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 01, 2005

Focus Switches To Loyalist Arms


To Index of Monthly Archives
To October 2005 Index
To receive this news via email, click HERE.
No Message is necessary.
----

News about Ireland and the Irish

ST 10/02/05 Focus Switches To Loyalist Arms
GU 10/02/05 Vast Extent Of IRA Arsenal Revealed
SF 10/01/05 Adams-Get Political Institutions Back & Running
UN 10/01/05 Ahern's Fears Over Frank Connolly Links
SB 10/02/05 DUP Found Wanting In Leadership Stakes
SB 10/02/05 SF In Coalition A Live Issue
SB 10/02/05 FF Dismisses SF Coalition Due To Econ Policy
SB 10/02/05 No Shame For FF In Wanting A United Ireland
BT 10/01/05 This Life: The Question Of Trust
UN 10/01/05 SF In Coalition A Live Issue
ST 10/02/05 Focus: 'The IRA Is Gone'
ST 10/02/05 Comment: Disarmed And Dangerous
IS 10/01/05 Condi Speaks About Hamas (& Sinn Fein)
ST 10/02/05 Shell Hints At Moving Pipeline To End Dispute
ST 10/02/05 Flatley Steps Out Of Line On History

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

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-1807315,00.html

Focus Switches To Loyalist Arms

GENERAL John de Chastelain will return to Northern Ireland
at the end of this month to open negotiations with loyalist
paramilitaries about decommissioning their weapons, writes
Liam Clarke.

The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Red Hand Commandos
(RHC), two sister organisations that share weapons but have
separate command structures, and the Loyalist Volunteer
Force (LVF), which has already decommissioned some weapons,
are expected to respond positively.

The UVF/RHC and the LVF are emerging from a bloody feud in
which the UVF murdered four people. Both organisations have
an interest in taking part in decommissioning: if the
government recognises their ceasefires, they will benefit
from a planned amnesty for members who are on the run.

In 2001, the UVF's representative with the Independent
International Committee on Decommissioning, Billy
Hutchinson, a politician and former prisoner, agreed a
method of decommissioning weapons. However, he added that
his organisation would not consider disarming until the IRA
had declared the war over. That precondition was met by a
statement by the provisional leadership on July 28 that the
IRA had "ordered an end to the armed campaign".

Since then there have been meetings between members of the
PUP, the political wing of the UVF/RHC, and Sinn Fein to
gauge republican intentions.

The UUP and DUP will encourage loyalists to follow the
IRA's lead. If they do, General de Chastelain will publish
an inventory of all weapons put beyond use, both loyalist
and republican.

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

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/northernirelandassembly/story/0,9061,1583117,00.html

Vast Extent Of IRA Arsenal Revealed

Members given immunity deals to transport arms for
destruction

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday October 2, 2005
The Observer

Members of the IRA had to be issued with dozens of
immunity-from-arrest certificates in order to transport
tonnes of weapons being decommissioned last month.

The scale of the disarmament was so immense that the six
certificates issued to the IRA had to be photocopied dozens
of times to facilitate its "volunteers" taking guns,
ammunition and explosives from arms hides to a central
location in Northern Ireland.

Republican sources told The Observer that the Irish and
British governments, General John de Chastelain's
decommissioning body and the security forces agreed to the
immunity scheme. The sources also said the IRA was
particularly concerned to get back guns used to murder and
maim during the Troubles because they still had forensic
traces on them.

"The leadership demanded everything from its units," they
said. "No one was allowed to keep even a single bullet or
gun as a souvenir of the armed struggle. Quartermasters
long since retired from the IRA were asked to locate arms
dumps from as far back as the 1970s.

"The gear [weapons] was taken to three rural locations in
the north for collection and the whole thing was overseen
by a republican veteran from east Tyrone. No one should
underestimate what happened, it was huge."

So far there has been little or no resistance within the
republican movement to last month's unprecedented move to
put arms beyond use. Even areas historically at the sharp
end of loyalist attacks, such as Ardoyne in North Belfast,
handed over large caches of weapons. However, some IRA guns
will be retained for self-defence and the "policing"cof
nationalist communities.

In Belfast for instance, the city's three IRA battalions
centralised almost all of their weapons before they were
taken across the border. The Provos 3rd Battalion - which
covers Ardoyne, the Short Strand, Markets, New Lodge and
Lower Ormeau - used a house in the Markets area as the
central collection point for the vast bulk of its arms.

The final act of decommissioning took place in front of de
Chastelain and his team as well as two churchmen at a
single location in the Irish Republic. The Protestant
churchman who witnessed the decommissioning said he had
"never felt as right about anything as I felt about this".

Former Methodist President the Rev Harold Good said he was
"overwhelmed" by the positive response of many unionists
including Orangemen to last Monday's announcement. He added
that neither he nor his Catholic counterpart, Fr Alec Reid.
had been used by the IRA in the decommissioning process.

"I don't believe I have been naive, but we have to be
prepared to be fools for the greater good," he added.

Sinn Fein is hoping for major concessions on justice and
policing as part of a package aimed at restoring
devolution. One key aim of the Provisionals is that the
criminal records of IRA members should be wiped clean and
that both ex-IRA and younger republicans can eventually
join the police.

However, dissident republicans in south Armagh warned that
anyone who joined the force would be seen as "just another
member of the British occupation forces. Such a profession
has always been seen as dishonourable and will remain so."

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

http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/11343

Adams - Priority is to get the political institutions back up and running

Published: 1 October, 2005

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP speaking following a
meeting of the party's Ard Chomhairle in Dublin this
morning announced that a Sinn Féin delegation will meet
with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Downing Street
next Thursday. Mr. Adams said that the priority in the
time ahead must be to get the political institutions back
up and running.

Mr. Adams said:

This morning the Ard Chomhairle discussed what needs to
happen in the aftermath of the IRA's decision to complete
the process of putting their arms beyond use.

The DUP need space to consider all that has happened but we
need to move forward. There is a heavy responsibility on
the Irish and British governments to ensure that there is
momentum. And the overarching priority at this time must
be to get the political institutions back up and running.

Next week I will be travelling to Brussels to meet with
members of the European Parliament and EU officials and
next Thursday a Sinn Féin delegation will meet with Tony
Blair in Downing Street."ENDS

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

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1480484&issue_id=13085

Ahern's Fears Over Frank Connolly Links

Liam Collins,
Jim Cusack
Exclusive

THE Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has raised his concerns about
the executive director of the Centre for Public Inquiry
with its billionaire backer, Chuck Feeney, the Sunday
Independent can reveal.

The Centre's executive director, Frank Connolly, is a
brother of the Colombia Three fugitive, Niall Connolly,
Sinn Fein's former representative in Cuba.

Frank Connolly has also been questioned by gardai on the
basis that he, too, had travelled on a false passport to
Colombia in 2000.

Now senior Government sources have confirmed that Mr Ahern
raised his concerns with Mr Feeney when the two men met at
Government Buildings in August.

The Centre for Public Inquiry claims to "independently
promote the highest standards of integrity, ethics and
accountability across Irish public and business life" and
to investigate and "publicise breaches of those standards
where they arise".

However, its critics are deeply suspicious of Frank
Connolly and are wary of his links to Sinn Fein.

Mr Connolly, when a journalist, wrote a damning article
which claimed that the Taoiseach had taken a large cash
bribe from a property developer. It transpired that the
article was entirely fictional and was based upon the
fantasies of Mr Connolly's close source, a Walter Mitty-
type character called Denis 'Starry' O'Brien. Mr Ahern
successfully sued Denis 'Starry' O'Brien for libel and
proved the falsity of the article in open court.

In June this year, under privilege in the House of Lords,
Unionist peer Lord Laird branded Mr Connolly's Centre "Sinn
Fein's intelligence-gathering operation" in the Irish
Republic.

In the past, Mr Connolly has dismissed Lord Laird's claims,
which Sinn Fein has also described as "scurrilous and
unfounded".

The Centre is funded by US-based Atlantic Philanthropies,
which has provided funding of €4m over five years. Atlantic
Philanthropies is a charity funded by Irish-American
billionaire, Chuck Feeney. Among its eminent directors is
Thomas Mitchell, the distinguished former Provost of
Trinity College Dublin.

The charity gave Frank Connolly €4m to set up his Centre
for Public Inquiry.

But the Sunday Independent can also reveal that the
charitable foundation has initiated inquiries with Irish
and Colombian authorities into Frank Connolly's visit to
Colombia on a false passport in 2000.

Atlantic Philanthropies is understood to be now even more
alarmed because of the Taoiseach's recently expressed
concerns.

A senior Government source confirmed to the Sunday
Independent last week that Mr Ahern had met with Mr Feeney,
at Mr Feeney's request, in Government Buildings at the end
of August to discuss a number of unrelated issues.

Mr Ahern pointed out to him that the Government had set up
several tribunals of inquiry which were doing the work the
Centre also claimed to be concentrating on.

The Centre has acquired an enhanced public profile because
its chairman is Mr Justice Feargus Flood, the highly
respected former chairman of the Flood tribunal.

Asked yesterday about the allegation in the House of Lords
that the Centre for Public Inquiry was a front for Sinn
Fein-IRA intelligence-gathering, Mr Justice Flood replied:
"I would have nothing whatsoever to do with the IRA or Sinn
Fein, although Sinn Fein is a political party. I would have
nothing whatsoever."

In reply to a question as to whether or not he knew of
Frank Connolly's visit to Colombia on a false passport,
Judge Flood said: "You can ask Frank Connolly about that.
It is his business. I know nothing about it, nothing
whatsoever."

Asked if he had raised with Connolly the issue of the trip
on a false passport, the 77-year-old judge replied: "No. It
is not my affair." He was then asked if he did not think it
might be appropriate to raise such an issue, he said: "No,
I do not. Good night," and hung up the phone.

Almost 10 months after its establishment was first
announced, the Centre for Public Inquiry last week
published its first report - about an already well-
publicised planning controversy surrounding Trim Castle in
Co Meath.

Yesterday, in an exclusive statement to the Sunday
Independent, the developers of a new hotel next to the
castle took issue with the fairness and balance of the
report.

Asked yesterday if he would care to comment on the
statement by the developers, that the report was
inaccurate, unfair and unbalanced, Judge Flood replied:
"No."

David and Lynda O'Brien, on behalf of D O'Brien
Developments, stated: "While there is a great deal of
public debate and commentary arising out of the location of
our hotel adjacent to Trim Castle, the fact of the matter
is that the project is as a consequence of a public
tendering process initiated by Trim Town Council and Meath
County Councilin 2001.

"We welcome that there is no suggestion that the company or
its directors have at any time acted in a manner other than
with absolute integrity. It is a fact that at all times we
have acted within the law of the State and under local and
national planning regulation.

"We refute the findings of the report of the self-appointed
watchdog, the Centre for Public Inquiry. It is a misleading
and flawed report.

"In its report, the Centre for Public Inquiry failed to
represent our views, even though we provided a great deal
of information to the inquiry . . . As a consequence, much
of the coverage and commentary on the report is both
inaccurate and unbalanced.

"The researcher who spoke to us in the course of the
compilation of the report gave an undertaking that the
report would be fair and balanced. We would ask if Justice
Fergus Flood believes he has presided over a fair and
balanced process. For example, in the reference to our
renewed application for planning permission for a 68-
bedroom hotel, the report failed in any guise to note that
this had no bearing whatsoever on the facade or the floor-
area footprint of the hotel.

"Photographs are used throughout the report in the most
damaging and controversial manner possible, to paint the
hotel in the worst possible light. Had other images been
used they would provide a more positive perspective on the
impact of the hotel on the castle.

"This report is not a statutory document. We would
therefore be pleased to co-operate with a fair and balanced
inquiry of the State or a properly elected body.

"Given the nature of the tendering process, initiated by
Trim Town Council and Meath County Council, we have been
enthusiastic both about winning the tender and developing
our project to the highest standards.

"We wholly understand that people have misgivings in
relation to the heritage value and preservation of Trim
Castle. It is our every intention to fully respect the
castle and its environs. Furthermore, our initiative means
that people who might never enjoy or experience our
heritage will now get an opportunity to do so.

"We will be pleased to work with the authorities and with
balanced environmental and heritage groups in doing
everything within our remit to preserve and promote Trim
Castle. However, we make no apology for responding to a
public tendering process, for our project, or for bringing
employment and economic benefit to the area."

In the past, Frank Connolly has dismissed claims that he
travelled to Colombia on a passport in the name of Frank
Johnston.

The Sunday Independent, however, understands that the
passport application forms were signed by the same person
in Northern Ireland who signed the passport used by Niall
Connolly.

According to reports from Colombia, Frank Connolly was
accompanied on his trip by Padraig Wilson, a former leading
IRA bomb-maker.

Wilson was the main point of contact between the IRA and
General de Chastelain leading up to last week's act of IRA
decommissioning. He is a member of the IRA's 'General
Headquarters Staff' and was one of the leaders of the IRA's
bombing campaign up to his arrest in the late 1980s.

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

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS%20FEATURES-qqqs=news-qqqid=8458-qqqx=1.asp

DUP Found Wanting In Leadership Stakes

02 October 2005 By Colm Heatley

If election pledges meant anything the Democratic Unionist
Party (DUP) would be leading unionism towards a brave new
future in the wake of the IRA's decommissioning.

"Unionism - real leadership, we're on top'' was the slogan
the DUP used in May's Westminster elections, which saw it
obliterate its political rivals in the Ulster Unionist
Party (UUP) and become the North's largest party with 33.7
per cent of the vote.

Yet in the wake of IRA decommissioning, the DUP's key
demand since 1994, the party has taken refuge behind a
series of excuses designed to downplay the significance of
the event and stall political progress.

The DUP's stance has provided loyalist paramilitaries with
a ready-made excuse not to decommission their weapons; if
Ian Paisley doesn't believe the IRA has disarmed, how could
the leaders of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) be expected to?

The DUP's electoral success is based upon its ability to
stop change but now it is the party in the North best
placed to take the loyalist gun out of Irish politics.

"We'll fight against a united Ireland, there's no chance of
any loyalists giving up their guns. Republicans can do it
because they have political clout but we've got none,"
Sammy Duddy, the UDA's public spokesman told the media in
Belfast last week.

His statement is proof that IRA decommissioning has not put
undue pressure on loyalist paramilitaries to follow suit,
partly because the move has been ridiculed and presented as
a republican trap by the DUP.

The political parties which represent loyalist
paramilitaries have either disintegrated, as in the case of
the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), or are on the verge of
collapse, as in the case of the Progressive Unionist Party
(PUP).

Within loyalist and unionist politics the DUP has the whip
hand, the result of its long-term strategy to portray
itself as Ulster's saviour against the peace process.

However, so far it is refusing to use either its electoral
mandate or its influence with the UVF and UDA to encourage
decommissioning and political engagement.

The PUP and UDP's association with criminality contributed
to their political demise.

But ultimately both parties failed to electorally challenge
the DUP because their pro-Agreement politics were portrayed
as a 'sell-out' of unionism by the DUP.

Having successfully targeted the votes of the PUP and UDP,
the DUP must now admit that its mandate includes the
increasingly unstable and dangerous voice of loyalist
paramilitaries.

The DUP's official line is that it doesn't talk to loyalist
paramilitaries, but that is untrue. Through its involvement
with the North and West Parades Forum in Belfast it talks
on a weekly basis to members of the UVF and UDA.

Behind the scenes it has also held meetings with the UDA
and UVF and more publicly has refused to call for tougher
security measures to deal with recent loyalist violence.

The DUP has a long history of engaging with loyalist
paramilitaries.

In 1996 when UVF member Billy Wright split off to form the
Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) he was joined on stage at a
'Freedom Rally' in Portadown by DUPMP Rev Willie McCrea.
The act outraged the LVF's intended victims - nationalists.

Although the DUP condemned the recent UVF and UDA violence
in Belfast its leaders were keen to use that violence for
political leverage with the British government.

Only last week the DUP's deputy leader Peter Robinson
appeared as a witness in an LVF murder trial in Belfast
Crown Court. During the case it emerged that people with
LVF connections were able to telephone the Robinson family
home and talk to the MP.

In the wake of IRA decommissioning Northern nationalists
are asking not if the DUP has a relationship with the
loyalist paramilitaries, but how deep that relationship
goes and whether it is being used to promote peace or
conflict in the North.

With the British government about to respond to
decommissioning by introducing legislation which will be
seen as favourable to republicans the coming months will be
a delicate time in the North's peace process.

If the DUP sits outside the political process a political
vacuum will be created, and past experience, especially the
past two months, show that that vacuum is often filled by
loyalist violence.

Cathy Stanton, a Sinn Féin MLA in north Belfast, said the
DUP could tackle sectarian violence by talking to
republicans. "If they talk to us they are sending out a
very powerful message that talking is better than violence
and that sectarianism has no place in our society," said
Stanton.

"In an area like north Belfast, where over the years
nationalists have borne the brunt of loyalist sectarian
violence, that would be a huge step forward.

"The DUP are talking to loyalists regularly, their position
regarding Sinn Féin is undemocratic and serves only to
hinder political progress, not reach political agreement."

Paisley also has a particular responsibility to work
towards loyalist decommissioning.

In November 1986 he formed Ulster Resistance, a pseudo-
military group, at an invitation only rally in the Ulster
Hall in Belfast.

The money raised by the group was later spent on an arms
shipment from South Africa that arrived in the North in the
late 1980s.

Much of the haul has never been recovered and it is these
weapons which provide the backbone of the current loyalist
arsenal.

Paisley condemned Ulster Resistance when news of the arms
shipment broke.

There is a widespread belief that while Paisley is leader
there will be no change in direction for the DUP.

The hope is that Peter Robinson or Nigel Dodds will change
tack when Paisley leaves the stage. But there is no sign of
Paisley stepping down.

The belief is that the younger generation in the DUP want a
taste of political power in a devolved assembly, but so far
their mandate is for resistance to change.

In the medium term that will be difficult for the party to
maintain.

But in the short term it could use its influence with
loyalist paramilitaries to stop further violence.

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

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS%20FEATURES-qqqs=news-qqqid=8457-qqqx=1.asp

SF In Coalition A Live Issue

02 October 2005 By Pat Leahy

Mr Ahern/Mr Kenny/Mr Rabbitte/Ms Harney, will your party
rule out coalition with Sinn Féin? There's no getting away
from it: Sinn Féin will be a major issue at the next
general election.

The Sinn Féin leadership hopes that the IRA's
decomissioning of weapons will unlock enough political
support for the party to overtake Labour as the state's
third largest party - and put participation in government
firmly on the agenda.

More immediately, decommissioning it will also sharpen
differences between Fianna Fáil and the Fine Gael-Labour
alliance.

For the first time since the mid-1990s, attitudes to the
North, or at least to Sinn Féin, are back on the political
agenda.

Sharp differences emerged last week between Fianna Fáil and
Fine Gael-Labour (so close that Labour now has a picture of
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny on the front page of its
website) on what their attitude to coalition government
with Sinn Féin would be after the next general election.

While Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was carefully but deliberately
emphasising - in a clearly pre-agreed signal - that his
party no longer had a "principled'' (as distinct from
policy) objection to entering government with Sinn Féin,
Fine Gael and Labour were not for moving.

Their leaders continued to set the bar for the Sinn Féin
suitability for government in the Republic higher than
David Trimble's "no guns, no government''.

Both parties subsequently confirmed this later in the week.

"They're not in – no way," said a senior Labour source
frankly.

On RTE radio, Fine Gael frontbencher Fergus O'Dowd
suggested that Sinn Féin would have to "prove'' that it was
not involved in any sort of criminality before his party
would consider it as a possible coalition partner. Exactly
how the party might be expected to prove this negative is
unclear.

In the Dáil, Kenny was unambiguous on the question: "I am
very concerned at the Taoiseach's ambivalent and cavalier
attitude to the possibility of the Fianna Fáil sharing
power with Sinn Féin after the next general election. This
is an alarming prospect . . .

"In recent weeks, the Taoiseach has been highlighting the
need for the electorate to know what is on offer from the
parties.

"It is incumbent on him, therefore, to come clean with the
Irish people and tell them if a vote for Fianna Fáil is
really a vote for Sinn Féin's participation in government."

A senior adviser to Enda Kenny said: "The opinion poll
numbers are driving Fianna Fáil's need to identify another
coalition option.

"They want to keep the door slightly ajar for Sinn Féin."

And a senior Labour source predicted: "Just wait for it.
Fianna Fáil could make a very attractive offer to Sinn
Féin."

Fianna Fáil figures discount the possibility - "an old
style hard-left party with nothing to say about the running
of a modern state'' was one view - but they insist that if
Sinn Féin meets all the "democratic'' requirements put in
its way, it simply cannot be excluded from the democratic
process.

This may mark the end of a period of remarkable political
consensus about the North in southern politics.

In the past few years, the main parties have steered away
from trying to score political points on the issue - partly
out of the best intentions, partly because public attitudes
on the North are difficult to read - even if Fianna Fáil's
'Peace, Prosperity, Progress' election slogan in 2002 was a
gentle reminder that it was Ahern, not Fine Gael, who
secured the Good Friday Agreement.

In truth, the differences were emerging before last week.
Since last year, Kenny has sought to assert his party's
opposition to the release of the killers of Garda Jerry
McCabe, and other concessions to republicans.

These statements may in part have been designed to cause
Justice Minister Michael McDowell discomfort, but at a time
when Fine Gael needed definition, they helped in creating a
space that was distinctively theirs.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte had also been ticking those
boxes before last week.

Indeed, just the weekend before General John de
Chastelain's announcement, Rabbitte delivered a remarkable
speech in which he questioned the wisdom of any immediate
moves towards Irish unity.

It is worth quoting him at length: "They [Sinn Féin] have
done nothing to persuade the people of the south - who
remain to be persuaded - that the best solution to Northern
Ireland as a 'failed political entity' would be to collapse
that failed, dysfunctional and still violent entity into
the jurisdiction of this state.

"If the communities that go to make up the North cannot
function together, why in God's name should anyone believe
they would function better by attempting to smother them
with a largely uninterested southern embrace?

"On any rational analysis, Northern Ireland as a
demonstrably functioning entity should be a precondition
that is proven to exist before anyone thinks about Irish
unity - rather than the proven failure of the North being a
reason for thinking about the unity of Ireland as a whole.

"At the end of the day, if that's the unmanageable nature
and extent of their problem, then we down here don't have
the solution. And we shouldn't pretend that we do."

Rabbitte's speech was certainly a new and brave departure,
but it is likely to be used by his opponents as evidence of
profoundly partitionist thinking.

One surprised Fianna Fáiler described it as "Conor Cruise
O'Brien two nations stuff''.

Certainly, it has long been the policy of all parties and
successive governments that the Northern problem wasn't
just 'their' problem, it was 'our' problem, too - and that
problem did concern us 'down here'.

That consensus is now fracturing. In that sense, the row
over Sinn Féin's participation in a putative future
government is more about fundamental attitudes to the North
than simple coalition mathematics.

Southern attitudes to the North have long been shrouded in
ambiguity.

Making them a political battleground in a post-peace-
process age is something nobody has a roadmap for.

The irony of all this is that Sinn Féin probably doesn't
want to come next or near government after the next
election.

Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin, the party's Dáil leader, insisted
that "if we can be a player, we would give participation in
government serious consideration'', before going on to
emphasise the party's priorities in health, childcare and
housing.

But the men who make the decisions are more likely to want
to stay in opposition for at least another term, building
their base and extending their political organisation into
places like Limerick, Cork, Galway and the Dublin commuter
belt before contemplating government.

All polls suggest that the party now has a lock on about 10
per cent of voters. Were an election to be held tomorrow,
the party would probably double its Dáil numbers.

That support has proved more or less impervious to the
McCartney and Northern Bank storms of earlier this year.
Whether decommissioning brings the party from 10 per cent
to the mid-teens is one of the crucial political questions
of the next 18 months.

In this regard at least, the 32-county Sinn Féin is
changing southern politics. The two nations are not
entirely separate.

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

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=8487-qqqx=1.asp

Ahern Dismisses SF Coalition Due To 'Provo Economic Policy'

02 October 2005 By Pat Leahy

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, has lauched
a savage attack on Sinn Féin's economic policy, ridiculing
the notion that Fianna Fáil could join them in a coalition
government.

Although both Ahern and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern admitted
last week that in the wake of the IRA's decommissioning,
Fianna Fáil no longer had any "principled'' objection to
Sinn Féin's participation in a coalition government, the
party is keen to distance itself from the possibility.

"The very notion that you could build a 32-county republic
on the back of the bizarre mix of secondary school Marxism
and Mussolini protectionism which constitutes Provo
economic policy is hilarious," Dermot Ahern told The Sunday
Business Post.

Ahern also said the Taoiseach had stated the Fianna Fáil
position.

"We will not countenance any arrangement with Sinn Féin
after the next election on the basis alone of their
economic policy and their anti-EU views, even if they get a
clean bill of health on decommissioning, end of criminality
and paramilitarism."

However, Fianna Fáil sources acknowledged that the party's
position on Sinn Féin had undoubtedly changed following the
announcement by General John de Chastelain and the
Independent International Commission on Decommissioning
last Monday.

Fine Gael and Labour remain to be convinced that the
decommissioning and criminality issues have been overcome.

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

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=8466-qqqx=1.asp

Brennan: No Shame For FF In Wanting A United Ireland

02 October 2005 By Alison O'Connor

Fianna Fáil should not be ashamed of saying that it still
wants a united Ireland, and this should not frighten
unionists, says Minister for Social Affairs Seamus Brennan.

Brennan said Fianna Fáil needed to realise that the Good
Friday Agreement was party policy, and that it allowed
persuasion to bring about a united Ireland of about six
million people. He said a united Ireland would be "a
wonderful economic, social and cultural unit''.

His remarks will be seen as a deliberate move by Fianna
Fáil to win back ground from Sinn Féin following the
announcement last week of the IRA decommissioning its
arsenal of weapons.

Sinn Féin held a rally for Irish unity in Dublin city
centre last weekend, which was attended by around 4,000
supporters.

"We are a republican party as well. It certainly is
important, in the context of settling the North, that my
own party remembers that it is the party that is for a
united Ireland. We should not feel guilty about saying
that, which we did for many years," Brennan said.

This aspiration had been kept in the background in recent
times, he said, because of the delicate nature of the
situation in the North.

"It is a message to Sinn Féin, too," he said. "We have
hidden or played down this aspiration of ours for very
responsible reasons - because the Taoiseach wanted to
negotiate progress in the North and get the institutions
back up and running without that tone in the middle of it.

"So, for very responsible reasons, we played down that, but
it would be wrong to continue that now."

At the party's recent Cavan think-in, the Taoiseach said
that unity by consent was Fianna Fáil's mission and "the
basis of our being and a guiding star''.

Brennan said: "We are the Republican Party. And because I
am an Irish republican, no issue means more than this to
me."

The minister said it would be wrong of his party to give
the impression that a united Ireland was no longer a goal.

"Our own party needs to realise that the Good Friday
Agreement is party policy, and that it allows persuasion to
bring about a united Ireland. It allows us to persuade
people to come to that position the same way the agreement
allows unionists to move to the opposite position," he
said.

Fianna Fáil needs to be clear that it is a party that
believes in reunification, and that it would seek to
persuade people in the context of the agreement to move to
that, he said.

"That shouldn't be a frightening prospect - in fact, it is
more honest that unionists understand that," he said.

"But if Fianna Fáil were to suddenly give the impression
after all of our years of existence that we had no longer
had an interest in that, that would be wrong, to give that
impression.

"Our belief would be that an island heading up to six
million people would be a wonderful economic, social and
cultural unit, and that we reserve the right to convince
people in the North that their future is here - but without
frightening them."

Rather than pretending it was a hidden agenda, Fianna Fáil
needs to let its supporters know the situation, he said -
while adding it was important not to upset recent political
progress in the North.

"At the moment, we are restrained in how far we can push
that," said Brennan. "It isn't some old-fashioned idea.

"A lot of young people believe that."

The minister said finalising the situation in the North
should be one of the government's main aims ahead of the
next general election.

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

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=663558

This Life: The Question Of Trust

By Alf McCreary
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
01 October 2005

By this stage most people will have decided whether or not
the IRA has decommissioned all its weaponry. General John
De Chastelain and his colleagues think they have.

So do the independent witnesses, the Rev Harold Good and Fr
Alec Reid.

The fact is that nobody knows for sure. Having sat, or
rather stood, through the Press conference at the Culloden
Hotel last Monday, I trudged out into the rain not much the
wiser, though there was a feeling that a huge cache, if not
all, the weaponry had been destroyed.

There was the usual grandstanding by some of the
journalistic prima donnas, an honest attempt by the general
to explain the inexplicable, and sincere testimonies from
the two clergy. But in the end nobody really knows how many
weapons are still hidden. And we never will. The most
important word at the Press conference was 'trust' but this
was in short supply as the media niggled away at the
general on behalf of the wider community.

As ever, people in Northern Ireland will believe what they
want to believe. The arguments will rumble on,
decommissioning will remain a political football, the
public will get tired of it all, and the media focus will
move elsewhere. All of which is as predictable as the Rev
Ian Paisley's refusal to accept the word of the five
transparently honest men who assured us that the IRA's
decommissioning is complete.

Dr Paisley is entitled to his view, as I am to mine, but
what I find particularly distasteful is the way in which he
has tried to denigrate the Rev Good as an unsuitable
witness who was allegedly approved by the IRA and therefore
not independent. It is an old Paisley tactic of attacking
the messengers, often including the media, if you don't
like the message. Sadly, some of his soft-headed followers
still fall for this trick, which is politically much older
than even the man himself.

Both the Rev Good and Fr Reid stressed at the Press
conference that they had not been "appointed" by the IRA,
but the Paisley mud will stick for those who want it to
stick. The clergy themselves have wisely kept out of the
political argument, and have asked the public to "make
their own judgments." There is nothing to be gained by
wallowing in this particularly muddy pool.

Already, many members of the wider public have paid tribute
to the integrity, not only of the general and his
decommissioning colleagues, but also of the clergy. Church
and political leaders have stressed their regard for the
integrity of Mr Good and Fr Reid - though such an
endorsement was markedly absent from the statement by the
Presbyterian Moderator, Dr Uprichard. This may have been an
oversight, of course, but the statement itself came later
than the others, and it was somewhat cryptic. One wonders
which advisers currently have the moderator's ear in and
out of Church House. Perhaps I am imagining things.

Of course, the Rev Good and Fr Reid may well have been
conned by the Provos, but their track-record suggests that
they are realists who have successfully made their way
round many tricky corners in the course of their calling.
If anyone knows the mind of Sinn Fein/IRA it is Fr Reid,
who has been closely involved with them, as he says, "from
top to bottom" for the past 35 years in his attempts to
take the gun out of politics. Surely he would be the last
person to fall for another Provo lie, and a huge one at
that?

Whatever the rights and wrongs of IRA decommissioning, the
clergy were treading the same lonely and courageous path
that some Church figures are asked to tread. More than 30
years ago, several Protestant Church leaders met members of
Sinn/Fein IRA at Feakle in an attempt to end the violence.
It failed and they were severely criticised for meeting the
republicans, but if the talks had succeeded, think of how
many lives would have been saved in the meantime.

The Rev Good and Fr Reid have been treading the same
selfless and honourable path as their predecessors, just in
the same way that Dr Paisley seems not to have changed much
over all these years in his own way of making political
capital - even if it involves the castigation of other
clergy.

I sometimes wonder if his ambitious younger colleagues are
ever embarrassed by him, and harbour secret fantasies about
some day decommissioning their leader - but I am sure that
such naughty thoughts never cross their minds.

Trust me.

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

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1480487&issue_id=13085

SF In Coalition A Live Issue

02 October 2005 By Pat Leahy

Mr Ahern/Mr Kenny/Mr Rabbitte/Ms Harney, will your party
rule out coalition with Sinn Féin? There's no getting away
from it: Sinn Féin will be a major issue at the next
general election.

The Sinn Féin leadership hopes that the IRA's
decomissioning of weapons will unlock enough political
support for the party to overtake Labour as the state's
third largest party - and put participation in government
firmly on the agenda.

More immediately, decommissioning it will also sharpen
differences between Fianna Fáil and the Fine Gael-Labour
alliance.

For the first time since the mid-1990s, attitudes to the
North, or at least to Sinn Féin, are back on the political
agenda.

Sharp differences emerged last week between Fianna Fáil and
Fine Gael-Labour (so close that Labour now has a picture of
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny on the front page of its
website) on what their attitude to coalition government
with Sinn Féin would be after the next general election.

While Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was carefully but deliberately
emphasising - in a clearly pre-agreed signal - that his
party no longer had a "principled'' (as distinct from
policy) objection to entering government with Sinn Féin,
Fine Gael and Labour were not for moving.

Their leaders continued to set the bar for the Sinn Féin
suitability for government in the Republic higher than
David Trimble's "no guns, no government''.

Both parties subsequently confirmed this later in the week.

"They're not in – no way," said a senior Labour source
frankly.

On RTE radio, Fine Gael frontbencher Fergus O'Dowd
suggested that Sinn Féin would have to "prove'' that it was
not involved in any sort of criminality before his party
would consider it as a possible coalition partner. Exactly
how the party might be expected to prove this negative is
unclear.

In the Dáil, Kenny was unambiguous on the question: "I am
very concerned at the Taoiseach's ambivalent and cavalier
attitude to the possibility of the Fianna Fáil sharing
power with Sinn Féin after the next general election. This
is an alarming prospect . . .

"In recent weeks, the Taoiseach has been highlighting the
need for the electorate to know what is on offer from the
parties.

"It is incumbent on him, therefore, to come clean with the
Irish people and tell them if a vote for Fianna Fáil is
really a vote for Sinn Féin's participation in government."

A senior adviser to Enda Kenny said: "The opinion poll
numbers are driving Fianna Fáil's need to identify another
coalition option.

"They want to keep the door slightly ajar for Sinn Féin."

And a senior Labour source predicted: "Just wait for it.
Fianna Fáil could make a very attractive offer to Sinn
Féin."

Fianna Fáil figures discount the possibility - "an old
style hard-left party with nothing to say about the running
of a modern state'' was one view - but they insist that if
Sinn Féin meets all the "democratic'' requirements put in
its way, it simply cannot be excluded from the democratic
process.

This may mark the end of a period of remarkable political
consensus about the North in southern politics.

In the past few years, the main parties have steered away
from trying to score political points on the issue - partly
out of the best intentions, partly because public attitudes
on the North are difficult to read - even if Fianna Fáil's
'Peace, Prosperity, Progress' election slogan in 2002 was a
gentle reminder that it was Ahern, not Fine Gael, who
secured the Good Friday Agreement.

In truth, the differences were emerging before last week.
Since last year, Kenny has sought to assert his party's
opposition to the release of the killers of Garda Jerry
McCabe, and other concessions to republicans.

These statements may in part have been designed to cause
Justice Minister Michael McDowell discomfort, but at a time
when Fine Gael needed definition, they helped in creating a
space that was distinctively theirs.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte had also been ticking those
boxes before last week.

Indeed, just the weekend before General John de
Chastelain's announcement, Rabbitte delivered a remarkable
speech in which he questioned the wisdom of any immediate
moves towards Irish unity.

It is worth quoting him at length: "They [Sinn Féin] have
done nothing to persuade the people of the south - who
remain to be persuaded - that the best solution to Northern
Ireland as a 'failed political entity' would be to collapse
that failed, dysfunctional and still violent entity into
the jurisdiction of this state.

"If the communities that go to make up the North cannot
function together, why in God's name should anyone believe
they would function better by attempting to smother them
with a largely uninterested southern embrace?

"On any rational analysis, Northern Ireland as a
demonstrably functioning entity should be a precondition
that is proven to exist before anyone thinks about Irish
unity - rather than the proven failure of the North being a
reason for thinking about the unity of Ireland as a whole.

"At the end of the day, if that's the unmanageable nature
and extent of their problem, then we down here don't have
the solution. And we shouldn't pretend that we do."

Rabbitte's speech was certainly a new and brave departure,
but it is likely to be used by his opponents as evidence of
profoundly partitionist thinking.

One surprised Fianna Fáiler described it as "Conor Cruise
O'Brien two nations stuff''.

Certainly, it has long been the policy of all parties and
successive governments that the Northern problem wasn't
just 'their' problem, it was 'our' problem, too - and that
problem did concern us 'down here'.

That consensus is now fracturing. In that sense, the row
over Sinn Féin's participation in a putative future
government is more about fundamental attitudes to the North
than simple coalition mathematics.

Southern attitudes to the North have long been shrouded in
ambiguity.

Making them a political battleground in a post-peace-
process age is something nobody has a roadmap for.

The irony of all this is that Sinn Féin probably doesn't
want to come next or near government after the next
election.

Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin, the party's Dáil leader, insisted
that "if we can be a player, we would give participation in
government serious consideration'', before going on to
emphasise the party's priorities in health, childcare and
housing.

But the men who make the decisions are more likely to want
to stay in opposition for at least another term, building
their base and extending their political organisation into
places like Limerick, Cork, Galway and the Dublin commuter
belt before contemplating government.

All polls suggest that the party now has a lock on about 10
per cent of voters. Were an election to be held tomorrow,
the party would probably double its Dáil numbers.

That support has proved more or less impervious to the
McCartney and Northern Bank storms of earlier this year.
Whether decommissioning brings the party from 10 per cent
to the mid-teens is one of the crucial political questions
of the next 18 months.

In this regard at least, the 32-county Sinn Féin is
changing southern politics. The two nations are not
entirely separate.

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

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-1807121,00.html

Focus: 'The IRA Is Gone'

The witnesses are convinced, but the secrecy of
decommissioning means unionists are now the ones asking for
time, writes Liam Clarke

When, after years of procrastination, the IRA began to
destroy its weapons last weekend, the historic event was
orchestrated from an unlikely venue. Two religious figures,
an IRA member nicknamed "O'Neill", and three international
commissioners led by a Canadian general gathered in a
Redemptorist monastery south of the border to prepare to
destroy the terrorist organisation's vast arsenal of guns
and bombs.

It was a historic moment in Northern Ireland's troubled
history, yet those who had shouted loudest and longest for
decommissioning were disappointed when it was declared all
over.

"We had been told to go to a certain house, one of our
order's houses, and people would pick us up at a certain
time," said Alec Reid, a Redemptorist priest who was one of
the clerical witnesses. "I can't tell you who asked me to
take up this position, except that it was somebody who was
intimately involved in the work for peace."

Reid and Harold Good, a Methodist minister, had been asked
to act as independent witnesses last November when a deal
between Sinn Fein and the DUP looked imminent. They were
led to believe they had been accepted by all parties to
Northern Ireland's dispute. In fact, the unionists, the
British government and the Independent International
Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) headed by General John
de Chastelain were not consulted. Only "O'Neill" and an
unnamed peace worker were party to the decision.

Such secrecy may have been necessary, but it proved a flaw
in the process. It ensured a stormy reaction to the
declaration that all IRA weapons had been destroyed from
Ian Paisley's DUP, although that may have come regardless.
As late as last month the unionist party had been pushing
for Rev David McGaughey, a former Presbyterian moderator
and opponent of the Good Friday agreement, to act as one of
the clerical witnesses. They were confident that McGaughey,
a hardliner, would not agree to a decommissioning fudge or
participate without a licence to reveal all he had seen.

His rejection accounts for some of the anger vented in DUP
rooms at Stormont last Monday when the announcement was
made.

Paisley Sr stretched out in front of the television with
his son, three MPs and a press officer to witness the
coming to pass of what he had long wanted. Those present
included Peter Robinson, the MP for East Belfast and
Paisley's deputy, Iris Robinson, MP for Strangford, Nigel
Dodds, the North Belfast representative, and Ian Paisley
Jr, a North Belfast assemblyman.

"Doc (Paisley's nickname in DUP circles) and the others
watched with a growing level of incredulity and
frustration," said one friend. "They believed the witnesses
and the decommissioning body were over-egging the cake."

The anger boiled over in press conferences when Paisley
dismissed the decommissioning as an act of "duplicity and
dishonesty". But the veteran politician misjudged the
unionist mood when he appeared to question the integrity of
the two clergymen.

Good, who attracted most of Paisley's ire, had several
calls from Orangemen, loyalist paramilitaries, fellow
churchmen and ordinary unionists offering their support. He
said: "I can count on the fingers of one hand those who
were critical. It amounted to two calls and an e-mail that
evening and two letters on Wednesday."

FOR about six weeks before Reid and Good met de Chastelain,
the IRA had been gathering up weapons in local areas
following a "dump arms" order issued by the leadership on
July 28. Local stocks were being consolidated so that they
could be decommissioned along with large stockpiles.

In Londonderry, a red van was used and, according to some
sources, weapons were taken to a location on Sheriff
Mountain in Donegal. The independent witnesses would not
comment on locations

There are Redemptorist communities in Dublin, Limerick,
Esker near Athenry, and Dundalk. Reid won't say which one
was used as a base for the final act of decommissioning of
IRA weapons. However, when they got there, the IRA
representative loaded the Catholic priest and his
counterpart into a windowless van with de Chastelain and
his fellow IICD members, Andrew Sens, an American diplomat,
and Brigadier Tauno Nieminen from Finland.

For the next six days, the same van took them to sites
throughout the county where arms were put beyond use. There
were at least four, and possibly more locations, where the
weapons were presented for inspection and then destroyed by
the IRA. They were not in underground arms bunkers or
dumps. Instead, the weapons were piled against walls in
large sheds, warehouses and outbuildings, individually
tagged.

Thousands of rounds of ammunition came in, some were loose
in bags or satchels, others loaded in belts, many more
still in their boxes.

De Chastelain or Nieminen handled each weapon personally,
checked it was in working order, and then disabled it by
removing one or more components. As this happened, Sens
ticked the item off a list and noted the number given to it
by the IRA, but not its serial number. Reid or Good made
their own checks.

"We handled the weapons. We wanted to know exactly what had
happened, how they worked and did not work," said Good.

The weapons and other material presented included
improvised devices such as coffee-jar bombs and home-made
mortars, AK-47 rifles, handguns, many still in the
manufacturers' boxes, a 1950s vintage Bren gun, flame
throwers, surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled
grenades (both commercial and home-made) and heavy
machineguns. In addition, there was Semtex military grade
explosive still in six-inch-by-four brown blocks in which
it had been supplied by Libya, home-made timer and power
units for detonating bombs and ballistic caps used in the
guidance system of shoulder-mounted missiles.

After the weapons were individually disabled, they were
returned to the IRA to destroy. "The IRA has never
surrendered its weapons. They put their weapons beyond use
under our supervision," said de Chastelain. He referred to
a process of decommissioning but refused to elaborate on
the method agreed with the IRA in 2001.

Security sources believe that, in past acts of
decommissioning, this involved putting the weapons in a
hole or trench, covering them with a corrosive agent such
as salt, and then pouring on concrete. Blocks of Semtex are
believed to have been burned.

During the process, the witnesses rose at 6am each day to
go to different locations, often sleeping in the IRA van as
they travelled to destinations.

Each evening in the monastery where they were based, Sens
wrote up the records. The daily excursions continued until
Saturday when the process was completed. After the last
act, the IRA representative was asked if the weapons
destroyed represented all of the organisation's weaponry.
He was warned that he had only one opportunity to get this
right, and he replied that the IRA was now totally and
voluntarily disarmed.

The witnesses and IICD members spent last Sunday in
conclave writing their reports and agreeing what they would
say within the bounds of confidentiality.

The big question left unanswered was precisely how many
weapons had been decommissioned.

De Chastelain says that the quantity of weapons
decommissioned roughly matched security-force estimates
and, in the past, he has compared those with ones published
by Jane's Intelligence Review.

That publication listed 200 handguns, 1 Barrett Light, 50
sniping rifles, 1,000 other rifles of which the majority
were AK-47s, 12,762 MAG machine guns, 40 RPG-7 rocket
launchers, one surface-to-air missile, six LPO-50 flame
throwers, 600 bomb detonation devices and three tons of
Semtex.

However, security force estimates of IRA weaponry had to be
adjusted down in October last year to take account of
weapons that were leaked to or stolen by dissident
factions.

Reid has no doubts that all weapons have been destroyed. He
says: "I would trust their word in this even more than I
would trust our Holy Mother of the Church. I haven't the
slightest doubt that their weapons are all decommissioned,
I would put my life on that. I don't expect to see another
IRA robbery or shooting. The IRA is gone. They can't engage
in anything. They can't engage in as much as clipping a guy
under the ear."

MANY unionists share his optimism. Lady Sylvia Hermon, the
Ulster Unionist MP and wife of Sir Jack Hermon, the RUC
chief constable, is utterly convinced by the testimony of
Harold Good, whom she and her husband have known for 20
years.

When he spoke on television, she applauded and cheered. Her
13-year old son, Thomas, was equally moved. "This is a good
day to be alive, mum," he declared on hearing the
announcement.

She said: "Thomas was right, it was a good day to be alive,
I had no doubt in my mind that, if there was anything
questionable, Harold Good would have called it. I made sure
to ring him later to tell him that his word was good enough
for me."

The problem is that there can be no encores or action
replays. This means that it will take more time to convince
the sceptical than if there had been more openness. But,
provided no more weapons are discovered in the IRA's hands
and there is no more IRA violence, then the DUP must in
time accept that the act was genuine and conclusive.
Paisley has been impressed by Reid's testimony in a meeting
on Thursday and, uncharacteristically, refrained from
comment when he came out.

"We want to move on," said a DUP spokesman.

Peter Robinson, the DUP deputy leader, explains the
problem: "We are the ones who represent the community. We
are the ones who will be called to account if the wrong
decision is taken. We can't substitute anybody else's
judgment for our own."

He wants time, space and more information to test what has
happened.

The government is giving him six months, in which time
there will be two reports by the International Monitoring
Committee assessing the ceasefires. If they report no
further activity by the IRA, then the pressure will mount
on the DUP.

One way for unionists to get the details they want is to
persuade loyalist paramilitaries to follow the IRA's lead.
Once their weapons are put beyond use, de Chastelain's task
will be over and he will be legally obliged to present full
inventories of all weapons decommissioned by each group. It
is an option he will be exploring at the end of this month.

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

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-1807166,00.html

Comment: Disarmed And Dangerous

Sinn Fein took a step closer to democratic politics last
week when it decided to decommission its weapons of terror,
but it was just one step. The delay in meeting its
commitment to democracy has poisoned what was once a
promising peace process and there will be no rush to
settlement now that it has finally decided to rid itself of
its arsenal.

Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein's president, has played a deeply
cynical game with the people of Northern Ireland and with
his actions he has prevented the development of devolved
government in the province.

Provisional republicans under his leadership brought down
the last executive by engaging in subversion, and then blew
apart the most recent settlement talks by robbing the
Northern Bank.

Decommissioning, therefore, must be welcomed with caution.
It does not require congratulation, because it was Adams
and his colleagues who chose to wage a bloodthirsty
sectarian campaign of terror for three decades, a campaign
that they should never have started and which they could
have ended at any point.

They chose to kill and maim, and by their actions they
condemned Northern Ireland and a generation of its people.
Those who stood up so bravely against Sinn Fein's terror
have now been cast to one side by the British and Irish
governments and by the nationalist people of Northern
Ireland. Cynicism has won over integrity, and its victory
makes it ever more difficult for the people of Northern
Ireland to live together in peace.

The past decade has seen sectarian divisions deepen as
trust between communities has evaporated. The province is
more polarised than ever and the task of building a lasting
political settlement is greater now than at any time since
the start of the current peace process.

Progress from here will be slow. Sinn Fein will have to
demonstrate that it is genuinely committed to democracy and
is prepared to accept its responsibilities. The party's
criminal wing will have to be seen to be out of business,
and Adams will have to endorse and embrace the Police
Service of Northern Ireland. Since the republican
movements' criminal enterprises straddle the whole island,
he will also have to show that he and his party will co-
operate with the Garda Siochana to ensure that republican
criminality is at an end.

Until the Independent Monitoring Commission reports that
Sinn Fein has a clean bill of health, there can be no
movement towards devolved government. If the party passes
that test, however, then Dr Ian Paisley's Democratic
Unionist party will have to swallow hard, accept the bona
fides of the IMC, and open negotiations for devolution.

Dr Paisley, too, has responsibilities. He was pilloried
last week for questioning the manner in which the
republicans controlled the verification process but he had
at least some grounds to be sceptical. Even so, if the IRA
passes the IMC's scrutiny in the coming six months, he will
have to learn to say something other than "no".

Unfortunately, there is more than a suspicion that neither
Mr Adams nor Dr Paisley want to sit in office together, and
that each prefers the grandstanding of the political
tension rather than the mundane business of government.

Adams already has a bigger game to play in the republic,
where his party will be focused on the next general
election. He does not need a Northern Ireland executive or
assembly, so the onus is on Dr Paisley to make it
impossible for republicans to walk away from their
responsibility to govern.

If the next attempts at a settlement fail, Northern Ireland
could plunge further into sectarian divide.
Decommissioning, rather than being remembered as a
significant step towards peace, would then be seen as a
cynical tactic in a new war of destabilisation. It is a
step, but its value can only be gauged by the steps that
follow.

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

http://www.israpundit.com/archives/2005/10/secretary_condo.php

Condi Speaks About Hamas

Questions Taken at Princeton University's Celebration of
the 75th Anniversary Of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public
and International Affairs

DEAN SLAUGHTER: Secretary Rice has agreed to take
questions. Please raise your hand and then wait for the
microphone.

QUESTION: I'd like to thank you for coming, first off. I've
just been curious -- seems to me that there's been some
sort of disconnect with a lot of the rhetoric that you've
been presenting here today and with a lot of our actions in
the Middle East. One example is that it seems that we've
started to take a lot of a softer line with Hamas in
Palestine, which is an organization that I think really
doesn't fare with the ideals that you've been promoting
here. I was wondering if you could try and explain that
disconnect we've been seeing.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. It's a very good question. We've
been very clear that Hamas is a terrorist group and it has
to be disbanded, both for peace and security and in the
Middle East and for the proper functioning of the
Palestinian Authority. After all, it is a roadmap
obligation of the Palestinian Authority to disband militias
and armed resistance groups. There are periods of time of
transition in which one has to give some space to the
participants, in this case the Palestinians, to begin to
come to a new national compact. But I cannot imagine, in
the final analysis, a new national compact that leaves an
armed resistance group within the political space. You
cannot simultaneously keep an option on politics and an
option on violence. There simply isn't a case that I can
think of internationally where that's been permitted to
happen.

For instance, in the Good Friday Agreement it was
understood that when Sinn Fein came into politics and
eventually the IRA would disarm and perhaps, hopefully,
that process is now underway. We did not permit the Afghan
warlords to keep their weapons and participate as
candidates in politics. They had to make a choice. And so
it is absolutely the case that you cannot have armed groups
ultimately participating in politics with no expectation
that they're going to disarm. But we are very clearheaded
about Hamas.

Hamas stands for one-state solution, not a two-state
solution. Hamas, therefore, stands for the destruction of
Israel. Hamas is an organization that asks Palestinian
mothers and fathers to give their children up to make
themselves suicide bombers. And it is a real detriment and
block to further peace in the Middle East, so we're not at
all confused by this. We do, I think, need to give the
Palestinians some space to try and reconcile their national
politics, but they're going to eventually have to disarm
these groups. They can't have it both ways.

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

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-1807322,00.html

Shell Hints At Moving Pipeline To End Rossport Dispute

Stephen O'Brien and Siobhan Maguire

SHELL's gas pipeline is likely to be moved away from the
homes of the Rossport Five and other property owners in
Mayo as part of a government-led process to settle the
dispute.

Mediation gets under way in the coming weeks and government
officials and Shell yesterday admitted that moving the
pipeline a greater distance from people's homes would be a
key matter.

The energy company is hopeful a positive consultation over
safety issues will defuse tension now that the Rossport
Five have been released from prison.

Its 70km pipeline is due to run from a gas field in the
Atlantic to a refinery near Rossport. Residents say running
the pipeline 70 metres from their homes threatens their
health and safety.

Shell maintains that its workers face a far higher risk if
gas is refined at sea.

More than 2,000 people took part in a rally in Dublin
yesterday in support of the five Mayo men who were released
on Friday after 94 days in jail over their opposition to
the pipeline.

At the gates of Leinster House the five — Micheal
O'Seighin, Willie Corduff, Brendan Philbin, Philip and
Vincent McGrath — insisted they would not give up their
fight. Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, was among the
politicians who turned out to support the campaign.

Bernard Durkan, a Kildare TD born in Mayo, represented Fine
Gael but was booed by the large crowd. The rally was
chaired by Jerry Cowley, an independent Mayo TD, and guest
speakers included Dr Owens Wiwa, brother of Ken Saro Wiwa,
the executed Ogoni leader and Nigerian writer.

As the Rossport Five made their way west last night to
emotional reunions with neighbours and friends, it emerged
that Shell went against its own legal advice in agreeing to
lift the injunction against the men. It fears that this
could prejudice a further application for an injunction.

Andy Pyle, the chairman, has said he does not anticipate
any further imprisonments, and promised that Shell would
try to foster a positive climate for progress. An
arbitrator, who will be agreed by representatives of the
Rossport community and the multi-national company will now
be appointed.

Noel Dempsey, the communications and natural resources
minister, is credited with brokering the agreement between
Shell and the Rossport Five that led to the men's release.
While the company has praised the minister's intervention,
the freed men were slow to join the chorus of
congratulation yesterday, and asked why it took 94 days to
put a mediation process in place. O'Seighin said the five
would be willing to speak with Shell and Dempsey as part of
talks to reach an agreement.

He said the five had no regrets for breaching a court
injunction not to interfere with the construction of the
Corrib gas pipeline, which led to their jailing.

"If we had regrets we'd be saying to all these people who
have supported us that we made a mistake," he said. "We are
not trying to tell the minister how he should run his
business but we are telling him that he will not put our
lives and the lives of the community at risk now or in the
future."

Tony Gregory, an independent TD, said: "If the government
had any sincerity at all, they should have announced their
mediator 90 days ago. There was a clear attempt to break
the will of these men. That's why they were left in
Cloverhill prison."

Despite criticism from some in Erris, Dempsey did maintain
a channel of communication with the protestors during the
summer. This was done through a local intermediary, whose
identity was still being carefully concealed by department
officials yesterday.

With tensions running high on the Erris peninsula, Mayo
county council staff were prevented by pickets from
accessing the site in early September, and a Shell team was
blockaded on the site and prevented from leaving for six
hours in mid-September.

But it is understood Dempsey demanded assurances from Shell
representatives that if the safety review was to have any
chance of success, personnel from the consultancy firm
Advantica would have to be allowed access to the refinery
site for inspection purposes.

Dempsey also sought access for teams from Mayo county
council and from Shell to carry out and monitor necessary
environmental works on the site including the management of
settling ponds and the maintenance of drains.

Sources close to Shell suggested that easing of tensions on
the ground in Erris and the offer of a government led
mediation process, encouraged the company to take a risk
beyond the scope of its legal advice.

"It really was an act of faith in the process put in place
by the minister and the government," said the Shell source.

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

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-1807298,00.html

Flatley Steps Out Of Line On History

Dave Hannigan, New York and Jan Battles

THE fastest tap dancer in the business, Michael Flatley,
rarely puts a foot wrong. But his version of Irish history,
unveiled last week in Celtic Tiger, is out of step with
reality.

One scene in the 90-minute production features a British
tank blowing away a young man playing football. This is
supposed to depict Bloody Sunday in Croke Park in 1920 when
British soldiers massacred 14 people at a gaelic football
match. Flatley's Hollywood approach to Irish history drew
gasps from the audience at the premiere in New York last
Tuesday although, in reality, there were no tanks present.

Upon its release in 1996, a similar scene in Neil Jordan's
film Michael Collins caused controversy. Jordan also
featured a British tank opening fire on the crowd at Croke
Park.

In Celtic Tiger, whose theme is the oppression of Ireland's
people and their subsequent exodus to the New World, a
footballer wanders onto the stage at Madison Square Garden
juggling a ball with his feet. As he smiles at the crowd, a
tank rumbles into view on a screen behind him. With a loud
bang, it shoots. The stage goes black, the boy disappears
and a voice says: "Ireland strikes its first blow for
freedom."

Enter Flatley, wearing a leather flat cap and a waistcoat
open to reveal a gleaming torso. He takes the stage to do
battle with eight Redcoats. To summon reinforcements, he
picks up a bodhran and beats out the rhythm to The Rising
of the Moon, a song about the 1798 rebellion.

In a further anachronism, Irish volunteers and British
soldiers fight each other before the backdrop of the GPO
under heavy artillery fire, supposedly depicting the Easter
Rising of 1916. The squabble ends with a lusty and
celebratory rendition of A Nation Once Again.

Like Jordan, Flatley says dramatic licence entitles him to
adjust events. "You have to allow for a little poetic
licence recreating these things," said Geraldine Roche, one
of Flatley's publicists. "Although the actual Croke Park
event is historical, Michael has a show to present which is
entertainment. It is not a history lesson. We know there
were no actual tanks there that day."

Flatley is in talks to bring the show to Britain and
Ireland next year, and hopes to stage it in Croke Park
where, as he said recently, "this whole thing was born".

According to publicity material, the dance production is
the story of the resilience of the Irish people throughout
time. "With Celtic Tiger, Michael Flatley sets out to
dramatize the spirit of Ireland and its history through the
use of powerful imagery, dynamic music and dancing that
once again pushes the boundaries of traditional dance,"
says the blurb.

Over 2,000 years of Ireland's history are crammed into the
first half of the show, beginning with the Celts, and
featuring Flatley dressed like a Roman gladiator. This is
followed by the Viking invasion, the conquering by the
Normans, the British occupation, the famine and the Easter
Rising.

The arrival of the British is heralded by a group of white-
wigged redcoats singing Rule Britannia. They torch a
thatched cottage sending a group of scantily clad women out
onto the street to escape the flames. Into the middle of
the strife comes Flatley dressed as a priest and fingering
rosary beads. As the soldiers descend, he solemnly recites
the words: "Deliver us from evil". The second half of the
show features Irish people who have left home to seek out a
new life in America. It opens with an air hostess wearing
green and gold who, aroused by Flatley and his team of
pilots manhandling her, strips down to her stars and
stripes bra and knickers as the band plays Bad to the Bone.

"It's meant to signify the simplicity of a society, the
innocence of Ireland and Irish people coming into a multi-
cultural society in America," said Flatley's publicist.
"It's just a bit of fun really."

In a celebration of Irish-America, Flatley plays a Chicago
mobster rat-tat-tatting with his feet in pin-stripes and
fedora. Other dance styles such as ballet, salsa,
breakdancing and flamenco illustrate America's cosmopolitan
society.

Just before a finale in which Flatley dances Yankee Doodle
Dandy, the big screen flashes up images of Irish and Irish-
Americans including Eamon De Valera, John F Kennedy, Gerry
Adams and Westlife. It culminates in a fake shot of Neil
Armstrong planting a tricolour on the moon.

Despite a lukewarm reaction from the critics — the New York
Times said the show was principally a vehicle for the
dancer's ego — Flatley fans lapped it up last week,
historical inaccuracies and all.

Sean Kelly, president of the Gaelic Athletic Association,
who attended the New York premiere, said it was "a super
show". "It makes Irish history sexy. He doesn't hold
back."He defended Flatley's version of Bloody Sunday. "It's
a replica of what we saw on Michael Collins. It's very
effective. It took the audience a bit by surprise so it's
rather dramatic.

"Every artist interprets things differently and people
would have different views on it. No one can deny the event
took place."

----
To receive this news via email, click HERE.
No Message is necessary.
To September 2005 Index
To Index of Monthly Archives
Posted by: Unknown / 11:16 PM
Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

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