SAOIRSE32

BBC

A bomb left at a shop in Belfast city centre partially exploded during the night, police have said.

The device partially exploded in the store

Army bomb experts were sent to JJB Sports on Royal Avenue on Tuesday morning after the device was discovered.

Chief Inspector Trevor O’Neill said it was still too early to say who was behind the attack.

“It does not bear thinking about what might have happened if it had detonated when the store was full,” he said.

Mr O’Neill also urged business owners and their staff to be on the look out for suspicious objects.

“Devices can be left in garments, soft furnishings, and upholstery, anywhere that can catch fire easily or be concealed within other boxes or packages,” he said.

Police have appealed for anyone with information concerning the incident to contact them.

Derry Journal
27 May 2008

A Waterside man, who was viciously beaten by a gang, believes he was attacked for speaking out about his murdered son.

Gilbert Thompson - whose son Darren was shot dead in a loyalist feud in 2004 - was set upon in broad daylight and savagely beaten as he made his to his way to a local cricket club to watch a pool competition on May 15.

Gilbert Thompson in Altnagelvin Hospital today

Mr. Thompson (45) from the Brigade area, sustained serious injuries in the assault - including a torn spleen, broken ribs and fractures to his back, cheekbone and nose - is expected to be remain in Altnagelvin Hospital for some time.

Mr.Thompson last night told the ‘Journal’ that he believed he was attacked because he asked questions over the killing of his 22 year-old son. Darren Thompson was found lying on the roadside at Woodburn Park in the Waterside with a bullet wound to his head in September 2004.
Two men were jailed last November in connection with the killing although no one has been convicted of the murder which had been blamed on the UDA.

On New Year’s Day past Mr. Thompson came in contact with a man who supported the two jailed men during their court appearance and challenged him to disclose why his son had been murdered.

Darren Thompson

“I didn’t strike him or anything, I just reached for him but was pulled back. I wanted to know why my son Darren was killed almost four years ago. That might have been why I was assaulted.”

He added: “I believe I was singled out because of the way they took me out in that alleyway. I’d been watched and I’d been singled out, I don’t know why.”

All Mr. Thompson recalled of the attack was being “kicked and punched”. “The next thing I remember is a man and woman phoning the ambulence for me.”

He said that the further trauma for his family was “devastating”.

“It hs really scared me now, I can’t say anything. My family is scared. I hope that something like this will never happen again. I’d just like to know why they did this to me - I can hardly breath now and I don’t know why they have done this.”

Derry Journal
27 May 2008

THE SAS planned to kidnap Martin McGuinness in Derry and drown him in the Atlantic, it’s been claimed.
An alleged plan to send the future Deputy First Minister to a watery grave was detailed in the ‘Sunday World’. It was also claimed in the newspaper that former Chief Superintendent Sam Donnelly - the ex head of special branch in Derry and liaison officer between the RUC and SAS - had blocked the alleged assassination attempt.

A retired security force officer, quoted in the article, said: “It was in the mid 1980s. Two SAS officers - one with the rank of major who had been operating undercover in the Bogside and Creggan areas of Derry - approached Sam Donnelly and asked him to consider the proposal. At the time Martin was in charge of the IRA Northern Command and he had also been chief of staff.

“The SAS men told Sam they wanted to snatch McGuinness and quickly transport him by car to a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) waiting a few hundred yards away on the River Foyle.

“The plan was that as the RIB raced towards the mouth of the river and into Lough Foyle and Atlantic, SAS men would tie heavy weights to shackled IRA man who was to remain conscious throughout the operation.

“Once the boat reached Greencastle and Inishowen Head, McGuinness was to be told what was going to happen to him - he was going to be thrown overboard, never to be seen again.”

However, the source said that when Donnelly was told that six SAS operatives knew of the plan, he replied “too many” before turning it down. “Either way Sam Donnelly saved Martin McGuinness’s life,” the source added.

Sam Donnelly was buried in Portrush earlier this month.

By Lisa Smyth
Belfast Telegraph
Tuesday 27, May 2008

Fares for black taxis in Belfast are due to increase by up to 19% causing further misery for hard-pressed householders.

As the cost of living continues to spiral, the Department of Environment has confirmed that Arlene Foster has agreed to fare increases for black taxis between 13% and 19%.

However, a spokesman from the Department said a date has not been set for the new fares to come into effect.

He said: “The Environment Committee cleared the proposed fares increase on May 8 and a submission has been submitted by the Department to the Minister to approve the necessary amendments to the regulations.”

Sinn Fein MLA Alex Maskey, a former member of the environment committee, said the proposed hike will hit the most needy.

The black taxis are often used by people with no car for shopping trips or transporting children with prams, he said.

Mr Maskey said: “We are concerned at every rise because in virtually every single public service costs are going up and people are looking at a rocky economic future.

“I am well aware of the high usage of taxis in a lot of areas, a lot of people depend on them.”

The Belfast Public Hire Taxi Association has defended the rise, blaming it on hikes in the price of fuel from 91p per litre to £1.23 per litre — representing an increase of between 35 and 41% — since the last fare rise.

BBC

A landmark civil action being taken by six of the families who lost loved ones in the Omagh bombing reopened in Dublin on Tuesday.

The court heard Colm Murphy, one of those whom the families believe was responsible, said the attack was “an atrocity” while in Garda custody.

Detective Garda James Hanley told the court that Mr Murphy called the attack “a tragedy” and then “an atrocity”.

The detective told the court that Mr Murphy denied ever being in Omagh.

However, Garda Hanley said Mr Murphy said he would have to consult with his solicitor when asked about how his phone came to be in the County Tyrone town.

Earlier, Mr Murphy’s lawyer told the court that his client’s contention was that his garda interviews were “a concoction”.

The families are suing five men, including alleged Real IRA leader, Michael McKevitt who is in jail in the Republic for directing terrorism.

McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Mr Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly, all deny any involvement in the explosion.

In the 1998 bomb, 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, died.

Nobody can be jailed in a civil case but the judge can reach a verdict on the basis of probability about what happened on that day.

BBC

Former chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan may be called to give evidence at the inquest into the death of a man during rioting in Derry in 1996.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan may have to give evidence at the inquest

Dermot McShane, 36, a former INLA man, was killed when he was run over by an Army vehicle during some of the worst public disorder ever seen in Derry.

The trouble flared after Orangemen walked down Portadown’s Garvaghy Road.

Sir Ronnie may be called to clarify whether the police had intelligence that violence was planned in Derry.

At the opening of the inquest into Mr McShane’s death, coroner Brian Sherrard was told Sir Ronnie Flanagan allegedly told the Helsinki Human Rights Watch group the police had specific intelligence of what was to happen in Derry that week in July 1996.

However, a barrister for the police said the historical inquiries team reported there was no intelligence available.

Later, the inquest was told that during the week of Mr McShane’s death 946 baton rounds were fired by the security forces in Derry and 1,200 petrol bombs were thrown by rioters.

Television footage of the Army personnel carrier crashing into a large wooden hoarding which Mr McShane had been using as a shield during rioting in Little James’ Street on July 13, 1996, was shown to the jury.

The coroner told the jury it had to consider the general circumstances which pertained to Mr McShane’s death and what was happening in the city at the time.

They should also consider if precautions could have been taken to prevent the death, the role of Mr McShane and of the police and army, and whether there were any security force defects in dealing with the civil unrest at the time of Mr McShane’s death, he said.

The inquest at Bishop Street courthouse is scheduled to last at least three weeks and is to hear evidence from 46 military, police and civilian witnesses.

It will continue on Wednesday.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan was appointed Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary in 2005.