SAOIRSE32

Former taoiseach reveals ploys used during talks for historic Good Friday Agreement

Conor McMorrow Political Correspondent
Tribune.ie
**Via Newshound
November 16, 2008

BERTIE AHERN and Tony Blair secretly developed a system that prevented Downing Street authorities and M15 from taping their conversations in the lead up to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Ahern makes the sensational revelation in the third part of the Bertie documentary series on RTÉ One television tomorrow night.

In a fascinating insight into the way Ahern and Blair helped broker the historic deal, he says: “The British tape everything, which is not our culture. You can be sure when you are talking to the British prime minister that, if it is not being taped by his office, MI5 are.

“So Tony and I worked out a system where we used to talk to each other where at least we reckoned the system wasn’t taping us. Maybe the others were.”

The programme also details how Ahern left the crunch Easter week negotiations to return home for his mother’s funeral. Ahern then returned to the Stormont talks though his sister Eileen recalls: “we would have liked to have him here [in Dublin]”.

Tomorrow night’s programme tracks Ahern’s leadership from 1994 up to the historic 1998 deal on the north, and says he had a “confuse and rule” leadership strategy. The foreign affairs minister Micheál Martin says, “You’ve got to de-code Bertie.”

Elsewhere in the programme, Ahern denies that he “shafted” Albert Reynolds ahead of the 1997 presidential election, while former Fianna Fáil press director Michael Ronayne claims, “senior ministers were scouting and looking for other candidates so that they would have somebody other than Albert Reynolds.”

According to Ahern’s close friend Paddy Duffy, “Mary McAleese was the chosen person. A small group of people knew from early on. Like all good things in politics there was nothing personal about it.”

Mary O’Rourke recalls how ministers left a cabinet meeting well before the party’s selection convention “knowing that Mary McAleese was the one he [Ahern] favoured”, yet she says, “Albert was quite sure he was going to get it.”

During the vote at the selection convention, Ahern showed Albert his slip and written on it was ‘Albert Reynolds’. Ronayne says, “On learning this, Brian Crowley, the MEP for Munster, said, ‘well you’re f**ked now, Albert’.”

Tomorrow night’s documentary starts with Ahern’s rise to the Fianna Fáil leadership in 1994 and how he was about to go into coalition with Dick Spring’s Labour before Spring pulled out at the eleventh hour.

Just as the Spring deal collapsed leaving Ahern “shattered emotionally and politically”, a man called Michael Wall arrived at St Luke’s with a briefcase full of cash. Ahern is questioned about this payment and the purchase of his house at Beresford Avenue, Drumcondra.

Around this time he also made regular trips to Manchester United games, sometimes at the invitation of local property developer Norman Turner.

Turner was the driving force behind one of the most ambitious and controversial projects ever seen in Ireland – the Sonas Centre, a plan to develop a casino and gambling operation at the site of the former Phoenix Park racecourse.

As well as hosting the trips to Old Trafford, Turner made a significant donation of $10,000 to Fianna Fáil fundraiser Des Richardson, a close ally of Ahern.

Richardson says: “He made a donation to Fianna Fáil like thousands and thousands of people… that was just another donation. I didn’t ask why he gave the dollars. I didn’t ask why he gave cash.”

….or ‘A SWIM FOR EVERY COUNTY!’

**My friend Sharon over at 1169 and Counting… asked if I would post this from their site, and I am more than happy to do so. Please do what you can, and also please stop by Sharon’s site to say hello and to get your daily dose of Irish republican history. It’s important now more than ever.

1169 and Counting…

It began - properly structured and organised - in 1976,as a ‘fundraiser with a difference’ combined with the need to gain extra publicity for a situation which was then - as now - making world headlines. Those who sat down together in early September 1976 to tighten-up the then ‘hit-and-miss’ affair were a dedicated team who fully understood that to fail in their business would not only bring derision on them and the issue they sought to highlight, but would give their enemy a publicity coup which they would exploit to the fullest extent. With that in mind, the team persevered - favours were called-in, guarantees were secured, provisions obtained and word dispatched to like-minded individuals in the near-locale. At the appointed time on the agreed day - 12 Noon, Christmas Day 1976 - a soon-to-be 32-years-young event was ‘born’…

The CABHAIR Christmas Day Swim is, thankfully, still going strong and will be, as mentioned, 32-years-young on December 25th next!

Photographs of last years event can be viewed >>here and, if you can’t make it to the actual swim itself, you might consider posting a donation to the following address (please note that all monies raised go to the republican prisoners themselves and to their families - no expenses or admin fees etc are removed):

CABHAIR
Irish Republican Prisoners Dependants Fund
223 Parnell Street,
Dublin 1,
Ireland

Thank You,
Go Raibh Maith Agat,
Sharon

Belfast Telegraphl
Monday, 17 November 2008

There were signs last night of possible progress in the talks to secure Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government after Sinn Fein revealed its party leadership had met to discuss the issue.

Sinn Fein confirmed its party executive met at the weekend in Dublin to be briefed by leader Gerry Adams on the state of negotiations with the DUP.

The development comes after the DUP executive met on Friday night to discuss the state of talks aimed at ending the stand-off that has blocked cabinet meetings at Stormont since June.

Sources characterised the weekend developments as a sign that progress was being made, but did not say that a deal had been tied down. Sinn Fein’s party executive was briefed on Saturday by Mr Adams and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Sinn Fein’s Assembly members will meet at Stormont this morning to discuss developments.

The two parties, which dominate the Assembly’s Executive and share the office of First and Deputy First Minister, have been divided on a series of issues including unionist resistance to the immediate devolution of policing and justice powers from Westminster. The parties have been engaged in protracted negotiations.

There has been constant speculation over the state of the behind-the-scenes talks between the parties. Critics claimed that the future of the fledgling government, formed a year and a half ago, has been endangered by the division between the two parties.

Republicans have blocked Executive meetings since June, insisting that the DUP was effectively blocking issues of importance to Sinn Fein and its supporters. The DUP countered that republicans were frustrating the work of government to force their priorities up the political agenda.

Sinn Fein is demanding the transfer of justice powers and points to the St Andrews agreement of 2006 which set May of this year as a target date for the move. The DUP has said it is not bound by any timetable and that it will not move on the issue until it believes the unionist community is ready for the development.

In July the parties agreed that neither of them would take the post of Justice Minister if and when the office was established. The move sparked speculation that the Alliance Party may emerge as an agreed third candidate to take the job.

But the parties are also split on issues such as education reform, the introduction of an Irish language act and the development of the Maze prison site. Leading Protestant and Catholic church figures recently proposed a compromise on plans by Sinn Fein education minister Caitriona Ruane to scrap academic selection.

There have been fears that if a deal cannot be secured, it may require the help of the British and Irish governments.

Google News
AFP

BELFAST (AFP) — A convicted member of the Basque separatist group ETA surrendered himself to a court in Northern Ireland on Monday, after an arrest warrant was issued for him last week, an AFP correspondent said.

Juan Ignacio de Juana Chaos, one of the most notorious Basque separatists, arrived with his partner at the Belfast court, although it was not immediately clear if he was arrested.

He walked into the Laganside Courthouse of his own free will, ahead of a legal hearing on the case before judge Tom Burgess, in the presence of a lawyer representing the Spanish government.

While there was some confusion over De Juana Chaos’ exact status, his lawyer Kevin Winters told reporters a short time later that “everything (was) in order” for the hearing, including a translator.

Lawyer Stephen Ritchie, representing the Spanish government, initially said the case could not proceed immediately, although he said De Juana Chaos would be “arrested shortly by agreement.”

A Spanish court last week issued a European arrest warrant for De Juana Chaos, who was freed from a Spanish jail in August after serving around 20 years for the killing of 25 people in 11 attacks.

ETA is blamed for the deaths of 823 people in its 40-year campaign of bombings and shootings to carve a Basque homeland out of northern Spain and southwestern France.

The most deadly attack involving De Juana Chaos took place in July, 1986, when 12 members of the Civil Guard police force were killed in a bomb blast in Madrid.

Scotsman
17 November 2008

THE suspected head of the Basque militant group ETA was arrested in France today.

Anti-terrorism officers caught Mikel de Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina in the town of Cauterets, near the border with Spain, in a dawn raid.

The 35-year-old Spaniard known by the alias “Txeroki” is the reputed head of ETA’s commando units.

He was arrested along with an unidentified Spanish woman, a police official said.

Police seized a handgun, documents and a computer from the hideout.

President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed the arrest as a sign of cooperation between French and Spanish police.

The ETA leader is suspected of having a role in the shooting of two Spanish civil guard officers in December while they were conducting an intelligence operation in the coastal French town of Capbreton.

He has been described as one of the most wanted members of ETA, a violent hard-liner who opposed the cease-fire that ETA declared in March 2006 and the subsequent peace talks it held with the government of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

ETA ended that truce in December 2006 after the negotiations failed, detonating a massive car bomb at Madrid’s Barajas airport and killing two people.

ETA has led a struggle to create an independent homeland straddling northern Spain and south-west France since the late 1960s. The group’s violence has claimed more than 800 lives.

After the arrest of two ETA militants announced last week, the French Interior Ministry said 31 suspected ETA members have been arrested in France this year.

• Meanwhile, a convicted Basque terrorist wanted by the Spanish authorities went to a Belfast court today to surrender himself for extradition.

Flag waving Basque supporters gathered outside the Laganside Courthouse when Inaki de Juana Chaos arrived with his lawyer.

The ETA member is wanted on suspicion of praising or supporting terrorism in a letter that was read out in his name at a rally in Spain. In the text he allegedly called on Basque separatists to continue the armed struggle.

The 53-year-old is believed to have been living in West Belfast since his release from prison in Spain. The Spanish authorities issued a European Arrest Warrant to the Police Service of Northern Ireland last Thursday.

When the extradition hearing was due to begin before Recorder Tom Burgess, lawyer Stephen Ritchie, representing the Spanish Government, said the case could not proceed immediately.

He said Mr Chao “will be arrested shortly by agreement and then the matter can be brought before the court at some stage”.

He said an interpreter had yet to be engaged.

The terrorist was released from prison in 2004 after serving 18 years for his involvement in a bombing campaign in Spain that claimed 25 lives during the 1980s.

He was re-arrested soon afterwards for allegedly making threats and served a further three years behind bars.

Chaos was accompanied by Belfast lawyer Kevin Winters when he arrived at court for the hearing.

Police later confirmed the Spaniard had been formally arrested under the extradition warrant and was being held at Musgrave police station in Belfast.

The warrant alleged he had committed terrorist offences in Spain, said a spokesman.

He is due to appear in court later.

RTÉ
Sunday, 16 November 2008

A man has been arrested as part of the ongoing investigation into the murder of Paul Quinn.

The man, who is in his 30s, was arrested in Co Monaghan earlier this evening.

He is being questioned at Monaghan Garda Station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and can be held for up to 72 hours.
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So far 14 people have been arrested by the Gardaí and PSNI since Mr Quinn’s death in 2007.

The 21-year-old was beaten to death by a gang of up to 10 masked men in October last year.