SAOIRSE32

By Marie Louise McCrory West Belfast Correspondent
Irish News
19/07/08

A father-of-five who has been issued with a death threat and ordered to leave Northern Ireland has told how his 12-year-old son tried to protect him against a masked gang.

The 39-year-old, who did not want to be identified, said his child frantically ran to his bedroom, grabbed his hurley and stood with his father when three men tried to force their way into the family’s home in the Lenadoon area of west Belfast.

ULTIMATUM: Two of the west Belfast men who have been told by dissident republicans to leave the north (Photo: Mal McCann)

The child, along with his 10-year-old sister, screamed at the gang, who had covered their faces with scarves and hoods.

The man is one of three west Belfast men who have received threats in the past few days from a group who identified themselves as Oglaigh Na Eireann Earlier in the week six men armed with a gun forced their way into a house in the Whiterock area and grabbed a man in his forties.

They took him to the bathroom where they held a gun to his head before realising he was not the intended victim – a 20-year-old Ballymurphy man who had been in the house earlier that day.

They told the occupant that the 20-year-old had 48 hours to leave Northern Ireland.

A masked gang also visited the home of a third man from the Andersonstown area.

The intended victim – aged 24 – was not at home but his mother and sister were told he too had 48 hours to leave.

When he did not go he received a bullet in the post.

A masked gang then paid a second visit to his house to deliver a further threat.

It is understood the man has now gone into hiding.

Speaking last night, the Lenadoon man said he knew of no reason why he would be threatened.

“I go out and work for my money,” he said.

“I have not done anything to anyone.”

He added: “I am angry and I am worried. At the end of the day I just want to know why I have been threatened.”

The 20-year-old from Ballymurphy who has been threatened, said: “I don’t know why I have been threatened.”

His mother said the threat had left the family “devastated”.

“I would call for the threat to be lifted,” she said.

“I would like to know why. I would be open to discussing anything to do with my son.”

The mother-of-four said her son had “turned his own life around” after being released from prison last year and was now involved in voluntary work in the area.

Jim Auld, director of Community Restorative Justice, (CRJ) condemned the threats.

“We would appeal to this organisation to lift these threats and to approach CRJ if there are issues, even to let these families know why the threats have been made,” he said.

“It is also concerning that young children witnessed this.

“CRJ would condemn these activities.”

Irish News
By Barry McCaffrey
19/07/08

Nationalist politicians and Catholic clergy last night demanded an end to a suspected INLA extortion campaign against businessmen in Belfast.

Ardoyne priest Fr Aidan Troy last night confirmed that he had been approached by a number of businessmen in north Belfast who have been threatened that they will be killed unless they hand over tens of thousands of pounds to individuals claiming to be from the INLA.

At least one of the businessmen targeted has had a blast-bomb thrown at his home.

“This is by no means an isolated incident,” Fr Troy said.

“I have been approached by a number of businessmen who are in real fear that they and their families are going to be killed or seriously injured.

“I’ve been in contact with the police who are taking these threats very seriously.

“Someone is going to be killed or seriously injured unless this type of thing is stamped out now.”

Demanding that the death threats against the families be lifted, SDLP assembly member Alban Maginness said: “This is nothing more than mafia- style extortion which is designed solely to fill the pockets of those involved. They need to get off the backs of the community.

“They are targeting people who are providing a service to the community and employing local people.

“If this extortion is allowed to continue there is a real possibility that some of these businesses could go to the wall.”

Calling on the INLA to call off the threats, he said: “There is clear evidence that there are on those on the fringes of the INLA who are engaged in serious criminality.

“All they are interested in is extorting money from people who are trying to make an honest living.

“It is neither republican nor socialist. They’re putting these poor families through hell and I am calling on them to stop it now.

“Either the INLA wants to be part of the peace process or not. They can’t have it both ways.”

Sinn Fein assembly member Caral Ni Chuilin said she was aware of a number of recent attempts to extort money from businessmen in north Belfast.

“This is nothing more than parasites feeding off the backs of the people.

“No-one should be extorting anyone. It is wrong and must stop now.

“This community has suffered enough and does not need gangsters targetting them in this way.”

No-one from the INLA was available for comment last night.

By Seamus McKinney
Irish News
19/07/08

ONE of Northern Ireland’s most notorious killers, Torrens Knight was arrested by police investigating an alleged assault on two sisters in Coleraine, The Irish News has learned.

If charged and convicted, Knight could face a return to prison to serve out the remainder of 12 life sentences imposed after two of the worst loyalist paramilitary attacks in the Troubles.

SCENE: The Blackthorn public house where notorious killer Torrens Knight was arrested following an alleged assault against two sisters. (Photo: Margaret McLaughlin)

Knight was arrested and formally interviewed by police following the alleged assault at the Blackthorn public house at New Market Street, Coleraine on May 30.

While police refused to identify Knight, a spokesman confirmed they were investigating an incident “in which two women were assaulted” at New Market Street.

“A man arrested in connection with the incident has since been released pending the preparation of a police report for the PPS (Public Prosecution Service),” he said.

Knight, from Macosquin outside Coleraine, received eight life sentences for his part in the UFF murder of eight civilians in the “trick or treat” massacre at the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel in October 1993.

Knight had stood guard at the door of the bar with a sawn-off shotgun and had driven the getaway car on Halloween night 1993.

He was also sentenced to four life terms for being part of the UFF gang which murdered four workers, one of them IRA member, James Kelly, at Castlerock in March 1993.

With his fellow killers, Knight was released from prison in July 2000 under licence as part of the Good Friday Agreement after serving seven years of his life sentence.

If charged and convicted of the Coleraine alleged assault, Knight’s case could be reviewed by the Life Sentence Review Commission and could lead to the suspension of his licence and return to prison to complete his life sentence.

East Derry assembly member John Dallat said if Knight was convicted of an offence it would be a “clear breach of the early release scheme”.

“If Knight is found guilty then there is only one decision that can be made and that’s to put him behind bars to serve the remainder of his sentence.”

Mr Dallat said the pain of those who lost loved ones in the Greysteel and Castlerock killings was as raw today as it was in 1993 “when Knight and his cowardly thugs first took their innocent lives away from them”.

In 2005 Stephen Irwin, who was charged with the Rising Sun killings along with Knight, was returned to prison after he was convicted of slashing a football supporter with a knife following the Irish Cup Final between Glentoran and Coleraine at Windsor Park the previous year.

By Allison Morris
Irish News
19/07/08

THE sister of a man who bled to death following a so-called punishment shooting has called on the IRA to finally admit responsibility and apologise a decade on from the murder.

Andrew Kearney’s death in the lift of a tower block in the New Lodge area of north Belfast had political repercussions which threatened to shatter the fragile peace process just months after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

The shooting on July 19 1998 breached the IRA’s second ceasefire, which had been declared 12 months previously.

Mr Kearney (33), left, had been involved in an altercation with a senior Ardoyne republican in the weeks prior to his death.

His family believe this led directly to his murder.

Mr Kearney’s sister Eleanor King said that in a private meeting with the IRA a some years ago she was told the organisation had been responsible for her brother’s shooting and that it had been a sanctioned operation.

However, on the 10-year anniversary of his death today she said it was time that admission was made public and that her family was given an official apology.

Mrs King said her brother’s murder was also now subject to reinvestigation by the PSNI team tasked with reopening past cases and that witnesses should now feel free to come forward without fear.

“Andrew’s daughters are growing up and they are hurting,” Mrs King said.

“Several years ago I had a meeting with the IRA and they admitted my brother’s murder was wrong.

“I would call on them now to publicly state that for the sake of his children.”

Mr Kearney was dragged from his flat to a nearby lift and shot once in each leg.

The door of the lift was jammed and, before leaving, one of his attackers tore the phone from the wall, delaying any call for help.

The main arteries in both his legs were severed and by the time emergency crews arrived at the scene he had bled to death.

Mr Kearney’s 66-year-old mother Margaret launched a campaign for justice after the IRA denied involvement.

Mrs Kearney died a year after her son’s murder.

Mrs King said her mother “died a broken woman because of what happened to Andrew”.

“As a family we feel our brother’s death has been forgotten in the interest of peace.

“A decade on and we hear a lot about disclosure, truth and justice and we feel we are entitled to the those same rights.

“Andrew’s daughters are only really starting to fully understand what happened to their father,” she said.

“We want the IRA to own up to my brother’s death and finally publicly admit for the sake of his children that his murder was wrong and should never have happened.”

RTÉ
Sunday, 20 July 2008 16:24

Four bombs have exploded at popular seaside resorts in Cantabria, northern Spain, after warning calls from the Basque separatist group ETA.

There were no casualties after the authorities evacuated the areas in response to the warning.

The first bomb exploded on a seafront promenade in Laredo, one of northern Spain’s most popular holiday destinations, damaging the walkway, breaking windows and sending a 25-metre plume of smoke into the air.

Holidaymakers had been cleared from the beach 45 minutes earlier and took cover in local cafes and bars, which drew down shutters to protect against the blast.

The second bomb went off in dunes at Noja, about 30kms from Laredo, causing a loud blast but no damage.

Poor weather meant there were few people on the Noja beach but a police call to evacuate the area sent tourists running, blocking the road out of town to the city of Bilbao. The third explosion was in Laredo, again causing no injuries. The fourth hit in Noja.

The explosions marked the beginning of ETA’s traditional summer bombing campaign in which it targets Spanish holiday resorts as part of its four-decade struggle for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Country and Freedom) is listed as a terrorist organisation by Spain, the United States and the European Union. It has killed more than 800 people since 1968, typically with car bombs or shootings. More than 750 suspected ETA members have been detained since 2000.

The Cantabria blasts were the first attributed to ETA since 14 May when the separatists exploded a bomb without warning at the Civil Guard barracks in Legutiano, killing policeman Juan Manuel Pinuel-Villalon and injuring four others.

Breaking News.ie
20/07/2008 - 14:46:19

Concerns for the future of the North’s power-sharing Government heightened today after a senior politician said the Assembly may need to be recalled from summer recess.

Leader of the SDLP Mark Durkan said the political stand-off between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin was creating a crisis at the heart of Government.

Disagreement between the parties over key issues was blamed for the cancellation of a cabinet meeting earlier this month and he said if one scheduled for Thursday does not go ahead, the Assembly must be recalled as a matter of urgency.

Mr Durkan, who is chair of the Assembly’s enterprise, trade and investment committee, said politicians had to show leadership at a time when economic hardships were hitting ordinary people.

“Over the past few months we have seen remarkably few Executive meetings,” he said.

“This has meant important matters such as PPS14 (rural planning laws), education reform and resolving the issue of water charges have all been held up.

“Furthermore, I know the (SDLP) Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie has expressed her frustration at being unable to table three bills during this unacceptable delay.”

His comments come as the DUP and Sinn Féin are locked in talks over a series of divisive issues including the transfer of policing powers to Stormont, education reform, the introduction of an Irish language act and the future of the Maze prison site.

The parties have pledged to intensify talks on the transfer of policing powers, but the other issues separating them are proving just as divisive.

As they fail to agree deals on the outstanding matters, the result has been a slow-down of the work of the Executive which is dominated by the two biggest parties.

Mr Durkan today said: “In the meantime, people in Northern Ireland are feeling the effects of an economic crunch which is now a consumer and income crunch.

“Companies and small businesses are under pressure in all our constituencies.

“Rising energy costs are driving increasing costs of living. We are now reaching new levels of difficulties, where householders are struggling to heat their homes, run their cars and pay for food.

“Fuel poverty is widening and deepening.

“There are also budget implications for departments and services arising directly and indirectly from these cost increases.

“Is the Executive’s best way of meeting this crisis not to meet?”

It is understood the SDLP wants to encourage innovative thinking on how resources may be redirected to help ease financial pressures.

Mr Durkan added: “People will be entitled to ask is this the best devolution can do for them? Is this it, continued procrastination and endless disagreement.

“If OFMDFM are not prepared to take responsibility to show leadership through the Executive then it is up to us as elected representatives in the Assembly to do so and reconvene at the earliest suitable date.”

BBC

A woman arrested in County Louth by gardaí investigating dissident republican activity has been released without charge.

Two men, also arrested in the Dundalk area on Saturday, remain in custody.

A firearm and a quantity of ammunition were also recovered.

It is understood the arrests are part of attempts to foil possible gun running involving dissident republicans.

An Phoblacht
17 July 2008

**Séanna’s analysis and elucidation of the writing is as interesting as the book he is reviewing.

Book written by Lachlan Whalen, Assistant Professor of English,
University of South Florida, St Petersburg, USA
Published by Palgrave Macmillan
Price $80

Reviewed by Séanna Walsh
Former POW, H-Blocks

LACHLAN WHALEN sets out to chart the history and development of Irish republican writings in prisons, from the Cages and Armagh in the early 1970s through the horrors of the H-Blocks/Armagh protest period in the 1980s, to the early 1990s days of Glór Gafa and the input of POWs from Maghaberry, Britain and Europe.

Séanna Walsh

However, his approach, language and terminology are daunting. The cover notes reflect this:
“Whalen also refutes elements of the post-structural theory that has represented new criticism most widely accepted alternative, rejecting in particular post-structuralism’s pessimism concerning the possibility of human agency.”
This one sentence, the blurb on the cover, encapsulates the weakness of this book by its promoters better than I could ever hope to. It reveals the debate that the author is engaged in with fellow academics and in this way shows us that his targeted readership is not really the plain people of Ireland, nor indeed the wider Irish-American Diaspora, but rather it is for academics and students of literature and literal forms.
For me this is a great pity. The author analyses in detail the writings of the foremost Irish republican authors – among them Bobby Sands and Gerry Adams – with some very interesting and surprising conclusions.
He studiously pores over the original scripts written by Bobby in Irish as he scraped his final words on toilet paper before his hunger strike took his sight, and he compares these words to the accepted translations.
Lachlan Whalen repeatedly draws on and refers to Irish-language texts. So, for me, the most poignant point raised by this book is that nowhere does there exist any sort of collection or body of Bobby Sands’s work in Irish, bringing together Bobby’s various bits and pieces as Gaeilge. Hopefully this will be addressed within the next year.

His chapter on ‘Captive Voices’ (1981 onwards) was particularly interesting to me as it covered a period (mainly the end of 1983 and post the Great Escape till 1991) when I was absent from the H-Blocks.
The emergence of an alternative education programme in the H-Blocks during this time has been covered by my comrade and former Hunger Striker, Laurence McKeown, in his book Out of Time but Whalen comes at it from a different, outsider’s angle and this is refreshing.
Another chapter in this book, dealing with the writings of republican women prisoners in Armagh, Maghaberry and Durham, simply points up our failure as a movement to have compiled in a coherent, comprehensive fashion the voices of these comrades to educate present and future generations in the story of their suffering, hardship and resistance.
One other criticism of the author is his failure to grasp the organic nature of prison prose, verse and song.
He concentrates on Bobby’s song D’éirigh mé ar maidin (sung to the tune of Siubhán Ní Dhuibhir) and over-analyses the various endings Bobby put to it and how lines and verses changed. He does not take account of the fact that there was no Bunting-like reference book to go back to – no great tome for referencing. That so much of it was retained at all in any form is a miracle. Anyway, Bobby would change verses and endings in his poems, his songs and his epic stories from one day to the next or one evening to the next. It would depend on his mood as well as his memory.
All in all, I found the book enthralling, inspiring and challenging but ultimately failing as an attempt to bring the broad range of first-hand republican prison history to a wide audience in a comprehensible way. His internal discourse with conservative elements of academia have instead rendered sections of it impenetrable.

BY PEADAR WHELAN
An Phoblacht
17 July 2008

A NEW GROUP is demanding answers of the British Government over the use of CR gas against republican prisoners in Long Kesh in 1974.

Ceartas is the brainchild of former Long Kesh POW Jim McCann who for years has campaigned to get to the truth behind the British Army attack on prisoners during the burning of Long Kesh in October 1974.

CEARTAS: Jim McCann, Máirtín Óg Meehan, Joe ‘Doc’ Doherty and Charlie Mawhinney

Along with Charlie Mawhinney, Joe Doherty and Mairtín Óg Meehan, McCann aims to “lift the curtain of secrecy that the British Government has thrown over its use of chemical weapons against unsuspecting prisoners”.
One of the motivating factors for the former prisoners is the high incidence of cancers among former POWs who were targeted in the gas attacks.
McCann explains: “In 1974, republican POWs were being constantly harassed by the prison authorities so in October we took action.”
This action saw hundreds of POWs burning the Long Kesh Cages and taking over the camp. In response, the British Army was deployed and, in the course of two days of fighting, hundreds of prisoners were seriously wounded when British soldiers fired rubber bullets at point-blank range and beat them with batons.
However, it was the use of gas what campaigners believe was the highly toxic CR gas that has caused more concern in the long term.
As the fighting between the British Army and the POWs intensified, the prisoners were driven into the playing fields at the centre of the camp. Once there, helicopters flew overhead and dropped clusters of gas.
The operation to use CR gas was authorised under guidelines codenamed Snowdrop. British Government documents obtained by Ceartas quote an AW Stephens, Head of the British Ministry of Defence’s DS 10, describing Snowdrop as “the contingency plan developed to deal with hi-jacking and other serious armed terrorist incidents” with members of the SAS – transported in helicopters – trained to carry out the operation.
Many of those gassed, who had suffered the effects of CS gas during rioting on the streets of the Six Counties, described completely different sensations when engulfed by the Long Kesh gas.
“We were left completely incapacitated,” says McCann. “I remember having this sensation that I was drowning.”
According to McCann, “approximately 12 per cent to 15 per cent of the prisoners affected in the camp at that time have since contracted various forms of cancer, including leukemia and other lung diseases.”
Ceartas maintains that there is further evidence of a cover up in relation to the use of CR gas.
In the days and weeks after the fighting was quelled, prisoners had their blood tested with samples being taken by British Ministry of Defence (MoD) technicians without explaining why they were doing these tests.
“My medical records for 1974 have mysteriously gone missing,” says Jim McCann. “Through my solicitor I have been able to get my medical records for the whole time I was in prison except for the year 1974. Nor has anyone admitted to taking blood samples from the prisoners”.
CR gas was developed as a riot control weapon through the late 1950s and into the early 1960s by the British Government.
When it tried to market this gas to the United States military it was refused on the grounds that “not enough was known about its carcinogenic and mutanogenic effects”.
In other developments, in response to a parliamentary question from Labour Party MP Ken Livingstone, then Armed Forces Minister John Spellar, also of the Labour Party, admitted that “some 200 hand-held spray devices containing CR were held at HM Maze [Long Kesh] at that time”.
The Guardian newspaper reported in March 1974 that “the chemical has already been issued to Long Kesh military guards and will be used in the event of serious rioting”.
And writing in The Observer in 2005, journalists Craig Morrison and Martin Bright disclosed:
“The British Government had secretly authorised the use of a chemical riot control agent to be used in prisons at the height of the Northern Ireland Troubles.”
Jim McCann explains:
“We want the floodgates to open as we slowly attempt to put the jigsaw together piece by piece because we have been fobbed off and lied to for far too long.
“The curtain of secrecy in which the British Government is attempting to shroud the truth in is full of holes and although it is already too late for some of us we are refusing to let the injustices continue.”

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
The Observer
Sunday July 20, 2008

Gangland wars have turned Dublin into the Chicago of the 21st century, a TD and chairman of a drugs task force in the Irish capital said last night.

Labour TD Joe Costello also revealed that a preliminary study by the Inner City Drugs Task Force has found that a majority of drug dealers arrested on serious offences were out on bail.

Costello made his remarks following two more gangland-related murders in north Dublin this weekend. Gardai have launched a murder investigation following the fatal shooting of a 33-year-old man in Finglas early yesterday. The victim was named as Trevor Walsh, from Valley Park Road in Finglas. He had been serving a three-year prison sentence for possession of firearms, but was let out on temporary release on Thursday.

The attack, which happened at about 12.20am outside a house on the Kippure Park estate, was the second fatal shooting in the capital in 24 hours.

A gunman approached the victim outside a house in the estate and shot him in the neck and chest, before fleeing the scene on a bicycle. It is understood that the killer used an automatic pistol. Walsh was taken to Blanchardstown Hospital, but was pronounced dead at 1am.

The victim was associated with the late John Daly, a Dublin criminal who was shot dead last October. Walsh had been a member of a gang which specialised in importing drugs and armed robberies in the city.

It is not clear whether yesterday morning’s attack was connected to the shooting of a man in Coolock, north Dublin, on Friday afternoon. The man, named locally as 34-year-old Anthony Foster, was killed with a shotgun as he left a top-floor apartment at Cromcastle Court. Commenting on the latest gang-related shooting, Costello, who represents inner-city Dublin in the Dail, said there was no coherent plan to counter the rising number of killings.

‘Dublin now resembles Chicago in the Roaring Twenties, when the gangsters were out of control,’ he said. ‘There is no joined-up strategy to fight these gangs, either at a national or international level. All of our drugs are imported, mostly by sea along Ireland’s coastline, yet we have no proper network with our fellow Europeans to patrol the seaboard. We don’t have enough boats, planes or helicopters to intercept the smuggling networks,’ he said.

Over the last three years there have been more than a dozen killings in north Dublin alone related to rival drugs gangs. Costello added that, while the Irish government talks tough in regard to Ireland’s gangland wars, the system remained loaded in the criminals’ favour. ‘We have found that the overwhelming majority of people arrested on serious drug offences almost all get bail and are back on the streets. The turf wars over who controls drug supplies in certain parts of Dublin have been fuelled by the easy availability of firearms and now explosives.’

Costello said the expertise of retired republican paramilitaries had been harnessed to arm and train the city’s criminal gangs.

RTÉ
Saturday, 19 July 2008 22:52

The mother of Gerry Conlon, one of the Guilford Four, has died.

Sarah Conlon, a tireless campaigner in the fight to clear her son’s name, died aged 82 after a long battle with cancer.

The mother-of-three, who lived all her life in west Belfast, fought for justice for Gerry and also her late husband Giuseppe who was jailed after travelling to England to meet lawyers about his son’s imprisonment. Giuseppe Conlon died in prison.

The Guildford Four were freed in 1989 and eventually, after Mrs Conlon spent 16 years campaigning, they received a public apology in 2005 from then Prime Minister Tony Blair.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan, who was central in securing the apology, described Sarah Conlon as a true heroine of our age.

‘Of no-one can the words ‘patience of a saint’ be more true and she was not just distinguished by her patience,’ Mr Durkan said.

‘This small lady of frail frame had huge reserves of faith, fortitude and remarkable forgiveness.

‘What Sarah, Guiseppe and Gerry Conlon and their family had to endure physically, psychologically and personally would have given Sarah more cause to hate than most.’

Gerry Conlon

The Guildford Four - Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Carole Richardson and Paddy Armstrong - were jailed for life in 1975 for an IRA bombing campaign that killed five people and injured 65.

Sarah’s husband Giuseppe was jailed later that year.

He had one lung, emphysema and had just undergone chemotherapy and died in prison five years later.

Finally, 16 years after their release, Mr Blair said sorry for the miscarriage of justice in a television recording from his office.

Mr Durkan said Sarah Conlon fought her campaign with dignity, decency and determination for her son and late husband.

‘When Sarah and Gerry asked me to secure an apology from Tony Blair it was clear that she needed it for Gerry, and Gerry needed it for her. But they both wanted it for Guiseppe,’ the SDLP leader said.

‘In her dignity, determination and decency she was a shining example to us all.’