SAOIRSE32

Indymedia.ie
Wednesday July 01, 2009

04/07/09 2pm @ Garden of Remembrance

IRELAND IS STILL ONE OF ONLY 3 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES WHERE ABORTION IS NOT LEGAL –

HELP US TO KEEP IT THAT WAY!!

Every year, millions of unborn children are aborted throughout Europe and the world. Against all odds, and because Irish people have made their pro-life views heard, Ireland remains one of the only EU countries that protects its unborn children from abortion.

Under constant pressure from the EU and the powerful pro-abortion lobby, the Irish people have maintained their pro-life ethos. But we need to act to keep it that way, and to ensure that we also speak up against the anti-life threats of euthanasia and stem cell research.

So if you take just one pro-life action this year - let this be it!

WHERE: Garden of Remembrance, DUBLIN 1, IRELAND
WHEN: SATURDAY 4TH JULY 2009
TIME: 2 PM

Related Link: http://www.rallyforlife.net

By Seamus McKinney
Irish News
30/06/09

A community worker says many people are still ambivalent about paramilitary-style attacks following the shooting of a 26-year-old man in Derry.

Derry community worker Tommy McCourt was speaking after the man was shot three times at his home in the city’s Rosemount area.

The victim suffered two gunshot wounds to his leg and one to his other foot when a masked man fire through the door of his home at Florence Avenue.

Police are still trying to establish a motive for the attack which took place shortly before midnight on Sunday. It is understood the victim’s injuries are not life-threatening.

Mr McCourt, of Rosemount resource centre, said that most people accepted that in a normal society any alleged problems should be left to the justice system.

“But it is a reality that a lot of people still have an ambivalent attitude to such attacks,” he said.

Criminal justice minister Paul Goggins – who was in the city yesterday to open new legal offices – said he “regretted” news of the shooting. He said there was no place in a civilised society for such actions.

SDLP leader and Derry MP, Mark Durkan said: “We had all hoped that this type of attack had been consigned to history.

“I urge anyone with information about this attack to immediately contact the PSNI.”

Sinn Fein councillor, Maeve McLaughlin said: “It is very worrying that this shooting incident occurred when young children were present in the house. I have visited the home this morning and the family are very angry and upset.

“The people who carried out this attack must inform the community why it was carried out and who they represent.”

Irish News
30/06/09

LOYALISTS linked to the UDA have asked that their ex-prisoners be allowed visas for the US in recognition of the decommissioning of guns.

The Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) said a delegation met members of the US Congress in Dublin yesterday.

Last night the UPRG said it had held the meeting for several reasons, including to request that ex-prisoners be able to access visas.

A statement read: “This would be an appropriate way for the US government to recognise the significance of loyalist decommissioning.”

A UPRG spokesman said the meeting was “very productive and positive”.

Derry Journal
01 July 2009

The 32 County Sovereignty Movement will hold a protest at Free Derry Corner on Saturday against what they have described as the harassment of republicans and their families.

The demonstration will take place at 2pm.

Derry Journal
01 July 2009

A Derry solicitor has hit out at the PSNI, claiming they are stopping and searching people based solely on their political views.
Paddy MacDermott made the comment after hardline republicans in Derry said they are getting stopped and searched by the police on “an hourly basis.”

Mr MacDermott, of MacDermott and McGurk solicitors, said a number of his clients had contacted him about being stopped under the Terrorism Act.

“We have numerous complaints from clients over the past number of weeks with regard to being stopped and searched by the PSNI.

“It would appear that this is part of a concerted campaign targeted at people for their political views,” he said.

Several members of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (32CSM) also contacted the ‘Journal’ to say that they had been stopped and searched under the Terrorism Act.

One member, Paddy McDaid, said he was searched by police officers while holding his three year-old child in his arms. Leading republican Gary Donnelly also said he and his 16 year-old daughter were searched while the teenager was pushing a child in a pram along the quay on Wednesday afternoon.

Mr Donnelly claimed it was the latest in a series of incidents where children have been present while republicans have been searched. “As republicans we expect this type of hostility from the police but I think it is unacceptable that they are turning their attention towards children now. I have been stopped while with my children on several occasions in the last fortnight and my 16 year-old daughter has been stopped under the Terrorism Act also. This is a very scary experience for children,” he said.

Michael Gallagher of the 32 CSM, who said he has been stopped several times in recent days, said the incidents are part of a “renewed effort to harass republicans.”

“We have seen the real face of the RUC with the ongoing harassment of republicans and their families.

“Republicans are now being harassed on a daily, and indeed, an hourly basis,” he said.

Responding to the claims, a spokesperson for the PSNI said: “If anyone has genuine cause to complain about the actions of any police officer they can contact the office of the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland.”

BBC
1 July 09

A former secretary of state for Northern Ireland has said the Omagh bombing in 1998 shaped the way he carried out his job.

Peter Mandelson was speaking at the launch of a book about the atrocity and the families’ fight for justice.

Last month, a judge ruled that real IRA leader Michael McKevitt and three others were responsible for the bomb.

Lord Mandelson said the explosion, which killed 29 people, had given him “huge energy” to do his job.

The 1998 explosion killed 29 people and unborn twins

He was one of the supporters of the families’ campaign for justice and helped raise money for the multi-million pound civil case.

“In a very deep way and in a very personal way, it (the bomb) changed how I approached my job,” he said.

“But it also clarified what I was doing and why I was doing it and where I and, all those who I worked with, needed to end up with the people of Northern Ireland.”

Michael McKevitt is serving 20 years for directing terrorism

The book, Aftermath: The Omagh Bombing and the Families’ Pursuit of Justice, was written by journalist and broadcaster Ruth Dudley Edwards.

It tells the story of the bombing, how the families coped with their loss and chronicles their civil case which culminated last month.

Ms Dudley Edwards, who has been working on the book since 2003, said it was the most difficult piece she had ever written.

“First, because it took forever, secondly because it was so hard to do well and to do it right, and because at times I thought there would not be a story to write about,” she said.

“But I am the most proud of this book because I feel it honours these people I so much respect.”

Ms Dudly Edwards said the civil case had tested the relative’s patience.

“We all thought the case would come to court within a year and it took another five years to come to court,” she said.

“And the law moves so slowly and so frustratingly, the delays were utterly terrible. It was mind numbingly awful the progress of the law.”

Godfrey Wilson, who lost his daughter, Lorraine, in the bombing, said other families could learn from their experience.

“I’m delighted in the civil case the way it went and I’m hopeful… we’ll go on to fight against terrorism. We need to fight against terrorism,” he said.

“Terrorism hurt me and my family severely. To lose Lorraine was a terrible, terrible atrocity to myself and my family.”

The book marks another chapter in the Omagh story - but the families believe the ending will only come when a criminal case is successful.

Victor Barker, who lost his son, James, said it was important for other people to read about the suffering caused by terrorism.

“I hope that it will lead to these people being exiled in their own communities and completely rejected by all the communities in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“There is always the hope of a criminal prosecution one day. The families are determined to make sure that their cause and their fight goes on as long as it possibly can”.

BBC

A row has erupted over plans to hold a commemoration for dead IRA members in the Guildhall in Derry.

Ulster Unionist councillor Mary Hamilton said the event makes a mockery of the idea that the Guildhall is a neutral venue.

“We’ve lost loved ones, and I feel that it’s rubbing the noses of Unionists.”

The commemoration is planned for the Guildhall in Derry

But Sinn Fein assembly member Raymond McCartney defended the decision, and said the organisers had not sought any publicity for it.

“This is the 20th anniversary of this particular commemorative event, and it is being held in various locations.

“What happens every year is that the Derry volunteers who died throughout the conflict are remembered in a particular way,” he said.

But councillor Hamilton said it was a “very sad time” for Unionists.

“To think that the Guildhall, our Guildhall, can be used to commemorate the lives of ones that have been killed when we have lost loved ones ourselves,” she said.

BBC

A woman’s home has been targeted by a loyalist mob of up to 20 people in a sectarian attack in the Fountain estate in Derry.

The windows of the house in Aubrey Street were smashed during the incident on Tuesday night.

The woman, who is a Catholic, was at home at the time, but was not injured.

The police have said they are treating the attack as sectarian. They have appealed for anyone with information to contact them at Strand Road.

BBC

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has not detailed how much money will be given to Stormont once Policing and Justice is devolved, Peter Robinson has said.

The first minister and the prime minister spoke on the phone on Wednesday after a planned face to face meeting in London was not possible.

He is now expected to meet Mr Brown in person next week in Westminster.

Mr Robinson said devolution cannot take place until there is agreement over finance.

“The prime minister hasn’t put any proposal on the table as yet, nor has the Treasury,” he said.

“We haven’t even settled the figures between ourselves and the Treasury as yet. So there is still some room for agreement to be reached.”

Meanwhile, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who met Mr Brown on Tuesday, said the next round of talks over the devolution of policing and justice powers were critical.

“I am at a place now where I think it is make your mind up time for everybody, including Gordon Brown,” he said.

Derry Journal
30 June 2009

The DUP’s Gregory Campbell has reacted angrily to plans to hold an event commemorating IRA members who died during the Troubles in Derry’s Guildhall.

It was announced on Sunday that the annual Derry Volunteers Commemoration Dance is set to be held in the Guildhall in October, however Alderman Campbell described the move as “inappropriate” and said it will not be well received in the Protestant community.

Plans to hold the event in the Guildhall, which was attacked on a number of occasions during the IRA’s bombing campaign, were revealed on Sunday afternoon at the annual Derry Brigade Volunteers Commemoration at the City Cemetery.

‘Inappropriate’

Alderman Campbell said: It’s inappropriate to commemorate events like this anywhere but it is particularly inappropriate in the seat of civic authority.

“Those who are organising this should be in the business of apologising, not commemorating.

“Commemorating events that involved IRA personnel murdering innocent people is not something that is worthy of a commemoration or dinner or any other event in a civic centre.”

The East Derry MP said the event will do little to assuage Protestant feelings of alienation in the city. “It will go down very badly in the Protestant community because people will see it as Sinn Féin still not completely disengaging themselves from their bloody and gory past.
“Many in the community will see it as them trying to recapture some of what the movement was engaged in the past, even though politically they have moved beyond it,” he said.

A spokesperson for Derry City Council said: “The Guildhall is run on a commercial basis and is therefore available for general hire.
“The Guildhall is available to all communities and cultural traditions including political and religious groupings.”

Derry Journal
30 June 2009

Foyle Sinn Féin MLA has said she is “disgusted” by what she described as republicans exploiting the grief of the families of the hunger strikers to attack her party.

Ms Anderson made her remarks during the annual Derry Volunteers Commemoration event in the City Cemetery on Sunday.

A crowd of up to 1,000 local republicans took part in the march from the Creggan shops to the republican monument in the City Cemetery.

Her comments come amid claims by former blanketman Richard O’Rawe that the deaths of six of the hunger strikers could have been prevented after a deal, which he claims was accepted by the IRA’s jail leadership was rejected by the organisation’s overall leadership.

The claim has been supported by the IRSP and several former prisoners who were in Long Kesh at the time but has been flatly rejected by Sinn Féin.

The families of most of the hunger strikers, including County Derry man, Kevin Lynch, issued a statement last week calling for an end to the controversy.

Speaking at Sunday’s commemoration, Ms Anderson said: “I am disgusted that so many republicans are exploiting the grief of the families to attack us. In doing so they have got into bed with the right wing press. They should be ashamed of themselves. If they have any honour at all they will call a halt to their shameful actions.”

Memory of the dead

The Foyle MLA also said Sinn Féin are continually motivated by the memory of dead IRA volunteers and added that the current political situation could not have been achieved without their efforts.

“Today republicans are wielding unprecedented political power in Ireland. It is the volunteer soldiers of the IRA who made all that possible,” she said.

At the commemoration, the Roll of Honour was read by Tiernan Heaney, nephew of IRA member Denis Heaney, and the Roll of Remembrance was read by Aoife McNaught of Ógra Shinn Féin. Wreaths were laid on behalf of Sinn Féin, the Republican Graves Association, Ógra Sinn Féin, and Óglaigh na h’Éireann.

The National Anthem was sung by Sara Griffin.

BBC
30 June 09

A challenge to the appointment of four Victims Commissioners in Northern Ireland has failed.

Michelle Williamson, whose parents were killed in an IRA bomb attack, challenged the legality of the process.

The appointment of four victims’ commissioners was challenged

However, a High Court judge has ruled that there were no grounds for her challenge to succeed.

The commissioners said they regretted that anyone felt it was necessary to seek such a review of their appointments.

It was originally planned to have a single commissioner on a £65,000 a year salary to represent those bereaved during 35 years of conflict in Northern Ireland.

However, the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister ditched the original appointment process.

Instead it was announced in January 2008 that Patricia MacBride, whose brother was an IRA member, RUC widow Bertha McDougal, former broadcaster Mike Nesbitt and Brendan McAllister, director of Mediation Northern Ireland, would each be taking up the post.

Lawful

Ms Williamson had claimed there was no legal authority to create four victims commissioners.

Furthermore, she alleged that Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness, who were in charge of the process, based their decision on religious beliefs or political opinion rather than merit.

In his judgement Mr Justice Gillen said there was no basis for the suggestion that the selection of two Protestants and two Catholics meant that they had been selected on the basis of their perceived religious or political affiliation.

He said the decision not to re-open the selection process, when the First Minister and Deputy First Minister decided to move from one commissioner to four, was lawful.

He said: “Whilst no-one else was afforded an opportunity to apply to join this new concept of a body corporate, I conclude the decision not to reopen the process was a fair and proportionate decision in all the circumstances given the earlier competitions.”

BBC
30 June 09

**Video onsite

The DUP’s Ian Paisley Jr has been fined £5,000 for contempt of court.

It follows his refusal to reveal the name of a prison officer who told him thousands of files had been destroyed following Billy Wright’s murder.

The loyalist leader was shot dead at the Maze prison in 1997.

Mr Justice Gillen said it would be a “recipe for legal anarchy” if individuals could pick and choose with impunity what laws they obeyed.

Fining the politician, he also awarded legal costs against him.

The court had already heard that the earlier part of the case alone could cost him in excess of £35,000.

Refused

However, John Larkin QC appearing for the Billy Wright Inquiry which took the case, said he was instructed to seek only a £3,000 contribution towards its costs.

Mr Paisley Jr, who was accompanied in court by his father, former DUP leader Ian Paisley, refused to co-operate with a direction to name the prison officer he said told him about emergency moves to scrap up to 5,600 files after Wright, leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, was shot dead inside the Maze jail in December 1997.

The inquiry, which is examining claims of collusion surrounding the paramilitary chief’s assassination, obtained the order against Mr Paisley Jr in April.

Mr Paisley, however, insisted he could not break a pledge of confidentiality given to his informant and vowed to “take the name to his grave”.

Speaking after the verdict, he heavily criticised remarks made by Mr Larkin who had said the politician had “actually wanted to go to prison”.

Mr Paisley said the remarks were “flippant and nasty”.

He added that Mr Larkin, who is earmarked to be NI’s attorney general on the devolution of policing and justice, would come to regret what he had said.

The remarks were also criticised by Ian Paisley Sr, who said he was proud of his son.

Meanwhile, Mr Paisley Jr was also censured on Tuesday by the Speaker of the assembly, William Hay, for revealing details of a private meeting between the pair.

Mr Paisley Jr said the Speaker had assured him that language he used to describe the SDLP’s Declan O’Loan was “perfectly correct and used in the proper context of parliamentary cut and thrust of debate”.

However, Mr Hay said while he was open to private discussions with MLAs: “For a member to recount them on the floor of the chamber is unwise and very discourteous after a private meeting with myself as Speaker.”

In a debate in November 2007, Mr O’Loan had accused Mr Paisley Jr of “misleading the house”, and the DUP man later responded by accusing his fellow North Antrim assembly member of a “cheap” and “nasty” attack.

Mr O’Loan then complained about Mr Paisley Jr’s language.

BBC
30 June 09

The Orange Order has blamed an increase in secularism for a sharp decline in its membership in Northern Ireland.

Grand Secretary Drew Nelson said its Christian ethos was one reason behind its membership falling from 76,500 in 1948 to about 35,700 currently.

Mr Nelson said the Order was suffering from the same trend as churches as people turned away from religion.

“For a while now Northern Ireland has been becoming an increasingly secular society,” he said.

“As an organisation which encourages our members to be church-going, that has attracted less members,” he said.

“Secondly, there’s the whole ethos of the state in Northern Ireland - it appears to be leaning somewhat against the Orange Order.”

Mr Nelson pointed towards the fact that Order members who were employed by the PSNI had to inform their superiors.

He said this meant many people were put off joining the organisation, which claims to have 100,000 members worldwide.

However, he said despite falling numbers many young people in Northern Ireland were still choosing to join the Orange Order.

“I think if you look a bit closer amongst the Protestant community there’s a certain disaffection,” he said.

“Young people are feeling a need to join a band or the Orange Order as an activity of Britishness and Protestantism, and also a reaction to what they feel is the establishment in Northern Ireland against them.”

BBC
30 June 09

A loyalist who used a police database to gather information on nationalists has been jailed for nine months.

The sentence on former PSNI data inputter Aaron Hill, 24, was increased after the court ruled that the original suspended jail term was unduly lenient.

Judges held it inappropriate to change the sentence on Darren Richardson, 31, who was also involved in the plot.

Hill and Richardson, both from Randalstown, County Antrim, had walked free when convicted earlier this year.

The two men, who were members of a loyalist flute band in the town, each pleaded guilty to collecting information likely to be useful to terrorists.

Hill, from Maineband , also admitted misconduct in public office and was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for two years.

Richardson, of Moneynick Road, was found guilty of a further offence of possessing 40 rounds of live ammunition.

Bullets

He received a one-year prison term, but had already served the equivalent time on remand.

Richardson had been working as a manager at Wrightbus coach builders in Ballymena when the bullets were found during searches of his office in April 2007.

Documents containing vehicle registration numbers together with the names and addresses of the owners were also discovered in his possession.

Both men’s cases were referred back to the Court of Appeal by the attorney general on the basis that the sentences were inadequate.

Judges were told that Richardson had gathered car registrations on Catholics living in the Randalstown and Toome areas and passed them on to Hill to run through the police database.

Hill, a civilian member of staff in the PSNI, admitted carrying out checks for more than two years before being detected. He estimated that he had searched around 100 names.

The court was told that 67 people had to be warned to step up their security because their details had been accessed.