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July 02, 2005

Loyalist Shot To Death in Feud

News about Ireland & the Irish

GU 07/02/05 Man Shot To Death In N. Ireland Attack
BT 07/02/05 Rival Groups Square Up Over Murder
BT 07/02/05 Tensions Never Far From The Surface In Militant Loyalism
SF 07/01/05 Fears Over Loyalist Feud Ending In Attacks On Catholics
UT 07/01/05 Gerry Adams Backs 'Mayo Five'
IO 07/02/05 Sinn Féin Members Stage Petrol Station Protest
UH 06/30/05 Priest Threatened For Objecting To Flags Outside His House
NY 06/22/05 Rep. King And The IRA: The End Of An Extraordinary Affair?
UT 07/02/05 Oscar-Nominated Actor In Plea Over Festival's Funding
UH 06/30/05 Charges Are Dropped Of Stealing Car For Omagh Bomb
BT 07/02/05 UUP Looks Set To Enter The Last Chance Saloon
BT 07/02/05 New Homes Offers Hope In The Shadow Of Peace Line
UH 06/30/05 Arlene'S Family In Tears At Verdict
UH 06/30/05 Drowning Victim Laid To Rest
SL 07/02/05 Rev: Stones In His Pockets Proves Different Can Be Good
HC 06/28/05 Next Best Thing To Gold At The End Of Ireland's Rainbow

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5113087,00.html

Man Shot To Death In N. Ireland Attack

Saturday July 2, 2005 1:16 AM

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) - A Protestant construction worker
sitting in a truck was shot to death Friday in an attack that police
blamed on Protestant extremists.

Jameson Lockhart had been working on the site of a recently demolished
pub in Protestant east Belfast. The pub's owner had been Jim Gray, a
former commander in Northern Ireland's largest outlawed paramilitary
group, the Ulster Defense Association.

Since 2000 the UDA has waged deadly feuds with other illegal
Protestant gangs, largely over the control of criminal rackets. Gray,
who was shot in the face during one feud in 2002, was ousted in March
as the UDA's east Belfast commander. He is in jail awaiting trial on
charges of money-laundering and possessing stolen property.

Witnesses said Lockhart appeared to try to get away from a lone
gunman, who fired into the vehicle at least once before the truck ran
into a streetlight pole. The gunman then fired several more shots from
close range.

Detective Chief Superintendent Phil Wright said his detectives were
exploring the possibility of another feud within the Protestant
paramilitary underworld.

The UDA, which has an estimated 2,000 members in this British
territory of 1.7 million, was founded in 1971 as a loose umbrella for
neighborhood vigilante groups in working-class Protestant areas. It
was responsible for killing about 400 people, mostly Catholic
civilians, before calling a 1994 cease-fire.

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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=650817

Loyalists run for cover

Rival Groups Square Up Over Murder

By Jonathan McCambridge, Crime Correspondent
jmccambridge@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
02 July 2005

LOYALISTS were last night "running for cover" amid fears of a new war
between rival terror groups after a man was gunned down in east
Belfast.

The UVF is being blamed after Jameson Jackson Thomas Lockhart (25)
from Flush Road in the north of the city was shot several times while
sitting in the cab of his truck at the site of the old Avenue One bar.

A lone gunman opened fire and Lockhart died at the scene, while
another man in the vehicle escaped injury.

Sources have indicated that Lockhart had associates within the LVF.

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said he "feared a bloody summer
of tit-for-tat killings" if a new UVF-LVF feud erupted.

He said: "I know that various loyalists are running for cover. This
man's movements had clearly been tracked, this was a planned attack, a
carefully planned assassination."

Detective Chief Superintendent Phil Wright said police would be
looking into the possibility that the murder was feud-related.

Earlier this week, tensions within the UDA also resurfaced after a
former associate of Johnny Adair was cleared of murder.

Wayne Stephen Dowie left Ulster within hours of being cleared of the
murder of UDA feud victim Jonathan Stewart on Thursday.

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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=650810

Tensions Are Never Far From The Surface In Militant Loyalism

By Jonathan McCambridge, Crime Correspondent
jmccambridge@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
02 July 2005

THE murder of Jameson Lockhart could spark the latest in a series of
bloody loyalist feuds which have ignited tensions across Northern
Ireland.

It is feared the east Belfast shooting could restart the bitter
vendetta between the LVF and UVF that led to a spate of shootings and
bombings in 2003.

Earlier this week, tensions within the UDA also resurfaced after a
former associate of Johnny Adair was cleared of murder.

Wayne Stephen Dowie left Ulster within hours of being cleared of the
murder of UDA feud victim Jonathan Stewart on Thursday.

He travelled alone, taking an afternoon flight to England following
furious scenes in court.

Earlier this week the UDA moved to wash its hands of a loyalist
fanatic, after he was convicted of trying to blow up one of Adair's
aides.

Stanley Curry from Liverpool, although not a member of the UDA, had
planted a bomb under the car of John 'Fat Jackie' Thompson. Thompson
survived because the bomb failed to detonate properly.

Adair himself made a surprise visit to the Shankill earlier this year
and has vowed to return again. It is thought in some circles that the
Twelfth period would be an ideal time for another publicity stunt to
infuriate his UDA enemies.

Yesterday's killing took place at the site of a pub owned by former
UDA boss Jim Gray, but is believed to involve tensions between the UVF
and LVF.

Loyalist sources indicated yesterday that Mr Lockhart had been a
target of the UVF for some time. He had escaped one previous shooting
attempt.

Tensions between the two groups erupted in 2003 following the UVF
murder of LVF man Brian Stewart at Montgomery Road in east Belfast.

It led to a spate of revenge bomb attacks and shootings.

Earlier this year tensions boiled over again following a series of
attacks on a taxi firm owned by former PUP man Jackie Mahood.

Mr Mahood, who was shot in the head by the UVF four years ago, accused
the terror group of trying to put him out of business.

Only weeks ago there was mayhem in a Belfast court when rival loyalist
gangs brawled minutes before a judgment was due to be delivered in the
case of murdered Red Hand Commando drug dealing supremo, Jim Johnston.

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http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/10312

Fears Over Loyalist Feud Ending In Attacks On Catholics

Published: 1 July, 2005

East Belfast Sinn Féin Representative Deborah Devenny said that
nationalists in the area were deeply concerned that the latest
internal loyalist feud killing would eventually lead to attacks on
their community.

Ms Devenny said:

"Today's killing in broad daylight on the Newtownards Road is
obviously linked to some ongoing internal feud between different
factions of the unionist paramilitary gangs. However history teaches
us that at the end of such feuds unionist paramilitaries tend to unite
around attacking Catholics.

"With the marching season well underway and the Orange Order
heightening tensions across Belfast, this killing will add to the
fears of nationalists particularly in areas like the Short Strand that
unionist paramilitary threats and attacks will once again turn on them

"The timing of this killing hours before the annual UVF and Orange
Order parade past the Short Strand district takes place obviously
raises these fears further and I would appeal to nationalists in East
Belfast and indeed elsewhere to remain vigilant this evening and in
the coming days." ENDS

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http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=62147&pt=n

Gerry Adams Backs 'Mayo Five'

The five men who were jailed for obstructing the construction of a
Shell gas pipeline in Ireland are right to take a stand, Sinn Fein
leader Gerry Adams said today.

Micheal O Seighin, Vincent McGrath, his brother Philip, Willie Corduff
and Brendan Philbin are being held in Cloverhill prison for refusing
to obey a High Court injunction taken out by Shell.

Mr Adams, who visited the prison today, said the men had serious and
legitimate concerns about the pipeline being put through their lands
at Rossport, County Mayo.

"We agree with them that the pipeline is unsafe. It`s a disgrace that
they are in prison for no more than defending their families."

The five men will remain in jail unless they agree not to obstruct the
construction of a 9km (5.5 mile) pipeline through their lands.

Shell E&P Ireland is seeking to pump gas at high pressure from the
Corrib gasfield along the pipe to an onshore refinery at Bellanaboy in
Mayo as part of its 990 million euro (£600 million) project.

The Irish prison service refused Mr Adams permission to enter the
prison to visit the men because he was not a political representative
from their local area in Mayo.

"We don`t want to see the whole thing turn into some sort of circus,"
said a spokesman.

But Mr Adams said he had been given no satisfactory explanation for
the refusal.

"I made the case that in any other jurisdiction, parliamentary
representatives are entitled to visit prisoners to listen to their
concerns."

However, a Sinn Fein Councillor in Mayo, Gerry Murray, was allowed to
visit.

Mr Adams said that as an ex-prisoner - he was interned in 1971 and
imprisoned again between 1973 and 1977 - he understood the
difficulties faced by the men.

"But I`m always conscious that the people who suffer the most are the
families. They have to travel from the west of Ireland and it`s very
traumatic for them."

He said the Government had to intervene to secure the release of the
men.

"I think the Government has to take the initiative. I don`t think
there`s any way around that. If we`re waiting for Shell to do the
decent thing, we`ll be a long time."

He said the Government should then look at renegotiating its deal with
Shell on the royalties from the Corrib gas field.

"Sinn Fein`s policy is very clear on this. It`s a disgrace that a
multi-national can be given exemptions in terms of licensing and
taxation. They`re given free gratis to come in and if they get gas,
they get to sell it back to the state."

Lawyers for the five men are to challenge the legality of the
injunction granted to Shell in the High Court next week.

All five have said they are determined to continue their protest.

They are being held in a three-person cell and a two-person cell in
Cloverhill prison, which houses prisoners waiting for trial rather
than convicted criminals. They have a kettle and a television in their
cell, access to library facilities and the option of one phone call
and one visit per day.

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http://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=148111740&p=y48yyz446&n=148112500

Sinn Féin Members Stage Petrol Station Protest

02/07/2005 - 17:19:38

Two Sinn Féin members have occupied a petrol station in Dublin in
protest at the jailing of five gas pipeline protesters.

Brian Keane and another member of Ogra Sinn Féin locked themselves
into the Statoil station on the Northumberland Road in Ballsbridge.

"We are here for a peaceful protest. We're entering peacefully and
we'll be leaving peacefully," he said.

He added that the protest was in solidarity with Micheal O Seighin,
Vincent McGrath, his brother Philip, Willie Corduff and Brendan
Philbin, who are being held in Cloverhill prison for refusing to obey
a High Court injunction taken out by Shell E&P Ireland.

The five men have called on the public to boycott petrol stations
owned by Shell and Statoil, the main shareholders in Shell E&P
Ireland.

"We echo the call for the men to be freed immediately and support them
in their fight to defend their community and the health, safety and
well being of their families, said Mr Keane.

Both he and his fellow protester locked the doors of the Statoil
station to deny access to two gardaí, who had requested them to leave.

"The guards have asked us to open the door but we're going to stay
here for an hour," said Mr Keane.

Yesterday, he and other members of Ogra Sinn Féin occupied the Statoil
station on the south quays in Dublin city centre for an hour.

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http://www.ulsterherald.com/news.htm

Priest Threatened For Objecting To Flags Flown Outside His House

By John McCusker
June 30, 2005

A TYRONE parish priest was threatened and branded a 'Taig' after he
confronted men erecting Loyalist flags at the entranceway to his
parochial house.

Fr Eugene Boland PP of Cappagh Parish, near Omagh, was verbally abused
after he complained that Ulster flags and Union Jacks had been erected
on lamp-posts just yards from his front door.

It was the first time Loyalist flags or emblems had been erected along
the Killyclogher Road, which runs close to the Campsie and Hospital
Road areas that are festooned with bunting every year.

Fr Boland's objection to the flying of flags along the stretch of
roadway has received the backing of Protestant neighbours from the
area who have also phoned police regarding the matter.

The incident developed on Sunday evening after Fr Boland returned to
the parochial house. Shortly after discovering that some flags had
been erected, a white van pulled up and men began putting up ladders
to erect further Loyalist trappings.

The priest challenged the men and was told that the flags 'would be
put up whether he liked it or not'.

Fr Boland said, 'After noticing a Jeep and three cars parked directly
opposite my house, I contacted the police but before they arrived all
three vehicles had left. The Jeep returned and the driver was the man
who had been erecting the flags.

'He was verbally abusive to me and called me a Taig and other
expletives in the presence of the police. I just turned my back and
went into the parochial house.'

Later that night, the Jeep again returned to the Killyclogher Road and
this time was driven slowly through the grounds of the parochial
house. It is understood that the driver of the Jeep is well known to
police following similar contentious incidents relating to the
erection of flags in recent years around the town.

'To me, that was an act of intimidation,' Fr Boland added. 'It is also
intimidating to other people in the area. Bands don't come up here and
I am at a loss to know why flags have to be erected here at all.'

A police spokesman, however, said that the PSNI had, as yet, not
received any official complaint from Fr Boland regarding the people
who had erected the flags.

'These are legal flags and our policy is to encourage communities to
come to a consensus on the issue. In the event of illegal paramilitary
flags being erected, it is our policy to remove them,' added the
spokesman.

Fr Boland moved to Killyclogher 18 months ago from his parish in
Coleraine. Although no stranger to seeing red, white and blue emblems
- especially in the run-up to July 12 - the priest said he never
expected to see flags being flown in this area of Omagh.

'I feel quite angry and saddened that people from outside the area
feel they have the right to come in and erect flags on poles where
everyone in the area does not want them here.

'If this was their own property, they are entitled to erect flags if
they wish, but it is not right to impose it on others who just want to
get on with their lives.'

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http://www.nysun.com/article/15853

Rep. King And The IRA: The End Of An Extraordinary Affair?

BY ED MOLONEY - Special to the Sun
June 22, 2005

If the signs of disillusionment are to be believed, an extraordinary
affair in American public life may be coming to an end. Since the late
1970s, a Long Island congressman, Peter King, has been aligned with
one of the most violent terrorist groups in recent European history,
defying critics in his own Republican Party and elsewhere, and yet
managing to prosper. Now, however, Mr. King and the Irish Republican
Army appear to have come to a parting of the ways.

After years spent stoutly defending the IRA and its often bloody
methods, Mr. King recently called on the group to disband and bring
the seemingly endless Irish peace process to a final and successful
conclusion. Frustrated with continued IRA criminality, Mr. King is now
in an unaccustomed position: His stance on the IRA is tougher than
that of either the British or Irish governments, although it is in
lockstep with White House advisers.

The Nassau County politician, who used to travel to Belfast as often
as twice a year, has not set foot in Ireland since just before the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Conceding that he has "cooled
on Ireland," Mr. King blames an epidemic of what he calls "knee-jerk
anti-Americanism" that swept through Ireland after the invasions of
Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I don't buy that it's just anti-Bush. There's a certain unpleasant
trait that the Irish have, and it's begrudgery ... and resentment
towards the Americans," he said in a recent interview in his
Washington office.

Once a vocal and frequent House champion for the IRA's political wing,
Sinn Fein, and its leader, Gerry Adams, the 60-year-old, Queens-born
Mr. King has said nothing about either on the House floor in years.
The politician once called the IRA "the legitimate voice of occupied
Ireland," he was banned from the BBC by British censors for his pro-
IRA views, and he refused to denounce the IRA when one of its mortar
bombs killed nine Northern Irish police officers. But Mr. King is now
one of America's most outspoken foes of terrorism.

Six weeks after September 11, 2001, he told WABC radio that the
military should use tactical nuclear weapons in Afghanistan if it was
believed that Islamic terrorists would deploy chemical weapons on
American soil. Last year, he inflamed American Muslim groups when he
said that 85% of mosques in this country have extremist leaders and
that Muslims in this country were reluctant to help law enforcement.

Despite his years of support for the IRA, Mr. King has become a valued
ally of the Bush administration on terrorism matters and sits on the
House Committee on Homeland Security. He has won considerable praise
for his role as chairman of its subcommittee on emergency preparedness
- most recently for helping to steer the First Responders Bill into
law. The bill aims to streamline federal grants to communities most at
risk of terrorist attack.

Not so long ago, the words "Peter King" and "renegade" appeared
together in many a published profile. The link resulted from the
Republican's support for President Clinton before and during the
impeachment crisis and his bitter spat with a former House Republican
speaker, Newt Gingrich, whom Mr. King, to the delight of Democrats,
once termed "political road kill."

Not anymore. These days Mr. King is a mainstream GOP loyalist, at
least most of the time. He praises the current House speaker, Dennis
Hastert of Illinois, and he has even made up with Mr. Bush after
backing the president's opponent in the 2000 primaries, Senator
McCain. When Mr. Bush visited Bob Jones University in South Carolina,
an institution that is notorious in Ireland for awarding an honorary
doctorate to Northern Ireland's tempestuous Protestant leader, Ian
Paisley, the presidential candidate became, as Mr. King angrily put
it, a tool of "anti-Catholic bigoted forces."

In recent years, Mr. King said, the GOP "made friends with me."

"Several things happened," he said. "One, Gingrich left in '98. That
was a big thing for me. He really symbolized the stridency and anger
in the Republican Party, while Hastert made a big difference in the
Congress.

"Secondly, ever since September 11, the war against terrorism, the war
against Islamic fundamentalism, has become the main issue, and I have
formed a very close relationship with President Bush. I have really
got to know him."

Another Republican from Nassau County, Alfonse D'Amato, the former
senator, has been a friend of Mr. King's for 30 years. "He's a now-
independent, respected voice in the Republican Party, someone people
listen to, notwithstanding his clashes with the leadership," Mr.
D'Amato said. "He's a team player - up to a point. There are some
matters of principle he won't be budged on."

It was in the late 1970s that Mr. King first got involved in the Irish
issue, but it struck some as an unlikely choice. His family hailed
from Limerick and Galway, but apart from a great-uncle who was in the
IRA in the 1920s, the Sunnyside native had no roots in revolutionary
politics.

"He really didn't have a direct connection with Ireland," the longtime
Nassau district attorney, Denis Dillon, said. Mr. Dillon, then a
Democrat but now a Republican, was an early political ally who
eventually parted company when Mr. King's advocacy of the IRA became
most fervent.

In 1980, Mr. D'Amato, then the senator-elect, fulfilled a campaign
pledge and went to Belfast on a fact-finding trip, taking Messrs. King
and Dillon with him. It was the start of Mr. King's long entanglement
with the IRA, and he took to it with the zeal of a convert.

He forged links with leaders of the IRA and Sinn Fein in Ireland, and
in America he hooked up with Irish Northern Aid, known as Noraid, a
New York based group that the American, British, and Irish governments
often accused of funneling guns and money to the IRA. At a time when
the IRA's murder of Lord Mountbatten and its fierce bombing campaign
in Britain and Ireland persuaded most American politicians to shun
IRA-support groups, Mr. King displayed no such inhibitions. He spoke
regularly at Noraid protests and became close to the group's publicity
director, the Bronx lawyer Martin Galvin, a figure reviled by the
British.

Mr. King's support for the IRA was unequivocal. In 1982, for instance,
he told a pro-IRA rally in Nassau County: "We must pledge ourselves to
support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying
forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of
Belfast and Derry."

By the mid-1980s, the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic were
openly hostile to Mr. King. On one occasion, a judge threw him out of
a Belfast courtroom during the murder trial of IRA men because, in the
judge's view, "he was an obvious collaborator with the IRA." When he
attended other trials, the police singled him out for thorough body
searches.

During his visits to Ireland, Mr. King would often stay with well-
known leaders of the IRA, and he socialized in IRA drinking haunts. At
one of such clubs, the Felons, membership was limited to IRA veterans
who had served time in jail. Mr. King would almost certainly have been
red-flagged by British intelligence as a result, but the experience
gave him plenty of material for the three novels he subsequently wrote
featuring the IRA.

If Peter King helped give the IRA a respectable face in America, in
Ireland and Britain the IRA's reputation as a ruthless and skilled
terrorist group was solidifying. The product of street disorders in
1969 in the wake of a civil rights campaign on behalf of Northern
Ireland's minority Catholic population, the IRA's violent effort to
end British rule against the wishes of the majority Protestant
population lasted 25 years. Despite killings by state forces and
Protestant terrorist groups who favored retaining Northern Ireland's
British links, the IRA emerged as the single most violent group. More
than 3,600 civilians, soldiers, and policemen died in the conflict
between 1969 and 1994 - the per-capita equivalent death toll in
America would be nearly 700,000 - and the IRA was responsible for
around half of those killings.

Ireland was no stranger to episodic political violence, but the strife
in Northern Ireland was the most intense and prolonged of all. At one
stage, Britain had 30,000 troops stationed there to quell the
violence. Meanwhile, the IRA took its campaign to Britain - where
London's financial district was twice devastated by bombs - and to
mainland Europe, where British NATO bases were frequently targeted.
The IRA nearly killed Prime Minister Thatcher and her cabinet with a
bomb in 1984, and it assassinated prominent British politicians and
members of the royal family. The IRA's primary contribution to
international terrorist know-how, the car and truck bombs now
commonplace in Iraq, were devised and first deployed by the IRA in
Belfast in 1972. The organization also developed homemade explosives,
like the fertilizer-based device that destroyed the Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma in 1995.

Much of the conventional weaponry and a great deal of the money
necessary for IRA violence came from Irish-American sympathizers. Mr.
King's advocacy of the IRA's cause encouraged that flow and earned him
the deep-seated hostility of the British and Irish governments. In
America, official animosity was no less intense. The GOP in Nassau
tried, unsuccessfully, to muzzle him, and he complained that the FBI
was opening mail sent from Ireland, including letters from Sinn Fein's
Gerry Adams. In 1984, the Secret Service listed him as a threat when
President Reagan made a trip to Nassau County to watch a Special
Olympics event.

Mr. King and the IRA made the oddest of political couples. While Mr.
King was an opponent of legalized abortion, a fiscal conservative, and
a prominent supporter of English First - which campaigned against
federal funds for bilingual education - the IRA and Sinn Fein are
close to supporting abortion rights, have campaigned to give the Irish
language official parity with English, and were in a pseudo-Marxist
phase when Mr. King made his alliance with them. None of that bothered
the IRA's American supporters.

"People like Adams were banned from America, there was censorship in
Ireland, and there was no one around who would support armed
struggle," a former head of the Manhattan unit of Noraid, John
McDonagh, said. "But here you had this guy whose father was an NYPD
cop - a politician, a lawyer, and from Queens. We may not have liked
his politics, but it was so good to have someone like that, a very
credible person who spoke up for us."

As Mr. King became more outspoken in his support for the IRA he was
also fashioning his political career. In 1977 he was elected to
municipal office in Hempstead, and four years later he became Nassau
County comptroller. His breakthrough came in 1985,and for that he
could thank IRA supporters in New York.Four years before, 10 IRA
prisoners had starved themselves to death on a hunger strike in
protest of being denied political status by the British. Week after
week during the lengthy fast, tens of thousands of Irish-Americans
turned out for noisy Noraid protests - and mainstream politicians,
from Mayor Koch to Senator D'Amato - lined up to speak from Noraid
platforms.

In the years after the hunger strike, Noraid was a major player in New
York's Irish-American politics. That was most evident in the yearly
election of grand marshal of the St. Patrick's Day parade, when Noraid
sympathizers were chosen each year. In 1985, the group threw its
weight behind Mr. King. When he won and led the procession in top hat
and tails, before an estimated 2 million spectators, the Irish
government boycotted the parade. Efforts to persuade Cardinal O'Connor
and the city's political establishment to follow suit failed.

"It was a battle for Irish-American hearts and minds," Mr. Galvin, the
Noraid leader, said. Noraid won the battle hands down, due in no small
measure to Mr. King's soaring popularity in the Irish community.

"Definitely, being grand marshal helped," Mr. King said. "It gave me
an opportunity, a forum for about a month, and the fact that people in
the Irish-American community now knew the name King was definitely a
big plus." The proof of that came that November, when he was re-
elected as Nassau comptroller against a candidate who made the contest
a referendum on Mr. King's pro-IRA views. Noraid lobbied heavily for
Mr. King, holding fund-raising events and publicizing his campaign in
its paper, the Irish People. The following year, Mr. King signaled his
wider political ambitions and ran as GOP candidate against Robert
Abrams for state attorney general.

Although he lost badly, within six years Mr. King was in Congress,
elected in New York's 3rd District, one of the most affluent House
districts. No sooner were the votes counted than Mr. King was on a
plane to Belfast, inviting Gerry Adams to his swearing-in. Mr. King
arrived in Washington to a hostile reception.

"I was told before I came here that the British Embassy had been here
before me, talking to Republican leaders," Mr. King said, "telling
them to watch out for me."

It was the IRA that changed that. In 1994 it called a cease-fire that
was the outcome of a decade of secret maneuvering by Mr. Adams, and
the subsequent peace process called for substantial American
government involvement. The Clinton administration realized that there
were very few people in America who knew anything about Mr. Adams, and
that Peter King was one of them. Suddenly Mr. King found himself in
demand, invited to the White House for private chats with the
president and on one occasion to a Super Bowl pizza party. As Mr.
Clinton sought a foreign-policy victory in Ireland, Mr. King's lengthy
flirtation with Irish terrorism was forgotten. The two men became
friends and political allies. Mr. King would tell people: "Gerry Adams
made me respectable."

Although the Irish peace process transformed Mr. King's image in
Washington, it also tested his patience. The Good Friday Agreement was
brokered in 1998 with help from the Clinton administration. It set up
a power-sharing government and gave the IRA's political wing, Sinn
Fein, a guaranteed seat at the cabinet table alongside Protestant
politicians. Nevertheless, events moved at a glacial pace and signs
persisted that the IRA might be playing a double game, agreeing to
decommission its weapons but not proceeding to do so. IRA operatives
were arrested in Colombia on suspicion of aiding Marxist guerrillas,
angering the Bush administration; a gun-running ring was exposed in
Florida, and, against Mr. King's advice, Mr. Adams traveled to Cuba to
meet Fidel Castro.

Then, the events of September 11, 2001, changed everything. The
attacks made it untenable for an American politician to appear to be
ambiguous about political violence.

As America readjusted to a new, violent reality, peace in Ireland was
dropping very slowly indeed. The Good Friday Agreement faltered into
suspension, and, just after another bout of talks aimed at reviving
the deal failed last December, the peace process was pitched into a
deep crisis.

A bank raid in Belfast by the IRA netted $51 million, and shortly
afterward IRA men stabbed a Belfast Catholic to death and then
intimidated witnesses into silence - both episodes highlighting the
IRA's accelerating drift into criminality. The British and Irish
governments criticized Mr. Adams - Mr. Bush canceled the annual St.
Patrick's Day festivities at the White House as punishment - and Mr.
King called on the IRA to disband.

It is a position the congressman says he won't be budged from. "I felt
strongly that since the Good Friday Agreement, the political and
military should be going to the finish line, and once you reached it,
the military would disband," he said. "There was no longer any
rationale for the IRA."

Nor will he accept any halfway measure, such as Sinn Fein's separating
from the IRA.

"I would still support Sinn Fein's right to be part of the peace
process," Mr. King said, "but I would be very critical of the IRA for
not disbanding. No, they have to disband. Northern Ireland is at the
threshold of being a democratic society."

What will he do if, as is now speculated in Ireland, the IRA refuses
to disband? "With the IRA, I will reconsider my relationship," he
said. "The IRA really has to disband. Whether they do it this week or
next week, they have to do it pretty soon, and if they don't, I will
consider speaking out against them."

Mr. King - who lives in Seaford, Long Island, with his wife, Rosemary,
and has two adult children and one grandchild - is these days more
concerned about American Republicans than the Irish variety. He frets
about the GOP's woeful recent electoral performances in New York.
While his name is mentioned as a possible gubernatorial candidate, he
says he won't run - but speculation persists that he has ambitions for
a statewide post.

Saying goodbye to the IRA after the attacks of September 11, 2001, may
be a necessity, but it also could be an important rite of passage in
Mr. King's political journey. "I see a maturation there," said Mr.
Dillon said. The Nassau D.A. was there when Mr. King began his affair
with the IRA.

"He was fearless and combative," Mr. Dillon said, "and now he's
familiar with the issues, he's ready to move away from former allies,
and he's not afraid to do so."

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

http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=61961&pt=n

Oscar-Nominated Actor In Plea Over Festival's Funding

Oscar nominated actor Stephen Rea today called for greater Government
recognition of the West Belfast Festival.

By:Press Association

At the launch of the 2005 programme, the Belfast-born star of Neil
Jordan`s `The Crying Game` and `Breakfast on Pluto` and Sinn Fein
leader Gerry Adams both called for increased funding for the festival.

Among the top music names performing over 10 days at Feile an Phobail
are Scottish rock band The Proclaimers, Hothouse Flowers, Luka Bloom,
Damien Dempsey, a DJ set by the Afro Celt Sound System, the Celtic
Tenors, Blazin` Squad, ska band The Beat and showband icon, Dickie
Rock.

Popular novelist Marian Keyes will join writer and film director Peter
Sheridan and US author Tim O`Grady at a literary event.

There will also be the Irish premiere of former Sinn Fein publicity
director Danny Morrison`s play `The Wrong Man,` Dubbeljoint`s new
production `The Session` and actor Michael Collins` show about his
experience as a member of the Travelling community, `It`s a Cultural
Thing!...Or Is it?`

One of Ireland`s biggest comedy exports Jimeoin, who enjoyed a hit TV
show and movie in Australia, is to headline the stand up night with PJ
Gallagher from RTE`s `Naked Camera`.

There will also be the annual gaelic games competitions including the
poc fada competition and other sports events including an audience
with 1990 and 1994 Irish World Cup hero Paul McGrath, the Feile fun
run and the Ireland`s Strongest Man final.

Ireland`s Catholic Primate Archbishop Sean Brady, controversial Irish
American priest Fr Sean McManus, Palestinian National Council member
Leila Khaled and Atta Yaqub, star of Ken Loach`s film `Ae Fond Kiss`
are to take part in lectures and debates.

BBC Northern Ireland presenter Conor Bradford will also chair `West
Belfast Talks Back` and there will also be a public debate on plans to
introduce a public smoking ban north of the border.

As well as the return of Feile FM, there will be photographic and arts
and crafts exhibitions, cultural tours, children`s events, street
parties, the international food fayre and a market day.

There will also be the carnival parade and a fancy dress finale on the
theme of `Feile Goes to Vegas.`

Mr Rea, who performed Frank McGuinness`s Beirut hostage drama `Someone
To Watch Over Me` at the festival before it became a hit on Broadway,
told the launch the festival was unique because of the hunger of
people in the area for culture.

"That kind of hunger is what makes this festival unique and, as Gerry
says, that needs to be recognised by proper funding," he said at the
bowling pavilion in the Falls Park.

Gerry Adams said the festival ran each year on a hand to mouth basis.

"Despite the fact that it brings in millions of pounds into west
Belfast and into Belfast city, there is no mainstream funding to the
Feile on a consistent basis," the West Belfast MP said.

"Every year we go into a crisis. Every year we fight with British
direct rule ministers and other funding agencies.

"It is a disgrace."

The launch was also attended by Tyrone Gaelic Football star, Peter
Canavan who was challenged by Mr Adams to compete against him in the
annual poc fada contest.

The West Belfast MP quipped: "If Peter`s free.... It`s the only way
Antrim are going to beat Tyrone this year."

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

http://www.ulsterherald.com/news3.htm

Charges Are Dropped Of Stealing Car For Omagh Bomb

By Anton McCabe
June 30, 2005

Charges of stealing the car used in the Omagh bombing have been
dropped against a man with an address in Dundalk. The Public
Prosecution Service withdrew the charges in Enniskillen court on
Tuesday, on the basis that it would be able to obtain a conviction.

Anthony Gerard Donegan had been charged in February with stealing the
maroon Cavalier used to carry the bomb that killed 29 people and
unborn twins.

He was released on Tuesday from Maghaberry prison, where he had been
held since February. PSNI officers had arrested Donegan when they
stopped the car he was driving in Newry.

In 2001, three Garda witness told Dublin's Central Criminal Court that
Donegan had stolen the Omagh bomb car. This occurred during the trial
of Colm Murphy, who was convicted of the bombing but whose conviction
was quashed on appeal earlier this year.

Laurence Rush, whose wife Libby was killed in the bomb, also said
Donegan's name was on a charge sheet which Garda' showed to him in
October 2001.

Rush wrote to the Republic's Director of Public Prosecutions in 2002
regarding his concerns about Donegan.

'I can confirm that a decision has been made that there should not be
a prosecution of the person named in your letter on the basis of the
evidence available at present,' replied DPP James Hamilton.

Donegan was alleged to have stolen the bomb car in Carrickmacross, Co.
Monaghan, in the early hours of August 13, 1998. He is a native of the
Carrickmacross area. He was not a member of the Real IRA, but was
known to be involved in car theft and other crime. At the time, the
Real IRA was using a gang of car thieves in the Louth-South Monaghan
area to source vehicles for attacks.

Shortly after the Omagh bombing, Donegan was imprisoned in the
Republic for unrelated matters. He pleaded not guilty to the Omagh
charges at all stages.

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

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=650859

UUP Looks Set To Enter The Last Chance Saloon

By Barry White
featureseditor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
02 July 2005

ALL right, so the Ulster Unionists have a new, somewhat timeworn
leader in Reg Empey. Does it matter? Should we care?

Actually, yes. He says he won't serve more than five years and I think
we know that during that period unionism will be facing its greatest-
ever challenge.

At present, the only way that republicans can achieve a united Ireland
is by a yes vote in both parts of the island, and that isn't going to
happen soon, if ever. But they've proved to be masters of
manipulation, convincing large parts of the world that the IRA
campaign was somehow "justified", and that creates great dangers for
unionism.

If today's unionists act unreasonably, republicans' influence on Brits
who have guilt feelings about Ireland can only grow. (Tony Blair being
one of them.)

Now that unionists have chosen the most in-your-face party to
represent them (the DUP), there has to be an alternative voice, more
likeable than David Trimble and more acceptable to mainland opinion
than Ian Paisley.

The UUP hope they have found the answer, in Sir Reg, and before long
we'll all know if they have. He has a long history, dating from the
1970s when he was one of Bill Craig's bright boys (Trimble was
another) in Vanguard, a right-wing challenger to the UUP.

(I wonder if he was an armband-wearing member of the Vanguard Service
Corps, a stormtrooper outfit which provided an escort at Craig's
rallies. Trimble never was, and felt uncomfortable with the whole
business.)

Although Empey was deputy leader of the United Ulster Unionist Party
from 1977-84 - a breakaway from Vanguard, opposed to voluntary
coalition - he saw the light after a humiliating Assembly election in
1983. Since then, it has been relatively plain sailing with the UUP,
through two terms as Belfast Lord Mayor - for which anyone deserves a
knighthood - membership of the Good Friday negotiating team and, of
course, an on-off career as Enterprise Minister. (OK, so he believed
Tony Blair's promises, but in 1998 we all did.)

Before long, we must hear the full story behind the rumoured
Donaldson-Empey dream team, which might have halted the UUP's decline,
but either he was loyal to Trimble or bottled out. In a biography of
Trimble, Empey is quoted thus: "I haven't stuck with him this far to
let him down now."

Let him down?

If Trimble's lieutenants had deserted him, for the party's sake, they
would have more to work with today. Jeffrey would be leader, but would
he give the party the shake-up it needs?

The most interesting insight into Empey is provided by Mairtin O
Muilleior, former councillor and owner of Daily Sinn Fein (sorry,
Ireland). Though he reckons Empey needs his tribute like MRSA, he
thinks the UUP leader has the guile and guts to turn the ailing party
around.

As head of the economic development committee in City Hall, Reg
"responded swiftly to US demands that it dump the old tactic of
sidelining Sinn Fein." Even on the night of the IRA's bombing of
Manchester in 1996, he still introduced visiting US businessmen to
Sinn Fein representatives. And he gets republican praise for setting
up the west Belfast task forces, to tackle deprivation on both sides
of the peace line.

It will be a long time before the new leader has an opportunity to
improve anyone's life, through a devolved executive, but at least he
deserves a fair wind.

I'd send him to the best image consultant, to make him look and sound
more assertive, and I'd have him present the UUP as an equally-
difficult, but civil, alternative to the DUP, with the potential to
galvanise the non-voting middle class.

Still, I'm worried that nearly half the party wanted to commit hari-
kari with an unknown (outside north Down), unheard-of leader. If they
get control, before Reg wields his reforming axe, goodnight UUP
forever.

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

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=650784

An Island Of New Homes Offers Hope In The Shadow Of A 60-Foot
Sectarian Peace Line In Belfast

Barbed wire, weeds, dereliction... but new life is appearing on the
Shankill

By David McKittrick
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
02 July 2005

IT is the mother of all Belfast sectarian flashpoints, the iconic
birthplace of the modern IRA, a troublespot which for decades has been
an intermittent war zone.

A forbidding 60ft-high peaceline, hundreds of yards long, imposes
almost absolute segregation between the militantly loyalist Shankill
and the trenchantly republican Falls.

It separates Cupar Way from Bombay Street, which houses a reverently
tended "martyrs' memorial garden" commemorating the IRA, Sinn Fein and
civilian casualties of the conflict.

This is the spot where in 1969 marauding loyalists burnt Catholic
homes in what many view as the start of serious violence.

And yet, to general amazement, the Shankill side of the peaceline is
showing the first fragile signs of recovery. The moonscape there is
being re-colonised: new homes are being built there on land that was
written off as uninhabitable.

So far it is a small-scale development, but the authorities hope it
will eventually bring a dramatic transformation of this ravaged area.

Practically in the shadow of the huge wall, amid barbed wire, the
weeds and dereliction, stands a row of 18 new houses, some already
occupied, some still being built by a developer with Shankill
connections. According to Baroness May Blood, the veteran Shankill-
based community worker: "My mind goes back to the days when there was
rioting there every night of the week.

"It was a wasteland and we thought it would never come to life again.
I said, 'Who the devil would buy a house there?' But they've been
bought - this is so good for the Shankill."

Alan McNeill, 31, a call centre manager who lives in one of the Cupar
Way houses, said: "When I tell people where I live, they step back in
amazement and their eyes open wide.

"But times have changed. This will be a nice area. The changes in
Northern Ireland have already been phenomenal, and there's no going
back any more."

Elsewhere in Belfast, the £74,000 Mr McNeill paid for the house six
months ago would buy a cramped two-up, two-down elderly house without
a garden.

But in his new home everything is large - the kitchen, the garden, the
three bedrooms.

Mr McNeill explained: "I bought it because it was so inexpensive, but
its value has already gone up to £90,000. As long as the peaceline
holds, as long as the ceasefire holds, this is going to be a prime
site for development."

Margaret Smyth, another new Cupar Way resident, said: "I like to live
life on the edge. I really wanted to get on the property ladder,
that's what really swung it for me. I did a lot of research and then I
just thought, what the hell."

The developments at Cupar Way arise from an emerging partnership
between the housing authorities and a few private developers aimed at
tackling the Shankill's potent mix of deep social and paramilitary
problems.

The desolation and depression which has affected the Shankill has left
the once-proud district with multiple problems in health,
unemployment, housing and education.

In the 1960s, the housing improvements were not a success, while
unemployment rose steeply with the closure of traditional industries
such as shipbuilding. Then the troubles came as a hammer blow: the
Shankill itself suffered, while thousands of local men joined loyalist
paramilitary organisations and wound up in jail.

Later, in the 1990s, some loyalist groups turned to drug-dealing on a
major scale, introducing yet another scourge to the blighted district.
The exodus sparked by these factors eased housing overcrowding but
introduced a new problem of under-population, leaving large areas
disused and desolate.

This was particularly the case in peaceline areas such as Cupar Way,
where the authorities deliberately left what were described as
"sterile" areas in an attempt to cut down on the recurring violent
clashes. The new Cupar Way housing developments thus challenge the
long-established assumption that little or no improvement is possible.

According to the developer, Ken Smyth, who is building the 18 homes on
Cupar Way: "Three banks turned me down before I could get finance. It
was a high risk because the site was derelict for years, cars were
getting burnt out on it and there was antisocial behaviour ... It
worked out at about £9,000 for the land for each house. The ground was
cheap and therefore the houses could be cheap."

The authorities believe it is realistic to hope the next seven years
could see 2,000 new private houses there. Some believe this new
phenomenon could be the salvation of Shankill, though it will take
luck: last weekend, for example, the area was tense before a contested
march.

But there are no plans to remove the towering peaceline: the sobering
fact is that, over more than three decades, dozens of such barriers
have gone up but none has ever come down.

Yet if it cannot be removed it can, in some younger minds, be subtly
re-defined. Mr McNeill, whose home looks directly on to it, explained:
"It's a big tourist attraction, buses and taxis are continually
bringing people up to see it.

"The old stereotypes are starting to go now, and here with the wall
you've a bit of culture, a bit of history."

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

http://www.ulsterherald.com/news2.htm

Arlene'S Family In Tears At Verdict

June 30, 2005

RELATIVES of Arlene Arkinson, the 15-year-old Castlederg schoolgirl
who disappeared without a trace over a decade ago, fled the Crown
Court in Belfast in tears as the foreman of the jury announced a "not
guilty" verdict by a majority of ten to two.

It had taken the jury of nine men and three women more than 21 hours
over six days to acquit Robert Lesarian Howard, formerly of Main
Street in Castlederg.

Last Thursday the jury also cleared Howard of getting his former
lover's daughter to lie for him about being out with Arlene and her
friends.

The prosecution had claimed that Howard was the last person to see
Arlene alive after she and friends had been across the border to a
disco in Bundoran, the night she disappeared on August 13, 1994.

The prosecution had also branded Howard as a "cunning and deceptive"
liar who presented police with a "false picture" in an effort to
eliminate himself from their investigation.

Crown lawyer Kieran Murphy had contended that Howard "had the
opportunity to kill her (Arlene) and dispose of the body, which,
despite extensive searches, has never been found."

However, by their verdicts, the jury have accepted defence claims they
could not be sure that the schoolgirl was indeed dead, or if dead,
that Howard was involved in her murder.

During the month long trial the jury heard that Arlene was spotted as
far away as Warrington in England getting on a bus, or thumbing a lift
along a lonely Derry road in the weeks and months following her
disappearance.

Witnesses also claimed they recognised Arlene in Bangor, Co Down and
in a Co Antrim nightclub from photographs released by police during a
"media blitz" in the aftermath of her disappearance.

Defence QC Barry McDonald branded the prosecution case as "all
speculation", declaring "there's just no limit to the speculation that
one could engage in'.

All that is known is that the troubled schoolgirl has apparently
disappeared into thin air, although the defence acknowledged she could
indeed be dead.

However, Mr McDonald contended that rather than dying at the hands of
Robert Howard, "she could have committed suicide - could have jumped
off a ferry and been claimed by the sea - we just do not know."

Arlene's sister Kathleen and brother, Martin Arkinson, said afterwards
while they were disappointed in the verdict, their priority remained
the same, finding their sister's body for a proper burial.

'We have always said our top priority has been to recover Arlene's
body. This is still the case and we are calling on the police to
continue the searches and we will not rest until our sister is found,"
said Kathleen.

A spokesman for the Public Prosecution Service said a decision was
still to be taken whether Howard would face a retrial on these three
charges.

More than 30 searches were mounted on the border by police, and
efforts to trace Arlene through the records of social services, the
passport office or driving licence centres throughout Britain and
Ireland all proved fruitless.

Police decided that "a combination of events and extensive inquiries
over the years" indicated that the Castlederg teenager was dead.

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

http://www.ulsterherald.com/news4.htm

Drowning Victim Laid To Rest

Martin McGoldrick who died in a tragic drowning accident at the
weekend

By Nigel McDonagh
June 30, 2005

THE FINTONA teenager who died in a tragic drowning accident in
Fermanagh at the weekend was buried yesterday (Wednesday).

Martin McGoldrick, 19, had been swimming with his brother and friends
at Coranny Lake near the Fermanagh-Monaghan border on Saturday evening
when he went missing.

The group had just returned from watching Tyrone's victory over Cavan
at Clones in a championship semi-final replay on Saturday afternoon.

Mr McGoldrick, who lived at Seskinore, went swimming in Coranny Lake
around 11pm. However, he failed to return to shore with the rest of
his friends and a major search operation involving the PSNI, the
Coastguard and the Fire Service was launched.

An Irish Air-Sea Rescue helicopter from Sligo also joined the search.

Mr McGoldrick's body was eventually recovered by a PSNI underwater
diving team early on Sunday afternoon.

The Fintona community was devastated by news of the popular teenager's
death and Tyrone manager, Mickey Harte, offered the squad's
condolences to Mr McGoldrick's family on Sunday evening.

Mr McGoldrick was buried following Requiem Mass at St Lawrence's
Church in Fintona yesterday, celebrated by Fr Jim Moore and Canon
Patrick Marron.

A guard of honour was formed by pupils from Martin's former schools,
Garvallagh PS and St John's High School, Dromore.

Local SDLP councillor, Pat McDonnell, who knew Martin, said the large
crowd of people who attended the funeral was testament to the
teenager's popularity.

'All funerals are sad but the funeral of a teenager is particularly
poignant.

Obviously, it's a tragedy to lose someone so young and the shock and
disbelief at Martin's death was very evident at his funeral,
particularly among the very many young people who attended,' said Mr
McDonnell.

'I knew Martin formerly as a pupil at St John's High School. He was an
open and pleasant lad who was very good-natured and always full of
fun.'

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

http://www.sltrib.com/entertainment/ci_2836262

Review: 'Stones In His Pockets' Proves That Different Can Be Good

By Celia R. Baker
The Salt Lake Tribune

The Utah Shakespearean Festival - home of corsets and furbelows,
monster casts, gorgeous sets and lofty language - has seen nothing
like ''Stones in His Pockets.''

Marie Jones' recent London and Broadway hit play unfolds on an
almost-bare stage. Only two actors cover the roles of 15 characters.

The story's protagonists, Jake (David Ivers) and Charlie (Brian
Vaughan), are contemporary Irish working-class types - when they can
find work to do - and their rough-edged slang bears no resemblance to
Shakespeare's Iyric poetry.

No matter. At Friday's opening of the play at USF's Randall L.
Jones Theatre in Cedar City, a swift ovation and loud cheering at the
play's end sent a clear message: different can be good.

If USF gave a Most Valuable Player award, Vaughan and Ivers would
have to share it this year. Each does a sensational star turn in other
plays from USF's rotating repertory - Vaughan as King Arthur in
''Camelot'' and Ivers as Berowne in ''Love's Labour's Lost.'' In
''Stones,'' each does several, playing young, old, British, Irish,
American, male and female with equal ease.

Jones' message that hope can triumph over grim reality is tinged
with irony. This is a play about theatrical possibilities and
stretching the limits of the imagination.

The action springs from a Hollywood movie company's visit to rural
County Kerry for a film shoot long on local color and short on
realism. Jake and Charlie are pleased to be earning 40 quid a day as
extras - especially for the proximity it provides to the movie's star,
a spoiled actress bearing the fine old Irish name of Caroline Giovanni
(portrayed with a precise degree of false sincerity by Vaughan).

Vaughan's other roles include the film's starchy British director,
a grieving father and Caroline's muscle-bound security guard. Besides
Jake, Ivers' character list includes an ancient townsman - the last
surviving extra from the John Wayne film ''The Quiet Man''; a local
youth debilitated by drugs and despair; and the film's officious
female assistant director.

Instant transitions from character to character happen before the
audience's eyes. The initial mood of the play is comedy, with Jake and
Charlie bouncing gags off one another like Laurel and Hardy gone to
Galway. Gradually, though, the harshness of contemporary life in rural
Ireland is revealed.

Farmers are selling their land to get by, leaving their sons with
no future. Drink and drugs are taking their toll. Even immigration is
no longer a cure: Jake has tried his luck in New York, barely
surviving on the income of three jobs waiting tables. Now he's back
home - ''on the dole'' and living with his mother.

Against this gritty backdrop, a story filled with emotional twists
plays out.

The play's central tragedy, from which its title derives, is
revealed in the playbill's synopsis. Avoid reading it if you don't
like spoilers. We'll let you in one secret though: ''Stones in His
Pockets'' is a uniquely entertaining play, and tickets are likely to
go fast.

''Stones in His Pockets''

THE BOTTOM LINE: Marie Jones' recent play ''Stones in His Pockets''
is a refreshingly different offering for the Utah Shakespearean
Festival. Two actors on a near-empty stage portray 15 characters in an
Irish village overrun by a Hollywood film company.

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

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3245209

Next Best Thing To Gold At The End Of Ireland's Rainbow
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

DUBLIN, Ireland — Here's something you probably didn't know: Ireland
today is the richest country in the European Union after Luxembourg.

Yes, the country best known for hundred of years for emigration,
tragic poets, famines, civil wars and leprechauns today has a per
capita GDP higher than that of Germany, France and Britain. How
Ireland went from the sick man of Europe to the rich man in less than
a generation is an amazing story. It says a lot about Europe today:
All the innovation is happening on the periphery by countries
embracing globalization in their own ways — Ireland, Britain,
Scandinavia and Eastern Europe — while those following the French-
German social model are suffering high unemployment and low growth.

Ireland's turnaround began in the late 1960s when the government made
secondary education free, enabling a lot more working-class kids to
get a high school or technical degree. As a result, when Ireland
joined the EU in 1973, it was able to draw on a much more educated
work force.

By the mid-1980s, though, Ireland had reaped the initial benefits of
EU membership — subsidies to build better infrastructure and a big
market to sell into. But it still did not have enough competitive
products to sell, because of years of protectionism and fiscal
mismanagement. It was going broke, and most college grads were
emigrating.

"We went on a borrowing, spending and taxing spree, and that nearly
drove us under," said Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney. "It was
because we nearly went under that we got the courage to change."

And change Ireland did. In a quite unusual development, the
government, the main trade unions, farmers and industrialists came
together and agreed on a program of fiscal austerity, slashing
corporate taxes to 12.5 percent, far below the rest of Europe,
moderating wages and prices, and aggressively courting foreign
investment. In 1996, Ireland made college education basically free,
creating an even more educated work force.

The results have been phenomenal. Today, nine out of 10 of the world's
top pharmaceutical companies have operations here, as do 16 of the top
20 medical device companies and seven out of the top 10 software
designers. Last year, Ireland got more foreign direct investment from
America than from China. And overall government tax receipts are way
up.

"We set up in Ireland in 1990," Michael Dell, founder of Dell
Computer, explained to me via e-mail. "What attracted us? (A) well-
educated work force — and good universities close by. (Also,) Ireland
has an industrial and tax policy which is consistently very supportive
of businesses, independent of which political party is in power. I
believe this is because there are enough people who remember the very
bad times to de-politicize economic development. (Ireland) also has
very good transportation and logistics and a good location — easy to
move products to major markets in Europe quickly."

Finally, added Dell, "they're competitive, want to succeed, hungry and
know how to win. Our factory is in Limerick, but we also have several
thousand sales and technical people outside of Dublin. The talent in
Ireland has proven to be a wonderful resource for us. Fun fact: We are
Ireland's largest exporter."

Intel opened its first chip factory in Ireland in 1993. James Jarrett,
a vice president, said Intel was attracted by Ireland's large pool of
young educated men and women, low corporate taxes and other incentives
that saved Intel roughly a billion dollars over 10 years. National
health care didn't hurt, either. "We have 4,700 employees there now in
four factories, and we are even doing some high-end chip designing in
Shannon with Irish engineers," Jarrett said.

In 1990, Ireland's total work force was 1.1 million. This year it will
hit 2 million, with no unemployment and 200,000 foreign workers
(including 50,000 Chinese). Others are taking notes. Prime Minister
Bertie Ahern said: "I've met the premier of China five times in the
last two years."

Ireland's advice is very simple: Make high school and college
education free; make your corporate taxes low, simple and transparent;
actively seek out global companies; open your economy to competition;
speak English; keep your fiscal house in order; and build a consensus
around the whole package with labor and management — then hang in
there, because there will be bumps in the road — and you, too, can
become one of the richest countries in Europe.

"It wasn't a miracle; we didn't find gold," said Mary Harney. "It was
the right domestic policies and embracing globalization."

Friedman is a columnist for The New York Times and a three-time
Pulitzer Prize winner.

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