SAOIRSE32

BBC

A Presbyterian church in St Johnston, County Donegal, has been inundated with offers of support after its hall was attacked last week.

The church hall was damaged in an attack last weekend

A chair lift was set on fire and a door and window broken in the attack.

Ian McCracken, the church’s clerk of session, said he feared the repair bill could be up to 60,000 euro.

“We’ve had a team of industrial cleaners in and it’s looking much better now, but it has revealed much more damage than we thought,” he said.

“However, we’ve had messages from our Catholic neighbours saying ‘let me know when you’re going to clean up and I’ll be there with my bucket and cleaning brush’.

“We also had a cheque from a totally anonymous person in Bangor.”

By Barry McCaffrey
Irish News
**Via Newshound
13/12/08

A BRITISH soldier has claimed that RIR members failed to arrest two well known loyalist suspects stopped a short distance from the home of solicitor Rosemary Nelson shortly after her murder.

Christopher Jopling of the Royal Military Police told the inquiry that he had been on patrol with RIR soldiers in Lurgan shortly after Mrs Nelson was killed by an undercar booby trap bomb on March 15 1999.

Mr Jopling, who is still a serving soldier, said his position while on duty in Portadown in the late 1990s had been to act as an army ‘spotter’ identifying known loyalist and republican suspects in the mid Ulster area.

Within minutes of Mrs Nelson’s murder his patrol were ordered to set up a roadblock at North Circular Road and Lake Street in Lurgan, a short distance away from Mrs Nelson’s home.

He revealed how a car containing two loyalist suspects was stopped at the checkpoint.

“I remember this as they were believed to be loyalists and were in a staunchly republican area,” he said.

“I spoke with both men who said they’d been visiting the graveyard.

“I can’t remember this conversation now but remember that the graveyard was in a Catholic area and therefore it would have been strange for them to have been there.

“I’m surprised that they and their vehicle were not searched at the time, given their explanation.”

However, Mr Jopling said that when he asked the patrol commander, identified only as A620, to alert his superiors back at base to the fact that two known loyalists had been spotted in the area of the killing, he was told: “I probably won’t bother with that. You know, there is no need.”

Questioned by the inquiry’s legal counsel if he thought the refusal to pass on this information was unusual, Mr Jopling replied: “Yes, pretty much.

“He told me not to bother doing it.

“It appeared that he knew who these persons were but did not want to pass the information on.

“I thought his actions were strange.”

In a statement to police, Mr Jopling claimed that A620 “would be more verbally aggressive to residents of Catholic estates than other RIR soldiers that I worked with”.

He claimed A620 was “always reluctant to pass details of loyalist sightings and would encourage officers in his patrol to do the same”.

However A620 denied Mr Jopling’s claim that he had refused to pass on details of the two suspects.

“No, I never said nothing about not radioing any sighting through and I never seen no individuals that has been named there,” he told the inquiry.

“I was not slanted at all in any way.”

By Barry McCaffrey
Irish News
**Via Newshound
12/12/08

A NOTORIOUS loyalist Belfast bomb-maker had been under Special Branch surveillance meeting with the LVF in Lurgan weeks before the terror group murdered solicitor Rosemary Nelson, it has emerged.

The mother-of-three, was killed on March 15 1999 when a bomb exploded underneath her car as she left home in Lurgan, Co Armagh.

No-one has ever been convicted of the killing.

The public inquiry has now, for the first time, heard evidence identifying the bomb-maker who made the device which killed Mrs Nelson and details of how the device was sold to the ‘C’ company of Johnny Adair weeks before the attack.

The bomb-maker was not publicly named in the inquiry.

But loyalist sources last night identified him as east Belfast loyalist Thomas ‘Tucker’ Ewing, who is understood to have died of a sudden illness last year.

A Special Branch officer identified as ‘B511’, gave evidence to the inquiry revealing details of the bomb-maker’s role in the murder.

“We had a source of intelligence that started to report on the activities of the bomb-maker,” he said.

“Any intelligence relating to the bomb-maker seemed to be very topical.”

Questioned whether anyone, other than the east Belfast loyalist, could have made the bomb which killed Mrs Nelson, the Special Branch officer said: “On the loyalist side the capability to make UCBTs (under car booby traps) was limited.

“Historically there were bomb-makers that could make such devices.

“However, the recent attacks and the UCBTs that had been used, we believed came from this one individual from the east Belfast area.

“He had produced, I think, a variety of bombs at a certain point in the 1990s.”

Revealing how the bomb-maker had sold six under-car boobytrap devices to Johnny Adair’s ‘C’ company, he said: “The bomb-maker had links to what would be classified as ‘C’ company, UDA, in west Belfast.

“This grouping had also close links with the LVF. Its leader had close links to the LVF.”

The inquiry was told that the bomb-maker’s father and stepbrother were members of Adair’s ‘C’ company.

It is now known that the mercury tilt-switch used in the bomb which killed Mrs Nelson had been part of a batch stolen from Shorts in east Belfast.

The Special Branch officer said that police had secretly watched as the bomb-maker met with the LVF in Lurgan weeks before Mrs Nelson was murdered.

The inquiry’s senior counsel Peter Skelton asked: “So back in February 1999, ie pre-Mrs Nelson’s murder, you would have been aware of contact, would you?”

“Yes,” the officer said.

“I would have been aware of meetings between figures within the LVF in mid-Ulster and the bomb-maker, yes.”

By Joe Diamond
Belfast Media
Andersonstown News Thursday

AN INNOCENT West Belfast man who almost died when he was shot by British soldiers in 1973 has had painful memories rekindled after he stumbled on a 35-year-old letter from the British army to the Andersonstown News trying to justify his shooting.

Damien Reel, who was just 15 at the time, and his older sister Geraldine, who was 18, were both injured in a ferocious Gordon Highlanders gun attack on their family home in Andersonstown Park South on April 14, 1973.

Although the British army apologised in the letter and said the young brother and sister were completely innocent, no-one was ever questioned or charged in relation to the shootings.

Dad-of-three Damien found the old copy of the Andytown News when he was clearing out his roof-space. He decided to contact us after seeing our series of historic photographs and stories about the conflict in West Belfast which has proved hugely popular in recent weeks.

The 1973 letter to this paper is signed by a Captain AIG Kennedy of the Gordon Highlanders and in it the officer attempts to justify the shootings. A letter we printed beside it from local Councillor Vincent McCluskey gives the community’s version of events.

Recalling the terrifying events of that fateful evening, Damien said it had been a normal Saturday and his parents were enjoying a night out. Geraldine’s fiancé, Peter Fitzpatrick – who she later married – had called to the house. He left at around midnight, and Geraldine and Damien saw him to the garden gate.

“There were Brits in the street, and they suddenly just started shooting at Peter’s car as he was driving away. No-one had any idea what was going on or why they were shooting at him. He started reversing down the street and I shouted at him to get out of the car, so he left it and ran back to our house,” said Damien.

Amazingly, Peter made it inside without being shot, but the soldiers were still firing and now turned their rifles on the house.

“All hell broke loose. I just remember a huge bang and something hitting me in the leg,” said Damien. “Geraldine was hit too, but thank God it wasn’t serious.”

Damien said he managed to get up, but was shot again – this time in the stomach – and collapsed into the living room.

“I must have passed out and I just lay there until it was over. I don’t remember anything until I woke up in hospital, but our neighbour said one of the Brits was leaning over my mother’s hedge so he could fire in at me while I was lying on the ground. When it was over he [the neighbour] followed the soldier up to the Saracen to ask them what was going on and they kicked his teeth out. Another neighbour said she had seen them drinking beforehand,” added Peter.

“They sent a military ambulance, but the neighbours wouldn’t let them take us away, God knows what would have happened to us. So they waited with us until an ambulance came from the Royal.”

Damien said two groups of soldiers were involved – the original attackers and another foot patrol which was coming down Andersonstown Park West and joined in the attack.

“They put my brother Gerard under house arrest and abused and questioned him until our parents came home. Eventually the police arrived and the Brits had to back off.

“Their theory was that a car which had been parked outside our house had been involved in an incident earlier in the day, when someone fired at an observation post. Even if that was true, they shot at three people even though they admitted they knew there had only been one person in the car.”

Damien had to undergo 15 operations as a result of his horrific injuries and remained in hospital for over a year following the attack.

“The Brits sent a PR man to visit me. He brought me cigarettes, even though I didn’t smoke, and a book called In the Line of Fire – it was unbelievable! It was touch and go for a while, and it was a very frightening time, especially for our parents. I had to have a lot of surgery and I have scars on my legs, stomach and back. I was only 15, so obviously my nerves were never the same afterwards, and I had a lot of physical problems. I was never able to do any heavy lifting, which meant I couldn’t do a lot of jobs. I got into music instead, and made my living through playing in bands – The Circle and The Imposters. We’re still available to do charity work if anyone’s interested!” laughed Damien.

“That old paper brought it all flooding back and I felt I wanted to tell the story because it happened to so many people back then and not a word was said about it. No-one was ever charged even though they admitted it was a mistake. They just shot us and walked away,” added Damien.

• If you have a story or photos relating to the conflict in West Belfast phone Joe on 90608812.

By Ed Carty
Irish Examiner
13 Dec 2008

HEPATITIS C sufferers infected by contaminated blood were left devastated last night after a prosecution against a leading scientist was dropped.

Biochemist Dr Cecily Cunningham, from Clontarf, north Dublin had been strongly criticised by the Findlay Tribunal over the making of the Anti-D product.

But after years of investigations and failed court challenges to halt a trial, the Director of Public Prosecutions has decided not to prosecute the case.

It is understood a key witness, the scientist who devised the manufacture of Anti-D, has died.

Positive Action, which supports those affected by the scandal, said its members were distraught.

“It has got to a stage unfortunately that it is 31 years since we were infected,” a spokeswoman said.

“Our members are devastated. It basically means that no-one will be charged, no-one will be found accountable.

“Positive Action does not view the dropping of charges as vindication that charges should not have been brought in the first place.”

The DPP, who has suggested victims of crime have the right to explanations, did not comment.

It is understood senior detectives who have been involved in the case for several years will meet Positive Action next week to explain the decision.

The group’s 750 members were notified over the last few days.

The Department of Health also declined to comment.

More than 1,000 cases linked to the Hepatitis C scandal have still to be heard by a compensation tribunal set up by the Government in 1995.

The bill is eventually expected to top €1 billion.

Infections first became public in 1994, after a high incidence of hepatitis C among women who received the Anti-D product was revealed.

Dr Terry Walsh, a consultant haematologist and former assistant national director with the blood bank, was charged along with Dr Cunningham over the Anti-D product. Dr Walsh died in 2006.