SAOIRSE32

Belfast Telegraph
19 November 2008

The SDLP today proposed its own legislative proposals to protect the rights of Irish speakers in Northern Ireland.

With DUP and Sinn Fein still to find a way around the impasse over an Irish Language Act, the nationalist party has tabled its own private member’s bill to enshrine the rights of the Gaelic community in Northern Ireland.

Newry and Armagh MLA Dominic Bradley said the bill would give Irish speakers the right to have their language recognised in all public spheres, including the courts, education and employment.

News Letter
19 November 2008

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has been urged to follow America’s lead and seek compensation from Libya for victims of IRA attacks.

The call was made by Labour MP Andrew McKinlay during Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, Ulster victims’ hopes of compensation over terrorist tragedies appeared dashed when Mr Brown indicated in a letter to lawyers representing IRA victims he would be unwilling to seek compensation, despite the US government acting on behalf of American citizens.

In response to Mr McKinlay, the Prime Minister indicated he would “review” the matter.

Semtex originating from Libya is thought to have been used in terrorist attacks in the 1980s and 90s, including the Enniskillen Remembrance bomb.

Mr McKinlay asked Mr Brown: “Will you agree to meet a delegation of MPs including myself who lost constituents due to the use by the IRA of Semtex and other weapons which had its provenance in Libya.

“We are disappointed that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has not yet taken the initiative of following America’s example of negotiating with Colonel Gaddafi adequate compensation, and I believe that members on all sides of the House really would want to press you, along with victims’ families, to address this wrong.”

Mr Brown replied: “This is a very important point. I would be very happy to meet you to talk about it and then we will review what we do.”

BBC

A Belfast man has been jailed for 10 years for having explosives found during police searches in the city.

Liam James Hannaway, 38, pleaded guilty to possession of explosives with intent and possession of ammunition with intent on 17 September, 2004.

Hannaway, of Hillhead Drive, also admitted having a revolver and ammunition in suspicious circumstances.

The explosives, including a coffee jar bomb, were found during planned searches of two properties and a car.

Hannaway lived in one of the houses.

The explosives and the ammunition seized were forensically tested and it was concluded a majority were similar to devices used by dissident republicans.

Hannaway was linked to the explosives by DNA and the court was told that when arrested, the accused made ‘no comment’ replies during police interviews but subsequently admitted his guilt.

He also admitted to a firearms charge after initially claiming he came to be in possession of a Webley revolver after finding it in a car park.

Judge Tom Burgess said dissident republicans “have carried out a campaign of terror” when a “majority of this community” were striving for peace and prosperity.

The judge said the facts of the case indicated Hannaway was “someone involved in more than simply storing and keeping” weapons.

Saying the devices - in particular the coffee jar device - had the potential to cause serious damage, Judge Burgess said potential victims “must be given the highest protection of the court”.

BBC

Senior government officials believed spending more than £1m of public money on a scheme for loyalist areas was too risky, the High Court has heard.

Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie withdrew funding for the Conflict Transformation Initiative because the UDA failed to decommission.

Lawyers for Ms Ritchie said “despicable paramilitary behaviour” by the UDA made a reassessment of funding inevitable.

The project administrators are seeking a judicial review of her decision.

The minister made the move in October 2007, when the UDA failed to meet her 60-day ultimatum to end criminality and begin decommissioning its weapons.

Ms Ritchie’s barrister argued that she was acting under her obligations to serve the public interest, irrespective of any contract.

He said the objective of the scheme, first drawn up by the direct rule administration, was to eliminate or at least reduce paramilitary control in loyalist working class areas.

‘Abhorrent waste’

Despite the potential benefits, it would be an “abhorrent waste of public funds” if the paramilitaries failed to commit to peaceful methods, the barrister told the court.

It met with a mixed reception within government when first proposed by the Ulster Political Research Group which advises the UDA, he said.

“To many in government who had to consider this, including the Permanent Secretary of DSD (Department of Social Development), the risks were identified as far too great and the prospects of success were identified as far too small,” he said.

“There was deep and substantial scepticism about the ability of the paramilitaries to reconstruct themselves, to reform and transform their communities and deliver upon their promises.”

He said then-Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and his direct rule colleague David Hanson were prepared to take a chance and press on with pilot funding before agreeing to a three-year contract, adding that he acknowledged some good work had been achieved.

The barrister then turned to “outrageous” UDA-orchestrated violence in Bangor and Carrickfergus during the summer of 2007 - including shots being fired at police - which led to Ms Ritchie setting her 60-day deadline.

“At the same time as the department was funding a transformation initiative, the focus of which was the reconstruction of the UDA, the UDA was busy demonstrating publicly its criminal grip on local communities in events of blatant violence,” he said.

“One asks the question, how could these activities do other than raise the fundamental question of the viability of the CTI project?”

He added: “That despicable paramilitary behaviour by the UDA cannot be squared with the necessary good faith which would allow a project of this nature to continue.

“It was inevitable therefore that the minister who had inherited the arrangement would have to act and reassess the situation. That is what her duty was and that is what she did.”

The case continues.

BBC

The father of murdered LVF leader Billy Wright has said he has “no confidence” in the lead counsel of the inquiry into the death of his son.

It is investigating Wright’s murder by republicans in the Maze prison in 1997.

Speaking at a news conference, David Wright said a request for Angus Stewart QC to be removed had been rejected by the inquiry panel.

In June, the former lead consul, Derek Batchelor QC, left the inquiry claiming he had been sacked.

The Tribunal chairman, Lord McLean, said Mr Batchelor had resigned.

Speaking on Thursday, David Wright called for an independent investigation into the circumstances of Mr Batchelor’s departure.

“I had considerable unease at how his departure would affect the inquiry but I reserved judgement pending further hearings,” said Mr Wright.

“It is with regret that I must declare that I have no confidence in Mr Stewart QC.”

Mr Wright’s statement continued: “This lack of confidence stemmed from remarks made by him at a meeting with my two barristers and solicitor on 16 September 2008.”

Mr Wright said the counsel’s comments “leads me to feel Mr Stewart is approaching his crucial and sensitive role with a certain mindset.”

Mr Batchelor confirmed in a statement that he had written to David Wright’s solicitor shortly after his departure as senior counsel of the inquiry.

“It would be wholly inappropriate for me to comment to anyone on the detail of my work at the inquiry,” said the statement.

“However, I felt compelled to reassure Mr Wright and his solicitor that I did not resign.

“To this day, I have never received any satisfactory reason why I was removed from the Inquiry.

“Any questions relating to an investigation into my departure should be directed to the Secretary of State.”

A spokesperson for the inquiry said they had “no comment to make at this point” on Mr Wright’s claims.

Breaking News.ie
19/11/2008

A police constable has been accused of running a brothel in the North, it was revealed tonight.

A total of 55 officers face separate disciplinary proceedings, according to a Policing Board document.

Alleged misdemeanours include an indecent assault on a child, possession of child pornography and drugs and violent offences.

They represent a tiny proportion of a force with over 9,000 members.

Sinn Féin Board member Martina Anderson said: “In the past criminality within the police would simply have been covered up. We wouldn’t even have heard about it.”

During the last financial year there were 28 officers repositioned and 27 suspended.

The information emerged at a recent meeting of the Board’s human rights committee.

Ms Anderson said several other long-term disciplinary cases had been resolved.

In April it emerged an officer was suspended on full pay for several years.

The Sinn Féin MLA for Foyle added: “I said then that it was unacceptable for disciplinary cases to drag on for months and years at huge cost to the public purse. I am glad that message now seems to be getting through.”

Many of the cases are still being processed and guilt has not been proven.

The Board said: “There is rightly public interest in this issue and the committee has been keeping a close watch on how cases are being progressed.

“A detailed report on the outcome of investigations is provided in the Board human rights annual report.

“Whilst committee members have been concerned around the nature of some of the investigations, members are agreed that the number of ongoing investigations sends a strong message to officers that anyone who breaks the law will not escape the law.”

A police spokeswoman said the service expects staff to behave professionally at all times. A breach of its code of ethics may prompt a criminal or disciplinary investigation.

She said: “The PSNI, like any other organisation, has a disciplinary process which officers must go through. All disciplinary proceedings in connection with suspected offences committed by officers who have been suspended from duty will be dealt with as expeditiously as possible.

“However the officers must be subject to our disciplinary process and, where applicable, the criminal process.

“Whilst the police service takes extremely seriously any allegation of wrongdoing the number of cases must be put in context of the overall size of the police service, which has over 9,000 full and part-time officers.”

Breaking News.ie
19/11/2008

Confidence in a body established to probe unsolved murders in the North could be eroded by its hand-to-mouth financial existence, victims said tonight.

A £1.5m (€1.79m) deficit at the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) is being addressed by government but relatives of those who died are already unhappy at how long they have to wait for news.

The Victims and Survivors’ Commission said any further disillusion would lay poor foundations for more investigations, with money problems encouraging a brain drain of experienced detectives from the HET to more secure positions.

The team was established to probe more than 3,200 unsolved murders.

A Victims’ Commission spokesman said: “While the news that the £1.5m (€1.79m) shortfall is being addressed is welcome, the Commission isn’t happy that such an important body of work is reliant on such a hand-to-mouth financial existence.”

“The Commission wishes to emphasise its view that financial uncertainty is systematic to the victims and survivors’ sector and has several key negative impacts.”

Last Friday it was revealed that the 180-strong squad of detectives in the HET faced a £1.5m (€1.79m) funding shortfall until its new budget came into effect next April.

It said its work would have to be scaled back significantly after a promise of extra funding was withdrawn – and warned some of the team would have to be dispersed.

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) said at the time that extra funds for the team had to be judged “against the overall challenging financial position”.

But an NIO spokesman later added that the team would have the necessary funds to complete this year’s work.

The Commission said putting a “question mark” over the future of the HET caused unnecessary upset and added to the stress suffered by victims and survivors.

“This in turn places greater pressure on the health service, which effectively means a shortfall in a NIO budget eats into a devolved health budget.”

A common complaint from families about the work of the HET is the amount of time they have to wait, with any further delay in funding worsening that problem.

“The Commission added: ”Lack of public confidence in HET will lay very poor foundations for any future investigative processes, which may emerge from those, including this Commission, who have a duty to draw up recommendations for dealing with the past.

“It is a well-established fact that financial uncertainty is a major contributor to the victims and survivors’ sector losing expertise and capacity, as key personnel feel forced to take up more secure positions elsewhere.

“Continuing financial uncertainty will create the real danger of HET losing experienced investigators and family liaison officers, leaving families to feel yet again let down and frustrated.”

Breaking News.ie
19/11/2008

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has said an agreement to end the travel ban on children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster could be concluded within the week.

Irish charities have been bringing hundreds of children to this country for a holiday every year since the early 1990s.

However, during the summer the Belarus authorities imposed a ban on all such overseas visits.

Minister Micheál Martin said that the Government is working hard to get a resolution to the issue and the text of an agreement is close to being finalised.

Breaking News.ie
19/11/2008

The British government has a responsibility to help the North’s Executive pay bills left over from the period of direct rule, Martin McGuinness said today.

The Deputy First Minister was among a delegation that met Prime Minister Gordon Brown for talks in Downing Street.

Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) yesterday agreed a deal to end their stand-off at Stormont, but First Minister Peter Robinson said today’s meeting focused on economic difficulties they now face.

The parties want financial backing for the creation of a new Department of Justice, but they said today’s discussions centred on financial pressure over civil service back pay, deferring water charges and other strains on the Stormont budget.

Mr McGuinness said: “We have come here today to talk to the British Prime Minister about the serious financial burdens that have been imposed on the people we represent, most as a result of neglect and under-funding in relation to our water and sewage infrastructure and also the whole issue of unequal pay for civil servants.

“All of these things were the responsibility of British direct rule ministers and we look very much forward to our engagement with Gordon Brown today in the aftermath of what I thought was an encouraging meeting that Peter Robinson and I participated in (with Mr Brown) last week.”

After the meeting the First Minister Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister Mr McGuinness said the talks had been positive, but declined to comment until they had reported back to their Executive colleagues.

Prior to the discussions with the Prime Minister, Mr Robinson said: “Let’s be clear what it is we are here for today, this is not about funding for policing and justice, that is a process that we will carry through a series of meetings we are setting up.

“Today’s meeting is in relation to the general hardship issues… it is essential for us as an Executive if we are looking at the wider issues of financial hardship that we know exactly where we stand on a whole range of issues.

“And clarification is needed from the Prime Minister today.”

The agreement unveiled yesterday by the DUP and Sinn Féin ends a stand-off over the devolution of policing and justice powers from Westminster that has blocked meetings of the Assembly Executive since June.

A deadline for devolution has not been agreed but it is estimated that the process both parties have signed-up to will see the powers transferred in less than a year.

News Letter
19 November 2008

UNIONISTS have clashed over the details of the agreement between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

The Traditional Unionist Voice leader said: “So, far from being over, the days of drip, drip concessions to Sinn Fein are back.

“Presented with the choice of facing down Sinn Fein and its bully-boy tactics, or taking the opportunity to get rid of mandatory coalition, the DUP, for the sake of office, has chosen David Trimble’s well-trod path of a new tranche of concessions to IRA/Sinn Fein.

“It was Sinn Fein that had the shopping list and it is Sinn Fein’s boxes which are being ticked today.”

He accused the DUP leadership of fudging the deal.

He said: “Weren’t we told at St Andrews all issues were settled to unionist satisfaction, and if they weren’t, then we had an insurmountable veto?

“Such was the spirit of bravado that Peter Robinson competed with Nigel Dodds to say how many political lifetimes would pass before policing and justice would be devolved.

“Now, we’re talking months, not eons, and the guarantee of no Sinn Fein minister runs out in 2012.”

He added: “We can be certain that this is not a standalone deal on policing and justice. I have little doubt that it encompasses the Irish language, the Maze shrine and education.

“The detail will eventually emerge, but in consequence of today we will have more of the Irish language foisted on us.

“The distinction between a formal Irish Language Act and the progressive delivery of an Irish Language Strategy will be more in form than substance.”

Ulster Unionist MLA David McNarry said: “My understanding is that Sinn Fein will, once policing and justice is secured, insist upon the Irish language being an equal language to English and spoken by all PSNI officers, used for cautions, arrests, charging procedures and all processes leading to and including court appearances.

“Sinn Fein will deny this, plead ignorance and try to make policing and justice and an Irish Language Act each separate issues.

“They are and should be treated, quite correctly, as separate issues but that is not the sinisterism behind republican thinking.

“With policing and justice in the bag Sinn Fein will move to link it to the full utilization of Irish language usage as a rights issue in the administration of law and order – this cannot be allowed to go by default.”

A DUP spokesman said: “The DUP has been very clear that it will not support the introduction of a costly Irish Language Act. Those who suggest that the DUP would support such legislation are simply scaremongering and making mischief.

“The party has consistently said that there must be parity in cultural funding and through devolution we have been restoring equality in that regard.”

And North Belfast DUP MLA Nelson McCausland hailed the announcement regarding the devolution of justice powers as a good deal for unionism.

He said that that all sensible unionists will welcome the announcement.

Belfast Telegraph
Thursday, 20 November 2008

Sinn Fein has been targeted by pipe bombers in Co Tyrone.

Offices in Cookstown and Cllr John McNamee were the intended victims, the party claimed.

One device near Sinn Fein offices in Burn Road appeared to have exploded and a second was discovered in Mr McNamee’s neighbour’s garden in nearby Arthur Street over the weekend.

Assembly member Michelle O’Neill said: “Everyone in this community should be able to go about their daily business free from the fear of attack or intimidation.

“John is well-respected across this town and I know that this will not stop him representing the people of Cookstown.”

Police said the Burn Road in Cookstown was closed to traffic on Sunday following the discovery of a suspicious object. A number of residents were moved from their homes.

The alert ended at approximately 4.30pm. A viable device was recovered and removed for further examination.

International Herald tribune
19 Nov 2008

MADRID, Spain: A young gunman arrested this week turns out to be the head of the Basque separatist group ETA, the first member of an uncompromising and ultra-violent new generation to lead the organisation, Spanish officials said Wednesday.

Police said they were preparing for retaliation from ETA over the arrest of 35-year-old Mikel de Garikoitz Aspiazu, whose alias is Txeroki, or Cherokee in Basque.

Spanish authorities previously said Aspiazu was in charge of ETA’s commando units, which carry out attacks. But Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said in an interview with Cadena Ser radio that Aspiazu was actually ETA’s top leader, in charge of overall strategy. He did not say how or when authorities had discovered that he held that role.

Spanish officials have described Aspiazu as the most-wanted member of ETA and a potent symbol of a new generation of ETA members: young and extremely violent, disinclined to peace negotiations and with little to no ideological grounding — unlike founders and older members of a group that ostensibly espouses Marxism.

ETA has killed more than 800 people since the late 1960s in its battle to create an independent homeland in northern Spain and southwest France for Basques, a people with their own language and culture. The most radical Basque separatists say they suffer repression at the hands of the Spanish government

ETA declared what it called a permanent cease-fire in March 2006 and began peace talks with the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. But the negotiations went nowhere and ETA detonated a car bomb at Madrid’s Barajas airport in December 2006, killing two people.

Aspiazu is believed to have been opposed to the truce from the outset, and he is described as having given the order to end it with the airport bombing.

Police arrested Aspiazu on Monday in the French town of Cauterets, near the border with Spain, along with Leire Lopez, a woman who is also a suspected ETA member. They were asleep in an apartment when Spanish and French police burst in. The pair were found in possession of two pistols and 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of hash.

He has been transferred to Paris where he is being held in police custody. French authorities have not said if he has been appointed a defense lawyer.

The Interior Ministry mug shot of Aspiazu shows a grim-faced man with stubble, an earring and close-cut hair, except for curly strands in the back. It is not clear when the photo was taken but it is probably several years old.

He rose to the top position after the arrest of Francisco Javier Lopez Pena, then believed to be ETA’s boss, in May near Bordeaux, France, Perez Rubalcaba said.

“Txeroki ended up in charge of everything — the political apparatus, the so-called military apparatus. The one who ordered killings was Txeroki,” he said.

Spanish and French officials say Aspiazu is a top suspect in the shooting of two Spanish civil guards in December in the French resort town of Capbreton.

Spanish security forces are on maximum alert because ETA will probably try to attack and show it is not in disarray, the minister said.

“We have to be prepared. One of these days ETA will try to show it is not weak, that even though Txeroki has been arrested, it can still act,” Perez Rubalcaba said.

Perez Rubalcaba described Aspiazu as “a legend within the group.”

His arrest is clearly a major coup but not a definitive one because ETA leaders have fallen before, only to see the group just designate another, the minister said. Spanish officials often describe ETA as a hydra.

The minister said it is not clear if ETA has already named a new one but Spanish intelligence is already on the lookout.

“Unfortunately, you finish one operation and the next day you have to start the operation all over again,” Perez Rubalcaba said.

By Mark Devenport
BBC
19 Nov 2008

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward called it “historic”, while Taoiseach Brian Cowen described it as “the final piece of the jigsaw”.

But although it points the way to the completion of devolution, the latest agreement between the DUP and Sinn Féin still leaves a number of questions unanswered.

One informed source told me the transfer of powers would take months, not years
The biggest question is when a new Northern Ireland justice minister will be appointed.

For nearly five months, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin refused to allow executive meetings to take place.

His complaint was the DUP’s alleged failure to implement the St Andrews Agreement of 2006.

His demand was that they should set a definite date for the devolution of policing and justice powers.

The DUP insisted that it was not them but the government which had set at St Andrews the date of May 2008 for devolving justice.

DUP leader Peter Robinson contended that his party had not signed up for any timetable.

The latest agreement contains a “process paper”, setting out six groups of actions which will have to be completed before the transfer of justice powers can take place.

There is no timeline spelled out in black and white.

However, one informed source told me the transfer of powers would take months, not years.

Real process

The identification of a future attorney general, barrister John Larkin, serves to emphasise that this is a real process, not just an exercise in procrastination.

The method of appointing a justice minister which the DUP and Sinn Féin have settled on is a cross-community vote in the assembly, with a majority both of unionists and of nationalists required to back a successful candidate.

This is the same system which they deemed acceptable back in the summer.

However, in the intervening period the parties had haggled over whether the cross-community election would be permanent or temporary.

The DUP wanted the cross-community support to be required “at all times”.

Having signed a letter containing this phrase, Sinn Féin baulked at the notion, insisting it should only apply for the first justice appointment.

The solution to this row has been the inclusion of what is known as a “sunset clause” ensuring that the system must be reviewed by May 2012.

All the existing ministries are handed out one-by-one according to the D’Hondt mathematical formula which is related to the parties’ strength in the assembly.

For the DUP it was important that the sensitive justice job was not put into this mix in order to ensure that the portfolio could not go to a republican with an IRA background, like the current junior minister Gerry Kelly.

The cross-community vote has put the middle of the road Alliance in the frame.

Looming elections

But Mr McGuinness says he is not ruling out the SDLP and, theoretically at least, the UUP could also put up a candidate.

Given that the DUP and Sinn Féin have the votes to determine who the minister will be, the eventual choice will no doubt be subject to some careful political calculations.

As the legislation setting up the new justice department moves through Stormont and Westminster, next year’s European elections will loom closer.

Voters will now be impatient to see some evidence that devolution can work

This is significant because the DUP’s arch critic, Jim Allister, will be defending his seat against his former colleagues.

Much of the DUP’s sensitivity over the transfer of powers has been related to the MEP’s focus on the potential for a republican say in justice matters.

The DUP has written into the agreed process for transferring policing and justice the need for confidence-building.

They will want to establish in the unionist mind that the new minister will not be a republican.

They will also have to decide whether to push ahead with the transfer before the June European election or wait until later in the year.

Whilst most people can be forgiven for not being especially interested in the details of how and when a justice minister will be appointed, some of the issues which have been delayed during the past five months will need no explanation.

Decisions on fuel poverty and rural planning are not within the scope of the latest agreement.

But with the Northern Ireland Executive now pledged to hold weekly meetings until its backlog has been cleared, voters will now be impatient to see some evidence that devolution can work.

Irish News
**Via Newshound
18/11/2008

The trial of murdered Ballymena schoolboy Michael McIlveen heard yesterday that he and two friends were initially picked on because they were “Catholics – no other reason”.

However, Liam Phillips, who was chased with 15-year-old Michael denied that they

had “provoked” the attackers by calling them “Orange bastards”.

Mr Phillips was giving evidence at the Antrim Crown Court trial of the six remaining Ballymena youths facing charges arising out of the killing of the teenager, who died from head injuries in hospital on May 8 2006, the day after he was allegedly bludgeoned with a baseball bat and punched and kicked over 60 times.

During a videoed interview played to the court yesterday, the now 19-year-old claimed the 30 to 40 Protestant youths they met that night with another friend knew Michael and their friend were Catholics, and, “they certainly know I’m a Catholic”.

Mr Phillips said that sometime after the attack he later “rang a mate’s phone” who told him he’d tried to get the schoolboy to go to hospital, but “Michael didn’t want to, he said he’d just sleep it off”.

Denying murder are a 17-year-old who can’t be named for legal reasons, 19-year-old Jeff Colin Lewis of Rossdale, Christopher Francis Kerr (22) of Carnduff Drive, Aaron Cavana Wallace (20) Moat Road and Christopher Andrew McLeister (18) of Knock Crescent, all Ballymena.

Another 20-year-old, Mervyn Wilson Moon of Douglas Terrace in the Co Antrim town, has already pleaded guilty to the murder and is awaiting sentence.

Mr Phillips claimed that he, Michael and a friend had gone that night to the area of Ballymena’s cinema to look for friends among a group of up to 40 Protestant youths after being “invited” earlier that day.

However, a drunken Lewis allegedly offered to fight all three of them, allegedly having picked on them “cause we’re Catholics and he thought we’re down here to start trouble”.

He said that normally they would not be subjected to sectarian abuse and agreed with interviewing police that sectarian name calling “was totally unusual”.

At the same time he told the court his father called him on his mobile phone telling him to come home. He claimed that as he went to walk away, “Lewis and a few others started calling after me, calling me a Fenian and calling me a yellow belly and that”.

Mr Phillips claimed he decided to stay when “a few of them were actually being dead on” and some even said, “nobody’s going to touch you”.

However, he said that his friend overheard a plot to give them “a kicking” and “whispered to me to get Michael McIlveen and go”.

Mr Phillips said they were chased and after reaching an alleyway the fighting started.

While under cross-examination from Brian McCartney QC, for Wallace, Mr Phillips admitted that while he had heard friends “using the expression Orange bastards”, he denied saying it that night.

The trial continues

By Maeve Connolly
Irish News
**Via Newshound
18/11/2008

A NORTH Belfast community worker – and District Policing Partnership member – whose home has come under attack for the second time in six weeks has hit out at those responsible for the “cowardly attack”.

Almost every downstairs window in Gerry O’Reilly’s New Lodge house was broken in an overnight attack.

The family were woken by the sound of breaking glass at their Spamount Street home at around 4.15am yesterday and one person was seen running away.

Fourteen panes of glass and the windscreen of the family car were smashed with what Mr O’Reilly believes was a hammer.

Mr O’Reilly said that as a community worker he aimed to improve the quality of life for all those living in the interface area and this included working with the police.

The father-of-three said a recent survey in the area showed there was widespread support for community groups working with the police.

“I don’t know what has triggered this,” he said.

“I’m disappointed that individuals feel they have no other way of expressing themselves than a cowardly attack in the dark of night.

“The people are thugs and have to be seen as such and we will not be intimidated by such a negative approach.

“This was not a courageous step to rectify anything.

“I would appeal to those people that if they have points of disagreement all they need to do is come forward and discuss it with us.

“We will certainly sit down and listen because we are here for the good of the community.”

Yesterday’s attack was the second on the home where the O’Reilly family have lived for 10 years.

Two windows in the living room were smashed six weeks ago.

Mr O’Reilly said that it had been a terrifying time for his family.

“There’s a resolve within this community that such activities as these need to stop,” he said.

“I would make an appeal to the parents and relatives of people involved in these activities to do all in their power to convince them that this needs to stop.”

Mr O’Reilly said a recent survey had shown that “people in the area are supportive of working with the police but they want to see a dramatic improvement in the performance of police too”.

North Belfast Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly condemned the attack.

Junior minister Mr Kelly described Mr O’Reilly as “a highly respected community worker who works on an inter-community basis and works closely with local youths across the community”.

Those responsible were “a very small group who have been torturing the local community,” Mr Kelly said.

By Henry McDonald
Guardianl
Wednesday, 19 November 2008

There were many actors in the tragedy played out in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1994.

Each of them contributed to the carnage that pushed this society right to the edge of civil war.

They included the pre ’69 unionist establishment which resisted civil right reforms until it was too late. There was the rising evangelical wing of unionism led by Ian Paisley that, falsely, portrayed the civil rights struggle as an existential threat to the Northern Ireland state.

And there was British security policy that in the early part of the Troubles drove thousands of young men (and some women too) into the ranks of the emerging Provisional IRA. The Falls Curfew, Internment, Bloody Sunday, the torture of the ‘hooded men’, the intransigence of the Thatcher government during the hunger strikes all contributed to the maelstrom the north of Ireland endured for three and a half decades. All bear some responsibility for the wasted lives and the spent opportunities for peace and progress. Then there was the Provisional movement itself emerging not only from the burnt out streets of the Falls and the Bogside but also from a plot to split republicanism and launch back into the ‘unfinished business’ of re-claiming the Fourth Green Field. This would be done through a reckless and ruthless campaign of economic vandalism (the car bombs destroying Belfast and Derry’s commercial centres for example) and targeted killings of the security forces.

Contrary to current orthodoxy the Provisionals were not just fired with a thirst for revenge against the loyalist assaults of late summer in 1969.

For the older men, many of them southern based, who tapped into this raw anger this was their heaven sent chance to achieve Irish unity by force of arms and finally realise the goals of physical force republicanism.

The purpose of my latest book, Gunsmoke and Mirrors, was and is to challenge recent attempts to re-write the history of the Troubles, to re-cast the ‘armed struggle’ as somehow the logical extension of the civil rights movement, to create a new myth, namely that the campaign of sabotage and assassination would somehow lead to Catholic equality within the Northern Ireland state. Nor should this political and social turmoil be seen as the inevitable consequence of the atmosphere of those times, as inexorable as air turbulence in bad weather. Those that launched and directed the ‘war’ were free agents who had alternative peaceful paths to choose, which they ignored and ridiculed.

The idea that thousands would have to die and thousands more go to jail or themselves lose their lives so we could have an Irish Language Act or the control of policing and justice powers WITHIN the Northern Ireland state is a gross, deliberate distortion of history.

The book highlights the ideological gear changes Sinn Fein went through to reach the current political accommodation with unionism. These major shifts in ideology have gone relatively unnoticed or reported in the mainstream Irish media, most notably in broadcasting. This is because in these times of dull, managerial politics, where elections are akin to consumers choosing which of two or three banks they should lodge their money with, the importance of ideology is lost upon those in the 24/7 media.

Of all the ideological flip flops the republican movement has undergone the most important is its attitude to unionism. For almost three decades the Provisionals dismissed unionism as a real political entity preferring to portray it (using an old Marxist phrase) as ‘false consciousness.’ During this period the ‘British presence’ was portrayed simply as the British soldiers from across the Irish Sea who patrolled the streets and the mandarins at Stormont who directed UK policy. Since the signing of the Belfast Agreement 10 years ago that analysis has altered radically — by signing up to an accord which enshrined the principle of consent, that is that there would be no constitutional change in Northern Ireland without a majority within that state saying so.

Therefore, those old republican mantras about breaking unionist vetoes, refusing to accept the legitimacy of what they regarded as an artificial state, the begrudging recognition that the ‘British presence’ is those that see themselves as British; all this adds up to a 360 degree turn in mainstream republican ideology.

In essence the Good Friday agreement and latterly the St Andrews Agreement represent the victory for constitutional politics over revolutionary armed action. The outcome of the Troubles thus resembles a modern day political version of Aesop’s fable of the Tortoise and the Hare.

For in the end, if ever there is to be Irish unity, it will be achieved through a slow, drawn out long term process of social and economic fusion rather than through an instant revolution imposed through the barrel of the gun and the far leftist simplicity of the ‘Troops Out’ solution advocated by the likes of Tony Benn and Ken Livingstone. The two accords mark the victory of the Tortoise and the defeat of the Hare.

Gunsmoke and Mirrors: how Sinn Fein dressed up defeat as victory, by Henry McDonald, Gill and Macmillan, £16.99

BBC
19 Nov 2008

Margaret Ritchie acted unlawfully when she withdrew more than £1m of funding from a three-year project in loyalist areas, the High Court has heard.

The social development minister said she made the decision because the UDA failed to decommission its weapons.

But a barrister for the Conflict Transformation Initiative on Wednesday claimed the project had nothing to do with the UDA.

John Larkin QC accused the SDLP minister of “acting unlawfully”.

He said the UDA’s behaviour - and the requirement for it to decommission - were not stipulated as conditions for funding in the project’s contract.

Mr Larkin said dealing with decommissioning was beyond Margaret Ritchie’s pay grade - and she was not legally competent to deal with it.

The barrister also claimed that Ms Ritchie had acted in contravention of Stormont’s ministerial code, which states that significant and controversial issues should be dealt with by the executive, and not individual ministers.

Ms Ritchie’s legal team will respond to the claims on Thursday.

BBC
19 Nov 2008

Police have recovered a “viable device” following a security alert in west Belfast on Wednesday.

An area of the Springfield Road near New Barnsley Police Station was searched following a telephoned warning at about 2300 GMT on Tuesday.

Chief Superintendent Gary White said it was intended to harm his officers.

He said: “It is appalling that in this time of progress, these attempts are still being made on officers who are out there trying to make a difference.”

SDLP West Belfast assembly member Alex Attwood said the device represented “an escalation of the current threat level”.

“The Catholic Church made a very public and loud appeal on Monday through the media that the dissident threat required a full response from the community and they were right,” he said.

“This incident confirms it - people must respond and help police.”

The road was closed for a time but has since reopened.

Police have appealed for information.