Links
- Irish Aires Home Page
- IA Houston Links
- IA Links Page
- IA News Links
- Irish Aires Archived
- IA Email Lists
- Irish Aires Blog
- IAUC
Archives
- October 2004
- November 2004
- December 2004
- January 2005
- February 2005
- March 2005
- April 2005
- May 2005
- June 2005
- July 2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- January 2008
- February 2008
- March 2008
- April 2008
- May 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- February 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- January 2010
- April 2011
- May 2011
- June 2011
- July 2011
- August 2011
- February 2012
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 19, 2005
IMC All-Clear to IRA But UVF Criticised
To Index of Monthly Archives
To October 2005 Index
To receive this news via email, click HERE.
No Message is necessary.
----
News about Ireland & the Irish
UT 10/19/05 IRA Making 'Encouraging' Progress, IMC Reports
UT 10/19/05 Sinn Fein Gets Back Government Allowances
UT 10/19/05 Loyalist Feud 'Could Erupt Again'
UT 10/19/05 Hardliners 'Tried To Get IRA Weapons'
BT 10/19/05 'Love Ulster' Rally Is Given A Green Light
UT 10/19/05 Adair Investigated Over Stobie Killing
IO 10/19/05 Hopes Resurface That LVF Will Disband
DI 10/19/05 Opin: Ian Knows A Thing Or Two About Fascism
BT 10/19/05 Hain Quashes Talk Of IRA Policing Role
BT 10/19/05 Limavady Signs Up For Peace
BT 10/19/05 Election Of UUP Officers Attacked
MG 10/19/05 Sinn Fein Leader Bemoans Colonialism
CT 10/19/05 Gerry Adams Encounters The Ancestors In SA
WT 10/19/05 Cúpla Focal - Oíche Shamhra
******************************************
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66181&pt=n
IRA Making 'Encouraging' Progress, IMC Reports
The IRA is making encouraging progress in its
transformation from a paramilitary group to a purely
political movement, it was claimed today.
By:Press Association
But a report from the four-member Independent Monitoring
Commission
(http://www.independentmonitoringcommission.org/documents/uploads/7th%20%20IMC%20%20Report.pdf)
said the Provisional IRA (PIRA) assaulted one of its own
members since announcing an end to its armed campaign in
July.
In its latest study of republican and loyalist paramilitary
activity, the IMC said it could not reach a full judgment
on whether the Provisionals were honouring a pledge on July
28 to focus solely on politics.
It said there had been changes in command structure and
there was no evidence of the organisation recruiting or
training members in the weeks following the statement.
The IMC said: "Initial signs following the the PIRA
statement are encouraging but inevitably on this occasion
the assessment we can make of the effect of the statement
is rather limited.
"We will address it further in the additional Article Four
report which the British and Irish Governments have asked
us to present in January 2006 and again when we report in
April 2006 and subsequently."
The IMC is made up of ex-deputy director of CIA Richard
Kerr, former deputy assistant commissioner of the
Metropolitan Police John Grieve, retired Irish civil
servant Joe Brosnan and former Northern Ireland Assembly
Speaker Lord Alderdice.
Its latest report, covering loyalist and republican
paramilitary activity between March 1 and August 31,
focused on the five months leading to the IRA`s
announcement and the month following it.
The commissioners found in the period before the statement,
the Provisionals continued to recruit and brief new and
existing members on personal security and counter-
surveillance.
It also trained members in those five months, including in
the use of weapons.
The IMC said: "We have no evidence of training or
recruitment after the July 28 statement.
"There are indications that the organisation`s intelligence
function remained active, though its focus may be becoming
more political.
"There has also been some identifying of drug dealers,
though it is not clear for what purpose."
The IMC said the Provisionals were responsible for one so-
called punishment shooting and 10 assaults during the
period covered by the report.
The report confirmed: "It undertook one shooting attack, in
early July, of a person whom it had assaulted in March, and
10 assaults, nine of them between mid-March and mid-June,
and one in early August after the statement.
"The victim on this last occasion was a PIRA member; we do
not know the reason for the assault although it could
reflect a concern in the organisation to curtail either
unacceptable activities or support for dissident
republicans."
The commission welcomed the completion of IRA disarmament
three weeks ago and said it expected the organisation to
end all involvement in criminality as a result of its July
28 statement.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern will draw comfort from the IMC`s observation
that the Provisionals are making encouraging progress
towards implementing its July 28 statement.
They are likely to place greater emphasis on the next IMC
report in January which will have a longer time to assess
IRA actions.
If that report shows the organisation is ending
paramilitary and criminal activity, the governments will
use it as a launch pad for talks aimed at enticing the Rev
Ian Paisley`s Democratic Unionists into a devolved
government in Northern Ireland with Sinn Fein.
The commission said there was evidence over the period that
the Provisionals had been involved in extortion and had
intimidated people involved in anti-social behaviour as
well as dissident republicans.
It was impossible to say whether these had been authorised
by the IRA`s leadership.
The report said the Provisionals tried to ensure the summer
marching season passed off peacefully and had tried to
prevent rioting.
But preparations were made for weapons to be made available
should loyalists have attacked nationalist areas.
The IMC raised concerns about the IRA`s approach to the
exiling of individuals from communities.
One family was forced from its home in May and there was
another attempt to expel another family in June.
In the Short Strand area of east Belfast, people exiled by
the organisation were allowed to return, although this
could have been in response to the controversial murder of
local man Robert McCartney in January.
The IMC said: "We have no evidence at this stage that PIRA
is generally allowing those it has exiled to return to
Northern Ireland safely, should they wish to do so.
"The statement of July 28 makes no specific reference to
exiling but those whom PIRA has exiled and who want to
return should be free to do so safely.
"We will be monitoring this issue in future."
In a written statement, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter
Hain welcomed the report and acknowledged that the
commission needed more time to assess the new direction
taken by the IRA.
He said: "The report also concludes that paramilitaries,
especially loyalists and dissident republicans, continue to
exert a malign influence over communities which has
obstructed the development of a culture of lawfulness.
"As I said in my statement to Parliament on October 14, it
has taken a long time for the republican movement to
acknowledge that violence does not pay but it has now
publicly done so.
"Loyalist paramilitaries must now also realise that
exclusively peaceful and democratic means represent the
sole way forward."
Mr Hain also said Sinn Fein would have almost £120,000 in
Stormont Assembly allowances restored by the British
government on November 1 following the IMC report.
And he also said a recommendation would be made to MPs to
restore the party`s Westminster allowances, which were also
withdrawn following previous IMC reports which showed IRA
members carried out the murder of Mr McCartney and a number
of robberies including last December`s £26 million Northern
Bank heist.
******************************************
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66193&pt=n
Sinn Fein Gets Back Government Allowances
Sinn Fein will have almost £120,000 in Stormont Assembly
allowances restored by the British government following the
latest report on paramilitary activity, it was confirmed
today.
By:Press Association
Following the release of a new report by the Independent
Monitoring Commission, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter
Hain said the allowances would be restored to the party on
November 1.
And he also said a recommendation would be made to MPs to
restore the party`s Westminster allowances, which were also
withdrawn following previous IMC reports which showed IRA
members carried out the murder of Belfast father of two
Robert McCartney and a number of robberies including last
December`s £26 million Northern Bank heist.
In today`s report, the IMC said initial signs were
encouraging that the IRA was honouring its July 28 pledge
to end its armed campaign.
However, the commission said a more rounded judgment would
be made in reports in January and April next year.
In a statement to MPs, Mr Hain said the resumption of
Assembly allowances would take place from November 1.
"I will in due course recommend to the House the removal of
legislative suspension of allowances to Sinn Fein Members
of Parliament which took effect on April 1 this year," he
confirmed.
******************************************
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66190&pt=n
Loyalist Feud 'Could Erupt Again'
A loyalist paramilitary feud which claimed the lives of
four people in Belfast this summer could erupt again, a
report monitoring terror groups warned today.
By:Press Association
The Independent Monitoring Commission said the Ulster
Volunteer Force, which carried out the four murders in July
and August, was an extremely dangerous organisation.
The IMC also stuck by its recommendation that the
Government should impose financial sanctions against the
group`s political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party.
The Government has not withdrawn the party`s £27,000 annual
Assembly grant despite a previous IMC recommendation.
Jameson Lockhart, Craig McCausland, Stephen Paul and
Michael Green were gunned down by the UVF over the summer
as it waged a bloody vendetta against the rival Loyalist
Volunteer Force.
While the victims were perceived by the UVF to be members
or associates of the LVF, today`s report said in some cases
those killed had no links at all.
The IMC said: "We noted in our sixth report that the feud
had its origin in the rivalry and extreme animosity between
the two organisations and referred to competition, greed
and power as factors in the upsurge of violence during the
summer.
"We recognised that the escalation of the feud over that
period may have boiled up as a result of local animosities
but concluded that the UVF leadership had decided that it
was now the time to finish off the LVF.
"Although the feud has largely died down since the end of
August, the nature of these causes means, we fear, that
this lull will not necessarily be lasting."
The report noted loyalist paramilitary groups were
responsible for significantly more violence in Northern
Ireland than their republican counterparts.
While the killing of former Ulster Defence Association
brigadier Jim Gray fell outside the period covered in the
report, the IMC attributed the murder of Stephen Nelson,
who died in March from injuries sustained in a vicious
assault outside a nightclub in Newtownabbey last September,
to the organisation.
The commission could not definitively state the UDA and UVF
were behind the sectarian attacks and intimidation of
Catholic families in the North Antrim village of Ahoghill,
but it accused both organisations of supporting them.
The report also said rival UVF and UDA members clashed in
Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, in June.
Both organisations teamed up in the expulsion of families
from the loyalist Garneville area in east Belfast in July
during the UVF`s feud with the LVF.
The commission also said the UVF was involved in rioting in
Belfast in early August during police searches linked to
its feud with the LVF.
"The UVF continues to recruit members; some recruits
receive extensive training, including in the use of
firearms, others receive basic training," the IMC said.
"The UVF is also involved in organised crime including
drugs.
"We conclude that the UVF is, in the words of our fifth
report, `active, violent and ruthless` and we believe it
will continue to use violence where it thinks that would be
in its interests. It remains an extremely dangerous
organisation."
The report said the UDA had been involved in the monitoring
of hardline republicans and also considered targeting
police and prison officers during the summer.
One member planned sectarian petrol bomb attacks in the
Newtownbreda area of south Belfast in July.
The UDA was also continuing to recruit and remained
involved in the drugs trade.
Its members robbed a bingo hall in Carrickfergus in March
and also stole £17,000 from a bookmaker`s in Newtownabbey,
Co Antrim, in April.
The commission noted: "The UDA said in a statement it
issued in November 2004 that it would desist from
`military activity`.
"Whatever meaning the UDA may ascribe to this term, we
believe it is clear that the organisation is involved in
violent and other serious crime and that it remains an
active threat to the rule of law in Northern Ireland.
"Some of the recent activities of the UDA described above
raise questions about the status of the UDA ceasefire. We
will address this more fully in our next report."
The IMC said the Loyalist Volunteer Force remained deeply
involved in organised crime, especially drugs.
"Since the end of August the feud (with the UVF) has
largely died down, though given its causes, we cannot be
sanguine that this will be lasting," the report observed.
"Nor can it be allowed to disguise the heavy involvement of
the LVF in organised crime, especially drugs.
"In addition to the vicious thuggery of which it has shown
it is capable, particularly since the beginning of July
2005, the LVF remains a deeply criminal organisation."
******************************************
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66192&pt=n
Hardliners 'Tried To Get IRA Weapons'
Hardline republican terror groups tried to coax weapons
from Provisional IRA members after the organisation
announced an end to its armed campaign, it was claimed
today.
By:Press Association
The Independent Monitoring Commission revealed in its
latest report on paramilitary activity: "Following the PIRA
statement of July 28, and before decommissioning was
announced on September 26, dissident republicans approached
members of PIRA who they believed might be disgruntled as a
result of that statement, hoping to obtain weapons from
them, but there has been no evidence of any success."
The commission also said the Continuity IRA and Real IRA
had sought to recruit new members since the Provisionals`
statement.
However, the Real IRA, which carried out the 1998 Omagh
bomb attack, had very limited success.
The report observed: "CIRA has remained intermittently
active during the period under review.
"Elements of the organisation are recruiting and training
new members; the recruitment is possibly an attempt to take
advantage of the opportunities they perceived to be
presented to them by the PIRA statement.
"Some existing CIRA members have received training. The
organisation continues efforts to improve its capacities to
use explosives and weapons, and to procure new weapons."
The IMC said the Continuity IRA remained a dangerous
organisation capable of mounting attacks and was involved
in robberies.
In July it was responsible for hoaxes and bomb attacks and
took part in disturbances during Orange Order celebrations
on July 12, throwing blast and petrol bombs at the security
forces.
While it remained dangerous, the commission concluded the
Continuity IRA had not demonstrated recently it was capable
of mounting a sustained campaign of violence.
The IMC said the Real IRA was seeking to improve its bomb
making capability and remained violent, dangerous and
determined.
It blamed the Real IRA for the savage beating last month of
Northern Ireland Policing Board vice chairman Denis Bradley
in a bar in Londonderry as he watched a football match on
television with his son.
"We greatly deplore the violent RIRA attack in a public
place on the deputy chair of the Policing Board," the
report said, accusing the organisation of other beatings.
The commission also stated: "RIRA, within which there are
two factions, has sought to co-ordinate and reinforce
itself since our fifth report in the Spring.
"Elements in RIRA are continuing to recruit and train new
members, and existing members have received training.
"We believe that RIRA is trying to take advantage of the
opportunities it thinks the PIRA statement offers to
recruit, but with very limited success to date."
The report said the organisation remained involved in
organised crime, including smuggling fuel and tobacco.
The commission said the Real IRA also continued to target
on and off-duty police officers and had used intimidation
and violence against Protestant families as well as forcing
one of its former members from his home.
The Irish National Liberation Army, the report said, was
also recruiting and training members and was involved in
attacks on the security forces during nationalist rioting
over the July 12 Orange parades.
The organisation carried out so-called punishment attacks
and considered at one stage attacking off-duty members of
the security forces.
The IMC said: "Members of the INLA remain active in
organised crime - for example, robberies, drugs and
smuggling.
"The police seized substantial funds which we believe were
raised by INLA from cigarette smuggling.
"INLA has also made efforts to ensure that it maintains its
position in certain local communities.
"Overall, therefore, there has been some increase in INLA`s
use of violence but the level of activity is not high. We
believe that the threat of the organisation`s more active
involvement remains."
The report said there had also been a number of incidents
between March 1 and August 31 which could not be attributed
to specific groups but to dissident republicans generally.
These included plans in March to launch attacks in Britain,
the planting of a device in a vehicle in Lisburn in April
and the placing of a pipe bomb along the route of the
Belfast Marathon in May which PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh
Orde was running in.
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665754
'Love Ulster' Rally Is Given A Green Light
By Brian Hutton
19 October 2005
Loyalists were last night given the go-ahead for a Love
Ulster rally in Belfast at the end of the month.
The event will now take place at Woodvale Park, near the
Shankill area, and is expected to last one hour.
An earlier application by organisers to use the Belfast
City Council-owned amenity was voted down by five votes to
four by the Parks and Cemeteries Services sub-committee.
Councillors insisted that a 26-point list of criteria laid
out by the council for using publicly- owned spaces would
have to be adhered to by rally organisers.
Following assurances from organisers that they would meet
the demands, the Community and Recreation committee last
night sanctioned the go-ahead for the Belfast rally.
There were no objections from any political parties to the
granting of approval for use of the park on October 29.
It is understood that organisers had to agree to a bond of
£1000 and produce evidence of public and employer liability
insurance for the event.
Jim Rodgers, the UUP chairman of the Parks and Cemeteries
Services sub-committee, said "the decision was the correct
one".
"The organisers went through the proper procedures, unlike
a number of groups who don't seek permission for events but
just take over a park."
Sinn Fein councillor, and member of the Community and
Recreation Committee, Michael Browne, said there was no
reason to object to the application for a rally.
******************************************
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66196&pt=n
Adair Investigated Over Stobie Killing, Inquest Told
Former paramilitary boss Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair was heavily
investigated over the assassination of loyalist informer
William Stobie, detectives said today.
By:Press Association
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 in December 2001 as he prepared to
drive his partner to work.
The self-confessed police special branch informer was shot
from behind four times in the head and back just 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.
"I can`t be more specific than that, but that was a lengthy
part of my inquiry.
"There was no intelligence to connect him to the murder of
William Stobie."
Although a number of suspects were questioned about the
killing, no one has been charged.
The inquest was also told that the gun used, a .38 special
magnum revolver, had also been used in other shootings and
killings attributed to the UDA, according to police.
Ten days before he died, Stobie was warned by officers that
he should move urgently from his home on the Forthriver
Estate because of threats from loyalists.
But he refused to flee, trusting in assurances from a
senior loyalist that he was safe.
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://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=197209776&p=y97zyx648&n=197210654
Hopes Resurface That LVF Will Disband
19/10/2005 - 11:06:06
There are renewed expectations in the North this morning
that the Loyalist Volunteer Force may be about to issue a
statement disbanding itself.
The group, which has been accused of drug dealing and other
criminal activity, has been under pressure from the Ulster
Volunteer Force to cease its activities.
The two groups have been involved in an often violent feud
over the past few weeks and months, it's now thought that
this was in reality more of a purge of the LVF by the UVF.
It's thought that an announcement from the LVF may be
forthcoming next month, or even earlier, and that they will
use the IRA's statement ending its violence as a cover to
formally end its own campaign.
******************************************
http://dailyireland.televisual.co.uk/home.tvt?_ticket=KA6TS6ERBHSJ53J94NNAD02G9LLDNVP5TRRIVQNAFOTFJMRBJHTFURUQC609ANWRBLPEBHSJ5LE1HONDNMTEGPKACN1FURUQGY&_scope=DailyIreland/Content/Comment&id=12629&opp=1
Opin: Ian Knows A Thing Or Two About Fascism
Anne Cadwallader
Baroness May Blood and others are correct in one sense.
It's a reasonable assumption to make, after both President
McAleese and Fr Alex Reid compared unionist domination to
the Nazis, that this is a sub-conscious psychological
thread in the minds of many Northern Catholics.
I suspect it is one that is internally rejected after
rational contemplation, however, and that it only emerges
in public after intense provocation and with immediate and
genuine regret.
No sane person could possibly equate unionist political,
social, economic and cultural discrimination against
Northern Catholics with the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
Both Fr Alex Reid and President McAleese are intelligent,
thoughtful, Christian people and neither rationally
believes the literal truth of what they said.
Most of those on their high horses, including both DUP and
Ulster Unionist politicians, cannot either believe, in
private, that either individual genuinely meant what they
said. Many Catholics, however, subliminally believe some
aspects of how they, their families and their forebears
were treated by unionism bear a resemblance to the way the
Nazis treated the Jews. But are there any real
similarities?
The Nazis blamed the Jews for all the economic ills of the
pre-World War II German state. They believed in an
international Jewish conspiracy against the Teutonic
people. They herded Jews into ghettos and regarded them as
sub-human.
In our case, some unionists blame an alleged Catholic/Irish
"fecklessness" for their lower economic performance. An
inability or reluctance to work. A lack of the Protestant
work ethic. That is racism, nothing less.
Some unionists say the economic miracle south of the Border
only came about not because of hard work and intelligent
planning but because the Irish "held their hands out" to
Brussels and were amply rewarded. That is racist too.
The Orange Order operates a shady loan and land-bank scheme
to prevent Catholics getting their grubby hands on
"Protestant land". Until fair employment laws stopped them,
some Protestant employers were reluctant to hire Catholics.
In religious matters, some Protestants, certainly those of
Ian Paisley's ilk, believe in an international Vatican-
driven conspiracy to return them into the clutches of Rome.
Catholics have most certainly found themselves living in
ghettos (west Belfast, the New Lodge, Ardoyne, the Short
Strand) for reasons of safety after repeated loyalist
pogroms dating back to the 1920s.
When Protestants vacate land, such as in north Belfast at
this time, unionists use every trick in the book to prevent
Catholics, who desperately need homes, from moving across
the peaceline into "their" territory.
This is not to call unionists Nazis. It is, however, to
point out that there are more than passing similarities
between the way the 1930s German political elite treated
Jews with the way Catholics have been treated in this
state, into which they were abandoned by the South.
Like many others, I groaned internally when I heard what Fr
Reid had said. I had been turned down for an interview many
times over the years. Then, after a lifetime's discretion,
he appears to have blown it at a meeting where he had,
ironically, hoped to encourage unionist confidence in his
status as an honest broker over decommissioning.
In his defence, he had been subjected at the meeting to
ridiculous accusations that the Redemptorist Monastery at
Clonard had been "a haven for IRA men" and "used to store
weapons in the 1970s".
Leading the charge against Fr Reid was Ian Paisley's DUP.
Ian Paisley's own past does not stand up to much scrutiny
when it comes to moderation and respect for other creeds
and cultures.
Has he, for example, ever apologised, or been asked to
apologise, for his words of June 1959?
"You people of the Shankill Road," an eyewitness heard him
say (quoted in Paisley by Ed Moloney and Andy Pollak),
"what's wrong with you? Number 425 Shankill Road. Do you
know who lives there? Pope's men, that's who."
"Fortes' ice cream shop. Italian papists on the Shankill
Road," he said, adding that Catholics now lived at 56 Aden
Street and 38 Crimea Street. His followers duly attacked
Catholic shops and homes.
An elderly lady from Newington in north Belfast, now passed
on, once told me of how her family home on the Old Lodge
Road had been daubed with a cross one afternoon in the
1950s after one of Paisley's meetings in the area.
They knew what it meant and immediately moved out to live
in a house offered by a Protestant gentleman in
Glengormley. As they left, they saw the mob torching their
old home. Shades of Kristallnacht.
In 1968, after loyalist attacks in Belfast, Paisley said
Catholic homes had caught fire because they were "loaded
with petrol bombs". The disparity in Catholic/Protestant
unemployment rates, he said was because Catholics bred like
"rabbits" and multiplied like "vermin".
After the UUP decided to run a Jewish candidate, Harold
Smith, he said: "The Unionist party are boasting he is a
Jew. As a Jew, he rejects our Lord Jesus Christ, the New
Testament, Protestant principles, the Glorious Reformation
and the sanctity of the Lord's day."
Has anyone even thought to ask Mr Paisley to apologise for
words he wrote in a Free Presbyterian booklet in 1982?
Words such as the following: Rome is "a debauched,
degraded, filthy, incestuous, adulterous monster. Her
popes, her cardinals and her priests all lived in a state
of the most monstrous villainy."
The Vatican is a "murderess, the Antichrist" and the papacy
is "the seed of the serpent, the offspring of Belial and
the progeny of hell. Her eye gleams with the serpent's
light. Her clothes reek of the brimstone of the pit."
"There is no night as dark as papal midnight. No dungeon so
loathsome as that of the Woman of Babylon. No chains so
fettering as the chains of the Antichrist of the Seven
Hills. No slavery so degrading as the slavery of the Mother
of Harlots."
"The dog will return to its vomit. The washed sow will
return to its wallowing in the mire, but by God's grace we
will never return to Popery."
Let's come right up to date. On May 24 this year, Mr
Paisley referred to the SDLP leader, Mark Durkan, as
"another apologist for terrorists. He has mixed so long
with the fascists of Sinn Féin, built up into their present
strength by the helping hand of the SDLP, that he is
blotched with fascism himself."
Any apology sought for or given to Mr Durkan? Not as far as
I know. Or to David Trimble, of whom Paisley said in a 2001
annual conference speech: "If David Trimble is a unionist,
then Bin Laden is an American patriot."
Fascism, Paisley once said, is the "child of Romanism".
Knows a lot about fascism, does our Ian.
Anne Cadwallader is a freelance journalist, broadcaster and
author of Holy Cross – The Untold Story published by The
Brehon Press.
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665802
Hain Quashes Talk Of IRA Policing Role
By Brian Walker
19 October 2005
Secretary of State Peter Hain has sought to quell SDLP
fears that former members of IRA punishment squads could be
given restorative justice roles.
After a meeting between Tony Blair and an SDLP team led by
Mark Durkan, Mr Hain vowed that restorative justice schemes
would have to be run through the police and not "outside
the rule of law".
The idea that paramilitaries could be allowed to use the
system to police the community was "just not on, " he said.
But SDLP leader Mark Durkan said his five-strong delegation
had not been sufficiently reassured by what they were told.
"But we hope to be reassured by what emerges subsequently,
he added.
"We can't have local warlords being turned into local law
lords."
Both were commenting after a 45-minute meeting between the
Prime Minister and an SDLP delegation of Mr Durkan, fellow
MPs Alasdair McDonnell and Eddie McGrady and party
chairwoman Patricia Lewsley.
Mr Hain said afterwards: "There is no way that this will be
done outside the rule of law. The guidelines will be very,
very tight and the idea that paramilitaries can give up
their arms but still police the community through community
restorative justice is just not on, full stop, end of
story."
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665805
Limavady Signs Up For Peace
By Claire Regan
19 October 2005
Limavady Borough Council has become the latest local
authority in Northern Ireland to sign up to a leading peace
campaign.
The council now joins most other local authorities across
the province which have already endorsed the One Small Step
Campaign.
Former Ireland rugby international Trevor Ringland, who is
chairman of the peace initiative, welcomed the move and
said that the council was demonstrating "strong and bold
leadership".
"We are delighted that Limavady has thrown its weight
behind what we are trying to do," he said.
"The principles of One Small Step are committing to work
for the common good and towards a peaceful future based on
equality and mutual respect; taking an active role in one's
daily life to ensure society is inclusive, peaceful, just
and fair and working towards reconciliation, tolerance,
mutual trust and the upholding of human rights for all.
"Limavady council has decided to endorse these principles
and this is an important message for the council to send
out to its citizens and to the people of Northern Ireland."
Mr Ringland recognised that Limavady "is a council area
which has had its difficulties in terms of division and
this move demonstrates real leadership by the council and a
desire to work its problems out".
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665764
Election Of UUP Officers Attacked
By Noel McAdam
19 October 2005
The Ulster Unionists' top officer has launched a stinging
attack on the party over the election of officers to
bolster leader Sir Reg Empey, it emerged last night.
Chief Executive Will Corry said it was "totally
unbelievable" that officers will be elected before more
senior officials are put in place.
The party's 800-strong ruling council gathers this weekend
- its first meeting since Sir Reg replaced David Trimble -
to vote in a new officers team.
But four more senior positions, including party chairman
and vice-chairman, will not be decided until a later date
by the party executive.
Mr Corry warned party procedures were completely contrary
to company law and must be changed as soon as possible.
"In my corporate experience I have never heard of this
timing," the recently-appointed Mr Corry said.
"It seems to me totally unbelievable to ask officers to
stand for election to a board which will be run by persons
unknown. It is the norm to have the senior members
appointed first, then the potential candidates for the
balance of the posts can make an informed judgement as to
whether they want to serve under those senior officers."
In a letter sent to council delegates - obtained by the
Belfast Telegraph - Mr Corry said there were no party rules
which governed the timing and strongly recommended "we
bring the organisation into line with Best Practice as
required by company law, and as soon as possible but no
later than the next annual general meetings, reverse the
election timing."
Last night, a spokesman said the party did not want to add
to or comment on Mr Corry's letter, which could lead to a
debate behind-closed-doors on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the party is preparing to unveil the list of
names who are standing for the six officer posts, as well
as treasurer and president.
******************************************
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=254111
Sinn Fein Leader Bemoans Colonialism
Lavinia Mahlangu Johannesburg, South Africa
19 October 2005 10:04
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said in Pretoria on Tuesday
that many of the difficulties in Africa were caused by
colonialism, as were those of Ireland.
"The difficulties faced by this country, as well as the
African continent, were caused by colonialism and Ireland's
problems were caused by colonialism," Adams said after
meeting South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma.
Adams said one of the lessons his party had learnt from
South Africa's transition from apartheid into a democracy
was that negotiations, although a slow process, did indeed
work.
Sinn Fein was in constant contact with Downing Street, and
it was hoped the British government would meet its
obligations to the Good Friday agreement and leave Ireland.
"There are more British soldiers currently in Ireland than
in Iraq," he said.
Adams said he often told British Prime Minister Tony Blair
that he hoped he would be the last British prime minister
with jurisdiction over Ireland.
"He [Blair] cannot possibly govern Ireland in the interests
of the Irish people. He can only govern in the interests of
his own people."
Adams' visit follows the historic decision by the Irish
Republican Army earlier this year to destroy all its arms
and end its armed struggle.
Dlamini-Zuma said South Africa would follow Sinn Fein's
lead on how to support them in the peace process.
"We are ready to do whatever they may ask us to do with our
experience."
Adams is to pay a courtesy call, later in the week, on
President Thabo Mbeki and will also lay a wreath at Freedom
Park, the memorial site in Pretoria, to participants of the
struggle. - Sapa
******************************************
http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=271&fArticleId=2952829
Gerry Adams Encounters The Ancestors In SA
October 19, 2005
By Sholain Govender
Pretoria: Barefoot and quiet as smoke rose around him, Sinn
Fein president Gerry Adams marked the start of his South
African visit here by meeting with the ancestors.
Years of interaction between South African and Irish
freedom fighters precede the four-day visit by Adams, who
attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Isivivane site at
Freedom Park.
Accompanied by a delegation from Northern Island, Foreign
Affairs acting director-general Ahmed Seedat and Freedom
Park Trust members, Adams observed an ukuphahla, or
conversation with the ancestors and the burning of incense
(impepho).
He then laid a wreath to honour struggle heroes.
"Freedom Park applauds the peace breakthrough in Northern
Ireland and joins you in spirit as you embark on making
peace a tangible ideal in Irish history," said Freedom Park
Trust CEO Mongane Wally Serote.
"It's good to be here with your heroes and heroines," Adams
said.
"South Africa has been a beacon for freedom-loving nations.
"Sinn Fein has productively taken the example of South
Africa and, as we develop the peace process, we continue to
use examples from South Africa," Adams said.
Adams will meet President Thabo Mbeki and Foreign Affairs
Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and will address parliament
on the progress of the Irish peace process.
******************************************
http://www.waterford-today.ie/index.php?id=16390&what=2&issue=273
Cúpla Focal - Oíche Shamhra
Oíche Shamhna or Hallowe'en as we know will take place on
the 31st of the month. This was a big event in the Celtic
calendar as it was the Celtic New Year's Eve. As well as
that the Celts believed that on that night the shroud or
veil that seperated this world from the next was lifted and
that the dead could come back to visit the living. The
Celts did not believe in hell. If one died in favour with
the gods they went to a place called Hy Breasail or Tír no
nÓg (The Land of Youth), a place there was no sickness or
age or death and where all wishes were granted. Remember
the story about 'Oisín' the son of Fianna leader Fionn Mac
Cumhail who visited Tír na Óg and then came back to fall to
the ground and changed from being a young man to an old one
who died of old age. They also seem to believe in
reincarnation as with no hell where did those that died out
of favour with the gods go? The Celts thought that those
people came back as fish or animals or plant and kept
coming back until the gods were satisified with them. So on
the night be 'ag faire' (looking out for) the ghosts,
ghauls and spirits that will be visiting us from Tír na
nÓg.
Dioplóma
Those people who were successful in the two year diploma
course in the Irish language have been invited to Galway
University to accept their diplomas on Thursday 27 inst. Ag
Súil le Bualadh libh i nGaillimh.
Maith Thú
We would like to take this opportunity to say 'Go raibh
maith agat' to the Sinn Féin Waterford City Councillor
David Cullinane who raised the point, in the paper and on
WLR, of the abysmal treatment being meeted out to
Portláirge le Gaolainn and to all Irish speakers in the
city by Foras na Gaeilge. There seems to be no shortage of
money when it comes to spending it on themselves but they
are not prepared to spend a brass farthing in this part of
the country. Their mission statement they say is to promote
the language in all parts of the country. Their doing a
fine job of it by killing off the only people that were
working on the ground here. They have not replaced them
with any plan 'B'. Even worse is that those who are in
charge of them will do nothing about it.
Seanfhocal na
Seachtaine
Más feall fillfidh / Treachery brings its own punishment
Abairtí / Phrases
Tá siad ag éirí in airde orm...They're riding roughshod
over me
Logainmneacha /
Placenames
Cork: Corcaigh = Swamp
----
To receive this news via email, click HERE.
No Message is necessary.
To October 2005 Index
To Index of Monthly Archives
----
Links to News Sources Frequently Used Here:
(Irish Aires News is not responsible for
content of external internet sites.)
BBC Northern Ireland
Belfast Telegraph
Daily Ireland
Derry Journal
Financial Times
Galway Advertiser
Guardian
Ireland Online
Irish Abroad
Irish Aires News Search
Irish American Magazine
Irish American Information Service
Irish Echo
Irish Emigrant
Irish Examiner
Irish Independent
Irish News
Irish People
Irish Times
Irish Voice
News Hound
News Letter
Northern Ireland Office
RTE TV News
Sinn Fein News
Sunday Business Post
Times Online
Ulster Herald
Ulster-TV Headlines
Wild Geese Today
To October 2005 Index
To receive this news via email, click HERE.
No Message is necessary.
----
News about Ireland & the Irish
UT 10/19/05 IRA Making 'Encouraging' Progress, IMC Reports
UT 10/19/05 Sinn Fein Gets Back Government Allowances
UT 10/19/05 Loyalist Feud 'Could Erupt Again'
UT 10/19/05 Hardliners 'Tried To Get IRA Weapons'
BT 10/19/05 'Love Ulster' Rally Is Given A Green Light
UT 10/19/05 Adair Investigated Over Stobie Killing
IO 10/19/05 Hopes Resurface That LVF Will Disband
DI 10/19/05 Opin: Ian Knows A Thing Or Two About Fascism
BT 10/19/05 Hain Quashes Talk Of IRA Policing Role
BT 10/19/05 Limavady Signs Up For Peace
BT 10/19/05 Election Of UUP Officers Attacked
MG 10/19/05 Sinn Fein Leader Bemoans Colonialism
CT 10/19/05 Gerry Adams Encounters The Ancestors In SA
WT 10/19/05 Cúpla Focal - Oíche Shamhra
******************************************
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66181&pt=n
IRA Making 'Encouraging' Progress, IMC Reports
The IRA is making encouraging progress in its
transformation from a paramilitary group to a purely
political movement, it was claimed today.
By:Press Association
But a report from the four-member Independent Monitoring
Commission
(http://www.independentmonitoringcommission.org/documents/uploads/7th%20%20IMC%20%20Report.pdf)
said the Provisional IRA (PIRA) assaulted one of its own
members since announcing an end to its armed campaign in
July.
In its latest study of republican and loyalist paramilitary
activity, the IMC said it could not reach a full judgment
on whether the Provisionals were honouring a pledge on July
28 to focus solely on politics.
It said there had been changes in command structure and
there was no evidence of the organisation recruiting or
training members in the weeks following the statement.
The IMC said: "Initial signs following the the PIRA
statement are encouraging but inevitably on this occasion
the assessment we can make of the effect of the statement
is rather limited.
"We will address it further in the additional Article Four
report which the British and Irish Governments have asked
us to present in January 2006 and again when we report in
April 2006 and subsequently."
The IMC is made up of ex-deputy director of CIA Richard
Kerr, former deputy assistant commissioner of the
Metropolitan Police John Grieve, retired Irish civil
servant Joe Brosnan and former Northern Ireland Assembly
Speaker Lord Alderdice.
Its latest report, covering loyalist and republican
paramilitary activity between March 1 and August 31,
focused on the five months leading to the IRA`s
announcement and the month following it.
The commissioners found in the period before the statement,
the Provisionals continued to recruit and brief new and
existing members on personal security and counter-
surveillance.
It also trained members in those five months, including in
the use of weapons.
The IMC said: "We have no evidence of training or
recruitment after the July 28 statement.
"There are indications that the organisation`s intelligence
function remained active, though its focus may be becoming
more political.
"There has also been some identifying of drug dealers,
though it is not clear for what purpose."
The IMC said the Provisionals were responsible for one so-
called punishment shooting and 10 assaults during the
period covered by the report.
The report confirmed: "It undertook one shooting attack, in
early July, of a person whom it had assaulted in March, and
10 assaults, nine of them between mid-March and mid-June,
and one in early August after the statement.
"The victim on this last occasion was a PIRA member; we do
not know the reason for the assault although it could
reflect a concern in the organisation to curtail either
unacceptable activities or support for dissident
republicans."
The commission welcomed the completion of IRA disarmament
three weeks ago and said it expected the organisation to
end all involvement in criminality as a result of its July
28 statement.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach
Bertie Ahern will draw comfort from the IMC`s observation
that the Provisionals are making encouraging progress
towards implementing its July 28 statement.
They are likely to place greater emphasis on the next IMC
report in January which will have a longer time to assess
IRA actions.
If that report shows the organisation is ending
paramilitary and criminal activity, the governments will
use it as a launch pad for talks aimed at enticing the Rev
Ian Paisley`s Democratic Unionists into a devolved
government in Northern Ireland with Sinn Fein.
The commission said there was evidence over the period that
the Provisionals had been involved in extortion and had
intimidated people involved in anti-social behaviour as
well as dissident republicans.
It was impossible to say whether these had been authorised
by the IRA`s leadership.
The report said the Provisionals tried to ensure the summer
marching season passed off peacefully and had tried to
prevent rioting.
But preparations were made for weapons to be made available
should loyalists have attacked nationalist areas.
The IMC raised concerns about the IRA`s approach to the
exiling of individuals from communities.
One family was forced from its home in May and there was
another attempt to expel another family in June.
In the Short Strand area of east Belfast, people exiled by
the organisation were allowed to return, although this
could have been in response to the controversial murder of
local man Robert McCartney in January.
The IMC said: "We have no evidence at this stage that PIRA
is generally allowing those it has exiled to return to
Northern Ireland safely, should they wish to do so.
"The statement of July 28 makes no specific reference to
exiling but those whom PIRA has exiled and who want to
return should be free to do so safely.
"We will be monitoring this issue in future."
In a written statement, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter
Hain welcomed the report and acknowledged that the
commission needed more time to assess the new direction
taken by the IRA.
He said: "The report also concludes that paramilitaries,
especially loyalists and dissident republicans, continue to
exert a malign influence over communities which has
obstructed the development of a culture of lawfulness.
"As I said in my statement to Parliament on October 14, it
has taken a long time for the republican movement to
acknowledge that violence does not pay but it has now
publicly done so.
"Loyalist paramilitaries must now also realise that
exclusively peaceful and democratic means represent the
sole way forward."
Mr Hain also said Sinn Fein would have almost £120,000 in
Stormont Assembly allowances restored by the British
government on November 1 following the IMC report.
And he also said a recommendation would be made to MPs to
restore the party`s Westminster allowances, which were also
withdrawn following previous IMC reports which showed IRA
members carried out the murder of Mr McCartney and a number
of robberies including last December`s £26 million Northern
Bank heist.
******************************************
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66193&pt=n
Sinn Fein Gets Back Government Allowances
Sinn Fein will have almost £120,000 in Stormont Assembly
allowances restored by the British government following the
latest report on paramilitary activity, it was confirmed
today.
By:Press Association
Following the release of a new report by the Independent
Monitoring Commission, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter
Hain said the allowances would be restored to the party on
November 1.
And he also said a recommendation would be made to MPs to
restore the party`s Westminster allowances, which were also
withdrawn following previous IMC reports which showed IRA
members carried out the murder of Belfast father of two
Robert McCartney and a number of robberies including last
December`s £26 million Northern Bank heist.
In today`s report, the IMC said initial signs were
encouraging that the IRA was honouring its July 28 pledge
to end its armed campaign.
However, the commission said a more rounded judgment would
be made in reports in January and April next year.
In a statement to MPs, Mr Hain said the resumption of
Assembly allowances would take place from November 1.
"I will in due course recommend to the House the removal of
legislative suspension of allowances to Sinn Fein Members
of Parliament which took effect on April 1 this year," he
confirmed.
******************************************
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66190&pt=n
Loyalist Feud 'Could Erupt Again'
A loyalist paramilitary feud which claimed the lives of
four people in Belfast this summer could erupt again, a
report monitoring terror groups warned today.
By:Press Association
The Independent Monitoring Commission said the Ulster
Volunteer Force, which carried out the four murders in July
and August, was an extremely dangerous organisation.
The IMC also stuck by its recommendation that the
Government should impose financial sanctions against the
group`s political wing, the Progressive Unionist Party.
The Government has not withdrawn the party`s £27,000 annual
Assembly grant despite a previous IMC recommendation.
Jameson Lockhart, Craig McCausland, Stephen Paul and
Michael Green were gunned down by the UVF over the summer
as it waged a bloody vendetta against the rival Loyalist
Volunteer Force.
While the victims were perceived by the UVF to be members
or associates of the LVF, today`s report said in some cases
those killed had no links at all.
The IMC said: "We noted in our sixth report that the feud
had its origin in the rivalry and extreme animosity between
the two organisations and referred to competition, greed
and power as factors in the upsurge of violence during the
summer.
"We recognised that the escalation of the feud over that
period may have boiled up as a result of local animosities
but concluded that the UVF leadership had decided that it
was now the time to finish off the LVF.
"Although the feud has largely died down since the end of
August, the nature of these causes means, we fear, that
this lull will not necessarily be lasting."
The report noted loyalist paramilitary groups were
responsible for significantly more violence in Northern
Ireland than their republican counterparts.
While the killing of former Ulster Defence Association
brigadier Jim Gray fell outside the period covered in the
report, the IMC attributed the murder of Stephen Nelson,
who died in March from injuries sustained in a vicious
assault outside a nightclub in Newtownabbey last September,
to the organisation.
The commission could not definitively state the UDA and UVF
were behind the sectarian attacks and intimidation of
Catholic families in the North Antrim village of Ahoghill,
but it accused both organisations of supporting them.
The report also said rival UVF and UDA members clashed in
Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, in June.
Both organisations teamed up in the expulsion of families
from the loyalist Garneville area in east Belfast in July
during the UVF`s feud with the LVF.
The commission also said the UVF was involved in rioting in
Belfast in early August during police searches linked to
its feud with the LVF.
"The UVF continues to recruit members; some recruits
receive extensive training, including in the use of
firearms, others receive basic training," the IMC said.
"The UVF is also involved in organised crime including
drugs.
"We conclude that the UVF is, in the words of our fifth
report, `active, violent and ruthless` and we believe it
will continue to use violence where it thinks that would be
in its interests. It remains an extremely dangerous
organisation."
The report said the UDA had been involved in the monitoring
of hardline republicans and also considered targeting
police and prison officers during the summer.
One member planned sectarian petrol bomb attacks in the
Newtownbreda area of south Belfast in July.
The UDA was also continuing to recruit and remained
involved in the drugs trade.
Its members robbed a bingo hall in Carrickfergus in March
and also stole £17,000 from a bookmaker`s in Newtownabbey,
Co Antrim, in April.
The commission noted: "The UDA said in a statement it
issued in November 2004 that it would desist from
`military activity`.
"Whatever meaning the UDA may ascribe to this term, we
believe it is clear that the organisation is involved in
violent and other serious crime and that it remains an
active threat to the rule of law in Northern Ireland.
"Some of the recent activities of the UDA described above
raise questions about the status of the UDA ceasefire. We
will address this more fully in our next report."
The IMC said the Loyalist Volunteer Force remained deeply
involved in organised crime, especially drugs.
"Since the end of August the feud (with the UVF) has
largely died down, though given its causes, we cannot be
sanguine that this will be lasting," the report observed.
"Nor can it be allowed to disguise the heavy involvement of
the LVF in organised crime, especially drugs.
"In addition to the vicious thuggery of which it has shown
it is capable, particularly since the beginning of July
2005, the LVF remains a deeply criminal organisation."
******************************************
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66192&pt=n
Hardliners 'Tried To Get IRA Weapons'
Hardline republican terror groups tried to coax weapons
from Provisional IRA members after the organisation
announced an end to its armed campaign, it was claimed
today.
By:Press Association
The Independent Monitoring Commission revealed in its
latest report on paramilitary activity: "Following the PIRA
statement of July 28, and before decommissioning was
announced on September 26, dissident republicans approached
members of PIRA who they believed might be disgruntled as a
result of that statement, hoping to obtain weapons from
them, but there has been no evidence of any success."
The commission also said the Continuity IRA and Real IRA
had sought to recruit new members since the Provisionals`
statement.
However, the Real IRA, which carried out the 1998 Omagh
bomb attack, had very limited success.
The report observed: "CIRA has remained intermittently
active during the period under review.
"Elements of the organisation are recruiting and training
new members; the recruitment is possibly an attempt to take
advantage of the opportunities they perceived to be
presented to them by the PIRA statement.
"Some existing CIRA members have received training. The
organisation continues efforts to improve its capacities to
use explosives and weapons, and to procure new weapons."
The IMC said the Continuity IRA remained a dangerous
organisation capable of mounting attacks and was involved
in robberies.
In July it was responsible for hoaxes and bomb attacks and
took part in disturbances during Orange Order celebrations
on July 12, throwing blast and petrol bombs at the security
forces.
While it remained dangerous, the commission concluded the
Continuity IRA had not demonstrated recently it was capable
of mounting a sustained campaign of violence.
The IMC said the Real IRA was seeking to improve its bomb
making capability and remained violent, dangerous and
determined.
It blamed the Real IRA for the savage beating last month of
Northern Ireland Policing Board vice chairman Denis Bradley
in a bar in Londonderry as he watched a football match on
television with his son.
"We greatly deplore the violent RIRA attack in a public
place on the deputy chair of the Policing Board," the
report said, accusing the organisation of other beatings.
The commission also stated: "RIRA, within which there are
two factions, has sought to co-ordinate and reinforce
itself since our fifth report in the Spring.
"Elements in RIRA are continuing to recruit and train new
members, and existing members have received training.
"We believe that RIRA is trying to take advantage of the
opportunities it thinks the PIRA statement offers to
recruit, but with very limited success to date."
The report said the organisation remained involved in
organised crime, including smuggling fuel and tobacco.
The commission said the Real IRA also continued to target
on and off-duty police officers and had used intimidation
and violence against Protestant families as well as forcing
one of its former members from his home.
The Irish National Liberation Army, the report said, was
also recruiting and training members and was involved in
attacks on the security forces during nationalist rioting
over the July 12 Orange parades.
The organisation carried out so-called punishment attacks
and considered at one stage attacking off-duty members of
the security forces.
The IMC said: "Members of the INLA remain active in
organised crime - for example, robberies, drugs and
smuggling.
"The police seized substantial funds which we believe were
raised by INLA from cigarette smuggling.
"INLA has also made efforts to ensure that it maintains its
position in certain local communities.
"Overall, therefore, there has been some increase in INLA`s
use of violence but the level of activity is not high. We
believe that the threat of the organisation`s more active
involvement remains."
The report said there had also been a number of incidents
between March 1 and August 31 which could not be attributed
to specific groups but to dissident republicans generally.
These included plans in March to launch attacks in Britain,
the planting of a device in a vehicle in Lisburn in April
and the placing of a pipe bomb along the route of the
Belfast Marathon in May which PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh
Orde was running in.
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665754
'Love Ulster' Rally Is Given A Green Light
By Brian Hutton
19 October 2005
Loyalists were last night given the go-ahead for a Love
Ulster rally in Belfast at the end of the month.
The event will now take place at Woodvale Park, near the
Shankill area, and is expected to last one hour.
An earlier application by organisers to use the Belfast
City Council-owned amenity was voted down by five votes to
four by the Parks and Cemeteries Services sub-committee.
Councillors insisted that a 26-point list of criteria laid
out by the council for using publicly- owned spaces would
have to be adhered to by rally organisers.
Following assurances from organisers that they would meet
the demands, the Community and Recreation committee last
night sanctioned the go-ahead for the Belfast rally.
There were no objections from any political parties to the
granting of approval for use of the park on October 29.
It is understood that organisers had to agree to a bond of
£1000 and produce evidence of public and employer liability
insurance for the event.
Jim Rodgers, the UUP chairman of the Parks and Cemeteries
Services sub-committee, said "the decision was the correct
one".
"The organisers went through the proper procedures, unlike
a number of groups who don't seek permission for events but
just take over a park."
Sinn Fein councillor, and member of the Community and
Recreation Committee, Michael Browne, said there was no
reason to object to the application for a rally.
******************************************
http://www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=66196&pt=n
Adair Investigated Over Stobie Killing, Inquest Told
Former paramilitary boss Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair was heavily
investigated over the assassination of loyalist informer
William Stobie, detectives said today.
By:Press Association
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 in December 2001 as he prepared to
drive his partner to work.
The self-confessed police special branch informer was shot
from behind four times in the head and back just 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.
"I can`t be more specific than that, but that was a lengthy
part of my inquiry.
"There was no intelligence to connect him to the murder of
William Stobie."
Although a number of suspects were questioned about the
killing, no one has been charged.
The inquest was also told that the gun used, a .38 special
magnum revolver, had also been used in other shootings and
killings attributed to the UDA, according to police.
Ten days before he died, Stobie was warned by officers that
he should move urgently from his home on the Forthriver
Estate because of threats from loyalists.
But he refused to flee, trusting in assurances from a
senior loyalist that he was safe.
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://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=197209776&p=y97zyx648&n=197210654
Hopes Resurface That LVF Will Disband
19/10/2005 - 11:06:06
There are renewed expectations in the North this morning
that the Loyalist Volunteer Force may be about to issue a
statement disbanding itself.
The group, which has been accused of drug dealing and other
criminal activity, has been under pressure from the Ulster
Volunteer Force to cease its activities.
The two groups have been involved in an often violent feud
over the past few weeks and months, it's now thought that
this was in reality more of a purge of the LVF by the UVF.
It's thought that an announcement from the LVF may be
forthcoming next month, or even earlier, and that they will
use the IRA's statement ending its violence as a cover to
formally end its own campaign.
******************************************
http://dailyireland.televisual.co.uk/home.tvt?_ticket=KA6TS6ERBHSJ53J94NNAD02G9LLDNVP5TRRIVQNAFOTFJMRBJHTFURUQC609ANWRBLPEBHSJ5LE1HONDNMTEGPKACN1FURUQGY&_scope=DailyIreland/Content/Comment&id=12629&opp=1
Opin: Ian Knows A Thing Or Two About Fascism
Anne Cadwallader
Baroness May Blood and others are correct in one sense.
It's a reasonable assumption to make, after both President
McAleese and Fr Alex Reid compared unionist domination to
the Nazis, that this is a sub-conscious psychological
thread in the minds of many Northern Catholics.
I suspect it is one that is internally rejected after
rational contemplation, however, and that it only emerges
in public after intense provocation and with immediate and
genuine regret.
No sane person could possibly equate unionist political,
social, economic and cultural discrimination against
Northern Catholics with the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
Both Fr Alex Reid and President McAleese are intelligent,
thoughtful, Christian people and neither rationally
believes the literal truth of what they said.
Most of those on their high horses, including both DUP and
Ulster Unionist politicians, cannot either believe, in
private, that either individual genuinely meant what they
said. Many Catholics, however, subliminally believe some
aspects of how they, their families and their forebears
were treated by unionism bear a resemblance to the way the
Nazis treated the Jews. But are there any real
similarities?
The Nazis blamed the Jews for all the economic ills of the
pre-World War II German state. They believed in an
international Jewish conspiracy against the Teutonic
people. They herded Jews into ghettos and regarded them as
sub-human.
In our case, some unionists blame an alleged Catholic/Irish
"fecklessness" for their lower economic performance. An
inability or reluctance to work. A lack of the Protestant
work ethic. That is racism, nothing less.
Some unionists say the economic miracle south of the Border
only came about not because of hard work and intelligent
planning but because the Irish "held their hands out" to
Brussels and were amply rewarded. That is racist too.
The Orange Order operates a shady loan and land-bank scheme
to prevent Catholics getting their grubby hands on
"Protestant land". Until fair employment laws stopped them,
some Protestant employers were reluctant to hire Catholics.
In religious matters, some Protestants, certainly those of
Ian Paisley's ilk, believe in an international Vatican-
driven conspiracy to return them into the clutches of Rome.
Catholics have most certainly found themselves living in
ghettos (west Belfast, the New Lodge, Ardoyne, the Short
Strand) for reasons of safety after repeated loyalist
pogroms dating back to the 1920s.
When Protestants vacate land, such as in north Belfast at
this time, unionists use every trick in the book to prevent
Catholics, who desperately need homes, from moving across
the peaceline into "their" territory.
This is not to call unionists Nazis. It is, however, to
point out that there are more than passing similarities
between the way the 1930s German political elite treated
Jews with the way Catholics have been treated in this
state, into which they were abandoned by the South.
Like many others, I groaned internally when I heard what Fr
Reid had said. I had been turned down for an interview many
times over the years. Then, after a lifetime's discretion,
he appears to have blown it at a meeting where he had,
ironically, hoped to encourage unionist confidence in his
status as an honest broker over decommissioning.
In his defence, he had been subjected at the meeting to
ridiculous accusations that the Redemptorist Monastery at
Clonard had been "a haven for IRA men" and "used to store
weapons in the 1970s".
Leading the charge against Fr Reid was Ian Paisley's DUP.
Ian Paisley's own past does not stand up to much scrutiny
when it comes to moderation and respect for other creeds
and cultures.
Has he, for example, ever apologised, or been asked to
apologise, for his words of June 1959?
"You people of the Shankill Road," an eyewitness heard him
say (quoted in Paisley by Ed Moloney and Andy Pollak),
"what's wrong with you? Number 425 Shankill Road. Do you
know who lives there? Pope's men, that's who."
"Fortes' ice cream shop. Italian papists on the Shankill
Road," he said, adding that Catholics now lived at 56 Aden
Street and 38 Crimea Street. His followers duly attacked
Catholic shops and homes.
An elderly lady from Newington in north Belfast, now passed
on, once told me of how her family home on the Old Lodge
Road had been daubed with a cross one afternoon in the
1950s after one of Paisley's meetings in the area.
They knew what it meant and immediately moved out to live
in a house offered by a Protestant gentleman in
Glengormley. As they left, they saw the mob torching their
old home. Shades of Kristallnacht.
In 1968, after loyalist attacks in Belfast, Paisley said
Catholic homes had caught fire because they were "loaded
with petrol bombs". The disparity in Catholic/Protestant
unemployment rates, he said was because Catholics bred like
"rabbits" and multiplied like "vermin".
After the UUP decided to run a Jewish candidate, Harold
Smith, he said: "The Unionist party are boasting he is a
Jew. As a Jew, he rejects our Lord Jesus Christ, the New
Testament, Protestant principles, the Glorious Reformation
and the sanctity of the Lord's day."
Has anyone even thought to ask Mr Paisley to apologise for
words he wrote in a Free Presbyterian booklet in 1982?
Words such as the following: Rome is "a debauched,
degraded, filthy, incestuous, adulterous monster. Her
popes, her cardinals and her priests all lived in a state
of the most monstrous villainy."
The Vatican is a "murderess, the Antichrist" and the papacy
is "the seed of the serpent, the offspring of Belial and
the progeny of hell. Her eye gleams with the serpent's
light. Her clothes reek of the brimstone of the pit."
"There is no night as dark as papal midnight. No dungeon so
loathsome as that of the Woman of Babylon. No chains so
fettering as the chains of the Antichrist of the Seven
Hills. No slavery so degrading as the slavery of the Mother
of Harlots."
"The dog will return to its vomit. The washed sow will
return to its wallowing in the mire, but by God's grace we
will never return to Popery."
Let's come right up to date. On May 24 this year, Mr
Paisley referred to the SDLP leader, Mark Durkan, as
"another apologist for terrorists. He has mixed so long
with the fascists of Sinn Féin, built up into their present
strength by the helping hand of the SDLP, that he is
blotched with fascism himself."
Any apology sought for or given to Mr Durkan? Not as far as
I know. Or to David Trimble, of whom Paisley said in a 2001
annual conference speech: "If David Trimble is a unionist,
then Bin Laden is an American patriot."
Fascism, Paisley once said, is the "child of Romanism".
Knows a lot about fascism, does our Ian.
Anne Cadwallader is a freelance journalist, broadcaster and
author of Holy Cross – The Untold Story published by The
Brehon Press.
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665802
Hain Quashes Talk Of IRA Policing Role
By Brian Walker
19 October 2005
Secretary of State Peter Hain has sought to quell SDLP
fears that former members of IRA punishment squads could be
given restorative justice roles.
After a meeting between Tony Blair and an SDLP team led by
Mark Durkan, Mr Hain vowed that restorative justice schemes
would have to be run through the police and not "outside
the rule of law".
The idea that paramilitaries could be allowed to use the
system to police the community was "just not on, " he said.
But SDLP leader Mark Durkan said his five-strong delegation
had not been sufficiently reassured by what they were told.
"But we hope to be reassured by what emerges subsequently,
he added.
"We can't have local warlords being turned into local law
lords."
Both were commenting after a 45-minute meeting between the
Prime Minister and an SDLP delegation of Mr Durkan, fellow
MPs Alasdair McDonnell and Eddie McGrady and party
chairwoman Patricia Lewsley.
Mr Hain said afterwards: "There is no way that this will be
done outside the rule of law. The guidelines will be very,
very tight and the idea that paramilitaries can give up
their arms but still police the community through community
restorative justice is just not on, full stop, end of
story."
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665805
Limavady Signs Up For Peace
By Claire Regan
19 October 2005
Limavady Borough Council has become the latest local
authority in Northern Ireland to sign up to a leading peace
campaign.
The council now joins most other local authorities across
the province which have already endorsed the One Small Step
Campaign.
Former Ireland rugby international Trevor Ringland, who is
chairman of the peace initiative, welcomed the move and
said that the council was demonstrating "strong and bold
leadership".
"We are delighted that Limavady has thrown its weight
behind what we are trying to do," he said.
"The principles of One Small Step are committing to work
for the common good and towards a peaceful future based on
equality and mutual respect; taking an active role in one's
daily life to ensure society is inclusive, peaceful, just
and fair and working towards reconciliation, tolerance,
mutual trust and the upholding of human rights for all.
"Limavady council has decided to endorse these principles
and this is an important message for the council to send
out to its citizens and to the people of Northern Ireland."
Mr Ringland recognised that Limavady "is a council area
which has had its difficulties in terms of division and
this move demonstrates real leadership by the council and a
desire to work its problems out".
******************************************
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=665764
Election Of UUP Officers Attacked
By Noel McAdam
19 October 2005
The Ulster Unionists' top officer has launched a stinging
attack on the party over the election of officers to
bolster leader Sir Reg Empey, it emerged last night.
Chief Executive Will Corry said it was "totally
unbelievable" that officers will be elected before more
senior officials are put in place.
The party's 800-strong ruling council gathers this weekend
- its first meeting since Sir Reg replaced David Trimble -
to vote in a new officers team.
But four more senior positions, including party chairman
and vice-chairman, will not be decided until a later date
by the party executive.
Mr Corry warned party procedures were completely contrary
to company law and must be changed as soon as possible.
"In my corporate experience I have never heard of this
timing," the recently-appointed Mr Corry said.
"It seems to me totally unbelievable to ask officers to
stand for election to a board which will be run by persons
unknown. It is the norm to have the senior members
appointed first, then the potential candidates for the
balance of the posts can make an informed judgement as to
whether they want to serve under those senior officers."
In a letter sent to council delegates - obtained by the
Belfast Telegraph - Mr Corry said there were no party rules
which governed the timing and strongly recommended "we
bring the organisation into line with Best Practice as
required by company law, and as soon as possible but no
later than the next annual general meetings, reverse the
election timing."
Last night, a spokesman said the party did not want to add
to or comment on Mr Corry's letter, which could lead to a
debate behind-closed-doors on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the party is preparing to unveil the list of
names who are standing for the six officer posts, as well
as treasurer and president.
******************************************
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=254111
Sinn Fein Leader Bemoans Colonialism
Lavinia Mahlangu Johannesburg, South Africa
19 October 2005 10:04
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said in Pretoria on Tuesday
that many of the difficulties in Africa were caused by
colonialism, as were those of Ireland.
"The difficulties faced by this country, as well as the
African continent, were caused by colonialism and Ireland's
problems were caused by colonialism," Adams said after
meeting South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma.
Adams said one of the lessons his party had learnt from
South Africa's transition from apartheid into a democracy
was that negotiations, although a slow process, did indeed
work.
Sinn Fein was in constant contact with Downing Street, and
it was hoped the British government would meet its
obligations to the Good Friday agreement and leave Ireland.
"There are more British soldiers currently in Ireland than
in Iraq," he said.
Adams said he often told British Prime Minister Tony Blair
that he hoped he would be the last British prime minister
with jurisdiction over Ireland.
"He [Blair] cannot possibly govern Ireland in the interests
of the Irish people. He can only govern in the interests of
his own people."
Adams' visit follows the historic decision by the Irish
Republican Army earlier this year to destroy all its arms
and end its armed struggle.
Dlamini-Zuma said South Africa would follow Sinn Fein's
lead on how to support them in the peace process.
"We are ready to do whatever they may ask us to do with our
experience."
Adams is to pay a courtesy call, later in the week, on
President Thabo Mbeki and will also lay a wreath at Freedom
Park, the memorial site in Pretoria, to participants of the
struggle. - Sapa
******************************************
http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=271&fArticleId=2952829
Gerry Adams Encounters The Ancestors In SA
October 19, 2005
By Sholain Govender
Pretoria: Barefoot and quiet as smoke rose around him, Sinn
Fein president Gerry Adams marked the start of his South
African visit here by meeting with the ancestors.
Years of interaction between South African and Irish
freedom fighters precede the four-day visit by Adams, who
attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Isivivane site at
Freedom Park.
Accompanied by a delegation from Northern Island, Foreign
Affairs acting director-general Ahmed Seedat and Freedom
Park Trust members, Adams observed an ukuphahla, or
conversation with the ancestors and the burning of incense
(impepho).
He then laid a wreath to honour struggle heroes.
"Freedom Park applauds the peace breakthrough in Northern
Ireland and joins you in spirit as you embark on making
peace a tangible ideal in Irish history," said Freedom Park
Trust CEO Mongane Wally Serote.
"It's good to be here with your heroes and heroines," Adams
said.
"South Africa has been a beacon for freedom-loving nations.
"Sinn Fein has productively taken the example of South
Africa and, as we develop the peace process, we continue to
use examples from South Africa," Adams said.
Adams will meet President Thabo Mbeki and Foreign Affairs
Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and will address parliament
on the progress of the Irish peace process.
******************************************
http://www.waterford-today.ie/index.php?id=16390&what=2&issue=273
Cúpla Focal - Oíche Shamhra
Oíche Shamhna or Hallowe'en as we know will take place on
the 31st of the month. This was a big event in the Celtic
calendar as it was the Celtic New Year's Eve. As well as
that the Celts believed that on that night the shroud or
veil that seperated this world from the next was lifted and
that the dead could come back to visit the living. The
Celts did not believe in hell. If one died in favour with
the gods they went to a place called Hy Breasail or Tír no
nÓg (The Land of Youth), a place there was no sickness or
age or death and where all wishes were granted. Remember
the story about 'Oisín' the son of Fianna leader Fionn Mac
Cumhail who visited Tír na Óg and then came back to fall to
the ground and changed from being a young man to an old one
who died of old age. They also seem to believe in
reincarnation as with no hell where did those that died out
of favour with the gods go? The Celts thought that those
people came back as fish or animals or plant and kept
coming back until the gods were satisified with them. So on
the night be 'ag faire' (looking out for) the ghosts,
ghauls and spirits that will be visiting us from Tír na
nÓg.
Dioplóma
Those people who were successful in the two year diploma
course in the Irish language have been invited to Galway
University to accept their diplomas on Thursday 27 inst. Ag
Súil le Bualadh libh i nGaillimh.
Maith Thú
We would like to take this opportunity to say 'Go raibh
maith agat' to the Sinn Féin Waterford City Councillor
David Cullinane who raised the point, in the paper and on
WLR, of the abysmal treatment being meeted out to
Portláirge le Gaolainn and to all Irish speakers in the
city by Foras na Gaeilge. There seems to be no shortage of
money when it comes to spending it on themselves but they
are not prepared to spend a brass farthing in this part of
the country. Their mission statement they say is to promote
the language in all parts of the country. Their doing a
fine job of it by killing off the only people that were
working on the ground here. They have not replaced them
with any plan 'B'. Even worse is that those who are in
charge of them will do nothing about it.
Seanfhocal na
Seachtaine
Más feall fillfidh / Treachery brings its own punishment
Abairtí / Phrases
Tá siad ag éirí in airde orm...They're riding roughshod
over me
Logainmneacha /
Placenames
Cork: Corcaigh = Swamp
----
To receive this news via email, click HERE.
No Message is necessary.
To October 2005 Index
To Index of Monthly Archives
----
Links to News Sources Frequently Used Here:
(Irish Aires News is not responsible for
content of external internet sites.)
BBC Northern Ireland
Belfast Telegraph
Daily Ireland
Derry Journal
Financial Times
Galway Advertiser
Guardian
Ireland Online
Irish Abroad
Irish Aires News Search
Irish American Magazine
Irish American Information Service
Irish Echo
Irish Emigrant
Irish Examiner
Irish Independent
Irish News
Irish People
Irish Times
Irish Voice
News Hound
News Letter
Northern Ireland Office
RTE TV News
Sinn Fein News
Sunday Business Post
Times Online
Ulster Herald
Ulster-TV Headlines
Wild Geese Today
