SAOIRSE32

Belfast Telegraph

John McConville, a devout Christian and only 20, was working to save up his fees for Bible College when he was gunned down on a cold, dark winter’s day in January 1976, along with 10 other Protestant workmen. Today, in the second extract from ‘A Legacy of Tears’, a new book by David Patterson the McConville family of south Armagh tell how the murder of their son has left them with an open wound.

By David Patterson
06 July 2006

The McConville family Tommy and Esther, with their four children, John, Karen, Mandy and Tania, lived at 30 Moninna Park, Cloughrea, about two miles from the village of Bessbrook.

Bessbrook was a close knit rural community and a model industrial village, initiated by Quakers in the 18th century. The McConville children enjoyed a happy childhood playing in the countryside and spending time with their grandmother and her sister. The family attended the local Presbyterian church, where the children were involved in Sunday school, the Boys’ Brigade and Girl Guides also played an important role in their lives during their formative years.

Village life was most harmonious and although two diverse denominations lived side by side, the McConville children grew up in an environment in which they were not aware of any tensions or divisions between the two communities.

Mrs McConville and her eldest daughter, Karen, described John as, “a gentle, caring considerate and fun loving young boy.” They recalled his sense of humour and the constant flow of laughter with his sisters through childhood and teenage years.

They bantered and played pranks on each other continually, much to the dismay of their mother.

John became a Christian at the age of 16 and sometime following his conversion became a member of Newry Baptist Church. John’s only desire was to go to Bible College to prepare for missionary work in South Africa, to which he believed God was calling him.

He enrolled and completed various Bible correspondence courses in which he gained distinctions. He also sought to be a faithful and inspiring advocate for Christ.

John would faithfully, in the most practical and unassuming way, seek to share God’s Word with all whom he met. His faith in God and subsequent witness was a great inspiration to all who knew him. He touched many lives across the community divide by his honest and humble ministry.

At the age of 20, John was accepted at a Bible College in Scotland where he was to commence full time study in the autumn of 1976. He was delighted and shared with the family how he felt so sure that this was God’s plan for his life.

To save up for the college fees, John had taken a job at Compton’s Spinning Mill at Glenanne, about four miles from Bessbrook, where he had been working for about two years.

On the January 5, 1976, the ‘Mill’s’ minibus set off to return 12 workers to their homes. John McConville was among the passengers on that minibus. As the vehicle wended its way along the dark, lonely country roads of South Armagh, its happy occupants were having a very normal conversation about a recent football match.

The conversation also turned to the tragic events of the previous night when two Roman Catholic brothers had been shot and killed at their home in nearby Whitecross.

As the minibus approached the brow of a hill near the Kingsmill crossroads, a red torchlight was spotted by the driver, who slowed down and stopped, believing this to be a routine Army check. Men wearing combat jackets, with their faces blackened, immediately joined the man waving the torch.

The occupants were ordered out of the minibus and were asked to state their religion. Initially, the one Roman Catholic passenger was thought to be the intended target, but when the gang ordered him to run, it was quickly realised by the Protestant passengers that only his life was to be spared.

The remaining 11 workmen were then lined up at gunpoint along the side of the minibus, and 10 of them were slain in a hail of gunfire. One man, though badly wounded, survived the attack and was able later to relate the horrific event that saw his colleagues murdered.

Television news

That evening, Mrs McConville had returned from work and had made the tea when she heard on the television news that there had been an incident involving a minibus. Mrs McConville immediately said to her husband Tommy: “John’s on that minibus.” Tommy told her to phone the police and enquire, but when she phoned Bessbrook RUC station they couldn’t tell her anything and asked her to ring back later.

Mrs McConville then asked her husband to take her out to Kingsmill, though at this time she did not think about death, she simply thought that maybe it was some kind of an accident.

Her husband agreed to take her to the house of a neighbour, a Mrs McWhirter, whose husband would also have been on the minibus.

Said Mrs McConville: “Mrs McWhirter came to the door and related that she had also heard about the minibus incident. She asked me to make her a wee cup of tea and Tommy went up to the police station. When Tommy returned some time later he had no further information about the incident and I insisted that he take me out to Kingsmill.

“We went out to the scene where a policeman, Constable Billy Turbitt, who was also to be abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1978, stopped us. We told him who we were, and explained to him that our son was on the minibus and could he tell us what had happened.

“Constable Turbitt told us that he couldn’t, but to pull our car in to the side of the road. At that point, three ambulances arrived at the scene and Constable Turbitt told us that the best thing to do was to follow the ambulances into Daisy Hill hospital in Newry.”

Tommy and Esther followed the ambulances to the hospital, where they met one of the ambulance drivers, Stuart Roland, and asked him: “What about John?” He said that he couldn’t tell them, but that their daughter Karen was also at the hospital.

Mrs McConville had left the three girls at home and told them not to move, but they had heard further news on the radio about the incident and Karen had gone up to her uncle’s and asked him to take her to the hospital.

As soon as Mrs McConville entered the hospital, she met their local minister, the Rev Nixon. With tears, Mrs McConville recalled how he just caught her by the two arms and said: “John’s gone.”

They waited in a room and Mr Nixon gave Mrs McConville a tablet as a doctor and a policewoman arrived to offer help. The family then headed home to find it overflowing with neighbours - many of them Roman Catholics.

Overcome by grief

Tommy went over to break the news to Esther’s mother, then brought her over to the house where, overcome by grief, she took a ‘turn’. The intensity of the family’s grief was at times uncontrollable. Karen at times screamed, such was her anguish.

Mrs McConville was in such shock that she did not know the details of how her son had been killed and thought that it had been a road accident involving the mini bus. She later had to be told of how her son had actually died.

A policeman who arrived first at the scene described it as an, “indescribable scene of carnage.” The survivor had been shot 18 times.

More than 3,000 people attended the funeral services of the 10 murder victims.

The funeral service for John McConville was held jointly with five other massacre victims in Bessbrook Presbyterian Church on January 8 amid driving rain, and his body laid to rest in the adjoining graveyard.

Mrs McConville treasures the hundreds of sympathy cards the family received on her son’s death. She has a beautifully inscribed Bible which was presented in John’s memory, while a hymn written especially for children in Northern Ireland was published by the John McConville Memorial Trust.

Mrs McConville became a Christian at the time of the murder and believes that only by God’s grace and her faith in Christ was she able to cope and to keep going.

After the tragedy, Mandy and Tania, the younger children, experienced nervous reactions as a result of their grief and had to attend the hospital.

The following June, the McConvilles moved house to Riverside Crescent in Bessbrook, as they felt it impossible to stay in their home at Moninna Park. But Karen felt she had to move to Belfast to live and work.

Mrs McConville returned to work just two weeks after the murder, but was on anti-depressants.

“It was a terrible time, it was awful, I wouldn’t wish it on anybody,” she said. “I just had to go on. Only by God’s help did I get through it.”

The McConvilles have found the strength to go on, but still keenly feel a great sense of pain and loss. Yet they bear no bitterness or resentment to the evil perpetrators of this most atrocious crime.

Like dozens of murders in Co Armagh, no one has been brought to the courts or convicted of the Kingsmill Massacre.

Karen said: “Evil men had in the most brutal and inhuman way extinguished the life of John in his prime and I am going to miss him for the rest of my life.

“The loss of John has taught me many things, not least the sanctity and preciousness of life. I had been forced into a position where I was confronted with the effects of the hatred, courage and intolerance of certain members of society that had claimed the lives of innocent people.

“If John and his companions were murdered in order to create further hatred within society then for that reason I would not allow myself to be so influenced.

No charges

“I have learned to leave justice, retribution and revenge in the hands of the Lord. This is a great comfort to me, as I know that God will have the final say as far as the perpetrators of this evil deed are concerned.

“More so, considering that no one has been charged with the Kingsmill murders. Although these men walk free, they are tethered to this dreadful event for the remainder of their lives.

“I, on the other hand, can remember my dear brother with pride, happiness and admiration for his devotion, tolerance and love. He is in a much better place and for this I am happy. No one can take him or these memories away from me ever again.”

David Patterson is a baptist pastor who has previously worked in banking and as a political researcher.

To obtain a copy of A Legacy of Tears (£5.99) email info@savernaver.com or tel: (028) 3755 2808. Also available in bookshops

Newshound

(Barry McCaffrey, Irish News)

The Orange Order has been repeatedly linked with both the UVF and UDA in recent years.

In May of this year Scottish Orangeman Steven Moffet pleaded guilty to UDA membership and possession of a gun, ammunition and clothing.

In 2004 Liverpool Orangeman Alan Clair was described as being “exceptionally dangerous” as he was jailed for eight years for possession of a UVF arsenal.

Uncovered inside Clair’s home was a sub-machine gun, 300 rounds of ammunition, three sawn-off shotguns, two pistols and UVF clothing.

In November 2003 the father of UVF murder victim John Allen resigned from the Orange Order claiming that his son’s killers had been allowed to remain within the institution.

“I did not want to do this as I have been proud to be a member of the Orange Order for 28 years and my father was a member for 45 years,” John Allen snr said.

“But I cannot belong to an organisation that also counts my son’s killer as a member.”

In 2000 the order was criticised for taking part in a commemoration to UVF man Brian Robinson who was shot dead by undercover soldiers minutes after he murdered Ardoyne Catholic Patrick McKenna.

The order was again criticised in 2003 after it allowed a banner commemorating Robinson to be included in the controversial Whiterock parade in west Belfast.

Further anger was caused after it emerged that the banner had been carried by a member of the notorious Shankill Butchers gang.

There was outrage in March 1999 after it emerged that the man convicted of the murder of Co Down schoolboy James Morgan was allowed to stay in the Orange Order. Norman Coopey later resigned after public pressure.

In 2004 the order was forced to admit that it sat alongside the UVF and UDA on the North & West Belfast Parades Forum.

July 7, 2006
________________

This article appeared first in the July 5, 2006 edition of the Irish News.

An Phoblacht

BY SHANE Mac THOMÁIS

Fifty years ago this week, Clann na Poblachta, was formed to challenge the stranglehold of Fianna Fáil on Irish politics. The Party was to last 19 years and failed in its objectives due to internal feuds and lack of unity.

Clann na Poblachta was founded on 6 July 1946 in Barry’s Hotel, Dublin by former members of the IRA, who were very unhappy at the treatment of IRA prisoners during The Emergency and who were prepared to try and engage in parliamentary politics.

The group included people such as Con Lehane and former IRA Chief of Staff Seán MacBride. Some members of Fianna Fáil also joined the party, many of whom had become disillusioned with the leadership of Éamon de Valera, the party’s approach to partition and its economic policies.

Clann na Poblachta realized that it had to place an emphasis on practical improvements to living standards and welfare issues such as public health. These policies attracted a number of younger members such as Noel Browne and Jack McQuillan. One potential problem for the future was that almost the entire Provisional Executive was resident in Dublin and the party had no Six County organisation.

In 1948, Eamon de Valera, dissolved the Dáil and called an election for February. Clann na Poblachta won only 10 seats in the election, less than the breakthrough many were expecting, caused in part by the error of running multiple candidates in many constituencies. The party thought there would be a landslide in their favour like the 1918 Westminster Election. Forty eight of their 93 candidates lost their deposits. The party won 13.3% of the vote but only 6.8% of the seats. Of their 10 TDs, six were elected in Dublin constituencies, two in Tipperary and one each in Cavan and Roscommon.

The party surprised everyone by joining the first Inter-Party Government with Fine Gael on condition that Richard Mulcahy, against whom many members had fought during the Civil War, did not become Taoiseach. As a result, John A. Costello became Taoiseach without being leader of his party - the only time to date that this has happened.

Sean MacBride became Minister for External Affairs, and Noel Browne was Minister for Health. The party was the driving force behind the 26 Counties exiting the British Commonwealth and the all-party Anti-Partition Campaign. The controversy of the ‘Mother and Child Scheme’, a progressive healthcare programme that was opposed by the Catholic Church helped bring down the government and led to the disintegration of the party. Many of the party TDs resigned in solidarity with Noel Browne and his scheme, so the official party won only two seats in the 1951 General Election.

In 1954 the Clann agreed to give outside support to the Fine Gael led government. In this election three TDs were returned - MacBride, John Tully and John Connor. Controversy dogged the party as Liam Kelly, a Northern based member Clann na Poblachta Senator was also active in Saor Uladh and led a number of military raids in Fermanagh and Tyrone against the RUC.

Clann withdrew its support from the government in late 1956 due to the its anti-IRA stance. The party, won only one seat at the 1957 General Election with MacBride being defeated by Fianna Fáil. John Tully remained the only Clann TD until his retirement in 1961 when he lost his seat. However Joseph Barron was elected in Dublin South-Central on his fourth attempt. In 1965 Tully won back his seat, but he was in effect an Independent, as the party only stood four candidates. There had been negotiations between MacBride and Brendan Corish, the new Labour leader about forming a political alliance but this did not come to fruition. A special Ard Fheis, held on 10 July 1965, agreed to dissolve Clan na Poblachta .

An Phoblacht

BY CHRISTOPHER BARRETT

Before it went on release, ‘critics’ who had not seen it, denounced Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley. The London Times critic compared it to Nazi propaganda - ironic considering the role of ex-Black & Tans in reactionary and fascist politics in Britain. In the Daily Mail Ruth Dudley Edwards asked: “Why does Ken Loach loath his country so much?” - a question better addressed by Ruth to a mirror. Ruth also, in the manner of death penalty advocates discussing ‘humane’ methods of killing, informed us that the British Empire was “the most humane”…… ever, so there.

Facts, however, speak louder than words and the facts state clearly that Britain fought a brutal war of counter insurgency in Ireland. The Black & Tans and Auxiliaries were a byword for murder, torture and mayhem, including officially sanctioned reprisal attacks on civilians and property.

As these are matters of history, and perhaps sensing that Irish people are not as knowledgeable about it as they once were, ex-republican, ex-socialist, ex-Cork ‘patriot’, and now Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris wrote: “By and large, the Black and Tans were no angels”. Supporters of the infamous force were perhaps disappointed that Harris may not be counted an unwavering fan. But he did his best to rescue the force’s reputation from the verdict of history and from Ken Loach’s depiction.

Biscuit

If Ken Loach took the Palme d’Or in Cannes, then Harris takes the biscuit in Ireland.

Harris was commenting on the film for the second week in succession, but on this latter occasion took the precaution of having seen it, a novel approach.

Harris found, “The failure to allow a major British character a complex moral response to the war in Ireland is a major artistic and political flaw of this film.” Possibly a Tan shedding a regretful tear or two, as he yanked out finger nails, burned houses, beat civilians and took pot shots at the populace, might have satisfied.

In fact the Tans did far worse than as depicted by Loach, who toned down their violence in the film. However, listeners to RTÉ’s Live Line last week will have heard from relatives how the Tans engaged in gruesome and brutal mutilation.

So much for the effects of revisionist history teaching in our schools and colleges. And so much for The Irish Times, which recently carried the following observation: “It seems grossly unfair to exclusively blame the British for the terrible violence that ensued in Ireland” after 1918. There was a “need to challenge the Black and Tan stereotype” solemnised the author. And the same goes for the Nazis and the Gestapo respectively, presumably, who suffer from similar ’stereotypical’ depiction.

Bad

However, back to Eoghan. The absence of such complex depiction was “bad history…. There were many decent British soldiers on duty - my grandfather Pat Harris was arrested by one such young officer - and there were even decent Black and Tans, as my Roscommon relatives remembered. [Scriptwriter Paul] Laverty should have stood up to Loach and demanded the right to include at least one conflicted British character.”

Possibly a character portraying William Joyce would have sufficed. The future member of Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, and later infamous as ‘Lord Haw Haw’ in Nazi Germany, was a Black & Tan informer in Galway. He was pretty much ‘conflicted’ all right and might have fit the bill quit well.

Good

However, there were conflicting messages on The Wind that Shakes in the same Sunday Independent that carried the Harris critique.

Antonia Leslie interviewed actor Liam Cunningham, who played a former member of the socialist Irish Citizen Army. He said: “… for anyone to question the historical accuracy in the film - they need a good kicking!”

Whether Eoghan Harris submits to this criticism remains to be seen.

Cunningham went on:”I mean, you should see some of the stuff that they left out.

There was an order from a Major Grant who was in charge of Macroom at the time …. it said that every man they saw standing with his hands in his pockets had to be shot. That was the level of oppression at the time. I mean, they burnt Cork, for God’s sake.”

Pocket

Eoghan Harris might concede that shooting men for having their hands in their pockets was excessive, irrespective of its effect in encouraging proper deportment. But the supporter of Michael McDowell and the PDs would surely argue that burning the centre of Cork (plus Fermoy, Balbriggan and many Protestant-owned creameries, let us not forget), literally paved the way for the ‘Celtic Tiger’.

Far from blaming the British, it is thanking them we should be doing. Quite possibly Eoghan Harris’s grandfather, who Harris wheels out with regularity, should have thanked the Brit for having the decency to arrest him, instead of shooting him for having his hands in his pockets.

Criticising films on Ireland’s conflict with Britain is a habit with Eoghan Harris. When Neil Jordan released Michael Collins, Harris was first in the queue to denounce it (perhaps sensing that his own much flagged, by Harris, Michael Collins script was doomed). However, as the film went on to break Irish box office records, perhaps Eoghan Harris serves as a reverse weather vein as to popular attitudes.

And was it Eoghan Harris that the late Breandan O hEithir, Irish language broadcaster and author, had in mind when he wrote the following paean of praise for ‘conflicted’ Crown force personnel? Is Harris “Yer Man”? Oh to be immortalised anonymously.

THE GENTLE BLACK AND TAN

Come all you staunch revisionists

And listen to my song,

It’s short and it’s unusual

And it won’t detain you long.

It’s all about a soldier

Who has carried history’s can,

Who dodged Tom Barry and Dan Breen

The gentle Black and Tan.

‘Twas the curse of unemployment

That drove him to our shore.

His jacket black and trousers tan

Like a badge of shame he wore.

“Subdue the rebel Irish

And shoot them when you can!”

“May God forgive me if I do,”

Prayed the gentle Black and Tan.

The burning of Cork city

Was indeed a mighty blaze.

The jewellers’ shops were gutted

Not before the spoils were shared.

Gold and silver ornaments,

Rings and watches for each man,

“But I only struck the matches,”

Said the gentle Black and Tan.

Croke Park and Bloody Sunday

Was our hero’s greatest test.

The spectators on the terraces

Nigh impossible to miss.

With salt tears his eyes were blinded

And down his cheeks they ran,

So he only shot Mick Hogan

The gentle Black and Tan.

So take heed you blinkered Nationalists

Fair warning take from me.

If you want to live in safety

And keep this land at sea.

Take heed of our three heroes

Murphy, Edwards and Yer Man,

Who will sing the fame and clear the name

Of the gentle Black and Tan.

~By Breandan O hÉithir~

An Phoblacht

BY LAURA FRIEL

Poverty - the hidden war

At the beginning of his novel A star called Henry Roddy Doyle describes the brutality of poverty in Dublin before the Rising and under British rule.

It’s a rare acknowledgement of the corrosive violence of want and neglect.

Like any other battlefield, poverty has its own casualty list of untimely death and injury.

In deprived communities like West Belfast, it is a violence that is well documented but only raised in terms of the rarefied health statistics of life expectancy, infant mortality rates, rates of disability, chronic ill health, depression and suicide.

In the North poverty is a hidden war waged in the interests of the British exchequer to the detriment of ordinary people, whether from the Falls or Shankill.

Chrissie McAuley heads a team of Sinn Féin activists, which includes Sinn Féin MLA Caitriona Ruane, who monitor and promote equality and human rights.

McAuley has lived all her life in West Belfast. She understands her community’s lived experience of economic marginalisation and poverty. Regeneration strategies are one of the terrains of struggle within which McAuley works. “West Belfast is officially the most deprived constituency in the North of Ireland with 11 out of 17 wards in the area amongst the worst 10% of all wards in the Six Counties. In eight wards a staggering 50% or more of the population are income deprived. In terms of the economically active the number of people without work is over two and half times greater than the North’s overall average,” says McAuley.

“There are also significant levels of poverty in the Greater Shankill. Official statistics show that in the West Belfast and Greater Shankill area around 13,000 people who could be working are without work. Of these the Greater Shankill is estimated to have 3,700 potential job seekers while in West Belfast the figure is 9,300,” says McAuley.

However the Greater Shankill community experience greater social mobility in terms of securing housing and jobs outside the area than people in the West.

This difference is generated through the operation of sectarian inequality, which acts as an additional burden imposed on the North’s nationalist poor.

Statistically greater mobility has resulted in the population of the Greater Shankill falling by over 60% within the last 40 years. It also has resulted in an ageing population in the Shankill, compared to West Belfast with one of the youngest populations in Western Europe.

In West Belfast restricted mobility has led to a steady increase in the population with the area operating more in the manner of the classic ‘ghetto’ in which poverty and inequality are acting as dual mechanisms of economic exclusion.

“Regeneration strategies that ignore this dual mechanism risk reinforcing rather than overcoming this additional dynamic. In doing so, they risk denying those very communities suffering the greatest levels of poverty equal access to the strategies developed to alleviate it,” says McAuley.

“That’s why Sinn Fein puts equality at the heart of its anti-poverty strategy. Tackling poverty on the basis of objective need and equality of outcome is an inclusive strategy that will address the needs of both the Shankill and the Falls in a demonstratively fair and rational way”, she says.

There is a long history of pressure and mobilisation against poverty in West Belfast. In 1988 a series of public meetings led to the Obair Report on unemployment in West Belfast and, a few years later, the formation of the West Belfast Economic Forum, while Sinn Féin’s political strength ensured an inclusive anti-poverty strategy was included as a requirement of the Good Friday Agreement.

“Unfortunately since the signing of the Agreement there have been repeated attempts to undermine the development of rational regeneration strategies by increasingly ideological based impositions. Dermot Nesbitt, UUP MLA and former junior minister with responsibility for Equality was one of the first to lead the charge,” says McAuley.

In a booklet Equality: A Society at Ease, Nesbitt claimed anti-Catholic sectarian discrimination in employment “if it ever existed” had been consigned to history. The document argued that sectarian discrimination was nothing more than a “perception” that fuelled sectarian tensions.

“Yet despite the weakness of Nesbitt’s case the ideas he espoused continue to find favour amongst statutory bodies and government ministers”, says McAuley.

Nesbitt argued that any acknowledgement of sectarian discrimination was “dangerous” because it was “corrosive of community relations”.

The Good Friday Agreement had put equality at the heart of its commitment to address poverty and economic marginalisation but without the engine of an up and running Assembly, regeneration passed into the hands of NIO civil servants and British ministers.

The NIO had acted as gatekeeper to the Orange state for over three decades and it wasn’t about to change. Conflict resolution through equality and human rights was increasingly being replaced by the primacy of notions of a “shared future,” “good relations” and a willingness to address “alienation” within the unionist community as an alternative to demonstratable need in both unionist and nationalist communities.

“There surely can be nothing more shameful than the British government’s recent capitulation to the DUP’s exclusive demand for a Protestant Task Force. The British government’s announcement of an exclusively Protestant multi-million funding package to address unionist “perceptions” of greater need sectarianised the issue of poverty in the North while elevating special pleading above empirical analysis,” says McAuley.

“Unionist opposition to anti-poverty strategies that place equality at their core began in denial. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, unionists claimed sectarian discrimination against the nationalist community was a “myth”. Now they were urging British ministers to accept the primacy of unionist “perceptions” over established facts,” says Chrissie.

British Minister for the Department of Social Development David Hanson graciously complied and announced a £33 million package to fund an action plan to tackle disadvantage exclusively in unionist areas.

A spokesperson for the DSD admitted that despite the fact that “nationalist areas still made up around 70% of designated areas of social deprivation”, unionist areas remained “a key priority for government”. The DSD justified this disparity by claiming, nationalist communities are “more self-resourced, more socially cohesive and have stronger social links”.

Ironically, any resistance against this shift, away from targeting objective need towards the primacy of ideological special pleading, is increasingly portrayed as latent sectarianism.

“Republicans and nationalists often attempt to deny that there is a problem,” complained DUP MLA Nelson McCausland. The “lack of fairness towards unionists in favour of lavishing resources at republicans and nationalists is coming to an end,” said DUP MP Nigel Dodds. “For decades unionist communities have suffered inequality and disadvantage,” said McCausland.

It is one thing for the DUP and other unionist politicians to espouse such nonsense and quite another for British ministers to act in accordance with such flawed and reactionary positions.

“The British government’s willingness to pander to demands for exclusive status and special treatment is moving us all into a dangerous game of division and spin. A game that asserts the primacy of ‘perceptions of need’ over ‘objective need’ is increasingly resulting in ‘perceptions of delivery”, says Chrissie.

“Repackaging existing funding, moving funding away from one point of delivery to another, repeated announcements of the same funding are all means by which British ministers are encouraging the perception of delivery without incurring the expense. As An Phoblacht pointed out at the time, the fairground illusionist may pull a rabbit out of a hat during every show but there’s still only one rabbit,” says McAuley.

“Unionist politicians might hope to eschew additional public funding towards their constituencies but in reality no one gains from abandoning objective criteria for ‘perceptions’ of neglect. British ministers are masters of spin when it comes to the delivery of the appearance of change. Conveniently for them, it is also less expensive. Poverty is an objective reality and requires real objective intervention,” says McAuley.

“In areas like West Belfast the plain truth is the British government is failing to deliver regeneration. Initially the British government accepted regeneration as central to the peace process and given the legacy of sectarian, economic apartheid in the North, crucial to conflict resolution.”

“But flagship projects like the Springvale University Campus, guaranteed by both the British and US administration, have failed to materialise. A decade later the nationalist people of Clonard and the unionist community of the West Circular Road are still looking at a muddy field where promised regeneration at the site of the former Mackies factory has never been delivered,”, says McAuley.

A report by the West Belfast and Greater Shankill Task Force in 2002 identified British Ministers as “committed to action,” urged urgency, “people in both areas should begin to see meaningful action as soon as possible” and warned “if the promised follow through were not to materialise in the manner proposed by Ministers there will be consequential and serious disillusion and disenchantment”.

“The agreed ethos was initially one of urgency and action, but now the British government is not only failing to initiate new projects, well established projects with verifiable track records in terms of delivery are also losing funding,” said McAuley.

Earlier this week Director of West Belfast’s Conway Mill, Fr. Des Wilson warned the project was threatened with “extinction through the unwillingness of government to fulfil its promises to help develop our neighbourhoods”.

Established at the height of the current conflict with a track record of delivery that stretches over a quarter of a century, the Conway Mill was earmarked for investment by the 2002 Task Force report.

The report recommended the Mill should receive, “the investment required to become a centre of excellence for the incubation of small arts and craft businesses and the focal point for the clustering of creative sector businesses”.

Director of the British Prince’s Regeneration Trust, Fred Taggart recently described himself as “baffled” at the delay in developing the Falls Road site.

“We’ve been supporting the Conway Mill project since 1996 but in that period other projects we’ve supported have moved from the ideas stage to total completion,” said Taggart.

“For us, Conway Mill is the model for communities everywhere who wish to regenerate a heritage building in a way that benefits ordinary people. Conway Mill’s mixed bag of tenants represents an ideal development scenario for inner city regeneration,” said Taggart.

Meanwhile the Director of Féile an Phobail, Sean Paul O’Hare described the community festival as “on the brink” of collapse after the project’s annual grant was slashed by a staggering £100,000.

Like the Conway Mill, Feile an Phobail has an established track record of delivery and excellence. Established 18 years ago Feile an Phobail has gained an international reputation as one of the largest and most successful community festivals in Western Europe.

The 2002 Task Force report estimated that the festival boosts the West Belfast economy by more than £3 million a year and recommended, “core funding should be provided to Feile an Phobail to allow it to develop on a strategic basis and continue to impact beneficially on the economy and image of West Belfast”.

British ministers are not only introducing unnecessary division between unionist and nationalist communities but also promoting division within communities through the mechanism of the current Neighbourhood Renewal strategy.

The Neighbourhood Renewal strategy was announced two years ago and was aimed specifically at the top ten percent of the most deprived wards in the Six Counties. In other words the poorest communities are facing the additional hurdle of ‘Neighbourhood Partnerships’ in their struggle to overcome generations of deprivation.

This not only subjects the most deprived areas to an extra layer of bureaucracy but also fragments regeneration within constituencies, forcing deprived wards within the same constituency to compete with each other for official recognition and funding.

“Subdividing constituencies like West Belfast into neighbourhoods and forcing areas suffering multifaceted long term deprivation to compete with each other in the allocation of funding is a waste of time and a waste of resources. The NIO has us all chasing our tails by creating layers of unnecessary bureaucracy whilst repeatedly shifting the goal posts with policy changes,” said Chrissie.

The poorest communities are being burdened with greater responsibility for delivering regeneration without any real decision making authority or access to the kind of funding which allows regeneration to take place. “It’s the classic sham of responsibility without power,” said Chrissie.

West Belfast is not only the most deprived constituency in the North it is also one of the most militant and as such it is a powerful engine for change. Many of the battles for regeneration might be fought in poverty’s heartland, but by setting the precedent, victories in West Belfast are likely to impact positively on regeneration strategies through out the North.

“Sinn Féin has an inclusive vision. No one regardless of differences of religion, race, gender, urban or rural or whatever else, should be forced to endure the misery of economic marginalisation and inequality. Poverty is a crime against humanity and we’re seeking justice,” says McAuley.

Daily Ireland

Sectarian flag dispute deepens as intimidating symbols are hung within hospital property

by Ciarán Barnes
07/07/2006

A loyalist gang that covered the entrance to one of the North’s biggest hospitals in loyalist flags returned to the complex yesterday to erect even more.
Union and Red Hand of Ulster flags were hung from scaffolding in the grounds of Belfast City hospital, which thousands of people visit each day.
On Wednesday the same gang placed six loyalist flags around the Donegall Road entrance to the complex.
Builders who removed some of the flags were threatened by gang members, who have also turned disused land at the hospital gates into a bonfire dumping site. Loyalists spent the last two days sitting on old sofas at the site playing sectarian flute tunes.
Bosses at the hospital were criticised yesterday for refusing to remove the flags.
Health chiefs claimed that because the flags were not attached to hospital property, they had no power to take them down.
However, this attitude changed when they saw the loyalist flags flying on the scaffold in the grounds of the hospital.
A hospital spokeswoman said it had asked the construction firms which owns the scaffold to remove the flags.
The SDLP yesterday launched a website to highlight the problem of intimidating flag displays.
With thousands of loyalist flags being placed on lamp posts and street signs in the run up to the July 12 parades, the party is mounting a campaign to force the authorities to take them down.
SDLP deputy leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell accused statutory agencies of passing the buck when it comes to flag removal.
He said: “Government agencies are passing the buck, and the protocol they agreed two years ago clearly isn’t working and isn’t being implemented.
“Ninety-nine per cent of flag displays are on Department of Regional Development lamp posts or other public property paid for by all the ratepayers.
“The police say the flying of paramilitary flags is a community issue, when it is clearly a crime under the Terrorism Act. Displays in mixed areas are covered by breach of the peace legislation, but there is absolutely no consistency in police enforcement on this issue,” added Dr McDonnell.
The SDLP has encouraged anyone concerned about intimidating flags to visit the website >>flagwatch and give details about where the flags are being displayed.
Meanwhile, in another case of intimidation the mother of a young child has been forced to flee Antrim town after loyalists built a bonfire next to her home.
The Catholic woman, who is too frightened to be identified, is now staying with her mother in the village of Crumlin.
Last week loyalists began dumping bonfire material at the rear of the 24-year-old’s home in the Greystone estate.
Over the last year Catholic residents in the religiously mixed area have been subject of sectarian attacks.
Fearing she could be next the woman and her asthmatic four-year-old son have fled Antrim.
“The loyalists who have been building the bonfire outside my daughter’s home are not even from the Greystone area,” said the frightened woman’s mother.

Belfast Telegraph

By Nigel Gould
07 July 2006

This is the incredible first picture of “miracle” Ulster tot James Hynes following his life-saving treatment in a German hospital.

The poignant photograph is one the little Dundrod wonder boy’s devoted mum and dad feared they might never see.

Just last month, the 13-month- old toddler, who has been battling leukaemia, was at death’s door. His parents, Cathy and Jim, had been told nothing could be done here.

James’ only hope was specialist treatment in Germany.

And several weeks ago, after an appeal for help in the Sunday Life, the Eastern Health Board agreed to fund the £100,000 procedure after it was deemed appropriate by doctors.

Now, as the picture taken by dad Jim shows, he is on the road to recovery three days after a bone marrow transplant.

Speaking from Tubingen in Germany, a delighted Jim told the Belfast Telegraph: “He really is a wee miracle.

“He has done really well over here. He is in really good form since his bone marrow transplant - more than we could have imagined.

“Everything has gone according to plan.

“I prayed a year ago for my son to live - everything now is in God’s hands.”

Earlier this week James received his mum’s bone marrow. It was his only hope of survival.

“Cathy produced more than enough stem cells, which were then transplanted into James,” Jim said.

“She did brilliantly and is doing fine at the moment although she has headaches and is very tired.”

Little James is now recovering in a protective room under the watchful eye of doctors - and his devoted family.

Jim said it was “fantastic” to know they had support from both sides of the community.

“Prayers have been said across the community and we do appreciate that,” he added.

Sinn Féin

Published: 7 July, 2006

Tomorrow Saturday 8th July marks the 25th Anniversary of the death on Hunger Strike of IRA Volunteer Joe McDonnell. Republicans across Ireland will be marking the Anniversary with a series of commemorative events.

Former Long Kesh Hunger Striker and Foyle Assembly member Raymond McCartney today encouraged Republicans to take part in the events.

Mr McCartney said:

“This weekend Republicans will gather across Ireland to remember with pride Belfast IRA Volunteer Joe McDonnell who died on July 8th 1981 after 61 days on Hunger Strike. Joe was the fifth man to die and was followed shortly after by Tyrone IRA Volunteer Martin Hurson. I would encourage people to attend the events and take part in the debates and discussions.

“Joe was married man with two young children and we remember also his family this weekend as we gather to mark his death. We will also recall the murder by the RUC of Nora McCabe by a plastic bullet and killing of a 16 year old Fian John Dempsey by the British Army, both killed in the hours after Joe‚s death was announced on the streets of West Belfast.

“Joe stood as a candidate in the 26 county elections in Sligo/Leitrim and his anniversary will be marked in those counties this weekend also. At his graveside the former Sinn Féin TD for that constituency John Joe McGirl declared that the memorial we had to build for Joe McDonnell was the freedom and unity of the Irish people. That remains our goal as we seek to learn the lessons of 1981 and advance our struggle in the times ahead.”ENDS

The main events taking place across Ireland are:

Belfast:

Friday 7th July

Tar Anal - Launch of Commemorative Blanket, designed by Eilish Reilly (sister of Joe McDonnell)

Saturday 8th July

2pm White Line Pickets across nationalist areas of the city

3.30pm Roddy McCorley club - ‘The Life and Times of Joe McDonnell’ - Talk and celebration of the life of Joe McDonnell involving family members, former POWs and other friends and comrades.

Derry

Saturday 8th July

1pm - H-Block monument Rossville Street - Wreath laying ceremony

Dublin

Saturday 8th July

3.30pm - Rally outside the GPO

Pickets across Dublin City and County in the morning

Cork

Friday 7th July

12noon - 10pm - H-Block exhibition - Metropole Hotel, Cork City

Saturday 8th July

H- Block Exhibition, Bantry Bay Hotel, Bantry from 5pm

8pm - Commemoration, Wolfe Tone Square, Bantry.

Sunday 9th July

2pm - commemoration - assemble Barrack St. for march to St Finbar’s cemetery.

Speaker Joe Austin

Leitrim

Sunday 9th July

6.30pm - Hunger Strike Memorial unveiled, Drumkeeran

Sligo

Saturday 8th July

2pm Vigil - O‚Connell St., Sligo

Meath

Saturday 8th July

Commemoration - 2pm - 3.30pm - Market Street, Trim

Mayo

Saturday 8th July

3pm - vigil - Westport

Waterford

Saturday 8th July

2pm March and Rally, Dungarvan. Speakers David Cullinane, Toireasa Ferris and Jim McVeigh

Wicklow

Saturday 8th July

1pm - march, assembly Wicklow vale shops.

BBC

Jean McConville was abducted and murdered in 1972

There is no evidence that IRA murder victim Jean McConville ever passed information to the security forces, the police ombudsman has said.

Mrs McConville was abducted, murdered and secretly buried in 1972.

In 1999, the IRA admitted they had killed the mother of 10 and several other of the “Disappeared”, but alleged some of them had been informants.

Nuala O’Loan said her investigators found no evidence that Mrs McConville had ever been an informant.

Mrs McConville, who was a widow, was killed after she went to the aid of a fatally wounded British soldier outside her home in west Belfast’s Divis flats.

Her remains were finally found at Shelling Hill beach in County Louth in the Irish Republic in August 2003.

Mrs McConville’s daughter, Helen McKendry, said the ombudsman had confirmed what the family had always known - that their mother was an innocent woman.

“Now I would like the IRA to come out and say they killed an innocent woman and apologise the right way, instead of hiding behind excuses,” Mrs McKendry said.

“I know, and so does the rest of the family, that my mother was completely innocent. She would have known nothing about the IRA back in ‘72 and it never made sense why they went out and killed her.”

She said the IRA had hidden her mother’s body because they had no evidence that she was an informer.

‘Suffered extensively’

The police ombudsman’s office carried out an investigation into a complaint from some members of the McConville family in relation to the police investigation of the death.

Mrs O’Loan said it was not her normal role to confirm or deny the identity of people working as agents for the security services.

“However, this situation is unique. Jean McConville left an orphaned family, the youngest of whom were six-year-old boys,” she said.

“The family have suffered extensively over the years, as we all know, and that suffering has only been made worse by allegations that their mother was an informant.

“As part of our investigation we have looked very extensively at all the intelligence available at the time.

“There is no evidence that Mrs McConville gave information to the police, the military or the security service,” Mrs O’Loan said.

Mrs O’Loan said she would give the family more details of the findings of her investigation in the near future and would make those details public.

The bodies of four of the Disappeared - people abducted and murdered by the IRA - have been recovered. Five more have not been found.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said he had been “meeting with the McConville family for some time”.

“My sole interest has been to help the family. Whatever about the circumstances surrounding Jean McConville’s killing, the burial of her remains was a great injustice to the family.”

He added: “Sinn Fein has worked hard in recent years to resolve the issue of those remains buried by the IRA and still not recovered and we continue to talk to the Irish government on this matter.”

Meanwhile, the mother of Columba McVeigh who was kidnapped and murdered by the IRA in 1975, has said she feels more confident than ever that his body will be found.

Vera McVeigh was speaking after a telephone conversation with DUP leader Ian Paisley, who is taking up the case after the death of Monsignor Denis Faul.

She said they spoke and prayed together in a conversation lasting over half an hour.

Mr Paisley said: “I spoke to her on the phone today at some length and we prayed together.

“We had an exchange of views and I hope after the holiday to see her and talk further. I have some information from her which I will follow up.”

Irelandclick

**8 July 2006 marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Joe McDonnell after 61 days of hunger strike

ALONG with the rest of her family and the wider West Belfast community, Joe McDonnell’s daughter, Bernadette Farrelly, is this week recalling fond memories of the man who gave his life for his people 25 years ago.

Bernadette spoke proudly and emotionally to the Andersonstown News of a father who sacrificed his life on hunger strike.
Originally from the Lower Falls, Joe and wife Greta lived in Lenadoon with their two young children, Bernadette and Joseph.
“He was a good father, he always had a smile on his face, and when he was there he did lots of things with me and my younger brother Joseph,” remembers Bernadette.
“When he wasn’t there he used to write us letters. My mum wrote to him a lot to tell him what Joseph and I were doing at school and he used to send us out wee comms to say he had heard what was going on and asking what we wanted for Christmas, what sports we were doing… just general things.”
Bernadette was just five years ol when her father went to prison – her brother Joseph was four.
“My daddy was in jail for four and a half years before he died. He had been on the blanket protest, which meant that we didn’t get to see him.
“My daddy decided to go on hunger strike because he believed that the British army shouldn’t be on our streets,” said the mother-of-two.
“He wanted a better life for us and he had strong beliefs about how to get it,” she added.
Bernadette recalls being told by her mother that her father was going on hunger strike.
“When I was ten and Joseph was nine my mummy sat us down and explained that daddy was going on hunger strike. I knew that Bobby Sands had already died and I didn’t want to believe that my daddy was going to die, but I think I knew what was going to happen.
“When he went on hunger strike he stood in the elections so we would have gone down to Sligo to canvass for him and my mummy was up and down to the jail as often as she could.”
Bernadette had travelled to America shortly before her father’s death to try and raise publicity about the hunger strikes. She recalls returning home as her father deteriorated.
“I went to America and every day I was there I was involved in radio shows and television shows and publicity to highlight what was going on and to get as much support as we could,” said Bernadette.
“I was in America for about ten days and during those days people had phoned me and told me how my daddy was.
“I knew he was getting bad and I just wanted to come home.
“I never saw him again,” said Bernadette.
“My aunt came down to collect me from the airport and we got to Kennedy Way and there was a bus burning. My cousin got out to go to the shop and she asked why the bus was burning and somebody shouted that Joe McDonnell was dead.”
Bernadette says that the news was hard for a 10-year-old child to take in.
“I just couldn’t wait to get home,” said Bernadette.
“I got back to the house and Joseph was there, he threw his arms around me and his exact words were ‘he did it for us’.”
Bernadette’s father’s funeral took place on the day of her eleventh birthday.
“My mummy was very strong for us and I remember leaving the house and my mummy was so strong, she held us close,” said Bernadette.

Image from Larkspirit - click photo to view and go to site

Following the funeral mayhem erupted when the British army fired plastic bullets at mourners on the Andersonstown Road. Several people were injured during the attack.
Bernadette says that today she remembers her father with pride.
“I loved my daddy and I remember when I was a wee girl all I ever wanted to do was walk down the street with him,” she said, “just do the things that any wee girl does with her daddy. I am very proud of my daddy, as I grew up I understood more what he went through,” she added.
The Sprucehill woman says that the legacy of her father and the other hunger strikers lives on.
“People around my age remember the hunger strikes, but maybe many young people don’t understand, and the events on the anniversaries are a good way of highlighting what happened,” said Bernadette. “It is important for young people to know about and understand the hunger strikes,” she added.
Bernadette says that emotions are still raw 25 years after her father died.
“It has been hard, maybe because there has been so much publicity this year, but also because we now have kids who are asking more questions and I have to answer them ,” she added.

Journalist:: Roisin McManus

RTÉ

07 July 2006 10:34

The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Nuala O’Loan, will confirm today that following an extensive investigation she discovered no evidence that the murdered Belfast woman, Jean McConville, was a British agent.

Mrs McConville, a widow and mother of ten, was abducted by the IRA from her home in West Belfast in December 1972.

Her remains were discovered buried in a Co Louth in August 2003 following a long campaign by her family.

BN.ie

07/07/2006 - 10:09:05

Operations at Dublin Airport were returning to normal today after the second major security alert in four days.

A spokeswoman for Dublin Airport Authority confirmed shortly after 10am that the scare had ended.

Airlines agreed a plan to resume check-in and flights.

“All security staff are entering the building first, followed by operating airport and airline staff next,” said the spokeswoman.

“Passengers who already have boarding cards will be asked to re-enter next, then those passengers who have tickets to travel today will re-enter,” she said.

Only passengers with confirmed travel arrangements today will be permitted to enter the terminal building.

A controlled explosion was carried out on the bag by the Army bomb disposal team and it was declared safe.

The rucksack had been left unattended in the arrivals hall sparking the security alert which lasted for just over two hours.

Gardaí were alerted and called in to seal off the building but after an initial inspection the Army bomb disposal team was asked to take over.

Experts inspected the suspicious bag and decided to carry out a controlled explosion.

The airport was then declared safe to resume operations just before 10am.

The spokeswoman said: “We take situations like this extremely seriously. We don’t evacuate the airport unless we deem it necessary and on this occasion it was felt necessary to do so.”

It is the second time this week the airport terminal has been evacuated following a bomb scare. On Tuesday, some 9,000 passengers and 50 flights were disrupted when a man walked into the arrivals hall and allegedly claimed he was carrying a bomb.

The man was arrested and later charged while the threat was declared a hoax after Army bomb experts examined baggage he was carrying.

Around 70 flights were directly affected by the scare today and the disruption is expected to have a severe knock-on effect on services in and out of the airport for the rest of the day.

“It will take some time for the operations to get back to normal,” the spokeswoman said.

She added that staff and passengers were evacuated within minutes of the alarm being raised just before 8am. She said people were very patient, calm and understanding and left the terminal in an orderly fashion to the normal emergency assembly points in the car parks and in other open areas.

Flights continued to land during the scare but none were allowed to take-off. Around 20 planes with passengers on board were stranded on the runway.

The Automobile Association (AA) said the security alert caused massive disruption on roads around the airport. Cars were abandoned on the Old Airport Road, which remains open, and on the M1 slip road, which was closed for a short time, according to AA spokeswoman Alison Byrne.

She advised drivers to take diversions put in place and not to leave cars behind.

Martin Ingram in his Blogger blog, says he is being censored, which I find difficult to believe as the Blogger servers are not located in the UK. I think this is just Martin puffing himself up as usual:

Hello,
We’d like to inform you that we’ve received an Order for an Injunction from the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland Chancery Division concerning some of the content in your blog martiningram.blogspot.com.
In compliance with the court order, we’ve had to remove content from your blog that reference ******* ***********. Please comply with this court order and refrain from publishing any references to Mr. ************ in the future.

Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,

The Blogger Team.
****************************

BBC

Police acted “in general, justifiably” during disturbances in north Belfast in 2004, the Police Ombudsman has said.

The 12 July return feeder parade in Ardoyne became the focus of two hours of rioting with water cannon deployed.

Nuala O’Loan said police consulted extensively with parade organisers but there was no evidence of a similar consultation with nationalists.

However, she said that was because of the reluctance of republicans to speak on behalf of the Ardoyne community.

Intelligence

Her report accepted that the erection of large barriers, effectively hemming in nationalists, was a contravention of human rights.

However, Mrs O’Loan said that, given intelligence suggesting that both communities were stockpiling weapons, the barriers were justified.

The ombudsman also rejected an allegation that the police had been influenced by the NIO security minister.