SAOIRSE32

BBC

Ireland’s leading Catholic clergyman is to become the first Archbishop of Armagh since the time of St Patrick to climb Croagh Patrick.

Dr Sean Brady will attempt to ascend the County Mayo mountain where a pilgrimage takes place every year.

The Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, has dedicated the theme of this year’s pilgrimage to those people who have made Ireland their new home.

The pilgrimage is associated with St Patrick who, in 441, is said to have spent 40 days and nights fasting on the summit of the mountain.

The pilgrimage takes place this weekend.

A Catholic Church spokesman said: “This pilgrimage has been carried out uninterrupted for over 1,500 years.

“Croagh Patrick has over 100,000 visitors annually with up to 30,000 people expected this weekend.

“All those who intend to climb are asked to bring good footwear, suitable clothing, a stick and water and to be mindful of the safety of themselves and other pilgrims.

“Reek Sunday 2005 marked the centenary of the oratory on the summit and a special plaque was unveiled there last year.

“On Sunday 30 July, Mass will be celebrated on the summit every half hour from 0800 BST - 1400 BST.”

The 1948 Massacre at Deir Yassin Revisited

“Early in the morning of April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. The village lay outside of the area to be assigned by the United Nations to the Jewish State; it had a peaceful reputation. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Deir Yassin was slated for occupation under Plan Dalet and the mainstream Jewish defense force, the Haganah, authorized the irregular terrorist forces of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to perform the takeover.

In all over 100 men, women, and children were systematically murdered. Fifty-three orphaned children were literally dumped along the wall of the Old City, where they were found by Miss Hind Husseini and brought behind the American Colony Hotel to her home, which was to become the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi orphanage.

Part of the struggle for self-determination by Palestinians has been to tell the truth about Palestinians as victims of Zionism. For too long their history has been denied, and this denial has only served to further oppress and deliberately dehumanize Palestinians in Israel, inside the occupied territories, and outside in their diaspora.

Some progress has been made. Westerners now realize that Palestinians, as a people, do exist. And they have come to acknowledge that during the creation of the state of Israel, thousands of Palestinians were killed and over 700,000 were driven or frightened from their homes and lands on which they had lived for centuries.

Deir Yassin Remembered seeks similar progress on behalf of the victims of the Deir Yassin Massacre . . .”

>>Read it

BBC

Police seized a shotgun, ammunition and petrol bombs following a stand-off between rival factions of the same loyalist paramilitary group in Belfast.

Rival factions of the UDA clashed in Belfast

The trouble on Friday night began hours after the Ulster Defence Association in north Belfast issued a statement to say it had appointed a new leadership.

The move came five weeks after the group expelled Andre and Ihab Shoukri.

Sources claim Shoukri supporters told people they would have to leave the area if they backed the new leadership.

BBC Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent Vincent Kearney said it was believed that up to 80 people became involved in a tense stand-off between the two factions in the Tynedale Gardens and Tigers Bay areas.

Police are also investigating claims that a number of shots were fired in the incident.

A short time later the police moved into the area and seized weapons from the Tynedale Gardens area.

“There are fears of further clashes and the UDA’s ruling body, its so-called inner council, has warned that it will not stand by if members are intimidated or attacked,” Mr Kearney said.

Belfast Telegraph

By Debra Douglas
29 July 2006

The UDA was last night told to “shut down instead of changing leadership” by Alliance leader David Ford.

Making the comment after it emerged the Shoukri leadership has been ousted in a paramilitary coup in north Belfast, the Alliance leader said the move was “totally ridiculous”.

“The UDA should be shutting up shop altogether, instead of changing its leadership in north Belfast,” he said.

“Loyalist paramilitaries still pose a massive threat to the community in Northern Ireland. All paramilitary groups must cease activity and disband to allow progress to be made in breaking the current political stalemate in Northern Ireland.

“Whilst moves by republicans have been too long in coming, at least there are clear indications that the IRA is winding down its activities. We need to see similar commitments from loyalists.

“The only role for this new leadership is to close down the UDA for once and for all.”

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein has called on the UDA to end all sectarian racist and criminal activities.

North Belfast MLA Cathy Stanton said: “What local nationalists want to hear from the UDA is not that they have found new leadership to carry on the drug dealing and the criminality in north Belfast, but that their sectarian, racist and criminal activities are to end and that they are finally going to engage constructively with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.

“History unfortunately teaches us that internal unionist paramilitary feuds usually end with attacks on Catholics in interface areas like North Belfast. Nationalists need to be vigilant at this time as the latest feud appears to be coming to a head.”

A statement released yesterday by the new UDA leadership says, “a new interim brigade staff” has been appointed in north Belfast and “approved” by the paramilitary leaders.

The statement read: “Representatives from each company of North Belfast Brigade UDA met and formed a new delegation approached by the UDA’s Inner Council who approved the new command structure.”

The statement called on UDA members “to come forward and disassociate themselves from the self-appointed criminal leadership” - a reference to the Shoukris, who are currently being held at Maghaberry, and their closest associate Alan McClean.

Daily Ireland

**One might think that after the vicious sectarian murder of 15 year old Michael McIlveen in Ballymena and the continued threats and harassment of his family and friends that people could find something more constructive to do with themselves than argue over the logistics of a parade.

By Connla Young and Nevin Farrell
28/07/2006

The organisers of a restricted republican band parade have said they will appeal against a decision by the Parades Commission to ban the playing of music.
It is understood this week’s determination banning music at the march in Ballymena, Co Antrim, was the first time such a restriction has been placed on an entire band parade in the North.
As well as being restricted to 30 minutes, the parade is not allowed to move beyond Fisherwick Crescent in the nationalist north end of the town.
Unionists have welcomed the restrictions.
Paddy Murray, a spokesman for the Friends of William Orr parade organiser, said his group would challenge the commission’s determination in court.
“They are saying: Have a parade but play no music. How ridiculous is that? We are not even allowed to play music on our own streets, and we will be looking to put an appeal in and maybe look towards a judicial review.
“I have never known a band parade to have music banned. They allow Protestant bands to play music past chapels but the Parades Commission believe it is offensive to play music in a Catholic estate. It is madness,” he said.
Ballymena Democratic Unionist Party councillor Robin Stirling said he was pleased with the music ban and other restrictions.
He said: “I welcome this but it would have been more welcome if the parade didn’t take place at all. The music ban is helpful because the music is inflammatory and cannot be conducive to good public relations in Ballymena, of all places.”
Seán Farren, SDLP assembly member for North Antrim, has called on the parade organisers to reconsider their decision.
“While recognising that all organisations have a right to public assembly, there is also a clear duty to bear in mind the impact on community relations.
“The Friends of William Orr have had no contact with the people along the intended route and have made no meaningful effort to engage with the wider community in Ballymena.
“In the circumstances, it was inevitable that restrictions would be imposed.
“The SDLP is now calling for a calm and sensible approach to the commission’s determination. The parade organisers still have time to reconsider their plans and I call on them to do so,” said Mr Farren.
Parades Commission chairman Roger Poole said the parade had no support among local residents.
A republican parade last year was the first of its kind to be held in Ballymena.
Organisers of this year’s restricted parade have said three bands — from Antrim town, Belfast, and Strabane in Co Tyrone — are to attend.

:::u.tv:::

FRIDAY 28/07/2006 14:33:17

A controversial loyalist band parade has been banned from entering the predominantly nationalist town of Downpatrick.

The Parades Commission in Northern Ireland has ruled that the parade, organised by the Red Hand Defenders flute band, must not go beyond the 30mph signs at the Belfast Road entrance to the town.

Belfast Telegraph

By Brian Rowan
28 July 2006

A breakaway faction with the North Belfast UDA was expected to pledge loyalty to the mainstream organisation today.

Senior loyalist sources have told the Belfast Telegraph that major devleopments are expected within the banned paramilitary group today.

Two statements are expected to be released by lunchtime. Sources said one will be from a breakaway group of men in north Belfast - the so-called ‘J Company’ covering Tigers Bay and Westland areas - distancing themselves from the expelled Shoukri leadership and supporting the mainstream organisation.

A response from the so-called UDA Inner Council will come in a second statement.

The developments follow a meeting in east Belfast last night attended by the breakaway group in the north of the city and other senior UDA figures.

Today’s development will put intense pressure on the North Belfast leadership of brothers Andre and Ihab Shoukri following the June 20 announcement from the Inner Council ordering the effective expulsion of the brothers and a key supporter.

That statement from the Inner Council - the organisation’s brigadier leadership - did not name names but is known to refer to the Shoukris and their closest associate Alan McClean.

The UDA leadership statement confirmed the decision to “expel a number of individual members” from north Belfast and instructed its organisation in that part of the city “to begin a process of selection and election to the replace the individuals whom we have expelled”.

The following day the leadership of the North Belfast UDA rejected the call to stand down and said it no longer recognised the authority of the Inner Council.

In a statement, the brigade said that it offered no aggression to other UDA brigades but warned that it would not tolerate “any interference” in its area.

Scotsman

JIM GILCHRIST
28 July 2006

THE SUMMER of 1976 was a grim one in a grim year, even by the standards of Northern Ireland. As the Government announced it was dispatching a further 200 troops there due to the upsurge in violence, the summer unfolded in a vicious series of tit-for-tat sectarian killings while, south of the border, on 21 July, Britain’s ambassador to Ireland, Christopher Ewart Biggs, was killed, along with his secretary, by a landmine in Dublin.

Mairead Corrigan in George Square, Glasgow, 1976. Picture: Gordon Rule

Then, on 10 August, a young Provisional IRA driver, Danny Lennon, was shot dead by a pursuing British Army patrol as he sped down Finaghy Road North in Belfast. Out of control, the car ploughed into Anne Maguire and her children. Eight-and-a-half-year-old Joanne, who was cycling alongside, and her six-week-old brother, Andrew, in his pram, were killed instantly; their brother, John, just two-and-a-half, died in hospital the following day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny Lennon 23 years, Andersonstown, west Belfast, an IRA activist, he was shot dead by British soldiers as he drove a car along Finaghy Road North. The British soldiers were in an armoured vehicle when they spotted Mr Lennon. They immediately opened fire on the car, firing over 60 shots during a short chase. After Mr Lennon was killed the car went out of control and hitting a mother and her three children. The children, Joanne Maguire (9), John Maguire (3) and Andrew Maguire (6 weeks), were all killed.

The failure of the British authorities to release the results of the children’s autopsies has resulted in much speculation that they too may have been shot by the British army.

Relatives for Justice

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It fell to Anne’s sister, Mairead Corrigan, just back from holiday, to accompany her traumatised brother-in-law, Jackie Maguire, for the formal identification of his dead children. Then she did what in hindsight may seem a remarkable thing, or perhaps, under the circumstances, the most natural thing in the world. She went straight to the Ulster Television studios, asked to go on the air, and delivered an impassioned appeal for an end to the violence.

Amid the awfulness of these events, she had no possible inkling that her appeal would help precipitate the movement which became known as the Peace People, never mind earn her the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. “For myself, it was an emotional reaction to a terrible tragedy, as well as to the ongoing tragedy of nine years of death and violence,” she recalls, sitting in her home by the peaceful shores of Stran-gford Lough in County Down. “I didn’t at all think it would turn into a mass movement.”

(more…)

BBC

Petrol bombs, a shotgun and ammunition were seized following a security alert in the Tyndale Gardens area of north Belfast, police have said.

A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokeswoman said the items have been taken away for examination.

She said Army bomb disposal experts were called out to the area on Friday evening to examine a suspicious device.

Officers are investigating reports that shots had been fired, but there are no indications of any injuries.

BN.ie

28/07/2006 - 18:01:09

The new leadership of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association in north Belfast tonight faced an immediate demand to stand down.

A new so-called interim brigade staff has been chosen to take over from brothers Andre and Ihab Shoukri who are in jail awaiting terrorist related charges.

The UDA in north Belfast is considered the most volatile of all the loyalist criminal gangs in Northern Ireland which are heavily involved in extortion, drugs and money laundering.

The Shoukri brothers are in custody in Maghaberry Prison, near Lisburn, Co Antrim awaiting trial – Andre on blackmail charges and Ihab accused of UDA membership.

They had been under pressure from elements with the overall leadership to stand down after being expelled by the ruling inner-council.

But nationalist representatives tonight said the change at the top is unlikely to ease tensions among rival factions, including those staying loyalist to the Shoukir.

Alan Mageniss, a north Belfast SDLP member of the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly said: “Its a coup, replacing a bad lot with another lot which can well be equally as bad.

“I challenge them to clean up their act by starting to end all their activity and consider winding up completely for the good of everybody.”

BBC

The DUP has accepted the principle of power sharing and dialogue with republicans, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has said.

He was speaking on the Inside Politics programme marking the anniversary of the IRA’s decision to end its campaign.

“In these issues the DUP have conceded the principle - in terms of sharing power, the Good Friday Agreement, dialogue with Sinn Fein,” he said.

Mr Adams accused Ian Paisley of “playing for time over devolution”.

“So it’s actually just a matter of, can they through this tactical approach they are taking, garner some sort of support from the governments for their position and can they put off the awful day, as they would see it, as long as possible?” he said.

Devolved government was suspended over allegations of a republican spy ring.

The court case that followed collapsed and one of those involved, Denis Donaldson, later admitted working as a British agent. Direct rule from London was restored in October 2002 and has been in place since.

The British and Irish governments have given Northern Ireland’s parties until 24 November to reach agreement on restoring devolution.

Inside Politics - Radio Ulster, Saturday 1245 BST.