scarface
09-26-2007, 06:15 PM
Irish Republican Information Service (no. 120)
In this issue:
1. Killers could have been caught ‘if threats investigated properly’
2. Woman acquitted in Irish language row
3. RUC/PSNI to retain over half of reserve force
4. British supremo in Six Counties objects to release of Poyntzpass killer
5. UDA blamed for pipe-bomb in Carrickfergus
6. Executive struggling to avoid collapse says Ford
7. British citizens only for new MI5 Belfast branch
8. Appeal made to families
9. Former political prisoner faces deportation from US
10. World Monuments Fund calls for halt to demolition of Lismullin National Monument
11. Demonstration at Tara against M3 route
1. KILLERS COULD HAVE BEEN CAUGHT ‘IF THREATS INVESTIGATED PROPERLY’
A LEADING human rights group questioned whether Rosemary Nelson's murder could have been prevented if the British Northern Ireland Office and RUC had properly investigated loyalist death threats against her.
The mother-of-three was killed when an LVF bomb exploded under her car as she left her home in Lurgan, Co Armagh on March 15, 1999.
Allegations of British state collusion in the murder and claims that the RUC had not properly investigated loyalist threats against Rosemary Nelson's life soon emerged.
In November 2000 the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) asked the British Police Ombudsman's Office to investigate allegations that the RUC had not properly probed the threats to Rosemary Nelson's life.
After seven years Nuala O'Loan finally published her findings on September 19, concluding that the RUC and NIO had both failed to act properly over the threats.
In the two years before Rosemary Nelson's murder she had reported 20 separate threats to her life, two of which were allegedly made by members of the RUC.
On 11 separate occasions she reported that RUC members had made comments linking her to Republican groups.
The ombudsman investigation centred on events in 1998 when CAJ sent the NIO copies of two threats to Rosemary Nelson's life, asking that an assessment be carried out on the level of threat to the solicitor's life.
The threats referred to a leaflet identifying Rosemary Nelson's address and telephone number and an anonymous death threat to her home.
However, NIO officials failed to forward the threats to the RUC, instead faxing a “general” letter . Rosemary Nelson later showed the letter to the RUC herself during a meeting in September 1998.
However, Nuala O'Loan concluded that the NIO had failed to take proper steps to deal with the threats, while the RUC's subsequent actions had been “inadequate”.
“They did not acknowledge the existence of the previous death threats, including two threats which were said to have come from police officers,” she said. “Nor did they acknowledge a previous assessment in which Special Branch believed Mrs Nelson was at a ‘degree of risk’.”
Nuala O'Loan said she had found no evidence that any member of the RUC had been asked to assess the risk to Rosemary Nelson's life.
“No individual officer had the responsibility for bringing together all these matters and making a risk and threat assessment based on all the available information,” she said.
“There were no systems in place at that time designed to ensure that information was captured and processed in that way.”
Highlighting the RUC's failure to properly investigate the threats, she said: “Whether or not the anonymous note could have provided any forensic opportunity is a moot point. There is no evidence that the RUC tried to get the NIO copy of the anonymous
letter, much less trace the original itself.
“Strenuous inquiries should have been made into all the threats which Mrs Nelson received to identify whether there was any association between those threats and paramilitaries.”
However, Nuala O'Loan said she could find no evidence that the RUC had failed to properly investigate threats against Rosemary Nelson made in LVF leader Billy Wright's diaries, as there was no evidence that the RUC had seen the diaries before the solicitor's murder.
She also rejected a complaint that the RUC had failed to warn Rosemary Nelson of LVF threats to her life, stating that she had found no RUC intelligence files relating to LVF threats on her life.
CAJ director Maggie Beirne said questions remained as to whether Rosemary Nelson's killers could have been caught if the RUC had properly investigated the death threats.
“The ombudsman has confirmed that those threats were not treated with the gravity and urgency required,” he said. “Amongst the documents supplied to the police in advance of Rosemary's murder was material that, in our view, later proved of direct relevance to the murder inquiry.
“If this information had been properly investigated it may have lead the police to the individuals responsible for her murder.”
Rosemary Nelson's brother Eunan Magee said he had been stunned by the detail of the ombudsman's report.
“While in some ways her report confirms our fears over what happened within the police, it also vindicates our family's stance in calling for a full public inquiry and we now look forward to it beginning its public hearings,” he said.
“The findings confirm our belief that the circumstances surrounding Rosemary's death could, at the very best, be described as highly dubious. Mrs O'Loan's report takes the police to task for their apathy in dealing with the threats made against Rosemary. Those responsible for this conduct must be taken to task, as they would be in any organisation, but particularly since in this case somebody lost their life.”
2. WOMAN ACQUITTED IN IRISH LANGUAGE ROW
AN appeal court in Belfast on September 21 acquitted an Irish language teacher who had been fined for shouting at members of the RUC/PSNI in Irish. Máire Nic an Bhaird (26) denied shouting ‘Tiocfaidh Ar La – our day will come’ at RUC/PSNI members during a night out in Belfast last summer. She was convicted of disorderly behaviour at Belfast Magistrate's Court in February and fined £100.
3. RUC/PSNI TO RETAIN OVER HALF OF RESERVE FORCE
IT was reported on September 22 that more than half the RUC/PSNI full-time reserve will be retained to combat the threat posed by so-called dissident Republican.
The British colonial police chief constable Hugh Orde said that numbers would fall by 299 by spring 2009 and that those to be retained will focus mainly on highest risk areas outside Belfast.
Reductions announced would begin next April and take around a year. The force will be cut from 680 to 381 and 134 members would be retained in urban and 247 in rural regions.
Chris Patten's 1999 policing report recommended the abolition of the full-time reserve.
The force has been the object of political controversy, with many nationalists supporting its abolition and many unionists calling for its retention.
4. BRITISH SUPREMO IN SIX COUNTIES OBJECTS TO RELEASE OF POYNTZPASS KILLER
ON September 22 it was reported that the British supremo in the Six Counties had objected to plans to release Poyntzpass killer Stephen McClean from prison just nine years into a double life sentence.
The LVF man was approved for early release by the Life Sentence Review Commission earlier this month, after commissioners said they were "minded to allow" his application.
He and accomplice Noel McCready were sentenced to life for the murders of lifelong friends Damien Trainor (25) and Philip Allen (34) in the Railway Bar in Poyntzpass, Co Armagh in March 1998.
Relatives had expressed outrage at plans to release 37-year-old McClean, who laughed in the dock as he was sentenced in February 2000.
McCready (40) had also applied for early release but the review commissioners refused his application.
The LVF killers were the last two loyalist to leave Long Kesh prison when it closed in September 2000.
David Keys (26), named as the getaway driver in the Poyntzpass atrocity, was tortured and strangled in his cell in the LVF wing of the H-blocks in 1998.
He had been accused of cooperating with the RUC by directing them to the spot where the guns used to kill the Catholic and Protestant friends had been concealed. Because the murders took place just weeks before the signing of the Stormont Agreement the killers qualified for early release.
However, just days before their release date in July 2000 they were rearrested while on parole and charged with attempted murder.
Their early release licence was revoked after a challenge by then British secretary of state Peter Mandelson.
A hearing in Maghaberry prison where McClean is being held will take place in the next three weeks in order for a substantive decision to be made on McClean's possible release.
5. UDA BLAMED FOR PIPE-BOMB IN CARRICKFERGUS
THE UDA/UFF loyalist death squad was blamed for a pipe bomb attack on a house in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim on September 22.
The pipe bomb bounced off a window of the house at Carnhill Walk and exploded in the backyard, causing slight damage.
No-one was injured, but local residents said children were playing in the Castlemara Estate near where the device exploded.
It is the latest in a series of incidents blamed on tensions within the UDA. A short time later, the RUC/PSNI were sent to deal with a crowd gathered at Marine Highway in the town and arrested two men.
6. EXECUTIVE STRUGGLING TO AVOID COLLAPSE SAYS FORD
ON September 19 Alliance leader David Ford told the Liberal Democrats' annual conference in Brighton that the Stormont executive is “struggling” to avoid a breakdown between the DUP and the Provisionals.
The South Antrim Stormont assembly member said that the power-sharing government was “directionless”. He said the Provos and the DUP “seem prepared to go to any lengths to avoid making any difficult decisions”.
“Our executive's watchword seems to be consult, consult and then consult some more, lest you be forced into actually making a decision,” the Alliance leader said. He also said during the speech that most DUP and Provo members still “distrust one another profoundly”.
“In council chambers across Northern Ireland they still prefer to squabble over non-issues rather than getting down to delivering better services together,” he said.
7. BRITISH CITIZENS ONLY FOR NEW MI5 BELFAST BRANCH
Bottom of Form
A REPORT on September 23 said that only nationalists who are British citizens will be considered for jobs at MI5's new ‘back-office’ headquarters near Belfast.
Applications for advertised posts of IT Professionals and Foreign Language Transcribers must be received by September 27, but applicants from the 26 Counties won't be considered unless they hold British passports.
Section 75 of the Stormont Agreement makes provision for the sharing of all jobs in the Six Counties. This is the case regardless of a candidate's religious or political affiliation but, because it is Britain's National Intelligence Service, MI5 is exempt from this particular clause.
8. APPEAL MADE TO FAMILIES
THE human rights groups Relatives for Justice, United Campaign against Plastic Bullets (UCAPB) and An Fhirinne have joined together to urge relatives of people who died as a result of collusion to contact them so that their loved ones can be added to the Wall for Truth and Justice at the Oakman Street end of Beechmount Avenue, a report on September 21 said.
Clara Reilly of UCAPB said it was a continuation of work that had been started thanks to the efforts of local people.
“This is a wonderful way to visually remember those who were murdered and also as a means to show the full extent and magnitude of collusion and state murder by the British government and its agents.
“The concept is simple. We are appealing to any family who has lost a loved one as a result of collusion or state murder to come forward and help us place something to remember them on the wall.
“It may be a photograph, a poem or a handwritten note provided it is no bigger than an A3 sheet of paper,” she added.
It’s estimated that over 1,050 people died as a result of collusion in the North and a further 365 were murdered directly at the hands of the British state.
9. FORMER POLITICAL PRISONER FACES DEPORTATION FROM US
A FORMER POLITICAL prisoner facing deportation from the United States could be deported within two weeks.
Speaking from his New Jersey home, Malachy McAllister told how US senators will give a decision on his battle to remain in the States before the end of the month.
The father-of-four - who fled Belfast in 1988 after a loyalist Red Hand Commando gang came within inches of killing his family - hopes the politicians will support his campaign to stay.
McAllister (50) spoke after the Irish American Unity Conference lobby group claimed his deportation was “imminent”.
He said: “I have exhausted the judicial process and it's now just a case of waiting to see if the senators can get legislation through which will allow my family to remain in the United States.
”We have a strong body of support here because people know that this is a humanitarian issue. My kids grew up in America and they don't know anything different. They are being affected by a circumstance which is completely out of their control. The case has obviously caused a considerable amount of concern to my family and I can only pray there will be a successful outcome to it.”
Malachy McAllister, who has been backed by US congressmen Joe Crawley and Steve Rothman, is facing expulsion from his adopted country because of a conviction in the 1980s.
He was jailed when he signed an RUC statement after being implicated by supergrass Harry Kirkpatrick.
The weapons used in the attack on his home were later found - along with Malachy McAllister's personal details - in a loyalist arms dump.
Malachy McAllister's mother Ellen said her son's family would be “ripped apart” if he was forced to return to Belfast. She admitted: “My son and his two kids are no threat to anyone.
”What crimes have my two grandchildren committed? If he is such a threat why did they let him tour the White House?”
She added: “He hasn't even been able to scatter his wife's ashes because he doesn't know where he's going to be in a few weeks' time. It will break his heart to bring his children back to Belfast because he will have to start all over again. He is making a positive contribution to America and should be allowed to continue the life that he has led there for the last 20 years.”
10. WORLD MONUMENTS FUND CALLS FOR HALT TO DEMOLITION OF LISMULLIN NATIONAL MONUMENT
THE World Monuments Fund, who placed the Hill of Tara archaeological complex on the 100 Most Endangered Sites List 2008 in June, issued a statement on September 22 in Trinity College Dublin:
”The World Monuments Fund is concerned that the excavation at Lismullin has reached a critical point, and is now entering a destructive phase.
”Tara Hill, which is the centrepiece of a large archaeological landscape with hundreds of significant sites, is the ceremonial and mythical capital of Ireland ,” said Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund.
”It would be a huge loss to the world if Tara 's surrounding landscape, about which we have much to learn, is destroyed for a highway development that will only encourage more rapid and inappropriate development. We are horrified at the prospect of a radical alteration of such an important site and call upon the authorities to reconsider their decision.”
Dr Jonathan Foyle, Chief Executive of WMF Britain, said:
“The Tara Valley is the ancient homeland of those who forged Irish culture. As the personalities of these remarkable people are muted by a lack of recorded literature, archaeology becomes the sole resource for understanding them. Therefore, the destruction in Tara Valley of what is a two thousand-year old time casket is an injury to the people of Ireland … WMF Britain deeply regrets that sound
academic advice on the unique importance of Lismullin, which recommends its preservation, is regarded as an inconvenience to be rejected in favour of this destructive and culturally insignificant road building scheme.”
WMF Britain is writing to the European Commission and the Irish authorities and asking them to seek interim measures at the European Court of Justice, to halt the works at Lismullin national monument resulting from the proposed M3 motorway route. WMF Britain also adopts the statement from this summer’s XIII Celtic Conference, hosted by Permanent Bureau for the International Congress of Celtic Studies, which recognised the significance of the site.
WMF placed the 2,000 year-old archaeological complex of Tara Hill in Ireland on its 2008 world monuments watch list of 100 most endangered sites, in recognition of its international significance. The panel who voted to include Tara Hill included heritage experts from Europe, Iraq, Kenya and Guatemala and was chaired by Tim Whalen, the Director of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, California. This decision was taken before the discovery of an amphitheatre at Lismullin, whose
significance was confirmed in a report by Dr Ronald Hicks, Department of Anthropology, Ball State University, USA.
The World Monuments Fund calls on the European Commission and Irish authorities to urgently reassess the legal and ethical basis for this irreversible action before it is too late.
11. DEMONSTRATION AT TARA AGAINST M3 ROUTE
HUNDREDS of protesters gathered at the Hill of Tara in Co Meath on September 23 to form "the world's first giant human harp" photographed from the air. The event was designed to promote the campaign to reroute the M3 motorway.
Those who took part in the elaborate aerial art exercise were requested to dress in white and to "take nothing but memories and leave nothing but footprints" on the Tara site.
Amongst the participants were Irish actors Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Stuart Townsend.
The gathering was directed by the internationally renowned aerial artist John Quigley, who has completed similar aerial works in the Artic, the Amazon rain forest and Antarctica.
Campaigners also gathered outside Leinster House on September 22 to continue their protest against the development of the M3 near Tara.
About 30 harpists assembled with their instruments in Dublin to demonstrate against the proposed route. “Ireland is unique in having a musical instrument, the harp, as its national emblem,” harper Laoise Kelly said.
“This shows the importance of the harp in Irish culture. The sites currently under threat have been linked with harping and bardic traditions for more than 2,500 years.”
The harpers, who presented a petition letter to the 26-County Minister for the Environment John Gormley, were joined in their protest by Stuart Townsend, Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains and MEP Kathy Sinnott. They all spoke out against the proposed M3 route.
Townsend said he understood how the locals did not want to spend time in traffic but he said there was a need to balance infrastructural progress “with environmental and heritage protection”.
“I love visiting Tara. I find it a very spiritual and powerful place. I couldn't bear the thought of hearing traffic in such a peaceful place. I would urge both the Government and public to take a look at the Meath Masterplan which is an excellent alternative,” he said.
The plan includes upgraded coach services and a rail link to serve the expanding towns of Ashbourne, Ratoath, Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells. It also suggests the conversion of the M3 to a toll-free road and modifying part of the route to protect the Tara landscape.
One female protester said: “The gathering of harpers shows that we face a musical and cultural loss with what is happening in Tara. The sound of Tara's harp should not be drowned by cars, traffic or toll plazas.”
In this issue:
1. Killers could have been caught ‘if threats investigated properly’
2. Woman acquitted in Irish language row
3. RUC/PSNI to retain over half of reserve force
4. British supremo in Six Counties objects to release of Poyntzpass killer
5. UDA blamed for pipe-bomb in Carrickfergus
6. Executive struggling to avoid collapse says Ford
7. British citizens only for new MI5 Belfast branch
8. Appeal made to families
9. Former political prisoner faces deportation from US
10. World Monuments Fund calls for halt to demolition of Lismullin National Monument
11. Demonstration at Tara against M3 route
1. KILLERS COULD HAVE BEEN CAUGHT ‘IF THREATS INVESTIGATED PROPERLY’
A LEADING human rights group questioned whether Rosemary Nelson's murder could have been prevented if the British Northern Ireland Office and RUC had properly investigated loyalist death threats against her.
The mother-of-three was killed when an LVF bomb exploded under her car as she left her home in Lurgan, Co Armagh on March 15, 1999.
Allegations of British state collusion in the murder and claims that the RUC had not properly investigated loyalist threats against Rosemary Nelson's life soon emerged.
In November 2000 the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) asked the British Police Ombudsman's Office to investigate allegations that the RUC had not properly probed the threats to Rosemary Nelson's life.
After seven years Nuala O'Loan finally published her findings on September 19, concluding that the RUC and NIO had both failed to act properly over the threats.
In the two years before Rosemary Nelson's murder she had reported 20 separate threats to her life, two of which were allegedly made by members of the RUC.
On 11 separate occasions she reported that RUC members had made comments linking her to Republican groups.
The ombudsman investigation centred on events in 1998 when CAJ sent the NIO copies of two threats to Rosemary Nelson's life, asking that an assessment be carried out on the level of threat to the solicitor's life.
The threats referred to a leaflet identifying Rosemary Nelson's address and telephone number and an anonymous death threat to her home.
However, NIO officials failed to forward the threats to the RUC, instead faxing a “general” letter . Rosemary Nelson later showed the letter to the RUC herself during a meeting in September 1998.
However, Nuala O'Loan concluded that the NIO had failed to take proper steps to deal with the threats, while the RUC's subsequent actions had been “inadequate”.
“They did not acknowledge the existence of the previous death threats, including two threats which were said to have come from police officers,” she said. “Nor did they acknowledge a previous assessment in which Special Branch believed Mrs Nelson was at a ‘degree of risk’.”
Nuala O'Loan said she had found no evidence that any member of the RUC had been asked to assess the risk to Rosemary Nelson's life.
“No individual officer had the responsibility for bringing together all these matters and making a risk and threat assessment based on all the available information,” she said.
“There were no systems in place at that time designed to ensure that information was captured and processed in that way.”
Highlighting the RUC's failure to properly investigate the threats, she said: “Whether or not the anonymous note could have provided any forensic opportunity is a moot point. There is no evidence that the RUC tried to get the NIO copy of the anonymous
letter, much less trace the original itself.
“Strenuous inquiries should have been made into all the threats which Mrs Nelson received to identify whether there was any association between those threats and paramilitaries.”
However, Nuala O'Loan said she could find no evidence that the RUC had failed to properly investigate threats against Rosemary Nelson made in LVF leader Billy Wright's diaries, as there was no evidence that the RUC had seen the diaries before the solicitor's murder.
She also rejected a complaint that the RUC had failed to warn Rosemary Nelson of LVF threats to her life, stating that she had found no RUC intelligence files relating to LVF threats on her life.
CAJ director Maggie Beirne said questions remained as to whether Rosemary Nelson's killers could have been caught if the RUC had properly investigated the death threats.
“The ombudsman has confirmed that those threats were not treated with the gravity and urgency required,” he said. “Amongst the documents supplied to the police in advance of Rosemary's murder was material that, in our view, later proved of direct relevance to the murder inquiry.
“If this information had been properly investigated it may have lead the police to the individuals responsible for her murder.”
Rosemary Nelson's brother Eunan Magee said he had been stunned by the detail of the ombudsman's report.
“While in some ways her report confirms our fears over what happened within the police, it also vindicates our family's stance in calling for a full public inquiry and we now look forward to it beginning its public hearings,” he said.
“The findings confirm our belief that the circumstances surrounding Rosemary's death could, at the very best, be described as highly dubious. Mrs O'Loan's report takes the police to task for their apathy in dealing with the threats made against Rosemary. Those responsible for this conduct must be taken to task, as they would be in any organisation, but particularly since in this case somebody lost their life.”
2. WOMAN ACQUITTED IN IRISH LANGUAGE ROW
AN appeal court in Belfast on September 21 acquitted an Irish language teacher who had been fined for shouting at members of the RUC/PSNI in Irish. Máire Nic an Bhaird (26) denied shouting ‘Tiocfaidh Ar La – our day will come’ at RUC/PSNI members during a night out in Belfast last summer. She was convicted of disorderly behaviour at Belfast Magistrate's Court in February and fined £100.
3. RUC/PSNI TO RETAIN OVER HALF OF RESERVE FORCE
IT was reported on September 22 that more than half the RUC/PSNI full-time reserve will be retained to combat the threat posed by so-called dissident Republican.
The British colonial police chief constable Hugh Orde said that numbers would fall by 299 by spring 2009 and that those to be retained will focus mainly on highest risk areas outside Belfast.
Reductions announced would begin next April and take around a year. The force will be cut from 680 to 381 and 134 members would be retained in urban and 247 in rural regions.
Chris Patten's 1999 policing report recommended the abolition of the full-time reserve.
The force has been the object of political controversy, with many nationalists supporting its abolition and many unionists calling for its retention.
4. BRITISH SUPREMO IN SIX COUNTIES OBJECTS TO RELEASE OF POYNTZPASS KILLER
ON September 22 it was reported that the British supremo in the Six Counties had objected to plans to release Poyntzpass killer Stephen McClean from prison just nine years into a double life sentence.
The LVF man was approved for early release by the Life Sentence Review Commission earlier this month, after commissioners said they were "minded to allow" his application.
He and accomplice Noel McCready were sentenced to life for the murders of lifelong friends Damien Trainor (25) and Philip Allen (34) in the Railway Bar in Poyntzpass, Co Armagh in March 1998.
Relatives had expressed outrage at plans to release 37-year-old McClean, who laughed in the dock as he was sentenced in February 2000.
McCready (40) had also applied for early release but the review commissioners refused his application.
The LVF killers were the last two loyalist to leave Long Kesh prison when it closed in September 2000.
David Keys (26), named as the getaway driver in the Poyntzpass atrocity, was tortured and strangled in his cell in the LVF wing of the H-blocks in 1998.
He had been accused of cooperating with the RUC by directing them to the spot where the guns used to kill the Catholic and Protestant friends had been concealed. Because the murders took place just weeks before the signing of the Stormont Agreement the killers qualified for early release.
However, just days before their release date in July 2000 they were rearrested while on parole and charged with attempted murder.
Their early release licence was revoked after a challenge by then British secretary of state Peter Mandelson.
A hearing in Maghaberry prison where McClean is being held will take place in the next three weeks in order for a substantive decision to be made on McClean's possible release.
5. UDA BLAMED FOR PIPE-BOMB IN CARRICKFERGUS
THE UDA/UFF loyalist death squad was blamed for a pipe bomb attack on a house in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim on September 22.
The pipe bomb bounced off a window of the house at Carnhill Walk and exploded in the backyard, causing slight damage.
No-one was injured, but local residents said children were playing in the Castlemara Estate near where the device exploded.
It is the latest in a series of incidents blamed on tensions within the UDA. A short time later, the RUC/PSNI were sent to deal with a crowd gathered at Marine Highway in the town and arrested two men.
6. EXECUTIVE STRUGGLING TO AVOID COLLAPSE SAYS FORD
ON September 19 Alliance leader David Ford told the Liberal Democrats' annual conference in Brighton that the Stormont executive is “struggling” to avoid a breakdown between the DUP and the Provisionals.
The South Antrim Stormont assembly member said that the power-sharing government was “directionless”. He said the Provos and the DUP “seem prepared to go to any lengths to avoid making any difficult decisions”.
“Our executive's watchword seems to be consult, consult and then consult some more, lest you be forced into actually making a decision,” the Alliance leader said. He also said during the speech that most DUP and Provo members still “distrust one another profoundly”.
“In council chambers across Northern Ireland they still prefer to squabble over non-issues rather than getting down to delivering better services together,” he said.
7. BRITISH CITIZENS ONLY FOR NEW MI5 BELFAST BRANCH
Bottom of Form
A REPORT on September 23 said that only nationalists who are British citizens will be considered for jobs at MI5's new ‘back-office’ headquarters near Belfast.
Applications for advertised posts of IT Professionals and Foreign Language Transcribers must be received by September 27, but applicants from the 26 Counties won't be considered unless they hold British passports.
Section 75 of the Stormont Agreement makes provision for the sharing of all jobs in the Six Counties. This is the case regardless of a candidate's religious or political affiliation but, because it is Britain's National Intelligence Service, MI5 is exempt from this particular clause.
8. APPEAL MADE TO FAMILIES
THE human rights groups Relatives for Justice, United Campaign against Plastic Bullets (UCAPB) and An Fhirinne have joined together to urge relatives of people who died as a result of collusion to contact them so that their loved ones can be added to the Wall for Truth and Justice at the Oakman Street end of Beechmount Avenue, a report on September 21 said.
Clara Reilly of UCAPB said it was a continuation of work that had been started thanks to the efforts of local people.
“This is a wonderful way to visually remember those who were murdered and also as a means to show the full extent and magnitude of collusion and state murder by the British government and its agents.
“The concept is simple. We are appealing to any family who has lost a loved one as a result of collusion or state murder to come forward and help us place something to remember them on the wall.
“It may be a photograph, a poem or a handwritten note provided it is no bigger than an A3 sheet of paper,” she added.
It’s estimated that over 1,050 people died as a result of collusion in the North and a further 365 were murdered directly at the hands of the British state.
9. FORMER POLITICAL PRISONER FACES DEPORTATION FROM US
A FORMER POLITICAL prisoner facing deportation from the United States could be deported within two weeks.
Speaking from his New Jersey home, Malachy McAllister told how US senators will give a decision on his battle to remain in the States before the end of the month.
The father-of-four - who fled Belfast in 1988 after a loyalist Red Hand Commando gang came within inches of killing his family - hopes the politicians will support his campaign to stay.
McAllister (50) spoke after the Irish American Unity Conference lobby group claimed his deportation was “imminent”.
He said: “I have exhausted the judicial process and it's now just a case of waiting to see if the senators can get legislation through which will allow my family to remain in the United States.
”We have a strong body of support here because people know that this is a humanitarian issue. My kids grew up in America and they don't know anything different. They are being affected by a circumstance which is completely out of their control. The case has obviously caused a considerable amount of concern to my family and I can only pray there will be a successful outcome to it.”
Malachy McAllister, who has been backed by US congressmen Joe Crawley and Steve Rothman, is facing expulsion from his adopted country because of a conviction in the 1980s.
He was jailed when he signed an RUC statement after being implicated by supergrass Harry Kirkpatrick.
The weapons used in the attack on his home were later found - along with Malachy McAllister's personal details - in a loyalist arms dump.
Malachy McAllister's mother Ellen said her son's family would be “ripped apart” if he was forced to return to Belfast. She admitted: “My son and his two kids are no threat to anyone.
”What crimes have my two grandchildren committed? If he is such a threat why did they let him tour the White House?”
She added: “He hasn't even been able to scatter his wife's ashes because he doesn't know where he's going to be in a few weeks' time. It will break his heart to bring his children back to Belfast because he will have to start all over again. He is making a positive contribution to America and should be allowed to continue the life that he has led there for the last 20 years.”
10. WORLD MONUMENTS FUND CALLS FOR HALT TO DEMOLITION OF LISMULLIN NATIONAL MONUMENT
THE World Monuments Fund, who placed the Hill of Tara archaeological complex on the 100 Most Endangered Sites List 2008 in June, issued a statement on September 22 in Trinity College Dublin:
”The World Monuments Fund is concerned that the excavation at Lismullin has reached a critical point, and is now entering a destructive phase.
”Tara Hill, which is the centrepiece of a large archaeological landscape with hundreds of significant sites, is the ceremonial and mythical capital of Ireland ,” said Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund.
”It would be a huge loss to the world if Tara 's surrounding landscape, about which we have much to learn, is destroyed for a highway development that will only encourage more rapid and inappropriate development. We are horrified at the prospect of a radical alteration of such an important site and call upon the authorities to reconsider their decision.”
Dr Jonathan Foyle, Chief Executive of WMF Britain, said:
“The Tara Valley is the ancient homeland of those who forged Irish culture. As the personalities of these remarkable people are muted by a lack of recorded literature, archaeology becomes the sole resource for understanding them. Therefore, the destruction in Tara Valley of what is a two thousand-year old time casket is an injury to the people of Ireland … WMF Britain deeply regrets that sound
academic advice on the unique importance of Lismullin, which recommends its preservation, is regarded as an inconvenience to be rejected in favour of this destructive and culturally insignificant road building scheme.”
WMF Britain is writing to the European Commission and the Irish authorities and asking them to seek interim measures at the European Court of Justice, to halt the works at Lismullin national monument resulting from the proposed M3 motorway route. WMF Britain also adopts the statement from this summer’s XIII Celtic Conference, hosted by Permanent Bureau for the International Congress of Celtic Studies, which recognised the significance of the site.
WMF placed the 2,000 year-old archaeological complex of Tara Hill in Ireland on its 2008 world monuments watch list of 100 most endangered sites, in recognition of its international significance. The panel who voted to include Tara Hill included heritage experts from Europe, Iraq, Kenya and Guatemala and was chaired by Tim Whalen, the Director of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, California. This decision was taken before the discovery of an amphitheatre at Lismullin, whose
significance was confirmed in a report by Dr Ronald Hicks, Department of Anthropology, Ball State University, USA.
The World Monuments Fund calls on the European Commission and Irish authorities to urgently reassess the legal and ethical basis for this irreversible action before it is too late.
11. DEMONSTRATION AT TARA AGAINST M3 ROUTE
HUNDREDS of protesters gathered at the Hill of Tara in Co Meath on September 23 to form "the world's first giant human harp" photographed from the air. The event was designed to promote the campaign to reroute the M3 motorway.
Those who took part in the elaborate aerial art exercise were requested to dress in white and to "take nothing but memories and leave nothing but footprints" on the Tara site.
Amongst the participants were Irish actors Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Stuart Townsend.
The gathering was directed by the internationally renowned aerial artist John Quigley, who has completed similar aerial works in the Artic, the Amazon rain forest and Antarctica.
Campaigners also gathered outside Leinster House on September 22 to continue their protest against the development of the M3 near Tara.
About 30 harpists assembled with their instruments in Dublin to demonstrate against the proposed route. “Ireland is unique in having a musical instrument, the harp, as its national emblem,” harper Laoise Kelly said.
“This shows the importance of the harp in Irish culture. The sites currently under threat have been linked with harping and bardic traditions for more than 2,500 years.”
The harpers, who presented a petition letter to the 26-County Minister for the Environment John Gormley, were joined in their protest by Stuart Townsend, Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains and MEP Kathy Sinnott. They all spoke out against the proposed M3 route.
Townsend said he understood how the locals did not want to spend time in traffic but he said there was a need to balance infrastructural progress “with environmental and heritage protection”.
“I love visiting Tara. I find it a very spiritual and powerful place. I couldn't bear the thought of hearing traffic in such a peaceful place. I would urge both the Government and public to take a look at the Meath Masterplan which is an excellent alternative,” he said.
The plan includes upgraded coach services and a rail link to serve the expanding towns of Ashbourne, Ratoath, Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells. It also suggests the conversion of the M3 to a toll-free road and modifying part of the route to protect the Tara landscape.
One female protester said: “The gathering of harpers shows that we face a musical and cultural loss with what is happening in Tara. The sound of Tara's harp should not be drowned by cars, traffic or toll plazas.”