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Associated Press
Investigators say the bombs that destroyed three London subway cars and a double-decker bus weighed less than 10 pounds each. In some other bombings:
_ MADRID, Spain: An estimated 220 pounds of explosives were used for the 10 backpack bombs in the March 11, 2004, attacks on four commuter trains. The bombings, which killed 191 people, were blamed on Islamic militants with suspected ties to al-Qaida.
_ MOSCOW: The bomb that blew apart a subway car on Feb. 6, 2004, killing 39, contained the equivalent of 11 pounds of TNT.
_ CASABLANCA, Morocco: The attack that killed at least 28 people on May 16, 2003, was blamed on international terrorists and local militant groups linked to al-Qaida. Homemade bombs weighing about 18 to 22 pounds were used. The explosives apparently were hidden in backpacks, investigators said.
_ ISTANBUL, Turkey: Suicide truck bombers set off explosions at two synagogues, the British consulate and London-based HSBC Bank on Nov. 15 and 20, 2003. Each of the four pickups used was packed with about 5,000 pounds of fertilizer bombs.
_ BALI: Bombs that killed 202 people in nightclubs on the Indonesian island of Bali on Oct. 12, 2003, were blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terror group linked to al-Qaida. Investigators estimate up to 220 pounds of fertilizer-based explosives were used.
_ OMAGH, Northern Ireland: A 500-pound car bomb exploded Aug. 15, 1998, killing 29 people. The Real IRA, a dissident group that rejects the 1997 cease-fire by the Irish Republican Army, claimed responsibility for Northern Ireland’s worst single atrocity.
_ OKLAHOMA CITY: Timothy McVeigh packed a rental truck with a mixture of fertilizer, oil and commercial explosive to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people. An estimated 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate was used.
Government’s criminal squandering of national resources
**Here is an excellent article which will give you an idea of what is at stake here. To read the online An Phoblacht, all you need do is register your email. It only takes a few minutes.
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**Because there was such a response at the news of Mr Harte’s death, I wanted to re-print a 2001 interview with him at the end of this article by An Phoblacht. This photo comes from the interview.
“Those in power write the history, those who suffer write the songs. Given our history, we have an awful lot of songs”
Frank Harte
Frank Harte was born in Dublin on 14 May 1933. He grew up in Chapelizod, where his father owned ‘The Tap’ public house. A Traveller singing the Valley of Knockanure, on a fair day in Boyle, County Roscommon was what first sparked his interest in Irish traditional singing. It was an interest that became lifelong. By the end of last year, his database of Irish songs had reached over 15,000.
An architect by profession, he managed to find time to record a number of albums. Down Dublin Streets first appeared on Topic Records in 1967, followed by Through Dublin City. His songbook Songs of Dublin appeared in 1978.
He first collaborated with Dónal Lunny on And Listen To My Song, Daybreak and a Candle-End in 1987. On the bi-centenary of the 1798 Rising, Frank launched 1798 The First Year of Liberty. This excellently produced album is distinctive in having copious sleeve notes and including many forgotten songs of ’98. In 2001 he launched a CD of songs of the Napoleonic period, My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte. This double album has a total of 26 songs, as well as a 56-page booklet of sleeve notes. In 2003 he received the Gradam TG4 traditional singing award.
Despite ill health, Frank continued to record. The Hungry Voice, an album of songs of the Great Famine was launched last year, and just prior to his death he had completed recording a CD of Irish labouring songs; There’s Gangs of Them Digging.
Frank Harte is survived by his wife Stella, his sons Darragh and Cian, and his daughters, Sinéad and Orla.
BY PAT BURKE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prairie Home Companion: Off Across the Sea – 2001
Frank Harte: Storyteller in Song
Few traditional Irish singers know as many songs as Frank Harte or sing them with as much enthusiasm and enjoyment. Born and raised in Dublin, Frank was first introduced to traditional Irish songs many years ago when he chanced upon a tinker who was singing and selling his ballad sheets at a fair in the town of Boyle. Ever since, Frank as been collecting and singing “songs that tell stories” and his vast repertoire is second to none.
Below, Frank explains what it means to be a traditional Irish ballad singer and offers some thoughts on Irish music generally.
What is meant by Irish “sean-nos” singing?
Sean nos, translated from the Irish simply means “the old way,” in other words, the old way of singing. The term is generally applied to songs sung in the Irish language. Even though I sing old songs in an old way, I would not consider myself a “sean nos singer.” Should you wish to hear a Sean nos singer I would suggest that you find a record of the late Joe Heaney or Darrach O’Cathain or Nicholas Toibin and listen to their styles of singing.
How would you describe the different regional styles of singing unaccompanied ballads in Ireland — for example, the differences between Connemara or Donegal or Cork. What is the predominate style in Ireland today?
There was a time when it was easy to detect from the playing of a musician or the singing of a singer which part of Ireland he came from, or indeed almost which county he came from. The songs themselves would be an indication, as they would almost certainly have many local references in them, likewise the style of the musicians playing would indicate which part of the country he came from. In the past these individual styles were easily recognizable due to the fact that there was no other means of transmission other than the oral or aural contact between musicians and singers. Now days however with the means of mass communication, if a singer/musician from Donegal records a tune it will be learned by a musician in Kerry the following day. It would be very hard to say just what particular style dominates today? as all styles are all available on records to all musicians and singers.
What makes a ballad a “street ballad”?
Again it is almost impossible to be specific, the edges of these various definitions are very woolly. What makes a New York taxi driver? I would consider myself a ballad singer…why? because I sing songs generally without musical accompaniment, songs that have a story to tell, and I sing them in a declamatory manner. I demand that my audience stay quiet and listen to the story that I have to tell, and I tell it out loud with very little ornamentation so that the message comes across clearly.
Most of the street ballads would have started with the first line being.. “Come All you true born Irishmen” or “Come All you jolly ploughmen…” or “Come All you loyal lovers?.” And so they were often classified in a derogatory manner as “Come All Ye’s”. A street ballad ?. a ballad that had news to tell, and on the time when they were created they were generally sung in a declamatory manner in the streets by ballad singers who then sold the ballad sheet for a penny for any of the street audience that wished to purchase the song. These songs would differ from the romantic tender love songs, or the ‘art ‘ songs such as the renowned Danny Boy etc.
Do you see the oral tradition of telling stories slipping away in the electronic age of exchanging information?
The venues for singing are fast disappearing, whereas the audiences for our music and dancing has increased out of all expectation, both nationally and internationally. The venue for the song was of course the kitchen where respect for the song and the singer was of paramount importance. Now, however, the TV has taken complete control of that quiet time when the creative elements of the individual were allowed free rein amongst their neighbours. I think it would be a brave singer or storyteller who would switch off the children’s program to try to tell a story about Fionn Mac Cool. But then the older folk song collectors at the turn of the last century said that it was already too late that all of the songs were gone?.and here we are today talking about and singing that same songs.
Do you see the younger generation in Ireland having much interest in keeping the tradition of ballad singing alive?
It depends on the attitude of many of the schools. In general there is a positive attitude to the promotion of Irish culture, music singing story telling, dancing and the Irish language. There is also a group called Comhaltas Ceoltori Eireann which has branches throughout the country and in America and England and are doing great work in teaching and holding competitions largely for children and aspiring musicians and singers.
I think many Americans like to hold on to their romantic notions of what Ireland is all about. But how would you explain modern Ireland, and Dublin to someone?
So much of the American’s perception of Ireland dates back to the massive emigration periods from the worst years of ‘the great hunger’ of 1847 into the 1850s and from then on up through the more recent periods of the 1920s through almost to the 1970s. The people of that time arrived in poverty, sickness, illiteracy, and in many cases speaking a different language. A people who for generations had lived in close contact with their neighbors and gregarious by nature now found themselves lonely in the middle of millions in New York. They also carried with them the stereotypical hatred of English rule and their exploitation by the landlord class. Following the freedom for which we fought and won in 1922, it was evident that our markets were largely dependent on exports to Britain, so that in effect they still maintained a form of financial control in the Irish affairs. One of the major changes has been Ireland’s entry into the European Economic Community, whereby our markets are now largely European with an eye to the larger world market. European aid has contributed largely to the development of the country’s infrastructure and our adoption of international computer companies has provided in large measure a great source of employment. At present, the farming community is now largely a part-time enterprise with their income being supplemented by employment in industry. Perhaps one of the biggest changes is the general standard of education in the country. We now have probably the highest educated youth in Europe and it is the availability of this workforce, along with tax concessions that are attracting foreign industry to Ireland.
The biggest change in Ireland of course if the fact that in the Irish Republic we are a nation free from English rule and govern ourselves to our own advantage. For a nation that is only 80 years old we are doing quite well, we have the fastest growing economy in Europe. We now can make decisions solely for the benefit of our own nation and our own people, whereas in the past the Irish economy would have been considered only in relation to what was good for England.
The youth of Dublin have no more idea of the famine years that caused the massive exodus to America, they are living in the prosperous economy of ‘The Celtic Tiger’ and long may it continue. But among the mass of the people there is an awareness of the things that are essentially Irish, music, poetry, literature, language and song, all of these in the past had been associated with the stigma of poverty, now however we are confident enough to take pride in those roots and to know that we can take pride in them and bring them with us into the new millennium.
If someone in Ireland today was going to write a ballad to be sung hundreds of years from now, what might it be about?
As I often say myself regarding the songs of our people – songs, which I consider in many cases are the unwritten history of our people?. Those in power write the history and those who suffer write the songs, and given our history, we have an awful lot of songs.
The Irish ballad tradition, unlike many other nations has never waned, it has never stopped, it is a continuum and the songs are still being written about what is happening in the North of Ireland today. What songs will be sung in a hundred years from now?.well just three years ago we commemorated the Rebellion of 1798 and sang the songs of two hundred years ago. I have just this week completed a CD of the traditional songs about Napoleon Bonaparte, again written about 200 years ago. I would hope that in another 100 years the people would still be singing the songs in praise of the men who fought and died, and particularly those who died in the Rebellion of 1916, to give us the freedom which we and our children enjoy today. A freedom which puts no limits to the possible achievements of my grandchildren. I would hope that someone would write a similar “We saw a Vision” which was written just a while ago to commemorate those men.
WE SAW A VISION
In the darkness of despair we saw a vision,
We lit the light of hope
And it was extinguished.
In the desert of discouragement we saw a vision,
We planted the tree of valour,
And it blossomed.
In the winter of bondage we saw a vision,
We melted the snow of lethargy,
And the river of resurrection flowed from it.
We sent a vision aswim like a swan on the river,
The vision became a reality,
Winter became summer,
Bondage became freedom,
And this we left to you as your inheritance.
O generations of freedom remember us,
The generations of vision.
Finally, could you recommend some “must-have” records or CD’s for someone who is just starting to become interested in traditional Irish ballads?
The following people are all good singers and there are records and CDs available of their singing. I would suggest that you contact Finbar Boyle in Claddagh Records, Cecilia Street, Dublin, and ask him what records he has available of “good ballad singers”. Here are a few names to start with:
Sarah Makem
Elizabeth Cronin
Nicholas Toibin
Joe Heaney
Kevin Mitchell
Len Graham
Roisin White
Sarah Ann O’Neill
Mairghead Ni Dhomhnaill
Published: 8 July, 2005
A British Army Puma helicopter landed in the Rassan area of North Louth at 8.40 pm on Thursday night last, 7th July 2005. Two heavily armed PSNI officers and 8 British paratroopers were dropped off in a field next to
the Dundalk/Derry road 3/4 miles south of the border. The helicopter then flew towards Co. Armagh, leaving the 10 members of the security forces behind in Co. Louth.
Within minutes, local residents who were alerted by the noise gathered at the scene and confronted the security forces. A number of motorists also stopped in the area. there have been reports that some people threw stones
at the paratroopers. At this point the Puma helicopter returned, landed in Co. Louth and collected the soldiers and PSNI officers. The helicopter then flew further south and hovered over a house. The lady of the house
went to her front door and witnessed a British paratrooper point his rifle at her while other soldiers made obscene gestures. The helicopter then returned to its base in Crossmaglen.
Local Sinn Féin Councillor Tomás Sharkey has reacted angrily to the incident;
“The border area is being saturated by British security forces who seem hellbent on inciting local communities. Only two weeks ago, a parachute regiment patrol waved a car through a checkpoint outside Crossmaglen and
then fired on it. The border communities are living in fear of this maverick behaviour.
“I do not accept that the helicopter was lost or simply off course. It flew over a British base at Drummucknavall, a local school, and the main Castleblayney road. I believe that the soldiers were on british army business in Co. Louth, attempting to either place or remove their own surveillance equipment. Irish people are well aware of the parachute regiments track record here.
“I met the junior minister for Foreign Affairs, Conor Lenihan only 2 hours after the incursion. His officials have been in contact with me and are waiting for a resonse from the British security forces. I made it clear to them that I will not accept yet another standard response on this issue. The Parachute Regiment are not welcome in County Louth.”
08 July 2005 19:42
The death toll from yesterday’s bomb attacks in London has risen above 50. Police have said that figure is expected to rise.
It is understood that among the victims of the four attacks were nationals from China, Australia, Portugal, Poland and Sierra Leone.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said that the death toll from the bomb blast on a London bus is 13, revising up a figure of two given yesterday.
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The wreckage of the bus, with the roof torn off, is still on the street where it blew up. A large screen has been erected around the site.
Earlier, Mr Blair said there was great difficulty in determining a final death toll because of the damage at the blast scenes.
He added that there were 700 casualties, 350 people were taken to hospital, 22 are still in a critical condition and one person died in hospital.
Mr Blair said there was absolutely nothing to suggest that any of the attacks were carried out by a suicide bomber, although he added that nothing at this stage could be ruled out.
It has also been revealed that police have yet to reach one of the London underground train carriages where a bomb went off.
The Assistant Police Commissioner, Andy Hayman, said there were safety concerns in the tunnel.
Claim taken seriously
Britain’s Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said a claim of responsibility for the bombings is being taken seriously.
The claim was made by a previously unknown group calling itself the Secret Organisation of al-Qaeda’s Jihad in Europe on its website.
It posted a message saying the blasts were in retaliation for Britain’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In a television interview, Mr Clarke said the claim was serious, although alternative explanations have not been ruled out.
A huge police investigation got underway today to find those responsible for the bombings. Police investigators are still working at the scenes of the attacks.
Three explosions occurred on underground trains, the fourth on the double-decker bus. It was the worst terrorist attack in Britain since the Lockerbie explosions 17 years ago.
Muslim leaders in talks
Muslim leaders in London were holding talks with police today amid fears of reprisals against their community.
Most buses and a limited train service were operating in London this morning, but underground services remain curtailed. Transport for London has said many sections of the underground will not be fully restored for several weeks.
A large number of schools in London remained closed today.
08/07/2005 – 18:10:11
Over a thousand people staged a nationwide protest tonight to highlight the plight of the five men jailed over their objections to a gas pipeline in Co Mayo.
The supporters took up their pickets outside Shell garages across the country as the row over the jailing of the men deepened
Micheal O’Seighin, Vincent McGrath, his brother Philip, Willie Corduff and Brendan Philbin from Rossport in Co Mayo are being held in Cloverhill prison in Dublin for refusing to obey an injunction taken out by Shell.
“It is not good enough for the Government to wash their hands of the Corrib Gas debacle and allow Shell to ride roughshod over the people of Rossport,” Martin Ferris, a Sinn Féin TD, said.
The five men were put in Cloverhill prison last week for obstructing the construction of the pipeline across their land and have stated publicly that they are determined to continue their opposition to the pipeline.
Shell E & P Ireland is seeking to pump gas at high pressure from the Corrib gas field along the pipe to an onshore refinery at Bellanaboy in Mayo as part of a €990m project.
The jailed men want Shell to build the gas refinery offshore because they fear that pumping unrefined gas past their homes will lead to a health and safety risk.
The President of the High Court, Judge Joseph Finnigan, has warned the five men that their fate is in their own hands.
The judge said it was up to the men to purge their contempt of court to be freed from jail.
The jailing of the five men has brought national attention to the campaign against the pipeline, which has been going on since work on it began in 1998.
Protests took place in Dublin, Kerry, Cork, Waterford, Galway, Leitrim, Waterford, Laois, Kilkenny, Kildare and Westmeath.
Mr Ferris said over a thousand people had turned out to protest and hand out leaflets to highlight the men’s plight.
“In the interest of justice it is only right and proper that all people concerned should show their support for the men and their families,” he said.
“They all have families and it has taken an enormous toll on them.”
Mr Ferris said: “The five men should be released immediately. The Government should initiate an independent review of health and safety risks and institute a thorough public investigation into every aspect of Shell’s involvement in this project right back to the shoddy deal that gave them control over the Corrib Field in the first instance.”
The Kerry North TD added: “Mostly everyone I have spoken to is revolted that a multi-national like Shell is infringing on the rights of citizens.”
There was jostling between police and republicans
Former home secretary David Blunkett has called off a visit to west Belfast after a republican protest.
Mr Blunkett was due to visit Springvale Training Centre on Springfield Road with other EU employment ministers.
However, outside the building there was jostling between police and republicans protesting about the re-arrest of Shankill bomber Sean Kelly.
The other ministers were already inside when news came through that Mr Blunkett would not be turning up.
Kelly murdered nine people, including two children, in the attack on a fish shop on Belfast’s Shankill Road in 1993.
His IRA accomplice Thomas Begley also died in the blast.
Kelly received nine life sentences but was freed early from prison in July 2000 under the Good Friday Agreement.
He was returned to jail last month after security information indicated he had become “re-involved in terrorism”.
Driver nominated for special award
By Linda McKee
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
08 July 2005
AN Ulsterbus driver has described the moment he spotted a small figure hanging from a tree.
Brian Chambers, from Crumlin, slammed on the brakes and raced to the spot where the 11-year-old boy was hanging – but believed he had been too late.
Even as he disentangled the rope from around his neck, he realised the child wasn’t breathing. But as he tried to resuscitate him, he noticed a weak pulse and knew there was still hope.
Mr Chambers managed to save the boy’s life, and now his employers Translink have nominated him for a Vodafone Lifesavers Award. The awards, run with the Belfast Telegraph, are aimed at those who have saved lives in exceptional circumstances.
Police and councillors in Crumlin have commended Mr Chambers for his quick thinking and heroic actions in rescuing the boy, who had been swinging on the rope.
The bus driver was returning from a shift at Stoneyford on March 8 when he passed a small glen that was a popular spot for children to play.
It was only because he was sitting high up in the bus that he caught sight of the motionless figure, he said.
“I happened to look over my shoulder and there hanging from a tree was a wee boy, hanging by the neck,” he said.
Mr Chambers lifted the boy down and tried to resuscitate him, not sure whether he was alive or dead.
As more people arrived, the boy was rushed to hospital.
Since the accident, parents have removed the rope, which hung over a brook, Mr Chambers said.
“He was just mucking about and whatever happened the rope must have slipped and caught him around the neck,” he said.
The boy was home in three days and making a good recovery.
“I don’t think he’ll ever be the same again. He’d stopped breathing when I lifted him down,” said Mr Chambers.
An illegal UDA paramilitary flag on the main Carnmoney Road will not be removed, according to the PSNI.
And the new DUP Mayor of Newtownabbey says because he’s a “loyalist” he doesn’t wish to comment on its presence.
Residents of the mixed area just yards from a Catholic Church complained to the North Belfast News about the flag at the junction of Coolhill Park and Carnmoney Road fronting Queens Park.
Nationalist councillors in Newtownabbey have condemned the erection of the flag.
Sinn Féin’s Breige Meehan said the PSNI had refused to remove flags “time and again”.
“This is obviously a sop to loyalists in Glengormley and again these paramilitaries are being treated with kid gloves by the police. Here we have republicans not protesting at the mini Twelfth and the erection of the arch in Glengormley.
“We welcomed an undertaking by the UPRG that the church would be free of flags, but our calls for reciprocation have been ignored,” she said.
Noreen McClelland, whose SDLP party colleague and MP for South Belfast, Alasdair McDonnell, has brought up the issue of flags this week, said the UDA flag was “totally unacceptable”.
“We believe the time has come for strong legislation to be put in place to deal with the issue of flags. Local people need to be listened to and not feel intimidated in their own home,” said Noreen McClelland.
Newtownabbey Mayor Billy DeCourcy said he didn’t want to make a comment “just yet” on the flag.
“I’m a loyalist and I don’t know what to say about that. I need to see where it is myself, but isn’t Queens Park a loyalist estate?
“I’m not against the union flag and in all honesty there’s nothing I want to comment on at the minute. I wouldn’t take Noreen McClelland’s part.
“It’s a dodgy one, the paramilitary flags. I don’t want to be pushed into a corner.
“I’m not going to go against the loyalist community. As I said I’m a loyalist, but if the police won’t do anything in all honesty there’s not much I can comment on at the minute,” he said.
A PSNI spokeswoman responded with a stock answer to NBN inquiries about illegal paramilitary flags, saying it was down to the community to remove them.
Journalist:: Staff Reporter
Nationalists have been urged to be vigilant in the run up to the 12th following the Parades Commission’s decision to allow marchers and their supporters past Ardoyne and Mountainview.
The warning from Sinn Féin’s Kathy Stanton after last weekend saw a series of attacks on Catholics.
A man was assaulted as he walked along the Oldpark Road near Henry Joy McCracken’s bar by a group of men in a car who got out and asked him for directions.
Another man was assaulted near Carlisle Circus around 1.30am on Sunday by a gang of loyalists who emerged in a car from Denmark Street in the Shankill.
“I would call for calm and urged nationalists to be vigilant. I hope the week ahead will pass off peacefully.”
And a Whitewell community worker said a car was attacked in the new Catherine Court housing development by loyalists.
Paul McKernon said the attackers struck around 2.30am on Sunday and later on Sunday evening around 7.30pm tried to attack Catherine Court again.
The PSNI confirmed it was investigating an incident.
Paul McKernon said tensions were high in Whitewell after a Parades Commission decision to allow Orangemen to walk past nationalist homes on the Whitewell this Tuesday.
“We’ve had three families narrowly escaping death two weeks ago when their oil tanks were set on fire. We’ve had attacks from Graymount through this laneway on the lower Whitewell and now Orangemen are going to walk past these homes with their supporters,” he said.
Greencastle LOL will walk from Greencastle Orange hall down the Whitewell Road, along Shore Road, turning at Mount Street and back to Shore Road on the morning of the Twelfth.
They will return to Grays Lane after boarding transport from York Street and walk up the Shore Road and onto the Whitewell at 7pm.
The Whitewell Defenders Flute Band will be marching on July 12 in what the Parades Commission has ruled it as a contentious march. Some 40 people will accompany one band onto the Whitewell Road bus terminal between 6.30pm and 10.30pm.
The parade is prohibited from proceeding beyond the M2 off-slip bridge passing over the Shore Road. However, Paul McKernon said Orangemen flouted the ruling last year.
“This ruling on no left turn towards Bawnmore was ignored and the Orangemen walked to the second bridge to the onslip of the M2,” he said.
Meanwhile an attack on a man from the Limestone Road at the weekend which happened on the Serpentine Road is not thought to be sectarian.
Journalist:: Staff Reporter
Sinn Féin councillor Carál Ní Chuilín has hit out at the NIO after it failed to broker any kind of bonfire agreement on an interface in Duncairn Gardens.
The bonfire on Adam Street is built beside a steel gateway separating Catholic and Protestant homes on Duncairn Gardens.
It is built beside several businesses including Teletech and the Play Resource Centre, which houses mountains of recycled paper and plastic. The bonfire is also adjacent to the newly refurbished Star Neighbourhood Centre.
On Tuesday NIO staff came and erected steel metal sheets over the gate, so that visibility of the bonfire was cut off.
Councillor for the area, Carál Ní Chuilín, said she had contacted the NIO about the bonfire nine weeks ago and called for it to be moved away from Catholic homes.
“This bonfire poses a danger to not only residents who live in fear at this part of the road most of the year anyway, but also local businesses,” she said.
“I contacted the NIO nine weeks ago and was in contact with staff on a weekly basis about getting this moved somewhere more appropriate in the Tiger’s Bay area. Community workers also contacted them.
“People understand that this is a part of Protestant culture, but it is putting people’s lives in danger, and creating an atmosphere of intimidation and fear.”
A NIO spokesperson was unable to comment.
Journalist:: Áine McEntee
ainemcentee@irelandclick.com
• No reply from Orange Order as residents group appeals for compromise
on Twelfth of July parade past Ardoyne
• Outrage as council funds bonfire with UDA
banners to tune of £2,500
The Nationalist community of Ardoyne has called on the Orange Order to compromise over this year’s Twelfth of July march.
The compromise, which the Orange Order hasn’t commented on, would have enabled the march to take place on the morning of the Twelfth without protest from Nationalist residents.
In return the group asked that the parade would not pass Ardoyne that evening.
The Ardoyne Parades Dialogue Group this morning made a direct appeal to the Orange Order to pull out of its evening parade in return for no protest and for its march to be facilitated on the morning of the Twelfth. It also met with the Parades Commission on Thursday morning in a last ditch effort to get the decision overturned.
But no one from the Orange Order could be contacted for comment.
Joe Marley of the nationalist residents group said the fact that the appeal had been made should have forced a Parades Commission review of the march.
“We are making a direct appeal to the Orange Order if they withdraw the march on the Twelfth evening we will withdraw the protest and facilitate the parade in the morning.”
He said the Parades Commission should act on the residents’ appeals.
“It’s incumbent on the Parades Commission to give us a review on this basis and therefore help to diffuse the situation.”
And there has also been outrage in the north of the city after a bonfire decked with UDA banners was given funding by BCC.
At the same bonfire site in Westland Road last year the UDA staged a show of strength on the eleventh night.
This year’s bonfire has a banner with the words UDA 3rd Battalion K Coy draped across the middle. Combined with several paramilitary flags on top, Catholic residents in the Cavehill Road said they feel intimidated in their own homes.
Westland community sources have said they do not expect a similar show of strength this year and that they are in negotiations with the UDA to remove the flags and banner.
Belfast City Council are running a pilot bonfire scheme across the city offering £2,500 to help better manage the sites and cut back on toxic fumes.
The council has indicated the Westland bonfire committee are still in line to receive the money despite tyres in their bonfire and despite paramilitary connections.
“We have removed 500 tyres with approval from the local community last Saturday. There probably still are tyres in the bonfire. But this pilot was about reducing the number of tyres. And we have been working in agreement with that community,” the council spokesperson said.
“Our Code of Conduct was about environmental aspects. We’re not allowed to comment on illegal flags, that’s a matter for police.”
The council spokesperson also confirmed the bonfire committee would receive £2,500 in order to facilitate the day.
The North Belfast News has learned that businesses charge £1 to remove a tyre. In Westland that amounts to an extra £500.
The PSNI said they are still investigating last year’s UDA show of strength.
“We recognise there are community concerns about any incident involving firearms in the Westland area last year and we share these concerns. There is an active police investigation ongoing into the incident, which took place on July 11, 2004, and one person has been reported to the DPP,” said a spokeswoman.
“We would appeal for community representatives to use their influence to ensure that these types of unwelcome displays do not take place again this year. There will be a police presence in the area on the eleventh night and police will investigate any repeat of such attacks.”
And Sinn Féin’s Kathy Stanton called for calm.
“We would advise our constituents to be vigilant because tensions are high. We are calling for calm and calling for community leaders from both sides to show an example and reduce tensions,” said Kathy Stanton.
“All the good work that’s done and attempts to build relationships are all severely damaged by this withdrawal of goodwill.
“We would be calling for cool heads. Things are being exacerbated by the ongoing dispute over parades and loyalist feuds. Sinn Féin will do their utmost to show leadership in the face of adversity.
“It won’t improve the overall political situation if things are allowed to deteriorate.
“Stewarding the parade is going to be problematic enough. We would repeat our call for people to be calm and ask people to be vigilant about their own personal security.”
Journalist:: Áine McEntee
The police have said they plan to scale down physical security measures for this Sunday’s Drumcree Orange Order parade in Portadown.
Orangemen are again banned from walking along the nationalist Garvaghy Road on their way back from the church service.
Chief Superintendent Drew Harris said people wanted a peaceful outcome and a quick “return to normality”.
He said security measures “will not be kept in place for one minute longer than is necessary”.
There has been serious violence in the area of the parade in previous years, although it was peaceful in the last two years.
Orangemen last walked down the Garvaghy Road in 1997.
In subsequent years, their homeward route has been blocked by the security forces following decisions by the Parades Commission.
Physical security measures have included metal barriers and razor wire.
Positive
“Last year we worked together with the organisers and the community and the result was a peaceful Drumcree,” Mr Harris said.
“This was a positive outcome for the whole community in Portadown and we are optimistic for this year.
“There were great efforts by people in all communities to reduce tension and maintain calm last year. We want to see that happen again and will work with people to achieve that.”
Mr Harris urged anyone taking part in parades or protests to do so peacefully and said police would enforce street drinking and traffic management legislation.
“Our policing operation will be professional, balanced and proportionate and will have human rights at its very centre,” he added.
It is almost the Twelfth when Orangemen across the North march in their thousands to celebrate the victory of William of Orange over James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. It was three hundred years ago – but doesn’t it seem as if it were only yesterday?
If this celebration and those of the Apprentice Boys and the secretive Royal Black Preceptory were solely a bit of pageantry about historical events they would be fairly harmless and we could all join in, watch as spectators or simply pass by.
However, the Twelfth of July was never just about history but was a unifying force within unionism, an expression of sectarian triumphalism and exclusiveness. It was (Orange arches in the workplace – thankfully, now prohibited), and still is, aimed at alienating nationalists – thus the importance of parading through or close to nationalist areas and singing anti-Catholic songs to remind the besieged residents of their place in an Orange state.
Although the struggle for full and equal rights remains uncompleted and continues, the irony is that Orange and Apprentice parades have played a central role in the chain of events which have led to the undermining of unionism and the union and to the galvanising of the nationalist community.
A further irony is that any intelligent Orange representative who appreciates this fact and attempts a compromise with nationalists is ridiculed and scorned for being “in breach of Grand Lodge policy” when actually trying to improve the image of the Order. Earlier this year the Order severed its formal links with the Ulster Unionist Party whilst moving closer to the DUP.
In 1969 the Twelfth marches resulted in rioting in Belfast and Derry, almost as a prelude to the riot directly sparked by the march of the Apprentice Boys in Derry on August 12. That riot turned into The Battle of the Bogside. It was a major challenge to the authority of the unionist government at Stormont because nationalists were determined that the writ of the RUC would run no longer in ‘The Bog’. A few months earlier the RUC had gone on the rampage in the same area, assaulting people, including Sammy Devenney who died of his injuries in July.
The RUC in Derry were so exhausted after days of fighting that the government mobilised the B-Specials and planned to send in RUC reinforcements from other areas. Nationalist protests across the North were meant to tie down the RUC but in Belfast the B-Specials, loyalist mobs and the RUC reacted by attacking and setting fire to hundreds of Catholic homes, mostly in the Falls and in Ardoyne. Eight people were killed across the city. The ill-preparedness of the Republican Movement for those attacks contributed to the split in the IRA and the emergence of a Provisional Army Council.
But an IRA armed struggle was not inevitable, even if it was the strategic objective of some republican leaders. Only eight years earlier the IRA had been forced to abandon its border campaign for lack of support. And immediately after August 1969 support for the IRA was based overwhelmingly on it being a defensive body. Conditions were simply not there for an armed struggle, nor were republican Volunteers prepared or trained adequately for a campaign.
Again, it was Orange marches, and British army support for those marches, which were to trigger a series of events that were to create the necessary conditions for armed struggle.
On June 27 1970 in Belfast the Orange Order planned to march past Hooker Street on the Crumlin Road where Catholics homes had been burned down, and up Cupar Street past Bombay Street in the West which had been similarly razed to the ground.
We know from documents and records that both the British and unionist governments were told by their own advisors that these marches were provocative and would lead to widespread trouble. But we also know that the GOC of the British Army in the North, Sir Ian Freeland, made the following remark to the Joint Security Committee:
“It is easier to push them [ Orange marchers] through the Ardoyne than to control the Shankill.”
It spoke volumes for a mindset that still persists among many in the PSNI and the British administration. It explains why loyalists have been allowed to march past Ardoyne and feel no compulsion to negotiate. But it is an issue, like Garvaghy Road and the Lower Ormeau, which ultimately damages the cause of those the marching is meant to placate. Such pandering postpones the day of a settlement – based on the rights of residents and marchers alike.
As predicted, widespread rioting broke out on June 27 th and ended up in gun battles and loss of life in various parts of Belfast. In Ballymacarett a loyalist attack on St Matthew’s Church was repelled by members of the ‘Provisional IRA’ after the British army refused to intervene. Paddy Kennedy MP approached a British patrol for help and was told, “You can stew in your own fat.” Several men died, including a Catholic defender, Henry McIlhone, and Billy McKee, a senior IRA figure was wounded.
The Stormont government took no responsibility for what had happened and blamed republicans. At the next meeting of the Joint Security Committee, on July 1, it was decided that they had to “restore the military image” and put down trouble “with maximum force”.
Thus explains the Falls Curfew one week later and the raid and seizure of arms which had never been used against the British army but were there solely for the protection of people who had experienced terrifying government pogroms just ten months earlier.
The Curfew, by alienating and politicising a huge swathe of nationalist opinion, was to dramatically change the context of the political situation. When the British army first came onto the streets in 1969 they were welcomed by the majority of nationalists as their protectors. But over subsequent months this benign image rapidly changed as the Brits became a mere tool of unionist repression, then, later, the enforcers of British direct rule.
Stormont had also been dragging its heels on introducing reforms. Many nationalists – particularly among the working-class – were coming around to the republican view that they couldn’t get their civil rights until they got their national rights and that that would involve an armed struggle against the government and the system.
It was this mood that the Republican Movement tapped into and it was after the Curfew that the IRA slowly began its campaign, beginning with sabotage operations against key installations and using incendiary devices timed to go off at night in large downtown stores. All of its first military strikes were initially described as ‘reprisals’ for specific British army or RUC attacks on nationalists. There was no military blueprint: the campaign in its early days was largely a matter of improvisation. By the time the campaign was full-blown republican military structures were still only being put in place in many areas.
Orange marches (and, indeed, other protests such as those at Harryville and at Holy Cross) were to play their part again and again in influencing national and international opinion about the sectarian nature of unionism. But it was the Drumcree protest and the demand to get marching down the Catholic Garvaghy Road which probably did most to hurt the Orange Order, as well as demoralise its members over their failure. Supporters of their cause burnt three children to death and shot dead a Catholic taxi driver out of spite.
Yes, the Orange Order whose purpose was to galvanise Protestantism and unionism has certainly undermined the cause it espouses, though few of its members appear to appreciate this.
The Orange Order is truly a public relations disaster.
by Ogra SF via imcer
Thursday, Jul 7 2005, 9:55pm
Click on above link for press release and photos
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SAOIRSE32 
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