SAOIRSE32

Guardian

**Personally, this is my LEAST favourite depiction of Mary, who is an interest of mine. I feel she must have been a lot prettier than this shows her to be :-p

Charlotte Higgins, arts correspondent
Thursday August 17, 2006

On with her head … the portrait of Mary Queen of Scots is possibly one of only two made during her lifetime

A painting of Mary Queen of Scots, one of only two thought to have been made in her lifetime, has been discovered - in the National Portrait Gallery’s very own store. The portrait was bought for £50 by the gallery in 1916 at Christie’s. But later it was written off as an 18th century fake and was left to gather dust.

One day, however, Tarnya Cooper, curator of 16th-century collections at the gallery, decided to take a second look at the work, her instinct telling her it could just be original. The work was x-rayed. Beneath a layer of ugly yellow varnish and a dull, dark background lay an oval device framing the face, painted to look like marble, and the words Maria Scotiae (Mary of Scotland). The overpainting is thought to date from the 18th century.

Meanwhile dendrochronology, a technique whereby wood can be dated to within about 30 years based on an analysis of the grain, suggested that the panel on which the image was painted came from a tree felled between 1560 and 1592. Mary was beheaded at Fotheringhay in 1587, and Dr Cooper thinks that the work comes from the early part of the 32-year span indicated by the dendrochronology, which means it was probably painted while she was alive.

(more…)

BBC

17/08/2006 - 17:16:01

Suspended Detective Sergeant John White is corrupt and manipulative, Mr Justice Frederick Morris found, despite a judge and jury clearing him of criminal charges.

The judge said the shamed officer deliberately planted a dangerous shotgun where children played on a halting site in Burnfoot in May 1998 to secure the arrest of seven travellers.

He said it was a shocking act.

The judge also found Det Sgt White planted an explosive, or had someone do it for him, on a telecommunications mast near Ardara which led to three local people being arrested.

He said Det Sgt White’s evidence to the tribunal was riddled with inconsistencies and branded him a liar.

But the judge found no evidence that the once highly respected officer conspired with a petty criminal to make-up a death threat, the Silver Bullet allegation, against Raphoe men Mark McConnell and Michael Peoples.

Det Sgt White has twice been vindicated in court. He was cleared by a jury in July of possession of a firearm over the Burnfoot incident following a month long trial in Letterkenny.

And in February 2005 he was acquitted, by direction of the trial judge, of attempting to pervert the course of justice and making false statements over the Silver Bullet threat.

No charges have been brought over the Ardara affair. The judge added that the arrests over the explosive were based on a false premise.

Michael McDowell, Justice Minister, insisted the verdicts from the criminal trial still stand regardless of the tribunal findings.

But he explained that Judge Morris had used the balance of probabilities, examined an array of evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, and considered the testimony and acts of Det Sgt White over weeks and months of hearings before coming to such damning conclusions.

“The verdict stands in criminal justice. But by the same token the very, very strong findings on the balance of probabilities is that Sergeant White was responsible for a number of very grave infringements of people’s rights,” Mr McDowell said.

The minister also revealed Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy would decide Det Sgt White’s fate. Mr McDowell said while he did not want to pre-empt the Commissioner’s decision there was more than enough evidence for action to be taken.

But the officer’s lawyer, Paid Dorrian, said the findings of the inquiry had cast huge questions on the entire criminal justice system.

“We are entitled to our badge of innocence, the Supreme Court has so declared, and I cannot see that any adverse findings to the findings of the judge and the judge and jury would be valid,” he said.

“The court of law is the highest standard and we were acquitted, that means we have a declaration of innocence. Is the whole criminal justice system going to be superseded by opinions based on hearsay and innuendo and rumour?”

Det Sgt White applied to retire from the force in April, ahead of his trial on firearms offences, but he was turned down.

The officer was originally suspended in 2000 on foot of corruption allegations arising from Burnfoot. That suspension ended when he was cleared in July, but he was immediately put on a new suspension over a separate matter.

The lawyer said the internal investigation into corruption allegations headed by former Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty in 1999 had been shown to be flawed and faulty through two separate court cases.

He said it bears no reality to the truth and called on top brass in the force to consider their future.

“During the course of the Morris Tribunal we were not allowed to question the Carty report,” he said.

“It’s quite clear that if the top people of An Garda Siochana the Commissioner [Noel Conroy] and assistant commissioners and maybe even going as far as the DPP and Minister for Justice that they should all look at their situation and consider retiring.”

BBC

The majority of fires the fire service tackles in Northern Ireland are arson, a senior fire officer has said.

The roof of the community centre was badly damaged

Fire station commander Brian Irvine was speaking after a community centre in Ballynahinch was damaged when a fire started in bins spread to its roof.

“Probably in excess of 60% of the fires that are attended by the fire service are deliberate,” Mr Irvine said.

“Quite often it’s public amenities, public money that is being squandered by meaningless acts of vandalism.”

There have been more than 1,000 arson attacks in Northern Ireland in the first six months of this year.

The fire at the community centre at Willow Crescent in Langley Road estate in Ballynahinch, was started at about 0245 BST on Thursday.

About half of the building’s roof has been destroyed. The incident is not believed to have been sectarian.

Mr Irvine said bins left out for collection had been set alight and the fire then spread to the centre’s roofspace.

“When it gets into the roofspace it’s always very hard for us to tackle,” he said.

“Our prime considerations are the safety of the firefighters and the nearby residents, but the firefighters worked very well and managed to save 50% of the building.”

More than 30 firefighters took just over two hours to subdue the fire and Mr Irvine said there were initial concerns that paint used by local children for a community mural on part of the building would catch fire.

Mr Irvine said there was always an increase in such incidents at this time of year.

The fire was started deliberately

“The summer months - maybe it’s because the kids are off school and the warm weather - there’s always an increase in the number of deliberate fires in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“We’re all working together to solve the same problem but again we need to get the message across that when people do this it’s the innocent people that suffer and it’s everybody in the community that suffers and has to pay for it.”

DUP assembly member Jim Wells said he did not think the incident was sectarian.

“I’m sure the person who did this had no idea the implications for the community. And maybe when he wakes up, probably late this morning, he’ll realise he’s robbed Langley Road of its only facility.

“I hope the council will provide some sort of mobile or temporary accommodation until the building is either replaced or repaired,” Mr Wells said.

In another incident on Thursday morning, a mobile classroom at Forthriver Primary School in west Belfast was destroyed in an arson attack.

Attacks on two fire depots in County Tyrone on Wednesday morning have put a number of jobs at risk.

BBC

The Irish Foreign Minister, Dermot Ahern, has expressed concern at the recent upsurge in violence by dissident republican paramilitaries.

The house being built by Lord Ballyedmond was attacked

The Real IRA admitted a series of firebomb attacks on shops in Newry.

A bomb at a house owned by Ulster Unionist peer Edward Haughey in County Louth is being blamed on dissidents.

Mr Ahern said it was “part of a pattern of violence”. A senior police officer said the PSNI were “on top” of the dissident republican threat.

Paul Leighton, deputy chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, told the BBC’s Five Live programme: “We are successful against the dissident republicans and we will continue to work with the Garda.

“We are working very, very hard on this problem and we think we’re on top of it.”

Mr Ahern said the government were determined to eradicate such attacks.

“The bombing of Newry, a town which was going from strength to strength, and now this incident at Eddie Haughey’s - it again just makes the Irish government much more resolute in what we’re doing,” he said.

“(We are) working hand in glove with the British government and indeed our two police forces are working hand in glove in order to stamp this out, the entrails of this type of violence.”

On Tuesday, a bomb at a house being built by Mr Haughey, now known as Lord Ballyedmond, contained 70 pounds of homemade explosive mix packed into a gas cylinder.

CarpetRight was among the stores targeted in Newry

Gardai said it would have destroyed the house at Drumgooley it if had gone off.

The device, found by a farm labourer on Tuesday, had been packed into a cylinder and hidden in one of the walls of the house.

Security sources said dissident republicans were behind the attack.

Meanwhile, the dissident republican Real IRA claimed responsibility for the firebomb attacks on stores in Newry last week.

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

Hundreds of thousands of pounds in damage was said to have been caused to the premises.

Dissidents also caused travel disruption by claiming to have left devices on the railway line between Newry and Dundalk.