News about the Irish & Irish American culture, music, news, sports. This is hosted by the Irish Aires radio show on KPFT-FM 90.1 in Houston, Texas (a Pacifica community radio station)

November 05, 2006

SF To DIscuss St Andrews Talks

News About Ireland & The Irish

BN 11/05/06 Sinn Féin To Discuss St Andrews Talks
BB 11/05/06 DUP Are 'In Favour Of Agreement'
BB 11/05/06 Durkan Criticises Selection Plans
BN 11/05/06 NI: Ex-Spy (Kevin Fulton) Freed In Murders Probe
SL 11/05/06 Time For Truth
SL 11/05/06 Speak No Evil
SL 11/05/06 Shoukri: 'I Fear No One'
SL 11/05/06 Strange Bedfellows
BB 11/05/06 NI Lawyer Criticises Saddam Trial
BB 11/05/06 Ireland 31-69 Australia
IT 11/05/06 Service In Belfast Marks Disbandment Of RIR
RW 11/05/06 Book Review: Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret History

(Poster’s Note: Recently I have increased the sources of news (including
blogs). In an attempt to reduce the time it takes me to prepare the
news for posting, I have not imbedded the link into the title of the
headline. If you see this as a problem, let me know. Jay)

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http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/11/05/story283919.html

Sinn Féin To Discuss St Andrews Talks

05/11/2006 - 18:01:02

The Sinn Féin leadership meet tomorrow to discuss the party
response to the St Andrews Agreement.

The Ard Chomhairle – National Executive – meeting in Dublin
will discuss the consultation process Sinn Féin has
undertaken across Ireland over the past fortnight.

It will get a report on the ongoing negotiations with the
British and Irish governments on what it called “some core
outstanding issues”.

It was being stressed the gathering is not the executive
meeting which will decide whether to recommend supporting
the Police Service in Northern Ireland to a special party
delegate conference.

Sinn Féin chairperson Mary Lou MacDonald, MEP, said: “The
consultation process announced by Sinn Féin President Gerry
Adams on October 19 to assess the potential of the
proposals set out by the two governments at St Andrews and
the ongoing negotiations regarding a number of core
outstanding issues, will conclude today.

“The party’s Ard Chomhairle will meet in Dublin tomorrow to
discuss all of these matters.”

The Northern Ireland parties have been given until Friday
by the British and Irish governments to say whether they
are willing to run with the St Andrews deal as a means of
restoring a power-sharing administration at Stormont by
next Spring.

Ms McDonald said: “There is a huge responsibility of all of
the parties and the two governments at this time.

“If we can bring about a situation where anti-Agreement
unionists share power on the basis of equality with
republicans it will be a huge achievement.”

But she said they needed to ensure progress was on the
basis of the Good Friday Agreement.

“Events of the last two weeks show us how difficult all of
this is going to be to achieve and how much work has still
to be done,” she added.

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

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6118104.stm

DUP Are 'In Favour Of Agreement'

There is overwhelming support within the DUP for the
implementation of the St Andrews Agreement, Irish Prime
Minister Bertie Ahern has said.

Mr Ahern was speaking to reporters at the Fianna Fail party
conference.

"I understand the DUP consultation process is 90 plus for
(the St Andrews Agreement)," he said.

Later, during a speech at a Fianna Fail rally, he said his
government's role in the peace process, along with the
Irish economy, was its greatest achievement.

In his speech, he said the St Andrews Agreement would
realise the potential for permanent peace.

He also announced that the final few border roads closed
during the Troubles would be reopened.

Earlier, while speaking at the same conference, Irish
Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern told delegates that even if
there was no return to devolution, the Irish government
would pursue a policy of greater economic cooperation with
Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland's parties have until 10 November to give
their verdicts on the draft St Andrews Agreement.

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

The chancellor, Gordon Brown, has promised £50bn to
Northern Ireland over the next 10 years if power is
devolved at Stormont.

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: 2006/11/05 09:41:27 GMT
© BBC MMVI

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6118904.stm

Durkan Criticises Selection Plans

The future of academic selection should not have been the
subject of a secret side deal at the St Andrews talks, SDLP
leader Mark Durkan has said.

The government plans to scrap the current 11-plus transfer
test in two years time.

However, as a concession to the DUP, it was agreed that a
new assembly could keep some form of academic selection.

"We are really caught in a situation where we are stuck
between the unknown and the unworkable," Mr Durkan said.

"It isn't clear, if the assembly is restored, whether
abolishing academic selection will require cross-community
support or whether it is replacing academic selection that
will require cross-community support.

"We could be in a situation where politicians are confused
as to what the position is.

"People in primary schools won't know, people in secondary
schools won't know and parents won't know. That is why this
should not have been treated with the cheap politics of
side deals."

The DUP has said it was told that if agreement is reached
by 10 November on the deal put forward at St Andrews, the
government will change the law which would have banned
selection.

It was to have happened on 24 November unless the assembly
was "restored".

The Department of Education has confirmed a rewriting of
the law in late November could keep academic selection,
which currently uses the 11-plus transfer test to decide
who should go to grammar school.

Any decision on changing the way children transfer to
grammar school would then require a cross-community vote by
the assembly.

The final 11-plus had been due to take place in 2008 but
plans to replace it with a system of parental choice have
been thrown into disarray.

Plans to scrap the 11-plus were first put in motion by Sinn
Fein's Martin McGuinness when he was Education Minister and
have been followed through by direct rule ministers since.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/11/05 15:12:57 GMT
© BBC MMVI

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http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/11/05/story283918.html

NI: Ex-Spy (Kevin Fulton) Freed In Murders Probe

05/11/2006 - 17:57:22

A former British agent who spied on the IRA was released
without charge tonight after being questioned about two
murders in Northern Ireland.

The 46-year-old from Newry, Co Down, who uses the pseudonym
Kevin Fulton, had been questioned since last Wednesday
about the 1990 murders.

He was detained in east London and flown to Belfast to be
interrogated about the murders of Eoin Morley and Ranger
Cyril Smith.

Detectives decided to question him after details of the
murders were revealed in a new book which claimed Fulton
worked undercover as an army agent within the Provisional
IRA at the height of their terrorist campaign.

Fulton has been living away from Northern Ireland for
several years after claiming he was ditched by his former
military handlers.

He is currently seeking High Court compensation after
alleging the army reneged on a deal to pay him.

He was quizzed about the murders of:

: Eoin Morley, 23, an ex-IRA man who joined a republican
splinter group and who was dragged from his girlfriend’s
home in Newry in April 1990 and shot in a so-called
punishment attack that apparently went wrong. His mother
claimed he was the victim of an IRA vendetta against her
late husband Davy, which went back to the time he was an
IRA leader in the Maze Prison over 20 years previously.

:: Royal Irish Ranger Cyril Smith, 21, who was killed by an
IRA bomb six months after Morley. He was blown up as he ran
to alert other soldiers at a permanent vehicle checkpoint
on the main Belfast-Dublin road close to the border outside
Newry.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the man
arrested in South East England last Wednesday had been
released without charge.

They did not say whether he had been taken back to England
or left to make his own way home.

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http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=713006

Time For Truth

Why all parties to conflict must come clean if the victims
are to get justice...

By Brian Rowan
05 November 2006

Where do we find the beginning towards the end?

Where do we look for the truth of the past 30 years and
more? Who will tell it and who won't?

Who wants to speak and who wants to listen? Who doesn't
want to hear?

Look inside the pages of a report published last week by
the Healing Through Remembering project and you will see an
attempt to give some structure to the debate about our past
and how it plays into our future.

There is no definitive proposal on the way forward, no
magic wand offering to make all truth available, but there
are carefully thought-through options - five of them,
including one under the heading Internal Organisational
Investigation.

The thinking here is about the republican and loyalist
organisations and the security forces and intelligence
services "voluntarily" becoming involved in a process to
meet victims' requests for information.

It is about asking those organisations to "take primary
responsibility for helping, as much as possible, in
providing victims with the truth about what happened to
their loved-ones".

In this option - or in something like this option - we may
find that beginning towards some end. That is, if people
want to help, but already there is some evidence of
resistance.

Organisations involved in conflict may be more willing to
explain their actions as opposed to accounting or answering
or repenting for them.

More information - more truth - may become available if it
is asked for rather than demanded, if the process is
voluntary and not mandatory, if it can be done anonymously
rather than publicly.

Could our first step be a process of explanation and
information? Could it be something that is requested rather
than demanded?

Could this be the beginning that then leads to some next
stage? Could the answers be given in an organisational
context?

In other words, not from the individuals involved, but
given more generally in the names of the IRA, other
republican organisations, the various loyalist groups, the
police, Army and the intelligence services.

That may be more achievable - more realistic - and may open
the door, at some later stage, to individual contributions
and explanations.

If leaderships set the direction then others may feel more
comfortable and more willing to speak for themselves - to
explain their actions.

So, what is needed if this is to work?

From the republican and loyalist organisations a
willingness to go beyond the very general comments they
have made, and from the security forces and intelligence
services, an honest explanation of their role.

Offering "abject and true remorse" to the loved-ones of
innocent victims as the loyalists did in 1994 or making an
apology for the deaths and injuries of "non-combatants" as
the IRA did in 2002 is not enough.

Nor can the security forces hold to the line that they were
just some piggy-in-the-middle trying to keep two warring
tribes apart.

Some in their ranks were players in a 'dirty war'. There
were cases of collusion and there were those who messed
with and were involved in taking people's lives.

That truth should be spoken, and should not have to be
dragged out in a protracted and expensive process of public
inquiries.

In many cases here involving loyalists and republicans,
killing was followed by character assassination - by
statements making all sorts of false allegations about the
victims.

These lies were used to try to justify actions - to justify
the pulling of a trigger or the placing of a bomb.

In our developing peace, paramilitary leaderships could
order a review of those statements, could make possible
internal organisational investigations, could take away the
lies and in many, many, cases could provide the truth that
people are looking for.

They could begin to do that now, do it because it is the
right thing to do, do it as part of a process of making war
into peace, do it by way of saying to people that the war
is genuinely over.

But will they?

One of the political representatives of the UDA, Davy
Nicholl, believes the chances of it happening are "very
slim".

"I don't expect paramilitaries to be suddenly rolling up to
the door of some organisation or body to reveal themselves
to be involved in past events," he told Sunday Life.

But it needs to be done - not necessarily in the way
described by Davy Nicholl, but in some way, and done sooner
rather than later because there are people in leadership
positions who have been there for the past 30 years, and
who have detailed knowledge of the period.

Last week's report from the Healing Through Remembering
project should focus the debate, and should move us beyond
thinking to actually doing something.

Its author, Kieran McEvoy, hopes the work can be "a central
reference point" and something that can take us beyond what
at times has been a "very abstract debate".

The past and the future are intertwined - and the truth of
the last 30 years might make the living of the next 30 that
bit easier, that bit more peaceful for those who have
questions and need answers.

Hearing them and answering them gives them their place in
the present and tells them they aren't forgotten or lost in
the past.

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

http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=712991

Speak No Evil

By Brian Rowan
05 November 2006

A UDA political representative has said the chances of the
organisation giving more information on past attacks are
"very slim".

Davy Nicholl, of the UDA-linked Ulster Political Research
Group, was speaking after the locally-based Healing Through
Remembering project published a list of options on possible
ways to get to the truth of Northern Ireland's past.

One of the options was for paramilitary organisations and
the security forces to provide victims "with the truth
about what happened to their loved-ones".

The Healing Through Remembering project porposed: "The
organisations would become involved voluntarily, in order
to meet victims' requests for information."

But Nicholl said: "I don't expect paramilitaries to be
suddenly rolling up to the door of some organisation to
reveal themselves to be involved in past events.

"That is not a do-able thing."

He said the truth about Martin McGuinness' involvement with
the IRA had not emerged in the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

Added Nicholl: "One person's version of truth may be a lie
to others who listen to it.

"Do we really get to the bottom of it after all? Are we
giving people false hope?"

The loyalist representative said disclosure of information
on incidents was "against their (paramilitaries') codes".
It is seen from the perspective of a betrayal of former
colleagues, he said.

The Government is understood to be considering setting up a
study group to report on possible ways of dealing with the
past.

But it is not yet clear whether it will be announced before
the March deadline for the restoration of devolution at
Stormont.

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

http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=712976

Shoukri: 'I Fear No One'

By Alan Murray
05 November 2006

Leading loyalist Andre Shoukri has vowed to return to his
old north Belfast stomping-ground on his release from jail
- and to CONFRONT his enemies in the UDA.

Shoukri (29) says he is planning "face-to-face" encounters
with the men who - he claims - have lied about his gambling
lifestyle to put him behind bars.

In an exclusive interview inside Maghaberry prison, where
he is on remand on serious criminal charges, the muscle-
bound six-footer predicted a "day of reckoning" for the
current UDA leadership in north Belfast, which he accuses
of "blackening" his name.

Shoukri says he isn't plotting a violent confrontation with
the new leadership - but he is determined to challenge what
he claims are "malicious lies" about him spread by former
associates.

He told Sunday Life: "I will be out again living in north
Belfast and I guarantee you that I plan to have face-to-
face encounters with those men who told lies behind my
back.

"I am going to go to them and say to them, face-to-face,
'whatever you are saying about me, say it to my face.'"

Shoukri expects to be acquitted of the serious criminal
charges relating to alleged blackmail, intimidation and
money-laundering, and, when freed, he will return to north
Belfast - regardless of the current UDA leadership.

Added Shoukri: "When I get out of here I'm going to live in
north Belfast beside my family.

"I have no intention of living anywhere else. I'm not
afraid of anyone there - or anywhere else.

"Certain men told the newspapers that I stole money -
that's untrue.

"But I will deal with that when I can confront those men
face-to-face and ask them to tell me what they said.

"Other men, like (south Belfast UDA 'brigadier') Jackie
McDonald, have conspired behind the scenes to have me and
my brother (Ihab) ostracised and I won't forget that.

"I will go and see Jackie, too, and ask him what he has to
say to me, man-to-man."

During the interview Shoukri accused McDonald - regarded as
the most senior and influential figure in the UDA
leadership - of "inventing" a story about him gambling
£10,000, just minutes after the two posed together for a
Sunday Life photograph last year.

"Jackie was behind that," he claimed.

"The truth is that the most I ever wagered was £2,000 on a
horse at 2/5 in a three-horse race. It romped home and I
picked up £2,800."

Shoukri claims that he gambled £10,000 over the two years
before his arrest in 2005, and that he didn't gamble at all
for five months during those two years.

He claims the UDA in north Belfast is "finished" - and
points to the recent efforts to appoint a new 'brigadier'
as evidence of its demise.

"Nobody wanted it (the post), that's why the ones who
blackened my name got in," he said.

"The UDA is finished. Men don't want to know about it and
have drifted away.

"It's now run by Government agents, police touts, liars,
fools and thieves who all have their hands in the money
pot.

"I want nothing to do with them - nobody should trust
them."

But the former UDA 'brigadier' claims many men in the area
remain loyal to him and had been prepared to take to the
streets to support him.

"There are around 40 men who remain loyal to the previous
UDA leadership in the area and they'll never support the
ones that Jackie McDonald has put in.

"They contacted me during the trouble in north Belfast over
the summer and asked me if I thought they should take the
situation to another level.

"But I told them I didn't think that would be the best idea
- I didn't want to see that happen."

Shoukri is confident he'll emerge from prison "unbowed" -
in spite of attempts to have him and his brother Ihab, who
is facing UDA membership charges, isolated from other UDA
prisoners in Maghaberry. "Look. Do I look nervous, unfit,
overweight, tired, sad, all the things my enemies have said
I am?

"I'm raring to go whenever I get the opportunity to be free
again and meet up with my friends and family.

"Nobody is frightening me - either in this jail or outside
it, believe me.

"Ihab and me are being interned. All the others charged
with Ihab are out on bail. You don't need to be very clever
to work out why Ihab isn't out.

"It's a form of internment for me and him."

Shoukri says all UDA prisoners held in Bush House at
Maghaberry are under the leadership of one man attached to
the south-east Antrim 'brigade' and says that won't change.

"I'm very happy with the men in the cells around me and I'm
under no threat. Jackie (McDonald) and his pals tried to
get me and Ihab moved from the UDA prisoners last week and
we were put on Rule 32 (round-the-clock supervision), but
we aren't moving and we're under no threat.

"Most of the men in Bush House are from either south-east
Antrim or north Belfast, and they're mates.

"We're confident where we are and we don't need to move -
and we won't be moving.

"We'll sort all this out when the time comes and I can go
face-to-face with Jackie and those muppets of his who
supposedly have it in for me.
----

"We'll see what they say then."

Brother bother for UDA

By Stephen Gordon

Andre Shoukri first hit the headlines as a 19-year-old in
1996 when he was charged over the death of a young tennis
star outside a bar on Belfast's Antrim Road.

He viciously punched Gareth Parker who fell onto the road
where he was hit by a car.

Shoukri was initially charged with manslaughter but pleaded
guilty to the lesser charge of assault and received an
eight-month jail sentence.

Since then Shoukri has rarely been out of the headlines.

The son of an Egyptian who married a local woman, he was
far from a typical UDA recruit but his rise in the terror
group was rapid as a protégé of Shankill boss Johnny Adair.

In 2000 he and his brother Ihab, both from the Westland
estate, were convicted of extorting money from a pizza
business.

It was a sign of things to come for Shoukri who already had
a conviction for cigarette smuggling.

While his youth and expensive taste in clothes may have
marked him out from other UDA leaders, he became mired in
the same old story of crime, feuds, violence and jail.

And, like east Belfast's 'bling brigadier' Jim Gray, by
2005 he had become an embarrassment to the mainstream UDA
which, guided by south Belfast 'brigadier' Jackie McDonald,
was keen to shed its mobster image and grab a slice of
peace process cash.

Key moments (Timeline) for Shoukri include:

June 2002: Aged 25 he was picked by Adair to take command
of the UDA in north Belfast after the 'Bacardi brigadier'
Jim Simpson was forced out for allegedly taking £100,000 of
the terror group's cash.

September 2003: He backed the UDA 'inner council' as it
expelled Johnny Adair, sparking another bloody loyalist
feud.

September 21 2003: Shoukri is caught by cops with a gun and
bullets in the Rathcoole estate and claims the weapon was
for self-defence against Adair's men. He received a six-
year jail sentence that was controversially reduced to two
years on appeal.

November 2004: He gets a taste of power and respectability
when he is among UDA leaders met by Secretary of State Paul
Murphy at Stormont.

June 2005: Shoukri and south Belfast 'brigadier' McDonald
pose for pictures in Sunday Life and deny reports they are
locked in a battle for control of the UDA.

November 2005: Cops arrest Shoukri and he is remanded in
custody on blackmail, intimidation and money-laundering
charges.

March 2006: At a bail hearing, a Crown lawyer says police
discovered Shoukri had gambled £863,000 at the Stanleybet
Bookmakers on the York Road between April 2003 and August
2005.

May 2006: The UDA 'inner council' launches an "inquiry"
into the north Belfast leadership, dubbed the 'Westland
Mafia'.

June 21 2006: The 'inner council' expels Andre and Ihab
Shoukri along with their sidekick Alan McClean, describing
them as a "criminal leadership".

July 28 2006: Violent clashes erupt after an attempt by the
'inner council' to impose a new leadership in north
Belfast. As the battle for power threatens to explode into
a bloodbath the UDA put up to 1,000 men onto the streets
and police block their path to the Westland estate.

August 3 2006: Shoukri associate McClean flees Northern
Ireland as a local clergymen negotiates a peaceful end to
the tense stand-off. McClean and his family are given a
police escort out of Westland and several other people also
flee the province.

August 6 2006: Sunday Life reveals the UDA remains bitterly
split with the south east Antrim 'brigade', which did not
condemn the Shoukris, refusing to re-join the 'inner
council'. It has since severed its links with the
mainstream UDA.

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http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=712993

Strange Bedfellows

By Ciaran McGuigan
05 November 2006

A top Provo and a UVF commander passed out drunk in each
other's arms following a failed attempt to end sectarian
bloodshed on the streets of Belfast.

Leading IRA strategist Brian Keenan and UVF boss Billy
Mitchell fell asleep in the same bed after a night drinking
whiskey during hopeful 'peace' talks in the Republic in
1974.

The 'secret' talks, shortly before the Ulster Workers
Strike, are recalled by author Kevin Myers in his memoir,
Watching The Door, which recounts his seven years as a
freelance journalist in Belfast in the 1970s.

Myers, who through his contacts in the two paramilitary
organisations had been the go-between who set up the
unlikely Co Cavan meeting, recalls: "(Brian Keenan) and
Billy Mitchell ended up drunkenly - though, needless to
say, chastely - curled up in one another's arms, asleep."

The meeting - also attended by leading UVF man Jim Hanna
and IRA leader Daithi O'Conaill, ended with both sides
underlining that there was going to be no settlement
between them.

However, it did save lives said Myers, but could have cost
him his own.

"As I said in the book, there was nothing sexual, they had
been drinking a great deal and they fell asleep on a bed,"
he told Sunday Life.

"My recollection, through a vast amount of alcohol, but I'm
absolutely certain of it - I'm not sure what Brian Keenan's
recollection of it is, and I would have to go to a higher
place to find Billy Mitchell's recollection - was they got
on very well.

"It was a very genial evening."

He added: "I would not have done it (set up the meeting) if
I did not think it would work.

"I was naive and a little bit vain in thinking that this
series of meetings could undo the enormous differences
between these two communities that were driving the
conflict at that point.

"I should have known that the IRA could not have been
reconciled to any kind of settlement with the UVF at that
point, but I did what I thought right.

"At that time some lives were saved, people were captured
and returned. Protestants and Catholics were returned, a
ceasefire was declared on UDR men."

Shortly after the talks one of those involved - Jim Hanna -
was murdered.

Hanna's widow Susan warned Myers that he could be next as
loyalists planned to wipe out anyone who could reveal that
they had met with the IRA, forcing him to flee his south
Belfast home.

? Watching the Door: A Memoir 1971-1978 is published by The
Lilliput Press.

cmcguigan@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6119012.stm

NI Lawyer Criticises Saddam Trial

A Londonderry solicitor who advised Saddam Hussein's legal
team has criticised the court that sentenced the former
Iraqi dictator to death.

Saddam Hussein was convicted over the killing of 148 people
in the mainly Shia town of Dujail following an
assassination attempt on him in 1982.

His half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq's former chief
judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar were also sentenced to death.

However, lawyer Des Doherty said the court lacked
legitimacy.

"This court was a completely illegitimate creation, mainly
created by the American and British authorities.

"It is not a complete Iraqi court. All the work that goes
on and all the judgement that was made was really handed
down, as far as we can see, by the Americans," he said.

Mr Doherty was also involved in the Northern Ireland Bloody
Sunday inquiry into the deaths of civilians on a protest
march in Londonderry in 1972.

Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants will be given the
right to appeal, but that is expected to take only a few
weeks and to end in failure for the defendants.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/11/05 15:50:56 GMT
© BBC MMVI

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/northern_ireland/gaelic_games/6118816.stm

Ireland 31-69 Australia

Australia regained the Cormac McAnallen Trophy by
outplaying Ireland at Croke Park but once again, violence
marred the International Rules contest.

The chaotic first quarter witnessed some disgraceful scenes
with the Australians targeting opponents and the Irish
responding in kind.

Australia were always the better side and led 27-16 at the
midway point.

The visitors outscored Ireland 30-4 in the third quarter
and went on to win the series by 30 aggregate points.

However, the violence in Sunday's game is sure to lead to
renewed calls for the GAA to walk away from the compromise
rules code.

The unseemly scenes started before the ball had even been
thrown in with several players from both sides being
involved in fisticuffs and rucks.

Chaos ensured for the majority of the first quarter with
the Australians notching an early goal while a brawl was
taking place some 50 metres away in the middle of the
field.

The appalling behaviour continued and Ireland's Paul Galvin
and Matthew Lappin were the first players to be yellow
carded after a spot of brawling while Tadgh Kennelly was
forced to depart after being on the receiving end of some
rough treatment.

The threatened revenge on Graham Geraghty then materialised
when the Meathman was knocked unconscious after a heavy
challenge.

By the 20 minute, Australia had wiped out Ireland's First
Test lead by taking a 16-1 advantage although Benny
Coulter, Alan Brogan and Dermot Earley then posted overs to
cut the visitors' lead to six points.

Brogan's over came after Down star Coulter had been on the
receiving end of a disgraceful challenge from an Australian
defender.

Australia hit three unanswered overs in the second quarter
to move 27-10 ahead with Lindsay Gilbee, Aaron Davy among
the scorers as the Irish failed to score for 14 minutes.

The Irish did fight back with Joe Bergin's goal chance
being bravely deflected for a behind by Ryan O'Keefe while
Armagh's Steven McDonnell then clipped the bar with a goal
attempt as the Aussies lead was cut to 27-16 by the halfway
point.

Once again, Australia made the better start after the
resumption with Dustin Sherman, Barry Hall, Ryan O'Keefe
and Nick Davis adding 11 points to extend the visitors'
lead to 22.

The Irish didn't help their chances by dropping the ball
into the Aussie goalkeeper Fletcher's hands on three
occasions when they had excellent scoring opportunities.

Ireland then suffered a hammer blow when the dominant
Aussies notched the second goal of the match with Brendan
Goddard hammering home from close range after Alan Quirke
had failed to hold Aaron Davey's shot.

Sean Cavanagh finally opened Ireland's third quarter
account with an over but the Aussies replied with their
second goal in four minutes when Ryan Crowley scored from
close-range after an unselfish pass from Ryan O'Keefe.

The goal helped extend the visitors' lead to 57-20 by the
end of the quarter and there appeared no way back for
Ireland.

Ireland improved in the final quarter but the game and the
series was already beyond them.

The violence will grab all the headlines and will deflect
the attention away from the fact that the Irish were found
badly wanting in terms of basic skills against a team which
had superior footballers as well as fitter athletes.

Ireland : A Quirke, M O Se, A Moyles, SM Lockhart, T Kelly,
K McGeeney, A O'Mahony, T Kennelly, C Begley, P Galvin, N
Murphy, S Cavanagh, S McDonnell, G Geraghty, B Coulter.
Interchange : P Barden, J Bergin, A Brogan, D Earley, K
Lacey, K Reilly, S Ryan.


Australia : B Hall, M Voss, A Raines, R O'Keefe, L Gilbee,
J Sherman, M Lappin, A Schneider, R Crowley, J McDonald, B
Stanton, C Brown, D Fletcher, A Davey, A Selwood.
Interchange : M Davis, K Simpson, B Peake, C Bateman, D
Pearce, G Johncock, D Mundy.

Story from BBC SPORT:
Published: 2006/11/05 16:05:33 GMT
© BBC MMVI

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

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2006/1105/breaking36.htm

Service In Belfast Marks Disbandment Of RIR

Last updated: 05-11-06, 15:29

Britain's Duke of York today attended the last service of
remembrance by the Royal Irish Regiment before it disbands
its Home Service battalions.

The Duke, colonel-in-chief of the Royal Irish, flew to
Northern Ireland to join soldiers and civic dignitaries for
the event which also saw the formal laying up of the
colours of the 2nd Battalion of the RIR which will go out
of existence next year.

The colours will remain in St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast
as a memorial to the battalion. Those of the 3rd Battalion
and 4th Battalion will be laid up in Armagh and Enniskillen
later in the month.

The three Home Service battalions of the RIR became non-
operational on September 1st this year and a phased
discharge of their soldiers is being carried out. All part-
timers will be gone by March next year and full-timers by
the end of July.

Over 270 serving and former members of the RIR and the
Ulster Defence Regiment which preceded it were killed
during 36 years of the Troubles.

The battalions have been disbanded as a result of the
ending of the IRA campaign and the advancing peace process.

PA

© 2006 ireland.com

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

http://www.rootsworld.com/0603123/reviews/irishbook06.shtml

Book Review: Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret History

By Colin Harper and Trevor Hodgett
Cherry Red, London (www.cherryred.co.uk)

Belfast critics, Colin Harper for trad and folk and Trevor
Hodgett for the blues, recount how these genres have
spawned their own Irish artists and how similar musicians
from overseas (e.g., Ornette Coleman, Muddy Waters, John
Fahey, and Bob Dylan) have influenced the island's music
scene. The book concentrates on influences emerging during
the mid-Sixties. Musicians range from Altan, Anne Briggs,
Johnny Moynihan, Ashley Hutchings, The Bothy Band, Henry
McCullough, and Arlo Guthrie to Martin Hayes, Clannad,
Horslips, Planxty, Sweeney's Men, Ottilie Patterson, Terry
and Gay Woods, and the ubiquitous Rory Gallagher.

Davy Graham gains in-depth coverage for his "folk-baroque,"
mingling raga, jazz, blues, folk, African, Middle Eastern,
and Tin Pan Alley standards from 1962 into a career that
makes, Harper claims, Graham the father of world music.
Harper, Bert Jansch's biographer, plots the Irish impact of
the British folk-rock movement.

This book assumes familiarity with progressive Irish music.
If you do not know what distinguishes Mellow Candle, Paddy
Keenan, or Tamalin on record, you will not find it here.
Careers rather than tunes remain the focus. Yet, folk is
never distinguished from trad. The blues tends towards
blues-rock. Repetition of material due to multiple entries
on the same artists occurs; the index lacks complete
references. The annotated discography is valuable.

Narrating the careers of many artists touring in, living
in, or passing through Ireland the past four decades,
Harper and Hodgett stitch, in Harper's phrase, "a patchwork
history of Irish music interwoven of many fine tapestries."
The authors compile and expand fifteen years' worth of
album and concert reviews, magazine articles, and
interviews into a sampler from two fans turned journalists.
Their account is neither turgid musical history nor pithy
record guide. - John L. Murphy

----
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