Posted by Jim on July 4, 2018
“Theresa May’s government has failed to act ‘with rigorous impartiality.’…
The Conservatives bear the most responsibility for the irresponsibility but the Irish government of Enda Kenny has a lot to answer for since they set The North adrift lest they be seen as supporting Sinn Féin.”
Brian Feeney. Irish News. Belfast. Wednesday, July 4, 2018
When faced with two conflicting propositions for circumventing the deadlock here what does the British government do?
Examine each proposition on its merits and decide which to act on? No chance with a Conservative government and certainly not with this one, the worst, most shambolic, chaotic, squabbling bunch in living memory shamefully propped up by the DUP.
Since 2010 when couldn’t-care-less Cameron became prime minister we’ve watched the Conservatives repeat all the same mistakes they made in the 1980s. Those are principally summed up as siding with unionists despite the solemn commitment in the Good Friday Agreement to act ‘with rigorous impartiality’.
Cameron walked away as far as he could from that impartiality, first seducing the doomed UUP into the laughable UCUNF which resulted in the UUP being wiped out. Having wrecked the UUP he then switched to the DUP hoping they’d support him if there was a coalition.
To that end he backed them, blocking any progress on equality legislation or legacy matters in the north thereby encouraging his own ex-army blimps to demand exemption for soldiers likely to be charged with criminal offences during the Troubles. Theresa May’s unnecessary dirty deal with the DUP in 2017 merely formalised the biased direction of travel since 2010 which has in effect abandoned all the lessons learnt in the 1980s.
The chief lesson built upon since 1985 is that the closer the link to the Irish government the better. That both keeps the British honest and at the same time provides British governments with the best advice on how to handle the north. When the two governments speak with one voice matters here are at their most stable. The reverse is demonstrably true. QED.
The Conservatives bear the most responsibility for the irresponsibility but the Irish government of Enda Kenny has a lot to answer for since they set the north adrift lest they be seen as supporting Sinn Féin. The worst example of that was their hands-off approach during the ‘fleg’ protests in 2013 when former Stickie Eamon Gilmore twiddled his thumbs.
At no time did the Irish government press for the convening of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC) despite the GFA stipulating that ‘there will be regular and frequent meetings’. The BIIGC was devised as a failsafe mechanism if devolution failed. Basically the two governments would run The North as was happening increasingly under John Major and Albert Reynolds.
Now at last another meeting has been scheduled for July 25. Ah, but it’s only to deal with non-devolved matters you say. Yes, but it can discuss anything and the Irish can put forward views and proposals dealing with all-island and cross-border cooperation. Unfortunately the British see the meeting merely as a balancing act after they’ve stuffed the DUP’s maw with more of the loot Theresa May bought them with.
Nonetheless there is a real chance of progress on legacy matters if the Irish government play their cards properly. Investigating state killings during the Troubles as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) requires is not a devolved matter although by a sleekit[sly] sleight of hand the British have sought to pretend it is. They’ve deliberately conflated state killings with all killings as if they’re the same. They’re not. Under Article 2 of the ECHR the British government is required to carry out proper investigations. Ironically the case precedent is the SAS killings of the Gibraltar Three. The ECHR decided the British were at fault because they could have devised a plan to arrest the IRA they shot dead in cold blood.
It wasn’t a Stormont administration which signed the ECHR and is responsible for such investigations. It can only be a sovereign government which subscribes to the ECHR and that’s Westminster, namely Theresa May. So the BIIGC can discuss that matter. Besides, it’s a cross-border matter. Consider the role of the British proxy gang of RUC/UVF/UDR killers now known by the name of the Glenanne gang and whose members were responsible for the Dublin-Monaghan bombings. The British have allowed successive chief constables to refuse to examine the Glenanne gang killings thematically as the Historical Enquiries Team started to do.
Yet it’s the British government which is legally obliged to investigate.
Posted by Jim on July 3, 2018
Our Nation shares the sorrow of those affected by the shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland. Americans across the country are united in calling upon God to be with the victims and to bring aid and comfort to their families and friends. As a mark of solemn respect for the victims of the terrible act of violence perpetrated on June 28, 2018, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, July 3, 2018. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this third day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.
Posted by Jim on June 30, 2018
The widow of murdered Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane has said she
is optimistic that the Supreme Court in London will finally rule in
favour of a full public inquiry into her husband’s death.
Mr Finucane was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries at his north
Belfast home in 1989 in front of his three children and his wife,
Geraldine, who was also injured during the attack. Several members of
the death squad are understood to have acted in concert with British
military intelligence.
Speaking as she and her children arrived at the court, Geraldine
Finucane said she wanted the court to decide that there should be an
inquiry, saying it was a promise made to her and her family, and to the
Dublin government.
Speaking outside the court with sons John and Michael, daughter
Katherine and 15-year-old grandson Piaras by her side, Mrs Finucane said
governments should be held to account.
“They can’t just change their minds when it suits them to prevent
justice,” she said. “So we are here for justice, and the inquiry.”
Peter Madden of Mr Finucane’s old law firm,
Madden and Finucane Solicitors, has said the only way that the full truth
about the murder can be firmly established and the extent to which a
policy of extra-judicial assassination was
authorised by government, is by a “full transparent public inquiry” where
witnesses and documents are subject to intense scrutiny.
“We will seek to persuade the Supreme Court at the hearing of this
appeal that David Cameron acted unlawfully in refusing a public inquiry
and that the court should quash his decision.”
The Supreme Court will examine a number of issues including whether the
failure to establish a full inquiry contravenes European human rights
legalisation.
In 2011 the then British Prime Minister David Cameron commissioned a
review of Mr Finucane’s death.
The Finucane family dismissed the findings of the review as a whitewash
and accused the British government of reneging on previous commitments
to hold a full tribunal into allegations of state collusion in Mr
Finucane’s murder.
Mrs Finucane was granted permission in July 2017 to appeal to the
Supreme Court against the decision of the Court of Appeal to hold a full
inquiry.
A panel of five Supreme Court justices, headed by the court’s president
Lady Hale, considered her appeal against that ruling during a two-day
hearing.
Opening Mrs Finucane’s case at the Supreme Court, Barry Macdonald QC
said the background to the proceedings was “complex and sinister”.
The case, he said, was “notorious for good reason”, and was one which
had attracted widespread local and international concern.
He added: “The available evidence suggests that agents of the state
responsible for law enforcement devised and operated a policy of
extra-judicial execution, the essential feature of which was that
loyalist terrorist organisations were infiltrated, resourced and
manipulated in order to murder individuals identified by state agents as
suitable for assassination – in other words, a policy of ‘murder by
proxy’ whereby the state itself engaged in terrorism through the agency
of loyalist paramilitaries.”
Mr Finucane, who enjoyed a reputation as a committed human rights lawyer
prepared to challenge perceived abuses of state power “was a victim of
this policy”.
The QC said: “All investigations into Patrick Finucane’s death have
clearly established that he was no more than a solicitor intent on doing
his job and doing it very well, albeit at the expense of attracting the
adverse attention of elements of the state.”
In written argument before the court opposing the appeal, the British
Direct Ruler in the north of Ireland insisted that the lower courts
considered the case correctly and that the decision-making process
relating to the public inquiry was a “thorough, genuine and lawful” one.
Posted by Jim on June 29, 2018
Victims campaigner to appeal judgment
Alan Erwin. Belfast Telegraph.Thursday, June 28 2018
A victims campaigner has lost his legal battle to have the British Government compelled to put in place a policy for holding a border poll in Northern Ireland.
Lawyers for Raymond McCord claimed the current criteria for calling a referendum on Irish unity is too vague.
But a High Court judge ruled that it is a matter for the Secretary of State to make a decision on the appropriate circumstances.
Sir. Paul Girvan said he was “wholly unpersuaded” by any suggestion she should be bound by a policy on such a politically sensitive issue.
Mr. McCord immediately declared his intention to mount an appeal against the verdict. “I’m disappointed but the fight will go on,” the Belfast man vowed outside court.
“I still strongly believe there’s a real need for a border poll to take the fear factor out of politics here.”
The staunch unionist has been mounting separate challenges in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland over the current arrangements for going to the public.
His case against the British administration questioned the legality and transparency of the provisions for holding a border poll.
Under the 1998 Good Friday Agrement a referendum can be called if the Secretary of State believes a majority of people in Nothern Ireland no longer want to remain part of the United Kingdom.
Mr McCord, an outspoken critic of loyalist paramilitaries since a UVF gang beat his son Raymond Jr to death in 1997, is not pressing for such a poll.
But he believes authority for calling such a significant ballot should not rest with one individual. His lawyers insisted a policy must be implemented to remove any uncertainty.
The court was told current arrangements are too broad, giving the Secretary of State an unfettered discretion on the principle of consent and self-determination.
Irish Senator Mark Daly also attended the case in Belfast in support of Mr McCord.
The Fianna Fail representative, who served in the Good Friday Agreement implementation committee, has warned that without clarity any future vote could be open to manipulation.
But dismissing the challenge, Sir Paul held there is no legal obligation on the Secretary to have a defined policy in place.
Mr McCord’s solicitor, Ciaran O’Hare of McIvor Farrell law firm, also indicated the judgment may be appealed.
He said: “We will closely examine today’s ruling and, ultimately, the border poll question might have to be looked at by the highest court.”
Posted by Jim on
RADIO FREE EIREANN will broadcast this Saturday June 30th on WBAI Radio 99.5FM or WBAI.ORG at 12 noon-1pm New York time or 5pm-6pm in Ireland or anytime after the program on WBAI.ORG – Archives
MICHAEL FINUCANE, son of Irish civil rights lawyer Pat Finucane will give a first hand report on this week’s dramatic hearing at the London Supreme Court and explain why almost 30 years later, the FINUCANE family is fighting for an Independent Judicial Inquiry as the only way to get to the truth about British state collusion in the brutal murder.
DAN DENNEHY,National Director of the AOH and leading American immigration activist, will discuss current immigration problems and the impact on the Irish community as well as take part in a discussion about the surprising primary defeat of Congressman Joe Crowley, a champion on Irish issues.
John McDonagh and Martin Galvin co-host.