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January 04, 2006

Guns Used In Murders Linked To RUC

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News about Ireland & the Irish

BT 01/04/06 Guns Used In Brothers' Murder Linked To RUC
BT 01/04/06 Finding A Deadly Link
SF 01/04/06 DUP Claims On Unionist Discrimination Dismissed
DU 01/04/06 Progress On Unionist Deprivation & Alienation
SF 01/04/06 Doherty -Will 2006 See Confident Of Unionism?
DI 01/04/06 Unionists Reject Leadership Call
UT 01/04/06 SDLP Proposals For New NI Initiative
NL 01/04/06 Robinson - Forget Failed Agreement
BT 01/04/06 Cycles Of Violence Way Of Explaining Troubles
BT 01/04/06 Fire Service Reveals Cross-Border Link-Ups
BT 01/04/06 Internet Archive Of Omagh Atrocity
IE 01/04/06 Opin: Adams- Reiss Attack Fuels Wrong Message
DI 01/04/06 Opin: Morrison- DUP Is Going Nowhere Without SF
DI 01/04/06 Opin: Loyalism's True Face
DJ 01/04/06 Opin: Transforming The North
BT 01/04/06 Opin: Road Cameras Not Threat To Liberties
BT 01/04/06 Opin: No Wonder SF Have Become Insecurocrats
BT 01/04/06 Swan Is Beheaded In Horror Incident
BT 01/04/06 Teasing 'May Have Sparked Terrier Attack'
MI 01/04/06 TV Ireland: Documentary Fionnula Flanagan TG4

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

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=674730

Guns Used In Brothers' Murder Linked To RUC

By Chris Thornton
cthornton@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
04 January 2006

THE murder of three Catholic brothers that led to the
Kingsmills massacre was carried out with guns later used by
RUC officers in an attack on a pub, according to long-
hidden ballistic evidence.

The forensic evidence shows that two weapons used to murder
the Reavey brothers in south Armagh 30 years ago today were
used five months later by three policemen in a gun and bomb
attack on a pub. The officers - one of whom was on duty
when the attack was carried out - were convicted of the
attack, but only one was jailed.

Now the son of a man murdered in the wave of sectarian
attacks that hit the region in 1975 and 1976 says a truth
process is needed to explain the police link to the
attacks.

The attack on the brothers in their home at Whitecross, Co
Armagh, on January 4, 1976 and the simultaneous murder of
three members of the O'Dowd family near Gilford, Co Down
are believed to have led the IRA - then officially on
ceasefire - to massacre 10 Protestant workmen at
Kingsmills, Co Armagh the next evening.

The attacks started the second worst annual death toll in
the Troubles, with another 290 people dying before 1976 was
finished.

No one has been convicted for any of the three attacks.

The 24-hour spasm of violence began with the attack on the
Reavey home. Two of the brothers, John and Brian, died
immediately. Their 17-year-old brother Anthony died three
weeks later.

A Luger pistol and a 9mm sub-machinegun used in the murders
were matched by ballistic traces to a gun and bomb attack
on the Rock Bar, outside Keady, which took place five
months later. One man was wounded in that attack when the
bomb failed to explode.

Three police officers were convicted in 1980 for the Rock
Bar attack. One - who was already serving a life sentence
for sectarian murder - was given a jail sentence while the
other two were given suspended sentences.

A fourth policeman was convicted of withholding information
and also received a suspended sentence.

The judge who passed sentence, the then Lord Chief Justice
Lord Lowry, said "powerful motives" had pushed the
officers, including "the feeling that more than ordinary
police work was needed and justified to rid the land of the
pestilence which has been in existence".

The RUC did not reveal the ballistic link between the
Reavey murders and the Rock Bar attack for almost 25 years.

William McCaughey, the constable jailed for the Rock Bar
attack, said it was "perfectly natural" for loyalists to be
in the UVF and the RUC.

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

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=674750

Finding A Deadly Link

By Chris Thornton
cthornton@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
04 January 2006

Thirty years ago the IRA was on ceasefire and the
Government had been trying to entice loyalists into
politics, but the period saw some of the worst sectarian
warfare. Chris Thornton reports on a previously undisclosed
link between the RUC and loyalists who murdered six people
30 years ago today

CYCLES of violence were always the simple way of explaining
the Troubles. Someone would shoot somebody and someone else
would get shot in revenge: Protestants and Catholics at
each other's throats.

Simple doesn't mean wrong. In 1975 and '76, Armagh and its
environs - the border, parts of Tyrone, bits of Down known
collectively as the murder triangle - were in a prolonged
cycle of violence that cost scores of lives and culminated
exactly 30 years ago in 16 deaths across two brutal
evenings.

But simple doesn't tell everything.

It doesn't explain the decay of the IRA's ceasefire during
that period. Or the increase in UVF attacks that followed
their legalisation by the Government. Nor does it explain
the direct involvement of RUC officers in an attack on a
Catholic bar, an attack that took place while at least one
of them was on duty.

This was the time of Miami, of Tullyvallen, of attacks that
today, 30 years later, are cited by some as acts of
provocation for what came after.

In the last six months of 1975, around 50 people were
killed in the murder triangle, a rate of about two a week.
They died in groups, in pub bombings or a spray of gunfire
or both, or alone, as assassins waited while they backed
their car out of the driveway.

It's difficult to see where it started, but with hindsight
it's easy to see where it led.

On January 4, 1976, co-ordinated attacks on the homes of
two Catholic families, the Reaveys of Whitecross, Co Armagh
and the O'Dowds of Ballyduggan, Co Down, left five men
dead. The youngest was 19 and the oldest 61. A 17-year-old
wounded in the first attack, Anthony Reavey, would die
before the month was out.

The murders looked like they had been carried out as
reprisal for a New Year's Eve bomb attack on a Protestant
bar, which may have been retaliation for a murder in a
Catholic bar the night before, and so on.

And so it went on: the night after the Reaveys and O'Dowds
were murdered in their homes, ten Protestant workmen were
killed by the IRA at Kingsmills, Co Armagh.

The three Reavey boys - John, 24, Brian, 22, and Anthony -
were home on their own, watching television after most of
their large family had gone out. It was just after six
o'clock when a gunman twisted the key in their front door
and stepped inside with two others.

Anthony, who survived long enough to give police a
statement, described the first gunmen opening fire without
saying a word. His brother John was killed by the first
burst, and he and his brother Brian were both shot as they
ran for a bedroom.

"There was constant shooting at this time," he said. "I
think I was shot as I ran into the room, and again as I lay
under the bed. I heard shooting whilst I was under the bed;
I could hear Brian making a noise."

At least 43 bullets were fired, then the gunmen
methodically searched the house, but found no one else.

When the shooting and the sounds of searching stopped, and
he could hear only the TV, Anthony pulled himself from
under the bed. His brothers were dead, and he staggered to
a neighbour's house. He was discharged from hospital two
weeks later, but died unexpectedly on January 30.

"We were in shock," recalled Seamus Reavey, another
brother, this week. "We didn't know until later years what
fear was in the country. Later we were told everybody was
buying locks, but we weren't told these things until
afterwards."

In that part of the world at least, there would be no keys
left in locks after that night.

About the time Anthony Reavey reached his neighbours,
gunmen were also walking into the home of the O'Dowd
family, outside Gilford. Family and friends were gathering
to see off Barry O'Dowd, who was returning to oil rig work
after being home for the holidays. The attackers shot 19-
year-old Declan in the hallway, then entered the living
room and shot every man in it.

Barry, who was 24, died immediately and his uncle, 61-year-
old Joe O'Dowd, was also killed. Barry and Declan's father,
Barney, was hit nine times, but survived. The notorious
loyalist Robin Jackson, known as the Jackal, was believed
to have been one of the gunmen.

The bloodshed of that night and the next seemed most
remarkable for the concentration of such a number of
killings in such a short period of time; in terms of the
clinical brutality with which they were carried out, they
were almost typical of the time.

But there was another exceptional factor. Four guns were
fired in the Reavey murders, and three of them are known to
have been used again. Two of those - a 9mm pistol and a 9mm
sub-machine gun - were fired five months later in an attack
that remains one of the most curious of the Troubles.

The gun and bomb attack on the Rock Bar in Granemore, near
Keady, Co Armagh, has faded from most accounts of the
conflict, not least because no one died. And when the
perpetrators were convicted, the headlines were dominated
by the related conviction of a policeman for kidnapping a
priest.

On the same day that Constable William McCaughey was jailed
for kidnapping Fr Hugh Murphy, he and three other RUC
officers he served alongside were convicted in relation to
a gun and bomb attack on the Rock Bar in June 1976.
McCaughey, who was already serving a life sentence for the
UVF murder of Catholic chemist William Strathearn, was the
only one given a jail sentence for the attack, which left
one customer wounded.

That customer had been leaving the rural pub when a green
car containing hooded gunmen pulled up. The car contained
McCaughey and two other officers, Constables Lawrence
McClure and Ian Mitchell. According to court records,
McCaughey admitted shooting the departing customer, who was
wounded in the stomach. One of the other attackers then
placed a bomb at the door of the pub, which still had 17
people inside. Its detonator exploded, but the main charge
failed to go off. With McCaughey, the other two officers
admitted causing an explosion and other charges.

Here were police officers leading dual lives - carrying out
an attack as hooded gunmen and investigating the same as
members of the RUC. The difference was hard to distinguish:
Mitchell was involved in taking statements from witnesses
to a similar pub attack a few months later.

And the PSNI told the Pat Finucane Centre, the Derry-based
human rights organisation which specialises in examining
breaches by the security forces, that McClure was actually
on duty at the time of the attack.

William McCaughey, recalling the events of Kingsmills and
the other attacks this week, contends that it was
"perfectly natural" to be in the UVF and the RUC. "There
was no contradiction," he said. "Whatever way you could
fight the IRA. As simple as that. No great conspiracy."

McCaughey says suggestions of collusion are overblown. He
says the Armagh attacks "may have been in a climate and
environment that British intelligence created" but adds:
"As far as I'm concerned I was involved in activities with
the UVF and, when I was involved in those activities, the
UVF was in primary control.

After McCaughey was arrested for the Strathearn murder, the
RUC questioned him and the other officers about the Rock
Bar attack. A fourth constable was convicted of withholding
information about the attack.

A sergeant he identified as saying that a bomb had been
prepared for the Rock Bar was not charged, but was jailed
for helping McCaughey carry out the kidnapping.

The then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lowry, gave all but
McCaughey suspended sentences. They had acted under
"powerful motives", he said, which were in one case the
"mortal danger of their service and in the other the
feeling that more than ordinary police work was needed and
justified to rid the land of the pestilence which has been
in existence".

He praised the RUC for acting without fear or favour in
bringing their own before the court. But what the court had
not heard - and what was not disclosed to anyone for almost
another quarter century - was that the guns used by the
police officers to attack the Rock Bar had also been used
in the Reavey murders. One of the two weapons had also been
used in an earlier double murder.

Such forensic links don't constitute conclusive proof: if
someone shoots a gun once, it doesn't necessarily mean they
shot it before. But it does indicate a strong connection -
it was at least evidence that whatever the "powerful
motives" the officers might have been operating under, they
were linked to a murderous paramilitary ring.

The forensic links were suspected, but not disclosed. In
its investigations of a series of incidents in South
Armagh, the Pat Finucane Centre noticed that similar guns
were used repeatedly.

"We had a number of meetings with the police," said Alan
Brecknell, whose father Trevor was killed by a gun used in
the Reavey murders (but not the Rock Bar attack). "They
would have said things like such and such a gun was used in
a shooting - a Webley revolver, say, and a Stirling sub-
machine gun. Then we'd go into another meeting later in the
day and the same guns would come up again."

Nor was this the first time forensic links had been raised.
A few years after his brothers were murdered, Seamus Reavey
said a Royal Marine approached his family and told them
there ballistic links between the killings and a series of
attacks, including one in which two soldiers in civilian
clothes had been killed, possibly in mistake for IRA
members.

The group asked Justice Henry Barron, the Dublin judge
investigating the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, to seek
forensic information. In an appendix to his report on those
bombings, he said the PSNI gave him "considerable
information", including the forensic links between the gun
attacks.

He said the information showed a link between the Rock Bar
attack and a series of other attacks attributed to
loyalists, which tied into the Dublin investigation. "It
confirmed what we'd suspected - the same guns were being
used in the murders," said Alan Brecknell.

More information may emerge later this month. Trevor
Brecknell's widow, Alan's mother, is due to take a High
Court action in an attempt to force the Director of Public
Prosecutions to explain why two people charged in
connection with his murder - including Laurence McClure,
one of the Rock Bar officers - were never prosecuted.

And Mr Justice Barron is expected to produce a new report
detailing events behind a loyalist attack on Kay's Tavern
in Dundalk.

It took place the same night that Trevor Brecknell and two
others were killed in a similar pub attack in Silverbridge.

The PSNI Historical Inquiries Team is expected to review
the cycle of South Armagh killings, but the force would not
comment on specific cases. Alan Brecknell and Seamus Reavey
both say they believe the first investigations into the
deaths of their relatives were inadequate.

"I think what all this points to is that we need some sort
of a truth process where everyone who was a party to the
conflict comes forward and tells their version of what
happened and why it happened," said Mr Brecknell.

"That includes government and whoever. They need to tell
everything about commission or omission - that is, whether
they were directly involved or let things happen."

Like so many victims, they still want an explanation that
says more than it was just their turn in the cycle.

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

http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/12488

DUP Claims On Unionist Discrimination Dismissed

Published: 4 January, 2006

Sinn Féin Equality and Human Rights Spokesperson, South
Down MLA has dismissed the claims of DUP MP Gregory
Campbell that an inherent bias against unionism exists in
the employment market.

Ms Ruane said:

"Gregory Campbell like many within the DUP is obsessed with
the myth that there is a bias against unionism. These
claims do not stand up to scrutiny.

"Across every single indicator of poverty and deprivation
the fact is that nationalists fair worse than unionists.
Yes there has been progress for nationalist and Sinn Féin
is committed to further advancing the equality agenda. Yes
there are deprived unionist areas and Sinn Féin is
committed to combating that. But the fact remains that in
employment, housing, and ill health that the reality for
nationalists is worse.

"Unionists have never acknowledged the history of the
state, their own responsibility for this and for the
conflict which resulted from this. The Agreement addresses
Equality, Human Rights and Policing agendas precisely
because there has been institutionalised discrimination,
sectarian policing, injustice and repression.

"Gregory Campbell would do more for the community he claims
to serve is he stopped telling them lies and did more to
protect and advance the Equality Agenda." ENDS

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

http://www.dup.org.uk/

New Year Must Herald Progress On Tackling Unionist
Deprivation And Alienation

Cllr Robin Newton East Belfast DUP MLA said he was
extremely concerned about the Government's lack of progress
in tackling the levels of deprivation and deficiencies in
Belfast's unionist areas. A failure to quickly reveal
action plans to tackle these unacceptable circumstances may
well lead to another boiling point situation. Commenting
Robin Newton said,

"The riots last summer were fueled by continual concessions
to IRA/Sinn Fein and a failure on the part of Government to
recognize and deal with problems experienced by the city's
unionist population. In many ways the Protestant population
feel alienated from the process of Government. Doors of
opportunity that are being thrown open to republicans are
seemingly firmly bolted shut against the unionist
community.

Deep green political interference in democracy and law and
order can be clearly seen after the offensive arrest and
release of mass murderer Sean Kelly and the prospect of the
nefarious on-the-runs legislation. All of these are
examples of politics defiling justice. This political
interference was evident in the Parades Commission
shambolic decision on the Orange Order's Whiterock Parade.
This ill-advised decision became the catalyst that sparked
intensive rioting within unionist areas.

Little tangible progress is evident following Government
promises to address the lack of opportunity in working
class unionist areas. Consultation is necessary but the
outcomes of that consultation must be seen and seen quickly
before another daft decision from one Government quango or
another again fuels the acknowledged levels of frustration.

No responsible person wants to see a return to riots.
However, Government must soon announce their intentions to
address unionist concerns on deprivation, the poor health
and educational records and the lack of vocational
opportunities."

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

http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/12481

Doherty - Will 2006 See Confident Brand Of Unionism?

Published: 4 January, 2006

Sinn Féin Vice President Pat Doherty today said that 2006
must be the year that the DUP finally display the confident
brand of unionism they promised two years ago.

Mr Doherty said:

"Over the past number of years the DUP have repeatedly gone
to the people promising a new brand of confident unionism.
What we have got is a party comfortable sitting back and
allowing British Direct Rule Ministers taking bad decisions
on issues which should be under the control of locally
accountable politicians.

"Republicans have done much heavy lifting over the past 12
months to see an opportunity created which will allow
significant progress to be made and the political
institutions put back in place. This opportunity cannot be
wasted. The DUP must now do their share of the heavy
lifting and demonstrate that they are willing and capable
of sharing power on the basis of equality and respect.

"The people of Ireland voted for the Good Friday Agreement.
We need to see it implemented. The two governments
obviously have a major role to play. But unionism also
needs to step up to the mark and start delivering for the
people who elect them. They must end their policy of
sitting back and expecting others to do the hard work and
take the difficult decisions themselves." ENDS

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

http://dailyireland.televisual.co.uk/home.tvt?_ticket=YA8OSCKACK3SMLDEIOQNIUSEAOWO96RGUU4HIOTABNXGBPMBJGSGX2LXVNNAD0UEEPKACK3AHDQFIR09ANZI9LLGLGSGX297XC&_scope=DailyIreland/Content/News&id=17523&opp=1

Unionists Reject Leadership Call

"Unionists must give positive leadership to their
communities. By committing actively to power-sharing, they
can demonstrate that equality is a fundamental right, not a
gained concession." Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern

Ciarán Barnes AND David Lynch

Irish Government To 'Step Up' Contacts To Get Assembly
Running

Hopes that the new year might bring a restoration of the
assembly faded last night after the Democratic Unionist
Party effectively ruled out power-sharing with Sinn Féin
during 2006.

Responding to calls from the Irish foreign minister Dermot
Ahern on unionists to show "positive leadership", the
party's Jeffrey Donaldson said it was "difficult to see how
power-sharing can include Sinn Féin".

The Lagan Valley MP complained of a "lack of trust in the
political process". He said his party would put a series of
proposals to the British government on the restoration of
devolution.

He told Daily Ireland: "If Sinn Féin wants to be in
government, there needs to be a complete end to IRA crime,
violence and activity, and this has to be proven over a
period of time."

Asked how long this period of time should be, Mr Donaldson
replied: "We'll know it when we see it."

Earlier yesterday, Dermot Ahern urged unionists to give
positive leadership.

He said: "There are many challenges ahead. Unionists must
give positive leadership to their communities. By
committing actively to power-sharing, they can demonstrate
that equality is a fundamental right, not a gained
concession."

Mr Ahern confirmed that the Irish government was to "step
up" contacts with political parties in the North and with
the British government in the coming weeks in a bid to get
the assembly up and running again.

Outlining his government's plans, he called for strong
leadership from all politicians.

"We are now embarking on a concerted effort to end direct
rule and re-establish the Northern Ireland assembly this
year," said Mr Ahern.

"Local, devolved government is the clear will of the people
of Northern Ireland.

"The parties and the governments have a duty to deliver on
that will.

"To that end, the Irish government will be stepping up
contact with all political parties, with the British
government and with our friends in the United States in the
coming weeks.

"Real progress in areas such as education, health, equality
and policing is best achieved by locally elected
politicians working in partnership to deliver for their
communities," added Mr Ahern.

"The goals of delivering real change and real improvements
for ordinary people on these bread-and-butter issues should
drive our efforts in the forthcoming months."

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

http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=68802&pt=n

SDLP Proposals For New NI Initiative

British and Irish government plans for a political
initiative for Northern Ireland during 2006 must include
the scrapping of a Bill dealing with murders during the
Troubles, officials were told today.

As Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his foreign minister Dermot
Ahern met to discuss how they would revive power sharing at
Stormont along with the British Government, SDLP Assembly
member Alex Attwood set out five benchmarks by which any
plan would be judged.

The West Belfast MLA said: "These markers should include:

"Acts of completion on policing by the provisional movement
now not later.

"Standing by the Good Friday Agreement, not the DUP/Sinn
Fein planned `Comprehensive Agreement` of 2004.

"With victims and survivors agreeing how to deal with the
past, abandoning the Northern Ireland Office/Sinn Fein on-
the-runs/state iller proposals.

"Being forthright about organised crime both by illegal
groups and individuals inextricably linked to such groups.

"Devolution of Justice proposals which safeguard the new
policing arrangements and transfer powers to the fullest
extent."

Northern Ireland`s Assembly, power sharing executive and
other political institutions have been suspended since
October 2002 when allegations about a republican spy ring
at Stormont threatened to permanently destroy them.

Since then, the province has been administered by a team of
Northern Ireland Office ministers which are currently led
by Secretary of State Peter Hain.

Following the IRA`s declaration last July that it had ended
its armed campaign and the completion of the organisation`s
disarmament programme, the British and Irish governments
have been pinning their hopes for political progress on a
report later this month from the ceasefire watchdog, the
Independent Monitoring Commission.

Officials believe if the IMC confirms the Provisionals are
remaining true to their word that could provide a
springboard for talks leading to the return of the
Assembly.

But the DUP has insisted it cannot contemplate reviving
power sharing without progress on a list of confidence
building measures for their community given to Downing
Street last year.

The political climate has been further soured by criticism
at Westminster of the British Government`s Northern Ireland
Offences Bill from Opposition parties, unionists and the
SDLP.

The Bill would enable people who carried out murders before
April 1998 to avoid jail.

Sinn Fein also withdrew its support for the Bill before
Christmas because of the inclusion of members of the
security forces alongside on-the-run republican terror
suspects as people who could qualify for the scheme.

The collapse last month of the case against the three men
accused in 2002 of operating the Stormont spy ring and
subsequent revelation that one of them - Sinn Fein`s former
head of administration Denis Donaldson was a spy for
British intelligence - has also complicated the political
climate.

Mr Attwood said today the governments had to move beyond
warm words of encouragement and on to tough messages during
2006.

Pledging the SDLP`s willingness to work to achieve
devolution during 2006, he said: "The DUP and the
Provisional Movement for their own narrow reasons have held
back the Agreement and the best hopes of the people of
Ireland.

"Both must hear an unambiguous message from London and
Dublin that politics will not move at the pace of the
problem parties."

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

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/story/25281

Robinson - Forget Failed Agreement

By Alistair Bushe
Wednesday 4th January 2006

Nationalists need to think again if they believe unionists
will jump into power-sharing government this year, Iris
Robinson said yesterday.

The Strangford DUP MP issued the warning after SDLP MLA
Sean Farren and Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern called
for the speedy re-establishment of the Stormont Assembly.

North Antrim MLA Mr Farren wants an administration founded
on the Good Friday Agreement, while yesterday Mr Ahern
pledged that the Republic's government would now make a
concerted effort to end direct rule here.

Mr Ahern also claimed that unionists would be showing
"positive leadership to their communities" by committing to
power-sharing.

But Mrs Robinson said Northern Ireland won't see political
progress unless nationalists accept that unionists will not
settle for arrangements deliberately tailored to suit the
nationalist agenda.

She also reiterated the DUP's long-stated position that
there will be no return to the "failed" Agreement.

"The majority of the unionist community have overwhelmingly
endorsed our view that there can be no return to the
failures of the past," said Mrs Robinson.

"The structures of the Belfast Agreement did not provide
good government for the people of Northern Ireland. The
Belfast Agreement agenda propelled those who terrorised the
community into government at Stormont while terror and
violence continued unabated.

"All the while the SDLP stood by and allowed Sinn Fein/IRA
to completely corrupt the democratic process. By failing to
act, Sean Farren and his colleagues helped to sow the seeds
of their own demise."

Mrs Robinson called on the SDLP to reevaluate its
contribution to the situation and its failure to leave Sinn
Fein behind in establishing a devolved government without
republicans.

She added: "The DUP will not settle for second best in our
efforts to secure durable devolution that is free from the
taints of terrorism and criminality.

"No amount of SDLP whinging will deter us from pursuing
what is in the best interests of the people of Northern
Ireland and ensuring Northern Ireland is strengthened
within the Union."

Mr Ahern said the Irish government would be "stepping up
contact" with all political parties and the British
Government in a bid to restore devolved government here.

But he also called on the Provisional movement to fully
support the police.

a.bushe@newsletter.co.uk

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

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=674705

Cycles Of Violence Were Always The Simple Way Of Explaining
The Troubles. Someone Would Shoot Somebody And Someone Else
Would Get Shot In Revenge: Protestants And Catholics At
Each Other's Throats.

04 January 2006

But simple doesn't tell everything.

It doesn't explain the decay of the IRA's ceasefire during
that period. Or the increase in UVF attacks that followed
their legalisation by the Government. Nor does it explain
the direct involvement of RUC officers in an attack on a
Catholic bar, an attack that took place while at least one
of them was on duty.

This was the time of Miami, of Tullyvallen, of attacks that
today, 30 years later, are cited by some as acts of
provocation for what came after.

In the last six months of 1975, around 50 people were
killed in the murder triangle, a rate of about two a week.
They died in groups, in pub bombings or a spray of gunfire
or both, or alone, as assassins waited while they backed
their car out of the driveway.

It's difficult to see where it started, but with hindsight
it's easy to see where it led.

On January 4, 1976, co-ordinated attacks on the homes of
two Catholic families, the Reaveys of Whitecross, Co Armagh
and the O'Dowds of Ballyduggan, Co Down, left five men
dead. The youngest was 19 and the oldest 61. A 17-year-old
wounded in the first attack, Anthony Reavey, would die
before the month was out.

The murders looked like they had been carried out as
reprisal for a New Year's Eve bomb attack on a Protestant
bar, which may have been retaliation for a murder in a
Catholic bar the night before, and so on.

And so it went on: the night after the Reaveys and O'Dowds
were murdered in their homes, ten Protestant workmen were
killed by the IRA at Kingsmills, Co Armagh.

The three Reavey boys - John, 24, Brian, 22, and Anthony -
were home on their own, watching television after most of
their large family had gone out. It was just after six
o'clock when a gunman twisted the key in their front door
and stepped inside with two others.

Anthony, who survived long enough to give police a
statement, described the first gunmen opening fire without
saying a word. His brother John was killed by the first
burst, and he and his brother Brian were both shot as they
ran for a bedroom.

"There was constant shooting at this time," he said. "I
think I was shot as I ran into the room, and again as I lay
under the bed. I heard shooting whilst I was under the bed;
I could hear Brian making a noise."

At least 43 bullets were fired, then the gunmen
methodically searched the house, but found no one else.

When the shooting and the sounds of searching stopped, and
he could hear only the TV, Anthony pulled himself from
under the bed. His brothers were dead, and he staggered to
a neighbour's house. He was discharged from hospital two
weeks later, but died unexpectedly on January 30.

"We were in shock," recalled Seamus Reavey, another
brother, this week. "We didn't know until later years what
fear was in the country. Later we were told everybody was
buying locks, but we weren't told these things until
afterwards."

In that part of the world at least, there would be no keys
left in locks after that night.

About the time Anthony Reavey reached his neighbours,
gunmen were also walking into the home of the O'Dowd
family, outside Gilford. Family and friends were gathering
to see off Barry O'Dowd, who was returning to oil rig work
after being home for the holidays. The attackers shot 19-
year-old Declan in the hallway, then entered the living
room and shot every man in it.

Barry, who was 24, died immediately and his uncle, 61-year-
old Joe O'Dowd, was also killed. Barry and Declan's father,
Barney, was hit nine times, but survived. The notorious
loyalist Robin Jackson, known as the Jackal, was believed
to have been one of the gunmen.

The bloodshed of that night and the next seemed most
remarkable for the concentration of such a number of
killings in such a short period of time; in terms of the
clinical brutality with which they were carried out, they
were almost typical of the time.

But there was another exceptional factor. Four guns were
fired in the Reavey murders, and three of them are known to
have been used again. Two of those - a 9mm pistol and a 9mm
sub-machine gun - were fired five months later in an attack
that remains one of the most curious of the Troubles.

The gun and bomb attack on the Rock Bar in Granemore, near
Keady, Co Armagh, has faded from most accounts of the
conflict, not least because no one died. And when the
perpetrators were convicted, the headlines were dominated
by the related conviction of a policeman for kidnapping a
priest.

On the same day that Constable William McCaughey was jailed
for kidnapping Fr Hugh Murphy, he and three other RUC
officers he served alongside were convicted in relation to
a gun and bomb attack on the Rock Bar in June 1976.
McCaughey, who was already serving a life sentence for the
UVF murder of Catholic chemist William Strathearn, was the
only one given a jail sentence for the attack, which left
one customer wounded.

That customer had been leaving the rural pub when a green
car containing hooded gunmen pulled up. The car contained
McCaughey and two other officers, Constables Lawrence
McClure and Ian Mitchell. According to court records,
McCaughey admitted shooting the departing customer, who was
wounded in the stomach. One of the other attackers then
placed a bomb at the door of the pub, which still had 17
people inside. Its detonator exploded, but the main charge
failed to go off. With McCaughey, the other two officers
admitted causing an explosion and other charges.

Here were police officers leading dual lives - carrying out
an attack as hooded gunmen and investigating the same as
members of the RUC. The difference was hard to distinguish:
Mitchell was involved in taking statements from witnesses
to a similar pub attack a few months later. And the PSNI
told the Pat Finucane Centre, the Derry-based human rights
organisation which specialises in examining breaches by the
security forces, that McClure was actually on duty at the
time of the attack.

William McCaughey, recalling the events of Kingsmills and
the other attacks this week, contends that it was
"perfectly natural" to be in the UVF and the RUC. "There
was no contradiction," he said. "Whatever way you could
fight the IRA. As simple as that. No great conspiracy."

McCaughey says suggestions of collusion are overblown. He
says the Armagh attacks "may have been in a climate and
environment that British intelligence created" but adds:
"As far as I'm concerned I was involved in activities with
the UVF and, when I was involved in those activities, the
UVF was in primary control.

After McCaughey was arrested for the Strathearn murder, the
RUC questioned him and the other officers about the Rock
Bar attack. A fourth constable was convicted of withholding
information about the attack. A sergeant he identified as
saying that a bomb had been prepared for the Rock Bar was
not charged, but was jailed for helping McCaughey carry out
the kidnapping.

The then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lowry, gave all but
McCaughey suspended sentences. They had acted under
"powerful motives", he said, which were in one case the
"mortal danger of their service and in the other the
feeling that more than ordinary police work was needed and
justified to rid the land of the pestilence which has been
in existence".

He praised the RUC for acting without fear or favour in
bringing their own before the court. But what the court had
not heard - and what was not disclosed to anyone for almost
another quarter century - was that the guns used by the
police officers to attack the Rock Bar had also been used
in the Reavey murders. One of the two weapons had also been
used in an earlier double murder.

Such forensic links don't constitute conclusive proof: if
someone shoots a gun once, it doesn't necessarily mean they
shot it before. But it does indicate a strong connection -
it was at least evidence that whatever the "powerful
motives" the officers might have been operating under, they
were linked to a murderous paramilitary ring.

The forensic links were suspected, but not disclosed. In
its investigations of a series of incidents in South
Armagh, the Pat Finucane Centre noticed that similar guns
were used repeatedly.

"We had a number of meetings with the police," said Alan
Brecknell, whose father Trevor was killed by a gun used in
the Reavey murders (but not the Rock Bar attack). "They
would have said things like such and such a gun was used in
a shooting - a Webley revolver, say, and a Stirling sub-
machine gun. Then we'd go into another meeting later in the
day and the same guns would come up again."

Nor was this the first time forensic links had been raised.
A few years after his brothers were murdered, Seamus Reavey
said a Royal Marine approached his family and told them
there ballistic links between the killings and a series of
attacks, including one in which two soldiers in civilian
clothes had been killed, possibly in mistake for IRA
members.

The group asked Justice Henry Barron, the Dublin judge
investigating the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, to seek
forensic information. In an appendix to his report on those
bombings, he said the PSNI gave him "considerable
information", including the forensic links between the gun
attacks.

He said the information showed a link between the Rock Bar
attack and a series of other attacks attributed to
loyalists, which tied into the Dublin investigation. "It
confirmed what we'd suspected - the same guns were being
used in the murders," said Alan Brecknell.

More information may emerge later this month. Trevor
Brecknell's widow, Alan's mother, is due to take a High
Court action in an attempt to force the Director of Public
Prosecutions to explain why two people charged in
connection with his murder - including Laurence McClure,
one of the Rock Bar officers - were never prosecuted.

And Mr Justice Barron is expected to produce a new report
detailing events behind a loyalist attack on Kay's Tavern
in Dundalk. It took place the same night that Trevor
Brecknell and two others were killed in a similar pub
attack in Silverbridge.

The PSNI Historical Inquiries Team is expected to review
the cycle of South Armagh killings, but the force would not
comment on specific cases. Alan Brecknell and Seamus Reavey
both say they believe the first investigations into the
deaths of their relatives were inadequate.

"I think what all this points to is that we need some sort
of a truth process where everyone who was a party to the
conflict comes forward and tells their version of what
happened and why it happened," said Mr Brecknell. "That
includes government and whoever. They need to tell
everything about commission or omission - that is, whether
they were directly involved or let things happen."

Like so many victims, they still want an explanation that
says more than it was just their turn in the cycle.

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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=674740

Fire Service Reveals Cross-Border Link-Ups

04 January 2006

THE Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) has
said that it provided help to the Republic's fire
authorities 250 times over the last three and a half years.

Nationalist politicians have welcomed the announcement
saying the assistance provided by Northern Ireland was a
practical example of the benefits of cross-border co-
operation.

The figures were released by the NIFRS under the freedom of
information act and show that firefighters crossed the
border, mostly into Donegal, 248 times between January 2002
and September 2005.

Co-operation between the Northern Ireland fire service and
Donegal Council is regulated by a formal agreement.

Donegal council pays an annual fee of £4,000 for assistance
from Northern Ireland and in addition pays each time
personnel from Northern Ireland make the trip across the
border to help their colleagues in the Republic.

Last year the ratepayers of Donegal paid £21,000 to the
Northern Ireland fire service for services which included
tackling burning buildings and gorse fires and attending
traffic accidents on Donegal's roads.

There were no incidents in the last three years of the
Republic's fire service attending fires or accidents in
Northern Ireland.

A fire service spokesperson said firefighters from Northern
Ireland act in response to requests from the Republic.

Sean Farren, senior SDLP negotiator, welcomed the co-
operation as an essential part of modern society.

"There is an increasing degree of co-operation across many
services and not surprisingly that is reflected in the
health and emergency services," he said. All such services
are paid for in accordance with well worked-out
arrangements and are practical examples of what co-
operation can mean."

Sinn Fein general secretary Mitchel McLaughlin said the
cross-border co-operation should be welcomed and extended
to other areas such as economic development.

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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=674747

Group Launches Internet Archive Of Omagh Atrocity

By Michael McHugh
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
04 January 2006

THOUSANDS of articles on the Omagh bomb will go online
later this month as part of the Omagh victims' efforts to
mark their loss.

A total of 2,500 newspaper and magazine articles will be
available in an archive, the first time dozens of sources
of information have been pooled about one of the Troubles'
greatest atrocities.

The August 1998 Real IRA blast killed 29 people and has
sparked thousands of column inches as relatives continue to
press for justice and uncover the truth about the killings.

The Omagh Victims' Support and Self-Help Group was recently
awarded £20,000 from the Irish Department of Foreign
Affairs' Reconciliation Fund which will help continue the
processing of information.

Michael Gallagher, chairman of the Support and Self-Help
Group, said he was pleased to see the archive project
making progress. "This money from the Department of Foreign
Affairs should help pay for another worker to work on the
archive project which is going live in the middle of this
month," he said.

"There are £2,500 articles on it and we are still
processing material from newspapers, magazines and videos
as well DVDs.

"It will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in
the Omagh bomb and will be accessible through the internet
with much of the material also being held in our office."

Mr Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the blast,
added that he was meeting later this month with Garda Chief
Commissioner Noel Conroy and Human Rights Commission Chief
Commissioner Monica McWilliams to press for a public cross-
border inquiry into the handling of the Omagh bomb
investigation by forces north and south.

Relatives have met with all the political parties in
Northern Ireland as part of their campaign for a thorough
hearing, which would look at how the security forces
handled alleged tip-offs from informants before the event.

They also want an explanation for the disappearance of
Paddy Dixon, an alleged informant on the Garda Protection
Scheme, who is wanted for questioning by the PSNI.

His handler, former garda John White claims he passed on
the information from Dixon to his superiors but this was
not acted on. One man, Sean Hoey (35) from Molly Road in
Jonesborough, is charged in connection with the bombing. He
faces 61 terrorist and explosives charges.

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http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=17620

Opin: Gerry Adams - Reiss' Attack Fuels The Wrong Message

By Gerry Adams

The United States has played a pivotal role in the Irish
Peace Process. President Clinton and President Bush's even-
handed approach contributed to creating the climate where
progress was possible.

In his article last week President Bush's Special Envoy,
Ambassador Mitchell Reisss acknowledges the contribution to
the peace process of the IRA's historic decision to end its
armed campaign and to complete the process of putting its
arms beyond use. These were "top of the list" of positive
and hopeful developments in 2005.

But then in an unhelpful and partisan manner he attacks
Sinn Féin's position on policing and gives succour to
Unionist politicians still determined to oppose the Good
Friday Agreement.

His soft focus on Unionist refusal to share power and his
airbrushing of loyalist violence and its consequences for
many in the north this year is in stark contrast to his
attack on republicans. Apparently unionism and loyalism are
not responsible for any of the difficulties in the peace
process. They "have a sense of grievance", are
"disenfranchised" and "poorly educated".

This is at best a superficial analysis of unionism -- at
worst disingenuous and misleading.

In contrast his comments on Sinn Féin and the issue of
policing carry accusations, which are untrue and offensive.
In addition Ambassador Reiss throws out unproven claims of
lawlessness in nationalist areas.

The fact is that the north of Ireland has the second lowest
crime rate in Europe It is less than half of the average in
Britain. There is no "rampant crime" in nationalist or
republican communities. On the contrary the nationalist and
republican people are good, decent people who despite not
having had a proper police service have remained law
abiding.

Republicans and Nationalists, will not be badgered or
forced into accepting less than the new beginning to
policing promised in the Good Friday Agreement. This
Agreement addressed the issue of policing for a very good
reason.

The RUC was never a police service. It was a political
paramilitary militia, which engaged in the most disgraceful
abuse of human rights which included torture and murder.

Those who were at the heart of this malign force -- the
Special Branch -- are still active within the new policing
service. Witness the deliberate, planned overthrow of a
democratically elected government by these elements three
years ago and their use of agents within Sinn Féin.

Despite all of this Sinn Féin remain determined to achieve
the reconstruction of the power sharing government and all
Ireland institutions. We are committed to being part of a
new policing dispensation.

Last December we almost reached this point. We had
succeeded in building on the progress made on this issue in
recent years in negotiations with the British, particularly
on the key issue of transfer of powers of policing and
justice from London to Belfast. But it fell apart at the
last moment because of the position of Ian Paisley's party,
the DUP.

The historic decision taken by the IRA in recent months,
the end of its armed campaign and the putting of arms
beyond use have removed any excuse or pretext for further
delay. In January the British and Irish Governments and
Sinn Féin intend making a serious effort to resurrect the
government and institutions.

The British government has given commitments on policing
including the transfer of power. I have made it clear that
if the British honor their obligations, if the DUP agrees
to share power and on the model into which policing and
justice will be transferred, then Sinn Féin will hold a
special conference to debate this matter out fully to
arrive at a democratically agreed position.

I believe the New Year is full of hope and that real and
meaningful progress is possible. We need the continued help
of Irish America to achieve all this. The peace process
also needs the support of the United States Government.
Mitchell Reiss' current position is not helpful.

Making progress and resolving issues like policing are
shared goals. We need to work together to achieve them. I
hope also that President Bush's administration returns to
the successful and even handed policies which helped to
create the Peace Process in the first place.

Gerry Adams is the President of Sinn Féin.

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Opin: Morrison- DUP Is Going Nowhere Without SF

Saying No was so simple for a party which had more
objections than objectives.

Danny Morrison

At the Constitutional Convention in 1975 Ian Paisley
opposed voluntary power-sharing with Gerry Fitt's SDLP and
voted for simple majority rule.

Had he agreed to that fairly painless arrangement, the RUC
and the UDR might still be intact, Bill Lowry would still
be in the Special Branch, the prisoners would still be in
the H-Blocks, and there would be none of these bothersome
Equality and Human Rights Commissions.

From 1975 to this day, the DUP has demanded a return to
devolution and has derided direct rule, Peter Robinson
referring to it just last week as "vicious",
"unrepresentative and unresponsive".

From 1985 Paisley's party was particularly exercised about
the Anglo-Irish Agreement opening the door to an Irish
government say in the North.

Back then, Ian Paisley's declared policy was to "Smash Sinn
Fein".

To demonstrate the point, he and James Molyneaux posed with
a sledgehammer in a sick poster that unwittingly mimicked
the main tool-of-entry of a loyalist death squad.

Twenty years later, Sinn Fein is the major party within the
nationalist community in the North and the fastest-growing
party in the South; Irish government representatives sit on
the North-South Joint Secretariat based in Armagh; the UDR
and RUC are gone and equality and parity of esteem are
firmly established as non-negotiable principles for cross-
community government.

Down the years all of the devolved administrations demanded
by Paisley were always based on an exclusively unionist
ethos, mirroring the old Stormont parliament.

He knows that that is not going to happen.

He knows he left it too late to do a deal with the SDLP –
had it been foolish enough to acquiesce.

And he knows that the electoral rise of Sinn Fein has
created a buoyant, confident, nationalist community which
is beyond taking lip from Ian Paisley, senior or junior.

Many commentators – most recently Brian Rowan in his new
book, 'Paisley and the Provos' - claim that the DUP has
undergone real change during the peace process.

Certainly, it has emerged triumphant in its struggle with
the UUP for supremacy within the unionist community - but
to what end?

It can't rest on its laurels forever and must realise that
leadership demands responsibility and decision-making.

However emboldened the DUP cannot turn back the clock. If
indulged it might be able to stop the clock for a while,
giving its supporters a temporary and false sense of power
and veto.

The DUP's alternative to restoring the institutions –
enunciated by Peter Robinson, the alleged 'Alliance' wing
of the party - appears to be a demand for a non-executive
form of devolution until 'sufficient trust' emerges for
power-sharing.

This is quite a waffle. It is not clear if he is referring
to an advisory assembly shadowing the various government
departments and making policy recommendations.

If that is the case, the party faces the same dilemma: what
method, other than by consensus, can agreement on
recommendations be reached?

Quite simply, it would once again be confronted by its
self-inflicted difficulty.

Could the party be playing for time, hoping that some major
blow will befall Sinn Fein, and that the Assembly will be
resurrected after elections in 2007 on a gerrymandered
basis, including the SDLP as a minor partner?

It can forget about that. At that stage many grassroots
republicans would be thinking along the same lines as a
growing number of the general public – hang the Assembly
and the let the MLAs go out and get real jobs.

Gregory Campbell recently said: "If the Provos are in a
hurry we aren't." Sounds good, but explains nothing.

Perhaps, after the high of their election victory, the
party needs time to go through 'cold turkey' and be
prepared for the great compromise.

But where is the sign, other than a statement here or there
from Paisley that he'll do a deal when he believes the
circumstances are right?

There is no such sign. On the cusp of a deal in December
2004 Ian Paisley demanded photographic evidence of IRA
decommissioning, and went on to insist that the IRA had to
be humiliated, must be forced to wear "sackcloth and ashes
in public".

As we know, it was a demand that scuppered any agreement.
Since then the party has desperately grabbed such issues as
the raid on the Northern Bank, the murder of Robert
McCartney, the homecoming of the Colombia Three, the OTR
legislation, Stormontgate and the Dennis Donaldson affair,
as pretexts for refusing to go into government with Sinn
Fein.

At the same time it has ignored or repudiated the
significance of the IRA announcing the end of the armed
struggle and putting all of its weapons beyond use; the
compromises that republicans have already made; and future
difficult decisions republicans will also have to make,
particularly on the issue of policing.

Perhaps the real problem is Paisley himself, all that he
has done, that he promised to do, that he said he would not
do.

He would effectively be repenting his past as a huge,
grievous mistake by going into a power-sharing
administration with republicans who will certainly work the
North for the benefit of everyone but whose declared aim is
to continue to work for a reunified Ireland, using their
political influence, North and South.

The choice is as clear as that.

Saying No was so simple for a party which had more
objections than objectives.

What irony, that the DUP is going nowhere without Sinn
Fein!

Danny Morrison is a regular media commentator on Irish
politics. He is the author of three novels and three works
of non-fiction and a play about the IRA, The Wrong Man.

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Opin: Loyalism's True Face

Editor: Colin O'Carroll

The squalid death of leading loyalist Lindsay Robb, whose
lifeblood ebbed into a Glasgow gutter on New Year's Eve,
was another illustration – if indeed one were needed – of
the essential truth of loyalist paramilitarism.

And that truth is that, far from being an independent and
effective force mustered to defend the integrity of
'Ulster' from militant republicanism, armed loyalism was
nothing more than a classic British pseudo-gang of the kind
favoured by London in every colonial adventure it has ever
been embarked upon. And when the direction and support
offered by their British puppetmasters was withdrawn, they
descended into a black hole from which it seems there is no
escape.

The litany of depravity that loyalists have engaged in
since they called their ceasefire is enough to fill a
library with sensationalist underworld-style paperbacks.
Drug-running, intimidation, racketeering, murder – the
unending catalogue of criminality and thuggery tells us
that, in effect, the UDA and the UVF are merely gangs of
ne'er-do-wells whose leaders provide not military
discipline or political direction, but slice up drug
fiefdoms and divide their ill-gotten gains among those who
win their favour, and impose the death sentence on those
who would presume to launch solo criminal careers.

Glasgow police believe that Mr Robb was not the victim of
another loyalist feud, but his life and death was an almost
perfect example of the journey that loyalism has taken over
the past few decades. An enthusiastic paramilitary, his
well-publicised British-organised gun-running exploits won
him a suit, a briefcase and a place at the shoulder of
Billy Hutchinson and David Ervine as the Progressive
Unionist Party claimed a place at the centre of political
developments in the North. It is perhaps the most telling
commentary of all that the news of a former member of a
loyalist negotiating team died in a drug-related murder
caused not gasps of astonishment and disbelief, but
unsurprised sighs and shrugs.

For their part, republicans have not found the path away
from militarism an easy one. But the essential difference
is that while loyalism descended into crime and violence
because of its own inherent weaknesses and failings,
republicans find themselves confused and disorientated
because of the huge and continuing efforts invested by the
British state in a campaign of espionage and dirty tricks.
There is little doubt that there are many Sinn Féin
suppporters who find themselves bewildered by recent
developments centring around the issue of informers. But
those who are angered or disappointed at republican
politicians would do well to direct their passion at the
cause of the problem – the many arms and agents of the
British intelligence services and their enthusiastic
supporters in politics and the media.

It is short-termism of the most ill-advised nature for any
political party to attempt to extract political capital
from a state of affairs carefully constructed by British
spooks. Is there one political party here which has not
been targeted at one time or another by the British. It
would be a brave man who would answer yes.

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http://www.derryjournal.com/story/8151

Opin: Transforming The North

Tuesday 3rd January 2006

In many ways, transforming Northern Ireland into a society
free of sectarian prejudice, inequality, suspicion and
violence would be a much more radical act than simply
amending its constitutional status. It is this type of
future that we all should be working towards.

Our past is bleak and the present is, at present,
uncertain. At first glance, there appear to be few reasons
for optimism - and yet the overall pattern has, in recent
years, been one of progress.

While political difficulties have stalled progress, at no
stage has it been reversed.

While we have to be realistic about the length of time it
will take for Northern Ireland society to overcome the
problems of our past and present, we also have to remain
ambitious in terms of vision and commitment to what we can
achieve in the future.

Some have talked up the prospect of some form of 'benign
apartheid'. The term itself is misleading in that it
implies that our divisions, prejudices and inequalities are
somewhat mild and, indeed, innocuous.

This is to ignore the subtle and damaging repercussions of
sectarianism and inequalities in our society.

No one should accept that people from different traditions
across the North fundamentally can not live together
peacefully. Difficult community relations have more to do
with our historical legacy than natural antipathy.

To tolerate divisions as a necessary evil shows an
inexcusable lack of vision and ambition, particularly when
it is evident among politicians.

While the alternative should not be one of forced
integration, our vision should be of a society where people
are not forced together or forced apart, but where all the
barriers to mixing, socially and professionally, are
removed and where going to the same schools, workplaces,
pubs, parks and the local community centre becomes normal
for everybody.

This is a society in which identities are neither
suppressed nor flaunted, but accepted and freely discussed.

The transformation between the current situation and our
future vision will be economic, political, social and
deeply personal - we face a simple choice: unless our
attitudes and prejudices are challenged and changed,
society will not change.

It is imperative that government, political and community
leaders show leadership in breaking down these barriers.

Housing policy is a prime example of this notion of "benign
apartheid." The growing segregation in public housing is
seen as responding to a need from the community, rather
than a trend which is unintentionally encouraged by the
government agencies when they rehouse the victims of
intimidation rather than their intimidators.

Meanwhile, mixed housing is seen as some distant goal,
something which will spring up overnight when the time is
right, rather than a current community need which must be
to be fostered and planned for now.

We cannot underestimate the extent to which poverty impacts
the peace process. Those communities which feel they have
not seen one penny (or cent) of the peace dividend will
naturally be resentful and discontented.

Resources are part of the solution, but we can not simply
pump money in and expect it to overcome social exclusion or
build community infrastructure. The challenge is to ensure
the benefits of peace are felt by all.

One crucial hurdle standing between us and the future is
the past. When the time is right, we need to find both
collective and individual ways to face up to the events of
the past - to all of them, not just to one side's perceived
crimes or pain.

This is not just about the need of victims and survivors to
find closure and answers but also that we can, as a
society, move beyond the events of the past. The many
different truth processes that have taken place around the
world show how delicate and difficult this will be, and
another country's approach can not simply be transplanted
here.

The anniversaries of major atrocities should cause us to
stop and reflect, but they should not destabilise political
relations. This is not about picking at old wounds or
forgetting the suffering of the past. However, we need to
face up to the past before we can move beyond it.

As long as people continue to deny, make excuses or cover
up responsibility, there will never be trust or truth.

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

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/opinion/story.jsp?story=674700

Opin: Road Cameras Not A Threat To Civil Liberties

04 January 2006

Right on cue, a Sinn Fein spokesman has lodged an objection
to police plans to use special roadside cameras to reduce
crime. Northern Ireland has been included in a UK-wide
network of cameras that can read car number plates, making
it easier for police to trace the movements of known
criminals, as well as car tax and insurance dodgers.

The argument against such surveillance is that it is an
infringement of everyone's civil liberties, by making a
record of their movements and keeping the data for up to
five years. Yet the fact is that most crime involves the
use of cars or lorries and if there is a way of matching
the vehicles on camera with known criminals why should the
police not use it?

In Britain, the top traffic policeman wants to see
Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras erected
every 400 yards along motorways, as well as at
supermarkets, petrol stations and town centres. A new
control centre in north London will be capable of
processing as many as 50 million number plates a day by the
end of this year.

In Britain, there are claims that speed cameras are another
form of road tax and the police will need to be careful how
they use ANPR devices - which will not be painted in bright
colours - in the detection of crime. Here the authorities
can expect more protests, from the usual suspects, alleging
that the cameras will be used for intelligence purposes, as
well as for crime prevention.

People will believe what they want to, especially when the
main nationalist party withholds support from policing, but
the evidence is that CCTV, as well as speed and ANPR
cameras, are vital parts of the police's armoury. Although
the civil liberties aspect must be carefully monitored,
there is too much to be gained from denying criminals the
freedom of the roads to stop camera surveillance.

Already mobile and fixed ANPR cameras are widely used in
Britain, particularly in London, and they have proved their
worth in seeking out some of the two million uninsured
cars. Indeed, senior policemen regard the new technology as
the biggest advance in crime detection and prevention since
the introduction of DNA testing.

Here they will have obvious uses, in cutting down on cross-
border smuggling and making life more difficult for thieves
and drug-runners. There will always be those who denigrate
the work of the PSNI, for narrow political reasons, but the
majority of law-abiding people know they have nothing to
fear from a closer watch on the roads, with the objective
of making them safer and more crime-free.

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

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/opinion/story.jsp?story=674696

Opin: No Wonder Sinn Fein Have Become The Insecurocrats

By Lindy McDowell
lmcdowell@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
04 January 2006

WHAT does the P in P O'Neill stand for? Pompous?
Pretentious? Or just plain Pathetic?

Another New Year, another seismic statement from the
Provos. And everywhere this is reported with the sort of
deference usually reserved for pronouncements from the
likes of Kofi Annan. Or Bono.

As it is carefully analysed for hint of Provo intent, it is
treated so respectfully, so gingerly you'd think this was
the verbal equivalent of the Turin Shroud.

Nobody points to the obvious. Why does an organisation
which, we were assured a few months back, accepted that the
way to achieve its objectives was through "purely political
means", still feel the compulsion to issue its annual
military-style address to the "troops"...?

"We salute the discipline and commitment of IRA
volunteers...", says the statement.

In a place where a very sizeable proportion of the
population have good reason to be cynical - given the IRA's
history of turning on and off the violence to suit the
political agenda - the familiar old paramilitary pomposity
of Pee is hardly a ringing assurance that the terrorist
structure has gone away you know.

And this year it's not just the Provos detractors who are
likely to be cynical.

The Provos themselves don't know who to trust anymore.

I laughed at that typically backslapping wee bit in the
statement about how: "We fully support and commend everyone
working for these goals, especially our comrades in Sinn
Fein."

The joke is that the statement itself was, of course, most
likely written by "our comrades in Sinn Fein."

Or possibly even, given what we now know following recent
revelations, their comrades in MI5.

(Does that P in P O'Neill actually stand for Patrick? Or
Peregrine?)

The latest disclosures that uniformed police have visited a
number of leading Shinners to warn them that other
republicans may suspect them of being informers, has
rattled the Republican Movement.

Who to believe?

It's all the work of securocrats, insist Sinn Fein
insecurocrats.

But people will talk.

The reverberations of the Donaldson affair are already
being felt in the party's most valued constituency, Irish
America.

There, supporters are reeling with the realisation that the
"charming" Denis was in fact a mole. (As our cartoonist
Ashley Craig illustrates, one of the collective nouns for a
group of moles is a "movement." I'm saying nothing.)

In hindsight, inevitably, it now transpires that some US
activists did indeed (so they maintain) have reservations
about duplicitous Denis. But they didn't actually do
anything about their suspicions.

Among those now seeking to distance themselves, is a
leading member of the movement in America who says he was
unsettled when he spotted Donaldson buying a round of
drinks for FBI men in a bar in the Bronx.

"That was an eye-popper," he says. "I just had a feeling
from that moment that something wasn't right."

Unfortunately for the movement there may be even bigger
eye-poppers to follow.

Naive as many in the ranks - and much higher up - have
been, most are now realistic enough to cop that, over the
years, it's likely that the Brits have placed numerous
moles in their midst.

Interestingly, the increasingly persistent rumour that a
very highly placed informer indeed is set to be unmasked
soon is not being shot down by the Shinners.

And the implications, of course, don't just centre on how
further revelations are likely to affect future confidence
in the movement - both at home and in the Bronx. It's also
about how they could colour what happened in the past.

Sinn Fein is big on the past. At least on that part of the
past that has served the party well in publicity and fund-
raising terms.

This year, for example, we're told that much will be made
of the 25th anniversary of the hunger strikes.

But can Sinn Fein assume that this will be marked solely by
their own carefully staged commemoration - not by a new and
robust look at the full role played by the movement?

Is it at all possible for example, that on this particular
anniversary there might be in the media, a much more
comprehensive assessment of the "contribution" of the
hunger strikers?

One that includes not just the usually fawning
glorification of their "sacrifice" in the H-Blocks - but an
objective account of the crimes that landed them in there
in the first place?

After 25 years, isn't it possible that the relatives of the
victims of some of those "martyrs" might now want to tell
their stories too and to highlight some of the horror they
inflicted?

And isn't it also possible that by the time the anniversary
bowls around later this year, we might have a clearer
picture of just who else within Sinn Fein was playing a
double game - while, like Denis, draping a comradely arm
around Bobby Sands?

P O'Neill himself? Does that P stand for Perfidious?

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

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=674743

Swan Is Beheaded In Horror Incident

By Ben Lowry
blowry@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
04 January 2006

VICIOUS animal cruelty has made an early return in 2006,
with the apparent beheading of a swan in north Belfast.

The bird, which was reported to the USPCA yesterday in
Alexandra Park, was found lying facing the pond.

The remains of the swan, which are thought to have been
lying in the park since the weekend, were due to be removed
by the council this morning.

Over Christmas, a number of people are said to have seen
the creature alive with what appeared to be a pellet or
bullet wound to its head.

A PSNI spokesman said: "Police found the decomposed carcass
of a swan in undergrowth with what appeared to be head and
neck injuries. The matter was passed over to the USPCA."

USPCA chief executive Stephen Philpott slammed those
responsible for the attack.

"It is appalling that someone could go out and carry out a
premeditated attack on a defenceless creature. The swan has
been slaughtered - someone has turned up prepared to carry
out the deed."

There have been previous attacks on swans in Northern
Ireland, including an incident last April in Carrickfergus
in which a young swan suffered a horrific injury when an
air pellet lodged in its skull.

Local Sinn Fein councillor Carál Ní Chuilín, who was
alerted to the dead swan in Alexandra Park by a local
resident, described the incident as "sinister" and "totally
deplorable". Ms Ní Chuilín said she had noticed the swan in
the park when it was alive. "It stood out," she said.

Cathal Mullaghan, an SDLP councillor, also condemned the
attack.

"The swan appeared to have put up a bit of a fight, and
there were a lot of feathers around," he said.

No-one from Belfast City Council was available for comment
yesterday.

Mr Philpott called for a post mortem examination to be
carried out on the swan.

"Anyone who has information should either go to the police
or call us on 028 9081 4242," he said.

Ms Ní Chuilín called for a review of the security of the
Alexandra Park.

"I would be keen that families are not put off from going
to the park, which is used by both sections of the
community," she said.

In November it emerged that animal cruelty experts had
investigated three cases of sheep being slaughtered in
Northern Ireland.

And in October, a cat and a dog were beaten to death in
separate incidents.

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

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=674744

Teasing 'May Have Sparked Terrier Attack'

Woman savaged in bid to save child

By Debra Douglas
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
04 January 2006

THE dog responsible for attacking five people in north
Belfast may have been provoked by kids, it has emerged.

The crazed bull terrier went on the rampage in the Ardoyne
area on Monday. One woman was bitten on the face as she
tried to stop it attacking eight-year-old Patrick Lavelle
who was also injured.

A five-year-old girl also suffered injuries.

But Sinn Fein councillor Margaret McClenaghan said it was
possible the dog, which has since been put down, was
provoked.

"I've been talking to quite a few people in the area and
all of them have said the dog in question was always tied
up and was never out running about," she told the Belfast
Telegraph.

"Some of the kids told me they were petting the dog but
then someone hurt it, and it reacted.

"The owner did look after it and had no qualms about having
it destroyed so it seems to be there is a strong
possibility the dog was provoked. I think it is something
that should be considered."

But those who saw the dog, named Tyson, said it was "out of
control".

Carrie McShane was driving past when she saw the eight-
year-old being attacked.

"I jumped out of the car to help him," she said.

"The dog wouldn't let go of him. I was kicking it and it
wouldn't let go of him. It was going to tear him to bits.

"I lifted the wee boy by the scruff. I had my own child in
the back of the car and I flung him on top of him."

"The dog jumped into the back of the car. I tried to trail
the dog out of the car, but it jumped back in again," she
told the BBC.

Ms McShane said she was also attacked by the dog and bitten
on her legs and below her eye.

The child's mother, Rosaleen Lavelle, said she believed
there was a serious problem with dogs in the area.

"These dogs are dangerous," she said.

A petition had already been circulating in the area,
calling for all dogs to be kept tied up.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that another dog had to be put
down after attacking a girl near Warrenpoint, Co Down.

The 10-year-old suffered scratches and bruising when she
was attacked by the dog before Christmas.

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

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16544753&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=tv-ireland--documentary-aisling-hollywood-tg4--10pm--name_page.html

TV Ireland: Documentary Aisling Hollywood TG4, 10pm

By Fiona Wynne

THIS documentary follows the real life rags to riches story
of Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan.

The 65-year-old, who has starred in acclaimed films such as
Some Mother's Son and The Others, recounts her young days
in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in the 1960s to her rise in
Hollywood.

Kicked out of the Abbey School of Acting in the 1960s, she
thought her chances of fame were gone.

After a few tough years performing in Ireland and Britain,
she went on tour in the US with an Irish theatre company in
1968 and has lived there ever since.

She talks candidly about the negative impact overnight
success and how the lifestyle of drink and drugs get a grip
on some - including her.

Fionnula has battled her addiction and made a second
success as an actress.

She also spends a lot of her time promoting various causes
labouring for peace and justice in America and is a member
of Friends of Sinn Fein, working to promote the cause of
Ireland's peace process throughout North America.

----
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Posted by: Unknown / 8:19 AM

Comments:

I ALLWAYS WANTED TO MURDER SOMBODY WITH A HANDGUN.I HAVEN'T YET BECAUSE I HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT A WAY TO DO SO AND NOT GET CAUGHT.

# posted by  Anonymous : 3:38 AM

 

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