Posted by Jim on October 3, 2015
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has warned there are elements within the
PSNI police in the North who are working against his party after it was
confirmed he will not be prosecuted in connection with the IRA execution
of an alleged informer 43 years ago.
Mr Adams, Sinn Fein’s northern chairman, Bobby Storey and five others
arrested in connection with the death of Belfast woman Jean McConville
will not be prosecuted over the 1972 killing, it was announced this
week.
Mr Adams said the timing of his arrest last year — weeks before
European elections — exposed anti-Sinn Fein motives within the force.
He said the decision was “long overdue”.
“There was never any real basis for questioning me in respect of this
case. I played no act or part in Jean McConville’s death,” he said on
Tuesday afternoon.
“I support the PSNI. But the timing of my arrest showed there remain
elements within the PSNI who are against Sinn Féin. But they will not
succeed.”
Mr Adams voluntarily went to the PSNI last year after a series of leaks
claiming that he was about to be arrested.
The alleged evidence against him includes content supplied by American
authorities from the Boston College Belfast Project. The tapes from the
project were a collection of recorded testimonies from Provisional IRA
veterans, interviewed so as to create a historic archive of the conflict
on the basis that each participant’s interview would not be made public
until the participant’s death.
The PSNI gained access to the tapes via the US court system after Boston
College agreed to hand them over. Prosecutors claimed the case was
abandoned chiefly because the taped interviews would legally be classed
as hearsay and therefore too weak to be used as evidence.
In one notable exception, veteran republican Ivor Bell, who in recent
years has opposed Sinn Fein’s political direction, remains charged in
connection with the McConville killing. He is the only person to date
to be charged on the strength of alleged evidence contained on the
tapes.
Mr Adams said Sinn Fein had been the target of a “sustained and
malicious campaign”.
“These claims have also been seized upon and repeated by my political
opponents, including the Taoiseach and the Fianna Fáil leader, to score
political points against Sinn Féin and me.
“I want to encourage anyone with information to assist in the return of
the bodies of those people killed and secretly buried by the IRA. I have
worked with others towards this and I will continue to do so. I want to
thank those who have come forward with such information.
“I am also very conscious of the huge hurt inflicted on the McConville
family. The abduction, killing and secret burial of Jean McConville was
wrong.
“Sinn Féin has agreed with others, through the Stormont House Agreement,
processes for addressing the legacy of the past. We are committed to
implementing them.”
PSNI chief George Hamilton said Mr Adams should go to the Police
Ombudsman with any complaint about his treatment.
“That’s the right place, that’s the accountability mechanism and we
welcome that,” he said.
At the time, Mr Adams made a formal complaint about specific aspects of
his four-day detention at Antrim police station, after which he was
released without charge. His arrest and interrogation generated a wave
of renewed attention to the political deadlock in the North of Ireland.
His remarks this week echo allegations by Deputy First Minister Martin
McGuinness about a “dark side” of policing in the region after the
Provisional IRA was blamed for involvement in a recent killing of east
Belfast man Kevin McGiugan.
Over a dozen ‘mainstream’ republicans were arrested and later released
in connection with the death of Mr McGuigan, himself a former republican
prisoner. It was alleged the killing was carried out in retaliation for
the murder of a former IRA commander, ‘Jock’ Davison, in May.
Mr Hamilton suggested Mr Storey also go to the Police Ombudsman.
“Let’s see where the evidence takes us, that’s what we’ve been doing and
what we will continue to do,” he said.
“I am confident in our decision making all around this investigation so
far.”
Posted by Jim on October 2, 2015
Amid the latest bout of crisis talks in Belfast, SDLP leader Alasdair
McDonnell has warned that the Democratic Unionist Party simply don’t
want to work with Catholics.
Dr. McDonnell made the comments at the opening of a new party office in
Glengormley, and the directness of his remarks came as a shock to the
political process.
He said: “The DUP don’t want partnership – they don’t want a taig
[Catholic] about the place. I’m sorry, it’s as brutal as that.
“I’m not divisive, I don’t like to be like that but they, at times,
they’ve made it very clear to us they don’t support the Good Friday
Agreement, they don’t support a lot of the changes that have taken
place.”
The statement brought some straight-talking into a political crisis
which has rumbled on in one form or another for several years.
Earlier this month, DUP acting First Minister Arlene Foster was accused
of being nakedly sectarian when she said her job was to prevent “rogues
and renegades” from the two nationalist parties from taking any
substantive decisions.
Ironically, she accused Mr McDonnell of causing offence to Catholics.
She said: “Alasdair McDonnell should apologise today, not just for an
inaccurate slur on the DUP, but for the offense he will undoubtedly have
caused to many Catholics by referring to them as ‘taigs’.”
She also called for an apology for two of the SDLP’s nationalist
positions: its support for the naming of Raymond McCreesh park in Newry
in honour of the IRA hunger striker; and for the release of political
prisoner and former Sinn Fein leadership figure, Gerry McGeough.
In an interview with the BBC on Friday, Dr McDonnell defended his
comment. He said: “Most of the messages I’m getting are congratulatory
messages telling me it was time somebody told the truth.
“And quite frankly I would make [the comments] all over again because
they have to be said.
“We’ve reached a stage after a couple of weeks of talks that it’s time
to call it as it is, to be honest and tell the truth, and I called it as
I saw it.”
‘TRUTH’
Dr McDonnell also angered Sinn Fein.
He said: “Sinn Fein can’t tell the truth. They just can’t tell the
truth, and they can tell us whatever they like and you’ve examples like
Gerry Adams was never in the IRA and you’ve examples like Martin
McGuinness saying this, that and the other thing. They’re not telling
the truth.”
He said there were “people out there associated with, connected with or
involved in some way – that basically were involved in helping and
supporting the murder of Kevin McGuigan.”
He was referring to accusations that individual members of the
Provisional IRA may have been involved in the killing of McGuigan as
part of a lingering power struggle in republican areas of south and east
Belfast.
‘ELECTORALISM’
Sinn Fein branded the comments as political opportunism. Party MLA Alex
Maskey accused the SDLP leader of using the murder of Kevin McGuigan and
the related murder last May of Jock Davison for electoral purposes.
�The brutal murders of both Gerard Davison and Kevin McGuigan have been
exploited by the unionist parties for their own internal electoral
intentions and Alasdair McDonnell�s scurrilous allegations are clearly
an attempt to move the SDLP onto the same ground to score cheap
political points,” he said.
“That’s where two main parties have let us down over nine years”
His party has also challenged the SDLP and others to “put up or shut up”
when making accusations linking the party to criminal acts.
On Monday, Sinn F�in Deputy First Minister made a strong defence of his
party�s commitment to exclusively peaceful and legal activity.
�I am not putting up with this nonsense anymore,� he said.
�During the course of this morning�s engagement I took those people to
task. I told them if anybody has any information whatsoever about any
party in government being involved in criminality that they should put
it up on the table and, more importantly, they should put it to the PSNI
(Police Service of Northern Ireland).
�In other words I told them it is now time for them to put up or shut
up.�
But the prospect of genuine power-sharing at Stormont appears no closer
this week in a week dominated by the health and finances of DUP leader
Peter Robinson.
Last weekend, Robinson was hospitalised after suffering an adverse
reaction to medication for a heart condition. On Wednesday, his
involvement in the allegedly corrupt ten-figure sale of a property
portfolio owned by the Dublin government’s National Assets Management
Authority (NAMA) also dominated headlines.
None of this diluted his combative nature when dealing with Catholic
politicians in the talks. He said his party has now issued six demands
in the talks, including the establishment of a �permanent� structure to
provide a comprehensive examination and assessment of IRA and loyalist
activity,
“It should have sanctions applied to anybody who breaches it,� he said.
‘PANEL OF EXPERTS’
In a sop to the DUP, three establishment figures were named this week to
head up a “one-off” new monitoring commission.
They were Lord Carlile of Berriew, who previously held the post of
“independent reviewer of national security arrangements in Northern
Ireland”; Rosalie Flanagan, a former top official at Stormont, and
barrister Stephen Shaw; who recently represented US vulture fund
Cerberus, the buyer in the allegedly corrupt sale by NAMA.
The three ‘experts’ are to report on IRA and loyalist activity in
mid-October after assessing information held by the PSNI and British
military and other intelligence agencies
Posted by Jim on September 28, 2015
By Brian Feeney (for Irish News)
There are two aspects of the current impasse to notice. First, in
contrast to pre-1998 crises this is a political problem rather than a
security problem.
Time was when a crisis blew up and unionists danced up and down, extra
troops were flown in and there was what the NIO called a security
clampdown. This current problem will be solved by the parties talking
whether the unionists like it or not.
Secondly and more important is the way the British government has
handled the impasse. Its very instructive. They did not give in to
unionist amateur dramatics, ultimatums, hissy fits or walk outs.
Robinson likes nothing better than strutting into the hall in Stormont
in front of the staircase and using it like a stage as he tries to make
a drama out of a crisis. He has a special solemn voice for such
occasions when for too long he has been able to get his own way. This
time he and his bête noire, the political apprentice Nesbitt, got
nothing, zilch, nada, unless you count a salutary lesson in political
power.
Big mistake confronting Cameron with threats to bring down the assembly
if the British government didnt suspend it to cover Robinsons
embarrassment at being upstaged by mighty mouse Nesbitt. Cameron
rebuffed him and ignored his ultimatum.
Robinson then tried to reduce the institutions to such chaos that the
British government would step in. Cameron was pictured watching cricket
at Headingley in Yorkshire. The message from London was, get into talks.
No, not unless the existence of the IRA is first item on the agenda
unionists said. Dear, dear trying to dictate again. Old habits die hard.
By the end of last week Robinson was begging for a fig leaf to allow him
to enter talks. Eventually our proconsul, note, not Cameron, provided it
in the form of her panel to assess all paramilitary activity not only
wildly overblown stuff about the IRA.
Journalists immediately asked what was the point of the assessment since
the PSNI, NCA and MI5 must know already? Answer: to provide cover
however meaningless for unionists.
The unionist stance is even more incredible because the panel of three
wise men wont report until the middle of October when the talks are due
to end and the Stormont budget runs out. So much for solving the
problem of the IRA before anything else. Unionists wanted a monitoring
group to operate continuously but the Irish government vetoed that,
Charlie Flanagan saying it was a once-off. They got nothing.
Ironically a fund, tiny as it might be, to help deal with paramilitary
criminality will only affect the unionist parties mates, the men they
share platforms with, the community leaders. Surely after all this
publicity the PSNI will at least have to make a gesture about the UVF
and UDA whom they regularly accuse of gangsterism?
Developing a strategy to deal with loyalist gangsters is obviously out
of the question. Can you remember the leader of the UVF in Belfast, a
household name, ever being arrested? Any houses of UDA leaders
household names – ever searched? That would be going too far. After the
report of the panel the unionists asked for its going to be impossible
even for the PSNI to ignore loyalist criminality.
So if the British governments response to the unionist manufactured
crisis is instructive what have we learned?
First, Robinson carries no clout at Westminster despite his eight MPs.
The Irish government, a potential ally in Camerons renegotiation of
terms with the EU, is far too important to alienate over a piddling
problem unionists here invented.
Second, Robinson desperately doesnt want an election. The British know
that now for sure. Its not just his ill health and the fact he wont
stand again for the assembly or that many of his MLAs are briefing
selected journalists against him.
Its the fear that if the UUP win a couple of seats from fundamentalist
flat-earthers as Danny Kinahan did in May and the UUP convinces voters
they dislike sharing power even more than the DUP, then Sinn Féin become
the largest party at Stormont.
Thanks to the genius negotiating of the DUP at St Andrews, Martin
McGuinness then becomes First Minister. Then the assembly collapses
because unionists wont accept him.
Posted by Jim on
Irish News(Belfast).Monday, September 28, 2015
Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn during the party’s annual conference in Brighton yesterday PICTURE: PA
Jeremy Corbyn has announced plans for a plaque to commemorate the election of Constance Markievicz, the first woman MP
JEREMY Corbyn has defended reaching out to republicans at the height of the Troubles by insisting he “wanted the violence to stop”.
The Labour leader said: “I don’t want violence, I don’t want killing, I don’t want all the horrors that go with it.”
Mr Corbyn has faced strong criticism for bringing members of the IRA to the House of Commons during the 1980s.
But speaking on The Andrew Marr Show on the BBC yesterday as his party conference got underway, he said everyone he met had been former prisoners who had completed their sentences and the goal had been to open dialogue and reach a political solution.
“Yes, I did make myself very unpopular with some people by a preparedness to reach out to the republican tradition in Ireland, to say ultimately this war is unwinnable by either side, there is never going to be a military (answer) – therefore there has to be a political dialogue.
“At the same time, secretly, the British government was also engaged in that and then eventually in 1994 we got the first ceasefire.”
Asked if he was less critical of IRA violence than British military action, Mr Corbyn said: “The violence was wrong on all sides and I have said so all along.
“My whole point was if we are to bring about a peace process, you weren’t going to achieve it by military means.”
The Labour leader acknowledged his long-running commitment to a united Ireland, but added: “Quite honestly, the peace process has brought about a huge step forward.
“There is a lot of cross border agreement, there is a lot of cross border institutions, there is a feeling – you go to Belfast, you go to Dublin, people travel back and forth all the time.
“The governments are in touch with each other every hour of every day on different issues.
“There is that kind of sense there is one island of Ireland.”
Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn has also announced that a memorial plaque will be erected to commemorate the election of the first woman MP, Irish republican Constance Markievicz.
Countess Markievicz, pictured, who played a major role in the 1916 Easter Rising, was elected as a Sinn Féin MP in 1918 but did not take her seat.
Mr Corbyn said she was serving a jail sentence at Holloway Prison in his Islington North seat when she was elected.
“Our important footnote in history is that the first woman elected to Parliament came from Islington North,” Mr Corbyn told the Labour women’s conference on Saturday.
“She was in Her Majesty’s Prison Holloway at the time.
“It was, of course, Connie Markievicz who was elected as a Sinn Féin member for Dublin Central, the first woman elected to Parliament.
“She didn’t want to take her seat and couldn’t take her seat anyway.
“But I have been discussing this with women colleagues on Islington Council and when we rebuild our library next to the prison we are going to have a plaque, a memorial, up so that all the generations can understand the contribution that Connie Markiewicz and so many others made.”
Posted by Jim on
Rebecca Black. Belfast Telegraph. Monday, September 28,2015
Thanks for the offer – but we need to sort this problem out ourselves, unionist politicians have told Bill Clinton.
They were speaking after the former US President had offered to help try and resolve the latest crisis at Stormont.
Round-table talks today will focus on paramilitary activity as parties bid to get the Assembly back on track.
As news of the impasse spread around the world, Mr Clinton is said to have become concerned.
As US president, Mr Clinton made history in the 1990s when his administration became deeply involved in the peace process that led to the Good Friday Agreement.
He and wife Hillary also made a historic ‘feelgood’ Christmas visit to Belfast in 1995.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny revealed Mr Clinton’s offer to help at the weekend.
Mr Kenny said Mr Clinton “expressed his continued interest in wanting to assist the process in Northern Ireland.”
This was backed up yesterday by one of Mr Clinton’s former senior aides.
Nancy Soderberg said Northern Ireland’s peace process was a large part of Mr Clinton’s legacy as US president.
“This is something he cares very deeply about, and if there’s a way he can help, of course he would be willing to,” she told the BBC’s Sunday News.
Ms Soderberg said the ultimate responsibility for achieving progress lay with the Northern Ireland parties.
However, the reception to his offer, while respectful, has been cool.
Former First Minister Lord Trimble said Mr Clinton should stay at home to support his wife as she attempts to be the first woman in the White House.
“With all due respect to the former President, his time would probably be spent better supporting his wife’s campaign,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.
Meanwhile one of the DUP’s resigned ministers Simon Hamilton said the two outstanding issues – continued paramilitary activity and need to implement the Stormont House Agreement – needed to be resolved locally.
However, he encouraged Mr Clinton to “persuade parties to fulfil their responsibilities”.
“Whilst we appreciate the goodwill and support that exists for Northern Ireland in places such as the United States, ultimately the issues at stake in the current talks must be resolved by the parties locally,” he said.
“The two outstanding issues that must be dealt with are continued paramilitary activity and the need to implement the Stormont House Agreement.
“If Mr Clinton is able to persuade parties to fulfil their responsibilities in these areas then people would obviously welcome that.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers said she expected a difficult week at the talks.
“Finding a way to resolve the two issues on the talks agenda will be very difficult. But I believe the parties have established a sound basis on which to take forward discussions with greater intensity,” she said.
Stormont spiralled into crisis after PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton confirmed suspicions that IRA members had been involved in the murder of Kevin McGuigan last month.
The PSNI chief said the IRA still existed, but said that it was not engaged in terrorism.
The Ulster Unionist Party responded by withdrawing from the Executive. Then First Minister Peter Robinson, along with three of his party’s ministers, also resigned their posts.