SAOIRSE32

BBC
22 Oct 2008

Former Sports Minister Edwin Poots has called on a west Belfast GAA club to cancel a booking for a function to commemorate an INLA murderer.
The event, remembering Christopher “Crip” McWilliams, is due to be held at the St Paul’s club next month.
The club committee said it was unaware of the nature of the booking when it was made and will discuss it soon.
Mr Poots said it would be damaging to the club and the wider GAA if the evening goes ahead.
“They should just cancel this booking - these sort of events are normally held in backstreet social clubs,” he said.
“If somebody wants to commemorate people who engage in terrorism that’s the place for it, certainly not in a sporting club.”
In 1991, McWilliams, who died from cancer in June this year, shot dead a bar manager who had asked him to leave a Belfast snooker club.
Six years later, he shot and killed LVF leader Billy Wright in the Maze Prison.
A spokesman for the club committee said: “The committee was unaware of the nature of this booking when it was made by a club member.
“The committee will be discussing the booking when they next convene.”

Derry Journal
17 October 2008

Foyle Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney attended the premiere of the new film ‘Hunger’ based on the 1981 Hunger Strike in Belfast last night.

Speaking before watching the film, Mr McCartney, who advised director Steve McQueen, said; “I look forward to viewing ‘Hunger’ and I have no doubt that having previously spoken to Steve McQueen while he was making the film that his portrayal of the H Blocks and the Hunger Strike will be both powerful and contribute immensely to the unfolding legacy of that time. Discussing the criticism of the film from unionist politicians, the former hunger striker said; “There have been attempts by some to confuse what this film is about. For me it relates the story of what took place in the H-Blocks in 1981. People should watch the film and form their own views of its content and the portrayal of the Hunger Strike.”

Gerry Journal
17 October 2008

The Sinn Féin Society at the Magee campus of the University of Ulster held a protest yesterday against the presence of the British Army at a careers fair at the university.
Adrian Kelly, a spokesperson for the society said many students are opposed to the British Army attending the careers fair.

“We are shocked at the University’s decision to again invite the British Armed Forces on to campus, particularly as this is the 3rd consecutive year students have protested at their presence. Their brutal involvement in Ireland, in particular carrying out the mass murder in Derry on Bloody Sunday, is just one of the reasons so many students are angry. This is to say nothing of the atrocities that are still happening on a daily basis in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We also object to the way careers in the British Armed Forces are glamorised in advertisements and the media and portrayed as exciting to young people.” he said.

breakingnews.ie
22/10/2008

Two men were arrested today in connection with dissident republican activity in Northern Ireland.

The men, aged 35 and 37, were taken into custody in the Craigavon area.

Dissidents opposed to the peace process have launched a series of murder bids against police officers in the last 12 months.

PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has claimed the threat posed by groups such as the Real IRA is the highest its been this decade.