28.2.04
Irish Holocaust
THE MASS GRAVES OF
IRELAND
"Read this site and weep."
"Is Britain's cover-up of its 1845-1850 holocaust in Ireland the most successful Big Lie in all of history?
The cover-up is accomplished by the same British terrorism and bribery that perpetrated the genocide. Consider: why does Irish President Mary Robinson call it "Ireland's greatest natural 1 disaster" while she conceals the British army's role? Potato blight, "phytophthora infestans", did spread from America to Europe in 1844, to England and then Ireland in 1845 but it didn't cause famine anywhere. Ireland did not starve for potatoes; it starved for food.
Ireland starved because its food, from 40 to 70 shiploads per day, was removed at gunpoint by 12,000 British constables reinforced by the British militia, battleships, excise vessels, Coast Guard and by 200,000 British soldiers (100,000 at any given moment) The attached map shows the never-before-published names and locations in Ireland of the food removal regiments (Disposition of the Army; Public Record Office, London; et al, of which we possess photocopies). Thus, Britain seized from Ireland's producers tens of millions of head of livestock; tens of millions of tons of flour, grains, meat, poultry & dairy products; enough to sustain 18 million persons.
The Public Record Office recently informed us that their British regiments' Daily Activity Reports of 1845-1850 have "gone missing." Those records include each regiment's cattle drives and grain-cart convoys it escorted at gun-point from the Irish districts assigned to it. . ."
GO HERE>>> http://irishholocaust.org
THE MASS GRAVES OF
IRELAND
"Read this site and weep."
"Is Britain's cover-up of its 1845-1850 holocaust in Ireland the most successful Big Lie in all of history?
The cover-up is accomplished by the same British terrorism and bribery that perpetrated the genocide. Consider: why does Irish President Mary Robinson call it "Ireland's greatest natural 1 disaster" while she conceals the British army's role? Potato blight, "phytophthora infestans", did spread from America to Europe in 1844, to England and then Ireland in 1845 but it didn't cause famine anywhere. Ireland did not starve for potatoes; it starved for food.
Ireland starved because its food, from 40 to 70 shiploads per day, was removed at gunpoint by 12,000 British constables reinforced by the British militia, battleships, excise vessels, Coast Guard and by 200,000 British soldiers (100,000 at any given moment) The attached map shows the never-before-published names and locations in Ireland of the food removal regiments (Disposition of the Army; Public Record Office, London; et al, of which we possess photocopies). Thus, Britain seized from Ireland's producers tens of millions of head of livestock; tens of millions of tons of flour, grains, meat, poultry & dairy products; enough to sustain 18 million persons.
The Public Record Office recently informed us that their British regiments' Daily Activity Reports of 1845-1850 have "gone missing." Those records include each regiment's cattle drives and grain-cart convoys it escorted at gun-point from the Irish districts assigned to it. . ."
GO HERE>>> http://irishholocaust.org
BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Sinn Fein 'will not be bullied'
Sinn Fein 'will not be bullied'
Mr Adams said building peace was a "collective endeavour"
Efforts to put Sinn Fein under pressure in the political process are a "waste of time", the party's president, Gerry, Adams has said.
Addressing delegates at Sinn Fein's annual conference in Dublin on Saturday, Mr Adams said his party would not be bullied or denied its rights.
Pressure continues to mount on the party over allegations that republicans are in breach of the joint declaration.
Describing this period in the political process as "our greatest crisis", Mr Adams said unionists would eventually have to work with Sinn Fein.
Paragraph 13 of the joint declaration, produced last year as an attempt by the British and Irish Governments to move the political process forward, demands an end to paramilitary activity.
However, claims that the IRA was behind an alleged false imprisonment of dissident republican Bobby Tohill last weekend, have led to calls for the party to be excluded from the review of the Agreement.
While we are not naïve, we recognise and respect their [DUP] mandate and they have to recognise and respect ours
Gerry Adams Sinn Fein president
Mr Adams told delegates efforts to put his party under pressure over alleged IRA activities would "fail".
He added that he stood by commitments he gave last October outlining the way ahead for the republican movement.
"I pointed out a peaceful direction for republicans to follow because I believe in that," he said.
"I think that is the way to go forward and despite what has happened since, and despite all of the difficulties, there is no other way forward.
He also said Sinn Fein wanted to explore proposals put forward by the DUP to restore the assembly, but added he was against time-wasting.
"While we are not naïve we recognise and respect their mandate and they have to recognise and respect ours.
"The logic of the DUP's position is that we and they should be in government together."
Earlier on Saturday, party chairman Mitchell McLaughlin accused the British Government of breaching the Good Friday Agreement and insisted Sinn Fein had delivered on its commitments to the peace process.
Mr McLaughlin accused the governments and unionists of "trite indignation and hypocrisy".
"Let me make it clear, Sinn Fein has delivered, down to the last comma, on every commitment that we have made," said Mr McLaughlin.
"Sinn Fein has carried out its obligations at all times in accordance with the terms and the conditions of the Good Friday Agreement.
"Unlike the two goverments, Sinn Fein has never stepped outside of the Agreement."
'Absurdity'
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has threatened to walk out of the review unless action was taken against Sinn Fein.
However, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said the government would wait until a report into the incident involving the dissident republican, Bobby Tohill, before deciding whether to take any action.
The Independent Monitoring Commission, which monitors paramilitary activity in the province, has been asked to investigate the incident and is expected to report on 1 May.
Meanwhile, Mr Adams has said his party will not co-operate with the commission's investigation.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme, he questioned the point of the commission examining the incident in parallel with court proceedings.
"The whole thing is an absurdity and that is why," he said.
"This commission was brought into existence, we are told, because Mr Trimble wanted it.
"This is the same Mr Trimble who is threatening to walk out of the review."
Sinn Fein 'will not be bullied'
Mr Adams said building peace was a "collective endeavour"
Efforts to put Sinn Fein under pressure in the political process are a "waste of time", the party's president, Gerry, Adams has said.
Addressing delegates at Sinn Fein's annual conference in Dublin on Saturday, Mr Adams said his party would not be bullied or denied its rights.
Pressure continues to mount on the party over allegations that republicans are in breach of the joint declaration.
Describing this period in the political process as "our greatest crisis", Mr Adams said unionists would eventually have to work with Sinn Fein.
Paragraph 13 of the joint declaration, produced last year as an attempt by the British and Irish Governments to move the political process forward, demands an end to paramilitary activity.
However, claims that the IRA was behind an alleged false imprisonment of dissident republican Bobby Tohill last weekend, have led to calls for the party to be excluded from the review of the Agreement.
While we are not naïve, we recognise and respect their [DUP] mandate and they have to recognise and respect ours
Gerry Adams Sinn Fein president
Mr Adams told delegates efforts to put his party under pressure over alleged IRA activities would "fail".
He added that he stood by commitments he gave last October outlining the way ahead for the republican movement.
"I pointed out a peaceful direction for republicans to follow because I believe in that," he said.
"I think that is the way to go forward and despite what has happened since, and despite all of the difficulties, there is no other way forward.
He also said Sinn Fein wanted to explore proposals put forward by the DUP to restore the assembly, but added he was against time-wasting.
"While we are not naïve we recognise and respect their mandate and they have to recognise and respect ours.
"The logic of the DUP's position is that we and they should be in government together."
Earlier on Saturday, party chairman Mitchell McLaughlin accused the British Government of breaching the Good Friday Agreement and insisted Sinn Fein had delivered on its commitments to the peace process.
Mr McLaughlin accused the governments and unionists of "trite indignation and hypocrisy".
"Let me make it clear, Sinn Fein has delivered, down to the last comma, on every commitment that we have made," said Mr McLaughlin.
"Sinn Fein has carried out its obligations at all times in accordance with the terms and the conditions of the Good Friday Agreement.
"Unlike the two goverments, Sinn Fein has never stepped outside of the Agreement."
'Absurdity'
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has threatened to walk out of the review unless action was taken against Sinn Fein.
However, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said the government would wait until a report into the incident involving the dissident republican, Bobby Tohill, before deciding whether to take any action.
The Independent Monitoring Commission, which monitors paramilitary activity in the province, has been asked to investigate the incident and is expected to report on 1 May.
Meanwhile, Mr Adams has said his party will not co-operate with the commission's investigation.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme, he questioned the point of the commission examining the incident in parallel with court proceedings.
"The whole thing is an absurdity and that is why," he said.
"This commission was brought into existence, we are told, because Mr Trimble wanted it.
"This is the same Mr Trimble who is threatening to walk out of the review."
27.2.04
Irelandclick.com
Woman suffers suspected stroke after raid on home
A Markets woman is recovering in hospital after suffering a suspected stroke during a PSNI raid on her home.
On Wednesday morning up to 20 police officers in riot gear, accompanied by dog handlers, burst into Dinah Henry's Eliza Street house.
Two hours into the raid the 56-year-old grandmother collapsed following a suspected stroke caused by bleeding on the brain.
It is understood the PSNI were searching for items relating to last summer's republican protest outside Dundonald House - the headquarters of the Northern Ireland Prison Service.
During the July protest demonstrators forced their way into the building and allegedly smuggled out documents containing prison officers' names and addressed.
The PSNI believe members of Dinah Henry's family were involved in the protest - a claim strongly denied by her children who have accused the PSNI of harassment.
"The police just burst in here and started ripping the place apart," explained Patricia Henry.
"They were under the wrong impression that members of my family were involved in a protest outside the Prison Service headquarters.
"My mum, who suffers from arthritis and heart complaints, just couldn't deal with the raid. She collapsed to the floor and had to be rushed to hospital.
"Her house is a mess but all I am worried about at the moment is her health."
A funeral that was passing by Eliza Street had to be re-routed during the raid on the Henry home.
South Belfast MLA Alex Maskey accused the PSNI of acting in a heavy-handed manner.
"The nature of this raid on a home in the Markets was completely unnecessary," said the former Sinn Féin mayor.
"The actions of the PSNI officers involved caused undue distress to the occupants of the house and resulted in an elderly woman having to be taken to hospital and a large amount of damage being caused to the household.”
A spokeswoman for the PSNI said that the Henry family should direct any complaints to the Police Ombudsman. She also confirmed that Dinah Henry took ill during their search of her home.
Journalist:: Staff Reporter
Woman suffers suspected stroke after raid on home
A Markets woman is recovering in hospital after suffering a suspected stroke during a PSNI raid on her home.
On Wednesday morning up to 20 police officers in riot gear, accompanied by dog handlers, burst into Dinah Henry's Eliza Street house.
Two hours into the raid the 56-year-old grandmother collapsed following a suspected stroke caused by bleeding on the brain.
It is understood the PSNI were searching for items relating to last summer's republican protest outside Dundonald House - the headquarters of the Northern Ireland Prison Service.
During the July protest demonstrators forced their way into the building and allegedly smuggled out documents containing prison officers' names and addressed.
The PSNI believe members of Dinah Henry's family were involved in the protest - a claim strongly denied by her children who have accused the PSNI of harassment.
"The police just burst in here and started ripping the place apart," explained Patricia Henry.
"They were under the wrong impression that members of my family were involved in a protest outside the Prison Service headquarters.
"My mum, who suffers from arthritis and heart complaints, just couldn't deal with the raid. She collapsed to the floor and had to be rushed to hospital.
"Her house is a mess but all I am worried about at the moment is her health."
A funeral that was passing by Eliza Street had to be re-routed during the raid on the Henry home.
South Belfast MLA Alex Maskey accused the PSNI of acting in a heavy-handed manner.
"The nature of this raid on a home in the Markets was completely unnecessary," said the former Sinn Féin mayor.
"The actions of the PSNI officers involved caused undue distress to the occupants of the house and resulted in an elderly woman having to be taken to hospital and a large amount of damage being caused to the household.”
A spokeswoman for the PSNI said that the Henry family should direct any complaints to the Police Ombudsman. She also confirmed that Dinah Henry took ill during their search of her home.
Journalist:: Staff Reporter
Five Men in a Van
Five Men in a Van
--by Danny Morrison
One night last week gangs of men went into Cliftonpark Avenue, Cliftondene Gardens and Ciftondene Crescent in North Belfast and attacked seven homes: four with bricks and paint bombs and three with petrol bombs. In Clifton Park Avenue, among the petrol-bombers’ targets were a four-month-old baby and her 18-month-old sister, Caitlin Morgan.
At Number 25 Cliftondene Drive the window shattered and the paint bomb exploded over the occupant, a middle-aged woman. Had it been a pipe bomb or a petrol bomb she almost certainly would have been killed or severely disfigured.
At the same time, other members of the gang threw four bricks through the window of Number 22, across the street, showering with glass one of the oldest women in Ireland, 105-year-old, bed-ridden Jane Crudden who was lying in a downstairs bedroom. Ambulance men were called to the scene and evacuated the terrified old lady who was taken to a residential home to recover.
Nigel Dodds, the DUP MP for the area, issued no statement of condemnation that I could find in the unionist press, on radio or television or on the DUP’s daily-updated website.
In a press statement the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) reported the attacks but made no reference to who the victims were and who was responsible.
In fact, the homes attacked on Wednesday night were the homes of Catholics. The perpetrators were loyalists and the objective was to drive Catholics out. Since the IRA ceasefire Catholics have continued to be killed (the latest, 21-year-old James McMahon, was beaten to death by the UDA in November) and the number of attacks on Catholic homes and properties runs into the thousands. This is an important factor to consider when Justice Minister Michael McDowell attempts to present the North as a society struggling for normality but being continually thwarted by Irish republicans.
In the attacks on Cliftondene Gardens and Crescent the perpetrators were seen to run back into the loyalist Glenbryn area. Glenbryn was in the news two years ago when loyalists connected to the UDA daily besieged and attacked schoolgirls going to Holy Cross Primary School. But the loyalist campaign has matured considerably since then and besides attacking five-year-olds they now attack one-hundred-and-five-year-olds.
On Friday evening, just forty-eight hours after those sectarian attacks, the PSNI rammed a van in downtown Belfast containing five men, one of who, Bobby Tohill, was in an injured condition. There are various accounts of what preceded the van being rammed, the men being arrested, and Tohill being taken to the hospital. The nature of the dispute between Tohill and the van’s occupants rapidly shifted from speculation to 'fact,' on the basis of the opinion of PSNI Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde that "it was a Provisional IRA operation."
The alacrity with which the Chief Constable made his pronouncement - and thus triggered a series of political attacks on Sinn Fein - has tainted the reputation of the PSNI. In October 2002 Orde was responsible for the televised 'spectacular' raids on Sinn Fein’s offices in Stormont, where nothing was found but which took place in parallel with the arrests elsewhere and subsequent charging of three people in relation to an alleged 'IRA spy-ring' at the heart of government.
Those charges led to the current impasse, with Ulster Unionists collapsing the executive and the Assembly being suspended. The political process never recovered from this 'crisis,' and it was successfully exploited by the DUP who subsequently emerged from last November’s elections as the largest unionist party.
However, those same 'IRA spy-ring' charges were withdrawn some weeks ago without an equivalent media fanfare.
Whereas the authorities, within hours, can answer unionist demands for clarification, nationalists, it seems, must wait forever. They have been waiting fifteen years for Sir John Stevens to finally wrap-up his investigations into collusion between loyalist paramilitaries, the British army and the RUC Special Branch (which has transferred, unreformed, into the PSNI). And they have been waiting five months for the British government to publish Judge Corey’s report and recommendations of public inquiries into several controversial killings, including those of human rights lawyers Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.
Over the past six years unionists have extrapolated from any alleged subversive incident that might be attributable to republicans a pretext for excluding Sinn Fein from power sharing. Pipe bombs found in a Palestinian refugee camp became 'proof' that the IRA was still active. Sinn Fein was to be held accountable for every stone thrown in nationalist areas. Sinn Fein would be in breach of the Good Friday Agreement, said David Trimble, if it maintained relations with the Basque independence party, Batasuna, after the Spanish government proscribed it. It is never-ending.
For nationalists what are most frustrating are the double standards that are continually applied to the conflict and peace process, despite all the compromises they have made, despite the IRA decommissioning a large number of weapons on three occasions.
Who is to sanction the British government for repeatedly reneging on reforms it promised at the Weston Park talks? It introduced legislation outside the Agreement to suspend the executive and assembly and recently set up an International Monitoring Commission (which excludes the Irish government nominee from examining the bad faith of the British or unionists).
A High Court judge ruled that David Trimble acted illegally when he barred two Sinn Fein ministers from attending meetings of the all-Ireland bodies, yet there were no sanctions against him.
The British also refused to fully cooperate with Judge Barron’s inquiry into the Dublin/Monaghan car bombs, confident that an Taoiseach wouldn’t demand of Tony Blair the details of suspected British collusion with the UVF, in the way, for example, that the British prime minister will be confidently demanding of Colonel Gadaffi the details of his dealings with the IRA.
And, of course, as far as the police and the Special Branch is concerned the alleged new beginning to justice doesn't apply to them. Last Monday a UTV documentary revealed that the Special Branch and the British army had fabricated evidence against two South Down republicans – who were imprisoned on remand in 2003 - and that the DPP had concealed crucial forensic reports from their defence lawyers.
The PSNI, British Army and the DPP were clearly in breach of the principles of the GFA. Whether they were acting alone or with the sanction of their 'leadership' doesn’t appear to concern a lawyer like the Minister of Justice, Michael McDowell, as much as five men in a van.
After Sir Hugh Orde's statement Ian Paisley demanded to meet the Secretary of State, Paul Murphy, to rule on the status of the IRA’s ceasefire. An Taoiseach also met Martin McGuinness on Wednesday night to express his concern at the effect this incident could have on the current review of the Agreement. Given the DUP's proposals in 'Devolution Now,' that review was going nowhere.
The DUP makes no reference to North-South relations, policing, justice and human rights. Its models for government are insular and give the DUP a veto over nationalists. It envisages the largest nationalist party, Sinn Fein, being excluded from office and its ministerial seats redistributed and gerrymandered between the other parties.
It was just such practices within the failed political entity that was the North, and a sense among many nationalists (their homes burning around them) that Dublin had failed them, that they turned to the IRA over thirty years ago.
Five Men in a Van
--by Danny Morrison
One night last week gangs of men went into Cliftonpark Avenue, Cliftondene Gardens and Ciftondene Crescent in North Belfast and attacked seven homes: four with bricks and paint bombs and three with petrol bombs. In Clifton Park Avenue, among the petrol-bombers’ targets were a four-month-old baby and her 18-month-old sister, Caitlin Morgan.
At Number 25 Cliftondene Drive the window shattered and the paint bomb exploded over the occupant, a middle-aged woman. Had it been a pipe bomb or a petrol bomb she almost certainly would have been killed or severely disfigured.
At the same time, other members of the gang threw four bricks through the window of Number 22, across the street, showering with glass one of the oldest women in Ireland, 105-year-old, bed-ridden Jane Crudden who was lying in a downstairs bedroom. Ambulance men were called to the scene and evacuated the terrified old lady who was taken to a residential home to recover.
Nigel Dodds, the DUP MP for the area, issued no statement of condemnation that I could find in the unionist press, on radio or television or on the DUP’s daily-updated website.
In a press statement the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) reported the attacks but made no reference to who the victims were and who was responsible.
In fact, the homes attacked on Wednesday night were the homes of Catholics. The perpetrators were loyalists and the objective was to drive Catholics out. Since the IRA ceasefire Catholics have continued to be killed (the latest, 21-year-old James McMahon, was beaten to death by the UDA in November) and the number of attacks on Catholic homes and properties runs into the thousands. This is an important factor to consider when Justice Minister Michael McDowell attempts to present the North as a society struggling for normality but being continually thwarted by Irish republicans.
In the attacks on Cliftondene Gardens and Crescent the perpetrators were seen to run back into the loyalist Glenbryn area. Glenbryn was in the news two years ago when loyalists connected to the UDA daily besieged and attacked schoolgirls going to Holy Cross Primary School. But the loyalist campaign has matured considerably since then and besides attacking five-year-olds they now attack one-hundred-and-five-year-olds.
On Friday evening, just forty-eight hours after those sectarian attacks, the PSNI rammed a van in downtown Belfast containing five men, one of who, Bobby Tohill, was in an injured condition. There are various accounts of what preceded the van being rammed, the men being arrested, and Tohill being taken to the hospital. The nature of the dispute between Tohill and the van’s occupants rapidly shifted from speculation to 'fact,' on the basis of the opinion of PSNI Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde that "it was a Provisional IRA operation."
The alacrity with which the Chief Constable made his pronouncement - and thus triggered a series of political attacks on Sinn Fein - has tainted the reputation of the PSNI. In October 2002 Orde was responsible for the televised 'spectacular' raids on Sinn Fein’s offices in Stormont, where nothing was found but which took place in parallel with the arrests elsewhere and subsequent charging of three people in relation to an alleged 'IRA spy-ring' at the heart of government.
Those charges led to the current impasse, with Ulster Unionists collapsing the executive and the Assembly being suspended. The political process never recovered from this 'crisis,' and it was successfully exploited by the DUP who subsequently emerged from last November’s elections as the largest unionist party.
However, those same 'IRA spy-ring' charges were withdrawn some weeks ago without an equivalent media fanfare.
Whereas the authorities, within hours, can answer unionist demands for clarification, nationalists, it seems, must wait forever. They have been waiting fifteen years for Sir John Stevens to finally wrap-up his investigations into collusion between loyalist paramilitaries, the British army and the RUC Special Branch (which has transferred, unreformed, into the PSNI). And they have been waiting five months for the British government to publish Judge Corey’s report and recommendations of public inquiries into several controversial killings, including those of human rights lawyers Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.
Over the past six years unionists have extrapolated from any alleged subversive incident that might be attributable to republicans a pretext for excluding Sinn Fein from power sharing. Pipe bombs found in a Palestinian refugee camp became 'proof' that the IRA was still active. Sinn Fein was to be held accountable for every stone thrown in nationalist areas. Sinn Fein would be in breach of the Good Friday Agreement, said David Trimble, if it maintained relations with the Basque independence party, Batasuna, after the Spanish government proscribed it. It is never-ending.
For nationalists what are most frustrating are the double standards that are continually applied to the conflict and peace process, despite all the compromises they have made, despite the IRA decommissioning a large number of weapons on three occasions.
Who is to sanction the British government for repeatedly reneging on reforms it promised at the Weston Park talks? It introduced legislation outside the Agreement to suspend the executive and assembly and recently set up an International Monitoring Commission (which excludes the Irish government nominee from examining the bad faith of the British or unionists).
A High Court judge ruled that David Trimble acted illegally when he barred two Sinn Fein ministers from attending meetings of the all-Ireland bodies, yet there were no sanctions against him.
The British also refused to fully cooperate with Judge Barron’s inquiry into the Dublin/Monaghan car bombs, confident that an Taoiseach wouldn’t demand of Tony Blair the details of suspected British collusion with the UVF, in the way, for example, that the British prime minister will be confidently demanding of Colonel Gadaffi the details of his dealings with the IRA.
And, of course, as far as the police and the Special Branch is concerned the alleged new beginning to justice doesn't apply to them. Last Monday a UTV documentary revealed that the Special Branch and the British army had fabricated evidence against two South Down republicans – who were imprisoned on remand in 2003 - and that the DPP had concealed crucial forensic reports from their defence lawyers.
The PSNI, British Army and the DPP were clearly in breach of the principles of the GFA. Whether they were acting alone or with the sanction of their 'leadership' doesn’t appear to concern a lawyer like the Minister of Justice, Michael McDowell, as much as five men in a van.
After Sir Hugh Orde's statement Ian Paisley demanded to meet the Secretary of State, Paul Murphy, to rule on the status of the IRA’s ceasefire. An Taoiseach also met Martin McGuinness on Wednesday night to express his concern at the effect this incident could have on the current review of the Agreement. Given the DUP's proposals in 'Devolution Now,' that review was going nowhere.
The DUP makes no reference to North-South relations, policing, justice and human rights. Its models for government are insular and give the DUP a veto over nationalists. It envisages the largest nationalist party, Sinn Fein, being excluded from office and its ministerial seats redistributed and gerrymandered between the other parties.
It was just such practices within the failed political entity that was the North, and a sense among many nationalists (their homes burning around them) that Dublin had failed them, that they turned to the IRA over thirty years ago.
IOL: Sinn Féin members gather for Ard Fheis
Sinn Féin members gather for Ard Fheis
27/02/2004 - 06:15:37
Sinn Féin members throughout Ireland were focusing on this summer’s election for the European Parliament today as they gathered in Dublin for their Ard Fheis.
The party was expected to give its European Parliament candidates centre stage on the opening night of its three-day conference.
Republicans believe they can capture seats on either side of the border in June’s poll.
Party strategists have particularly high hopes for their Dublin candidate Mary Lou McDonald, who will open the Conference tonight and also former Stormont Health Minister Bairbre de Brun who is bidding for a seat in Northern Ireland.
The Conference is taking place this weekend amid fears that the review of the Good Friday Agreement at Stormont could stall over concern about IRA activity.
David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists are threatening to walk out of the talks to restore devolution next week if the British and Irish governments fail to take decisive action against Sinn Féin over the attempted abduction of a man in Belfast last week.
Northern Ireland’s police chief Hugh Orde blamed the IRA for the incident, sparking a fresh crisis in the political process.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and chief negotiator Martin McGuinness were both expected to address the current crisis at Stormont in their speeches to delegates this weekend.
Sinn Féin members were due to debate the party’s plan for strengthening cross border links.
They were also expected to debate education issues in Northern Ireland and the Republic, the Irish presidency of the European Union, hear calls for a stronger United Nations and address the controversial bin tax in Dublin.
Sinn Féin delegates were also due to debate local governments, with crucial council elections also due to take place in June.
Sinn Féin members gather for Ard Fheis
27/02/2004 - 06:15:37
Sinn Féin members throughout Ireland were focusing on this summer’s election for the European Parliament today as they gathered in Dublin for their Ard Fheis.
The party was expected to give its European Parliament candidates centre stage on the opening night of its three-day conference.
Republicans believe they can capture seats on either side of the border in June’s poll.
Party strategists have particularly high hopes for their Dublin candidate Mary Lou McDonald, who will open the Conference tonight and also former Stormont Health Minister Bairbre de Brun who is bidding for a seat in Northern Ireland.
The Conference is taking place this weekend amid fears that the review of the Good Friday Agreement at Stormont could stall over concern about IRA activity.
David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists are threatening to walk out of the talks to restore devolution next week if the British and Irish governments fail to take decisive action against Sinn Féin over the attempted abduction of a man in Belfast last week.
Northern Ireland’s police chief Hugh Orde blamed the IRA for the incident, sparking a fresh crisis in the political process.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and chief negotiator Martin McGuinness were both expected to address the current crisis at Stormont in their speeches to delegates this weekend.
Sinn Féin members were due to debate the party’s plan for strengthening cross border links.
They were also expected to debate education issues in Northern Ireland and the Republic, the Irish presidency of the European Union, hear calls for a stronger United Nations and address the controversial bin tax in Dublin.
Sinn Féin delegates were also due to debate local governments, with crucial council elections also due to take place in June.
26.2.04
THE BLANKET * Index: Current Articles
PSNI/RUC Occupies POW's Family Homes
Marian Price and Martin Mulholland,
Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association • 25 February 2004
"This morning at 10:00 am the PSNI/RUC, heavily armed and in riot gear, moved into the Brandywell area of Derry and occupied two homes belonging to family members of republican POW Seamus Doherty. These occupations were carried out under the auspices of house searches. The RUC claimed to be carrying out the raids in connection with an IRPWA protest at the Prison Service headquarters in Dundonald House in Belfast last summer. During the raid the RUC ransacked both houses . . ."
PSNI/RUC Occupies POW's Family Homes
Marian Price and Martin Mulholland,
Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association • 25 February 2004
"This morning at 10:00 am the PSNI/RUC, heavily armed and in riot gear, moved into the Brandywell area of Derry and occupied two homes belonging to family members of republican POW Seamus Doherty. These occupations were carried out under the auspices of house searches. The RUC claimed to be carrying out the raids in connection with an IRPWA protest at the Prison Service headquarters in Dundonald House in Belfast last summer. During the raid the RUC ransacked both houses . . ."
Irelandclick.com
Propaganda works
What an interesting and revealing affair this anti-Sinn Féin campaign is turning out to be.
Talk about hearts and minds being revealed! A minister of a government, a Minister for Justice if you please, says his political opponents are engaged in criminal activities to finance their election campaign. And he says he knows what he knows. And he doesn't have to bring people to court to prove it.
If someone you'd meet in a pub said that you would take it with a pinch of salt, or a sip of stout. But a Minister for Justice. Well, one wonders what you need to be an MoJ these days. May God be with the days when you had to go through all that tiresome business of finding out, inquiring, bringing to court, proving to the public beyond all reasonable doubt.
As one drives from constituency meeting to constituency meeting having nothing new to say but inventing something on the way, something to stir the blood, something to drown out the sound of hard won legal freedoms being fired through the Mercedes window, yes, got it: that crowd is getting money from criminal activities, vote for me.
It is not new of course, nothing much in politics ever is. The British unionists in Ireland’s northeast used to do it regularly. They let their opponents get on with it for a wee while then, pounce, they brought up the IRA. Even when the IRA was so weak that it could hardly move arms or feet.
It was a useful scare. And the people on the same wing of political life but on the RC side would help things along by raising the communist scare. Do you know, thundered the religious newspapers, which at the time did not have much political analysis, do you know that in Communist Russia (pause for silent messages to heaven) that in Communist Russia on the beaches they have people bathing, pardon us for saying it, but bathing with nothing on? Anything for a bit of honest propaganda. And by the way, in this sceptical age one has to repeat, yes, they all did say these things, and, no, I did not make it up, and in very truth that last bit was an Irish version of the world communist scare which ruined the lives and thoughts of millions.
Back now to reality. The unionist trick was to blame republicans and nationalists for many evil practices and for
1) getting money from the Vatican to ruin Ulster or
2) giving money to the Vatican to ruin Ulster.
Yes, yes, yes, I was there, I actually saw it happen and so please do not say it is too fantastic to happen, nothing is too fantastic to happen in London-controlled politics. Yes, they said – and printed – every public house (RC of course) gives a proportion of the takings each week to the Vatican. To destroy Ulster. A variation of this Far Right but Complete Wrong propaganda was that our communist friends in Ireland were getting money from Moscow.
So, money from the Vatican, money from Moscow, money from criminal activities, the theme is always there with variations.
Maybe because money is so important to the people who say these things. That is one reason why one is not surprised at hearing a Minister for Just Us (the Progressive Democrat answer to Sinn Féin, Ourselves, is to have a minister for Just Us and he is good at it). The story is always the same, the variations are minor. Sure, they did the same to us all. There were times when you did not know whether you were supposed to be giving money to the destroyers of Ulster or getting money from them, we were hearing both said by the same people. No, you cannot have money for a creche because you might give it to terrorists. No, you can’t get money for developing jobs because you are probably getting it already from terrorists. Money to and from terrorists, money from the Vatican, money from Moscow, pennies from heaven, by Jove that minister for Just Us has his finger on the pulse of the real world. Unfortunately the propaganda remains the tedious same, year after weary year.
Still, credit where credit is due. Very few propaganda campaigns could have so successfully recruited so many Hoods, so many Respectables, so many newspaper writers, so many broadcasters all into the one camp. So it really is an amazing campaign, this anti-republican thing. Some clever people too. Imagine – a head of police who can tell you within hours of an incident who was responsble, and why. Who can put his finger exactly on who is doing what, and why. One problem with this is, if this can be done, if blame can be distributed so quickly and so surely, what on earth do we need investigations, forensics and courts for? And if a minister can apportion blame so readily and so surely, what does he need such a big department for?
We could save a lot of money – I'm afraid maybe we will too – doing away with all the tiresome apparatus of finding, investigating, proving, inventing reasonable policies. Instead we could just have somebody sitting in the office of the police or Minister for Justice telling it as it is without expensive and needless frills.
True, it would do away with the last 100 years of progress towards a democratic society. True, it would cause a lot of suffering because it would be built on the lie that in such a system “the innocent have nothing to fear.”
But on the other hand, success counts, and look at how successful such a system was in Europe of the 1920s and ’30s, and would have been successful in Ireland too if we had only allowed General O’ Duffy to do his thing.
Propaganda works
What an interesting and revealing affair this anti-Sinn Féin campaign is turning out to be.
Talk about hearts and minds being revealed! A minister of a government, a Minister for Justice if you please, says his political opponents are engaged in criminal activities to finance their election campaign. And he says he knows what he knows. And he doesn't have to bring people to court to prove it.
If someone you'd meet in a pub said that you would take it with a pinch of salt, or a sip of stout. But a Minister for Justice. Well, one wonders what you need to be an MoJ these days. May God be with the days when you had to go through all that tiresome business of finding out, inquiring, bringing to court, proving to the public beyond all reasonable doubt.
As one drives from constituency meeting to constituency meeting having nothing new to say but inventing something on the way, something to stir the blood, something to drown out the sound of hard won legal freedoms being fired through the Mercedes window, yes, got it: that crowd is getting money from criminal activities, vote for me.
It is not new of course, nothing much in politics ever is. The British unionists in Ireland’s northeast used to do it regularly. They let their opponents get on with it for a wee while then, pounce, they brought up the IRA. Even when the IRA was so weak that it could hardly move arms or feet.
It was a useful scare. And the people on the same wing of political life but on the RC side would help things along by raising the communist scare. Do you know, thundered the religious newspapers, which at the time did not have much political analysis, do you know that in Communist Russia (pause for silent messages to heaven) that in Communist Russia on the beaches they have people bathing, pardon us for saying it, but bathing with nothing on? Anything for a bit of honest propaganda. And by the way, in this sceptical age one has to repeat, yes, they all did say these things, and, no, I did not make it up, and in very truth that last bit was an Irish version of the world communist scare which ruined the lives and thoughts of millions.
Back now to reality. The unionist trick was to blame republicans and nationalists for many evil practices and for
1) getting money from the Vatican to ruin Ulster or
2) giving money to the Vatican to ruin Ulster.
Yes, yes, yes, I was there, I actually saw it happen and so please do not say it is too fantastic to happen, nothing is too fantastic to happen in London-controlled politics. Yes, they said – and printed – every public house (RC of course) gives a proportion of the takings each week to the Vatican. To destroy Ulster. A variation of this Far Right but Complete Wrong propaganda was that our communist friends in Ireland were getting money from Moscow.
So, money from the Vatican, money from Moscow, money from criminal activities, the theme is always there with variations.
Maybe because money is so important to the people who say these things. That is one reason why one is not surprised at hearing a Minister for Just Us (the Progressive Democrat answer to Sinn Féin, Ourselves, is to have a minister for Just Us and he is good at it). The story is always the same, the variations are minor. Sure, they did the same to us all. There were times when you did not know whether you were supposed to be giving money to the destroyers of Ulster or getting money from them, we were hearing both said by the same people. No, you cannot have money for a creche because you might give it to terrorists. No, you can’t get money for developing jobs because you are probably getting it already from terrorists. Money to and from terrorists, money from the Vatican, money from Moscow, pennies from heaven, by Jove that minister for Just Us has his finger on the pulse of the real world. Unfortunately the propaganda remains the tedious same, year after weary year.
Still, credit where credit is due. Very few propaganda campaigns could have so successfully recruited so many Hoods, so many Respectables, so many newspaper writers, so many broadcasters all into the one camp. So it really is an amazing campaign, this anti-republican thing. Some clever people too. Imagine – a head of police who can tell you within hours of an incident who was responsble, and why. Who can put his finger exactly on who is doing what, and why. One problem with this is, if this can be done, if blame can be distributed so quickly and so surely, what on earth do we need investigations, forensics and courts for? And if a minister can apportion blame so readily and so surely, what does he need such a big department for?
We could save a lot of money – I'm afraid maybe we will too – doing away with all the tiresome apparatus of finding, investigating, proving, inventing reasonable policies. Instead we could just have somebody sitting in the office of the police or Minister for Justice telling it as it is without expensive and needless frills.
True, it would do away with the last 100 years of progress towards a democratic society. True, it would cause a lot of suffering because it would be built on the lie that in such a system “the innocent have nothing to fear.”
But on the other hand, success counts, and look at how successful such a system was in Europe of the 1920s and ’30s, and would have been successful in Ireland too if we had only allowed General O’ Duffy to do his thing.
Irelandclick.com
Tohill back on the Falls
Exclusive
Leave my family alone: Tohill
Bobby Tohill returned to West Belfast last night after Friday’s alleged kidnapping in Belfast city Centre which threw the peace process into crisis. His return came as a source speaking on behalf of the IRA told the Andersonstown News yesterday: “The IRA did not authorise any action against Bobby Tohill.”
And Tohill, who the Chief Constable Hugh Orde claimed was savagely beaten and kidnapped by the IRA, told the Andersonstown News last night that the IRA had not kidnapped him from Kelly’s Cellars.
“The Provos were not involved in my alleged abduction,” he said.
During a further in-depth interview with the Andersonstown News, the 45-year-old backed the IRA’s denial that they played no part in last Friday’s Kelly’s Cellars ‘kidnapping’. However, Tohill did express fears that his life was still in danger. He also asked the IRA not to impose any conditions on his return to West Belfast.
Bobby Tohill signed himself out of the City Hospital on Monday and was immediately secreted to a safe house near the border by fellow dissident republicans. From there he spoke exclusively to the Andersonstown News about how the IRA were “hounding” him and why a “drunken brawl” could wreck the peace process.
“I do not believe the four men arrested by the PSNI are members of the IRA,” said Tohill.
“I have said it before and I will say it again, I have not, and will not, be making any complaint to the cops.”
Bobby Tohill is adamant that Friday’s incident in Kelly’s Cellars was the fall-out from a drunken brawl.
“I was very, very drunk,” he added. “I was chatting a girl up and her boyfriend and his mates took exception to this. They viciously attacked and knocked me unconscious. The men arrested in the van were taking me to hospital. It is wrong for governments to use us as political pawns.”
Although refusing to point the finger of blame at the IRA for the incident, Bobby Tohill still has deep grievances with them.
“I want to know why they [the IRA] have issued me with five death threats in the space of six months? Why are they hounding my family on the lower Falls, and why they are hounding my son, who suffers from a severe disability, and his family?
“My biggest fear now is for my relatives. My son, Michael, is on the verge of a complete breakdown.”
Bobby Tohill called on the IRA to answer his questions and to allow him to return freely to West Belfast.
“I’ve lived there most of my life, I belong there and I want to go back to West Belfast,” he said defiantly.
“I do not want any conditions put on my return. If the IRA tries to impose conditions I will not accept them.
“I will carry on as a republican and continue to speak my republican views. I have been brought up and always lived my life that way. The IRA needs to understand that I will not be silenced.”
Ending the interview Bobby Tohill repeated his call for a halt to all forms of paramilitarism.
“I told the Andersonstown News last week that after the Danny McGurk murder the IRA closed down the Belfast Real IRA in a very cynical fashion,” said the leading dissident. “It is now time the IRA closed themselves down in a very cynical fashion. The nationalist people want peace and the IRA should give it to them. I want to return to the Falls Road and I should be allowed to do so.”
Journalist:: Ciaran Barnes
Tohill back on the Falls
Exclusive
Leave my family alone: Tohill
Bobby Tohill returned to West Belfast last night after Friday’s alleged kidnapping in Belfast city Centre which threw the peace process into crisis. His return came as a source speaking on behalf of the IRA told the Andersonstown News yesterday: “The IRA did not authorise any action against Bobby Tohill.”
And Tohill, who the Chief Constable Hugh Orde claimed was savagely beaten and kidnapped by the IRA, told the Andersonstown News last night that the IRA had not kidnapped him from Kelly’s Cellars.
“The Provos were not involved in my alleged abduction,” he said.
During a further in-depth interview with the Andersonstown News, the 45-year-old backed the IRA’s denial that they played no part in last Friday’s Kelly’s Cellars ‘kidnapping’. However, Tohill did express fears that his life was still in danger. He also asked the IRA not to impose any conditions on his return to West Belfast.
Bobby Tohill signed himself out of the City Hospital on Monday and was immediately secreted to a safe house near the border by fellow dissident republicans. From there he spoke exclusively to the Andersonstown News about how the IRA were “hounding” him and why a “drunken brawl” could wreck the peace process.
“I do not believe the four men arrested by the PSNI are members of the IRA,” said Tohill.
“I have said it before and I will say it again, I have not, and will not, be making any complaint to the cops.”
Bobby Tohill is adamant that Friday’s incident in Kelly’s Cellars was the fall-out from a drunken brawl.
“I was very, very drunk,” he added. “I was chatting a girl up and her boyfriend and his mates took exception to this. They viciously attacked and knocked me unconscious. The men arrested in the van were taking me to hospital. It is wrong for governments to use us as political pawns.”
Although refusing to point the finger of blame at the IRA for the incident, Bobby Tohill still has deep grievances with them.
“I want to know why they [the IRA] have issued me with five death threats in the space of six months? Why are they hounding my family on the lower Falls, and why they are hounding my son, who suffers from a severe disability, and his family?
“My biggest fear now is for my relatives. My son, Michael, is on the verge of a complete breakdown.”
Bobby Tohill called on the IRA to answer his questions and to allow him to return freely to West Belfast.
“I’ve lived there most of my life, I belong there and I want to go back to West Belfast,” he said defiantly.
“I do not want any conditions put on my return. If the IRA tries to impose conditions I will not accept them.
“I will carry on as a republican and continue to speak my republican views. I have been brought up and always lived my life that way. The IRA needs to understand that I will not be silenced.”
Ending the interview Bobby Tohill repeated his call for a halt to all forms of paramilitarism.
“I told the Andersonstown News last week that after the Danny McGurk murder the IRA closed down the Belfast Real IRA in a very cynical fashion,” said the leading dissident. “It is now time the IRA closed themselves down in a very cynical fashion. The nationalist people want peace and the IRA should give it to them. I want to return to the Falls Road and I should be allowed to do so.”
Journalist:: Ciaran Barnes
Irish American Information Service
TRIMBLE ATTACKED OVER REMOVAL COMMENTS
02/25/04 10:48 EST
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has been accused by Sinn Féin of "of spouting off at the mouth in Westminster" and trying to 'out-Paisley' the Rev Ian Paisley.
Responding to a warned issued by the leader of the UUP that his party would pull out of talks on the review of the Belfast Agreement next week unless action was taken against Sinn Féin, Mr Martin McGuinness said such comments were unhelpful.
Leading a Sinn Féin delegation into a meeting with the Irish premier, Mr Bertie Ahern this evening, Mr McGuinness said past experience of progress within the peace process showed movement can only be made through dialogue.
Speaking in the House of Commons today, Mr Trimble demanded sanctions against Sinn Féin over the alleged involvement of the IRA in the abduction and beating of a dissident republican in Belfast last week.
In a statement, An Phoblacht today said it has been told by republican sources that "the IRA did not authorise any action against Bobby Tohill". The four man have been charged with abduction and grievous bodily harm, but a charge of IRA membership was not proceeded with.
Mr McGuinness asked "why was that [dropping the membership of the PIRA charge] done?" before suggesting it was because the Police Service of Northern Ireland wanted to "grab the weekend headlines".
He also accused the Police Service of Northern Ireland of a "very determined campaign to discredit Sinn Féin".
Mr McGuinness said he intended asking the Taoiseach during their meeting this evening to make the point to the British government that the PSNI campaign against SF must be stopped.
He also said he supported Mr Ahern's assertion that all paramiliarism must end "but it's one thing saying that, and another making it happen."
TRIMBLE ATTACKED OVER REMOVAL COMMENTS
02/25/04 10:48 EST
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has been accused by Sinn Féin of "of spouting off at the mouth in Westminster" and trying to 'out-Paisley' the Rev Ian Paisley.
Responding to a warned issued by the leader of the UUP that his party would pull out of talks on the review of the Belfast Agreement next week unless action was taken against Sinn Féin, Mr Martin McGuinness said such comments were unhelpful.
Leading a Sinn Féin delegation into a meeting with the Irish premier, Mr Bertie Ahern this evening, Mr McGuinness said past experience of progress within the peace process showed movement can only be made through dialogue.
Speaking in the House of Commons today, Mr Trimble demanded sanctions against Sinn Féin over the alleged involvement of the IRA in the abduction and beating of a dissident republican in Belfast last week.
In a statement, An Phoblacht today said it has been told by republican sources that "the IRA did not authorise any action against Bobby Tohill". The four man have been charged with abduction and grievous bodily harm, but a charge of IRA membership was not proceeded with.
Mr McGuinness asked "why was that [dropping the membership of the PIRA charge] done?" before suggesting it was because the Police Service of Northern Ireland wanted to "grab the weekend headlines".
He also accused the Police Service of Northern Ireland of a "very determined campaign to discredit Sinn Féin".
Mr McGuinness said he intended asking the Taoiseach during their meeting this evening to make the point to the British government that the PSNI campaign against SF must be stopped.
He also said he supported Mr Ahern's assertion that all paramiliarism must end "but it's one thing saying that, and another making it happen."
CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN
CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN
The above is a link to Yeats' play about Mother Ireland, set in County Mayo in the year of the 1798 Rebellion. Many thanks to THE SHAMROCKSHIRE EAGLE for the text of the play. No one else on the net had it (EAGLE version listed on links page). I just dressed it up a little and added some historical and background links. As one of the articles will tell you, "Constance Markievicz called the play a 'gospel' from her cell shortly after the 1916 Irish Easter Rebellion."
CATHLEEN NI HOULIHAN
The above is a link to Yeats' play about Mother Ireland, set in County Mayo in the year of the 1798 Rebellion. Many thanks to THE SHAMROCKSHIRE EAGLE for the text of the play. No one else on the net had it (EAGLE version listed on links page). I just dressed it up a little and added some historical and background links. As one of the articles will tell you, "Constance Markievicz called the play a 'gospel' from her cell shortly after the 1916 Irish Easter Rebellion."
25.2.04
An Phoblacht: IRA did not authorise any action
IRA did not authorise any action
A source speaking on behalf of the leadership of the IRA has told An Phoblacht that "the IRA did not authorise any action against Bobby Tohill". The response came after days of speculation around an incident involving a number of men travelling in a van rammed by the PSNI on the outskirts of Belfast city centre last Friday evening.
According to media reports, the incident followed a fracas in a city centre bar. At the Millfield junction with the Falls Road, the PSNI rammed and brought to a halt a blue van. Four men were arrested and another man was taken to hospital. The injured man was later named as Bobby Tohill.
Within hours, the PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde told the media that the "Provisional IRA" was behind the incident.
"The activity was Provisional IRA activity, I'm clear on that," said Orde.
Bobby Tohill, who discharged himself from hospital after treatment, was reported as saying "it was the Provos" to a Sunday newspaper. Tohill later denied speaking to the tabloid.
Tohill, however, told one local Belfast newspaper that he had made no statement about the alleged incident to the PSNI and that he would not be pressing charges.
A number of people were arrested in what the PSNI described as a follow-up operation but all were released without charge a short time later.
Four men appeared at Laganside Magistrates Court on Monday morning charged with grievous bodily harm and unlawful imprisonment. All four were remanded in custody.
In the political fallout following the PSNI Chief Constable's allegations, unionists called for the exclusion of Sinn Féin from the current political talks. Responding to the exclusion calls, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said that "Hugh Orde's speedy allegation follows a pattern going back to the old RUC which was also quick to point the finger at republicans while turning a blind eye to others.
"There had been such claims about the IRA before. They have proven to be without foundation," he said.
Speaking at a weekend commemoration in Dunloy, Adams said that whatever the truth about the Friday night incident, "Sinn Féin will not be made a whipping boy, especially by those who have no interest in making the political process work".
After meeting British Secretary of State Paul Murphy and Dublin Foreign Minister Brian Cowen in Stormont, Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said that he had raised in the strongest possible terms his concerns about a political agenda being pursued by elements within the PSNI and the British system.
"There is an anti-Sinn Féin and anti-Peace Process agenda at work," he said.
IRA did not authorise any action
A source speaking on behalf of the leadership of the IRA has told An Phoblacht that "the IRA did not authorise any action against Bobby Tohill". The response came after days of speculation around an incident involving a number of men travelling in a van rammed by the PSNI on the outskirts of Belfast city centre last Friday evening.
According to media reports, the incident followed a fracas in a city centre bar. At the Millfield junction with the Falls Road, the PSNI rammed and brought to a halt a blue van. Four men were arrested and another man was taken to hospital. The injured man was later named as Bobby Tohill.
Within hours, the PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde told the media that the "Provisional IRA" was behind the incident.
"The activity was Provisional IRA activity, I'm clear on that," said Orde.
Bobby Tohill, who discharged himself from hospital after treatment, was reported as saying "it was the Provos" to a Sunday newspaper. Tohill later denied speaking to the tabloid.
Tohill, however, told one local Belfast newspaper that he had made no statement about the alleged incident to the PSNI and that he would not be pressing charges.
A number of people were arrested in what the PSNI described as a follow-up operation but all were released without charge a short time later.
Four men appeared at Laganside Magistrates Court on Monday morning charged with grievous bodily harm and unlawful imprisonment. All four were remanded in custody.
In the political fallout following the PSNI Chief Constable's allegations, unionists called for the exclusion of Sinn Féin from the current political talks. Responding to the exclusion calls, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said that "Hugh Orde's speedy allegation follows a pattern going back to the old RUC which was also quick to point the finger at republicans while turning a blind eye to others.
"There had been such claims about the IRA before. They have proven to be without foundation," he said.
Speaking at a weekend commemoration in Dunloy, Adams said that whatever the truth about the Friday night incident, "Sinn Féin will not be made a whipping boy, especially by those who have no interest in making the political process work".
After meeting British Secretary of State Paul Murphy and Dublin Foreign Minister Brian Cowen in Stormont, Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said that he had raised in the strongest possible terms his concerns about a political agenda being pursued by elements within the PSNI and the British system.
"There is an anti-Sinn Féin and anti-Peace Process agenda at work," he said.
Irelandclick.com
The Way I See It
www.dannymorrison.com
The lying game
WHEN I am teaching creative writing I often quote the oxymoron that fiction is ‘a lie that tells a truth’.
Writers imagine and create characters, which, hopefully, rise from the page as flesh and blood. The author will place them in challenging situations – be it a conflict, a dilemma, an issue of love or ambition – and through their experiences, adventures and decisions they emerge at the other end changed, and the reader, in turn, empathises, learns or has confirmed some philosophical truth about the meaning of life.
At least that’s how it’s supposed to work.
ON the other hand, in real life, look at how many versions of the truth there are to this or that event. History, it is said, is written by the victor: which is often the militarily superior, the powerful and the wealthy. Government and establishments are authorities which, often allied to the most influential sections of the media, have a monopoly and a vested interest on how events are depicted. The first news that the world received on January 30 1972 was that 13 gunmen and bombers had been shot dead in clashes with the Paras in Derry.
I know from my days working in publicity the power of British propaganda and the struggle to counter it.
I also know that the nationalist community has nothing to fear from the truth. I believe that we know almost every killing carried out by the IRA. If there are some killings that have gone unclaimed unionist representatives and the media have been quick to attribute them.
In their opposition to the Belfast Agreement and the political process unionists complain that justice requires the perpetrators be imprisoned, not released or given amnesty. While some IRA activists escaped what passes for British justice – torture of prisoners, Diplock Courts – many activists were killed or caught and served time often in cruel conditions until their sacrifices and struggle led to improvements.
One thing is for sure, the RUC and its Special Branch pursued republicans with rigour. Unionists can hardly complain that the state forces were starved of resources or were soft on the IRA.
Nor can they claim that at the end of the conflict there remains a huge, unresolved conspiracy about the actions of the IRA. Why, unionist MPs are so well versed on the IRA that they regularly stand up in the House of Commons and rattle off the names of whom they claim to be on its Army Council. There are no revelations we have yet to learn that could be blacker for the IRA than Bloody Friday or Birmingham or La Mon or Enniskillen or Warrington or the Shankill bombing.
Thus, there is no comparison between the demand from nationalists to learn the truth about collusion and how unionists counter with complaints that there are no public inquiries into La Mon or Enniskillen. The IRA bombed both. That’s clear. But what we want to know is did British forces together with loyalists bomb Dublin and conspire with unionist paramilitaries in a dirty war against nationalists and their representatives. It is not an issue of vengeance (no one expects the perpetrators to be imprisoned), it is an issue of truth and responsibility, but with huge political implications for unionism and the British – which is why they resist public inquiries.
To establish the truth of collusion would upset the narrative of the conflict and implicate the British government in murdering its subjects, indelibly tainting the British, the cause of the union and unionists. It would rob the British and unionists of the pretentious moral high ground from which they have conducted negotiations, using the game of decommissioning and IRA disbandment, tests on republicans and Sinn Féin, in order to limit progress and thwart nationalist demands and aspirations.
BACK in Canada Judge Cory is getting restless. The British government promised, but has resisted, the publication of his report into collusion and his recommendations that there should be public inquiries into, among others, the deaths of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson. In time his report will either be published or leaked in full.
But, out of the blue, by pure coincidence, like the cavalry to the rescue of the besieged British, Professor Des Rea, the chair of the Policing Board proposes a Truth Commission! It is my belief that as the trail increasingly leads to 10 Downing Street a Truth Commission might just suit the British government as a means of sidestepping the truth and keeping its secrets buried.
Just four weeks ago I wrote here that the British government would skilfully weave its way through such a process so that, “we would never get past the private or the sergeant, the colonel or the general to establish the fact of state terrorism, sanctioned from the top. The hearings would be dragged out for years upon years. Documents will have been shredded or gone missing, witnesses have died off, memories ‘faded’.”
There is absolutely no support for a Truth Commission. At a conference in Derry last month on this very subject only one person in the audience thought it a good idea. Yet, according to Professor Rea, a Truth Commission could help address “the unsolved cases of 1,800 victims” and could “prove more useful than a series of judicial inquiries”. He also proposed an amnesty for all those who could have faced charges and provoked instant outrage from unionist spokespersons at there being any equivalence between freedom fighters and oppressors (though those weren’t their exact euphemisms).
Professor Rea reassures us that his proposals are not an attempt to thwart public inquiries into the deaths of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson. But you can be sure that with those proposals originating from such an ‘august’ source (and which also coincide with the views of Chief Constable Hugh Orde) the British government will find them ‘irresistible’ and ‘worthy of consideration’.
Relatives robbed of their loved ones as a result of collusion between loyalists and British forces have fought long and hard to establish who exactly was responsible for their deaths. This proposed commission would rob them again because its purpose undoubtedly would be to produce a ‘truth’ that tells a lie.
The Way I See It
www.dannymorrison.com
The lying game
WHEN I am teaching creative writing I often quote the oxymoron that fiction is ‘a lie that tells a truth’.
Writers imagine and create characters, which, hopefully, rise from the page as flesh and blood. The author will place them in challenging situations – be it a conflict, a dilemma, an issue of love or ambition – and through their experiences, adventures and decisions they emerge at the other end changed, and the reader, in turn, empathises, learns or has confirmed some philosophical truth about the meaning of life.
At least that’s how it’s supposed to work.
ON the other hand, in real life, look at how many versions of the truth there are to this or that event. History, it is said, is written by the victor: which is often the militarily superior, the powerful and the wealthy. Government and establishments are authorities which, often allied to the most influential sections of the media, have a monopoly and a vested interest on how events are depicted. The first news that the world received on January 30 1972 was that 13 gunmen and bombers had been shot dead in clashes with the Paras in Derry.
I know from my days working in publicity the power of British propaganda and the struggle to counter it.
I also know that the nationalist community has nothing to fear from the truth. I believe that we know almost every killing carried out by the IRA. If there are some killings that have gone unclaimed unionist representatives and the media have been quick to attribute them.
In their opposition to the Belfast Agreement and the political process unionists complain that justice requires the perpetrators be imprisoned, not released or given amnesty. While some IRA activists escaped what passes for British justice – torture of prisoners, Diplock Courts – many activists were killed or caught and served time often in cruel conditions until their sacrifices and struggle led to improvements.
One thing is for sure, the RUC and its Special Branch pursued republicans with rigour. Unionists can hardly complain that the state forces were starved of resources or were soft on the IRA.
Nor can they claim that at the end of the conflict there remains a huge, unresolved conspiracy about the actions of the IRA. Why, unionist MPs are so well versed on the IRA that they regularly stand up in the House of Commons and rattle off the names of whom they claim to be on its Army Council. There are no revelations we have yet to learn that could be blacker for the IRA than Bloody Friday or Birmingham or La Mon or Enniskillen or Warrington or the Shankill bombing.
Thus, there is no comparison between the demand from nationalists to learn the truth about collusion and how unionists counter with complaints that there are no public inquiries into La Mon or Enniskillen. The IRA bombed both. That’s clear. But what we want to know is did British forces together with loyalists bomb Dublin and conspire with unionist paramilitaries in a dirty war against nationalists and their representatives. It is not an issue of vengeance (no one expects the perpetrators to be imprisoned), it is an issue of truth and responsibility, but with huge political implications for unionism and the British – which is why they resist public inquiries.
To establish the truth of collusion would upset the narrative of the conflict and implicate the British government in murdering its subjects, indelibly tainting the British, the cause of the union and unionists. It would rob the British and unionists of the pretentious moral high ground from which they have conducted negotiations, using the game of decommissioning and IRA disbandment, tests on republicans and Sinn Féin, in order to limit progress and thwart nationalist demands and aspirations.
BACK in Canada Judge Cory is getting restless. The British government promised, but has resisted, the publication of his report into collusion and his recommendations that there should be public inquiries into, among others, the deaths of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson. In time his report will either be published or leaked in full.
But, out of the blue, by pure coincidence, like the cavalry to the rescue of the besieged British, Professor Des Rea, the chair of the Policing Board proposes a Truth Commission! It is my belief that as the trail increasingly leads to 10 Downing Street a Truth Commission might just suit the British government as a means of sidestepping the truth and keeping its secrets buried.
Just four weeks ago I wrote here that the British government would skilfully weave its way through such a process so that, “we would never get past the private or the sergeant, the colonel or the general to establish the fact of state terrorism, sanctioned from the top. The hearings would be dragged out for years upon years. Documents will have been shredded or gone missing, witnesses have died off, memories ‘faded’.”
There is absolutely no support for a Truth Commission. At a conference in Derry last month on this very subject only one person in the audience thought it a good idea. Yet, according to Professor Rea, a Truth Commission could help address “the unsolved cases of 1,800 victims” and could “prove more useful than a series of judicial inquiries”. He also proposed an amnesty for all those who could have faced charges and provoked instant outrage from unionist spokespersons at there being any equivalence between freedom fighters and oppressors (though those weren’t their exact euphemisms).
Professor Rea reassures us that his proposals are not an attempt to thwart public inquiries into the deaths of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson. But you can be sure that with those proposals originating from such an ‘august’ source (and which also coincide with the views of Chief Constable Hugh Orde) the British government will find them ‘irresistible’ and ‘worthy of consideration’.
Relatives robbed of their loved ones as a result of collusion between loyalists and British forces have fought long and hard to establish who exactly was responsible for their deaths. This proposed commission would rob them again because its purpose undoubtedly would be to produce a ‘truth’ that tells a lie.
Belfast Telegraph
'Double standards' on killings slammed
Unionist attitude to UVF queried
By Chris Thornton
25 February 2004
THE families of three Protestant men murdered by the UVF have jointly called for a meeting with unionist leaders after criticising the politicians for not highlighting loyalist violence in the same way that they criticise republican attacks.
The families of John Allen, David McIlwaine and Raymond McCord accused both the UUP and DUP of holding a "double standard" in regards to participation in the talks at Stormont.
They said they were "disgusted" when they compared the response of unionist leaders to last week's apparent abduction which was blamed on the Provisional IRA and the murders of their sons.
Raymond McCord was killed by the UVF in 1997, David McIlwaine was an innocent bystander killed in the 2000 feud between the LVF and UVF, and John Allen was murdered three months ago in an apparent attempt to intimidate a Crown Court witness.
Raymond McCord Senior said: "David Trimble and Peter Robinson were there calling for Sinn Fein to be excluded from the talks, and not a word was said about the PUP.
"The message that they're sending to us is that it's wrong to kidnap a leading dissident republican but it's okay to kill an innocent Protestant.
"Are they afraid of the UVF?
"Let Trimble and Paisley sit across the table from us and explain why they're not calling for the exclusion of the PUP. "
Mr McCord, speaking on behalf of the other families, said no one could claim that UVF activity has died down in comparison to IRA activity.
"John Allen was killed just before Christmas," he said. "It's not as if this is a one-off situation.
"This is a constant thing from the ceasefire on.
"And when does a crime stop being a crime? When does a murder not count as murder?"
He said the families would like to put direct questions to the two parties.
"What do they think? Don't rock the boat and the UVF will just go away? Because our sense is that they don't want to know about it.
"It's a double standard and it's disgusting," he said.
----------------------------
'Double standards' on killings slammed
Unionist attitude to UVF queried
By Chris Thornton
25 February 2004
THE families of three Protestant men murdered by the UVF have jointly called for a meeting with unionist leaders after criticising the politicians for not highlighting loyalist violence in the same way that they criticise republican attacks.
The families of John Allen, David McIlwaine and Raymond McCord accused both the UUP and DUP of holding a "double standard" in regards to participation in the talks at Stormont.
They said they were "disgusted" when they compared the response of unionist leaders to last week's apparent abduction which was blamed on the Provisional IRA and the murders of their sons.
Raymond McCord was killed by the UVF in 1997, David McIlwaine was an innocent bystander killed in the 2000 feud between the LVF and UVF, and John Allen was murdered three months ago in an apparent attempt to intimidate a Crown Court witness.
Raymond McCord Senior said: "David Trimble and Peter Robinson were there calling for Sinn Fein to be excluded from the talks, and not a word was said about the PUP.
"The message that they're sending to us is that it's wrong to kidnap a leading dissident republican but it's okay to kill an innocent Protestant.
"Are they afraid of the UVF?
"Let Trimble and Paisley sit across the table from us and explain why they're not calling for the exclusion of the PUP. "
Mr McCord, speaking on behalf of the other families, said no one could claim that UVF activity has died down in comparison to IRA activity.
"John Allen was killed just before Christmas," he said. "It's not as if this is a one-off situation.
"This is a constant thing from the ceasefire on.
"And when does a crime stop being a crime? When does a murder not count as murder?"
He said the families would like to put direct questions to the two parties.
"What do they think? Don't rock the boat and the UVF will just go away? Because our sense is that they don't want to know about it.
"It's a double standard and it's disgusting," he said.
----------------------------
BBC (bits and bobs of crap)
THE BERT AND GURNY SHOW
Warning after dissident incident
Mr Blair said action will have to follow if the IRA are implicated
The alleged false imprisonment of a man in Belfast has prompted a warning to republicans from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
Mr Blair warned Sinn Fein and the IRA they could not be allowed to talk about human rights one day and then start "beating human rights out of people the next".
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said he would to pull out of the review of the Good Friday Agreement unless the government acted over the alleged incident.
Mr Trimble said the government's response was "rank moral cowardice".
"It is utterly unreasonable to expect us to remain in discussions with these people in these circumstances," he said.
"And I have to tell you that unless you can summon up the courage to act on this matter within the next few days then I and my colleagues will take steps next week to bring this process to an end."
Mr Blair's comments in the House of Commons on Wednesday follow the alleged false imprisonment of dissident republican Bobby Tohill in Belfast last Friday.
The prime minister said that if the IRA was implicated in the incident "action will have to follow".
Bertie Ahern is to meet a Sinn Fein delegation in Dublin
Meanwhile, the republican newspaper, An Phoblacht, said it had been told by a source speaking for the IRA leadership that the organisation did not authorise any action against Mr Tohill.
Four men have been charged in connection with the incident in Belfast.
The Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, has said he will be raising concerns about the incident with Sinn Fein when he meets a party delegation in Dublin on Wednesday.
Speaking in the Dail, Mr Ahern said he agreed with comments made by the Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, that the IRA was involved.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Paul Murphy said the alleged incident was "a serious breach of paragraph 13 of the joint declaration".
This part of the document, produced last year as an attempt by the British and Irish Governments to move the political process forward, demands an end to paramilitary activity.
Mr Murphy said the Independent Monitoring Commission, which monitors paramilitary activity in the province, had been asked to investigate the incident and would produce a report on 1 May.
The incident was discussed with political parties and Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen at Stormont.
Tuesday's talks had been intended to focus on north-south issues in the review of the Good Friday Agreement.
Speaking after a meeting with Mr Murphy on Monday, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness criticised the chief constable's remarks, saying he should wait for the courts' verdict.
The political institutions in Northern Ireland were suspended in October 2002 amid allegations of IRA intelligence-gathering in the Stormont government.
THE BERT AND GURNY SHOW
Warning after dissident incident
Mr Blair said action will have to follow if the IRA are implicated
The alleged false imprisonment of a man in Belfast has prompted a warning to republicans from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
Mr Blair warned Sinn Fein and the IRA they could not be allowed to talk about human rights one day and then start "beating human rights out of people the next".
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said he would to pull out of the review of the Good Friday Agreement unless the government acted over the alleged incident.
Mr Trimble said the government's response was "rank moral cowardice".
"It is utterly unreasonable to expect us to remain in discussions with these people in these circumstances," he said.
"And I have to tell you that unless you can summon up the courage to act on this matter within the next few days then I and my colleagues will take steps next week to bring this process to an end."
Mr Blair's comments in the House of Commons on Wednesday follow the alleged false imprisonment of dissident republican Bobby Tohill in Belfast last Friday.
The prime minister said that if the IRA was implicated in the incident "action will have to follow".
Bertie Ahern is to meet a Sinn Fein delegation in Dublin
Meanwhile, the republican newspaper, An Phoblacht, said it had been told by a source speaking for the IRA leadership that the organisation did not authorise any action against Mr Tohill.
Four men have been charged in connection with the incident in Belfast.
The Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, has said he will be raising concerns about the incident with Sinn Fein when he meets a party delegation in Dublin on Wednesday.
Speaking in the Dail, Mr Ahern said he agreed with comments made by the Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, that the IRA was involved.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Paul Murphy said the alleged incident was "a serious breach of paragraph 13 of the joint declaration".
This part of the document, produced last year as an attempt by the British and Irish Governments to move the political process forward, demands an end to paramilitary activity.
Mr Murphy said the Independent Monitoring Commission, which monitors paramilitary activity in the province, had been asked to investigate the incident and would produce a report on 1 May.
The incident was discussed with political parties and Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen at Stormont.
Tuesday's talks had been intended to focus on north-south issues in the review of the Good Friday Agreement.
Speaking after a meeting with Mr Murphy on Monday, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness criticised the chief constable's remarks, saying he should wait for the courts' verdict.
The political institutions in Northern Ireland were suspended in October 2002 amid allegations of IRA intelligence-gathering in the Stormont government.
24.2.04
BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Stevens asked to hand over files
Stevens asked to hand over files
The family of the murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane have met the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, for the first time.
Mr Finucane was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries, the UDA, at his home in Belfast in 1989.
Sir John investigated the killing and concluded that there had been collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.
The family raised concerns that his continuing investigation would further delay the public inquiry that has been recommended by retired Canadian judge Peter Cory.
Speaking after the meeting in Belfast on Monday, Mr Finucane's widow Geraldine said they asked Sir John to end his investigation and give his files to the proposed public inquiry.
"The family wanted him to be under no illusions as to what we feel and why we feel it," she said.
"[We wanted him to know] why we are acting in the manner that we are, why we feel the inquiry is so important and that his investigation is not the way to proceed."
Judge Cory was appointed by the British and Irish Governments in 2001 to examine allegations of collusion surrounding some of the most controversial killings of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Judge Cory's report recommends a public inquiry into the case
Last month, Mr Finucane's family was granted leave to apply for a judicial review of the decision not to publish a report into his killing.
In court, the government was accused of adding to the grief of the Finucane family by their delay in releasing Judge Cory's report.
Mrs Finucane was granted an application for the holding of a judicial review into the failure of the Secretary of State, Paul Murphy, to publish Judge Cory's reports, which he received last October.
Judge Cory delivered six reports to the London and Dublin administrations on eight killings.
These included the murder of Mr Finucane, the killing of Catholic man Robert Hamill in Portadown in 1997, the murder of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright in the Maze Prison in 1997 and the murder of solicitor Rosemary Nelson in Lurgan in 1999.
The British Government says it is still considering the legal and security implications of publishing the judge's findings.
Last week, the chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, Professor Desmond Rea, said the Cory reports should be published but said the proposed inquiries should be put on hold.
He wants a commission to report on how best to deal with hundreds of unsolved killings.
The chief constable has already suggested the possibility of some sort of truth commission.
Stevens asked to hand over files
The family of the murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane have met the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, for the first time.
Mr Finucane was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries, the UDA, at his home in Belfast in 1989.
Sir John investigated the killing and concluded that there had been collusion between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.
The family raised concerns that his continuing investigation would further delay the public inquiry that has been recommended by retired Canadian judge Peter Cory.
Speaking after the meeting in Belfast on Monday, Mr Finucane's widow Geraldine said they asked Sir John to end his investigation and give his files to the proposed public inquiry.
"The family wanted him to be under no illusions as to what we feel and why we feel it," she said.
"[We wanted him to know] why we are acting in the manner that we are, why we feel the inquiry is so important and that his investigation is not the way to proceed."
Judge Cory was appointed by the British and Irish Governments in 2001 to examine allegations of collusion surrounding some of the most controversial killings of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Judge Cory's report recommends a public inquiry into the case
Last month, Mr Finucane's family was granted leave to apply for a judicial review of the decision not to publish a report into his killing.
In court, the government was accused of adding to the grief of the Finucane family by their delay in releasing Judge Cory's report.
Mrs Finucane was granted an application for the holding of a judicial review into the failure of the Secretary of State, Paul Murphy, to publish Judge Cory's reports, which he received last October.
Judge Cory delivered six reports to the London and Dublin administrations on eight killings.
These included the murder of Mr Finucane, the killing of Catholic man Robert Hamill in Portadown in 1997, the murder of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright in the Maze Prison in 1997 and the murder of solicitor Rosemary Nelson in Lurgan in 1999.
The British Government says it is still considering the legal and security implications of publishing the judge's findings.
Last week, the chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, Professor Desmond Rea, said the Cory reports should be published but said the proposed inquiries should be put on hold.
He wants a commission to report on how best to deal with hundreds of unsolved killings.
The chief constable has already suggested the possibility of some sort of truth commission.
23.2.04
Ireland On-Line (see links IOL.ie)
Kidnap accused cheered in court
23/02/2004 - 14:14:43
Supporters of four men accused of a thwarted kidnap attempt on a top dissident republican in Belfast applauded as they were led from the dock today.
Relatives and friends packed in to the city’s magistrates’ court as the men faced charges of allegedly beating and abducting Bobby Tohill.
Their arrests have piled huge pressure on Sinn Féin and threatened efforts to rebuild the troubled Northern Ireland peace process.
Amid a heavy police presence all four men, from west Belfast, refused to acknowledge the court as the charges were put to them.
Liam Rainey, (aged 30), of New Barnsley Crescent and Gerard McCrory, (aged 32), from Dermott Hill Road appeared first.
They joked with each other and waved to friends as charges of causing grievous bodily harm and unlawful imprisonment were put to them.
The court also heard they allegedly possessed disposable clothing, pepper spray and two metal cudgels when they were arrested in Belfast city centre on Friday.
Officers swooped on a blue Renault van which contained four men and Mr Tohill soon after he was allegedly seized from a nearby bar.
Even though the Chief Constable Hugh Orde blamed the Provisional IRA for the attempted abduction, charges of membership of the paramilitary organisation against all four were dropped in court.
Harry Fitzsimmons, a 35-year-old painter from St James’ Gardens and Thomas Tolan, (aged 32), of Ballymurphy Parade, were also accused of the same offences when they were brought into court.
Tolan, who had a black eye, and Fitzsimmons refused to stand during the hearing but again waved to their supporters in the public gallery.
Acting Chief Inspector Jeff Smyth told the court all four had made no reply when charged but added he believed he could connect them with the offences.
He confirmed under cross-examination by a defence lawyer that none of the defendants made any statement of admission.
Mr Tohill, a prominent dissident who was once jailed for the murder of a soldier during the 1980s but freed a year later when the evidence of a key witness was dismissed, has made no statement of complaint to police, it also emerged.
All four men were remanded in custody until March 22, but their lawyer indicated they would be applying for High Court bail.
As Fitzsimmons and Tolan were being led away there were shouts of “Keep your head up” and “Good luck lads”, and clapping.
Magistrate Desmond Perry, who had earlier warned he would jail anyone who disrupted proceedings, hit out at the outbursts.
He said to the defence: “If that’s what your clients’ relatives think of as dignified they are very far from the mark.”
Kidnap accused cheered in court
23/02/2004 - 14:14:43
Supporters of four men accused of a thwarted kidnap attempt on a top dissident republican in Belfast applauded as they were led from the dock today.
Relatives and friends packed in to the city’s magistrates’ court as the men faced charges of allegedly beating and abducting Bobby Tohill.
Their arrests have piled huge pressure on Sinn Féin and threatened efforts to rebuild the troubled Northern Ireland peace process.
Amid a heavy police presence all four men, from west Belfast, refused to acknowledge the court as the charges were put to them.
Liam Rainey, (aged 30), of New Barnsley Crescent and Gerard McCrory, (aged 32), from Dermott Hill Road appeared first.
They joked with each other and waved to friends as charges of causing grievous bodily harm and unlawful imprisonment were put to them.
The court also heard they allegedly possessed disposable clothing, pepper spray and two metal cudgels when they were arrested in Belfast city centre on Friday.
Officers swooped on a blue Renault van which contained four men and Mr Tohill soon after he was allegedly seized from a nearby bar.
Even though the Chief Constable Hugh Orde blamed the Provisional IRA for the attempted abduction, charges of membership of the paramilitary organisation against all four were dropped in court.
Harry Fitzsimmons, a 35-year-old painter from St James’ Gardens and Thomas Tolan, (aged 32), of Ballymurphy Parade, were also accused of the same offences when they were brought into court.
Tolan, who had a black eye, and Fitzsimmons refused to stand during the hearing but again waved to their supporters in the public gallery.
Acting Chief Inspector Jeff Smyth told the court all four had made no reply when charged but added he believed he could connect them with the offences.
He confirmed under cross-examination by a defence lawyer that none of the defendants made any statement of admission.
Mr Tohill, a prominent dissident who was once jailed for the murder of a soldier during the 1980s but freed a year later when the evidence of a key witness was dismissed, has made no statement of complaint to police, it also emerged.
All four men were remanded in custody until March 22, but their lawyer indicated they would be applying for High Court bail.
As Fitzsimmons and Tolan were being led away there were shouts of “Keep your head up” and “Good luck lads”, and clapping.
Magistrate Desmond Perry, who had earlier warned he would jail anyone who disrupted proceedings, hit out at the outbursts.
He said to the defence: “If that’s what your clients’ relatives think of as dignified they are very far from the mark.”
BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Men remanded on kidnap charges
Men remanded on kidnap charges
Four Belfast men have appeared in court charged in connection with the alleged abduction of a dissident republican in the city.
Gerard McCrory, 32, of Dermot Hill Road, Liam Rainey, 30 of New Barnsley Crescent, Harry Fitzsimmons, 35, of St James Gardens and Thomas Tolan, 32, of Ballymurphy Parade appeared before Belfast Magistrates Court on Monday.
They are accused of beating and unlawful imprisoning Bobby Tohill who was taken from a city centre bar on Friday evening.
They were remanded in custody for four weeks.
The men are also charged with having items including metal cudgels, pepper spray, disposable clothing and a van in circumstances likely to be of use to terrorists.
The director of public prosecutions told the court that a fourth charge of membership of a proscribed organisation, which all four had faced, would not be proceeded with.
The court was told all four made no reply when charged.
Men remanded on kidnap charges
Four Belfast men have appeared in court charged in connection with the alleged abduction of a dissident republican in the city.
Gerard McCrory, 32, of Dermot Hill Road, Liam Rainey, 30 of New Barnsley Crescent, Harry Fitzsimmons, 35, of St James Gardens and Thomas Tolan, 32, of Ballymurphy Parade appeared before Belfast Magistrates Court on Monday.
They are accused of beating and unlawful imprisoning Bobby Tohill who was taken from a city centre bar on Friday evening.
They were remanded in custody for four weeks.
The men are also charged with having items including metal cudgels, pepper spray, disposable clothing and a van in circumstances likely to be of use to terrorists.
The director of public prosecutions told the court that a fourth charge of membership of a proscribed organisation, which all four had faced, would not be proceeded with.
The court was told all four made no reply when charged.
Irelandclick.com
We Say
A ball of blue steam
Anyone living in nationalist Belfast knows that the IRA remains active and is behind many of the so-called punishment shootings which have taken place in recent months — all of which have been consistently condemned by this paper. Our readers also know that mainstream republicans are responsible for keeping a lid on the activities of the many dissident groups which pose a deadly threat to the peace process.
But no-one, including PSNI chief Hugh Orde, knows who attacked dissident republican Bobby Tohill and bundled him into a van outside Kelly’s Cellars on Friday night.
The suspicion must be that the IRA was involved but then, as Mr Tohill himself attests in these pages, he has a lot of enemies.
Certainly, what mustn’t happen is that the PSNI boss, whose job in the criminal justice process is solely to make arrests, takes on the jobs as well of judge and jury to denounce four men arrested after the Tohill incident as kidnappers and members of the IRA.
The RUC never had much regard for the old adage, ‘innocent until proven guilty’, but Mr Orde should know that the PSNI is supposed to be about a new approach to policing not more of the same.
By his disgraceful outburst, Mr Orde has sent the peace process spiralling into another crisis even though it appears that the entire ugly incident at Kelly’s Cellars will amount to no more than a ball of blue steam. Certainly, Mr Tohill says he won’t be pressing charges and a kidnapping case without a kidnap victim might be a bridge too far for even the most loyal judge.
We Say
A ball of blue steam
Anyone living in nationalist Belfast knows that the IRA remains active and is behind many of the so-called punishment shootings which have taken place in recent months — all of which have been consistently condemned by this paper. Our readers also know that mainstream republicans are responsible for keeping a lid on the activities of the many dissident groups which pose a deadly threat to the peace process.
But no-one, including PSNI chief Hugh Orde, knows who attacked dissident republican Bobby Tohill and bundled him into a van outside Kelly’s Cellars on Friday night.
The suspicion must be that the IRA was involved but then, as Mr Tohill himself attests in these pages, he has a lot of enemies.
Certainly, what mustn’t happen is that the PSNI boss, whose job in the criminal justice process is solely to make arrests, takes on the jobs as well of judge and jury to denounce four men arrested after the Tohill incident as kidnappers and members of the IRA.
The RUC never had much regard for the old adage, ‘innocent until proven guilty’, but Mr Orde should know that the PSNI is supposed to be about a new approach to policing not more of the same.
By his disgraceful outburst, Mr Orde has sent the peace process spiralling into another crisis even though it appears that the entire ugly incident at Kelly’s Cellars will amount to no more than a ball of blue steam. Certainly, Mr Tohill says he won’t be pressing charges and a kidnapping case without a kidnap victim might be a bridge too far for even the most loyal judge.
Irelandclick.com
Kelly’s fight lasted for ten minutes
Witnesses to Bobby Tohill’s alleged abduction spoke of how he fought with four men for 10 minutes before being bundled into the back of a van.
According to drinkers in Kelly’s Cellars, a boiler suited gang burst into the pub at teatime on Friday shouting: “We’re only here for one man, no one else get involved.”
Tohill was beaten with flick-sticks – extended steel rods favoured by nightclub bouncers. After a 10-minute fight that turned the white walls of Kelly’s Cellars red with blood, Tohill was placed in the back of a waiting blue Renault van.
A short time later the van was rammed by an unmarked PSNI car at the junction of the Falls Road and Millfield College. Four men were arrested at the scene and Tohill was rushed to hospital. He signed himself out of the Royal Victoria Hospital on Sunday after receiving 98 stitches for head and body wounds.
The PSNI claim that they were alerted to the attempted abduction by a telephone call from Kelly’s Cellars. However, reports have emerged that the operation may have been a set-up.
During an interview with the Andersonstown News outside Kelly’s Cellars two hours before his alleged abduction, a friend of Tohill’s approached and warned him he was being watched by the PSNI.
Immediately after the incident Chief Constable Hugh Orde claimed the alleged abduction was the work of the Provisional IRA. However, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams yesterday criticised Hugh Orde’s comments after the alleged abduction.
“There have been such claims about the IRA before. They have proven to be without foundation. But Hugh Orde’s speedy allegations follows a pattern going back to the old RUC which was also quick to point the finger at republicans while turning a blind eye to others.
“What value the rights of those arrested? What chance that they will receive a fair hearing? All of those involved need to catch themselves on. The threat to the peace process does not come from republicans.”
Lagan Valley DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson has demanded an immediate review of the IRA ceasefire.
The SDLP’s Alex Attwood said there can be no halfway house between violence and democracy.
Six people were last night being questioned by the PSNI about Friday’s incident.
* The Andersonstown News will start legal proceedings this morning for the return of a company phone seized by PSNI officers investigating the Tohill affair. “This phone was taken from a senior member of our editorial staff and we will be demanding its return,” said a newspaper spokesman. “This is yet another attack on our newsteam by the PSNI.”
Journalist:: Staff Reporter
Kelly’s fight lasted for ten minutes
Witnesses to Bobby Tohill’s alleged abduction spoke of how he fought with four men for 10 minutes before being bundled into the back of a van.
According to drinkers in Kelly’s Cellars, a boiler suited gang burst into the pub at teatime on Friday shouting: “We’re only here for one man, no one else get involved.”
Tohill was beaten with flick-sticks – extended steel rods favoured by nightclub bouncers. After a 10-minute fight that turned the white walls of Kelly’s Cellars red with blood, Tohill was placed in the back of a waiting blue Renault van.
A short time later the van was rammed by an unmarked PSNI car at the junction of the Falls Road and Millfield College. Four men were arrested at the scene and Tohill was rushed to hospital. He signed himself out of the Royal Victoria Hospital on Sunday after receiving 98 stitches for head and body wounds.
The PSNI claim that they were alerted to the attempted abduction by a telephone call from Kelly’s Cellars. However, reports have emerged that the operation may have been a set-up.
During an interview with the Andersonstown News outside Kelly’s Cellars two hours before his alleged abduction, a friend of Tohill’s approached and warned him he was being watched by the PSNI.
Immediately after the incident Chief Constable Hugh Orde claimed the alleged abduction was the work of the Provisional IRA. However, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams yesterday criticised Hugh Orde’s comments after the alleged abduction.
“There have been such claims about the IRA before. They have proven to be without foundation. But Hugh Orde’s speedy allegations follows a pattern going back to the old RUC which was also quick to point the finger at republicans while turning a blind eye to others.
“What value the rights of those arrested? What chance that they will receive a fair hearing? All of those involved need to catch themselves on. The threat to the peace process does not come from republicans.”
Lagan Valley DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson has demanded an immediate review of the IRA ceasefire.
The SDLP’s Alex Attwood said there can be no halfway house between violence and democracy.
Six people were last night being questioned by the PSNI about Friday’s incident.
* The Andersonstown News will start legal proceedings this morning for the return of a company phone seized by PSNI officers investigating the Tohill affair. “This phone was taken from a senior member of our editorial staff and we will be demanding its return,” said a newspaper spokesman. “This is yet another attack on our newsteam by the PSNI.”
Journalist:: Staff Reporter
Irelandclick.com
I'm not pressing charges: Tohill
EXCLUSIVE: FOUR CHARGED BUT CASE MAY FOLD
The dissident republican at the centre of Friday’s ‘abduction’ drama in Belfast city centre has told the Andersonstown News that he will not be making any complaint against four men arrested at the scene who last night were charged with unlawful imprisonment, GBH and IRA membership.
In an exclusive interview at a Belfast hospital Bobby Tohill said he had made no statement to the PSNI about the alleged kidnap now at the centre of a peace process storm. Legal sources agree that if Tohill carries through his promise, then the case against the four men will collapse. Two men arrested in West Belfast on Saturday in connection with the incident have been released without charge. However, a seventh person, a woman, was arrested on Sunday. The four men charged last night will appear at Laganside Magistrates Court this morning.
'Kidnap' case will collapse
“I’ll not be pressing charges”: Bobby Tohill
Bobby Tohill’s solicitors will tell the PSNI today that he will not be pressing charges against his alleged abductors.
In an exclusive interview with the Andersonstown News at his hospital bed the prominent dissident republican accused the British government of using him as a “political pawn”.
Two hours before his alleged abduction last Friday evening the 45-year-old told our reporter he was being targeted by both the Provisional IRA and loyalists. However, despite claims to the contrary, he now insists Friday’s incident had nothing to do with a paramilitary dispute and was a fallout from a drunken argument.
Legal experts told the Andersonstown News yesterday that Bobby Tohill’s take on events had the potential to collapse any case the PSNI may pursue.
"So long as the four men arrested have not made statements, Bobby Tohill’s refusal to press charges should wreck any case the PSNI might bring,” said a legal source.
Bobby Tohill admits his recollections of Friday night’s events are unclear. But what he is sure of is that he was not kidnapped.
“What I can remember is arguing and then fighting in Kelly’s Cellars,” explained a bloodied and bruised Bobby.
“I have not and will not be making any complaint to the PSNI about this so-called kidnapping affair. I will sign an affidavit confirming this was not a kidnapping.
“The PSNI have been hassling me to make a statement, but the only one I’ll be giving is to my solicitor saying I will not press charges.”
Bobby Tohill insisted that reports carried in weekend newspapers claiming the kidnapping was the work of the IRA were wrong.
“A newspaper photographer gained access to my room on Saturday and took my picture while I was drugged,” he added. “This is the first full interview I have given to any newspaper after the incident. All I want is to be left in peace and get on with a normal life – something that I haven’t had since first getting caught up in the conflict as a 12-year-old boy.”
Journalist:: Ciaran Barnes
I'm not pressing charges: Tohill
EXCLUSIVE: FOUR CHARGED BUT CASE MAY FOLD
The dissident republican at the centre of Friday’s ‘abduction’ drama in Belfast city centre has told the Andersonstown News that he will not be making any complaint against four men arrested at the scene who last night were charged with unlawful imprisonment, GBH and IRA membership.
In an exclusive interview at a Belfast hospital Bobby Tohill said he had made no statement to the PSNI about the alleged kidnap now at the centre of a peace process storm. Legal sources agree that if Tohill carries through his promise, then the case against the four men will collapse. Two men arrested in West Belfast on Saturday in connection with the incident have been released without charge. However, a seventh person, a woman, was arrested on Sunday. The four men charged last night will appear at Laganside Magistrates Court this morning.
'Kidnap' case will collapse
“I’ll not be pressing charges”: Bobby Tohill
Bobby Tohill’s solicitors will tell the PSNI today that he will not be pressing charges against his alleged abductors.
In an exclusive interview with the Andersonstown News at his hospital bed the prominent dissident republican accused the British government of using him as a “political pawn”.
Two hours before his alleged abduction last Friday evening the 45-year-old told our reporter he was being targeted by both the Provisional IRA and loyalists. However, despite claims to the contrary, he now insists Friday’s incident had nothing to do with a paramilitary dispute and was a fallout from a drunken argument.
Legal experts told the Andersonstown News yesterday that Bobby Tohill’s take on events had the potential to collapse any case the PSNI may pursue.
"So long as the four men arrested have not made statements, Bobby Tohill’s refusal to press charges should wreck any case the PSNI might bring,” said a legal source.
Bobby Tohill admits his recollections of Friday night’s events are unclear. But what he is sure of is that he was not kidnapped.
“What I can remember is arguing and then fighting in Kelly’s Cellars,” explained a bloodied and bruised Bobby.
“I have not and will not be making any complaint to the PSNI about this so-called kidnapping affair. I will sign an affidavit confirming this was not a kidnapping.
“The PSNI have been hassling me to make a statement, but the only one I’ll be giving is to my solicitor saying I will not press charges.”
Bobby Tohill insisted that reports carried in weekend newspapers claiming the kidnapping was the work of the IRA were wrong.
“A newspaper photographer gained access to my room on Saturday and took my picture while I was drugged,” he added. “This is the first full interview I have given to any newspaper after the incident. All I want is to be left in peace and get on with a normal life – something that I haven’t had since first getting caught up in the conflict as a 12-year-old boy.”
Journalist:: Ciaran Barnes
Irelandclick.com
Tohill death threat on Website
Andersonstown News reporter Ciarán Barnes spoke to Bobby Tohill just two hours before his ‘kidnap’ ordeal
Less than two hours before his alleged abduction on Friday night Bobby Tohill told the Andersonstown News that “certain elements” of the IRA were conspiring with loyalists to have him murdered.
On Thursday the Andersonstown News discovered both the UDA and UVF were in possession of his secret South Belfast address and movements. When confronted with the revelations outside Kelly’s Cellars, where we had agreed to meet, the leading dissident republican accused IRA members of waging a vendetta against him and passing the information on to loyalists. “They want the UDA or UVF to do their dirty work for them,” said Tohill.
“There are those within the IRA who want to murder me.”
The former IRA and INLA OC of the Lower Falls was adamant that mainstream republicans wanted him dead because of his links with the Real IRA. Bobby Tohill denied being the Belfast OC of the Real IRA, a charge levelled at him following the murder of Danny McGurk by the group in August last year.
However, the 45-year-old admitted to offering the Real IRA “military advice”.
“I have never been a member of the Real IRA,” claimed a defiant Tohill. “I have friends who are members and because of this sections of the IRA believe I am involved in dissident republican activity. There are those in the Provos, who because of my reputation, believe I could attract a lot of support to the Real IRA if I were their Belfast OC. It was this that sparked my fall-out with them.”
Bobby Tohill moved back to Belfast in 2001 after a decade in Dublin during which he served a prison sentence for firearms offences and was, he says, involved with ‘vigilante’ groups tackling drug dealers. He says his return to Belfast was prompted by a fall-out with republicans in the south.
“I was accused of shooting up a senior IRA man’s house and of being a mercenary killer; again another complete lie,” added Bobby.
“I was involved with vigilante gangs in the south but I never acted against fellow republicans.”
Tohill flirted with the Real IRA on his return north but claims never to have been ‘green booked’ – the slang term for swearing an oath.
“I offered them military advice,” he said.
“But after last August’s murder of Danny McGurk I severed all links with dissident republicanism.
“I walked away from everything and started a new life in a hostel in South Belfast. But because I was seen as the Real IRA Belfast OC certain members of the IRA wanted to kill me in retaliation for Danny McGurk. I had nothing to do with Danny’s killing and condemn those that did. I knew him for 30 years and was sorry to see a good man murdered.”
According to Bobby Tohill the Danny McGurk murder finished the Real IRA in Belfast. “The Provos closed them down in a very cynical fashion,” he said. “The Real IRA can bleat about being strong but they are dead, completely finished.”
Throughout his meeting with the Andersonstown News, Bobby Tohill appeared nervous and agitated. He showed me prescribed medication he was receiving for stress caused, he said, by 30 years of conflict.
Tohill was also suspicious that he was being monitored by the PSNI. This fear was reinforced when, during the interview, a friend approached to warn him that the “peelers were looking on”.
Seconds later a uniformed patrol passed us as we spoke.
“I could get whacked at any time,” he said. “I’m constantly looking over my shoulder and never have a gun far away from me. That’s why I’m taking all these tablets.
“I’m in a bad way but I’m not leaving my new home and I’ll still walk the Falls Road during the day. Night is a different matter though, I wouldn’t dare enter West Belfast after dark.”
Bobby Tohill was adamant that he would soon face an attempt on his life, claiming on several occasions that he was likely to be dead before Monday. Despite this he was keen to stress that his argument was with certain sections of the IRA and not the movement as a whole.
“I want to make it clear that my problems are with certain elements of the IRA,” said Tohill. “It is not the movement on a whole, there are just one or two people who are waging a vendetta against me.”
A violent republican since the outbreak of the Troubles, Bobby Tohill has served more than a decade in jail.
In 1985 he was sentenced to life for the murder of a UDR man in 1981. However, he was freed two years later along with 26 others after a judge ruled the man who gave evidence against him – INLA supergrass Harry Kirkpatrick – was an unreliable witness.
In 1987 he was shot in the neck during an INLA feud. After this attack he moved to Dublin, settled down with his girlfriend and fathered four children. Three years ago following a fall-out with local republicans he returned to Belfast.
Despite his violent past Bobby Tohill now sees no place for the gun in Irish society.
“The nationalist people want peace and the paramilitaries should respond to that,” he explained.
“This is no future for the IRA, Real IRA, or any of the different groupings whether they be republican or loyalist.
“I don’t agree with the Good Friday Agreement, it’s not what thousands of republicans died or went to jail for, but I do agree with the peace process. "All I want to do is get on with my life, although I firmly believe I will die at the hands of the Provisionals. The armed struggle has cost me everything – my family and friends, but I still have my pride and I will not allow my good name to be destroyed. Renegade IRA members can try and take my life but they won’t take my pride.”
As we parted company Bobby Tohill told me that if anything happened to him in the coming days: “to tell the truth. Tell them everything that I have told you.”
Two hours later and his face was all over the TV news.
Journalist:: Ciaran Barnes
Tohill death threat on Website
Andersonstown News reporter Ciarán Barnes spoke to Bobby Tohill just two hours before his ‘kidnap’ ordeal
Less than two hours before his alleged abduction on Friday night Bobby Tohill told the Andersonstown News that “certain elements” of the IRA were conspiring with loyalists to have him murdered.
On Thursday the Andersonstown News discovered both the UDA and UVF were in possession of his secret South Belfast address and movements. When confronted with the revelations outside Kelly’s Cellars, where we had agreed to meet, the leading dissident republican accused IRA members of waging a vendetta against him and passing the information on to loyalists. “They want the UDA or UVF to do their dirty work for them,” said Tohill.
“There are those within the IRA who want to murder me.”
The former IRA and INLA OC of the Lower Falls was adamant that mainstream republicans wanted him dead because of his links with the Real IRA. Bobby Tohill denied being the Belfast OC of the Real IRA, a charge levelled at him following the murder of Danny McGurk by the group in August last year.
However, the 45-year-old admitted to offering the Real IRA “military advice”.
“I have never been a member of the Real IRA,” claimed a defiant Tohill. “I have friends who are members and because of this sections of the IRA believe I am involved in dissident republican activity. There are those in the Provos, who because of my reputation, believe I could attract a lot of support to the Real IRA if I were their Belfast OC. It was this that sparked my fall-out with them.”
Bobby Tohill moved back to Belfast in 2001 after a decade in Dublin during which he served a prison sentence for firearms offences and was, he says, involved with ‘vigilante’ groups tackling drug dealers. He says his return to Belfast was prompted by a fall-out with republicans in the south.
“I was accused of shooting up a senior IRA man’s house and of being a mercenary killer; again another complete lie,” added Bobby.
“I was involved with vigilante gangs in the south but I never acted against fellow republicans.”
Tohill flirted with the Real IRA on his return north but claims never to have been ‘green booked’ – the slang term for swearing an oath.
“I offered them military advice,” he said.
“But after last August’s murder of Danny McGurk I severed all links with dissident republicanism.
“I walked away from everything and started a new life in a hostel in South Belfast. But because I was seen as the Real IRA Belfast OC certain members of the IRA wanted to kill me in retaliation for Danny McGurk. I had nothing to do with Danny’s killing and condemn those that did. I knew him for 30 years and was sorry to see a good man murdered.”
According to Bobby Tohill the Danny McGurk murder finished the Real IRA in Belfast. “The Provos closed them down in a very cynical fashion,” he said. “The Real IRA can bleat about being strong but they are dead, completely finished.”
Throughout his meeting with the Andersonstown News, Bobby Tohill appeared nervous and agitated. He showed me prescribed medication he was receiving for stress caused, he said, by 30 years of conflict.
Tohill was also suspicious that he was being monitored by the PSNI. This fear was reinforced when, during the interview, a friend approached to warn him that the “peelers were looking on”.
Seconds later a uniformed patrol passed us as we spoke.
“I could get whacked at any time,” he said. “I’m constantly looking over my shoulder and never have a gun far away from me. That’s why I’m taking all these tablets.
“I’m in a bad way but I’m not leaving my new home and I’ll still walk the Falls Road during the day. Night is a different matter though, I wouldn’t dare enter West Belfast after dark.”
Bobby Tohill was adamant that he would soon face an attempt on his life, claiming on several occasions that he was likely to be dead before Monday. Despite this he was keen to stress that his argument was with certain sections of the IRA and not the movement as a whole.
“I want to make it clear that my problems are with certain elements of the IRA,” said Tohill. “It is not the movement on a whole, there are just one or two people who are waging a vendetta against me.”
A violent republican since the outbreak of the Troubles, Bobby Tohill has served more than a decade in jail.
In 1985 he was sentenced to life for the murder of a UDR man in 1981. However, he was freed two years later along with 26 others after a judge ruled the man who gave evidence against him – INLA supergrass Harry Kirkpatrick – was an unreliable witness.
In 1987 he was shot in the neck during an INLA feud. After this attack he moved to Dublin, settled down with his girlfriend and fathered four children. Three years ago following a fall-out with local republicans he returned to Belfast.
Despite his violent past Bobby Tohill now sees no place for the gun in Irish society.
“The nationalist people want peace and the paramilitaries should respond to that,” he explained.
“This is no future for the IRA, Real IRA, or any of the different groupings whether they be republican or loyalist.
“I don’t agree with the Good Friday Agreement, it’s not what thousands of republicans died or went to jail for, but I do agree with the peace process. "All I want to do is get on with my life, although I firmly believe I will die at the hands of the Provisionals. The armed struggle has cost me everything – my family and friends, but I still have my pride and I will not allow my good name to be destroyed. Renegade IRA members can try and take my life but they won’t take my pride.”
As we parted company Bobby Tohill told me that if anything happened to him in the coming days: “to tell the truth. Tell them everything that I have told you.”
Two hours later and his face was all over the TV news.
Journalist:: Ciaran Barnes
22.2.04
THE BLANKET
A Malignant Menage d'trois
--By Anthony McIntyre
**An especially apt article for this weekend. Please click on above link to read it.
"...The police will of course pursue firemen who murder their lover's husband, arrest drug dealers - if they are not in the UDA, and crack down hard on those who violently prey on the elderly. Just as they have always done. Equally so, they will treat with absolute contempt legal safeguards put in place to protect the citizen from the type of police abuses that were so frequent in the past; and which some would hope to bamboozle us into believing exist only in the past....The RUC is dead - long live the RUC."
----------------------------------
A Malignant Menage d'trois
--By Anthony McIntyre
**An especially apt article for this weekend. Please click on above link to read it.
"...The police will of course pursue firemen who murder their lover's husband, arrest drug dealers - if they are not in the UDA, and crack down hard on those who violently prey on the elderly. Just as they have always done. Equally so, they will treat with absolute contempt legal safeguards put in place to protect the citizen from the type of police abuses that were so frequent in the past; and which some would hope to bamboozle us into believing exist only in the past....The RUC is dead - long live the RUC."
----------------------------------
Politics.ie
Adams challenges Paisley and attacks critics
Sunday, February 22
In the course of a wide ranging speech today in Dunloy, County Antrim, at a commemoration to mark the 20th anniversary of the deaths of IRA Volunteers Henry Hogan and Declan Martin, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP expressed his condolences to the families of those killed and injured in yesterdays bus tragedy in Dublin.
The Sinn Féin leader also spoke about his concerns for the future of the political process, the responsibilities of the two governments, Sinn Féin's willingness to engage with the DUP and the events of Friday night in Belfast.
Mr. Adams said, "The current disposition of the political process remains untenable in the longer term. It is not enough for the two governments to verbalise about their commitments to the process and to the changes they are obliged to bring in under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, delivery of those obligations is essential.
On Thursday I welcomed the Taoiseach's reiteration of 'the Governments role as co-guarantor with the British Government of the Good Friday Agreement.' But Republicans and Nationalists, particularly here in the North, want to know what does that mean in terms of their lives, and their rights and entitlements as Irish citizens?
They want delivery on these matters, promised almost six years ago under the Agreement, and they look to our government, as a co-guarantor, to ensure that delivery. The responsibility for this rests exclusively with the British and Irish governments."
The Sinn Féin leader also went on the challenge the DUP's Ian Paisley"
"If you have the courage of your convictions then enter into dialogue with Sinn Féin. There can be no doubt that such dialogue will take place. Ian Paisley's public position is simply delaying this. That is not acceptable.
The logic of the DUP position is that they should be in government with Sinn Féin. The objective reality at this time is that Sinn Féin is the largest pro-Agreement party. This is not going to change in the time ahead.
Republicans are not naïve about the DUP. We know that they want to minimise the process of change. But the DUP also knows that if it wants a return to devolved administration that it will be with Sinn Fein in government and it will be with the all-Ireland model contained in the Good Friday Agreement template.
So our party is prepared to explore the DUP position, not because we have any illusions about Mr. Paisley's position, but because we have a confidence in our own position and because one of our objectives is for a strategic alliance with unionism for the benefit of all our people.
We recognise and respect the mandate of the DUP, they must recognise and respect our mandate."
Mr. Adams paid tribute to the families of Volunteers Henry Hogan and Declan Martin. He said that; "One of the challenges facing everyone in the peace process is to recognise that there can be no hierarchy of victims. All sides have suffered and while republicans are very mindful of the hurt we have inflicted, we also take considerable pride in the courage and unselfishness of those who have died in the republican cause."
Finally, the Sinn Féin President attacked those critics who have been seeking to use Friday evening's events in Belfast City Centre to criticise Sinn Féin"
"The PSNI have claimed that this was an abduction by the IRA. There have been such claims about the IRA before. They have proven to be without foundation. But Hugh Orde's speedy allegation follows a pattern going back to the old RUC which was also quick to point the finger at republicans while turning a blind eye to others.
What value the rights of those arrested? What chance that they will receive a fair hearing?
There has also been an unholy haste by a range of politicians eager to seize upon Hugh Orde's statement and an eagerness by sections of the media to repeat his allegation without question or to embroider it.
All of those involved need to catch themselves on. The threat to the peace process does not come from republicans, it comes from others including those who have failed or refuse to make politics work.
Whatever the truth behind Friday nights incident Sinn Féin will not be made a whipping boy, especially by those who have no interest in making this process work.
Our position is clear. Last October I reiterated our commitment to democratic and peaceful politics. I also pointed to a peaceful direction for all republicans to follow. That remains my position and the endeavour and the focus of Sinn Féin. So there is a choice for those who are quick to pass judgement on these matters.
Do they value the Sinn Féin peace strategy and our contribution to the peace process, including our on going efforts to bring an end to physical force republicanism, or do they not? If they do not and prefer instead to stick with the old agenda then it is they who undermine the peace process not Sinn Féin."
Adams challenges Paisley and attacks critics
Sunday, February 22
In the course of a wide ranging speech today in Dunloy, County Antrim, at a commemoration to mark the 20th anniversary of the deaths of IRA Volunteers Henry Hogan and Declan Martin, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams MP expressed his condolences to the families of those killed and injured in yesterdays bus tragedy in Dublin.
The Sinn Féin leader also spoke about his concerns for the future of the political process, the responsibilities of the two governments, Sinn Féin's willingness to engage with the DUP and the events of Friday night in Belfast.
Mr. Adams said, "The current disposition of the political process remains untenable in the longer term. It is not enough for the two governments to verbalise about their commitments to the process and to the changes they are obliged to bring in under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, delivery of those obligations is essential.
On Thursday I welcomed the Taoiseach's reiteration of 'the Governments role as co-guarantor with the British Government of the Good Friday Agreement.' But Republicans and Nationalists, particularly here in the North, want to know what does that mean in terms of their lives, and their rights and entitlements as Irish citizens?
They want delivery on these matters, promised almost six years ago under the Agreement, and they look to our government, as a co-guarantor, to ensure that delivery. The responsibility for this rests exclusively with the British and Irish governments."
The Sinn Féin leader also went on the challenge the DUP's Ian Paisley"
"If you have the courage of your convictions then enter into dialogue with Sinn Féin. There can be no doubt that such dialogue will take place. Ian Paisley's public position is simply delaying this. That is not acceptable.
The logic of the DUP position is that they should be in government with Sinn Féin. The objective reality at this time is that Sinn Féin is the largest pro-Agreement party. This is not going to change in the time ahead.
Republicans are not naïve about the DUP. We know that they want to minimise the process of change. But the DUP also knows that if it wants a return to devolved administration that it will be with Sinn Fein in government and it will be with the all-Ireland model contained in the Good Friday Agreement template.
So our party is prepared to explore the DUP position, not because we have any illusions about Mr. Paisley's position, but because we have a confidence in our own position and because one of our objectives is for a strategic alliance with unionism for the benefit of all our people.
We recognise and respect the mandate of the DUP, they must recognise and respect our mandate."
Mr. Adams paid tribute to the families of Volunteers Henry Hogan and Declan Martin. He said that; "One of the challenges facing everyone in the peace process is to recognise that there can be no hierarchy of victims. All sides have suffered and while republicans are very mindful of the hurt we have inflicted, we also take considerable pride in the courage and unselfishness of those who have died in the republican cause."
Finally, the Sinn Féin President attacked those critics who have been seeking to use Friday evening's events in Belfast City Centre to criticise Sinn Féin"
"The PSNI have claimed that this was an abduction by the IRA. There have been such claims about the IRA before. They have proven to be without foundation. But Hugh Orde's speedy allegation follows a pattern going back to the old RUC which was also quick to point the finger at republicans while turning a blind eye to others.
What value the rights of those arrested? What chance that they will receive a fair hearing?
There has also been an unholy haste by a range of politicians eager to seize upon Hugh Orde's statement and an eagerness by sections of the media to repeat his allegation without question or to embroider it.
All of those involved need to catch themselves on. The threat to the peace process does not come from republicans, it comes from others including those who have failed or refuse to make politics work.
Whatever the truth behind Friday nights incident Sinn Féin will not be made a whipping boy, especially by those who have no interest in making this process work.
Our position is clear. Last October I reiterated our commitment to democratic and peaceful politics. I also pointed to a peaceful direction for all republicans to follow. That remains my position and the endeavour and the focus of Sinn Féin. So there is a choice for those who are quick to pass judgement on these matters.
Do they value the Sinn Féin peace strategy and our contribution to the peace process, including our on going efforts to bring an end to physical force republicanism, or do they not? If they do not and prefer instead to stick with the old agenda then it is they who undermine the peace process not Sinn Féin."
Sunday Life
Why no convictions?
22 February 2004
RELATIVES of six Catholics murdered in a UVF atrocity have been urged to call in the Police Ombudsman - to investigate why no-one has ever been prosecuted.
The 10th anniversary of the Loughinisland massacre falls later this year.
UVF gunmen walked into the Heights Bar, in the Co Down village, and opened fire as customers watched a World Cup match on TV.
Local people point out that Loughinisland was the only major atrocity of the late Troubles where no-one was prosecuted or convicted.
The SDLP has revealed it is considering enlisting Nuala O'Loan's help.
And now, Raymond McCord, whose son was killed by the UVF, has sent a message to politicians and villagers that the Ombudsman may be the only way they are going to get answers.
"I would support them 100pc in going to the Ombudsman. They will get more action from Mrs O'Loan's office than they will ever get from the police," said Mr McCord.
The Ombudsman's office is currently compiling a report on Mr McCord's allegations that UVF killings, in north Belfast, were allowed to proceed to protect police agents within the loyalist terror group.
The suspicion has been that the Heights Bar killings were sanctioned by the Belfast command of the UVF, as a reprisal for the INLA murder of two UVF members on the Shankill Road, two days earlier.
There is growing concern that a number of leads, which could have trapped the killer gang, did not produce results for the police.
Relatives had pinned their hopes on the strongest of these, namely the DNA testing of fibres on the guns and balaclavas recovered within days of the killings.
Mr McCord said: "The UVF was penetrated at the highest levels of the leadership. I would encourage people to ask Mrs O'Loan to look at these murder files, and I personally would help them in any way I could."
Why no convictions?
22 February 2004
RELATIVES of six Catholics murdered in a UVF atrocity have been urged to call in the Police Ombudsman - to investigate why no-one has ever been prosecuted.
The 10th anniversary of the Loughinisland massacre falls later this year.
UVF gunmen walked into the Heights Bar, in the Co Down village, and opened fire as customers watched a World Cup match on TV.
Local people point out that Loughinisland was the only major atrocity of the late Troubles where no-one was prosecuted or convicted.
The SDLP has revealed it is considering enlisting Nuala O'Loan's help.
And now, Raymond McCord, whose son was killed by the UVF, has sent a message to politicians and villagers that the Ombudsman may be the only way they are going to get answers.
"I would support them 100pc in going to the Ombudsman. They will get more action from Mrs O'Loan's office than they will ever get from the police," said Mr McCord.
The Ombudsman's office is currently compiling a report on Mr McCord's allegations that UVF killings, in north Belfast, were allowed to proceed to protect police agents within the loyalist terror group.
The suspicion has been that the Heights Bar killings were sanctioned by the Belfast command of the UVF, as a reprisal for the INLA murder of two UVF members on the Shankill Road, two days earlier.
There is growing concern that a number of leads, which could have trapped the killer gang, did not produce results for the police.
Relatives had pinned their hopes on the strongest of these, namely the DNA testing of fibres on the guns and balaclavas recovered within days of the killings.
Mr McCord said: "The UVF was penetrated at the highest levels of the leadership. I would encourage people to ask Mrs O'Loan to look at these murder files, and I personally would help them in any way I could."
Sunday Life
I'll tell it all
--By Stephen Breen
CAGED loyalist Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair last night vowed to reveal his dark secrets as a UFF godfather, to any 'Truth Commission' established in Ulster.
In an exclusive behind-bars interview with Sunday Life, the ousted UDA chief said: "Give me an amnesty - and I'll tell you everything".
Adair promised to break his silence about his role as leader of the UFF's Shankill murder machine, during the 1980s and 1990s, after Policing Board chairman, Professor Des Rea, called for a truth commission to be established in the province.
The Shankill Road man told us he would only participate in a South African-style reconciliation initiative, if an amnesty was in place.
But he said his participation in the scheme would also depend on whether or not informers and Special Branch handlers would be called, to provide details of their roles in the murky world of counter-terrorism.
Said Adair: "If they provide an amnesty for people like me, who were involved in the conflict - I'll tell any truth commission everything I know.
"I am in favour of this project, if it helps us take another inch and mile towards peace - it is something I definitely wouldn't fear. The only people who would oppose it are informers, and their handlers.
"If I knew that touts and people in Special Branch, who were central to the conflict here, would appear at a truth commission, then I would have no problem in appearing myself.
"These are the people who need to come forward and come clean about the activities they were involved in. Informers have been the only winners in this conflict, because they are still able to lead a life of luxury.
"It could take a long time, but the dirty dealing between informers and their handlers needs to be exposed, and maybe the truth commission is the way to go about this."
West Belfast SDLP Assemblyman, Alex Attwood, told Sunday Life Adair would only use a truth commission for his "own ends".
Added Mr Attwood: "The truth commission should place its emphasis on the victims, and not perpetrators of violence, like Adair.
"But if some of the victims would consider meeting people like Adair, in a bid to have a greater sense of understanding, then I would have to support it.
"I fear Adair may only be advocating a truth commission for his own personal reasons, and not for the victims."
Adair also claimed he had "nothing to say" about the murder of Pat Finucane.
"I was questioned about the Finucane murder, but I had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was the intelligence spooks who arranged the killing," he added.
"I may be forced to go to a public inquiry, but what else can I tell them that they don't already know?"
Campaign of terror
IN the early 1990s, Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair orchestrated a campaign of terror in nationalist areas of Belfast, from his powerbase in the Shankill.
Before his conviction for directing terrorism in 1995, Adair's notorious UFF 'C' company were responsible for dozens of murders, bombings, shootings and rocket attacks across the city.
Adair's units are believed to have murdered 22 people in Belfast during 1992 and 1993, and carried out countless other attacks.
During that period, his men were killing more people than the IRA.
Adair sent his men into the heart of republican west Belfast, mounting attacks on the Falls Road and Andersonstown.
Among the terrorist operations he helped mastermind were RPG-rocket attacks on Sinn Fein HQ at Connolly House, and two attempts on the life of former Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey, who later became Lord Mayor of Belfast.
Some of the people murdered by Adair's men included west Belfast barber, Sean Hughes, and mechanic, Ben Hughes.
Adair continued to wield power from behind bars, and his men were responsible for the murder of cross-community worker, Terry Enright, in 1998.
He was also at the heart of the UDA-UVF feud in 2001, and was involved in a bitter dispute with his former comrades in the UDA.
If a truth commission is established, and Adair does take to the stand, the families of those his men murdered will hear his justification for killing their loved ones.
I'll tell it all
--By Stephen Breen
CAGED loyalist Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair last night vowed to reveal his dark secrets as a UFF godfather, to any 'Truth Commission' established in Ulster.
In an exclusive behind-bars interview with Sunday Life, the ousted UDA chief said: "Give me an amnesty - and I'll tell you everything".
Adair promised to break his silence about his role as leader of the UFF's Shankill murder machine, during the 1980s and 1990s, after Policing Board chairman, Professor Des Rea, called for a truth commission to be established in the province.
The Shankill Road man told us he would only participate in a South African-style reconciliation initiative, if an amnesty was in place.
But he said his participation in the scheme would also depend on whether or not informers and Special Branch handlers would be called, to provide details of their roles in the murky world of counter-terrorism.
Said Adair: "If they provide an amnesty for people like me, who were involved in the conflict - I'll tell any truth commission everything I know.
"I am in favour of this project, if it helps us take another inch and mile towards peace - it is something I definitely wouldn't fear. The only people who would oppose it are informers, and their handlers.
"If I knew that touts and people in Special Branch, who were central to the conflict here, would appear at a truth commission, then I would have no problem in appearing myself.
"These are the people who need to come forward and come clean about the activities they were involved in. Informers have been the only winners in this conflict, because they are still able to lead a life of luxury.
"It could take a long time, but the dirty dealing between informers and their handlers needs to be exposed, and maybe the truth commission is the way to go about this."
West Belfast SDLP Assemblyman, Alex Attwood, told Sunday Life Adair would only use a truth commission for his "own ends".
Added Mr Attwood: "The truth commission should place its emphasis on the victims, and not perpetrators of violence, like Adair.
"But if some of the victims would consider meeting people like Adair, in a bid to have a greater sense of understanding, then I would have to support it.
"I fear Adair may only be advocating a truth commission for his own personal reasons, and not for the victims."
Adair also claimed he had "nothing to say" about the murder of Pat Finucane.
"I was questioned about the Finucane murder, but I had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was the intelligence spooks who arranged the killing," he added.
"I may be forced to go to a public inquiry, but what else can I tell them that they don't already know?"
Campaign of terror
IN the early 1990s, Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair orchestrated a campaign of terror in nationalist areas of Belfast, from his powerbase in the Shankill.
Before his conviction for directing terrorism in 1995, Adair's notorious UFF 'C' company were responsible for dozens of murders, bombings, shootings and rocket attacks across the city.
Adair's units are believed to have murdered 22 people in Belfast during 1992 and 1993, and carried out countless other attacks.
During that period, his men were killing more people than the IRA.
Adair sent his men into the heart of republican west Belfast, mounting attacks on the Falls Road and Andersonstown.
Among the terrorist operations he helped mastermind were RPG-rocket attacks on Sinn Fein HQ at Connolly House, and two attempts on the life of former Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey, who later became Lord Mayor of Belfast.
Some of the people murdered by Adair's men included west Belfast barber, Sean Hughes, and mechanic, Ben Hughes.
Adair continued to wield power from behind bars, and his men were responsible for the murder of cross-community worker, Terry Enright, in 1998.
He was also at the heart of the UDA-UVF feud in 2001, and was involved in a bitter dispute with his former comrades in the UDA.
If a truth commission is established, and Adair does take to the stand, the families of those his men murdered will hear his justification for killing their loved ones.
Sunday Life
Murder squads sent to wipe out UDA boss
--By Ciaran McGuigan
Former buds Adai (with the tough earring) and Spence
TWIN murder squads were last week sent out to kill north Belfast UDA crime boss, Jim Spence and three of his associates.
But the would-be killers - five men in total - were forced to abandon their twin attacks on Spence's north Belfast home and a Shankill Road bar, due to a nearby police patrol.
Sources say they were forced to dump guns and a grenade and flee, when a radio scanner picked up details of a nearby police patrol.
Cops swooped on the Grove Park and York Road areas of north Belfast, last Wednesday, after information from Sunday Life about the aborted attack, and the dumped weapons.
Sunday Life contacted police after receiving an anonymous warning that the live explosives had been abandoned.
Army bomb experts, acting on our tip-off, were able to make safe the primed hand grenade, dumped near the Grove Inn.
However, searches of the Grove Park were unable to uncover an assault rifle and a handgun, that sources say were dumped there.
A well-placed source told Sunday Life that the aborted attacks were being carried out by supporters of jailed terror boss, Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair.
A war-of-words has recently erupted between former pals Adair and Spence - with the former Shankill UFF leader accusing Spence of being an informer.
But that verbal battle threatened to turn to bloodshed last Tuesday night, when two murder squads were set to launch attacks on Spence's Woodvale home, and on a Shankill Road bar used by three of his cohorts.
One car, carrying three people, was to be used to launch a gun and grenade attack on Spence's home.
A second team, made up of two men, was setting out to target a bar on the Shankill Road.
The targets of that attack were three men, including a convicted rapist, who now runs a number of brothels for the UDA, and a drug dealer who is a major dealer of Ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis, operating from a sheeben on the Shankill.
Spence and his three associates all refused to back Adair in the feud between his C Company and the rest of the UDA, causing the two lifelong pals to fall out
Murder squads sent to wipe out UDA boss
--By Ciaran McGuigan
Former buds Adai (with the tough earring) and Spence
TWIN murder squads were last week sent out to kill north Belfast UDA crime boss, Jim Spence and three of his associates.
But the would-be killers - five men in total - were forced to abandon their twin attacks on Spence's north Belfast home and a Shankill Road bar, due to a nearby police patrol.
Sources say they were forced to dump guns and a grenade and flee, when a radio scanner picked up details of a nearby police patrol.
Cops swooped on the Grove Park and York Road areas of north Belfast, last Wednesday, after information from Sunday Life about the aborted attack, and the dumped weapons.
Sunday Life contacted police after receiving an anonymous warning that the live explosives had been abandoned.
Army bomb experts, acting on our tip-off, were able to make safe the primed hand grenade, dumped near the Grove Inn.
However, searches of the Grove Park were unable to uncover an assault rifle and a handgun, that sources say were dumped there.
A well-placed source told Sunday Life that the aborted attacks were being carried out by supporters of jailed terror boss, Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair.
A war-of-words has recently erupted between former pals Adair and Spence - with the former Shankill UFF leader accusing Spence of being an informer.
But that verbal battle threatened to turn to bloodshed last Tuesday night, when two murder squads were set to launch attacks on Spence's Woodvale home, and on a Shankill Road bar used by three of his cohorts.
One car, carrying three people, was to be used to launch a gun and grenade attack on Spence's home.
A second team, made up of two men, was setting out to target a bar on the Shankill Road.
The targets of that attack were three men, including a convicted rapist, who now runs a number of brothels for the UDA, and a drug dealer who is a major dealer of Ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis, operating from a sheeben on the Shankill.
Spence and his three associates all refused to back Adair in the feud between his C Company and the rest of the UDA, causing the two lifelong pals to fall out
ira2
Britannia has no cash for our civil servants
--James Kelly, Irish News
The dead end kids of Ardoyne, a microcosm of all the other flag-bedecked ghettos throughout the north, have delivered a stark message to the fumbling political leaders.
The suicide of those two young Catholic men, bereft of hope and driven to despair, has shocked people over a wide area and should shame those who brought this terrible reality about.
Is this the end result of all that determined effort to unravel the Good Friday Agreement signed six long years ago?
After the funerals we heard a few of these kids detailing the harsh reality of their lives, hemmed in in one of the most deprived areas of what was acknowledged years ago as 'John Bull's political slum'.
They wanted jobs but there were none.
All day with nothing to do, surrounded by hostile loyalist
territory, risking beatings by INLA thugs when they were tempted to turn to drugs.
Two pals could take it no more and ended their young lives... is this the north's lost generation telling the failed politicians,
stuck in the stalemate of their own making, 'a plague on all your houses'?.
Others with university degrees are reenacting that sad old
play 'many young men of 20 said goodbye' and are taking to the emigrant trail. How is this to be stopped?
There are no answers from the London and Dublin guarantors of the agreement that once looked so good.
Blair and Ahern appear at their wits end, tired of repeating the old entreaties to the sick counties' political dinosaurs, roaring endlessly about battles long ago.
The politicians lately elected to resume devolution, or limited home rule, are lurching around without a home, awaiting the pleasure of the most outlandish bigots left in Europe, led by the modern version of 'Roaring Hanna'.
The rest of the muddled and confused unionist no men are back to turmoil.
Having shed Donaldson and his turncoats to the DUP, nothing is changed with reports this week of plots to replace Trimble by has beens such as Lord John Taylor or Grand Master Smyth MP. Any day now we expect the headline 'Trimble has quit'.
For that confused ragbag of unionism as we knew it, there is only one word to describe its predicament – repeat, implode or collapse inward under pressure.
When that lost generation ask for hope, what do they get but flags, constitutions, bordermania reheated, a united Ireland in 10 years (Dublin: 'Er, too costly, too soon')...
All pretty bubbles, flying so high up in the sky... and more and more elections to this and that... But never anything about the here and now of an economy on the skids.
Have elections become an end in itself?
Elections on the brain?
They talk about nothing else.
Meantime, is Tony's rival, Chancellor Brown tightening the purse strings for poor old neverneverland?
The civil servants, who came out on the streets demanding a pay rise on a par with that snatched so quickly by their bossmen, were handed a poison cup by their temporary rulers from Westminster.
They were not told their claim was unjustified but simply that there was no more money left in the Stormont kitty! But what about the millions already flushed down the drain in this lawyers' paradise. Squandermania on the costly scandal of the marching season and the lunatic Drumcree battle now happily airbrushed out, just mouldy old dough, not talked about in polite circles around Portadown.. wilful waste everywhere...
Not a pretty picture for our hope deferred (alias devolution)
awaiting the DUP-Sinn Féin breakthrough.
Months have passed but not an inch forward.
But ho ho! what's this?
News from far off America that the presidential election in November could be a photo finish with Bush fighting for his life before the onslaught of Senator John Kerry, the runaway Democratic hopeful.
All he needs is to clinch the huge Irish American vote and this week came manna, not from heaven, but from an angry unknown Upper Bann DUP assembly member, one David Simpson.
His speech branded Senator Kerry as "a friend of Irish terrorism" because he dared criticise the Paisleyites.
Normally the outpouring of such a nonentity would pass unnoticed but in an election this is grist to the mill.
What a laugh if this taunt proved the spark to set alight the
Massachusetts senator's presidential challenge on polling day?
Reminds me of the Skibbereen Eagles warning to the Czar of Russia.
Fools rush in where angels and DUP top brass fear to tread.
February 22, 2004
Britannia has no cash for our civil servants
--James Kelly, Irish News
The dead end kids of Ardoyne, a microcosm of all the other flag-bedecked ghettos throughout the north, have delivered a stark message to the fumbling political leaders.
The suicide of those two young Catholic men, bereft of hope and driven to despair, has shocked people over a wide area and should shame those who brought this terrible reality about.
Is this the end result of all that determined effort to unravel the Good Friday Agreement signed six long years ago?
After the funerals we heard a few of these kids detailing the harsh reality of their lives, hemmed in in one of the most deprived areas of what was acknowledged years ago as 'John Bull's political slum'.
They wanted jobs but there were none.
All day with nothing to do, surrounded by hostile loyalist
territory, risking beatings by INLA thugs when they were tempted to turn to drugs.
Two pals could take it no more and ended their young lives... is this the north's lost generation telling the failed politicians,
stuck in the stalemate of their own making, 'a plague on all your houses'?.
Others with university degrees are reenacting that sad old
play 'many young men of 20 said goodbye' and are taking to the emigrant trail. How is this to be stopped?
There are no answers from the London and Dublin guarantors of the agreement that once looked so good.
Blair and Ahern appear at their wits end, tired of repeating the old entreaties to the sick counties' political dinosaurs, roaring endlessly about battles long ago.
The politicians lately elected to resume devolution, or limited home rule, are lurching around without a home, awaiting the pleasure of the most outlandish bigots left in Europe, led by the modern version of 'Roaring Hanna'.
The rest of the muddled and confused unionist no men are back to turmoil.
Having shed Donaldson and his turncoats to the DUP, nothing is changed with reports this week of plots to replace Trimble by has beens such as Lord John Taylor or Grand Master Smyth MP. Any day now we expect the headline 'Trimble has quit'.
For that confused ragbag of unionism as we knew it, there is only one word to describe its predicament – repeat, implode or collapse inward under pressure.
When that lost generation ask for hope, what do they get but flags, constitutions, bordermania reheated, a united Ireland in 10 years (Dublin: 'Er, too costly, too soon')...
All pretty bubbles, flying so high up in the sky... and more and more elections to this and that... But never anything about the here and now of an economy on the skids.
Have elections become an end in itself?
Elections on the brain?
They talk about nothing else.
Meantime, is Tony's rival, Chancellor Brown tightening the purse strings for poor old neverneverland?
The civil servants, who came out on the streets demanding a pay rise on a par with that snatched so quickly by their bossmen, were handed a poison cup by their temporary rulers from Westminster.
They were not told their claim was unjustified but simply that there was no more money left in the Stormont kitty! But what about the millions already flushed down the drain in this lawyers' paradise. Squandermania on the costly scandal of the marching season and the lunatic Drumcree battle now happily airbrushed out, just mouldy old dough, not talked about in polite circles around Portadown.. wilful waste everywhere...
Not a pretty picture for our hope deferred (alias devolution)
awaiting the DUP-Sinn Féin breakthrough.
Months have passed but not an inch forward.
But ho ho! what's this?
News from far off America that the presidential election in November could be a photo finish with Bush fighting for his life before the onslaught of Senator John Kerry, the runaway Democratic hopeful.
All he needs is to clinch the huge Irish American vote and this week came manna, not from heaven, but from an angry unknown Upper Bann DUP assembly member, one David Simpson.
His speech branded Senator Kerry as "a friend of Irish terrorism" because he dared criticise the Paisleyites.
Normally the outpouring of such a nonentity would pass unnoticed but in an election this is grist to the mill.
What a laugh if this taunt proved the spark to set alight the
Massachusetts senator's presidential challenge on polling day?
Reminds me of the Skibbereen Eagles warning to the Czar of Russia.
Fools rush in where angels and DUP top brass fear to tread.
February 22, 2004
Sunday Business Post
**I am posting this story as I found it, with the re-iterations left in.
The Truth Has Yet to 'Out' on Bloody Sunday
By Eamonn MacDermott
As the 919th witness finished his testimony to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry in Derry's Guildhall it marked the end of the oral evidence of the biggest inquiry in British legal history.
When British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in January 1998 that he was setting up a second inquiry to investigate the deaths of 14 civil rights demonstrators in Derry on January 30, 1972, it was not envisaged that it would be six years before the last witness was heard.
In some ways it was appropriate that the final witness was the man in command of the Provisional IRA on Bloody Sunday, identified only as PIRA 24.
As the inquiry progressed it became fixated on the role of the Provisional IRA, and witnesses found themselves being questioned more about IRA activities than their experiences of that day. PIRA 24, like most of the former IRA members before him, said there were orders not to take any action on Bloody Sunday and those orders were carried out.
The scale of the inquiry was unprecedented, with 426 days of hearings, 919 witnesses, both military and civilian, and a 42-day opening address by counsel for the inquiry Christopher Clarke QC.
But the bare statistics do not tell the full story of an inquiry where ordinary men and women from Derry relived some of the most horrific moments of their lives.
There were moments when the quiet heroism of the people came through. We heard about the courage of young first aid workers struggling to help the dead and injured as bullets flew around them.
There was the extraordinary bravery of Paddy Walsh, who persevered in his attempts to crawl to the aid of mortally wounded Paddy Doherty despite being fired at by British soldiers.
There was the tragedy of Barney McGuigan, who, when he could no longer listen to an injured man pleading for help,went out carrying the universal sign of a non-combatant - a white flag - only to be shot down.
We had Bishop Edward Daly receiving spontaneous applause from the relatives of the dead and injured after his evidence to the inquiry.
We had Soldier F's dramatic admission under cross-examination that he had shot Barney McGuigan, and probably several more of those who died.
In a deeply emotional moment, the inquiry was halted while McGuigan's widow, Bridie, left the hall in tears.
There was the spectacle of the highest echelons of the British establishment, including former prime minister Edward Heath, attempting to explain the then British government's policy towards Irish nationalists, and failing miserably. Heath sheltered pathetically behind claims of a bad memory.
Many of the soldiers also suffered from memory lapses, and were conveniently unable to recall what they did on Bloody Sunday.
And the families of the dead and injured sat there through it all, first in Derry's Guildhall, then in London and finally back in the Guildhall again.
All the time patiently listening to how their loved ones died and quietly hoping that, this time, justice will be done.
Journalist Eamonn McCann perhaps summed up best the approach of the people of Derry to the inquiry.
He said that they are not waiting to hear the truth about Bloody Sunday from Lord Saville. They already know the truth.They are waiting for Lord Saville to reveal that truth to the world.
Among nationalists in Derry, the truth about Bloody Sunday has never been in doubt, because the killings were carried out in front of hundreds of witnesses.
The people do not need a judicial inquiry to tell them what happened; they saw with their own eyes British soldiers firing into an unarmed crowd.
But, as the inquiry draws to a close, many people retain reservations about the manner in which it was conducted.
No one can fault the thoroughness with which it approached its task.
Over 1,700 witness statements were taken and over 900 people gave oral evidence.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of government documents were revealed, and daily we had the legal teams for the families sifting through papers marked "Top Secret".
But it was not so much what was revealed that causes concern, rather what was not revealed.
In an ironic twist, an inquiry set up by one section of the British government was obstructed and blocked by other sections of that same government.
Weapons used on Bloody Sunday were destroyed, despite a direct ruling from the inquiry precluding this.
Over 1,000 photographs taken by British Army and RUC photographers on the day have disappeared without trace.
Continuous and inevitably successful applications by the security services ensured that certain information would not be made public.
This resulted in the ridiculous situation where Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness, who was second in command of the IRA in Derry on Bloody Sunday, had to answer allegations contained in one line of a document three pages long, with the rest of the information blacked out.
The inquiry has also been heavily criticised for the manner in which it treated witnesses, especially those who, it is alleged, later became involved in republican activity as a direct result of Bloody Sunday.
There was an over-reliance on the security services' assessments of individuals and situations, because the security services were also a party to the inquiry.
It was also criticised for allowing innuendo, rumours and third and fourth-hand reports as a form of evidence. Two days were set aside to hear from journalists who had not been present on the day but had reported the story third-hand.
For a while it appeared as if anyone with a theory about Bloody Sunday would be given a hearing, while those who were eyewitnesses to the event were in and out of the box in a matter of an hour.
Despite the many obstructions by the British Ministry of Defence, the inquiry only really showed its teeth in the case of two journalists whose evidence would have been helpful to the families.
One sad aspect of the inquiry is the way inwhich it came to be seen by unionists as some sort of nationalist inquiry.
Predictably there was the knee-jerk reaction, with loyalists denouncing the whole affair as a waste of money. But the issues being considered should have transcended sectarian lines.
At the end of the day, this was an inquiry into a state's killing of 14 of its own citizens, an issue that should have concerned anyone interested in democracy and freedom.
Unfortunately, this is not the reality of Northern life.
Lord Saville's final report will not appear until early next year. By then it will have been seven years since the inquiry was set up and 33 years since the events of Bloody Sunday.
Those events remain an open wound for nationalists in Derry. It is unlikely that Lord Saville's findings will close that wound.
When British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in January 1998 that he was setting up a second inquiry to investigate the deaths of 14 civil rights demonstrators in Derry on January 30, 1972, it was not envisaged that it would be six years before the last witness was heard.
In some ways it was appropriate that the final witness was the man in command of the Provisional IRA on Bloody Sunday, identified only as PIRA 24.
As the inquiry progressed it became fixated on the role of the Provisional IRA, and witnesses found themselves being questioned more about IRA activities than their experiences of that day. PIRA 24, like most of the former IRA members before him, said there were orders not to take any action on Bloody Sunday and those orders were carried out.
The scale of the inquiry was unprecedented, with 426 days of hearings, 919 witnesses, both military and civilian, and a 42-day opening address by counsel for the inquiry Christopher Clarke QC.
But the bare statistics do not tell the full story of an inquiry where ordinary men and women from Derry relived some of the most horrific moments of their lives.
There were moments when the quiet heroism of the people came through. We heard about the courage of young first aid workers struggling to help the dead and injured as bullets flew around them.
There was the extraordinary bravery of Paddy Walsh, who persevered in his attempts to crawl to the aid of mortally wounded Paddy Doherty despite being fired at by British soldiers.
There was the tragedy of Barney McGuigan, who, when he could no longer listen to an injured man pleading for help,went out carrying the universal sign of a non-combatant - a white flag - only to be shot down.
We had Bishop Edward Daly receiving spontaneous applause from the relatives of the dead and injured after his evidence to the inquiry.
We had Soldier F's dramatic admission under cross-examination that he had shot Barney McGuigan, and probably several more of those who died.
In a deeply emotional moment, the inquiry was halted while McGuigan's widow, Bridie, left the hall in tears.
There was the spectacle of the highest echelons of the British establishment, including former prime minister Edward Heath, attempting to explain the then British government's policy towards Irish nationalists, and failing miserably. Heath sheltered pathetically behind claims of a bad memory.
Many of the soldiers also suffered from memory lapses, and were conveniently unable to recall what they did on Bloody Sunday.
And the families of the dead and injured sat there through it all, first in Derry's Guildhall, then in London and finally back in the Guildhall again.
All the time patiently listening to how their loved ones died and quietly hoping that, this time, justice will be done.
Journalist Eamonn McCann perhaps summed up best the approach of the people of Derry to the inquiry.
He said that they are not waiting to hear the truth about Bloody Sunday from Lord Saville. They already know the truth.They are waiting for Lord Saville to reveal that truth to the world.
Among nationalists in Derry, the truth about Bloody Sunday has never been in doubt, because the killings were carried out in front of hundreds of witnesses.
The people do not need a judicial inquiry to tell them what happened; they saw with their own eyes British soldiers firing into an unarmed crowd.
But, as the inquiry draws to a close, many people retain reservations about the manner in which it was conducted.
No one can fault the thoroughness with which it approached its task.
Over 1,700 witness statements were taken and over 900 people gave oral evidence.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of government documents were revealed, and daily we had the legal teams for the families sifting through papers marked "Top Secret".
But it was not so much what was revealed that causes concern, rather what was not revealed.
In an ironic twist, an inquiry set up by one section of the British government was obstructed and blocked by other sections of that same government.
Weapons used on Bloody Sunday were destroyed, despite a direct ruling from the inquiry precluding this.
Over 1,000 photographs taken by British Army and RUC photographers on the day have disappeared without trace.
Continuous and inevitably successful applications by the security services ensured that certain information would not be made public.
This resulted in the ridiculous situation where Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness, who was second in command of the IRA in Derry on Bloody Sunday, had to answer allegations contained in one line of a document three pages long, with the rest of the information blacked out.
The inquiry has also been heavily criticised for the manner in which it treated witnesses, especially those who, it is alleged, later became involved in republican activity as a direct result of Bloody Sunday.
There was an over-reliance on the security services' assessments of individuals and situations, because the security services were also a party to the inquiry.
It was also criticised for allowing innuendo, rumours and third and fourth-hand reports as a form of evidence. Two days were set aside to hear from journalists who had not been present on the day but had reported the story third-hand.
For a while it appeared as if anyone with a theory about Bloody Sunday would be given a hearing, while those who were eyewitnesses to the event were in and out of the box in a matter of an hour.
Despite the many obstructions by the British Ministry of Defence, the inquiry only really showed its teeth in the case of two journalists whose evidence would have been helpful to the families.
One sad aspect of the inquiry is the way inwhich it came tobe seen by unionists as some sort of nationalist inquiry.
Predictably there was the knee-jerk reaction, with loyalists denouncing the whole affair as a waste of money. But the issues being considered should have transcended sectarian lines.
At the end of the day, this was an inquiry into a state's killing of 14 of its own citizens, an issue that should have concerned anyone interested in democracy and freedom.
Unfortunately, this is not the reality of Northern life.
Lord Saville's final report will not appear until early next year. By then it will have been seven years since the inquiry was set up and 33 years since the events of Bloody Sunday.
Those events remain an open wound for nationalists in Derry. It is unlikely that Lord Saville's findings will close that wound.
**I am posting this story as I found it, with the re-iterations left in.
The Truth Has Yet to 'Out' on Bloody Sunday
By Eamonn MacDermott
As the 919th witness finished his testimony to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry in Derry's Guildhall it marked the end of the oral evidence of the biggest inquiry in British legal history.
When British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in January 1998 that he was setting up a second inquiry to investigate the deaths of 14 civil rights demonstrators in Derry on January 30, 1972, it was not envisaged that it would be six years before the last witness was heard.
In some ways it was appropriate that the final witness was the man in command of the Provisional IRA on Bloody Sunday, identified only as PIRA 24.
As the inquiry progressed it became fixated on the role of the Provisional IRA, and witnesses found themselves being questioned more about IRA activities than their experiences of that day. PIRA 24, like most of the former IRA members before him, said there were orders not to take any action on Bloody Sunday and those orders were carried out.
The scale of the inquiry was unprecedented, with 426 days of hearings, 919 witnesses, both military and civilian, and a 42-day opening address by counsel for the inquiry Christopher Clarke QC.
But the bare statistics do not tell the full story of an inquiry where ordinary men and women from Derry relived some of the most horrific moments of their lives.
There were moments when the quiet heroism of the people came through. We heard about the courage of young first aid workers struggling to help the dead and injured as bullets flew around them.
There was the extraordinary bravery of Paddy Walsh, who persevered in his attempts to crawl to the aid of mortally wounded Paddy Doherty despite being fired at by British soldiers.
There was the tragedy of Barney McGuigan, who, when he could no longer listen to an injured man pleading for help,went out carrying the universal sign of a non-combatant - a white flag - only to be shot down.
We had Bishop Edward Daly receiving spontaneous applause from the relatives of the dead and injured after his evidence to the inquiry.
We had Soldier F's dramatic admission under cross-examination that he had shot Barney McGuigan, and probably several more of those who died.
In a deeply emotional moment, the inquiry was halted while McGuigan's widow, Bridie, left the hall in tears.
There was the spectacle of the highest echelons of the British establishment, including former prime minister Edward Heath, attempting to explain the then British government's policy towards Irish nationalists, and failing miserably. Heath sheltered pathetically behind claims of a bad memory.
Many of the soldiers also suffered from memory lapses, and were conveniently unable to recall what they did on Bloody Sunday.
And the families of the dead and injured sat there through it all, first in Derry's Guildhall, then in London and finally back in the Guildhall again.
All the time patiently listening to how their loved ones died and quietly hoping that, this time, justice will be done.
Journalist Eamonn McCann perhaps summed up best the approach of the people of Derry to the inquiry.
He said that they are not waiting to hear the truth about Bloody Sunday from Lord Saville. They already know the truth.They are waiting for Lord Saville to reveal that truth to the world.
Among nationalists in Derry, the truth about Bloody Sunday has never been in doubt, because the killings were carried out in front of hundreds of witnesses.
The people do not need a judicial inquiry to tell them what happened; they saw with their own eyes British soldiers firing into an unarmed crowd.
But, as the inquiry draws to a close, many people retain reservations about the manner in which it was conducted.
No one can fault the thoroughness with which it approached its task.
Over 1,700 witness statements were taken and over 900 people gave oral evidence.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of government documents were revealed, and daily we had the legal teams for the families sifting through papers marked "Top Secret".
But it was not so much what was revealed that causes concern, rather what was not revealed.
In an ironic twist, an inquiry set up by one section of the British government was obstructed and blocked by other sections of that same government.
Weapons used on Bloody Sunday were destroyed, despite a direct ruling from the inquiry precluding this.
Over 1,000 photographs taken by British Army and RUC photographers on the day have disappeared without trace.
Continuous and inevitably successful applications by the security services ensured that certain information would not be made public.
This resulted in the ridiculous situation where Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness, who was second in command of the IRA in Derry on Bloody Sunday, had to answer allegations contained in one line of a document three pages long, with the rest of the information blacked out.
The inquiry has also been heavily criticised for the manner in which it treated witnesses, especially those who, it is alleged, later became involved in republican activity as a direct result of Bloody Sunday.
There was an over-reliance on the security services' assessments of individuals and situations, because the security services were also a party to the inquiry.
It was also criticised for allowing innuendo, rumours and third and fourth-hand reports as a form of evidence. Two days were set aside to hear from journalists who had not been present on the day but had reported the story third-hand.
For a while it appeared as if anyone with a theory about Bloody Sunday would be given a hearing, while those who were eyewitnesses to the event were in and out of the box in a matter of an hour.
Despite the many obstructions by the British Ministry of Defence, the inquiry only really showed its teeth in the case of two journalists whose evidence would have been helpful to the families.
One sad aspect of the inquiry is the way inwhich it came to be seen by unionists as some sort of nationalist inquiry.
Predictably there was the knee-jerk reaction, with loyalists denouncing the whole affair as a waste of money. But the issues being considered should have transcended sectarian lines.
At the end of the day, this was an inquiry into a state's killing of 14 of its own citizens, an issue that should have concerned anyone interested in democracy and freedom.
Unfortunately, this is not the reality of Northern life.
Lord Saville's final report will not appear until early next year. By then it will have been seven years since the inquiry was set up and 33 years since the events of Bloody Sunday.
Those events remain an open wound for nationalists in Derry. It is unlikely that Lord Saville's findings will close that wound.
When British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in January 1998 that he was setting up a second inquiry to investigate the deaths of 14 civil rights demonstrators in Derry on January 30, 1972, it was not envisaged that it would be six years before the last witness was heard.
In some ways it was appropriate that the final witness was the man in command of the Provisional IRA on Bloody Sunday, identified only as PIRA 24.
As the inquiry progressed it became fixated on the role of the Provisional IRA, and witnesses found themselves being questioned more about IRA activities than their experiences of that day. PIRA 24, like most of the former IRA members before him, said there were orders not to take any action on Bloody Sunday and those orders were carried out.
The scale of the inquiry was unprecedented, with 426 days of hearings, 919 witnesses, both military and civilian, and a 42-day opening address by counsel for the inquiry Christopher Clarke QC.
But the bare statistics do not tell the full story of an inquiry where ordinary men and women from Derry relived some of the most horrific moments of their lives.
There were moments when the quiet heroism of the people came through. We heard about the courage of young first aid workers struggling to help the dead and injured as bullets flew around them.
There was the extraordinary bravery of Paddy Walsh, who persevered in his attempts to crawl to the aid of mortally wounded Paddy Doherty despite being fired at by British soldiers.
There was the tragedy of Barney McGuigan, who, when he could no longer listen to an injured man pleading for help,went out carrying the universal sign of a non-combatant - a white flag - only to be shot down.
We had Bishop Edward Daly receiving spontaneous applause from the relatives of the dead and injured after his evidence to the inquiry.
We had Soldier F's dramatic admission under cross-examination that he had shot Barney McGuigan, and probably several more of those who died.
In a deeply emotional moment, the inquiry was halted while McGuigan's widow, Bridie, left the hall in tears.
There was the spectacle of the highest echelons of the British establishment, including former prime minister Edward Heath, attempting to explain the then British government's policy towards Irish nationalists, and failing miserably. Heath sheltered pathetically behind claims of a bad memory.
Many of the soldiers also suffered from memory lapses, and were conveniently unable to recall what they did on Bloody Sunday.
And the families of the dead and injured sat there through it all, first in Derry's Guildhall, then in London and finally back in the Guildhall again.
All the time patiently listening to how their loved ones died and quietly hoping that, this time, justice will be done.
Journalist Eamonn McCann perhaps summed up best the approach of the people of Derry to the inquiry.
He said that they are not waiting to hear the truth about Bloody Sunday from Lord Saville. They already know the truth.They are waiting for Lord Saville to reveal that truth to the world.
Among nationalists in Derry, the truth about Bloody Sunday has never been in doubt, because the killings were carried out in front of hundreds of witnesses.
The people do not need a judicial inquiry to tell them what happened; they saw with their own eyes British soldiers firing into an unarmed crowd.
But, as the inquiry draws to a close, many people retain reservations about the manner in which it was conducted.
No one can fault the thoroughness with which it approached its task.
Over 1,700 witness statements were taken and over 900 people gave oral evidence.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of government documents were revealed, and daily we had the legal teams for the families sifting through papers marked "Top Secret".
But it was not so much what was revealed that causes concern, rather what was not revealed.
In an ironic twist, an inquiry set up by one section of the British government was obstructed and blocked by other sections of that same government.
Weapons used on Bloody Sunday were destroyed, despite a direct ruling from the inquiry precluding this.
Over 1,000 photographs taken by British Army and RUC photographers on the day have disappeared without trace.
Continuous and inevitably successful applications by the security services ensured that certain information would not be made public.
This resulted in the ridiculous situation where Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness, who was second in command of the IRA in Derry on Bloody Sunday, had to answer allegations contained in one line of a document three pages long, with the rest of the information blacked out.
The inquiry has also been heavily criticised for the manner in which it treated witnesses, especially those who, it is alleged, later became involved in republican activity as a direct result of Bloody Sunday.
There was an over-reliance on the security services' assessments of individuals and situations, because the security services were also a party to the inquiry.
It was also criticised for allowing innuendo, rumours and third and fourth-hand reports as a form of evidence. Two days were set aside to hear from journalists who had not been present on the day but had reported the story third-hand.
For a while it appeared as if anyone with a theory about Bloody Sunday would be given a hearing, while those who were eyewitnesses to the event were in and out of the box in a matter of an hour.
Despite the many obstructions by the British Ministry of Defence, the inquiry only really showed its teeth in the case of two journalists whose evidence would have been helpful to the families.
One sad aspect of the inquiry is the way inwhich it came tobe seen by unionists as some sort of nationalist inquiry.
Predictably there was the knee-jerk reaction, with loyalists denouncing the whole affair as a waste of money. But the issues being considered should have transcended sectarian lines.
At the end of the day, this was an inquiry into a state's killing of 14 of its own citizens, an issue that should have concerned anyone interested in democracy and freedom.
Unfortunately, this is not the reality of Northern life.
Lord Saville's final report will not appear until early next year. By then it will have been seven years since the inquiry was set up and 33 years since the events of Bloody Sunday.
Those events remain an open wound for nationalists in Derry. It is unlikely that Lord Saville's findings will close that wound.
