Posted by Jim on January 3, 2018
January 3rd
NEW YORK ISLANDERS FIRE DEPARTMENT APPRECIATION NIGHT
Join the New York Islanders on Thursday, January 18th at 7 PM for Fire Department Appreciation Night when they face off against the Boston Bruins. All participants that purchase a special ticket will receive an exclusive New York Islanders Fire Department T-shirt. A portion of each special ticket sold will benefit the FDNY Foundation.
For more information, please visit https://www.fevo.com/…/New-York-Islanders-vs-Boston-Bruins-… or contact Patrick Bogan at 718-942-9689 or patrick.bogan@newyorkislanders.com.
Posted by Jim on January 1, 2018
“The Tory/DUP deal is a major obstacle in the path of a full return to duty by our MLAs as it is difficult to see how Secretary of State James Brokenshire can maintain that he is an independent chair of the negotiations while being inextricably linked to one of the conflicting parties.”
Irish News Editorial. Belfast. Monday, January 1, 2017
As we enter a new year today, there can be no doubt that our two main political priorities are addressing the Brexit crisis and ending the suspension of our devolved institutions.
Avoiding disaster over Brexit is an absolute imperative, and we would be in a much stronger position to achieve this objective if our power-sharing administration was back in place.
While the recent history of Stormont may have attracted little enthusiasm among ordinary citizens, the idea that its absence could allow a discredited Westminster pact between the Conservatives and the DUP to take unchallenged and extremely damaging decisions is not sustainable.
The Tory/DUP deal is a major obstacle in the path of a full return to duty by our MLAs as it is difficult to see how Secretary of State James Brokenshire can maintain that he is an independent chair of the negotiations while being inextricably linked to one of the conflicting parties.
However, if Mr Brokenshire manages to take a back seat, the other issues on the table, particularly the campaign for an Irish language act, are all fully capable of being resolved.
What is even more important is for all of our politicians to accept that no one has an overall majority in the Assembly and that progress can only be made in a climate of mutual respect.
In the first instance, the DUP needs to realize that a 28 per cent share of the overall vote entitles it to be an equal partner in government and not in any sense the dominant force.
If the Executive can be restored, one initiative which could surely be supported by ministers on all sides would be extending an invitation to the UK Brexit minister David Davis to make a long overdue visit to the Irish border region.
Nationalists and Unionists tend to have different perspectives on the EU debate but there is general agreement that an Toutcome which undermines trade in any part of Ireland and restricts the free movement of people would be appalling.
It is shocking that Mr. Davis knows that these questions are at the top of his department’s agenda but, during his 18 months in office, has managed a single brief trip to Belfast during which he conspicuously failed to go anywhere near The border and take on board the concerns of residents there, from all sections of society.
Security considerations cannot be a factor, as Margaret Thatcher, a Tory icon as prime minister between 1979 and 1990, was able to regularly arrive at locations from Derry to south Armagh during the height of The Troubles.
Attempting to follow in the footsteps of Mrs. Thatcher may not transform the reputation of the hapless Mr. Davis or transform the wider process but it would at least represent a small and symbolic step in the right direction.
Posted by Jim on December 31, 2017
Unionists have protested after republican party Saoradh opened a new
office in the centre of a County Tyrone town of Dungannon.
The group, which was formed last year, put signs up outside the office
in the town square in Dungannon last week. The square is often used as a
route for sectarian unionist parades and is home to a British Army war
memorial, prompting fears of confrontations.
The group describes itself as an “unashamed revolutionary party” and is
strongly left-wing — last week it condemned an open letter by prominent
nationalist professionals urging greater involvement by Dublin in the
North as “a Catholic Bourgeois letter”.
It already has offices in Derry and Belfast and national chairman Davy
Jordan said the party also intends to open an office in Dublin. It plans
to fly the Irish tricolour from its office in Dungannon on specific days
each year.
“We are definitely not meaning to cause offence to anybody, that’s not
the reason for being in the square,” Mr Jordan said. “We have as much
right to be in the square as anyone else.”
It is understood the new office will also function as a base for the
Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association, a support group for
republican prisoners.
Two signs bearing the image of 1916 Easter Rising leader Thomas Clarke,
a native of Dungannon, and Kevin Barry, a republican executed by the
British in 1920, also raised unionist hackles.
Ulster Unionist councillor Walter Cuddy said he was “disappointed” by
the development but powerless to prevent it.
“If they are a legal organisation and allowed to have an office we can’t
stop that in a democracy,” he said.
Posted by Jim on
Unionists are seeking to quash findings of collusion between the RUC
police and unionist paramilitaries in up to six Police Ombudsman reports
following a surprise court judgment before Christmas.
A judge claimed that Ombudsman Michael Maguire went beyond his statutory
powers in reaching conclusions about collusion on the Loughinisland
massacre.
Two retired RUC men had challenged a report last June over the 1994
murder of six people at the Heights Bar by the paramilitary UVF in which
the ombudsman concluded that “collusion was a significant feature”.
However, Mr Justice McCloskey ruled that the RUC men were subjected to
“destructive and withering condemnations” in the report without due
process.
The ruling came as a blow to the victims of the massacre.
Emma Rogan, whose father Adrian was murdered in the Heights Bar, said
that last Christmas was the first where they felt that “the truth had
been set free and allowed to breath”.
“This judgment, which has been delivered four days prior to Christmas
Day, has devastated us all,” she said. “We feel that the truth has again
been suffocated. We will study this judgment over Christmas and renew
our efforts to defend the inconvenient truth, in the New Year”
Niall Murphy, lawyer for the families of those bereaved, said the case
had been premised entirely on procedural grounds. He noted that the two
RUC men had not challenged a single fact contained in the Police
Ombudsman’s report.
“The facts therefore remain as facts,” he said, and pointed to the
weight of evidence to support the allegations of collusion.
DUP MP Ian Paisley called on the British government to “move to set
false accusations aside” in six reports by the Ombusdman’s office./
Among the reports is the 2007 Operation Ballast findings by Nuala O’Loan
into the activities of the north Belfast UVF and the killing of Raymond
McCord junior.
The former ombudsman spent three and a half years investigating the 1997
murder of the 22-year-old and a series of related killings and concluded
there was collusion. Then British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologised
to the family of Mr McCord.
Raymond McCord senior said Ian Paisley’s response does not take into
account that the findings were accepted by the British government.
“All the evidence of collusion in my son’s case is there, it has been
well documented, there is no other name for it other than collusion and
instead of seeking justice for victims, Ian Paisley is seeking to
overturn important rulings and investigations.”
Sinn Fein policing spokesman Gerry Kelly defended Dr Maguire, saying his
work “is crucial to current policing and indeed in legacy cases.”
He said the Loughinisland judgment must be appealed “as it has possibly
catastrophic implications for the setting up of the investigative
process of the Historic Investigations Unit”.
Posted by Jim on December 30, 2017
Former Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley.RollingNews
Unionist firebrand leader may have done more than just flirt with paramilitaries.
Irish cabinet papers from 1987 reveal that the Israeli ambassador in London reported to the Irish government that Ian Paisley, then the Unionist firebrand leader, sought arms from Israel.
The Irish Ambassador Noel Dorr reported the bizarre request to Dublin in a confidential transmission.
“He (the Israeli Ambassador) said that Rev Ian Paisley had been in touch with him to obtain arms,” Dorr wrote.
“I expressed surprise at this since I thought it unlikely that Paisley would leave himself open on something like this.
“The ambassador said the request related to border protection. I said I presumed that the emphasis was on surveillance equipment rather than on arms, but the ambassador did not elaborate further. He said he had replied to Paisley that these things could be dealt with only between governments.”
Paisley did flirt with paramilitaries, most notably the armed Third Force he created in the early 1980s. He was denied access to America and had his visa revoked for threatening violence.
Rallies were held on hillsides near Newry, and Armagh. On Dec 3, 1981 Paisley said that the Third Force had between 15,000 and 20,000 members.
The group was established by Paisley as a complement to the security forces (Paisley had previously been associated with the Ulster Protestant Volunteers loyalist paramilitary group). It grew from opposition to the increasing pace of co-operation between the governments of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland
In a statement, Paisley’s son – North Antrim DUP MP Ian Paisley – angrily denied his father had sought arms from Israel.
“The claims being made by the Press that my father was involved in an attempt to obtain arms from Israel are absolute nonsense,” he said.
“The basis of a chat at a function between officials – where drink was taken – who were hostile Irish Government officials with their own prejudiced agenda, and where there are no official notes other than cloudy recollections – tells its own story. There is no doubt that given our poor border security in the 1980s… my father made it his business to highlight how other countries could protect themselves from border incursions, such as Israel.
“He publicly and privately urged HMG to up its game and protect our citizens. That is a very far stretch from an attempt to go about the private procurement of arms. Obviously, it is easily to slander the dead. If my father was alive this story wouldn’t see the light of day.”