SAOIRSE32

By Louise Cullen
BBC

Mobile police stations are becoming a more common sight in our rural towns and villages, as police stations are closed and new ways of policing adopted.

But is it the answer, when there’s an increased threat from dissident republicans?

In Fermanagh, where officers have come under attack recently, a mobile station has been on the road for almost two years.

Noel Kilpatrick, the officer in charge of the mobile station, says it has been well received in the county.

Plenty of people know Noel and his Thursday co-worker, Lynn, by name and it is not long before people are stopping by to say hello or report a concern.

One man calls in to tell the officers about cars parked along the road near a junction and after taking the details, Noel arranges to call him back to let him know what action is being taken.

“It’s like bringing the old way of policing back to the villages if you like, the village bobby back on the beat,” he said.

At our next stop, in the border village of Belleek, Sergeant Scott Fallis who is in charge of north Fermanagh, says that is the way it should be.

With more station closures ahead for the police estate in Fermanagh, he believes changes in policing make the service more efficient.

“The more people you speak to, it’s not bricks-and-mortar that they’re looking for.

“Sure, they’re apprehensive about police stations closing, but it’s because they think the station goes, then the police will not be focussed round that area.

“And I think it’s a challenge to us to address that and allay their fears by showing them that we can still be in the area when there’s no building there and that we can be just as effective if not more.”

But while some local people welcome the mobile station’s visits, others say it is too easy a target, with an increased dissident republican threat in border regions.

Additional security precautions are taken and Noel says they are all aware of the risk.

“Obviously, if you’re going to be bringing policing to the villages on a regular basis, you have to try and keep the times the same, but you just have to be very conscious of where you park and make sure everything’s quite safe round you.

“We have always been security-conscious anyway but you just have to be that bit more diligent.”

‘Trust’

In the afternoon, we travel to the village of Lisbellaw, where Noel and Lynn have time to set up vehicle checkpoints at each end of the village.

The police station here closed in 2005, but Lynn believes the mobile unit fills the gap well.

“We can offer most facilities that the big police station can, or we’ll arrange with them to come back with such-and-such a form next week or if they live in the village, we just go to their house and help them. They really do trust us now.”

The mobile unit went on the road in November 2006, after six police stations were closed throughout Fermanagh.

Another four are being considered for closure.

Noel says the mobile station has proved a viable alternative to bricks-and-mortar buildings.

“It’s been quite successful. A lot of the villages now, if you aren’t there, they’re asking questions as to where the mobile station has been.

“We don’t always have callers every day, but we always are a presence in the village if people require us.”

A decision on the future of the stations in Belcoo, Belleek, Kesh and Newtownbutler is expected next month.

Islamic Republic News Agency
Sept 29, 2008
London

UK-Northern Ireland
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams is calling for the setting up of an independent and international truth commission as the best way for reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

State killing, collusion and the impact on victims of all armed groups must be dealt with to overcome conflict, Adams said. Key to the success of such a commission is the ‘full co-operation by all relevant parties’, he said.

His call comes as consultative groups are reporting to Britain’s Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward with a number of recommendations on the 30-year conflict’s legacy to probe the best way forward.

In an article for the Irish republican An Phoblacht, the Sinn Fein leader said that many victim groups in Ireland were looking at the possibility of establishing an Independent International Truth Commission (IITC).

“Sinn Fein has now met many of these groups and we have concluded that the establishment of an IITC is the best way of taking this issue forward,” he said.

“Clearly the willingness of individuals to voluntarily participate will be greatly enhanced if the Commission is seen to be independent, have an international dimension and be fair and equitable,” Adams argued.

He said that there was ‘understandable concern’ at the UK government’s commitment to a truth recovery process, citing officials refusing to hand over files about the 1989 killing of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane, where there was alleged security force involvement.

The leader of Northern Ireland’s second biggest party also accused Britain of obstructing the Saville Inquiry into the Bloody Sunday killing of civil rights campaigners by soldiers in Derry in January 1972.

“Brushing it under the carpet, revising our history to exorcise the role of the British state in fomenting and prolonging conflict in our country, is in no one’s interest — especially the families,” Adams said.

“But we believe that as society seeks to leave conflict behind and to move forward there is a requirement that all of us address the tragic human consequences of the past,” he added.

Derry Journal
30 September 2008

A Sinn Féin councillor has hit out at those responsible for daubing graffiti on the Derry Walls and warned that it could jeopardise plans to have the historic ramparts designated as a world heritage site.

Councillor Peter Anderson made the comments after slogans supporting four republicans currently held on remand in Portlaoise prison were painted on the Walls in huge letters at the weekend.

“It does not enhance the reputation of Derry as a tourist destination,” he said. “The Walls are internationally known and people flock from all corners of the world to see them. At the moment we are trying to secure a huge funding package for the walls, which could run into millions of pounds, in order to preserve and protect them, and this definitely does not help that process. Hopefully those responsible will realise that,” he added.

A spokesperson for Derry City Council explained that it has spoke to the custodians of the Walls, the Environmental Heritage Service (EHS), who have given Council permission to instruct the approved contractor to have the graffiti removed.

By Fr Des
Andersonstown News Thursday
Belfast Media
**Via Newshound

The recent BBC programme about the escape of prisoners in 1983 caused, as we might expect, a lot of admiration and a lot of anger.

The issues at the time were very clear. The courts had been subverted by the Diplock system, torture had become routine, judges were admitting evidence which should not have been admitted. In other words, men and women were in prison who had not been proved to have done anything against the law – the courts, constructed and subverted as they were, had become incompetent to prove it even if the people concerned had in fact broken laws.

Therefore, they were unjustly condemned, unjustly imprisoned, so trying to escape was not only normal but justified. That was the argument of onlookers then, that is the argument now. If the state subverts its own laws and justice system, then it can expect extraordinary reactions like well organised prison escapes. Putting people in prison without due process and cause is the primary injustice, not the escapes.

Those who make this case will be condemned, of course. But it is strictly in accord with moral beliefs even of bodies who often err on the side of strictness, church theologians for example. This is quite apart from the insistence of those concerned that they were soldiers involved in a war against bad government, soldiers who believed they had as much right to escape as any German or British prisoners of war. The refusal of a government to admit they had this status is irrelevant. Prisoners act according to their own view of reality, not to that of governments, especially hostile ones.

Two of the men who escaped in 1983 got to Holland and had to face extradition in a court there. That court case in the Hague must have been one of the most complete statements of the situation in Ireland ever given in public, because it described the situation not only from the point of view of social, economic and historical fact, but from a military point of view as well. At the end of one day’s court session some of the reporters present were amazed. “What,” they asked, “Are these two men, Gerry Kelly and Bik McFarlane doing in this court? They are soldiers, this is no place for them….” The court heard arguments about the morality of escape – under normal British justice systems in Ireland it was difficult to ensure justice, under the political and Diplock systems impossible. Courts in Ireland through political interference had become incompetent.

Today people’s anger and pride in this massive escape have not become less.

Whatever the intentions of the BBC – after all, it is a British state agency – it may perhaps have helped bring to the surface what many people hoped would stay under it. Changes have to be made . Some of those changes will hurt. And everyone has a place and must be involved. That is the way after every armed conflict. It can only help if we talk openly and honourably about it. Other countries had to face similar realities after the second world war.

Some realities were so painful that they could have caused civil wars, in France for example where opponents had to cooperate in economics, education and justice. The need to find a way of living decently became uppermost. And, whether people liked them or not, workable political solutions just had to follow.

Breaking News.ie
29/09/2008

The stalemate in the North has developed into a very serious situation, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams warned today.

Mr Adams made his comments after he held private talks with Secretary of State Shaun Woodward at Stormont.

The Sinn Féin leader called for action to end the deadlock, but his remarks come amid fears that an Executive meeting planned for Thursday may not go ahead.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin dominate the Northern Ireland Executive and their dispute over a series of issues including the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster has blocked cabinet meetings since June.

Tonight Mr Adams said: “We are in a very, very serious situation at this time, all of us, all of the MLAs and more particularly those people who are looking to us for leadership to deal with the range of issues.

“We are going into the winter – whether it’s dealing with fuel poverty, whether it’s dealing with the hike in the energy costs… there isn’t a weekend passes now where somebody isn’t killed as a result of criminality or violence, (there is) the whole need for community safety.

“And the fact that the people here who have been duly elected aren’t even permitted, are denied the right, to bring forward legislation to deal with issues which constituents are concerned about.

“So we are in a very serious situation.”

The St Andrews Agreement set May this year as a target date for the devolution of policing powers to the Assembly, but the DUP has said it is not bound by any timetable.

The parties have agreed on the format of any new justice ministry and have decided someone outside their ranks will take the post.

But while unionists and the nationalist SDLP want Executive business to continue while the policing deal is negotiated, Sinn Fein wants a range of issues important to the party included in any Executive agenda.

Mr Adams said his party wanted to see partnership government where issues important to both unionists and nationalists are dealt with.

Asked if the British and Irish Governments may have to move in to help settle the dispute, the Sinn Fein president expressed hopes that the parties at Stormont could yet agree a deal.

“These matters are all better worked out by people here, but I come back to the St Andrews Agreement.

“It is an international agreement. We have the ridiculous situation where the senior party in these institutions deny that they support or that they are any part of the St Andrews Agreement.

“I am just very, very concerned at the attitude of some of the players here, I am very, very concerned at some of the recent utterances.

“I am very, very concerned that the core which has brought us all as a people to where we are at this point is being eroded by some elements who don’t believe in partnership.

“You don’t have to agree with the other person’s point of view in order to go into government with them, especially when you are coming out of conflict.

“You don’t even have to like the other person, but what you do have to do is build a shared future based upon broad principles.”

The Northern Ireland Executive has not met since June, but last week the two parties agreed to use special powers to allow First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson and Sinn Féin’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to attend a meeting of the British Irish Council in Scotland.

But there are doubts whether enough progress has been made to give the green light to an Executive meeting planned for Thursday and a high-profile meeting of ministers from Northern Ireland and the Republic planned for Friday.

The meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) is part of the architecture of the Good Friday Agreement that is more important to nationalists than unionists.

Asked if this week’s Executive meeting might yet be cancelled, thereby throwing the NSMC meeting into doubt, Mr Adams said: “I don’t want to speculate. The fact is, there is time to agree an agenda.”

BBC
28 Sept 2008

A clergyman forced out of Limavady in the 1980s will not be granted the freedom of the borough, after unionist councillors defeated a motion.

Reverend David Armstrong left the town after a backlash from within his Presbyterian church over his decision to shake hands with a Catholic priest.

He received loyalist death threats over his Christmas message of goodwill to Catholic counterpart Fr Kevin Mullen.

The vote for the SDLP motion was 8-6, but a two-thirds majority was needed.

After leaving the town, Mr Armstrong retrained as an Anglican minister and is now based at a Church of Ireland parish in County Cork.

BBC
29 Sept 2008

The bank manager whose wife was held hostage in the £26.5m Northern Bank robbery has said he felt the men holding them “were murderers”.

Giving evidence at Belfast Crown Court for the fifth day, Kevin McMullan described the gang as “very cold”.

“I don’t know if it’s the right thing to say but I felt these men were murderers, they didn’t care,” he said.

His colleague Chris Ward, 26, from Colinmill, Poleglass, denies being the ‘inside man’ for the robbery.

Under cross examination from defence Mr McMullan confirmed the gang had told him he would have to be a “fantastic actor” during the robbery.

“They told me I was going to have to be the boss, do anything it took to make this happen, that I would have to be a fantastic actor and anything they wanted me to do I would have to work around to make sure it happened,” he said.

Mr Ward, a former supervisor in the Northern Bank Cash Centre, denies involvement in the robbery and two charges of abducting Mr McMullan and his wife Karyn.

The trial continues.

BBC
29 Sept 2008

The Michael McIlveen murder trial has heard a witness was “happy to blacken the name” of one of the defendants.

Witness Liam Phillips had told the jury he and his friend were chased by up to 30 Protestant youths before the Catholic teenager was killed.

Michael McIlveen died after being attacked by a gang in May 2006

A lawyer for Christopher Kerr, 22, of Carnduff Drive, said his client had become a hate figure “for changing his allegiance” to join a Protestant gang.

“I’ve no reason to blacken his name,” replied Mr Phillips.

Mr Kerr’s lawyer told the jury his client had moved out of the Dunclug area of Ballymena after an assault in a Catholic area of the town in April 2005 left him hospitalised.

He put it to the witness that his client “was public enemy number one because he had changed sides”, a claim rejected by Mr Phillips.

The defence barrister also told Antrim Crown Court that around the time of the schoolboy’s killing, tensions were high between Catholic and Protestant youths in Ballymena.

He said social networking websites were being used to exchange “abusive and insulting language”, and the two sides were going online to organise fights in car parks in the town.

‘Leader of the pack’

Mr Phillips told the police during a videotaped interview, which has already been played to the court, that Mr Kerr was “the leader of the pack” during the initial chase from the cinema to the alleyway.

He said he remembered the accused being there because he was wearing a Rangers baseball cap.

The defence lawyer put it to Mr Phillips: “You were just agreeing with the officer and saying the first thing that came into your head.

“That’s an exaggeration and you are happy to put public enemy number one at the forefront of this crowd when in fact he was nothing of the sort.”

The witness replied “no.”

Denying that he discussed what he saw with another witness, Mr Phillips said: “We don’t want to talk about it - it hurts too much to talk about it.”

Five people deny murdering Michael McIlveen on 8 May, 2006.

A 20-year-old has already pleaded guilty to the murder and is awaiting sentence.

The case continues.