Posted by Jim on February 23, 2019
By Emma deSouza
There is a slow realisation washing over the people of Northern Ireland.
The realisation that an intrinsic part of the Good Friday Agreement – an
agreement that brought peace and stability to the island of Ireland – is
quickly disappearing. It is fast becoming a casualty of Brexit and the
UK government’s failure to fully implement the UN registered bilateral
agreement into action.
Inequality between the two main communities was a core issue in Northern
Ireland’s tumultuous past. When the parties sat down and brokered the
Agreement, that inequality was centre stage. A solution was reached;
that there can be no differential treatment between the communities, or
the ‘parity of esteem’ as it became known. As a result, the people of
Northern Ireland were given a unique right within the United Kingdom and
Ireland: the birth right to choose their nationality – whether that be
Irish or British or both. That freedom of choice is essential to the
very fabric of the Good Friday Agreement, a freedom which Brexit
threatens to eliminate.
The hardening of the Irish border has been of paramount importance
during the Brexit negotiations as both sides come to terms with the
withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. There has been a mutual
understanding that the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement is
sacrosanct and any such border would in effect breach the agreement. The
backstop – seen by many as an insurance policy and the bare minimum to
ensure no return to any such border – was thought to be resolved.
However, the passing of the Brady amendment reignites doubts over the UK
government’s sincerity to remain committed to its obligations.
However, the backstop in its enormity has overshadowed a developing
crisis around citizenship, identity and the Good Friday Agreement. The
fact that British passport holders in Northern Ireland will have
significantly different rights to their Irish neighbours or that Irish
passport holders are being advised to renounce British citizenship – to
be accepted as Irish and not British under the terms of the Good Friday
Agreement – has received little coverage.
What’s also being under-reported is the weighty personal impact of these
government-enforced choices. The trauma and stress that comes from
having your very identity questioned or undermined is understandably
trying. My own tumultuous court case over Irish identity – which has now
been on-going for four years – demonstrates both the importance of that
identity and the personal cost being felt by those in our community.
We’re already seeing a manifestation of the effect Brexit will have on
the delicate balance within our society. We’re seeing Northern
Ireland-born British citizens having to obtain Irish passports in order
to access freedom of movement across the EU. We’re seeing Northern
Ireland-born Irish citizens having to formally renounce British
citizenship in order to access the EU’s family life rights. And as for
dual nationals, they already experience a restriction to their EU rights
in that they cannot benefit from EU family life rights and will not, as
recently revealed, be able to secure their EU rights under the
Settlement Scheme. Neither will Irish citizens.
Under the current circumstances, each of the three categories of
citizenship, to which all Northern Ireland-born citizens are entitled,
come with complex restrictions which instead actively force citizens to
choose one citizenship, one identity or the other. This is a tremendous
breach of the Good Friday Agreement and the principles of its
foundation; a breach that Brexit is exacerbating.
Eminent figures from within the field of academia and human rights have
been making noise on diminution of rights in Northern Ireland. During a
recent Oireachtas (Irish parliamentary) committee hearing they painted a
bleak picture, calling on an immediate panel to review the “crisis”
developing in the North.
The Committee heard that: “People might find themselves forced to assume
an identity they would not choose for themselves.” The director of the
Committee for the administration of Justice added: “The citizenship
issue is an example of how basic assumptions of the Good Friday
Agreement have been undermined. The basic breach of this principle of
equality by Brexit amounts to a new focus of division between the two
main communities.”
At one point, my case was raised during the committee hearing in an
effort to highlight the erroneous position the UK Home Office has taken
in regards to Northern Ireland-born Irish citizens. My husband and I
have been embroiled in a lengthy legal battle against UK
government-imposed British citizenship and for the right to be accepted
as an Irish national only. The UK Home Office has persistently appealed
against us, insisting that all the people of Northern Ireland are
British irrespective of their choice under the Good Friday Agreement.
Even more concerning than the Home Office relentlessly dragging families
like mine through the courts with appeals, is the statement that it is
the UK government’s “view that an international agreement such as the
Belfast Good Friday cannot supersede domestic legislation.” Essentially,
the UK government does not consider itself legally bound to the very
treaty it currently claims to be protecting. This raises very real
concerns and fears that the government may further distance itself from
its obligations under the Agreement after Brexit.
As a consequence of the diminution of rights and disregard for Northern
Ireland’s unique position within the United Kingdom, there’s been a
seismic shift in attitudes. Open dialogues on Irish reunification are
developing across the country. Members from all sides; from political to
religious, and nationalist to unionist, are gathering to have reasonable
conversations about the framework of a border poll. I would never have
predicted these conversations two years ago. We’re seeing a kind of
awakening, stoked by the minimisation of our unique identity and
citizenship rights and the reality that we are being taken out of the
European Union against our will.
As focus falls back to Westminster and the potential fallout from the
Brady amendment, a storm is brewing in Northern Ireland. We are coming
to terms with the reality that our right to choose, our
self-determination, is deteriorating at an alarming rate. It’s clear
with Brexit that we don’t have a choice at all – and that is a clear
violation of the Good Friday Agreement.
Time and again we hear the phrase “written in sand” when discussing the
legislative underpinnings of the Good Friday Agreement, a phrase that
encompasses our reality perfectly. Calling the Sorites Paradox to mind,
how many grains of sand can be removed from a heap before it is no
longer a heap but a single grain of sand. The Brexit storm is coming and
we all know what happens to sand in the rain.
Posted by Jim on
A member of the Saoradh executive is being held indefinitely on the
back of an MI5-directed arrest operation, despite the existence of
video and social media evidence which should have meant his immediate
release.
A frequent target of Crown Force harassment, Ardoyne republican Alan
Lundy was taken from his home late on Friday night, February 15, by a
PSNI squad who raided his partner’s home and their children’s bedrooms.
He appeared before Belfast Magistrates Court on Monday accused of being
one of two masked anti-drug vigilantes who entered a house on the
Ligoniel Road in north Belfast on Friday night.
The allegations have been rubbished by his defence lawyer Darragh
Mackin, who said Mr Lundy had provided a detailed account of his
whereabouts on the night in question. This includes being in a fast
food outlet at Castledawson 40 miles away from the scene of the
incident, then travelling home.
Mr Mackin told the court that it was a “fundamental case of mistaken
identity”.
But despite CCTV evidence from Castledawson, as well as digital
evidence of his return home, District Judge Fiona Bagnall refused Mr
Lundy bail.
Alan’s brother Daniel said that he is innocent and his arrest and
remand is the latest in a long list of intimidation.
“Alan is innocent, it is just internment,” he said. “There is
sufficient evidence to prove where he was at the time of this so-called
incident. He is constantly stopped and searched and harassed. His
family know where he was and everyone knows where he was.
“Alan’s partner’s house was searched and has been on numerous occasions
with the doors put through and his kids literally dragged from their
bed at all hours of the morning. This is nothing but MI5-directed.”
North Belfast Saoradh representative Dee Fennell says Alan is “a victim
of the state”.
“Evidence has already been presented to the Magistrates Court when it
was alleged he was involved in an incident in Ligoniel that he was 40
miles away in a fast food outlet and there is CCTV to prove that,” he
said. “There is also proof via his phone that he was not there. There
were also conflicting witness reports – one said it was Alan wearing a
beige coat and the other said it was Marty wearing a black coat.
“In any other situation, Alan would be at home with his family and
children but instead he was remanded and sent to Maghaberry. This is
the second time Alan has been a victim of malicious prosecution and
internment.
“In 2012, Alan was a steward at a GARC protest and was accused by a
PSNI officer of throwing a stone. He was sent to Maghaberry and served
three months and it was only then that the PSNI officer retracted the
evidence. His family is constantly harassed on a regular basis and, in
my view, Alan is a victim of the state.
“In the last ten years, Alan has been arrested between 25 and 30 times,
had his house raided on more occasions than that, stopped and searched
hundreds of time.
“I am a youth worker. There are four definitions of abuse: physical,
psychological, sexual and neglect. No-one can tell me that Alan Lundy’s
children being dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night is
not psychological abuse of children.
“Alan Lundy personifies what is happening to republicans across the six
counties
Posted by Jim on February 22, 2019
Just 8 senior PSNI officers from Catholic background
Connla Young. Irish News. Belfast. Thursday, February 21, 2019
SDLP Policing Board member Dolores Kelly has voiced concern after it emerged just 11 percent of PSNI officer in senior roles are Catholic
Just eight of the PSNI’s most senior police officers are from a Catholic background.
Almost 20 years after the publication of the Patten Report it has emerged that 83 percent of the PSNIs most senior personnel are Protestant.
Figures published by the PSNI last year reveal that of the 68 officers above the rank of superintendent, 57 are Protestant, while eight (11 percent) are from a Catholic background.
Three officers were classified as undetermined.
Policing Board member Dolores Kelly last night voiced concern that Catholics are under-represented at senior levels in the force and called for a return of 50-50 recruitment.
While the PSNI did not reveal the ranks held by senior officers they are thought to include the chief constable and deputy chief constable.
Assistant chief constables, chief superintendents and those holding the rank of superintendent complete the category.
Together they make up the PSNI’s senior leadership team.
While the number of Catholics in the police has risen from 8 percent to more than 30 percent over the last two decades, criticisms remain.
Last week nationalists reacted angrily after it emerged the PSNI had failed to hand over “significant” information to the Police Ombudsman relating to the 1992 loyalist gun attack at Sean Graham’s bookmakers on Belfast’s Ormeau Road, which claimed five lives.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald caused controversy this week after saying she believed that no-one within the PSNI was capable of taking on the chief constable role after George Hamilton’s retirement later this year.
The figures show that the disparity in religious background continues in other senior PSNI roles.
Of the 77 officers that hold the rank of chief inspector 58 (75 percent) are Protestant while 17 (22 percent) are Catholic.
At inspector level there are 347 officers, with 248 (71 percent) Protestant and 89 (25 percent) Catholic.
The percentage breakdown for those who hold the rank of sergeant are similar with 976 appointed to the role.
Of that number 687 (70 percent) are Protestant while 275 (28 percent) are Catholic.
The statistics begin to narrow at constable level, of which there are 5,033 officers.
Of these 3,258 (64 percent) identify as Protestant while 1,720 (34 percent) are Catholic.
However, when it comes to student officers the gap begins to widen again, with the figures showing a significant drop in the number of Catholic recruits compared to qualified constables.
Of 233 student officers 180 are Protestant (77 percent) and 49 (21 percent) are Catholic.
SDLP Policing Board member Dolores Kelly last night said: “50-50 recruitment should not have been ended when it did, it’s very clear that it ought to be reinstated.
“So many years on from Patten and the transformation of the PSNI these figures are still a cause for concern in terms of people going through the rank and file and it’s a matter I hope the Policing Board will delve into an investigate more with the PSNI to see if more can be done.”
“I have said it publicly and privately we are not seeing the big role models in those senior ranks.”
Posted by Jim on February 17, 2019
PSNI chief George Hamilton stands accused of subverting justice in
regard to dozens of loyalist killings in the late 1980s and early 1990s
after secret police documents relating to collusion unexpectedly came
to light.
The PSNI claimed that they had previously been “unable to find” the
documents, after lawyers were told they didn’t exist. That received a
scathing response from families of the victims.
Due to retire this June at the ripe age of 51, Hamilton is being told
to go immediately. It is clear that allegations of a continuous and
continuing police cover-up in an orchestrated campaign of murder will
not be answered by him.
The archive was traced when one file came to light as part of a civil
legal action unrelated to previous police investigations or oversight.
Much of it relates to a crucial supply of weapons smuggled into the
north for loyalists in the late 1980s.
The publication of three reports by the Police Ombudsman on its
investigations into killings by UDA paramilitaries will now be delayed.
The Ombudsman revealed that the previously unidentified files include
“sensitive material, intelligence-led material, and.. information (on)
covert policing”.
The stalled reports include investigations into the large-scale campaign
of sectarian murder between 1988 and 1994, including the ‘trick or
treat’ massacre of eight people and the murder of Donegal Sinn Féin
councillor Eddie Fullerton; the massacre of five Catholic men at Sean
Graham bookmaker’s on Belfast’s Ormeau Road in 1992; and the murder of
17-year-old Damien Walsh in west Belfast in 1993.
Damian Walsh’s mother, Marian dismissed the apology by PSNI deputy chief
Stephen Martin, who blamed the scandal on “complex challenges associated
with voluminous material”.
“He didn’t apologise to me personally, I just heard he apologised
somewhere to somebody,” she said. “It is just a sham, and excuses. How
come one person was able to find it and yet all these other ones
couldn’t?”
The anguished mother said she had been expecting to receive the results
of the Ombudsman’s investigation.
“I thought the report must have been ready, but then I was told it
wasn’t ready again,” she said.
She said she broke down when she got the news.
“I just thought, I am so tired now, I have just got so old, so sick and
I don’t know how I am going to go on with this. And then I rallied and
thought, I have no choice, I have to keep going to see this through.”
Sinn Féin policing spokesman Gerry Kelly described the news as
“appalling and unacceptable”.
Some of the recently discovered information relates to a huge cache of
Czech-made arms imported into the north by loyalists. It previously
emerged that one of these submachine guns, used to kill seven Catholic
men, was put on display at the British Imperial War Museum in London.
Reports previously issued by the Ombudsman’s office may now have to be
withdrawn amid fears that several investigations could have been
subverted.
Lawyer Niall Murphy explained why some relatives want Hamilton to resign
immediately.
“The families are appalled,” he said. “Many parents and siblings have
passed away even in the last 12 months and people are dying without
access to justice.”
Campaign group Time For Truth organised protests in locations around
Belfast today [Saturday] in solidarity with the victims and survivors,
and to demand full investigations and legacy inquests.
“We call on citizens to sign the petition and show their support for
victims and survivors across the community who are still denied their
basic human rights,” said organiser Ciaran Mac Airt.
“Just look at the news this week. Families from the Ormeau Road have
been failed yet again by police investigating atrocities in the past.
“Hundreds of other families are experiencing the same and are being
re-traumatised on a Dáily basis.”
Posted by Jim on February 9, 2019
Paratroopers “just opened up” on a group of people standing near a
church hall which had they taken over as a British Army base, the
Ballymurphy Inquest has heard.
The inquest is looking into the shooting dead of 10 people in the
Ballymurphy area in August 1971. They died during the first few days
after the introduction of internment.
Four people died and several others were injured after what the inquest
describes as “Incident 2”. Those who died in the shooting outside the
Henry Taggart Memorial Hall, on the Springfield Road, were Joan
Connolly, Joseph Murphy, Daniel Teggart and Noel Phillips.
The inquest has been listening to statements about the incident from
those who are now deceased, cannot be traced or are too ill to attend
and give evidence in person.
The hall was being used as a base by soldiers from the Parachute
Regiment. The victims had been standing opposite, across the road in a
grassy area.
Several witnesses had given statements saying that around half a dozen
paratroopers emerged from the base in the evening and “just opened up”
on them with machine guns.
The statements explained how some parents were out looking for missing
children amid the arrests by the Army and general turmoil of the first
day of internment.
Joanie Crone’s statement described how her husband Dessie had hidden in
the field opposite the barracks as others were around him were shot and
later managed to crawl to safety, despite continuing gunfire from the
army base.
Two men described hearing a child crying in the darkness and how they
managed to persuade him to crawl through a fence to safety. The boy,
Edward Butler, had been shot in the leg but survived, and is expected to
give evidence in person in March.
Joseph Murphy’s widow, May, described talking to him in hospital after
the shooting, before his condition worsened, and he later died.
He described being taken into the base, and being beaten and kicked,
with rubber bullets being fired into his body at point blank range.
Mr Murphy told his wife that his wounds, and those of others, were only
dressed after the intervention of a younger soldier and an Army padre
also in the base.
Willie Ward’s statement described how he ran to safety with others, only
noticing later that he had been shot in the shoulder.
He sought treatment from his doctor, his statement said, but had not
gone to hospital, because he had heard that anyone with a gunshot wound
was being interned as a matter of course.
Paul Connolly’s statement, given in recent weeks, told how his mother
went to look for his sister and never returned.
Mr Connolly cannot attend the inquest due to ill health. He explained
how the next day his father went to find her. He later returned to the
family home and said: “It’s your mother, they blew her face off.”