News about the Irish & Irish American culture, music, news, sports. This is hosted by the Irish Aires radio show on KPFT-FM 90.1 in Houston, Texas (a Pacifica community radio station)

December 04, 2004

News 12/04/04 - Adams Issues Appeal to DUP

News about Ireland & the Irish

RT 12/04/04 Adams Issues Appeal To DUP Leader -V
BT 12/04/04 Paisley Frustrating Deal: Adams
BB 12/04/04 Blurred Deal On Arms Move
IO 12/04/04 PSNI: Loyalist Parade 'Largely Peaceful'
BT 12/04/04 Failed Attempt To Make Sense Of Holy Cross
IA 12/04/04 Bush Taps Dubliner For Judgeship
----

NP 12/04/04 Kinvara And The New Ireland -AO
Listen to: Kinvara And The New Ireland at:
http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=WESAT&showDate=04-Dec-2004&segNum=8&mediaPref=RM&getAd=1

******************************************

See video at:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/1204/9news/9news56_1a.smil
----

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/1204/northpolitics.html

Adams Issues Appeal To DUP Leader

04 December 2004 22:27

The Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams, has said he does not know if
a political deal between his party and Ian Paisley's DUP will be
achieved next week.

Speaking in west Belfast, Mr Adams again appealed to Mr Paisley to
agree to a deal that would lead to the restoration of the power-
sharing government at Stormont.

Mr Adams also welcomed what he described as Mr Paisley's 'grudging
acceptance' yesterday of Sinn Féin's mandate.

It comes after Mr Paisley said that if the IRA gave up its weapons
and abandoned its criminal activity he would have to 'swallow hard'
to do business with republicans.

DUP demands guarantees

This afternoon, Mr Paisley repeated that he would not agree to any
political deal in Northern Ireland until he has cast iron
guarantees about IRA weapons decommissioning.

He was speaking after a DUP delegation met General John De
Chastelain, who is overseeing the decommissioning process.

He said the IRA had not yet given the general a detailed account of
its plans.

Mr Paisley warned that the DUP would not be bluffed on a matter
which affects the lives of the future and present generation of
Ulster people.

The meeting was one of a series that have taken place aimed at
restoring devolution.

It was the second time the DUP leader and General de Chastelain met
this week and followed a warning from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern last
night, that Irish and British governments have set a four-day
deadline for agreement.

******************************************

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=589625

Paisley Frustrating Deal: Adams

By Deborah McAleese
04 December 2004

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams today accused Ian Paisley of
"frustrating" the chances of an agreement.

Hitting back at remarks made by the DUP leader that he will have to
"bite his lip" and "do a good deal of swallowing" if a deal is to
be done, Mr Adams said the outburst proves how far the DUP has to
move to accept "the concepts of accommodation and equality at the
core of the peace process."

Mr Paisley made the comments last night, just days after saying
that the IRA should be "made to wear sackcloth and ashes" as
humiliation for their crimes.

In response, Mr Adams said that republicans and nationalists should
not be provoked, nor should they be surprised by Mr Paisley's
comments.

"The use of such provocative, insulting and offensive language is
the clearest evidence of how far the DUP have to move to embrace
concepts of accommodation and equality, which are at the core of
the peace process," he said.

Meanwhile, Alliance leader David Ford said Mr Paisley's "bite my
lip" phrase was "a hugely significant statement" by the DUP leader.

"It would have been impossible for him to say that a few months
ago. I hope that Dr Paisley will manage to repeat this commitment
without the intemperate language, so that people can understand
more clearly how far the political landscape has changed."

The SDLP's Mark Durkan said today he is hopeful that an agreement
will be reached, that it will last and that politics can move
ahead.

"After the highs and lows of the years since the Good Friday
Agreement, people still hold to a future without guns and with good
government on equal terms. That is the measure of what is at stake.

"There might be better ways of achieving all this than the process
we have had, but that reality should not diminish any positive
prospect now emerging," he said.

He added that the SDLP would encourage "a final push" to ensure
hopes are not dashed

******************************************

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4069161.stm

Blurred Deal On Arms Move

By Brian Rowan
BBC Northern Ireland security editor

There is no number for the IRA in the telephone book, so General de
Chastelain has to wait for the call that will tell him whether
there will be work for him this Christmas.

That will depend on the outcome of the long political negotiations
that have spanned a period of some months, but which are coming to
a close.

Soon it will be decision time and, soon, we should know whether Ian
Paisley and Gerry Adams are able to do the deal of all deals.

The British and Irish governments are still waiting for responses
from the DUP and Sinn Fein to a proposed way forward set out in a
document: Northern Ireland: Outline For A Comprehensive Agreement.

There has been plenty of speculation about what the IRA will say
and do in the context of any comprehensive agreement, but that
organisation has not yet spoken for itself and nor has it met
recently with de Chastelain's Independent International Commission
on Decommissioning (IICD).

Ian Paisley has, but he did not get the answers he was looking for,
and nor should we be surprised at this stage of the negotiations.

The IRA is not going to sign on any dotted line until it is sure
about the outcome of the political negotiations, and the DUP is not
going to give its verdict on the British-Irish government paper
until there is "certainty" about the IRA intentions.

Photographic proof

So, not for the first time in this process, there is a stand-off
over guns and government.

The big DUP demand on decommissioning is for photographic proof -
and proposals on how this should happen are set out in the British-
Irish paper.

They are proposals from the governments, and there is no
information yet to suggest that republicans have agreed to or will
consent to what is suggested.

What we do expect from the IRA - if a deal is done - is the most
significant acts of decommissioning so far.

According to talks sources, these would occur between now and the
end of December, and they would be witnessed not just by de
Chastelain and his IICD colleague Andrew Sens but by two churchmen
- one Catholic and one Protestant.

This is something new in the decommissioning process - additional
watching eyes, new voices to tell the story of how the IRA put its
arms beyond use.

And for republicans this is a huge concession.

We would also expect de Chastelain to report that he has overseen
the decommissioning of all IRA weapons, and the IRA would say in
its own words that all activities are ending.

What is being suggested here is an end to "physical force"
republicanism set in the context of a comprehensive deal - an
agreement which would have power-sharing politics, new policing
arrangements and sweeping security changes.

Not that long ago, all of this - in the context of a deal between
Paisley's party and republicans - would have been dismissed as
"unthinkable".

But the DUP won't move, won't agree, won't give its verdict on the
proposed way forward set out by the governments until it knows
exactly what the IRA is going to do.

'No restrictions'

The party wants confirmation that the new decommissioning witnesses
will be allowed "to see and speak", and they want republican
"clarification" on the issue of photographic proof of
decommissioning.

In a nutshell, their question is: Will photographs be taken and
will they be published?

"We need absolute certainty that there will be no restrictions on
what the witnesses will be able to see," the DUP deputy leader
Peter Robinson told me.

"They can't be gagged when they come back and, equally, there's no
point having photos if nobody is going to see them. We need
certainty. We are not going to make assumptions," he added.

The suggestion in the proposals made by the governments is that the
photographs are taken at the time of decommissioning in December.

They would be held by de Chastelain and not published until March -
the target date for devolution and for a power-sharing executive
that would include DUP and Sinn Fein ministers.

That is what is proposed, but, in the background, some DUP members
are still pressing for earlier publication.

But what if there are no photographs, and what if the IRA says no?

There is nothing to suggest that the governments wrote their
proposals based on firm promises from republicans.

So were they written more out of hope than expectation?

This issue of photographic proof is still a potential deal breaker.

What the DUP sees as a necessary confidence-building measure, is
viewed by republicans as an attempt to humiliate the IRA.

More questions

So we don't yet know how this most difficult issue will be settled.

Will republicans offer something more than the witnesses?

Will the DUP settle for something less than the photographs?

On Monday, when Ian Paisley goes to Downing Street for another
meeting with Tony Blair, he will travel not with an answer but with
more questions.

At the same time other senior party members will be meeting
government officials.

The DUP and republicans are very close to a deal, but it could all
still trip up - not over the extent of IRA decommissioning but on
the issue of visible proof.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2004/12/04 18:50:03 GMT
© BBC MMIV

******************************************

http://www.online.ie/news/viewer.adp?article=3183479

PSNI: Loyalist Parade 'Largely Peaceful'

online.ie
2004-12-04 18:50:02+00

Thousands of loyalists paraded through the streets of Derry today
without any major trouble.

Despite three arrests for disorderly behaviour police described the
scaled down security operation at the annual Apprentice Boys March
as a success.

The Lundy's Day parade was scarred by violence when Northern
Ireland's sectarian tensions were at their height.

But around 2,500 Apprentice Boys and 20 bands passed through the
city today without any significant disturbances, further
demonstrating the level of compromise reached by loyalists and
nationalists.

Superintendent Richard Russell, the police district commander for
the area, said: "I'm pleased with the way today's events have gone.

"The parade was largely peaceful and the city remained fairly
normal throughout the day."

Although rival sides were separated by lines of officers, police
chiefs decided not to erect crowd control barriers at flashpoint
parts of the route.

The parade marks the 316th anniversary of the shutting of the
city's gates by 13 young apprentices against an attack by the
Catholic King James II in 1688.

Colonel Robert Lundy, who was governor of Derry at the time of the
siege, is loathed by loyalists as a traitor because he tried to
persuade the defenders to surrender.

In recent years marchers and nationalists from the Bogside
Residents Group have attempted to diffuse the situation through
negotiations involving business leaders in the city.

******************************************

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/special_interest/story.jsp?story=589122

Failed Attempt To Make Sense Of Holy Cross

By Pól Ó Muirí
04 December 2004

Mention Holy Cross and images of loyalists attacking Catholic
schoolgirls instantly come to mind. The television pictures which
flashed across the world have faded from screens. However, the fear
of those 12 weeks in 2001 are still with parents and children;
sectarian abuse, stones, urine and a pipe-bomb attack do not fade
quickly from the memory.

In Holy Cross: the untold story, journalist Anne Cadwallader has
secured interviews with many residents in north Belfast who were
involved in the dispute: nationalists from Ardoyne; loyalists from
Glenbryn - a dialogue of the deaf, it must be said; and from
politicians, teachers, police and clergy who tried to broker a
deal.

The result is a book which is raw in description but light in
explanation. (The lack of an index will not please future
historians and political scientists.)

The origin of the violence has its own creation myth: 'The Man and
the Ladder'. Loyalists contend that one of their number was knocked
off a ladder while putting up flags. Ardoyne's nationalists contend
that it never happened and was simply a pretext for loyalists to
attack them.

Whatever the truth about the incident, its effects are not in
dispute: intimidation that deliberately and viciously targeted
schoolgirls was quickly organised by loyalists. Without question,
the parents' and children's accounts of what they suffered at the
hands of the protesters are horrifying - though the most pungent
comment on the loyalists' behaviour comes from neither parents nor
Cadwallader, but from Nell McCafferty who categorises them as being
an "ugly, illiterate, inarticulate, menancing, rotten mass of
lumpen-proletariat".

Depressingly, loyalists are at pains to argue that they weren't
attacking children as such, but simply highlighting perceived
injustices, one being they were being gradually driven from their
homes.

The theory isn't given much credence by Neil Jarman who suggests
that "Catholic territorial gains have been strictly limited" and
have been due to the UDA controlling estates and Protestants
quitting them for a better life elsewhere. The exception is the
Torrens estate, where Protestants did fear for their safety.
Cadwallader notes his remarks on Torrens but spends no effort
expanding on it.

Nationalist criticism of the police is fully explored with parents
accusing them of being badly led, incompetent and cowardly.
Loyalists superimposed pictures of parents on posters - some
pornographic - causing nationalists to wonder where they got the
photos.

"Some suspect from police files, though there is no evidence for
this," writes Cadwallader. Why mention it then? If she believes
police did help loyalists, she should make the argument openly.
After all, it is a serious allegation.

Equally, if she believes that the rumour is paranoia - justifiable
or otherwise - she should say so.

Cadwallader adopts a curious approach when introducing one parent,
Brendan Mailey, at the beginning of the book. He was the spokesman
for the Right To Education group that represented the parents
during the dispute. Much later, she writes that Mailey was
convicted of the IRA killing of a policeman. A more forceful writer
would have let the reader know this immediately and tried to give
an insight into the deterministic nature of working-class democracy
whereby the ex-prisoner - on both sides - virtually always becomes
the "community's voice".

Cadwallader hints at tensions in all camps but never really manages
to enlighten. Her inclination towards a "they said/we said"
narrative is ultimately unsatisfactory. As she reported the events
as they happened and has had ample time to reflect on them, could
we not have hoped for a more critical examination of the internal
dynamics between nationalists/republicans and within the different
factions of loyalism in an "untold" story?

She speaks of the SDLP being "punished" by Ardoyne's electorate in
Assembly elections for their handling of the situation. Yet, by her
testimony, leading SDLP politicians - Mark Durkan, Alban Magennis
and Martin Morgan - were all active during the dispute. Morgan, in
particular, is scathing of the police operation, yet his party
reaped no benefit from his militancy. Such a paradox merits
examination that isn't forthcoming.

To her credit, the reasons why many parents chose to walk the main
road and not being bullied into taking a longer and more difficult
back route are made clearly. That some did shun the main road is
discussed but in no great length.

Still, what a horrendous choice the parents had to make: their
absolute duty to protect their children or the absolute right of
those children to walk the streets of their own city without fear.
As one mother remarks: "Nothing in this world justifies hurling
abuse, missiles and bombs at young girls. No matter what your
concerns are."

Let that be the bottom line.

HOLY CROSS: the untold story by Anne Cadwallader, Brehon Press,
£10.99.

******************************************

Bush Taps Dubliner For Judgeship

By Sean O'Driscoll

A Dublin-born attorney has said she is both excited
and relieved after President Bush nominated her for as
a federal judge in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer M. Anderson, 45, from Killester in north
Dublin, is set to take a 15-year term as a Superior
Court judge if her nomination is approved by the
Senate.

She is currently chief of the homicide and major
crimes section of the U.S. Attorney's Office in
Washington. In the late 1990s she was a special
prosecutor in the civil rights division of the Justice
Department.

"The new position will be interesting. I've been doing
my current job for 14 years so it's really going to be
a change," she said.

Her family emigrated when she was 8-years-old after
her father answered an ad for factory workers placed
in an Irish newspaper. "He didn't tell my mother that
he had applied but she came around to the idea," she
added.

Anderson, a former student at St. Bridget's primary
school in Killester, said that her parents, who live
in Baltimore, Maryland, are more excited about the
appointment than she is.

"My generation in the family are the most overly
educated people known to mankind, as my father would
continuously tell us," she said.

She added that she would not rule out an application
for a higher position in the judiciary after she has
spent some years in the Superior Court.

"Oh, you always have ambitions. I'm always ever
hopeful. I wouldn't hold your breath on a bid for the

Supreme Court. I think this is my big shot to fame
here," she said.

As Washington, D.C. is the only part of the U.S. that
is not a state, all federal judicial positions are
nominated by the White House. She was interviewed for
the job by the associate White House counsel and was
one of three people shortlisted for the position.

Irish Abroad

Posted by: Unknown / 5:57 PM
Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?