SAOIRSE32

Irish Independent

SINN Fein’s chief negotiator Martin McGuinness yesterday slammed the DUP’s unwillingness to share power with nationalists and described the Paisley-party as “the Taliban”.

He said the DUP - the largest group in the Stormont Assembly - had shown no sign of moving towards the November 24 deadline for the restoration of devolution set by the Irish and British governments.

Speaking in advance of tomorrow’s expected visit to the North by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the republican leader accused Mr Paisley of setting his face against sharing power. Referring to the DUP’s lack of co-operation on the Preparation for Government committee, Mr McGuinness said they had sent in the Taliban - the Free Presbyterian fundamentalists.

“We have had no signals whatsoever that these people are up for doing a deal,” he said.

“In the absence of any indication that they are prepared to do the deal, I can only conclude, thus far, Ian Paisley and the DUP have set their face against doing a deal by the November 24 deadline - I hope they prove me wrong,” Mr McGuinness added.

BN.ie

28/06/2006 - 11:31:39

The Government is coming under fire today over new legislation it is introducing on compensation for haemophiliacs infected with HIV and Hepatitis C via contaminated blood products.

When publishing the bill last week, the Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney said it was designed to provide insurance cover for people infected as a result of the blood scandal.

However, groups representing haemophiliacs are demanding that the legislation be withdrawn, saying it will restrict the rights and entitlements of Hepatitis C sufferers.

Sinn Féin says the bill seeks to undermine the original HIV and Hepatitis C compensation legislation by imposing stricter conditions for claiming redress from the State.

The Labour Party’s Liz McManus, meanwhile, has also expressed concern at the development, but says her party is seeking legal advice before making a final assessment of the legislation.

Irish Examiner

By Harry McGee, Political Editor
28 June 2006

THE group protesting against the proposed gas pipeline in Mayo will campaign against Fianna Fáil in marginal constituencies at the next General Election.
Campaigners from the Shell to Sea group yesterday held a protest outside Leinster House to mark the first anniversary of the jailing of the Rossport Five.

Relatives of the five men were among the protestors as were a number of TDs including Mayo independent Jerry Cowley, Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins and Green Party TDs Dan Boyle, Eamon Ryan and John Gormley.

A spokesman for the group, Tadhg McGrath, said that it had identified several constituencies in Cork, Waterford and Dublin where the Government was vulnerable and would be canvassing door-to-door, asking people to vote against Fianna Fáil and the PDs.

Dr Cowley said that nothing had changed in the past year notwithstanding the five men having spent 94 days in prison. He accused Shell, which leads the consortium developing the gas field, of intransigence.

“Nothing has changed,” he said. “Shell has not changed its position.”

There have been reports in recent weeks of tensions between the five men. One of their number, Brendan Philbin, is said to have taken no active part in the joint campaign over the past two months and is also pursuing a separate case against Shell.

But yesterday, Dr Cowley said that the protest was as strong as ever and that it attracted widespread support in the area.

That view was echoed by Mary Kilduff, the wife of Vincent Kilduff of the Rossport Five who said that campaign’s momentum had been maintained.

Ms Kilduff said that the 94 days the men had spent in prison last year was worth it. “It made a national story of it. It highlighted to the people of Ireland what was really going on.”

She was also highly critical of Shell and what she said was the Government’s facilitation of the project.

“We have seen in other countries like Nigeria and Scotland and the harm that they have done to the environment and to people,” she claimed.

Asked about the independent safety review carried out on behalf of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, she said that it would mean that her safety would depend on a valve that reduced the pressure at which gas was pumped.

When the safety review was published last month, Andy Pyle, the managing director of Shell in Ireland, said that his company were committed to meeting all of its recommendations. He also apologised for the part Shell played in the jailing of the five men.

Irish Examiner

By Dan Buckley and Paul Kelly
28 June 2006

IT is a tale of two Irelands: one rich, one poor, one prosperous and productive, another rife with poverty and social exclusion.
It tells of a population outperforming the rest of the EU in everything from fertility to jobs while, at the same time, leaving one-fifth of the nation in its turbulent wake.

The report, Measuring Ireland’s Progress, 2005, published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday, shows that 21% of us face poverty and, despite three decades of equality legislation, women are more likely to be poor and still earn less than men.

The figures reveal an Ireland changing for the better economically but not socially.

The good news, according to the report, is that where a citizen in the 1920s was not expected to live to the age of 60, men can now expect to live to 78 and women to over 80.

But the bad news is that more of them will live on in isolation, apart from their families, lonely and fearful that illness will force them to endure an ailing health service.

The same goes for younger citizens. While Ireland in the past may have been poor, it at least had social cohesion, bolstered by large extended families and tight-knit communities.

That is now largely gone and there are a growing number of people living alone. The number of lone parents with young children has risen by a startling 80% in the past decade.

The CSO figures show that between 1998 and 2004, Ireland outperformed the rest of the EU in terms of income, employment growth and public finances.

But they also show how our social welfare system is failing to combat poverty.

In 2004, Ireland had the second-highest GDP per person in the EU. And, while the unemployment rate in Ireland increased slightly from a low point of 3.6% in 2001 to 4.2% in 2005, it is still the lowest rate in the EU in 2005.

However, spending on the health services is still substantially below the EU average and inflation in Ireland has been consistently higher than the EU average since 1999.

The proportion of Irish people at risk of poverty, after pensions and social transfer payments were taken into account, was 21% in 2004. This was one of the highest rates in the EU.

In 2002, social protection expenditure in Ireland was 15.9% of GDP — the lowest of the EU 15 countries.

There are other woes as well. The cost of living here has risen sharply. In the first half of the 1990s, price levels in Ireland were below the EU 25 average. But by 2004, prices here were over 23% above the EU average and Denmark was the only EU state with higher costs of living.

To the economist, these are figures on a page. To the lone parent minding the euros, they represent the struggle to survive.

:::u.tv:::

WEDNESDAY 28/06/2006 11:00:34

The leading north Belfast loyalist Ihab Shoukri is still being questioned by the police about serious crime.

The 32-year-old was arrested yesterday and taken to Antrim police station.

The arrest comes a week after Ihab and his brother Andre were expelled from the UDA.

The UDA`s Inner Council instructed the north Belfast brigade to replace the Shoukris.

It refused, however, saying members wanted the present leadership to remain in place.

The brigade also said it no longer recognised the authority of the group`s inner council.

Despite the split, UDA sources have said a feud is unlikely.

:::u.tv:::

Sinn Fein remains disappointed that the Irish Government appears to have lost focus on plans to allow Northern Ireland MPs to participate in the Republic’s political institutions, Gerry Adams has claimed.

By:Press Association
28/06/2006 11:43:10

As Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern prepared to head to Belfast tomorrow for talks involving British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Northern Ireland parties, Mr Adams insisted the issue of Northern representation in the political life of the Republic must be addressed.

“There is particular disappointment in republican circles that the issues around Northern representation in southern institutions have not been addressed,” he said.

“At the time of the Good Friday Agreement this was an issue the Taoiseach agreed would have to be dealt with and there was an all-party Oireachtas committee on constitutional reform headed by Brian Lenihan which recommended Northern MPs participate in debates affecting them.

“In July last year the Taoiseach gave a commitment that he would act on this and within a few months that was torn up in public on the excuse that other parties in the south were not prepared to go along with this.

“As far as republicans are concerned, this is an issue which needs to be addressed.”

Last October, Mr Ahern wrote to other party leaders in the Dail proposing that Northern Ireland`s 18 MPs participate in a Committee of the whole House.

The MPs would be invited to make presentations to the committee on issues relating to the Agreement and Northern Ireland.

The move was heavily criticised by unionists, who insisted they would not take part.

The Taoiseach`s proposal was ditched after it was rejected by the leaders of the other parties in the Dail.

Belfast Telegraph

By Robert Verkaik
28 June 2006

A secretive Whitehall department set up by the Government to handle sensitive and difficult requests under the new Freedom of Information Act is itself in breach of the new legislation, a parliamentary committee says. The so-called “clearing house” brought in by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, shortly before the new laws took force in January 2004 has refused to release information about its activities.

Today, MPs on the Constitutional Affairs Committee, which has been reviewing the first year of the FoI Act, told the Government that it must comply with the “letter and sprit” of the law.

The clearing house was asked by an academic interested in the workings of the legislation to release information about the number of cases it had dealt with. But he was told that such information was exempt under the Act because it could “prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs”.

The MPs said: “This is an unacceptable position for the government department in charge of promoting FoI compliance. The clearing house must comply fully with the letter and the spirit of the FoI Act, be openly accountable for its work and respond to any individual requests for information which it receives in full accordance with the Act.” Government plans to introduce more fees for using the legislation were also crit-icised in the report. “We see no need to change the fees regulations. There appears to be a lack of clarity and some under-use of existing provisions,” said the MPs. The report also found that Britain’s new freedom of information laws were being undermined by a culture of delay, with some public requests for information being postponed indefinitely. The committee says it regarded this as contrary to the spirit of the Act but welcomed a commitment from the information commissioner to adopt a firmer approach to enforcement, and put pressure on public authorities to deal with requests more quickly.

A further finding was that the complaints resolution provided by the information commissioner’s office (ICO) was unsatisfactory, with many requesters and public authorities having to wait months for the commissioner to begin investigating their complaints. The quality of some investigations was also inadequate.

“The committee is surprised it took so long for the backlog of complaints to be addressed and is not convinced that enough resources have yet been allocated to clear this problem. The commissioner is expected to publish a progress report in September of this year which the committee will use to assess the success of the ICO’s recovery action plan,” said the MPs. They also had reservations about the relationship between DCA and the ICO and questioned whether it was working effectively. The committee recommended that the Government consider making the information commissioner directly accountable to, and funded by, Parliament.

Alan Beith MP, chairman of the committee, said: “Freedom of information is clearly working, although there is room for improvement. We welcome the way that information is being released and used, but our FoI legislation can only be as good as the quality of the records management it gives us access to, and only if people can get access to the information in a timely way. Long delays in accessing information or having complaints resolved go against the spirit and letter of the Act, and must be resolved.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Noel McAdam
28 June 2006

Ulster Unionists last night demanded the Government drop its ‘Plan B’ for enhanced North-South co-operation in the event of an Assembly collapse.

On the eve of a visit from Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, the UUP said the “so-called Plan B” should be withdrawn until there is more clarity about Plan A - the return of devolution.

In a submission to the Council of Europe, sent earlier yesterday to Secretary of State Peter Hain and Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, the party accused the Government of flagrantly breaching international standards on human rights enshrined in protections provided in the Good Friday Agreement.

“The Government sets deadlines - and we accept November 24 will mean the end of the Assembly - and also says ‘you must get into government with Sinn Fein’ yet it has failed to meet its own obligations,” senior Ulster Unionist Dermot Nesbitt said.

Mr Nesbitt, who will be meeting Mr Blair and Mr Ahern on Thursday with party leader Sir Reg Empey, said he would be seeking answers over the two governments’ rationale for shifting towards an increased role for the Republic in the event of a failure to reach agreement by November 24.

RTÉ

28 June 2006 09:12

Sinn Féin has warned the British government that it is not prepared to participate in a Stormont Assembly which only serves to drive the Northern Ireland political process into deeper crisis.

Ahead of a review of its participation in the assembly, the party’s Chief Negotiator, Martin McGuinness, said his colleagues would not participate in a farce.

On the eve of a party meeting in Dundalk, Mr McGuinness said no political progress has been made in the past six weeks which, he said, was largely the responsibility of the two governments.

He said Sinn Féin was more than willing to be involved in any genuine effort to restore political institutions but it would not participate in a farce that was driving the political process into deeper crisis and making the public increasingly cynical.

He said the party’s review would begin this morning and conclude at the end of the summer.

His comments came as the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, prepared to travel to Belfast tomorrow for talks with the Northern parties.

In April, the two leaders gave the assembly parties a 24 November deadline for restoring power sharing.

BBC

The development of property in Belfast for multiple occupation is to be restricted.

The proposals would affect the Holyland area of Belfast

The Planning Service said in future no street in the city would be allowed to have more than 30% of its houses converted for such purposes.

For the Holyland area of the city, it means an effective freeze on converting any more houses into student dwellings.

Planners hope the move will see the regeneration of areas along some of Belfast’s arterial routes.

Al Adair from the Planning Service, who had a key role in drawing up the policies, said there was an increasing need for Houses of Multiple-Occupancy (HMOs).

“The purpose is to ensure that the problems that exist in the Holyland don’t extend elsewhere in Belfast,” he told BBC News on Wednesday.

“It is also to accommodate the need for houses in multiple occupation, because there is clearly a growing need.

“We have identified about 21 areas where we are setting the 30% cap.”

Mr Adair said there was a growing need for HMOs among Northern Ireland’s migrant worker community.

‘Long overdue’

However, Declan Boyle from the Landlords’ Association said it would be difficult to get students to consider living in other areas.

“All they want to have is their universities close, within the university corridor,” he said.

“They want to walk to wherever they are going, they haven’t got cars and they don’t want to be paying for transport links.”

David Farrell, from the Belfast Holyland Regeneration Association, said the plan was long overdue.

He said his area needed a greater mix of residents and currently had too many students.

“We are quite concerned that the enforcement doesn’t appear to be there in the document - and that is a major issue,” said Mr Farrell.

Sinn Fein South Belfast assembly member Alex Maskey welcomed the move but said more action was needed.

He called for “more to be done to ensure that planning and other policies do not conspire to undermine the social cohesion of communities in south Belfast”.

“I am mindful that for some areas this may have come too late.

“However, I believe that there is potential in this document, if it is implemented as part of a coherent strategy, to reverse some of the detrimental effects that the over-proliferation of HMO’s have had on many communities.”

Mr Maskey was speaking after the launch of the Department of the Environment’s draft consultation document on HMOs on Tuesday.

BBC

Two people have been injured and four others arrested during trouble at a mini-Twelfth parade in Glengormley, County Antrim.

A police officer and another person were hurt during the trouble, which happened as the parade passed Church Crescent in Carnmoney on Tuesday.

Their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. Police say order was quickly restored.

Albert Steele of Carnmoney Orange Lodge said people threw missiles at marchers.

“There was a barrage of golf balls, stones, bottles with urine in them and paint bombs,” the deputy district master said.

“One of the bands got splattered with paint, the district master got hit three times, twice with golf balls and a brick on the back of the leg.”

Condemned

Police in Newtownabbey said the trouble started at 2040 BST when a crowd gathered at Church Crescent and a “small number” of missiles were thrown by the crowd and by followers of the parade.

In a statement police said they “quickly restored calm in the area with the support of local community representatives from both sides”.

One juvenile was arrested at the scene, a further three were arrested a short time later - two at Farrier Court and one at Glengormley Park.

Newtownabbey police said they “condemned the actions of a small number of people on both sides of this disorder who were intent on causing trouble”.

Guardian

· Don’t throw decade of progress away, Paisley told
· DUP is only party not to agree to power sharing

Patrick Wintour , political editor
Tuesday June 27, 2006
The Guardian

Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland secretary, today accuses Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist party of threatening to throw away a decade of political progress if it refuses to engage fully on forming a Northern Ireland power-sharing executive by the government deadline of November 24.

Mr Hain was speaking ahead of a vital visit this week to Northern Ireland by Tony Blair and the Irish prime minister, Bertie Ahern, when the two men will lay down the law to the political parties.

Mr Hain warned the province faced “a leap in the dark” unless agreement is reached by the deadline. “It is put up or shut up time for all the political parties. We are coming to the crunch moment. There is still a certain amount of scepticism that this deadline is for real, but it is set in statute and set in concrete.”

He also said that the Treasury comprehensive spending review will look at the possibility of a peace dividend for Northern Ireland if the political parties agree to set up the power-sharing executive nearly 10 years after the Good Friday Agreement. The chancellor, Gordon Brown, was in the province last week.

Mr Hain singled out the DUP for criticism saying it was primarily responsible for the slow progress since the Assembly was reconvened in April.

He also warned that unless the power-sharing executive is agreed, he will continue with his brand of interventionist direct rule that many unionists find unacceptable, including ending all forms of educational selection, cutting the number of councils, raising water rates and slicing back the public bureaucracy.

He admitted his frustration at the slow progress of the talks saying: “For some Northern Ireland politicians glimpsing the light at the end of the tunnel is so frightening they want to extend the tunnel.

“There is an opportunity to make it work, but if the DUP in particular and the parties collectively, are unable to agree to share power again, and to get the assembly up and running as a legislature, then they will have brought the curtain down on devolution.

“It is really a question for the DUP as to whether it wants to be seen as the party that brought devolution down or whether it is going to be the party that makes it work. All the other parties are agreed, subject to final negotiations, that they want devolved government by November 24 at the latest. The DUP has yet to agree with the other four parties so it is the one standing out on its own at the moment.”

He said he remained optimistic because he believed ordinary DUP members did not want to be associated with forcing the collapse of devolution. Some believe the majority of DUP assembly members also want a deal. Assembly members are aware that if no deal is struck by November 24 they lose their salaries, as well as constituency office costs, ending what Mr Hain describes as the first inclusive political class in the province.

Mr Hain also rejected Unionist claims that they had grounds to believe the IRA ceasefire was bogus. “It was absolutely crystal clear when the independent monitoring committee reported in April that paramilitary activity has closed down and decommissioning has happened. It is night and day as to what was happening a year ago, let alone five or ten years ago.”

Irish Examiner

By Sameer Yacoub
28 June 2006

SADDAM HUSSEIN and six co-defendants will stand trial in August for his 1980s military campaign against Kurds.

An estimated 100,000 Kurds were killed in the operation in northern Iraq. Known as Anfal, Arabic for “spoils of war,” it was aimed at crushing independence-minded Kurdish militias and clearing out the Kurdish population along the sensitive Iranian border.

Saddam had accused Kurdish militias of ties to Iran. Thousands of Kurdish villages were razed and their inhabitants either killed or displaced.

Thee campaign included “savage military attacks on civilians,” including “the use of mustard gas and nerve agents … to kill and maim rural villagers and to drive them out of their homes,” the tribunal said in a memo issued in April.

Others accused in the case include Saddam’s cousin, Ali Hassan Majid, or “Chemical Ali”; former Defence Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad; former intelligence chief Saber Abdul Aziz al-Douri; former Republican Guard commander Hussein al-Tikriti; former Nineveh provincial governor Taher Tafwiq al-Ani; and former top military commander Farhan Mutlaq al-Jubouri.

Click photo to view and read Bloody Friday - Chemical massacre of the Kurds by the Iraqi regime - Halabja-March 1988

Saddam and seven other co-defendants have been on trial since October 19 for the deaths of Shi’ite Muslims following a 1982 assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail.

That trial is in recess until next month when the defence is to present its closing arguments.

Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi said the Anfal and Dujail cases would proceed in tandem if the Dujail case judges have not reached a verdict by August 21.

Meanwhile, one of Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab groups has endorsed the prime minister’s national reconciliation plan, and the government announced new benefits to help freed detainees return to normal lives.

The political moves came a day after bombs killed at least 40 people at markets in two cities, and key lawmakers said seven Sunni Arab insurgent groups offered the government a conditional truce.

The seven groups who approached the government are mostly made up of former members or backers of Saddam’s government, military or security agencies, and were motivated in part by fear of undue Iranian influence in Iraq, lawmakers said.

If confirmed, their offer could stand as evidence of a growing divide between Iraq’s homegrown Sunni insurgency and the more brutal and ideological fighters of al-Qaida in Iraq, who are believed to be mainly non-Iraqi Islamic militants.

In the latest violence yesterday, a suicide car bomb struck a busy gas station in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing three people and wounding 17.

In the first tangible measure after the reconciliation plan was announced, the council of ministers said government employees who had been detained and recently released will be reinstated to their jobs.

The Justice Ministry, meanwhile, said 453 more detainees were released from US detention centres, part of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s plan to free 2,500 by the end of the month.

BN.ie

27/06/2006 - 16:24:53

A campaign against a proposed Shell gas pipeline in north Co Mayo was today launched as a general election issue.

As the first anniversary of the jailing of the Rossport Five for 94 days occurs on Thursday, supporters launched an information leaflet which will be distributed to every household in Dublin.

The event outside the Dáil was supported by several TDs including Dan Boyle of the Greens, Joe Costello of Labour, Independent Jerry Cowley, John Gormley of the Greens, Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins and Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan and MEP Mary Lou McDonald.

Mary Corduff, wife of Rossport Five member Willie Corduff, said people in every constituency must make the Rossport campaign a general election issue with local candidates because it can affect every constituency.

“What is happening in Rossport in North Mayo can happen in any community. It’s a much broader issue of protecting our natural resources which must be utilised to the benefit of the people of Ireland instead of being given away.

“This leaflet will ensure that when a general election candidate comes knocking on a door, the householder will be fully briefed on the campaign and can ask the candidate where they stand on the issue.”

The leaflet urges the public to contact local media and their local TD on the issue or visit the ’Shell To Sea’ solidarity camp in north Mayo.

To mark the first anniversary on Thursday of the jailing of the Rossport Five by the High Court, supporters will lay a wreath at the grave of former Land League founder Michael Davitt in Straide in Co Mayo.

Micheal O Seighin, Willie Corduff, Phillip McGrath, Brendan Philbin and Vincent McGrath had refused to obey a court order stopping them from blocking construction work on the project.

Campaigners are also planning a number of fundraising initiatives in coming weeks, including a walk from Rossport to Dublin, beginning on July 29.

Shell aims to build a gas refinery seven miles inland to process resources from the Corrib Gas Field.

However local residents have raised health and safety concerns and insist the facility should be constructed off-shore.

A campaign spokesman said today: “We support in principle the development of the Corrib gas project.

“However, we also want to ensure the very highest standards of health and safety of local residents.”

Rossport “wives” Maureen McGrath and Cathleen Ui Sheighin also attended today’s event.

BN.ie

27/06/2006 - 21:05:08

Ireland is to be known as “Éire Ireland” at official European Union meetings in the future, it emerged tonight.

The move follows last year’s EU decision to designate Irish as its 21st official and working language from 2007.

The Éire Ireland name change will apply to signage and name plates at Council of Minister meetings and leaders’ summits from January 2007.

The Government today approved the measure at its weekly Cabinet meeting in Dublin.

A Government spokesperson said afterwards: “The name ‘Éire’ already appears on all Irish passports, stamps and coins, so it is an entirely consistent move.”

Member states like Finland and Belgium already have dual-language status at official EU meetings.
Under the 1937 Constitution, the state can be referred to as the Republic of Ireland, Ireland or Éire.

From 2007, all legislation approved by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament must be translated into Irish.

Ministers and MEPs will also be able to speak in Irish on request during Council meetings and European Parliament plenary sessions.

Up to 30 jobs for Irish translators and interpreters are expected to be created in the European institutions as a result.

BBC

The bus was driven under an Orange arch

A man has been arrested in connection with a suspect object found on a Metro bus hijacked in Glengormley, County Antrim.

Ciaran Rogan from Translink said two men boarded the bus just after 0700 BST, left a package and told the driver to drive it to Glengormley Orange arch.

The object was later declared a hoax by Army technical officers.

Chief Inspector John McCaughan said those responsible “had no regard for people trying to lead normal lives”.

He appealed for witnesses. The Ballyclare Road was closed for a time during the incident on Tuesday.

Mr Rogan said the driver got the five passengers on board off, did as he was instructed and called the authorities.

He added that the bus was equipped with CCTV, which would be handed over to the authorities.

A representative of the Orange Order said that 500 people were expected to take part in the mini-Twelfth parade in the village on Tuesday evening.

He said that there had been an “ongoing campaign” against parades in the area in recent years.

>>cryptome.org

Daily Ireland

Flash-point sees surge of attacks carried out by brawling loyalist and nationalist youths

By Eamonn Houston
27/06/2006

The PSNI yesterday moved to ease sectarian tensions at an interface flash-point in Derry, amid fears that a series of recent attacks could lead to lives being lost.
A number of attacks carried out by loyalists along the Fountain and nationalist Bishop Street interface, has led to one of the gates on Derry’s historic walls to be locked each night from 8pm.
The Fountain and Bishop Street interface has been the scene of sectarian tensions in recent years.
In the latest incident a 38-year-old Catholic man suffered a broken arm after he was attacked with a baseball bat during the early hours of Saturday. Another man sustained a fractured skull during an attack on the same evening.
A community rota system had been in place in a bid to diffuse tensions and deter nationalist youths from throwing missiles into the Fountain which is the last predominantly Protestant estate on the west bank of the River Foyle.
Yesterday Sinn Féin Councillor, Peter Anderson, revealed that he had written to the Department of Environment to request the closing of the gate linking the Fountain and Bishop Street.
“The people who carried out the attacks during the past few weeks have used this gate to leave and re-enter the Fountain estate after each attack,” he said.
“These attacks are obviously orchestrated as the perpetrators have brought weapons with them and are an attempt to create tensions between the two communities after relationships had greatly improved since a scheme to patrol the area was instigated several months ago.
“There has been a vast amount of work done over the past year to ensure that attacks are stopped and I believe that with this gate closed it will contribute to lessening tensions within the area.”
The PSNI met with community leaders yesterday and later announced that Bishop’s Gate will be locked each evening “until further notice”.
A spokesman said: “In the past police had, in consultation with the local community, closed the gate at times of heightened tension.
“Senior officers are meeting with community and civic leaders and have taken a decision that the gate will be locked at 8pm each night and reopened before 7am.
“It is hoped these times will minimise any detrimental effects on the commercial life of the city.
“In addition, police will, if necessary, take decisions to close the gate at other times should a need arise.
“Police will work with the community of the Fountain to ensure there is access in emergencies.”
Derry’s Mayor, Councillor Helen Quigley, said that the PSNI decision to lock the gate at selected times was “essential” to prevent loss of life.
“I fully appreciate that these measures will be an inconvenience for the local community but I believe it is essential that immediate steps be taken to ensure there are no further incidents. It is important to note that these restrictions are only a temporary measure and will be reviewed on a regular basis.”