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Daily Ireland

Former comrade pays tribute to Tom McElwee from staunch republican area of Bellaghy, Co Derry who died after 62 days on hunger strike 25 years ago

By Connla Young
08/08/2006

The sight of eight sisters carrying the remains of their brother has become one of the most haunting and powerful images captured during the closing days of the 1981 hunger strike.

The enduring image was beamed across the globe in the hours after Thomas McElwee was buried in the Co Derry village of Bellaghy on August 10, 1981.
Seen by millions of people, the image of eight young Irish women walking their brother to his final resting place gave the world a glimpse of the dignity with which the McElwee family shouldered their personal pain.
Just two days earlier the girls’ 23-year-old brother saw out his final hours surrounded only by prison officers in the hospital wing at Long Kesh prison.
Even after 62 days without food, Thomas McElwee was denied the comfort of his family and loved ones by the cruel prison regime he had challenged for the previous three and half years.
Tom McElwee was the sixth of 12 children born into his parents’ home at Tamlaghduff Road near Bellaghy in November 1957. The small whitewashed house sits just a few hundred yards from the family home of his cousin Frank Hughes, who died after 59 days on hunger strike in May 1981. The two young men now lie side by side in the grave yard at St Mary’s church in Bellaghy.
Although captured separately, the cousins both suffered serious injury before being arrested and were subjected to years of abuse from prison staff at Long Kesh as a result of their disabilities.
Thomas McElwee lost an eye after a premature explosion in Ballymena, Co Antrim, in 1976. The Bellaghy man required emergency treatment at the Royal Victoria Hospital in order to save his remaining eye.
His friends Colm Scullion and Sean McPeake were also seriously injured in the blast while his brother Benedict suffered from shock and burns.
After his arrest, Thomas refused to make a statement and was eventually sentenced to 20 years behind bars. The Bellaghy man immediately went on the blanket protest along with his younger brother Benedict.
Friend and former comrade Ian Milne spent several years on the blanket and has vivid memories from that time.
“One of things that strikes me from that time is Tom and Frank’s funerals. Setting aside the commotion that went on trying to get their bodies home, their families were not allowed to bring their remains through the town of Bellaghy when they were getting buried.
“Instead of taking the straight road through the town as their families had done for generations they both had to be driven to the graveyard through countryside roads. That’s still hurts both families. They were not allowed to take their sons straight to the graveyard to bury them.
“They brought in thousands of RUC men and troops to make sure both men could not pass through the town.
“Twenty-five years ago republicans were not allowed to travel through Bellaghy but republicanism in that town and around south Derry is very strong now and things have changed a lot. The time when the British and unionist businessmen could stop people from going through the town has gone – it is now a republican area.
“That is just one legacy Tom and the other men left behind them. Both these lads came from the same area. No other two hunger strikers came from as close an area. This area is staunch and has never bent the knee. Tom and Frank were at the forefront of that and today I feel we are carrying on the same struggle they fought for.”
Now the Sinn Féin chairman of Magherafelt District Council, Mr Milne says men like Tom McElwee had no option but to commit to a hunger strike.
“The British were steadfast in opposing any compromise. But republican prisoners were not criminal. How could anyone involved in the conflict put a prison uniform on. There was just no other way at that time. I can’t believe the brutality heaped on the prisoners at that time. In many ways we became used to the prison regime. It was only when I went back to Long Kesh about a year and a half ago that I realised the immense psychological and physical torture we were put through each day. I was scalded myself.
“Tom was tortured by the screws. They taunted him about the eye he lost but Tom never bowed to them, not once. If they wanted to pick a fight they would get it when they came to him.”
The former prisoner says the hunger strike was about more than just the prison issue.
“I think for the British it wasn’t just about defeating the prisoners, it was about defeating the IRA and the struggle against British occupation. The Brits hoped to break the struggle by breaking the prisoners. It was never going to work. The hunger strikers were ordinary people and they lived like the rest of us but they were also exceptional people because not everyone can die on hunger strike.
“You have to have strong convictions and be a special person to do that. These people, people like Tom, loved those around them so much that they laid down their lives for them as well as the wider struggle. When I think of them it gives me strength and I recommit myself every time I think about that. I salute the hunger strikers and all those who gave their lives.”

Irish Examiner

Via Newshound

The men wanted by Colombia have kept a low profile since their much-hyped return, writes Colm Heatley.

08 August 2006

AS entrances go, it couldn’t have been more timely.

On August 5 last year, some 12 months after disappearing from the radar and just five days after the IRA publicly ended its armed campaign, the Colombia Three announced they were back in Ireland.

Four years earlier, in August 2001, Jim Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley had been arrested at Bogota airport on their way out of Columbia.

They were charged with training the left-wing guerrilla group FARC in explosive techniques.

The men insisted they were in Colombia to observe the peace process, though initially they told police they were there as “eco-tourists”.

At their first trial they were acquitted of the training charges, but fled before an appeal court reached a verdict.

Being accused of colluding with South American Marxist rebel groups, especially post 9/11, was a disaster for republicans.

Washington spoke ominously of its concern over the IRA’s “international terror links”.

In the North, unionists said it was proof of the IRA’s hidden agenda, while political parties in the South said the allegations had the potential to destabilise progress in the North.

Indeed, the Colombia Three case was the first big setback for republicans in the peace process.

Castlereagh, Stormont, the Northern Bank Robbery and the McCartney killing would follow.

However, from the outset, the detention of the three had caused concern among human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Colombia has a poor record of protecting human rights and its civil war with FARC has seen the government accused of murder, torture and abductions.

When the trial eventually got under way, after a two-year delay, serious flaws emerged in the prosecution’s evidence.

Testimony from government witnesses who said they had seen the men at FARC training camps on specific dates was rebuffed when videos of Jim Monaghan showed he had been at a conference in Ireland at the said times.

The court accepted the authenticity of the tapes.

Forensic reports which stated traces of cocaine and explosives were found on the men’s luggage were also discredited by independent experts. But none of that seemed to matter to the appeal court.

Last August, through a network of sympathisers, the three were able to return to Ireland; a year later and only a few people know how they did it.

Since the initial flurry of activity which greeted their return, little has been heard of them and both the

Government and gardaí say the trio are free to go about their business.

Given IRA decommissioning and the formal ending of its campaign, it is unlikely the Government will interfere in their case.

In any event the men, and their supporters, argue that they have committed no crime in Ireland and that their first trial in Colombia exonerated them of anything more serious than travelling on false passports.

By Sam Ghattas
08 August 2006

ISRAELI warplanes intensified air strikes and launched a new commando raid in south Lebanon yesterday, killing at least 28 people in one of the heaviest tolls in days.

Police said five people were killed when three explosions rocked Beirut shortly after nightfall, within two hours of the departure of Arab foreign ministers who had gathered in the Lebanese capital in a show of support for the embattled government.

Lebanese security officials said Israeli naval artillery fired on the southern suburbs from ships off the Mediterranean coast, where they are enforcing a sea blockade.

Lebanon’s prime minister, choking back tears, pleaded for a ceasefire but demanded that any UN-drafted plan require a full Israeli withdrawal from his country.

Fuad Saniora’s emotional address to Arab League diplomats including a stunning claim that more than 40 people had just been killed by Israeli bombs in the border village of Houla. Later, he said just one person was killed and blamed the error on information from the battlefield, but offered no other explanation.

Meanwhile, Israeli and Hezbollah guerrillas appeared to press their offensives before any credible truce proposal takes shape.

Hezbollah sent at least 83 missiles into northern Israel, lightly wounding five Israelis, according to Israeli rescue services.

On Sunday, Hezbollah rockets killed 15 people in the single bloodiest day for Israelis. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz responded by ordering the army to step up the offensive against Hezbollah rocket sites.

Mr Peretz told the top parliamentary committee on security affairs that in the absence of a diplomatic agreement, he has instructed the army to “take control” of launch sites and “take the Israeli people out of the shelters”.

The latest Israeli push included head-on ground clashes aimed at flushing out Hezbollah militiamen from the border zone. The village of Houla is caught in the centre of the clashes.

At least 23 other Lebanese were confirmed dead by rescue and security officials in bombardment elsewhere — the highest one-day Lebanese death toll in days.

Hopes for a peace plan rested with the UN, where the 15-nation Security Council could vote on the US-French framework later this week. But it appeared the plan, if passed as it stands, was unlikely to bring a halt to the bloodshed.

The proposal would leave thousands of Israeli troops on the ground in the south until a UN-mandated international force deploys there.

Hezbollah has said it will reject any halt in fighting that leaves Israeli troops in Lebanon, and Israel has insisted it won’t withdraw until it is guaranteed Hezbollah rocket fire will stop.

The Israeli army said one soldier was killed and four others were wounded in fighting in Bint Jbail.

The soldiers killed five Hezbollah gunmen in the battle, the army said.

Al-Jazeera television said two soldiers were killed in the fighting. Another three soldiers were wounded in Houla, the army said.

A team of Israeli commandos landed by helicopter on a hilltop overlooking Ras al-Biyada, south of the Lebanese port of Tyre.

About 30 commandos were mired in fierce fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas, and there was no immediate word on casualties.

Irish Examiner

By Colm Heatley
08 August 2006

THE Colombian government appears to have given up its pursuit of the so-called Colombia Three.

The Justice Department has been waiting almost nine months for the Colombian government to respond to a request seeking clarification on the position of the trio.

When Jim Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly fled the country and arrived back in Ireland last year, the Colombian government said it wanted them extradited as a matter of urgency.

However, the Irish Examiner has learned that despite sending a letter to the Colombian authorities in Bogota last November, seeking to establish what the government there wanted to do about the three men, given the absence of an extradition treaty between the two countries, there has been no reply.

A number of options, including signing the Council of European Convention, could have been pursued by the Colombian government if it wanted the men jailed.

Under the convention, prisoners sentenced in a foreign state who return to their native country without spending time in jail can be made serve their sentence in their homeland.

However, Colombia’s judicial system would have to adhere to international standards to achieve that, and most observers agree that it falls short of requirements.

The three men fled Colombia before the judgment of an appeal court, sitting in private, was due to deliver its verdict on charges against them of training FARC guerrillas in explosives techniques.

In their absence, the appeal court imposed 17-year sentences on the men.

The three had been acquitted of the charge at their original trial, but the country’s Attorney General’s office ordered the retrial.

Senator Mary White, who attended the court hearings, said the lack of response from the Colombians shows that the charges were “a joke”.

“I was there seven times to attend the court hearing and there was no evidence to show the men were guilty,” she said. “The court found them innocent but the government weren’t happy with that and ordered a retrial in what can only be described as a kangaroo court; that wouldn’t happen in a democratic country.

“Colombia is bordering on a neo-totalitarian state and the failure of the Colombian authorities to respond to the letter from the justice department shows that the charges were a farce and a joke.”

When the three returned to Ireland in August 2005, Tánaiste Mary Harney, speaking on behalf of Justice Minister Michael McDowell, suggested they could serve their prison sentence in Ireland.

No one from the Justice Department was available for comment yesterday.

Belfast Telegraph

Doctors to judge success of op

By Nigel Gould
07 August 2006

Little James Hynes faces his biggest test today since his life-saving bone marrow transplant in a German hospital more than a month ago.

The brave Dundrod toddler will have his bone marrow examined this afternoon to see whether any traces of leukaemia he has been battling remain.

Already, though, the 14-month-old miracle tot has shown remarkable determination on his road to recovery.

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph from James’ hospital ward in Tubingen, mum Cathy said: “He is doing very well. He is mad to get walking.

“We have been here seven weeks now and James has come a long way.

“We are now in our own wee room in the main ward.”

Cathy described today as James’ “first big test” since the transplant.

“They will look at the bone marrow and see if the leukaemia is still there,” she said.

At the moment James is also still receiving radiotherapy but the bone marrow transplant was a big success with cells donated from his mum.

Before travelling to Germany, James was at death’s door.

Devoted parents Cathy and Jim had been told nothing could be done in Northern Ireland and that their little boy’s only hope was specialist treatment in Germany.

In June, after an appeal for help in the Sunday Life, the Eastern Health Board agreed to fund the £100,000 procedure after doctors deemed it appropriate.

Just three days after the transplant, made possible when Cathy donated her bone marrow, little James was showing remarkable signs of recovery.

At the time, dad Jim said: “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.”

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.

Both Cathy and James’ dad, Jim, thanked everyone who had supported them.

Belfast Telegraph

By Claire Weir and Brenda McDaid
07 August 2006

The Probation Board facilitated a meeting between the mother of killer Trevor Hamilton and a senior republican to get clarification of an INLA threat against him, the Telegraph can today reveal.

The admission by the Probation Board comes as Hamilton was today coming to terms with a life behind bars, with no possibility of release, for the murder of Strabane mother-of-five Attracta Harron.

Hamilton (23) smirked on Friday when the sentence was passed at Dungannon Crown Court.

It emerged in April that 23-year-old Hamilton’s mother had met with top republican Willie Gallagher over claims the INLA were hunting her son after the disappearance of Mrs Harron.

Mr Gallagher, a leading member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, previously stated that Hamilton’s mother and another person met him before Hamilton’s arrest to seek information about the potential threat.

The Telegraph can reveal today that the other person was a member of staff at the Probation Board.

It had been claimed that police advised Hamilton’s family of a threat from republicans.

It later emerged that the killer only escaped being quizzed by paramilitaries when he was arrested by police.

Mr Gallagher told the Belfast Telegraph that he was assured at the meeting by Hamilton’s mother that the killer “was no way involved” in the mother-of-five’s disappearance.

Mr Gallagher said the meeting was held at his offices in Strabane.

“People thought beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was involved,” Mr Gallagher said.

The Probation Board today confirmed to the Telegraph that a representative from their organisation had facilitated the meeting.

A Probation Board spokesman said last night: “We did facilitate his mother in her attempts to get the threat clarified and we attended a meeting with the mother.”

Mrs Harron was brutally murdered less than four months after Hamilton was released from a seven-year sentence for raping and threatening another woman.

The victim vanished on her way home from Mass in Lifford, Co Donegal, in late 2003.

Her bludgeoned and badly decomposed body was discovered in a shallow grave behind Hamilton’s home the following April and he was arrested shortly afterwards.

Belfast Telegraph

By Linda McKee
08 August 2006

The organisers of a cross-community dinner in Belfast have come in for criticism after it was attended by Shankill bomber Sean Kelly.

Two people walked out of the function at Belfast Castle on Sunday when they realised the IRA killer was present.

Kelly served just under eight years in prison for planting the bomb that killed nine people in a Shankill Road fish shop.

However, organiser Irene Sherry, speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme, defended the way the dinner had been managed.

She said it had been a valuable way of encouraging people to talk to each other.

Ms Sherry said she had not been aware Kelly would be there.

Alan McBride, whose wife and father-in-law were killed in the Shankill bombing, said it was unfortunate that guests had not been made aware that Kelly would be present so that they could have decided whether or not to attend.

The dinner, called A Celebration of Culture and Creating a Language of Hope and organised as part of the three-day Greater New Lodge Community Festival, featured former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds as an after-dinner speaker.

Mr McBride said he had just returned from holiday and had not attended the festival himself.

“It would have been very difficult for me, and I am widely acknowledged as being some way down the road in my own healing process,” he said.

“I probably would not have gone. On a personal note, I am not ready yet to meet the person who murdered my wife.”

However, he said he would encourage the organisers to continue arranging cross-community meetings.

“I think these dialogues are very, very important but if there is not transparency in them, in other words if people are not told who is likely to turn up, it sometimes can have the opposite effect,” Mr McBride said.

Guests and panellists at the three-day festival included PUP leader David Ervine, Sinn Fein Assembly member Gerry Kelly and Alliance Party leader David Ford.

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton
08 August 2006

The Home Office says an Omagh families’ request for a meeting about a warning withheld by MI5 has gone astray.

Families from the Omagh Support and Self-Help Group wrote to Home Secretary John Reid more than two months ago asking to speak to him about the secret agency’s failure to warn the RUC that Omagh was a dissident republican target prior to the 1998 bomb.

But the Home Office said yesterday that it could not find a record of the letter, although additional searches were being conducted.

The families asked for the meeting because the head of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, has refused to discuss the issue with them.

The Omagh group wants to know why an informer’s warning was not shown to police until PSNI detectives discovered it in America.

Agent David Rupert, an American who infiltrated dissident republicans for the FBI, told MI5 agents in early 1998 that dissident republicans were planning an attack on Omagh or Londonderry.

The bomb team he identified was held and later released, and it is not thought they played any part in the attack later that year that killed 29 people, along with unborn twins.

However, MI5 did not tell the RUC about the Rupert warning.

And the Omagh families are concerned that police may have responded differently to other warnings if they knew that the town was a dissident target before the blast.

The warning is also believed to have been withheld from Mike Tonge, now the Chief Constable of Gwent, who reviewed the Omagh investigation for the Policing Board.

Attention has returned to the issue because MI5 is due to take over the management of anti-terrorist operations in Northern Ireland next year.

The Omagh families were told about the withheld material earlier this year. The warning had been discovered by PSNI detectives when the FBI allowed them to review Rupert’s emails.

PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has said the Omagh investigation was not hampered by the failure to pass on the warning.

But he has not commented on what effect the warning might have had on police before the attack.

The Omagh families were rebuffed by Dame Eliza earlier this year. They wrote to Dr Reid on May 22, referring to her “continual refusal” to explain MI5’s “failure to warn the then RUC of a bomb threat to the North West of Northern Ireland, including Omagh”.

The families also want Dr Reid to shut down the website of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, the political group associated with the Real IRA.

“As you are aware the Real IRA are placed on the American Foreign Terrorist list and despite repeated attempts to bring this to the Government’s attention there has been no action,” the letter said.

“It is for this reason we feel a meeting with yourself is important and we would welcome such a meeting as soon as possible.”

The Omagh group has also asked to meet Secretary of State Peter Hain. They are due to talk to NIO officials about their concerns later this week.

Belfast Telegraph

By Jonathan McCambridge
08 August 2006

Detectives are to set up a mobile police station in the area where teenager Thomas Devlin was brutally stabbed as the net closes in on his killers one year on.

The 15-year-old was brutally stabbed in the back near his home on the Somerton Road on August 10 last year as he returned from buying sweets with his friends at a petrol station.

It is understood that detectives believe they are making significant progress in solving a murder which shocked people across Northern Ireland, but are seeking further public assistance.

A mobile police station will today be set up close to where Thomas was murdered. Officers will be in the immediate area to talk to potential witnesses and a mobile advertising trailer is being used over a wider area to prompt people’s memories and consciences.

Thomas and two friends walked along the Somerton Road from the direction of Fortwilliam Park towards the Lansdowne Road at 11.45pm on August 10 last year.

As they reached the rear gates of St Patrick’s College two males, who had a dog, attacked them. Thomas was stabbed several times and died from his injuries.

Detective Superintendent Simon Barraclough said today: “One year on, Thomas’ family and friends are still grieving but his killers are still at large. Police have conducted a positive and proactive investigation, dealing with a substantial volume of information from which numerous lines of inquiry have been developed over the past 12 months.

“Police have taken almost 900 statements, carried out more than 60 searches and made nine arrests. In addition, we have enlisted the assistance of a number of experts to help us with specific aspects of our investigation including video enhancement and animal identification.”

He added: “Despite all this activity, unfortunately we have so far not been able to get the vital breakthrough which would enable us to bring charges. I believe a breakthrough is still possible.

“In order to achieve this, I need people with information who have not yet spoken to us, for whatever reason, to come forward now about events on the night of 10 August last year in the area around Somerton Road, Fortwilliam Park and Lansdowne Road.”

Police want to speak to anyone who was in the area when Thomas was killed; anyone who saw anything that might be connected to the murder;

a anyone with any information which they believe can assist police.

DS Barraclough added: “I would ask those people to contact the investigation team direct on 9070 0317 or they can use the anonymous Crimestoppers number on 0800 555 111.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Jonathan McCambridge
08 August 2006

Loyalist sources today moved to calm fears of further division within the UDA in north Belfast following reports that more families have been forced to leave the area.

Supporters of deposed UDA leaders Andre and Ihab Shoukri left Northern Ireland last Thursday following a split with the Inner Council of the terror group. Among those who left was Alan McClean, who had taken over the leadership from the Shoukris. Two of his sons also fled.

However, media reports today suggested that another 12 families had left the north of the city over the weekend as the feud continued to simmer.

A UDA source today dismissed the claims.

He said: “No, it is definitely not true. I am only aware of one other person who wanted to leave because she felt unsafe. There has been nobody else.”

Another loyalist said: “The UDA demanded that three people leave and that was it.

“There were six families who left last week but nobody since then. No other families have moved whatsoever and nobody else has been asked to move.

“Things have been a lot calmer in north Belfast since last Thursday and the community is thankful for that. There has been ongoing mediation.”

McClean and his supporters were driven out of north Belfast last Thursday following a power struggle inside the UDA.

Alan McClean - an associate of the Shoukri brothers Andre and Ihab - was blamed by the UDA’s Inner Council for a split in the organisation.

Following attacks on a number of homes the UDA brought up to 1,000 men onto the streets and McClean and his associates left with a police escort.

It is understood he is now living at an address in England.

The Inner Council of the UDA then met to elect a new north Belfast leadership.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that a leading loyalist who survived an assassination attempt in May has left hospital.

Former UVF leader Mark Haddock was ambushed and shot in the body several times during a murder bid in Newtownabbey.

Haddock, who was on trial for the attempted murder of a pub doorman, then had his bail conditions revoked and was ordered to return to Maghaberry as soon as he left the Royal Victoria Hospital.

He initially left the hospital in June but was returned when his condition worsened. He has now been returned to prison for a second time. Two of Haddock’s former associates have been charged over the gun attack.

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton
08 August 2006

The PSNI came in for sharp criticism today for the handling of a suspected sectarian attack in Larne that left the Catholic victim severely disabled.

Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan found that police mishandled both the initial response and the investigation into the attempted murder of Gerald McRandal almost four years ago.

A catalogue of “significant failings” began when just two officers were available to attend the scene of the attack, Mrs O’Loan reported today.

Police also failed to secure evidence at the scene, submitted a “poorly compiled” file to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and did not disclose a police notebook containing the name of a suspect to the defence in a subsequent trial.

The discovery of the notebook sparked the collapse of the prosecution of two Larne men, a case that had already run into difficulty when eight witnesses refused to testify.

“While many aspects of the police investigation were conducted with due rigour, the initial police response was inadequate and a number of serious investigative errors occurred,” Mrs O’Loan said.

Mr McRandal was attacked outside his flat at Gardenmore House, one of the tower blocks in Larne, shortly after midnight of October 23, 2002.

He was beaten so savagely that blood splattered over the doors of the tower block and he was left permanently disabled.

Mrs O’Loan found that at the time of the attack only seven police officers were on duty in the Larne area - a region with 30,000 people in it.

Two officers were sent to the scene, and after the unconscious Mr McRandal was sent off in an ambulance, they went off to look for the assailants with a witness who said he could identify them.

The scene, which came under heavy rain, was not secured for evidence until an hour after the attack.

Mrs O’Loan described this as “a major error in judgment”. She said the “failure to cordon off and protect the scene following the attack was a major failing and rendered any evidence from the scene virtually worthless.”

However, the PSNI set up a major incident team and brought in extra police to help with the investigation. Two men were arrested in less than 24 hours.

John Thomas Maloney of Linn Road, who was then 24, and 31-year-old William Robinson of Greenland Parade were initially charged with attempted murder, although they were later tried for causing grievous bodily harm.

Three other people were accused of withholding information about the attack.

They were tried in December 2003, but during the trial one of the first two officers on the scene produced an unofficial notebook she had used on the night of the attack, later transferring her notes to an official notebook.

The unofficial notebook contained the name of one of the accused, but defence lawyers had not been told it existed - even though one of the investigating detectives was aware of it.

When that lapse emerged, prosecutors decided to withdraw the charges against the two men. Mr McRandal subsequently made a complaint to Mrs O’Loan’s office.

Mrs O’Loan said the failure to produce the notebook was not entirely responsible for the collapse of the case, but concluded that it helped “further weaken a case in which eight key witnesses had already withdrawn their evidence”.

She recognised that police made “significant efforts” overall to investigate the case, but she called for disciplinary proceedings against two officers, including the constable who failed to preserve the scene and kept the unofficial notebook.

She also criticised the case file prepared by police and the sergeant in charge of the police district on the night, who has since retired.

And she said a suggestion that the attack was the result of a personal grudge, rather than sectarianism, had not been properly investigated.

Sinn Féin

Published: 8 August, 2006

Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe has paid tribute to hunger striker Thomas McElwee who died twenty-five years ago today after sixty-two days on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. Speaking today Deputy Crowe said, Tom McElwee “followed his friend, comrade and cousin Francis Hughes in paying the ultimate sacrifice in defiance of the British policy of criminalisation of the struggle for the freedom of Ireland.”

He said, “Thomas McElwee died at 11.30 a.m. on Saturday, August 8th 1981 after 62 days of slow agonising hunger strike.

“Tom and his cousin, Francis Hughes where two dedicated republicans from the small South Derry village of Bellaghy, who were close friends in their boyhood years and who later fought side by side in the towns and fields of South Derry for the freedom of their country. So it came as no surprise to family and friends of Thomas when he followed his friend, comrade and cousin Francis Hughes in paying the ultimate sacrifice in defiance of the British policy of criminalisation of the struggle for the freedom of Ireland.

“Republicans throughout the thirty-two counties of Ireland will gather today to remember our fallen comrade with pride.” ENDS

Note: Dublin republicans will gather at the GPO on O’Connell Street today at 12:30pm to hold a black flag vigil in memory of Thomas McElwee.

Derry Journal

8 August 2006

AFTER MONTHS of waiting and uncertainty the family of Ava Nixon breathed a sigh of relief this weekend as the Derry toddler finally had her vital bone marrow transplant in Germany.

It was Ava’s father Stephen who saved the day by donating an astonishing 14 million stem cells to his one-year-old daughter for the pioneering transplant at St Jude’s Research Centre in Tuebingen.
Speaking to the ‘Journal’ last night Stephen’s sister Sharon Nixon said the family were delighted with how the transplant had gone.
“It couldn’t have gone better, it really went brilliantly,” said Sharon, who was yesterday sending milk off to Germany for her recovering niece.
“She’s turned her nose up at the German milk so I’m sending her food from here,” laughed Sharon. “We’re just absolutely thrilled that she has the operation over her.”
Sharon explained how doting father Stephen had gone above and beyond to save his little girl.
She said: “Basically Stephen had to produce 8.5 million cells to give Ava the amount she needed. Usually this is done over a period of two days but after one day Stephen had produced 14 million. Ava got the cells she needed and some more. The extra were frozen to be used in case of an emergency.”
Although father and daughter are now recovering it was a tough process, as Sharon explained.
“Ava had some fluid around her lungs afterwards and took her a while to come round. Stephen said he felt very weird the day after he donated the cells but he seemed to come around okay after that and was right back to normal,” she said.
It’s been a long battle for the Nixon family since doctors sent Ava home in April telling her parents that nothing more could be done for her.
Ava’s parents then battled to get the £100,000 funding necessary for the transplant and eventually secured the funding from the NHS.
Now, in just one week the family will find out if the transplant has been successful.
“It takes a week for the stem cells to absorb and after that a full blood count will be taken and a lumber puncture will determine how successful the whole thing has been,” said Sharon.
Ava faces a lengthy stay in Germany with her parents Stephen and Fiona who are financing themselves during the stay.
Members of the public who wish to donate can do so through a fund set up in Ava’s name at the Alliance and Leicester building society at the Diamond or by donating to the family home at 26 Marianus Park, Hazelbank.

BN.ie

08/08/2006 - 10:27:10

The North’s Police Ombudsman has concluded that investigative errors and a lack of police officers in Larne, Co Antrim led to significant failings in an attempted murder inquiry.

In a report out today, Nuala O’Loan says only seven police officers were on duty in October 2002 when a local man was assaulted in the town.

Gerald McRandal suffered serious injuries in the sectarian assault.

The trial of two men charged with his attempted murder collapsed after eight witnesses withdrew evidence and a police officer failed to disclose an unofficial notebook.

Ms O’Loan says the initial police response to the crime was inadequate, in particular the failure to cordon off the scene, rendering any evidence virtually worthless.

She has recommended disciplinary action against two police officers, as well as a series of measures to prevent such failures being repeated.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Thomas McElwee on hunger strike.

Thomas McElwee

Noraid

When you see the official photograph of Thomas McElwee on hunger strike posters, a 3/4 profile, he looks like a choir boy. When you look into his left eye — you can’t help but — there’s mischief. A twinkle that black and white photography and death don’t dim. He lost his other eye in a premature explosion on an IRA operation with his brother Benedict. He was nineteen. Benedict was seventeen. A comrade, Colum Scullion, lost several toes and Sean McPeake’s leg was blown away.

He looks directly at you through the camera, like he knows something that you know too. Even if you don’t want to admit it, he knows you share this secret. If you don’t see it, he isn’t looking at you.

The foundation is shaken, but holds

Paddy Quinn’s being taken off his hunger strike by his mother was a serious morale problem. Would other parents do the same? The Doherty and Lynch families held firm, but it set a precedent that could be followed, and with Fr. Faul working behind the scenes, the hunger strike was on less solid ground.

Now, one of the hunger strikers, Pat McGeown, was challenging the basis of the strategy of hunger strike, more like a devil’s advocate than a truly dissenting voice, but he was still negative about the whole approach and believed that the prisoners needed to be more practical and flexible, working both inside and outside the system to destroy it. Once the men decided to commence the strike, he, like the man and committed republican he was, put his name forward and was accepted.

Inner doubt

On the 18th day of his fast, Pat was moved early to the prison hospital with a severe respiratory illness. After the Quinn situation and the deaths of Kevin and Kieran, he again expressed his doubts; this time privately to Bik McFarlane. In fact, he told Bik he wasn’t sure he could go the whole way through with his fast. Pat and Bik had a talk, exchanged comms, and Pat seemed to have settled the matter in his own head.

Bik sent out a comm to “Brownie” [a.k.a. Gerry Adams] about the matter: “He has been truthful with us to date which has caused him much pain. It couldn’t have been easy to open up like that. Anyway, I just don’t know now. As it stands I feel I must accept that the inner conflict has ended and has ended favorably. Who can read minds eh?” For sure, Pat was one of the most committed individual in the struggle.

The men in H-Block 6 were informally polled to test the waters: approx. 30% wanted to stop, 30% wanted to stay the course although they were not confident of winning, and 40% demanded no compromise. Opinion was mixed, but not commitment; the men were certainly still pulling together with the leadership.

Weak, vain attempts

Meanwhile, the Dublin government’s Foreign Minister, John Kelly, contacted the Brit Embassy asking for some practical reforms being implemented unilaterally in the Blocks to move things forward in lieu of actual negotiations. The Brits rejected this out of hand. The Irish Commission for Justice and Peace then asked Bik [through Fr. Murphy] to get the men to put a formal request to the Northern Ireland Office asking for a clarification of the Brit position and complaining that there was no meaningful dialogue. Fr. Murphy knew the response before he handed the message to Bik: call for the 5 demands or the ICJP can get lost.

Family members carried out of Taoiseach’s office

On Thursday, 6 August, the families meet with Fitzgerald. They wanted an answer one way or another. They had been going back and forth to Dublin and yet nothing seemed to be happening in terms of support from the Irish government. They told him to support the five demands. No, no, sorry, he couldn’t. Remove the troops from the border. No, no, he couldn’t do that. Remove the Irish Ambassador from London. No, no. Expel the British ambassador. No, sorry, no. So the family members sat down and refused to move from the Taoiseach’s office. Fitzgerald left the room and the gardai came in and removed those inside by force.

Mary McElwee was their spokesperson. She read a statement to the press: “… Not only has he failed to act over the death of a fellow TD and elected representative of the Irish people; our forcible eviction today further underlines his lack of commitment to finding a just solution…”

Thomas and Dolores

Thomas McElwee was now past sixty days on hunger strike, but he was feeling pretty well. He was certainly lucid and looked better than he should. He wasn’t really sick or in great pain like the others.

His girlfriend, Dolores O’Neill, who had been arrested in association with the bomb incident that lead to Thomas’s and his brother Benedict’s arrest and conviction, was released from Armagh jail for a few hours to see him. She was serving a 20 year sentence. It was both beautiful and sad and Thomas was broken hearted when she had to leave, all too soon to be able to say everything that needed to be said. Both knew they probably would never see each other again, perhaps when Tom’s condition became critical she would get another visit. But by then, Tom would not be fit to interact in any real way with anyone. Anyway, the next meeting, they knew, wouldn’t be a happy one.

Bellaghy

Thomas McElwee was born into a large family of eight girls and three boys. He lead the typical life of a nationalist lad in the South Derry countryside, full of promise but very little chance to rise in the world. Young Tom wanted to study to become a mechanic, but the only opportunity to do so was in Ballymena, Paisley-land, where he was harassed and had his tools stolen. So, he settled into work around his home near the town of Bellaghy on the Tamlaghtduff Road. Frank Hughes was his cousin and their large family and his were close. The McElwee boys, like the Hughes boys and the other nationalist families were constantly harassed by the RUC, UDR and British army.

Thomas and Benedict were arrested and taken away for questioning regularly. Still, it came as a surprise when the phone rang with the news of the premature bomb explosion and the condition of the two boys. Fighting the Brits force for force was not necessarily surprising in South Derry.

“Thomas has died,” the priest said

On Saturday, the 8th of August 1981, Mr and Mrs McElwee gathered their large family together to discuss for the first time what to do when Thomas lost consciousness. They invited their family physician to advise them as to the consequences of taking him off at this stage. As he was discussing the medical pros and cons, the phone rang in the hallway, two rooms away. Thomas’s youngest brother James, only a child, picked up the phone, then let it drop from his hand to the floor.

A few minutes earlier in his prison hospital cell, Tom was talking in a friendly manner with a medical officer; they got along fairly well. The man went off to get him a light. Tom was smoking cigars up to a few days ago, but had switched to cigarettes. By the time he got back after letting Fr. Toner into the ward, Tom was dead. Pat McGeown and Laurence McKeown heard Tom gasp desperately for air while they were in the exercise yard and then all was silent. They knew he was dead. The returning medical officer and Fr Toner found him in his bed.

Fr. Toner was still on the line when Mrs McElwee got to her son in the hall, who was crying, the dropped phone on the floor. “Thomas has died.” the priest said. That was all he said to Mrs McElwee. That was all he told young James. “Thomas has died.” End of conversation. What his intentions were are anyone’s guess, but compassion wasn’t one of them.

Thomas died alone

None of the family was with Thomas at the end and that was deeply disturbing. Benedict had been refused all along permission to visit his brother, but because of Tom’s time on hunger strike [62 days], he was finally given permission. He was on his way from the Blocks, when he was told his brother was dead, don’t bother. But they needed someone to identify the body, so they escorted him to the hospital anyway. He refused to cry in front of the hospital screws or in the corridors. Back in his H4 cell, he buried his face in his blanket.

Bik commed Gerry: “The news yesterday of big Tom’s death greatly stunned us here. It came suddenly and left us pretty numb. He was a terrific character — a pillar of strength here with the deep respect of every last blanket man. He was fearless and never knew despair… It’s hard to properly describe such a man.”

Tom was one to take on the screws physically. There was nothing half-hearted about his resistance, even with one eye and other injuries from the explosion. He hit back and hit hard. Once he knocked out several teeth of a screw who had pushed him. He then was beaten badly by five others and taken to the punishment cells for 2 weeks.

Big Tom must have felt it was worth it. It wasn’t often that screws got to taste their own blood.

Low comedy: Rev McCrea gets “crowned” by Oliver Hughes

Two days later, there was a pitched battle at a meeting of Magherafelt council when Oliver Hughes, Frank’s brother and Thomas’s cousin, moved that the chairman cancel the meeting in honor of Thomas and, as a concession to unionists, in honor of a local man shot dead by the IRA. One of those in attendance was the Rev William McCrea, a councillor and notorious bigot, who rose to object honoring “the murderer McElwee.” Chaos ensued. The chairman, Patrick Sweeney, a nationalist, was knocked to the floor in the melee. Oliver smashed a chair over the Rev McCrea’s righteous head before the RUC arrived.

Oliver bundled Sweeney into his car and took him limping and battered into the hospital emergency ward. The hospital was crowded with visitors. This grand and pathetic entry was soon topped by the Rev McCrea, who emerged from an ambulance in a wheelchair, his head wrapped in bandages. If it were a cartoon, scores of little birds would be circling his skull.

Hughes, incensed, grabbed McCrea by both lapels and swung him out of his wheelchair and around the street like a big, stuffed animal. More mayhem ensued before the unionist calvary, the RUC, arrived to save the day.

It is funny now to visualize, but I’m sure it wasn’t so funny at the time.

Approximately 1,000 petrol bombs were launched at crown forces over the weekend of Thomas’s wake. Two nationalists were murdered by “crown forces”, one by a plastic bullet and the other shot dead by a loyalist death squad. The Brits removed the union jack from the British consulate in NYC. It wouldn’t go back up for a long while.

Funeral trouble

At Tom’s funeral mass, Fr. Michael Flanagan blasted both the British government and the republican movement which he blamed for “ordering” the hunger strike. Several stormed out of the services, including Bernadette McAliskey. Thomas told his sister Mary when he first went on hunger strike: “Nobody is putting this on us but ourselves, Mary. Don’t listen to propaganda like that.” Fr. O’Neill, who knew Tom since he was a boy, told Mary that he brother confided in him: “All I’m doing is placing my body between the screws and my comrades.” There was no one better for doing that than Thomas McElwee. The family knew the truth.

“God keep me for you”

Thomas never did get to see his love, Dolores O’Neill, again. Not in life. When they parted on her visit a few days before his death, he held her in his arms and whispered, “God keep me for you.” Maybe that’s the way it will be in God’s time. The eight McElwee sisters carried their brother’s coffin to the grave into Irish history. He was the ninth man to die on hunger strike in occupied north of Ireland in the year 1981.

Newshound

(by Suzanne Breen, Sunday Tribune)

Direct Action Against Drugs (DAAD), which has previously been a cover-name for the Provisional IRA, has apparently returned to the streets of Northern Ireland.

A caller claiming to represent the group, which murdered more than a dozen people in the North, has admitted responsibility for beating an alleged leading drug dealer with baseball bats in Co Armagh last month.

DAAD began killing drug dealers just seven months after the IRA ceasefire and killed 14 over the next six years. It was widely regarded as a front organisation for the Provisionals.

Its helped keep hardline IRA members occupied and was a means of channelling dissatisfaction and frustration with the peace process.

However, DAAD has not been active in recent years and the security forces are assessing what the latest attack means and who is behind it.

Six masked men entered the victim’s flat in Glenholme Park in the nationalist Taghnevan area of Lurgan. The victim, who is in his mid-30s, was beaten with baseball bats.

He suffered injuries to his arms and legs, requiring hospital treatment. The attack took place on July 14. A caller, using a codeword, telephoned the Lurgan Mail hours later to claim responsibility on behalf of DAAD.

He named the victim whom he alleged was a “leading North Armagh drug dealer”. The caller told Lurgan Mail editor, Clint Aiken, that “volunteers” had “seized and destroyed” drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, during the attack.

Political considerations make it highly unlikely that the mainstream IRA was involved. Local sources said it was either the work of a breakaway group of Provisionals or, more likely, that the Continuity IRA (CIRA) had carried out the attack and had now adopted the DAAD cover-name.

CIRA is growing in strength in the town and has an established presence in the nationalist Kilwilkie Estate. A PSNI spokesman said police were aware of the claim of responsibility and urged anyone with information to contact detectives.

Republicans have previously targeted alleged drug dealers in Lurgan. In 1996, DAAD shot dead Ian Lyons as he sat in a car with his girlfriend in the town.

Local DUP MP, David Simpson, said: “The name DAAD is well-known both locally and across Northern Ireland as a flag of convenience for the Provisional IRA. The apparent reappearance of this organisation, which is remembered for murdering individuals in the past, is a cause for concern.

“The ’sub-contracting’ of vigilantism will not be tolerated. We want to see Northern Ireland develop into a society where democracy flourishes and the rule of law is respected. This sort of activity, irrespective of the source, is the stuff of the past”.

August 7, 2006
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This article appeared in the August 6, 2006 edition of the Sunday Tribune.

BBC

Sean Kelly attended a cross-community function

The presence of IRA bomber Sean Kelly at a cross-community dinner party has drawn a mixed reaction.

Two people walked out of the function at Belfast Castle on Sunday when they realised he was present.

Kelly served just under eight years for planting a bomb which killed nine people in a Shankill Road fish shop.

However, Alan McBride, whose wife and father-in-law were killed in the explosion, said the cross-community meetings should continue.

The invitation-only dinner was organised as part of the three-day Greater New Lodge Community Festival

Sean Kelly, who was released after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, was among guests invited to the function which featured former Irish prime minister Albert Reynolds as an after-dinner speaker.

The evening was billed as a Celebration of Culture and Creating a Language of Hope.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, Alan McBride said it was unfortunate that the guests from the Shankill area had not been made aware that Sean Kelly would be present so that they could have decided whether or not to attend.

Alan McBride’s wife and father-in-law died in the attack

Mr McBride said he had just returned from holiday and had not been at the function.

“It would have been very difficult for me, and I am widely acknowledged as being some way down the road in my own healing process.

“I probably would not have gone. On a personal note, I am not ready yet to meet the person who murdered my wife.

However, Mr McBride said he would encourage organiser Irene Sherry to continue arranging cross-community meetings.

“I think these dialogues are very, very important but if there is not transparency in them, in other words if people are not told who is likely to turn up, it sometimes can have the opposite effect,” he said.

Ms Sherry, said she had given invitations to people from both sides of the community.

Guest speakers and panellists at the three-day festival included PUP leader David Ervine, Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly and Alliance Party leader David Ford.

BBC

A man who confessed to the sectarian 1975 killing of a Catholic shopkeeper has been acquitted of the murder.

Belfast Crown Court heard that Peter McAuley, of no fixed address, made the admission of killing Brendan Doran to escape burglary charges in England.

He believed he would be sent back to NI where he would be freed under the Good Friday Agreement and the other charges would “disappear”, the court heard.

The judge said the evidence had not satisfied him McAuley was the murderer.

At the end of the no-jury Diplock trial, Mr Justice Morgan said he was “manipulative and … likely to lie in order to serve his own ends”.

The judge said he had “played the Troubles card in order to avoid a custodial sentence”.

He said it was “probable that he made his admissions because he believed he could achieve some advantage from being dealt with in respect of older terrorist offences, rather than having to face up to the English offences”.

He said the “kindest” thing that could be said about him is “that if he has falsely suggested that he committed this murder, then he has put Mr Doran’s grieving relatives through yet further suffering and distress”.

“On any view, he is a truly despicable human being.”