SAOIRSE32

An Phoblacht

**This net article was obviously missing pieces when they printed it. Sorry

10 August 2006

“From the day Martin went to jail my father never said he was wrong or he was right, which was surprising really. He just went along with the rest of us. He never passed any remarks, never criticised.

Religion was very important to him. He would have had all the regalia, books, medals and the like. I had given him a rosary beads in Crumlin Road after he was charged and my wife Sheila gave him a medal of St Martin and funny enough these two things were left out in a special envelope when he died. My wife to this day wears that medal and if any of the children are sick she’d get that medal to them.”

Brendan has eight children and they know all about Martins’ story. “They can remember visiting the prison when they were very young. Martin stood [as godfather] for the oldest girl Brenda.”

Was there was something special or different about Martin that made him able to go through the Hunger Strike?

Each family had to make their own decisions. “He said at one time that if any of us came into the prison to take him off, they weren’t welcome.”

The Hursons chose to stand by Martin’s decision.

An Phoblacht

The death of Thomas McElwee

Thomas McElwee, at the age of 23, was the 10th man to join the 1981 Hunger Strike. From Bellaghy in South Derry, he was imprisoned in 1976 after a premature bomb explosion in which he lost an eye.

Thomas was a cousin of another Hunger Striker, Francis Hughes, both coming from Bellaghy. They had been boyhood friends, both going on to join the IRA. On 10 August 1981, for the second time in three months, Bellaghy was visited by thousands of mourners gathered to pay their respects to another deceased Hunger Striker.

McElwee died on 8 August on the 62nd day of his fast. Francis Huges died three months earlier on 12 May.

The RUC and British army converged on the roands around Bellaghy and six British army helicopters hovered overhead. Thomas’s brother Benedict had been denied a visit with his brother the previous week and was then callously asked to identify the body when he died.

IRA and Cumann na mBan guards of honour lined the path to the McElwee home as the coffin was carried out by his eight sisters. A volley of shots was fired over the coffin as the cortege reached the road. The crowd in the fields and hillsides cheered as the firing party disappeared out of range of the crown forces.

Two pipers lead the cortege along the five mile route to the church for Requiem Mass. Thomas’s brother Benedict was allowed 10 hours parole for the funeral. In another instance of church interference in the Hunger Strike, the priest at the Mass in Bellaghy Parish Church criticised the Hunger Strikers and called for and end to the fast. Some women in the congregation got up and walked out, disgusted that the priest would use the pulpit on such a tragic occasion to deliver an insulting, political speech.

Thomas McElwee’s dying wish was to be buried beside Francis Hughes.

The gravseide oration was given by Danny Morrison, then Sinn Féin Directore.

Thomas McElwee has been described by friends as being “sincere, easy going and full of fun”. He was also intelligent and determined, something Morrison captured in his remarks on the young Volunteer; “I know that the McElwee family, just as the families of other dead Hunger Strikers will know what I mean, when I say that their son was invincible from beginning to end, in life as well as in death.”

Morrsion went on to criticise the Church and the SDLP for their cultivation of defeatism throughout the Huger Strike as opposed to pressurising the British government to come to a just resolution of the protest. He referred back to the sermon delivered earlier at McElwee’s Requiem Mass. “Those of you who were able to hear Fr Flanagan’s sermon today will have been struck by what is wrong with the Church’s politics. We were asked to pray for an end to the Hunger Strike, for an end to violence and for peace”, he remarked adding that certainly people should pray for an end to the Hunger Strike and violence and pray for peace. “But”, he added, “there is a bigger prayer which we have to make, and that is a prayer for an end to the cause of violence - the British occupation of our country. It is time the Church prayed and called for that.”

In his oration, Morrison also called for decisive and effective action at ambassadorial and international levels on the part of the Irish government. “The Free State government, like many other influential bodies in Ireland which represent the vested interests, have not got the welfare of the prisoners at heart and would quite frankly like to see the hunger strike collapse”, he said. Morrison also noted and condemned the increasing tendency at the time to apportion blame for the Hunger Strike to the republican leadership. “For some time now it has been open season for apportioning blame for the continuation of the Hunger Strike on the leadership of the Republican Movement.” This was, he said, just a variation of former Secretary of State Roy Mason’s theme in 1976 and 1977 where the implication was that the prisoners were forced on the blanket protest by those on the outside.

Identifying the real roots of the issue, Morrison said: “The roots of the hunger strike were built into the British H-Blocks, into the British policy of criminalisation which forced the men on the blanket five years ago and which led ultimately to republicans resorting to the traditional weapon of hunger strike as the ultimate means of gaining their demands.” Neither was Danny in any doubt as to the continued determination of the republican POWs in the Blocks. “Their determination has not waned”, he said, stressing that neither should their supporters on the outside lose resolve. “Despair is easy; our enemies want us to despair. To struggle on is a harder task but the reward is there at the end of the road and Thomas McElwee will be proud of us, as we are proud of him, if we play our full part in winning this prison struggle, in winning, as he set out to win, Irish freedom from the ruins of British rule.

BN.ie

13/08/2006 - 16:14:00

An Irish republican parade commemorating the hunger strike death of IRA prisoners protesting against British government policy began today in the North.

Thousands attended the West Belfast procession up the Falls Road to mark 25 years since 10 men died protesting against the government’s refusal to grant them political status.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams led the group of demonstrators from outside the party’s headquarters to Casement Park where a rally will be held later.

The hunger strikers attracted international attention when they refused food in 1981 after demands for prison privileges like wearing their own clothes and being housed in cells known a H-Blocks were denied.

The strikes took place at Long Kesh prison close to Lisburn, Co Antrim.

Men and women wearing brown blankets symbolising the rags which the hunger strikers were wearing took part in the walk.

Lines of men in white shirts and black ties as a symbol of mourning, paraded past crowds of onlookers.

Banners were carried calling for the removal of British troops from the North and there were many pictures of the dead men. There were also Palestinian flags in a reference to the conflict in the Middle East.

Mr Adams and relatives of the hunger strikers will address the group later today at Casement Park.

BBC

Thousands of people have lined the streets of west Belfast for a parade marking the 25th anniversary of the republican hunger strikes.

The rally commemorated the hunger strikes at the Maze prison

Ten IRA and INLA inmates died in the protest over political status at the Maze prison in County Antrim.

Hundreds of former republican prisoners and supporters gathered at a rally in the Casement Park GAA ground off the Andersonstown Road.

Relatives of the hunger strikers were among the platform speakers.

Leading figures from the republican movement were also among those at the rally.

There had been some criticism of the GAA in County Antrim for allowing the event to take place at one of its sports grounds.

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

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

An Phoblacht

A man of steel

Gerard Lynch talks to Ella O’Dywer about his brother, Hunger Striker and INLA Volunteer Kevin Lynch.

Kevin Lynch was the youngest of a family of eight, five boys and three girls. Gerard was the second youngest. They were not just brothers, but friends. Four of the Lynch brothers worked in England in the building trade and while there they got involved locally in Gaelic games, mainly with St Dympna’s Club in Luton, members of whom extended their sympathy to the family on Kevin’s death.

Click to view - photo from CAIN

The Lynch brothers never lost their sense of identity while abroad and now and again, as Gerard put it, they’d “have defended Ireland’s honour” in one way or another. “Never run away” was the Lynch motto and they didn’t. Gerard was living in England at the time of the Hunger Strike and he talked of isolation and a sense of despair. Kevin had also spent time in England with his older brothers and got engaged there. In fact the familiar photo of Kevin seen on Hunger Strike poster was of him on his engagement.

But as Gerard put it, “the call was too strong” in Kevin and he returned to Ireland and got involved in the struggle. Gerard recalled how proud and particular about his appearance Kevin was, along with his fun loving nature. He remembered an occasion when Kevin and three other Irish lads got their heads shaved for a bet. “Kevin was a big lad”, Gerard recalled. Well into the Hunger Strike his physical presence was striking. “He had a tattoo on his arm and I remember putting my arm beside his and commenting that Kevin’s was still wider than mine”. Kevin Lynch survived for 71 one days on the fast.

Kevin Lynch’s passion was sport and Gerard remembered a visit to his brother at the latter stage of the Hunger Strike. Gerard was filling him in on the local news, not least the sports results. He remembers Kevin’s arm shooting up in the air “so strong” and it reminded him of the well known photo of Kevin holding the cup aloft after the All Ireland under 16s hurling cup in Croke Park in 1972. Gerard couldn’t emphasise enough the strength of his younger brother. “Around the 46 day mark I went in to visit Kevin. The dinner was left at the end of the bed.” Gerard said “I couldn’t do what you’re doing”, to which the Hunger Striker replied, “You would if you were in here.”

Asked how he and the rest of the family coped when the anniversary came round, he said: “You tend to put it to the back burner, but there’s not a day goes by but you think of him.” The Lynchs are a very close-knit family and share their views, thoughts and memories. As Gerard was talking, his sister Bridie recalled an incident that illustrates something of the fun loving, affectionate nature of Kevin and his inclination to ‘devilment’. “One evening the lads went out for a couple of drinks. A popular Charlie Pride number called All I Have to Offer You is Me, was often aired on the radio around that time. When they came home and arrived into the kitchen, Kevin grabbed my mother, lifted her up and waltzed her around the room.”

Strength combined with joyfulness is how the Lynch family recall the youngest of their household. Both Kevin’s parents were alive in 1981. “It was heartbreaking to watch them”, Gerard recalled. “Over the years my mother began to question whether or not she should have intervened and prevented Kevin’s death. I reminded her that she had given her word to Kevin and that he, like herself, was a person who would never break his word and once he had gone on the fast he would not break. He didn’t pick his determination and strength off an apple tree.”

Gerard felt that his family had come under heavy pressure from the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace (ICJP), an organisation largely influenced by the Church. “They were well meaning people, but they were hoodwinked and I told them so.” Kevin’s parents were very religious and on one occasion when Gerard was going to “have words” with the local priest, his father told him to leave the priest alone; “you might need him yet.”

Gerard remembers one occasion, on his way to visit Kevin in the hospital wing, being made aware that negotiations to end the Huger Strike were going nowhere. Gerard went into his visit with Kevin and quietly told his brother. Discreetly so that the screws couldn’t hear, he said: “It looks like you are going to die.” At that Kevin thought for about ten or twelve seconds. The Hunger Strikers were allowed a cigarette, each signed for in a book, and sometimes the allotment stolen by the screws. “Kevin took his left hand and put it behind his head . He took a great big draw of the cigarette he was smoking and said: If I have to die I will.”

” I knew the man very, very well. We were going about together a hell of a lot. We were good friends you know, apart from brothers, I knew there was no coming back.”

Like other relatives of the Hunger Strikers, the men are remembered for their determination and their ability to strengthen those around them. Gerard had met Thomas McElwee and Big Doc briefly in the hospital as he went to visit Kevin in the hospital wing of the Blocks. “I went in with, how would you describe it? - compassion and a kind of futile hope wanting to comfort him. At that stage he was going down. I went in a despairing man and came out a man of steel.”

An Phoblacht

“I’m very, very proud of my brother”

Thomas McElwee’s brother Joe talks to An Phoblacht’s ELLA O’DYWER about his recollections of Thomas as a brother and a republican and the impact of the 1981 Hunger Strike on a younger generation.

Thomas McElwee from Bellaghy, County Derry was the sixth oldest in a family of eight girls and four boys. Cars were the young Thomas’s passion and he wanted to be a mechanic. His brother Joe recalled how “he loved cars and fixing them, taking them apart and building them up again. Sadly he never got to spend his life working with cars”. Joe recounted the local garage man’s recollection of Thomas in his late teens sitting in the corner of his garage on winter nights. “He’d be sitting twiddling his thumbs, wondering what to be at. He was always thinking; always had something on his mind.”

He was a born mechanic Joe recalled: “There was no such thing as bin lorries in those days. Everyone had their dump and Thomas would go round looking for bicycle or pram wheels to make up carts or the like.”

Asked what he thought got his brother involved in republicanism Joe says:

“I think what triggered Thomas off was the abuse that the nationalist people were getting in the area. As he got older he started to see that this kind of abuse was going on in other parts of Ireland. It wasn’t just happening on the doorstep, it was happening all over.” Asked if he was surprised to learn eventually of Thomas’s involvement, Joe says:

“It came as quite a shock at the time. Everything was very secretive. Then, I found out he was arrested when I came home and found the yard full of cars.”

Thomas and another brother Benedict were injured in a premature explosion and Thomas lost an eye. The family had all gathered around to hear news of the two men.

At 23 Thomas was the youngest of the Hunger Strikers to die. Both Thomas and his brother Benedict volunteered for the 1980 and ‘81 hunger strikes. Asked if he had tried to dissuade Thomas from going on the fast Joe says no. “He was a mature adult, he had his own mind, he knew exactly what he was doing.

“There’s a lot of the prisoners, I think, who find it very, very hard to talk about that time because the gravity of the abuse they got in there was fierce. There was no measure left but hunger strike, to get the world to sit up and take heed.”

Both of Thomas’s parents were alive when he died and Joe believes that it was his mother’s faith that got her through that period. She had already lost four children before Thomas died. Thomas too was religious. “Thomas was very, very religious. His scapulars and rosary beads were handed back after he died.”

Did Joe get to see Thomas before he died?

” I got in to see him when he was 42 days on hunger strike and my memories of Thomas before he died were of my grandfather in his nineties. Thomas was holding his head up with his arm in the bed telling me to keep my chin up. Those were his last words to me. I was only 20 at the time of the Hunger Strike and even though Thomas had been locked up for four years, he had more outlook on life and he seemed to feel for me.”

On the church’s attitude to the Hunger Strike Joe said: “With the religious following they had, they could have given us a lot more help”. On Fr. Denis Faul’s interventions he said “Fr Faul was putting his nose in where it wasn’t wanted. He wasn’t invited.” He expressed the view that they might have been afraid of losing their grip on the community. “They might have feared that they would no longer be the rulers as they had been over the years and now after 25 years you see why. With the outbreak of scandals and all that, they couldn’t speak out. Now you see why. The Brits had them under their thumb because they would have blown the whistle on them.”

Of Thomas’s character he recalled how Thomas would sing all the time. “He loved country and western, especially Philomena Begley. He loved the dances. But they didn’t get peace to go to the dances at the time. They’d be stopped and get a kicking on the way.”

Asked if she felt the family had coped with Thomas’s death, Joe’s wife Eileen felt people never really got over things like that. “They would try to block it out. They didn’t really talk about if for a long time.”

Joe confirmed that it is still hard. “Around times like this, the commemoration, it’s hard. To see men about Thomas’s age getting on with their lives with their wives and families - the things he would have desired, you wonder what would have become of Thomas. But it was Thomas’s decision to go on hunger strike and today I’m very, very proud to say I’ve a brother who was a Hunger Striker. How many men throughout the world can say they have a brother like that?”

Joe went on to talk about their cousin Volunteer Francis Hughes who died on hunger strike before Thomas. “We’re talking a lot here about Thomas”, he said. “Francis Hughes was every bit of a brother to me as Thomas was.” Referring to the Brits’ hatred of Francis Hughes he said: ” I couldn’t see how Francis could survive when they wanted him dead so much. I knew when they let Bobby die, Francis would die too.”

Joe went on to describe the friendship between Francis and Thomas “They were mad about fast cars, they’d have the cars around today”. He recounted how Francis had given him his first cigarette. “When I was seven years of age I got my first puff of a Benson and Hedges from Francis and we were born buddies then forever.

“At the end of the day the 10 men had the last say. They got their demands along with all the other men in the Blocks. They got exactly what they fought for. I know it didn’t happen right away, it took time. Likewise this peace process is going to take time as well.”

Joe McElwee commented on the impact the anniversary is having on young people and pointed across to his young son Leo. “I see the impact on young people like Leo there whose only 14. He’s very interested. He’s downloading republican stuff steadily on the computer. There’s almost not enough stuff on the computer for him.” At this the boy demonstrated the screen saver on his mobile phone which read ‘Tiocfaidh Ár Lá.’

Joe’s oldest son Thomas is called after his uncle and the family showed a photo of the young man who is the image of his uncle. Like so many other relatives of the 10 men who died in 1981, there are daily reminders for the McElwees. Joe’s daughter Aileen had the last word. When asked what she had learned from her uncle Thomas’s life she said “to stand up for yourself”

Sunday Independent

ALAN MURRAY

THE North’s Police Ombudsman is at the centre of a storm over the issuing of a police caution to her youngest son.

Ian Paisley Jnr says he will raise legal matters surrounding the issue when he speaks to the PSNI Chief Constable tomorrow.

Mr Paisley says he is concerned that proper procedures may not have been followed within the Police Service after a caution was issued to 18-year-old Kieran O’Loan last month.

The DUP Assemblyman believes the incident should have been reported to the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider bringing criminal charges because of the comments allegedly made by the Police Ombudsman’s son.

Sources in Ballymena, where Mrs O’Loan’s husband Declan is an SDLP Councillor, say Kieran O’Loan was spoken to by members of a police Tactical Support Group who were on duty in the town to assist local police to keep rival factions apart before the annual Somme Commemorationparade last month.

The incident occurred in the mainly Nationalist William Street area just before 3 o’clock on Saturday, July 1, before the Orange Parade assembled. Security sources say two members of the Tactical Support Group accompanied by a community police officer were subjected to a torrent of verbal and sectarian abuse in the William Street area before the parade took place and spoke to Mrs O’Loan’s son about his conduct.

The PSNI confirmed that an incident involving police officers occurred. “A youth was cautioned about his behaviour at William Street on July 1,” a spokesman said.

In a statement, Mrs O’Loan’s spokesman said: “This is not a matter for the Police Ombudsman’s Office except to reiterate Mrs O’Loan’s often-stated position that as Police Ombudsman and before that as a member of the Police Authority, she has long been committed to policing in Northern Ireland and, in particular, helping to improve policing for everyone in local society.”

Declan O’Loan was prominent in challenging Unionist politicians over the picketing of the Catholic Church at Harryville in Ballymena during the height of the disturbances around Drumcree Parish Church in Portadown.

In May this year, a 15 year-old Catholic youth Michael McIlveen was beaten to death in Ballymena by sectarian loyalist thugs at Garfield Place not far from William Street.

Ian Paisley Jnr said yesterday that he intends to raise the circumstances of the caution incident with the Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde when he meets him tomorrow.

“I am concerned that there may have been inadequate action by the Police Service in relation to this matter and I shall raise that with the Chief Constable.

“My understanding is that if remarks of a sectarian or racial nature are uttered that a report must be forwarded to the Public Prosecution Service for consideration as to whether a criminal prosecution should be brought. I do not believe that that procedure was followed in this case and I want to know why.

“In other circumstances, it may be a proper case for the Police Ombudsman to probe but in these particular circumstances I hardly imagine that the investigation of such a complaint should be undertaken by Mrs O’Loan for obvious reasons.”

Three weeks before the caution was issued in Ballymena another of Mrs O’Loan’s sons, Damian, was attacked and brutally beaten by a gang of loyalist thugs at Hillview Court in North Belfast as he walked home to his flat in the Ardoyne area.

The 23-year-old graduate sustained a broken arm, a displaced kneecap, and torn ligaments and muscles in his legs and was left unconscious.

He believes they used iron bars as he lay unconscious. Damian O’Loan remained unconscious in hospital for 24 hours and has suffered dizzy spells since his release.

Kieran O’Loan was attacked by loyalists in the Galgorm Road area of Ballymena in October 2001 when he was 14 years old. Mrs O’Loan has five sons.

Sunday Independent

LARISSA NOLAN

A FILM banned in Ireland for more than 35 years will finally be seen by Irish audiencesafter being cleared by thecensor.

Paddy, the film version of the play Goodbye to the Hill by controversial writer Lee Dunne, was banned in 1970 because of its sexual frankness and has never been legitimately screened here.

But it has now been issued a certificate by the Film Censor, John Kelleher, who lifted the decades-long ban, and is set to have its Irish premiere next month.

And in a reflection of how archaic the original ban was, Paddy has been given a 12A rating.

Mr Kelleher said: “By today’s standards, there is nothing shocking in it. It is charmingly old-fashioned. But you have to remember it was banned in a different era, a very different time.

“It was very satisfactoryto lift the ban and bring this part of Irish culture to Irish audiences.”

The Film Censor officially removed the ban on August 1.

Paddy stars Abbey actor Des Cave as an “Irish Alfie” who lives with his mother, sister and brothers and spends most of his time seducing a succession of women around Dublin and hanging out in the famous Mulligan’s pub in Poolbeg Street, Dublin, with his reprobate friend, played by Milo O’Shea.

The Irish Film Archive - part of the Irish Film Institute - acquired a copy of the film from America last year for its collection.

It then submitted the production to the Film Censor requesting certification.

Paddy will be given its Irish premiere on Wednesday, September 13, at the Irish Film Institute in Temple Bar.

Lee Dunne will introduce the screening and will sign copies of his republished novel Goodbye to the Hill at the IFI bookshop.

Lee Dunne, 71, a Dublin man who has been described as Europe’s most banned author, has had seven films and two books banned.

He has previously said: “I’ve been Ireland’s most banned writer for three decades or more. In this country the Rosary gets in everywhere.”

Goodbye to the Hill is Ireland’s longest-running play. The book of the play has sold one million copies.

BBC

A family of three in Ballymena has escaped injury after a petrol bomb attack in the early hours of Sunday.

The living room of the house in Ballyloughlan Park was extensively damaged by fire in the attack.

The rest of the house was smoke-damaged. The three occupants suffered shock.

Detectives said the front window of the home was broken before the fire started. They are investigating a motive.

BBC

The main Belfast to Dublin railway line remains closed between Newry and Dundalk due to security alerts.

Passengers are being bussed between the stations

The dissident republican Real IRA said on Friday it had left two devices on the line.

A police spokesman said the Newry by-pass is also likely to remain closed for much of Sunday due to a security alert.

The road is closed in both directions between the Five Ways roundabout and the Fork Hill Road roundabout.

The Real IRA also claimed responsibility for the firebomb attacks on stores in Newry earlier in the week.

Firebombs destroyed JJB Sports and CarpetRight stores in the town whilst a TK Maxx store and MFI outlet were among those badly damaged on Wednesday.

The attacks are estimated to have caused damage worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Sunday Life

By Stephen Breen
13 August 2006

The family of murdered Bangor woman Lisa Dorrian last night told how loyalist terror bosses offered to “sort out” her killers.

Joanne Dorrian says the sinister offer to take revenge against her sister’s killers was rejected out of hand.

It had previously been revealed that a loyalist terror group carried out its own investigation into the Bangor girl’s abduction and murder.

But now Joanne has spoken for the first time about the offer by loyalists to terrorise the suspects - who are not members of any paramilitary group - into revealing what they did with Lisa’s body, which has never been recovered.

Joanne spoke out because she believes some people still wrongly believe that LVF members were responsible for her sister’s abduction and murder.

She fears this may be putting people off coming forward with vital information.

This is the first time the family has spoken about any terrorist link to Lisa’s killing.

Joanne told how the paramilitaries’ offer to deal with Lisa’s killers was made shortly before Christmas.

She said: “They told us they would only need 15 minutes with Lisa’s killers to find out where she was and then sort them out. I got the impression they would kill them. They asked us think about it.

“This offer was made through an intermediary, but we immediately dismissed it. Our aim all along has been to recover my sister’s body and to get these people into a court.

“We have no interest in paramilitary justice and didn’t know anything about them until my sister was murdered.

“People in Bangor still believe paramilitaries were involved in Lisa’s killing, but this is not true. We believe the people who did this were two brothers, who acted as individuals and were not members of any paramilitary group.

“Anyone who comes forward now will be treated as a hero. There will be no intimidation or threats, because the suspects do not belong to any group.”

Joanne also told how she believes relatives of Lisa’s killers have been leaving messages on the website - lisadorrian.co.uk - established to raise awareness of the family’s campaign.

She added: “One of the suspects has verbally abused Lisa’s ex-boyfriend, and other messages have been left.

“We think a message was left by the father of one of the suspects, quoting the bible. He said that what happened to Lisa was a tragedy, but another family was also suffering.

“But we believe that there is only one family here who has been through hell - and that is us, because of what happened to my sister.

“We are glad possible suspects are checking the website, because it shows we are not going away.”

A similar sinister offer was made by the IRA after its members were linked to the murder of Robert McCartney, but this was also rejected by his family.

Sunday Life

By Stephen Breen
13 August 2006

An exiled drug-dealing loyalist last night pleaded with UDA godfathers to allow his daughter to return to Ulster.

‘Bolton Wanderer’ Ian Truesdale wants the terror group’s ‘inner council’ to lift a death-threat against his daughter Natalie, who is now living in Glasgow.

The threat was made by Alan McClean before he was booted out of the UDA and then forced to flee following a bitter power struggle in north Belfast.

Ian Truesdale - a close ally of Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair - challenged the Ulster Political Research Group to call for the threat to Natalie to be lifted.

Said Truesdale: “Natalie has nothing to do with the UDA and it was McClean who put her out, because she was related to me.

“Now that McClean has been told to leave, the people he intimidated should be free to return.

“McClean claimed she was put out because she went to the prison to see Johnny. But she was actually there to see me. She can’t help it if I’m her father.

“McClean blamed me for the murder of Jonathan Stewart (Natalie’s boyfriend, shot in 2002). After the charges against me were dropped, he took things out on my family. His team shot up my home.

“McClean ordered dozens to leave when he was one of the main men - it’s great to see him getting some of his own medicine.”

Truesdale - who was forced out of Belfast after the murder of John ‘Grug’ Gregg - was recently living in Troon, Scotland, but has now returned to Bolton.

Natalie was engaged to Jonathan, who was gunned down by Adair’s cohorts during the UDA feud. Although Truesdale was accused of the murder, the charges were later dropped.

Sunday Life

By Stephen Breen
13 August 2006

The eldest daughter of murdered Jean McConville last night told how she could have suffered the same brutal fate as her mother.

Helen McKendry says republicans are now spreading rumours she was a “message girl” for the Army in the 1970s.

It follows the IRA’s statement last month insisting that Jean McConville was a security forces informer, even though a Police Ombudsman inquiry found such claims to be groundless.

Helen - who was 15 when her mother was abducted from her Divis home - now suspects the Provo gang may have grabbed her, too, if she had been in the flat with her mother.

She claims top Provos have accused her of delivering information gathered by her mother in the Divis area to the nearby Hastings Street security base.

She has called on Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams to publicly dismiss the allegations.

Said Helen: “I was at the chip shop when the Provos came for my mother. But had I been home, then I may not be here today. That’s if they actually believed I was a messenger girl for the Army in 1972 and it is not just something they are making up now to blacken my name.

“I don’t know, because there’s been so many lies.

“If they believed I was a message girl all along, then why wasn’t I taken away in the years after my mother’s abduction?

“It’s just lie after lie with regards to my mother. They claimed she had an Army transmitter in our home. If she did, why would she send her daughter to deliver messages to Hastings Street?

“I think they are probably saying this about me now because they are trying to justify the awful crime they committed against my mother.”

Helen said that if the IRA really believed she was an informer, why didn’t they produce evidence or meet her face to face, instead of spreading rumours.

She has vowed to publicly name the members of the Provo gang who kidnapped and murdered her mother in 1972

“Jean McConville will continue to haunt Gerry Adams and the republican movement until they day I die,” she added.

“I am waiting on a letter from a former republican who is going to name every member of the kidnap and murder gang.

“I have been waiting on this information for some time, but once I get this information I am going to publish it. I don’t care what names are in the letter - these people can try and sue me if they want.

“I am not going to let this thing rest until the IRA admits my mother and I were not working for the security services.”

Sunday Life revealed last month how a member of the IRA gang that kidnapped Jean had broken his silence to rubbish Provo claims that she was an informer.

Mrs McKendry is to publish a book about her relationship with her mother and her family’s campaign for justice later this year.

RTÉ

13 August 2006 07:36

The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has said Israel and Lebanon have agreed to bring hostilities to an end early tomorrow morning.

Mr Annan announced the timing after discussions with the prime ministers of Israel and Lebanon.

However, the Israeli government said it is likely to continue operations in Lebanon today at least until the cabinet meets later to endorse the UN resolution.

Hezbollah’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, has said his group will abide by the ceasefire plan agreed unanimously at the Security Council on Friday.

He warned, however, that Hezbollah would continue fighting as long as Israeli soldiers remained in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, 19 Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday and five are missing after a helicopter was shot down by Hezbollah militants.

The soldiers were killed during Israel’s largest air operation for more than 30 years.

Israel also said it killed more than 40 Hezbollah militants.

Almost 30,000 Israeli troops are reported to be operating in southern Lebanon.

Sunday Times

**See also
Aoife’s tale touches the hearts of the nation

Mark Tighe
13 August 2006

THE Irish Greyhound Board (IGB) is using DNA profiling for the first time to bring to book an owner who allegedly hacked off the ears of his racing dog so it could not be identified.

The greyhound, which was abandoned in the Co Waterford resort after being mutilated, is being kept at a secret location until disciplinary hearings by an IGB panel conclude.

The IGB will also hand its evidence to gardai in Tramore who are expected to bring criminal proceedings against the man for animal cruelty.

A hair sample from the dog was analysed and compared to genetic records held in a central database of all Irish greyhounds, which revealed its identity along with that of its Munster-based owner.

The two-year-old dog, now named Aoife after the vet who treated her, is being kept hidden by the Waterford Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (WSPCA) which fears the animal may be kidnapped while the case is still in progress.

“We don’t want to expose her to undesirables, who could find out where she is,” said Andrew Quinn of WSPCA. “We just relocated her again to keep her safe. Until the case comes to a conclusion she won’t be re-homed officially. But she is extremely happy where she is with other greyhounds. She is fit and has put weight back on.”

Last month, a Sunday Times investigation revealed that thousands of greyhounds in the UK were slaughtered after they underperformed at races. Last year just under 24,000 greyhounds were bred in Ireland, about 60% of which were exported to Britain.

Aoife first came to the attention of the WSPCA after it received dozens of calls from motorists who spotted her wandering around Tramore in a “frightened state”. It took more than eight hours to capture her. “As you can imagine she is some runner,” said Quinn. “She had the whole of Tramore chasing after her but eventually she got tired and went to ground. She was afraid of people but not cars so we drove up to her and caught her on the snatch poll from the van and then threw a duvet over her.”

After she was caught the greyhound was brought to a vet who treated her for dehydration and loss of blood from her severed ears. Following local media attention the WSPCA received over €2,000 in donations from people appalled at her condition, including money and a card from children at a pre-school in Kerry. The money will be to pay veterinary bills.

“People like this — and they are the exception in the greyhound community — are mean bastards who wouldn’t even spend the money on an anaesthetic. It’s sickening what some people do to dogs,” said Quinn.

All racing greyhounds are required to have identifying tattoos in their ears. Animal welfare groups have reported finding several abandoned dogs with their ears mutilated by their owners who don’t want the dog traced back to them.

The Irish Coursing Club (ICC) now requires all breeding sires (males) and bitches (females) to have their DNA registered in a central database. This enabled the investigation by IGB stewards, who took a sample of Aoife’s hair for analysis and were able to confirm, “100%”, the dog’s sire and its registered owner.

The ICC is responsible for keeping the greyhound stud book and records of greyhounds bred in Ireland each year. The DNA records, kept at Weatherbys Laboratory in Kildare, have been used to guarantee a dog’s pedigree but this is the first case of DNA being used to track an abusive owner.

The DNA evidence was used to back up interviews conducted after the IGB received a tip-off from somebody familiar with Aoife’s markings who saw them in a photograph of the dog on the front of Greyhound Weekly. This led the team in the direction of a Munster-based greyhound owner.

The investigation team will present its evidence to the IGB control committee within two weeks. If Aoife’s owner is convicted with the charge of cruelty and maltreatment of the greyhound, the man will be hit with a fine and banned from owning greyhounds and attending greyhound venues. The maximum fine is set at €2,000 but the committee is authorised to increase this if the case is deemed sufficiently serious.

“It is important for this case to be resolved,” said DJ Histon, welfare manager at the IGB. “We abhor any act of cruelty on any dog and the feeling on the ground is that this must be fully prosecuted. DNA is a great source of information and hopefully this will send a strong message to anyone who would contemplate such an act in the future.”

Jerry Desmond, ICC chief executive, denied that there was an oversupply of greyhounds in Ireland. “It’s like any industry, supply meets demand. Demand has fallen in the UK so we have seen the number of dogs born in Ireland fall in the last year.”