You are currently browsing the daily archive for 20 April 2004.
REPUBLICANS BATTLE IN COUNTY DOWN
Sinn Fein has suffered fresh defections from the party in County Down following “reorganisation” within the party structure in the area.
Martin Cunningham, a councillor and Sinn Fein member since 1972, resigned last year following the selection of human rights activist Catriona Ruane as a candidate in last November’s assembly election.
That move came as part of the constituency was brought under the control of South Armagh, raising tension with local activists.
Cunningham says he stepped aside as candidate in favour of a female candidate, who he was led to believe would be Bairbre de Brun. However, he was critical of the choice of Ruane, who joined the party relatively recently.
“An unknown person who does not even live in the constituency was imposed on the people despite the misgivings of the local cumann and many in the constituency,” he said in a recent interview.
“Consequent to her imposition, the party has saw fit to ignore,
marginalise and, without any consultation, decommission the local party structures, which have worked hard for years to build the profile and status of the party in this area.
“It is a violation of democracy and I cannot sit lightly with a
party that allows a few individuals to violate party principles
and procedures. These particular individuals seem to be well
versed in the British methods of divide and conquer.”
He accused Sinn Fein of abandoning republican principles and threatening violence against dissidents like the Ba’ath party of Saddam Hussein. He accused the Sinn Fein leadership of “dictatorship”, “censorship”, and of losing contact with the party roots.
“The leadership is inebriated with its own success,” he said.
“In its bid to top the poll and overcome the SDLP it has in fact
become the SDLP.
“When I read Eamonn McCann recently saying Sinn Fein was now a unionist party I felt that had I read this a year ago it would have seemed like blasphemy.
“But now it is true. Anybody who disagrees with the party is sent on their way – quite a few republicans have gone and what have they been replaced with? It is not a democratic party.”
Sinn Fein’s Mitchel McLaughlin has offered to meet with Mr
Cunningham to discuss his criticisms.
But last week three more activists in the area were understood to have resigned from the party. They include Hugh Gerard Carville, one of the 1981 hunger strikers and two other prominent republican activists in the area, Michael McClelland and John Smyth.
The Laughter of Our Children
If you break a nation’s nationality it will think of nothing else but getting it set again. It will listen to no reformer, to no philosopher, to no preacher, until the demand of the Nationalist is granted. It will attend to no business, however vital, except the business of unification and liberation – Christopher Hitchens
Anthony McIntyre • 18 April 2004
The Easter Monday Commemoration in Derry was a larger event than I had anticipated. Perhaps because its organisers are the 32 County Sovereignty Movement I usually half-expect that the public interpret this to mean that no more than 32 should turn up at the group’s rallies. Bodies strategically squeezed by the peace process live an anorexic existence, forever faltering on the edge of abyssal isolation. Competing with those who have been funded by the prosperous and the powerful to turn their face against republicanism and divest themselves of any radicalism is an uphill battle. In the case of the 32CSM, there are few votes for war. People register with their feet and usually stomp away in the opposite direction. The movement is numbers repellent.
In any event, myself, my daughter Fírinne and friend Shando arrived in the afternoon . . .
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http://www.iol.ie/~saoirse/video/eirenua.htm
Click on above link to read the document ÉIRE NUA : A Plan for a Permanent Peace in a New Ireland. If you click on the ‘Documents’ tab, you will also find SAOL NUA as well as other historical documents and articles.
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GROUP WITH REAL IRA LINKS TO OPEN CENTRE
Monday 19th April 2004
The News Letter
A POLITICAL group linked to the Real IRA are to open a centre in Derry.
Only days after the 32 County Sovereignty Movement angered relatives
of those murdered in the Omagh bomb atrocity by staging an illegal
Easter commemoration march in Londonderry, it was revealed yesterday
that they are to open an advice centre in the city’s Bogside.
As well as being responsible for Northern Ireland’s worst terrorist
atrocity in 1998 in Omagh the dissident RIRA were also blamed for
the booby-trap murder of Protestant construction worker David
Caldwell in the Waterside.
A spokesman for the 32 County Sovereignty Movement confirmed
yesterday that their centre, which will be shared with the Irish
Republican Prisoners Welfare Association, who look after the
interests of Real IRA prisoners, will be open within the next couple
of months.
He said: “Such is our support in this city that we consider it
appropriate to invest the resources into a centre which can act as
an office for the 32 CSM to continue its political development work
on the ground, as well as a focal point for the families of
prisoners.”
The group indicated that they were delighted at the turn-out at
their Easter rally in the Creggan, where the guest speaker was Old
Bailey bomber Marian Price.
* Nationalist sources in Londonderry yesterday said that an INLA
gang, brought in from outside the city, were responsible for the
assault of a 17-year-old youth in Galliagh over the weekend.
The victim is recovering in hospital after being beaten with sticks,
with nails protruding, and baseball bats.
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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST
Subject: PRISONERS’ ILL MOTHER REFUSED VISIT
Date: Monday, April 19, 2004
The Irish Freedom Committee has learned that yesterday Sunday April
18th the mother of republican prisoner JOHN JAMES CONNOLLY was refused a
visit to see her son, when the sniffer dog in the visitors’ holding
center sat down at Mrs. Connolly’s feet. Mrs. Connolly is in ill
health and must travel over 200 miles to have a visit with her son.
Quite understandably this ordeal has severely upset her son John
Connolly who witnessed his ill mother being manhandled by guards and
physically removed from the visiting area and told to leave without
a visit despite her pleas to “please just let me see my son”.
The three other women Mrs. Connolly had traveled with, who were to
have a visit with their brother CONOR CASEY, were also refused their
visit when they protested the treatment being given to Mrs. Connolly.
This mass refusal of groups of particular visitors has been used by
Maghaberry prison before, and indicates an unwritten prison policy
in the use of sniffer dogs of “guilt by association” – all of a group
of visitors traveling together in an instance where a dog sits down
have been considered “guilty” as well and have been refused their visits
en mass.
Sniffer dogs are ostensibly used by their prison handlers to sniff
out drugs on the person of a visitor—although it is well known that no
Republican prisoner, nor anyone visiting them, has ever been found
with drugs in their possession. In reality sniffer dogs are often used
as a form of psychological intimidation of Republican family members,
including small children. In many instances the same visitors to
particular Republican prisoners have been repeatedly refused a visit
when the dog handler openly yanked on the dog’s lead, forcing it to
sit down, canceling the visit for all members of the family group.
We ask our supporters and Members to please stay vigilant as the
weekend incident may indicate an escalation in harassment to family visitors
of Republican prisoners at Maghaberry, in the weeks to come. This
incident follows a steady increase of harassment of Republican prisoners by
Maghaberry prison guards in recent weeks, and it is seen as no
accident that the mother of John James Connolly, the Republican prisoners’
spokesman at Maghaberry, was singled out for this abusive and
degrading treatment. The last incident of a group of family members being
refused a visit was over a year ago, the interim respite due in no small
part to firm and outspoken protest by prisoners’ welfare representatives on
the outside.
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UTV REPLY TO SF OVER LISBURN AD
Sinn Féin councillors in Lisburn have reacted angrily to a UTV decision to continue showing an advertisement for Lisburn which uses the slogan “Lisburn A City For Everyone.”
Sinn Féin’s leader on Lisburn City Council, Paul Butler, had written to UTV expressing his concerns about the advertisements commissioned by Lisburn City Council and asked the television company to withdraw the advertisements.
Councillor Butler said that the exclusion of Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Alliance from holding senior positions in the Council is an act of blatant discrimination.
“There appears to be no willingness by unionists in Lisburn to share power with nationalists and others,” said Councillor Butler.
“Lisburn Council are using ratepayers’ money to pay for these advertisements yet Catholics and non-Unionist political representatives on Lisburn Council are being discriminated against,” said Councillor Butler.
In response to Councillor Butler’s request, UTV Director of Television Alan Bremner replied: “Whilst I fully understand the position that you are taking, it is essentially a matter which is for Lisburn City Council to decide upon.
“We do not feel that there is a need to change any aspect of the commercial or to remove it. “The decision to purchase airtime on TV is a matter for the Council and its officers.”
Councillor Butler says that he won’t stop there and that he now intends to make a complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency.
“I intend to make a complaint on the grounds that Lisburn Council is discriminatory and Lisburn is not a City For Everyone.
“I don’t object to advertisements telling people to come to Lisburn City but I do object when they promote Lisburn as a city for everyone when it is clearly not.”
Journalist::Staff Reporter
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NEW HOMES TO BE BUILT ON NOTORIOUS TORTURE CENTRE
The SDLP has welcomed news that the site of the infamous Springfield barracks is to be given over to social housing.
SDLP policing spokesperson Alex Attwood welcomed the news, saying: “The SDLP pressed for the closing down of the Springfield Road police station. It is a real measure of the change in the whole policing situation that police lands are being returned to community use.
“Andersonstown barracks is next. New houses and new community facilities will stand as permanent testimony to what can be achieved by a positive, engaged approach to the new realities of policing.”
The Policing Board announced this week that it had sold the substantial plot of land to the North and West Housing Association.
Springfield barracks was closed in September 2002, but the Policing Board’s Finance and General Purposes Committee were required to approve the conveyancing of the land before the sale could be completed.
The committee announced this week that the land would now be sold for social housing.
However, Sinn Féin councillor Tom Hartley says he is concerned that the area will be starved of facilities.
“It is important that a portion of the site is given over to the community. There is a need for new homes in the Springfield area, but there also need to be facilities to cater for the increase in the population.
“Ideally part of the site should be used for the benefit of the local community.
“In a densely populated area where play parks and green spaces are at a premium, this is an opportunity to bring something positive to the area that should not be allowed to pass,” added Cllr Hartley.
Journalist::Allison Morris
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LETTER BOMBS SENT TO ROBINSON AND ATTWOOD
19/04/2004 – 6:05:01 PM
A bomb has been sent to the Belfast offices of Democratic Unionist Party deputy leader Peter Robinson, he revealed tonight.
A parcel believed to be packed with explosives and ball-bearings was opened by his daughter as she dealt with mail. It failed to detonate.
A second parcel-type device was also delivered to the headquarters of the Northern Ireland Policing Board in the city’s Clarendon Docks area.
It is believed to have been addressed to Alex Attwood – one of the nationalist SDLP representatives on the body which holds Chief Constable Hugh Orde to account – and was described as primitive by security sources.
A Board spokeswoman said: “I cannot confirm or deny who it was sent to.”
British army experts were called in to defuse the parcel bomb at Mr Robinson’s headquarters.
Although the East Belfast MP was unclear about who had targeted him, he hit out at the bombers for launching an indiscriminate attack.
He said: “It’s particularly despicable because anybody who sends that kind of device would know that it would not be opened by the member of parliament himself but by a member of his staff.
“For someone to attempt to kill a member of staff because they disagree with me indicates the kind of mind we are dealing with.”
The alert began when Mr Robinson’s daughter Rebecca, who works for him and his wife and fellow DUP MP Iris, was sorting through post at the constituency offices on Belmont Avenue today.
When she opened a jiffy-type bag and discovered suspicious contents, Mr Robinson’s bodyguard urged her to take it out and leave it in a nearby entry.
Police and military explosives personnel were called to the scene and spent several hours dealing with the package.
A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokeswoman confirmed that a viable device had been dealt with at Belmont Avenue. With dissident republican terrorists the most likely grouping behind the attack, Mr Robinson remained defiant. He declared: “Clearly it will not change by one iota any position I have been adopting.
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For Immediate Release
19 April 2004
Mc Bride family renew legal challenge over killer soldiers
PAT FINUCANE CENTER
The family of murdered Belfast teenager Peter Mc Bride return to
Belfast High Court tomorrow morning (Tuesday 20.4.2004) to
judicially review the refusal of the Ministry of Defence to dismiss
two soldiers, Mark Wright and James Fisher, who were convicted of
the 1992 murder. In June 2003 the Court of Appeal ruled that there
were no exceptional circumstances justifying retention of the two.
According to internal British Army regulations soldiers sentenced in
a civilian court must be dismissed unless there are `exceptional
reasons’ for not doing so.
The refusal to dismiss the convicted murderers of the teenager has
caused widespread anger in Ireland and abroad and has led to a
boycott of NIO Minister John Spellar who was involved in the
decision to retain the Guardsmen. Recently the Mc Bride family
raised the case at a meeting with German consular officials. Wright
and Fisher had been based in Gemany.
For further info contact 07989323418 or see the PFC
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ALL-PARTY DISCUSSIONS POSTPONED
04/19/04 14:49 EST
Political talks planned for London next week involving all the Northern Ireland parties have been postponed.
British Government sources said today that they still hoped to hold the discussions before the European elections in June. They added that more work was required.
It had been planned that three days of proximity talks involving Northern Ireland’s politicians would be hosted by the British and Irish premiers.
The discussions were due to follow the publication tomorrow of the Independent Monitoring Commission’s first report on allegations of continuing paramilitary activity.
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JOSEPHINE HAYDEN SPEECH
General Post Office – Dublin
EASTER 2004
Easter is a time when Irish Republicans all over the country gather
at graves, monuments and memorials to reiterate their commitment to
the Irish Republic and pay their respects to those who gave their
lives for the freedom of our country, not just in 1916 but at various
times throughout our history, right up to the present day. Their aim
was a united independent Ireland free from all domination, both
foreign and domestic. The Proclamation that you have heard read out
here today is the very same Proclamation that was read out by Padraig
Pearse on the steps of this building 88 years ago. It was drawn up by
the men and women who planned and led the Rising some of whom marched
out from Liberty Hall that day to this building behind us – the GPO.
Robert Emmet too in his Proclamation in 1803 declared `that our
object is to establish a free and independent Republic in Ireland…’
Wolfe Tone’s aim `to break the connection with England’, the United
Irishmen and before them The Fenians, they all declared their right
of the Irish people sovereign independence and they used all and
every means at their disposal. And they never decommissioned their
weapons.
Part of the 1918 Manifesto of Sinn Féin reads “… [Sinn Féin] stands
by the Proclamation of the Provisional Government of Easter, 1916,
reasserting the inalienable right of the Irish Nation to sovereign
independence, reaffirming the determination of the Irish people to
achieve it, and guaranteeing within the independent nation equal
rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens”. It also
states “The right of a nation to sovereign independence rests upon
immutable natural law and cannot be made the subject of a
compromise”. That was part of the manifesto put to the people in the
first All-Ireland referendum in which the people voted for an Irish
Republic. From this election the Dáil was established. This is the
Dáil we recognise not the current partitionist administration in
Leinster House today which bears no resemblance to that of the First
and Second Dáil.
Unfortunately up to the present day a minority have attempted to
subvert the Republic declared by our patriots. The Free State
administrators down the years paid lip service to the ideal of a
united Ireland, while colluding with the British to ensure it never
happened.
Over the last few years the Free State, the Brits and their new found
pals the Provos, have made attempts to `normalize’ the British
presence in Ireland and all that comes with it: e.g., the acceptance
of oaths to a foreign state; the acceptance of a British police
force, the RUC; the acceptance of the right of the British to rule in
our country (Stormont); the acceptance of a substantial salary to
implement that British rule in six of Ulster’s 9 counties, the
acceptance of partition. Weapons that had been procured for the
establishment of the All-Ireland Republic were decommissioned. This
is the ultimate betrayal because while England holds one inch of
Irish soil those weapons should be available to those who are willing
to use them in the defence of that All-Ireland Republic. Those native
traitors have sold out and betrayed the ideals and principles of the
Republican Movement; they have accepted the partitioning of our
country and have sold out our patriot dead. They have criminalized
those who fought and died for a free Ireland by accepting the status
quo in the two constructed states.
The `normalization’ policy being followed by all shade of politicians
is also attempting to criminalize our POWs. POW status was won only
by enduring harsh jail conditions and hunger strikes – from Thomas
Ashe’s death in 1917 in Mountjoy from forced feeding while on hunger
strike right up to the hunger strikes in 1980/81 culminating in the
deaths of Bobby Sands and his 9 comrades in the H-Blocks of Long
Kesh. The status that Bobby and his comrades won was signed away in
the Stormont agreement – any Republican convicted after April 1998
was to be treated as a criminal. So once again we find that the
prisoners in Maghaberry have to fight for political recognition. They
have won partial segregation but there is a long way to go. Visits,
education facilities etc are still problem areas. There is new
legislation in place to facilitate the transfer of POWs in jails in
the 6 Occupied Counties to England, Scotland and Wales should the
Brits deem it necessary. This must be resisted at all costs – this
must not be allowed to happen. I would also like to send greetings to
the POWs in Portlaoise prison. Conditions there are far from ideal
too. They are not forgotten and never will be forgotten.
The `normalization’ of the RUC is well underway too. It has a new
uniform and new name but underneath it is still the same bigoted
sectarian force it always was and will never be acceptable to
Republicans. The RUC are still British Police in the pay of the
British Government and they implement British rule at the point of a
gun. Their collusion with loyalist death squads is by now well
documented. But they learned from their paymasters – the collusion
went all the way to the top, to the British Government. It is plain
from the Corry report (the part we are allowed to see) that the
British government, using the British Army and the RUC, was involved
in the training, arming and directing the loyalist death squads.
The RUC now has it own GAA Club and British Army personnel are
welcome to join it. It is aptly named the British Combined Services
Club. Shame on the teams within the GAA who have welcomed them into
the Free State for matches in Dublin and Kildare while their guns are
still pointed at the nationalist people in the 6 Occupied Counties.
Attempts by us to clarify the position re recognition/affiliation by
and to the GAA have so far failed. While the British establishment is
in control of any part of our country this is unacceptable. Though
things may appear different on the surface in the 6 Occupied
Counties, underneath things are still the same. The British still
control the situation, make the decisions and with the connivance of
the turn-coats, implement their rule.
The normalization of American involvement in Irish affairs is also
well established. The monetary gain seems to outweigh all right and
reason. The continued use of the civilian airport at Shannon, for the
transportation of troops and munitions, including tons of class A
explosives, cruise missiles etc. is, to put it mildly, highly
irresponsible. On one plane alone were ’28 patriot missiles, over
2,000kg of high explosives plus 14,000kg of rocket fuel’, it is even
possible that radioactive depleted uranium has been transported. The
American military are using our air and ground space at will with the
blessing of the Free State administration – regardless of the
concerns of the 100,000 people that `spoke with their feet’ in
February last year. Many of those protestors lost heart when they saw
the negative response from Leinster House, Shannon continues to be
used.
The daily bombings of Afghanistan cannot be forgotten either.
Thousands have been killed without hardly a whisper of protest. By
publicly stating his support for Bush, and making available our air
and ground space for the illegal war on and occupation of Iraq,
Bertie Ahern and his cohorts have placed Ireland in the high-risk
category. The invitation he issued to Bush should be rescinded.
Should the visit go ahead Bush should receive a massive `NOT WELCOME’
reception. Every man woman and child in the country should protest at
his presence here along with his huge contingent of armed bodyguards –
who will shoot on sight if they think Bush’s life is in danger. Such
an occurrence would not be tolerated in any other country in the
world. But Bush is part of Corporate America and the writ of
Corporate America runs even here. And we must not forget you know
that Bush was not actually democratically elected as President of the
United States. In his book Stupid White Men, Michael Moore calls him
the Thief-in-Chief and explains how almost just over 181,000 voters
in Florida, on the ground that all were convicted felons, were
removed from the voters register to ensure his election.
Our politicians on this side of the Atlantic are not much better and
certainly are not a crowd to be proud of. The cuts in services
continue unabated – Mary Coughlan’s withdrawal on the cuts to
widows/ers had more to do with political expediency than concern for
the widows/ers – while more and more sleaze is emerging from the
Tribunals. While the Free State administration is `in denial’ about
corruption, and has the whole country talking about the smoking ban
to take their mind off more serious matters, the collective politicos
are pushing through legislation which is moving the country ever
closer to a police state. Soon our civil and legal rights will be no
more, they are being eroded by stealth – and by the policies of the
EU. However the laws do not apply equally to the rich and poor. Very
occasionally a `symbolic’ sacrifice is seen to be handed up – this is
supposedly to keep the plebs happy. But the plebs are becoming more
and more disenchanted with the way the state discriminates against
them. The examples set by the ruling class has been abysmal. They see
that the rich are protected by their own – the rich face a Tribunal
of Inquire while the poor face a court of law. Instead of tackling
the problem of social exclusion the state’s answer to problems in
society is to build more and more prisons – a new `super prison’ is
being planned for Spike Island based on the US model. I wonder how
many of the `white collar’ variety will spend time in Spike Island,
including the police for committing perjury in the courts?
`Lock `em up and throw away the key’ is not the answer to all our
social problems. Acknowledging, targeting and addressing the genuine
grievances of the disempowered in this greedy materialistic world we
now live in is. This is why education is so important. People must be
educated to have a sense of self-worth, a sound set of values, and a
pride in their country, their language and their culture. They must
also realise that as citizens they have certain rights but that
rights also brings responsibilities. SAOL NUA is the Social and
Economic programme of Republican Sinn Féin. It is our alternative to
the existing capitalist system, a system which shows very little
sense of responsibility towards a certain section of society. We have
to stand up and be counted and refuse to be coerced into silence. The
two tier system that exists in all areas must be eliminated.
The harassment of Republicans by the Gardai and RUC continues
unabated. House raids, arrests, seizure of property continues on an
almost daily basis. At this stage the peelers could hold an auction
in mobile phones they have seized that many. Seems a person can now
be arrested and brought to a barracks for questioning if he/she is in
possession of two mobile phones. Brings a whole new meaning to the
phrase `found in possession of’.
In this area also we must resist attempts to be coerced into silence.
Too many people have given too much for us to stay silent now.
Republicans have, down through the years, paid a terrible price for
their Republican stand. Some are household names others only known to
a few. We salute them all, the men and women children who refused to
bend the knee.
Alongside our social and economic policy SAOL NUA is ÉIRE NUA our
political policy. Copies of both are available here today.
Republicans will never accept British rule in any part of this island
and I will finish in the words of Liam Lynch over 80 years ago, “If I
were to stand alone I will not voluntarily accept being part of the
British Empire. We have declared for an Irish Republic and will not
live under any other law”.
_________________
SAOIRSE32 
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