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January 29, 2006

IRA Still Gathering Intel - IMC To Report

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News About Ireland & The Irish

IT 01/30/06 IRA Still Gathering Intel, IMC Report To Show
IT 01/30/06 Derry Rally Remembers All North's Victims
BB 01/29/06 01/30/72: Army Kills 13 In Civil Rights Protest
RT 01/29/06 Fianna Fáil Convention Ends In Disarray
IT 01/30/06 US Envoy Lobbied Over Gum Tax
IT 01/30/06 McCartney Family In Public Appeal
TE 01/29/06 McCartney Sisters Want Spy To Help Solve Murder
AP 01/29/06 McCartney: One Year On
IT 01/30/06 Opin: Integrated Schools Offer Way Forward
IT 01/30/06 Opin: More Integrated Schools Needed
IM 01/30/06 Public Meeting At Shannon On US Warplanes
IT 01/30/06 Poets Keeper Peter Kavanagh Buried At Inniskeen
IT 01/30/06 Killarney Hotel Guest Dies - Fall From Balcony
IT 01/30/06 1916 Conf Told Invasion Of IRL Was Considered
IT 01/30/06 Round The House And Mind The Border
IT 01/30/06 Rev: Trad Music & Culture Festival, Temple Bar

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2006/0130/3862397007
HM1THENORTH.html

IRA Still Gathering Intelligence, IMC Report To Show

The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) will today
inform the British and Irish governments that the IRA is
still engaged in intelligence-gathering and this appears to
be sanctioned at leadership level, according to well-placed
sources. Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor, reports.

The IMC report will also point to continuing IRA
criminality but leave open whether such activity is
authorised by IRA leaders or whether it is due to IRA
members operating autonomously or semi-autonomously,
sources have also stated.

The report, nonetheless, will be generally positive about
the IRA and will acknowledge that it is broadly living up
to its commitments of July 28th last year to cease activity
and end its armed campaign.

The British and Irish governments, which are to receive the
IMC report today, are privately conceding that it will not
be the catalyst to persuade the DUP leader, the Rev Ian
Paisley, to begin opening contacts with Sinn Féin president
Gerry Adams.

There will be little surprise at the IMC determination that
IRA criminality remains a problem but its finding that the
IRA is still gathering intelligence will cause unease.

It will almost certainly ensure that when the DUP holds its
annual conference in Belfast on Saturday, the strong mood
at leadership and floor level will be to reject any
pressure to engage with Sinn Féin in power-sharing talks.

The IMC takes its information from a variety of sources,
including the PSNI, Garda and MI5.

"There is evidence of intelligence-gathering and the
feeling is that this could not happen without the knowledge
of the IRA leadership," The Irish Times was informed by a
senior source. He said it was difficult to explain why the
IRA was still engaged in spying activity, particularly
after all the complications caused for the organisation by
the exposure of such senior republicans as Denis Donaldson
and Freddie Scappaticci as British agents.

"It could be a question of old habits die hard. In fact it
could be defensive in that they could say, 'Well, the Brits
are doing it to us, so we are entitled to do it to them'.
The IRA probably regards it as a legitimate response to
what it sees as political policing."

He said that to a large extent the continuing criminality
related to areas such as smuggling and counterfeiting.

"The question here is whether this is people operating at
an individual level or whether some of the proceeds from
this crime is going back to the IRA leadership," he added.

The report, which further deals with the level of loyalist
paramilitary activity and criminality, as well as the
behaviour of republican dissident groups, will also make
reference to people exiled by the IRA and other
paramilitaries.

The IMC's conclusions will also pose some awkward questions
for the North's Security Minister, Shaun Woodward, who in
December told The Irish Times he had "no reason to believe
that the IRA is involved in any criminality at all".

The Irish Times source was keen to stress that while there
was evidence of continuing IRA activity, generally the IMC
findings were positive about the IRA. Dublin and London are
already primed about what to expect in the report, and are
now looking more to the next IMC publication in April for
increasingly positive findings that would put pressure on
Dr Paisley to do business with Mr Adams.

© The Irish Times

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/0130/38949287
49HM7DERRY.html

Derry Rally Remembers All North's Victims

George Jackson

Some 3,637 candles were lit in memory of those who were
killed in acts of violence linked to the Troubles in the
North at the annual Bloody Sunday commemoration march in
Derry yesterday.

More than 5,000 people took part in yesterday's march, held
to commemorate the killings by British army paratroopers of
13 civilians during a civil rights march in the Bogside
area of the city on January 30th, 1972.

John Kelly, whose brother Michael was one of the Bloody
Sunday victims, said the decision to symbolically light the
candles was taken by the families of those who were killed
on the streets of the Bogside 34 years ago.

"It was for everybody, for the people killed on Bloody
Sunday, for other civilians, paramilitaries, policemen and
soldiers, no matter who died, this was for them and we also
remembered them during a minute of quiet reflection at the
end of the march.

"No one has a monopoly on grief, we in the Bloody Sunday
Trust recognise and accept that. Everyone has suffered,
everyone should be remembered and that's what this gesture
was about today," Mr Kelly said.

Relatives of the victims of Bloody Sunday, carrying crosses
bearing the names of the 13 people who were killed, led
yesterday's march.

It followed the route of the 1972 march, from the Creggan
into the Bogside for a rally at Free Derry Corner.

© The Irish Times

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/30
/newsid_2452000/2452145.stm

Jan 30, 1972: Army Kills 13 In Civil Rights Protest

British troops have opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators
in the Bogside district of Londonderry, killing 13
civilians.

Seventeen more people, including one woman, were injured by
gunfire. Another woman was knocked down by a speeding car.

The army said two soldiers had been hurt and up to 60
people arrested.

It was by far the worst day of violence in this largely
Roman Catholic city since the present crisis began in 1969.

Bogsiders said the troops opened fire on unarmed men -
including one who had his arms up in surrender.

The trouble began as a civil rights procession, defying the
Stormont ban on parades and marches, approached an Army
barbed wire barricade.

The largely peaceful crowd of between 7,000 and 10,000 was
marching in protest at the policy of internment without
trial. Some of the younger demonstrators began shouting at
the soldiers and chanting, "IRA, IRA".

A few bottles, broken paving stones, chair legs and heavy
pieces of iron grating were thrown at the troops manning
the barrier.

Stewards appealed for calm - but more missiles were thrown
and the area behind the barricade was quickly strewn with
broken glass and other debris.

The 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, which had been
standing by in case of trouble, sprang into action. Squads
leapt over the barricades and chased the demonstrators.

The gates were opened and eight armoured vehicles went into
the Bogside and the remaining demonstrators were quickly
surrounded.

Army claims provocation

The army says it opened fire after being shot at first by
two snipers in flats overlooking the street. It claims acid
bombs were also thrown.

The gun battle lasted about 25 minutes.

Father Edward Daly, a Catholic priest, was caught on film
helping to carry a teenager who had been fatally wounded,
to safety.

He said: "They just came in firing. There was no
provocation whatsoever.

"Most people had their backs to them when they opened
fire."

Major General Robert Ford, Commander, Land Forces Northern
Ireland, who was in charge of the operation, insisted his
troops had been fired on first.

"There is absolutely no doubt at all that the Parachute
battalion did not open up until they had been fired at," he
said.
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In Context

A 14th man later died of injuries received during the
demonstration.

An inquiry into what became known as Bloody Sunday headed
by Lord Widgery in 1972 exonerated the Army. It said their
firing had "bordered on the reckless" but said the troops
had been fired upon first and some of their victims had
been armed.

The results of the inquiry were rejected by the Catholic
community who began a long campaign for a fresh
investigation.

In 1998, Tony Blair's government announced a new inquiry
into Bloody Sunday.

The inquiry, headed by Lord Saville, spent two years taking
witness statements. It ended in November 2004 and had cost
about £150 million.

Lord Saville's final report and conclusions are not
expected to be made public until summer 2005.

(Poster’s Note: As of November of 2005 the Saville Inquiry
said that they did not know when the report would be
issued. There has been speculation that it would occur in
2006. Jay)

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http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0129/fiannafail.html?rss

Fianna Fáil Convention Ends In Disarray

29 January 2006 23:06

A Fianna Fáil convention to select General Election
candidates for the five-seat Galway West constituency ended
in disarray tonight - after delegates refused to accept a
'three-candidate strategy' recommended by party
headquarters.

During a heated two-hour debate, the majority of the 350
delegates demanded that four candidates should be allowed
to run, claiming it was the only way the party could
maximise its vote.

The convention chairman, Labour Affairs Minister Tony
Killeen, told them there was a directive from the party's
Constituencies Committee that only three candidates should
be selected.

When delegates refused to accept this, he adjourned the
convention.

Afterwards, a spokeswoman for Fianna Fáil said senior party
officials would be having talks with the organisation in
the Galway West constituency to try to resolve the issue in
the coming weeks.

Fianna Fáil holds just two of the five seats in Galway
West.

Its sitting TDs are Gaeltacht Minister Eamon Ó Cuív and
Minister of State Frank Fahey.

Following withdrawals at tonight's convention, the two
remaining candidates were Cllr Mary Hoade and Cllr Seamus
Walsh.

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/0130/17562563
19HM5GUM.html

US Envoy Lobbied Over Gum Tax

Stephen Collins

US ambassador James Kenny lobbied the Government against
the introduction of a tax on chewing gum, Minister for the
Environment Dick Roche confirmed yesterday.

Speaking on TV3's The Political Party, Mr Roche said the
ambassador had spoken to him twice on behalf of Wrigley's
chewing gum, to lobby against the against the introduction
of a tax.

"The US ambassador came in to see me, yes he did, once, but
he spoke to me about it twice," Mr Roche said. "He came to
introduce a group who were representing Wrigley's."

Mr Roche denied that the lobbying was inappropriate. "I
don't think it is inappropriate, our ambassadors would
actually lobby for Irish companies interests elsewhere -
well that's what we're always telling them to do."

In the event the Government decided not to go ahead with
the tax despite the recommendations of a report
commissioned by the Department of the Environment in 2002
which advocated the measure.

Instead, Mr Roche reached agreement with chewing gum
manufacturers on an annual contribution of more than €2
million from the industry. Under the terms of the deal, the
money will be invested in an education, research and
prevention programme aimed at reducing chewing-gum litter

The tax would have netted between €4 million and €5 million
a year, but Mr Roche maintained that a tax was less likely
to achieve the aim of reducing chewing gum litter.

The deal followed intensive negotiations with manufacturers
led by US firm Wrigley's, which has nearly 90 per cent of
market share in the sector.

The cost of cleaning chewing gum off the streets around the
State is estimated to run into millions of euros each year.

© The Irish Times

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/0130/18823914
82HM7MCCARTNEY.html

McCartney Family In Public Appeal

Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor

The family of Robert McCartney will tomorrow issue a
public appeal for assistance in tracing his killers. The
appeal will be made outside the pub where he was fatally
stabbed one year ago.

Robert McCartney's five sisters, his partner Bridgeen
Hagans, children Conlead and Brandon, and other family
members plan to gather outside Magennis's bar - now closed
- close to the Short Strand in east Belfast to urge anyone
with useful information to come forward.

The appeal will coincide with the first anniversary of his
murder. Mr McCartney was attacked on Sunday night, January
30th, last year inside and outside the bar by a number of
IRA members who had returned from Bloody Sunday
commemorations in Derry. The attack was not authorised by
the IRA. He died the following day. After the appeal the
family will join neighbours and friends, probably for the
last time, in the house on Mount Pottinger Road in the
Short Strand that was the McCartney home for 40 years and
where Mr McCartney lived with his partner Bridgeen and
children. In October Robert's sister Paula moved out of the
Short Strand to a new home in south Belfast, while recently
Ms Hagans also moved out of the area to a house in north
Belfast.

The family may now sell the house. Paula McCartney said the
family would also open up a special website seeking
information about his murder.

One man has been charged with Mr McCartney's murder while
another has been charged with the attempted murder of the
man he went to assist, Brendan Devine, who was been
attacked at Magennis's. The McCartneys say that there were
about 15 people involved in the attack on Mr McCartney.

SDLP MP for South Belfast Dr Alasdair McDonnell said
yesterday that he was deeply disappointed that one year on
his killers were not charged and convicted. "Robert
McCartney's murder was witnessed. That is the reality. I
find it deplorable that 12 months later not one person who
was in Magennis's Bar has had the decency to come forward
and put an end to the torment that Robert's loved ones have
had to endure since his death," he said.

"Sinn Féin may like to hide behind the number of people who
have made statements, but if their total evidential value
is zero, this can hardly help the family," added.

Dr McDonnell added: "It is difficult to lose a loved one in
any circumstances. But the family of Robert have lost him
in the most tragic and gut-wrenching way imaginable. Yet
they have fought and fought, through their grief and pain,
for justice for Robert - justice which is long overdue.

"I urge those people who were in the pub on the night of
Robert's brutal murder to spare a thought for his two
little children who are only now coming to terms with the
fact that their daddy is never coming home. Do the only
humane thing there is. Provide what evidence you can to
help bring Robert's murderers before the law."

© The Irish Times

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/0
1/30/nmccart30.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/30/ixhome.html

McCartney Sisters Want Spy To Help Solve Murder Of Their
Brother

By Tom Peterkin, Ireland Correspondent
(Filed: 30/01/2006)

The sisters of Robert McCartney, who was murdered outside a
Belfast pub, believe a high-ranking Sinn Fein member
exposed as a British spy last month may have crucial
information about the killing.

One year after Mr McCartney's death, his family suggested
that Denis Donaldson, the former Sinn Fein head of
administration, could provide evidence about the murder,
which police have linked to the IRA.

Catherine McCartney [second from left] with Gemma, left,
Bridgeen Hagens and Claire

Yesterday, Catherine McCartney said the high regard in
which Mr Donaldson was held by the political wing of the
IRA meant he could have been involved in discussions about
how Sinn Fein should handle the negative publicity caused
by his brutal murder.

Two former Sinn Fein members, Terence Davison, 49, and Jim
McCormick, 36, have been charged over the death of Mr
McCartney, 33, who was stabbed outside Magennis's Bar in
central Belfast.

Davison is charged with murder while McCormick is accused
of the attempted murder of Mr McCartney's drinking partner,
Brendan Devine, last Jan 31. Both men are on bail awaiting
trial.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Miss McCartney said: "It
would surprise me if Denis Donaldson didn't know something.
It would surprise me if Denis Donaldson wasn't involved
when Sinn Fein were discussing how to handle the Robert
McCartney case."

Mr Donaldson was brought up in the Short Strand, the Roman
Catholic enclave in Belfast where Mr McCartney and his
family lived.

"We will be asking anyone we think is holding information
to come to court," Miss McCartney said.

The campaign waged by the sisters in the past year has
damaged Sinn Fein and many believe their courage helped
create the political pressure leading to IRA disarmament.

Tomorrow, they will return to Mr McCartney's house in the
Short Strand with his fiance, Bridgeen Hagans, to mark the
anniversary of his death. There, they will renew their
appeal for more information.

Since his stabbing, Miss Hagans and Mr McCartney's sisters,
Paula, Donna, Catherine, Claire and Gemma, have brought the
case to international prominence. They were granted an
audience with George W Bush last St Patrick's Day while the
Sinn Fein leaders were not.

The sisters claim 15 people were involved in the death and
subsequent cover-up.

Those who disapproved of their quest for justice, attempted
to intimidate the family, who decided to move out of the
Short Strand last year. But it was the fact that they kept
bumping into suspects that led to their decision to leave
the area.

They maintain that Sinn Fein mounted a cover-up that is
denying their brother justice. Miss McCartney said: "When
you have an organisation like the IRA and a political party
[Sinn Fein] aiming to get into power that imposes and
supports that kind of culture. I don't think that should be
tolerated."

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http://lark.phoblacht.net/2901062g.html

One Year On

The downside of the strategy of Armalite and ballot box -
bully boys coercing Catholic communities and the murder of
an innocent man - Angelique Chrisafis

Anthony McIntyre • 29 January 2006

Robert McCartney was murdered one year ago. Knifed, beaten,
kicked, danced upon, the Short Strand resident, despite his
physical strength, stood little chance as his 'defenders'
stabbed and bludgeoned the life out of his body. His
drinking buddy Brendan Devine was lucky to wake up the
other side of the operating theatre. Only a minority of
people in Magennis's bar took part in the savagery, yet out
of a sense of either fear or common purpose not one of the
many onlookers found it within themselves to call for an
ambulance.

Only in an Orwellian ensemble where truthful testimony has
pariah status, could perpetrators such as the bar room
butchers describe themselves, or be termed by others, as
community defenders. Then again history teaches us that
even torturers and those who practice the dark art of
disappearing human beings see themselves in good light and
have their admirers. Argentina and Chile being merely two
of the many countries where 'respectable, responsible and
Christian' are terms lavished on brutes and butchers.

Thirteen months ago the Sinn Fein leadership could hardly
have foreseen the year that lay ahead. Despite initial bad
press, it would have been over the worst of the fallout
from the Northern Bank robbery by May when the British
general election would have created new imperatives which
in turn would have led to the quelling of awkward
questions. Peace processing would have been back at its
most virulent ravishing transparency and ridiculing honest
commentary. The murder of Robert McCartney changed
everything. While Sinn Fein's growth continued it was
incremental rather than exponential as anticipated. The
year ended as badly as it had started, with the party
reeling as a result of spy allegations and widely felt to
be unworthy of belief. Some observers now feel that the
Sinn Fein bubble has burst, that its erstwhile image of
idealism fuelled by the hunger strikes and the sacrifices
of IRA volunteers has given way to a reputation for slime
and sleaze. Premature perhaps, even a touch caustic or
wishful thinking, but Sinn Fein's 2005 journey was made
barefooted on a thorny path. And the damage sustained may
yet prove irreparable. The irony of the party predicament
is that an issue it can normally be expected to benefit
from - the murder of a Sinn Fein voter - became a spectre
that stalked it relentlessly from Washington pillar to
Brussels post.

Much has been suggested that the murder flowed from an
order given by what the PSNI allege was 'a very senior IRA
man' in the bar on the evening. Even if this is true what
sort of 'thinking republican', to borrow Gerry Adams's term
would fail to stop in their tracks to reflect that people's
lives cannot be ended on an arbitrary whim translated into
an order issued from the middle of some pub. Robert
McCartney's knife wielding assailants murdered him because
they wanted to. If such an order was given it was easy to
refuse it and win the case if brought before any leadership
tribunal. Spur of the moment decisions hatched in pubs to
kill people was the modus operandi of the UDA; never the
IRA.

There is no need to subscribe to Nigel West's view that one
in three Provisionals are touts in order to accept the
likelihood that agents aplenty were in the bar on the
evening of the murder. Out of the large body of Provisional
activists there, statistically this would lend itself to a
belief that more than one taxi would have been required to
whisk the informers away from the scene if perchance they
decided to travel together. Investigators within the PSNI
may not have known from the outset what happened in the
bar, but those running the agents who were present on the
night were certainly aware. That the inquiry has not made
the progress that it should have suggests that Kevin
Dunwoody and his team of evidence gatherers may have had
their investigation frustrated by those within the PSNI or
other security agencies more keen to protect informers than
to solve murders.

Two men have since appeared in court. Terry Davison was
charged with murdering Robert McCartney while Jim McCormick
stands accused of attempting to murder Brendan Devine.
While expressing no view about the guilt or innocence of
either man the McCartney women are despondent over the
limited progress to date. They believe that as many as
twelve were involved in either assaulting the two men in
the bar or in the fatal attack outside the premises. Others
were involved in the forensic cover up and subsequent
attempts to pervert the course of justice, intimidate
witnesses or hamper the inquiry. The women feel all should
be brought to book. It would be a rare event in the
murderous history of the North if this were to happen. For
the most part the cops get the main perpetrators, if at
all, and sometimes frame the innocent to make up the
numbers.

When I first met the McCartney women the Friday after they
had buried their brother, I had little idea that a full
year later the case would still be generating public
interest despite the hopes of those opposed to a just
outcome. Then they displayed no interest in giving Sinn
Fein a hard time. Catherine McCartney would say later she
had 'such faith in Sinn Féin.' The women readily accepted
the suggestion that they would spare themselves and Sinn
Fein a lot of trouble if they could persuade Brendan Devine
to give evidence. It never worked out like that. It would
be a matter of months before Devine grasped the nettle. By
then, with the women less and less convinced that Sinn Fein
was the honest broker it claimed to be, the story had
developed a momentum of its own and the women moved centre
stage in a struggle against Sinn Fein which the party never
remotely looked like winning.

As the family sit on the first anniversary of Robert's
death and reflect on a year in which they have hardly had
time to grieve they know that there are people out there
who hold the key to unlock the case and release them from
their mental anguish. Paula expressed their hopes to the
Sunday Tribune:

Human nature isn't clear-cut. Maybe there's somebody,
inside or outside the republican movement, who did or knows
something, and hasn't had a good night's sleep all year
because their conscience is troubling them. I'd appeal to
them to act now. Even a year after Robert's murder, it's
not too late to do the right thing.

Their well wishers can only hope that Paula is right and
that 2006 is kinder to them than 2005 ever was.

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2006/0130/18442239
32OPLEAEDUCATE.html

Opin: Integrated Schools Offer Way Forward

Northern Ireland remains a deeply divided society in
several major respects, most notably in its educational
system.

In 2002-2003, 94 per cent of Protestant children attended
what are in effect Protestant schools, whether they were
state-controlled or voluntary, while the equivalent figure
for Catholic children was 92 per cent. It has long been
assumed that educational segregation affects wider
political and social attitudes, which have life-long
consequences. Many believe the quality of life could be
modified and improved by more integrated schooling.

Recent detailed research findings have confirmed this
assumption. A major survey of how education is distributed
between Catholic, Protestant, non-religious and other
children shows what difference this makes to a range of
attitudes towards political identity and constitutional
futures. There are (as is usually the case) some surprises
along the way in the report, based on a combined set of
survey data. Educational background emerges from these
findings as a major determinant of attitudes, but not
necessarily the key to contested issues about how Northern
Ireland should be governed.

Lagan College, the first integrated school there, was not
founded until 1981 and did not receive government funding
until 1984. Both its foundation and public funding were
highly controversial and opposed by many church leaders,
who had effectively controlled both Protestant and Catholic
education, irrespective of whether it was in the state-
controlled, maintained or voluntary sectors. On average
since then, two or three new integrated schools have opened
each year, so that by 2004 there were 57 such schools with
a total enrolment of 17,149 pupils. They represent about 5
per cent of pupils overall - although that is not the full
picture, since some 12 per cent of Protestant and 8 per
cent of Catholic schools are "fairly mixed" without being
formally integrated.

It is too early to say whether integrated schooling, in
which there will be more contact between people from
different religious and cultural traditions, can break down
the atmosphere of mutual distrust and suspicion that
pervades Northern society as comprehensively as many hope
or assume. But the research suggests there are significant
differences between those who attend these and segregated
schools on political and constitutional attitudes.

Thus Protestants attending integrated schools were less
likely to endorse either a British or unionist identity,
more likely to adopt a Northern Irish one and decidedly not
willing to switch to an Irish or nationalist one. Catholics
attending an integrated school were less likely to endorse
an Irish identity, more open to a Northern Ireland one, but
quite unwilling to say they were unionist or British.
Catholics were more ready to cross traditional boundaries,
and this research bears out the existence of a significant
Catholic majority pragmatically accepting the British link.
From both sides there is a welcome potential to create a
new common ground in the North's politics.

© The Irish Times

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2006/0130/34515075
71OP30NORTHSCHOOL.html

Opin: More Integrated Schools Needed

Integrated education can help create a new common ground
in Northern Ireland politics, writes Professor Bernadette
Hayes

Since the start of the Troubles in 1968, integrated
education has been seen as the single most important long-
term solution to the Northern Ireland conflict. But does
integrated education work? Are those who come out of the
integrated school system more moderate than those who have
attended religiously based schools?

The integrated education sector in Northern Ireland is
tiny. The most recent government statistics show that 94
per cent of Protestant children attend a "controlled" or
state school, and 92 per cent of Catholic children attend a
Catholic school, either maintained or voluntary.

Only about 5 per cent of children attend an integrated
school and they are predominantly drawn from the very small
ethnic minorities.

Today, there are 57 integrated schools, 38 primary schools
and just 19 post-primary. As a consequence of parental
initiatives, the integrated education sector has made some
progress since 1989.

In 2001-2002, 10 per cent of secondary school children
attended integrated schools, compared to 5.7 per cent in
1998-1999.

Although the extent of religious integration at the school
level remains low, surveys suggest that there is much less
segregation within the adult population.

According to the 2003 Northern Ireland Life and Times
Survey, over one in 10 adults said that they had attended a
religiously mixed school. When the survey asked if the
school was "formally integrated" rather than just "fairly
mixed", it leads to a much lower estimate of 1.7 per cent
of the total adult population attending an integrated
school.

It is argued that a segregated educational system leads to
ignorance about the other community and, in the words of
Séamus Dunn, fosters "an atmosphere of mutual distrust and
suspicion".

The goal of integrated schools is to foster an
understanding of both traditions; by encouraging children
to understand their historical and religious differences,
it is claimed that they will form enduring cross-community
relations.

To what extent have integrated schools been successful in
achieving these aims? Does the experience of integrated
education create a middle ground? Our survey evidence,
using the Life and Times and election surveys conducted on
the adult population since 1998 to examine national
identity and constitutional preferences, suggests that it
does.

Patterns of national identity show that there are long-term
effects stemming from integrated schooling in promoting
more integrationist views, notably among Protestants.

Protestants who said they had attended an integrated school
were less likely to endorse either a British or a unionist
identity compared to those who had attended either a
segregated school, or one that was just fairly mixed. They
were also more likely to see themselves as "Northern
Irish".

Perhaps the most striking finding in our research is the
marked unwillingness among Protestants who had attended
integrated schools to cross traditional boundaries and
adopt the opposing identity.

Protestants who experience integrated education do occupy
the middle ground of Northern Ireland politics and are
willing to detach themselves from their British and
unionist identity, but they will not adopt the identity of
the other side.

This is not the case among Catholics, where support for
Irish and nationalist identities is not as clearly
differentiated by educational sector. Catholics who had
attended a religiously mixed school were less likely to
endorse an Irish identity.

But once again, there is a marked unwillingness among
Catholics who had attended an integrated school to cross
traditional allegiances and adopt the opposing identity.

Nevertheless, integrated education remains important in
shaping identity patterns. It is again Protestants who had
attended an integrated school who stand out as being the
least traditionalist in their views. Protestants who had
attended an integrated school were less likely to identify
themselves as both British and unionist than those who had
not.

Among Catholics, the key factor is attendance at a non-
segregated school. Irrespective of the type of integrated
school they attended, Catholics were less likely to
identify themselves as both Irish and nationalist.

How does integrated education influence constitutional
preferences? Among Protestants, those who had attended an
integrated school are less likely to support the link with
Britain.

In our surveys, 66 per cent supported the link with
Britain, compared to 80 per cent for those not educated in
an integrated school. Again, Protestants are unwilling to
cross traditional boundaries in their constitutional
preferences.

Constitutional preferences among Catholics are not as
clearly differentiated by educational sector, although
attendance at an integrated school remains important.
Whereas just over half of Catholics who had attended a
segregated school supported Irish reunification, just over
one in three of those who had experienced an integrated
education did so.

Overall, our most important finding is the willingness of
Catholics to cross traditional boundaries and associate
with the opposing preference. Not only does a notable
minority of the Catholic community - just over one-fifth in
total - support the link with Britain, but a similar
proportion remain undecided about the issue.

The interaction between integrated education and community
relations in Northern Ireland is both complex and
contentious. A quarter of a century after the first
integrated college was established, we still do not know if
integrated education breaks down religious and cultural
barriers. While our results cannot provide a definitive
answer, they do suggest that attendance at an informally or
formally integrated school has positive long-term benefits
in promoting a less sectarian outlook.

Our evidence in support of this proposition is threefold.
First, irrespective of religion, individuals who had
attended an integrated school were significantly more
likely to reject traditional identities and allegiances
than those who had attended a segregated one.

Second, this finding particularly resonates among
Protestants, where clear differences in identity patterns
and constitutional preferences emerged between those who
had attended a formally integrated school and those who had
not.

Protestants who had attended an integrated school were more
likely than those who had not to occupy a neutral position
in terms of political identities and constitutional
preferences.

Third, there are positive effects for informally integrated
schooling on Catholic outlooks. Catholics who had attended
a "fairly mixed" school were more likely than others to
occupy the centre ground in identity politics; in addition,
they were more likely to disavow bipartisan constitutional
preferences.

Integrated schools can and do have an impact on the
outlooks of the pupils who attend them. Our study - based
on a large sample of the adult population - suggests that
the positive effects of integrated schooling extend into
later life.

As the numbers experiencing integrated schooling grows,
these individuals have the potential to create a new common
ground in Northern Ireland politics.

Further details of the research by Prof Bernadette C. Hayes
(University of Aberdeen), Ian McAllister (Australian
National University) and Lizanne Dowds (ARK, University of
Ulster) can be found on the ARK website (www.ark.ac.uk )

© The Irish Times

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

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/73998

Public Meeting At Shannon On US Warplanes

Monday January 30,
2006 01:03 by Edward Horgan
PANA Peace and Neutrality Alliance

Meeting tonight at Shannon, 30 Jan 2006

Help stop the misuse of Shannon airport by US military in
their unlawful war in Iraq.

Over 100,000 Iraqis are dead so far in this war, and up to
46% of these were children.
----

Press Release

Torture and Killing: Iraq and the Shannon Connection

An ex-US Marine will give a first-hand account of his time
in Iraq, including how his Platoon killed over 30 innocent
Iraqis at a public meeting in Shannon on Monday.

The talk, title "Torture and Killing : Iraq and the Shannon
Connection" will take place in the Oakwood Arms Hotel in
Shannon, at 7pm, Monday January 30th.

The meeting will also feature two local peace activists, Ed
Horgan, a retired Irish Army Commandant, and Tim Hourigan,
who monitors US military use of Shannon. The various
speakers will discuss how Shannon Airport, is a major hub
for CIA torture jets, US military personnel and cargo,
while Mr. Massey will give personal accounts of his time as
a platoon sergeant in Kuwait and Iraq.

Mr. Massey is in Ireland as part of a short round of anti-
war talks. He was in Dublin last October to testify in a
court case. Under oath, he told the judge and jury, that
his Marines were told to consider all Iraqis as potential
terrorists, to shhot first and ask later, and that as a
result of these Rules of Engagement, his platoon killed
over thirty innocent civilians. Mr. Massey told the court
that the 3rd Battallion 7th Marines regularly used Shannon
Airport as a transit point, and that he would categorise it
as a military supply and logistics port for transporting US
Marines and their equipment.

Ed Horgan, spent 20 years in the Irish Army, serving at
home, and abroad on UN peacekeeping missions, including the
Middle East.

In 2003, he returned his medals in protest at the US
military use of Shannon to attack Iraq. Mr Horgan said that
"US military use of Shannon is the most shameful act by
Ireland since the foundation of the State". Along with
fellow speaker Tim Hourigan, Mr. Horgan has helpd to record
US military use of Shannon, and has testified to the
Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. Hourigan will also talk about his investigations of CIA
use of Shannon, and how the government is turning a blind
eye to torture.

All members of the public are encouraged to attend and give
their opinions on the use of Shannon for war.

Contact :
Ed Horgan 085-1026631
Tim Hourigan 087-9777703
Oakwood Arms Shannon

Monday 30th January 2006

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

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/0130/34595392
62HM4KAVANAGH.html

Poet's Keeper Peter Kavanagh To Be Buried At Inniskeen

Seán O'Driscoll in New York and Marie O'Halloran

Peter Kavanagh, younger brother of the poet Patrick
Kavanagh, is to be buried at Inniskeen in Co Monaghan,
following his death on Saturday in New York at the age of
89.

He had worked as a professor of English literature in the
United States and spent much of his life making his
brother's name known and honoured.

Irish writer Colum McCann recalled that "if anyone dared
have a go at Patrick, Peter was known for speaking out very
forcefully on behalf of his brother's legacy . . . he
brightened up when anyone showed interest in Patrick's
work".

A playwright, editor, scholar and his brother's biographer,
he was renowned for a fiery temperament. He once smashed a
plaque erected to the memory of his brother at a pub in
London because the inscription referred to Patrick
urinating outside it.

Mr Kavanagh was custodian of much of his brother's work
through his printing company, The Peter Kavanagh Hand
Press.

In 1981, The New York Times described Peter as "both
management and labor at the Peter Kavanagh Hand Press" with
"a blunderbuss of a tongue" that fired off complaints about
"landlords, publishers, literary dabblers and a rather
large gallery of miscreants".

"He did a huge amount in support of Patrick, in
promulgating his poetry, in making sure it appeared at
all," said Macdara Woods, a poet and friend of Patrick
Kavanagh's. He added: "Peter published a huge amount about
Patrick" - including PK, Man and Poet; November Haggard,
uncollected prose and verse; The Sacred Keeper, a biography
of the poet; Lapped Furrows, a book of correspondence
between the two brothers; and Patrick Kavanagh 1904-1967, A
Life Chronicle, a biography he published in 2000. "He
believed he had a particular duty and obligation, from God
as it were, to be the keeper of the flame."

© The Irish Times

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

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/0130/39376399
9HM2HOTELFALL.html

Hotel Guest Dies After Fall From Balcony

Anne Lucey

The body of a guest was discovered in the grounds of the
Great Southern Hotel in Killarney yesterday, after he
apparently fell off an upper balcony.

Gardaí in Killarney are investigating the death, but say
they are satisfied it was accidental.

Sgt Tom Tobin said the body had not been formally
identified and gardaí were seeking to contact relatives of
the dead man.

It is understood the man, believed to be in his 40s, and
Irish, was on his own in the hotel room on Saturday night.

The body was discovered by a member of staff near a fire
escape in the garden of the hotel at around 11.40am
yesterday.

After an examination of the scene by gardaí and a coroner,
the body was removed to Kerry General Hospital. A
postmortem is expected to be carried out by Assistant State
Pathologist, Dr Margot Bolster.

© The Irish Times

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

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/0130/21220155
25HM6RISING.html

1916 Conference Told Invasion Of Ireland Was Considered

Olivia Kelleher

Ireland was of interest to foreign powers between the
turn of the century and the end of the first World War
because it was believed the British would have to surrender
if Ireland were occupied, a leading academic claimed at a
conference on the Easter 1916 Rising at the weekend.

Speaking at UCC, Dr Jérôme van de Wiel of the University of
Rheims said that even Imperial Russia seemed to have some
military interest in Ireland - a document in the French
military archives shows that a "Franco-Russian landing in
Ireland" might have been contemplated in 1902 just after
the Boer War.

"As various diplomatic and military archives located in
Berlin, Brussels, Freiburg, Paris, Rome and Vienna reveal,
continental Europe was much interested in Ireland. By
occupying her they believed that the British would have to
surrender. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was closely
following the Irish crisis. He became more and more
frustrated by Britain's attitude towards Germany and more
and more aggressive in his comments regarding Ireland."

The Kaiser was personally informed of events in Ireland by
Dr Theodor Schiemann, a historian with Irish-American
contacts.

When, in September 1912, the chargé d'affaires of the
German embassy in London suggested that the Home Rule
crisis "would weaken England as a world power because of
the influence the Irish exercise in America", the Kaiser
wrote in the margin: "That would be a great boon".

© The Irish Times

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

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/2006/0130/2108926
366ATCARLINGFORD.html

Round The House And Mind The Border

A new winter school is raising the profile of traditional
music in the counties around Carlingford Lough, writes
Siobhán Long

You'd be forgiven if you suspected that traditional
musicians are a bunch of cap-'n'-gown-wearing academics,
such is the plethora of summer schools and winter schools,
competitions, feiseanna, workshops and master classes that
have swamped the calendar in recent years. Scoil Samhraidh
Willie Clancy set the bar high back in 1973, when it
embarked on its annual summer fest of tunes, songs, and the
occasional high step or two. Recent arrivals range from
Donegal's Frankie Kennedy Winter School to Ballyferriter's
Spring School (aka Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh),
Castleisland's Patrick O'Keeffe festival, Cavan's
deliciously titled Nyah Traditional Arts Festival and
Strokestown's Féile Frank McGann. And that's not to mention
the slew of international festivals luring musicians to
such exotic climes as Edinburgh, Lorient, Québec and
Milwaukee. Traditional music has certainly come a long way
from the crossroads from whence it has steadily two-stepped
its way towards Carnegie Hall and beyond, in recent years.

In the past, the Cooley peninsula has earned a colourful
reputation for everything from cattle rustling and second-
hand car dealing to picturesque hillwalking, but it's
buried its music so far beneath its bushels that it's going
to take more than the wiliest of winter schools to draw the
attention of listeners beyond the confines of its Border
country. Counties Louth, Cavan, Monaghan, Down and Antrim
might be close geographically, but they might as well be
Ulan Bator for all the daily communication that they engage
in, or at least, used to engage in - until such niceties as
the Belfast Agreement began to seep beneath the skin of the
region.

Lately there's been something of an entente cordiale, with
local musicians gradually coming to the realisation that
tunes and songs could be swapped without fear of a loss of
identity or, worse still, of a note going astray, or a
lyric going awry.

Carlingford Lough is ideally situated to cradle this
musical awakening, fingering as it does the counties whose
borders are finally dissolving in the wealth of tunes,
songs and dance steps which they share. Celebrating common
ground is what the inaugural Scoil Chairlinn is all about,
according to its co-founder (with Gerry "Fiddle" O'Connor),
guitarist, singer, champion lilter and Londoner by birth,
Seán Ó Roideáin, the centre manager of Carlingford
Community Development's Foy Centre, which hosted the winter
school's grand concert.

"We developed the winter school in partnership with St
Oliver's Primary School, and with the Cooley Peninsula
Tourism Association", Ó Roideáin reports, the seeds of
cross-fertilisation evident in the eclectic range of
partners who signed up for the challenge. "What we're
hoping is that this will be a catalyst to stimulate the
playing of traditional music across the peninsula. There's
a specific regional style here, that Gerry O'Connor's one
of the principal exponents of, and we want to make sure
that that's passed on to future generations".

"Historically this was the Kingdom of Oriel", he continues
enthusiastically, "but in terms of how traditional music
has been transmitted in the past, people from north
Leinster didn't get to meet up with people from south
Ulster. This event has provided a unique opportunity for
people from Bundoran, Carrickmacross, south Armagh and
south Down to meet up. And what we're hoping now is that
new networks begin to develop from here on."

Rose O'Connor, (mother of Gerry), has taught fiddle over
five decades in Dundalk, and her proteges have included not
just her own son, (a founding member of Lá Lugh and
Skylark), but the renowned young fiddler, Zoë Conway, whose
debut CD ushered in a new generation of musicians steeped
in local geography and schooled in a musical university of
life that whispered of a maturity well beyond her years.
Rose is delighted with the advent of a local winter school,
celebrating local music, a music that's fuelled her own
playing since childhood - and still does - as she coasts
through her 85th year. With more than 500 jigs, 500 reels,
100 hornpipes, 34 set dances, polkas and slow airs, all
transcribed in her own hand, Rose knows not only the price
of a good tune, but the value of it too.

"This school is a marvellous idea altogether," she
declares. "I've told all my students about it, because it's
a great chance for them to learn more tunes, and to play
with great teachers. Mandolin, banjo, accordion, fiddle.
Sure there's no end to the music that's there. We didn't
have the luxury of that when we were first starting out."
With 52 students, ranging in age from seven to 65, enrolled
in classes on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, accordion and tin
whistle, and travelling from locations as disparate as
Virginia in Co Cavan, to Dublin and Belfast, Seán Ó
Roideáin feels confident that the music of the region is
destined for greatness.

ODDLY THOUGH, THE winter school's dance presence, from
Scoil Rince Ard-Rialla, ran the risk of undermining the
credibility of the music. With a pair of lead dancers
decked out in dance costumes akin to a diabolical cross-
fertilisation of the worst of Las Vegas excess with the
horrors of Dante's Inferno (bathed in blindingly luminous
colours and bedecked in flamingo-pink plumage), Scoil
Chairlinn momentarily strayed off course, only to be lured
back on track by a gathering of the finest musicians
including Desi Wilkinson, Joe Sherlock and Mick Callaghan
on flute, Andrew McNamara on accordion and Gerry O'Connor
on fiddle.

The shortage of sessions in Carlingford's local bars (apart
from a lone session on the opening night in PJ O'Hare's,
and a lunchtime session on Sunday in the Milestone Bar) was
a reminder of the peripheral role that live traditional
music still plays in the peninsula, but Gerry O'Connor is
optimistic that local tunes will again hold forth in the
region, with just a touch more cosseting and cajoling.

"What keeps me going, and what keeps the music alive, is
cross-fertilisation," O'Connor insists. "That's what keeps
me playing much the same kinds of melodies, but with
different colours. Boundaries are being pushed now in the
best sense. People are opening doors, and seeing
possibilities that they mightn't have seen before. Music is
constantly moving and shifting, and there has to be room
for everybody. I think Ceol Chairlinn is just one piece of
the puzzle. Our music is like a mist that you can move, and
twist, and pull and shape it. It's so flexible and pliant."

Seán Ó Roideáin sees the nurturing of local talent as a
primary responsibility of this year's and future winter
schools. "We really want to increase the number of players
and teachers locally, and to put in place the
infrastructure which will sustain traditional music across
the peninsula in the long run", he says. "By bringing on
local teaching assistants to work with Gerry [ O'Connor]
and Desi Wilkinson, we're investing in the future
development of tutors as well as players in this region.
Our links with Fintan Vallely and Dundalk IT bodes well for
traditional music in the north east too, I think. The
success we've seen with our first festival this year can
only auger well for the future."

For details of the 2007 Ceol Chairlinn, contact Seán Ó
Roideáin at 042-9383624 or info@carlingfordbeds.com

© The Irish Times

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

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/2006/0130/1242977
803HM2REVIEW.html

Review: Traditional Music And Culture Festival, Temple Bar,
Dublin

If there were any doubts about whether Dublin's city centre
harbours an appetite for traditional music, then this
year's inaugural Temple Bar Trad Irish Music & Culture
Festival scuppered them with gusto. Throughout the weekend,
the twin venues of the Temple Bar Music Centre and the Bank
of Ireland Arts Centre on Foster Place reverberated with
the sound of musical notes colliding and punters jostling
for enough space to at least tilt their pelvises in time.

The festival's decision to lure the long-dispersed Skara
Brae back together was an inspired piece of programming on
Thursday's opening night. Maighread and Tríona Ní
Dhomhnaill, Micheál Ó Domhnaill and Daithí Sproule
reignited as if they'd only strayed momentarily from a
repertoire which, when originally recorded in 1971, set
pulses beating erratically with its intricate harmonies and
guitar-line tapestries.

Maighread is still the fulcrum of the quartet, her soaring
vocals countered with pristine accuracy by Tríona's throaty
harmonies, with Micheál fulfilling the essential third part
in their elaborate triangular communion. Suantraí Hiúdaí,
An Saighdiúir Tréighthe and Inis Dhún Rámha were as fresh-
faced and sprightly as they were over three decades ago.

Before them, Noel Hill made an exultant return to Dublin,
with an effervescent set that tested his mettle, and
tickled the eardrums of his audience.

Open in his gratitude for the unconditional cluas na
heisteachta of his audience, he stilled the room with a
glorious set that swept elements of Caoineadh Luimní and Dr
Gilbert's Reel into the ether with the dextrous agility of
a gymnast on top form.

Tommy Peoples is a Donegal fiddler who's already entered
the pantheon of the great.

To this reviewer's surprise, he opened Saturday night's
proceedings, and so his set was missed, thanks to the
parking tribulations that prevented us from reaching our
seats until Leitrim fiddler Andy Morrow and Limerick
concertina maestro Tony O'Connell took to the stage, in the
superb company of guitarist Arty McGlynn.

This was a set that promised much, and delivered more.
Morrow's fiddle was initially too tied to the scaffolding
of the tunes to find its true voice, but once the trio hit
the belly of the hornpipe the Drunken Sailor, all fetters
were jettisoned. O'Connell eked a gorgeous woody tone from
his concertina, a magnificent force and a musical
personality all his own.

Seán Tyrrell rounded off the night with a sociably eclectic
mix of songs and tunes, using his mandocello and guitar for
maximum impact on the Coast of Malabar, the Sad Gypsy and
the Blue Green Bangle. His voice is his essential calling
card, not so much laden, as sustained by the jaded riches
of a life lived to the full.

A long weekend of fine music, and a formidable start to an
event that whispers of much more to come.

Siobhán Long

----
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