SAOIRSE32

BBC

One of the teenagers accused of murdering a schoolboy has been refused bail after the High Court was told that he may have struck the fatal blow.

Michael McIlveen died after being attacked in Ballymena

Michael McIlveen, 15, died after being attacked by a gang in Ballymena in May.

Mervyn Moon, 18, of Douglas Terrace in the town, is one of seven men and juveniles charged with murder.

A prosecution lawyer said he had told police how he struck the teenager with a baseball bat. Michael had been kicked and beaten during the sectarian attack.

She said four of the defendants had already been released on bail.

However, Mr Moon’s application was being opposed because police believed he was one of the main offenders and, on his own admission, could potentially have struck the fatal blow.

A defence barrister said he could live at an address in Randalstown which would get over police fears about interference with witnesses, whom the prosecution had described as “young and vulnerable”.

Refusing bail, Lord Justice Sheil said Mr Moon had admitted his involvement in what he described as “this tragic affair”.

BBC

A leading member of the Loyalist Volunteer Force has been found guilty of the murder of Portadown grandmother Elizabeth O’Neill.

William James Fulton, 38, from Queen’s Walk in Portadown faced a total of 62 terrorist-related offences.

Elizabeth O’Neill died in an explosion at her home in the mainly loyalist Corcrain estate in Portadown.

She picked up a bomb which had been thrown at her house while she had been watching television in 1999.

Her murder is just one of a catalogue of 48 offences Fulton was convicted of at Belfast Crown Court - including seven attempted murders, directing terrorism and membership of the LVF.

He was also found guilty of possession of the gun which killed Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick at the height of the Drumcree dispute in 1996.

The trial of Jim Fulton, and his co-accused 56-year-old Muriel Gibson with an address at Clos Trevithick in Cornwall, is the longest-running trial in Northern Ireland’s legal history.

It took six months for the judge to consider nine months of evidence.

Gibson was found not guilty of the murder of Catholic council worker Adrian Lamph in 1998, but guilty of impeding the apprehension of those who did kill him.

Fulton has been sentenced to life imprisonment. A judge is now deciding how long he will have to serve.

Gibson was remanded in custody pending sentence.

BBC

A number of buildings have been evacuated in Strabane after workmen found a suspected pipe bombs hidden in a plastic barrel buried in the ground.

Police said they believed the barrel was being used as a transit hide.

The Glenside Adult Training Centre and the district council offices at Derry Road have been cleared.

Paramedics have also been moved from a nearby ambulance station. The area has been cordoned off while Army bomb experts examine the scene.

BBC

4 December 2006

Once Belfast’s Waterfront area was a forgotten wasteland, with plenty of industrial architecture but little living industry.

The sangars are to be removed and the area pedestrianised

CHANGE ALONG THE LAGAN >>click for pictures

The government set about changing things through Laganside Corporation 17 years ago, which used public money to attract private investors to the banks of the River Lagan.

The result was a transformed city centre. Laganside is about to be wound up, but not before one last project - removing the security that kept the bombers away from the city’s law courts.

Laganside Corporation’s final infrastructure programme is funding a £1.5m Streetscape scheme to transform Chichester Street in front of the courts.

It will see the removal of the last security barriers and sangars in the city centre creating a link between Laganside, Victoria Square and the city centre.

Tony Hopkins, the chairman of Laganside Corporation said that it was important”.

Years of change

“It has been one of the targets not simply to revitalise the riverside area but to make sure it integrates with the city centre,” he said.

He said the link, to be completed in spring 2007, would open the area to cyclists and pedestrians.

“We’ve had 17 years of great change in Belfast - it’s hard to remember what it was like before that,” he said.

He said that 14,000 jobs had been created in the area over the years and that they had made sure the local population did benefit and that they had kept close to the local community.

“We were not very happy with the idea of creating jobs which all went to people from North Down or Antrim,” he said.

He added that they hoped developments in the area would continue.

“What we have been trying to do is provide a platform so it is now up to others - the DSD, city council and private developers - to take on the momentum £1bn will have been invested by March 2007 over our period of life and that I hope is just a start,” he said.

Mr Hopkins said that 2m tourists in a year meant that Belfast was firmly on the map and that there had been a “ripple effect” for the city in the development of these areas.

The changes are not just in the removal of the high profile defensive installations, but also in the sort of buildings that are now being erected in the city.

“When we started some of the buildings were built to be bomb proof - because it was pre the ceasefire, that far back,” he said.

“Now the buildings that are coming forward are much more interesting we are bringing new architects in all the time because this is the place to be doing business.”

NEWSHOUND

(Irish News)

The daughter of one of the victims of the McGurk’s bar murder has called for the only man convicted for his part in the north Belfast attack to reveal the whole truth.

Yesterday (Monday) marked the 35th anniversary of the death of 15 people, including children, and the injury of 16 others when a bomb placed in the hallway of the North Queen Street bar by a UVF gang detonated.

Robert Campbell, a self-confessed UVF member, was given 16 life sentences for his involvement. He was the driver of the car but the actual bomber was never apprehended.

Pat Irvine, the daughter of victim Kathleen Irvine, has again called for Campbell to let victims’ families know what happened that day.

“I have lived with it for 35 years but the total truth may help alleviate some of its hurt,” she said.

“Now again I ask you to tell me the whole truth and let me live out my days knowing that my mother’s name and the names of all the other victims are cleared. You can do that to help clear your conscience and teach your children the truth. Let us all learn the true story of that fateful night,” she said.

The attack was one of the deadliest of the Troubles and only the Omagh bomb claimed more lives in a single incident.

The Police Ombudsman’s Office is carrying out a review of the first police investigation into the attack.

Relatives of those who died launched a website – www.themcgurksbarmassacre.com – to coincide with the anniversary.

Those who died were: Philomena McGurk (46), Marie McGurk (14), James Cromie (13), John Colton (49), Thomas McLaughlin (55), David Milligan (52), James Smyth (58), Francis Bradley (61), Thomas Kane (49), Kathleen Irvine (53), Philip Garry (75), Edward Kane (29), Edward Keenan (69), Sarah Keenan (58) and Robert Spotswood (38).

December 7, 2006
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This article appeared first in the December 5, 2006 edition of the Irish News.

NEWSHOUND

(William Graham, Irish News)

SDLP, DUP, UUP and Alliance assembly members warned yesterday (Tuesday) that plans to cut the number of councils from 26 to seven could lead to political “repartition”.

A motion in the transitional assembly by the SDLP’s Tommy Gallagher expressed alarm that seven ’super councils’ would “centralise services, remove jobs and resources from many areas and underpin sectarianism and community division”.

A Sinn Féin motion in support of the seven councils plan was defeated 44 to 16 votes, while a SDLP motion against the ’super councils’ was carried. Sinn Féin however reaffirmed its support for the new arrangements, saying they would be underpinned by power-sharing, equality and social inclusion.

Mr Gallagher said he believed the plan was totally inappropriate and would lead to rates hikes in some areas as they take on the burden of larger towns.

“It will lead to over-centralisation at the expense of rural areas and to Balkanisation.”

Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey argued the seven-council model provided for greater cohesion.

“The smaller number of councils you have… you force more parties to work together.”

But the DUP’s Peter Weir claimed the changes would cost up to £120 million in redundancies, pensions and other costs.

Alliance’s Sean Neeson also said the model represented a “sectarian carve-up” between east and west.

December 7, 2006
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This article appeared first in the December 6, 2006 edition of the Irish News.

BN.ie

07/12/2006 - 08:30:27

Catholic bishops have strongly criticised plans by the British government to close down hundreds of schools in the North.

The bishops claim the move will radically undermine the education system they have built up over many years.

They say the proposals pose a serious threat to the right of parents to choose a Catholic education for their children.

The British government says it will be holding further meetings to discuss the moves where the bishops can raise their concerns.

BBC

An Irish government official forced to move from Belfast to Dublin four months ago after a loyalist death threat is back working in Northern Ireland.

The Irish diplomat is back working in Belfast

Aine de Baroid was working with Irish President Mary McAleese’s husband, Martin, in his outreach work with loyalist communities.

She moved in August after being told by the PSNI the threat was “credible”.

The Irish foreign affairs department is currently building a high security residence for its officials in Belfast.

The threat, widely condemned at the time, was made by a breakaway faction of the Ulster Defence Association paramilitary group.

Ms de Baroid - one of an estimated 30 Irish civil servants based in Belfast and Armagh - works for the British-Irish Secretariat.

The Ulster Political Research Group, which is linked to the UDA, said in August they had a “fantastic relationship” with Ms de Baroid.

Spokesman Frankie Gallagher described her as “non-political” and said he would continue to work with her.

He said he “could not see” anyone from the UDA, UVF or Red Hand Commando being behind the threat.