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November 01, 2006

Brown Pledges 50 Billion For NI Over Next Decade

News About Ireland & The Irish

IT 11/01/06 Brown Pledges Œ50 Billion For NI Over Next Decade
IT 11/02/06 SDLP Predicts Hain Will Recall Government Body In North
BN 11/01/06 Man Held In 'Collusion' Murders Probe
PQ 11/02/06 Michael Stone Admits Plotting To Kill Livingstone
BB 11/01/06 DUP Doubts Over Devolution Date
BB 11/01/06 Police 'May Name' Racist Loyalist Groups
BB 11/01/06 Ex-IRA Mole Questioned On Murders
BM 11/01/06 Dublin/Monaghan Bombs Inquiry To Be Complete Next Month
BN 11/01/06 Schoolboy Murder - 1,000 Statements Taken
IT 11/02/06 Opin: Vatican & Queen Liz Will Find 'Tis Fairly Grim Up North
RT 11/01/06 Harney Blames Over-Prescription For MRSA
IT 11/02/06 First Two Irish Cases Of MRSA Resistingantibiotics
BB 11/01/06 Black Humour Among Cemetery's Graves
IT 11/01/06 Almost 75% In Republic Know A Suicide Victim
WG 11/01/06 Cormac O'Malley: Revolutionary's Son Helps NYU Focus

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2006/1101/breaking3.htm
Brown Pledges Œ50 Billion For NI Over Next Decade

Last updated: 01-11-06, 20:58

British Chancellor Gordon Brown has promised to increase
financial support for Northern Ireland to some œ50 billion
(?75 billion) over the next ten years if devolved
government is restored.

The massive package was unveiled by Mr Brown after a
meeting in Downing Street with an all-party delegation of
Northern Ireland politicians.

It includes at least œ35 billion over the next four years -
up from œ32 billion at present - and support for a œ18
billion capital investment strategy until 2017. "This will
provide the incoming Northern Ireland Executive with
certainty to plan public service delivery," the Treasury
said.

Before the meeting with Mr Brown, the Democratic Unionist
Party that without extra financial support for a devolved
executive, hopes of a political settlement could be
scuppered.

Speaking alongside Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain,
who also attended the talks, Mr Brown said afterwards: "To
emphasise, this package is subject to an agreement on
November 10th."

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern welcomed the announcement tonight,
describing it as a "significant positive step forward" in
the peace process.

"It is an essential part of the St Andrew's Agreement. It
clearly shows what can be achieved when the Northern
Ireland parties work together," he said in a statement.

"It is important that the parties continue their collective
engagement with the Treasury with a view to following up on
today's announcement.

"The Irish Government has been working with their
counterparts in the British Government to look into ways to
secure a significant financial component in the process
which can benefit the entire island. I therefore welcome
this announcement by the Chancellor and look forward to the
two Governments working closely together on this issue in
the coming weeks and months."

But the North's party leaders expressed disappointment that
the Chancellor had offered no concessions on corporation
tax for Northern Ireland companies, as they had demanded.

The Democratic Unionist Party suggested that the package as
it stood was unacceptable and that a devolved
administration was conditional upon a better deal. "The
Chancellor has to start from some point - we might have
hoped he could start from a slightly higher point than he
did," DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said. "It is
necessary to get this package to a state where it is
acceptable."

But Sinn F‚in leader Gerry Adams said he hadn't expected
all the issues to be sorted out today. "We have to come at
this positively. The British Chancellor has come up with a
whole series of measures. We have to look at the detail of
it."

Mr Adams said the Chancellor had indicated he was prepared
to talk further on the subject of corporation tax.

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey added that they were
"disappointed" by the response on corporation tax. "I don't
think this marks the end of it," he said. "We have to use
this as the commencement of a process."

Tonight's talks were held to discuss the economic issues
arising from the summit in St Andrews, Scotland, last month
between Mr Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
They outlined plans which they believe could have the
suspended Northern Ireland Assembly up and running again by
next spring.

The parties have been set a deadline of November 10th to
respond.

c 2006 ireland.com

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/1102/1162365589861.html
SDLP Predicts Hain Will Recall Government Body In North

Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor
02/11/2006

Northern Secretary Peter Hain will call a meeting of the
stalled Programme for Government Committee involving the
leadership of the main parties, the SDLP forecast last
night.

The committee, designed to draw up an agenda for an
incoming powersharing Executive at Stormont, has been
postponed since October 17th, just days after the St
Andrews talks.

South Down Assembly member Margaret Ritchie said she
believed Mr Hain would summon the committee to discuss the
Gordon Brown peace dividend announced last night in Downing
Street.

Mr Hain postponed the committee's inaugural meeting
following an open rift between the DUP and Sinn F‚in over
the question of a ministerial pledge to support the PSNI.

No progress has been reported yet on the issue.

The DUP lost no time last night in criticising the Brown
financial package. Deputy leader Peter Robinson said: "It's
necessary to get this package to a stage where it is
acceptable." The financial package was "a necessary
precondition for any restoration of devolution".

"Unless the financial package is satisfactory, then there
is little benefit in any return of devolution," he said.

His colleague, Ian Paisley jnr, said the offer was
"billions short of what is needed" and he stressed that the
issue was a deal-breaker for his party.

"There is a point in Irish history where British
governments try to kill off problems with kindness," he
said. "Usually we find it is too little, too late.

"What we have now is a situation where this is not enough
and we are running out of time. We have got to make it
enough and to make it on time."

He said the DUP "wouldn't sign the bottom line" if the
investment package did not meet requirements.

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said he believed Mr
Brown would not budge on the question of cutting
corporation tax to levels in the Republic, although the
chancellor had conceded he would "talk about it".

The UUP also wants the British Exchequer to cut fuel duties
in Northern Ireland in an effort to halt cross-Border
smuggling and fuel laundering, which is boosting organised
crime in both parts of Ireland.

"He didn't knock fuel duties, he just said he would discuss
it," Sir Reg said last night.

He said his party feared that examination of the Brown
package details would reveal a disappointing level of extra
investment.

"He thinks the total package will be attractive to inward
investment - the tax credits for research and development
and so on can be added up. We know that there has been very
low take-up on this and there remains a lot of work to be
done . . . This is an opening position [ by the
chancellor]. We don't believe this opening gambit is his
last word on it either."

Party sources on all sides confirmed last night they had
adopted a common approach to the question of a peace
dividend for Northern Ireland.

Sinn F‚in president Gerry Adams said: "This is about
getting the all-island institutions back in place and then
having the capability to deal with the bread-and-butter
issues."

For the SDLP, Ms Ritchie referred to the widespread
disappointment at the British government's insistence on
maintenance of corporation tax at one level throughout the
United Kingdom.

"There is a need for some fiscal latitude," she told The
Irish Times. "They are setting up a corporation tax office
in Belfast to discuss with business issues of corporate tax
in Northern Ireland. But we need more detail on that matter
. . . This is only stage one in a very long process."

c The Irish Times

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http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/11/01/story283447.html
Man Held In 'Collusion' Murders Probe

01/11/2006 - 19:46:51

A 46-year-old man has been arrested in England by police
probing two murders involving alleged security force
collusion.

The suspect is being questioned by police in Antrim about
the 1990 killings of republican Eoin Morley and ranger
Cyril Smith.

He was arrested this morning in south east London as police
review thousands of killings in the North.

Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan conducted an
inquiry into the shooting of Mr Morley in Newry, Co Down,
and found that police Special Branch withheld information
from detectives at the time.

The unit handles agents for the police to pass on
information about terrorist activity.

The Ombudsman's office found significant failings in the
original murder investigation, which came after a time of
heightened tensions between the IRA and the Irish People's
Liberation Organisation, the splinter republican group.

Mrs O'Loan is examining the death of Mr Smith, 21, who died
after a bomb ripped through the permanent border vehicle
checkpoint at Killeen, outside Newry, in October 1990.

He had just rescued James McAvoy, 68, who was warned by an
IRA gang that his sons would be shot if he did not drive
the bomb to the checkpoint.

Former soldier-turned-IRA spy Kevin Fulton has been
implicated in both cases. The double agent wrote about the
Morley murder in a book published earlier this year.

The PSNI's Historical Inquiries Team is re-examining over
3,000 murders during the Troubles to establish fresh
investigation links.

The team is examining killings committed between 1969 and
the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and is
understood to have been looking at both cases.

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http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp
Michael Stone Admits Plotting To Kill Livingstone

Web posted at: 11/2/2006 2:44:8
Source ::: AFP

LONDON  An infamous hitman from the Northern Ireland
conflict admitted in an interview published yesterday that
he plotted to kill London mayor Ken Livingstone.

Michael Stone, a Protestant Loyalist, told London's Evening
Standard newspaper that he stalked Livingstone in the 1980s
and was within three days of assassinating the then-leader
of the Greater London Council (GLC).

At that time Livingstone espoused Irish Republicanism and
sparked controversy when he invited Gerry Adams and Martin
McGuinness, the leaders of Sinn Fein - the political wing
of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) - to London although the
Republican Catholic paramilitary group had carried out
deadly attacks there.

Stone plotted to shoot him dead as he entered an
Underground train station.

"Livingstone was the enemy," said the 51-year-old, who was
one of the most prolific hitmen during the 35 years of
sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland.

Dubbed "Red Ken" for his socialist views, Livingstone "was
hated with a passion by Loyalists. He was giving support to
people we were at war with and that made him a legitimate
target."

The freelance assassin said he was called in by Loyalist
paramilitary chiefs to eliminate the GLC chief.

He travelled to England, taking a bar job arranged by a
Loyalist as cover while studying a dossier on Livingstone.

"The guy was a gift," the hitman said.

"On my first reconnaissance trip I ended up following him
to the Tube (Underground). There was no sign of any
security at all. He was on his own, with a kind of attache
case slung over his shoulder. I thought that's how I would
do it. I'd clip (kill) him on the steps of the Tube."

Stone carried out a second "dry run" following Livingstone.
He planned to disguise himself as a jogger at Westminster
station.

"I decided I would run up behind him when he was on the
steps going down, fire one shot into the back of his head,
then a double-tap (two shots) into his torso-to make sure."

However, a few days before going ahead, Stone became
persuaded that the mission would be compromised.

"The whole thing was suddenly looking very iffy. From what
I learned later, if I had gone ahead, I would probably have
been ambushed by Special Branch", the national security arm
of Britain's police.

"One of my biggest regrets is having to call it off."

Stone became infamous in 1988 when he shot dead three
people and wounded more than 50 others with grenades at an
IRA funeral in full view of television cameras.

He was there to take out Adams and McGuinness but "couldn't
get a clear shot at them".

He was captured and heading for an IRA execution when
police rescued and arrested him.

Stone was charged with six murders and three attempted
murders. His sentences totalled 850 years in prison but he
was released in 2001 along with other paramilitaries under
part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which largely ended
the bloodshed in Northern Ireland.

Stone, now an artist living in secret, said he came forward
because a former associate, facing criminal charges, was
trying to do a deal with the police by informing them about
the conspiracy, while another former comrade was trying to
extort money from him in exchange for staying silent.

He may now face another spell in prison.

"I can handle it," he said, predicting that someone would
most likely kill him before he reaches old age.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6108350.stm
DUP Doubts Over Devolution Date

DUP MP Nigel Dodds has cast doubt on the chances of
Northern Ireland achieving devolution by next March.

Mr Dodds was speaking after Belfast City Council defeated
an SDLP proposal that the parties should welcome the draft
St Andrews Agreement.

Both Sinn Fein and the DUP said it was premature as no deal
was in place.

Mr Dodds told the BBC the timeframe, set down by the
British and Irish governments following three days of talks
in Scotland, was unlikely.

"I can't say what will be delivered in the meantime, but I
just think it increasingly looks unrealistic," he said.

"Given the sort of noises we are hearing about Sinn Fein;
about policing, the difficulties they are having; their
unwillingness to call an Ard Fheis to get this through, and
the fact that there will have to be a period of delivery
and testing... I think it's increasingly unlikely."

His remarks came amid efforts to underpin the St Andrews
plan with a financial package.

The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, has promised œ50bn to
Northern Ireland over the next 10 years if power is
devolved at Stormont.

Electoral endorsement

The British and Irish governments have set a date of 26
March 2007 for a new executive to be up and running.

The parties have until 10 November to respond to the plan.

DUP leader Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein
are due to become shadow first and deputy first ministers
on 24 November.

But the DUP has insisted that a pledge of support for
policing is in place before then.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said there would have to be some
form of electoral endorsement of the plan - either an
election or a referendum.

The government's plan also envisages the devolution of
policing and justice powers in two years from the creation
of the executive.

The Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended on 14 October
2002 amid allegations of a republican spy ring at Stormont.

The court case that followed collapsed and one of those
charged, Denis Donaldson, later admitted working as a
British agent.

Direct rule from London was restored in October 2002 and
has been in place since.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/11/01 22:31:29 GMT
c BBC MMVI

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6107308.stm
Police 'May Name' Racist Loyalist Groups

The police in Northern Ireland may name paramilitary groups
whose members are involved in racist attacks.

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said members of some loyalist
groups were involved in violence against eastern Europeans
in Northern Ireland.

He made the comments at a meeting of the Policing Board in
County Down.

Sir Hugh said police were responding to the threat at a
local level. He later said there had been more than 100
arrests since April for racial crimes.

"We are seeing some evidence at a local level of some of
these groups moving towards attacking people from the
eastern European communities," he told Ulster Unionist
deputy leader Danny Kennedy.

Ethnic minorities

Sir Hugh also said tactics which worked well in an area
like Dungannon, County Tyrone, may not be suitable for
Belfast.

"What we will look at is whether we should label some of
the groups involved in such activity," he warned.

"It may not be specific to one group. Certainly you find
with homophobic crime a lot of it takes place in Derry and
a lot of racist attacks take place in south Belfast.

"But if people believe groups are organising, or are
involved in a specific incident, we may consider saying
this."

Dawn Purvis of the Progressive Unionist Party condemned
attacks on ethnic minorities.

"Racism is an issue which must be addressed collectively by
the community," she said.

"It is not an individual policing issue. I know a lot of
colleagues and friends are working hard at a local level to
address this."

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/11/01 16:36:02 GMT
c BBC MMVI

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6108038.stm
Ex-IRA Mole Questioned On Murders

The former British agent known as Kevin Fulton has been
arrested in London by PSNI officers.

He is being brought back to Northern Ireland to be
questioned about the murder of Eoin Morley and Ranger Cyril
Smith in County Down.

Ranger Smith died in a bomb blast in 1990 while trying to
rescue a man who had been forced to drive a car bomb into a
checkpoint near Newry.

Eoin Morley, 23, was shot dead in the Derrybeg area of
Newry in 1990.

The killing came amid tensions between the IRA and the
Irish People's Liberation Organisation, a splinter
republican paramilitary faction.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/11/01 19:21:19 GMT
c BBC MMVI

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http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/11/01/story283438.html
Dublin/Monaghan Bombs Inquiry To Be Complete Next Month

01/11/2006 - 18:59:24

An inquiry into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings will
be completed next month, the Government said today.

The Cabinet approved a sixth time extension to the
Commission of Investigation led by barrister Paddy
MacEntee.

Mr MacEntee is examining the garda investigation and
missing files relating to the May 1974 atrocities in Dublin
and Monaghan which claimed 33 lives and injured hundreds of
others.

Mr MacEntee said in an interim report published today that
the Commission has completed its investigation of each of
the issues in its terms of reference.

"The Commission is also satisfied that it has obtained
evidence, documentation and information relevant to each of
the individual areas of investigation.

"The Commission has assembled in its archive a significant
amount of relevant security and intelligence material from
various sources.

"The identification, sourcing, obtaining and assessment of
this sensitive material by the Commission has been a very
time-consuming aspect of the investigation.

Mr MacEntee had been due to report to the Government by
midnight last night but has now been granted the extension
until Monday, December 11 when it will be presented to the
Taoiseach.

The D il heard last week that the inquiry has cost ?1.8m to
date - well below the expense of a tribunal.

The Commission of Investigation, which was set up under new
legislation, is the first such inquiry of its kind.

Mr MacEntee, 70 - one of the country's top criminal lawyers
- was chosen to lead the inquiry in April last year.

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http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/11/01/story283426.html
Schoolboy Murder - 1,000 Statements Taken

01/11/2006 - 17:22:18

More than 1,000 witness statements have been taken during
the investigation into the horrific murder of north Belfast
schoolboy Thomas Devlin, it was confirmed today.

However, police have still not yet been able to charge
anyone with the killing of the 15-year-old schoolboy who
was stabbed in August 2005 while walking home with friends
after buying sweets.

Detective Chief Superintendent Maggie Hunter urged members
of the public to help put the child murderers behind bars
during a meeting with the North's Policing Board in
Newcastle, Co Down.

She told independent board member Trevor Ringland that, to
date, there had been nine arrests, 30 searches of houses
and flats, 31 area searches, 980 house to house inquiries
and over 2,000 other actions arising out of the
investigation.

However the Detective Chief Superintendent said police
needed the public's help.

"Certainly I believe there are members of the public out
there who could help us catch those responsible," she told
the board.

"They should provide our investigation team with
information on this despicable child murder. I would appeal
to anyone who has not spoken to the investigation team to
come forward. We need to put these people behind bars."

Thomas's 18-year-old friend was injured in the attack on
Belfast's Somerton Road, but not seriously.

A 16-year-old boy also managed to escape.

The murder caused outrage and floral tributes still mark
the spot where he was stabbed near Barnageeha secondary
school.

The victim, a student at Belfast Royal Academy, was a
talented musician who played the horn at school.

His family has played a prominent role in encouraging
people to hand in knives during knife amnesties in the
North.

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2006/1102/1162365585553.html
Opin: Vatican & Queen Liz Will Find 'Tis Fairly Grim Up North

Newton's Optic: Pope Benedict's and Queen Elizabeth's visit
may not give Ulster a chance to say 'Yes', writes Newton
Emerson

Officials at the Northern Ireland Office have just released
the itinerary for next year's joint visit by Pope Benedict
XVI and Queen Elizabeth II.

It is hoped that the historic occasion will reconcile both
communities in the North by forcing them to stand together
in an enormous crowd while staring at a large video screen
half a mile away.

His Holiness and Her Majesty, or Her Majesty and His
Holiness where appropriate, will arrive in Belfast
separately. This should allow people to prepare for the
shock of seeing them together on a large screen half a mile
away.

The Pope will touch down at Aldergrove International
Airport, reflecting the worldwide fraternity of the
Catholic faith.

The Queen will touch down at George Best City Airport,
reflecting Prince Philip's need for a stiff drink. His
Holiness will proceed north to Ballymena where he will find
some "No Pope Here" graffiti and stand in front of the
"No".

He may also visit a local integrated school to warn the
Catholic children that they are going straight to hell.

Her Majesty will proceed south to Newry where she will cut
a ribbon on the border and attempt to break the world
walkabout speed record.

She may also avail of her tax-exempt status by purchasing a
quantity of red diesel. Both dignitaries will then travel
to Belfast for an ecumenical service at St Anne's
Cathedral.

Her Majesty will begin the proceedings by admitting that
Anglicans are basically Catholic. This will be relayed by
loudspeaker to a Presbyterian sit-down protest in the car
park.

His Holiness will then offer the sacraments, muttering
"Just kidding" after "Body of Christ". Having resolved
Northern Ireland's religious differences, both dignitaries
will be flown to Stormont by RAF rescue helicopter where
First Minister Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin
McGuinness will greet them on the grand staircase.

Secretary of State Peter Hain will make a joke about how it
takes a lot of steps to get everyone together in Northern
Ireland, causing Prince Philip to say something much more
amusing but far less repeatable.

The Pope and the Queen will then be escorted into the
Assembly chamber where they will designate themselves as
nationalist and unionist respectively, in accordance with
the Northern Ireland Act 1998, before simultaneously
declaring their halves of parliament open.

Following the designation ceremony, His Holiness may ask
the speaker for absolution. However, he may not ask Martin
McGuinness for confession.

The d'Hondt mechanism will then be run over a corgi, unless
Peter Hain is still available.

Officials concede that this part of the itinerary still
needs some sequencing.

Finally, the Pope and the Queen will proceed to central
Belfast by armoured car where they will appear before the
public in front of City Hall.

As the people of Northern Ireland look on they will embrace
each other in a passionate kiss, their mature yet
surprisingly supple bodies yielding to the irresistible
force of cross-community co-operation.

An angled mirror above the podium will reverse their
apparent positions at random so that nobody in the crowd
knows which one to shoot. Last night, politicians from both
sides of the sectarian divide were united in their reaction
to the proposal.

"This nonsense has Dublin written all over it," said Sinn
F‚in.

"Will the Brits ever learn?" asked the DUP.

c The Irish Times

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http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/1101/mrsa.html?rss
Harney Blames Over-Prescription For MRSA

01 November 2006 16:59

Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has told the D il that
although hygiene is a contributing factor in the spread of
the MRSA bacterium, the main factor is the over-prescribing
of anti-biotics.

Ms Harney was responding to question from Sinn Fein's
Caoimhgh¡n O Caol in during Minister's Questions.

Mr O Caol in said that the full extent of fatalities from
MRSA is not being reported.

Ms Harney said a closer examination of MRSA was revealing
more cases.

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/1102/1162365589880.html
First Two Irish Cases Of MRSA Resistingantibiotics

Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent
02/11/2006

The first two Irish cases of MRSA which displayed
resistance to the main antibiotics used to treat serious
cases of the infection over the past few decades have now
been documented.

The cases were detected in August and have been confirmed
by the Centers for Disease Control in the United States.

One was in a male patient (67), who had undergone heart
surgery, and the other was in a female patient (58), on
renal dialysis. They were being treated in different
hospitals.

Their MRSA showed "some resistance" to glycopeptide
antibiotics, such as vancomycin and teicoplanin, which have
been the mainstay treatments of serious MRSA infections
over the last 20 to 30 years.

Dr Brian O'Connell, director of the National MRSA Reference
Laboratory, said the first cases of this kind worldwide had
been documented in Japan in 1997.

"Since then a small number of other cases have been
described around the world but they are not too common. We
have now described the first cases in Ireland."

He said the development wasn't surprising as it was almost
inevitable with antibiotic use that one got antibiotic
resistance.

The good news was, he said, that there were newer
antibiotics that could be used to treat patients with
serious MRSA infection if they showed resistance to the
mainstay drugs of the past.

The Irish cases have just been reported in EPI-Insight, a
monthly publication.

c The Irish Times

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6102426.stm
Black Humour Among Cemetery's Graves

By Niall Blaney
BBC News Website

Belfast is certainly infamous for its black humour, but
that phenomenon is finding its way into the darkest of
places - the graveyard.

A new book looking at the history of the City Cemetery
displays some of the more curious and humorous elements
associated with death.

'Written In Stone' by Tom Hartley features one headstone
bearing the message "I Told You's I was Sick" and another
with the epithet "Beam Me Up Lord", from an ever-hopeful
Star Trek fan.

The west Belfast burial site contains a remarkable mix,
including soldiers from the Crimean War, submariners from
World War I, UVF gunrunners, Orangemen, Masons and IRA men.

There is also a Vaudeville star, footballers, doctors from
the East Indian Company and the first person reputed to be
killed in an accident during the building of the Titanic at
Harland and Wolff in the city, Samuel Joseph Scott.

They lie in rest alongside Luftwaffe airmen, Russian
immigrants, prostitutes, suffragettes and an heiress.

The City Cemetery holds the "movers and shakers of
Victorian Belfast", who created a prosperous city through
industrialisation.

Many powerful figures from education, commerce, ship-
building, architecture, journalism, historians and
churchmen are buried there.

"Unfortunate ocean liners are remembered, along with the
sailors whose last port of call was Belfast, and those
whose endeavours made the city a great sea port," says Mr
Hartley.

"The Irish language and Irish speakers are here, a reminder
of the cultural complexity that existed in Victorian
Belfast.

"You will also find a bit of Greek, Latin, German, Scots
Gaelic and Welsh.

"Politics is everywhere - the story of James Craig, first
prime minister of 'Northern Ireland' runs like a thread
through the lives of many who lie here."

The City Cemetery features many marvellous stone crosses,
monuments, headstones, obelisks, urns and fountains.

'Reached its capacity'

The new cemetery opened on 1 August 1869, with the first
burials taking place three days later.

The first person buried in the cemetery was three-year-old
Annie Collins from Academy Street in the city. The burial
cost of the grave, located in the Poor Ground, was paid for
by Lord Mayor FH Lewis.

The Jewish burial ground opened in 1871.

Mr Hartley says burial records revealed the Old Lodge Road
in north Belfast was the first settlement for Russian and
Polish Jews, with other popular locations in Dundalk,
Lurgan, Armagh and Londonderry.

"The earliest Irish-Jewish connection dates back to 1079
when the Annals of Innisfallen recorded the arrival of five
Jews from overseas," he says.

"They were probably merchants from Rouen in France."

By the beginning of the 20th Century, the cemetery had
reached its capacity. The then council, Belfast
Corporation, was then forced to make a compulsory
acquisition of adjacent land.

In the latter part of the 20th Century, an increasing
number of Catholics were buried in the City Cemetery. The
first Catholic buried in new land provided for that
community was in January 1979.

However, the trend was accelerated by burgeoning Catholic
housing estates, the near filled-to-capacity Catholic
Milltown Cemetery and Protestant fears about visiting west
Belfast during the Troubles.

Many Protestant families preferred to bury their loved ones
in Roselawn Cemetery on the outskirts of east Belfast.

Written In Stone is published by Brehon Press and is priced
at œ14.99 hardback.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/11/01 11:04:09 GMT
c BBC MMVI

*********************
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2006/1102/1162365588660.html
Almost 75% In Republic Know A Suicide Victim

Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs
02/11/2006

Almost three out of four people in the Republic know
someone who has taken their own life, according to the
first major piece of research into public attitudes towards
suicide. The figure in the North is lower, at 59 per cent.

The opinion poll also shows that while most people are
understanding of suicide, they feel people should be
prevented from taking their lives at all costs.

Issues surrounding the morality of suicide and the right to
die are contentious and highly polarising, with respondents
split over these questions.

The research by Millward Brown IMS was commissioned by the
Irish Association of Suicidology, which says the findings
will help inform new strategies to reduce the level of
suicide.

Official figures show there were 432 suicide deaths in the
Republic last year. While the numbers are relatively low
compared to other European countries, we have one of the
highest youth suicide rates in the European Union.

Poll results show that most people feel the increase in
suicide is a result of the reluctance of men to talk about
their feelings or seek help. Other issues include pressure
facing men in modern society.

Overall, the majority of people feel depression and
loneliness are the main factors behind most suicides. This
is followed by inability to cope with the pressures of
life, money problems and relationship difficulties.

The stigma surrounding suicide also appears to be easing.
Some 79 per cent of respondents in the South and 64 per
cent in the North agreed with the decriminalisation of
suicide.

Half of people in the South agreed that suicide was more
acceptable nowadays. The taboo around the issue appears to
have eroded less in the North, however, where 40 per cent
felt suicide was more acceptable.

Dr John Connolly of the association said the poll also
showed up that many "myths" about suicide persisted. These
include perceptions that people who attempt suicide on a
number of occasions rarely end up killing themselves.

This, he said, was a myth which split opinions evenly into
those who agree with the perception and those who disagree
with it. Mental health campaigns and the media will have a
role in targeting many such myths that persist around
mental health issues.

Very few people feel a suicidal person should be left to
their own devices.

Although the view in the South against this notion is
stronger than in the North, it is clear the majority of
people on the island are strongly opposed to an uncaring
approach.

However, when the factor of a terminal illness is
introduced to the debate, attitudes change considerably.

In such circumstances just under half of respondents
believe people should be allowed to take their own lives.
This is coupled, however, with strong levels of
disagreement.

The question of whether people have a right to take their
own life also attracts a similar pattern of polarised
views.

Large majorities of people in the Republic (83 per cent)
and the North (86 per cent) said their governments were
found wanting when it came to raising awareness about the
issue.

Fine Gael's deputy spokesman on health and a veteran
campaigner on issues of suicide said it was clear that the
"vast majority of people do not think enough is being done
to prevent suicide in Ireland".

Minister of State for Health Tim O'Malley said there was no
easy intervention that would guarantee success in reducing
suicide levels.

However, all stakeholders needed to work together to
address the challenges ahead. "We all have our part to play
in helping those who may experience and face adverse events
in life, and emotions and feelings so strong that they
consider taking their own lives.

"We must aim to provide accessible, sensitive, appropriate
and, where required, intensive support."

c The Irish Times

*********************
http://thewildgeese.com/blogs/

Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Cormac O'Malley: Revolutionary's Son Helps NYU Focus On The Possibilities

Former IRA commander and author Ernie O'Malley left the
people of Ireland, indeed the world, a rich legacy, in
political conviction, principled action, recorded memory,
and commitment to the arts. His widely heralded books
include "On Another Man's Wound," "The Singing Flame" and
"Raids and Rallies," collectively recalling his experience
and those of others in the ranks of the IRA during
Ireland's War of Independence and Civil War.

In his 59 years (1897-1957), spanning a number of defining
epochs in the history of the Irish state, the Mayo native
traveled widely and befriended or otherwise encouraged many
figures in the arts in the United States and Europe. These
include the American poet Hart Crane, photographer Paul
Strand, and artist Georgia O'Keefe, Irish artists Evie Hone
and Jack Yeats, poet Louis MacNeice, writers Sean O'Faolain
and Graham Greene, and American film director John Ford and
actors John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. He also encountered
virtually all the major Irish political figures that
emerged from the ferment of the years 1916-1923.

For Irish America, and certainly for NYU's Glucksman
Ireland House, another legacy of O'Malley's has been his
son Cormac, who was born in Dublin in 1942. Cormac O'Malley
serves on Ireland House's board of advisors, where he also
served a stint as advisory board president.

Cormac is the third child of Ernie and Ernie's wife, Helen
Huntington Hooker, daughter of a wealthy Connecticut
businessman. He spent his first eight years in Mayo, and
was educated in Dublin. He came to the United States as a
teenager and later studied history at Harvard University
and law at Columbia University. Married, with two children,
he works as an international legal consultant, living in
New York City and Stonington, Conn.

Cormac spends time each month in Ireland working and doing
research, and over the years has been involved with many
Irish and Irish-American charitable and arts-related
organizations. He has taken a keen interest in having the
role his father played in Irish national, military and
cultural history better understood, and to this end he has
lectured and published. He recently presented the second
annual Heinrich Boll lecture in Achill, County Mayo, titled
"Ernie O'Malley's County Mayo: Perceptions, Reflections and
Friendships."

On Monday, three days before Ireland House's annual Ernie
O'Malley Lecture, WGT Producer Gerry Regan interviewed
Cormac via e-mail.

WGT: Cormac, this Thursday Glucksman Ireland House is
presenting the 8th annual lecture in its series named after
your father, famed 1920s IRA leader and author Ernie
O'Malley. It seems an appropriate time to catch up a bit
with you. First off, you seem much too young to be the son
of a veteran of the Irish war of independence. Did Ernie
O'Malley start his family late in life? At the risk of
seeming impudent, how old are you? Are you Ernie's first-
born? How many other kids did he and your mother have?

Cormac O'Malley: Many veterans of the War of Independence
(1919-1921) and the Civil War (1922-1924) postponed the
social aspect of their lives until after the end of their
young military careers. Those veterans who had been
interned during the Civil War were not released until after
the end of the hunger-strike in November 1923. My father,
then the most senior surviving anti-Treaty Republican, was
not released until July 1924. Given the poor state of his
health, he recovered in southern Europe for two years,
returned to medical school in Dublin, 1926-28, and then
spent seven years in the United States. He did not marry my
American mother, Helen Hooker, until September 1935 -- in
London. They had three children ( Cathal, Etain and Cormac,
and I am the youngest.

WGT: Ernie is sometimes called "The Intellectual of the
IRA." Did he encourage in his children, and especially in
you, a passion for the life of the mind?

O'Malley: I have always disagreed with the concept of my
father being "the intellectual of the IRA." There were many
other university students and writers who joined the Irish
independence movement in one way or another, who certainly
were intellectuals, and many of them had a great impact on
Irish society through their writings.

From an early age my father encouraged his children to be
broadminded and to read. He prepared an extensive list of
books which he wanted to read to us jointly and
individually. I know that my brother and sister have always
had a great interest in reading. I perhaps am not nearly as
broadly read as they.

WGT: To the business at hand: What inspired you to endow
this lecture series?

O'Malley: Upon our return to New York in 1992 after 12
years in Europe, I had heard of the start of Glucksman
Ireland House and its ambition to create a center for Irish
studies at New York University. Because of my extensive
international business travels, I could not become involved
with Ireland House until the late 1990s. When I joined
their board of advisors, we asked the question whether we
should expand our efforts to include Irish-American
studies, and the answer was definitely affirmative. Though
my own interests lie more in the Irish historical field as
a board member I felt a responsibility to encourage this
new field of studies and so suggested that we have a
lecture series specifically devoted to Irish-American
topics. Since my father was a man who encouraged people to
open their minds and think of new possibilities of
independence, I thought it fitting to have the series named
in his honor.

WGT: The lecture series continues this week with a
presentation by Professor William Mulligan titled "From the
Emerald Isle to the Copper Island: The Irish in Michigan
Copper Country, 1845-1920." Not exactly the stuff of
revolution, with all its attendant high drama. What would
your Dad make of a topic like this?

O'Malley: My father would have greatly encouraged the
presentation of lectures such as the Irish in the copper
mines of Michigan or the impact of Irish immigrants in the
Chicago educational system, last year's topic by Professor
Janet Nolan. He would have been the first to recognize that
the development of a new field of studies depends on the
exploration of local possibilities. We need to encourage
American academics to delve into the field of Irish-
American studies with their own particular academic
training, and it will only be after some years of these
types of studies that we will have a better understanding
of the greater participation of the Irish and their
descendants in the history of these United States.

WGT: As a devotee of the history of the Irish yourself,
what would be your dream lecture for this series? That is,
if money, practicality, scheduling conflicts and even death
were disregarded, who would you like to see come to present
next year's O'Malley Lecture?

O'Malley: Given that this series of lectures is intended to
stimulate further serious academic writing on Irish
American topics rather than Irish history, I hope that on a
regular basis a lecture should be devoted to an analysis of
the areas or topics in this field which have not been
adequately covered or explore. Such a lecture would help
stimulate discussion as to what further work is needed and
hopefully in response to that impetus more work would get
written up. There are plenty of people who have individual
ideas, but we need the soldiers of history -- the academics
on the ground -- to do the slog work to write up their
analysis of those historical areas. An important
complementary effort at Ireland House has been the
establish of "Radharc" as its annual academic journal for
the publication of the O'Malley Lectures as well as other
presentations made at Ireland House.

Since the selection process for each lecture -- including
that for next year -- is an academic matter, I will defer
to the selection process already established at Ireland
House and will not attempt to influence their decision. It
is important that the academic world have the freedom to
make their choices and to say or have said what they wish.
WGT

Posted By Gerry Regan And Joe Gannon @ 5:02 PM
----
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