SAOIRSE32

BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA
An Phoblacht
31 July 2008

ONE of the largest military operations undertaken by the British Army since the end of the Second World War was mounted across the Six Counties on the last day of July 1972. The background to ‘Operation Motorman’ was the British breach of the truce with the IRA which had lasted from 26 June to 9 July 1972.

Earlier that year, the British Army had been responsible for the Bloody Sunday massacre of 14 civilians in Derry, the climax of the intense military repression of nationalists that had begun the previous August with the imposition of internment without trial. The reaction in Ireland and worldwide to Bloody Sunday caused a crisis for the British Tory Government of Edward Heath and for the unionist government in Stormont. In March, the British Government abolished the Stormont parliament and introduced direct rule with the aim of shoring up the crumbling Six-County state.

On 13 June, IRA Chief of Staff Seán Mac Stiofáin held a press conference in Derry, offering a cessation of IRA operations if the British Government would publicly agree to talks. Mac Stiofáin later wrote that with the national and international reaction to Bloody Sunday, the fall of Stormont and the escalating IRA campaign, the IRA was seen to have the initiative and it was opportune to begin peace moves. The British Government responded and a truce was called. During the truce, a republican delegation met British Secretary of State William Whitelaw in London and set out short-term and long-term conditions for the continuation of the ceasefire, including the immediate ending of internment and a British declaration of intent to withdraw from the Six Counties within a three-year period.

LENADOON

On 9 July, the British Army colluded with the UDA in Lenadoon as they tried to prevent houses being allocated to nationalists. This marked the end of the truce and a resumption of intense armed conflict. That evening, the British Army shot dead five civilians, two of them children, in Ballymurphy. There were deaths on a daily basis throughout July, including, on 18 July, the 100th British soldier to be killed since 1969.

On 21 July, the IRA carried out over 20 co-ordinated bombings across Belfast. Warnings were given for all locations and passed on to the RUC. In all but two cases, these were acted upon and civilians cleared but two of the bombs exploded in crowded areas. Seven civilians and two British soldiers were killed on what became known as Bloody Friday.

The British Government had for long wanted to enter and militarily occupy the nationalist ‘no-go’ areas secured by the IRA. These areas had developed after the loyalist pogroms of August 1969. The British Army now used the 21 July tragedy as a pretext and brought in an extra 4,000 troops.

On 31 July, 12,000 British troops, using tanks, bulldozers and armoured cars, smashed through the barricades. Schools, factories and other premises were occupied, many of them remaining as British Army fortresses until the Peace Process at the end of the 1990s. In Creggan in Derry, the British Army killed civilian Daniel Hegarty (16) and IRA Volunteer Seamus Bradley (19).

THE IRA

The British Army’s invasion was based on two major misconceptions.

First, they believed the IRA would mount an armed defence of the no-go areas. Second, they believed that by occupying those areas they could prevent the IRA from operating effectively. British Government documents released in 2003 show it had authorised its army units to use rocket launchers if necessary and that it acted on the basis that the invasion would deprive the IRA of ‘safe havens’. On both counts they were wrong.

The IRA refused to be drawn into major engagements against overwhelming numbers and its support within the nationalist community was such that it could operate just as effectively, if not more so, after the invasion.

• The British Army’s Operation Motorman took place on 31 July 1972, 36 years ago this week.

Senior officer says police know where UDA/UVF guns are

An Phoblacht
31 July 2008

THE PSNI admission this week that it knows the location of unionist paramilitary weapons dumps is no surprise considering the involvement of police in the Six Counties with loyalist killer gangs over the years, according to Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey.
Maskey was responding to comments by PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Peter Sheridan in the Belfast-based Irish News on Tuesday claiming that the PSNI knows where loyalist weapons are stored.
Sheridan’s controversial comments came on the same day that news emerged of talks between unionist paramilitaries and the British Government in relation to the issue of the decommissioning of unionist paramilitary weapons.
It was reported on Tuesday that representatives of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) met with PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde and British Security Minister Paul Goggins.
Following years of blatant refusal by unionist politicians, loyalist armed organisations and indeed the British Government to take any action on the issue of the huge weapons stockpile in the hands of unionist paramilitaries, an NIO spokesperson said:
“We can confirm that the minister had a private meeting with the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) and other leading loyalists.”
A PSNI spokesman said: “We can confirm the Security Minister held a meeting with the UPRG and other leading loyalists which the chief constable was invited to attend.”
The UDA is a vicious sectarian organisation responsible for the murders of hundreds of nationalists during the course of the recent conflict. Over the years it has become increasingly evident that groups such as the UDA were controlled and directed by the British state, its military and intelligence agencies to serve British state interests. This policy included the deliberate assassination of selected members of the nationalist community and random sectarian murder to instil terror within the wider nationalist population.
Speaking to the Irish News, PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Peter Sheridan said the PSNI has the intelligence to lead its officers directly to weaponry once what the paper called “the window of opportunity for loyalists to comply with decommissioning has closed”.
Sheridan’s remarks immediately begged the question as to why, if the PSNI has such information, it has refused thus far to act. The weapons of unionist paramilitaries which have been used against people both within the nationalist and unionist communities in very recent times continue to pose a major threat, particularly to nationalists in the North.

Reacting to Sheridan’s admission, Sinn Féin Policing spokesperson Alex Maskey said:“There is a long history of policing in the North at best turning a blind eye to the activities of loyalist gangs and in many cases controlling and directing them. Given this reality it may not come as much of a surprise the admission by Peter Sheridan that the PSNI know the location of loyalist arms dumps.
“However, what is unacceptable and quite shocking is his attitude to going and recovering these weapons.”
The existence of the official decommissioning body is no barrier to the PSNI recovering loyalist weaponry, Maskey said.
“It is the function of the PSNI to recover these guns. The purpose of these weapons is to attack Catholics and protect organised crime rackets. Indeed, last year in Carrickfergus, these very weapons were used to attack the PSNI.
“Many people from across society will be angered by the comments made by Mr Sheridan and the position adopted by the PSNI in recovering loyalist weapons. To most people it is very simple – if you know where these weapons are then go and get them.”

By Allison Bray
Independent.ie
Saturday August 02 2008

THE old courthouse at Kilmainham should be annexed as part of the historic Kilmainham Jail rather than letting it fall into further disrepair, the chair of the museum’s board of trustees urged last night.

Damien Cassidy (66), the sole surviving trustee of the museum, said the State should hand the courthouse back to the museum in order to preserve it as an historic landmark.

The courthouse closed its doors on Thursday after a colourful 188-year history that saw some of Ireland’s most famous criminals tried and executed in the jail yard next door.

It was one of the oldest functioning courthouses in the country but the State decided to close it rather than renovating it.

However, the Office of Public Works (OPW), which runs the facility, has no definite plans for the building other than to use it for storage.

“We’re coming up to the centenary of the 1916 Rising and we need extra exhibition space for the museum. The courtroom must not be touched. It’s sacred,” he said.

The two-storey court featured the trial of The Invincibles, a republican splinter group, who were responsible for the Phoenix Park murders in the 1880s.

“The Invincibles were found guilty in that courtroom. They were hanged in the jail and buried there,” Mr Cassidy said.

Labour party TD Joe Costello, who is a veteran supporter of the jail, agreed that the site should be maintained as part of the museum.

“Kilmainham Jail is now a fabulous museum which is a must see on every tourist’s itinerary. Considering the courthouse’s association with such historical and political figures as the Invincibles, the Fenians and the 1916 Volunteers, it would be an appropriate project to have it restored and incorporated into the museum complex for the 1916 centenary commemoration in 2016,” he said.

- Allison Bray

Breaking News.ie

Police in the North have released three men arrested on Thursday as part of the ongoing investigation into the murder of Paul Quinn in Co Monaghan last October.

The men, in their 30s and 40s, were detained in south Armagh and were among 10 people held on both sides of the border during the week in connection with the murder of the 21-year-old.

One of those men remains in garda custody in Co Monaghan this morning after being arrested early yesterday morning.

Mr Quinn, from Cullyhanna in south Armagh, was beaten to death by a gang of men after being lured to an isolated farm in Co Monaghan last October.

His family claims members of the Provisional IRA were responsible for the killing, but Sinn Fein has denied that there was any republican involvement, blaming the incident on a dispute among criminals.

The body set up to monitor paramilitary ceasefires in the North has backed the family’s claims, saying that while the killing was not carried out by the IRA as an organisation, members or former members of the IRA in south Armagh were responsible.

News Letter
02 August 2008

AN inquest has heard how a passer-by battled to save the life of a man fatally wounded after being shot in east Belfast.

Thomas Lockhart, 25, was in the cab of his lorry when he was gunned down in broad daylight at “Freedom Corner” at the busy intersection of the Newtownards Road and Templemore Avenue on July 1, 2005.

He was helping to demolish the loyalist Avenue One bar, which was located at the junction.

At one stage the bar was owned by paramilitary leader Jim Gray, who was himself murdered later the same year.

Mr Lockhart’s inquest heard that at least one man fired seven shots – some through the windscreen – at him at about 10.15am, causing the vehicle to crash into a lamppost where he lay slumped over the steering wheel of his lorry.

As blood poured from the victim’s body, forming in a “large pool” underneath the lorry, a passing motorist stopped and climbed into the cab, desperately trying to prolong the young father’s life until paramedics arrived.

Andrew Popplewell, described in court by another witness as “a well-dressed, balding man of about 50″, stopped his car after a work colleague in the car with him said that a man was slumped over the lorry’s steering wheel.

In a statement to the court, Mr Popplewell described how, as the seriousness of the incident became apparent, he cast aside his jacket and clambered up to the cab, trying to help the dying man.

He said: “I saw some liquid dripping from the cab, forming a large pool underneath the lorry.”

He climbed onto the footplate of the cab and found Mr Lockhart’s white tee-shirt soaked in blood.

“Someone shouted from behind me, ‘he’s been shot’,” he said.

“I was concerned at the loss of blood and during the time I was in the cab he (Mr Lockhart) did not speak to me or make any hand signals.

“He then began to deteriorate, turning ashen grey; his eyes rolling.”

At this point paramedics arrived but could find no pulse in Mr Lockhart so began cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Mr Popplewell said: “He began to breathe again and was coughing blood from his mouth.

“At that point we both thought that we were making some progress.”

Mr Lockhart was taken on a stretcher from the scene but later died.

In a statement submitted to the inquest, Mr Lockhart’s partner, Emma Nesbitt, said that he had been aware of a threat to his life from loyalist paramilitaries.

She said that she had known Mr Lockhart for about six years and that they had started living together about six months after they met.

The couple had a son the year before Mr Lockhart – known to friends as Jamie – was killed and she said that they were both happy in their relationship and “financially comfortable”.

But she added: “He would receive (warning) notices from the police to be careful and he knew the UVF were after him.”

Mr Lockhart had been the subject of a previous gun attack, she said, and graffiti had been daubed around parts of Belfast alleging that he was an informer and claiming he was a “dead man walking”.

A bin lorry driver who passed Mr Lockhart’s vehicle moments before he was murdered said that his colleague in the bin lorry had recognised Mr Lockhart in the other lorry and said: “He’s pushing his luck being over on this side of town.”

The bin lorry driver’s colleague had also alleged to him that Mr Lockhart “hung around” with the LVF.

Coroner Suzanne Anderson said that she believed Mr Lockhart’s family would be grateful to Mr Popplewell for his attempts to save the dying man’s life.

Describing the crime as “a callous and cold-blooded murder”, the coroner noted that no one has been convicted of the killing.

By Stephen Dempster
News Letter
02 August 2008

A REPUBLICAN who murdered two soldiers in Belfast could soon be helping to administer justice – with a grant from the Government.

Harry Maguire was convicted of the murders of corporals David Howes and Derek Wood, in March 1988.

In one of the most notorious attacks of the Troubles, the servicemen were beaten and then shot after accidentally driving into a republican funeral cortege in Andersonstown.

Maguire is now director of training at Community Restorative Justice Ireland, which is one of 10 projects in line for £600,000 from the Northern Ireland Office.

The decision has come under attack from the SDLP.

Maguire became a member of the IRA’s “camp staff” in the Maze – one of the senior IRA men effectively in control of the republican wings.

Now he is known as a reformed character with responsibility for delivering street-level community justice, in cases of low-level crime in republican areas.

Yet in June, at the McCartney murder trial, he was referred to as a senior IRA boss, while now administering community-style policing alongside the PSNI.

This is one of a string of issues the SDLP has raised with the Security Minister in a document seen by the News Letter.

Contacted yesterday, Mr Maguire said he had “no comment” to make on allegations he was an IRA chief and called it “a legal matter”.

The Northern Ireland Office has said the CRJI projects have come up to required standards, including the requirement to “engage, and have a direct relationship, with police”.

Mr Goggins said he had “no cause for concern in the way that Community Restorative Justice (Ireland) schemes now operate”.

But the SDLP, which sees the benefits of restorative justice in principle, is deeply concerned that the judgment of the standards has been lax and it has delivered an 11-page paper of concerns to the minister.

In a letter to Mr Goggins, Mr Attwood said his party believes there is “a substantive basis on which the Secretary of State should not accredit Community Restorative Justice schemes” for funding.

And he revealed that in a meeting with Criminal Justice Inspector (CJI) Kit Chivers – who was responsible for assessing CRJI’s worthiness – it emerged that in various areas there was a feeling that more needed to be done to meet required standards of practice and behaviour by the CRJI.

The last CJI report on CRJ Ireland acknowledges as much by stating that “the balance between risks and opportunities has moved in favour of the restorative justice schemes” – giving it a partial clean bill of health, rather than a resounding one.

The SDLP goes on to allege numerous flaws and inaccuracies in the CJI report, some of which the authors have accepted, others they dispute.

Towards the end of the SDLP paper, the matter of Maguire being named in court as an IRA leader is raised.

Mr Attwood concluded: “Any decision to accredit and fund is a political one driven by the need of republicans.

“The NIO has been given a mountain of evidence as to why the Criminal Justice Inspector’s report is flawed on many issues, including complaints. To accredit and fund Restorative Justice Ireland flies in the face of this evidence.”

Ulster Unionist MLA Basil McCrea said he thought there could be a problem with Mr Maguire’s involvement in CRJ.

Mr McCrea said: “The first thing is, the concept is a good one, but it depends on who you get involved in it and there’s always a perception that it’s an alternative to the police and it’s not – there’s only one police force.

“I don’t know this individual’s circumstances, but it does suggest that there are problems with this process and that’s very unhelpful in our current political climate.”

An NIO spokesman said: “The minister is satisfied that the Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice and his staff have been unambiguous in inspecting Community Restorative Justice Ireland (CRJI) schemes against the very high standards of the published Government protocol.

Inspection schemes go forward to the next stage of the process where an independent panel determines, on a case by case basis, if individuals meet the exacting standards required for those working in an accredited scheme. This process is on-going.”

By Barry McCaffrey
Irish News
**Via Newshound
31/07/08

An American billionaire yesterday announced that he is to match British government funding for community-based restorative justice (CBRJ) projects.

Over the next three years American billionaire Chuck Feeney and the NIO will jointly provide £600,000 funding for community-based restorative justice projects.

It is understood to be the first time that the NIO has teamed up with a private charity to fund community projects in Northern Ireland.

Through his charity, the Atlantic Philanthropies, the American billionaire has provided $344.5 million in funding to community projects in Northern Ireland since the 1990s.

Mr Feeney has funded restorative justice groups across the north for more than 10 years, including groups based in nationalist areas who were not recognised by the PSNI.

It is understood that only restorative justice groups working in loyalist areas will be eligible for funding at present.

However, it is hoped that restorative justice groups based in nationalist areas, who have been working with the PSNI since January, will be officially recognised by the NIO in the near future.

Welcoming the funding for CBRJ groups, security minister Paul Goggins said: “CBRJ schemes have shown that they can fulfil a valuable role in working with victims and offenders in the aftermath of incidences of low level crime, helping to repair the harm caused to victims and the community as a whole.

Welcoming government support for CBRJ groups, Atlantic Philanthropies director Martin O’Brien said: “It has already been established that community-based restorative justice has played a significant role in promoting the peaceful resolution of conflicts in local communities and we believe that it can make a valuable contribution to building a more stable society in Northern Ireland.

“We are pleased that some mainstream support is now being provided for restorative justice by the NIO, PSNI, Youth Justice Agency and, in a separate initiative, by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

“The Atlantic Philanthropies hopes that other government departments and agencies will soon begin to develop similar initiatives and partnerships.”

Mr Feeney, an Irish-American with dual citizenship, was born in New Jersey during the Great Depression in 1931.

He served as a radio operator in the US Air Force during the Korean War and went on to co-found the Duty Free Shoppers (DFS) group, which earned him his fortune.

He has instructed Atlantic Philanthropies trustee that they must spend his $4 billion fortune on worthwhile charities by 2020.

In a rare interview last year Mr Feeney revealed the reasons for giving away his millions.

“I had one idea that never changed in my mind –-that you should use your wealth to help people.

“I try to live a normal life, the way I grew up.

“I set out to work hard, not to get rich.”

Belfast telegraph
Friday, 1 August 2008

You would think that if it was to come to the knowledge of the local cop shop that you or I had a gun buried at the bottom of the garden, a visit from the local constabulary would be in order.

Of the breaking-down-the-door, digging-up-the-garden, scooping-the-suspects variety.

Then again, maybe not.

Who’s to say that these days we wouldn’t get invited up to Stormont for tea and Hob Nobs with a government minister and a police chief?

This week, it’s been reported that Security Minister Paul Goggins and Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde held talks at Stormont with members of the UPRG and ‘other leading loyalists’.

For “other leading loyalists” read UDA chiefs. Including Jackie McDonald, boss of all bosses.

The authorities have recently been warning them that the deadline on handing over their arms is fast running out. So they better sort it — or else.

Um, or else what?

Will the Government introduce really serious sanctions after that deadline? Like limiting Jackie to one Hob Nob per sitting?

The UDA bosses must be laughing their counterfeit designer socks off at the authorities right now.

But the really shocking thing about this story is that the chief of police, Sir Hugh Orde, attended the meeting with the leaders of an illegal terror gang.

It’s on a par with the Chicago police sitting down with Al Capone.

By Brian Rowan
Belfast Telegraph
Friday, 1 August 2008

A senior loyalist has claimed the paramilitary leadership would be overthrown if it pushed for decommissioning.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph on condition of anonymity, the paramilitary leader said: “If you uttered decommissioning you would get slaughtered — even now.”

He continued: “You would lose the leadership. I can see no form of decommissioning this side of the general (General John de Chastelain of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning) going.”

His comments come at a time of increasing political and police pressure on loyalists — both UVF and UDA — to begin the decommissioning process through the IIC.

The senior loyalist who spoke to this newspaper believes that pressure will intensify.

“I don’t think it’s cranked up yet,” he commented, adding that the Northern Ireland Office and police “have made their minds up and are adamant that if there is no form of decommissioning before the general goes, then they intend to treat loyalists as criminals.”

But the leader of the PUP Dawn Purvis argues that pressure and demands will not work; that there needs to be another way.

“There’s no discussion or debate about it in the loyalist community, and I think there’s probably a lack of understanding from those in the chattering classes who make the demands but have no idea of the processes of delivery, nor do they engage in order to help people move forward,” she said.

Those who demand decommissioning should “engage with people, seek to understand where people are at and what things need to happen in order to deliver”.

“I don’t see people under any pressure,” Ms Purvis commented, “but what I do see is a loyalist community under pressure and it’s not from weapons.”

In statements last year the UVF and Red Hand Commando said their weapons had been put “beyond reach”, and the UDA said arms had been put “beyond use”.

Those weapons have not been destroyed, and the Northern Ireland Office has indicated that the de Chastelain Commission is now operating on a short timeframe.

The assistant chief constable Peter Sheridan also recently warned that any weapons found after the IICD is closed down will be subject to forensic and other evidence processes.

“If we can identify people they will go for their tea,” he told the Irish News.

One loyalist who spoke to this newspaper sees the writing on the wall: ” People will not let them (the loyalist paramilitaries) continue to play the game they are playing of talking and talking and talking and doing nothing.”

“If you don’t do it (decommission),” he said, “you are thrown in with the rest of the criminals”.

Brian Rowan: Even if there is the will to decommission…can they actually deliver?

The senior loyalist would not describe what “beyond reach” really means.

It was the term used by the UVF and Red Hand Commando in a leadership statement in May last year to describe what had happened to their “ordnance”, as they described it.

“Instructions” had been given that weapons were to be put away.

The source spoke of a court martial and expulsions in one case in which those instructions or orders had been disobeyed. Others, he said, had sought access to weaponry but had been “steered in another way”.

“Let’s say someone wants to reach for a weapon — it goes right to the very top,” the source commented.

In other words, the leadership has to clear any use of weapons — those guns that are not yet out of the reach of the UVF and Red Hand organisations.

There is now a greater focus, political and policing, on the question of loyalist guns, but it may be too late.

You need orders from those in authority to achieve decommissioning, and as one loyalist commented to this newspaper: “Sure, there is no leadership.”

“The IRA is an army,” the loyalist commented. “It gave orders. You’re a soldier, you obey, and if you have another opinion, (you) keep it to yourself,” he continued.

That loyalist doubts the ability of the Command Staff of the UVF and the Inner Council of the UDA to achieve the same result.

He also sees what is coming if a gun is found. “It will be treated as a criminal find,” he said. A criminal find with all the “consequences” that entails.

The Assistant Chief Constable Peter Sheridan has clarified comments attributed to him earlier this week.

The membership would have to agree to decommission — they could not be ordered

He said he was not suggesting that police know where loyalist weapons are being hidden but, rather, when the decommissioning process is brought to a close, he is confident that there are intelligence systems in place that will lead to the location of those arms.

His intervention was deliberate and part of the building pressure; a strategy that is about telling loyalists that their guns have not been forgotten, despite the claims of them being “beyond reach” or “beyond use”.

The loyalist who told me you would get “slaughtered” if you “uttered decommissioning” holds a senior paramilitary rank. His comments suggest that the membership of organisations would have to agree to decommission — that they could not be ordered into such a position.

It suggests a decision-making process from the bottom up rather than from the top down, and it suggests an inability to make decommissioning happen.

That seems to be the real problem.

News Letter
1 Aug 08

A MOB of up to 60 youths smashed the windows of the home of the Chairman of the Dunclug Partnership in Ballymena on Wednesday after material for a controversial Internment bonfire was removed from the estate.

A large number of police officers and a helicopter were deployed to help defuse the tense standoff at the home of Barry Gordon which lasted from 11.00pm until almost 2.00am.

Mr Gordon said the gang believed to be dissident-republican led came to his house like “rats in the night”.

“All they are, are cowards. They came creeping up to my home like rats in the night, to attack my home and shout abuse at my wife. Why could they not come to my door during the day and say what they had to say, like real men would do.”

The Chairman said he was not intimidated by the mob, but said he would have to consult with his family about whether to stay in the estate.

Sinn Fein’s Daithi McKay and Padraig McShane both attended last night’s disturbance which also involved missiles being thrown at police officers.

Mr McKay condemned the mob and said many of them were involved in drug dealing: “A bonfire has been held in the estate here every August and a handful of people have clearly used this to carry out attacks on houses in this estate. That is why the community does not want to see a bonfire held here this year and we will support the community in taking this stance.

“Some of those who are involved in this activity are involved in the drugs trade in Ballymena. They are criminals and should be treated as such.”

Padraig McShane who is Chairperson of the Dunclug Residents Association said Barry Gordon was one of the ‘most respected men in Dunclug’.

Derry Journal
01 August 2008

A Provisional IRA gang has been accused of assaulting a member of the 32 County Sovereignty movement in Derry.

The dissident republican grouping has claimed that a four-strong “Provo mob” left the man with “serious head and facial injuries” in a bar in the city on Sunday night.

A spokesman for the body - the political wing of the Real IRA - claimed that the “entire attack” was captured on CCTV.

He added that intimidation and verbal attacks against members of the 32CSM and their partners had been “on the increase” in recent weeks. And he warned the Provisional movement to keep its members “in check”.

“These verbal and physical attacks are the work of a small but dangerous group of Provisional movement hangers-on who seem intent on creating a civil war mentality between the Provisionals and members of the republican movement. We ask the Provisionals to keep their members in check before the situation gets out of control and we would ask whose agenda this is and whose it serves?”

He added: “Republican separatism is on the rise in Derry and across the nation and we would urge our members not to react to what appears to be the last kicks of a wounded animal.

“The republican project will not be dragged into the gutter by these people and we will stand firm behind the republican position.”

Breaking News.ie
01/08/2008

Former GAA president Sean Kelly is to deliver the oration at the annual Michael Collins commemoration at Beal na mBlath later this month.

Mr Kelly, who was linked with Fine Gael in the past, steered the controversial Rule 42 through the association which paved the way for soccer and rugby to be played in Croke Park.

The Co Kerryman has previously called for Collins to be honoured by the GAA by naming a major stadium or trophy in his memory.

Last year’s guest speaker at the Beal na mBlath site, where Collins was ambushed and killed in 1922, was British film-maker Lord Puttnam and others in recent years included Fine Gael TDs Michael Noonan, Dan Neville and Simon Coveney.

Collins Commemoration Committee secretary Frank Metcalfe confirmed Mr Kelly had accepted an invitation to deliver the address.

“Sean was one of the names put around by the committee and he accepted,” he said.

“We always try to keep the guest speakers as non-political as possible. We know that Collins knew Sam Maguire who the All Ireland Football Championship trophy is named after, so that’s an interesting link with the GAA.”

Up to 2,000 people are expected at the Beal na mBlath site near Bandon on Sunday August 24.

Kelly said in a 2006 interview that Collins was one of the country’s great patriots and the lack of official recognition of Collins within the GAA was a “major historical omission.”

“Collins was a great GAA man, he played hurling and was a leading administrator in England. Indeed, he’s probably regarded internationally as our greatest patriot,” added Mr Kelly.

Mr Kelly studied history at university and wrote an essay on Collins in his final exams.

Mr Kelly was executive chairman of the Irish Institute of Sport for two years but he stepped down earlier this week.

It is understood he will be pursuing other sports-related projects.

BBC
1 August 2008

The DUP has rebuffed an invitation to take part in the Irish parliament’s Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Dodds described the initiative as a pointless committee

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said his party would not be participating in what he called a “pointless committee”.

Mr Dodds said the Belfast Agreement had been replaced “with a new fairer dispensation”.

He said it was strange that the Irish Republic had appointed a committee to oversee its implementation.

Mr Dodds said that while good relations with Dublin were desirable, the Irish government should be under no illusions that the internal affairs of Northern Ireland were of no concern to them.

Mr Dodds said Stormont controlled north-south relations and that is where the focus of his party would be.

He added that that his party would not be squandering valuable time on a pointless committee.

BBC
1 August 2008

Parking attendants have been withdrawn from west Belfast following a threat from dissident republicans.

Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy and Sinn Fein assembly member Paul Maskey have condemned the move.

Simon Richardson of the Roads Service said it was hoped the situation would be resolved as soon as possible.

“Traffic attendants do a very important job in all parts of the city by reducing illegal parking and keeping traffic moving,” he said.

“Our work is solely focused on traffic management and keeping traffic flowing in busy areas - having no parking enforcement will only have a negative impact in the area.”