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September 09, 2005

Two Hurt in Feud Shooting

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News about Ireland & the Irish

BB 09/09/05 Two Men Hurt In 'Feud Shootings'
IO 09/09/05 Man Shot In Car In Armagh
DI 09/09/05 Loyalists Ready To Escalate Blockades
IT 09/10/05 PSNI Warns Of Loyalists Using March For Trouble
IO 09/09/05 Ahern To Raise Ludlow Murder With Hain
DJ 09/09/05 BS Drama Is 100% Accurate - Victim's Brother
BT 09/09/05 Theatre: Fine Blend Of Drama And Documentary
UN 09/09/05 Law And Order Has No Need For Vigilantism
IO 09/09/05 Calls for SF to be banned from Govt
BB 09/09/05 Omagh Case Funding Was 'Unlawful'
EX 09/09/05 A History Lesson On Ireland's Debt To America
NH 09/09/05 'Little Irelanders' Lack Vision Of The Nation

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4228482.stm

Two Men Hurt In 'Feud Shootings'

Two men have been injured in gun attacks in County Armagh
thought to be linked to the ongoing loyalist feud.

One man is in hospital after being shot while in a car on
the Killycomaine estate, Portadown, on Friday afternoon.

Local people said the vehicle was owned by a son of the
murdered LVF leader Billy Wright, and that he had just got
out of the car a short time earlier.

On Thursday night a man was shot in Lurgan as he answered
the door of his home in Margretta Close.

The 26-year-old was shot through the door of the house,
which is near the loyalist Mourneview estate, at about 2300
BST.

He is in hospital where his injuries are not thought to be
life threatening.

Police said the shooting in Portadown happened in the
Festival Road area at about 1450 BST.

The victim was shot through the window of the car by a man
on a motorcycle, but managed to drive from the scene to
Craigavon Area Hospital where his condition has been
described as "stable".

Detectives want to hear from anyone who saw a red scooter
with a rider wearing blue jeans, white top and wearing a
red helmet that made off towards Princess Way around the
time of the shooting.

Since the start of July, four murders have been linked to
the feud between the Ulster Volunteer Force and Loyalist
Volunteer Force paramilitary groups.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/09/09 18:10:03 GMT
© BBC MMV

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http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=155338356&p=y55339x6z

Man Shot In Car In Armagh

09/09/2005 - 17:00:06

One person was seriously injured in a shooting in Co Armagh
today.

He was wounded when a number of shots were fired at him as
he sat in a parked car in Portadown, police said.

The motorist, who was alone in the vehicle, managed to
drive from the scene of the shooting in the Festival Road
area of the town despite his injuries.

He managed to drive for 10 minutes to the local hospital
where he later underwent emergency surgery, said a PSNI
spokesman.

It appeared the shooting was carried out by a gunman on a
motor scooter.

The Police Service said detectives wanted to hear from
anyone who saw a red scooter – with a rider wearing blue
jeans , white top and a red crash helmet - who made off
from the scene at the same time as the shooting.

The shooting is believed to be linked to a feud between
rival Portadown elements of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer
Force and Loyalist Volunteer Force which has claimed four
lives in Belfast.

This gun attack followed the wounding of a man late last
night in neighbouring Lurgan.

The 26-year-old victim was answering a call at a house in
Margretta Close, Lurgan, at around 11.20pm when a shot was
fired through the door.

He was hit by a bullet in the hallway and taken to hospital
for treatment but his injuries were not believed to be life
threatening.

Earlier in the month there was also a pipe bomb attack in
the same street as today's shooting.

Local Craigavon councillor Philip Weir condemned the latest
shooting, describing it as an alarming development.

"This is the last thing the people of Portadown and the
Craigavon area would have wanted at this time," the DUP
councillor said.

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http://dailyireland.televisual.co.uk/home.tvt?_scope=DailyIreland/Content/News&id=9534&opp=1

Loyalists Ready To Escalate Blockades

Ciarán Barnes

Loyalist road blocks in protest at a Parades Commission
decision to restrict a weekend Orange Order march are to be
rolled out across the city, Daily Ireland has learned.

Yesterday morning loyalists, some of whom are members of
the Orange Order, blocked the Springfield Road in west
Belfast during the morning and evening rush hours.

Other roads in the north and west of the city were also
blocked, causing long delays for angry commuters, many of
whom complained of police inaction.

Nationalist residents contrasted the reaction of the police
to the illegal blockades to the force used against
nationalists protesting against Oarange marches.

The Orange Order is due to march along the Springfield Road
on Saturday, however the Parades Commission has ruled that
it cannot pass nationalist homes and must come onto the
Springfield via the old Mackies factory site.

Unhappy at this decision loyalists fulfilled threats they
made last weekend to block roads in protest.

The PSNI told them it was an illegal protest and asked them
to move.

Although yesterday's demonstrations were relatively small
it is understood future protests will be bigger, targeting
different locations around the city.

It is understood that loyalists are planning a major
blockade of the Springfield Road on Saturday.

Sinn Féin west Belfast councillor, Tom Hartley, accused
protesters of trying to "heighten tensions" by creating
chaos.

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2005/0910/3597068712HM7LEADOROFFLEAD.html

PSNI Warns Of Loyalists Using March For Trouble

Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor

Loyalist paramilitaries could inflame an already tense
situation surrounding the controversially re-routed
Whiterock Orange march in west Belfast, a senior PSNI
officer has warned.

Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland said recent
rioting showed how paramilitaries were willing to confront
the police. He appealed for community leaders to help
ensure the march passed peacefully through the former
Mackies site and away from the nationalist Springfield
Road.

A troubled weekend could complicate plans by the Northern
Ireland Office to revive the political process in the wake
of the July IRA statement. Political development minister
David Hanson is due to outline the British government's
approach during a keynote address at Queen's University on
Monday.

Unionists, including the Rev Ian Paisley and Sir Reg Empey,
have bitterly criticised the decision of the Parades
Commission not to allow Orangemen to parade along their
chosen route.

Along with County Grand Master Dawson Bailie, they claimed
that efforts to find accommodation with nationalists had
been made. Protesters took to streets in the area for a
third successive causing traffic chaos in Belfast's evening
rush hour last night.

Mr McCausland said: "We are dealing with a situation in
north Belfast which is extremely tense. We have seen over
the last few days riot situations . . . potentially
organised by paramilitaries."

He warned: "It is highly likely that the paramilitaries
have been involved and are involved in potentially making
their plans for dealing with the situation [ today]." Mr
McCausland said he had sufficient officers and other
resources to police today's parade which, he admitted,
could prove "very difficult".

He was speaking after two shootings in Co Armagh linked to
the UVF-LVF feud. A man was shot and seriously injured in
Portadown and another was shot at his home in Lurgan. There
were also sectarian attacks on Catholic churches a short
distance away in Banbridge, Co Down.

The County Grand Orange Lodge of Belfast defiantly affirmed
support for its members "to walk their traditional route".

A statement yesterday said: "The parade is an expression of
Orange culture that the secretary of state, PSNI commanders
and the discredited Parades Commission appear determined to
deny to the Protestant and Unionist communities of north
and west Belfast." It accused the commission of "appeasing
nationalists and pleasing republicans".

"The Protestant, unionist and loyalist communities are
ignored, discriminated against and continually demonised.
All things green are progressive, positive and promoted,
while all things Orange are negative, sectarian and
suppressed."

Mr Bailie said called the re-routing "a further attempt to
humiliate and suppress our culture" and urged support for
"any legitimate protest action that the wider unionist
community may be forced to take over the coming weeks".

"Nationalists and republicans will come to understand that
exercising a cultural veto through their Parades Commission
puppets will not be allowed to continue without
consequences.

"We are no longer prepared to tolerate the erosion of our
British identity and cultural traditions as a consolation
prize for republican fascists who failed to achieve their
so-called Ireland of Equals through their murderous terror
campaign.

"We, the Orange Institution in Belfast, welcome the support
of all strands of Unionism, as party differences are set
aside to send a clear message to all those who oppose us.
Enough is enough," he said.

Last night unionists emerged from a meeting with PSNI chief
constable Sir Hugh Orde promising to provide the Parades
Commission with what Sir Reg Empey called "new evidence
from a significant number of sources" which could prompt a
review of the re-routing decision.

© The Irish Times

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http://www.online.ie/news/viewer.adp?article=3274152

Ahern To Raise Ludlow Murder With Hain

online.ie
2005-09-09 14:50:06+01

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern is to raise the 1976
loyalist murder of Seamus Ludlow with the Northern Ireland
Secretary Peter Hain, it emerged today.

The family of the Dundalk forestry worker killed in May
1976 had asked the Mr Ahern to find out why nobody was ever
been prosecuted for the crime.

The Government is still studying legal advice on the Barron
report into the murder and is expected to refer it to the
Oireachtas Justice Committee in the near future.

A spokesman for Mr Ahern said today: "The minister has
always insisted that the complete truth must come out in
relation to the entire Seamus Ludlow case.

"He will raise the matter with the Northern Ireland
Secretary at the earliest opportunity they have to meet."

Mr Ahern is travelling to New York on Sunday to prepare for
the UN World Summit next week and is not due back in
Ireland until September 19.

However he is expected to raise the matter with Mr Hain
soon after.

The Government is still considering the legal advice it got
with the report by Mr Justice Henry Barron into Mr Ludlow's
murder.

A Government spokesperson: "The report will be brought to
Cabinet in the near future.

"After that it will go to an Oireachtas Committee on
Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights which will
then publish it."

The inquest into Mr Ludlow's murder was told earlier this
week that the then RUC arrested and questioned four men in
relation to the crime in 1998.

Two of them independently gave evidence of how and where
the murder was committed and admitted their role.

However, the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern
Ireland decided not to press charges.

The inquest was also told that in 1979, the Gardaí had the
names and addresses of the same four men but Garda
Headquarters didn't allow investigating gardaí to carry out
further inquiries.

The Ludlow family has always claimed there has been a
cover-up on both sides of the border following the murder.

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http://www.derryjournal.com/story/7294

Bloody Sunday Drama Is 100% Accurate - Victim's Brother

Friday 9th September 2005

Brother of one the Bloody Sunday victims, last night
encouraged as many local people as possible to attend a
Bloody Sunday drama showing at the Millennium Forum next
weekend.

John Kelly, brother of Michael Kelly who was shot dead on
January 30, 1972, described the drama as a " reenactment of
history which was 100% factual."

The Derry man recently travelled to London with Jean
Hegarty (sister of Kevin McElhinney) where they got to see
the show for the first time. "We had heard so much about
the show that w e decided to go an have a look for
ourselves," explained John.

"The critics in England had praised the show saying it was
'political theatre at its best' so we decided to go and
form our own views on it.'"

John said they were thoroughly impressed with everything in
the show.

"The show played to a full house every night, and the
audience were enthralled," said John.

"Every word spoken in the drama is taken verbatim from the
transcripts of the Saville Inquiry. "We've checked it out.
"Even the set looked exactly like the Guildhall.

"The actors did a fantastic job putting on the mannerisms
of the individual characters."

John says he believes 'Bloody Sunday - Scenes from the
Saville Inquiry' is a show that every person should attend.

"A lot of people didn't get to attend the Inquiry because
of work or school commitments," he said.

"However this re-enactment will be able to give local
people a real flavour of what went on.

"We would also appeal to the younger generation to go and
see it. It is a great opportunity to see history portrayed
accurately."

'Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Inquiry' will run
on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th September in the
Millennium Forum

With a cast of 23 including acclaimed Irish actress, Sorcha
Cusack, this reconstruction moves swiftly from painful
eyewitness accounts of how people died to the cross-
examination of the soldiers who fired.

Tickets are now available from the Box Office. Telephone 71
264455 for bookings and enquiries.

Both evening performances will include a post-show
discussion by a selected panel of guests. Full details will
be announced at a later date.

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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/arts/story.jsp?story=660755

Theatre: Fine Blend Of Drama And Documentary

Grania McFadden
09 September 2005

Good things come to those who wait and, after a bit of a
dramatic drought over the summer, at last there are a
couple of splendid productions waiting in the wings.

First up is Bloody Sunday, Scenes from the Saville Inquiry,
which opens at the Grand Opera House on Sunday.

Nicolas Kent directs the Tricycle Theatre's latest piece of
tribunal theatre, which promises to be political theatre at
its very best.

The Tricycle has already produced Justifying War, which
abridged the Hutton Inquiry, as well as that into the
murder of black schoolboy Stephen Lawrence - and it proves
that documentary and drama can co-exist with stunning
impact.

The Saville Inquiry was established to re-examine events in
Londonderry on January 30, 1972, when 13 civil-rights
marchers were killed by British soldiers. More than 900
witnesses gave their accounts of that shocking day. Now
Richard Norton-Taylor whittles that evidence down into
dramatic shape to reveal the enormity of that day in
Londonderry.

In abridging such a vast inquiry, this production acts as a
vehicle for truth and takes the audience behind closed
doors where we can unpick claims and counter-claims, and
come away better informed about one of the darkest days in
Northern Ireland's history.

And, after Sunday night's performance, the theatre will
host a post-show discussion chaired by Mark Carruthers,
with director Nicolas Kent, Bernadette McAliskey (who is
played in the production by Sorcha Cusack) and Angela
Hegarty of the Bloody Sunday Trust.

It promises to be a compelling evening. If you can't make
Sunday, the show runs until Wednesday, with an additional
performance on Wednesday afternoon.

Martin McDonagh's The Lonesome West may not have the weight
of history on its shoulders but, in a different way, it
highlights the dark underbelly of Irish society.

Described as 'the Simpsons meets The Playboy of the Western
World', the play (the last in McDonagh's Leenane trilogy)
centres around bachelor brothers Coleman and Valene
O'Connor, who have devoted their lives to riling each
other.

Their sibling rivalry reaches boiling point when the truth
about their father's death comes to light. McDonagh's plays
are tar-black and very funny, and the cast for this co-
production, in conjunction with An Granian in Letterkenny,
is directed by Mikel Murfi.

Finally, a question. Between now and Christmas, some of our
finest actors and theatre companies will be premiering new
work. Where can you see Bruiser's The Secret Diary of
Adrian Mole, Tinderbox's Family Plot (written by Daragh
Carville) and Richard Dormer's new one-man show, The Half?

Tell you next week!

Grania McFadden

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http://www.unison.ie/kerryman/stories.php3?ca=44&si=1465465&issue_id=12979

Law And Order Has No Need For Vigilantism

SINN Féin TD Martin Ferris and senior gardaí in Tralee are
on course for a head-on collision over drug dealers and law
and order.

The North Kerry TD claims that his party will do whatever
it takes to shut down the operations of a Tralee man who,
he claims, is openly dealing drugs in the town.

Sinn Féin and Martin Ferris have publicly pledged to
support gardaí and the legal process in their efforts to
bring alleged drug dealers before the courts.

But added to this is a vague and veiled threat to take the
law into their own hands – beginning with a picket on the
alleged drug dealer's house.

The gardaí have responded by saying that they will take
action against anybody who breaches the peace while staging
a picket on a private residence.

Few politicians in this country have as much to say about
the judicial system and due process as has Martin Ferris –
the North Kerry TD has been arrested more times and has
spent more time behind bars than any other elected
representative in Dáil Éireann.


Martin Ferris's comments this week constitute a veiled
vigilante threat and bear all the hallmarks of a political
party that still, it appears, wants it both ways.

Martin Ferris needs to come clean and explain what exactly
he means by "taking whatever action is necessary" when
dealing with alleged drug dealers.

Does the TD need reminding again that he or his political
colleagues are not charged with keeping law and order in
this county?

Deputy Ferris freely choose to enter democratic politics
and be part of a legislature that makes the laws of this
land. He is not entitled to assume the role of judge and
jury.

The only way we can rid this county of scumbags who make
fat profits from peddling drugs is to bring them before the
courts and have them face the full rigours of the law. The
courts do not look lightly on persons found guilty of
possession of drugs for sale or supply.

Martin Ferris needs to come clean and tell the Dáil and the
people whom he represents whether or not he is committed to
democratic politics.

Staging a protest and breaching the peace by picketing the
house of somebody who is – in the eyes of the law –
innocent until proven guilty of any crime, is not the
solution. In fact, it will make matters a lot worse.

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http://www.online.ie/news/viewer.adp?article=3274125

Calls for Sinn Féin to be banned from Government involvement.

online.ie
2005-09-09 14:10:02+01

The opposition has called on all political parties to make
a public pledge that would see Sinn Féin excluded from
future Governments.

Senator Brian Hayes of Fine Gael put forward the suggestion
and wants the ban to come into effect after the next
election.

He said the Sinn Féin party must not be allowed into
government until such time as the IRA is totally disbanded.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4230730.stm

Omagh Case Funding Was 'Unlawful'

A government award of £700,000 to help fund the Omagh
families' civil case against those suspected of the bombing
was unlawful, the High Court has ruled.

The payment was authorised by the Lord Chancellor in a
civil action claiming compensation of £14m.

His decision was challenged by Real IRA leader Michael
McKevitt, one of the five defendants in the case.

The Real IRA has been blamed for carrying out the attack in
1998, which killed 29 people.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Coghlin said the payment was
unlawful because the Lord Chancellor had no legal power to
order the Legal Services Commission, formerly the Legal Aid
Department, to fund the Omagh relatives.

A lawyer for the Lord Chancellor said he would revoke his
order and would look at other ways of legally providing
financial assistance and would change the law if necessary.

The court was told lawyers had already incurred costs of
over £400,000.

However, Judge Coghlin said that as the money had been
spent in good faith he would not order repayment.

McKevitt is currently serving a 20-year sentence in
Portlaoise prison for running the Real IRA.

He and four other people in the Republic of Ireland -
Seamus Daly, Seamus McKenna, Liam Campbell and Colm Murphy
- are being sued by the families of those killed in the
atrocity.

McKevitt had a claim for £1m in legal aid to fight the case
turned down.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/09/09 15:55:00 GMT
© BBC MMV

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http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/opinion/Full_Story/did-sg2MMwPxH2A5Esg7IQHSmeYhNE.asp

GOAL Chief Needs A History Lesson On Ireland's Debt To America

By Ryle Dwyer

GOAL's John O' Shea was on radio and television during the
week decrying our Government's gesture in allocating e1
million and sending some 30 members of the Irish defence
forces to help with the relief efforts in New Orleans.

"I feel that the response is inappropriate," he said. "We
could have sent a letter; we could have made a phone call;
we could perhaps have sent our ministers to turn up perhaps
at the funerals of some of the dead."

Yea, the Yanks would really have appreciated it if we sent
Bertie Ahern over to wade into the flood in New Orleans to
have his photograph taken like he did when the Tolka
overflowed! The Americans asked for help, but O'Shea
rubbished the idea because the United States is the richest
country in the world. "They are awash with billionaires,"
he said. "It is inappropriate for us to be sending money.
It's not something one does."

He also ridiculed the idea of sending 30 members of our
defence forces, who he compared to "boy scouts". He did
apologise for this as an inadvertent comment in a letter to
the Irish Examiner, but comment was obviously not
inadvertent.

He said it in the earlier part of the Morning Ireland
interview and repeated again towards the end, and in
between he even asked if sending the figurative boy scouts
to New Orleans meant that the Government would send the
girl guides to Paris if the Eiffel Tower collapsed. His
remarks were intended, but he had not thought out their
implications. He was not deliberately insulting the Army,
but the Government.

O'Shea should have learned by now to engage his brain
before putting both feet in his mouth.

New Orleans wasn't awash with billionaires; it was awash in
sewage that has destroyed the lifework of thousands and
thousands of people.

"What we should have done had we been asked, I suppose
initially is to offer some advice because commonsense was
absent from this theatre," O'Shea continued as he exhibited
an ever greater dearth of commonsense. We weren't asked for
advice on something that we mercifully know little about,
but we were asked for help. O'Shea suggests that the whole
thing could have been solved by a phone call.

"One phone call to Bill Gates to rebuild New Orleans would
have meant that nothing was lost," he argued. "Not a single
body would have been lost, but here we are talking now
about 20,000 may have died because of mismanagement."

The damage caused by Hurricane Katrina has been estimated
at well over $100 billion. Surely John O'Shea is not so
naïve as to think that Bill Gates has anything like that
much money, or that he would just hand over his whole
fortune, if he were only asked.

This is the greatest natural disaster ever in the United
States. The devastation was not just in the city of New
Orleans; it covers parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and
Alabama. The affected area is actually larger than the
whole of Great Britain.

As such it can be compared with the Great Famine in this
country. Both were undoubtedly made worse by administrative
incompetence, but in the matter of incompetence we were in
a league of our own because we exported food during the
famine.

Only the potato crop failed. Other crops grew as normal and
the price of meat remained static throughout the ordeal,
which suggested there was no shortage. The problem was that
poor people were dependent on the potato and could not
afford other food.

Most people actually died of disease as a result of
unhygienic conditions and malnourishment. We were part of
the United Kingdom then, and it was the richest country in
the world.

Did the Americans respond to our cries for help like John
O'Shea argues that we should treat them now? A bill to
allocate $500,000 for Irish famine relief was introduced in
Congress. The Senate passed it, but it ran into difficulty
in the House of Representatives due to the hostility of
President James K Polk, who felt the government had no
right to give the people's money away for charity. "My
solemn conviction is that Congress possesses no power to
use any public money for any such purpose," the president
wrote in his diary.

THE White House effectively blocked such government help,
but the American people responded magnificently by
organising a massive relief effort. It started with a
number of meeting in cities like New York, Philadelphia and
New Orleans.

Governor Isaac Johnson of Louisiana opened the meeting in
New Orleans on February 4, 1847. Senator Henry Clay, one of
the most distinguished senators in US history, delivered
the main address. He had narrowly lost the presidential
election of 1844, in which Irish-Americans had reportedly
voted against him en masse, but he still came out in favour
of sending famine relief to Ireland.

"It is not fervid eloquence, not gilded words, that Ireland
needs," he said, "but substantial food. Let us rise to the
magnitude of the duty which is before us, and by a generous
supply from the magnitude of our means, evince the
genuineness of our sympathy and commiserations." His speech
stands out in marked contrast with the empty platitudes
that John O'Shea was prescribing this week.

Five days after the 1847 gathering in New Orleans Vice-
President George M Dallas convened a meeting to set up a
national committee in Washington, DC. It consisted of
politicians from each of the existing states. In addition
to the vice-president, it included famous politicians like
John C Calhoun, Sam Houston and Congressman Andrew Johnson
from Tennessee, who later became president.

Daniel Webster, another of the country's most famous
senators, proposed a resolution calling on "the inhabitants
of all cities, towns, and villages in the United States" to
collect and forward contributions to the general committees
in New York and New Orleans so that the money could be used
to purchase flour, Indian corn or meal and other provisions
to be sent to Ireland.

Businessmen contributed generously, but it was not just the
wealthy who were moved. Black slaves on an Alabama
plantation collected $50 for Ireland. Choctaw Indians - no
strangers to famine themselves - collected $710 for famine
relief in Skullyville, Arkansas, and members of the same
tribe collected $150 in Doaksville in the wilderness of
what later became the state of Oklahoma.

"The whole country is aroused to the obligations incumbent
upon us as men and Christians to extend relief to the
famishing poor of Ireland," the New Orleans Daily Picayune
noted on February 23, 1847. "Throughout the country,
measures have been taken and are now in progress to swell
the sums which are going forward."

By July 1847 the New Orleans committee had sent $50,000 in
money and produce to Ireland.

The American relief changed the course of Irish history.

Hitherto Ireland had always looked to Europe for help, but
thereafter it was to the United States. Our Government
should now be commended, not condemned, for its gesture in
sending help to a people who have helped us so often in the
past.

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http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2005/sep8_Little_Irelanders__JGibney.php

'Little Irelanders' Lack Vision Of The Nation

(Jim Gibney, Irish News)

Belfast in the 1790s was a gateway for Irish republicanism.

In the early 1900s Belfast republican Dinny McCullough
recruited Sean MacDiarmada into the IRB.

MacDiarmada signed the 1916 Proclamation. A British army
firing squad executed him for his part in the rising.

Belfast's Falls Road was home to James Connolly while he
organised the workers into trades unions.

He also signed the proclamation and was executed by firing
squad.

Belfast's Ardoyne is where Ireland's President Mary
McAleese was born and grew up.

Nationalists and republicans from Belfast and other parts
of the north have made an invaluable contribution to the
political life of this nation.

They have played a consistent and central role in the
development of the struggle for national independence.

Yet there are politicians both unionist and nationalist who
treat northerners as non-people.

When unionists talk about "the people of northern Ireland"
they mean 'their' people, unionist and protestant, no-one
else.

When politicians in the main parties in Leinster House talk
about the "people of Ireland" they mean the people who live
within the boundary of the 26-county state.

Their 'nation' stops at the border.

It excludes the Six Counties and the people who live there.

And while those from a unionist background may be content
with this omission nationalists are not.

This exclusion burdens nationalist in the Six Counties
because they see themselves as part of the Irish nation.

They suffered decades of state violence, discrimination and
abuse for clinging, at times with their fingertips, to this
notion.

The essence of their being is shaped by Ireland's
geographical boundary as well as its turbulent political
history.

Their mindset transcends partition and is firmly located
within the nation. They do not see themselves nor are they
an 'add on' to the Irish government's agenda of concern
when dealing with the British government.

The failure to include the people of the north lies at the
heart of the Irish administration.

The Six Counties are not foreign yet it is the minister for
foreign, that is, overseas affairs, who handles the north.

Throughout the years of partition in Germany the West
German government refused to recognise East Germany as a
separate or foreign entity. East Germany was handled by the
Department of Inner German Affairs.

There is a world of difference between the word 'inner' and
'foreign'. The words carry their own momentum and
direction.

The partitionist outlook of the south's establishment is to
be found most recently in their aggressive opposition to
Sinn Féin's proposal that elected representatives from the
north have the right to speak in Leinster House.

It is also obvious in the storm of reaction manufactured
around the return of the Colombia Three.

Opponents of the speaking rights proposal misled the public
into believing that Sinn Féin was seeking such rights
solely for republicans.

Sinn Féin argued for the right for all elected
representatives from the Six Counties, nationalist and
unionist.

The tone of the opposition was similar to the abusive
language which unionists used when they talked about
republicans being 'decontaminated' or 'house trained'
before they would talk face-to-face with them.

Among those opposed to the speaking rights proposal is Fine
Gael's leader Enda Kenny and Pat Rabitte, leader of the
Labour Party.

Their opposition is not just about the electoral growth of
Sinn Féin.

They do not want to share "their democracy" as they
describe it with the rest of us on this island.

These 'little Irelanders' have no vision of the nation.

They have no emotional attachment to the history of the men
and women of the generation prior to partition who fought
and died for national independence.

Defending their state as the nation leaves northern
nationalists to fend for themselves.

While Catholics are driven from their homes by loyalists
the 'little Irelanders' ignore their plight and whip up a
frenzy about the return of the Colombia Three.

Nationalists in the north are once again feeling the heat,
caught between two states.

However, the main difference between today and 1920 is they
are organised and have an effective voice in Sinn Féin who
echo the national sentiments of the people across the
island.

September 9, 2005

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