SAOIRSE32

By David Hambling
wired.com
December 11, 2008

Andy R. Oppenheimer is the author of IRA: The Bombs And The Bullets, which tells the story of how the Irish Republican Army became the most skilled insurgent group in the world – and masters of the improvised explosive. He is also consulting editor of NBC (Nuclear, Chemical, Biological) International magazine and an acknowledged expert on explosives and counterterrorism. Here he talks exclusively to Danger Room about the parallels between the IRA and modern terrorism, the fight against jury-rigged weapons in Afghanistan, and how to ultimately beat even the craftiest bomb-maker.

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DANGER ROOM: The IRA had quite a sophisticated arsenal. In contrast, the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) we’ve seen in these al-Qaeda-affiliate attacks in Britain have been rather crude. Is that because they lack the sort of hands-on training that IRA volunteers had?

ANDY OPPENHEIMER: The current lot do seem to be a bunch of amateurs. It’s true that, in theory, you can get all this stuff on making bombs from the Internet. But it still takes a lot of practice to get it right. It took the IRA several years and suffered a lot of “own goals” [where bomb-makers were killed by their own bombs] before they became proficient in using explosives. They were in the IRA for life and learned their skills over many years. They had a proper training program where each engineer passed on their knowledge to others in a classroom, within families, and within the republican community, as well as from previous campaigns and Irish and British military sources of expertise.

But [the current crop’s] expertise could grow – it’s early days. A lot of pre-empted cases are awaiting trial in the UK, and some are never publicized.

DR: Does this mean that insurgent bomb-makers in Afghanistan are likely to get more proficient and more dangerous over time?Ira2

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AO: It’s a very different situation in Afghanistan, It’s an all-out war where the occupying forces can go into villages and kill people and bomb them from the air. In Ireland, the ATOs [Ammunition Technical Officers – the bomb squad] knew who the bomb-makers were and would see them on the street. [They] couldn’t just shoot them. [Although during the 1980s “Dirty War” this did happen: as in the Gibraltar incident made famous by the TV documentary “Death on the Rock.”]

Afghan bomb-makers are being kept on the run; they have to improvise more. Although they have access to mortar bombs and artillery shells. They do not have the logistics that the IRA had, when they could call on supporters in the U.S. for supplies of things like high-tech electronics. Other countries, most notably Libya, [supplied] top-of-the-range Semtex high explosive, and a variety of other weapons.

But from what you hear, in Afghanistan they are getting better at using timers and remote detonation. And they are getting much better at concealment, which is straight out of the IRA’s book.

DR: The IRA turned away from mass casualty attacks and instead aimed to cause maximum economic damage, like the Bishopsgate, Baltic Exchange, and Canary Wharf attacks. Why was this, and are terror groups like al-Qaeda likely to make the same shift?

AO: The IRA never really wanted to do mass casualty attacks. Their approach was more to target troops, police, and anyone who directly collaborated with them, like the builders working on police stations. There was a huge backlash after Bloody Friday [July 21, 1972] when they planted twenty-two bombs in one day causing civilian casualties. [It] nearly caused meltdown within the IRA.

After that, the aim was more to frighten the Brits as much as possible – “one bomb in London is worth 20 in Belfast” — and show what they were capable of. [The idea was] bringing them to the negotiating table.

Al-Qaeda is a franchise, they don’t have a central command and an organization, like the IRA. Rather. [they have] a disparate ‘network’ of self-starters and opportunistic fanatics, with some kind of remote direction by those with bomb-making skills. Many are trained up in the camps in Afghanistan/Pakistan. It may appear from some of the botched attempts in the UK that and they don’t seem to have a coherent strategy at the moment. But this may change.

DR: The IRA made relatively little use of anti-armor weapons. In Iraq, IEDs based on explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) have been the insurgents’ deadliest weapons against U.S. forces. Why the difference?

AO: The IRA did develop several anti-armor weapons, but they hardly ever used them. This was partly because they were always planning for a very long war, and had a tendency to hoard rather than use up precious weapons. But it was also because the propaganda value of these things was what mattered. Simply being able to show a video of an IRA volunteer using a new weapon was enough to boost morale of their own rank and file — and impress the British media.

The deterrent value of having these weapons was important; the British knew that the IRA could have stepped up their campaign — and that added to the feeling that they needed to bring the campaign to an end.

DR: What sort of advanced weapons were the IRA working on at the end?

AO: Their ‘city destroyers’ [giant truck-borne IEDs with up to 3,500 pounds of explosive used to target city centers] could have got even bigger. Each one took a lot of planning and organization, and a supply chain stretching back to South Armagh. But they showed they could do it. Their doctrine was very much against mass casualties, so they were not interested in NBC [nuclear, biological or chemical] weapons, even though they might have been capable of making them.

But they were very interested in showing what they could develop, as with the Fuel-Air Explosive device that they were working on. That would have been a “weapon of mass effect” if not a ‘weapon of mass destruction.”

DR: A congressional panel recently found that Joint IED Defeat Organization were “falling behind” on bombings in Afghanistan, in spite of billions of dollars being spent on technological countermeasures. Do you think JIEDDO are on the right track?

AO: No. In Northern Ireland, the ATOs had the most basic equipment, but what made them successful was that they used their wits and ability – and, in the days before bomb-disposal robots, and throughout the campaign, their extreme bravery. They trained on how to assemble bombs and they knew how they worked and how to take them apart.

A purely technical approach does not work; it’s very important to get into the psychology of the bomb-maker. You also need to do a lot of forensics to understand how the particular bombs work to counter them. Forensics after an interdicted IED or after an explosion would often reveal the bomber’s “signature” characteristics, and also the origin of the explosives, timers, detonators and so on. This is one reason why the IRA bombed the Northern Ireland Forensics Lab several times, culminating in its final destruction in September 1992.

The problem is that the threat is constantly changing, and the IRA showed how terrorists will keep coming up with new, left-field approaches – like attacking Heathrow Airport with unmanned mortars, or switching from small bombs to city-destroyers. You never know what to expect; other terror groups might get into chemical weapons, for example. The Mumbai attacks also illustrated only too brutally how simplistic the weapons can be, albeit with sophisticated training and operational planning.

DR: What about the MRAP, the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle program which has spent billions on “bomb-proof” trucks?

AO: MRAP is a brilliant idea, simply because it makes it that much harder for the bomb-maker to blow you up.

DR: What does the IRA experience tell us about the IED arms race – will the initiative always be with the bomber?

AO: Terrorists will always be able to run rings around regular armies because soldiers are trained in certain ways and are much more linear. Their responses are much more predictable, but terrorists training will change from week to week or day to day, and is far less rigid. Terrorist personnel are also always changing: operatives get shot, arrested, jailed, or have to on the run and so on. That may sound like a weakness, but it makes for supreme flexibility which modern conventional organizations lack. The IRA were adaptable to the nth degree in this respect.

DR: Will there ever be a ’solution’ to the IED problem?

AO: The solution has to be one of intelligence and surveillance. You have to get to know the enemy in order to pre-empt him.

The IRA was undermined substantially by informers and jarking [interfering with weapons caches] and ultimately by agents such as “Stakeknife” within their ranks. When you find an agent like that in your organization, you can execute them. But you do not know how much of your operation has been compromised.

Once security forces get to know the enemy and have that sort of intelligence they can start to pre-empt them before they act. That’s the way to stop IEDs.

But infiltration in the other direction by terrorists is very powerful. The IRA were very successful with planting infiltrators, and had a very effective set of rules to prevent them from being discovered – they could not go to pubs or clubs or associate with certain people. The current Islamicist terrorists make themselves very conspicuous, often they change the way they dress, grow a beard and start talking about Islam. The IRA did not give themselves away like that.

MI5 are now very concerned about how effectively terrorists could infiltrate the police, security services and other institutions - the terrorists in the Glasgow attack were respectable doctors on the payroll of the National Health Service. Michael Collins invented intelligence-led terrorism with the IRA, if other groups develop that they will be really dangerous.

So winning is a question of intelligence on both sides. And of getting to the root of the terrorist mentality, the specific aims and doctrines of the various groups, and – as eventually happened in the case of Northern Ireland – negotiation, no matter how painful and difficult.

[Photo: The Guardian]

By Simon Doyle Education Correspondent
Irish News
12/12/08

Security experts in London believe PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde is almost certain to be the next Metropolitan Police commissioner.

It is understood Sir Hugh has let it be known that he thinks he will be unsuccessful in his application but security insiders and the bookies disagree.

His likely departure has also led to speculation about his possible successor in Northern Ireland.

Sir Hugh joined the police in 1977 and rose to PSNI chief constable in September 2002.

He was involved in the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence and played a major role in an investigation into state collusion allegations following several sectarian murders in Northern Ireland.

His time in the north is said to have fast-tracked him to the top of the Met’s candidate list.

Experts say he was groomed to follow former Met chief John Stevens and his time away during the turbulence of the Sir Ian Blair years has helped strengthen his position.

In the advertisements for the Met commissioner’s post it was stressed that the successful candidate will “demonstrate an outstanding track record in countering terrorism, serious and organised crime and serious violent crime”.

This, experts say, is very much Sir Hugh’s territory.

They add however, that there appears to be no high profile officers within the PSNI ranks that would meet the criteria required to succeed Sir Hugh.

Two of the north’s most senior officers – Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton and Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland – are both expected to leave the service under the Patton scheme.

Former assistant chief constable Peter Sheridan also left under Patton and took up the post as chief executive of Cooperation Ireland, a cross-border charity set up to strengthen community relations.

It has been suggested that the other assistant chief constables, who include Judith Gillespie and Drew Harris, would not have the necessary experience to take the PSNI’s top job.

Policing Board member Jimmy Spratt, who was also a former chairman of the Police Federation, said the chief constable was one of the strongest applicants for the Met post.

“We are talking about a hypothetical situation but I think that the chief constable Hugh Orde is in with a good chance of the Met job. He meets all the criteria given his role in counter-terrorism and with change in the service,” Mr Spratt said.

“I think he will be a hard act to follow and there are going to be some challenging times ahead with the possibility of devolution of policing and justice.”

Irish News
12/12/08

TWO brothers were sent for trial yesterday on charges of murdering an alleged UDA leader during a bloody loyalist paramilitary feud eight years ago. Social worker David Stewart (38) and Robert Stewart (34) are accused of shooting Tommy English in front of his wife. The pair, both from Newtownabbey on the outskirts of Belfast, also face charges of being members of the outlawed UVF for more than a decade. Relatives of the murder victim were in Belfast Magistrates Court yesterday as prosecutors were granted an application to have them returned to the Crown Court at a later date. Both David Stewart, of Ballyearl Crescent, and his brother Robert, from Carntall Rise, were remanded in custody until their trial. Their case was the first to be brought to court by the Historical Enquiries Team, a specialist unit set up to investigate unsolved murders from the Troubles. English (40) was gunned down at his home on the Ballyduff Estate, on Halloween night in 2000.

Irish News
13/12/08

Families whose loved ones have been killed as a result of state violence are being urged to attend a meeting with Lord Eames, pictured below, in west Belfast on Monday.

The peer, who is jointly chairing a commission on how society should deal with the legacy of the Troubles, is to address a conference organised by the victims’ group Relatives for Justice at the Falls Road Library at 1pm on Monday.

“We have made a number of key submissions on our firm belief that what is needed is a totally independent, international truth commission into the legacy of the past,” Relatives for Justice chairwoman Clara Reilly said.

“We have provided very detailed proposals on what can be achieved and although Dr Eames will not be able to discuss what may be in their final report, it is a chance for him to talk about the process and his journey through that process.

“We feel it is very important for Dr Eames to hear from families at first hand what they want from his report.”

Anyone wishing to attend the event is asked to email Aine Burns at adminrfj@relativesforjustice.com or call 028 9022 0100.

By Maeve Connolly
Irish News
13/12/08

A 20-year-old man who is standing trial for the murder of Michael McIlveen has denied that he and a co-defendant “concocted a story” about their “minor roles” in the fatal assault of the Ballymena youth.

Aaron Cavana Wallace of Moat Road in the Co Antrim town is one of five young men accused of murder.

For the third day yesterday the jury at Antrim Crown Court listened as transcripts of his police interviews were read aloud.

In them Mr Wallace repeatedly tells officers that “I’m not making up a story” and “we hadn’t prepared a story at all” when asked whether he and co-defendant Christopher Francis Kerr (22) had discussed what they were going to tell police when they handed themselves in on the night after the attack.

The police interviews in which Mr Kerr admits having agreed a story with Mr Wallace have already been read to the jury.

Yesterday the court heard Mr Wallace describe how he had spent most of the day after the assault on 15-year-old Michael in the company of Mr Kerr and a juvenile who cannot be identified because of his age and who is also on trial for murder.

Mr Wallace said that as they sat in a bar close to the town centre on Sunday May 7 2006 he heard Mr Kerr ask the juvenile and another teenager who does not face charges to go to his Carnduff Drive home where they would find the baseball bat used in the attack in his bedroom and that they were to get rid of it.

Mervyn Wilson Moon (20) of Douglas Terrace has already pleaded guilty to murder and several witnesses have described how he struck Michael with the bat.

The teenager died of head injuries in hospital on May 8 2006.

Mr Wallace also said he was with Mr Kerr when his co-accused threw the bat into a garden as they walked away from the scene of the attack in an alley behind Granville Drive in Ballymena.

When told by police that Mr Kerr had insisted he had gone to Mr Wallace’s Moat Road home the next day and changed the hooded top he had been wearing on the evening of the attack, Mr Wallace said his co-accused had not done so.

The others on trial for Michael’s murder are Chris-topher Andrew McLeister (18) from Knockeen Crescent and 19-year-old Jeff Colin Lewis of Rossdale, both in Ballymena.

A sixth person, Paul Edward David Henson (18) from Condiere Avenue, is charged with affray and criminal damage. All those on trial deny the charges.

The trial continues.

By James Kelly
Irish News
13/12/08

Was it all a dream? Remember the big picture? The news that would transform the future in dull old Norn Iron. A super sports stadium in the nearby city of Lisburn, attracting thousands of fans from near and far, a unique tourist draw with its all weather glass roof.

This was the big picture from Stormont in the early days of the popular and far flung world interest in the peace process in Ireland, a model for ending wars in a troubled world. Surprisingly the big idea was welcomed enthusiastically by all the top sports bodies of rugby, soccer and GAA. Other sports joined in as the idea spread that this was the way – through sport – to hasten the end of the outdated sectarian bigotry associated with the remaining local ghettos.

I am told American volunteers assisted local enthusiasts to spread even basketball rivalry in our universities and schools, playing their part in friendly rivalry throughout the north and across the border.

This was seen as all to the good here among the ordinary public but unfortunately not so among the warring politicians in the big house at Stormont. (Is there a gulf opening up between the punters and the hostile political trouble makers up on the hill?)

We know about the resumed fiddling over old outstanding issues, such as policing and justice but the delay over the stadium issue sounded puerile.

We thought all that guff about some sort of a high sounding ‘Conflict Transformation Centre’ nearby would be sorted out.

That was until the DUP secretly dropped founder member Ian Paisley and appointed the Derry hardliner Gregory Campbell in charge of the sports ministry, (Ouch! Ouch!) his sports CV would be interesting. He may have played tiddly-winks but did he ever kick a ball? Horses for courses? Hardly.

Anyway the point of all this is the question – have the head lads in the DUP and Sinn Fein decided to wriggle out of whatever dilemma they faced internally over the stadium decision by pretending to rule it out for another four years?

In what looks like an official leak the Belfast Telegraph heads its Wednesday front page exclusive across three columns – ‘End of the line for the Maze Stadium. Project looks doomed as Windsor gets upgrade’.

The upshot of all the double talk apparently is that the old worn out dilapidated Windsor Park, the Belfast loyalist bigots’ football replica of the Jews’ wailing wall, will receive a new 4,000 seat grandstand to replace the old uncomfortable one – and Sinn Fein will get it’s hunger strikers’ memorial at the Maze!

“That’s the deal.” The stadium?

“Oh yes”, they snigger.

“Come back in four years and we’ll talk about it, if we are still here!”

So ask yourself how long will it take the confused population of Northern Ireland to wake up and realise that they are being taken for a ride once again as the brass band rings out with the old refrain: ‘To hell with the future. Long live the past”.

Sadly it does look like it was all a dream – a super sports stadium rising just a few miles from Belfast in the neighbouring new city of Lisburn which would herald a new era of prosperity to the tourist caterers, the hotels, business and trade, not to forget the thousands of fans arriving by boat, rail and plane to witness big sporting events in a unique all-weather ultra modern new century all-sports forum.

A great pity, the ‘no’ men are here again.

News Letter
13 December 2008

THE man who organised George Best’s Stormont funeral is to be appointed chief executive of the Policing Board next week, the News Letter can reveal.

Castlereagh Borough Council chief executive Adrian Donaldson, 53, will replace Trevor Rainey, who over the summer moved to become clerk and director general of the Stormont Assembly.

Last night councillors from every political party on the council paid tribute to Mr Donaldson’s abilities, variously describing him as “even-handed”, “an excellent chief executive” and “a perfect gentleman” who would be an asset to the Policing Board.

The chief executive is involved in the day-to-day running of the board, which oversees the work of the PSNI, but is a less high profile position than that of chairman, a post currently held by Sir Desmond Rea.

A spokeswoman for the Policing Board confirmed that it would make an announcement next week about the position.

Mr Donaldson, who is also chairman of the local government emergency management group, said that he was delighted to be selected.

“I look forward to working with the board on the challenges affecting policing in Northern Ireland,” the Belfast man said.

Mr Donaldson holds two masters degrees and was given an MBE for services to local government in 2006.

Castlereagh councillors said that Mr Donaldson had been a “great asset” during his 11 years as chief executive.

TUV Councillor Charlie Tosh described him as able and courteous.

“I’ve known Adrian since before I was on the council and during time on the council — I have always found him to be a perfect gentleman,” he said.

“He is very helpful and would go out of his way to clarify points and I admire him for the fact he would not bend the knee to crawlers.”

Ulster Unionist Councillor Michael Henderson said: “Adrian is an excellent chief executive.

“He always puts the ratepayers first and lets us know when we’re over-stepping the mark if we go that far.

“He knows about statistics, is a good organiser and how to use manpower well.”

SDLP former deputy mayor of Castlereagh, Brian Hanvey, described Mr Donaldson as “very even-handed and impartial in all his dealings — irrespective of which political party people are from”.

“I have every confidence in his ability and his experience to carry out the duties of Policing Board chief executive,” he said.

BBC
13 Dec 2008

It has emerged that a police officer has been arrested and questioned about the illegal possession of firearms.

A number of weapons were found at premises in Aghadowey, near Coleraine, last week and at a gun shop in Portglenone in County Antrim.

The officer has been released on bail pending further inquiries.

It is understood the weapons involved are a collection of old military-type guns and are not thought to be terrorist-related.

….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

The Sunday Times
December 14, 2008

I was looking forward to the council meeting on December 1. Our plans to reorganise Croydon’s schools were proving controversial and I knew it would be tough but I believed passionately in what we were doing.

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There were a lot of protesters in the public gallery. Halfway through the meeting one stood up to ask me a question. He first addressed me as “Councillor McGuire” and then pretended to correct himself and said, “Sorry, Councillor Gatland”.

I wondered if I had heard him correctly. He said something about a book, but he was mumbling and it was hard to make it all out.

Nobody on my side knew what he was talking about but I did. I knew my secret was out.

Feeling numb, I did my best to carry on. At the mayor’s Christmas drinks party afterwards I went through the motions. No one asked me anything about what had been said. I got home at 11pm, my mind buzzing. I went to bed but couldn’t sleep. About 3am I made a cup of tea and took the dogs for a walk around the block.

In the morning everything was still going round and round in my mind. I had no one to talk to about it as none of my political colleagues knew about my past. My husband Mervyn, who did know and had always encouraged me in my political career, had died four years ago.

At about 10.30 I called the council leader, Mike Fisher. I told him I had belonged to the Provisional IRA and had been known as Maria McGuire, my name before I married. I offered to resign from my position in the council cabinet.

Clearly shocked, he just said: “Let me think about this.” He called back so quickly that I suspect the only person he consulted was the council’s chief executive. He told me he was withdrawing the Conservative whip and put me under pressure to resign as a councillor “because things could get very nasty”. He also said: “I always regarded you as a friend and I am very disappointed.”

Shortly afterwards the council issued a statement confirming that I had resigned from the cabinet. I think they all panicked. But I had panicked, too. I had resigned because I didn’t want to damage or embarrass my colleagues and I wanted to do the right thing.

Later I felt I should have done things differently. I should have told Mike Fisher and the council that I needed to talk to them. I should have shown them the book I had written, To Take Arms, and explained the context. Yes, I had belonged to the Provisional IRA for a year. Yes, I had gone on an arms-buying trip to Holland. But then I quit and wrote the book to explain why I had become disillusioned with the IRA, and I took a huge risk in doing so.

I should also have said: look at Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, both of whom helped to run the IRA. If they could make such a profound political transition, surely I could, too? I had never killed anyone and I had never been to prison. McGuinness was helping to govern Northern Ireland and I was just a Croydon councillor.

Besides, it was all more than 30 years ago. I couldn’t say I was a different person now because, as I was then, I have always been utterly committed to what I am doing and I give it my all. But I feel I have made an enormous political journey, too.

I belonged to the Provisional IRA for just a year. I joined in 1971, when I was 23, because I felt strongly about the way the people of Ireland were being treated. You have to remember what awful things were happening to the country and the people I cared deeply about. It was the time of internment and – in January 1972 – Bloody Sunday in Derry. Brought up in Dublin, I shared the IRA’s aims of wanting to end British rule in the north, using selective force if necessary, and I wanted to see a united Ireland.

I worked with all the senior figures in the Provisional leadership at that time: Dave O’Connell, Sean and Ruairi O Bradaigh, Sean Mac Stiofain. I attended meetings and liaised with the media, drafting our press statements and briefing journalists. In September 1971 I went to Amster-dam with O’Connell on an arms-buy-ing mission, which ended in failure when O’Connell’s cover was blown.

I had an affair with O’Connell: I was infatuated with him, as he probably was with me. He represented Irish republicanism and I’m not embarrassed about any of that – it was part of me at that time. In Ireland I carried a gun in my hand-bag. It was given to me as protection because of the feuds and assassination attempts within the IRA, but this was rather ludicrous because I hadn’t had any weapons training and didn’t know how to use it.

I was heartened when the IRA declared a truce in 1972. It had been killing British soldiers and detonating bombs that slaughtered innocent civilians, although it always claimed that was a mistake. But the truce broke down and there were more civilian casualties, which left me deeply troubled.

Feeling there were no moral grounds for continuing the military campaign, I decided to defect. Previously I had believed passionately in what I had done; now I believed just as passionately that I should explain why I had defected, which was how I came to write the book.

Looking back, I was idealistic, committed, but young emotionally and I always saw things in black and white. I was quite egotistical and didn’t reflect on how my actions would impinge on other people, particularly my parents. They suffered when I joined the IRA and they didn’t know where I was. They suffered again when I came to England to write the book. But I was foolish and arrogant and I thought it was important to tell my story. If I had thought about all the consequences then maybe I wouldn’t have done it. But you can’t see 35 years ahead.

Colin Smith, a British journalist, helped me to come to England. Another journalist, Peter Gillman of The Sunday Times, helped me to find somewhere secret to live. We were only too aware how the IRA treated those it considered traitors. Mac Stiofain had warned that if I returned to Ireland I would be court-martialled and executed. Peter, Colin and I all met a senior man in Special Branch and it was clear that he was taking seriously the threat of revenge.

Peter’s wife Leni arranged for me to stay with her parents at their home in south London. Her mother was Irish, her father was Liverpool Irish, and they were very kind to me. I stayed indoors during the daytime but Leni’s father felt I needed to get out and so we went for walks after dark when it seemed safer. Despite the IRA’s threats, I don’t think I felt frightened. I think I was more fatalistic, feeling that if they were determined to get me, they would.

Peter and I wrote my book in about three weeks. Afterwards I knew it was time to move on. Peter and Leni asked a friend, Mervyn Gatland, if I could stay at his home in Croydon. I had no idea what would happen after that, but I wasn’t thinking very far ahead.

Mervyn did think ahead, however. He struck me as gregarious and energetic – someone who knew what he wanted. I sensed that he had fallen in love with me before we even met. He had read about me and seen my photo, and that was it. He gave me love and support and pestered me to marry him. In 1977 I agreed.

Through all this time I was still trying to get back on my feet. My disillusion with the IRA, believing passionately in what it did and then believing just as passionately that it was wrong, proved to be quite traumatic. An outbreak of sectarian killings in Northern Ireland left me horrified. I wondered if there was anything I could have done to alter events. It all affected me quite badly. I had periods of depression which worsened after two miscarriages.

Looking back, I feel I was also very self-absorbed. Two things helped me to change. First, banal though it may seem, we acquired a dog. I have been in love with dogs ever since. Second, Mervyn became ill with a degenerative lung disease and prostate cancer. Just as he had protected me, I wanted to do the same for him.

Politics also entered our lives. Croydon is sometimes disparaged as boring and mundane – but I liked it just because it was so normal in comparison with my previous life. Mervyn, whom I had regarded originally as very left-wing, moved across the spectrum and joined the local Conservatives. When he started taking me to political functions I noticed how few women held important positions. I had always regarded myself as a feminist and was interested in women’s equality. In ideological terms I find it hard to say where I fit in, but I always admired Margaret Thatcher as a strong woman who was determined to succeed.

I hardly ever thought about my past. Certainly I never attempted to contact anyone from my days in the IRA, nor had they got in touch with me. I think I developed an ability to dissociate myself and so I pushed it all to one side. I never even felt I was leading a double life. Only a few of Mervyn’s friends knew about my past, or so I thought, and we never talked about it. I believe he stopped thinking about that part of my life, too, cutting himself off from it as I had.

I went back to Ireland for the first time in the late 1980s. My parents had stayed in touch with me, always telling me they supported me. I was happy to see them at home in Dublin and to feel normal for a time. But otherwise everything felt strange, part of what I was pushing away. I went again last summer and walked around my primary school. It was lovely but still strange.

I took an interest in what was happening politically in Ireland such as the Good Friday agreement and the Omagh bombing, both in 1998. But I didn’t dwell on any of it. While I admired the politicians on both sides working on the peace process that, too, was part of the Ireland I was pushing away while I tried to get on with my life here. Mervyn became chairman of our local Conservative ward and wanted to stand for Croydon council. I felt I had ideas, energy and talents that I wanted to use and decided to try to become a councillor, too.

At some point I was required to complete a form that asked whether I had ever done anything that could embarrass the Conservative party. I said no. It all seemed so long ago and it was hard to connect it with the person I had been. I didn’t want it all brought up again. I don’t feel I lied about my past; I just didn’t disclose it. It certainly did not occur to me that I would ever be in such a high-profile position in the council that someone would want to damage me.

Ironically, when our local ward came to select its candidates for the 2002 election, I was chosen and Mervyn wasn’t. He was very angry, feeling the local party had stabbed him in the back, and he left to join the Liberal Democrats. But he always supported me and when I was elected to the council he told everyone how proud he was of me. When I sat in the council chamber for the first time I felt at home.

By then Mervyn was very ill. A single-lung transplant had given him a brief new lease of life, but the steroids he was taking made him angry and volatile and then he developed lung and skin cancer. He had enormous courage but I knew just how much he was suffering. I think I could only cope by dissociating myself, just as I had distanced myself from the past.

He died in 2004. Because he was so well known locally, a lot of people were at the funeral and I wonder now just how many of them knew about my past.

I took over Mervyn’s gardening business and devoted the rest of my energies to politics. I became opposition education spokeswoman and when the Conservatives took power in Croydon in 2006, Mike Fisher asked me to become cabinet member for children’s services and adult learning. I know it was a rapid rise but I felt ready to take the responsibility and once again pushed thoughts of my past to one side.

I felt that many children in Croydon were not getting the education they deserved and this was contributing to gang culture and knife crime. We pursued a policy of closing or amalgamating several schools and setting up academies, in line with government policy. The Labour group opposed what we were doing, however, and I suppose that I made too many enemies. Someone decided to use my past against me.

I am still trying to make sense of what happened in the aftermath of that council meeting on December 1. For several days I was shaking and crying and couldn’t get warm. I suppose I was in shock. My parents rang me and said they supported me. I was grateful for that, because I have really put them through it.

At first many of my former cabinet colleagues shunned me but now they are trying to call me again. I sense they have regrets about the way this was handled. I have had a number of private conversations with party figures who have offered their backing.

I have had numerous other messages of support, some from people in Ireland who were part of what I left behind, some from people here who had not known about my past. I was very heartened when David Trimble said it was absurd to condemn me for my past in light of the reconciliation that has led to peace in Northern Ireland.

Whatever happens, I intend to remain as a councillor, with or without the Conservative whip.

My days are no longer packed with meetings and so I have had time to reflect on whether I should have done things differently. Maybe I should have been braver and disclosed my past much earlier.

In many ways the revelation has come as a relief. I think I had suppressed everything for so long and that’s why I was in shock. It was difficult for me to accept who I was. Now I feel I can piece myself together again and deal with that part of my past I had buried. At last I can be the person I really am.

I’ll fight verdict forever says killer

By Martin Breen
Sunday Life
Sunday, 14 December 2008

Loyalist killer Michael Stone last night said he would never have carried out his raid on Stormont if he had realised he would end up in jail.

In his first interview from behind bars since being convicted of attempting to murder Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness during the bizarre incident in November 2006, Prisoner A385 Stone said he now hopes to be freed on appeal but believes the authorities want him to die in jail.

Last Monday he was sentenced to 16 years for the armed attack which he continues to maintain was an act of performance art.

The 53-year-old Milltown Cemetery killer said: “Obviously I now regret what I did but as an artist I have to stand by it. It was a performance art protest as I said in the dock and I used a number of props.

“I believe the authorities want me to die in jail. I could be 70 by the time they decide to release me, if they ever do. They want to hang on to me forever. I believe there are political fingerprints all over this. I have become a political embarrassment.

“I am appealing all charges and hope the appeal is successful. This verdict is an injustice. I am very disappointed and I will fight this verdict forever.”

Speaking from the loyalist wing at Maghaberry Prison, he also claimed to Sunday Life:

l He never planned to kill Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness and poses them no threat;

l He believes he has another 10 years before his health confines him to a wheelchair;

l Art dealers have offered him £50,000 for paintings he has done in Maghaberry Prison and;

l He has offered to testify before the Billy Wright inquiry.

Last month at Belfast Crown Court, Stone was convicted of the attempted murder charges and seven others, including possession of weapons and explosive devices.

Stone has consistently denied the charges but his performance art explanation was dismissed by a judge at Belfast Crown Court as “wholly unconvincing”.

The notorious killer launched his attack on the day the Stormont Assembly was debating whether the DUP and Sinn Fein would indicate ministerial candidates.

His trial heard he pointed an imitation gun at a female security guard, ignited an improvised explosive device in a flight bag and threw it some yards from him.

The prosecution said the bag contained explosive fireworks, flammable liquids, a butane gas canister and fuses. It failed to explode.

The court was also told that he was found to have seven nail bombs which were capable of causing death or serious injury to anyone in their proximity. Stone also had three knives, a hatchet and a garrotte.

However the east Belfast loyalist maintains that all were “props” for his act and he had stuffed the magazine slot in the gun with sponge. He also denies that the bombs could have caused serious damage.

Last Monday the trial judge Mr Justice Deeny said he had decided not to give Stone a life term because he suffers from a degenerative muscle wasting condition which would see him confined to a wheelchair in the future.

“He could hardly have a worse criminal record,” the judge said, “and I do take into account the very grave offences of which he was convicted in 1989.”

In 2000, Stone was released early from a life sentence under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

He had been jailed for a 1988 gun and grenade attack on the republican funeral at Milltown Cemetery of three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar.

Three men were killed in that attack and Stone also admitted three other murders. After being arrested for the Milltown massacre he admitted his intention had been to kill Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

But even though he knows he could now die in prison, Michael Stone maintains that his “mission” at Stormont was not to fulfil the goal he had when he attacked the IRA funerals.

“I support devolution and supported it the day I went to Stormont. I was there doing the performance art as a protest against the fact that there was going to be no progress that day. They were still in deadlock then,” he said.

“I am glad that devolution came about later. I never intended harming anyone.

“How could I have ever got into the Assembly chamber or near them. It took me two hours walking up the mile long Prince of Wales Avenue alone. I was in agony, I crawled part of it.

“Also if I was going to kill them why swap the magazine of the starting pistol for a piece of sponge. The sponge was to represent Harold Wilson’s speech when he referred to people here as spongers over 30 years ago.

“It may have been eccentric but I was not carrying any bombs, they were flashbangs. They were a simulation. I intended to take the rockets to as close to Parliament Buildings as I could get and set them off, like a firework display. It was black humour but it has backfired on me.”

Stone insists his war with republicans is over and that he had realised that long before he was arrested at Stormont.

“We are all both sides of the same coin, we are as culpable as each other. I killed, they killed. I am not a paramilitary now. I am a loyalist and will be until the day that I die. I am British.

“When I was sentenced on Monday I deliberately didn’t shout out ‘No Surrender’ because that is my past. I have nine kids and their grandchildren. I am a dinosaur,” he added.

Reports have suggested Stone could be free in as early as six years as he could earn 50pc remission on his 16-year sentence and has already served two years on remand.

But, while the father-of-nine is confident he will be able to successfully appeal his conviction and could be free in just over a year, he believes that the authorities could still make him serve at least 16 years — the remaining time on his earlier tariff for the Milltown Cemetery and other murders.

“There is 16 years left on the tariff of my original life sentence anyhow. The Secretary of State has suspended my licence and there have been a number of attempts to have it revoked since then. I have no doubt that it will be revoked now. There will be no rush to free me.

“My health will get worse but it could be 10 years before I end up in a wheelchair.”

Despite his notoriety, Stone says he still gets dozens of letters from well-wishers delivered to his prison cell.

“I am getting a lot of letters, especially from wee grannies. They say they used to be Paisley supporters. Some of them are disillusioned with the way things went and misinterpreted what I did and think it was great.

“Others have written saying I should not have been convicted.”

A fortnight ago the ex-UDA terrorist contacted the inquiry set up to probe allegations of collusion into the INLA murder of LVF godfather Billy ‘King Rat’ Wright at the Maze Prison in December 1997.

At the time of the killing Stone was a UDA leader in the jail. If the inquiry seek his evidence he will have to be brought out of prison to testify.

He explained: “I have contacted the Billy Wright Inquiry through my solicitor. I had warned prison authorities before he was killed that someone would die in H6. I actually thought the LVF was going to take someone out first.”

Stone also said that if a Truth Commission is set up in Northern Ireland as a means of dealing with the past he will be willing to give evidence at it.

“I have no problem with that as we all have to move on,” he said.

Former SF worker faces trial for possession of AK-47 rifle

By Mick Browne
Belfast Telegraph
Sunday, 14 December 2008

A former driver for Sinn Fein minister Conor Murphy is at the centre of a legal row in the Republic after being charged with possessing a deadly AK-47 rifle.

Co Armagh man Padraig ‘Paudie’ Treanor — who was employed by Sinn Fein to work as a driver for the Newry and Armagh MP until late 2007 — appeared in court in Monaghan last week charged with possessing an assault rifle and |ammunition.

Treanor (31) was one of a pool of drivers employed by the Sinn Fein to drive senior members but since leaving the party’s employment he has worked as a tyre-repairer in Cullaville, south Armagh.

He is accused of having the weapon in Castleblayney, Co |Monaghan on November 28, 2007.

The legal row erupted when |a district judge lambasted a |suggestion by the director of |public prosecutions that Treanor be tried in his court on the charge of possessing the AK-47.

Mr Justice Sean McBride |declared it “outrageous” that the DPP recommended to Gardai that Treanor should be tried before a district court and directed the case be brought before a higher court.

The judge said it was “totally unacceptable”, given the current climate of gun crime in Dublin and elsewhere, that such a case did not merit trial before a circuit criminal court or at special |criminal court level.

The judge’s comments came after Garda Inspector Fintan |McKeirnan told the hearing the DPP had recommended the |prosecution be heard in the district court.

A solicitor for Treanor said the weapon in question might have been only a replica, but this was dismissed by Justice McBride |as immaterial in light of the |seriousness of the charge.

Mr Justice McBride then directed gardai to relay his directions to the DPP and remanded Treanor on bail until a further hearing on |January 14.

It is unclear when Treanor was arrested and charged with the|offence. But it is understood he was arrested by Gardai investigating the murder of Cullyhanna truck driver Paul Quinn.

Mr Quinn was savagely beaten to death by a gang who lured him to a cow shed in Castleblayney in October last year.

His family has blamed IRA members in south Armagh for the murder.

Fourteen arrests have been made as part of the cross-border investigation into the case, but no one has been brought before the courts.

slnews@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

SPECULATION MOUNTS OF DEAL BETWEEN DUP AND SINN FEIN

By Stacey Heaney
Lisburn Today
11 December 2008

JUNIOR Minister Jeffrey Donaldson has rubbished reports that a deal has been struck between the DUP and Sinn Fein which would spell the end of a National Stadium at the Maze and the go ahead for a conflict resolution centre.

Speculation was mounting this week that a deal had been agreed between the two parties which would suspend a decision on the National Stadium for four years, whilst a refurnishment of Windsor Park with the building of a new 4,000 seat capacity stand would see International football remain at its current home.

However, Mr Donaldson said that he could “state categorically that no decisions have been made”.

“As a Minister working on this I can state categorically that no decisions have been made either in relation to the National Stadium or any Conflict Resolution Centre” he said.

“Discussions are continuing on both these projects and we hope to have a decision soon.”

Mr Donaldson continued: “What is clear is that the Maze site will develop into one of the major investment sites in Northern Ireland. We have a number of expressions of interest in the site and we are looking at these as well as talking about the stadium.

“Let me make it absolutely clear there is no question of any kind of shrine, either to the hunger strikers or anything else, being located on the site.”

Despite his assurances members of the Ulster Unionist Party in Lisburn reacted angrily to the reports, with Mayor Councillor Ronnie Crawford saying he believed the National Stadium would “never go ahead”.

“If this report is true then it will not surprise the people of Lisburn that Sinn Fein and DUP has reached agreement which will give Sinn Fein their shrine and the four Belfast City Councillors on the Executive an extension to their beloved Windsor Park.

“The National Stadium will never go ahead because there was never the will for it amongst the Belfast-dominated parties in the first place and the Executive has no intention whatsoever of re-visiting the project. With the increasing levels of unemployment and the fall in commodity prices, now is most propitious time to proceed with the Stadium and boost the failing economy. Costs will be even more expensive in four years time and the Executive should stop taking the people of Northern Ireland for fools.

Alderman Ivan Davis added: “The news would be no surprise. It’s been dragging on for seven years and it has always been obvious that a deal would be done by the two largest parties. I have always felt that the former Sports Minister (Edwin Poots) support for the stadium cost him his Ministerial role and I believe that has now been vindicated. I would also have to question what role the other parties are playing, it seems the DUP and Sinn Fein can do what they like.”

Councillor David Archer, Vice Chairman of the Council’s Leisure Services Committee stated: “If today’s reports are to be believed then these developments are well and truly breathtaking.

“The alleged deal in question represents a fair deal for Belfast and a kick in the teeth for Lisburn,” he added.

“I hope all those people who whinged and whined about not wanting a multi-sports stadium at the Maze because a conflict transformation centre was central to the proposal are happy with themselves today. Their schoolboy-like negotiations have resulted in no stadium and the one thing they were opposed to happening, a conflict transformation centre is proceeding.”

stacey.heaney@jpress.co.uk