SAOIRSE32

THE TWELFTH OF JULY - REACTION

By Bimpe Archer
Irish News
15/07/09

DEPUTY First Minister Martin McGuinness has said voluntary rerouting of contentious marches would be “a sign of mature leadership” in the wake of the latest violence.

The Mid Ulster MP also called on the Orange Order’s leadership to meet Sinn Fein.

While condemning Monday night’s violence, Mr McGuinness said dissident republicans were “exploiting a sit- uation created by the Orange Order insisting on marching through Catholic districts where they are not wanted”.

“Out of thousands of Orange parades a very small number are controversial and risk bringing the sort of violence we witnessed last night on to our streets,’’ he said.

“There is no loss of face in the Orange Order making their contribution to the peace process by voluntarily rerouting five or six parades.

“Indeed it would be welcomed as a sign of mature leadership.”

An Orange Order spokesman said its leadership had made clear it “didn’t see a meeting with Sinn Fein until they apologised for the IRA murders of 275 Orangemen”.

“The Twelfth itself was attended by half a million who either took part or watched the parades and it was extremely successful,” he said.

“The only trouble was in Ardoyne, Derry and Rasharkin, with some alerts in a few other places.”

Culture minister and north Belfast Orangeman Nelson McCausland said marchers spoke to residents in the Ardoyne area and to community leaders through a local parades forum.

He said the major issue was the scale and ferocity of the violence.

Alliance assembly member Stephen Farry warned that “politicians from across our community [must] stand united in condemnation of these events and do their best to ensure calm”.

Parades Commission chairman Roger Poole said the “pockets” of violence “should not be allowed to mask the progress which had been made in dealing with contentious parades over the last four years”.

“There is unfortunately a tiny minority which remains wedded to thuggery and criminality,” he said.

“On this occasion they used parades as a vehicle for sectarianism, rioting and attacks on the police and the community.”

Shadow secretary of state Owen Paterson also stressed that “the vast majority of parades went off peacefully”.

“It is disappointing for all parts of the community that a small minority tried to mar the day,” he said.

“Northern Ireland has come a long way in recent years and small numbers of violent people must not be allowed to disrupt future progress.”

Presbyterian Moderator Dr Stafford Carson said it was “very disappointing that a day when the vast majority of parades passed successfully was marred by the unacceptable violence of a small group of people intent on dragging us back to days that most want to leave in the past”.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen told the Seanad yesterday that those behind the rioting “will not succeed” in destablising the peace process.

In an address about the north, Mr Cowen said the “democratic institutions and the peace that we all worked so hard to achieve are being challenged by a tiny and unrepresentative group of people with no mandate and no support for their actions”.

By Diana Rusk
Irish News
15/07/09

A FOUR-YEAR public inquiry into the murder of the LVF leader Billy Wright has cost £25.7 million.

NIO minister Paul Goggins released the figure following a written parliamentary question by the DUP MP Sammy Wilson.

“The cost of the Billy Wright inquiry to the end of May 2009 is £25.7 million,” he said.

The bill covers the cost of investigating claims of security collusion in the murder of Wright by an INLA gang in the Maze prison more than 12 years ago.

It covers the period from when the inquiry began in 2005 until final evidence was heard in May.

Wright – dubbed King Rat – was shot dead by the republican gang while he was serving an eight-year term for threatening to kill a woman.

While the murder was committed by a gang including the now deceased republican paramilitary Crip McWilliams, there were concerns about security lapses during the day.

In January the Northern Ireland Office said security costs alone for the inquiry chaired by Lord McLean were £577,000.

The overall costs have now been set at £25.7 million as the final evidence was heard in May.

A report is to be made public after the summer.

Last month DUP assembly member Ian Paisley jnr was fined £5,000 for contempt of court after he refused to disclose his sources to the inquiry.

According to Mr Paisley, he was told there had been a policy to destroy files within the prison service after the murder but the DUP man would not reveal the name of the prison officer who supplied the information.

The inquiry was recommended by retired Canadian judge Peter Cory in 2004 after allegations that security force members had colluded in the killing.

Similar public hearings have been held into the murder of solicitor Rosemary Nelson and Portadown man Robert Hamill.

All three inquires have been criticised in the past by outgoing chief constable Sir Hugh Orde who said they were a “huge money-sucking venture” because of the involvement of lawyers.

Northern Ireland’s most expensive public inquiry is into the events of Bloody Sunday, which Mr Goggins has said cost £188 million including legal costs incurred by the Ministry of Defence.

Wright’s father, David Wright, had campaigned for a public hearing into the death of his son days after Christmas 1997.

His son had not been raised in extreme loyalism and even played Gaelic football as a young boy growing up in south Armagh.

However, he had joined the UVF by the time he was a teenager and was the leader of the LVF in the Maze at the time of his death aged 37.

PLATFORM

By Martin Og Meehan
Irish News
15/07/09

I would like to comment about the recent rioting in Ardoyne on the Twelfth of July.

There has been much political and media speculation regarding reasons behind the outbreak of serious disturbances.

Firstly, the nationalist and republican community of Ardoyne and surrounding areas have had their human rights trampled on for generations by the British army, RUC, Orange Order and now the PSNI with completely unnecessary annual invasions of adrenaline-charged storm-troopers in order to force sectarian parades through our district.

In recent years, ordinary residents consider these unwanted marches as certainly not part of the new political dispensation promised in 1998.

Therefore, some 150 residents and supporters organised a peaceful protest for 4pm to take place on the Crumlin Road on July 12 2009.

As part of the proposed protest we intended demonstrating our opposition to yet another triumphalist march by sitting and blocking the road for a specified period of time.

Unfortunately when we arrived at the designated point to begin our protest, scores of baton-wielding PSNI riot team members occupied the area and surrounded residents.

The aggressive attitude by the PSNI eventually forced us to abandon our planned protest.

The people, particularly the youth from Ardoyne, suffer from high unemployment, major deprivation and a dearth of proper facilities, alongside the legacy that witnessed ninety-nine people killed during the recent conflict and the unforgettable Holy Cross blockade.

The aggressive presence of PSNI riot squads intent on facilitating sectarian parades inevitably caused a violent reaction from those same young people.

Whilst I respect Gerry Kelly’s electoral mandate, he needs to acknowledge that the majority of people in Ardoyne are angry that he or his party have not condemned the injuring of 10 people by plastic bullets, the hostile use of water cannons and antagonistic actions by the PSNI.

North Belfast Sinn Fein must also stop the felon-setting, accusing and naming of Ardoyne republicans to the media and others and accusing people of being behind the riot which followed the planned protest.

They must work with the majority of local republicans to end marches that foster sectarian division entering our area.

After all, its strategy on this divisive issue has failed time and time again.

By Ian Graham, Press Association
Independent.co.uk
Thursday, 16 July 2009

Police came under attack during a third successive night of violence which continued in north Belfast into the early hours of today.

One officer was injured and two teenagers arrested after the violence spread from the nationalist Ardoyne to the Springfield Road and Ligoniel Road areas.

Ardoyne was again the centre of the most serious trouble and around 11pm a group of up to 100 youths gathered in Brompton Park and attacked police in riot gear with petrol bombs and other missiles including bricks and bottles.

An officer suffered an injury to his head and foot, said a police spokeswoman.

A car was set on fire in the Balhone area and an attempted hijacking was reported in the same area.

Youths aged 17 and 18 were arrested during the violence which continued until calm was restored around 1.30am.

In the early hours of the morning police arrested a second man over a gun attack on police during rioting in the Ardoyne when republicans attacked police protecting an Orange parade on Monday.

The 30-year-old was taken to the Serious Crime Suite in Antrim where a 28-year-old man is already being held after being arrested for questioning about the shooting during searches of houses in the Ardoyne yesterday.

Dissident republicans have been accused of starting the trouble in a bid to disrupt the July 12 Orange parades on Monday and of continuing it since.

Sinn Fein claims dissidents bussed rioters in from outside the area.

Following the third night of trouble a Police Service spokeswoman said: “Police have been and continue to work closely with the community to end these disturbances. No one wants this kind of disorder and violence in their neighbourhood, preventing members of the community from going about their normal routine and causing damage to homes and businesses in the area.”

She added: “We would appeal to all of those with influence in the community to work with us to bring this disorder to an end and allow the residents of Ardoyne to live in peace.

“We are asking anyone with information to bring that to us.”

Coleraine Times
15 July 2009

SINN Fein councillor Billy Leonard has hit out after a road was blocked in Garvagh.

The councillor claimed that a group of Loyalists placed traffic cones across Main Street in the town in the early hours of July 14.

Councillor Leonard (pictured) that people were subjected to sectarian abuse. He said: “ It is clear that the marching season is when the lunatics take over the asylum.

“This is bizarre behaviour by sectarian loyalists with nothing better to do than try and abuse Catholics.

“When one driver moved the cones, she was subjected to sectarian abuse and obviously felt very threatened. Then as the young nineteen-year-old drove away a traffic cone was thrown at her vehicle. Other drivers re-routed when they saw the block and the behaviour of the loyalists.

“Is it too much to ask that this so called cultural festival could pass off without utterly bizarre and sectarian behaviour?”

A police spokesman confirmed that they did recieve a report that a number of young people had place a road works barrier across the carriageway at Main Street.

The spokesman said that at 3.45am the barrier was removed and no further incidents were reported.

Irish Examiner
Thursday, July 16, 2009

Police officers came under attack again last night during further rioting by nationalist youths in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast.

Bricks, bottles and petrol bombs were thrown at officers for a third consecutive night, but there are no reports of any injuries or arrests.

Last night’s violence followed a PSNI raid in the area during which a 28-year-old man was arrested in connection with the firing of a gun at police during Monday night’s trouble in the area.

Dissident republicans are being blamed for orchestrating the nightly rioting.

By Jimmy Woulfe Mid-West Correspondent
Irish Examiner
Thursday, July 16, 2009

AUTHOR Frank McCourt’s wife Ellen and other family members were maintaining a bedside vigil last night at a hospice where he is dying from cancer.

The Angela’s Ashes author had been in remission with a skin cancer melanoma, but recently contracted meningitis.

His actor brother, Malachy, said: “He’s not too good at the moment. He was doing fine but he got meningitis two weeks ago and it turned the whole thing topsy-turvy.”

Doctors have told the family Mr McCourt could die within days. He would turn 79 next month.

Malachy McCourt said doctors had told them his brother could have another year or two but for the meningitis.

He said: “Other than that we would have had more time with him. Of all people he didn’t deserve that.”

He said he had broken a leg recently and Mr McCourt had called to visit him a number of times.

The top New York literary journal The Southampton Review plans to dedicate its entire next edition on July 24 to Mr McCourt.

The State University of New York had also planned to honour Mr McCourt at a major gala on the same date.

Mr McCourt has been the main speaker each year at the university’s writers conference.

Over the past year, Mr McCourt had been receiving treatment for his cancer at the world-famous Memorial Sloan-Kettering hospital in New York, which specialises in cancer care.

He was due to return to Limerick last April to open an art school and gallery at the old Leamy’s school building in Har-stonge Street where he went to primary school.

In one interview some years ago, Mr McCourt said he would not like to die of a slow disease.

He said: “I don’t want to be beholden to anyone or have anyone wiping my mouth if I’m drooling. I’d just like to go. I don’t want funeral services or memorials. Let them scatter my ashes over the Shannon and pollute the river.”

We experienced some down time again. Sorry for the inconvenience, but as always, please make a note of the alternative mirror sites for the future if needed:

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There are about 15 news articles over at the other sites which are missing here, so please go there to read them. I will again commence simultaneous posting with the next story.

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micheailin