SAOIRSE32

BBC
26 Sept 2008

Provisional IRA men at the funeral of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands

The 1981 election of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands as MP remains a sore point for Protestants in County Fermanagh, a new study has claimed.

The Church of Ireland report interviewed Protestants living in the Clogher Diocese about the Troubles.

It has recommended more be done to deal with the legacy of pain in the area’s Protestant community.

It said the community felt it was being wiped out during the Troubles and remains uncertain of the future.

Some of those interviewed pointed to a fragile peace between the minority Protestant population in Fermanagh (35%) and the majority Catholic population (65%), but warned a neighbourliness based on delicate compromises avoided addressing difficult and unresolved issues of power, hurt and history.

Bobby Sands was elected as an MP in 1981 while in the Maze prison

“The question of whether or not there had been a concerted campaign of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the border regions was for most interviewees an accepted fact,” the report said.

The report added: “What was in no doubt was the vicious finality and painful legacy visited upon the few and observed from a distance by the many.”

The study was funded by the Irish government and the International Fund for Ireland to help develop Protestant communities in cross-border areas.

The church report found elements of political history remained a sore point.

In 1981, IRA prisoner Bobby Sands led a hunger strike that eventually saw 10 republicans die in the Maze prison.

The decision to stand Sands as a candidate in a by-election for the Fermanagh/South-Tyrone Westminster seat provided an outlet for nationalists who were sympathetic to the hunger strike and angry at the refusal of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to negotiate a settlement.

But the Protestant community saw the vote as support for an IRA terrorist.

Sands received 52% of the vote against (unionist candidate) Harry West’s 48%.

‘Purging of Protestants’

“Many Protestants and unionists saw it, both then and now, as a clear and unambiguous vote of support for the retention of the ‘armed struggle’ and the purging of Protestants from the land,” the report said.

“They couldn’t understand it then and they still can’t. The collective ‘nailing of the colours to the mast’ was stark and shocking, but made things very clear - whatever about our previous neighbourliness, whatever about our friendly and co-operative arrangements, all of that is now over.”

The report revealed a complex picture where personal grief and anger have become intertwined with the history of the Troubles.

But the report added: “A number of lay people reported that they had a strong sense that their Roman Catholic neighbours did not approve of or support the campaign of terror and violence that the IRA waged against the border Protestant people but that they suspected that their neighbours were unable to communicate as much or reach out a hand of friendship for fear of possible repercussions.”

The report points to a further gulf in understanding when it tackles the issue of nationalist unease at Protestant neighbours joining the B-Specials police reserve and, later, the Ulster Defence Regiment.

Some contributors suggest the motive was often economic, with rural Protestant families keen to earn the extra money offered by part-time security force jobs.

But the report said dialogue was crucial and suggested using the 400th anniversary of the Plantation of Ulster next year “to creatively raise and proactively seek to address some of the historical legacy issues”.

News Letter
26 September 2008

A GAA clubhouse in Co Down has been substantially damaged in an early morning blaze.

Emergency services attended the outbreak at St John’s clubhouse at Drumnaquoile, near Castlewellan on Friday.

The building has suffered extensive damage.

A police spokeswoman confirmed the incident was being treated as arson and that police were appealing for information.

SDLP MLA Eamonn O’Neill, who lives in Castlewellan, said everyone associated with the club was calling for “no retaliation”.

He added: “What I fear is that this attack is a taunt designed to provoke a response. It is clearly a sectarian attack.”

The incident could potentially be linked, he said, to a recent daubing of IRA graffiti on a nearby Orange Hall. “That incident got an enormous amount of publicity and this attack might be as a result of that,” he said.

DUP MLA Jim Wells said the communities of south Down “needed to be very careful they do not get into a tit-for-tat” series of attacks.

“There have recently been a series of such attacks on properties on both sides of the community in south Down,” he said. “It is unusual for them to be on Catholic properties though, the vast majority of them have been on Protestant churches and Orange Halls.”

Jacqui McMullan from the club told the BBC “hundreds of thousands of pounds worth” of damage had been caused.

“We had refurbishing done, equipment and a lot of valuable trophies,” she said.

“On Sunday we are going to play a junior championship final in Newry so this is a big day coming up. Now we have been set back a bit.”

News Letter
26 September 2008

PETER Robinson and Martin McGuinness are attending a summit in Scotland, despite an underlying political crisis.
The First and Deputy First Ministers are taking part in a meeting of the British-Irish Council in Edinburgh.

It had been feared the gathering would have to be postponed as it is necessary for the power-sharing Executive to agree the meeting, but it has not met formally for over three months.

However, First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness agreed a special “urgent procedures” measure allowing ministers to approve the trip to Edinburgh and the agenda of the meeting at Hopetoun House, outside the Scottish capital.

The DUP and Sinn Fein are at loggerheads over the devolution of policing and justice powers, with the latter refusing to attend Executive meetings until the issue is resolved.

Leaders from Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and the Republic are expected to discuss setting up a permanent BIC secretariat in the UK.

Irish Times
26 Sept 2008

The PSNI were attacked with fireworks and other missiles in Belfast last night after they were called to deal with a bomb alert that was later declared to be a hoax.

Security forces told families to stay at the rear of their homes after a suspicious device was discovered at the junction of Forthriver Drive and Forthriver Crescent in north Belfast at around 9pm.

Youths attacked police officers at the scene before community leaders in the area worked to quell the disturbances.

Army technical experts carried out a controlled explosion on the device before the security alert was lifted after 11pm.

The device was declared to be a hoax, while there were no reports of serious injuries.

Please go to the latest edition of the Irish Democrat for some interesting historical reviews:

Irish Democrat

BBC
25 Sept 2008

One of Derry’s best-known solicitors, Claude Wilton, has died.

The 89-year-old died in Altnagelvin hospital on Wednesday after a short illness.

Claude Wilton, far right, in white, on the 1968 Duke Street march. (Pic courtesy Derry Journal)

He was a prominent member of the civil rights movement in the city, and was well-known in sporting circles, especially football and cricket.

His friend and fellow civil rights campaigner, Ivan Cooper, said he was “a man of great distinction” who was “legendary” in Derry.

He was a solicitor, he represented the poor, he represented the underprivileged.

“I don’t think anyone could ever imagine how legendary he is in this city,” he said.

SDLP Assembly member Pat Ramsey paid tribute to Mr Wilton as “a legal representative who greatly respected by and dedicated to the people”.

BBC
25 Sept 2008

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has stepped into the row over the political deadlock at Stormont.

Mr Ahern has stepped into the row over the political deadlock at Stormont.

Mr Ahern said the existence of the IRA army council was not a precondition to the transfer of policing and justice powers to Stormont.

He said the DUP was “well aware” of the British and Irish governments’ commitment to the deadline for such a transfer.

“It should have been long done by this stage,” he said.

The Executive has not met in three months after the issue caused a political impasse between the DUP and Sinn Féin.

In an interview for BBC NI’s Hearts and Minds programme, Mr Ahern also spoke of his admiration for former DUP leader Ian Paisley.

He praised him for “resisting the temptation” to make the disbandment of the IRA army council an issue during the St Andrews negotiations.

Mr Ahern said he understood unionists needed to feel “certainty” in order to establish trust with republicans and felt the IRA perhaps needed to spell out its intentions more clearly.

But he said he did not believe the organisation would ever say it would never exist in any role.

He repeated his desire for the IRA to evolve into a “commemorative” organisation but said the devolution of policing and justice was “never predicated” on the disbandment of the IRA army council.

“All of this was known when the agreement was made. It’s not only now or in the last year that we discovered there’s a thing called the army council,” he said.

He cautioned against Sinn Fein and the DUP “escalating” the situation and said both parties could resolve their differences through direct dialogue.

The former Taoiseach also spoke of his disappointment at the Republic’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty which he felt had happened because the document was “too complicated” for people to understand.

He said he believed the Irish government would have to re-run the referendum.

He also rejected any suggestion of misconduct in his financial dealings and said he hoped some day to be able to clear his name.