SAOIRSE32

Irelandclick

Via Newshound

Damian McCarney

West Belfast is famed for its wonderful murals, and this week the finishing touches were being put to the latest artwork to grace the walls. Passing along the busy Springfield Road, six black silhouette faces, some instantly recognisable, others less so, look back at you from a striking yellow background.

The Andersonstown News caught up with one of the people behind the eye-catching mural, Gerard Foster, who was delighted to tell us of the people behind the faces.

The Springfield Road mural is just one of a series of artworks, with others sited in Derry, the Short Strand, the Whiterock Road and the Shaws Road.

They were painted in an attempt to redress what Gerard believes is a shortfall in the representation of the role the INLA and IRSP played in the historic events of 1981.

“It started off because it was the 25th anniversary of the hunger strikes, and the media in general were representing it as an IRA hunger strike. The part that the INLA played in it, losing three men, seemed to be airbrushed out of history.

“The idea is to have leading members of the INLA and IRSP who have died in the past and include the socialist aspect with James Connolly, and the international aspect with Ché Guevara,” said Gerard, who modestly insists that he’s not an artist.

In addition to the images of Ché Guevara, James Connolly, and INLA hunger striker Patsy O’Hara, all painted in the iconic Andy Warhol style, are Seamus Costello, Gino Gallagher and Miriam Daly, each a leading light in the socialist republican movement.

“Seamus Costello was involved in the 1950s and ‘60s campaign with the IRA. He then formed the IRSP when he realised that the Official IRA were not going to end their ceasefire. He wanted to combine militant republicanism with radical socialism. He was an elected representative in Bray Council [County Wicklow] and well regarded,” said Gerard. Seamus Costello was shot dead by the Official IRA.

The image second from the left is that of former INLA leader Gino Gallagher who was gunned down in an INLA feud in 1996.

“He was from the Divis area originally, but lived in the Glencolin area when he was murdered. He was at the forefront in reorganising the whole movement under the guidance of the writing of Ta Power, who was a leading socialist political thinker,” said Gerard. Ta Power was also shot in an internecine dispute.

The only woman represented in the artwork is Andersonstown mother-of-two Miriam Daly who was murdered in her own home in June 1980 by a UDA gang, believed to be working with British Intelligence and Special Branch.

“She was a founding member of the IRSP in December 1974 along with Costello. We believe she was murdered by undercover British agents in direct response to the murder of Airey Neave who was killed in the House of Commons the previous year. This was Thatcher’s revenge, although loyalists were credited with it,” said Gerard.

Now completed, the mural stands as an impressive roadside gallery but the three weeks of work that went into it were not without problems.

“We have generally been getting beaten by the weather,” said Gerard. “The way it comes over that mountain is unreal. We had Patsy O’Hara done, but it was washed right off with the rain. We’ve been fighting against the weather to get it finished,” said Gerard.

Now that this artwork has survived the worst of weather, Gerard hopes that, like their other murals, it will also manage to survive the attentions of vandals and graffiti artists.

“We have been surprised that there has been no graffiti. There is an anti-social element here and why they have not attacked these murals I don’t know - presumably it looks better than what was there before.”

Journalist:: Damien McCarney

Belfast Telegraph

By Brian Rowan
16 August 2006

The UDA is pushing to have the Shoukri brothers - Andre and Ihab - removed from the loyalist wing at Maghaberry Jail.

It is the latest move to isolate the brothers after the decision of the organisation’s so-called inner council to expel them from their leadership positions inside the paramilitary group.

Recently, the closest associates of the Shoukris, including Alan McClean, were forced to flee Northern Ireland.

Now, the UDA is pressing behind the scenes for the brothers to be moved from the separated loyalist wing inside Bush House at Maghaberry.

“We want to create an environment where people are safe,” a source told the Belfast Telegraph.

Yesterday, representatives of the loyalist Prisoners Aid Networking Group - closely linked to the UDA - met senior Prison Service officials.

One source said the meeting was about ensuring “stability” inside the jail - code for getting the Shoukris moved.

Sources claim Andre Shoukri confronted another loyalist in the prison’s visits area last week.

The push to further isolate the Shoukris is said to be coming from the UDA in north Belfast and backed by the inner council.

Senior loyalists are also saying that like McClean, the brothers will have to leave Northern Ireland when they are released from prison.

Both are on remand - Andre on blackmail charges, Ihab accused of UDA membership, linked to a planned paramilitary show of strength inside a north Belfast pub in March.

After the internal coup in which the Shoukri-McClean leadership was ousted, the paramilitary group in that part of the city has again sided with the mainstream organisation and is once again represented on its inner council.

The only area still sitting outside that central leadership and the mainstream organisation is south/east Antrim, whose “brigadier” has removed himself from meetings of the paramilitary command.

His future position is still far from clear.

In further moves towards re-involving the UDA in the peace process, sources suggest a new “code of conduct” is to be introduced.

“The battlefield has totally changed,” a source told the Belfast Telegraph.

“The new world is about doing what’s right for the community - (dealing with) the enemy within.”

The beginning, not an end?

Is the UDA trying to come in from the cold? Security expert Brian Rowan reports

They are talking a new language and they want to be believed, but that is going to take some more time.

The ousting of the Shoukris and Alan McClean in a bloodless coup inside the UDA was only a beginning - not an end.

And if this organisation is to really change and if it is to be believed then more has to happen - the actions and inaction of this paramilitary group in the weeks and months ahead will speak so much louder than all its words, however different they might sound.

The UDA is talking to itself - writing to itself - and in all of this it is trying to redefine loyalism.

Is this its beginning towards some better end?

“It’s time someone put the record straight about what the difference is between a loyalist and an ex-loyalist.”

This is the opening sentence - the opening written shot - in an article in a UDA magazine penned by one of its most senior paramilitary leaders.

“If someone leaves the security forces or gets the sack, they become ex-soldiers, ex-policemen, ex-prison officers,” the article continues.

“Even prisoners become ex-prisoners. Yet people who were once loyalist, but who have been ousted from their respective organisations and/or the loyalist community are still referred to as loyalist.

“These people are ex-loyalists. They have forfeited their right to be known as true loyalists because of their activities - treason, drug dealing and various other crimes against the loyalist community.”

So, the argument being presented inside the UDA is along the lines of the paramilitary good versus the bad, but no one is going to believe or buy a script that has Jackie McDonald and his merry men on the inner council taking on prince Johnny and sheriff Shoukri.

If that is all it is about, then the UDA is wasting its time, and wasting the time of the peace process.

There are many in this organisation who have robbed the poor to make themselves rich, and now they are going to have to convince not just those in high political office but those who are closest to them in their own communities that they are indeed capable of change.

McDonald - and not just McDonald, but others at the UDA top table - may well be trying to do the right thing in difficult and dangerous circumstances.

But if the best they can offer is to get rid of the Shoukris, then their best isn’t good enough.

There is so much more about this organisation that has to change.

In the lower Shankill, other gangsters replaced Johnny Adair.

Is the same going to be allowed to happen in north Belfast?

“Drug dealers in particular, who make a fortune in the name of one organisation or another are parasites - not paramilitaries,” the article in the UDA magazine reads.

“There can be no place for them in our society. Everyone knows the suffering they bring to loyalist communities … they are ex-loyalists.”

For how long have they been causing this suffering? For how long have they been ex-loyalists? For how long will they remain ex-loyalists?

Can the UDA really change? Can it move beyond the words of the published article in the Loyalist Magazine? Can it separate itself, not just in north Belfast, but everywhere, from those it now labels “career criminals”?

It is getting better with its words. It seems to have a more confident political leadership - more credible now because some have left it and it seems to know where it wants to go.

But saying it and doing it are two very different things.

In the talking and in the writing to itself, and as part of a process of change, the paramilitary leadership is asking its members - hundreds and thousands of them - to come on a journey.

You read it in the words in that loyalist article:

“To those genuine members, we say remember the good things you have done … are you prepared to sit back and watch our beloved organisation being destroyed by criminals and drug dealers. Help make the Ulster Defence Association something to be proud of again and show our communities we are worthy of their respect.”

Is this the beginning of some wider confronting of the loyalist enemy within?

Is this the UDA at last owning up to what it has become, or what a part of it has become?

Is this the inner council getting ready to take the paramilitary battle beyond the Shoukris?

Is it getting ready to be part of the peace process once more?

As the UDA talks to itself there will be many others who will be listening in - listening to make sure that its guns stay silent, listening for proof of change, listening as the loyalists take on the “ex-loyalists”.

Who will win? Who is for the peace and who is against it?

This is still the biggest question to be answered inside the UDA.

Daily Ireland

March is allowed despite breaches of restrictions last year

By Connla Young
16/08/2006

Residents of a Co Antrim village yesterday met the Irish government to raise their concerns about a disputed loyalist parade this weekend.
Rasharkin residents slammed the Parades Commission after the Ballymaconnelly Flute Band got the go-ahead to hold a parade involving 40 bands in the predominantly nationalist village.
Last week, the Rasharkin Residents’ Association delivered a detailed dossier highlighting breaches of a Parades Commission determination during a similar event last year.
Residents repeated their concerns when they met representatives from the Irish secretariat in Belfast yesterday.
Odhrán Darragh of the residents’ association said local residents were frustrated that the parade was being allowed to proceed and that Parades Commission chiefs had ordered nationalist protesters to be corralled into a small area of the village.
“Residents have been asking for dialogue but that has not materialised. Yet this parade is allowed to go ahead. People living in the village have major concerns about Friday night.
“There are a lot of young people in the area, and no one wants them to be hurt or be exposed to language they should not hear,” he said.
Ballymoney Sinn Féin councillor Daithí McKay said his community’s concerns had been ignored.
“This has been one-way traffic. We went into the Parades Commission and we may as well have been talking to the wall.
“We went to the Parades Commission with evidence of determination breaches by bands last year and this has been ignored. Those same bands are coming back and they will do the same things again. Residents in the village are angry,” said Mr McKay.
A spokesperson for the Parades Commission said the views of everyone concerned in the parades dispute had been taken into account.
“No one’s views have been ignored. The Parades Commission has issued a requirement for bands to be respectful,” said the spokesperson.
The Police Ombudsman has been asked to investigate the behaviour of several PSNI members during an Apprentice Boys parade in Rasharkin last Saturday.
Residents have claimed that PSNI members assaulted a number of teenagers and that a PSNI man called a small child a “Fenian bastard”. Residents said several incidents had been caught on video.
According to Mr McKay, several issues arose during the parade but the conduct of some PSNI members also gave rise to concern.
Speaking on Sunday, he said: “The worst aspect of last night’s parade, however, was the policing. At least four complaints are now being compiled to send to the Police Ombudsman regarding District Mobile Support Unit behaviour toward minors as well as sectarian remarks that were made to residents at Rogan’s Corner. Residents have compiled video evidence that will also be submitted to the ombudsman’s office.
“Residents here want dialogue to be opened up between the parade organisers and themselves to solve the issues around this parade.”
A spokesman for the Police Ombudsman’s office said several complaints had been received and were being investigated.

Daily Ireland

16/08/2006

The PSNI may face legal action after banning a republican from entering Derry last weekend.
The threat of a judicial review comes one month after the High Court in Belfast ruled that Paddy Murray’s exclusion from the city in a similar incident last year was unlawful.
On each occasion, Mr Murray was detained at a checkpoint and stopped from entering Derry while an Apprentice Boys parade was taking place.
He said yesterday: “Last year when they stopped me, it was under section 84, which the court deemed to be unlawful. This time, they used section 44 of the 2000 Terrorism Act.
“They are using me as a guinea pig to tweak their laws just to see if they have the power to do these things.
“They said that intelligence suggested there was going to be a demonstration opposing the Apprentice Boys parade and that is why they stopped me. They also searched me and my car for 35 minutes before refusing us entry to Derry.
“I was with my wife and we were intending to buy shoes for our children for going back to school as well as do our weekly grocery shopping.
“There is a lot of talk about things changing. The Diplock courts are going, they say. But the police are being given more power all the time and no one is complaining about that.
“The police use these powers to suit themselves. I challenged them the last time and I will again. And when I’m successful this time, they will turn to something else.
“Before my last case, they offered to settle outside of court but I refused.
“There was trouble in Derry the night before this parade and the night after it, and I was nowhere near the city. This is an infringement on my civil liberties and I am going to challenge it,” said Mr Murray.
A spokesman for the PSNI said: “Police stopped a man travelling towards Derry under section 44 of the Terrorism Act.
“He was warned that to proceed would lead him to be liable to arrest as it was believed that he would become involved in public order offences relating to events in the city. The man complied and turned back.”

Daily Ireland

By Eamonn Houston
16/08/2006

A former hunger striker will today outline Sinn Féin’s vision of the development of the Long Kesh prison site.
Direct-rule minister David Hanson outlined a “master plan” earlier in the summer, that will transform the 146-hectare site into a sports stadium and an international centre for conflict transformation.
Sinn Féin Foyle assembly member Raymond McCartney, who took part in the 1980 hunger strike in the prison, will present a document to Mr Hanson this morning, outlining his party’s vision for the conflict centre. The meeting comes 25 years after the start of the 1981 hunger strike, in which ten republican prisoners died within the jail.
The master plan also features plans for a hotel, conference facilities and general entertainment.
Mr McCartney and Sinn Féin Lagan Valley councillor Paul Butler will take part in a delegation of the Maze/Long Kesh Monitoring Group.
The meeting will discuss the ongoing development of the former prison site.
Mr McCartney said Sinn Féin would focus on the plans for the retained prison buildings.
“We will present our ideas on how the conflict-transformation centre should take shape,” he said.
“There will be representatives from four political parties to discuss the plans for the stadium and the centre. This is one of a series of meetings and a further step in the process.
“We will submit our document, which advocates the sharing of the experience of Long Kesh. Our vision includes an iconic building which could house major exhibitions and conferences of an international and local nature.
“We will essentially be presenting Sinn Féin’s vision of how these plans should proceed,” Mr McCartney said.

Daily Ireland

Derry family ‘terrorised’ for years say attempt at mediation with PSNI amounted to ‘a proposed cover-up of PSNI unlawfulness’

By Connla Young
16/08/2006

The Police Ombudsman has been asked to investigate claims that the PSNI protected a suspected informer who terrorised a woman’s family for years.
Carol Ann O’Donnell, from the Waterside district of Derry, said the reputation of her family had been ruined by the PSNI actions.
She made the claims during a meeting yesterday between Nuala O’Loan and members of the O’Donnell family at the Police Ombudsman’s headquarters in Belfast.
During the meeting, Mrs O’Donnell revealed a catalogue of complaints relating to the PSNI. She accused Mrs O’Loan’s office of failing to “adequately investigate” complaints made by her family. Mrs O’Donnell said a recent attempt by the Police Ombudsdman’s office to establish mediation between her family and the PSNI amounted to nothing more than “a proposed cover-up of PSNI unlawfulness”.
The O’Donnells said they had been “treated unlawfully” by the PSNI.
According to the family, a serving sergeant in the PSNI told them they were “expendable”, and PSNI members refused to examine video evidence relating to attacks on the family home, with death threats made against the family being ignored.
The family also claimed the PSNI had failed to take witness statements from neigbours who had seen the family home being attacked.
According to the Derry family, a senior member of the PSNI who visited their home prayed for their safety rather than investigating their complaint.
Mrs O’Donnell said: “The public have a right to know what is happening with regard to the new beginning to policing that we hear so much about. We will endeavour to do that.
“We as a family have had our lives, good name and reputations ruined by the unlawful actions of the PSNI. We are no longer going to sit quietly while an orchestrated campaign of harassment and suggested violence continues against us.
“We have been deserted by politicians who played at representing the family in these matters, who had a vested interest in promoting the PSNI as an impartial police force. We have nothing left to lose.
“We believe the evidence in this case warrants the arrest and criminal prosecution of senior PSNI officers. We also consider the actions of several subordinate officers, albeit they were under the command of senior officers, as unlawful.”
A spokesman for the Police Ombudsman yesterday said they had been dealing with the family on a number of issues over a period of time.
“Some of these cases have been closed, others cannot currently progress because they are under consideration by the Criminal Cases Review Committee, and there are others we dealing with at present. Contact with the family will be ongoing in relation to these,” the spokesman added.

BBC

A photographic exhibition in Belfast’s Ormeau Baths gallery is attracting people not normally interested in art, the Arts Council has said.

The Ormeau Baths gallery has re-opened after four months

The Magnum Ireland Photographic exhibition has been running at the newly reopened gallery in south Belfast for more than a month.

The pictures, by many world renowned photographers, span every walk of life in Ireland, north and south.

The pictures show images from the 1950s through to the present day.

The 150 photographs are the work of more than 30 photographers and will remain at the Baths until 16 September.

Ian Davidson, from the Arts Council, said it has turned out to be one of their more popular exhibitions.

BBC

A senior GAA official has accused some politicians of “bashing” them over a hunger strike commemoration rally solely to boost their own image.

The rally commemorated the hunger strikes at the Maze prison

John McSparran is head of the County Antrim Board responsible for Casement Park, where Sunday’s rally was held.

Unionists and the SDLP criticised it, while the GAA’s Central Council in Dublin decided it would break rules about staging political events.

Dr McSparran said the Croke Park body’s decision came too close to the rally.

“The decision was taken within two weeks of the rally going to happen,” he said.

“We raised this issue with Central Council as far back as February and we are upset that it took so long for the decision to come out.”

He said political parties in the Irish Republic held events on GAA premises, “yet an event which is described as non-political by its organisers causes so much controversy on a wider basis”.

Thousands of republican supporters and former prisoners gathered at the rally, commemorating the deaths of 10 IRA and INLA inmates in the 1981 protest over political status at the Maze prison in County Antrim.

The DUP’s Gregory Campbell told the BBC’s Talkback programme that sports facilities which have received public money should not be used for political purposes.

The Northern Ireland Sports Council has asked for an urgent meeting with the Antrim board to discuss the controversy.

The GAA has received £800,000 in lottery funding, which is distributed by the council.

‘Fact of history’

Dr McSparran said the hunger strike was a “fact of history” and it was “important for a large proportion of our population that they commemorate it”.

“Whether or not you like it is another matter,” he said.

“Members of the GAA are entitled to hold whatever political affiliations they wish, as is the case with rugby, which in this part of the world is deemed to be more predominantly from the unionist community.

“I am quite certain that there are Orangemen who are members of rugby clubs as well, but no-one is out branding rugby as being sectarian.

“Therefore, if we happen to have republicans who are also members of the association, I don’t think that means the GAA should be bashed because of that.”

The DUP said the rally was an attempt to “politicise” sport, while the SDLP said the GAA had been “used and abused” by Sinn Fein.

However, Dr McSparran said he was tired of “certain politicians trying to make political gain by bashing the association again and again over this particular issue”.

BBC

The mayor of Derry City Council has condemned the destruction caused at bonfires across the city.

A car was used as the base of one of the bonfires

The bonfires were lit in nationalist areas on Tuesday night to mark the traditional 15 August holiday.

Derry City Council said the clean-up operation would cost about £5,000. A council spokesman said the dangers posed by the bonfires were obvious.

SDLP mayor Helen Quigley said many of the people who attended the fires were drunk and out of control.

“We have children’s buggies, we have shopping trolleys, there are trees that have been cut down,” she said.

“More concerning, is the amount of cans and bottles that have been left in the area.

“There was a party of some description went on here and clearly they went on a rampage of pure destruction.”

The council says the clean-up will cost about £5,000

Council spokesman Alastair Wilson said: “They have been burning tyres and all sorts of materials that are hazardous. A lot of damage has been done.”

He added: “Five trees have been cut down and there is all the associated rubbish, bottles and cans as well.”

Therese McDonough, organiser of a community festival for children being run nearby, said they had to abandon it due to safety fears.

“We tried our best to maintain the party atmosphere, but we closed it down at 5pm because it became a threat to thousands of pounds worth of equipment,” she said.

BN.ie

16/08/2006 - 07:39:52

Gardaí in Co Louth are investigating the discovery of an unexploded bomb at a construction site near the border yesterday afternoon.

The device, which is understood to have contained around 70 pounds of an explosive mixture, was found in a downstairs room at a house being built near Hackballscross.

Gardaí said it would have destroyed the house if it had exploded.

It was made safe yesterday by bomb disposal experts, who later took it away for further examination.

Reports this morning say the house where the bomb was found was being built by businessman Eddie Haughey, also known as Lord Ballyedmond, on land he owns in the Dungooley area.

Mr Haughey represents the Ulster Unionist Party in the British House of Lords and is a former member of the Seanad.

He is the founder of the Newry-based pharmaceutical giant Norbrook Laboratories.

BN.ie

16/08/2006 - 13:22:25

Police in the North have arrested three people in connection with the murder of Ballymena teenager Michael McIlveen three months ago.

The 15-year-old Catholic schoolboy was beaten to death by a loyalist gang in the Co Antrim town last May.

Police investigating the case today arrested a man and a woman on suspicion of assisting an offender.

A teenage boy is also being questioned on suspicion of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Seven people have so far been charged with offences relating to the murder.

Guardian

Families of 306 shot for cowardice or desertion to be told of decision today

Richard Norton-Taylor
Wednesday August 16, 2006

All 306 British first world war soldiers executed for desertion or cowardice are to be pardoned, Des Browne, the defence secretary, will announce today.

Harry Farr, who was shot for cowardice during the first world war, is to be given pardon. Photograph: PA

For 90 years, families, friends and campaigners for the young soldiers have argued that their deaths were a stain on the reputation of Britain and the army.

In many cases, soldiers were clearly suffering from shellshock but officers showed no compassion for fear that their comrades would have disobeyed orders and refused to go “over the top”.

Mr Browne decided to pardon them mainly on moral grounds, defence sources said last night. He will say a grave injustice was done at the time given the “horrific circumstances” in which they were shot.

One particular case brought to his attention was that of 25-year-old Private Harry Farr, executed for cowardice after the battle of the Somme, whose 90th anniversary was commemorated last month. On October 18 1916, after a 20-minute court martial where he represented himself, he was shot at dawn for “misbehaving before the enemy in such a manner as to show cowardice”.

(more…)

BBC

Northern Ireland’s chief constable has said he is not hopeful anyone will be brought to account over the IRA murder of a Belfast mother-of-10.

Hugh Orde was speaking after a report by the Police Ombudsman criticised the investigation into the murder of Jean McConville in 1972.

It said a proper investigation was not carried out for more than 20 years.

Orde said: “Any case of that age, it is highly unlikely that a successful prosecution could be mounted.”

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

The Police Ombudsman found there was no formal police record of Mrs McConville’s disappearance, nor of attempts at the time to find her.

The chief constable told a news conference: “We are very sorry for what happened. It should clearly have been investigated better.”

He said he and his officers would be willing to meet the family to update them on the progress of their investigation.

Orde, who has set up the Historical Enquiries Team to deal with unsolved murders during 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland, insisted it would do everything possible to bring some form of resolution for the McConville family.

In a statement earlier, the police said they “apologised unreservedly to the family for any failings made by police”.

“Police policy and practice into how it deals with missing persons and how it conducts investigations has changed significantly since 1972,” it said.

Shootings

Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton said that in 1972 more than 470 people were murdered in Northern Ireland and people had to realise what the situation was like then.

“There were over 10,000 shooting incidents, these are statistics that are difficult nowadays to comprehend,” he said.

“I am not using that as any excuse for failure in police action.

“I think if there is a failure in police action, then we need to say sorry and that is what I am doing, but I think it is important for people to realise just what the situation was at that time.”

Mrs O’Loan’s investigation upheld a complaint brought by two of Mrs McConville’s children.

Her report found there had been intelligence that she was still alive some time after being abducted from her home in December 1972.

The IRA insists the mother-of-10 was a British army informer, although a police ombudsman inquiry earlier this year found no evidence of this.

Mrs McConville’s remains were finally found at Shelling Hill beach in County Louth in the Irish Republic in August 2003.

Investigation

Mrs O’Loan said: “By 16 January (1973) a spokesman was being quoted as saying the matter was being investigated but we have found no evidence of this.

“There is no crime file about any investigation of the abduction in 1972.

“Even if we look at the intelligence the police received which suggested that Mrs McConville was alive and had either left of her own will or was being held by the Provisionals in Dundalk, we found no evidence that either of these issues were looked at.

“An Garda Siochana (Irish police) have said they are not aware of an investigation by them into Mrs McConville’s death prior to the discovery of her body.”

Mrs McConville’s son Michael said he felt vindicated by the report.

“They didn’t do enough work on the case in the first place, I think it was a big let down for the McConville family,” he said.

“If police had reacted more quickly, my mother might have still been alive today. I think that to start an investigation 20 years later is a bit late.”

SDLP assembly member Alex Attwood said the report was “a deep indictment of the Royal Ulster Constabulary”.

“Questions must be answered by the police about their approach, and questions must continue to be put to the IRA to ensure that they account fully and publicly for their actions.”

BBC

The Ulster Unionist Party is expected to clarify its links with the Progressive Unionist Party next month.

David Ervine joined the Ulster Unionist group at the NI assembly

UUP deputy leader Danny Kennedy said an arrangement to allow PUP leader David Ervine to join the Ulster Unionist assembly grouping was “under review”.

Some sources suggested a statement may coincide with the next report by the body monitoring paramilitary activity.

David Ford, Alliance, said the UUP was “backtracking” on a “grubby deal with representatives of paramilitaries”.

The Ulster Unionists came under widespread pressure after allowing Mr Ervine to join their assembly group earlier this year.

The move was aimed at giving them an extra ministerial seat at Sinn Fein’s expense if a power-sharing executive is formed.

The BBC has learned that the UUP may clarify its position early next month, around the time the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) releases a report on security normalisation.

Most of the September report will deal with police and Army activity but it will contain a general assessment of the threat posed by paramilitaries.

Another IMC report, due in October, will deal with paramilitary activity in more detail.

On Tuesday, Mr Kennedy, a Newry and Mourne assembly member, condemned a recent reported threat from loyalists to a newspaper reporter who has worked closely with the father of UVF murder victim Raymond McCord.

Strong critic

Mr Kennedy said the UUP has a political link with Mr Ervine “not an arrangement with the UVF”.

He said his party opposed any threats or illegal actions.

Mr McCord senior was recently accompanied to a meeting with the Secretary of State, Peter Hain, by Ulster Unionist Lady Sylvia Hermon.

She is the UUP’s only MP and has been a strong critic of the PUP link.

The Alliance leader, David Ford, has claimed the “Ulster Unionists are backtracking on their grubby deal with the representatives of loyalist paramilitaries.”

Mr Ford claimed the Ulster Unionists were “finally realising that decent people do not want the representatives of armed and active paramilitaries being absorbed into their party.”

Socialist Worker

By Gorreti Horgan
19 August 2006

Nine anti-war protesters, including socialist and civil rights campaigner Eamonn McCann, have been charged under terrorism laws following an occupation of the offices of US arms manufacturer Raytheon in Derry, Northern Ireland.

Police claim £350,000 damage was done to computer equipment during the protest.

Eamonn McCann speaking from inside the Raytheon building

The demonstrators stormed the building on Wednesday 9 August, barricading themselves inside.

Speaking from a window at the plant during the occupation, Eamonn McCann said, “We had to dramatise the argument so as to force the issue into the mainstream.”

Barricades

Documents and computers were hurled from windows, and the computer mainframe and other equipment put out of action.

Many files thrown out of the window gave the lie to claims that the Derry plant had no connection with the arms trade.

Once local radio started to report the occupation, others started to arrive to join the protest. In the course of the day around 100 people kept the solidarity picket going. Cars on the main road honked their horns in support. Local residents brought coffee, sandwiches and cake.

Raytheon is one of the largest arms manufacturers in the world. It supplies guidance systems for many of the missiles and bombs used by US and Israeli forces in the Middle East. Raytheon systems guided the Qana bomb to the bunker where it blasted and crushed at least 51 people, including many children, to death last month.

After eight hours the occupation was ended by over 100 riot police storming the building.

Speaking from the back of a police Land Rover at Strand Road police barracks after he was arrested, a handcuffed Eamonn McCann said, “They came in riot gear and surrounded us in the room. We were playing cards at the time. We were arrested for burglary and criminal damage.”

After hours of questioning, Colm Bryce, Kieran Gallagher, Eamonn McCann, Sean Heaton, Eamonn O’Donnell, Gary Donnelly, Paddy McDaid, Jimmy Kelly and Micky Gallagher were charged with aggravated burglary and unlawful assembly.

These are “scheduled” offences, meaning they would be heard before the notorious Diplock, non-jury, court and that the men could not be given bail by the magistrate’s court but had to be remanded to prison before a bail application in the High Court.

The only reason for the remand in prison and the severity of the charges is that the protesters live in Northern Ireland. This would not have happened in Britain or the South of Ireland. Despite New Labour’s talk, political dissent is still treated differently here.

Vintage

At the bail hearing, the Crown tried to raise Eamonn McCann’s convictions on public order offences going back to 1968-70. However, the judge said that the “vintage” of these charges made them irrelevant.

Eamonn was one of the founders of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement. From moving the caravan of a homeless family to block a road so they could get housed in June 1968, to speaking in support of Catholic and Protestant postal workers fighting together earlier this year, he is a central

figure of Northern Irish left politics.

The arms merchants were brought to Derry in 1999 by SDLP and Ulster Unionist leaders John Hume and David Trimble.

A statement from the Derry Anti-War Coalition said, “It is tragic that the Raytheon factory was held up at the time of its opening as an example of the ‘peace dividend’ for the North, when its function is exporting death and destruction to innocent people in Lebanon.”

At the bail hearing, barrister Joe Brolly pointed out that Raytheon had had a turnover of $21.9 billion last year, and described them as “purveyors of death”.

Bail was granted but the restrictions are draconian - far worse than, for example, those imposed on the Trident Ploughshares defendants in Scotland.

Bail conditions include an exclusion zone around Raytheon - but also prevent the protesters from attending any public meeting or any private meeting of the Derry Anti-War Coalition or the Irish anti-war movement. They were told that a private meeting means any meeting of three or more people.

A Raytheon Nine defence campaign is now being established across Ireland.

Contact the campaign at resistderry@aol.com

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