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News Letter
22 January 2009

THE Consultative Group on the Past will present Gordon Brown with their report on the legacy of the Troubles on Thursday.

Report authors - Lord Eames and Denis Bradley - are scheduled to meet the Prime Minister at Downing Street.

Their report is due to be published next week.

It is understood the group will propose the creation of a commission to examine unsolved murders during the 40-year conflict.

However, it has denied speculation that any form of amnesty will be offered to paramilitaries who engage with the process.

For the past 18 months, the group has held consultation meetings across the Province.

It was set up by the Government in 2007 as a means of dealing with the past in a conclusive manner.

News Letter
22 January 2009

GEORGE Mitchell - who chaired crucial Ulster peace talks - is being tipped to be appointed Middle East envoy by new US President Barack Obama.

Senator Mitchell, who played a key role in the signing of the 1998 Belfast Agreement, was widely respected by both sides for the way he conducted the difficult discussions over a decade ago.

If the 76-year-old senator accepts such a role, he will team up once more with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who fulfils a similar role for the UK government.

Mr Mitchell has vast experience in conflict resolution and is currently chancellor of Queen’s University, Belfast.

On his first full day of office - Mr Obama is believed to have made a series of calls to the various political leaders in the Middle East.

The seemingly intractable conflict would appear to be a priority of the new President.

Belfast Telegraph
Thursday, 22 January 2009

The inquest into the disputed killing of an IRA man by police has again been delayed, it was confirmed today.

Chief Northern Ireland coroner John Leckey had set a January start date for the inquest into the death of Pearse Jordan in Belfast in 1992 - but during yet another in a series of preliminary hearings he said it could not start before June at the earliest.

When he apologised to the dead man’s parents, Hugh and Teresa Jordan, for the latest delay, they responded in unison “We are used to it”.

Outside the court Mr Jordan said given the likelihood for dispute over several outstanding issues being taken to the High Court for Judicial Review he held out no hope of a June start.

“I would not expect to get anything over the next two years.”

The first preliminary hearing was held in September 2007 and Mr Jordan said: “Since we started on this process I don’t know how many judicial reviews there have been - someone said recently it was at least 25.

“I don’t expect the inquest to start in June - well maybe June 2030.”

Pearse Jordan, 23, an IRA man from the Ballymurphy area of west Belfast, was shot dead by the RUC in disputed circumstances after a car crash in the Falls Road in November 1992.

Witnesses claimed the stolen car he was driving was rammed, and that as he attempted to run away, he was shot three times in the back .

Republicans claim his death was as a result of a “shoot to kill” policy operated by the security forces.

The Department of Public Prosecutions directed years ago that the RUC officer who fired the fatal shots should not be prosecuted.

Known only as Sergeant A he currently lives outside the legal jurisdiction of the United Kingdom.

He has indicated he will not return to give evidence and Mr Leckey told the preliminary hearing he had no power to summons him to do so because his address was outside the jurisdiction.

A barrister representing the families urged Mr Leckey to do more to seek his attendance - including serving a summons on his last known address in Northern Ireland.

“He is probably the most important witness of this inquest, he is the one who fired the shots. Without his attendance the purpose of this inquest will be severely reduced,” said Barry Macdonald QC.

Mr Leckey said it would be pointless for him to serve a summons on an address at which Sergeant A no longer lived. But Mr Macdonald said he understood the witness was a visitor to Northern Ireland and everything should be done to issue a summons against him before the inquest.

But the coroner was adamant: “I have no jurisdiction over someone not resident in the UK. When a person is no longer in the jurisdiction the issue of a summons serves no purpose at all.”

Another preliminary hearing to check on progress was set for February 12.

Police have been slow to provide documentation for the inquest and last month a High Court judge ordered Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde to hand over to Mr and Mrs Jordan within a fortnight a list of documents which had already been provided to the coroner.

The Jordan inquest is the first of a series into alleged shoot-to-kill deaths which are finally due to be held.

In 2007 Mr Leckey set aside 2009 to hold the inquests into the Jordan death and intended to follow it with those of three IRA men shot dead by police in November 1982 in Co Armagh - Eugene Toman, Gervaise McKerr and John Burns - and Catholic teenager Michael Tighe, shot dead at a Co Armagh hay shed the same month.

Belfast Telegraph
Thursday, 22 January 2009

Police knew the identities of those who killed solicitor Rosemary Nelson shortly after her murder, but did not have advance intelligence which could have saved her life, an inquiry has heard.

Former RUC chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan yesterday gave a third and final day of evidence at the public inquiry probing allegations of security force wrongdoing over the lawyer’s murder in a loyalist car bomb in March 1999.

No-one has been convicted of her killing, but Sir Ronnie revealed that at an early stage in the murder hunt police knew the names of those who planted the device, as well as the identity of the bomb-maker.

In a statement handed to the inquiry, Sir Ronnie said: “I do recall being told that (names withheld) carried out the murder and that (name withheld) had made the bomb.

“This was at an early stage in the investigation, although I cannot specifically recall when.

“This was put to me on the basis that Special Branch were confident in this view, it was not a question that these three were mere suspects.”

I personally never dreamt for a moment she was at risk

He said he believed the information was handed to former Norfolk Deputy Chief Constable Colin Port, who was drafted in to lead an investigating team made up of police from England and RUC officers.

Sir Ronnie said the Port team was promised full access to police files but said there were tensions with Special Branch when Mr Port sought the names of loyalist informants in the Lurgan area. Human rights groups had raised concerns for Mrs Nelson’s safety after she claimed police officers had come to associate her with the alleged crimes of republican clients and had threatened her life.

Her murder was claimed by the Red Hand Defenders, but this was considered to be a cover name and Sir Ronnie said the Loyalist Volunteer Force was thought to be at the centre of the plot. He said Mrs Nelson had been murdered by thugs and cowards who were determined to kill, but that, in the absence of intelligence of a direct threat, police could not have saved the mother-of-three.

The former police chief recounted how the Troubles had seen more than 300 RUC officers murdered and thousands injured. He added: “Sadly, when a number of my friends died in the way that Rosemary Nelson died and it was not possible to protect their lives, even if things were done differently, it is my sad conclusion it would not have saved Mrs Nelson’s life.”

In assessing risk to the solicitor, he had endorsed the decision to have police monitor Mrs Nelson’s home and business as a precaution, but in the absence of a specific threat, it was decided not to have a crime prevention officer speak to her.

Sir Ronnie said: “I personally never dreamt for a moment she was at risk of what subsequently happened.”

Asked if he might have done anything differently, he added: “I would have made sure Mrs Nelson was seen personally, was given advice.”

But he said such a move could not have ensured her safety and, rejecting claims that the episode was an intelligence failure, he said: “Intelligence is not infallible.”

The inquiry heard evidence on allegations by some police officers that Mrs Nelson was having an affair with Lurgan republican Colin Duffy, who police believed was a leading IRA member. Other witnesses close to Mrs Nelson have dismissed the claims as an attempt to discredit her.

A security force document requested permission to bug a house owned by Mrs Nelson, but rented by Mr Duffy, who was the target of the surveillance.

It stated as a fact that Mrs Nelson was having an affair with Mr Duffy and also referred to “false alibis that PIRA, assisted by their solicitor Rosemary Nelson” were preparing for two terrorist suspects.

Sir Ronnie said he viewed the alleged affair as rumour, which he did not disseminate. The inquiry heard that, after Mr Port came to head the murder hunt, his terms of reference promised access to all RUC files, but there was concern from Special Branch over a request for the names of loyalist informants. Sir Ronnie said he was aware of friction, but said RUC officers had acted in good faith.

By Eamonn McCann
Belfast Telegraph
Thursday, 22 January 2009

Gerry Adams declared to an ecstatic throng outside the Sinn Fein office on the Falls Road following his triumph in the 1983 general election: “Even de Valera couldn’t win the Falls.”

De Valera, with Countess Markievitz the last living leader of the 1916 Rising, failed to win the Falls in December 1918 in the election which established Sinn Fein for a period as the dominant force in Irish nationalism.

Éamon de Valera (Image)

Sinn Fein swept the old Irish Parliamentary Party aside. The 105 candidates returned across the island comprised 73 republicans, 26 unionists and six from the IPP. The Sinn Fein MPs (or as many of them as were not in prison) met in the Mansion House in Dublin 90 years ago yesterday to form the First Dail and assert their mandate to withdraw Ireland from Westminster rule.

“The whole of nationalist Ireland had gone over with foot, horse and artillery, with bag and baggage, from the camp of so-called Constitutional Home Rule to the Sinn Feiners,” wrote the Tory minister and historian Lord Cushendun. Actually, not quite the whole of nationalist Ireland.

Four of the six successful IPP candidates had been allocated seats in Ulster by Cardinal Logue, in a Church-brokered pact with Sinn Fein to ensure that the Catholic vote in the North wasn’t split. In only two constituencies on the island, then, did the constitutional nationalists see off Sinn Fein.

One was Waterford City, where the IPP candidate was Captain William Redmond. He’d fought with the Dublin Fusiliers and then the Irish Guards for the duration of the war. He’d previously been MP for East Tyrone. He was a son of John Redmond, IPP leader and local MP for 18 years until his death a few months earlier. His uncle Willie, also a MP, had been killed on the Western Front in 1917. The Redmonds were nationalist royalty. Waterford wasn’t typical, and neither was the result. Redmond registered a narrow win, 4,915 votes to 4,431.

Belfast Falls wasn’t typical, either, in a somewhat different, very northern way. The IIP candidate, ‘Wee’ Joe Devlin, was the effective boss of the party in Ulster. Sinn Fein sent in the Long Fellow to take him out.

De Valera also stood in Mayo, against the leader of the IPP, John Dillon. There, the national pattern held true. Dev defeated Dillon by almost exactly two to one — 8,843 to 4,451.

In Belfast Falls, the figures were reversed. Devlin trounced Dev, 8,488 to 3,245. This is what Gerry Adams had had in mind in his moment of victory.

The Falls result assumes added significance from the fact that that this was the outcome of the only straight fight in the North between republicanism and constitutional nationalism.

We can take it as a rough guide to the likely outcome elsewhere had the voting pact not been in place. (The roughness of the guide arises from somewhat different nationalist perspectives in Belfast and border areas.)

At any rate, this measure suggests that the Falls, historically, has been the least republican area in nationalist Ireland. Gerry Adams’ triumph in 1983 was the first Sinn Fein victory on the Falls, ever. He will have known that, too.

The line of battle in the 1918 campaign is instructive. Devlin hammered away at de Valera’s lack of understanding of the North. You can have a war for a united independent Ireland in the south and the west, he declared, but it would be a different sort of war we’d have to fight here, and we don’t want it. What we do want is respect for our identity, equality, justice, freedom from fear.

The various parties which have gathered in Dublin this week to mark the anniversary of the 1918 general election and the consequent formation of the First Dail are right to see the events as a significant moment in the narrative of Irish history. But the character of the significance may not be exactly as some in the gatherings have imagined.

What the 1918 poll suggests is that the mass of northern Catholics have never been republican, at least not in the sense in which the term is commonly used. In practice, what they have wanted has been the bigot’s boot off their necks and the British Army off their backs, within whatever constitutional arrangements would best secure this outcome.

On this reading, the IRA’s recent 25-year campaign was fought under false colours. Armed struggle matched the mood of young working class people who had felt the whip of oppression or seen their families humiliated by the uniformed forces of a hostile State.

But a united Ireland, the stated aim of the struggle, was never sine qua non. The shift in the line of Sinn Fein towards acceptance of the legitimacy of the Northern State did not come about by visionary leaders coaxing reluctant foot-soldiers away from war onto the path of peace, but, rather, by the party leadership bringing their policies deftly into alignment with the underlying views of their own rank-and-file as discovered by de Valera when he couldn’t win the Falls 90 years ago.

BARRY ROCHE, Southern Correspondent
Irish News

The robbery of some £26.5 million from the Northern Bank in Belfast received saturation coverage from the electronic and print media for several days afterwards, a money laundering trial heard today.

Supt John Gilligan of the Garda Press Office told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that the robbery on December 20th 2004 was covered extensively with front page stories in the papers and frequent mention on all the main radio and TV news bulletins.

“On December 22nd, 2004, the Northern Bank robbery story appeared on the front page of four national newspapers, the Irish Independent , The Irish Times , the Irish Examiner and the Irish Daily Mail . In addition it appeared on the internal pages of other papers,” he said.

“On December 23rd, 2004 it was on the front page of four national papers again. For each of the days following the original breaking of the story it received extensive coverage … it received extensive coverage in the dailies and Sunday papers for up to 10 days.”

The exact amount of money taken in the raid on the Northern Bank Cash Centre at Donegall Square West, Belfast was not known immediately and the earliest reports carried differing figures varying from in excess of £20 million to up £30 million, he said.

The robbery was also covered extensively on RTE television and radio with the story being reported on the main television news bulletins at 6pm and 9pm as well as on radio programmes such as Morning Ireland and the News at One, he said.

Supt Gilligan was giving evidence on the fourth day of the trial of financial advisor, Ted Cunningham (60) of Woodbine Lodge, Farran, Co Cork and his son, Timothy Cunningham (30) from Church View, Farran, Co Cork who are both charged with money laundering.

Ted Cunningham denies 20 charges of money laundering while Timothy Cunningham denies four charges of money laundering between December 20th, 2004 and February 16th 2005, knowing certain monies to be the proceeds of the Northern Bank robbery.

The case continues.

BBC

Two men arrested in County Fermanagh as part of a police operation against dissident republican activity have been released without charge.

The men were arrested by officers from the PSNI’s crime operations department on Wednesday.

Two houses in Newtownbutler and Rosslea were also searched.

A number of items were taken away for examination.

BBC

A woman who was with Robert Hamill on the night he was attacked, has been giving evidence to the inquiry into his killing.

Mr Hamill’s family has claimed that police officers stood by while he was beaten and kicked by loyalists.

On Thursday, the woman, known as Witness E said she only recalled seeing one policeman at the scene.

Mr Hamill died 11 days after being attacked by a loyalist mob in Portadown in April 1997.

Witness E told the inquiry she had been on a night out with her husband, sister and Mr Hamill.

She said the group were walking home towards a nationalist area of Portadown and the next thing she knew Mr Hamill and her husband had been attacked and were lying on the ground.

The witness said one police officer approached her and told her to put her husband into the recovery position.

She told the inquiry he was the only police officer she saw at the scene.

But when asked to comment on contradictory statements from other witnesses, which claim a group of four or five people had been shouting republican slogans and had provoked an attack, Witness E said no-one in her group had started a fight.

She added that she was not covering anything up to protect Mr Hamill’s memory.

BBC

The number of police officers suspended because of disciplinary proceedings is at its highest ever level, it has emerged.

There are currently 42 officers with the force suspended from duty and facing disciplinary proceedings.

The reasons for suspension include alleged threats to kill, drink-driving, possession of drugs, alleged possession of indecent images and assault.

The level of suspensions is believed to be highest among all UK police forces.

However, Ulster Unionist policing board member Basil McCrea said the figures do not mean that more police officers are breaking the law.

“What encourages me in this particular instance is that the police are taking action and are seen to be taking action,” he said.

“The vast majority of the police are very honourable, decent people, doing a very good job.”

A PSNI spokesman said the number of suspensions had to be viewed in the context of the overall size of the force, which currently stands at more than 8,500 full and part-time officers

BBC

Special Branch knew the identities of those who murdered Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson shortly afterwards, Sir Ronnie Flanagan has said.

The former RUC chief constable was giving evidence to the inquiry into her 1999 murder by loyalist paramilitaries.

Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson was killed in 1999

Sir Ronnie said Mrs Nelson had been murdered by “thugs and cowards” who were determined to kill.

However, he added that, in the absence of intelligence of a direct threat, police could not have saved her.

Mrs Nelson, 40, died after a booby-trap bomb exploded under her car.

“Sadly, when a number of my friends died in the way that Rosemary Nelson died and it was not possible to protect their lives, even if things were done differently, it is my sad conclusion it would not have saved Mrs Nelson’s life,” he said.

He said he had backed the precautionary measure to have police monitor Mrs Nelson’s home and business, but in the absence of a specific threat, it was decided not to have a crime prevention officer speak to her.

Sir Ronnie said: “I personally never dreamt for a moment she was at risk of what subsequently happened.”

‘Not infallible’

Asked if he might have done anything differently, he said he would have ensured Mrs Nelson was given personal security advice, but added that this could not have ensured her safety.

Rejecting claims that her death was an intelligence failure, he said: “Intelligence is not infallible.”

Sir Ronnie Flanagan was giving evidence on his final day at the inquiry

The inquiry heard also evidence on allegations by some police officers that Mrs Nelson was having an affair with Lurgan republican Colin Duffy.

Sir Ronnie said if he had known about reports of an affair, he would have considered it a private matter.

He said he did not see any intelligence documents which claimed Mrs Nelson and Colin Duffy, a local republican, were having an affair.

The inquiry heard how RUC Special Branch had recorded that Mrs Nelson was providing false alibis to the IRA.

It also revealed plans by the police to bug a house, owned by Mrs Nelson and used by Mr Duffy, were prevented by the then Secretary of State Mo Mowlam, because in her view it would have breached legal privilege between the lawyer and her client.

Summing up on his third and final day at the inquiry, Sir Ronnie said at the heart of the issues being dealt with was a dreadful human tragedy.

“It remains my hope that at some time those responsible might be brought to justice,” he added.