SAOIRSE32

Irish Independent

By Anne-Marie Walsh
22 November 2006

DISHEVELLED hair, a scruffy overcoat and a sensible navy scarf. Al Pacino could have been mistaken for a middle-aged professor during his first visit to Dublin.

Al Pacino at Trinity College yesterday

The hardest of Hollywood’s hardmen looked every bit the mature academic as he took a tour of Trinity College with a team of philosophical experts.

But the Oscar-winning actor still stood out.

Students stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the familiar, expressive hand gestures and facial acrobatics. Heads turned in amazement as he negotiated the uneven cobbles of Trinity College in the cold campus air.

As he made his way from the Long Room to the Book of Kells with a learned entourage, he stopped to chat and pose for photographs. “I’m ashamed to admit it’s my first time in Ireland,” he said. “I’d really love to put on the Salome play here.”

And that Salome play is the main reason he is here - the star of ‘Scarface’, ‘Heat’ and the Godfather movies has developed a passion for Oscar Wilde.

He has appeared as King Herod in Wilde’s ‘Salome’ on Broadway and now plans to shoot part of a documentary about the Irish writer’s work in Dublin.

‘Salomaybe?’ will be based on Pacino’s quest to find out more about Wilde and his influences when he wrote the play. It will mirror the format of Pacino’s documentary ‘Looking for Richard’, which was shot 10 years ago and concerned his approach to the title role in Shakespeare’s ‘Richard III’.

Yesterday, Pacino returned to Wilde’s alma mater after flying from Paris, where the Irish playwright, novelist poet and wit spent his final days.

“He asked loads of questions about Wilde and was very keen to see Wilde’s old rooms and birthplace,” said the university’s Philosophical Society president Daire Hickey. “He also asked for the Irish Independent’s recent edition of JP Donleavy’s ‘The Ginger Man’ because he said he knows Donleavy.

Tonight Pacino will receive an honorary patronage from the Philosophical Society, whose canny members have yet again outdone the most sophisticated public relations agents in luring yet another A-lister to the city. But it is unlikely that the notoriously shy New Yorker is merely interested in topping up an already monumental stash of accolades. The star of ‘Scarface’ and the ‘Godfather’ movies, and probably the most ruthless mobster in cinematic history, is fascinated by Dublin intellectual Wilde.

He was rapt as he listened to literary expert Professor Nicholas Grene describe Wilde’s student days.

He looked as happy as he did on Oscar night 1992 when he was brought to Wilde’s former lodgings in the residential square of Botany Bay on the northern edge of the campus.

>>The Oscar Wilde Collection

>>Wikipedia article on Wilde

>>Al Pacino’s Loft - fan site

BN.ie

22/11/2006 - 08:42:10

Emergency legislation to restore power sharing in the North by next March was rushed through England’s House of Commons last night.

The bill giving effect to the St Andrews Agreement was unopposed and completed its subsequent stages.

It goes to the House of Lords later today and is expected to receive royal assent before the transitional Assembly’s first meeting on Friday at Stormont.

The DUP and Sinn Féin however, remain deadlocked over the failure of republicans to endorse policing and the rule of law.

Northern Secretary Peter Hain again threw down the gauntlet to both sides to deliver on their obligations or face the inevitable and indefinite closure of Stormont.

BN.ie

22/11/2006 - 09:32:35

Shell Ireland has said that it is hopeful that progress can be made in finding agreement on the modified route for its onshore pipeline.

Up to 40 Shell to Sea protestors attended an open evening organised by the company last night.

Shell has applied for foreshore licensing to carry out marine surveys as part of its work on the alternative route.

Residents are concerned about the environmental impact of the pipeline on local conservation sites, and the local water supply.

Shell spokesman John Egan said that the meeting brought the two sides together.

BN.ie

22/11/2006 - 10:59:38

The North’s main agricultural show could be staged on the site of the former Maze Prison, it was confirmed today.

The British government said the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society, which stages the annual Balmoral Show in Belfast, had inquired about relocating their showgrounds to the site of the former prison outside Lisburn, Co Antrim where a 42,000 seat multi-sports stadium is also being planned.

The RUAS formally asked the government if it would be willing to sell 40 acres of the former prison as a zone for rural, equestrian and associated showgrounds use.

Northern Ireland Office Culture Minister David Hanson said: “The potential development of the Maze/Long Kesh site continues to gather considerable momentum.

“The RUAS interest in the regeneration proposal is another positive step towards turning the Maze/Long Kesh concept into reality.”

BN.ie

22/11/2006 - 13:51:28

Northern secretary Peter Hain today reiterated to the province’s parties that if they are not prepared to make key moves by Friday there would be no point in proceeding with devolution.

He told Democratic Unionists at Commons question time that it was not a question of them “jumping first” in their dispute with Sinn Féin on supporting police and the rule of law.

Mr Hain warned that if the parties were not prepared to indicate their nominations on Friday for first and deputy first minister, “what is the point of proceeding”.

He said DUP statements appearing to suggest it could be some years after Sinn Féin endorsed the Police Service of Northern Ireland before unionists could consider supporting the transfer of policing and justice powers were “hardly an encouragement”.

The Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Bill being rushed through the Lords today sets out a timetable for reviving devolution by March 26. If would create a transitional Assembly from this Friday.

The North’s hopes of securing power sharing by March 26 are dependent on the DUP and Sinn Féin resolving their dispute over republican support for policing and the rule of law.

The DUP wants Sinn Féin to publicly endorse the PSNI.

However Sinn Féin insists it cannot do that until it holds a special party conference to change its policy.

Mr Hain told shadow Northern secretary David Lidington: “If inflammatory statements are made about never devolving policing and justice in my lifetime, in my political lifetime … then that is hardly an encouragement to Sinn Féin to move as quickly as we want them to on policing.

“They are already cooperating on policing as they need to do … but if it is a question of moving this process forward and using statements like ‘never in my lifetime’ when Parliament has expressly legislated for the devolution of policing and justice, then its hardly an encouragement for those who need to fulfil their obligations on policing and the rule of law to do so very quickly.”

The DUP’s Nigel Dodds (Belfast N) said: “Asking parties to designate, nominate or indicate on Friday who people will be to take up certain offices in the future is asking people to jump first before Sinn Féin have made the slightest move whatsoever in terms of support for policing.

“Indeed they have retreated … demanding that they get their hands on the levers of power over policing before they support policing.”

Mr Hain replied: “It is not a question of jumping first. If there is not a willingness to express even an intention to nominate on Friday for March 26, what is the point of proceeding?”

BBC

By Kevin Connolly
BBC Ireland correspondent

There was a fashion a few months back among politicians and commentators to come up with a definition of what political normality will look like in Northern Ireland when it eventually comes.

Murals have been a prominent symbol of segregation

I’m sure you can guess how they went, “You’ll know the troubles are finally over for good when unarmed police officers can stroll through Crossmaglen in South Armagh on morning patrol…”, that kind of thing.

Well, by the same token you’ll know that the province has a normal property market when house-hunting couples no longer have to keep an eye open for the Union Jacks or Irish tricolours on lamp-posts or the kerbstones painted in national colours which mark out different areas as “belonging” to one community or the other.

Sense of separateness

Those tribal markings are not there simply to serve as aggressive and hostile celebrations of identity - they are clearly designed to ensure that no-one of “the wrong sort” would even consider moving in.

In other words, they consolidate sectarianism in the housing market.

“I don’t want to know whether they are Protestant or Catholic. I’m interested in whether they are a good neighbour or not.”
Resident Michelle Irvine

UK homes - facts and figures

They tend to be found in lower-income housing areas (people further up the income scale tend to find more subtle forms of sectarian self-definition) and they are an important technique for reinforcing the sense of separateness and division which remains a defining characteristic of Northern Irish society even in this time of relative peace.

There are signs though, that all this could be beginning to change.

At Enniskillen, in County Fermanagh, a new red-brick development built in conjunction with a local housing association has been explicitly designed as a mixed community.

All the householders - Catholic, Protestant and Eastern European - have signed up to a contract in which they agree there’ll be no fluttering flags or painted kerbstones. Carran Crescent in effect, will be neutral ground.

One of the first residents, Michelle Irvine said simply: ” I want to mix with all different kinds. I don’t want to know whether they are Protestant or Catholic. I’m interested in whether they are a good neighbour or not.”

Now admittedly, as signs of hope go, this is a fairly small one - 94% of social housing in Northern Ireland is still effectively segregated along sectarian lines.

But it is hope nonetheless. There are plans for integrated schemes in more small towns around the province, and even for a city centre area in Belfast not far from the Shankill Road, one of the historic homes of uncompromising loyalism.

There’s no reason in theory why this kind of social experiment in the property sector can’t act as a catalyst for change in the future, just as the drive for integrated education has had an impact (albeit a less than overwhelming impact) on Northern Ireland’s tradition of sectarian schooling.

Significant hope

We know that changes in housing policy can be a significant hope for the future precisely because we know what a significant role that the issue played in the past.

One of the cases which helped give the Civil Rights movement momentum in 1968 was a decision by a council in Dungannon, County Tyrone, to award a local-authority-owned house to the unmarried secretary of a Protestant politician rather than to Catholic families with children who were on the housing waiting list.

In the early 1970s, when sectarian violence appeared to be running out of control, tens of thousands of men, women and children were forced to move house, mainly in Belfast, abandoning mixed streets in favour of safer areas where they could guarantee to be surrounded by ‘their own’.

Northern Ireland is more stable and more peaceful these days, and the residents of Carran Crescent are entitled to look to the future with optimism.

But there’s another sense too, in which stories about property these days in Northern Ireland have a more positive feel to them.

House prices in the province have been shooting up of late, even faster than those in Britain.

The city of Newry, just on the northern side of the Irish border, recorded the highest rise of any individual town over the last 10 years - 371%.

Now of course, that’s not straightforward good news - there are issues about the affordability of homes for first-time buyers, and for lower-income families.

But for Northern Ireland it is good news - after all, it means that the news here these days, is pretty much like the news elsewhere in the property price-obsessed UK.

Newshound

(Roy Garland, Irish News)

Paddy Joe McClean goes to the heart of the matter when addressing crucial issues. As a former chairman of the Civil Right Association he has long engaged in radical thinking and sought change during difficult times. In a recent discussion document ‘1998 Agreement – eight Years On’ based on pertinent questions, he suggests that the Belfast Agreement, posed new challenges – challenges that remain in the wake of St Andrews.

He takes for granted that successful power-sharing requires agreement on the territory to be governed.

On this ground he challenges Sinn Féin’s apparent determination to dismantle the state, which he argues is the “worst possible basis” on which to secure agreement because it fosters intransigence.

Shortly after St Andrews, Gerry Adams spoke in west Belfast and referred to past violence as one “phase of struggle”. The present phase would be judged in terms of whether it could “move us nearer to the Ireland that we have struggled so long to achieve”. Republicans, he said, were about ending British rule and the present “phase of transition” was moving us “towards a national republic”.

It was therefore a stepping stone towards a single Irish state. Already such words are being used to suggest that Sinn Féin is not serious about power-sharing and that Paisley has fallen into a trap.

The absolute requirement for consent to constitutional change has been accepted but Paddy Joe asks why no nationalist party north or south has actively sought unionist consent for unity? Most appear rather to have placed unity on the long finger, knowing perhaps that consent is not forthcoming. This would appear to imply acceptance of the status quo of two states on one island.

In view of this, Paddy Joe suggests that nationalists in the Republic – the majority on the island – spell out this reality to Northern nationalists so that unionist siege mentality can be lifted and normal politics begin to flourish in Northern Ireland? Failure so to do so is the single biggest factor keeping this society divided along sectarian lines.

Paddy Joe asks if Irish identity can only be expressed and enjoyed in a unitary Irish state and calls for new thinking on this. He refers to young nationalists and young unionists – beyond party structures and alongside trade unionists and others – who engaged in fresh thinking on internal reform rather than constitutional change during the Civil Rights era. This opened up new possibilities and incidentally was more effective in challenging old style unionism than violence ever was. Paddy Joe asks for similar fresh thinking so that old moulds can be finally broken. He did not expect a new approach to emerge from recent talks and has been proven right.

He now assumes that a carve up between two blocks is likely to follow to produce even more division.

Paddy Joe points out that unionists are from the same stock as the Presbyterians who founded the United Irishmen but they now seem entrenched in their thinking – as are most nationalists. Paddy Joe believes this is because nationalists withheld freedom from unionists and thus stymied fresh thinking on all sides. In seeking to push unionists towards unity they have reinforced the perception that ultimate extinction of unionism is the real goal.

In another published article Paddy Joe suggests that the actions of the two governments should be analysed in terms of their interests. These are, briefly – stability, secure borders, cooperation, European membership and partnership with America. The union as seen in this context is more secure than ever because it is protected by An Garda Siochana, the army of the Irish Republic and New Nationalism. Unionism in contrast has been deemed incapable of securing British and/or Irish interests.

The war is over and the art of politics is replacing armed combat with a more civilised verbal contest but the dismal rhetoric about unity remains to haunt us and restrict progress. Perhaps the rhetoric is designed for electoral purposes but it is not innocuous and many unionists suspect that behind the rhetoric lies a real threat. It perpetuates the impression that the war is NOT over and foments instability. The time has surely come to lift the siege and set the hostages free – unionist and nationalist alike – by a genuine commitment to a shared future for all in a new Northern Ireland intimately linked with our neighbours – to the south and east.

November 21, 2006
________________

This article appeared first in the November 20, 2006 edition of the Irish News.

BN.ie

21/11/2006 - 16:12:21

A cross party delegation joined forces today to call for an independent commission over the controversial Corrib gas pipe line.

The campaign against the 9km high pressured pipe line through Rossport, Co Mayo heightened as six public representatives backed local residents’ demands.

Activists earlier stressed they planned to step up their campaign of civil disobedience by organising ways to disrupt workers entering and leaving the gas compound.

Campaigners also revealed a detailed list of myths and realities surrounding the project.

The Shell to Sea campaign group has outlined 15 myths they claim were circulated by Shell throughout the planning process.

They include the company’s agreement to re-route the pipe line away from Rossport, the project having gone through a thorough planning process, gas prices being cut on completion of the pipe line and the project creating hundreds of jobs in the Erris region.

Shell to Sea, which has cancelled its day of solidarity planned for next Friday for fear of tough measures from Gardaí, says it is not against the project but opposed the placing of a high pressure pipe line close to home.

The rainbow coalition backing the campaigners boasts Jerry Cowley, Independent TD for Mayo; Trevor Sargent TD, Leader of the Green Party; Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris; Joe Higgins TD, Socialist Party; Michael D Higgins TD, President of the Labour Party; and Independent Senator David Norris.

The Dáil colleagues, who rarely support each other, have on this occasion vowed to stand side by side on an issue which has divided the small Mayo community.

As workers from the vicinity are bussed in to work at the construction of the terminal at Bellanaboy, near Belmullet, and surrounding quarries, neighbours, friends and relatives are often among the protestors outside.

Violent scenes have erupted at the site in recent weeks with gardaí accused of taking aggressive action against peaceful protesters.

Mr Cowley rejected recent reports outsiders were at the helm of protests.

“This campaign is ruled by local people,” said Mr Cowley.

“The people down there are honest, law abiding, gentle people set upon in an appalling way.

“They have a right to protest. I have never seen anybody raise a fist to a garda.”

The local TD also called for a referendum to strengthen the rights of the people of Ireland in conjunction with a referendum to be held on the rights of the child.

He claims article 10 of the constitution leaves a way for the Government to alienate to a considerable degree what is the property of the Irish people.

“I think the Constitution needs to be strengthened, it is failing to protect our natural resources,” he added.

The delegation highlighted that Irish residents would not benefit from cheaper gas bills, and accused the Government of dodgy dealings in issuing its licence to Shell.

Mr Higgins said the Labour party supported the campaign group’s calls for an independent commission.

He told how one young student in his Galway constituency was struck in the face, kicked in the back and pushed on top of other activists by gardaí as she took part in a peaceful protest outside a quarry.

“I totally oppose provocation to violence and violence itself,” he added.

Mr Norris stressed that the forcefulness of gardaí is against the civil right to protest.

He said it is absolutely abominable to get gardaí to take actions against Irish citizens on behalf of a multinational company, and that harmony in the area had been replaced by bitterness and division aided and abetted by the Government.

“It is a civil right to protest peacefully,” he added.

BN.ie

21/11/2006 - 18:09:14

The Northern Assets Recovery Agency has frozen over one and a half million pounds of property in Manchester, mostly belonging to a couple from Co Louth closely related to a man alleged to be a leading member of the IRA.

The agency claims the assets are the proceeds of money laundering, fuel smuggling and mortgage fraud.

Nine residential properties in Manchester belonging to Francis and Judy Murphy of Ballybinaby, Co Louth, and one property belonging to a Manchester businessman are in the freezing order.

Francis Murphy is a brother of Thomas Slab Murphy, alleged to be the IRA’s chief of staff.

The agency told the High Court that Mr and Mrs Murphy built their property portfolio on wealth derived from money laundering and fuel smuggling in Ireland.

The properties include two houses owned by Mrs Murphy plus a further seven properties registered to the couple’s property firm.

BBC

The former chief executive of the NI forensic laboratory may have handled the timer power unit from the Omagh bomb, Belfast Crown Court has heard.

In an email, Richard Adams suggested he might have touched the device.

The defence said his actions showed a “casual disregard for maintaining the forensic integrity of the device”.

Sean Hoey, 37, of Molly Road, Jonesborough, denies 58 charges including the murder of 29 people in Omagh in 1998.

Dr Ruth Griffin was the lead scientist on the Omagh bomb forensic review.

Months after she was appointed in 2001, she got an email from the then director of the forensic laboratary, Richard Adams.

Mr Adams, a forensic specialist, said that after the timer power unit, or detonation system of the Omagh bomb arrived in the laboratory, he went to have a look.

He said he did not remember touching it, but added: “Who knows?”

Dr Griffin said, at the time, the examination of the timer power unit had apparently been concluded and Mr Adams was alerting her to the need to eliminate his DNA profile, were it to turn up in later, more sensitive tests of the device.

The case continues