims, aged between 34 and 87, were shot dead by a gang of UVF gunmen who opened fire inside a pub in Loughinisland, Co Down, while locals were watching Ireland play Italy on television.

The families of those killed said today that they believe a police informer was involved in the massacre and is still being protected from justice.

Emma Rogan was just eight when her father Aidan was killed in the attack.

She told reporters today that she was determined to find out the truth.

“We want to now how high does this collusion go. Six innocent men that didn’t do anyone any wrong in their entire lives were wiped off the face of the earth because somebody, somewhere said go and do it.

“We want to know why.”

The solicitor representing the families, meanwhile, said no explanation had ever been given as to why the getaway car used in the attack was destroyed by police only two years after the murders.

“The fact that it was destroyed creates inherent suspicion,” Niall Murphy said.

“I can think of no reasonable reason why any police officer would destroy such a massive exhibit that must have contained a wealth of evidential product.

“I find it preposterous that such an exhibit would be destroyed in a mass murder inquiry of this size.”

BBC

The Police Service of Northern Ireland is to recruit 150 part-time officers.

The new posts will be for the Foyle, Ballymoney, Moyle, Newry and Mourne and South Belfast district command areas.

Policing Board member Pauline McCabe said the new officers should have a close connection with and reflect the communities they serve in.

She said she hoped people from all sections of the community will apply - even those who may never before have considered a career in policing.

“These new posts offer an exciting and rewarding part time career opportunity for anyone interested in making their community a safer place to live,” Ms McCabe said.

“The part-time officers will be people who know, understand and have a close connection with their area which will allow them to work in partnership on issues affecting local people.”

In January 2003, the PSNI said it wanted to recruit 1,500 part-time officers for community policing over the next three years.

The Patten Report on policing planned a “peace-time” service of 7,500 regular officers and 2,500 part-timers.

BBC

The families of the six men shot dead in Loughinisland 12 years ago, have criticised the original police investigation into the atrocity.

Six men were shot dead in the Heights Bar, Loughinisland

The men were gunned down as they watched a world cup football match in the County Down village in 1994.

The UVF was blamed for the attack at the Heights Bar in the town.

On Thursday, the families said they felt let down and fobbed off by the police, and they had heard nothing from them for the first 10 years.

The families have not spoken publicly before.

They said they were prompted to do so by recent revelations linking at least one alleged security force agent to the gang which murdered their loved ones.

The relatives said they were particularly concerned that the getaway car used by the killers was destroyed by police two years after the shooting - and not retained for evidential reasons.

Claire Rogan’s husband Adrian was one of those murdered.

“They assured us there would be a rigorous investigation but as time has gone on, it has become more appropriate that that wasn’t the case,” Ms Rogan said.

Claire Rogan’s husband Adrian was one of those murdered.

“The car being destroyed, the lack of information to us, we basically feel we’ve been fobbed off.”

The police said that at the time all reasonable examinations of the car had been undertaken and forensic examples collected before the vehicle was disposed of.

Last week, a man and a woman arrested in connection with the murder of six men in County Down 12 years ago have been released without charge.

One of the victims, Barney Green, 87, was one of the oldest people to be murdered during the Troubles.

The others who died were Adrian Rogan, 34; Daniel McCreanor, 59; Eamon Byrne, 39; his brother-in-law Patrick O’Hare, 35, and 53-year-old Malcolm Jenkinson.

Five people were also injured in the attack by gunmen armed with an AK47 and a Czech-made rifle.

BBC ON THIS DAY

**See Manchester police release bomb footage

15 June 1996

A massive bomb has devastated a busy shopping area in central Manchester.

Many of the wounded were behind the police cordon

Two hundred people were injured in the attack, mostly by flying glass, and seven are said to be in a serious condition. Police believe the IRA planted the device.

The bomb exploded at about 1120 BST on Corporation Street outside the Arndale shopping centre.

It is the seventh attack by the Irish Republican group since it broke its ceasefire in February and is the second largest on the British mainland.

A local television station received a telephone warning at 1000 BST - just as the city centre was filling up with Saturday shoppers.

The caller used a recognised IRA codeword.

One hour and 20 minutes after the warning, police were still clearing hundreds of people from a huge area of central Manchester.

Army bomb disposal experts were using a remote-controlled device to examine a suspect van parked outside Marks & Spencer when it blew up in an uncontrolled explosion.

Glass wounds

Many of those injured were outside the police cordon.

Seventy bystanders were ferried to three hospitals in ambulances. Others walked or were taken by friends.

A consultant at Hope Hospital said most of the seriously injured - including a pregnant woman thrown 15 ft (4.6 m) into the air - had suffered deep glass wounds which would require surgery.

Prime Minister John Major insisted the multi-party Northern Ireland peace talks begun last week would continue, but called on Sinn Fein - the political wing of the IRA - to condemn the attack and demand a ceasefire.

“This act by a handful of fanatics will be regarded with contempt and disgust around the world,” he said.

In Context

The IRA’s 1996 post-ceasefire campaign focused entirely on UK mainland attacks.

The group broke its truce on 9 February 1996 with a huge bomb in London’s Docklands which killed two people.

Within 10 weeks, the Irish Republicans had planted five other devices - all of them in London.

They included the Aldwych bus bomb, which blew up prematurely and killed the suspected bomber.

Another IRA ceasefire has held since 1997 and opened the way for IRA political wing Sinn Fein to join multi-party talks on the future of Northern Ireland.

However, IRA splinter groups have continued to carry out attacks in Ireland and Britain.