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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)
October 20, 2005
Catholics Aren't Safe In Their Homes
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News about Ireland & the Irish
NH 10/20/05 Catholics 'Aren't Safe In Own Homes'
IE 10/20/05 Adair Quizzed Over Assassination
BT 10/20/05 Stobie Ignored Police Warning On Life
UT 10/20/05 Loyalist McCreery Denies Catholic Murder Links
NL 10/20/05 Loyalist: We'll Bring Ulster To A Standstill
BT 10/20/05 Hain Urged To Meet UVF Victim's Family
UT 10/20/05 Gvnt Must Address Unionist Concerns- Robinson
UT 10/20/05 Unionist Need More Positive Leadership
BT 10/20/05 Explanation Over Lost Contracts Called For
DL 10/20/05 Morrison: There Is A Nazi Analogy To Be Made
DL 10/20/05 South Africa Hails Adams
BD 10/20/05 IRA Intends Keeping Peace Pact, Says Adams
UT 10/20/05 Dail Unites To Condemn Carroll Kidnap
UT 10/20/05 Loyalist Terror Suspect Detained In Liverpool
UT 10/20/05 Young Irish Are Biggest Binge Drinkers
BT 10/20/05 Sir James Galway And His Famous Flute
******************************************
http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2005/oct19_Catholics_not_safe.php
Catholics 'Aren't Safe In Own Homes'
(Marie Louise McCrory, Irish News)
A petrol-bomb attack on a house in Co Antrim was last night
described as "cowardly and disgraceful".
A 54-year-old woman was sitting in the living room of the
house at Cushendall Road in Ballymena when the device was
thrown through the window at around 1.20am yesterday
(Tuesday).
A police spokeswoman said the woman was uninjured but
shaken by the ordeal.
"The device was extinguished by the time police got there,"
she said.
Police said they were keeping an open mind as to the
motive. A number of items were taken away for forensic
examination.
However, Philip McGuigan, Sinn Féin assembly member for
North Antrim, described the attack as "nothing more than
anti-Catholic".
"Honestly, this has got to a stage where it is no longer
safe for a Catholic to live in their home, in their own
area in Ballymena," he said.
"I look forward to the day when I can engage with all
communities to work these kind of situations out."
SDLP Ballymena councillor Declan O'Loan also condemned the
attack.
"This is the latest in a series of incidents across the
Ballymena area that must be brought to an end. It can be
seen as nothing other than attempted murder," he said.
"As a community we must all make it clear in the strongest
possible terms that incidents like this are neither wanted
nor supported."
Police last night said a petrol-bomb attack also took place
early yesterday on a house in the Deramore area of
Ballymena.
A spokesman said it was reported shortly before 2am. There
were no injuries and minor damage was caused to the front
of the house.
October 20, 2005
******************************************
http://www.irishexaminer.com/pport/web/ireland/Full_Story/did-sgpUq3nGfwQ1Isg0aewFBADppk.asp
Adair Quizzed Over Assassination
By Alan Erwin
FORMER paramilitary boss Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair was heavily
investigated over the assassination of loyalist informer
William Stobie, detectives said yesterday.
Adair, the ex-Ulster Defence Association commander, who was
in jail when the organisation's one-time quartermaster was
gunned down outside his North Belfast home, refused to co-
operate with police, an inquest was told.
The inquest into Stobie's death also heard from a secret
witness who saw the suspected murder team patrol outside
their victim's home in a fake taxi for five days before he
was killed.
Stobie, 51, was ambushed on December 12, 2001, as he
prepared to drive his partner to work. The self-confessed
police special branch informer was shot four times in the
head and back weeks after being acquitted of plotting to
murder Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
Former UDA associates, using the Red Hand Defenders'
pseudonym, claimed they murdered him for so-called crimes
against the loyalist community because he had supported
demands for an inquiry into the 1989 Finucane killing,
which has been shrouded in allegations of major security
force collusion.
At his inquest John Leckey, the coroner for Greater
Belfast, read extracts from a biography of Adair, now
exiled in Lancashire after being ousted by the organisation
he once ruled.
Referring to a section that claimed the former terrorist
chief gave his personal blessing to Stobie's assassination,
Mr Leckey asked Detective Chief Inspector Robert Lee if
Adair was ever interviewed about the murder.
The officer said: "He wasn't questioned as a suspect. We
did try to speak to him in prison, but I could not get
sufficient intelligence to support the arrest of Johnny
Adair."
Agreeing with the coroner's assessment that the loyalist
refused to co-operate, the detective added: "We did commit
considerable resources and time into a line looking at
Johnny Adair. There was no intelligence to connect him to
the murder of William Stobie."
Although several suspects were questioned about the
killing, no one has been charged.
The inquest was also told the gun used, a .38 special
magnum revolver, had been used in other shootings and
killings attributed to the UDA, according to police.
Ten days before he died, Stobie was warned by officers he
should move from his home on the Forthriver Estate because
of threats from loyalists. But he refused to flee. Even
though his partner, Lorraine Graham, alleged police did not
do enough to protect him, an investigation by the Northern
Ireland Police ombudsman Nuala O'Loan exonerated the force
of any negligence.
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665907
Stobie Ignored Police Warning On Life
By Ben Lowry
20 October 2005
The murdered loyalist informer William Stobie ignored
police warnings about the threat to his life and told the
Belfast Telegraph that he was happy in north Belfast - days
before he was shot dead outside his flat.
Stobie, whose inquest yesterday heard that on December 2,
2001, police offered to help him move home, phoned the
paper on November 29. On December 12 he was killed.
Stobie, who had just been acquitted of murdering solicitor
Pat Finucane, wanted a copy of a Belfast Telegraph
photograph of him and his partner, Lorraine Graham, smiling
as they left court following the trial's collapse.
During the phone call, Stobie had talked about his isolated
life and said: "I collect Lorraine from work but it's not
often I'm out."
The inquest heard that Stobie was shot at 6am outside his
Forthriver Road flat as he prepared to drive Lorraine to
work.
But the call to the Telegraph, which was made three days
before the final police warning, showed that Stobie fatally
miscalculated the threat.
"I was warned by Special Branch in 2000 that I was in
danger," Stobie mentioned.
And Stobie recounted that three weeks earlier a senior
loyalist had seen him coming out of a video shop and said,
"Alright, Stobie?", before asking him about the case.
"I was terrified," laughed Stobie.
The inquest heard that Stobie believed he was safe from the
UDA, unaware that they had decided to kill him because he
had backed calls for an inquiry into the Finucane murder.
A detective told Belfast Coroner's Court that police wanted
to question loyalist Johnny Adair over the killing.
He was in jail in the 18 months before Stobie was shot, but
the police had insufficient intelligence to arrest him.
Asked during the phone call he would feel more secure
living somewhere quieter, such as Bangor, Stobie replied:
"Aye, a wee cul de sac where everyone lives together?"
But Stobie implied that moving would be complicated. "We've
got the flat done up really nice," he said.
"It's picking the place and getting out."
This inertia would cost him his life.
******************************************
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66225&pt=n
Loyalist McCreery Denies Catholic Murder Links
A former loyalist, now living in Spain, today denied that
he he had anything to do with the sectarian murder of a
Catholic accountant in north Belfast almost 30 years ago.
Thomas McCreery said he had no "act or part" in the murder
of Peter Johnston, who was shot in his bedroom in the
Cavehill area in 1976.
Mr McCreery was responding to claims in a BBC Splotlight
programme on Tuesday alleging that that he was involved in
Mr Johnston`s murder.
In a statement issued through Barra McGrory, his solicitor
in Belfast, Mr McCreery said: "I wish it to be known that I
had no act or part in the murder of Peter Johnston as
alleged by the BBC in their Spotlight programme on October
18.
"Furthermore, the allegation that I was involved with a
murder squad known as the `Window Cleaners` is based on
nothing more than a patchwork of lies, speculation, rumour
and innuendo and I absolutely refute that.
"It is a shame that the BBC has allowed a programme which
was supposed to be about a genuine miscarriage of justice
to lose its credibility by engaging in cheap, tabloid-style
journalism for the sake of publicity."
In the programme, Mr McCleery was secretly filmed carrying
out building works to his Spanish villa after rejecting
overtures by the "Spotlight" team to be interviewed for
their programme.
The murder of Peter Johnston was attributed at the time to
the "Window Clearners" - a loyalist gang which used ladders
to get up to the bedrooms of innocent Catholics in north
Belfast and kill them as they slept.
Schoolboys Richard Hanna, 16 and Robert Hindes, 14, were
pulled in for questioning about the murder.
Without the legal safeguards now in place to protect
juveniles, they made statements admitting they were the
killers and were given life sentences.
They each spent nine years in a detention centre before
their release in 1985.
But it was another 12 years before their claims of
innocence were taken up by the Criminal Cases Review
Commission - the official body set up to probe cases of
wrongful conviction.
The Commission`s investigators unearthed a litany of
inconsistencies which demolished the case presented by the
prosecution at the boys` trial.
When their appeals were eventually came before the Court of
Appeal earlier this year the Crown threw in the towel.
The result was that three appeal judges unanimously quashed
the convictions and declared the pair were victims of a
cruel miscarriage of justice.
But it was too late for Mr Hanna, who died hours before his
appeal process had begun a year earlier. He was then 44.
His partner Carolyn Beck instructed his solicitors to go
ahead with his appeal.
After he was granted a posthusmous pardon she said she had
derived some consolation even though he was not alive to
see and hear his name being cleared.
"It is sad to see that Richard did not live to see the day
when his reputation is restored," she said.
"It is just such a waste, his life was completely ruined by
this wrongful conviction."
******************************************
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/story/23385
'We'll Bring Ulster To A Total Standstill'
Exclusive By Gemma Murray Security Correspondent
Thursday 20th October 2005
Loyalist women have threatened to bring Northern Ireland to
a standstill on November 4 if they do not get the face-to-
face meetings they are demanding with the Secretary of
State.
Women Raising Unionist Concerns (WRUC), who formed last
month in the aftermath of the Whiterock parade and
subsequent rioting, said they are not going away and
claimed it is time for Prime Minister Tony Blair to "wake
up and smell the coffee".
Chairwoman of the group Jean Barnes, from east Belfast,
said their movement had "nothing to do with paramilitaries
and everything to do with saving our culture, schools,
traditions and Ulster".
She said Ulster's men had their chance, and now it is time
for them to "get out of the way". "It is our turn to sort
the problems out a different way - through peaceful protest
and dialogue," she said.
Earlier this week, the WRUC delivered a letter outlining
their concerns to representatives at Stormont.
They gave the letter to UUP, PUP and SDLP politicians.
"We then hand-delivered the letter to the offices of Sinn
Fein, the DUP and Alliance," said Jean.
"The Secretary of State, Peter Hain, told us his door would
always be open to hear our concerns but that has not been
the case.
"We want the Government to know that we are aware of what
they are doing - how they are trying to erode the unionist
people by conquering and dividing them and then driving
them into the ground.
"The Government are always one step ahead - but we want
everyone to know what they are trying to do."
Last month, loyalist women blocked main roads throughout
Belfast for more than six consecutive days in protest at
police brutality towards Protestants.
"The strength of emotion coming from women in Protestant
areas really hit home last month after Whiterock," said Ms
Barnes. "We got together for a couple of meetings in the
Spectrum Centre in the Shankill and WRUC got off the
ground.
"Peter Hain and Tony Blair had better sit up and take
notice because we proved a couple of weeks ago that we
could bring Ulster to a standstill through road protests.
"And if we have not heard back from the politicians by
November 4 we will take to the streets again.
"We will bring Ulster to a standstill. We will go where we
have to go and do what we have to do.
"On November 4, if we have nothing, every road in Belfast
will be closed at 3pm. "We do not just want a letter back
from the parties, we want face-to-face meetings and
accountability."
g.murray@newsletter.co.uk
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665906
Hain Urged To Meet UVF Victim's Family
By Jonathan McCambridge
20 October 2005
Secretary of State Peter Hain has been asked to urgently
meet with the family of UVF murder victim Craig McCausland.
Alliance leader David Ford led a delegation to meet the
McCausland family, who are striving to bring Craig's
killers to justice.
Craig (20) was gunned down in July at the height of the
UVF/LVF feud. But police have stated that he had no
connection with any paramilitary group.
Craig's mother Lorraine McCausland was also beaten to death
by a UDA gang 18 years ago.
Mr Ford pointed out: "It is truly perverse that a law-
abiding family is having such difficulties getting justice
for Craig McCausland, an innocent murder victim.
"A generation on from the callous murder of his mother,
have we learned nothing?"
The Alliance leader added: "I have written to the Secretary
of State demanding that he meet the family immediately."
******************************************
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66239&pt=n
Government Must Address Unionist Concerns, Says Robinson
Efforts to revive power-sharing in Northern Ireland will go
nowhere if the British government fails to address unionist
concerns, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned
today.
By:Press Association
In a hard hitting statement attacking the decision by
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain to reinstate to Sinn
Fein Stormont allowances worth £120,000, Democratic
Unionist deputy leader Peter Robinson claimed the
Government was undermining efforts to rebuild unionist
confidence.
The East Belfast MP stated: "It is time the fixation about
appeasing republicans in order to encourage them to stop
their terror campaign came to an end.
"It is now time steps were taken to build confidence in the
unionist community.
"The Secretary of State and the Prime Minister should be
under no doubt - this is a fundamental pre-requisite before
there can be any consideration given to making progress on
the many outstanding political issues."
Mr Blair, Mr Hain and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern welcomed
the latest report released yesterday by the four member
ceasefire watchdog, the Independent Monitoring Commission,
which said the IRA appeared to be honouring its pledge in
July to end its armed campaign.
London and Dublin have also been encouraged by the
completion three weeks ago of the IRA`s disarmament
programme in the presence of decommissioning body chiefs
and two independent witnesses, Catholic priest Fr Alec Reid
and Methodist minister, the Rev Harold Good.
However unionists have been far more sceptical and have
been angered by a series of what they claim are concessions
to republicans.
These include the tearing down of Army watchtowers in south
Armagh, Londonderry and west Belfast and plans to axe three
Northern Ireland-based battalions of the Royal Irish
Regiment in August 2007 as well as reduce the number of
soldiers in the province to a peacetime garrison.
DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley and Conservative Northern
Ireland spokesman David Lidington were also furious at
moves in the House of Commons to reinstate £400,000 in
Westminster allowances to Sinn Fein on the back of
yesterday`s IMC report which also said it was still too
early to make a definitive judgment on the Provisionals.
Mr Robinson said today: "The IRA has proved in the past
that it can turn on and off its paramilitary activity to
suit its own purposes. Only time can establish if things
are different this time around.
"On this issue the Government`s approach has further
diminished confidence in the unionist community.
"Despite accepting back in July that the IRA would have to
be judged over a period of time it has proceeded to act on
the basis of the word of the IRA.
"If the IMC is in no position to make a definitive judgment
on the IRA position how can the Secretary of State
reinstate payments to Sinn Fein on the same basis?
"The Secretary of State, in typical New Labour fashion, has
adopted an a la carte approach to this latest IMC report.
This is yet another example of the Government`s eagerness
to act before the evidence justifies it.
"It merely undermines confidence in the Government`s
handling of the process and makes the task of building
confidence in the unionist community all the more
difficult.
"How hypocritical it would be for the Government to say to
unionists in January that they should listen to the IMC and
accept the IRA`s bona fides when in October the Government
has ignored the IMC and acted pre-emptively on funding Sinn
Fein."
The DUP has already submitted a 64-page dossier to Downing
Street outlining areas where confidence building measures
for unionists are needed.
The former Stormont Regional Development Minister said they
were preparing a second document and made no apologies for
making unionist demands in much the same as Sinn Fein had
set the talks agenda.
"We have made it clear that issues such as a satisfactory
outcome in our discussions about the home battalions of the
Royal Irish Regiment will be key in forming our judgment on
moving forward," the DUP deputy leader said.
"Those who have risked their lives to protect the community
must be treated with the respect they deserve.
"The Government`s reaction to our proposals for dealing
with parades will be another priority for the party in its
considerations. If the Government want to see political
progress they know what they have to do on these and the
other issues we have raised.
"The date for any return to devolution is not only a matter
of being satisfied that the IRA terror machine is gone once
and for all, but of ensuring the Government has provided
fairness and equality for unionists.
"Having witnessed a decade of concessions to the IRA it is
not unreasonable that unionists should want to see the
scales balanced."
******************************************
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66219&pt=n
Unionist Communities Need More Positive Leadership
Unionist leaders need to give more positive leadership to
their community amid changes brought about by the Good
Friday Agreement, a debate on the Northern Ireland peace
process was told last night.
By:Press Association
Nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan and Sinn Fein MP Conor
Murphy both criticised unionist leaders over the
stewardship of their community during the peace process
during a debate in Trinity College, Dublin, featuring
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and Democratic
Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson.
Mr Durkan said recent disturbances in working class
loyalist communities in Belfast and other parts of Northern
Ireland were not so much about concessions to republicans.
"Firstly, if it was a cry for anything, it was a cry for
leadership," the Foyle MP said.
"Secondly, it will be the shared programmes of our own
regional administration that will have to truly deliver for
all communities who feel left behind but not contrived
packages from Direct Rule.
"Thirdly, the perceived `serial concession to republicans`
have not come of the Agreement`s institutions working, but
from an ulterior process which has only undermined at
frustrating the proper working of those institutions.
"Fourthly, the Ulster Unionist Party and now the Democratic
Unionist Party - for their own power pastures - have been
complicit in the very flawed process which generates the
very disillusionment they are now complaining about.
"What grievances people and parties may have and however
legitimate those may be, no unionist or nationalist can say
they have been failed by the Good Friday Agreement itself."
Mr Murphy also told the debate, which featured former Irish
prime minister Albert Reynolds, that while there was
undoubtedly poverty and depravation in working class
unionist neighbourhoods which needed to be tackled, it had
to be faced up to on the basis of need and not perception.
The Newry and Armagh MP said: "150,000 children in the
north (of Ireland) live in poverty and half a million
people live in poor households.
"However all of the poverty indicators prove that the
reality remains that the majority of wards in which people
continue to live below the poverty line are in nationalist
areas.
"Almost twice as many Catholics as Protestants remain
unemployed.
"More Catholic young people leave school without formal
qualifications than their Protestant counterparts.
"These statistics sadly are fact and undermine much of the
nonsense being offered by unionist politicians in recent
weeks to excuse the violence witnessed on the streets of
Belfast."
Mr Murphy said those disturbances had nothing to do with
depravation but were instead the result of a demand for the
Protestant Orange Order to be allowed to march from a gate
in the city`s peace line which remained closed 365 days of
the year because they wanted to coat tail through a
nationalist area.
He continued: "Unionist political leaders must bear the
responsibility for the position within which unionism finds
itself.
"If unionist political leaders continued to hark after an
era which has long since halved then political unionism
will remain in a cul-de-sac.
"Their response to the recent historical initiatives by the
IRA is evidence of that.
"The IRA initiatives do not in themselves solve the crisis
in the peace process.
"It can only be solved through dialogue and meaningful
engagement."
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665902
Businessman Calls On Police For Explanation Over Lost
Contracts
By David Gordon
20 October 2005
The PSNI was today facing fresh questions over contracts,
as a businessman queried the decisions that forced the
closure of his firm.
David Donnelly said his Belfast engineering company lost
vital work to an English operation after brav- ing terror
threats to carry out work for the police for many years.
His demand for an explanation was made as the PSNI faced a
Fraud Squad probe over a separate contract controversy
involving another firm.
Mr Donnelly was honoured by the Queen in the 1990s,
receiving an MBE for his work. His east Belfast firm,
Armwell Engineering, which built and refitted Land Rovers
for police, had to shut its doors last year after PSNI work
dried up.
Mr Donnelly told the Belfast Telegraph he was not making
any allegations of wrongdoing but wanted a "full
explanation".
"They wouldn't disclose any details of the other firm's
tender. They wouldn't even say if its prices were higher or
lower than mine," he said.
"I did work for the police for 30 years - when people were
being murdered for working for the security forces.
"I think I am at least entitled to an explanation, not just
on why I lost the work but, more importantly, on why it did
not go to any firm in Northern Ireland."
The Fraud Squad probe announced this week relates to the
withdrawal of a 2001 contract for armour plating for police
vehicles.
The Belfast firm stripped of this contract, NI Sheet Metal
Works, was last week awarded £400,000 damages.
Commenting on the case, a High Court judge expressed
suspicions that "person or persons" within the PSNI may
have deliberately undermined the firm through "flimsy"
criticism of its delivery of the contract.
Alongside the criminal investigation, the PSNI is also
initiating an independent review of "processes" involved in
the affair.
DUP Policing Board member Sammy Wilson today said a review
should also be carried out on other contract issues,
including the matters raised by Mr Donnelly.
"A proper explanation is still required in this case," the
MP said.
"I have raised questions but the PSNI would not confirm or
deny that Mr Donnelly's prices were lower than those of the
firm which won the work.
"They should not be hiding behind commercial
confidentiality when public money is involved."
Mr Donnelly's company and NI Sheet Metal Works lost out on
contracts to unconnected English companies.
A PSNI spokeswoman today stressed that "all lines of
enquiries" will be pursued in the investigation of the NI
Sheet Metal Works case.
******************************************
http://dailyireland.televisual.co.uk/home.tvt?_ticket=9NTHLXD4YGSGX40IHONDL1Q39LLDPJSGZSRHIPTFCSZDALOL6Z5FURUSJORE9NTHLF8WBHSJ7QRFOSMAAT2DALOLS82EG1CZ0B&_scope=DailyIreland/Content/Comment&id=12712&opp=1
Danny Morrison: There Is A Nazi Analogy To Be Made
Danny Morrison
Fr Alec Reid, a quiet, self-deprecating and normally
circumspect man, was thrust into public life recently when
it was announced that he and the Methodist Minister, the
Reverend Harold Good, were the two independent witnesses to
the IRA putting all of its weapons beyond use. Both clerics
appeared at the same press conference as General John de
Chastelain and his two commissioners on September 26, when
the announcement was made.
Fr Reid, of course, is also the Redemptorist priest from
Clonard Monastery who acted as a mediator in various
republican feuds (and helped end those between the IRA and
the Workers Party in 1975 and 1977). He also brought Sinn
Féin and the SDLP together for talks in 1988, and acted as
a conduit between Charles Haughey, when he was Taoiseach,
and the republican leadership. He was famously photographed
giving the kiss of life to the two plain-clothes British
Army corporals who were killed after they inexplicably
drove into the funeral of IRA Volunteer Kevin Brady in
1988.
He is not a supporter of armed struggle. In fact, he never
gave up trying to persuade the IRA to abandon its campaign,
but he is an Irishman who believes in Irish independence
and would like to see his country reunited, as is his
entitlement, but with the consent of the unionist
community.
He and the Reverend Harold Good set out to persuade the
sceptics about the historical importance and decisiveness
of IRA decommissioning and came to address a public meeting
of about 200 people at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in
Belfast last Wednesday night.
There were heated exchanges and some unionists, according
to Fr Reid, slighted and insulted his faith and the
Catholic Church. He was interrupted and he lost his temper.
He said that there would have been no IRA but for the way
unionists treated nationalists.
"They were treated almost like animals by the unionist
community. They were not treated as human beings… they were
treated like the Nazis treated the Jews."
There was shock in the audience and it triggered a shouting
match and a bit of a walkout. Fr Reid apologised almost
immediately, an apology that was accepted - albeit his
remarks were regretted - by many of his friends in other
denominations, including the Reverend Ken Newell whose
church had hosted the meeting.
There was also an immediate outcry at his remarks from
unionist leaders, including the leading party in unionism,
the anti-Agreement DUP, which rubbished the affidavits of
Reid and Good in regard to decommissioning and still seeks
pretexts to avoid sharing power with Sinn Féin.
Father Reid's remarks certainly smarted many unionists. He
should not have demonised an entire community. You cannot
compare the suffering of the Jews under the Nazis, and
their genocide, to the nationalist experience in the North,
however unpleasant that was.
Nevertheless, Fr Reid, a moderate, must have said what he
said out of frustration and desperation – a natural human
reaction. Prior to those remarks, the last person not of
the republican physical-force tradition to have said
something similar was President Mary McAleese earlier this
year. During ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp she suggested
that Catholics in the North suffered like Jews during
Hitler's war on Europe. Of the Nazis she said: "They gave
to their children an irrational hatred of Jews in the same
way that people in Northern Ireland transmitted to their
children an irrational hatred of Catholics – in the same
way that people give their children an outrageous and
irrational hatred of those who are of different colour."
Within 24 hours she too apologised and said she was "deeply
sorry". McAleese's and Reid's comments represent something
visceral which even most nationalists believe but only
express in unguarded moments for fear of being regarded as
sectarian, but the analogy with fascism is in fact
legitimate and rooted in certain fact.
The evidence is that the traditional unionist establishment
has strong anti-democratic and fascist tendencies.
Firstly, unionists, who had no problem with a united
Ireland when they were in political ascendancy, opposed the
extension of the franchise to the Irish working class and
opposed a measure of devolution, Home Rule, because they
would lose their sectarian supremacy. They opposed 'lawful'
authority, organised the first right-wing paramilitary army
of the 20th century, the UVF, threatened civil war, got
their way and set up what was basically a state of one-
party government.
To ensure they maintained control they used terror. They
gerrymandered constituencies. They discriminated in
employment and investment and reinforced the traditional
ghettoes in which Catholics had gathered for safety. They
used the Orange Order to keep nationalists in fear. At the
foundation of the state they drove the few Catholics that
had work in Protestant industries out of their workplace.
In 1921 alone 9000 Catholics were driven from work, 30,000
were rendered destitute and thousands were rendered
homeless. Catholics were in a minority but made up the
majority of those who emigrated. Unionist newspapers
regularly carried job advertisements with the unashamed
pronouncement that 'No Catholics Need Apply'.
Loyalist paramilitaries boast of their connection with neo-
Nazi groups, including Combat 18. The '18' in their name is
derived from the initials of Adolf Hitler, A and H are the
first and eighth letters of the Latin alphabet.
To this day Ian Paisley uses insulting and derogatory
language when he refers to 'Papishers' and 'Romanists'. His
party displayed fascist tendencies in its Ulster Resistance
mode, Third Force rallies and when it united with loyalist
paramilitaries in the UWC strike. One of Paisley's
councillors, George Seawright, said of Catholics in 1984:
"Taxpayers' money would be better spent on an incinerator
and burning the whole lot of them. The priests should be
thrown in and burned as well."
Former Home Affairs Minister, William Craig, set up the
Vanguard Movement as a pressure group within the Unionist
Party. At Vanguard rallies unionist leaders arrived flanked
by motorcycle outriders. At one rally in Ormeau Park, Craig
addressed 100,000 people, which included serried ranks of
masked men carrying cudgels. He said: "We must build up a
dossier of the men and the women who are a menace to this
country… it may be our job to liquidate them."
Commenting on these rallies, the veteran British journalist
Peter Taylor wrote many years ago: "To nationalists they
represented a menacing display reminiscent of Hitler's
Nuremburg rallies."
So, yes, there is an analogy to be made, though not on the
same scale as the Nazis. Unionists are genuinely appalled
that nationalists should think this way of them and they
reject such a view. They do so because they themselves are
in denial about their part in the origins of the conflict.
Certainly, the IRA's campaign devastated them, led to a
litany of loss, pain and bereavement, and a sense of great
victimhood, but that sense of victimhood is also
conveniently used to mask some of the real truths about
their own ethos and their attitude to Catholics.
For them it's more comforting to view the IRA as completely
ruthless as to examine the darkness at the heart of
unionist supremacist values.
Unwittingly, Fr Alec Reid's outburst has done just that.
Danny Morrison's play, 'The Wrong Man', is on at the Tivoli
Theatre, Francis Street, Dublin, for another three weeks.
Bookings: Tivoli [01] 4544472; Central Ticket Bureau – [01]
8721122 or email – admin@centralticketbureau.com
******************************************
http://dailyireland.televisual.co.uk/home.tvt?_ticket=9NTHLXD4YGSGX40IHONDL1Q39LLDPJSGZSRHIPTFCSZDALOL6Z5FURUSJORE9NTHLF8WBHSJ7QRFOSMAAT2DALOLS82EG1CZ0B&_scope=DailyIreland/Content/News&id=12681&opp=1
South Africa Hails Adams
"I think that we should be guided by Mr Adams and the
people of Northern Ireland about what is it that they would
like South Africa to support in the process," Foreign
Minister Dlamini-Zuma
Jarlath Kearney in Johannesburg
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams will make a formal address
to the South African parliament in Cape Town tomorrow.
Confirmation that parliament has been formally convened to
receive Mr Adams came on the first day of the west Belfast
MP's official visit to South Africa.
Mr Adams is visiting South Africa at the invitation of
foreign minster Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. The Sinn Féin
leader was received by minister of intelligence Ronnie
Kasrils and police commander Robert McBride at Johannesburg
International Airport.
He was then placed under the formal state protection of a
VIP close-protection unit. This afternoon, Mr Adams will
hold a personal meeting with President Thabo Mbeki, before
making a keynote address at the South African Institute of
International Affairs. Yesterday morning, Mr Adams laid a
wreath to those who have died in the cause of freedom at
one of South Africa's most revered national monuments, the
Freedom Park.
The Irish ambassador Gerry Corr hosted a lunch and
reception for the Sinn Féin president.
Following this reception, Mr Adams held top-level
discussion with members of the African National Congress
executive committee at the organisation's Luthuli House
headquarters.
A meeting with foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma took
place yesterday evening.
This was followed by a state dinner attended by leading
members of South Africa's government.
Mr Adams said yesterday: "Without doubt, Sinn Féin has
taken lessons from South Africa in terms of how the peace
process was built.
"Nelson Mandela played a leadership role. President Mbeki
has continued that role. The African National Congress
leadership provided us with assistance and help from their
own experience."
******************************************
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/national.aspx?ID=BD4A104186
IRA Intends Keeping Peace Pact, Says Adams
PRETORIA — The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was determined
to stick to its peace pledge, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams
said after a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki yesterday.
Adams's comments came as a newly published Independent
Monitoring Commission report credited the IRA with halting
a range of activities in keeping with its July 28 peace
declaration.
The Sinn Fein leader said he had not seen the report, but
"when the IRA made that hugely difficult and brave decision
(to declare peace) they meant it".
Mbeki told Adams, the leader of the IRA-linked party, that
Northern Ireland should learn from SA's example.
Mbeki said white South Africans had feared losing
privileges after the end of apartheid in 1994.
"But now … they are all saying what we feared we were going
to lose we didn't. We are happier, freer … we have become
richer."
Adams, who has met community and business leaders since
arriving on Tuesday, said people in Ireland wanted what
South Africans now have: freedom, a rights-based society
and people living together in peace.
Adams said former president Nelson Mandela and Mbeki had
both contributed to the peace process. He was also grateful
for the involvement of African National Congress
heavyweight Cyril Ramaphosa, who sat on the decommissioning
body, as well as Roelf Meyer of the former National Party.
Sapa-AP-AFP, Jonathan Katzenellenbogen
******************************************
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66237&pt=n
Dail Unites To Condemn Carroll Kidnap
The Irish parliament was today united in condemning the
Baghdad kidnap of Dublin journalist Rory Carroll and
appealing for his safe release.
By:Press Association
The Guardian correspondent was abducted in the Iraqi
capital yesterday while reporting on the trial of former
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
The Irish government was today exhausting political and
diplomatic channels to determine the whereabouts of the 33-
year-old and secure his release.
Irish Finance Minister Brian Cowen today condemned the
kidnap in the Dail and expressed solidarity with Carroll`s
family.
Deputising for Irish premier Bertie Ahern, Mr Cowen said:
"I call on anybody who has any influence in that area to
assist. We are trying to do all we can through our
contacts."
Opposition leader Enda Kenny commended the swift action of
the Irish government at political and diplomatic level to
secure the early release of Carroll.
He said Carroll`s father, Joe, a retired journalist, was a
respected political correspondent in the Dail for many
years and several TDs knew him well.
"This is a matter of grave concern to us," he explained.
Mr Kenny said Opposition parties would assist in any way
they could to help the government on the issue.
"I`m sure the House will agree with the expression of
abhorrence by the Irish people at the kidnap," he added.
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte, Trevor Sargent of the
Greens and Sinn Fein`s Dail leader Caoimhghin O Caolain
also expressed solidarity with the Carroll family.
Earlier, the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) said it would
be contacting anti-occupation groups in Baghdad to try to
secure Carroll`s freedom.
IAWM chairman Richard Boyd Barrett said: "Rory Carroll is
entirely innocent of any crime against the Iraqi people.
"We condemn this kidnapping and call on his captors to
release him immediately.
"No cause will be served by keeping him in captivity or
harming him in any way.
"If the kidnappers are part of the resistance to the US
occupation, they should have no grievance against Rory
Carroll.
"As a journalist, he has attempted to provide balanced
coverage of the Iraqi conflict and in many of the stories
he has written has exposed the bloody reality of the war
and occupation launched by George Bush and Tony Blair," he
said.
He blamed the US and British Governments for launching the
war in Iraq, which led to the situation which Mr Carroll
found himself, and said it was by no means certain the
foreign correspondent had been kidnapped by insurgents.
"We are making immediate moves to contact anti-occupation
groups with whom we have some communication to see if they
can help secure Rory`s release," he said.
Mr Boyd Barrett said Mr Carroll`s kidnapping had brought
the tragedy of the Iraq war to Ireland and called on the
Irish Government to end its support of the US military in
Shannon.
"If our government wishes to have any credibility in trying
to secure the release of Rory Carroll, they should signal
their clear opposition to the occupation of Iraq and their
intention to stop the use of Irish airports by the US
military," he said.
******************************************
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66228&pt=n
Loyalist Terror Suspect Detained In Liverpool
An Ulster terror suspect has been arrested in Liverpool,
police said today.
The 43-year-old man was held by anti-terror police at 8am
and was taken to a police station in Manchester. He was
being held under the Terrorism Act.
The arrest is in connection with the activities of loyalist
paramilitary groups linked to Northern Ireland, a police
spokesman said.
The man was taken into custody by Greater Manchester
Police`s Anti-Terrorist Unit with the help of Merseyside
Police.
******************************************
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66232&pt=n
Young Irish Are Biggest Binge Drinkers
Irish young people are the biggest binge drinkers in
Europe.
Figures just released show that young men in this country
now drink twice as much as the wine-loving French.
The research, by the Institute of Alcohol Studies in
Britain, shows that one third of all fifteen and 16-year-
olds binge drink at least three times a month.
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665867
Sir James Galway And His Famous Flute
By Linda McKee
20 October 2005
Sir James Galway is searching for 100 flautists to help
mark the anniversary celebrations of the City of Belfast
School of Music.
His 100 recruits will perform in front of a 2,000-strong
audience at Belfast's Waterfront Hall this December,
joining forces with Sir James, his wife Lady Jeanne Galway
and the City of Belfast Youth Orchestra (CBYO).
With only weeks left to prepare, the concert looks set to
be a major diary date.
The December 14 event will also feature the premiere of a
new piece - Swings and Roundabouts - by local composer
Philip Hammond.
The event holds great personal significance for Sir James
as a founder member of the CBYO. The multitude of flutes
will be co-ordinated into a harmonious whole by the School
of Music and English-based Flutewise.
"We're very excited about the visit of the Galways,
especially for the 50th birthday of the Youth Orchestra,"
Joe McKee, head of the School of Music, said.
"Sir James is Northern Ireland's leading ambassador for the
arts and he's been a huge inspiration to generations of
local flautists.
"We're busy trying to recruit 100 flautists who'd like the
opportunity to play a number of Christmas pieces from
memory with Sir James in front of 2,000 people in the
Waterfront Hall."
The Galways hope their old friend Gloria Hunniford will
join them on stage to receive a cheque for the Caron
Keating Foundation, if she can take time out from Strictly
Come Dancing.
Other famous alumni include Katie Melua, Peter Corry, Nuala
McKeever, John Anderson and Kenneth Montgomery.
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News about Ireland & the Irish
NH 10/20/05 Catholics 'Aren't Safe In Own Homes'
IE 10/20/05 Adair Quizzed Over Assassination
BT 10/20/05 Stobie Ignored Police Warning On Life
UT 10/20/05 Loyalist McCreery Denies Catholic Murder Links
NL 10/20/05 Loyalist: We'll Bring Ulster To A Standstill
BT 10/20/05 Hain Urged To Meet UVF Victim's Family
UT 10/20/05 Gvnt Must Address Unionist Concerns- Robinson
UT 10/20/05 Unionist Need More Positive Leadership
BT 10/20/05 Explanation Over Lost Contracts Called For
DL 10/20/05 Morrison: There Is A Nazi Analogy To Be Made
DL 10/20/05 South Africa Hails Adams
BD 10/20/05 IRA Intends Keeping Peace Pact, Says Adams
UT 10/20/05 Dail Unites To Condemn Carroll Kidnap
UT 10/20/05 Loyalist Terror Suspect Detained In Liverpool
UT 10/20/05 Young Irish Are Biggest Binge Drinkers
BT 10/20/05 Sir James Galway And His Famous Flute
******************************************
http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2005/oct19_Catholics_not_safe.php
Catholics 'Aren't Safe In Own Homes'
(Marie Louise McCrory, Irish News)
A petrol-bomb attack on a house in Co Antrim was last night
described as "cowardly and disgraceful".
A 54-year-old woman was sitting in the living room of the
house at Cushendall Road in Ballymena when the device was
thrown through the window at around 1.20am yesterday
(Tuesday).
A police spokeswoman said the woman was uninjured but
shaken by the ordeal.
"The device was extinguished by the time police got there,"
she said.
Police said they were keeping an open mind as to the
motive. A number of items were taken away for forensic
examination.
However, Philip McGuigan, Sinn Féin assembly member for
North Antrim, described the attack as "nothing more than
anti-Catholic".
"Honestly, this has got to a stage where it is no longer
safe for a Catholic to live in their home, in their own
area in Ballymena," he said.
"I look forward to the day when I can engage with all
communities to work these kind of situations out."
SDLP Ballymena councillor Declan O'Loan also condemned the
attack.
"This is the latest in a series of incidents across the
Ballymena area that must be brought to an end. It can be
seen as nothing other than attempted murder," he said.
"As a community we must all make it clear in the strongest
possible terms that incidents like this are neither wanted
nor supported."
Police last night said a petrol-bomb attack also took place
early yesterday on a house in the Deramore area of
Ballymena.
A spokesman said it was reported shortly before 2am. There
were no injuries and minor damage was caused to the front
of the house.
October 20, 2005
******************************************
http://www.irishexaminer.com/pport/web/ireland/Full_Story/did-sgpUq3nGfwQ1Isg0aewFBADppk.asp
Adair Quizzed Over Assassination
By Alan Erwin
FORMER paramilitary boss Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair was heavily
investigated over the assassination of loyalist informer
William Stobie, detectives said yesterday.
Adair, the ex-Ulster Defence Association commander, who was
in jail when the organisation's one-time quartermaster was
gunned down outside his North Belfast home, refused to co-
operate with police, an inquest was told.
The inquest into Stobie's death also heard from a secret
witness who saw the suspected murder team patrol outside
their victim's home in a fake taxi for five days before he
was killed.
Stobie, 51, was ambushed on December 12, 2001, as he
prepared to drive his partner to work. The self-confessed
police special branch informer was shot four times in the
head and back weeks after being acquitted of plotting to
murder Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
Former UDA associates, using the Red Hand Defenders'
pseudonym, claimed they murdered him for so-called crimes
against the loyalist community because he had supported
demands for an inquiry into the 1989 Finucane killing,
which has been shrouded in allegations of major security
force collusion.
At his inquest John Leckey, the coroner for Greater
Belfast, read extracts from a biography of Adair, now
exiled in Lancashire after being ousted by the organisation
he once ruled.
Referring to a section that claimed the former terrorist
chief gave his personal blessing to Stobie's assassination,
Mr Leckey asked Detective Chief Inspector Robert Lee if
Adair was ever interviewed about the murder.
The officer said: "He wasn't questioned as a suspect. We
did try to speak to him in prison, but I could not get
sufficient intelligence to support the arrest of Johnny
Adair."
Agreeing with the coroner's assessment that the loyalist
refused to co-operate, the detective added: "We did commit
considerable resources and time into a line looking at
Johnny Adair. There was no intelligence to connect him to
the murder of William Stobie."
Although several suspects were questioned about the
killing, no one has been charged.
The inquest was also told the gun used, a .38 special
magnum revolver, had been used in other shootings and
killings attributed to the UDA, according to police.
Ten days before he died, Stobie was warned by officers he
should move from his home on the Forthriver Estate because
of threats from loyalists. But he refused to flee. Even
though his partner, Lorraine Graham, alleged police did not
do enough to protect him, an investigation by the Northern
Ireland Police ombudsman Nuala O'Loan exonerated the force
of any negligence.
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665907
Stobie Ignored Police Warning On Life
By Ben Lowry
20 October 2005
The murdered loyalist informer William Stobie ignored
police warnings about the threat to his life and told the
Belfast Telegraph that he was happy in north Belfast - days
before he was shot dead outside his flat.
Stobie, whose inquest yesterday heard that on December 2,
2001, police offered to help him move home, phoned the
paper on November 29. On December 12 he was killed.
Stobie, who had just been acquitted of murdering solicitor
Pat Finucane, wanted a copy of a Belfast Telegraph
photograph of him and his partner, Lorraine Graham, smiling
as they left court following the trial's collapse.
During the phone call, Stobie had talked about his isolated
life and said: "I collect Lorraine from work but it's not
often I'm out."
The inquest heard that Stobie was shot at 6am outside his
Forthriver Road flat as he prepared to drive Lorraine to
work.
But the call to the Telegraph, which was made three days
before the final police warning, showed that Stobie fatally
miscalculated the threat.
"I was warned by Special Branch in 2000 that I was in
danger," Stobie mentioned.
And Stobie recounted that three weeks earlier a senior
loyalist had seen him coming out of a video shop and said,
"Alright, Stobie?", before asking him about the case.
"I was terrified," laughed Stobie.
The inquest heard that Stobie believed he was safe from the
UDA, unaware that they had decided to kill him because he
had backed calls for an inquiry into the Finucane murder.
A detective told Belfast Coroner's Court that police wanted
to question loyalist Johnny Adair over the killing.
He was in jail in the 18 months before Stobie was shot, but
the police had insufficient intelligence to arrest him.
Asked during the phone call he would feel more secure
living somewhere quieter, such as Bangor, Stobie replied:
"Aye, a wee cul de sac where everyone lives together?"
But Stobie implied that moving would be complicated. "We've
got the flat done up really nice," he said.
"It's picking the place and getting out."
This inertia would cost him his life.
******************************************
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66225&pt=n
Loyalist McCreery Denies Catholic Murder Links
A former loyalist, now living in Spain, today denied that
he he had anything to do with the sectarian murder of a
Catholic accountant in north Belfast almost 30 years ago.
Thomas McCreery said he had no "act or part" in the murder
of Peter Johnston, who was shot in his bedroom in the
Cavehill area in 1976.
Mr McCreery was responding to claims in a BBC Splotlight
programme on Tuesday alleging that that he was involved in
Mr Johnston`s murder.
In a statement issued through Barra McGrory, his solicitor
in Belfast, Mr McCreery said: "I wish it to be known that I
had no act or part in the murder of Peter Johnston as
alleged by the BBC in their Spotlight programme on October
18.
"Furthermore, the allegation that I was involved with a
murder squad known as the `Window Cleaners` is based on
nothing more than a patchwork of lies, speculation, rumour
and innuendo and I absolutely refute that.
"It is a shame that the BBC has allowed a programme which
was supposed to be about a genuine miscarriage of justice
to lose its credibility by engaging in cheap, tabloid-style
journalism for the sake of publicity."
In the programme, Mr McCleery was secretly filmed carrying
out building works to his Spanish villa after rejecting
overtures by the "Spotlight" team to be interviewed for
their programme.
The murder of Peter Johnston was attributed at the time to
the "Window Clearners" - a loyalist gang which used ladders
to get up to the bedrooms of innocent Catholics in north
Belfast and kill them as they slept.
Schoolboys Richard Hanna, 16 and Robert Hindes, 14, were
pulled in for questioning about the murder.
Without the legal safeguards now in place to protect
juveniles, they made statements admitting they were the
killers and were given life sentences.
They each spent nine years in a detention centre before
their release in 1985.
But it was another 12 years before their claims of
innocence were taken up by the Criminal Cases Review
Commission - the official body set up to probe cases of
wrongful conviction.
The Commission`s investigators unearthed a litany of
inconsistencies which demolished the case presented by the
prosecution at the boys` trial.
When their appeals were eventually came before the Court of
Appeal earlier this year the Crown threw in the towel.
The result was that three appeal judges unanimously quashed
the convictions and declared the pair were victims of a
cruel miscarriage of justice.
But it was too late for Mr Hanna, who died hours before his
appeal process had begun a year earlier. He was then 44.
His partner Carolyn Beck instructed his solicitors to go
ahead with his appeal.
After he was granted a posthusmous pardon she said she had
derived some consolation even though he was not alive to
see and hear his name being cleared.
"It is sad to see that Richard did not live to see the day
when his reputation is restored," she said.
"It is just such a waste, his life was completely ruined by
this wrongful conviction."
******************************************
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/story/23385
'We'll Bring Ulster To A Total Standstill'
Exclusive By Gemma Murray Security Correspondent
Thursday 20th October 2005
Loyalist women have threatened to bring Northern Ireland to
a standstill on November 4 if they do not get the face-to-
face meetings they are demanding with the Secretary of
State.
Women Raising Unionist Concerns (WRUC), who formed last
month in the aftermath of the Whiterock parade and
subsequent rioting, said they are not going away and
claimed it is time for Prime Minister Tony Blair to "wake
up and smell the coffee".
Chairwoman of the group Jean Barnes, from east Belfast,
said their movement had "nothing to do with paramilitaries
and everything to do with saving our culture, schools,
traditions and Ulster".
She said Ulster's men had their chance, and now it is time
for them to "get out of the way". "It is our turn to sort
the problems out a different way - through peaceful protest
and dialogue," she said.
Earlier this week, the WRUC delivered a letter outlining
their concerns to representatives at Stormont.
They gave the letter to UUP, PUP and SDLP politicians.
"We then hand-delivered the letter to the offices of Sinn
Fein, the DUP and Alliance," said Jean.
"The Secretary of State, Peter Hain, told us his door would
always be open to hear our concerns but that has not been
the case.
"We want the Government to know that we are aware of what
they are doing - how they are trying to erode the unionist
people by conquering and dividing them and then driving
them into the ground.
"The Government are always one step ahead - but we want
everyone to know what they are trying to do."
Last month, loyalist women blocked main roads throughout
Belfast for more than six consecutive days in protest at
police brutality towards Protestants.
"The strength of emotion coming from women in Protestant
areas really hit home last month after Whiterock," said Ms
Barnes. "We got together for a couple of meetings in the
Spectrum Centre in the Shankill and WRUC got off the
ground.
"Peter Hain and Tony Blair had better sit up and take
notice because we proved a couple of weeks ago that we
could bring Ulster to a standstill through road protests.
"And if we have not heard back from the politicians by
November 4 we will take to the streets again.
"We will bring Ulster to a standstill. We will go where we
have to go and do what we have to do.
"On November 4, if we have nothing, every road in Belfast
will be closed at 3pm. "We do not just want a letter back
from the parties, we want face-to-face meetings and
accountability."
g.murray@newsletter.co.uk
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665906
Hain Urged To Meet UVF Victim's Family
By Jonathan McCambridge
20 October 2005
Secretary of State Peter Hain has been asked to urgently
meet with the family of UVF murder victim Craig McCausland.
Alliance leader David Ford led a delegation to meet the
McCausland family, who are striving to bring Craig's
killers to justice.
Craig (20) was gunned down in July at the height of the
UVF/LVF feud. But police have stated that he had no
connection with any paramilitary group.
Craig's mother Lorraine McCausland was also beaten to death
by a UDA gang 18 years ago.
Mr Ford pointed out: "It is truly perverse that a law-
abiding family is having such difficulties getting justice
for Craig McCausland, an innocent murder victim.
"A generation on from the callous murder of his mother,
have we learned nothing?"
The Alliance leader added: "I have written to the Secretary
of State demanding that he meet the family immediately."
******************************************
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66239&pt=n
Government Must Address Unionist Concerns, Says Robinson
Efforts to revive power-sharing in Northern Ireland will go
nowhere if the British government fails to address unionist
concerns, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned
today.
By:Press Association
In a hard hitting statement attacking the decision by
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain to reinstate to Sinn
Fein Stormont allowances worth £120,000, Democratic
Unionist deputy leader Peter Robinson claimed the
Government was undermining efforts to rebuild unionist
confidence.
The East Belfast MP stated: "It is time the fixation about
appeasing republicans in order to encourage them to stop
their terror campaign came to an end.
"It is now time steps were taken to build confidence in the
unionist community.
"The Secretary of State and the Prime Minister should be
under no doubt - this is a fundamental pre-requisite before
there can be any consideration given to making progress on
the many outstanding political issues."
Mr Blair, Mr Hain and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern welcomed
the latest report released yesterday by the four member
ceasefire watchdog, the Independent Monitoring Commission,
which said the IRA appeared to be honouring its pledge in
July to end its armed campaign.
London and Dublin have also been encouraged by the
completion three weeks ago of the IRA`s disarmament
programme in the presence of decommissioning body chiefs
and two independent witnesses, Catholic priest Fr Alec Reid
and Methodist minister, the Rev Harold Good.
However unionists have been far more sceptical and have
been angered by a series of what they claim are concessions
to republicans.
These include the tearing down of Army watchtowers in south
Armagh, Londonderry and west Belfast and plans to axe three
Northern Ireland-based battalions of the Royal Irish
Regiment in August 2007 as well as reduce the number of
soldiers in the province to a peacetime garrison.
DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley and Conservative Northern
Ireland spokesman David Lidington were also furious at
moves in the House of Commons to reinstate £400,000 in
Westminster allowances to Sinn Fein on the back of
yesterday`s IMC report which also said it was still too
early to make a definitive judgment on the Provisionals.
Mr Robinson said today: "The IRA has proved in the past
that it can turn on and off its paramilitary activity to
suit its own purposes. Only time can establish if things
are different this time around.
"On this issue the Government`s approach has further
diminished confidence in the unionist community.
"Despite accepting back in July that the IRA would have to
be judged over a period of time it has proceeded to act on
the basis of the word of the IRA.
"If the IMC is in no position to make a definitive judgment
on the IRA position how can the Secretary of State
reinstate payments to Sinn Fein on the same basis?
"The Secretary of State, in typical New Labour fashion, has
adopted an a la carte approach to this latest IMC report.
This is yet another example of the Government`s eagerness
to act before the evidence justifies it.
"It merely undermines confidence in the Government`s
handling of the process and makes the task of building
confidence in the unionist community all the more
difficult.
"How hypocritical it would be for the Government to say to
unionists in January that they should listen to the IMC and
accept the IRA`s bona fides when in October the Government
has ignored the IMC and acted pre-emptively on funding Sinn
Fein."
The DUP has already submitted a 64-page dossier to Downing
Street outlining areas where confidence building measures
for unionists are needed.
The former Stormont Regional Development Minister said they
were preparing a second document and made no apologies for
making unionist demands in much the same as Sinn Fein had
set the talks agenda.
"We have made it clear that issues such as a satisfactory
outcome in our discussions about the home battalions of the
Royal Irish Regiment will be key in forming our judgment on
moving forward," the DUP deputy leader said.
"Those who have risked their lives to protect the community
must be treated with the respect they deserve.
"The Government`s reaction to our proposals for dealing
with parades will be another priority for the party in its
considerations. If the Government want to see political
progress they know what they have to do on these and the
other issues we have raised.
"The date for any return to devolution is not only a matter
of being satisfied that the IRA terror machine is gone once
and for all, but of ensuring the Government has provided
fairness and equality for unionists.
"Having witnessed a decade of concessions to the IRA it is
not unreasonable that unionists should want to see the
scales balanced."
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http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66219&pt=n
Unionist Communities Need More Positive Leadership
Unionist leaders need to give more positive leadership to
their community amid changes brought about by the Good
Friday Agreement, a debate on the Northern Ireland peace
process was told last night.
By:Press Association
Nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan and Sinn Fein MP Conor
Murphy both criticised unionist leaders over the
stewardship of their community during the peace process
during a debate in Trinity College, Dublin, featuring
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and Democratic
Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson.
Mr Durkan said recent disturbances in working class
loyalist communities in Belfast and other parts of Northern
Ireland were not so much about concessions to republicans.
"Firstly, if it was a cry for anything, it was a cry for
leadership," the Foyle MP said.
"Secondly, it will be the shared programmes of our own
regional administration that will have to truly deliver for
all communities who feel left behind but not contrived
packages from Direct Rule.
"Thirdly, the perceived `serial concession to republicans`
have not come of the Agreement`s institutions working, but
from an ulterior process which has only undermined at
frustrating the proper working of those institutions.
"Fourthly, the Ulster Unionist Party and now the Democratic
Unionist Party - for their own power pastures - have been
complicit in the very flawed process which generates the
very disillusionment they are now complaining about.
"What grievances people and parties may have and however
legitimate those may be, no unionist or nationalist can say
they have been failed by the Good Friday Agreement itself."
Mr Murphy also told the debate, which featured former Irish
prime minister Albert Reynolds, that while there was
undoubtedly poverty and depravation in working class
unionist neighbourhoods which needed to be tackled, it had
to be faced up to on the basis of need and not perception.
The Newry and Armagh MP said: "150,000 children in the
north (of Ireland) live in poverty and half a million
people live in poor households.
"However all of the poverty indicators prove that the
reality remains that the majority of wards in which people
continue to live below the poverty line are in nationalist
areas.
"Almost twice as many Catholics as Protestants remain
unemployed.
"More Catholic young people leave school without formal
qualifications than their Protestant counterparts.
"These statistics sadly are fact and undermine much of the
nonsense being offered by unionist politicians in recent
weeks to excuse the violence witnessed on the streets of
Belfast."
Mr Murphy said those disturbances had nothing to do with
depravation but were instead the result of a demand for the
Protestant Orange Order to be allowed to march from a gate
in the city`s peace line which remained closed 365 days of
the year because they wanted to coat tail through a
nationalist area.
He continued: "Unionist political leaders must bear the
responsibility for the position within which unionism finds
itself.
"If unionist political leaders continued to hark after an
era which has long since halved then political unionism
will remain in a cul-de-sac.
"Their response to the recent historical initiatives by the
IRA is evidence of that.
"The IRA initiatives do not in themselves solve the crisis
in the peace process.
"It can only be solved through dialogue and meaningful
engagement."
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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665902
Businessman Calls On Police For Explanation Over Lost
Contracts
By David Gordon
20 October 2005
The PSNI was today facing fresh questions over contracts,
as a businessman queried the decisions that forced the
closure of his firm.
David Donnelly said his Belfast engineering company lost
vital work to an English operation after brav- ing terror
threats to carry out work for the police for many years.
His demand for an explanation was made as the PSNI faced a
Fraud Squad probe over a separate contract controversy
involving another firm.
Mr Donnelly was honoured by the Queen in the 1990s,
receiving an MBE for his work. His east Belfast firm,
Armwell Engineering, which built and refitted Land Rovers
for police, had to shut its doors last year after PSNI work
dried up.
Mr Donnelly told the Belfast Telegraph he was not making
any allegations of wrongdoing but wanted a "full
explanation".
"They wouldn't disclose any details of the other firm's
tender. They wouldn't even say if its prices were higher or
lower than mine," he said.
"I did work for the police for 30 years - when people were
being murdered for working for the security forces.
"I think I am at least entitled to an explanation, not just
on why I lost the work but, more importantly, on why it did
not go to any firm in Northern Ireland."
The Fraud Squad probe announced this week relates to the
withdrawal of a 2001 contract for armour plating for police
vehicles.
The Belfast firm stripped of this contract, NI Sheet Metal
Works, was last week awarded £400,000 damages.
Commenting on the case, a High Court judge expressed
suspicions that "person or persons" within the PSNI may
have deliberately undermined the firm through "flimsy"
criticism of its delivery of the contract.
Alongside the criminal investigation, the PSNI is also
initiating an independent review of "processes" involved in
the affair.
DUP Policing Board member Sammy Wilson today said a review
should also be carried out on other contract issues,
including the matters raised by Mr Donnelly.
"A proper explanation is still required in this case," the
MP said.
"I have raised questions but the PSNI would not confirm or
deny that Mr Donnelly's prices were lower than those of the
firm which won the work.
"They should not be hiding behind commercial
confidentiality when public money is involved."
Mr Donnelly's company and NI Sheet Metal Works lost out on
contracts to unconnected English companies.
A PSNI spokeswoman today stressed that "all lines of
enquiries" will be pursued in the investigation of the NI
Sheet Metal Works case.
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Danny Morrison: There Is A Nazi Analogy To Be Made
Danny Morrison
Fr Alec Reid, a quiet, self-deprecating and normally
circumspect man, was thrust into public life recently when
it was announced that he and the Methodist Minister, the
Reverend Harold Good, were the two independent witnesses to
the IRA putting all of its weapons beyond use. Both clerics
appeared at the same press conference as General John de
Chastelain and his two commissioners on September 26, when
the announcement was made.
Fr Reid, of course, is also the Redemptorist priest from
Clonard Monastery who acted as a mediator in various
republican feuds (and helped end those between the IRA and
the Workers Party in 1975 and 1977). He also brought Sinn
Féin and the SDLP together for talks in 1988, and acted as
a conduit between Charles Haughey, when he was Taoiseach,
and the republican leadership. He was famously photographed
giving the kiss of life to the two plain-clothes British
Army corporals who were killed after they inexplicably
drove into the funeral of IRA Volunteer Kevin Brady in
1988.
He is not a supporter of armed struggle. In fact, he never
gave up trying to persuade the IRA to abandon its campaign,
but he is an Irishman who believes in Irish independence
and would like to see his country reunited, as is his
entitlement, but with the consent of the unionist
community.
He and the Reverend Harold Good set out to persuade the
sceptics about the historical importance and decisiveness
of IRA decommissioning and came to address a public meeting
of about 200 people at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in
Belfast last Wednesday night.
There were heated exchanges and some unionists, according
to Fr Reid, slighted and insulted his faith and the
Catholic Church. He was interrupted and he lost his temper.
He said that there would have been no IRA but for the way
unionists treated nationalists.
"They were treated almost like animals by the unionist
community. They were not treated as human beings… they were
treated like the Nazis treated the Jews."
There was shock in the audience and it triggered a shouting
match and a bit of a walkout. Fr Reid apologised almost
immediately, an apology that was accepted - albeit his
remarks were regretted - by many of his friends in other
denominations, including the Reverend Ken Newell whose
church had hosted the meeting.
There was also an immediate outcry at his remarks from
unionist leaders, including the leading party in unionism,
the anti-Agreement DUP, which rubbished the affidavits of
Reid and Good in regard to decommissioning and still seeks
pretexts to avoid sharing power with Sinn Féin.
Father Reid's remarks certainly smarted many unionists. He
should not have demonised an entire community. You cannot
compare the suffering of the Jews under the Nazis, and
their genocide, to the nationalist experience in the North,
however unpleasant that was.
Nevertheless, Fr Reid, a moderate, must have said what he
said out of frustration and desperation – a natural human
reaction. Prior to those remarks, the last person not of
the republican physical-force tradition to have said
something similar was President Mary McAleese earlier this
year. During ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary of the
liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp she suggested
that Catholics in the North suffered like Jews during
Hitler's war on Europe. Of the Nazis she said: "They gave
to their children an irrational hatred of Jews in the same
way that people in Northern Ireland transmitted to their
children an irrational hatred of Catholics – in the same
way that people give their children an outrageous and
irrational hatred of those who are of different colour."
Within 24 hours she too apologised and said she was "deeply
sorry". McAleese's and Reid's comments represent something
visceral which even most nationalists believe but only
express in unguarded moments for fear of being regarded as
sectarian, but the analogy with fascism is in fact
legitimate and rooted in certain fact.
The evidence is that the traditional unionist establishment
has strong anti-democratic and fascist tendencies.
Firstly, unionists, who had no problem with a united
Ireland when they were in political ascendancy, opposed the
extension of the franchise to the Irish working class and
opposed a measure of devolution, Home Rule, because they
would lose their sectarian supremacy. They opposed 'lawful'
authority, organised the first right-wing paramilitary army
of the 20th century, the UVF, threatened civil war, got
their way and set up what was basically a state of one-
party government.
To ensure they maintained control they used terror. They
gerrymandered constituencies. They discriminated in
employment and investment and reinforced the traditional
ghettoes in which Catholics had gathered for safety. They
used the Orange Order to keep nationalists in fear. At the
foundation of the state they drove the few Catholics that
had work in Protestant industries out of their workplace.
In 1921 alone 9000 Catholics were driven from work, 30,000
were rendered destitute and thousands were rendered
homeless. Catholics were in a minority but made up the
majority of those who emigrated. Unionist newspapers
regularly carried job advertisements with the unashamed
pronouncement that 'No Catholics Need Apply'.
Loyalist paramilitaries boast of their connection with neo-
Nazi groups, including Combat 18. The '18' in their name is
derived from the initials of Adolf Hitler, A and H are the
first and eighth letters of the Latin alphabet.
To this day Ian Paisley uses insulting and derogatory
language when he refers to 'Papishers' and 'Romanists'. His
party displayed fascist tendencies in its Ulster Resistance
mode, Third Force rallies and when it united with loyalist
paramilitaries in the UWC strike. One of Paisley's
councillors, George Seawright, said of Catholics in 1984:
"Taxpayers' money would be better spent on an incinerator
and burning the whole lot of them. The priests should be
thrown in and burned as well."
Former Home Affairs Minister, William Craig, set up the
Vanguard Movement as a pressure group within the Unionist
Party. At Vanguard rallies unionist leaders arrived flanked
by motorcycle outriders. At one rally in Ormeau Park, Craig
addressed 100,000 people, which included serried ranks of
masked men carrying cudgels. He said: "We must build up a
dossier of the men and the women who are a menace to this
country… it may be our job to liquidate them."
Commenting on these rallies, the veteran British journalist
Peter Taylor wrote many years ago: "To nationalists they
represented a menacing display reminiscent of Hitler's
Nuremburg rallies."
So, yes, there is an analogy to be made, though not on the
same scale as the Nazis. Unionists are genuinely appalled
that nationalists should think this way of them and they
reject such a view. They do so because they themselves are
in denial about their part in the origins of the conflict.
Certainly, the IRA's campaign devastated them, led to a
litany of loss, pain and bereavement, and a sense of great
victimhood, but that sense of victimhood is also
conveniently used to mask some of the real truths about
their own ethos and their attitude to Catholics.
For them it's more comforting to view the IRA as completely
ruthless as to examine the darkness at the heart of
unionist supremacist values.
Unwittingly, Fr Alec Reid's outburst has done just that.
Danny Morrison's play, 'The Wrong Man', is on at the Tivoli
Theatre, Francis Street, Dublin, for another three weeks.
Bookings: Tivoli [01] 4544472; Central Ticket Bureau – [01]
8721122 or email – admin@centralticketbureau.com
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South Africa Hails Adams
"I think that we should be guided by Mr Adams and the
people of Northern Ireland about what is it that they would
like South Africa to support in the process," Foreign
Minister Dlamini-Zuma
Jarlath Kearney in Johannesburg
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams will make a formal address
to the South African parliament in Cape Town tomorrow.
Confirmation that parliament has been formally convened to
receive Mr Adams came on the first day of the west Belfast
MP's official visit to South Africa.
Mr Adams is visiting South Africa at the invitation of
foreign minster Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. The Sinn Féin
leader was received by minister of intelligence Ronnie
Kasrils and police commander Robert McBride at Johannesburg
International Airport.
He was then placed under the formal state protection of a
VIP close-protection unit. This afternoon, Mr Adams will
hold a personal meeting with President Thabo Mbeki, before
making a keynote address at the South African Institute of
International Affairs. Yesterday morning, Mr Adams laid a
wreath to those who have died in the cause of freedom at
one of South Africa's most revered national monuments, the
Freedom Park.
The Irish ambassador Gerry Corr hosted a lunch and
reception for the Sinn Féin president.
Following this reception, Mr Adams held top-level
discussion with members of the African National Congress
executive committee at the organisation's Luthuli House
headquarters.
A meeting with foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma took
place yesterday evening.
This was followed by a state dinner attended by leading
members of South Africa's government.
Mr Adams said yesterday: "Without doubt, Sinn Féin has
taken lessons from South Africa in terms of how the peace
process was built.
"Nelson Mandela played a leadership role. President Mbeki
has continued that role. The African National Congress
leadership provided us with assistance and help from their
own experience."
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http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/national.aspx?ID=BD4A104186
IRA Intends Keeping Peace Pact, Says Adams
PRETORIA — The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was determined
to stick to its peace pledge, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams
said after a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki yesterday.
Adams's comments came as a newly published Independent
Monitoring Commission report credited the IRA with halting
a range of activities in keeping with its July 28 peace
declaration.
The Sinn Fein leader said he had not seen the report, but
"when the IRA made that hugely difficult and brave decision
(to declare peace) they meant it".
Mbeki told Adams, the leader of the IRA-linked party, that
Northern Ireland should learn from SA's example.
Mbeki said white South Africans had feared losing
privileges after the end of apartheid in 1994.
"But now … they are all saying what we feared we were going
to lose we didn't. We are happier, freer … we have become
richer."
Adams, who has met community and business leaders since
arriving on Tuesday, said people in Ireland wanted what
South Africans now have: freedom, a rights-based society
and people living together in peace.
Adams said former president Nelson Mandela and Mbeki had
both contributed to the peace process. He was also grateful
for the involvement of African National Congress
heavyweight Cyril Ramaphosa, who sat on the decommissioning
body, as well as Roelf Meyer of the former National Party.
Sapa-AP-AFP, Jonathan Katzenellenbogen
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Dail Unites To Condemn Carroll Kidnap
The Irish parliament was today united in condemning the
Baghdad kidnap of Dublin journalist Rory Carroll and
appealing for his safe release.
By:Press Association
The Guardian correspondent was abducted in the Iraqi
capital yesterday while reporting on the trial of former
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
The Irish government was today exhausting political and
diplomatic channels to determine the whereabouts of the 33-
year-old and secure his release.
Irish Finance Minister Brian Cowen today condemned the
kidnap in the Dail and expressed solidarity with Carroll`s
family.
Deputising for Irish premier Bertie Ahern, Mr Cowen said:
"I call on anybody who has any influence in that area to
assist. We are trying to do all we can through our
contacts."
Opposition leader Enda Kenny commended the swift action of
the Irish government at political and diplomatic level to
secure the early release of Carroll.
He said Carroll`s father, Joe, a retired journalist, was a
respected political correspondent in the Dail for many
years and several TDs knew him well.
"This is a matter of grave concern to us," he explained.
Mr Kenny said Opposition parties would assist in any way
they could to help the government on the issue.
"I`m sure the House will agree with the expression of
abhorrence by the Irish people at the kidnap," he added.
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte, Trevor Sargent of the
Greens and Sinn Fein`s Dail leader Caoimhghin O Caolain
also expressed solidarity with the Carroll family.
Earlier, the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) said it would
be contacting anti-occupation groups in Baghdad to try to
secure Carroll`s freedom.
IAWM chairman Richard Boyd Barrett said: "Rory Carroll is
entirely innocent of any crime against the Iraqi people.
"We condemn this kidnapping and call on his captors to
release him immediately.
"No cause will be served by keeping him in captivity or
harming him in any way.
"If the kidnappers are part of the resistance to the US
occupation, they should have no grievance against Rory
Carroll.
"As a journalist, he has attempted to provide balanced
coverage of the Iraqi conflict and in many of the stories
he has written has exposed the bloody reality of the war
and occupation launched by George Bush and Tony Blair," he
said.
He blamed the US and British Governments for launching the
war in Iraq, which led to the situation which Mr Carroll
found himself, and said it was by no means certain the
foreign correspondent had been kidnapped by insurgents.
"We are making immediate moves to contact anti-occupation
groups with whom we have some communication to see if they
can help secure Rory`s release," he said.
Mr Boyd Barrett said Mr Carroll`s kidnapping had brought
the tragedy of the Iraq war to Ireland and called on the
Irish Government to end its support of the US military in
Shannon.
"If our government wishes to have any credibility in trying
to secure the release of Rory Carroll, they should signal
their clear opposition to the occupation of Iraq and their
intention to stop the use of Irish airports by the US
military," he said.
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http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66228&pt=n
Loyalist Terror Suspect Detained In Liverpool
An Ulster terror suspect has been arrested in Liverpool,
police said today.
The 43-year-old man was held by anti-terror police at 8am
and was taken to a police station in Manchester. He was
being held under the Terrorism Act.
The arrest is in connection with the activities of loyalist
paramilitary groups linked to Northern Ireland, a police
spokesman said.
The man was taken into custody by Greater Manchester
Police`s Anti-Terrorist Unit with the help of Merseyside
Police.
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http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66232&pt=n
Young Irish Are Biggest Binge Drinkers
Irish young people are the biggest binge drinkers in
Europe.
Figures just released show that young men in this country
now drink twice as much as the wine-loving French.
The research, by the Institute of Alcohol Studies in
Britain, shows that one third of all fifteen and 16-year-
olds binge drink at least three times a month.
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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665867
Sir James Galway And His Famous Flute
By Linda McKee
20 October 2005
Sir James Galway is searching for 100 flautists to help
mark the anniversary celebrations of the City of Belfast
School of Music.
His 100 recruits will perform in front of a 2,000-strong
audience at Belfast's Waterfront Hall this December,
joining forces with Sir James, his wife Lady Jeanne Galway
and the City of Belfast Youth Orchestra (CBYO).
With only weeks left to prepare, the concert looks set to
be a major diary date.
The December 14 event will also feature the premiere of a
new piece - Swings and Roundabouts - by local composer
Philip Hammond.
The event holds great personal significance for Sir James
as a founder member of the CBYO. The multitude of flutes
will be co-ordinated into a harmonious whole by the School
of Music and English-based Flutewise.
"We're very excited about the visit of the Galways,
especially for the 50th birthday of the Youth Orchestra,"
Joe McKee, head of the School of Music, said.
"Sir James is Northern Ireland's leading ambassador for the
arts and he's been a huge inspiration to generations of
local flautists.
"We're busy trying to recruit 100 flautists who'd like the
opportunity to play a number of Christmas pieces from
memory with Sir James in front of 2,000 people in the
Waterfront Hall."
The Galways hope their old friend Gloria Hunniford will
join them on stage to receive a cheque for the Caron
Keating Foundation, if she can take time out from Strictly
Come Dancing.
Other famous alumni include Katie Melua, Peter Corry, Nuala
McKeever, John Anderson and Kenneth Montgomery.
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