Posted by Jim on November 18, 2017
Rulings that the murder of 11-year-old British Army victim Francis
Rowntree was ‘not justified’ and that the rubber bullets fired at him
were lethal have been widely welcomed, although 45 years late and
following the recent death of his mother.
Theresa Rowntree, who had long campaigned for the truth to be revealed
about her young son’s death in 1972, died in a Belfast nursing home in
March – just months before this week’s verdict.
Francis, a pupil at St Finian’s Primary School, was shot in the head by
a rubber bullet on 20 April 1972 while walking through the Divis Flats
complex close to the Falls Road in west Belfast, and died two days
later.
His wounds included skull fractures and lacerations of the brain, in
preliminary inquest findings revealed this week.
The soldier who fired the rubber bullet used “excessive force”, coroner
Brian Sherrard said.
Eye witnesses, including a British Army officer instructing the
soldiers, told the court that a crowd gathered around a vehicle carrying
a number of soldiers which stopped in the area. A number of children had
come to watch the disturbance out of curiosity.
The court also heard that two rounds of rubber bullets were fired by a
soldier to “disperse” the crowd, and that one of the bullets hit the
boy’s head. No warning was given before the shots were fired.
The Coroner noted the soldier was not given any training in the use of
the bullets or made aware they were potentially lethal.
However, Francis’s death did not alter or diminish British strategy in
their efforts to control nationalist areas using rubber and plastic
bullets.
Over the next 17 years, the weapons were responsible for another 16
deaths. Eight of the fatalities, including Francis – a primary school
pupil in west Belfast – were children, ranging in age from 15 to ten.
This week’s ruling could have implications for the families of the other
victims.
His older brother Jim said his family had finally got “a bit of closure”
after 45 years.
“This is the first time that they have decided this gun was lethal. The
government had denied it but now it’s down in black and white,” he said.
“It’s an awful thing that my mother couldn’t have seen it. She died in
March. She knew she was right. She’s looking down on us now – her and
Frank.”
Mr Rowntree said he now wanted an official apology from the British
Ministry of Defence.
The family later issued a statement through their lawyer, Padraig O
Muirigh.
“Many young children were killed and maimed by the rubber bullet and its
successor, the plastic bullet,” the statement said. “Their use, free
from regulation and training, amounted to a systemic abuse of human
rights.
“These findings are not only a legal victory for the Rowntree family but
for all those who campaigned for many years for these lethal weapons to
be banned.”
Posted by Jim on November 13, 2017
Sinn Fein has said talks with unionists to restore the Six County
Executive are over after it was confirmed today that the British
government is pushing a ‘Northern Ireland’ budget bill through all
stages of the Westminster parliament, a key step towards the return of
full Direct Rule of the north of Ireland from London.
Sinn Fein said it had ended talks with the DUP and have called for
“joint British-Irish partnership arrangements” for the north of Ireland.
Sinn Fein’s Northern leader Michelle O’Neill said that by moving to
bring in a budget for the north of Ireland from Westminster, the British
government was acknowledging that “an agreement hasn’t been possible”.
She said Sinn Fein met the DUP this morning and told them of its
decision to end the negotiations, without setting a date for their
resumption. “This phase of the talks are over,” said Ms O’Neill.
She accused British prime minister Theresa May of prioritising “her own
electoral survival by the Tory-DUP pact over the interests of all the
people here in the North”.
Ms O’Neill said in the absence of an Executive and Assembly,
responsibility to move on issues such as an Irish language act and other
equality issues lies with the British and Irish governments.
She called for Dublin and London to convene a meeting of the
British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference to address issues which were
blocking the return of devolved power-sharing.
Ms O’Neill said that full Direct Rule from Westminster was “not an
option”. She also referred to a period in 2006 where there were
discussions on joint British-Irish government structures.
“Clearly there is a mechanism within the Good Friday agreement in the
intergovernmental conference that would allow work to be done across the
British-Irish governments. That is what we are asking for,” she said.
“We have sought urgent meetings with the Taoiseach and the two
governments,” added Ms O’Neill.
“The way forward now is for the two governments to fulfil their
responsibilities as co-guarantors of the Good Friday agreement and the
St Andrews Agreement to honour outstanding commitments and to deliver
rights for everyone that are enjoyed by everyone else elsewhere on these
islands.
“This in itself would pave the way for the Executive to be restored.”
Ms O’Neill said difficulties were compounded by Brexit and the DUP’s
“refusal to accept the vote in the North to reject Brexit”.
There has been no effective devolved government since the late Martin
McGuinness stood down as Deputy First Minister in January in a row with
DUP leader Arlene Foster amid concerns about corruption and the
integrity of the northern institutions.
Ms O’Neill did not say when or if talks with the DUP might resume. “The
issues aren’t going to go away,” she said at a Sinn Fein press
conference attended by senior party figures including party president
Gerry Adams.
“So, whether we deal with them now, or deal with them in one month, two
months, three months they have to be resolved in order to restore these
institutions and to allow people to have confidence in these
institutions,” she added
Posted by Jim on November 11, 2017
Hundreds of people are being forced from their homes every year by
loyalist paramilitaries, according to figures released this week.
They show that a total of 477 people presented as homeless to the
Housing Executive because of paramilitary intimidation, and increase of
ten per cent over last year.
The most high profile of these cases took place recently when the east
Belfast UVF forced out Catholic families living in the ‘shared space’ of
Cantrell Close, and the separate burning out of Catholics living in
Derry’s Waterside.
Racist attacks have been reported by loyalists against Bangladeshi,
Syrian and Belgian families, with bricks thrown at their homes in north
and east Belfast, as well as arson attacks against their cars.
Examples of hate crimes and the day-to-day level of harassment and
intimidation of Catholics were again visible this week, with a new
`Taigs Out’ sign in the County Down village of Clough.
Clough is just a few miles from Loughinisland which has been in the
headlines due to the release of a documentary about state collusion in a
loyalist atrocity in 1994.
The PSNI said they were treating the graffiti as a hate crime. However,
locals noted there had been no action to remove it for almost a week.
“It’s disappointing that five days after the sign was notified to the
police, it is still there intact, continuing to intimidate a section of
the community as it was designed to do,” said Amnesty International’s
Patrick Corrigan. “If the authorities can’t take action to remove a
sign, then how are people meant to feel safe?”
Sinn Fein assembly member Sinead Ennis also said she had contacted
police about the sign.
“The erection of this sign was a clear attempt of sectarian
intimidation,” she said. “I reported it as a hate crime to the PSNI on
Friday night and asked for it to be removed. The sign caused great upset
to people in the area and those passing by it.”
Separately, a sectarian sticker which included the slogan ‘Kick a fenian
in the head’, was discovered at a recycling centre in Banbridge, County
Down.
Sinn Fein councillor Kevin Savage reported it to the PSNI He said the
sticker was a “veiled reference to the brutal sectarian murder of Robert
Hamill in Portadown in 1997”.
Mr Hamill, a Catholic, was beaten to death by loyalists as PSNI members
watched in April 1997.
‘Fenians Out’ messages have also appeared in Derry’s Waterside recently.
Sinn Fein Councillor Christopher Jackson, believes the graffiti was
designed to intimidate Catholic users of the council-run sports complex
and nearby St Columb’s Park.
He said: “It is disappointing to see this but it is not surprising. The
message we need to get out is that all council facilities are open to
everybody and there is no place for sectarianism anywhere.
“We must ensure people feel safe and comfortable using Foyle Arena and
St Columbs Park, and that there are no ‘no go’ areas in the city,
despite what some people might want to create.”
Posted by Jim on
By Jude Collins (judecollins.com)
When I hear what the EU negotiators are telling the UK, I invariably
feel a jolt of pleasure. It’s like the playground bully – he’s been
condescending and brutal with you for so long, it’s a thrill to see the
school principal give him a bone-crunching kick in the rear-end.
So whatever reservations I have about the EU, and I have quite a few,
their stance on a post-Brexit border here invariably makes me want to
punch the air. This firm attitude is displayed most recently in an
internal EU paper which makes it clear yet again to the semi-deaf Brits
that if they want to avoid a hard border in Ireland, then our North-East
Nest will have to remain in the single market and customs union. The
rules must be the same on both sides if our currently invisible border
is to continue.
This internal paper is just a working document from the EU Brexit Task
Force under Michel Barnier; it’s not a finalized EU position. But it
makes clear the direction in which EU thinking is going. We’ve been fed
a diet which caricatures countries like France, Germany and Italy, but
it’s clear that in terms of the border in Ireland, the EU are the
hard-headed, logical ones, not the Brits. If you’re going to have two
totally separate economic systems north and south, you’re going to have
to build a border to show the dividing line.
Best of all, of course, is the fact that the British can’t park this
matter in a side road and move on to matters of future trade between the
EU and the UK. The EU is insistent that the matter of a border in
Ireland must be resolved before the talks between them and the UK move
to a new phase.
It’s truly refreshing to see the EU take its commitment to the Good
Friday Agreement seriously. The British and the southern Irish
government could learn a lot from them. And they’d better learn fast.
Posted by Jim on
The PSNI is being ordered by a High Court judge to finalise and publish
an all-encompassing report into suspected British state collusion with
a loyalist unit behind more than 100 murders.
The judge, who has already ruled that the PSNI unlawfully frustrated
any chance of an effective investigation, insisted on the completion of
a thematic report into the so-called Glenanne Gang’s onslaught against
nationalists throughout the 1970s.
Lawyers for the families of victims brought the action as it emerged
that Mr Justice Treacy’s original verdict is set to be appealed.
Earlier this year the judge ruled that bereaved relatives were denied in
their legitimate expectation that the result of an overarching
investigation would be published.
In the High Court in Belfast on Tuesday, he said he would grant what is
called “an order of mandamus” that compels the PSNI Chief to conduct a
lawful investigation, and complete and publish the comprehensive
thematic report.
He also said witnesses and those bereaved by the gang were dying without
achieving any closure on suspected state collusion.
“The very sad inescapable fact is that while these debates rage on at
huge public expense, the victims’ families languish with no end in sight
and the ever increasing realisation that nothing much may happen in
their lifetime,” he said.
Judicial review proceedings were brought in the name of Edward Barnard.
Mr Barnard’s 13-year-old brother Patrick was among four people killed in
a St Patrick’s Day bomb attack on the Hillcrest Bar in Dungannon in
March, 1976.
Up to 120 murders in nearly 90 incidents in Mid Ulster and border areas
are under scrutiny. They include outrages such as the 1975 Miami
Showband Massacre, the Step Inn pub bombing in Keady, and the 1974
Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
Before drafting the terms of his order, the judge has given the PSNI a
week to confirm that there are no minutes or documents about the
decision not to complete the HET investigation.
Referring to the collusion allegations, he said: “I have no doubt that
for some families their confidence has been undermined by delays which
they believe are inimical to addressing their principal unresolved
concerns.
“In the meantime witnesses or potential witnesses are lost and family
members of the deceased die without any closure or resolution.”
The judge added: “Furthermore, the anxiety of the surviving family
members is not only undimmed but exacerbated by the delays of a system
that appears powerless to stop it.”
Sinn Fein’s Linda Dillon said it was a “hugely pivotal day” but
criticised the PSNI for their legal blocking efforts.
“These kind of actions are undermining the confidence levels in the PSNI
and new policing dispensation in the north,” she said.
“I am calling on the PSNI to comply with the judgement and provide the
necessary resources and facilitate an effective and independent
investigation so that the families can get access to truth and justice.”
Lawyer Darragh Mackin said it was a “landmark decision for the families
of the Glenanne gang in their pursuit of justice”.
“Not only has the court confirmed that the decision not to investigate
was unlawful but it has gone further to compel that such an
investigation is now conducted in line with our clients’ expectation,”
he said.
“We now urge the chief constable to put in place the mechanisms for such
an independent investigation without any further delay.”
Eugene Reavey, whose three brothers were murdered by the Glenanne Gang
in south Armagh in January 1976, said it was a “big day for us” and “a
big help to all the legacy cases, not just Glenanne”.