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Sunday Life
By Gail Edgar
10 August 2008

**This is also a heart-warming story because at least when people cannot find the money available anywhere to have a motorised wheelchair when they need one or the drugs to help them with their cancer, they can at least look at their new city logo and be comforted…

It took 15 months of research and cost a whopping £430,000 — but Belfast’s new heart-shaped logo was created in just a few weeks after the former Lord Mayor rejected the original version.

Sunday Life can reveal that council bosses had planned to launch a different logo from the heart-shaped ‘B’.

But they were left red-faced during a dinner at the Hilton Hotel in March when the then Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers refused to endorse it.

Around 60 stakeholders enjoyed a sumptuous three-course dinner to discuss the new branding, but were stunned when Councillor Rodgers refused to give his approval.

A council insider revealed: “The chief executive of the council, Peter McNaney, and Gerry Lennon of the Belfast Visitors and Convention Centre wanted the former Lord Mayor to sign off on the logo, but he categorically refused. They were gobsmacked.

“Instead of giving his seal of approval, Councillor Rodgers stood up and said he’d listened to the views of people from the working groups and it was clear they weren’t happy. He said more work needed to be done.

“It was very embarrassing. News of what had happened spread like wildfire around the council.”

When contacted, Councillor Rodgers confirmed he had refused to sign off the previous logo at the Hilton event. Sunday Life can also reveal that the dinner was just one in a string of events funded by Belfast ratepayers.

A total of 15 meetings were held in Belfast while a member of staff from Belfast City Council and one from Belfast Visitor’s and Convention Centre attended one in London.

As well as the dinner at the Belfast Hilton, stakeholders were treated to a reception at Belfast City Hall, dinner at Ten Square and an event on the Nomadic.

Just one month after the former Lord Mayor’s refusal to approve the original logo, brand consultancy Lloyd Northover presented the heart-shaped ‘B’ logo.

The former Lord Mayor gave that design the green light at a breakfast meeting at Roscoff’s in April and the new logo was officially launched at the Waterfront Hall in June.

Last month Sunday Life revealed that the new logo is very similar to others already in use in England.

Food and Drink Devon paid just £7,000 for its logo four years ago, while both Blackburn and Barrow launched similar logos in spring.

Belfast spent £180,000 on the creation of its logo and £250,000 on advertising, launch events and showcase promotions.

Murdered schoolboy’s parents learn six people quizzed over killing will not face charges

Sunday Life
10 August 2008

Six people quizzed over the brutal murder of Belfast schoolboy Thomas Devlin will not face charges.

Sunday Life can reveal the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has informed the teenager’s heartbroken parents, Penny Holloway and Jim Devlin, that files on three men and three women quizzed about the killing last year will not be processed.

Although one man has been charged with the attempted grievous bodily harm of Thomas’ pal, the 15-year-old’s heartbroken parents told how their grief had been compounded by the PPS’ failure to charge anyone with murder.

One of the people quizzed about the killing was convicted UVF double-killer Billy Hutchinson.

Mother-of-three Penny, who is set to raise the matter with Security Minister Paul Goggins, has now formally requested for the PPS’ ruling to be reviewed by an independent QC from England.

Speaking on the third anniversary of the teenager’s killing, the north Belfast woman vowed to continue her family’s fight for justice.

Said Penny: “We are deeply disappointed and upset over this decision.

“Three years on and we still don’t have any justice for Thomas.

“We have put our faith in the justice system, but it has failed us to date.

“What kind of message is this giving to Thomas’ friends and the young people of this new Northern Ireland?”

And she added: “One man has been charged in relation to the attack on Thomas and his friends, but this is a very light charge. This charge clearly places him at the scene and yet we can’t understand why he hasn’t been charged with murder. We expressed no confidence in the PPS in the early stages of the investigation and nothing has changed our opinion.

“The police have worked hard on the investigation and we know they are also unhappy with the PPS’ direction.”

A spokesman for the PPS confirmed no action was being taken against the suspects.

Said the spokesman: “The director has agreed to undertake a review of the decision not to prosecute.

“The PPS has met the family of Thomas Devlin on a number of occasions over recent months. Furthermore the PPS has written to the family on Friday in relation to concerns which they have raised about the decision not to prosecute.”

Ms Holloway believes the PPS in Northern Ireland should work in the same way as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in England and Wales, adding: “The PPS are so cautious in their approach compared to England and this is so frustrating.

“The CPS will also discuss cases with investigating officers, but the PPS don’t do it and it’s hard to understand why this is the case.

“We have looked at many cases in England, including the murder of Rhys Jones, where many people have been charged from murder to assisting offenders and this is the justice that we are seeking.

“The CPS will charge someone with murder if they are accused of being at the scene, but haven’t pulled the trigger for example. Why is this joint enterprise policy not used in Northern Ireland?

“The people who murdered my son are still walking the streets and that’s why we have formally requested for the PPS’ ruling to be reviewed by an independent QC who has experience of similar cases. Our request has been noted and we are now just waiting for a response.”

In spite of the PPS decision, the teenager’s devastated parents, who received support from former First Minister Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, urged people with information to come forward.

Said Jim Devlin: “Three years on and people are still not telling the truth of over Thomas’ murder.

“There are mothers, girlfriends and friends

of the killers who are willing to allow child-killers to remain on the streets.

“These people have the information that could put my son’s killers behind bars, but they are still remaining silent.

“By remaining silent, they are just as culpable as the men who murdered my son.

“These people should remember that withholding information is a very serious offence.

“We are asking them to search their conscience and come forward because it’s never to late.”

Along with ex-north Belfast MLA Hutchinson, the chief suspect in the case was also questioned last October about the horrific knife-attack.

Both were arrested after police raided a number of homes in the loyalist Mount Vernon estate.

Sunday Life attempted to contact Mr Hutchinson about the PPS’ decision this weekend, but he was not available for comment.

The community worker was involved in a row with Ms Holloway last year after she accused people from Mount Vernon of harbouring her son’s killers.

He accused the campaigning mum of “demonising” the Mount Vernon community and claimed he was “on record” calling for people to come forward with information.

Sunday Life knows the name of Thomas’ alleged killer, but cannot publish it for legal reasons.

And we can reveal the suspect was out on bail for a separate assault, for which he was later convicted, when he is believed to have stabbed Thomas five times in the back.

Thomas was stabbed while walking with two pals, close to his home on the Somerton Road, on August 10, 2005.

Sunday Life’s £10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers remains in place.

Breaking News.ie
10/08/2008

Police in the North are investigating two separate attacks on fire crews in Derry and Tyrone.

In Derry, around 40 people threw stones and bottles at fire fighters who had been called to the scene of a burned out car.

In Dungannon, the window of a fire engine was smashed when fire fighters, attending a wheelie bin fire, were attacked with stones.

Both incidents happened in the early hours of this morning.

Sunday Life
10 August 2008

Ten years on and the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth has yet to be told about the Omagh bombing.

We have either heard or read nearly every facet of grief arising out of the tragedy from the man who lost three generations of his family to the woman who died with her twins still to be born.

Perhaps we haven’t heard as much about the young Spanish students who lost their lives. but the hurt felt by their parents and friends can be imagined by most of us, if not by the bombers and their neanderthal associates who run the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA.

For each bereaved family there are different individual dimensions to the tragedy, different fateful or coincidental features which tell the individual tale about their loved one and why they were there that day to be obliterated by the cruel bombers.

But there is one common desire that each family shares and that is to see the conviction of the principals who planned and carried out the bombing who so far have danced around the security apparatus on both sides of the border.

Are the perpetrators so brilliantly crafty or clever or is the absence of convictions and even prosecutions the cost of preserving the dark secrets concealed in the files of the Garda and MI5?

For it is they who have to answer the allegations that clear information Omagh was being targeted by the Real IRA weren’t transmitted to the RUC or why suspicions that the RIRA was looking for a car for a bombing in Northern Ireland wasn’t conveyed to the Special Branch in Belfast. Was Omagh the horribly miscalculated cost of keeping bombs away from London? Relatives understandably directed their ire at the RUC in the aftermath of the publication of Dame Nuala O’Loan’s critical findings into the Omagh bombing investigation in December 2001.

Ronnie Flanagan, the then Chief Constable, described her report as one littered with “factual inaccuracies, unwarranted assumptions and misunderstandings”, but a lot of the mud she and her investigators dished out stuck to the RUC to the delight of many.

In the last two years the Omagh relatives support group has begun to clamour for a full cross border public enquiry to ventilate fully for the first time all the pieces of intelligence information relevant to the planning of the bombing compiled on both sides of the border and in London.

Our politicians and our toothless Policing Board have yet to make that a priority on their respective agendas.

But until they do and the whole truth about what each of the intelligence and security agencies knew before the attack is revealed, suspicions about a ‘cover up’ by those then in high security and political positions on both sides of the border will persist.

Mum opens up her heart about tragic son

Sunday Life
10 August 2008

A woman who lost her teenage son in in the Omagh bomb almost 10 years ago has told Sunday Life that she still hears him speaking to her.

Marion Radford, whose son Alan was killed in the blast which claimed the lives of 29 people, also revealed she’s considering leaving Northern Ireland for her native Scotland in an effort to make a fresh start.

In an emotional interview, Marion, who was injured in the bomb which ripped through Omagh on August 15, 1998, recalled the last conversation she had with her 16-year-old son.

She described him as an “exceptional boy” and explained how he was well known in the neighbourhood for helping people in need.

“There’s not words to describe that boy. He was very kind and did everything for me. He was like the man of the house because me and his dad are divorced.

“He would go around the neighbourhood helping people — he would sit and listen to people who had depression or people who were alcoholics and help them clean the house,” she said.

“He would come in and say ‘are you all right mum?’ and give my head a pat.”

In the last conversation Marion had with Alan, he told her of things he planned to buy for her when he started work.

“I told him not to worry about that. Our last conversation was good. I told him how proud I was of him.”

Just before the bomb Marion and Alan talked about the bomb scare and went their separate ways.

“Maybe he was going to find out if there was a bomb. He said ‘I’ll see you in a minute’.

“I went into the salad bowl. I had tomatoes in my hand and I was giving the boy the money and I thought ‘I think there’s a bomb here’ — I’m getting Alan and I’m getting out of here.

“Just at that, there was an unearthly bang. I thought I was dreaming. It blew me back to the middle of the shop.

“I still had the tomatoes in my hand because once I got outside I saw bits of bodies, limbs or something, and I dropped the tomatoes with the scare.”

Glass was lodged in Marion’s head and she was taken to hospital before going home to wait for news of Alan.

“As the day went on I began to get really worried. I was so worried I couldn’t move — I was paralysed with fear.

“My son Paul’s dog started howling and I thought Alan’s dead. It was the way the dog was howling. I thought does he see him?”

Marion went to her bedroom to try and get some sleep when she heard her son’s voice.

“I heard Alan call mum, I know that without a doubt. I sat up in bed looking for him.

“When I went into the bedroom a sense of peace came over me. I had an idea he was dead. I believe he called me from where he was. I had that quite a lot after he died.

“It was definitely Alan’s voice — people probably think you’re crazy but I know what I heard. That’s always been a comfort for me.”

Since the day of the bomb, Marion has battled depression and around five years ago she was forced to give up work because of ill health.

She plans to spend the 10th anniversary of the tragedy with her sons and daughters, three of whom moved away from Northern Ireland.

Marion said the 10th anniversary will be no more difficult than any other day.

“I remember Alan every day — not every year or 10 years. The pain is there,” she said.

“I have had a really bad spell of depression at the moment. This is one of the lowest spells I’ve had since Alan died.

“I’m not sleeping well — only about three or four hours a night. Sometimes I’ve bad dreams that would wake me. They’re about horrible things - murder and bad people. My mind’s obviously disturbed.

“When I come off anti-depressants I cry all the time and take panic attacks.”

Ten years after the bomb, Marion is considering leaving Omagh and starting a new life in Scotland.

“I think some day I will make a fresh start out of here. I would have to think about it very carefully because I would be leaving family.

“I don’t know what will happen. I don’t think you can go back in life, you have to go forward.”

News Letter
Sunday, 10th August 2008

GOVERNMENT documents from the closing years of the Troubles could be thrown open to the public earlier than expected.

The First and Deputy First Ministers said that they were reviewing the current “30 year rule”, whereby most official documents are made public 30 years (20 in Northern Ireland) after they are created, with a view to releasing documents sooner.

The revelation comes in the third Northern Ireland annual report on Freedom of Information (FoI), which shows that members of the public are increasingly making use of the legislation to access official information.

There were 3,164 requests to Government departments in Northern Ireland last year – almost a third of these were to the Department of the Environment.

The overwhelming number of FoI requests – 62 per cent – came from ordinary members of the public.

Businesses accounted for 13 per cent of requests while just 11 per cent of requests came from journalists.

The report also said that the advent of FoI had led to better record keeping by Government, with many departments introducing electronic databases – which are more easily searchable – of their documents.

Overall, when requests are answered, Northern Ireland departments are more open than Whitehall departments, with 76 per cent are granted in full, with just six per cent being completely refused.

Breaking News.ie
10/08/2008

The sense of despair of some Omagh bomb families deepened today amid claims they were being left more and more isolated.

As the town prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the terrorist outrage, relatives accused the authorities and even their neighbours of failing to back them in their quest for justice.

No one has ever been convicted for the Real IRA attack which claimed the lives of 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, and left hundreds more injured.

Cathy Gallagher, whose 21-year-old brother Aiden died in the explosion, said she was forced to move away from her hometown which she claimed was a cold and cruel place and where victims’ families are resented.

“Everything about the town had turned rotten,” she said.

She claimed the families’ support and self-help group is ridiculed and despised by many within the local community.

“The Omagh community spirit I read so much about in newspaper articles never existed for me,” she said.

Such is the level of anger, at least 10 of the families have decided to boycott a commemoration service to mark the 10th anniversary on Friday.

They are deeply unhappy with the way Omagh District Council handled the contentious issue of the wording for new memorials erected at the bomb site on the town’s Market Street and at a nearby garden of remembrance.

Instead the relatives, the majority of whom belong to the support group, are staging their own memorial event on Sunday.

However, the four main church leaders in the town have angered the group by rejecting an invitation to that event, despite having attended it in previous years.

The clergy are only going to the council event, where former Lebanon hostage Terry Waite will give an address.

Carol Radford, whose 16-year-old brother Alan was killed, moved out of a nationalist estate in Omagh after claiming she was subject to a campaign of intimidation which culminated in vandals daubing “IRA” on the side of her house.

Her sister and brother have left the town altogether to start new lives in England in order to escape the bitterness, she said.

“I wish I had left too,” she added. “There’s not much support we get in this town.”

Ms Radford is among those who have decided to stay away from the council commemoration in protest at the memorial issue.

Members of the support group had demanded the retention of a phrase engraved on an original tribute stone, which has since been removed from the garden of remembrance, stating that the victims were “murdered by a dissident republican terrorist car bomb”.

The council appointed an independent fact-finding team to try to resolve the issue and councillors unanimously accepted its recommendation to use the phrase on the walls of the garden of remembrance, but not on the glass obelisk at the bomb site.

Ms Radford claimed Sinn Féin members of the council are trying to air-brush republican involvement in the bombing.

Godfrey Wilson, whose 15-year-old daughter Lorraine died in the explosion, will also not be attending the council service.

“The victims are running our own (service), which we did do the last five years,” he said.

“I’m not attending the other service. We’ve held our service this last five years on the Sunday closest to the date and that’s the way we’ve been doing it, everybody’s welcome to come along and we want to progress that way.”

Stanley McComb, whose wife Anne was killed, said he would only be going to the family-run service.

“What I’ll be doing on the Sunday is commemorating those murdered on the street,” he said.

“What’s happening on Friday to me is just a big facade about the great job they (the council) think they’ve done.”

Sinn Féin councillor and chairman of Omagh council Martin McLoughlin said it was a pity some families had decided not to attend.

However, he defended the council’s approach to the memorial issue.

“I’d love to see everyone there on Friday,” he said. “As a council we have tried to do our best to mark the anniversary.

“I realise it’s a sensitive time and different people will react differently.

“But I can’t legislate for how some families are going to react, that’s their prerogative.

“The wording issue as far as we are concerned is resolved.

“I know the support group wanted certain wording at the garden and that has been included.

“This was a sensitive issue and we appointed an independent facilitation team to work on it.

“They came up with some very sensitive wording and included the support group’s chosen words.

“Some people had an idea that the council had already decided what they were going to do with the memorial.

“But that was never the case, we waited for the independent team’s report and accepted that.”

The attack, which took place four months after the signing of the historic Good Friday peace agreement, was the bloodiest single incident in the North’s troubles.

The failure to catch the killers has seen police on both sides of the Irish border heavily criticised for their handling of the investigation.

A number of families have launched a £14m civil case against five men they believe were responsible while relatives continue to criticise the British and Irish governments over their refusal to hold a cross-border public inquiry into the bombing.

Breaking News.ie
09/08/2008

A man suffered a serious head injury following disturbances linked to an anti-internment bonfire in Co Derry, it was revealed today.

Iron bars, wooden batons and sticks were confiscated by officers and four people arrested in the Heights area of Coleraine last night.

Six people were treated for injuries and two are still in hospital.

Police released one person detained pending reports and charged two others, one with disorderly behaviour, the other with possession of an offensive weapon. The fourth remains in custody.

Police chief inspector Nicky Thompson appealed for calm and said officers would be monitoring the situation.

“It is time that people showed more respect for their neighbours and time that the small minority who seem intent on creating trouble sought out new and peaceful ways of resolving their differences.”

He called for those with influence to help prevent further trouble.

Belfast Telegraph
Sunday, 10 August 2008

Georgian officials say Russia has bombed a military airfield near Tbilisi’s international airport.

The Interior Ministry says jet fighters have targeted the site.

Reuters correspondents working in the city report hearing three loud bangs.

Georgia also claims Russia has brought another 10,000 troops into the country and is preparing to attack at dawn.