SAOIRSE32

BBC

The Northern Ireland Assembly’s deputy speaker has said a claim that he has been a police informer is “rubbish”.

The DUP’s David Simpson claimed Sinn Fein’s Francie Molloy had been working as an informer for almost 30 years.

The Upper Bann MP used parliamentary privilege to make the allegation in the House of Commons.

He claimed Mr Molloy was recruited by police in 1979 after being caught in a compromising position and provided information which damaged the IRA.

The Upper Bann MP also claimed in the Commons that Mr Molloy had been involved in the murder of Frederick Lutton. The former RUC Reservist, who was shot dead in Tyrone in May 1979, was Mr Simpson’s cousin.

In the Commons on Wednesday, Mr Simpson said: “Molloy passed on information to the police in Northern Ireland. This helped them to break open the IRA’s notorious East Tyrone Brigade.

“Prior to Molloy’s recruitment, the East Tyrone Brigade had been virtually impregnable. After it they suffered setbacks taking direct hits and losing personnel.”

Mr Molloy said he had nothing to fear from republicans because they knew the allegations were untrue.

He also challenged David Simpson to repeat his allegations outside the House of Commons, where he would not have legal protection for the remarks.

Mr Molloy said: “Unionist death squads in the past never stopped me going about my work representing Sinn Fein and the people who elect me.

“A unionist MP standing up in the British House of Commons will not succeed in this either.”

Irish Times

22/11/2007

Politicians from Northern Ireland will be allowed for the first time to take part in the workings of the Dáil today.

MPs from the North have been invited to take part in a new committee of the Dáil parliament set up to help implement the Belfast Agreement.

While unionists are not expected to accept seats on the committee, the SDLP and Sinn Féin have welcomed it as a further step in developing all-Ireland relations. Its inaugural meeting will be held in Leinster House.

Northern Ireland representatives to the committee will include the SDLP’s south Belfast MP Alastair McDonnell, south Down MP Eddie McGrady, Sinn Féin Fermanagh/south Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew and Sinn Féin West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty.

They can take part in debates on the Belfast Agreement but cannot vote or move motions and amendments.

The committee has been criticised by the DUP as being unnecessary.

Derry Journal

20 November 2007

The INLA in Derry have given an alleged drug dealer 24 hours to leave the city.

A source close to the INLA said the man was given the ultimatum on Monday night.

The source said: “Members of the INLA went into a house in the Creggan area of Derry and ordered a man who is involved in drug dealing to leave the city within 24 hours or face action.

“The INLA have hard evidence that this man is involved in the supply and distribution of hard drugs in the area. The INLA have repeatedly made it clear that drugs will not be tolerated in our communities,” the spokesperson said.

Belfast Telegraph

By Ashleigh Wallace
Wednesday, November 21, 2007

A senior member of the DUP voiced his opposition last night to lowering the age of sexual consent in Northern Ireland from 17 to 16.

Justice Minister Paul Goggins yesterday revealed a raft of new legislation - including tougher sentences for serious sexual crimes and lowering the age of consent - which is due to be implemented next spring.

Mr Goggins said he was reducing the age of consent to bring Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK.

However, Upper Bann MP David Simpson, who is a representative on the Craigavon-based anti-abortion organisation Love For Life, claimed the new legislation would result in an increase in unwanted pregnancies, single-parent families, sexually transmitted infections and women seeking abortions.

The MLA said: “The country is in a moral mess and instead of loosening morals further, the Government should be embarking on a programme of education and responsible parenthood.

“The bringing of life into the world should be based on the love between two responsible adults rather than a casual fling between immature 16-year-olds.

“We are talking here about the bringing up of children in a tough world and lowering the age of consent would mean an increase in single parent families where teenagers - who should be enjoying life - are anchored with the responsibility of bringing up babies when they are neither old enough nor mature enough.”

Meanwhile, Chris Smallwoods from the Nexus organisation - a support group that works with survivors of sexual abuse - welcomed the proposals for tougher sentences for serious sex offences including those carried out against children.

Under the new legislation, anyone who commits a serious sexual assault could face life in prison.

Under present laws, rape is the only sex offence that carries this penalty.

Mr Smallwoods said: “Nexus has been around for 24 years and has always campaigned to ensure that children and other members of our community are protected.

“This new legislation seems to have three main goals and they are protection, justice and deterring.

“The issue is very much how this legislation will be applied and whether the judiciary is going to impose these tougher sentences.

“What’s the point in bringing in new legislation if judges are going to hand out piecemeal sentences?”

Newshound

(Seamus McKinney, Irish News)

A dissident republican in Derry has said police fractured his arm in three places during a search operation in the city.

Gary Donnelly, who is a member of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement, said police had denied him first aid after he was taken to Derry’s Strand Road police station despite his his injury

Mr Donnelly said police had stopped him at Foyle Street in Derry on Friday night.

Officers said they wanted to search him and when he asked them what legislation they were searching him under he was pushed to the ground, according to the Derry man.

“The officer, very forcefully with his two hands out, and he shoved me and he came at me a second time. I put my hands up,” Mr Donnelly said.

“He grabbed me and put me in a headlock, threw me to the ground and I think there were two or three officers came in behind and one of them, I believe, stuck a knee on my arm and cracked it.”

Mr Donnelly said he had realised immediately that his arm was broken and asked for an ambulance.

“They ignored it and proceeded to handcuff me, put my arm behind my back, put a handcuff on the bad arm,” he said.

Police took him to the Strand Road station, he said.

According to Mr Donnelly, despite his appeals for an ambulance, he received no medical attention until his solicitor took him to hospital upon his release about three hours later.

He said he believed he had been singled out because of his republican beliefs.

His colleague Patrick McDaid, who was with him at the time, said four police officers had been involved in the incident.

A police spokesman said a 36-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and disorderly behaviour.

He said the man had been released later pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service.

The spokesman said anyone with a complaint about the police should contact the Police Ombudsman’s office.

November 21, 2007
________________

This article appeared first in the November 20, 2007 edition of the Irish News.

BBC

21 Nov 2007

The government is to look at turning a former west Belfast police barracks into a commercial hub.

The police station closed in 2005

Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie said they wanted a focus for sustained economic development in the Andersonstown area.

The former Andersonstown Barracks was closed in 2005 and later torn down.

Earlier this month a developer scrapped plans for an apartment development on the site. Residents had staged a series of protests against the scheme.

The DSD is conducting a feasibility study into economic development opportunities for the area.

“It is widely recognised, both here and overseas, that economic regeneration is an important stimulus to areas blighted by deprivation and low levels of achievement,” Ms Ritchie said.

“The West Belfast and Greater Shankill task forces signalled the need for a comprehensive approach to economic regeneration and recognised that west Belfast risked falling behind the rest of the city if inward investment and the growth of local businesses were not adequately addressed.”

She said that the former barracks would be among the sites considered for the commercial hub.

Ms Ritchie said that the views of the local community would be “extremely important” in considering the way forward.

BBC

The Irish foreign minister has helped establish a scholarship in memory of murdered County Antrim teenager Michael McIlveen.

Mr Ahern spoke of a multi-ethnic society

Dermot Ahern was in Ballymena to attend the launch of peace and reconciliation initiative New Day.

It aims to encourage young people in the area to address their own sectarian prejudices.

The Irish government has given almost £60,000 towards the Michael McIlveen Scholarships.

The 15-year-old died after being attacked by a gang in Ballymena in May last year.

Several youths are awaiting trial in relation to the Catholic teenager’s death.

‘Do not realise’

Under the initiative, pupils from nine Protestant and Catholic schools will be chosen each year to work on special reconciliation projects.

Mr Ahern said the nine schools participating in the Ballymena Learning Together project had a role to play in decommissioning sectarian attitudes among young people.

“I suppose it is a catchphrase that young people are the future, but they are the future because young people now do not remember all the awful incidents we had - they don’t remember Enniskillen, they don’t remember the Omagh bombing, the Loughinisland shootings and all those terrible incidents,” he said on Wednesday.

“From that point of view, as one person said to me earlier this morning, we grow up in a way that perhaps we are bigoted and we do not realise we are bigoted.

“People need to break out of that and through projects like this with young people from schools learning at the very bottom they will realise there is a different life, particularly in the multi-ethnic society we have now.”

Kate Magee, the principal of St Patrick’s College where Michael was a pupil, said his murder had “acted as a catalyst” for action.

The 15-year-old died after being attacked by a gang in Ballymena

“The fact pupils from different schools have been involved in different groups means they are meeting children from other schools that they probably wouldn’t have met,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mr Ahern has backed a cross border campaign set up by the family of County Armagh murder victim Paul Quinn.

The 21-year-old died after he was savagely beaten at a farm shed in County Monaghan last month.

His family has launched a Justice For Paul campaign. Mr Ahern said people with information must come forward.

BBC

A loyalist band has called off a protest march it had planned to hold in Belfast on Saturday.

Last week, the Parades Commission banned the Pride of Raven from marching along Donegall Pass after complaints from South Belfast MLA Anna Lo.

The protest march was organised after police mistakenly gave address details of the band organiser to Ms Lo.

The band said it had decided to call off the parade after listening to a wide range of opinions.

In a statement, the band said the march had originally been organised to “highlight flaws in the procedures currently governing parades”.

Ms Lo said she was encouraged by the band’s decision.

“This will ensure that the good community relations work that has taken place in the area in recent years will not be put at risk,” the Alliance representative added.

BBC

The DUP’s David Simpson has claimed that Sinn Fein assembly member Francie Molloy had been working as a police informer for almost 30 years.

Mr Simpson (left) made the allegations against Mr Molloy (right)

The Upper Bann MP used parliamentary privilege to make the allegation in the House of Commons.

He said Mr Molloy was recruited by police in 1979 after being caught in a compromising position and provided information which damaged the IRA.

Mr Molloy, the assembly deputy speaker, rejected the claim as “rubbish”.

He said he had nothing to fear from republicans because they knew the allegations were untrue.

He also challenged David Simpson to repeat his allegations outside the House of Commons, where he would not have legal protection for the remarks.

In the Commons on Wednesday, Mr Simpson said: “Molloy passed on information to the police in Northern Ireland. This helped them to break open the IRA’s notorious East Tyrone Brigade.

“Prior to Molloy’s recruitment, the East Tyrone Brigade had been virtually impregnable. After it they suffered setbacks taking direct hits and losing personnel.”

However, Mr Molloy said: “Unionist death squads in the past never stopped me going about my work representing Sinn Fein and the people who elect me.

“A unionist MP standing up in the British House of Commons will not succeed in this either.”

Belfast Telegraph

Stormont Deputy speaker ‘linked to RUC man’s killing’

Thursday, November 22, 2007

An Assembly deputy speaker was last night linked to the murder of an RUC reservist and named as a police informer.

Sinn Fein’s Francie Molloy was a suspect in the killing of Eric Lutton, MPs were told in the Commons.

During a debate on policing in Northern Ireland, the DUP’s David Simpson, MP for Upper Bann, made a series of astonishing allegations against the senior executive politician.

He claims the Mid-Ulster MLA, a father-of-four, was “well-known for his sexual indiscretion” and was recruited to spy on the IRA after being caught in a “compromising position”.

Mr Simpson claimed the previously impregnable east Tyrone brigade of the IRA was broken open by the secrets passed on by Mr Molloy, but alleged information had been held back that cost innocent lives.

Frederick ‘Eric’ Lutton, a 40-year-old father-of-two, was shot dead on May 1, 1979, near Moy in Co Armagh.

The IRA claimed responsibility for killing the National Trust caretaker but no-one has ever faced charges.

Speaking under parliamentary privilege, Mr Simpson outlined the “story that needs to be told” about the events surrounding the killing of Mr Lutton, his cousin.

Mr Simpson told the Commons: “While at the family home, investigating officers discussed the case in front of Mr Lutton’s wife and his family.

“They identified one Mr Francie Molloy as a live suspect having a role in the killing.

“They discussed the need to pursue a further investigation of Mr Molloy.

“To a man, they agreed that this was a vital line of inquiry,” he said.

“Molloy was well known to the police yet none of this was ever fully investigated.

“Why was he not properly investigated?

” As well as being a suspect in the Lutton case and as well as being known to the police, Francie Molloy was also well known - and this information is from the police - for a series of sexual indiscretions.

“This was to rebound on Francie Molloy. Francie Molloy was caught by the security forces in a compromising position.

“As a result of this he was recruited as an informer for the police.

“During the years that followed Molloy passed on information to the police in Northern Ireland.

“This helped them to break open the IRA’s notorious East Tyrone Brigade. Prior to Molloy’s recruitment, the East Tyrone Brigade had been virtually impregnable.

“After it they suffered set backs, taking direct hits and losing personnel.

“Any right-thinking person would wish to welcome the fact that the police in Northern Ireland were able to run agents against the IRA but in this instance, even though Molloy was an informer, it is also true that during that time innocent people were attacked, injured and murdered and Molloy said or did nothing to prevent it. He was less than a willing informer.

“While he gave over enough information to help compromise the IRA in east Tyrone, the question still lingers as to whether he gave everything he knew.

“Any good that Molloy may have done acting as an informer against the IRA and helping to compromise the east Tyrone Brigade was more than cancelled out by this callous disregard for the lives of his neighbours.

” Today, Francie Molloy is deputy speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. He is also the Sinn Fein spokesman on victims. If ever anyone was wholly unsuitable for a such a position on victims, it’s Francie Molloy.”

Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie
Date: 21 November 2007

Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom

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In this issue:

1. RSF to picket RTÉ
2. Republican principles betrayed by Adams
3. British had secret role in loyalist gangs
4. Shell to Sea court cases in Mayo
5. RSF support classroom assistants
6. District Policing Partnership meeting halted
7. Derryman injured by RUC/PSNI
8. Book to be launched about the Fenians in Scotland
9. British District Policing Partnership meeting halted
10. Investigation into bombing of McGurk’s continues
11. Residents homes attacked by loyalists
12. Gaelscoil parents give their backing to immersion policy
13. Rsf attend launch of union campaign
14. Priests propose new Corrib option
15. Provos ‘silencing’ Colombia 3 author

1. RSF TO PICKET RTÉ

REPUBLICAN SINN FÉIN announced that they are to picket RTÉ’s Montrose Headquarters in Dublin on Saturday, 1st December. RSF National Publicity Officer, Richard Walsh, said that the protest was intended to counter-act censorship by the Broadcaster.

“During the Stormont election campaign within the Six Occupied Counties – preceding the March 7th poll, and our recent (103rd) Ard-Fheis in Dublin, RTÉ sought to deny us our voice. What is allegedly the National Broadcaster has effectively reintroduced the anti-democratic provisions of Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act in a bid to silence those opposed to the erosion of Irish National identity.

“We, as the oldest political organisation in the country, are determined to prevent the continuation of this policy. As such, we urge fellow citizens to defend Republican and democratic values by assembling at Nutley Lane, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 at 12 Noon.”

2. REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES BETRAYED BY ADAMS

ON NOVEMBER 16 a spokesperson for Republican Sinn Féin said that an offer by the Provisional leader as reported in the Irish Times to hold talks with what are described as ‘dissident Republicans’ is a new low in political hypocrisy.

Des Long, Corbally, Limerick, chairman of the Munster RSF Executive, said that whilst Gerry Adams may denounce the shooting of British police and claim that those responsible have no mandate, the same view could be applied to his actions down the years.

“Let the Provisional leader face the facts - the values held by what he now describes as ‘dissidents’ were once his own before he betrayed all Republican principles and sold out and surrendered to British rule in Ireland.

“Republicans who adhere to the traditional principles of the Movement cannot be described as ‘dissidents’ - it is the likes of Gerry Adams and those who support him who have left the Republican Movement.

“Not content with tarnishing Republicanism by embracing and administering British rule, Adams now wants to totally destroy the National aspiration to Irish unity by setting up all those true Republicans who continue to politically oppose the failed Stormont Agreement.

“The lessons of history teach us, however, that for as long as there is partition and an armed British presence in Ireland, it will be challenged and opposed by Irish people. Just like it was by Gerry Adams before he betrayed the principles of Irish Republicanism.”

3. BRITISH HAD SECRET ROLE IN LOYALIST GANGS

THE CURRENT action of the UDA in allegedly laying down their weapons is being masterminded by British military forces who were responsible for arming the Loyalist murder gangs initially, a spokesperson for Republican Sinn Féin said on November 13. Joe Lynch, Beechgrove Avenue, Limerick, Vice-Chairperson of Comhairle na Mumhan, said that the links between the British and loyalist gangs have yet to be publicly uncovered.

“What is known so far makes it clear that the British set up and armed loyalists with weapons from South Africa,” he said. “The extent of collusion between the British military and intelligence services and the loyalist murder gangs is only now emerging with the passage of time, but the real level of co-operation is still being hidden because of the political situation.

“Whilst the so-called commanders of the UDA are now strutting around with the air of self-important puppets, the real masterminds remain hidden in the ranks of the British military.

“The victims of the British-inspired loyalist gangs are men and women like Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson who worked tirelessly on behalf of the nationalist people who came into contact with the British police. It is these victims who should be recalled when the UDA claim they are putting their weapons beyond use.”

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