scarface
11-07-2007, 05:35 PM
Irish Republican Information Service no.125
In this issue:
1. Honour Irish people who died for Ireland
2. Republican Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis 2007
3. MI5 fail in Republican Tyrone
4. Provos threatened my son – McCarry
5. Provos blamed for Quinn murder
6. Challenge to Omagh bombing retrial
7. Teenager's death sparks anger over loyalist dealers
8. O'Loan: collusion is still a danger
9. Murder weapons smuggled in by Brian Nelson
10. One last shot in deportation battle
11. Paramilitary links probed in Drumahoe attacks
12. Loyalist march ‘to intimidate Chinese’
13. Bomb may be LVF bid to silence witnesses
14. Rent and mortgages increases seriously affecting families
15. Amnesty calls for closure of Guantánamo Bay
16. Franco officially disowned
1. ‘HONOUR IRISH PEOPLE WHO DIED FOR IRELAND’ – Ó BRÁDAIGH
ON November 4 Republican Sinn Féin marked the 50th anniversary of the deaths of five men in an accidental explosion at Edentubber Co Louth on November 11 1957. Four of the men, Paul Smith, Armagh; Oliver Craven, Down; Patrick Parle,Wexford and George Keegan, Wexford were IRA volunteers preparing for an attack on the British customs post at Carrickcarnon, the fifth man, Michael Watters was the owner of the cottage in which the explosion took place, Michael Watters’ home freely made available in support of the resistance campaign.
The large crowd were led by a colour party as well as Cumann na mBan to the memorial which marks the site of the explosion. The ceremony was chaired by Republican Sinn Féin Vice-President Des Dalton, Kildare. Wreaths were laid on behalf of the Republican Movement, Newry Republican Sinn Féin cumann, Brian Smith, brother of Paul Smith on behalf of the relatives of the Edentubber Martyrs, Patrick Parle Cumann, Wexford Town, Mellows/Rafter Cumann, Enniscorthy and Kildare/West Wicklow Republican Sinn Féin.
In his oration Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President of Republican Sinn Féin said:
“It is appropriate and necessary and necessary to commemorate the Edentubber Martyrs at a time when Ireland is being anglicised and memorials and plaques to British occupation forces are being put up around the country.
In every case these British memorials are being put up without notice and 26-County State forces take part alongside British soldiers in uniform. The clear purpose is to normalise English rule in the Six Occupied Counties and to try to make it acceptable and permanent to the people of Ireland as a whole.
As they were in the 1798 Rising, Wexford and the North were joined when Paddy Parle and George Keegan gave their lives for Ireland here 50 years ago along with Paul Smith of Armagh, Oliver Craven of Down and Michael Watters of Louth.
The Stormont and St Andrews Agreement may seek to entrench British rule in Ireland, but there can be no permanent settlement short of English disengagement from our country. The lesson of history is that while the British government and army remains here, Irish people will rise up against them as did the men of Edentubber and Sabhat and Ó hAnluain in their day.
The way forward to an Ireland at peace with itself and with England and where all can feel comfortable is through a four-province federation including a nine-county Ulster. Power and decision-making would then be shared on the basis of local majorities and Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter could work and live together as Wolfe Tone, the Father of Irish Republicanism, visualised.
Such an outcome would be a worthy result of the sacrifices at Edentubber and throughout Ireland down the decades and the generations. Nothing less would suffice”.
In his closing remarks Des Dalton pointed out that Republican Sinn Féin were the only political organisation committed to the full freedom of Ireland. Quoting the United Irishman editorial of December 1957 Des Dalton said: “The Republican Movement takes its stand on the Proclamation of 1916, and any instrument or enactments which in any way curtail that charter of liberty can have no validity for Irish Republicans” he finished by saying: “Our programme is the Proclamation of 1916, our platform is the Republic of Easter week.”
A commemorative booklet The Story of the Edentubber Martyrs published by Irish Freedom Press was launched at a function in the Blue Anchor, Bellurgan following the commemoration.
2. REPUBLICAN SINN FÉIN ARD-FHEIS 2007
REPUBLICAN Sinn Féin will hold their 103ú Ard-Fheis in Dublin on the weekend of November 10 and 11 in Dublin. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh will deliver his Presidential Address on Sunday at 12 noon. Further information can be had from 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1.
3. MI5 FAIL IN REPUBLICAN TYRONE
FOLLOWING the completion of M15’s new building at Maryfield they have wasted no time in trying to recruit informers in the Tyrone area. On Monday 29 a member of the McKearney/McCaughey Cumann of Republican Sinn Féin was approached by two individuals from British intelligence as he walked to work, they said he was being monitored for some time, made reference to his daily and past movements in detail, mentioned his family and girlfriend and tried to force on him a contact number.
A statement from the PRO of the McKearney/McCaughey Cumann said: “When these scare tactics didn’t work and the contact number was refused, they said it would benefit him financially and pointed out a car in a car park ahead and said ‘that’s yours if you want it’. Needless to say the individual refused.
The statement continued: “We of Republican Sinn Féin in East Tyrone condemn these foolish actions from British (lack of) intelligence; Irish Republicans cannot and will not be bought! There are still those left in Tyrone loyal to the Republic and who have not betrayed it, we call upon similar minded people to join with us and oppose British rule in Ireland and call upon anyone else who is approached by these vultures to tell them where to stick it and go public immediately and let the Republican Movement know.”
4. PROVOS THREATENED MY SON --McCARRY
A FORMER Provisional councillor accused a Provisional member of making a death-threat against his son.
James McCarry -- who represented the Provisionals between 1989 and 2001 -- believes his youngest son was targeted over his decision to stand against the Provos in a by-election on December 12.
The father-of-five claimed his son was punched in the head and his friends subjected to sectarian abuse by the Provisional member last month.
James McCarry, who has been targeted by the UVF in the past, will still stand as an ‘Independent Nationalist’ candidate in the by-election.
Said the 57-year-old on November 3: “My son and his friends, some of who are Protestant, were verbally abused by this man before he singled my son out for attack.
“I know this man and there is no doubt he is a member of Sinn Féin (sic). He punched my son in the head before grabbing his jacket and holding on to him. These so-called republicans cannot wash their hands of this.
“It was only after my son managed to break free that this man yelled: ‘You'se hit a Provo - You'se are dead.’ My son has been left traumatised by the incident and I'm very concerned for his safety.
“I thought we were to have a new beginning, but now it's the Provos who are doing damage to my family when in the past it was the loyalist gangs.”
5. PROVOS BLAMED FOR QUINN MURDER
IN their home in the small village of Cullyhanna, Co Armagh Paul Quinn's family insist Paul was abducted “by the Provisional movement” and brutally beaten to death because he refused to leave the country following a dispute with individual members of the Provisionals.
Since releasing a statement the day after his death accusing the Provisionals of being involved, the family remained silent. Paul was beaten by iron bars over a sustained period by eight masked men across the Border on a Monaghan farm just two parishes away.
The PSNI/RUC said on November 1 that most of the suspects in the case live in the Six-Counties.
If there is a question mark elsewhere over who is responsible for Paul's murder, there are few doubts in Cullyhanna. “IRA murdering scum” is scrawled throughout the village. More ominously, the names of two local families are daubed by the turn-off from the main Newry-Armagh road, just beside a memorial to the 25th anniversary of the hunger-strikers.
One name in particular appears in several patches of graffiti, beside the letters ‘RIP’. A former Provisional claimed that at least 20 people would have been involved in the murder.
More details have emerged of the two personal disputes which people in Cullyhanna believe led to Paul's murder. In the first, Paul Quinn fought with and got the better of a “well-connected” local man who had insulted his sister Cathy. The second dispute involved the son of a man who people in the area believe to be a leader of the Provos in the area. Former Provisional councillor Jim McAllister says there has been a concerted attempt to clean up the graffiti, particularly those bearing names. “It's spreading,” he says. “New ones appear every day.”
Amid the anger there is still an unmistakable sense of fear. One man, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said his son was beaten a few years ago in a manner similar to Paul Quinn following a run-in with one of the men whom local people believe was implicated in Paul's murder. Like Paul Quinn, this man's son was beaten several times on the head and survived only because he was taken to hospital on time. The incident is well-known in the area.
Asked why, after all this time, the father was still afraid to speak publicly, he replies: “They'd burn you out.”
“People aren't so much worried for themselves as for their children,” says McAllister.
6. CHALLENGE TO OMAGH BOMBING RETRIAL
ON November 6, Colm Murphy’s solicitor announced that he is to launch a new legal challenge to his retrial on a conspiracy charge connected to the 1998 bombing in Omagh, Co Tyrone. Michael Finucane told the Special Court in Dublin that he had received instructions from his client to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court following last month’s High Court verdict which cleared the way for a retrial after it refused an application to halt the trial.
In 2005 the Appeal Court quashed his conviction for conspiracy offences connected with the bombing in which 29 people lost their lives. It overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial after finding that the court of trial had failed to give proper regard to altered garda interview notes and that there had been “an invasion of the presumption of innocence” in the judgment on Murphy.
He had been jailed for 14 years by the Special Court in January 2002 for his alleged role in the Omagh bomb. He was the first person to be convicted with the bombing.
During a twenty-five day trial in 2001 and 2002, Colm Murphy from Co Louth had pleaded not guilty to conspiring in Dundalk, with another person not before the court, to cause an explosion in the State or elsewhere between August 13 and 16, 1998.
In a reserved judgment in October Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill refused Colm Murphy's application to halt the retrial. While there had been delay in the case, the judge said he was satisfied this had not breached Murphy's rights either under the Constitution or European Convention on Human Rights.
While there was delay in bringing the proceedings on behalf of the DPP or the State against Colm Murphy, the prosecution was a difficult one and a considerable volume of material had to be prepared and furnished to the applicant, the judge said.
The judge also held that Colm Murphy's memory problems had not affected his ability to recall relevant events, in particular his participation in interviews with gardaí, and to instruct his legal team accordingly.
The judge concluded “there was nothing” in the medical evidence before the court “that gave rise to a concern that Mr Murphy's memory impairment is such that he cannot now have a fair trial”. He also rejected arguments that the prosecution should be prohibited because of the levels of stress and anxiety that Colm Murphy suffers from.
7. TEENAGER'S DEATH SPARKS ANGER OVER LOYALIST DEALERS
IN Tiger’s Bay they call them “loyalist blues”. The tiny pills cost 50p each and are a synthesis of ecstasy and ketamine, a drug normally used to tranquilise horses.
Inside the loyalist stronghold of Belfast's north inner city “loyalist blues” are openly on sale and, according to a group of angry mothers, were responsible for the death of a local teenager.
Dean Clarke died in hospital on the weekend of November 3/4 six days after he tried to hang himself on railings near his home. The place where he tried initially to take his own life has since become a shrine to the 16-year-old, decked out with dozens of bunches of flowers as well as the flags and scarves of Liverpool FC, the team Dean supported.
This latest shrine to yet another north Belfast teenage suicide has become a focal point for communal anger, most of it aimed at members of the loyalist death squad the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).
On November 4 around 50 women held a protest close to a UDA mural on North Queen Street. They carried placards with slogans such as “Drug dealers out” and “Get off our backs”. All, like Dean's mother, are convinced those selling “loyalist blues” in the area belong to the UDA.
One mother who asked not to be named said a local man who confronted one of the dealers was himself threatened. "People want these drug dealers out of the area. But when someone confronts one of them it's them that get the beating. There is a lot of anger in this community," she said.
Alison Clarke said she was in no doubt that drug dealers under the UDA's protection supplied the drugs which she believed pushed her son into depression.
Her claims were supported by the local Evangelical Presbyterian minister, the Rev Robert Beckett. “There are folks in the area who are making huge amounts of money selling drugs. Most people know who they are. While there have been a number of drug dealers put out of the area in recent days - for cases unrelated to the Clarke incident - the major drug dealer, who is supposed to be a leading figure in loyalist circles, remains untouched,” he said.
8. O'LOAN: COLLUSION IS STILL A DANGER
BRITISH Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan -- who left office on November 5 -- revealed that she could not believe what she was seeing when she compiled her major report on British state collusion with UVF death squads earlier this year.
She warned that the kind of collusion she exposed between the RUC and loyalist death squads could happen again if proper safeguards aren't in place.
Her report revealed that the UVF gang that murdered Raymond McCord Jnr and nine other people had been protected bythe RUC/PSNI.
In her final press interview as Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan said the Six-Counties risks its future if there is no effort to grapple with the past.
And she indicated that she believes similar collusion could have happened elsewhere across the Six-Counties because of the way RUC intelligence papers were routinely destroyed.
In a wide-ranging interview, Nuala O'Loan revealed that she didn't want to give up her job, the role is limited to seven years -- and that she feared for her life when a unionist politician turned up the heat over her report that found failings in the Omagh bomb investigation.
She also outlined why she believes the Omagh report was a watershed, because it ended a taboo on official criticism of the RUC, and explained why her successor will have to continue investigating the past.
Nuala O'Loan said she came under enormous pressure from the British Government while compiling the collusion report known as Operation Ballast.
But she felt the pressure was justified because of the need to get the facts right.
“Omagh was bad, but McCord was much worse,” she said. “When we did that I was constantly saying to the investigators, 'go and show me again, show me this statement, show me this document' because I had difficulty believing what I was going to have to report and I had to go through every single bit of evidence to satisfy myself before I would use it and I would make the statement that had to be made.
“Some of the things that we discovered were unexpected to me as Police Ombudsman, and therefore I would expect they were equally unexpected to Ministers and to civil servants who had no responsibility or involvement in the earlier period.”
Nuala O'Loan says “elements of what happened in Belfast may well have been replicated across the rest of the PSNI” because of the way records were routinely destroyed and the RUC/PSNI's decision to dump 12% of informers because they were involved in serious crime.
“They conducted an operation, they had papers relating to it, and they routinely destroyed them afterwards. That was province-wide. I would say that because of the deficiency in management and supervision which I know existed, and because of the deficiency in policy and practices, there was, I think, the opportunity for similar things.”
9. MURDER WEAPONS SMUGGLED IN BY BRIAN NELSON
THE investigation into the murder of brothers Rory and Gerard Cairns, murdered by the UVF at their home in Bleary, Co Armagh in October 1993, was ‘flawed’ and had been ‘wrapped up too quickly’ according to the Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan on October 30 who ‘found no evidence of security force collusion’.
She also found that RUC members “lost, destroyed and withheld forensic evidence and suspects statements” and that within three months the entire investigation had been “stripped of resources and had effectively ground to a halt”.
However the parents of the two men questioned the findings and said that their quest for the truth will continue. Given the evidence she uncovered highlighting the serious failings in the RUC inquiry they believe that the report raises further suspicions that there was collusion. They believe that the men who carried out the murders were police informers.
“It provides ample evidence of a subsequent cover-up after the murders to ensure any evidence would never come to light. We believe that the restricted terms of reference which Nuala O’Loan was forced to work under meant that she was never going to be allowed to identify collusion.
“However, the facts are that weapons used to murder my sons were smuggled into the north through British army agent Brian Nelson. A retired policeman identified a key suspect as having bought the car used in the murder but his evidence was never acted upon. All the interviews of him supposedly being questioned about my sons’ murders were mysteriously destroyed , just like all the other records of the police interviews with the main suspects were destroyed.
“If this is not evidence of a cover-up I don’t know what is. The policeman who were supposed to be catching my sons’ killers were more interested in trying to get me to spy on local republicans”, said Eamon Cairns, father of Rory and Gerard.
10. ONE LAST SHOT IN DEPORTATION BATTLE
SENATOR Bob Menendez, D-N.J., introduced a private relief bill on November 2 to give a Malachy McAllister and his two grown children permanent residency in the United States.
Malachy McAllister has been fighting deportation by the US Department of Homeland Security, which maintains that his involvement in a 1981 wounding of an RUC member in the Six-Counties makes him ineligible to remain in the United States.
Malachy McAllister, who was a political prisoner in the Six Counties, at the time he was a member of the INLA opposing British rule in the Six Counties. He has said he fears persecution if forced to return there.
“I'm elated; it minimizes the stress that my children and I have had because of the threat hanging over our heads of being deported,” Malachy McAllister said. “Hopefully I will be able to think of the future, of my children's education.”
Menendez's bill, supporters say, is a last resort for Malachy McAllister, who has exhausted court appeals against deportation, which followed a denial of his request for political asylum. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, last year also introduced a private relief bill on Malachy McAllister's behalf, but it stalled in committee. A private relief bill is legislation on behalf of one person and must pass both houses of the US Congress and be signed by the president.
Though private relief bills rarely become law, Menendez's move likely will offer Malachy McAllister and his family a reprieve from deportation perhaps until 2009, when a new presidential administration takes over. US Homeland Security officials typically stay deportation efforts while legislative action is pending on a private relief bill in Congress.
“This was a rare and unique case in which every determining factor weighed in favour of granting relief,” Menendez said. “He fled Ireland under deadly circumstances, the dissenting judge in his case made a forceful argument on his behalf, and deporting him now could essentially be a death sentence.”
Malachy McAllister's supporters, who have ranged from Irish-American activist groups to members of Congress, say the stone masonry business owner has led a law-abiding life in the United States since he arrived in 1996.
Malachy McAllister and his wife, who died of cancer in 2004, and their children fled the Six-Counties for Canada after loyalists fired 26 rounds into their Belfast home in 1988. They came to the United States after Canada denied the father political asylum.
“This is a strictly humanitarian issue,” said Carol Russell of Morristown, who is part of the McAllister Family Campaign for Justice. “He's lived a good life in America. We all know Malachy's good character.”
11. PARAMILITARY LINKS PROBED IN DRUMAHOE ATTACKS
THE RUC/PSNI are probing links between loyalists and a spate of attacks on homes in Drumahoe following reports of a number of homophobic, racist and sectarian attacks in the village on the outskirts of Derry.
A city-side taxi driver had the windows of his cab smashed outside the Three Mile House on the Drumahoe Road by a gang of youths in the early hours of October 27.
In another incident, which occurred last month in the Old Schoolfield’s estate, a firework was thrown through the window of a house occupied by Polish nationals.
In recent months, a mixed married couple and a gay couple both had their homes attacked.
12. LOYALIST MARCH ‘TO INTIMIDATE CHINESE’
LOYALISTS were accused of “racist intimidation” after plans for a major rally protesting against Alliance assembly member Anna Lo emerged.
More than 3,000 loyalists and 40 bands applied to hold a demonstration in Belfast city centre in November. The protest is linked to a letter Anna Lo sent to the Pride of the Raven flute band leader George Spence in October on behalf of a female constituent who said a parade had prevented her from getting to her work as a nurse.
The South Belfast MLA obtained George Spence's home address from the British colonial police and wrote, putting both his and the band's name on the envelope, to ask him to ensure future parades were better publicised to avoid causing traffic disruption.
Spence, a former British soldier, claimed the letter had endangered his life by identifying him as a loyalist band leader.
Anna Lo expressed concern after it emerged that the parade would go through Donegall Pass, home to a large proportion of the city's Chinese population.
“I feel this parade has deliberate racist overtones and has been designed to intimidate the Chinese community who live and work on Donegall Pass,” she said. “This parade is having to make a major detour just to go through Donegall Pass. People feel it's for no other reason than to show the Chinese community who's boss.”
Anna Lo said that after learning of George Spence's fears she immediately wrote another letter apologising to him.
“When I heard that Mr Spence was concerned about his personal security I sent him a second letter to apologise for any offence which might have been caused,” she said. “At no time did I ever intend to alienate or offend anyone. But I feel now that this issue has taken on more sinister racial overtones.
“The fact that Anna Lo is Chinese is irrelevant to the issue at hand,” George Spence said. “Anna Lo's introduction of the racist card into this issue is regrettable. The fact that she is Chinese does not, in the eyes of the band, impart any blame or responsibility for her foolishness on to the wider Chinese community. Indeed, many of the bandsmen may on their way home enjoy a Chinese meal.”
If approved, the parade will also pass two Catholic churches – St Malachy's in the Markets area and St Matthew's in east Belfast.
13. BOMB MAY BE LVF BID TO SILENCE WITNESSES
A PIPE bomb attack on a family home may be linked to a campaign to intimidate witnesses in a loyalist attack.
It is believed that the targets of the attack in Lurgan on October 27 were due to give evidence against a notorious LVF gang in relation to alleged assaults and alleged threats to kill made last December.
It was believed that one of the witnesses targeted in the pipe-bomb attack needed hospital treatment after being attacked by a gang of up to 15 baseball bat-wielding thugs just hours after the attack on his home.
LVF leader Billy King was understood to be among a gang who attacked the man as he went to a shop in the Pollock Drive area of Lurgan.
The shops are just hundreds of yards from the house where loyalists earlier left a pipe-bomb under a child's trampoline.
Earlier, several houses in the Princeton Avenue area were evacuated as British Army bomb experts dealt with the pipe-bomb.
It had been discovered at around 1am as firefighters were dealing with a car that had been set on fire outside the house.
The attacks are the latest in a campaign against a family who have given evidence against a number of prominent loyalists.
RUC/PSNI Detectives investigating the violence and intimidation believe it may also be linked to the leaking of medical records.
A number of people from the Lurgan area were warned by the British colonial police that their details may have fallen into the hands of members of the loyalist gang after the records were illegally accessed.
14. RENT AND MORTGAGES INCREASES SERIOUSLY AFFECTING FAMILIES
SPEAKING at the launch of the 2006 annual report of Threshold on October 22, Aideen Hayden, Chairperson, said the number of clients attending Threshold with rent arrears problems had increased by more than 25% last year, a trend which continued to accelerate.
The “working poor” are at risk of homelessness the report claims as clients experienced rent inflation of up to 20%. Most of their clients are on low incomes and “are finding themselves in arrears or with spiraling debt problems. Many face a real prospect of eviction and potential homelessness”, she said.
The “working poor” and those on social welfare benefits are struggling to meet rent payments. Rents rose nationally by 10% in 2006 with average increases of 12% expected this year. According to Threshold some clients experienced increases of up to 20% this year while it recorded 239 illegal evictions also last year – many of those included families with children.
Those on mortgage repayments are also finding repayments difficult. On the same day that Threshold released its report the High Court heard details of more than 25 cases where banks and mortgage companies were seeking to repossess homes or land because of mortgage arrears.
15. AMNESTY CALLS FOR CLOSURE OF GUANTÁNAMO BAY
SOME 25 shackled and blindfolded “prisoners” were led by armed “guards” through the streets of Galway on October 31`as part of an Amnesty International call for the closure of Guantánamo Bay and other US detention centres.
The silent march from Eyre Square was met with a hushed response from lunchtime shoppers, and the protest finished with a symbolic demonstration at Spanish Arch against the illegal use of torture. The absence of speeches, flyers, chants or microphones was designed to highlight the "silence" and "complicity" of the 26-County Administration and its European counterparts on the issue, said Amnesty International campaigns officer Jameen Kaur.
Participants included a 10-year-old Galway school pupil and campaign supporters from Japan, Italy, Sweden and Britain. This was to emphasise that the youngest detainee at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba is 13 years old and to highlight the actions of five European states in permitting the detention centres on their territory, Jameen Kaur pointed out.
She said Amnesty was calling on the 26-County Administration to “stop acting in complicity with the US administration” by permitting use of Shannon as a stopover for “rendition” flights.
16. FRANCO OFFICIALLY DISOWNED
ON October 31, Spain passed historic legislation condemning General Franco’s coup and the nearly 40-year dictatorship that followed.
The vote in Spain’s lower house formally denounces Franco’s fascist regime, allows local governments to fund efforts to unearth mass graves from the 1936-1939 Civil War, orders the removal of all Franco-era symbols from streets and buildings, and declares ‘illegitimate’ summary military trials that led to the execution or imprisonment of thousands of Franco’s enemies.
It also seeks to make symbolic amends to all victims of the war, including Catholic clergy and others executed by militia loyal to the elected leftist Republican government that Franco overthrew. The Spanish Civil War left half a million people dead.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose grandfather was among the tens of thousands executed by Franco’ forces, is behind the legislation known as the Law of Historical Memory which still must pass the Senate.
ENDS
In this issue:
1. Honour Irish people who died for Ireland
2. Republican Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis 2007
3. MI5 fail in Republican Tyrone
4. Provos threatened my son – McCarry
5. Provos blamed for Quinn murder
6. Challenge to Omagh bombing retrial
7. Teenager's death sparks anger over loyalist dealers
8. O'Loan: collusion is still a danger
9. Murder weapons smuggled in by Brian Nelson
10. One last shot in deportation battle
11. Paramilitary links probed in Drumahoe attacks
12. Loyalist march ‘to intimidate Chinese’
13. Bomb may be LVF bid to silence witnesses
14. Rent and mortgages increases seriously affecting families
15. Amnesty calls for closure of Guantánamo Bay
16. Franco officially disowned
1. ‘HONOUR IRISH PEOPLE WHO DIED FOR IRELAND’ – Ó BRÁDAIGH
ON November 4 Republican Sinn Féin marked the 50th anniversary of the deaths of five men in an accidental explosion at Edentubber Co Louth on November 11 1957. Four of the men, Paul Smith, Armagh; Oliver Craven, Down; Patrick Parle,Wexford and George Keegan, Wexford were IRA volunteers preparing for an attack on the British customs post at Carrickcarnon, the fifth man, Michael Watters was the owner of the cottage in which the explosion took place, Michael Watters’ home freely made available in support of the resistance campaign.
The large crowd were led by a colour party as well as Cumann na mBan to the memorial which marks the site of the explosion. The ceremony was chaired by Republican Sinn Féin Vice-President Des Dalton, Kildare. Wreaths were laid on behalf of the Republican Movement, Newry Republican Sinn Féin cumann, Brian Smith, brother of Paul Smith on behalf of the relatives of the Edentubber Martyrs, Patrick Parle Cumann, Wexford Town, Mellows/Rafter Cumann, Enniscorthy and Kildare/West Wicklow Republican Sinn Féin.
In his oration Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President of Republican Sinn Féin said:
“It is appropriate and necessary and necessary to commemorate the Edentubber Martyrs at a time when Ireland is being anglicised and memorials and plaques to British occupation forces are being put up around the country.
In every case these British memorials are being put up without notice and 26-County State forces take part alongside British soldiers in uniform. The clear purpose is to normalise English rule in the Six Occupied Counties and to try to make it acceptable and permanent to the people of Ireland as a whole.
As they were in the 1798 Rising, Wexford and the North were joined when Paddy Parle and George Keegan gave their lives for Ireland here 50 years ago along with Paul Smith of Armagh, Oliver Craven of Down and Michael Watters of Louth.
The Stormont and St Andrews Agreement may seek to entrench British rule in Ireland, but there can be no permanent settlement short of English disengagement from our country. The lesson of history is that while the British government and army remains here, Irish people will rise up against them as did the men of Edentubber and Sabhat and Ó hAnluain in their day.
The way forward to an Ireland at peace with itself and with England and where all can feel comfortable is through a four-province federation including a nine-county Ulster. Power and decision-making would then be shared on the basis of local majorities and Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter could work and live together as Wolfe Tone, the Father of Irish Republicanism, visualised.
Such an outcome would be a worthy result of the sacrifices at Edentubber and throughout Ireland down the decades and the generations. Nothing less would suffice”.
In his closing remarks Des Dalton pointed out that Republican Sinn Féin were the only political organisation committed to the full freedom of Ireland. Quoting the United Irishman editorial of December 1957 Des Dalton said: “The Republican Movement takes its stand on the Proclamation of 1916, and any instrument or enactments which in any way curtail that charter of liberty can have no validity for Irish Republicans” he finished by saying: “Our programme is the Proclamation of 1916, our platform is the Republic of Easter week.”
A commemorative booklet The Story of the Edentubber Martyrs published by Irish Freedom Press was launched at a function in the Blue Anchor, Bellurgan following the commemoration.
2. REPUBLICAN SINN FÉIN ARD-FHEIS 2007
REPUBLICAN Sinn Féin will hold their 103ú Ard-Fheis in Dublin on the weekend of November 10 and 11 in Dublin. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh will deliver his Presidential Address on Sunday at 12 noon. Further information can be had from 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1.
3. MI5 FAIL IN REPUBLICAN TYRONE
FOLLOWING the completion of M15’s new building at Maryfield they have wasted no time in trying to recruit informers in the Tyrone area. On Monday 29 a member of the McKearney/McCaughey Cumann of Republican Sinn Féin was approached by two individuals from British intelligence as he walked to work, they said he was being monitored for some time, made reference to his daily and past movements in detail, mentioned his family and girlfriend and tried to force on him a contact number.
A statement from the PRO of the McKearney/McCaughey Cumann said: “When these scare tactics didn’t work and the contact number was refused, they said it would benefit him financially and pointed out a car in a car park ahead and said ‘that’s yours if you want it’. Needless to say the individual refused.
The statement continued: “We of Republican Sinn Féin in East Tyrone condemn these foolish actions from British (lack of) intelligence; Irish Republicans cannot and will not be bought! There are still those left in Tyrone loyal to the Republic and who have not betrayed it, we call upon similar minded people to join with us and oppose British rule in Ireland and call upon anyone else who is approached by these vultures to tell them where to stick it and go public immediately and let the Republican Movement know.”
4. PROVOS THREATENED MY SON --McCARRY
A FORMER Provisional councillor accused a Provisional member of making a death-threat against his son.
James McCarry -- who represented the Provisionals between 1989 and 2001 -- believes his youngest son was targeted over his decision to stand against the Provos in a by-election on December 12.
The father-of-five claimed his son was punched in the head and his friends subjected to sectarian abuse by the Provisional member last month.
James McCarry, who has been targeted by the UVF in the past, will still stand as an ‘Independent Nationalist’ candidate in the by-election.
Said the 57-year-old on November 3: “My son and his friends, some of who are Protestant, were verbally abused by this man before he singled my son out for attack.
“I know this man and there is no doubt he is a member of Sinn Féin (sic). He punched my son in the head before grabbing his jacket and holding on to him. These so-called republicans cannot wash their hands of this.
“It was only after my son managed to break free that this man yelled: ‘You'se hit a Provo - You'se are dead.’ My son has been left traumatised by the incident and I'm very concerned for his safety.
“I thought we were to have a new beginning, but now it's the Provos who are doing damage to my family when in the past it was the loyalist gangs.”
5. PROVOS BLAMED FOR QUINN MURDER
IN their home in the small village of Cullyhanna, Co Armagh Paul Quinn's family insist Paul was abducted “by the Provisional movement” and brutally beaten to death because he refused to leave the country following a dispute with individual members of the Provisionals.
Since releasing a statement the day after his death accusing the Provisionals of being involved, the family remained silent. Paul was beaten by iron bars over a sustained period by eight masked men across the Border on a Monaghan farm just two parishes away.
The PSNI/RUC said on November 1 that most of the suspects in the case live in the Six-Counties.
If there is a question mark elsewhere over who is responsible for Paul's murder, there are few doubts in Cullyhanna. “IRA murdering scum” is scrawled throughout the village. More ominously, the names of two local families are daubed by the turn-off from the main Newry-Armagh road, just beside a memorial to the 25th anniversary of the hunger-strikers.
One name in particular appears in several patches of graffiti, beside the letters ‘RIP’. A former Provisional claimed that at least 20 people would have been involved in the murder.
More details have emerged of the two personal disputes which people in Cullyhanna believe led to Paul's murder. In the first, Paul Quinn fought with and got the better of a “well-connected” local man who had insulted his sister Cathy. The second dispute involved the son of a man who people in the area believe to be a leader of the Provos in the area. Former Provisional councillor Jim McAllister says there has been a concerted attempt to clean up the graffiti, particularly those bearing names. “It's spreading,” he says. “New ones appear every day.”
Amid the anger there is still an unmistakable sense of fear. One man, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said his son was beaten a few years ago in a manner similar to Paul Quinn following a run-in with one of the men whom local people believe was implicated in Paul's murder. Like Paul Quinn, this man's son was beaten several times on the head and survived only because he was taken to hospital on time. The incident is well-known in the area.
Asked why, after all this time, the father was still afraid to speak publicly, he replies: “They'd burn you out.”
“People aren't so much worried for themselves as for their children,” says McAllister.
6. CHALLENGE TO OMAGH BOMBING RETRIAL
ON November 6, Colm Murphy’s solicitor announced that he is to launch a new legal challenge to his retrial on a conspiracy charge connected to the 1998 bombing in Omagh, Co Tyrone. Michael Finucane told the Special Court in Dublin that he had received instructions from his client to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court following last month’s High Court verdict which cleared the way for a retrial after it refused an application to halt the trial.
In 2005 the Appeal Court quashed his conviction for conspiracy offences connected with the bombing in which 29 people lost their lives. It overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial after finding that the court of trial had failed to give proper regard to altered garda interview notes and that there had been “an invasion of the presumption of innocence” in the judgment on Murphy.
He had been jailed for 14 years by the Special Court in January 2002 for his alleged role in the Omagh bomb. He was the first person to be convicted with the bombing.
During a twenty-five day trial in 2001 and 2002, Colm Murphy from Co Louth had pleaded not guilty to conspiring in Dundalk, with another person not before the court, to cause an explosion in the State or elsewhere between August 13 and 16, 1998.
In a reserved judgment in October Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill refused Colm Murphy's application to halt the retrial. While there had been delay in the case, the judge said he was satisfied this had not breached Murphy's rights either under the Constitution or European Convention on Human Rights.
While there was delay in bringing the proceedings on behalf of the DPP or the State against Colm Murphy, the prosecution was a difficult one and a considerable volume of material had to be prepared and furnished to the applicant, the judge said.
The judge also held that Colm Murphy's memory problems had not affected his ability to recall relevant events, in particular his participation in interviews with gardaí, and to instruct his legal team accordingly.
The judge concluded “there was nothing” in the medical evidence before the court “that gave rise to a concern that Mr Murphy's memory impairment is such that he cannot now have a fair trial”. He also rejected arguments that the prosecution should be prohibited because of the levels of stress and anxiety that Colm Murphy suffers from.
7. TEENAGER'S DEATH SPARKS ANGER OVER LOYALIST DEALERS
IN Tiger’s Bay they call them “loyalist blues”. The tiny pills cost 50p each and are a synthesis of ecstasy and ketamine, a drug normally used to tranquilise horses.
Inside the loyalist stronghold of Belfast's north inner city “loyalist blues” are openly on sale and, according to a group of angry mothers, were responsible for the death of a local teenager.
Dean Clarke died in hospital on the weekend of November 3/4 six days after he tried to hang himself on railings near his home. The place where he tried initially to take his own life has since become a shrine to the 16-year-old, decked out with dozens of bunches of flowers as well as the flags and scarves of Liverpool FC, the team Dean supported.
This latest shrine to yet another north Belfast teenage suicide has become a focal point for communal anger, most of it aimed at members of the loyalist death squad the Ulster Defence Association (UDA).
On November 4 around 50 women held a protest close to a UDA mural on North Queen Street. They carried placards with slogans such as “Drug dealers out” and “Get off our backs”. All, like Dean's mother, are convinced those selling “loyalist blues” in the area belong to the UDA.
One mother who asked not to be named said a local man who confronted one of the dealers was himself threatened. "People want these drug dealers out of the area. But when someone confronts one of them it's them that get the beating. There is a lot of anger in this community," she said.
Alison Clarke said she was in no doubt that drug dealers under the UDA's protection supplied the drugs which she believed pushed her son into depression.
Her claims were supported by the local Evangelical Presbyterian minister, the Rev Robert Beckett. “There are folks in the area who are making huge amounts of money selling drugs. Most people know who they are. While there have been a number of drug dealers put out of the area in recent days - for cases unrelated to the Clarke incident - the major drug dealer, who is supposed to be a leading figure in loyalist circles, remains untouched,” he said.
8. O'LOAN: COLLUSION IS STILL A DANGER
BRITISH Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan -- who left office on November 5 -- revealed that she could not believe what she was seeing when she compiled her major report on British state collusion with UVF death squads earlier this year.
She warned that the kind of collusion she exposed between the RUC and loyalist death squads could happen again if proper safeguards aren't in place.
Her report revealed that the UVF gang that murdered Raymond McCord Jnr and nine other people had been protected bythe RUC/PSNI.
In her final press interview as Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan said the Six-Counties risks its future if there is no effort to grapple with the past.
And she indicated that she believes similar collusion could have happened elsewhere across the Six-Counties because of the way RUC intelligence papers were routinely destroyed.
In a wide-ranging interview, Nuala O'Loan revealed that she didn't want to give up her job, the role is limited to seven years -- and that she feared for her life when a unionist politician turned up the heat over her report that found failings in the Omagh bomb investigation.
She also outlined why she believes the Omagh report was a watershed, because it ended a taboo on official criticism of the RUC, and explained why her successor will have to continue investigating the past.
Nuala O'Loan said she came under enormous pressure from the British Government while compiling the collusion report known as Operation Ballast.
But she felt the pressure was justified because of the need to get the facts right.
“Omagh was bad, but McCord was much worse,” she said. “When we did that I was constantly saying to the investigators, 'go and show me again, show me this statement, show me this document' because I had difficulty believing what I was going to have to report and I had to go through every single bit of evidence to satisfy myself before I would use it and I would make the statement that had to be made.
“Some of the things that we discovered were unexpected to me as Police Ombudsman, and therefore I would expect they were equally unexpected to Ministers and to civil servants who had no responsibility or involvement in the earlier period.”
Nuala O'Loan says “elements of what happened in Belfast may well have been replicated across the rest of the PSNI” because of the way records were routinely destroyed and the RUC/PSNI's decision to dump 12% of informers because they were involved in serious crime.
“They conducted an operation, they had papers relating to it, and they routinely destroyed them afterwards. That was province-wide. I would say that because of the deficiency in management and supervision which I know existed, and because of the deficiency in policy and practices, there was, I think, the opportunity for similar things.”
9. MURDER WEAPONS SMUGGLED IN BY BRIAN NELSON
THE investigation into the murder of brothers Rory and Gerard Cairns, murdered by the UVF at their home in Bleary, Co Armagh in October 1993, was ‘flawed’ and had been ‘wrapped up too quickly’ according to the Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan on October 30 who ‘found no evidence of security force collusion’.
She also found that RUC members “lost, destroyed and withheld forensic evidence and suspects statements” and that within three months the entire investigation had been “stripped of resources and had effectively ground to a halt”.
However the parents of the two men questioned the findings and said that their quest for the truth will continue. Given the evidence she uncovered highlighting the serious failings in the RUC inquiry they believe that the report raises further suspicions that there was collusion. They believe that the men who carried out the murders were police informers.
“It provides ample evidence of a subsequent cover-up after the murders to ensure any evidence would never come to light. We believe that the restricted terms of reference which Nuala O’Loan was forced to work under meant that she was never going to be allowed to identify collusion.
“However, the facts are that weapons used to murder my sons were smuggled into the north through British army agent Brian Nelson. A retired policeman identified a key suspect as having bought the car used in the murder but his evidence was never acted upon. All the interviews of him supposedly being questioned about my sons’ murders were mysteriously destroyed , just like all the other records of the police interviews with the main suspects were destroyed.
“If this is not evidence of a cover-up I don’t know what is. The policeman who were supposed to be catching my sons’ killers were more interested in trying to get me to spy on local republicans”, said Eamon Cairns, father of Rory and Gerard.
10. ONE LAST SHOT IN DEPORTATION BATTLE
SENATOR Bob Menendez, D-N.J., introduced a private relief bill on November 2 to give a Malachy McAllister and his two grown children permanent residency in the United States.
Malachy McAllister has been fighting deportation by the US Department of Homeland Security, which maintains that his involvement in a 1981 wounding of an RUC member in the Six-Counties makes him ineligible to remain in the United States.
Malachy McAllister, who was a political prisoner in the Six Counties, at the time he was a member of the INLA opposing British rule in the Six Counties. He has said he fears persecution if forced to return there.
“I'm elated; it minimizes the stress that my children and I have had because of the threat hanging over our heads of being deported,” Malachy McAllister said. “Hopefully I will be able to think of the future, of my children's education.”
Menendez's bill, supporters say, is a last resort for Malachy McAllister, who has exhausted court appeals against deportation, which followed a denial of his request for political asylum. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, last year also introduced a private relief bill on Malachy McAllister's behalf, but it stalled in committee. A private relief bill is legislation on behalf of one person and must pass both houses of the US Congress and be signed by the president.
Though private relief bills rarely become law, Menendez's move likely will offer Malachy McAllister and his family a reprieve from deportation perhaps until 2009, when a new presidential administration takes over. US Homeland Security officials typically stay deportation efforts while legislative action is pending on a private relief bill in Congress.
“This was a rare and unique case in which every determining factor weighed in favour of granting relief,” Menendez said. “He fled Ireland under deadly circumstances, the dissenting judge in his case made a forceful argument on his behalf, and deporting him now could essentially be a death sentence.”
Malachy McAllister's supporters, who have ranged from Irish-American activist groups to members of Congress, say the stone masonry business owner has led a law-abiding life in the United States since he arrived in 1996.
Malachy McAllister and his wife, who died of cancer in 2004, and their children fled the Six-Counties for Canada after loyalists fired 26 rounds into their Belfast home in 1988. They came to the United States after Canada denied the father political asylum.
“This is a strictly humanitarian issue,” said Carol Russell of Morristown, who is part of the McAllister Family Campaign for Justice. “He's lived a good life in America. We all know Malachy's good character.”
11. PARAMILITARY LINKS PROBED IN DRUMAHOE ATTACKS
THE RUC/PSNI are probing links between loyalists and a spate of attacks on homes in Drumahoe following reports of a number of homophobic, racist and sectarian attacks in the village on the outskirts of Derry.
A city-side taxi driver had the windows of his cab smashed outside the Three Mile House on the Drumahoe Road by a gang of youths in the early hours of October 27.
In another incident, which occurred last month in the Old Schoolfield’s estate, a firework was thrown through the window of a house occupied by Polish nationals.
In recent months, a mixed married couple and a gay couple both had their homes attacked.
12. LOYALIST MARCH ‘TO INTIMIDATE CHINESE’
LOYALISTS were accused of “racist intimidation” after plans for a major rally protesting against Alliance assembly member Anna Lo emerged.
More than 3,000 loyalists and 40 bands applied to hold a demonstration in Belfast city centre in November. The protest is linked to a letter Anna Lo sent to the Pride of the Raven flute band leader George Spence in October on behalf of a female constituent who said a parade had prevented her from getting to her work as a nurse.
The South Belfast MLA obtained George Spence's home address from the British colonial police and wrote, putting both his and the band's name on the envelope, to ask him to ensure future parades were better publicised to avoid causing traffic disruption.
Spence, a former British soldier, claimed the letter had endangered his life by identifying him as a loyalist band leader.
Anna Lo expressed concern after it emerged that the parade would go through Donegall Pass, home to a large proportion of the city's Chinese population.
“I feel this parade has deliberate racist overtones and has been designed to intimidate the Chinese community who live and work on Donegall Pass,” she said. “This parade is having to make a major detour just to go through Donegall Pass. People feel it's for no other reason than to show the Chinese community who's boss.”
Anna Lo said that after learning of George Spence's fears she immediately wrote another letter apologising to him.
“When I heard that Mr Spence was concerned about his personal security I sent him a second letter to apologise for any offence which might have been caused,” she said. “At no time did I ever intend to alienate or offend anyone. But I feel now that this issue has taken on more sinister racial overtones.
“The fact that Anna Lo is Chinese is irrelevant to the issue at hand,” George Spence said. “Anna Lo's introduction of the racist card into this issue is regrettable. The fact that she is Chinese does not, in the eyes of the band, impart any blame or responsibility for her foolishness on to the wider Chinese community. Indeed, many of the bandsmen may on their way home enjoy a Chinese meal.”
If approved, the parade will also pass two Catholic churches – St Malachy's in the Markets area and St Matthew's in east Belfast.
13. BOMB MAY BE LVF BID TO SILENCE WITNESSES
A PIPE bomb attack on a family home may be linked to a campaign to intimidate witnesses in a loyalist attack.
It is believed that the targets of the attack in Lurgan on October 27 were due to give evidence against a notorious LVF gang in relation to alleged assaults and alleged threats to kill made last December.
It was believed that one of the witnesses targeted in the pipe-bomb attack needed hospital treatment after being attacked by a gang of up to 15 baseball bat-wielding thugs just hours after the attack on his home.
LVF leader Billy King was understood to be among a gang who attacked the man as he went to a shop in the Pollock Drive area of Lurgan.
The shops are just hundreds of yards from the house where loyalists earlier left a pipe-bomb under a child's trampoline.
Earlier, several houses in the Princeton Avenue area were evacuated as British Army bomb experts dealt with the pipe-bomb.
It had been discovered at around 1am as firefighters were dealing with a car that had been set on fire outside the house.
The attacks are the latest in a campaign against a family who have given evidence against a number of prominent loyalists.
RUC/PSNI Detectives investigating the violence and intimidation believe it may also be linked to the leaking of medical records.
A number of people from the Lurgan area were warned by the British colonial police that their details may have fallen into the hands of members of the loyalist gang after the records were illegally accessed.
14. RENT AND MORTGAGES INCREASES SERIOUSLY AFFECTING FAMILIES
SPEAKING at the launch of the 2006 annual report of Threshold on October 22, Aideen Hayden, Chairperson, said the number of clients attending Threshold with rent arrears problems had increased by more than 25% last year, a trend which continued to accelerate.
The “working poor” are at risk of homelessness the report claims as clients experienced rent inflation of up to 20%. Most of their clients are on low incomes and “are finding themselves in arrears or with spiraling debt problems. Many face a real prospect of eviction and potential homelessness”, she said.
The “working poor” and those on social welfare benefits are struggling to meet rent payments. Rents rose nationally by 10% in 2006 with average increases of 12% expected this year. According to Threshold some clients experienced increases of up to 20% this year while it recorded 239 illegal evictions also last year – many of those included families with children.
Those on mortgage repayments are also finding repayments difficult. On the same day that Threshold released its report the High Court heard details of more than 25 cases where banks and mortgage companies were seeking to repossess homes or land because of mortgage arrears.
15. AMNESTY CALLS FOR CLOSURE OF GUANTÁNAMO BAY
SOME 25 shackled and blindfolded “prisoners” were led by armed “guards” through the streets of Galway on October 31`as part of an Amnesty International call for the closure of Guantánamo Bay and other US detention centres.
The silent march from Eyre Square was met with a hushed response from lunchtime shoppers, and the protest finished with a symbolic demonstration at Spanish Arch against the illegal use of torture. The absence of speeches, flyers, chants or microphones was designed to highlight the "silence" and "complicity" of the 26-County Administration and its European counterparts on the issue, said Amnesty International campaigns officer Jameen Kaur.
Participants included a 10-year-old Galway school pupil and campaign supporters from Japan, Italy, Sweden and Britain. This was to emphasise that the youngest detainee at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba is 13 years old and to highlight the actions of five European states in permitting the detention centres on their territory, Jameen Kaur pointed out.
She said Amnesty was calling on the 26-County Administration to “stop acting in complicity with the US administration” by permitting use of Shannon as a stopover for “rendition” flights.
16. FRANCO OFFICIALLY DISOWNED
ON October 31, Spain passed historic legislation condemning General Franco’s coup and the nearly 40-year dictatorship that followed.
The vote in Spain’s lower house formally denounces Franco’s fascist regime, allows local governments to fund efforts to unearth mass graves from the 1936-1939 Civil War, orders the removal of all Franco-era symbols from streets and buildings, and declares ‘illegitimate’ summary military trials that led to the execution or imprisonment of thousands of Franco’s enemies.
It also seeks to make symbolic amends to all victims of the war, including Catholic clergy and others executed by militia loyal to the elected leftist Republican government that Franco overthrew. The Spanish Civil War left half a million people dead.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose grandfather was among the tens of thousands executed by Franco’ forces, is behind the legislation known as the Law of Historical Memory which still must pass the Senate.
ENDS