SAOIRSE32

**I ordinarily do not re-post articles written by Cusack, but this is timely, important, and bears rebuttal if anyone cares to do so and can.

By Jim Cusack
Sunday Independent
Sunday December 09 2007

One of the key suspects who is believed to have delivered the fatal blows with an iron bar to the young south Armagh man, Paul Quinn, was a Sinn Fein worker at the time of the murder, it has emerged.

The man, in his early 20s, was named in statements which were given to gardai investigating the murder. A house was subsequently searched and the man, a member of a well known republican family with close ties to both Sinn Fein and the IRA, is expected to be formally questioned in the near future.

The man was part of the IRA unit which had been tracking the 21-year-old for weeks before he was lured to a disused cattle shed at Oram, Co Monaghan just over the Border from his home in Cullyhanna, Co Armagh on October 20 last.

In the immediate aftermath of the murder the Sinn Fein leadership issued a succession of statements and made TV appearances denouncing the murder as the work of “criminals” and said there was no republican involvement. This denial of “republican” involvement was welcomed by both governments.

However, Garda sources have confirmed that at least one of the prime suspects in the killing was, at the time, an active Sinn Fein worker as well as being a member of the IRA in south Armagh. His family is also well known as being prominently involved in smuggling and diesel laundering.

According to local sources it now appears that the south Armagh IRA had a list of up to a dozen local young men who were suspected of “anti-social” activities but that almost all were taken off a list for a punishment beating because their families had links to the IRA. Paul Quinn’s family has no IRA links.

The killing has created severe divisions in the area extending even into the local GAA and there is no sign of the campaign by family supporters to have the killers brought to justice subsiding.

The campaigners have challenged Sinn Fein over why, despite publicly denouncing the murder, none of its local representatives — including the local MP and Stormont minister, Conor Murphy — attended Paul Quinn’s funeral.

The Quinn Support Group said: “Over the last few weeks they have expressed strong opinions on everything from rates relief to the Warm Homes Scheme and social housing, as they should, but on the matter of brutal premeditated murder they have nothing to say.

“These councillors knocked on all our doors at election times, pledging their support for us if we would give our support to them. And we did. But when payback time came — when a family was faced with just about the most horrific event anyone is ever likely to face — they were nowhere to be seen.”

And the local SDLP MLA, Dominic Bradley challenged Sinn Fein’s Conor Murphy over his statement that he had met the local IRA leadership who had assured him there was no IRA involvement.

Mr Bradley said: “Conor Murphy could start by telling the gardai and the PSNI who gave him ‘very solid’ assurances that no Provos were involved. It is for the police, and not politicians, to assess the value, if any, to be given to such assurances. We have heard them before. Gerry Adams got ’solid assurances’ when Frank Kerr was shot dead at Newry Post Office, and he got more when Detective Garda Jerry McCabe was shot dead in Adare.

“He (Murphy) should also tell the police where and when the assurances were given.

“Did he drop into South Armagh Battalion HQ for a chat in the officers’ mess, or did he go straight to the OC of the Cullyhanna Unit? Did he use the ministerial car? If he did, the ministerial driver should be questioned about where he went and who he met.

“Political interference in a murder inquiry is a very serious matter, particularly at ministerial level. Conor Murphy should look to his pledge of office. On my reading it does not permit ministerial consultation with criminal paramilitary gang leaders who may themselves be suspects in a murder inquiry.”

Sinn Fein last week continued to deny there was any “republican” involvement in the killing.

Newshound

(William Graham, Irish News)

Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson is to speak at a Sinn Féin conference in Dublin this weekend on the subject of community safety and policing.

This will be the first time that such a senior policing figure will attend a Sinn Féin conference since republicans signed up to the Policing Board and district policing partnerships.

Mr Hutchinson will take part in a section of the conference on policing alongside TDs Aengus O Snodaigh and Martin Ferris and assembly member Alex Maskey.

Mr Hutchinson, previously police oversight commissioner, took over as ombudsman from Nuala O’Loan last month.

The weekend conference is entitled ‘Engaging Modern Ireland’.

Themes on the conference agenda include economic development, community safety and policing, climate change and ‘new Irish communities’.

There will be a keynote address from party president Gerry Adams.

December 8, 2007
________________

This article appeared first in the December 7, 2007 edition of the Irish News

By Ciarán Barnes
Irelandclick
12/07/2007

The vast majority of applicants to the PSNI still come from the Protestant community, latest statistics reveal.
Figures quoted in the House of Commons on Monday show that over the past four years 58 per cent of police officer applicants were Protestants, compared to just 38 per cent Catholics.
In terms of those employed, Catholics have a slight advantage over Protestants, with 50 per cent coming from the Catholic faith compared to 49 per cent from a Protestant background.
The current religious make-up of the PSNI is 77 per cent Protestant and 21 per cent Catholic, whereas the population of the North is 44 per cent Protestant and 40 per cent Catholic.
If PSNI recruitment continues at the current rate it could be 20 years before personnel levels reflect the religious make-up of the North.
The Patten Report, which formed the blueprint for policing reforms, said the PSNI religious breakdown should reflect the population by 2011.

Recruitment

SDLP Policing Board member Dolores Kelly believes current recruitment procedures are working and that more Catholics are joining the force.
“There has been a huge change in recent years. When I was growing up I didn’t know a police officer, now I have friends whose children are in the PSNI,” she said.
“Catholics are joining the PSNI at an increased rate, you just don’t get to hear about it because of threats from dissident republicans.
“Unfortunately, Catholic police officers and their parents cannot always let people know what they do for a living.”
Ulster Unionist Policing Board representative Basil McCrea insists the current PSNI recruitment process is striving to “get the right balance”.
“We have hugely more applicants than we have places available – something like eight applicants for every one vacancy,” he said.
“I’ve been to the training centre and I’ve spoken to the new recruits. I have absolutely no doubts we are getting the cream of the crop.
“The only concern I have is the imbalance in Catholic women applying. This is something we need to address.”

By Laura Noonan
Irish Independent
Saturday December 08 2007

THE Sachs Hotel case returns to full hearing in the Four Courts next week, more than a decade after accusations of money laundering and IRA connections ensured the row first hit the headlines.

The owners of the prestigious Morehampton Road property, Crofter Ltd, have been trying to sever links with the hotel’s tenants Genport Ltd, since the mid-1990s.

Earlier this year, the courts ruled that while Genport had to pay €1m in rent arrears, the company was entitled to renew its lease on the hotel.

The million euro has since been paid, but Crofter is now asking the big business division of the High Court to over-turn Genport’s right to continue to rent the property.

The case begins this Tuesday and is due to last four days, a reasonably long spell by Commercial Court standards.

The original row centred on Crofter’s efforts to remove Genport as tenants following IR£690,000 of rent arrears which accumulated between August 1993 and November 1995.

When the case began in late 1995, proceedings were quickly enlivened when Genport’s Philip Smyth told the court that phone lines linked to hotel owner Hugh Tunney had been responsible for calls made to the UK authorities alleging that Mr Smyth had been laundering drug money for the IRA through the hotel, with the help of his brother, who was a garda chief superintendent.

The phone call allegation, which was denied by Crofter and Mr Tunney, prompted Genport to seek damages from Crofter and Mr Smyth was given permission to apply to the English court to bring two UK detectives to Ireland to testify about the phone calls.

In 2002, the High Court found that the calls had been made by Hugh Tunney’s secretary Caroline Devine, and awarded IR£50,000 in “general damages” to Genport, along with IR£250,000 in exemplary damages.

Those awards were later appealed to the Supreme Court which, in 2005, upheld the IR£50,000 award and replaced the IR£250,000 award with an award for IR£100,000.

By Alana Fearon
Irelandclick
12/07/2007

In the wake of the renewed death threats, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (CSM) has denied republican involvement in the campaign.
Questioning the very authenticity of the threats, the political analysis movement accused SF and the Government of concocting the death threats together in a bid to criminalise and “ultimately destroy” republicanism.
“The activity of these criminal gangs serves the combined interests of Sinn Fein and the broader British establishment, including MI5” a statement from the 32CSM said.
“Whatever their agenda is, it is not a republican one and it should be noted that they have done nothing to challenge British rule militarily or politically.
“For the record, republicans have nothing to gain from threatening or attacking Sinn Féin members.
“Indeed it would be a counterproductive exercise.
“The obstacles facing republicans are enormous but we are determined to surmount them and to rebuild the strength of the movement.”

Newshound

Barry McCaffrey
Irish News
December 8, 2007

Churchmen, community leaders and politicians in north Belfast yesterday (Thursday) demanded an end to dissident republican death threats against Sinn Féin councillor Breige Meehan.

More than 100 people attended a public meeting in the Ardoyne area yesterday to condemn a recent campaign of intimidation against Breige Meehan, whose husband Martin died from a heart attack last month.

The couple had both received a number of death threats in the weeks before the veteran republican’s death.

Mr Meehan had been searching the area outside his home after a bomb hoax just before he died.

However, since her husband’s death Mrs Meehan has continued to be targeted, with two hoax bomb alerts at her home earlier this week.

Ardoyne priest Fr Aidan Troy called for an immediate end to the threats.

“I think it’s particularly disgusting that a woman, who has just lost her husband, is being targeted in this way,” he said.

“I don’t know what these people think they are achieving by putting a grieving grandmother through such pain but I can tell them that they don’t have the support of this community.

“These attacks must stop now.”

Sinn Féin assembly member Gerry Kelly said there was anger within the community that Mrs Meehan was being targeted.

“There have been scores of these death threats against Breige Meehan and other republicans in recent months,” he said.

“It’s ironic that someone who endured a lifetime of harassment and intimidation at the hands of the British and loyalists is now being targeted by a micro-group which has absolutely no support within this community.”

Anzacs and Ireland by Jeff Kildea is published by Cork University Press.

This article appeared first in the December 7, 2007 edition of the Irish News.

By Aine McEntee
Irelandclick
12/07/2007

The pinup of the UDA in North Belfast Andre Khaled Shoukri is behind bars this week after a judge sentenced him to nine years after he attempted to swindle thousands of pounds from a North Belfast pub owner.
The jailing of Shoukri and two of his cohorts led police to declare that the UDA’s leadership in North Belfast is now a spent force.
In all Shoukri (30), known to his cohorts as “the big man” was jailed on a total of 18 charges including blackmail, intimidation and acquiring and using criminal property in 2004.
Jailed with him was John “Bonzer” Boreland, (38) from Sunningdale Gardens, on four charges of blackmail, one of intimidation and one of possessing a firearm, or imitation firearm to commit assault and 25-year-old Terry Harbinson from Tyndale Gardens, Belfast, who admitted charges of blackmail and intimidation and possession.
Boreland was also given nine years, while Harbinson was jailed for seven years.
A former Met policeman, 47-year-old, Ian Peter Craig of Garland Hill, Manse Road, Belfast, turned mortgage adviser, who aided and abetted, counselled or procured Shoukri in the dishonest obtaining of a money transfer was freed when his two-year jail term was suspended for three years.
However, because Shoukri and Boreland have already served two years in jail awaiting sentence, under the 50 per cent remission rule, both men could be back out on the streets within three-and-a-half years.
Belfast Crown Court heard how Shoukri used his UDA status to force the owners of a North Belfast bar to hand over cash.
Throughout the trial they remained known only as Witness A, a woman from England, and her Ulster-born partner Witness B.
“Shoukri was very aggressive and angry and demanded money be paid to him then and there – it was,” Gordon Kerr the prosecution’s barrister said.

Republican Sinn Fein
http://rsf.ie

Kilkenny Republican Sinn Féin
December 2007

Picket for Republican prisoners in Kilkenny City

Kilkenny Republican Sinn Féin held a very successful picket in Kilkenny city on Saturday December 8. The picket was held at the Town Hall on High St between 1pm and 2.30pm. Members of Kilkenny Republican Sinn Féin were joined by Republicans from Waterford, Wexford and Kildare.

Leaflets were handed out explaining the situation of the Republican prisoners in Maghaberry, whilst copies of the Republican paper SAOIRSE were sold. Addressing the crowd Republican Sinn Féin Vice President Des Dalton, Kildare, said that the Republican prisoners in Maghaberry were locked in a struggle to vindicate the right political status for which Bobby Sands and his comrades died on hunger strike in 1981.

“These rights, won on the back of the sacrifice of Republican prisoners since 1917 were signed away by the Provisionals in 1998 when they signed the Stormont Agreement, the Republican prisoners in Maghaberry are in a struggle against the latest attempt by Britain and native collaborators to criminalise Republican prisoners and by extension the historic struggle for Irish freedom,” Des Dalton said.

The chairperson of Kilkenny Republican Sinn Féin Ger Foran said that as long as there was British rule in Ireland it would be met by resistance: “That is the lesson of Irish history, the fact that in 2007 there are Republican prisoners in Maghaberry and Portlaoise prisons testifies to this” he said.

Emmet Gladney, a member of the executive of Kilkenny Republican Sinn Féin said that Republican prisoners are in British and 26-County jails: “Because they refuse to recognise British courts, British laws, accept British money or British rule in any shape or form. They are in jail because they are loyal to the 32-county Irish Republic.”

Ends. For Confirmation: Ger Foran: 085 1352035

Guardian

Henry McDonald
Sunday December 9, 2007
The Observer

Al Hutchinson, Northern Ireland’s new Police Ombudsman, faces his first major challenge: to question Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde and ex-RUC boss Sir Ronnie Flanagan over collusion allegations.

Hutchinson will receive a demand later this week from Raymond McCord that his office interview the two top policemen over the case of convicted loyalist paramilitary Mark Haddock. McCord’s son Raymond Junior was killed by the UVF unit Haddock controlled. He wants the Ombudsman to ask why Haddock was kept on as a Special Branch informer almost three years after he was exposed as committing crimes while serving as a paid state agent.

Under the legislation established at the time the Ombudsman’s office was set up, the police overseer’s inquiry team must investigate all complaints from the public about policing matters in Northern Ireland.

Earlier this year, the first Police Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, revealed in her Operation Ballast report that Haddock carried out several murders, beatings and gun attacks while working for the security forces.

In her report, she found Haddock had been paid £80,000 for information, even while his Mount Vernon UVF unit conducted a reign of terror in North Belfast and Mid Ulster.

McCord, whose son was beaten to death by the Mount Vernon gang on Haddock’s orders 10 years ago, will hand in a letter to the Ombudsman this Wednesday which he wrote to Orde in 2000. Based on information from a senior RUC officer, the letter revealed that Haddock was killing and ordering murders while being a agent of the state. He wants the Ombudsman to probe why Haddock remained an agent until 2003.

‘I want to ask Al Hutchinson to bring both Hugh Orde and Ronnie Flanagan into this investigation. This is much more than just my desire to get justice for young Raymond. There were other families affected by the Mount Vernon UVF; they deserve to know why the man ordering the deaths of their loved ones was a paid agent right up to 2003,’ McCord said.

The human rights campaigner will be accompanied to the Police Ombudsman’s office on Wednesday by Paul McIlwaine, whose son David, along with Andrew Robb, was beaten and stabbed to death by the Mid Ulster UVF in 2000.

McIlwaine is making a separate complaint on Wednesday over allegations that the UVF’s commander in Tandragee, Co Armagh, was allowed to work on security forces’ bases, despite being a suspect in the double murder.