Posted by Jim on November 5, 2016
Amid fresh protests over abuses at Maghaberry Prison, a key mediator in
an agreement struck in 2010 to ease tensions at the jail has admitted
the deal collapsed as a result of unionist political pressure.
One of the deal-brokers said former Justice Minister David Ford failed
to enforce a deal to limit controversial measures such as prisoner
strip-searches, because he was under obligation to the DUP.
“I do believe there is interference in the sense, in our view, the then
Minister of Justice was probably beholden to the likes of the DUP for
his position as Minister for Justice and I think that probably resulted
in him lacking the resolve to tackle this matter head-on,” mediator and
trade unionist Peter Bunting, has said.
He was speaking to a parliamentary committee in Dublin on the
implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. It was told available
technology had done away with the need for invasive body searches, one
of the more controversial issues at the jail, but the agreement to end
them was abandoned.
Strip searches remain part of everyday life in the jail. Prisoners are
also isolated for extended periods – with one prisoner being locked up
23 hours a day for five years – and denied education. Mr Bunting said
strip-searching was being used as a “tool to suppress people” in the
Roe House wing of the prison, where republican political risoners are
housed.
David Ford, who was replaced as Justice Minister earlier this year, has
denied acting on behalf of the DUP in the role. Mr Bunting and another
mediator met with Mr Ford’s successor Claire Sugden in May, and were
assured a speedy review on the agreement’s implementation, but he said
they have heard nothing back since then.
“There is both a sectarian attitude and there is political interference
towards these people,” he said.
Senator Frank Feighan, who sits on the committee and who visited the
prison, said he was concerned over political interference with the
minister for justice. “If that was happening down here it would be a
serious national scandal,” he said.
The Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association welcomed the
insights.
“Despite Republican Prisoners doing everything in their power to ensure
the terms of the agreement were met, when it was quickly reneged upon
by the Maghaberry administration, Ford insisted the blame lay with the
Republican Prisoners,” they said.
“When he was asked to provide evidence of how the Republican Prisoners
had reneged on the agreement, he had the audacity to claim threats
against staff on social media had resulted in him drawing the
conclusion that Republican Prisoners had reneged on the agreement.
The IRPWA also expressed concerned that despite an initial meeting with
the new British Minister for Justice, they have yet to hear a word back
from her after six months.
Posted by Jim on November 4, 2016
Former Parade and Celebration Committee chairman John Dunleavy, waving to the crowds at a St. Patrick’s Day Parade.Irish America Magazine
Debbie McGoldrick
The Bronx Supreme Court judge who will decide the outcome of the ongoing lawsuit over the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade said he will not consider a pleading letter sent last week by the attorney representing the plaintiff, former Parade and Celebration Committee chairman John Dunleavy, sources told the Irish Voice.
Judge Robert Johnson received two recent letters from Dunleavy’s attorney Francis X. Young and John Tully, who was nominated to succeed Dunleavy as committee chairman late last year. Johnson was assigned the case after the retirement of Judge Alexander Hunter, who in May heard oral arguments from Young and Mitch Mandell, the attorney representing the defendants, St. Patrick’s Day Parade board chairman Dr. John Lahey and director Frank Comerford.
On October 26, Young sent a letter to Johnson, a former Bronx district attorney, requesting that the sides be allowed to put forth oral arguments again. Young wrote that the sides failed to come to agreement on an “order to show cause” on how to proceed during a meeting in the judge’s chambers on September 6.
“Almost two months since we appeared before your honor, we still do not have a resolution of the fourth order to show cause. Defendant Lahey continues to ignore the bylaws and does exactly as he pleases,” Young wrote.
“I ask that we be permitted an opportunity to come back and put forth our arguments on the record so that your honor can render a decision.”
Johnson also received a prior letter from Tully, who said the Parade and Celebration Committee that he heads stands “ready to assist the court in any way in its decision-making process. We have not sought to intervene directly in the matter to avoid complicating the issues before you.”
Tully’s letter said the committee was formed in adherence with the bylaws of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Corporation which oversees the parade and which Lahey heads.
“No one disputes that the purpose of the corporation is to run the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade. Nor does anyone claim that the Parade Committee is independent from or supersedes the corporation,” Tully wrote.
“It is indisputable that the corporation is responsible for and has ultimate authority over the parade. It is also indisputable that since its inception, the corporation ran the parade through the Parade Committee and that the Parade Committee reports to the corporation.”
Tully’s letter added that his committee was “not permitted to perform our legal roles for the 2016 parade. We deferred any argument so as not to distract from the 2016 parade, pending resolution of this lawsuit.
“Our Parade Committee has an obligation to make every effort to perform our duties consistent with the wishes of the affiliated organizations who were empowered by the bylaws to elect the Parade Committee. The corporation has not allowed us to perform our duties. The sooner this issue is decided by the court, the better for us all.”
Meanwhile, the grand marshal for the 2017 parade, Northwell Health President and CEO Michael Dowling, will be formally introduced during a reception at the Irish Consulate in New York on Thursday, November 17.
Posted by Jim on November 3, 2016
Posted by Jim on
Gareth McKeown. Irish News ( Belfast).Wednesday, November 2, 2016
INVEST NI has said it briefed First Minister Arlene Foster on the Republic’s “poaching” of investment while on an American trade mission without Martin McGuinness.
It has been normal practice for the two joint heads of the Northern Ireland Executive to visit the US together, but in September Mrs Foster embarked on a four-day trade mission without the deputy First Minister.
At the time the Executive Office said there was nothing unusual about the pair travelling individually overseas, but it has now emerged important information about investment opportunities in the north may have been shared without the deputy first minister present.
The confirmation from Invest NI comes after the First Minister accused the Republic’s government of talking down the north’s economy and attempting to “poach our investors” at the DUP party conference on Saturday.
While the DUP did not respond to a request for information on any briefing between the First Minister and Invest NI, the latter confirmed discussions had taken place about a “specific approach” made by the Republic’s Industrial Development Authority (IDA).
“The First Minister became aware of the specific approach adopted by the IDA during a recent visit to the US, with Invest NI, where she met with potential investors,” Invest NI said.
The response from Invest NI has also shed light on the direct competition between the body and the IDA for investment, indirectly referenced during the First Minister’s address.
“Invest Northern Ireland competes for inward investment with over 100 other development agencies, including IDA. It is clear from the already published Irish Government Contingency Framework that it planned to ‘intensify [marketing] in key sectors…and identify the potential for new FDI arising from the UK leaving the EU’,” they said.
Following Minister Foster’s comments on Saturday the deputy first minister said he was “surprised” by the remarks made in relation to IDA representatives poaching Northern Ireland business.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, Mr McGuinness said: “I was very surprised to hear Arlene say that at her party conference, given that earlier this week she and I met with a Chinese invest and we were accompanied by the Chief Executive of Invest NI, and this wasn’t mentioned.”
When contacted on Tuesday the IDA said it was “not in a position to make any further statements regarding this issue at this time”.
The Department of Foreign Affairs also chose not comment on the latest development.
“It is normal for ministers to be briefed by Invest NI on overseas visits where there is the potential to attract investment,” Sinn Fein said in a statement on Tuesday night.
“Martin McGuinness will travel to the United States next week and will receive specific briefings from Invest NI during the course of the visit.
“If individual ministers are travelling abroad it is obviously not possible to conduct joint briefings .
“However, any politically sensitive or significant briefing given to the First Minister would normally be shared with the deputy First Minister.”
“If such a briefing was provided, we will be asking why this was not shared.”
Posted by Jim on
Brian Feeney. Irish News (Belfast). Wednesday, November 2, 2016
It wasn’t very edifying, was it, the DUP conference, that is?
The low point was the party leader’s speech lashing out in all directions except one – Sinn Féin – to hide the fact that she had nothing to say.
You might have noticed that the only person interviewed on BBC NI on Monday was Peter Weir about his attempt to sneak the 11 plus back into education by the back door.
Out of the window goes the Northern Ireland curriculum for 10 and 11-year-olds.
As for the main event at the conference, Arlene Foster’s speech, it was the knockabout stuff that used to be ‘the pravince’[province] of the conference clown Sammy Wilson. Instead Arlene took it upon herself to insult opposition politicians in her most vulgarian terms.
You didn’t hear any criticism of their policies or grounds for opposing her. Rather she tried to ridicule them in a pretty strained, far-fetched comparison with an ancient TV sitcom [Steptoe and Son] obviously chosen to be instantly recognisable to her mostly ancient adoring audience.
While she obviously has nothing but contempt for Colum Eastwood [SDLP leader] as a lightweight, Arlene Foster evidently really doesn’t like Mike Nesbitt [ Ulster Unionist Party ( UUP) leader]. Any reference to him—even in the caricature she chose for him—was made with a dismissive snarl in the corncrake- contralto she reserves for people she believes ought to be swatted away.
If anything could be taken from that portion of her speech—apart from its unbecoming comportment for someone who is first minister— then it is her clear intent to destroy the UUP.
Two recent converts to the DUP from the ranks of UUP councillors confirmed that intent.
That was the only policy announcement, oblique though it was.
Strange that a Party’s leader’s speech was devoid of a single policy on a matter of substance.
Repeating that she wants to make The North a better place is hardly cutting edge.
The whole performance was, leaving the obligatory DUP nastiness aside for a moment, superficial.
There was no insight or imagination.
As others have noticed, no vision. Repetition of clichés like no ‘hard border’, complete nonsense like the ‘biggest economic opportunity for decades’, and of course, parroting ‘Brexit means Brexit’ which even Theresa May now tries to avoid saying because of the jeers the meaningless phrase provokes.
It’s not been a good week for Foster. She kicked off the preliminaries to her conference with an acute case of foot in mouth disease when she announced that being trolled on social media made her harden her opposition to equal marriage and that she intended to misuse “Petitions of Concern” to block change.
That’s despite the Fresh Start Agreement containing promises to reform the petition procedure.
Then she had to row back frantically to deny that DUP policy was decided by online abuse.
Then she told the BBC she knew ‘plenty of people in that community’, namely the gay community, who opposed equal marriage. Do you believe that? The only statement omitted from this back-tracking was to claim, ‘Some of my best friends are gay.’
She didn’t think for a minute that her whole distasteful speech— and her earlier promise to block any change towards equal marriage— or her refusal to discuss any change in abortion law, or say if she’d give her party a free vote, make it easy for any Irish official, as she claimed, ‘to talk down Northern Ireland’.
Who would want to open shop in a place where someone like Arlene Foster is First Minister, whose first set piece speech after Brexit is abusive and uninspiring? Apart from her antediluvian views on morality and human relations, there is her denial of the reality that The North is going to be dramatically worse off because of her craven loyalty to a Conservative government, which has no idea what course they’re going to follow aside from sweetheart deals with sectors of industry and finance to compensate for the 20 per cent tariff the EU will slap on them after the UK leaves the single market.
Ironically the only people here likely to benefit from the financial speculators who have already discounted the pound by the 20 per cent margin are traders in border towns where a substantial majority of the people vote Sinn Féin [ It is now much cheaper for people in the Irish Republic to cross the Border and buy stuff in Northern Ireland].