SAOIRSE32

Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie
Date: 8 Lúnasa / August 2008

Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom

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In this issue:

1. RSF remember introduction of internment in Antrim, Clare

REPUBLICAN Sinn Féin will mark the anniversary of the reintroduction of internment in 1971 with pickets in Counties Antrim and Clare.

On Saturday, 9th August, a white-line picket will commence on the Falls Road in Belfast at 1:30p.m. A picket will also take place on the Clare Road in Ennis from 2p.m. Until 5p.m. Both pickets are being held in solidarity with Republican prisoners currently incarcerated in Maghaberry Gaol in County Antrim, who are seeking the restoration of political status.

These prisoners engaged in a ten-and-a-half month protest from June 2006. Their protest was suspended following assurances that the outstanding issues would be addressed.

2. Attacks on nationalist homes condemned

IN A statement on August 6 Republican Sinn Féin in Belfast condemned the ongoing attacks on nationalist homes in the Rosapenna street area of north Belfast.

The statement continued: “Families have had to live with a barrage of stones bottles and petrol bomb attacks. In the most recent attack a family of four had a lucky escape. None of these attacks have been highlighted by either nationalist or unionist politicians, who now only find time to squabble over policing and justice matters. “For these families justice is as far away as ever. We in Republican Sinn Féin call on nationalists to remain vigilant.

3. CRJ should disband

THE announcement that Community Restorative Justice is to be funded by the British government shows that these Provisional policemen are now acting in full collaboration with the RUC, Richard Walsh, National Publicity Office for Republican Sinn Féin said on August 5.

“CRJ have been granted funding for schemes in Belfast and Derry City due to their willingness to collaborate openly with the RUC and other agents of English rule in our country,” he said.

“Whilst Republicans have long been aware of these nefarious activities carried out by that organisation, CRJ are now anxious to admit to this publicly. These British-backed schemes have nothing to offer Nationalists and Republicans and should disband.”

4. Google spy vans ‘dangerous’

THE incessant photographing of people, their vehicles and property by the Google Corporation is an extreme and dangerous invasion of privacy, Republican Sinn Féin Director of Publicity, Richard Walsh said on August 5

He said: “Vans belonging to this corporation are currently travelling around Ireland, and indeed around the world, photographing everything they pass. Every street and indeed everyone’s home will then be accessible to view on the internet.

“Such images being freely available around the world creates a very real risk to the security of individuals. Malicious viewers could use such data to establish weaknesses in people’s personal security and identify opportunities to attack their enemies. Needless to say, Google has not sought the permission of anyone to photograph them or their properties, and must be made to destroy this material.”

(more…)

BBC

Thousands of people are taking part in the annual Apprentice Boys Relief of Derry celebrations in Derry.

An Apprentice Boys parade in Derry

About 15,000 Apprentice Boys and spectators, accompanied by 120 bands, have been marching through the city.

The parade has so far passed off peacefully, although there were five arrests following minor assaults and public order offences.

The PSNI officer leading the security operation, Superintendent Paul Douglas said the day had been a success.

“So far it has largely been an incident-free day and that is largely due to the work done by police and the organisers, local community groups and of course the business forum here in the town.

“So we’re very pleased and I would thank everyone concerned for their efforts so far,” he said.

Some shops have remained closed throughout the day, and a number of traders have expressed concerns.

DUP assembly member William Hay, a leading Apprentice Boy, said they were doing everything to minimise disruption.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done.”

“It’s very much in our minds that the whole community benefits from this,” he added.

However, cafe owner Declan Moore said he was afraid that he would lose trade because of the parade and that it was a “ludicrous” situation.

The parade celebrates the actions of Protestant Apprentice Boys, who shut the city gates against the forces of Catholic King James in December 1688.

The Apprentice Boys will march around the city walls before laying wreaths for war victims at the Diamond.

10th ANNIVERSARY - THE OMAGH BOMBING

BY Seamus McKinney
07/08/08

SCENE OF DEVASTATION: This aerial view gives some impression of the huge destructive force of the car bomb detonated in Omagh on August 15 1998

Irish News reporter Seamus McKinney recalls his own memories of the aftermath of the Omagh bombing and the images that come flooding back on the 10th anniversary

Ten years on and memories of blood-red footprints in the hall of Omagh hospital, of the terrifying cries of three heartbroken mothers, and of hearses zig-zagging through the Co Tyrone town are still vivid.

At approximately 3.10pm on Saturday August 15 1998, a Real IRA car bomb ripped through Omagh, adding its name to the bleak roll of world terror.

Thirty-one people died, including two babies in their mother’s womb. More than 200 were injured.

For a generation of journalists in Ireland and further afield it became one of the most traumatic periods of their working lives.

I first heard about the Omagh bombing on the 4pm news on Radio Ulster. As the newsreader spoke, I thought it was another bombing of a US embassy, as there had been a number in Africa in the weeks before.

Mention of the word Omagh and the bombing became a story for me as north west correspondent of The Irish News. I had no idea how awful it would be.

I reached Omagh by about 5.30pm and went to the Tyrone County Hospital. It was a hive of silent activity; there was little noise apart from the sound of military helicopters landing and departing as they transported shattered bodies to Belfast and Derry.

My memories are a series of snapshot images and recalled sounds.

I can still picture the footmarks in blood at the hospital entrance, gradually fading as you went further into the building.

I recall trying to interview William Thompson, the Ulster Unionist MP, later on the Saturday night in the grounds of the hospital.

He was composed and professional, but only for seconds. He broke down as we talked and could only repeat again and again: “This is my town. This is my town.”

On the Sunday, the world’s media waited with relatives in Omagh leisure centre. Occasionally, there would be a rush of activity as a politician arrived.

Journalists watched as police liaison officers quietly approached families and took them out of the public area to identify the body of a murdered loved one.

I saw Kevin Skelton; he had a cut on his head. Vaguely knowing him from the GAA, the journalist in me saw a new angle – someone who might have been injured in the bomb.

I spoke to him; he turned and said “That man’s just told me my wife is dead.” He didn’t know where he was; he’d just been told his beloved Philomena was murdered.

Two days after the bombing and I was in Eskra to interview the family of 17-year-old Joelene Marlow.

I interviewed Joe and Bridie Marlow in their daughter’s bedroom. It was without doubt the most traumatic interview I have ever conducted.

As I drove back through Omagh to Derry I had to stop at traffic lights at Hospital Road. Countless hearses crossed in front of me – the bodies of the dead had just been released.

Four days after the bombing and I was sent to Buncrana to cover the funerals of 12-year-old James Barker, 11-year-old Sean McLaughlin and Oran Doherty, who was eight.

Oran was Celtic-mad but he had been too young for his daddy to take him to Parkhead. At his funeral, Celtic came to him. Player Mark Rieper, club chairman Kevin Kelly and coach Willie McStay walked behind his coffin.

The great and good were gathered at the Cockhill churchyard outside Buncrana but my strongest memory of that day was the sound of heart-wrenching keening, picked up by loud speakers beside the three holes dug in the ground.

I wrote at the time: “The moment came which every mother and father must fear; the moment when their beautiful children are lowered into the ground.

“The poignancy of that moment will remain forever with everyone who was there. As the three coffins were laid to rest, the loudspeakers picked up the wail, a cry heard throughout Ireland and the world.

“Hair-raising and frightening, it was the lament for the innocent.”

Daily Record
Aug 9 2008

Catholics And Protestants, Mums And Dads, Children And Babies.. They All Died Together

AIDEN Gallagher, 21, was in Omagh on August 15 with his friend to buy a pair of jeans.

His dad, Michael, 58, recalled having a chat with his only son before he set off.

Michael said: “I’ll never forget, as he turned and walked down the hall for the last time, he looked back and said, ‘I won’t be long.’

“Little did we know that would be the last time we would see Aiden.”

The mechanic was working at his garage that afternoon when the bomb, which was hidden in a Vauxhall Cavalier, detonated in Market Street.

“I knew from past experience that it was a bomb because it was not just loud but it had an echo, a vibration with it,” said Michael. “I locked the garage and drove home and I could see a pall of smoke in the distance.”

Less than 20 minutes after the blast, Michael was outside the A&E at Tyrone County Hospital.

He said: “It was a horrific and chaotic scene. There were hundreds of injured people, some of them with life-threatening injuries.”

The longest night of his life was spent at the local leisure centre, where relatives of the missing awaited news.

About 4.30am on Sunday, Michael was ushered into a room, where two police officers were waiting.

After a number of questions about his son, the devastated dad was asked to visit the temporary mortuary which had been set up in a hanger at the nearby Lisanelly Army camp.

Michael, a Catholic, said: “I went there with my brother James and Aiden was identified. I then had to go home and tell my family that Aiden would not be coming home.

“We just had to face that and it was a terrible thought.”

Michael, the eldest of 11 children, moved to Glasgow in 1958 when he was nine.

But his mother feared the city was becoming too violent and the family returned to Northern Ireland in the early Sixties.

Within a few years, the province was plunged into three decades of bloodshed. The traumatic period claimed more than 3600 lives, including Michael’s youngest brother, Hughie.

He worked for the security forces before leaving to become a taxi driver.

But his past was enough to make him an enemy in the eyes of the Provisional IRA and he was ambushed on June 3, 1984.

Michael said: “Hughie was shot dead by three assassins.

“He was 26 at the time and he was married with two children. It affected me badly. Then, 14 years later, Aiden died in the Omagh bomb.

“Some people say lightning can’t strike twice in the same place. Sadly, I can tell them differently.”

Aiden’s friend, Michael Barrett, was with Aiden when the 500lb bomb went off. He experienced enormous survivor guilt and visited the Gallagher’s house every day for two years.

Paying tribute to Aiden, Michael said: “He was a person that was at the centre of the house. Aiden was always doing things or asking others to do things.

“He was not interested in politics or bigotry or any of these horrible things. His friends were right across the board.”

Aiden worked alongside his dad repairing car bodyworks and his main interests were motorbikes and music.

His sisters, Cathy, now 30, and Sharon, 36, struggled to come to terms with his loss.

As a result, Cathy attempted to take her own life on two occasions after the bombing.

Michael said: “I think we have been denied a wonderful son and we will always miss him.

“That loss will become more acute when we get older because even if he was only there to make us a cup of tea or clean the windows, he would be doing it for the love of us.

“That, on a very simple basis, is what we have been denied.”

Belfast Telegraph
Saturday, 9 August 2008

An investigation is under way after a woman who lost her teenage brother in the Omagh bomb blast was ordered to leave the memorial garden in the town, just one week before the 10th anniversary of the Real IRA outrage.

Carol Radford said she was asked to leave the site of the new memorial when she tried to have her picture taken there yesterday. She was stunned when she was told that she had no right to be at the memorial garden before its official opening on August 15.

Carol, 37, explained that her 16-year-old brother Alan Radford, a trainee chef, was killed in the outrage and she said she had every right to be at the memorial garden.

She said: “We were unable to take the pictures we wanted because the workmen were in the way and refused to move even though they were asked to do so very politely.”

The row is the latest of a series of clashes between families of the Omagh bomb victims and Omagh District Council which is organising the official 10th anniversary commemoration service on Friday. Many relatives have vowed to boycott the official service and are holding their own special commemoration the following Sunday instead.

Omagh District Council’s chief executive Daniel McSorley said in a statement yesterday: “Two members of the public entered the memorial garden site without authorisation this morning.

“The final construction works at the memorial garden are ongoing and, as such, the site remains a construction site which is not open to the public. This unauthorised entry is therefore a breach of site security and contravenes Health & Safety Regulations.

“Staff at the construction site requested the persons to leave the site and an investigation into the incident is being carried out. The matter may then be reported to the Health & Safety Executive.”

DAN KEENAN, Northern News Editor
Irish Times
**Via Newshound
9 August 2008

PLANS TO commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Omagh bombing have been struck by protests and boycotts involving some of the victims’ families, local clergy and elected representatives.

Many families linked to Omagh Support and Self Help Group, chaired by Michael Gallagher whose son Aidan died in the Real IRA attack, have said they will not attend the ceremony organised by Omagh council.

To be staged in the town on Friday, it will be attended by local churchmen, elected representatives and former Middle East hostage Terry Waite. However, it emerged last night that clergy from the four main churches will not attend the traditional support group ceremony to be held in the town two days later, on the Sunday closest to the date of the bombing.

Some families say they are angry at the way the council organised Friday’s service, and at the planned attendance of unnamed political figures. They already criticised the council’s organising of a new permanent memorial to the 29 who died in the bombing.

The dead included a woman who was pregnant with twins.

These families believe they have been snubbed by local clergy over their joint decision to attend the council ceremony on Friday and not to accept invitations to the Sunday wreath-laying memorial.

Kevin Skelton, whose wife died in the attack, said of the clergy’s decision: “Our local clergy who have supported us down the years have refused to participate.

“I’m very, very disappointed. I’m shocked as I personally know some of the clergy involved and I would hold one of them in very high esteem.”

He was highly critical of the inscription to be included on the new memorial provided by the council. He also said some people would attend Friday’s council-organised memorial whom he “just could not stomach”.

“There are going to be politicians there from Britain, the South of Ireland . . . politicians from the North of Ireland. I would certainly have a lot of problems with them.”

Godfrey Wilson, who lost his daughter Lorraine, said he thought it was a matter of “Christian duty” for churchmen to show respect to both services.

Mr Gallagher said: “Some of these clergy buried our loved ones. We can’t believe they aren’t coming. They are boycotting and marginalising the families.”

The support group hopes to bring clergy based outside Omagh to attend their service on the 17th.

Omagh council responded to the unease over the commemorations with a statement yesterday.

It said arrangements “provide an opportunity for the bereaved, the injured, the emergency and support services and all those affected by the bomb to come together with the wider community in an act of remembrance”.

It referred to the controversial inscription complained of by Mr Skelton. “The ceremony will include the dedication of the Garden of Light memorial which has been well received,” it said.

The council also issued a later statement, claiming: “It is our understanding that the Omagh Support and Self-Help Group is encouraging its members to attend the 10th Anniversary Commemorative Ceremony on Friday 15 August as well as their personal memorial service.”

DAN KEENAN, Northern News Editor
Irish Times
9 August 2008

PLANS TO commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Omagh bombing have been struck by protests and boycotts involving some of the victims’ families, local clergy and elected representatives.

Many families linked to Omagh Support and Self Help Group, chaired by Michael Gallagher whose son Aidan died in the Real IRA attack, have said they will not attend the ceremony organised by Omagh council.

To be staged in the town on Friday, it will be attended by local churchmen, elected representatives and former Middle East hostage Terry Waite. However, it emerged last night that clergy from the four main churches will not attend the traditional support group ceremony to be held in the town two days later, on the Sunday closest to the date of the bombing.

Some families say they are angry at the way the council organised Friday’s service, and at the planned attendance of unnamed political figures. They already criticised the council’s organising of a new permanent memorial to the 29 who died in the bombing.

The dead included a woman who was pregnant with twins.

These families believe they have been snubbed by local clergy over their joint decision to attend the council ceremony on Friday and not to accept invitations to the Sunday wreath-laying memorial.

Kevin Skelton, whose wife died in the attack, said of the clergy’s decision: “Our local clergy who have supported us down the years have refused to participate.

“I’m very, very disappointed. I’m shocked as I personally know some of the clergy involved and I would hold one of them in very high esteem.”

He was highly critical of the inscription to be included on the new memorial provided by the council. He also said some people would attend Friday’s council-organised memorial whom he “just could not stomach”.

“There are going to be politicians there from Britain, the South of Ireland . . . politicians from the North of Ireland. I would certainly have a lot of problems with them.”

Godfrey Wilson, who lost his daughter Lorraine, said he thought it was a matter of “Christian duty” for churchmen to show respect to both services.

Mr Gallagher said: “Some of these clergy buried our loved ones. We can’t believe they aren’t coming. They are boycotting and marginalising the families.”

The support group hopes to bring clergy based outside Omagh to attend their service on the 17th.

Omagh council responded to the unease over the commemorations with a statement yesterday.

It said arrangements “provide an opportunity for the bereaved, the injured, the emergency and support services and all those affected by the bomb to come together with the wider community in an act of remembrance”.

It referred to the controversial inscription complained of by Mr Skelton. “The ceremony will include the dedication of the Garden of Light memorial which has been well received,” it said.

The council also issued a later statement, claiming: “It is our understanding that the Omagh Support and Self-Help Group is encouraging its members to attend the 10th Anniversary Commemorative Ceremony on Friday 15 August as well as their personal memorial service.”

Breaking News.ie

Police in the North are investigating a riot during which officers were attacked by a crowd in Belfast overnight.

The incident happened in the Glebewalk area of Lisburn shortly before 1am this morning.

Up to 20 people were involved in the attack, during which a can of tear gas was stolen from police.

One person was taken to hospital with injuries but they are not thought to be life-threatening.

Two people were arrested in connection with the riot and one was later charged with assaulting police officers.

Belfast Telegraph
Thursday, 7 August 2008

Security expert Brian Rowan asks if a new Independent Monitoring Commission report can persuade the doubters that the IRA Army Council has gone away

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams (right) and Martin McGuinness (left) carry the coffin of Brian Keenan The republican offered the comment: “The IRA has left the stage — is gone.” He was speaking in response to the news that the Independent Monitoring Commission is to make a specific report on the IRA transition and structures in a few weeks’ time — by September 1.

That report has been requested by the British and Irish governments, and the four IMC commissioners — Lord Alderdice, Joe Brosnan, John Grieve and Dick Kerr — met in Belfast some days ago and agreed to proceed.

The request has the look of something designed to aid the move towards the devolution of policing and justice powers — a report that is about trying to clear some of the remaining hurdles.

One source put it this way — that the objective is to try to “remove one of the excuses the DUP would use ? taking out of the equation some of the argument in the DUP position.”

But how do you prove that the IRA Army Council is no longer functioning, no longer meeting?

Will ‘P O’Neill’ raise his voice to say that that leadership has been disbanded?

“I’m not expecting anything of that kind,” a source commented.

All of that would be a little too obvious — an IRA statement, an IMC report and a smooth transition towards the establishment of the new justice department at Stormont.

Others are not as quick to rule out a possible IRA statement.

The IMC position on the IRA has been set out in the course of a number of reports — that it has “effectively withered away” — that the transformation from war to peace is “all but complete in the case of PIRA”.

In the words of one well-placed source, the September 1 report will be “a clarification and confirmation” of that assessment.

Brian Keenan — a “hawk” in the IRA’s war and a key figure in the process that delivered decommissioning — was part of the IRA Army Council.

And at his funeral some weeks ago, you saw the changing IRA, a transformed organisation in white shirts and black ties, a small number in berets, out on the streets to remember and salute one of its dead.

There were no masks and no guns. That IRA — seen on the day of the funeral — will never go away, will always be there. And that peacetime organisation is always likely to have a leadership, whether it is called the Army Council or something else.

The important question is not whether the Army Council continues to exist.

More important is the question: is the IRA “war” over?

Can that be believed? Is that a position that people can have confidence in?

The IMC believes it is, and that view is shared in the highest ranks of policing.

“I have no difficulty accepting that the IRA war is over,” a senior police officer commented.

“The Army Council had a role during the conflict,” he continued — “if it’s over, what’s it doing?”

His view is “of course it should stand down” — that “in a democratic society there shouldn’t be any illegal organisations”.

But he also accepts that the Army Council has managed the republican transition from war to peace.

What it has done is order the IRA organisation into its various peace moves and initiatives such as ceasefires, decommissioning, the formal ending of the armed campaign and the endorsement and acceptance of new policing.

That Army Council no longer meets to discuss the business of war.

The question now is can the IMC persuade the doubters, and are republicans prepared to say anything more as part of a process of confidence building? We will know in a few weeks’ time.

By Aine McEntee
North Belfast News
Belfast Media.com

Disagreements over an illegal bonfire built to mark the 1971 anniversary of internment has left a North Belfast community on tenterhooks this week.

The bonfire, made up of tyres, pallets and gas canisters has been built in Ligoniel Park to “celebrate internment” and “to give kids in the area something to do”, council officials were told at an emergency meeting in Wolfhill Community Centre yesterday (Wednesday).

Sinn Féin representatives, who wanted the bonfire removed failed to reach agreement with those who had built the illegal structure.

Council workers arrived in the area on Wednesday to assess the situation and engaged in a meeting with bonfire organisers. One of the topics under discussion was council workers who said they were “too afraid to dismantle the bonfire” in the council owned park. It also transpired a private contractor who was asked to take the pallets and tyres away had also declined to do so.

The situation is in contrast to Alexandra Park where the council successfully removed a bonfire built on the site with no trouble.

The row echoes the high profile dispute last week involving another bonfire where residents and Sinn Fein clashed.

A man (21) has since been arrested and charged in connection with an attack on Sinn Féin North Antrim MLA Daithí McKay and a party colleague, local councillor Padraig McShane.

The pair were assaulted in the Dunclug estate outside the home of a community worker and both men sustained minor injuries. The attack took place during a dispute over the removal of a bonfire to commemorate internment.

According to Sinn Fein councillor for the area Margaret McClenaghan the very idea of celebrating internment is deeply disturbing.

“When these people keep on referring to the celebration of internment it sitcks in my throat, because internment was nothing to celebrate.

“We need to call this bonfire for what it really is - an excuse for drinking and Ligoniel certainly doesn’t need another drunken party.”

North Belfast SDLP MLA Alban Maginness said the time for nationalist bonfires was long over. “Such bonfires shouldn’t take place at all and this one in Ligoniel seems to be quite wrong,” he said.

“It’s 37 years since internment began, it’s time we stoped all this and got on, without commemorating something so traumatic and difficult like internment which led to such misery for many people.

“There is no need for this and to do it on council grounds is unacceptable. I would call on those behind the bonfire to desist. Saying it’s for the kids is a load of nonsense. This type of activity does nothing of the sort and only encourages anti-social behaviour.”

A spokesperson for Belfast City Council refused to divulge any details about the matter stating,”We are working with the local community to resolve this issue.”

Belfast Telegraph
Saturday, 9 August 2008

Georgian forces have shot down two Russian planes as the two sides look close to all-out war.

A fighter jet and bomber have been attacked in the fight for South Ossetia.

Georgia is trying to take back the province which broke away during the 1990s.

Russian tanks and troops want to stop the operation - Russian jets have carried out a series of strikes on military targets in the central Georgian city of Gori, close to the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Most of the targets seem to have been military bases, but Georgian officials said a number of civilians had been killed in residential buildings.

Georgian president Mikhail Saakshavili insists Moscow is the aggressor: ‘It’s about Russia trying to intrude and basically undermine Georgia. But basically, yes, we would like to have a ceasefire, separation of forces, and direct dialogue with the Russians.’

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said about 1,500 people had so far been killed.

Indymedia.ie
8 August 2008

Kobra Najjar, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery has lost her final appeal for amnesty. Iranian women’s rights activists working on her case say that Kobra has exhausted all domestic legal remedies and that her execution by stoning could happen any time. Kobra is a victim of domestic violence who was forced into prostitution by her abusive husband in order to support his heroin addiction. He was murdered by one of Kobra’s “clients” who sympathized with her plight. Kobra has already served 8 years in prison as an accessory to her husband’s murder. The man who murdered her husband also served 8 years in prison and was free after paying blood money and undergoing 100 lashes, while Kobra faces imminent stoning to death for adultery - the prostitution her husband forced upon her. Yet another example of Iranian justice.

But things are getting worse. The regime’s Islamic Assembly is set to ratify a bill that will further increase the number of crimes punishable by death to incude ‘crimes’ deemed to ‘disrupt public security’ and to ‘intensify the scheme of punishment for disrupting the mental security of society.’

The bill establishes that ‘weblogs and sites promoting corruption and apostasy are deserving of capital punishment.’

You can help Kobra:

Write to the Iranian officials below, calling for Kobra’s immediate release, the commutation of all sentences of death by stoning and the prohibition by law of all cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments .

President
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
via website: http://www.president.ir/en/president/email/index.php

His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Head of the Judiciary
c/o Ministry of Justice
Park-e Shahr
Teheran
Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: iripr@iranjudiciary.org, irjpr@iranjudiciary.com and info@dadgostary-tehran.ir
Phone: +98 21 22741002, +98 21 22741003, +98 21 22741004, +98 21 22741005

Martina Devlin
Independent.ie
Saturday August 09 2008

THE schoolboy’s exuberant scribble is a typical 12-year-old’s, the pen dashed cross the page. “Viva Espana”, he wrote after his signature, a clue to his identity.

The name is Fernando Blasco Baselga, signed into the visitors’ book at the Ulster American Folk Park. An hour or so later, he was dead — one of 29 victims of the Omagh bomb.

Among the wealth of material in the Omagh bomb archive, it is this easily missed item which librarian Evelyn Johns finds particularly touching.

“To me, this is the most poignant,” Evelyn says of the signature of a carefree young boy on the brink of death.

Fernando, from Madrid, was part of a group of exchange students staying in Buncrana, Co Donegal. They had made a day trip to the folk park just outside Omagh, and afterwards gone into the town.

Evelyn has lived with the archive for most of the past decade, as the librarian responsible for collating it and putting it in order.

Sympathy

In the aftermath of the 1998 explosion, a flood of sympathy cards, gifts, hand-painted posters, emails, poems and books of condolences arrived from around the world.

Nobody quite knew what to do with them all until she took on the job of forming them into a unique archive stored in Omagh library. The collection is wide-ranging: a peace candle from Warrington, UK; handmade garlands; patchworks quilts and cushions; an invitation to families to visit his Highgrove home from Prince Charles; cards from all over the globe, including from the Irish Army in Lebanon and the North’s Baha’i community; a Japanese newspaper article about the bomb.

Ms Johns unfurled a peace poster decorated with fingerprints, a reminder of how many of the victims met such horrific deaths they could only be identified by their fingerprints.

A living carpet of flowers was delivered by well-wishers and their cards have been kept. One reads: “Remembered by the staff of Wexford Hospital”. “Shouldn’t be,” reads another, the signature blurred.

“There was no previous work done on an archive like the Omagh bomb’s,” Ms Johns said. “This was something we had no expertise in. No library had ever had anything like this before.”

l The archive is open to the public by appointment. Donations are welcome.

BBC
8 August 2008

Crude but viable explosive devices have been found following a security alert on a railway line in south Belfast, police have said.

A bag was found at the side of the railway line

The alert began at about 2200 BST on Thursday after a member of the public reported suspicious activity on the line near the City Hospital halt.

Police found a bag at the side of the track and called in bomb experts.

After controlled explosions the devices were declared safe. A number of items were removed for forensic examination.

A number of houses at Utility Walk, Addingdon Drive and Egmont Gardens were evacuated during the alert. Donegall Road was also closed.

Police at Musgrave Street have appealed for anyone who saw anything suspicious to contact them.

Republican Sinn Féin will be marking the anniversary of the reintroduction of internment in 1971 with pickets in Counties Antrim and Clare.

On Saturday, 9th August, a white-line picket will commence on the Falls Road in Belfast at 1:30p.m. A picket will also take place on the Clare Road in Ennis from 2p.m. Until 5p.m. Both pickets are being held in solidarity with Republican prisoners currently incarcerated in Maghaberry Gaol in County Antrim, who are seeking the restoration of political status.

These prisoners engaged in a ten-and-a-half month protest from June 2006. Their protest was suspended following assurances that the outstanding issues would be addressed.