Posted by Jim on September 25, 2017
A chara
It is said everyone deserves their day in Court. Why are the “Ballymurphy Massacre” families, waiting for their day in court, forty-six years after the killing of their loved ones? Why is Arlene Foster’s permission needed to get Court inquests and a chance for truth?
The “Ballymurphy Massacre,” was set in motion when British Prime Minister Edward Heath greenlit Brian Faulkner’s call for Internment. Faulkner’s Ulster Unionist Party ran Britain’s Orange State for nearly fifty years. Internment, or mass arrests and indefinite imprisonment of suspected Republicans without charges or trial, was their answer to periodic Irish resistance.
INTERNMENT
On Monday August 9,1971,British troopers rampaged across the north, broke into homes, terrorized families, jailed hundreds without charge, and began a catastrophic Internment policy lasting four years.
Mass arrests and home invasions were step one. They selected men held without charge, hooded and brutalized them with techniques which have Britain charged with torture in the European Court.
ELEVEN VICTIMS
The massacre began hours after the first days’ raids ended. British Paratroopers barracked in Ballymurphy came out and opened fire without warning.
A Catholic priest, waving a white handkerchief, Fr. Hugh Mullan, nineteen year old Francis Quinn, mother of 8 children, Joan Connolly, were each shot dead for going to help wounded victims.
Daniel Teggart, was felled by a bullet to the leg, then shot a total of 14 times, as he lay on the ground. Noel Philips was also shot dead that first night.
Joseph Murphy was wounded, and taken into custody. Before his death on August 22nd, he whispered that he had been shot a second time while in the Para’s barracks. The second bullet was found after his body was exhumed for an autopsy.
Edward Doherty, John Laverty, Joseph Corr and John McKerr were murdered over the next two days. An eleventh murder victim, Paddy McCarthy, died of a heart attack, when troopers placed an empty gun inside his mouth in mock execution.
COVER STORIES
However the “Ballymurphy Massacre” did not end with taking 11 innocent lives, or taking parents from 57 children. The British also massacred the truth. Cover stories were crafted. Victims became posthumous gunmen. British Royal Military Police made their troopers innocent and the dead guilty.
No eyewitnesses could challenge the official story line. No lawyers could ask why no British casualties, nor weapons recovered from so many dead IRA gunmen. The BBC and newspapers relayed this British version.
Brigadier General Frank Kitson, had written “Law should be used as just another weapon in the government’s arsenal… little more than a propaganda cover for disposal of unwanted members of the public”.(Low Intensity Operations)
As a secret British Ministry Memorandum, uncovered by Relatives For Justice put it, the British “Army should not be inhibited in its campaign by the threat of Court proceedings”.
British troopers would have undeclared immunity. The families of murdered “unwanted members of the public” would not be allowed to “inhibit” Britain’s campaign with court proceedings. They would have to swallow their grief and take it.
It worked so well in Ballymurphy that the British decided to try it again five months later, with the mistake of too many witnesses on “Bloody Sunday”.
RELATIVES FOR JUSTICE
More than a quarter-century later, Relatives For Justice organized a conference for forgotten victims of the Troubles. Afterwards, still grieving families vowed to fight for truth. They fought for and in 2011, won the legal right to reopen inquests. They would get their day in court and chance for truth!
They are still waiting. Eighteen months ago, British Chief Justice Declan Morgan, met the Ballymurphy families, among others, about delays in legacy inquests. Morgan said Britain was legally obligated to hold these inquests. He planned to deal with all 50 legacy inquests within 5 years, given cooperation and some funding.
On September 5th,Morgan went public with his “deep frustration” at getting nothing. The funds are there said the British, but need agreement and Arlene Foster’s permission for release. Democratic Unionist Party head Arlene Foster refused. She says it would divert money from “innocent victims.” After all, Foster assumes, if British troopers killed the Ballymurphy victims, they must have been guilty of something.
Once the British ruled through the UUP, and blamed them for the injustices of the Orange State. Today they give nationalists a say, but impose sham requirements for agreements amounting to a DUP veto. The British not worried about the victims being proven innocent. They worry that the truth may point to the guilt of those who fired the shots and those who gave them immunity to do so. They think unionists can always cancel out nationalist demands. The British do worry about American pressure. Will Irish-Americans help get the “Ballymurphy Massacre” families their chance for truth?
Slan
MARTIN GALVIN
The writer is Freedom-for-all-Ireland Chair for ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS, in New York State.
Posted by Jim on September 23, 2017
I will fight for “local families” says DUP man amid controversy over housing development
DUP councilor Paul Porter with party leader
Arlene Foster. The old Dunmurry high school
site was the subject of comments by the Seymour
Hill and Conway Residents’ Association calling
for homes to be filled up with people from the
loyalist/unionist community
Brendan Hughes. Irish News. Belfast.
Saturday, September 23, 2017A DUP councilor has said he will fight for “local housing for local families” amid controversy over a residents’ group calling for homes to be “filled up with people from the Loyalist/Uunionist[Protestant] community”.
Seymour Hill and Conway Residents’ Association faced criticism earlier this week over a Facebook post encouraging people to meet with a DUP councilor about a new social housing development.
The group told people to “call in to see councilor Jonathan Craig” about the old Dunmurry High School site development, adding: “Please get yourself on the list and let’s get these houses filled up with people from [the] loyalist/unionist community [Protestant].”
Their board includes the former Lagan Valley MLA’s wife, ex-DUP councilor Yvonne Craig. Nationalist parties branded the remarks “extremely disappointing” and “disgraceful”.
Mr. Craig distanced himself from the comments, saying he has “no influence whatsoever” over housing allocation.
The residents’ group later apologized for using the “wrong vocabulary” and said their message was “aimed at local houses for local people”.
Following the apology, DUP Lisburn councilor Paul Porter on Thursday wrote on Facebook: “As your local councilor, I will continue to fight for more local housing for local families and individuals !”
The post was ‘liked’ on the social media site by several DUP representatives.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin South Belfast MLA Máirtín Ó Muilleoir yesterday expressed concern over a development site having “no plans yet to build homes for local families”.
In a video on Twitter, Mr. Ó Muilleoir said: “Distressed to hear that while the community of Short Strand lost homes when the Sirocco site was cleared, the developers have no plans yet to build homes for local families on the Sirocco site which I find absolutely disgraceful. Needs sorted as soon as possible.”
Posted by Jim on
A look at an infamous event in the Tan War in County Dublin, 97 years
ago this week.
A rampage by the notorious ‘Black and Tans’ on the night of Monday,
September 20 followed the deaths of two of their number who were shot
dead while in Smyth’s pub, Balbriggan earlier that day.
The sack began around 11pm as lorries loaded with Black and Tans arrived
in the town from the barracks at Gormanston and directly proceeded to
shoot, burn and loot the town in a systematic spree of horrific
violence.
In Clonard Street, 20 houses were destroyed leaving helpless and
terrified inhabitants to flee into the fields surrounding the town.
Several pubs were looted and burned including Derham’s Pub and McGowan’s
pub on George’s Hill.
Local businesses were also targeted with Deeds and Templar Hosier
completely destroyed. This factory had employed 130 workers and an
additional 180 who did work for it from home.
There was only one house targeted on Hampton Street and it was that of
John Gibbons, who was taken for ‘questioning’ concerning the shootings
earlier that day.
Also at the barracks was the town’s barber James Lawless, both men
protesting their innocence.
They were later taken to Quay Street where they were beaten and stabbed
to death, their bodies found the next morning as the smoke from burned
out town still rose in an eerie silence.
A terrified population sought refuge wherever they could, many going to
Dublin to stay with relatives as news of the carnage spread throughout
the land.
Others with nowhere to go or those who did not want to leave slept in
makeshift straw homes in the fields around the town.
The English press covered the destruction.
“To realise the full horrors of that night, one has to think of bands of
men inflamed with drink, raging about the streets, firing rifles wildly,
burning houses here and there loudly threatening to come again tonight
and complete their work,” according to the Manchester Guardian.
A British civil servant in Dublin Castle, Mark Sturgis, felt no remorse.
He wrote in his diary: “Worse things can happen than the shooting up of
a sink like Balbriggan.”
The policy of ‘unofficial’ reprisals was sanctioned at the highest
level. The OC of the British forces in Ireland, General Sir Nevil
Macready, defended it privately.
“Where reprisals have taken place, the whole atmosphere of the
surrounding district has changed from one of hostility to one of
cringing submission.”
Posted by Jim on
The US administration has been urged to reverse a decision to abolish
the post of special envoy to the north of Ireland.
The US State Department confirmed earlier this month that the post had
been “retired” and its responsibilities assigned to the Bureau of
European and Eurasian Affairs.
The first US special envoy to was Senator George Mitchell, who was
appointed in 1995, while Richard Haass undertook the role during George
W Bush’s administration. The involvement of the US government in the
north of Ireland has diminished substantially in recent years in line
with the normalisation of British rule.
The last person to hold the post was Senator Gary Hart but he was not
replaced following Donald Trump’s election victory. Senator Hart
condemned the proposal to abolish the diplomatic role as “a sad, even
tragic, decision”.
Now 25 members of the US Congress have written to the US Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson urging him to reconsider abolishing the post. It has
been signed by Republicans as well as Democratic members of Congress.
The letter notes that “40 million Americans of Irish descent have begun
to speak out on this issue” and describes the 1998 Good Friday Agreement
as “one of America’s most successful foreign policy accomplishments in
recent memory”.
The letter highlights the threat Brexit poses to the peace process after
the Westminster parliament passed legislation to allow British
negotiators breach the 1998 peace deal. Sinn Fein is seeking to rescue
the agreement by making it a protocol of the Brexit withdrawal treaty.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians has urged members of Congress who take
an active interest in Ireland to oppose Tillerson’s plans.
It described the proposal to scrap the north envoy as “appalling” and
wants US Congress members to “push back”.
The AOH has sent letters to the members of the U.S. Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations and the Congressional Friends of Ireland caucus
asking them to voice their objection, said a statement.
“Nearly twenty years ago, the historic Good Friday Agreement ended ‘the
Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, proportionately one of the deadliest
conflicts in world history.
“All parties to the conflict have acknowledged the leadership of United
States Special Envoy to Northern Ireland George Mitchell was pivotal in
reaching that historic accord,” said AOH National Political Education
Chairman, Neil F. Cosgrove.
“The Good Friday Agreement is a landmark in U.S. Diplomacy and prima
facie evidence of American leadership in the cause of peace and justice.
“It is therefore shocking that Secretary of State Tillerson has
announced plans to eliminate the position of Special Envoy to Northern
Ireland while many objectives of the Good Friday Agreement are yet to be
realized and at a time when the Agreement, and the peace it fostered, is
at risk,” Cosgrove stated.
Continued Cosgrove: “Apparently, Secretary Tillerson, and many in the
government on both sides of the aisle, have confused the transitory
peace which is a cessation of violence with the much greater vision of a
permanent peace articulated in the Good Friday Agreement; a peace based
on ‘parity of esteem and of just and equal treatment.’
“Twenty years on, we are still far from the goal of true peace. We need
only look at recent actions targeting those who wish to express their
identity through the Irish language and reports that the Catholic
community of Northern Ireland faces disproportionate hurdles in
accessing housing to see that the Good Friday Agreement aspiration of
‘parity of esteem’ has yet to move from paper to practice.
“In the nearly twenty years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed,
a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland has yet to materialize and
attempts to address the legacies of the past with justice have
continually met with obstruction.
“The most tangible symbol of the Good Friday Agreement, the power shared
devolved Northern Ireland parliament, is currently in collapse with no
sign of restoration.
“Brexit, which the communities of Northern Ireland as a whole rejected,
threatens economic upheaval to a fragile Northern Ireland economy and a
return to “hard borders” in Ireland both physical and psychological.”
Posted by Jim on
by Jude Collins (judecollins.com)
If you drive around the north of Ireland you’re sure to come across one
of the signs: three words that test our notion of democracy. They are
‘FREE TONY TAYLOR’.
Tony Taylor is in prison because the former Secretary of State Theresa
Villiers thinks it’s a good idea that he should be. “His early release
from prison under the Good Friday Agreement has been revoked” is a more
official way of putting it but it amounts to the same thing. Which is
internment.
Decades ago, in the 1950s, internment was seen as part of the state’s
machinery. We lived in a unionist-controlled state, so of course they
were going to put in prison anybody they thought had a face that didn’t
fit. People who were Irish language enthusiasts, people who were active
members of the GAA, people who just happened to live in a strongly
republican area. Into prison they went, and they came out only at Her
Majesty’s pleasure.
Then we had internment in the 1970s, and the nationalist population had
become sufficiently bold to see that internment didn’t have to be as
inevitable as the weather, that if the government could shove into jail
anyone they selected with no questions asked, we were living in a …what?
Police state? Corrupt state? Call it what you will but nationalists and
republicans in the 1970s made their feelings about internment clear.
Tony Taylor is a member of the Republican Network for Unity. That means
he doesn’t think much of the political line adopted by Sinn Fein. On
Friday, after a visit to Maghaberry prison, the Mayor of Derry City and
Strabane District Council Maoliosa McHugh has declared his support for
the release of Tony Taylor. So too have Sinn Fein’s Raymond McCartney,
Martina Anderson and Elisha McCallion.
That’s good. Although it’s a pity that eighteen months had to pass
before protest at Taylor’s detention should assume a markedly higher
profile.
Taylor’s case is one that tests our commitment to democracy. It’s safe
to say his thinking would be different from, even contrary to that of
most nationalists and republicans. But that’s exactly the point. If we
only agitate for rights in the case of those who agree with us, we’re
behaving in a way that says “I’m all for democracy but for my lot only –
the others can look after themselves.”
There are a lot of people – not all unionists – who would say there’s no
smoke without fire, Theresa Villiers must have had good security
information to decide to intern Taylor. Except that’s not how justice
works. You put people in jail when you’ve evidence that they’ve done
wrong – evidence that stands up in court, is robust enough to withstand
scrutiny. If Theresa Villiers or the justice system doesn’t have such
evidence, then Tony Taylor, like the rest of us, is innocent until
proved guilty.
Our shame should be that it took so long for his case to receive support
at an official level.