SAOIRSE32

From Irish News
Posted at 32CSM Message Board
29 August 2008

A former leading IRA man has said attacks on police officers in Lurgan this week were a “symptom” of nationalists’ refusal to accept the PSNI.

Colin Duffy was speaking after two days of serious rioting in Lurgan which saw separate gun, blast and petrol- bomb attacks on police.

In 1995 Duffy was jailed for life for the murder of retired UDR member John Lyness but was later acquitted when it emerged that the main prosecution witness, who had been allowed to give evidence behind screens, was self-confessed UVF gun runner Lindsay Robb.

Two years later Duffy was charged with the murder of two RUC men in Lurgan town centre but the charges were later dropped.

Since then the 41-year-old has become a leading figure in Eirigi, a group of republicans opposed to Sinn Fein’s support for the PSNI.

Eirigi was founded in Dublin in 2006 and campaigns for a 32-county socialist republic.

Insisting that the Lurgan violence was a “symptom” of nationalist opposition to the PSNI, Duffy said: “Certain parties may have made their deals at St Andrews and at Stormont to support the PSNI but the reality on the ground is that they aren’t acceptable to ordinary nationalists.

“Eirigi is gathering more and more support among ordinary nationalists.

“Certain political parties claim that they’re making the PSNI accountable by taking up places on the Policing Board but people on the ground will never accept them.

“There are still 5,000 British troops here, while MI5 is building its headquarters at Palace Barracks.”

Accusing police of being responsible for this week’s violence, he said: “I witnessed first-hand when the PSNI came onto the Tullygally and Drumbeg estates and assaulted women and children.

“The resistance that followed was a symptom of the fact that people are not prepared to accept the British occupation in Ireland in the shape of the PSNI/RUC.”

Denying that Eirigi was linked to any dissident group, Duffy said: “We are not linked to any group. We’re a purely political organisation.

“The only threat we pose is to the British occupation of Ireland. While that British

occupation continues there will always be people willing to resist.”

However, SDLP assembly member Dolores Kelly last night hit back, claiming that the biggest threat to nationalism came from dissidents.

“As a public representative who has been working with the police and other statutory agencies to improve conditions in nationalist areas I find these kind of remarks galling,” she said.

“We have recently introduced neighbourhood policing teams in Lurgan and it is proving to be a success.

“People want good policing. It is the dissidents they are rejecting.”