SAOIRSE32

BBC
19 July 2008

Two men and a woman have been arrested in County Louth by gardaí investigating dissident republican activity.

They were arrested in Dundalk at about 1330 BST on Saturday.

All three are being question at Dundalk Garda Station. A firearm and a quantity of ammunition were recovered.

It is understood the operation was part of attempts to foil possible gun running involving dissident republicans and follow four arrests on Thursday.

Belfast Telegraph
Saturday, 19 July 2008

**I just want to remind you that I am posting the articles I find FYI, not writing them.

Gardai have smashed a guns-for-sale racket in which suspected former members of the Provisional IRA supplied firearms to a drug trafficking gang in north Dublin.

Officers believe the suppliers were linked more recently with the dissident republican group, the Continuity IRA, but were also heavily involved in criminal activities.

They think the gang, based in Co Louth, was selling guns to a drugs gang operating in the Coolock area on the northside of the capital.

The breakthrough in the garda investigation came on Thursday night when armed gardai stopped two cars in Castlebellingham and Haggardstown, outside Dundalk.

This followed a surveillance operation on several targeted figures.

Detectives recovered an old Webley revolver, which was loaded, as well as ammunition and some cash.

Two men from Dundalk were arrested and taken to the local garda station. A man and a woman from Coolock were brought to Carrickmacross station but were released without charge last night.

The two held in custody were questioned under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and can be held for a maximum of three days without charge.

The garda operation involved detectives from the Louth division and members of the Emergency Response Unit and the National Surveillance Unit.

Senior garda officers said last night they did not regard the Louth gang as major suppliers of firearms to Dublin-based drug dealers.

But they described the seizure and arrests as significant, as the incident meant that the gardai had severed a vital pipeline for weapons.

The operation is part of on-going garda inquiries involving the national bureau of criminal investigation, the Special Branch and the crime and intelligence section at garda headquarters into the supply of weapons to crime gangs and their connections with members of former or active paramilitary groups.

Inquiries are also being carried out to establish the initial source of the guns.

Some of the weapons seized by gardai from crime gangs in the past couple of years are known to have been smuggled into the country as “sweeteners” with drug shipments.

But other firearms have been sourced overseas by the renegade republican groups, who have been trying to build up their own arsenals since the Provisional IRA declared a ceasefire, and have developed contacts in central and eastern European states.

The Real IRA and the Continuity IRA managed to purchase a sizeable haul of explosives and weaponry in the Balkans in 1999. But a large portion of this shipment was recovered by gardai in a disused wine cellar on land at Herbertstown, near Stamullen, on the Dublin-Meath border.

The following year a joint security operation involving gardai and international agencies led to a big arms and explosives shipment seizure in the Croatian town of Dobranje, near the Adriatic resort of Split.

Derry Journal
18 July 2008

Thousands of people are expected to descend on Derry next month for the national H Block Hunger Strike rally.
It was revealed this week that the annual event is to be held in the city - marking the first occasion the it has taken place outside Belfast.

Former Derry hunger striker, Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney, has urged as many people as possible to attend the event on Sunday, August 17.

“The march and rally is one of the largest such gatherings in Ireland, with perhaps only the Bloody Sunday march attracting similar numbers on a consistent basis.

“We will be urging everyone to bring with them their family members, those who were too young at the time, or not even born, so that they will by this experience come to understand why we were on the streets at that time. Bring them to witness and enjoy living history,” he said.

Each year the rally attracts thousands of people from as far away as Scotland, England, Europe and North America.

Mr McCartney said it was with a “sense of pride and determination” that the Derry 1981 Committee would prepare for the event.

He added: “The focus of the event is to pay tribute and celebrate the lives and sacrifices of the ten men who died on Hunger Strike in 1981.”

The theme of this year’s march will be ‘Civil Rights, Equality, Freedom, The Struggle Continues’.

Mr McCartney added: “The 1981 Committee is inviting all of those in Derry, who attended any event in that period, to return to our streets in celebration of that contribution.”

A full programme of events will be organised for the weekend of the August 15-17 including charity football matches, tours, youth events and several functions.

Derry Journal
Posted 19 July 2008

Murdered Derry man Emmett Shiels should be celebrating his 23rd birthday with his new born son today — instead his family will be visiting his grave in the City Cemetery.

However, his family, still devastated by his death, say they are keeping scrap books about Emmett and will ensure his son knows everything about his dad.

Emmett’s girlfriend who gave birth to the couple’s baby just days after his death, is still too traumatised to speak publicly, however the family say the baby is doing well.

The Derry man’s adopted father Patsy Moore told the ‘Journal’ his family would never get over the loss of Emmett.

“Emmett was such a part of our family since he was seven months old,” he said. “And it took a bullet to take him away from us. My wife is breaking her heart.”

Patsy, a devout Catholic said he’s angry at Bishop Seamus Hegarty’s refusal to sign a petition calling for an end to dissident republican activity in the city.

Bishop

“Emmett was so well respected that it will go a long way that Bishop Hegarty wouldn’t sign the petition and back him up,” he said.

“I never knew how popular my Emmett was.

“Young people will turn away, the chapels are already half empty now. These are the people who 10 or 15 years ago wanted the guns off the streets. That’s what this petition was for, to get the guns out.

“There are times now when I can’t believe Emmett’s gone and I feel it so hard. He was such a kind hearted boy.”

A bricklayer by trade, Emmett had recently taken a job delivering pizzas when construction work dried up. He was also a lifeline to his disabled brother, Kevin, who lived beside him.

“Emmett was straight over when I needed anything,” said Kevin.”And he was always there for my children.”

Over the moon

Emmett’s sister Maureen Wilkinson revealed that her brother was over the moon at the prospect of becoming a dad.

“He had everything bought,” she said, “And when he found out he was having a boy, he couldn’t wait to tell us.”

Derry Journal
19 July 2008

Warning from dissidents

A local dissident republican group has predicted that the Troubles will begin again in Derry as the conditions return for armed conflict.
Members of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement said there’s widespread acceptance that support for armed struggle doesn’t exist now, but the situation is changing.

“It all started in Derry and it’s going to re-start in Derry,” said a party spokesman. “We won’t have to create the conditions for it - the British and others will do that.”

The spokesman, from the new Phil O’Donnell cumann of the 32 CSM in the Shantallow area, said the issues of prisoners, ‘interment on remand’ and harassment were unifying republicans behind an alternative.

He said members of dissident groupings were coming closer to agreement about a new way forward in republicanism.

“Republicans involved with groups such as 32CSM, the IRSP, the Republican Network for Unity and various other smaller groupings are realising they have much more in common than dividing them,” he said. “That’s the fear for Sinn Fein. You could see significant movement before the end of the year.”

He said anyone looking for evidence should check out those involved in last weekend’s ‘interment on remand’ protest in Derry.

He said many ex-republican prisoners were not yet involved but were leaning towards an alternative to Sinn Fein.

The 32CSM spokesman added that that Sinn Fein members no longer have credibility in dealing with problems with anti-social behaviour.

“I was involved with Sinn Fein in dealing with anti-social behaviour and we were told fifteen years ago we could no longer do anything about it,” he said. “If Sinn Fein activists go up to young people in the Bogside they’re just told to f*** off. But they’ll listen to a 32 CSM activist because we don’t talk down to them.

“It’s not about going in breaking legs or shooting people, it’s about getting involved in a way that people benefit.”

The Phil O’Donnell cumann are to open an office shortly at Knockalla Park, operating in the afternoons from Monday to Friday. Party members say it’s to deal with growing demand.

The spokesman said there was real concern in local communities about anti-social behaviour.

He said the police couldn’t have credibility when they were still trying to recruit informers.

“If there are people shot dead as a result of informing on any organisation, then the responsibility lies with the PSNI,” he said.

By Noel McAdam
Belfast Telegraph
Friday, 18 July 2008

For years unionist politicians have blazed a trail in a nationalist hot spot at the annual public-versus-politicians event, West Belfast Talks Back.

But for the first time, this year the main attraction is to be a Republican — Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

And the senior Sinn Fein negotiator can expect as much of a challenge from the audience as this year’s unionist, North Belfast MLA Nelson McCausland, who follows DUP figures including Gregory Campbell, Jeffrey Donaldson and Edwin Poots.

Mr McGuinness and Mr McCausland are to be joined on the platform on Wednesday, August 6, by East Belfast MLA Dawn Purvis, leader of the UVF-linked Progressive Unionist Party.

The evening, being held at St Louise’s Comprehensive College, Falls Road, will be completed by Sean Crummy, creator and author of the BBC’s Folks on the Hill series. It is part of a series of events during the festival which may spark controversy.

Former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan is to give the PJ McGrory lecture about her time in office, during which her investigation into the police handling the Omagh bomb brought her into conflict with former Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan.

Mrs O’Loan is also expected to speak about the results of ‘Operation Ballast’, the investigation into collusion between the RUC and the UVF in relation to the murder of Raymond McCord Jnr at Mount Vernon in 1997.

Belfast Telegraph security writer Brian Rowan is speaking at an event at Falls Road library on Friday, August 8.

And Sinn Fein MLA Martina Anderson will be in conversation with novelist Gillian Slovo who co-authored the play ‘Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom’ about her experience of being the child of revolutionaries.

**Via Newshound
By Jim Gibney
Irish News - The Thursday Column
17/07/08

And so another Catholic family has been forced by loyalists to flee Stoneyford village. The expulsion of this family a few weeks ago brings the number of Catholics driven from their homes to eight.

They left to the chorus of honking horns as their tormentors travelled around Stoneyford in their own cars blaring their bigotry for all to hear – especially the family packing their belongings.

A few days before they were forced out, the family suddenly woke up in the early hours of the morning to a different sound of intimidation when a breeze block was thrown through their living-room window.

This family are no strangers to running the loyalist gauntlet of intimidation. Some months ago they helped close relatives pack their bags as they sought sanctuary from loyalists determined to ethnically cleanse Stoneyford of its Catholics.

The haemorrhaging of the Catholic population of this village is an indictment of the PSNI and highlights their inability to meet the challenge of protecting isolated Catholics.

The roots of their woefully inadequate policing plan for dealing with threats from loyalists in this area stretches through every rank of the PSNI from the officer on the ground through Lisburn station – the district command centre – to the office of the chief constable, Hugh Orde.

It also stretches beyond the PSNI to the RUC because this campaign of intimidation has been going on for more than 10 years.

While there was no expectation that the RUC would protect the Catholics of Stoneyford there was an expectation that the PSNI would.

The PSNI’s abysmal failure to protect the Catholics of this village is best illustrated in how they handled the last moments of this family’s life in Stoneyford and the last act of loyalist intimidation against them.

Those honking their car horns in a perverted celebration are the people behind the intimidation in the village. The PSNI know this as does everyone else. Their brazen presence and behaviour on the day the family fled was greeted by inaction by the PSNI.

These highly paid law enforcers with extensive back-up resources looked on as if they were spectators to a harmless joust.

Their role on the day, armed as they were, in bullet-proof cars, agents of a state power, was to escort a beleaguered family from their dream home.

Further evidence of the PSNI’s failure to protect vulnerable Catholics from loyalist intimidation can also be seen through their refusal to remove union flags put up outside the homes of Catholics over the July 12 period.

Catholics complaining to the PSNI in Lisburn and Dunmurry stations about flags outside their doors said they were told nothing could be done and they should talk to the UDA about taking them down.

When challenged by Sinn Féin’s MLA for Lagan Valley, Paul Butler, in whose office I work, the PSNI denied giving this instruction but confirmed that they would not take down the offensive flags.

To excuse their indifference to these acts of intimidation they hid behind a document grandly entitled ‘Joint Protocol in Relation to the Display of Flags in Public Places’.

The document is worded in such a way that it is open to two interpretations – action on the part of the PSNI to protect those who feel ‘intimidated or harassed’ because a flag is being used to ‘mark out territory’ in an ‘aggressive display’ in for example ‘mixed’ areas. Or inaction because the police are ‘mainly concerned’ with paramilitary flags which are illegal and the union flag is not.

Inaction has thus far characterised the PSNI’s policing operation in defending Catholics in Stoneyford and in other parts.

However, there are small signs of change and let me be the first to commend the PSNI’s operation which prevented an illegal loyalist parade through Stoneyford prior to July 11 and which also prevented a bonfire being lit.

Let me also commend the Parades Commission for the firm ruling they delivered in relation to the loyalist parade through Stoneyford.

This stance needs maintained and extended to those seeking the next Catholic family to expel from Stoneyford.