SAOIRSE32

News Letter
16 November 2008

Security alerts at Newry, Cookstown and Strabane are causing disruption today.
Two main roads have been closed overnight during an ongoing security alert in the Newry area.

The dual carriageway between Newry and Warrenpoint and the Old Warrenpoint Road are both closed to traffic.

Police have asked residents to be vigilant and not to go near anything that looks suspicious.

Residents at Burns Road in Cookstown have been moved from their homes while the Army examines a suspicious object. The road there has been closed also.

In Strabane several houses have been evacuated at St Colman’s Drive area as searches are carried out.

By AP Maginness, Irish News
**Via Seán Mac Aodh • IRA2
15/11/2008

HE was was born a Catholic and he grew up in a strongly nationalist area of north Belfast. Yet, in the early 1970s he joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary and began what was to become a successful career
as a police officer.

Former St Malachy’s College man and Trinity College, Dublin graduate Kevin Sheehy worked in the RUC’s drugs squad, the criminal investigations department and the police press office throughout a 30-year career in the RUC.

It was a strange move for a man from working-class Catholic Belfast to join the police in the 1970s.

Few from Northern Ireland will forget that at that time many young Catholics were swelling the ranks of the IRA as the north’s Troubles began to take hold.

The police were considered by many Catholics to be the enemy and not only was it odd that Sheehy should wish to join their ranks but it was also an extremely dangerous position to put himself in.

Any Catholic or nationalist joining the police became a target for assassination by the IRA after joining the police.

Now retired from the police, Sheehy has written an account of his time in the RUC entitled More Questions than Answers: Reflections On a Life in the RUC.

He describes in detail the difficulties of policing a chaotic Northern Ireland in the 1970s, dealing with colleagues who took exception to his Catholic background, handling informers while with the drugs squad and dealing with the media in the aftermath of the Omagh Bomb in 1998.

Sheehy is now much older than when he appeared on the Gerry Kelly television show as head of the drugs squad in 1990.

In those days he had a mop of thick black curly hair, now it is greying and the energy he had then seems to have dimmed somewhat.

But his book gives you an insight into the life of a man who, against his own social and political background loved being a police officer.

What was it that produced this dichotomy?

“I suspect that this must have happened because I had relatives in the RUC,” Sheehy explained.

“And in the late 1950s police were being killed. I remember my parents praying for the police and so I have to believe that some seed of anti-republicanism crept in at that stage,” he says.

“It is probably like a religious conversion, you have often heard it said that when you get a conversion it seems to be more powerful and more meaningful than the person’s previous religion.”

Sheehy admits that it was difficult for his family though he says that his father was proud of his choice of career.

“I suspect that my parents were SDLP supporters and the rest of my brothers and sisters would have been, but my father was a working-class man who was delighted and very proud that I had a job that would earn me money and had some career prospects.

“That is the way he looked at it: he has a job, he will get 30 years out of it and he has discipline in his life. It was never a major problem with my family that I joined the police.”

During his time in CID and the drugs squad Sheehy was at the coalface of policing, dealing with the criminal underworld of the north including drug dealers and paramilitaries – many of whom he and his colleagues used as informers.

It was a dirty world made more complicated by the political context of the north.

The RUC has come in for severe criticism for its actions throughout the Troubles but despite accepting in his book that there were problems within the force Sheehy is still keen to defend his former colleagues.

“If you are gonna talk about the failings of the system you have to put it in context of the overall assessment.

“The overall assessment of the intelligence gathering system in Northern Ireland has never been analysed. The whole issue of weaknesses in individual cases, which clearly cannot be defended would then be put in some sort of a context,” Sheehy says in reference to his time in CID and the drugs squad where intelligence gathering and
dealing with informants was a key element of their modus operandi.

“The whole problem with any intelligence system is that it has human beings involved. If you get human beings with the wrong motivation – for instance if you have a good tout… I mean… informant saying that he has to do a robbery next Tuesday, he says, `they want me to drive the motor and if I drop out of it they will know,’ the informant says.

“If you are a young detective constable and you put that into your boss he might say you can’t let it go, so what you do is you don’t tell your boss. So you make the decision not to tell anyone and let it go.

“The point I am trying to make is that an intelligence system is perfect in theory and logically it works but it relies on people. The people bring their weaknesses to the system. But I totally believe in the Special Branch system.”

It is clear to see that Sheehy feels strongly about this and believes that a separate intelligence gathering system is a necessity for any police force.

Despite this vehement defence of the RUC the last chapter in Sheehy’s book entitled Fall From Grace deals with an investigation into his actions as head of the drugs squad, no charges were brought but it left a sour taste in the lifelong police officer’s mouth.

And despite his defence of the force’s record he clearly feels that there were people working against him and as the interview comes to an end the bitterness about how his career finished is palpable.

“I went into work for three years with this investigation happening. But I have left all that behind me. I was shocked and dismayed but very determined when that happened. I wasn’t leaving till it (the investigation) was sorted out and in the end I was exonerated. You ask me am I bitter? I am more interested in enjoying my retirement.”

• More Questions than Answers: Reflections on life in the RUC by Kevin
Sheehy is out now and published by Gill and MacMillan priced £16.99.

By Marie Louise McCrory West Belfast Correspondent
Irish News
**Via Newshound
14/11/2008

FR AIDAN Troy has told how he is still dealing with “crisis calls” from north Belfast six weeks after his controversial transfer to Paris.

The Passionist priest, whose name was flashed around the world during the Holy Cross dispute in 2001, continues to be inundated with requests for help and advice from his former home, Ardoyne.

Since Fr Troy left Holy Cross Monastery in September, parishioners have been contacting him by telephone, email and letter in times of need.

Tower of strength: Fr Aidan Troy at the Eiffel Tower in his new parish (PICTURE: Hugh Russell)

More than 5,000 people signed a petition asking the order’s Provincial to reverse the decision to transfer him to St Joseph’s Church, close to the Arc de Triomphe, but no-one met parishioners and the move went ahead.

Speaking exclusively to The Irish News in Paris, Fr Troy said the Church leaders did not see that those people were “deeply hurt”.

However, he said that he did not believe his transfer should have been stopped.

“I felt utterly lost that my leadership would not meet with the people. Hurt would have been healed by a meeting,” he said.

“There is a new spirit needed in the Church and the voice of the laity needs to be listened to.

“On a deeply personal level I am happy.

“I am not in any sense resentful.

I have given a commitment here but I have not turned my back on Ardoyne and said ‘that’s that’.

“I still get so many cards and emails and texts.

“All of these soften how much I miss people.”

Six weeks into his new life in the French capital, Fr Troy is trying to adapt to snails for dinner, travel by underground and shopping on the Champs Elysees.

The Dublin-born priest administers to more than 40 nationalities at his new English-speaking church. Although the parishioners have given him a warm welcome, he admits he suffers from some homesickness and loneliness.

In an emotional interview, the Passionist spoke of his love for the people of Ardoyne and the hope that one day he will be transferred back to Belfast.

“I miss my walk to the corner shop when I would stop and chat with so many people,” he said.

“The shops in Ardoyne were the parish pump.

“On the way you would have signed a Mass card, found out who was sick, organised a Baptism and by the time you reached the Spar you had done a powerful amount of visitation.

“I miss that engagement.

“I still regard Ardoyne as home and if I was to die in Paris – and if they could afford it – I would like to be buried in Belfast.”

MARK HENNESSY in Washington
Irish Times
**Via Newshound
14 Nov 2008

A FORMER IRA member, who escaped from the Maze Prison in 1983 and who is now fighting efforts to deport him from the United States, yesterday told a Texas court that he would be attacked if he was sent back to Ireland.

Pól Brennan (55), was arrested by border guards in south Texas in January and has been in detention there since and state authorities now want to deport him - but to the Republic, and not Northern Ireland.

Brennan spent seven years from 1993 fighting British government efforts to extradite him after he was arrested following his application for a passport under a false name. The British abandoned the case in 2000 citing the Belfast Agreement.

In the court hearing in Raymondville, Texas, Brennan admitted that he had been transporting explosives when he was arrested in Northern Ireland in 1976, and he admitted that he had “supported the IRA morally and sometimes actively”.

Brennan is one of 15 former IRA members in legal limbo in the US.

Even though he entered the country illegally, he has been able to renew his work permits, but not been able to get permanent immigration status.

When stopped in Texas in January border guards noticed that his work permit had expired, and that he had applied for but not received an annual renewal.

They arrested him after running a background check on his name.

He was denied bail after a judge learned that Brennan had been convicted for involvement in a scuffle with a builder that Brennan said owed him money, and falsely applied for a passport.

Brennan asked US immigration judge William Peterson that he should be granted political asylum, or, at least, permanent immigration status allowing him to remain in the country because of the risk he claims he faces if he was forcibly returned to Ireland by US authorities.

Irish News
**Via Newshound
15 Nov 2008

An IRA informer convicted of two murders may be called to give evidence at the Omagh bomb civil trial.

Lawyers for victims’ relatives have urged a judge to allow Sean O’Callaghan to testify at the High Court action against five men being sued over the 1998 atrocity.

A statement submitted to the proceedings in Belfast by O’Callaghan alleges that one of the defendants, Michael McKevitt, was at one stage a high-ranking member of the Provisional IRA’s northern command.

POSSIBLE WITNESS: Main picture, file photo of former senior IRA figure turned police and MI5 informer Sean O’Callaghan.

He further claims that the jailed dissident republican leader attended a meeting in the mid-1980s to discuss obtaining deer-hunting rifles and was linked to an operation to import arms from Libya.

Lawyers for McKevitt, who is said to have quit the Provisionals to form the Real IRA in opposition to the peace pro- cess, declared complete opposition to O’Callaghan’s evidence and warned they would seek to adjourn the case until next year if it was allowed.

But Lord Brennan QC, for the Omagh families, emphasised the significance of hearing from a man whose senior position within the Provisional IRA during the 1970s and 1980s brought him into contact with McKevitt.

“In a terrorist organisation bent on murder and bombing the relationship, understanding and assessment of each other by those at its leadership is going to be a state of affairs ordinary people would hardly ever find out about unless someone turns informer which this man did and, in this instance, perhaps to tell this court what it was like in such an organisation,” he said.

Lord Brennan, who confirmed that the plaintiffs’ case was now closed against all defendants apart from McKevitt, also sought to stress the relevance of the alleged rifle discussions.

“You don’t have to be an expert to realise that a deer-hunting rifle gives the opportunity for long-range sniping and killing of people, in particular soldiers and police officers,” he told the court.

Mr Justice Morgan said he would rule later this month whether O’Callaghan’s statement contained enough value to the case to allow him to be called to give evidence in the trial in which McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Seamus McKenna, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly all deny responsibility for the Real IRA’s Omagh bombing of August 15 1998.

Twenty-nine people including a woman pregnant with twins were killed in the blast.

Michael O’Higgins SC, for McKevitt, argued that details in the statement referring to matters stretching back more than 20 years were too remote. He also called into question the worth of a man with “a very significant degree of baggage”.

“He’s not an ordinary witness. He’s a twice-convicted murderer and got 529 years [of a prison sentence] on top of that. For what, I don’t know but I would be very curious to find out,” Mr O’Higgins said.

As parts of the IRA volunteer-turned Garda and MI5 informer’s statement were explored in court, Mr O’Higgins used an entry for O’Callaghan in the online reference site Wikipedia to strengthen his case.

The court heard that O’Callaghan was said to have joined the IRA as a teenager and been involved in operations during the 1970s, including a mortar attack on a British army base in Co Tyrone in which a female soldier was killed.

He also shot dead an RUC Special Branch officer in a bar in Omagh, Mr O’Higgins said.

O’Callaghan, originally from Tralee, Co Kerry, was released from prison under a royal prerogative, the court heard.

He was said to have resigned from the Provisionals and moved to England before deciding to become an informer.

His claims to have been head of the IRA’s southern command and to have helped foil a bomb attack on a London theatre in 1984 where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were attending a Duran Duran concert were also referred to.

“It’s a feature that it’s never pensioners – Mr and Mrs Smith – it’s always Charles and Diana or the nearest equivalent,” Mr O’Higgins said.

Another episode involved O’Callaghan’s appearance as a prosecution witness at a burglary trial after he was bound to a chair by two men he met in a gay bar in London.

He was said to have gone to the pub because it was closest one to a house he was looking after for a friend and that he invited the men back for a drink.

“If you meet someone in a gay bar and you voluntarily agree to certain things with them that doesn’t entitle them to burgle property or rob a person,” Mr O’Higgins said.

“But if under oath Mr O’Cal-laghan said in that case that this was all a set-up he was the unluckiest man in London.

“He appears to have stumbled into the nearest gay bar and stumbled into these two men and all this happened.”

Stressing the time taken to prepare his client’s defence in the case, the barrister said his legal team might now have to make further inquiries with police, MI5 and the publishers of O’Callaghan’s autobiography, The Informer.

“If the court admits this evidence we will be seeking an adjournment to investigate these matters,” he said.

Derry Journal
14 November 2008

The IRSP in Derry has rejected claims made by the PSNI that drugs seized in Derry and Strabane this week are connected to the INLA.

The denial comes after police raids on a number of houses in Derry and Strabane uncovered controlled drugs with a street value of £10,000.

The PSNI said they belived th drugs were linked to the INLA. “Detectives investigating the criminal activities of the INLA and their associates, in the North West, have seized a quantity of controlled drugs with an estimated street value of £10,000. The drugs were found during searches of houses in Strabane and Derry on Monday, November 10 and Wednesday, November 12.

“Police enquiries into the find are continuing,” a PSNI spokesperson said.

However, a spokesperson for the IRSP in Derry dismissed the claims and said no-one from the republican socialist movement was involved. “We don’t know where these raids took place and there is no one connected to us who have had their house raided. We are aware of a house search in Strabane earlier in the week but no drugs were found. People have been contacting our office because they are baffled by this. Our attitude towards drugs is clear and the community knows our record, ” the spokesperson said.