SAOIRSE32

BBC
21 Sept 2008

A Maze prison officer at the time of the 1983 IRA mass jailbreak tells his side of the story for the first time in a new BBC Northern Ireland documentary.

Thirty-eight prisoners broke out in the biggest prison escape in British penal history.

IRA escapers Bobby Storey, Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane and Gerry Kelly are interviewed

Half of them were recaptured within two days, but 19 made it to the Republic of Ireland and four eventually got as far as the United States. One prisoner has never been seen or heard of again.

Even Sir James Hennessey, who conducted the British government’s inquiry into the event, likened it to Colditz, and said it was “a matter of some congratulation for the Republican movement”.

‘Breakout’ gives a minute-by-minute account of how the prisoners took over an entire H-Block in what was regarded as one of the most secure prisons in Europe.

Prison officer Campbell Courtney was commended for his bravery

Among those interviewed are three of the key strategists - Bobby Storey, Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane and Gerry Kelly, who is now a junior minister in the Northern Ireland Executive.

Prison officer Campbell Courtney speaks publicly about the escape for the first time in 25 years.

Mr Campbell was shot in the leg as he pursued an escaping prisoner. Along with seven colleagues, he was later commended for his bravery.

Fellow officer Jimmy Ferris died from a heart attack after being stabbed.

The programme reveals how inmates’ strategy to get close to prison staff included conforming to demands, making cups of tea and helping out with crosswords.

The intention was to create the conditions which allowed the inmates to capture the prison food lorry in preparation for driving out the front gate.

The programme also describes how one group of prisoners lived under floorboards in a ’safe house’ for two weeks before escaping across the border.

‘This is an important historical story and one that deserves to be told.’
–Michael Beattie, Producer

Producer Michael Beattie said the escape remains a controversial subject even after 25 years.

“It’s difficult to make a documentary that everyone will be happy with,” he said.

“At one level, it’s a ripping yarn to stand alongside other escape stories.

“But it also left James Ferris dead, John Adams shot in the face, and Campbell Courtney shot in the leg. Many other officers were stabbed as well.”

Praising Mr Courtney for telling his story on film, Mr Beattie said he was disappointed that more prison staff had not been willing to appear on camera.

“There’s no doubt that many of them showed a great deal of courage in trying to prevent the escape, but even in our improved political climate many of them still fear that their safety is at risk.

“Nor was it as easy as some may think to get the three leading Republicans to agree to the film.

“We had to go through formal requests and a series of meetings before getting the go-ahead. But this is an important historical story and one that deserves to be told.”

A Hot Shot Films production, Breakout, is broadcast on Monday 22 September on BBC One Northern Ireland at 2100 BST.

Shaun Woodward pledges help to push through deal on transfer of police powers

Deborah Summers, politics editor
Guardian
September 21 2008

Devolution in Northern Ireland could be complete within 12 months, the Northern Ireland secretary, Shaun Woodward, said today as he vowed to help the parties reach an agreement on policing and justice in Ulster.

Woodward told the Labour party conference in Manchester it was a “tense period” in Northern Ireland.

“The executive has not met since June,” he said. “It needs to meet. There is business to be agreed. The parties need to find a way forward… because there is work to be done on policing and justice.”

Woodward said the road to transferring policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland was always going to “be long and winding”.

But he pledged to work to build trust and confidence on all sides.

“We promise to help ensure that when the parties agree the transfer we will provide the help to ensure success. We will not walk away from you. We stand with you,” he said.

“We know for some Unionists, this is a difficult step. But we believe from polling there is a majority – in each community – [who want] to complete devolution within 12 months”.

Admitting that “government is hard”, Woodward said the work done in Northern Ireland “reflects brilliantly the values of this party”.

“A recognition there is nothing we can’t achieve if we are prepared to work together,” he said. “There is no problem, no issue, no obstacle which cannot be moved, if we are prepared to work through difficulty in pursuit of the greater good.

“In times when solutions aren’t clear then you really look for leadership. You need to count on your leader, and your leader should know he can count on you.”

Paul Murphy, the secretary of state for Wales, told delegates that
worldwide economic problems had hit the party hard in Wales.

“Like all of you we have had our difficulties and challenges,” he said. “We lost many fine councillors in our local election this year. We govern in coalition with Plaid Cymru because of disappointing assembly election results in 2007.”

But he insisted the party would not be knocked off course by economic turmoil and pledged to “listen to people’s concerns over housing, energy prices and rising living costs”.

“We will fight for fairness in our country in a way that the Tories, with a hundred Camerons or Osbornes, could never, ever, do,” he said.

Murphy also paid tribute to Wales’ First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, who stands down next year, calling him “the architect and the socialist inspiration behind Welsh devolution”.

Breaking News.ie
20/09/2008

The Irish and British governments may have to intervene to move along the devolution of policing in the North, according to Sinn Féin.

The party said every effort has been made to reach an agreement with the DUP on the date for the transfer of powers to Stormont, but that there is still an impasse on the issue.

Tensions were evident this week, with the Unionists boycotting a North-South ministerial meeting yesterday and Sinn Féin blocking a Northern Executive cabinet meeting on Thursday.

By Alan Murray
Independent.ie
Sunday September 21 2008

DAVID Trimble, the former First Minister of Northern Ireland, has urged Gordon Brown to “urgently” release the secretly recorded conversations of the Omagh bombers on their way to devastate the town.

Lord Trimble says it is imperative that the recordings and transcripts of what the bombers said as they drove to put the “brick in the wall” should be made available to lawyers representing the families in the ongoing civil case being heard in Belfast.

In a letter signed by fellow peer Baron Bew, the Professor of Irish Politics at Queen’s University, and British Labour MP Dave Anderson he also says that public servants should be allowed to assist the lawyers and be able to give evidence without any fear of prosecution or punishment.

Last week’s BBC Panorama programme revealed that the British Government’s secret listening station, GCHQ, made recordings of at least two of the bombers communicating between a scout car and the bomb car on their way to Omagh and again just seconds after the bomb was put in position.

“The internal review you have announced will help establish if the bombers’ phone calls were monitored in real time, why intelligence was not passed to the inves-tigation team and what lessons can be learned for the future”, the letter to Downing Street says.

It adds: “Time is short. The case is due to end within a few weeks. We therefore urge you to act with great urgency.”

- Alan Murray

Combat Poverty channels EU funds as ‘non-government mechanism’

By JIM CUSACK
Independent.ie
Sunday September 21 2008

Just under a million euro a year has passed through the books of Combat Poverty and another non-government organisation to six Sinn Fein-affiliated “ex-prisoner” groups along the Border over the past eight years.

Combat Poverty made it clear yesterday that none of the funding came from its own funds, but that it was approached and had agreed to act as a “non-government mechanism” to channel European Union funds to the ex-prisoner offices in Letterkenny, Sligo, Clones, Dundalk, Monaghan and Ballinamore in Co Leitrim.

The offices concerned also contained other Sinn Fein-affiliated organisations and politicians from other parties in the Border counties have complained that they were used as Sinn Fein election offices in the past.

Despite receiving such financial largesse from the EU, staff in these offices, including prominent Sinn Fein representatives, would have played a role in the party’s No campaign in the Lisbon referendum.

In its annual report for 2007, Combat Poverty records that nine ex-prisoner groups received a total of €786,749, more than a third of the total grant expenditure of €2.05m paid out by the agency.

Among the ex-prisoner groups funded through Combat Poverty is the group Iar Cimi Liatroma Teo. Company records show that the directors of this group, based in a Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, office, include the former Sinn Fein MP Owen Carron. He has been living in Leitrim since failing to answer bail on a charge of possessing an AK47 rifle in Fermanagh in 1986. He is still wanted in the North, but an attempt by the British Government to have him extradited back to face trial in the late 1980s was thrown out by the Supreme Court.

Carron, now headmaster of the local primary school, is listed as director and company secretary of Iar Cimi Liatroma Teoranta.

Although little is known of the activities of Iar Cimi, the office in Main Street, Ballinamore, is also home to another fund-receiving group called La Nua. This described itself as a project to employ ex-prisoners in a house building project and received a grant of €691,181 in 2002 from the European Union Peace Fund for the North and Border counties of the Republic. To date, it appears that La Nua has refurbished only one house.

Iar Cimi received €165,909 from Combat Poverty last year.

Accounts for Iar Cimi for the year ending April 2007 record it as having assets of €29,604, but did not record a cashflow, taking advantage of an exemption allowed to small companies with low turnover.

Another “ex-prisoner” group in receipt of funding is Abhaile Aris in Letterkenny whose only known activities are heavily linked to Sinn Fein. Previous investigation by the Sunday Independent showed that this group receives about €0.25m a year through Combat Poverty.

Last year was no exception, when it received €244,073. Accounts for Abhaile Aris record that it received grants totalling €236,873 in 2006. Although its total staff is recorded as one co-ordinator, two “outworkers” and one administrator, its administrative expenses for 2006 are put at €233,951 and it claimed an operating profit of €15,091.

Abhaile Aris is also known to have received around €600,000 in 2002-2003 from the EU fund set up to support the “peace process” in the North. It has also received funding from other British and Irish agencies though how much is not known. A woman who answered the phone at Abhaile Aris said the Sunday Independent should direct any inquiries “to our funders”.

Among those listed as Abhaile Aris employees in recent years were Sinn Fein’s two unsuccessful Dail candidates Padraig MacLochlainn and Senator Pearse Doherty from Donegal. In its accounts it lists as its principal activity: “to enhance the welfare, development and social integration of ex-republican prisoners, displaced people and their families in the Donegal area”.

However, it shows very little evidence of such activity on its website.

Figures supplied to Stormont last December from the EU show that “ex-prisoners” groups — many of which double as Sinn Fein centres — raked in more than €20m from the European Union Peace Fund alone between 2002 and last year and are clearly continuing to receive other funding from both the British and Irish Governments even though the last IRA prisoner was released in 2000.

The second biggest “ex-prisoner” grant through Combat Poverty last year went to Failte Abhaile in Dundalk. This is run by an ex-prisoner from Belfast, Kevin Mulgrew, who was named in court as the commanding officer of the north Belfast IRA.

Despite repeated arrests and a lengthy period on remand he was never convicted of serious offences. Failte Abhaile received €227,073 via Combat Poverty.

It received its grant, like the others, under the heading of the “Pathway to Inclusion, Integration & Reconciliation and Reconciliation of Victims” programme. Tus Nua Sligeach, whose directors are father and son Sinn Fein councillors Sean and Chris McManus, received some €90,849 from Combat Poverty last year. Tuas Nua has an address in John Street in Sligo where Sinn Fein also has an office. Although its annual report contains no detail of the activities engaged in by the ex-prisoner groups, Combat Poverty insists that all projects in receipt of funding are “closely audited” and “carefully monitored”.

Combat Poverty describes its funding to these groups as being to “support local and regional responses to poverty including Border areas affected by the Northern Ireland crisis”. Annual reports for Combat Poverty since 2000 show a total of €7.15m going to the ex-prisoner offices, the largest annual amount being €2.62m in 2002 followed by €1.27m in 2003.

- JIM CUSACK