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January 10, 2007

SF Secures Reversal of Integrated PSNI & MI5

News About Ireland & The Irish

SF 01/10/07 SF Secure Reversal Of Integrate PSNI & MI5
BN 01/10/07 SF And SDLP Clash Over MI5 Policing Role
BT 01/10/07 SF Hails MI5 Pledge As Major Victory For Republicans
BN 01/10/07 Legal Battle May Close Bewley's Café
IT 01/11/07 Four Of Missing Men Live In Dunmore East Area

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http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/17344

Sinn Féin Secure Reversal Of Proposal To Integrate PSNI & MI5

Published: 10 January, 2007

Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Policing and Justice Gerry Kelly
today said that 'intense and detailed negotiations between
Sinn Féin and the British government in recent weeks have
secured the reversal of the British government's proposal
to integrate the PSNI and MI5.'

Mr. Kelly said:

"Our objective has been to secure accountable and
representative policing. We have made considerable progress
in that over recent years. At St. Andrews however the
British government proposed the integration of MI5 into
policing structures in the north which the Irish government
acquiesced to and which the SDLP claimed as a victory.

"This was a fundamental mistake on their part. Sinn Fein
rejected these proposals and undoing the damage done has
been a primary issue for Sinn Fein over the Christmas
negotiations.

"Our objective has been to firewall local policing from the
malign and corruptive control of MI5. The proposals today
remove MI5 from policing structures in Ireland.

"For decades people across this island have suffered
enormously as a result of the activities of MI5, which has
been responsible for collusion and state sponsored killings
in Dublin and Monaghan and across the north.

"The St. Andrews proposals would have embedded MI5 into
civic policing with the real potential of again creating a
force within a force.

"The fact that the Irish government did not oppose the
inclusion of these proposals and did not assist in their
removal is staggering, particularly given the extent of
collusion which has now been confirmed by Justice Barron in
his reports.

"The SDLP also publicly supported these proposals and
bizarrely claimed them as a victory. Sinn Fein rejected the
St. Andrews proposals on MI5.

"The new statement by the British government today abandons
their proposals to integrate MI5 into policing structures.
This means that there will now be:

:: No secondment of PSNI members to MI5

:: No PSNI members will be under the control of MI5

:: MI5 will have no role in civic policing

:: All PSNI members accountable to the Policing Board and
other Patten mechanisms and upon transfer to the Justice
Ministers.

:: All party representation on the Policing Board special
purposes committee

The Police Ombudsman will have statutory access to all
information held by PSNI and statutory powers to hold PSNI
members to account. Arrangements will be made that she will
have access to information held by MI5 where this is
necessary to the discharge of her duties.

Annual Review role in the north for Lord Carlisle in
consultation with the First and deputy First Ministers and
future Justice Ministers.

"Sinn Féin is determined to achieve a new beginning to
policing. One of our key demands in these negotiations was
to stop MI5 having any role in civic policing here. Today's
proposals will go a long way towards achieving that
objective and go far beyond the proposals agreed by the
SDLP at St. Andrews." ENDS

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http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/?jp=CWSNCWIDEYOJ&rss=rss1

SF And SDLP Clash Over MI5 Policing Role

10/01/2007 - 18:33:16

A bitter row erupted between nationalist parties in the
North tonight as Tony Blair tried to nudge Sinn Féin
towards supporting the North's police service.

Sinn Féin and the SDLP clashed after the Prime Minister
announced MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland
would operate in future as distinct organisations.

Mr Blair’s statement was hailed by republicans as a major
advance on the St Andrews Agreement which would have seen
MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland working
together on national security in new integrated structures.

But the SDLP accused Sinn Féin of making matters worse in
the latest government paper, with the security services
able to evade accountability.

Sinn Féin’s policing spokesperson Gerry Kelly argued:
“Frankly the difference between St Andrews and this
statement is day and night.

“What we have is a removal of MI5 from civic policing as
opposed to integration as expounded in the St Andrews
Agreement.”

The North Belfast Assembly member continued: “What we have
achieved in this is that MI5 will have no part in policing
in the north.

“The whole issue of MI5, and these security services are
also in the south of Ireland, is that if they act illegally
then we have a PSNI which is not signed up to MI5 and which
will hold them to account and the police service will
itself be held to account by the Patten mechanisms.”

During negotiations with the British government over
Christmas, Sinn Féin had argued the PSNI and security
services should must have distinct roles because agencies
such as MI5 had had a malign influence on policing in
Northern Ireland.

In his written statement, Mr Blair confirmed the PSNI and
security services would act as completely distinct and
entirely separate bodies when MI5 assumes control of the
national security strategy in Northern Ireland later this
year.

The Prime Minister insisted: “Policing is the
responsibility solely of the PSNI. The security service
will have no role whatsoever in civic policing.”

Democratic Unionist Policing Board member Ian Paisley
Junior and Ulster Unionist Policing Board member Fred
Cobain dismissed the statement as cosmetic, claiming it did
not represent any dramatic change in the status of MI5.

Mr Paisley argued: “The fact is, MI5 never had a civic
policing role.

“Sinn Féin is now either just finding that out or using it
as a straw man in order to garner support for the false
claim it has changed MI5’s role.

“MI5 are not the police and never have been. They do not do
routine policing work.

“Sinn Féin knows this to be so. There is little point
pretending that this is a Sinn Féin achievement when it is
not.”

However, SDLP Policing Board member Alex Attwood was more
concerned about the impact the statement could have on
investigations carried out by Northern Ireland’s Police
Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan.

“The Prime Minister’s statement is wrong to say that there
will be no diminution in police accountability,” the West
Belfast MLA said.

“There will be, for in the past five years the Police
Ombudsman has investigated complaints around national
security. Under this Blair/Adams agreement this door gets
shut.

“Confidence about what the police and MI5 get up to has
been helped by the Ombudsman’s reports on Stormontgate, the
murder of Steven Restorick and the Bill Lowry case and
others – all of which were investigated by the Police
Ombudsman and all of which involved issues of national
security and the role of MI5.

“It is appalling that Sinn Féin welcomes a statement that
does away with all of this.”

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http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ireland/politics/article2141946.ece

SF Hails MI5 Pledge As Major Victory For Republicans

[Published: Wednesday 10, January 2007 - 13:58]

Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly has hailed the British Prime
Minister's announcement on the role of MI5 in Northern
Ireland as a major victory for republicans.

Tony Blair pledged earlier today that the spy agency would
be completely separate from the PSNI and would have no role
in day-to-day policing.

The move is designed to assuage nationalist concerns about
plans to give MI5 responsibility for intelligence gathering
in the North, a role previously held by the PSNI Special
Branch.

Mr Blair's statement follows negotiations with Sinn Fein
aimed at getting the party to endorse the PSNI as part of
moves to restore devolution in the North this March.

Mr Kelly said today that the new position is a complete
reversal of that agreed between London, Dublin and the SDLP
during the St Andrews talks last year.

© Belfast Telegraph

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http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/?jp=CWSNCWIDMHKF&rss=rss1

Legal Battle May Close Bewley's Café

10/01/2007 - 17:03:38

Ireland’s most famous café is facing a legal battle for
survival for the second time in two years, it was confirmed
today.

Bewley’s Café, which has served coffee to Dublin’s great
and good for seven decades on Grafton Street, has been
stirring controversy since it shut down for a time in 2004.

After the original operators initially pulled out, saying
the business was no longer viable, the Irish Government,
the city’s council, the state’s heritage body and
campaigners were embroiled in the row over its future.

The “Oriental” coffee house was first opened in 1927 and
has become part of the fabric of the capital city’s
cultural and political history, famed as a meeting place
for poets, writers and leaders.

But its illustrious past could come to an end during a High
Court battle between Bewley’s and its landlord, Treasury
Holdings, expected to begin next month.

It is understood the prime allegations in the case will be
that Bewley’s sub-let part of the business and carried out
renovations contrary to the lease.

Entrepreneur Jay Bourke runs two restaurants, Café Bar Deli
and Mackerel, in the building after a deal struck between
himself and Bewley’s secured the café’s reopening in May
2005.

In a statement today, Bewley’s said it would aggressively
defend itself against allegations that it had broken the
terms of the lease on the building on Dublin’s top shopping
thoroughfare.

“The landlord is alleging that Bewley’s is in breach of its
obligations under the lease of the Grafton Street premises,
and is seeking the forfeiture of Bewley’s lease, with the
result that Bewley’s would no longer be able to trade from
the premises it has occupied since 1927,” the company said.

The latest row follows earlier legal proceedings taken by
Treasury Holdings to prevent Bewley’s carrying out work on
the building ahead of its reopening in 2005.

But after a short-lived temporary injunction, the High
Court threw out the application, ruling that the renovation
would enhance the building and did not require planning
permission.

Bewley’s claims it previously rejected a €6m offer from the
landlord two years ago for the Grafton Street lease.

“Bewley’s has confirmed that it will aggressively defend
the current proceedings as it has successfully done in the
past and is committed to maintaining its business and
presence on Grafton Street,” the company said.

“Bewley’s acknowledges the strong support and goodwill it
has received from employees, customers and the many other
interested parties in the Grafton Street premises and
business.”

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2007/0111/1168460283975.html

Four Of Missing Men Live In Dunmore East Area

Michael Parsons in Dunmore East
Thu, Jan 11, 2007

Four of the men missing last night on the stricken trawler,
Pere Charles, live in the Dunmore East area, a fisherman at
the port said last night.

Friends, relatives and other locals gathered at the
harbour, where fishermen were unloading herring from a boat
that had just come into port.

One of the fishermen, Darren Walsh, from Cornwall, England,
said he was supposed to be on the Pere Charles yesterday.
However, because he was busy, the boat had been unable to
wait for him.

Mr Walsh said he believed that the Pere Charles had five
crew on board.

Among the men he said were missing are Pat Hennessy and Tom
Hennessy, both from Co Kerry, who have lived and worked in
Dunmore East for many years.

He said Billy O'Connor and Pat Coady from Dunmore were also
on the boat as well as an eastern European man.

Mr Walsh said the Pere Charles had gone out at 4am to fish
for herring and would normally be expected back by
midnight.

A local man at the harbour, who declined to be named, said
that it was "starting to blow" and it would be "rough"
conditions for the sailors. He said he knew four of the
missing crew members.

A spokesman for the RNLI, Nicho Murphy, said that the
Dunmore East lifeboat was out with a crew of seven people.
He said the search was also being supported by the Kilmore
lifeboats and two helicopters. He said fishing boats which
had been operating in the area were also searching.

Mr Murphy said: "It's an awful situation, as we know all
the lads. Conditions are bad. The forecast is for storm
force winds later and the search will be hard."

He also said that because of deteriorating conditions, the
smaller fishing boats which had gone out to assist with the
search would have to return to harbour.

One of the men missing, Tom Hennessy, is in his early 30s
and is married with two daughters, according to people
gathered at the harbour last night.

He is a nephew of Pat Hennessy, who is believed to be in
his early 50s.

© 2007 The Irish Times

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