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January 15, 2006

Army To DIsmantle Armagh Watchtowers

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News About Ireland & The Irish

GU 01/15/06 Army To Dismantle Its Armagh Watchtowers
UT 01/14/06 Sinn Fein Signals End To Police Boycott
BB 01/14/06 Nuns Escape Harm In Convent Blaze
II 01/14/06 MI5 Will Get New Powers To Bug MPs
IE 01/14/06 Reiss Under Fire
II 01/14/06 SF Policies Would Kill Celtic Tiger
II 01/14/06 Law Enforcer Hits SF Boss's Firms For €5k
IC 01/14/06 McCartney Sister Urges Blair To Act
BT 01/14/06 Opin: Majority Not Ready To Forgive/Forget

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

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1
686780,00.html

Army To Dismantle Its Armagh Watchtowers

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday January 15, 2006
The Observer

The British army's remaining five hilltop watchtowers
in south Armagh will be taken down by early May, The
Observer has learnt. The military posts, which
Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet ordered built in the
border region in the mid-Eighties, are being
dismantled over the next three to four months,
according to senior security sources. The bases on
three hilltops at Crotlieve near Forkhill, Camlough
Mountain and Faughil Mountain are to be pulled down by
the 22nd Regiment (The Cheshires).

The sources said there were two reasons for speeding
up the de-militarisation process (Operation Banner) in
what was the most dangerous region for British
soldiers in Europe. One said: 'The first thing is that
on the ground the police are carrying out normal
duties often without any military support. They are
handing out speeding tickets and checking for drunk
drivers in south Armagh; they are riding about on
bikes in Newry.

'The second reason, which the government and MoD will
never admit, is that they are speeding things up to
help the Sinn Fein leadership. The government is
privately worried that the recent spy scandals inside
the republican movement has undermined Gerry Adams's
authority. They [Adams and his colleagues] need some
visible small victories - getting rid of the spy posts
is an obvious way of giving the republicans something
to cheer about.'

Officially the army is stressing that the re-
deployment of units from The Cheshires from their base
in Ballykinlar, Co Derry, into south Armagh is simply
to replace the last Roulement Battalion, which
currently occupies the posts as well as the nearby
military base at Bessbrook Mill. An army spokesman
said the target date for full normalisation was still
August 2007. He said the Cheshires, who are being
redeployed, would still provide military support for
the PSNI in the region.

At the height of the British military presence there
were 18 watchtowers in south Armagh. One of the key
reasons for constructing the posts from 1986 was to
watch Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, the then-IRA chief-of-
staff whom MI5 once classified as the most dangerous
terrorist in Europe. Two of the posts overlooked the
millionaire smuggler's farm, which straddles the Irish
border.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein has criticised the Irish
government for shelving plans to give presidential
pardons to on-the-run terrorists.

Dermot Ahern announced last week that the scheme,
which would affect about six people, would not be
implemented. This followed the British government’s
decision to withdraw its proposals.

Gerry Kelly of Sinn Fein said yesterday that the Irish
government’s decision was unreasonable. “In the south
there is a much smaller number involved,” he said.
“But it is still an anomaly which came from the Good
Friday agreement and could have been sorted out.”

Kelly, a former hunger striker, was himself on the run
for three years after taking part in a mass break-out
from the Maze prison in 1983 where he was being held
for bombing offences committed in London. He was
recaptured in Holland in 1986 when he was found in
possession of bomb-making equipment.

The Irish government made it clear months ago that its
proposals would not be implemented unless there were
parallel arrangements in Britain.

Peter Hain withdrew his bill last week at Sinn Fein’s
request.

Last month Gerry Adams told Hain that Sinn Fein would
be asking on-the-run terrorists not to avail of the
planned legislation because it also benefited members
of the security forces who committed offences during
the Troubles.

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

http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=69249&pt=n

Sinn Fein Signals End To Police Boycott

Sinn Fein today signalled it was ready to end its
boycott of Northern Ireland's police service once
further reforms are achieved.

By:Press Association

Senior party negotiator Gerry Kelly told supporters in
Belfast that a new policing situation was possible and
urged them to be ready to make some big decisions.

With the emphasis on achieving more changes, he said:
"It is not an impossible task and republicans need to
be acutely aware that if and when the Sinn Fein
leadership achieves the objectives it set in this area
then this is turn will present further challenges for
all activists.

"There is a public commitment if we reach that point
to then put proposals to our membership and
nationalism as a whole.

"While we are not at that point yet, activists need to
realise that we can achieve it and with achievement
there comes further responsibility."

Sinn Fein has been demanding more reforms to policing,
one of the key strands in the Northern Ireland
political process, claiming elements within the force
are still waging a dirty tricks campaign against
republicans.

Any deal to restore the collapsed power-sharing
Government at Stormont would involve reaching a
settlement on the issue, with calls for policing and
justice powers to be transferred from Westminster to
Belfast.

The party has refused to recommend the Police Service
of Northern Ireland as a career for young Catholics or
take its seats on the authority which holds the force
to account.

But Mr Kelly told an all-Ireland conference on
policing and justice: "In the poisoned atmosphere
created by political policing which I have just
listed, the question is, is it possible to achieve a
new policing dispensation. The answer to that is yes."

He added: "Negotiations herald change. Change brings
turmoil and soul searching. It also means breaking
moulds.

"If we accept that the political changes over the last
decade have caused massive upheaval for the unionist
and British system which has misruled the North for so
many years let us also accept that republicans have
had to face and deal with the challenges the political
and emotional rollercoaster of change brings.

"Nobody said it would be easy. Here is the challenge
facing us.

"As political activists we must think strategically,
debate strategically and decide what is best for our
party, for the cause we represent and most importantly
for the people we represent. We must do that in
partnership and in dialogue with our community.

"Last December in theory at least, we were within
months of having a decisive debate on this issue.
Delegates were encouraged to go back to their areas
and open up the debate within Sinn Fein and their
communities.

"I repeat that call today. Keep that discussion
going."

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

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-
/1/hi/northern_ireland/4613126.stm

Nuns Escape Harm In Convent Blaze

Nine nuns have escaped injury after a fire, believed
to have been started deliberately, damaged a convent
in west Belfast.

The fire started in a storage shed next to the Sisters
of Mercy Convent on the Ardnavagh Road in Beechmount
at 2150 GMT on Friday.

It then spread to the convent and badly damaged the
roof and the kitchen.

The nuns, including a 98-year-old, were badly shocked
but not injured. No one needed to be moved from the
convent.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/01/14 17:00:19 GMT
© BBC MMVI

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

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article33869
1.ece

MI5 Will Get New Powers To Bug MPs

Furious cabinet revolt as Blair gives green light for
security services to spy on elected representatives

By Francis Elliott, Whitehall Editor
Published: 15 January 2006

Tony Blair is preparing to scrap a 40-year ban on
tapping MPs' telephones, despite fierce Cabinet
opposition, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

He is expected to formally announce to the Commons
within weeks that MPs can no longer be sure that the
security services and others will not intercept their
communications.

Until now, successive administrations have pledged
that there should be no tapping "whatsoever" of MPs'
phones, and that they would be told if it was
necessary to breach the ban.

But that convention - known as the Wilson Doctrine,
after Harold Wilson, the prime minister who introduced
it - is to be abandoned in an expansion of MI5 powers
following the London bombings.

MPs should be treated in the same way as other
citizens and will be given the same safeguards against
wrongful tapping, the Prime Minister will say.

The decision provoked a furious row in the Cabinet
just before Christmas, when the Secretary of State for
Defence, John Reid, voiced his opposition.

His outburst surprised other ministers, since he is
seen as one of Mr Blair's closest allies and not known
for his support for civil liberties.

"Reid demanded to know why on earth we were going down
this route," said one government colleague. "It was
all the more surprising since you would have thought
the MoD is one of the departments most in favour of
increased surveillance powers."

A Downing Street spokesman last night said: "The
recommendation has been received and will be
considered in due course." Mr Blair was last night put
on notice that any attempt to tap MPs' phones would be
bitterly opposed in the Commons. Andrew Mackinlay,
Labour MP for Thurrock, said it was a "hallmark of a
civilised country" that its state did not spy on
elected representatives.

"This goes to the heart of what is to have a free
Parliament not some privilege enjoyed by MPs.
Constituents, pressure groups and other organisations
need to know for sure that they are talking to their
elected representatives in complete confidence."

He is to press for the Commons' Committee on Standards
and Privileges to urgently investigate the Downing
Street plans to ditch the convention.

Professor Peter Hennessy, the Whitehall and
constitutional expert, also called on MPs to question
Mr Blair's intentions. "It seems pretty odd to me that
they should be doing this," he said.

There has been a marked expansion of surveillance in
Britain since 1997. New technology and new laws mean
that Britons are among the most spied-on citizens on
earth.

Sweeping new powers to snoop on emails, texts and
other communications were included in the Regulation
of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, while satellite
technology offers multiple new surveillance
opportunities for the secret state.

Mr Blair has confirmed at least three timesthat his
government observed the Wilson Doctrine, most recently
in 2003 when it became clear that MI5 had been bugging
Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams, who has not taken his seat
and so is not formally an MP.

Tony Blair is preparing to scrap a 40-year ban on
tapping MPs' telephones, despite fierce Cabinet
opposition, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

He is expected to formally announce to the Commons
within weeks that MPs can no longer be sure that the
security services and others will not intercept their
communications.

Until now, successive administrations have pledged
that there should be no tapping "whatsoever" of MPs'
phones, and that they would be told if it was
necessary to breach the ban.

But that convention - known as the Wilson Doctrine,
after Harold Wilson, the prime minister who introduced
it - is to be abandoned in an expansion of MI5 powers
following the London bombings.

MPs should be treated in the same way as other
citizens and will be given the same safeguards against
wrongful tapping, the Prime Minister will say.

The decision provoked a furious row in the Cabinet
just before Christmas, when the Secretary of State for
Defence, John Reid, voiced his opposition.

His outburst surprised other ministers, since he is
seen as one of Mr Blair's closest allies and not known
for his support for civil liberties.

"Reid demanded to know why on earth we were going down
this route," said one government colleague. "It was
all the more surprising since you would have thought
the MoD is one of the departments most in favour of
increased surveillance powers."

A Downing Street spokesman last night said: "The
recommendation has been received and will be
considered in due course." Mr Blair was last night put
on notice that any attempt to tap MPs' phones would be
bitterly opposed in the Commons. Andrew Mackinlay,
Labour MP for Thurrock, said it was a "hallmark of a
civilised country" that its state did not spy on
elected representatives.

"This goes to the heart of what is to have a free
Parliament not some privilege enjoyed by MPs.
Constituents, pressure groups and other organisations
need to know for sure that they are talking to their
elected representatives in complete confidence."

He is to press for the Commons' Committee on Standards
and Privileges to urgently investigate the Downing
Street plans to ditch the convention.

Professor Peter Hennessy, the Whitehall and
constitutional expert, also called on MPs to question
Mr Blair's intentions. "It seems pretty odd to me that
they should be doing this," he said.

There has been a marked expansion of surveillance in
Britain since 1997. New technology and new laws mean
that Britons are among the most spied-on citizens on
earth.

Sweeping new powers to snoop on emails, texts and
other communications were included in the Regulation
of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, while satellite
technology offers multiple new surveillance
opportunities for the secret state.

Mr Blair has confirmed at least three timesthat his
government observed the Wilson Doctrine, most recently
in 2003 when it became clear that MI5 had been bugging
Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams, who has not taken his seat
and so is not formally an MP.

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

http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=17576

Reiss Under Fire

The U.S. special envoy to the peace process,
Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, has come under Irish
American fire in the aftermath of the collapse of the
so-called "Stormontgate" affair.

"Dr. Reiss has spent a lot of time trying to promote
the Northern Ireland police. He has vigorously tried
to convince Irish-Americans that the bad old days were
over and that we should without reservation endorse
the PSNI," Fr. Sean McManus, president of the
Washington, D.C.-based Irish National caucus, said in
a statement.

"Well, I'm afraid our concerns have been justified.
Some of us tried to convince Dr. Reiss that the
Mugabe-style, high-media covered, raid on Sinn Féin
offices was all about destroying the Good Friday
agreement and pulling down the Assembly, but he would
not listen.

"I hope Dr. Reiss now realizes he has been too naïve
about the police, just like so many others before him.
There is a long history of outsiders who finally had
to admit that cleaning up the Northern Ireland police
was far more difficult than they had previously
thought," McManus added.

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

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca
=9&si=1541608&issue_id=13540

SF Policies Would Kill Celtic Tiger

Ciaran Byrne and Jane Suiter

SINN FEIN'S economic policies would be "suicide" for
the Celtic Tiger, halting the housing boom in its
tracks and triggering massive job losses, according to
the country's leading economists.

The centrepiece of the party's new economic policy is
a huge hike in corporation tax from 12 per cent to
17.5 per cent - a plan described this weekend as
"suicide" by the chief economist of financial group
Friends First.

In a further sign the party has blundered in its
attempts to woo business votes and possible coalition
partners, its policies have been dismissed as
"illiterate" by Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

The party wants to hammer high-earners on €100,000 or
more with a punitive top tax rate of 50 per cent, a
move which economists say would trigger labour
shortages at a time when the country needs more
workers.

The Sunday Independent can reveal that a number of
Ireland's top business figures attended a function
over the Christmas period to discuss the effects of
Sinn Fein in power. The group of senior business
figures and economists, including Jim Power of Friends
First, heard that US investment could "dry up
overnight" with Sinn Fein in government.

Sinn Fein's revamp of its Marxist policies was an
attempt, claimed party chairman Mitchell McLaughlin,
to address the rapid economic change of recent years
and the emergence of "a different world". But many
leading business figures and US companies are deeply
alarmed by Sinn Fein's bizarre proposal to put
increased tax pressure on foreign multinationals.

Multinationals are the biggest provider of jobs in
Ireland. Sinn Fein's plan would simply drive these
jobs away, leaving thousands unemployed, stalling
house prices and plunging the Irish economy into a
recession that would reverse the economic gains of
recent years, say economists.

Mr Power told the Sunday Independent: "We are
increasingly coming under pressure with
competitiveness falling and increasing competition
from India, the Far East and the new accession states
in the EU.

"In that environment, the notion of hiking corporate
tax to over 17 per cent would be suicide, low
corporate tax is one of the few competitive advantages
we have at this stage."

Commenting on Sinn Fein's policies, Justice Minister
Michael McDowell said last night: "It confirmed that
Sinn Fein is a party which is economically illiterate,
with little or no understanding of how modern business
operates or indeed the role of the multi-national
sector in the Irish economy.

"For a start, Sinn Fein claims that multinationals
'siphon' off €25bn from the Irish economy, in fact
they repatriate approximately €57bn less the
approximate €33bn which Irish firms take home from
their investments abroad," he said.

Dr Dan McLaughlin, chief economist at Bank of Ireland,
said: "We are kidding ourselves if we think that a lot
of foreign capital is here because we are smart, young
and English-speaking. The key is low corporate tax
rates which are crucial for a small economy on the
edge of Europe."

He was also scathing about Sinn Fein's plan to raise
income taxes to 50 per cent for "high-earners".
According to Mr McLaughlin, high taxes simply reduce
supply.

Jim Power believes multinationals are a vitally
important part of the economy. "Is Sinn Fein saying
they do not want companies like Google or Intel in
Ireland?"

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

http://www.unison.ie/business/stories.php3?ca=80&si=15
41669

Law Enforcer Hits SF Boss's Firms For €5k

Sunday January 15th 2006

Shane Ross And Ralph Benson

SEVEN companies directed by Sinn Fein boss Des Mackin
have been found guilty of failing to keep proper books
of account.

Last month the seven companies, nearly all based in
Dublin's Parnell Centre, pleaded guilty to charges
brought against them by the director of Corporate Law
Enforcement, Paul Appleby.

In a court hearing held in December, all seven
companies were given the Probation Act, provided they
made a large donation to charity.

The defendants agreed to give €5,000 to a charity of
their choice which was not named in court. The case is
due for mention in court tomorrow when the identity of
the charity should emerge.

The defendants in the case acknowledged that proper
books had not been maintained but pleaded that the
debts incurred by the companies were all intergroup
and that no outsiders were affected by any failures in
their operations.

The companies were nearly all businesses with a high
cash turnover, including Century City an amusement
business, two restaurant outfits, Strike Four and Flix
Restaurants, Daylong with a bar licence, Sheridan
Simulations and Sheridan Theatres - both involved in
motion pictures.

The final company, Grove Construction, is in the
property sector.

The director of all seven companies, Sinn Fein
treasurer Des Mackin, was unwilling to talk to the
Sunday Independent on Friday evening.

"I am busy today, maybe you would give me a call
tomorrow," he replied and promptly put down the phone.

Mr Mackin, who was convicted of IRA membership in the
Eighties, is accompanied on the board of all seven
businesses by Peter Curistan, a Belfast businessman
whose company developed the Odyssey Arena in Belfast
and was also responsible for the development of the
Parnell Centre.

The defendants told Judge Hugh O'Donnell that six of
the seven companies would be wound up as they were
non-trading. The seventh, Century City, is still
trading. It is intended that PricewaterhouseCoopers of
Belfast will be appointed as liquidators to the
companies.

And in a surprise related development, it has emerged
that Horwath Bastow Charlton accountants have resigned
as auditors to Sheridan Simulations, one of the
companies found not to have kept proper books.

In a recent auditors' report on one of the other
Mackin/Curistan companies, Strike Four, HBC admitted
that: "We are unable to establish whether proper books
and records were kept by the company and we have not
obtained all the information and explanations which we
considered necessary."

Niall O'Neill, partner in Horwath Bastow Charlton,
told the Sunday Independent yesterday that HBC had
resigned "from most but not all" of the Dublin
companies associated with Mackin.

He added that the auditors resignation had nothing to
do with earlier Sunday Independent articles on the
companies, but he was simply "maintaining professional
standards".

Last week, the Sinn Fein boss was joined in his
preference for the Parnell Centre by British club
owner, Peter Stringfellow, who was granted permission
to run a dancing club on the same premises. Mr
Stringfellow's application was opposed by local
residents who maintained that it would lower the tone
of the area.

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http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0300nation
alnews/tm_objectid=16506927&method=full&siteid=50061&h
eadline=mccartney-sister-urges-blair-to-act-
name_page.html

McCartney Sister Urges Blair To Act

Dec 20 2005

A sister of Northern Ireland murder victim Robert
McCartney has demanded Tony Blair to ask Sinn Fein
leaders about their members 'lack of co-operation'
with an inquiry.

The Prime Minister should ask them "very serious
questions" about party members' reluctance to co-
operate with the inquiry into the murder said
Catherine McCartney.

She was speaking after meeting the Prime Minister in
Downing Street. She was accompanied by sister Paula
and Sinead Commander, whose husband, Jeff, was
assaulted during a confrontation between pro- and
anti-McCartney factions.

The campaign to find the killers of the Belfast
father-of-two has upset some in the republican Short
Strand area.

His family insist it is a misconception to blame rogue
republican elements for the killing of Mr McCartney
following a row in a bar.

Evidence points towards the involvement of those now
applying for prominent roles in community
organisations which stem from benefits of the peace
process, they say.

Speaking after her meeting in No 10, Catherine
McCartney said the family needed answers rather than
sympathy.

"For members of a political party to not co-operate in
a murder investigation, I just won't accept that that
should be tolerated by anybody," she said.

Ms McCartney told reporters: "What we want is very
simple and we should not have to lead this campaign.

"It is a disgrace that we are having to stand here
outside Downing Street and seek justice for my
brother."

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

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/opinion/story.j
sp?story=675779

Opin: Vast Majority Not Ready To Forgive And Forget

Barry White
14 January 2006

Now I know why the Secretary of State looked pained
when I asked him, face to face, whether the forecasts
of changes to the on-the-runs Bill were correct.

"You'll find out in the course of time," was all he
said. And roughly 15 hours later we all did. The Bill
was scrapped.

He had got it wrong, and I did too. When I heard the
details of the Bill - the quasi-judicial process, the
non-appearance of the suspect terrorists, the open-
ended amnesty - I was surprised but not appalled.

We'd been through so much, and seen so many villains
walk free - into elected jobs, no less - that another
injustice would be grudgingly accepted, eventually.
We'd be able to put the ghastly past, like the
sectarian tit-for-tat murders of 30 years ago, behind
us and concentrate on becoming, as Peter Hain likes to
call it, "a world-class economy".

Not a chance. The vast majority of people are not
nearly ready for such a let-bygones-be-bygones
approach. The "war" may be over but, because there was
no victory or defeat, we'll fight on by other means.

The Bill was too lenient, of course, to the bombers
and murderers who would like to return home, at least
for holidays. It could have insisted on them applying
within a year or two and could have made them appear
in person, so that victims could see them. (There
would have been no confessions, because everyone was
acting under orders, of course.) But it is clear that
Sinn Fein had a major hand in drawing up the
legislation, along with the Government, and they got
what they wanted. Except for the amnesty for the
security forces, which the Government had to offer,
and was eventually the Bill's undoing.

Unionists and nationalists have welcomed the U-turn,
but for completely different reasons, as usual. When
we're asked to accept that atrocities were perpetrated
on both sides, and that getting the culprits into
court is well-nigh impossible, we'd rather hold on to
that hope than move on with our lives.

I've seen it at first hand in Omagh. There is a
notable absentee from those seeking justice,
legitimately enough, for the 1998 bomb. He or she,
knowing it could occupy the rest of their life - like
the litigants in Dickens' Bleak House - concentrates
on other things.

So the on-the-runs obstacle, that promised to abort a
new round of negotiations on devolution has been
removed temporarily, leaving many others.

The side-deal with Sinn Fein helped secure IRA peace,
but now they feel betrayed, while unionists are
encouraged by the destruction of a key government
policy.

What a messy backdrop, further complicated by the Cory
inquiries, against which Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern
are trying to revive Stormont. They can threaten to
withdraw salaries, but everyone knows these must end
by May, 2007, anyway, unless a DUP-Sinn Fein deal is
done and an election can be held.

So far, Tony Blair has kept hope alive at Westminster
but if it dies, what then? Who would bet on Gordon
Brown, or David Cameron, devoting as much time, or
money, to us as Blair?

When all's said and done, the only threat that might
force the DUP and Sinn Fein together could be some
threat to the Union itself. Impossible? Bertie Ahern
might hope so but more and more Westminster
politicians accept that we are a place apart.

He wanted to be remembered for his football, and
here's the Best website:
www.pdqwebhosting.com/george.htm Enjoy.

Who was playing football with his four-year-old
grandson in the ornate Throne Room of Hillsborough
Castle over Christmas? Confessing all, Peter Hain said
the ball was very soft.

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

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-
1986156,00.html

Hunger Striker Turns Property Millionaire

Brian Carey and Enda Leahy

HE HAS moved from the H-Blocks to apartment blocks.
Now Tom McFeely, a former IRA hunger striker, stands
to make millions from one of Dublin’s biggest shopping
developments.

Thirty years ago a judge described him as “an
extremely dangerous, intelligent and vicious young
man”, but McFeely has now emerged as a key player in
the planned €500m extension of the Square shopping
centre in Tallaght.

The former IRA member, who spent 53 days on hunger
strike in Long Kesh prison in 1980, is doing the deal
alongside Noel Smyth and Derek Quinlan, two of
Ireland’s richest and most successful property
developers.

The redevelopment will include the creation of a new
main street for the west Dublin suburb.

Now resident on Dublin’s upmarket Ailesbury Road,
McFeely worked his way into the Square deal through a
shrewd property manoeuvre. He and his partner Larry
O’Mahony are believed to have paid up to €50m to
acquire Lowes Tavern, a company part-owned by Dublin
auctioneer Sean Davin last March.

Lowes Tavern holds a “licence agreement” with South
Dublin county council (SDCC) to use an 18-acre car
park close to the Square. It is understood that this
agreement alone was valued at €30m when McFeely and
O’Mahony purchased Lowes Tavern from Davin.

The licence is extremely valuable because the owners
of the Square, a partnership of wealthy Dublin
businessmen, have been unable to extend the shopping
centre into the car park without it. The sale of Lowes
Tavern was described by a senior Dublin property
adviser as “one of the property coups of the year”.

The car park is owned by SDCC which has been anxious
to promote the Square extension. To the embarrassment
of the council, its own licence hindered the project.

Although talks between the Square’s wealthy owners and
Davin took place over the licence, McFeely and
O’Mahony trumped all other bidders to scoop the
valuable licence agreement.

It has been reported that McFeely, a builder, and
O’Mahony, a Dublin timber merchant-turned-developer,
have a one-third share in the company planning the
extension, as a result of their acquisition of Lowes
Tavern.

The redevelopment will triple the amount of shopping
space and will help the Tallaght centre, opened in
1990, to catch up with rival operations in Dundrum,
Blanchardstown and Liffey Valley.

Senior property sources believe other partners may try
to buy out McFeely’s and O’Mahony’s “position” in the
development, yielding a substantial profit for the
Lowes Tavern shareholders.

The other shareholders in the development company are
Alburn, headed by Smyth, and a partnership that
includes Quinlan and a number of Ireland’s wealthiest
business people.

McFeely has been active in other business deals in
both Britain and Ireland. He and O’Mahony purchased
the Tallaght Plaza hotel last year.

The former IRA member served 12 of a 26-year sentence
in the Maze prison for robbing a post office and
shooting and wounding an RUC officer during a siege of
a house in Co Derry. He was released under the royal
prerogative on the recommendation of the Court of
Criminal Appeal in Northern Ireland in 1987, which
ruled that the 12- and 14-year sentences, ordered by
the original trial judge to run consecutively, were
excessive considering the crimes.

After he was convicted by the Belfast City Commission
Court in 1977 the judge told McFeely: “I am satisfied
that you are a dangerous young man. You are
intelligent and vicious and you seem to be glorifying
in your acivity.

“You are a danger to the public and a greater danger
to the police. It is clear that you must be put away
for a long time.”

McFeely replied: “I may serve the term, but you will
not.”

It was the second time the Dungiven man had been
jailed. He was one of 19 IRA men who escaped from
Portlaoise prison in 1974 when a terrorist exploded a
bomb inside the compound destroying one of the walls.

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