SAOIRSE32

RSF news - Republican Sinn Fein - http://rsf.ie
Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie
Date: 10 Iúil / July 2009

Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom

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In this issue:

1. Raids on homes in Belfast
2. Republicans claim ‘hourly’ harassment
3. RUC/PSNI accused of “naked sectarian policing”
4. Loyalist attacks increase
5. Hoax bomb warnings lead to road traffic chaos.
6. Plea for support for striking electricians.
7. So who did kill Rosemary Nelson?
8. Drumcree Orange parade again banned from Garvaghy Road
9. Press Statement from the Peace & Neutrality Alliance (PANA)
10. Statement from the National Platform EU Research and Information Centre
11. Break-in at Castlereagh RUC/PSNI barracks
12. Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009 passed in Leinster House
13. Press release from Free Gaza Movement [edited]
14. Between the lines

1. Raids on homes in Belfast
IN a statement on June 8 Republican Sinn Féin Belfast condemned the raids in homes of Republicans
“RSF Belfast would like to condemn without reservation the raids by the
RUC/PSNI on nationals homes in the greater Belfast area today [June 8}.
“Doors of homes were kicked in and children terrorised by the heavy handed attitude of the British occupation forces.
“Computers, mobile phones, personal effects and articles of clothing were also taken in some of the houses pictures were removed from the walls”.

2. Republicans claim ‘hourly’ harassment
A DERRY solicitor, Paddy MacDermott, claimed that the RUC/PSNI are stopping and searching people based solely on their political views after several people complained to him that they were getting stopped and searched by the police on “an hourly basis” under the British Terrorism Act.

“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 Derry Journal to say that they had been stopped and searched under the Terrorism Act.
One member, Paddy McDaid, said he was searched by the RUC/PSNI while holding his three year-old child in his arms.

Gary Donnelly also said he and his 16 year-old daughter (who has been stopped and searched herself on another occasion) were searched while the teenager was pushing a child in a pram along the quay. He also said he had been stopped “on several occasions” while his children were present.

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

3. RUC/PSNI accused of “naked sectarian policing”
THE RUC/PSNI was accused of “naked sectarian policing” after members in Coleraine allegedly facilitated the erection of loyalist flags close to the scene of the sectarian murder of nationalist Kevin McDaid during a Belfast High Court bail application on June 3 for Peter Neill.

Barrister Kieran Mallon told the court that facilitating the erection of the flags so close to the murder scene in the Heights area of the town “did not do the credit of the PSNI any good.”

He said: “The RUC/PSNI were in riot gear to facilitate the erection of these emblems. Members of the nationalist community in the area found the emblems offensive and all the more because of recent events”.

It was alleged in the High Court that three of the men questioned in connection with the murder and attempted murder were helping to erect the Orange flags and that some of the loyalists began to chant “Kevin McDaid Fenian b*****d”.

Peter Neill, a relative of Kevin McDaid, was arrested by the RUC/PSNI for allegedly shouting “Orange b*****ds, you’re not wanted here, we don’t want your f***ing flags” at the loyalists. He was remanded in custody and charged with incitement to hatred and behaviour likely to stir up hatred.

Kieran Mallon told the court that before his arrest Peter Neill had asked the British Colonial police if it would be illegal to take down the flags. He was allegedly told it would not be, but that it would breach the peace. Kieran Mallon said his client questioned was it not also a breach of the peace to enter a nationalist area to put up flags.
“Mr Neill says this is political policing at its worst. He said it is naked sectarian policing,” said Kieran Mallon.

He added: “The police facilitated a large group of loyalists to enter a known nationalist area with a cherry picker to erect these flags, some metres away from a sectarian murder.

Mr Justice Treacy granted bail on certain conditions, including that Peter Neill “is not allowed to reside in Coleraine and must adhere to a strict curfew”.

4. Loyalist attacks increase
FEARS that loyalists were intent on whipping up tensions in the lead up to the marching season were heightened during the last week of June after Catholic homes were targeted in sectarian attacks, paramilitary flags were erected near mixed areas and sinister graffiti appeared warning Catholics to stay out of council run parks.

Homes and cars were damaged when a gang of around 15 youths from the loyalist Tigers Bay area of Belfast went on the rampage in Atlantic Avenue and Newington Avenue on Saturday morning. The front window of a house was smashed and car wing mirrors and windscreens were shattered by the mob.

Anti-Catholic graffiti had to be removed from a wall of Grove Playing Fields clubhouse and in Alexandra Park Avenue by Belfast City Council. The graffiti warned Catholics to “use their own park” and said ‘All Taigs Are Targets’.

UVF flags were erected at the bottom of Fortwilliam Park close to the loyalist Mount Vernon estate. A Union Jack and an Ulster flag were also flying on the entrance gate to the mixed avenue and in the centre of Glengormley the Orange Arch is festooned with Union Jacks.

At the beginning of July the North Belfast News revealed that up to 300 loyalist band supporters converged in Glengormley for the opening of the Orange arch and hurled sectarian abuse at children and young people playing football on a green in the mainly nationalist Church Road area.

On the night of July 9 GAA club houses and Catholic Churches and headstones were damaged in sectarian attacks. In Ahogill, Co Antrim a car was burned out in the carpark of the St Mary’s GAA club after the gates were rammed open. Many Catholic families have fled the village of Aoghill over the years due to intimidation ans sectarian attacks. In 2005 the RUC issued Catholic residents with fire blankets and smoke alarms such was the level loyalist intimidation.

Churches in Ballymena (2), Ahogill, Cullebackey and Portglenone were damaged with paint bombs and a GAA mural in Dunloy was also damaged with paint.

In Belfast Orange Halls on the Whitewell Road and Upper Dunmurry Lane were targeted with paint bombs.

Huge bonfires are built all across the Six Counties with sectarian slogans hanging from many of them.

5. Hoax bomb warnings lead to road traffic chaos.
A series of hoax bomb warnings in Belfast and Derry led to chaos and widespread disruption on July 10.

Traffic was diverted from Albert bridge, Donegall Road and York Street in Belfast and a suspect car was examined at the Cityside retail park off York Street. Another car was examined in south Belfast but nothing was found.

In Derry Craigavon Bridge was closed while a van was examined on the lower deck. A suspicious object was also found in the grounds of Strabane RUC station.

6. Plea for support for striking electricians.
OPEN letter to Mr Des Derwin, President Dublin Council of Trade Unions on July 7, 2009 from Paddy Healy, Dublin Colleges Branch TUI
“I know that you will understand that the strike action mounted by TEEU is of the greatest importance to all Irish workers.
“TEEU is the first union to stand up to the attempt by the employers to use the recession to drive down pay and conditions across the economy by mounting an indefinite strike. If the electricians are defeated, employers and government will go on to devastate pay and conditions in both public and private sectors.
“As a first step in support of our colleagues, I believe that all Trades Councils should hold public rallies in support of the strikers in their local areas. Support committees should be set up. Please call a special meeting of Dublin Trades Council to support the strike”.
On July 10 it was agreed that both side in the dispute would go to arbitration.

7. So who did kill Rosemary Nelson?
The Guardian July 4, 2009.
The public inquiry into the 1999 murder of a Belfast human rights lawyer is now preparing its report. It’s findings could be explosive.

The public inquiry into the assassination a decade ago of the human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson was about to open its doors in a blank Belfast office block to witnesses last year when a new story began to circulate. It abandoned the theory accepted by virtually everyone close to the case - that [Rosemary] Nelson’s killers were probably a Belfast bomb-maker and veteran mid-Ulster loyalists, including people who had been British agents and a serving member of the British army.

Instead, the inquiry, chaired by Sir Michael Morland, was encouraged to believe that one of Nelson’s own clients, a former IRA prisoner called Colin Duffy, had in fact been responsible.

People who had campaigned for the inquiry began to wonder whether they’d made a mistake - was Nelson herself going to be impugned for the company she kept, the clients she represented in several high-profile cases that allegedly attracted RUC death threats? Was she going to be blamed for her own death?

This new theory - promoted by a high-level RUC source - offered an attractive alternative to collusion. The inquiry seemed obsessed by Rosemary Nelson’s motives and morals. But by the time the inquiry closed in June - it is now preparing its report - the focus had shifted on to an RUC culture which could have made her murderers feel safe to kill.

Everybody knew Rosemary Nelson’s life was at risk long before a bomb exploded under her car in 1998. She had had many death threats, but had been refused RUC protection. She was murdered a week before the publication of a report into allegations that members of the RUC had told her clients she’d soon be dead.

What no one had known, however, was that while the RUC itself was under scrutiny, special branch, MI5 and the British intelligence services had been spying on her. Between 1994-1998 security reports on Rosemary Nelson’s private and public life accelerated until, in the summer of 1998, an application for a warrant to put a bugging device in her property went to Mo Mowlam, then British Northern Ireland (sic) secretary. It troubled Mowlam, but she sanctioned it.

Rosemary Nelson, it appeared, was perceived as an enemy of the British state rather than a citizen entitled to its protection. The evidence has stunned the three previous inquiries - costing millions of pounds - into alleged collusion in Rosemary Nelson’s killing. They had all been told lies,that no intelligence file or files exist on Rosemary Nelson.

“That was an untruth,” says a furious source close to the murder investigation headed by Colin Port, now chief constable of Avon and Somerset police.

During her inquiry into complaints that the British state had failed to act on death threats, Nuala O’Loan, the first Six-County British police ombudsman, asked for intelligence files on Rosemary Nelson. She had “absolutely no doubt” that they never saw those files.

In 2003, in his report into emblematic cases, Peter Cory, a retired Canadian supreme court judge, concluded that there was prima facie evidence of collusion. He asked, but was given no “documents pertaining to the request for a warrant or the intelligence file on Rosemary Nelson”.

Rosemary Nelson was one of scores of lawyers in the Six Counties who endured RUC harassment but, according to Rory Phillips, counsel to the current inquiry, none had transformed that occupational hazard into a protest. Rosemary Nelson, “unusually if not uniquely” lodged formal complaints, taking her case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), the UN and the US, and encouraging her clients to do the same.

By the summer of 1998 Rosemary Nelson was already a hate figure as a result of her involvement in three cases: Duffy’s; that of Robert Hamill, a nationalist kicked to death by loyalists while members of the RUC watched; and her work as legal adviser to the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Association which opposed the Orangemen’s annual Drumcree march.

Then the Brtitish state forces went on the offensive. On 10 July 1998, the IPCC had warned Mo Mowlam that the RUC’s own inquiry into its members alleged death threats against her was unsatisfactory. This was unprecedented - Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan was incandescent.

RUC Special branch drafted the warrant to install a bugging device. In a bullish testimony, the assistant chief constable, Chris Albiston claimed that Rosemary Nelson fabricated IRA alibis, worked to a “paramilitary agenda”, and used her position to gather evidence about members of the RUC. However, Phillips noted that the RUC had provided no evidence to all this.

By the end of July British forces were warned of dire risks attached to the warrant: there would have been a backlash if it ever got out that RUC special branch was spying on Rosemary Nelson while it was accused of threatening her. And Mowlam’s approval of this breach of lawyer-client confidentiality could damage her position in the so-called peace process.

What was Chief Constable Flanagan’s role? During the Drumcree crisis, he described Rosemary Nelson as an “immoral woman”, David Watkins, the Six-County director of policing and security told the inquiry. Flanagan denied this. Indeed he denied knowing - or believing - that [ Rosemary Nelson was anything other than a lawyer doing her job, until he was confronted by the warrant. His denials have confounded many observers, “either he didn’t know what special branch was doing, or he is lying,” commented Martin O’Brien, former director of CAJ, the Six-County’s leading human rights organisation, “and neither of those options is palatable”. Why, he wondered, was all this coming out now?

A clue comes from Phillips’ closing speech to the tribunal. In summer 1998 “arguably the most important moments in the chronology” converged, Phillips said. The RUC claimed their real target was her republican clients, yet the “focus is entirely on Rosemary Nelson”.

Philips ventured that the intelligence revealed an RUC “attitude that was all of a piece”: Rosemary Nelson was “someone over whom it would not be worth taking any great trouble”. Despite years of surveillance there was no intelligence on the threats against her. Working with the RUC felt like “wading through treacle while treading on eggshells” Port told the inquiry.

Though much evidence about the suspects was in camera, Phillips drew attention to the security Operation Fagotto around Rosemary Nelson’s home the weekend before her death. It transmitted messages that her car was parked outside. Why? Loyalists were sighted before and after her death - but not followed up. Why?

There has always been an eerie code of silence about Rosemary Nelson’s death. Despite Port’s “outstanding” stings, said Phillips, the suspects had not spoken. But they had consistently uttered one mantra: “It was the government that did it.”

8. Drumcree Orange parade again banned from Garvaghy Road
THE Annual Drumcree parade was once again refused permission by the Parades Commission to parade down the nationalist Garvaghy Road area of Portadown, Co Armagh on July 5. They have been refused permission since 1998 but thousands of Orangemen have attempted to force their way down the road every year since. Many nationalists have been injured in serious clashes with the RUC (in riot gear flanked by dozens of land rovers) who defend the Orangemen.

Gerry Adams met with representatives of Portadown Orangemen to discuss the parade it was reported on June 25, a day before the Parades Commission banned the march from returning to Portadown town centre along the Garvaghy Road.

9. Press Statement from the Peace & Neutrality Alliance (PANA)
The Peace and Neutrality Alliance condemns the decision of the government (26-County Administration) to spend a massive amount of money sending postcards to all households on the so called legal guarantees the government intends to add as a Protocol to some treaty sometime in the future.

Roger Cole, Chair of PANA said on July 6:
“In a debate in the Dáil, Minister Martin said PANA had been looking for a Protocol and then when we achieved it, still opposed the treaty. Quite simply either Minister Martin is stupid or is very badly informed, and in PANA’s view he is not stupid, therefore he can only be very badly informed.
“PANA, since our formation in 1996 has sought a Protocol similar to that achieved by the Danish people that excludes them from paying for or involvement with the process of the militarisation of the EU. Recent public opinion polls in Denmark showed that the Danish people wished to retain their Protocol.
“The Minister however is now about to spend a massive amount of money sending postcards to all households telling them about Protocols that do not exclude Ireland from paying for or involvement with the militarisation of the EU. In any democratic society the media would at least inform people of the truth about PANA’s clearly defined position on the kind of Protocol they sought, especially as the two TSN/MRBI polls held in May and June 2008 showed that concerns over Irish Neutrality was one of the major reasons why the people voted NO to the Lisbon Treaty. The government destroyed the National Forum on Europe to prevent democratic debate and the bulk of the corporate media by refusing to report the truth are colluding with this attack on democracy.”

10. Statement from the National Platform EU Research and Information Centre
Thursday 2 July 2009
The Dáil and Seanad should insist on parliamentary control over the Taoiseach and
Government Ministers in exercising the self-amending powers of the Lisbon Treaty, just as the German Constitutional Court requires the German Parliament to do.

Ireland should not be content with a lesser standard of parliamentary control of Government Ministers than Germany if the Lisbon Treaty should be ratified.

The Government should make provision for Oireachtas control of Lisbon’s self-amending powers in legislation accompanying the Lisbon Treaty Referendum Bill.

Otherwise not only the people, but the Dail and Seanad, would be agreeing to give extraordinary powers to Ministers if the Lisbon Treaty should come into force.

The Simplified Treaty Revision Procedure proposed by Lisbon (Art.48.7, amended Treaty on European Union) would permit the Prime Ministers and
Presidents on the European Council to shift European Union decision-taking from unanimity to qualified majority voting in most of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union (TFEU), as long as they agreed this unanimously amongst themselves.

This could apply, for example, to the Treaty article dealing with harmonising indirect taxes (Art.113 TFEU), where unanimity is currently required

Lisbon also has several “bridge articles” or “ratchet-clauses”, which would allow the European Council to switch from unanimity to majority voting in certain specified areas, such as judicial cooperation in civil matters (Art.81.3 TFEU), in criminal matters (Art.83.1 TFEU), in relation to the EU Public Prosecutor (Art.86.4 TFEU) and the Multiannual financial framework (Art.312.2 TFEU).

While the Lisbon Treaty provides that National Parliaments have to be notified of shifts from unanimity to qualified majority voting in some, though not all, of these cases, National Parliaments are not required to give their formal agreement.
The Taoiseach and Government Ministers would be able therefore to exercise these powers without proper parliamentary control.

Of concern also is the enlarged scope of the “Flexibility Clause” (Art.352 TFEU), whereby if the Treaty does not provide the necessary powers to enable the Union attain its very wide objectives, the Council of Ministers may take appropriate measures by unanimity.

The Lisbon Treaty would extend this provision from the area of operation of theCommon Market, where it operates at present, to all of the new
Union’s policies directed at attaining its much wider post-Lisbon objectives. The Flexibility Clause has been widely used to extend EU law-making over the years. The consent of National Parliaments is not required for Government Ministers to use it.

As the judgement of the German Constitutional Court states (par. 414): “To the extent that the general bridging procedure pursuant to Article 48.7(3)TEU Lisbon and the special bridging clause pursuant to Article 81.3(3) TFEU grant the national parliaments a right to make known their opposition, this is not a sufficient equivalent to the requirement of ratification. It is therefore necessary that the representative of the German Government in the European Council or in the Council may only approve the draft Resolution if empowered to do so by the German Bundestag and Bundesrat within a period yet to be determined …”

And again: ” …the silence of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat may not be construed as approval.” (par. 416)

As things stand, Ireland’s Dail and Seanad will be expected to remain silent while Irish Government Ministers exercise these extraordinary new powers at EU level in a post-Lisbon EU - unless legislation comparable to what Germany’s Constitutional Court proposes makes their actions subject to parliamentary approval in advance, and subject indirectly to the approval of Ireland’s citizens.

On Tuesday the German Constitutional Court ruled that ratification of the Lisbon Treaty would only be constitutional for Germany if parliamentary control - and indirectly citizens’ control - over German Government Ministers operating at EU level were instituted in these “self-amending: Treaty areas as well as in certain other areas mentioned.
This should also be done in Ireland.
Web-site: nationalplatform.org

11. Break-in at Castlereagh RUC/PSNI barracks
ACCORDING to a report on June 3, the case against a former chef sought in connection with a 2002 break-in at Castlereagh has collapsed suddenly. The Six-County Prosecution Service announced that Larry Zaitschek can no longer be prosecuted because of the emergence of new evidence concerning the break-in at Castlereagh RUC/PSNI barracks where Larry Zaitschek worked in the canteen when three intruders breached security on St Patrick’s Day 2002.

A US citizen, Larry Zaitschek who returned to America in the aftermath, was sought in connection with the break-in, although he denied involvement and resisted attempts to extradite him.

It later emerged that Larry Zaitschek had known Denis Donaldson. The senior Provo figure was later exposed as an informer and was shot at an isolated cottage in Co Donegal, where he had been living.

The Six-County Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said the test for prosecution in his case was no longer met and released a statement which stated among other points:
“After the original decision for prosecution had been taken, new information came to the attention of the PPS through the chief constable.
“The chief constable has now confirmed that he is not in a position to make this information available for the purposes of disclosure.
“In those circumstances, the PPS has concluded that the test for prosecution is no longer met…”

The RUC also issued a statement: “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..” [edited]

Brian Rowan (Brian Rowan is a former Security Editor for BBC Northern Ireland and a regular contributor to the Belfast Telegraph ) wrote on Saturday, July 4 said that a source in the RUC told him: “PIRA did it. We know who did Castlereagh - how they did it”.
“They also know how the [Provisional] IRA covered its tracks - destroying a number of mobile phones used on the night of the robbery by chopping them into pieces and dumping them down a drain in west Belfast.

“Information taken from room 220 in the police complex was moved across the border. It contained many secrets, including the codenames of Special Branch agents. This was the most embarrassing security breach in the history of the conflict - the [Provisional] IRA had been able to walk the corridors of Castlereagh and get inside the door of the “source handling unit”.

A detective, explaining the significance of the office, told him the day after the story of Castlereagh broke: “If you are an SB tout you ring into 220.”

The Provisionals now had “a list of Special Branch officers and their telephone numbers and had also taken the log of “addresses of interest” - addresses of interest to the Special Branch right across Belfast”.

An RUC member on duty in the room where sensitive information was kept was overpowered and the intruders escaped with dozens of files. Millions of pounds were spent re-housing RUC personnel and others whose security was compromised.

12. Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009 passed in Leinster House
LEGISLATION expanding the role of the Special non-jury court in Dublin to deal with ‘gangland crime’ was passed by a substantial majority in Leinster House on July 10. The Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009 was carried by 118 votes to 23.

During the debate on the Bill Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern maintained that the objections of 133 criminal lawyers to the Bill (Irish Times July “would ultimately prove to be unfounded”.
The lawyers said that “While there are many aspects of the Bill that cause real and serious concern the most pressing are as follows: The abolition of jury trial for a range of new offences; the use of opinion evidence from any garda as to the existence of a criminal organisation; the failure to require that the garda opinion evidence be corroborated; the provision for secret hearings to extend detentions without the presence of the suspect or their lawyer..
“The United Nations Human Rights Committee has already condemned the inequality of similar provisions as it applies to existing offences but now it is proposed that we widen the net of those accused who are to be denied the right to a jury trial”.
Human Rights agencies also expressed serious concerns at the scope of the legislation and the lack of debate prior to rushing it through before the summer recess. The Irish Human Rights Commission, itself a state body, described several provisions as ‘disproportionate and unnecessary’ on the day they launched its 2008 Annual Report on July 9.
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) slammed the controversial ‘gangland bill’ as “bogus” because it completely neglects the rights of witnesses and victims of violent crime.
Speaking in Limerick, Mr Mark Kelly, Director of the ICCL, said:
“This is a bogus bill, which does nothing to tackle the serious problem of the intimidation of witnesses or to improve the lives of victims of violent crime.
“Secret detention hearings, special courts and unlawful detentions on the word of a low-ranking guard will not help crime victims or the families of people slain by violent thugs.
“Dermot Ahern’s proposals most probably breach the Constitution, but they certainly violate the trust of victims of crime and their families, to whom he has promised effective action”. (See also Irish Times OPINION, July 10).

13. Press release from Free Gaza Movement [edited]
(Israel attacks justice boat; kidnaps human rights workers; confiscates medicine, toys and olive trees 23 miles off the coast of Gaza).
TODAY [June 30] Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, The Spirit of Humanity, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries [including Ireland].
“This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip”, said Cynthia McKinney, a former US Congresswoman.

“According to an International Committee of the Red Cross report released on June 29, the Palestinians living in Gaza are trapped in despair. Thousands of Palestinians whose homes were destroyed earlier during Israel’s December/January massacre are still without shelter despite pledges of almost $4.5 billion in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building material into the Gaza Strip. The report also notes that hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their patients due to Israel’s disruption of medical supplies.

“The aid we were carrying is a symbol of hope for the people of Gaza, hope that the sea route would open for them, and they would be able to transport their own materials to begin to reconstruct the schools, hospitals and thousands of homes destroyed during the onslaught of “Cast Lead”.

Just before being kidnapped by Israel, Huwaida Arraf, Free Gaza Movement chairperson and delegation co-coordinator on this voyage, stated that:
“No one could possibly believe that our small boat constitutes any sort of threat to Israel. “We carry medical and reconstruction supplies, and children’s toys. Our boat was searched and received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before we departed, and at no time did we ever approach Israeli waters.

On July 1, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), organized a picket at the GPO in Dublin in support of those kidnapped and arrested who were on board the boat ‘Spirit of Humanity’ on June 30. Two are Irish citizens, Mairead Corrigan Maguire and skipper of the Free Gaza boat Derek Graham.

IPSC spokesperson Freda Hughes, addressing the crowd, said: “.we must remember that despite this particular outrage, this is part of an ongoing brutal siege on Gaza, which in turn is merely one facet of Israel’s slow and deliberate ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”

“In order for the Irish public to effect positive change in regard to the unjust occupation of Palestine, our most effective course of action is to adopt a policy of complete economic, cultural, sporting and academic boycott of Israel. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign has been to the forefront of the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions,” Ms Hughes concluded.
Related Link: http://www.ipsc.ie
On July 7 both Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Derek Graham were deported from Israel back to Ireland.

14. Between the lines
Vincent Browne, July 5, 2009, Sunday Business Post.
We have a seriously dysfunctional society.
We became a hugely rich country over the last 15 years, yet nearly one million people live on incomes that most of us readers of The Sunday Business Post would consider penury.
We have institutionalised queue-jumping. Sick people in urgent need of medical care who have been in the queue for months are leapfrogged by others, not because the others are in more urgent need, but because they have money.
We have de-socialised hundreds of thousands of young people because they live in impoverished, vandalised and criminalised communities without hope. We have de-socialised hundreds of thousands of rich kids who believe they are superior beings because they happen to come from rich homes. And we have consolidated that de-socialisation via an apartheid system in health, education and social class.
Our political culture and political system is also dysfunctional.

We have had a government in office for the last 12 years that has wantonly destroyed an economy that had recovered at last from the legacy of colonialism through the dynamism of our people and through good fortune.
Now, that boom has collapsed, inequality is embedded in society, and we are in the midst of a crisis that may destroy for generations the basis of a reasonably prosperous and cohesive society.

It is made worse by an initiative which could be fatal: the blanket guarantee to the banks, which may cost in excess of 20 billion. That 20 billion is a penalty for the dysfunctional society that permitted a few financial institutions to assume such commanding unaccountable power that, when their recklessness imperilled their solvency, the rest of society was required to rescue them at enormous cost.

Shortly, more than half a million people will be out of jobs and perhaps a million and a half adults and children will suffer poverty and despair as a consequence. This arises largely from the recklessness of government policy, apart from the global crisis.
What is even more dispiriting is that not one of the main political parties here - Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the Green Party and Labour - raised a cheep of protest against the policies that drove us into this crisis (or even proposed policies that would have made it even worse).None of them objected to the pro-cyclical fiscal policy, and several of them wanted ever more stimulus for the housing bubble. None of them is proposing any measures that would alter the relationship of wealth, power and influence. They simply want to revert to the dysfunctional society we had pre-crisis.

You would have thought that this would be an opportunity for the left-wing to campaign for a fairer and more equal society, on the basis of specific and plausible policies that would win popular support. But, for the most part, the left has responded with blather, cliche and waffle.

An attempt towards a left agenda - Ireland’s Economic Crash: A Radical Agenda for Change - has been published recently by UCD sociologist Kieran Allen. Its tone, in part, is shrill, and there is the depressingly predictable quotient of jargon and cliche, but there are also some good analysis and specifics.

Allen’s proposals on how we might shape a better society include:
(i) abandon last September’s guarantee to the banks;
(ii) start a major public works programme to create jobs;
(iii) appropriate Ireland’s natural resources;
(iv) redistribute wealth through taxation and/or confiscation.
Abandonment of the banks’ guarantee is just posturing. In my view, the guarantee should not have been given but, now that it has, the consequences of reneging on it would be disastrous. We need to borrow around 50 billion from the world’s financial markets in the next few years just to keep the country ticking over.
If we were to abandon the guarantee to the banks, we would find it almost impossible to raise this money. Alternatively, the interest payments on borrowings would be penal. The major public works programme is an idea though.
Much of our environment is derelict and needs renovation. We need new schools and community centres, and we need to build facilities for old and young people. Investment in these, particularly in community initiatives, would help to revive communities and the community solidarity which the Celtic tiger debilitated so spectacularly.
The stuff about natural resources - Allen says they are worth ?400 billion - is pie in the sky, a fantasy. Allen refers to a report by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, which, he said, noted a potential 10 billion barrels of oil offshore, valued at around 450 billion. I asked the department about this report and they responded that the 10 billion figure related to ‘potential’ reserves which might or might not exist.
They said hundreds of exploration wells could be required to find the oil. Bearing in mind that only two or three exploration wells are typically drilled offshore Ireland each year (only one this year), the discovery of such quantities of oil (where extraction was feasible) would require a very dramatic increase in exploration activity.
By the way, the document in question is not available to the public, only to the industry and at a cost of 25,000 per copy. So wealth redistribution is where it is at. People earning over 80,000 a year pay only 27 per cent of their income in tax, according to information in a written answer by Brian Lenihan, the Minister for
Finance, to a Parliamentary Question by Joan Burton on November 4 last.
There are 258,000 people in that bracket; they earn in total 29 billion, and they pay just 7.8 billion in tax. If they (ie us) were to pay 42 per cent of our income in tax, the tax would be 12 billion. That is more than 4 billion extra, almost enough to meet the targets the government has set on correcting the fiscal deficit next year. No need for social welfare cuts or cuts in education or health. It would also be the beginnings of the creation of a fairer society.
The left should get its act together. Now is the time to create a different and better society.

ENDS

Derry Journal
10 July 2009

Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness has accused the PSNI chief constable of operating a “cover up” policy by not releasing files on controversial killings to inquests.

Mr McGuinness said Hugh Orde is adding to the grief of republicans and nationalists who were killed in controversial circumstances by delaying the inquest process.

“In the course of recent years Hugh Orde has adopted a policy of concealment and cover-up with regard to co-operating with inquests into the controversial killings of a number of nationalists and republicans. Some of these people were killed directly by British State forces others by their surrogates in the loyalist gangs.

“Hugh Orde is deliberately and quite consciously denying these families their right to the truth by continuing to withhold files and preventing inquests proceeding in an open and transparent manner. This is unacceptable,” he said.

The Deputy First Minister called for an immediate change to PSNI policy in relation to inquests.

“Sinn Féin have raised this issue both with Mr Orde and the British Government. Quite simply this policy has to change. Sinn Féin will continue to support these families in their search for the truth. But people should be under no illusion where the problem lies. It lies directly with Hugh Orde, he has the power to release these files and finally fulfil his obligations to the Inquest process,” he said.

Derry Journal
08 July 2009

Mark Durkan MLA has met with representatives of Derry’s minority citizens to discuss an immigration Bill which has been labelled ‘draconian’.

SEEDS, which works with ethnic minorities in the city, say the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill could also bring back checkpoints on the Derry-Donegal border.

The Bill, which is currently going through Westminster, will strengthen border controls by bringing together customs and immigration powers.
Eddie Kerr, director of SEEDS, has slammed the Bill which he believes could spell the end of free movement between the British Isles.

The Bill, to be introduced at the end of 2009, will change citizenship requirements and create changes to travel between Ireland and Britain affecting students and deportees.

It could also include routine passport checks for air and sea passengers travelling between Britain and the Irish Republic for the first time since 1922.

Mr Kerr said the Bill was not far from being law but there was still time to make appeal for change. He said: “Mark had the opportunity to meet with some people representing the ethnic minorities in Derry and he has agreed to raise the concern about the bill and the issues facing the community in the city.

Mr Kerr said visa entry regulations in the UK were the most stringent in Europe. “They are changing this bill to create an Australian type point system,” he said.

“It will go from five to three categories and it will stop the flow of migrant workers. So it will be harder for people outside the European Union to get here. It is very draconian.

“The Border Agency will have more freedom which will make them unaccountable.

“(Mr Durkan] said he will try and get some regulation and accountability. It was a successful meeting and he listened patiently to people speaking about the issues.”

Irish News
09/07/09

THE Prison Service yesterday confirmed that it is investigating an incident in which leading dissident republican Colin Duffy, pictured, alleges that he was assaulted by warders at Maghaberry Prison earlier this week.

The 41-year-old, who is awaiting trial for the murder of two British soldiers, alleges that he was assaulted by warders while being moved inside the Co Antrim prison on Tuesday.

In a statement the Prison Service said that one of its officers was injured during

an incident on Tuesday morning.

“While we can not comment on the details of specific cases the Northern Ireland Prison Service can confirm that a prison officer was injured during an incident at Maghaberry Prison,” it said.

“Arising out of the same incident a prisoner subsequently made a complaint to the Prison Service.”

**Poster’s note: This defies description or explanation. People who engage in this kind of behaviour in order to celebrate their ‘culture’ need to grow a brain. If it’s illegal, it needs to be demolished and taken away immediately and anyone caught dumping there arrested–or are the police too busy busting women and children in peaceful marches?.

By Seanin Graham, Health Correspondent
Irish News
09/07/09

WORRYING: Wooden pallets stacked 40ft high at the entrance to Belfast’s City Hospital in preparation for a bonfire on Sunday

CONCERN is mounting about the siting of an illegal bonfire next to the entrance of one of Northern Ireland’s biggest hospitals.

Wooden pallets were yesterday still being added to the 40ft-high bonfire on the Donegall Road in Belfast, just yards from the City Hospital where the north’s regional cancer centre is based.

Hundreds of cancer patients attend the cancer unit while the hospital is also the location of one of the north’s busiest A&E units.

Organisers say the bonfire will be “twice as high” by the weekend with plans to light it on Sunday.

While the main hospital entrance is on the Lisburn Road, many patients use the Donegall Road gate due to its close proximity to the M1 motorway.

SDLP assembly member for South Belfast Carmel Hanna, a former nurse, said that, as well as people feeling intimidated by the bonfire, there were health and safety issues around where it was situated.

“It is not appropriate to have bonfires on a street, never mind next to a hospital,” she said.

“There are environmental health and safety issues, as well as access problems.

“A lot of work has been done by Belfast City Council in the management of bonfires, which we reluctantly agreed to. You can imagine how people who are not part of the bonfire culture would be intimidated.”

A spokesman for the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust said the trust was not aware of any bonfire-related access difficulties to the hospital in recent years but stressed that access to hospitals “should be kept clear at all times”.

By Scott Millar
Irish Examiner
Saturday, July 11, 2009

SINN FÉIN has been urged to begin a far-reaching debate about what the party stands for by former mayor of Tralee Toireasa Ferris.

Writing in the Sinn Féin paper An Phoblacht, Ms Ferris laid bare the identity crisis currently engulfing the party’s southern section as it comes to terms with its failure to build on gains in the 2004 local elections.

In the article Ms Ferris states: “Voters are unclear about what we stand for, which is not surprising as I’m sure many of us are starting to wonder about this also. We have been trying to appeal to too broad a spectrum of people and as a result have lost touch with our base.”

She added: “The party is suffering an identity crisis — what are we trying to achieve in the 26 [counties] and what do we stand for besides a united Ireland? We can’t afford to wait any longer to answer these questions.” Ms Ferris, who garnered 64,671 in June’s Munster European election, is the daughter of Sinn Féin TD and former leading Provisional IRA member, Martin Ferris.

Her demand for Sinn Féin to begin a major re-examination of its role south of the border is another public indication of the wide-ranging discussions within the party over its future direction.

Last month, two of the party’s most prominent southern local councillors, John Dwyer in Wexford and Christy Burke in Dublin, resigned from the party citing policy problems.

In her article Ms Ferris suggests: “We must return to being community activists, not politicians.” The party must also give up its attempts to be a “catch-all party” and “focus on building an electoral coalition that can bring us 20-30% of the vote”.

In recent months, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has endorsed a change in his party’s policy, away from attempts to enter government in the south as soon as possible to one of building a broad progressive alliance with other groups, including the Labour Party.

This has seen the party form policy alliances with the Labour Party on South County Dublin council and Dublin City Council. However, the party’s leftward direction in the south has caused some tension with Sinn Féin’s northern-dominated leadership, with Mr Dwyer claiming that he was asked by Mr Adams to “stop waving the red flag” in Co Wexford.

By Allison Morris
Irish News
10/07/09

LOOMING: Loyalist flags placed below St John’s Catholic church in Coleraine, close to Somerset Drive where Kevin McDaid was murdered last month (Photo: Margaret McLaughlin)

THE UDA leadership last night denied there was a split in the organisation following the “withdrawal of goodwill” from loyalists in the north west.

There has been widespread condemnation of a statement issued by the North Antrim Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG), which said it was withdrawing support for the political institutions and police.

The group, which speaks on behalf of the UDA, claimed the PSNI was operating a “green agenda” in certain areas.

UPRG leaders, mainly in Belfast, have recently been talking up the prospects of full UDA decommissioning.

However, the statement has further heightened fears that a break-away group could threaten the move.

The statement came as two of Northern Ireland’s most senior police officers last night appealed for calm over the Twelfth weekend amid raised tensions in north Antrim since the murder of Kevin McDaid in May.

Assistant chief constables Alistair Finlay and Dave Jones urged people to behave responsibly and not engage in provocation.

However, Sinn Fein councillor Billy Leonard said that given the looming Twelfth weekend nationalists in the Coleraine area were fearful.

“Undoubtedly this will increase tensions given the weekend that we have ahead of us,” he said.

“I always said that Coleraine loyalists would be the last to come on board and this statement has shown that to be a case.

“It signifies just how out of touch they are and to try and portray themselves as victims following the murder of Kevin McDaid is incredulous.”

Ulster Unionist assembly member for East Derry David McClarty said the loyalist reaction was “deeply disappointing”.

“Being born and bred in the Heights area of Coleraine I am totally committed to trying to restore calm to the area,” he said.

“I am well aware that this is not going to happen over night but the process has to be started.”

There has been speculation that the statement signifies a withdrawal of support for the UDA’s ongoing decommissioning process by the organisation’s Derry leadership.

Leading figures in the organisation said that while there was serious discord within loyalism no split or return to orchestrated violence was on the cards.

“There are a number of serious concerns that have came to a head, that much is obvious and they do need to be addressed,” one said.

“Unionist politicians have done a poor job of representing the interests of beleaguered loyalist communities and this is a product of that.”

By Barry McCaffrey
Irish News
10/07/09

ONLY a handful of nationalist families remain in the Co Antrim village of Ahoghill it has emerged as tensions have been heightened by sectarian attacks on Catholic churches, GAA premises and Orange halls ahead of the Twelfth.

Up to a dozen families have fled the north Antrim village in recent years because of loyalist intimidation, community workers said yesterday.

Police were last night studying CCTV footage from a GAA ground on the Crosskeys Road as they investigated sectarian attacks on the club and a nearby Catholic church.

ARSON: A car which was driven into the grounds of St Mary’s GAA club in Ahoghill, Co Antrim, and set alight early yesterday (Photo: Hugh Russell)

The church and headstones were targeted in a paint-bomb attack. At the GAA club a car was driven into the grounds and set on fire.

These were among a series of attacks in the north Antrim area and came within hours of a hard-hitting statement from the Ulster Political Research Group which accused auth-orities of promoting a “green agenda”.

Four other Catholic church-es – one in Cullybackey, one in Portglenone and two in Ballymena – were paint-bombed, as was a GAA mural in Dunloy.

Orange halls in north and south Belfast were targeted.

In the west of the city petrol bombs were thrown across an interface.

The attacks on Catholic churches were condemned by Presbyterian congregations and the Orange Order, which said they were aimed at increasing community tensions.

“The people who attack our property or those who attack Catholic churches must be handed over to the police,” a spokesman for the order’s Grand Lodge said.

“Their actions are despicable and must be condemned by everyone. The people who attack Catholic churches do not speak for the Protestant community.”

There were appeals for an end to vandalism of all nationalist and unionist properties.

Ahoghill has a long history of sectarian attacks. In 2005 police issued fire blankets to Catholic families in the village.

Community workers say that only a few nationalist families remain although it is hoped that a planned housing development on the outskirts of the village – close to the GAA ground – could encourage Catholics to return.

Sinn Fein MLA Daithi McKay said the attacks were clearly orchestrated across north Antrim. He said everyone in this area must use their influence to defuse tensions.

The SDLP’s Declan O’Loan said negative forces were filling a vacuum he claimed was being created as a result of poor leadership from some unionist politicians.

Ulster Unionist the Rev Robert Coulter condemned the church attacks.

News Letter
11 July 2009

IN Belfast, the main parade will assemble from 9.45am at Carlisle Circus and the procession will commence at 10am and will follow the route of Carlisle Circus, Clifton Street, Donegall Street, Royal Avenue, Donegall Place, Donegall Square North, (with a short service at the Cenotaph, within the grounds of the City Hall) Donegall Square West, Bedford Street, Dublin Road, Shaftesbury Square, Bradbury Place, Lisburn Road, Balmoral Avenue, Malone Road, Barnetts Demesne.

Shops will open for a few hours in the city centre from 12.30 to 4.30pm. There shouldn’t be any traffic disruptions during those hours.

The return parade will commence at 4.15pm and return to Carlisle Circus via Barnetts Demesne, Malone Road, Balmoral Avenue, Lisburn Road, Bradbury Place, Shafts-bury Square, Dublin Road, Bedford Street, Donegall Square West, Donegall Square North, Donegall Place, Royal Avenue, Donegall Street, Clifton Street, Carlisle Circus.

Subsidiary district parades will join the main parade and will leave the Sandy Row, Templemore Avenue and Ballynafeigh areas between 8.30am and 9.30am.

On the return parade, the districts will break off from the main parade and return to their areas. Disruptions are expected between 8am and 9am, especially on the Crumlin Road, Shankill Road, Woodvale Road, York Road and York Street; and between 9.45am and 10.15am, disruptions are possible on the Springfield Road between West Circular Road and Lanark Way.

In the evening, between 6pm and 8pm, motorists are advised to avoid the Shankill, Crumlin and York Road due to return parades.

For all feeder parades, police will attempt to keep traffic disruption to a minimum and will avoid closing roads where possible.

For the main parade, all road closures/diversions will be lifted as soon as possible as the tail of the parade moves through the city.

News Letter
11 July 2009

THE proposer of controversial payments for Northern Ireland terrorism victims yesterday said it might have been a mistake to put a value on lives lost.

Lord Robin Eames added that the £12,000 recognition sum was based on an equivalent grant already paid out by the Irish government, but admitted matters could have been handled differently.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward ruled out compensation earlier this year after it prompted a fierce backlash from unionists and some victims groups because it would include republican and loyalist paramilitaries.

Lord Eames said: “We knew that after a very heated period of debate this recommendation might overshadow all the other proposals and be very hurtful within the victim family for those who felt that there was an equivalence being advanced between perpetrator and victim.

“With the benefit of hindsight we might have chosen a different way or different words, we might not even have mentioned a figure.”

The report was published in January by the Consultative Group on the Past, an independent group chaired by former Church of Ireland primate Lord Eames and ex-Catholic priest Denis Bradley.

It was established to deal with the legacy of the Troubles, during which more than 3,000 people died.

The proposals included a legacy commission which would be led by an international figure.

Lord Eames was writing in the newsletter of lobby group of Committee on the Administration of Justice.

Speaking about the controversial £12K payout, he said: “With the benefit of hindsight, this probably could have been written a different way or expressed a different way.

“I would go as far as to say we all brought our personal backgrounds and outlooks to the work that we were given to do… but we were tied by what we faced in terms of… the legislation.”

Andersonstown News
11th of July 2009

The outcome of yesterday’s judicial review involving the Irish language has been condemned by Irish speakers from Ireland to the United States.

The review upheld The Administration of Justice Language (Ireland) Act of 1737 which prohibits the use of any language other than English in courts in the North.

Belfast Irish speaker and musician, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Catháin, took the case when his request to apply for an entertainments licence in Irish was refused.

A judicial review was heard in Belfast High Court last year where a barrister acting for Mr Mac Giolla Catháin argued that the continuing operation of the 1737 Act contravened the rights of Irish speakers under the Good Friday Agreement, the St Andrews’ Agreement, the Human Rights Act 2000, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and other international legislative instruments including the Framework Convention for the Rights of National Minorities.

A barrister for the British government counter-argued that the continued operation of the 1737 Act did not constitute discrimination or breach of national or international agreements.

Yesterday a High Court judge dismissed Mr Mac Giolla Catháin’s case.

Responding to the decision, Michael Flanigan, Mr Mac Giolla Catháin’s solicitor, said the Act is not applicable to contemporary society.

“This decision says the legislation from 1737, which is an absolute bar on the use of Irish, is still fit for purpose in a multi-cultural, pluralistic society in NI and that is difficult to accept.

“The British Government has failed to follow through on its promises in the Good Friday Agreement and St Andrew’s.

“This legal challenge came about because of that failure. Now we have to look to what rights of appeal the applicant will have.”

Mr Flanigan said his team will be studying the judgment carefully to decide what course of action they will pursue next.

“We would like to reach the position where Irish speakers have the same rights as Irish speakers in the Republic, Gaelic speakers in Scotland and Welsh speakers in Wales. Why should we be treated so differently?” he added.

Keen interest

Calling for an appeal of the decision, the Brehon Law Society – a New York based association of judges, lawyers and law students – said the decision demonstrates “institutional and uninformed grounds for intolerance.”

Domhnall O’Cathain, the Society’s Publicity Director and Secretary, told the Andersonstown News why he and other members of the Society have taken a keen interest in this particular case.

“We have been keeping a close eye on this case because we are devoted to issues of equality and parity of esteem,” he said.

“The Administration of Justice Language (Ireland) Act 1737 is a relic of the era of the oppressive Penal Laws. While ostensibly its purpose was to promote English as the language of the law, one of its most devastating effects was to demote the Irish language in general.

“Today’s decision is another insult to the legal heritage of the Irish language.

“Any effort to couch the decision in legal niceties is misleading. It merely perpetuates the discriminatory effect of the Act.”

Mr ó Cathain’s remarks were echoed by Janet Muller, CEO of Pobal, an umbrella organisation for the Irish language.

“We are disappointed but not surprised,” she said.

“This is not the end of the story, but another step in the path towards the repeal of this discriminatory Act. We shall be taking legal advice on this and we shall not stop working on this matter until the Act is gone.”

North Belfast News
Editorial

The recent attacks on Orange Halls in North Belfast are a disgrace and merit the type of clear condemnation from Sinn Féin and the DUP, which can be read in our pages this week.

Sadly, we can’t bring you similar unionist outrage at the use of flags and paramilitary emblems to harass and intimidate Catholics in North Belfast because we can’t find any.

For nationalists, the hoisting of paramilitary flags and Union Jacks beside their homes confirms their view that, for many unonists, the Twelfth of July is everything to do with the cartoon on this page by Oisín and very little to do with religious celebration.

The drinkers, flag-wavers, vandals and ne’er-do-wells will cast a shadow over the Twelfth this year as ever. But while their antics will be disowned by the Loyal Orders, the reality is that both shades of unionism feed off one another. The besuited brethren condemn the “Whore of Babylon” at the field and insist in stomping round areas of North Belfast where they are not welcome while the underclass of unionism vents its spleen attacking Catholic places of worship and erecting offensive arches and flags in shared spaces such as Glengormley.

No wonder nationalists find claims by the Tourist Board that the Twelfth is a fun occasion for all the family a bad joke.

Yet, this orange-tinted glasses version of what until recently was the most violent period in the local calendar has been given a name, Orangefest, and, indeed, comes complete with superhero Diamond Dan. This makeover extends to rolling out the red (or should that be orange) carpet for Catholics, though anyone who feels slightly queasy at the the sale of baby bibs with the legend “Born to s**t on the Garvaghy Road” at the field may prefer to avoid the gathering points.

Still, most nationalists are willing to give the Orangefest shenanigans a fair wind. 40 years on from the Bombay Street pogroms, the general feeling is better Orangefest than Orange violence.

With one eye to the orange of the Tricolour then, nationalists are keen to allow Orangemen their day in the sun.

The other side of the squeezed Orange Order however, is the demand to be allowed to walk where the brethren are clearly not wanted. Some progress has been made in halting the most egregious displays of Orange triumphalism but, stymied on the Garvaghy Road and the Ormeau Road, loyalists have switched the action to sleepy villages where Catholic and Protestant dare to live together.

Shortsighted unionists who see their colours flying high over the Twelfth may think that their writ runs again. The truth, however, is that despite the incursions into Catholic areas during the marching season, the Orange State is dead and gone.

That’s not to say that there isn’t the odd kick in King Billy’s old horse yet. But ultimately, those who chose to live in the past, can’t expect to enjoy the spoils of the future. Which may just be why the Orange Order membership has fallen to its lowest level in over two centuries.

News Letter
11 July 2009

TWO people are prepared to lodge £5,000 each to secure the release on bail of a man held responsible for the Omagh bomb atrocity, a court heard yesterday.

A lawyer said suitable addresses had also been acquired for Liam Campbell, 46, of Upper Faughart, Dundalk, Co Louth.

A landmark judgment in a civil action brought by relatives of some of the 29 people killed in the Omagh explosion found “cogent evidence” that Campbell was a member of the Real IRA’s Army Council.

A bail application did not proceed after the court heard that his lawyers are considering an appeal against the decision to hold the extradition hearing in Belfast instead of Dublin.

Extradition proceedings were already under way in Dublin when Campbell was arrested in south Armagh in May.

The hearing was adjourned until August 24 when Judge Tom Burgess will set a time for the extradition hearing.

News Letter
10 July 2009

First Minister Peter Robinson has said he believes direct talks between Portadown Orangemen and Garvaghy road residents will happen “soon”.

The bitter dispute over the Drumcree parade has dragged on for more than a decade.

Mr Robinson made his comments following a meeting with the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition at Stormont Castle.

It was the first time the residents had met with senior members of the DUP.

Residents spokesman Brendan McKenna said the the meeting was cordial and the DUP leader appeared open-minded about ways to resolve the Drumcree impasse.

The talks at Stormont followed last Sunday’s peaceful parade in Portadown and have been welcomed by all sides in the dispute.

Portadown Orangemen have already met with the First Minister and asked him to intervene and try to mediate in a settlement.

Mr Robinson said he felt there was sufficient common ground on both sides to allow a meeting to take place.

He said he thought both groups would be content for incoming Parades Commission chairman Rena Shepherd to chair any meeting.

“I think both of them are prepared to sit down with the other,” Mr Robinson said.

“There are issues in relation to the agenda which I believe can be sorted out.

“I would hope to talk later today or tomorrow to Mrs Shepherd and hopefully she can advance it from there.”

Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition members described their talks with Mr Robinson over the Drumcree dispute as “cordial”.

Coalition spokesman Brendan McKenna said Mr Robinson had appeared “open-minded”.

He said the First Minister had shown he “wasn’t going to act as a proxy on behalf of the Orange Order or as a mediator”.

Mr McKenna said the DUP leader was showing a fair approach.
The GRRC said there was “no animosity” in the meeting.

“Mr Robinson said he had heard the Orange Orders views on the whole thing three weeks ago and wanted to hear the opposing views from the nationalist community in Portadown.”

Parades Commission members are to meet the First Minister at the same venue later today.

North Belfast News
10th of July 2009

A treasure trove of rare photographs kindly donated by North Belfast pensioners is shining a light on a bygone era (click here to see the pictures in free subscription digital edition).

The collection of unique photographs was put together by members of the Silver Threads Senior Citizens Group and displayed in the Cliftonville Road’s Survivors of Trauma centre.

It was facilitated by the Ulster People’s College under their People’s History Initiative.

The Life in Our times exhibition is a snapshot of what life was like in North Belfast and beyond in the1930-1960s era.

Former Star of the Sea school teacher Kathleen Regan’s photograph shows her as a young nine year old girl, with her family and relatives at a house close to Toome. The family was evacuated there for their own safety following the Belfast Blitz of 1941.

The Regan family home in Spamount Street was hit during the bombing. Kathleen said when they returned from the air raid shelter they found their clothes “hanging from the lamp-posts” and “the bedrooms were burned”.

“We had to go immediately to the evacuation centre and that’s where they sent to us, to Crosskeys. That picture was taken the day after the bombing. Six weeks we spent there and we had no suitcases, just a few belongings in a pillowcase.”

Photographs of Cavehill, Napoleon’s Nose and the New Lodge were submitted by Margaret McSherry’s late husband Des McSherry.

Margaret said her husband was always a keen photographer who won the top prize in the inaugural Belfast Exposed awards in 1983 .

“He was always interested in taking photos but he began to take it seriously in the 1980s. He was very good at it. After he died we didn’t realise how many he took. Up in the attic we found a stack of them, there was so many of them and we didn’t have a clue.”

North Belfast News
10th of July 2009

**Poster’s note: Compare the police action >>here when they waited 12 hours to respond to a cash machine being stolen with a digger because they were afraid to get ambushed and shot. I guess it’s a lot more convenient and less stressful to go after protesting women and children..

The police response to a peaceful protest highlighting the 10 year plight of residents living in unfit housing conditions in the New Lodge has been slammed.

Liam Wiggins from the Upper Long Streets Residents Committee branded the deployment of riot police and flood of police vehicles called in response to their peaceful rally as “totally out of hand”.

The protest last Friday afternoon was made up of mostly women and children from the Upper Long Streets who took to the streets to demand better housing .

The residents campaign is stepping up a gear in light of a 10-year-wait for news of a decision from the Department of Social Development about whether they are going to redevelop the 100 year old homes.

The campaigners marched around the New Lodge and North Queen Street before a heavy police presence moved in.

When several women tried to walk down Henry Street on the pavement they were stopped by police.

“When we got to North Queen Street the police had blocked off Henry Street, some people were manhandled after they tried to get down Henry Street. The women were saying it was their right to walk down the pavement but the police stopped them. One woman has a bruise on her arm and another one has bruising to her neck.

“At that stage police had formed a line from Henry street to Great Georges Street, it was very menacing. Some women said they were really frightened and all they were doing was highlighting the housing situation here.”

The amount of Land Rovers and police cars on the scene was not proportionate, Liam added.

“It was unbelievable, like something out of the Troubles 20 years ago. You had police cars doing hand brake turns, the riot squad, about 15 jeeps and cars, the response to women chanting ‘we want better housing’, was totally over the top .”

Chairman of the North Belfast Civil Rights Association (NBCRA) Peter McIlroy said they fully supported the residents .

“DSD are attempting to put the Long Streets on the back burner for another 10 years which is unacceptable.

“NBCRA condemn the heavy handed tactics of the PSNI.The riot squad were an over-reaction to the protest which consisted of mostly women and children. There was no need for public order policing for civil rights issues.”

The PSNI said their actions were in response to an illegal protest.

“Police responded to a report of an illegal protest in the Lepper Street area of North Belfast around 3.15pm on Friday 3 July.

“Organisers of parades are required to give formal notification of their intentions. Participants were given clear and unequivocal warning by police that their formation and assembly on a roadway constituted an illegal parade.

“In the event that an illegal parade goes ahead, police will seek to preserve public order and ensure public safety. Officers spoke to the organisers and monitored the situation. Following consultation between organisers and police, the crowd dispersed peacefully.”

North Belfast News
10th of July 2009

Young people in Glengormley using mobile phones to organise sectarian recreational riots are “making life a misery” for residents in the area it was claimed this week.

Residents living in the Glebe and Ashgrove area of Glengormley are said to be angry at the rioting between Catholic and Protestant youths in the area that is happening on a weekly basis.

The young people are texting and ringing each other to organise a riot.

Ciaran Tully, the Sinn Feín representative in Glengormley said the problem is getting worse as the summer goes on.

“The people who live in Glebe and Ashgrove are just living in misery with this behaviour that is going on near enough every weekend,” he said.

“They young people are getting in touch with each other through their mobile phones and are organising to meet up to riot. Most weekends the people living here are tortured with it, I know of one woman who sold her home because of it. “Cars are being damaged and wing mirrors are being kicked off and people are afraid to come out of their houses when all this is going on. This is young ones from both sides getting tanked up on drink and fighting with each other.

“These past number of weeks it has been getting worse. A group of us have been going out and talking to the young people trying to get them to stop it.”

Ciaran Tully said parents in the area need to be aware of where their children are and what they are getting up to at night time.

“The parents need to be taking responsibility for their children. There are young ones here who are aged between 12 and 18 years old and they are all playing their part in it.

“Their parents have to realise where their children are and the trouble they are getting into before someone is seriously hurt.”

A PSNI spokesperson said: “Police in Glengormley have received reports from local residents in the Glebecoole Park area of youths causing annoyance.

“Police patrols have been increased in response to these concerns.

“Anyone detected engaged in street disorder will be dealt with in a robust fashion and may face prosecution.

Parents have a key role to play in tackiling this issue.

“We would urge that parents be aware of where their children are and what they are up to. Officers from the Neighbourhood Policing Unit have worked, and will continue to work in partnership with local residents and elected representatives, to resolve any issues

BBC
10 July 09

UUP councillor Bob Stoker has said families from republican areas sent him supportive messages after his British soldier son was injured in Afghanistan.

Michael Stoker suffered severe burns when his patrol was ambushed in May.

Mr Stoker, a former Lord Mayor of Belfast, said he was touched by the tributes from political opponents.

“I’ve been getting messages of support from west Belfast, the New Lodge, the Bogside in Derry, there’s people out there who care,” he said.

“They may have a different political viewpoint, but I think they saw there was a young man from Belfast who was severely injured and they wanted to show their support.”

The 22-year-old Queen’s Royal Hussars soldier’s vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device.

Mr Stoker said, that while he was 100% behind the soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, he questioned the purpose of the British military campaigns.

“I’m not personally in support of the war, either in Iraq or Afghanistan, and I’m on record saying that,” he said.

“The troops who are out there on the ground, they need to be supported by whatever means necessary, which means extra equipment, better equipment, better living conditions that should be afforded to them.

“The support for the troops will always be there although there is a groundswell of people asking me why are we actually in Afghanistan.

“I don’t think it’s good enough anymore for politicians to say it’s to defeat terrorism.

“There are other ways of defeating terrorism, other than sending young men and women into a situation like this.”

Belfast Telegraph
Saturday, 11 July 2009

Loyalist killer and his Belfast pal organised hold-up where blind man was attacked with hammer

Two Belfast thugs with loyalist paramilitary connections have been warned to expect lengthy jail sentences after being convicted of plotting a terrifying armed robbery in England during which a blind man was attacked.

Guilty: Alexander Calderwood outside court in Bournemouth (Pictures: Corin Messer)

Loyalist killer Alexander Calderwood (47) and career criminal Billy Grogan (48) were each found guilty of conspiracy to rob over a gun and hammer raid at a snooker club in Bournemouth.

The co-defendants used phone and text messages to direct two members of staff from a notorious pub called Deacons to the Academy Snooker Club. They also made sure a security door was open.

The two raiders, Martin Trent and Martin Willis, went on to attack a blind man with a silver claw hammer, fire a pistol shot into the roof, and escape with just over £4,000.

Former soldier Trent (41) and Willis (46) pleaded guilty to robbery while Calderwood and Grogan went on trial at Bournemouth Crown Court where they were convicted this week.

Belfast-born Grogan has previously received jail sentences totalling more than 65 years for robbery and drug dealing while Calderwood is a former UDA member with a conviction for murder.

Grogan was co-owner of Deacons at the time of the raid and Trent, Willis and Calderwood all lived and worked at the pub.

The officer in the case, Det Sgt Ashton Rietiker, said afterwards: “Billy Grogan is a dangerous offender and it was important to obtain a conviction against him.

“I think he is the man who orchestrated and directed the robbery. Calderwood is Grogan’s best friend and I think he was quite happy to go along with whatever Billy Grogan said.

“I believe it was a robbery that was not well planned — I think they thought it was so easy they could get away with it. The fact they were able to acquire a firearm, which still remains unaccounted for, is a very real concern.”

The police relied on detailed analysis of the men’s phones and CCTV images from Deacons and the Academy to put Grogan and Calderwood in the frame over the raid at 3.20am on October 22 last year.

Guilty: career criminal Billy Grogan

Grogan, of Belle Vue Road in Southbourne, directed operations from the pub and let the robbers in and out, while Calderwood posed as a normal customer at the snooker club and checked the security door was open.

Trent and Willis, clad in balaclavas, escaped back to Deacons in Christchurch Road, which was just 10 minutes walk away.

The jury, which was reduced by illness to 10 members, reached a majority 9-1 verdict after 11 hours and 47 minutes of deliberations spread over three days.

Judge Harvey Clarke QC said the defendants would get “very significant sentences” when they appear in court again in August.
Sinister background of thugs who terrorised Dorset

Belfast days: Calderwood served 11 years in jail for the murder of a Catholic while Grogan (right) took part in a loyalist hunger strike

Billy Grogan has been one of Dorset’s most notorious criminals since moving to the English county around 15 years ago.

He grew up in a Belfast in the street next to life long friend Alexander Calderwood and the 48-year-old was alleged during a police inquiry to have links to loyalist paramilitaries.

He was understood to be one of 10 loyalists who went on hunger strike in the 1980s demanding to be separated from Republican prisoners.

Calderwood is an ex-UDA man who served 11 years in jail for the murder of 20-year-old Catholic Alexander Reid who was battered to death with a breeze block in 1980.

He was one of three men convicted of the gruesome murder which took place in an alleyway off Belfast’s Shankill Road where the victim had been delivered by taxi after being targeted for being a Catholic. He was punched and kicked until he was unconscious before being repeatedly struck on the head with a brick and concrete block.

Calderwood later claimed to have become a born-again Christian while in jail. On his release, he became a cross-community church worker and participated in a TV programme with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

During the trial at Bournemouth Crown Court, Grogan gave evidence calmly and succinctly. He said he was a successful pub manager with no need to rob people.

However, his record shows exactly why police suspected him from the start.

Convictions include selling class A drugs, nine robberies, having a firearm, GBH, money laundering, assault and disqualified driving.

In 1988 he was convicted in Manchester of an armed robbery at a post office.

He was jailed in February 2001 for six years for supplying drugs in Winton. By then he had received jail terms totalling 65 and a half years.

And a pre-trial hearing heard he has allegedly made threats to police officers and their families.

During the conspiracy trial, the jury watched footage from Deacons CCTV that showed Martin Trent, a violent man with numerous convictions, dancing on a table.

He stopped straight away when reprimanded by the short, stocky Billy Grogan.

“Did you see how Mr Trent behaved?” prosecutor Christopher Patrick asked the jury. “He obeyed instantly. He wouldn’t mess with Billy Grogan.”

Criminal empire run from a pub

The full story of what police believe was really going on at the notorious Deacons pub in Bournemouth could only be told publicly after the guilty verdicts on Billy Grogan and Alexander Calderwood.

Police believe Grogan took over the pub last summer, installed criminal associates in the pub’s flats and that the pub was then used as a base for drug dealing.

Grogan then plotted the robbery from the pub and used his criminal tenants to carry out the raid at The Academy Snooker Club, police believe.

The allegations of drug dealing emerged during a “crack house” hearing to close Deacons in December at Bournemouth Magistrates Court.

But details could not be reported until now to avoid prejudicing the conspiracy to rob trial of Grogan and Calderwood.

Prosecutor Justin Shale told the closure hearing at Bournemouth Magistrates: “The reality is that this pub is run in such a bad way that it is a meeting place for drug dealers and villains.”

The defence denied the drugs charges and no-one from the pub, including Grogan, was ever charged with any criminal drug offences but the pub was still closed by magistrates using their civil powers.

Police told the “crack house” hearing that during the time Grogan was involved with the pub, shoplifters would take stolen items there to exchange them for drugs.

The magistrates were told of alleged assaults by staff, fights in the street outside and that a gun found at another location had been linked to Deacons.

A witness said how he saw a doorman decline to get involved as a man repeatedly punched a screaming woman outside the pub.

The men who moved into the pub included Grogan’s childhood friend from Belfast, Alexander Calderwood, who was convicted in 1982 of killing a Catholic man in Belfast when he was aged 17.

There was also Devonshire and Dorset soldier Martin Trent, who has convictions for kidnap, carrying a firearm, affray, actual bodily harm, burglary, threats to kill, threatening behaviour and possessing controlled drugs.

Trent and the pub painter and decorator Martin Willis were the men who would go to carry out the raid at the nearby Academy Snooker Club.

Police pieced together a complex web of phone calls to reveal the hidden part played by Calderwood and Grogan.

By Barry McCaffrey
Irish News
09/07/2009

A LEADING loyalist is to take part in public debate in the traditional republican heartland of west Belfast, writes Barry McCaffrey

Jackie McDonald, who is regarded as a leading member of the UDA’s ruling ‘inner council’, will take part in a ‘West Belfast Youth Talks Back’ event during next month’s Feile an Phobail.

Last year Mr McDonald was due to take part in a public meeting at a GAA club in the west of the city.

However, the event was cancelled after the club’s management said they had not been informed that he would be taking part and had received complaints from families of people whose loved ones had been murdered by the UDA.

Following that cancellation Mr McDonald issued an open letter to nationalists calling for cross-community dialogue.

Others taking part in the event at St Louise’s College on August 5 will be senior republican Sean Murray, police chief superintendent Mark Hamilton and Belfast lord mayor Naomi Long.