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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)
September 18, 2005
Securocrats Ended Deal To Halt UDA Violence
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News about Ireland & the Irish
SL 09/18/05 NIO Securocrats Ended Deal To Halt UDA Violence
SL 09/18/05 Determined To Murder Me Because Of My Religion
SL 09/18/05 Loyalist Became 'Grass After UDA Demanded Cash
SL 09/18/05 Loyalist Whitehall Parade Passes Off Peacefully
UN 09/18/05 Belfast Burns As Exclusion Haunts Both Govts
SL 09/18/05 CIRA Warns Of Vicious & Violent Response
IO 09/18/05 Republican Rioters Attack Police In Antrim
SL 09/18/05 McCartneys Honoured At Prestigious Awards
SL 09/18/05 MP Claims...Blair Turned A 'Blind Eye'
SL 09/18/05 Norman Took Part In Massacre, So IRA Got Him
SL 09/18/05 NIO Ministers Stand Idly By While Ulster Burns
SL 09/18/05 Brethren Eject PSNI Video
SL 09/18/05 Provos 'Had 4 Moles In Border Garda'
SL 09/18/05 Loyalists Tribute To Catholic VC Navy Hero
VC 10/09/99 Statue At Last To VC From 'Wrong' Neighbourhood
AP 09/18/05 Generations Toast Irish Roots At The Shore
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662081
Scuppered!
How Interference By NIO Securocrats Put An End To Blair
Deal To Halt UDA Violence
By Alan Murray, Security Correspondent
18 September 2005
MOVES by Tony Blair's chief 'fixer', Jonathan Powell, to
bring an end to UDA violence were scuppered by the Northern
Ireland Office, it was claimed last night.
Angry UDA sources accused jealous NIO officials of wrecking
talks that could have brought major investment to deprived
loyalist areas, where violence erupted last week.
"There is great bitterness over this and people can't
understand why the NIO wrecked this positive initiative,"
said one UDA source.
"Some of us are wondering if the objective of the NIO was
to leave loyalists in despair, adrift and angry, because
that is what they have done."
Jackie McDonald and Andre Shoukri were among the UDA bosses
who met Mr Powell, the PM's chief-of-staff, earlier this
year.
The Downing Street initiative was aimed at bringing an end
to UDA activity, while the terror group's leaders demanded
a package to promote prosperity in loyalist areas.
UDA sources said that the first meeting with Mr Powell, in
Belfast last February, went well.
Said one UDA figure: "There was a bit of political
manoeuvring between Downing Street and Stormont Castle
after the first meeting, because Powell was on their patch,
and they wanted a share of the action.
"We were warned when the NIO became involved to be careful,
because they had a different agenda.
"A senior official from the NIO political department turned
up for the next meeting with Powell and we could detect a
bit of unease.
"The NIO even made fools of themselves by objecting to the
UDA delegation."
The source claimed the NIO objected to Shoukri's presence,
saying he was on a murder charge.
"We pointed out that Ihab Shoukri (who had a murder charge
against him dropped) wasn't on the delegation. It was his
brother, Andre.
"But that should have indicated to us what would happen.
"At the end of that meeting, Jonathan Powell said he would
be back to us within three days with news. We waited for
three weeks and heard nothing from him, and we still
haven't heard anything.
"After the NIO got involved, the initiative ran into the
sands."
The UDA decided in June there was unlikely to be any
further contact from Downing Street.
They believe NIO mandarins stymied what they hoped would be
a "new beginning" for working-class loyalist areas.
Said the UDA source: "We learned from other sources that
the NIO officials said they didn't want to deal with us,
and they ended the Downing Street initiative.
"As far as we are concerned, they threw away the
opportunity, and you have to ask, 'why?'
"Is it their agenda to put loyalists on the streets every
night because that is what they have brought about. The
buck stops with them."
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662090
'They Were Determined To Murder Me Because Of My Religion'
Exclusive by Stephen Breen
18 September 2005
A CATHOLIC man, who was left for dead by a loyalist mob,
has told of his ordeal at the hands of "depraved animals".
John McKay, from the Short Strand in east Belfast, told
Sunday Life he was lucky to be alive and said his attackers
were "full of hate".
"It's only a matter of time before they kill someone. They
were just out for the first Catholic they came across,"
said the 29-year-old Post Office worker.
John was returning home with a friend in the early hours of
last Saturday, after a night out at a function for murdered
pal Robert McCartney, when they were set upon by a 15-
strong gang.
The incident happened on a river walkway at the junction of
the Albertbridge Road and the small nationalist enclave.
Cops said the gang who attacked the man all wore either
peach, pink or yellow tops and were seen running up the
Ravenhill Road.
He had just purchased a signed Celtic football for his
nephews at the McCartney fund-raiser before the attack.
Although his pal managed to escape, Mr McKay, who was
knocked unconscious during the assault, suffered serious
head and leg injuries and a perforated eardrum.
The east Belfast man has no doubt that he was targeted
because of his religion.
Mr McKay told Sunday Life his attackers had acted like
"depraved animals".
"The only reason that these people tried to kill me is
because they would have known I was a Catholic, because of
the direction I was walking in.
"I don't know if they saw the Celtic football I'd bought or
not, but they were still determined to murder me because of
my religion.
"There was a lot of tension in the area all week over the
Whiterock parade, but I thought I would have been safe,
because I only had a short distance to walk to my home.
"I remember a bottle being thrown at me at the start and
the next thing these men caught up with me and were jumping
all over me.
"They were kicking me when I was on the ground and the next
thing I remember is waking up in hospital and my family
being in a terrible state. The whole thing happened so
quickly."
Mr McKay, who has suffered from nightmares since the
attack, is afraid to leave his home.
He added: "My friend and I have been left absolutely
shattered since the attack. I also know that I am very
lucky to be alive.
"I am afraid now to socialise in the city-centre, because I
don't want to encounter these people again. I feel safer at
home."
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662065
Robbing Hoods...
Loyalist Fled Ulster And Became 'Grass After UDA Thugs
Courtney And Shoukri Demanded Thousands In Protection...
Exclusive by Ciaran McGuigan, Chief Reporter in Leeds
18 September 2005
A TERRIFIED loyalist who turned supergrass, last night told
how he fled Ulster after UDA thugs demanded thousands of
pounds from him.
Dessie Truesdale was left cowering in his north Belfast
flat for five weeks after his brother Ian and others close
to Johnny Adair fled the Shankill in February 2003.
He feared he'd be the next man to be shot - killed by the
mainstream UDA in revenge for the feud murders by Adair's
henchmen of Jonathan Stewart and the UDA's East Antrim
'brigadier', John 'Grug' Gregg.
Dessie said a UDA torture squad, led by Mo Courtney,
finally tricked their way into his heavily-fortified flat
after kidnapping his brother William.
Courtney and Ihab Shoukri then beat Truesdale, demanding
that he hand over thousands of pounds.
Dessie recalled: "Mo Courtney and the Egyptians came to my
flat on March 4, after kidnapping my brother William.
"They got him to come to the flat and hit the buzzer. I
looked out the window and saw William there, and thought
everything was fine.
"The next moment, they all came rushing in.
"Mo just came in and said: 'Dessie, have a seat son'.
"I was s******* myself.
"Ihab beat me up, searched all my pockets. He took my
phone, took the money I was to have put in Ian's account,
and a couple of hundred from myself.
"They interrogated me, they wanted information.
"But I wasn't a member, so I didn't have much knowledge.
"Courtney said they knew I had money in a credit union on
the Shankill Road.
"They said they would be back in a couple of days, and they
wanted £5,000."
In May 2003, UDA thugs killed young loyalist Alan
McCullough, who also had links to Adair's exiles.
"Because I had the money in the credit union, that saved my
life," he added.
Dessie fled his flat and Northern Ireland after that
incident.
He later sneaked back into the province to retrieve his
credit union money. But when the UDA found out, they warned
him that they would follow him to England.
He said: "Ihab phoned me, when I was here in Leeds, and
said that I thought I was 'a smart wee b****** ' by getting
a team of detectives to go down with me to get the money.
"He told me the UDA didn't want £5,000 anymore, they now
wanted £10,000, and said that just because I was living in
Leeds, it didn't mean they wouldn't follow me here."
He added: "I can't go back home, and if I do go back home,
I can't stay in the same place more than five minutes.
"I know how long it takes them to get a 'team' and a car
and I would be a dead man."
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662089
Loyalist Whitehall Parade Passes Off Peacefully
18 September 2005
A LOYALIST memorial parade passed off without incident
yesterday in the Whitewell area of north Belfast.
Police kept a discreet presence as 35 bands marched through
White City to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of
Thomas McDonald.
The 16-year-old was knocked off his bike by a car and
killed in September 2001.
A Catholic woman driver was jailed for two years after
being found guilty of his manslaughter by reason of
provocation.
Several bandsmen laid wreaths at the spot where he died.
Police blocked off parts of the Whitewell Road on either
side of White City for several hours to let the 800
participants parade
There were only a dozen or so Land Rovers and the march,
organised by the Whitewell Defenders Flute Band, continued
without any trouble.
******************************************
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1470461&issue_id=13011
Belfast Burns As Exclusion Of Loyalists Returns To Haunt
Both Governments
AS AN athletic young loyalist rioter in September 1970,
Billy Hutchinson - the moderate voice of post-ceasefire
loyalism - caught the eye of Ulster Volunteer Force
recruiters with a spectacular stunt that caused the
humiliation of a British Army regiment based in the old
Milanda bakery building on the Shankill Road.
Just like last weekend, the loyalists were unnerved by what
they saw as British Government capitulation to militant
republican demands.
Serious rioting had been underway in loyalist areas since
the previous autumn when, in one massive riot and gun
battle, Constable Victor Arbuckle became the first member
of the RUC to be killed in the Troubles - shot by a UVF
gunman on the Shankill Road.
As the rioting continued, youths such as Hutchinson were
being watched by the UVF men who were looking for the right
sort of new recruit.
Hutchinson was out on his own. On one night of intense
rioting he was seen scaling the outside of the three-storey
bakery, then climbing up the flag-pole erected by the
King's Own Regiment on which their colours - or regimental
flag - were flying.
Hutchinson grabbed the flag, stuffed it inside his jacket
and climbed down to the cheering mob below. The 15-year-old
had, in a stroke, humiliated one of the British Army's
oldest and proudest regiments. He had, effectively,
"struck" their colours, which is the traditional sign in
land and sea warfare of surrender.
The stroke resulted in the withdrawal of the infantry and
their replacement by the Parachute Regiment, which
immediately began laying into the loyalists of the Shankill
Road.
Several Protestants were shot dead by the Paras in the
coming weeks - a fact never mentioned in all the subsequent
dwellings on that Regiment's actions on Bloody Sunday.
The same type of loyalist paramilitary recruiting agents
who talent-spotted Hutchinson 35 years ago were out on the
streets of Belfast last weekend. The orchestrated riots
were an ideal opportunity to spot the type of enterprising
and fearless young loyalist who can be trusted with more
serious business later on - just as happened later with
Hutchinson, who eventually was to serve a life sentence of
16 years after being convicted of a double murder, before
being released in 1994.
There were, as most newspapers and broadcast media reported
last week, a great deal of "thugs" out on the streets of
Belfast, Ballymena, Ballyclare, Newtownabbey and almost
every other town in Northern Ireland with a working-class
Protestant population.
However, to categorise what happened as mindless violence
is wrong. A large portion of the Protestant working-class
in the North has become detached from the Peace Process and
also from the Good Friday Agreement, which they believe has
been a one-way street in terms of concessions to the IRA
and Sinn Fein.
The commonly-voiced view from loyalists last week was that
if republicans got what they got from violence then it was
legitimate for loyalists to do the same.
The spark that ignited the violence last weekend was the
concessions granted to republicans in the immediate
aftermath of last month's IRA statement - in which it
stated, obliquely, that it would "end all activities".
Even without the hoped-for disbandment the British
Government swung into action immediately, demolishing the
remaining British Army look-out posts in south Armagh,
releasing from prison the Shankill bomber and riot-leader
Sean Kelly and then announcing the disbandment of the Royal
Irish Rangers.
It was this last concession that truly angered the
Protestants. The RIR is a locally-raised regiment of the
regular British Army.
Formerly the Ulster Defence Regiment, the RIR was turned
from a largely part-time militia backing up the police and
regular army in the North to a full-time regular infantry
regiment. It served alongside other British Army infantry
regiments in Iraq immediately after the invasion.
The disbandment of the RIR - without the confirmed
disbandment of the IRA - is a major psychological blow to
loyalism and unionism. More than 200 members of the RIR and
UDR before it were killed by the IRA.
The Regiment is seen as one of the last major symbols of
Ulster unionism's connections to Britain and the last
indigenous bulwark against the IRA.
And, the regimental bases in the North also provide work
for something like several hundred mostly Protestant
civilians, most on low pay but proud of their associations.
The leaders of the UVF have, probably correctly, calculated
that if the abolition of the RIR, the watch towers and the
release of an IRA man who killed nine Protestant civilians
on the Shankill Road in 1993 were the price of the IRA's
watery statement then there would be a much greater series
of concessions if the IRA began decommissioning weapons.
Last weekend's rioting, according to well-placed sources,
was the beginning of a campaign to ensure that the British
and Irish governments are to be made aware of the cost of
further, major concessions to republicans while ignoring
loyalists.
The blocking of the Orange Order parade along the Shankill
Road was an ideal excuse for the mayhem. The Springfield
Road march has strong symbolism for loyalists. Hundreds of
Protestants were forced out of the area by the IRA during
the Troubles - several were murdered in their homes and
businesses.
So, the symbolism of Orangemen being stopped from walking a
route that was once their home is highly significant in
loyalist minds.
It is this territorial imperative that drives much of the
anger in working-class areas in Belfast. It is basically
this battle over the 'narrow ground' within Northern
Ireland that drives much of the fury.
WHAT was very significant about the last week's violence
and the protests which brought traffic to a standstill in
parts of the city was that it was backed by the very people
who had to fight within their own communities to support
the Peace Process.
At critical points in the process the Orange Order and UVF
had to face down groups such as the UDA, Loyalist Volunteer
Force and others who were threatening to wreck it.
At one key moment, in the late summer of 1997, the UVF
stepped in to support a decision by the Orange Order not to
embark on a march down the Ormeau Road past the Catholic
enclave in the Lower Ormeau. The decision not to march was
made by the Ballynafeigh Orange Lodge at a meeting which
was besieged by angry loyalists who threatened to attack
the Lodge members inside their hall.
The angry crowd were only dispersed after UVF men arrived
to ensure the safety of the Orangemen inside. This decision
was a key contributory factor to reducing tension and
allowing the way for the IRA's second and, so far,
permanent ceasefire at the end of August 1979. It also
opened the way for the negotiations that led to the 1998
Good Friday Agreement and the establishment of the power-
sharing Assembly.
In supporting the Peace Process and the Agreement the UVF
was forced into bloody feuding with the groups that opposed
it - extremists like Johnny Adair's UDA contingents and the
LVF, which was headed by the equally extreme Billy Wright.
As these feuds raged in loyalist working-class areas,
hundreds of people were forced out of their homes and more
than 30 members of the loyalist groups murdered. The
killing of five members of the LVF by the UVF since April
in the latest phase of this feuding, combined with the
street violence of the last week, has led the British
Government to declare that the UVF is no longer on
ceasefire.
There has been virtually no recognition of the fact that
the loyalist feuding was sparked because of the UVF's
support for the Peace Process. Like the violence of last
week it was largely dismissed by commentators and
government as internecine feuding between thuggish loyalist
gangs involved in drugs.
What has also been largely ignored has been the change in
mood among loyalists who had previously been prepared to
support the Peace Process and Good Friday Agreement.
UVF sources say they have been surprised by the high level
of support within their community for the violence and
protests that flared last week. Many of the street
protests, blocking traffic and causing disruption across
the city, were carried out by mothers with children.
The rise in anger among a section of the unionist/loyalist
community that had previously been key to the success 'UVF
sources say they have been surprised by the high level of
support within their community for the violence and
protests'
of political initiatives in the North is also due in part
to what is seen as the exclusion of loyalists from the
process.
This is due, it seems, to the belief by both Governments
that because the political wings of the UVF and UDA have no
significant electoral support they are irrelevant to the
process. It is known that there has been virtually no
contact between the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin
and the UVF for at least a year. Chris Hudson, the Dublin
trade unionist who acted as intermediary, confirmed last
week that he had not been contacted by anyone in Government
here for at least a year. The absence of contact was also
confirmed by the loyalists in Belfast as well.
This has contributed to a belief within the loyalist ranks
that both governments have no interest in the views of
loyalists and therefore they are no longer part of the
Peace Process in the North.
One senior figure who played a crucial role in bringing the
UVF into the process described the Governments' roles in
handling loyalists as "grossly neglectful".
Jim Cusack
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662080
CIRA Warns Of 'Vicious And Violent Response' To Attacks
By Stephen Breen
18 September 2005
A RENEGADE republican godfather last night vowed to unleash
a new wave of terror if Catholic homes in Belfast's
interface areas come under attack from loyalist gunmen.
In an interview with Sunday Life, a leading member of the
Continuity IRA told how nationalists fear the UVF will now
target people living in flashpoint areas after its
specification by the Secretary of State, Peter Hain, last
week.
But the top dissident, who ordered armed men to patrol
parts of north and west Belfast during last weekend's orgy
of violence, warned there will be a "vicious and violent"
response if nationalists are murdered.
He also confirmed his units have been working closely with
the INLA in interface areas of the city, in a bid to defend
Catholic homes.
Real IRA units in various parts of the province have also
been put on high-alert over the current crisis.
There has been speculation of a UVF link to the brutal
murder of Catholic schoolboy Thomas Devlin, and tensions
remain high across the city.
Hopes that the UVF may also move to give up its weapons
have also been dashed after last week's violence and the
Government's decision to no longer recognise its ceasefire.
The renegade leader told us his men were on "standby" to
defend nationalist homes.
Said the dissident: "The nationalist people are obviously
worried about the state of loyalism at the moment, none
more so that those living in interface areas.
"Now that the UVF ceasefire is no longer recognised people
are concerned that once the group's feud with the LVF is
over they will turn their attentions to innocent Catholics.
"But if this happens, then loyalist leaders should be
prepared for an armed response from our volunteers. We will
not stand by and watch our people being murdered.
"We have the weapons and the men to hit back at the
loyalists. We will have no hesitation in defending our
communities.
"This is a tense time for everyone and we would like to
remind people that we are not on ceasefire."
******************************************
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=156280866&p=y56z8y57z
Rioters Attack Police In Antrim
18/09/2005 - 10:46:57
Police came under attack from youths rioting in Antrim for
several hours early today.
After a week of loyalist street violence and protest, this
time it was nationalist youths who caused trouble.
A mob of up to 60 hurled petrol bombs, bricks, stones and
other missiles at police in the Rathenraw area of the town
for up to four hours. Two police vehicles were damaged but
there were no reports of police injuries.
A number of wheelie bins were dragged into the road and
burned and a number of roads were closed to the public for
hours.
Three youths, aged 16, 17 and 18, were arrested for riotous
behaviour.
In Derry, rival nationalist and loyalist youths clashed in
the city centre.
Four juveniles were arrested after missiles were hurled by
both sides in the Market Street Foyle Street area.
Two cars were damaged, windows in commercial premises
broken and police vehicles sustained minor damage.
However there were no reports of injuries.
Meanwhile, two men have been charged with attempted murder
following the recent violence.
A 32-year-old man is due to appear in court in Belfast
tomorrow charged with attempted murder following an
incident during serious loyalist rioting in the Broadway
area of the city last Sunday and Monday.
A 22-year-old arrested yesterday was also charged with
attempted murder, arson, possession of a petrol bomb and
throwing a petrol bomb in Mosside outside Ballymoney, Co
Antrim.
He was arrested on Saturday following a petrol bomb attack
on a house in the village.
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662088
McCartneys Honoured At Prestigious Awards
Campaign boost as sisters and fiancee of murdered Robert
pick up ESB/Rehab Irish Person of the Year accolade at gala
event in Dublin
By Stephen Breen
18 September 2005
THE campaigning sisters and partner of murdered Belfast man
Robert McCartney last night scooped a prestigious award.
The murder victim's sisters - Paula, Catherine, Gemma,
Claire and Donna - and fiancée Bridgeen Hagans jointly
received the ESB/Rehab Irish Person of the Year Award at a
gala ceremony in Dublin.
Live 8 organiser Sir Bob Geldof, veteran broadcaster Terry
Wogan and GAA chairman Sean Kelly were also honoured at the
awards bash.
Speaking to Sunday Life after the ceremony, Paula McCartney
said her sisters and Ms Hagans were "appreciative" of the
honour.
"This is a great morale boost to our campaign and we were
shocked when we were told we were receiving the award,"
said Paula.
"This award shows that the whole of Ireland is on the side
of truth and justice, and we are deeply honoured to receive
it.
"This recognition also highlights the importance of justice
for the advancement of peace in Ireland.
"We are determined to continue our quest to have all of our
brother's killers in a court of law."
The six women were honoured for their determination to
bring the dad-of-two's killers to justice.
The Short Strand man was murdered by republicans outside
Magennis's pub in Belfast city-centre last January.
Since then, his sisters and partner, who last week accused
republicans of stepping up their intimidation, have
embarked on a campaign for justice.
Their quest has taken them to the White House and the
European Parliament.
Judges at last night's ceremony praised the Belfast women
"for their tremendous dignity and courage in their fight
for justice".
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662073
MP On Northern Bank Documentary Claims...Blair Turned A
'Blind Eye'
By Stephen Breen
18 September 2005
PRIME Minister Tony Blair turned a "blind eye" to the IRA's
robbery of £26m from the Northern Bank, it was claimed last
night.
In a blistering attack on the Government's handling of one
of the world's biggest bank robberies, South Belfast SDLP
MP Alasdair McDonnell, accused the Government of allowing
the Provos to commit a series of daring robberies, during
last year's troubled peace negotiations.
They include a £1m heist at the Makro warehouse and the
robbery of thousands of pounds worth of cigarettes.
His views on IRA criminality are also shared by the
Republic's Justice Minister, Michael McDowell, during a
hard-hitting Channel 4 documentary on the Northern Bank
raid.
The programme - entitled The Big Heist - was compiled after
an investigation by top author Kevin Toolis.
Although the show criticises the Government's failure to
act against the IRA, it reveals the Northern Bank money-
trail, how the Government allegedly let it happen and the
key role played by Sinn Fein chief Gerry Adams.
It also reveals details about republican money-laundering
operations, multi-million pound property negotiations in
Bulgaria and Northern Bank notes being stuffed up chimneys
and catching fire.
Other people featured in the programme include Phil Flynn,
who is a close friend of the Sinn Fein chief and Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern.
Said Mr McDonnell: "The Provos were testing the resolve of
the Government to stand up to them. The difficulty was that
the Government was turning a blind eye.
"We drew it to the attention of the Prime Minister. I think
a political decision was made that it was a price to pay to
get some semblance of political agreement.
"The Provos spent vast amounts of money and they are hoping
to buy their way into power in Ireland."
Mr McDowell described the Northern Bank robbery as a
"sophisticated assault on democracy".
The Big Heist is on C4 on Thursday at 9pm.
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662063
'Our Norman Took Part In Massacre, So IRA Got Him'
18 September 2005
DESSIE Truesdale believes his brother Norman was murdered
by the IRA in direct revenge for his involvement in a
sectarian massacre.
Norman Truesdale (39) was gunned down in his grocer's shop
on the Oldpark Road in March 1993, four months after the
UDA had attacked a bookies shop in the area, killing three.
At the time, Norman Truesdale's family said he was not
involved with paramilitaries.
Twelve years on, however, Dessie has revealed that he
believes his brother WAS involved in the bookies shop
massacre - and that sealed his fate.
And he blames Johnny Adair for his brother's death, because
Adair sent out the UFF killers to attack the bookies.
Francis Burns (62), Peter Orderly (50) and Jon Lovett (72)
all died when two gunmen opened up on punters in James
Murray's betting shop on the Oldpark Road in November 1992.
A third UFF man was driving a hijacked taxi used in the
massacre.
Said Dessie: "The bookies was 'done' and they (the IRA)
tried to get Johnny Adair.
"But they missed Johnny and then the following fortnight
they got Norman.
"I tried to ask Johnny about that situation. I know Johnny,
I know when I am spooking him. And when I mentioned that,
he got angry.
"Now, I'm led to believe that Norman was involved in those
murders. Norman was arrested for the bookies and the police
kept him in for three days.
"The IRA found that out and that's why he was shot in the
shop."
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662079
NIO Ministers Stand Idly By While Ulster Burns
Stormont's out-of-tourch ministers were taken completely by
surprise by last week's eruption of loyalist street
violence. Alan Murray, Sunday Life's Security
Correspondent, says Dublin ministers were far more alert to
the clear warnings
By Alan Murray
18 September 2005
THERE were clear signals that last weekend's eruption of
loyalist violence was probable rather than just possible.
Weeks previously, the UVF's Combat magazine vowed that the
Whiterock Orange parade would get through "come what may".
Pictures of an illegal show of strength on the Shankill
made it very clear what could be in the offing if the
parade was re-routed.
Paramilitaries, unionists and Presbyterian ministers all
told the same story in the lead-up to the Whiterock parade.
It was, simply and frighteningly, that there was a clear
intention to throw down the gauntlet to the security forces
and to the Government if Workman Avenue became a no-go area
for Orangemen.
Alarmingly, the Irish government's Department of Foreign
Affairs did pick up the danger signals while the mandarins
in the NIO and their scouts either didn't, or, if they did,
chose to ignore the signs.
Dermot Ahern, the Republic's Foreign Minister, met with
representatives from the loyalist community in west Belfast
on the Thursday before the parade.
Mr Ahern was appraised of the loyalist unrest at the
meeting, which took place while Mary McAleese did her
hugging and palm-squeezing with the UDA's Jackie McDonald
and others at a safer location.
Yet, even while direct rulers at Stormont debated into the
early hours the pros and cons of declaring the UVF
ceasefire over, they missed the dangerous drumbeat
summoning loyalist paramilitaries onto the streets.
In mid-summer, Peter Hain dutifully signed the papers to
revoke the licence of Shankill bomber Sean Kelly.
He then shelved the advice of the Chief Constable that
Kelly was involved in terrorism for the sake of political
expediency and promptly signed other papers to free the
Ardoyne man again on licence.
But, when it came to the Whiterock parade route, given all
the danger signals, there was an absence of expediency.
Any wonder, then, that on Monday morning at Stormont
Castle, ministers and mandarins were scratching their
heads, chorusing to visitors "why did this happen?"
It is not so much that they took their eyes off the ball,
it is more that they weren't at the match and hadn't seen
the yellow cards being issued.
As many unionists politicians assert, it appears that
ministers and advisers are locked, like the Star Ship
Enterprise's phasers, onto one target - the IRA and
decommissioning.
Not since the worst of the Drumcree protests of 1996 to
1998 have so many loyalists been galvanised to violence
over an Orange parade.
Then it was just the Billy Wright LVF faction which planned
the attacks on the RUC and ignited the flames of
destruction.
Last weekend it was the combined might of the UVF and the
UDA.
The current agitated situation on the ground is more
dangerous than the Drumcree protests of the 90s.
The hitherto pro-Agreement UVF has thrown its feuding hat
into the ring and appears set to become a mainstream
opposition group to the Government's plans for progress.
Like their counterparts in the UDA, they warn that more
concessions to the IRA, after its latest decommissioning
exercise, will provoke a reaction from within their ranks.
What that would be isn't specified, but we can guess it
will be more of the same.
Loyalists and many unionists, some once pro-Agreement, are
dangerously distanced from a Northern Ireland Office
administration, which they also deeply distrust.
It is no surprise then to learn that the UUP describes its
recent meeting with Security Minister Shaun Woodward as
probably the "worst ever" with any minister.
The mounting frustration within the unionist community and
the racking up of tension within loyalist ranks has been as
evident as the red mist that descends over Wayne Rooney's
face when he is about to kick off a tantrum.
Somehow though, Peter Hain's emissaries didn't spot it.
Why? Is the PUP's David Ervine right? Is there a more
ambitious agenda that envisages huge loyalist infighting
and the destruction of their communities and the economy?
If there is, what could be the objective of the cocooned
Stormont Castle strategists?
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662078
Brethren Eject PSNI Video
18 September 2005
FURIOUS Orange Order chiefs last night lashed out at Sir
Hugh Orde and dismissed a police riot squad video as "black
propaganda".
They claim to have collated their own video and camera
footage and may lodge a formal complaint with Police
Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan.
Order officials are also busy taking statements from
Orangemen involved in last Saturday's controversial
Whiterock parade that sparked a whirlwind of violence.
An official spokeswoman said: "The video released by the
Chief Constable lasted just a few minutes. It was a
snapshot and sheer propaganda.
"Let us see all the footage, not just the bits where
Orangemen are behaving in a naughty manner.
"He described his officers as heroic - but we say they were
incredibly heavy-handed. There were young officers who just
lost their heads."
The spokeswoman added that the video didn't show two Land
Rovers on the Springfield Road "coming right through the
body of the parade".
She claimed the second Land Rover knocked over a bandsman,
and was "travelling so fast, it actually hit the Land Rover
in front of it".
She also claimed Highfield was quiet until a water cannon
saturated an Orange banner.
The spokeswoman added: "Our parade marshals have asked
people to come forward and give statements - and they are
doing so in droves."
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662069
Provos 'Had 4 Moles In Border Garda'
IRA spies helped to plan deadly attacks and destroy proof
Exclusive by Chris Anderson
18 September 2005
A FORMER officer in the Irish army has claimed the IRA had
at least four 'moles' working in Garda stations along the
border during the 1980s and 90s.
The ex-officer claimed the Provo sympathisers leaked vital
information to IRA active service units in counties Louth
and Monaghan over a 15-year period.
According to the soldier, the moles' information helped the
IRA:
• Plan and carry out attacks on both sides of the border.
• Uncover and eliminate security force informants and
agents within its own ranks.
• Prevent detection of weapons and explosives dumps by
warning of security force searches.
• Destroy vital evidence which could have helped secure the
conviction of IRA terrorists suspected of having been
involved in the murder of 18 soldiers near Warrenpoint in
August 1979.
• Remove crucial fingerprint evidence which would have
identified the IRA's top bomb maker in Co Louth.
The former army officer is now taking legal advice about
whether or not he should make his information available to
the tribunal of inquiry investigating allegations of
Garda/IRA collusion in the murder of RUC officers Harry
Breen and Bob Buchanan.
The inquiry into the deaths of the two officers is expected
to get under way in Dublin later this year.
The ex-defence forces officer served with the Irish army's
eastern brigade whose headquarters are in Dundalk.
He came into regular contact with senior police officers at
Garda HQ in the town.
The former officer claimed one Garda superintendent had
told him he knew sensitive information was being leaked to
the IRA on a regular basis.
"His department had identified republican sympathisers
within the Garda who were passing information to the IRA,"
the former officer said.
"He told me at least four gardai working in border stations
were IRA moles at that time."
He added that the superintendent claimed crucial forensic
evidence linking two south Armagh IRA men to the 1979
Warrenpoint atrocity disappeared from a Co Louth Garda
station before it could be properly examined.
"He told me it simply vanished into thin air. In another
case, fingerprint evidence taken from an unexploded IRA
bomb, which could have identified the bomb maker, was
destroyed.
"He knew who was responsible, but couldn't prove it
conclusively," the ex-soldier said.
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662067
You can't 'seafarer' than that!
Loyalists Replace UFF Mural With Tribute To Catholic VC
Navy Hero
By Joe Oliver
18 September 2005
A MURAL dedicated to the UFF has been removed in a loyalist
estate - to make way for a giant painting of a CATHOLIC war
hero!
The 26ftx30ft memorial to Leading Seaman James Magennis now
dominates a gable wall at Tullycarnet in east Belfast. It
replaces a grisly UFF 'grim reaper' mural in the style of
heavy metal album cover.
The new mural was painted by artist Kenny Blair as part of
celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the Allied
victories in Europe and the Pacific.
Its unveiling was attended by a host of VIP guests
representing the UN, Royal Naval Association, British
Legion and the Submariners Association.
West Belfast-born Magennis (pictured) won the Victoria
Cross - British highest military decoration - for an
incredible act of bravery during a mini-sub attack on the
Japanese warship Takao in Singapore harbour in 1945.
Magennis and three colleagues evaded enemy defences to
steer their midget sub under the 10,000-ton vessel and
attach mines to it.
Magennis made a second dangerous dive in the freezing
waters to free the snagged containers holding the limpet
mines.
Six days later the first Atom bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima.
When Magennis returned home he was feted at Buckingham
Palace, but became a shuttlecock in Ulster's great divide.
On his return to his old school, St Finian's on the Falls
Road, pupils refused to stand for a "Brit" hero.
Magennis eventually settled in his wife's hometown of
Bradford and lived there until his death in 1986.
The story would have ended there but for a campaign
orchestrated by George Fleming, who wrote a book about
Magennis' remarkable exploits. He eventually persuaded
councillors in Belfast to erect a 6ft-high monument at the
City Hall in memory of the only man from Northern Ireland
to win a VC.
George, an ex-sailor, attended the unveiling of the
Magennis mural and admitted: "It's wonderful to see this
here. It shows courage crosses all boundaries and I think
it's a magnificent gesture by the good people of
Tullycarnet."
Loyalist Commission member Frankie Gallagher said: "The
story of James Magennis - who lived in east Belfast for a
time - is a fascinating one and this mural tells it
brilliantly.
"We've removed all the other murals, too, and the one it's
replacing is the UFF 'grim reaper'.
"This is part of a five-year strategy for the Tullycarnet
estate to address what is the fourth-worst education
attainment level in Northern Ireland.
"Education is a major issue and by putting up this mural we
want children to learn about their own history, and the
diversity of their own history.
"It is vital, and the children themselves will be building
a memorial garden at the site in the near future."
******************************************
http://www.victoriacross.net/award.asp?vc=821
Statue At Last To VC From 'Wrong' Neighbourhood
By Colin Randall in Belfast
Saturday 9 October 1999
A STATUE was unveiled in Belfast yesterday in much-delayed
honour of a man whose wartime exploits brought him a
Victoria Cross but not, in his lifetime, civic recognition
from his native city.
James Magennis, a submariner, was the only native of
Northern Ireland to be awarded a VC for services during the
Second World War. The honour marked his courage in
attaching limpet mines to ships of the Japanese Imperial
Fleet in Singapore harbour in July 1945.
However, Mr Magennis was from the nationalist Falls Road in
west Belfast and some of his supporters have long blamed
institutionalised sectarianism for denying him freedom of
the city, or a fitting memorial. One Ulster journalist
claimed that a civil servant told him of the "turmoil" at
Stormont after confidential word was received that it was
about to be announced that a working-class Catholic had won
the VC.
Mr Magennis's biographer, George Fleming, also a former
Royal Navy submariner, said he was a "political pawn".
However, the present Lord Mayor, Bob Stoker, a Unionist and
Orangeman, who unveiled the bronze and stone statue in the
grounds of the City Hall yesterday, pointed out that VC
winners from the First Wold War had also been denied
memorials.
Although a public collection raised more than £3,000 for Mr
Magennis on his demobilisation, he struggled to earn an
income in Belfast and moved to England in the Fifties. He
died in 1986. His son, Paul, 50, who travelled from
Bradford for yesterday's ceremony, said: "It means a lot to
us that the city where my father was born and lived has
honoured him. He never talked much about what he did in the
war but he would have been more touched by this than by the
VC."
Mr Magennis's former commanding officer, Ian Fraser, now
78, who also won the VC for his part in the operation,
said: "Jim gave me bother from time to time. He liked his
tot of rum, but he was a lovely man and a fine diver. I
have never met a braver man. It was a privilege to know him
and it's wonderful to see Belfast honour him at last."
******************************************
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050918/NEWS01/509180449/1004
Generations Toast Irish Roots At The Shore
Published in the Asbury Park Press 09/18/05
By Vince Miller
Staff Writer
Mary O'Keefe of Long Branch had a date with history and
tradition Saturday.
"It's important to keep up with your generation and
background," she said during a visit to the Irish Festival
at the National Guard Armory in Sea Girt.
Apparently, about 10,000 other people felt the same way.
They enjoyed Irish music provided by six live bands, step
dancers from the Peter Smith School of Irish Dance,
glimpses of Irish heritage and tastes of Irish and American
food. For the children, there were rides throughout the
armory grounds.
O'Keefe said she is a first-generation Irish-American whose
nephew is Michael Enright, financial secretary of the
sponsoring Middletown-based Monmouth County Division 2 of
the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Enright's daughters,
Lindsey, 12, and Kerry, 8, were among the Peter Smith
School students who gave a step-dancing performance before
a large, appreciative audience.
"I like the continuation of Irish heritage we're seeing,"
O'Keefe said, noting that the Ancient Order of Hibernians
is raising funds for the New Orleans families of National
Guard members who are serving in Iraq.
The day's activities began with a Catholic Mass, where
funds were collected. The Rev. Daniel Cahill, pastor of St.
Ann's Roman Catholic Church, Keansburg, celebrated the Mass
in Gaelic. Cahill, who immigrated from his native Ireland
32 years ago, is the chaplain for the New Jersey Ancient
Order of Hibernians.
This was one of three occasions in the year when he says
Mass in Gaelic, he said. The other times are the week of
St. Patrick's Day, and on Nov. 12 in remembrance of the
victims of the Irish Famine, and the nine New Jersey
Hibernians who were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist
attack on the World Trade Center.
Rob Hughes, president of Division 2 of the NJ Ancient Order
of Hibernians, said about 500 people attended the 10 a.m.
Mass. His estimate of the eventual 10,000 attendees was
"about average" for the event, which began at Sandy Hook in
1998, relocated to Keansburg and then to the Sea Girt
facility.
Jack Sullivan, president of the New Jersey AOH, is past
president of Division 2, which he said is the third-largest
division of AOH in New Jersey.
Timothy O'Halloran of Neptune has attended all of the
festivals and said, "It's a great day to celebrate your
Irish heritage."
Watching the step dancers critically was Bernadette Feehan,
a Brick resident who step-danced as a youngster in her
native Dublin.
"The costumes are beautiful," she said. "A lot of children
my age went to school to learn step dancing. I still
remember a little bit about step dancing, but don't ask me
to dance now."
Fish and chips, the traditional Irish/English fare,
appeared to be the most popular among festivalgoers,
according to Bill Gordon, owner of Argyle Fish & Chips,
Kearny. He said he'd also had a few orders of meat pie and
bridie. A bridie is a puff pastry stuffed with onion and
beef.
"Bridie has more flavor because of the onion," he said.
A line of patrons waited for corned beef sandwiches and
platters made by Kelly's Tavern, Neptune City, but
apparently the younger crowd went more for the traditional
pizza, burgers and hot dogs at other food stands.
Steve McFadden came down from New York to listen to some of
the bands that had played in McFadden's restaurants in New
York and Spring Lake Heights.
McFadden, who still owns the New York McFadden's, said
bands led by Willie Lynch, Joe Finn and others used to play
in both of his restaurants.
"Being here by the ocean really is a wonderful setting for
this music," he said. "It really brings back pleasant
memories."
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News about Ireland & the Irish
SL 09/18/05 NIO Securocrats Ended Deal To Halt UDA Violence
SL 09/18/05 Determined To Murder Me Because Of My Religion
SL 09/18/05 Loyalist Became 'Grass After UDA Demanded Cash
SL 09/18/05 Loyalist Whitehall Parade Passes Off Peacefully
UN 09/18/05 Belfast Burns As Exclusion Haunts Both Govts
SL 09/18/05 CIRA Warns Of Vicious & Violent Response
IO 09/18/05 Republican Rioters Attack Police In Antrim
SL 09/18/05 McCartneys Honoured At Prestigious Awards
SL 09/18/05 MP Claims...Blair Turned A 'Blind Eye'
SL 09/18/05 Norman Took Part In Massacre, So IRA Got Him
SL 09/18/05 NIO Ministers Stand Idly By While Ulster Burns
SL 09/18/05 Brethren Eject PSNI Video
SL 09/18/05 Provos 'Had 4 Moles In Border Garda'
SL 09/18/05 Loyalists Tribute To Catholic VC Navy Hero
VC 10/09/99 Statue At Last To VC From 'Wrong' Neighbourhood
AP 09/18/05 Generations Toast Irish Roots At The Shore
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662081
Scuppered!
How Interference By NIO Securocrats Put An End To Blair
Deal To Halt UDA Violence
By Alan Murray, Security Correspondent
18 September 2005
MOVES by Tony Blair's chief 'fixer', Jonathan Powell, to
bring an end to UDA violence were scuppered by the Northern
Ireland Office, it was claimed last night.
Angry UDA sources accused jealous NIO officials of wrecking
talks that could have brought major investment to deprived
loyalist areas, where violence erupted last week.
"There is great bitterness over this and people can't
understand why the NIO wrecked this positive initiative,"
said one UDA source.
"Some of us are wondering if the objective of the NIO was
to leave loyalists in despair, adrift and angry, because
that is what they have done."
Jackie McDonald and Andre Shoukri were among the UDA bosses
who met Mr Powell, the PM's chief-of-staff, earlier this
year.
The Downing Street initiative was aimed at bringing an end
to UDA activity, while the terror group's leaders demanded
a package to promote prosperity in loyalist areas.
UDA sources said that the first meeting with Mr Powell, in
Belfast last February, went well.
Said one UDA figure: "There was a bit of political
manoeuvring between Downing Street and Stormont Castle
after the first meeting, because Powell was on their patch,
and they wanted a share of the action.
"We were warned when the NIO became involved to be careful,
because they had a different agenda.
"A senior official from the NIO political department turned
up for the next meeting with Powell and we could detect a
bit of unease.
"The NIO even made fools of themselves by objecting to the
UDA delegation."
The source claimed the NIO objected to Shoukri's presence,
saying he was on a murder charge.
"We pointed out that Ihab Shoukri (who had a murder charge
against him dropped) wasn't on the delegation. It was his
brother, Andre.
"But that should have indicated to us what would happen.
"At the end of that meeting, Jonathan Powell said he would
be back to us within three days with news. We waited for
three weeks and heard nothing from him, and we still
haven't heard anything.
"After the NIO got involved, the initiative ran into the
sands."
The UDA decided in June there was unlikely to be any
further contact from Downing Street.
They believe NIO mandarins stymied what they hoped would be
a "new beginning" for working-class loyalist areas.
Said the UDA source: "We learned from other sources that
the NIO officials said they didn't want to deal with us,
and they ended the Downing Street initiative.
"As far as we are concerned, they threw away the
opportunity, and you have to ask, 'why?'
"Is it their agenda to put loyalists on the streets every
night because that is what they have brought about. The
buck stops with them."
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662090
'They Were Determined To Murder Me Because Of My Religion'
Exclusive by Stephen Breen
18 September 2005
A CATHOLIC man, who was left for dead by a loyalist mob,
has told of his ordeal at the hands of "depraved animals".
John McKay, from the Short Strand in east Belfast, told
Sunday Life he was lucky to be alive and said his attackers
were "full of hate".
"It's only a matter of time before they kill someone. They
were just out for the first Catholic they came across,"
said the 29-year-old Post Office worker.
John was returning home with a friend in the early hours of
last Saturday, after a night out at a function for murdered
pal Robert McCartney, when they were set upon by a 15-
strong gang.
The incident happened on a river walkway at the junction of
the Albertbridge Road and the small nationalist enclave.
Cops said the gang who attacked the man all wore either
peach, pink or yellow tops and were seen running up the
Ravenhill Road.
He had just purchased a signed Celtic football for his
nephews at the McCartney fund-raiser before the attack.
Although his pal managed to escape, Mr McKay, who was
knocked unconscious during the assault, suffered serious
head and leg injuries and a perforated eardrum.
The east Belfast man has no doubt that he was targeted
because of his religion.
Mr McKay told Sunday Life his attackers had acted like
"depraved animals".
"The only reason that these people tried to kill me is
because they would have known I was a Catholic, because of
the direction I was walking in.
"I don't know if they saw the Celtic football I'd bought or
not, but they were still determined to murder me because of
my religion.
"There was a lot of tension in the area all week over the
Whiterock parade, but I thought I would have been safe,
because I only had a short distance to walk to my home.
"I remember a bottle being thrown at me at the start and
the next thing these men caught up with me and were jumping
all over me.
"They were kicking me when I was on the ground and the next
thing I remember is waking up in hospital and my family
being in a terrible state. The whole thing happened so
quickly."
Mr McKay, who has suffered from nightmares since the
attack, is afraid to leave his home.
He added: "My friend and I have been left absolutely
shattered since the attack. I also know that I am very
lucky to be alive.
"I am afraid now to socialise in the city-centre, because I
don't want to encounter these people again. I feel safer at
home."
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662065
Robbing Hoods...
Loyalist Fled Ulster And Became 'Grass After UDA Thugs
Courtney And Shoukri Demanded Thousands In Protection...
Exclusive by Ciaran McGuigan, Chief Reporter in Leeds
18 September 2005
A TERRIFIED loyalist who turned supergrass, last night told
how he fled Ulster after UDA thugs demanded thousands of
pounds from him.
Dessie Truesdale was left cowering in his north Belfast
flat for five weeks after his brother Ian and others close
to Johnny Adair fled the Shankill in February 2003.
He feared he'd be the next man to be shot - killed by the
mainstream UDA in revenge for the feud murders by Adair's
henchmen of Jonathan Stewart and the UDA's East Antrim
'brigadier', John 'Grug' Gregg.
Dessie said a UDA torture squad, led by Mo Courtney,
finally tricked their way into his heavily-fortified flat
after kidnapping his brother William.
Courtney and Ihab Shoukri then beat Truesdale, demanding
that he hand over thousands of pounds.
Dessie recalled: "Mo Courtney and the Egyptians came to my
flat on March 4, after kidnapping my brother William.
"They got him to come to the flat and hit the buzzer. I
looked out the window and saw William there, and thought
everything was fine.
"The next moment, they all came rushing in.
"Mo just came in and said: 'Dessie, have a seat son'.
"I was s******* myself.
"Ihab beat me up, searched all my pockets. He took my
phone, took the money I was to have put in Ian's account,
and a couple of hundred from myself.
"They interrogated me, they wanted information.
"But I wasn't a member, so I didn't have much knowledge.
"Courtney said they knew I had money in a credit union on
the Shankill Road.
"They said they would be back in a couple of days, and they
wanted £5,000."
In May 2003, UDA thugs killed young loyalist Alan
McCullough, who also had links to Adair's exiles.
"Because I had the money in the credit union, that saved my
life," he added.
Dessie fled his flat and Northern Ireland after that
incident.
He later sneaked back into the province to retrieve his
credit union money. But when the UDA found out, they warned
him that they would follow him to England.
He said: "Ihab phoned me, when I was here in Leeds, and
said that I thought I was 'a smart wee b****** ' by getting
a team of detectives to go down with me to get the money.
"He told me the UDA didn't want £5,000 anymore, they now
wanted £10,000, and said that just because I was living in
Leeds, it didn't mean they wouldn't follow me here."
He added: "I can't go back home, and if I do go back home,
I can't stay in the same place more than five minutes.
"I know how long it takes them to get a 'team' and a car
and I would be a dead man."
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662089
Loyalist Whitehall Parade Passes Off Peacefully
18 September 2005
A LOYALIST memorial parade passed off without incident
yesterday in the Whitewell area of north Belfast.
Police kept a discreet presence as 35 bands marched through
White City to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of
Thomas McDonald.
The 16-year-old was knocked off his bike by a car and
killed in September 2001.
A Catholic woman driver was jailed for two years after
being found guilty of his manslaughter by reason of
provocation.
Several bandsmen laid wreaths at the spot where he died.
Police blocked off parts of the Whitewell Road on either
side of White City for several hours to let the 800
participants parade
There were only a dozen or so Land Rovers and the march,
organised by the Whitewell Defenders Flute Band, continued
without any trouble.
******************************************
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1470461&issue_id=13011
Belfast Burns As Exclusion Of Loyalists Returns To Haunt
Both Governments
AS AN athletic young loyalist rioter in September 1970,
Billy Hutchinson - the moderate voice of post-ceasefire
loyalism - caught the eye of Ulster Volunteer Force
recruiters with a spectacular stunt that caused the
humiliation of a British Army regiment based in the old
Milanda bakery building on the Shankill Road.
Just like last weekend, the loyalists were unnerved by what
they saw as British Government capitulation to militant
republican demands.
Serious rioting had been underway in loyalist areas since
the previous autumn when, in one massive riot and gun
battle, Constable Victor Arbuckle became the first member
of the RUC to be killed in the Troubles - shot by a UVF
gunman on the Shankill Road.
As the rioting continued, youths such as Hutchinson were
being watched by the UVF men who were looking for the right
sort of new recruit.
Hutchinson was out on his own. On one night of intense
rioting he was seen scaling the outside of the three-storey
bakery, then climbing up the flag-pole erected by the
King's Own Regiment on which their colours - or regimental
flag - were flying.
Hutchinson grabbed the flag, stuffed it inside his jacket
and climbed down to the cheering mob below. The 15-year-old
had, in a stroke, humiliated one of the British Army's
oldest and proudest regiments. He had, effectively,
"struck" their colours, which is the traditional sign in
land and sea warfare of surrender.
The stroke resulted in the withdrawal of the infantry and
their replacement by the Parachute Regiment, which
immediately began laying into the loyalists of the Shankill
Road.
Several Protestants were shot dead by the Paras in the
coming weeks - a fact never mentioned in all the subsequent
dwellings on that Regiment's actions on Bloody Sunday.
The same type of loyalist paramilitary recruiting agents
who talent-spotted Hutchinson 35 years ago were out on the
streets of Belfast last weekend. The orchestrated riots
were an ideal opportunity to spot the type of enterprising
and fearless young loyalist who can be trusted with more
serious business later on - just as happened later with
Hutchinson, who eventually was to serve a life sentence of
16 years after being convicted of a double murder, before
being released in 1994.
There were, as most newspapers and broadcast media reported
last week, a great deal of "thugs" out on the streets of
Belfast, Ballymena, Ballyclare, Newtownabbey and almost
every other town in Northern Ireland with a working-class
Protestant population.
However, to categorise what happened as mindless violence
is wrong. A large portion of the Protestant working-class
in the North has become detached from the Peace Process and
also from the Good Friday Agreement, which they believe has
been a one-way street in terms of concessions to the IRA
and Sinn Fein.
The commonly-voiced view from loyalists last week was that
if republicans got what they got from violence then it was
legitimate for loyalists to do the same.
The spark that ignited the violence last weekend was the
concessions granted to republicans in the immediate
aftermath of last month's IRA statement - in which it
stated, obliquely, that it would "end all activities".
Even without the hoped-for disbandment the British
Government swung into action immediately, demolishing the
remaining British Army look-out posts in south Armagh,
releasing from prison the Shankill bomber and riot-leader
Sean Kelly and then announcing the disbandment of the Royal
Irish Rangers.
It was this last concession that truly angered the
Protestants. The RIR is a locally-raised regiment of the
regular British Army.
Formerly the Ulster Defence Regiment, the RIR was turned
from a largely part-time militia backing up the police and
regular army in the North to a full-time regular infantry
regiment. It served alongside other British Army infantry
regiments in Iraq immediately after the invasion.
The disbandment of the RIR - without the confirmed
disbandment of the IRA - is a major psychological blow to
loyalism and unionism. More than 200 members of the RIR and
UDR before it were killed by the IRA.
The Regiment is seen as one of the last major symbols of
Ulster unionism's connections to Britain and the last
indigenous bulwark against the IRA.
And, the regimental bases in the North also provide work
for something like several hundred mostly Protestant
civilians, most on low pay but proud of their associations.
The leaders of the UVF have, probably correctly, calculated
that if the abolition of the RIR, the watch towers and the
release of an IRA man who killed nine Protestant civilians
on the Shankill Road in 1993 were the price of the IRA's
watery statement then there would be a much greater series
of concessions if the IRA began decommissioning weapons.
Last weekend's rioting, according to well-placed sources,
was the beginning of a campaign to ensure that the British
and Irish governments are to be made aware of the cost of
further, major concessions to republicans while ignoring
loyalists.
The blocking of the Orange Order parade along the Shankill
Road was an ideal excuse for the mayhem. The Springfield
Road march has strong symbolism for loyalists. Hundreds of
Protestants were forced out of the area by the IRA during
the Troubles - several were murdered in their homes and
businesses.
So, the symbolism of Orangemen being stopped from walking a
route that was once their home is highly significant in
loyalist minds.
It is this territorial imperative that drives much of the
anger in working-class areas in Belfast. It is basically
this battle over the 'narrow ground' within Northern
Ireland that drives much of the fury.
WHAT was very significant about the last week's violence
and the protests which brought traffic to a standstill in
parts of the city was that it was backed by the very people
who had to fight within their own communities to support
the Peace Process.
At critical points in the process the Orange Order and UVF
had to face down groups such as the UDA, Loyalist Volunteer
Force and others who were threatening to wreck it.
At one key moment, in the late summer of 1997, the UVF
stepped in to support a decision by the Orange Order not to
embark on a march down the Ormeau Road past the Catholic
enclave in the Lower Ormeau. The decision not to march was
made by the Ballynafeigh Orange Lodge at a meeting which
was besieged by angry loyalists who threatened to attack
the Lodge members inside their hall.
The angry crowd were only dispersed after UVF men arrived
to ensure the safety of the Orangemen inside. This decision
was a key contributory factor to reducing tension and
allowing the way for the IRA's second and, so far,
permanent ceasefire at the end of August 1979. It also
opened the way for the negotiations that led to the 1998
Good Friday Agreement and the establishment of the power-
sharing Assembly.
In supporting the Peace Process and the Agreement the UVF
was forced into bloody feuding with the groups that opposed
it - extremists like Johnny Adair's UDA contingents and the
LVF, which was headed by the equally extreme Billy Wright.
As these feuds raged in loyalist working-class areas,
hundreds of people were forced out of their homes and more
than 30 members of the loyalist groups murdered. The
killing of five members of the LVF by the UVF since April
in the latest phase of this feuding, combined with the
street violence of the last week, has led the British
Government to declare that the UVF is no longer on
ceasefire.
There has been virtually no recognition of the fact that
the loyalist feuding was sparked because of the UVF's
support for the Peace Process. Like the violence of last
week it was largely dismissed by commentators and
government as internecine feuding between thuggish loyalist
gangs involved in drugs.
What has also been largely ignored has been the change in
mood among loyalists who had previously been prepared to
support the Peace Process and Good Friday Agreement.
UVF sources say they have been surprised by the high level
of support within their community for the violence and
protests that flared last week. Many of the street
protests, blocking traffic and causing disruption across
the city, were carried out by mothers with children.
The rise in anger among a section of the unionist/loyalist
community that had previously been key to the success 'UVF
sources say they have been surprised by the high level of
support within their community for the violence and
protests'
of political initiatives in the North is also due in part
to what is seen as the exclusion of loyalists from the
process.
This is due, it seems, to the belief by both Governments
that because the political wings of the UVF and UDA have no
significant electoral support they are irrelevant to the
process. It is known that there has been virtually no
contact between the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin
and the UVF for at least a year. Chris Hudson, the Dublin
trade unionist who acted as intermediary, confirmed last
week that he had not been contacted by anyone in Government
here for at least a year. The absence of contact was also
confirmed by the loyalists in Belfast as well.
This has contributed to a belief within the loyalist ranks
that both governments have no interest in the views of
loyalists and therefore they are no longer part of the
Peace Process in the North.
One senior figure who played a crucial role in bringing the
UVF into the process described the Governments' roles in
handling loyalists as "grossly neglectful".
Jim Cusack
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662080
CIRA Warns Of 'Vicious And Violent Response' To Attacks
By Stephen Breen
18 September 2005
A RENEGADE republican godfather last night vowed to unleash
a new wave of terror if Catholic homes in Belfast's
interface areas come under attack from loyalist gunmen.
In an interview with Sunday Life, a leading member of the
Continuity IRA told how nationalists fear the UVF will now
target people living in flashpoint areas after its
specification by the Secretary of State, Peter Hain, last
week.
But the top dissident, who ordered armed men to patrol
parts of north and west Belfast during last weekend's orgy
of violence, warned there will be a "vicious and violent"
response if nationalists are murdered.
He also confirmed his units have been working closely with
the INLA in interface areas of the city, in a bid to defend
Catholic homes.
Real IRA units in various parts of the province have also
been put on high-alert over the current crisis.
There has been speculation of a UVF link to the brutal
murder of Catholic schoolboy Thomas Devlin, and tensions
remain high across the city.
Hopes that the UVF may also move to give up its weapons
have also been dashed after last week's violence and the
Government's decision to no longer recognise its ceasefire.
The renegade leader told us his men were on "standby" to
defend nationalist homes.
Said the dissident: "The nationalist people are obviously
worried about the state of loyalism at the moment, none
more so that those living in interface areas.
"Now that the UVF ceasefire is no longer recognised people
are concerned that once the group's feud with the LVF is
over they will turn their attentions to innocent Catholics.
"But if this happens, then loyalist leaders should be
prepared for an armed response from our volunteers. We will
not stand by and watch our people being murdered.
"We have the weapons and the men to hit back at the
loyalists. We will have no hesitation in defending our
communities.
"This is a tense time for everyone and we would like to
remind people that we are not on ceasefire."
******************************************
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=156280866&p=y56z8y57z
Rioters Attack Police In Antrim
18/09/2005 - 10:46:57
Police came under attack from youths rioting in Antrim for
several hours early today.
After a week of loyalist street violence and protest, this
time it was nationalist youths who caused trouble.
A mob of up to 60 hurled petrol bombs, bricks, stones and
other missiles at police in the Rathenraw area of the town
for up to four hours. Two police vehicles were damaged but
there were no reports of police injuries.
A number of wheelie bins were dragged into the road and
burned and a number of roads were closed to the public for
hours.
Three youths, aged 16, 17 and 18, were arrested for riotous
behaviour.
In Derry, rival nationalist and loyalist youths clashed in
the city centre.
Four juveniles were arrested after missiles were hurled by
both sides in the Market Street Foyle Street area.
Two cars were damaged, windows in commercial premises
broken and police vehicles sustained minor damage.
However there were no reports of injuries.
Meanwhile, two men have been charged with attempted murder
following the recent violence.
A 32-year-old man is due to appear in court in Belfast
tomorrow charged with attempted murder following an
incident during serious loyalist rioting in the Broadway
area of the city last Sunday and Monday.
A 22-year-old arrested yesterday was also charged with
attempted murder, arson, possession of a petrol bomb and
throwing a petrol bomb in Mosside outside Ballymoney, Co
Antrim.
He was arrested on Saturday following a petrol bomb attack
on a house in the village.
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662088
McCartneys Honoured At Prestigious Awards
Campaign boost as sisters and fiancee of murdered Robert
pick up ESB/Rehab Irish Person of the Year accolade at gala
event in Dublin
By Stephen Breen
18 September 2005
THE campaigning sisters and partner of murdered Belfast man
Robert McCartney last night scooped a prestigious award.
The murder victim's sisters - Paula, Catherine, Gemma,
Claire and Donna - and fiancée Bridgeen Hagans jointly
received the ESB/Rehab Irish Person of the Year Award at a
gala ceremony in Dublin.
Live 8 organiser Sir Bob Geldof, veteran broadcaster Terry
Wogan and GAA chairman Sean Kelly were also honoured at the
awards bash.
Speaking to Sunday Life after the ceremony, Paula McCartney
said her sisters and Ms Hagans were "appreciative" of the
honour.
"This is a great morale boost to our campaign and we were
shocked when we were told we were receiving the award,"
said Paula.
"This award shows that the whole of Ireland is on the side
of truth and justice, and we are deeply honoured to receive
it.
"This recognition also highlights the importance of justice
for the advancement of peace in Ireland.
"We are determined to continue our quest to have all of our
brother's killers in a court of law."
The six women were honoured for their determination to
bring the dad-of-two's killers to justice.
The Short Strand man was murdered by republicans outside
Magennis's pub in Belfast city-centre last January.
Since then, his sisters and partner, who last week accused
republicans of stepping up their intimidation, have
embarked on a campaign for justice.
Their quest has taken them to the White House and the
European Parliament.
Judges at last night's ceremony praised the Belfast women
"for their tremendous dignity and courage in their fight
for justice".
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662073
MP On Northern Bank Documentary Claims...Blair Turned A
'Blind Eye'
By Stephen Breen
18 September 2005
PRIME Minister Tony Blair turned a "blind eye" to the IRA's
robbery of £26m from the Northern Bank, it was claimed last
night.
In a blistering attack on the Government's handling of one
of the world's biggest bank robberies, South Belfast SDLP
MP Alasdair McDonnell, accused the Government of allowing
the Provos to commit a series of daring robberies, during
last year's troubled peace negotiations.
They include a £1m heist at the Makro warehouse and the
robbery of thousands of pounds worth of cigarettes.
His views on IRA criminality are also shared by the
Republic's Justice Minister, Michael McDowell, during a
hard-hitting Channel 4 documentary on the Northern Bank
raid.
The programme - entitled The Big Heist - was compiled after
an investigation by top author Kevin Toolis.
Although the show criticises the Government's failure to
act against the IRA, it reveals the Northern Bank money-
trail, how the Government allegedly let it happen and the
key role played by Sinn Fein chief Gerry Adams.
It also reveals details about republican money-laundering
operations, multi-million pound property negotiations in
Bulgaria and Northern Bank notes being stuffed up chimneys
and catching fire.
Other people featured in the programme include Phil Flynn,
who is a close friend of the Sinn Fein chief and Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern.
Said Mr McDonnell: "The Provos were testing the resolve of
the Government to stand up to them. The difficulty was that
the Government was turning a blind eye.
"We drew it to the attention of the Prime Minister. I think
a political decision was made that it was a price to pay to
get some semblance of political agreement.
"The Provos spent vast amounts of money and they are hoping
to buy their way into power in Ireland."
Mr McDowell described the Northern Bank robbery as a
"sophisticated assault on democracy".
The Big Heist is on C4 on Thursday at 9pm.
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662063
'Our Norman Took Part In Massacre, So IRA Got Him'
18 September 2005
DESSIE Truesdale believes his brother Norman was murdered
by the IRA in direct revenge for his involvement in a
sectarian massacre.
Norman Truesdale (39) was gunned down in his grocer's shop
on the Oldpark Road in March 1993, four months after the
UDA had attacked a bookies shop in the area, killing three.
At the time, Norman Truesdale's family said he was not
involved with paramilitaries.
Twelve years on, however, Dessie has revealed that he
believes his brother WAS involved in the bookies shop
massacre - and that sealed his fate.
And he blames Johnny Adair for his brother's death, because
Adair sent out the UFF killers to attack the bookies.
Francis Burns (62), Peter Orderly (50) and Jon Lovett (72)
all died when two gunmen opened up on punters in James
Murray's betting shop on the Oldpark Road in November 1992.
A third UFF man was driving a hijacked taxi used in the
massacre.
Said Dessie: "The bookies was 'done' and they (the IRA)
tried to get Johnny Adair.
"But they missed Johnny and then the following fortnight
they got Norman.
"I tried to ask Johnny about that situation. I know Johnny,
I know when I am spooking him. And when I mentioned that,
he got angry.
"Now, I'm led to believe that Norman was involved in those
murders. Norman was arrested for the bookies and the police
kept him in for three days.
"The IRA found that out and that's why he was shot in the
shop."
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662079
NIO Ministers Stand Idly By While Ulster Burns
Stormont's out-of-tourch ministers were taken completely by
surprise by last week's eruption of loyalist street
violence. Alan Murray, Sunday Life's Security
Correspondent, says Dublin ministers were far more alert to
the clear warnings
By Alan Murray
18 September 2005
THERE were clear signals that last weekend's eruption of
loyalist violence was probable rather than just possible.
Weeks previously, the UVF's Combat magazine vowed that the
Whiterock Orange parade would get through "come what may".
Pictures of an illegal show of strength on the Shankill
made it very clear what could be in the offing if the
parade was re-routed.
Paramilitaries, unionists and Presbyterian ministers all
told the same story in the lead-up to the Whiterock parade.
It was, simply and frighteningly, that there was a clear
intention to throw down the gauntlet to the security forces
and to the Government if Workman Avenue became a no-go area
for Orangemen.
Alarmingly, the Irish government's Department of Foreign
Affairs did pick up the danger signals while the mandarins
in the NIO and their scouts either didn't, or, if they did,
chose to ignore the signs.
Dermot Ahern, the Republic's Foreign Minister, met with
representatives from the loyalist community in west Belfast
on the Thursday before the parade.
Mr Ahern was appraised of the loyalist unrest at the
meeting, which took place while Mary McAleese did her
hugging and palm-squeezing with the UDA's Jackie McDonald
and others at a safer location.
Yet, even while direct rulers at Stormont debated into the
early hours the pros and cons of declaring the UVF
ceasefire over, they missed the dangerous drumbeat
summoning loyalist paramilitaries onto the streets.
In mid-summer, Peter Hain dutifully signed the papers to
revoke the licence of Shankill bomber Sean Kelly.
He then shelved the advice of the Chief Constable that
Kelly was involved in terrorism for the sake of political
expediency and promptly signed other papers to free the
Ardoyne man again on licence.
But, when it came to the Whiterock parade route, given all
the danger signals, there was an absence of expediency.
Any wonder, then, that on Monday morning at Stormont
Castle, ministers and mandarins were scratching their
heads, chorusing to visitors "why did this happen?"
It is not so much that they took their eyes off the ball,
it is more that they weren't at the match and hadn't seen
the yellow cards being issued.
As many unionists politicians assert, it appears that
ministers and advisers are locked, like the Star Ship
Enterprise's phasers, onto one target - the IRA and
decommissioning.
Not since the worst of the Drumcree protests of 1996 to
1998 have so many loyalists been galvanised to violence
over an Orange parade.
Then it was just the Billy Wright LVF faction which planned
the attacks on the RUC and ignited the flames of
destruction.
Last weekend it was the combined might of the UVF and the
UDA.
The current agitated situation on the ground is more
dangerous than the Drumcree protests of the 90s.
The hitherto pro-Agreement UVF has thrown its feuding hat
into the ring and appears set to become a mainstream
opposition group to the Government's plans for progress.
Like their counterparts in the UDA, they warn that more
concessions to the IRA, after its latest decommissioning
exercise, will provoke a reaction from within their ranks.
What that would be isn't specified, but we can guess it
will be more of the same.
Loyalists and many unionists, some once pro-Agreement, are
dangerously distanced from a Northern Ireland Office
administration, which they also deeply distrust.
It is no surprise then to learn that the UUP describes its
recent meeting with Security Minister Shaun Woodward as
probably the "worst ever" with any minister.
The mounting frustration within the unionist community and
the racking up of tension within loyalist ranks has been as
evident as the red mist that descends over Wayne Rooney's
face when he is about to kick off a tantrum.
Somehow though, Peter Hain's emissaries didn't spot it.
Why? Is the PUP's David Ervine right? Is there a more
ambitious agenda that envisages huge loyalist infighting
and the destruction of their communities and the economy?
If there is, what could be the objective of the cocooned
Stormont Castle strategists?
******************************************
http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662078
Brethren Eject PSNI Video
18 September 2005
FURIOUS Orange Order chiefs last night lashed out at Sir
Hugh Orde and dismissed a police riot squad video as "black
propaganda".
They claim to have collated their own video and camera
footage and may lodge a formal complaint with Police
Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan.
Order officials are also busy taking statements from
Orangemen involved in last Saturday's controversial
Whiterock parade that sparked a whirlwind of violence.
An official spokeswoman said: "The video released by the
Chief Constable lasted just a few minutes. It was a
snapshot and sheer propaganda.
"Let us see all the footage, not just the bits where
Orangemen are behaving in a naughty manner.
"He described his officers as heroic - but we say they were
incredibly heavy-handed. There were young officers who just
lost their heads."
The spokeswoman added that the video didn't show two Land
Rovers on the Springfield Road "coming right through the
body of the parade".
She claimed the second Land Rover knocked over a bandsman,
and was "travelling so fast, it actually hit the Land Rover
in front of it".
She also claimed Highfield was quiet until a water cannon
saturated an Orange banner.
The spokeswoman added: "Our parade marshals have asked
people to come forward and give statements - and they are
doing so in droves."
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http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662069
Provos 'Had 4 Moles In Border Garda'
IRA spies helped to plan deadly attacks and destroy proof
Exclusive by Chris Anderson
18 September 2005
A FORMER officer in the Irish army has claimed the IRA had
at least four 'moles' working in Garda stations along the
border during the 1980s and 90s.
The ex-officer claimed the Provo sympathisers leaked vital
information to IRA active service units in counties Louth
and Monaghan over a 15-year period.
According to the soldier, the moles' information helped the
IRA:
• Plan and carry out attacks on both sides of the border.
• Uncover and eliminate security force informants and
agents within its own ranks.
• Prevent detection of weapons and explosives dumps by
warning of security force searches.
• Destroy vital evidence which could have helped secure the
conviction of IRA terrorists suspected of having been
involved in the murder of 18 soldiers near Warrenpoint in
August 1979.
• Remove crucial fingerprint evidence which would have
identified the IRA's top bomb maker in Co Louth.
The former army officer is now taking legal advice about
whether or not he should make his information available to
the tribunal of inquiry investigating allegations of
Garda/IRA collusion in the murder of RUC officers Harry
Breen and Bob Buchanan.
The inquiry into the deaths of the two officers is expected
to get under way in Dublin later this year.
The ex-defence forces officer served with the Irish army's
eastern brigade whose headquarters are in Dundalk.
He came into regular contact with senior police officers at
Garda HQ in the town.
The former officer claimed one Garda superintendent had
told him he knew sensitive information was being leaked to
the IRA on a regular basis.
"His department had identified republican sympathisers
within the Garda who were passing information to the IRA,"
the former officer said.
"He told me at least four gardai working in border stations
were IRA moles at that time."
He added that the superintendent claimed crucial forensic
evidence linking two south Armagh IRA men to the 1979
Warrenpoint atrocity disappeared from a Co Louth Garda
station before it could be properly examined.
"He told me it simply vanished into thin air. In another
case, fingerprint evidence taken from an unexploded IRA
bomb, which could have identified the bomb maker, was
destroyed.
"He knew who was responsible, but couldn't prove it
conclusively," the ex-soldier said.
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http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=662067
You can't 'seafarer' than that!
Loyalists Replace UFF Mural With Tribute To Catholic VC
Navy Hero
By Joe Oliver
18 September 2005
A MURAL dedicated to the UFF has been removed in a loyalist
estate - to make way for a giant painting of a CATHOLIC war
hero!
The 26ftx30ft memorial to Leading Seaman James Magennis now
dominates a gable wall at Tullycarnet in east Belfast. It
replaces a grisly UFF 'grim reaper' mural in the style of
heavy metal album cover.
The new mural was painted by artist Kenny Blair as part of
celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the Allied
victories in Europe and the Pacific.
Its unveiling was attended by a host of VIP guests
representing the UN, Royal Naval Association, British
Legion and the Submariners Association.
West Belfast-born Magennis (pictured) won the Victoria
Cross - British highest military decoration - for an
incredible act of bravery during a mini-sub attack on the
Japanese warship Takao in Singapore harbour in 1945.
Magennis and three colleagues evaded enemy defences to
steer their midget sub under the 10,000-ton vessel and
attach mines to it.
Magennis made a second dangerous dive in the freezing
waters to free the snagged containers holding the limpet
mines.
Six days later the first Atom bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima.
When Magennis returned home he was feted at Buckingham
Palace, but became a shuttlecock in Ulster's great divide.
On his return to his old school, St Finian's on the Falls
Road, pupils refused to stand for a "Brit" hero.
Magennis eventually settled in his wife's hometown of
Bradford and lived there until his death in 1986.
The story would have ended there but for a campaign
orchestrated by George Fleming, who wrote a book about
Magennis' remarkable exploits. He eventually persuaded
councillors in Belfast to erect a 6ft-high monument at the
City Hall in memory of the only man from Northern Ireland
to win a VC.
George, an ex-sailor, attended the unveiling of the
Magennis mural and admitted: "It's wonderful to see this
here. It shows courage crosses all boundaries and I think
it's a magnificent gesture by the good people of
Tullycarnet."
Loyalist Commission member Frankie Gallagher said: "The
story of James Magennis - who lived in east Belfast for a
time - is a fascinating one and this mural tells it
brilliantly.
"We've removed all the other murals, too, and the one it's
replacing is the UFF 'grim reaper'.
"This is part of a five-year strategy for the Tullycarnet
estate to address what is the fourth-worst education
attainment level in Northern Ireland.
"Education is a major issue and by putting up this mural we
want children to learn about their own history, and the
diversity of their own history.
"It is vital, and the children themselves will be building
a memorial garden at the site in the near future."
******************************************
http://www.victoriacross.net/award.asp?vc=821
Statue At Last To VC From 'Wrong' Neighbourhood
By Colin Randall in Belfast
Saturday 9 October 1999
A STATUE was unveiled in Belfast yesterday in much-delayed
honour of a man whose wartime exploits brought him a
Victoria Cross but not, in his lifetime, civic recognition
from his native city.
James Magennis, a submariner, was the only native of
Northern Ireland to be awarded a VC for services during the
Second World War. The honour marked his courage in
attaching limpet mines to ships of the Japanese Imperial
Fleet in Singapore harbour in July 1945.
However, Mr Magennis was from the nationalist Falls Road in
west Belfast and some of his supporters have long blamed
institutionalised sectarianism for denying him freedom of
the city, or a fitting memorial. One Ulster journalist
claimed that a civil servant told him of the "turmoil" at
Stormont after confidential word was received that it was
about to be announced that a working-class Catholic had won
the VC.
Mr Magennis's biographer, George Fleming, also a former
Royal Navy submariner, said he was a "political pawn".
However, the present Lord Mayor, Bob Stoker, a Unionist and
Orangeman, who unveiled the bronze and stone statue in the
grounds of the City Hall yesterday, pointed out that VC
winners from the First Wold War had also been denied
memorials.
Although a public collection raised more than £3,000 for Mr
Magennis on his demobilisation, he struggled to earn an
income in Belfast and moved to England in the Fifties. He
died in 1986. His son, Paul, 50, who travelled from
Bradford for yesterday's ceremony, said: "It means a lot to
us that the city where my father was born and lived has
honoured him. He never talked much about what he did in the
war but he would have been more touched by this than by the
VC."
Mr Magennis's former commanding officer, Ian Fraser, now
78, who also won the VC for his part in the operation,
said: "Jim gave me bother from time to time. He liked his
tot of rum, but he was a lovely man and a fine diver. I
have never met a braver man. It was a privilege to know him
and it's wonderful to see Belfast honour him at last."
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http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050918/NEWS01/509180449/1004
Generations Toast Irish Roots At The Shore
Published in the Asbury Park Press 09/18/05
By Vince Miller
Staff Writer
Mary O'Keefe of Long Branch had a date with history and
tradition Saturday.
"It's important to keep up with your generation and
background," she said during a visit to the Irish Festival
at the National Guard Armory in Sea Girt.
Apparently, about 10,000 other people felt the same way.
They enjoyed Irish music provided by six live bands, step
dancers from the Peter Smith School of Irish Dance,
glimpses of Irish heritage and tastes of Irish and American
food. For the children, there were rides throughout the
armory grounds.
O'Keefe said she is a first-generation Irish-American whose
nephew is Michael Enright, financial secretary of the
sponsoring Middletown-based Monmouth County Division 2 of
the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Enright's daughters,
Lindsey, 12, and Kerry, 8, were among the Peter Smith
School students who gave a step-dancing performance before
a large, appreciative audience.
"I like the continuation of Irish heritage we're seeing,"
O'Keefe said, noting that the Ancient Order of Hibernians
is raising funds for the New Orleans families of National
Guard members who are serving in Iraq.
The day's activities began with a Catholic Mass, where
funds were collected. The Rev. Daniel Cahill, pastor of St.
Ann's Roman Catholic Church, Keansburg, celebrated the Mass
in Gaelic. Cahill, who immigrated from his native Ireland
32 years ago, is the chaplain for the New Jersey Ancient
Order of Hibernians.
This was one of three occasions in the year when he says
Mass in Gaelic, he said. The other times are the week of
St. Patrick's Day, and on Nov. 12 in remembrance of the
victims of the Irish Famine, and the nine New Jersey
Hibernians who were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist
attack on the World Trade Center.
Rob Hughes, president of Division 2 of the NJ Ancient Order
of Hibernians, said about 500 people attended the 10 a.m.
Mass. His estimate of the eventual 10,000 attendees was
"about average" for the event, which began at Sandy Hook in
1998, relocated to Keansburg and then to the Sea Girt
facility.
Jack Sullivan, president of the New Jersey AOH, is past
president of Division 2, which he said is the third-largest
division of AOH in New Jersey.
Timothy O'Halloran of Neptune has attended all of the
festivals and said, "It's a great day to celebrate your
Irish heritage."
Watching the step dancers critically was Bernadette Feehan,
a Brick resident who step-danced as a youngster in her
native Dublin.
"The costumes are beautiful," she said. "A lot of children
my age went to school to learn step dancing. I still
remember a little bit about step dancing, but don't ask me
to dance now."
Fish and chips, the traditional Irish/English fare,
appeared to be the most popular among festivalgoers,
according to Bill Gordon, owner of Argyle Fish & Chips,
Kearny. He said he'd also had a few orders of meat pie and
bridie. A bridie is a puff pastry stuffed with onion and
beef.
"Bridie has more flavor because of the onion," he said.
A line of patrons waited for corned beef sandwiches and
platters made by Kelly's Tavern, Neptune City, but
apparently the younger crowd went more for the traditional
pizza, burgers and hot dogs at other food stands.
Steve McFadden came down from New York to listen to some of
the bands that had played in McFadden's restaurants in New
York and Spring Lake Heights.
McFadden, who still owns the New York McFadden's, said
bands led by Willie Lynch, Joe Finn and others used to play
in both of his restaurants.
"Being here by the ocean really is a wonderful setting for
this music," he said. "It really brings back pleasant
memories."
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