SAOIRSE32

BBC

The DUP has criticised the Gaelic Athletic Association over a republican hunger strike commemoration to be held at a GAA ground in west Belfast.

The rally is commemorating the hunger strikes at the Maze prison

The rally is to be staged at Casement Park on 13 August.

The DUP’s Gregory Campbell said the GAA had to decide whether it was a sporting or a “quasi-political” organisation.

However, Peadar Whelan from the National Hunger Strike Committee, which has organised the rally, said the event was non-party political.

The rally will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the hunger strikes at the Maze prison in which 10 IRA and INLA prisoners died.

The main speaker at the event will be Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and it will be jointly compered by Sinn Fein MEP Mary Lou McDonald and fellow party member Toireasa Ferris, the mayor of Kerry.

Casement Park comes under the jurisdiction of the GAA’s Antrim County Board and it is understood it has not objected to the rally.

However, the GAA’s Central Council in Dublin discussed the matter on Saturday and agreed that the Casement Park rally would break the organisation’s rules about staging political events.

“People have to decide within the Gaelic sporting fraternity: are they a sporting organisation or are they a quasi-political organisation,” the DUP’s Mr Campbell said.

“It’s very clear the direction they appear to be going in in the past few weeks and some would say over the past few years.

“They have to decide, do they want to play sport or do they want to play at politics. They can’t do both and maintain that they are purely a sporting organisation.”

Mr Campbell added that there would be an uproar from nationalists if an event commemorating loyalist terrorists was staged at a cricket or rugby ground.

Political

However, Mr Whelan said: “The commemoration is non-party political.

“It was organised by the National H-block Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee, not organised by any political party.

“Anyone, regardless of their party political affiliation is entitled to remember 10 brave men who died on hunger strike in 1981.”

He said he believed grounds such as Casement Park “belonged to the people” as much as they belonged to the GAA.

The chairman of Antrim County Board, Dr John McSparran, was invited by BBC Northern Ireland Radio Ulster to talk about the matter, but he declined.

Sinn Féin

Published: 1 August, 2006

The Sinn Féin TD for Cavan-Monaghan Caoimhghin Ó Caolain has today paid tribute to Kieran Doherty who died on hunger strike 25 years ago on August 2, 1981. Doherty was elected as a TD for the same constituency in the general election of June 1981 when he received 9,121 votes.

Deputy Ó Caolain said, “It is with both sadness and pride that I recall my predecessor Kieran Doherty who was elected during the heroic hunger strike of 1981. I was proud to have helped, along with hundreds of others, in securing his election and I am proud to have inherited Kieran’s seat as a republican representative for this constituency.

“Kieran was elected despite the incredible hostility shown by the political establishment and media in this state towards his and his comrades’ reasonable demands, not to mention the massive campaign of harassment of hunger strike activists by the Garda Special Branch. On June 11 1981 republican Ireland gave its answer with a huge vote for hunger striker candidates and other supporters of the prison struggle. It was a decisive step in the broadening of the battlefield to secure Irish freedom, a battle that is not yet won, but whose eventual success was brought closer by the courage and dedication of Kieran and his comrades in the H Blocks.

“Tomorrow, the Sinn Féin team in Leinster House and activists throughout Cavan- Monaghan, will be commemorating Kieran’s election and his tragic death both outside the Dáil and at various locations in the Cavan-Monaghan constituency. It will be both a time for reflecting on the sacrifice of Kieran and his comrades, and to re-dedicate ourselves to the achievement of the goals which motivated Kieran and the other hunger strikers. That goal remains the achievement of an All Ireland Republic and the creation of a national parliament in which the representatives of all the Irish people will sit together as equals.” ENDS

BN.ie

01/08/2006 - 08:09:42

The father of a man murdered by the UVF nearly nine years ago is due to meet Northern Secretary Peter Hain today to discuss his ongoing campaign for a public inquiry.

Twenty-two-year-old Raymond McCord was beaten to death in November 1997 and his body was dumped in a quarry on the outskirts of north Belfast.

At least two police informers are believed to have been involved in the murder, including the man who ordered the killing.

Mr McCord’s father, also called Raymond, believes the PSNI did not properly investigating the case in order to protect these informers and ensure that they continued to supply information about the UVF.

An unpublished Police Ombudsman’s report into the case is believed to back these claims and is expected to strongly criticise police management of the case.

Mr McCord, meanwhile, is accusing the British government of putting the interests of paramilitaries before those of their victims by effectively turning a blind eye to the situation.

BN.ie

01/08/2006 - 11:28:53

Further talks are taking place today in an effort to prevent a possible feud between rival factions of the UDA in north Belfast.

Tensions have been high ever since the organisation’s so-called Inner Council formally expelled the local leaders, Ihab and Andre Shoukri, last week.

The two half-Egyptian brothers are currently in prison, but their supporters responded to their expulsion by attacking rivals in the mainstream group over the weekend.

The stand-off has raised fears of yet another internal loyalist feud and extra police have been put on the streets in an effort to prevent violence.

The UDA Inner Council has already held talks with representatives of the breakaway faction loyal to the Shoukri brothers and with Protestant clergymen acting as intermediaries in an effort to end the dispute.

The UDA’s political wing, the Ulster Political Research Group, has also met the British government to discuss ways to ease the tensions.

BBC

The family of a Derry man murdered by the Real IRA four years ago has said his grave has been desecrated.

David Caldwell died after picking up a box containing explosives

David Caldwell, 51, from the Waterside area, died after he picked up a lunchbox containing explosives at Caw Territorial Army base in August 2002.

The father-of-four had just arrived for work at the Limavady Road premises when the explosion happened.

Mr Caldwell’s partner Mavis McFall said the family still felt intimidated and her daughters were suffering.

“I just want them to stop and let the man rest in peace,” she said.

“The people that killed Davy are bad, but these boys are worse. These people are not thick, they are evil.

“It’s bad enough the way he died but this is going on and on and on. It is just heartbreaking to see my wee girls suffering.”

After his death, Mr Caldwell’s family appealed for no retaliation.

The Army said the blast was “an outrage, a despicable cowardly attack on an innocent civilian and should be condemned by all law-abiding people”.

A march and rally were held in protest at the murder.

BBC

George Legge was stabbed and had his throat cut

The murder of a loyalist paramilitary leader in Belfast harked back to the notorious Shankill Butchers gang 30 years ago, an inquest has heard.

George Legge, 37, a former UFF leader, was found dead in a field near Carryduff in January 2001.

His throat was slit and he had suffered multiple stab wounds.

The inquest heard he was killed in an east Belfast bar owned by one time associate Jim Gray, who was shot dead last October.

At the time of his death, Legge was said to have been a senior member of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) who had reportedly falled out of favour in the months before his death.

Coroner John Leckey, who heard the victim’s throat had been slit with a six inch knife, said it was the worst case he had seen since the Shankill Butchers’ reign of terror during the Troubles.

He said: “I have been acting as coroner long enough to remember the Shankill Butchers and looking at this brings back memories of how their victims were treated.

“It really is dreadful, dreadful injuries.

“It’s a sobering thought that the person or persons responsible for this horrific murder are still walking the streets.”

Gray, another leader, owned the Bunch of Grapes pub where Legge was believed to have been murdered, Detective Inspector Michael McErlane told the inquest.

Stabbed

Gray was one of five men later questioned about the murder, but never charged.

The Shankill Butchers was a ruthless gang of loyalists who in the mid-70s toured the streets of north and west Belfast, kidnapping Catholics, torturing and stabbing them with butchers’ knives.

The inquest heard how the killers disposed of evidence of the murder by removing a carpet from Gray’s pub, which police believed would have been covered in blood.

Please visit the sites listed for more information and photos

click thumbnail to go to Fallen Comrades of the IRSM

click on photo to go to Irish Hunger Strike 1981 Website

Larkspirit.com

Kevin Lynch - Died August 1st, 1981

Click to view - photo from CAIN

A loyal, determined republican with a great love of life

“THE EIGHTH republican to join the hunger-strike for political status, on May 23rd, following the death of Patsy O’Hara, was twenty-five-year-old fellow INLA Volunteer Kevin Lynch from the small, North Derry town of Dungiven who had been imprisoned since his arrest in 1976.

A well-known and well liked young man in the closely-knit community of his home town, Kevin was remembered chiefly for his outstanding ability as a sportsman, and for qualities of loyalty, determination and a will to win which distinguished him on the sports field and which, in heavier times and circumstances, were his hallmarks as an H-Block blanket man on hunger strike to the death.”

>>>Read Kevin’s biography

click thumbnail to go to Larkspirit photo - ‘Kevin Lynch’s coffin, with INLA honour guard’

click thumbnail to go to Larkspirit photo - ‘INLA honour guard firing a volley over Kevin Lynch’s coffin’

H-Block Songs - www.irishhungerstrike.com

Forever In My Mind

O’Hara, Hughes, McCreesh and Sands,
Doherty and Lynch
McDonnell, Hurson, McIlwee, Devine

Darkened years of winter have passed
Summer waits for spring before it lives
Blanket clad and wasted the winter has been long
No gleam of hope a thoughtless nation gives

In silence we walked through the streets
As one by one our hungerstrikers died.

******************

O’Hara, Hughes, McCreesh and Sands,
Doherty and Lynch
McDonnell, Hurson, McIlwee, Devine

Their memory is forever in my mind
Pictures of their faces in my eyes
My sorrow and grief will not subside
And my love for them I will not diguise

In silence we walked through the streets
As one by one our hungerstrikers died.

****************

O’Hara, Hughes, McCreesh and Sands,
Doherty and Lynch
McDonnell, Hurson, McIlwee, Devine

Song by Christy Moore - poem by Pierce Mc Loughlin

Daily Ireland

Parades Commission voices hope for local accommodation between loyalists and republicans
By Connla Young
31/07/2006

The Parades Commission has urged republicans and loyalists in a Co Derry town to strike a deal ahead of separate bands parades scheduled to start just 15 minutes apart.
Both the Irish Republican Socialist Party and the Royal Black Preceptory have applied to stage parades involving hundreds of people in Maghera on August 13.
The south Derry town has been in the grip of a parades dispute for several years. On July 12 this year, Orangemen rerouted a parade away from the town’s Catholic church after nationalist protesters had gathered nearby.
A spokesperson for the IRSP said the party’s parade had been organised to commemorate two members of the Irish National Liberation Army — Brendan Convery from Maghera and Gerard Mallon from Keady. They were killed in a gun battle with the RUC in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, in 1983.
Parade organisers said the parade would begin at 3pm and end at 4.30pm and consist of seven bands and 350 participants.
It is understood the parade organised by the Maghera-based Dr Cooke Memorial Royal Black Preceptory takes place on the Sunday preceding the last Saturday of August each year. The parade is scheduled to begin at 2.45pm and end at 4.30pm and is to consist of one band and 200 participants.
Although the individual parades will take place at opposite ends of the town, organisers of both have applied to bring their bands along the town’s Main Street and Hall Street.
A spokesperson for the Parades Commission said: “Hopefully, a local accommodation will be reached. If not, the Parades Commission will have to consider the separate parades although they are interconnected.”
An IRSP spokesperson said the party wanted its parade to be “dignified”.
“We were not aware the parade was clashing with the RBP. We are not going to hold a parade to remember two volunteers which is going to be controversial,” said the representative.
Magherafelt Ulster Unionist Party spokesman George Sheils said local members of the Royal Black Preceptory would wait for the Parades Commission to come up with a solution.
“Everybody feels it should not take a genius to figure out the logistics. It’s up to the Parades Commission to make sure they don’t meet. To stagger one of the parades for five minutes would make all the difference,” he said.
The IRSP has also said it is consulting nationalists in Ballymena before deciding if the party’s official band will attend a republican parade in the Co Antrim town on August 9.
In a determination issued last week, the Parades Commission placed strict restrictions on the event.
“Republicans and nationalists in Ballymena have an equal right to march. We are consulting to see if people want this march and, if people in that area don’t, we will not be attending,” said the party.

Sinn Féin

Published: 31 July, 2006

Sinn Féin Assembly member for Mid-Ulster Geraldine Dougan has said that there is a growing belief that loyalist paramilitaries were behind the murder in Tobermore over the weekend.

Ms Dougan said:

“There is a fair degree of anger within the local community at the events in Tobermore on Friday night and the subsequent reporting of the incident as a hit and run accident.

“There is now a growing belief amongst local people that loyalist paramilitaries were responsible for this murder. It appears from eye witness accounts that the victim got into a dispute inside the club with a local loyalist leader. He was then dragged outside a viciously beaten in front of the rest of his friends before being thrown in front of a passing car.

“Local people I have spoken to are bemused at the line initially taken by the PSNI that this was a hit and run accident when it appears to have been common knowledge that this man had been the victim of a brutal assault by loyalists and are openly questioning the motivation behind this action.” ENDS