SAOIRSE32

RSF to publicly remember Éamonn Ceannt
indymedia.ie
Posted by Sharon - 1169 and counting

“I shall die, like a man, for Ireland’s sake.”

–note written by Éamonn Ceannt to his wife, May 7th, 1916 , the day before he was executed by the British

Éamonn Ceannt was an uileann piper, a member of the IRB Military Council and a signatory of the 1916 Proclamation. He was stationed in the South Dublin Union during the Rising of 1916. As a member of the Provisional Government he was executed by the British Army in Kilmainham Gaol on May 8th 1916.
A Republican Commemoration to honour Éamonn Ceannt will be held in the Crumlin area of Dublin , near to a 42-acre park named after the man, on Sunday August 17th 2008. Those attending are asked to assemble at ‘Superquinn’ on the Sundrive Road at 12.45PM. All Welcome!

Mid Ulster Mail
06 August 2008

SPEAKING at the Counties Derry and Antrim Republican commemoratation in Gulladuff on Sunday, Sinn Féin Junior Minister and MLA for North Belfast, Gerry Kelly committed his party to the achievement of republican objectives - Irish Unity, Prosperity and Equality.

In a wide ranging speech, the leading republican activist paid tribute to the area’s republican dead and made special reference to the political commitment and young age of many of the volunteers included on the local Republican Roll of Honour.

He dealt with the different phases of the republican struggle pointing out the contribution of many ordinary men and women, young and old who found themselves in exceptional circumstances when witnessing the brutality of a unionist regime faced with the modest democratic demands of the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1960s.

Tribute was also paid to those volunteers and political activists, anti H-Block/Armagh campaigners and former political prisoners from across the area who died in subsequent years whether on hunger strike, active service or as a result of collusion between the British State and their agents.

Kelly dealt with the political conditions in Ireland today and said it was his party’s intention to see republican objectives met in the time ahead. He pointed to the work that needs to be done and invited everyone to become involved in his party’s work programme. Quoting Bobby Sands, he said: ‘Everyone, Republican or otherwise has their own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something.’

Sunday’s commemoration saw the area’s republican youth play a leading role in the ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance at Gulladuff.

The local Roll of Honour from 1798 to the present day was read in three sections by Andrea O’Kane from Dungiven, Sean Bateson from Kilrea and Michael McLaughlin from Ballymaguigan.

The ballad Farewell to Bellaghy was sung by Aileen McElwee, niece of H-Block hunger striker, Thomas McElwee before a poem by Bobby Sands, The Rhythm of Time was read by Liam Duggan from Lavey.

Wreaths were laid on behalf of Óglaigh na hÉireann, Sinn Féin, Counties Derry and Antrim Republican Graves Association and the families of those included on the local Roll of Honour.

Belfast Telegraph
Wednesday, 6 August 2008

A Sinn Fein councillor in Co Tyrone has resigned from the party, it was confirmed last night.

Barry Monteith, who has served on Dungannon council for the last seven years, announced he was splitting from the party because he could “no longer reconcile with its strategy”, claiming that it was not geared towards Irish unification.

Since joining Sinn Fein as a teenager, Mr Monteith has served as a party advice worker and in 2007 was elected as mayor of Dungannon. Despite his resignation, he will continue to serve on the council.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Monteith said: “It is with regret that I am resigning from Sinn Fein. This is due to disillusionment with the current Sinn Fein strategy. I no longer share the belief that this strategy will lead to Irish unification.

“I will remain as an independent republican councillor and will continue to concentrate on issues affecting the people of Dungannon.”

Belfast Telegraph
Thursday, 7 August 2008

A mother-of-five from Northern Ireland who told a court she saw a farmer being kicked and punched by four gardai is refusing to travel south of the Border to testify in an appeal brought by the Irish State.

Two years ago Fermanagh farmer Phillip Johnston was awarded €30,000 for assault and false imprisonment after a judge ruled that he had been dragged from his Jeep by gardai near the border at Blacklion, Cavan, on September 8, 2001.

A doctor and two independent witnesses, including the married mother-of-five, backed Mr Johnston’s claim that he had been dragged from his vehicle and punched and kicked by four members of the Garda Siochana before being handcuffed and put into a patrol car.

In her ruling, which has now been appealed by the Irish State, Dublin Circuit Civil Court judge Jacqueline Linnane said the case attracted aggravated and exemplary damages and awarded Mr Johnston €30,000 damages and costs. The woman who described witnessing the alleged attack by gardai willingly gave evidence during the original civil trial against the Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice.

But she now refuses to travel to give evidence in the “de novo” appeal — where the case is heard as if no prior trial had been held — following an alleged intimidation threat against her at her Co Fermanagh home.

The woman has complained to the Police Service of Northern Ireland that two men visited her home and threatened violence against her and her husband if she gave evidence in the forthcoming appeal.

After the alleged threat was reported to the PSNI, lawyers for the woman subsequently notified the gardai, Justice Minister and Attorney General requesting that her evidence be read into the record at the appeal, preventing the need for her to cross the Border.

Late last month lawyers acting for Mr Johnston of Drogan, Kiladeas, Irivinestown, told the High Court, sitting in Dublin, that the woman was “in fear” and had made an application for her evidence to be taken on commission in the North.

They want the case transferred to Northern Ireland for a day to allow the woman to give evidence under new EU laws that make it easier to take evidence in another member state.

Earlier this year, in an unprecedented move, the judge presiding over the Omagh civil trial travelled to Dublin to hear evidence from gardai who investigated the 1998 atrocity.

When Mr Justice Declan Morgan sat in the Four Courts last May, it marked the first time a British judge went to the Republic on judicial business.

If the application to take evidence on commission in the State’s appeal succeeds, the Irish courts could set a similar precedent by allowing a judge to leave the jurisdiction to hear evidence in Northern Ireland.

Seven years ago the European Union adopted a regulation laying down procedural rules to make it easier to take evidence in a different member state.

The regulation, which came into force in Ireland four years ago, applies in civil and commercial cases and creates a new system of direct and rapid transmission and execution of requests for the performance of taking of evidence between courts.

BBC

Martin McGuinness has said he does not believe the IMC has a role to play with regards to the existence of the IRA army council.

It comes after it emerged the body that monitors Northern Ireland’s paramilitary groups is to carry out such an assessment.

The deputy first minister was speaking at a public debate in west Belfast.

“The IRA have clearly gone off the stage and have done so since 2005,” said Mr McGuinness.

“But there’s still attempts being made by some people to drag them back on and I think that’s silly.”

Mr McGuinness also accused the PUP leader, Dawn Purvis, of “rank hypocrisy” after she said there was absolutely no debate in the loyalist community about weapons, a remark she later clarified.

“If we’re trying to build a normal, modern, democratic, European society, there is no excuse for holding onto weapons and I’ve already started that debate,” she said.

The DUP MLA Nelson McCausland said he thought the IRA Army Council was still in existence and that its removal would be a “significant step”.

Breaking News
06/08/2008

The Irish and British Governments have asked the Independent Monitoring Commission to prepare a special report assessing how far the Provisional IRA has gone towards winding up its activities.

The surprise request is believed to have been made as part of efforts to push ahead with the devolution of policing and justice powers from London to Stormont.

The move was supposed to have happened last May, but the DUP is continuing to block it, saying unionists still need time to assess the IRA’s future intentions.

The DUP has repeatedly said it will not contemplate the devolution of policing and justice until the IRA Army Council has been disbanded.

The last report from the IMC said the IRA was honouring its vow to end illegality, with no evidence of intelligence-gathering or any violent activity by the organisation.

IAIS
08/06/08 00:21 EST

Northern Ireland’s sports minister has said he will make a decision about the proposed Maze stadium within the next few weeks.

The Democratic Unionist Party’s Gregory Campbell was speaking at a reception for Linfield Football Club at Stormont on Tuesday night.

Mr Campbell said he had been looking at the issue of a national stadium with an open mind.

“Now I’m the minister, I need to have responsibility for the advancement of sport in Northern Ireland per se,” said Mr Campbell.

“That’s football, that’s rugby and it’s gaelic and the other sports. But those three main sports were the sports which were going to avail of any new stadium.”

“I haven’t yet come to a conclusion, but I’m going to in the next few weeks and I’m then going to make an announcement in the Assembly in the autumn,” the DUP minister said.

IAIS
08/06/08 08:31 EST

The body appointed by the British government that monitors paramilitary groups inNorthen Ireland has been asked to produce a special report assessing whether the IRA army council still exists.

The British and Irish governments asked the ‘Independent’ Monitoring Commission for its views by 1 September.

The DUP has said the IRA army council must cease to exist if policing and justice powers are to be devolved to the Assembly.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said he had asked for the report to help clarify the “completion of the transformation of PIRA”.

“Enormous progress has been made by people across Northern Ireland to deal with outstanding issues from the Troubles. However there are still vestiges of this time for which we need greater clarification,” he said.

In the past, the IMC has said that the existence of the Army Council was necessary as part of a change of management process as the IRA moved from violence to politics.

In its last report in May, the commission said “that relinquishing leadership structures appropriate to a time of conflict would be the signal that a paramilitary group had emerged at the other end of the process of transformation”.

The IMC said this transformation was “all but complete” in the case of the IRA.

The governments have now asked for a special report to clarify the commission’s views on the current structures of the IRA.

There has been no movement yet on the disbandment of any of the loyalist paramilitary groups or their structures.

IAIS
08/06/08

Details have been announced of a GBP£36 million ($71.5m) package to help victims of Northern Ireland’s Troubles.

The proposals represent a blueprint for how the Stormont administration intends to deal with the sensitive and contentious issue in the future.

It will see victims and survivors issues dealt with by three bodies - a Victims Commission, a Victims Forum and a Victims Service.

The draft proposals have already been discussed at committee level at Stormont and will now go out for a 12-week public consultation.

DUP Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson unveiled the strategy with his colleague, Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly.

It is our desire to ensure that everyone who needs help and support gets and receives that support. That is why we are proposing the establishment of a new victim’s service so that there is one point of contact, Mr Donaldson said.

Mr Kelly is also optimistic that victims will be provided with a good service.

The commissioners are set up, they have been working very hard and once we get the forum, the victims and survivors forum set up and indeed the victims and survivors service set up, then it will be a full fledged, organised and comprehensive approach to the issue of victims and survivors.

The consultation period will run for three months and anyone with a view can express it by contacting the victims unit in the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister.

By Barry McCaffrey
Irish News
**Via Newshound
05/08/08

BRITISH government ministers were warned in 1972 not to publicly criticise the UDA as it would be “very damaging politically” despite the organisation having already killed 28 people, The Irish News can reveal.

In 1972 the UDA was responsible for some of the worst sectarian murders of the Troubles, killing 19 Catholics including six-year-old and four-year-old school girls.

In the same year the loyalist organisation was responsible for shooting dead 10 Protestants, including one policeman.

Nationalists were concerned that many UDA men were also joining the UDR.

In a 1972 memo to government ministers a senior British army officer confirmed nationalists’ worst fears.

In a Ministry of Defence memo outlining the number of UDR members who were also in the UDA, Lieutenant Colonel JL Pownall wrote: “It is inevitable that a part of the Protestant element of a part-time regiment in Ulster will sympathise with the aims of the UDA; and it is suspected that there are cases where this sympathy is carried to the extent of active membership.

“There are, however, no proven facts as yet on which to base an estimate of the scale of the problem.”

By the end of 1972 a House of Commons statement would reveal that almost 200 UDR weapons had either been lost or stolen.

Despite the UDA’s involvement in a series of brutal murders, Col Pownall warned that it would be “very damaging politically” if ministers publicly criticised the UDA.

“The UDR has to draw a line somewhere between hardline Protestants who can be safely contained in the UDR, and those who cannot,” his memo said.

“The UDA is not an illegal organisation and membership of the UDA is not an offence under the military laws; it is also a large organisation, not all of whose members can be regarded as dangerous extremists.

“One important (but unspoken) function of the UDR is to channel into a constructive and disciplined direction Protestant energies which might otherwise become disruptive.

“For these reasons it is felt that it would be counterproductive to discharge a UDR member solely on the grounds that he was a member of the UDA.”

Advising government ministers against publicly criticising either the UDR or UDA, Col Pownall said: “I recognise the reasons why ministers might wish to be able to say unequivocally, in reply to parliamentary questions, that membership of the UDA is not compatible with

membership of the UDR and that we have no evidence that any UDR member is actively associated with the UDA.

“But I fear it would be wrong to offer categorical assurances on either

point and indeed it might be very damaging politically if ministers were to make a public statement which implied that the UDA was an outlawed organisation.”

The top secret papers, recovered by researchers from the Pat Finucane Centre from the British national archives in London, are part of an exhibition revealing what the British government really thought about loyalist violence, the UDR and what to tell the Pope.

- The exhibition, chaired by Irish News columnist Brian Feeney takes place at St Mary’s University College, Belfast at 1pm today.

BBC
6 August 2008

A draft plan on how victims and survivors of the Troubles can be helped has been published.

Gerry Kelly and Jeffrey Donaldson announced the plan at the Wave Trauma Centre

The proposals, which outline a strategy for the next 10 years, were announced by junior ministers Jeffrey Donaldson of the DUP and Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly.

A 12-week consultation period on the plans has begun.

Mike Nesbitt of the Victims Commission said it provided the opportunity “for the first time to replace short-term anxiety with longer-term certainty”.

He said the plans would help “victims groups who are grant-dependent, and therefore wonder every year whether the money is going to come through, whether they will be able to afford to keep their staff”.

‘Sensitive’

Mr Donaldson said: “There is no issue more sensitive or difficult to deal with for the Executive than that of how to address the needs of victims and survivors.

“We hope that this document will help to move us on the road to making a real difference to the lives of those who have been most affected by the events here over the last 40 years.”

Mr Kelly said: “The Executive set aside £36m to meet the needs of victims and survivors over the next three years - however, we want to ensure that future support and services are shaped by victims and survivors.

“It is important that everyone with an interest in victims and survivors issues read this draft document carefully and gives us their views.”

Belfast Telegraph
Wednesday, 6 August 2008

Confirmation that the IRA’s ruling Army Council has been disbanded will not necessarily pave the way for devolved policing and justice, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said tonight.

DUP Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson will need further assurances on accountability structures before the security force handover despite the Government’s call for a special report assessing whether the IRA has dismantled all its paramilitary structures.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward asked for a response from the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) ceasefire watchdog by early September.

Mr Donaldson said: “We will obviously take a very keen interest in what the IMC has to report.

“For policing and justice devolution to occur there has to be sufficient confidence in the unionist community and one of those elements is removing the IRA from the stage.

“This isn’t the only factor, there will be others that we need to take into account as well like the structures being put in place for the devolution of policing and justice.'’

Belfast Telegraph
Wednesday, 6 August 2008

A man appeared in court earlier today in connection with the kidnap of British Army undercover intelligence agent, Robert Nairac, more than 30 years ago.

Kevin Crilly, aged 57, from Jonesborough, Co Armagh, denies two charges of kidnapping and falsely imprisoning Captain Nairac.

Capt Nairac, aged 29, originally from Gloucestershire, volunteered to stay on in Northern Ireland after his tour of duty was over.

He operated undercover adopting an Irish accent but was identified by the IRA as he sat in a bar in Dromintee, County Armagh.

It is believed he was taken outside and, after being driven across the border, was shot dead.

His body was never found.

The accused went to the US during the original police investigation and remained there for 27 years.

He was remanded on continuing bail to reappear at Newry Magistrates’ Court on October 1.

BBC
6 August 2008

Two men are to appear court on Thursday charged with the murder of the UDA member Tommy English.

Tommy English was murdered during a loyalist feud in 2000

The 40-year-old was shot in front of his wife at his home in Ballyfore Gardens, on the Ballyduff Estate in Newtownabbey, in October 2000.

His death came during a feud with the rival Ulster Volunteer Force, in which seven people died.

It is the first case to be brought to court by the Historical Enquiries Team, set up to investigate unsolved murders.

Mr English was a former member of an Ulster Democratic Party talks delegation in the early stages of the Northern Ireland peace talks.

The party, which folded in 2001, was linked to the loyalist paramilitary grouping UDA/UFF.