SAOIRSE32

By Simon Doyle
Irish News
03/07/2009

A woman whose son was denied a place in a popular Irish-language secondary school has spoken of her frustration and anger that there is no suitable alternative.

Pupils leaving Irish-medium primary schools in both Lurgan and Portadown, Co Armagh, missed out on places in An Sruth Gaeilge at St Catherine’s College in Armagh city.

There are only 25 places in the unit, which provides Irish-medium education for those who wish to build on the language competences acquired in bunscoileanna.

The unit, however, was oversubscribed this year, meaning that some children were turned away.

Ann McConville said her son Eoin-Roe Tennyson (11) was devastated to be told he had not been admitted to the unit. While St Catherine’s is an all-girls school, the Irish unit is coeducational.

Six of the eight P7 children at Bunscoil Eoin Baiste in Portadown were awarded places.

Ms McConville said Eoin-Roe’s whole educational experience had been through the medium of the Irish language and they had expected this to continue in September.

“This was not an unreasonable expectation on either my part or that of my son, as that has been the case for pupils transferring from all the various bunscoilenna in Co Armagh in previous years,” she said.

“My son’s expectations have been cruelly smashed this year, as the powers that be have decided there will be a limit on the number of pupils entering Colaiste Caitriona.

“The result is that there is no place available for my son or another one of his fellow pupils from Bunscoil Eoin Baiste in Portadown.”

Ms McConville said her son would be forced to learn basic Irish in an English-medium school from next year, when he could have been working towards a GCSE.

Plans to open a new Irish-medium post-primary school in Armagh are not expected to be realised until next year.

Ms McConville said a lack of secondary places in Co Armagh could force parents considering sending their children to an Irish nursery or primary to reconsider.

She said she had appealed the school’s decision not to award a place but this appeal would not be heard until next month.

“As for the much heralded matter of parental choice, I think that my experience and that of my son shows that it is virtually non-existent in the Irish-medium sector,” Ms McConville said.

Deirdre McDonald, principal of St Catherine’s, said it would be inappropriate to comment on the situation given that there was an appeals process.

By Maeve Connolly
Irish News
03/07/09

SECTARIAN graffiti has been daubed on the walls of a popular north Belfast park warning Catholics to stay out.

The writing said “Warning all taigs: use your own park” and “ATAT” (“All taigs are targets”).

The graffiti appeared on a wall at Belfast City Council-run Grove Playing Fields and on a nearby wall, close to Alexandra Park.

The playing fields are halfway between the largely Protestant Shore Road area and the Antrim Road which is predominantly nationalist.

The playing fields are used by all sides of the community.

SDLP North Belfast councillor Cathal Mulligan said he was concerned because such behaviour was likely to raise tensions, especially during the marching season.

He said there had always been tension in the area around the July marching season but in recent years there had been “a certain degree of tolerance”.

“Some people are trying to stir things up against a background of loyalist decommissioning,” he said.

“I hope it’s not a campaign of intimidation.

“I hope this is the work of young people causing a nuisance and not sanctioned by any of the paramilitary groups behind the scenes.”

By Barry McCaffrey
Irish News
03/07/2009

British government plans to extend non-jury trials in Northern Ireland can not be justified in the wake of recent loyalist decommissioning, SDLP MP Eddie McGrady, right, last night warned.

Diplock, non-jury trials, officially ended in 2007 but the British government said they could temporarily continue in exceptional cases if the Director of Public Prosecutions believed there was a risk of jurors being intimidated.

Last month Justice Minister Paul Goggins said that Diplock courts would continue to operate in Northern Ireland for a further two years as jurors continued to face threats from paramilitaries.

However, Mr McGrady has told a Westminster debate that loyalist decommissioning means there is no justification for the extension of Diplock courts.

“The government has never provided any overwhelming evidence that jurors have been interfered with, with perverse results being caused,” he said.

“Surely there needs at least to be clear evidence that a jury would be likely to be intimidated before there could be any question of a non-jury court.

“The recent statement by Secretary of State Shaun Woodward welcoming the complete decommissioning of the UVF and the Red Hand Commando along with the start of decommissioning by the UDA, further weakens the governments case for the need to have these non-jury trials extended for a period of two years.”

Irish News
03/07/09

TWO men yesterday denied murdering schoolboy Thomas Devlin who was stabbed to death in north Belfast four years ago.

Appearing at Belfast Crown Court, 22-year-old Gary Ryan Taylor and Nigel James Brown (26) both pleaded not guilty to the murder of the 15-year-old, pictured, on August 10 2005.

Mr Taylor, of Mountcollyer Avenue, and Brown, of the Whitewell Road, both in Belfast, also denied charges of attempting to murder Tho-mas’s friend Jonathan McKee and inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr McKee with intent.

Brown has already pleaded guilty to attempting to inflict GBH on Mr McKee with intent but yesterday Mr Taylor pleaded not guilty to the same charge.

All the charges arise after Thomas and two friends were attacked by two men near the Somerton Road.

It is the prosecution case that Brown was armed with a wooden bat and that Mr Taylor had a knife which he used to stab Thomas four times in the chest causing massive bleeding and his death and also that he attacked Mr McKee.

Another friend who was with them managed to clamber over the wall of the nearby St Patrick’s school and escape the attack.

Following the pleas of not guilty, Mr Justice Hart remanded the two accused into custody.

He adjourned the case for further review until the new court term in September.

Irish News
03/07/09

MAIREAD Corrigan Maguire first came to prominence when she co-founded the Peace People with Betty Williams in 1976.

The group was founded after the deaths of three of the children of Ms Corrigan Maguire’s sister Anne Maguire.

Joanne, Andrew and John Corrigan were knocked down and killed by a car after its driver, IRA man Danny Lennon, was shot dead by the British army during a getaway in August 1976.

Appalled by the tragedy, Betty Williams contacted The Irish News and asked anyone who opposed violence to telephone her.

Ms Corrigan Maguire later phoned Ms Williams to thank her for her support and a few days later the Peace People group was born.

Around 35,000 people went out on the streets of Belfast a few weeks after the group had been founded to campaign for peace in the north.

Ms Corrigan Maguire and Ms Williams were awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1977 in recognition of their work.

Anne Maguire took her own life in 1980.

Her sister Mairead married Anne’s widower, Jackie Maguire, the following year.

Ms Corrigan Maguire continues to play a key role in the Peace People.

She opposed the 1991 Gulf War and has campaigned against the current Iraq war that started in 2003.

Ms Williams left the group in 1980 and emigrated to the US three years later.

She returned to Ireland in 2004 and now lives in Co Galway.

North Belfast News
3rd of July 2009

Relatives of people killed by loyalists from North and West Belfast have given news of a major decommissioning move by the UVF and Red Hand Commando a mixed reaction.

At the weekend the leadership of the two organisations, who were responsible for almost 1,000 deaths during the 30-year conflict, revealed that all arms under its control had been decommissioned.

The paramilitary command staff said it had “completed the process of rendering ordnance totally and irreversibly beyond use”.

The UDA has also given up some of its weapons and it is understood that the process will be completed before the deadline of February 2010.

North Belfast man JJ Magee tragically lost his 15 year old sister Anne in a UDA/ UFF gun attack in 1976.

For him the move towards complete decommissioning of all arms especially those brought in by the Ulster Resistance, should happen sooner rather than later.

“I do welcome the move and hopefully we see a more substantial move by the UDA in the future. I look forward towards a society where all guns are gone and we have a police force that isn’t armed like there is in the south.

“I do have concerns about weapons smuggled in from South Africa to the Ulster Resistance. Where did they go? “They killed a lot of nationalist people and I would want to be sure all those weapons were decommissioned.

“I want to see those who were involved in setting up the Ulster Resistance play their part by releasing information about the weapons or going to find out where they are now, or encourage people to give them up.”

The UVF said the decommissioning process began last autumn but was suspended after dissident republicans killed two soldiers and a policeman in Antrim and Craigavon, in March.

Former UVF prisoner Billy Hutchinson helped negotiate with the IICD led by General John de Chastelain who four years ago witnessed destruction of the IRA’s arsenal of guns, ammunition and explosives.

Josephine Larmour whose mother Sadie was murdered in 1979 by a UVF gunman said the news was extremely emotive, “especially for someone who has lost a loved one to the UVF,” she said.

“It is a very welcome statement and I hope it is true they have decommissioned all weapons. My focus is on the truth because the UVF and UDA were armed by the State. We need to know why our loved ones were targeted in the first place.”

Maureen Rafferty’s 14-year-old son Philip was abducted close to his home at Tullymore Gardens and shot by the UDA/UFF. The same day 17 year old Gabriel Savage was murdered in the same area, by what is believed was the same gang.

She said she didn’t believe the outlawed organisation had fully let go of all its weapons.

“They will never give up all their arms, I just don’t believe them and I would be very sceptical about what they’ve said.

“I do believe there was collusion in my son’s case, because not for love nor money could you find a soldier on that road the night Philip was taken but yet this gang had the freedom to come in and snatch my Philip and then come back and grab Gabriel Savage outside the Busy Bee and murder him. The hurt is very deep for me about this and I find it very hard to take it in.”

The day after Philip Rafferty’s murder, Eugene Heenan’s father Paddy was murdered as he made his way to work. One man Albert ‘Ginger Baker’ was jailed for his part in the killing.

“Yes there’s less guns on the streets but the big issue is why were innocent Catholics killed? The man who killed my father was trained by special forces, he was an informant and he was the first supergrass to give evidence against the UDA.

“The British government has to decommission their weapons which are their agents because together they stand accused of state murder. I think that is the far bigger issue than any sort of decommissioning by the UVF.”

BBC
3 July 09

Questions must be asked after police could not disclose new evidence about a break-in at Special Branch offices, the SDLP has said.

MLA Alex Attwood was speaking after the collapse of a case against a man wanted for his alleged role in the break-in at Castlereagh police station.

Larry Zaitschek currently lives in the United States

Larry Zaitschek, 41, from New York, had worked as a chef at the base.

Police said they could not disclose all relevant material and conceded he would not receive a fair trial.

Mr Zaitschek was being sought by police in connection with the raid in 2002 when a policeman was bound and gagged and files were stolen.

He has been living in the United States since shortly after the raid.

Alex Attwood said people needed and deserved to know the truth about why police could not disclose the new material.

“What is this information? Is it information that the British Army were involved some way or other around the Castlereagh break-in?” he said.

“Or is it information that the London government or another government has and refuses to disclose, or is it information that may involve an illegal group like the IRA, that for some reason, including for political reasons, is not being disclosed?

“We do not know, we can only speculate.”

Mr Zaitschek told BBC Northern Ireland on Friday that he “had nothing to do with the break-in at Castlereagh”.

“I have said that since day one and I should say that, especially in light of today’s new developments, while the PSNI say that the test was met, I would suggest that the test has never been met,” he said.

The police said this new material did not originate from either them or the security and intelligence agencies.

“Despite the efforts of the PSNI, we are not in a position to make available all the relevant material to PPS for the purposes of disclosure,” a police statement said.

The police statement expressly says that the information is not from an intelligence source - so where is it from?
TUV leader Jim Allister QC

“Consequently, the PPS have concluded that Mr Zaitschek could not receive a fair trial and PSNI are in agreement that a prosecution could not proceed in those circumstances.”

TUV leader Jim Allister said he was not satisfied with the police explanation for not making the evidence available to the PPS.

“It is clear to me that there is something very bizarre and unexplained going on here,” he said.

“Certainly there are cases where prosecutions are abandoned because of an inability to meet disclosure obligations and that generally is in circumstances, where in order to protect a source, information is withheld.

“It is quite clear that this is not the situation here because the police statement expressly says that the information is not from an intelligence source - so where is it from?”

UUP representative Basil McCrea said it was an unsatisfactory conclusion to the case.

“It will be very disappointing for a lot of people that some resolution to this case has not been found one way or the other,” he said.

The incident at the Castlereagh security base on 17 March 2002, where Mr Zaitschek worked as a cook, was a huge embarrassment for the police.

Three men walked in to what was supposed to be a highly secure room packed full of sensitive security information, tied up a police officer and stole dozens of Special Branch files.

Special Branch offices at Castlereagh were burgled in 2002

These files included details of Special Branch officers and their agents’ codewords.

Millions of pounds were spent re-housing officers and others, whose security had been compromised.

Mr Zaitschek flew to the US shortly after the break-in, leaving his wife and young son behind.

It is understood that Mr Zaitschek’s wife was in protective custody after the incident and may have been used as one of the key prosecution witnesses.

Mr Zaitschek has always denied all the charges against him and denied having anything to do with the break-in.

In June 2006, he began High Court action against the Public Prosecution Service.

He said he wanted to return to Northern Ireland to see his son, and demanded to know whether any action was to be taken against him.

The IRA denied being responsible for the break-in.