SAOIRSE32

BBC

A compensation case taken by police officers who say they suffered post traumatic stress during the Troubles has ended.

Officers are claiming for trauma suffered during Troubles

The High Court hearing lasted more than 100 days. It is likely to be several months before a judgement is heard.

More than 5,000 retired and serving officers are claiming compensation.

They accuse successive RUC and PSNI chief constables of negligence in their duty of care of officers during the years of the Troubles.

The High Court in Belfast heard 12 sample cases of people who suffered post traumatic stress.

If the officers’ case is successful they would have to undergo medical examinations to determine how much each of them suffered from psychiatric illness.

The resulting compensation bill facing the government could be as much as £100m.

Mr Justice Coghlin said it was “a long and complicated matter but clearly very important”.

He said it would take him months to resolve “the complicated issues” in the case.

BBC

Two men from Merseyside have admitted being members of the loyalist paramilitary organisation the Ulster Volunteer Force.

Roy Barwise, 47, and John Irwin, 43, both from Anfield, were part of the Liverpool Battalion of the UVF.

The pair were senior members of the group, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Both men, involved with Orange Lodges in Liverpool, pleaded guilty to membership of a proscribed organisation - the UVF.

They were arrested last July after police mounted raids following an attempt to harm loyalist Johnny Adair.

Explosives, a machine gun, pistols, shotguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found in the raids on Merseyside.

‘Inner sanctum’

The pair were due to go on trial, but pleaded guilty.

The court was shown a video of white-shirted loyalists marching in Monkstown, near Belfast. On a mural on the side of a house under a painting of Loyalist hero Sir Edward Carson was the name of Lee Irwin, the son of the defendant, who died of cancer aged 16.

The name on the mural represented a “military honour” to the father, said David Turner QC, prosecuting. The video went on to show a phalanx of the marchers raising their arms to fire a volley of pistols into the air.

A second video showed inside the Derry Club in Liverpool, a meeting point for Orange Lodge members on Merseyside.

In a room not open to members of the public, the video showed the “inner sanctum” - its walls covered with UVF flags and banners.

Father-of-two Barwise also pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of ammunition, possession of firearms and explosives and supplying ammunition.

Both men will be sentenced on Wednesday.

Washington Post

Coverup Is Alleged; Four Others Implicated

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 4, 2006

A former U.S. Army soldier was charged yesterday with the rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman [girl] and the slayings of three of her family members in their home south of Baghdad in March, federal prosecutors said.

Several soldiers allegedly planned the attack over drinks after noticing the woman near the traffic checkpoint they manned in Mahmudiyah, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. The soldiers allegedly worked out an elaborate plan to carry out the crime and then cover it up, wearing dark clothes to the home, using an AK-47 assault rifle from the house to kill the family, and allowing authorities to believe that the attack was carried out by insurgents, investigators said.

Steven D. Green was recently discharged from the Army. (AP)

Former Pfc. Steven D. Green, 21, and other members of 1st Platoon, B Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, allegedly carried out the crimes on March 12. Several soldiers told authorities that Green killed all four people and that he and another soldier raped the young woman.

(more…)

BBC

Alistair Finlay joins the PSNI from Strathclyde Police

The police have appointed a new assistant chief constable to deal with public inquiries into a number of controversial deaths.

Alistair Finlay is expected to take up the NI post in the autumn.

He will be responsible for police input into inquiries into the deaths of Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill, and Billy Wright.

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said the appointment would allow other senior officers to concentrate on new cases.

Mr Finlay, who is currently serving with Strathclyde police, will also be responsible for responding to a report by the Police Ombudsman later this year which is expected to heavily criticise the conduct and management of a number of police informers.

He may also oversee the work of the Historical Inquiries Team, which has been given five years to re-examine more than 3,000 deaths during the Troubles.

Rosemary Nelson, a solicitor, was killed in an under-car booby-trap bomb explosion in Lurgan in 1999.

LVF leader Billy Wright was targeted and murdered inside the Maze Prison by jailed members of the Irish National Liberation Army in 1997.

Robert Hamill, a Catholic, died in hospital after being attacked by a loyalist mob in his home town of Portadown in 1997.

Public inquiries into their murders were ordered by the government in April 2004 following a report into allegations of security force collusion in their deaths.

Derry Journal

04 July 2006

Sinn Fein have said that a number of eyewitnesses have reported that police officers could have taken action to stop the vicious assault of 36 year-old Catholic man Jim Norris at Ferryquay Street early on Saturday morning.
Jim Norris was attacked by two men in Ferryquay Street at 2.20am and received head injuries, had his scalp torn and his ear partially severed. Police believe the attack was sectarian.
His father, also Jim, said his son was left for dead and has claimed that the police showed little interest in trying to find the culprits.
A police spokesman said yesterday that officers were dealing with a number of incidents in the city centre at the time and arrived at the scene of the attack within three minutes of receiving the call.
Colr McLaughlin commented: “A number of eyewitnesses claim that no action was taken to stop the perpetrators of this horrific assault. Once again the PSNI have failed to deliver effective policing.”
One of four men detained by police in the city centre at around the time of the attack on Jim Norris said he felt the officers would have been better employed dealing with the thugs responsible.
The Journal was contacted yesterday by Pete Kavanagh who said he and three friends were making their way to a taxi stand when two PSNI officers detained them at George’s Bar at 2.30 am. The four young men were told they matched reports of people seen rioting.
“I totally refuted this and put it to the officers that I was ‘dressed to the nines’ and would and could not have been rioting,” said Mr. Kavanagh.
He said the police also told him that they believed he had supplied them with false identification and address details.
“In total they kept us there for an hour, refusing to give us any reasons as to why we were being detained or under what law they were holding us under. They just ignored us and told us we had to wait.”
Mr. Kavanagh said he felt it was important to come forward with his story.
“People have to know what the police are doing. We were stopped for nothing at the same time a man was being beaten half to death streets away!”
Sinn Fein Councillor Meave McLaughlin said there were real concerns over the level of policing in the area.
“Our view of the matter is that we need an acceptable policing service. Here we have four young men walking home who are detained for over 60 minutes while just streets away, in a serious and sinister development, a man has been left for dead, allegedly in full view of the police.
“These two incidents only give rise to more questions. We are presented with statistics about how useful the CCTV system in the city is and that increased PSNI patrols have led to a reduction in crime. Yet the PSNI could only use these to detain four people who have done nothing while the thugs were allowed to escape.”
A spokesperson for the PSNI stated that: “In the hour between 2am and 3am on Saturday, police dealt with a number of incidents in and close to the city centre.
“These included serious assaults, reports of groups of youths fighting and criminal damage incidents. Officers spoke to a large number of people during their wider investigations into these incidents. A normal part of these investigations would be to identify witnesses and suspects.”
The spokesperson then stated that police were not present at the scene of the Ferryquay Street attack but arrived on scene three minutes after receiving the call.
Referring to the detention of the four young men, the spokesperson commented: “If anyone is dissatisfied with the way they were treated by officers they should contact the Police Ombudsman’s office.”

BN.ie

04/07/2006 - 14:25:01

Three men arrested during a Garda Special Branch investigation into the activities of the Continuity IRA in Co Wexford faced new explosives and ammunition charges at the Special Criminal Court today.

The three are Billy Phillips (aged 45) of Harbour View, Maudlintown, Wexford, Jackie Bates (aged 55) of Jacketstown House, Jacketstown, Drinagh, Co Wexford and Robert Kearns (aged 32) of Redshire Road, Murrintown, Co Wexford.

All three men were charged last March with membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA ,on March 1. They 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 Ballycogley, Co Wexford on March 1.

Kearns was also charged with the unlawful possession of an improvised explosive device at Redshire Road, Murrintown on the same date.

Today, Phillips was charged with the unlawful possession of an improvised explosive device at Moortown, Ballycogley, Co Wexford on March 1.

Bates was charged with the unlawful possession of an improvised explosive device at Ballycogley, and the unlawful possession of ammunition at Jacketstown House, Co Wexford on the same date.

Kearns was also charged with the unlawful possession of ammunition at Murrintown, Co Wexford on March 1.

The court remanded all three men on continuing bail until October 3.

BBC

Dublin Airport remains closed following a security alert after a man claimed he had a bomb in a bag.

The man was subsequently arrested and thousands of passengers moved to safe areas while Irish army bomb disposal experts examined the scene.

The alert has now ended, according to Irish police, but the airport will not be fully re-opened until about 1630 BST on Tuesday.

The airport said flights would be disrupted as a result.

It is understood flights are landing but passengers are not being allowed into the terminal building.

An airport spokeswoman said: “There was a full evacuation at approximately 13.50 following a declaration by a gentleman in arrivals that he had a bomb in a bag.

“He was subsequently arrested and is now in garda custody.”

The spokeswoman said the terminal was completely evacuated, all traffic was prevented from entering the airport grounds and a number of roads have been cordoned off.

Traffic delays

It is understood between ten and 20 aircraft have been affected by the alert.

The alert is also affecting traffic with vehicles heading for the airport queueing up along the Old Airport Road from the roundabout.

Passengers are being advised to make their way to the airport as normal, but to allow extra time for the journey.

Translink is advising that the Goldline Express Service 200 and the Bus Eireann Service 001 between Belfast and Dublin is being disrupted.

Belfast Telegraph

By Noel McAdam
04 July 2006

Secretary State Peter Hain was today poised to summon a meeting of the Assembly - its first in a month.

The issue for debate will be the progress, or lack of it, of the Preparation for Government Committee. But Sinn Fein was privately making clear its members are unlikely to attend.

The expected move comes after the multi-party group yesterday failed to agree over how to take its task - identifying obstacles to the restoration of devolution - forward.

Apart from the Assembly meeting on Friday, Mr Hain is understood to have suggested the committee set up a range of sub-groups to examine specific issues including policing, the devolution of justice and the potential economic ‘peace dividend’ package.

Sinn Fein is, however, opposed to what it calls “talking shop” Assembly debates - discussions on issues over which the Assembly has no power - while the DUP is reluctant to agree to expand the 14-strong committee into sub-groups.

By Nigel Gould
04 July 2006

A seriously ill Ulster baby boy was expected to undergo life-saving treatment today in Germany - as the result of his mum’s bone marrow.

Little James Hynes was only weeks from death with leukaemia last month.

His parents, Cathy and Jim, had been told nothing could be done.

James’ only hope was specialist treatment in Germany.

Several weeks ago the Eastern Health Board agreed to fund the £100,000 procedure, after it was deemed appropriate by doctors.

The 13-month-old toddler, from Dundrod, was due to receive his mum’s bone marrow today. It is his only hope of survival.

Within days of arriving at Tubingen Children’s Hospital in Germany, dad Jim said his wee boy was now eating, drinking, sleeping and playing like a normal toddler.

“It is just unreal,” said the dad-of-two.

“James is absolutely bouncing - it’s hard to put into words how we feel.

“It’s the best nine days we have spent with our son since he was born - it’s like a holiday.

“He’s in great form, playing and running around, and the swelling in his face has gone down.

“James has had his feeding tube removed and now he is eating and drinking like a wee trooper.”

Before they left for Germany, mum Cathy had told Sunday Life how she feared her son might not make the journey.

Earlier this month, doctors at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children had sent James home, saying there was nothing more they could do for him.

Although the donation of bone marrow is a painful procedure, Jim said: “She told the doctors she would cut off her right arm to help James.

“Cathy is so happy about James’ progress that she isn’t concerned about her own treatment.”

Cheques are still being sent into the Baby James Appeal, which will help fund the Hynes family’s lengthy stay in Germany.

It will also go towards helping other children like James.

BBC

A series of searches have taken place to locate the Disappeared

Republicans have not given up hope of resolving the “Disappeared” issue, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness has said.

DUP leader Ian Paisley is to meet the mother of Columba McVeigh, murdered in 1975 but whose body remains missing.

In 1999, the IRA offered to help locate the bodies of the nine Disappeared. Three victims were found in 1999 while one was uncovered in 2003.

Mr McGuinness said his party was “not satisfied” with this and would continue striving to help the victims’ families.

“We have been partially successful in that there have been a number of cases resolved as a result of the endeavours of republicans,” he said.

“But we are not satisfied with that.

“We want to continue to appeal to people to help in whatever way they can to ensure that families like the McVeighs can find some comfort after the terrible ordeal they have been through over the course of many decades.”

The so-called Disappeared are nine people murdered by the IRA during the Troubles whose bodies were not found for decades. Five remain undetected.

In October 2003, the IRA apologised for the grief suffered by their families.

Paisley meeting

On Monday, the mother of IRA murder victim Columba McVeigh said she appreciated the help of Mr Paisley who wants to help pursue the search for her son’s body.

The 17-year-old from Donaghmore in County Tyrone was kidnapped, killed and secretly buried in 1975.

It is understood a meeting will take place between the DUP leader and the McVeigh family this week.

In 2003, Mrs McVeigh said she had given up hope of ever finding her son’s remains, after a 14-day police excavation at bogland in County Monaghan turned up nothing.

The operation was the third dig in the area and followed new information passed to the Irish Government by the IRA.

Irelandclick

By any standards, graduating from Queen’s University with a degree in medicine would be a call for celebration.
But her graduation ceremony today is one that 24-year-old West Belfast student Marie-Louise Kane didn’t imagine she would see after the tragic death of her sister in 2003.
The Aisling Bursary winner gave up her medical studies after her sister Karen was killed in a road accident two days before Christmas 2003, leaving behind two young children – one of whom was critically injured in the same accident.
For months, she and her mother Joan dedicated all their time to caring for Eoghan, then just three months old, and seven-year-old Patrick, who was in a seriously ill condition in hospital.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News yesterday, Karen said it was a devastating blow to all the family, and one which made her reconsider the worth of her studies.
“I just didn’t see the point in going back to university after that. We were devastated by Karen’s death and Patrick was really seriously unwell and in hospital for months.”
Karen, who worked part-time in a bookmakers and a bar to support her studies, had to give up her jobs in order to care for the children. Despite being a full-time carer and out of work, Marie-Louise was unable to claim income support because she was still considered a student. Ironically, the cash from an Aisling Bursary she won in September 2003 came through in Christmas of that year, the same week she gave up her studies.
It was this same bursary which put her on the path back to Queen’s.
“My term hadn’t ended, so I couldn’t get income support – all I could get were student loans, but I was already up to my eyes in them and didn’t know whether I’d be able to pay them off when I wasn’t going to be a doctor. It was a tough time financially and would have been absolutely impossible if it wasn’t for the Aisling Bursary. Ironically, I had planned to buy books with the bursary, but ended up using it to get through that time after Karen died – I’m not sure how I would have coped otherwise.”
Eight months later, Karen’s mother Joan convinced her to return to university, which she reluctantly did in September 2004. By this stage, Karen had given birth to her own child, Kieran, but her mother pledged to support all three children.
Since then, Karen has juggled motherhood and studies and today she will finally graduate as a doctor.
Yesterday she admitted she couldn’t have come this far without the support of her mother and her partner Gerard.
“This is all down to my mummy and boyfriend. They’ve supported me all the way, looking after Kieran, Patrick and Eoghan. My mummy’s rarely seen without her three boys! She keeps saying this is my big day, but really it’s as much hers because I would never have reached this point without her – she’s brilliant. And Gerard has been amazing too, looking after Kieran when I was studying or working in the hospital. I’d have been lost without the two of them.”
In August, Marie-Louise will begin working as a doctor in Magherafelt and, despite the prospect of 12-hour shifts, she’s looking forward to earning a proper wage.
“I can’t wait, although I can see my first year’s wage going on paying back student loans! It’ll be a while before I see a proper salary, but I never thought I’d get to this stage, so I’ve a lot to be thankful for.”

Journalist:: Laura McDaid

Irelandclick

The future education of 21 Irish language students has been thrown into serious doubt after education chiefs signalled their intention to slash vital funding.
Irish language activists say officials at the Department of Employment and Learning have indicated that they will stop funding post-16 Irish medium provision in Forbairt Feirste’s successful i dTreo na Fostaíochta – Towards Employment training programme – from September 2006. The programme, which has been delivered in a partnership between the Falls Road Irish language organisation and the Belfast Institute of Further & Higher Education (BIFHE), has been in existence since 1999.
Despite the pioneering work carried out by Forbairt, all attempts in recent years to have a proper process initiated by the Department for mainstreaming the programme have fallen on deaf ears. Pressure from Irish language activists, led by Forbairt Feirste, recently forced the British government to signal they were intending to provide mainstream provision for pupils who leave Irish-medium secondary schools at age 16.
Attempts by Forbairt Feirste to seek clarification on how the transition from the existing programme to mainstreaming would be achieved has been met with a wall of silence. Forbairt Feirste Programme Coordinator Colma McKee says her group will fight any cutbacks.
“DEL indicated to us in its only communication on this issue in August 2005 that through the implementation of its Further Education Review that it would ‘examine how the FE colleges might better collaborate with voluntary and community organisations, such as Forbairt Feirste, to meet the needs of all learners, improve participation and enhance the achievement of qualifications’. We sent five subsequent letters to the relevant civil servant and the Department seeking an urgent meeting to clarify all these issues and were simply ignored.
“Given the uncertainty and the cavalier attitude and precipitative action of some civil servants within the department, Forbairt Feirste has sought an emergency meeting with direct rule minister Maria Eagle which is scheduled for Tuesday next week to press the case for securing the future of the 21 students so far enrolled for the start of September 2006. We intend to fight this threat to our students every inch of the way.”
No one from DEL was available for comment.

Irelandclick.com

Short Strand residents have demanded the Parades Commission take action against the Orange Order following a contentious parade that passed the East Belfast nationalist enclave on Saturday.
Over 1,000 Orangemen and 33 loyalist bands marched past the Strand for their annual Battle of the Somme commemoration, but angry residents say it was in reality a tribute to loyalist paramilitaries.
UVF and YCV insignia were prominently displayed at the parade and a Red Hand Defenders banner was flown. One band had the letters KAI on their drums. That’s widely understood to mean ‘Kill All Irish’, but an Orange Order spokesman claimed that was not the meaning in this case – he said the letters were a tribute to a Glasgow Rangers player who last turned out for the club in the 1960s.
A spokesman for the Short Strand Residents’ Group said, “Yet again there were multiple breaches of the Parades Commission determination, as happens every year with this parade. It was again taken over by UVF supporters who flew their flags and played their sectarian tunes despite the determination saying they were not allowed. A Rathcoole band had ‘KAI’ written on its drum which means ‘Kill All Irish’, so not only was the parade sectarian in nature, it was also racist.
“We have written to the Orange Order, and particularly District Number 6, who organise the parade, to try and get them to create a climate where dialogue can take place but they either don’t answer our letters or send very vague replies. Unless they enter into meaningful dialogue we will continue to reject these sectarian parades marching past our area.”
The spokesman also called on the PSNI to do more to stop the breaches of the Parades Commission rulings.
“The followers of the parade were openly drinking alcohol, which is against the law in that area, but the PSNI just stood by and watched.
“When one loyalist came on to the central reservation on the Albertbridge Road, which had been deemed a sterile area, to video nationalist protesters, the PSNI did nothing to move him.”
Belfast DUP councillor Nelson McCausland, who took part in Saturday’s parade, said he did not see any paramilitary insignia on the day.
“I didn’t see the [Red Hand Defenders] banner mentioned but since the parade did not go though the Short Strand and was kept a considerable distance back I fail to see how anyone could be intimidated.
“However, some people are content to portray themselves as victims continuously. It was a very pleasant evening and the few protestors who were out would have needed binoculars to be offended.”
A spokesperson for the Orange Order told the Andersonstown News that any banners displayed were historical and he claimed that the initials ‘KAI’ were a tribute to former Rangers player Kai Johansen, who played for the club in the 1960s and who’s currently in hospital on the Isle of Man. It’s well known, however, that in the 1970s one of the most notorious of the loyalist Tartan gangs which targeted Catholics and their homes in North Belfast was the ‘Rathcoole KAI’ (‘Kill All Irish’).
The Order spokesman said, “We are confident that the flags displayed were an historical acknowledgment of the original Ulster Volunteer Force, many of whose members were killed in Flanders in 1916 in defence of the crown. The Sons of KAI flute band is named, with his permission, after the former Danish-born Glasgow Rangers player, Kai Johansen, who we understand is now gravely ill with cancer in the Isle of Man.”
He added: “It is sad that as we marked the shared sacrifice of unionists and nationalists 90 years later that a tiny handful of Irish republicans should seek to object to their neighbours proceeding along the shared space of a main arterial road, and by doing so obstruct the vision of a shared and peaceful future.”

Journalist:: Staff Journalist

BN.ie

03/07/2006 - 16:06:54

Environment Minister Dick Roche today announced the establishment of the ‘Irish Heritage Trust’.

The charity will acquire and conserve properties of significant heritage value, and ensure public access to them.

Anyone who donates a property to the trust can avail of a new tax relief, set at €6m in any one year.

The Government has given half a million euro to cover the initial running costs of the trust.

BN.ie

03/07/2006 - 15:13:39

The British government was warned today that Sinn Féin may not prepared to participate in an Assembly at Stormont - a move which drive the political process into a deeper crisis.

As the party began a review of its participation in the Assembly which was recalled six weeks ago, Martin McGuinness said his colleagues would not participate in a farce.

Ahead of the meeting of party officers in Dundalk, the Mid Ulster MP said: “This week’s sitting of the (Peter) Hain Assembly is coming to an end and the fact is that no progress has been made - something that is largely the responsibility of the two governments.

“As we said we would do at the beginning of this current phase, Sinn Féin is going to review our position regarding the Hain Assembly.

“We are more than willing to be involved in any genuine effort to restore political institutions but we will not participate in a farce that is driving the political process into deeper crisis and making the public increasingly cynical.

“The review will begin tomorrow morning and conclude at the end of the summer.”

The warning came as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair prepared to travel to Belfast tomorrow for talks with parties in the North.

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

They also recalled the Assembly in May, hoping a power-sharing executive would be formed within six weeks.

However, a bid by Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams to have Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley elected at Stormont as First Minister alongside Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister failed.

The governments had also hoped that the first six weeks of the recalled Assembly would help create the right mood and music for the formation of a power-sharing executive in the autumn if it was not possible to establish one for the summer marching season.

However, the first six weeks have been marked by bitter exchanges between Sinn Féin and Mr Paisley’s DUP.

Mr Adams’s party has boycotted debates inside the chamber, claiming they are meaningless because there are no devolved ministers.

A special Assembly committee set up by Northern Secretary Peter Hain to identify the issues before the establishment of a power-sharing government has seen regular clashes between the DUP and Sinn Féin.

Mr Paisley has also accused Mr Hain in recent days of frustrating the work of the Assembly by limiting the number of debates.

“The Secretary of State and his officials are very busy preaching to MLAs to get down to work, yet Mr Hain is the very man who has refused to allow the Assembly to debate and discuss a financial package, the review of public administration, education concerns and a host of other pressing concerns that have been referred to by the Assembly Business Committee,” the North Antrim MP complained.

“The Secretary of State has adopted a hypocritical stance by demanding we get back to work yet refusing allow any business in the Assembly chamber.”

Mr Paisley accused Mr Hain of failing to challenge Sinn Féin to go into the Assembly chamber and of opting instead to bow to their every demand.

“Despite the fact that all of the democratic parties have delivered business to be discussed and have supported this being referred to the Assembly, the Secretary of State has stood shoulder to shoulder with republicans,” he said.

Mr Paisley continued: “The Secretary of State must decide whether he is going to continue to back those who are still in the business of criminality whilst attacking democratic parties on a daily basis or whether he is prepared to forego his recent bout of hypocrisy and allow local politicians to discuss issues of vital importance to them on the floor of the Assembly.

“The Preparation for Government Committee cannot stand alone and work with the Assembly and the Northern Ireland office would be foolish to think it can continue to exist in such a form.”