SAOIRSE32

By Stephanie Bell
Sunday Life
Sunday, 17 August 2008

Two reformed loyalist terrorists are hoping to team up with police to help turn Ulster kids against drugs and crime.

Former Lurgan LVF hardman Paul Winter and ex-Belfast loyalist Joe Turner are planning to partner neighbourhood cops in a unique scheme aimed at primary schools across the province.

The two loyalists have turned to God and say they hope the evil in their pasty can now be used for good to help persuade kids to follow a different path.

The notorious ex-terrorists, who have spent their lives in and out of Ulster’s jails for a range of crimes and terrorist offences, have also set up a prison ministry to help give inmates a second chance on the outside.

Said Turner: “We want to speak to children and get the message across to them that, if they get into trouble when they are young, it will affect the rest of their lives.

“The PSNI officers are guiding us on how best to go about setting up the scheme and have expressed an interest in getting involved by talking to the kids about the dangers of drugs.

“Myself and Paul would hope to talk about crime and the consequences, sharing our experiences with the school kids.”

The two men also spoke about their shameful pasty in a bid to highlight the dramatic change they say has taken place in their lives.

Known more for his brutality than his work as a born-again Christian, Winter spoke frankly about his terrorist involvement and about how his life has now been transformed.

Turner, who confessed to us that he was planning a murder when arrested by police for armed robbery during the loyalist feud in early 2000, also spoke of his “road to Damascus “ conversion and of how he now hoped to make up for his sins by helping others.

Winter dropped out of school at 15 and his career as a criminal and terrorist began.

“All I was interested in was drinking and fighting and I had this great big chip on my shoulder,” he said.

“I was rioting with the police and throwing petrol bombs at them — everyone in our area was doing it at the time.”

At 17, he had his first taste of prison life when he was given six months in Hydebank Young Offenders Centre for assaulting a police officer.

When released, Winter went straight back to his old tricks. He started to take drugs and began mixing with the UVF in east Belfast, who swore him in as a member in his early 20s.

A few years later he moved to Lurgan and aligned himself with the town’s notorious LVF gang.

He was arrested numerous times for a number of serious terrorist offences, including attempted murder and threats to kill. He served time for armed robbery.

Said Winter: “My life was never normal until I was 36 and gave my life to Jesus.

“Since then I have got my driving licence, bought my first car and my first house and even been on holiday for the first time.

“Up until then, I never cared about anybody else and I say this regretfully, not boastfully.

“I have three children in Belfast who don’t want anything to do with me and I can’t blame them as I was never there when they needed me.

“I am not proud of my past and I can’t change it, but I can change my future and only with the help of Christ who sacrificed everything on the cross.”

Like Winter, Turner paints a sorry picture of a life dedicated to crime.

He also grew up in east Belfast and dropped out of school when he was 14. His family had moved from the city to Newtownards and Turner ran away at 15 back to Belfast.

Living alone in a derelict house with nothing, he looked up to the terrorist chiefs and envied their gangster lifestyles

He said: “I had been carrying out robberies for the sake of it from I was in my early teens. When I left home and lived in that derelict house, I had to steal to get what I needed.

“I started carrying out attacks for the paramilitaries, rioting and so on and in return I got to stay in their houses for periods of time.

“I never actually joined any organisation, but was always on the fringes.”

Turner was just 17 when he was first imprisoned in Hydebank for burglary.

A short time after he was released he met his wife-to-be who introduced him to church and he started attending the Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle on Belfast’s Shore Road.

He recalls: “I was 19 and it really hit home that Jesus loved me and died for me and wanted to give me a real life, a full life.”

For the next two years, Turner devoted his life to God, attending prayer meetings, church and reading his Bible every day.

He then began to drift away from his faith and back into the company of his former associates in east Belfast.

A major turning point for Turner was the murder of his cousin, 22-year-old Jonathan Stewart who was shot dead in Belfast in December 2002 as part of the loyalist feud.

“I was absolutely devastated by Jonathan’s murder,” said Turner. “I decided something would have to be done and I got some boys together to carry out a robbery in Ballymoney.

“I was going to use the money to buy a weapon to shoot Jonathan’s killer. It was my intention to get involved in the feud to get my revenge.”

While returning from the robbery of a Ballymoney frozen food warehouse, the gang was spotted by a farmer setting fire to the stolen car they had used. They were arrested before they got back to Belfast.

Added Turner: “If I hadn’t been caught and sent to prison I am sure I would have done murder.

“In Maghaberry, I wanted to be a tough guy and a real menace and spent most of my time in the punishment unit.

“I had a lot of anger in me and although I knew my life was in a mess I thought I was in control.”

Turner was saved in prison in December 2004. Since his release a year later he has carried out pastoral visits to Ulster’s jails and has laid the groundwork for a new organisation, Christian Prison Ministries Ireland which he and Winter have just launched.

The ministry will be staffed by ex-prisoners offering help with practical problems facing inmates when they leave the prison system.

“We want to help give these people a second chance,” said Turner.

“We want them to know there is somebody there who cares about their families and helping them get back to normality.

“We will be setting up a drop-in centre in Lurgan and on the Shore Road in Belfast, to offer a cup of tea and to help them fill in forms.

“And as many of them have literacy problems, we are looking at the possibility of having a teacher coming in to do adult education. I have been in their shoes and I have been where they are.

Who better to talk to prisoners than ex-prisoners?”

The Lurgan drop-in centre will also help families with furniture and toys for children.

A team of around 20 people are coming together in support, with women also planning to do home visitations with prisoners’ wives.

“As well as hopefully giving practical help, for us, one of the most important parts of what we are doing and what we hope to do with the prisoners and school children, is to help people to see that Jesus is the answer to all our problems and that prayer changes things.”

A police spokesman said: “We are aware of the proposals being considered and have offered only advice with no other direct involvement.

“We would consider getting involved with the scheme and welcome anything aimed at reducing crime and making Northern Ireland a safer place to live.”

slnews@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

News Letter
17 August 2008

Three police officers have narrowly escaped injury after dissident republicans targeted them in a rocket propelled grenade attack in Lisnaskea.

The officers were on foot patrol in Main Street shortly after 11pm on Saturday night when the attack happened, although the grenade failed to explode.

Two of the officers were taken to hospital with severe shock and minor injuries.

PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Order has warned that the threat from dissident republicans is at its highest level for many years, with a growing list of murder attempts on police officers in recent months.

Speaking after the latest attack, chief superintendent Michael Skuce said: “This was clearly a case of attempted murder, we could have been dealing with multiple casualties this morning and the devastation that would have caused throughout the community.

“There are a number of families out there who will be counting their blessings that they are not grieving for a loved one.

“The disregard that this shows for the lives of the local community and my officers is unbelievable.

“There are still a small number of people who refuse to live in peace, refuse to accept that Northern Ireland wants to move on and that Northern Ireland has to move on.”

The road has been closed and the security operation with police and army technical officers is continuing.

Nearby houses were evacuated and a burning car discovered in the Chapel Bray area which police believe may have been linked to the attack.

There have been several search operations and arrests in recent days linked to dissident republicans.

DUP Policing Board member Peter Weir noted that the Chief Constable said recently that dissident republicans “will be pursued to the ends of the earth”.

Mr Weir added: “I agree with his sentiment, but people will want to see it being followed up by a serious an co-ordinated police response to deal with these dissident groups. The DUP recently supported tough anti-terror legislation in the House of Commons.

“Our record shows that we will support tough action to eliminate any terrorist threat from any quarter – people in Northern Ireland have endured too much to allow these groups to go about their dastardly behaviour. They must be harried and pursued relentlessly by the forces of law and order.

“Tough action is called for now to eliminate these groups. The police should be given the resources and the support they need to take the fight to the dissident Republican micro-groups, who I believe are held in widespread contempt on both sides of our community.”

By Nathan Bevan
Wales On Sunday
Aug 17 2008

IT WAS 1974 and Belfast’s notorious Maze prison was in flames.

Rioting prisoners had broken out of their compounds and taken over, leading to a tense stand-off between them and the troops drafted in to quell the uprising.

But one patrol from the Royal Regiment of Wales had a secret weapon up their sleeves – Max Boyce.

In a new book chronicling the Troubles, Marcus Lapsa remembers how he and his fellow soldiers would blast out Hymns & Arias at the top of their lungs to keep the rioters awake all night, leaving them too tired to cause any more chaos during the day.

“The Maze was the closest I’ve ever come to Hell on Earth,” remembered the 54-year-old from Nelson, then just a fresh-faced 18-year-old private suddenly finding himself in the middle of horrors that saw prison officers hospitalised with fractured skulls, guard dogs burned to death and widespread destruction.

“We were one of the first ones in there and the place was just a complete mess and had been torn apart by rioting. It seemed if anything wasn’t on fire, it had already been reduced to ash.”

The main prison in Northern Ireland at the time for convicted republican and loyalist paramilitaries – housing the likes of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, leaders of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA. It’s thought the violence broke out over the quality of the living conditions inside.

“It looked more like a POW camp from some war film rather than how you’d imagine a prison, with these little tin huts that the prisoners lived in and which they’d razed after setting fire to their mattresses,” said Marcus, author of A Long Long War: Voices From The British Army In Northern Ireland 1969-1998.

Unbelievably, none of the troops were allowed firearms inside the compound, for fear the inmates may have seized them and gained the upper hand. Soldiers only had standard riot gear for protection.

“There was just this terrible tension, not knowing when something might happen, which meant we’d be absolutely knackered standing around all day while the prisoners just lazed around,” he said.

“So, being Welsh, we decided to bang on the fences with our batons and sing a bit of Max’s greatest hits or We’ll Keep A Welcome In The Hillside as loud as we could to make sure, come the morning, they’d be as tired as us.

“I can remember it really got to them and they’d shout, “P*** off back to Wales, ya noisy b****rds!” Marcus laughed.

Their renditions almost sparked a panic among the prison authorities themselves.

“It’s funny, this urgent call came over the radio saying that the trouble must be starting again because there was this terrible din coming from one of the compounds,” he smiled.

“Then we heard one of the guards replying: “Don’t worry, it’s only the bloody Taffs singing!”

“They had a point mind, our voices weren’t exactly great – just because you’re Welsh doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good at close harmony singing, you know,” added Marcus, now a Conservative councillor in Coventry who recently organised the delivery of 100 donated parcels for British troops in the Middle East.

“One thing’s for sure, we were the real Last Choir Standing back then.”

A Long Long War: Voices From The British Army In Northern Ireland 1969-1998 is available in good bookshops now, priced £25

News Letter
17 August 2008

AN Orange lodge in the Republic has made a call for the institution to ditch a longstanding ban preventing its members from taking part in Roman Catholic services.

Since its formation, the Orange Order has barred brethren from attending any Catholic service, including weddings and funerals.

According to the Grand Lodge of Ireland, as part of the qualifications of being an Orangeman, members “should strenuously oppose the fatal errors and doctrines of the Church of Rome, and scrupulously avoid countenancing (by his presence or otherwise) any act of ceremony of Popish worship.”

However, a correspondent writing in the newsletter of a southern lodge has called for such Roman Catholic references to be removed and for the “anachronistic” qualifications to be revised.

The publication, linked to Dublin and Wicklow Orange Order LOL 1313, refers to the radical changes that have taken place in the Republic, namely the separation between the Catholic Church and the Irish state.

“The special place of the Roman Catholic Church in the constitution has gone,” the article says.

“Is it not time to remove from the ‘Qualification of an Orangeman’ those references to our Roman Catholic fellow subjects of both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic?

“References which they find offensive and many of us anachronistic.

“What better way to change without compromise than to return to the original qualifications?

“In doing so we would be displaying to the world that we still hold dear our Protestant principles. More than that we would be practising the instructions of scripture, on which our order is founded.”

Any rule changes within the order would have to be approved, following a motion, by the ruling Grand Lodge.