Posted by admin on June 29, 2014
The Drumcree marching dispute in Portadown could be reignited after the
Parades Commission this week stunned nationalist residents by initially
permitting an Orange march on the lower end of the Garvaghy Road, the
scene of some of the North’s most intense parades violence, before
changing its mind.
While the decision was almost immediately rescinded amid an outcry, the
commission appeared to continue to vacillate. Local unionist MP David
Simpson said he was told at a meeting with the newly-appointed
commission that the march remains “under review”.
Nationalists living on the Garvaghy Road have called on the PSNI to
enforce the decision amid fears that an attempt to hold an inflammatory
sectarian march by the “back door” will go ahead regardless this
Saturday, June 28th.
Attempts by the anti-Catholic Orange Order to march through the Catholic
enclave every July in the late 1990s saw conflagrations which often
reached across the north of Ireland, and were linked to a number of
loyalist killings at that time. The tensions were only defused in 1998
when the parade from Drumcree church began to be consistently rerouted
away from the nationalist area.
Members of the Orange Order are now seeking to walk along a section of
the lower Garvaghy Road to mark the “dedication and unfurling” of a
refurbished ‘Orange Arch’, a structure constructed over the thoroughfare
and their largest official emblem of the marching season.
After initially being given the go-ahead, the Parades Commission did a
U-turn and eventually banned the sectarian display — but there are
fears the PSNI may still turn a blind eye, despite a recent court
judgment requiring them to enforce such parade decisions.
Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition spokesman Breandan MacCionnaith said
local people would be monitoring the situation.
“We said to people at a public meeting if the review decision stands
people should not go towards the interface area at all,” he said. “They
should go and watch the Armagh match on TV.
“A lot of it will boil down to how loyalists are policed by the cops.
The cops have a duty to enforce the determination and there should be
no-one associated with the parade or arch permitted near the Garvaghy
Road [this Saturday evening].”
Adding to local concerns is the fact that many foreign nationals live in
the interface area at the bottom of the Garvaghy Road known as Victoria
Terrace. Threats to foreign workers, particularly to the North’s largely
Catholic Polish community, have been a significant feature of this
year’s marching season.
Polish flags have appeared on loyalist bonfires and two Polish men
suffered a racist attack close to a loyalist bonfire site in Lisburn
last weekend. The bonfires are due to be set ablaze on July 11th, the
eve of the height of the marching season the ‘Twelfth’, which
commemorates a famous 17th century Protestant battle victory over
Catholics.
Loyalist flags glorifying the ultra-right British National Party and the
openly racist English MP Enoch Powell have also begun appearing in west
Belfast. One such flag, which carries the words “Enoch Powell was right”
was put up close to one bonfire site. The flag is understood to be a
reference to Powell’s infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech warning of
racial conflict. Elsewhere, intimidatory flags have begun appearing
outside Catholic churches in County Antrim.
TALKS
Tensions are also building in north Belfast after a nationalist
residents group said it had been excluded from dialogue organised by
local churchmen to deal with loyalist demands for an Orange parade on
the Twelfth through the nationalist areas of Ardoyne, Mountainview and
The Dales.
Announcing multi-party talks due to begin at Stormont on Wednesday,
British Direct Ruler Theresa Villiers said she was most concerned at the
situation in north Belfast which she said was “volatile”. She said the
ongoing loyalist ‘protest camp’ at the interface with the Twaddell Road
had made things “extremely difficult”.
All sides should accept the decision of the Parades Commission regarding
this year’s parade, she said: “The crucial thing is that whatever their
determination is that it is respected”.
Nationalist residents spokesman Dee Fennell said attempts to exclude his
more hardline Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective (GARC) from talks to
resolve the dispute were “disappointing and unhelpful”.
Pointing to loyalist calls for all stakeholders to be included in the
talks, he said that it was not “appropriate to exclude a legitimate
residents’ group in the area from any process that would hopefully end
sectarian parades through this area”.
Posted by admin on June 22, 2014
The families and friends of those killed in the Loughinisand massacre
gathered at the County Down village this week to remember the 20th
anniversary of those killed on June 18 1994.
The six men killed were Adrian Rogan, Patrick O’Hare, Eamon Byrne, who
were in their thirties, Malcolm Jenkinson and Daniel McCreanor, both in
their fifties, and 87-year-old Barney Greene. They died after a UVF
gang burst into the Heights Bar and began shooting indiscriminately
during a World Cup game between Ireland and Italy.
No-one has ever been convicted for the attack. On Wednesday, a memorial
Mass to mark the 20th anniversary of the atrocity was followed by a
candlelit procession to the Heights bar.
Some relatives of those who died spoke about their pain 20 years on. One
woman who lost her husband said: “This year is particularly hard.”
Earlier this month, the Police Ombudsman notified the PSNI that he is to
take legal action over the force’s refusal to provide information on
more than 100 occasions, stalling investigations into the Heights Bar
attack and some 60 other deaths.
Aidan O’Toole, the barman who survived the attack, said he still grieves
for those killed.
“I remember that night like it was yesterday and with the World Cup on
this year, the mood and feelings are particularly poignant,” he said. “I
survived that night but my thoughts are with those that didn’t. There’s
not a day that goes past that I don’t think about them and their
families.
“We’ll not stop until we get to the truth as to why Loughinisland was
allowed to happen and why there was nobody ever brought to court. The
only time we are in a court these days is when we are trying to get the
police to tell the truth. Why can’t they let us know what happened?”
A lawyer for the families, Niall Murphy of KRW law, described a fresh
appeal by the PSNI for witnesses to come forward as “an insult to the
families’ intelligence”.
“The fact is that there was an over-whelming response from the public
about this case,” he said. “All of the key exhibits in this case were
found by the public not the police. Within hours, the getaway car was
found by member of the public but far from retaining it for forensic
purposes the police destroyed it within months.
“Members of the public also found the guns, the balaclavas, the boiler
suits and the gloves, but far from securing forensic evidence from the
suspects arrested, police refused to take DNA and fingerprints from nine
of 16 people arrested.
“So, far from securing and preserving evidence, police have been
refusing the gather evidence and when they did, in the case of the car,
they destroyed the evidence”.
In 2011 a report by the then police ombudsman found that a female
witness who came forward in 2009 had her details handed to the relative
of a suspect by a serving police officer. A former senior officer who
worked on the case has also refused to cooperate with the ombudsman.
Mr Murphy said that any further appeal for co-operation should be
directed at the police themselves.
“This is a case, where we have the incredible position that the
Ombudsman has had to take High Court Judicial Review proceedings to gain
access to intelligence that he is entitled to inspect,” he added.
Clare Rogan, whose husband Adrian was one of those murdered, said that
two decades on, her pain continues. “All anniversaries are difficult to
deal with, however this year is particularly hard,” she said.
“It is hard to believe 20 years have passed. What is more difficult to
believe is that the police are still refusing to cooperate with the
Police Ombudsman after all these years. What has the chief constable got
to hide? Who are the police trying to protect after all this time?”
Posted by admin on June 20, 2014
Brian Feeney.Irish News ( Belfast). Wednesday, June 18, 2014.
You may not have noticed , because the Irish and British governments have been denying it, but something has gone seriously wrong with the British-Irish joint approach to The North.
It’s true that Eamon Gilmore has been a failure as minister responsible for British-Irish oversight here and that in his time the Irish government has abdicated its responsibility.
There may be many reasons for that failure. As minister of foreign affairs he must have found it more congenial to go swanning around to meetings of OSCE discussing Azerbaijan or Ukraine or making speeches to almost empty meetings of the UN General Assembly.
He was away often enough to cause concern in his own party and demands that he take on a ministry more associated with the socio-economic problems of Ireland than somewhere in Eastern Europe.
Whatever the reason, he simply didn’t engage with the deteriorating circumstances in The North either on the streets or in the Stormont Executive. Now he’s gone, but in a curious departure.
Of course he’s still minister of foreign affairs – he’s only resigned as leader of the Labour party but there will be a reshuffle and a new face in Iveagh House.
However, Gilmore’s shortcomings as the man dealing withThe North were only half the problem.
There’s the rub. In some ways more important has been the sea change in the attitude of the British government since the Conservatives came in 2010.
Broadly speaking instead of following the joint approach that was repeatedly successful since 1985, the Conservatives have taken the side of Unionists. Instead of exposing this change the Irish government has remained silent.
Gilmore was satisfied when he could point to meetings with our proconsul in Dublin or Belfast even though nothing came from any of them. The Irish government continued to claim everything was rosy even when they were excluded from the so-called economic package Robinson and McGuinness signed up to in Downing street last year.
The same with the investment conference in autumn 2012. No Irish[Government] presence. Not a cheep from Dublin. Not a cheep through the flag protests and the incredible interpretation of the law by the PSNI leadership.
Why did the British and Irish governments acquiesce in the appointment of Haass last year but hang him out to dry in January?
Why do the British give succour to unionist stonewalling on the contentious items which have caused mayhem on the streets and cost millions of pounds? Why won’t they meet Sinn Féin? So far this year Sinn Féin have formally asked three times for a meeting with Cameron and have been turned down on each occasion.
What we do know is that something has gone badly wrong which is damaging the political process here. Perhaps that is why there has belatedly been a change in personnel at the NIO with the appointment of a new permanent secretary, sir Jonathan Stephens, on June 2. He has 15 years experience at the NIO during two previous stints. There have been other NIO reinforcements too. Is it too much to hope that the Cabinet Office has at last realised that the camarilla around proconsuls since 2010 has made a mess of things?
What finally allowed light to dawn? Was it the dangerous fiasco of Adams’s arrest on the basis of tapes that could never lead to a conviction? Was it the nonsense and hypocrisy around the OTRs? [ On the Runs]. Or was it a combination of events which indicated that instead of any coherent policy being followed in The North there was disengagement and favouritism towards Unionism which could only lead to intransigence? Alarm bells should have rung a long time ago but perhaps the final evidence was Eamon Gilmore’s solo run in having talks reconvened which everyone knows will go absolutely nowhere.
Note the silence about them from the proconsul[Feeney’s nickname for the NI Secretary of State]. They’re intended to fail as Unionists have already indicated. Let’s hope that gives the new regime North and South time to bed in over the summer so there can be a new beginning.
Posted by admin on June 19, 2014
British and Irish relations go from strength to strength as the royals tweet “as Gaeilge”. Photo by: Getty
by Nick Bramhill, Irish Central
The Lord Mayor of Dublin has called on the Irish government not to invite members of the British royal family to the 1916 Rising centenary celebrations.
Christy Burke, who left Sinn Fein to become an Independent councillor in 2009, said the event belongs to the families of those who died in the Rising.
His comments follow recent indications by the government that they plan to invite the British royal family to the 100-year commemoration.
But Cllr. Burke, who was elec ted to office earlier this month, said he will seek support for a motion at the next Dublin City Council meeting, which will block any British royal presence at the event.
Burke said his stand-off against the royals participating in the commemorations reflect the views of the public, according to The Irish Times.
He said: “I don’t want to cause any upset in the UK. I don’t mean to offend anybody. I am just making the point that a lot of citizens have made to me.
Burke will no longer be in office when the 2016 event gets underway, meaning a Sinn Fein lord mayor will preside over the commemorations after the party succeeded in forming a ruling coalition on the council.
His motion will call upon the Toaiseach’s office not invite members of the royal family to any “strategic positions” during the centenary, including any of the main events.
The Irish Times also notes that the motion emphasises the centenary belongs to those “who gave their lives in 1916”.
It’s not the first row to have broken out after word spread about the government’s intention to extend an invitation to the event to Britain’s most famous family.
After reports filtered out that the Fine Gael-led government hoped to invite Prince Charles and Camilla, senior Fianna Fail member Billy Kelleher slammed the proposal as “superficial” and “done without thought”.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, he said: “I think before we start issuing invitations on a casual basis, almost without thought, we should sit down as a parliament, and as a people, and discuss it.
“It is nothing against the British monarchy, but the primary purpose of this commemoration is to celebrate the 1916 Rising.”
He added: “There are lots of complexities in Irish history and before we start inviting heads of state from around the world, let’s have our own discussion.”
Proposals to include the royal family at will be an emotionally-charged event are seen as a reflection of the warming bond between the two countries.
President Michael D. Higgins’ recent state visit to Britain was seen as a major milestone in Anglo-Irish relations and followed Queen Elizabeth’s historic – and hugely successful – trip to Ireland in 2011.
It is thought that President Higgins and former president Mary McAleese will both play key roles in the Easter Rising celebration, which will take place in March 2016.
Posted by admin on June 9, 2014
British ministers sanctioned the use of torture against internees in the
north of Ireland in the early 1970s, the then British Home Secretary
Merlyn Rees admitted in 1977, it has emerged.
A letter by Rees to then Labour prime minister Jim Callaghan has been
discovered in the British National Archives in Kew by RTE’s
Investigation Unit. This week it broadcast ‘The Torture Files’, a Prime
Time documentary into the treatment of some of those interned without
trial.
The letter backs up earlier research by the Pat Finucane Centre, which
suggests the Dublin government and the European Court of Human Rights
were deliberately misled by London about the treatment of people
interned in 1971.
In August 1971, 340 men were arrested and interned. Fourteen of these
were subject to in-depth interrogation techniques which had been well
planned and involved specially trained British interrogators and RUC
Special Branch officers.
In 1976, the European Commission of Human Rights ruled the interrogation
methods used were torture. They comprised the so-called “five
techniques”, including white noise, sleep deprivation, hooding, being
forced to stand spreadeagled against a wall and being deprived of food
and water. The men were also beaten and terrorised.
However, the British government appealed the judgment to the European
Court of Human Rights, which ruled in 1978 that while the interrogation
methods were “inhuman and degrading”, they did not amount to torture.
Relying on the official record of several government departments from
the British National Archives, the report reveals for the first time
significant evidence relating to the so-called ‘Hooded Men’.
The 14 men were arrested during internment in 1971 and removed for
special, so-called ‘in-depth interrogation’ where they were subjected to
a “psychological attack” according to a British army directive.
In his letter, Rees made clear members of the British Crown forces found
using such methods in that period could not be prosecuted because they
followed orders as a result of a “political decision”.
“I do not believe that the Irish government understand the nature of the
situation in 1971-1972,” he later wrote.
The Rees letter was written after a meeting in March 1977 between the
Irish attorney general, Declan Costello, and his British counterpart,
Samuel Silkin, during which Costello pressed the British to prosecute
RUC men and British soldiers who had carried out torture on republican
prisoners.
The five torture techniques were banned by the British Prime Minister
Edward Heath in 1972 but the programme shows how the techniques were
used thirty years later in 2003 by British battle groups stationed in
Iraq.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has called for the reopening of the case
of the ‘hooded men’.
He said the new evidence showed that the British government had lied to
the European Court of Human Rights “both on the severity of the methods
used on the men, their long term physical and psychological
consequences, on where these interrogations took place and who gave the
political authority and clearance for it to occur”.
“Not only was the European Court misled and lied to by the British
government but so too was the Irish government,” he added.
Mr Adams said he was disappointed that the 26-County Attorney General
Maire Whelan had refused to reopen the case following representation
from lawyers acting for the men.
Republican Sinn Fein’s Fergal Moore said the programme had confirmed
that the torture of Irish citizens was sanctioned at the highest levels
of the British cabinet and that the British “lied continuously” and
withheld evidence about it.
“This is further proof that there can be no true justice in Ireland
while British occupation remains,” he said.