Posted by Jim on December 27, 2016
There will NOT be a Kings County Board meeting on Monday January 02, 2017, instead there will be a joint New Year party with the LAOH & AOH to be held on Sunday January 8, 2017 1:00 PM till 5:00 PM. This is for members only & there is no charge but you must RSVP ~ ASAP to Rose Coulson 347-866-1848 or Steve Kiernan 917-886-8677. Pleas see attached flyer for all the details.
In Our Motto,
Eddie Velinskie
Recording Secretary
Posted by Jim on December 24, 2016
The High Court in Belfast has allowed the British government to hold a
secret hearing in a legal action over the alleged cover-up of the 1998
Real IRA Omagh bombing.
It granted a declaration to enable a closed session after hearing
an argument that the disclosure of “sensitive material” could damage
“national security”.
The move forms part of a wider challenge to the British government’s
refusal to hold a public inquiry into the August 1998 attack. British
Crown forces are alleged to have monitored the bomb and allowed it to
proceed to Omagh town centre and to explode there, killing 29 civilians,
despite having advance knowledge and despite receiving telephoned bomb
warnings to clear the area.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was among 29 people killed, is
attempting to have the British refusal to hold a public inquiry
judicially reviewed.
The case centres on claims that a range of British agencies, including
MI5 and RUC Special Branch, could have prevented the attack. A gap in
the information relates to the monitoring of the bomb and scout cars as
they crossed the border into Omagh on the day.
Counsel for the British government applied for the right to hold a
“closed materials” hearing ahead of the main legal challenge. Delivering
judgment on the government’s application, the judge claimed it was in
the interests of justice to hold a secret hearing.
“The court is satisfied that the sample of closed material which it has
seen contains substantial reference to sensitive material, the
disclosure of which would be damaging to the interests of national
security,” he said.
The case will now advance to a full hearing in the new year.
INQUEST SECRECY
Meanwhile, lawyers for the family of Derry man Kieran Doherty have said
they are “deeply concerned” after the state attempted to hold a
preliminary hearing into his death behind closed doors.
Coroner Brian Sherrard ruled the secretive session be allowed after
Crown lawyers claimed that to disclose details on documents “posed a
risk to life”, before a last-minute intervention by counsel for the next
of kin.
In the weeks before his death, Mr Doherty warned MI5 attempted to
recruit him as an agent and members of his family have raised concerns
that state agents could have played a role in his death. Mr Doherty’s
body was found dumped on a border road in Derry on February 24 2010. The
31-year-old had been stripped and bound before he was shot dead in a
killing blamed on allegations that Mr Doherty had been growing
marijuana.
Doherty family lawyer Paul Pierce said: “We have come here today for a
further preliminary inquiry on this matter, to be told moments before
this was to commence that the Crown Solicitor’s Office on behalf of the
Secretary of State and the Police Service of Northern Ireland wanted to
go into closed hearing.
“As we have seen, there were three hours of discussion back and forward,
much of which we were not involved in at all, but it was only on the
basis of our objections to those closed hearings taking place that the
matter has resolved itself today; the normal process for the
consideration of documents and redactions will be carried out as it
normally is.
“We are deeply concerned about the way in which the state is approaching
these cases by attempting to have closed session hearings and exclude
the next of kin and their legal representatives.”
Mr Doherty’s uncle, Vincent Coyle, said that all evidence in the inquest
should be made public.
“We want a full and thorough disclosure of all information no matter how
hard it is for the public or the government to take,” he said.
“The Doherty family deserve truth, justice and a way of beginning to
heal, as does this entire city.”
Posted by Jim on December 23, 2016
by G.K.Chesterton
There fared a mother driven forth…
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.
For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.
A child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost—how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky’s dome.
This world is wild as an old wife’s tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.
To an open house in the evening
Home shall all men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.
Posted by Jim on December 22, 2016
The campaigning families of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre victims have appealed to Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, James Brokenshire, to release a 45-year-old British file containing evidence of collusion in the atrocity between British security forces and Loyalist paramilitaries.
Ciarán MacAirt, a grandson of one of the victims of the massacre, which claimed the lives of 15 men, women and children, has appealed a decision to withhold the Commander’s Diary for the month of the bombing, December 1971, taken by the British Ministry of Defence (which owns the file), the National Archives (which stores the file) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (which upheld the exemption to disclose the file). The British MoD has closed the file until at least 2056.
MacAirt appealed the decision at the independent Information Rights Tribunal in London. As reported last month, the Tribunal authorised the release of a crucial piece of evidence from the archive which proves that British Army Headquarters and the RUC were told by a British Army bomb expert that McGurk’s Bar was attacked. At the time, the RUC and British Army reported that it was a Republican “own-goal” caused by a premature explosion inside the bar and among the civilian customers, and not a Loyalist bomb planted in the doorway. The released section of the Commander’s Diary (also known as the Headquarters Northern Ireland Log) records:
“ATO [Ammunition Technical Officer] is convinced bomb was placed in entrance way on ground floor. The area is cratered and clearly was the seat of the explosion”
“James Brokenshire has the power to access and release the rest of this information which is critical evidence in the mass murder of our loved ones. He can end the re-traumatization of our older family members by the police in relentless court battles, and save hundreds of thousands of pounds spent by the British Ministry of Defence in trying to stop us from learning the truth about the McGurk’s Bar Massacre.”
“We have proved collusion and now know that an informant is involved, but further critical evidence is being withheld by the British Ministry of Defence and police. We can only assume that this evidence is even more damning.”
Ciaran MacAirt’s lawyer at the two-day Tribunal, Christopher Stanley, from KRW LAW LLP, stated:
“The MoD argued that the protection of the identity of agents and informers and the interests of National Security outweigh the public interest in releasing the evidence relating to the McGurk’s Bar Massacre. Our counsel made strong arguments in rebuttal that continued non-disclosure could not be justified after 45 years and that truth about the Conflict is essential to the process of reconciliation and the maintenance of the peace.”
“The Tribunal held two closed sessions to consider the material which is being withheld and we are assured that it is taking its deliberation seriously before a decision is made in mid-January 2017. Nevertheless, James Brokenshire can order the release of the information now, and he should. It is in the public interest and the McGurk’s Bar families are simply re-traumatized by every court appearance even though they succeed in the end”
Contact family member Robert McClenaghan 07752 500513 for further comment from the family campaign, and Christopher Stanley 079 7051 9831 for an update on the legal issues
(Information for Editors below)
– The McGurk’s Bar atrocity, 4th December 1971, resulted in the deaths of 15 civilians including two children
– All of the evidence, including an eye-witness who saw the bomb being planted, proved that the bar had been attacked by Loyalist extremists. The British state and RUC reported, though, that it was a “Republican own-goal” and that it had exploded inside the main bar area and amongst the civilian customers.
– The section of secret file above proves that the British Army and police were indeed told by a British bomb expert that the bomb was planted in the doorway and the bar attacked. This evidence was never made public at the time or by successive historic investigations. The families are also petitioning the Attorney General for a proper Inquest.
– The families are in the middle of court proceedings against the police and the British state including a Judicial Review which the families commenced to force the PSNI to quash a report by the Historical Enquiries Team. The report sought to exonerate the original police investigation.
– The families have since lodged the ground-breaking evidence with the Northern Ireland Policing Board, the Police Ombudsman and the Chief Constable of the Police Service Northern Ireland.
– Ciarán MacAirt is grandson of McGurk’s Bar victim, Kathleen Irvine. He is also author of the book, The McGurk’s Bar Bombing (Frontline Noir 2012), and manager of the charity, Paper Trail (Legacy Archive Research)
Posted by Jim on December 20, 2016
A member of the Legacy Investigations Branch (LIB) of the PSNI police
in the north of Ireland has been accused of being a covert member of
British military intelligence.
In a statement, Saoradh said Neil McGuinness, a member of the unit which
take over from the Historical Enquiries team in recent years, had
attempted to recruit one of their members as an informer.
In 2014, Belfast Republican Dominic Corr and a friend were making their
way home to Belfast from Glasgow. As they made their way through the
airport, Dominic was accosted by two individuals who identified
themselves as British ‘Security Services’, and led him to a screening
room.
Once in the room, they made it known that they were aware of his
political outlook and his fundraising activities for the IRPWA while in
Scotland and stated that this wasn’t a “bad thing”.
“They were quite clearly intent on recruiting him, yet refused to say
who they really represented,” Saoradh said. “Dominic, being a long
standing republican, refused to engage and once it was clarified that he
wasn’t under arrest, demanded to be released from the locked room and
left. On return to Ireland, Dominic made the incident public by logging
the incident with his legal team,” adding: “One of the agents from
British intelligence that failed to recruit Dominic Corr was Neil
McGuinness.”
McGuinness is a prominent figure within the LIB, recently appearing in
the media in relation to the exhumation of British Army murder victim
Daniel Rooney. Although a unit of the PSNI, the LIB presents itself as
independent arbitrator for those seeking justice and closure regarding
state killings of their family members.
McGuinness’s alleged identification as an MI5 agent has been seen as
vindication of the belief that, rather than seeking to resolve past
killings, British forces continue to be engaged in a systematic cover-up
of their war crimes in Ireland
“Saoradh hereby call upon McGuinness to publicly confirm the various
roles he has played within the British Crown Forces – including any
overt or covert role within British intelligence,” they said.
Saoradh have initiated a Freedom of Information request in relation to
this issue
“The Crown Forces, namely the PSNI, MI5, and the British Army, are still
engaged in a campaign of counter insurgency in the north of Ireland, it
is therefore imperative for these forces that this current campaign is
not undermined by the revelation of their murderous past; hence this
exercise in white wash and micro management of the so called legacy
issues.”
They also backed calls for an Independent Investigatory Team, with full
access to British Government classified policy documents and evidence:
“Britain perpetuates the conflict in Ireland and any investigation
initiated or conducted by them will serve only Britain’s interests
rather than those of victims, families and communities affected by their
overt slaughter and continued covert activities in Ireland.”