SAOIRSE32

Sinn Féin

Published: 5 July, 2006

Sinn Féin Assembly member for Upper Bann John O’Dowd and party Councillors Maurice Magill, Michael Talon and Mairead O’Dowd today met with the Police Ombudsman to make a formal complaint about the conduct of the PSNI in Lurgan on Friday evening when they facilitated a loyalist crowd to erect flags in the nationalist end of the town.

Mr O’Dowd said:

“There is currently a palpable anger within the nationalist community in Lurgan at recent events.

* On Friday night the PSNI facilitated well known loyalists to erect flags in the nationalist end of the town.
* On Saturday morning even more loyalist bunting was erected.
* On Saturday night a loyalist parade coat trailed through the town centre.
* On Sunday night Catholic owned homes on the Antrim Road were attacked by a loyalist mob and the PSNI failed to turn up when contacted by a local resident.
* Another loyalist parade is planned for the two this Friday night and then another two are planned for the 12th.

“Today we asked that Police Ombudsman to investigate the events of last Friday evening when the PSNI arrived in the town centre in large numbers to facilitate known loyalist paramilitaries to erect flags in the nationalist end of the town.

“We provided the Ombudsman with both video evidence and testimony from those of us at the scene. I would also appeal to anyone else present to make contact with the Ombudsman‚s Office and assist her inquiry. The Police Ombudsman has pledged to deal with this matter as speedily as possible.” ENDS

Belfast Telegraph

05 July 2006

The Government was today under pressure to explain a minister’s claim that the Bloody Sunday Inquiry has now cost around £400m - more than twice the most recent estimate given to MPs in the House of Commons.

Downing Street is determined to resist calls for an official inquiry into the July 7 London bombings and the Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has said it would be too costly - claiming the eight-year inquiry into the Bloody Sunday shootings had cost the taxpayer £400m.

DUP MP Gregory Campbell, a long-standing critic of the Saville Inquiry, said it was ridiculous the Government was using cost to argue against a July 7 inquiry into the London bombings.

He also said he was shocked by estimates made by Ms Jowell, placing the real cost of the inquiry at more than double the £163m originally estimated.

He said: “They are not even holding an inquiry into the July 7 bombings which happened just 12 months ago, and yet they can hold an inquiry into something that occurred 34 years ago.

“People in England will justifiably be very angry at such double standards.

“Anyone who lost relatives or friends in the London bombings or who were injured in it and who will be trying to get at the truth will be rightly angry.”

Almost a decade since its inception, the Saville Inquiry is no closer to fixing a date for the disclosure of its report, and it is now believed that it will not unveil its findings until next year.

Last November the Government put the cost of Lord Saville’s inquiry at £163m.

However, Ms Jowell said on BBC TV’s Sunday AM programme that “the latest estimate . . . is about £400m”.

She said that a July 7 inquiry would cost “millions and millions of pounds” and cause the diversion of enormous security and intelligence resources.

The Saville Inquiry, ordered by Tony Blair in 1998, has still not produced its report into the deaths of 14 civilians shot during a civil rights march in Londonderry in January 1972.

BN.ie

05/07/2006 - 11:21:36

A British parliamentary committee has said continued paramilitary involvement in organised crime is threatening political progress in the North.

In a report out today, the House of Commons committee says organised crime in the North has a unique dimension because of the involvement of paramilitaries.

It includes references to excise and tax fraud, cigarette smuggling, counterfeiting, extortion, drugs, armed robbery, money-laundering and illegal dumping.

The committee says such crimes deter new businesses and damage the fuel and building industries.

Today’s report says cross-border co-operation is vital to tackling the problem, as is Sinn Féin support for the PSNI.

It also calls for tighter licensing rules for taxi firms, road haulage, private security companies and petrol retailers, as well as the regulation of charities and the imposition of longer prison sentences.

BBC

Jim Hynes, the toddler’s father, said it was a critical time

A potentially life-saving bone marrow transplant operation has been carried out in Germany on a seriously ill toddler from County Antrim.

Surgeons operated on one-year-old James Hynes, from Dundrod, on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, his parents were told nothing could be done and he had just weeks to live. The NHS agreed to fund the surgery following a campaign.

His father Jim said it was a critical time. “We’ve got the chance - now it’s in God’s hands,” he said.

“We just hope it keeps everything at bay.

“We were a bit worried this morning, because he didn’t seem his normal self, but within minutes of seeing us coming through the door, he just brightened up again,” he said.

On Tuesday in Germany, the toddler received the bone marrow from his mother Cathy.

After doctors told them nothing could be done, James’s parents found the website of a consultant in Germany who was prepared to do the operation privately.

They began a fundraising campaign and there was a massive public response.

Last month, the Eastern Health and Social Services Board decided to fund the £100,000 operation after it was deemed appropriate by doctors.

The family have been told that the operation only has a 20-30% chance of success.

Irish Examiner

**Posted via group email by D. Michele Duarte

By Dan Buckley and Conor Keane
04 July 2006

THE man who tried to wipe out the Thatcher cabinet in the Brighton bombing could win tens of thousands of euro in libel damages against a British newspaper, thanks to the Good Friday Agreement.

Patrick Magee, jailed for multiple murder in 1986, is suing the Sunday Mirror for an article it published in 1999 shortly after his release from prison under the agreement.

The newspaper failed three years ago to have the case thrown out and a full hearing is now expected to take place before Christmas.

In November of 2003 the Sunday Mirror sought to have the case dismissed on the grounds that it was an abuse of process and that Magee had no good name worth protecting.

But High Court judge William McKechnie refused, saying the agreement had restored his right to a good reputation and whether he still retained one was a matter for the jury.

Magee will be seeking at least 38,000 under the High Court jurisdiction, which is unlimited, but, according to legal sources, he could receive far more against the British tabloid. He could also receive nothing if the jury so decides.

Magee was jailed for life for his part in the 1984 bombing but freed in 1999. He alleged he was defamed and his good name brought into disrepute by the newspaper which suggested he was an opponent of the Good Friday Agreement.

Contrary to the newspaper article, he says he has been an enthusiastic supporter of the agreement and helped persuade IRA prisoners to accept it.

Now, his legal team, led by solicitor Edward O’Sullivan and senior counsel Martin Giblin, is preparing to return to the High Court. According to Mr O’Sullivan, who practices in Tralee, Co Kerry, the case is expected to be heard before the end of the year.

In 1984, Magee and his fellow bombers nearly succeeded in wiping out the entire Conservative Government when he bombed Brighton’s Grand Hotel.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet were staying at the hotel. The bomb killed five people, including Tory MP Sir Anthony Berry. Thirty four others were injured.

On June 11, 1986 Magee was convicted of planting the bomb, exploding it, and of five counts of murder. Described by the Old Bailey trial judge as “a man of exceptional cruelty and inhumanity,” he was given eight life sentences with the recommendation that he not serve less than 35 years.

In his judgment in 2003, Justice McKechnie said: “There is no doubt but that the plaintiff, with his major involvement in the Brighton bombing, committed the most foul of crimes. Five people were killed and a great number of others injured, some very seriously.”

However, in his view, what occurred in Belfast in 1998 was historic.

Those involved in bringing about the agreement realised that some accommodation would have to be made by all sides in respect of those who had committed such ‘revolting acts.’

Sinn Féin

Published: 4 July, 2006

Sinn Fein Cllr Charlie Mc Hugh has appealed for calm in the Castlederg area following the serious weekend assault by loyalist bandsmen of a young nationalist in the town.

Cllr Mc Hugh said,

“On Saturday morning, a young nationalist was in a shop in the Lower Strabane Road area of the town when he was accosted by Loyalist bandsmen, who were still in band uniform from the night before. He suffered a broken nose in the subsequent attack and is still undergoing medical treatment for his injuries.

“While this unprovoked attack has created much anger in the local nationalist community and particularly among younger members of this community, I would appeal for everyone to remain calm in the weeks ahead and not to be provoked into retaliation.” ENDS